Powerhouse Hobbs Wants To Carry On The Legacy Of Pro Wrestling Legend

During a recent interview with the Wrestling Perspective Podcast, the AEW star discussed praise from pro wrestling legend Butch Reed before he passed away last year, and one day wanting to use the “Hacksaw” moniker made famous. Check out the highlights below (per Wrestling Inc.):

On Butch Reed praise: “I was dropping my son Bam Bam off at pre-school one morning. We’re at a red light, and I get this Instagram tag, you know, Butch Reed has an Instagram, and he tagged one of my first shirts on it and said ‘This is the new PowerHouse.’ I geeked out over it so much.

“I sent a message to him and then he replied back to the message, and we exchanged phone numbers but we actually never got the chance to speak. We only chatted through Instagram messaging. I was told by him that he was a huge fan, and that was an honor to me because I had the old WCW Galoob Doom figures, so that meant the world to me … I actually found out he passed away when I was in the Dallas airport. His son sent me a heartfelt message, you know, his dad was unable to speak, but when he saw me and my in-ring work, he smiled.

“That’s something that I will always hold dear to my heart, and if I ever have the opportunity to carry on the Hacksaw name, I’ll do that 100%. That’s one of my goals.”

On changing his name from Will to Powerhouse: “Originally when I first came into AEW, I did enhancement work, and I was Will Power … Tony [Khan] came up to me, he’s like, ‘You’re such a powerhouse, we’re gonna call you Powerhouse Hobbs.’ And he actually said he was thinking of one-word names, and one of the first names that he said was ‘Hacksaw.’ And then he’s like, ‘No, you’re a powerhouse!’ So we’ve been rolling with that ever since. I’ve mentioned to Tony a few times that if the opportunity comes up to become Hacksaw, that’s something possibly that can happen.”