Scott Garland On How He Joined AEW In Producer Role

Scott Garland is working backstage in TNA as a coach and producer, and the former Scotty 2 Hotty recently recalled how that came to be. Garland explained the timeline during an appearance on AEW Unrestricted, noting that Sonjay Dutt reached out to him while he was wrestling in Europe. You can see some highlights below, per per Wrestling Inc and Fightful:

On how he began working for AEW: “So it was kind of out of nowhere. I’ve done a lot in Europe over the last couple of years wrestling-wise. I was in Europe in July, and I got a message from Sonjay Dutt asking if I’d be interested in coming in and trying out as a coach and producer. It was exciting. It kind of came out of nowhere. The only thing was, at the time, I had a five-week tour of Europe booked for November. So I started [working as a producer] at the end of July, and then I worked up until almost Halloween, and I left for five weeks. Then I just returned last week. So it’s kind of like I started, and then everything was put on pause, and then I came back. I’m excited now to really get into the groove and really dive in and start working with people.”

On his philosophy toward coaching and producing: “Coaching and producing, I always say the biggest part of it is creating relationships with your talent. You can’t start giving critiques or advice until you can, but I think you need that relationship first, you need their trust. You need them to realize that you’re not just some old guy going, ‘You can’t do that because that’s not how we used to do it’, and talking to them that way. You have to have that relationship and let them realize or make them realize that we’re all striving for the same goals and that’s to get bigger and better.”

Garland has worked one match in AEW, wrestling in a dark match before the December 27th episode of Dynamite. He has said that he would be open to working on TV, but only if it’s done “for the right thing.”