The Gunns On If It’s Hard To Train With The Dad, How They Each Learn Differently From Him

The Gunns learned a lot about wrestling from their father Billy Gunn, and the AEW Tag Team Champions talked about training with him in the ring. Austin and Colten Gunn were guests on Fightful’s Wrestling Perspective Podcast and talked about how they each have their own styles and when it is hard to listen from their Hall of Fame father. You can see some highlights below:

Austin on whether it’s easier or harder to train with their dad: “I think me and Colton learn in different ways, as I came up in football and Lacrosse and I like to be yelled at. And I like to be — well, my dad used to yell at me in the ring and beat me up, it was more of like [a reaction from me of], ‘Okay, I’ll show you how to do it. I’ll show you that I’m capable of doing this. Oh, I made that mistake? Watch this, I’m not going to make it ever again.’ So it’s more like me proving to him that I really wanted it. Because I came straight out of college, and he said that me and Colton had to get a degree first before we even tried this. So when I went in the day after I graduated, it was kind of like, it was me proving to him that I really wanted to be there. So I think just yeah, that’s it. It’s just, I like to be yelled at.”

Colten on if its hard to listen to their dad when training: “Yeah, when you ask if it’s hard to listen to my dad? It’s not, because he’s been there, done that. He’s a Hall of Famer. So like, who better to listen to? And he knows exactly, like Austin said, how to push your buttons. So Austin is like, ‘Yell at [me]’ whereas I’m just more of like, ‘Explain to me why that was wrong, and then I’ll go do it right the next time.”

Colten on working with Billy backstage: “And backstage, when we’re putting our matches together and everything like that, he helps and we listen to him. I’m a big proponent of, if you’ve been there and done that, I’m gonna listen to what you say. And my dad has, and he’s our dad.”

Austin on when it’s hard to listen to Billy: “Sometimes, the funny thing was when we were working with him and me and Colton wanted to venture out our own and try our new ideas out there. It’s kind of hard to listen to him sometimes when he said, something won’t work. Because as young up and comers, we want to try new things. We want to see if something will work. And he usually explains why it won’t work, but he always gives us the freedom to do it. He goes, ‘Hey listen, I’m just going to show you or explain to you why this might not work, but you can go out and do whatever you want.’

“So sometimes, we would get upset with ourselves because like, ‘Man we really want to try that out there, but Dad says it’s not going to work.’ So there were times where we went out there and failed and learned from it, and said, ‘Oh, Dad was right.’ And there’s times when we went out there, maybe it wasn’t the best choice but we’re all working together and trying to make the best products. So it’s hard to listen to them sometimes in that aspect.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Wrestling Perspective Podcast with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.