Wardlow on His Dream Matchup in AEW, His Earliest Memories of Wrestling

– AEW star and TNT Champion Wardlow appeared on The Zaslow Show on Audacy’s AM 560 Sports WQAM (Miami) yesterday and discussed his career, who he’d like to face next, and how he wants to flip the wrestling world upside down. Below are some highlights from Wardlow’s appearance provided to us by Audacy:

Wardlow on how he grew up loving wrestling: “I have been obsessed with professional wrestling ever since I could remember. There’s a video of me somewhere, before I could even talk, clanging and banging an old junkyard dog and action figure, using the kitchen table chair as my ring. I caught the bug young. My first memory is falling in love with Bret Hart — he’s the one that really started it for me. I just never looked back. I fell in love and it was game over…I’m really mad because I met him at the beginning of my career. I was too nervous to ask for a picture, and I’ll never forget that.”

On how he got his start: “I was in the Indies for a number of years, and it definitely got to the point where you have moments in your career where you’re like, ’Is this going to work? Am I going to make it?’ Everybody goes through that…When you love it as much as most of us do, you’re just going to keep scratching and clawing until you get there…Honestly, it was kind of the perfect storm. There were a few different people mentioning me in a short period of time…”

Wardlow on being compared to Batista: “I’ve gotten the Bautista comparisons, and there’s no greater compliment because I was a huge Bautista fan as I’m sure you could’ve guessed. Guys that influenced me in my life – Dave Bautista, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson – guys when they came out on T.V. would dress nice, and that’s how I’ve always been. I’ve always dressed nice, taking care of myself, I enjoy looking good.”

On Kenny Omega being his dream matchup: “Kenny Omega is very high on that list. Jon Moxley is also at the top of that list. I would say within AEW, it is Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley – I want those two more than anybody. Outside of that, it is the dream match. I always saw Wardlow versus [Brock] Lesnar to be the biggest money match in the history of national T.V.”

On defending the TNT title in his homestate of Ohio last week: “To come out to that crowd in Cleveland as the TNT Champion was such an adrenaline rush like I’ve never experienced in my life. God what an amazing feeling, I wish I could feel that every day…I’m so obsessed with that feeling, that that’s how I know I’m going to continue with those moments.”

His thoughts on AEW All Out: “I love how we do Pay-Per-View, that’s one of my favorite things about the company. When it’s time for the Pay-Per-View you know it’s going to be a big deal. We only have four throughout the year.”

Wardlow is currently slated to team with FTR against Jay Lethal and The Motor City Machine Gunes in a six-man tag team match this Sundy at AEW All Out 2022. The event will be held at the Now Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. It will be broadcast live on pay-per-view.