Steve Maclin is taking his title reign one day at a time, or one body at a time.
WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard spoke with IMPACT World Champion Steve Maclin ahead of his title defense against PCO at Under Siege. Maclin won the title at Rebellion in April and he reiterated the message from his championship address — the real work is just starting.
“It’s awesome. Like I said the night that it happened, it’s like the hard work starts now. Especially going into Under Siege with PCO,” Maclin explained, “[facing him] in his home area, his own backyard of London, Ontario, in a No DQ match. It’s going, but it’s getting there one at a time, stacking one body at a time.”
WrestleZone recently spoke with PCO, who said a title win would just add to his legacy. What would a win over PCO do for Steve Maclin now?
“I’ve already beaten him before, but now beating him as the IMPACT World Champion in London, Ontario, in his home country. And for it to be a no-DQ match, it just adds another body to the pile. It just keeps building my legacy, if you want to call it that. I just, again, try to take it a match at a time. But if we’re going to build a legacy, it’s just taking on the opponents that are put in front of me of just beating Rhino and now PCO,” he noted, “it’s just beating all these guys that have been in this business, have this knowledge and this credibility behind them.
“For what PCO has done with his career from where he was,” Maclin explained, “it’s crazy to see how he reinvented himself and then just grew into this entity. Because no matter where we go, ‘PCO’ is always chanted. Fans love him and they’re attracted to him for this attraction that he is of being the perfect creation and this Frankenstein. So, to work with a guy like him and to beat a guy like him, I’m sorry to say, it’s going to it’s not going to be a good one on his end for as much as he likes to put a toll on his body, I’m very adaptable to what I can do. Now just giving it a no-DQ match, just adds it to my wheelhouse. And I know Scott D’Amore doesn’t want me to be the world champion and he tries to say that that’s not the case. But I feel that’s the case.”
PCO said he’d like to use electricity in a match someday, an obvious nod to his Frankenstein-inspired gimmick. Maclin was asked if there was a match he’d like to create using his own background. He agreed that a body bag match could work, playing on his “tag ’em, bag ’em, mayhem for all” catchphrase, but it all depends on the situation at hand.
“Obviously, I can’t bring guns into a match, it just ends the whole thing. From being in the military and taking out a machine gun or a sniper rifle or an actual M4 that would just change the game up completely and it just doesn’t become wrestling anymore. But I don’t know, again, like I said, I’m very adaptable,” Maclin said. “And if you would like to bring something like that into it and we can make it work into a creative way, or if there’s something not a boot camp style of a match, but like taking aspects of the Marine Corps and, I don’t know, maybe like a sand pit match, I don’t know what else you would do other than that. There’s not many objects that other than something that is a complete destruction, a one shot, one kill type thing.”
The pair had a brief discussion about John Wick 4 and the (inevitable) likelihood that a fifth movie would be released. After noting how Hollywood finds a way to resurrect characters, Maclin found a match that would appeal to both himself and PCO’s respective characters.
Maclin: “It’s Hollywood. And when they do things like that, it’s like the Jason aspect of, ‘How many times can we bring Jason back?’ Bring it back to PCO, ‘How many times can PCO come back to life?’ It’s the same aspect.
Pritchard: “PCO in space. We haven’t gone there yet.”
Maclin: “Space Force! That’s how we tie both of our realms together. Like Jason X, but [we’ll use] Space Force.”
Jason Voorhees will return (in some form) in Peacock’s Crystal Lake prequel series. We’ll have to wait and see if Space Force becomes a reality, but Steve Maclin will collide with PCO at Under Siege on Friday, May 26.
Watch our full interview with Steve Maclin below:
