Colt Cabana recently appeared on the AEW Unrestricted podcast and discussed various topics, ranging from his wrestling career to his love for comedy. Here are some highlights:
On comedic wrestling :
Cabana: “There’s just so many layers to comedy wrestling, and it’s a whole podcast in itself and of course, you know, a cheap plug, I did a documentary about comedy wrestling called “Wrestling Road Diaries 3: Fun Equals Money, available on ColtMerch or download on digitalcolt.com. But over the years, I’ve been able to dissect my wrestling style and a lot of try and fail and trying to understand where you do things and why you do things, and so that’s why wrestling a lot, a lot of matches is so important for wrestlers is because you need these failing opportunists to learn what you did right and what you did wrong, and so I’ve had thousands of matches to kind of like test what works, what it works, what doesn’t work and that’s a lot of the help and success in comedy wrestling. So I guess…it’s hard to explain, well I’m trying to explain it, but I feel that to be a great comedy wrestler, you have to be a great wrestler first, you have to be a great regular wrestler first, you need that foundation and then, then you then have to add the spice and add the tricks and add the extra layer of now adding, on top of, adding comedy on top of actual pro wresting because I believe that comedy wrestling can’t just be dumb skits, it really has to be woven into the foundation of what your professional wrestling is. And so there’s a lot of different variations and yes, I love a good fart joke or whatever it might be but if you really want to consider yourself a comedic wrestler, there’s gotta be so many more layers than a one-time joke or a one-hit wonder if you will.”
“There came a point in my career where I was just being regular wrestler guy and I wasn’t standing out the way I wanted to, I was standing out pretty well, but not the way I wanted to. And the idea of bringing in my love of comedy into my world of wrestling started to make sense for me, and I started to experiment with that, and I would say that was around 2003 or 2004. So it’s been over 16 years of experimenting right now to kind of find the perfect formula, and that’s what my career has been.”
On signing with WWE:
Cabana: “I got signed. At that point, I’d done so much, not everything but I’d done a lot on the independents. It was 2006, I was making a full-time living, I had done the MTV Show, I was traveling to Japan for Zero1, I was a full time wrestler basically in England also for 1PW and doing the Butlins’ Camps, I spent two whole summers over in England. I was doing it, you know? Wrestling in Mexico, I was doing it, I was doing the experience, the life of an independent wrestler who didn’t need a job. At 23, I was able to quit my job as a teaching assistant and do this full time, on very little money but enough money that it would get me by so I could do it full time and I could chase my dream.”
“Luckily, not even at 26 or 27 when I signed my WWE contract, because even before then I was doing great. I was doing wonderful. I actually took a 50 percent pay decrease to wrestle for the WWE when I signed my contract, but I said to myself, this is an investment in my future, there’s only so much you can make on the independent scene, yes I’m taking a 50 percent decrease. But the possibilities to be a millionaire are there, and so that’s the gamble I’m willing to take.”
“[Getting released] was the best thing that ever happened to me because I then said to myself, I’m obviously not going there, so it’s either I go back to a real job or I take this independent wrestling thing as far as I possibly can. And that’s exactly what I did. So obviously the best thing for my career by far.”
The full episode is available here:
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