The former ‘Aiden English’ is not actively seeing to recreate success that originated in WWE.
It has been over a year since Matt Rehwoldt, the former ‘Aiden English’ was released from WWE. Since departing the sports-entertainment company, Rehwoldt has launched his ‘Straight Shooting’ podcast, worked independent dates and he is currently with IMPACT Wrestling where he and Deonna Purrazzo won the 2021 Homecoming tournament.
The Wrestling Perspective Podcast welcomed Matt on as their latest guest and he was asked about his pairings in WWE with Simon Gotch, collectively known as The Vaudevillians and now-TNT Champion Miro. Rehwoldt stated that he looks back fondly on both of those runs but he’s not big on revisiting them because to him, it feels like attempting to piggyback off of success that originated in WWE.
So this is something I’ve gone on record once or twice with this. I am a — and some people get mad at me. I am a firm believer in not going backwards and I cherish the time and I appreciate everyone who loved it, but I’m a huge believer in like unless we can take it and really — and it better be f*cking good – I don’t know if I can swear, bleep me if you have to – it better be f*cking good. I don’t wanna just have a Vaudevillians reunion. I’ve had a couple promoters ask and I just go, ‘Look, I really — unless we’re part of some larger project, I really don’t wanna revisit that.’ We have no issues, we’re all good. We haven’t talked a lot but he’s doing his thing, he’s killing it. But yeah, it’s not something I wanna really go back to and that even goes for Rusev, Miro. A lot of people have begged for that too and I’m like same thing. I’d love to work with him in some capacity, to work against him or if it’s something different maybe or evolved. I don’t wanna just grab a mic and go, ‘Mhmmm’ and do the same thing again because then, you’re just treading the same ground and you’re also trying to recreate magic of another company and if I were gonna show up in a separate company whether it be IMPACT, New Japan, AEW, Ring of Honor, whatever it is, I don’t wanna be trying to drag some magic from WWE and try to like, ‘Let’s strike lighting twice, let’s light that candle again.’ I’d want to create something new. So while I’m not like totally shut down on it, I’m more often than not gonna lean towards creating something new.
As the conversation rolled on, Rehwoldt recounted trying to pitch the ‘Drama King’ character to Vince McMahon. Rehwoldt laid out all the details of the character and McMahon responded by wanting Rehwoldt to portray a ‘sensitive artist’ character who would cry when things did not go his way.
And so I had this whole pitch and I go in there, I got in there and I sat down and when you sit down with him [Vince McMahon], all the horror stories, he is a crazy old man, don’t get me wrong and when he’s in Gorilla and something’s pissing him off, yes, he’ll scream, he’ll curse and all that stuff but in his office during the day, if you can get that time, he’s a dude and he’s, ‘Come on, sit down. How it’s going?’ Blah, blah, blah and he listens, you know what I mean? And so I had this whole pitch. I just laid out this well thought out idea. [John] Cena helped me put this together, Cena was awesome with me and it’s like I’m gonna take this Drama King character so I’m just not a caricature. I’m like I am this really tortured, twisted artist. I’m trying to create my masterpiece, I can’t do it. I’m freaking out trying to figure it out and whatever my masterpiece is, I don’t know. Maybe it’s being on WrestleMania, maybe it’s winning the championship, maybe it’s tearing the whole set apart, I don’t know. I can’t even figure it out. Like this tortured artist thing. I’m like it’s dark, I can throw buckets of paint on my opponent and try to create something, like on my nWo style which is more of a crazy Jackson Pollock nut job in wrestling, or like again, maybe I’m a piano [player] and I’m just breaking the piano because I can’t compose the idea that I wanna compose, all this stuff and intricate, artistic stuff and he takes it all in, and he’s like, ‘Mhm, okay,’ and I’m like, ‘Okay…’ I’m kind of sitting, I’m like, ‘All right…’ and he’s like, ‘You’re an artist. So like you’re an artist, that means you’re sensitive, right?’
I’m like, ‘What?’ So I’m like, ‘Yes sir, yeah. I think that’s fair.’ He’s like, ‘Yeah so, things really work you up and maybe it causes you to — maybe you cry’ and I’m just — on the inside I’m like, ‘… What the f*ck?’ But at this point, I put it all out there and now you just gotta listen to him. I’m like, ‘Mhm’ and he’s like, ‘It’s just something, it gets to you. You lose a match or something happens to you and you can’t control those emotions because you’re an artist and you cry.’ I’m like — and I was just like, ‘I suppose. Like yeah, maybe.’ He’s like, ‘Okay. Well, let’s take a look at it. Thanks for coming by and out you go’ and I’m like, ‘What just happened?’ I mean I got the gear approved, great but I didn’t know what was gonna happen and then the next week, they’re like, ‘Hey, you have this thing so you’re facing –’ I think it was Tye Dillinger [Shawn Spears]. ‘You lose and you have to break down weeping in the ring’ and it says here [on the sheet], specifically, ‘weeping. You need to weep.’
Rehwoldt also works on the independents under the name ‘Matt Morris’ which he’ll be using to do color commentary for New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s Resurgence show on August 14th.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit the Wrestling Perspective Podcast with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
