Billy Gunn chats The Acclaimed, Colten and Austin Gunn and weighs in on the producer role in AEW.
Since the launch of All Elite Wrestling in 2019, Billy Gunn has been a part of the company. Gunn has a double contract with the company and serves as a producer and a talent.
He dove into that producer role when he joined Renee Paquette on The Sessions podcast. Gunn was asked for his take on the differences between coaching in AEW versus coaching in WWE. He does not think there is much of a difference, but feels that producers are taken ‘a little bit’ more seriously in WWE.
Gunn shared that he tries to tell talents in AEW to slow down and pace themselves. When exploring why talents may not want to approach him for feedback, he suggests that it could be that they want to figure things out on their own or there’s the idea of going to him for advice and then not applying it.
I don’t think it’s that different [coaching in AEW versus coaching in WWE]. I mean it’s — you go back to it, it’s just slow down… I say it every single time. I’m like, ‘Slow down. I don’t know what you’re in such a rush for. Where are you rushing to get to?’ And you ask them and they have no idea. I’m like, ‘Okay, so just slow down.’ In WWE, I don’t wanna say they listen more because it’s not true. We’re just taken a little bit more serious I think. Everybody in WWE knows that’s what we’re there for and you can come to us any time you want and run an idea by or do that and I think, not that they don’t want to, I don’t know what it is. AEW, like I’ll have a couple guys; [Powerhouse] Hobbs, Ricky Starks, a couple of guys that come to me daily. They don’t realize how good that makes us feel because I’m not there chasing you down so I can help you. If you don’t want my help, then I’m not gonna force myself on you because that’s just not how it works. But I’m more than happy to help if you come to me and go, ‘Hey, can you help me with this?’ Or, ‘Can you watch this and show me this?’ And so, there’s a few people that take advantage of that. I just don’t know — I’m trying to figure out what it is. It’s not a bad thing… and it’s not that they know everything, it’s just, maybe it’s me and my demeanor sometimes [Gunn laughed].
I think it’s that [wrestlers possibly wanting to figure things out on their own] and I think it’s if I go — say just for me. So if I go to Billy and I ask him for all this and I don’t do it, he’s gonna be really mad and he’s really gonna lose his mind and that’s not the case. I tell you all these things that have worked, they’ll work. I’m not saying that they are gonna work for you, but there is bits and pieces that will work. So I think that when they come and ask and you give them, hey, this, this, this and this and you don’t go out there and do it, that we’ll get super mad and that’s not the case. I’m telling you these things because you asked and if you don’t want to utilize ‘em, that’s on you, that’s not on me. But you can’t come to me every single week and ask me the same question and not do what I’m telling you to do. At some point, what I’m asking or telling you, you have to at least try or implement it. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work but I think that’s a lot of it too is they’ll come and ask and go, oh God, now I gotta go out there and just punch and kick and I can’t do any of my stuff [Gunn laughed].
Present day, Billy is aligned with The Acclaimed (Max Caster & Anthony Bowens). Their on-screen partnership was formed during the working relationship between The Acclaimed and Austin and Colten Gunn.
Austin and Colten turned on their father and now, Billy is with Caster and Bowens. He thinks things are going to fall into place for The Acclaimed, stating that they’re in that place of finding the balance of being entertaining and also wanting to wrestle in a serious manner. He also spoke about Danhausen and said he does not get the character, but he really likes him.
Danhausen started all this ‘Ass Boys’ stuff on the cruise ship that just kind of stuck and I thought it was amazing. He’s such a different character that a lot of people — I don’t get it, but I really like him. The Acclaimed have something special. They’re still in that, hey, I wanna do this rap and be very entertaining, but what about my wrestling? Well it’ll fall into place. You just have to give it time to figure out what is natural and what isn’t. You have something right now that is really entertaining. It’s okay to hang your hat on that right now. It’s okay, it’s okay [Gunn laughed]. Brian [‘Road Dogg’ James] had that ‘ladies and gentlemen’ that I don’t think nobody has — anybody on this planet doesn’t know it. But so, and it’s okay that they dig into that and they understand that because that’s meaning I have everybody’s attention now. So no matter what wrestling I do, I have their attention but I’m setting it up with something cool, that whole spiel that they do. Now it’s just, don’t worry about — because they wanna do that and everybody’s into it then they wanna wrestle really serious. So it’s a little bit of a throw-off dynamic and you can still get there, don’t force feed it. Just stick with that right now and everything else will fall into place and I think that’s what I’m here to help them do is to try to get them to understand that just kind of let things flow. It’s gonna come.
Prior to the conversation about Danhausen and The Acclaimed, Gunn spoke about the differing personalities of his sons and why they work well together.
He said Austin has an over the top personality and a lot of charisma and it would do no favors to Colten if he tried to match that because that’s not his personality. He feels that what makes them click is that they are different and it’s more natural than trying to act the same.
I think it’s really good [dynamic between Austin & Colten Gunn]. I think they’re both different and I’ve always tried to tell them that at the beginning. Austin is so full of energy and charisma and so over the top that I just — my thing with Colten is you cannot match that, because then it comes off as phony. Just be you. Just be you and you two working together, you’ll find that rhythm where both of you become one and be able to do that. I like to compare them to me and Brian [‘Road Dogg’ James] and I only compare that because I know that dynamic. Me and Brian are totally opposite. I could never talk on the mic like he could, I could never have that kind of charisma like he has but I have my things and when we combine those two, they work really good because neither one of us is trying to force what we are not good at. We realize what we’re not good at and we go, ‘Okay, I’m good at this, you’re good at that. How do we make it all gel?’ And I think they’re really good at doing that. Sometimes you see somebody that’s so entertaining and so energetic and you just go, ‘Well if I don’t do that, then I’m gonna get left behind’ and that’s not true. What happens is if you try to catch that, you get left behind because it’s very — that’s not your personality and now you’re trying to do something that’s so outside your personality, it comes off fake and it comes off forced and when that happens, people just instantly check out and if they do that, it takes forever to catch ‘em back.
Next up for Caster and Bowens is an AEW World Tag Team Title shot. They’ll be challenging Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland for the belts at All Out.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit ‘The Sessions with Renee Paquette’ with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
