This past January, AC Mack defeated Alex Shelley to become IWTV Independent Wrestling World Champion. With his victory, Mack became the first openly gay male world champion in the history of pro wrestling.
He spoke about the title win and the accolades that came with it during our interview. It was the first time I’ve gotten to chat with A.C. since our first interview in 2020. He shared that he had several anxiety attacks leading up to the match with Shelley.
He explained that things were and have been overwhelming in the best way possible and if one were to ever be overwhelmed, the experience he’s having is the one he’d prefer.
What’s so funny is that I have really bad anxiety when it comes to performing and that whole week leading up to that match [IWTV Title match against Alex Shelley] was really rough on me. I had a few attacks, was hard for me to keep food down, I found out I was gonna win, I found out I was gonna be the first openly gay world champion. It was just a lot all in one week so once they counted three, I just remembered burying my face in the mat, just crying to myself, just saying to myself, ‘It’s over, it’s over, it’s over’ and I was just telling somebody else the other day how ironic is it that I kept saying that because oh my God, it was just the beginning [Mack laughed]. It was just the beginning but the beginning of something great but the beginning for sure. I always tell people, all of it has been overwhelming in the best way possible. This is the type of overwhelmed that you wanna be. To be able to cut that promo right after the match, everything felt great, everything just kind of fell into place. I personally think that’s the best time for any wrestler to cut a promo, right after your match and you’re still fired up and zooted from the match itself. You still have that post-match high. It’s not cold as some would say so I think it’s the best time and the stars were aligned, they gave me a few bullet points to hit during the promo and the rest was up to me so, I just kind of had some fun with it, put some sugar on it and we went from there. My boyfriend was in the ring with me along with everybody else and at the time, we were dating for a few months. We weren’t even official right there in the ring. I kind of asked him, I don’t wanna say privately, because everybody can see. It was kind of a whisper like, ‘Hey, you ready to do this? We talked about it but, now seems like a good time to make it official.’
The crowd in attendance for the aforementioned championship match in Tyrone, Georgia was pro-AC Mack. When Shelley arrived in front of the audience, he was showered in boos.
A.C. was the crowd favorite as members of that audience saw his entire career play out. Mack credited Shelley for leaning into the heel role for the night, adding that the promo Shelley cut beforehand, Mack was not aware he was going to do that and described Shelley as a professional.
There were so many things going through my head and being nervous and everything that I didn’t even think about how divided or how one-sided the crowd would be [for my IWTV Title match against Alex Shelley]. I didn’t think about that at all but when his music hit, he was walking out there and you’re right, they booed the sh*t out of him. I was like, woah! Oh yeah, I guess that makes sense. I didn’t think about that and then I did my intro and he cut a promo on the fly. We didn’t talk about that at all. He just leaned into it more. That’s the professional that he is and he was like, okay, if this is the story and this is what we’re going with, then bet. This is how it’s going to go and I just thought that was even cooler. It made it that much better.
With the title win being one of the highlights of Mack’s Title reign, he is pleased to know that the win is not the only highlight.
Thus far, Mack has had over 20 successful defenses of the IWTV Wrestling World Championship. He feels this run he’s on is the best stretch of his six-year career so far.
We’re almost at 2023. I have to look at the stats again but I think I’m either the second or third highest most defenses in the belt’s history… There has been so many more moments outside of the win. So many more opponents that I’m so glad I’ve gotten to get in the ring with, so many promotions I’ve gotten to defend the belt at, so many regions now that we’re taking it to. We had a whole season of Uncharted Territory that was kicked off by this reign and we were able to put the spotlight on so many guys from the southeast who deserve to be seen on a national scale, you know? So I love that when people look back at this reign, they’re gonna think of the ‘Southeast First’ movement, they’re gonna think of storytelling, they’re gonna think of promo work, they’re gonna think of the big national, civil rivalry between the northeast and the southeast so, and I just had a defense in LA. That was my first time taking the belt on the west coast so doing a lot of firsts here with this and I’m very, very proud of that. So proud of that and like you said, we’re still going. I still got the belt. It’s not over. We just announced more… We got Alec Price coming up, we got Hoodfoot coming up. We got some big, big things happening. Man, I’m so excited. Easily the best year of my career so far.
Spotlighting the southern independent scene is a priority for AC Mack. He’s expressed sentiment in media appearances and post-match promos. When he won the IWTV Title, he felt there was an opportunity to highlight the region that he came up in.
There was a bit of back and forth on social media between A.C. and Beyond Wrestling promoter Drew Cordeiro, with Mack noting that the southern independents will no longer be overlooked.
He told me that the situation was a blend of storyline and reality. He felt that when the public generally thought of hotspots on the indies, the northern portion of the U.S. was thought about. Mack recounted when he and Cordeiro were exchanging tweets, there were wrestlers and fans who were backing him and genuinely upset with Cordeiro.
It was so important to me [to spotlight the southern independent scene] because I started training in 2016 and everybody down here that has been making moves, it’s kind of like in the independent scene… they don’t acknowledge it and it’s not seen as equal to what’s happening in the northeast. It’s like, ‘Oh, what you’re doing is cool. But if you wanna be seen, if you wanna get some exposure, you need to go up north.’ Not only was that the attitude but people were explicitly saying that and after a while, I kind of resented it. I’m like, why should I have to bust my ass and screw up my car and spend money on flights and take all this time off of P.T.O. from my job every weekend just to go up there and do the same thing I can do down here, if not better, you know what I’m saying? We have the talent, we have the promotions. Why is it that the independent scene is seen as the northeast? That’s the premiere region that you think of when you think of independent wrestling. You think of Beyond, you think of these places that are great, that do have great talent but they’re not the only ones. So, you know, it became a situation to where the storyline and reality were kind of blurred to the point where we had the championship win, I cut the promo, Drew Cordeiro responded… immediately and there were so many people in the southeast region, wrestlers and fans who were up in arms about it. Really, really upset that Drew made those comments because like I said, it’s a blurred storyline, you know? It’s a storyline but it’s real. It comes from a real place. A lot of us feel like that down here so once Drew responded [Mack laughed], I ain’t gonna name any names but I had some people ready to go. Like, let’s get in the car and pull up. Like what’s up? I was like, ‘Yo chill, chill, chill, chill.’ But that’s what it means, that’s how real it is for us so for me to make that statement, it rejuvenated us once again and we were able to go and do something special with Uncharted Territory and I made the promise that the belt was being held hostage and I’m not defending it anywhere else and then on July 1st, we had the press conference and I made the announcement that we’re no longer holding this hostage because with Uncharted Territory, we’re able to bring that needed exposure that we fought so hard for. So in a way it was like, okay, we’ve completed the mission, now what? So we completed the mission and I’m like, okay, y’all been talking sh*t this whole time. ‘Oh, he’s not a real world champion because he’s not going nowhere,’ blah, blah, blah. Okay, bet, let’s open this up. Let’s send out some contracts, let’s see who accepts. So now I gotta defense in L.A. like I said, I got one in Houston, I got one in Indiana, we got one in Jersey. I’m a man of my word. I am a world champion but we have to get the point across first. That was the whole point so, that’s why it’s been so important. It’s like, hey, we’ve been saying X, Y and Z and nobody’s listening. Now I got the belt. Okay, now you have no choice but to listen to me and that’s why it was important. I like microphones and I needed to get the biggest microphone on the indies and that way, everybody could hear me.
Since 2018, Mack has been part of the Georgia-based promotion ACTION Wrestling. He was asked to explain what ACTION means to his pro wrestling career.
He said the promotion has played a role in helping him get all the exposure he has now. Mack highlighted ACTION Wrestling promoter Matt Griffin and the promotion’s fans for being with him on his journey. He threw in a stat and said he’s been on every ACTION show since the promotion’s launch.
It’s so funny, first of all, ACTION [Wrestling] is my home. It has helped me get almost all the exposure that I have right now. Me being in the P.W.I. for the first time a few years ago came from what I was doing at ACTION. Me making it to the finals the first time in the S.C.I. tournament came from ACTION and that tournament also helped with exposure and getting me out of that region and being able to be seen by so many more eyeballs. ACTION was responsible for bringing in so many names and having me work them and show what I can do. I always would tell people like, back in the old days when EVOLVE was around, we would travel with [AR] Fox to go to those EVOLVE shows and hopefully get seen and Gabe [Sapolsky] used me a few times but I don’t think he was feeling me. I don’t really know what was up but, at some point I was like, all right, this isn’t working so I gotta do something else and luckily through ACTION, I was able to get my name out there and go a different route. No pettiness and no shade, but just you had to switch gears and I love when he would bring in big names from EVOLVE because it was like, all right, here we go. This is my time to shine. I couldn’t make it over there but I could do it this way and show you that no matter what, I can go so I love that. I appreciate Matt [Griffin] and ACTION and the fans there too 100 percent for that. I wanna say I’m the only one that’s been on every single ACTION show since the beginning. Every single show and a matter of fact, the very first show of ACTION, I was the first match, first entrance so, it’s like, I’m the John Cena there dammit [Mack laughed].
This month, Mack has three defenses of the IWTV World Title lined up. On 10/7, he’ll be facing Shazza McKenzie, 10/16 against Hoodfoot and 10/22 versus Alec Price. AC Mack can be found on both Twitter and Instagram @AC_Mack.
To hear the audio version of our conversation, click on the video player at the beginning of this article or head over to the Andrew Thompson Interviews YouTube channel.
