Posted on 7/15/126 by Colin Vassallo
Ethan Page sat down with Chris Van Vliet in London, England
to discuss being a tag team champion with Cody Rhodes in
Alpha-1 Wrestling, MJF hitting on his sister, winning the
North American Championship in NXT, getting a custom
Canadian Title and hating the Lance Storm comparisons, why
his pairing with Chelsea Green worked so well, his NXT
segment with The Rock, why he hated his old theme song that
fans loved, and more!
How did you pitch the idea of the Canadian version of the
North American title?
“Had nothing to do with me. It was presented to me. A
fantastic idea, and there was a legitimate reveal to me
before the event. I remember we were in Houston, Texas,
because I remember it as a top five career day for me, it
was like an eight-minute get to stand in the middle of the
ring with a microphone; the flags are in there, the podium,
I get to reveal the belt, it was awesome. It was a perfect
town for it too, just what a dream scenario that was. But
before the show, I knew that they were customizing this belt
because they had told me. But I had not seen anything, so I
actually got like a [sees ttile] whoa! Just personally, just
for me. So I got to actually see it. I’m like, this is
insane. After the experience, it really kicked in. Wait a
second, I have a custom championship in the WWE,
specifically for me. I don’t think anyone’s ever going to
get that belt again. It’s literally hanging in my house.
Don’t take it, WWE, please! I have no clue how it got there.
After I lost the championship. I left it at the Performance
Center, but somehow it’s hanging up in my house.”
Did you have any conversation with Lance Storm after your
belt came out?
“I did not.”
Because there were a lot of comparisons:
“Which offends me!”
How does that offend you?
“He got stickers! I got a legitimate custom championship in
the WWE. That guy slapped on magnets. He put some stickers
on some championships. I made the WWE bend the knee. That’s
a lot different.”
The chair has become your weapon, because you used it with
Ricky Saints, that was bad.
“Yeah, so it could have been worse. He almost lost his eye.
So he ends up injuring his trachea the way the chair fell.
Give him a twisted grin, and I’m trying to pull his throat
down in between the legs of the chair, so as I’m yanking him
down, if you see the footage and you watch the leg closest
to the camera, it literally grazes his cheek, and you see
his cheek after, there’s a mark, it’s purple. Maybe like an
inch to a half an inch, he would have lost his eye. I don’t
know why I’m smiling, but yeah. Also that night I became
North American Champion, and Mattel enjoyed that so much
that they commemorated the moment by giving myself and Ricky
Saints a two-pack with the North American Championship from
that match.”
Take me through the day when you get the call that you’re
going to go up to the main roster.
“Honestly, I wish I could. I was in Vegas for WrestleMania
weekend. I had a bunch of appearances, and there was, I
guess, half-ass rumors, you might have something there,
might be something, but nothing was concrete. I had Shawn
Michaels’ panel for his documentary, check it out on
Peacock, so they had me out there for that. So that was, I
think, on Saturday in the morning, and I still didn’t know
what was happening. My hotel ended Saturday night, so my
flight was that day. So I finished the interview, and after
that they were like, ‘Hey, you’re staying, something’s going
on Monday.’ But still nothing. I had no clue, and I had
already been to SmackDown before and done backstages at Raw,
so for me I was like, oh, okay, they just have me doing
something or sitting in the crowd and waving or whatever. So
they said something was gonna happen, I said, oh crap. So I
called my family and just by luck, my mom was on vacation in
Florida at their spot, and I was like, do you mind driving
down two hours to my place to watch the kids, so I can fly
my wife? I think I’m doing something on Monday Night Raw,
and she’s like, yeah, sure. So, last minute, get my wife a
flight, fly her to Vegas, and then we end up going out for
some crazy dinner, and as soon as I got back from eating
10,000 calories, they were like, ‘Oh yeah you have a match
tomorrow.’ But I literally found out either like the morning
of or like very late the night before.”
People are very upset that you changed your entrance theme.
“Good! screw them. It sucked. Everyone just wants to take
everything and make it their own. Guys, this is professional
wrestling. This is not some sing-song happy time. The way
wrestling is now, music starts and everyone thinks that they
have the right to play along, like it’s for them or
something. But every wrestler has some catchy tune, everyone
sings, so I come out and everyone was going ‘Ego!’ right
away, and then they turned it into ‘asshole.’ Which you’re
killing my entrance, especially on CW Network, where NXT is
airing the whole time, where people are supposed to be
talking about me, the commentators, legendary Booker T.
Nobody’s hearing what he’s saying, because the crowd is
doing what they want. They are literally cutting the audio.
I have full entrances where you can’t hear anything.”