Luke Gallows talks about Aces & Eights, praises Finn Balor, more
Chad Dukes of CBS Radio Washington DC 106.7 The Fan and ChadDukesWrestling.com recently spoke with the former WWE and TNA star Luke “Doc” Gallows, who is currently working for new Japan Pro Wrestling. Gallows talked at length about numerous topics like WrestleKingdom 9, his tag partner Machine Gun Karl Anderson, his run with Aces & Eights and the recent controversy of former WWE Superstar CM Punk signing with UFC.
He praised Joey Mercury and mentioned that both Punk and Joey are the best in-ring performers and entertainers he has teamed up with. Below are the few highlights from the 25-minute in-depth interview,
On being a star in Japan:
“In Japan, traditionally, whether you’re a baseball player, a musician, a baseball player, a pro wrestler, which thank god it’s very popular right now, you get kinda special treatment. These sponsors, these businessmen, I guess it’s kind of a status thing for them to take us out. So we get to eat in five-star restaurants all night long, we get to eat as much as we want, drink as much as we want, which is good sometimes, bad others. It’s a change in lifestyle, it really is.
Over there they wanna buy the stuff off our backs. So I literally wear different gear to the ring every single night and then these collectors are waiting at the hotel to buy my stinky tights.”
On CM Punk’s feelings on WWE and joining UFC:
“I know his opinions because I’ve heard them out of his mouth on the phone before, but I wasn’t there anymore and it was a different time. All I know, is I felt like in 2010 when the Straight Edge Society ended that it was a shame because we had some real momentum.”
“The UFC move shocked me. I knew some of the other entertainment stuff he was doing, I knew he was training his ass off, I knew he was a huge fan of it, so I kinda had an inkling. And then he announced it or they announced it, whatever, and I texted him and said, ‘Holy Crap dude, congratulations, I had no idea.’ I just talked to him in Japan, I know he’s training his butt off in Milwaukee and he’s really digging that. I hope for all the best for him.”
On Joey Mercury:
“If there was ever a guy who knew this business from the inside out and could teach it to other people and knew how to convey it, it was Joey. I was in my mid-20s when Straight Edge thing was going, 25, 26 years old. Who better to stand on the ring apron and tag with, who better to second out to a match CM Punk. Joey and I tagged on six or seven overseas tours, we tagged on all the house shows, and I just think the world of both [Joey Mercury & CM Punk] as in-ring performers, as entertainers, and as people.
Getting to be with those guys it was kinda like going to medical school after college or something.”
On Finn Balor:
“He’s a guy who can go, he has a charisma, not so much a charisma but he has mystique. And I think that when mystique’s gone, like now in a lot of cases, that it hurts. But if you look at like a Bray Wyatt, and there’s mystique there, I love him, huge fan of him, he’s a friend of mine, and I love what he’s doing and what they’ve done with him.
And I think that Devitt, if they can capture him just right, he’s gonna be able to captivate an audience and be a major league, big fight feel superstar in that company.”