Chris Bey is here for the long haul.
Bey, the new X Division Champion, recently spoke with WrestleZone about his big win over Willie Mack at Slammiversary as well as why he’s not ‘just’ a new trend in wrestling. Earlier this year, Mack spoke with WrestleZone and compared Bey to a new trend like fidget spinners, noting that he would have to “take this kid down a little bit” and shut him down.
Bey says he’s well aware of what Mack said then, but he waited to show what he could do in the ring instead of talking about it. Bey says he’s going to be a fixture in the X Division with IMPACT and he’ll be someone that’s around a lot longer than Mack was giving him credit for.
“I saw that article and I debated what I wanted to say about him comparing me to a fidget spinner but then I decided to let my actions speak louder than my words. Maybe I am the new fad, the new trend right now… but the thing about trending is it can be something that lasts the test of time. So yeah, I’m a new trend, I’m the new kid on the block. I’m of the time right now, but I’ll also be of the time next year and the year after that. This is the beginning of the Chris Bey era in professional wrestling and I was proud for Willie Mack of becoming X Division Champion, but the unfortunate part is he did it right at my time so it happened to get cut short. Slammiversary is over and the championship is sitting with me, so I never lied. We’ll see how long Chris Bey runs the game of professional wrestling because I don’t think I’m just going to be a trend that lasts five days, I’m going to be a trend that lasts forever.”
HEY YO! @Willie_Mack with the Razor Ramon threads for this one! #Slammiversary ??? pic.twitter.com/IxEppKRqIx
— WrestleZone (@WRESTLEZONEcom) July 19, 2020
One more talking point during the Slammiversary pay-per-view was Willie Mack’s Razor Ramon-inspired gear, which was also complimented by Bey’s Shawn Michaels-style tights. Bey says it was a great moment since it was completely unplanned, noting that he had the gear made a few months ago and didn’t see Mack’s attire until shortly before the match.
“Not at all, which is the best part about it. I had my Shawn Michaels-inspired pants made a couple months back and I was sitting on them for Slammiversary. If you look back at my Slammiversary hype-up tweets or anything that I posted over the last couple of months, I kept throwing that emoji on things just to keep teasing it and teasing it. I wanted to have some Shawn Michaels inspired gear but still [keep it] Chris Bey-themed gear, and when Willie put his gear on and I saw what he had on I just thought to myself, ‘this had to happen, this only makes perfect sense.’
Bey said the “Michaels versus Razor” callback was completely unplanned but that’s what makes it that much more special. He then went on to say Eddie Guerrero is another influence that we could potentially see down the line but he’s working on perfecting his own original style for the time being because he wants to be as unique as he can.
“For now, it’s going to be a lot of original stuff that hasn’t been done in pro wrestling before. I’m really getting in touch with my creative side and thinking outside the box. I feel more inspired than ever but I’ve been designing some really cool outfits, so when we start putting them on pay-per-view and TV people can see that I’m doing something new and completely unique.
“As far as my in-ring influences, I’ve been watching a lot of—believe it or not—AJ Styles. I have the DVD set that IMPACT dropped a couple of years ago, I bought it before I moved out to Vegas to become a wrestler. I’ve been watching that and seeing some early X Division stuff, but I really want to make my in-ring stuff as unique as possible and make Chris Bey as close to an individual as I can. People can look at the ‘Chris Bey style’ and want to copy [that]. Even though we all have influences from other things, I have influences from a million things in wrestling that I loved to watch growing up but I’ve really been trying to create my own league.”
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