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Great things are afoot at Impact Wrestling at this moment. I had a chance to speak to both a man who works diligently behind the scenes, Josh Mathews and a man who's taken the promotion by storm on screen, Killer Kross, during this week's media teleconference.
The topics I discussed had to do with the hype surrounding Chris Jericho possibly coming to Impact Wrestling and also the highly anticipated Bound For Glory pay-per-view. Both men were as different as can be, but entertaining in their unique way!
What did you think of Chris Jericho's appearance at All In, dressing up as a former Impact Wrestling World Champion, Pentagon Jr.?
Josh Mathews: I thought it was cool. Yeah, you're right. Everyone's talking about it. It was unexpected. No one knew he was going to be there and Jericho shows up. And then you have our fans in Impact chanting- 'We want Jericho'. I said it on the call last week. I am not going to speculate one way or another if she shows up or if he doesn't.
I'll hopefully be there to call it in the moment we see it for the first time and hopefully, provide the right soundtrack for if and when that just happen. But, you can still get your cabin for the Chris Jericho Cruise. It sets sail late in October through Halloween. And you can go to Chrisjerichocruise.com for all the details...Impact vs. Ring of Honor.
Killer Kross, if you had to pick an opponent for Bound for Glory, who would it be?
Killer Kross: Because you haven't identified who you are right now, it will probably be you. I don't appreciate voices coming on the phone right now and berating me with questions. Are you a detective?
I'm not (Nervous laughter)
Killer Kross: Well, I digress. To be honest with you, I want to compete against the people fans want to see me compete against. I think that's probably what's best for business. Giving people what they want. With regard to hyper-violence and unpredictability, I think we can all agree if I can toot my own horn for a moment, that we're hitting home runs in that spectrum.
But I would say for Bound for Glory, whoever the people want to see get publicly executed, I'm the man for the job. So, whether that's someone on the roster or someone that's not currently on the roster, I would entertain all of them.
You have a unique promo style. Who are some of your influences?
Killer Kross: Again, it's going to be a broad answer. There is a broad spectrum of influences. I try to be as original as I can so that you don't end up insulting the intelligence of the fans watching. I don't think there's anything worse to the fans watching at home than regurgitated things that they've seen
Redundancies really bother people in the programming. Which makes what we all do very challenging. But if you're in this, at this level, you enjoy the challenge. It is nothing to complain about.
In terms of my personal influences, I probably have to say, Roddy Piper, Jake 'The Snake' Roberts, Bobby Heenan, Jerry Lawler. If we're talking about mic work, those people have to be mentioned. Paul Heyman, to be perfectly honest. There was a level of sincerity to all of the people I just mentioned.
You never questioned anything that these people said. Everything that these people said felt very real, felt very sincere as I just said. This is what I'm always intending to do when I have something to say.
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