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What’s the story?
Ring of Honor World Champion Dalton Castle recently spoke with Chris Van Vliet backstage at Ring of Honor's Bound by Honor show. During the interview, Castle spoke about a host of topics which included a brief comparison between him and current NXT superstar Velveteen Dream’s gimmick.
In case you didn’t know…
Dalton Castle has been working for Ring of Honor since 2013, when he made his debut for the promotion at Dragon’s Reign, however, it wasn’t until 2017 when Castle won his first championship in Ring of Honor, as he and The Boys defeated Bully Ray and The Briscoes in order to win the ROH Six-Man Tag Team Championships.
At Final Battle, 2017, Castle finally won the ‘Big One’ when he defeated ‘The American Nightmare’ Cody Rhodes in order to win the ROH World Championship for the first time in his career.
The heart of the matter
While conversing with Chris Van Vliet, Castle spoke about a host of wrestling related topics and below are the highlights from his interview: (H/T: Wrestling Inc)
If Velveteen Dream's gimmick is similar to his:
According to Dalton Castle, he claimed that he certainly doesn’t notice any sort of similarities between his and Velveteen Dream’s current gimmick, because apparently Dream is portraying a character which is similar to pop icon Prince and it is seemingly not similar enough to Dalton Castle’s gimmick.
“I don’t see that. He’s kind of playing up a Prince thing, right? Is he coming out with Boys? Then alright, we’re cool.”
Feeling the pressure of becoming the ROH World Champion:
Castle stated that, prior to his run as ROH World Champion he didn’t really have enough pressure on his back and it didn’t really matter if he messed up in the ring, but now that Castle has finally won the ROH World Championship he feels that there is no room for error anymore and he definitely has to prove everyone that he belongs on the big stage.
“Before I was Champion, it didn’t matter if I messed up. I could go out there and if I pulled off a really great match, that was great, but if I didn’t that was fine too because there was no risk. Now that I’m the Champion, I feel like every time I’m out in the ring I have to prove to everybody that I belong there. There’s no room for error anymore. I have to be the best wrestler I can be every time I hit the ring because as long as that Championship is around my waist, people are going to be doubting me or looking at me or wondering why.”
Watching WWE:
Castle claimed that he watches all sorts of wrestling, from various types of wrestling promotions around the globe and it specifically doesn’t matter what company it is.
"I watch all wrestling, it doesn't matter what company it is. I'm the World Champion of Ring of Honor and I love this place and I'm very, very proud to be a part of it but let's not forget I love wrestling so if there's wrestling to be seen, I'm going to watch it."
How the Bullet Club has changed wrestling:
Castle believes that as of right now, the Bullet Club is definitely on very talented faction with wrestlers of top-level caliber and the ROH World Champion also has an immense amount of respect for all of them as well.
Castle, in addition, also stated that The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) have taken ROH and wrestling to the very next level in general.
"It's mathematically impossible for every member of the Bullet Club to be cool, but they're all great wrestlers. I respect the hell out of all of them. The Young Bucks have taken all of us and wrestling in general to the next level. To see how they've elevated themselves on their own and as they've elevated, I feel like all wrestling around them has elevated and I feel like we all owe them a great gratitude for that."
What’s next?
Dalton Castle will defend his ROH World Championship at the upcoming ROH: War of The Worlds event against Kingdom leader Matt Taven, on the 9th of May at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium.
Author’s Take
Dalton Castle is certainly one of the best and underrated competitors in today’s wrestling business and him finally winning the ROH World Title was certainly a feel-good moment as well.
