Donald Wood, Mike Chiari and Brandon Galvin interviewed Jack Swagger on Ring Rust Radio. You can check out the interview above, below are some highlights:
Mike Chiari: The Royal Rumble is viewed by most as the unofficial start to WrestleMania season, and coming off your feud with Rusev you have a clean slate to work with. So, with WrestleMania quickly approaching, what direction do you see yourself heading in? What are your expectations for the next couple months?
It’s a fun time of year but it’s also a stressful time of year. WWE really likes to keep its fans on the edge of their seats and on their toes. They are always trying to keep that big swerve in their pocket for as long as possible. Right now I am unattached, so going forward I’m going to do whatever I can behind the scenes and in the ring to secure a match in WrestleMania and make it a good spot.
Brandon Galvin: You’re viewed as one of the top in-ring workers in the company and somebody they can rely on to put on entertaining matches. Do you ever feel this typecasts you as a performer or limits your potential to allow fans to see more of your personality?
Yea it’s a double edged sword. It does only give me so many options. I think it’s on the Superstars in this day and age to get your personality out there. We have so many tools now that we didn’t have even when I first started six years ago. Social media is such a powerful media that is a Superstar is type casted or only getting so many opportunities you can go on social media to promote yourself and your brand and give fans a chance to see that other side of your personality. That will only help your in ring performance entertainment wise though. As far as me, after you have been doing it as long as I have you constantly have to stay hungry and growing and reinvent yourself as an artist. Otherwise as an artist you will be dying and that’s what I try to keep doing as much as possible.
Mike Chiari: One of the most memorable time periods of your career so far was your rivalry with Alberto Del Rio entering WrestleMania 29. There were some really realistic and controversial aspects to that feud that helped you and WWE gain some mainstream attention. Looking back at that angle do you feel like WWE struck gold by toeing that line? Is that the type of thing you’d like to see even more of moving forward?
Absolutely. It was a very hot topic across the United States. I think the WWE should do more on it along those lines and still stay PG. It made it fun and more relative to our older fans. With the story lines today, it’s very hard to generate natural interest in the WWE universe. You can’t force it down their throats; they are only going to like what they like. Having something that’s already on the tips of their tongues or on their minds, it just makes it that much easier, fun and intense. Any time you can get Glenn Beck crying it’s a good thing.
Brandon Galvin: You’ve played both sides of the “We the People” character. As a proud American, was it difficult for you to play a villain or did you find it was a more entertaining role for yourself?
Growing up in Oklahoma, my High School team was renowned and very good. We would walk into places and they would just boo the hell out of us. So from a young age I got a taste of that and I liked it. The more you boo me the better I’m going to wrestle. You don’t like me? So what. It’s a lot of fun to work like that and wrestle with that mindset. I haven’t been on the other side of the ball or the we the people character. It doesn’t have the same type of fulfillment but it’s different as you can imagine Hear the people actual pop for something good or cheer a victory is nice too. I’m not sure which one I like more right now so maybe I’m going to need a six year face run to make sure.
