This story should be both a cautionary tale for any wrestling promotors out there and also serve as a lesson in how to work a crowd.
Austin Aries recently had a tag team match at World Series Wrestling’s International Assault in Brisbane, Australia where he had the honor of calling Sean Waltman his partner.
After the match was over, both of these world-renowned pro wrestling celebrities had a chance to address the crowd. They were quite over and had people eating out of the palm of their hands. Waltman put Aries over for his incredible ability and A Double did the same by saying he was checking off an item from his personal bucket list by performing alongside a guy he’s looked up to for years.
Sean Waltman is a 30-year pro in the pro wrestling business and was trying to get the microphone back so he could close out their segment when A Double felt he had more to say.
“But there’s one more thing,” Austin Aries said. “I’m known for being kinda an asshole, and I’m known for speaking the truth. And here’s the truth of the fact, you’ve got some talented men and women back there out here busting their ass and the stage that we bust our ass in is this wrestling ring and quite frankly this wrestling ring is a f-cking disgrace!”
Then Austin Aries walked off, Waltman tried to explain his partner’s words by saying the ring hurt a lot and probably did more damage to them than their opponents did which is the kind of line usually reserved for the locker room but it was brought out to full public attention that night.
After all that, X-Pac did the only thing he knew to do which was close out his promo with his planned line of saying, “if you ain’t down with Austin Aries and X-Pac then we got two words for ya.” The crowd still popped and chanted along (probably because everyone loves having an excuse to yell “suck it!”), but even watching this footage at home you can feel the energy in the room drain as soon as Austin Aries got real.
They don’t call him “The Truth” for nothing.
Cornette may have been right about Austin Aries.