TNA World Heavyweight Champion Magnus recently spoke with the Miami Herald heading in to Lockdown this Sunday. You can read some highlights below:
Role of being the champion: “There is a lot more responsibility on every level when you have the championship. With the media responsibilities, I tend to say yes to everything because I believe that is the responsibility of the champion. As far as more work load, but obviously with that comes more reward. There are times where you think, ‘God, I wish I had an easy day,’ but you have to remind yourself that this is what you got into this job to do.To go up as high up as you can go. To be the world champion is the highest you can get in that organization. To be put in that position at my age and with the time that I still have in front of me, it’s great. Its hard work, but it’s a good kind of pressure.”
Being the first British world champion in 108 years: “I have to say the fact that I was the first British world champion wasn’t something I ever thought about because I wasn’t aware of that until people brought it up when I was coming close to winning the title. It was just one of those things that I never really thought about. I’m very proud of where I’m from, but I’m not overly patriotic. For me, I’ve always been about me and reaching the top of the business. I never really thought, ‘Well, I’m going to do it for the Brits and all that.”
Facing Samoa Joe at Lockdown: “Joe and I crossed paths more than once on both sides of the fence. We’ve been opponents many times and we’ve been teammates many times. There’s an undeniable chemistry physically between our styles. They sort of mesh or clash depending on how you look at it and the day of the week it is. It just makes for good wrestling whether we are teammates or opponents. Right now we’re opponents. That is when you get the best out of Joe and I is as opponents. I think it’s going to be the most physically intense and brutal encounter of all of our rivalry with each other.”
TNA becoming more global: “I think that we’ve become more of a global genre, and I think that is one of the things where wrestling stands the test of time as well. It transcends languages and cultures because it’s a simple kind of live theater that plays out in front of your eyes. I think for us to continue to further explore our international opportunities is a big thing. I think that momentum and some wise investments and smart moves. All it takes is a spark. Obviously, there is a market leader, and we are not it, but we can continue to develop things that we are doing. Things like our relationship with Wrestle-1 and our new deals overseas. We can continue to develop our product and our stars, and the whole industry benefits. I think not as many people will watch at one specific time, but if you combine all the times people are buying on-demand or watching it online and stuff like that there is still a very hungry audience for pro wrestling and we are always cultivating new ones.”
