Ace Austin discusses the Gambit influence in his character and presentation.
IMPACT Wrestling is a company that surely has a cast of characters, as the company regularly features wrestlers with unique gimmicks like Decay, Brian Myers, and PCO on their weekly programming. Ace Austin, who is also one of IMPACT's top stars, has a card-player type of presentation to his character as well, and he is considered by many to be one of the promotion's top stars.
Austin's character is often compared to X-Men's Gambit character, who is also purple and can often be seen with a playing card in his hand. In a recent interview with WrestleZone, Austin talked about the comparisons and noted that they weren't intentional at first.
"That was accidental. I really wasn’t going for Gambit at first, but when I chose my color scheme and I put the whole presentation together… I started training when I was 17 and I had an idea. I got my first set of gear when I was still 17 and then I debuted when I was 18, that was the rule in Pennsylvania at the time. When I put this whole presentation together, that’s when fans started coming to me and saying ‘Oh I love the Gambit reference, I love the Gambit vibes.’ That’s kinda when I realized how on the nose it was, so I kinda leaned into it after that. When you’re first starting out, it’s good to find a niche to fit in. The comic books, superhero things have always been such a huge influence in my life. Superheros and Pro Wrestling had the biggest influence on my life growing up. It was a great way to merge the two and it really helped me get my feet off the ground and it helped me out with merchandising and it all worked.”
Ace Austin competed in a tag team bout at IMPACT's recent Overdrive event. To see full results from that event, click here.
Recently, Ace Austin talked about joining the Bullet Club. To learn more, click here.
If you use any of these quotes, please credit the original source and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
