Austin Vanderford had fun when he ventured into the wrestling world, and he'd like to get more involved once his fighting career is over.
The Bellator MMA fighter appeared on AEW programming throughout the fall of 2021 alongside the rest of American Top Team ahead of the stable's match with the Inner Circle at AEW Full Gear. Vanderford also appeared on the St. Patrick's Day Slam episode of AEW Dynamite, where his wife, Paige VanZant officially signed her contract with the company. He also got physical with Wardlow during and after the powerhouse's match with Scorpio Sky.
Speaking with Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald, Vanderford discussed his experience with AEW and made it clear that he enjoyed it.
"It was fun. I came up being a wrestling fan and growing up, watching that and getting to meet some of the guys that we got to meet has been a lot of fun. Of course my wife is signed to AEW, and her fight is a week after me, so she’ll take care of business and then I’d imagine she’d get right back into wrestling and get some more stuff going. So it’s been a really fun experience, honestly, and I look forward to more of it," he said.
He then recalled how one trip to a wrestling show turned into his recurring involvement with other members of American Top Team thanks to Dan Lambert, the group's connection to AEW.
"Yeah, to get started, it was literally like a Tuesday, he was like, ‘Hey, would you guys want to come and hop on the jet and go do a wrestling event? I got this good shtick going.” I was like yeah, that’d be awesome, man. So we did it, and then it turned into, ‘Hey, we’re going back next week, you wanna come? Let’s keep this story [going], and so we just kept doing it. It honestly has been so much fun, and the wrestling world, nah, it’s crazy. It’s intense, it’s really fun. It’s physical. Those guys work really, really hard, and unless you go in there and do it, you don’t understand, but I have a tremendous amount of their work ethic and what those guys go out there and do," he said.
Vanderford continued and emphasized that he wants to get more involved after his fighting career, saying, "It’s a lot of fun, man. I really hope to get more involved in stuff once I’m done fighting and all that."
When asked about possibly working with VanZant in AEW, Vanderford said he'd love to, though he knows he'll have to put in the work to reach the point where he can perform.
"I mean, I would love to. We definitely, like I stated before about having the respect for what those guys go out and do, I gotta put in a lot of work, as well as her, to get to that level to be able to go out there and do it. But yeah, I would love to. It’s a lot of fun, and I really hope to get more involved once I’m done," he said.
VanZant has been training with Gangrel, and he recently stated that he thinks she could be a star someday. His comments are available here.
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