Chris Estell praises Sandra Gray.
Despite the fact that he never intended to work as a gear maker, Estell took over as AEW's Head Of Wardrobe after the beloved Sandra Gray made the decision to retire. Gray brought Estell on board after seeing his portfolio at an AEW show in Independence, Missouri.
While speaking to Will Washington and Aubrey Edwards on the latest episode of AEW Unrestricted, Estell thanked Gray for giving him a chance.
“First and foremost, I gotta thank Sandra. She gave me so much and continues to give me so much knowledge. I fell backwards into this job, I had no intention of working at AEW, I had no intention of being a gear maker, I had no intention of this being my primary source of income. I think anybody, when you can make money off of your artwork, [it’s great]. People pay me to do stuff that I enjoy doing, so it’s not like work. AEW had a show in Kansas City at the Silverstein Arena in Independence and I did Fuego Del Sol’s gear. I brought it and I brought a portfolio for Sandra to see and I treated it like a job interview. A lot of the times I notice, people don’t treat this like a job interview and I wanted to treat it like, ‘Hey, you know, if you’re gonna take a look at me, I’m gonna give my due diligence to give the respect.’ She saw my work and we got along great. I always called her meemaw because she was in bed by nine o’clock, afterwards you couldn’t talk to her [laughs]. She called me like two days later and said, ‘Hey, we’d like you to come to New York and start traveling with us.’ Trust me, I had no idea what I was doing, still don’t, but it’s one of those things where I’m super proud of how far I’ve come. After she retired, they were looking for somebody to lead the department and I said, ‘I can probably do that.’ So, here we are.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Estell recalled making a mask for Ultimo Guerrero just two hours before AEW Collision. Learn more about those comments by clicking here.
If you missed anything from Friday's AEW Rampage, catch up on the show here.
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