Ben Bishop discusses his appearances in AEW.
Bishop was able to get his name out there on the July 6 edition of AEW Rampage, as he faced Roderick Strong in a short singles bout. Despite being his third appearance with the company, Bishop made a strong impression on fans and made the most of his time in the ring with Strong.
While speaking to Fightful for a new interview, Bishop discussed his first two appearances with the company in 2021 and 2022.
"So I first one was in 2021 and when we were doing all the darks at Daily's Place, still during the pandemic, right at the end, June. Actually, before they started going back on the road again, like that last few tapings there. I was just in contact with the QT Marshall for a bit about figuring out a time to go down. They ended up inviting me. I was there for about a week. I was there for about two tapings. I forget exactly, two Dark tapings, a Dynamite, and something else. Like they filmed something else there and it was great. It was really good experience. I got to work against Bronson, now of the Iron Savages, formerly Bear Country. A great guy. If anybody's ever met him, which is why it's an absolute tremendous human being and it was a great experience. Second time I got to work Preston Vance. Also great guy. Enjoyed, enjoyed that experience as well. I was a little bit more experienced. I was a little bit better on my end, working wise, but they were both Darks, right? At the end of the day, it's an awesome experience for anyone that's done it. But it wasn't TV. It's not national TV."
Bishop then went on to talk about how he got an email from Shawn Dean to return to the company over two years later.
"So I went back this time, I haven't I didn't hit up AEW for two years, right? I'm like, ‘I don't know what I'm gonna really get out of doing too many Darks.’ They know who I am at this point, if I get invited back, I get invited back, but I'm gonna keep doing my thing on the indies. So I just got an email from Shawn Dean. He just invited me and just said, ‘Hey, you want to come to Memphis, Mississippi?’ It was outside of Memphis. ‘But yeah, sure. Why not?’ Out of nowhere. I did it and this time it just felt a little different, Sean. I felt more natural, right? I started knowing more people on the indie scene. [I] had more acquaintances, friends there."
Bishop then went on to reveal that Jeff Jarrett started ribbing him backstage while he was in catering.
But what was cool is that when I was there, it's just people kept coming up to me and mentioning the videos. They're like, ‘Wait, you're the guy that makes those videos.’ I'm like, ‘Yeah, that's me.’ ‘You're this tall?’ I'm like, ‘Oh, yeah, you didn't know?’ ‘No, we don't know. We can't tell on the videos how tall you are. You're this big?’ I'm like, ‘Yeah.’ He's like, ‘Holy shit.’ I'm like, ‘Yeah, no, that's me, I'm just Ben.’ The coolest thing, Jeff Jarrett—I was walking by catering and he just says, ‘Who is that guy?’ One of the producers says to him, ‘Oh, that's Ben. You don't know Ben.’ He's like, ‘No, I don't know who Ben is,’ and he's like, ‘Well look at his video.’ So he shows him a video and then Jarrett comes up to me and starts ribbing me about one of the videos doing the shitty promoter gimmick back to me. It took me like 30 seconds to figure out what the hell he was doing I'm like, ‘What? Oh, I know what you're doing.’"
Bishop continued on by telling the story of how he found out about his match with Strong and how he wanted to make the most out of all the time he had.
"Then I just found out I had a match. I had no idea. Like one of the producers was like, ‘By the way, you know, you're working Roderick Strong tonight?’ ‘Oh, I am?’ ‘Yeah.’ So I was like, ‘Okay, that sounds great. How much time I got?’ ‘Two minutes.’ ‘Oh, perfect. Great. Two minutes. What are we going to do?’ So talk to Roddy. We went over it. A lot of people in my position and my size could have easily said, ‘What the hell?’ and sat there and throwing a pity party, felt bad for yourself, like, ‘This is BS, blah, blah, blah. I'm a big guy, all this shit,’ right? So I did that for about three minutes. I was like, ‘What the hell, man? They don't see me, they don't think I can do anything?’ Then I thought, ‘You know what? This is great. This is great because I already have an idea what I'm gonna do here.’ So we go out and do the thing. I knew exactly when the hard cam was gonna be on me because I already did it twice. I know when they call your name, that is the only time you're guaranteed that hard cam is going to be on you. So I just said, ‘Alright, I know that's gonna happen. So I'm gonna have the cheesiest grin and the stupidest pose of all time.’ I just did it in a mirror five minutes before I went out there. I'm like, ‘Alright, this is it, perfect.’ The match happened, we did what we did. If you blinked, you missed it."
Bishop then went on to talk about how he felt like he needed to go against the grain to create some buzz for himself.
"I'm happy it was Rampage because I was there for a Collision and a Rampage and a Ring of Honor. I think they had all the all the tapings. Well Collision wasn't a taping, but I'm happy it was Rampage because we have a week now. So I'm like for this whole week, I am going to play this shit up, like it is the biggest match of my career and I'm going to make everyone think that this is like I am going to like I'm the next big thing, right? So that was my whole like content. I kind of did. I looked at it and like no other, you know, enhancement talent does this. Nobody. ‘Cause everyone's just like, ‘Hey, I was on Rampage. Fun. Here's some pictures. That was cool,’ right? ‘Here's my cool lower third,’ you know? That's fine ‘cause that's what everyone does. Everyone's kind of shy to go against the grain when it comes to a big company like that. ‘Cause you're like, ‘Oh, I might get heat. I might get heat.’ I'm like, ‘Forget the heat, man. I don't care about the heat anymore. If I do that, I'm going to be right in the same place. I'm at right. If people get mad at me for trying to promote the show and trying to get people to watch, so be it.’ I mean, that's the whole point of wrestling, right? So now the whole week goes, I just play it up—biggest thing that's going to happen. I'm like, ‘This could either go great or this could blow up in my face and everyone's I'm the laughing stock of pro wrestling forever,’ or at least for like a week. So I'm like, ‘I know I'm gonna make that highlight video.’ I had the highlight video and I had the by the
reaction with my wife video already in the back of my mind and I'm like, I think these will do well I think. Fortunately they did. Because everyone, for the most part—like 99% of people—got what I was doing. Fortunately it was just something different and it's been great. It's been a great last few weeks. It's been fun. Wrestling's a roller coaster. It goes up and down, up and down, up and down. So just ride the high as much as possible and take advantage of it. But the thing with me,
Sean, is I'm not a one trick pony. Like I'm not going to just go out there. I've been doing these videos for a year now. It's not like I just did this one thing on rampage and I'm like, ‘Yeah, I'll, I'm going to milk the shit out of it. So let's try.’ But I'm not just going away. I'm gonna continue to make these videos because I have a ton of stuff in the back of my head. Most of the time I struggle, because I have all these ideas. I'm like, ‘What should I put out now?’ So I have a ton of stuff. I'm a creative guy. Putting myself over like crazy right now.
Bishop then finished off the topic by continuing to explain why rocking the boat in the world of professional wrestling is a good thing on most occasions.
"Thank you. So I just wanna keep doing it and show people. I have so many ideas. Things that I think could really work if given the right platform, but I'm not going to sit here and complain, ‘I'm not on TV. I can't get enough, enough reach.’ No, I can get reach and I'm showing that I can get reach. That's what gets me a little like upset at times when I hear guys, ‘Oh, I can't get enough time on TV. I'm not getting my minutes. I'm not doing this. They're not putting me over,’ this, that, and the other, and yeah, I get why you'd be miserable with that, right? Like I'm not downplaying that does stake for guys that have to sit in catering all the time. I would be the same way. I'd be upset as well. But there's so many other ways. I can say, look at Matt, look at Joe Hendry, look at what Danhausen did. Go down the line. So it like, and then, you know, you guys like me and Jack Vaughn, and we're trying to do it as well. Social media gives you another gives you that chance to do it, you're probably going to be seen by way more people if you do it on social media than people that watch shows. So like that, that's just like a perfect avenue to go. I only had a minute and 30 seconds, whatever it was, right? I'm taking advantage of it for the past three weeks. I just wish more guys would. I think there's a lot of creative guys out there. I think just guys just don't want to like rock the boat is what it is. They don't want to rock the boat, but no one's ever gotten ahead by not rocking the boat. Kind of have to. You got to kind of do your own thing. You got to be creative. Because once they see people getting behind you, there's no choice then. There's no choice, right? So like, I wish I saw more of it."
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