Paul London discusses his journey back to wrestling.
Over the past two years, London has re-inserted himself into the world of wrestling, primarily competing in independent promotions like Absolute Intense Wrestling and Sean Henderson Presents. At the Summer Of The Beasts show in August, Paul London made his return to MLW and as of now, it appears that he'll be a regular in the company going forward.
While speaking to Fightful for a new interview, London talked about how he was originally set to do a show for Ring Of Honor in 2020 before the pandemic hit.
"Well, I took some time off here in the pandemic. I was supposed to work the Ring of Honor show in Vegas and that got canceled on or around Valentine's Day. I could be off a month. It could be March 14th, but I want to say it was around February. It was March 14th. So I was geared up to go do that and that got canceled. So then the whole pandemic thing happened and I was living, at the time, I was in Sherman Oaks at the time, but I was really close to all these all this looting and all it was just chaos, right? So my mind was everywhere, but pro wrestling. Then I moved to the hood, because I wanted to get more street and I started working a shoot job and it was fun for a while, but then I started to see I think AEW came up around the time and I have a lot of friends there."
London went on to say that he was watching a few different promotions at the time but still couldn't find the interest that he was looking for.
"So you're always going to be curious. So I was watching it and I’m like, ‘Ah, some of this is really bad,’ and then I was watching some other stuff just out of curiosity, but still didn't have too much of an interest."
London went on to chat about how he lost his confidence in a return to the ring even though he was training on a regular basis.
"I was still working out and training and I was actually training at a ring in Burbank, working out with some guys. I was kind of loosely training my roommate at the time, who was a comedian, and LA Knight would come in, Sean Ricker, he'd come in and work out from time to time, which was great. Because he and I are old pals. But it was just cool. It was a little just like a jam session for guys who wanted to just kind of keep the joints well oiled. But it was just like, ‘I’d really like to just kind of keep coaching and stuff,’ but just didn't really have much interest performing anymore. Not because I didn't want to perform, but because my confidence had kind of sunk so low and I felt, ‘God, like all these guys are just doing so many explosive things. Like I'm gonna be the fat guy going in there and just kind of like being like, hold on, ref, he pulled my trunks, ref, whoa, whoa, whoa.’ I was like, ‘Is that me? Is that, that's where I'm at now? Like, this is terrible.’ Oh, yeah, that'd be fun in there, they're like, ‘Do a flip, do a destroyer.’ So I didn't want to deal with any of that and I was convinced that that's where I was at in my life and in my career."
London then revealed that he reached out to Christopher Daniels and tried to help out with AEW.
"It got to the point where I actually reached out to Daniels and was like, ‘Hey, I've seen the show. I'd love to help any way I can.’ I kind of got like a revolving door answer. It was like, ‘Oh, well, yeah, no, see you later.’ That was fine. I get it. I guess they have all the help they need."
London then focused on MLW and how a significant digure in the company reached out to him on a few occasions during the pandemic.
"But a significant figure in MLW had been reaching out to me over the past few years and this was during the pandemic. Then again, I left the hood and I moved to New Mexico, reached out to me when I was in New Mexico, but to be honest, my confidence just wasn't there. I just thought, Karrion Kross, he's another really good friend of mine. He was with MLW at the time and I thought, ‘Oh, well, you know, if I could come in and do something with him,’ but I didn't want to put any kind of stain on him too, because he was doing so great. I thought, ‘Oh, well, maybe there's something with this kind of underground kind of iteration that they're doing with the members that were at Lucha. Maybe there's something there that I could kind of weasel my way in and kind of fool people into thinking I can still do this stuff.’ But it was mostly just all shit that was in my head, you know what I mean? That's kind of the poison that when you're a performer, it can seep into your head and it can be very difficult to get that out. So long winded answer wrapping up. Fast forward to being back in Southern California and it was actually my wrestling manager who receives my bookings and all that stuff because it's sometimes difficult for me to keep up with a lot it. ‘I tried to, I emailed you three years ago and you never responded.’ Like, ‘Oh, spam folder!’ Some of that stuff just does my head in. So he helps me with that and he's also the co-owner with me at my wrestling academy."
Elsewhere in the interview, London talked about his relationship and history with Jerry Lynn. Learn more about those comments by clicking here.
Fans can check out Fightful's full interview with Paul London in the video linked at the top of this article.
London is set to face KENTA at MLW's upcoming TV tapings in Chicago on Saturday, November 9. Find tickets for the event here.
