Peter Avalon talks about being a Librarian in AEW.
Early in the days of AEW, Peter Avalon was saddled with the gimmick of a librarian. This was pitched as a gimmick that Tony Khan really wanted in his new promotion and speaking with Chris Van Vleit, Peter says was really all Tony's idea.
“That is all Tony, it’s Tony Khan’s idea. I had Cody when he was there and it was when AEW was still an idea that people were talking about. I had a DM from him after working at Championship Wrestling. He DM’d me saying ‘Hey. Hold whatever date in May.’ It ended up being the first Double or Nothing. May 25th, hold that date. So I said OK. So at a bar wrestling show at The Bootleg we are downstairs and I think The Bucks came, Chris Daniels maybe, Scorpio Sky was booked. They all just started telling me this idea about The Librarian, and it was Tony’s idea. After then explaining it to me and after Tony explained the idea, we thought that the only person that could get this over and play this well is Peter Avalon. I said oh thank you. So they explained the idea and they explained this and they filmed a bit for BTE and then it was kind of off to the races.
"They would still kind of describe what the character was going to be as time went on. So the idea that Tony wanted was that he wanted a librarian, it was a character that got heat by saying shush to everyone, I work at the library and that was pretty much the gist of the idea. The Bucks wanted to do a take on it where I am Peter Avalon and I am going to take this dumb part because I want my foot in the company by any means necessary. So we are kind of acknowledging that this gimmick is dumb but I am going to do it because I want the job. We then kind of played it like that on BTE. Ultimately I just kind of became a librarian and started to believe it. Then the team with Brandon happened and then the split happened.”
Talking about Leva Bates also being a Librarian, Peter says that was done on the Fly and that she helped him a lot with his promos.
“That was also just kind of done on the fly. I was under the idea that I was going to be the only librarian. I was under the idea that I was going to be The Librarian on BTE, and then they did this thing where there was going to be a contest where people could send in promos to become The Librarian. They kind of told me that it was going to happen and that they had an idea for 2 librarians. I am like hey whatever, I’m down for whatever. I am professional Peter Avalon and I can make anything work. Especially anything silly. So whatever, these promos happen and Leva’s naturally gains traction, she is good at what she does, she is a natural entertainer and she is good. So now she wins the contest and we are partnered together and here we are today. It was kind of written as we went on, and it was a lot of my own brainchild of trying to think of what to say. Tony wanted it to be very Lanny Poffo, but I didn’t just want to be a direct Lanny Poffo. Maybe I won’t do poetry, let me dive in and actually see what a librarian actually does. I know he is not someone who just reads books, a librarian just doesn’t read books, he is Google before Google. You go and talk to him and you can find out information or he can point you in the right direction. So that’s what I will do, I will spit facts. So maybe I will find some sports facts and start reciting some facts. So that became my fame for a little bit as I come out and try to take the little jabs at the sports teams. I had Jenn Sterger there at the time, she was my clue in to anything that was sports related. She knew her stuff man. I would be like ‘OK, where are we at? What team?’ She was hammering off like current stuff like ‘This guy is this, this guy is injured…’ I’m like sh*t I don’t know any of this stuff. I don’t give a sh*t I am not an NFL or an NBA guy. So she helped my big time with those promos.”
Regarding fan reaction to the gimmick, Peter Avalon says he is still getting shushed to this very day.
“They did, I still get shushed," said Peter. "My match with Sonny Kiss at Fight For the Fallen was the first time that I got to actually wrestle as The Librarian. I just remember, and again, everything was just done on the fly. Nothing has been hammered out, I am getting my reps in on air as The Librarian and what this character is. I have nothing written down. So this is kind of before I started doing the shush schtick before I started walking down to the ring. So now I have no idea what I am going to do as The Librarian, transitioning from Professional Peter at the Hollywood show, then being Producer Peter at my Arizona show, those are 2 separate characters. Then I was still doing the stripping PPRay act, which is a completely separate character.
"So now I have a fourth character that I have to develop and I don’t know what it is," he continued. "So I come out to just silence. I have the mic, they wanted me to say something to get to Sonny’s entrance, and I am getting booed the entire way down. I am like hell yeah this is awesome, this feels good. They are booing the hell out of me and I didn’t have the music, they just had the Titantron that said ‘Quiet in the library.’ Me and Leva just paused at the top of the ramp and continued down. Boos, heavy boos, I’m like yes this is great, this is working. I get in the ring, look at the hard cam and give them one lone shhh. They are then booing the hell out of me and I am like this is great, this feels so good. Me and Sonny have a nice little 5 minute match. I think it was a good pre-match, we didn’t overstay our welcome. But Sonny comes out with a little song and dance number, fun little match, Sonny wins, we go home. Everyone is awake and goes into the pay-per-view excited, which is the point of a pre-match. Then when I got to the back, Tony was ecstatic, he was so stoked. He was behind the desk going ‘Peter that was great! Peter Avalon Championship Wrestling from F’in Hollywood! My man, that was wonderful. Hell yeah, great job great job!’ He’s telling me how great I did and he is putting over Championship Wrestling, hey thanks for watching. He was so stoked that it went so well, and I was so stoked that it went so well. It just had a natural, people had the natural inclination to boo this. ‘Don’t tell me to be quiet.’ They did [boo me] and it was great.”
These days, Peter is also able to work for independent promotions as well as continuing to appear on AEW.
