Private Party's Zay and Quen talk about their recent entrance upgrade and the advice they got from Chris Jericho about evolution.
Shortly before they captured the AEW World Tag Team Titles from Matthew Jackson and Nicholas Jackson, Private Party debuted a new theme song and a new entrance video. Now, they are discussing the reason behind the repackaging and Zay is opening up about how being attacked by Jon Moxley on television, gave him the open door to explore a more real presentation rather than a partying character.
Zay and Quen discussed their new vibe during a recent appearance on Talk is Jericho. They also opened up about discussions. They had with Jericho and advice he gave them with regard to keeping a fresh presentation in wrestling.
Zay: In my opinion, I feel like once you’re in a company for five years and you see a lot of guys come in and they surpass you. Obviously, what we’re doing is not working. We desperately need a change. I talked to Quen and said, ‘We need something different.’ We shot a video in New York the day before Grand Slam. I like Shots, but they’ve been hearing Shots. We came and talk to [Jericho] about it.
Jericho: We talked about a new look or coat of paint.
Zay: How do we evolve? You are the king of evolving so you gave us some advice. ‘Alright, let’s do it.’ I talked to Quen and came up with some ideas. We got this whole biker thing going on. We really wanted to show us. Two New York dudes with an attitude. We’re still Private Party, but be more authentic. We wanted to show a real authentic side. The party stuff was kind of played out. It has a shelf life.
Quen: I disagreed a little bit because for me, we didn’t put our all into it. For me. I didn’t put my all into Shots. Then, I was out for a year, and he was still doing it for a year, so I had to think from perspective. I would have been tired of it, especially it not getting over. Three people are doing shots.
Zay: We had this thing with Moxley, and he put the hammer on my hand and he said something in the promo that he cut, he said, ‘You guys have been here for five years and you’ve done nothing. I’m going to give you a present.’ I feel like the gift he gave us was relevance again. That’s when I started looking at wrestling different. I started looking at wrestling as ‘let me be real’ vs. a character that always like to party. That’s when I started putting a lot of emotion and not think of a catchphrase, but thinking of something that I would really say. ‘You guys messed up my hand, now I’m going to beat your ass’ instead of, ‘You guys broke my hand, now I’m going to get shots on your head.’ I took that aspect of, ‘Now this is real.’ Him saying that line, it sucks but it’s true. We had been there five years and we didn’t accomplish anything. That stuck with me and I wanted to do a whole makeover. We shot that video and I sent it to Tony. We shot it without expecting anything, just hoping and praying Tony would say yes. We shot it and get edited, directed, paid for it, all that stuff. I sent it to Tony. I sent it Saturday night, I was in the club with Danny. Days are going by. I’m telling Danny [Daniel Garcia], ‘He doesn’t like it bro. We fucked up.’ I really wanted this idea to work because we put our all into it and really wanted to change. Two or three days he texts me back, ‘I love it. Let’s do it.’ ‘Let’s go!’ I was so hype. The week after that was Dynamite Anniversary. We get a call, ‘We want you to call out the Young Bucks.’ ‘Oh shit, these are the champions. Something big is about to happen.’ I feel like that all stemmed from the stuff with Moxley and then the video and new presentation added to it. I feel like that ignited our fire and [Tony’s] love for us again.
Private Party also talked about the day. They became salaried performers in AEW. Learn about that experience here.
Fans can check out the new theme song and music video embedded at the top of this page.
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