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RINGKAMPF! pic.twitter.com/S0Q09CgKqQ
— WALTER (@WalterAUT) January 19, 2020
The following interview was conducted the afternoon of January 23rd.
Mike Johnson: It’s a very important show this weekend in Houston. Worlds will collide, NXT versus NXT UK. And if there is one talent right now who epitomizes NXT UK, it is the NXT UK champion Walter, who we're very happy to be sitting down with. Sir, busy weekend for you, obviously. How are you and as the NXT UK champion, how important is the Worlds Collide show for you and the entire brand?
WALTER: Yeah, first of all it's very exciting, I think. if I think back, I can't truly remember when there was, the last eight man tag main event of NXT at Takeover, this show, which Worlds Collide is, besides from War Games. And I think obviously it's an NXT UK versus NXT thing when it comes to like brand wise, but I think yeah, their focus is more about, it's actually Undisputed Era versus Imperium. Which is I guess the two most dominant or most, the groups that people are most excited about at the moment. And I think it's going to be very interesting to see because it's two brands, a lot of fans could have followed NXT and supported Undisputed Era over the years, but also in the same time supported Imperium on the other brand. And now they’ve got to make a decision, or they might be torn. So I think it's going to be a very exciting evening for the fans at Worlds Collide.
Mike Johnson: The idea of the show with the two brands facing off, and obviously Imperium against Undisputed Era. It's kind of like a series of dream matches in a lot of ways. When you look at the main event, and the idea that here's an eight man tag, NXT has never had a match like this headline a Takeover style show. From a creative standpoint, how excited do you get? Obviously, this is going to be very different than you wrestling Tyler Bate at a Takeover. There's a lot of different elements, a lot of different personalities involved, but from a creative standpoint, how excited do you get about having all these different chess pieces to play with when you're going to craft and put together such a main event?
WALTER: Yeah, very. Because Undisputed Era, all of them, every single wrestler is, they're unique in their way. And also, they're some of the best wrestlers that are active right now worldwide. And so, we're always aiming for the biggest challenge or biggest competition possible. And I think we find it in Undisputed Era. And even like the last year, following and NXT and following the world of wrestling, like Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly have always been two of the wrestlers I was very excited about watching them and see what they do. So yeah, at the end, that's what it's all about, the competition, and the best competition. So that's what we're here for. That's why I'm very excited about it.
Mike Johnson: You've been the flag bearer for NXT UK, in terms of being the champion for some time now. Talk about maybe pressure or excitement for this show compared to walking into the NXT UK Takeovers. We haven't had a lot of those, so when they take place, most recent one obviously being Blackpool, there's a lot of excitement, I think, for fans worldwide for them, and there's a lot of pride for the NXT UK brand. Compare that pressure to working a main event on Takeover in Blackpool, to a match like this with Worlds Collide where there's bragging rights. You know, it's very similar to Survivor Series, it's bragging rights for each side on the line.
WALTER: I don't feel pressure in the sense of how you mean it, because I think you need to block that off. Like pressure is negative. It's negative thing. And I think I would only feel pressure if I would believe I'm not able to give the company what they need at that point, then I would feel pressure. But that's not what I believe. I believe I'm at that spot because I always stayed authentic and true to myself, and that's what I'm going to keep on doing, and the only kind of pressure I have, and I said it in a bunch of interviews before, and that's personally, that's very true. My pressure is not be a disgrace for the sport of professional wrestling that I have a big passion for. And especially in the style I want to portray and that the way I want to wrestle. I want to do my job properly and don't want to overexpose it. That's my, it might be my only real pressure, but just going forward, I'm going to treat it the same as always, and so far, to work perfectly. Because if you cannot be in charge of your emotions and in charge of your mind in those big situations, and if you're not, you get lost.
Interview Continues on Page 2.
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