IMPACT Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion Austin Aries is Chris Jericho‘s latest guest on Talk Is Jericho.

In the second half of the episode, Aries discusses changes in Impact Wrestling, why the company should stay the course, being the ‘Belt Collector’ and all of his recent appearances across different promotions, and much more:

(Transcription credit to Dominic DeAngelo for Wrestlezone.com)

Austin Aries on his House Of Hardcore promo in Philadelphia:

“I decided to point the finger at myself which I thought ‘I’m going to go out and do something people aren’t gonna expect.’ Right? Everyone expecting me to go out there and completely trash WWE. But I thought you know what, here was a moment to do something different and you know what it wasn’t well received by the Internet, or from those people, maybe the masses are the ones who like to go and give their opinions and yes, it did go like 13 minutes, so there’s probably something to that. Because giving some heartfelt promo in Philadelphia of all places to a crowd that’s half a case of beers in is probably not the best place to do it and it was risky, but you know what, at the end of it you know, it was part of the process for me of finding what the next step and what the next journey was for me.”

Aries’ impression of Vince McMahon:

“A belt is what you buy at ‘Nordstrom’s.”

On Pentagon Jr. & Fenix:

“So both those guys, I think they’re great talent. I think it’s cool because they’re both different. Pentagon’s not your prototypical cruiserweight in the way you think of him. THink of a more La Parka type. He can fly but he’s more of a presense, he’s more of the way he carries himself. He’s a little bigger, a little stronger. Then Fenix is the opposite, one of the top high fliers, top luchadore cruiserweight style workers that I’ve been in the ring with and obviously with those guys being brothers I mean there’s a certain connection there so I got the pleasure of just being kinda the third guy in there. We did it WrestleMania weekend and that was supposed to be a tag match that obviously changed everything and that went so well that we said, ‘well, let’s just do this again for the title’ and that was well received and then, again, really showing the change philosophically and then also stylistically of where Impact Wrestling is going.”

Austin Aries on Impact Wrestling’s new regime:

“I’m a sports guy and that’s what a lot of times happens in sports teams, they bring in new ownership team and they wanna bring their philosophy in, and I think to your point, not only talent wise, but I think and this is the one thing I keep stressing to people go ‘oh TNA, LOL.’ It’s like, they did that behind the scenes. They’ve cleared out all the old regime there too and all the old mindsets and the old thought processes, because I wouldn’t be there if they hadn’t, you know what I’m saying? It’s a new place there, it’s got the structure and the foundation that was laid in the bones of the ship sort of speak, but we’re all in there now and we’re rebuilding this thing and it’s going to be great and I think there’s a lot of potential and I think people are starting to see it.”

On the best places to work for as an independent contractor:

“I think right now that Impact Wrestling is the most fun place to work. I think it’s the place I look forward to going, I think it’s the best locker room. What World Series of Wrestling is doing in Australia I think also I want to tip my cap to that. Adrian Manares has run probably the most professional tour that I’ve been on in my career from logistics to just everything.”

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