Jake Crist and his brother recently re-signed with Impact Wrestling and are gearing up for United We Stand on April 4. Crist will be competing in an Ultimate X match at the event while another match will feature Rob Van Dam and Sabu taking on the Lucha Bros.

Crist joined our WINCLY podcast where Nick Hausman asked him if RVD was an influence on his wrestling style and career.

"You hit the nail on the head right there, bud! I was the biggest BIGGEST Rob Van Dam fan when he was in ECW," said Crist. "I was a huge fan of Sabu as well.

"I will be watching that match and I can't wait for that match. The Lucas Bros vs. RVD and Sabu. That's crazy!"

Crist talked about remembering RVD's match with Jerry Lynn as a kid and vividly recalling when ECW passed through his hometown of Dayton for Heat Wave. That 1998 event featured RVD and Sabu taking on Hayabusa and Jinsei Shinzaki for the tag titles.

"It was an amazing show that made me fall in love with professional wrestling," revealed Crist. "ECW brought me back into the business of watching it again. I fell in love with RVD's style and created a style based off that and Bruce Lee my two big influences."

RVD is just making a guest appearance for Impact but there have been rumors that he could sign with the promotion. That would open up the possibility of a match between Crist and RVD which Crist says is on his bucket list.

"That would be a huge match on my bucket list, but I don't get into rumors or anything," Crist said about RVD signing with Impact.

Another United We Stand match will feature Sami Callihan of oVe taking on Jimmy Havoc in a deathmatch. Crist opened up about his feelings on deathmatches.

"I've participated in my fair share of deathmatches over the years, but I have nothing bad to say about those guys," stated Crist. "To each their own some people might like hokey wrestling and some people might like wrestling with an extra, extra, extra amount of blood in it. Who am I to say that those people are wrong or right?

"You have to have a couple of bolts short, a couple of brackets busted or loose up there to want to get involved with deathmatch wrestling."

Crist then compared deathmatches to competing in Ultimate X matches which is what he'll do at United We Stand.

"You just cross your fingers and pray to whoever you believe in that you come out in one piece," admitted Crist before discussing the deathmatches that he's appeared in.

"I've had a few no-rope, barbed wires in my career. I had barbed wire massacre. Everything's gotta escalate to that point where you don't really care to rip your flesh open or bleed. You just want to make that other person bleed more or go through more pain than what you're going through."

Along with re-signing Crist, Impact Wrestling also just signed Joey Ryan who is making his return to the promotion after a six-year absence. Ryan had perfected his infamous penis-plex while away and Crist has been on the receiving end of it before.

"I'm looking forward to him versus Tessa [Blanchard]," Crist said of Ryan. "I think they're gonna put on a show for sure. As far as Joey Ryan flipping wrestlers with his penis, he's flipped me as well. It's a pretty powerful thing he's got there.

"For me, it numbed my whole arm going up into my shoulder. That's how he was able to flip me."

Crist goes into matches with Ryan with the intention of not touching his penis, but his intentions often don't come into fruition no matter how hard Crist tries.

"But somehow, he always makes you touch his penis," stated Crist.

"The whole time I'm thinking, 'I can't touch this man's penis! I can't touch this man's penis!' which is not the same mindset you have going into every match

"Then all of a sudden, your hand's on his penis and you're getting flipped and you're looking up at the lights. 1-2-3. It's crazy...Don't touch the penis."

Jake Crist will be competing in an Ultimate X match at Impact Wrestling's United We Stand. It goes down on April 4th at 11 pm EST and will be streamed live via Twitch.