NXT Champion Aleister Black recently spoke with Rock Sins while on the WWE tour of Europe. Below are highlights:
How does that feel for you being on an international tour with the main roster guys away from your NXT home?
It’s a huge thing. You’re in with all these people who are such incredible performers, these incredible wrestlers. Guys that are at the top of the world and the top of their game, and you’re being thrown in there and it’s like ‘Alright, survive’ so I’m being thrown in with the lions to see if I’m a lion myself. It’s an incredible experience and it’s very humbling. It makes me even more focused on doing right by the company with the belt I’m carrying and the brand I’m carrying and incredibly excited for when the time comes for me to truly move up myself and I get to work with all these fantastic professionals.
How have the crowd responded to you on this tour?
Very well. I was surprised because NXT is a brand that I won’t say is a niche brand but it’s definitely a brand that has a different set of followers to a lot of the main roster that the mainstream fans follow. It’s been good, we’ve been getting NXT chants, even during the matches they are with us every step of the way, so it’s been validation for how worldwide recognised as a brand NXT is and as a performer that people know me which is a very good thing for me.
Now that you have become champion, you have now become the face of the brand. How well are you taking that responsibility?
Very well (laughs) It’s a responsibility, but it’s something that I accept and it’s something that I knew once I won this belt. I never get complacent with anything. I remember walking backstage and going through the curtain and being congratulated by everyone, but the last thing on my mind is ‘we’ve reached the top of the mountain..its an easy ride from here’. The first thing right away was, the work has just started. I don’t take anything I do within the company for granted and there’s always going to be hard work whether you’re a champion or not. Carrying a brand, especially the third brand of such a huge company such as WWE, and carrying the belt that’s a huge thing, that’s a huge deal. I am more than capable of doing so, but the work is never done and it makes me want to work harder.
You mentioned the lyrics to your theme song The Root of all Evil. How important is your theme music to who you are as a character and did you have a hand in who recorded your theme music?
I did not have a hand in picking my music, however, I did write some of the lyrics for my theme music. I was stoked when they got Brendan from Incendiary to do the vocals because Incendiary is a sick hardcore band, and I’ve been a big fan of them for a long time so for them do my vocals and collaborate with CFO$ it was a dream come true being able to write some of my own lyrics. It’s hugely important for me that my theme song resonates with my character because it’s the first thing they hear and it accompanies me to the ring so I want them to hear that, feel that, see that and come with me.
Do you have a message for all the fans out there that will be coming to see NXT at Download and what can we expect this time around?
I don’t know if I have a particular message. My thing in any respect is to enjoy yourself and to come and see and take in as much of the atmosphere as you can. You’ll get to see of the best music and the best bands in the world, then you get to see the best wrestling in the world and I firmly firmly stand behind that last sentiment, we are the best wrestling company in the world. No one does what we do and no one brings it like we do.
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