‘AJ Styles is up there with the very best’ says Luke Gallows
As someone who has spent fifteen years in the business, enjoying success in two separate spells with WWE as well as becoming a massive star in Japan, Luke Gallows can lay claim to have wrestled every one the industry has to offer. However, there’s one who according to Gallows is very much up there with the very best and that’s the new WWE World Champion, AJ Styles.
“Just watch a AJ Styles match, watch AJ Styles do his thing” Gallows told during a conference call ahead of WWE’s return to the UK in November.
“There’s something special about him, he has that ‘It factor’ that people talk about. He’s a guy that will get you emotionally invested in the performance, I’ve been in the ring with just about all of them and I can tell you from experience he’s one of the very best. I’ve wrestled the top names in the business and I think that everyone would agree that he’s one of the top guys. He’s a gifted performer and he is someone who certainly deserves that best in the world moniker for sure.”
Gallows made his return to WWE this past April after a six-year absence, where alongside Karl Anderson became one the most feared tag-teams on the independent circuit and enjoyed three runs with the IWGP Tag Team Championships. As part of ‘The Club’ Gallows returned to WWE amid huge fanfare and was immediately placed in battles with the likes of Roman Reigns and John Cena. A return the thirty-two year old says has been hugely rewarding.
“It’s been great to be back. Karl Anderson and I linked up in Japan and it was a resurgence for my career, so there’s no bigger scale to do it on than the WWE and in front of the WWE Universe. Then to mix it with John Cena and Roman Reigns, two of the biggest names in our industry, it really couldn’t have gone better. I’m really excited about the return and everything that’s gone on. And happy to do it on this scale and show everybody what we can do, Japan was great for us but to do it in WWE has been spectacular.”
Six years is a long time in wrestling, and the Luke Gallows we last saw as part of CM Punk’s Straight Edge Society has been replaced by a more confident and established Superstar. But how much as WWE changed in Gallows’ time away?
“WWE was great before, but it’s even greater now. Great locker-room, great group of like-minded, motivated talents bunch of young men and women who are driven and have a real passion for our business and everything we do. It’s been a very pleasant experience, Karl Anderson and I was talking about this last night. I’ve been doing this for almost fifteen years now and I haven’t been part of a better locker-room.
I came into the company when I was just 20 years old, so I was still a little wet behind the ears. I think leaving here gave me that life experience and experience in the industry, which meant I could come here and be successful. I was thankful that I was here to begin with, but I’m absolutely thankful for the time I was away, because it helped me grow as a performer. I think and I hope it makes me more valuable this time around, what we doing now is kind of proof of that.”
The proof has been Gallows and Anderson’s recent battles with The New Day over the Raw Tag Team titles, one that comes to a head in two weeks at Raw’s first branded pay-per-view show Clash of Champions. A championship, that of all the gold he and Anderson have worn, Gallows would rank as the marquee triumph - even if some of the more comedic side of the storyline leading to it hasn’t been to everyone’s taste.
“We’ve been fortunate enough to hold titles all around the world now, but we’re yet to hold one in the WWE. So that would be a crowning achievement for us as tag team and for me as a performer. It’s definitely a goal to be the WWE Tag Team champions and at Clash of the Champions we have a great opportunity to go and do that.
As for the comedy, in any form of entertainment you don’t want to be one-dimensional, you need a little bit more depth and we’ve been having a lot of fun doing that stuff. We look forward to having the opportunity to attack more things like that; ringpostitis is something we’ll be bringing to Europe as well.”
Europe is indeed where Gallows is headed along with the rest of the WWE Superstars for another UK tour across the country this November. The WWE travel schedule has become very much part and parcel for any of the company’s athletes, so how much does this Club member enjoy performing in the UK?
“I love, love, love, love the UK fans - I’ve actually only just got back from London myself. I think all of the WWE Universe is special and they are very vocal and they get to express their opinion when they see you. But I think sometimes the UK fans, because they are so passionate and been fans of the product for so long and because they don’t get to see us as often they have a little more fun. The US fans see us more often, not that they take that for granted, but the excitement level isn’t always the same. But when you come to the UK and you see people outside the hotels, they are crazy and when you get to the arena and hear that roar and that rumble you get chills and there’s nothing like it. I can’t wait to go back.”
Away from the chase for the gold, one name from Gallow’s past that can’t go unmentioned is that of former stable-mate CM Punk, who this weekend finally made his UFC Bow. What has Luke made of his former running buddy’s foray into the MMA world and his loss to Mickey Gall this past weekend?
“Even though Punk lost, he still got there and done his thing. For a better part of two years he’s been training to do this thing and focused on that, he got to go and live his dream. All of us as little boys grow-up wanting to be the best in sports entertainment and win the titles, but his dream changed and he wanted to go and fight in the octagon, if you have a dream pursue it and that’s what he did. Anything you do in life there’s going to be some curveballs with it, I know that Punk’s not done. In the same way I know that AJ Styles is not done and for sure Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson aren’t done either.”
With the mere mention of his name once again, we can’t end the call without going back to Styles and Gallows association with the new WWE World Champion. Having enjoyed their interaction together as part of ‘The Club’ earlier this year, is there room for reunion of the trio even though they now compete on different brands?
“Splitting us across brands was a shock for sure, but we’ve turned it into a positive. It’s turned into a positive for AJ as he won the World Championship on Sunday, and we’re chasing the World Tag Team Championships coming up at Clash of the Champions so I think it was a necessary evil in a way. At first we may not have looked at it so positively but now we all getting on. We talk every day, text every day so the friendship will always be there, this is just something for us for career wise had to happen. I think that us together again could happen absolutely, we’re very young in our WWE careers, I think creatively there’s room for that to happen again and think it will.”
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