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AEW star Sammy Guevara finally opens up about controversies with WWE star Sasha Banks, Matt Hardy and IMPACT Wrestling
Sammy Guevara is only 27 years old but the AEW star has been made plenty of headlines over the past couple of years.
Some good, some bad, but the Spanish God is a man who is never too far away from the conversation.
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He is the proud owner of some legendary moments like being hit by a golf cart and taking the finish to Stadium Stampede. He has also been embroiled in controversy with his comments to Sasha Banks years ago and seemingly rejecting ideas of working for IMPACT.
talkSPORT had the chance to speak to the Inner Circle man ahead of their Blood and Guts match with The Pinnacle on Dynamite, May 5. Guevara opened up for the first time on these controversial topics and gave his candid opinions.
Bob Kapur of originally reported that once Guevara had departed the Inner Circle storyline, he would pop up in IMPACT Wrestling, whom AEW have a working relationship with.
Chris Jericho pitched the idea and IMPACT then pitched the creative to AEW owner Tony Khan. After turning down the first ideas, Khan agreed to their second pitch and Guevara was to head to the IMPACT tapings, per the report.
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The problems started when Guevara didn’t like the creative and and he told them so. IMPACT then contacted AEW and Jericho, who told IMPACT not to let Guevara attend their tapings. Again, this is all just from the report.
Guevara didn’t get into specifics, but he did allude to whom might have leaked some information out and he said it wasn’t entirely accurate.
“So, I don’t want to go too much into it. But what I will say is, stuff just didn’t work out," he said.
I kept it all low key until the stuff came out. I know I didn’t put anything out there. I know other people didn’t put stuff out there, so it came from one certain side.
“Some stuff was muddied in the waters. Some truths were not truths. But that is what it is.
"I wish nothing but the best for the people over there [IMPACT]. Kenny is the champ right now. I heard their pay-per-view did very well, so I wish nothing but the best.
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“But I’m just focused on me and what’s best for me and that’s all I can do, worry about Sammy Guevara. And my fans, they know what’s up. I had a lot of people backing me as well as people trashing me and stuff, but the people who know Sammy Guevara, they watch the vlog, you know who I am, man.
“I’m busting my ass for years to get in these positions. So keep rocking with me, don’t believe everything you read online!”
Guevara had a hilarious response to these rumours on his YouTube vlog as he laid topless in the snow trying to cool down because he had so much ‘heat’.
“It was great, but then as soon as I put that video out even more stuff started coming out about me and I’m like Jesus! Can you make it anymore obvious!’ [laughs]. But it’s all water under the bridge for me, man.”
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The incident with Sasha Banks was a lot more serious. During an appearance on Raw’s 4th Hour podcast in 2016, he joked that he wanted to "go rape" Banks when he saw her at a WWE tryout.
The comments resurfaced during the Speaking Out movement in 2020 and AEW would suspend Guevara before sending him to sensitivity training.
“The Sasha stuff, they were bad comments on my end from years ago,” Guevara said, full of regret. “Just immaturity and I’ve grown since then. That was my whole thing to last year when I did the sensitivity training; I don’t know everything and I’m not going to pretend like I do.
“So when they said we want you to do this training I was like you know what, let me look at it from a silver lining perspective. I can probably learn from stuff from this and I did learn some stuff. That’s what life’s about.
“No one is perfect, we’re human. And humans make mistakes. I feel like when you make mistakes it’s important that you learn, grow and go on.
“Because life is just going to keep going. Jericho is the man, though. He helped me a bunch in that time and all the controversies that have happened throughout my time [in AEW].”
Banks contacted Guevara the day the comments spread. She revealed on Twitter the two of them were able to have a discussion and come to an understanding.
“Such respect to Sasha,” Guevara started. “Because I’d never even talked to her before and that was the first time. Unfortunate circumstances. And she could have buried me or whatever, but she was hearing me out, we had a civil discussion.
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“So I have nothing but respect for her, she is killing it right now, had a great match at ‘Mania. Wish nothing but the best for her.
The Matt Hardy feud was cursed from the get-go in many eyes! Everything just kept going wrong with Hardy and Guevara and even though they managed to create something brilliant in the end, it was a rough road getting there by anyone’s admission.
One of the worst points saw Hardy split open bad on an episode of Dynamite after Guevara swung a chair at him.
“That was unfortunate for sure,” Guevara said, disappointed. “I’ve got nothing but respect for Matt, but all the stuff that happened in our feud, at any point, he could have said ‘you know what, it’s just not working out. Maybe we just end this.’
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“But he was so hell-bent on making sure we ended it the right way. With the chair spot itself, it’s wrestling at the end of the day. Stuff happens. Matt Hardy has been around a long time, he knows this stuff happens. It is what it was. It’s unfortunate.
“He’s got a scar, I’ve got one now too! It’s not ballet; there was so many people talking ‘it’s not safe’ this and that.
“Matt and I had a great match before Double or Nothing last year which people tend to forget because of all the other stuff that happened. But we had a great main event of Dynamite match and no one got messed up!
“It just so happened a few things happened during this feud. But, Matt’s the man. Nothing but respect to that guy.
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“My heart sank because Matt is the man! I grew up loving those guys, Matt and Jeff. Now I’m in this feud with him and I gave him this scar that he might have for the rest of his life.
“It’s really healed up now [laughs] it’s healed up nice, you can barely see it. But for a few months after, everytime I see him I would be like ‘f*** I did that to him’.
“I felt awful about it. The internet wanted to bury me, but I’m my harshest critic so there was nothing anyone could say that I didn’t already say to myself.”
The pair would face-off at All Out in a Broken Rules match, but at the very beginning of the match, the pair would take a fall through a table and Hardy lost consciousness.
The match was stopped as a result of the clear injuries, but then minutes later it resumed.
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“I think it was Matt who made the call [to continue the match], I’m not really too sure about any of it! When we first hit, I had no idea what happened because we hit so hard that I kind of blacked out for a second.
“It gets overshadowed of course because Matt hit the back of his head but we hit so hard my hip hit the concrete and I remember thinking ‘what just happened?’
“I said that as we landed. It was like I’m running, I blink, I open my eyes, and we’re on the ground. Woah! So I had no idea this man had hit the back of his head.
“And then it was stopped and we thought it was over, but Matt being such a pro, he’s been doing this forever, he just went on auto-pilot. So they told me he was fine, we went back out there, did the finish and then he went to the back [to get medical attention].
“But man, what a scary scene. I felt like everybody learned so much that day. It was a big learning experience for everyone involved and luckily everyone was OK in the end.”
Read More on talkSPORT
Guevara will make headlines again this Wednesday on Dynamite as he is the first man to enter Blood and Guts for The Pinnacle vs The Inner Circle. You can watch the madness on FITE TV
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