On HOOK: “Obviously ambitious beyond his means. He’s a young gentleman who has been very businesslike in his approach and how he handles himself. He’s no-nonsense. There’s very little fat on the bone both figuratively and literally when it comes to Hook. That makes for a vicious competitor, but he’s never been in the ring with somebody like me. He’s never seen violence at this level, and it’s going to be a big wake-up call for him.”

On the responsibility of becoming champion: “It’s a tremendous amount of responsibility that I will bear quite easily. Doing this and being a champion in AEW, it is standard-bearing. It means that you must carry the company. You must be the focal point of what everybody wants. As you can see on our first night out, that was very much the case. It’s a role that I’m very happy to embrace and expand upon.”

On his toughest opponents who hit him the hardest: “The list is a Mount Rushmore of some of the most dangerous people in the world. You start from [Kenta] Kobashi and [Mitsuharu] Misawa. Young Wardlow. He hits like a truck. Brock Lesnar hits like a truck. Roman Reigns hits like a truck. There’s tons of people around the sphere of wrestling who all hit hard, and I’ve felt all that power, but they don’t hit as hard as me.”

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