Ricochet was recently interviewed by Justin Barrasso for Sports Illustrated Extra Mustard‘s Week In Wrestling; you can read a few highlights below:
Ricochet talks about making a name for himself in wrestling without appearing on WWE TV, some of his favorite highlights from this year:
I guess I don’t think about it, really. 2015 and 2016 were legitimately the busiest years of my life. They were so busy, which is a good thing. In 2017, I’m really going to try to focus more on my health and fitness, and not be as busy. Those two years were so busy that I was only focused on flying here and doing my match, then flying there and doing my match. My head was down and I was working, but I still see myself as Trevor from Paducah, Kentucky.
I was proud of a bunch of matches this year. My match with Will Ospreay in Japan from this summer had an amazing reaction. When Will wrestled Vader, I wrestled Pete Dunne that night. I guess Will’s finish could have been different, but I never once said a bad thing about Vader, even after he criticized us. We just had a six-man tag in Japan with me, [David] Finley, and [Satoshi] Kojima versus Adam Cole and the Bucks, and I really liked that. I liked me and Finley versus the Bucks from Ryogoku. Just going over to Japan is so fun, so we all just try to have as much fun as we can.
Ricochet talks about why he’s not on WWE TV:
Right now, I’m enjoying New Japan. I want to focus on that, and that’s another reason why I’m going to take a lighter schedule in 2017 to focus on Japan. I want to do a lot more New Japan, and I’m really focused on winning the IWGP junior heavyweight championship. I want that title so bad. I’ve always had goals, and that is my last goal. After that, I can focus on the long distance future. The guys on the 205 Live cruiserweight show are awesome – my boy Swann is killing it. But that’s not the route I want. I want to go the Fergal Devitt route. Seth Rollins. Kevin Owens. That’s the route I want to take. I want to work my way up from NXT champion to U.S. or Intercontinental champion. I have goals, and I’m not willing to settle. This is nothing against the cruiserweights on 205, but it’s just not for me.
Ricochet talks about having sequences of moves ripped off, his goals for 2017:
There’s nothing you can do about it when someone takes your stuff. Everything in wrestling has been borrowed, but this was a certain sequence of moves I put into a combination. There’s nothing you can do about it, but it’s not what you do – it’s how you do it. I’m going to keep doing the same stuff I’m trying to perfect.
When I first started wrestling, I was the skinniest little kid. I was just doing it because I thought it was fun, but it started to come together in 2010. It’s really cool that fans want to follow me and my story, so I give them a piece of my real life.
I would love to be Intercontinental champion in 2017. That would be exceeding my goal. I’ve met Triple H a couple times, and he and William Regal are awesome guys. I would love to be with NXT. I feel like the Performance Center has a bunch of tools that I could benefit from – all the classes they have available could make me better. I don’t have a contract at the moment, but I want to focus on New Japan. It’s a super cool place, it’s gaining steam, especially with AJ and Nakamura coming from there to WWE. And I really want that junior heavyweight belt.
