“Oh, you think darkness is your ally. But you merely adopted the dark; I was born in it, moulded by it. I didn’t see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but BLINDING! The shadows betray you, because they belong to me!”
Tom Hardy spoke those words as Bane in 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises, but it’s a fitting reference to highlight how Steve Maclin is approaching Monster’s Ball at Bound For Glory.
Steve Maclin spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard ahead of IMPACT Wrestling’s Bound For Glory pay-per-view. Maclin will step into the ring with Rhino, Moose and PCO, each of whom he’s had issues with over the last year.
This marks the first men’s four-way since 2007 (a match that Rhino competed in at that year’s Bound For Glory). One interesting stipulation for the Monster’s Ball match sees the participants locked away for 24 hours before the match, going without food, water or light. Maclin noted his history in the armed forces and said this match is right up his alley.
In My Wheelhouse
“Let’s start off — getting locked right into a room with no food or water or light. That’s pretty much up my wheelhouse anyway. I was trained as a Marine, so it’s pretty easy to be malnourished and neglected on my end, and being able to do that. So I’m very adaptable,” he pointed out. “I like to use the term ruthlessly adaptable in a lot of the cases for what I do. But I am in the ring with three people I have an issue with that I’ve beaten multiple times. But I’m also in a ring with all three of them at the same time now in a Monster’s Ball match, which is one of those stipulations that I’ve been looking forward to hopefully being able to be involved with in one of those matches.
“I remember watching Crazzy Steve and Trey Miguel the last time it was done. I [thought] it’d be fun to get in one of those matches and just go a little crazy. So I’m very much looking forward to Bound for Glory, especially up in Chicago,” Maclin noted, “which is a really good wrestling town right at Cicero. It’s a good little intimate atmosphere with a sold-out crowd with the fans. It’s going to be loud, it’s going to be hectic. Like I like to say, it’s going to be a lot of mayhem.”
Going The Distance
If Maclin has an advantage going into the match, does one of his opponents have any disadvantage going into Monster’s Ball?
“I don’t think anybody’s really at a disadvantage. Especially PCO, for the man he is and what we’ve been through. Rhino, he’s the War Machine. Moose, me and Moose have been in the Barbed Wire massacre together. I guess [the disadvantage] it’s just them in their head. If they’re locked in that room and they let that get to them with no food, water or light, and just that malnourished, if they can last and go the distance. Me, I’ve proven that I can. Obviously, I made it back from two tours. So it’s one of those things where, yeah, we’re just going to figure it out. It’s going to be one of those matches where it’s going to prove itself out there.”
Finishing Strong
Maclin lost the world title to Alex Shelley, then spent some time sidelined due to a groin tear. Maclin’s first order of business is winning Monster’s Ball. But he highlighted some opponents that might be in his sights on his way back to the world title picture.
“If I am to get back to the world title, whether it be Shelley, Josh, or even possibly Will Ospreay or Jon Gresham, because we have the fallout the next day after BFG. So I’ll have my eyes on those match-ups and the possible match-ups for down the line. But it is to get back to the world title, and I’ve said it [plenty of times], if you’re not in this business after the world title, then what are you doing? That’s just that’s my goal,” Maclin proclaimed.
“I want to be that guy. I was that guy. Obviously, an exposed turnbuckle and a capitalization on that was why I lost the title. Then, also another injury cost me my rematch. And then, of course with Josh, he had to go low towards the end of the match, going at my groin injury. So good on him being smart,” Maclin noted, “but at the same time, for the good guy he’s supposed to be the stand-up guy that he is, he went low. So I’d love to get that rematch again soon.”
IMPACT Wrestling Bound For Glory takes place on Saturday, October 21.
Watch our full interview with Steve Maclin below.
