Effy explains himself.
Effy has been a big topic of conversation in the world of wreź§stling lately, as hšis comments against Tony Khan and Shad Khan seemingly led to the decision to pull Ricky Starks from all of his upcoming GCW bookings.
On December 4, Effy then appeared on an episode of Bodyslam's Game Changer Weekly podcast and addressed those comments in a lengthyā conversation. Now, in a new interview with The Ringer's Masked Manš§ Show, Effy continued to explain himself, first saying that he sometimes forgets that he's recording a podcast, as he mainly views it as a conversation with his roommate.
āI donāt mean to go viral. These are long-form, hour, hour and a half podcasts. Iām coming home, Iām talking with my roommate, they donāt have that much wrestling knowledge other than what Iāve told them about, they come from a whole different world. I was coming home before we started the podcast and kind of explaining my week like this happened and this happened or being really impressed like I ran into so and so who to me would be a legendary person and then Iād have to objectively explain them to him. So, I think sometimes I find myself where I forget ā itās not an excuse by any means, I donāt always remember Iām recording and this is going out. With it being certain clips that are going viral, there are luls in the period of like, I can say whatever I want and then nobody will really notice it. But, if something particularly has to do with that week or has to do whatās going on, it does seem to pick up a little bit of steam."
Effy continued on and said that people in the gay community aš°re very shady with each other before also stating that he sometimes comes across a little more mean spirited than he intends to be.
"Once again, not an excuse, Iām a gay guy in the gay community, weāre very shady to each other and I think it comes from a place of weāve always felt like outcasts, weāve always been on the outside. With our version of love, we can say we love you so much and also those pants are horrible and you look terrible in this outfit. Sometimes it comes across a little more mean spirited than I think I mean for it to. I had long conversations yesterday with a lot of people about this and it was never my intention for this clip to get that kind of attention, a lot of times I feel like, especially being out on the indies all the time, whatever press or news I get or people looking to me to be a headstone of the independents, Iām still just go go go forward. Even when Iām saying I donāt like this about WWE or I donāt like this about AEW, it feels like the peasant throwing rocks at the side of the castle until they look over the side of the wall and go, āSomebodyās attacking our castle.ā Then, you kind of have to ran back and go, yeah, all press is good press, but this press is something Iāve had to go through and explain myself on. I talked to my dad on thanksgiving and they said, you know, your dad Billy, heāll get real fired up about something, heāll have all of these talking points, heāll do his research, heāll tell you how it feels, and as soon as he tells you, heās not really involved anymore, he just said his peace and got his point out."
Effy then talked ź§about how sometimes says stuff from a business perspective, noting that he used to run a movie company.
"I think itās hard for people to believe, a lot of times Iām saying this stuff, Iām noticing things as someone who used to own a business, as someone who used to, I ran a movie company. I just see businesses and I go, I donāt think thatās how Iād do that if I was running a business. Again, itās not my business. GCW, also not my business. I think with humanity getting involved with me being in the middle of this, emotions get the better of you sometimes. Itās hard to step back now and go, well, I donāt really disagree with anything I said but I do think I was a little bit harsh, I do think I was rude, and I do think this isnāt my thing to fight. Iām not Ricky Starks, Iām not signing an AEW contract, Iām not Tony Khan, Iām not Brett Lauderdale running GCW. I always want to be honest to myself, I want to put forth hard work to ā I think if youāre gonna be talking shit, you least got to back it up with the product youāre putting out."
Then, Effy talked about how he feels like he "emotionally cuts" at people sometimes because ošf GCW's place in the industry and how they're scraping to make things šŗwork.
Some of this talkiness or some of this emotionally cutting at people to say, some of it I think comes from that place of like, we at GCW and on the indies, weāre scraping to make things work. Weāre constantly trying to do new things. Getting to work at the American Dream mall a few weeks ago for GCW was insane. There are very cool things happening out here on the indies that havenāt happened before, but we are still all the time grass roots, all the time trying to point people towards our product. The amount of wrestling fans that are tuning in and out to whatever program, our biggest problem is that they donāt know that we even exist. If youāre locked into wrestling, if youāre locked into everything going on, you probably have an idea, but it doesnāt help that your first impression of me or GCW is this gay boy is running his mouth. For that itās like, okay. I love the press, I think itās great, people are talking about GCW. People are talking about Ricky Starks, people are talking about Cardona last night showing up saying he was going to wrestle at the ROH Hammerstein. You kinda go, well, alright, Iām a PR person and Iām not doing a very good PR job if the only things they are seeing out of me are me being a snarky little baby. The Effy fans that have been in front of me, theyāre gonna kind of find their way into my corner, but I donāt want to push other people away. Itās the same thing with being an Effy fan ā Iām glad youāre there to see Effy, I donāt think you have to be an Effy fan to be there. Iāve got one segment on a ten match card, I donāt want to push other people away from coming to see these other wrestlers or seeing the rest of the show because I canāt shut the hell up. Whether Iām right or wrong, it doesnāt matter.ā
Elsewhere in the interview, Effy revealed that he texted Matt Cardona after learning of his ROH segment with Chris Jericho. Learn more by clicking here.
Check out the current lineup for ROH Final Battle by clicking here.
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