Ricochet has heard all the stories about AEW being some kind of ego-filled mess backstage, and he’s not buying them. According to him, the overwhelming majority of the locker room actually wants AEW to succeed — no matter what people might be reading online.
Speaking with Zach Heydorn on The Takedown on Sports Illustrated, Ricochet opened up about what things are really like behind the scenes in AEW. After joining the company in August 2024, he says the locker room quickly reminded him of his old independent wrestling days, when everyone was simply trying to make the entire show better.
“Honestly, I think it’s kind of bittersweet, but at the same time, like, we have such a good locker room right now. And honestly, since I’ve gotten there in 2024, I think it was like August 2024 when I got there, it’s been awesome.
It just reminds me of, like, back in the day on the indies when we would all travel, and everyone was just there to help the show be great.”
That doesn’t mean everybody backstage is suddenly best friends. Ricochet freely admitted that AEW has plenty of personalities, attitudes and egos running around, because, well, it’s still a wrestling locker room. But he claims about 97% of the roster ultimately wants the same thing.
“You know, obviously everyone has their egos, everyone has their personalities, everyone has their attitudes, whatever you want to say, but at the end of the day, I think 97% of who we got in our locker room, I think everyone wants to make AEW the best, the biggest that it can be.”
Ricochet also had something to say about those backstage reports that occasionally paint a much messier picture. He says that despite whatever might end up in the “dirt sheets,” most AEW wrestlers know when it’s time to forget about themselves and do what works for the story.
“And I think for the most part, most people, and despite what you may hear on the dirt sheets or whatever, for the most part, people put away their egos for the better of the story.”
That mindset has apparently mattered even more during what has been an emotionally difficult few months for AEW. Ricochet said there have been times when the usual wrestling stories needed to take a back seat so the company could pay tribute to people who helped make that locker room what it was.
“And I think now, especially these past three months, sometimes we’ve had to put the story aside to kind of show tribute to, you know, those who helped make the locker room so good.”
And when it comes to who gets the spotlight, Ricochet says most people understand that not every show is going to revolve around them. Sometimes it’s your night, sometimes it belongs to somebody else, and sometimes everybody has to put the group first.
“But for the most part, yeah, it’s been great, and everyone kind of knows what their job is, and they know, you know, today’s not about me, today is about you. But today is not about you, today is about me. Today’s about the group, or today’s about whatever.”
So while plenty gets said about AEW whenever backstage drama becomes a talking point, Ricochet says the version he actually experiences every week is pretty different. More than two years into his run, he believes the locker room keeps getting better — and he thinks what fans are seeing on television reflects that.
Do you buy Ricochet’s claim that AEW’s locker room is much better than some of the backstage reports make it sound? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
