On Friday (August 28), just days before thousands of fans are set to pour into Wembley, Soundsphere got the chance to sit down with Maya World, Kyle Fletcher, Willow Nightingale, Orange Cassidy, Kevin Knight, Tommaso Ciampa and Speedball Mike Bailey to talk all things All In.
So, in the spirit of Sunday’s insanely stacked card, we’ve decided to put all of their answers together. Consider this our Q&A Casino Royale.
Orange Cassidy:
First of all, how is Kyle’s O’Reilly’s eye?
It looks insane. The swelling has gone down, but Roddy and I were watching the match, and we saw it happen. It was like the size of a softball, and then during the match, Nigel was doing stuff to his face, and it started to go down because he was pressing on it, and then it blew back up. But he said he’s doing good. He can see, which is good.
Was there a moment there where you were concerned about the match on Sunday?
A lot of stuff runs through your head, especially stuff like this. But everybody had injuries in that thing. Kyle’s tougher than me.
Aside from the mystery element, there are 21 men wrestling for that trios belt. How are you preparing for the chaos?
I never do. I never prepare for it, I just rely on the other people that I’m in there with, the same way I did it the first time we were here in Wembley.
Is it true you used to study architecture?
Allegedly, allegedly. I had a past life. Maybe I did some stuff, but not anymore.
Does it give you an edge when it comes to these crazy stadium matches? Because you can scope out the good spots when you’re running around the building?
Absolutely not. No, you get no advantage by knowing the architecture of this building. Especially since I’ve been all around it, and, yeah, does not help.
How does it feel being back in Wembley, compared to the very first time?
I thought maybe I would feel different, but it was the same kind of energy and excitement I had the first time. I think just the aura of this place, and even just walking in, it’s massive, and you know, it has vibes, like an energy. It’s a different feeling in here.
No Mr. Bean entrance this year?
Roddy wouldn’t do it. He said no.
Was that your idea?
It was one of the production guys. I wanted to do something special, and luckily I’m surrounded by people who are smarter than me and have better ideas than I do. And one of our production guys, Giancarlo, came up with the idea, and we shot it the night before, stopping traffic just by myself, and it was really fun.When he mentioned it, I was like, ‘Why didn’t I think of this? It’s right in front of my face’.
There’s an Orange Cassidy look-a-like contest going on today. Do we reckon Ryan Gosling will show up?
Who knows – God willing, right?
Editor’s note – no Gosling
What else are you looking forward to across this weekend?
I feel like I’m very fortunate that I have other people I’m relying on, I have a team, so I can actually enjoy it a little bit more. It’s kind of nice to not have to stress as much as they have to. I don’t know what that’s like. I’m gonna try to hit up some of the shows around the area. Pro Wrestling Eve and Rev Pro, I’ll try to hit those up too.
I remember when you came out at Rev Pro back in 2024, everyone went insane.
As far as me showing up randomly, that was probably my favourite. Because the match already started, and I was like, yeah, I’ll get in there, and I loved that. I would like to wrestle for Rev Pro again, but seems this year they got enough people for them.
Lots of stacked cards across the weekend. The thought of a 21 man trios match is mad.
It’s also crazy when you think, this is one of our biggest shows of the year, and you try to get a lot of people. Sometimes we can lose track of that, how many professional wrestlers we actually have, but not just how many we have, but the quality of them. Shows like this remind everybody how many extremely talented [wrestlers we have].
That in mind, would you want to do a singles match at Wembley in the future?
Yeah, and I’d be interested because I don’t really know what that is, I don’t know what that feeling is. I mean, I was by myself in the Casino Gauntlet a couple years ago, but even then, I had some of my partners in that match. I hope I never get to feel what it’s like to be alone, you know. But I’ll take whatever I can get.
Willow Nightingale
First and foremost, how have you taken the news about Dolly?
Oh my goodness, I broke down. I’m not taking it well. I’m gonna have my boobs extra pushed up for my match on Sunday. I’m gonna be a little extra campy for her and Tim Curry. And the best thing I could do to honour them is be kind and be myself.
Last time we spoke, we touched on your onscreen positivity sometimes being a hard weight to bear, and since coming back from injury, you’ve been very open about some of your mental health struggles. Are you glad you let fans see that side of you?
Honestly, it is hard for me to have opened up about that. I was struggling to step into the boots of Willow, but in hindsight, I’ve always wanted the message to be that I am a human, and we’re all human. We all struggle, and smiling is the way we get through it.
I think for it to have gotten out there has made even more of an impact than I had before. I’ve realised how much I help people through doing this crazy wrestling thing. Opening up about my struggles and finding a way to push through has helped me do that.
So much of wrestling is about archetypes, good, bad, cheerful, evil, the list goes on, often far too simplified. I’m wondering what Mercedes represents to you, and what you feel that you represent.
I’d love to sit here and paint Mercedes in a bad light because ultimately I’ve lost a lot of respect for her. Since I first wrestled her in AEW, I didn’t like her. But I do think she represents advocating for yourself, believing in yourself. Even though I think she goes about it in the wrong way, she is like a feminine force. I can’t deny that. I’d like to think I believe I represent the same thing. Maybe we’re like two sides of the same coin.
And on the note of feminine force, you’ve been flying the flag for so long about women’s wrestling, so what does having this huge title defence at Wembley mean to you?
I don’t take it lightly. Obviously, this is highly personal to me. This is my own life’s dream, this is my life’s work. I think there’s still peaks ahead, but up to this point, all my hard work has brought me here, and I want to do right by myself.
But ultimately, I know that it is bigger than myself. There’s a whole locker room of women who are fighting for a spot on this card, fighting for an extra minute of time on TV, and I’m getting it. I can’t let myself down, but I also can’t let down all the girls who are at home who didn’t get the flight to the UK. For all the girls who are here but not sure if they’re doing anything, I have to knock it out of the park for all of them too. And I don’t take that lightly, as you know. I go hard for my girls.
You go so hard for the girls that you’re wrestling with a possibly broken hand – how is it feeling?
I am still making my own gear, so I’m somehow navigating that with a broken hand. And then I’m going to get an X-ray so we can see how severe it is. Doctors are pretty confident it is broken. All the telltale signs are there. Ultimately, the reason we have to do the X-ray though is to figure out how much it needs to be protected going into Sunday. So we will see. I’m hoping it’s not terrible. But my morale is unchanged, I’m feeling good. I’ve had to fight with my back against the wall before.
Speedball Mike Bailey
How is the missing tooth?
It’s okay, I’ve got just a hole in my mouth. But I was feeling very insecure about it, despite my wife Veda telling me she still loves me, even with the missing tooth. I posted a selfie in Glasgow, I had the black eye and the missing tooth, and it got like a bunch of likes because everyone was asking what happened.
And I was like, ‘That’s just my face.’
One thing I wanted to ask you about was the concept of wrestling soulmates, because you’re often described as having many of them, and I was curious what you felt about that?
It means that I am a good professional wrestler. It’s interesting to read about professional wrestling online and what people perceive, because I feel like the wrestling business has been exposed in a variety of ways throughout the years. There’s no more kayfabe, everyone knows kind of how it works, but the one side of pro wrestling that hasn’t been shown yet nearly enough is how it actually happens, and how the matches are made between two wrestlers.
To me, that is where the entire art form happens. I think if you wanted to really get people who aren’t familiar with professional wrestling enamoured with the art form, you would show them the process of two people who have never met in their life – might not speak the same language, from different countries – and they fly into a town, meet each other, and then have this broken English, weird wrestling talk, gesticulate at each other for 25 minutes, go their separate ways, and then meet back in the ring to perform a flawless, interactive fight scene that needs to tell a short-term story.
And when you talk about wrestling soulmates, it’s interesting, because it’s in that process that those relationships are formed, and that’s where the art form happens to me. That’s where the the magic is created. Me having so many ‘wrestling soulmates’ is very validating.
I’ve heard you describe yourself as an ‘international wrestler’. What does that mean to you?
I want to give you 10-minute answers, which might not be ideal. There is a subjective nature to professional wrestling, art is subjective. It’s whether you like it or not, which is also true of professional wrestling, right? If you watch a match and there’s nothing at stake for you, you can like it or dislike it, and that really is the only thing that should matter.But there is very much an objective side to professional wrestling. As a performer, you want to achieve a specific goal out of every single match.
I think that it’s very easy as a pro wrestler to become successful in one context. If you’re only a TV wrestler and you can get good at TV, that’s probably where the most money is. So that’s good. But there’s so many people that are only able to get good at one context, and what I mean by being an international pro wrestler is that I have learned, and throughout my career had to perform in every single different context.
Whether it’s in Japan at Korakuen Hall in front of 1,500 wrestling fans, or it’s in Japan in the middle of a shopping mall – on blue mats in front of people who do not know or care about professional wrestling – to still be able to get exactly what you want out of these people, that’s what I’ve been able to do in my career, and that’s what I mean by an international pro wrestler.
Sorry if that took up half of our interview time.
Don’t be! But sadly I do have to follow it up with the inevitable question everyone will ask you, which is how you’re feeling going into Sunday’s match
And my answer is going to be pretty sad, because right now, nothing, and this is always how it is. Every single moment in my career that has been worth noting, it has always taken me many weeks after the fact to like look back on it and realise, ‘Oh, this was pretty cool.’ Right now, I’m doing this interview, and I want my answers to be great, because I want people to be excited for the show, as they should be. I want people to feel as excited for the show as I am, because I know it’s going to be a historic event, and this is what I’m focused on.
There’s not enough room in my brain to both be focused on what I’m doing and also enjoy and take pride in what I’m doing. I’m gonna need a buffer in between those two.
Maya World
You recently said that last year you were in the crowd dreaming about being here, and now you are as TBS Champion. How does that feel?
It honestly is so surreal. I was an extra, an indie wrestler praying that one day I get signed to AEW. Little did I know, one year later I’d be here.
So much of wrestling seems to be about good timing, and I’m curious about some of the things you were doing in the lead up to being signed that helped prepare you for this moment
I think having to realise that this is wrestling, things are gonna happen. You’re gonna win – hopefully, you win a lot – but you are gonna lose. And it’s just knowing that a loss is never going to deter my confidence, because I know the training I put in. I know what I do to prepare for every match. I study, I’m such a studier. I watch people’s movements. I watch what moves they’re gonna go for. Preparation and small things like that have definitely helped me in that regard.
On the note of studying other wrestlers, who are some of the women that you’ve got your eyes on?
Definitely Mercedes. But also people like Willow, and the things she does to make the crowd love her so much. Everybody here wants that Willow connection with the crowd, they freaking love her so much, so one day I hope to get there.
Earlier this year, we saw fans really rally round you following the death of your brother, which was something you didn’t have to share, but the support for you was really lovely to see
The fans definitely did rally around me, people in AEW rallied around me, and I’ve just been so grateful for all the online reception. In all the moments that happened after that, they were so behind me for it, because they knew what I was fighting through.
And what is your family’s reaction to you being here in London?
I don’t know if anybody in my family has ever even come over here, so even just being here, they’re like, ‘Wow, that’s so cool for you!’ They’re so happy to see me going out there and getting it.
There must have been so many emotional highs and lows this year, how have you kept yourself level-headed and balanced throughout?
After everything that happened with my brother, I was kind of numb to a lot of stuff. Small things would finally settle in, and then I would break down, like, ‘Wow, this is really happening for me.’ It’s kind of surreal to have one of the worst things in your life happen, and then switch that around, and then some of the best times of your life also happen. So it’s definitely been a lot to navigate, but you know, just taking it day by day.
As of yet, no match has been announced for you, but if it were – do you have anything special planned for your gear?
Oh, I have a gear [laughs]. I’ve been having this gear made for like two months – I wasn’t even champion yet! I said, if I’m going to Wembley, please make me this. I just knew I wanted a flashy, final boss kind of robe. And I have a little tribute to my brother that I’m adding into it too. All I cared about was getting that tribute to my brother in there.
Kyle Fletcher
Upon seeing my dictaphone:
This little old school recorder is back. I love it!
Every time we’ve spoken, we’ve touched on your extensive prep leading up to big matches. How has that changed in the lead-up to Sunday?
It’s probably ramped up. I think that this is the most dialled in I’ve ever been with my preparation, my nutrition, my training, everything. I got hurt after the last time we spoke, and my goal was always to be back for this. When I was rehabbing through my injury, every time I was there, I was thinking about this match and this moment, so I’m bringing the best version of myself that I possibly can.
Speaking of, when was the last time you ate a carb?
From Tuesday till this morning I had no carbs at all, absolutely zero. And then this morning, my coach added carbs back in, and today and tomorrow will be lots and lots and lots of carbs to try and fill back up. I’m so glad I have a coach because he deals with all of it, and he just tells me what to do, and I just follow the plan exactly. It’s all maths, and I just follow the plan.
Not to gloss over the difficulty of the physical side, but sometimes the mental battle is more hard fought – how’s that been, particularly after coming back from injury?
Cliché – everything happens for a reason. I think in order to become this version of myself I had to go through something like that. You go through things in your life where at the time you’re like, ‘This is the worst thing in the world,’ but then you come out the other side and you go, ‘Yes, it sucked, but there was a reason for it, and I’m stronger because of it.’ That’s truly how I feel.
The process was hard, but I’m so blessed to have something I’m so passionate about, and something that drives me so heavily and so intrinsically. I love pro wrestling with everything that I am, and when you have this guiding light, everything else becomes easy, because everything is for a purpose. The purpose was to get here, to be here for this, and to be the best version of myself. And because I had that, it really wasn’t that hard.
And having that title is almost like confirmation you are in the right place – does it make you want to clutch onto it that bit harder on Sunday?
Yes, it does for sure. Whilst wrestling isn’t all about titles, like you said, it’s almost this confirmation. It’s almost this reassurance that I am the best version of myself. And I came back from this injury, and it was my second singles match back that I won the belt. To go through this traumatic thing, and then come back and win one of the biggest championships in the company straight away, that was very reassuring. I want to grab onto it with everything I can. I want to make this reign the best it possibly can be, and I don’t want it to end. I really don’t want it to end.
As we know, three’s a crowd – how are you feeling about this three-way match?
I feel good. This is Don Callis’ design. He thinks that me and Okada working together to defeat Takeshita is an easy peasy plan. I think in pro wrestling, things can go awry very easily. You have to really react to what happens in the moment, and when we’re out there, there’s no Don Callis to be found. I think anything could happen, and as we’ve seen, the Don Callis family has a lot of egos, and we will see how they mesh on the day.
And to be objective, who is the bigger threat, Okada or Takeshita?
Very hard question, because I truly think they are two of the best wrestlers in the world currently. They are both incredible athletes. They both pose their own threats. I think that I can’t go in with my guard completely down with Okada. Like Takeshita, I know he hates me. I hate him. That’s easy – we’re gonna beat the shit out of each other, it’s gonna be great.
Okada, I’m not going in there to beat him up, right? I’m not going in there with the plan to go after him. But if I let my guard down for even a second, I know that there is a chance Okada might take an opportunity. So I think that is more threatening to me, because I really have to react in the moment to what happens. I have to at least be on edge and ready for anything.
Tommaso Ciampa
How are you enjoying London?
It’s lovely. I brought the family out, and it’s been amazing. I always love being over here. I’ve been over a bunch now, and it’s always great, the fan base is great, the scenery is great. We just love it here.
One of my favourite things about your social media is reading about how much joy you get out of parenting and family life. So I was wondering, on the flip side, what you think they’re going to get out of seeing you compete at Wembley?
You know, I genuinely don’t think so much about the actual event part as much as all the behind-the-scenes stuff. My favourite memories and fondest times are almost never matches. It’s the travel, it’s being with your buddies, it’s that long car ride.
There was this interview once with this college basketball player, and they said, ‘What are you going to miss most about your time?’ and he said, ‘I’m gonna miss the dinners with the boys.’ And I get emotional thinking about it, because that’s what I want Willow [his daughter] to take away from it all. Pro wrestling is this community of very passionate fans and really wonderful people backstage. Not just the wrestlers, everybody. I like that she gets surrounded by all these like-minded people, and she gets to see love and passion up close and personal. I like that part so much for her. I like her interactions backstage and in catering, going in the ring before the shows. Hardly ever does she talk to me about Daddy’s match.
Yeah, like, ‘That was some amazing technical wrestling, Dad!’
Right, never heard that! We took her out of school this week, so it’s been fun to kind of explore the city, and to me, it’s like, man, what seven-year-old gets to go to Scotland and gets to go to England? It’s cool, because now when she goes back and they’re learning about stuff in history, she can say, ‘I’ve been there, I’ve seen that.’
How are you feeling going into Sunday’s Casino Gauntlet?
Super excited. Bret Hart and Bulldog was my favourite match as a kid, it’s still my comfort match. The fact that we’re doing this here on such a massive platform, it’s a bit of a no pressure situation. If you’re Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay, there’s a lot of pressure there. I’ve been in that position. When you’re entering a casino gauntlet, there’s just a lot less pressure in that type of scenario. It’s like being in any sort of multi-man, those are the times you just get to just enjoy the moment, enjoy the entrance, enjoy the crowd. I feel just excited, and there’s no anxiety. There’s just excitement.
That’s interesting, because AEW has long had this reputation of consistently over delivering on pay per views, so I always wonder if that creates a sort of silent pressure for you all
This is the best comparison I could give: when Willow’s studying for a test, if she’s nervous, then nine times out of 10, it’s because she didn’t prepare herself. If you do the work, and if you’re prepared, nerves tend to go away. I’m 21 years in. I’m as prepared as you could possibly be for any opportunity or any moment, any opponent. So I tend to just not get nervous anymore.
Are you looking forward to hearing that Wembley crowd for the first time?
Yeah, that’s my favourite part of the performance. It’s literally why I still do it. The crowd element, that’s the biggest improv piece of it, because you don’t always know what they’re going to do. Sometimes, they decide to cheer the bad guy. Sometimes, they decide to boo the good guy. And when they do things like that, it’s your job to continue to stay in control of the scenario and play off of it.
That element makes it so special. 21 years in, it’s still new, it’s still fresh, it’s still exciting.
Kevin Knight
You’ve had such a meteoric rise this year. Can you talk to me a little bit about how that’s felt?
I felt like I manifested this when I first got into wrestling. I’ve said this plenty of times before, I practice the same way that I play. If I was performing in front of 50 people, it’s the same way that I do in front of 50,000 people. I give my all in everything that I do, so that when opportunities come like this, I’m more than ready, more than prepared.
You arguably have the upper hand going into this match with Darby, because everyone’s accustomed to him doing insane stuff, and we don’t quite know what you’re gonna bring to the table
That’s the way that I like to keep it. I like to keep people on their toes, just how you saw the other day when I blew up Darby Allin, just a murder on live television. So I like to keep people on their toes. You never know what you’re gonna get from the Jet. And Darby, he asked me if I can match him, or if I could beat him in his own game. I think I’m doing pretty well.
What sort of things were you doing behind the scenes, so that when opportunities came, you could grab them with both hands?
The biggest things I’ve been doing are positive thinking, affirmations, and just believing in yourself. Getting rid of anything that’s not serving me, anything that’s holding me down, just getting all that clutter out of my life. When you have less things to carry, it makes it easier to ascend higher and faster. So, reading a lot, self-knowledge, self-love helps change your perception of yourself and reality has to follow. It has to obey what you’re thinking about.
There has to be a certain amount of pressure associated with this kind of match. How are you dealing with that in the days leading up?
A lot of sleep, a lot of rest, a lot of knowing my body and knowing what I’m capable of doing, so that when we go out there and do it, it’s second nature. There is a lot of pressure, but I know myself as a performer, and Darby does as well. So when we come together as two, we know what works, and we know what we want to do.
We love pushing the envelope.We love pushing each other, and that alone takes all the pressure away. We’re two opposite poles of the spectrum. Like he’s the crazy skater guy over here, and then I’m like the cool, calm, collected one. But I can get crazy if you push me, you know.
And Wembley is so huge, there’s untold things you could fly off – as we’ve seen Darby do before
The big stage never, never frightened me because this is what I signed up for. I’ve done the Tokyo Dome, I’ve done Arena Mexico, and now I’m doing Wembley. I love playing with my environment and seeing what the venue offers me. And Darby does the same thing. You know, he likes to use his environment to his advantage. So I think we’re both gonna try to out chess match each other and take each other to to the limit.
I’m slightly scared for you!
Don’t be scared for me. You should be scared for him, because I know what he brings to the table, and he, just like the rest of the AEW audience, doesn’t know how dangerous I can really get.
But, if he felt so inclined, he could bring out Steve Borden or Sting for a bit of back up.
And I’ve got the whole Don Callis family, and that’s exactly why we joined forces. So I can have an insurance policy. It’s already a lot of pressure being The Jet, being as fly as I am, being the one you look up to, there’s a lot of pressure that comes with that. So the family helps relieve all that extra noise.
Sting’s a legend, don’t get me wrong. But one 60-year-old Sting can’t beat five members of the family. So it’s simple math, simple science. And his son is a rookie. As athletically gifted as he is, as great of an athlete as he is, he doesn’t compare to the Jet. Not just yet.
A nice humble note to end on!
Right!
Tickets for AEW All In London at Wembley Stadium on 30th August are available fromLiveNation.co.uk