Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Alexander Wolfe on Nikki ASH, SAnitY, NXT UK, WWE Release and What's Next

Episode Date: September 3, 2021

Alexander Wolfe (Axel Tischer) is a professional wrestler known best for his time in WWE and NXT UK. He joins Chris Van Vliet from his home in Germany to talk about what's next for him after being released from his WWE contract, being part of SAnitY, what he learned from Eric Young, his thoughts on Nikki ASH's new gimmick, how he got discovered and signed by WWE, the original gimmick they had planned for him and more! If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris. All right, welcome back to another audio adventure on Insight. Good to see you. Thank you so much for being here and for bringing us along with you. As you walk the dog, work out, go for a run, commute to or from work, maybe you're even at work right now, whatever you're doing. Thank you. And if you haven't already, please make sure to hit subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening right now so the show can continue.

to tick its way up the charts. We've got a first on this episode. We've got a first. This is the first time we've ever had a guest zooming their way in from Germany. Isn't technology great? There's such a pleasure to sit down with Alexander Wolfe. I mean, that was his WWE name, his real name,

Axel the Axeman Tischer. You can find him on Twitter. He's at Axeman 3016. On Instagram, he's at Axeman 3016 Wolf, but without the E on the end. So it's just W-O-L-F-Wolf. Let's get right to it. Please welcome the Axel, Tissure. Thanks so much for joining us from the other side of the world, too. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be on your show. Yes, I'm here in Germany, good old Germany. My father actually speaks Germans, so the only thing he's ever taught me is good and tog.

Gooden Tag. So my dad was born and raised in Canada just like me, but worked for Lufthansa, the German Airlines. So he actually had to learn how to speak German in order to be able to conduct business. That sounds hard because Germany is such a difficult language. Not as difficult as maybe Arabic or Russian, but like the pronunciation because English is such a soft speaking language. But we have those and like our words. So he must have a. hard time with that.

Is it difficult to learn English? No, not at all. I learned English with MTV and Jim Ross speaking about what I can see on the television. School English never really taught me English, gave me some words

and maybe some sounds and everything. But really, like, speaking English, I learned with communicating with most of the time British pro wrestlers, some American. and pro wrestlers as well, and then, of course, watching WWE. Because we had some great German commentators here,

but I was more interested in the actual commentator because German can be sometimes such a boring language because we are not as entertaining as, for example, American people. And that's why I was really interested in to listen to Jim Ross and Jared King Loller, especially Jim Ross, how he describes things. And I felt like this was how I learned English. So I remember it was the Hounder Selmage between, no, not the Hounder Selmage,

it was the title match between Austin and Kane at King of the Ring in 89. They had the first blood match. And he described the gear from Kane where he had no, like, showing some skin. So he had this whole body suit with his red flames on it. And he described that he cannot bleed because he has not an open spot in his ear. And I understood that even with not speaking English. But sometimes your brain is a very funny thing, which works in a different kind of ways. And yeah, I feel I just learned a lot, especially MTV.

Because you had all this reality shows and everything with German subtitles. And this is how you learn language the best. And how old were you when you were learning English? I think about it. Of course, you start with school. Sure. Sixth grade. No, fifth grade.

No, actually fourth grade here, but like just colors and counting. And then you really have the topic in school, the fifth grade. But I believe I really got into the English 2000s when I really start getting heavily into professional wrestling with watching it and just, you know, just screaming and yelling all the catchphrases. do not know what it means if you smell with the rock is cooking and believe it was the coolest thing ever, you know, or just torturing my English teacher with what, you know? So being a resting fan with all those attitude error catchphrases, and she probably did not knew what I tried to tell you with you smell what the rock is cooking, but I didn't know either, you know, but it was cool.

Yeah, that phrase probably doesn't make any sense to someone who's trying to like learn English. Yeah, so many So many sentences or like phrases In English does not make any sense in German But the other way around the same Like we have some stupid phrases There's actually a funny story behind That in the locker room's mojo

Once read a couple of A couple of German phrases And with the easy translation to English And I was the one who were explaining Like the sentence And in the back, Claudio He was I guess shaving he left his ass off.

You speak German too, but it was such a funny thing because we have a lot of, I don't know, for example, if you want to buy a television and you buy it from a guy from the street and you do not know if it works or you do not know the features, but you buy it. In Germany

we say, I do not want to buy the cat in the sack. Okay. You do not know if it's alive or dead. Okay. So, for example, but explain it to somebody in America. Yeah. you know, but otherwise in America, beat around the bush.

And you know, in Germany, you think, what do you do with the bush? Yeah. Why you beat the road? Right. Yeah, there's so many, I'm sure in every language this is the case, but in English, there are definitely some ridiculous phrases that, I mean, I think there's a lot of phrases. We don't even understand that we just say all the time. I say, without further ado, all the time.

But do I say, you know, with further ado? Like, what isn't a do? We don't say a do? Probably we know what. It's like without for a Jew is also typical for a resting promo. Yes. Something. Or what my favorite is to be honest.

Oh, now you're honest, but at the time, you're never honest. So always you say, to be honest, like, okay. Yeah. If I'm being honest with you, it's like, hold on, you were lying to me this whole time? Yeah, right? That's cool. So this means at a young age, you were all in and dedicated to wrestling. let. Yeah, I started with

wrestling training in 13. Yeah, that's insane. I don't think you can do that in America. No, not in America, not legally, I guess. I mean, you know, I saw a lot of videos where maybe younger people tried

to, you know, do wrestling on a trampoline or something. Yeah, that was me. You were watching videos of me, I feel like. Oh, okay. No, probably some other guys because you're still healthy. Yeah, I haven't broken my neck yet.

Knock on wood. I remember in Germany. So resting in Germany is not category aside. Like, it's not in a category with sport and not with art. And it's official by the government. And it's right in between. But you cannot say it's sport, but also you cannot say art, which is ridiculous, in my opinion.

In the United States, for example, it's different. or in Japan, for example, it's sport. But in Germany, they still don't get it. They still love their soccer, their football, and they still love their other sports stuff and whatever it is, Batman or something, but wrestling does not count in any of those categories. And I think because of that,

they do not have laws for, hey, you cannot start going to resting school or do resting stuff with 13 because it's under the radar. Yeah. But also if we just spoke about like the backyard resting, I remember German television just saw in America backyard resting and she used it right the way as negative propaganda

and say, yeah, it's all like maniacs and then like it's dangerous for the kids because they're acting like and showed, of course, the hell on the cell match for McFolly and stuff. So they've been like very negative about it. And especially in that time when I started with wrestling, the rest of the scene was dead. There was the time before, which all, like,

with all the crazy big tournaments, where they promoted shows, I don't know, like over weeks, over months. And every day they had a show, and every day was filled, was packed with people, 10,000 people. And it was, like, the catch tournament years with,

for example, Dave Taylor, fit Finlay. Fit Finlay, he used to live in Germany and was, like, traveling in a caravan around a gym. Germany and made a business was good. They made a lot of money and they wrestled every day and in front of people and they believed

in wrestling it's real. So, and then after this was gone and the business was that, probably after people realized, oh, it's fake, they stopped going to the shows and the resting scene was kind of like a little bit in nowhere and then you had some guys starting doing

wrestling shows, but just the guys who have been too ball too light, you know, not the big heavyweight pounders. And back in that time, they protected the business from kind of wannabes. And then in that time, a lot of wannabes, they tried to, you know, become professionals and did shows, but the shows not being that good. So it took a lot of time till the German wrestling scene could kind of recover from that or just reinvent itself. So right now, it's probably the brightest and the biggest.

especially after COVID was really good because the biggest promotion in Germany, without a doubt, is W. West Side Extreme Wrestling. And they have the biggest European tournament every year, it's called 16-carat goal tournament. And it's over three days. And in 2020, they had each day over 1,000 people in the arena. That was the record. So this is kind of like how the German wrestling scene grew over the years, around 2000, maybe 30 people in the venue or maybe at the highest, maybe 100.

And then you have 2020 and you have three days in a row over 1,000 people in the venue. I think that was a good like. Yeah. Wrestling aside, who is the German national treasure? Who's the person from Germany that has made it huge? And you guys all go, ah, we're so proud of that person. in professional wrestling? No, no, outside.

Like, just in the world in general. I believe, and he's not German, it's Arnold Schwarzenegger. He's Austrian, though, right? Yes, he's Austrian, he's not German. Shame on me. I do know. I would, maybe from Germany,

I would say, like, if you stay with sports, Christopher Nevinsky, because I remember he had huge influence on basketball over there, because he was one of the top players with Dallas Mavericks, I believe. There is the other guy. He's a nice guy. He's not an asshole or anything,

but they always consider him as a secondhand Arnold Schwarzenegger. His name was Ralph Mello. He played a side role in Gladiator, like a big, strong, Moscow, like bodybuilding guy. He was a German actor, and he tried to follow the footsteps of Arnold Schwarzenegger. I don't think, like, Christopher Valsh, he's Austrian as well, with German-speaking, but otherwise, not really a lot of, like, actors.

And you, you, you are added to that list now. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Yeah, I was happy with that. I was lucky. I was fortunate enough, right place, right time. But still resting is such a small little scene still in Germany. so I do not want to come, you know, get a big ego or anything.

So I keep the church and the village. So if you were a big wrestling fan early on, was it your dream and your goal to one day do this for a living? Yes, of course. I started watching wrestling five or six years old because my parents used to watch it. I was fascinated right away because I was always a fan of like comics and animas, like turtles and He-Man and all that stuff.

And then I saw like the ultimate warrior and hug home and it was fascinating right away. And then I remember the first paper view I watched was WrestleMania 9, Cesar Pallas and Las Vegas, with Brad Hart and Yoko Suna and all like the gimmicks and Undertaker against Giant Consolids. And I was right away in love with wrestling. Then I had to stop watching it because of school and then I picked it up again, and this time even more and bigger in 2000, around the 2000, for example, was the pay-a-view.

I kind of restarted my journey with being a resting trend. Then after I just got into resting, of course, I always had to go for, I do not want to become a normal 9 to 5 worker or I want to become a professional rest. Then later it was kind of like reality in the way of, okay, you have to finish your school and you have to do like, you know, your work, you have to study something, yad, yada, yada. But then after realizing, okay, now resting as a hobby can be a side job and then can be kind of like enough to make a living, not really fortunate living, but kind of, you know, have a kind of income from it. It was okay, though, but after I got the opportunity to sign me, WWE, that was kind of a dream from true. So I believe in manifest things.

And unintentionally, maybe I manifest like, oh, this would be my dream and always dreamed about it, always believed to myself. I always was positive-minded with that. And then soon or later, it hit me with a contract. And then, of course, I took the opportunity. Now I'm a professional restaurant. I can live with it. Well, you make it sound so easy.

That just, oh, yeah, I got a contract and I worked for WWE. But, you know, there was years and years and years of hard work. So I'm curious to know how did you get on WWE's radar? So, as I mentioned before, WXW is the biggest promotion, Germany. And on that time, so before 2015, when I started my journey with WWE, I think I started 2010, 2009, and then regularly 2011 with WXW. At that time, this company grew bigger and bigger and bigger because we did tours in Germany.

So we had the weekend on the east part of Germany, then we had the weekend on the north part, et cetera, et cetera. And that was, yeah, in one month, if you're lucky, you had one free weekend. But if you have one free weekend, you're on other shows. But the majority of the time I just wrestled for W and people come and go, you have some guys got booked for the show

and some people, regulars, And then you burn some people from different companies. And in that time, I was one of the now German commentators, he was a part, he was a restaurant, he was a part of 16 carrots on a year. And I always, I'm always cool with people. I do not like to, you know, mess around and just, you know, be, being, I like to be a nice person because, you know, it's like a boomerang. and I always respect everybody and everywhere.

And that helps me a lot, like to get along with almost everybody, even if I'm maybe sometimes more like a lone wolf, does that make sense? Yeah. But anyway, so this guy just texted me once or just sent me an email. So hey, WW is looking for German talent. Are you interested in doing a tryout in London? That was 2014. So I had a lot of time and, you know, I created myself as an independent wrestler,

had some tours before that, and because of all those experience I had collected, I became a better performer. I became a bigger name in the German resting scene. And because I was cool with him, and he was kind of like, yeah, he's maybe a good guy because he's a good wrestler and, you know, he's one of the top guys in Germany,

so you should try him out. And yeah, WW contacted me. I gave him some promo picks and just, you know, being professional as I can. They invited me to try out to the O2 Arena in May 2014 in London, England. Yeah, we had two days off drills and everything. And, you know, I guess I did a great job because two months later, they contacted me and offered me a contract for the energy developmental process. And then you were like, all right, I'm going to pick up my life.

I'm going to move to Orlando. Oh, yeah. It was not that easy as it sounds, but in my head it was super, super easy because first I got the call and I saw a weird number with the US flag on top. It was calling me right there. And then it was the guy in charge and he asked me, hey, it's here and there. And you know, you remember from the triad and I call you because I want to tell you, we want to hire you for an NXT contract. You want to take it. And before you finish the sense, you want to take it and say, yes.

So without a doubt, I just said yes. And I was not in that time, I'm super happy because I have to process it. But like after a while, I was like, oh my God, here you go. Next step. So let's go to the big league. What do you think was the biggest difference between the wrestling that you were doing on the independent scene in Germany to when you got into NXT developmental? What was the biggest adjustment?

I think the business aspect of it because so I'm right now I'm a total different restaurant than before I joined WWE joining WWI I knew kind of I have to

start from the beginning which is fine but it was quite hard to understand the whole business aspect of it in kind of not the hardest work person will get piece of the cake. It's okay, who's the favor, who is the guy who is right now that persona we want to show on television. And it's not a hit on WW. It's just a reality, right? If you're an actor and you probably fit in that role, there are some other actors. Maybe you're

better acting people, but they do not fit in that role. So, and that was the thing. I always worked my butt off to be on top. I always worked hard to training just to be in a better ring shape, not like physical shape, but ring shape than other people with stamina and would just, you know, be able to wrestle for 20 minutes. And I always believed in my craft because that was what got me assigned to WWE. And then when you start in a Performance Center, you have to learn to be patient. You have to learn to kind of, you know, fit into the group,

even, you know, they always want to make you part of the family, but it's still a competition. It's still, I'm better than you, so I should get pushed to the moon right now, or they should put the machine behind me. So, you know, you're still competing against each other, but in a healthier way than in boxing, for example. And just arrived there and have to adapt not only a different culture, even if Germany is also westernized culture, American Germany is so different from behaviors and everything. Most of the stuff is very similar, but a lot of things are very different. And that also you have to figure out new life. You have to, even WWE had to figure out in that time how to treat foreigners in a way of like, I just moved here. I need to have the

social security number to pay my bills, to actually create a bill. and also to, you know, find an apartment because one week of hotels, not enough, you have to book me more, but they didn't know. I was part of the first big international group, and they didn't know anything. But there was one guy who really had those out, was David Bailey, former general manager of the Performance Center. He was very good because he used to work with a circus of, like, foreign athletes, foreign performers. So he was really the goat who sort everything out with very easy and give us like really like hey guys

easy we find a solution no worries but in the end it was kind of like a lot of stuff in the moment especially when you start like hey I was probably one of the top five guys in Germany so come over right now and the only thing the only promotion that we did was oh he was a former

German soldier because that's big time in America but in Germany, nobody cares. So, and then you have to follow in to, okay, I cannot do the same resting style I did on the Indies, which made me success in Germany. I have to apply by, okay, we work with cameras here. Yes, we do in Germany as well. Yeah, yeah, but no live television and no this and that.

We work for cameras because the majority of the people sit behind the camera watching at the television, and you have to adapt to that. also it's you easily step on somebody's foot because especially in that time it was more broadcutting in nxti with some egos and with some guys to think they're the shit but for me it being the shit and you have to kind of like you know swallow it down because you're a new guy you kind of you kind of go you know had to add with somebody and tell him the truth and you know you maybe work with that guy and also like it was kind of like a little bit you got kind of like what is the work for that indoctrinated to follow the system the system of this is the developmental

your goal should be be on the main roster and those are the veterans right now those are the guys who've been here for years so you should listen to them but like it was kind of like a cool mentality because you had some good guys but the majority of it was sometimes you know you're working a lot of eggshell. If you don't, you feel too comfortable. And they made sure that you are too comfortable right now. So make sure you go back to the eggshell. Yeah.

With all that said, and you're moving to America from Germany, when you were released, did you immediately go, all right, I'm going to go back to Germany? Or did you think about staying in Florida? No, I had my plan B ready. And was plan B to move back to Germany? Yeah, yeah. So I tried to ask them that I could move back completely to Germany.

The plan B was, what if? What if that happens, right? Because nothing is for sure, especially not in WWE, nothing is guaranteed, even not a guaranteed contract because they can release you like this, as we see in the last weeks, right? So I'm not stupid and I'm realistic and I'm adult enough that I have to be. plan for a future, especially with wife and a kid. So I cannot rely on empty promises.

And I did that too many times in my time in WWE. That being said, when I got the call and they said, hey, we won, we not release you. We let you contract expire. And I was still on the main roster contract. Probably they want to save the money for the 90-day, no compete clause. I was okay I want to move back to Germany anyway I was asking for it but I did not have the time we used to talk to to Hunter about that

so they probably you know gave me my wish just a little bit earlier and with a slight different that they will not renew my contract I was trying to go back to Germany because I was the maturity of my working yeah was in England for NXUK. But then I had to go back.

So let's start for the beginning. I was in Germany from December, 2019, over the year for the holidays to see my family. And then we decided to stay in Germany because, you know, it was nice to be back home. And then my wife had the idea, like, hey, let's get an apartment here. And how about we travel back in port? So six months, we've been in Florida.

over the wintertime because wintertime sucks in Germany. That in Florida is the worst because it's always rainy and super hot. We go to Germany because summertime in Germany is pretty nice. So that was the plan, but then we had to travel back to America, but then we couldn't because of COVID. Then we find a chance to go back because the administration changed the rule of if you have a son who's born in America, which my son is, you can pass the border and you'd be back in America. So we did that because in that time, I was living in Miami and I paid rent for a house. And that was a lot of rent, a lot of money for rent.

And we tried to move back to Central Florida. So we came back and I tried to kind of stay busy just to, you know, talk with Sean and, hey, I'm back in the States. Let me do something with the other guys from Imperium with Marcel and Fabian. And then it took a time, blah, blah, blah. And, you know, Dan, like a couple months ago, I got the call. We want, we will not renew your contract. So, but before that, I tried to speak with them, hey, I want to move back completely to the States. Because of family reasons.

It's nice to be back home. It's nice to be around my parents because they do not get younger. And also, you know, social contact. the majority of my friends are here, the majority of my wife, friends are here in Germany as well. And also, I would love that my son grows up in grandparents

because family is the most important thing in life, in my opinion. Yeah. Now that you're there, what's your plan? My plan is just do Indies for now and then see what's going on. Like Indies within Europe, you mean? Yes, yes.

I had my first match after WWBE last weekend, or last weekend is August 7th for WXW. They had the first big show after the pandemic again in Oberhaus in Germany with around 500, 600,000. They had the chance to fill up a capacity of 700 people. So it's the first big resting show back in Germany and had the opportunity to work against one of the newer generation of German professional restaurants. name is Sas Taimodo, very talented guy. And yeah, that was kind of my re-debue in Germany and my debut again back on the evening.

Is your hope to eventually maybe work something out with WWE again, go to lots of other options. New Japan, AEW Impact Wrestling. Do you want to get signed somewhere else? Yeah, I would love to. Why not? Because that, in the end, it's the goal. Of course, I'm very happy with having my freedom back

and be my own boss again, that I can't decide what I can do and whatnot. But also, like, it's the goal, I guess, of every restaurant that eventually he wants to have a bigger contract, it's guaranteed money, where in the best case, you know, the value of the worker is appreciated and he has a good spot and feels happy about what he's doing and what he's earning. Of course, if I want to go back to WWE, sure, if the contract is good, if they want to, me there? Of course. Right now, it's not so interesting. Right now, I'm more interested in maybe going to Japan and maybe find something where, you know, I can be myself and can, you know, wrestle,

actually wrestle. That's my main goal right now because I'm a passionate restaurant. I love this sport so much. And even if I'm very grateful for my time in WWE, I had some times where they try to kill my passion for it, and they almost were successful with it. And that is something when I review that, again, I learned so much about this business in those six years working with the biggest wrestling company in the world, but also learning a lot of things

what, you know, for example, empty promises. Nothing is for granted if it's not written on paper and signed by somebody. You mentioned, for example, like New Japan, would love you, big fan. You mentioned something like A-U-W, awesome new promotion. As you can see, the fan base is so big, and the product is such a new fresh air.

It reminds me on those days when, like, reminds me on the attitude era, you know, even if it's, you know, still something for kids and it's not sexist and whatever, but it's that feeling when you watch it, everything can happen. And, you know, I do not have the feeling if I watch wrong SmackDown. Even if, my opinion, one of the best wrestlers of the world are signed with WWE,

you can be the best rest of the world. It's the program that good. You cannot do anything. And Ring of Honor is very interesting as well. Impact wrestling is very interesting as well. NWA, MLW, you name it. There's a lot of options. A lot of options.

And that's just the stage. You know, you have so many promotions in England, for example. They are not big contract promotions, but also very interesting. Even in Mexico, even in Japan, there's more than just new Japan progressing. You have also like all Japan. That's such an exciting time for me. But for now, if anything comes in, cool. I don't believe so because international travel is not that open right now, I believe.

I'm not for sure. but also very interesting as the fact that you have so many great talents out there but also you have so many great promotions out there and if something comes along if everything fits I'm more than willing to sign a new contract

but for now I believe the rest of the year I just want to have my freedom to do some indies just get my name out because I did not have the chance in 2015 or before that because the indie boom

happened 2000 and 16 for England, for example, where guys like Pete Dunn and everybody made a name for himself. Yeah. With promoting in front of an ridiculous amount of people, which was not a regular thing for the independent promotion. Because I remember, like, a lot of guys in England, they really thrive to come down to Germany

and just wrestle with them with W because we grew the audience very big there. And then 2016 happened. I was over in the States and I realized we're speaking with my friends, Walter and Marcel that big boom right here and business is good and they make a lot of money with even merchandise. But I was contract with WWE and I was still in a performance center and do like learn my craft there. And right now I have the chance to really just see what I can do and see how I fit in that

or just competing with newer talent. just, you know, get my pride back. That's the majority of the thing. Get my pride back as a professional wrestler. Just a tour round. Also want to do seminars and everything to pass on the knowledge. I just got from one of the best in the world in professional wrestling. So I'm super happy with that, and I'm very excited what comes next to me.

It just seems like there's a lot of people who spend some time in WWE, and they say what you're saying. They say, I started to lose my passion. What is it specifically that took your passion away? Specifically for me is that, so it's not that I could not do what I want to do because sometimes somebody has to tell you, don't do that because it's not right or it does, it's not good. And this is the good part because you never stop learning.

And especially when I watch matches back from 2015, I hate myself. because everybody evolves as a person in life and also you evolve as a performer in life and as a wrestler. You learn more techniques. You learn more ways to go this direction and making this and especially those six years

being around guys like Sean Michael, all those crazy coaches. I have a whole list and I would like to name them all. Norman Smiley, for example, and Robert Brookside. Let's go to the list, Steve Carrino, Scotty Joddy, Terry Taylor, Fitzfinali.

Fidt Finlay was, for example, the one who kind of, like, showed me how to wrestle. 2011, I had a seminar with him in WXW. Then my last, my last weeks, my last month in NXT,

I was, like, a free bird. I could, like, choose my classes, and I always went to Finland because he's the guy to go to if you want to do, like, traditional wrestling

or just really learn how to wrestle in a proper way, you know, like good European style way. And being influenced by those guys, especially Sean Michaels, because he's not the guy who works with you in the ring, he works with you right here. He teaches a lot of, like, his psychology, how to get the people involved in the match, how to get emotions out of people, how to, you know, just get everything in the right order to get the most amount of reaction for the people. And being able right now to do that and being able to do it on an easy way that I do not have to think about too much in the match is something where I will be forever grateful. A lot of times killing the passion is more in the way of just, you know, just somebody tells you something and it's not happening because they have to change something.

And it's not their fault. Sometimes especially in COVID, they had big plans for everything, but then COVID hit and they had to, you know, switch plans or people got released or right now we have to follow the protocols so somebody got tested positive so we cannot do the story because after seven weeks the story is not good anymore so that's a passion killer but it's not their fault it's not my fault what i would think is their fault is you do not have to make any empty promises. And especially in the time in Smackdown, they've been kind of like very unrealistic to a lot of things or they told of things which never happened. But they always try to keep your positive. And I'm from Germany and there's something like in like a very honest way of just communicating with people here. So if you do something,

shit, I tell you, shit, sorry for cussing. But. the internet. We do not beat around the bush. A lot of times, like, I have a good friend from a band, and he brought out an LP, and he was at the merchandise table and was a show in Germany. And he always tells me the stories, like the brutal German honesty.

That's how they call it. It was like, man, the last album, I loved it. The music was dope and everything. The new one is straight shit. I don't like it. But the last one is great. So, and this is how kind of how I would love to

get treated. I want an honesty. I want that somebody tells me, hey, this is not good. Knock it off, and I will work on it because I'm a professional. You tell me you want to have it in a different way. I go in a different way as best as I can. As best I can do it with my ability, with my skill set and everything, but you have to tell me. Otherwise, and a lot of times they came through and mentioned something. I heard something from somebody. He heard that in a meeting. He was not there that somebody told him, you shit. What the hell? Then I have to follow, you know, the leader, I, uh, the lead of, okay, who was the guy

who heard it from the horse's mouth? And the best case, let's go to that guy, but he has a guy who tells you the truth because he does not want to be honest with you because it's not professional. So it's, that was something which, which pissed me up a lot of times. And then also, um, yeah, everything is fine. we were working at don't worry stuff like that

was this specifically stuff with sanity yeah if like specifically what we had on smack down that was the thing they told us so

we lost our debut match and they told us don't worry everything is fine people will forget about that but we have nowadays the internet

internet doesn't forget it doesn't matter what you do you know If somebody takes screenshots, somebody remembers. There's a data bag, database, whatever. So, okay, you say we're fine, we're fine, cool. And then, yeah, we have to figure something out. Okay, yeah.

We already figure something out. Here's the pitch. Maybe you're used it. Okay, but if you pitch it's one guy, maybe it does not go up to Vince McMahon in that time. Well, it sounds like, right now. It sounds like you still had the passion. for wrestling in the ring, but the business side of things definitely might have killed your passion. Yeah, that was maybe the thing, definitely, because we still like to wrestle.

We had like when Eric Young and here and day and now, big day Morgan, we always loved to wrestle. We had fun on the house shows. We had fun in the locker room, like from top to bottom, everybody was great. You have just great guys. We had the opportunity, but we had the pleasure to work. work with New Day and Uso's and good products and everything. Like all like guys being in the business driver and they taught us so much and we kind

of always like clicked together and just everybody was nice with each other and you know it was a great time. But yeah, as you say, probably the business aspect killed us because it's not about that somebody makes more money. It's not that somebody sells more merchandise. It is what it is. That's also a thing what I learned in that time. You can have the goal of being a world.

champion but you have to realize maybe you never will be the word champion but the goal is to have the job and just to be 100% in your ability so for example if you have somebody like real regal he is employed since 1989 98 yeah so so what a career right he's so long in that company and he has done some he has some serious stuff he was champion but he never was a workshop and he was one of the guys I always loved to talk with him and he always tells a lot of stories about like the past but also

he also makes you understand more of the business and that was for example a great time for me to understand it but it was too late for me to really realize it so that was probably one of the things where I got my passion back because I understood what I'm into right now. But in that time, and also the call up,

it was too early for us. So not only we got called up too early, but I think just me, probably not the other guys, but just me, I was not mature enough to just realize where I am right now. Not also, how can I describe it in the best way?

Right now, I would talk in a different way with the same people I talked back then, but I was not confident enough. I was maybe not sure enough how I talked to Vince McMahon because maybe the language barrier or the knowledge about speaking, for example, with guys like Mark Carano, just to believe him, but I should not believe it

because, again, nothing is written on paper and signed. And they can tell you everything what they want to, and they can straight up lie to you, but you do not know it because you're excited. You know, you think, let's go. I'm super motivated on my part, let's go to the moon. But the other guy says,

dude, I do not have a rocket. So take the car and try. Speaking of sanity, what do you think of what Nikki Cross is doing now as Nikki ASH? I love it. Because Nicky is such an amazing person in life,

one of her best friends. And yeah, I toured with her together. We never met before. But I met Demo before, and he's also one of my best friends and both were awesome people. So when she came to NXT, I knew, okay, that is Demos, Demos fiance. So, you know, we all right away, clicked together, become friends, tore together. And then when he joined us with Senate, he was the perfect fit.

And seeing now from that part on what she's doing right now being the raw women champion, having this gimmick where you think like superhero and then you see the actual actually act what she's doing which is great because this is perfect for WWE right now in my opinion if you if so the first thought is like superhero like hurricane but then it's more like okay it's more like the motivation part of that everybody can be a superhero if you believe in yourself if you maybe work hard for something or even if you kind of like have a dream and you know you want to achieve that dream but you know and everybody is a superhero and that message is so powerful and it fits perfect for wwee also speaking of sanity i've interviewed eric young several times i think he's awesome fellow canadian how much did you learn from working with him a lot a lot um i learned to um you know work the crowd better

So, because he has done everything. Yes. On TNA, he did the Hogi stuff. He was a world champion right there. He wasn't even the women's champion, you know. Speaking of superheroes, he was super Eric. He was a superhero as well, yeah. So Ioy taught me a lot and a lot of things.

Like even E.oy was the guy who taught me a lot in the business with like how to, you know, what to do and doing promos and following a script and working with the cameras and everything. Because before that, I just had. had some matches on television, but as an enhancement guy or just doing dark matches or doing live shows. But starting as a member of Saturday and having him in the group was a big advantage for me because he told me, hey, turn that way or do this or just follow that camera and just wait a bit or like little, very important details, which a lot of people don't know, which I didn't know, but I had the, again, the advantage to have him on my side.

And he's a perfectionist and a lot of things. And I love that, you know, what he's doing right now with violent by design. This is basically his vision of sanity, what he had, what he had. And I'm so happy for him that he can finally, you know, paint his own canvas with that, just under the impact umbrella. And he's such a great leader on camera and even behind the camera. camera and everything. So I think without him, sanity would not have been so successful. Right. So you're wrestling under your real name now, right?

It's a great name, too. How come you weren't able to use this in WWE? Copyrights, you know. Some people can use it. But again, like, I never had a big exposure. You know what I mean? So that the German wrestling scene was still small. Some of the guys I wrestled before, like also Apollo Cruz on WDW. And again, in Germany, I was probably one of the top five. But nobody knew me in America. Not even the own company who hired me because I was a good professional wrestler. They just, you know, again, mentioned that I was a German soldier.

So I did not come in with a big bus as some. American fellas or like English fellas. Yeah. So, and I remember they, they pitched some names to me, which has been utter nonsense. Because, uh, give us one of these nonsense names. Hans von Gus, a Claus fungus, uh, something like that. So that's pretty bad. I do not remember the whole list, but it's something you wear in uniform and wear a sign,

which is forbidden in Germany and probably should be forbidden in the world. So it's weird. And it's like the stereotypes. That's something, of course, we have those stereotypes, but even I'm from Germany. Germany has more history than just war or just World War to where, you know, bad things happen. Are you saying this would be like a Nazi type character? Probably not that they said they want to have one. But if I have a name from that time, Germany is very sensitive about,

that topic. Sure. A pediatism in Germany is not as big as in America. I think it's a good thing, but also I understand why people in Germany say, do not show that flag. For example, in Germany, waving the German flag is a good thing when you have a world championship in soccer. Yeah.

But otherwise, they kind of see you as, ah, you probably, you know, from the right side. so that's that's germany for example and in a lot of things when i did something on television and it was something german a lot of times like people in the comments they mention kind of like oh my god he does a natchy character so i wore um on on one occasion i wore a gray coat and my outfit was green coppern and gray

so nothing with germany but i wore gray coat and i'm right now an SS officer or something? I don't know. My first match against tomorrow Joe, I had one part, but I had the chance to do something. It was something I hit Joe and I had to run into the ropes and I thought, okay, now the camera's on me. Let's say something. And I said, hurrah, hurrah, the Deutsche de Estab, which means hooray, hooray, the German guy is here. And that's a phrase from soccer. That's what the German fans always used to say when at the World Championships,

Germany has the first goal and is leading the game and they always said, like, who are, who are, the Germans are here. But just to say, the German is here, for some people, it sounds like, you know,

94 or something. So it's a weird topic. But anyway, um, WWE did not say to me, we want to have a soldier giving. Not at all. Not at all.

I remember even like the Imperium stuff, Triple H made sure that let's do not get into the military section because people will think, you know, an Austrian guy to Germans and in Italian, you know. So, oh, it's a coincidence, right? But he was aware of it and he was making sure that do not use bombs or do not use any military mentioned in any kind of promos or any kind of material because he did not want to have like the stereotype of them. But like the names of it, in that time I talked to Madlum and said, to be honest, I do not want to take any of those names because in Germany right now, nobody's called that anymore. If somebody's still alive from that time, it's an old school name and people will not take it in a good way because they automatically would think WWE will make me a Nazi character or something, which I would refuse 100%.

So and then how it is, right? They have something. You say, no, I do not want to take it. What do you have for ideas? If you do not want to take it, you have an alternative. Let me know. I have already a nameless. And the first name was Alexander and the second name was Wolf.

But just the animal, W-O-L-F, not within E on the end. And then luckily they said, okay, we want to use Alexander Wolf, but just with the E on the end, that they can copyright it. Because the animal, you cannot copyright it. That is the entire story. of it. But the entire story of the name is, again, Germany has more history than just war. And in a land of Florida, there's one thing very special. There's theme parks. Yeah. And especially the Disney theme parks. And Disney brought out some fairy tales like Snow White and the Huntsman and et cetera, et cetera. And Germany is very famous for the fairties, rather grim. But Hood

and some other stuff. But it's not the Disney version, not the sing-along, everybody's happy, and even the villain is very cute. The stories or the fairytists in Germany are very brutal and very violent and very, you know, creepy. Yeah.

So, for example, if you have, like, the Red Hood character with a wolf in the wood, like a little girl, walks through the woods wants to visit a grandmother and there's a big wolf on the way and asks to go where you're going you know and then he figures out

and he's the grandmother and then you have the way I see you better or your teeth so big or so long to eat you better you know then the hunter comes by and cuts out the girl with the grandma out of the stomach and everything so it's very brutal

and there's some more fairytales and like even a snow white and hunchman like the original fairy tales are kind of you know horror movie yeah i thought about this could be a good thing like the name wolf because the majority of it is like the wolf was always a villain in the fairytale and also in germany in the woods you had a lot of wolves and like the farmers and everything been very um writing about the wolves because they always uh ripped the sheep and the goats so it was the perfect villain for And I thought like, I'm a German guy in America, so I will be a villain no matter what. Let's use that name and try to tell my heritage with going way past World War I and World War II and try to apply this.

Kind of like say, okay, life is good if you should see it through, you know, the Disney Sunclass. But my reality is this, for example. And I try to portray kind of like in fairy tale. guy who tells you a fairy tale about reality, kind of like, what is the name of the guy, Mr. Rogers and Madhatter, or kind of like

this version, Tim Burton and stuff. That was my first vision, what I had in my mind, then they gave me the sanity character and just had to put this character into that and turn it up and just make it more freakish. As we, you know, wind this down here, Do you feel like you still have a lot to prove that people weren't able to see who you really are and what you're really capable of in WWE? Yeah, for sure.

My time in WWU was great, but before I went to, before I switched over to NXUK, I never had a singles match on a television program. Even as a sanity, I was between the leader and between the big guy, which means I was the weakling. even if I had my time and I had my showcase things with the match where we want to take the titles or the war games match but I always felt kind of like left on the side but again

that's the role and you know I tried my best to you know showcase myself and just you know showcase the entire group but when I went to NXUK I actually had a chance to show a little bit of my wrestling ability and again wrestling

and WWE is you know entertainment is better than resting for WWE okay I get that but I never really had the chance to have like bigger matches to have like really a show game I remember I had some big matches

against Eard Raghinov on NHGUK but we tried to get on a takeover program but we were on the position to just to highlight the shows more than the takeover and yeah I think right now I have a lot of proof

of course I that's why I want to kind of like go into the Indies and see how I get my name on there. Even if I established brand right now, thanks to the time in WWE, but I still have a lot to prove and I still not done yet with everything. Now you've got the chance to do that. You've got the chance to do that now and manifest like you talked about earlier, manifest whatever you want to be next for you. Yeah.

Yeah. Look, I end every interview with the same question. And this has been great, by the way. I'm so glad that our technology has held up through this as well. Finally, right? I end every interview talking about gratitude. So for you, Axel, what are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now? I'm grateful for my family.

I have a healthy, very, very active son, which is great. And he's really a bundle of joy for me day in and day out. I'm grateful for my wife because she is my boyfriend. biggest supporter next to my parents, but she is such an amazing person and the love of my life, because not only we click together, like, it's a no-brainer for us. She really supports me and she understands, even right now that I'm busier than before, but even at the time with WWE, she was the perfect fit for, hey, Adi, I'm leaving now for five days, and yeah, fine, have fun, and just, you know, see her around, kind of, and just,

let's have a chat on the telephone, but she made me, she made it, or she still makes it very easy for me to be away from home. I know a lot of relationships can be very like, you know, in a way of like, are you going again? Blah, blah, blah, but she's so cool with it and she's such a big supporter. Even like she takes care of the private life and I try to take care that the private life is easy. That makes sense. So I'm going to work and she takes care of everything at home. which is super, super, super awesome way of life. Also, I'm grateful for still being healthy and everything

and being kind of mental able enough to continue my journey as a professional wrestling. Where's the best way that people can connect with you? I'm on Instagram, which is X-Men 3016 Wolf without T.E. and on Twitter, which is just X-Men 3016. Also, Pro Wrestling Tees, I have a shop right there, just to block a little bit with some merch.

The Pro Wrestling T's shop in Germany is called SL Wrestling, there as well with some different merch than Pro Wrestling T's, but it's more like for the German market or European market. Also, I'm on Cameo, X-Men 3-016. And also I want to mention I got myself a new sponsor, which is grabs. It's like a new professional wrestling, catch wrestling brands,

which started from the UK right now, and it's, you know, it's a very fast-growing brand. And yeah. I have a few of their shirts. They are great. Yeah. Oh, cool. What's the three,

what's the 301-6 mean? I'm a huge Steve Austin fan, and I was thinking about something like on the handle. And you, cannot use the double dots. So that's why I choose like this three zero for the double 16. So I would I would never have guessed that.

So you're saying Austin 3016 says no. Probably. Yeah, no, because when I grew up in wrestling, he was my favorite superstar. I met him once in WrestleMania Dallas, 2015. Yeah. No, 2016. And usually you say never meet your idols.

because they will disappoint you, but he was the coolest dude ever because I was nobody. I had the boss to walk up straight to him and start a conversation with him because I had like a funny story. I had to tell him and as a podcaster, you know, you like funny stories. But now he was super sweet and even he took a picture with me after he blew out his shoulder at the WrestleMania gig. And I didn't anew it. So I was, well, oh, he may be pissed off because right now is annoying him. No, no, he was cool. So, no.

Oh, wow. Still awesome. Thank you again for this. So good to connect with you. Thank you very much, Ben. Well, there we go. Thank you to the Axeman. Thank you to Axel for this conversation.

Also, thank you to you for being on this ride with us. Let us know that you're listening. Snap a screenshot, posted on social media, and tag us. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. It's just my name. Axel is at Axeman 3016 on Twitter. On Instagram, he's at Axeman 3016 Wolf. And I'm excited.

to see where he lands next. Also, when's he coming back to the U.S.? He's obviously making waves in Germany, but when's he coming back to the U.S.? And where is he going? Hmm. I'll leave you with this quote from Simon Sinek, who wrote one of my favorite books called Start with Why.

He says, Working hard for something we do not care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion. I love that. Be great, be grateful, be passionate. We will see you on the next one for some more insight.

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