Junior Dos Santos is 1-0 in his pro wrestling career, teaming with Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky to defeat The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, & Sammy Guevara) on AEW Rampage.
JDS is a former UFC Heavyweight Champion who has been appearing on AEW television in recent months as part of the American Top Team vs. AEW feud.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani on the MMA Hour, JDS looked back on his successful debut.
“That was a great experience and I’m very happy,” he said. “Dan was the guy who introduced me to that world. He brought things from that world a little more close to me. I knew it, but I wasn’t really following it. As soon as I started to travel to the shows, I said, ‘Whoa, these guys go for real. This can hurt very very bad,’ and they are well prepared for that. I felt like, ‘Man, I gotta do this.’ I told Dan and luckily we got a great chance for our debut.”
JDS is known as one of the nicest guys in MMA and always has a smile on his face. He had to change his tone in wrestling, unleashing a side that typically only comes out when he’s in the Octagon.
Speaking about his personality shift, JDS went into a semblance of a promo by saying, “Not really. I’ve been learning a lot in my career and my life. I’ve always been the nice guy, nice to everybody, but there are some people out there that don’t deserve me to be nice to them. They will turn their back on you whenever they have the chance. The thing is, I like being nice, but I have to be more cautious about who I’m going to be nice with. I like bringing the bad side as well in pro wrestling because it brings me some kind of comfort. I was feeling so excited for this debut. A long time, I wasn’t feeling the MMA world because it was a lot of pressure on me and people demanding things all the time and not caring about you. Now, I was there and I was being appreciated to be there. I felt amazing and it was something I felt at the beginning of my career and the middle of my career when I became champion and it’s great to be feeling it again.”
JDS took a table bump in the match as Hager slammed him through with an arm triangle into a uranage.
JDS said about the bump, “That was a pretty hard one. It was a great experience. Jake Hager is a great guy, a great wrestler and fighter, very well prepared. We did what we were supposed to do. I’m looking forward to having my turn to throw him on the table.”
On Saturday’s Dynamite, The Inner Circle issued another challenge to American Top Team and the Men of the Year, looking to set up a ten-man tag. ATT Founder Dan Lambert said they will address Jericho on the October 23 episode of AEW Dynamite.
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