Kyle O’Reilly On Playing Air Guitar: I Think It Looks Stupid As Hell, But People Like It

Kyle O’Reilly is known for his in-ring abilities, but before he gets in the ring, he would often put on an air guitar show for the fans, using his title belt as the guitar. 

His air guitar abilities were on display throughout his time in NXT, most notably when he held one of the NXT Tag Team Championships. 

Speaking on AEW Unrestricted, O’Reilly was asked about his ability to rock out with his title out. 

“As a kid, you see the Hogans coming out and playing it. It’s just something…we had a really cool theme song and I didn’t plan on doing it. I just came out and turned into a psychedelic funky priest just slapping the bass on his title belt. The music took over. It turned into a thing of itself and people were like, ‘you have to do the guitar thing.’ ‘What guitar thing?’ ‘On the belt.’ ‘Oh, okay,’ and I just kept doing it and I guess people like it for whatever reason. I think it looks stupid as hell when I do it, but if people like it, then alright,” he said with a laugh.

O’Reilly has yet to hold gold in AEW, but should he capture a title, he has another song that slaps to lead him to the ring. 

AEW licensed “Dance Away” by Damn Valentines, which is the theme O’Reilly & Bobby FIsh used throughout their time in wrestling before WWE.

“I love that tune. We had all throughout Ring of Honor and New Japan. Same with the Undisputed (ERA) theme song, at first when you hear it you’re like, ‘Uhhh, we’re not thrilled about it.’ With Damn Valentines it’s like, he’s sort of cool, he sort of sounds like Danzig when he’s singing. I can get behind this. The more you use it, the more it jives with you and the crowd is like, ‘this is the part where we say yeah’ and get involved. It ended up suiting us and now I can’t imagine ever coming out with Bobby to another song,” he said.

O’Reilly has only competed once in AEW, teaming with Fish and Adam Cole to defeat Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent Beretta) & Orange Cassidy on the December 29 episode of AEW Dynamite. 

O’Reilly’s friend Adam Cole will be in action on Friday’s AEW Rampage when he takes on Evil Uno. You can view the current lineup for AEW Rampage by clicking here. 

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