Pat Buck Pitched To Be A Player-Coach In AEW; Wants To Help The Roster, Not Be A Champion
Pat Buck joined AEW in 2022, signing on to be a producer after finishing up with WWE following WrestleMania 38.
Buck became the Vice President of Talent Development in August 2022 and started wrestling at live events, in Dark matches, and on ROH TV in 2023.
Speaking to Sam Roberts on Not Sam Wrestling, Buck explained why he wanted to get back in the ring for AEW.
“I never really had [a run]. Of course, you want that, but I also would be so embarrassed to be the guy trying to get that. I know that’s wrestling. People say, ‘Don’t be in this unless you want to be world champion.’ I beg to differ. Myers [Brian Myers] always says, ‘There are only so many spots for this.’ Know where you are, it doesn’t mean you can’t rise to something. I came on board, it was a conversation with me and Tony [Tony Khan], in terms of wrestling, relating back to Create A Pro alumni, ‘Hey, we really don’t have a developmental place.’ I wasn’t pitching Create A Pro or anything, but I went, ‘You have these people that are basically champions. They didn’t come to be from me just coaching them, I did every drill with them, I wrestled them on shows. I wrestled them at birthday parties. I think I’m a proven asset in that.’ You have all these guys on the roster. I remember looking at Powerhouse Hobbs, Satnam Singh, and I went, ‘give them to me on dark matches or live events. I can get ten minutes out of Satnam Singh.’ You only get better from wrestling someone better than you. Let me be the person to do that. I want to be your Brad Armstrong, your Irish Barry Horowitz. On live events, I can go longer with people. That’s how it came to be, an actual player-coach. [Tony] thought I didn’t want to wrestle. I want to do it, but I want to do it from an actual benefit of the talent. Part of me, I wanted to show my kids, ‘Daddy does this.’ I don’t care about championships. I’m a coach, let me be a player-coach,” said Buck.
He closed by saying, “I’m the only person who wasn’t pitching to wrestle. ‘I do want to wrestle, I love wrestling, but I can’t have it interfere with what I do full-time. Here is what I want to do because I want to wrestle from a coaching perspective, not winning titles, that ain’t me.”
Buck is the trainer at Create A Pro Wrestling, which has produced talents such as MJF, Max Caster, Kris Statlander, and more.
Buck competed on the October 19 episode of ROH TV, facing Josh Woods in a Pure Rules match. Fans can find Fightful’s coverage of ROH TV by clicking here.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
