Shane Strickland Talks MLW One Shot, The Hype For His Match With Ricochet, Dethroning His Mentor, Ricochet’s Influence On Today’s Wrestling

The Two Man Power Trip Of Wrestling Podcast recently interviewed Shane Strickland ahead of MLW One Shot. You can see the full interview at this link, and submitted highlights courtesy of the Two Man Power Trip below.

MLW’s One Shot return:

“This is a great inaugural return of MLW running live shows again. It couldn't be run by better people and for all of the people that are promoting this between Court Bauer, Alex Greenfield , MSL this is like a great core group of guys behind the scenes and on the card as well. A lot of great new young talent that a lot of people aren't familiar with and a lot of great upper card guys that have been doing this on the indies and on the next level WWE on television for years as well so this is a great all around opportunity for new fans and old fans that are going to be introduced to the new indies and the new style of pro wrestling industry and guys that have been watching wrestling for years."

How the overall card is constructed:

"I am always positive about the entire show and the show in its entirety. From start to finish everything almost has to go off perfectly, especially with MLW coming back to doing live events again so I am really looking forward to and want everybody to do well. I want every match to perform and out-perform and over achieve but at the same time I am very laser focused on the task I have at hand and the match that I have in the main event. Especially all that pressure and responsibility being put on last to go after all these talented individuals to go at somebody across the ring like Ricochet. It is a lot of pressure and it is also a lot of big responsibility in my mind. "

MLW’s 360 web series building to the main event:

"It's been great because it's been showing the pulling back of that curtain a little bit and showing the inside of who we are as men and individuals in our home life. We show our motivations to why we continue to do this and what doing this for so long has gotten us and all those opportunities and sacrifices we make being on the road and traveling so much and all the rewards we reap but also the sacrifices we leave behind in pursuing this business. It shows a lot of both of that in 360 and how hard we work to continue to be on top or continue to grind and progress more in this business."

Ricochet’s influence on this generation of wrestlers:

 “The past ten years he honestly has elevated the bar of what athleticism in wrestling has meant. For so long we thought that we stopped at one rotation in the air with what we are doing off the top rope. Now he is doing double moonsaults and double front flips (with 630s) and he has pushed the envelope so much and I credit a lot of my style and literally a whole generation of guys that have tried to emulate what he does. Him and PAC (Neville) in Japan then several years later moved on to him and Ospreay and he is constantly changing how we view wrestling and how we get in the ring and perform and he is always pushing the bar and raising it." 

What Ricochet means to his career:

"He honestly opened my eyes to a whole different realm of what was possible or able to be done in a ring. He has mentored me for quite some time as well and after that and I'd say a couple of years ago I pretty much took the training wheels off myself and I ventured off and started doing my own thing and I made my own waves in trying to create my own path to try and be the one who is emulated now at this point in my career. For what he is doing now, I will never say that he doesn't work hard anymore and I definitely feel like he has let off the gas a little bit but he still continues to be a trend setter and still continues to knock down barriers and find new ways to just accomplish new things in wrestling like winning BOLA for the second time a couple of months ago. There is always a new task and he is in competition with himself and he's been on top for so long that you get a little content but at the same time he doesn't want to give it up and he wants someone to literally come in and be like this is mine and I feel like I am that one to do it."

What we can expect from their match at MLW’s One Shot:

“You are going to witness a big huge generational gap with one of my mentors that has tutored me through pro wrestling and has elevated me to the next level as far as getting me a job in Lucha Underground to changing my mindset as to maneuver and perform in different ways that I didn’t know I was capable of and me facing that man. Now showing him that I am no longer just one of your students and I am no longer one of the people that you are training and bringing up. Now it is time to prove that I am on your level. You have witnessed that with MLW 360 (our miniseries) and you can watch all six episodes that track the rivalry and our feud that is Shane Strickland vs. Ricochet. I just want you to watch our MLW miniseries and if you aren’t sold and are not brought up to speed as to what this means to me and what this means to Ricochet and that will tell you everything you need to know.”