Wardlow Comments On If He Takes Advice From Veterans Backstage At AEW

Maxwell Jacob Friedman may be the scum of the earth, but his wretched presence in AEW has spawned at least one good thing: The rise of Wardlow. Fans have taken to the current AEW TNT Champion now that he's free of MJF and shining on his own. But the legacy of "Mr. Mayhem" wasn't just built by one person.

During his recent appearance on the Dynamite Download podcast, the Cleveland native shared that while he's determined to do his own thing in the wrestling business, he also isn't shying away from the guidance of others that have helped him reach the level of success he's at today. Unsurprisingly, names like Mark Henry, Jerry Lynn, Paul Wight, Arn Anderson, and QT Marshall popped up. He also talked about the bond he formed with his former Pinnacle stablemates FTR and Shawn Spears. But two people specifically seemed to make a significant impression on the conductor of the Powerbomb Symphony. 

"[Billy Gunn] helped me for a long time when I was going through that [phase where I was] just murdering everybody. [...] It was him giving me some sort of tweak every week. I just remember being so excited every week to come back every week to do it again and tweak whatever we had talked about. I'd fix that and he'd have something new for me. It was really this cool thing for a while and he still helps me to this day."

The second person to profoundly affect Wardlow was the "American Nightmare," Cody Rhodes, who left AEW earlier this year. "I love Cody and I'll always support Cody no matter what he's doing. He's never been anything but kind and supportive of me and I've never seen him be anything other than that with other people."