Ken Shamrock On Why He Returned To Pro Wrestling, WWE & AEW

Ken Shamrock recently joined Chris Van Vliet on The Chris Van Vliet Show. During their conversation, Shamrock spoke about his decision to return to pro wrestling. He also discussed whether he feels he gets enough credit for being the first crossover star between MMA and wrestling.

“[…] when I stepped away, because I was only out a year when I stepped away from MMA, because I went out of pro wrestling into MMA, so I had stepped away and it had been about a year, and I just felt like, man, I can’t live like this,” Shamrock confessed. “I need excitement, I need something to challenge me and so I said, I’m gonna start training again, I’m gonna start getting back into the gym, to see if I could get myself in a position to where I could actually wrestle and feel good about wrestling.”

He continued, “And so I think it was about a year, maybe a little less than a year, I felt pretty good. I got in, I started doing some practicing, I was like, wow, I feel pretty good.”

Shamrock detailed how he intended to wrestle one time for Battle Championship Wrestling. After the matchup, however, he was surprised at how good he felt in the ring.

“[…] it was one of those things where I really didn’t know but when I first hit the ring, then I knew, and that’s when I made the challenge on Twitter and FaceBook, that I was coming back because I felt really good about where I was at and how my body felt after taking a year off. ”

Regarding getting credit for his transition from MMA to the world of pro wrestling, Shamrock admitted: “it is what it is.” He noted how it seems that WWE has purposefully forgotten him and don’t give him due credit. Shamrock highlighted a magazine article they had listing the top submission holds. He remembered how the Ankle Lock was on the list. However, instead of Shamrock being featured, it was Kurt Angle.

“I’m not trying to dis him or anything like that, but he’s never done one for real, like, so, sometimes when I see him put it on, it’s not even done right. But yet they use him as the picture for the finishing hold. And I’m the one that created it and did it for real. So those are the kind of things, and it’s not like they’ve corrected it, or done it and changed it, trying to make sure people understand where it came from. No, they keep trying to bury it, like they want Kurt to be the one who created it.”

He argued how, no matter how much WWE attempts to ignore him, “history always rises to the top,” and people will always know where something comes from.

Turning his attention to the modern pro wrestling landscape, Ken Shamrock talked about All Elite Wrestling. He believes the promotion is very talented and that they offer a different type of wrestling for fans.

“I mean you’re almost going back to the Japanese style but they’re putting a little more selling into it. But the moves, they’re these constant chain moves where everything is chain wrestling together.”

He juxtaposed AEW’s style with WWE, arguing how the latter doesn’t have enough chain wrestling. He noted what WWE does have in their favor, however, are storylines.

“It’s almost like, if you could put the two together, then you would have that Attitude Era. You would have the attitude, you would have the chain wrestling, you would have the storylines, you’d have the selling, you’d have the tough guys. I think the mixture of those two is what we’re trying to get.”