Jay Lethal has revealed a time during his time at TNA/IMPACT, when he began to hate performing his Randy Savage-inspired Black Machismo character.
Lethal is a well-travelled wrestler, having enjoyed success in TNA/IMPACT and Ring of Honor, before finding his way to AEW. Yet he is also known for his uncanny impressions of wrestling legends which include Ric Flair, Jimmy Hart and ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage.
Speaking on AEW Unrestricted, the former ROH Champion told Tony Schiavone and Aubrey Edwards how performing voice-over work for the TNA/IMPACT video game stifled his enjoyment of the character:
“When I started the Black Machismo character in IMPACT Wrestling, they sat me in a booth. I said, ‘Oh, yeah,’ maybe, I’m not kidding, 100 times, they had me say all these lines, maybe 50 to 100 times. Then shortly after that, they were making the TNA IMPACT video game.
I was like a large part of the story mode. Because when you enter the story mode, me and Kevin Nash help you through the story mode. When anyway, I had to read so many lines with that voice. Man, the next day it was killing me. At that point, I was like, ‘I don’t like doing this anymore.’ But it got way easier after that, for a short period of time Macho Man was I hated doing it.”
Jay Lethal has recently been seen in training videos featuring another wrestler he famously imitates – Ric Flair.
In preparation for his last ever match, Flair has posted Twitter updates of himself and Lethal going through some in-ring training, including the 73-year-old coming off the top rope!
Dirtiest Player In The Game! WOOOOO! @TheLethalJaypic.twitter.com/FiIFHBYTqu
— Ric Flair® (@RicFlairNatrBoy) June 6, 2022
Jay Lethal is currently performing in AEW where he has been reunited with former TNA/IMPACT and Ring Of Honor alumni, Sonjay Dutt as well as Satnam Singh.
H/T Fightful.com for transcription