Effy Talks AEW's Biggest Hurdle, Goldust, Nick Gage Death Match, Blood Testing In Pro Wrestling

Effy recently took part in a violent, bloody match with the King of the Deathmatch, Nick Gage. The match was for Gage's GCW World Title and Effy talked about it when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.

"My mom was so mad when she saw pictures of that match," said Effy. "She was like, 'What are you doing with my life?' I go, 'Well, I'm still figuring that out.'

"I think for people that have watched me for a while, they know me as being the comedy guy or the funny guy. You take a guy like Nick Gage and he is all business and this guy will attempt to kill you. So it was 'Can this guy hang at that level? Can this guy do these death matches and handle someone like Gage who physically died before, came back and is still trying to kill himself...'

"You can come try to kill me and you might succeed. But I'm never gonna be scared of you because a man can only do so much. I didn't win, but I took it right to the edge of the cliff."

With so much blood in that match and others, Effy was asked how important blood testing is to him.

"For me it probably should be more important. For my boyfriend it is very important and he requires that I get tested all the time. But that's him personally asking me to do it," said Effy before bringing up G-Raver's recent big cut and cautioning that the cuts are very light and there is aspirin involved to aid in blood thinning.

"Mostly it's pouring outward and not inward. We're not injecting ourselves with each other's blood. I think it can seem worse than it is and when everything's all mixed together it's probably not the most safe thing on the face of the earth. I take my precautions and make sure I'm tested, but I don't know for anyone else."

Effy added that he recently had a Hepatitis C scare but it was just a mistake at the doctor's office. As a homosexual wrestler, Effy says he goes to extra lengths when it comes to blood in the ring.

"I'm a guy who wrestles in a lot of states so I have to get blood work testing work done for those anyway. So, between being a homosexual and being a pro wrestler who's getting licensed, I'm tested a lot. I don't know that for everyone else," stated Effy.

For the longest time, Goldust was the only effeminate gimmick in wrestling and Effy shared his thoughts on the character and on Dustin Rhodes.

"In that Attitude Era it was about pushing buttons. I always joked that Goldust for me is the anti-John Cena because Cena was the guy everybody would like to hang out with but I really couldn't give a crap when he's wrestling," admitted Effy. "Goldust, I loved watching him wrestle, his character, his vignettes. But God, if I have to hear an ex-drug addict talk about Jesus anymore, I'm done."

He added that Goldust is an important addition to wrestling but he wishes Dustin wouldn't shame the character and would embrace it more because of what it means to people.

AEW seems to be the most progressive national promotion out there and Effy was asked what he thinks of their approach.

"I think it's fantastic. I watch pro wrestling with my boyfriend; I force him to watch it. We play a game called 'Cool or Dweeb' and you'd be surprised at the amount of time that guys who wrestling fans would think are so cool to a casual person are coming across as dweebs," said Effy before adding that he wants AEW wrestlers to really think about if they are coming across as cool or a dweeb.

"I had this conversation with Sonny [Kiss] a few weeks ago where I said you're really good at a 7-10-minute TV match. I need you to be really good at an intense six-months feud that ends in a PPV match that you build on weekly TV. I know they're having this conversation there, but there are a lot of guys really good at a 7-10-minute TV match and now we have to translate that into telling stories so people tune in next week.

"If people forget that that is such a big factor in television wrestling, then we're all gonna be lost. But it is the biggest factor ? the storytelling."

Effy then said for all the complaints he has about WWE in regards to Saudi Arabia and their treatment of gay wrestlers, they can really create an amazing story package and AEW needs to be able to do that.

Effy recently made headlines with a RISE promo critiquing promotions for not booking LGBTQ talent year-round outside of Pride Month and he talked about the fallout from that.

"First and foremost, RISE took a stance after that show to say we're gonna continue to book all kinds of performers. We're not gonna base the booking on who they are, what they believe, who they love. We're gonna base the booking on putting out some of the best matches we can," Effy said before bringing up a recent Jake Atlas vs Priscilla Kelly match at RISE and notes how Atlas is gay and Kelly is a woman. He says it was great because it was an awesome match and no one thought about how it was a gay man vs a woman.

"After I cut that promo, [RISE] was not pumped. I don't think they understood exactly what I was gonna do. I went out there and dropped names and told truths and said what I had to say. By the time the video had gotten out on Monday, the response was very different. It was, 'Wow, you actually had some really great points. I guess we did just need to give you some creative license to say what you needed to say.'"

He said that if there are four or more gay guys it's considered a "gay show" and he wants to move past that. Effy knows that with his promo and in general he pushes a lot of buttons because he enjoys it personally. He also said that with no buttons to push, there is no use for Effy.

"But until then, I'm gonna use my platform to say, 'Look, these guys aren't getting paid on this show. Or look, these talents are being underutilized or not booked at all. Or look, this show is only featuring white men. That's it.' Until we reach a point where I can't complain about those things, I'm gonna keep being that thorn in the side," said Effy.

To support Effy follow him on Twitter (@EffyLives) or buy one of his shirt at ProWrestlingTees.com/EffyLives. Effy's full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of today's episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. In it Effy discusses his bloody GCW World title match with Nick Gage, blood testing in pro wrestling, losing bookings for being gay, refusing to do "gay stuff", Dustin Rhodes not embracing Goldust, AEW's biggest hurdle and more. You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.