AEW Star Billy Gunn Reveals When Wrestling Really Clicked For Him

As a wrestler, there's that pivotal moment in their career, after pouring out buckets of blood, sweat, tears, and promos, when it suddenly clicks who they are and the identity they want to unveil. For Billy Gunn, who captivates fans as a former AEW World Trios Champion with The Acclaimed, it's easy to see how he conveys his image effortlessly. However, if you rewind to the 1990s, when his career began in 1993, discovering his identity in WWE was much more complicated, especially with the pressure to quickly find himself as one of many small fish in a gigantic pond- a fact he revealed in a recent episode of "Busted Open."

"I think not until me and Road Dogg got together...because...in a sense, I should have never gotten a job at WWE because I was so green," Gunn stated on when and how long it took for his wrestling career to start clicking. "But the stars aligned... all the leashes were off... literally, they handed it to us...because we were literally about to get fired because they just didn't have anything. We weren't going anywhere. We weren't doing anything. And they said, 'Hey, you guys just go do what you want to do. Go be what you want to be...' Road Dogg is so talented, anyway, that he kind of helped me along. He [said], 'Hey, dude, just turn it on. Just be that thing that's in you that you wish you could get out,' and I think that was the 'Mr. A**/Bad A**' Billy Gunn character."

Thanks to Dogg's motivation and having the right platform behind him, Gunn unleashed a new beast that delivered not only laughs but also multiple singles and tag team championship runs during his tenure. All while embarking on a whirlwind rollercoaster journey when they aligned with D-Generation X, who would lead a climactic trend in "The Attitude Era." Gunn would join the rest of the Xers as a 2019 WWE Hall of Famer.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.