Viktor On How The Ascension's WWE Contracts Changed After NXT Call-Up
Former WWE NXT Tag Team Champion Vik The Spacelord was on today's episode of The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast. Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman asked Vik about how The Ascension's WWE contracts changed when they got called up from NXT.
"I made so much more money that first year. It was great," Vik expressed. "So a lot of people back then used to get to double dip. You wouldn't sign a new contract yet, but you would get a month or two on the road usually where your hotels and cars were taken care of, and you would get paid per show that you were doing or whatever. But then you'd still make whatever you were making in NXT.
"That was still your contract, and so for most guys, it was pretty sweet when you go because you're like, cool, I really don't have to pay for anything, and I'm just making extra money from being on the road. It was kind of how everything worked for me and Konnor. The minute we got up, that stopped. Immediately, we came up that week, and here's a new contract. Everything switches.
"You have to pay for everything yourselves, and the thing was we kind of said, 'Hey, don't most guys usually get taken care of for a little while,' and they're like, 'Oh, okay. Well, yeah, I guess since you're not used to the road yet.' I think they got our cars and hotels for about a month, and by the end of that, we're like, 'I don't want their hotels anymore.' I know everything gets switched. Everybody that kind of came up after us all had kind of the immediate switch, and oddly enough, I think when we signed our new contract, when we first came up, it was almost exactly five years to the date that I had signed with NXT."
Hausman asked where "The Spacelord" comes from in Vik's new ring name. Vik revealed that it was inspired from current AEW star Jon Moxley.
"I am a comic book fan, but actually, it was Moxley that said it one day when we were training at Hard Knocks," Vik revealed. "The song came on, and he just like looked at me. And he was like, 'I see you getting up in the morning just having that song playing. You walk out in your living room and just light a cigarette and start making eggs, and you probably kick some girls out of your apartment or whatever,' and I started laughing.
"And I was like, 'Well, you're right about the cigarette and eggs and definitely not kicking the girls out of my apartment at that time.' It just kind of stuck. Everybody just kind of laughed and it just always stuck. All the guys that were around just kept calling me that. It's one of those things that's more or less true. I don't know if I'm a lord of space, but I spend a lot of time out there."
The Awakening (fka The Ascension) will be taking on The Headbangers at Atomic Revolutionary Wrestling on February 19th for the ARW Tag Team Championships. Vik recalled The Headbangers' WWE return in 2016 and how surreal it was.
"I got to meet them because they came to RAW for a little while while we were there, and I know we were in one match with them for sure," Vik recalled. "It was so weird. I'll never forget that because I was standing on the apron with Aiden English, [Simon] Gotch and The Headbangers.
"There was The Spirit Squad, Mikey and Kenny. I just remembering thinking, this is so weird. Already Aiden English and Gotch are on my team, and then I've got The Headbangers here too. And we're just like, this is weird. What year is this? We're looking across the ring at Spirit Squad and I think it was American Alpha and The Usos.
"I remember it was really fun match, and it was cool to have them there, that's for sure, because when I grew up watching wrestling, me and one of my buddies used to always try to steal their finish and do the powerbomb / leg drop onto one of our buddies through tables and other stuff that you're not supposed to do."
The Headbangers were on The Wrestling Inc. Daily last Thursday where they called themselves "the most underrated tag team of all time". Vik gave his thoughts on if he agrees with that statement.
"Possibly now that I think about it," Vik said. "I feel there's a lot of teams that get underrated for sure, but when I think about it, yeah because they didn't get a really long run in my opinion, and they were super cool. When I was a kid, I loved those two guys. I remember playing [WWF] War Zone, PS1 and always being The Headbangers.
"I would say they were in a tough time. WWE were transitioning into that Attitude Era where young guys like them had to deal with a lot of struggles against the older guys. It was just the lay of the land, and even just hearing stories from all sorts of guys like Edge and Christian, The Hardy Boys even Matt and Brian."
The Awakening (fka The Ascension) battle The Headbangers for their Atomic Revolutionary Wrestling Tag Team Championships on Friday February 19th. You can find more info by following ARW on Twitter @WrestlingAtomic.
Viktor's full interview aired as part of today's episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here. You can find the full interview in both video and audio form below: