Anthony Ogogo Says WWE RAW Being Three Hours Was A Turn Off

AEW's Anthony Ogogo sat down with Wrestling Inc.'s own Nick Hausman recently on The Wrestling Inc. Daily to promote AEW Double or Nothing PPV. The two talked about Ogogo's stint as a commentator on AEW Dark, and Hausman asked him if he was given any guidance by AEW about how to call action.

"No, not really. I think AEW, they want you to be yourselves from what I gather. There's very little, thus far, there's very little 'you must do this, you must not say this.' I did it the first time and I enjoyed it and it was fun. And I was talking to the staff afterwards and Taz said to me, 'when Excalibur is doing the count, don't talk after the count.' Because the count is the most important part of the match. Cause you could win. Even if it's a move that you're not going to win with, like a snapmare and then they cover you, you're probably not going to win with a snapmare cover. But I still don't talk when he's counting because the counting adds to the build up of the climax of the event.

"So after the first time, Taz pulled me to the corner and said a few things. Couple of do's, couple of don'ts, but basically just have fun. And I spoke very authentically. Somebody would do a move and I'd give my two cents worth. Then I left and I'd go 'Taz, I'm learning I'm new at this. Taz, why would we do that? Would you do that?' Because Taz would take notes cause he was one of the best at what he did, when he wrestled. To me it was great. I got to sit there with Excalibur, who's really, really knowledgeable."

Ogogo went on to rave about Excalibur and his skills at the announcer's booth. He credited sitting with both him and Taz with helping him learn a ton about pro wrestling before his debut.

"Oh my goodness. He's really good," Ogogo said. "I had no idea how good Excalibur was. I thought he was good, I liked his voice, he has a really unique voice. But I had no idea how good he was until I sat with him and listened to the commands from the truck in the back. And having to do all of that while calling all the action. I was like 'wow, he's really, really good.' And I only heard some of the commands; he had the big boy headset so he heard all the commands.

"So that's good, Excalibur is good, Taz is really good. We had fun, we had a giggle on commentary. I learned a lot, because I'm a huge wrestling fan. I'm a massive wrestling fan and I got to watch wrestling with Taz, one of the guys who got me into wrestling, and Excalibur, one of the most knowledgeable guys in wrestling. So I learned a lot from a performance standpoint sitting next to those guys for six or seven months."

Ogogo was then asked about AEW Rampage coming to Friday Night's on TNT later in the summer. While Ogogo isn't all that familiar with the TV stations in the US, he believes the second show is great because it will allow more time for unsung stars on the AEW roster.

"I don't really know what it means," Ogogo said. "I don't really know the channels. I don't know the networks over here, don't know what they mean. I know they're both Ted Turner, but I don't even know. I'm going to pretend I know but I don't know. TNT sounds cool, the TNT Title sounds cool. TBS I don't know. I don't know much about the channels over here and what's a good channel, what's a bad one. Ultimately I want a platform. I just want to be on TV each week, doing what I do, getting better as a professional wrestler, growing as an athlete, growing as a performer, and getting better. And once I smash Cody on Sunday, just go and hopefully win a shitload of belts and leave my mark on history, on this great industry.

"But I mean, the second show will be great because I know it's really hard to get on Dynamite. We've got, Dynamite's our flagship show, then you've got AEW Dark: Elevation and then you've got AEW Dark. Everyone wants to be on Dynamite. You see some of the names on Dark and Dark: Elevation, those are Dynamite names. Moxley, Kingston, those guys are wrestling on Elevation quite frequently. You've got guys like Angelico, Angelico hasn't been on Dynamite for awhile and he's been wrestling on Elevation. Angelico is actually one of the guys that's impressed me the most. I knew he was good before I got here. Watching him close up and personal, he's really good man. Someone like Angelico not being on Dynamite shows how stacked our roster is. So a third hour of TV will be great because it'll allow talent to get there and get their reps in and become a star."

Another reason Ogogo is happy with the show is because it means AEW Dynamite will not have a third hour added on. He revealed that was a big reason he was turned off of WWE RAW, which he stopped following once they expanded from two to three hours.

"We want a company of stars," Ogogo said. "We want a company full of dream matches between all of us. So the more we can all get over and the more time we have, the better. And I think it's great that Tony Khan has gone for the third hour being a whole separate show instead of a three hour wrestling show. Because when the other place went to a three hour wrestling show, that's when I stopped watching really. Or I stopped watching as intently, I don't watch anymore.

"When I was going to make a bridge from boxing to wrestling I was watching all the wrestling everywhere. Because I wanted to become a wrestler so I had to watch it to know what to become. And when they got the three hours, I didn't watch it as fervently because it's too long. Two hours is the perfect time for a wrestling TV show. It's exciting, it's action packed and the third one hour show will be even more exciting. Even more action packed with all the same talent and half the time to fit it in. So it's good, it's going to be really good."

Anthony Ogogo takes on "The American Dream" Cody Rhodes this Sunday at AEW Double or Nothing. You can follow him on Twitter @AnthonyOgogo. You can find the full audio and video from Ogogo's interview below: