Ariya Daivari Says AEW Was Talked About "Tons" Backstage In WWE
On today's episode of The Wrestling Inc. Daily, Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman sat down with WWE veteran Ariya Daivari. Daivari was released back in June, and he gave an update on how he is feeling a month after his release.
"I'm feeling great, man. I know we just came out of a pandemic where we had some time off, but we rarely get time off," Daivari pointed out. "We always joke that the only way to get time off in wrestling is to get injured, so the fact that I have 90 days to kind of hang out and I'm still getting paid. It's kind of cool. So I'm just enjoying my time at home with my girlfriend. She's a school teacher. So she has summer off right now. We both have the summer off from work, so we're going to go on some vacations and just hang out."
Daivari is very active on social media tweeting and posting pictures not only about working out and WWE but also AEW. He gave his thoughts on AEW, as well as some insight in to how much AEW was being talked about backstage in WWE.
"To me, AEW is doing pro wrestling, and that's what the fans love. That's what I love," Daivari said. "That's why I've really been liking it. They've been doing pro wrestling very, very well. [It was talked about in WWE] tons. Everybody was talking about, and it's not necessarily just because it's AEW, but I feel like people who really care about the job, they usually keep up with everything that's going on.
"You'd be surprised that there are wrestlers who keep up with the independents and stuff like that. Most of the guys on 205 and NXT do that anyway because a lot of us are from the independents, so we still have a lot of friends out there. Me personally and all my close friends, we kept up with all the wrestling products."
Daivari spent nearly 10 years on the indies before signing with WWE. He made a name for himself in the mid-west scene by becoming the first ever F1RST Wrestlepalooza Champion for F1RST Wrestling. Hausman asked Daivari if pitches in WWE were ever inspired by what was happening in AEW.
"I don't think I would have ever went to Triple H or a writer and been like, 'Hey, I saw this on AEW. Can we do this here?' That's usually more chatter amongst the boys," Daivari noted. "When it came to the office, I usually didn't mention AEW. After I got released, I sent out a tweet saying, 'Dante and Darius, those two kids from Top Flight on AEW are doing really well.' They're good friends of mine.
"They're Minnesota guys. They trained here, and when they got signed, I wanted to tweet out, 'Hey, congratulations! I'm so happy for you guys. You deserve it, etc, etc.' But part of me is like, 'I really don't think I should like acknowledge AEW because I know WWE can be kind of shi**y about it.' So after I got released, that was one of the first tweets I put out there because I said I hate having to pretend that we don't know these guys, and the thing is, a lot of people were kind of like, 'Oh, that's such a crazy rule.' I don't know if it's an official rule. I doubt it is, but I don't think it would help your career as a WWE wrestler if you're tweeting about and congratulating the competition."
Daivari revealed what WWE's social team told him about social media ethics when he was hired.
"They told us very early on, when we first got hired, when we're going over social media ethics, they just said, 'If you have to think about it, don't tweet it,'" Daivari revealed. "So that was something where I took a second. I was like, 'Should I tweet this?' And I was like, 'Well, if I think about it, then maybe I shouldn't,' and it's like I said, it's super annoying because these are my friends.
"I just want to say congratulations to my friends, but you never know. All it takes is one person to get upset about it and then tell this person and tell this person and the whole story spirals out of control. You just try to avoid those situations as best as you can."
You can follow Ariya on Twitter @AriyaDaivari.
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