Austin Aries had a storied career, a few years ago reached a crossroads if he even wanted to stay in the business anymore. However, the veteran found his love for pro wrestling again thanks to experiences like in MLW.
Getting back in MLW and stepping into the commentary booth. At that point I wasn’t really sure how much in-ring wrestling I really had in front of me,” he said. “You have to really love this to be able to dedicate yourself and put in the work outside the ring just to get yourself ready for those 15 to 20 minutes inside the ropes. To get back with MLW and do the commentary and see the product they were putting out there. Then they had me interested in being a competitor and letting me be me.”
His first few matches against Kushida, Paul London, and Mistico helped show “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived” still had a passion for this. He realized, “There is still magic dust left in my bag that I can sprinkle here and there. That reinvigorated me to get back into the ring full-time.” Aries, who is about to turn 48, felt a fire lifted under him and something left to give. Aries traced an Eat, Pray, Love-like experience as something that helped bring clarity in recent years.
I stepped away for a while in the midst of COVID in 2020, I basically sold everything and went to Mexico for a year-and-a-half and went on my own journey that had nothing to do with wrestling,” he recalled. “It’s something I’ve never done. I’d live, eat, breathe, everything wrestling since I was 22 and a kid. You can get consumed by it which could be a good thing. That’s what you need to do sometimes to make it to the top, but that can also be a bad thing.
“Sometimes you don’t have any sense of self worth outside of this bubble of pro wrestling. For me that year-and-a-half of rediscoring myself outside of Austin Aries and pro wrestling, I’m finding that value as a human being allowed me to come into this space with a different perspective. A little more mature. I love pro wrestling, but it’s not everything I am and everything I do and everything I’m about. I think that allowed me to come back with a fresh perspective.
His mindset these days is to offer guidance to the next generation of young talent who are trying to get to the places he has been. For him, in large part, success comes from dedicating yourself to the process, putting in those 20-30 hours outside the ring, hitting the gym, letting the body recover, and repeat. Aries also still has that chip on his shoulder in a different way, answering naysayers wondering if he could still go in the ring or if he still has it.
I’m here, in my opinion, putting out some of my best performances, athletically, psychologically, and stepping in there with Trevor Lee, who is in their physical prime and going toe-to-toe, “he said. “It motivates me and is a testament to a lifestyle I’ve lived for 26 years now. I stopped eating animals and have been a strict vegan for 15 years. I do think that’s paying off for me now.”
Aries has been passionate about nutrition and health related topics for much of his life. He even wrote a book “Food Fight: My Plant-Powered Journey from the Bingo Halls to the Big Time.” The author is also in the editing process of his next one, which he describes more as a manual pulled from what he has learned over 25 years navigating the food system. Aries breaks down food and diet in a digestible way.
He looks at those who came up with him like AJ Styles, proud of the legacy left. Aries is happy for his colleague for what he has accomplished.
As they say father time is undefeated,” Aries. “I’m going to give him a hell of a battle, but he is coming for all of us. The fact AJ was able to perform at the level he did for as long as he did is amazing. I would say the hardest gimmick in wrestling is being the super athletic guy. The match athletic guy, that’s the first thing you’re going to age out of. The fact he really didn’t. That’s a testament to him that he was able to walk away and we’ll always remember AJ Styles as that peak guy. You look at a guy like Ric Flair. If you saw Ric Flair in the early 1980s like I did compared to if you saw him in the 2000s. Those are two different versions. AJ Styles, we’re only going to remember one version. This guy who was always at his peak athletically. He had so much athleticism to spare, even if he lost a couple of steps he is still two steps ahead of everybody else. Well deserved retirement.
Aries is also happy to see pro wrestling as a more collaborative space. An example of this is MLW teaming up with NJPW and CMLL for Fantastica Mania USA 2026 from the Festival Hall in Charleston South Carolina.
That was one of my gripes. I never understood why we couldn’t work together,” Aries said. “We’re all fighting for crumbs instead of working together to build a bigger cake so to speak. I got caught up in that early in my career with TNA and Ring of Honor and back and forth and positioning themselves. The talent gets caught in the middle a lot of times, which is unfair. It’s nice to see, especially with MLW, they’re willing to work with anybody as long as it’s value for value.
“The fans are ultimately the winners because you get to see these unique matchups. It gets us out of this tribalism that is in everything politics, sports, pro wrestling. Everyone is very tribalistic in the mentality where it's us versus them. We can start moving away from that and start saying hey we can work together. We can have differences of opinions but still sit together and enjoy a meal together and have a conversation and agree to disagree respectfully. I think it’s great my plan is to get there early, find the guys I’m wrestling with, try to offer them as much Don Gato Tequila as they are willing to drink before the match and get a competitive advantage.
The decorated performer is right now enjoying the ride and living in the present. He says all unhappiness is rooted in living in the past or future. His idea is that now experiences bring him joy. With that in mind, Aries sees big things for the future of MLW and is looking forward to being a part of it.
With MLW, I know right now I’m a guy who wants to make a pillar and continue to anchor this,” Aries said. “ With that said, I’m not worried about where we’re at in two months or three months, six months. As far as I’m going to be on all their shows for the rest of 2026. I’m happy with that. The biggest thing is they trust me to be me. They are not micromanaging me. They see the value in what I bring to the table. As an artist, a lot of times that is what you want. You trust me to paint the fixture the right way.”
