The World Famous CB is an ROH mainstay, but he can still work independent dates.
When speaking to Fightful, the former Cheeseburger elaborated on his ROH deal.
"It’s kind of like two tiers. The salary exclusive, ‘Hey, you can’t take indie bookings,’ are—especially because of the pandemic—are more relaxed on that. People like Gresham, Shane Taylor are starting to do more bookings to take their belts around different indies as well. Then there’s the more per appearance side of things where it’s like, ‘Alright, you’re per appearance, but you also have free reign to go make money on the indies as well.’ So, I’m in that latter tier right now," CB confirmed.
CB has reinvented himself and joined the Pure Division. It's further separated himself from the comedic, lovable character he once portrayed.
"It was one of those things where me and my boss were on the same page ‘cause that’s what I was really pushing for. Especially before lockdown we were having the first Pure tournament that was supposed to happen, which got shut down. I was really pushing to be in that and that was when I was still Cheeseburger, before I made the jump. But Pure Rules are coming, this is what I need to do. This is what I have been waiting for. I didn’t know it, but this is what I was waiting for. Like I was saying before, the first thing I really picked up in wrestling school was chain wrestling, piecing holds together and transitions. That was always the thing that came easiest to me. For some reason I could do transitions. Once I had ‘em, I had ‘em. I knew how to flow holds together. I was always studying different things and trying different things in training. When Pure Rules was coming back, I was like, ‘This is what I know I was here to do. I can do this. This is my opportunity to show what Cheeseburger can do.’ Then, obviously, the pandemic happened and I changed to World Famous CB, but that ended up working out even better ‘cause right when I come back I’m right in the Pure division. First time they see me I’m back, new gear, new look, new character, against Tracy Williams," CB said.
CB elaborated on the reinvention, and how he saw the pandemic as the perfect time to press reset on his character.
"Just get to go at it, say, ‘Hey, you haven’t seen me for eight months. Here’s what I’ve been working on.’ I’ve been putting myself out there as a Pure wrestler and I think people are really starting to dig it and I’m starting to show people that, ‘Hey, I’m not just a guy that’s a funny gimmick that gets beat up all the time. I am a great technical wrestler and I know I can wrestle with all the best technical wrestlers in the world.’"
CB admitted that nobody around ROH had a major plan during the pandemic, because nobody knew how it would all play out.
"None of us had any idea how long this was going to last. Obviously it’s still going on. But we didn’t know when Ring of Honor was gonna come back or when indie wrestling even was going to come back. It was one of those things where this could be four weeks like they said or this could probably be a whole year. You remember that? When we were supposed to be out of this in four weeks? Like at the start. ‘We’ll just wait for summer. We’ll be good.’ But, it was like, ‘I can just sit around and wait for this to end or get in the gym.’ I started getting into shape, started putting on size or trying to get some muscle. I started really dialing in on what I wanted to be as a wrestler and a character, as a wrestler, in the ring, out of the ring, how I talked, how I looked. Everything. I really had a chance to step back. I feel like I utilized my time during that lockdown effectively to produce the World Famous CB."
You can see our full interview with The World Famous CB above.
