Heath is enjoying his current run in IMPACT Wrestling because he's getting to tap into a more serious side of his character.
During his days in WWE, the former Heath Slater often played comedic roles. While he leaned into it somewhat earlier in his time with IMPACT Wrestling, he now has a tougher persona.
In an interview with Riju Dasgupta of Sportskeeda Wrestling, Heath was asked about his switch from being a comedy wrestler to someone who's more serious. He noted that he likes to joke and have a good time in real life, but he'll also square up when he situation calls for it. Heath stated that he wanted this personality to be reflected in his on-screen persona when he arrived in IMPACT because he was limited to comedic roles in WWE.
“It’s one of those things to where like naturally, I’m a funny guy anyway. I like to cut up, I like to have a good time, all that stuff. But if you get out of line, I can bust your ass, you know what I’m saying? So it’s one of those things where, in WWE, man, they give you script, you gotta go with it. Yes, I’m pretty good at the little comedy skits just because I’m not afraid to make an ass of myself, like I don’t care. But when I went to IMPACT, I knew everyone was gonna think, oh, if Heath shows up somewhere, he’s just gonna start doing the same little comedy role. To where, when I first got to IMPACT and we were wanting to be serious about me signing, I told them, I said hey, I said I ain’t gonna be the butt end of any of these jokes anymore. I said if anything, I’m gonna be the one making the jokes. I wanna have fun. I wanna still be that charismatic guy, but I said I want to be more of a serious, ‘Hey, let’s go if you want to go’ type of fight wrestler. Because that’s who I am in real life. I’ll be that guy like, ‘Okay, man, we don’t have to do this.’ But if you push me too far, we’re gonna do it. So it’s like I want to contribute that into that, but make it wrestling and make it entertaining, that type of deal. They said, 'Okay, let’s do it, let’s run with it," Heath said.
He continued by crediting IMPACT for listening to the talent and giving the performers a voice in the direction of their characters.
"The good thing about IMPACT is that they listen, they’re good with storytelling, and they let you actually have some say in what you want to do. That’s the good thing about us as wrestlers, like it brings out what we’re thinking, what we’re picturing and everything. It brings that out, and it’s good for us because other places, you don’t really get that option. You pretty much get handed the script and you gotta read what’s on it it, and hopefully you don’t stumble with your words out there. But the good thing about IMPACT is like alright here’s your bullet points, you got two minutes, nail it. It’s like, heck yeah," Heath said.
Heath was also asked whether this chapter of his career has been creatively fulfilling, and he stated that it has. He emphasized that playing a different role in IMPACT has been like a breath of fresh air because he was stuck doing the same thing in WWE.
“Oh yeah, totally. The answer is yes to that. If you do something over and over and over and over and over again, you get tired of it, you get burned out. That’s just life in general in anything you do. But me doing that stuff over and over and over again, and then just recycling it with me doing it with different people over and over again, it just became like come on, man. I got more in me than just doing this stuff. But no, it was like a fresh breath of air, walking into IMPACT knowing that they’ll listen and say, ‘Yeah, man. Let’s try this. Let’s try that.’ It’s good to be heard," Heath said.
The full interview is available here.
Heath has been feuding with Honor No More in recent weeks, and he'll battle the faction again at IMPACT Victory Road. Keep up with the card for the show here.
In a recent interview, Heath stated that he wants to see Bhupinder Gujjar pull off a Razor Ramon-style gimmick. Check out his comments here.