RJ City Confirms He Does Still Wrestle But His Ideas Are 'Too Outside The Box'

Some wrestling fans only know RJ City as the guy in AEW who hosts the hard-hitting, not at all tongue-in-cheek YouTube show "Hey! (EW)" every Sunday. But City isn't just a professional "wrestling journalist," he's also a professional wrestler, having worked the independent circuit in both the U.S. and Canada for nearly 17 years.

And even with his appearances in AEW, City still continues to wrestle, confirming as much on "AEW Unrestricted." However, it's not something he's exactly dying to do given his current role. "Listen, if someone wants to pay me enough, sure," City said. "But I'm having a lot more fun and success not wrestling in wrestling, which probably should tell you how good my wrestling is."

Part of the reason City enjoys his current role in AEW more than being an in-ring performer on the indies is the creativity involved as an interviewer, which he felt was limited by pro wrestling norms. "Some of my ideas were a little too outside the box, where they became difficult to work into on a wrestling show without upending the entire show," City said. "Like treating my entrance like it was a sitcom audience warm-up thing, and making the fans do it over and over again. I thought that was really, really funny." 

City understands that not all of his concepts are for everyone, and there are plenty who just won't get what he's going for. On that front, if he can't really explore the things he'd like to try out, then he's just happy with the environment he's operating in now where he can do that. "Having a script for the match and halfway through say 'You're not following the script here!' I really like concept-breaking stuff," he added, "which for me is fun. But I understand how it won't work for everyone. So I ended up being very much in my own sandbox type of thing, which is great. It's totally fine, I understand it, and I'm not upset about it."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "AEW Unrestricted" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription