Magnus Talks His Feud With Bram, Having Mickie James Involved, Their Match Tonight On Impact, More

I recently spoke with former TNA World Heavyweight Champion Magnus, who will face Bram in a "Falls Count Anywhere" match on Impact Wrestling tonight. The full interview will be posted on the site early next week. During the interview, I spoke with Magnus about his feud with Bram, and noted that it was like an old-school feud with a slow build and asked him if that has been missing in the business.

"Yeah," Magnus replied. "Every now and then you stumble on something that just works. Clearly the thing with me and Bram just works. There's so much reality to it, that's the key thing. My number one priority when I'm coming up with things is to make it believable. There seems to be this counter-intuitive approach to wrestling, like everyone knows it's not real so we can gloss over details. I'm always the opposite of that. The people who are watching know it's entertainment and are OK with it, they don't want you to insult their intelligence, they want to suspend their disbelief and get into it. The fact that me and Bram have legitimately been friends and were for a long time, Mickie [James] and I legitimately have a child and have been together a long time, it helps people suspend their disbelief when they see things. That doesn't take away from the performances of myself, Mickie or Bram. He's a great talent and I did actually speak up for him when things didn't work out for him in WWE. I said they missed the boat and we need to take a look at him."

Magnus' relationship with fiance Mickie James has been used as part of a storyline for the first time for this feud. Magnus noted that working with Mickie has been fun, and talked about why it took so long for them to do an angle together.

"I've always admired her as a performer and spoke highly of her work even before our relationship," Magnus said. "Mickie doesn't hold herself to the standard that sometimes gets placed around women's wrestling. Sometimes it helps that you have different standards. She wants her matches to be held up against any man's match, and I think that's evidenced in her work. Her strikes, her selling, her movements, everything. There's a handful of girls like that, like Tara, Trish and Lita. Even going back to Madusa. Work is work, it doesn't matter if you're a guy or a girl.

"We've resisted doing stuff together in the past, really on my part because I wanted to establish myself first. As far as my TNA career, I've reached the highest point you can, which is being the champion, so after that happened I was okay with it when it was pitched to me. Now nobody can point to what I've accomplished and say it was only because I was associated with Mickie. I made a name on my own first."

Magnus admitted that having Mickie involved with the angle helped take the feud to a different level. He also talked more about tonight's Impact Wrestling, which will feature three main event matches.

"I love the idea that an episode will be dedicated to three marquee matchups. I think just those three matches alone, myself vs. Bram, Eric Young vs. Bobby Roode, and Kurt Angle vs. Bobby Lashley ? if you're not tuning in to see that, I just give up (laughs). Just make sure you give the show a chance if you've fallen away from the show for any reason, some justified, some aren't. Check your opinions at the door this week because it's a wrestling show and it's a good one. As the feud goes, we're looking at it as a way to settle the score, but with those things you never know."