Peter Avalon Reveals Which AEW Star Came Up With The Wingmen
"Pretty" Peter Avalon of The Wingmen was on today's episode of the AEW Unrestricted podcast with Aubrey Edwards and Tony Schiavone. Avalon was brought into AEW as "The Librarian", and he discussed how he was brought into that role in the company.
"It was at a wrestling show in LA. I want to say C.D. (Christopher Daniels) and The [Young] Bucks told me about it," Avalon recalled. "Cody had slid into my DMs at one point to tell me to kind of reserve in May of 2019, didn't tell me any details. He just said, 'Hey, kind of keep it available,' and I said, 'Sure.' And then I kind of got details from The Bucks.
"They told me about the 'The Librarian' idea and what they wanted to do, and I was like, 'Yeah, I'm glad you came to me with something.' They kind of put it as 'something silly that we think only you could get over,' and they had very vague details. It was like, 'You work at a library and you shush people. That's the gist of it, and we think you could get something like that over.' I was like, 'Yeah, absolutely.'"
Leva Bates would also be brought on as another librarian character. Avalon discussed the original plan was for him before Bates was brought on.
"You know how brainstorming goes in wrestling goes and everything, it's a discussion, and everything changes as the day goes on," Avalon noted. "The way that they were gonna introduce 'The Librarian was via a contest, like a fan contest. Submit your video, a librarian promo and a bunch of people did it. What they were originally going to do was that I won it. I became 'The Librarian'. I didn't do a video, so it was going to be this whole thing, and I think they assumed that it would not get a positive reaction that way.
"The Leva Bates video did so well that that's why she was considered, and then they just put us together, which was great. Legitimately, a year prior was the first time I had ever met her and worked with her because I had wrestled her in Los Angeles in a tag match, and I thought she was great. I thought she was a great person, and now, a year later, getting to be paired up with her and work with her, I was like, this is awesome. This is great."
Avalon's in-ring debut for AEW came at Fight For The Fallen against Sonny Kiss. He recalled what Tony Khan's reaction to his debut.
"I don't remember when I found out," Avalon admitted. "I know I was excited for it, and I remember that day. I was hyped. I was nervous. I was like, this is great. I'm ready. I'm so stoked. I don't remember exactly when I found out though. It's all a blur, and watching it back, the jib shots coming in, zooming in and then watching me just strut out, I was like, this is the coolest thing ever. Walking out, I had no music.
"I've always had entrance music I can kind of shake my ass to. This was a new thing. I'm going to come out, and it's just silence. This also was before we had figured out to shush people during the entrance, so I came out to just silence, and then the crowd saw me and Leva and they just booed the hell out of us. And when we got that reaction, I felt really, really good about myself, and then I thought the rest of the match went well, so I remember enjoying it. I remember coming to the back.
"I remember Tony being hyped so hyped for me and the match. It felt really good. He was so stoked. He stood up over the seat. He yelled, 'Hell yeah! Peter Avalon! Championship Wrestling From Hollywood! Hell yeah! Great job!' And he started putting over me and my television background just yelling in my face, and it's like, okay, great, this is great way to start my time here and a great way to start the show."
Schiavone noted that Cody Rhodes had a hand in Avalon's direction as "Pretty Peter". Avalon confirmed this, and he spoke on how Rhodes helped him.
"He absolutely had a hand in the direction that we went with at AEW," Avalon said. "'Pretty Peter' is just me. That's just the way I live my life. I've been 'Pretty Peter' — I'm in my 13th year of wrestling now, that's pretty much what I've done. For a little bit, I switched over to a gimmick called 'Professional Peter', and then when I was running the Arizona television show, I was 'Producer Peter'.
"So I kind of keep a theme, but I've always been pretty. But Cody for sure had a hand in the energy change that we went to with the whole model walk off and and loving not only myself but loving just beauty and everyone and kind of leaning in more so in that direction and stuff like that. And I appreciate Cody really diving in and helping me find a direction to kind of go with it, instead of just being a generic, pretty boy."
Avalon is currently a member of The Wingmen. The team is comprised of Avalon, Cezar Bononi, Ryan Nemeth and Cezar Bononi. Avalon revealed which AEW star came up with the idea to put the four of them together.
"I think it's just an idea that when people see something next to each other, it just kind of works. I think the idea for The Wingmen was Christian's idea," Avalon revealed. "I think he said to put the four of us together, and Tony liked it. I was with Cezar already as 'Pretty Picture', and then Nemeth and Drake were together. I had hurt myself. I have a hurt knee still. I'm still out with an injury so that took me off TV for a little bit. I'm not sure when the decision was made to put us together. I just kind of got filled in, and then when I came back, 'Here I am boys, let's play.'"
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit AEW Unrestricted with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.