Former WWE superstar Austin Aries was a recent guest on Chris Jericho’s “Talk Is Jericho” podcast and opened up about his WWE departure.

Aries said that he was ultimately let go because of the standard, creative has nothing for you situation, but noted that he was happy with the company and it never crossed his mind to request a release from his contract. Aries said that while taking time off to rehab his neck, he got a call from the company saying that they were letting him go and that he holds no bitterness about how things went down and said that he respects the company’s decision. Aries said that after his release, WWE allowed him to continue to train at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida in order to get his strength back and said that at this point in his career, if WWE came calling again, he would be willing to fill whatever role they had, whether it was as a wrestler, a manager and a commentator.

Aries talked about his time as a commentator before wrestling on the main roster and said that Vince McMahon approached him backstage and praised him for his performance after his first few nights, noting that he was a natural at it. Aries discussed Neville taking time away from WWE due to him becoming tired of the Cruiserweight Division among other things. Aries said that when he was part of the roster, he was happy on the 205 Live brand and saw it as a challenge to help build up the division. Aries said that at one point, he approached Vince McMahon with a merchandise idea and said that he wanted to market protective banana cases and that when Vince heard the pitch, he game him a confused look and said that the WWE would get to that.

The issue regarding WrestleMania 33 was discussed, to which Aries said that he enjoyed working the WrestleMania 33 Kickoff Show and had no problem with being on that early and said that he actually liked the fact that he was the first wrestler to walk that long aisle in the show’s opening match. Aries then talked about the tweet he sent out promoting the WrestleMania 33 DVD release where he said that his match against Neville was the best match of the night. Aries noted that the fact that their match was not on the DVD meant that they would not be getting royalties and this led to some people to believe that he was upset about not being included, where as he was just joking and people took it the wrong way.

The interview is available in full at this link.