Austin Aries recently appeared on the Ryback Show to discuss his new podcast and his history in the wrestling business.

"Well, I just released the second episode of my podcast: The Transparency Report with Daniel Healy. That's my real name, and part of it is separating the character Austin Aries, or whatever everybody thinks he is, from who I actually am as a person, because I'm doing things now outside of wrestling that are important to me. And I think that it's funny that wrestling fans say it's fake, but when it comes to me, it's all real.

"And I talked about this in the second episode. I kind of felt like I've gone through this identity crisis for the last couple of years. I came to Las Vegas… 20 years now, people have been calling me Austin. 22 years, I've been called Daniel. So, I started introducing myself as Austin to everybody because that's how they knew me, and I had to ask myself, 'Who am I?' You start reading all these bad things about you from wrestling fans because of things that happened on screen or on camera and in character. And we can all say that, 'I don't care what other people think. That's not true.' We're human; it affects us.

"So, I had to ask myself, 'Is that who I am? Who am I really?' So part of the journey, like I've been saying, with COVID, it's kind of facilitating this. I've been kind of slowing a little bit. After I left TNA after Bound for Glory, I decided not to resign there. Yes, they offered me a contract after I no-sold, so that should tell you if it was a work or a shoot."

"I've turned down a few different things; I had some conversations. Everything is timing, but the more I was removed from the bubble, the more it has helped me figure out who I am. And working with Bioxcellerator, and those people valued me for me. They respect what I did in wrestling, but they respected me more."

"That helped me realize I loved the 20 years in what I did in pro wrestling. But I said it at the end of my podcast episode – spoiler – I'm very content to close that 20-year chapter right now in that book. And that doesn't mean I don't open the book up and maybe write another chapter, but right now, I'm actually really excited to start a new book that has nothing to do with wrestling but use that platform to do these other things that also interest me. So, I'll always love the art of pro wrestling, but I think I got really burnt out on the community of it and a lot of the things that come with it."