Interview: David Otunga on Kevin Owens Being Mad at Him, AEW, More

David Otunga was interviewed by Chris Van Vliet in New York City for his role in the new movie “Tyler Perry’s A Madea Family Funeral.”

David talks about how he made the transition from wrestling to commentary, whether he wants one final match, how his commentary pissed off a wrestler, his thoughts on Cody and AEW and much more.

Here are a few highlights:

It was Michael Cole’s idea for him to become a commentator:
“One day Michael Cole called me and asked me if I wanted to become a commentator. I was like wow, I’ve never thought about that but umm yeah, i’ll give it a shot. It’s awesome although extremely challenging. Like you think you’re just out there and saying whatever and having a great time with your buddies. No. You’re actually telling the stories. So much goes into that. It makes me have so much respect for Michael Cole. If you actually understand what he’s doing and how good he is in setting up his partners and the traffic and the advertisements and the commercials and everything that’s going on and he has people in his ear. He’s doing all of this at the same time, it’s unbelievable.”

Was he ready to make the transition from wrestler to being a commentator?
“Not necessarily. I had some things going on in life that I was kind of forced into making that decision. My love was in ring. But you know, I have other things that I’m interested in as well so there are some positives with it. It did allow me to focus on film and now I’m here starring in this film with Tyler Perry which is great. But also, being able to become a commentator that is a lot easier on my body and it has a lot more longevity.”

Is he ok with the fact that his last match was at a house show against R Truth?
“I’m ok with it. Obviously if there was like a cool storyline or a cool opportunity then yeah, definitely. But I’m cool with it though too.”

His commentary made Kevin Owens mad:
“Kevin Owens got really mad at me one time. I’m trying to remember the actual line but I was making some witty comment and I said something about the battle of the bulge and I was like ‘And we’re not talking about Kevin Owen’s stomach’ or something like that, which I think is pretty tame. Owens was mad and coming at me on Twitter and stuff. The thing of it is Kevin Owens is actually one of my favorite characters like legit, because he’s so different. I love the fact that he is who he is. He’s different and yeah his stomach hangs over but I think that’s awesome. So I was like ‘Hey man, we’re on the same team. I don’t know if you know that. Dude, you’re a heel. This is what we do.’ He was like shoot mad. Like he would see me backstage and he wouldn’t even say anything or shake my hand or nothing. I think we’re cool now. I hope.”

His thoughts on AEW:
“I just want to say that Cody, I think that guy is fascinating to me. You have to respect him and everything he’s done and he’s doing. He has a vision and he’s actually making this happen. Like you hear people talking like ‘Man, we should start our own promotion’ yeah ok, whatever you’re not actually going to do it. Cody is actually doing it. That’s pretty admirable man.”