Austin Aries was worried about pulling 'a Shockmaster' with his NXT debut

He's achieved a big milestone by being introduced to the WWE Universe the Friday before Royal Rumble and then on the Mar. 2 episode of NXT. But he still hasn't spoken to the fans... until today's interview with the company's website was posted.

Austin Aries is one of only two two-time Ring of Honor (ROH) world champs. He's also held TNA's top title, and now that he's in WWE, he says he'll be gunning for the NXT championship, the WWE World Heavyweight belt and an eventual spot in Vince McMahon's Hall of Fame. But before all that, the wrestler who calls himself the Greatest Man Who Ever Lived says he was worried about a much smaller detail when getting ready to walk through the curtain in Orlando:

Trying not to pull a Shockmaster and tripping on my way out? That was the first thing.

Jokes aside (for a moment), it's remarkable how common place these WWE.com articles talking about the indies have become. When some footage from ROH showed up on that Shield Network special back in 2014, it was a huge deal. Now, when Aries talks about wrestling Samoa Joe or Daniel Bryan in other companies, you hardly raise an eyebrow (except, of course, for TNA... if Finn Bálor's not crotch-chopping them, they're not getting any play).

Aries tells a funny story about his 76 minute, two-out-of-three falls match against Bryan back at ROH's Testing the Limit in 2004, which is particularly timely considering mixed reactions to Joe & Sami Zayn's NXT affair with that stipulation from Wednesday and video of the Trevor Lee/Roy Wilkins almost two hour marathon making the internet rounds:

Still being relatively new, I was really proud of the accomplishment of being in the ring with someone like Daniel. I walked back through the curtain after the match, very proud of myself and excited to get feedback from my colleagues. I got back to the locker room and not one person was there. They probably decided to go hit the bar around the 45-minute mark. There was nobody left.

Let's be honest, we're all wrestling fans, but 76 minutes is a long time to watch anything.

Check out the whole interview for more than just humor - including Aries' thoughts on his journey, in-ring style, WWE prospects, and introductory feud with Baron Corbin.

He'll make his televised in-ring debut for WWE at TakeOver: Dallas on April 1.

What do you think A-Double's future in NXT holds, Cagesiders?