Major League Wrestling (MLW) star Austin Aries believes that winning often involves taking shortcuts, a philosophy he plans to employ in his upcoming Openweight Championship defense.
Aries, who regained the championship earlier this year by defeating Blue Panther at MLW's Lucha Apocalypto event, told OutKick that he still performs at a high level but has realized the efficacy of less conventional tactics.
"Even at this stage in my career, I still think that I'm performing at a level that very few men can reach," Aries said. "But I think the one thing that works in my advantage is I've proven over my career I'll do whatever it takes to win. And if that means taking a little shortcut or a little misdirection or a thumb in the eye, so be it, because that's what I've realized."
He contrasted this with a childhood lesson that "bad guys never win" or "cheaters never win," calling it "a load of crap." Aries asserted that many people in positions of wealth and power achieved their status through dishonest means and by taking advantage of others.
"If you look around the world, most of the people in positions of wealth and power got there by cheating. Got there by taking advantage of somebody. Got there by being dishonest, right? And so, we tell kids like, ‘Oh, honesty is the best policy and cheaters never win.’ And then you grow up and you realize, ‘Wait a minute, that's a lie. It's actually the opposite.’ Right? If you look around the real world, everyone who's winning is doing it by taking a shortcut."
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Aries has already successfully defended his title once against Diego Hill and has made multiple appearances in CMLL. On Saturday night, he faces Místico and Averno in a three-way match for the Openweight Championship on MLW "Fusion." Místico challenged Aries, turning a planned one-on-one match with Averno into a triple-threat bout.
"It's interesting. When you get three men in the mix, right, one-on-one, usually the strategy is pretty straightforward," Aries said. "You can't have a straightforward strategy when you're in a three-way. And so, the one thing I do know is that Místico and Averno, there's no love lost between those two. They've got some history with each other."
Aries indicated he might try to leverage the animosity between Místico and Averno to his advantage. "So maybe I can leverage that and I can maybe get Averno to work with me a little bit as opposed to against me. But again, I've been saying Místico has been ducking me. He wanted to put the challenge out there and, put himself in this match. Let's do it."
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The match will be broadcast on MLW "Fusion," available on YouTube, beIN Sports, and Veeps.