“The Ultimate Finesser” Chris Bey has been a member of Impact Wrestling since 2020 and as a member of Bullet Club, he has risen to the top of the tag division.
In the summer of 2021, Bey was presented with a Bullet Club shirt by “Switchblade” Jay White and after weeks of deliberation, on the August 5 episode of Impact, he officially joined the faction.
“Bullet Club is the best and biggest faction to ever exist in professional wrestling and I think that as soon as Jay White offered me the possibility to join Bullet Club and I had to make sure to prove myself first. I think it was the hottest plate that had been set in front of me in a long time,” Bey told SlamWrestling.net. “I always talk about opportunities and wanting to eat and that was a big meal and it was something that I was very excited about. Once it was official and he gave me the T-shirt, I knew that we were making history and this was gonna live forever and the future’s up to me now.”
Chris Bey and Ace Austin at the Icons of Wrestling Convention & Fanfest on Saturday, December 17, 2022, at the 2300 Arena, in Philadelphia, PA. Photo by George Tahinos, https://georgetahinos.smugmug.com
As part of Bullet Club, Bey has been aligned with Ace Austin and together they recently won the Impact World Tag Team Championships on March 2. Bey and Austin took the world by storm during the New Japan Pro Wrestling 2022 Super Junior Tag League. They won seven out of their nine matches and lost in the finals to Lio Rush and Yoh. “As much as I see myself as a single star, I love working with Ace. I think he’s one of the best talents in the world, and to be able to share the ring with him and have him on my side of the ring is very beneficial and also a very fun time. I think we have a lot of chemistry, so I love tagging with him.”
Working in multiple promotions can be taxing and a lot of responsibility for some wrestlers, but Bey says he thrives on the pressure. “I think that for me it’s another day at the office and it shows that the companies have a lot of faith and trust in you.”
“You just have to do what brought you to the dance and make sure to keep your nose clean and do the best of your ability to knock it out of the park whenever it comes your way and I think I’ve done a great job in doing so.”
When it comes to Bey’s biggest supporters in Impact, he said it is hard to pick out certain people because he said the locker room is a family filled with love and support. He tries to look at different people that have done it before him for motivation and pointers to improve his craft.
Chris Bey celebrating on the ramp. Credit: Impact Wrestling
However, if there were any people he could shout out he expressed his appreciation for Tommy Dreamer and Lance Storm. Dreamer has been very vocal about what he wants to see from Bey, things he’s doing well and things he could do better. He said having Storm part of the team “is a great asset because he’s very helpful and he is been able to help me a lot with my understanding of my performance side.”
On top of being a wrestler, Bey is also a musician and he recently released his newest album, The Top Floor. Bey says he made his first music project at the age of six or seven, but he put 100% of his attention into wrestling and left the music on the back burner.
The Top Floor album cover.
The COVID pandemic gave Bey the “perfect opportunity to start maximizing all my music again and executing that and putting time into recording stuff and releasing stuff.”
“Music’s a great form of expression and creative outlet for myself to balance out what we do with wrestling. It’s my opportunity to not have to get in the ring and slam my body a million times, but still, be creative.”
In between wrestling shows is when Bey finds the time to record music and he gets inspiration for a lot of his music while on the road wrestling. “A lot of these albums have been influenced and written through real-life stories that are going on, on the road or sleepless nights or however it may come about.”
In the future, he hopes to musically collaborate with Post Malone, Drake, Justin Bieber or Russ. “Just like in wrestling you wanna wrestle people with different styles, you wanna wrestle people different, different from yourself. And I think I’m the same with music too. I wanna make music with people who make similar genres, but also I’d like to challenge myself and work with people who work and make stuff that isn’t my typical norm.”
Bey also shared the wrestlers he hopes to share a ring with in the future, those two wrestlers being Carmelo Hayes and Lio Rush. He said Hayes and himself go back and he is incredible, he is also happy with the success they both created and he thinks the world would love a Bey versus Hayes bout.
Chris Bey diving off the ropes. Credit: Impact Wrestling
“I need a singles match with Lio Rush. Lio and I have never had a singles match we’ve gone to the finals of the tag tournament, himself and Yoh and me and Ace Austin, and we’ve battled in Japan, but I think Lio and I need a proper one-on-one match because I think he’s one of the best in the world.”
Bey lives and breathes wrestling so much that he has a wrestling ring tattooed on his chest, and he got that tattoo before he even began training. He knew wrestling was what he wanted, but he just hadn’t found a wrestling school yet. “In the meantime, while distracting myself from taking this huge leap because I was a little afraid that what people had said about how difficult it would be or how I wouldn’t be able to accomplish it, I was kind of buying into what they said.”
“In an attempt to distract myself. I did tattoo my chest and I did put a wrestling ring on my chest, but I put it there because I knew that’s a place that I can’t escape seeing it. So it’s always been a visible point in my existence since I got it. And it just reminds me of what I do and why I do it. And even before I did it, it reminded me of what I was working so hard for while I was in the gym all the time while I was doing what I was doing. It was to remind myself that pro wrestling was the end.”
Chris Bey’s ring tattoo can be seen on his chest. Credit: Impact Wrestling
The ring on his chest has deep meaning, but his favorite tattoo is the two-piece he has on his hand. It started with an eyeball and a clock design that was created by his favorite tattoo artist from the show Ink Master, Cleen Rock One. Bey met him before he became a wrestler and he told him about the journey he was going to take.
Then after he signed with Impact Wrestling and had won the X-Division Championship, he went back to Cleen Rock One. “I told him how I had become a pro wrestler, my journey had come full circle. And I explained to him, what my life had been like the last couple years, and we created a very cool piece on my hand that just symbolizes time and all the things that you see along this journey and keeping your eyes open and being invested in what’s around you.”
He then added to that piece with the Pick of Destiny from Tenacious D, the rock duo made up of Jack Black and Kyle Gass who were the reasons Bey picked up a guitar. “I added the Tenacious D tattoo right there. I thought it was a perfect placement for it and reminds me whenever I grab my guitar, I’ve got a pick on me right there if I never have one physically.”
When it comes to the future of Bey, he said in the next year he plans on making a bigger name for himself in music and he also wants to become Impact World Champion. “One of my goals, when I signed with Impact Wrestling, was to become the world champion, but more than that was to be, triple Crown and two-thirds of the puzzle has been captured when I won the X-Division Championship and now, currently being one-half of the Impact World Tag Team champions.”
In five years, Bey wants to be known as a legend of Impact Wrestling and he knows the title legend gets thrown around loosely or is associated with older people, but he wants to change that.
“But for me, I just think it’s about someone who makes history. I plan on just being a history maker and going down as a legend, an Impact legend and triple Crown and also being a guy who’s done it like no one’s ever done it before.”
On March 24, at the next Impact pay-per-view, Sacrifice, Bey and Austin will be defending their Impact Tag Team Championships against TMDK, Bad Dude Tito and Shane Haste.
Bey getting his hand raised. Credit: Impact Wrestling
If Bey could talk to his past self, he would tell himself to just enjoy the journey because “directions are way more important than speed. I could go somewhere as fast as I wanted to, but I wouldn’t get where I wanted to get to or I’d get there and I’d be missing some of the things I was supposed to bring to that event because I was moving so fast, I dropped a lot of the tools on the way.”
“So I honestly just tell myself to enjoy the journey and understand that there’ll be highs and lows, but if you enjoy the moments that you’re in, you’ll never take anything for granted.”
RELATED LINKS
- Oct. 29, 2024: TNA issues updates on Chris Bey and Vikingo
- Chris Bey’s socials: Instagram* Twitter