Alicia Atout discusses working with AEW, Cody Rhodes, AMBY and odd interactions (Exclusive)

Alicia Atout is one of the very best 'on-air personalities' in professional wrestling. The Interview Queen has made the backstage correspondent role her own, working with All Elite Wrestling and Impact Wrestling this year, as well as chatting with the likes of Chris Jericho, Kenny Omega, Toni Storm and many others.

But when you're an interviewer, you help tell other people's stories. So, just who is Alicia Atout, and how did she get started in the wrestling business?

Well, Atout has interviewed everyone else - it's time we turned the microphone on The Interview Queen herself.

She's worked with All Elite Wrestling and Impact Wrestling, she's brought to life stories from names like Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, Kenny Omega, Matt Riddle and Toni Storm to life and, well, today I get to speak with the Interview Queen - Alicia Atout! How's it going, Alicia?

Hi! That was such an amazing intro. Thank you so much for having me. I'm doing extremely well here in sunny Toronto and I'm super excited to be on here.

Thank you, and I was super excited until you said sunny Toronto because I'm in not so sunny Scotland right now.

Now sometimes wrestling can be its own little bubble so let's go back a bit...

You started AMBY [ed. note: stands for A Music Blog, Yea?, which is... well... anyway...] when you were only 17 years old, and you've interviewed a whole load of musicians - Bring Me The Horizon, Andy Black and many others.

What made you transition into, or I should say broaden your horizons, and start covering wrestling?

Yeah, so the music stuff just got to a point where it was big enough and on a big enough platform where my dad approached me and said, "Hey, you have the music stuff down, you're doing a good job, people are really enjoying the interviews, you have this fan base, finally. Why don't you just try interviewing a wrestler? Give it a shot, worst case your music fans reject it, they say 'It's not working, we don't like it'," and you try to find another way but he said, "Just give it a try."

So I was like, "Do you know what? He's usually right about stuff when it comes to business decisions," so I decided, "Let's give it a try."

So I did one wrestling interview, it did super well, I only had maybe two out of however many thousands of people watching it saying, "What happened to the music?" The response was so positive I figured, "Let's keep doing this."

Next thing you know, fast forward two years since that first wrestling interview, I just haven't turned back. It's completely consumed my life.

NEXT: 'Alicia A' in AEW

COMING UP: The excitement of wrestling and dream interviews

I mentioned that you've done Impact and AEW's Double or Nothing. How did both of those come about?

Yeah, when it comes to Impact, I was working a few local shows and one of them was called BCW, and that one is co-owned by Scott D'Amore, who is the EVP for Impact.

Then they started doing some co-pros with Impact Wrestling, so it got to a point where I was already in their eyes, already at their shows and they just brought me on for television after that. It was a very smooth transition and worked super well in that regard.

Once I was on TV with them, it was still really focusing on my YouTube channel, and I interviewed Cody Rhodes, the [Young] Bucks, Kenny Omega,, and we just kept in touch after those first few interviews, and they started to know me because of my YouTube channel and just seeing them at shows.

Once I realized, "Oh, wow, they are going to be doing ALL IN," I reached out and said, "Hey, if you need anyone, I happen to know somebody, wink, wink."

They brought me on for that and once the rumors for AEW came about, I did kind of the same thing. "Hey, guys, last time it worked out amazingly, I'm so thankful for the opportunity. If you need a backstage host, feel free to hit me up," and the next thing you know, backstage at Double or Nothing so it's all been very effortless and I've been very thankful for all the opportunities and the fact they came around super organically.

On that note, I do need to ask, will we be seeing more of you in All Elite Wrestling?

All I'm going to say, I get asked this all the time by so many fans every day, "When will Alicia be All Elite?" It's one of those things where I am speaking with the guys and it's a wait-and-see process, but fingers crossed, in the end, some really cool stuff will be coming up.

Hopefully, we will be seeing more of Alicia A - I believe you're called on AEW. Where did the decision come from to change your name?

That was directly from the brilliant mind of one Cody Rhodes.

Whenever we text, he will either call me AA or Alicia A, and so one time he just said, "Hey, you cool with the name Alicia A, by the way, for on-air?"

And I'm like, "I'm not going to say no to him," so we just rolled with it, I liked the ring of it and it sounds cool, it's different and I like that I can kind of have that moniker for AEW stuff and then just keep it to Alicia Atout with my stuff because backstage is fairly different from my casual, free-flowing interviews, so I really liked it when he pitched that to me, it was cool.

NEXT: Alicia's YouTube channel

COMING UP: The excitement of wrestling and dream interviews

Yeah, that kind of answers my next question but I'm just going to ask it anyway.

I guess if you were to go forward as a backstage personality or backstage interviewer, the interviewing that you do on your YouTube channel - that won't stop any time soon?

Definitely not. There's a lot of times with certain companies, I've read over different contracts and I'm not just speaking with regards to AEW, just so many different companies, some want you to stop certain things, some are cool with it, some want you to only interview their talent.

I feel like any time I've been backstage at their shows, they've always let me have carte blanche with it of who I want to speak with, so it's kind of hard to say but if an opportunity comes about that so amazing and something I need to take, and AMBY maybe had to be put on the site just for a little bit, I'd be willing to do that.

You kind of never know where life is going to take you so I'm definitely open as long as it ends up being something I enjoy doing.

Now, I'm going to ask a little bit of a cheeky one here, because when else do you get the chance to interview The Interview Queen?!

I, myself, LOVE interviewing wrestlers and musicians, and I've been lucky to speak to some big names. Now, obviously the interviewee brings most of the wood to the chopping block, and I think something several creatives go through is maybe wondering where they fit in and what they bring to the table.

Why do you think the role of the interviewer is important?

I think it's a very important role because I think people want to see this rock star, this amazing wrestler, they want to see their favorite personalities, not just sitting there, answering questions that are listed off, I think they really enjoy seeing them in a fun conversation where their personality really gets to shine because, as interviewers, if we just sit there and we just ask questions, there is no connection, then the interviewee is just going to answer very plainly, very bored.

I've seen it happen a lot, which is a shame. I feel like our job as interviewers is to get the best reaction out of our guests, have fun with them and therefore everyone involved can have fun, whether it is the people in the room watching, people behind the camera, the people watching through a screen, it's definitely our job to have fun with it and make everyone feel comfortable, so...

And by no means is it about putting ourselves over but if you're able to do that any process, I won't complain.

[WE LAUGH]

NEXT: Odd interactions

COMING UP: The excitement of wrestling and dream interviews

The reason I brought that up is, myself, when I started doing interviews, you and Chris Van Vliet were the two people that I'm going, "Man, they just make the role completely their own."

Oh, thank you!

No worries, but one of my favorite things that I actually thought of yours isn't even an interview, which is the most bizarre thing ever.

It was actually a little clip you've done where Su Yung... You're not really interviewing her, I watched the full interview which was amazing as well, but you're trying to get the interview from her and she goes into bite you, which is just complete gold.

On that note, what is the weirdest thing that ever happened to you in an interview?

Oh, gosh, so I was interviewing Rosemary and it was within my first four months of doing wrestling interviews, so I was still getting very used to interviewing people who have very unique personas.

So I was sitting there with The Demon Assassin and we're ending our interview, and she is weirding me out this entire interview. It's like 12 minutes. Right at the end, I go to say, "Well, Rosemary, thank you for your time, I'm just going to scoot out. I'm kind of freaked out, thank you, go back to your hidlings and do your business."

And she goes to say thanks, grabs my hand and she licks it. Straight on, doesn't go to eat it like Su Yung, but she does lick my entire hand, and I was genuinely... No BS here, no gimmicks, I was genuinely so grossed out.

Nothing against Rosemary's hygiene but I just don't want anybody licking me, so that's probably the weirdest thing that happened to me that I'll never forget.

Yeah, definitely a little bit too close for comfort but I mean, it's definitely going to get people watching.

Were you always a wrestling fan? Was that something that was always there in the works or is it something you just more recently went, "Well, it's a good opportunity"?

No, I've been a wrestling fan since I was a really little kid. I used to watch it with my dad when I was three or four years old,

I never really phased out it. There were definitely moments in my teen years where I stopped watching it or was more into it, just like TV shows and everything, but it's always been a constant in my life. That's when my dad said, "Why don't you try interviewing wrestlers?"

It wasn't some random thought, it was him thinking, "She knows a lot about it, she's a genuine fan, let's see if it will be as good as the music interviews," and luckily it all worked out. Definitely, I've always been a fan.

Excellent that means I can put this question to you then...

NEXT:NEXT: The excitement of wrestling and dream interviews

For me, I think, in this day and age, wrestling, maybe for as long as I've been alive, it is as exciting as it's ever been. You've got WWE, AEW, Impact, NJPW - so many companies out there. How exciting is it for you, both as someone who does these interviews, but just as a fan?

It's super exciting because, for me, as you just mentioned, there's two different aspects.

One of being a fan, thinking, "Holy Schnikey! there is so much wrestling to watch! Where does my mind go?" It's crazy. Then there's the work aspect - which is great for two reasons.

One because, [in] the interview and YouTube front, there's more opportunities to get interviews with people. That will be more companies coming through, more places I can travel and get content for my channel. That's amazing. The more talent, the better.

Then the other work front that's amazing is more companies to book me and bring me on board to be a host, an interviewer, ring announcer, whatever it may be - so it definitely broadens the horizon on that front as well, just being super honest with the listeners right now.

It's an amazing time. Wrestling fans are going to have to DVR so much content, you're not even going to know what to do with yourself, but I'd rather have more than not enough, so I think it's an amazing time right now for wrestling fans and just people in the industry alike.

And that leads me onto one final question I've got for you. I felt like I had to end on this question. You've interviewed what seems like everyone on the planet. But I think is probably a few names out there that you maybe haven't spoken to yet. Who would be your dream interviewee?

It's between two people. And am I allowed to kind of cheat and pick two?

Yeah, I'm more than happy for you to stick two names in there!

All right! It's definitely The Rock and Stone Cold. I feel like both those interviews would be SO much fun!

I feel like, with Stone Cold, he's so blunt, and there's no BS at all with him, it would just be... He's always cheeky in a way. I feel like it would be super cool, and The Rock is one of the coolest dudes ever. He seems like he can converse with anyone, have a good time, no ego, so those are definitely my top two. And Cena definitely sneaks in there.

So some big names, but I've got some big names I never thought I'd be able to get before so I'm optimistic. We shall see what the future holds.

Definitely, anything can happen and I'm sure they won't be too far away. Thank you so much for chatting with me. It's been a pleasure.

Thank you so much for taking the time, and your accent is absolutely awesome. I appreciate you taking the time.

You're one of the few people have said that, so thank you very much!

That's so funny! I grew up listening to so much music from across the pond, so I am so used to hearing those accents, I can distinguish them pretty well.

Yeah, and that's definitely an advantage for me. Thank you so much, it's been great and have a great day!

Thank you so much.

A huge thanks to Alicia Atout for talking with me today. You can follow Alicia on YouTube here, or Twitter here.

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