Lee Moriarty was quite the phenomenon on the indie circuit. Since he has signed on with AEW, he has given the fans one impressive match after another. One match that stands out was his match against CM Punk, the legendary Straight Edge wrestler.
Straight Edge is a lifestyle that many try to live up to. CM Punk has been Straight Edge for quite some time and quite simply, it means that he abstains from drugs, alcohol, and promiscuousness and essentially lives a clean life.
Moriarty stated recently that it is because of CM Punk that he also is Straight Edge. He made the following statement while speaking on the AEW Unrestricted podcast:
“It’s important for me not just for my lifestyle personally, but it’s also for peace of mind for my family…So my mom and dad, when I told them I wanted to be a professional wrestler, they were very against it because around the time I made the decision. It was my teenage years and the wrestlers from back in that day were unfortunately passing away because of drugs and alcohol and all that stuff catching up to them, so that was a big concern for them…
Originally, like I knew I didn’t want to do drugs and alcohol and stuff just because Bruce Lee’s removing the non-essentials from your life and stuff like that. I didn’t know it was called Straight Edge. I didn’t know that there was this detailed thing until I found CM Punk when I was watching TV one day…
I looked more into it. I thought it was really cool what that lifestyle meant. I took that pledge, and then from then on, I’ve just always been Straight Edge, and I feel like that’s made my family a little more comfortable with me living the lifestyle I live.”
Paige VanZant will still compete in Bare Knuckle Boxing while signed with AEW
At 27 years old, VanZant has certainly accomplished quite a bit. She was finally signed with AEW after quite a number of appearances with the promotion, but she recently stated that she wants to continue with her bare knuckle boxing career as well and despite the recent signing, according to a report at mmafighting.com.
VanZant has had a career in mixed martial arts and her MMA career record totals eight wins and five losses overall.
About her training in the sport, she once said:
“When I’m training, I cater a little bit to my opponents. Going into a fight, I adapt to each opponent, but for this one, I’ve been training as hard as I can. I have been working to get better in every aspect of my fight game and then go in there and do what I do best. For this fight, I looked at her strengths and then tried to adapt to those.”
She is also a model and social media influencer. Her Instagram account doesn’t show much in the realm of the fighting arts as of late; she is quite the personality online and has garnered attention for herself in recent years for a plethora of reasons.
She has appeared on Dancing with the Stars; has written an autobiography: Rise: Surviving the Fight of My Life, and has appeared on the culinary competition show, Chopped, on the Food Network and she actually won, defeating three other celebrities to become the Celebrity Chopped Champion.
She is set to enter into a feud with Tay Conti, as they had quite the run-in on Dynamite just this past week.