The Righteous, Vincent & Dutch, revealed that their characters find their essence in art, horror movies, and music. Over time, they have put together elements of their passions into their characters. They compare themselves to a Wes Craven movie’s title, “The Serpent and the Rainbow.” Vincent is the flowery one when Dutch is the lurker, the one insinuating himself into every situation.
In an interview with Last Word on Pro Wrestling and WorldWide Wrestling, Vincent and Dutch discussed various subjects. This includes the Wicked Garden match coming this Thursday Night, their everlasting feud with the Hardys, the inspirations behind their unique characters, why TNA Wrestling is the perfect place for them to be these characters, their plans for TNA Slammiversary, and more.
The Wicked Garden match
Vincent: “We won’t tell you everything, but we can tell you that the Wicked Garden is something new. It’s never been done before. It’s the first time ever in the wrestling industry, but it’s going to be violent. It’s going to be brutal. It’s going to be wild. It’s going to be a great presentation to look at. So, it’s exciting to go into TNA iMPACT with the first-ever Wicked Garden match. So, I hope everybody tunes in because it is definitely something special and new. It’s a very Righteous-style match, so it’s going to be good.”
Dutch: “The Hardys have been wrestling for close to 40 years now. You’d think at their point in their career, they had done it all, which they might have, but this is the first time they’ve done anything like this before, the Wicked Garden match. It’s something that they’ve never experienced. Nobody’s ever experienced it. And I think you will be in for a nice, violent treat when it airs this week.
Vincent: “It’s new to the Hardies. It’s new to us. It’s new to TNA wrestling. It’s new to wrestling in general. So, it’s going to be a great thing to witness.”
Targeting the Hardys
Vincent: “The Hardys were a big inspiration to us when we were young wrestling fans growing up. I think they were for many people who are in the industry; they’re a huge influence. They’re the greatest tag team of all time, one of the greatest ever. I think they would be the target for anybody coming in. Everybody would want the Hardys, the company’s top act.
“With that being said, with all I said before, with the inspiration that they had on us and the influence they had on us, especially myself, they were the best ones to target first because I feel like it’s a full-circle moment for me. It’s almost like one of those goals that you want to reach in a sense.
“And the way it’s been going over the course of the months, (…) the Righteous, right now, is the catalyst to bringing out all the different versions of the Hardys and whatever they have to offer, whether it’s the violent side of the Hardys, which you saw at TNA Genesis. We made them angry enough to give us the best they had in that tag title match, and then sacrificed ourselves for them in that match so they could stay the TNA World Tag Team Champions because, for us, it was beyond that.
“Our goal is to become the TNA World Tag Team Champions, which would be the first time for Dutch and me as a team. For now, the focus is the Hardys, and our goal is to have them reach something that’s beyond Broken Matt Hardy, that’s beyond Brother Nero. But I feel that we need them this way for the rest to happen after. And who knows where it could lead to?”
The essence of the Righteous
Vincent: “The Righteous is something that evolved over time. We’re very big fans of music, horror movies, and documentaries. I’m a big fan of art and painting. So I think that’s where a lot of the aesthetic comes from, that artistic vision that we kind of have for our entrance. It’s a very 1960s-1970s aesthetic.
“I’m the mellow one of the two. I’m more of a flowy kind of laid-back kind of person in general. All the inspirations from music, movies, and everything that we’ve always liked, and the art of whatever it is, cinema, it’s just like versions of everything pulled. I think we’ve done so much trial and error with what we have created that I think now it’s become kind of like just it is who we are, you know, it’s a part of who we are.”
Dutch: “We’re huge fans of horror movies, and I love metal. I just love music in general, any type of music. I’m always listening to lyrics, and I listen to them as if I were feeling them as well. I do take a lot of different types of lyrics that I listen to and see, but I try to feel them, and I try to incorporate that into my character as well. And obviously, with horror movies, I take bits and pieces out of. I watch so many things. I have thousands of movies that nobody’s ever even heard of before. I’ll watch things and take little things here and there.
“I always refer to Vincent and me as “The Serpent and the Rainbow,” which was a movie by Wes Craven back in the late 1980s, early 1990s. And I feel like the name The Serpent and the Rainbow kind of describes exactly who Vincent and Dutch are. Vincent’s the more flowery, vibrant, whereas I’m lurking back in the scenes and making sure everything is well-kept and making sure everything is in order and doesn’t get taken out of order.”
TNA Wrestling, the perfect place for the Righteous
Vincent: “Where we are right now is the best we’ve ever been. I think it’s going to continue to grow, for Dutch and me, as the Righteous as a whole. I feel like we found our groove with this, in recent times. I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes from here.”
Dutch: “TNA iMPACT is the number one place for us. They’ve been very forgiving with our creative ideas and letting us just kind of go with the flow, and we’re really able to show what the Righteous is capable of doing. This opportunity has been phenomenal so far, and it’s only going to get better from here.”
Plans for TNA Slammiversary on June 28
Vincent: “For starters, we’ve got to get by the Wicked Garden. Then, we head to Denver on the 6th and 7th of June. I don’t know what Denver is gonna bring because we have to see what happens. Maybe, witness the fallout from the Wicked Garden, we’ll see how we feel. TNA Slammiversary, which is one of TNA’s biggest shows ever, is going to be huge in Boston.
“I did see that we don’t know the plans for the Righteous at Slammiversary. I did see, depending on what goes on with the Hardys, there is a Ladder match that’ll take place. Maybe it’s the one match that we haven’t had with the Hardys. So, who knows what that could be? We don’t know exactly, but it’s exciting. It’s going to be exciting for the next couple of weeks.
Dutch: “TNA Slammiversary means a lot to us because that area in Boston is where we both kind of started our careers. Being able to perform in the Agganis Arena is a kind of good full-circle moment for the two of us. So, we’re both looking forward to Slammiversary.”
