AEW star Zach Clayton talks pro wrestling, Jersey Shore and his fiancée JWOWW

The three most important letters for Jersey Shore fans was GTL.

Now, it’s AEW or ROH.

Zach Clayton, best known to reality show fans as the fiancée of Jersey Shore star Jennifer Lynn Farley, or JWOWW, is one of the top young stars in professional wrestling, and this weekend, he’ll be doing what he does best.

On Friday night, he’ll represent Ring of Honor when he wrestles at the CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton for Death Before Dishonor, which will also be available on pay-per-view. The next night, he’ll be in Newark at the Prudential Center to represent All Elite Wrestling for a live Collision, which will air on TNT at 8 p.m.

AEW owner Tony Khan purchased Ring of Honor last year, so Clayton has a chance to show the world what he can do on two consecutive nights.

The promotion, which officially debuted in 2019, is really catching fire. On top of their three weekly national shows – Dynamite on Wednesday nights on TBS, and Rampage (Friday) and Collision (Saturday) on TNT, the promotion continues to pick up momentum. It also just released its first video game, Fight Forever, and has already sold 75,000 tickets to a show next month at Wembley Stadium in England.

Things just keep picking up for the promotion.

“AEW just launched Collison on Saturday night, the company is advancing pretty rapidly,” Clayton said. “We rebranded Ring of Honor, it’s been going great. I love our rate of expansion and our shows coming up are a big example. We’re getting bigger and better as time goes on.”

And Clayton is rapidly becoming a big part of it.

The Albany, New York, native started training in his hometown before training with longtime pro wrestler Johnny Rodz, who became one of the top teachers in the business after he retired.

Clayton built himself into a fine wrestler, and eventually got the call from AEW when it was in its early days.

Clayton is a young wrestler, so he didn’t bring the wealth of experience guys like Chris Jericho or Bryan Danielson have. But he did bring something unique to the table.

He starred on “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation,” where he was exposed to millions of fans of the MTV reality show.

And since he’s blessed with the gift of gab, he stood out on the show, gaining a lot of new fans. His hope is those Jersey Shore fans become fans of professional wrestling, or at least the entertainment part of the sport.

Pro wrestling fans and Jersey Shore fans aren’t exactly the same demographic, but they’re both entertaining shows. Clayton is hoping he can help with the crossover.

“It’s cross-marketing,” Clayton said. "There’s some really super wrestling fans that don’t know who I am yet, and there are people that know nothing about wrestling and know exactly who I am. That’s why it’s exciting to help bridge those gaps. It helps everyone. The more people that get raised up, the more successful everything becomes.”

Being on the MTV reality show has helped his profile, but it’s nothing he set out to do. In fact, he said the only reason he’s on the show is because of his fiancée.

“It’s definitely a new experience and I wouldn’t be doing it without Jenni,” Clayton said. “It’s a lot different. In the reality show, there are 10 cameras around, but you’re not acting for them. In wrestling, you perform for the camera, you have to know where it’s at. That’s a big difference.”

It’s not just a big difference for him, and that’s one of the reasons you haven’t seen him JWOWW-ing the crowd.

“Nobody believes this, but she has terrible stage fright,” Clayton said of Farley. She hates being in front of people. (When she's doing reality TV), she's on camera, but she's not looking or talking into the camera. It’s the opposite. She hates being in front of a crowd, she hates attention.

“When you’re looking at TV through the TV, you don’t see that. 10 cameras in the room, but we’re talking to each other. And I love it. You're not just in front of a live audience. If you don’t like people in pro wrestling, you won’t do well. She thinks (wrestling is)  entertaining. Maybe someday I can get her in there with me. I’m hoping.”

That would be great, but things couldn’t really be better.

When he’s not beating up opponents or on vacation with MTV, he loves being a family guy. He lives in Monmouth County with Farley and her two children Greyson, 7, and Meilani, 9. And just as he loves them, they love him.

“Contrary to popular belief, wrestling hurts, and when the kids are at home they wonder if I’m going to get hurt and they worry,” said Clayton. “I have a few bruises, black eye. Jenni’s son Grayson, he’s known me since he was 2. He thought it was the coolest thing. He loves wrestling.

“I try to share it on Instagram, it’s something we don’t always put out there, but the kids are great. They’re on (MTV) sometimes, but it’s not a focal point of the show, but definitely the focal point of our lives. I love to share when we do something cool. I have Greyson working out at home, that’s pretty cool.”

He gets plenty of support from the love of his life, as well.

“It’s nothing I don’t tell her, she’s very important to me,” Clayton said of his fiancee. “She’s the reason I’m able to do this. She’s my backbone of support at home, when I’m gone, traveling, I have to make sure she’s good, she always makes sure I’m good. I’m very thankful and grateful for her.”

He also has love and support of the veterans in the AEW locker room, mentioning QT Marshall, Paul White and Jerry Lynn as guys who have been big influences on him since he arrived. With their support, he hopes to put on two great shows this weekend, and he’ll be on both of them.

Clayton loves to wrestle, but there is something about East Coast wrestling fans that make it that much more exciting. And of course, for him, it’s home.

“It’s always more fun when it’s home,” said Clayton, who names Ric Flair as his favorite wrestler. “East Coast crowds specifically, you can’t beat them, they’re electric. Jam-packed crowds full of excitement, say whatever they want to say, you always get more spice from the New York, New Jersey crowd. And it’s where my home is. When you can come to your hometown, a crowd that knows you on a more personal basis, it makes it fun.”

For tickets to Friday’s Ring of Honor pay-per-view or Saturday’s AEW TV taping, visit AEWTix.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: AEW wrestler Zach Clayton, JWOWW's fiancé, set for huge ROH event