Will Sasso (@willsasso) and Dan Soder (@dansoder) are actors and comedians. They sit down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Los Angeles, CA to give us their hilarious impressions of Macho Man Randy Savage, Jesse Ventura, Hulk Hogan, Andre The Giant, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Dave Chappelle and more! They also discuss their shared love of wrestling, thoughts on the Hulk Hogan documentary, celebrities in wrestling, an incredible story of Will driving Bret Hart to a WCW show, Dan meeting Randy Savage, and more!
Dan Soder: “There’s been some good stuff coming out of the Hogan doc, which I was very excited to talk to you guys both about, because you were at WrestleMania 18, you knew the greatest Hulk Hogan known to man. Was there stuff in the doc that you were surprised they put in?”
Will Sasso: “Yeah, a bit. Well it was so personal, although they skipped, from what I understand, they skipped an entire wife. Nothing was too shocking. I mean, didn’t they get into the racism a little bit? That’s good that they didn’t shy away from a lot of his misgivings.”
Dan: “As I watched it, I was like, Oh, no, is this going to be one of those things where it’s just like, and then he was the best, and then he wasn’t the best, and now it’s sad. But I was like, no, they went. Keeping Bret Hart in there [chef’s kiss].”
Will: “I was watching something where it was like, Kevin Nash was talking about, I recorded for 90 minutes, and then they kept a sound bite, which is fine. But the fact that they kept a good minute and a half of Bret going,’ I thought he was my friend, and he’s a piece of sh*t.’
Dan: “The two parts that really made me laugh my ass off. Number one, that it was surprising that they kept a Bret Hart compliment in there, because he was like, promo-wise, he was 10 out of 10. But the thing that made me laugh the hardest was when they were talking about WrestleMania 9 and when Yokozuna beats Bret, and then Bret’s on the side, and they show Hogan coming down, and he goes, ‘It’s only a match Hogan can dream of.’ And he goes, ‘Oh yeah, my good friend, Hulk Hogan.’ that had me laughing my ass off.”
Dan: “I love Jesse Ventura in the doc. He gave him respect…”
Will: “[Impersonates Ventura] Because that’s where the money is. You wanted to be in the A town. Where would you rather be? Would you rather be Hogan versus Nikolai Volkoff, or do you want to be over with Bundy and Stud? I like John, he’s a great guy, one of the nicest guys. I like Chris too. I like Bundy.”
Dan: “Did you watch the Hall of Fame?”
Will: “I keep it on the laptop when I’m in the hotel, so I don’t really watch it. Steph’s was very long.”
Dan: “That’s what I heard. I heard that was an hour that it should have been its own special.”
Will: “I really was wishing Sid’s family would have got time. Sid was the man, and the ruler of the world!”
Dan: “No disrespect to Dennis Rodman, you did the nWo thing. It was great. Sid gave us a lot more. Sid gave us all the WCW years, the WWF years, when he came.”
Will: “They got rid of the celebrity wing. Get rid of the celebrity wing, because that doesn’t make sense. Just induct Pete Rose because he did some WWE sh*t. Induct Dennis Rodman, because he did some WWE sh*t. You get the name recognition at the show. But they’ve replaced that with, like, here’s the match so they can slow down these inductees and have a show for years. That’s fine. The match is fine. But the legacy wing? There are people who have gone into the Hall of Fame who haven’t done anywhere close to what Sid did, yeah, and they’re just in the Hall of Fame as the show changes. Now, with different ownership and everything, and the whole business of the WWE is completely rethought behind the scenes, I would imagine, I’m talking out of my ass. But when you’re given sort of the MO of what this thing is and what our TV time is. Somehow along the line, it’s like, oh, Sid got f*cked over. What is the legacy wing? There’s no physical Hall of Fame! Just put him in the f*cking thing!”
CVV: Not everyone has to have a match. People forget Snooki had a match at WrestleMania
Dan: “By the way, all over the internet, people who love to act like this is new, that celebrities are a part of wrestling. Celebrities have always been a part of wrestling, but it’s the recipe of how they’re put into the event. I think management is the way to go, having them be a manager, because you’ve got the legends like Paul Heyman, and there’s great managers. But management was such a fun thing in wrestling that they used to do so well that they can bring back so easily.”
Will: “You can do it just for a minute, like they did Alice Cooper with Jake the Snake. That was great.”
CVV: “Will Sasso was there in the early days of the Raw guest host era.”
Will: “We’re at Raw in Washington, DC, promoting the Three Stooges thing. Three Stooges the movie. I say this as a wrestling fan, there was a celebrity every week. This is almost sh*tty to say out loud, but I was like, I don’t think this is because [of us] We’re all behind the movie. I just understood wrestling fans, they fucking hate that stuff. I had done it, and I’d seen the sort of the way people had reacted to it.”
Will: “There was one time I drove Bret. Bret comes to LA and he goes, ‘You know, I’m gonna go do a little surprise thing at the forum. But I don’t want anyone to know that I’m going to be there, can you drive me into the forum?’ I said, Yep, yeah, I’ll clear my calendar.”
Dan: “What is a car ride conversation with Bret Hart, like? Is it about the Calgary Flames?”
Will: “I’m from Vancouver, Canada, and he’s of course, from Calgary, so we’ll talk about that sh*t. We’ll talk about where to eat in Calgary, just stuff, mutual people we know. Bret is a wonderful dude and has always been so kind to me. Well, the one thing I asked Bret to tell me anytime I’ve seen him, I can’t tell the story, because it’s his private memory, sure. But they ribbed the sh*t out of Outback Jack. They f*cked him up. It was him and Neidhart and the Bulldogs, and it is the most legendary story. Anytime I’ve asked him to tell me the story. There’s another part that I didn’t know about. ‘Then, Jack’s passed out. We finally got him back to his bed. And then you know, Davey boy just got up on the bed…’ This f*cking horrifying story of the sh*t they did.
But anyway, I drove him into the forum, and he’s underneath a jacket in the back of my truck, like this. I just drive up to the thing, and I roll down the window a bit. They’re like, ‘Hi, who are you?’ I roll down the window a bit, and Bret goes, ‘It’s me, I got it.’ They’re like, Okay. Then I drove right in, and Goldberg was doing a photo shoot right there, and then Hulk is there, and then Goldberg throws a t-shirt at my face, like he throws a t-shirt at me, it’s like we’re playing around, like we’re friends. Then Hulk was in the red and yellow for a minute and was cutting a promo. Bret’s music hit, and no one had seen him in WCW for a year.”
CVV: I love that the cool thing about wrestling is that it brings in all fans. It can fool people like us, and then new fans, or casual fans, can go, do those guys actually hate each other?
“That feeling when someone you know doesn’t watch wrestling and they ask a question like that, you go, I got you. Come on in. The water’s very warm. But I do love that, and it really reminds me of every time they get us fooled on kayfabe. It reminds me of when you see an old married couple that’s happy and they always go, he always finds new ways to surprise me. That’s what wrestling is. You keep making me fall in love, you keep bringing me back, because I got lucky. I told you about that. I met Macho Man when he was doing the rap album. He came through KMFA in Tucson. I was a DJ there, but I did overnights and stuff while I was doing stand-up. I went in to get my paycheck, and my old program director, Matt Spry, RIP, he knew I loved wrestling, and he knew I was really into it. He was just at his desk program, and he was like, ‘You should go in the production studio.’ I went, Oh, do they need something for the weekend promo? He’s like, ‘Just go in the production studio.’ Those heavy ass doors, and I opened it, and I hear, ‘You’re listening to Tucson’s New Rock, 92.1 and 101.3 KFMA.’ I was like, Who is doing this? I opened it, and it was him, and he had his back to me. Consummate pro. Does it, looks at Rick the producer, and he goes, ‘Was that all right?’ They go, yeah, that’s all right. He has sunglasses on, and Rick, my friend, Rick Berg, was there, who’s doing the production. He went, ‘This is Dan. He works here.’ I remember he turned around, he Oakleys on, and he had the black leather hat backwards. But I remember he took his glasses off, and I remember going, like, your eyes are so deep in your head. Like, that was my first thought was, like, Damn Macho, your eyes are deep in there. But he was like, ‘Very nice to meet you.’ And it was just very calm. I was like, when’s the album coming out? He’s like, ‘We’re doing a little press, that’s a little something, couple of weeks.’ You’re like, wow. He was very low, very normal guy, and then left.”
Dan, how do you feel when people say you have the best Macho on Earth?
Dan: “I disagree. It’s just cool that people like it.”
CVV: Will, how did you dial in Jesse Ventura? Because you can go on for 20 minutes doing it
Will: “I was doing Jesse Ventura when I was a kid. Because you’re watching wrestling, and it’s, ‘What do you think, Jess?’ It’s like, ‘Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades,’ and it was like that. Even when I did it on Mad TV, it wasn’t good, because he’s like, ‘I’m from Minnesota,’ I would just hit the A’s. Because Jesse’s voice, as we know, these impressions change over time, and his timbre is changing.”
CVV: I interviewed Jesse Ventura. I said, it’s been 35 years. Do you think you’d want to bury the hatchet? And he goes, “No!”
Dan: “Damn. Well, you know what? And honestly, when you see about why Jesse Ventura is so mad about it, he’s got a point. He’s like, You f*cked over all the future wrestlers just so you can stay the top guy.”
CVV: Instead of me asking you guys what you’re grateful for. How about I ask each one of your characters what they’re grateful for? Andre the Giant, what’s one thing he’d be grateful for?
Dan: “Bordeaux!”
CVV: What would Hulk Hogan be grateful for?
Will: “Well, hold on dude. Hold on Chris. Hold on Dan. Well, hold on brother. Because I’ve had a long life, dude. I’ve had a big, long career. But more than anything, brother, I’m thankful for Hogan’s Hangout. We do karaoke on Tuesday night. Rest in peace.”
CVV: What would finally, Macho Man Randy Savage be grateful for?
Dan: “For the top turnbuckle. Let me say again, for Elizabeth.”
CVV: The very last one. What would Jesse Ventura be grateful for?
Will: “Well, I’m grateful for a lot of things, but I’m most grateful for the American people, because they’re the only thing that’s going to get us out of the predicament that we’re in. Power to the people, and that’s how I became the mayor of Minnesota. But stay tuned, because I’m bringing some things federally that you’re going to hear about soon. I’m not going to break it here, but you know, pretty soon you’ll see.”
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