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DDP: Cody Rhodes Is Like A Nephew, Helping WWE Legends, Randy Orton’s RKO, Royal Rumble

in LATEST EPISODES on December 12, 2024 December 12, 2024

https://cvvtix.com – Tickets for the first ever INSIGHT LIVE the day before the Royal Rumble on January 31, 2025 in Indianapolis are on sale now!

Diamond Dallas Page (@RealDDP) is a retired professional wrestler and WWE Hall of Famer. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Atlanta, GA to discuss being in phenomenal shape at 68 years of age, helping the stars of the past and present recover from injuries and addictions, his recent work with Lex Luger, being a surprise entrant in the 2015 Royal Rumble, if Randy Orton asked permission to use the Diamond Cutter as his finisher and more!

Quote I’m thinking about: “When the old man knocks, I don’t let him in.” – Clint Eastwood

Subscribe to DDP’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Dallapage

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On if he would wrestle at 70 years old:

“No [laughs]. It’s so important for me, my body feels good. I remember Bruno Sammartino and I did something. My buddy Sal Corrente was really the first guy, and he was ahead of his time to do it. I can’t remember what he called it, but it was something of Meet the Freats. It was some wrestling name Rumble, I can’t remember what it was called, but he promoted it so well that he got me and Bruno on ESPN to talk about this show. Dusty was a headliner as a signer, and Bruno feuded with Zybysko, and I was going to be his second and get it in wrestle for Bruno, who, at the time, is 70. I love Bruno Sammartino, dude, you don’t get no bigger than Bruno. So I tell Bruno, I go, because here is what we’re going to do at the end, we’ll do the schmoz, and you come in and you light Larry up. [He says] Oh no, no, Diamond, I don’t feel too good. Aches and pains? Most of them are gone. I’m good. I’m like, okay, Bruno. You know what happened at the end? He went in there and lit Larry up, he couldn’t stop himself. I am there for a diamond cutter. I do want to hit one when I’m 70.”

On his Royal Rumble cameo:

“Let’s go back to the last time that I did a Rumble. No one knows it. We have The Resurrection of Jake the Snake at the Slamdance Film Festival, the same time as the other big Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, no one knows. I fly up to Jersey, and they drive us into Philly, they’re having a big party, and everybody’s saying I’m not there because my throat, oh my God, my throat was so bad. There was an interview on YouTube of me with Larry King and Scott and Jake and I blew it out pushing myself too much. So I got enough of a voice to talk, and I get a text from Cody. He goes, how apropos, I will be the first that you hit with the cutter. And it was Cody, and then Fandango, and then the immortal Bray Wyatt, bringing boom, boom, boom. Then PS Hayes, the booker, right? He’s booking this whole thing. He goes, and then, you know what happens? Me and Bubba, who’s also going to be in the Rumble, look at each other. Here comes Randy, and he goes. So he’s going to take you out of like and me and Bubba looked at you’re like, really? Like, wait a second, the legend killer and Randy, a lot of people have heard me talk about him. One of my favorites, one of my favorites of all time. I think the most underrated guy maybe ever in our business. Because even though he’s seen here, he could be on Mount Rushmore. I mean, he’s had everything, and he’s still got the look and the size and the rap and the work and the promo. I mean, again, he’s a guy who’s gotten all the breaks and freaking kicked their asses. The Legend Killer, but haven’t killed me yet [laughs]. I want to take it so bad. I had this vision of the rumble, right? And friggin he comes down. Here, comes Randy. And he goes for it, and I get out of it. And then I go for it. He gets out of it, and then it turns into, of course, the RKO.”

Did Orton ask for permission to use the cutter:

“Randy wasn’t there when I left. I called him later on about it. I wanted him to use it. But he never remembered the phone call, because he was coming out of surgery, and it was right around the time that I had called him, he was all banged up, because you come out of surgery and stuff. Later on, like Michael PS Hayes and Johnny Ace is really the originator of the one arm kick it out. Randy took it with the jump, and Randy did things with that sh*t that I wasn’t athletic enough to do what he did, and I love what he did with it, but my favorite cutter ever, I had him on an interview with me recently. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. Me and Sammy Guevara. And that him and Cody. And before that, it was Frankie and Chris.”

On helping Jake Roberts get sober:

“I owed him. There was a point in time during the f*cking pandemic, those f*ckers for doing that to us. There was a time where I really bought into it, like I thought, f*ck this sh*t. These guys are serious before I really realized everything that was happening. But at one point, I kept telling Jake, because he was staying with me for a while over that period. And I said, ‘Listen Jake, if you go out to work. I got Brittany here, my daughter, my granddaughter, Oakley, and Paige. Dude, I don’t want you to bring anything back, bro. If you leave, you’re gonna have to stay gone.’ He’s like, ‘Okay, I gotta go to work.’ Okay, so we end up in a hotel room, and then at some point in that hotel, is no one except for Jake and the person who’s working the desk. So it’s really kind of like, What’s that movie that Jack Nicholson was in? The Shining. It’s kind of like that. I saw a tweet or something Jake did that was kind of rough, and I called him up. I said, ‘What do I tell you? I’m coming to get you.’ So I come upstairs, and I see Brittany. She’s in the kitchen. And I said, ‘Listen, I know I told her he couldn’t come back, but I’m gonna go get Jake. I’m gonna bring him back.’ She goes. I love Jake, but doesn’t he have other family he can go to?’ I said, ‘Little girl, I don’t own this house without him.’ [She says] ‘You’re right, Dad, you’re right.’ So Jake and Dusty, those cats they were. I mean, I had the greatest minds in the world mentoring me.”

On how WWE treats their legends today:

“I think it was SummerSlam Cody had said, ‘Did you hear about the email that went around?’ I said, No. And they said, these are the legends who are going to be here. And they just brought different guys in. I was there because Bron Breakker he’s working in his gym with me for two years. I was helping him get ready for Baltimore to go for the Ravens, and that didn’t work out, but he’s going to be a mega star in WWE. So getting there to see him win the Intercontinental Championship was huge and always being there for Cody for me. But when they sent that email out, they had a little bio on each person, just a little one, and what they said to their crew, the boys and the girls, because a lot of those people don’t even know how we are. They weren’t even born. You know what I mean? It’s understandable. It’s like, here’s who they are. Just don’t say hello, thank them. And that was really cool for me. I’m a fan of CM Punk and just this is whole, just his whole Punkism that he is, how he is so over with the people. He literally came up to me when he saw me hey DDP! He gave me a hug and he said, Hey, man, just want to welcome you in and thank you. That was super cool. And I got a lot of respect for him anyway, because it’s amazing to me, the grip he has on the people, like he can do no wrong, man.”

On being at the Royal Rumble press conference:

“You said there in the press conference, you need to ask him [Cody Rhodes] the first question. And next thing I know, they’re handing me [the mic] and I’m asking him for the first question. That is the power of manifesting something into reality. It starts with a thought that is a spoken word and then repetition. I’ve lived the dream over and over and over again. I’ve also failed on the way there. And I used to say a line every wrestler says, but it’s not about how many times I fall down. It’s about how many times I get back up again.”

On working with Lex Luger:

“[He’s been in a wheelchair] 15 years. You know the craziest part about that the day that he got paralyzed, I’m not sure exactly why it happened, but I have been wanting to see him because I’d heard he found God, and he had gone through this change. To be honest, I couldn’t believe it, because I know Lex, and I know when Sting got saved Lex would bury it. He loves Sting, but the God sh*t? He wasn’t buying it. I know the good and the bad of Lex, and I still love him through all of that. Once we became bros, we were tight as hell, but I hadn’t talked to him in a long time, and he had gone through a lot of things that had happened over that period, and Eric Watts is the one who told me. He goes, ‘You gotta see Lex. You’re not gonna believe it.’ I go, ‘What do you mean?’ I go, you hate Lex. He’s like, No, I don’t. I go, you wanted to beat his ass. You hated Lex. And he’s like, you’re right, I did, but I don’t anymore, we’re roommates. What universe am I in? That’s how much Watts hated him, and he’s like, you gotta see this man. His belief in Christ and everything. It’s real. And I said, Man, I’m going to San Francisco next week. I can’t wait to see him. And that was the night that Lex ended up going down and the promoter, who had just paid me said, I just got a call. Lex had some kind of heart attack or something. There’s EMTs in there. He didn’t know why, there was no heart attack, but when I ran to the room where he was at there’s Lex sitting in a chair, and like, Lex, I come up and I give him a hug. Are you okay? He goes, I’m okay. Dally, I’m okay. He didn’t hug me or anything. I didn’t really realize. I wasn’t thinking at the time, but looking back, I know he didn’t. The EMTs are like, Lex, you have to go to the hospital. [he said] No hospitals. Lex didn’t have anything then. He didn’t want any more debt. He’s a very proud guy, and he didn’t want any of that. I’m looking to him, and I know things that have happened to the boys when something like this happens, [I said] ‘You got to go to hospital, you got to go, bro.’ He goes ‘You think so, Dally?’ I’m like ‘bro, you got to go.’ And he goes, ‘Well, you know, my hips are bad.’ I go, ‘I’ll help you.’ So an EMT got on one side, got another, and we picked him up, laid him on a table, and they took him off. The guys who were the EMTs, this is God’s work, they’re both humongous wrestling fans. They’re in freaking San Francisco, they’re in Cow Palace area. This is the hood. They go through all those towns to get to Stanford, which is one of the best hospitals that there is. And the nurse, when he gets there, name is Charity. They end up taking him, I believe, a couple of days first class. They have to wheel him in. I don’t know how the hell they got it all done, but they fly him into Atlanta, where he goes to the Shepherd Center, and his nurse is Hope, and he’s in, no bullshit, room 316, so whatever is happening here, me and Steve [Borden] are there the next day, and by this time, he’s starting to get movement back in his fingers and his arms a little bit, no legs. And Lex had a hospital that was going to give him new hips, but now he’s paralyzed. Somehow, Lex talks them into giving him new hips, even though he has no movement because his rationale was that if you get me moving, I won’t be able to walk anyway, because I couldn’t walk before. They put the new hips in and over time, I’ve got video footage of me and Lex working together with Steve taking this from 14 years ago, okay, maybe more than that, how many years ago it was. And then Lex finally gets up, and he starts eventually, because he’s so relentless, moving and walking with a crook thing, and then a cane, and then no cane, and then he hit a pothole, and he went down, and that’s where he was for the last X amount, whatever years it’s been. When he saw the Butterbean video, we were both at Sting’s last match, I’m sitting there watching the monitor, and we’re the two guys who are WWE guys, basically said we’re going, you good with that? We’re not going to go on camera. We’re good? And they were great. And he rolled up next to me, and he goes, ;Dally, I saw the Buttebean video, bro. I didn’t know you had chair workouts.’ I said, ‘Well, I didn’t have them back when you and I were working, I got them now.’ He goes, ‘Do you think maybe we could start?’ I’m like, ‘Dude, how many times have I asked you to start back up again? I’m like, absolutely, come over Monday.’ And we got met up after that, and we’ve been working together about whenever Sting’s match was, that following Monday?”

Could Lex Luger walk again?

“I don’t know. I mean, I really don’t. There’s so much nerve damage in there. I really don’t know, but I do know that if it’s possible, Lex is gonna do it. There’s so many things I do in the chair workouts, even the bed. No one could tell me you can’t do DDP yoga. It starts in bed. You can’t get out of bed? I got nine workouts for you in bed. Then sitting in a chair. That’s where I focus most of my things, chair and then getting him to stand up and then go back down and stand up and go back down. Standing is one thing. He can stand, but it’s for moments, that’s a huge deal. We’re going to put that video out soon to let people see. It’s shaky, but it’s pretty amazing. And again, what I do is every time he works out, it’s a completely different workout. I’m adding, subtracting, changing, growing, and I’ve never done this before with anyone. So I’ve got our first workout. Do you know how many people are in chairs that aren’t paralyzed? There’s a lot. How many people are in those little scooters? There’s a lot and they’d like to be out of that. Well, you could start here, because this guy was paralyzed and he’s got nerve damage, you can surely do what he did on day one. But every week, we’ll be on the app at some point, when we get to wherever we’re going to, it’ll all be in a sequence. So you could wherever you’re at start where he’s at.”

What is DDP grateful for?

“My wife and kids, the openness that it took to be open and that I know how to be grateful.”

Bobby Lashley On Brock Lesnar, Shaving Vince McMahon’s Head, Kurt Angle, AEW, Hurt Syndicate

in LATEST EPISODES on December 5, 2024 December 5, 2024

https://cvvtix.com – Tickets for the first ever INSIGHT LIVE the day before the Royal Rumble on January 31, 2025 in Indianapolis are on sale now!

Bobby Lashley (@fightbobby) is a professional wrestler currently signed to AEW. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Dallas, TX to discuss signing with AEW, how Kurt Angle got him into pro wrestling, representing Donald Trump in the Battle of the Billionaires at WrestleMania 23, shaving Vince McMahon bald and the rivalry that followed, the Rusev and Lana love triangle, jumping through the cage onto Umaga, how close he came to fighting in the UFC, finally getting the match against Brock Lesnar in WWE and more!

Quote I’m thinking about: “So turn the page, get off the ride. You are the author of the book of your life.” — Matthew McConaughey

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On not aging:

“I think I fell in a little time warp, the 10 years of my life kind of just fused together when I was fighting and everything like that. It kind of links me up so I don’t feel any older. I feel in great shape, I’ve never stopped working out, it’s like an addiction. That’s my addiction. So I’m just that guy. I take it easy, I have fun, and my kids keep me young. When you’re running around with kids, my son’s like, all right, Dad, we gotta go throw a football. You know you got to be ready. You got to be there for your kids. So that’s what it was all about. For me, is being able to do things with my kid and stay active because of that. And I think if you are around kids, and you allow yourself to just have fun with kids, I think that’s what keeps you young.”

On always being in great shape:

“We would joke about it, there’s show muscles and go muscles. And I would say I had go muscles. Because I enjoy doing a lot of other things, I enjoy boxing, and you can’t box if you’re a bodybuilder. So I’ve always kept kind of flexibility, stayed loose, and everything like that. I enjoy yoga. I enjoy being able to explore all kinds of different fitness avenues, not just pumping weights, lifting weights. When people ask me what my training regimen is I’m like, I don’t know, because I really just go to the gym as mental clarity. I go to the gym because I like to challenge myself. I always talk about challenges. I really just go up there because I have different challenges, from my pull-up challenge to my push-up challenge and different things like that. And I do it, and then it’s like, I set a number for myself. It’s like, alright, you did this amount of push-ups or this amount of pull-ups, and that’s where you’re at. Then the next time I go there, I want to be able to beat that. So there’s a series of things that I have to do in order to be better at that challenge.”

On Kurt Angle helping him get into WWE:

“So amateur wrestling and pro wrestlers kind of have this [animosity] before, the relationship has been different. It’s been changed up to now. But, when Kurt came, I was at the Olympic training center training. We were getting ready for World Team trials. So it was a big event that we were getting ready for. Kurt was doing a vignette with WWE, he came down, and when he was doing it, he wanted to just go through practice with us. So he was running with us, drilling and everything like that, off to the side. Then Kurt was just kind of like going around some of the people he knew. I never met Kurt, but I was a pro wrestling fan, and sometimes in the amateur rankings, you gotta be little quiet with that. But I knew Kurt, because the cool thing about Kurt was when I was in high school, he was in college, and when I was in high school, I watched his video where he wrestled Sylvester Terkay. And it was big, it was on TV. All they were doing is talking about Sylvester Terkay, how great he was. And they were talking about Kurt Angle is the underdog in this match and it was a great match. It was one that I recorded on VHS tapes, if you look up far back that was. I remember watching it then. So I knew Kurt then, and I looked up to him because how tough he was and how hard he fought and how much he trained. They talked about his story a little bit, and I was like that’s me. I’m a workout trainingaholic. I love to train and get ready for things. It motivates me. So I was a big fan of his when I was in high school, and he was in college wrestling. Then I moved up to college and he moved to WWE. Then I watched him and I saw some of the matches he was doing. I was a pro wrestling fan before, and when I watched him come up, he was doing amateur wrestling in a pro wrestling world, but he was able to mix the two. And I was like he’s incredible. Some of the matches he had with Eddie Guerrero and some of the other people that he wrestled with, Brock and some of the other big matches that he had. I was like I love the style. So now, when he was out there, I’m at the Olympic Training Center, he comes back and I was like, this is the kid. I was a huge fan of him for 10 years ago. So I was like this is awesome. And then he came to me, and he said, you got a pretty good look and I see, he said, you watch pro wrestling? [I said] Absolutely, man, I’m a huge fan of yours. And he was like, I’d love to be able to maybe introduce you to some people in WWE, because it might be a good opportunity for you. He said, I’ve already talked to coach Kevin Jackson, and Kevin Jackson said, yeah, just go talk to him. So we exchanged numbers then. What Kurt told me at the time, he said, if you would have accomplished what you accomplished in amateur wrestling in basketball, football, baseball, you’d be probably a multi-millionaire playing in the pros. He said, pro wrestling is our pro sport, so you might want to look into it. And I was like, noted. So one thing led to the next, and then I ended up in WWE.”

On quickly being involved in a Vince McMahon storyline:

“That was crazy. When you first get into the business, you don’t really understand how quick that machine moves. Some of the people that are in there right now, they’re in there, and they just don’t understand the magnitude of that machine. They don’t understand it.”

On the Battle of the Billionaires:

“It was funny all the way through, because you just watching these two powerhouses talk to each other, so they’re going back and forth, and they’re on top of everything. I remember there was an iconic photo that we had where Vince and Trump were sitting down on a chair, and then we were standing above them. Austin was in the middle. I think everybody was in there in this picture. And I remember it was something so small. But you saw these two, Vince and Trump, and both of them, they want to be leaders here. And we were trying to figure out how we were going to sit. Because they initially had it, which I don’t think made any sense. Somebody put it down on paper that me and Umaga were supposed to sit in the chairs and have those guys standing with their hands on our shoulders and and then Stone Cold in the middle, and them looking at each other. So little things like that are huge. And then Trump was like, No, I don’t think we should do this. I think we should sit down and based on the way this angle is right here, it makes me look old, so it catches this. I don’t want to see that. Let’s go here. Vince was like I want to do this. I was like, I’ll stand wherever you guys want me. So when we put it all together with these two guys, they were able to work together. And then we put it together, and the picture came out perfect. I think it was right the way it should have been.”

Did you show Trump how to do the clothesline?

“No. But I can tell you. I remember the backstage, I think Vince was saying it. Because Trump wanted to be a part of it. He wanted to do something. He was like, I want to beat somebody up or something like that. I think Vince’s whole thing was like, Haha, when he starts punching me, I’m gonna put my head down so he could punch my head. That’s the hardest part of my head, so it’s gonna hurt his hand. And I think there was something in there. But those guys, I think everybody wanted to do something in that match and be a part of that match. So I don’t know who told him to do it. I don’t know when they told him to do it, but leading into that match, there wasn’t supposed to be any altercation. But I guess they may have talked, or somebody talked, and they figured out, okay, we’ll do a little clothesline, because that could be easy, and then jump on top of him and do the punching I don’t know where it came from, but that’s what they decided to do.”

On his Umaga cage dive:

“I was just telling somebody about this two days ago and he said the same thing. So certain things you can’t practice, you know you’re not going to be able to practice. It was, again, Vince, because he was knee-deep in that role, that was his role. So since it was his feud, he wanted to make sure everything was moving in the right direction. We were having that cage match against Bob Holly. And there was something where they wanted me to do something with the cage, or throw it on top of him, or something like that. And then I was like I’ll just jump into it. They were like, well, that might be hard to do, because if you think about it, we have a match in there, so we’re going to be throwing each other against that cage anyway. We can’t just keep it loose so you touch it and it falls, so they have to buckle it. So he was like, Okay, you’re having a match first off. Then in order to jump this thing, you have to jump over the top rope and hit it. I was like, Okay, you got to hit it hard. I was like, okay, all right, okay, what are you saying here? And then Vince comes out. Vince was like, you can jump over that top rope? I was like, yes, yes, I can. So I was like I don’t see what I could do wrong, I can jump over the top rope and if I have to jump hard, I probably have to hit this one and build up speed to be able to do it. They said, Well, when we go out there, it’s on you, because that thing is latched. So if you don’t knock it over and go, you’re just gonna jump up and hit it, which would have been horrible. And I think I would have been in a whole different place in my career if that would have happened.”

On losing the ECW Championship to Vince McMahon:

“I didn’t know. I mean, because I’ve always been like that, you could talk, and most people know me through wrestling business. I’m not one of the people to call the office throughout the week and fight for everything. I’m like I’m just going to make whatever we do work. So when I came in there, I knew I was in a feud with Vince, and I knew every week it was going to be something where he’s getting at me. But the one thing he said, He’s like haha, don’t worry, you’ll get it all back. I never understood what he was saying at the time. I was like, you’ll get it all back, what are you talking about? You guys have me down. You guys were slapping me, beat me up, and I had to fight through and get away. But that was a great story, and he taught me a great story. He was like that heel that’s just getting you, getting you getting you, just can’t get him back, and then when you do get him back, then the crowd’s gonna blow up. And that’s what we did. Because there was a time that I almost got him back in a tag match where it was with Shane, Umaga and Vince. And it was like, Shane came in, I got rid of him. Umaga came in and I low roped him, and then Vince was there by himself. And he was like, the whole crowd, just like, kill him. And then the minute I grabbed Vince, boom, they were on me. So it took it away. So it was that little roller coaster that we like to play with people. So that story was great, but then again, you’re working with the boss, so he has the versatility to do whatever he wants, to make the story as big as he wants it. And we had a lot of heat with that story. Of course when he won the ECW title and he came in wearing a do-rag.”

On the Rusev and Lana love triangle:

“I can say this, and I’ve said this several times before, but then again I’m very positive with everything. But I can honestly say it was 100% Lana that was able to make me feel comfortable doing it, and then to just try to do things, to really further that whole feud. She was on top of everything. She was always like, Alright, I got a photographer over here. We need a photographer over here. We need to walk so the people see us together, so it’s not like something where they’re just like, oh, they don’t care about it. So I was like, alright, but all I’m thinking about is who am I supposed to wrestle or go smash? She’s like, No, we need to come over here and take these pictures. We need to go do this. She was like, pulling me in all these different directions. And I was just like are you cool with all this? She’s like, yes, because she knows acting and she’s able to put herself into characters. Lana is a sweetheart, and I know that some people were hard on her because it seems like she tries too much, she tries too hard, and sometimes it comes as not sincere to people and I think some people kind of jumped on her about it. But working with her, I think she’s a sweetheart and she really helped me feel comfortable in that role. I had nothing but respect for her for going through it, because she kept it very respectful. I was working with her and her husband, and she understood what the plan was, so she wanted to play her part.”

On how close he came to competing in the UFC:

“So at the beginning, when I first started fighting, I think there were little talks with it and they said, Yeah, we’ll give him the opportunity to but he needs to work his way up. And I was just like, okay, and it was a decision that I had to make, because I could fight for some other organizations that were offering more money and I always thought if the situation changes in WWE, I thought that’s my calling. That’s where I really deserve to be. I just needed time away because the situations and things were going on. So I was like, here’s an opportunity for me to just kind of keep it open and then go back. So I didn’t want to lock up a contract with them, because I would have had to really just shut off wrestling.”

On finally getting a match against Brock Lesnar:

“I wanted to do a lot more with it. I wish we could have really done the things that we could have and should have wanted to do with that. I think people could have really got sold into just us training to fight each other and some of the heat that we could have brought. Brock was a natural bully, but in this sense, he was kind of a babyface, because he was that guy coming back and forth and I was a heel at the time. But it could have showed how we prepared for a fight with each other and it could have showed something different. It could have been so much like the Rocky story. Hell, if they wanted to, they could have put us two together and kind of ran as doggone rogue warriors for a while. I even went to a point where I was like, man, wouldn’t it be cool that they would have brought us both back here and then put us together, had Paul Heyman find a way to put us both together, and then the whole time we win tag team titles and he keeps referring to I got the greatest fighter in the world and the greatest tag team. Then it got to a point like, who you keep talking about as the greatest fighter? Because you’re only saying one person. So that could have built some natural animosity there. And it’s like, hold on a second man, I know you and Brock have this history, but you keep saying you have the greatest fighter and the greatest tag team. So Who are you referring to? And it could have been my ego got in the way, or something like that, whatever it was, whatever it did, but it brought us apart. Because they always said some of the best feuds are the people that were together first, and something brought us apart. Could have been, I don’t know if we could have put us two together as a tag team, because it might have been too dominant, but I still see there were some people in there that we could have had great fights with and great matches with if we needed to.”

Why AEW was the right fit:

“So I have a good friend that was working with AEW before Dan Lambert. He was American Top Team. He was in AEW for a while. Dan’s one of my favorite people in this world. He helped manage me through fighting and everything like that, has always been just a great friend first and foremost. And I talked to Dan, and we kind of discussed different options, and I asked him about Tony, because I didn’t know, you don’t know anything about Tony if you don’t know him. So I was like, Oh, what about this Tony guy? And a lot of things that he told me about him, I was just like, I can respect that. He said he’s got kind of like little personality like you, in a sense, where he goes out of his way to be nice to people he really likes. He’s a genuine person. He told me pros and cons and I was like, Man, I’d love to be able to meet him. But at this time, I was talking to MVP, and I was talking to Shelton, and we were like, let’s run this back. Let’s run the group back. Let’s do it. We have that option. We’re all out at this time. So let’s see if we can go and do this the right way.”

On what he wants his legacy to be:

“You know a lot of people talk about what they want done in the ring. But for me, if people say Bobby, he was a cool dude, he was a good guy, that’s enough for me, and that’s across the board. I mean, if they knew me more personally then I would want them to talk about me as a father, as a provider for my kids and the people around me that meant something. That’s that’s what’s really important to me. And like I said before, I understand with wrestling, and some people are so dialed into the wrestling part. But at the end of the day, wrestling is just kicking and punching. There’s so much more to it. There’s so much more to being on a platform like you are, and being able to influence so many different people around the world. Then another thing, the creative side of it is to be able to have stories, and then to be able to put together stories that are entertaining for people, that people talk about later. So those are the two parts that I love. So I just want to be in the talks of some of the stories of those people, that people look back on, and said, Hey, man, that was really cool.”

What is Bobby Lashley grateful for?

“My kids, my health and my faith.”

Josh Alexander Is A Free Agent! TNA, 5 Star Matches, Will Ospreay, Breaking His Neck, C4 Piledriver

in LATEST EPISODES on December 3, 2024 December 3, 2024

https://cvvtix.com – Tickets for the first ever INSIGHT LIVE the day before the Royal Rumble on January 31, 2025 in Indianapolis are on sale now!

Josh Alexander (@Walking_Weapon) is a professional wrestler currently signed to TNA Wrestling. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood, CA to talk about his decision to become a free agent in February, where he might sign next, his feud with Moose that featured a very short title reign, being the longest reigning TNA World Champion in history, his 5-star TNA match against Will Ospreay, nearly stepping away from wrestling altogether after suffering a broken neck and more!

Quote I’m thinking about: “You can do anything, but not everything. Focus.”

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On approaching free agency:

“February 15 I’ll be a free agent. I mean, TNA announced they extended me, picked up my year extension on February 14 last year. So yeah, heading into free agency for the first time. [I’m] equal parts nervous, equal parts excited. Obviously, there’s the one end of the spectrum where you’re like, nothing might come of this. You have to be realistic. I have kids, I have a wife, I have a house I pay for and stuff like that. I can just do wrestling because I love it, because that’s all I’ve ever really done. That’s what kind of what’s led me through this business the entire time, just getting fulfillment out of it is the most important part to me. As long as I get to do it at some level, I’m happy. I do indies, still to this day, where get tons of fulfillment, very happy to do it. And that might be it. I might just be doing Indies. Might be back doing construction to feed my family and stuff like that. But every so often you gotta bet on yourself. Five years ago it was Santana, one of my very good friends, and he was finishing up with TNA, at the time Impact Wrestling, we had an indie date, and he actually debuted the next night, but I didn’t know that. He never told me anything like that. So we’re just chilling out of the hotel. It’s just like, what made you want to leave or really look at it as an option because he’s very happy at Impact, they were very successful, obviously. And he was like, we just didn’t know what more we could do. We’ve held these Tag Team Championships this many times. We’ve had this many amazing matches with this tag team and this tag team. It’s just like, every once in a while you got to think about what’s coming next and what’s going to excite you. Because he kind of alluded to the fact that he hadn’t been excited in quite some time. And I was just like, man, that really hits. Because now I’m thinking about my own thing. I’m just like, I’ve done so much in TNA over the six years. I’m very grateful for it. Because opportunities are the one thing wrestlers need, and TNA has given me tons of countless opportunities to prove myself and show what I can do, but I’ve also done everything and worked with the bulk of the talent that’s in that company right now. So it’s just all about what’s going to get me excited beyond this point?”

On what’s next:

“That’s the big question mark because I don’t know what the next step is. I’ve been ragged on in the past for saying I never had the dream of main eventing WrestleMania. And I know Hunter himself has had the quote being like, if you don’t want to be the top guy here, then you’re in the wrong business. It’s not that I don’t want to be the top guy, or don’t think I have the ability to be the top guy or anything like that, it was just never my childhood dream. Because I honestly never thought anything that I’m doing or have done was even possible. So this is all this amazing trip I’ve been on the entire time, and it’s just been setting little goals along the way, like you said. I want to win this Ontario indie promotions World Championship too. I want to get paid a certain amount to wrestle too. I want that contract to kind of validate all this work and all this travel. Running cars into the ground for little and no money to drive to Chicago and back, and one night make it back for work the next day and stuff like that, and then you achieve that contract, and all this other stuff I’ve been able to do. Now I’m sitting here going, what could I possibly do next that’s going to be the next step, and it’s just like, I need to grow my name. I feel like I’ve established myself as a top guy in TNA, and whatever might be next after that. I mean, I’ll find out, and then I’ll set those other goals.”

On what could be next:

“I’m looking at everywhere right now, like. Both my sons are wrestling nuts, especially my six year old. So, Monday is Raw, Tuesday is NXT, Wednesday is Dynamite, Thursday is Impact. I’m watching everything with my kids all week long, which is awesome, because I get to share this passion with them, but at the same time I’m watching the product, looking at NXT being like, man me and Ethan could tag up and we can face that tag team, that’d be awesome. I’d really love to have a match with Pete Dunne or Gunther, the list goes on, Then you watch Dynamite, and I’m just like, man, I’ve torn it up with Will and Takeshita in the past, I would sure love to do that on a bigger stage. And one bucket list thing I might have, a wrestler that’s stil out there wrestling that I would really love to get a chance to wrestle is Edge. He’s in AEW, you know what I mean? And there’s Japan, Shingo is the one guy on my bucket list, this is doable. I’m gonna make this happen. Him and Ishii were neck and neck, and I made the Ishii match happen. Shingo is the other one. So I just look at the landscape of it, where I can go and where the talent is I want to work with everybody’s kind of stacked, roster-wise. To be able to tell stories and stuff like that with these people, the options are all open.”

On what will be the deciding factor:

“Probably just personal fulfillment and a bunch of things go into that. Like, I love wrestling. I love the actual act of wrestling. You give me 20 minutes on TV or pay-per-view, I’ll go out there and I’ll do everything I can to make magic happen. So where the opportunities come, that’s probably the most important part. Obviously money plays a factor. Like I said, two sons, a wife. I need to upgrade where we’re living, because my kids are only getting bigger and more crazy.”

On his short TNA Title reign:

“I remember the phone conversation, and as I was speaking I was like, Oh, this all sounds great. Yeah, no problem. Cool. All this stuff. And you hang up the phone, part of me was like, Damn, I really wish, it wasn’t like this, because I think I can do some really good stuff, but I didn’t see the forest from the trees.”

On the reaction:

“I would be lying if I said there wasn’t a small part of me that was just like, man it’d be cool if you didn’t do the Moose thing and I could just show what I can do, because you never know if that’s going to come back to. I didn’t know that I was going to go on to beat Moose at Rebellion six or seven months later. I’m sure management kind of had an idea to see how it would get over. But anything can happen in wrestling, I could have gotten hurt, Moose could have gotten hurt, and then that match would never have happened. Or anything could have happened that didn’t make it transpire. But luckily, everything does happen for a reason, and we got there eventually. I remember the day I got to my hotel room in Sam’s Town, and I checked Twitter and people are posting clips of the match and saying all these great things, and then they’re just hammering TNA for this terrible booking decision. ‘We’re back to the Vince Russo era’, all this stuff, and I’m just reading just like this is kind of nice, because I guess they wanted me to be champion.”

On if he was promised a major reign down the road:

“I don’t think I was told that exactly, but it was kind of like, we’re gonna see where this goes. Because I think it was the next day they were like, you get Suzuki the next day, and then it’s gonna be Jonah, and then it’s gonna be… They laid out six months of me working with monsters to try to get me over and I was just like, cool. They never said, really 100% we’re getting back to Moose. But it was probably two, three months into that, I think after the Jonah match at Hard to Kill, they were like, We’re totally doing you and Moose, probably at Rebellion. I took three Tsunamis and three sentons and spit up blood, just like you’ve seen Seth Rollins doing on Raw recently.”

On relinquishing the World Championship the second time:

“It kills me every day. I wish I could have lost that title so bad.”

How much longer do you think you would have had it?

“I think there was a good chance Steve Maclin was gonna take it at Rebellion, which was like two weeks or three weeks after I tore my tricep. I think, I think it would have ended up like three days short of a year.”

On if Scott D’Amore’s exit played into his decision to become a free agent:

“Somewhat. When I first found out, he was [gone] I teared up. I’m not gonna lie, I was thinking about these last six or five years at the time I had in TNA and everything along the way. When I started, having zero relationship with him other than he was the guy that got me a visa was giving me this opportunity to this point where we developed this relationship of trust, and he coached me along and gave me so much help and put me with the right people to make sure that I was leveling up like my skills along the way from storytelling and promos to in ring, wrestling and stuff like that. Just putting me with these certain people. He didn’t have to, but he knew it would benefit me, and then leaving, we ride or die for this guy. The entire locker room, especially with the rebranding of TNA thing happening at the end of BFG, and then it was like the debut of TNA, we were riding high. We just sold out the Palms. These shows were insane. Then it felt like the rug was just pulled out from under you, right? So it’s like, how do you react to that? How do you feel about the relationship we built? I was just like I’m losing a mentor, and that sucks, but it’s also the wrestling business. So I can’t say it’s 100% the reason why I’m thinking about free agency, I would have thought of free agency regardless. Scott, when we negotiated my three-year deal that I signed to keep me there up until this February, he told me he was just like, you’re either going to be worth so much I can’t keep you at the end of this, or I’m going to make sure you get paid to stay here. But you’re going to be worth much more, because I know what you’re capable of. And that was kind of like the thing we sat on when I signed that deal.”

On everyone being able to make magic with Will Ospreay:

“It’s a testament to him, and it’s the same thing to a lesser extent with stuff I’ve been able to do, because people have been like, that was that guy’s best match I’ve ever seen, blah blah. And it’s just like, you have to cater to people’s strengths. When me and Will are putting the match together, we’re on the same wavelength with a lot of stuff, and the realism thing, all this other stuff, and just his formula for how he thinks of wrestling, it neurotic the proper word? He’s so like just devil in the details on all this little stuff. But it makes a difference, and it helps when you have this body of work that has gotten you over with the fans, so they’re reacting the way they are, because at the end of the day, we are out there for the fans, the more loud and into the match the fans are, the better our match is. You could have the best wrestling match in the world, if nobody’s making a peep it ain’t that good. To me, that’s the measuring stick for wrestling.”

On nearly having to step away from wrestling due to a broken neck:

“Yeah, I tried to play it off like it wasn’t that tough of a decision to make, that I was completely fulfilled with everything, because that’s kind of the mindset you have to put yourself in when this might be your reality for the rest of your life. I didn’t want to have regrets. The problem being when I came into surgery and he told me I could still wrestle, that’s when all the regrets flooded in, and I was just like, You know what? I didn’t work hard enough. I got by on my God-given ability and my aptitude for pro wrestling. I wasn’t dieting, I wasn’t working out the best I could. I wasn’t putting the time into the other things that would make me an elite-level wrestler, to a point where I could fit in with the people I was working with. I would work with the Roderick Strongs of the world and these people, and everybody would know, just by the eye test that they’re the better wrestler. They just look like a more complete product. I was fine being a big fish in a small pond, and when I came back from my neck surgery after writing that article and stuff like that, that’s when all the regrets seeped in. I was just like, I’m not gonna have any regrets this time.”

What if he couldn’t wrestle again:

“I don’t think I’d be anywhere near where I’m at right now as a 37-year-old man that owns a house and has two kids that make sure that his kids are happy, safe, and all this stuff at all times. I wouldn’t have fallen into drinking or addiction, because I’ve always just learned from my mistakes and my parents and family members that fell into that along the way. I have two step brothers who are now both dead from drugs and alcohol, they went that direction. I find that people either gravitate to going the same way, or they go the opposite. I was lucky that I ran away from it, but without wrestling, I wouldn’t have had that work ethic that made me kind of be able to survive over these past like 19 years since I was 18.”

On Joe Hendry:

“No [I didn’t know about the song]. So I had been ripping apart Joe on Twitter pretty heavy, just trolling him, because I’m the wrestler’s wrestler guy, right? So I’m just like this guy’s the complete opposite of me. I’m just going to play into this and lean into it. So making fun of him. He puts up a thing saying NXT has been great, they have me down to the Performance Center training every day. I’m like, You need more training, blah, blah, whatever. And we go into that TVs, and it’s before the TVs/ I go up to him and go, so what do you got? And he goes, I don’t know. I kind of looked at you, and I was just like, what do I really make fun of him about? There’s not much. And I go, Oh, you’ll find something, dude, don’t worry. I watched it live, I didn’t want to know because I wanted to be out there reacting on the spot. With my promos and stuff like that, I find if it’s just very off the cuff, rather than predetermined and premeditated, I’m way better at delivery and stuff like that. It’s more natural. People enjoy it more. So I watched it live, and I’m just like, holding back like this son of a bitch. [You kept a straight face] Yeah, it was tough. I was biting my lip pretty hard, Kurt Angle from Wish, and that’s the line right there. Man, you can do the Walter White thing all day long. That’s fine.”

On not competing in the Royal Rumble:

“I mean, unless TNA with their WWE relationship work something out.”

What is Josh Alexander grateful for?

“Health, family and opportunities.”

Jake Roberts Was SCARED Of Snakes! Legendary Promos, Hulk Hogan, DDP, Sobriety

in LATEST EPISODES on November 28, 2024 November 28, 2024

https://cvvtix.com – Tickets for the first ever INSIGHT LIVE the day before the Royal Rumble on January 31, 2025 in Indianapolis are on sale now!

Jake “The Snake” Roberts (@JakeSnakeDDT) is a retired professional wrestler and WWE Hall of Famer. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Cleveland, OH to discuss having some of the most memorable promos in professional wrestling, Will Sasso’s impression of him, working and being bitten by snakes, working with DDT to get sober and stay sober, never winning a championship in WWE, not getting a title shot because of the fans and more!

Quote I’m thinking about: “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar

Sponsors:
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On having many iconic promos:

“Well, there was a lot of them. You just didn’t hear all of them. That interview, that promo [WrestleMania 6] was special, but I don’t remember how it all came about. Promos for me, were a game, they were fun. And if anything is fun, you’ll spend more time doing it. I like playing with people’s minds. I like mixing the words up, finding stuff that works. A lot of guys, maybe after a show, they’ll go out and eat or chase skirts or whatever, but not me. I was wherever I was at. I had a pen and paper and I was thinking about doing a promo, writing down ideas. Finally, I had to go to a recorder, because sometimes, man, I’d wake up the next morning and read some of the stuff I’d wrote, and I’m like, Oh my god, what the hell was I thinking about? I couldn’t believe what kind of sh*t I wrote down, man. But yeah, I love spending time on promos.”

On where the inspiration came from:

“Books, movies, music, all the above. I love Ozzy Osbourne stuff. I love Pink Floyd stuff. I love Rolling Stones, of course. And The Who they had some good stuff.”

On sobriety:

“For me, the smell of alcohol turns my stomach. I can walk through an airport blindfolded, and I could tell you where the bars are at, because I can tell that smell and it upsets my stomach now. I’m glad, that’s the last damn thing I made is to go down that road again, and I have no fear at all. Maybe that’s not healthy not having a fear of it, but I just feel so strongly that’s something I’ll never do again.”

On DDP:

“No doubt in my mind, I’ve been dead several years ago. Several years ago. That’s just where I was going, man, and I was going fast too. No sense of trying to walk into it, Jake, just run down the hill and jump in that.”

On not liking snakes:

“I don’t like snakes at all. I’m terrified of them. They scare the piss out of me, and you never get used to getting bit. I should have been like Billy the bug, just carry a cockroach around. You know, if I shoved a cockroach in your ear, that would mess with your head, yeah, yeah, especially your ear. Little cockroach dug in there.”

Why did you pick the snake in wrestling?

“Because of that, because most people are afraid of snakes. Your parents tell you from the get go, keep away snakes. And that’s ingrained in you. It’s sort of something that is taught to us from the very beginning, and kids dig it, because mom and dad can’t stand it. You know, it makes mama squirm. I love to see your mother squirm. I still love seeing that.”

On how many times he has been bitten:

“15-20. Yeah, some of them are pretty nasty. I got one on the inside of my arm here it was 30 It Was a big reticulated Python, he tore the hell out of my arm. Yeah, it’s crazy, because they tell you, if you happen to get bit by the snake, whatever you do, don’t move. Excuse me? When something bites you, the first thing you do is react, and you react by jerking your arm away. And that’s exactly what happened. When you do that it rips your flesh.”

Was Andre The Giant actually scared of snakes?

“No, [but] he did a phenomenal job of playing that off. In fact, Damian bit him once and he didn’t even know he’d been bitten. He just shrugged it off and kept going. He got back to the locker room, and he was sitting down playing cards, and Rick Rude came up and pulled the two fangs out of his shoulder. Yeah, they’re about two inches long, embedded in his shoulder. Man didn’t even know it.”

How does it make you feel that the DDT is not used as a finisher?

“Oh, I think it’s great. Every time somebody does it. What do people say?”

That’s Jake the Snake’s move?

“That’s right, yeah. And if Jake did it, what would happen?”

They wouldn’t be able to kick out?

“That’s right. So therefore Jake must be better than that guy.”

On not being concerned that he never won a championship:

“Not at all. My god, I’m grateful I did not have to carry that too. You know, I carried a 50 or 60 or 75 pound snake around, and we’d be on the road for two and three weeks at a time, all your clothing, everything you gotta carry, the last thing I want is a 10-pound belt to carry around too. Would I’ve liked to have had a championship? Yeah, of course. That would have been something, but I had had several championships up until then, maybe not WWF Championship, but I’d had several Calgary, I had it in Louisiana and mid-south. I had it in Texas. I had it in different places around Mid-Atlantic. So I’d had my time with the belts. I mean, it was all right, I would have liked to have had the money that is associated with that belt. But how can I complain about a career that I had.”

On the fans screwing him out of a title shot:

“Well, we tried to shoot an angle between Hulk and I, and we did it. Whenever I got back to the curtain, I was told to stand there and wait for the people to start chanting, Hulk, Hulk, Hulk, and they didn’t. They started chanting DDT, DDT. Vince looked at me and he goes, you’re screwed. That’s the end of your angle. We tried to wrestle twice, once in Providence, Rhode Island, and another time in Montreal. And over 50% were chanting DDT and Vince did not want that because that screwed up the marketing. The marketing is where the money is. I’m the bad guy, yeah, you know, but I was the first anti-hero, yeah, no doubt, bad guy that people loved.”

What is Jake Roberts grateful for?

“Sobriety, my children and a second chance with my wife.”

Ricky Starks On AEW Absence, Cody Rhodes, Royal Rumble Appearance, The Rock Comparisons

in LATEST EPISODES on November 26, 2024 November 26, 2024

https://cvvtix.com – Tickets for the first ever INSIGHT LIVE the day before the Royal Rumble on January 31, 2025 in Indianapolis are on sale now!

Ricky Starks (@starkmanjones) is a professional wrestler signed to AEW. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Austin, TX to discuss his absence from AEW TV since March 2024, being spotted backstage at the Royal Rumble with Cody Rhodes, being in attendance at WrestleMania 40, being in Sting’s first AEW match, being compared to The Rock, going toe to toe on the mic with MJF, why his many WWE cameos didn’t lead to a signing and more!

Quote I’m thinking about: “Staying positive doesn’t mean you have to be happy all the time. It means even on hard days you know that there are better ones coming.” – Diamond Dallas Page

Sponsors:
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On being absent from AEW:

“March was my last match. I’ve been home, I’ve been healthy. Never was injured. I did have a stinger. I got a stinger in that match against Top Flight in March. I got immediately checked out and everything was fine, but I was just concerned at the time. So that happened and then I was just home. That’s kind of where it’s been at. I’ve just been home. It’s kind of a mindf*ck because I’m in my prime and it sucks when you’re on such a momentum, riding the wave, doing work and doing stuff, and then to just be at home for so long, you’re kind of like, whoa. It kind of throws it off. I am not meant to be at home. I’m not meant to be a homebody in this current phase in my life. I’m not meant to be just chilling at home and doing not the thing that I’ve been busting my ass to do for the past 13 years.”

On why he has been absent:

“Beats me. I could have 1,000 theories about what’s really going on. The fact of the matter is that if I don’t have a definitive answer, I can’t just make up an answer for people and just assume. Would I love to know the exact reason? For sure. Do I have speculations about why? Absolutely. But that does nothing to speak on things that I speculate, does nothing for the situation. So I think it’s just a matter of, it sucks, it’s been a very cold day here in Austin. It’s been a very cold day. May have been cold for the past nine months, not sure. But thankfully, I have a sweater, and I’m always ready to keep the warmth going.”

On being missed by fans:

“It’s incredible. I get so many messages from people who are like, Hey, we don’t know what’s happening. We don’t know what’s going on, but we miss you. We hope that you’re mentally okay. Obviously I would love to give an answer of what’s a definitive answer, and I still maintain the truth of this, I have no clue. I have no clue. So I already know this is gonna go up in flames too, but yeah, I love the fact that fans still care. All I know is this, regardless, I’m always gonna end up better than my situation. I’m always gonna end up better than the circumstances that I’m currently in. That’s just how it works for me. I can’t lose.”

On if he thinks he is being punished:

“I don’t think that’s ever crossed my mind of like you’re being punished, because that wouldn’t serve me at all to think like that. I would be depressed and angry. That wouldn’t serve me.”

On being seen backstage with Cody Rhodes at the Royal Rumble:

“You know what’s so funny about that whole situation? First off, yes, I did go see a friend of mine for his match, obviously, because it was an hour away. Secondly, they caught me walking to the bus. So like, Okay. Third off, somebody who worked at Alamo decided to take a video, take that screenshot, and then post it. I remember the next day, Sunday, I woke up and this whole thing was blowing up. I was like what is this? I had people from my job, I had one guy who was like ‘Were you at the Rumble last night?’ I said ‘Yeah and what the f*ck about it?’ He goes ‘Just saying that’s a bad look.’ How is it a bad look? I can’t control somebody taking security footage while I am walking to a bus, I don’t control that. Tell me how that is a bad look. We got people on our own program talking about people in the other company, but me having my security footage exposed is a bad look? Give me a break! It was simply visiting a friend. I was only on the bus. I stayed on the bus. I wasn’t trying to cause any type of issues or anything like that. The whole purpose was I was walking to the bus so I wouldn’t be seen by anybody.”

On being in attendance at WrestleMania 40:

“You know who else was in the box with me? Dustin, QT Marshall, Aaron Solo. This is not me putting them on blast. This is just saying yes, there’s people in the box. There’s footage of me celebrating. There was no issue about that. There was no issue at all. Only because before I had went Tony already said, Hey, it’s okay. So like, there was no issue. Now, if he actually didn’t mean that, okay, I don’t know, that’s different. But there was no issue about that and I still, to this day, don’t see a problem with it. I’m gonna tell you why. I got into this because I am a fan. I love professional wrestling. Regardless of where I work, I’m going to go and support people that I love, and I’m gonna go support wrestling in general. I was there to watch Jade’s first Mania match and was extremely proud. I saw her match, and then I was there to see Cody’s match. Guess what? I was at Mania the year before that and saw Cody lose. There is no issue with somebody being at another show. Jay Z ain’t gonna go to another rapper’s concert? He ain’t gonna go to a J Cole concert? It’s only blown up online because people are trying to get paid for their engagement, they got rent due, I always make that joke. It’s people who just want to start something. You could say it’s the tribalistic fans, I don’t necessarily agree with that, to a certain extent yeah. I remember seeing some quote tweets about how I was dick riding Cody because I was there, and I was just like, wow, this is amazing, because if you took this situation out of the scope of wrestling, people would think it’s normal. But supposedly, for some reason, it is so taboo to not be over here when you work [for another company]. Who cares? We all getting paid, aren’t we?”

On hitting back at trolls online:

“No, I’m not [in character]. That’s not what I’m saying at all, because you’ll never know. But what I am saying is that I grew up in an era of Halo 2 online. So talking trash online, I’m built for it. The best part about it is when you reply to someone who runs you down, and they go, Well, you’re gotten too. What do you mean I’ve gotten too? Because I’m replying to you? Isn’t the purpose of you saying this anonymously online is to get a response, don’t you want to debate? You’re trying to debate with somebody, right? I’m giving you that, you’re not going to win because I’m too quick-witted. So I like talking trash to people. I like it because I quote tweet and I talk trash about it, and not everyone can see how stupid this person is. That’s why I like it.”

How do you decide?

“It’s only when I’m in the mood. Sometimes I’m not in the mood, sometimes I laugh at it and keep it moving. Sometimes I will, I remember I posted a picture and someone was like, shouldn’t you be talking about the show tonight as opposed to posting pictures? It’s like, bitch, you’re on my Twitter. What are you talking about telling me what I should and shouldn’t do? You got some nerve. I don’t know. I find the internet, the IWC, I don’t think they’re as bad as a lot of people make them out to be, only because I choose to ignore certain things about it.”

On being Sting’s first match in AEW:

“I remember when it got announced that me and Brian versus Sting and Darby was happening, it was such a wild reaction to it. Then I had to really think. I didn’t grow up as a Sting fan. I didn’t grow up watching WCW. I was an Undertaker fan. So as I got older though, I did study Sting. I studied a lot of WCW from the early 90s. I watch all types of wrestling, but that was an era that was really cool because he just had a certain energy to him back then. I’ll never forget Sting coming in and meeting him. He was so nice and so sweet, and he’s very collected. You have to realize he’s coming to a place that he knows nothing about, as far as this company goes, and he’s dealing with people younger than the place that he was at previously. I think what it was was he was very observant and it was just getting used to what was going on. I would hope that he probably met me and said, Okay, something is about this kid that I don’t really understand just yet, but I like it and I respect it, and he’s got his own little thing. When it came to the match itself, yes, there were some nerves about it, obviously. But I remember going and we didn’t practice, per se, but he needed to get the body warmed up again. So doing drills with Sting was insane. Then the match itself, we filmed it in two days. The second night was a lot colder, and I remember telling them, Hey, because I knew what was going to happen. Sting needs a heater. He needs a dry sauna just to keep the body limber, because we were stopping and there were breaks in between the films. You get how it is. It’s just filming is hard because there’s waiting, it was cold, it was all of that. So I remember telling them that and just making sure that he was as comfortable as possible. Because if anything I knew from training with him what would help him out, and he’s very respectful, and I’m not saying that this was a man who couldn’t speak up for himself, but I think that he only wanted to ask for things that was absolutely necessary in times, he didn’t want to seem like he was being too needy.”

On being nervous about hitting moves on Sting:

“I mean, yes and no, there was a moment where Sting had me up for a gorilla press slam. I remember being up there like, Damn, he’s still very strong. And then the next thing, he punches me right in my mouth and I was like, Oh my God. There was a moment where, dude, Sting gave me a sunset bomb. I flipped him up in this, he gave me a sunset bomb, and I just was like, damn, this is kind of badass. Sting is giving you a sunset bomb. What is happening? You, Of all people. But yes, it was really cool, and Sting will forever hold a place in my heart, because out of anybody you could go to and talk to, and he was understanding. You talk to him, and he could view this look, and you would think that he wasn’t going to say anything. It’s just some thinking. And he speaks from a place where he’s lived life several times over.”

On going toe to toe with MJF in a promo segment:

“There’s several instances where I think I’ve proven everybody that I’m actually more of a troll than Max is, and I’ve had it happen on live TV. But in that moment, that was in Austin, and I just had a match. So the promo that I went off on him with was so good because yeah I stumbled, and I said I’m gonna stomp an ass in your something. I like stumbling through a promo. I don’t care if it’s clean. You hear somebody freestyling on a rap beat, and it’s just like, well they kind of stumble, but they just keep it moving. I like when that happens. That right there was my moment in my head of just kill me with what you got. You give me an inch. I make sure that you get every juice out of that squeeze. And so obviously the chemistry with me and Max was palpable in that moment, because you could feel it, and you could see two people somewhat similar, but total opposites.”

On being called Dollar Store Dwayne by MJF:

“And I said he was a rip-off of Roddy Piper. You know what’s wild about that? Max says all that stuff about me, yet made a return in a leather cut-off jean jacket. How is it that I am trying to rip off The Rock and this guy every day is cosplaying Triple H. He’s cosplaying Ric Flair. He’s cosplaying Roddy Piper. Do you ever find that interesting?”

On comparisons to The Rock:

“I don’t think I ever really gave it much thought. I think it’s pretty well known who my favorite wrestler was. The Rock was cool. I liked The Rock. He was cool. But this is how I do it. I can’t help the way that I look. I’m a handsome motherf*cker. That’s just how it is, and that’s a respectable thing. My style, as you know, even before we started filming is I had a Garth Brooks shirt on. I like what I like, and I wear what I like. It’s nothing to do with ripping somebody off and I would be honest if I was doing that. I am. I am an improvement on a design straight from the city of New Orleans. If you had to say that I copy anyone, I’m copying the people of New Orleans, absolutely, that’s who I am.”

On if he went off script with Adam Copeland:

“There was no script. Ricky Starks going off script? How is that possible if there’s no script to begin with? So to speak. I didn’t say anything crazy. I just called someone bug eyes. What’s wrong with that? That’s like, how is that any different than someone calling someone fat? Am I missing the point here?”

On his match against Bryan Danielson at All Out 2023:

“You know what’s so great about that match? Before I went out I was nervous, but I guess I didn’t really realize what was about to happen, because I was so frustrated in such a beautiful, organic way. So the day before, Tony comes out and announces that Punk is gone, and then I actually opened that show with the promo. Watch the promo, it’s very good, and you can kind of tell what’s happening. But I was so frustrated about things happening the way they have. I’ll never forget someone telling me just be grateful that you even have a job. I remember someone being like, just be grateful we have a job. I’ll never forget feeling like, How dare you! Don’t tell me to be grateful for something that I’ve worked very hard for. That’s saying I know that you’re hungry for dinner, here’s a half-eaten loaf of bread, actually no, let me take that back. Here’s just the crumbs. F*ck you. Don’t tell me just be grateful for something, you don’t live my life. You don’t understand the things that I have gone through to even just get in this moment. It really set me off. So when it came to Sunday, I was looking forward to it, but I didn’t realize what laid ahead of me and what I was actually going to be capable of doing. Bryan had that injury too, and we had to deal with that, and that was such a weird thing for me. I’ll never forget, I’m sitting backwards, and that first whack from the leather strap echoes throughout the arena, and I remember feeling this jolt and then hearing it go, oh. I was like, Okay, here we are, nice. Then later on Bryan is tagging me in the face with that strap and he was like, Are you gonna take it? Are you a man? And this is my theory. I think Bryan thought I was a pussy. I think he thought I was a pussy because of how I look, because well this pretty boy. I guess what I’m trying to say is he wanted to test me, and I love that. He wanted to test me, and I definitely think I passed with flying colors.”

On why his WWE cameos didn’t lead to more:

“I don’t know. I think at the time, I did a trial in 2017 and really put all my eggs in that basket. I was told that they liked me because I did a promo that they really enjoyed. I just don’t think they had a place for me yet and I was competing against guys who had a name on the indys. So you got to think about it. They were going to take the guys with names because those fans were going to follow them, and in turn those fans were going to buy a Network subscription or something. So you’re just adding to the bucket of money. You come in with something. I personally think that’s just what it is. Timing-wise, at the time, I thought it sucked, but looking back on it, I’m actually glad that I went on this route that I’ve taken with AEW and having them basically take a chance on me and me prove my work 10 times over.”

On being a police officer in a segment with Roman Reigns:

“So when I was a US Marshall, I drove to Dallas with my girlfriend at the time, she dropped me off. When you get into that building there’s no reception, just so you know. I left my wallet in her car. When I got there, I was trying to get my wallet back. I could not. As I’m trying to leave, just to go outside to grab it they go, are you trying to leave early? I said, No, no, no. I was just trying to go grab my wallet because, hopefully, she was still outside, and I was trying to get the reception and all this stuff. And they go, Well you need to get to the ring right now. Go to the ring. They tell me what the setup is. You’re a US Marshal, blah, blah, blah. Act like you’re not a wrestler, please, Like how you get in and all this stuff. Okay, so they get me suited up. They run out of letters to put on their US Marshal, but they somehow figure it out. I don’t know what a US Marshal is. I don’t know the jurisdiction of that, who’s over who in that situation? But to be arrested by a US Marshal means that you’re indicted on something, some serious charges, RICO charges, fentanyl charges, something. So I thought arresting Roman Reigns was like, what did he do wrong? I don’t even remember, but he did beat the piss out of all of us. But it starts, if you watch it, you can see how I get in the ring. I get in the ring like the women’s wrestlers used to back in the day, where they go to the real bottom. Because they’re like, hey, act like you never got in the ring before. I was like, Well,if I was a US Marshal I wouldn’t know how to get in the ring. I was doing all that, and I am wearing dress shoes. So then when I get hit by Roman, I slipped and fell, and had to get up and grab them. It was a mess, man. But I will tell you I look like a total badass in that outfit. And you know, as they say, long-term storytelling.”

On a possible move to WWE in the future:

“I could end up anywhere actually. It’s not crazy. I understand it, and definitely get it. Like, you know, you just go where your friends are. Yes, I love my friends. I would like to always see them every day in my life, whether they come to me or whatever the case may be. That’s just how it is in life. You have people that you are cool with, and you’re always gonna have people say, like, well, you’re gonna do that because of this person. It’s like, Well, damn, yeah, I can’t act on my own accord.”

What is Ricky Starks grateful for?

“The people in my tribe, the support of people and that I am happy and proud of myself.”

Ricardo Rodriguez On Alberto Del Rio, Beating Roman Reigns, Being Bret Hart’s Final Opponent

in LATEST EPISODES on November 21, 2024 November 21, 2024

https://cvvtix.com – Tickets for the first ever INSIGHT LIVE the day before the Royal Rumble on January 31, 2025 in Indianapolis are on sale now!

Ricardo Rodriguez (@RRWWE) is a professional wrestler best known for his time in WWE as Alberto Del Rio’s personal ring announcer. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at Three Legacies Wrestling School in Lancaster, PA to talk about how he got signed by WWE and being paired with Alberto Del Rio, having a victory over Roman Reigns, being ringside for Dolph Ziggler’s Money in the Bank cash-in, his Royal Rumble entry, why he decided to leave WWE, his battles with addiction, getting clean and more.

Quote I’m thinking about: “Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss.” – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

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On if he always wanted a wrestling school:

“No, not at all. This is something I just kind of developed over the last several couple of years. I’ve been grateful that I’ve had the privilege of running schools and at least running classes. Even in my time with WWE, I was put in a position to kind of help guide others through the help, obviously, of my mentors that were there with me. As time went on, I just started taking that a little bit more seriously, and I got put in a position where I was given trust to be able to help others. Now that I have this opportunity to build my own thing, to build my own legacy, I’m very grateful for it.”

On his career as a wrestler before he became a manager:

“It’s night and day. At the time I started in Mexican Lucha Libre, that’s how I started. I was very grateful for my trainer, Latino Blanco, who just would beat the living dog hell out of us, but in a good, constructive way. I learned so much from that. Then when I switched over to the American side, it was a struggle at first, but then once I kind of started getting my groove, and I had awesome trainers that were helping me switch from Mexican style to the American style, these guys named Los Luchas, Phoenix Star and Zokre from PWG, so they were a big part of that, too. When I started kind of modeling what I wanted to be in the American side, I used to watch Super Dragon, Samoa Joe, Low Ki, Great Muta, how they were more just aggressive, and they didn’t really talk, and it was more so just mannerisms. So in my head at least I would tell myself, you’re this badass then usually go and kick everybody in the head, and then you’ll incorporate a couple little Lucha things here and there, but that’s what I used to try and do and emulate. And then I became Ricardo. I did not talk and then I got hired to talk. So that was a whole 180 because prior to that, I maybe had cut maybe one promo ever in the four years I was doing independent wrestling. Maybe one or two promos tops, and I got hired to talk. So the irony of how all that kind of came about.”

On getting signed with WWE:

“So I had worked for this promoter in Southern California named Jesse Hernandez, who owns Empire Wrestling Federation. And Jesse used to be a referee for WWWF I think, but he had been around for a while, and he became one of the main promoters in Southern California, so I got to wrestle for him once. And right after the match, he comes up to me and he goes, Hey, WWE is coming to town in a couple of months or so. He’s like, Would you be interested in doing a tryout? And mind you, this is the first time I’ve met him, so he didn’t owe me anything. And I was like, Yeah, of course. So I jumped in on that. I did the tryout. And at the time, I didn’t know too much about what was going on WWE television, because my full-time job as a graphic designer was a full-on production type thing. So it was an all-day, 12-hour, 16-hour shifts, right? So I wasn’t watching wrestling, really. And then when I was getting out of work, I would go straight to training. So then I did an actual tryout at the Staples Center. We got there super early. We did a three hour tryout. So we finished that, and then they come up to me afterwards. The talent scout at the time was named Tye Bailey. So Tye Bailey comes up to me, and he just kind of asked me a couple questions like are you under contract anywhere? No. Are you married? No. Do you have kids? Not that I know of. If given the opportunity, would you be willing to relocate to Florida? Yeah, sure, of course. At that point, I had been promised the moon by so many promoters, and I didn’t know any better, so I was like, whatever, right? I would just kind of, we’ll see. We’ll just kind of play by ear and see what happens. So then we go to catering and I was only scheduled for that tryout. I wasn’t scheduled for SmackDown or anything. I was just scheduled for the tryout, but I stuck around because obviously they welcome you to stay in case they need extras or whatever. So they went up to this other gentleman that had done the trial with me, and we did like this thing where we did matches and we did tournaments, tournament style, and at the end of it was myself and this other guy, and they had gone up to him first and they’re like, Hey, we’re looking for this ring announcing thing. They had asked him and for whatever reason, he said he couldn’t make it the next day. So then Jesse goes up to the individuals that were in charge, and he’s like, Well, he speaks Spanish. So then they approached me and they’re like, Hey, do you have a tuxedo? I was like, Yes, of course, and I didn’t. They asked if I’ve ever done ring announcing before, and I told him yes, which I never have. So then they’re like, Alright, come tomorrow to SmackDown in Bakersfield, they didn’t tell me what for. They’re just like come tomorrow. I was like, Cool, awesome.”

On what happened next:

“So then I go to the Goodwill that was across the street from where I used to live, and I got a cheap little suit. There was a bridal store across the street from that, so I bought a bunch of bow ties. Coincidentally too, because I wasn’t scheduled for that SmackDown, Miro was actually on that tryout with me, and we were training together at Knox Pro. So I told him, and he’s like, Well, just take the room that I had purchased for the night, the hotel, just take it. I was like, Cool. So he let me stay. He offered it, but Bakersfield is only an hour and a half, two hours from the valley. So we were in the tryout together and I went to Bakersfield, I do the first little walkthrough, they tell me what I’m doing, and I get introduced to Alberto. And at the time, I didn’t really know who he was. He seemed familiar. So we go over the rundown of what we’re doing. So then they tell me, Hey, you’re gonna be announcing this guy. We do the first rehearsal. Vince waddles down the ramp as I see him. So he does the little walk and I was like, Dude, that thing’s real. Then he comes up to me, and because I had already done one rehearsal, and he’s like, not like that. Be more animated, be more Hispanic, whatever that means, right? So just be more Hispanic. I was like, All right, cool. So then I started thinking of the AAA announcers, how they’re so loud and so I took that approach. And he’s like, Yeah, that. So then I do it. And obviously the first time around, it wasn’t as big and as extravagant as once I got used to it, but they liked it. I did the first night and then that week they were doing a double taping of SmackDown, because the guys were going overseas, the SmackDown guys were going to the European tour. I believe that’s when they got stuck because of the volcano. There was a volcano in Iceland, and I think on the way back they got stuck. I think it was that that week. So I did Bakersfield on Tuesday, and then we did a double taping. So on Wednesday, we were in Fresno. So then I go up, I do the deal. Alberto wrestled this wrestler by the name of Alex Kozlov. Then after that, Mark Carano and Johnny Ace, they pull us into the office, and they ask us basic questions. They’re like, Hey, are you on a contract? And I was like, no. So they asked Alex the same and I think at the time he was wrestling with AAA, but a per-appearance type deal. So then they’re like, would you guys want to sign? We’re going to offer you, especially for me, because they talked to us separately, but they offered us both contracts, so then that’s kind of how I started. But at the time, I didn’t really know who Alberto was, and I had a friend who was a super, super, super, super mark fan. So I was like, Hey, who’s this guy? Because I knew he would know, because obviously dirt sheets and all that stuff, he will look into who he was. So he’s like, Oh, that’s Dos Caras Jr. I was like, No way. So obviously, I grew up watching Lucha Libre, so I became an instant fan of just the idea that’s the nephew of Mil Máscaras, the son of Dos Caras. So I was like, Cool, this is Mexican royalty. So I fanned out for a little while. So I got signed, and then I was basically an extra for about three months. I did my physical, I did the background check, all that stuff, and then they flew me out to TV right off the bat, and then eventually got that call, Hey, you got you passed, we’re gonna send you to Florida. And it just kind of went from there.”

On his first match in FCW:

“I think it was in December of 2010. I think December when I finally got my first match in FCW, and it was a 10 man tag. I don’t remember exactly who was all in it, but I do believe Husky Harris/Bray Wyatt and Roman Reigns were in it. I think we won that match. I don’t remember, but somebody had tweeted to me the other day that I had a victory over Roman. I was like, No, I didn’t. And they mentioned that. So I don’t know. I don’t remember what the result of that was. [I think you have a victory over Roman Reigns]. Yeah, Tribal Chief, I’m kidding.”

On where Alberto Del Rio’s cars came from:

“I have no idea. That wasn’t up to me. I know it was like, twice, I think that they actually used Alberto’s car. And that was when we were in Miami, because at the time, he used to live in Fort Lauderdale. So he had, I think it was like a 65 Mustang, whatever it was. I think they used it twice, because obviously he would ride it, and when we were done, he would go home. That was another thing too. After our first WrestleMania check, we went out, we bought ourselves Mustangs.”

On being ringside for the Dolph Ziggler Money in the Bank cash-in:

“To me that’s still the top one. That’s incredible, just because I know originally, there was a plan to do it the night of WrestleMania that was originally planned, and then they ended up switching it to the next day. And then, retrospect, I’m glad they did, just because I think it was a little unexpected. And what was great about it too was when they were going over the match. They have that false finish where I think Dolph hit the fameasser, and they go one, two, kick out, whatever. And then Alberto counters it. He does an ensigure and then I think he finally hits the arm, the arm bar. Then, because the office has been screwed so many times, and you can just hear everybody bite on it. And that was so beautiful. So when he finally hit the zigzag, and then the three happened, dude, the eruption of that arena was so incredible. And it was something that I think everybody in unison was very happy for Dolph, because we knew it wasn’t happening.”

On cosplaying as wrestlers:

“[When I was Big Show] I think it was a pillow [in my singlet]. Then we had, I think, I don’t remember whose boots they were that we did the skullcap thingy. [What do you have in your hand?] It was an oversized, I don’t even know what sport that was, but it was a baseball mitt, but for something different, but it was massive. And so Big Show had seen when they were doing it, the one that did not see when they were dressing me up was Sheamus. So I went up to him and asked him for his boots, because I was like, hey, they want to do something with your boots for a design or a picture or something can I borrow your spare? So we didn’t tell him. So they hid me in a room, they dressed me up and then right before we got to Gorilla, because all Sheamus knew was that we were doing a promo. That’s all he knew. So then we’re at Gorilla, and obviously we’re about to go out. And then I just sat next to Seamus, and he just looks at me, and then he does that double take, and then he just lets out like a motherf*cker! So that happened. And then this, it was the same thing. When I dressed up as Zeb Coulter they didn’t tell Swagger, because I think a big part of it was trying to get their genuine reaction. So anytime, like for instance with the cash in, obviously, we don’t tell anybody except for the people involved, because it’s all about the genuine reaction, and then obviously, the whole, you don’t want it to get leaked. But just getting that real, genuine reaction of what they’re gonna be like when something happens.”

On his Royal Rumble entry:

“So how that one came about, it was actually in December, Alberto had gotten hurt. He took a weird bump, and he had a torn ligament in his leg. So obviously he was out for a little bit, and we were still down at FCW. I remember after FCW, we had gone to the Cheesecake Factory, a bunch of us, and Pat Patterson had just happened to be there too. So Pat was sitting at the bar. So out of respect, I’d go up to him and I just say, Hello, whatever. And then he asked me about Alberto. He’s like, Oh no, he’s doing fine, he’s healing up, whatever. And we start chatting. Then, just for sh*ts and giggles, I was like, hey, Wouldn’t it be funny if during the Rumble I come out? We play his music, I would come out, and then we laugh about it, and we just leave it. Shortly thereafter, we did something in Dallas, and we got stuck in Dallas at the airport because of a storm, so I’m sitting next to Malenko, and then we’re just talking. We’re talking about cruiserweights and whatever. He had mentioned back then that he had pitched the idea of a cruiserweight tournament back then, and he asked my Alberto. And then again, I just brought it up. I was like, hey, wouldn’t be funny if during the Rumble, whatever, we just laugh about it and just leave it. So the day Rumble in 2012 I get to the arena, and I was typically, usually one of the first folks over by the ring, because I want to get in and just roll around. And then Michael Hayes comes up to me, and he’s like, Hey, did you see your car? I thought that he was talking about my rental car, that somebody had done something to it. I was like, no, what? He’s like, your car, did you not see in the back? He’s like, no, what happened? So he’s like, come here. So we get to the back, behind the stage, and then he’s like, your car. And then it was the car, but it was covered. It had the cover. And he lifts it, and I’m looking at it, and I’m looking at him, and it didn’t click in my head. He’s like, did nobody tell you? You’re in the Rumble. I was like, Huh? So then that’s kind of how I found out. So then he’s like, Yeah, this is your car, whatever. So then I talked to Ellis, and he was like, the stunt coordinator guy. And so he showed me the car, and then I realized it’s a stick shift. And then my house, like, dude, I’m from LA man. Like we’re, I’m from the city. Like, we don’t, we don’t have stick shifts. And then the last time that I drove one, I was probably, like, 1718, so I was like, Hey, is it possible if I can just take it to the parking lot and then just kind of get a refresher? He’s like, No, you’ll be fine. I was like, Dude, this is live PPV man, I’m doing the Rumble. I don’t want to step on the wrong thing, and then either stall, or, even worse, just haul ass into the people. He’s like, you’ll be fine. And, dude, I tried convincing them to make them get stagehands to, like, legit, push it so we can play audio where I stall, and then you just see the stagehands push the car out. He’s like, No, you’ll be fine. I was like, dude, so I went on YouTube, and I just looked up a video How to drive stick and then that’s just kind of went from there. But yeah, dude, the whole time, the whole time I was just, I was just like, sweating buckets. The first person I attacked when I got in the ring was Cody Rhodes in the corner. So I started pummeling Cody. So I’m just saying, He’s the champ right now. And I took down Cody.”

On being Bret Hart’s last opponent:

“Yeah, it’s insane. We were Ontario that day, we’re at the gym, Alberto and I, and then we get a text from Road Dogg, he tells Alberto the rundown. He said Hey, tonight, it’s gonna be you and Ricardo against John Cena and Bret Hart. And we’re like, Ha! So we’re waiting for the LOL, right? And then it never came. So then I got the text. I was like, wait, what? All right, this is gonna happen. So obviously, Ricardo is not a wrestler. So I had my wrestling gear, but Ricardo is not a wrestler. So at that gym that we were at they were selling women’s tights and stuff, which I like them a little bit more, because they’re more colorful. And then they have more designs than the men’s, obviously there’s not any men’s tights. So I bought a couple of the female workout tights and I took it to Road Dogg and then he’s like, Yeah, that one. So then we go over the match, and then it’s still not clicking in my head that what’s about to happen, and then we get in the ring, and I’m like, Dude, this is cool. This is awesome. I’ve worked with John, but I was always grateful for the opportunity. But just the fact that, hey, we’re in Canada, Bret Hart’s about to put me in a sharpshooter. This is cool. This is super cool. So that’s one of those images I think I have that printed in the office too.”

On his WWE exit:

“So I never got released. I asked for it, so it wasn’t like I was a part of a big thing or whatever. At the time, I had already been separated from Alberto. I was doing the Spanish commentary, but I wasn’t feeling it. I wasn’t happy at the time. I was going through a lot of depression, I wasn’t happy, I wasn’t making what I had been making prior, and I had a lot of discussions with the office, with Carrano, and we just couldn’t get anywhere. And it got to honestly one day where I just didn’t get on the flight. I woke up the next day on a Monday, and I called Carrano and was like, Hey, dude, I’m still at home. I’m not coming in.”

What was the reaction?

“He said are you alright? I was like, Yeah, I’ve tried talking to you a few times and it’s just not going anywhere. At the time I was 29, I was like I think I’m so young enough where I can kind of do stuff. I just want to say thank you, but I think I’m done. He’s like, all right. Well, you know what, stay home. Let me talk to Vince and Hunter and let me call you back. I was like, cool no big deal. And he called me on a Wednesday at like, five o’clock. He’s like, Hey, I just talked to Paul and Vince, and we’re gonna grant you the release. You are always welcome to come back, whatever blah, blah, blah. Was like, All right, thank you. And then a lot of bitterness kind of went into the next couple minutes, because as soon as I hung up with the phone, I started getting all these alerts on Twitter that I had been released. In my head, I was like, these motherf*ckers. Then I didn’t even wait like a day or anything. As soon as I got off the phone, they had posted that I was let go. I was like, dude, like, you couldn’t have waited. I mean, I’m sure they have a reasoning, or they have somebody like on standby that as soon as that happens, hey, let’s get the first leg up there. But I was just so angry and bitter, and then for months and years, really, I had this like disdain for wrestling and just the company. Obviously, there’s a lot of stuff that led into it, but I was just, I wasn’t happy.”

On what was next and alcohol addiction:

“I got contacted by Carlos Colon and WWC, and then he asked me if I wanted to go wrestle for him. So even though I still had this little bitterness to wrestling, I was like well life still has to go on. I need to make money. So I did that and it was a good experience, it was fun, but I still have that hatred towards the company. Obviously, there was a lot of alcohol that was involved with a lot of my social media postings after I left WWE and stuff that I’m not necessarily ashamed of what I said. I’m more ashamed of how I said it, and I wish I would have approached it differently, because a lot of those feelings were valid. I just didn’t know how to manage them. And obviously, a lot of them were alcohol-induced, so that became a big problem as I went along, and then I just went on a downhill slope from there.”

When did you realize alcohol was a problem?

“When did I know it was a problem and when I actually decided to do something about it are way different timelines, very different. I knew early on it was [a problem], but once you’re addicted to something it’s hard to let go of that. I tried so many different ways to get out of that little cusp of that hold addiction gets on you. It was every day. The only time I didn’t was when I was sobering up so I can kind of get better and enough for me to be able to get up and go get more. Obviously, the alcohol led to the drugs, the drugs, the women, all that stuff, the partying, that whole lifestyle became a thing, because obviously, once I left WWE, I had all the time in the world. I didn’t have to show up anywhere. I gained a lot of weight. I was just always angry and bitter. I was so good at self-victimizing. ‘This is happening to me because of all of you, none of this is my fault. It’s all your fault.’ I was so good at that because that’s what an addict does. And there were a lot of people that were trying to help me that I didn’t realize that they were and at the time, I think I saw them as they’re just trying to get in the way of my good time, so f them. So I kept pushing people away. And in retrospect, a lot of people left me, a lot of people that I thought were close friends, they left and I was so angry at the time of why they’re leaving me, they were deserting me. But when I look back at it I don’t blame them. I was terrible. I was constantly drugged up. I was drunk, I was miserable, I was a slob, and I didn’t care about anybody. I didn’t care about me and it was just a cycle. It became a cycle where, obviously, because of the WWE schedule that we had, it was always go, go, go. You get out of Raw at let’s say 11 o’clock, by the time you get out of the arena, and then the city, maybe midnight, you get to the next town, three, four o’clock in the morning, you go to sleep for a couple hours. You wake up, you go to the breakfast, you go to the gym, and you go straight to the arena. So I was used to running and functioning on very little sleep, and I don’t know how to manage it. So obviously, when I left WWE, I still had that same cycle, but I had nothing in between. So I used to supplement that adrenaline of being in front of a camera, because obviously that’s not there anymore. So what happens when the red light goes off and I have no way of pushing or getting that high, is use alcohol, and so the insomnia kicked in a lot too. The insomnia led to me drinking wine, because at the time, wine would make me sleepy. The irony was, I did not want to do pills, because I didn’t want to get addicted to pills. That turned out very well for me. And so the wine, I had one glass, and then two glasses, and then the whole bottle, and then two bottles, and then three bottles. And I was like, man, it’s getting expensive, so let me just get a box of wine so I could chug a whole box of wine by myself, but then it was a lot of sugar. So I was like, Alright, so let me switch over to alcohol, hard liquor. So I went to vodka, because vodka is healthier, right? So it just became a thing.”

On getting help from Drew McIntyre:

“So I woke up in San Antonio, I had my phone and I put out a tweet. I was like, hey, I need help. I screwed up. This gentleman by the name of Christopher Dreisbach had just happened to see my tweet, and he’s never on Twitter, so then he sends me a DM, and he’s like, Hey, if you’re really serious about getting help. Let’s talk. Let’s figure something out. WWE has this really cool wellness program part where if you’ve been with them and you encounter a similar situation, they can help you out, they’ll figure something out. So I got in contact with WWE, and this is where a good friend of mine Drew McIntyre comes in. I sent Drew a message, and I was like, Hey, can you find out the information of the wellness policy, who’s in charge or something. So then he dug around, and he got me the info. I contacted WWE because of that, and it just yeah, it became a thing and that’s how we got connected. I had talked to WWE, and I told who had contacted me up here in Lancaster. And he’s like, oh, and we’ve done stuff with them before. Go ahead and set it up, and we can figure out the details later. So yeah, Drew was a big part of making that connection.”

On still battling addiction:

“It never goes away, but I’ve just gotten better at managing it. It’s a daily battle. I’ve gotten better at how to control it and how to manage it. The concept of being of being mindful and grateful is a key element also learning how to take a pause when something upsets me, instead of instantly reacting to whatever just pisses me off. Just take that pause and weigh out the pros and cons of what you’re about to do? Because if I go back to the same route that I used to do of the instinct, f*ck me, f*ck you, right? That’s where that take me, and that’s not going to be anywhere good. So that sense of taking a pause, slow down, I’m not answering you, because I don’t care whatever is like, I’m just, hold on. Let me just process this before I give you a more accurate answer.”

What is Ricardo Rodriguez grateful for?

“Everything I was able to overcome, the circle that I have and I am no longer the reason my mom cries.”

Nick Aldis: SmackDown GM, One More Match, Adam Pearce, Randy Orton RKO, Mickie James

in LATEST EPISODES on November 19, 2024 November 19, 2024

Nick Aldis (@RealNickAldis) is a professional wrestler and the General Manager of WWE SmackDown. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Brooklyn, NY to discuss becoming the SmackDown GM and his no-nonsense management style, his in-ring debut segment with Triple H and Dominik Mysterio, being on the receiving end of a Randy Orton RKO, if he is done being an in-ring competitor, a possible match against Raw General Manager Adam Pearce, being married to Mickie James and more!

Quote I’m thinking about: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman

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On laying down the law on SmackDown:

“Naturally, sometimes I have to tell guys stuff they don’t want to hear, and that’s when the executive speak comes out. Because in my mind, I think if I was in that situation, if I was the wrestler in the equation, hearing that annoying, corporate babble would make me infuriated. So I think, Okay, this is a good time to slip that in, particularly if I’m dealing with guys like Randy or Cody. Or with Roman, the very key sort of early interaction for my character was the thing with Roman, right? It was like, I thought I’m gonna walk the line here of sort of have some physical presence, but I’m gonna also lay on a bit of the corporate stuff just to sort of establish the dynamic.”

On having a unique GM character:

“I mean, look, my whole thing on this was I had to make it my own and I had to create, to me, in my mind. This is also based on some early conversations with Hunter about it. He said ‘I want this to be different. Your General Manager schtick is not going to be the typical authority figure we’ve seen necessarily in the past. You’re not necessarily going to be this.’ Obviously, there’s been some major differences between some of the characters you’ve seen in those roles. But it wasn’t going to necessarily be this sort of insecure, power-hungry, sort of guy right off the bat. He said, ‘I want you to be more you, kind of calm and collected and all business.’ I went, I think I know what you want. Obviously, there’s a lot of coaching involved and stuff like that. But in the beginning, I was like I think I’ve got what you have in mind, we sort of went that way, and it seemed to work.”

On fans realising that he is a wrestler:

“It’s sort of humbling, yeah, a bit of a humbling experience. It is funny because the anniversary just passed a few days ago of me and Cody doing two out of three falls in Nashville. So usually the All In match and that match are the ones that tend to get sort of annualized. It came up again and all these comments are just like, What? no way! It’s funny, because it’s always going to be that way, right? Because that’s just the difference between WWE and the rest of the wrestling world.”

On making the transition to the GM role:

“Yeah, it’s fun. I mean, like I said when I mentioned this before another interview, so I don’t want to harp on too long. But when the General Manager thing was presented to me, I talked to Mickie about it and I said they’re offering me the General Manager. She was just like, 100% take it, you’ll kill that. And I said well good, I did. I already said yes, and I just was like, I’m gonna be the best f*cking General Manager you’ve ever seen and we’ll go from there.”

On possibly saying goodbye to his in-ring career:

“I guess. But I also don’t necessarily see it like that. 100% I see it more as a sort of maybe not a full-time wrestler, but I don’t know. Look, it gets asked all the time by everyone except me. I have never once said, hey what about me? Could I wrestle? Because I don’t need to. If and when the time comes it’ll be what they want, and it will hopefully be the right time. I just told them that if you want to do that, I’m ready.”

On his debut and Dominik Mysterio:

“I love working with Dom. Also, shout out to Dom, because he was so instrumental in my introduction as a character. I always make this point, I was introduced on WWE television in a Triple H in-ring segment. If you’d have told the 13-year-old Nick Aldis that he would have fallen out of his chair. Hunter was my guy. I loved Bret when I was a kid, but I saw Bret like a superhero. When I first started formulating this idea of I think I want to get into this business, actually get into it, it was because of Rock and Hunter. It was their feud in 2000. But as much as The Rock was the man who captivated my imagination like so many of us who were in the business, probably half the roster, if they were honest with themselves, it was Rock. But for me, I was watching Hunter, and I realized without articulating it at the time, I was studying him. Because I was sort of going well, self-awareness. I don’t think I can be that guy, talking about The Rock. Because I’m not American number one, and I’m more cerebral, I had a bit more of that, I could relate more to that approach. I think people who are familiar with my in-ring work, they see a lot of Nick Bockwinkel, who I studied a lot, Harley Race, a little bit of Flair. I think if you look at Hunter, it’s quite a similar combination. Anyway, my introduction to the character is by Triple H in a Triple H in-ring segment. Fantastic, sign me up! But if Dirty Dom Mysterio hadn’t been in that segment, would have been a much more difficult position for me to get that one thing, which was the big fan of your dad line, because when I was looking over it in the day, obviously I’m brand new, but I’m also here as a producer, so I have a bit of freedom, a bit of leeway to make some suggestions. Hey, what if we did like this? I remember looking at the way it was laid out, and I saw this sort of suggestion of saying something about [being a] big fan. I was like what if I put a pause in there, in my mind I was like that’s kind of my sense of humor. That’s my sort of sh*t-talker type of style. ‘I’m a big fan of your dad.’ I said it, and Hunter and whoever was around at the time, all sort of laughs. Okay, so I went, Okay, that might work, and in my mind, because when I was looking at it, I knew that this segment isn’t necessarily about me. It’s I’m here to facilitate and that’s sort of what that character is a lot of the time. But at the same time, I’ve got 10 seconds here to f*cking smash something. I was like that’s it, that’s my bit. That’s my moment there. Because then it’s like, then here comes KO and it started and that’s kind of the business of the segment. But I looked at that little and I just kind of went, that’s my kick the door down moment, because I knew I had to do that like I did. I knew that the majority of people watching would probably not know who I was. I would have loved to have debuted in Chicago or New York or Philly or something where there would have been maybe a higher concentration of fans who [knew me]. Tulsa, Oklahoma, not what I necessarily have described as my strongest market. But I was like, hey, I’ll take it. But because Dom has so much heat, and because that Dom character is the guy you love to hate, which is, to me, that is the sweet spot, especially in the modern era, that’s the sweet spot you want as a heel character. Have to be a guy you love to hate. Sometimes it’s hard now to have, because it’s hard to have heat. I mean real heat, because real heat then becomes like, oh, well, is it real? And obviously you presented them with this conundrum of well, we don’t want to have to sort of disclaim to people well it’s not real, because what’s the point? That’s ruining the whole thing. So you have to be a guy they love to hate, and that’s Dirty Dom. And now with Liv. To me, Liv Morgan, I don’t know what you want to call it breakout. I shouldn’t really say break out. She’s been around a long time, but she’s the MVP of 2024, she leveled up in a huge way, immensely.”

On being recognised by the fans before his debut:

“It was pretty hard to shut it out. I had to sort of shut that out, because obviously, typically, the the ones who are closer to the front row are usually the ones who are much more sort of die-hard fans, too. So, yeah, of course they’re going, Nick Aldis! What are you doing here?”

On Adam Pearce:

“I love the dynamic between Adam and I. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s something that you can go to, then get away from for a bit and go back to. I think Hunter’s approach and look, I don’t like to speak on his behalf, obviously, but I think that a lot of the time he does like to have a sort of combination of long-term planning and some improvisation where it’s sort of like, to me, I’ve always felt like that’s the key is you need to know where you’re going. You need to have a destination in mind, and you need to have, and I think you sort of have to have pit stops along the way that are sort of maybes, maybe we’ll go there, maybe this will lead to this, maybe we’ll get to that. Randy Orton RKO’d me out of the blue last time SmackDown was in Brooklyn. Then a week later, it’s like, he cuts me a check. He goes, Oh, that’s for next time, but we haven’t gone back to it thankfully. But it’s like, I think Hunter likes having fun with little things like that, laying some breadcrumbs here and there, planting a seed, whatever. And that’s how I look at me and Adam is like there’s always potential there.”

On the RKO from Randy Orton:

“I still feel funny. I know we’re in 2024 but I still feel funny about giving away [the secrets]. But it’s like, whatever I’ve done it now, I can’t not give it to you. It was called on the fly. It’s Roman, it’s Randy, who’s he gonna sign with, and then he was gonna sign the SmackDown contract and stare down Roman, and I think that was it. And then it was like, somebody told somebody told somebody while I was ringside. So I had to go in and call it. I’ve never gotten to the bottom of who was behind it. I still feel weird giving away the magic. It seems to have been one of these moments that connects. So it’s like, there seems to be a heightened level of interest on that particular moment, because it was quite out of the blue, even for me.”

On a possible TNA return:

“I guess I hadn’t really thought about that, but it might be fun as the GM, depending on the context. Obviously the Machine Guns just debuted. That was cool. It was cool for me to be involved in that, because of our history and everything. But again, I think one of the really exciting things about the Paul Levesque era, for lack of a better term, I tried to coin the Renaissance era, but that doesn’t seem to have taken off.”

On a possible UK WrestleMania:

“Absolutely. I don’t think that you have the Mayor of London campaigning, using it, he pledged to try to get WrestleMania at Wembley in his campaign for Mayor of London. I mean, what else is there that solidifies the status of WWE? Mayor of London is not a small political position, in the UK. It’s really, in a lot of ways, the second most sought-after position after PM. A lot of times it’s the precursor to being PM, it’s like, when did you ever think that someone running for Mayor of London would say reelect me, I’m going to do everything I can to bring WrestleMania to Wembley Stadium. Think about the hoy polloi types who would have been like, oh, talking about wrestling ghastly and now, and like he’s campaigning with it.”

On being the best SmackDown GM since Teddy Long:

“Can I just say it’s so cool to me that I ended up sort of in that spot. Because even before I was ever involved with WWE, I would bump into Teddy all over the place at conventions and different events and stuff like that. He was always so complimentary to me and he was one of those guys that was like you need to be up there, you need to be in New York. So it’s cool for me to sort of get that spot and to be talked about with him, because I love Teddy so much.”

On a possible catchphrase:

“No. I mean, first of all, it’s not something that I think that you want to force, ever. But I also think once get into sort of catchphrase. I still feel like I’m establishing the character. It takes a long time.”

On Chelsea Green:

“I mean, it’s a night off. It’s great. You don’t have to think very hard because she’s just going to give you endless material. What a great example of maximizing your minutes. What a great example of taking something that a lot of people would have seen that particular opportunity. We’ve had conversations that kind of tiptoe around this, actually, with each other, because Chelsea and I know each other a long time. We’re around the same age, we’ve sort of been in a lot of the same places. We’ve had quite similar career paths in some in some respects. I think for her, there was this thing of will I ever get the shot on the main show? Then it comes. And I’m sure that this probably isn’t what she first had in mind. I don’t want to speak for her, but I would venture to say that what she’s doing, it probably isn’t like what she envisioned a long time ago. But man, Has she taken this and run with it.”

What is Nick Aldis grateful for?

“The opportunity from Paul Levesque, the support of my wife and embracing my faith.”

Simon Miller: Golden Ups, Johnny Sins, Positivity in Wrestling, His AEW & TNA Appearances

in LATEST EPISODES on November 14, 2024 November 14, 2024

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Simon Miller (@SimonMiller316) is a professional wrestler and YouTuber. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood, CA to discuss chasing his dream of becoming a professional wrestler no matter what, learning to wrestle at a later age, his first match in WCPW and what it led to, being on the pre-show for AEW All In, why he is so positive about professional wrestling, why he focused more on wrestling than fitness on his YouTube channel, being frequently mistaken for adult film star Johnny Sins and more!
Quote I’m thinking about: “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

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On driving in the US and the UK:

“There’s a place called Milton Keynes. Shout out to Milton Keynes, which is just roundabouts. It’s a town, city, whatever that was built. And for some reason, I’m not kidding, you drive into the centre, you have to go through 30 roundabouts. And I’ve been because, What Culture Pro Wrestling back in the day, you used to do shows in Milton Keynes, and I used to do a lot of the driving for the talent that would come over for the US, and they would be like, What is this? Because you just roundabout, roundabout roundabout. Whereas America is very much forward, left, right, block. It’s much simpler. So that’s another thing I would say. It’s for us, apart from the right turn. Can’t do the right turn.”

On being so positive and the negativity:

“It’s both better and worse at the moment. We use the term content creators who I think actually have come up and gone, oh no, I’m going to enjoy wrestling again, to talk about it there. But then there’s also a real, huge contingent of people that use the buzz words toxic positivity. The one I get now is you’re the reason for bad ratings because you’re not calling out the product. I was like, dude, I’d love to have that much power. I’d be having a great time. But what I think is lost, it’s real. I’m not just saying things because I think it’s fun to say them. If I say I like a show, I like a show. It was Bad Blood a couple of weeks ago, as we’re recording this, the Nia Jax Bayley match, I had a great time with it. I thought it was awesome that Hurricanrana that went wrong, it made it for me. I never go on the internet till I’ve done a video, done a review, because it can get to your brain. Then I went on and listened to my podcast, and the loud voices were really loud about how awful that was, and I had a breakdown. Have I totally got this wrong? But no, I genuinely just enjoyed it. And you got people going you didn’t actually watch it and stuff. It’s like, Dude, my job is watching wrestling. It’s really easy, it’s a lot of hard work that goes into it, but the actual watching of the wrestling for someone to go, here’s some money. It’s not a problem, but it’s true. So some people actually now think you’re just being positive because it’s a marketing venture, or I don’t know, I find it crazy, but I just know from my end and from talking to people like you, it’s just not true. We just feel privileged to do what we do and we enjoy what’s on the TV.”

On hard work paying off:

“That’s fair. I’m very good at downplaying things, probably because I’m British, self-deprecating humor, you’re just brought up with it. But no, you’re right. I think, given my own personality, I think I’ll always feel a little bit lucky, even though, when I actually sit down and think about it logically that’s not true, because, again, I know how much work I put into all of this.”

On always wanting to be a wrestler:

“Oh yeah. I remember flicking through TV channels when I was a kid. It was Bret Hart, the first guy that I saw. No idea what he was doing. I just looked at him and like that. Well, you’re interesting. So before I actually followed it through and in 2016 I tried twice to be a wrestler. First time, I came up against a very old-school wrestling coach who ripped me to shreds. I was like, if this is still the way, it’s just not for me. I was well aware of that. I don’t want to push it too hard, but I was quite emotionally scarred by then. I remember, I sort of, I say, put my back out, I don’t know what that means, but I remember not being able to stand up. He had me doing 619s in the ring, and he was just giggling about the whole thing and I was like, it’s just not fun. I stuck with it a while, because I’ve been blessed with tenacity, I’m very good at not quitting. But that did get to a point where it’s just like I can’t do this. Then second time round, I was going through a lot personally and again, emotionally I was like this isn’t the right time, but it all worked out great, because the third time’s a charm. I just started doing the What Culture stuff, and I was like, I just knew. Doesn’t matter how much this sucks, we’re going to see it through. We’ll do a match. It helped that I got to document it for YouTube too, that’s always a [plus]. It’s like having a personal trainer, right? I can’t stop now, they’ll get mad at me. It’s great to be accountable. But it all worked out the way it was meant to work out. I don’t think I would have been able to do what I’ve done now, sort of 10 years ago.”

On starting wrestling at an older age than most and thinking it might be too late:

“Oh yeah sure. I walked in there like, Dad’s here. Yes, and no, it’s weird. I knew that I was older than you should be, for lack of a better term, but I also knew that I didn’t care.”

On having more wisdom with age:

“Because I had other things in my life, I almost had a safety blanket. Actually, sometimes not having a safety blanket is far better. But again, when you are in a certain stage of your career, it actually helped me, because it actually allowed me to throw myself more into it and deal with a lot of the nonsense that you always get when you start wrestling. Because I was like, well, just keep going. It’s awesome that you’ve built up this other thing over here. We’re now going to try and build this thing over here, but if it doesn’t work, again, I really do think sometimes you don’t need that because you need to feel the fear. ‘Do It Anyway’, which is my favorite quote ever. That’s an accidental segue, but that’s how I felt when I started wrestling. I remember walking to my first training session with all those thoughts, your early 30s. What are you doing? You’re going to be like the father of this place. But it’s a book. Actually, I read it when I was in my early 20s. It’s literally called, feel the fear and do it anyway. And I was like, well, nobody has made that book for an audience of five people. They probably made it because they thought there was a wider birth of people they could reach, which said to me, I’m 99% sure that adulthood is just being terrified of everything but going, you know what? I’ll persevere. And that’s what I did when I started wrestling. I was like, You are a little bit older. You probably should have done this a while ago. Another great proverb, The best time to do anything, is 10 years ago or right now, you can’t go back. It was almost like an epiphany again. I sort of, I was past 30, I changed. I became a different person. When I was past 30, I just accepted everything that maybe I’d been hung up on for so long, and been like, you know what? This is me. Let’s ride it. And that carried on into everything. And I just wasn’t afraid to fail. If it all went bad, I was like, who cares? I’ll go do something else.”

On how he felt after his first wrestling match:

“Well, after my first training session I had to take the day off work because I couldn’t move, they thought I was lying. My first wrestling match, I am so blessed to be in the position, but again, hard work for sure, but I always feel like someone’s smiling down on me, because obviously WCPW, I debuted in 2018 was still around. It was called Defiant, but it was like in England especially, it was considered, how do we get on Defiant? They come to me. I know the people that run it, and they came to me and they said, Simon, we want you to be in the No Regrets Rumble. I turned them down at first, I was so scared. I mean, I would have done it, but I was like, what, me? No. And it couldn’t have been a better experience. Because, again, I really like the fact you pointed in the whole hard work thing, because there’s multiple ways to pay your dues. I have done it in other ways, maybe not in professional wrestling, but I think sometimes you pay your dues and what you get kind of comes in different forms. So there is footage of this somewhere. It was a behind-the-scenes Defiant documentary. They don’t exist anymore, so hopefully they’ve released it into the wild, but they filmed all my stuff sort of before my entrance number 15 in the Rumble. I remember that, I’ve never been so scared. In my mind, I was terrified because I got into my head that people were going to have a certain expectation of me because, they knew me from What Culture. I then decided that I had to cover up as much as my body as possible because people were going to judge me for that too. I mean, listen, I’ve done a bunch of videos. I’m the king of body dysmorphia. I take on that role with pride these days, let’s roll into battle. Then I walked out there, and it all happened in literally the space of eight seconds. I got such a cool reaction. People were so nice, my performance in the ring was atrocious, but it always is your first that’s why you’re meant to do it in an armory in front of 20 people. That’s a good thing, as opposed to technically live on pay-per-view. You could buy it. It was a streaming pay-per-view, and I was in there with a who’s who of the time of British Independent wrestlers. I was so worried about hurting them, I gave each and every single one of them the worst clotheslines ever. I won’t name drop them, because it’s not fair, but one of them, in a nice way, in a very productive sort of fatherly way, took me to one side, but it did phrase it this way. Simon, if you ever hit me with a clothesline that again, not only will I not sell it for you, I’ll punch you in the face. And he was right. It was he had to sell it, poor boy. And it was awful, but it was the best experience. And yeah, my brain just told me this is it now Simon, I don’t know how this works. I didn’t know about getting other bookings or how you grow your brand. But it was, I mean, really, it was top five experiences of my life. It really, really was, I remember driving back because I was in Newcastle to where I lived in London, was a six hour drive. And I remember driving back, it could have been 42 hours, I was elated. I was so happy, and I was like, That’s it. That’s the feeling that we chase. So now we keep on chasing it.”

On being an extra at AEW All In 2023:

“That was the coolest experience of my life. Because Wembley Stadium in England is hallowed turf. So we know as part of the extra crew, and you never know what you’re going to do that day, because things change. You’re there, you’re just in case which is fine with that.”

What do they tell you to bring?

“So for that one, we were told to dress nice, obviously, which I would have done anyway, because I think you should be respectful. But they told us we needed a bunch of black clothing. I think it was a hoodie, a top, and some tracksuit bottoms or pants, whatever we call that in America, I don’t know. Because, originally, I think I can say this now, almost a year and a half removed, but Swerve was gonna have some big entrance, and we were gonna be dressed in black hoodies to create some sort of an effect. But then that got killed quite quickly, when all of a sudden they were like Miro and Powerhouse Hobbs are going to do something on the pre-show. We need you guys to be, the security. So I was like, This is all I need in my life for two reasons. I gotta tell this story, right? And he probably watches. But I don’t care, because I say it with all the love in the world. I want to make it very clear, this made me so happy. I was beaming ear to ear. So Powerhouse Hobbs and Miro are backstage. Now, this is cool anyway, because I was literally standing where England players come out to play soccer football. I was having the best time. And before that, I got to stand in the middle of Wembley Arena, just sort of taking an empty stadium. I was like, I don’t care what happens now, this is a win for football fan Simon. But then we get told we’re going to do this, Miro and Hobbs are coming together with their plan. Miro sees me, and he goes, he can’t wrestle, he makes videos. So I was just like, the fact you’ve even watched any of my content, you have no idea. But then I explained to him I’ve been wrestling for the last seven years, or whatever. Okay, no, sorry. Why should he know? But the fact I got that just, I don’t know. And then we walk out, and the stadium was probably half full. So let’s say there were 80,000 there. I don’t want to get into that ridiculous debate that people have. So you have 40,000 people in there. I did not understand how loud 40,000 people were. When we were stood in that ring it was like Godzilla, it was so loud. So that was excellent, too. And then, because I’m very lucky to have this contingent of people that will support me regardless, it may have worked against me in some ways too. You did have some people go Miller give it up, just ruining this segment. Then, yeah, they obviously get into their big fight and we had half the guys on Miro and half the guys on Hobbs. I said Hobbs can just throw me into the barricade, because I have stupid joke on ups and downs about Barry barricade. So he threw me into that. I think that got me in trouble too, because someone went ‘Barry barricade!’ They’re gonna think I’ve done this on purpose, and it was just, to be involved in a skit, whatever you want to call it, a segment in Wembley Stadium with people that were really into it, because I think they were the first two guys that have gone out. So you just have that, man, we just want to enjoy this, and then go backstage and have the sort of, I mean, to a lesser degree, with us, but there’s still a camaraderie there. We got to do it. And then that’s when they were doing the Anarchy in the Arena match. So they said we want to put you in a bar. And people are going to beat you up too. So I had Claudio punch me in the face, or whatever he did. I was just, it was awesome, like it was so, so cool. And as I continued to go on, is that throughout the day, wrestlers did come up and they said, really appreciate the positivity. Really appreciate how you approach wrestling. I’m sure some people go, you’re biased, but it’s more of I’m a big, big, big, big guy, whether right or wrong, about taking human emotion and sensitivity into all of my work. You can call me a pansy or wuss, whatever, I don’t care. So for people that I have always kept in my head of Do not forget they’re real humans. To come up to you and go you criticize things, but you just do it in a nice way. That meant the world to me. I won’t drop names, I think that is unfair. There was one conversation I had with one guy, and he was just, he was someone I didn’t even think would be into YouTube stuff, and he couldn’t have been nicer. So I left that event just feeling completely reinvigorated about this is a cool thing to do. And then after all that, I got to hang out and catering. So I did it, Simon Miller at catering at AEW, so it ticks so many boxes to me. Shawn Dean that sort of, you know, organized the extra. So I really do appreciate him sorting that out for me. I’ll never forget it. I had a really good day.”

On The Last Match:

“How stupid was that? I thought it was a joke. So shout out to Thunder Rosa, who put me in touch with the producer, Jeremiah, who’s also just a wonderful, nice human being. But, I mean, that’s what it was, literally what it was. So Matt Cardona had done it in 2022 when they did their testing, they had two big shows. Obviously, Matt Cardona is on his huge independent run, and we were literally going to be touring this for two and a half months, or whatever it was down the east coast of America. So understanding Matt was like no, I’ve got a career, he was still a producer, and he helped me load. So shout out to that guy, but Thunder Rosa and Jeremiah were having a chat. As far as I know, this story may have been blown up, but I’ll take it. Sounds great to me. I don’t know whether one of my videos came on or whatever, but Jeremiah said, I really enjoy this guy. I’ve been watching this guy for a while. Thunder was like I thought it was I know that guy Simon Miller, apparently he said something along the lines of maybe paraphrasing I think he’d be really good for the Alexander Swagger role, who is the villain of the piece. She said he’s been acting for a few years. So it’s sort of, as these things always do, a long while to sort of all the bits to come together. So literally after WrestleMania 40 I went from Philadelphia, drove down to New Jersey an hour and a half away, whatever it is, and we rocked up to rehearsal space for two months, and we worked it and then we and we took it on tour. So essentially, I would say, 75% of it was playing a role. And you had the big last match, obviously, at the end. I think if we are gonna start ranking my life experiences that could be in the top two. Let’s push it. Let’s push it right in there, because it’s exactly what you said. I never thought my first proper role where you’re getting paid and it goes on your IMDB, when you actually have a credit that you can use would be in something that is scary, but not too scary, because at least sort of a big chunk of this world, but yeah, we did Center Stage, obviously synonymous with WCW. We did the ECW Arena. We did the Hog Arena in New York. And those three shows, especially people came out, man, I remember during it was the very last show, was the Atlanta one, and I walked out, and it ironically ties into what we just talking about. The fans knew what the show was, and they knew who had been cast as what. So when I walked out, I didn’t even say anything, boo. But it’s wonderful because you can play with that. I’ve been told your character, you break the fourth wall, you know they’re there, you need to insult them, rag on them, drag them down. So I just got to be like a stand-up comic taking out hecklers the entire time. I still can’t believe I got to do it. But it was genuinely awesome and the amount of people that you bumped to. Matt Cardona was at a show, obviously, because he’s taking care of it. And then Heath Slater was at a show, we had Snitsky who kicked the baby, and that clip went viral. Mickie James was on the tour for the whole time. Talk about imposter syndrome. I was like, why am I here? What is going on? McKenzie Mitchell was there. I will forget someone, and I feel bad, but it’s just all these recognizable people that just kept coming through, like, why and how? It was amazing.”

On transitioning from fitness to wrestling on YouTube:

“Thank you for this wonderful opportunity for me to plug this, because I am starting a brand new fitness channel in early 2025 okay, it actually already has about 15 to 20 videos on it, but I’m holding off on it. It’s completely hidden, but it will just be called Simon Miller Fitness, because why not? But it ties into what you just said. So the reason I changed tact was obviously WhatCulture Wrestling been doing that for, for eight years. Whatever it is, I’m their review guy, the ups and downs, Raw SmackDown etc. I’m not moaning about this, I love it. There’s a certain performative quality to it. It’s meant to be a show and we’re all meant to have a good time. Then randomly ties in, CM Punk comes back. I sat there and I thought, oh, man, I want to have a proper chat, more like we’re having a chat now about CM Punk. So I thought I just throw it on my YouTube channel, if I just sit down. I just want to talk about these thoughts in my head, and I talked about it on the Survivor Series, ups and downs. But that was more of, again, we’re up, we’re down, we’re making jokes. And I loved it. I don’t want that to go away, but I just want to talk about, as a wrestling fan, I just did. I just had this overwhelming desperation to do it. I could just throw it out my YouTube channel. It’s one wrestling video out of dozens of fitness ones. I mean, it happened with everyone. It did so well. I was like, Okay, I’ll just do one more wrestling video and see what happens. And it did really, really well. And I was like, okay, as a businessman, you can’t ignore this. This is a really silly idea. I get that having a 180 like that is not ideal in the world of YouTube. But at the same time, the fitness was doing good, this is doing great. I’m not very good at speaking myself in those terms, but it was. So sometimes you just have to go with it, right? So I just went with it, and I thought, this is going to become my [project]. You want the slightly over the top jokes, fun, maybe something more that you’d watch on TV that’s over here. If you want the more laid back chatting with a friend. Give me your opinions going on streams of consciousnesses kind of not being contradictory. But think, what about this? But what about that fantasy booking I suppose. I just thought, Oh, I’ll do that. I’ll do that on my channel. And yeah, there were a few people that left understandably, because if you’re not into wrestling. I didn’t realize and more fool me, I just thought everyone was like, oh, it’s the what culture guy doing fitness stuff. No, people that actually found me through the magic of the internet.”

On the Johnny Sins comparisons:

“Yes [I get mistaken for him]. My favorite story, 2016 making the What Culture content. This is when What Culture and all wrestling was huge, another level. And on this video, Johnny Sins, Johnny Sins… I’m not kidding. I didn’t know who Johnny Sins was. I had wonderful proof. I’m still working in my office job at the time. I was doing 50% YouTube stuff, but it was for a company. So oh, who’s Johnny Sins? In an office, I typed in Johnny Sins images. I had to go to my boss, Hi Adam. I’m really sorry. I’ve just looked at porn at work. I explained it to him, and he was fine with it. But yeah, so it was WrestleMania in New York. I went to get my protein bars. We were going to Madison Square Garden, so maybe it was for the ROH and New Japan event. I went to GNC. I thought I haven’t got time for dinner. I’ll grab a protein bar. And the dude behind the counter went Johnny Sins! Now he wasn’t joking. He thought I was Johnny Sins. When I started talking, he was like, Oh no, you’re not Johnny Sins. He said I’d met Johnny Sins at a porn convention, so I was looking forward to catching up. So I was like, Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You’re not even insulting me. You actually think that I [was him]?! I mean, maybe he was being facetious. I don’t know, but dude, it’s crazy. Eight years has been going on. It’s never calmed down. All the best engagement posts I ever do is when I compare myself to him, it’s out of control!”

What is Simon Miller grateful for?

“My girlfriend Liz, the people who have watched my videos and wrestling.”

Grayson Waller: Disrespecting Triple H, Austin Theory, John Cena Promo, Australian WrestleMania

in LATEST EPISODES on November 13, 2024 November 13, 2024

https://cvvtix.com – Tickets for the first ever INSIGHT LIVE the day before the Royal Rumble on January 31, 2025 in Indianapolis are on sale now!

Grayson Waller (@GraysonWWE) is a professional wrestler currently signed to WWE. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Brooklyn, NY to discuss how he went from being a school teacher to being a WWE Superstar, becoming a tag team with Austin Theory, winning the Tag Team Championships at WrestleMania 40 and disrespecting Triple H afterwards, his in-ring interaction with John Cena in London, why he doesn’t want a UK WrestleMania, if an Australian WrestleMania could ever happen, his talk show segment appearance that went viral, what happened when the cameras stopped rolling and more!

Quote I’m thinking about: “In a world where you can be anything — be kind.” – Unknown

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On being a heel while being a contestant on Survivor:

“I’m good at what I do, and I was wrestling at the time when I did Survivor, independent wrestling in Australia. But I’d watched enough wrestling and done enough that I knew what I was doing when I went on the show. I know how to get eyes on me and how to make sure that people are paying attention on the show to me. It’s always funny that people will make comments about wrestling not being real, but the emotion is every time when you’re really upset at me about something I’ve said or done, it means I’ve done my job pretty good.”

On his greatest insult:

“There’s so many. I think also it kind of depends on the person too, the level of the person. I can say really mean things to some random fan, that is what it is, that still makes me really happy. There was one guy, there’s a video online of us, me and Theory, pulled up to a show in the snow in a convertible with the top down. He was like, ‘Hey, Grayson, you called me fat in Green Bay.’ I looked up, and I was like, ‘And you got fatter since the last time I saw you.’ So it’s just little natural lines like that. There’s none that really stick out. But when you get to say really mean things to a John Cena or Shawn Michaels, that hits a little bit different because it’s a little bit harder to have to say that someone’s face is, someone who is very respected in the industry. But that’s when I have the most fun.”

On Australian wrestlers in WWE:

“Nathan Jones dude! Nathan Jones fell over at WrestleMania, that’s who I want to be. But it’s true, and I guess maybe that’s a reason I didn’t start training so early. I didn’t really watch any Australian independent wrestling. I didn’t know it existed. I just saw WWE then I got into Ring of Honor, CZW Chikara, real random American indie wrestling and I rarely saw Australians. There’d be one or two here or there, but it didn’t seem like a possibility. But then when I saw Peyton and Billy get on NXT, they’re from the same school as me, then I was like, Oh, wow. They came back and did a little seminar, I’m like, It’s possible. I think Rhea is the one who really cemented it, I’d met her just before she left, and then she was doing such big things, I think she showed the rest of Australia, hey, this is possible. And that opened the door. Then you get Bronson, you got Indi there already. You had TMDK doing really good stuff before they left. There’s so many people. And in the now, I think the Australians are saying, hey, it’s possible, there’s people there, and now we’re going to properly take over.”

On being a teacher before a wrestler:

“So I was basically a substitute, but a full-time substitute. So I went every day, but I wanted to stay subbing because if I had a show on a Friday or Thursday, I wanted to just be able [to say] I’m not going to work today. I have a wrestling show, but then I’d get a little bit of full-time gigs here or there. But I was a history teacher. I taught pretty much anything they needed me.”

Were you a fun teacher?

“Yeah, I would say so. In some sense, I enjoy teaching, and especially history, I love history. So I will try and make it at least fun for the kids, because I know how it is to sit in the classroom and have a teacher just talk to you for two hours and you don’t care about anything they said. So I did my best to at least make it fun try and tell them stories. I guess it got me ready for crowds because there’s no one more brutal in the classroom than high school kids. So there’s no crowd in America that can say worse things than those high school kids try to say to me.”

On how he became paired with Austin Theory:

“I think we’re just two incredibly good-looking, humble dudes, and they’re like, this is gonna work. But me and Theory, we met each other a few times before I got called up, but we just got along really well straight away. We have similar mindsets when it comes to the business, too. So we did a few little things together, and I was just like we’re both here to be great, and we’re not going to let anyone get in our way, and we’re going to work hard for it too. So when we started working together a bit, then we started traveling more, and we had this the same schedule, hey, we got to wake up early because we’ve got to get to the gym, like all those type of things. So we have similar mindsets. And it just kind of worked. I don’t think it was a long-term plan, but it’s one of those things that just worked so well that it stuck.”

On being presented with new Tag Team Championships after WrestleMania 40:

“And because we shoot didn’t know what they look like either. I had my acting skills ready so if these suck I’m going to be so happy to receive these sucky belts. But then they showed it to us, when we revealed it, and they were awesome. I think it’s just enough old school where you’re looking at those almost Ruthless Aggression Raw Tag Title mixed in a little bit of new flare, it’s perfect. And we’re the first ones to hold that. Doesn’t matter who has it now, we were the first ones, and no one can take that from us.”

On disrespecting Triple H:

“I think I have a problem with authority. Maybe I don’t like DX in my former life. I don’t know, but there’s just something so fun about such a serious moment and not taking it seriously. I think everyone’s just so respectful these days, it kind of makes me sick in a way. I think people are too respectful, especially of legends and people in the game. ‘We’ve done a lot of great things.’ Yeah, that’s awesome but this is my time now. I’m not going to sit here and, oh, thank you, sir. Thank you so much for the opportunity, especially on TV.”

On a dream guest for The Grayson Waller Effect:

“If I had to put this list two years ago when I first got The Grayson Waller Effect, and it’s Cena, Cody, Shawn, Logan, the Mount Rushmore basically, that would be great. I’ve always said the dream guest is Trish Stratus, and I’ve been saying it multiple times, and unfortunately, hasn’t happened yet. I’m going to keep saying it. Trish, come on, please be on my show. Let me give you the Grayson Waller rub. I just really respect her as a performer, and I’ve always liked her for so long. So that’s always my answer, and until it happens I can’t really give another answer. There’s so many legends, I feel like the legends are really coming backstage a lot more now recently. I don’t know if it was different in the past, but like, every pay-per-view, there’s just all the guys and girls from the past there. They’re super excited. So hopefully I can get some of them involved as well.”

On his fiery response on an Australian talk show:

“I hate when people disrespect what we do and treat it as a joke. Sometimes, you know wrestling enough that we can sit here and have a conversation. You understand what I’ve gone through, you understand what you’ve gone through, it’s a good conversation. But sometimes, when you do these morning TV they’re doing 16 interviews a day, they don’t know who anyone is. I understand why it happened, but it was when the sound guy, or whatever, came up and like, I’ll take a punch and did his little thing. It’s like, you don’t realize what we do. And I was like, Okay. Part of it was me being like, I’m gonna have some fun with this, and it terrified them. When they turned off the cameras, they were terrified about, is everything okay? And I was like, Yeah, I’m good, I was having fun. They didn’t know that. But I think it’s something that we need to protect what we do. And it’s just like if someone’s so disrespectful to your face I’m not going to sit there and take it. I’m not going to hit him, this isn’t the 1980s where you prove a point that way. I wish we could because then I think a lot of people would change their opinion on what we do when you feel what it is. Because when I’m in there and I’m wrestling Kevin Owens, he’s giving me a Swanton, man that sucks. That’s not a fun move, so I just wanted him to respect what I did a little bit more. They don’t know what wrestling is. They’re not fans, so they’re just doing what they think wrestling is. So I get, but I think we’ve come far enough. I think it was also because I was in Australia, I flown home for two days. This is like 30 hours of travel to come here and basically do this show and I’m coming here to do this for you. You’re not doing anything for me, I’m doing way bigger things over in the States. So I think it was just like a whole multitude of being tired from the flight and just getting off that flight and going, sitting there and LA Kight sitting there, just laughing to himself. He got out of it scot-free.”

Were you ever going to punch him?

“No, I’m a professional. I can sit here and act all tough, like, oh yeah, I would have choked him out. No, I wouldn’t. That’s not what we do. We’re trained to be good at what we do, and we’re not going to do that on members of the public. But I would have gotten his face and told him what I thought of him. I think that’s as far as it goes, because you can’t react the same way as people have in the past. We’ve seen how that went, didn’t go great for Hogan. Didn’t go great for David Schultz. So I don’t want myself on that list.”

On wrestling Edge in Madison Square Garden:

“The weird thing is, and I’ve talked about it before, I was coming off breaking my leg against Melo. I got cleared maybe two weeks before, but we were in London for a bit, and then we did something else, I’d had maybe an hour in the ring. So I’ve been cleared, I had one hour, and then I was going to do the talk show with Edge, and all of a sudden, I find out the night before that I’m wrestling him. That’s stressful because I don’t even know if I can wrestle, I haven’t really done anything on my leg. That’s the first time I’ve really felt the pressure and felt nervous, and usually I don’t. But then I watched a bunch of clips of McGregor in MSG, fighting Eddie Alvarez, watched all the videos for the entrance, and just like his vibe, I watched the fight like three times, and all of a sudden I was feeling myself. And I was like, You, what are you going to do? Not do it. And then from that moment, I felt completely comfortable, and the match went great, and I came backstage and I could barely walk. My leg wasn’t as good as it needed to be, but I got through it, and now I’m very glad that I went in with that type of energy. And like to get in there with Edge who is one of the best of all time, and to do it in that kind of venue is very cool.”

On being put over by Edge after the bell:

“That’s not something he has to do. As much as I’m the kind of guy who doesn’t want to kiss ass of the legends, my way of saying thank you to them, is saying really horrible things and going at them, I want to be on your level. I feel that’s the biggest respect I can give you is coming at you like everyone else, like, I don’t want to sit back, but little things like that, at the time, it didn’t mean as much as it does now. Now I look back and go, that was, that was pretty cool.”

On if WrestleMania Australia could happen:

“If I have to be honest, no. Australia, I’m sorry it’s not going to happen. The time zone is rough, and I get that. WrestleMania is such a big show, it’s our showcase, and we want the most eyes on it. I think in Australia, that would be a very difficult process to have, especially flying everything down, it’s a big effort, but I think having Elimination Chamber there is massive. I don’t think people realize how massive it was. That’s the show that sets up WrestleMania. All the things that happen on that show set up the biggest show of the year. So for me, I don’t think WrestleMania is ever going to be in Australia. Would I love it to happen? Obviously, it would mean the world to me, but I’m realistic, and I think Australia has the opportunity to have way more big shows. I’ve heard some whispers that, you know, we might be heading back somewhat soonish. And I think I’d rather have a stand-alone and be like, Hey, this is Australia, and this is what we do. We have so many Aussies in WWE right now that, we could almost fill a show with Australians. We got Zaria just turned up now too, with Rhea, with Duke, with Bronson, with Indi, with me, like that’s almost a full card.”

What is Grayson Waller grateful for?

“My mates, Austin Theory and that I have an Australian accent.”

Austin Theory Beat John Cena At WrestleMania! Viral Moments With The Rock, Stone Cold, Brock Lesnar

in LATEST EPISODES on November 7, 2024 November 7, 2024

https://cvvtix.com – Tickets for the first ever INSIGHT LIVE the day before the Royal Rumble on January 31, 2025 in Indianapolis are on sale now!

Austin Theory (@_Theory1) is a professional wrestler currently signed to WWE. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Brooklyn, NY to discuss being in the ring with The Rock and Pat McAfee, his amazing sell of the Stone Cold Stunner, winning the Money in the Bank briefcase and failing to cash in, facing John Cena at WrestleMania and that promo the led into the match, being F5’s off an Elimination Chamber pod by Brock Lesnar and more!

Quote I’m thinking about: “You have to work hard in the dark to shine in the light.” – Kobe Bryant

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On always wanting to get to WWE:

“Always. I have such an interesting story from the beginning, because at eight years old I saw Deep South Wrestling, which was the developmental territory for WWE at the time. It was in McDonough, Georgia where I grew up. Just seeing that, I was just so captivated by wrestling, like what is this? It’s like you’re getting to see a Marvel movie live, and these guys, they don’t look like the normal guys walking down the street. So for me, I was hooked. As I got older, at 12 I remember walking in the room. I’m sure people have heard this story a lot, but I told my mom I gotta get started on my career. And she’s like, what? I’m like, I gotta go to the gym with you. So started working out at 12 and just wanted it so bad and I could see it. And then always high school or middle school people laughing about my dream. Oh, that’s impossible, it’s on TV, it’s stupid, it’s this, it’s that, but I always just believed in it. I even remember too when I was about 11 years old, connected to the Gold’s Gym my mom worked out there was an MMA place, and all the MMA people ended up moving, but there was one ring still in there. To save a long story, Bill DeMott was in there, and before the MMA people left, he was in a boxing ring showing guys how to bump and I saw it. So from that point on I talked to him, and I would show up every time my mom went to Golds at 11, I would show up to this MMA gym that was no longer existent, but there was one wrestling ring in there. It was Bill DeMott. He was training two guys, and I’d show up and just watch. And I just felt like, I told my mom, I’d be like, hey, Bill’s training today I gotta go. And she’s like, you’re not even doing anything. And I’m like, You don’t understand. This is the ticket, I just gotta watch this and learn this. And as the years went on he had to go do his thing, and I got older, but I would always tell him, every time he came back to the gym, I’d be like, Hey, I’m almost 18. I’m almost 18, but just hearing so many people over the years, especially as I got older before I officially went to the school and became a pro wrestler, just telling me, dude that’s insane, it’s crazy. But I even tell my friends this and my family, it’s such an insane feeling to describe when you just know, it was just crazy to me. It’s like saying the sky is not blue, I was like it’s blue dude, I don’t know how you don’t see it. I could tell too with the working out and stuff and kind of watching myself progress, and a lot of people don’t really like working out this many times a week. A lot of people quit at it. A lot of people play sports, and they rely on their teammates and stuff sometimes. For me, I was just all in and just the grind, I loved it, and still to this date, I love the process.”

On why he was so confident it was going to happen:

“I didn’t want anything else. Nothing existed to me. Nothing was realistic enough for me to think that when I grow up from being this big, dream-filled kid that I’m gonna go work at nine to five, or I’m gonna do this, that was it. I had no idea I was gonna do it. I had no clue. I thought at 18, the Performance Center ended up popping up as I was younger, and I saw it, and I think it came out in, like, was it 2015? But I remember seeing it, and I was like, All right, I’m gonna get in my 1997 Ford Explorer, and I’m gonna live in Florida and figure out how to make it. And obviously, that’s not the way things turned out. I had a better route, but that was the mindset. It didn’t matter what was gonna have to happen. It was gonna happen.”

On keeping the name Austin Theory when he got signed to WWE:

“It’s so funny thinking about it now. Even when I got to the main roster, I became Theory. But yeah that was a thing I was hearing and they’re like hey, we’ll offer you this for your name, or we’re gonna change it. To me, I was just like, well I came up with my name when I was a kid wrestling in the backyard. But, I don’t know why I wouldn’t just give it to him, because what am I going to do with it? They can do more than I can do with it. But yeah I’m glad I got to keep the name. But on the main roster, it was funny, like walking in one day and just, here’s what you’re doing today? And somebody gives it to me, and I read it and it’s like, Wait, Theory? I’m just Theory now. And the guy’s like, Yeah, I thought they would have told you. Nobody was gonna tell me, so I had to go have a conversation about that, figure out what it was. But we got it back on track. We’re back to Austin Theory.”

Is it because of Stone Cold Steve Austin?

“That was a reason. But also I was told, and that had just happened around the time of the Mania thing, when I did the greatest stunner sell of all time. But I also was told that Theory just sounds like a name that stands alone and can’t complain about that. [But] when you Google Theory, I mean, what’s going to come up? Not going to be these 20-inch arms.”

On being an extra in movies:

“So the first one that comes to mind is Bad Neighbors 2. I was like a main frat guy, but I was still in the background and stuff. So the main scene, I’m sure I’m in a lot of things, but you might not be able to see me, but the main scene that I’m in is if you watch Zac Efron when it’s the big pep rally outside, everybody’s celebrating, he jumps up on the stage, he starts stripping and he’s in his shorts and he starts dancing. So before that when he gets on the stage, before he starts dancing, me and this other guy are standing up there, and I have like a yellow beanie and I have a blue t-shirt on, I have my arms crossed, and we’re kind of watching this guy, and then he kicks us off the stage. So as you watch it, the continuity doesn’t match.”

On also being in SpiderMan Homecoming:

“That was a crazy day. They were actually in the Jackson prison in Georgia. We went down there. We put on prisoner outfits and everything, and they said, Hey, make sure when we tell you guys to line up and you’re walking to not touch the bars, do not encourage the inmates, because the inmates were yelling at us. They were wild, yeah, yeah. So this was real. And then we’re in two lines. So one line’s walking this way down the hall, and one’s going this way. And then you have the scene with Michael Keaton, and you can see me walk right by real quick. And a couple of people have caught it online. Maybe they bring me back in the Marvel Universe.”

On being in the ring with The Rock:

“So the day starts. I have nothing that day at SmackDown, I’m kind of lingering around wondering, am I doing anything? I haven’t heard anything. Was it a setup? I don’t know, but it didn’t feel like one, but if it was, then wow, you got me. But I remember maybe we have an hour before the show kicks off. So we were in Colorado, so the time is probably like a couple of hours [ahead]. So we had an hour before the show, I get a call, and I end up going to Triple H’s office, and he basically gives me the rundown of hey, Pat McAfee’s coming back. We’re thinking, you go out there, you cut a promo, and then kind of get on him, and then we’ll have The Rock come out. I’m just like, for real? Alright! So then they’re sitting there, and then the head writer, he’s like, hey, there’s not a lot of time left now. There’s like 40 minutes, 30 minutes left. He’s like just go figure out what you want to say to Pat and then we’ll figure out the rest, we’ll tell you what you’re doing with Rock when he gets here. So I’m like, well he’s not even here, this is crazy. So I go away and I started thinking in my head. I started thinking too about the last time I was in the ring with Pat McAfee, and how the promos were. I remember he said some things that I couldn’t, I could only say what I was able to say. But I feel like there was some more freedom there for him. So in my mind, I’m like, Well, this is where I’ve got to take it, I’ve got to get it back. So going out there, we had the same outfit on, so I ripped into him about that, you don’t look like me in a tank top. I called him something and then Rock comes out.”

On meeting The Rock:

“Before Rock comes out, kind of going back to when I met Rock, I remember, I came up with what I wanted to say on Pat I was like, Okay, I got it. And then I just get a text, come outside. I come outside, and it’s one of the writers, and he said, Come with me. And then next thing I know, I’m with Triple H and Nick Khan and we’re all walking outside. The busses are there, and this black car pulls up, six people get out, it’s just insane to me. Rock gets out, and I’m like this is crazy. He’s like the size of a blimp. He looks insane. I’m like, What is going on? They walk over, I think they’re just trying to get us on a bus so this could be private and nobody sees Rock. I think Nick Khan knocks on Charlotte Flair’s bus, and they’re like, Hey, can you get off? She’s like, alright. So she just gets off, and then we get on the bus. And then I just remember, I was in the back of the bus with The Rock, and he was kind of telling me when we get out there, it’s going to be magic. Just feel it. It’s going to be good. And I kid you not being out there with him. He did like these Jedi mind tricks with his eyes, when I just knew when to go, when to say something, and just feeling it with him. He would just, I don’t know, just with his eyes. I was like, oh man. But it was such an experience. And I just felt so on top of my game.”

On how the John Cena WrestleMania match materialised:

“I remember hearing hints of it and stuff like that. But ultimately, I remember showing up, and they were like, Cena is coming back, and you’re going to do a backstage with him. So I did a backstage with him. I had a promo, and then he was like, Okay, that’s good. But like, what would you say to me? I think at the time, even going back to the promo me and him did in Boston, in the ring, I think I was just kind of having a hard time understanding exactly where he was coming from and what he was trying to get out of me.”

Did he take the John Cena promo personally?

“I think for me, because I’ve watched it back, and I’ve seen it in some of the things he said and stuff. And I just think it’s the character. I think he just wants to see me and it’s hard for me to just say exactly what he means. I kind of see where it is and if people can, kind of pick up on what I’m trying to say, but I think he just sees more of who I really am being displayed in a different way.”

On taking a Stunner from Stone Cold:

“I guess I just really to live for everything. So at the time of WrestleMania, getting stunned by Austin. I fell out the ring, I kept one eye open. I’m watching Stone Cold do this horrible stunner to Vince. Finally, Vince takes the stunner, and we get out, and I remember I picked up Vince’s shoe, and his arm was around me, we’re walking up the stage, and I just remember being like, yo that was so f*cking awesome. I think he just gave me haha or whatever. But at that moment I was just in it, never having alcohol in my life. I came to the back after that match thinking in my head, already living in the future. I’m about to drink a whole beer because Stone Cold is going to walk through the curtain and he’s going to hand me one, and if I don’t drink it, that’s so disrespectful. I was like, so here we go. First beer, I’m going to be so drunk tonight. He comes through the curtain, he’s covered in beer on his shirt, and he hugs me, and I just taste all the beer. That’s enough of the beer I needed. He didn’t give me a beer, but he said was a hell of a stunner kid. That was a great sell. It was awesome.”

On getting knocked out by Tyson Fury:

“I was ready for a legit punch. It could have been, it was so fast and I just remember Triple H making the joke to him like hey, he’ll come down with his briefcase, he’ll try to cash in and you’ll just punch him, but try not to knock his teeth out. Then I’m just looking at Tyson Fury. I’m like, whatever, at least it’s by this guy. So I just remember running down as soon as I turned and locked eyes with the ref and put my arms out, it was over. So I don’t know if it was a real one or not, because I was just laying on the ground.”

On the Brock Lesnar Elimination Chamber Bump:

“Alright, this is a story. So I remember the night before, we’re at rehearsals, and everybody’s there, AJ Styles is on Brock Lesnar’s shoulders and there’s a crash pad down on the floor. Vince steps up behind me and he goes ‘I want you to take that.’ I was just looking and as soon as he says Brock throws AJ to the pad. AJ lands on his side, and anybody who knows AJ, he doesn’t cuss. If you catch him cussing, even on TV, that man is angry, but he goes, ‘What the frick? That’s stupid I’m not taking that.’ Then Brock comes climbing down, and Vince goes, Brock, go back up, Theory is gonna take it. I was like, oh man. I’m just walking through the motions. I’m climbing up the cage. I’m just going up, and I’m just panicking. Brock picks me up. I’m just like, now my whole world has went from here to sideways, and now I’m all the way up on this pod. I’m just like, I don’t know, because that pad is not going to be there. But I was like, here we go. Then Brock’s like, you ready? And I’m like, yep. And he tosses me. And the way I was tossed, I landed on my feet, on the pad. So in my mind, I’m just like, Okay, well if somehow he throws me like this again and I can land on my feet, I’ll be fine. So I was kind of like thinking about it, and I remember the whole day, rehearsal, the next day, Michael Hayes, everybody keeps messing with me, like, Hey, you sure you want to take that bump? You don’t have to. And then I’m knowing damn well Vince just told me he wants me to take it. I remember him saying, I wouldn’t make you do anything I wouldn’t do. I was like, I know he would take it, and he’d probably kill himself. So we’re in this match, and the idea is that I get thrown in a Power Bomb into Bobby’s pod by Seth. When that happens, Bobby gets messed up so we take Bobby out of the match. But in an Elimination Chamber match, even if somebody leaves their pod, the pod still has to go off. So we were playing with the idea of well Bobby is going to get eliminated, but when his pod goes off me, Matt Riddle, AJ Styles and Seth Rollins, we’re all going to look at Bobby’s pod, but he’s not going to come out and Brock’s going to come out last. So that spot happens, Bobby doesn’t come out. So then we start doing a sequence with each other, and Brock apparently isn’t in on that, knowing about the Bobby spot, so he just starts breaking out of his pod, just shoot kicking it and breaking the plastic and stuff. Next thing you know, we’re doing this sequence, and I’m getting ready to hit Seth. I just turn because I hear this crazy sound. I’m like, What is going on? I just turned to look and it’s just Brock’s arm, and I’m getting clotheslined. I take that and I roll out of the ring, I’m against the cage, and I’m just watching him, pick he picks up AJ. And AJ is like, what the frick?! F5 123, Seth Rollins starts laughing, F5 he’s out. Riddle just gets thrown, he’s out. Then I had this whole thing with Brock at the end, and I’m like, are we doing this still? I don’t know what’s going on. I’m just terrified. I’m like, Okay. And then sure enough, he starts chasing me. I get that low blow on him. I hit him with the drive kick, hit a little DDT. I’m trying to beat him. And then I see him give me that look, and I’m like, I don’t know what to do I’m gonna get out. So I just try to escape the Elimination Chamber like it’s a steel cage. And dude, I look down, and he’s under me, and he grabs me, he starts slamming me into the plastic glass we have. As I’m hitting it, I can just feel it coming off. Dude, if I go through this, I’m gonna fall all the way down, and I’m not even gonna make it to this F5. But could that be better? I don’t know. He picks me up for the F5 throws me, and I landed right on my feet, super hard. But as soon as I landed, I just tucked myself and just kind of rolled with it, and I hit the metal a little, but I was safe, man.”

On his failed Money in the Bank cash-in:

“I don’t feel like there’s ever a plan. To be honest with you, the only thing that I kind of knew that was going to be if you know a match you’re going to have at a pay-per-view, if you’re kind of on that road like Cena for example I knew we did the promo, so I know we’re going to have the match. But honestly, like a lot of things, like, even when I had the US title the first time [shrugs], Money in the Bank [shrugs], second time US Title [shrugs], you know, it’s just kind of seeing what rolls. And then at the same time too, with the briefcase, I was in such a tough spot, because Roman Reigns, the position he was in and where they were going with him. I would have loved to cash in on Roman, even if it was a failed attempt, I think that would have been cool because I would have never cashed in on the United States Championship.”

What is Austin Theory grateful for?

“Family, my mindset and being able to get out of bed.”

Ricochet On His AEW Debut, Samantha Irvin’s WWE Exit, Will Ospreay Match, Logan Paul. Randy Orton

in LATEST EPISODES on November 5, 2024 November 5, 2024

https://cvvtix.comTickets for the first ever INSIGHT LIVE the day before the Royal Rumble on January 31, 2025 in Indianapolis are on sale now!

Ricochet (@KingRicochet) is a professional wrestler currently signed to AEW. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas to discuss his debut at All In inside Wembley Stadium, his decision to leave WWE and why it was left open-ended, his fiancée Samantha Irvin leaving WWE and the backlash that came with it, if he was told to tone things down in WWE, potential new dream matches, his many viral moments and more!

Quote I’m thinking about: “Well done is better than well said.” – Benjamin Franklin

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On how the last few months have been since his move to AEW:

“They’ve been great, they’ve been awesome. There was like a two-month period where I just didn’t wrestle, I didn’t do anything at all from middle of June to, maybe late August, I guess until All In. I was just at home, chilling with my family, working out, eating right, it was great. Honestly, I was like I can feel retirement. Because some people retire and they’re like, Oh, I got to do something. If those two months showed me anything, it showed me that retirement is going to be a breeze.”

On the timeline from WWE to AEW:

“I think my last match was against Andrade on Speed. I think that when he won, I think that was my last WWE appearance, unless you count, I guess, except for the Bron Breakker segment. So whenever that was until All In, it was early June to late August, something like that.”

On being written off TV:

“I think they kind of left it open-ended for a reason, nobody really knew at that point what was going to happen. I think they were trying to leave it a little open-ended. I think we were still talking. So I think that’s why they kind of did it the way they did it, especially because Ricochet, he could have come right back in a couple of weeks. But no, it just didn’t go that way. Then I went this way and I’m really happy with everything that’s happened so far and, yeah, It’s been great.”

On if he knew he was done with WWE at that point:

“Not even necessarily, no. So I knew my contract was ending in June, mid-June, give or take. But all the way up to that point there was never a point where I knew I was leaving. I think it was just again, there was a point three and a half years ago into my WWE career where I just said this isn’t what I want to do, but I’m just going to do whatever’s asked of me, whatever they need me to do, whatever they want me to do, whoever they need me to lose to, or whatever move they need to make look cool, or whatever. I’m just going to do it because I’m here and I want to put in the work and show that I’m willing to do what they need me to do to get other opportunities. I feel like if they did give me a bone here or there, and I was always on television. I was always showcased on television. So that was always nice. But I felt like it was always for Shinsuke, for Sami, for Sheamus, for someone else. It was never Ricochet’s story. Even with Logan, it was for Logan. They gave me little bits and pieces, but it was really for Logan to move on to something else. After a while, it’s just like, Ah, man, and again, anything can happen at any turn of the road. It could have been the next week they could have been like now we’re doing this. So that’s always a chance, but at the end of the day, I think I was really just trying to find out where I was going to be the happiest. Like I said before, when I was younger, I always loved watching the WWE or WWF at the time, WWE now. I always grew up with the figures and loved it, but I never thought I was going to be in the WWE, even when I started wrestling, I just started wrestling because it’s something that I enjoyed, I found friends in it, and I found camaraderie, and it’s something that made me feel good. Again, maybe being from Paducah, Kentucky, a little kid, you never think you’re going to be on that stage. So that’s why maybe I never thought about it. I just happened to chance and chance happened, just something else bigger happened, and something else bigger happened, and then the landscape kind of changed. Then, luckily, things started changing. NXT happened, and then Lucha happened. But, yeah, I don’t think there was ever a point where I was, this is what I’m doing. I think I just want to do what’s going to make me feel good now. What’s going to make me feel good?”

On what became the deciding factor:

“I got to thinking, Okay, what will I be doing? Where will I be in three years? And after that, where will I be? And again, anything can happen. You don’t know the circumstances, but you just kind of have to play from your experiences. Because again, especially in the wrestling industry, everybody has a different experience. Just from my personal experiences and what I feel like Ricochet has been put through, I don’t know, I felt like I had already not paid my dues or whatever, but I felt like I was able to be on the next level of performers there, I guess. But I still feel like I was starting over again. I felt like I was starting over with the Bron Breakkers and the Iljas and the Carmelos and the new guys just coming in. I feel like Ricochet was with those guys coming back in, it’s like, man I’ve already been here for five or six years, I want to be doing something else. Again, at the end of the day, I wasn’t going to go to the highest bidder, I was just going to go to whoever was going to make me feel good and ignite that spark again, because I felt like that fire that was burning inside of me was still there, but it was just like little embers that needed that gasoline on it to really make it ignite. At the time, I felt like AEW could be the gasoline for my fire. Since being there, I feel like I made the right choice. Just even getting to be in there with the guys that I’ve been in there with Lio and AR Fox and even Nick Wayne, someone I’ve never been in there with, Sammy Guevara, Mortos, people I’ve never worked with that I’ve been excited with, but also people like AR Fox and Lio, who I’ve worked with before years ago, now we’re both different performers. So I really think that had a lot to do with it. But there was no specific moment where something happened and I just flipped the switch and that’s where I’m going. I just think it’s what felt right. Even when I find myself walking around the bowl and looking, I know I made the right decision.”

On if he had to tone his style down in WWE:

“That’s funny, even I see it online, people try to say that, Oh, I’m so glad he got to AEW so he could be unleashed but he’s doing all the same stuff. I’ve said from the beginning, I probably said it on your interview last time, however, many years ago that was, I’ve said this on social, I’ve said this before, but I have not changed anything from jump. Even in WWE, I was doing Springboard 450s to the outside onto the announce tables. I was doing 630s I was doing double jump, shooting stars to the outside. I was doing double Moonsaults off the cages. I was doing double Springboard corkscrew splashes. I gave Logan a Spanish fly off the top through the table because I wanted to. I just think it’s the opportunities in how often I get to be in there. And also I just didn’t win a lot. So I’m personally not going to do the 630 in a match where I’m not going to win. So I think that kind of had a lot to do with it, too. But as far as my move set goes, I have not toned down anything. I think it’s time and place and obviously the opponents that I’m in there with. If I’m in there with a Lio or an Ospreay or Nick Wayne, it’s going to be a lot different match than if I’m in there with a Randy or Drew McIntyre or Sheamus or Bobby Lashley or Samoa Joe or Baron Corbin, because that’s usually who I was in there with. I was in there with Bronson Reed. I’m not going to be able to have the same match with Bronson as I am with Lio. So my move set is going to be different with Bronson Reed than it is with Lio or whomever. So as far as that goes, I really don’t think that I’ve toned down anything, and I didn’t personally come to AEW to be unleashed move-set-wise either, because I don’t feel like I’ve toned down or really done anything differently. I feel like I have tried to evolve. Especially now I’m 36, I’m not 26 and I think my appearance has a lot to do with it as well. ‘Is he older, or Is he younger? Is he Brazilian, or is he half black? What is he?’ So I think that has a lot to it. So when all that comes into play, people don’t know what to think, because it’s like so much stuff. So I think just that has a lot to do with it, too. So I do feel like I have tried to evolve my style just again for longevity, I’m trying to be my LeBron. I’m trying to be like AJ Styles, look at him, he’s still going. Rey Mysterio, still going, killing it. So I see those guys as the bar, and they’ve changed their style. Rey’s not doing the same stuff, he’s doing some crazy stuff, he’s not doing the same stuff. AJ, he’s not doing the same stuff. He’s still doing crazy stuff. He’s not doing the same stuff. So I feel like I have tried to evolve my style. But as far as toning it down and stuff, I try to do everything that I can still do, other than, like, the double Moonsault, which I just haven’t done.”

On his fiancee Samantha Irvin leaving WWE:

“She’s been talking about that for a while, even before my stuff was up. I think it happened at WrestleMania. I think year’s WrestleMania [40] was for her, because, especially for her announcing was only supposed to be like the way into WWE. Because she, first and foremost, is a fan. Before all of that, she grew up with it. Her dad watched it and her brothers grew up with it. So, of course, yes, she’s a performer. So her time performing and traveling the world performing got her to a position to where Mark Henry found her and said, Oh, this girl is amazing. We need her for something. Again, like I was telling you earlier, the pandemic happened. She used to live in Vegas and did Cirque du Soleil, and she did Vegas and she did stage shows. So when the pandemic happened, luckily Mark Henry got a hold of her during that. She actually did the full tryout, because they didn’t know she was going to be a ring announcer. Mark Henry said, we just need this girl for something. She’s so talented, we need her. She’s got pictures where she was hitting the ropes, her tailbone is bruised and her back is bruised, big bruises on her back. She did the whole tryout, taking bumps, body slams, did the whole thing. Then I think she was in NXT as an interviewer. Then I think once Greg Hamilton did his thing she replaced him on SmackDown because she was already interviewing, but they needed somebody. Then they just kind of said, Hey, can you do this? And she was like, Yeah, sure, because she was already doing 205 Live, and she was doing things like that. But again, I think ring announcing was only supposed to be the way in, she wanted to be a character. That’s what she’s been her whole life. She’s been stage performing her whole life, drama club to stage performing, to traveling the world doing stage performance. So that’s kind of what she hoped, and then I think once WrestleMania happened, I think she was like, that’s the highest I’m going to get. Because for her, she’s a performer. It’s funny because it’s hard to explain, when you’re just a performer, I guess announcing, because now she’s getting hate because she said she didn’t enjoy announcing, but she enjoyed making the WWE Universe feel emotions, and She enjoyed using her voice to help promote and help move the company forward, but just literally, the act of ‘Coming to the ring and weighing at 230…’ This is just my Example. It’s like having Mariah Carey, but she’s just a ring announcer, and you don’t get any of the other stuff.”

On Samantha Irvin wanting to do more:

“She wants to be a stage performer. It’s hard to sing, and it’s funny, because a lot of that stuff she was like, I’m so nervous. I don’t even want to do this, because it’s so nerve-wracking, especially the national anthem. Singing the national anthem is the hardest song you can sing. Especially just the pressure of singing the national anthem when you’re on a pay-per-view, or you’re at Allegiant Stadium, and all the fans are watching, it’s the hardest song to sing, and you gotta pick your breaths properly. But again, at the end of the day, she loves and respects the position, and she loves and respects wrestling, but she wanted to be like Paul Heyman, like a manager or something. But at the end of the day, it’s like me, for example. I loved WWE, and I loved my time there, and I loved everything that I did. But at the end of the day, it’s a huge production. It’s the biggest production in entertainment, it travels, it’s huge. It’s the biggest show on earth. I think in that production, people kind of have their roles, and this is what I was telling her, I feel like she broke tradition. That’s why people are kind of upset. Because, again, how long was Fink doing it? How long did Lillian do it? Justin Roberts still doing it. The fact that she only did for four years and then she found out this isn’t what I was born to do.”

On fans feeling betrayed by her departure:

“I think she broke the tradition of wrestling. Again, you have people who are in it forever. Look at Rey Mysterio and AJ Styles, because they’ve been doing it for so long, and they’re still in it, they’re still doing that. So I think especially when wrestling fans find something that makes them feel good and makes what they like watching better, they just want it forever. I watch One Piece. It’s on 1,100 episodes. I want more episodes, I don’t want it to stop.”

On telling the world Samantha Irvin is not coming to AEW:

“I kind of think it was funny. No, I guess I didn’t need to because, again, none of that’s real. It’s not real. Twitter’s not real. No, it’s not yes, you need social media for a lot of promotion. You need it for a lot of stuff, especially nowadays. But as far as our lives, again, it’s not real, because no one says that stuff to us in real life, no one. Anytime I meet anybody, and I’ve traveled the world, no one’s ever said you made a big mistake going, no one’s ever said you need to change the way you wrestle.”

On if he could have stood up for himself more in WWE:

“Yes and no, because not that it doesn’t matter. But again, this is AEW, this is WWE. I’m sure TNA is the same way blah, blah, blah. But if they don’t want to do something, or if they do want to, they’re going to do it, or they’re not going to do it. So I think after so long of pitching an idea or doing something and then seeing how it goes. For me, I’m not really a confrontational person, all right, now I’m just going to do whatever needs to be done, do what’s asked of me, show that I’m a ball player, show that I can take directions, show that I can fight my battles for sure, fight my little battles that I need. But at the end of the day, I just am not going to be the one going in every week talking, trying to get my spot. I’m not going to be the one trying to catch them as they’re talking. It’s just not my thing. You put the work in, you show that you can put the work in, you show that you can level up. You show that you can evolve. You show that you can deliver when the opportunities are presented, and then you hopefully from that, just continue to get bigger and bigger and bigger opportunities. But sometimes again, it takes time. Some people, it does take time again. People are in the WWE for 20-30, years. So I get that. I totally understand that, and I get it. But at the same time, I feel like, again AEW is a little different. But in WWE, when I am doing Springboard 450s to the outside on the announce table, or I’m jumping off of something, or I’m doing a lot of stuff that really nobody is doing. Again, I blame myself. But it’s like why can’t I just win this match? I’ve been on TV for five weeks, but I’ve been losing. Can I win this one? Okay, I just lose again.”

On possible AEW dream matches:

“Edge, Moxley, Swerve. I’ve had Swerve in the indies, but never in AEW. Obviously MJF, there’s still mad opportunities right now. But again, like I said, I just got here. I literally just got here. But I’ve been excited with the stories that we’ve been telling so far, because I know people kind of just watch weekly and they only see what happens weekly. But if you really look at the story of Ricochet and Ospreay since I first got here with the family, and if you look at what we’ve been telling, there’s so much story there. But again, I think people choose to see what they want to see and stuff, and that’s fine, but I’ve really been so happy and so proud with what we’ve been doing.”

On if Prince Puma could return:

“I feel like you’d have to ask Lucha Underground.”

Do you own the IP?

“No, I feel like you would have to ask Lucha Underground about that.”

What is Ricochet grateful for?

“Family, the ability to enjoy life and making connections.”

WrestleMania 41 Predictions, John Cena’s Retirement Tour & Raw On Netflix w/ Sam Roberts

in LATEST EPISODES on October 31, 2024 October 31, 2024

https://cvvtix.com Tickets for the first ever INSIGHT LIVE the day before the Royal Rumble on January 31, 2025 in Indianapolis go on sale this Friday!

Sam Roberts (@notsam) is a professional wrestling broadcaster. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at the NotSamStudios in New York City to discuss what he thinks will happen at Crown Jewel, if Cody Rhodes should turn heel, was Roman Reigns’ title reign too long, John Cena’s retirement tour, early WrestleMania 41 predictions, Raw moving to Netflix, the most underrated wrestler, what was the greatest return in wrestling and more!

Quote I’m thinking about: Let Candy Corn be your reminder that no matter how many people don’t like you, there are people out there who will literally love you for exactly the reasons you were rejected by others. You are someone’s Candy Corn (derogatory) but you are also someone’s Candy Corn (affectionate)

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On whether Roman Reigns’s title reign was too long:

“I mean, it’s hard to say. It definitely was not too long. It’s hard to say too short, because sure, he could have beaten Hogan’s record. Ultimately, the Cody moment is coupled with the return of Roman Reigns into who he is. Now, it’s hard to say that there was a misstep. I will say that there was this moment, though, at WrestleMania, where even though it was kind of inevitable, and I would say the title defences leading up to WrestleMania with the LA Knight match and the four-way match like those weren’t the most compelling Roman Reigns title defenses. So there was this feeling of, okay, maybe it’s time to let Cody have his moment, especially with the build there. But when Roman walked out and the music was playing, I and a lot of people around me were like, I don’t know if I’m ready for this. I don’t know if I’m ready to say goodbye like this has been our reality. This has been our life. I don’t think I’m ready for this to be over.”

On the right move being made in hindsight at WrestleMania 39:

“It’s also because of how good Cody is. I would say for most performers, that loss, the whole build-up to losing at 39 could have been detrimental. But Cody is so good that the three match series with Brock Lesnar, which I think put Cody on an even higher level, that was the perfect thing to go back to Okay, I didn’t slaughter this beast and win the title, but what did I do next? I slaughtered a beast then doing the stuff with Jey Uso, which I think everybody just loved and had so much fun with. And I think that the reason that a lot of us thought, ooh, Cody could be in trouble, is because the art of the true babyface was dead and I don’t think any of us thought it was coming back. But if you really look at what Cody’s doing, he is the only pure good guy baby face that gets cheered universally. When you go to these shows, men, women and children cheer Cody sing whoa. They want to hear what he wants to talk about that, you know, they’re completely on board. I don’t think that’s been the case since 1989.”

On the predicted Cody Rhodes heel turn:

“Not anytime soon. I don’t even think people realize the level of historic babyface run that Cody is on, because like I said, you go through it. After Hogan, and people were waning on Hogan by 1990 so like after that, the next big universal babyface was probably Stone Cold, right? Bret was a top guy. Diesel was a top guy, but everybody wasn’t sold on Diesel. Bret was a top guy, but never had that lengthy run. Shawn was a top guy, but never had that lengthy run, and he got booed. 1996 Survivor Series, he’s getting booed. So you go to Stone Cold, and he was getting universally cheered, but he’s an anti-hero. He’s not a pure babyface. The Rock is getting universally cheered, but he’s an anti-hero. He’s not a pure babyface. So who’s the next top guy after that, Cena? Half the crowd is cheering him. Half the crowd is booing him. We haven’t had a top guy babyface universally cheer like Cody is since 1989 and he’s not doing tricks. He’s not doing like, I’m kind of a heel, I’m like the edgy good guy. He’s like, No, I’m a good guy who does the right thing. And maybe we’re just at a place societally where that’s what we need for an escape. We just want to cheer the good guy again. Just tell me a guy can work hard and do the right thing, and he’s going to get rewarded for it.”

On who is the MVP of 2024:

“I think the MVP of 2024 industry-wide is Drew McIntyre. I don’t anybody’s had a year like that guy. This is a guy who was lost last year, who, going into the pandemic, had all the momentum, he was about to be that babyface that I just described, and lost it, and didn’t get it back. When the crowd came back, it wasn’t like, Well, now that the crowd’s back, everything we were going to do, we’re going to do. Now, no sorry, like we’ve moved, and you need to figure out where you fit in. I think there were a lot of questions, because now Roman’s the guy, and Drew McIntyre becoming a more realistic version of himself, who was saying things that weren’t exactly comfortable, but also weren’t false and being that guy who stepped up and started this rivalry with CM Punk, which I think when CM Punk first got to WWE, nobody was like, yeah the first big story will be with Drew, oh yeah. That wasn’t, that wasn’t the conversation. But as of January, it was like, No, we’re all on board with this Drew McIntyre thing. And the fact that Drew as the guy in the ring was able to maintain interest in this story with a guy who couldn’t wrestle from January until August. It helps that CM Punk. He’s like the most one of the most compelling characters ever. But Drew being able to do that. Drew being able to allow us to lose ourselves in that story. Drew coming out of this whole thing better, you know. Drew being able to step toe to toe, microphone to microphone, with one of the most compelling speakers the industry has ever seen, and not only hold his own, but have people going like, No, I like Drew. Also, by the way, have fantastic matches, I don’t think anybody, as of now, in 2024 has grown more or performed at a higher level than Drew McIntyre.”

On WrestleMania 41 predictions:

“I’ve been thinking a lot about this, as I tend to do, because I’m also sitting there going okay, but you’ve also got Royal Rumble, and you’ve got Elimination Chamber. So when you got stars this big, people are like well The Rock’s going to join the Royal Rumble. Rock’s not going to fight the Royal Rumble, Rock’s not jumping in the chamber. That’s not going to happen. I don’t think so. So I go, so how do you get there? I go, Well, what if this time for your night two main event it’s Cody and The Rock, right? The Rock’s already come back. He’s got the People’s Title. Cody’s got the WWE Championship. Rocks like, enough, I’m going to do what I should have done last year. In fact, I’m going to do what I did do last year. I’m going to pin you, but this time I’m going to take you out and I’m going to take it all. Roman Reigns then wins the Royal Rumble and it’s like, oh, Roman and Gunther, and Roman goes, No, I’m taking the match with you. And so now, instead of Cody taking The Rock’s match, Roman’s taking The Rock’s match and it develops into a triple threat. So you got Cody, Roman Rock, with Roman winning the Royal Rumble. Then on the other side of things, you have John Cena. And John Cena has been like I’m going to win the Royal Rumble. Because if it’s going to be my last WrestleMania, I want a main event. But he doesn’t win the Royal Rumble. John Cena who’s got a struggle is a very compelling John Cena with back against the wall, I got one more shot. My last Elimination Chamber, I’m fighting in the Elimination Chamber, and Cena wins the Elimination Chamber. So now your night one main event becomes John Cena versus Gunther, and it’s the whole thing of John Cena is on this dream retirement tour. He said Gunther is obviously the ultimate spoiler. Gunther is the ultimate dose of reality. Gunther is that guy who’s like, whether you’re Sami Zayn or Goldberg or Bret Hart or John Cena, Gunther doesn’t care. So I’ve got Gunther and John Cena after John Cena wins the Chamber, and I’ve got Cody Rock Roman after Roman wins the Rumble.”

On Tiffany Stratton cashing in:

“I think Crown Jewel, or near Crown Jewel. I could see Tiffany costing Nia, Liv wins, gets the Crown Jewel Title. Then Tiff jumps in and gets Nia’s title.”

On John Cena’s predicted schedule for 2025:

“They do less live events now than they used to, or at least they have this year. I’m assuming that’ll continue on into next year, which would mean the live events will be big, and maybe for the international tour and stuff like that. But, yeah, I mean, I would imagine it’s one of those things where he might go away for a month or two and then come back. It’s like, when he’s there, he’s there and when he’s gone, he might step over here for maybe one Pay Per View cycle, but then he’s back for the next one.”

On possible John Cena opponents:

“My thing is you have the opportunity to not only have these matches, but you can pick the matches, and you can really make them matter by telling these stories instead. Because it’s also like a one-off. It’s like if we’re building to something, if they’re one-off matches that you do early in the year, John kind of has to win most of them. He can’t just be losing. So if the purpose of him coming back for a year is just to go through the whole roster, we don’t really come out on the back end looking better necessarily, as opposed to telling these stories. Because for me, since you’re doing a year, take advantage of the year. I would love to see maybe the first Raw on Netflix. Maybe that’s where John comes back. And you do have a one-off, there’s room for one-offs too. But like, have your one-off and go, like, Okay, we’ve seen a John Cena match. Now let’s start building to the Rumble. I’m going to win the Rumble, I’m going to win the Rumble. I didn’t win the Rumble, right? Okay, well, now I’m going to work towards the Elimination Chamber. Maybe on your way there, have a match here. I have a match there, but the next big one is the Elimination Chamber. Now you get to Wrestlemania. And you’re building a Wrestlemania, and you might have a match here, a match there, but what you’re doing is building to WrestleMania, and then you don’t get the job done at WrestleMania. And so now you got to figure out, well, I’m John Cena in the last year of my career. Has the game passed me by? Am I not going to beat this record? Then maybe towards the summer is when you beat the record, and you have John Cena on a world title run, and maybe when Cena is on a world title run, that’s where you can kind of open it up a little bit for more matches. Maybe he does for the World Heavyweight Championship the same thing he did for the US Championship where he’s like, Nope, I’m going to defend this against everybody. And on Raw you’re going to see me defending it against maybe it’s Bron Breakker, maybe it’s Dominik. And on SmackDown, maybe you’ll see me defending it against this person. And then maybe he can lose it towards the latter part of the autumn. So he maybe wins it around SummerSlam, that’s the beginning of August. Maybe even before that he wins Money in the Bank.”

On there being no John Cena heel turn:

“His legacy is now, he never turned heel. That’s the legacy, and that’s a good legacy, and people appreciate that now, I think maybe they didn’t at the time, but now it’s like, we love our John Cena the way he is. I think you have you’ll have this great two months where we’re appreciating the year that he’s given us. We’re appreciating his entire career, and that’s when he starts going through some of the greatest hits. Maybe that’s when you see some people return just to be a part of it. Maybe that’s when you see some people that before we run out of time, we can see that match. And then we get to December, whether it’s a PLE, maybe it’s John Cena his own PLE. John Cena gets his own PLE in December, and it’s all about she’s a tribute to him, and that’s where the main event is Cena and Randy and Cena loses.”

On Raw coming to Netflix:

“Here’s the thing. It is a family product, and I think there is a lot of value in WWE being a family product. Maybe it’s because I have kids, and my seven-year-old is super into wrestling and there is some stuff that we can enjoy together, and there’s other stuff that I can’t show them, and it kind of bums me out that I can’t show them some of the other stuff. I think that there is a way to tell stories that don’t insult the intelligence of people like us, but make it so it’s not uncomfortable to bring your kids to. I don’t think that the answer is well we’re on Netflix now. Let’s do way more cursing, let’s do nudity, let’s do more blood. I don’t think wrestling was ever missing that edge. I don’t think wrestling was like it needs profanity and blood. No wrestling needs compelling stories, that’s all and if within those compelling stories some profanity slips out, that’s fine. That’s part of the story. If within these compelling stories, we get some blood, we should. We shouldn’t have blocks on anything when it comes to [stories]. We go back to Drew and Punk, to not have blood in that Hell in a Cell match would have been insane. It would have insulted us who are watching this story. But I think what you’ll have on Netflix is maybe a little more leniency in the timing of the way you tell stories and in those specific moments. Not this thing of like, oh we better clear this with this network. There’s no reason for network clearance. This is the same thing people said when Howard Stern and other big radio shows were going over to Sirius XM, it still requires a certain discipline to put on a show, right? It requires a certain discipline to put on a show that a lot of people can watch and enjoy. It isn’t just insanity for the sake of insanity. It’s not like oh well since we can do this now, let’s do this if it is required for and benefits the story to a great degree, awesome. But I’m not sitting there watching Raw or SmackDown right now, I’m not sitting there watching The Bloodline story. I’m not sitting there watching Cody try to finish his story. I’m not sitting there watching any of the storylines that have enthralled us and said, Man, if only there was more profanity and blood. You’re not missing it because you’ve got the stories last year, as we get further and further away from it, it becomes more and more apparent to me that it was probably the best WrestleMania main event of all time.”

On the best return of all time:

“Okay, so this is a tougher one because there are a lot of good ones, right? I think Brock Lesnar returning, the first return after all those years after the UFC was awesome, confronting John Cena after the first Rock match. Shane McMahon’s return, and that Stephanie segment was unbelievable.”

On the most underrated wrestler of all time:

“People are gonna think I’m messing around but I’m not, Doink. End of 92 to end of 93 Matt Born as Doink the Clown is some of the most brilliant character work that you will ever see in professional wrestling, and it was happening at a time when some of the dumbest character work that you will ever see in professional wrestling was the norm. I mean, this gets lumped in because he’s a clown with we’re doing kids cartoon stuff, but I mean, Tim Curry’s portrayal of Pennywise in It is not better than Matt Borne as Doink the Clown.”

What is Sam Roberts grateful for?

“My family, the incredibly fortunate route my professional life has taken and the awareness Dominik Mysterio has brought to chicken tendies.”

Liv Morgan On Dominik Mysterio, Rhea Ripley, Getting Booed, Her Britney Spears Inspired Gear

in LATEST EPISODES on October 29, 2024 October 29, 2024

Tickets for the first ever INSIGHT LIVE happening on January 31, 2025 in Indianapolis go on sale this Friday at https://cvvtix.com

Liv Morgan (@YaOnlyLivvOnce) is a professional wrestler currently signed to WWE. She sits down with Chris Van Vliet at Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas to discuss her reign as the Women’s World Champion, the Liv Morgan Revenge Tour, how this reign compares to her first one, her relationship with Dominik Mysterio, paying tribute to Britney Spears with her ring gear at King and Queen of the Ring, if she is worried about being cashed in by Miss Money in the Bank Tiffany Stratton and more!

Quote I’m thinking about: “What you are not changing, you are choosing.” – Laurie Buchanan

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On not being shocked by the negative fan response:

“No, I feel like after taking Rhea out, after stealing Dominik, after stealing The Judgment Day, after winning this title, I anticipated that I would not be very much liked anymore.”

On what’s left on the Liv Morgan Revenge Tour?

“I don’t know. At Bad Blood that was for me this is done. Rhea seems unsatisfied with the finish of this match and she’s kind of just a little bit obsessive at this point, won’t leave us alone. So I feel like there might be a little bit of unfinished business that I have to take care of. So it might not be [over].”

On maybe Tiffany Stratton cashing in her Money in the Bank briefcase:

“I have a lot of things going on right now. I have Nia Jax to prep for Crown Jewel. I have Tiffany potentially wanting to cash in on me, and I have Rhea who is literally being a stage five clinger and stalker for me and Daddy Dom. So there’s a lot of things going on. But luckily, I’m not looking over my shoulder. Do you know why? Because I have Raquel Rodriguez doing that for me. So I have her so I kind of just breathe easy and sleep so great at night and rest my pretty little head.”

On when the seeds with Dom started to be planted:

“I believe the week after Rhea left. Daddy Dom was handling some business in the hallway, I saw him, I crept up behind him, and we had a little face-to-face moment. There might have been some chemistry there already that maybe he was trying to hide. He was very resistant at first, but I was very, very, very, very, very consistent in my efforts to win him over, and it paid off.”

On Dom’s promo blasting Liv Morgan:

“No, they weren’t [nice words]. But I didn’t know at the time that that was all part of his plan. He said that to me to throw me off so that everything that happens at SummerSlam would be just a major surprise. So I didn’t know. I had no idea that he was gonna say that to me. I had no idea that at SummerSlam he was gonna choose me. There’s a lot of things going on, him and Finn were very crafty.”

On what Liv would have told herself 10 years ago:

“I think I would tell myself to have a little bit more confidence in myself. I feel like I spent a lot of the early years of my career feeling like I wasn’t good enough or that I didn’t quite belong because I didn’t have a crazy athletic pedigree or family in this business, I really feel like I had no real reason why I had deserved to be here, and I think that hindered me a little bit in my performance and my confidence in my development. So I think I’d tell her just have a little bit more faith in yourself, you made it this far, have a little bit more confidence, have a little bit more belief in yourself, and that this ride’s gonna be f*cking crazier than you’ve ever, ever ever thought, and it’s gonna be better than you’ve ever thought.”

On when things started clicking:

“I feel like maybe 2022, my journey to Money in the Bank. I feel like then I really started to feel like it was clicking and then I think even after that, even more. But I feel like my time off really gave me a sense of self that I felt like I was missing just for doing this for so long. Since I was 20 years old this is all I’ve really immersed myself in and it’s all I’ve done full-time for the last decade. So to have that time off and to just be myself fully all the time. I just learned a lot about myself, and I really did kind of develop a really strong sense of self that I didn’t know I was missing beforehand, because I just didn’t know. So I feel like coming back with that new confidence. Then I was like, oh it really, really, really clicked. But it’s funny because it was something that I didn’t know I was missing. I didn’t know that I didn’t feel myself until all I had to do was be myself for six months.”

On feelings of doubt while out injured:

“For sure. That’s why I was very intentional. I created the Liv Morgan revenge tour. That was my brain baby, that was what I did in my time off was securing my spot when I came back, and that was getting my revenge on the top girl in the company, Rhea Ripley, and I did, and it was very intentional.”

On Dom hanging above the ring in the shark cage:

“I felt sad for him. He has trauma. He doesn’t like Shark cages. He doesn’t like heights, and he was in that position because of me. That’s why I actually got him the Daddy DomWe got matching Daddy Dom shoes and that was just like my sorry present. I felt bad for him, but he was a trooper, and he did that for me, and it ended up working out in the end. So it wasn’t all for nothing.”

On her WrestleMania 41 dream match:

“Is it bad that I truly in this moment in time, I don’t have I don’t know what that looks like? I don’t have an answer for that right now. I feel like there’s so many things going on in the landscape of the women’s division that I don’t even know where we fall in April to even think about that.”

On her Britney Spears-inspired gear at King and Queen of the Ring:

“I was actually really, really, really, really stumped on that gear, because when we first had our Saudi show that I was invited to it dawned on me right away, red Britney gear. And then so the second show, I had no inspo, and I was like, maybe just repurpose the red Britney gear? But now I can’t do it for a third time. So now I’m really scrambling trying to figure out what I want to do.”

Britney has a lot of outfits

“I know, but not body suits. It needs to be like body suit inspo, and I’ve already done the red one twice. I can’t do it again.”

On how her two championship reigns compare:

“They don’t. When I won the SmackDown title, I was very much in disbelief, like that was the pinnacle of my dream coming true, making it to WWE and being champion, winning Money the Bank, beating Ronda Rousey, and having my first title. That was truly just like, wow I really, really, really did it, and I remember just standing on the turnbuckle with my title, just looking into the audience and just trying to remember everything about that moment and feeling forever, because I just couldn’t believe it. When I won this it was not that feeling of disbelief of Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. I finally, finally did it. This was like, Yeah, motherf*cker, I won this sh*t. So it was different on that level, and also, my confidence was just different. I kind of just said I was very grateful, and just like wow, I can’t believe I had done this, and I knew I had earned this, and so I just felt differently about it.”

What is Liv Morgan grateful for?

“My family, my job and my health.”

Dominik Mysterio On Liv Morgan, Rhea Ripley, Eddie Guerrero, His “Deadbeat Dad” Rey Mysterio

in LATEST EPISODES on October 25, 2024 October 25, 2024

Dominik Mysterio (@DomMysterio35) is a professional wrestler with WWE. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at Circa Resort and Casino in Las Vegas to talk about WrestleMania 41 tickets going on sale, his recent love triangle with Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley, being the son of the legendary Rey Mysterio, his debut match against Seth Rollins at SummerSlam 2020, being CM Punk’s first WWE match in 10 years, why he loves chicken tenders so much, his order at In-N-Out burger, being inspired by Eddie Guerrero, his epic mullet and much more!

Quote I’m thinking about: “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill

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On how things have changed in the past 4 years:

“I don’t even remember the last interview we did. That’s how long ago I feel like it was. Short hair, probably no mustache. Yeah, I don’t know, a lot’s changed just as far as confidence, ability to do things, just the ability to understand what’s going on, what to do, how to do certain things, learning how to adapt, how to just be able to move on the fly, things like that, and just the help of everybody. Everyone’s just been so helpful on this journey with me, and it’s been nice.”

On his debut being against Seth Rollins:

“It’s definitely different than everyone else. I’m super thankful for the opportunities, because something like that doesn’t come very often. I remember specifically my dad telling me he didn’t think I was ready. I don’t know if it was because he just had never seen me in the ring, I don’t know what it was, but I knew that I wasn’t going to get presented with another opportunity, at least like this. So I jumped on it right away.”

On there being no fans for his debut match:

“I don’t think it was difficult because I didn’t know anything else. I never really did the indies. When I was training, whether it was at Lance’s or back home, I didn’t have a crowd or anything. It was just the students there. So I didn’t really know. Then before that, when I did have a crowd I was eight years old, doing it with Eddie. Even before that, I was 11 when I did the stuff with CM Punk. So, like, I didn’t know anything different.”

On being CM Punk’s return opponent:

“Yeah, kind of crazy. I didn’t expect it to be me, just because we have so much great talent right now, especially the roster we have today, Raw and SmackDown. But the fact that they trusted me to go in there with him on his first match back, like you said, after what, 10 years, I’m glad I was able to give him his first punch.”

What did that match mean to you?

“It was special because I knew the company trusted me with things like that. I wasn’t aware of of it until I kind of got pulled aside and was like, Hey, how do you feel about working CM Punk for the live events tour? And I was like, Bring it on, let’s go. I was excited. I was ready for it because I knew it was another opportunity and another challenge for me so I was excited to cross another one off the list.”

On his new looking having a resemblance to Eddie Guerrero:

“So I didn’t think so, because originally I didn’t think I looked like Eddie. But then once I started growing out the mullet, and there was a lot of side-by-side pictures of me and him, and then the mustache, it’s kind of scary.”

Does it make you question things?

“I question my mother all the time. Yeah like, I said, I don’t know, my dad was gone all the time, that deadbeat, but the 90s was a wild time, you know? I don’t know what happened. I just know I popped out and something happened.”

On when he thinks he earned respect from those in the back:

“I want to say, I could be totally wrong, they could all hate me, but I think it slowly started to happen when I went down to NXT and I was doing NXT, I was doing Raw, I was doing all the live events, and I was also doing SmackDown dark matches, occasionally SmackDown TV. So I was doing basically the old school schedule, which was five days a week, leave, Thursday, TV Friday, on the road Saturday, Sunday, Monday on Raw TV, Tuesday for NXT, and then I’m home Wednesday. So I think that got a lot of respect from the boys for me. I mean, I assume so, because they would see me everywhere, and they just look at me and be like, dude, do you not get a break? I’m like, I’m just here. But again, I could be wrong. They could all hate me. But I assume that’s because, like I said, a lot of the boys would come up to me and be like, you got that old school schedule.”

On the heavy boos from fans:

“Sometimes I just give up on the promos because I can’t just sit there for two minutes and try and talk when they’re not letting me. So it’s just we have to move on. Whether it’s to Finn or JD or Liv, I just got to look at them and be like you guys say something because they really don’t let me talk.”

Why do the fans hate you so much?

“Other than jealousy, because I’m good-looking, have the best hair, best mustache, basically breed champions, and I have the best Women’s World Champion by my side Liv Morgan, of course. So I can understand why people are jealous. I don’t get why they hate me. I’ve never done anything to them. They’re civilians.”

On walking out of Rey Mysterio’s Hall of Fame speech:

“I haven’t really talked to him, but I’m sure he’s not too happy about it. [He’s in the Hall of Fame] After what, 30 years? Took him long enough. I still don’t think he was worthy of it. [The walkout] It was necessary, yeah, now that you bring it up, I do remember walking out, yeah, I think it was because I felt some type of way. I don’t believe he deserved to be in the Hall of Fame, at least not yet. Once he loses to me and gives, gives up his mask and stuff, then maybe, but I have no say in it.”

On a possible mask vs. hair match:

“He would never, plus my hair is too luscious. I don’t know if it’s something he would consider. I’d hate for him to have to show his ugly face to everyone again. I don’t want to do that to the people. But at the same time, if it’s the necessary evil that must be done, we’ll see.”

On Michael Cole:

“Do you have a bleep button on this? F*ck Michael Cole! He is the most biased person I have ever met. He does nothing but absolutely trash on my name every time I get on TV. He does nothing but boo me, trash talk me. Even when I’m not there he talks bad about me. This man has done nothing but bash me, and I feel like I’m the best, but that is what it is. [What does he have against you?] I don’t know. Again, he’s probably jealous. He’s losing his hair and I’m gaining it over here. I’d love a one on one with Michael. He’s undefeated at WrestleMania. I’d love to slap around Michael Cole.”

On at one point possibly wrestling under a mask:

“I believe it was just because I wanted to follow the tradition of classic Lucha Libre. Which was showing up, and when you debut, you’re wearing a mask so you can protect and hide your identity. But I had a very different situation to where I was already out on TV by the time I was eight years old. Honestly, even before then, I’ve been seeing clips of me getting tagged in stuff from WCW days where I’m maybe three years old, so I’m getting tagged and stuff from back then. My face has just been around for years. So I think it was very different for me when the decision was like, Maybe let’s not put a mask on him, because people already know who he is. I had been doing those backstage vignettes with my deadbeat dad, and then I did that whole stuff with Brock Lesnar. It’s at Survivor Series, people already knew my face, so it didn’t make sense to cover up this beautifulness, it would have been awful. Plus I actually don’t want to say it, but I would not have done good with my whole face covered up, I feel like I would have been suffocated.”

On who he was starstruck the most by:

“I remember I saw Sylvester Stallone at the Hall of Fame for WrestleMania 2021 and I was like, Damn, that’s the dude from Rambo. Because I remember when I was at my grandma’s house, I would sneak in her room and she’d be watching old Chuck Norris movies and Sylvester Stallone movies. So like, seeing something like that as a kid, I was like damn, that’s pretty cool. And even Hulk Hogan too, because I’d never seen him [in real life], Big Show too, because these guys were just massive. So as a kid seeing them, I was always like, damn, these are some big ass dudes.”

On being in the Bad Blood shark cage:

“I didn’t know about the shark cage at Bad Blood. I didn’t find out until maybe Friday, yeah, and the pay-per-view was Saturday. So, yeah, I was unaware of it.”

On the fall from the cage:

“Well, it was supposed to keep me just in the cage. Yeah, it wasn’t supposed to, I don’t know what was supposed to go down, but that was supposed to just keep me in the cage so I didn’t leave and, I didn’t mess with the match or do anything. But yeah, it was definitely traumatizing. I was up there for a long time. Yeah, it was very surreal too, because I remember I would try to get up and just the movement of the cage, everything was just freaking crazy. Everyone was yelling things at me too, like I’m some caged animal. People are rude. But, yeah, it is what it is.”

On a possible match against John Cena:

“I’ve actually wrestled John in a dark match for SmackDown. But I would love to get my hands on Cena again. Yeah, I have some history there that I’d like to touch back with.”

What was it like working with John Cena:

“I’m trying to find the right word for it. It was a surreal moment, because I grew up watching him, had his album, signed and everything. Again, big Cena guy too, growing up. Then, not only that, but when he came back the first time, when did the summer of Cena against Roman, I was along for the ride on that one. All the live events. I was tagging with my deadbeat and Cena against Roman and The Usos. It was me, John Cena, Rey Mysterio, against Roman and The Usos. So him being okay with me [being in the match], I shouldn’t have been in that [or] in any of those matches leading into SummerSlam. In no way, shape or form should I have been in that ring with any of those guys, maybe my dad. But him being able to do that for me and just giving me his advice, going through 30 plus days of every week, just something different, and then flipping it around to where he’s still in the same spot but now I’m the bad guy, and we got to work that one time. So I would definitely love to get back in the ring with him and mix it up.”

On issues with Pat McAfee:

“Two old bastards. You think Cole does it alone? Pat calls me dumb, dumb when he says it. I’d love to get in the ring with Pat. I don’t think he has the balls to, but that’s why he’s sticking to announcing now, but whatever, if Pat wants it, he knows where I am.”

On what his wife thinks to all this:

“She’s cool with it surprisingly, yeah, she honestly been super cool. She’s my ride-or-die. We’ve been together since we were 14. So as long as I let her know, hey, this is what’s going to go down. She’s like alright, cool. She honestly never gives me a hard time. I’ve said it before, but when Rhea licked me that one time, and even after the kiss with Liv, her first text to me, because I always text her after a match or anything, like, Hey honey, just finished. All good, all safe, just so she knows. Usually she’ll always text me back. Oh, okay, good, see you soon. Love you, whatever. But when that stuff happened, it was like, so now that we are out here in Vegas, she’s like, Dude, I found a tarantula in the garage. I’m like, Well, did you kill it? She doesn’t worry about stuff like that, and she’s been with me for so long, she’s my rock, she makes me a better person. So the fact that she’s able to still put up with all of this and deal with the craziness of all of what I do, I’m truly a blessed man.”

What is Dominik Mysterio grateful for?

“My faith, my wife and my health.”

Deonna Purrazzo On Her AEW Debut, Leaving TNA, WWE NXT, Mickie James Match

in LATEST EPISODES on October 22, 2024 October 22, 2024

Deonna Purrazzo (@DeonnaPurrazzo) is a professional wrestler currently signed to AEW. She sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood, CA to discuss her surprise AEW debut in her home state of New Jersey, how the debut was kept secret, her TNA career which included a 30-minute Iron Woman match against Jordynne Grace and a rivalry with Mickie James, why she decided to leave TNA, why WWE didn’t work out and more!

Quote I’m thinking about: Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live. – Henry Van Dyke

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On her AEW debut in New Jersey being a coincidence:

“Honestly, that’s how the schedule lined up. When I spoke to Tony Khan before I signed, I had said to him, this kind of seems like we’re on the same page with a lot of things. If I was to debut the first Dynamite of the New Year is in New Jersey, and that would be like a dream come true for me.”

On how quick it all came together:

“That conversation was like, mid December. Yeah, it only took like, three weeks to get this deal done. It was a last minute thing. I found out, So we had that conversation, and I pitched that idea, signed the contract on the 1st and it was like, Okay, we have, like, two days, and I haven’t heard anything. I was really upset because I thought, like, it’s Tuesday afternoon, it’s probably not gonna happen. Tuesday at 5pm Sonjay Dutt called me and was like, we’d love to have you in Newark. Is that doable? And I was like of course it’s doable. So yeah, it was literally, like, a 24 hour turnover.”

On keeping her debut a secret:

“So I didn’t know what I was doing until I got there, and I was wheeled into TK’s office on a wheelchair under a tarp so no one [knew] it was crazy, they didn’t want anyone to see who it was. I feel like once they got there, everyone kind of put pieces together and the girls knew it was me, but they wanted it to be super top secret. I wasn’t picked up to go to the venue until like, 5 or 6 pm. Then yeah, I was kind of hidden in Tony’s office for a little bit, and then they gave my own separate locker room. And I felt like, this is just me, this is really silly. I was so uncomfortable. And I was like, I feel bad asking, can someone bring me food? Where do I go to the bathroom? I felt very uncomfortable, but yeah, I didn’t have any expectations. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t ask what I was going to be doing. I was just kind of like, this is where I want to be, this is my number one choice. If we can make this happen, Jersey would be great, but I’m in this for the long haul, so you tell me what you want.”

On getting emotional about the debut:

“Yeah, I’m such a big crier. In a moment of anxiety, especially when it comes to wrestling, I just break down and cry. It’s the weirdest thing ever. I was so fine all day until Mariah wrestled Queen Aminata. Right before I went out there and their whole match I was in the back hysterical crying. Madison Rayne, who’s like my best friend in real life, is like why are you crying? And I’m like, I have no idea. I have no idea.”

On wanting to live up to expectations:

“I think even leading up to that moment, I had an incredible time in TNA. I did so many incredible things that really led up to being able to talk to all the companies, being able to talk to WWE, getting to talk to Tony Khan, and kind of using that platform that TNA had given me to create a new future for myself and not wanting to disappoint anyone of we’re not taking a chance on Deonna, but we’re giving her this platform, and it’s huge, and she’s coming in, and she’s making a statement, and I never want that, to not be what Tony Khan wanted to be, not what my opponent wants it to be, not what the fans know me for.”

On appearing in WWE early in her career:

“I mean, way too quickly, I wasn’t ready for those opportunities. So it’s funny because that match with Brooke Tessmacher happened, then literally two weeks later I was asked to go be an extra and be a Rosebud at WWE. So I drove up to Hartford for Monday Night Raw two weeks later, and it was just like, again, holy crap. Like, it’s all happening way too fast, and I’m almost not ready for it.”

On doing more in WWE:

“I then immediately got opportunities in NXT, and that’s when I really thought I could be signed, it’s like a real viable thing right now. Late 2015 early 2016 I was in NXT at the tapings every other week. I was there 24/7 flying myself, actively going into debt so I could be in Orlando, Florida, to wrestle for NXT. And that was when I was like, I think I could take kind of the critique I’m getting. I could keep training. I can go to Japan. I was working with ROH at the time, all of these little pieces are really starting to come together in The Virtuosa, Deonna Purrazzo, the early stages of who I was becoming then could be someone who could get signed.”

On why WWE did not sign her:

“That’s a really great question. I don’t know. Kind of always the answer was that I was a five-foot-two brunette, and there was a ton of us on the Indies. It was just like, how do you go make yourself marketable? How do you become more than a five-foot-two brunette? At the time that was a really difficult thing to be told, because it’s like, I can’t change my height. I could change my hair color but like, for me, the wrestler I am is the wrestler I am. So you tell me you want me to be more Italian. You want me to learn Italian, I could try to do that. You tell me something more than my physical appearance. And for a long time, they couldn’t. And yeah, after my tryout, I did really well. I got all positive feedback. That was February 2016 they were just like, we have too many of you right now and go out there and keep making a name for yourself, and maybe it’ll come full circle.”

On TNA re sparking her passion for wrestling:

“All the girls that were there, all of the management, Gail Kim, Madison Rayne, the entire environment that they cultivate there just really made me [feel] this feels like home. This feels like I belong here. Feels like everyone wants to work for each other. There’s no drama. There’s no fighting over spots, there’s no stabbing each other in the back. I hate to call it this, but everyone calls it the land of misfit toys. It is in terms of we’ve all been rejected by other places, other people, and we come here and we have a chip on our shoulder, and we do the work for each other. That was the environment that I was looking for and it just didn’t click until there.”

On leaving TNA:

“I just felt at the end of last year I kind of had done everything. I had been a three-time Knockouts World Champion. I had been Knockouts World Tag Team Champion. I had carried the brand and become the Reina de Reinas champion in Mexico with AAA. I had went to Ring of Honor. I had main evented AEW Dynamite representing Impact Wrestling. Like, What else was there for me to do here that would continue to level me up? Just felt like I’ve worked with everybody in the locker room. I’m comfortable here. It’s time now to get out of my comfort zone.”

On wrestling Jordynne Grace in a 30 minute Iron Woman match:

“Well, we were supposed to do a No Disqualification match at first. So at the time, what was great about Impact was we were taping every two weeks in Nashville. It was still the pandemic, so it was a closed studio, and we would get creative ahead of time. So what Jordynne and I were told we were doing was we were going to have our Slammiversary match, and then the next day at the next set of tapings two weeks down the road we would do a No Disqualification match. So leading into that we planned for a hardcore [match], what are cool, intricate, different things we could do with weapons? It wasn’t until the match at Slammiversary happened, and it went over so well, the internet loved it, like just the entire reaction was so good to it, from a company standpoint, and from a social media standpoint, that they were like, we need to do something bigger than a 10 minute No Disqualification match. We’re gonna do a first-ever Iron Woman match. And when they told Jordynne and I literally at the beginning of the next day at like 9am we were both like what the f*ck? We were so beat up that we had 17 or 18 minutes on the pay-per-view, beat that crap out of each other, and now you want us to do it again, but for like, double the time? Jordynne Grace is one of the hardest-hitting people I’ve ever been in the ring with, physically, and emotionally, she just brings out such a different animal in every one of her opponents. You need to be 100% to be in the ring with Jordynne Grace. And so neither of us were 100% at that time. And so going in, we were just like, how do we even, like, reframe and reset our mind to do what we did again, but 30 minutes.”

On wrestling Mickie James:

“Oh my gosh. That whole entire feud was career-defining for me. After I worked with Jordynne, I kind of went into a phase of working pay-per-view to pay-per-view programs with a lot of the girls on the Impact roster. When Mickie came in, it was Slammiversary, and she was making a return after being released from WWE. I think it was just the exact opponent I needed, an organic babyface with a history at this company who’s also like, at that point, she has nothing else to prove. She’s just here because she wants to be here, she wants to continue wrestling, she wants to continue to better and change women’s wrestling. My character at that time was I’m the best, who are you? Just arrogant and so like this is my championship and my company and my title, and just the chemistry we had organically was just everything I needed in those moments, really, to sink my teeth in and define who The Virtuosa was.”

On her time in WWE being a level-up:

“Oh gosh, absolutely. The match that I had with Bayley in NXT. I don’t remember the time we were given for the match, but literally, right before we went out of the curtain, they were like, Okay, you got to cut a minute and she was like, no problem. She came to me and was like, let’s do this, this and this. I was just like, whatever you want to do, okay, and she talked me through the whole match in the ring. There was even one point I remember, I didn’t hear what she said, so I just went to what my next thing was and she just went with it. Even those moments teach you if she can handle that and just go out there and that’s no problem, because she’s trained to do that. I want to get to that level. I want to be so comfortable that nothing can faze me, that no one could throw me off my game.”

On Nia Jax:

“I love Nia, and she has always been so giving to her opponents. So I remember it was I think her second match in NXT after she debuted, it was me, and I was intimidated, because I’m like, oh gosh. She’s new, I’m new, this could be really bad. Sarah Amato helped produce Triple H was in the ring helping produce. She was just such a sponge to all the things. She gave me a couple of things, way more than I needed at that time. And then we got to do it again when she re-debuted the Raw after Mania in 2020 and it was so comfortable because we had known each other then we had done this. Even then, she gave me too much. They made us redo the match. I think she’s such a great person, and to be in those moments with her was really exciting for me. I like to see that development, and I was really grateful to be a part of it.”

On wrestling goals:

“I gotta win the AEW Women’s World Championship. I think going there and just knowing the type of environment it is and the complete new set of girls that I’ve never worked with, I knew it was going to be a challenge to, I don’t want to say conform, but relearn a system. I had been comfortable at TNA for so long. I knew the system, I knew the people, I knew the position I was in. I was on top there, so there was more leeway for me to give my opinion or pitch ideas coming into AEW. You kind of need to earn those rights all over again. So I think, yes, there’s still so much left for me to do. I feel like I’m just now feeling like myself again. Feeling like okay, this is The Virtuosa. I’ve been there nine and a half months now. That first stretch, it was like I don’t know know what I’m doing or who I am. I’m working a brand new system with television and times, and I felt really thrown off. So I feel like now I’m finally getting in a groove that will propel me.”

On being defended from body shaming trolls:

“Oh my gosh, yes they did. That’s the unfortunate beauty of the internet is when people come for you for such silly things like your body or whatever it is. I wanted to defend myself. I felt like I needed to say something, and what I said, I mean, I feel in my heart and soul like I’m so much more than what my body looks like. I’m so much more than a number on the scale. First of all, I’ve never been a size small, but my husband loves me whether I would be a small or I’d be an extra extra large, like he thinks I’m beautiful no matter what. And honestly, that’s all that matters. I have a college degree. I’m working on getting a master’s degree. I have worked in every company in the world. There’s a reason people want to work with me, because of my body of work, not my body, and for people to agree with that and then say such nice things, I cried because the internet hurt my feelings, but then I cried because the love I felt for my friends and my family.”

What is Deonna Purrazzo grateful for:

“My husband, my home and support.”