Natalya Neidhart (@natbynature) is a professional wrestler with WWE. She sits down with Chris Van Vliet at her home in Tampa, FL to talk about her 16-year WWE career, what keeps her hungry, her favorite matches, training in the Hart family Dungeon in Calgary, her family memory of her father Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart, learning from her Uncle Bret Hart, how she met her husband TJ Wilson (Tyson Kidd), her memories of the night of TJ’s spinal cord injury in 2015, their wrestling training center in Florida also called “The Dungeon”, being in the best shape of her life and much more!

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Quote I’m thinking about:”You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.” – Babe Ruth

On being in better shape than ever:

“So last November, I had to have nose surgery I had a severely deviated septum, and my nose was off the joint. I didn’t know about any of this until I had to get it fixed, a nose joint. So my nose was broken and it was off the joint. So I had to get my septum and my nose fixed. And when I did that, I had to take some time off from WWE, which for me, I’ve been in WWE for 16 and a half uninterrupted years. So that three months that I had off, I was like I’ve got this time off I really want to get laser focused and dialled in on my diet and my fitness and my health and just getting in the best shape of my life. You know, before I go back to work, TJ, he does intermittent fasting and so I started doing that and I don’t eat anything past a certain time and then I don’t start eating until later in the day the next day. So I have this like 16-hour window of not eating. Yes, I’m 16:8 so then I do my cardio and my most of my training for the most part I do it in the morning on an empty stomach and then I’m able to eat after that. It just worked for me, and everything’s different for everyone. Different things work for different people. But for me, it really worked. And I would go to bed a little bit hungry and I would see results because I wasn’t eating a lot at night. In the past I would get done with the show and I’d be really hungry and I would feel like okay, I want to go to McDonald’s. I would just kind of let my hair down and you just start to kind of pick around at junk and you have some pizza and you have a glass of wine and so when you go to sleep right after that, it’s just kind of you know, for me, it didn’t work. And so I didn’t realise like, For me, I’m five foot five I got up to like 172. Again, not a bad weight by any means, but I was like, Whoa, I can’t believe like that was a little high for me. So I got this time off with my nose surgery I want to come back to work in the best shape of my life and I just got really dialled in and I love to work out it’s like a passion for me. I do Olympic training. John Cena’s coach Rob McIntyre. He runs Cena’s gym that Cena has in Florida and it’s kind of like an invite-only but when I started getting really serious about weightlifting and weight training, I learned how to do all those Olympic power lifts from Cena’s coach Rob and Rob trains, John, he’s trained Claudio, he’s trained Rusev, he’s trained Windham, Roman, pretty much everybody, Big E. He’s trained everybody. And he taught me about, like, taught me a lot about weight training. So as a woman, I can’t stress enough how important it is to lift weights as much as it is to do cardio, if not more important.”

On moving better:

“It’s funny because TJ said the other day, we were at the dungeon. And TJ said, you’re moving so well, you’re moving so fast, and I feel so good. Like, I wake up knock on wood, wake up every single day pain-free and as a pro wrestler that’s been wrestling since I was 18 years old, which for me, like I just love this so much that I feel like I’ve never taken a break really ever longer than three months. But to wake up from wrestling 20 years, 20 plus years, it’s actually like a little over 22 years and wake up pain-free. It’s because I am in such good shape and being lighter has helped me move better. I feel like I’m actually like hitting my stride which is crazy this deep into my career for a woman. No woman ever in the history of WWE has ever done that, has ever been there. As long as I have. Even Bret was in WWE for 14 years. So it’s like, it’s funny when I think about that. I’m like, I’m just so lucky. So lucky, so blessed.”

On not retiring any time soon:

“I just feel so good. That’s the crazy thing is that, like people always say oh, when are you gonna wrap it up? When is it gonna be done? It’s like, Listen, this is Hotel California. You can check out anytime you want, but you can never leave. Once you do this, like I’m a wrestler through and through like it’ll never ever, ever, ever, ever leave me ever. It’s a community. It’s a family. It’s a lifestyle. It’s a way of life and it doesn’t mean that I’ll be competing forever but like, it’s like, you know, when I saw Rey Mysterio, I was watching him in a match. I was live at a show and I went into the crowd and like put a hat on and watched him you know, I was incognito and I watched Rey perform live, it was in Mexico and he was wrestling Roman Reigns. And I was just like Rey is almost 50 And he is doing the best work of his career. He’s so inspiring, his gear, his look his energy, his vibe, his ability to move around to make people feel something and granted he was in there with one of the greatest of all time Roman, but Rey is one of the greatest of all time. He just inspires me so much and like I’m you know, I’m not close to being done when I look at like what Rey’s doing. I’m like Rey inspires me to want to do so much more and to also help people you know, because you look at who Rey’s worked with and how much he’s helped people even with Santos right now you know. I look up to so much as Rey, what he’s done.”

On where does the drive come from:

“I think that because, and this is gonna sound crazy. But when I really think about it, because my career wasn’t picture-perfect. And because it didn’t work out exactly how I wanted it to in my head. It has driven me so much. Because when like it back in the day, you know, even when I was first starting when I was an FCW, it’s like this for everybody. I want to be a champion, I want to have this I want to have that I want to win the Royal Rumble, I want to, you know, I want to have all these different titles. And I want to do this and I want to do that. And for me, because it didn’t always work out perfectly, it’s left me really, really hungry. And it’s left me in a place in my life where I don’t want to stop. I don’t want to take it for granted. But I won’t stop reaching for greatness because I feel like the second that you get comfortable, the second that you get complacent, the second that you stop fighting and the second that you stop trying is when it’s over. And for me, I love what I do. I love the women that I work with I love and thrive on working with new talent. I feel like that’s really one of my special niches. I love, love love working with new talent like when Charlotte Flair was first getting started, like I was I remember being presented with the opportunity by Triple H to work with her and I was like I want to do that. That sounds like so much fun. And you know it’s funny that match we had Charlotte and I at TakeOver Triple H said you, you know you asked him what our time limit was I was like how long do we have? He’s like you don’t have a time limit. Just do what you want. And it was the first time, I think about that match was the first time in my career that somebody told me I didn’t have a time limit. And it was like diving in with this new talent that like I had met Charlotte backstage and she and I had this like Heart to Heart together and she was just before she was Charlotte Flair. She was just Ashley and I know what it’s like to just be Nattie before you become a WWE superstar. You’re just like you’re nervous and you’re in these big you have these big shoes to fill like you know, the Hart family Ric Flair like you got these larger than life boots to fill and she just wanted to make her family proud and she was dealing with the loss of her brother and she was the super athletic girl but she just needed to kind of rein it in and I  was so excited about working with somebody that was new and that just needed a chance, because it sparked a fire. You know what I mean? And I think and I look and strive for that all the time, whether it’s me working with Xia Li on Main Event, whether it’s me working with, against Charlotte Flair, whether it’s me working with, you know, a brand new girl, whether it’s me, I mean, I think about my match or the Aliyah. You know, when that was presented to me where she was gonna beat me in three seconds, I was like, What can we do to make a great story out of this so we can really help get Aliyah over because then if we get Aliyah over, we have another girl for our division, it just it’s about making the division strong, where you can’t have a strong division with just one girl that strong. So I always saw myself as the kind of person that helped bridge the gap with that.”

On Jim The Anvil Neidhart going into the Hall of Fame:

“He [Bret Hart] made my dad, he helped my dad so much. When I look at it, Bret always says, you know, Jim helped me come out of my shell and Jim helped me find my personality. But when my dad and Bret were going into the Hall of Fame. It’s funny because I was very, very, very adamant. At one point it was approached, you know, it was, I was basically presented with the idea of my dad going in by himself. And I said, you know, I want my dad to go in with, I want my dad and Bret in there together as the Hart Foundation because that was my dad’s favourite time in his career. That’s when he had the most fun. That’s when he was the most alive. That’s when he just did his best work. And Bret just looked out for him so much. And they were just so close and such a well-oiled machine. And so as much as like, in that moment, Vince was like, we can put your dad in by himself. I was like, I want my dad and Bret together. I want them together because my dad would have wanted that. You know, and so that was really cool to be able to do that for my dad. It was something that he really I know he would have been so excited to be part of the Hall of Fame.”

On Natalya being advised against wrestling: 

“My dad did not want me a part of wrestling at all. He was very like, against it. Because my dad at the time there were only a few women in it. And my grandfather Stu didn’t train any girls down in the dungeon. And so my uncle is we’re all brought up with this is just a man’s world. Because back in the day in the 80s there wasn’t a lot of you know, there was Wendy Richter there was sensational Sherri, there was just a few you know, Miss Elizabeth, but there wasn’t really a lot of women wrestling so I wasn’t overly encouraged by anybody in my family, especially the men to do it because it wasn’t really seen as something for the women. And so for me, I had to break down that barrier even in my own family, like I want to do this and my dad was really afraid I was gonna get hurt, not just hurt physically, but like hurt emotionally because he’s like, this is such a hard business. And then when I started to succeed, I went to Japan. and did my very first tour of Japan. That’s where I met Becky Lynch actually, blew out my ACL and that’s why my dad was like, he didn’t want me doing it.”

On changing perceptions:

“Once I really started to prove myself to my dad, he was like my biggest cheerleader. In his office before he passed away, like his office just had like pictures of us, you know, my sisters and I everywhere and like, every wrestling thing I ever did was like on the walls, my action figures and his action figures and Bret’s action figures. And he really celebrated that so much. He became like my biggest fan, yeah, he became my biggest, biggest biggest fan.” 

On Bray Wyatt training at the dungeon:

“Bray Wyatt, before he made his return back to WWE. Last year he approached us about training and coming to work in the dungeon. And so we kept it all extremely private because if somebody doesn’t want to be filmed, or they don’t want to, we don’t post about it. So it can, you know, can be very private, but he was so excited to like get in the ring and like he was giving everybody promo advice and he was in there like just you could just feel him get excited about it. And it’s funny because he said to me, when he was in our at the dungeon, he’s like Natty, I want to do something for you guys. Like what can I buy for you? He was so giving, you know, and he was like, I want to do something I want to buy something for the school. And I said Windham, you don’t have to buy anything. I was like you just coming here and you giving advice is just everything. Because he would go around after he would be in the ring. He would go around every single person that was there. And again, it’s it’s usually you know, between 10 and 15 people. And he embodied what TJ and I want our dungeon to be, it’s just where you give back. It’s just all about giving back. It’s about helping people. It’s about helping people from every walk of life and Windham was giving everybody advice and saying, you know, what, if you said it like this, or what if you did that, like this? Or what if you did, he was like, so he was just so giving, that’s what the dungeon is, the dungeon is about us giving back.” 

On TJ Wilson:

“He can’t do anything that would require him to take a bump. So he can show little techniques, and TJ is like a wrestling savant. I think in the same way that like Daniel Bryan did. He sees the industry in wrestling and everything like he could ask him about a finish from a Bret Hart match. That’s very obscure, he’ll be able to tell you, he could tell you any single girl’s move set. He could. He could, if you if you said, TJ, when did I have that match? Who was it against what arena what town, he’s like that with moves too. He just knows how to dissect it, pick it apart. He was working with Nia Jax on something. And he was just helping her figure out exactly how to do it so that it was just perfect technique. And I was like, I didn’t even know TJ ever knew about that move. And he’s just so gifted, and he’s so good, but he just can’t bump. And that’s the thing when you have an injury, like what TJ had, where it’s a C1 injury, and not everybody’s familiar with what a C1 injury is. But it is where TJ broke his neck was at the base of his brain. So it’s where like the brain and the spinal cord meet. So it’s a very, very vulnerable area. And the actual medical term for that injury is called The Hang Man fracture. So when people say, Oh, TJ, you know, we want to see you get back in the ring. And they see that he is very healthy, and he is in very great shape. Because he had a C1 injury with a C1 C2 fusion, he just can’t take a bump. And he has to be very careful. So he can’t ever come back to wrestling. I mean, he can do stuff, you know, he can do stuff, but he can’t take a bump. It would be really dangerous.”

On having many Guinness World Records:

“It’s funny because I didn’t even know I had a Guinness World Record until one day I was tagged in something with Randy Orton. And it was like the most, I can’t remember whether it was the most wins of the most pay-per-views or something. And I sent Randy a text like Randy did you know that we have a Guinness World Record and then Rey Mysterio got one too for the most SmackDown matches. I said, Rey, we both have the most SmackDown matches and then all of a sudden, I just kept getting them and I was like, damn, I’ll take it. There’s one that they’re looking into because a fan on Twitter pointed out to me that I have the most submission wins of any man or woman in WWE history, and I was like I have more wins than Bret Hart? Well, submissions because TJ pointed out the wrestling savant that TJ is he’s like Bret didn’t always win with the Sharpshooter. He’s like you’ve won a lot of matches with the Sharpshooter. But Bret won a lot of his matches with roll-ups and quick pins and things. So I was like, damn it, I’ll take it another world record. I’ll take it. But it’s fun. I mean, at the end of the day like it’s cool what my world records are really for. It’s just having worked a lot. I worked a lot. I haven’t really had a break in almost 17 years. I had an ankle injury where I had surgery and I was out for three weeks. I was out for three I had surgery and I was out for three weeks and TJ goes Natty you just had surgery three weeks ago and I was like Dr. Andrews Clinic says that I’m like ready to go. I want to get back in the ring. So I took three weeks off after having surgery on an ankle injury but in January I’ll have been signed by WWE for almost 17 years and I’ve had three months off in 17 years.”

What is Natalya grateful for:

“An amazing family, security and my health.”

Featured image: USA Network

Karrion Kross (@realKILLERkross) is a professional wrestler signed to WWE and also known for his time in IMPACT Wrestling, MLW and Lucha Underground. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Hollywood, CA to talk about returning to WWE, his relationship with Triple H, his hilarious Jesse Ventura impression, how the Govenor himself tweeted that he liked Karrion’s impression over Will Sasso’s, his wife Scarlett Bordeaux, the book he wrote about his life and when it might be published, his love of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and much more!

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Quote I’m thinking about:If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward. – Martin Luther King, Jr

On Bray Wyatt:

“I didn’t want to get too much into it until we were here. It’s not a double-talk conversation. But so Windham and I were talking on and off for like, a long time when I was an extra in WWE, he would always talk with me like backstage. It was never about wrestling, but about like horror movies or tattoos or music. And then, like, I wouldn’t see him like, we weren’t like friends but he was very warm to me. And I think it was around 2018 2019 he reached out to me and he was like, we need to dance. And I was like, all right, I was blown away. Somebody that I look up to as a performer talking to me, like, indie Killer Kross who hasn’t made a name yet or drawn any money. As we got close to that time, I went to getting on board with NXT. We do the entrance. suplex Leon Ruff on his head a couple of times choke him. And he reaches out again. He was like, it’s gonna be me and you at WrestleMania one day. And I was like, my God. I always thought like, I just always thought him and I were gonna do this in a different capacity, you know?” 

On potential plans for a match with Bray Wyatt:

“So we fast forward. I haven’t talked to like anybody but my wife about this. So fast forward we were supposed to work last WrestleMania nobody knew that except for a collection of writers and some people in the office. [Was this WrestleMania 39?]  Yeah. We were slated to do something. And we would talk for hours about how we wanted to get into it, what we wanted to deliver creatively for people where we thought we both needed to be. We had you know, ideas with like Alexa and Bo and Scarlett. You know, and then everything happened the way it did. But he left a mark on anybody and everybody that he ever met. And it’s just very strange the way everything kind of just played out, like, beautiful and tragic. And he was always an inspiration to me and always showed me warmth. He showed everybody warmth, you know what I mean? But I just have so many, I have more stories than we have time to share. But we were cool and I’ll never forget him.”

On multiple people getting Bray Wyatt tattoos:

“I was just approached in the middle of the day by a lot of the staff, they had let us know that there was a local artist in town. We’re all upset, you know, it’s still unsettling for a lot of us, what happened. So we just decided to collectively all do it. You know, it was something we all wanted to do together and that’s kind of how it came about. It was very spontaneous, but it was a no-brainer.”

On growing his hair out:

“Eventually, it’s going to grow so long that it’s going to take over the earth. That’s the plan. That’s pretty long. I think I want to grow my hair, maybe to like Taker 98 length. I always thought that was a really cool period in his career. And that whole vibe, that whole look was awesome. And yeah, I was telling you initially I was supposed to do the film, it got like, we never finished it never held off like a bunch of things that went wrong. We never got to it. I just decided to keep my hair.”

On returning to WWE:

“When Hunter reached out to Scarlett and I and basically just asked us, Do you guys want to come home? We’re like, absolutely. So he had just said to us, I would like to kind of reprise, you know, what we had created in NXT and translate that to the main roster. And so without needing to have much more of a conversation beyond that, because we had worked together, he doesn’t have to over-explain himself, I get the idea and the vision. So did she. We were like, well, let’s, let’s give the audience what they wanted that they never got when we came up. Like I can’t even, it was inescapable. When I was released, everywhere her and I went, fans were saying we just wanted to see you guys together and get that murder run on the main roster that you had on NXT, we wanted to see that translate. They wanted to see the guy, you know, come out of the ground and start fighting people on the mountain of the main rosters. It’s like, that whole thing. And we were just like, this is exactly what they want to see. It’s what we want to do, it was a no-brainer.”

On the Karrion Kross entrance:

“So Hunter asked us what sort of musical vibe and direction we wanted to go in. And I had mentioned something heavy, melodic. If we could find some sort of chorus or riff that was something haunting. He sent, I guess those details over to the music department. They develop the music and he sent it to us and we had some ideas about how long it would take walking from the curtain to the ring and how much time we’d have in the ring before the bell rang. So we came up with some choreography in our apartment at that time. And so when we got to work like Hunter, I already had like, the idea for the mood with the lights. And he had put the bird up on the Tron, which was a play off Karrion. He, I don’t know, just all the conversations that the three of us had. We were all so on point. It was crazy. It was like, didn’t have to over-explain anything. Like we all just kind of had a good working chemistry. So he had that whole thing set up for us when we got there.”

On possibly facing John Cena:

“I can’t say it’s not. I can’t say it’s not impossible. So during the lockdowns, fans were fantasy booking tonnes of stuff. They started fantasy booking me versus John Cena. That blew my mind. I was still in NXT. I was expecting maybe ideas and concepts like that would come at a later time one day when I’m on main roster, they were already saying they wanted to see that. Then I think one day John posted a picture of me on his Instagram with no caption, no context, and people went crazy over it. You know, unfortunately, some things happened from that point to where we are now where I was no longer with the company. And now I’m back and he’s here as well. Just thought I’d put it out there and see if people still felt about it.”

On calling out Batista in 2019:

“So it’s crazy how it can either happen immediately, or it can happen over time how people will attach like a crazy context to something that might not totally be accurate. So like when I called Dave out. My intention was, first of all, he was in the hotel, we were wrestling and it was a GCW event. He was filming a zombie film. Someone told me right before I walked through the curtain that Batista was here, and I was like, I want to meet him. They’re like, No, no, not here, he’s in the building. I went, Where? Oh, he’s in the building filming a movie, of course, he’s filming a movie. And at that time, I was bummed to hear that he retired, I was a huge fan of his growing up. And just even being at the, you know, the smaller level that I was at the time. I love that. Like, I still love this. It’s hard for me to imagine not being in love with this anymore to the point where I would be comfortable and okay to retire. So I was thinking in that context at the time, like, there’s no way he doesn’t love this anymore. Maybe he just needs something creative that he would be really interested in. Because that’s all of us. You can hook us back into wrestling when we’re retired. If there’s something you’re genuinely interested to do creatively, and Dave has like a shoot background. He’s like a legit brown belt in jujitsu. Yeah, so I go out there and I do the match with Nick Gage, choke him, get up. And yeah, call Batista out with the intention hoping that if he really didn’t want to be retired, and he wanted to do something that he’s never done before that would be in his wheelhouse that people have never seen him do which would be like the shoot work stuff, I would have been happy.”

Did Batista respond?

“I doubt it, but Josh knows him. Maybe Josh may have told him but it was never in, in a way where it was like, you know, screw Dave Batista. No. Like you heard the reaction from people they really right away were like, it would be awesome to have Dave Batista on Bloodsport, it would be awesome. And like for people to see him move, legit. You know what I mean on the ground and free roll and flow with people that I think it would have been awesome.”

On being set up for Roman Reigns:

“I mean, so I landed, this is just my opinion, my opinion. I landed into a very interesting time in the programming. So if you notice, we’ve got three very strong heels with three titles for quite a while. Theory, GUNTHER, Roman, right. These guys all had very long title runs. Functionally, from a programming standpoint, these are the top dogs, right? Babyfaces gotta go up to the PLEs to fight the heels. You know, I kind of look at it and think about it like when I go back, and I watch NXT when I was a heel champion, I was the most dominant heel champion, I was the most dominant heel in the programme because I was champion. When you’re the heel, and you’ve got the belt. A lot of the programming of the show should go in that direction. Like if I’m writing and formatting a wrestling television show, that’s how I’m going to format it. So you know, a lot of the time really does need to go to the people who have the belts. And that’s like anyone, not just them, those three specifically, but anyone who has a belt. That’s the whole purpose of that. If like you were to compare, you know, Game of Thrones, everyone is trying to get the throne in there are subplots, but they’re not taking up a massive portion of the show, the show should be about trying to get the throne just like in wrestling, the show should be about trying to get the belts, but he gets some babyfaces around those belts.”

On writing a book:

“So I submitted the book to WWE because I would like to have it published through them. Everything that I do, I would like to do through WWE, I want to be a lifer, you know what I mean? I would like to think that it could be published by the end of this year. The book is being reviewed or has been reviewed. There are just a couple other moving parts that need to be set in place for it to be published. But when I submitted the book, I had the formatting down. It was edited, there’s photos in it, and I gave them like a totally finished product. So it’s whenever they have all of their ducks in a row for some things that they’re trying to line up for all of us. On the publishing side, the book will be published, but I’m really excited for people to read it. Again, I’m a little bit scared. But I think that’s probably a good thing.”

What is Karrion Kross grateful for:

“My health, the health of my family and to be able to do what I love for a living.”

Ric Flair (@ricflairnatureboy) is a legendary professional wrestler and a 2-time member of the WWE Hall of Fame. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Tampa, FL to talk about the recent passing of Bray Wyatt, his thoughts on his last match, why he wants to wrestle again, his WOOOOO Energy drink, the psychology of his knife edge chops, why he feels Charlotte Flair and Brock Lesnar are the best athletes in WWE, who he thinks is the greatest wrestler of all time, what went wrong with WCW, his personal issues with Eric Bischoff, his thoughts on The Rock, his son Reid Flair, advice for his younger self, the fact that Sting is still wrestling at 63 years old and much more!

Sponsors:
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MIRACLE MADE: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to http://TryMiracle.com/CVV and use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF

BLUECHEW: Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com

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Quote I’m thinking about:If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one. – Dolly Parton

On losing Bray Wyatt:

“This year was really [hard] losing Bray Wyatt, who I wasn’t best friends with. But his dad and I were very close. As mother and I were very close and 35 years old. 36 rather. So he was the same age as my son. No, my would have been 35. And they were all together all of them together. And when I retired in Orlando WrestleMania 24, it was Bray, Taylor, his brother, Wes Brisco, and my son, all there at the same time in catering.” 

On multiple wrestlers sadly passing away:

“Well, I mean, it’s, well, this one had nothing to do with, it wasn’t drug-related or anything. Just a health issue that, they didn’t see coming. I’ve heard so many different stories, whether it’s COVID-related or not, but it just. Yeah, I mean, actually, Billy Graham, lived a lot longer than people thought, he had kidney issues forever. So The Sheik, at least it was normal. But the problem for me is that they’re all within a couple years of my age. It makes you it makes you aware.”

On skirting death multiple times:

“I know twice. I mean, the aeroplane crash would have to be considered one. And then of course, in 2017 when I was on life support for 13 days on ICU for 31. And then, which a lot of people still don’t understand. I didn’t know where I was for six months after I woke up. I had no memory of anything behind me. Just going forward. I didn’t even know that I lived in Charlotte. Didn’t know that I had lawyers. I couldn’t remember anything for six months. That’s how I got beat up so bad legally. Because I’d forgotten I had lawyers and when I was dying, you probably heard this everybody was taking away a lot of my sh*t. Including my agent who stole about 300 grand, it was on escrow. If I was dead, then it would have gone and so she took it all out of escrow. Put in her pocket, including $50,000 from ESPN for the 30 for 30.”

On his memory coming back:

“I had texts. When I woke up. I think I actually think I counted it because they wouldn’t give me my phone. But I had like 170 texts, right? And half of them I didn’t realise. I thought Who is this person? I mean, I saw 704 which is the Charlotte area code and I didn’t know who it was and then it just started at it and while I was sitting in recovery and I was basically sitting in a black chair. I had never watched Netflix in my life I’d never watched Prime I didn’t even know what they were. So then I started to watch Arrow and then after that I watched the Webster and I mean right down the line of seeing them all.”

On the correct way to spell Wooooo:

“It is a trademark for 5 o’s but I can afford to. McDonald’s did one where the guy went Woooo. And we went right to McDonald’s and shut it down, rather than put me into commercial or, pay me. I don’t know what it cost them to shoot down a commercial that a minute-long commercial has to cost them millions to put together I mean, based on my knowledge of it especially with the production values.”

Why was Ricky Steamboat not considered for Flair’s retirement match:

“It just didn’t work out. You know, for health issue wise. Rick had some minor ones. I don’t know for sure. You know, it’s funny. We’ve probably wrestled each other, without embellishing, we’ve probably wrestled each other between 1,500 to 2,000 times in so many times over an hour right? Or an hour and a half. But we became very close friends. But we didn’t socialise a lot. Does that make sense? Yeah, Rick is a quieter guy, sticks to himself, he drinks some beer once a while, but he just keeps himself and he’s too humble. He was so great.” 

On competing in his last match:

“Everything went great, including the 9,000 people we packed in there which was more than WCW or WWE had had in the building forever. And then I just walked on the ramp and I just you know, a combination. I guess I’d be nervous and everything started out fine though. So like I don’t know why I got lightheaded for a second. I made the mistake of saying to one of the guys I don’t feel so good. Well, they all went they all thought I was telling them like my heart or something like that. And that’s the worst thing I did and then I was like I got real lightheaded. And I know that was I was in and out all during the match.”

On making it through the match:

“Oh, yeah, I was fighting like hell to get through it. But it was just fighting here. Nothing that I felt, I wasn’t hurting anywhere. I just felt bad because the guys had been all panicking and worried about my health. And we had said we had constructed such a great match. If it had come off the way we’ve practised forever, it would have been a masterpiece, but, you know, when I walked back to the locker room Taker made me drink three Gatorades. Then I went to Kid Rock and drank all night long.”

On spots that got cut:

“Oh God. They were just gonna slam me off the top, suplex me, stuff on the floor. Everybody’s just panicked. You know, it all was a concern for me, they didn’t forget their parts. They just [went] let’s get through this. I mean, that’s why I had to fake that heart attack. I went slow down, slow down, I’m okay. Should have never said anything. So then we got a little bit more back in. But my son-in-law [Andrade] had to put the brass knucks on my hand. He’s going, Wake up sir. That was it.”

Was that Ric Flair’s final match?

“I want to wrestle again right now. Isn’t it crazy? I feel like because, Ricky Morton, the guy that I should have chosen for my last match would have been great. Ricky Morton is still wrestling. You know what the best thing for me about it was, is I forced myself to really get in shape. I’ve heard this from guys over the years. And when they were older, I was like, in my prime. The older guys would say a man, I’m tired of working out. And there gets a time when you just get bored working out. You don’t have a goal. I mean, they gave me a goal and I just attacked it. I didn’t stop drinking or anything but I was training literally training three hours a day, five days a week in the ring, or I was doing the sled, the ropes. Yeah, I got my bench press up for two and a quarter. I mean, so from being dead to all that was pretty cool.”

On Charlotte Flair breaking the championship record:

“I certainly hope it happens. I don’t know what they’re doing right now. But who knows? It’s got to happen. It’d be the biggest thing in the business. If they’re really interested in doing something. Because I feel like the women have had more empowerment right now than they ever had, and deservedly, right. But the biggest thing that could happen, John and I talked about this, John Cena. Can you imagine us walking down and congratulating Charlotte? What kind of rating would that get on TV? To see that finally happen? I think it’s the biggest thing they could do right now.”

On Brock Lesnar:

“She’s [Charlotte] the most skilled athlete. She and Brock Lesnar are the two best athletes in the company. It’s not even arguable. Brock is a phenomenal athlete, and Brock has learned how to work. I sent him a text the other day I just said, you know, he was so intimidating when he first came in. I had to work with him too. But you know, he’s just a big guy with incredible athletic ability. I mean, that’s almost a 40-inch vertical jump when he jumped up on top of the apron, I would have to say that’s close to 40 inches, right? At 280 pounds to do a 40-inch vertical jump. I don’t want to be there the day that he misses and falls. I don’t want to be his opponent. Now he’s an incredible athlete. And they’ve got some really good athletes in the company. But Ashley could have gone and played 3 D1 sports if she wanted to.” 

On his relationship with WWE:

“It’s fine. I don’t work for them. I mean, I’m always gonna be indebted and be thankful for the relationship over the years. But when you work with them, you’re pretty much locked up to, you know, to anything, and they have a real tough, enforceable contract. So I wouldn’t be able to do the marijuana. I certainly wouldn’t be able to have the energy drink unless I gave them 50% of it or something like that. I mean, you know, and in all fairness, I don’t like that. But I can understand they’re gonna give you the TV time and help give you the opportunity for yourself to become a star if you have that star quality, then they deserve to get a part of the money. I understand it. I don’t like it. But if it’s only fair, I’ve seen a lot worse situations for people.”

On who is the GOAT:

“Well, I think to me, the goat is the guy that did the most for the business. Not necessarily, had to be the best wrestler. But the guy that did meant the most to our business, and the guy that saved [it] in my eyes, saved the WWE. Steve Austin. Yeah, I mean, what Steve did, and then to be injured and retire at 39. I mean, I keep forgetting this and until people remind me, well, I don’t see Steve as much as I used to. But he quit. He had to quit because of a broken neck at 39. Yeah, he got back in and out. But I mean, think about that. I mean. And he took a couple of swings. They put one label on him, but when he found that niche, him and Vince The Attitude Era, but it was Stone Cold, Shawn, Mike Tyson. And we were arguing about the NWO who’s gonna win a match? And can we go with three minutes instead of 10? I mean, it’s just bullsh*t. But that’s, that’s when all of a sudden where Bischoff didn’t know how to run a company. Then he put himself into it, which made it worse.”

What is Ric Flair grateful for:

“The relationship I have with my 2 girls, [my wife] Wendy and having 20 close friends.”

If you are a content creator looking to take things to the next level, be part of the Full Time Creator community at http://fulltimecreator.coWe are back with another AskCVV episode! Chris is answering your questions from social media about wrestling, movies, content creation and everything in between! If you have one that you want answered next month, don’t forget to send it in using the hashtag #AskCVV!

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Quote I’m thinking about:What you are is what you have been. What you’ll be is what you’re doing now. – Buddha

What are your thoughts on Edge, or I guess it’s Adam Copeland now, signing with AEW?

“It’s big. It’s a big one. And I’ve seen the debates of like, is this the biggest signing that AEW has ever had? I think objectively, the answer is no. I mean, it’s big. It’s top two or three. But the biggest one has got to be CM Punk. When CM Punk walked out of WWE in 2014, it sure sounded like he was never going to wrestle ever again. So him coming back, and I’ve talked about this before, but him coming back at the time that he came back it was one of the very first shows with a full audience in his hometown. That crazy Chicago crowd. I don’t know if AEW will ever beat that return, I guess it’s technically a debut, but a wrestling return like that. That’s one of the biggest wrestling returns/debuts really, ever. I think that Adam Copeland is a close second. And I’m surprised, I mean, if I’m being honest about it, I’m really surprised. We all saw the rumours. We all saw the reports that his contract was going to be up, oh my gosh, I can’t believe WrestleDream happens to be the next day. What are the odds? Wow, that lines up too perfectly. I didn’t think it was gonna happen. I really thought that the way that things wrapped up in Toronto, in his hometown, 25 years of Edge, they made that entire SmackDown episode around him. It just felt like a family type of thing. It felt like you’re one of us. And I guess from the sounds of it, it sounds like Edge, I keep calling him Edge. I don’t know. I guess we’ll call him Adam, I don’t know. I guess Adam wanted to do more and WWE didn’t really have that plan for him. So he’s open to doing those matches in AEW. Now he’s with his best friend, his new rival, but his long-time tag team partner Christian Cage who is on fire right now! The work that Christian Cage is doing is incredible. So it’s surprising. But I’m so excited to see what’s possible here. And what was so interesting was we all thought yeah, maybe he’ll be there and then when Christian was in the main event at WrestleDream, it felt like okay, this could be like possible that they’re setting something up here. But then when you heard “You think you know him.” And it was “You think you know him.” Not “You think you know me.” and then they paid for, you know, Edge’s theme song like, it was good, it was magical and it was a great moment. And I will say whether you are an AEW fan, WWE fan, Impact Wrestling fan, or whatever it happens to be, you can’t deny that it was a great moment. That was such a great moment. Him coming out through the smoke, the look on Christian Cage’s face. And then we saw the payoff, or at least the setup for a feud between Christian and Edge on Dynamite, Go F yourself. So good. That’s what pro wrestling is all about, is creating moments. That’s what we got at WrestleDream. That’s what we got on Dynamite. And I’m sure with two veterans, like Adam Copeland and Christian Cage together, they’re gonna make magic in the match when they end up having that. So I’m excited to see what’s possible here. But I’m surprised, if you had asked me last week, is Adam Copeland gonna sign with AEW, I’d say no, I don’t think so. Like I feel like if things ended really well in WWE, he spent 25 years there, lifelong WWE guy. And look, I was wrong, but I’m glad I was wrong. Because it’s the fans, we win here.”

So I’m trying to get my content out to reach more people, but it feels like I’m not marketing myself well enough, any tips to help promote my stuff better?

“Well, look, I like that you use the word marketing here. Because that’s a really key part to putting out whether it’s a podcast, or it’s content on YouTube, you really can’t just put it out and hope that people find it, especially when you’re starting out. And, of course, everybody starts at zero. So you got to remember that, so stop comparing yourself to people who have 1000s of followers, 10s of 1000s of followers, hundreds of 1000s, millions, whatever, everybody starts at zero. So when you put your stuff out there, I think you got to do whatever you can, with whatever channels you have to promote it in the best way that you can. So if you’re putting out a podcast, put it out on Twitter/X, whatever we’re calling it, put it out on Facebook, put it out on LinkedIn, if you have an email list, send them an email, put it on Instagram. And I think the biggest thing and if you guys follow me, you know that I capitalise on this as much as I possibly can, put out as many reels, shorts or TikToks as you can. They’re like these little advertisements for the whole show. Because if you have a podcast, and I know this full well here, we are 520 episodes in. If you have a podcast, asking someone who doesn’t know who you are and has never heard your show before, asking them to invest an hour of their time, or even five minutes of their time to see if they like the first five minutes. That’s a huge investment. If someone were to text you a link and said, Oh, this podcast was so great, you’ve got to listen to it, and they send you a Spotify link or an Apple podcast link, you’re going, Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be getting to that anytime soon. Maybe on a long drive, like two weeks from now, maybe that’ll find its way into my rotation. But if that same person sent you a 43-second clip of a really interesting moment of that podcast, I’d say 10 out of 10 they’re going to be clicking on that clip. And if they’re not watching all the way through, they’re watching most of the way through. So I like to think of these clips, the shorts, as breadcrumbs. These are the little breadcrumbs to give people just a little taste of what your show is all about, and what your channel is all about. Then hopefully that leads them to the slice of bread, which is the longer clips, you know, maybe that’s a two to five to eight-minute clip. And that could be on Facebook, that could be on Twitter, that could be on YouTube. And then hopefully if they liked that slice of bread, they want to go find the full loaf of bread, and that full loaf of bread, obviously being the main piece of content. So I really don’t think you can put out enough content. I get that you’re at the mercy of how much time you have, and how much time you’re able to spend on that. But if you have the time to do that, that I think is a huge, huge technique. And, look, I know that you’re not alone in this. And this is the whole reason that I set up Full Time Creator. You’ve probably heard me talking about it on social media, the website is fulltimecreator.co This is the whole reason we set it up. Because I’ve been doing this now for 12 years, I’ve been doing it full-time as my entire job for four years. And my buddy Travis Chapell has been doing it full-time for almost his whole career. We’ve made a tonne of mistakes, and we don’t want you to make them too. And we’ve also got a lot of things right. So we built Full Time Creator as a mastermind for people who are in the same situation that we were in years ago to be able to learn from that and grow in a community of people who are also going through the same stuff. So we started like two weeks ago and I’m just jacked. I’m so excited with how it’s going. We’ve got a huge expert guest joining us for a private conversation for just the people who are part of Full Time Creator, that’s happening on Tuesday. So if you’re just like on the fence about it, not even on the fence about if you’re just even thinking about it, if it’s a thought that has entered your mind, go to fulltimecreator.co And just sign up, it’s $1. If you don’t like it after a week, that’s it, cancel. You don’t need to be part of the group at all. But all you’ve got to lose is $1. And if you’re not willing to invest in the content that you’re making, and you’re not willing to invest both time and money into your future as a creator, then you’re probably going to keep spinning your wheels here. So that’s why we built this out. Go take a look. I think you’ll like it.”

Given your own busy schedule, which now includes Full Time Creator as well. What’s the best approach for other podcasts to get you as a guest?

“I really haven’t been a guest on a lot of other podcasts and the few that I have been on, they’ve just been friends of mine, and they happen to live in town. And I think you guys know I’ve talked about it enough that I’m trying to do as many of my own interviews as I can in person. Because nothing beats in person if it’s a possibility. If you have the ability to do an interview in person with someone, shake their hand, look them in the eye, feel their energy, nothing beats it. So I’ve been trying to do as many of my own interviews in person as possible. And if I ever am a guest on someone’s show, like I was recently a guest on my friend Kia’s show, it’s just like, well let’s do it in person. You know, you live not far from me, I was a guest on Denise Salcedo’s show. She lives not far from me in person. I guess in short, the answer is that I’m just not doing a lot of podcasts because I’m focusing on the content that I’m creating. And also really trying to balance my time with a baby at home, and Logan’s four months old. And I’m trying to put out as many podcasts as possible, as many clips as possible. Working on Full Time Creator like you mentioned and building out that amazing community. And it’s just like, I only have so many hours to do so many things. So I’m really just trying to focus on telling other people’s stories. I’ve done a lot of interviews. So if someone’s listening to this and just wants to hear like, Oh, how’d you get to where you’re at? There are a lot of interviews out there that you can go check out. The recent one with Denise is really good. Kia Nalbandi, the one I was just talking about, that’s another great one. Sean Ross Sapp had me on. And we had a great conversation about how all of this came together. So if you’re just curious about like, what’s the journey been? And I haven’t heard enough of it from your own podcast episodes, or from these Ask CVV episodes, go check those out. But I’m sure there’ll come a point where our paths will cross and we’re in person together. And, you know, I’m able and have the time to do more of these, but I’m really just trying to focus my efforts on like, how many more episodes can we put out here? Like, how many more episodes can we record? Whether that’s flying to Tampa like we did to do six interviews there Ric Flair, and Hulk Hogan, of course, but then for other ones there, whether that’s flying to Chicago for Survivor Series. If you’re going to Survivor Series, I will see you in Chicago. Whether that’s flying back to Tampa for the Royal Rumble. I’m trying to maximise that time. That’s a Cody Rhodes quote isn’t it maximise your minutes, he said that was the best advice he got from Dusty “Maximise your minutes.” So I’m trying to maximise my minutes.”

When you look back on your career. Is there anything you tell your younger self as you travelled into the world of content creation and media?

“Look, it’s changed so much. I got my first radio job in 2004 and I was on TV for the first time in 2005. I was still in school in 2004, still in college, so it’s changed a lot. Facebook didn’t really exist. Facebook at that time was like you had to be going to one of these select few colleges to be invited to be part of Facebook. MySpace was like really just starting to take off. So it was really just like traditional broadcasting and it’s changed so much. I think the biggest piece of advice is twofold. The biggest number one would be just to enjoy it. There’s been some really cool moments and it’s been fun seeing some tweets lately and people being like, Man, I love seeing these big things happen to you like you interviewed Hogan, you interviewed Flair. Yeah, that’s my fourth interview with both of those guys, it’s been a heck of a run. It’s been a heck of a, you know, a career thus far. And I mean, in the last 12 months, you’ve seen some of the wrestling interviews, but I’ve also interviewed Christian Bale, Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, it’s been some big ones. So I would say enjoy the moments. Like the moments like being on the red carpet at the Oscars, was able to do that a few times, reporting live from the Oscars, the biggest night of entertainment. Enjoy the moments like when you’re at the Grammys, enjoy the moments like, you know, WrestleMania, and I’ve been starting to do that more often. Like, really take it in, look around, look for small details and commit them to memory, the sights, the smells, the sounds. I mean, if you’re drinking something or eating something, the taste. Yeah, I think that’s, that’s number one. I think number two is, if I had had the foresight to do this, start earlier in terms of creating content start earlier. And that’s kind of like saying, like, oh, you should have invested in Apple 30 years ago, or you should have invested in Tesla 10 years ago. I always come back to that Chinese proverb of the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is today. But I was, I guess, I was one of the first at the time, like broadcasters and local media who was doing a little bit more social media stuff. So I’m grateful for that. But if I could have been giving this the commitment that I’m giving it now 10 years ago, I don’t know, who knows. But I don’t ever live in that idea of like, Oh, what if I have regrets about this? Not at all, no regrets. I don’t ever go, what if? I just think to myself, if I could go back in Back to the Future DeLorean, I would just say to myself, like, Yeah, I know that right now in 2014. Do you think that posting twice on Instagram is a lot? Maybe try upping that.” 

Do you honestly think Cody will finish the story at WrestleMania 40? Just want to know your personal feelings on this as of now. 

“And this is always such an interesting one to answer because as of right now, as of October 2023, I think yes. I think they find a way to bring the story back around. It’s Cody and Roman. Cody couldn’t do it last year, he does it here. And I know that there’s been this wrench thrown into the plans of is The Rock gonna be at WrestleMania, The Rock was very close to being at WrestleMania 39 and for whatever reason that didn’t happen. I don’t know. I think my personal opinion right now is The Rock came back on SmackDown because he happened to be in town. Or I guess you could look at it from the flip side that he happened to be in town because he was going to be on SmackDown. But I really think it is the other way around. I feel like he was in town for like, College Game Day and everything that was going on there. And then it was like, alright, well, if you’re in town, we just had this really big merger with the UFC and WWE and this Endeavour deal. If you’re in town Rock, could you show up? Could you make an appearance? I think that’s what happened. I really do. I could be totally wrong here, but I think that’s what happened. Obviously, we’ll find out in the next few months if The Rock is part of the programming if he shows up at the Royal Rumble or something like that. But I just think as of right now, if The Rock is part of WrestleMania 40 It doesn’t feel like it’d be for a match. Because if it’s Rock Roman, I mean Roman wins, right? There’s no point for The Rock to win that, actually could be The Rock’s retirement match. If it’s Rock, Roman, Roman wins and then what does Roman do? Does Roman hang on to it until WrestleMania 41? I just don’t think that makes sense. And it doesn’t make sense for Cody to go for the World Heavyweight Championship. That doesn’t feel like the WrestleMania match that everyone’s talking about. So I think we’re months away now, right? We’re seven months away from WrestleMania, it just still feels like yes, Cody will finish the story. But hey, I’m sure this will be the topic of almost every Ask CVV until we get there.” 

Who are the top five wrestling hand-shakers?

“That might be one of the best questions I’ve ever been asked. A lot of good wrestling handshakes. A lot of not-so-good wrestling handshakes. And not because we just talked about him but Cody Rhodes has a shockingly large hand, he’s a pretty big guy, right? He’s like maybe six, six foot one. But when he shakes your hand, he has the handshake of someone who’s like six inches taller than that. And I’ll never forget that he shakes your hand and it is just big, meaty wrestler hand. When I say that, I mean like an amateur wrestler hand. It’s a big meaty hand. I don’t know if I can give you a top five. But almost every wrestler whose hand I’ve ever shaken has been a very firm, great handshake, or a handshake followed by a hug. But yeah, like Cody Rhodes, that one kind of threw me off of like, that’s a big hand. And Kurt Angle, obviously, great handshake, also makes you like, it’s one of those. It’s one of those handshakes that when you shake his hand, and Ken Shamrock, I’ll throw Ken Shamrock into this too. It’s one of those handshakes where you’re like, oh, this man could literally kill me. That’s the kind of handshake that it is. So I don’t have five but there’s three right off the top of my head. Now every time you see Cody on TV, you’re gonna be like, oh, yeah, his hands are really large.” 

Would you rather be able to speak to and communicate with animals? Or be able to speak every language in the world? 

“Oh, what a would you rather? I’m gonna go with the animals. Because lots of people can speak, not every language in the world, lots of people can speak many languages. Nobody can speak to animals. I mean, not at least communicate with them. So I’m gonna go there. Can I communicate with all animals? Like are you saying, like, I can have a conversation with my dog Luna and know what she’s thinking and doing? Incredible! Cats, just walk down the street and talk to a cat. Birds flying in the sky, dolphins jumping in the ocean? Can I go to the zoo and just be hearing voices everywhere? The Tiger’s saying something, elephant’s saying something? What’s that, Mr. Monkey? Sign me up for that. Although, if you had the ability to speak to and communicate with all animals, you’d be the only person in the world who’d be able to do that. And I feel like people would think you’re crazy. Because you’d be the only person and be able to hear that. And you’d be telling people like, oh, yeah, that leopard over there says this. And people go oh, yeah, sure, buddy. I would choose the animals at the risk of sounding crazy.” 

When will you interview Jim Cornette? 

“I would love to have Jim Cornette on the show. He’s such a fascinating figure in wrestling and I think it’d be just such a great conversation. So whether you love Jim Cornette, or you hate Jim Cornette, you feel something about Jim Cornette and that’s what’s important. That’s the essence of pro wrestling. So I would love to be able to talk to Jim Cornette and just figure out who he is. I would just love to like learn a little bit more about him. I think that he’s wildly entertaining, whether you agree with him or not, he is wildly entertaining. So I don’t have a direct line of communication to him. I’m not even sure like, how to reach out to him. So if you’re listening to this right now, and you know which email I should send an email to, please let me know. But if Jim Cornette would be up for it, and we can find a path of communication so that I can reach out to him and we can set this up. I’m in. I would love that. I think that’d be one of the best episodes of the year.” 

What’s your favourite Backstreet Boys song other than I Want It That Way?

“I frequently sing around the house Backstreets Back. That whole Millennium album was really good. Yeah. I think Backstreets Back, although I’ll give you a deep cut here. Perfect Fan. I remember hearing Perfect Fan for the first time. And for those of you who aren’t Backstreet Boys fans, it’s a song about Brian’s mom and just talking about like Mom, you always were the perfect fan. I remember hearing that for the first time like tearing up. I thought the song is just so sweet. And made me think about my mom. So I think that that that’ll be a deep cut there if you ever want to get real sentimental, real mushy, put on Perfect Fan by the Backstreet Boys.” 

Any tips to get a newborn to sleep? 

“Congrats to you. We now have a four-month-old Logan. And I wish I had a tip because we’re not getting much sleep around here. And that is not a complaint at all. That is simply the delivery of some information. I’m never going to be one of those people that’s like oh man, I didn’t get enough sleep last night. I’m never going to be one of those people. I am so incredibly grateful to have this beautiful, smart, healthy little baby girl. But the truth of the matter is she wakes up three or four times a night. So we put her down at like 7:15 or 7:30 If we’re lucky, she sleeps until like 11 to 12, somewhere around there, wakes up once and then wakes up like every two-ish hours after that. So then wakes up again around 2, maybe 4. So it’s like three or four wake up tonight. So I wish I had some advice for you. I certainly do not. And if you figure this out before me, please send me a message and let me know.” 

Several podcasters are arguing over which is the best rocky film in the series. Can you help settle this, please? 

“Oh, man, that is such a good question. I think objectively, this isn’t even like opinion, I think objectively Rocky is the best film in the series. Is Rocky the best Rocky film in the series? When you think about Rocky you think about the training montages and the big fight sequences. Rocky just has the one fight really. So is Rocky the best Rocky movie? Probably not, that’s probably Rocky three. Yeah, you got Clubber Lang in there and Thunder Lips, aka. Mr. T and Hulk Hogan. I think the storyline of number three is really good. So I’m gonna go with number three as the best fighting movie. But when it comes to like, films, I think you can’t beat Rocky, just as a film, as an Academy Award-winning film. I think that Rocky is the best film in the franchise. But Rocky really in its core is a love story. And I don’t know if a lot of people talk about that, like, oh, Rocky, yeah, it’s a great, you know, it’s a boxing story. But it’s a love story. It’s a love story between Rocky and Adrian and that blossoms into what we see after that. But I mean, look at all the Oscars that won, if you want to just talk objectively like what is the best film? Best Picture? Best Actor in a Leading Role, Sylvester Stallone. Best Actress in a Leading Role, like all the amount of wins and nominations. I could keep going. I don’t know why I didn’t Burt Young got nominated. Best Director, best writing, the soundtrack? Best Film Editing, best music. Yeah, it’s a lot of nominations. So I hope that settles a score. I get where the arguments come in. I think a lot of people also say Rocky 4. I mean, I don’t know if there’s a better fight than Rocky versus Drago, you will lose, really good. I’d love to hear what you think.” 

What kind of gear do you use?

“I get this one a lot. I’m gonna put it out here. And hopefully, you know, if this is where you’re at right now in your content creation journey. You’ll grab onto this right now. I’ll tell you what I use and then I’m going to tell you it doesn’t really matter what you use. I use a Sony A74 as my main camera. That’s the one that I think looks so crisp. When you’re looking at the webcam or when you’re looking at it like I used it for a lot of any of my recent interviews that looks extra juicy. And the lens on there is a Tamron 28 to 75 millimetre F 2.8. You’ll figure it out, it’s the only Tamron like that. It’s the DI3. Yeah, it’s a great lens. It’s a very juicy lens, that setup with that body and that lens is like $3,500. All of that is to say you do not need that lens. I shot most of my interviews for the first 10 years, 12 years on an iPhone. And I think that the reason I say that you don’t need to buy great gear is because I think that too many aspiring creators use gear as a crutch. They go, I’ll be a great creator when I buy that camera. Oh, by the way, the mic is the Shure SM7B it is the gold standard of podcast mics. It’s the black cylindrical mic. You see Joe Rogan using it, it’s that every top podcaster uses. But I think that a lot of people use the gear as a crutch, they go oh, I’ll be a great creator when I get that mic or when I get that camera, use the gear you have right now. Use what you have in front of you and then continue to grow from there. Don’t go breaking the bank on a $3,500 camera and lens and a $400 microphone. If you have the money to do it, and you have the means to do it and that’s something that you want to do, I completely recommend it for sure. And I would definitely recommend buying a good mic, especially if you’re a podcaster, over a good camera first. Because if your podcast sounds like crap, like if you’re recording it like this, and it sounds like you’re across the room, everyone’s gonna think that your podcast is crap, perception is reality when it comes to content creation. So if you are going to spend some money on something, I would say buy the Shure SM7B. I’m sure there are other mics that are good. I can’t speak to them personally, because I haven’t used them. But I do know that Tony Robbins always says success leaves clues. There’s a reason all the top podcasters are using the mic that I’m speaking into right now because it’s the best. So if you want to have crispy audio like this, and you have the ability to pay for that or buy a used one. I have actually bought a second one here sitting right in front of me. I bought a used one. So it’s a $400 microphone, I bought it used on eBay for like $220. So if you an the ability to do it, that’s where you should be spending your money. And then find that audio interface, plug it into your computer with a USB port, Bada bing, bada boom, your Zoom interviews, your Zoom meetings, they’re all gonna sound so much better now.”

Who was really better, Bret or Shawn? 

“I mean, it really comes down to are you a Bret person or are you a Shawn person. Both are so good. Both are arguably the greatest in-ring workers in the history of the business. I just feel like Bret got shortchanged a little bit. If the screw job hadn’t happened, and he hadn’t gone to WCW I just think that we would be talking about Bret without question being the greatest of all time. But that’s what life’s all about, right? It’s like these what ifs? Because he had great matches in WCW. But I don’t really think a lot of people talk about them. I mean, everyone talks about, and that’s not to say that they didn’t exist, I just feel like everyone goes back to like the matches that he had in WWF. Oh, just off the top of your head obviously matches with like Mr. Perfect and matches with Owen, like, there’s so many. And I’m gonna, if I start listing them off, you’re gonna be like, Oh, I can’t believe you forgot about that one. Look, Bret versus anybody is a great match. Shawn Michaels versus anybody is a great match. I just think that if you look at their careers as a whole, Bret’s kind of went on a real decline when he went to WCW. And you could just tell he wasn’t happy being there. And then Shawn Michaels, you know, had his own demons and had his own issues. And we saw him come back and I mean, one of the greatest matches ever is him and The Undertaker, really both of them. I mean, we’ll never get a better retirement moment than the super kick or the sweet chin music the I’m sorry, I love you with Ric Flair. I think they’re both good, but who was really better? You can’t go wrong. It’s really like flavours of ice cream. You know, I think if you like mint chocolate chip, and I like Rocky Road, I was gonna go like chocolate or vanilla but it’s too plain, strawberry Neapolitan. I think it’s just choosing ice cream flavours in it can’t go wrong with ice cream. It’s all good. Being a Canadian, I think I’m a little biased to Bret. Although I’ve talked about this a lot. I’ve never been a huge fan of the pro-Canada gimmicks because it’s just the cheapest of cheap heat. And it’s cool like it was cool growing up and seeing them wave the Canadian flag because as a kid growing up in Canada, you didn’t see that a lot in pro sports in general, especially not in pro wrestling, so it was cool to see that. And I think in pro wrestling, Bret was so proud to be Canadian that it made me even more proud to be Canadian as well. But I’ve just never been a big fan of like he did it, you know, with waving the flag, and then there was Team Canada in TNA. And then there was the Un-Americans. I’ve just never been a big fan of like, the cheapest of the cheap heats. And I know that pro wrestling is all about this, but I’ve never been a fan of like the I’m better than you because I’m from a different country. And then you go to America, and like, it’s just boo! You saw the same thing with La Resistance like they were so French that you were supposed to boo them because they were French. I don’t know, I’ve just never been a fan of that type of stuff. But again, all that to say is Bret and Shawn, two great flavours of ice cream. You can’t go wrong.” 

What is one lesson your daughter Logan has taught you so far?

“She has taught me a lot, just one lesson? If it’s just one lesson, I think the lesson has been patience. And I think the lesson has also been like, be flexible. Because you’ve got a plan to do a certain thing at a certain time. And if that baby isn’t sleeping well or isn’t eating well, you can throw those plans out the window because Logan’s at a stage right now where she doesn’t enjoy going in the car seat. So the second we put her in the car seat, and a lot of babies fall asleep when they go in the car. Not our little girl, at least not yet. We put her in the car seat. And she suddenly screams her head off. And then we put her in the car in the truck. And it takes a good 5, 10, 15 minutes and she will calm down. Although we drove home from the airport the other day. And it was a 52-minute drive from LAX and she cried for all 52 minutes. Again, the lesson here is patience. And I think another lesson and I know I was only asked for one. But you got me thinking here. Another lesson is just like wonderment. She looks at everything with such wonder and there’s a real magic in that. Because she is quite literally seeing everything for the first time. And I love that she’s seeing it with these new eyes, these fresh eyes. And then it allows me to see things through new eyes, through fresh eyes. And it makes you realise how much wonder exists in the smallest of things. The things that we see all the time that we take for granted. And she looks at them and she’s like, wow. So that’s been a big one for me, is a little bit of sense of wonder. And that’s going to be a thing for a while. And I love that that. That’s the real thing, like the patience and the making the plans thing. Yeah, sure. That’s definitely there. And I think we could all use a little bit more patience. But I think we can also all use a little bit more wonder in our lives, especially in pro wrestling. Guys, it’s not all negative. And that’s why I’m trying to be a tiny little glimmer of positivity in this often very negative landscape. Think about if you were watching wrestling for the first time, not even the first time, like the first six months the first year or something. There was a real wonder, seeing stuff for the first time or hearing an entrance song, and I feel like sometimes because we’ve been fans for so long we forget. We forget like yes, I get that the Canadian Destroyer is completely overused. I’m with you on that. But the first time I saw Petey Williams do a Canadian destroyer. I literally couldn’t understand what he was doing. I remember watching the clip back in slow motion like pause, play, pause, play, pause, play like frame by frame, trying to figure out exactly what was going on. There’s a real wonder in that and those moments are so rare. And wrestling also has so few surprises now. Which is why the moment like The Rock coming out on SmackDown completely unannounced because he happened to be in Colorado are such big moments. Sure they could have popped the rating and they could have said The Rock is gonna be on SmackDown tune in this week. And then you just tune in and every single segment you’d be going is The Rock coming out yet? Is The Rock coming out yet? And the crowd would be chanting Rocky, Rocky it literally every single segment The rating might have been better. But now you get the like, wonderment the surprise of The Rock coming. Oh my gosh, he’s here. This wasn’t even rumoured this wasn’t even talked about he came out of nowhere. And another one of those really big moments was the start of WrestleMania 30. How good was that? Like, Hogan? Surprise, Stone Cold surprise, The Rock’s here too, surprise oh my gosh, like, that was so cool to be able to see that moment, the greatest intro to WrestleMania ever the greatest opening segment ever. So, wonderment. Maybe that can be the word that we like, think about here into weekend, wonderment. There’s literally wonder and magic and everything.” 

Hulk Hogan (@hulkhogan) is a legendary professional wrestler and a 2-time WWE Hall of Famer. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet for a candid conversation at Hogan’s Hangout in Clearwater Beach, FL to talk about whether Chris Hemsworth is still going to play him in an upcoming movie, where Hulk Hogan ends and where Terry Bollea begins, joining the nWo and turning heel in WCW, his iconic match with The Rock at WrestleMania 18, the last minute plan for the nWo to turn on him after that match, his Voodoo Child entrance music, does he think John Cena should have turned heel?, his match against Vince McMahon at WrestleMania 19, how close we were to having Hulk Hogan return at WrestleMania 39, the biggest regret in his career, why he never had an official last match, his favorite thing about being in TNA, the advice he would give to his younger self, his pro wrestling Mount Rushmore, 3 things he is grateful for and much more!

Visit: http://hulkhoganstore.com

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Quote I’m thinking about:
Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending. – Maria Robinson

On the Hulk Hogan biopic starring Chris Hemsworth:

“Yes, I do. So it was a situation where business-wise, Netflix kind of like missed the date, you know, as far as a business situation. And so I had the choice at that time to switch gears. Scott Silver wrote the script, you know, he wrote The Joker and a bunch of different movies. And of course, Todd Phillips has done the Joker Wolf of Wall Street and you know, whatever. All the crazy stuff that he did. But yeah, the script came back. It was amazing. I mean, because my favorite movies are like Scarface, The Godfather, True Romance, it was there, it was there. And I just thought, Whoa, but all of a sudden there was a business glitch, you know, and then they tried to fix it a few days later. And I’d already decided to move on. So, my life rights and stuff are somewhere else now. And there are a lot of things that are getting ready to happen. And hopefully, Todd Phillips and Chris Hemsworth will still want to play. But there’s still a huge opportunity there.”

On Chirs Hemsworth being the choice:

“Well, Chris [Hemsworth] was the one I always [wanted]. Even before we get into this. I said, if anybody ever played Hulk Hogan, I want to be Chris Hemsworth. You know, his birthday is the same day as mine. So we talked, I think once about the whole situation, he was all excited, because he told me he’d never played a real person before. [He said] Oh, my gosh, your life is so interesting. This is so crazy. This could be the biggest thing I’ve ever done. And yeah, and Scott Silver, the writer who wrote The Joker uses, this is the most amazing script I’ve ever written. So it’s powerful. It’s in a different place, but there will be an opportunity for everybody to regroup.”

How much pain is Hulk Hogan in?

“That’s kind of funny. Because I had a physical therapist asked me yesterday, if you could be out of pain or you could have a perfect championship walk what’s what would you rather have? I said I’d rather have the walk. She goes, You’re out of your mind. I said, Yes, I am. Because everything hurts, like, just like, it’s hard to explain. Like, if I’m gonna brush my teeth, and I’m leaning on the counter to brush my teeth. I can’t push away. So when I’m done, brush my teeth. I have to lean in like that and then pull back. You know, I can’t push like a glass door open. Everything in the gym is short strokes. You know? I can’t straighten my arms out. And then it’s the same with my knees, my hips, my back my neck. You know, but that’s because I probably wrestled too long. And I didn’t get the memo that stuff was fake. You know? So I don’t complain about it. Because you know, like, I was telling Sky. The lady I’m getting ready to marry tomorrow. She goes Well, how much per year and I said, Well, I’m in pain all the time. But I’m used to it. You know, in my go-to in the morning, just to get me rolling is two cups of coffee and two Tylenol. And then that’s it. That’s as far as I go. As far as the pain pills go. But I could probably lose the Tylenol at this point, because they don’t do much. Yeah, but it’s just kind of like a habit. Now the two Tylenols with two cups of coffee.”

On John Cena not turning heel:

“Well, the thing was when you’re at your prime that’s where you turned all you know, the Cena fans who Never Give Ip and just look at him go, You know what, I did it for the money, you know? And he would be one of the hottest heels ever. And then, you know whether it’s running six months or six years or two years. When you repent, and you beg for forgiveness, he would be hotter than he was before as a babyface. So yeah, it’s a natural flow. That once you get the vibe, you know, out there and you kind of like feel the crowd you can tell. You know, and John would be John could probably tell better that honestly better than Vince once he’s out there. I know. Vince has been in the ring a lot. And he’s very good. Because I’ve been in the ring with Vince. He’s one of the best deals I’ve ever worked against. Everything he does hurts.”

On what hurts the most from Vince McMahon:

“His punches are brutal. I mean, I was at WrestleMania 19 doing this all night long. I am going brother Lighten up, brother. I’m on the team with you, lighten up. You keep doing that you’re gonna be in here by yourself. It got to the point where we started laughing. You know? And but yeah, I told him to go up on that ladder on the outside to drop the leg on the table. He goes, You sure? I said, Yeah, I’m sure, you go up there. And he did it.” 

On having one last match:

“I would have loved to have had that last match. But now it’s completely out of the picture. You know, I’m just too beat up from the surgeries. I think if I took a couple of bumps, you probably have to cut up me again. But no, I really wanted to have that last match. [Against who?] I wasn’t sure you know, I had I think it was WrestleMania 25 in Orlando.”

On the opponent possibly being John Cena:

“Vince had me all hooked up with Cena and I said I’d do it. And Vince and I were talking every week and we were putting the plans together you know, like the old days where I was in the office every day him and I were talking every day and all of a sudden I’m on the phone with Vince I was like, Oh my God. Oh, my back went out when I was talking to Vince on the phone. I just had back surgery number three or four at that time, and I had to go right in immediately and get cut up. So that was it for that but I thought that was going to be my last match and then you know, but that never happened and then it just kind of like faded away.”

On his many surgeries and cannabis use:

“Well, I mean, you know, I’ve been down that road with the pain pills. You know, last 12 years, I’ve had 25 surgeries. So I mean, you know, the knees, the hips, 10 back surgeries, a couple of shoulder surgeries, abdominal surgeries, orbital socket surgeries. So I know what it’s like when the doctor goes, here’s a prescription. You know, and I mean, you’re sometimes when you’re in such pain after 7,8,9,10 back surgeries, you’d rather just jump off a cliff than live another day. So it’s really easy to fall into that situation. And you know, a lot of other wrestlers that have passed away have fallen into that situation. And then there’s a lot of people that have been deployed to Afghanistan and Kuwait that, you know, have serious issues. So it’s just like, a more natural way to walk things back. A more natural way to get on track and get back to normal. So it makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons.”

On WrestleMania 18:

“Well, to get there, there’s a huge backstory. Okay. And the backstory is working for Ted Turner for 9 or 10 years, trying to put Vince out of business. You know, basically trying to beat him in the ratings to do whatever we could to be competitive. Because when I did leave the WWF at the time, Vince pretty much told me my run was over and the red and yellow was done. And after the Warrior beat me there were a couple of years actually, after the Warrior beat me that night. I said well, I giving the belts. I go down out I mean, do the three surgeries, three stooges slowly I turned. I want to be Triple H Hollywood Hulk Hogan. Oh, you can’t do that. You can’t be a heel. I said brother, your dad brought me in as a heel. Of course, I can do it. So a couple years later, as I kept floundering around there, Vince pretty much told me my run was over and I said, really? So I went into Thunder in Paradise and I got bored with doing that craziness, went to WCW and did what I did there. And then it was a situation where I was in a hotel room in New York, called the Parker Meridien. And I was actually sitting on a toilet doing number two, right? All right, I saw Triple H on the phone. That’s interesting. So I picked the phone up and I go What’s up, brother? He goes how are you doing? So we heard your contract is done. This is not in the other whatever the verbiage was? Vince would like to talk to you so so cool, you know. And so one thing led to another and before I get to WrestleMania 18. The backstory was the verbiage with me, and Vince was things have changed up here. And when I kind of knew that The Rock and Stone were the two guys that they cater to. Because before during the day when they’d go out to the ring of it would be Hulk Hiogan, and this is what we’re doing that’s what we’re doing. Now, I knew it wasn’t my time but it was the new guy, sorry knew that. But Vince went Oh no, you’re coming up here then you got to really bring it. I was like okay, I mean, I got to run faster, jump higher, what do you mean really bring it? So I knew what he meant the work rate was quicker and faster and stuff which to me doesn’t mean anything. You know, my fault I didn’t say it but if you want me to bring it you will want to ask me to take it back you know, because I will, but I would never do anything to hurt the boys, that hurt Rock. But I just kept my mouth shut and the backstory still was they didn’t think I could pull it off. Or I think they thought that maybe I wasn’t up to snuff to be Hulk Hogan, they said they wanted me to go down to Miami rehearse the match, which I’ve never done in my life. And so I went down there and Rocky Johnson was there, my boy and Pat Patterson was there and there was this ring in a warehouse it was 100 degrees plus, and The Rock told me everything he wanted to do and walk around and go here and there and spit his fist and you go over the top rope go through all the stuff that match was pretty much laid out. And then Rocky Johnson went Dwyane, listen to Hogan. Rocky was just like, cheered for me. You know, which was kind of fun. Me, because he was a good friend of mine the whole time when in the WWF and then Pat Patterson said ok Terry let’s go to the mat. I went, are you kidding me? So if I fall down in here, I’m gonna get hurt. I can’t wrestle with no people here. He goes, Yeah, I gotta Vince wants to go through the match, I can’t do it. I said, believe me, we get in front of 20, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80,000 people, I’ll be fine. And so you know, I was kind of wondering if this whole thing is planned out? What if you start doing this and the people fart at it? Are you going to keep doing what you planned out? And so I really didn’t say much. And then we were in the dressing room and rocking out. We’re actually in the same dressing room that night. Not a lot of conversation. But Rocky Johnson was in there Dwyane, listen to Hogan So we get out there and I expect fully expected them to boot me out of the building. After hitting him with a hammer, put him in the ambulance running in mode with a semi. Yeah, I did everything I could to get heat.” 

On bringing the red and yellow back after WrestleMania 18:

“The referee told me they were coming down. All I remember is being on my knees and looking up at Big Kevin. Kevin’s got arms over his head with a chair. He’s like ah! I’m like Oh my god he’s marking out. And I never put my hand up. I put my forearm up, hit my forearm and I went to the back and I said Kevin, what is going on bro? He goes I never thought I was going to hit Hulk Hogan with a chair. I said we’ve been working together for the last seven or eight years. I’m your boy. He goes yeah but it was WrestleMania and I had to lie down. I said Yeah, but if I hadn’t put my arm up you were gonna kill me. But yeah, we laughed about it afterwards. But I thank God I looked into his eyes to see that he wasn’t even there. You know, but it was a lot of fun. And then Vince ordered me to go back and get the red and yellow immediately.”

Why Hulk Hogan returned to the WWE:

“My whole reason for going up there was of course to wrestle The Rock, you know and of course, heels are meant to be beat, it was a fluke, I slipped on a banana peel he could ever do it again, you know, whatever, I could have kept my heat because my little intention was to have a two-year run with Stone Cold because he was red hot at the time I was dying to get in his shorts, man and make some money, you know. And so it was kind of like, you know, because I know Steve had some physical issues and stuff with his nerves and his legs and stuff. Yeah, so I was just like, the air was let out of the balloon when I didn’t get a chance to run with him because that would have been crazy.”

On joining the nWo:

“Well, first off, we didn’t tell anybody, Hall and Nash didn’t know if I was coming or not. [They didn’t know who the third man was?] Well, there was a possibility because Eric had been [in contact]. I was out filming a movie out in LA. And Eric had approached me about turning heel. I said no brother doesn’t work for me right now, you know, I was making really good money there, you know, guaranteed money and I just want to keep things going the way they were. Even though the red and yellow thing was starting to lose a little bit of lustre and it was getting old. And I saw you know, Scott came out I’m like this looks like a shoot, you know, and I’m watching this from LA. And then big Kev came out and powerbombed Eric through the table. I called Eric and said I’m your third man. He said oh thank God, because we were gonna go with Sting I said, bro, you can’t go with Sting. He’s not WWF from head to toe. It’s in my blood. I mean, I’m the guy. So Eric didn’t want to tell anybody you know. So up until the time I went to the ring. Eric goes, Hogan is not here yet. Which of course I was outside hanging out. Hogan is not here yet. And if he doesn’t come up, we’re sending Sting. So Scott and Kevin went out not knowing if I was coming, right. So it’s really weird because when I look back at the tape, I know Eric was talking about Yeah, well, we spent time outside and we discussed the promo and stuff and I don’t remember any of that because I just went out when Gene came in it was let me tell you something Mean Gene I just rolled with my normal crap you know, I was sought out the world you guys are pumping gas to get high school. I just rolled with one of my heel promos, you know, and it was I never think about what I’m gonna say until I get out there. So you know, everything was really cool. And all of a sudden I felt that cold white heat where it got sour from it and they started throwing stuff. I told Mene Gene I said you need to go bro. You need to get out. We may have a riot in here and then his nose was bleeding. You got hit with something and he kept his head down. He was scared us it bro you need to run. Because if we start lighting this place up, we could have a riot there because it was that type of heat I hadn’t felt for a long time.” 

On debunking false Hulk Hogan stories:

“But some of the Hulk Hogan stories like oh my gosh, my dad says, Hello, he played basketball with you for 15 years and Venice Beach. will tell your dad I said hello. But I’ve never played basketball. I don’t say Hey, kid, your dad is a liar. I mean, you know, you just can’t go there. But I think she’s [Sky] to the point now where she understands that the people have been endeared by this character so much. Everybody’s got a Hulk Hogan story, whether it’s good or bad, true or false. They tell that story. And sometimes I wonder, what are they still getting out of that story? A lot of wrestlers will tell stories about me that I hear. And it’s just not true. Some of the guys are Main Event guys, and I hear these stories. I wonder what they’re still getting out of telling that story.”

On that doesn’t work for me, brother:

“Well, if I knew the individual stories, I can tell whether it happened but that was my catchphrase. That doesn’t work for me brother. You know, like, there were several times when Ric Flair and I were travelling, and we do like the Maple Leaf Gardens, the main event, and then there’d be like Brantford, Ontario, which I would always make the double shot, but every once awhile I had other stuff to do. So I’d say Rick take my car, you know, jump back on the plane because that doesn’t work for me, brother. But that was my go to line, you know.”

Who is on Hulk Hogan’s Mount Rushmore:

“Well, that’s a tough one. You know, because Andre has to be there. There’s no doubt about it. Andre has to be there. And there’s just not enough headspace there. You know, because up there, you know, it would have to be Ric Flair. You know, I tell Ric Flair you’re the greatest wrestler that ever lived and I’ve had other people tell me other things, you know, but as far as I’m concerned with him loving this business and being a complete sellout, he gave up everything. Family, friends, his own health, everything to be in his business. That’s kind of crazy type of dedication, way more than I could give. You know, and he did it because he loved this business. And plus, he was a top guy like forever, you know, so it had to be Andre. It has to be flair. I’m just going with the older guys, you know, because there are some new guys like Seth Rollins, who I really admire. You know, Kevin Owens caught my eye really early when a lot of people didn’t believe in him. And I saw him down there and said see oh my god that brother has got it figured out. You know, and so I’m all over the place with it but for me the quick fix would be Andre, Flair, Rock and Austin. That’s a quick fix for me. Yeah, those four guys deserve it.”

On still being a part of WWE:

“You know, I still work with the WWE all the time. I just renewed my deal with them, you know. And [Deos that mean, we can hear your music hit sometime soon]. I hope so. It’s always fun to go out there. And maybe I can hang on to one of the wrestlers to get me out to the ring. But it’s really crazy. Because when I was the world’s champion, you know, we sold a tonne of merchandise. We didn’t have the vehicle to the internet and the stuff that they have nowadays. But we sold a lot of stuff you know, back in the day. The cartoon were very supportive of the merchandise and stuff like that. And you know, it was kind of strange because I think I had 350 licensees which are like individual deals, Frisbees, watches, headbands, chalk, kites, potty seats, tennis shoes, whatever it may be. And now that I’m kind of like Jimmy Hart says, well, baby, baby, what’s old is new again. What’s old is new again. And I said, Jimmy, you’re right. Because, you know, I’ve been approving merchandise every day, I get new stuff coming in. And I’m up to like, 850,000, you know, like, 900,000 pieces of merchandise. I’m sorry, I’m mistaken it’s 300 different agencies. I’m up to 900 licensees not 900,000. I’m thinking wrong. But instead of 300 deals for Frisbees, or whatever, it’s up to almost 900. Yeah. So it’s like, I’m Elvis is still alive. You know, it’s kind of scary. I don’t know. So but it’s just amazing how the fans have made this live forever, you know, it’s amazing.”

What is Hulk Hogan grateful for:

“My saviour Jesus Christ, my children and I have now met someone who can be my soulmate.” 

Samantha Irvin (@samanthairvinwwe) is a singer and ring announcer with WWE. She joins Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios in Las Vegas to talk about her original tryout to be a wrestler that lead to her becoming a WWE ring announcer, growing up as a wrestling fan, who her favorite wrestler was, how she met her fiancé Ricochet and their crazy first date, meeting Lilian Garcia and getting feedback from her, borrowing techniques from Howard Finkel, her approach to her ring announcing style, memorizing all of the superstar’s stats, how her background as a musician influences her style, her preshow vocal warmups, why she announces Chelsea Green’s name in the unique way she does, her memories of announcing the main event at WrestleMania 39 and much more!

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Quote I’m thinking about:
Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending. – Maria Robinson

On Mark Henry scouting Samantha Irvin:

“He just started tweeting me and was like, You should be in wrestling. Have you ever thought of WWE, WWE is calling. And I was like, I slid in his DMS. I said sir, yes. What can I do? And he said, Well, you’d have to do like a tryout like a real physical tryout. That’s what he would be able to do. I was like, I’m not an athlete. I’ve never stepped foot in a ring. Never played a sport. Nothing. But I was like, Well, if that’s what I have to do, I’ll go there and and do it. I had a tryout. I did the tryout, like, like with collegiate athletes taking bumps, running the ropes. Yes, I did the actual tryout.”

On transitioning from wrestling to announcing:

“I think that in the process of the tryout, I obviously wasn’t the fastest or the strongest or anything impressive. But we did cut promos, I did have a chance to announce a couple of matches and just kind of show my personality. And Mark Henry did tell me he’s like just get in there and let them know what you think you’d be good at doing. So they saw that I wasn’t athletic. But they thought that I was good at some other stuff. So luckily, I was able to connect with Michael Cole from there and get the ball rolling.”

On advice given prior to announcing:

“Oh, man, the first piece of advice. When I got the offer, Mark Henry called me right away. And he said, listen to the greats, listen to the legends. And I said, dawg, you already know, like Howard Finkel, Lillian, love them. They are the sound like, they’re just my childhood. Like, I just know their voices. I know how I felt when I listened to them. So just educating myself on what the role has been and how the fans have connected to that role in the past. That was the first real bit of advice that I got.”

On finding her unique style:

“Well, I think that probably kind of from the beginning, I think I came in at a time where things were changing. We were in the pandemic. And live audiences were starting to come back 205 Live was turning into Level Up, NXT was turning into NXT 2.0. There were just a lot of things shifting at that time. And Michael Cole just gave me the go-ahead. He was like, I want you to do your ideas, whatever your ideas are, I know you know, this is what we always have done. But if something moves you he’s always been very supportive and given me a lot of credit. Like, I know you’re a performer. You have a lot of time in doing this. So he gave me his trust. And that gave me the confidence to, you know, if Michael Cole says Go ahead, you are like alright, Michel Cole said go ahead. So yeah, it was great.”

On announcing some of the legends of WWE:

“Okay, so I’ve had a few. The first one that pops to my mind is Edge, The Rated R Superstar because that was such an iconic announcement from Tony Chimel. Everybody knows that. And I would never want to like jack that announcement or copy it, but you always want to, like, still capture the essence. I got to announce him at Clash at the Castle. That’s actually the only time I think that I’ve announced him, and it was crazy. But I said I’m gonna go for something different. I’m just gonna go for what I interpret him as, what we know now, Edge, he’s returned. We never thought we would see Edge again. And now he’s just killing it. Who is Edge right now? And it was the Rated R Superstar! And it just happened and he liked it. And that meant everything to me. And he came up to me like I saw him a couple of months after that. And he was like, Hey, I’ve been meaning to tell you. You know, I really liked what you did. He’s like Superstar! and I was like, okay, good. He liked it. So him Shawn Michaels I got to announce Shawn and I just basically said it the way I probably would have said it when I was seven. I was like Shawn Michaels! You know, Triple H, you know, I just whatever they make me feel and I do take a lot from Howard if it’s an older announcement or something I take a lot from him because I still want that. That nostalgia, a ring of nostalgia to be there for the people who know.”

On announcing during commercial breaks:

“We got a whole lot going on you know. We got t-shirts to tell the people about, we have cameras that we like to put on the crowd and people like to put their signs up and show off their dance moves. We do the DX cam, you know, we teach the kids all the good stuff that they need to know. We got the people’s eyebrow cam, we do the you can’t see me cam. We were in North Carolina, we did the woo cam, the Ric Flair woo cam. So yeah, you know, we have a lot going on, like to get the people up on the screen as well.”

On learning all of the Superstars’ hometowns and weights:

“That process is whack. Okay, it is so much pressure. And you know, hey, I have a theatre background. So, you know, memorization has always kind of been my thing. It’s the hardest part, but it is something that I’m used to, you know, doing shows and having lines and all that kind of stuff, doing auditions for jobs that you never get, I’ve learned a lot of lines.”

On not coming to the aid of Richochet:

“Yes, it is. Yeah, it’s very nice. It’s nice to let the fans know because I do support him and I do care a lot about his journey and his goals and what he wants to accomplish. So I’m proud to support him. But of course, I have to do my job all the time and he knows that and I don’t think the fans understand that necessarily. Some of them don’t get it because they’re always like, how come you’re not helping him? And I’m like, What do you want me to do? Like I got a little skirt on, I’m about to go in here? I told you I can’t wrestle. Everybody wants me to wrestle. I’m like, why?”

On the aftermatch of SummerSlam:

“I was not happy. And definitely not happy to have a camera in my face while he’s saying that to me. So not my favourite. And it’s crazy because it’s such a rewatched replayed moment. And it’s like the wackest moment that I’ve had, but you know it’s fine. No matter what I was gonna get the announcement off no matter what. But I was not obviously I was in shock. I have not seen anyone assault my fiance with brass knuckles before so that was a first. It was just lazy, but I think we probably know what would have happened.” 

On her favorite Ricochet moment:

“Favourite Ricochet moment? Ooh. Well, I loved it when he won the Intercontinental Championship. That was a great, great, great, great moment. And I was so happy I was able to announce that. But I also love the SmackDown World Cup. His match with Santos Escobar was crazy. But I honestly, he’s great. Ricochet is like, he’s the one for you know, you know that every match is going to be incredible. You know, he’s going to do everything in his power to try to win. So I love everything that I’ve seen him do. I’ve never seen him have a bad match.”

On the how Samantha Irvin announces Chelsea Green:

“It was just because of her, it’s just her. She came back, and her attitude and everything was just she was so sassy and I just loved it. And I just thought she’s not, you know [flatly] Chelsea Green like, no, she’s Chelsea Green! And it just, I did it one time. I think now it’s like obviously now it’s over the top but the first time I did it, I think I just was like Chelsea Green and like some people noticed, you know, and then well now she will not let me say it any other way. She helped me fine-tune it perfectly for her.”

On nerves and anxiety:

“I was nervous to come here and do this. So the nerves for me are always there. I have a lot of anxiety, a lot of performance anxiety that I just don’t think is ever gonna go away. I think about it all the time of how I can try to [reduce it]. People like you’ve done this, you’ve done this so much. Why are you still nervous? But I’m a perfectionist, and I want it to be great. The main thing with the vocals is when you have like, I had to check myself a couple of weeks ago because I was like, I lost Rhea’s announcement. I can’t do it. I told Ricochet, I told my brothers I’m like, I lost it. I can’t do it, my voice is tired. And they’re like, What do you mean, you lost it like you made it up. Like I made it up. Nobody told me I had to say it that way. So it’s like I hold myself to this standard and I just want to nail it every single time. So it is nerve-wracking, especially when things maybe have to change, you know, on the fly. Say, we had a match yesterday that kind of got swapped. So you know you got to you just kind of have to adapt. But I’m always nervous. There’s never ever a time where I’m not nervous.”

On the scariest ringside moment:

“I mean, Gable and Gunther had a crazy little situation over in my area a few weeks ago, but I was sitting right there when Big E got hurt. So a lot of times like I am scared honestly, like I’m I am scared. What they’re doing is a big risk. And it’s and as a fan, you know, as long as I’ve been watching, I’m not stupid, things can happen. This is not like a guarantee, you know, so I am always just hoping my one memory that pops in is the women’s Money in the Bank ladder match this year. I’m sitting, there Charles Robinson, the ref is sitting there watching and he’s got tears in his eyes. And we’re both and I hope he’s not there. No, I’m just now I’m just see. Now I’m like, Just me and you, chillin’. We’re just chilling. But honestly, he just, they were they were doing some crazy stuff in that match. And we both were just watching and just it was emotional. Like you just we want everyone to be okay. And you know, my reactions are genuine. When some crazy stuff is going down.”

What is Samantha Irvin grateful for:

“My daughter, my fiance, my siblings and my friends.”

Becky Lynch (@beckylynchwwe) is a professional wrestler with WWE. She joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about becoming a Grand Slam Champion when she won the WWE NXT Championship, her thoughts on Tiffany Stratton, how becoming a mother has changed her, what Seth Rollins is like as a dad, the defining moment when she became ‘The Man’, working with The Rock when he returned to WWE in 2019, her recent steel cage match with Trish Stratus, how Mick Foley inspired her to become a wrestler, her “shameful” WWE debut, her advice for younger talent, the ‘Big Time Becks’ wardrobe and much more!

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Quote I’m thinking about:
In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety. — Abraham Maslow

How has becoming a mom changed you?

“Gosh, it makes me worried about everything, but also grateful for everything. You know, like there is just this extra bit of gratitude around everything. I think when you see how much they progress over [time]. We went to a live event yesterday, I came home this morning, and she was different. She had learned more. She was telling me that a dinosaur was a dimetrodon, I didn’t know what a frickin dimetrodon was. And so you realise, like the time that passes, and how you have to be grateful for every moment to be very present and enjoy all of it. And then that also applies to this, to what we’re doing here. You know, because of our schedule, because of how crazy it is, we’re on the road 52 weeks a year, there’s no breaks, nobody’s going on vacations. Unless you roam and raise chicken. Then you just get into the grind, what’s next and you never really appreciate what’s in front of you and what you have. But when you have a little baby and she’s just magic and every day, she’s coming out with these magical phrases, and she’s doing different things and she learning and then it’s just, you just realise just how quickly life moves and you just have to take stock of everything that you have. And you have to be very, very grateful for it.”

Isn’t it so funny that I’m a little bit behind you. So my daughter is about to be four months old. Isn’t it funny that at what right before the baby’s born, everyone’s like, enjoy this, like enjoy it, because they’re never gonna be this young again. And you’re like, yeah, it’s great advice. And it is but there’s not much you can do to like, you know, actually enjoy it. Because the moment just, you know, passes all the time.

“Yeah, I think that’s one of those things where people say that to you, right? Like they say, enjoy it. And you’re like, okay, is this it? Am I enjoying it right? I remember, and this is totally different, but when I main evented WrestleMania. And everybody was like, enjoy it, enjoy it, soak it all in. And I remember standing there with titles going, am I enjoying it? Am I soaking it in enough? You know? Like, because what does that mean? I think it just means letting all the chatter dissipate and just appreciating what it is. And I think when you’re sleep deprived the four months and the house is chaos, and you know, you haven’t had a hot meal in a long time you go okay, what the hell. But I think it’s just, like, knowing that all of those things are gonna fall away and you just get to stare at this cute little baby doing cute little weird things with their hands. The cute little weird things they do with their hands, you know?”

Was there a moment before Wrestlemania 35 where it hit you like, oh my gosh, we’re gonna go out there and we’re gonna make history? And at the end of this, I’m gonna be the one standing there with my arm raised.

“Yeah, I think several times. I think the week before, I was like, oh no, oh, gosh, oh, I like the gravity of what we were about to do like, what it meant, what it meant for the business what it meant, you know, just culturally and the fact that this predominantly male-dominated industry was now for the first time being main evented by three women and that I was going to be the one standing at the end holding two titles. Like am I ready for this? What preparation needs to be done? Did I do it or not? You know, all of these things go through your head. But then I remember when the day came just rocking up to the building like walking past Undertaker going yeah, this is my WrestleMania. So I do think I really tried to enjoy it as much as I could on the day. Though when it came to like midnight, and we were about to go out, the nerves then hit.”

And now you’re the NXT Women’s Champion. I’m curious about what it means to have that narrative there. What does it mean to have that championship now versus the other times that you’ve had it?

“Well, I never had this. Do you mean just championships in general?”

Yeah. Like, what does this one mean? 

“So look, it is the one that got away, it is the one that I was never pegged for when I was coming up to NXT. And I was very close to being fired constantly, constantly. And not like one of those things where I was unjustly on the brink of being fired like I probably deserved to. I sucked, it wasn’t very good. But because I was so in my head, I just had left wrestling for several years. I don’t know if anybody knows my story. But, when I was a teenager, young, started at 15. I left home to move over to Canada when I was 18. I was like making waves all over the independent circuit. And then I stopped wrestling at 19. And I got very lost and it got very lost for many years. I always felt like I had this thing, but it couldn’t go back to when I didn’t know how to get back to it and it was scary. I didn’t know what women’s wrestling looked like because it didn’t look like it does now and there was nobody just showing me that it could look like it does now. And so anyway, when I got to NXT I was like, Oh no, this is it. I’ve got it. But it was like holding a flower, you know like I was like suffocating it because I wanted it so badly. So nobody, nobody, ever thought I was going to win the NXT Women’s Championship. Nobody probably thought I was going to ever win any championships they thought I was probably just going to be there and be a fine little hand. Enthusiastic little hand that I was. And so going back, you know, all these years later, in a way feels like vindication. But the other thing is that it’s more than that it’s more than the past. And the righting of the wrongs that I felt done to me in the past, which weren’t even wrongs done to me, it was just, it was other people’s time. And I’m so very grateful that I was never pegged for this, I’m so very grateful that I was never one of the people that they strapped the rocket to and said this is going to be our girl. I’m very grateful that I have to strive and work and grind and push myself and bring myself out of the dirt because one, I feel like it’s given me a connection with the audience, two, it’s always left a chip on my shoulder. And three, it brings it all back to what is the love? What is the love of this? Is the love of this just the gratification that I get? Or is the love the business? And how I can make the business better? And what do I do every day in the ring? And so with that, bringing it all the way back, winning this, it’s bringing the future with me, you know, it’s going down there, it’s seeing who they have. Who wants this? Who is hungry and who wants to main event WrestleMania because I can’t make history on my own. So let’s frickin do this. Let’s make it the coolest thing. But you’re gonna have to bring an edge out of you to do it, because I ain’t giving this up easy. You know, I ain’t given this up easy, I want to push people. I want to push them to their limits. I want to see what they’re made of and see who’s hungry enough because the person that’s going to take this from me has to be hungry.”

Tiffany Stratton seems pretty hungry. And I guess we’ll find out you know, it’s you guys against each other at No Mercy. I guess we’ll see what happens. 

“We’ll see what happens. But now look, Tiffany is one of those people that has got a rocket strapped to her, right? She’s one of those people who comes in and looks a million bucks and can do everything under the sun. She can flip she can lift, she’s strong. She’s got a character, we hate her, she’s got everything. She’s got everything. How much do you love it? What do you have in here? Because that’s what matters. And it’s a thing that the audience picks up on. It doesn’t matter how good you are, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got all the tools in the box, if you’ve got all the right, they pick up on something. And that’s an energy that is a love for this. That is being a student of the game. And so I think Tiffany has everything that it takes to be to be a Superstar. But it comes down to what’s in your heart, you know, and so that’s what I wanted. That’s what I want to do. I want to push her. I want to see how extreme she’s willing to go. Like, how much can she take and keep coming back? That’s what an Extreme Rules match is, you know?”

Very few superstars get that defining moment. And you had that defining moment when you know, became The Man and I think that some other ones that immediately popped into my head are like, the Austin 3:16 promo or Hulk Hogan slamming Andre at WrestleMania 3. At what point did you realise you know, you’re standing in there that the nose is broken, you’re posing? At what point do you realise? Oh, my gosh, this is the moment. 

“Oh no I didn’t have a clue what was going on really. I was so concussed out of my mind. I had no idea where I was. I walked back through those doors. I said, Where are we? How did we get here? I didn’t have a clue. Like I had enough wherewithal to be like cameras still on me enjoy this moment. The crowd is going wild. This is cool. Like I knew I had blood coming down my face just didn’t really care. I didn’t think of it as, Oh, this is a cool moment. I was just like, oh yeah, we’re doing the thing the crowd is going wild, this is awesome. You know, this is awesome. And I think it wasn’t till the following days, that people really started to celebrate. But really, it’s crazy. When people think about us, like that was the defining moment. Because I really kind of think that it was the slap that was the defining moment for me, that was what brought my character into this metamorphosis. And really, it was the blood on the face. That was like the crescendo. But up until that point, I was just having a blast, I was having the time of my life, because it was booked like the bad guy. But I was a good guy. So I could do no wrong. And that is the most beautiful place to be in this business, you know, where you can just do no wrong. So you’re just having a blast. And after that then I was a babyface and then ended up hobbling my way to WrestleMania. And kind of as great as that ultimate moment was there were more struggles on the back end of that nose being broken than there were before it if that makes sense.”

The Man, though, is a great nickname. Like you took it and you ran with it. And you made a great shirt that everybody bought. I don’t know if you realised you had lightning in a bottle when you created The Man.

“I think I did. Yeah, yeah, you could feel it like you could sense that upswell around it like okay, this is cool. This is a movement almost you know, people are getting behind this and so it’s very cool. Very cool.”

You know what people got behind? This steel cage match with you and Trish Stratus. This was something really special at Payback.

“Yeah, we crushed it we stole the damn show, started it off, it was all downhill from there. No, it wasn’t, it was actually a great, great show. But we started off hot, I think like a few chips on our shoulder story had been going on for a long time, maybe not getting the steam that necessarily we wanted, and being left off SummerSlam obviously, I understand why these decisions are made, but really wanted to go out there and prove it and getting that time, getting that steel cage match was the perfect way to finish it. You know, match of our life.”

I mean, seriously it might be?

“Yeah, so I mean, look, when you have a legend like Trish Stratus come on back. Like you want to remind the people of why this person was so great. And I think there’s no doubt after that match of the greatness.”

It’s so interesting when you go back and you watch your WWE debut to like the contrast between who that person was and who this person is that is sitting across from me. 

“Are we talking about the Irish jig? We talking about the Irish Jig.” 

Yeah and that very green attire that you had.

“Yeah, there we are. Look, if that is not proof that you can dig yourself out of any hole, then I don’t know what is. Because that is, I would put that over Shockmaster in terms of shameful debuts. Yeah Like he just fell over, you know, like he fell over. Okay, fine, that sucks. I went out. I was committed to that, you know like that was my, I think the difference is he didn’t intend to fall over. I intended to go out there and do an Irish jig like that. And thought that I was worthy of being on WWE television. That happened.”

But here’s the thing. How do you get out of that? Because there are a lot of superstars that debut as one character, and then they’re stuck is that and they can’t make it work?

“I think there’s always a catalyst for change, right? You just got to figure out, you just got to figure out what it is. Winning a match can be a catalyst for change, losing a match can be a catalyst for change. You just sometimes need the right story, the right antagonist or protagonists, depending on what way you’re going to go. But I think that’s the fun thing about wrestling, man, we can do anything. You can go from being a stupid, silly Irish dancing clown, to being The Man of the business and main eventing WrestleMania, holding two titles over your head, you know, and that’s the thing. I suppose in a way, that’s the thing about life, right? You don’t have to be stuck as the person that you were or with the thing that you did, you can move on. And you can learn from your mistakes and hope you never go back there. And I hope I never go back in my green attire and doing the Irish dances. I don’t even listen to Irish music anymore. That’s a lie, I love it. I rock it with the gym, it’s very good.”

That championship that you have there. I feel like that was kind of the last thing that you had on like the bucket list to cross off. Now you’ve won it, what could you possibly have that you need to accomplish now in your career?

“Gosh, that’s kind of one of those questions that I do get asked fairly regularly. And it’s a nice point where you can say, Yeah, I want to main event Wrestlemania again, I want to do this again, I want to do that. Again, I want to do this, I would like to win the Elimination Chamber, you know, like, I want to win Money in the Bank. And but really comes down to cementing the legacy. And how do I make every match that I have great? How do I elevate the women in NXT? How do I push the business forward? How do I leave it better than I found it and I already feel like, I’ve left it better than I found it. But I want to continue that, I want to keep pushing that. I want to make myself proud, my daughter proud, my family proud and the audience proud. I want them to enjoy watching me I want them to go what’s next and be invested in the matches that I’m having the people that I’m wrestling. So I suppose that it, it comes down to consistency and the love of the business. I just love this. I just love this, I love going out there love going out there in front of the crowd. And given them given them all that I have put my body on the line put my mind on the line, taking risks. I think it’s more right now it’s more of just the love of the game, then what else do you have to accomplish? I’ve been lucky enough to accomplish many things. And there’s probably many more things that I will accomplish. But I just love this. How do I make this better?”

Yeah, I love that. And you mentioned your daughter and when you’re her mom, when Seth Rollins is her dad. I mean, what kind of superstar do we have on the way here in like 18 to 20 years?

“Oh man she has so much more charisma than both of us combined. She is electric she is magical and magnetic. She is amazing, I’m so proud of her, she’s just such a great little girl. She’s so funny. And she’s so smart and she’s so sweet and she’s so decisive. And yeah, she’s brilliant. And if she wants to do this, then well, we’ll train her up well, and we’ll make sure that she’s the best in the world at this. But I don’t know, currently, she doesn’t really like watching. Yeah, it’s too loud.”

What is she watching instead? Like Blippi or something?

“Yeah. Blippi, Ms Rachel. Anything dinosaurs.”

We watch a lot of Miss Rachel in this house

“I love Ms Rachel. I invited her to to Madison Square Garden Show one time. She didn’t come. Ms Rachel if you watching that invite is open anytime you want. You don’t even have to come in full costume. No, she’s great. I love her. She taught Roux so much.”

I don’t think people can picture Seth Rollins being a father though.

“So he’s the best. He is so good. He’s so patient. And so kind, like, he never loses his temper, she respects him, she respects him a bit more than she respects me. You know, like, I try to lay down the law but I’m a softy, you know, but like he’s so good. He is so good. They’re the best. They’re the best of buds.”

So we saw The Rock come back on SmackDown not long ago. And when you think about it, the last time The Rock was in a WWE ring. It was four years ago, it was with you and Baron Corbin. Take us backstage before you guys went out for that segment. Walk us through how everything went with The Rock.

“I mean, look, when you’re working with Dwayne, it’s, well, one, it’s so easy because anything you do gets a reaction and he’s so good. And he’s so in tune with with the energy of everyone, the entire universe, I think you can see that by how he’s just, you know, taken over the world. But he also makes everybody feel so comfortable. And he wants everything to be the best. And he takes care of everybody that’s around him. But also then you are just so wracked with nerves because you’re going toe to toe with The Great One. He’s The Great One who’s got, you know, more charisma in is Pinky than, I mean, him and Roux could compete maybe, yeah. But it is like a bit of a nerve-wracking experience because you want to hold your own and you have to hold your own. Because he’s giving you the torch, he is saying, Here you go. Let me give you the rub, kid. And no, he really looked after all of us, getting to work with him and being out there and feeling the energy of the crowd. And then you go, that’s what I want. I want people to react to me that way. And that’s a very cool thing. Because you get to experience it and you go, Okay, I knew I was hot. This is a different level of hot. How do I get this level of hot?”

Yeah, there’s an interesting thing when The Rock comes out there’s a pop for his music. And then there’s a bigger pop when he actually walks out and people like Oh, my God, he is here.

“Yeah, and to be able to experience that while you’re in the ring, about to work with him. Wild energy and I’m very privileged I got to do it.”

You’ve gotten to this interesting point of your career where you’re now working with people who I’m sure are saying, You’re the reason I’m doing this or I grew up watching you. What’s the advice that you have when you work with some younger talent?

“I suppose there’s many different advices, it depends on what the question is. But I think it’s kind of bring it down to fundamentals and always think about the long game, and the purpose, and the crowd, and what it is that we do, what are we selling? Where are we selling them stories, we’re selling conflict. How do we make them care? How do I make them care about me beyond the superficial things? How do I get them to care about the person that I am? And then of course, there is the thing of TV time and okay, I’m not getting as much TV time as don’t want that. Or I’m not winning as many matches as I want that. How can I make this work for me? Well, the thing is, you can always make it work for you, no matter what it is, whether you’re getting time or you’re not getting time, and it’s harder when you’re not getting time, but there are things that you can do. And I was always told by William Regal, that when you’re not on the show, you go and you find the digital team, and you tell a story or you do something, and that was what I did in my early career that really endeared me to the audience. I think that was always my secret ingredient. Whether I was doing silly Instagram posts or I was finding a backstage interviewers so that I could cut a promo that I wasn’t getting time to put on TV. So then there is some contingent of the audience that watches this that knows who I am. When they started hearing my message. And then they will get behind you. And I think that is kind of one of those secret ingredients that you could sit around and be annoyed, or you could take matters into your own hands and tell a story. I think my dad used to always just tell me that when I was bored, you know, just tell yourself a story. And I think William Regal was kind of telling me the same thing. It’s always been the same thing, tell yourself a story. But now it’s not yourself, it’s tell the audience that story.” 

Who was it for you who got you into pro wrestling? 

“Mick Foley told me a story, man, his promos. Yeah, so like I remember being a fan when I was a kid you know, Hulkamania, Warrior all that kind of jazz, dressing up in my mom’s clothes and wrestling with my brother on her bed. But I fell out of watching it I think mostly because my brother fell out of watching and then he started watching again in the Attitude Era. And I’d come along when he was watching it. And I was one of those. I was the worst. I was like, oh, no, you know, that’s so fake, that for babies. And [he said] no, no, just it’s gotten really good. Yeah, sure, whatever. But then Mick would come on and would be like the way he talked you know, and the stories he would tell and this underdog that he was in this unlikely superstar that he was. I was a bit of a misfit as a kid non a bit of a misfit, very much a misfit. And I could see myself in him like there was just that relationship that rapport of like, No, you’re not the picture-perfect superstar. And so he became my hero. You know, I really wanted him to win and then he had that match with Triple H where he was going to retire if he lost and I remember staying up late watching it on him lose and me just being in floods of tears. And of course, he came back like four weeks later, whatever. But, that was really what hooked me and then I was there to stay you know? And then I saw Lita and she was so cool when I wanted to be like her and then everybody else. I mean it was just such a hot time in the business. But I just fell in love with it.”

Do you have a favorite Mick Foley match?

“Probably, I mean, maybe it’s Triple H and Mick Foley and the Hell in a Cell just for that nostalgic reason, you know?”

Yeah, it was so good. I think everyone points to the Undertaker and Mick Foley. I mean that that was his defining moment for sure.

“His defining moment but I think for me as a fan to get to the point where I was crying over and over over this man losing was a defining moment in my fandom.”

The match he had with Randy Orton where we kind of went, Oh, Randy Orton will do this stuff.

“Oh, Randy, what a legend. What a legend that man is.”

You’re working with a lot of legends right now.

“I Am. We’re in a great time in the business. Very great time at the business. Everybody’s hitting, everybody’s taking off. The fans are excited, the buildings are sold out. There’s an energy around the places. It’s a very, very cool thing to be a part of.” 

I feel like the way that our generation talks about the Attitude Era. I feel like there’s gonna be another generation that talks about exactly what is happening right now. 

“Damn right they will and they will talk about the greatest NXT Women’s Champion.”

What’s it like going through TSA with that? 

“Yeah, they stop you all the time. Take it out of your bag, and I’m always late for flights.”

Big Time Becks might be one of the best catchphrases or nicknames.  

“I had so much fun with that run. I want to bring it back.”

Your wardrobe, and I mean this with great love and great respect. your wardrobe is atrociously over the top.

“I love it, man. I love it. I will say it’s kind of my real-life wardrobe. You know what I mean? Like there is I love a bit of Peacocking, you know, walking down the streets of Los Angeles.”

I don’t know who has a better wardrobe. Is it you? Or is it Seth?

“It’s Seth, I can’t argue with that. Like I have a, you know, like, I want to recycle all of his clothes. I just want to have them all tailored to fit me. Yeah, then they get to be worn again. We all get to relive these amazing looks that he’s been churning out. He came in dressed like a fire hydrant just a second ago to deliver me some delicious coffee.” 

When you look back at everything you’ve done, the matches, and the championships and everything. What in your career are you most proud of?

“I don’t know that there’s any one thing that I’m most proud of, I think I’m most proud of many things. I think what I’m most proud of right now is being able to balance everything. Being able to balance being a very present mother and wife, and being on every single show that we have. I was on a SmackDown dark match on Friday, I was on the live events, you know, I’m on NXT, I’m on Raw. I think I’ll just be most proud of elevating where the women were to where they are now. And just that I’ve never once phoned it in. Like, I think you can accuse me of several things, nobody will ever be able to accuse me of phoning it in of not trying my hardest, not doing my best. Oftentimes I won’t hit the mark, I won’t get to where I want to be. But I’m always trying to do my best. I’m always trying to bring the best out of everybody that is in the ring with me. I’m trying to do the best for the audience. And as long as I continue to do that, which there ain’t no sign of that stopping. And I think I’m going to leave behind a career that I am extremely proud of.”

So the last question I want to ask you, I end every interview with this. You’ve mentioned it a few times, gratitude is such an important thing. What are three things in your life that you’re grateful for as we sit here right now?

“Oh my gosh, I mean, my daughter, my husband, my job, they’re the first three that come to mind. But there are just so many things that I’m grateful for, and I’m very lucky to be so grateful for.”

Featured image: WWE

Rob Van Dam (@therealrvd) is a professional wrestler and a WWE Hall of Famer known for his time in ECW, WWE, Impact Wrestling and AEW. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios in Las Vegas to talk about his new podcast called “1 Of A Kind” on the Premier Streaming Network, his recent appearances on AEW, using his ECW theme music “Walk” by Pantera, the story of losing his WWE Hall of Fame ring and getting it back, his viral segment with Matt Riddle, the chemistry he had in the ring with Jeff Hardy, his thoughts on Brock Lesnar, people thinking he is related to Jean-Claude Van Damme, Shane McMahon using the Van Terminator and calling it Coast-To-Coast, why he wishes he didn’t impersonate Shawn Michaels, his favorite ECW memories and much more!

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Quote I’m thinking about:
The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty. – Winston Churchill

On losing his Hall of Fame ring:

“So the very first week that I got it, I did a show in Wisconsin, and I wasn’t used to having it. I left it in the hotel room, went back to Las Vegas. And so it took an honest maid, and an honest front desk person and an honest wrestling promoter. Thank you, Ben McCoy for calling me and saying, Did you forget something dude? I didn’t even know yet. I just got home the next day and wow, I had it for I don’t know. I think it was it was the same week, so I didn’t have a very long, I lost it already.”

On a second AEW appearance:

“I was at a convention in Hamburg, Pennsylvania. Legends Fest and I got the message, you know? Hey, can you do the 23rd in Grand Rapids? Interestingly enough, last year, at this exact same time, they messaged me with that, September 5th, actually. And that’s when I got, you know, the okay to do it. It was like a year ago, and then I did it. But some time had passed then. But that day was, you know, near Battle Creek. Yeah, from Battle Creek hometown boys was so obviously, same idea. Again, that’ll be cool. It’s one, it’s one week before, I’m going to be doing my show in Battle Creek, which those guys have been working on that for like a year, you know, promoting it. And it’s a big full circle return home and then just the week before they put me in Grand Rapids, which is just right down the street.”

Why didn’t RVD debut for AEW in 2022?

“Communication dropped. So that’s it. Sometimes that would happen. Sometimes. Both of the companies over the years, every once in a while, would call, just to check out my schedule. I don’t hold it [the date]. I hold it in mind sceptically as a possibility. And that’s all because I know how it works. But that’s how it works, never hear from them again. And then it’s like, well, all right, whatever, I can hypothesise. You know, I wonder what did I do? But you know, I’m very stoic and in part of stoicism is really being able to accept things as they are and just let it roll right off my shoulder.”

On the first AEW appearance:

“Well, they reached out to me so long ago, like towards the beginning of the year, it was kind of hypothetical checking my interest and availability, and the dates that they mentioned, even though it was way back then and ended up being the exact same dates, August 2 and August 9. And I couldn’t believe that how could you be that far planned ahead? It was like, January maybe, or, you know, maybe February. It was a long, long time ago that they first brought it up. So that was one of those things where every once in a while, I’d be talking to a fan at a con. And they’d say, you know, are we’re gonna see you show up on WWE. It’s real, you know, and I’d be like, maybe you might see me pop up on the other show, too. I don’t know. But I didn’t really expect much of it until it was like, boom, alright cool, we’re going through with it. So I would have thought, based on that, if I was going to return again and they hadn’t planned it yet that it would be a year from now, you know what I mean? But apparently, that’s not always the case, as Matt Hardy and Jeff told me when I had this conversation saying that exact same thing. And he said, No, it’s not always like that, you know, sometimes, you know, boom, something changes, you know, the day before.”

On planting the seed for Walk by Pantera:

“I did, but it was already planted. So I wasn’t the first one. I reached out to them and it was very shortly before my trip happened. You know, I don’t remember, it was just right before and I was just like, man, you know, that’d be so awesome if we could get Walk, it would really add a lot. And the producer I was talking to said, yeah, Tony tried and he couldn’t get it and I was like, oh, okay, that was the day of the show. [Then] They told me, boom, we got Walk. And it was a few hours before I’m at the arena. And I was like, wow are you serious dude? That changes everything about because otherwise they’re gonna have to look at the monitor and you know, be like, okay, yeah, that’s RVD. What song would they use? [They would make a song for you?] They would make it and then that wouldn’t get over nearly as much so, so super cool. And does that mean that they’re gonna have it this week? I don’t know. I hope so.”

Do you know how much it costs to get the rights to Walk?

“No. But Tony did tell me when I left after my match with, Jack Perry that I got the rights to use your song just for these two shows. Hopefully, if we can work together in the future, hopefully I can get it again. So I was like, awesome dude.”

On thinking about if it is time to wind down:

“Not really. I mean, you know, sometimes the thought goes through my head. If I’m having a bad travel day, for instance, I’m done, I hate this, I just want to be home, travelling sucks. I’ll have those moments inside my head. But they usually don’t last that long. And I used to think I was gonna retire, that was like several years ago, and I thought I was probably close to hanging the boots up. And now I just don’t even think I will. I think I’ll be like Dory Funk Jr. And just [keep going], and I may quit taking bookings. But I don’t think I’m gonna make a big deal out of being retired because the credibility of wrestlers retiring is so broad anyway. You know, so I don’t [know]. Sabu used to say, it’d be cool if we did a retirement tour. And we went around the world and wrestled for all the companies that we’ve wrestled for. But the timing of that didn’t work out too well, because he finished up before me.”

On still being able to do the RVD chair stretch:

“Yeah, I just filmed that recently. When I say haters or doubters will be held accountable. You saw that video, right? And so that was just a few weeks ago, that was before my match with Jack Perry. But I still stretch and still keep in condition. You know, my pre-match stretch is something that I don’t do as often because I don’t wrestle as often. And that really is the best stretch where I’m stretching for a full hour going through every muscle in three or four different positions, you know, complete body check and test. And it’s a real self-learning experience. You know for years, I’ve thought on and off about trying to have a platform where I could share my stretch, and I filmed it lots of times and even at one time. I was at DDP studios and he was going to distribute it which is a shoo in right? So yeah, winner. But I can’t really translate what’s going on in my head when I’m stretching in a way that I’m comfortable with. I tried walking Stevie Richards through it at DDP studio one time, and we got like, halfway through and he said that he understood what I was saying, but it’s just such an inner experience for me that I’ve come to believe that maybe it’s just for me, and it’s not something to share. There’s so much. It’s not just positional, but it’s like it’s balance, it’s where you hold your weight, it’s pressure, it’s breathing. And then it could be like twisting your hips this way, it could be like bending back and looking up. And there’s just first you have to teach your muscles to trust you to relax so that they don’t contract against your stretches because that’s counterproductive. And that takes a long time of being inside yourself because your muscles don’t want to be injured. So they’re protecting themselves. So when people are grunting and groaning, and they’re fighting their own stretch, that’s the opposite of what you need to do. You need to have that muscle go to sleep, and then trust you to elongate just past, you know, the comfort zone there. And it’s like, there’s so much going on. I don’t know how to do it.”

On having great chemistry with Jeff Hardy:

“Well, we are like-minded in what we think is cool about a match. And that has a lot to do with it. You know, when you think about what inspires you as a fan, because certain fans, there were four of us as kids that decided we were all going to be wrestlers, me and my best friend Dango. And then we had Robert and Eddie, and we would always have these tag matches, and we learned way back then. But when you’re a kid, you’re so judgmental. You know, we would tell Robert, he was so stupid for the things that he liked, and the wrestlers that he liked. What do you like him for? He’s fat, he doesn’t do any moves, you know? And he’s got the best chops. Oh my god, that’s so stupid, chops? So it’s really cool, Robert, because kids are stupid. But we, you know, we’d be like, Okay, we want to get these big moves that we’re going to put in the mats. And he’d say, like, he wants to, like when he gets hit spit, like One Man Gang used to get hit. And he spits way in the crowd, and we would just make fun of him because we didn’t understand everyone’s got their own values, they’re drawn towards different things, you know. So that’s something that me and Jeff I think had in common, is what we think is cool. Because whenever we talk about an idea like, what if? You know what if I’m doing the split, and I roll back to give you the reverse monkey flip, can you like, grab my feet? And like, you know, boom, do that. I don’t know why, but I call it the trash compactor. I don’t know what the name is. He puts his legs down and crunches me. Oh sweet, that’d be awesome! Like that. That has a lot to do with the outcome of the match and the kind of energy going into it. As opposed to Yeah, yeah, we could do that.”

On the Five Star Frog Splash being painful:

Of course [it hurts]. And there are a lot of moments that people don’t know about where you’re already hurt before the match. As a matter of fact, probably, maybe most moments, sometimes at least half the moments, like when you get to the building, I was like, Hey, how you feeling today? Anything bothered me, it was like you know, my shoulder bothers me a little bit you know. And if you’re Tommy Dreamer then you say, Tommy would say like, you know, my back hurts. I’m good, except I can’t take a backdrop or Body Slam or a suplex or a forearm… But, man, have you ever had bruised ribs? It’s so painful to have bruised ribs, and it can last for a really long time. So that very famous match that I had with Eddie Guerrero, the ladder match, he goes over the ladder does a senton and landed on me, that moved my rib, where my rib connects to my spine. And that bothered me for four years. In fact, that was the source of the back problem that I was telling you just recently went away. And that was that. He died in 2005, and that was just like two years ago, that’s not bothering me. What I was gonna say though, was while that was it would come on and off it will come on maybe for like four months where it just hurts so bad. There was nothing I could do. I go to chiropractors, I go to all these physicians that have like a pile drive around my back trying to loosen it up and I just had like this knot where my last rib connects into my spine like I say, bulging discs compressed, blah, blah, blah. But it was that one bump that started it and afterwards. Every time I go out to the ring, I’m already sore, but I have to give 100% RVD to the fans. They’ve been waiting two months to see me. They don’t know that my ribs are hurting. So when I go out there, you know, I got to present that image that they want. And sometimes I remember Randy Orton just covering me and it hurts so bad. I was like, I was just waiting for the two count to kick out because his weight was on and I was like, oh my god, kicked them off. I was like, Oh, holy crap, I’m in a lot of pain. And in those times, you know that lasted through my TNA run too. I remember when I was with TNA in 2010, 2011 and 2012. My back was messed up through all of that there were times when I couldn’t even reach my boots earlier in the day and I’m like, how am I going to be doing the Rolling Thunder tonight? Holy crap. But with enough stretching and drugs and warming up and whatever I could do you know, I sucked it up and went through.”

On Brock Lesnar:

“Yeah, I’m a fan. I always have been. Definitely, you know, like, what’s not to love? He’s good for the business and the fact that he can back it up and has backed it up. When he was UFC World Champion that was, like, there’s nothing else that would legitimise. If you want to go that far. What we do doesn’t get enough respect. Because every fan thinks they can do it. And that seems to be more and more what they’re after. You know, like with that all-inclusive, whatever it is, it seems like they’re reaching out to get normal people like to get a skateboarder and a basketball player, it seems like athletes that are normal kids or whatever, so that people do relate more, and then people do think it’s easier, and then everybody can do it. At least that’s one observation I’ve had looking at where it seems to be going, you know, when I grew up, someone had to tell me that they could get me in, you know if I started lifting weights and stuff, they’d get me in. Otherwise, I don’t think I ever would have had the idea. These guys were just larger than life. Don’t you have to be born a pro wrestler? You know, you think I could do that.”

On being one of the few ECW to WWE success stories:

“I think just the package that I had. I think, prior to coming to WWE, when I was wrestling in ECW, from 1996 to 2001, I had a lot of eyes on me. And as I got better, I was already a viable product that would already be you know, a commodity in one of the other companies. So it wasn’t like I had to start adjusting as soon as I got in the door. I did, but not completely from zero. I was already while I was in ECW in 98, 99, 2000 2001 In those years, when we were really crushing it, and I was really, really crushing it with the TV championship and you know, having a really good showcasing matches. I was already at that point, somebody who could have fit into a good position in WCW or WWE if they knew what to do with me. I feel like.”

What is RVD grateful for?

“My health, my wife and all the love.”

Maven Huffman (@mavenhuffman) is a professional wrestler known for his time in WWE and for winning Season 1 of Tough Enough. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet for an in-person interview in New York City to talk about the success of his new YouTube channel and getting 100k subscribers in less than 2 months, why he hates his theme song, wrestling Tazz in his debut match, taking shots of Jack Daniels before eliminating The Undertaker at the Royal Rumble in 2002, the vicious chair shot from The Undertaker, his picture-perfect dropkick, why he felt he needed to take steroids in WWE, what his current job is on Wall Street and much more!

Sponsors:

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BLUECHEW: Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com

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MIRACLE MADE: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to http://TryMiracle.com/CVV and use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3-PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF

Quote I’m thinking about:

I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened. – Mark Twain

On the success of his YouTube channel:

“No one’s more shocked than I am. Literally, you met the guy who runs it with me [Zack]. When he came to me with the idea, I tried to talk him out of it. I was like, listen, I was like, There’s bigger names out there. And he explained to me and he was right about one thing. He said wrestlers use YouTube wrong and it’s an underutilised platform. And basically, here’s the simple, simple process that we do. Most wrestlers make wrestling videos and put them to YouTube and then wonder why they don’t do well. Obviously, if you’re Steve Austin, your podcast is going to do great numbers. But for the most part, there are so many podcasts and stuff out there. He told me, we’re gonna make YouTube videos that deal with wrestling. And at that moment, that was our first Zoom, the light went off.”

On telling evergreen stories on his YouTube channel:

“That’s what that’s what the goal is. I told him I didn’t want to bury anybody. There are so many if you want to see some site or a video where somebody just buries other pages, there’s plenty of that stuff out there. That wasn’t my goal. And I wanted to put out content that dealt with my time, my experiences, my life. I can’t speak to other people’s experiences. I can only say how it affected me. And that’s what we’re trying to do. And I try to put that disclaimer in almost every video that listen, this is how it was for me, it might have been different for somebody else. And they’re probably doing it differently now. But this is what it was for me.”

On breaking 100,000 YouTube subscribers:

“Yeah, I don’t know, I get literally nervous about checking it during the day. Because here’s the great and here’s the beauty about this. And I tried to say it in interviews and everything. It’s not like there’s a bag of money that I’m trying to get all of it. My success can only help your success, which can only help Stevie Richards’ success, which can only help Matt Cardona’s success and vice versa. If your video does, well, who knows the recommended video under it might be mine. So let’s get as many people doing using this platform using this, you know, model if you will.”

On eliminating The Undertaker from the Royal Rumble:

“I think it was just one of the things that at the time, everyone was just I don’t want to say in awe of, but just happy that the dropkick spot went as well as it did. Because think of it this way. What if I flopped the drop kick? What if I miss him? What if I don’t hit him hard enough to knock him over? Then what? It’s just me and him. It’s not like we’re gonna start a wrestling match. I mean, where’s that gonna go? And he still has to be eliminated for the next person to come in. So there was a lot riding on that spot. And I didn’t practice the drop kick at all throughout the day. And I was getting color that night. I’m allergic to aspirin. So I had taken a couple of shots at Jack backstage with tape. So I was a little buzzed by the time we did it.”

On The Undertaker coming up with the idea to drink:

“Yeah, he told me he was like, kid, I’m gonna be giving you getting you some colour. And he’s like, why don’t you take some aspirin in your blood out so it comes out? And I told him I’m like, I’m allergic. And he’s like, I got you. And he had some like aeroplane bottles of Jack. And I’m like luckily for me I bought Jack Daniels. It is like how most people drink beer for taste. Yeah, that’s me with Jack.”

On the chair shot: 

“It wasn’t a butterfly kiss, I can tell you that. Listen, at that point, I was just elated. My night was over at that point, hitting the drop kick. At that point, everything else was just gravy. And the chair shot I knew I was just gonna have to just, you see it in slow motion you see me like clench up to take it. But I was so concerned that the entire day, I was concerned with just my life revolved around hitting that one drop kick. And you know what? The following pay-per-view. I was on the next pay-per-view, WrestleMania. I was wrestling Goldust he was holding the gold trash can and I missed it. So if I would have missed that drop kick [on Undertaker], I don’t think I have a career. But the chair shot. It stung more than it hurt. But honestly, I was on top of the world just knowing because after I did the type of chair shot Yeah, I think Taker goes and he throws the camera guy down and they stayed on that shot. Normally they’ll change shot, but they stayed on that on purpose. He had to get the gig out to give me color. And he came over. And he told me great job, kid. And at that point, I just knew my night was all I had to do was sell and then get thrown into a popcorn machine.”

On The Undertaker:

“There is nothing bad to say. Let me tell you my opinion. Here’s why. Because he’ll do business look what he did with me. The only way you can create stars, the only way you can actually put yourself over is by putting other people over. He knows that he is willing to do that Rock is the same way. Rock will do business. And I think that’s why that’s why Taker is just so beloved in that locker room.”

On the origin of the Maven name:

“Do you know what Maven means? It was when I was a school teacher. It was lesson number one every year that I would send my kids home with, I’d be like, my name is Maven. Tell me what it means tomorrow. And then they would all come in Mr. Huffman, it means an expert. I don’t know about that. But it sucked growing up with it. And here’s why. No one ever could get it right. Marvin, Melvin, Mavis. I was literally playing sports one time and the announcer called me, Megan Hoffman. And I was like, usually when I get it wrong, it’s a guy’s name. Yeah. So but it did work for for wrestling.”

Would Maven change anything from his WWE run?

“It would probably be, wow, that’s a great question. Yeah, I do. It would probably be when they moved me when they did the draft and they split. And they moved me from SmackDown to Raw, that was when I felt like my training wheels were off. And like I just said, I wish I would have just stopped playing wrestler and let more of my personality come out. Because I really didn’t. I was just always terrified. I was scared, not to mess up everybody messes up. But I was just terrified, terrified to turn the volume up too much. If I could go back and when I debuted on Raw after my broken leg. I should have come out literally and had them pulling me back. I was cutting promos with the words they gave me and I wish I would have done what Rocky does what you know, other great talkers do taking bullet points. Just put them in my words.”

What is Maven’s day job?

“Well, often people ask about the suit. Actually, we’re in Midtown right now in the 50s I work downtown I work on Wall Street I walk by all the iconic buildings that you see I walk it’s a 10-minute walk I have from the train every day. I work for a capital firm down there. We provide capital to needy businesses. It’s funny, I’ve been told that you’re just the mascot for them, which is probably a little bit accurate But I help us get I help us get capital so we can then in turn help others who can’t get bank funding.”

On being honest on his YouTube videos:

“If somebody likes me, outstanding, if they hate me, that’s fine. But they’re gonna be able to say, Maven is at least honest, and he’s not hiding anything. And I mean, what am I going to [say]? I mean, if you look at a picture of me in 2002, and then a picture of me 18 months later, it’s a drastic change. And it’s pretty obvious of what that change was. So why not just be open and frank about it? It’s not something I was the least bit upset about. I’m not ashamed of it. Yeah, I was in a career and that’s what it took to be at the next level. [Did you feel like you had to do steroids?] Had to in the form of forced by someone? No. Had to in the form of I wanted to be on TV? Absolutely.”

What is Maven grateful for?

“New opportunity, old friends and hope.”

Sean Waltman (@realxpac) is a professional wrestler and a 2-time WWE Hall Of Famer. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Hollywood, CA to talk about how healthy he looks and feels these days, the potential to return to WWE at the Royal Rumble, the amazing entrance themes he had, how the Red Hot Chili Peppers almost did his theme song, the story behind Uncle Kracker doing his “X-Factor” theme, how he came up with the Bronco Buster, beating Razor Ramon on Raw, does he think he could get inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame on his own?, the promo that he got sued for in WWE, getting kids in trouble with “Suck It”, his memories of invading WCW on a tank with DX, wrestling Shane McMahon, never winning the Intercontinental Championship and much more!

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Quote I’m thinking about:

I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened. – Mark Twain

On the possibility of there being one more match:

“Most definitely. Yeah, I’ve been training and feeling good. I’m not saying like, you know, another run or anything like that. But like if I needed to be in a match, like a six-man or, you know, something like that. I could kill it. I could do all the stuff I used to do.”

On the X Factor theme:

“I was the one, my God. You know, and I’ve already admitted this a bunch of times, but that was my idea. Not necessarily that song. Shane McMahon comes up to me and they’re trying, they’re trying with me. And he goes hey, we’re thinking about having Red Hot Chilli Peppers do your new theme music. I go no, I want Uncle Cracker.”

On being a big dog lover:

“And I didn’t have that [before]. I always liked animals. And I’ve had dogs and stuff. And like, I never had the connection I have now it’s just way different. Honestly, man, like, I think it has something to do with like, you know, like, all the shit that I went through, put myself through whatever, just those years of just really, like really rough stuff, you know, and just, I just think that, in general, overall, I’m more empathetic, you know, people, animals, everything coming out the other side of that.”

On turning his life around:

“Yeah, but I had you know, I had a lot of people that care about me. You know, people get tired of, like, you know, helping but like, there were other people that cared too. I didn’t run out of people that cared. You know, like, a lot of people got tired of trying to help me, and they should have you know, you don’t want to keep wasting your time on somebody if they’re not ready. But eventually, I was at a place man, right when I right before I came out here, you know, Maria Menounos, Keven Undergaro they were those people that cared, and they were willing to just help me you know.”

On the Razor Ramon match being his favorite:

“It’s beyond, there’s no close-second moment that was as important as that moment was in my career and, you know, really in my life to like, I mean, that was so huge, like, that was life-changing. Yeah. You know, not in my career, like my trajectory. My life changed because of that moment. And it was, it was huge. You know, it was it had so much impact. It was just, it was a unique way of, of introducing somebody besides just the Hey, like, Let’s do six weeks of vignettes and like some, you know, squash matches where he comes up and beats a guy.”

On the return to WWE after a run in WCW:

“It was rough. I mean, it was it was real, you know, it was authentic. And, you know, I was able to, I was able to deliver a couple of memorable you know, zingers. But I mean, it wasn’t the smoothest of promos, but it was real. He [Vince McMahon] sees me standing there getting ready to go and he goes, Hey, they’re expecting something big from you. Like, give it to him. Not like, you should say this, you know, like, here’s the script. None of that, he didn’t have the first clue what the f*ck I was going to say.”

On getting sued for the promo:

“It was in there. Yeah, it probably would have been a good idea if they would have asked me what I was gonna say. Right? Because part of it was why they sued. But some of it was like one of the things from my promo that was part of the lawsuit when I got deposed because I got deposed for that, which is a classic, that the deposition was classic. You would have loved it if you were there. The part where I said, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall would be right here with me if they weren’t being held hostage by WCW. And so I’m sitting in the deposition, and WCW or the Turner or whatever lawyer, and I have my lawyer. That was also Jesse Ventura, his lawyer, David Bradley Olson, who’s there with me and in, you know, he goes, so why did you say, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall would be right there with you if they weren’t being held hostage by WCW? I said, Well, I was talking to Kevin the night before. And he told me it would be a good idea if I said that.”

On being arrested for the WCW invasion with a tank:

“We did. We didn’t get like, handcuffed and taken to like to get booked or anything. I mean, we had to go to the station, but they let us stay in our van. Because when we went to their offices, not to CNN tower, but their WCW offices. Vince had already paid off the local police and they were with us, then they called the police. And so then like, I don’t know if it was the sheriff or the police department or how that worked out. But we ended up having to go down and technically get booked.” 

On being a smaller wrestler:

“Yeah, and well I mean, just I’m built you know, so that was a big part of it too. Because there were guys that had gotten the push before that was like, you know, five foot and change or whatever but they were just you know, like Ivan Putski on a few members of that course yeah, you know guys like that or whatever but yeah. I think I was able to learn how to like my I adjusted my style to where I was good at working with big guys. I just knew how to do it and knew how to keep everything at like you know as believable in the context of what we’re doing like you know, you never saw me shoot like a 300-pound guy into the ropes because I mean that’s just silly. Yeah, you know, I always had ways of getting movement without having to do sh*t like that or in just you know, fighting that you know, that’s that underdog you know, fighting from underneath. You know, I was really comfortable fighting from underneath like a lot of guys I just want to shine, shine shine. Yeah, dude, shut me down right away. I’m fine.”

On being paired with Kane:

“I don’t know [who’s idea it was], but I’m really grateful to whoever it was. I don’t know if Vince Russo was still there, I think he might have been. I don’t know. But I’ll say this. You know, we had just broken DX up, Paul [Triple H] had just turned on me at WrestleMania you know, and cost me to match with Shane. Like, that was a thing where originally I was supposed to beat Shane. And, you know, when Paul told me he was turning heel. In my mind, as you know, your heel turns not going to mean sh*t if you don’t turn on me. So we did that. And I got rewarded with a hell of a run as tag champs with Kane. I mean, we had a really good run together.”

On Shane McMahon:

“My match with Shane was his first. It wasn’t his first actual, like, match. But it was his first match, like big, you know? And a lot of those ideas, a lot of the things you saw out there in that match were his ideas. Because I told Vince I’m like Hey, okay, Vince tasked me to work with him. And I had these conditions. I’ve told this before, but, you know, I was like, I get to go over and he has to, you know, listen to me. And so, Shane came in with this whole list of ideas. And at first, I was kind of standoffish about it. I brought it to Vince and I’m like Vince look. And then Shane comes to me, okay, whatever. In the end, I actually just sat down after he said that and read it. Yeah. And we ended up doing like 3/4 of it. Like, they were all great ideas.”

On the conversation before the match:

“I told him before our match, I’m like, Dude if I don’t light you up there, and you know, people are gonna look at me, you know, he’s like, bring it, he wanted me to do it. I did. Yeah, like was, I made a beat. I made him hit me hard, you know, we had the weight belt. Yeah, yeah. I made him like, just tee off on me with it. Because when I got it, you know you know, he was, he was great to me.”

On the Bronco Buster:

“It came from, do you remember Hakushi? Yeah, he would do that. But like, he would just do the part where he landed on Yeah, that was not the extra stuff. And so like, you know, he wasn’t using it anymore. Like, I just decided to do it one day, because I remember him doing it to me. And he was gone. And it wasn’t something I think people really remembered him for. I don’t think it was one of his signature moves.” 

What is X Pac grateful for:

“An incredible marriage, my family and my health.”

Chris is back answering your questions from social media on another edition of AskCVV! If you have one that you want answered next month, don’t forget to send it in using the hashtag #AskCVV!

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Quote I’m thinking about:

You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. – Zig Ziglar

What are your thoughts on the CM Punk situation? 

“What a question to kick things off with here! There is so much to bite off and chew on and talk about with this situation. But I will say this, I never thought CM Punk was ever going to come back to wrestling. And I know that in pro wrestling, you never say never. But from everything that he had been saying all the years that he was gone, it just certainly sounded like he was done with it. And then he came back and it was, depending on who you talk to, it was either the best return of all time or arguably the best return of all time. I mean, it was incredible. And I think one of the big elements of his return that is not talked about is it worked so well not just because it was in Chicago, but it worked so well because it was right after the world had just started to get back to normal after all of the craziness of 2020 and early 2021. And it was like one of the first shows where there was a full crowd inside an arena. It was like, Oh my gosh, we’re already excited because you know the world feels normal again for the first time in over a year. And oh my gosh, I heard the rumours, this is actually happening. “Look in my eyes!” Oh my gosh! Yeah, it’s happening, he’s here! And it was just so exciting. And those are the moments that whether you’re an AEW fan, WWE fan, New Japan, IMPACT Wrestling, whatever it is. Those are the moments as a wrestling fan that you look at and you go, yes, this is it like what a cool moment. And then we started hearing all these stories about things that were going on backstage and I will preface that by saying we don’t actually know the full stories, these are always just reports of like, oh, you know, this person is saying this thing happened. But then when All Out happened and the press conference there and the things that he was saying with his boss sitting next to him, Tony Khan sitting next to him. I just thought it just went too far. I get that he was frustrated I get that he was upset with a lot of the things that were going on behind the scenes, but to air that dirty laundry in the way that he did, it just didn’t sit well with me. Then him being suspended and him not being on TV and I stopped seeing him for months after that felt like it gave that whole situation a chance to breathe a little bit and I honestly wasn’t sure if he was going to come back again or not. And then he did come back and it just seemed like whatever the situation was, whatever that dirty laundry was that had been aired, it seemed like none of that had been fixed. And it left Tony Khan in this really difficult spot of like well he is one of our biggest draws. We have kind of created this whole show on Saturday, Collision, around CM Punk, and it’s like what do we do now? Again, we don’t know the full situation of what went on, but obviously was bad enough for Tony Khan to get rid of CM Punk to fire CM Punk, and on that note, I will say that Tony Khan did, I remember Eric Bishoff being like the fact that he like actually had the was brave enough to fire CM Punk like congrats to him. On that note though, I will say that it was strange timing to do it on Saturday right before Collision and then right before All Out. I feel like All Out already was fighting for relevancy I feel. I felt like All Out already had its back up against the wall. Because All In, a huge show. You know, they’re the biggest show that AEW has ever done by far one of the biggest wrestling shows of all time. And then a week later, they’re saying Oh, yeah, by the way, like, don’t forget this pay-per-view that has been a tentpole pay-per-view for AEW, since the beginning, Labour Day weekend means it’s All Out. And it’s kind of just like, it just kind of felt like it was buried off the back of everything that had gone on positively for All In and then it’s like right before Collision, you know, we terminated CM Punk. And it’s like, oh my gosh, well, now, if I was a CM Punk fan, or I was watching Collision for CM Punk, well now I’m probably not. And if I had an idea, you know, if I was thinking, Oh, maybe CM Punk will show up in had in Chicago at All Out? Well, that’s now off the table. And I just thought that that announcement should have been made on Monday. I felt like there should have still been this mystique around Collision and All Out of like, Oh, could his music hit? You know, rumours are swirling about everything that happened with him and Jack Perry, could he still be here? What’s going to happen? And I just felt like, I don’t know, the timing didn’t seem right on that. I felt like it took all of the focus away from Collision. And all the focus away from All Out, which was by all intents and purposes, a pretty great pay-per-view. And I just felt like all of the headlines and all of the focus around All Out was talking about CM Punk. And I just felt really bad for the performers who worked at the show. So I will sum all this up by saying, I will sum this up with an analogy. I feel like CM Punk coming back to wrestling is kind of like when you break up with that girl. And you know, it’s been a few months, and you’re like, Yeah, I’m glad I’m broken up with her. And then, you know, a few years go by, and you think about her every once in a while, and you go, you know, it really wasn’t that bad, right? It wasn’t that bad. Like, you know, we could have made things work. We had our issues, but we could have made things work. And then you get back together with them. And like, very quickly, you go, Oh, yeah, that’s why we broke up. I just kind of feel like that’s the situation here. Like CM Punk left WWE, walked out of WWE, walked out on pro wrestling and it just seemed like he was pretty happy with how everything was going. I’m sure he missed pro wrestling. But in the back of his mind, there was probably that little voice going Yeah, but it didn’t work out because of this reason, or it didn’t work because of that reason, and then whatever happened, came back. And it just seemed like all of those reasons, just happened to still be there. So that’s what I think of the situation. I think that he was one of the best things to happen for AEW. And also in a way, it sure seems like he was also one of the worst things to happen to AEW. So very, very curious about what the fallout from this is.” 

Do you think CM Punk should return to WWE and finish his career? 

“That seems to be the big question that is surrounding CM Punk. And I would say that under the management now, I feel like CM Punk would actually be a great fit in WWE. So I think there are two questions here. It’s, do you think he’ll return? And should he return? Maybe not in that order, maybe I should have reversed the order there. But like, should he return? Does it make sense for him to return? I think it would actually make a lot of sense for him to return. And he has a big legacy in WWE. I mean, when you think of a promo that really walks the line of is this real? Is this not? Is this a work? Is this a shoot? What do we call them now? We call them a pipe bomb. And we will forever call them a pipe bomb because of the pipe bomb that CM Punk dropped. And it’s so interesting that he’s created a lot of memories in WWE. And it sure seems like there’s some unfinished business that could happen there. I mean, I think, here’s what my prediction is. I’m just thinking this right off the top of my head here. I feel like we’re not going to hear anything really, maybe there might be lawsuits. That’ll be very interesting here. I feel like with the release of the wording of what AEW said when CM Punk was released, I felt like it was worded in such a way that like, there may be some pending litigation from this, like firing someone with cause sounds like oh yeah, well let’s have the lawyers talk about this. But it seems like as we head into the Royal Rumble in January, I feel like there’s gonna be a lot of buzz of like, Will CM Punk be there? Will his music hit? And I just feel like if he had a short run, maybe it’s the Royal Rumble to WrestleMania. Just him being there. I don’t even think he needs to be in the title picture. I think just him being there could really be a very interesting situation. But I think to answer so I think like should he go back? Could he go back? I think the answer there is yes. Will he go back? As I sit here right now, in September of 2023. I think the answer to that question is no. But it’s pro wrestling. Really, anything could happen.” 

Looking back through the many years of interviews, which interviews do you feel have really changed your approach to the job and how?

“I’ll actually give you a kind of a non-traditional answer here. It wasn’t one of my interviews that really changed my approach to the job. It was from my now very good friend Jake Hamilton. You could check him out on YouTube at Jakes Takes, it’s the name of his channel. He is one of the best interviewers on the face of the planet. And I am so grateful to be able to call him one of my friends. But when I first met him, he wasn’t my friend. I mean, I didn’t know him, we were strangers. And here was this guy. It was like, 13 years ago when we met in 2010. I was doing a movie junket for the movie Dinner for Schmucks. Remember that movie, Paul Rudd and Steve Carell? So I was doing that interview in Los Angeles and I’d never seen him before. But here he came in very well dressed, with beautiful hair, and he has great hair, and just a good looking guy who’s I think he’s like, so at the time, he would have been like 22 and I would have been like 26. And the dude just crushed these interviews. And I went back and looked through his highlight reel. And he had these moments where he was just swinging for the fences. He was creating what I later called Jake Hamilton moments. He asked Angelina Jolie if she would dance with him because she had so many great slow-dancing scenes in movies. He asked Morgan Freeman to read his eulogy because Morgan Freeman has such a great speaking voice he just did incredible, amazing moments. And I’m like, here you are sitting down with the biggest stars in the face, the planet and you, my friend are swinging for the fences, and you are knocking it out. And it was from watching his interviews of just like, I thought the work that I was doing at that time was good. Actually, at the time, I would have thought it was really good, but then I saw him and it made me level it up. And I’ve told him this many times. But you know, he’s so incredibly talented, but it was seeing him not be afraid. And it was seeing him word things in a certain way of like, if I ask it like this, the chances of it actually happening might be better. So it was, you know, those were the interviews that really changed it for me. And I highly encourage you to go check out any of Jake’s work. And there’s actually a compilation not made by him, made by just a fan of celebrities saying that’s a great question to Jake. And it’s like a 15-minute compilation of him asking these brilliant questions and celebrities going that is a great question. So you asked a great question here and that’s my answer. Those are the interviews that changed my whole approach to the job, and really just started to make me think about the way that questions were worded because, at the end of the day, these are just words, right? But words in a different order can have a very different effect. So that was it for me.” 

Who was your crush during the Attitude Era? 

“Oh man, well, you know, being from Toronto, Trish Stratus was obviously a big crush. But when I saw Torrie Wilson for the first time in WCW, I was like, wow, yeah, that’s it. So, Torrie Wilson, and then you know, I feel like everything she did in WWE was even that much better. So, Torrie Wilson, who I have yet to ever meet, or have on the show, but that is certainly a guest that I would love to have on the show. I mean, Trish as well. I’ve met Trish twice. Never done an interview with her. But I’ve met her twice. Once when I was 17 I was like my gosh, I met Trish Stratus. And then I met her at WrestleMania 35 in New York. And I’m like, I need to do an interview with you. And she’s like, absolutely just send my people an interview or an email with an interview request and for whatever reason just never come together. But I feel like that one could happen. I feel like a Trish Stratus interview is imminent at some point in time. I’m not saying it’s like next week or next month, but I feel like that one could be possible.” 

What was your favorite restaurant in Cleveland? 

“Oh, man, I love Cleveland. I miss Cleveland. I miss you guys. I’m still a Browns fan. And my goodness, what a start to the year with that huge win over the Bengals. I love it. So I lived in Cleveland from 2010 to the end of 2014 so five years total. I lived right downtown at that time. So there were a lot of restaurants that were downtown that I loved going into. One of them was called Cleveland Chophouse at the time. Now it’s just called Cleveland Chop. That was one of my favorites. We would go there for lunch all the time because I was working a later shift. I was on the afternoon news shows on 19 Action News, which is now just I think it’s Cleveland’s 19, CBS 19. I was on the afternoon show so I started work at like three-ish o’clock and ended around midnight. Which was, you know, I get off work at like midnight and I wouldn’t be like ready to go to bed because you just come off of like, working on TV and like being on TV and being all amped up. And a lot of restaurants wouldn’t be open. The reason I say that is Bar Louie was across the street from where I lived, I lived in this apartment building called the Bigham. And there was no like hardly anything that would be open after midnight unless it was a Friday or Saturday night. But Bar Louie was. I spent a lot of time at Bar Louie and I know that’s like a place chain. There are several of them all over America. Quaker Steak and Lube had the best wings. And The Winking Lizard downtown had the best wings. And I’m a huge wing fan. By the way, if you have any chicken wing suggestions, like chicken wing restaurants, please tweet them at me. Please, please, I travel a bunch. Maybe I’ll be in your city and I will eat those wings. Maybe I’ll eat those wings with you. And one more is Melt Bar and Grilled. It is a grilled cheese sandwich restaurant in Lakewood. It’s so so good. So there’s a bunch of them there for you. And I just love Cleveland. And it’s been like two years since I’ve been back. I miss you guys. So I’ll have to head back there again sometime soon.”

What are some of your pet peeves or things that you always try to avoid doing as an interviewer that you notice others doing? 

“I get a lot of compliments for this. And I don’t even feel like I consciously do it. But I get a lot of compliments from people who say I love how you don’t interrupt your guests. Something like oh, yeah, I mean, I brought them here for them to talk, why would I be interrupting them? But yeah, I guess that’s a thing where people will interrupt a lot. So that is something I’m aware of when I see it in other interviewers. And I think another thing that I see in other interviewers is, the person that you brought on to be your guest will start to tell a story. And then you’ll interject with your own story. And then oftentimes, the story of the host is longer than the story from the guest. And it’s like, what’s going on here? And I’ve never understood that, it’s like, no, please stop talking so we can listen to what the guest is saying. That’s always been. Yeah, that’s always been a big one for me. And I think that just all falls under the category of not listening. And I think a really simple one too is not doing your research. Like, I think there’s a lot of people that just do like the real simple, very basic Wikipedia, bullet notes, bullet points. And I think it just like this has to go at least one layer deeper than that, like, especially if we’re going to talk wrestling here. At the very least fellow interviewers type that person’s name into Google and click the news heading. What are some of the most recent headlines about that person? What are some of the most recent quotes that person has said, and I think it’s just little things like that, that are just like, Ah, man. I’m sure bothers you as much as bothers me. When someone starts to tell a story or reference something that’s like, very like for that person, like a very well-known thing, and the interviewer, you can tell just has no clue what that person’s talking about. It’s like, Ah, I’m listening to this podcast because I’m a fan of the person that you’re interviewing. Like, just do have the respect enough to do some research. So that’s it right there.”

What tips can you give for doing in-person interviews compared to online interviews? 

“I’ve said this before, but I think it bears repeating. The interview begins the second you see that person, the second you walk into the room if it’s in person, or the second the Zoom window opens or the Stream Yard link opens. If it’s a virtual interview. For in-person, I think a really important element of this, falls into the technical side. Make sure the shot the camera shot looks good. And I’m not saying you need to have a new camera or anything like that. Like I shot so many of my interviews on my iPhone for years and years and years, I still often shoot my two shot on the iPhone. I just think that’s a really important part. If your interviews look like crap, people will think they are crap. If your interviews sound like crap, people will think that they are crap, perception is reality. And I think that’s a really big thing. And people make a decision really quickly, especially if they’ve ever seen your content before or heard your content before. People make a decision within the first 3 seconds of a video. So I think that it needs to be fairly well lit, even if that’s just natural light, you and your guests sitting in front of a window like that’s a really important thing. Don’t make it backlit, don’t make it too zoomed out, don’t make it too zoomed in don’t have too much headroom, little things like that I think are really important. Other than that, I think the nuts and bolts of interviewing remain the same, I will stand by the fact, that yes, it is a fact that interviews in-person are far superior, far better, and a much better connection than doing interviews over Zoom. But I think the nuts and bolts of doing an interview, whether it’s in person, or whether it’s over Zoom, are pretty much all the same. And one more little, tiny little baby tip about doing an interview in person, just make sure to show up early. If you say the interviewer is going to be at two o’clock show up at like 1:45 Just so you can set up, be ready to go so that you’re rolling at two o’clock. I think that that’s a really important one.”

What’s the best tip for creating a connection with your guests?

“I think that it’s really important to structure interviews and the fact that like what’s going to be a good opening question? And if things go really well, with that opening question, could it lead to this next question, if the conversation leads that way? So I think that that’s a really important one, like, start off strong, especially if this is someone that you’ve never interviewed before if you’re just meeting them for the first time. Again, going back to what I was just saying people, people will make judgments very quickly, not just about content, but people make judgments about other people all the time in person when they meet them. So I think you can do whatever you can to try to win that person over and really build a rapport with them. Even before the cameras are rolling, start to build a rapport in the same way that you would if you ran into someone at the bar who happened to be a fan of the same sports team that you are. You would just you would have something in common and then you would build on that. So I think rapport is a really important thing to build that connection. And to keep that conversation going.”

If given the opportunity to interview a past legend, who would you choose and why? 

“Eddie Guerrero and he was taken from us far too soon. And I feel like there was still so much that we would have seen from Eddie I would have loved to see that. So I just would have loved to have a conversation with him. I think that he’s one of the very best to lace them up. The answer to that one is it’s for sure is Eddie Guerrero.” 

Would you rather win the Money in the Bank contract or the Royal Rumble? 

“I mean, you’re listening to this right now. I know that you already have a decision in your head as you hear that question. And come on let’s say it all together here. The Royal Rumble, right? Because when you win the Royal Rumble, you’re guaranteed the main event at WrestleMania. And I get with the Money in the Bank contract you can call your shot. It can be anytime, anywhere, any place. But I just feel like there’s a very special time in wrestling between the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania, you know, the road to Wrestlemania. And if given the chance if given the option, I would like to be the focal point of that if this is me, I would like to be the focal point of that road to WrestleMania. Also, I just think that they’ve dropped the ball just a few too many times with the Money in the Bank contract, especially in recent years. It used to be you won the Money in the Bank contract, it was a foregone conclusion that at some point in the next 365 days, you are going to be the World Champion. And that’s really shifted in the last few years here and I hate what happened with Austin Theory. And I’m guessing, this is a guess, I don’t know this at all. But it just feels to me like they gave him the Money in the Bank contract and maybe they didn’t feel like he was getting the reaction that they were looking for or didn’t think that he was ready to be the World Champion at the time. And him cashing in for the US title and then not even winning the US title. Even though he had been the US Champion before that just didn’t sit right with me. So yeah, Royal Rumble. And also like there’s something about winning the Royal Rumble where the person who wins the Royal Rumble is already a main eventer. And now they’re like just continuing to be main eventers. I feel like the Money in the Bank is a great stepping stone for someone who’s like right on the cusp of being a main eventer or like very high mid-card and then they get Money in the Bank and it like you know raises them and elevates them to that next level.”

How can I book guests with little to no contacts? 

“Well, I would say that you can book guests with little to no contacts, you could book guests with no contacts, in the same way that you got your question right here on the podcast. We’re all connected now with social media. And I think you don’t need to have contacts, you don’t need to be able to know someone who knows someone, all you need is a keen eye on someone’s Instagram bio or Twitter bio to find out their email and just send them a message. And I think the second part of that is you need patience, you need to be able to know that, like, you’re gonna send quite a few emails that aren’t gonna get responses. And you’re gonna send emails that are gonna get just, No, sorry, not interested. And then eventually, you’re gonna get one that’s like, yeah, that sounds good, what date and time works for you? And it may take you six emails to get there may take you at eighty-six emails to get there. But just know that every no that you hear or every no response that you get is going to get you one step closer. And I’m not sure what you’re booking guests for, I’m gonna guess it’s a podcast, please, for the love of God, please make sure to link your podcast in the email that you send. There is nothing more frustrating than getting an email from someone who’s like, Hi, I’d love to have you as a guest on my podcast called The ABC Show. If you’re interested, please write back. And then you’re like, well, what’s The ABC Show even about? Oh, can I hear an episode? And then you’re basically saying to the person that you’re trying to book, The onus is now on you to go into YouTube or podcast app, type in The ABC Show and then listen to it. You want to try to eliminate as many barriers as possible, just link to it. The ABC show highlighted hyperlink, boom, go. And it’s just amazing to me how many people don’t do that tiny little step. Also, one more thing. And at some point here, I should probably actually like formulate, like what does the guest booking email look like? To actually like, make sure that you increase your odds, I can’t say you’re gonna book a guest every time or you gonna book more guests, but increase your odds to book more guests. I think another thing is like, list off some of the previous guests that you’ve had on the show, if you want to take it one step further link to those episodes so that the person who is potentially going to be a guest can have a listen to that.”

How has being a dad changed your view on life?

“I mean, it’s changed everything. I was just interviewed for a podcast earlier today. I actually I’ll share this out on I think I am going to share it tomorrow on Twitter, Facebook Instagram, and on YouTube. I post a lot of stuff on the YouTube community wall. But I did this really fun podcast. And we talked a lot about the dad journey a bit on it was with Kia Nalbandi, who is just crushing it at like 2 million subscribers on YouTube, just crushing it with his content. And it’s changed my life in every single way for the better. And I love how I now see the world through her eyes. Logan is three-and-a-half months old. And then there’s these little moments where like, you’ll say something goofy or silly. And she just has this big smile that fills her entire face. And it’s like, Ah, man, it’s the best, and I can’t wait to take her to our first baseball game together. I can’t wait to take her fishing. I can’t wait to take her to our first pro wrestling show. Like I’m just excited to like, make these memories with her. And I’m so so so grateful every single day that I have the best partner, my wife, Rachel, and we’re in this journey together as husband and wife, and as mum and dad now to our little girl Logan. So yeah, that’s I mean, it’s changed my view on life in the fact that I now see things through her eyes. She’s seeing everything for the first time. You know, and then there’s this real childlike innocence that all kids have. And I feel like I am now seeing things through her eyes. And it’s just made me have this so much of a better appreciation for everything. And it’s also really helped me to understand situations a little bit more, I feel like I’ve been so much more empathetic. I think there might have been a younger version of me that like when a kid cried on a plane, I was one of those very stereotypical people that would roll their eyes and be like, oh, man, good, someone shut that kid up. And now I have so much more empathy for what those parents are going through. Like when a kid is crying on a plane the kid doesn’t go onto that plane, this little baby doesn’t go onto a plane with like, the intention of like, I’m gonna ruin everybody’s flight. Watch this! They’re just a baby. They’re trying to figure things out. And I can guarantee you this, we’ve been very, very, very fortunate Logan’s now flown on four flights to Nashville and back, to New York City and back. So four flights total very long flights, the New York flight was six plus hours with the delay that we had. So I was like, eight hours of sitting on a plane. We’ve been so so so so so so so fortunate that she slept for most of the flight, and just been overall just like, really good. I’m sure that’s not always going to be the case, there’s going to be one where I’m sure she’s gonna have a meltdown. But I now have the empathy. And I understand that you know, there’s always more going on in a situation than what you see on the surface. So I guess that is to say, I have been much slower to come to a conclusion about something because you never really know the full situation.” 

Who would win in a shoot fight? Batman or Iron Man?

“I feel like the answer here feels pretty obvious, right? Batman. Iron Man is just really at the heart of it like a great inventor. They’re both rich. They’re both like billionaire playboys. But Iron Man is just like really good at using technology. But if this is a shoot fight, just people fighting it’s Batman. Bruce Wayne, for sure Bruce Wayne beats Tony Stark, I think every single time like 100 times out of 100. Batman’s good with his utility belt. But at the end of the day Batman doesn’t really have any weapons like Batman’s for the most part, like punching people in the face and ties them up with whatever that thing’s called, that he ties him up with and the batterang kind of just like gets their attention but like, I mean, for the most part, Batman is hand to hand combat. Iron Man is a rich guy in a suit. I have great love for both Batman and Iron Man, but I’m just saying this is a shoot fight. We were looking at the odds there, I feel like Batman would be a minus 5,000 or something like that. You know what I mean?”

Cathy Kelley (@cathykelley) is a journalist, TV host and backstage interviewer for WWE. She sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Hollywood, CA to talk about her decision to leave WWE in 2020 and what made her return in October 2022, how she got started in broadcasting, moving to Los Angeles, what she learned working in NXT, her favorite interview moments, the relationship she has with Stephanie McMahon and Triple H, working with Rhea Ripley, her thoughts on Grayson Waller, what kind of DMs she receives and much more!

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Quote I’m thinking about:
If you do what you’ve already done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.- Tony Robbins

On wrestling training:

“I did try once back in the day. Dave Marquez had a little wrestling ring in Championship Wrestling from Hollywood. I took a couple of bumps until I had the wind knocked out of me. Also running the ropes, people don’t realize that until you have done it, it’s intense, you end up having calluses on your back. I was bruised for a week.”

On watching back her WWE debut:

“I actually talked about this the other day, it was sink or swim and I sunk. I was thrown in at the deep end, it was WrestleMania weekend. So, coming from where I had not done real-life television before, I don’t think my high school television show counts. I had come from a podcast world and those two are so different from doing live to tape to doing live, live. Nothing can really prepare you for that I don’t think.”

How did Cathy Kelley sink:

“I remember reading Twitter comments and they were not too nice. As you know as well, there is so much history and so much respect when it comes to wrestling, there were some things that I was not prepared for. Also if I flubbed a line or made a mistake I didn’t know how to recover.”

On the WWE machine:

“There is no industry, entertainment or otherwise that accomplishes what WWE does week in and week out, multiple times a week. It is an absolute monstrosity every week in the best possible way. You look at SNL who does a live show every week but they have seasons and they have multiple rehearsals. Then you look at a sporting event and the people that are an athlete are also not expected to cut a promo 10 seconds after they get off the field.”    

On getting on WWE’s radar:

“It was actually through Ryan Katz. He was working very closely with WWE and Dusty at the time. They were putting on this try-out where I think JoJo got called up, Eva Marie, Lana and a couple of other people. I remember Ryan saying, Hey, I think you should do this, and I was scared sh*tless! I said, Nope, I’m good. I wanted to work at WWE but I didn’t see myself as a Superstar, and that was what the try-out was for. So a few months later I end up seeing some of the girls from that try-out in backstage roles and I was really bummed that I did not capitalise on that opportunity.”

What was the next step?

I think it was a few months later. I was working with Sam Roberts at the time and he was very close to Michael Cole. I kind of stayed in touch with Michael Cole and there was an opportunity to do Live Event hosting, which I tried out for. They brought a bunch of people to Orlando and we got to sit in on an NXT show. I think a couple of people tagged me back in the day just sitting in the audience. I was told I was going to be starting soon, they had a hiring freeze a couple of months later and started hiring internally. Two years later another opportunity turned up and that was in Stamford.”

On the first day in WWE:

“The first thing they had me doing was WrestleMania weekend in Dallas. I was kind of hidden because they wanted it to be a surprise. But I was in Stamford just sitting in on a couple of the shows.” 

On the nature of backstage interviews:

“90% of them are live, it’s rare that you will get another take on something. Because I loved it so much I watched a lot of old WWE stuff. Mean Gene is obviously the GOAT but I love old Michael Cole backstage interviewing. It’s money. I told him that I miss the frosted tips.”

On Michael Cole being underrated:

“I think that in his career you can see all of those moments that add up to where he is today. If you are not in it week to week then you don’t know how much work has to be done. I mean, his job is crazy. I don’t know how his voice withstands everything, he’s a monster.”

On who gets Cathy Kelley excited to work with:

“I feel like there is an obvious answer to this, but I do really enjoy working with Rhea [Ripley]. I know the WWE Universe enjoys it in some capacity as well but I think it’s fun because it’s a different interaction from me and while you said that I will know what a lot of people will be saying, I don’t a lot of the time. Sometimes I do but Superstars have a lot more leeway coming up with what they are going to say more so than they did a few years ago.”

On Rhea Ripley:

“We actually talked about this the other day. I did her first live interview after an NXT TakeOver. Hunter and I used to have those Breakdown sessions and she came to one of them to make an announcement, and that was her first ever live interview on a WWE platform.” 

On leaving WWE:

“I was really tough and I struggled with it for about a year. It was partially promises that were made when I started and the trajectory of where I wanted to see my career go, and it didn’t feel like that opportunity was going to come to fruition, which was going to be on one of the main shows, Raw or SmackDown as a backstage interviewer. While I was at NXT they said that I wasn’t ever going to be on a main show, that was my catalyst. I’ve talked about this recently, but the first week where I don’t feel like I not necessarily brought my A Game, I wasn’t prepared for that opportunity, that loomed over me for the next couple of years. I did a lot of digital stuff but they didn’t feel like that was enough to prepare me for live television. And then even though I was doing a paragraph of live NXT each week, I was in an overlook every week and run down the matches or talking with William Regal about the show. Then a couple of weeks later I remember putting in my resignation letter that I had a conversation with Cole that it was probably never going to happen.”

What changed:

“I was with my mom in Alaska at the time and I just texted him Happy Birthday and I expected a thanks kid or whatever. And then he starts to send me all these things of like oh I remember when I was there fishing in Alaska. And then he sends me this long thing which turned into, Hey, would you have a conversation with Steph? Which obviously I would any day of the week.”

Who can make Cathy Kelley break:

“I don’t want to give him this credit, but Dom Mysterio, there have been a couple of times. Honestly, I love working with Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn too, they just have this dry humour that is unmatched.”     

Does it feel different for Cathy Kelley this time around?

“Yeah, I feel more confident, I feel like I am doing what I was supposed to be doing all along. It just feels a lot better.”

What is Cathy Kelley grateful for:

“My dog, my mom and all of the people that use their platform for good.”

Nick Aldis (@realnickaldis) is a professional wrestler known for his time in IMPACT Wrestling and NWA. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at his house in Nashville, TN to talk about his recent trial as a producer for WWE, he clarifies that his in-ring career is not done, what’s next for him after his recent stint in IMPACT Wrestling, why he decided to leave NWA, being the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion for 1043 days, his iconic match with Cody Rhodes in 2018 at All In, what his favorite memory from TNA is, what it was like working with Sting, the best advice he received from Bret Hart, turning down an offer from AEW and betting on himself, his wife Mickie James and much more!

Sponsors:

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Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to http://TryMiracle.com/CVV and use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3-PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF

 Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at http://plunge.com

Quote I’m thinking about

A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because its trust is not on the branch but on its own wings. – Charlie Wardle

Clarifying his status with WWE:

“They just invited me to come and, you know, see how everything works and, you know, shadow as a producer and see and just sort of be part of the meetings and oversee the whole, you know, the whole television operation, which is, I mean, it’s, again, it’s, I’ve done a lot, I’ve worn a lot of hats. I think people who have followed my career, particularly in the last few years know that, in addition to wrestling, I was wearing a lot of hats behind the scenes, you know, at my last place. So, I certainly don’t feel like it’s a completely new sort of situation for me. Having said that, there’s pro wrestling, and then there’s WWE. So you know, just taking in just the sheer sort of volume of the operation, and just, you know, the number of people involved in that this, the scale of everything is like, just that alone is has been the basis of like, my time so far. But it’s like, it’s all very much, it’s all very much a sort of handshake situation at the moment very much a, hey, why don’t you come in and see how all this works? See, if you like it. I will say this. They’ve been very, very good to me, and very, very accommodating. As far as they’ve said, Look, this is as much about whether you like it, you know. Now, where that goes, I don’t know, and I’m okay with that. Like, it’s tough with, with the internet, you know, and social media, because people want to put this sort of definitiveness on everything. And this finality like, Oh, that’s it. He’s with WWE. That’s it game over, you know. And so now, you know, people say are you not wrestling anymore? Have you retired? Are you not wrestling? I mean, even the boys are saying that, like, are you done wrestling? You know, and it’s like, slow down.”

On unfortunate timing:

“The timing of that I can, I can accept and concede that. And I knew that even when I did it, you know, it was kind of like mad at the timing of this isn’t great, because now people are going to put two and two together and go holy, you must be injured, you must have a back problem and can’t wrestle anymore, that’s not the case. [So you can still wrestle?] 100% I just took a couple more dates recently. You know, I have a few days in September, like, I know that Mickey and I doing a show in Canada at an Indian Reservation. And it’s another show in Ohio that we’re both doing and you know, so I mean, I’ve had stuff on the books, and I’ve already and I told Bret [Hart] that I would whenever he has a date for Calgary Yeah, that because I’m the Stu Hart you know, champion for his son’s promotion for Dungeon Wrestling. So it’s like, I was like, Look, I’ll always be there for that. You know, so it’s not like, you know, that’s the frustrating part, right? Is when you just got you literally go and try something and just go and you know, see, try it on, see if you like it. And next thing you know, it’s like, oh, that’s it, you know?”

On keeping options open:

“Yeah, well look and everything could change next week or the week after or anything like that. But I guess to sort of, to put a pin in this because obviously, there’s only so much we can discuss. And it’s not like I’m trying to be secretive or anything. It’s just not that interesting. It’s just like, yeah, they called me and said, Hey, how would you feel about coming in and, you know, seeing how things operate on the production level, and, you know, shadowing the producers. And I was like, That would be interesting, that would be fun to see how that works, even if nothing comes of it. Or even if, even if I and again, I have to make this point. They also were very open with me about it and said, Look, if you don’t want to do it, like if you’re not cool with this, like, absolutely no hard feelings, you know, like, if you don’t, right now, the same for me or not, I’m not ready to do this yet. That’s totally cool, too. May as well say it, obviously. I would love the other thing. But until that day comes or doesn’t, you know, it’s I’m gonna explore other opportunities. Because ultimately, that is absolutely something that I would want to do. In the end. I just, it’s, you know, the question it will be, I guess, whether or not I’m ready to do it now. You know, and we don’t know that yet.”

On back issues in the past:

“It was an injury. Like, you know, I mean, like, I’m not about to say that, you know, I’m sure I have any number of underlying long-term issues, like any wrestler who’s been doing it for, you know, 15 years would have but no, I had an actual back injury, I can’t remember the thing that I injured, but it was the way that they described it was like a sheet, like, there’s a thin sheet of muscle, like, your lower back, that can sometimes just get sort of strained and inflamed. So while it felt like a disc issue, and I’m, you know, I’ve had MRIs and stuff like that, to rule all that out, because of course, the first thing you start thinking of is oh, God, like, you know, it’s a disk. And by the time I went, Oh, like, I’m, I’m not alone on that, like most wrestlers, I would say, in this sense that by the time we go to the doctor, it’s like, well it’s serious. If we’re going to a doctor, it’s because it’s, it hasn’t gone away with ice and, you know, some Advil or whatever, right?” 

On missing shows due to the injury:

“I take a lot of pride in the fact that in most of my career, I think, with the exception of when I tore my bicep in, in Mexico, there’s not been many times where I’ve missed shows, like from being hurt. This was the first time where I sort of had to call up a couple of, you know, promoters, one in Chicago, one in Puerto Rico and say, I’m sorry, I just can’t make it because I was just, it was, just every time I would like, I’d worked the two weeks before, but one week, I was in England,  and then North Carolina. And, you know, the next day, I was just like, every day, I would every time after I’ve after the match the next day, I was just like struggling to get out of bed struggling to get dressed. And I was like, whatever this is, it’s not you know, this is this is a smart. Turns out that it was actually just, like, a huge amount of inflammation that we’re just getting aggravated, you know, from this injury. So, you know, just took some time off feels good.”

On All In 2018:

“Most of the time you know what people want, like at All In. We all knew what they wanted, we never had a discussion about the finish. [There was never] Hey, what if I win, brother? We never had that discussion. There was never a definitive discussion of, would you mind doing the honors? I was like, Don’t talk to me, I know what the people want here. We had to give it to them in a way that they couldn’t predict and weren’t fully able to expect and predict. That’s your job, give the people what they want in the way that they aren’t expecting.”   

On being the best-kept secret:

“I guess. The point I was making when I said that was just like, it’s subjective. Right, like, but wrestling fans, particularly the very opinionated ones, God love them, you know, they tend to conflate their opinion with fact. So it’s sort of like, everybody knows that insert name here is the best wrestler in the world. And it’s like, do they all know that? Because I think that’s what you think, right? Like, the same way that you know, a lot of the time, they’ll qualify it with that, like, Oh, everybody knows this is a thing or.”

On moving on from the NWA:

“Yeah. I mean, look, you know, I’ve moved on, right? I have, there are people who work there who I care about a lot, and I’m really, I’m really happy that my contributions to that company, sort of facilitated those guys earning a living. But, you know, again, there’s nothing I really need to say, you know. The evidence is, is there’s there for anyone who wants to, to look, you know. I’m sort of done talking about Billy [Corgan] and that, that whole thing, it’s like, you know, he sort of to me, I would just say that. He’s kind of shown everybody who he is. And that’s, you know, that’s unfortunate, but I’m not I’m certainly not going to spend any more time, you know, saying anything sort of denigrating about him or the company or anything like that. People can make up their own minds and it looks like a lot of them have, you know, and that’s pretty much it.”

On his proudest moment in TNA:

“Breaking the glass ceiling and winning the world title. No Brit had ever done that before. The irony is that guys like Russo and Dutch would laugh at that now because I always used to say that I didn’t want to be known as a British guy. It doesn’t matter if I am British, who gives a sh*t? I don’t want to be the token British guy, I want to be the top guy. It doesn’t matter where I am from. Then I won the world title and there was this outpour of love from British people of like he’s the first British guy to win the world title. Suddenly you are like all patriotic again, but I think both things can be true. That was part of it I wasn’t really thinking about.”

On LA Knight:

“Look, it doesn’t come as any surprise to me, and I don’t think it has come as a surprise for anyone who has followed his stuff in the last few years. I see it as a great inspiration and there is hope yet. He’s literally on the ascent and it is the run of a lifetime.” 

What is Nick Aldis grateful for:

“A happy, healthy son, a great marriage and opportunities”

Featured image: Post Wrestling

Lance Storm (@lancestorm) is a professional wrestler known for his time in ECW, WCW and WWE. He joins Chris Van Vliet from his home in Calgary, Alberta, Canada to talk about his current job as a producer for Impact Wrestling, the fact that he and CVV went to the same college Wilfrid Laurier University, moving to Calgary for pro wrestling training, having his first match against Chris Jericho, being tag team partners with Justin Credible in ECW, signing with WCW, forming Team Canada, meeting Bret Hart for the first time, joining WWE, The Alliance angle, how he came up with his catchphrase “If I can be serious for a minute”, The Un-Americans, his thoughts on 5-star match ratings and much more!

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Quote I’m thinking about:

Happiness comes from WHAT we do. Fulfillment comes from WHY we do it.

– Simon Sinek

On making it but having a plan B:

“Although with that, and this is where I think I differ from a lot of people. I gave myself a five-year window. Like I told myself if I’m not making progress, where it seems like this is a viable career, I’m gonna go back to university. I’m not going to be just some guy chasing some silly dream. I think I might enjoy this job. I think I can make a living at it let’s see if I have an aptitude for it. And it was funny. A friend of mine’s dad, Steve Benning, if he ever happens to listen to this, everyone I knew was supportive. Everybody was like, Yeah, go for it, go for it, go for it. And he was the only one, he pulled me aside and just said, Whatever you do, just don’t become a bum. And it meant a lot to me. It’s like, hey, chase your dream, but don’t chase it down a garbage dump. You can’t always achieve this. Maybe this isn’t as inspirational as it should be. But you can’t always succeed at your dreams, you have to be realistic. So I set the goal that if I wasn’t making progress, if it didn’t seem like, I had a real chance of success at this. I was gonna go back to school. And I was making my living in three [years].”

On meeting Chris Jericho for the first time:

“We all stayed at a hotel. Well, there was two people from Calgary who lived in Calgary, but we all stayed in a hotel in Okotoks, Alberta, which is you know, it’s basically a bedroom community now. And it was this crappy hotel and I got picked up at the airport and taken to this hotel and every person I see when I get there is a skinny little kid, big fat guy. Like no one looked like an athlete at all. And I had no again you didn’t have internet, you didn’t know that. That’s what all wrestling schools look like. I was you know, and I trained and was in good shape. It’s like I’m expecting to show up at like an NFL camp right where I’m like, praying to God I’m in good enough shape to hang. And then I see this and because my stepdad had looked into the power plant and looked into the Hart Brothers, I chose Hart Brothers because Stampede had a rep for smaller guys and staying in Canada made it easier But I went to the end of the hallway there was a fire escape and I’m standing on the fire escape and in my mind, I’m thinking I’ve made a huge mistake. This place is a joke. So I’m in my mind going, can I change my flight? Can I, you know, I’ll call my stepdad. I’ll see if he can get me into the Power Plant. I need to get the hell out of here. And then this green beat-up-looking 76 Volare pulls into the parking lot, and out jumps Chris Jericho. And I see a kid that clearly goes to the gym and clearly looks like an athlete. And I’m like, running down the fire escape to meet this person. Because maybe if there’s someone else here that has a hope in hell, then maybe I didn’t make a mistake. So I ran down and introduced myself to Chris and helped him carry his trunk of clothes and stuff out of the trunk of his car, and helped him move in. And it’s like, if not for seeing him, I probably would have been on a plane back home the next day.”

On Chris Jericho still wrestling today:

“Yes, that’s sort of the running joke between us because we’ve over the years have made a pact, because our very first match was against each other. We did like a 10 or a 15-minute draw, I don’t remember which in Ponoka, Alberta out here. And I’ve always contended that it would be cool specially because we know each other still to do our last match with each other too and have us both bookend our careers. And on one of the Talk is Jericho podcast as well as recently just personally, we’ve sort of, you know, what’s the word, reaffirmed the pact to do it. But I keep joking with them. It’s like, Dude, you have to retire at some point, or I’m not going to be able to do it. You know, you’ve got to retire inside the next five or 10 years, dude, or I’m not going to be, I don’t want to do it at 75.”

On wrestling fans knowing where Calgary is:

“I laugh because that does seem to be so many people now say it that way as the way you’re supposed to say it. And I will forever hear from people where it’s, you know, they’re flying in from somewhere. It’s like, we’re about to land in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. And really, they say it just like Lance does. And it just became my gimmick, if you will. And it was just naturally the way I said it. But the dramatic pause became a thing. And yeah, just sort of stood there. And that too, was. Paul [Heyman] wanted me basically doing the Bret Hart deal that Bret was doing in WWF. Before that, Canada versus the US. And I didn’t want to do the exact same thing as Canada versus the US. So I decided to just pick the city. I’m from here. It’s the wrestling capital of the world. I’m just  Calgary. This isn’t a nationality thing. I’m not out here waving a flag. I just think My hometown is better than every other place. It’s the you know, the grassroots of pro wrestling and because of that, I’m better than everyone. And just to make it my own and not have Paul realise I’m not doing what I’m told. I went just with Calgary.”

On Canadian wrestlers always being heels:

“Well, I think and only in the US and that’s something that you know, WWE, never understood. But it’s all about America’s always America’s the greatest place in the world. And, you know, if you’ve actually been anywhere else, it’s not necessarily the truth. And I think any foreign person who touts their country as being good, gets heat in the US. And I say how WWE doesn’t realise it. But that, like, they assumed the Unamericans would be heels everywhere. Yeah. And I’m like, No, we’re gonna be baby faces everywhere but the US you don’t get this. And they didn’t understand that. My pro-Calgary thing would be a babyface in other parts of Canada. They’re like, Well, you’re not from New Brunswick. Why would they like you here? It’s like, because Canada’s the world’s biggest small town. It’s like if you’re a Canadian that made it on the international scene. You’re our hometown boy. Doesn’t matter if you’re from Victoria, you know, Moosejaw, New Brunswick, or Ottawa. If you’re a Canadian that made it internationally. You’re our hometown boy, you just are We’ll buy you a Tim’s that’s the way it goes.”

On Canadian wrestlers not being announced as from Canada after 9/11

“Well, that was primarily again, I will say my fault. Well, it started when the Unamericans became a thing, which would have been 2002. Actually, you know, a little bit before that, because we were already the Unamericans at the anniversary of 9/11. So it was just not long after 911 that we were doing the Unamericans. And the office figured that the wrestling fans were too dumb to tell the difference between Test, Christian and Lance Storm who are Canadians, and hate the US. And Chris Jericho and Edge who are Canadians don’t hate America. So they actually Edge was the only one I don’t think they changed. But Jericho was using his birthplace of Manhasset, New York, and Benoit was from Atlanta, and they were there just Vince didn’t think people could tell the difference and thought that while all Canadians would be heels now because test Christian and Lance Storm are evil people from Canada.”

On the origin of If I Could Be Serious For A Minute:

“I think like many that it was just one line in one promo. That when I said it, everyone just sort of thought it fit. Like I don’t remember who wrote it. But because in WCW, I would always be given the page of the booking sheet with what I was doing. And they would have a promo written out with what you’re supposed to say. I would always rewrite it in my own words. Because I think the very first promo I did in WCW, I did it verbatim. And it wasn’t in my words. And I botched a couple of the words because it just the sentences were the wrong length. That wasn’t how I spoke. So I always rewrote my promos. I keep much of it the same but I would rewrite them my own way. But I do remember the but if I can be serious for a moment that was written in there because it was when I won the US title. I’m a heel but I start putting over all the other great US champions and then I do the bit if I can be serious for a minute I deserve much better. And then I denounced the US title and you know name it the Canadian title. And when I came back one of the writers or the agent I don’t recall who it was. Someone just went you have to say that in every promo now. It’s like it just it’s you. I’m like, okay, and then I said it in virtually every promo for the rest of my career. And it wasn’t you did it. You did the point with two fingers. I didn’t know I did that until they did the Bill Demott and the misfits in action did the spoof promo where they dressed up like us which is a very Rousseau trait, it was done really well with either DX or the nation or whoever it was the first time and then everybody did it, whether it was any good or not. But they did that and Bill Demott did the promo and he when he pointed at the camera with two fingers, I’m like, why is he pointing with two fingers? And when he came back, I even asked him, I’m like, that looks ridiculous. Why did you do that? He’s like, that’s what you do. I’m like, really?”

On match star ratings:

“I think for the most part, they’re asininely stupid. Well, it’s just someone’s opinion like, you know, a Siskel and Ebert giving it two thumbs up. It’s like, Oh, great. And I think when it started, it was very valuable. Because it started during the tape trading era. And if you’re old enough to be part of the tape trading era, it’s like you would get lists of tapes that someone had in the mail, where you actually went to the post office picked up your letter and opened it up. And there would be a printed photocopy sheet of all the tapes the dude had. And if you’re ordering three tapes of All Japan Pro Wrestling, which tapes Do you buy? Well, if you have access to the Observer, you can go look up the shows. And you can find out oh, sh*t, this show had, you know, really highly rated matches, it’s probably good. So it’s like a movie critic, what movie you want to see? Well, what are the critics saying is a good movie? I’ll go watch that. So it would help you. But I just find it insanely ridiculous that someone would watch the movie, and then want to know what someone else thought about it. And determine their enjoyment based on the like, you’ve seen the movie? Did you like it? If you did, it’s great. If you didn’t, it wasn’t. And going back and comparing, like, I’ll go watch this match. Man. I think that was three and a quarter. I’m gonna go see if I’m right. What do you mean if you’re right? It’s like, that’s just his opinion. Who’s to say either one of you are right?” 

On being offended by the more wacky wrestling:

“Yes, there’s an additional part to that, but we will leave that out. I think too, like, I’m appalled as much as anyone. When I see people wrestling, eight-year-old girls blow up dolls in particular. But if I was, in year, two of my wrestling career, year five of my wrestling career, and the only booking I got was this company in Japan. And I’m in Japan working and other people on the show are doing these matches, and then I’m told your turn. Even as much as I would hate it. I don’t know if I quit my job over it. Yeah. And I think that’s something that like, I’ve never talked to Kenny about it. I know him but not well, obviously, we both have Don as a mutual friend. So there’s an association there. But it’s like, I don’t even know whether he was particularly happy with doing it. But that’s what DDT was and to a certain extent still is. And it’s not something I would like to do. But I don’t know if I would have been mad enough to not.”

Will the wrestling academy reopen?

“I don’t see it happening. It was such a giant task of getting it started. Getting insurance is a gigantic hurdle, even just getting a ring getting it, it was a lot of work. And I don’t know if I have the desire to do that much work again. And I stopped doing it primarily because I’m a hands-on teacher. I took literally every time we taught moves, I was pretty much taking them from all the students first from a safety standpoint too because I’m really good at protecting myself. So all right, we’re doing DDTs today, I’m going to make sure you’re doing it right DDT me first, okay, we’re doing suplexes, suplex me first, if you don’t hurt me, and I feel like you’re competent, you can give it to the rest of the students. And I had matches with every single student but one. He was someone who kept showing up late and his last day, which was his turn to have a match. He showed up late and didn’t get his match. But I had a match with every student and it just started taking its physical toll. It was probably more abuse than having a wrestling career was and I was just no I’m done. I really enjoyed the producer teaching aspect of it. So I suspect I will stay with Impact for an extended period of time because I love the atmosphere and the talent there and very much enjoy the schedule.”

What is Lance Storm grateful for?

“My family, Chris Jericho and Fit Finlay.”

Featured image: Bleacher Report

Kurt Angle (@realkurtangle) is a WWE & TNA Hall of Famer and Olympic Gold Medalist. He joins Chris Van Vliet from his house in Pittsburgh, PA to talk about his podcast called “The Kurt Angle Show”, why he doesn’t consider himself the greatest of all time, his reaction to never having a 5 Star match according to Dave Meltzer, his list of matches that should have been rated 5 stars, his favorite matches in TNA, working with AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and Sting, his thoughts on Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson, his “man who pays with boys” promo in WWE, the moonsault off the cage onto Ken Anderson in TNA, wanting to retire against John Cena at WrestleMania 35 and much more!

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Quote I’m thinking about:

“Most already know what to do and simply don’t do it. It’s not ignorance. It’s fear.”

– Alex Hormozi

Is there a chance Kurt could still go in the ring:

“I wish. you know what, my quality of life right now Chris isn’t so good. I had my knees replaced about a year ago, I have back surgery about four months ago, I have to have my shoulder replaced, I still have another neck, same surgery coming up. That will be my fourth neck surgery. I really paid the price wrestling as long as I did. I wrestled amateur wrestling for 20 years and then Pro for 20. And looking back, sometimes I regret maybe I should have retired five years earlier. Because you know, it comes to a point in time in your life where you’re older, and you want to play with your kids. And here I am having these surgeries, I can’t really do anything with them. I can’t pick them up. I can’t play with them. I can’t run with them. So it gets a little disgruntled thing that I’m not able to be the father that I want to be. And what I’m doing now is I’m having knee surgeries to have a better quality of life so I can play with them. And I just want to make it fast. Because these kids are growing up quickly. And I don’t want to miss it.”

Are you in pain every day?

“Every day, every day, my back, my shoulder. My knees are good. My knees feel great. They recovered really well. I’m 100% with my knees. But my neck and my back and my shoulder. I  have a lot of pain running all day long all night. So it’s something I just have to deal with until I have these surgeries and until I recuperate.”

On thinking about a WWE return while in TNA:

“Yeah, I thought about it all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I really love TNA. The thing is, when I started thinking about going back to WWE, was when the money started running out, and people are getting let go, or people were getting laid off. And, you know, I signed my last contract with them. I think it was for five more years. And I figured you know what, after this contract is up, they probably won’t have the money to pay me because they were paying me seven figures, and it was a part-time deal. So I knew that they probably wouldn’t give me that money that I was making. So I figured you know what it’s time to think about going back to WWE. And I also want to go back because I wanted to go back for the fans and to thank them, the WWE Universe, because I had six and a half Incredible Years in WWE. And I wanted to go back and thank the fans personally and perform for them before I retired.”

On ignoring orders to cut the Ken Anderson cage match time down:

“Yeah, I was pissed off. They cut our match a lot of time, I was like screw that we’re taking we’re taking our 23 minutes. So you know what, you don’t do that in pro wrestling, I shouldn’t have done that. That’s the wrong thing to do, unfortunately, but I knew this match was really special. I knew Ken and I were gonna have a great match. And let me explain why. Okay, Vince Russo put this match together, he set the rules for the match. It made no sense because they wanted the match in a cage. Okay, but you can’t claim out to win. All right, you can’t get pinned to win. The only way you could win is going outside the door. So they painted us in a corner. They because what are we going to do? Why would to climb a cage to have studs off the cage? If you can’t leave the cage over the top? And win. So why would you climb in the first place? So we had to think of ways we had to get creative and think of ways of why we would go up there. And it was, it was a really tough match to put together. Because we were limited to just leaving the door. And you know, if you just have two guys trying to leave the door, and that’s what the whole match is all about it’s gonna be boring as hell. So we had to get creative. We had to think of reasons why we had to climb a cage and why we had to use the cage. And when not having pins, really, we couldn’t have any false finishes. So that kind of sucks. So they painted us in the corner, and I was pissed off. So I was like, I’m taking all the time I want and we ended up taking the whole 23 minutes. We might have taken more than that, actually.”

On Gable Steveson:

“First of all, he’s an incredible athlete. You know, he not only incredible on the mat wrestling, I mean, this kid, you know, he can do backflips. He’s he’s really athletic, super athletic. And I think he’s gonna have a great future. I just don’t know how entertaining he’s gonna be. I know that he loves to talk, a lot of his friends that I talked to say he’s kind of a loudmouth, which is kind of good. Because you want to be able to, you don’t want to be shy when you’re in this. You know, I was a shy kid, and when I went to WWE, I had to learn how to suck it up and just go out there and put everything on the line. And it was really a hard transition for me. But I think Gable Stevenson will have the same thing. He’ll probably, you know, have to, you know, break that mould of being an amateur wrestler, because as an amateur wrestler, you show no emotion. You go out there and you focus and you wrestle and you go from the pen. It’s not like pro wrestling, we have to show people emotion. You have to show if you’re scared, or if you’re mad if you’re, you know, excited. So there’s, there’s a lot of you have to have incredible charisma. And I think that Gable has that. I just don’t know how well he’s going to translate that when he starts talking. I do remember doing a pre-tape with him in Pittsburgh. And he did all right. You know, he didn’t do incredibly well. But he did well, that it was like, Okay, this kid. He has potential. I think he’s going to be pretty good. And so I expect him to have a great career. I don’t know if he’s going to have the career I had, but I think he could he could definitely.”

On nearly quitting wrestling on day one:

“Well, you know what the first bump I took, I actually quit. I was like, this is self-abuse. I’m not doing this. I told my manager. I got up and walked out of the ring. I said I can’t do this. And he said, Just stay for the day, get through the day and see how you feel afterwards. And I did and you know I ran through it but I’m not gonna lie to you. It was crazy, it was crazy that these guys bumped themselves in the ring. And being an amateur wrestler, you’re taught to take the person down, you know, you take them down and you control them and you stay on top of them. You’re not used to falling on your back. So what I did is I forgot everything I ever learned, I cut off my instincts. Because if I would have went in there with my instincts, actually on, I wouldn’t have been able to bump backwards, I would have been, you know, using my amateur wrestling techniques, but I forgot everything I learned. And I put myself in my opponent’s hands and said, Do what you want with me. And that’s how I learned and I learned very quickly because of that.”

On not being the greatest of all time:

“No, I think if you want to be the greatest of all time in one company, you’re gonna have to be there for 20 years at the very least. I think that’s a fair assessment when you’re talking about wrestlers, especially looking at Shawn Michaels and Undertaker, you know, they spent over 30 years there, you know, I’ve only been there nine years total. And that was six and a half before I left and then two and a half after. So I didn’t put in the amount of time that what you consider to be the greatest of all time.” 

On who is the greatest of all time:

“I mean, there are a lot of people I can throw up there, you know, a Mount Rushmore of wrestlers. But you know, Stone Cold Steve Austin. You know, Eddie Guerrero. There’s so many talented wrestlers, it’s really hard to pick the greatest of all time. It truly is. Because fans, they have their preferences, and they’re gonna pick Do they like, and I don’t think you’re ever gonna get like, you know, out of 100 votes, you’re not gonna get 100 votes for one person being the greatest of all time, it’s not going to work.”

On Kurt Angle’s comedic timing:

“I don’t know how I did it. I was never a funny person. Actually, I was never a talker. When I started in WWE, nobody trained me to learn how to cut a promo. Now they have NXT and they have the amenities to do that. But back then, you know it was sink or swim. You know, Vince actually told me that the first time on the air, he said, I want you to cut this promo. This is what I want you to say sink or swim. And, you know, he said something for five minutes straight. He’s telling me what he wants me to say. And I’m not listening because I’m like, holy crap this is a really long promo. And when he got done, I said, Vince, I’m sorry, but I didn’t hear a word and said, Can you repeat it? You should I’ll repeat it one more time. And you got to go out there. And if you don’t succeed, you’re gonna sink. You’re done. If you do it fairly well. Or well, then you will swim. You won’t drown is what he said.”

On figuring it all out:

“I would probably say, probably my match with Chris Benoit. I can’t remember when it was or where it was. It was before my first Wrestlemania. And Chris and I had this match and it was phenomenal. And I felt like I had gotten into my own groove. It was a pay-per-view before Wrestlemania. And it was against Chris Benoit. And that’s when I thought, Okay, I think I’m starting to get this, I’m starting to learn because I was clueless, you have to understand, I only trained for seven months before I went on TV. That’s literally nothing. And four of those months, were only four days a month a month, training up at the WWE headquarters. And the rest of the month, I stayed at home doing nothing. So I didn’t have much training. So they just told me learn on the job. And I was learning on the job. And what’s what I was very fortunate of this Vince really pushed me hard at the beginning. Like, you know, he pushed you to the top, you know, within a few months. And it was like, Whoa, you know, I need to get a hold of this. I need to learn what I’m doing. And before I get to that level, but that’s why he was rushing me he was pushing me hard. So I was forced to learn on the job. I really was.”

On not having a Dave Meltzer 5-star match:

“I don’t know if Dave likes me or not or what’s going on. But you know what, it’s his opinion, I will respect that. I do understand. He’s very knowledgeable with wrestling. Maybe he just doesn’t like my style. I don’t know. But it’s unfortunate that I’ll have a five-star match from him considering that people take his, you know, his word as valuable. You know, they, they look at him and say, Okay, this is the guy that rates the matches, and he’s pretty accurate with it. So you know, I just, I don’t know what to say I’m really surprised. I haven’t had one five-star match. But, you know, that’s his opinion. And I have to respect that.”

On going head to head with Raw:

“Big mistake. Big mistake. You know, I always told the boss Dixie Carter, I said, Listen, there’s no shame of being number two, you know, WWE is a machine and nobody’s gonna pass them up. Not TNA? Nobody, nobody ever. And I said just be happy with number two, but she wanted to be number one. And you know, we took chances and you know, some that backfired on us and we lost a lot of money doing it, but at least we tried.”

On the Moonsault from the cage:

“I am praying to God, I don’t get injured. I even did the cyclocross right before I went. Yeah, it’s scary, man. And you know what, I never practised it before. My first Moonsault ever was on Bob Holly. And I broke his arm. I fell short because I never did it before and I never practised so I didn’t know how far out I was gonna go. And I came up short my legs hit his arm, and broke his arm, right in half. And so never practising it. You know, those aren’t the moves you want to practice. Because they’re the bumps are so hard. They’re ridiculous and hard. So that somebody’s just saying what the heck just go, you know, and hopefully you land properly.”

What is Kurt Angle grateful for:

“My faith, my family and my health.”

Featured image: WWE