Here we go for another AskCVV episode! Chris is back at it answering your questions submitted on social media with the hashtag #AskCVV. If you have one that you want answered next month, don’t forget to send it in! We’ve got a range of topics from ALL IN to content creation to Edge’s final match on Smackdown.

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Quote I’m thinking about:

Not in doing what you like, but in liking what you do is the secret of happiness.” – J.M. Barrie

What are your thoughts on All In and which match are you most excited for? 

Look, All In was a success from before one match was even announced. When they announced that All In was happening and 70,000 Plus tickets were sold at Wembley without a single match being announced, massive success right there. Because if I told you five years ago, that there was going to be another wrestling company that wasn’t WWE that was going to have I mean, even 10,000 people, right? Because when the first All In happened in Chicago in 2018, 10,000, was, you know, a huge deal. So now there’s 70,000 plus before one match is even announced. As we sit here right now 80,000 People are going to be there for All In massive success. And this just is a testament to where we’re at with pro wrestling right now. Pro wrestling is hot right now. And I get that pro wrestling does this cyclical thing. And we do this often as fans ourselves where you’re really into it for a few years and then you’re like, Yeah, I can go you know, without seeing it for a few weeks, or I don’t need to watch every single episode. And then it cycles back around where it’s like, I gotta watch everything. And that’s where we’re at right now. And a rising tide lifts all ships. And that’s kind of been a thing since AEW came in 2019, rising tide lifts all ships. AEW, doing better AEW, having success is better for WWE and better for New Japan and better for Impact Wrestling, all the way down every single company independent wrestling compaies as well. As for the match that I’m most excited for? I think this main event is really interesting and seeing MJF as a babyface has been so, so entertaining. I feel like there’s no way that MJF doesn’t leave this match as champion like he for sure is the champion at the end of this. And I think there’s going to be an iconic moment, or an iconic shot where it’s MJF holding up the championship, zoom out 80,000 fans screaming, I think that that’s going to be an iconic moment that’s going to be played in AEW videos and like legacy videos for decades to come. The match I’m most excited for though, selfishly, is Will Ospreay, Chris Jericho. I’ve been such a Will Ospreay fan that is no secret. If you listen to my interview with him from a few months ago, you know this. But Chris Jericho is one of the greatest of all time, whether you like him or not, you cannot argue against the fact that he’s one of the greatest of all time. And it doesn’t matter what gimmick he’s had, whether it’s Lionheart or it’s Y2J, suit and tie guy, the list, The Ocho, Pain Maker and everything in between, they’ve all gotten over. And here he is now 30 plus years into the business still as relevant as ever. And one of the biggest names in the business now and one of the biggest names in the business of all time, really. And I love Will Ospreay and I also hate the fact that unless you watch a lot of New Japan, you might not be that familiar with his work. So I love that this is a chance for him to display what he’s capable of on the biggest possible stage. And I think it’s going to make a lot of people go, Oh my gosh, I knew Will Ospreay was good. I’ve heard the buzz about him. Now I need to go back and watch a whole bunch of his other 26 Five-Star matches that he’s had. So I can’t wait for that match. But the whole card top to bottom. I don’t think there’s a match that you’d want to miss. And I’m so excited to see how this all plays out. I think from the second this show starts it’s going to make us all go wow, look at this. This is unbelievable. So congrats to AEW, on pulling off the success they’ve had even before the show starts. And I will say a pre-congrats to them on making this event happen. And whether you’re an AEW fan or not, this is just great for pro wrestling.

I would love to hear about the whole WWE press conference experience. It was so cool seeing you kick off that press conference and ask Cody Rhodes a question. 

Yeah, that was really cool. That was such a cool thing. I was also at the press conference for Wrestlemania. I don’t know if you saw it maybe you saw the back of my head there. But it’s such a cool thing that WWE is doing giving us access and there’s like, I saw someone make a comment that was like, Oh, these questions are all scripted. No, the questions are not scripted. And there was no one from WWE going, Okay, so Chris, what question are you going to ask? Okay, great that yeah, we can give you a mic for that question. That’s not how this happens at all. This is like an actual press conference for any other sport. The journalists, reporters, whatever you want to call us, put our hands up and Byron Saxton literally selects you and then a microphone comes over and you ask your question. There’s no one pre-approving these questions. So I think the fact that this has been a thing I mean, AEW started this with the media scrums right after Double or Nothing in 2019, the very first AEW event, they were media scrums at that point in time where you were literally holding a microphone and putting them in the person’s face. And now they’re like these press conferences, and it’s a really cool opportunity to get some actual answers. It’s also really interesting, especially when you see someone like say, Paul Heyman, how he walks the line of like, what’s real and what’s not real, and weaving in the storyline into the answers. It’s really cool. So WWE has been doing these for their bigger shows every single time they come around. So that’s Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, Survivor Series, SummerSlam. I am hoping to be there at Survivor Series, although Survivor Series is on Thanksgiving weekend, I know Thanksgiving is on a Thursday and Survivor Series is on a Saturday in Chicago, but I don’t know, might be hard to leave my baby’s first Thanksgiving to be like well, I’m gonna go to Survivor Series now. So I don’t know I’m kind of on the fence whether I’ll be there or not. But it’s a really cool thing. And it was also really cool to have WWE hand me the microphone and I got to kick off that press conference and ask the first question, so I think you’ll be seeing my face in the crowd with many more of these to come.

What kept you going when you first started creating content? 

I think the simple answer to that is just the love of the process. You have to love the process. Let’s talk about podcasting as an example here. There are so many elements that go into making a podcast, especially if it’s an interview show. You have to book the guests, then you have to research the guest, then you get to do the interview and actually record the interview, then you have to edit it and produce it and upload it and then also promote it. So there’s so many different hats that you’re wearing here. And if you don’t love the entire process, and you don’t love every single element of it, it makes it really tough. So for me, I’ve always loved creating content, we’re going way back here to when I was a backyard wrestler and I was 16 years old. I was the one editing the videos. I would take them at that time from like the video camera, we were recording on actual tape and digitising them, and then putting them into my computer and then editing them from there and uploading them to our website. I love the whole process of it. And I think that that’s a really important part of this is you can’t enjoy just the results of what you get and the views that you get and possibly the money that you make from that content without enjoying everything that goes into making that. That’s just my personal opinion. And I think that the best creators like look at how much Mr. Beast loves the process of creating a video and then putting it out there and Okay, now it’s on to the next one. And that’s always been it for me, that’s what’s kept me going from way before I even knew that there was a possibility to make any money with this. I’ve been making content since I mean, you guys know I’m 40 years old, right? You know, I got in the best shape of my life for my 40th birthday in May. But I think I started editing videos for the very first time in the year 2000. So here I am 23 years into this, and I just love it. That’s that is my short answer to it: appreciate the process, love the process. And don’t try to think about the outcome. Try to think about the process of like, getting to the next step here. So what I mean by that is like, let’s try to book the best guest Okay, great. check that off the list. Now let’s try to do the best research for this interview. Okay, great, awesome. Now let’s try to conduct the best interview and listen and follow the conversation. Okay, check that off. You know what I mean? Like I think that that’s the most important part about creating content. 

If Edge were to wrestle another match who’s the opponent and where is the setting?

I think he for sure wrestles another match. I think what we saw on SmackDown was his last match in Toronto. This is just my opinion. I don’t know the full situation here. But I think he looked at the schedule and went, Oh, man, we’re not gonna be back for another televised show in Toronto until maybe about this time next year. I don’t know if I’m still going to be wrestling by this time next year, so I think that was a send-off in Toronto and his hometown crowd. I think that’s what we saw there. I think there’s one more match. And I think that if you’ve had a career like Edge has had, and he’s really had two careers, really, you know, kind of pre-injury pre-first retirement. And now, the second version of this after the Royal Rumble returns everything after that. So I think that when you’ve had the careers that Edge has had, I think that it has to end at WrestleMania. So I think it’s a match at WrestleMania 40. The opponent? I don’t know. I could throw out some names, but I’m not gonna be right here. But I just think it’s a match at WrestleMania. And I think it’s a match where, as you know, the traditional wrestling is, you know when you’re about to retire, you put over the person that you’re wrestling, you’re the one looking up at the lights 1 2 3, and you ride off into the sunset, giving them a victory. So I think that that’s what happens. It’s WrestleMania 40. It’s a loss against somebody who I think could really benefit from a win over Edge. 

Edge possibly going to AEW? Thoughts? 

Yeah, I think there’s like a 0% chance that he goes to AEW. And I know that it’s fun when someone’s contract ends, or when someone gets let go of like, oh my gosh, are they gonna be All Elite now? I think when you look at Edge’s career, a guy started in WWE. And he at this point has wrestled nowhere else but in WWE. I think there’s a 0% chance that he’s gonna go 25 years in WWE and then go wrestle one or two or three matches elsewhere. Not happening, fun thing to think about, and those graphics that everybody makes are highly entertaining. But no, this is not happening. It just, it would not make sense for the legacy of Edge the person and the legacy of Adam Copeland the person. Like, I just don’t think that that’s what’s happening. 

What’s the best tip you could give for doing an in-person interview?

I am a big fan of in-person interviews and I’m trying to do as many in-person interviews as I can now. That’s not to say I won’t do interviews over Zoom. And I’ve got some big ones coming up in the next few weeks here. Oh, it’s true. It’s damn true. I’ve used that reference a few times but you clearly know where I’m going with that. I prefer in-person interviews so much just because you can really connect with a person, you can shake their hand, you can look them in the eye, and you can give them a hug. And there’s something about like, you know, even though Zoom is great, there’s still a tiny little slight delay, you’re talking but they’re talking and then you got to pause because they’re talking. So I prefer interviews in person, way more than doing them over Zoom. I know I’d rather spend the time and the money to fly somewhere and put myself up in a hotel and do all that stuff. I’d say the biggest tip for doing something in-person number one, you have to have great gear. Like if an interview looks and sounds like crap if your content looks and sounds like crap, people will just automatically assume that it is crap. Like perception is reality here so get a decent camera. If you don’t have a decent camera, like just make sure you’re in a well-lit area with your phone. I shot so many of my interviews on my iPhone, I still shoot like the wide-angle shot of my in-person interviews using an iPhone. That’s such an important part about it. It’s just like being in a well-lit area, having decent recording gear, you know, an okay camera, but like microphones I think are so important. I’m talking right now into a Shure SM7B. That’s kind of the gold standard of microphones. And podcasting is the microphone that Joe Rogan speaks into, you know, the black microphone, it’s like, cylindrical in shape. It doesn’t need to be a Shure SM7B but get a decent microphone. And I always say the most important part of any interview, whether it’s in-person, or it’s a virtual interview is the interview starts the second you walk into the room or the interview starts the second you walk into that, you log on to that Zoom Room and that conference room. Bring the energy like be excited to be there like be excited to be partaking in this and hopefully that person will match your energy. But I think that’s a really important thing. You can’t just walk in like, Oh, hey it’s good to meet you really appreciate you taking the time to do this with me. And then like three to one. Hey, I’m here with so and so and it’s so good to be having this conversation with you. I think you got to bring that energy from the very start. So that’s the biggest tip that I would give you. 

How do you get into the right frame of mind to record an interview? And how do you get back into the real-life mindset after recording?

I didn’t purposely put these questions back-to-back like this. But I feel like they make sense to get into the right frame of mind, I always try to be in the best mood possible, and I get that life happens, right? Other things may be going on in your world, and life may be happening around you and maybe it hasn’t been a great morning or a great day. None of that matters when the red light goes on and you hit record, because these interviews exist very much in their own little bubble, right? Someone’s gonna watch this a week from now, someone might watch this a year from now or four years from now. And the fact that your dog died that day, or the fact that you didn’t get a lot of sleep, or you know, any other terrible thing that may have happened, doesn’t matter, because within the existence of those 45 minutes, half an hour, an hour, however long that interview happens to be, it exists with this within its own little bubble. So I would say, leave all of the things that have happened that day, at the door, and you’re walking into this with a clean slate, a clean, excited slate. That person is giving you their time, I would say the very least you can do is be present with them. So that’s a really important thing to keep in mind to get into that right frame of mind. I also work really hard on like, how are we going to start the conversation? What’s the first question gonna be? Because if the first question is good, it can lead to like really setting the tone for the rest of it. The first question doesn’t go off too well, my gosh, you’re really struggling to get out of the gate here. So I would say that that’s another important thing is to really focus on what’s the first question going to be, what’s the icebreaker going to be. How are we going to build the rapport here, and then getting back into the real-life mindset after the recording? I think for me, this does kind of feel like real life. So I don’t really have a lot of advice for getting back into how life functions after that. I just think it’s like, you know, you closed up the laptop or if you’re doing an in-person interview, you get back in your car and you go home and I think it’s on to the next one, right? And it’s thinking about okay, what’s, how can we get the best content out of this in terms of making like TikToks or shorts or clips or something like that? And then it’s like on to the next one. That’s it for me. 

What wrestling move have you taken that just hurts like hell? 

I haven’t taken a tonne of wrestling moves. But I think the one that hurt the most and was certainly the scariest was when I took the Impaler DDT from Gangrel. And if you haven’t seen the video, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, go take a quick look right now on YouTube and you’ll see what I mean. I got a little too excited. This is not Gangrel who is one of the nicest people and one of the safest workers. I jumped up a little too high. I spiked myself pow right on the top of my head folded over and I was a little nervous. I mean, I landed on the top of my head. I could have been really injured here. But I landed on top of my head. I got winded instantly and I was like, Oh my gosh, did I break my neck? And I was like oh, I can feel my fingers. Oh, I can feel my toes. Okay, we’re good we’re good. But I was just so scared and I think about it to this day. I think about it to this day, like how terribly bad that could have gone. So that’s probably it for me. It didn’t hurt a tonne but more like I was just really, really scared for what could have happened. And of course, you know, I think the immediate thing when people think about moves that hurt and CVV you think about the chops. Yeah, of course they hurt and you know, my chest was really tight and sore for a while after that. So yeah, they hurt. Would I take a chop from Gunther? Yes, of course. I don’t know if I’d take more than one. I don’t know if I’d take 20 chops from him. But yeah, I would do it again. Especially if there’s a camera there and we can make another video out about that one.

What’s your favourite cuisine? 

Pizza. Is pizza a cuisine? I guess pizza technically falls under the Italian cuisine umbrella. But yeah, pizza. I love pizza. And when I was doing that get into the best shape of your life. I was eating a lot of ground turkey breasts and a lot of beef and a lot of bison, a tonne of vegetables, a lot of rice. There was no room for pizza in that diet. So every once in a while I would have like a cheat day or cheat meal I should say, not a full cheat day. But like I’d have a refeed day, really carb up and then I’ll be able to get some pizza in so pizza for sure. Number one. I am such a sucker for Domino’s Pizza. 

What title belt do you see LA Knight defending or wrestling for at WrestleMania 40?

I feel like it should be the World Heavyweight Championship. And I feel like him popping up on Raw kind of sort of lent itself to that story. So I feel like between now and WrestleMania 40 he’s either been the World Heavyweight Champion, or he’s definitely in the picture for that. So that’s what I see. And I say that because I truly believe that Roman Reigns is going to be the champion, the Universal Champion, leading up to WrestleMania 40. I don’t know how it’s going to work right now with how things are lined up, but I think it’s Cody Rhodes walking out of WrestleMania 40 and finishing the story there as the champion. But I just don’t see you know, Cody’s on Raw and Roman’s on Smackdown I don’t know as we sit here in August how that’s gonna happen, but I guess we’ll see. But LA Knight is far too talented to not hold gold at some point in his WWE career. So let’s see what happens there.

Is there such a thing as trying to monetize too late in the game? 

No, absolutely not. And at the risk of sounding like Gary Vaynerchuk here, you still got time. And look at all these creators on I mean TikTok, a tonne of them on YouTube that became famous content creators in their like 50s or 60s or later. You’re never too late. If you’re breathing, you still got time. And I think that there is an avenue and a way now to monetize any niche that you happen to be in. And I think it’s just a matter of finding someone who’s already in that niche, figuring out how they were able to get to where they’re at reverse engineer that back to where you’re at and go, Okay, when they were at step two in the game where I’m at, they were doing this thing. And then the next step after that is doing this other thing over here. Okay, great. I got to do that. But no, it’s never ever too late. And I know that we’ll talk specifically about the pro wrestling space because I think a lot of us are pro wrestling fans here. There are content creators even now that are coming into the space and that are just absolutely crushing it like look at my friend, Mr. SantiZap, who is I guess a Twitch streamer and also a TikToker when I first became connected with him, not even a year ago, so like 10 ish 11 months ago. I think he had like 80,000 followers on TikTok. And now as we sit here right now, he has 575,000 followers, and he recently quit his day job, and now he’s a full-time creator. So this definitely still exists. And there are people who are every single day finding a way to monetize what they do. So no, there is no such thing as trying to monetize too late in the game at all. Crush it, go crush it. 

What advice would you give for breaking into the reporting and behind-the-scenes of pro wrestling?

I always come back to you got to bring value, you have to be able to bring value to the space that you’re entering into. It is very obvious what is in it for you, right? I think it’s really obvious if like I, you know, I’d have a chance to interview the people I’ve always looked up to, and I’d have a chance to write these articles for a big website or something like that. But what’s the value that you are bringing? And I think that if you really truly want to break into the space,  find someone who’s just willing to say yes, like reach out to if it’s reporting you to want to do and let’s say it’s a written reporting, you want to do reach out to literally every wrestling website, it’s not hard to find those emails and say, Hey, here’s who I am. Here’s what I’m passionate about, here’s what I’m capable of doing. Here’s the value that I bring. Would you be willing to give me a chance to write an article for your website for free, and maybe you could give me some feedback? And if you’d like the article, you’re welcome to post it on your website. That’s what I think people need to do. And I think there’s too many people that are trying to skip that first step of like, the getting experience part and just skipping right to the well, what can you pay me? Yeah, my time is valuable what can you pay me? Oh, whoa, pump the brakes there, homeboy. I think it’s the idea of like, what can you bring here? What have you, what are you able to do? Are you even good? Why should I be paying you if I don’t even know what you’re capable of doing? So I’d say, find a way to intern for somebody, find a way to volunteer for somebody, find a way to write articles for free, and get somebody who’s been there and done it to give you feedback on your work, and then move from there. That is the best way to do it. Always, always, always lead with value. 

What was the hardest thing to grasp that helped you gain traction in terms of content creation? 

I think the biggest one, it was really hard to wrap my head around this two-ish years ago, was just how much content I thought was important to be creating, because I was like, Oh, I posted like one thing a day. I’m posting a photo a day or a throwback photo a day or something like that. And I saw when reels were starting to become a thing on Facebook, I saw a fellow creator that was like, I want you to do the 30-day 30 reel challenge. Post a reel day for 30 days. And I was like a reel a day? Are you kidding me? I don’t even have the content to put out one reel a day. That’s crazy! At that point, I was probably putting out like one reel a week. And I realized that the more content that you put out there, it’s kind of like the analogy here would be like taking swings at a baseball game, like how many bats are you getting here? And the more content that you put out, the more plate appearances that you’re getting, the more chances to swing that bat, the more chances to hit a home run, and the more chances to get on base. So you know, by not posting a lot of reels two-ish years ago, I just wasn’t getting as many plate appearances. Now, if you follow me on TikTok, or Instagram or YouTube, you know, I post a lot of videos. My editor actually makes 75 videos a month for me. And then there are some older videos that I repost so I’m probably posting, I would call it 90 vertical videos a month. So on average three a day, maybe more. That was the hardest thing for me to grasp is the more spaghetti you throw at the wall, the better the chance for one of those pieces to stick. So you know, you throw 100 pieces of content at a wall. Maybe one of those is a million views. And if you only posted 90 pieces of content this month, or 80 pieces of content or 70 pieces of content, maybe you wouldn’t have found that one piece of content to stick. So that was the hardest thing for me to grasp. I really think it’s about quantity over quality. And that’s not to say that the videos that I’m posting I don’t believe their quality. Because I really think that my shorts editor named Troy Blair, is so talented at the type of videos that he creates and the stories that he tells within those, but I really just think it’s a matter of like if you have an hour-long interview, and you can break that up into 10 or 12 shorter pieces of content, post them all. And you’re going to be shocked Buy some of the ones that do end up taking off. And you’re gonna be shocked by some of the ones that you thought would do really well and you know, really just fell flat. So that’s what I would say

Is there any difference between CVV, the host, and Chris at home? 

I’d say if you ask my wife Rachel, she will tell you probably not. I like to have a lot of energy. I like to have a tonne of energy. And I don’t know if there’s anything that’s really that different from when the mic is in front of my face. Or when the camera is on and when it’s not. Maybe it man might even be a little bit sillier. We were just singing and dancing to some song about dinosaurs, with our little girl Logan. So I guess you don’t see the singing and dancing to silly songs on YouTube or on the podcast. But look, I think the best creators, and I’m certainly not putting myself in the category of I’m the best creator. But I think that the best creators are authentic. Because we live in a world now where people can so easily see through the fact if you’re not being real or not, if you’re not being authentic, people can smell it from a mile away. So I think that the more authentic you can be, the easier you can connect with people. So if the person that you are off camera isn’t similar to the person that you are on camera, I think you’re really going to have a tough time connecting with that audience.

What was it like meeting and interviewing Tom Cruise in Paris? What are your thoughts on the new Mission Impossible movie?

So I love telling the story. Because it’s one of my favourite interviews that I’ve ever done. So The Rock was at the top of my bucket list for interviews. And then I was fortunate to be able to interview The Rock for the first time in 2012. And, you know, not that I’m counting or anything, but I’ve interviewed The Rock now 10 times, and hopefully there’s some more around the corner. But after I interviewed The Rock, I was like, Oh, who’s the next person that I would love to get an interview with? And it’s Tom Cruise, you know, arguably the biggest movie star in the world. Arguably the last real movie star that’s opening movies based on name value alone, that doesn’t really exist anymore. So I was so fortunate to be invited to interview him for Mission Impossible Fallout, which is the sixth Mission Impossible movie. And the red carpet, the world premiere was in Paris, the Eiffel Tower is right behind us. And we’re getting there. We’re all getting ready to do these interviews. And the way that a red carpet works is that the media kind of all lines up behind like a red velvet rope type of thing and like a partition of some sort. And I was I don’t know, 30 40 people down the line. So when Tom Cruise came out, he signed some autographs he posed with some photos with some fans and then he started doing interviews. And that’s like, he does the first interview. Then the second interview and the third interview, he works his way down the line. And the closer he gets you kind of like oh my gosh, Tom Cruise’s four media outlets away. He’s 20 feet away from me, I can see him. And so if each interview is two or three minutes, oh my gosh, I’m like 12 15 minutes away from interviewing Tom Cruise. And then you know, he moves one interview closer and then one interview closer. And then all of a sudden he’s right next to me. And he’s doing an interview with one of my best friends Jake Hamilton. Oh, my gosh, I’m next. Here we are, we’re doing the interview. And then he was so kind, so generous with his time. And he, he looks you right in the eyes when you’re talking. And even though there are 1000s of screaming fans, snapping photos and yelling things. It is as if it’s just you and him having a private conversation, and he’s so incredibly present for that. And then afterwards, I’m like, Would it be okay, if we take a photo he is like of course, yes. Then we took this great photo, it actually hangs on my wall along with some other great moments that I’ve really been fortunate to be part of. And it’s me, him, the red carpet and the Eiffel Tower literally behind us like it looks so cool that it almost looks like it’s green screen. So one of my favourite moments and to answer the second part of your question, I liked the Mission Impossible movie. I liked Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One I liked it. didn’t love it. Like I think objectively It’s a great movie and what really holds it together are some absolutely insane stunts. Perhaps some of the best stunts in the history of cinema. But I just think the story of the movie is just a little flat. I don’t want to give too much away for people who haven’t seen the movie yet but the whole story centering around AI and like at one point like changing the lights at this party they’re at it was just a little far fetched and I just thought that Mission Impossible six had a great story that from start to finish had you like, invested in everything that was going to happen. And I think that most Mission Impossible fans would agree that number six is the best of the franchise and number two is not the best and the worst in the franchise. So I’m excited to see what they do for the next one. And I think that it’s really setting up here. Like how you can outdo that motorcycle off the cliff and then fight on the train. Those two stunts are so good. I don’t know how you can now do that for part two, but it’s Tom Cruise and he is going to find a way. 

Best way to grow a podcast? I’m already uploading weekly interviews and making TikToks and shorts. 

This might sound too simplistic, but this was some advice that I followed really early on. If you’re posting one interview a week, honestly, the best way to double your download numbers or at least come close to doubling your download numbers for the podcast is to double the amount of podcasts that you make. Like seriously, if you’re getting I’m making up numbers here, 1,000 downloads a week from posting one episode a week. Well, what would happen if you double that up? You probably get pretty close to 2,000 downloads a week. And I know that’s a lot, especially if you’re doing interviews a lot that goes into making an interview and you know, finding those guests and everything else that goes along with that. But I truly think that we’re in a game right now. And I don’t know how long this is going to be around for. But I think that we are in a moment of content creation right now. Where the more you create, the more followers you’ll get, the more views you’ll get. If you’re monetized, the more money you’ll be able to make from this, like, there are really no diminishing returns from posting more content. So I think that that’s if you have the bandwidth to do it yourself. If you’re editing your own videos, if you have the bandwidth to do it yourself, I would say try to post as much content as you can. If you have the ability to hire someone out and have someone make videos for you edit videos for you, I would say do that as well. But I really think that if right now you’re posting one a week, trying to make a two week if right now you’re posting one short a day, why not try to make it two shorts a day? Or if it’s seven a week, could you make a 10? I really think that that’s a big part of it. These on-camera videos are doing so well. I mean, I personally could be doing a lot more than myself, I probably should be leaning into that a lot more than I am. But I think that that’s a really big thing is just like make more content, if you have the capability to do that, you know, if you have the free time and the bandwidth to do that, that’s what I would say is the best way to grow a podcast. And also if you have the ability to do it, try to be a guest on a podcast that is within your niche, or do a guest swap with somebody who’s in your niche. Because the best way to find podcast listeners are to go on other podcasts because you know for sure that the person that’s listening to that is a podcast listener. 

As a man who has interviewed so many people, are there any people left that you’d say that you’d want to get an interview with? 

Oh, yeah, there’s still a lot. And I’ve had people that are like, Oh, you’ve interviewed everybody in the wrestling space. There are still so many that I haven’t like Vince McMahon I’ve talked about at great length. Of course, he’s at the very top of my list of someone I want to interview but I also have never done an interview with Bret Hart, Scott Steiner, Sting, Edge, Triple H, Christian, or Shawn Michaels, like there’s still a lot, there’s still a lot of people that I want to be able to do interviews with. And of those people I just listed, I think all of them are probably possible. Now they’re all still with us. They’re all still actively doing things in the wrestling space, I think it’s possible. Of those, I think maybe one or two of those might even be able to happen this year. So stay tuned here, and we’ll find out. Could it be Bret Hart on Insight with Chris Van Vliet before the end of the year? Could it be Scott Steiner? Maybe? I mean, I’ve been in the same room as Triple H a bunch of times he does all those press conferences for WWE. So I mean, me asking a question at the WWE press conference have Triple H doesn’t really count as an interview but maybe down the line. This could turn into I don’t know something else, maybe a longer interview Tim, I guess we’ll see.

Eric Esch better known as Butterbean (@butterbeanboxer) is a professional boxer and mixed martial artist. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Atlanta, GA to talk about how Diamond Dallas Page and DDPY helped him get out of a wheelchair and lose over 200 pounds! He also discusses his legendary boxing career, being the “King Of The 4 Rounders”, how he got the nickname “Butterbean”, being invited to be part of Brawl for All in WWE, the vicious knockout to Bart Gunn, the invitation from Johnny Knoxville to knock him out on an episode of Jackass, why he never fought Mike Tyson during his prime, wanting one more fight before he retires, his mixed martial arts career and more.

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Quote I’m thinking about:
“Do not fear failure but rather fear not trying.” – Roy T. Bennett

On working with DDP:

“Well, the main thing was stretching my legs. The muscles in my legs were so bound because I was at a 90-degree angle. I mean, if we walk up, you know, Hey, bro, how you doing? Yeah, I’d be in your chest. My head. My head. Was that just bent over? Wow. I mean, I have some friends that are little people. And I was about their height. That’s how bent over, I was in a wheelchair. I couldn’t walk.”

On getting connected with Dallas:

“I mean, they got a hold of me probably 10 years ago trying to hook me in Dallas up. I said I’m not doing yoga. It ain’t gonna help me, yoga? I laughed at him. And then I had Dallas on a podcast mean, Bas Rutten, Flex Wheeler. Flex goes Dallas, you gotta help Butterbean. Dallas goes I have a show coming up, called Change or Die. He goes, I can’t tell you much about it because we just thought it up. I don’t have much to say about it. And I said I want to be on it. And I was willing to do anything just to be able to walk.”

On preparing for another fight:

“Yeah, I mean, people laugh because I mean, you know, I’ve done appearances and things and I was talking about fighting. The lady comes on the internet and goes, he can’t fight. He’s in a wheelchair. You were right. I was in a wheelchair. But that’s the remarkable part about this is to come from being wheelchair. I was inducted into the Alabama Hall Boxing Hall of Fame. Didn’t go I was too embarrassed. So now it’s like, I’m gonna prove to the world if you have discipline, and you’re determined to do something you can accomplish anything. It’s just like, just like Vinny Pazienza, broke his neck came back and won a world title.”

On wanting to fight Mike Tyson:

“I would love to fight Tyson. That’s one of the guys that we’re seriously talking about. And that’s why we’re here. We’re shooting basically a sizzle reel for a major company to show like, he’s serious. He came from a wheelchair to like being a badass like he used to be. I never fought 300 pounds. When I walk in the ring, I’ll be about 280. I’ve never fought that light. I’ve never fought under 315. That was the lightest I’ve ever fought is 315.”

Did it ever get close?

“I don’t know. I don’t think so. I mean, right now, it’s probably the closest it’s ever been. Because there are serious serious people in the business that want to see this tape and know I’m serious. I’m very serious about it.”

On fighting Jake Paul:

“I would love to fight Jake Paul. But he’s too smart to fight me. I’m being honest. I mean, I’m not saying he’s a coward or anything like that, but I would destroy him. I think he knows I mean, I hit way too hard for him.”

On Jake Paul’s boxing:

“It’s getting better. You know he made a statement a while back about me, he’s like, they said something about him. He goes I’m not I’m not like Butterbean, I’m not I’m not a joke. Yeah, ever since I wanted to fight him. Just to show him I mean if he thinks I’m a joke, I want to fight him.”

On strangers challenging him to fights:

“I really never did. When I first started as a bouncer had one guy you know, kind of challenged me. I’m gonna do it. If you beat me up. I’m gonna lose my job and won’t have a boxing career. If you know how to talk to people, you can get out of fights. I mean, if money wasn’t involved, I didn’t want to fight, it hurts.”

On being brought in for the Brawl For All:

“I was supposed to be on the pay-per-view before Tyson got out. Me and Tyson were going back and forth about me and him fighting. No bad blood me and Mike get along great. But they didn’t want us in the same arena because they thought it’d be legit. See to me, fighters don’t fight like that. I mean, if you’re a legit fighter, you’re a professional fighter. You act like a professional. You don’t get in a fight prior to the fight. There’s no sense, it’s stupid. But they didn’t want to put us together. So, Bart, my understanding was supposed to lose to Dr. Death. And he didn’t, he knocked him out. So I was brought in as punishment. That’s the story I got behind the scenes.”

What Vince told Butterbean before the WrestleMania match:

“Vince would say Bean just give it all you got. I mean, it was like okay, I’ll do it. I mean, it was easy. It was pretty easy. If he had come out like brawling, I just went back to tough man days three one-minute rounds. So I went back to just giving everything you got just go wide. Open your box and get three minutes. You gotta pace yourself a little bit. People don’t realise how long three minutes is. One minute goes too quickly. And he tried to box, bad mistake.” 

On knocking out Johnny Knoxville:

“They just called me up and I thought it was like a movie. And my son goes Dad, you never seen Jackass? I said no. He said just make sure you know what they want you to do before you go. So I go they want me knockout Johnny. All right. And so I thought I was talking to Johnny about like, the script. You know, what do you want? How do you want to do this? They go, we really want you to knock me out. Like okay, in Johnny goes. That’s when I got scared because me and Johnny became friends. He goes when you agreed to knock me out so quick he said I got terrified. You know, he goes out and let’s say a 1,200-pound bull charges him. He said I got scared.”

On possibly becoming a wrestler:

“They actually talked to me and they’ve even you know, they’ve come to me and Vince even said he says you’re more of a wrestler than a boxer. But the money is making so much more money boxing and I was fighting so regularly. I was fighting, I fought three times a month.”

What is Butetrbean grateful for:

“DDP, all the people that do support me and just to be alive.”

Shane Helms (@shanehelmscom) is a professional wrestler known for his time in WWE as “Sugar” Shane Helms and in WWE as The Hurricane and Gregory Helms. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Detroit, MI to talk about how his career started in WCW as a Cruiserweight, being part of 3 Count with Shannon Moore and Evan Karagias, what happened when WWE bought WCW, his “stripped down” debut match in WWE, becoming The Hurricane, leaning into being a comedic wrestler, working with The Rock and getting a victory over him, Super Rosey and Mighty Molly, getting serious with Gregory Helms, his current job as a producer for WWE, producing Logan Paul’s matches and much more!

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Quote I’m thinking about:

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” – Winston Churchill

On being furloughed in the pandemic:

“Because I had like, originally, because I had a talent contract and they were working on the legends deal. Because of that and actually being an employee, as a producer, I was in a temporary phase. So when the pandemic hit, you know, just the temp workers are the ones that get the x kind of right away.”

On what a WWE producer does:

“And I’m not going to fully tell. You can’t have all my secrets. You know, we’re kind of the go-between between creative and the talent we get with the talent. We get the assignment from creative to what we want to do for our segments that night. We get with the talents and between us and the talent, we go out and try to put out the segment that they’ve given us to the best we can.”

On producing the Johnny Knoxville vs. Sami Zayn match:

“Yeah, and I knew going in there’s gonna be some people they’re gonna hate this. And so I just completely ignored those people from day one. I was like, there’s a certain portion of the audience that is not gonna like this no matter what. So to hell with them. I’m aiming for you know, the audience that I thought would like it. I know being in Gorilla for that your own headset. Just the laughter in Gorilla is popping as loud as anything I’ve ever heard. It’s the most pops I’ve ever seen in Gorilla.”

On the Royal Rumble return:

“That hurt so bad. That was the first time and only time, this is a true story, that the referee came and asked me if was I Okay, and I said, No. I thought I broke my back. Like when I hit and I kind of landed on my [back] my heels hit first. It was Bobby Lashley and Big E gorilla pressed me and threw me over. And I kind of hit heels first. And they kind of shot out from underneath me. And I just went down on my tailbone. And I kind of had probably what would be described as a little bruise, you know, probably on my lower spine, something like that. Because like, everything hurt. That was one of the most painful bumps I’ve ever taken in my entire career.”

On the Steve Austin and Triple H elimination at the Royal Rumble:

“Well, all I knew was that I was gonna go in and get thrown out. That’s all I was told. Okay, and now I knew Triple H came out before me and this is his big return. So you got to think like, here’s where the performer in me thinks like, okay, he’s going to get this monster pop. So whoever comes, you know, whoever comes after, sometimes that pop is comparatively going to look diminished because of who goes before. And I’m like Mman, I gotta follow this monster pop, you’re gonna have Triple H and Steve Austin, two of the biggest stars in the game going at it and here’s my little green ass coming out there. So I was just trying to figure something out. So I came up with the idea it was, you know, 100% my idea. But I’m so new to this company. I don’t know how to pitch this. How do I go to these two mega stars and go hey, I got an idea. I grab both of y’all by the neck and I’m gonna be running this thing for a hot second. I just didn’t want to come across as you know big-headed or anything. So what happened was I knew Kurt Angle a little bit more than anybody else, any of the WWF regulars at the time, outside of Matt and Jeff of course. And I just wanted to Kurt and I was just hoping that somehow if I explained the idea to him that he would help me go pitch it. He loved the idea. And he goes, go run it by Steve. And I’m like, okay, so I go to Steve. I pitched the idea because he goes I love it go run it by Pat Patterson. You know, so I had to go run it to Pat back go love it go with it by Hunter. So I had to pitch it 4 times, each time just like such a nerve-wracking day but they were all just so gracious. And like yeah, I love it and understood the entertainment of what I was going for with the spot making the most out of that moment. And man to this day when somebody meets brings that up. I’ll ask them who won and most of the time they can’t even tell me who won. And to me, that’s a perfect example of what making a moment means. I made you remember that. And you don’t remember who won and then went on to Main Event WrestleMania that year. So of the two, I would have rather been the one that won and went on to Main Event Wrestlemania. But as it stood, that’s a perfect example of making a moment.”

On Kurt Angle being great at comedy and in-ring:

“Oh, does that mean we weren’t? Oh, wow. See, Gregory Helms would be very upset. But that’s actually why I had to. That’s why I did the heel turn because everybody got so swept up in the comedy, creative and my company included, that they forgot I could wrestle. And that’s why I had to turn heel and be Gregory Helms. You know, because there’s still to this day, even when I worked with some talents if they only knew me as Hurricane, it’s like, oh, this is just the funny guy. Not understanding how hard that character was compared to all the tough guy stuff anyway. You know, having a character with layers is way harder than a big mean tough guy cutting a promo and go win a match. That’s the easiest thing in the business to do. You know, so that being that Gregory Helms, that was me having to remind them, hey, I can still do this other part of the business as well.”

On transitioning from comedy to a more serious role:

“It wasn’t difficult for me, because I mean, I knew there was going to come a time when it had to happen. You know, everything gets watered down to a degree or hits a low at some point. And Ric Flair really kind of jumpstarted did, because that was you know, doing a lot of stuff with him, And he just one time just pulled me aside and Ric has been so you know, such a mentor to me and in different ways. And, you know, he just pulled me to the side one day, and he’s like, You’re too good for this gimmick. And, you know, it wasn’t about like, the gimmick was bad, but I can only go so far. And that company was only going to let me go so far with that gimmick. And I understood that too. So and I believed him and it’s just like, you know, I need to go and remind him of who I was before I came here because Sugar Shane is one of the best light heavyweights in the world. And then, you know, that same guy was Hurricane you know, Tom Hanks that did Big. That’s the same Tom Hanks that used to do Philadelphia. But in wrestling, that message wasn’t coming across. You know, so until it was I mean, I did The Hurricane really good. You know, part of his, it was just because I did it really well. And I committed to it, and I got so good at being the funny guy that just became who I was. Yeah, you know, and I wasn’t getting the opportunities to do serious stuff. So it wasn’t it was kind of, it was time for it at that point.”

On interacting with The Rock:

“It’s not easy. And all the pressure was on me. You know, people don’t realise that. Like, if I go out there and stink it up with The Rock, he’s still gonna be The Rock. You’re never gonna see me again. Even I mean, even going into the match, you know, people. You know, we were talking a little bit earlier about Logan and Ricochet. And who’s the pressure on? Well, as a producer, yes, the pressure is on me I’m gonna get yelled at if this goes sideways. But um, yeah, with Rocky. I was like, we had all the pressures on me. Because if when we have that match, if this match sucks, he’s still gonna be The Rock. He’s still going to WrestleMania against Steve Austin. You won’t see my little [ass] if go out there and blow it with Th Rock. Then it’s gonna be over for me.”

On the origins of What’s Up With That?

“I don’t really even remember the first time I said it or why. It was just one of those things that Brian [Gewirtz], like I said, Brian, would encourage me to go off into these comic book tangents you might have picked up that I’ll go off on a tangent. So whatever the promo I beat and I was like, Yeah, it’d be you against Christian and just go off into one of your things. And I would just be talking normally, like when I was starting to introduce The Hurricane character, and then it would turn to me at the time. And I don’t know even why I decided to do that. Because you know, you watch superhero movies, and none of them like that. I have no idea why I started doing that. And then just kind of getting lost in my own like, nonsense. Hey, what’s up with that? You know, and but the cameraman was laughing and like we but we were bust takes with the camera. And so that’s a good sign because they’ve seen everything. And you know, they’re, you know, just so like I said, they’ve seen everything, so to pop them, that generally would always tell me something if I can pop the production crew.”

On the additional superheroes: 

“Yeah, that’s, that’s a thing that I think when it’s all said and done in my career is really examined by you know, people to do those things. The fact that I gave a new character to three other people like that’s how strong that character was. Because between Molly, Rosey and Stacy Keibler and when she was Super Stacy, three other people came in and did my gimmick and became new versions of themselves. And that’s pretty unique. I don’t think That’s happened a lot. Every now and then, but you know you don’t want two Stone Colds, you don’t want two Undertakers so when you do that you you got to be careful about not watering yourself down to a degree. So when I had Rosey first that one actually concerned me at first because I’d already done that with Molly. I turned Molly for Molly Holly into Mighty Molly. So when the Rosey thing was pitched to me, you know, I wasn’t sure at first, but I like Matty so much as a friend. Because I’ve worked with him when he was in Three Minute Warning a couple of times and then he was when he was managed by Teddy Long. I think they were still doing a white boy challenge or something like that, him and, Rodney Mack. No, I worked with him then too. And we got along really well.”

On a Hall of Fame induction:

“I think he should, you know, and I think if you know, Shane Helms’ story in terms of how, you know, I think I really helped light heavyweight wrestling as well as anybody, you know. Definitely, there are people you know, I think they did more than and definitely a lot of people did less. But, you know, the style I brought as Sugar Shane, I think that’s the style you see on TV the most now. And, you know, I was definitely one of the first pioneers of that in terms of, I was studying Lucha, I was studying the European style and the Japanese style. And in the American style, both old school and the northeastern style, you know, the Philadelphia area style. So I really tried to like combine all of that into this, you know, to this hybrid thing. And if you look at that, and you look at what I did with Hurricane and what I did with the three count gimmick, and then what I did with Gregory Helms and as Gregor Helms, I think that was actually my best body of work in terms of You know, match structure and mechanical mechanics and technique that was probably my best body of work. But to go from a beloved character to where people want to absolutely loathe me, yeah, like, that’s not as easy as one might think, as well. So I was very happy with that. And then to come back and just to stay around as long as I have, and I think my producing gimmick, I mean, my producing career, I think it is kind of a gimmick, I guess. You know, that’s going well, you know, I still got so much to learn. So I’m looking for it. And I’ve done a lot of good stuff so far. But I think as the more I learn, and the more I grow as a producer, I think that’s gonna get better. I might actually be known more for that. I think going forward.”

On Nikki A.S.H. and discussing it with Shane Helms:

“She came to me and asked me what are thoughts on and they would at different times when I first came. And I’ve gotten this question a million times, would you ever consider letting somebody else be The Hurricane? Like, that’s an interesting thought, that I become the mentor to the new Hurricane. That was like, you know, hey, if you guys present me something interesting, I will do whatever. You know, I like producing but if you need to own screen character, if it helps another talent. Now, here’s my thing with Nikki. And I will do something with you on screen. If it helps you. I don’t need it to help me. And I don’t want to detract from you. Because right now, one of the things against her was that everybody would think of me when they saw her. So now, if you’re trying to fight that it’s not going to help if I show up on screen with her, that’s just going to reinforce it. So, you know, I was trying to help her figure out a way for her to do her own version of this thing that I had done so well. So it was a tough spot for her too. But I supported it from the very beginning. Like whatever you need, I will help you and I you know, I gave her advice whenever she asked for it, which, you know, she did a lot which was a good credit to her.”

What is Shane Helms grateful for:

“My family, my health and the people who stuck with me.”

Shelton Benjamin (@sheltyb803) is a professional wrestler currently signed to WWE. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios at Wynn Las Vegas to talk about his incredible career that started when he signed with WWE in 2000. He discusses being training partner with Brock Lesnar, what Brock is really like outside of the ring, being part of the legendary OVW class of 2002 with Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar, Dave Bautista, John Cena and Rico, his iconic match with Shawn Michaels on Raw in 2005, how they came up with the idea for the springboard into a Sweet Chin Music, the voting for Taboo Tuesday that lead to being Chris Jericho’s legit surprise opponent, being part of Team Angle with Charlie Haas, working with Chavo and Eddie Guerrero early in his career, the story behind Shelton’s Momma storyline, Shawn Michaels saying he has a guaranteed spot in the WWE Hall of Fame, who he would like to induct him and much more!

 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: “All growth starts at the end of your comfort zone” – Tony Robbins

Meeting Brock Lesnar for the first time:

“Yes, I do, actually. And you know, it almost annoys me to tell the story. Because we were at a wrestling tournament in I want to say it was Fargo at you know, their university and Brock was still in junior college. And of course, we’re gonna say, you know, he’s hungry. And long story short, he won the tournament because I lost a match and we would have wrestled, but he won the tournament. And he was a junior college kid and I just remember everyone who saw him was like you see that? There’s never been a scrawny version of Brock that that I saw like, from the time we saw him he was rocking it. Our coach was salivating to the point where just because he was in junior college they immediately started recruiting him. So I’m kind of over in the corner like you know, I’m your heavyweight and you are recruiting another heavy right in front of me. But I mean you see the guy how would you not?”

A surprising Brock Lesnar fact:

“Something that you will be shocked to learn. Well, yes, everyone knows the Brock Lesnar persona. Now, if Brock is your friend he will give you the shirt off his back, the nicest guy in the world, fun and cool to hang around with. That might surprise people how actually cool Brock can be if he likes you, keyword is if he likes you. But if he doesn’t like you he’s just what you’re seeing on TV, that’s not an act. You’re not seeing a different version of Brock. You know, I spoke on this earlier Brock is not acting, Brock is not playing a role. Brock is Brock. What you’re seeing that’s real. Brock does not. He’s not social. He doesn’t give a blip. Like Brock is Brock so don’t get it twisted. And yes, he’s a world destroyer. I call them a juggernaut like Brock is, he’s a bad boy.”

On being underrated

“Um, yes, from an in-ring. Actually, take this back. I feel like I am an extremely good pro wrestler. But that being said at times, I do feel like I could have been a better WWE superstar.”

On the backstage reaction to that Superkick:

“So standing ovation. When I went back to the curtain Vince and everyone’s clapping and even Michael Hayes is like, you did something special tonight. And I was like, really? Again, I didn’t realise how special was, you know, I watched it back. This match is great. It’s really good. And but again, like I’m so like, is it really that good?I didn’t think of it until I kept getting it the very next week. You know, the kick is in the opening promos. I am like Okay, now, I’m starting to get it now. I’m starting to really get it.”

On the unplanned Taboo Tuesday match against Chris Jericho:

“Me and Chris have spoken about this, our match was the only match where it was 100% we don’t know what we’re going to do. Every other match has some sort of gimmick involved, you know, falls count anywhere or hardcore match or something. So everyone has some idea of what they were going to do. They just, you know, and who with. Chris had 15 guys, and they refuse to give him any information. And he kept, you know, he kept trying to get a feel for who’s it leaning towards, like, they wouldn’t tell him anything. Me, I was expecting to be in the back watching the show. So I wasn’t even asking anything. But Chris was trying to get an idea. So Chris was going around going, you know, talking to guys he goes, you know, to Dave [Batista] and be like, Hey, do you know when I do this, and I do this like, and Dave will kind of go, you know, I’m just using Dave as an example. But he is just kind of getting an idea of do people know my stuff and just trying to plant seeds for everyone. And he came to me and he’s like, Hey, Shelton, do you? Do you know when I do this? And I said I’ll stop you right there, Chris. I know all your stuff. He goes knew I didn’t have to worry about you. So I’m gonna go. You know, maybe you have to figure out something with Jonathan Coachman. And like you said when they announced the winner, I wasn’t paying attention. Like I was waiting for them to say Batista’s name. So and if you look at the tape, my reaction is a little delayed because I was like, Oh, wait, me? So I knew nothing. Went down to the ring. I knew nothing. We hadn’t called anything. It was all like I said, Chris, I know all your stuff, that’s still that’s as much as I know. You know, any information was conveyed to him. The ref never told me anything. So when we locked up as soon as we locked up off, he goes what’s your finish? I said T-Bone. He just kind of backed off and then we locked up and from there, I just listened. And he called everything. I just listened and followed. And when he said okay, for a finish, he’s like, Alright, stop short. I’m gonna jump catch with your finish. He still didn’t know what my finish was. So he just kind of jumped in turn and just did this. I try to hit him with a T-bone 123. I heard 3 and I was like, wait, what?”

Who did Shelton Benjamin learn from the most?

“I still say, Eddie. Because again, I was married to him for eight months. But I’ve said it before, every time I wrestled Shawn Michaels learning experience every time I wrestled Triple H. learning experience every time I wrestled Undertaker learning experience every time I wrestled Rey Mysterio learning experience. So I’m constantly learning from all of these great guys but at the same time. I’m learning from people behind the scenes to Arn Anderson was the brains behind Team Angle. Like Kurt was the figurehead but as far as our moves and our style and how we developed as a team, Arn Anderson.”

On Chad Gable:

“Gable, holy cow. That guy is a workhorse he is such a badass. I don’t think he realized how much respect I have for him. That guy’s badass. So and to see him like, like, say he’s turned on his comical chops. He’s constantly surprising me and I’m like, this would be a breakout star. We’re constantly trying to develop new talent, but I’m like man, this guy’s got it all. He’s my favorite worker. Like because you can put him in the ring with anyone, he can make him look good. He can toss anybody around you know? Like, when he tossed Braun Strowman it’s like you’re not supposed to be able to do that. But man, I’m so impressed by his work. So impressed.”

On being accompanied to the ring by his momma:

“I had a meeting with Vince and I was just like, okay right now I’m not doing anything, I want to contribute. And I had an idea and like first, and I don’t know where he came up with the momma thing. So when he first approached me about it, he basically said, How would you feel about having your real mama on the road? And I said, Absolutely not. There’s no way I’m going to expose my mother to this locker room. Because as nice as a guy I am. I love everybody on the roster. But if one person were to say something frost to my real mom, I would have had a really short career. So yeah, and so, like I said when he said it I was just kind of like huh, because the only reference I had to that was Buff Bagwell and his mom. I guess Jim Cornette used to always reference his mom way back in the day, but I don’t remember her ever making a television appearance, but I definitely remember the Buff stuff. So when things started with that, and I’ve said this before, I feel like that whole storyline gets a bad rap. Because my mom, Thea Vidale who’s, you know, she’s a comedian. And you know, she’s been on TV shows like I said, Me and Brandi have a mother in common. Me and the singer Brandi have a mother [in common]. When they brought her in they narrowed it down to just her and one other woman. And, yeah, it was like soon as she walked in, I knew exactly who she was. [Were you in the casting process?] Yes, it was me one of our producers and Vince. Ultimately they left it down to me and but everyone agreed Thea like she blew it out of the water and the day she did that audition in front of us was the day she made her debut on television, we made a decision that day. And she was a lot of fun to work with on camera because she is obviously way more animated than me. But you know, it was easy to slip into that whole momma’s boy role because like she had a very domineering personality, to say the least. And I was having a lot of fun with it. Like some of the skits like particularly when you know I walked in on her and Mr. McMahon with his pants down like, I was having so much fun with that. But unfortunately, like she has some medical problems and you know some other things that you know, I guess management wasn’t happy with you know. Basically, she got let go before the story could be completed. You know, that’s kind of a buzzword these days. Yeah, we didn’t finish the story because, as I said, I was supposed to be a momma’s boy, you know, and it’s successful, but at some point, I had to grow up and stand on my own without my mom.”

On The Gold Standard:

“I had been toying with the idea of dyeing my hair because they put us, they reformed World’s Greatest tag team. And while Charlie, I love Charlie to death, he’s my brother, best friend. But at that time, I tasted single success to me going back into the tag team was a step backwards. And so, I was thinking okay what can I change about myself, what can I add to make myself that basically changed up made myself more interesting and more marketable? And but I didn’t want to do anything so drastic that if I didn’t like it I couldn’t kind of morph back. I thought about dyeing my hair blonde, but I always held off. Because at the time, Viscera still had the blonde Mohawk, you know, so for me, that would be encroaching on his gimmick. So when he became Big Daddy V, and you know, at this time now  I’m in a tag team and I went to him, I said, Hey, I thought if I dye my hair blonde, do you mind? He was like, I don’t care. I’m not doing blonde anymore, knock yourself out. So because I had his blessing, I was like, Okay, and what finally, what finally made me pull the trigger on it. I don’t even think he knows this, but Stone Cold had addressed the talent, you know, talking about, you know, coming out of your shell, working hard to be a star like taking risks and all these things. And it was that day like, I’m listening to Stone Cold and I’m going I think there was a hint of asking for forgiveness, not permission. And that day, I was like, I walked out of the meeting, I went to one of the one of the girls, that’s hair like, Hey, would you bleach my hair for me? And I bleached it.”

On the Ain’t No Stopping Me Now theme returning:

“So I have been trying. Fans, anyone listening, I’ve been trying. I’ve asked over and over since the day I got back I’m still trying. I and I just keep going, please. Like I was making it very public that I don’t like my theme music. I want my old music. And like for, you know, for reasons that even I, I don’t know, if I’m even willing to accept that they may be true to me. No, I don’t know if I’m willing to accept that. But, you know, they just haven’t conceded to give me back my own music because I want it too.”

On The Hurt Business:

“The Hurt Business will always be something I hold near and dear, I consider it one of the greatest accomplishments, one of the greatest factions one of the greatest situations. I have nothing but love for The Hurt Business. Like nothing but love. You know, again, with the world being in a situation it was like, and, you know, in a lot of cases, limited talent, you know, for safety, obviously, everything’s understandable. But the company still needed people to step up. Like, yes, we understand what’s going on. But we’re still a business, you know, the show must go on, we need people to step up. And I think myself, Bobby, MVP, and Cedric did exactly that. And like I said what we created, all of us are extremely proud of what we’re able to do expressly during that time when the company really needed something. And like I said, that came out of nowhere, it was a surprise to all of us. And again, it was just such a great time. The biggest regret is that we never were in front of a live crowd.”

On a potential Hurt Business reunion:

“Definitely. First of all, I think they’re there. I think there are more books and novels for The Hurt Business. Personally, you know, because when things as all things do, when things fell apart I don’t think any of us were happy about it. Yeah, we did everything we could. It was above our pay grade, and our job is to perform Yep, the decision-makers have made the decisions. Our job is to perform. So that’s what we do. But at the same time, it’s like, man, we really, really want it to just have that one time we can just walk out in front of an actual crowd. You know, because it’s one thing to know that what you’re doing is getting over when there’s no one around. You know, but we still felt it. So we wanted to you know, we all wanted to experience Okay, The Hurt Business in front of a live crowd. That’s, you know, that’s what we work for it as we live for. Yeah, that adrenaline rush there’s, there’s nothing like it.”

What is Shelton Benjamin Grateful for:

“Health, being the father of two daughters and the life that I have.”

Billy Corgan (@billy) is the lead singer of The Smashing Pumpkins and also the owner and promoter of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios in Las Vegas to talk about NWA 75 on August 26 & 27 in St Louis. He also discusses the growth of NWA, the decision to make Tyrus the NWA World’s Heavyweight Champion, what he learned from working in TNA, becoming the subject of a Family Guy joke, will there ever be a “Rat in a Cage” match, working with Eli Drake (LA Knight) in NWA, balancing Smashing Pumpkins and wrestling, finding a media partner for NWA and much more!

On NWA’s not being nostalgia but a revival:

“I hear it all the time. Not just in regards to the NWA. I hear it all the time. Not everybody I talked to is like an NWA fan. They might be old school, WWF fan or whatever. They just don’t get it. And yeah, so my whole point of the NWA at this point, going about six years into owning the company, is trying to figure out that formula where you can take really good mainstream professional wrestling, and bring it to the people and once again, sort of bring back those greater numbers.”

Where does NWA fit right now in the wrestling world:

“I think we’re properly positioned to be the next big company. I know people will kind of go, how does that work? I think it has to do with my access to mainstream media. I think it has access has to do with my access to every network in the world who’s interested in what I’m doing, and I’m just trying to find the right business models with them. And I think it has to do with presenting a mainstream wrestling product that the average person if presented on television will respond to. I think, once the NWA can get in that position if we can get in that position, and you could argue that’s a big if, but if we get in that position, I think we will run side by side with the biggest companies in the world. Because wrestling by large is a cheap product to make. That’s always been its great attraction to television. And it has a consistent audience, they’ll show up week after week. So getting from let’s call it the bottom of the pile, to the top of the pile. Now that’s a vast distance. But if you can cross that desert and get to the other side, well, it’s pretty wide open. In terms of product, I think the NWA fits quite comfortably between AEW and WWE. WWE has a very hardcore fan base, but they do business in a very particular way. Of course, that’s much debated through the years, Vince, of course, is the only promoter that’s ever made money in wrestling. So we always have to pay tribute to that. AEW, of course, is running a very brand-specific product. Tony has found business where people didn’t think business could be found and all credit to him on that. But again, that mainstream up-the-middle position of professional wrestling is sorely lacking. Many people would argue that WWE is that mainstream thing. I would argue it’s its own version of niche.”

On figuring out the algorithm: 

“I don’t mean this disrespectfully. And I don’t mean it disrespectfully to Mr. Beast. Look, I signed with the record label in 1990. And as an artist, content creator, you know, I had all the pride and ego of somebody like, hey, you need me and I could never understand why the labels treated us so poorly. And they paid for that over time. But the essential idea is it’s still the networks that are the thing because they’re the people that have to make those decisions. Most talents rise and fall meteorically in windows. Some stick around, which is why down the street we have a bunch of Gordon Ramsay restaurants every time you turn around, right? He’s built his brand off of what became his television personality, right? Where I’m going with this is I understand the pride of a content creator, I understand the pride of an NWA to make 100 plus hours of television a year now, like, that’s a big deal for me, right? Yeah. Not to mention the expense that’s involved in the logistics that are involved. But if your YouTube if your Paramount Plus, Peacock, whatever, they have to figure out who’s hot in the market, and that’s ultimately what it’s about. So what I’m trying to say to you is, I think we’re already there. If you look at the losses that are going on, I think it was it was a Peacock, that just came out $635 million loss in three months. But why are they willing to endure that loss? Me speculating? It’s because what’s coming is the business. So what I’m saying is, we’re already there, they just haven’t figured out the math yet.”

On wanting to take the NWA live in the future:

“Yeah, I think everybody knows that you know, again, you have a smart audience, you know, when you run live event stuff, that’s a lot more expensive than say putting stuff on TV. So you know, just like, look at the respect that you must give something like Raw that’s which is run, how many years. It’s like running a live show on time, delivering, you know, main events and stuff that really matters. Keep an audience coming back. I mean, that is quite an accomplishment. You look at the infrastructure and stuff like that. So when you look at why an Endeavour would pay $9 billion for WWE, one person would sit there who doesn’t understand say, well, you’re just buying wrestlers and a ring. No, you’re buying a whole culture that knows how to make that work, week after week after week, in their case, multiple times a week.”

On possibly selling The Smashing Pumpkins back catalogue:

“I don’t plan on it. I’ve had those conversations. You know, my catalogue is valuable. But what I’m saying is, is, you know, I don’t think all the math is in yet on what the true value of artists is. I made this argument about 10 years ago at a music symposium. And people kind of rolled their eyes at me, because, it was mostly radio programmers and I was chastising him for saying, do you understand that the Beatles and Queen are far more valuable to your stations than the band that had the one hit? And you really should get in behind the branding of the brands that really have made a difference in your business. Paint a quick picture because it does kind of work back to wrestling. In 1992 I walk into a radio station, my band is just one of 500 bands. It took real visionary people to go no your band means a lot more to this radio station than everybody else we’re going to kind of lean into you. When my band hit fallow times in the late 90s, early 2000s. We started getting shoved aside, and I started saying, but you’re still playing all my other songs like nine times a day. Don’t you want still want me in the room? And they were like, No, we don’t need you anymore. So what happened? They all came back around. Why do they come back around? Because of the value of the brand, Nirvana, Pearl Jam is Pumpkins is far more valuable than the band that had like one or two hit songs. So we see the same thing in wrestling. It’s like we’ve seen it with them fan conventions and stuff like that. Let’s call that the lower tier of why is WWE now sort of getting very much in the business of documentaries and because the brand of Ultimate Warrior is far more valuable than they would even imagine 10 years ago.”

On LA Knight:

“Yes, one of the great promos of all time. And that’s not to take away anything from his wrestling. He has a main event-level ability in the ring. But we all know that if you can walk and talk, that’s you hit that other echelon. It’s great to see him hitting that now. You know, we booked him, you know, he was being set up to be NWA Heavyweight Champion. And that’s right around, I think the time of the pandemic. He was under an NWA contract, and it got to the point where it was like, you know, I can’t remember what it was. But me and him always did good business so no heat there. But it was obvious that it was like, he needed to go pursue other opportunities. And where I was standing at the time was just going to hold him back. There was something there. But it was clearly understood that you know, obviously, was built around Aldis for a while. But once Aldis was going to drop the title, it was going to clearly go to him. So it’s a shame that it never happened because we would have had a lot of fun. Always great to work with him. And somewhere there’s a picture of my 50th birthday. And it’s me, Aaron Stephens, Eli Drake, ECE 3 and I can’t remember another person from wrestling was there. So yeah, I’ve always gotten on with him. And I’m very happy for him and he deserves every bit of success that’s coming his way because he’s fought and clawed his way to get there.”

On TNA and Dixie Carter: 

“There are moments of frustration where I wish I’d gotten the TV deal, but seemed like it was there and then you realise it’s a little bit of what I went through with the band. The minute you jump into deeper water now you’re subservient to a greater set of forces which are beyond your control, put simply to the camera, the minute you take somebody else’s money. Now you’re in a different negotiation. And they start you know, I remember, just tell a quick funny story. I remember being in a TNA and there was some grousing about Kurt Angle being the champion, which seems strange to me because Kurt Angle was one of the all-time greats and always a great person to do business with behind the scenes. Nothing respect for Kurt. So I was like, why are people complaining? Oh, well, you know, somebody pulls you aside, well, we are on Destination America, Destination America told Dixie Carter, you need someone as a champion who represents America. So Dixie just switched the belts. But the thing was, it was the grousing in the company was it was because it wasn’t a wrestling decision based on setting up wrestling characters. It was like the network who’s paying us all this money, told us so we’re going to do what the network said.”

On not defending himself: 

“So that’s what I’m saying is, you know, sometimes you get frustrated, you think I really wish I got the TV deal. But we may be in a worse position now. Because maybe we wouldn’t have been able to fulfil the thing that we would have obligated ourselves to if we entered into a deal that we weren’t ready to make. Now I feel, so for doing a report card assessment, you know, about six years into me owning the company, I think the wrestling is at the highest quality that it’s been in the six years, I’m very, very happy with where the wrestling is, and it is getting better. And we’re getting younger, which I think is the key. We have a lot of key young talents under contract. So very happy about that. And so the future looks bright there. And I think moving away from this kind of lazy take of old school and modernising the product. And now we’re about ready to flip the switch into a much more modern style of production. So and I think honestly, to be fair, past, past clickbait, I think a lot of the criticisms have been fair, I think the only thing I would say in defence is a lot of the criticisms that are fair, they don’t know the whole story. And I’m not a person who’s always gonna run out and try to defend myself. When I was getting a lot of heat about Tyrus-related stuff. Let’s call it round one and round two of Tyrus-related issues. Some of my friends and some of my friends in wrestling who aren’t in the company, let’s just say people around the biz, who know me and sort of don’t understand why I’m doing what I’m doing would call and say, Why aren’t you out there defending yourself more? Because there is this other kind of aspect of these stories, not just Tyrus, other stuff involved. And I’m like, I have a different game I’m playing because the band is very successful. I can’t be fencing with Dirt Sheet writer number seven over some point that makes a lot of sense in the wrestling bubble. I got bigger fish to fry and I got a company to run that’s called the NWA. Yeah, so my focus has been getting the NWA culture right. So one of the things I’ve said through the years is Don’t sleep on the NWA. There are a lot of people in the wrestling bubble who sleep on the NWA. Because they don’t understand what I’m doing. And because I’m not sort of fellating them every day, and feeding them Dirt Sheet information. They sort of see me as sort of a curiosity in the corner. They don’t understand I’m running a real business here that has a real opportunity to succeed.” 

On reviving the NWA:

“I took the company, which in about its 68 or 69th year, I’ve literally picked it up out of the ashes. As we said before, WWE didn’t even want to take it off the market. I brought it back to life. I’ve given a lot of people work. I gave people opportunities when nobody else wanted them. And I don’t mean that in a negative way. They didn’t see what I saw on them. I’ve created now, you know, there was a year where we didn’t work because of the pandemic but I created about five years worth of content. And I’ve got matches with Ricky Starks and Eli Drake and Thunder Rosa that people have passed through the doors. And in some cases, people credit, certain talent’s work in the NWA as the best work that those talents have ever done. I’d like to think I have something to do with that, not in their wrestling, but I’ve certainly put them in a position to succeed or, or thrive. And I’ve been happy when talents have gone on to bigger and better things out of the NWA. Because I’m not so crazy to think that I can provide them with that same opportunity. Eddie Kingston is a person that comes to mind. Love Eddie, great person to work with. So I created a unique voice in wrestling that has some ties to the past in terms of product, not just historically. And I’m creating another voice in wrestling, how’s that a bad thing? It isn’t. We have probably the strongest women’s division in all of wrestling, I would make that argument. A lot of great female wrestlers in the NWA. Very proud with the way we’ve run that and we built it and we’ve invested in that. And, and even, you know, we’re able to put on a show, an all-female show. And that, of course, became its own version of controversy after that.” 

On not needing outside help:

“Again, I’m going back to the let’s call it the more respectful side of the conversation. Tony is worried about Tony, Scott’s worried about Scott, Billy’s worried about Billy, you know, everybody could do what they want to do. I’m not the little kid in the corner begging, I don’t need anybody’s help. NWA is completely self-funded. I don’t have any partners. I don’t need anybody’s permission is everything we’ve talked about is basically NWA being its own ecosystem and its own world. So if that’s all we ever that is, it’s fine. I think it’s a disservice on a business level and to the fans to not put something together that the Goliath over here. And trust me if you thought WWE was powerful before, you have no idea what’s coming now. Yeah, none. Because now you’re opening up. You know, and now that we’re past some of the political issues with the Saudis and stuff like that, and I’m not saying it’s not, it’s not dicey. It has its own issues, but I’m saying is, the world is opening up into a global economy. If you’re a business person, and you don’t sit there and go, Oh, my God. You know, many people don’t watch television, the way that we watch television in the West, and they’re now coming on board because all you need is a phone. You don’t even need a cable box. I mean, that is the stuff of wet dreams of imagining going back in time to Sam Mushnik and saying this is where wrestling can be and what wrestling could reach. They wouldn’t even believe it was possible. They were worried about selling tickets at the Kansas City war memorial. You know what I mean? We’re in a totally different ballgame because the digital reach which is why these companies are putting together this big piece. So why we’re over here worried about all this minutia and clickbait stuff over here. There’s big, big business going on over here. And I’m at least somebody who’s lived in the other world who can tell you, that’s what they’re doing. If you want to put your fingers in yours and pretend and say, I like this better, and I, well, there may come a point where your liking of it may not be the difference maker.”

What is Billy Corgan grateful for:

“Family, longevity and living my life the way I want to live it.

Brandi Rhodes (@thebrandirhodes) is a professional wrestler and media personality. She joins chats with Chris Van Vliet on the red carpet at the premiere of “American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes” in Atlanta, GA to talk about her husband Cody Rhodes leaving AEW for WWE, her reaction to his torn pec before the HIAC match with Seth Rollins, would Cody make a good politician, will she ever return to the ring and much more!

Congratulations, I don’t think I’ve talked to you since becoming a mom. 

“Well, thank you. Yeah, probably not. Well, congratulations to you, too.”

Thank you. Maybe you can give me some parenting advice. We are going through it right now.

“Well, here’s the advice. You get used to something, and then something changes and you go through it all again.”

I feel like that’s what’s happening right now, so a lot has changed. And I feel like a lot has changed for Cody too, like it feels like he’s a completely different person since the last time that I saw him, which was a few years ago. What do you think has been the biggest change professionally for him?

“Um, honestly, I think just becoming comfortable with everything that he’s done and confident in who he’s become. It really just shows in the presentation of Cody Rhodes now. I mean, 10 years ago, that Cody, he had a presentation and you know, he had something about him. But it wasn’t this. I think he had to grow into this, experience a lot of things to become this.”

 How much do you help him dye his hair as and is it every week? Is it every other week? 

“I know nothing about white folks’ hair dye and stuff. So I stay out of that because I would have his hair like an orange colour on accident or something? No, no, he handles his own hair, he handles his wardrobe, like he does his thing. I am very much just focused on the hair and wardrobe of me and a two-year-old right now. And the two-year-old doesn’t like what I’m doing half the time. She’s like, No, I don’t want to wear this anymore.”

He is impeccably dressed all the time.

“Well good, I’m glad because I don’t want to be on the opposite end.”

Any chance we’ll see you back in the ring?

“You know, not as an active competitor. For sure. [You’ve retired as a wrestler?] Yeah, I mean, it was really anticlimactic. But yes, I did. I just said you know what? Okay, well, we are either gonna do this the Becky Lynch, you know, Seth Rollins way. And they are amazing for doing it, because I can’t. It just was too hard, well not too hard, but just something that I just didn’t think would be the best for the family. So, you know, we’ve gone a different route, and I’ve started business ventures on my own and he’s doing his thing and we’re just doing a couple of different things.” 

I feel like when Cody’s done with wrestling, whenever that happens to be 40 years from now or whatever, feel like he would make a great politician.

“Oh, please don’t wish that. I think he feels the same way. No, you know, he probably would, I don’t know that I would make a great politician’s wife. Therein lies the problem with that.”

Have you seen the final cut of this film?

“You know, I don’t know. I’ve seen a cut of the film. I don’t know that I’ve seen the final, final cut. So you know, I might be seeing some new stuff here, too, along with everybody else, which is cool.”

Was there something that when you saw you went? Wow, they put that in the film? I can’t believe it.

“No, but I was the most impressed with everything I say that’s kind of sh*tty. Not like, sh*tty, it’s just kind of like, well, I’m telling the truth. I’m smiling, I kind of look like an asshole. But it’s kind of funny. It’s like a smile delivery of well, that happened. And that was a mess.”

I mean, I’m sure, there were so many different things that went into Cody being back with WWE, but how difficult was it to kind of keep that between you guys for so long?

“Um, you know, it really just didn’t come up for me very much. I mean, I’m sure he was getting asked like left, right and in-between, but like, you know, Cody’s, he’s socially different than I am the way that I’m social. I think people know that I’m not asking her because she’ll straight up tell me no, and I don’t want to be told no. Whereas Cody will maybe be coy or beat around the bush, I’ll just say no.”

What’s something that you would say you’re most proud of, of your husband?

“I’m just really proud of his ability to just stick with whatever it is that he originally planned. I’m a shapeshifter, my original plans sometimes don’t work out and then I will just shift and mould and I’ll become something else. Cody is Cody Rhodes. He’s the same Cody Rhodes I met when we met 10 years ago, and he’s had the same dream. And he had that dream since he was a little kid, you know, and he’s gonna see this through.”

What was the phone call like when Cody tore his pec?

“So it’s so disappointing on my part because he called and he said to me, don’t panic. And Immediately I thought the baby fell, something happened there at the hospital. So I went, Oh my God, what? Just tell me, just tell me. He goes I  think I tore my pec and I said, Oh, thank God. You’ll be fine. The baby though. Then, of course, I was like, did you really tear it? Are you sure you know? And yeah, he had torn it.”

And then were you like, and what do you mean, you’re still gonna wrestle in Hell in a Cell?

“I was that person that wanted him to. And I did check with Doc Amon, to make sure that I was giving sound advice because I was like, well, if nothing really worse can come of the situation. If you feel okay with it, then I’m, I’m giving my blessing too. So yeah, I mean, I was a performer. So I know I know the feeling like if you can you want to make it happen and those people are counting on you. And you know, people bought tickets for the show, to see the main event with Cody and Seth. So yeah, if you can do it, do it.”

you heard me ask this question of Cody when we were on the bus. But what are three things that you’re grateful for in your life? 

“Oh, wow. I’m gonna do what you did because it just gives me three more Genie wishes by saying, family. So everybody, you know, Cody, baby. My mom and dad, my brother and his kids. whole fam. And then honestly, drive, just, you know, I’m 40, when I was 16, 40 was old. I don’t feel old. I feel really driven. I feel like I just kind of got a new second wind and I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in. And I’m, you know, embarking on this crazy venture that I never thought I was going to do. And you know, I just feel really good. And wisdom with age. I feel like every year the older I become, the less stupid things bother me anymore. They just don’t. Yeah. And so I’m happy for that. That allows me to be clear-headed. And just move forward.”

Featured image: Sports Illustrated

Danielle Moinet (@daniellemoinet) is a former WWE Superstar who performed under the name Summer Rae. She sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Hollywood, CA to talk about her recent return to WWE at the Royal Rumble, appearing on Total Divas, the slap heard around the world to Natalya, her storylines with Rusev and Dolph Ziggler, becoming a dancer for Fandango, the heated promo she cut when her character broke up with Rusev, what he DMs typically look like, her advice for men trying to schedule a first date and much more!

On wanting to get back in the ring:

“So I miss wrestling. I personally wouldn’t, I have a bone spur on a vertebra in my neck and I have Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. So I’m doing good, but at the end of my injury I like, I kind of have the tingling in my hands where I couldn’t really open doors and that was a little scary to me. So for me, I miss storytelling. I constantly write ideas and pitches down and like, submit them to certain promotions. And I have all these ideas that I miss and I do want to be a part of it again, I do think I have a lot more to give. And especially from like, I was telling you a standpoint of being present in the moment, how I would do things so differently, so much more confident and have fun with it, like so much more fun. I don’t think I could wrestle every week and be in that role. And I don’t think that’s my purpose, either. I think, you know, being able to highlight talents, and pull the best out of them and being able to make them the main thing and being able to showcase new younger talent and bring them up with what I know from the business. I would love to do something like that.”

On swearing on her Royal Rumble 2022 entrance:

“I don’t remember that. I definitely blacked out. I definitely blacked out. Um, again, I don’t know how I’m on live TV like streams for horse racing. I used to work for NASCAR. And there’s like all this stuff where you can’t curse and I’m just because of wrestling. It’s just f this f that like I have the worst potty mouth. So I don’t remember that. But that went viral. Yeah. And I’m like, Oh, no. And so I knew what I was given, you know, was two minutes, and I was gonna make the best of it. So it definitely wasn’t the F you. But Nattie and I milked our storyline.”

On being announced for the Royal Rumble ahead of time:

“You know, I was bummed that they announced me before because I felt like no one thought I was going to come back ever. And I’m so good at hiding stuff like pretending that I’m somewhere else and I’m like, I’m going to pretend I’m in Dubai or something like that. also, like, old like I travel so much that like, I can put that on a boat somewhere and I don’t even have to put that it’s St. Barts or you know whatever it is. I hit my hair colour change. I wanted it to be When I was in Maxim Hot 100 I wanted to debut on the red carpet. So I think I posted me with blonde hair for like a week and then I just showed up one day. Yeah. So I remember when they said they were gonna announce me, they literally called me the day of and I was doing cardio. And it was Smackdown. And they were like, Hey, we need to sell tickets. We’re gonna announce the twins, you, Mickie James. And I was like, Mickey, I’m like, don’t announce Mickey. She’s the champ like no, like, ah, and which is I mean. Oh my gosh, that’s like such a no, no, with WWE and like, the forbidden door and everything like that. So I wasn’t gonna fight with him on me. But I’m like, I really think that’s a mistake for Mickey, but like, well, what company I’m in to be announced, you know, with the twins and Mickey. I’m like, okay, cool. And then I’m like, I haven’t told any of my friends. Like I was fabing everyone. And so I was like, Okay, now I have to call my best friend. So I like stopped doing cardio. And I called, like, two or three people. But guess what, I’m going back. Like, how long have you known three weeks? So when it came out that night, I will say that was cool. The internet was like, super excited. You know, even the haters were like, well, at least she is not back for good. Like, they’re like, cool, I’ll have one night you know, or whatever. But people, most people were excited. And it’s crazy. Because you just don’t know, if you’re gonna have a five-minute thing or a two-minute or whatever. So for me, I was like, I don’t need to train. I’m fine. Like, you know, it’s like riding a bike spin kicks, spin kicks, cover, like, it’ll be fine, you know. And so when we showed up, it’s just so many moving parts. And I can’t imagine having the job of the producers to do that. And as my first rumble, you know, I’ll show up, do what you want. But I’m gonna get my stuff over character-wise online, and I’m gonna get myself over. So yeah, and everyone says that too like, Oh, you’re only in it for a little bit. And then like, we all get paid the same? Well, not really. But like, I’m like, we’re all getting paid. And what a moment. And I actually was so so so so nervous backstage, so I’m like, Oh, God, I only have like a little bit to get it out. And it makes the fans want more, you know, you don’t go in there and mess up a 10-minute thing and then they never want to see you again.”

On people thinking there is heat between her and Natalya:

“I know. And I was thinking before I was even thinking before this that I was like, Do I fabe save him the whole interview and like keep the natty thing because even when I’m down training, Natty won’t post me on their Instagram, she’s, we got to keep it up. And I’m like, Yeah, before Natty leaves wrestling, we have to have our feud. She absolutely crushed her double segue match with Rhea and it was so good. Natty is such a good trainer. And I think that’s the one thing that people don’t know about her is she’s so patient. And when you’ve wrestled decades, and it’s just in your blood, how can you not? She probably knows like 72 pins. And so she’s so patient. And her and TJ are just so in love. It’s so gross to say. They’ve been together since they like, met when they were 13 I was actually just telling someone this like they met when they were 13 years old and she’s in the ring teaching us all and he’s just like looking at her, and like being in love and I’m like I hate this. What am I gonna find like, what is this? Like aren’t you sick of her? I’m sick of her.”

On the storyline between Summer Rae, Dolph Ziggler, Rusev and Lana:

“The Rusev, Lana, Dolph storyline was cool because it actually seems really organic like bringing in Dolph, you know, like having us do that we all really enjoyed working with each other when it first like started happening, me Single White Femaling her like pretending to be her and stuff like that was good. But yeah, when it definitely broke down Lana got injured. I can’t remember what and she was still learning how to wrestle at the time. Like she hadn’t wrestled much on the main roster so I was trying to teach her things as well as we’re going along. Yeah, when the TMZ storyline got mysteriously leaked to TMZ no one cares, we aren’t Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, you know. That really set Vince off and like everyone, because I don’t know why. But we were like the favourite storyline of him. It was crazy. I think at the time, Cena had had a storyline for four months, and we were going on three, so just wasn’t something you were seeing like how they do nowadays, like amazing, long storylines. The storytelling in WWE right now is just really coming around so differently. But it was interesting that we were like, we were getting crossover position, like great, you know, positions. And so when I went there, he was really upset. I think the head writers at the time were really upset too, because they had just been so invested in it. And I think the fans aren’t dumb like to know that there was never a payoff like we never had a payoff match. Lana and I never went back and forth. We never had the doubles match even like, so clearly something went wrong in the storyline. And so thank God, we were in Chicago, the best wrestling crowd, in my opinion in the nation, because Europe is great, as well.”

On the sudden conclusion to the storyline:

“So when the Rusev Lana storyline blew up in our faces. We’re in Chicago just happened to be and I lived in Chicago, for seven years big Bears fan. So like people knew that. And usually, I would get pretty solid reactions even if I was on Main Event or something. I was like, Oh, that’s weird I’m over. And we found out that day, I think they called me into the office. I don’t even think it was Vince. I think the head writers called me and they were like, hey, it’s on TMZ no one’s bigger than WWE. That’s a big thing for Vince was like, and Cena would always talk about that, like, no one’s bigger than WWE. And they don’t want you to think that either. So like, Oh, you want to go to TMZ and say you guys are married? Well, and that kind of ruins our storyline, which in my opinion, I don’t think it did ruin it, it’s kayfabe it’s day one. But yeah, like you want to do that? Well, watch this. It’s over. You’re breaking up with him today. Do you want to write your own promo? And I’m like, what? And yeah, and they’re like, Okay, great. We’re gonna put you together with a writer. You guys can go out and like write it. Because I was p*ssed, like, I was so mad. I was like, God, we just did all this. There’s no payoff. Like, what do I do? I’m on the European tour with them. Like, now am I kicked off European tour like that’s $15-20,000. Like, I’m just not going on tour. So the whole thing I was like so mad. And so Jimmy Jacobs and I sat in at the United States are in the arena. And Jimmy Jacobs was like, not obviously new to wrestling, but I think he was like, newer at WWE. And so he was like, Okay, we got to write this. And I just sat there. And I really told him everything. I love writing promos. I love it. Like, I want to write things for other people. I have this whole idea of watching Jungle Boy Turn the other day, and I was like, Oh, I’m gonna DM him and tell him this idea. Like, I have these ideas pouring out of me. And so we wrote the promo. And I think he went and got it approved. And right before and I was hot, like I was p*ssed and right before we went out Rusev came up to me and he was like, I don’t like this line, I don’t think we should do this line. And I said, Okay, well, I don’t like that this just happens. So this is what’s happening. [what was the line?] I think it was about him not having balls or something like or being I don’t remember if I said that you’re a little bitch, but he says, I’m like, This doesn’t make sense. But then I also described what I said to him, I said I put you over, like Dusty’s thing was always like, if you trash someone, then who cares if you beat them? So if you don’t put them over first, and then say like, Oh, that was the hardest match. You know, like people in the NBA will be like, Oh, it was a hard game, blah, blah, blah. But here we are. Yeah, if you just start like, oh, so easy. I beat him this and that. And it’s like, well, then, why should we care?”

On a rumoured Royal Rumble 2023 return:

“Yeah. So I recently God I think it was like in January, I went in the ring, Tenille was going back to the Royal Rumble. Wait, that was this year. Yeah. And she said when she showed up to the rumble practice that all of the girls were like, where’s Danielle? And she’s like, what do you what do you mean? She’s like, Danielle, like she’s in the rumble, right? And they’re like, No. So she’s like, why is the why the hell is she training? And I’m like she’s like, I don’t know, she just wants to cardio. So it was interesting that the girls thought I was like, like, fabing them. Like, I’m gonna tell like, the girls, you know.”

On never winning a championship in WWE:

“Yeah, so I’ve never held a title. Every signing that I have, everyone likes to remind me of that. But it’s nice. It’s sweet. Like everyone’s like you were so underutilised and you didn’t get, you know your flowers, and I wish you would have done that. And the main thing that I always say to everyone and the fans that consistently say that to me is I got my dream, like there is a small percentage of women in this world that ever get to be a professional wrestler and say they wrestled on the grandest stage of all in WWE, multiple WrestleManias, and that was my dream like growing up. That’s what I wanted to be I wanted to be a WWE Diva. And they were called divas and that’s what I looked up to. So I won the prize. Sure that would be cool to have, you know, a title shot but that didn’t make or break my career. Just being a part of such an amazing family and living out my passion, that’s a win for me.”

On not living in the moment:

“To be fair, now looking back and going to the Royal Rumble last year. I don’t think I ever really lived in the moments in WWE, I don’t really remember walking out in the crowd and being like oh wow. I was very in it. I was very like next thing, what do I do? And I think a lot of athletes can relate to this. It’s like, okay, got that. Okay, now I’m out of NXT. Like, where can I go here? Okay, I’m on this week, I’m on Main Event, how can I get on SmackDown? And so I never, I would have an amazing, I had a double seg match was Mercedes twice. And she loved it. And she was like, oh, let’s pitch stuff. And I’m like, Cool. Let’s see if it sticks. Like I just never really got my hopes up because so many things wouldn’t stick. And now looking back, like being at Mania, not Mania, Royal Rumble, I made sure to be present. Like I was like, I want to remember this, like, I had nerves, but it was different kinds of nerves. Like when you’re still trying to make it and you’re in it, you can’t appreciate it. Like, it’s so hard. And now going back. I’m like, look at the crowd. Look at St. Louis, Missouri. It was different. And yeah, I feel like it’s weird, you can’t absorb it almost.”

What is Summer Rae doing now?

“Yes, so in 2020, maybe 2021 After the great pandemic, post-COVID PC, that’ll be in the history books. Yeah, I had a mutual friend that got offered a position with America’s best racing. And she couldn’t take it because it was a conflict of interest. So she goes, Oh, I met this one girl in passing. Actually, you know Lisa Ann? So Lisa Ann was a sweetheart. I met her at Sirius Radio years ago. We followed each other on Instagram and didn’t really chat much. And she was so sweet. She teed me off this full-time gig The first year we live streamed every month, I went from COVID getting no checks and no money to actually getting paid monthly from this company. And then they took me on the road. And to be fair, I had no idea about horse racing or gambling. But, you know, Dusty Rhodes always would say about me, he’d be like, just put her in a room and she’ll figure it out. I don’t know if it’s I’m full of shit or what it is. But yeah, but now through osmosis and doing it weekly for three years. I know a lot about horse racing.”

What is Summer Rae grateful for?

“My health, my family and my friends.”

Diamond Dallas Page (@realddp) is a professional wrestling icon, actor, fitness guru, bestselling author and international speaker. He joins Chris Van Vliet at his house in Atlanta, GA for the 500^th episode of INSIGHT! He talks about his thoughts on MJF, Dominik Mysterio and LA Knight, what made him start DDPY, his entrepreneurial spirit, filming “The Resurrection of Jake The Snake”, why his WCW entrance theme sounded like Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, Cody Rhodes’ success in WWE, what he learned from his friend Dusty Rhodes, his career ending matching with Hardcore Holly and much more!

The fact that you’re so hospitable is, there are so many things about you and your wife, Paige that I love and I admire. But the fact that you are so welcoming is it’s one of your best traits.

“We’re just being ourselves, anybody we care about. Like I invite, I just literally invited Matt Hardy, who I love and I always see him as he’s got a gorgeous family. He’s got all those little babies, a beautiful wife, Reby. I mean, he has a beautiful life. And I know that he’s still working, and he does [the plan]. I just texted him saying, are you still doing the programme? And this is what I loved. He said I’ve developed what you taught me into me doing it without I don’t need the app anymore. And I’m like, Yes, that is my goal for each and every person especially if they’re one of the boys are one of the girls because I give it to all of them. Or give it to any NFL players. Anybody who’s made it that and now their body is their life. And I look at it as Matt has this beautiful family, and I’m like, bro if you ever really want to come here by yourself, with your brother, with your wife, whatever. You’ve seen all this stuff. I have all the anti ageing stuff. The Gauntlet, which I would also love to put Matt through, but it just would help. Again, always looking for a way to hold back to hands of time time. Matt Hardy is such a great entertainer can he keep doing it forever? Look at Sting, you know, I mean Stingers still going, but he’s finally going to retire at 64. But, you know, it’s all about how you live after. And for me, it’s 67. It’s that’s my biggest example, I always want to set like, look what I’m doing. Look at me now. I don’t look like your average 67-year-old or even 57-year-old. And I can do a lot of different things. Because of this, it’s not just DDP yoga. It’s not just the food. It’s not just the ice punch. It’s not just oxygen deprivation. It’s everything. Chiropractic, deep muscle massage. Everything. And that’s what I tried to do when I see someone I really care about like that.”

You are so giving. Have you always been this way?

“Yeah, pretty much. When I was in a nightclub business because I love the nightclub business. It was so much fun. It’s kind of ironic that I’ve helped so many people get sober with my programme too, which is kind of crazy. But way back in the day every Christmas, it was always you know Toys for Tots or anybody who needed something that if a family reached out to me we do it, go to their door, would go to, you know, to that whatever we collected that night or whatever. So it was always something that we were doing like that, but I never really even thought about it. Just like to me you when you’re like, what I’m doing today with the programme and helping so many different people, it’s the best karma in the world. You know, it’s like, I use it all up with my driving, God takes all my saves but God is my co-pilot. Lex had to correct me, God, is no one’s co-pilot. But for me, I feel like God is watching over me when I’m driving just stone-cold sober. I think I’m a really good driver, but nobody else does.”

It’s interesting because the wrestling business and a lot of people in the wrestling business are not usually outwardly giving. It’s a lot of times, it’s like, look at me and look what I’m doing. You’re the complete opposite of so many people in this industry.

“Well, you know, it’s so hard when you’re trying to come up and you’re trying to get noticed. I mean, wrestling is the world of look at me, let me push your buttons. You know, like, I’m personally no MJF. But he will be pissed off at me for saying this. But he’s the nicest. He’s the nicest guy. He really is, to me. But to everybody out in the open, he’s an asshole. And it’s not him being an asshole, it’s him living the gimmick. He could turn babyface in an instant and he would be over even bigger, I think. But as a heel, oh my god. One of my favourite MJF stories. This was on the Jericho Cruise, which is amazing. If you haven’t done it, and you’re thinking about doing the Jericho Cruise, do it. I did a couple of them. And I love Chris Jericho. There’s another goat, I mean, capital GOAT I mean like big time, but one of the comedians was up on stage. And it’s a packed house, you know, that particular night. And I can’t remember his name. But he said, you know, you have to really appreciate MJF’s commitment to being the character. He’s never out of character. My buddy and I, we love to listen to him. So We’re waiting in line [for autographs]. He’s charging more than anyone. I don’t know if it’s a particular moment. But I remember, there was a point of charging for autographs, and MJF when he was nobody put himself at like $150. And they paid it! [MJF said] I don’t give a f*ck if you come here and want my autograph or not. I’m better than you and you know it. I mean, that was one of the great, that’s a great tagline. And I put the kid over because I love him. But he says you have to appreciate MJF’s commitment to being MJF. My buddy and I finally get up to the front. And we say, bro, we love your sh*t. Now my buddy’s drinking a coffee at the time. MJF grabbed his cup, took it, spit in it, gave it back to my buddy and said so what the f*ck do two want? I mean what a roar., you know, but that’s him, he’s committed to the character. So oh my God. I could talk about MJF for hours.”

On the other end of your career. What do you think it was that led you to everything you’re doing now with DDPY?

“Without wrestling, without having that fan base. Like, I have some amazing people who were fans and it’s so funny, the ones that really put the work in end up becoming friends because I respect what work they put into themselves. Like my buddy, Dr Tom Wallen, who was a huge fan of mine as a kid, and started to do the program and went through a transformation during DDP Yoga. Now he’s the head of my BFR blood flow restriction programme that we’re putting together with power cuffs, he’s a doctor. You know, he’s a scientist, and he’s a doctor, and he’s a second level two DDPY Instructor. He’s a transformation coach instructor. Along with being a doctor and heading my BFR. And he stayed up here because we were filming some stuff for the power cuffs, because I want the doctor’s side sure, you know of what this is all about. And he’s gone through all the courses for blood flow restriction, everything. So we’re getting ready to go over and film and he stayed over the night before, like you did. And like I did for you. I’m making breakfast, and as I’m walking over with the plates, he goes I’m having a little flashback here of my 12-year-old self, and DDP is making me breakfast. But you know, without the fan base without that, because in the beginning, anybody who pretty much got it, it was pretty much wrestling fans. Then Arthur’s video came, and that changed the entire thing.”

What do you think the percentage is now?

“I think it’s probably about 55% wrestling fans and 45% [that have never seen a DDP match]. Never. But when something next goes viral like we have, I mean, you have talked about this, and now I can really talk about it, because it’s going to be coming out at some point, probably around the first of the year, I’m guessing. Our showed that it’s a docu-series that we filmed called Change Or Die. And we brought five people into one of the other homes that I kept when I got this one. And I was just renting it out. And then Steve said we need a house and everything’s so expensive in Smyrna, where the company is, he’s like, do you think you’d take that off the market and, and let us use that? And I said, Well, you’re in luck because they’re at the last month, they want to renew, but I can tell him, you might have to give him a couple of months, you know, just to get comfortable, and that’s what happened. And then we brought these five different people into where the resurrection of Jake the Snake was filmed, the accountability crib. And these people go on this journey. And we film everything, Buff Bagwell was one of them. That’s why you see Marcus, I know we called him Buff, because the character Buff today is good. But when he was flipping the Buff, he would become an asshole because he’s an addict. And he didn’t think he was an addict. So that’s another guy that is kinda like gone through what we’re doing. And then it was like, you have to see it, I don’t want to spoil it. But you can look at Marcus when he walked in our house, and who he is today, and he is completely different.”

But think of how many people that we as wrestling fans can thank for their health now, or the fact that they’re still around now, because of you.

“Because of my team. It’s not just [me], everybody thinks it’s me, I always say to them it takes a village. I really took every single person like Jake, I look at Jake today, and I couldn’t be more proud, happier. Because my whole goal, when we started filming the Resurrection of Jake the Snake, which is on Amazon Prime, by the way, and our other documentary is Relentless, you might want to check that out. But when we started filming, we’d never done documentaries before. Like Steve Yu and I, my partner, my business partner. We are the guys who figure it out. I will hire a person who knows nothing about our business before I’ll hire a person who knows a lot about it. I’ll hire the person who doesn’t know a lot if they’re a figure-it-out person. I found that out when I was in Iraq one time. I went there like three different separate occasions to see the troops for like, two weeks, once to Afghanistan. But I was in Iraq and it was the first tour I was on. And I was out because they didn’t, me and Rob Dibble who played for the Reds and when the Reds won the World Series. He was the MVP. He was one of the pitchers. And we’re out there and out in the outer where bad shit was happening. And the Colonel’s like, well DDP that you could drive a tank. I said, Yes, I can. Now how those tanks went, I don’t know if they’re all like this. But here’s a tank, and then there’s a middle part that’s open, and you slide your body in, and you grab a hold of the steering wheel, and, you know the friggin speed like this. And I could just, I’m about 250, back then, I could just fit in. And, dude, I drove it like a madman.”

I’ve known you for years and there are actually some wrestling questions I’ve always wanted to ask you, but never asked you. How did you not get sued by Nirvana?

“You know, that’s fascinating because I went to see Jimmy Hart. First, let’s go back to where it comes from. Jimmy Hart’s musical genius and you know, he had a number one hit at one time with The Gentry. Did you know that? Again number one hit. So what it was a one-hit wonder, he was number one when it meant something like when it got paid and sh*t, yeah. But we went down I went down to Florida. He said so what music do you like? I said right now I’m listening to Nirvana. I really liked them. I think there’s a sound of the 90s. And he goes, which song do you like, it was between Smells Like Teen Spirit, and I can’t remember the other name of the other one, but it was between both of them. And I said, let’s pick Smells Like Teen Spirit. And then he did something with the music. I go, That sounds amazing. Sounds just like it, he goes, all I did was flip the beat. So instead of going bump, bump it went bump, bump, bump, bump, bump. So if you notice you played to both at the same time, you’d hear the difference. Dude, I tell you, I was so bummed out when the WWE changed my music. And on all the WCW stuff, all the Peacock stuff, they changed the music, because they didn’t want to get sued. And then I also found out that it wasn’t David Grohl who owned it. It was Courtney.  She probably wasn’t even aware I was using it.”

You want to talk about someone who’s on another level. We were talking about him last night. But how impressed are you with Logan Paul?

“Oh, my God. Yo, I’ve not told this story, since I told the other story. Back when I first met him. Not this Mania, it was the Mania before, and he walked into the elevator. I was like, Hey, man. Boom, Dallas Page. He goes Good to meet you. I said. I said, Man, I gotta tell you. I’m blown away by just what you’ve done so far, but keep up the great work. I want to get a picture. He’s like, Yeah, sure. And I got I gotta put the Diamond Cutter side up. And he goes, I can’t do that. And I go, You can’t do that? He goes, Well, it’s a gang sign, I go it’s really not. I’m not going to start to like to debate this. So I put it down. And then later I talked about it when I was doing the podcasts with Jake, [Robrts], and, you know, it kind of took off with the internet, you know. So now it’s Mania in LA, and I’m on the elevator and who walks in? Logan Paul walks in, and I go Hey, bro, I go, we got to stop meeting like this. And he goes oh my God. Oh my god, dude, I’m so sorry. I know you are a legend. He was so apologetic. I said can we take a picture now? He goes, Absolutely! But the bottom line is, just the nicest guy.”

What do you think your life would look like if WCW had continued being successful into the 2000s?

“I don’t think it would be this. I might have because sometimes we have to get on to get back on track and end up back in our destiny. But I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s the same. If we do the people’s champion versus people’s champion. I don’t know if it’s the same if we do that.”

What do you remember from that superplex with Hardcore Holly that really effectively ended your WWE run?

“I remember because Bobby works super stiff. And that’s where he got the name Hardcore Holly. And I lit him up in the corner with some punches, threw him in the turnbuckle and like I can judge your foot. I can make a little rip my head off. But you got to hold it there. And Bobby would later apologise because he last second caught me. And my neck only moves so far, even back then. And when he hit me, boom, it kind of staggered me. Now when he would come through with a clothesline, I would always be gone. Like I’m not going to be there to take that hit. But I was knocked a little silly, and my timing was off. So when he hit me, it apparently friggin like jackknifed my neck like whiplash type thing. By the time I hit the mat. I’m like, Okay, I have no idea where I am.”

I feel like in WWE, if you were a WCW guy, they just didn’t want you to be successful. 

“I did take it personally in the beginning, but I realised later, it wasn’t about me. It didn’t matter if Booker was the only guy there, would have been him. If any other guy would have come in who was the top guy, it would have been them. They wanted it to be me because I was one of the biggest faces. I was the only guy besides Goldberg that WCW ever made, at that level, you know, and they wanted it to be that character.”

Who’s on your pro wrestling Mount Rushmore?

“Oh, yeah, of course, gotta be Flair, you know? Gotta be Jake. Dusty’s up there because it’s, you know, I just thought he was unbelievable. And I will put up five guys, put Hogan and Austin up there, you know? It was like those guys did a lot, just monstrous for the business.”

Thoughts on Dominik Mysterio:

“I said this six months ago or five months ago, whatever it was. I said, if I was booking, I would put Dominik over every time he went to the ring. Just because the heat is so amazing. The heat he’s got and you’re talking about a kid who has been thrown in the middle, in the middle of the fire. Like not like you learned to swim, you get thrown in the middle of fire water. And I think he’s done an unbelievable job. When he’s not on the road? He’s like, what I did, I would go back to the powerplant. He’s going back to the Performance Center.”

What are three things today that you’re grateful for?

“My wife and kids for sure. The opportunity to help people with what I’m doing and changing lives on a different level, and God’s gift of the sight of my superpowers.”

Featured image: WWE

Bryce Hall (@brycehall) is a social media influencer with more than 35 million followers. He is making his BKFC debut on August 11 in BKFC against Gee Perez in Albuquerque, NM. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about what made him want to do a bare-knuckle fight, his future plans with BKFC, his boxing loss against fellow influencer Austin McBroom in 2021 and the viral moment that came out of his post-fight interview, his training with BKFC Champion Lorenzo Hunt, what his future goals are, why he doesn’t feel the need to prove his haters wrong and much more!

How are you feeling about making your BKFC debut?

“I’m just ready to fight already. I mean, we’re a week and a half away. I’m at the point in my camp where it’s like now we’re on the decline of the intensity. I’m just ready to get in there and do my thing.”

So walk me through how this comes together because this isn’t like an influencer boxing match. This is the BKFC, this is the real deal.

“BKFC is blowing up rapidly and I see it continuing to blow up rapidly. Me being a social media influencer, I clasp onto viral moments. I thought every influencer boxer, the influencer boxer seems kind of dying and oversaturated now. The only people that really like bringing eyes to the sport are Jake Paul, KSI and Logan Paul. I thought what better way to just kind of like one-up them and stick like the middle finger to their face than to do Bare Knuckle because no other influencers are ever going to do it? They’ll say that they want to but they’re never going to do it. I’m going to be the only one to do it. So it’s like I just one-upped all you people that are veterans in the YouTube space.”

So is this like a one-time deal or are you planning to have more matches after this?

“I want to work with the BKFC long-term. That’s ideally the goal because I see this sport expanding extremely far. It’s like a very, very interesting combat sport. So if I win, I might do another fight, but regardless of what happens on August 11, I want to continue to work with BKFC.”

So you’re known for creating these viral moments. I mean, you just mentioned that there. What do you have planned for this? Like I’m thinking from the walkout to the time you get in there to, you know, the end of the fight.

“So I have my three-step plan. I already have, the thing that I’m walking out to is gonna go viral, can’t say that yet. What I do in that ring is gonna go viral, and then my after-speech is gonna go viral. The things that I’m gonna say in my after speech, when I knock out, you know, a bare-knuckle fighter, that’s gonna go viral. And then the song that I walk out to, everyone’s just gonna go WTF?!”

You know that speech after the Austin McBroom fight went viral?

“That’s exactly what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna do something referencing that.”

Was that intentional? What you did in that interview?

“The I’m not a boxer, I’m trained to be a fighter. I didn’t think it was gonna go as viral. But I was kind of just joking around.”

Because you’re like, I’ve never said that I’m a fighter. And then it cuts right to like, you being like, I’m a fighter, he’s not.

“Yeah, no, I did mean when I said like, Yeah, this is not my profession. But yeah, there was like a tonne of people in the audience and millions of people were watching. Like, I just got punched in the face a bunch. I didn’t know how to take a public L like that. So I mean, it was like a lot of pressure on me, but I didn’t expect that to go as viral as it did.”

You always hear athletes talk about how they learned so much more from a loss than they do from a win. So what did you learn from that loss in the McBroom fight?

So I’ve never taken such a public L like that for millions of people. But it did teach me how to take an L, how to take something on the chin and just move forward and not let it consume my life. This time going into another fight. A lot of people are talking sh*t. But there’s no pressure on me this time. That was my first fight, I was the favorite of the fight. Austin McBroom was the underdog. This time, I’m the underdog. And I’m going into a fight with a bare-knuckle fighter that has to prove himself. Like, you know what, this is why bare knuckle is so brutal. I’m gonna go in there and I’m not going to rush anything. I’m gonna let him come to me and I’m just gonna do my thing.”

It kind of sounds like you’re saying like, he has everything to lose here. You have everything to gain.

“Yeah, there’s not a single thing that I have to prove in there. I have to go in there, my only job is to go in there.”

And then whatever happens happens?

“Yeah. But he knows that I’m gonna go in there. I’m gonna make weight, and then two days after, because you have two days, not one day, you have two days after your weigh-in to eat, chill, recover. I’m gonna be like 185 pounds, in that ring. I walk around it like 195-200 I’m going to be feeling great. I’m going to be bigger. And I can just sit back and take punches. Let him come to me and he will not be on the inside, he hasn’t even been hit by somebody as heavy as me.”

Bryce, what’s the one food that you just can’t wait to eat after? 

“Cheeseburger, Big Mac?. I want, I literally said to all my friends I was like, Dude, I want four Big Macs right? As soon as I win that fight I want them in my after-speech as I’m like, talking and just eating a burger. I’ve not had food in so long I want food. So it’s all good.”

You’re obviously aware of the reaction that this announcement got online like everybody is counting you out here. What was your response when you saw that?

“Um, I honestly don’t blame them whatsoever to count me out. But it’s like, look at the people Gee Perez has fought, you know. Did anyone think that Gee Perez was gonna lose any of the guys that he’s fought? Those guys look like that? Absolutely no fighting experience. I am 100%, regardless of what you say, I’m 100% Gee Perez’ hardest opponent that he’s ever fought in Bare Knuckle. I have more experience than any of those guys that just thought I can hit way harder. I’m taller, I’m stronger. And I’m way faster than all opponents like he’s not gonna go in there and bully me. Like I’m not like a small guy from a gas station you just randomly hired to do like a random Bare Knuckle fight. I have fight experience, and I know how to use my punches.”

You feel like when he came up and kind of pie-faced you, people are calling it a slap and it didn’t really look like a slap. Do you feel like you should have reacted differently to that?

“Again, like what do I have to prove the guy slapped me in the face? It’s like he’s doing some promo for the fight. Did I think it was disrespectful? Yeah. But it’s like, what am I going to do? Just be like, Oh, I want to punch you in the face right now. I’m gonna do that on August 11.”

I feel like what the way in the staredown, I feel like you’ve got something planned for this.

“I may or may not have something planned for that.”

I saw these videos of you training with Lorenzo Hunt, The Juggernaut, who is an absolute beast. What has he taught you about Bare Knuckle that maybe you didn’t know?

“So my background is in wrestling. He taught me a lot of the grappling aspects. Or I would say Bare Knuckle was like a form of like dirty boxing. So like when you wrap up with somebody you’re not allowed to like, hit until the ref separates you. In Bare Knuckle you can grab them by the neck, give them an uppercut, grab them by the neck and give them a hook. Like you can get hit in clutches for a very long time and bare-knuckle. So we’ve been working on a lot of the inside fighting, a lot of the dirty boxing, like holding his arm, popping him across the jaw. You know, I feel most comfortable doing the grappling aspect. So I think Gee doesn’t understand that. I’m not gonna go to him, I’m gonna wait for him to come to me and then I’m gonna wrap up and hurt him.”

How are your knuckles feeling right now?

“They’re pretty messed up right now. They’re pretty messed up right now. But I’m just recovering them now.”

This whole situation that we’re in right now, this whole era right now of influencers who are boxing or you stepping into the world to BKFC? How much of this do you think you owe to Jake and Logan Paul?

“I think owing it to them is like a crazy word. I think thanking them for bringing so many people to the sport. I would say thank you for forgiving creators, smaller creators the opportunity to just show out and do a sport that they’re not comfortable with, or a sport that they’re not, that they didn’t grow up doing for money. You know, I think it’s great for the sport. I think influencers, celebrities, all that’s great for any sport that you do.”

So who’s next? Is it KSI? I’ve heard you mentioned KSI and other interviews is that who you have your eye on if you get the W here

“I don’t think KSI wants to fight me, especially once he sees what I do like August 11. I think he’s gonna make up an excuse and say like, Oh, he lost to Austin McBroom well and I think right after this I want to fly to Austin McBroom again. I want to like actually show people what I’m capable of. And Austin McBroom, whether he wants to do a bare-knuckle or with pillows on his hands. I know for a fact if we had that rematch, I would put them on the canvas.”

I’m sure you’re aware that for a big portion of the population influencers like a dirty word, and they’re like, oh, wow, Bryce Hall is an influencer. I already don’t like him. I don’t know anything about him. But he’s an influencer. I don’t like him. Do you feel like you have to prove those people wrong?

“So this is my thing. Like I really couldn’t care less what the general public thinks about me. If you like me, you like me, and I’m making content for you to escape from your day-to-day life. You know, I don’t care if people hate me. I’m not here to please everybody. And if you like me, thanks. I appreciate that, you’re the ones that got me here. But also my haters got me here.”

I’m a big pro-wrestling fan and I feel like everything you’re saying in this interview and all the interviews that you do feel like you might make a great pro wrestler one day.

“With WWE?”

Could you ever see yourself having a pro wrestling match?

“I can see myself cameoing in it. But I definitely don’t see myself being a character like Logan Paul. I just think I don’t really like that fake stuff.”

Did you ever see yourself being in the position that you’re in right now? Like five years ago? Did you ever picture at 23 this is where you’d be at doing what you’re doing?

“I definitely did not see myself ever doing a bare-knuckle boxing match.”

But what about everything else, just you know, the growth you’ve had on social media, TikTok and YouTube?

“I started social media when I was 14 years old. And I never had a plan B. So I said it was either this or nothing. So I saw myself being successful because I never quit. And I wouldn’t quit no matter what. I didn’t see it. I didn’t fathom how big it was gonna get. But now that I’m here, I’m super grateful. And I continue to expand.”

Do you think there was like, one specific moment, one specific video that actually allowed you to have some of the influence we have now like that really stepped it up to that next level?

“Not a specific one. It was actually like just a bunch of videos that went super viral. People see my face more and then people feeling comfortable with me because they see my face so much.”

Well, this is gonna be really interesting. I’m so excited. I’m a huge BKFC fan. And when I saw that you were gonna be part of this. I was like, Dude, I need to tune in for this. So I can’t wait to see this. And I end every conversation talking about gratitude because it’s such an important part of my life. I wake up every day I say out loud three things I’m grateful for. So, Bryce, what are three things in your life that you’re grateful for right now?

“My mother, my success and the opportunity to fight on BKFC.”

Give us a prediction for August 11th.

“Second-round knockout.” 

Featured image: E! Online

Ricochet (@kingricochet) is professional wrestling signed to WWE and is also known for his time in Lucha Underground where he worked under the name Prince Puma. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about his SummerSlam match with Logan Paul, taking big risks in the ring, the mindset that has made him so successful, his crazy first date with his fiancée WWE ring announcer Samantha Irvin that started in Las Vegas and ended at the Grand Canyon, why he doesn’t do the double moonsault anymore, his favorite NXT matches and more!

Dude, it’s so good to see you. And I’m so glad to have you back on for a longer conversation now. 

“Yeah, absolutely, the one was that WrestleMania was it.”

And it was such a nice surprise to just be able to spend some time with you there. And now so much other stuff has happened since then. And I also feel like almost every Logan Paul highlight in WWE has you on the other side of that match, on the other side of that moment?

“Yeah, it seems to be connected somehow.” 

I’m actually really curious. When Logan Paul first came into WWE, what were your initial thoughts of him?

“I mean, I’ve never had any preconceived notions, I just think, you know, like, we have people come in all the time. So that was nothing new to me. But I’m seeing like, he was actually at the PC training with Shawn [Michaels] and some of the people down there. And then he was like, putting the work in for the match with like, the tag match with The Miz and the other matches with The Miz, and like he’s putting the work in. So when he initially came in, I mean, I was curious to see what happened, but then to see actually what he has done since it’s been, I mean, actually pretty cool.”

You’ve done this thing now. You’ve done this thing now twice in WWE where you know, the promo ends with you jumping over the top rope to the outside landing in front of the person. How do you figure out like, oh, yeah, that’s something I’m completely capable of doing.

“You know what? It’s funny, I was just asking my fiancée. I was asking her I wonder at what age, because the first time I did it, I think it was like, 29. And now I’m like, 34. So I was like, I wonder at what age will I not be able to do that anymore? Not necessarily will I not want to do it? You know, there’ll be an age where I’ll be like guys, I don’t want to do that. I can but I don’t want to. I wonder what age will it be where I’m like, Guys, even if I wanted to, I can’t do that anymore. I always tried to push myself, and that’s something I don’t know. I just like, I don’t know, maybe the barrier, I just want to break through that. Whatever that is, I just want to keep it going. I don’t know what that is, I don’t know why.”

Is there anything that you used to be able to do in the ring that now almost 20 years into this that you’re like, Yeah, either I can’t do that anymore. Or I don’t know if I should do that anymore.

“Honestly, probably only the double moonsault maybe, and that’s not even, honestly, I probably could still do it if I wanted to do it. But I don’t want to, I don’t want to. I did it off the cage.”

I mean, it looks so smooth the way you do it.

“I would have to actually take some time to like practice, really practice, because it’s just one that’s[not used often]. I was just asked the other day, when was the last time I even did it. And I couldn’t tell you the last time that I did the double moonsault, I don’t know. Other than the one off the cage at NXT, before that even like in the ring. Man, I couldn’t tell you.”

Dude, what’s so fascinating about this as you’re like, Yeah, I would have to practice to do a double moonsault which makes me think that all the other things that you do require no practice and they’re just innate to you.

“I mean, technically, I guess you’re kind of right. But at the same time, it’s like I have been doing, it’s like asking a gymnast to do something that they’ve been doing their whole life. Obviously, I’m not a gymnast, but I have been training myself on this type of stuff since I was six years old, and then I’ve been wrestling since I was like 14. So to literally have been doing it for so long, it is kind of second nature. Some of it is second nature when you’re out there like it is just like instinct. Some of the stuff still takes practice now that I’m getting older.”

Do you remember what the very first high flying move that you ever successfully did was?

“Yeah, it was, do you remember Jeff Hardy’s, like whisper in the wind? It was basically that, the guy was laying on the ground and I would do the whisper in the wind onto the guy. Like I remember like, that was like my first, I mean, very first match in the backyard. Whisper in the wind to the guy laying down.”

No big deal, just a whisper in the wind.

“I mean, I was scared to do it, I wanted to do like a Phoenix Splash, a full Phoenix Splash. But I was too scared. I don’t know why. On a trampoline I could do it. But in the ring it’s different. It’s just different when you get in there.”

But I feel like there’s so many moves that you now do off the top rope where you do them so seamlessly, so effortlessly. How do you build the courage up to stand up there, because it doesn’t maybe look that tall.

“You don’t build the courage up, you just gotta go. You can’t stop and think about it. Because if you stop and you think about it for a second, the courage is gonna go down. You know what I mean? Courage comes from when you’re not thinking, you know what I mean, you gotta use, I never do anything that I don’t think it’s beyond my abilities. I tried to stay within my capabilities. But so when I’m in there, it’s literally like a split second decision. Do it on the spot, because the more you sit there and think about it, the more the courage is going to go down, at least in my experience.”

So what’s something that you do that looks so seamless and so effortless? But when you actually hit it, it kind of does hurt?

“I mean the 630, every single time, the 630. Whether it’s my neck or my back or something? It’s usually, I mean it’s a painful move for both people in the ring, absolutely. Anything where you are landing on someone, I mean, it doesn’t feel good when you’re coming down. Like, I’m sure you’ve seen Montez do his Frog Splash from the rafters. Like that hurts both of us. Or when I’m doing my Shooting Star, that’s gonna hurt both people a little bit at least.”

I feel like you know, the more you talk about this, I feel like the 630 is gonna go the way of the double moonsault. Please, we can’t have that happen.

“No, no, that’s like my spirit bomb. You know, Goku only throws that out when he needs it.”

Speaking of Logan Paul, that Spanish Fly that you guys did at Money in the Bank. That one looked like it hurt a lot.

“I mean, it all hurts a lot, but that’s kind of why we do it. But that one especially hurt giving the circumstances at hand, absolutely.”

And this one that just happened on Raw where he’s holding the camera up, like holding the phone up selfie style, and you super kick him in the face. I feel like that’s like an all time highlight for both of you guys.

“Yeah, I mean, I’m sitting there doing my thing and he wants to come and attack me from behind. You know what I mean? But he only hit me once and it had me rattled. Absolutely. I’m not gonna even take anything away, it had me rattled for sure. But then he just wants to get straight on his camera and like start, I don’t know, talking smack like I’m still right there, bro. Like, I’m not gonna just let you sit there and talk smack but it just happens that he had a perfectly good shot of my shiny shoe going across his chin. It was hilarious, hilarious.”

Yeah, the actual shot from his iPhone it’s so perfect. 

“And it’s cool because I look really cool when I walk into the screen. And then I just look at him like, I’m glad he did it, good for him, because it makes me look great.”

I think there’s a lot of WWE fans that may just be familiar with your work now on the main roster. If they were to go and look at some of your best NXT stuff. Where do they need to begin?

“Man, that was such a good time for me, that was such a good [time]. Because honestly, I feel like you can start anywhere and because like everybody, everyone was good. You know what I mean? Everybody that I was in there with was so good. So it really helped me out a lot. But even I guess if I had to point you somewhere first, Probably the WarGames is one of them. WarGames is great, but that’s a little long. So that’s like a long match. So I mean, probably me and Aleister [Black] versus The Viking Raiders. That was one of my favorites. That was one of my faves. Me and Dream was one of my favorites. Obviously I would have to go me and Adam Cole, point you there first because just of what that match was what it became but also like me and Johnny [Gargano] was good. Me and Pete [Dunne] had a title for title match on an NXT TV taping one time. I think me Pete and Adam Cole had like a Triple Threat thing going one time. I think, there’s a bunch of cool multi-man matches. It was like me, [Matt] Riddle, Adam Cole, Aleister, like it was like one crazy match that one was cool. Halftime Heat, remember that? So it was just like, that was just a cool[time], because it was only really like maybe nine or 10 months. It wasn’t very long. But that little bit of time, I just, you know, it was great.”

When you did get called up to the main roster, and you made your debut there. Was there a part of you that was like, I know, I’ve done so much here in NXT. But maybe people here aren’t going to be familiar with me or familiar with my work. Were you nervous at all about that?

“I wasn’t actually even, I wasn’t worried about that at all. Not even because I think everyone’s gonna know me. That just was like, if you don’t know me, you about to know me. Like, if you don’t know me, you’re going to find out very soon. So like, that wasn’t, that has never been [an issue], because I’ve always kind of like starting fresh. Like, you know, like even on the independent scene, you know, start fresh. Build your name value up until like, a new bigger company sees you, then literally start at the bottom at this big company, then you work at this other company, then you go overseas, and then you’re starting at the bottom again. And you know, you go to Japan or whatever, like you always start at the bottom until you build that rapport you build that, you know. And so I guess maybe that’s kind of how I saw that as well. Like if you didn’t know me, then I guess you got to know me soon enough, because just watch.”

What was the genesis behind the name Ricochet because it’s very fitting for what you do.

“So when we first started, it was like this, it was called Chaos Pro Wrestling, CPW, that was our thing. And as I was training, I was like, 14, we were training we trained for like, six months, maybe. And then it was the day, our big show, our first match. And it was me and my two friends and we had started the same time. We were training the same time. And they’re asking our names, what are your names gonna be? And I had like a list of names that I wanted. But I wanted like a two name, like John Cena. You know what I mean, something like that. But I just couldn’t think of anything that I liked. I couldn’t think of anything that I liked. I was I had Ricochet down. I had a couple of other things. But also at the time, like the show Mucha Lucha was very popular. And so Ricochet was a character. So like, I didn’t want to just pick that either, because I knew people were going to put the two together. And that’s not where I got it from. Anyways, we get to the day and he asked one of my friends, one guy was like, Blue Cat, like kind of Azul or something. And then the next guy, they’re like, what’s your name? And he was like, I haven’t thought of one. And then like, Okay, you’re gonna be Kevin. And then they like, looked around. And like they saw one of the cats walked by, and the cat’s name was Hobbs from like, you know, Calvin and Hobbs, the strip. So he’s like, so you’re gonna be Kevin, and they’re like, Hobbs, you’re Kevin Hobbs. And he was like, I don’t want to be Kevin Hobbs. And they like, you didn’t pick a name? Sorry. That’s what you’re gonna be. Is it they got the mean or like, what’s your name? And I don’t want to be, I don’t want to be Kevin Hobbs. So I said, I was trying to think I just said Ricochet because Ricochet goes with, I said I know I do flips. I know I do like high flying stuff, so I feel like Ricochet fits, like the name. So I just said Ricochet because I didn’t want to be Kevin Hobbs. So I didn’t want them to pick some random name. So I just settled on Ricochet. And then since then, now, I love that it’s a one title name. I liked that it’s different. I like that it’s, yeah, it’s different. It’s something that will stand out in a group of names. I feel like and also, like you said, it does fit what I do inside the ring.”

Yeah, like if someone’s never seen one of your matches, and you go, you need to watch this guy named Ricochet. They go, Oh, I think I got it. I think I know what he’s all about. 

“Yeah. So I really, now that I’ve gone through all of it. I really enjoy the name now. And I really liked that it’s something different.”

Congratulations on your recent engagement, and I want to take it back. Talk us through the first time that you and Samantha met.

“Actually, I went to see her in Vegas because she used to perform out here, she did like Cirque du Soleil. And she did like, she did a bunch of cool, like production shows out here. But we actually started on Twitter. She added me on Twitter and then we started talking, but then I flew up to see her and we were hanging like we flew out. And then when I landed, we didn’t have anything planned. And so we were just driving around Vegas, and I’m looking around Vegas because, you know, I’ve never even really been to Vegas before, it’s so pretty. And she’s like, so we’re trying to figure out what we want to do, And she says, Do you want to go to The Grand Canyon? And I’m thinking from Vegas to The Grand Canyon, I’m, I’m assuming it’s not a very far trip, you know, I’m assuming, because also it was probably like eight o’clock at night, because I had just landed and we went, got some food. And we talked for a little bit, you know, so I said, sure yeah, absolutely. Like, how far away is it? She’s like, I think it’s like four hours. And I’m like, I was like, Sure. Yeah, let’s go, absolutely. And so literally, like, eight, nine o’clock at night, we just take off for The Grand Canyon. I think we stopped at Kingsman Arizona. I think that’s where we stopped like halfway. You know, that next morning, I saw a Cracker Barrel, I love Cracker Barrel. And I don’t think she said she’s ever been to a Cracker Barrel before. And I said, Oh, we gotta go, it’s so good. And then she says she hasn’t been in a long, long time. That’s it. So we gotta go. So that was kind of our real first date was like, meeting at like a Cracker Barrel where we really sat down and talked. And it was so funny because the waitress, I guess she thought we had been together for a long time. And then we were like, oh, no, this is actually our first date. And she was like, what? She goes, Oh, you guys have just been sitting here. Like, is she because I thought you guys would have been together for a long time, but they were like, oh, no, thank you so much. So like, from day one, it’s just been like, from day one. It’s been like, I don’t know, perfect. I want to say, nobody’s perfect. But like, we are perfect.”

That is a hell of a first date, Vegas to Cracker Barrel on the way to the Grand Canyon.

“And then our first photo together is like us standing together from the Grand Canyon. But since then, it’s just been great man every day.”

Before I let you go here, there was something that happened during the Money in the Bank ladder match, where I was like, only Ricochet could pull this off. And it’s where you dive through the ladder, and then over the top rope, and then to the outside. Is that something you just look at and go, Oh, of course, I can pull that off. 

“I think it’s something that I look at, and I go Yeah, I think I can do that. And then in the moment, you just gotta go for it. It’s literally it’s, there’s no like, practice. Really, there’s no, but I mean, obviously, you get the big, I think it was like a 12 foot ladder. So it was a huge ladder. And we’re the, I guess the braces cross, that little triangle is actually pretty, I mean, it was pretty big. I actually clipped my elbow though I still have like a cut on my elbow, because when I went to jump through, I just clipped my elbow a little bit, but it’s just one of those things where you gotta like, you see somebody out there you think you can do it and you just gotta again, don’t think about it. You just gotta go for it.”

You are like a real life superhero. I’m actually really curious. Who’s Who is your favorite superhero?

“My favorites, my list has like, changed over the years, but I think consistently, Peter Parker is my favourite superhero, Spider Man. Like since I’ve been like a kid, I feel like especially when I was younger, and I used to read the comics and watch old cartoons like I could relate to a kid going to school and trying to be a superhero type thing. So Peter Parker has always been one of my favourites. And then the flash. I’m a big fan of The Flash, obviously. Goku has been up there. I don’t know Goku counts as like a superhero. But just our inspirations, I’ll be in the gym working out and I was like, Okay, Goku would do another one that literally like do another set because Goku would do it. That’s how I kind of like push myself.

So I think I asked you this at WrestleMania but I’m gonna ask you it again. What are three things in your life right now that you’re grateful for?

“Sam, my family and my friends.”

Featured image: SPORF

It’s that time of the month again! Chris answers your questions that you submitted on social media with the hashtag #AskCVV. Send one in next month! We’ve got a range of topics from wrestling storylines to interviewing advice to acting with Liam Neeson!

Do you think Jay Uso has a chance in defeating Roman Reigns at SummerSlam for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship? And who do you think would be next for Roman Reigns if Jey is able to dethrone him as the tribal chief? 

“It’s a great question. And the answer to the very first one here, I think, yes, of course, he has a chance. Anyone has a chance in the WWE Universe. I don’t think that it’s going to happen though. I think it’s going to be an incredibly entertaining match. And this Bloodline story has been so so good. And I’m speaking without hyperbole here, this is truly one of the greatest wrestling storylines in the last 20 years easily. And then I think if you expand it beyond that, like back into the 90s, and then 80s. Beyond that, I mean, it’s a top five or 10 wrestling storyline, I think of all time, and I know that that is a bold, hot take there. But I love that it’s culminating in these great matches, and Sami being worked into this and the match with Cody at WrestleMania 39 being worked into The Bloodline storyline. So I think that of course Jey has a chance that it’s going to be an amazing match, but I don’t think that Jey Uso is the one that dethrones him, at least not yet. I really think that Roman is going to have this championship leading into the end of this year into 2024 into the Royal Rumble and then I think that something happens at WrestleMania 40. I mean, it seems like the story was leading up to at some point, Cody Rhodes finishing the story. WrestleMania 40 I don’t know how that happens, though. With them being on two different shows with Cody being on Raw and Roman being on SmackDow,n I don’t know how they Bring this back together unless Cody wins the rumble again, which I don’t. If you were to ask me at this exact moment right now July of 2023. With the way things are going that storyline doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. So I think that we’re gonna see a lot of interesting matches leading up to WrestleMania 40. But I think that Roman is the champion going into WrestleMania 40. I don’t know if he’s the champion leaving WrestleMania 40. So we’ll have to see there, but the match that I think that I am most interested in for SummerSlam and I think that a lot of people know it’s gonna steal the show is Logan Paul versus Ricochet. And Triple H has said this many times. So this is his quote, not mine. Logan Paul has no business being this good. I mean, it’s not just the moves, not just the athleticism, it’s the fact that he gets what makes someone a great pro-wrestler like he has the facials, he has the selling. His promos are actually really good too, for a guy who like didn’t come up through the Indies and didn’t spend time in NXT, like hasn’t done live events. His promos are so good. And I’ve said this a few times before, so stop me if you’ve heard this. But I truly think that Logan Paul is the new Shane McMahon, because Shane McMahon would go into these matches, and you’re like, I don’t really care if he wins or loses, but he’s gonna do something silly. Or like, oh my gosh, this is a ladder match or, oh my gosh, this is a hardcore match. He’s gonna do something silly, he’s gonna do something entertaining. He’s gonna do something that we’re going to be talking about here we are talking about Shane McMahon stuff 20 years later with you know, the Steve Blackman spot with the elbow or the Kurt Angle at King of the Ring and the glass like the list goes on and on and on him jumping off Hell in a Cell, all that stuff. And that’s where I think Logan Paul is, so put Logan Paul with his insane athleticism against Ricochet who’s Oh my God, so incredibly underrated and underutilised. Put them together in one match. It’s gonna be good. It’s gonna be good. Also Cody versus Brock. And really, I think that Cody has to win this right? Like Cody has to win this for this to continue on. But then what does that mean for Brock Lesnar? So does Cody win in some sort of dirty way? I don’t know. I just can’t see Cody winning clean. And if he does, I don’t know what’s next for him after that. So that match is the one that is the most interesting to me. And just in terms of like, I really don’t know what’s going to happen here.”

Why did you spoil that John Cena was in the Barbie movie? Just kidding. 

“I know you’re just kidding. But I know how many people were actually serious about that. So to kind of give a backstory here, I did the interviews for the Barbie movie, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling and the whole rest of the cast of the movie. And I saw John Cena in the movie. He’s not in it for very long, but there’s a fun cameo of John Cena as a merman. So when I went in to talk to Margot Robbie, who was a wrestling fan, by the way, I, of course, had to bring this up like it’s because of Margot Robbie, that John Cena got into this movie, and I created this fun moment. This was not me spoiling anything. When I posted this three weeks ago, the movie studio Warner Brothers announced this in April. His name was in the trailer in April. Then John Cena went on The Today Show, you know, small, little tiny show, The Today Show in May, to talk about this role and how this came together and him bumping into Margot Robbie at dinner and like blah, blah, blah. I’m in the movie. So I was blown away by everyone’s reaction to me spoiling this by, you know, putting this out there. How could I spoil something that the movie studio already told you about? I don’t think it’s spoiling. It’s just that I delivered the news to you instead of another news source.”

Do you have a guest planned for the big episode number 500?

“I do. I have a guest planned for this and I’ll talk more about it when we actually roll out Episode number 500. Which man I’m so excited about. I can’t believe that’s a real number. But episode number 500 is going to be rolled out on Tuesday, August 8. And I thought long and hard about this, because, I mean, who do you get? It’s such a monumental like, Okay, on one hand, it’s monumental, 500 episodes. On the other hand, it’s just the first of 500 episodes, like, we’re gonna do another 500, and then another 500 after that, and after that, you know, keep going, keep going. So in one way, it’s like, yes, let’s celebrate the little wins, let’s celebrate everything that’s happened along the way, here we are 500 episodes in. But also, it’s like, it’s just kind of another episode, because we’re just gonna, you know, that’s gonna be an episode on Tuesday, then there’s gonna be another one on Thursday. And we’re gonna keep moving forward from there. But I picked a guest, that means so much to me. It’s someone who has been so insanely kind to me, and someone who is a legend. So I’ll just leave it at that. And you can draw some conclusions, and you can make some guesses or you can tweet me what you think. But it’s gonna be a really special one. So you’ll be seeing that on August 8, and I can’t wait. I can’t wait.” 

What is your favorite wrestling storyline of all the time? 

“That is difficult because there have been so many great ones. But I think I’ve got to go back to McMahon versus Austin because that was the storyline that really hooked me and got me in. And I think that that was like, really the backbone of what made the Attitude Era great in the beginning part of the Attitude Era. Vince McMahon, going from being a commentator to being like a character. And leaning into that, after all, the Bret Hart stuff like that was just, it’s brilliant. And I think that it was so relatable, because we’ve all worked for a boss that we don’t like, or we’ve all worked for a boss who’s maybe a little bit too arrogant. And Vince McMahon just took all of those qualities and rolled them into this one, the Mr. McMahon character. And then I think we can all relate to Stone Cold, you know, wanting to give your boss the finger or all of those other things that they did during that storyline. So that storyline for me was really special because it got me in it sucked me in, you know, to be a wrestling fan than I am now. And also, I just think that it was just really smart writing. And it led to so many other great things after that. So, look, there’s been a tonne of great storylines in the history of this incredible business. But that one for me personally means the most.”

When you were just starting out in your channel, what kept you going at the beginning? 

“So I mean, I take it way back. I’m like, I’m not an OG, actually I guess I did have a YouTube channel in 2007. Quick story. I was working for MTV 2 Canada at the time, I was working in Vancouver on a show called 969. And we were getting huge interviews with some of the biggest musicians in the world at the time. And I just always had this like, it just like kind of bugged me a little bit that you would talk to a huge band, and then the only people that would see it would be the people that happened to be watching your channel at that exact time on that exact day. So me and my co-host at the time Lauren Toyota, who was incredibly talented. We started these like burner accounts like mine had this stupid still a YouTube account so you can look it up. It was dirty pirate hooker 123, which is a joke from a line in Anchorman. You’re a dirty pirate hooker. So dirty pirate hooker 123. And I put like a few interviews on there just because, if you didn’t watch the TV channel, but you are a fan of the band, a big one was The Fray. Remember The Fray? That band in like the mid 2000s, I had a great interview with them. And I was really proud of it so I just took it off the TV channel, just put it on this random YouTube channel that I had. And I was just like, I want other fans of this band to be able to see this interview. So I did that a few times. It’s just a few interviews on that channel. And then in 2011, I continued the same thinking. And in the meantime, I went from Vancouver to hosting a show in Toronto, to then in 2010. Moving to Cleveland, and working for the CBS affiliate there and getting access to like even bigger stars like some of the biggest stars on the planet. You’ve heard me talk about this before. I’ve talked to Samuel Jackson and Tom Cruise and George Clooney and Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep and Steven Spielberg. And now the list goes on and on and on. And again, I had the same idea of like I’m doing these interviews with these huge names. What if you’re a huge Morgan Freeman fan, but you don’t live in Cleveland, and you’re not tuned in at exactly 419 on that Thursday, well, that’s too bad. You didn’t get to see that interview. So that’s where like it started for me of like, I just wanted other people to see these interviews, especially like at that time, Twilight was a really big movie. Hunger Games started to be a big movie that time. And I was interviewing Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner. And then Jennifer Lawrence. And so I had these huge interviews with these huge names for these huge movies. And I was just like, Man, if I can get these up, fellow fans of these movies can enjoy these interviews. That was really all that kept me going. In the beginning, I had access to some amazing, amazingly talented people that were some of the biggest stars on the planet at that point in time and was just like, I just want to get this out there. I didn’t think about content being a job. I never thought of this. In 2011, when I started my main YouTube channel, never thought this would be like a full time gig. I didn’t even know what AdSense was. It wasn’t until like, I think a year into me having that channel, I was having a random conversation with one of my colleagues. And he was like, oh, yeah, blah, blah, blah. When I upload videos, you know, it’s not a lot of money, but the Google AdSense is okay. And I was like, hold on, pardon me, what? Money? And he’s like, oh, yeah, there’s this thing called Google AdSense. You just go to the website, you like click a consent box? And when you get $100, they’ll pay you out? I’m like, Are you serious? He’s like, Yeah, what did you think those ads were on YouTube. And I just didn’t know. So at that point, my goal was just to like, make $100 a month, and get paid out every single month. And I was fortunate that that started happening, like, relatively quickly, I think like, within two or three months of starting my Google adsense account, I went from, like, $33 to like, I don’t know, $71. And then I was like, Oh my gosh, like $124 for just uploading these interviews that I already enjoyed doing. And then it kind of bled over to the wrestling world where WrestleMania 27. If you go way back on my YouTube channel, I was there at like, WrestleMania access, and they would like stop the autograph line. I went up with my flip camera. If you remember a flip camera. And I was recording these interviews, I did one with Cody Rhodes, Dolph Ziggler, which you can see on my channel. And it was just kind of like a situation where I was there. I was in the same building as these people. Can I borrow a minute or two or three of their time to you know, get a quick interview with them. And as a wrestling fan, talking to wrestlers, that was really what started to give the channel some momentum. When it wasn’t just celebrities, it was like Raw is in town, The Miz is from Cleveland, he’s coming home. I live in Cleveland, does he want to come by the TV station and talk about wrestling for 10 or 15 minutes with a wrestling fan? And he was like, Yeah, sure, let’s do it. That was really what kept me going was like, I get to talk to people that I look up to about the stuff that they are so good at. And then as it kept going, it was just like, I just kind of got just really hooked on that idea. I did one. Can I do another one? Oh, I did another one. Can I do another one after that? Oh, I did another one after that. And then like you’d have an indie wrestling company come to the town you were living in for me Cleveland at that time. And then down the line. It was Miami was like, oh, Christopher Daniels is going to be in AIW. Well, I kind of know that guy. I met the guy once who runs AIW, John Thorne, could I reach out to him and ask if we could interview Christopher Daniels for the TV station, and then also do a longer interview for my YouTube channel. What? He just said yes, that was really what drove this. So I hope that whatever it is, with the channel that you have, or the podcasts that you have, that you can find that passion, because that’s what it really comes down to is being excited about what you’re doing. And I get really excited about these interviews. And I hope that you can feel that I get excited about doing these episodes. And I hope that you can feel that too. And I’ve teased this a bunch over the last probably two months, but I’m building something out for people who want to be a full time creator. And I want to be able to dump all of the knowledge that I have and tell you all of the mistakes that I have made so you can learn from them and not make them yourself. I’m going to be rolling this out and we think it’s probably two or three weeks, so keep an eye out for that. Something about being a full time creator. And we’re building up a membership so you can be part of that community.”

What was your first impression of Sean Ricker? I mean, LA Knight? Yeah!

“I mean, the guy is so talented, so talented. And he actually said this in the first interview that we did, but you could even like watch him on mute. Or you could just watch a GIF, and you can see that the guy just has his charisma like oozing out of him. I was very familiar with his work as Eli Drake in IMPACT Wrestling, and I think people sleep on the fact that he’s a world champion. He was a world champion in IMPACT Wrestling. And I interviewed him. It was the first interview. I did the first interview with him after he asked for his release from IMPACT Wrestling, and I don’t want to like put words in his mouth. So you can check out the interview that we did from 2019 to find out like why did he ask for his release from IMPACT Wrestling, and then he didn’t show up to WWE till several years later. But the guy is so talented. He has the look, he has the voice. He has the charisma. He has the body. He has everything. And I just think that I wish that WWE had seen what he was capable of the first time that he was in WWE like 10 years ago. I wish they’d seen it. Because then I think that we’d be talking about whatever his character would have ended up being called in WWE. I don’t know if they would have stuck with his NXT name. But I feel like we’d be talking about him 10 years into his WWE career, a highly decorated superstar but I think there’s no mistakes in life. I think that the things in your life happen for a reason. And like The Rock, you know, told me during that one interview we did, sometimes the best things in life are the things that don’t happen. And perhaps for Sean/Eli/LA, maybe the best thing to happen in his life was to not stay with WWE, and to really find his path with IMPACT Wrestling and NWA and then found his way back to NXT in WWE, so I’m really excited for what’s next for him. Dude needs to start winning some more though, like he’s so over without really having a main storyline. Isn’t that crazy? And he’s so over without having really any big wins like his last storyline was. I mean, his last real big storyline was the Bray Wyatt Pitch Black match, that Mountain Dew match at Royal Rumble, and he loses the match. And then Bray Wyatt disappears. It’s like that match helped nobody. The match was like I get it, Mountain Dew probably paid a lot of money to be the sponsor of that match. But my goodness, that match didn’t help either of them. But the fact that he’s gotten this over without really any help from anybody. I mean, that just truly speaks to how special a talent he is.” 

What does it take for one to become a professional wrestler? And does it take much financially? 

“It’s a really interesting question. And I will divert back to the interview I had with Santino Marrella. And he talked about, he told this great story in this analogy of like, he when they were in Europe, he went into the Coach store with Randy Ortiz like I’ve always thought of myself as being a guy who could have a coach wallet. Oh my gosh 6000 euros, I’m gonna paying 6000 euros for a wallet, geez. And he related that to pro-wrestling. There was a price to pay if you want to be successful. If you want to like be a pro-wrestler, as your job as your career make a living off of it. There was a price that you have to pay. And I’m talking here more like physically and mentally and like your time, but he talked about like training twice a day, twice a day, like every day and like speeding up that process and learning from everybody that he could learn from and try to be the best that he could be. So I don’t want to quote how much a wrestling school costs but it’s gonna be a few thousand dollars. Find the best school that is within any sort of proximity to where you live. And if there isn’t a great one, if there isn’t one with a reputable coach, someone who’s actually been there, and has done it. Obviously, immediately off the top of my mind, top of my head, I think of Shawn Spears and Tyler Breeze and Flatbacks because not only have they been there they are there right now. And I think about schools like that all the time, like Bubba Ray Dudley school, or D-Von Dudley’s school, you know, there’s tonnes of great schools like that, if there isn’t one in your area, or like Lance Storm, you know, so many great people have come out of there. If there isn’t a school like that in your area, I would look into saving up what you can to move down and spend, you know, the few months somewhere like flatbacks, and get the best possible training that you can get. So if that’s something you’re looking into, good luck.”

Besides The Rock, who had you the most starstruck when you first met them? 

“I mean, I’m not usually starstruck. I’ve been so fortunate to be able to do this. Now for most of my career, that it’s just like, I’m talking to another person who just happens to be really, really, really good at whatever it is that they do, you know, whether that’s, you know, telling jokes as a comedian, or directing movies, or wrestling or playing a sport or acting in a movie, they’re just, you know, they’re really, really good at it. And they, you know, have the opportunity to spend some time with them. And I’m grateful for that. But I will tell you that the setup for a red carpet definitely leads you to like, be a little bit nervous, anxious, all of those things. So Tom Cruise was, well, The Rock was the number one person I wanted to interview. And I was so fortunate to be able to interview him for the first time in 2012. And, you know, I’ve interviewed him a few times since. But then when I got an interview with The Rock, the next person was Tom Cruise. And I got to interview Tom Cruise in 2018. In Paris, on the red carpet for Mission Impossible Fallout, was right in front of the Eiffel Tower. If you haven’t seen the photo, Google it. It’s amazing. It’s like we’re standing there and the Eiffel Tower is right behind us. But the way that red carpets are set up is like, you get there early. You get your spot, you like you do some, they call them stand ups in the TV world. Where you like, you’re you on camera, like doing intros and outros and stuff like, Hey, come on up. We’re talking to this person about this movie, don’t miss it. Like that type of stuff. So you’re there early, you know, there’s all this build up, all this buzz, all the 1000s of fans, they’re screaming fans, and the red carpet starts. And then some of the other cast members come down. And then maybe the director walks the carpet. Oh my gosh, there’s Tom Cruise. And like for that red carpet, I was maybe a quarter of the way down. So pretty good, because they will enter the red carpet on one end. And then they’ll start speaking to all of the press as they make their way down the red carpet. So I was like a quarter of the way down maybe 20 people down, maybe 15 people down. So where you get starstruck is you’re like, oh my gosh, there’s Tom Cruise. And he’s now six news outlets away from me. So I’m going to talk to him in six interviews. How long is an interview? Oh, they’re like two or three minutes. So oh my gosh, I’m talking to Tom Cruise in 15 to 18 minutes, something like that for 10 to 20 minutes. And then he does another interview or two or three and you’re like, oh my gosh, now he’s three people away from me. That’s where it kind of builds up and you’re like, oh my gosh, that interview was really short as my interview gonna be really short. Oh my gosh. And you’re like second guessing the questions in your head? And you’re like, oh, is this the question I should lead with? Or should I wrap up with this question? I don’t know. That’s where you kind of get starstruck. And then you know, he walks up to you, shake his hand. He’s one of the nicest people on the face of the planet. And he’s so insanely engaging in the conversation like he looks you in the eye, like, you’re the only person that exists in that moment. And he’s so, so present. And you know, number one, it puts you at ease. But number two makes you go Oh, yeah, this is why you’re so good. This is why you’re so good at just being a movie star and also like acting and all of that together. So that’s a really cool one. And I hope that when Mission Impossible eight, I guess, or seven part two, Dead Reckoning, part two comes down a few years. I hope that maybe I have a chance to talk to him again, at some point in time there.” 

I want to ask CVV, should WrestleMania have been a two night event sooner? 

“Yes, way sooner, way sooner. And this is said by someone who has been to 12 Wrestlemanias. And I remembered, so I used to go with my friends. It was a group of four of us. And it was me, a big wrestling fan, my other buddy, a casual wrestling fan, like watches every once in a while. And then two of our friends that just weren’t wrestling fans and just went for like the spectacle of it, which I thought was so awesome. Like, they were just there because they’re like, let’s go to let’s go to a show with 80,000 people. And you can explain to me what’s going on or why this person’s wrestling this person. So it was really cool. Being able to go with my three buddies, Alex and Brian and Jason. We always had such a great time, and everything that goes on around Wrestlemania. And the last time that we went together was 34, New Orleans. And I just remember my one buddy. Jason was like, should I name him? Or should I not? I remember Jason being like, oh my gosh, why are we getting here so early? And why does this thing go so late? And the thing is, it ended up being like a seven hour show if you include like the pre-show and everything and it’s like, it just dragged on. And remember the next year I was actually just covering it in New York. WrestleMania 35, Kofi Mania, and it was just so long. And then if you went to WrestleMania 35 you can relate to this. It was so difficult to get out of that building, especially late at night and it was pouring rain and Ubers were insanely expensive. And it was just like, yes, two nights is so much better, because it breaks it up into too much more chewable. It just they’re just so much more digestible to chewable and digestible. I don’t know what I said there, but they’re just too much more digestible timeframes. Four ish hours, way better. So yes, I think it should have been a two night event years ago. Number one just for like it to, you know, you can include more people in it, because a lot of people Yeah, go to night one and two. But there’s a lot of people that just go for one, or just go for two. And I think that it allows more people the opportunity to go. And I think that it makes it a weekend long event, which I think it’s really cool. If you’re a hardcore fan now you’ve got Saturday night Wrestlemania and Sunday night Wrestlemania baby! Yeah, no, it’s cool. And I think it’s really smart that WWE started to do that. But yes, they should have done that a lot sooner.” 

Do you have any plans of writing a book about yourself at some point about your journey as an interviewer or host? 

“I’ve toyed around with this a bunch. And maybe you’ve heard me talk about it. I think I’d like to write a book at some point in time. I don’t think it’s about my journey as a host or interviewer as I don’t think that that’s super interesting. I’ve told that story a bunch of times, you can hear that on a podcast or see it on a YouTube video. I mean, at the crux of that story is just like the idea of like, number one be like so insanely stupidly passionate about something. And then number two, like don’t take no for an answer and just keep looking for your way to find a yes, that could maybe lead to another yes at some point in time. That’s really what my story is. But I think that there might be a book in there about like, I get asked a lot about like, how do you start a YouTube channel? How do you start a podcast? How do you grow in social media? Like, I know it sounds cliche, but it’s like you just got to start. And I think that that could be a good book title one day, Just Start. But also I think that there’s something going back to that idea of like I’m building this community of people who would like to also be a creator one day, full time creator, I think there’s something there. Full Time Creator, I think is also a great book title. So I don’t think the book’s about me, the book’s more about like, how can you do this? Can you do this? Of course you can do this. And here’s the steps of how to do it. So there we go.

Chris, what is your advice for preparing to be a parent? 

“Look, I really don’t think anything can prepare you to be a parent. And you can hear lots of great advice from people who have been there, they’ve done it, but really nothing will prepare you for the life changing moment that that it is. I think it’s twofold. With a life changing one, you find out that your significant other is pregnant, and that’s such a huge moment. It’s like, oh, my gosh, the world as we knew it, before, this does not exist, it has abruptly ended as of today. And actually, we went on a trip to Cabo me and my wife, Rachel. And she didn’t know that she was pregnant. Like very, very early on, we had just the greatest time, you know, we’re in Mexico, drinking tequila, and having all kinds of fun, and, you know, eating great food at the resort and going on all these adventures. And then like, we found out like a few weeks later, that she was pregnant. And it was like, okay, kind of in a weird way that trip to Cabo is like the end of this one chapter and the beginning of a new one. And then when you when the baby is actually born, it’s like, oh, my gosh, and now we’re in another chapter here. I just think the biggest advice that I would have is just enjoy every moment, because Logan’s two months old this weekend, this Saturday, her birthday is May 29. My birthday is May 19, Kane’s favorite day, and it just feels like it’s going by so fast already. Like, even as I sit here in the office of our house recording this. I know, they’re like 20 feet away. And I’m like, I kinda want to spend some time with them. I feel bad that I’m in here recording and they’re over there. Probably, you know, trying to eat or sleep or, you know, whatever is going on at this exact moment. But yeah, just enjoy every moment, that’s really it. I know that that’s super easy. And super basic and cliche but yeah, just enjoy every moment.”

Has anybody ever tested your professionalism while conducting an interview? 

“Hmm, yes. And it’s probably not the one you think it was actually, it was an in-person interview. I mean, the one that immediately pops in my head, I’m not gonna name names. But it was an in-person interview, and we got, I don’t know, pretty early on in the interview. And I was just like, come on. Come on, like, I don’t know, you, you might be able to put two and two together and figure out who I’m talking about. I like that person a lot. But just Yes, my professionalism has been tested. But I also think that part of being a great host, because I think I’m a host first. And I’m trying to build rapport. And I’m also just a curious person, I think part of that is either rising to their level, or sometimes on the rare occasion, coming down to whatever their level is. And I don’t just mean their level of like, like intelligence or anything like that, I mean, more of their level of their energy. Like, I’m a pretty excitable guy. And if you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that and I think that sometimes it’s not always easy for our guests to like, rise up to my level of like, oh my gosh, I’m pumped about every day. So sometimes, you know, you come down on that and that’s okay. But for this particular interview, I was just like, Yeah, I’m gonna put it like unless you say something, I’m gonna put this out there this interview out there unedited. And I don’t know if this makes you look that great. But this is the interview that we did and let’s put it out there so so yeah.”

As the father of a daughter, what is the one moment you can and cannot wait for?

“That is a top level question right there. I can’t wait for all the like dad daughter things, right? Like our very first like, Daddy daughter dance or daddy daughter like date or something like that. Like, I’m so excited for stuff like that and just to build memories, like to build memories with her. A really big one core memory for me growing up was when I caught my first fish and I am mega passionate about fishing. I own a bass fishing company we sell tungsten weights, it’s called Woo! Tungsten. So if you’re into bass fishing at all check us out wootungten.com I remember catching my first fish, it was a rock bass on sturgeon Lake, Finland Falls, Ontario, Canada. That was such a core memory for me that I can’t wait to create that core memory with her, and maybe fishing won’t be her thing. I don’t know, you know what it’ll be. But I can’t wait to be part of whatever that core memory is. The thing I can wait for is we all make mistakes. And I did some pretty silly things and stupid things and made some dumb choices in my teen years and maybe my early 20s mid 20s I’m still making dumb decisions now but not as dumb I’ve learned from them. And I can wait. And I don’t want it to happen, to get that call one day of like, Hey, Dad, I did blank. Or Hey, Dad, I know you, you’ll be really upset but blank. And I just want to always be there for her. You know, her mom and I are always supporting her but that’s one that I’m like, Let’s push that off as long as possible because it’s you know, it’s inevitable. That’s just part of being a parent I think.”

How cool was it to be cast in a Liam Neeson movie?

“It’s true. I am in a Liam Neeson movie with Amanda Seyfried called Chloe, you can go check this out. I think it’s still on Netflix. I’m also in the trailer for this movie. I have no lines. I’m just in the background. But I’m very featured in the background just as an extra. I’m a guy sitting in a cafe. And they were filming this in Toronto. Adam Egoyan is a director and I just had an agent of the time and they submitted me and he wanted me to play a waiter in the film. And I got to set and they already used actually one of the waiters from the actual cafe. So I ended up just sitting in this one. I’m actually having two scenes. There’s one scene where I’m very pivotal seeing the movie sitting behind Amanda Seyfied as she’s like looking at Liam Neeson. It’s like this very pivotal moment of movie. And then there’s another very pivotal point in the movie, where Liam Neeson is married to Julianne Moore, so their characters are having a big argument. And I’m sitting directly behind Liam Neeson in that scene, reading a newspaper and drinking wine at this cafe. And the whole premise of the movie is like it’s set in this college town that says set in Toronto, but it’s like it’s a college area of the town. So I was just supposed to be a college student just like sitting there behind him. And I remember learning so much from the two days I spent on that set. And it was a super intense scene with Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore. And she’s like yelling at him. And it’s his very intense argument scene. And I just remember Liam Neeson just like, being so like, almost like whispering he was so quiet. And I just it was the opposite of how I would ever think that scene would be played. And I remember watching us like, oh, that actually felt like they were talking. Like that actually felt like what an argument would look like at a cafe between a very angry wife and a husband. That’s like, oh my gosh, like tht is acting. And to be able to see that two feet in front of me was so cool. So I’m also in the trailer for that movie. I’m also in the movie, snap a screenshot, I would say snap a screenshot and tag me snap a screenshot, see if you can find me in Chloe. Also, I’m in The Love Guru. I’ve had a few people take a screenshot and tag me on that one. The Love Guru with Mike Myers. I spent like two weeks on that movie. And I also have a role in a movie called The Bronze. I actually have some lines. I play a news reporter and that one, I have some lines in a movie called Love Finds you in Sugar Creek. I play a news reporter and that one, are we seeing a trend here? And I have some lines in a John Travolta movie called Criminal Activities. So see if you can find me in that movie and snap a screenshot and send it over to me.” 

What makes a great ring announcer? In my mind, Samantha Irvine is the best. 

“Samantha Irvine is very good and she’s become very good very quickly too. Like, Lilian [Garcia], legendary, and this is nothing but love for Lilian, she will tell you this. If you watch some of Lilian’s early stuff, she doesn’t have nearly the poise or nearly the voice. Nearly the the presence, the grandioseness of who she became, you know, a few years after that. But Samantha has picked us up so quickly. And she’s just so so talented. I’m sure you’ve seen the video of her like playing the flute and she’s a great singer and very good. So she is great. I agree with you. What makes a great ring announcer I think is someone who can elevate the moment. Justin Roberts is so good at this. Bruce Buffer in the UFC is an absolute freaking walking GOAT when it comes to this. It is someone who can make the already special moment feel just that much more special. And you don’t need to be huge and over the top with like the style that Bruce Buffer has, like Michael Buffer, makes the moment feels so special just by like bringing it down a little bit. Let’s get ready to rumble, like he’s so good at like bringing you into the moment. So I think it’s just someone who can, who has the voice obviously. And who it can make it really special. And everyone who WWE has hired from Mike Rome is so underrated I wish that guy got more like actual like screen time because you hear his voice all the time. But like put his face on the camera. Greg Hamilton so good at this as well. Justin Roberts, of course, you know, Tony Chimel, Howard Finkel, you know, these, they’re all legends. And WWE takes that position very, very seriously. I mean, I listed off just what was at six names, and that’s over the course of 30 plus years, 40 years of WWE, like that is a very special position. So it takes a very special person to be in that position.” 

Do you ever fly private? 

“No, I’ve never flown private, but it is on my bucket list. And I actually said to Rachel the other day I said in the next five years we will fly on a private plane. We will fly on a private jet even if it’s like an empty leg flight. You know what I’m talking about here. Empty leg flights like if someone actually owns a private plane or has rented it out and they’re flying from I don’t know, make it easier LA to Vegas, the plane that has to go from Vegas back to LA, is empty. So what they try to do is like for a super discounted price they go tomorrow, you know, tomorrow there’s a flight on this plane from Vegas to LA because it needs to reposition, needs to go back to that city. And it’s like way cheaper. So yeah, maybe it’ll be an empty leg flight. But yes, the goal is to fly private. Maybe it’ll be on Vince’s plane one day. I don’t know. Maybe it’ll be on Tony’s plane one day, I don’t know. But I guess we’ll find out in the next five years.”

Booker T (@bookert5x) is a 2-time WWE Hall of Famer and is known for his time in WCW, TNA and WWE. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at Reality of Wrestling in Houston, TX to talk about his radio show “The Hall of Fame” that he hosts with Brad Gilmore, his wrestling promotion “Reality of Wrestling”, his thoughts on LA Knight, which of his WCW Championships meant the most to him, his hilarious segments with Goldust, the Supermarket Brawl with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, his memories of the last episode of WCW Nitro, becoming the King Booker T character, doing commentary on NXT with Vic Joseph, his favorite catchphrases and much more!

On being in great shape:

“You have to stay ready, you don’t have to be ready, you know what I mean, that’s my motto. You know, because life moves so fast, is fluid. You can find yourself getting old quick. If you just sitting at home thinking about what happened in the past, you know, we’re here at Reality of Wrestling today. Summer of Champions now, we’re thinking about the future. We are thinking about Summer Champions 20 in a much, much bigger arena. Seeing our young kids go out there perform at the highest level. So man, I’m living my best life right now.”

On having more fun commentating on NXT:

“You know what, I think that’s the difference. When I was on Raw, when I was a SmackDown, everything had to be politically correct. Of course, I had, you know, something in my ear. You know, sometimes you know, you couldn’t be yourself. And I find myself at NXT being kind of like I am here at Reality of Wrestling. You know, I’m throwing my clipboard. I’m having fun at the same time. With NXT I can go out there and be serious. But then I can talk about you know shucky ducky quack quack, you know, so it’s just all about having balance. And trying to think about one thing first and foremost. And that’s the young guys, the talent and trying to put a spotlight on those guys. And, you know, hopefully give them the rub is something we talked about in the business.”

On advice for prospective wrestlers:

“99%, 100% You know, 99% you know, keep your mouth shut. If you’re 100% Speak up 100% of the time, you know, because I’ll listen. You know, if it’s something that, you know, that resonate with me and something that gets through with me, and I go, you know that you might be right. You know, I’m not the one that thinks I’m the smartest guy in the room, or I know it all, or anything like that. So I just tried to tell my young guys to know when to speak up, you know, just like my, you know, my right hand man Kevin Bernhardt started with me when he was 18 years old, came to me about three years ago, and he go Book, I need to talk to you and I go, what do you need? He goes, You remember, you know, you say, 99% 100%? I go, Yeah, he goes, You know, I need a raise. And I looked at him, and I just started laughing. And I go, how much you need? And he goes, such and such. I go, okay, they get the hell out of here. You know, but I need guys that know their work. That no one they’re working a little bit hard, maybe you just need a little bit of pinch to help them out a little bit. You know what I mean? So for me, I get it. I understand it. I was there once upon a time myself, and I was always the guy to speak up, you know, and sometimes you can get fired, you know, when you speak up?”

On opinions on his podcast:

“You know, I never, as far as giving my opinion, I never say anything, that I’m not willing to sit in somebody’s face. You know, and that’s just the way I’ve always, you know, you know, did my form of journalism. I don’t say anything to tarnish anyone, I don’t do anything to try to make anybody look bad. I never curse if you notice on my show or anything like that. And what I say I stand by it 100% every time. And nine times out of 10, it comes around that I was right. Every single time it comes around, and I was right. So my opinion, I think is strong as far as you know, the way that people look at it and the way that they try to make it hot takes. But at the end of the day, I stand by it 100%.”

On commentating NXT with Vic Joseph:

“Now, Vic makes it really really easy for me, man. I couldn’t do the job without Vic. Be honest. I would not be as comfortable as I am without Vic. He really does all the heavy lifting, just like Brad does. Brad does all the heavy lifting, I’m just the star. Vic, he does all the heavy lifting, I’m just the star. And I say that giving him props, man, because I couldn’t do it without him. I couldn’t do it without Brad. No way. You know, I will be in Vegas, you know, covering Crawford Spence. If it wasn’t for Brad, I couldn’t do it. No way. You know, I have a saying, you know, when I was you know, getting ready for my bid for mayor here in the city of Houston. Things fell through. But I know what when I do run, I’m gonna win. That’s just no doubt that I’m gonna win. The slogan for me has been for years, you know, respect your elders, you know, but for me, it’s respect your young people, you know, because they’re the future. They’re the ones that’s gonna guide us in this new technical world, you know? And if it wasn’t for these young people, I can only imagine where us old heads like myself would be well, I can’t even understand what Twitter and Instagram is. I’m mixing them up. You know what I mean? So Nah, man, it’s true. Rely Brad came to me when he was 18 years old. Now he’s married, successful, you know, more famous, almost more famous tonight. But it took a lot of work, it took, you know, tried to be a certain feel for Brad to be able to look at and be able to emulate and understand what understanding what this life and being a man is really, really truly all about.”

Which World Championship reigns mean the most to Booker T?

“Number one and number six. Yeah, number one, you know, when I first won it, it was like a magical moment. You know, I never put myself on the radar as far as winning the World Heavyweight Championship or anything like that. I never dreamt one day of being the World Heavyweight Champion, just never did. I just want to be the best wrestler. I just want to be the best wrestler in the locker room. And being the best wrestler in the locker room has enabled me throughout my career to have had a championship run my ways since the beginning, like from you know, when I was at the independent scene. So for me when I won the World Heavyweight Championship, I remember God, Chris Cruise, we were coming from pay-per-view one night and he goes book one day you’re going to win the World Heavyweight Championship and I say get out of here. Gary Cappetta, that’s who it was, not Chris Cruise, Garry Cappetta said you’re gonna win the Heavyweight Championship one day, and I go Nah, no, wait, let’s get out of here, man. And many, many years later, I’m in a position to win the World Heavyweight Championship, controversial night of course. But winning it. I think that controversy made that night for me even bigger, you know, more memorable for everyone. And number six, with my queen, Sharmell, in WWE, it was magical man. Both of those nights was like, equally magical. Like, like to the cosmos man to the nebula. As far as how they felt for me, because winning it with my wife, against Rey Mysterio was so gracious working with the best in the world. Rey Mysterio, my favourite wrestler, what an awesome night.”

On talking to Shane McMahon on the last episode of WCW Nitro:

“Yeah. You know, I do remember having a conversation with Shane. I can’t remember what it was. But I knew I was like his guy. I came into WWE boom, him and I we was boom, connected at the hip. We did so much stuff together. I had so much fun working with Shane McMahon. And it was all because he wanted to, you know, work with me. And you know, I don’t know. For me having that happen, I don’t know why that happened. You know, sometimes, a lot of guys came into WWE at that time, it didn’t work out for them. For me, I came in I had a crappy match. The first night, you know, what Buff Bagwell due to you know, circumstances? And there’s so many guys that didn’t have another one. Um, and for me, I always looked at it as you know, I was prepared for WWE. I remember in WCW, at the end of that run, so many guys was getting lazy. They were, you know, making so much money, it was like it was going to happen, you know, last forever. I can see the ship, you know, Titanic going down. And I was like, let me you know, really, really prepare myself. And I always tell my students, one of my best quotes is if you can’t make it in the locker room, you have no chance of making it in the ring. That’s one of my most famous quotes. Because the guys will break you in the locker room before you have a chance at making it in the ring. You know, you gotta be likeable. You know? And for me, I’ve always been likeable. You know, but I’ve always been, you know, a man of my word. You know, while always looking for a fight too at the same time.”

On fighting Steve Austin in a grocery store:

“Me and Stone Cold Steve Austin at the grocery store. People come up to me and go my favourite match with you was you and Stone Cold Steve Austin at the grocery store. You know, to be able to go out and like, like, just make a fool of ourselves, make fun of ourselves, for the fans, entertain them. And then we’ll get in the ring. And we’ll have a real serious fight, you know. And that’s the balance of professional wrestling. You got to know when to have fun, when to take yourself seriously and whatnot. I’ve seen guys pass on, pass up a many a many a opportunity, not knowing how to really understand this business. For me, since day one, watching Houston wrestling here as a kid, I knew what it was. I wasn’t the kid going to school going I want to fight you over wrestling God I believe, and I was like, man, these guys are great entertainers man. And I knew the really good ones from the guys who were mediocre to the guys who were just learning, you know, so I was like, Man, I think I could do this. You know, I loved it.”

On working with Goldust:

“Some of my best work with Goldust. because we were friends and, you know, just this business. You know, we say you got a bump card. You know, when you punch it up, it’s over. With, it’s time to check out. Goldie and I. we will come to work. And we wouldn’t have nothing to do but a skit and we would be in the locker room. You know, this just went on for weeks. We didn’t have to wrestle at all. And we will be like, Man, we’re stealing money, getting paid to do this. Are you kidding me? We don’t have to work this week. So you got to know when to put it in, like cruise control. When you know just you know you know kick back and you know relax and know this business works in circles. It’s not always going to be your time. You know, so for me, I’ve always said well it’s time, I was GI Bro. You know, Dallas Page came into the locker room one day, saw me putting on my paint. He goes man, what are you doing? What are you doing, bro? I looked at him and I said I’m just having some fun, man. I was on my boat every weekend. I visited the Gulf, you know, come to work, go play GI Bro, go back. I wasn’t doing the house shows. You got to know when to have fun. Take your time, long haul, it’s a marathon.”

Booker T’s Mount Rushmore:

“I don’t know man. You know what? I don’t know. I really don’t look at wrestling like that. Of course you got Ric Flair. You know, he’s gonna be there. You know, of course you got Hogan because when I look at Ric Flair, I look at him for a certain reason. And the reason is the work Ric Flair put in there, he’s like a god. I’m talking about the young Ric Flair that went there. When he ran hard on both ends in the ring, he performed at the highest level. Then you got a guy like Hogan who came along and changed the name of the game as far as how much money guys were making in Hollywood, you know, thing, you know? Then the other two, probably, you know, Steamboat, of course, for being perhaps the best babyface that ever lived, you know, a guy that can go out there and perform at such a high level. And then you got a guy like Piper who could do anything, but was such a major star, you know. But the Rushmore thing is like, you know, up for debate, everybody’s gonna have their own, you know, Rushmore, should I be on there? You know, the greatest, you know, 35 time champion? Perhaps.”

On the King Booker accent:

“The accent, the accent just had to be stupid. It didn’t have to be real. But it had to be serious. It had to be you know, I had to believe it. And then at that, you know, then I will break character and go street. But I will kick back into my character. Because just like I taught to my students. Like we’re working with the NXT guys, you’re acting has to be, you know, on another level when you’re trying to make fans feel a certain way. Because everyone knows when they walk in the door, what they’re gonna get here. But when they walk out, and they go, God, man, I can’t wait to get back and watch it again, that’s because they felt a certain way, and that’s what King Booker brought to the table and so much went into that whole thing. I couldn’t even do it for that long. I had a heel run and I left WWE after that, because I was so tired at the end of it because it was taxing, but it was great at the same time, the best work I ever did.”

What is Booker T grateful for:

“My wife, my kids, my health.”

WWE Superstar Cody Rhodes sits down with Chris Van Vliet at the premiere of “American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes” in Atlanta, GA. He talks about his decision to leave AEW and go back to WWE, wrestling Seth Rollins with a torn pec at HIAC, how the meeting with Vince McMahon went before he re-signed with WWE, how the “WOAH” in his entrance caught on, the origins of “Finish the story”, the biggest things that have changed in WWE since he left in 2016, his new documentary which debuts on Peacock on July 31 and much more!

A lot has changed since last time I saw you four years ago.

“What has changed? I lost my phone in a hotel room, right, and we were talking about AEW, and we were in Miami, and was at the NFL owners meeting. Because that makes sense. That makes sense. I do really appreciate that Tony took me to multiple NFL events. Only because one time I got on the elevator with Emmitt Smith. And he asked me is this where we go to the bus? Is the bus at two he asked me like I was part of it. And I remember going I remember thinking like should I tell him? No, I I’m just at the hotel. Instead. I  go yep. I literally just I didn’t want to ruin it. Like he’s he’s gonna walk out there and find out, there’s gonna be plenty of like the red coats and the gold coats of they’ll figure it out. But Yeah Emmitt asked me if this bus leave it to you, man. Yeah, it does. I appreciate that my NFL time just because I love the NFL. And to see these owners and this crazy just world I remember like, Brandi got a big hug from Roger Goodell talking about Michigan. Yeah, yeah, it was another lifetime, but that’s what I was at that hotel for.”

Which, you know, brings us all to this. Like, I didn’t think I’d be sitting down with you in a WWE situation after that.

“I know. I think I PayPaled you for some AEW work too.” 

I was like, wow, Cody Runnels sent me some money.

“Yeah, that’s how professional I was, PayPal. We got it done, though. Yeah, I mean, when you look at the doc, it’s wild to think at the time, no clue. But now looking back at it, it’s like there was no other way. It’s very, it’s very odd, and I’m not a big story of destiny type. But man, I should be because this, this has been one and I’ve just been lucky to ride it for sure.”

Everyone talks about the changes that you’ve made since you left the WWE in 2016. But I’m curious, what’s changed about WWE now that you’re back?

“Well, the schedule at WWE, like first out of the gate when you think of returning to WWE, you think of what that schedule can be. It’s very daunting, because they’re trying to cover everywhere on the map. And then wherever the TV goes, WWE goes. The schedule has been lessened, there’s a healthier schedule. I mean, I’m literally thinking of all the things that are different. The live events are branded now, you know, Saturday Night’s Main Event, Sunday Stunner, the VIP element that’s around the ring. I don’t know if people realize this who only see Raw or SmackDown. At the live events, this VIP service that they offer is just the best bang for your buck, they’ve figured it out. They have figured it out. His name’s Billy who runs that, and it’s one of my favorite things about the live events. But the main thing, and the far more important thing that’s changed is the people who run it the same, it’s the same [people] who run it. But they now run it, and it’s a bunch of grown men and women now in a sense of the actual talent. Seth Rollins is not a child, it’s not Tyler Black coming from Ring of Honor anymore. He’s a grown man who knows the psychology of a crowd, how he can move them, how he can not, and that’s across the board. Jey Uso is a completely different animal. Sami Zayn, just like a true artist, Kevin Owens having experienced the ebbs and flows of it all, and that creates the environment we’re in, and the environment we’re in is the business of it. It has been so good, sell out, sell out, sell out. They’re not random, I don’t take them for granted. You don’t want to, at any moment they could end, but they’re there because you have an experienced group of guys and girls, and that’s been the biggest difference. When I was there the first time I was a kid, and I was blossoming into what it’s like to be, you know, in your 30s, professional wrestler who has experience working with some of the top names, but still, it’s no substitute for what we have now. There’s no substitute for that experience. And that’s what you see with these shows and I think that’s one of the leading factors. Obviously Roman, but that’s a leading factor into how this business is like, like just everywhere they go the transaction is through the roof. And that’s why.”

One of the biggest things that came out of the trailer for becoming Cody Rhodes was Kevin Owens going Vince flew to him. What was the first thing Vince said to you?

“That’s a good question, I think he laughed. He has that like, [impersonates Vince laugh] I think he laughed. Because I kind of snuck in. But I like leaned over him, and I think he kind of laughed. I remember going in to talk to him. I wasn’t afraid of anything, and I was overcompensating almost. I was very adamant of like, I’m not, I’ve used the Bernie Mac reference a bunch, but he walks out and the crowds kind of booing him, he tells me he’s not scared of them. That’s really where I was at. It’s like, we’re good. Not scared of anything here, let’s talk. And I was almost overcompensating because both Vince and Bruce were so welcoming. So, this is the term I can use, sweet, and so positive about what I had done. And the fact that they knew what I had done and actually were citing different things, like I saw this, I saw this, I couldn’t believe it. It was very self affirming. And it just went like that type of happy go lucky. We’re talking about, I had, you know, Liberty was a year old or maybe not even at that time. And he’s talking to me about what it’s like to be a you know, a dad for a daughter and how special it is, it was just beautiful. And then like in the last 20 seconds of the meeting it was, Seth Rollins at WrestleMania, you know, that’s where the only business came up. And it was, I told Brandi I would say this, but I was adamant about saying please don’t do one of those hey, this is the deal, if you leave it’s off the table, don’t do one of those. I have to leave and think about it. I have to. And even in your mind, you’re like yep, I think we’re gonna do that. Even your mind, I have to leave to think about it and take some time because man, we had made such massive decisions. And I’m kind of a career left turn guy with, no way would he do this, well he did that. So this one was going to be something similar but really special. Didn’t feel like a meeting until maybe the last 30 seconds.”

I was there in Dallas when you returned, and the big question was, is he going to return with Kingdom as his entrance theme? And what’s so interesting now is like you’ve returned with Kingdom but now the whoa is such a big part of your entrance. Who worked that in because it’s very theatrical now with you like, you know, putting your arms out for it. I actually made a video where I said it took six years for the whoa to catch on.

“So you know, the whoa had been in different versions of Downstait music for me. Yeah, the whoa had been present. So I think really you’d have to say Kevin Dunn, because Kevin, he looked at an AEW entrance of mine, and I said it has to be this. This is what it is, I’m not, you know, calling any shots. But this is what I, to be fair, this is what I would like, this is representative of who I am. And he was of the thought of great, we are just gonna make it a little bit better, we’re just going to make it a little bit better. And we tried some entrances that the world never saw, just different things during the day, we could do this, do that. And he set it up where it was most conducive for Monday Night Raw with the way the staging is on Monday Night Raw to do that and not have to build the Codyvater every day at three o’clock in the afternoon and maybe, maybe save it for let’s save it for a pay-per-view or a WrestleMania, which we did. But he’d have to be to blame for the whoas, because he loves the idea of singing, loves it, and you can hear him calling for that, I want to see people singing, and you can hear it. And that’s just never anything that I thought about. But I can say one of the most important things with the logo I knew wasn’t gonna change as I got the tattoo. [What did Vince to the tattoo?] He, again, laughed but that was one moment where I said, he had mentioned that there’s all kinds of designs we could do and I told him well that one we’re pretty locked in on. But the one thing I was really clear about of all things, the music has to stay the same. And the reason the music had to stay the same was the music wasn’t just at AEW. The music was at Ring of Honor, New Japan, every independent I could possibly go to all over the world. That was the music, including the line that I recorded on my iMac in my living room, gosh knows when, the wrestling has more than one royal family. For sure they were going to take that out, for sure. No way, somehow, someway, we’ll get there and it says sports entertainment. Like we’ll be dubbed over the wrestling but no, they kept it let it be. And there was a version of my song if I can find it, I’ll send it to you. There was a version of my song that was different, that was an option. And I just thought I think the audience would be really mad. Kingdom is I’ll follow you to the end. we can’t discredit that. We have to, we have to have it. So that was probably the most important piece of okay, we’re gonna bring the nightmare brand as it is, the most important piece is that song. I didn’t know it, but I was fighting for it.”

After you tore your pec, but you’re still gonna have the match at Hell in a Cell with Seth. What does the conversation with Seth look like? Does he go dude, I’m not doing this. Are you crazy?

“Oh, I feel like, Oh, man. I feel like because Seth and I’s rivalry is true, and real. I don’t want to tell you how unbelievably, it’s fair, it’s fair to say. Seth is, I can’t even begin to tell you how good Seth Rollins is as a wrestler, psychologist in the ring. And without getting too far, Seth made a decision that day that he made, it was his decision to make, that will forever be something I’m grateful for. Seth and I are not friends. It doesn’t look like we’re heading towards friendship. There has been some flirtation with it. Don’t think it’s going to happen though. All that aside, if I ever write a book one day, a whole chapter will be about how good that guy is and how he’s super valuable to WWE. And he’s still undervalued, in my opinion. And having Monday nights with him and I in a nice, competitive who’s the guy, without ever having to be in the ring with each other. I couldn’t ask for a better sparring partner in that sense. I don’t want to wrestle Seth ever again. But that day, he made a decision that was very important. And if you get him ask him because I still don’t want to say nice things about him.”

Everybody knows who your father is. But when that was worked into the WrestleMania 39 storyline, Were you okay with Dusty being a central part of that?

“Yeah, I was okay. I was definitely okay with it. I got to the point where at the end of my run with AEW and the beginning of my run with WWE, where I was really big on leaning in, like I’ve been leaning out for so long, I’ve been leaning out. Okay, there’s they’re starting to boo here. And you’re kind of split, Let’s lean into it. Let’s, let’s stir it up. And when I came back, and the story was a real story, that is actually what I talked to Vince and Bruce about in that meeting was, hey, here’s the WWWF title, I have it. Dan Lambert gave it to me. This is the whole reason I wanted to be in the business, this physical piece of [history] this thing right here, this belt, this championship belt. So I was fine with leaning in. Because it feels like it’s now or never, in a sense, it’s now or never that there’s things you have to earn. And when you’re someone’s kid, and you’re second generation, third generation, you have them all at your disposal from the beginning. But there’s a difference from when you use them at the beginning and when you’ve earned them. And I felt like I’d earned them. And I remember Stephanie McMahon said this. She said use everything, use everything you have. And there couldn’t be a more appropriate time to use everything. Oh WrestleMania, the main event, essentially getting elected president is getting that match the final match, like use it all, use everything you have and leave no stone unturned. And she was right.”

Was there any version of WrestleMania 39 where you were walking out with the championship?

“One thing that’s been really very real and in front of your face, and accurate is that the long road sometimes can be very special, but you have to see it. You have to really, if you say it out loud, no, that’s not gonna work, no way. But if you see it, then you start to feel it. And it’s even sweeter if that moment comes, if that day comes, but there was, I’m sure, a myriad of plans. I’m so plugged out of a creative aspect because I mean, from the time I was PayPaling you, my days as a creative person are I’m not interested in them. Even if I had the best idea ever, I would be afraid to pitch it to anybody, just because it just, it just burned me out doing it. And I was too young to be doing it. I should have just been throwing my tights on, boots, on being a wrestler, superstar, however you want to put it. But that was the job. And that’s what the audience wanted and just was a lot of taxing, great lessons though.”

I remember saying to you in that interview of like, how do you balance being an executive and an in ring performer, and you were like you don’t? And I when I was backstage and fortunate enough to do some stuff with you guys. in AEW, you were an executive, you were heading up that show at that time. [Cody – I took pride in that]. Yeah, as you should. Do you feel like at any point the wrestling then took a backseat?

“I think the wrestling took a backseat right away. Because I thought, my bigger mistake. And this wasn’t an AEW mistake, this was a Cody mistake. My biggest mistake was thinking, I’ll stay as good as I am in the ring only wrestling twice, three times, maybe just once a month. Sorry. And the Gen Z crowd out there is about to lose their mind, and I hope they understand what I’m saying, you have to do live events. You cannot learn how to work a live audience unless you perform in front of a live audience. So I was getting worse, as was everybody. Some of the best wrestlers, you name them, in that first year, the crowd was incredibly generous to us because we were new, we were fresh. Some of the stuff isn’t going to hold up just because we weren’t, we weren’t able to do this on the regular and get it down and sharpen our tools. And that’s just, maybe it’s just me, maybe it’s nobody else, but you have to be able to do it. So that’s an area where I think I was suffering from immediately. But you mentioned taking pride in the executive element. So you were there when I was still running those meetings, I really loved it. But from an ego standpoint, from an optics standpoint, that was really cool. But I also really loved leading, and I just maybe wasn’t ready to fully lead at that point. And it didn’t rub everyone the right way, why is he running the production meeting? Why is this and that and then you know, your vision, Kenny’s vision, Matt and Nick’s vision, everyone’s visions, that one thing. But you know, Tony has a vision and this is his money, and then let’s see how that plays out. But that was a good time. I’m glad you had a good experience because when we left there was this whole like disinformation campaign that Wade Keller put out, and I’m not even mad at Wade Keller no heat with Wade. But I could tell what was going on. And yeah, you didn’t talk to any real source. No, I was an executive, as a member of management. I was happy, wanted to help and took huge pride in us being a professional organisation and, and that shows amongst the roster, the locker room, my kids, the people I didn’t recruit, people I did recruit. Yeah, there was such a fog of misinformation of when I left that. It’s fun to see in the doc itself. You know, that wasn’t the case, it was just time.”

What is Cody Rhodes grateful for?

“Brandi, Liberty, Pharaoh.”

Brendan Schaub is a retired mixed martial artist, comedian, podcaster and the host of “The Fighter And The Kid” with Bryan Callen. He joins Chris Van Vliet in Hollywood to talk about his path that led him to becoming a UFC Fighter, being on The Ultimate Fighter with Kimbo Slice, his fights against legendary opponents like Gabriel Gonzaga, Mirko CroCop, Antonio Nogueira and Andrei Arlovski, how he thinks the fight would have gone if he faced Brock Lesnar, becoming a podcaster through a chance meeting with Bryan Callen, starting his career as a standup comedian, the intervention that Joe Rogan had with him about his UFC career, his thoughts on a possible fight between Elon Musk vs Mark Zuckerberg and much more!

On getting into podcasting:

“Shane [Carwin] beat Frank Mayer to become the UFC Heavyweight Interim Champion. So but that was my main training partner, my brother. But I didn’t have money at the time so Shane would pay for all my training. He was the best. And Shane became really famous, again, The Ultimate Fighter, and it was the biggest season ever with Kimbo Slice. I like to think it was because I was on the show, definitely wasn’t, but it was Kimbo Slice and Ryan Nelson. So I’m in the UFC, I’m top 10, Shane’s the champion of the world. Nate’s doing his thing. GSPs coming down with Rashad Evans is there Wonderboy Thompson, Stipe is there, you know, became heavyweight champion. This is when he was even in the UFC. So you have this whole team and I realise everyone’s getting the team was getting famous, which is a curse, the team’s getting famous. And I realized the team stopped being a team and it was starting to be individuals and I would need attention because I had a big fight coming up. But this guy, the big fight coming up, and so it just stopped becoming like this team thing. And I was coming off a loss like this isn’t good, you got to make a change and go somewhere where, you know, you’re getting the coaching you need. And I grew up in Venice Beach in the summers as a kid, my uncle had a house where my dad would always either drive out here during the summers or we’d fly out here. So I grew up in Venice Beach and California always like spoke to me, like I always knew this was where I should be. So I was just like, I need to change. And I didn’t want to hurt everybody’s feelings. I hate confrontation when it comes to that stuff. So I was like, I’m just gonna go out there for training for a month, and I’ll be back. But my family didn’t know that. And I sold all my stuff and literally was just moving out there full time. And so I did that. And then I met Brian Cowen, who’s a comedian, actor. And I was trying at the time and Brian loves UFC. And he was doing a podcast, shoot, this is like 14 years ago, he’s doing a podcast called The Brian Cowen Show, had seven listeners, and then me and him, we just we just hit it off. Like we’re instant, like friends. There’s this weird chemistry. And he called me when I left. He’s like, Oh, you’re great, man. We should do a show every week. I’m like, Dude, I don’t have time for this bullsh*t. He’s like, no, no, you and I and I was like, I don’t want to talk about fighting man. Like, that’s not what I like to do. He’s like, No, we talked about whatever you want, fashion, cars, whatever you want to talk about. And I was like, if I can be silly, I’m down. He’s like great, once a week. So we started doing that. And that was before everyone had a podcast in their basement like back in the day, man. So we started do that. And I remember us fighting Andre Arlovski, you’ll see, I forget what number it was in Vancouver. I beat him in a in a split decision. But the judges f*cked me. So that’s whatever. But I remember I was walking through the airport. And there’s like billboards of me in Vancouver and like, I was on on TV, on commercials. I walked through the airport, and the TSA and fans would like throw out things like from the podcast me doing something silly and weird. And then as I’m going through TSA and he goes I am such a big fan, can I get a picture. He’s like hey, man, he goes, what do you do in Vancouver? I was like, What are we doing? Like, do you not see the billboards? Nothing? He’s like, Nah, what, what are you doing here? Maybe you’re doing a stand up. And I was like, No, dude, I’m fighting. People are starting to recognise me for being silly for being myself, which I always relate to more because when I was a kid, the goal is to be on Saturday Night Live. That was always the number one goal. So to me that was like, Oh, this is the recognition I need, man. And then I continue to fight, and then podcasting started to gain some legs. And we had I had signed to deal with Fox Sports were the first podcast ever. And then we started to get some checks for the advertising. There were really, no one’s really doing podcasts on YouTube. So I was just checking them straight up audio advertising. I remember I got the check for that. And I got the check for getting punched in the face. And I was like, Dude, what are we doing here to focus on this mess? Sure, folks, and then my girl, my wife, my girlfriend at the time, now my wife, was pregnant with our first kid. So it was like this whole kind of like, whether you believe in God, it was like go over here, you idiot, you know? So it was just like this weird transition, which I always wanted in my heart. You know, I’m not natural born fighter. I have a fighters heart. But it was terrifying. And I knew there was, it’s a short road. Like I knew like no matter how good you are, like, this movie ends with you face down ass up, man, everybody. So it’s like, can you do this? Or you can keep doing this and getting punched in the face, man.”

On being too nice for the UFC:

“It’s also like when you watch the UFC don’t get me wrong. There’s some authentic guys like Nate Diaz, the Diaz brothers, like Cain Velasquez, there’s like guys. But then also like, I’m too nice of a guy where it’s like, the UFC would use me for marketing stuff like that, and being silly, which I always gravitated towards the camera and so they recognise that and pushed me further, but it’s like no one wants to hear me talk about how much I respect the guy I’m gonna fight. So it almost became this character. So you’re this cocky character. Well, some people have a hard time taking that version of me to where I’m at now, like, Oh, he’s cocky. It’s like, Nah, man. That’s me dealing with the nerves of being terrified to fight. You know, Andre Arlovski or Ben Rothwell, I was terrified man. But that’s me, almost coming to myself that I can do this. Yeah, but no, he’s cocky. It’s like no, no, no, that’s a character man. It’s no different. Do you think the undertaker really sleeps in a coffin you dumb asses.” 

On the dream of being on SNL not NFL:

“It was a combination because it was a blessing and curse because my mom would make me watch, not make me, but always would sit down whenever Saturday live was on every Saturday night. So that was like the tradition. So it’s like the Farley’s Adam Sandler’s. You know, the Chris Rocks, the Kevin Nealon. Like, those were the guys. And I just, I just loved it. I loved it, and held such a special place in my heart. But then I was also really, and I was funny, I was always funny, my mom’s, I’m Tony, you can be a star, you can be an actor, this, you can do stand up, and my mom would play Robin Williams on the TV so that I grew up with that. But then also, I grew up in a predominantly black neighbourhood in Aurora, Colorado. So the way to get attention was being good at sports. Well I happen to be pretty good in sports, I was really athletic, especially for being one the only white kids amongst all black kids. So the way I get attention is by being good at sports. So it was like a double edged sword because I wouldn’t trade my career for anything, like all the experiences led me to where I’m at. Now, it gives me perspective to, you know, write jokes and do stuff different than any other comedian. But it is also a weird road. Because, you know, it delayed the, I don’t know, it’s hard to say it’s like, this is what I’m supposed to be doing. But the way I took to get here took a little longer. But then, you know, football was a way for me to get attention and get out and be around certain people. And, you know, in the locker room, I was that silly dude. So I had an audience all the time in the locker room. So, you know, I never looked back in history, or in my passing, or I wish I would have done this never. Like, everything’s led me to this. My role is completely different than any comic that’s ever existed and I’ll take it, man.”

On what would happen if he fought Brock Lesnar:

“I like to think I would beat him. You know, his striking was really bad but he beat my training partner Shane Carwin but Shane was beating him. Like it’s tough to say right because Brock deserves all the credit. He’s such a freak man. People don’t realise like, you want to about a guy getting pushed fast like his first fight. You know, one of his first fights was against Heath Herring in the UFC, which is nuts.”

On Brock Lesnar in the UFC:

“Brock made stupid [money], and he’s a good dude, too. Yeah, great guy like, because when he was fighting, Shane, I was fighting the way they did it, the story behind it was Brock Lesnar’s training partner Chris Tuchscherer, who was 20 and 1 at the time, they were best friends and training partners. Shane, Colin and I are best friends and training partners. So Shane verse Brock Breton verse Chris, so it’s like the little brothers are fighting. And so he was 20 and 1 I was the main event on the undercard before that big UFC, so I kicked the pay per-view-off. And so I talked to all this shit not about my opponent Chris does shirt he’s whatever about Brock Lesnar and so the UFC has given me an award for it was like on the Thursday or Friday before the fight, they give me an award. And we’re all together and Brock’s there and like, oh, no, I’ve talked to all this sh*t. And my I remember my coach, he just be ready to go man like I’ve I f*cked up. There he is. I don’t think we’d run into each other. I was like, be ready to go man. He’s just some big boys and my coach’s name at the time was Lester Bolin. He’s a savage. He’s like, I’ll be ready to go man. He’s like this little ball of muscle. I might just be ready to go dude. And we get up there. I’m like, I’m on edge. And Brock was just not like killed me with kindness. It was like I’m so proud man. Like, from football. Are you kidding me, man? Is it good for you, brother, good for you. I get it, man. I was like, Oh, wow, you’re like the nicest guy ever. He’s such a good person. Such a good person. Yeah, I was like, I don’t want to fight this guy. He’s cool.”

On the rumoured fight between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk:

“Because they’re doing it for charity, like it’s not about money. Okay, cool. It definitely is. But I’m telling you like, loser, and let’s let’s get weird. They want to do it in Italy in the Coliseum? Let’s get [crazy], loser dies. How about that? Let’s get some swords, some Tigers like make it old school. Zuckerberg is 50 pounds, get him a helmet. Let’s get weird, dude. Let’s go mediaeval on that.”

On the fight drawing eyes to UFC:

“I think it will make a lot of people watch Elon and Zuckerberg fight and it’s gonna be such a bad product, people are like we’re good. We never want to see this again. If I go out in Hollywood right now and I’ll film a better fight. Right? Like spider man. You’re seeing Spider Man and Hulk throw down, like way more than that. But you’re talking about two billionaires. So it’s like I’ll watch two billionaires slap each other.”

On potentially fighting again:

“No, never. I’m 40 dude, I got kids. I make you know, just to be very transparent. It’s like if I do three comedy dates I’ll make more doing that then I would getting punched in the face. Unless they came to me and was like, You’re fighting The Rock on the you’re the co-main event of Elon fighting Zuckerberg and The Rock wants to fight them like that makes sense. Give it to you. You’re talking about f*ck you money, like 50 mil. No one’s paying 50 mil to watch my dumbass fight. But if somehow The Rock like felt froggy was like, I want to test myself and this guy hasn’t been doing it. I’m like I’ll fight The Rock and make all the money in the world, I’ll fight Maui. It would have to be something like that. Like if Harrison Ford wants to fight. Harrison and Clint Eastwood want to fight in a tag team, sign me up. I am gonna make all the money in the world. I’d get so much hate that everyone would hate me but all good daddy. I’m making so much money. I would just retire from everything.”

On finding new stand-up material:

“Yeah, I think a lot of it because I do so many shows is I’ll mark certain things down where you know, I do two shows with other comedians. So if I bring like a hot take on like Hunter Biden I had the other day and how much fun it’d be to party with him. terrible human being but one night at a party with one person. I’m picking Hunter Biden. He’s doing meth. He’s jumping at 9/11, driving 100 Miles an hour down, and there’s hookers everywhere, like sketchy good time Charlie. Right? Like he’s a fun time for one night. I don’t him to watch my kids, I’m not talking about that. One night to go out and party and rage. So that was just a natural hot takes. And Brian’s laughing out who’s a great comic Chris D’Elia is laughing at it. I’m like, oh, there’s something here. So I’ll write that down and I’ll work out that night. And I’ll just bring it up on the road. See how that goes. And then it slowly starts to get legs and just add punch lines, adding to it, adding to it. And then in a year from now, that’d be a good good bit.”

What is Brendan Schaub grateful for:

“Health, family and my freedom.”

Featured image: People

Vince Russo (@THEVinceRusso) is a professional wrestling writer, booker and bestselling author. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about why he hates watching wrestling now, some of the biggest misconceptions people have about him, the storyline he was most proud of booking during the WWF Attitude Era, why he would book David Arquette to win the WCW Heavyweight Championship again, why he decided to make himself the WCW Champion, how the booking in TNA differed from WWE and WCW, his thought on wrestling ratings and much more!

Why does Vince Russo not like today’s wrestling:

“It’s not the same, it’s that simple. It’s not wrestling, like bro, baseball. Obviously, this year, Chris, they made some adjustments because they wanted to popularise baseball and three and a half hour games were killing the sport. So they changed some things, but they didn’t change the basic fundamentals of the game. In wrestling, they changed the fundamentals of the game. It’s not the same, and a lot of people from my era are not interested in this representation, in this presentation of wrestling today. And I’m one of those people.”

What has changed in wrestling: 

“It’s all about the fake match and has nothing to do with the characters and the story. I mean, that’s it bro, you know, back in the day going all the way back to Bruno man. It was all about characters and story. That’s what draws the casual fan. Wrestling matches don’t draw a casual fan, that’s why I did crash TV. Five to eight minutes, the matches are over, boom boom, what’s next, boom. You turn it on today then the main event of Raw  starts at 10:30. Bro, if I’m not a wrestling fan [of] in-ring action, I’m not watching it, because the reality of the situation is whether we want to believe it or not, fans of the in-ring action, that’s a very niche audience. That is a very niche audience. That’s why I knew when I started writing it WWE, bro, I had to open that up. Because if you didn’t like wrestling, you weren’t watching the show. So how was I going to get people to watch the show? Real simple, create characters that they fell in love with and they were emotionally tied to, and then give those characters story, because now you gotta you got them hooked now they gotta tune in every week. All that is gone, it is non-existent, and my thing is Chris, I don’t think I would have such a problem if they just changed the name, don’t call it wrestling, call it performance art, or call it something else.”

Why was The Attitude Era hotter:

“Because the writers wrote the show. That’s why, writers handle this show as a television show, with writing as a background. Bro, look at all the people that are in charge of the wrestling companies today. They’re all wrestling marks. Their marks bro. Triple H is a wrestling mark, Paul Heyman is a wrestling mark, Billy Corgan is a wrestling mark, Scott, D’Amore is a wrestling mark. Tony Khan is the biggest wrestling mark. So what are they doing, bro? Here’s the difference, they’re writing a show within the wrestling bubble. And they’re writing a show that they like, and they think is good from their wrestling perspective. That’s not what we did, bro. We didn’t write a show based on what I liked or they liked. We wrote a show based on those ratings right in front of us. Those ratings that came in every week, we got the minute by minute breakdowns. Who do they like? Where are they turning out? What do we need to give them more of? What do we need to eliminate? There was a science to what we did. And as television writers, bro, here’s the biggest difference in the world. With television writers, you’re going to create characters, then you’re going to take those characters and you’re going to put them in a storyline. Then out of that storyline will come the match. So it’s the character’s story first, build it through story. And then the pinnacle is the match. With wrestling marks and those in the bubble, it’s the complete opposite. Here’s what they look at Chris, they go down the roster, especially Tony Khan, what would be the best match? If we put so and so against so and so, what would be the best match? So they book match first, and then try to figure out some reason why these guys are having a match. I just read an article two days ago about Tony Khan. And he was talking about, you know, the Forbidden Door. And he was saying like, Oh no, bro, I think we could write a compelling show even though these guys are never face-to-face or there’s never a story. They could cut compelling angles on who wants to be the best. Then you wonder why 300,000 People are watching Rampage? Can you imagine, and bro we are 80% there. 80% of professional wrestling matches today are going to prove who’s the best? Oh my god. I will take a pole match over that any day of the week, bro.”

On the conspiracy that Vince Russo was sent to WCW to kill their ratings:

“Here’s the insanity. Anybody, and obviously, I would not be saying this, if I were not telling the truth. Anybody can look at WCW ratings, and they can look at the first three months before Vince Russo got there. Then they can look at the first three months when Ed Ferrara and myself started tearing down the building and building a new foundation. When you look at those first three months, bro, the ratings are going up. The ratings were working, our plan was going according to exactly what Ed and I discussed. We gotta erase everything they’re doing. We’ve got to build new people, we got to build new stars. It was working perfectly. Then of course, bro, politics played its ugly head. I went home, you know, they brought in different people. In the three months that we had built, after three months, bro, they had brought it right back down to where it was before we got there. Thus they called me back. Vince, we need you to get back here. Honest to God. At that point, when I went back, I knew we lost the audience. I knew there’s no way that there’s no way we’re gonna get the audience back. We had them, we were building for three months, then they went backwards three months to the same crap they were doing. It’s done, it’s over. Obviously, I had to go back because I was contractually obligated. But I knew at that point, bro, we’re not going to get these people back again.”

On Jim Cornette:

“First of all, bro, let’s be honest here. Okay, I don’t have one ounce of ill will towards Jim Cornette, but I know why Jim Cornette dislikes me. I mean, really it’s twofold, bro. I told you early on about how people feel about New Yorkers. Jim Cornette hates New Yorkers, hates New York, hates New Yorkers, hates the entire east coast. Okay, so there’s that. I’m working with a guy from the south now who absolutely hates New Yorkers. Here I come with this thick heavy accent, I am who I am, so that’s number one. Number two, at the end of the day at WWE and TNA I was chosen over Jim Cornette twice. Okay now, if the shoe was on the other foot and Jim Cornette was chosen over me, I’m going to look in the mirror and I’m going to ask myself why Vince? Why did they go with Cornette and not you? I would have looked at myself, but in Jim Cornette’s mind that was my fault. Whatever it is I did to get Vince McMahon and Dixie Carter to choose me over him was underhanded, was you know, what whatever, because they couldn’t have been Jim’s flaws that he was very set in his ways and very difficult to work with. It couldn’t have been that, it had to be something Vince Russo did. So that’s where all this stems from and then of course, bro, he’s turned it into folklore, you know. I actually know Jim’s big on, you know, the old time Cauliflower Alley Club and all that, right? I even said let’s go on online, pay-per-view, online. Let’s have a one-on-one debate. Let’s charge X amount of dollars. Every single penny goes to the Cauliflower Alley Club. I have no problem confronting you face to face. I don’t want a penny from this and you’ve got some old talent, old time wrestlers really down on their luck that could probably use a few dollars. He outright refused. Why did he refuse bro? Because it will kill his gimmick, that’s why he refused. To me, whether it kills your gimmick or not if you love wrestling so much and you love those that built wrestling so much and you financially can raise money for these wrestlers. I would have done it in a heartbeat.”

Is Jim Cornette’s hatred of Vince Russo all a gimmick?

“Absolutely bro you don’t hear me say mean things about him at all. As a matter of fact, bro, I probably put Cornette over at least once a week, I put him over. Absolutely bro. It’s folklore. It’s, it’s, you know what he’s created with his, you know, cult. And God forbid he ever went back on that. Then in his mind his people would never look at him the same.”

On there being too many on a pole match stipulations:

“That’s folklore bro. I was in the business, I started writing about I’ve roughly say 96. I went to 2012, that’s 16 years. A lot of that 16 years bro were two shows a week, plus pay-per-views. Okay, I dare anybody in those 16 years with all those shows I wrote I dare you to come up with 10 pole matches. I dare you bro. I dare you. You can come up with about three because that’s what I remember bro. I remember green slip on a pole match. I remember Viagra on a pole match. Mrs. Bagwell, Judy Bagwell technically was not on a pole, she was on a forklift Okay bro and what was what was after that, go ahead. Maybe it is more than three. I just said there are three to me that immediately come to mind, but come on bro. Again, bro, they love creating the folklore. We’re going to create folklore, but here’s the problem, bro. When you go to anybody that really cares enough and goes back and does the history. You it’s all there bro. You will find out what is truth and what is false. Bro, if I booked all these pole matches, I have no problem saying that. Why would I [care], I don’t give a crap, bro. I’d have no problem saying it. But what I’m saying is, bro, it’s not what you’ve created over the years.”

On the worst Vince Russo idea:

“I’d rather try something new than repeat a match we’ve seen a billion times before that’s how I am. I’d rather try something new then just go back to the well a million times. The Dog Kennel from Hell is probably number one, and I’ll tell you why, Chris I swear this is the God honest truth. I think of the concept because The Boss Man, our story revolved around the little dog Pepper. Okay, so I thought of the concept but in my head, in my head they are attack dogs, you know, they’re police dogs, the teeth are out and saliva is coming out and they’re circling the ring, that’s the picture in my head. So now bro, I’m at the building and they bring the dogs in and [someone says] Vince here are the dogs for the match. I walk over to look at the dogs and bro, the first dog licked my hand. And I’m like, bro, I never thought of what if they’re not attack dogs? What if they are pets? you know what I’m saying? Like that’s exactly what happened bro these were the lamest, laziest [dogs]. I swear to God, and like I said I 1,000% blame myself for that because I never took that into consideration. I’m literally convinced these are going to be attack dogs. So since they weren’t that actually sucked.”

On The Bloodline:

“I don’t watch Smackdown, but I will say this. I’m sorry, I think Roman Reigns is great. I think The Usos, you know, I think everybody is great. But Chris, I also think the bar has been so freakin lowered that when you do have a storyline and it’s the only one they have, it’s the greatest thing you’ve ever seen. Listen, I know I’m in the minority. Like I said, I’m a big fan of Roman Reigns, like The Usos. Bro, I’m sorry, The Bloodline, I’ve seen this play out a billion times before. You know, Sopranos, Godfather, I mean, you name it. So listen, I know I’m in the minority and that’s fine, but I just refuse to lower the bar man.”

On AEW:

“I watched AEW, the first year and a half. And it was a massive, massive waste of my time. And I basically said when I turn 60 I’m not watching this anymore, this is a total waste of my time. At 60 years old, I’m closer to the end in the beginning. My time is very valuable, and this is just not worthy of my time.”

On being honest:

“Bro. Listen, I speak the truth. And Chris, I’ll be honest with you, speaking the truth really did not weigh well for me when I was in the wrestling business, bro. It’s, you know, in the wrestling business, the bottom line is, you know, bro, it’s, you know, it’s carny. And you’ve got a lot of backstabbers and liars and politicians. And when you’re a guy from New York, and you come in and you just start laying down the truth. I mean, that doesn’t work. You know, it’s so cliche. But the adage of people don’t want to hear the truth and they can’t handle the truth. That is so spot on when it comes to me.”

On people not generally liking those from New York:

“I think first and foremost, listen, let me be honest. Chris, first and foremost. In general, people don’t like New Yorkers. I mean, it’s that simple, they don’t like New Yorkers. They think New Yorkers are brash, and they think New Yorkers are arrogant and have a chip on their shoulder, when that is the complete opposite. First of all, New Yorkers are 100% truthful. We don’t beat around the bush, we you know how we feel with face to face kind of people. Second of all, man, when you live in New York, you understand it’s a dog eat dog world. It really is every man for himself, so that’s the way you are raised. And again, look at the people in the wrestling business from my backyard. We’re talking about you know, Bubba Ray, we’re talking about Taz, we’re talking about Tommy Dreamer, that’s how we are bro. That’s how New Yorkers are. So like I said, number one, people don’t like New Yorkers. Number two, bro, even though it was 23 years ago, 24 years ago, they think I’m the guy on TV. And basically, Chris, my attitude was this. When I played it on-air character in 99. My character and my attitude was this. You want to hate New Yorkers? You want to think New Yorkers are a certain way? No problem, I am going to magnify that by a million. And that’s exactly what I Did. I went out there, and I was the New Yorker that everybody really thought New Yorkers were. And bro, it just blows my mind 24 years later, that people think I’m that guy. Bro if people knew the real Vince Russo, you just have no clue. Chris the other day, bro, I’m down here. I’m a big you know Chris like I don’t sleep well. And a lot of times when I’m watching TV, I just get my little gimmick here and I just say YouTube, and it brings me to my YouTube feed. So whatever’s on that. I was on YouTube the other night and I ran into people surprising other people with puppies as a gift. Bro, I’m crying my eyes out. I’ve got an English Bulldog who’s my pride and joy Penelope. I’m crying my eyes out over people responding to getting a dog that they wanted. Bro, that’s who I am. I’m passionate about the Giants, I’m a passionate fantasy baseball player. Bro. I love getting all my work done early because as soon as my work is done, I hop in my 2000 jeep, I live in Colorado and I point it to the mountains. Bro, that’s that’s the guy I am and Chris, here’s the bottom line. I wouldn’t talk about wrestling at all, if people didn’t ask me. Chris, I am not a wrestling fan. I do not like today’s wrestling at all. I only watch Raw bro because SportsKeeda pays me very well to watch Raw. I don’t watch anything else. I don’t care about it. I am not a fan about it. But if you ask me a question, I’m going to give you a true answer, that’s my extent of being in the wrestling business in 2023.”

On possibly going back to WWE:

“I had a conversation with Vince McMahon, not a conversation, I don’t ever want [a conversation]. [It was] A text exchange text and an email, bro. literally months before the FDA’s came out. And I offered my consulting services, because I would never go back to wrestling on a full time basis. Never go out on the road. never be with those politicians, never. [What year are we talking about?] 2022. Yeah 2022. So I offer my consulting services, I will sit here, I will look at your show, I will tell you why people aren’t watching it. If perhaps you want me to work on a particular character, I’ll be happy to do that. I’m not coming to TV, I’ve got no interest in making this my job, right? So Vince wrote back and said, Okay, I want you to watch Raw the next couple of weeks and send me your notes. And I said, Okay, what are you paying me for that? And he said, Oh no, I’m not paying you for nothing. You know, you have to prove yourself. And I’m like, achieving the highest ratings in the history of your company wasn’t me proving myself? Vince, you know, things have changed, the audience has changed. And I just said Vince with all due respect. I don’t work for free, bro. Like, I’m in my 60s bro. I’m doing well on my own. I don’t have anything to prove to you. Because you know what I did. So I’m not doing this for free. Bro. He sent me back this scathing email. How dare you! I would have jumped at the opportunity… And I didn’t even answer it. I didn’t even answer it. Because I’m like, Bro that’s ego like that. That is ego and I’m like bro, I’m not going to work for free in hopes of you taking me on as a consultant when your product absolutely sucks. I was doing it because I hate having to watch the product, so if I could help improve the product, great. I wanted to do it on my terms where I’m not interested in working full time, and bro at the end of the day I could have helped you. I could have helped make that show better but I’m not doing it for free. And that was it. Like I said, bro, he wrote me a real nasty email that I didn’t even answer. I don’t have any interest in even consulting now, none.”

Featured image: SportsKeeda