Nick Patrick is a retired professional wrestling referee known for his time in WCW and WWE. He joins Chris Van Vliet from his home in Atlanta, GA to talk about how he started his career as a wrestler and then became a referee, getting hired by WCW, turning heel as part of the nWo, what really happened at the end of the Hulk Hogan vs. Sting match at WCW Starrcade 97, was he told to do a fast count or a slow count?, his match with Chris Jericho where Jericho had one hand tied behind his back, being part of the WCW Invasion angle in WWE, teaming with The Dudley Boyz against Mike Chioda, The Rock and Y2J, the art of taking a ref bump, why he believes WWE doesn’t highlight referees anymore and more!

On facing Chris Jericho:

“Oh man, that was a blast. They came to me and asked me if I wanted to do the match and I said yeah. I got to know Chris and went to a concert with him. And we talked and he constructed the whole thing, man, and I knew from very early on that he was going to be a big star. It’s a matter of being in the right place at the right time and giving him a chance. But he come up with all of that man. The only thing I come up with was him slamming me off the top at the end to set up a kick and the rest was him. And it was so fun. I wasn’t in shape either man. I tried to start working out a little bit, back then I smoked cigarettes, I’m and idiot right? But I smoked cigarettes and stuff back then man and I had to go out there I got going 13 minutes live with a kid like Jericho, he will have one hand tied behind his back, you gotta go a little bit. And I was taking the hip tosses and stuff, you know, but I always bail out of the rig and regroup, catch my wind. And he was gracious man, he let me get some heat on him. And it lets me do a couple of things to him to set him up to beat me up in the end. And it got a great reaction, man. And it’s funny. We did a German tour right after that happened. And for some reason, I guess they had trouble getting buses, so they rented a bunch of cars, and we had drivers for every car man. And it was so cool. Me and Booker T got in one car. And they let us just have our own car. We let people pile their extra bags in there. It was me and Booker T and our driver. And we went to all these different towns and it was fun. It was hey, but let’s stop here, where can we eat? We wanted a good bar. It was a lot of fun. So anyway, it was the last day of the tour. And we all kind of gotten to know our drivers a little bit and everybody got to let their hair down and drink because we didn’t have to go anywhere. Last night, you know, last show was over. And we’re in the bar and all of a sudden on the damn Sports Network on the bar that match comes on. And we’re all in there hammering getting drunk. And now these drivers of the cars they’re like haha! They hadn’t seen it yet, right. And man, those that whole bar went wild man, they were laughing their butts off at me every time I’d make it one of them on faces or I do something. I made a lot of my mean faces that they popped for me, man. And at the end of it. They all gave me the round of applause at the end. And we all drank a beer to it. It was really a cool experience. But the match itself was so much fun. And Chris is so good and so smooth. And like I said I knew back then he was gonna be a big star. And then he did and still is.”

On the Invasion match vs. Earl Hebner:

“Oh, that was fun too. Earl is a good friend of mine. And it was funny, they got us together. And Earl had heat from doing the Montreal Screw Job. And they weren’t sure who was going to really be the heel in this thing because they knew. First off when WWE bought us, they, all the WWE fans hated everybody from WCW. They hated us. Even if you were a babyface they hated you. So I already had heat from being the nWo thing. Plus, they hated me because I was WCW. So I said, they’re gonna hate me. And I guarantee they’re gonna take me as the heel. They said, Really, you think so? I said watch this, because I had the next match. And I popped out through the curtain and I did like I used to do and I was a heel in WCW and I was on my way to read I bust out through the curtain with that mean mug face and looking at everybody, like I was challenging the whole dang world. Because to me, it really gets heat. Which if you see somebody and in your mind, you know like that I can whip this guy’s ass. You know, and he’s given you the mean mug and that gets heat to me, you know? And I did it. I walked up to that curtain and I walked to the top of the ramp and I looked at both sides of the arena with my face and man, they went off booing me. They already hated me because I was WCW and the nWo thing too. But doing that ignited it man, and so when I come back to the match, they went okay, that’s okay.”

On being in the era of referees having names:

“Yeah, they kind of try to keep them off, I think they don’t want to pay them residuals for down the road. But I think that’s why they do that. But I was very fortunate to come through the time I did. I started back into territory gauge, and made that transfer from where the big companies, you know, Vince gobbled up pretty much all the top guys and little territories all started dying off. And it turned out to have been two big companies battling against each other and the transfer from territory days and you know, with cable TV being so big and all sudden, you know, down in Georgia, Channel 17 was huge for Georgia Championship Wrestling and which turned into WCW eventually down the road. And we went from just being Georgia company to going, we had, we’d be in Georgia and Alabama, and you know, all of our locals, but every other week, we was going up to either northern Ohio, and Michigan, or southern Ohio and West Virginia, and just back and forth, you know, because those territories was hot for us at the time. And then next thing you know, they realised Well, damn, we’re being seen everywhere, wow. We thought we travelled a lot back then when we was just like every other week going to town. Little did we know what lies ahead of us.”

On nearly becoming a wrestler instead of a referee:

“I did wrestle. I started off as a referee and in 1984 I became a wrestler. I wrestled for two years before I blew my knee out real bad. I started off, I shot an angle, I was with Georgia Championship Wrestling, right before Crockett bought it back from Jim Barnett. I was there when Barnett still had it. And they shot an angle with me and Bob Roop, I was gonna become a wrestler there right before Crockett bought it, and then Crockett came so I didn’t really want to go back to being a ref or you know, especially up there for them. If I wanted to go up there, I wanted to work and try to make money and not be a ref and they kind of expected a lot of the refs to come run and tell and stuff, you know, and that was never my gig. So I ended up working independent and my dad was down and wrestling in Pensacola territory, which was Continental Wrestling. And Johnny Rich was down there. They had a group of babyfaces called The Rat Patrol. It was Johnny, Scotty, Scott Armstrong, Steve Armstrong, I think Tonga kid was there at first, but he had already phased out by time I’d come along. Well, anyway, Johnny was at a party with Tommy and Vic beef broke out, and Johnny was like trying to cover Tommy’s back and somebody stabbed him several times. And he was out for a while. He was hurt man, you could have killed him. But you know, he was lucky to not hit any major organs. You know, he was some flesh wounds, but he got stabbed two or three times and cut, you know. And so they needed they needed somebody to fill that spot. And I was working. I had just stopped working for Georgia Championship Wrestling because Crocketts had taken it over. And I was working a little indies, Gunkel Enterprises, was running some indie shows and I was working for her trying to get that little thing going. My dad threw my name in, and he said, Hey, Nick’s available if you need somebody to fill that spot, and they say oh, call him you know, so in two weeks, I was down in working in Pensacola territory, which was so cool, man. It was it was it was awesome. You lived down in Pensacola. And a lot of my friends lived in Gulf Breeze which was right across the causeway and the trips were short. The longest trip you had was every other week you’d have to go up to like Huntsville or Muscle Shoals you know, and then you might spend a night. But mostly, for the most part the trips are short. And for the most part, you could be on the beach almost every day if you wanted to, you know early in the day and you know go make your shot come back, and it was such a cool life. And you made decent money and you learn how to work. That was the thing you know, you work with different guys that were really good at their craft, and you made money doing it. You know, a lot of guys were starved to death trying to learn their craft, you know, but there were a couple of territories that were fortunate enough to get in there. You can learn and still make money and still you know still do pretty good. I mean, you know, I was underneath wrestler there and I made more as a referee in Georgia Championship Wrestling because it was hot. I was travelling. I made more as a referee than a lot of guys did working underneath and middle of some of the different territories. So when I went down to Pensacola, I made pretty close to my referee money. Not quite, but real close was underneath guy. So I was tickled, you know, and I got to stay with my dad, you know, because we’d always work different territories. We was together in WCW for a long time, but during the territory days, when I started refereeing, I was in Georgia Championship Wrestling until I started skipping around to a couple of territories where they all got gobbled up and I got hurt. But Stan would pop down in Pensacola, and that was a really fun time he had changed his gimmick, my dad was known, as he was the assassin. And he was wrestling as the flame down there at that time and, and Bob Armstrong had put on the mask and become the bullet. So it was funny when we were kids pop and Bob had the big feud in Atlanta, and man it was big money for him. And they rekindled a feud on both of them with different gimmicks down in Pensacola. And remember me, as The Rat Patrol, me and the Armstrong boys, we were watching the matches one time and we were going out there we were the young guys, and we was young and hungry and going out there working hard, Bam, Bam is still throwing down. And we watched Pop and Bob go out there. And they had the people going absolutely freaking crazy. And they hadn’t even touched each other for about 10 to 12 minutes, just all Shakespeare, they’re gonna do it, and then back off and it was intense. You could just feel electricity in the room and we all look at each other like, holy crap, we’re going out there, bam, bam, bam, doing all this stuff. You know, look at him. They’ve just put in almost 12 minutes, they hadn’t really locked up yet. It was a pretty good learning moment right there. But you can only do that when you’re over. You know, when you’re young and hungry. You got to work young and hungry. That’s the only way you’re ever gonna get over. If you think you’re over and you’re not, then not is what you’ll always be.”

What the fans might not see in a match:

“How mainly in live television production, there’s a lot that we are involved in that people don’t realise because they, we got the earpiece on where people are talking to us and we keep time and if there’s a message being delivered, we do that. And you have to do it without being picked up on you know, without the cameras. So, you know, I mean, you’ll see I’m talking but you never know what they’re saying. But it’s so hard to do, because there’s a microphone on every ring post and on every camera. So there’s like eight microphones in the area, and you’re trying to get to guys and talk. So what I used to try and do is like, if I’d get in and I’d like check for a choke, and I’d motion a no choke, but I’d be saying something else, you know. So, that’s how I did a lot of that and you have taught low. You got to because there’s eight microphones around so you almost got to tuck your teeth in, talk low, almost mumble you gotta be in close enough where you got that eye contact with, you know, I used to what I grabbed her by the wrist and squeeze it and as soon as they looked up at me I knew I had their attention. I’d mumble that whatever I need to say to him, you know, and keep moving.”

When it felt like WCW was changing:

“It wasn’t a particular TV, it was a timeframe. And it wasn’t exactly when the guy first come in. No, because I wanted to give everybody a chance. But after a while, once Vince Russo had come in and was in charge of writing everything and had as much stroke as he had, and could get people fired if they disagreed with him. And after watching and listening to him, I grew up in the business man. It’s my life. It’s not a hobby to me, it’s even to this day with the company that I’m building, I take care of my family. I got my elderly mother and I got an autistic son I take care of him. I’m running a wrestling company and I’m not running it so I can book my buddies that I hang out with and we can, you know, I can get myself a belt put it on me, you know, that ain’t what I’m doing. I’m trying to make a business out of it. Anyway, that’s how we approach it. Every now and then I might get lost on questions because I get so carried away starting telling stories and my mind goes to so many different places when he asked me, but as far as a different particular match, no I didn’t. I didn’t feel a particular match but the particular era a few a few months in, so, maybe six months into Russo coming in I feel, man, if we keep going down this road, it ain’t coming back out. And it was right, you know.”

On the downfall of WCW:

“It was a combination of things. You know, it was all those things. You know, one of those individual things by itself couldn’t have made that drastic of a move, but all of them culminating together is, to me, my opinion of why it went down. Especially that Starrcade, that’s the most talked about [topic]. Man that was 20, some 25 years ago, and they’re still talking about it. You know, there’s people anytime that people want to know about that, man, that was, as crazy as that was and is as odd and as horrible as it felt while I was doing it because, if you’ve heard the story, then you know what I’m talking about. I’ll tell you the story if you want to hear it. Okay, well, here’s the story. I showed up before the biggest pay-per-view and gross in wrestling history, money wise. And I knew I had to main event. And soon as I get to the building, which was really odd, because I get along good with Eric now. But back then it wasn’t like we didn’t get along. It’s just he was a boss, I was a little referee. And, man, I had a lot of things going on in my life and you know, egos and all that stuff. And he had to cater to a bunch of egos. And I don’t have time for all that crap. People are people, man. But anyway, I show up to the building and you know, him and I hardly ever had a conversation. I’d say hello, we shake hands. And that was it. Well, he come up and met me soon as I got there. I still have my bag on my shoulder hadn’t made it to the locker room yet. And he says, here’s what we’re doing today. And he gave me a straight finish. And I said, that’s, okay, that’s, you know, kind of playing, I figured that they’ll dress it up during the day. And so, so okay, you know, and he told me to just do a straight 123 count, you know, not a fast count. And that was when Hogan covers Sting. So anyway, I’m there and an hour or so goes by, you know, you’re there all day long. And, and back then Hogan went over his stuff, he had his own locker room. And nobody went in there except, you know, except from who he was working with and who he invited in there. A security guy would go somebody would take him in there. You know, I was one of those guys, you know. And that was cool because I was good enough. I knew what you know, just tell me what you want me to do before we walk out the screen through the curtain and I’m good to go. You know, and they knew that. But anyway, Eric told me how he wanted it to go. So I’m like, okay, so Hulk comes up to me first. A couple hours in, you know, while we’re there, he knows Hey, Nick I’m not about that count, man. Nice and slow man. 123. Okay, that’s normal. I can’t do it slow. That’d be ridiculous as what we’re doing, there’s heat in that. But I also so about an hour or so later than that. A Sting comes up to me and says, Hey, did you know about that account? Rapid Fire baby. Okay, so now I got one guy that’s the franchise, Hulk Hogan, the other guy that’s the other franchise Sting Yeah, both both telling me the same finish. But the complete opposite. Whether you count faster, whether you count slow completely changes the complexion of the finish, you know.”

Is Nick Patrick surprised that Sting is still wrestling?

“Yeah. Because I talked to him, man, I don’t know how long ago it was like as time goes by, maybe six, eight years ago and he had a neck problem. And he told me that if he took the wrong bump, you know, the doctor told him he’ll be paralysed. Next thing I know he’s back in the ring wrestling again and I’m like holy crap, did you get it fixed? Or did you change your mind or what’s going on? You know, but you know, that’s, I’ve seen other guys do it. You know, Dean Malenko come back. He had a big chat scar down his neck. There’s been a couple of guys that had that neck surgery, from Daniel Bryan, you know, different guys have had the major neck surgery and told that they’re finished, Edge, and here they come and they’re right back. You know, I know that with physical therapy, you can get to where you’re feeling 100% Again, even 110%. But after time, those injuries, when you get older, those injuries are gonna let you know they’re there, even though you’ve rehabbed them. I’ll tell you right now I’m, I’m 62 years old, I’ve had five surgeries and then there’s days I feel good because I train and I work out with my son. And there’s other days when I hadn’t done anything wrong when I felt like somebody just beat my butt. Oh, God. I tell, some people say you gotta get back in the ring. I said, No. I got bad knees, bad back, bad wrist, bad neck and a bad attitude. I am not getting back into rings.”

What’s the hardest move to take?

“Powerbombs. Because even when, you got to make sure you land flat, and even if you land flat, you’re landing hard, you know, and it’s gonna knock the wind out of me a little bit. That to me was that was the hardest bump, you know, the most impactful bump. There’s different bumps, bumps that are more, more of a degree of difficulty. Like I had Big Show one time, press slammed me out over the top rope onto some guys out on the floor. It’s a little more of a degree of difficulty, but I had big Scott Norton and a couple of big guys down there to catch me. So I felt fairly comfortable with it, you know. And it looked pretty cool, too. I ended up making the cover of WCW magazine at that time, but I remember I was scared. As he threw me, my left hand caught that top rope and the rest of it looked like I was parachute diving. And they caught that, and that ended up being on the cover of the magazine. And I thought it was, that was a pretty cool shot. But that was the more degree of difficulty. But the Powerbomb just, man. Especially if you take it like from somebody like Kevin Nash, you know. And if he wanted to put some oomph into it, man, it had been hard for you. You know, he was always good though he would, he gets you up ahead, he gets you where you can lay out and land flat. You know, he protects you.”

What is Nick Patrick grateful for:

“The support I get from my family and friends, that God gave me opportunity and I was able to experience all the things that I did.”

Featured image: Wikipedia

I had a goal this year to get into the best shape of my life by my 40th birthday. And I’m proud to say that on May 19, I accomplished it! I did this for two reasons… One, I’ve been working out since I was 15 years old, but I wanted to see what would be possible if we really dialed in the diet and the workouts. And secondly, my daughter was going to be born around my 40th birthday so I wanted to redefine what it meant to have a dad bod.

I’ve received A LOT of messages and emails asking what my diet looked like or what my workout plan looked like — and we’ll get into all of the nitty-gritty details during this episode, but I started at 202 and over the course of these 90 days I ended at 177 — and I did it with the help of a world-renowned nutritionist and fitness coach AJ Simms (@cementfactory) who has trained wrestling stars like Bobby Lashley, LA Knight, EC3, Johnny Gargano, Apollo Crews and he’s the guy who got Tommaso Ciampa looking like a beast recently.

I did this all naturally — although hey, I appreciate all of the comments from people accusing me of taking PEDs or doing TRT. That is honestly the best possible compliment for you to think this kind of result isn’t possible without drugs. Hilarious!

I hope you enjoy this episode with the one and only AJ Simms!

On changes Chris made to his diet:

“Yeah, so that’s a huge misconception that the general public has that when they think of diet, they think of the most boring foods for some reason and very little of it. Now really, at the end of the day, it’s all about calories in, calories out. Specifically, what is your energy output according to what your body is burning on a daily basis. So naturally, what I try to do is set you up when you came to me, you were on a quote unquote bulking phase, so you were eating a pretty good surplus of calories, which was great, because it was all it allowed me to come in, kind of tweak the diet to what I like to do, and then customise it after the first two to three weeks based off what your your body’s responded. And then we implemented the cardio and then my products, and then we were just basically calorie cycling throughout the entire process. So if you remember there was some days you had your baseline training day menu, your off day training day menu, and then we worked at two refeed days where you’re eating you know, one time I think was In and Out Burger and Rice Krispies and cereal. And you actually look even tighter about one to two days after that, which is essentially the entire goal, we’re feeding the metabolism while we’re pushing your energy output a little bit more. And what you learned throughout the process was the more steps you were getting in, which is called NEAT, non exercise aerobic thermogenesis, basically moving the body and just walking outside, which is great for everybody. There’s so many benefits to doing that. Just getting sunlight, moving the body in between meals, digestion, insulin sensitivity. And again, just moving the body is just fantastic. But you learned, the more you did, the quicker you were dropping. And I think we started having big drop offs after you were doing about 12 to 15,000 steps a day. I believe that’s where we got.”

On the meal plan:

“Yeah. So basically, the goal is to always hit macronutrients. And Everybody pretty much knows what that is: protein, fats and carbs if you don’t. But also your micronutrients making sure we have enough fibre, insoluble fibre micronutrients from the fruits, greens, powders, or green deep green vegetables. So you want to be able to feed the body, the proper nutrients to fuel it, not only for your training, recovery, but also fuel it for digestion, fuel for sleep optimization. And there’s a lot of things that I had in there supplementation, natural supplements, again, the absolute supplements aiding gut health, fat burning effects. But you were also doing a cold plunge on a daily basis, which is going to do so many benefits for you not only neurologically, but also induce sleep optimization and also increase brown fat, which is the good fat that you want. It’s the fat that keeps you warm. And the white fat is the fat that you don’t want, that’s what we’re getting rid of throughout the process. So the more brown fat stimulation you have, the quicker the white fat gets burned off. So again, it was all the things that you were doing as a whole communicating with me doing the diet. And the diet, basically what I tried to do is figure out okay, what works best for Chris. What does he digest the best? What does he feel the best on? And I think we started in the mornings, I believe with a cream of rice and then we switched over to the Ezekiel bread, because I think you enjoy that. And that’s what I try to tell people when we figure out what’s working for you. macronutrient wise at the amounts you’re eating. Let’s find out what foods you actually enjoy. So that you can add here to the diet. I mean, if you look forward to every morning, you know berries and Ezekiel bread with some eggs, that’s a great breakfast, man. You know you’re getting that powerful spread from the Ezekiel and then there’s a lot of hacks that I don’t even think we got into. You can learn how to make that into French toast with the egg whites, which is a great recipe. So, you know, those things were very simplistic. You know, we had your lean meats, and then your chicken, your 99% turkey, some fish or shrimp, some jasmine rice, and basically just figuring out how much you needed, when you needed it, and then just going along with the process. And then getting those refeed days in where we’re just hitting a surplus of calories, where I think the biggest refeed we gave you was, man, maybe 4500 to 5000 calories, because I think I gave you a crumble cookie too one time.”

On it all being about consistency: 

“100%. And that goes for anybody with any type of fitness goals, you have to be consistent. Whether it’s just starting to go outside and walk like we said, you know, set a goal. 7,000 steps a day has been shown to reduce all cause mortality by I think over 70%. So just getting 7,000 steps and then working your wake up, set a goal for 10,000 steps and then set a goal to go to the gym twice a week and then set a goal to go four times and then start fasted cardio. And once you get into this routine of building your fitness, and then when you start seeing results, and the motivation from just seeing your body change week to week or every month, it’s incredible. And it keeps you grounded in life, to be able to do it in every aspect of your life. You’re a new father, so congratulations by the way, beautiful baby girl, one week old today. And now you’re able to take that discipline that you have in those 90 days, and do it across the board. I mean, we already know you’re a hard worker, look at the audience you’ve built up, the success you’ve had in what you do. And you were just able to implement that into your fitness. You told me on our phone call, I want to get in the best shape of my life by 40. And I said let’s churn buddy, it’s time to do it. You took it on and you did it. 100% man. And that’s the key is when you go in, you got to be all in.”

On accusations that Chris was on PEDs:

“Yeah, I think it comes from a lot of self doubt from individuals. And not to put anybody out there but I think when they see somebody do something incredible like what you did in 90 days. The mentality that the majority of people have will go straight to well, there has to be some sort of cheating involved and there’s no way that he just stayed like this, went for those 90 days 100% out there. I mean, I remember you even went into WrestleMania and you were texting me, what can I eat? And I said, Send me the menu. Because there is food there and, you know, I said here, this is what you can eat, and that’s what it takes to reach your fitness goals. And I can tell you guys that if Chris can do it at his young ripe age of 40, new father, husband, super busy businessman, you can do it too. It just takes adherence, compliance and just working hard.”

What was Chris’ workout:

“So I think what we had you on was more of a higher volume, high frequency intensifier type training. Where we’re not focused on so much what’s called progressive overload, where you see guys go in, and they’re just super, super heavy training, you know, where you’re going to risk an injury, doing three or four repetitions. I’m more of the believer of what’s called time under tension, putting the muscle under as much tension as possible, under a specific period of time with a specific type of weight so that you’re getting a lot of stimulation, but you’re also avoiding, you know, tearing something, or hurting yourself or your joints and your ligaments and your tendons. Remember, this is a lifestyle, we’re trying to go for longevity, we want to be doing this at 70, 75, you know, God willing at 80 we’re just still churning and looking great, you know. So the type of training you did was more of a higher volume, higher frequency, you know, where you were in the gym five, six times a week. And but you know, it’s just incredible that you’re the way your body shaped up, you know, and I was looking at it, I was like, man, you know, I know he doesn’t have time for this. But I can put this guy on stage in a men’s physique show because you have that natural shape of a bigger chest, wider shoulders, great midsection. And if I would see something that maybe lagged a little bit during the process, you know, throw in and do this movement, or maybe throw in this body part extra throughout the week. And again, it’s all about building a programme for an individual customised on what their body needs and when it needs it. But yeah, the training, more frequency, more volume, and you really keep yourself away from getting injured. It’s the same thing I do with all the wrestlers, all the boys, my style of training, and I try to take them away from doing super, super heavy stuff. Because we know if they tear something in the gym, they’re off work, they’re out of the ring, that’s the last thing they want. So, you know, one of the guys I’ve been working with recently, Bobby Lashley, and he’s a beast in the gym. I mean, the dude is just an absolute animal, genetic anomaly. But when I sent him my style of training, he really enjoyed it because it was a different feel to the muscle, as opposed to again, the super heavy progressive overload.”

Who has AJ Simms also worked with:

“Let’s see. EC3, Buddy Matthews, I don’t know if he goes by that anymore. And there’s a long laundry list of guys that I actually have worked with. LA Knight. Yeah! Just man, a lot of guys. I should have written it all down because it’s a long list. I remember getting, we call him Spud, Drake Maverick. But he was texting me backstage at Raw and he’s like, Dude, you literally work with almost the entire locker room. Everybody’s talking about cereal right now. And I was like, that’s great. If that’s what I brought into the industry. That’s awesome. So yeah, no, it’s great. I love you know, I grew up a wrestling fan. A lot of people don’t know this. But the reason I got into bodybuilding is because I wanted to be in WWE eventually, one day, it was just not in the cards for me. And funny. I took a couple bumps, like a year or two ago, for the first time in a row. I never did it before, ran the ropes. And I was like, Man, I got a newfound respect for you guys. The first bump I ever took that knocked the wind out of me so hard and then ran on the ropes. You know, on the laps, I had nice marks, red marks on there for a couple of days. And I was like, Man, this is some cardio, I got blown up pretty good.”

On starting to change: 

“I think the biggest thing is it starts with the mind, right? Everything starts with making a decision in life and everything that we do. You change your mind, you change your life, you know. So you have to make that decision. And it doesn’t take time, it’s an instantaneous decision that I’m going to do something no matter how uncomfortable it is. It’s kind of like you have a cold plunge that you understand your mind will tell you the first 10-15 seconds to get out of this thing, you’re dying.”

On the meal plan being cost effective:

“It’s actually a lot cheaper to eat this way than to go to Starbucks every day and get your you know, 1000 calorie drink with the foam on top right. So you know you again, it’s a mindset thing. There’s a lot of misconception and misinformation out there, and people kind of get set into that there’s no way I could afford to do that. I can’t eat healthy, I can’t join a gym, there’s gyms out there that are $9 a month now. They’ve made it pretty much affordable for everybody. So it’s changing your mind. And it’ll change your life guys. So just be encouraged to get the body moving, and you’ve seen Chris’s transformation. And you’d say, well, yeah, he wasn’t, he already was in shape. Yeah, he was already in great shape. But he took it to the next level, he did work that he’s probably never done before. And you can always look back on those photos, and you know exactly what you did. And if you ever want to do it again, you know what, you know what it takes. And the cool thing is, is you got your wife watching you, and you have your daughter who’s going to be watching you now. And you have that mentality, that beast mentality, you know, when you need to turn it up, man. And then you know, you don’t even make excuses, and you’re a busy guy, you’re travelling all over the place, putting out content left and right. But you still get it done. It’s because you changed your mind.”

What is AJ Simms grateful for:

“My family, for you Chris and that I am able to move my body.”

Mike O’Hearn (@mikeohearn) is an actor and a legendary bodybuilder. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Hollywood, CA to talk about how the “Baby don’t hurt me” meme started, why he decided to lean into it, what he has learned from working out with Arnold Schwarzenegger, how close he was to signing with WWE in the 90s, his reaction to Joe Rogan talking about him on his podcast, his biggest pet peeve in the gym, working with Jonathan Majors on the film “Magazine Dreams”, being Titan on American Gladiators, why he believes that you should never skip a meal and much more!

On waking up early:

“I’ve been doing it a while, been speaking to this. So first of all, it’s cool for you getting up that early. Most people I mean, I mean, you’re doing an interview with us and training with us. But I mean, I’m talking about like these, the kids today, the influencers. They’re like, Yeah, I’ll train with you. But I ain’t going at 4 or 5. I’m going at like 12 or 1 in the afternoon. And I’m like, have a good workout.”

On getting results, not excuses:

“Yeah, and I agree with that. I mean, most of Arnold’s philosophy, I’ve adapted or lived because he’s so right about all of it. It’s just, it’s one way or another, you’re gonna get older, so the best thing you can do is fight against it the best you possibly can. And then for a lot of us, we look at it as we get to work out, not that we have to work out. Those are two different worlds.”

On starting at a young age:

“Yeah, it started early. Nine years old, I started training, eating right. But I grew up in a family that was just savages. My sisters and brothers all grew up in the martial arts world. powerlifting bodybuilding martial arts competitions, and I’m the youngest of 10. Yeah, so it was go time from the early years and you know, younger brother getting your butt kicked by your older brothers, typical thing. But when my sister Kate, front kicked me, I was like, Okay, I got to start working out more training more and stuff. And so it was just, I’ve done that so long that I know no other way. And then it just unfolded into one workout day after day, decade after decade after now it’s 45 years in.”

On people not appreciating hard work:

“I guess it’s just when they see a photo, they see a moment in time. And it and even for me when I look at something, and I’ll see these videos of me as a teenager competing and I’m like, wow, okay. It’s been a long time. It’s hard to comprehend that I’m just that guy that never gave up. And just consistently moved slowly, but consistently moved forward.”

Why does Arnold Schwarzenegger still works out at Gold’s Gym:

“It’s the community, it’s the people, it’s the guys, it’s that gym, locker room kind of banter we grew up with and it’s fun. It really does make lifting fun. And again, like we said, we get do it not that we have to do it. And so he’ll be the first to say, there’s guys in the health and fitness world that are always angry and dieting and grumpy, and you don’t want to talk to him. And then there’s guys like Arnold or others that are just walking around training and going, this is so much fun. And that’s again, I think the reason why Arnold still comes to Gold’s still is the same way as still breaking balls and having fun.”

On nearly becoming a pro-wrestler:

“In 92, which is funny because it was the same year Billy signed with Vince. Shane McMahon came out, had dinner with me. A week later flew me to Stamford, we sat down with the cowhide chairs Vince came in and we had a talk, great discussion, sent me down to wardrobe, started getting suited up and stuff, and had an idea of what my character would be. And I was gonna go off to camp, flew back to California. They got into negotiations, but I had Gladiators already. And so then the battle started with well, we got him on Gladiators. And then so it fell apart. Years later, WCW and Battle Dome team up and I get to get in the ring with those guys and have some fun. And that’s where I really got to meet all the guys in the late 90s and hang out with them and do some wrestling. But again, I had Battle Dome. So I went Gladiators, Battle Dome, back to gladiators. And so I got lucky doing another thing but I got to be on the same kind of plane, road I guess you would say with with all the guys.”

On online criticism:

“Yeah. You know, what’s funny about that stuff is you’re always gonna have the haters, right. And for me, and I think at the end of the day, I get a workout, I got a beautiful family. I’m a first time father, a late father. And I’m like, this is just fine, if they want to believe this or that they can go have fun with it, and I’ll lay into them. Because it’s at the end of the day, I’m still me, I’m still having fun. And so why be upset that these guys are saying whatever they want to.”

On the biggest change in nutritional advice:

“That’s how they keep trying to change the most basic stuff. Just, this isn’t good, that’s not good. And to stay away from this. It’s just the moderate amount. And it has to do with weightlifting, food, sleep. Do the best you can, get as much sleep as you possibly can, train smart. Don’t hit yourself against the wall and just fatigue every workout and go blitz out. And when it comes to nutrition, all food, if done correctly, is healthy for you. Have your carbohydrates, have your proteins, have your healthy fats, and then just moderately do this. Don’t gorge yourself and don’t starve yourself.”

On not taking things seriously: 

“I’ve been alive long enough to know, when things are so awesome, they could turn a corner and then you can be ground zero. And same thing. You could be on ground zero thinking you’re gonna get nothing, and the next day you get a call and boom, you’re on top of the world again. So it’s just mostly at this stage, I can poke fun at myself. I think society thinks because you get haters with social media, which is great. But I got friends like Billy Gunn and Paul Wight, and who talks more smack than wrestlers? It’s like, I don’t know if me, Billy have ever actually had a sit down. pleasant conversation. We’re busting balls the whole time. So it’s that crew that you keep tight that keeps you down to earth, that no matter how much fame or money you get, you just stay cool, stay calm. You enjoy it.”

On where to start:

“The cool thing about a body changing is that you only need one aspect of it. So like if you’re not working out and you’re in bed, just clean up the meals. You don’t even have to start working out yet. You can just clean up the meals. And that’s one step your body is automatically going to change, and then add two days in a week. Start just getting movement, that’s your next change. And so now you’re four weeks in already and all you did was change your meals and workout a couple times.”

On the biggest pet peeve in the gym:

“The toughest stuff is the space. There’s no more allowance on space if you’re lifting something that there’s this old school protocols, you don’t walk in front of a person that’s squatting or deadlifting in front of their face and those kinds of things. Or if they’re doing dumbbells, give them space to do their dumbbell work and put the weights down so space is the biggest thing.”

What has Mike O’Hearn been working on:

“We are working on a great, and I’m so happy. Again, I’ve been in this long enough to, I don’t think the world knows that. I’ve been acting since the 90s my first movie was Death Becomes Her in 1990 We filmed it and then it came out like in 91,92. But being on set with Bruce Willis and Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep, I never gave that up. I kept going on dishes, but it just never happened. Like bodybuilding and the covers and the romance books and all those things or Gladiators, those things happen for me right away. But the hardcore acting, didn’t happen. Little pieces here and there. And in the last couple of years, it has opened. And so we’ve been working on this incredible TV show, Blue Ridge with a buddy Jonathan Scheck, who has been the top of the world in acting, and it’s a great show. So that will be out later. And it’s very cool because he’s like this badass Sheriff, old school mentality, and I get to come in and kick some ass. That’s the most recent.”

What is Mike O’Hearn grateful for:

“That I still have my puppy, I got a baby momma that is so supportive and that I get to raise my son.”

Vic Travagliante aka Vic Joseph (@vicjosephwwe) is a broadcaster, play-by-play commentator and the voice of NXT. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Hollywood, CA to talk about their friendship that started in Cleveland, how both of them worked at CBS Radio together, how Vic got his dream job as a WWE commentator, the power of betting on yourself instead of staying comfortable, filling Mauro Ranallo’s shoes in NXT, meeting his wife McKenzie Mitchell in WWE, his love of the Cleveland Browns, his friendship with Johnny Gargano, how Shawn Michaels got him into wrestling and much more!

On getting to WWE:

“Dude, it’s really weird to look back. Because when we were in the car driving over here we talked about it’s been nine years since I’ve seen you. And when I was at CBS, CBS approached me with a contract renewal, CBS Radio, and the Cleveland Browns network. They said, Hey, we want to re-up you for another two years. And I thought to myself, if I’m going to get to the WWE, I’m going to give myself 12 months to do it. Truthfully, balls to the wall. I don’t know if I can say that without getting edited. I’m going to give it everything I’ve got. Tommy Dreamer and House of hardcore at the time. I do the with Rhyno, I do the loops, the Indy loops, I the stuff in Cleveland that we talked about. And I really said I’m going to give myself I told myself, I’m going to give it 12 months. And if it doesn’t happen, well we’ll see where we go. And I got a phone call. I was at a Guns and Roses show in Chicago at Soldier Field. And the day before I left for the show, Tom Phillips called me and said Michael Cole would like to know if you’d like to come in for an audition. That happened in September, and then I got signed in December. They let me finish out that Browns season, which I believe they went 0 and 16. And then I started in January. But I’ve never told anybody that before I came to the WWE, I walked away from CBS Sports, and I walked away from the Cleveland Browns. The place I had been that I had covered 4 NBA Finals. A city championship, which is near and dear to me still to this day to have done that a World Series, the drafting of Johnny Manziel, the releasing of Johnny Manziel, the self destruction of the Cleveland Browns, so to speak during that part, but that was, and it’s weird to say now looking back, it was betting on myself. Knowing how much I loved the WWE, wrestling, sports entertainment, whatever you want to categorise as that this is what I want to do. This is what I love. This is what I am passionate about. And I don’t think if I would have taken that year to say, I’m going to do this, that Tom Phillips would have never called me, that I never would have gotten a face to face Michael Cole, that I never would have gotten signed, that I wouldn’t be sitting here with you today getting ready for Wrestlemania here in Los Angeles.”

On specifically wanting to be a part of WWE:

It wasn’t any other company. It wasn’t just to do it. And it wasn’t I want to call this guy’s match. I want to be in this environment. It was this is the company I want to go to, this is the company I grew up watching. If it wasn’t for this person and this person, am I the person I am today? It was my goal in life is to call the main event at WrestleMania, throwing it out there. Because we talk about talent that’s in the ring. There’s only one main event each night of WrestleMania there’s only so many main events that have happened at WrestleMania there’s been countless matches, there’s only been one main event or two main events. I want to call a WrestleMania main event. I’ve called matches at WrestleMania. I’ve called championship matches at WrestleMania, but I’ve never called the main event and that to me is still what drives me to let me be different than what you’re hearing. Let me continue to work twice as hard. Let me, give me Beth Phoenix or Wade Barrett and then Booker T or Nigel McGuinness or Percy like whoever it is, I’m going to make it work with their help, because everyone I’ve ever worked with has actually elevated me, which has been a beautiful thing in itself. But I want to call the main event of WrestleMania. And that is what drives me every Tuesday, or when I was doing Raw, or doing Mix Match Challenge or 205 Live or LVL Up or now even with NXT. It’s to get to that specific moment.”

On finding your passion:

“That’s a great question, because it took me probably about a year ago to finally realize, man, I really have been passionate about this industry. My kids need to have the same sort of passion. My son loves playing with garbage trucks, at the time. He wants to be a garbage man. Go be the best damn garbage man you can be. That’s what you love to do, go for it. My daughter sings in the doorknobs and you know, will put on like Mackenzie’s jewellery and walk around and dance and that. You want to perform? Be a performer. But I think something that maybe more so today I look at my siblings. What are you passionate about? Are you just waking up to live day to day? If you love the movies? Try to work on a movie set. Yeah, maybe write a movie. Maybe become a runner, a grip, whatever, whatever you want to do. If you love makeup, become a makeup artist. If you love clothes, become a designer. Like what drives you everyday? What are you passionate about? Because if you find a job that you’re passionate about, you will never work a day in your life. I don’t think I work on Tuesdays. I go sit with  2 time WWE Hall of Famer Booker T and call NXT. While Shawn Michaels, the greatest professional influence in my life. Yeah. Is the guy sitting in gorilla talking to me in my ear? my wife is the backstage interviewer So I go to work with my wife, and then we drive 10 minutes home.”

On Vic Joseph’s proudest match that he has called:

“I actually get the most compliments. And if you go back and listen to it, it’s Rey Mysterio and it’s Brock Lesnar Survivor Series 2019. And Dominik is in his father’s corner, which now we’re at where we’re at here in Los Angeles. It’s kind of ironic to go back and look at it. But if you listen to the match, I forget where I’m at and kind of black out and I become a fan and my voice breaks. Where Dominik hits the Frog Splash Rey, it’s the Frog Splash. This is going to be it and Brock kicks out and you hear me go, Oh, my God, there’s like I thought they had it. But I lose myself because I’m still a fan. Every time I sit in that seat behind the desk, that’s when I get the most compliments about that’s the one I’m really proud of thus far. And this weekend, I think I have an opportunity with Johnny Gargano Grayson Waller because of my personal feelings towards Johnny. And then the main event of Bron Breakker and Carmelo Hayes, because as they said, they’ve been the two guys since that rebranding or that revolution, evolution, whatever buzzword you want to use of NXT was put in, so I may have a moment this weekend. But it also comes back to all these to me are steps of a ladder to get me to that WrestleMania main event.”

What makes a good commentator:

“Something you hit on earlier, not being the star. You know, knowing that you aren’t the focal point. Also having great teammates. You know, I want to give a huge shout out to Booker T. Booker is Booker, Booker and I do not talk about much, we hang out for hours before the show. When we go out there on Tuesdays, what you hear is, is just live, off the cuff, off the top of our heads. When I was coming back to NXT when we talk about Mauro, Wade Barrett came in, and having done Mix Match Challenge, 205 Live, Monday Night Raw, NXT UK and all these different shows to finally have a little bit more of a permanent home. My confidence was hit a little bit, in all honesty, and Wade Barrett specifically helped me, he gave me my confidence back. And I’d be wrong not to include Beth Phoenix, in there. And so you have to have confidence. And those two, brought it back to me, Booker kind of lets me be me because I let him be him and it kind of goes, Okay, I do know what I’m doing. And when Shawn Michaels is sitting back there and goes, nice job, kid, great job. It’s kind of like okay, I do know, I don’t want to say self gratification. But you kind of have like, Okay, I do know what I’m doing. So you have to have that confidence. But also, to me, it’s telling stories. Roman Reigns has had a beautiful story with The Bloodline that has included Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens, and then you throw in Cody Rhodes.”

What is Vic Joseph grateful for:

“My wife, my children and the opportunity to commentate every Tuesday.”

Featured image: WWE

Will Ospreay (@willospreay) is a professional wrestler currently signed to New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). He sits down with Chris Van Vliet before NJPW Resurgence in Los Angeles to talk about being one of the best wrestlers in the world, having 25 matches rated 5-stars or better by Dave Meltzer from Wrestling Observer, his match with Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 17, the match with Ricochet in 2016 that changed both of their lives, his AEW debut, why he doesn’t want to move the United States, a possible match with CM Punk, why he doesn’t want a WrestleMania moment, what wrestling in the Tokyo Dome is like and much more!

On Will Ospreay’s transformation:

“Yeah, I just never really like, when I grew up doing wrestling, like I didn’t really have the money to like, afford a gym membership. And then when I did go, I didn’t f*cking know what I was doing. Just like with the machines and stuff like that, just did everything. Like I always had like a very slender figure that’s like, because I used to dance for years. I used to do like, the trampolining. And so always always there was active but like I didn’t know how to work out, it was only in 2019 was over in New Zealand, sory 2018, was over in New Zealand and like, we tried these muscle farm workers and like I know like, what a barbells like, what like I knew bench press, I knew all that, but I didn’t know why I did it in certain orders. Yeah. And then why not just follow these workouts for like three weeks. I started noticing already and I was like Jesus. That’s when I contacted a guy called Iestyn Rees who is my personal trainer over in England. And he’s just I can’t floor him mate. Like being so dyslexic man. Like it’s so hard to like read and understand what like carbs and fats and proteins were like and I didn’t understand it. I just like going down the chip shop, I like to eat my mom’s roast dinner. So then like understanding like calorie deficits and understanding like macro counting, it was just mad, I couldn’t understand it like at first, Iestyn was able to break it down so I was able to transform my body like loads of different times like my 2019 I really wanted to focus on being like very quick and nimble for the junior style. And then when I got asked to move, like because we were testing the waters with the heavyweight in 2019 and see if I can do that style, and I feel like I did an all right job at it. Then it was that when 2020 came around and like I just got locked in my room I was just like I outsmarted everyone doing that man, I outsmarted everybody like I as soon as I started seeing like venues closed down Yeah, I heard like like malls are closing down, I just, I went I think they’re gonna shut gyms. My partner of the time was not like no way they’re gonna shut gyms, it’s for people’s health as I’m like because you got, like metal like things like that was like metal barbells or people are coughing in their hand. I went I’m just gonna spend about 6k and I’m just gonna cut out the gym and she went I think you’re wasting your money. I got everything, I think it was like I got everything on like Wednesday and then by Friday they went we’re having a national lockdown, gyms are closed. I was like motherf*cker! The one time I outsmarted everyone man like the dumbest kid in the neighbourhood and I outsmarted everybody.”

On struggling to do moves while being heavier:

“I discovered that out the hard way because obviously when I was like 2020 I was 105 [kilos]. Just eating junk food and working out. Like doing a shooting star press was not easy. Like then I had to like drop the weight again. And then like I managed to maintain like a real healthy weight of like, like it would normally be 95 to 100 like that was, that’s a real comfortable weight for me. I’m comfortable with that weight. I feel like I can move to the right amount that I’m not disappointing anyone anymore. But like one of the things that I mean like one of the things I even tried it like before the New Japan cup forgot her I was trying the you know the the 450 where you go backwards that the ring post is here and your opponents that way, I tried that, I can’t do it any more. I’m just too fat, there’s a belly, I need room to tuck in. I can’t, like in 2016 I had a way room. I could wiggle my hips and everything, now man, I can’t do it.”

On possibly changing his style:

“I don’t know, like because I guess I’m a little bit of my own worst critic, but like I do feel like I’ve carved out like a gnat for this style. Now to the point now where like I have friends that go on US indie shows and they’re like you will not believe the amount of guys that do your style of moves now. It is like even like to the point where they go [does pose] before they do an Oscutter. It does blow my mind, because like I don’t, I don’t really care. Like years ago I used to be like why are they doing that? And now it’s don’t care I’ll just say yeah, please, like I don’t mind. But like it is truly mind blowing like seeing it out there but I do think it is like obviously I do need to reevaluate and I do need to change it up, but like I don’t think I need to change it dramatically. Like Jericho and Mysterio are like my prime examples. I still consider like even now I still consider like Jericho, not a highflyer anymore but like I think a lot of people just because he does a Lionsault so might say it but like even Mysterio like he’s still like managed to call himself a high flyer. But like he doesn’t do as many tricks that he used to do but like that fountain of youth man is like incredible. Like how they’re just I don’t know It’s like a magic act.”

Has Will Ospreay ever had a bad match:

“I mean, like I don’t, I didn’t like the Vader one. And I don’t like speaking ill of like him because now he’s passed. But like I really just didn’t enjoy it. It was just like it wasn’t, there was like agreement puts in put in place and then he like pulled it whatever because he didn’t want to f*cking do the job and it was a whole lot of things but like it was just unpleasant to work with. But like I wish him no harm I wish, I hope his family are all good and everything just because like it’s not easy like losing like a father or anything along those lines. So he’s just like, I don’t like to be that, but I just didn’t enjoy it. Chris Hero enjoyed it.”

On the match against Kenny Omega:

“I mean, I love that, like, I think like both of us really collaborated hard into putting all that together and like I’m proud of it. I’m sure like he’s happy with it. But yeah, like the storytelling aspect of it is I think it just comes from like that real world experience that we went through in COVID. Because I think a lot of people had like, mad benefits that they were like, we didn’t have that, like, so at first, like we got completely locked out of the country [Japan]. There’s no way for us to get in. And then obviously, when we finally was able to come in, you’d have to do like a two week quarantine. Now luckily for me, I had my apartment at the time, so I didn’t do nearly as many quarantines, but then it was like, it was just such a mad stuff that would happen like bam, bam, bam, and like, he just wasn’t prepared for it. Like you’d be calling your missus and your family. And it’d be like hey when you’re coming home, you’d be like, I don’t know. And then you’d be like, I remember, like, one of the ones I did, it was like, I was locked in the room. So he was just mad, you’d land, you’d go around the airport for 4 hours, like filling out all the paperwork. Then, even though you had a doctor’s note saying that you didn’t have COVID, you had to then do another COVID test. And even when you came back negative, you were still transported to the hotel for 14 days. And it’s no bigger, like, like half of the room. And it was just like a bed and, and it was crazy. Because then after that normally be like man, but at least I get to wrestle. it was like, above all this, right? I love New Japan. Like, I love the style of wrestling. I’m passionate about it. I just believe that this is the style that I’ve liked is really made me comfortable. And then the best thing about that wrestling is the Japanese fans, it is incredible. They make noise constantly, you will be just in a hold, and you’ll see like people were like crying in the audience and sh*t like that. It’s like, it’s so cool to them. And then it was silent. So like they were allowed to be in the building, but they weren’t allowed to clap because the government said that cheering would cause COVID to spread. So then do that like you every now and again, you heard him a little bit but then instantly though, because it is such a by the book country they would just go like wow, I knew it would break my heart man like I won IWGP World Heavyweight Champion right? And that’s like such like a man I can f*cking did it like the company puts trust in me. I’m sending pictures of the belt to me mom and dad like being like that are so sick. 1,2,3, I heard nothing. I heard him come up and then cut off straight away, and it just f*cks with you. I really does I just because like when you go from about 40,000 people in the dome, screaming like actually singing your name. And then like [silence], it’s upsetting.”

On the match against Ricochet and it being a surprise:

“Oh, more than anything I once again, I’m like 23 years old. I don’t know how to, I don’t know how to handle social media now. That alone back then. Yeah. And it’s just kind of like, it just blew my mind. Because I’ve never experienced that. It’s like William Regal was talking about who I was on the phone with like months prior but WWE. Seth Rollins was talking about it, like, everyone was talking about it to the point where the next day we just kept looking like everyone’s looking at phones. You couldn’t believe this is f*cking happening. Like, we’ve never had that. I don’t think I don’t know if I’ve ever had that since I don’t know.”

Do 5* matches matter to Will Ospreay:

“Okay, so this is I always have an argument, they don’t matter in terms of my financial game. Okay, so in my life, they don’t matter. I’m not going to make any money on it. However, when contracts come up, and I become a free agent, who’s not going to want the kid that works hard and puts on these phenomenal matches everybody talks about? So like, that’s where we can always argue like so like one of my friends would be like, I don’t know like name a wrestler now like I don’t bury anyone I really don’t but like it’s a case of like if I come up against somebody else. I don’t know, like the current format like I just don’t, I really don’t know. But it just for me like in terms of If that does ever become available and I am on the market who’s not going to want someone that’s going to as work hard and put on banging matches.”

On goals left to accomplish in New Japan:

“I just like doing it. I mean, there’s always I can always reinvent I can always change it up. And like right now the United Empire is like real hot like merchandise sales with us real good in Japan, like we’re number one faction in New Japan and voted by Tokyo sports and fans, and just, we’re just I can feel like something that was like, it was It wasn’t like the best start with like the United Empire because of COVID and everything because like, there was no reason for myself O-Khan, Jeff [Cobb] and [Aaron] Henare to be put together. But we just made it work. We decided then, but there was an injury there’s a bunch of things that always happen but like in the end we finally got all the group together and 10 Jewels make the crown so like now I just can’t walk around in Japan now without like at least being stopped once or twice a day and like people doing the new thing that we just made up in Ireland like, we need a, we need a cool hand so yeah.”

On the true Forbidden Door match:

“I think it’s gotta be Seth [Rollins] after like, after our little Twitter thing like we’ve got to, like, it’d be fun. And he is so over right now, You see the crowd like singing the song everything, it’s mad. Yeah, like, especially from like, what? What he was getting like when we had our little thing, and like but like that was a mixture of like, the bad booking and everything along those lines at that time and like now he’s just, it’s crazy. It’s mad.”

On a possible match against CM Punk:

I would want more of a paycheck! Like now it is quite open, especially like the relationship that AEW have with New Japan. It’s like, it’s so different how it was back in 2020. There wasn’t A Forbidden Door back in 2020. So now the relationship is like kind of grown and like I mean, Kyle [Fletcher] and [Mark] Davis are over there all the time now and I am a little bit like, like doing it. Doing AEW was a real eye opener and like how TV wrestling works and how like the backstage vibes and stuff like that. I was kind of like, okay, like so I guess this is like, how like the American side is now because my only experience with American wrestling is the indies and Ring of Honor, which was like, it was just like go out there and do a really good match. But like this is all about like camera acting was camera cause but he didn’t let me go like, Okay, well, there’s another thing to learn.”

On being tempted to wrestle at WrestleMania:

“Not like in that sense of this but like, of course I would love to wrestle in front of 80,000 people who wouldn’t want to wrestle? But like, in the same sense of, I’m not going to lose sleep if I never do it. But you know what I mean? Like I never wanted to get to this level of fame with wrestling. I just enjoyed doing it on the weekends. And New Japan offers me a lot of money, and I was just like Whoa, I can make money from this. Here’s the thing I told you this, but like WWE, TNA and New Japan were on the table at the same time. And like the selling point in New Japan was that I get to come home. WWE I have to move there ,TNA, most likely the same thing and it wasn’t guaranteed money. In New Japan, I get to come home. And I’m a real home guy. So like the fact that I’ve got to come home was like, incredible.”

How does Will Ospreay keep outdoing himself?

“I do think it just you got to evolve a little bit. You got to like, you just got to take people on a ride. Like I mean I’ve wrestled Taichi. That was my next singles match after that, I just love that. And it was a completely different style. It was just like we tried to do the Kings Road style which he was a student of Koada and like just taking like little elements of that match and just like just like changing it up I just really do. I’ve enjoyed like not relying on the high flying stuff but just more relying on my elbows now.”

On the cost of being Will Ospreay:

“I don’t know when to shut my mouth. I’ve noticed that about that has come from growing up now. [you’ve done a really good job in this interview]. Thank you. But like, No, I’ve realised the one thing that I’ve like, I’ve never been good, like, keeping my opinion to myself. And I think that comes with like the ADHD and like being like, little bit like, I’m swear, man, like, I need to f*cking get round to the doctors about I swear, man, like, I definitely am on a spectrum for f*cking autism. Because I don’t realise people’s feelings when I f*cking said shit. And it’s only now like growing up and like, I never will, I won’t put it out to be like, I’m in like, a position now of f*cking responsibility. So now I am aware of sh*t more like, I’m aware, like, I need to f*cking, like, I feel like I have let people down. And that I need to like, rehash my image a little bit. And like, I need to like, like, there are certain things I will stand by to the day I f*cking die. But like, there are things where I know I’ve made mistakes and no one’s like, it’s no one’s fault other than my own, like, I’ll put myself into those mistakes. But like, I’m doing everything I can to remedy those mistakes and fix everything just because like, this my mom’s side of me. I mean, mom’s has been like, she’d be nice to everyone. And like, I like I am doing my best, because I realise I have like, I’ve put my foot in it with a lot of fans and that fans I never wanted to let down. No one feels like they’ve let down my country more than me, so like now trying to like really do like a better job with this and like to really not only fly the flag for my country because like it’s in tatters. It was and now it’s like coming back out. We’re about to do the Copperbox Arena and it’s going to be me and Shingo again. But like I want to be like almost like I hate the word leader, I really do. But like I want to lead by example. So like, it’s just one of those things where like, I’ve matured a lot. I’ve grown up a lot, like, and it does come from when you come into wrestling, whatever age that you came out. They say that your age freezes a little bit, so your mentality doesn’t change because this isn’t a normal life. This is not a normal life. Like even hanging out with his school friends. Like, they know he’s still doing that wrestling thing and it’s one of those things where they’ll never understand it. Like there’s people watching you every f*cking move and every word that you say they try and twist things now and I didn’t understand that. I almost use social media as a f*cking diary. Like no you lie I should have kept a lot of these things myself and realise a lot of f*cking lot people’s feelings a lot of people support towards you’re on the line. And like I feel like I have dampened that so like I am doing like f*cking everything in my power to just like rehash because like once again, there’s a lot of responsibility at home now. And I want to do the best job I physically can.”

On acting more maturely:

“Like I’ve got a couple of like, I had a messy I won’t say who from. But the like, a guy who was a higher-up in New Japan has been like you haven’t, you haven’t got yourself in any trouble recently. Well done. But like, I know it is funny, but it’s like that actually kind of means a lot to me. Like, no one feels I’ve let down not only my roster like the team like the country like I do. I feel like sometimes I have been just so immature about how I’ve handled this, and it’s an immature industry, it’s so immature. But like half the time we are naked oiling each other up, rubbing fake tan fade out every now and again. He was like all the boys are going ugh! I mean it’s a such an immature industry. So like now like realising like where I am or who I am or what I want to achieve and like everything in between like a really the best job I can now.”

What is Will Ospreay grateful for:

“Wrestling, my family and my missus.”

Featured image: Wikipedia

Taya Valkyrie (@thetayavalkyrie) is a professional wrestler currently signed to AEW and known for her time in IMPACT Wrestling, Lucha Underground, MLW, AAA and WWE. She joins Chris Van Vliet in Hollywood, CA to talk about signing with AEW, making her debut in Winnipeg in front of a Canadian audience, how they snuck her into the building, setting an intention in 2022 to show everyone how good she is in the ring, her match with Jade Cargill at Double Or Nothing for the TBS Championship, some of her dream matches in AEW, being ringside for her husband John Morrison’s boxing debut at Creator Clash 2, her clothing line LOCA by Taya Valkyrie and much more!

On facing Jade Cargill at Double or Nothing:

“Yes, Jade has been fantastic. I mean I’ve, you know, wrestled every type of female wrestler, man, everything, you know what I mean. And like, I’ve seen a lot of people commit to something and then, you know, they don’t get to that stage where they want to be in their career, they give up. And Jade obviously has not been in the business in a really long time. But her passion and determination, and her athleticism and like you can tell she’s an athlete, because and she just like, you can’t tell her sh*t either. Like, she’s just like, she really wants to prove herself and I’m happy to be in a ring with someone like that. And, you know, just to see that the business is going in a positive direction. And, you know, I’m excited for Double or Nothing. I’m not gonna take it easy on her.”

On possibly re-signing with WWE:

“I didn’t really think about it too much. Obviously, I have some friends that have gone back, for example, Chelsea Green is an example and she’s thriving, and she is killing it. I’m so proud of her. But like, I didn’t really think about it too much. I just knew that if it was meant to be, it was meant to be. And also I was kind of indifferent. I didn’t know if I wanted to subject myself to being in a space like that again. And I mean, it worked out. I couldn’t be happier about it.”

On AEW dream matches:

“I really want to wrestle Ruby Soho. I really want to wrestle Saraya, Jaime Hayter, Britt Baker, I mean, there’s endless possibilities there. And I also just think that I would love to do some mixed tag stuff with you know, Adam and Britt, me and John, me tagging with The Lucha Brothers. There’s a million things that I want to do and I just can’t wait to continue doing them and that’s exactly what we’re doing. That’s exactly what Double or Nothing is all about, and you better watch it on pay-per-view.”

On Taya Valkyrie debuting for AEW:

“I mean, I was a little bit nervous. I was like, please, Canada, please, please be there for me. Like, please cheer for me. You know, you never know, you always have those second guesses, like, are they gonna know who I am? Like, I don’t know. And they were there for me. So I’m forever grateful. And Winnipeg, thank you very much.”

On how Taya Valkyrie was received in the AEW locker room upon arrival:

“I was welcomed with open arms and it was such good energy. Everyone was just like surprised to see me. I think Britt knew, I’m trying to think who else knew? But yeah, it was just so positive. And I mean, when you’re starting a new job anywhere, it doesn’t matter where it is, you know, in a studio like this or if it’s in pro-wrestling or a restaurant, like you, you always have those kind of nerves because you never know what’s really going to happen. And it’s like walking in the first day of school. You know, like, catering, I’m like, which lunch table do I sit at? Like, you know, you’re still I’m still, you know, trying to figure that out. But honestly, everyone was like, so welcoming and excited. And it just made me a much more calm person and just felt like I belonged there.”

On sneaking into the AEW taping under the radar:

“Yeah. So I flew in and was actually flying on like the same flight as a bunch of people coming from LA like The Bucks and everybody. And like, as soon as we got to the Winnipeg airport to get off the plane, like I have put a hat on, I put a mask on, and like tried to like, cover myself up because like, as soon as you walked off, I walked off, like down the escalator. And there are fans everywhere. Yeah, I don’t exactly blend in. So I had to like really cover up and then, they actually had me staying at a different hotel than all of the other people on the roster. So that was a secret hotel, secret location, had a secret SUV pick me up and bring me to the secret backdoor. And yeah, that’s how it went.”

On Jon Hennigan’s AEW appearances setting the wheels in motion:

“I mean, I think that, you know, everything had to take its time properly. Like, I feel like people were like, Why didn’t you go there sooner or later? It’s not up to me, contrary to what  people think you actually have to be offered a job and like things have to be, you know, at the right place at the right time. And there had been talks over the last year all of you know, 2022 about and speculation and rumours and things like that. But I just knew that, like my work was going to speak for itself. And when the timing was right, I would get that chance. And that’s exactly what happened. Like, I became undeniable in 2022, I really put myself out there. You know, won awards, biggest comeback of the Year by PWI. And multiple, you know, five different championships across the world., I put in the work. And so I knew that that would pay off. And it did.. And you know, when we had a meeting when AEW was in Los Angeles, in January, was when I was able to speak to Tony face-to-face, because we had spoken through texts and things like that. But you know, I sat down with him and it just kind of went from there. And I just had to wait for that moment, and it came, and then all of a sudden here we are. So yeah, you know, and even with the conversation, you know, things didn’t happen like right away. And it’s just not how business works. It’s not how this works at all. And I obviously have commitments with multiple companies. I really pride myself on never leaving, you know, never closing a door, and I really wanted to finish those storylines and finish those things properly. You know, IMPACT has been a huge part of my career in my life. I never ever wanted to leave them high and dry or, or anything, but I also had to protect myself in the way that I had to pick what was best for my next step. Yeah. And also MLW was nothing but fantastic to me Cort Bauer shout out to you guys, you guys were great. That roster is fantastic. Like these people really helped me get through a really horrible part of my career, or at least mentally, I was not in a good spot last year. And I’m forever grateful for them. And because of them, I was able to take this next step.”

On setting goals:

“I mean, I was almost standing in my own way at first, because I was questioning my value and questioning where I belonged in this grand scheme of professional wrestling. Do I belong here, all this, you know, the mental games that we play with ourselves. Because we care so much, like, that’s what people don’t realize. And I’m just happy that I did what I did. And I did it with intention. And I did it with, you know, like, reminding myself like, remember who you are, the words of like, Mufasa. But like, you know what I mean? Like, it’s just like, I had to kind of do that for myself. And I did it. And I did it over and over again. And you know, that people say like, hard work pays off, well it certainly did for me.” 

What is Taya Valkyrie grateful for:

“My health, my family and the universe for giving me these opportunities.”

Featured image: AEW

Downstait (@downstaitband) is a band from Fort Wayne, Indiana. They are known among pro wrestling fans for creating entrance themes for Cody Rhodes (“Kingdom”), The Miz (“I Came To Play”), Dolph Ziggler (“Here To Show The World” & “Perfection”), Alex Riley (“Say It To My Face”), Chelsea Greene (“Hot Mess”), Brit Baker (“The Epic”), Buddy Matthews (“Secret No More”), Dustin Rhodes (“Goldstew”), Matt Cardona (“When The Lights Go Down”) and many others. The lead singer, Zach Call joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about how Downstait formed as a band, how working on the MTV show “Bully Beatdown” lead to the first wrestling entrance theme they did, being discovered by legendary WWE Music Producer Jim Johnston, how Cody Rhodes was able to keep his “Kingdom” entrance theme when he returned to WWE, the Easter egg of the WOAH in Cody’s theme, his Mount Rushmore of entrance themes and much more!

On performing The Miz and Dolph Ziggler’s theme songs:

“So let’s just start with the man himself, the Awesome man, The Miz, man. He came to play baby. He started off and he was on fire. He had that United States run and he really like we could have been dead in the water. I think right there and then if he fell flat on his face, which he did not by any means and I think he excelled within a year up to the top after he hit that US run. And then we went right to Dolph. We did I Am Perfection. And I guess there was a little bit of a kerfuffle backstage about you can’t have perfection in your title, that’s Mr. Perfect. So he had not listened to anything that Dolph had had for the six years that prior to that he had had that song, so we changed it to Here to Show the World. And then Alex Riley. So these were all real lumped in real quick, Alex Riley took off. After he broke away from Miz, say to my face, which we won a Slammy Award for. We still have not received our Slammy for it WWE, we want it.”

On moving to the independent scene:

“So that was the end of our WWE run in about 2015, 2016. There was a few more, can you do it? Will you do it? Are you the right fit? And it for one reason or another didn’t work. And then we went over and just started doing independent stuff. And that’s actually Cody, right when he broke away, he put out this Twitter thing. And we were kind of a sinking ship, to be honest and really kind of gave us a lifeline. I mean, we had some success, and we get a little bit of notoriety just from being involved with WWE, but we hadn’t put an album out since 2013. And we weren’t really thinking about writing. I’m an administrator at a school. Sean’s a lawyer. And my brother runs a body shop And we got old and living in a van or on a tour bus is kind of tough on older guys, especially guys with families like my brother. So I just was on Twitter and I was in my feels a little bit. I’m like, Dude, we’re not done yet. Like something’s going on. We just got on SmackDown two weeks ago with the radio cover. Like if we did that in a bedroom, we didn’t have any, like WWE didn’t fly us out. We did that on our own. Like we could still do this. Cody put out a tweet saying what entrance music should I use on the Indies. Yeah. And he said something about Throne by Bring Me the Horizon. And I was wearing that album out at the time. I knew one by being such a big fan of his since he showed up with Bob Holly. Like I knew this dude’s character, I’m a wrestling historian, I know what he wants to sing about. And I know what he’s going through a little bit just because dirt sheets, sometimes they’re right. But at the same time, like this dude should be getting a better opportunity. So we sent him a tweet just through whomever we had already worked for him. We said hey, man, can we give this song a shot? And we sent him a snippet of what we were thinking about and I sent him my words over in that hard times breathe better men it’s straight from his dad’s promo. Yeah, like it was like how can I not without being like patronising the situation and being a dummy how can I just sell this character a little bit to the guy that is doing it? So Shawn and I sat down and went on a little bit of a write binger and set something back in within like four hours and he highlighted the lyrics that everybody’s singing now, and it’s just like, Okay, we still got it. We went and recorded and sent it back to him. He took it to Wrestle Kingdom to Battleground. What’s that? That’s the TNA one right? Slammiversary Slammiversary like he took it everywhere with him.”

On composing themes for AEW talent:

“[Cody Rhodes’ IMPACT debut] That was incredible. And they gave us enough confidence. It’s like the old dog can still play with the young dogs. So we did that and then he started taking it everywhere with him and the song was catching on and just that underground little bubble people’s like hey, man, this is a really good tune. It got the ball rolling enough. AEW, was starting kind of at the time. We did something for Britt, we do her song right now. Cody’s brother, Goldust, which is my brother’s favourite wrestler, Justin, who’s also in the band. He asked us to do some for him which I think he could have died that day and been cool. Buddy Matthews we’ve done a couple for him. One has been put out and he used it and the other one that we have I still swears is like one of the best songs I’ve ever written but he did, what is in now? The House of Black And he’s using their theme, but we have a banger for him right now.”

On the Cody Rhodes Woah: 

“So that’s planned, by the way, us being as big of fans as we are. Smoke and Mirrors does have that woah in some form or fashion, we didn’t do that on accident. That’s a call back joke. Like it’s all the way like let’s bring this all the way together. For wrestling fans to be so easter egg hunting, like to catch on when it gets to WWE. It’s like, it’s so cool. And I guess I guess Kevin Dunn is a humongous fan of the tune. So he’s put the emphasis on it.”

On a wrestler asking for Downstait to do their entrance music:

“It never gets old. I can tell you that. It’s the coolest thing in the world, especially when like our guys come to us like Buddy is one of them, like Britt, you can see coming from a mile away. So when we got to do her song, I was like, oh, man, we’re riding her coattails forever. We’re super lucky with all these people that we ended up doing the music for that they are so good at their craft, that we just kind of, you know, ride in the wave for a while. Buddy, though, I thought he was so underutilised. And when we got when he reached out and said, Hey, you guys want to? I was like, yeah, do whatever you want. Let’s go.”

On how song royalties work:

“So that’s insider trading, and you’ll never know. It just depends on the guy or the girl for the most part. We’re also not the worst businessmen in the world, somebody is an investment. Like a you know, it’s a sure thing that we got you. And I hate to even throw that out there. But like, sometimes people need stuff quickly. And if they need something so quickly, then you know, we’re going to charge you know, need this by Monday, which is like the Alex Riley thing. Shawn and I were on our way to a vacation. And WWE called us at Friday. We flew out Saturday morning to California to record Say It To My Face. We sketched it out. Sunday night we recorded it, Monday morning on a red eye we got back home Monday night we were listening to Say It Io My Face on TV.”

On how it is decided to use a band instead of the in-house team:

“I would hope that the turnover isn’t that great that he is so overwhelmed that he just needs to delegate or facilitate this stuff that way. But sometimes I think I want to give him all the credit like hey, these guys can nail this. And it felt like that after we had nailed those three specific to Dolph, Miz and Riley Yeah, he went kind of back to back to back with us on that with inside of like eight months, I think where he just was able to you guys let’s let’s try this out whenever he seemed deem fit like for us to do some form it was. It’s weird, it’s super weird, because not everybody wants a hard rock song which we’re we’re trying to break that mould as well.”

On Cody Rhodes providing help with music rights:

“So hearing it, so we, I don’t want to give away too much. But we were aware that Kingdom was coming and we were in a little bit of a legal battle and Cody Rhodes is absolutely the f*cking man. We were on the phone with lawyers and agents and WWE’s lawyers and composers before, and we have been with them since 2009. And we all have regular jobs. And we just wanted our cut of the pie on this one. We know what happens when you, we’re not Joan Jett, we’re not Living Colour, but like when you use a real song, they get paid, those artists get paid. It’s not a part of WWE’s work. And this is a song that we wrote.”

On Cody Rhodes nearly having different entrance music:

“It was pretty close to it. And then Cody, we held our silence for a little bit and I’d said my piece and I’m my, my heart is in my throat and not ready to give up the song. You know, I’ve worked so hard on the song, we worked so hard on the song. And Cody just basically breaks the silence and he goes, Well, you don’t get me without Kingdom on this conference call, all right! And he swore up and down right when he started using it that if I go back to WWE I am taking kingdom with me. And I mean, he’s been nothing but truthful with us the whole time. But you never know when you know, when it comes down to the moment you never know what’s going to happen. And about two weeks before we have this big make or break moment. It might have been two seconds of silence. It might not have been the 10 that’s in my brain right now. It might have been 2 hours.”

On his Mount Rushmore of wrestling entrance themes:

“So Jeff Hardy at Armageddon, when he had the words over, it’s No More Words, right? I love that tune, absolutely love that tune. It’s the first time since I was young, that I popped when he won the WWE title so that song Specifically, I watched that whole write up to him winning the title and I was invested like I was 10 years old again. That works. Booker T’s without a doubt might be the greatest ever. Ok, Kane’s always got me, the first one. So it’s toss up now between The Rock, and Stone Cold with the glass.”

What is Zach from Downstait is grateful for:

“Never quitting, family and the boys and the girls.”

Welcome to a very special 40^th birthday edition of #AskCVV! On this episode, Chris Van Vliet answers questions that were submitted on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube from Insight listeners just like you and you sent in some GREAT ones this time around. This is a monthly tradition so if you have a question that you’d like answered in the next edition, just send it with the hashtag #AskCVV.

What is your current workout split? And more importantly, do you have any advice on how to keep yourself motivated in the gym, from your personal experience at least. Also wishing you a very happy 40th birthday?!

“The workout split has been, it’s pretty basic. So I’m either doing one of two things here. It’s either the push pull type of workouts, so push would be like chest and triceps. Pull would be back and biceps, and then shoulders and legs. That’s been a really big part of what I’ve been doing in the gym. Although recently, especially over these last few months, I’ve been breaking this up like a bodybuilder style of workouts. So chest one day, boom, that’s it, heavy chest, lots of reps, very heavyweight, chest. Back, then another day, you pound that all out back, that’s done. Arms and shoulders were one day, quads were one day. So I split up legs, quads were one day, hamstrings were also one day. So it was five days a week in the gym. I did cardio six days a week. And then I had one full day of rest where I just really didn’t do anything. And a really big thing that I did and was really conscious and intentional about, especially over the last three months over these last 13 weeks, was seeing how many steps that I took in a day. And I’ve never been a step counter at all. I used to wear a Woop. You might have seen that in some previous interviews that I did. I wore a Woop for almost two years. And I liked it. But I just didn’t feel like I was getting the most out of it. I didn’t feel like it was worth the subscription fee. So I don’t wear Woop anymore. But as you know, if you have an iPhone and tracks your steps pretty accurately. If you open up the health app, and a lot of people don’t know this. I didn’t know this for years. But if you open up the health app, it’s the heart. I guess, image, like the heart little thumbnail there. I don’t know what I’m trying to say but you know what I mean? It’s the heart app icon. That’s what I mean. And you go in there you can see how many steps you’ve taken. So I thought I was pretty active. I’d go to the gym, I would, you know, walk here and there or walk on the treadmill and I thought I’m pretty active. And I was walking like maybe 7-8,000 steps a day. Then I started like being intentional about it. And that was what really changed things for me. I was doing probably 12 to 15,000 steps a day. So that’s walking on doing cardio, some hikes, just and look, there’s nothing better than moving your body. There’s no better feeling than moving your body and the residual effects, all of the positive residual effects that you get from that. So that’s been part of my workout split. But I will say that more importantly, it’s about what you’re eating. It’s about eating real foods and not processed foods. That’s been the biggest part of this whole thing. So thank you for the question.”

In this crazy rocketing interview career, what was the discussion or the contact that changed the game? Also, what part of your life forces you to stay humble? 

“I will say that there’s been a lot of big interviews, there’s been a lot of interviews where I’m like, Oh, my gosh, that person actually said yes, I can’t believe it. But there was one. I’ve been doing interviews in my career. Like I started my television career in 2005, started the YouTube channel in 2011 just kind of posting, you know, interviews here and there, just like celebrities that I was so fortunate to be able to spend some time with. But the interview that I think really changed it, at least in the perception of YouTube, was the interview I did with Chris Jericho in 2019. And it was right after the big announcement that Chris Jericho was gonna be a part of AEW. And you might not remember how big of a deal that was, like Chris Jericho was tried and true a WWE guy for you know, the previous 20 years before that. Whether he was signed with the company or not, he was actively always like a WWE guy, you thought of Chris Jericho as being, you know, one of the biggest names in WWE in the last 20 years. And then for that announcement to come out, and for him to be the big name that Tony Khan had signed for this new wrestling company called All Elite Wrestling. That was a big deal. And I had a mutual friend of Chris Jericho who had connected us together. And I reached out to Jericho and I said, What do you want to do this interview? He was doing a live podcast, almost four hours away from where I was doing it, where I lived in Florida. He was like, Sure, if you want to come up here, we can definitely do the interview. So I went up, I drove up. And this is a big thing I was talking about. If someone says yes, that’s all you should need. Someone says yes, find your way to make this thing happen. So he said yes and I said, good enough. Drove up for hours, we did the interview, the infamous interview in the back of his car. And that interview, like very quickly got like a million views. And it was the first real time that he had opened up about why he was not signing with WWE and why he was signing with this new company. And that interview, even though my YouTube channel at that point was like, I think I just hit 100,000 subscribers. And the pod, the podcast hadn’t started yet. The YouTube channel was like, seven years old. Yeah, YouTube channel was seven years old. But that was the interview that got on so many people’s homepage, and my subscribers from there just like, skyrocketed. So I’d say that that’s a really big one that changed the game, for me, at least in terms of people perceiving me as someone who interviewed wrestlers. Because up to that point, the only interviews I had really done were when people happen to be in town, and they were promoting Raw or SmackDown, or IMPACT, or when there was an indie show, and I was able to go to an indie show and like interview one of the big names that was there. So like, I’ve done lots of other wrestling interviews, but that was a wrestling interview that I think, got on a lot of people’s radar. So that’s, that’d be the one that I go with. Also, I think, just personally, like the first interview I did with The Rock was really cool. It’s like, oh, my gosh, not only am I talking to tThe Rock, the person who I’ve always wanted to talk to the number one person on my bucket list for interviews, but I’m talking to The Rock backstage at Raw, that was so cool. So that interview is on my YouTube channel, if you want to check that out, back in 2012. Then the second part of your question, what part of my life forces me to stay humble? I would just think that that’s like, anybody who owns a dog can relate to this. There’s something about picking up your dog’s sh*t, where you are like, Ah, yep. That’s so humbling, no matter who you are. And I think that, you know, a few days away here or maybe a week away from our daughter coming. The due date by the way is May 21st. But here I am, May 19th. And the baby’s not here yet. So I think that when the baby comes and you’re wiping up and cleaning up and changing diapers that will be very humbling. I think so.”

What is your favorite iteration of The Undertaker and favorite Undertaker match? 

“I think that for a lot of people The Undertaker match that comes to mind is Mankind and Hell in a Cell. But I think that the best Undertaker match is Shawn Michaels, WrestleMania like that match is just so so good. I don’t know how Dave Meltzer didn’t give that five stars that’s something I’d scratch my head about all the time, but I digress that is a conversation for another time. My favorite iteration of The Undertaker is like that late 90s Right before the Corporate Ministry. I liked that dark version of The Undertaker, and Corporate Ministry got like really dark. Like certainly, it was like sacrificing people, like crucifying them like that wouldn’t fly on 2023 television. But right before The Corporate Ministry, Undertaker, I liked that. And this is gonna be maybe a controversial opinion. But I was not really a fan of the American Badass. I was not a fan of the Biker Taker, that just didn’t seem like Undertaker to me. I don’t know. Maybe you share that same opinion? Maybe not. But it just wasn’t, it wasn’t my favorite. And when he finally did come back as The Deadman, I was like, Yes, that’s The Undertaker that we know and love.”

How do I get into journalism and do interviews that you do like podcasting and interviewing pro wrestlers, celebrities, etc. The only obstacle I have is that I have a speech impediment. So do you have any tips or advice for an aspiring journalist like myself? 

“I say this frequently. And I know that it sounds so simple and basic, but you really just have to start. And if you want to interview pro-wrestlers, I’m sure that there is a pro-wrestling school or indie federation that runs in your area. Go to them if you haven’t yet, go to a local indie show. Tell the promoter, here’s who I am. I’m passionate about journalism. I’m passionate about broadcasting, interviewing, whatever it is, I’m passionate about content creation. Would it be okay with you If I interviewed two or three of your top wrestlers, and I put them on my YouTube channel? No promoter is gonna say, oh, no, no, thank you. No, I’m good. So I would say take the opportunities that are in front of you, and build on those. Take anybody who will say yes, take those opportunities, and do with them what you can and continue to build on those. And if you have a speech impediment, I don’t think that that should be something that stands in the way at all, it’s probably something that over time, you can continue to work on. But I wouldn’t let that stand in the way. Like, the world has all different shapes and sizes and types of people. I think that if you were putting your stuff out there, I think it would inspire other people who may have a similar thing that they’re dealing with. But the biggest thing is take the opportunities that are in front of you, whatever town or city you live in, whatever country it is that you live in. There are opportunities all around us all the time. So go out there and start telling some stories because that’s what content creation is really about. It’s about telling stories.” 

What’s the greatest life lesson you learned in each decade of your life? 

“Oh, my gosh. I should have prepared, I should have read this before and figured out like a super insightful, pun intended, answer to this. But I’ll give my best shot here. So I would say for the first decade of my life, like I mean, you’re really just doing what you can, right. I would say for the first decade of my life, it was trying new things, right, trying new things. I started out playing T ball. I then started playing hockey when I was six years old. I played like every sport possible in elementary school, from basketball to volleyball. Pretty good dodgeball player, I don’t say so myself. Kickball, which in Canada we call soccer baseball. You want to move to the US and people started talking about kickball. I’m like, What are you talking about soccer like? No, they’re like, No, you bowl the soccer ball, but you kick it in, then you run the bases. I’m like, oh, soccer baseball. They’re like, no, it’s called kickball. But trying new things, I think was that first decade. The second decade, which would be 10 to 19 was finding your passion. Because I think for me, that was the biggest thing. I was like, leaning into the things that I really enjoyed. That was, yeah, that was so much of that time. That’s when I even discovered that my high school had a communications studies class. That’s when I was like, Yeah, it’d be really cool, I know, it seems like a huge massive goal that I might not be able to attain. But I had this dream and this goal of like, I want to work on TV or on the radio one day. And I’m going to chase after that, which I think then, as I’m saying it out loud, leads to the next lesson, which was between my 20s and 30s, which was to take chances. And the only reason that I am talking into this microphone right now. And that we’re communicating at all, that I even have a podcast, that I’ve been fortunate at all to do anything that I’ve done on television, or radio, or any of the interviews that I’ve done, is because I took chances, and throughout my 20s I was like, What’s the worst that can happen? If I email the station manager, or if I email the news director at a TV station, or the general manager at a radio station, and they don’t respond, or they say no, that’s okay. And move on to the next one. And just like, search for my next Yes. And I think there’s a lot of people that get so freaked out by the idea that someone might say no, that they don’t even bother asking the question. So ask the question, is another lesson I think I learned in my 20s is just like go for it. Because the worst thing that can happen is no. So that was a big lesson and a lot happened in my 20s, like I graduated from college in my 20s and got my first internship which turned into a job in Peterborough, Ontario driving 100 kilometres each way, which is 60 miles an hour each way. And to pay for the gas for that internship, I was working my old high school job in the fish department of a pet store at the mall PJ’s pet centre, Pickering town centre. So, so good. And then that job got me enough experience that I got a job on MTV2 Canada picked up my entire life. Drove it 47 hours across the country started a brand new life in Vancouver, British Columbia. That show got cancelled. This is all in a nutshell here. After a year that show got cancelled. So I’m interviewing celebrities and musicians and playing video games at work and reviewing them. And then one day, boom, the show just gets cancelled because one big media company bought another media company and they had to get rid of some budget and to free up some budget. Drove 47 hours back, moved back in with my parents after being on TV for two and a half years, unemployed for seven months, find a job in Toronto and eventually, got hired hosting a show called Inside Jam on Sun TV. I get to at that show interview Oprah, cover the Toronto Film Festival, like all this amazing stuff. I do that job until I’m 26 and finally got a job. From that in the US. I got a job in Cleveland, as an entertainment reporter for the CBS affiliate in Cleveland. Do that job into my late 20s and then I’m ending this decade here I got a job in Miami at the FOX affiliate there. And that was my 20s. It’s like the highest of the highs and the very lowest of the lows. So the next decade, 30s to 40s, that’s a tough one because I’m just ending that one now. I feel like there was so many lessons learned earlier on. But I think one of the biggest lessons learned was a lesson that John Cena told me. Three words, I repeat them frequently. It’s control the controllable. I think I had a real habit earlier on in my life about getting mad about things that I had zero control over, getting mad about people doing things that I took personally. And I realised that’s another, I guess another lesson in my 30s is not to take things personally. The Four Agreements is such a powerful book, if you’ve never heard of it, spend a little bit of time, even if you just read the like the cliff note version of this. It’s so powerful. It’s four agreements, if you can and make these with yourself every single day. I’ve talked about the book before, but if you can make these agreements with yourself every single day in everything that you’re doing, it makes life just so much easier. So the Four Agreements are, never take anything personally, always do your best, be impeccable with your word. And I always forget the fourth one! Oh, hold on. Be impeccable with your word, don’t take anything personally, don’t make assumptions, always do your best. So there we go.”

What’s an interview you would like to redo? Not necessarily saying it’s bad? But like, what would you do differently? 

“I mentioned that first interview with The Rock. And I’m so fortunate to say that I’ve interviewed The Rock 10 times now, not that I’m counting or anything, and I always say that. But when I think back to the first interview, it was 2012, and I feel like he was just on the cusp of becoming the Dwayne Johnson powerhouse that we know him as now. Because, yeah, sure, he had The Game Plan, Race to Witch Mountain and the Tooth Fairy and Be Cool. But it wasn’t really till 2012 When he kind of came out and became like, The Rock that we know now. Which was GI Joe 2 Fast and Furious 5, Pain and Gain like that really set him on the path that he’s on now. So when I interviewed him, I was very much expecting like The Rock like I was expecting him to, like, have like fun with me. Like, I guess like what he’s done in the last few interviews that we’ve done together. But like if you watch it back, I tried to have like a stare down with him. I’m like, oh, yeah, like, what’s a tip for like, having a great stare down, you’re so good at these in the ring stare downs. And he’s like, Oh, just like intensity. Yeah. Like, look at the guy and you know, look up straight in the eye. And I was expecting and hoping for him to like, be like, oh, here, let me show you. Look, look, look at me in the eye right now. Let’s do this right now. And I think I was trying way too hard to look for those moments and trying to create those moments that maybe weren’t necessarily there. So that’s what I’m, I’m grateful for how that interview happened and came together. That was so cool. But if I could go back, I probably wouldn’t have tried so hard to make that interview about a moment. That’s really it, but I really have no regrets in life. Like, you can’t go back and change anything. So what’s the point of even thinking about and talking about? Like, it’s happened, it’s in past, control the controllable, right? Just move on and do with it what you can, so that would be one that I would just change. But more for personal reasons than anything else.” 

If you could have a Mount Rushmore of guests that you’ve had on your channel, what would it be? 

“Oh, this is another one where I wish I had like gone in, had an answer ready for you and it was like super insightful. Again, pun intended. Let me think here. And this is gonna be all guests. Okay, across like, all different, you know, sources of entertainment. So The Rock is for sure on there. That has been my number one favourite person to talk to. So The Rock, The Rock’s up there definitely. Mount Rushmore, oh, my goodness, The Undertaker. And that’s like a pretty recent one. That one’s one of my favourites and the way that that just kind of came together. They were like, Hey, there’s a possibility to interview The Undertaker next week. Like, stay tuned. And I was like, okay, and then they were like, alright, The Undertaker interview is happening tomorrow morning. And I was like, Oh, okay. Oh my gosh, this thing is happening. I better like put some questions together and figure this out. But Mark Callaway is so awesome. And so humble in that conversation, even though it was only like 20 minutes was one of those that has meant so much to me in my career. And if you remember at the end of that career, he’s like, Hey, let’s do this again, sometime. I mean it, I’m a man of my word. And then after that interview, I saw that he followed me back on Twitter, and I was like, Oh my gosh, The Undertaker is following me on Twitter is very cool. And I shot him a quick message I just said, Hey, thank you so much. It was such a great conversation. I really appreciate you. And he wrote me back and said, Thank you. That was a really great interview. And I mean what I said about doing another one, and I was just like, wow, that is so cool. So that was one that’s definitely on that Mount Rushmore, so there’s two wrestlers. Tom Cruise was definitely one of them, and I got to interview him on the red carpet for Mission Impossible six in Paris, the Eiffel Tower is right behind us. I mean, Tom Cruise is the last remaining movie star, in my opinion. And I mean, just look what he’s doing and Mission Impossible 7 Dead Reckoning Part One, with that motorcycle off the cliff that turns into a base jump. Oh my gosh. Unbelievable. So I mean, Tom Cruise would be able to spend a few minutes with him. That was a really, really big one. So we’ve got The Rock, we’ve got the Undertaker, we’ve got Tom Cruise. And I’m gonna go with Oprah. It was a quick interview, it was over 10 years ago. But there’s something so inspiring about what Oprah has done and what she’s built, considering, especially where she came from. And Oprah is just such a great communicator. And the way she looks you in the eye, when she’s talking to you the way she like, grabs your arm or puts her hand on your shoulder. It’s very inviting, and it’s very intimate. And that’s something that I will never forget. So there we go. There’s, there’s my four big guests that I’ve done interviews with, and super grateful to even be able to list those names off. That was. Thank you. Thank you for that question.” 

What’s your advice for someone who wants to work in the wrestling media scene? 

“I think kind of like what I was saying before is like, take the opportunities that are in front of you. Take the opportunities that you have, whether that’s if you want to do interviews, interview, literally anybody who will say yes, whether that’s at a local independent wrestling show, whether that’s you sending out DM’s or emails to independent wrestlers, or wrestlers that are currently working, take all those opportunities. I would also say write an article or two, write a review of a show or two or three, send them off to some of your favourite wrestling websites and just say, Hey, I love doing this. And this is this is my work, can I just get a little bit of feedback from you if you have a few minutes, and you’d be surprised at how many writers or maybe it’s someone who, like an editor for one of these websites, you’d be surprised at how many people will get back to you. So I would say that that’s a great piece of advice there. It’s just like, do the work, and then try to bounce this off of people who are actually in the industry that are doing it right now. And I think there’s too many people that are going, I won’t do the work until I earn X amount of dollars here. No, that’s not how this works. Do the work. First show what you’re capable of doing. Show your value, always lead with value and show your value first. And then that can lead to other things after that.” 

When are we getting the full circle Bobby Lashley interview? 

“Oh, man. I think soon, I think we can make this happen soon. So for those of you who don’t know what we’re talking about here, my very first wrestling interview ever was 2007. Bobby Lashley, he was the ECW champion at the time, I was living in Vancouver. I was working at MTV2 Canada, the story I was just telling you about. And I did that interview with him. It’s online, if you want to check it out. It’s not great. It’s okay, but it’s not great. I will say Bobby Lashley looks like he hasn’t aged like a minute since that interview 15 years 16 years ago. But he commented on something that I did. Bobby Lashley commented on Instagram. And I saw like that He’s following me on Instagram. So I shot him a little message and I said, Hey, man, it’s been a long time, we should do another interview. And he’s like, yeah, man, anytime, anyplace. And I’m like, oh, like, really? He’s like, Sure. So there’s a few avenues where this may happen. And this is also something, some insight you might get here if you’re looking to do more interviews or be a content creator, but I was like, well, I’ll be at SummerSlam. Maybe we could do an in person at SummerSlam. So maybe that’s a possibility. Also, he had some stem cell work done with Bio Accelerator, and I’ve done a little bit of work with Bio Accelerator. I interviewed their CEO on the show, you might remember that from last year. I interviewed Frank Mir, who had a lot of stem cell work done with Bio Accelerator. So he talked about that, Kurt Angle talked about that when I had him on the show. So Bio Accelerator actually may connect us together so we can talk about his journey with Bio Accelerator and stem cells and how he’s still capable of doing what he’s doing well into his 40s Now, which is amazing. He looks like a million bucks. So, let’s just say that may happen hopefully sometime soon.” 

Not a question, but just wanted to say that you inspired me to get in the best shape of my life, dude. 

“Wow, that is so cool. I’m really proud of you, man. And it was so good to see you the other day at Vons. Look, I think that everybody, maybe, maybe not, you know, maybe don’t try to get in the best shape of your life, it’s big, big goal. But I think that everybody should be doing something every single day to try to get just a little bit better, just a little bit better. Because if you can be a little bit better today, and then a little bit better tomorrow, and then a little bit better the day after that. It just keeps building on itself. So man, I’m proud of you. That’s amazing. And I feel so good right now. I feel like I look like a million bucks too woo!” 

Do you have any advice for someone who wants to be a wrestler? 

“Well, I used to want to be a wrestler, and I trained to be a wrestler. So I will say that the first thing you should do is find a wrestling school in your area. Find a reputable wrestling school in your area that has a reputable trainer, someone who has actually maybe done some things that you’ve heard of, someone’s going to train you the right way. If that’s not the case, I would say find a school that you could go to and maybe even live at if you have the means to do that. Like, obviously can’t recommend flatbacks enough, Shawn Spears and Tyler Breeze’s School in Central Florida. They will let you live there like live in the area and then go to their school. Lance Storm’s school also does the same thing. Before you get in there. I would say if you’re not already, start working out. Like this is one of the biggest things, I’m not I’m not a current wrestler, right. I’m not a wrestler at all. But this is one of the things that blows my mind is how many people just kind of skip that step of like getting into shape. And I’m not talking about like, you’re gonna look like Brock Lesnar or Hulk Hogan, like you’re not gonna have muscles upon muscles, but I’m just saying, like, get your cardio up. If you’re not already, start doing some sort of workouts, start running, start doing burpees. If you can’t afford a gym membership, start doing bodyweight exercises, air squats and push ups and pull ups. And it just blows my mind how many people just skip right past that and think like, oh, I can just lift up 200 or 250 pound men without ever having to lift a weight in my life. And it’s just like, I don’t get that. You’ve watched wrestling your whole life, which is why you want to be a pro-wrestler. You know what wrestlers look like, so do the work. So that’s the advice that I would have.”

What did you do throughout the years to look young? I’m sure you’ve kept stress levels to a minimum. 

“That’s very kind. Thank you. I mean, I think I owe the majority of however I look right now to my parents and just good genetics. But I guess something I said at the start of this episode was I’ve been really good at least recently of prioritising sleep. I’ve also been drinking less now than I’ve ever drank in my life. Look, I had fun. I had fun in college, I’ve always enjoyed a good Moscow Mule. always enjoyed a good Old Fashioned, I have always enjoyed a nice spicy Margarita. And I’ve always had a great time at a brewery. So I have not been, but I still enjoyed going to all these places. I still enjoy a drink here and there. But I used to have. For me, it was like it was zero or 100. I was either having zero drinks, or I was having like nine drinks and just having fun with my friends and enjoying a night out. So I think that that’s been a big part of it. But like a sleep schedule I think has really helped too. Llike going to bed at a time that begins with a 10 ish and waking up at a time that begins at a six ish for me, has been really helpful. It depends on you know, the type of job that you have. And you know how many kids you have, and you know, so many different factors here. But I don’t think that going home and staring at blue lights for hours and hours after you get home from work is a super smart thing to do. And that’s something that I’ve been taking out of my life a lot, and I drink a tonne of water. That was your Tom Brady talking about just like gallons and gallons and gallons of water that he drinks all the time. And I think that that plays a huge factor here and I’m actually drinking, I’ve taken a few breaks and, I’m drinking some water right now like right here. There’s another gulp of water as we keep going here. So I would say, first of all, just thank you. And I also try to keep stress levels to a minimum, by you know, remembering that John Cena advice of like control the controllable like, why am I going to like get so upset and freak out about something I have no control over? Easier said than done, I get that. But like I’m not going to bother myself with somebody else’s problems. If it. I think that that’s been a big part of it for me too.”

Do you have any advice or recommendations for how I could lose some weight at home?

“I think a lot of it comes down to diet. I listed off some things you could do at home like bodyweight exercises, there are so many good bodyweight exercises that you can do at home that are on YouTube. And I think we all learned that during 2020 and 2021, when we couldn’t go to a gym. There’s a lot of great workouts, which I think help, and move your body just I think just walking or running. That helps a lot. But I think the biggest thing that you can do at home is don’t keep snacks around. Like if you don’t, if you don’t want to eat ice cream, maybe don’t have ice cream in your house. If you don’t want to eat potato chips, don’t have potato chips in your house. If you don’t want to eat processed foods, don’t have processed foods in your house. And like I know there’s this weird stereotype, this weird misnomer that like eating healthy is expensive. And I can tell you from the 540 meals that I ate over the last 13 weeks, that breakfast for me was like egg whites and toast like egg whites and Ezekiel bread. I don’t know what’s that cost like $1.40? That doesn’t sound expensive. My next meal was like rice and ground turkey. Oh boy, what do you think that costs, maybe $1.60? The meal after that was like ground beef and rice with maybe a little bit of vegetables in there, that meal might have been close to $1.80 or $1.90. Like this whole idea of like, oh, man, you ate six meals a day. That’s crazy. What are you rich or something? No, that’s far from it. But this idea that eating healthy is expensive needs to go away. There are so many ways that you can eat healthy, on the cheap, and eggs are a great one. Ground turkey lean ground turkey, rice, vegetables, fruits, drink water instead of pop, that’s probably the biggest one. Yeah, Matt, that’s probably the biggest one is if you drink soda, or if you drink juices, replace those with water and you’ll see a huge, huge difference, at least from my experience. And good luck with with your journey there. I know it’s not easy. But again, just like things that you do today are going to help you tomorrow and then that just kind of compounds on itself.” 

Any interviews that went array, but you just kept going with it to witness the chaos? 

“Yes. Go check out my interview with Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal. It’s like, they were just kind of like very playful that day. But I went in there and I don’t even think I was able to really get a question off. They were just joking with each other and having all kinds of fun and yeah, it just went completely off the rails like immediately. So go check that one out. I just kind of sat there as a spectator and just just watched, just watched him go off the rails. So that’s one to go check out for sure.” 

What’s your favorite steak?

“Bone in ribeye is my go to and I like it a little more cooked than I think you’re supposed I like it medium and I know that some people are like oh man has to be medium rare or just rare. I like a medium. I like a little bit of pink in there. But yeah bone in ribeye. And that bone. The way that the juices flow out of that bone into the steak. So good. So good. And I’m saying this now knowing that my wife Rachel and I are going out for my birthday in like half an hour. We’re going to Orange Hill restaurant here. It’s a beautiful Steakhouse. Look it up if you have a second. And I know I’m going to eat a bone in ribeye, so I’m like, kind of salivating as I’m saying this.”

If doing this for your career didn’t work out. What was your fall back option? 

“Well, that is a great question. All of these had been great questions. But I don’t really think I had a fall back option. And I think that that’s one of the reasons that I was able to just kind of keep going, because there were a lot of setbacks, a lot of setbacks. When I first graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University with my communication studies degree, no one wanted to give me an internship, no one certainly wanted to give me a job. But it would have been so easy for me to be like, well, I sent out 20 resumes, and nobody got back to me. So anyway, I’m gonna go do this other thing. But I was just so passionate about broadcasting and telling stories and the idea of possibly working on radio or TV, whether that was on camera, or on the air, or behind the scenes. And I’ve talked about it before, but like when I first got into the industry, I did every job behind the scenes. One of my first jobs while I was still in school, it was a board operator at an AM radio station in Kitchener, Ontario. I also volunteered at Rogers community television where I was doing everything behind the scenes, I ran cameras, I was a floor director, VTR operator, I did audio, I did everything. And I just loved being there. I love the idea that like, this is the cool thing about TV and certainly crosses over into content creation, too. There’s nothing better than like, doing the thing, which means like actually being on camera, or like hitting record, and then later on that day, or sometimes live seeing it actually play out. Like it’s so rewarding to see your work like on display. And that was one of the things I loved so much about broadcasting. So I think that if it didn’t work out for me, in one aspect of this, I was just gonna find another path to make this work. And that was just something I was so driven by. So it was like if this TV station said no, we’d try with this other one. And if this other one said no, I would try with this other one, then if that one said no, you get the point. So I, I just honestly can’t see myself wanting to do anything else. I have been so fortunate to do this, although I will say that now. Now that I’ve been, you know, an entrepreneur for the last seven years, I have a fishing company, Woo Tungsten, we sell tungsten fishing weights, I’ve definitely got a taste of like, I love business and I love creating a business and growing a business that will definitely be an aspect that I will continue to build on. And I’ve got some things kind of in the works, which we’ll be diving into soon. And, and also like also sidebar off of that I get a lot of messages about people who want to start a YouTube channel, who want to become better interviewers who want to start a podcast and I’m building something out so that we can work together so that you can build your podcast with me build your YouTube channel with me. So hang tight. I’ll have some more info on that in the next hopefully few, I’d say months, few months. But thank you for that one. 

As it’s your 40th birthday, a huge, huge Happy Birthday. What are four things you are most grateful for? 

“I love this question for things that I’m grateful for. As you know, I wake up every day and I say three things that I’m grateful for out loud. So you’re adding on an extra one here for my 40th birthday. Okay, I’m grateful for my health. Health is first. Number two so grateful for family. And that’s everybody. Mom, dad, my sister Kimberly, her family. Obviously my beautiful amazing wife Rachel and her family, my in-laws. So grateful for my family, and I just have the best partner in Rachel like the best partner, Rachel Van Vliet 10 out of 10. Incredible, love her so much and so, so grateful that she’s in my life. Number three, I’m grateful for our little girl, and she’s not here yet. But we just had a doctor’s appointment. She’s very big, she’s very healthy and she’ll be here man, she’ll be here by the time the next podcast episode comes out. I’m gonna start crying if I think about this, so grateful for her. And I’m grateful for all of you guys, like so grateful that we live in a time right now where all of this is possible. The fact that you can get a microphone, you can hit record, and you can put it out there for literally the whole world to see. There is endless potential on the other side of this microphone, and on the other side of a camera, if you’re filming something. And I love that that exists right now, you’re no longer held back by like, well, this TV show goes out, but it’s only seen by this amount of people in this market, or this TV show goes out. And it’s only seen by this many households in the country or whatever, that doesn’t exist anymore. Like, I know that people are listening to this all over the world. That is so cool. And a great way to wrap this up too, super grateful for all of you.”

D-Von Dudley (@testifydvon) is a professional wrestler and an inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame and the Impact Wrestling Hall of Fame. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about his legendary career as both a singles competitor and part of arguable the greatest tag team of all time The Dudley Boyz, how he got his start in ECW, what he learned from Paul Heyman, why AEW is the perfect place for his twin sons Terrence and Terrell (TNT) to wrestle, the origin of the WASSUP and how Vince McMahon loved it, why he says a Dudley Boyz reunion is possible, he squashes the rumors that there is heat with Bully Ray and much more!

On a return to WWE as an employee: 

“I’m not interested. I’ll be honest with you. I had a great run. You know, I had a seven year, I’m sorry, eight year, including the year that we came back. And then the producing years, I had a great time. I did, there was some stressful times working behind the scenes. But, you know, again, I basically did what I was supposed to do there and my time is up. I believe God puts you in places where he needs to put you for that time being and I think that’s what happened with this. Now here’s what I’m also going to say, you know, when we left in 2005 the first time it didn’t, it didn’t sit right with me. It didn’t sit right with me at all. And even though we went to TNA, we went to Japan, we did what we did, it just didn’t sit right with me. So I basically always felt that we needed to go back and we needed to leave the right way. And so I felt this time we didn’t leave the right way. There’s nothing left in the basement for me, talent wise to go back, or producer wise. I’m okay. You know, I said in my tweet interview, which I messed up a couple of times, some of the verbiage, because my hands are too big when I’m starting to type and I didn’t bother to look at it again. But you know, I think, you know, Vince, I think Triple H, Stephanie, and the whole McMahon family for allowing me to come in there. And to do what I did, I have no hard feelings. I have none whatsoever. We agreed to disagree towards the end. And that was when I knew that it was time to leave. You know, a lot of it was autograph signings and things like that. But, you know, again, they allow, you know, their talent to do certain things and things like that, or their employees. And then there’s other points that they don’t allow to do it, you know, whatever. I just felt that I should have been able to do certain things outside of the company, if the company was not working at the time. So, you know, again, I was told no, and that was made public with the ECW arena, I got pulled from that show. And it caused a little bit of controversy. And then, you know, there was another issue. So my thing was, you know, again, agree to disagree. You know, I don’t have any ill feelings but I’m done. I think I think I’m finished. I’m not gonna say never. Because in this business, you never say never. I do know that. But at the same token, the way I feel right now, there’s no reason for me to go back. There’s nothing there for me anymore. You know, everybody who I came up in the business with talent wise is pretty much almost gone. And, you know, and this and that, but, you know, again, that shouldn’t matter, because you’re not there for friends. They have to make money and to have a job. But at the same token, I just feel that that’s not the right fit for me. So again, I thanked them for the opportunity that they gave me since 1999, up until, you know, January 23 of this year, but it’s just not for me anymore.”

On the false reports that there was heat between Bubba and D-Von:

“It might have been on me because I said, somebody asked me would, you know, we see the Dudley Boyz, I did an interview. They said, would we see the Dudley Boyz back together? And I said, No. Because at that time, I had a stroke, my back was giving out on me, and I spoke the truth. I said no. I said, because I can’t do it anymore. I said, but here’s the deal. Bubba is still doing his thing, and I’m doing my thing as a producer. So he’s doing his thing, and I’m doing mine. So we’re separating, we’re going our separate ways and doing our own thing and we’re happy doing that. But just because I said that doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s animosity between us. You know, are there things that I didn’t agree with?  Yes. Are there things that he didn’t agree with me? Absolutely. But guess what, we squashed it, whatever that little disagreement was, and we’re, and we’re together, but we would never apart. That’s the thing, we were never apart. We had it, we were agreeing to disagree on certain things. You know, and like every other tag team or any other brother, you know, you do your own thing for a little bit. I do my own thing for a little bit. And guess what? We were united again, no different. Listen, Bubba likes to use analogies, and I heard him say it on your show a couple of times KISS, you know, you know, when KISS took off the paint and all of that they weren’t as big as they were once they took all that off. And they started getting rid of members in the band and this and that because of whatever demons that they might have had, so they had to replace certain members. But then all of a sudden when they put the paint back on, they were able to bring everybody back together. Even those that had demons in the past and they would have bring them back together and form the group KISS. Not taking anything away from anybody that filled in the void when those members were gone, but I feel like Bubba said, we’re like KISS, we’re gonna put on the face paint one more time. And we’re gonna do it. And when I say we put on the face paint one more time, autograph signings, things like that. Is there a possibility for the Dudley Boyz to ever get back into the ring again? I’ll put it this way. I can say yes and I can say no. And I’ll say this, in terms of like I told Bubba, I said, you know, the only thing is, I don’t know about going up on the top rope and doing a Wazzup no more. I say because, you know, I don’t know how much my back, I’m not willing to put my back at risk like that. There are certain moves that I would have to fix. A 3D would be great, I could do a 3D no problem.”

On meeting Batista for the first time:

“Well, you know, I mean, this big guy, you know, I mean, he was massive, 10 times the size he is now. And I just remember looking at him going good God. I just went, What the hell are they gonna do? I said I hope they don’t have them turn on me. Because as they do, he’s gonna beat the shit [out of me], it’s gonna hurt. And I just remember, Dave didn’t really know anything. You know, like, for instance, we did a spot in the match with myself and Triple H, where I would throw Triple H on the outside, take the referee, Hunter would be getting up, leaning up against the post. Batista sees him, does the sign the cross goes to clothesline him, but Hunter it gets out the way and Batista hits the post and goes down. And I remember, Batista came to me and said, Rev. I gotta ask you a question. I said what’s up? He goes, How do I do this? I go, how do you do what? He goes with Hunter? I go Batista what are you talking about? How do I clothesline him when he moves out the way and then hit the post? I go you messing with me, right? He goes, No, I’m not and I just went you’re not messing with me? He goes, No. I said, Wait a minute. You’ve never done anything like this? He goes, No, he goes, in OVW, All they had me do was come in and do run-ins. Because I was so massive and big they never really worked with me the way they did with Brock and Randy and Cena. I was just the guy that came in and nailed people. And that was it. I was like oh my god, I go, you got to be kidding me. I go. Okay, so I’m trying to get a character over, Reverend D-Von. Okay, after being in a tag team match for almost 12 years at that time. Now you putting me in singles, and you putting me with a guy who’s green as sh*t. And now I gotta help him get along and help him get over, as well as myself. How the hell am I gonna do this? And I’m already scared to death about going on my own. And it worked though, it worked for a little of time that we did it. And then they went out and then somebody pulled the plug on it.”

What is missing from tag team wrestling today:

“Well, outside of The Bloodline, you know, storytelling, taking your time, letting the people digest what you’re giving them. And when you’re putting a match together, make sure the story is something that people can invest in. Something that the people can understand and relate to. We need to have a definitive heel and definitive babyface so that people can move and cheer. Let them understand the story that you’re telling, as opposed to just putting a bunch of crap together with a bunch of high spots and nothing because listen, our fans are not looking for rocket scientists here. They want to be entertained. They want to be able to go home happy, and giving them a good storyline that they can relate to and invest in, that’s going to send them home happy, that’s going to make them cheer in the arena. That’s exactly what Bubba and I did the whole time. That’s why the TLC match was so good, because we didn’t just use a bunch of Tables, Ladders and Chairs, we actually put meaning and story behind it. Not only that, but we did it safely. And we did it to where we added three other people to it, which was Rhino, Spike and Lita, you know, at WrestleMania 17, and made it work. I mean, so many people tried to duplicate that match, and yet came up short. I mean, kudos for them trying. But at the same token, you know, you really have to put effort into it. This is something that all six of us got together, put our creative juices and put it together, you just can’t just say, Okay, I’m gonna do a TLC match. I’m gonna hit you with a ladder, I’m gonna hit you with a chair and put you to a table, you have to put meaning and time and thought into it and that’s exactly what we did.”

On his sons Terrell and Terrence being in AEW: 

“They’re doing their thing, they’re doing their thing, they’re still doing Dark in AEW. They’re having a good time. And, you know, they’re just enjoying themselves, which I’m very, very happy with. I’d rather them be with AEW right now, then probably go to NXT or WWE. I mean, you know, in my opinion there’s so much going on over there right now that I just feel like they might get lost in the shuffle somewhere. And things like that right now, I think AEW is the best fit for them. I didn’t always think that, you know, because I used to work for the company, WWE, and all the turmoil that’s going on right now started. So I just, you know, figured probably maybe that WWE was the best fit. But I’m a very biblical person, to the point where I feel God does everything for a reason. And if they had a couple of tryouts, and they were told no. And, you know, they were told not right now, but you know, we’re definitely gonna be looking at you in the future, then there was a reason for that, because long and behold, look, what’s going on there now. You know, there’s so much disarray, I like to say that’s probably going on, because no one knows what’s going on. You know, is Vince back. Is he not back? Is Triple H in control. Is he not in control? You know, I mean, it’s one thing for people to come out and say, you know, business as usual. You know, I’m still going to be whatever. But is it really the case? I don’t know. I don’t think anybody knows, except for the people that are working within the company.”

Why The Dudley Boyz have stood the test of time:

“Well, because we were on the same, we were on the same page. You know, a lot of tag teams, there’s always one that deviates from where they’re supposed [to], you know, what they’re supposed to do as a team. Bubba, and I never did, we always wanted to be one of the best tag teams that was ever put together. And in knowing how tag team wrestling is, in terms of how entertaining it could be, we were both on the same page with that. Now, at first, I never really wanted to, you know, wrestle in the tag. Bubba always did. I know Bubba did, I saw in an interview that Bubba always said he wanted to be in a tag team. And I never did. I wanted to be the black version of Hulk Hogan. You know, minus the hair. But, you know, we were able to just gel together, you know, we were just able to be on the same page with everything. And we were both perfectionists when it came to in-ring work. You know, if something didn’t work, or if we messed up on something, we would go over it 1000 times, you know, until we got it right, and we were both on that same page. Neither one of us took drugs. We were casual drinkers. In other words, if we went out and hung out with the boys, we had a beer, a couple of beers or you know some Jack Daniels, but other than that, that was about it, but we weren’t drinkers. So there was nothing clouding our minds to prevent us from achieving our goal, and that was to become a very successful tag team. We just had no idea it was gonna be at this level. You know, the most decorated tag team in the history of the world, voted the greatest tag team of all time. Again, and I say this with respect to a lot of the other tag teams, you know, each generation has their tag teams, has their singles wrestlers, and I’ll even go back, I’ll even say basketball. This is one of the things I like to bring up, say, for instance, Dr. J. During his time, you know, everybody thought Dr. J was the greatest of all time, nobody would ever beat Dr. J in terms of that title. And then all of a sudden, here comes that guy from North Carolina, you know, Michael Jordan, that just changed the scope of everything in basketball. And in my opinion, is the greatest of all time. He’s my generation. And then of course, now, Kobe comes along, and then LeBron comes along. And now we always have that feud of who’s the best LeBron, or Michael? Well I’m a Michael fan.”

On the WWE management structure:

“Well, if I’m, if I’m correct, I believe yes, there’s new ownership. But I think Vince is still very much a part of the company still, from what I’m reading. And from what I understand, Triple H, Paul Levesque is still in charge of creative. That’s what I read. But then that’s what people are saying. Again, unless you work for the company, you just don’t know what’s true and what’s not. So you just got to wait and see how it plays out.”

On which matches D-Von produced while in WWE: 

“Well, again, The Usos and The New Day. The Bludgeons when they were together. I was mostly doing tag team, and then it got to the point where I was doing a lot of Main Event matches, the show Main Event, that was you know, seeing on the network at the time, I had a lot of those matches, I worked a couple of times with some of the females, not all the time, because at the time that Finlay dealt with a lot of the females within the organisation, but I dealt with the females every so often, and had a good time. I’m not gonna lie, I was nervous about it. Because I didn’t know if the way I did business, I would do business, would the women understand, you know, and this and that. And in general, the ones that I worked with Nattie was perfect. Dana Brooke, Lacey Evans, who, you know, Lacey and I have a great relationship, friendship relationship. She’s called me many times for advice. And we’ve always just done shooting the stuff. She was there for me when I had my stroke. Her and her husband and daughter came over to the home and spent some time with me. And, you know, our families, pretty much, you know, we’re hanging out and talking. So I built the relationship, you know, as a producer there as well with some of the talent.”

On a possible match between TNT and The Usos:

“I mean, that’s one of the things that we talked about the twins and I, Terrence Terrell. And it’s also something that me, Jimmy and Jay talked about. A couple of years back when I was producing for the company and I was pretty much doing all the time, The New Day and The Usos rivalry, those were pretty much my matches. So, you know, I remember the Usos and I used to talk about that because my sons are very big fans of The Usos. And, you know, they, they, you know, love their work and you know what they’re doing in the ring, so and I would like to say that they might even idolise them a little bit. It’s kind of like Bubba and I, you know, wanting to work and wrestle with the Legion of Doom, Hawk and Animal, but we never unfortunately had the opportunity to do that, because Hawk passed away in 2003. So we never got that chance. But then long and behold, in TNA, I forget the year, but Animal teamed with Rick Steiner, you know, so we didn’t get the Legion of Doom, but we got the best of both worlds in the Steiners and the Road Warriors combined, to tag together to face the Dudley’s. So that was still a heroic thing for me and Bubba, just like I’m Sure, the Usos with my twins, TNT Terrence and Terrell, I’m sure that would be a huge feather in their cap.”

On watching the WrestleMania 17 spear in the ring:

“Yes, yes, I did. And I was jealous. Because I like to say that even though the SummerSlam TLC match when I was hanging with Jeff, you know. Bubba took a great bump off there, Matt took his bump, Christian took his bump, I mean Edge too, you know, took quite a few bumps in that match. Well, everybody took bumps. But I always felt in my heart. This special bump was me hanging because I was so fearful of heights, and how devastating it looked. So when Edge did that, I went, Oh, damn that gets more play than me now. And he teases me all the time about that.”

On splitting The Dudley Boyz in the WWE Draft:

“It was Vince’s [idea]. Vince had this idea of us going our separate ways. Also, there was talks about Vince having a hard on, no pun intended, maybe I shouldn’t use that phrase what I’m about to say. But he had it, he had it in for the Catholic Church. Because remember, at that time, we had people picketing, protesting us. And this and that and being hypocritical, especially people from the church. But meanwhile, this was at the time when the church was having controversy within his own home, with the priests, with little boys and things like that. So there was always an issue when people are being hypocritical, especially back in during that time, you know, we’re doing what we’re doing, but yet they’re doing what they’re doing and getting away with it for so many years. But meanwhile, you want to chastise what we do in the ring. So it was, and then plus, you know, Benny Hinn, you know, some of the TV evangelists. Who’s the other one? Jim Baker, and the other one, [Chris – Billy Graham, maybe?] No, Billy Graham, there was no controversy with him. But no, who was the other one? God, I can see him now because I guess he had an affair with his secretary. He’s on the, he’s actually doing TV evangelists now. But anyway, he was basically making a dig at them. That’s what he was doing, and he used me to do it. And I just remember going home and asking my parents, I was like, listen, they want me to do this. You know, I would like to do it, but I would like to get your blessing. My mother was a little against it. But my father was like, when you’re done doing that, in the ring, you come to where it really belongs in the pulpit. That’s what you really do, it spread the words. I was like, You got it, sir. And it took off from there. You know, a lot of people. And Bubba makes fun of me. You know, when he says, oh, you know, we don’t talk about that Reverend D-Von, you know, because it didn’t get over. I’m like, bullshit it didn’t. I’m like, Look, let me see who the people that I beat, Randy Orton, John Cena, Val Venis. Mark Henry, and the biggest one Triple H, you know. And I always said this, if Triple H didn’t believe that the Reverend D-Von gimmick was getting over the way it did. Then he would have never in a million years, especially at that time, laid down for me. He would have never let that happen and Hunter had a lot of power and a lot of say. So back then. I’m not gonna say even more than he does now. But he had a lot of say back then he had just married Stephanie you know him and Vince are so freakin tight, they’re not butting heads or anything like that. They’re, they’re full blown. They’re here they go. If he had a disagreement at all, he would have said, No, I don’t think so, I’ll beat D-Von, I’m not going to let D-Von go over on me.”

What is D-Von Dudley grateful for:

“My kids, my love for God and how blessed I am that during my career the bumps I have went through I was able to get out of this unscathed.” 

Featured image: F4WOnline

Freddie Prinze Jr. (@realfreddieprinze) is an actor, producer and former writer for WWE from 2008 – 2009 and 2010 – 2012. He joins Chris Van Vliet in Hollywood to talk about becoming a part owner of the Premier Streaming Network, his involvement at the Premier Streaming Network Showcase on September 9 in Metuchen, NJ, his thoughts on the new WWE World Heavyweight Championship design, why he thinks Cody Rhodes lost at WrestleMania 39, how he and his wife Sarah Michelle Gellar have stayed married for 20+ years, does he think MJF will go to WWE, pitching to Ken Griffey Jr. in the movie “Summer Catch”, the brilliance of Dolph Ziggler and much more!

On why Freddie Prinze Jr. has not started his own wrestling company:

“I have been working on it. I’ll actually talk a lot about the process I wrote, I wrote a wrestling show. And it was also a promotion. It was partially scripted, and then wrestling matches as well. And depending on the talent, you can let some people do their own thing. Some people need to be written for, some people shouldn’t talk, they’re more skilled in the ring than on the microphone. Right? Yeah. But it was different than what is out there today. I felt in a good way. And I started going out with it the traditional Hollywood way, which is find a producer who’s passionate about the material and or showrunner, attach them to the material, and then you add that showrunner producer, and go to networks. I don’t like this process. It adds people that weren’t an organic part of the process to it at a very early stage. And it makes it seem like it’s okay to change everything. It doesn’t always go down like that. But more often than not, it does. And the producers that I found all wanted so much ownership, that by the time I would be done with the network and the showrunner, I’m making less than both of them. And it’s my idea. And that’s normally how it goes when you sell a half hour, or an hour long television show, right? So I wanted to shift or switch tracks, I guess is a better way to say it, and completely self finance, produce and create something that then already exists and licence it then to studios once I can establish what it is the way Vince does Monday Night Raw with the USA Network. He licensed it to them. They don’t own it. He licences it the same way. He doesn’t own the arenas he’s in; he leases them for that night. And that there are ownership laws that exist. But that’s not ownership, right. So I wanted to own it. And it’s an independent wrestling promotion. But I needed an education in independent wrestling from the distribution side, and from the actual physical promotion side as well. Matt Cardona, who we both love, introduced me to the wonderful people that helped create FITE TV, and they’ve created the premier streaming network PSN, you can go on a phone and go to the app store and download it right now. And they have it’s almost like a new cyberpunk territory system, where they’re bringing all these independent wrestling promotions to their network, and you can watch everything they’re doing, but more importantly, everything they’ve done. So a lot of the wrestlers that you can watch are wrestlers that you would see on AEW and WWE, but now you can watch their early matches. You can watch Generico matches, you can watch Kevin Steen, you can watch, you know, all these guys doing their thing at a young age. And with all the new wrestling coming in, they have something, and I usually need to go to my phone for this. But on September 9, in New Jersey, and you [Chris Van Vliet] are actually a part of this, which is so awesome. You’re going to Madison, New Jersey at the Madison Sports Plex. And they’re doing their premier showcase there, which is basically and I love this. Each independent promotion that they represent, sends their best wrestlers to this one show in the hopes that their wrestler will win the Premier Championship, which is a championship that PSN has created and will allow to be defended on any independent promotion that the wrestler wins it from and then goes to. It’s so old school it feels like kumite from the old school Van Damme even though Frank Dukes was a fraud, you heard it. Straight up. That’s real talk. The real ones, no, but it feels like a kumite tournament and you get to have this sort of winner at the end.” 

Will MJF go to WWE?

“I don’t know. You know, the character of MJF will go where the money’s best. But I think special stars get special treatment, and exceptions are made for exceptional people. And I feel like any offer WWE would make Tony Khan would match. And MJF has a tonne of freedom, a tonne of freedom where he’s at. And a WWE you simply don’t. It’s a publicly traded company, there are people to answer to, and I’ve heard that when I worked there. Yeah. So it’s just a different environment. And I don’t know if Max would trust the process there at that company to get him as over as he is at a smaller company. And AEW, by the way, they’re doing fine. They pre-sold over 35,000 tickets in London for a pay-per-view that’s technically two pay-per-views away. So they’re doing well. That’s a big win for them. So as long as they keep producing like that you know, I don’t [know]. If I were him I wouldn’t leave because like the storyline they put him in with the other three, they’re the four pillars. They’re  the young ones that helped build the company with Jericho laying down the foundation right, and Cody. But yeah, man, I don’t, I get the MJF hate, I just don’t agree with it. And I don’t think he would leave. Listen, WWE does great stuff. All right, the whole Bloodline Sami Zayn thing was great stuff. But they also do stuff that feels very tight and constrictive and you feel like the talent is being someone that they don’t believe in. And it’s hard to ask a professional wrestler to just get rid of who they are and be someone else. They’re not a trained actor 99% of the time. They’re amazing in the ring. They know how to do that kind of psychology, but they don’t know how to break down a monologue, which they call a promo. When I was there, that was, I mean, I was literally teaching them what I was learning in acting class on how to break a scene down as far as like, goal, objective route. That’s what I want, that’s what stops me from getting what I want as an actor, what choices am I going to make to get that? Am I going through the objective? Am I going under it? Am I going around? Those were all the things that we talked about with their promos. Like what is it you want out of this promo? I want to get over. Everybody wants to get over, what is it the character wants? He wants a shot at the title. Okay, what’s preventing you from getting that shot at the title? Well this guy is, you know, he’s making me wrestle all these other guys to earn a shot. He’s interfering in all the [matches]. Perfect. What are you going to do? Now what’s the promise you’re going to make to the crowd? What’s the promise going to be? Doesn’t matter how many things he throws at me, it doesn’t matter how many times he cheats, I’m still going to be here. You’re not gonna, you know, then that’s how we would develop a promo basically. But even then, when it was done, sometimes it would get changed last minute, because you know, Vince, caught a wild hare and all of a sudden it was Oh, this sucks. Like he was great an hour ago. Those were your words, this is great, this is sh*t. Like what happened in 60 minutes? You know what I mean? Like who talked to you, man who got to you? What’s his name Kevin? So yeah, man, so things change last minute there at a much higher rate. And I’m sure there’s pros and cons to both companies that people that are more on the inside are far more aware of than I am. But if I were him, I wouldn’t leave. Would you? You finish building your perfect castle, your perfect castle with all the defences you need. You have, the people are happy, they’re well fed. Everyone’s starting to make money. And then you’re just gonna go to this castle over here. No, man, why would you start over? [Cody Rhodes did that]. Yeah, but I think for situations with an older [wrestler] kids and had different priorities than what a young 20 How old? Is he? 24 25 26 is that somewhere in their mid 20s? I mean, your priorities and the way you look at the world is completely different in that age gap between the two men.”

On Cody Rhodes’ journey:

“Check this out. So a buddy of mine, who knows way more about wrestling than me. He’s a Broadway actor and he loves [wrestling]. I don’t want to say his name, because if he got it, right, I don’t want WWE to like prevent him from getting tickets. But he’s, he’s so cool. And he loves wrestling and he hits me up after Cody lost at Mania and he goes, What if it wasn’t Vince that made him lose? I said okay. And he said, he goes what if when he [Cody] talked to Triple H and he says and you know, Triple H is a student of the game like he knows every storyline that’s ever been told. He loved all those old guys. Yeah, said what if the plan was for him to lose all along and they recreate the Dusty Rhodes hard times storyline. So for the whole year, Cody’s just getting F’d time and time and it takes him a year to earn his way back till the very next WrestleMania and Romans The Champ all the way and so I was like well what happens at Backlash? He goes Brock squashes him. Brock kills him. And I go, Dude, you don’t think it kills his career? He goes, if they’re doing the hard time story it doesn’t because that’s what Magnum TA did to Dusty on his road to the title. And I’m sitting there and he pitched it so nice. And I if I could do my impression of him if I could do the whole story, but that would give away who it is. But it was just his pitch was so good. I was like I’ll be damned if they’re not, I’m completely convinced now that that’s what’s gonna happen. So watch backlash. [I think it comes out after then]. Oh, well then you’ll know whether we were right or wrong at that point. But even if he loses, even if he wins, they could still do it. I think they just have to connect it more to The Bloodline story again.”

On the origin of Dolph Ziggler:

“I had to direct the very first Dolph Ziggler segment ever, the first three actually, when he was just coming to [shake everybody’s hands]. Yeah, and Jamie Noble’s [like] I know your name. Like, we were just trying to do anything we could to make this not suck. Because I’ve fought against this idea so much that Vince made me do it. They were like, What are we going to name him? They said Dirk Diggler. And Vince was like, that’s great. And I stood up and I’m looking at the guy who pitched it and I’m like, Dude, you’re gonna we’re gonna get sued. It’s from Boogie Nights. You can’t do that. Why can’t we just give them a normal name? Why does it have to be goofy? And then they were like throwing all these names out there. Well, he looks like Dolph Lundgren. And he’s like, What about Dolph Ziggler? And I literally was like, we’re not doing Dolph Ziggler. And I think this guy, DJ had my back too and was like, Yeah, I don’t, I don’t love that. And I fought so hard. And Vince was like, alright, it’s Dolph Ziggler. And he goes, Freddie, you’re gonna handle that segment. And I looked at him, I was like, what kind of middle finger is that? Just tell me to f*ck off. Why would you do this? And so I went to him, and I think it was either me or Freebird that broke the name to him. And he was just like, okay, and he just went for it, man. The same way he goes for it in the ring, like he committed right away. He knew it was crap, and people hated it till they loved it. It was very reminiscent of The New Day, people hated The New Day. And the same chant that was you suck became Oh my God, we love you guys. And they became and it was the work on the mic in the work in the ring that got those guys over. In Dolph’s case, it was his work in the ring. And then his mic work which developed about a decade into his career now, we’re all of a sudden you were like, here we go. Here we go. Career versus Miz. And those promos were top shelf that I remember that storyline, and I shouldn’t but I do. You know, I mean, that’s how good those guys were in that. And I genuinely thought he was going to lose and that was going to be it and he was gonna retire from wrestling. I mean, that’s how well he made me. But yeah, I was there when they conceived the name, fought against it and was punished for my efforts.”

On the new World Heavyweight Championship:

“I don’t care about the titles. I only care about the person wearing it. I mean, do I have favourite titles that I go oh that looks cool. Sure, but it’s more about the person who wore it and did they make it mean something? Did they need the title to get over? Did they help get the title over like, I think more about the individual than the jewellery and that’s all it is. To me. It’s just jewellery.”

On the success of Freddie Prinze Jr’s podcast:

“Thank you man, it’s Wrestling with Freddie. We call it Wrestling with Friends because my buddy Jeff Dye has been my co-host on it now for two years. And I love talking wrestling. That’s all we do. He’s a stand up comic, so he’s really funny, and his takes are ridiculous and often right. And yeah, it’s just two guys, we don’t talk about the stuff we hate. Although if there is somebody I love that I see something bad happened to, we definitely talk about that because I try to keep things positive and I don’t want to talk about stuff I don’t like.”

On people getting mad at the podcast:

“Some people get mad, but that’s okay. You’re allowed, you’re allowed to get mad and you’re allowed to think my opinions suck. You’re allowed to think, you know, anything you want. I still do the show that I do every week because I love it. And if you think I’m wrong, party on man.”

On being married to Sarah Michelle Gellar for over 20 years:

“I think we’re past 20 Now, I think we just hit 21.I think we hit 21 and I don’t know. I’m a guy. I don’t remember that stuff. But dates, I forgot last year’s birthday until I saw it on Instagram, somebody was like, [I forgot] my birthday, not hers, my own birthday. I was like, Oh, damn. And I said I’m 46 and Sarah said, No, you’re 47. Like, so I’m just not, I’m not that guy. My mind isn’t isn’t on that stuff.”

What is Freddie Prinze Jr. grateful for:

“Health, my kids and sushi.”

Featured image: The Hollywood Reporter

Chavo Guerrero (@mexwarrior) is a professional wrestler known for his time in WCW, WWE, TNA, Ring Of Honor, AAA, Lucha Underground and AEW. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at his house in Orange County, California to explain the recent controversial tweets he sent to Rey Mysterio about him “prostituting” Eddie Guerrero’s name, his thoughts on Dominik Mysterio’s heel run in WWE, his time in Lucha Underground, his iconic “Ooooh Chavo” theme music, we discuss whether he is the only wrestler to appear in WCW, WWE, TNA, Lucha Underground and AEW, his favorite memories of Eddie Guerrero, his beer called “Los Guerreros” and much more!

On Chavo’s reaction to Rey Mysterio talking about Eddie Guerrero:

“Look, and I’ve said it before, and Vince 100% believes this, just like Jerry Jarrett, Jeff Jarrett’s father. Real issues create real money. This is nothing that I didn’t do in 2007, it’s the same thing. ‘You want to be a Guerrero, you will never be a Guerrero, you’re jealous of us…’ that whole thing. And people latched onto it. Did they forget? I don’t know. What happened was I did a virtual signing with Nick from Captain’s Corner, and somebody asked if I am happy about Rey Mysterio coming out at WrestleMania with the Los Guerreros’ music, not Eddie Guerrero’s music, Los Guerreros’ music, my voice, Eddie’s voice, we recorded that theme. Viva La Raza, we lie, we cheat, we steal, that was our voice, mine and Eddie’s voice. So I looked at him and he looks at me and I just started playing with it a little bit. Because right before that on the interview I said that I am all about love. I think he gave me a Bud Light, so I was drinking a Bud Light, who are doing the LBTQ thing, and I said I don’t know why everyone is so mad about it. Who cares? If you are cool then you are cool, if you’re a jerk then you’re a jerk. I don’t care what your sexual preference is or your ethnicity or your gender. Then I said this, nobody is listening to that part, they just want to hear what they want to hear. But, so I said that, and kind of tongue in cheek a little bit. I kind of laughed and was like Dominik is probably a Guerrero. It was 100% sarcasm. When we got done, he looks at me, Nick looks at me and he is like wow. I was like come on it was a total work, but he was like it felt so real, people could really jump on that. I was like, just watch. So Nick Hausman texts me and goes hey man, your stuff is all over the news. I’m like what do you mean? He goes New York Post picked it up. I’m like really? I was literally being tongue in cheek and laughing about it and whatever. I’m going hey, I’m sorry that nobody knows who Rey Mysterio Sr. is, you always wanted to be a Guerrero, very tongue in cheek. I text him back and said watch my next Tweet. That was when I said about him wanting to be a Guerrero and using the Guerrero’s name to his own benefit. It could be real. I mean, if I was really, really p*ssed off I could really latch onto it. But people just started going nuts and going crazy. Finally after I started messing with them and messing with them, [I said] Ok guys, hook line and sinker, I was being a heel. One thing that Vince McMahon told me and my dad, talking about Eddie as well, he goes, You know why I like you Guerreros? I’m like why? He goes, Because you aren’t scared of heat! You love it! I’m like of course, me and my dad want to fight our way from the ring to the dressing room every single night and sneak out of the side window. He [Vince] goes Oh I love it! You guys have balls! But it’s the art of heat, and people forget that yes I am doing stuff in Hollywood, but I am still a pro wrestler. That has what has fed my family for over 85 years. For over 85 years wrestling has been the only thing. Now I am doing pro-wrestling stuff in Hollywood, but I am still connected to that world. So I just had a little fun, and still literally people, I just had someone, I could literally go through the tweets. They don’t want to look at the other tweets where I say OK guys, it wasn’t real. They are like yeah, you are just backtracking. Oh my God really? Are you guys that easy? I love wrestling fans because they are that easy. But at the same time it is like guys, come on, really?”   

On the line between work and shoot being razor thin:

“They want to believe anything that they want to, and I don’t think I know anything else like that except for maybe a soap opera. You know, soap operas start to get people believing like Luke and Laura were really together back in the General Hospital days. I’m going back, that was when we used to watch it and stuff. They want to believe so bad, you know, Eddie and Rey, Eddie and Rey. But wait a minute, you all hated Eddie when he was telling Dominik I’m your papi. You guys hated him but now it’s like oh they were like brothers. I’m like, well they had a fondness of each other, like Rey says. But when people say oh they were like ebay friends, no they weren’t best friends, they were not best friends. I know what you perceive now, but that’s not what that was. Even when Eddie passed away, the day that Eddie passed away Rey found out like everybody else. I didn’t call Rey. I called Chris [Benoit].”    

Was Chavo closer to Eddie Guerrero than Rey Mysterio was?

“Eddie was my brother. Like we grew up together as brothers. Like he is 3 years apart. We joke because he was my grandfather’s late mistake, and I was my dad’s only mistake. We were both not supposed to be here. But 100% we were like brothers. We grew up like brothers, we fought like brothers, it was a whole thing. He didn’t meet Rey until he was 18 years old. So there is a massive history, 100% we were brothers. We were all close, but you know, it doesn’t say Rey Mysterio on this shirt, it says Eddie and Chavo. I had to put Chavito because of my dad. We might add Dominik, but I don’t think that Rey will make it. You see how fast that is? That is the art of being a heel right there, like oh, he got us again. When I turned on him in 2007, everybody knew that it was going to happen. But because we let it go on for like 3 months, they forgot. So when I ran into the ring and cost Rey the championship, he dropped the championship to Booker T and I hit him with the chair, people are like oh, we forgot, he’s a Guerrero. Well yeah, it’s just the art of perception and the art of heat. And with heat you say stuff that is real. I think that’s a lot of what we are missing today. We want to be mean in the ring but people want to believe, they really really do, and we’ve just seen it. It was that easy.”          

On some misunderstood things about Eddie Guerrero:

“Eddie was very gracious. He wore his heart on his sleeve, good and bad. There is a saying in wrestling that the real giant in wrestling was Eddie Guerrero, because when he got mad you could not calm him down. That was because he felt slighted, he gave you his heart and you did something to him and we had to calm him down. I remember one time when we were all out and the singer Baby Bash, somebody had messed with him and we had to calm him down like, Eddie, relax. He really wanted to kill this guy. I remember talking to Bash again recently and [he said] Man, I was scared. I got really scared. But we would grow really fast, me and him were like Bruce Banner and The Incredible Hulk. We are both totally mild mannered until we get really mad.”

On appearing in AEW:

“You know what? That was fun, I had a good time there. It was real quick, we were just getting into what we were starting to do, then Young Rock called for that other season. I knew that it was coming and I told Tony I’ve got to do Young Rock at some point. He told me that we would deal with it when it comes.Then it came and I said look man, this is what I am making over there. He was like ok that’s a lot! But he said go and do what you’ve got to do. It was originally only supposed to be for 2 months, it ended up being 3 months. When I came back, [originally] he said come back and you’ll still have a job here. But when I came back, things changed. I’m still on good terms with those guys.” 

On Kerwin White:

“I was a little longer than that  [3 weeks], but I wanted to go all the way with that. I wanted to do all of that and Vince loved it. To me, it’s like playing a role on TV or in a movie. So if I am doing that on TV then it is what it is, no one will think twice about it. I kind of think about it that way, not everyone does. They can’t blur the lines.”

On the Ooohh Chavo theme song:

“So when they made me that music, I actually had some other music that I was using in WCW that boiled over there. Kevin Dunn comes up and he goes, Hey, we want to come up with a new theme for you. I’m like Ok. So Jim Johnston came up with something, and when I first heard it I was like hmm, alright, it’s ok. Kevin was like, trust me, it’s going to be good. So I listened to it and of course he was right because now all I hear is Ohh Chavo, bam!”

On being a heat magnet:

“It’s heat man, I know how to get it, I had some good teachers. Eddie was, you forget how good of a heel Eddie was, people hated Eddie. Then when we were doing Los Guerreros, they remembered the funny parts, but at first they hated us. That’s where the whole lie, cheat and steal came from. They would call us every derogatory hispanic name in the book and throw stuff, that’s what we liked. The office would ask us like, why don’t you guys do two double frog splashes as a finish? We are like why? If we do that, they can only clap you. It’s like they suck, but that was a good finish. That’s why we would cheat to win. Every single night when we won and we retained those championships, we did it through cheating. [At first] They hated us. They would boo and boo us out of the building until we went to Vince McMahon and we said, Hey, we have this idea, we want to do some vignettes about some lying, cheating and stealing. [Vince goes] I love it! Let’s do it. We just thought it would be backstage vignettes. No, I was already out in LA, they flew Eddie out and they rented a house in Beverly Hills. We had a shooting crew and we had catering and trailers. I said Eddie, we have got to knock this out of the park. That’s where we filmed the baby that sleeps, stealing the baby bottle one, we did the pool party one, we did one where we would steal the guys’ girls. We did 3 in a single day. We went from being heels where people would boo the heck out of us. When the baby bottle vignette aired, we came out the next week, our music hit, nothing changed, we walked out all greasy and slimy and oiled up, and they cheered us. We were like oh no, we are babyfaces, we messed up. That was not our goal, we wanted to be heels until the very end. We talked to Triple H, Triple H said guys, you got entertaining, you started to make them laugh. Right from there we became babyfaces. We still lied, cheated and stole, but we did it in cute ways.”     

On Roman Reigns potentially transitioning to Hollywood:

“It’s awesome man, I love it. It’s a tough transition, not everybody gets lucky, not luck, but right place at the right time like Rock and Cena. Those guys, they’re good actors. Dave Bautista is a good actor, they’ve got better and better. I don’t know how good Roman Reigns can be, because I have only seen him play Roman Reigns. Batista has played Drax, serious guys, mean guys, he’s got this range.”

Why Chavo left WWE:

“Eddie had a great mind for the business, he just didn’t want to be on the road anymore. He loved his family a lot, he really really did, and he wanted to be home with his family. I remember before he passed, like 6 months before, I remember him coming to me and saying I don’t want to be here anymore. I said what do you mean? He said I don’t want to wrestle anymore. I said, Dude drop out and do something else. He got real mad, [and said] what am I going to do? What else am I going to do? This is what we do, we wrestle. I said that it doesn’t matter, your family life is more important. What good is it if you are away from your family all of the time? That’s why I left WWE. My kids at the time were 8 and 11 maybe, and I just didn’t want them growing up without a dad. I had already been on the road for 20 years, I didn’t want to be that casualty and divorced from wrestling and the whole thing. Everything you work hard for and you lose it. I didn’t want to get divorced, I didn’t want my kids to grow up without a dad. That’s kind of why I left. It’s funny because they don’t really remember me being gone all the time.”  

What is Chavo Guerrero grateful for: 

“My faith, my family and my health.”  

Featured image: WrestleZone

On today’s episode, the tables are tuned and I’m a guest on The Danny Miranda Podcast (@heydannymiranda). Danny is a fantastic interviewer who does incredibly deep research allowing him to ask questions of people that they’ve never been asked before. We sat down together in Los Angeles for this conversation and talked about why I’m obsessed with chasing greatness, the interview I recently did with my wife, how Tony Robbins impacted my life, the morning routine I have for interviewing The Rock, why I think there is a science to interviews, my thoughts on Logan Paul in WWE and much more!

On a lot changing in a year:

“A lot has changed since the last time I spoke to you. We had a really big year, and when I say we, I mean, me and my wife. I didn’t have a wife the last time we spoke, I had a girlfriend, I don’t even think we were engaged yet. So yeah, in the last year, we got engaged, got married, found out we were pregnant, bought a house. And now in May, our daughter is gonna be joining us. So a lot of massive changes. I also turn 40 in May. So a lot of big things are happening. But man, I’m so excited for this next chapter of my life and entering into that chapter of my life with the person I’m going to spend the rest of my life with.”

On Chris interviewing his wife Rachel:

She had never done an interview before [was she nervous?] Very, very, like I was like, I think this is something I want to do. And she’s like, I don’t know, we’ll see what happens when we get up there. And I packed just the audio equipment. So I packed just the microphones, the XLR cables and the Zoom recorder, put it in my suitcase and I said look when the moment is right, I think we’re going to hit record we’re going to do this. I really want my audience to like know who you are like they’ve been on this journey with me. I mean really since my career started in 2005, but they’ve been on this journey, specifically, since the YouTube channel really got underway 12 years ago, the podcast is almost four years old. And I’ve always kind of let the viewers and the listeners behind the curtain a little bit to see, you know, what is going on in my life. And with all those big announcements that I just listed off, I wanted them to meet my wife, I want them to meet this incredibly important person in my life. So we had just got married, we got married on December 17, this was right before Christmas, we went to the mountains. We went to Idlewild, which is about two hours from here. And it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere. It’s just this little mountain town. And we went up there and it was just this beautiful setting. It was me and her and our little chiweenie dog named Luna. And I just hit record, and I didn’t have any questions prepared. I just want to have a conversation and see what would happen. And I’ve been doing this thing in my life for years where I feel like you can never go back and relive moments. And it’s been so important for me to go, I’m just gonna hit record on my phone, and just like usually a video, and just kind of see like, what’s going on right now, like a video diary. And then watch this back in two years or five years ago, oh, man, I thought that was cool at the time, or that was important at the time. And just it’s a snapshot in your life. And I figured this would be like an hour long snapshot of who we are at this exact moment. And I want to make this a yearly thing that we always do.”

On the price to pay for success:

“That is such a great question. And this is, this is why you’re so good at this. Because you ask questions like that. I don’t think it’s a price that you pay, other than I’ve always had a vision for what I wanted to do. And even if it seemed completely out of the realm of possibility, I still kept it on my radar as if this might be possible. And if it’s not, I at least want to go all the way to the end and find out it’s not possible. But if you really think about it, like I grew up in Pickering, Ontario, the fact that I now live in Los Angeles, and I’m able to work in Los Angeles, is crazy to me, you know, I immigrated from Canada to make this happen. So I think it was just the idea that I was clear on what I wanted to do. And you know, I always say vague goals get vague results, so the flip side of that is specific goals get specific results. And no two people’s paths are the same. But if you can go along the way and get over those bumps in the road, get over those hurdles in the road, and figure out your path, then I think you’re going to be really successful.”

On Logan Paul in WWE:

“I think it’s just the fact that he’s doing it at such a high level. Because the bar for a while in pro-wrestling for an outsider to come in was pretty low. And then Bad Bunny came in and crushed it at WrestleMania. So then the bar was like insanely high, because that match was so good. So then Logan Paul came in, all eyes are on him. People, you know, can say what they want about Logan Paul, but whether you love him or you hate him, you feel something about him. And that is the essence of wrestling. Like whether you’re a good guy or a bad guy, it makes you feel something. And so many people wanted Logan Paul to fail. And then he went in and his first match and like knocked it out of the park at WrestleMania last year. And then he had his second match at SummerSlam and was so good. And then he had his match with Roman Reigns. And again, so good, and people went, Okay, well, I don’t like him. But he’s very talented. And the fact that he’s put in the work is so impressive. Obviously, he’s a natural athlete, but he looks the part and is acting the part. And I think that if you’re a wrestling fan, and you’re not respecting what Logan Paul’s doing in the ring, then you’re not really a wrestling fan.”

On if someone is at a crossroads:

“I really think that there’s things in your life that end up leaning, like showing you which way to land. And you really can’t make a wrong decision. Like, whether you make this decision or you make that decision, you’re making the right decision based on the information that’s in front of you. And make the decision based on what you feel in your heart. And don’t be influenced by your family or your friends saying, Actually, you should probably do this thing like you know what feels right. And if you’re a week or a month or two months into and it doesn’t feel right, you can always go back and do the other thing. So I think for me, just you got to listen to your gut. You got to trust it.”

On interview preparation when Interviewing The Rock:

“Usually you are on location somewhere. So I wake up, the gym is a big part of my day. So it’s go to the gym. Sometimes I’ll listen to a podcast that that person has been a guest on and just kind of like get a feel for the conversation. And then it’s just like, specifically write out the questions. A lot of times I would write out topics, but if it’s only got four or five minutes, I want to try to get to an actual question. So the morning routine is, it’s gratitude always, I start the day with three things I’m grateful for that takes like 10 seconds. Everybody should do it, because it really sets the tone for the day. Gym, eat, and then it’s just write out questions. And I’ll go to Google News and go. Alright, so it’s The Rock, for example, what are some big news stories that people are talking about that maybe he hasn’t addressed yet? And I can get his first comment about it? Oh, that’s a good one. I’ll add that in. And there’s been some really cool moments with people like The Rock, for example, where they give us a little piece of advice, or a little piece of news. And you go, Oh, I never would have thought about that if I hadn’t gone on Google News this morning.”

Who inspires Chris Van Vliet:

“You’re inspiring me right now. For sure. You’re inspiring me the fact that you’re chasing after this. Like so much of what I did. And what I still do of like looking for the yes, in every situation, which your podcast is continuing to grow. I know that you have that specific goal of impacting a million people every month, and you’re on your way. And I’m really excited for you about that. So you inspire me, as we sit here right now. I’m just inspired also just by greatness. Like, I’ve always been a football fan. So cool watching the Super Bowl yesterday and seeing the people who are the very best in the world at this. I’m inspired by greatness and seeing people who like excel at things like that, like Tom Brady blows me away with not just the fact that he’s the best in the world. But the fact that he’s 45, and just wrapped up the greatest career as a football player. And he spent more than half his life doing this thing. Like I’m really inspired by people who look to be 1% better, like they’re already so good. And they look to just get 1% better than everyone else.”

Featured image: Danny Miranda

Omos (@thegiantomos) is a WWE Superstar and former college basketball player. He is also the tallest wrestler on WWE’s active roster at 7’3″. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about how he got discovered by WWE, the original WWE try-out that he was supposed to have in 2014 and why it didn’t come to fruition, his match with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 39, making Brock Lesnar look small in the ring, what he learned from working so closely with AJ Styles, the difficulties of flying on a plane at his height, his match against Seth Rollins at Backlash, his goal to become WWE Champion and much more!

Omos, so good to see you. Life must be pretty good for Omos. You’re coming off of this match with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania. And now you got Seth Rollins come on up at Backlash.

“Life is wonderful man. I remember when I talked to my business partner MVP, and we had a couple of ideas of what we wanted to do. He said, like the universe heard what we were planning for and is giving us those gifts in highest stake matches. And now we are truly grateful.”

This is what I think is so interesting about you. And I’m a big believer that things in life happen for a reason at the time that they’re supposed to happen. You were supposed to have a WWE try-out in 2014 and because of you know, various different circumstances that didn’t happen, do you think about what life would look like had that happen at that time?

“I do. But I don’t think I was mentally ready for it. I always think back to, you know, back then and you know, when I didn’t come for the try-out, everything I was actually able to do in that 4 year time span. And I think I get to go through that growth and truly try and give my best to basketball and for it to come to a full stop before I jump into wrestling. Because I don’t think if I just came up at that time, I think I’ll have some oh, what if I do this in basketball if I did this. But I actually exhausted all options to a point where it does really nothing else for me to do and I had to pivot in my life you know and so happens to be that you know, wrestling was presented presented to me and I fell in love with it on the first try-out whenever I got into the ring and it was you know love at first sight. Truly love at first sight.”

What was your first introduction to the WWE and to pro wrestling? Like is it something that’s popular in Nigeria?

“To be honest, I didn’t think it was until I went back home last year and I truly just understand the magnitude of fans we have. Not just in Nigeria but there’s all over Africa as a whole and how people keep individuals watching you know, going back home actually for the first time in 14 years and just having regular day workers seeing me on the streets saying Omos! Omos! And I’m kind of shocked because I wasn’t expecting that type of reception. But, like it went down to meeting, you know, the current vice president of Nigeria and like his kids are watching the pay-per-view, you know right after we did Saudi last year Braun and I. You know go back going back home and the President’s like we saw you what are you doing here? I’m like I came to visit my family. He knows WWE, he goes we just saw you a couple days ago in Saudi Arabia I’m just like wow, like this is like I did not know it is extremely popular back home. They have this [show], it’s called Jumbo on the cable network. They get 24/7 programming for WWE, they can watch WWE 24/7 everyday.”

I think that people think Omos is your real name. What’s the story behind the name of Omos?

“So the fun fact is that Omos is part of my last name. Right? So my last name is Omogbehin, which is very difficult to understand. When I was a kid, I didn’t know what caught up, you know, whatever, my dad said that he wanted to change it to Omos. So for a while for like, 12 years of my life in Nigeria my last name was Omos. And then about three years before, when I said play basketball before I came to America, I made a decision. You know what, I want to change back to Omogbehin. And you know, as it goes, you know, as it goes we all change our names back. So Omos is my last name, I just don’t go by it.”

I don’t think that people realise how big you are until they see you live at a WWE event. I’m curious. At what age did you become six feet tall?

“I think it was at 11 years old.”

That is not fair. By the way!

I’m sorry, man, you know, I don’t make the rules. I just follow them. So whatever people give to me I just stick and ran with it. But I will say also about 11.

Okay. And then like, at what point are you seven feet tall?

“So 11 years old. I was about six feet. And then I think my time was 13 I went through a 7 inch growth spurt. So my time was 13 I was starting to play basketball. Then by 15 I was 6 foot 11, 7 foot.”

Now is the same thing that you had, is that the same thing that Andre had growth on you pituitary gland?

“So yes, similar but different. Mine is different because those guys just had acromegaly, which is a tumour on the pituitary gland. I had that, but also have gigantism, and also something else called Partial Cushing’s Disease. And from on they said it was the first case they’ve ever seen that had those three diseases together, because it was all diseases that that make you large. And I kind of have all the, you know, like a, like a risk spot, you know. I had all the fixings and it was already funded. I had all this study by this medical journal about my condition to help other divisions of kids that have a similar case like I do, you know. I had an opportunity, you know, for residents to talk to me about my experience. You know, what it’s like to have all three diseases because it’s rare to find someone that has all 3 like I do.”

But this isn’t just like something that makes you tall, like, this is something that if not treated, I mean, you could die, right?

“Yes, absolutely. So for me, it’s just like I have to monitor my problem. It’s called an IGF1, which is a growth hormone. And I’m pretty much on medication every day to help stop my body from using the hormone. If not, if I don’t do that, I keep on growing, which I don’t want to do anymore. I’m satisfied, you know.”

Do you have to duck to walk into every room now?

Pretty much. Every room, it has become [a habit]. Even when the doors are about like 10 foot tall, it’s just a natural reaction where I have to do it just in case. You know, I don’t want to like No, I’m fine. And I go and I hit my head and this has happened a couple of times, but I always try to make sure I duck, it just has become a natural instinct now.”

Okay, how about sitting on an aeroplane? What does that look like?

“There’s a video that I think MVP posted last year of what it was like, getting out of my seat, going to the bathroom, visit the bathroom, then coming back and it’s like, being in a hut, for lack of better terms. You know, because you know, those planes are designed for a human being. So this is how to make the best. I always had a feeling oh, my life has been a thing of wrath to figure out okay, how do I manoeuvre into small and tight spaces that aren’t necessarily designed for me?”

Who were some of the big men that you looked up to when you were a fan growing up?

“Oh, man, Undertaker, The Undertaker. Both watching him in the ring and as an individual, I have such great admiration for him. Kevin Nash, Razor Ramon, may he rest in peace, I actually miss him a lot. Because, you know, since I have been in this business I’ve had the privilege of having such great mentors who would call me and give me advice. Who else? Mark Henry, Big Show. You know those are guy’s you know that I’ve watched a lot of Kane and just try to take a little bit out of how they work and implement it to how I work. I’ve seen him do the snake eyes and big boot, I don’t want to take his famous moves. I think the right guy can do that. But with his permission I was able to so you know, way to honor people who are trying to look up to.”

I think that people think Brock Lesnar is a big dude. And then you see you guys in the ring together at WrestleMania 39. You make him look so small, but what I think is a true testament to Brock’s strength is he picks you up for that F5 Like you weigh nothing.

“That is what I was telling somebody the other day, I think the two strongest individuals I’ve ever been in the ring with are Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley. I have no idea how those guys are as amazing as they are. And this is gonna sound right coming from me, because I’m a physical specimen, but they are such physical specimens and phenomenal athletes.”

When you talk about phenomenal, I mean, I think it’d be remiss to not bring out AJ Styles. I’m really curious. What’s something that you do in the ring now, that is something that you learned from working with AJ?

“Being vicious. That’s the thing, that’s what separates AJ from everybody else. AJ knows you are meant to be vicious, and you see it in his eyes when he truly wants to kill somebody. That’s what I learned from him as you know, when I was also under him, he mentored me, which he still does today because he’s one of my closest friends. The look like you want to kill somebody, that is art. It’s not about what you do, it’s what’s in here what you conveyed in your eyes. And that was something I learned from him and I still do today, looking like I want to kill this guy, I want to murder him.”

I feel like you’re just getting started in WWE, like you really are. And you’ve already accomplished so much. So if we look ahead now five years 10 years plus, what are some of the long term goals you have for yourself in WWE?

“Oh, man, of course I want to be WWE Champion you know, that’s the kind of top of the list you know, when I first started I had goals I wanted to accomplish and I think I’ve met some of those goals. And there’s things that I wanted to do that, you know, wrestle at WrestleMania, and I have wrestled at WrestleMania three times. You know, one with it as with former WWE Champion with AJ Styles, going solo wrestling Bobby Lashley last year in Dallas, and then starting to show with one and only Brock Lesnar. So I think there’s a lot of plans left and a lot of things I want to achieve. But I think the top of the list is becoming [champion] and holding that gold over my head. Here, look at me now. I’m the biggest, baddest son of a gun you have ever seen. Now we are here, you know. So that’s the top of the list, you know?”

Give me some travel tips here. If I’m going to visit Nigeria for the very first time, what do I need to do?

“First things first, make sure you are vaccinated. That’s the first thing to do first. I will say figure out a good amount of money you want to spend. So I never suggest this, [using] credit cards for anything. I always say bring cash, cash is king in Nigeria.”

Who’s the most famous Nigerian that we might know?

“There’s a lot man. There’s UFC fighter Israel Adesanya, Kamaru Usman. Go to Hollywood, John Boyega, Damson Idris from Snowfall. So a lot of these guys doing a lot of a lot of great things, man. So it’s, it’s alive and everywhere, everywhere. It’s fun, and I see basketball. Same thing. You know, it’s truly an amazing time to see, you know, our country put on the world map and all these great people.”

What would you say is the best piece of advice that you’ve received, you know, right before you are going to get onto the stage that you’ve got on in WWE. What’s the best piece of advice that you got that you now carry with you?

“Enjoy it. I think sometimes those moments are so huge that we forget to be the present and and enjoy it and soak it in. And I always try to make sure wherever I go out there, I take my time and I truly absorb it and I truly you know, enjoy it and be in the moment and be present because you know, we go to perform and as a performer. You get nervous, you get tense and you know you like get in your head. But sometimes that takes away from just enjoying and understanding I’m going to go out in front of 5000 people who are either going to scream or boo me, and they’re going to have an amazing time. And they will go crazy like that is an accomplishment in itself. So always make sure to always be present and just enjoy the moment.”

Look so many of the things that you did, you were getting over when there weren’t any fans in the arena. So what was it like when you did get in front of fans for the first time they knew who you were. And they knew where you were all about?

“A lot of nerves. I think the first time we had a pay-per-view in front of fans was at SummerSlam. No, no, no, it was Mania in Tampa. And it was such a good experience for me because before I wrestled I wanted to play basketball, wanted to go pro, obviously, that didn’t happen. I had goals I wanted to accomplish, I went to college in Tampa, University of South Florida. I had goals I wanted to accomplish there, which I didn’t get to do due to health reasons and other things right. After I graduated in 2014. And then to go back there a couple years later, and to do what we did, at a large stadium in Tampa, but everybody knew who I was. And the audience knew that, it was like a full circle moment for me to go back. But also an extremely emotional one, because a lot of what I went through happened in Tampa, the stuff with my surgeries, my brain, ACLs, everything, everything that kinda all the all the logic hurdles I kind of faced happened in Tampa. So to go back there and do what I did at WrestleMania that was forever was at the top of the list of you know, being there and truly experiencing the crowd and seeing them go crazy. Granted it was only, I think it was only about 25% capacity because of COVID. It was still like top of the list, because I still feel the energy. I remember, you know, we had introduction on the first day, they brought us out and they introduced us to the fans for the first time since the pandemic. And I just remember going out there that I could just feel the energy from the audience. And I got emotional, when I came back I saw Kevin Nash he just gives me a big hug. He told me to breathe and to relax. I was talking with [him] that there’s no energy like the energy the WWE fans bring to a WWE arena. You know that there’s nothing like it. I don’t care where you’ve played baseball, basketball, UFC, there’s nothing like it. Once you get into the experience, you feel the energy it’s just how truly different and passionate these fans are. And I remember and I felt that for the first time.”

I end every conversation, talking about gratitude. Because it’s such an important part of my life. I always wake up I say out loud three things that I’m grateful for. And I do it before I go to sleep. What are three things in your life that you’re grateful for right now?

“I’m grateful to be alive. I’m grateful to be able to do what I’m doing, and I’m grateful for my loved ones.”

Featured image: WWE

Here we go again with another edition of #AskCVV! Chris Van Vliet answers questions that were submitted on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube from Insight listeners just like you and you sent in some GREAT ones this time around. This is a monthly tradition so if you have a question that you’d like answered in the next edition, just send it with the hashtag #AskCVV. Here is a look at some of the questions from this month:

What was your initial reaction to the unveiling of the brand new WWE World Heavyweight Championship? 

“I gotta be honest, I think it looks amazing. It’s a perfect mix for me of that old school design, a throwback to the classic big gold with a new spin on it. So I love it. And I think that, I hate to say it, but I think the WWE has dropped the ball with a lot of their belts. I mean, I think that four years ago, almost to the day, actually four years ago, everyone kind of laughed and giggled when Mick Foley unveiled the 24/7 championship. And obviously, they have done away with that now, but I saw this belt and I went, Yes. And that’s actually a championship that I would want to purchase. And it’s been a long time since I’ve wanted to add another belt to my collection. I know we’re not supposed to call them belts, right Vince McMahon, but I’ll call it a belt, belt, title, championship. All the same thing, right? You know what I’m talking about. But I understand, I understand where he’s coming from. I understand when Vince says it’s not a belt, because a belt is what’s used to hold your pants up. It’s a title. It is a championship and it’s prestigious. But I love the look of this. My only problem here, it’s not to do with the design of the belt at all. But here’s what my problem is, whenever the big gold or the WWE World Heavyweight Championship comes back into the picture. For me, it’s never the world title being the number one being the top prize. The WWE Championship, or the two titles that Roman has right now, that will always be looked at by fans as like the main prize. And then unfortunately, I think that the World Heavyweight Championship ends up being this secondary belt, the secondary championship, and I just think that it’s unfortunate. Like there’s a lot of superstars and I’m sure that some names pop into your head right now that have won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, but haven’t ever become the WWE Champion. So it’s like okay, they were so close, but they got the world title, but they didn’t get the WWE Championship. So my issue here is whoever holds the two belts, and I’m hoping, at some point soon, that those two belts hopefully soon become just one belt. But whoever has those championships right now, it’s Roman Reigns, and it has been Roman Reigns for like, almost three years now. Whoever holds those belts or that championship, or championships, but whoever has that title is like the main person. And then I just, it’s so unfortunate to me that the World Heavyweight Champion becomes like one tier down from that. So that’s my only issue with this whole thing. And I know the WWE wants us to believe that they’re both in the same tier, but they’re not. And fans will never look at it that way. Fans will always be like, oh, yeah, that’s cool that he won the World title, but that’s only the World Heavyweight Championship. And it’s also kind of unfortunate, because that championship comes from this, you know, incredible history. Think of all the names that have won that championship, and it just kind of sucks that in 2023, that that title gets introduced. And it’s like, it’s not, it’s not the title. So that’s my issue with it. I think that the design is beautiful. The meaning behind it, though, I just, I just feel like it’s a little bit lacking. And I hope I’m wrong, I hope I’m wrong. But it just seems to me that whoever is fighting for the main titles are the main focus, you feel where I’m coming from here. but the championship itself, I think they nailed it. I think they did such a good job here.”

Who would win in a shoot James Bond or Jason Bourne? Not the actors, just the characters?

“I mean, I think we gotta we got a lot of questions we gotta ask here, like which version of Bond? Because I feel like the Daniel Craig version of Bond would annihilate all of the other versions of Bond. But I think if it were really to come down to it, if we’ve got Jason Bourne, who was Matt Damon, I guess, in most of the movies, except for that one, you know, I’m talking about where it was Jeremy Renner. If I think if it’s a fight here, a one-on-one fight. It goes to Jason Bourne easily. Like James Bond, he’s innovative, he’s obviously great at convincing people and an incredible conversationalist. But Jason Bourne is like a government killing machine. Like, I don’t think that anyone could top that. So I’m going with Jason Bourne here. I love those movies. I think that Matt Damon absolutely nailed that role. And he’s one of those actors that played that role so well that you can’t even like picture it being played in that version, without giving too much away here. You can’t imagine being played in that version by anybody else. I mean, this really isn’t a spoiler alert, but I guess we find out that there’s more than one Jason Bourne, right? That Jason Bourne is just like an identity given to these types of people. Okay, all I’m saying. So, I’m going to Jason Bourne here.”

Since Cody will probably win the World Championship, who do you think will be the guy to dethrone Roman? 

“Well, I actually disagree here. I still think that Cody is going to finish the story with Roman Reigns. I think that Roman gets dethroned by Cody. I don’t know when that happens, but it sure seems to me like WWE is lining up that somebody else will be winning the World Championship. And I think that if this were to take a left turn and veer off into a different direction, and Cody won the World Championship, I think it just kind of, you know, springboarding off of what I was saying earlier. I really think that this would take away from that whole chase that Cody has been on. So I still think that it’s Cody, who dethrones Roman Reigns. Maybe that’s a SummerSlam thing, maybe I don’t know. It’s crazy. Maybe it’s not till WrestleMania 40 Next year in Philly, but I think that the next person to hold the WWE Championship, that the two titles that Roman has, that will be Cody Rhodes.” 

What’s your favorite place that you’ve ever visited?

“I’ve been so fortunate to be able to travel to a lot of different places. So I’ll give you, I’ll give you two, I’ll give you two. But there’s a lot. And there’s a lot of places that I haven’t been to yet. And there’s a lot of honorable mentions here. So if I don’t list where you live, right, if I don’t list your favorite destination, it doesn’t mean that I don’t love it. Like I love Australia. Love it. But I need to go back there. I haven’t been to Australia for over 10 years, so that would definitely be a place I need to revisit. But I think number one for me is Hawaii, there’s something so magical about Hawaii, like from the second you get off the plane, and by the way, like the closest American city to Hawaii, the closest mainland American city to Hawaii is Los Angeles or like that’s a relatively in quotes quick flight because it’s like five and a half hours. So it’s five and a half hours into the middle of the Pacific Ocean. And then you get off the plane. And there’s just something about being there. The energy there, like the people are so kind they talk about the aloha spirit that people are so kind there. And it’s just a beautiful place with beautiful scenery and so lush. So Hawaii is great, I’ve had so many beautiful memories there. I was most recently there last year with, she was just my girlfriend at the time before we were even engaged, and now we’re married. But I went with Rachel, we just had an amazing time, the time it was there before that was when I was interviewing The Rock, Kevin Hart and Jack Black for a little movie called Jumanji. So that was another great memory there. But there’s just something about Hawaii. And all the islands have a bit of a different feel there. I love Maui. I love Kawaii and obviously spent a lot of time in Oahu because that’s where Honolulu is. I just love Hawaii. So Hawaii is number one and then Paris is such a special place. And there’s something about the sun, which is the river there and seeing the Eiffel Tower light up. And the food and the people and the wine and the atmosphere. I need to go back to Paris, that is high on my list of places I want to go back to. But then there’s like the dream list of like where have you not been that you want to go to? Iceland is really high on that list. I’ve never been to Japan. And before the world shut down. Will Osprey invited me to go to Wrestle Kingdom with him. Obviously Wrestle Kingdom didn’t happen that year because the world shut down. But I was so ready to take him up on that invitation because I’ve never been to Japan and I would love to do that. So there’s a few destinations. I of course love London, and before the world shut down I was in London, three, four or five times a year doing different interviews and different movies. I kind of mentioned this. But yeah, part of my real job as an entertainment reporter is not just interviewing celebrities, but going to see movies early. I’m a movie critic, I vote on the Critics Choice Awards. I’m part of the Critics Choice association. So as I’m recording this right now, as soon as this is done, I’m going to drive into Burbank, that it’s just outside of Los Angeles. And I’m going to a screening of Guardians of the Galaxy three. So I get to see the movie like two weeks before it comes out. And I’m super stoked about that. So when I’m allowed to talk about it, I can let you know what I think about it. I think right now there’s an embargo that you can’t, you know, give your thoughts or your reaction or your review on it. But all of that is to say that I would love to go back to London to do some more interviews there.” 

Favorite thing about any indie that you don’t get at big WWE and AEW shows? 

“I would say the biggest thing is the interaction that you get with the wrestlers. Like they are right there. A you know, bad seat and putting that in quotations at an indie show is like the fourth row. So you’re right there, you can hear everything that is going on in the ring, you can smell the sweat. I know that’s probably not an attractive thing, but you feel like you’re part of the show. And then during intermission, and then before the show and after the show, you’ve got a chance to interact with all of the superstars on the card, all of the wrestlers that are working that show and I think that that’s what’s really cool about it, they’re accessible. And that’s not to say that they’re not accessible at a WWE show or an AEW show but you’ve got to be sitting like first or second row for them to even have a chance to like, you know, give you a high five as they walked by. And to do like an autograph signing or meet and greet, that’s a completely different event. So I think that what you don’t get at those bigger shows that you do get in your shows, is just a real community feeling there. You feel like you and however many other people are in the crowd, whether that’s a few 100 or 1000 people, you feel like you’re part of something special that’s happening that night. I would equate it to like going to see your favorite band at an intimate venue or going to see your favorite comedian at the local Comedy Store improv, whatever it happens to be. And you’re seeing them with, you know, 100, 200, 300 other people, rather than going to see them on an arena with 5000 or 10,000, or sometimes even 20,000 people. So I just think there’s something special about that atmosphere.”

Does the wrestling you watch change depending on who you’re interviewing? 

“I would say the wrestling that I watch on a regular basis doesn’t really change. But if I’m interviewing someone, likeI’ll give you an example, I recently did an interview with Bubba Ray Dudley, Billy Ray, whatever you want to call him. So I was like, man, some of his best stuff was in WWE, obviously, was in ECW, he’s now doing stuff with IMPACT and NWA. So I’m watchingIMPACT and NWA now. But I was like, Man, I want to go back and watch some of like his best moments, like his greatest hits. So it’s more of like a diving back into the archives. And seeing like, man, what are the moments that everybody talks about with that person? And you might have noticed with the videos that I’ve been putting out on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube shorts, Tik Tok. I’m trying to like dig into, like, what are the moments everybody talks about what that person like Dolph Ziggler is a great example. So fortunate to be able to sit down with him for the 16th time for the interview that we did recently. And one of my favorite moments with Dolph is his Money in the Bank cash-in on Alberto Del Rio. And I went back and I rewatched, the moment I felt all of the things that I felt when I watched that for the first time, so that was a really cool thing. So I would say that the day to day week to week stuff that I watch doesn’t really change that much. But I love to go back and brush up on the best moments, and I don’t want to miss anything there.”

What’s the toughest interview that you ever had to do? 

“Man the one that pops into my mind here is I was covering the red carpet for a movie called The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Which is probably not a movie that, you know, you really know of. It’s a deep cut. But the reason that this movie is so important is because it was the last movie that Heath Ledger filmed before he passed away. So I was covering the red carpet for this. And you know, obviously, one of the biggest things that you want to talk to the cast about was like, what was it like when you found out that he had passed away? What were your memories like working with him? So that was really difficult phrasing those questions and look, red carpet is a bit like a party. Like it’s a premiere, it’s a celebration of like, all of our hard work is going to be shown to everybody for the first time here. This is exciting. And for this thing to be looming over it, of the death of the star of this movie, in fact, he passed away during the filming of this movie, and they got other actors to play his role in the film. They did a really good job with that, but like, this is a big party juxtaposed with like, while we’re celebrating the performances in this movie, and we’re paying tribute to Heath Ledger, you know, we’re also remembering that he’s not with us anymore. So I remember talking to Verne Troyer may Verne Troyer Rest in peace, and he’s in that movie and I was like asking him about his like, favorite memories of Heath Ledger and where he was when he found out that he had passed away. So yeah, that was a difficult one. And that’s a while ago. So I’m actually pulling this up. Yeah, that movie came out in 2009 But Heath Ledger was the star of that movie when he passed away. His role was played by Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell and Jude Law. So, you know, three incredibly talented actors filling the shoes of the incredibly talented Heath Ledger who was taken away from us far, far too soon. So that was a tough one. But a great film and yeah, just a really, really interesting situation. I feel like I learned a lot from that, from that experience there. So yeah, that’s a really good question. Thank you for that.” 

How did you know that she was the one, and that you were ready to propose?

“Well, Rachel is so special. My wife, Rachel, is so special, and she’s just the greatest person that I’ve ever met. And I know it’s gonna sound cliche. And I know that before I met Rachel, and people would say this. I was like, Man, that sounds real nice and you roll your eyes. But honestly, when you know, you know. And I know, that’s super cliche, but seriously, when you know, you know. And when I met Rachel, and we met on our first date, and if you go back and listen to the podcast that we did, the last episode of last year, we talked about this, we met at a rooftop in Huntington Beach. It was supposed to be for like a drink and just like a first date, and like, meet each other. And it ended up turning into like us spending like five hours together and the conversation just flowed, and like, I just felt like this is someone that I had known my whole life. And, yeah, just everything about it just felt so right. And I’ve never questioned anything about it since the second I met her. Actually, I don’t even know if I’ve talked about this, but even before the moment I met her, I was like, trying to look for a parking spot in this huge garage. And I was getting a little bit lost, I’ve never been to this place before and I felt terrible, because I was running a little bit late. And I I pride myself on always being on time and always being like super respectful of people’s time. And I was running a little bit late. And I was like, Hey, I’m just finding the parking, I’m heading over there, I’ll be there soon. And I was walking out of the parking garage and I saw her from a distance. I was like on level two, and she was on the ground floor. And I saw her from a distance and I just went wow! Wow, she’s amazing. So she took my breath away before I even met her, and then I did meet her and she’s the best. And as I stand here right now and record this, because I’m standing right now, in my closet, because the acoustics are really good in here. As I stand here, right now, we’re about a month away from our daughter being born. And I’m just so excited to see Rachel as a mom, I feel like she was put on this earth to be a mom. And I’m so excited about that. So that is my long way of saying I am a lucky, lucky man to have such an incredible wife and incredible partner, and incredible mother to our daughter. So super exciting.”

What’s a regional thing that you’ve tried everywhere that you’ve lived and it’s just not for you? 

“Man, as you know, I’ve lived in a lot of different places. So I’m from Pickering, Ontario, Canada, went to university in Waterloo, Ontario, so you know, an hour and a half ish west of Pickering. And then after that lived in Toronto, Vancouver, Cleveland, Miami bought a house in Fort Lauderdale. I lived in Cincinnati, Los Angeles, and now we live in Orange County. So I’ve lived in a lot of different places. And I will tell you the regional thing that I tried that I was like, I don’t know what are you guys talking about here. And I know I’m gonna get a lot of angry people because of this. But Skyline chilli in Cincinnati, it’s just not for me. It is just not for me. It’s not even chilli, it’s like spaghetti sauce, and they serve it with a tonne of spaghetti. Then they put on this soupy sauce. It’s not chilli and then they give you about 73 pounds of cheese on top of that. So it’s a lot, and I was just like I was expecting chilli like I was expecting like the chilli you get in a bowl and you eat on a cold day and that was not what this was. So the Skyline Chilli, and look, this is the thing, people in that area love it, swear by it and eat it all the time. I tried it twice and I was just like this is not for me. I’m so sorry, I was expecting something different. And even though I was expecting something different this did not deliver. So I apologise for not enjoying it but Skyline chilli. It’s not for me. And I’m gonna get a lot of hate from this. But I’m just saying, that’s it. Skyline chilli, not for me.” 

Will you ever move to New York City? 

“That’s such an interesting question. Because I just talked about all the places that I’ve lived. And I feel like for me, I went from Cleveland, to Miami, Cleveland to South Florida. And I was like, and I moved in December. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I’m never gonna have to see winter ever again. I’m never gonna have to shovel snow ever again, I’m never gonna have to deal with icy roads ever again. I spent five years in South Florida and love the weather. I love palm trees, there’s something about being around palm trees. It’s just, it’s a nice reminder that the weather is nice. You know where I live right now. It’s like, quote unquote, cold when it’s 50 degrees Fahrenheit, which is like, I don’t know, do the math real quick, like 10 Celsius. I don’t even know if that’s correct. I should probably look that up. Because we’ve got all the world’s information in front of us. Let’s see 50 degrees Fahrenheit to Celsius it is 10 Oh my god. It’s exactly 10. Wow. What a guess! Wow! That’s better than a guess, that is just knowledge right there. So all of that is to say that I don’t really want to live somewhere this cold again. And I know that after I left Florida, I lived in Cincinnati for nine months well technically lived in Northern Kentucky. It didn’t snow at all that winter. So the entire winter whenever, there’s like a few flurries, but it didn’t snow that entire winter. And then I moved to Los Angeles and Southern California. And I’m like, Man, I just don’t know if I could ever escape. Like I don’t know if I’d ever want to escape the beautiful warm weather. But why this is interesting, is because Rachel is from New Jersey. She’s from Sussex County, New Jersey, for anybody who’s familiar with the area. And that’s relatively speaking, close ish to Manhattan, like maybe an hour or so away, you know, give or take. So it’s like, alright, I don’t know, I don’t know what the next like steps are for us. I don’t know if I’ve ever like said this publicly. But I love living in California. I just think that there are some other things like, you know, when we’ve got to a small child, that will be our responsibility in a month. I think there’s some, you know, priorities change. And her family is in that area, in the New Jersey area. My family is not far away, like a six hour drive from there in Canada. And it’s like, it might be nice to be a little bit closer to family. But that’s the trade off, right? It’s the trade off of yes, we’re closer to family, and yes, you can get a lot more house for your dollars, a lot more bang for your buck. But it’s like what about the weather? Man, what about that weather? I don’t know. So the answer to your question is maybe, maybe.” 

What advice would your 40 year old self give to your 30 year old self? 

“What am I now three weeks away from my 40th birthday? Also three weeks away from the big goal. You know, I want to be in the best shape of my life by my 40th birthday and we are definitely, we’re dialling it in. We’re dialling it in, all the abs are back, and it’s just a matter now of dialling this in even more so big shout out to AJ Sims, my nutritionist who I’ve been working with. We’ve been working real hard on this. He’s @Cementfactory on Instagram. If you want to check him out. He’s done the transformations for a lot of your favorite wrestlers like Apollo Crews and Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, EC3, Rockstar Spud. So all of this is leading up to the 40th Birthday Bash of my life, going to be a father right around that time, May 21 is the due date, it’s coming up. So excited, so excited. The advice that my 40 year old self would give to my 30 year old self is just have patience. I feel like especially in my 20’s and definitely when I was 30 you want stuff to happen right now. And the advice I would give is, have patience. And it’s interesting that sometimes things don’t work out the way you thought they were supposed to work out. And then you realise a year or 2 or 5 or 10 later and you go, Oh, wow, hmm, that happened to allow for this to happen now. So I would just say be patient. And what’s really interesting about that, and you know me, you know that I say vague goals, get vague results, specific goals, get specific results. But let’s say your goal is you want 10,000 followers on Instagram, this is a very arbitrary example. And you’re at 5,000. So like, oh my gosh, I want to double my followers, huge, that’d be amazing. Once you get to, like 9,600 followers, it now becomes inevitable that you’re gonna get to 10,000. And you’re like, oh, wow, 10,000 doesn’t seem that exciting anymore and you move the goalposts. And I find that really interesting that the goal you’ve set is an achievable goal. 10,000. But you know, in the next 12 months, whatever happens to be 10,000 in six months, and then you get close, and you go, Oh, yeah, I’m gonna do that. So the goal is no longer 10,000, it’s 15,000 or 20,000. And I’m just saying that, like, patience. Maybe set a bigger goal. Two words that Tyler Perry told me that I’ll never forget, was dream bigger. Stop setting such low goals for yourself, dream bigger, and like shoot for something that’s bigger than what you think could ever be possible. So that is the advice that I would give myself.”

“Stone Cold” Steve Austin (@steveaustinbsr) is a WWE Hall of Famer, actor and television personality. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about his new A&E series called “Stone Cold Takes On America”. He talks about what scares him, why it’s important to takes chances, who he thinks takes the best Stone Cold Stunner, his reaction to the WHAT chant after 20 years, the possibility of seeing him wrestle again, why he hates rollercoasters and more!

I’m watching this trailer and you’re doing all these things. You’re drift racing, you’re flying a helicopter, bowling, all these things. I’m wondering, is there anything that scares you?

“Yeah, predicting the weather on live television scared the hell out of me. I made a living being on live TV, and you know, we went up there. First of all it was a 12:45 wakeup call, I didn’t sleep, 2:15 call time, I’m not a morning person. Then I go in and this wonderful lady Madison Macay is breaking down how she does the weather, and she is taking a [big] paragraph and taking the pertinent information and just condensing it down just on the fly. I am thinking hey I’ve got to do it just exactly how she is. And you’re never going to step into someone else’s shoes or someone else’s job and be that good automatically, but that’s what I expect out of myself. So moments like that crushed me, because I thought I did terrible. I love live television, because when that red light is on I am at my best, and I failed. But anyway, it was a ton of fun to make this show, I’m happy to have the opportunity.”

Were there any lessons that you have learned from diving all in and doing everything on this show?

“God dang. You know, I got the chance to do a lot of things that I didn’t [get the opportunity to] when I was focused on my wrestling career, and I’ve been gone for quite a while. But I kind of stayed in that mindset but ventured into a lot of things that I wanted to delve into on a personal level, to try these things and to be a fish out of water. But man, if you are on the fence about something and you are looking for something to try and do, don’t be afraid or don’t be hesitant, just go and do it. Just get the backbone up, go out there and try some things, that’s the best that I can say. I’m not a guy who is so philosophic about life who can articulate the meaning of life and say here’s some advice. But, you know, you’re not here for a long time, and life can be rough, so enjoy the moments that you can and chase your dreams and passions. If you’re on the fence about something, get off the fence and go and do it.”

You’ve given the Stone Cold Stunner to just about everybody. Can we settle this once and for all, who takes the best Stunner?

“Well you got those different athletic presentations from Scott Hall, Shane took a good one, but I always go to The Rock. The Rock would always take that extra effort to careen around the ring in a way over sell fashion. But it meant so much more when he did that, because in the big matches we had, whether it was [WrestleMania] 15, 17 and 19, those moments meant so much. But I would go with The Rock, and here is the thing people don’t understand. When you give The Rock a Stunner, that guy is so jacked and so hard, when he is bouncing around the ring, sometimes he would flop off the ropes and end up landing back on me. I was like Jesus, you’re killing me. So giving The Rock a Stunner can be painful when he flops back on you, but that’s the name that I am going to give you.”

It sounds like we were pretty close to you having another match at WrestleMania 39 and it didn’t end up happening. Do you have another match in you?

“I could. I’m not necessarily going to lobby for one, because that would be silly. That’s a year away, but a year away in this business is like that [clicks fingers]. They asked me to be a part of 39, they really did, but I couldn’t do it, just because there is no way. I knew what my life was going to look like due to the filming schedule of the show. We had some internal stopdowns where the show took about 5 months to film, that’s a long time. We finished filming about 5 to 7 days before WrestleMania 39. And the position that they were going to put me in, which was a big one, you can’t prepare for WrestleMania and do yourself justice or do that crowd justice. Dallas was set up for a Stone Cold return, and the way we framed that with KO, who I love, was perfect for the time and setting. For this match to play out, I needed to perform at a high level. I didn’t work out before 38, I haven’t thrown a working punch in 19 years. I was killing KO right there, I truly was, ask him. When we got to the back I said, Man I can’t believe you didn’t throw a receipt. And he just laughed because his job was to just take care of me. So anyway, in the future, I am not lobbying for it, but could anything happen? Yes. Because I say never say never.”

So the first time you said What was back in 2001. Here we are 20 plus years later, and this isn’t just a WWE thing, this is a wrestling thing. Every wrestling promotion across the world does the What chant now. Does it surprise you that this is still a thing 20 plus years later?

“It really does, but it’s a testament to how impacted people were to that. You know, that started off as me leaving a voice message on Christian’s phone. I was working heel at the time and I said hey man, this is a really good way to F with people and get on their nerves and under their skin. Because if you tell me something I just say What? And I throw it back at you, and it’s irritating, it’s what it was designed to be. Then I turned it into something that worked for me as a babyface as a way to mock a certain situation. With cadence and delivery, people can escape it as far as talent doing a promo. But it’s very, it’s flattering to still see it around, but I have had so many people cussing me out and hating it. We ended up putting it on the t-shirt for God’s sake, and it sold a ton. So I am thankful for the word, but if it disappeared tomorrow then I wouldn’t complain. I’m honored that it is still here.”

I saw this thing you did on A & E’s social media, it was hell yeah or hell no? You said Hell no to rollercoasters! What do you have against rollercoasters?

“Man, I’m not a big thrill seeker, you know. I’m not looking to go out there and just do a bunch of crazy stuff. When I used to travel down the road with Lord Steven Regal, one of my really good friends. At Blackpool where he’s from, they have those gimmick circuses. We talked about how people in England are really tough, and if the rollercoaster went off of the rails and squashed a load of people, they just pass out a bunch of free tickets. Oh, it’s ok, here’s a bunch of free tickets for the next one. That’s always in the back of my mind, as safe can these things can be, I am always wondering about the one that I get on is going to careen off the rails. Then it’s like what happened to Stone Cold? Well you know that rollercoaster that went off of the rails? He was on that rollercoaster. So it’s stuff like that where I look at the worst case scenario, and when they leave you at the top because they are trying to mess with you, and it works. You know, the clack clack clack on the way up, then you go way down, not fun.” 

Featured image: ABC