We’re back for another edition of #AskCVV! Chris Van Vliet answers questions that were submitted on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube from Insight listeners just like you. 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 the questions from this month:

What were your reactions to Sami Zayn turning on The Bloodline and your thoughts on Cody Rhodes winning the men’s Royal Rumble match?

So, I mean, the long term storytelling of The Bloodline and Sami Zayn was so good. And we were all expecting this moment to happen, but it was just a matter of when is this moment gonna happen? And the moment that Sami Zayn hit Roman Reigns in the back with that chair, and that pop from the crowd, I don’t know the last time I heard a crowd that loud. But I think that that moment there said it all. Now it’s gonna be very interesting where things go from here. Does this storyline play out until just Elimination Chamber? Does this storyline play out until WrestleMania? Because I think that would make a lot of sense. Does it play out to Sami Zayn dethroning Roman Reigns and ending his historic run as WWE Champion. So it’d be really, really interesting to see what they do with this, but they caught lightning in a bottle here. And Sami Zayn is the most entertaining thing in all of pro-wrestling right now. And that is not a slight to any other company, I’m just saying that Sami Zayn has taken what’s been put in front of him and just taken that ball and absolutely run with it. And every time he comes on the screen, you just can’t look away. So very interested to see what happens here, and I hope that it sets up Sami versus Roman and not Sammy versus The Usos, but you know something might happen with the Usos, too. But I hope that this is Sami versus Roman and it becomes exactly what everybody is looking for there. 

The second part of this question, what do you think of Cody Rhodes winning the men’s Royal Rumble match?

I mean, that kind of ties into what we were just talking about here. Because is it going to be Sammy and Roman at WrestleMania, or is it going to be Cody and Roman at WrestleMania? And you can make a real strong case for Cody Rhodes dethroning the head of the table, dethroning Roman Reigns and becoming that champion. I mean, the story has like, it has babyface written all over it. For Cody Rhodes to do what his father, the late great Dusty Rhodes was not able to do and win the WWE Championship and win it on the grandest stage of them all, WrestleMania here in Los Angeles. So I think that we all went into the Royal Rumble, kind of knowing who is going to win the men’s Royal Rumble and the women’s Royal Rumble. I actually put a poll out on Twitter and I put it out on YouTube as well. And it seemed pretty unanimous that people were like, Yeah, Cody Rhodes is going to win the men’s rumble, Rhea Ripley is going to win the women’s rumble. I just would have, I mean, Cody coming out at number 30 was cool. But Cody coming out at number 30, if he was unannounced, I think would have been a lot cooler. I think we all kind of assumed that Cody was going to be in the Royal Rumble. I don’t feel like WWE needed to tell people that he was going to be in the match. That would have been a, I mean it was a cool moment for him to have his entrance and then obviously go on to win the match. But I think it would have been a nice surprise if he just showed up unannounced and we went Cody’s back. But it was a great moment. And that was a really solid pay-per-view from top to bottom bottom. I was thoroughly entertained. And Cody winning was a great moment. Also, I was a little surprised, maybe you were too, that they kicked off the show with the men’s Royal Rumble match. But man, they hit the ground running. They hit the ground running hard with that. And I thought it was a great way to start the show. Sami and The Bloodline with Kevin Owens, there was a great way to end the show, so top to bottom. Really, really enjoyed the show.

I saw you and your wife are having a baby. Congrats, by the way. Is it a boy or a girl? And when is the due date? 

Well thank you! I’m so excited! I get like, get all giddy when I start talking about our little baby girl. Yeah, so it’s a baby girl, we had a gender reveal party I guess about two months ago, my parents flew down, they were in town for it. We had a bunch of friends and family here at our house for it. And my wife, Rachel and I are just so excited. So we got a baby girl, we’re looking at some names right now. But the due date is May 21, and let me tell you, if you are a parent yourself, you know how fast this goes. If you’re not a parent, or you are soon to be a parent one day, let me tell you this. I feel like Rachel just told me the other day that she was having a baby, which is obviously not true, it is you know, several months ago, she’s now six months pregnant. But it’s just been like just flying by. And I’m trying to take in every moment possible right now. Between me and Rachel and just me and Rachel and the baby. And just getting ready for this, and just taking this all in because it’s flying by, but we’re so excited!

Do you ever think you’ll get the chance to interview Vince McMahon before WWE gets sold?

That is a great question. And I think that if I’m going to be open and honest with all of these questions and answers here, I’m going to have to say probably not. I’d like to be hopeful, and I am hopeful, I’m eternally optimistic. But I would have to think that Vince McMahon is not doing any more interviews with anybody for the next, [for the] rest of his life. I would think, you know, everything that went down with him and WWE and the public filings and everything that happened there, I don’t think is something they would want a chance coming up in an interview. And a lot of you guys asked like who is your dream interview and I’ve said many times that Vince McMahon is like the great white whale that I’d like to have an interview with. And not because I want to talk to him specifically about building WWF and it becoming WWE and you know, becoming what we all watch now. But I’m just genuinely curious about Vince McMahon the man, like what makes him tick? What does his morning routine look like? I’ve joked about this all the time, like, does Vince McMahon eat pizza? If so, like, what toppings does Vince like on his pizza? I just want to know, all these things because he seems kinda like the Wizard of Oz. You know, and that curtain, that proverbial curtain, so rarely gets pulled back on Vince’s life. So I’ll keep being optimistic about it. But I genuinely think that there will not be any more Vince McMahon interviews. The one he did with Pat McAfee was brilliant, and we saw a little bit of the human that Vince McMahon is, but I think that most wrestling fans just know Vince McMahon as the you’re fired guy and all the memes, so many memes. That’s the great thing about Vince McMahon, there’s a meme for everything, and a gif for everything. So I think that a lot of fans, you know, know that version of Vince McMahon, but they don’t know who Vince McMahon the person is. And I would love to be able to see that. And we saw, like I said, we saw a little bit of it in that Pat McAfee interview. But I’d love to see a little bit more. So I appreciate the question, but yeah, just don’t think it’s gonna happen.

Who are some of the nicest people that you’ve ever interviewed? 

That’s a tough one, because I’ve interviewed a lot of great people. We’re talking actors and athletes and directors and comedians, of course, wrestlers, entrepreneurs. And I generally get the feeling that when a cameras there, and a microphone is in front of your face, like this one is right now for me, that people are, you know, a little bit more aware of their actions and a little bit more aware of the fact that oh, this is gonna be seen forever, because everything lives on forever on the internet. But I’ll never forget the first time that I interviewed Henry Cavill. And he did something that I’ve never seen before, from really anybody, but especially not somebody at his level. And when you do these junket interviews, they call them, when you do these celebrity interviews, you go to a hotel, with a whole bunch of other journalists. And then the celebrities sit there, the actors, directors, they sit there in the room, and every handful of minutes, a new journalist comes in, a new reporter comes in, and then they get to have their interview. I’d never seen this before, he would greet each person at the door of the room that he was in, and then he would walk you to your seat. And then he would wait till you sat down before he sat down. And it’s like, wow, like, and this wasn’t something that he was putting on. This is just genuinely who Henry Cavill is. And the fact that we were able to see just so much of a British gentleman that he is, that one really stood out for me. He’s a very kind man, but those type of manners are something that I just, you know, certainly didn’t expect, but something I’ve never seen before. So that’s one, for sure. That really, really stood out for me. And of course, there’s so many other interviews that I’ve loved, and we’ll get to, actually that’s another question we’ve got coming up here in a little bit. But that’s a moment that I’ll never forget. Of course, John Cena has been very, very kind to me. And before, I’ve interviewed him four times. But before the one I did with him at WrestleMania 35 in New York, he was just really nice. We were texting back and forth to like, set up the situation. I’ve told this story before, but it’s such a fun story that I was texting him like, I’ll see you there one o’clock, great. We met at this private gym in Manhattan, and I came up the elevator, and I’m looking all around and I can’t find him, and he can’t find me. So I texted him and I said yeah, I’m here. And he writes me back and says, I can’t see you and I’m not trying to be funny. And I was like, wow, John Cena just hit me with the you can see me joke, so good! So he’s uh, he’s always been a fun one to interview and I’m really hoping that we do another interview this year. 

Drop the workout routine!

You guys might have seen that in December. I put it out there into the world. And this is I feel very strongly about goals and putting them out in the world and keeping yourself accountable for them. But I put out into the world that I wanted to be in the best shape of my life by my 40th birthday, which is May 19th of this year. And I’ve been working out pretty hard. I’ve also been eating just a silly amount of food right now. I’m so sick of eating Chicken and rice and eggs and ground beef, I’ve been eating so much. So much protein shakes. I’ve gained, I think that was six weeks ago that I started this. I’ve already gained like 17 pounds in the last six weeks, and the plan is to get as big as I can, and then to shred down cut down from there. So Jonathan, the workout routine has been pretty simple. It’s been like, your generic push, pull type of thing, right? So chest and triceps, that’s your push, back and biceps, that’s your pull. Shoulders, and traps, that’s another day, and then legs. And right now I’m not doing any cardio because I’m just trying to gain as much weight as possible builds as much mass as I can. I’m almost at 200 pounds right now, and I haven’t been 200 pounds ever in my life. So it’s gonna be really interesting to see what happens when I hit 200. And then I think maybe I could get to 210. Oh, that’d be like, that would be me gaining 30 pounds in a few months. So we’ll see. Then the goal from there is to shred down to cut down though that weight. So it’s been five to six days in the gym. Although as I’m recording this right now, I ran a Spartan Race yesterday. And that was, man, there’s so much fun, but they push you, they push you a lot. And if you’re not familiar with what a Spartan Race is, it’s like an obstacle course race. So you’re running and then you’re doing things like climbing over things like climbing over walls, climbing, climbing up cargo nets, rope climb. There’s a part where we were carrying like an atlas ball, which weighed a lot, and crawling under barbed wire, dunking into like mud. So it was very fun, like a Tough Mudder if you’ve ever seen a Tough Mudder. So I ran the Spartan Race yesterday and took a lot out of it. But still woke up this morning at 5:30 and went to the gym. And my trainer Rocky has really been putting me through it. So shout out to Rocky, he’s @rocky.era, on Instagram, go give him a follow. He is a monster, he is a beast, and he has been really, really pushing me. So really excited to see how the progress goes with all of this. 

Who’s been your favourite guest on the podcast? 

I’ve talked a lot about how much I enjoy having a conversation with The Rock. And they always say you shouldn’t meet your heroes. But if your hero is Dwayne Johnson, you should 100% meet your hero because he is so kind and funny and nice and self aware, and he makes the moment really special for you. So you’ve probably heard me say something like that before. So The Rock is always going to be on that list. But I’ll give you a few other ones that I was just shockingly surprised by, or not surprised, but like, I knew it was going to be a good interview. But then it starts and you get going and you go wow, this is just a great conversation. And one of those is Jay Lethal. I have such a tremendous respect for what Jay Lethal has done in Ring of Honor and what he’s doing in AEW, so so entertaining Impact Wrestling. Of course, he has the greatest segment in the history of Impact Wrestling with Ric Flair. And he’s so so talented. But from the second that Zoom window opened, and we began, not even began the interview, just began talking, it was like we were best friends. It was like we were long lost best friends, reconnecting after not seeing each other for years. And if you haven’t listened to it, or if you haven’t listened to it recently, I encourage you to go back and just give it a listen because it’s just so fun. So that was one where I knew would be good, but then it ended I went man, that was amazing. Freddie Prinze Jr, was another one. And I’ve been fortunate to have him on the show twice now, once over Zoom, and most recently, we did that one in person. And he’s the best storyteller, he has so many great stories from growing up with people like Muhammad Ali and Chuck Norris, and so many legendary characters from Hollywood. And the way he tells stories and the way he sucks you in to the story and makes you want to hear more, it’s so good. And the fact that he worked for WWE on two separate occasions, means he has a really different outlook on pro-wrestling and a different outlook on just the product that you see on television. So FPJ will always be up there and I mean, it How could you not love I Know What You Did Last Summer? How could you not love Summer Catch even though he joked that only eight people saw Summer Catch? Well, I was one of those eight people Freddie Prinze Jr. So good. So I would love to have Freddie on the show. I don’t know. It’d be great to have him on every few weeks, maybe every few months? Would you guys get sick, if I did that with him every few months? I hope not. And I’ll give you one more. One more of my favourite guests on the podcast was Jim Johnston, because he doesn’t do a lot of interviews at all. He’s the legendary music director from WWE. And he’s the guy who created The Undertaker’s theme, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, the My Time, the one two is this on? That theme to D-Generation X. Mick Foley, like, all the legendary themes are the brainchild of Jim Johnston and being able to just get into his mindset and figure out his creative process for this. And what does it look like behind the scenes when he’s told about a new character and has to turn around an entrance theme and 12 hours or 24 hours? It was fascinating to be able to hear all about that. So that’s three episodes there that if you haven’t listened to them, or you haven’t heard them in a while, I would really really encourage you to go listen to Jay Lethal Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jim Johnston, because they were some of my favourite favourite interviews and just great people.

I know you interview a lot of actors, and you’re also a member of the Critics Choice Association. What is one underrated movie that everyone needs to see? 

How much time do you have here? I will always talk about Back to the Future, because that’s my favourite movie of all time. And if you haven’t seen that, and I get that there’s a whole generation of people who haven’t seen that movie, but that movie is pure magic. Back to the Future is pure magic, from the soundtrack, to the story, to the comedic elements of that. And I mentioned this many times before, but that movie reminds us that moments in life matter and that moments are important. And that something in your life that you feel like is supposed to go one way and ends up going another may actually be leading you to something better down the road. And Back to the Future talks about that all the time. But I don’t think that’s really a good answer to this question because it’s not an underrated movie at all. Back to the Future is perfectly rated, it is not underrated. But I’ll give you one that I think is underrated. And it’s The Prestige. Christopher Nolan is, in my opinion, the best director is working right now. And there’s a lot of great directors working right now. And that is not a slight at Jim Cameron or Quentin Tarantino or Steven Spielberg or David Fincher. But Christopher Nolan does something so special in his films, and The Prestige, I think is one of Christopher Nolan’s most underrated movies, and just an underrated movie in general. Phenomenal performances in that by Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman and well, the whole cast, really. So if you haven’t seen The Prestige, I would encourage you to check out The Prestige at some point this week or this weekend. And then send me a tweet and be like man, you were right CVV, The Prestige, so good, so good!

Do you have any great book recommendations? 

I have several book recommendations. I’ll narrow down to just a few here. I think one book that everybody should read. And it’s a pretty quick, pretty easy read is The Four Agreements. And that book talks about how if you can make these four agreements with yourself, and you can live up to these every single day, week, month, and so on, then you can live a pretty great life. And these are simple things to do. But they are also simultaneously very difficult things to do. So the Four Agreements are, be impeccable with your word, don’t take anything personally, don’t make assumptions, always do your best. Sounds really simple, right? But I feel like in life, we always find ourselves not being able to do one of those things or two of those things. So that’s a constant reminder for me of those four agreements that are just always there. Can you really not take anything personally? Can you really not make assumptions? Are you always doing your best? Are you being impeccable with your word? So I like to remind myself of that a lot. The Subtle Art of Not Giving an F by Mark Manson is another great read. And it reminds us that in life, you don’t have to give an F, you don’t have to care about everything. But the things that you do care about, it’s very important to care a lot about those things. And the book reminds us of just, it’s a really great reminder, and a really great guide to living a healthier and more productive life a mentally healthier life. So that’s a book I’ve read several times, and would definitely recommend that to anybody who’s never checked it out. And one more is Atomic Habits by James Clear has such a good book here with Atomic Habits. And there’s a lot of little things in this book that really rings true to me every single day. He talks about habit loops, and I’m sure even if you don’t know what that means, you probably have some habit loops in your own life. It’s the idea of like, when this thing happens, then this thing happens. So you know, a really simple example might be like, when I wake up, I brush my teeth, or before I go to bed, I brush my teeth, and it’s still the loop of the habits that you do, like, the bedtime routine or the morning routine. But habit loops can also be really bad. You know, we all know people who say well I don’t smoke unless I’m drinking, and then you get into this habit loop of like, when this thing happens, then that thing happens. So the idea in Atomic Habits is like these small changes that you do every single day, help you to become the type of person that you want to be. So instead of saying, like, I want to lose 40 pounds, he will frame it as I want to be the type of person who prioritises health. So instead of just working towards a goal that happens to be three months or six months away, you’re working towards a lifestyle that ends up changing the whole way that you do everything. So instead of just like running to the finish line, and then you know, sitting back on the couch and eating Cheetos again, you’re developing healthy habits in that particular example, that make you the type of person that would do those things. So there you go, three books, The Four Agreements, The Subtle Art of Not Giving an F, and Atomic Habits.

LA Knight (@reallaknight) is a professional wrestler signed to WWE. He is known for his work in IMPACT Wrestling and NWA under the name Eli Drake. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about his Mountain Dew Pitch Black match against Bray Wyatt at the Royal Rumble, being in the ring with the Undertaker at the 30th anniversary of Raw, being managed by the legendary Paul Bearer, and what he learned from him, doing motion capture for WWE 2K games, celebrating his 20th year in wrestling this year, moving on from the Max Dupri character, reacting to people thinking he sounds like The Rock, his WrestleMania plans and much more!

On being in the ring with The Undertaker:

“Well, I’ll tell you what, he was about this close to get the slap right in the mouth, but I decided to spare him. But I’ll tell you the truth. It’s funny because you always hear the cliche when you’re standing in that ring, and that bell tolls. You know, it’s chills. And I’m like, sure. Once that hit, it was chills, it was pretty wild. But at the same time to be standing there and doing my thing, and to be very recognised. That audience was right on top of everything I had to say even with the Undertaker in the ring. So I mean, that’s a big feather in my cap as far as I’m concerned. And at the same time, you know, looking at a guy who’s undoubtedly a legend, Hall of Famer, crazy, crazy night leading into this Royal Rumble.”

On Bray Wyatt stepping up LA Knight’s game:

“Well, for sure. Because look, here’s this big anticipated return. Everybody’s like, oh well Bray Wyatt is coming back, ain’t that’s special. And for me. I’m looking at LA Knight’s here, and people were worried about Bray Wyatt. That’s fine. That’s cool. I get that. But then he walks in on my territory. If you remember the very first interaction, I didn’t go talk to him. I didn’t go look for him. He came looking for me. So I don’t know, in a sense, it’s like, okay, well, people have this big grandiose idea of him, they think he’s amazing. And he’s this and he’s that, whatever he is. I’m just thinking he ain’t LA Knight. So at that point, it’s like, alright, well, I’m gonna stand here across the ring from this guy, and I’m gonna look him in the eyes, and I’m gonna be way, way bigger than him. And I ain’t talking physically, we’re talking figuratively in the sense that I’m going to be to a level that if he’s going to walk into my arena, I’m gonna make sure I’m the one that people remember. I want to make sure that I’m the one that people think about, I’m going to make sure that I’m the one that shines above and beyond as bright as I can.”

On the pitch black match:

“The guy plays with puppets, is that a scary thing? It’s not a puppet room match, it’s in the dark. If there’s one thing that doesn’t bother me, it’s the dark. And so you’re looking at what’s in store for this? I don’t think he knows what’s in store. I don’t know, I don’t think anybody really knows entirely what’s in store for this. I think at some point it’s going to be, at least I’m going in with the mindset it’s gonna be a kick ass fight. And whether that means the lights are completely out, whether it’s broad daylight, whatever it is. At the end of the day, if you ask me, just because I’m not a creature of circumstance, I’m more of a creator of circumstance. So in my mind, I’m thinking okay, lights are out, pitch black, what do I have to do to adapt to that situation? What that means it is advantage LA Knight.”

On nearly not being at Raw XXX:

“Busy week in the ring with The Undertaker. Sorry, I just took all your glory. I’m stealing your interview from you. But it’s a wild week, man. I didn’t even know I was going to be going to Raw and then last minute it’s like you guys are going to Raw. Why? Because well Rumble is coming around the corner, we got the Pitch Black match, the Royal Rumble all this stuff and it’s just go go go at this point.”

On this being LA Knight’s first Royal Rumble event:

“Well, it’s pretty crazy. I mean, look, I’ve been watching this since I was a little kid. I think I watched the very first Royal Rumble. So this is, in my mind the second biggest event of the year, this is enormous. So yeah, hell yeah, it means a lot. And at the same time, there’s a certain level to me where I’m like, I’d love to be in the actual Royal Rumble match. But when you’re looking at the idea that I’m in my own match, that puts all the focus on me and Bray, and I dig that because now I’m not sharing the focus with 30 other guys. Is that selfish? Is that egotistical? I don’t know, some people might say so. But if you’re in this business, that’s exactly what you want. So you know, to have that, that primary focus on such a big event. I think that it speaks volumes to LA Knight.”

On possibly entering the Royal Rumble match as well:

“Maybe, but I mean, again, I don’t think anybody knows what to expect for the Pitch Black match. I don’t think anybody knows how physical and how crazy that’s gonna be. So I don’t know what kind of shape either of us are gonna be in afterwards actually declared for the Royal Rumble.”

On sounding like The Rock:

“Well, you know what’s so funny is as I go online, you know, and Twitter might be the worst thing in the world. The amount of people I’ve been compared to and said that I am is astounding. And every day I’ll see a new one. And I’ll just be like wait, who? That too. So yeah, it’s not surprising. But yeah, I mean, just the voice tambor again, I mean, watching the hero back in 2013. I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since that, but sometimes you would just hear my voice or you’d hear His voice. And it would be tough to tell who was who you’re just like, and until the person’s face came on screen you’re like oh, yeah. But I don’t know. I don’t think otherwise there’s a whole like [similarity]. It’s just my normal speaking voice. But like, I don’t think that once I actually get amped up or anything like that, I think I kind of lose it at that point.”

What is the difference between Eli Drake and LA Knight:

“To be honest, there really isn’t, they are one and the same. And that’s the funniest thing is a lot of times again, from social media, they are like oh I miss Eli Drake. And I’m like you dummy. It’s the same thing, it’s the exact same thing. LA Knight is Eli Drake, Eli Drake is LA Knight. So you know, look, use what brought you to the dance. I know what brought me to the dance, and do a little dancing with it. That’s what I’m doing right now. So the idea that anybody thinks it’s any different just because they changed some letters around?”

How different is LA Knight from Max Dupri?

“Oh boy, who? Night and damn day. Very much so, we couldn’t be more opposite ends of the spectrum.”

On the change from Max Dupri to LA Knight:

“There’s an undeniable thing there where it’s like you get told that well, you know, if you want to go legit, maybe you should think about trying this or that. And you know, in my head, I’m like alright, let me just go ahead and do what I need to do to get ahead here. And so that’s what I do for a minute. But at some point, eventually I got to come to terms with the fact that I can’t be anything other than myself. And that’s exactly what happened where it’s just kind of like I’d eventually this stuff starts just sprinkling it out until eventually it’s just full blown.”

On getting what he wanted:

“You know, what’s funny is, in this run, there hasn’t been a lot where I’m like, you know, I want this, I want to do this, I want to go there. The only thing that I can really think of in a very overall sense is, I want to be at the top of the mountain, I want to be the guy. And in my mind, this is a stepping stone to that. And don’t let me minimise Bray Wyatt at all. He’s a big dude, he’s a big deal, and Saturday is going to be a hell of a fight. I understand, I get that. But in my mind, coming out of that, I’m looking at me stepping over him and moving myself up closer to the top of that mountain. So was this something specific that I wanted, desired, whatever. No, not really. But at the end of the day, is it something that now I can utilise to move myself forward, you bet your ass.”

Will LA Knight be doing motion capture for WWE 2K23?

“I can’t, I can’t, my schedule is too crazy. They probably don’t want me to go up there and be a potential injury risk or anything like that, even though for you know, five or six years never ever had an issue and never was, you know, never got injured or anything like that. Knock on the wood. Yeah. But I would love to, because I enjoyed just that atmosphere. Everybody was always cool. It was always a good time. And just getting to do you know, entrances of some of the different [superstars]. Hell last time I was with you, I think I blew something that you ended up having to edit out, because that was like, oh, yeah, did Hulk Hogan’s entrance and that immediately got a call from 2K. [They told me] You can’t say that!”

What is LA Knight grateful for:

“My boy Herman, my health and the Mountain Dew Pitch Black match.”

Featured image: USA

John Hennigan (@johnhennigan) is an actor, director and professional wrestler who has worked for WWE, AEW, IMPACT Wrestling, MLW and Lucha Underground using the names John Morrison, Johnny Nitro, Johnny Impact, Johnny Elite, Johnny Mundo and Johnny Caballero. He joins Chris Van Vliet in Hollywood, CA to talk about his upcoming celebrity boxing match against Harley Morenstein from Epic Meal Time at Creator Clash 2, being released from WWE along with his wife Taya Valkyrie, his 3 appearances at AEW, working with Bad Bunny at WrestleMania 37, his thoughts on Logan Paul and Jake Paul, Kofi Kingston giving him credit for the Royal Rumble save spots, his splash from the top of the Elimination Chamber, why The Miz has been so successful in WWE and much more!

On a WWE return:

“It wouldn’t be the worst thing. Never say never. I have a tonne of unfinished business. Unfinished business with my frenemy The Miz, and with a tonne of people on the roster, like in the business of professional wrestling. If you look at the rosters of Raw, SmackDown, NXT, Rampage, Dynamite, IMPACT, MLW, Ring of Honor, NWA, I have personal history and issues with everybody, not everybody, but a lot of people on every one of those rosters for sure. So it would be great to go back to WWE, be great to go to any one of those rosters because there’s a tonne of unfinished business and a tonne of new matchups. And mostly because I like wrestling.”

On boxing:

“Dude, I’ve been waking up in the morning and fighting YouTubers. Sometimes I go to Highland Park and fight Aaron from Game Grumps in his driveway. And on Sunday mornings, you know, and sometimes on Monday mornings. And Alex Wassabi, Nathan Barnett, is a friend of mine who got me into this whole thing like, for a career clash 1 I was in his corner, and he went viral for Joe Rogan thinking that there was a dad beating up his son. I don’t know if you saw that. And now I’m gonna be in his corner, but also fighting on the card of Creator Clash 2.”

On training to be a boxer:

“I think I’ve got a lot of work to do. But ultimately, yes. When I asked Josh Burnett to train me, he said, Yeah, sure, John. But just so you know, boxing is your worst thing. And I was like, I know, I know. Boxing is my worst thing, I’ve spent the least time on it, it’s this very specific art form.”

Why is John Morrison competing in boxing:

“Money. You know, the competitive spirit runs deep in me and yeah, money. Honestly, like there is that, but I was a, you know, a competitive wrestler before I got into pro wrestling. I wrestled in high school and college. And it’s very different from professional wrestling, because it’s just you versus one other person, and at some level, it’s a test of wills. And it just doesn’t start when you’re out there in amateur wrestling or in boxing when the bell rings, the test of wills begins as you start preparing for the fight. If there are two evenly matched fighters, a lot of times it’s the person that’s tougher that wins. It would be impossible for me to catch up with a career long professional boxer at this point. Just the same as it would be impossible for a professional boxer to catch up with my ability in professional wrestling. I’ve been doing it for for 20 years, there’s, you can’t, you can’t make up that difference in a year or six months. But it excites me to be back in a competitive environment.”

On boxing goals:

“I mean, it could be great for me, it can be really bad for like the, you know, like the Jake Paul’s, Logan Paul’s, KSI’s, those guys, I mean, the overnight tough guys. Let’s say, on YouTube.”

On Bad Bunny:

“I don’t want to take anything away from Bad Bunny, because he came in so humble and with so much respect, and was such a big star and worked so hard on learning the business and how to like put on an entertaining match. There are a lot of celebrities or people adjacent to wrestling that like I could take a Canadian Destroyer from but I probably wouldn’t.”

On nearly not being in the Bad Bunny match:

“I would have been a lot more present, but I went to the Performance Center once to train with him. Then the following episode of Raw, I partially tore my MCL. And like there was like touch and go for a while like it was almost going to be Bad Bunny and Miz in a singles. Then a tag, didn’t know if I was gonna be cleared. People were nervous about me doing much in the match. And it ended up well, I ended up just doing it. Whether I was cleared or not.”

On Logan Paul:

“Here’s what I think of Logan Paul. Man, remember when he had that match, and he said he completely blew out his knee. All three ligaments, his ACL, PCL, MCL, and then come to find out like, he just kind of had a sore knee. Oh, man, poor guy. I feel like he’s had three matches, he’s acting like, and a lot of people are acting like he’s God’s gift. And if he wanted to have, I’ve had close to 4000 matches. And I’ve torn both these for real like no MCL partially torn scope, scope, scope, partial ACL. If he wants to stay in the business and do it for real. Why doesn’t he talk about wrestling then? Because right now I think he’s getting a lot of help from the best minds in the business and pretending like he’s doing more of it than he is. Because without the help of the people surrounding I think Logan Paul falls flat on his face.”

On Logan Paul’s first 3 WWE matches:

“I don’t know if anyone’s had their first three matches rehearsed as much as he’s rehearsed his three matches either, especially like working one on one with Shawn Michaels. Who in the business can say that they worked for a month on one match with Shawn Michaels before they had that match. It’s no wonder it was a great match. He’s working with one of the best minds, best in-ring technicians and performers in the history of the business individually for a month for one match.”

On the WWE release: 

“I feel like I had a good vibe in my head of where I stood, and I didn’t really think I was getting released until the end when I like, realised like I was trying to do a character that had been convoluted and kind of like, tweaked and tweaked and tweaked until it kind of became impossible. And then I started thinking like, yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if I get released. And it happened.”

On The Miz:

“I think if you look at the roster, like and think about, like, all the baby faces, all the good guys and think about who would you want to wrestle if you were in that spot, like the most hated person, like the person that’s the best at riling up the crowd? That would be the most satisfying for people to see beat the crap out of, it really would be him. And that’s to his credit, because it’s not an accident or a mistake. It’s him being self aware and doubling down on what makes him the shiniest they like to say.”

What makes The Miz so shiny:

“His authenticity, and he is a product of professional wrestling like we all are, plus reality TV and his environment. And he had to fight for what he got and fight for attention on reality shows, which if you don’t know him and are in large groups, can come off as abrasive, and I think that is shiny. It’s not necessarily like something that you would like, want your kid to be or teach someone. But in his case, it’s him realising what he has and emphasising it like turning the volume up on his authentic self, I think is something that tonnes of people don’t do. Like, they want to be liked or good guys, like. I’m trying to think who to throw under the bus, Cody, Cody Rhodes. He’s got to start quality. He could have turned up the annoyingness and volume on himself and be the top heel of AEW. But he didn’t because he wanted to be loved.”

On Vince McMahon:

“I remember like, Vince was always really big on tan. And there was a while where I was wrestling, Sheamus, and I’d come back and he’s like, goddammit, you look fantastic. And I looked exactly the same, and then I wrestled Truth the next week and he’s like, Morrison come here! You look like sh*t! I can’t sell pale. And I looked the same, and I was like, I literally wrestled like the whitest guy on the roster last week, and [the I wrestled] Truth, who’s very black. And of course, I’m not going to look that tanned.”

On constant name changes:

“Literally, Vince, and I don’t know if he would admit this or not, but he did not like Nitro. I don’t think [he liked it] because it reminded him of WCW. And like it was, it’s always going to be too soon. Like because he asked me to change my name three times. The third time was when I won the ECW title, and I didn’t say no that time because I was like, Alright, I’m not gonna fight this anymore.”

Where did John Morrison come from:

“He [Vince] said you gotta change your name. You’ve got to have a champion’s name if you’re going to be a champion. Make a list of names, write down 10 names. And then, like an hour later I had like a list of all these names. Morrison was off Jim Morrison from The Doors, but I had like Brando Morrison, Johnny Brando, Johnny Blaze Morrison like Blaze was already copywritten but a bunch of stuff. And he looked at this list that I’d spent an hour googling names and like meanings and like, different celebrities like James Dean and making this list and he just looked at it and was like [flatly] ‘John Morrison’ like that.”

What is John Morrison grateful for:

“My wife, my family and my health.”

Featured image: Bleacher Report

Brant Pinvidic (@brantpinvidic) is a producer, director, speaker, coach and the author of the bestselling book “The 3-Minute Rule: Say Less To Get More From Any Pitch Or Presentation”. He joins Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios as the Wynn Las Vegas to talk about how he became a Hollywood television producer, creating shows like “The Biggest Loser”, “Bar Rescue” and “Intervention”, how to pitch anything so it will be remembered, his adventure club called “Reject Average”, living life to your fullest, leaning into the things you are best at and much more!

On the biggest hit shows Brant Pinvidic has been a part of:

“For me Bar Rescue is probably the biggest one. You know, Jon Taffer was a big, big hit, and he was great. And that was, you know, a lot of luck getting that through, and he’s huge talent. You can pitch that show and have it do well. So we did that with Extreme Makeover Weight Loss edition, which is a big show as well, accompanied with The Biggest Loser, like we’ve had some good, we’ve had some good runs.”

The origin of The Biggest Loser:

“The Biggest Loser was the very first weight loss show that ever went [viral], and it was like, you know, and that was an amalgamation of a couple of ideas that the network had, they never wanted to do it. And you know, getting Big Ben Silverman kind of convinced them and they had to find somebody to produce it, which was JD Roth and the company I was running. And then I came in there. And I remember saying to the guys, like, shouldn’t we be doing a tonne of weight loss shows now that this is a huge hit? And so that’s what we did Extreme Makeover Weight Loss. And then I did probably another 12 or 13, weight loss shows after that.”

On the new book 3 minutes:

“Well, we used to do that in the edit bay, right? Like every scene had to resolve within three minutes. I’ll use the example like when I do on stage with Shark Tank. Yeah. You know, somebody comes in to pitch an idea for every pitch for three minutes. That’s right. And that’s like, that’s, that’s a three hour session, right? Yeah. And they boil it down to almost exactly three minutes. Because it’s like, there’s a tonne of science behind it. But we as human beings, we process information and sort of these three key categories, right. We conceptualise, we contextualise, and then we actualize. So once we understand the concept, that’s the first thing to know, what is this? What’s going on? What are we doing? Then I understand the context, which is like, Okay, how does this relate to me? And then I actualize which is like, do I want to get involved? What’s my next move? That’s what we do. You know, you can decide what you’re gonna wear for dinner tonight, or whether we’re gonna go to war with some other country. It’s the same exact decision making process.”

Why is Brant Pindivic not pitching shows anymore?

“To be honest, it lost its lustre for me. TV was an outlet for me to be successful, and growing up in Canada, you know, all I wanted to do to be successful in Canada is like a thumb, or a grip on your throat trying to strangle you from being successful everyday. And it was just a difficult process, and all I wanted to do is be accepted, all I wanted to do is find my place and my people. And I couldn’t find that in Canada. And when I came to Los Angeles, that was my people. That’s what made sense.”

On what is stopping people:

“Reasonable probability of success. I teach this, I speak at schools and colleges for free across the country. Because I think it’s just an absolute shame that you know that the curriculum that we teach in our public and private schools is atrocious. And anybody in the industry should be embarrassed that this is what we still do. Like, we don’t teach entrepreneurship, we don’t teach financial literacy, none of those things, it’s just gross. So I teach entrepreneurial things to any school that wants me to come there. And the one thing I asked the kids every time is, do you believe that you can be anything you set your mind to? And they all raise their hand, Yes. It’s like, Who the hell is feeding you these terrible ideas? That is not true. Like, it is not true. Anything you set your mind to, you should do. But anything you can do, you should set your mind to, but doesn’t mean because you set your mind to it, you’re going to be able to do that, you know. And I show a clip from Lady Gaga, winning her Academy Award. And she’s in tears. And she’s saying, like, don’t let people tell you no, and don’t let people tell you, you can’t do it. And people told me that I was never gonna make it, I just kept pushing through and, and then I finally here I am. And I was like, What are you doing? Why are you telling people this? She’s one of the greatest performers of all time, and people told her no. So guess what, if you aren’t already one of the greatest performers like the odds of you making it to Lady Gaga success are zero. So don’t listen to her. That’s the worst advice you could possibly get. It’s like, that’s not real.”

What is your superpower? 

“I think communication is the big one. Being able to understand ideas, being able to convey those ideas to others in a way that they understand effectively has proven over and over again to be, I guess you would call my superpower. That is what I do better than most people.”

On unfortunate scheduling:

“It’s not like a natural thing, it was developed. It was specifically developed, and I can remember when it really started. After I first moved to Los Angeles, and I was in Hollywood, I was going to a big pitch meeting at CBS. And I, you know, was in the lobby of CBS chatting, waiting for my turn to go into the pitch room, and out walks Simon Cowell. And oh, there’s Simon, so he says hi, we’re chatting. And I’m thinking to myself oh man, I don’t really like to follow Simon Cowell into a pitch meeting, this sucks. And then I see him looking over my shoulder as we’re chatting. And I turn around, and Mark Burnett [creator of Shark Tank] walks in. And I realised like, Mark’s got the 3:30 slot, it means he’s going to be pitching after me. And I’m wedged between these two superstars, and I am less than I mean, I’m nothing today to them, you could imagine how little I was years ago.”

Growing the reputation:

“So I just got almost like a wave of panic. And the idea was like, Hey, I can’t be in this room yapping and yapping and trying to impress the president of the network. They don’t really care about me, I gotta get in and out here. And we went in there and my talking was a little chit chat, and I was in and out of that room. Pitch the show, here’s what the show is, here’s why we think it’s good for CBS, here’s how we’re gonna make it, here’s the budget, and that was it. And I got out of the room, I think it was like nine and a half minutes total. And my agent was like, that was like one of the best pitches I’ve ever heard. He’s like it was so clear, it was so crisp, it was so effective. You need to do that from now on. I was like, okay, so I started doing it a little bit. And we sold the show to CBS, by the way. And so we ended up, I end up doing that a little more often, where I would just get to the point, like literally just get to the point. And I started this reputation around Hollywood as one of the best pitch producers in the business. And I remember thinking like, you know, I’m not trying very hard. I’m not really doing a lot of stuff out of the box. And so when I honed that skill to be like, okay, strip all the other crap away, what is the simplest, clearest message here? Once you just start doing that, then I could add other flair, cool elements, things that sort of like were more dynamic. And that’s sort of how the reputation grew, and so on from there.”

On if it doesn’t work out:

“So many people are held back by that. And they’re waiting for the right moment. They’re waiting for the right moment to start a book, to start a podcast, they’re waiting for the right moment to get a side hustle. They’re waiting for the right moment to write a book. They’re like, they’re waiting for something to happen. And I went through that myself, right. Like, I wanted to write this book. But I was already having, like, you know, very large clients, like fortune 500 clients. And I was like, I, if I just do a little bit better than I’ll be, I’ll be good enough to write this book. Right? And what you realise in life is, it’s not who’s the most qualified, it’s not who’s ready, it’s who puts up their goddamn hand and says, that’s me. I’m doing it. There are 1000 TV producers, with better credits, better history, more success that could have written this book. And do you know how many of them did? None. So, like, I did it, and I’m the guy and now that’s, I’m the expert. And they now come to me for stuff. And it’s like, yeah, well, you could have done it too. Maybe they didn’t want to. I’m just saying like, that’s where people didn’t, and I had so many people from the television and film industry come to me after the book came out, and I left the industry and I started doing this all, you know, full time effectively. And basically asked me how they get out of the business. Because, you know, a lot of people don’t feel that they have marketable skills. Like if you’re a doctor, I get it. But like for most people, they don’t feel like their skills are transferable. And it’s because they just have a very myopic view of where their world fits.”

What is Brant Pinvidic is grateful for:

“That I started things early, the future and opportunities.”

Featured image: Wikipedia

Anthony Bowens (@bowens_official) is a professional wrestler with All Elite Wrestling and is part of the tag team “The Acclaimed” with Max Castor. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Hollywood, CA to talk about signing with AEW, how Tony Khan paired him with Max Caster and created The Acclaimed, what he has learned from working with Billy Gunn, his plan to reunite Billy and Chuck, how he came out as gay to his family and friends, being an LGBTQ role model, what winning the AEW Tag Team Championships meant to him, why he decided to move to Los Angeles, his YouTube channel with his boyfriend called “Michael & Anthony” and much more!

On what being a champion in AEW means to Anthony Bowens:

“It means a lot. It means a whole lot. I mean, Max and I came into the company in October of 2020. And less than two years later, we are at the top of the tag division, we’re at the top of the world. It’s a moment that I had been working for. Obviously, I didn’t know I was going to  win the Tag Team titles but winning a championship and a major company with all the hard work and all the sacrifices that went into, you know, becoming a professional wrestler and getting to this level to have that moment. It’s awesome. It’s cool.”

On being homegrown AEW talent:

“I hope that we can be at least like an example for other talent that comes in to see that there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Not that there isn’t but just like, hey, like, how can I get to the top of this company? How can I really achieve something? So I hope the blueprint that we set is a good example for other homegrown talent.”

On Max Caster’s raps:

“So yeah, I’m grateful to have you know, every time when the siren hit, people lose their minds, because they want to hear what Caster has to say. Because you never know what he’s gonna say. That’s the beauty of him having a live microphone. We hit on just about everything, which seems to make people upset with certain things. But it’s just like, if it’s news, like, we don’t operate within the realm of we have to live in a bubble of just our company. If it’s news, if it’s out there, if it happened, it’s up for grabs. And you know, obviously, if it’s tasteful. But, you know, we will touch on anything. And that’s the way it’s gonna continue to be. So get used to it.”

Do people know Max Caster’s raps beforehand:

“No, no, no, and that’s the beauty of it. Because we want authentic reactions, if he says something snippy and you get p*ssed, get that camera shot that makes the match so much better, because it’s what he said. So we try to make sure that whoever was listening is not around us. And we don’t want them to hear anything.”

On being opposites as a team:

“Well, I’ll stop you there because I don’t think we’re characters, I think we are true to, like who we are. Caster’s a rapper, Caster likes to push buttons, whatever you see on television, that’s Max Caster. For me, like obviously I don’t run around you know, town screaming The Acclaimed have arrived. But there’s a part of me, there’s all different parts that make up Anthony Bowens, and by nature, I am an introverted person. I’m kind of like the guy leaning on the wall at a party observing as opposed to being the centre of attention. But there is a part of me that is, I guess, crazy. And I unleashed that part of me when we have our entrance and Max is rapping, and they just let loose in and have fun. So I think everything you see is authentically us, which is the reason why it’s resonating so well with people.

Has Anthony Bowens re-watched his debut:

“I can’t. I’m dead serious, I cannot watch it because it was very awkward. And basically that was the same day that we had a meeting with Tony, that was the first time we ever met like Tony face-to-face, and that’s when he told us that we were going to be The Acclaimed and that was basically our try out match, it was against Best Friends. And we didn’t know what The Acclaimed was. We just knew that Max rapped and Cody told me, the only piece of information I was given was from Cody and he said just whatever dis Caster says, it’s the craziest, best thing you’ve ever heard in your entire life. That was the only thing I got. And I had to figure out who I was under the umbrella of The Acclaimed. But two hours later, after meeting Tony, I had no idea what that was. So we came out and there was no theme music, so everything was just like it’s acapella. He did the rap, and I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m like that was a good one. Yeah, it was terrible. I will never [watch the entrance]. I’ll watch the match, the match was great. I will not watch the entrance.”

On Billy Gunn:

“Billy has been a big part of our presentation. And honestly, that whole dynamic we had with him and his kids was the perfect storm to lead to everything that happened. Because I was hurt at the time, and I was hurt. Caster was just having singles matches, we, you know, fluctuate back and forth between TV and Dark. And the same thing was happening with The Gunn Club. And I’ll be honest with you, before they ruined everything and they became selfish pieces of sh*t, we were pretty good friends with The Gunn Club. Like we had a good dynamic, we had a good rapport, we would hang out before the show and like laugh about the most ridiculous things. And Caster was the one that said hey, I think we should do something with these guys. I don’t know what, because we were having so much fun together. And one day I was sitting on the beach, very relaxed, and I just came up with this way to put us together and I needed a reason to be on television with my injury. And we could do this thing where we all come together, we can do it, you know, on Dark, it doesn’t matter. We just want to do something and prove that we are useful to the TV show that we can eventually be on Dynamite every single week. And we started doing it and then the people loved it. And they started picking up on the dynamic between Billy, me and Billy, him pushing me in the wheelchair.”

On the origin of Scissor Me Daddy Ass:

“One day, it was probably about five minutes before we went out to, I think it was Rampage? I think it was a battle royale on Rampage. And I was sitting in the wheelchair and I was giggling to myself. I was trying to figure out a way to end our entrance, because Max would rap I would get the crowd to yell ass boys, but I didn’t have an ending. And I just giggled to myself and I thought I think I’m just gonna say scissor me Daddy Ass. I don’t know why that popped into my head, but I started laughing. Literally me like sitting in the wheelchair in gorilla just like laughing at it. And then I didn’t tell anybody, I think I had told Billy, I think I’m gonna say scissor me Daddy Ass. He didn’t say anything. I just remember he just smiled at me and he walked away. And that was it. Five minutes later, when I screamed it on Rampage, I came back, I looked around, no one said anything to me. I was like, okay, so I guess that was okay. And then it was trending. And then I started to see the signs, that’s when you know. I’ve got to say this every single week.”

On original plans for the Daddy Ass Birthday Bash:

“Yes, yes, yes, yes. And I don’t like pulling the curtain too far back. But I will say that the Daddy Ass Birthday Bash celebration. I thought it would be a fun idea, and I did put it together. What you saw people enjoyed, but was about maybe 30 or 40% of what I had originally planned. [Chris – Were you going to invite Chuck Palumbo?] He was going to be my birthday gift. I thought the irony of me reuniting Billy and Chuck would be perfect for this birthday bash. But he wasn’t available. I don’t like putting things out there. But like, I really want people [to know this one].”

On nearly signing with WWE:

“I think I’ve told the story a couple of times. I haven’t really gone too much into detail with that but you know, screw it might as well. So I had a try out with them in 2015 at the Arnold Classic. I did well enough there, they invited myself and Bianca [Belair] to the Performance Centre. We did a full one there. They told me not right now, keep in touch. I kept in touch and then randomly in 2017 I got hit up, hey, you know, we’re looking to bring you in 2018. So I started preparing I did you know, the background, I did everything. The only thing I needed was just the contract, and it never came. And I would check in every six months, like hey, this is what you told me to work on, you know, presented to them. Nothing. And then, you know, budget issues. There’s no room, like how is there no room, you know, just hired 50 people, there’s clearly room. But they ghosted me really for three years. And then I did Dark, and then right after Dark, they hit me back up. They hit me back up and they asked if I was a free agent, which I said I was. They ended up offering me a contract. I said yes. But then they never sent me a contract. And in that timeframe, Tony had found out and he wanted me to go meet with him. And unbeknownst to me, I guess something similar was happening with Caster. So I felt like well, you know, this is kind of the second time that this has happened, where I haven’t gotten, you know, what I needed to so I might as well hear this guy out. I went out, spoke to Tony and I liked our conversation, I liked the opportunity that he was giving us and combine that with, you know, everything I talked about with the locker room. And truthfully, you know, I had a family emergency at the time, and it kind of made me realise that I didn’t want to move to Orlando at that point in my life. So everything was just telling me I needed to go to AEW. So once they presented us with a contract, I signed it and I told WWE unfortunately I had to pass on their offer, I was never sent anything. And I trust Tony’s vision for us.”

On winning the Tag Team Championships:

“I knew I would have to kind of talk afterwards. And I didn’t know what emotional state I would be in. Like, I thought, if this were to ever happen, I would cry in the ring. Because it was just, I would be so happy. But I just smiled, I couldn’t help but just smile, hearing the crowd reaction to it, they exploded. My friends and my family were there, my boyfriend flew in. When we won, the confetti went off, somehow within the sea of how many 1000s of people were there, I look up and I saw my dad cheering, which is like, such a cool moment. And I guess I have to like stop myself, because I’m gonna get teary eyed thinking about like, that’s my favourite part of the night, actually. But I knew at some point, I would have to speak and I wanted it to be authentic. And, you know, I just started talking. And that’s what came out. And I hope that people, whatever they’re struggling with, can use that as an example of overcoming and being having the mental toughness, having the resilience to fight through whatever that they may be going through to come out on the other side, you know, positively and happily, because I do believe if you don’t, you know, allow yourself to, like, get consumed by everything and keep fighting that you will come out better than we were.”

On Fred Rosser/Darren Young coming out as gay:

“So I don’t remember what year it was. I’m not sure [Chris – it was like 2012] I wasn’t in wrestling then. But I did keep an eye on it to see, you know, what the response would be? Because you just don’t know, you know. That was a very, very scary time when it comes to, you know, thinking about what you want to do with your life, and then you’re harbouring this, this heavy secret that you feel like is going to absolutely destroy your life. So you do kind of keep tabs on, like what’s going on. There weren’t many people out there that I can relate to that I felt like this person, like, looks like me or this, like I didn’t have that kind of representation that I completely relate it to. And, you know, Fred was one of those people for a while. And I don’t think it was, the company handled it quite well, in my opinion. And that didn’t give me any kind of, you know, hope that hey, like, here’s this guy, he came out, he took his brave step and now he’s, you know, super successful in the company, just kind of felt like they didn’t do anything with them. And that was, I felt horrible for him. And also, for me, it was like I don’t, is this what I would have to look forward to if you know, I decided to get into wrestling, I did decide to pursue my dream. And then I did come out. But I thank him for taking that step. Because it was probably very, very, very, very hard to do.”

What is Anthony Bowens grateful for:

“Those that are closest to me, my career and everyone that supports us.”

Murray The Magician (@murraysawchuck) is a magician, comedian and actor. He is also a viral sensation with over 4 billion views online and performs live at Tropicana Vegas and Fantasy at the Luxor nightly. He joins Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios at Wynn Las Vegas to talk about growing up in Burnaby, BC, how he got started as a magician, falling in love with show business at a young age, the difference between a trick and an illusion, getting to the semi-finals on America’s Got Talent and making a tiger appear on the show, becoming the magic expert on “Pawn Stars” and much more!

On starring on Pawn Stars:

“Yeah, that was a while ago. Yeah, I’m still doing it. And they’re still on the air, which is unbelievable, you know. But it just goes to show you what cool and good TV they put out there. And it’s also a TV show that anyone can watch aged 2 to 102. It doesn’t offend anybody, it’s educational, and it’s even great TV to have in the background.”

On being recognised from many different TV shows:

“That’s exactly what it is like. [They say] ‘You’re from…’ And I’m like yep, and I just keep walking. Usually I’m like, well that’s good enough. For some people it’s like, you know, you’re the guy from and I’m like I am and that’s the end of it. It could be, who knows, I assume they knew who I was. But I think growing up in the business, obviously, I was a magician originally, still am. But as I involved with doing different television shows, I really wanted to create a brand and a look that I could be a host of a show, the neighbour next door on a TV show. I could do a stupid show like Wipeout, which I did or Deal or No Deal, whatever it is, and just kind of be that guy, you know. And almost like, you know, we were talking before we went live, talking about Carrot Top. You don’t need to say what Carrot Top does, he’s just Carrot Top. I mean, so that’s what I was been trying to create all my career. So I can be a historian like on Pawn Stars and talk educated, you know, or I can be on stage and talk ridiculous in my comedy and not be taking that serious.”

On always wanting to be in show business:

“You know, I started in the business when I was five years old Ukrainian dancing because I’m half Ukrainian and I’m half Scottish. And so that’s where Sawchuck comes from, my real name is Murray Sawchuck, Murray is Scottish, so Murray is my mother’s last name. And I got it as my first and of course, Sawchuck is my father’s last name. And so I grew up Ukrainian dancing, and I trained ballet, I played accordion, and I quit all that becasue I wanted a girlfriend. Let’s be honest, accordion is not that sexy. It could have been saxophone, but no. And and then as I got into I got a magic, it was seven, eight years old, like a lot of kids kind of liked it. I was already in front of the audience, liked the attention, only child to begin with, you know, liked attention as well. And then and then it just kind of picked up. I got paid a few bucks for doing some tricks at kids birthday parties. And I thought was kind of cool. You know? So yeah. Did all those shows the Lower Mainland Vancouver, Burnaby. All that.”

On how the magic kit gift was different than other kids who got one:

“I think it was different for me because I think I already had the background of liking entertainment. Like I love watching shows. I love watching even as a kid watching concerts on TV. My father worked two jobs for the railway, which is my whole family was in that CN Rail, and then he also worked as an usher at the PNE, which is the Pacific National Exhibition, our big Coliseum, downtown Vancouver, which it used to be, now it’s not, it’s a smaller one and it’s not used as much. But I got to sneak in and see all the shows because he was the Usher. And so he would sneak me in between the big rock and roll buses from everybody from Cover me Bad to Paula Abdul to George Strait and Willy Nelson… You name a star, he was sneaking in to watch him because I liked it. I’d be 12 I wouldn’t necessarily know who they were, but I liked entertainment. And of course, I became to like them. That’s why I like everybody from Kiss to Alice Cooper to George Strait, you know. So I learned that being an entertainer is pretty cool. You know, you get all the audience, you get the attention, you get to share your talent if you have some, you know. So that’s kind of how I evolved as a kid and growing into it being like, man is cool to do as a living.”

On the difference between a trick and an illusion:

“There is and isn’t at the end of the day. A lot of people growing up in the business when you’re trying to make it and you’re trying to be a star you don’t want to be called a magician, you want to be called an illusionist, becasue that sounds more expensive and rich and high end and whatever the hell you want to call it. I just say I do tricks for a living. I mean, it’s kinda like Frank Sinatra said he was a saloon singer. Because we know he wasn’t, but he was, you know what I’m saying. So now when people ask what I do, I just say I do tricks for living, you know. But yeah, growing up, you know, I’m an illusionist, you know, and usually illusions are magicians that do stuff with bigger items, you know, like, on America’s Got Talent, I vanished a train and a car and a bunch of stuff. And that would be an illusion, because the idea is No, I did not vanish the train. I mean, yeah, I did, if you watch it, I did. Yeah, but I couldn’t just like this. I mean, that’s, you know, but I’m creating this illusion that you really don’t see it there when it might be there, might not be, but it just didn’t vanish in the air, there is a skill to that. So that’s that, whereas the magic trick would be putting a coin in my hand and then it’s not there, which would be sleight of hand as well. But that is more attuned to a magic trick because it’s more self contained. Whereas illusion, Vanishing a car or truck? I can’t just do that on my own. It takes a team of people, lighting and a lot of cool things that make it happen, you know, so maybe that would probably be the, you know, definition of it.”

On Murray’s next level moment:

“Two things I think, you know, it’s funny I get asked that question a lot. It wasn’t that one like Justin Bieber moment, you know where you know, Usher found me or JT. And then from YouTube, and then all of a sudden you’re opening for them and away we go, right? I mean, or Buble with David Foster and then there goes the album and away we go, you know. So I think with mine, it was little successes. You know, one was being on America’s Got Talent, you know. Don’t forget, I was on the fifth season of that. And that was before we were allowed to use social media, no Twitter, no Instagram, anything. Instagram was around at the time, and Facebook. And that was like, Season Five, 2010, so we didn’t have that element. So when it was on TV doing that live, we had 22 million people watch us live. That’s a lot for a live show. Now it’s about 8 million, which is still a lot, but 22 is kind of hard to understand. So literally the next day at the airport, people were walking up to me going oh my god, where’s the tiger? Oh, my God, where’s the tram? I’m like you watched the show? Like, I’m like you actually watched, 22 million? Yeah, they did. You know, because you will run into enough people that did see it because it happened to be the hottest show that year that year. So that, you know, it’s one of those aspects where it’s kind of neat having that.”

On getting a tiger onto AGT:

“Boy, not easy, you know, let me tell you that. You know, so when I went on that show they said what do you want to do? So I said, I want to make a car up here. And they said, I don’t know if we can do that. I said well I don’t want to do the show them? And they said what do you mean? I said I’ve watched your show, I need to do something you’ve never done before, and I need to do something that I want on TV and I’ve never done on TV before. And you have never had that, and so they said how about one of those ticks where you cut a girl in half? I said you’re gonna X me, I’m not gonna get X’d. I’m okay doing one episode and not winning. I’m not here to win, I get the deal. But I want to do something special. So I ended up producing a car which they said finally yes. And then they said, what are you going to do next? And I said, because I everything I’ve done in America’s Got Talent I’d never done in my life before. I created it especially for the show, because I was thinking as a producer, not a magician. And I’ve always done that every time I do TV, I always think of the director, the producer, never the talent because I go what would I want that guy to be? You know, I really put myself in a third person. So as a magician, I need you to either make an elephant appear, a car vanish, a tiger, a rabbit out a hat, whatever middle America would say, that’s what I try to do. So a tiger and so I said it was I’m gonna make a tiger up here. [They sked] Do you know how much it’s gonna cost? So I called my friends who had tigers, a trainer, and a cage that could put them in. So yeah, Brandon Miller is a dear friend of mine. And he’s the one that if you ever saw the movie Gladiator they had tigers in it, that’s his tigers, for commercials and all that. And so they’re very famous tigers in their own right. So I talked to him and I got the trick. And I rented [the box], didn’t know how to do the damn thing. So I’m practising the for AGT, now of course, we got PETA, who’s not happy with the situation as well. And the tiger was treated really well, huge race car trailer, air conditioned. I mean, the thing got better accommodations I’ve ever had in my life. And we had a second Tiger too, because you always bring two tigers, which I didn’t know this until then. Because if one’s having a bad day, guess what? It’s having a bad day. And you don’t win, it’s the tiger. Okay, you just relax partner, so you use the other Tiger and hopefully they’re nice. So then this thing pulled on a lot. Everyone came out of the woodwork. I saw producers that didn’t even know were in the building because they don’t get to see the upper execs. but they’re paying for it. So they’re like we’re gonna see the damn tiger. So we go in there, and the Tigers, they’re gorgeous. So we’re rehearsing it, PETA was on set because we got to cleared by PETA because we are the CBS lots, it was a big thing and so there we finished the rehearsal. I do it three times, the girls in the box, curtain drops, tiger is supposed to be there. First time I do it, the curtain half dropped then I had the tiger and the girl in the box same time. And I’m like they are safe but they’re both there and I’m like okay, let’s reset it did it again. The curtain wouldn’t fall. Okay, did it again, they only allow 15 mins rehearsal because you know, there’s a lot of acts. Did it again, the curtain drop, the second part of the curtain wouldn’t drop. So it was covered. But now it couldn’t reveal as a tiger though. So Jason Raph walks up, he’s executive producer, and I’ve known for years he walks up and goes, they spent a lot of money getting out there. So this trick doesn’t work like this and we can’t see the tiger, there’s nothing I can do to make this look magical or put you through, like there’s nothing. Just you know, like, okay, got it. So I looked at my buddy lefty who’s with me everywhere I travel. I said we got to fix this damn curtain thing. So I spent literally eight hours in that parking lot pulling the curtain it was like OCD times 10. I was like we got this curtains gotta drop because if even if the trick works, and like the curtains jammed, I can’t show the damn Tiger. So we did that. And then when you actually watch that clip online, when I pull, I literally pulled the pin because the pins got stuck. I pulled that pin so damn hard, and so it revealed a tiger. I got off the ground about three feet if you look at me. And when I look back, I was so thrilled that there was a tiger sitting there. I was more excited than the audience because I was like, Oh Christ it worked. So I literally looked at the audience, I was just as happy as them and I was like that was the end. As soon as he finished the tiger went back to the farm, which is big bear, a big ranch, like 35 acres they had to roam on. And the trick went back from where I rented it from like, we’re never doing that again. Thank you, good night at work. So that’s how you got a tiger on the set.”

On last minute problems with the tiger trick:

“The next day after we did the rehearsal, because you shoot the next day, right, five o’clock, which is eight o’clock east coast. At three o’clock, I get a phone call. So if we can’t produce the tiger in the box, what do you think about producing, like David Hasselhoff because David had just left the show? Or maybe Nick Cannon? I’m like, I don’t need a box to produce those people. It’s not a trick like a tiger is. Well, PETA has given us trouble, we’re not sure. I’m like, it’s three o’clock in the afternoon, we go live in two hours. It’s like all this money spent, I’ve rented people. I said are you kidding me? So we go back to well, you know, they’re looking at the tiger and said something about the holes at the top of the cage, we want an air conditioner put in. Like great, so we got an air conditioner put on top that blew the air. Like this is a better than one bedroom part of New York City with a damn tiger. And we did the whole thing what they said and sure enough, they they approved it literally at the last second and we did it but I was like, Okay, I’m done. We’re not doing this again. The animals are always treated well, in my world they are because I’m a huge animal advocate, you know, keeping them safe. And that’s how you get a tiger on there. I’ll never do it again.”

What is Murray the Magician grateful for:

“My wife, my health and giving back to the community.”

Chris Masters (@ChrisAdonis) is a professional wrestler known for his time in WWE and also in IMPACT Wrestling and NWA where he performs under the name Chris Adonis. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Hollywood, CA to talk about getting signed to WWE when he was 22 years old, his impressive bodybuilding physique, the people he looked up to as a kid including Mr. Perfect, Ultimate Warrior, Bret Hart and Ric Flair, the changes he has made both personally and professionally over the last 2 years, his pitch to make a return at the Royal Rumble, his thoughts on Bobby Lashley using the Hurt Lock and much more!

The origin of the Chris Masters name:

“Actually, you know what I just found this out recently. I just walked into OVW one day and they just told me my name was Masters, but I never really investigated like who came up with Chris Masters. It was just like, given to me as a you are this. It’s like, okay. And then I you know, as Dr. Tom, now works with us, Dr. Tom Prichard in NWA and he actually told me the story about how we came up with Masters and it actually came from a another wrestler. Forgive me, Dr. Tom, I can’t remember all the details. But he told me this story about how we came up with it. I was like, Wow, I’m finding this out 20 years later, this is amazing. Honestly, that’s how it happened. I walked into OVW, nobody told me who came up with it. I don’t even remember. I guess it might have been Dr. Tom who told me initially, but they just told me you’re Chris Masters now. That’s how it works.”

On possibly returning to WWE:

“So, you know, all of this stuff has happened. And like I’ve never even thought about going back to WWE, honestly, because, and it’s not out of anything bitter. It’s just, you know, I had a couple of runs there and it ended the way it did. And, you know, I just realised that my love is for professional wrestling even if it’s not with WWE. But you know, with everything that I’ve learned in the last couple of years and then also seen Shelton, Carlito, MVP all my buddies you know, I finally started you know, looking at it and it was more out of this what you just mentioned. It was more not out of Chris Masters coming back, it was more out of because I remember getting in touch with that young wrestling fan. I remember what is it that we’re always looking for? We’re looking for that oh sh*t moment you know, I mean, like that Ultimate Warrior comeback at WrestleMania 8. It’s not to say anything I could do can measure to that but the Bobby Lashley scenario is fascinating because I haven’t been there for so long though.”

On Bobby Lashley using The Hurt Lock:

“People ask me this all the time. I mean, like, the thing is, if you were to look at the situation, and you see that Bobby Lashley was the one to break it. It only makes sense for him with me not being there, to kind of be the guy to adopt it. But it doesn’t change the fact that the Master Lock is the OG and I know a lot of people are gonna bring up Hercules and Ken Patera. But we’re talking about in the modern era, ladies and gents. So I mean, I think Hurt Lock Master Lock would still be kind of interesting. But like, you know, it only makes sense. For Bobby. I’ve never come out on like, some dirt sheets and buried Bobby and like, here’s the thing. Think about this. I mean, from my standpoint, would you rather have Bobby Lashley adopt it or some guy maybe that they push for a month who doesn’t even amount? I don’t know, you know what I mean? Like, it’s just one of those things where. You’ve seen certain wrestlers throughout history will after they’ve worked, somebody will kind of adopt some, like you’ve seen HBK do that a number of times. You know what I mean? Like after he worked Benoit, I think he used the crossface. I know that’s taboo to even bring up but like, you know, like, and then him [Lashley] being the guy to break the Master Lock, again, it’s just and like he’s such a physical specimen. Like so with all that being said, you can’t really argue like, Okay, if somebody’s using the Full Nelson and he broke it. He looks the way he does. Yeah, he’s, like a mutant.”

On the connections Between Chris Masters and Bobby Lashley:

“Oh, there’s a lot of connections there. I’m kind of like a ghost from his past at this point. But like I just feel like you know in the right scenario you know, you have Lashley dominating with the hurt lock and then you were to hear that OG Chris Masters theme. I feel like and again this more is because everybody you know, I feel like since I’ve kind of started within last year, and this year to petition for the rumble, again, it’s not as I don’t feel like I’m ever coming back to WWE full time. For me, it would just be it would be great to come back to the rumble to, you know, sort of make amends with certain people within the company, but also to show like you were saying before show the WWE Universe the polished performer that I become and like, yeah, I wasn’t able to do it there, unfortunately. But I did get there. And so for me, that would be, that would feel good. And like again, and but the biggest thing being about that oh sh*t moment of having that moment of me coming down the aisle and having like, some guy sitting next to his buddy slap on the chest, like, Oh, my God, Hurt Lock vs. Master Lock like, it’s gonna happen. Yeah, that’s what it’s about. So like, it’s really not out of a place of selfishness and we’re like, let’s, let’s have Chris Masters come back full time. But like, for all those reasons, it would be awesome.”

On being a body guy:

“Oh, yeah, totally. I didn’t even see that coming. Honestly, I just knew that when I first started in UPW, I started the same day as John Cena, and this other guy, Basil. And I had already started working out, you know what I mean? But I wasn’t [ready], and I had made progress, but I wasn’t like, ready ready yet. And like, when I got there, I saw the way those guys were built. And also, just like all the wrestlers, we grew up on it, it wasn’t any big secret, like, Oh, I got to really kind of invest time in the gym and like really build, you know, build myself up. But like, like you said, I didn’t really see that coming. I didn’t think I was going to be a body guy, so to speak. But like I kind of figured that out pretty early on, like when I got to OVW ike, Oh, you’re kind of falling into this class. Like, because everybody was muscular. But it was like I was on that level, like, oh, well, you’re, you’re a straight up like body guy, you know?”

On Chris Masters’ first impressions of John Cena:

“Oh, just, you know, impressive, just physically so impressive. You know, and, you know, big personality, just like, you know, everybody knows now and, you know. I think everybody just kind of felt like he was gonna have some degree of success. But I mean, I don’t think any of us really knew that he would necessarily be like the Hulk Hogan of his generation. So um, you know, but it was funny, man, because I can still remember how us in the ring training those first couple months and just, you can only imagine how clunky it was and just, I just always had this flashback. You know, there was a guy named Andrew Bryniarski, he’s a good guy, he played Leatherface on the chainsaw movies. He was on the programme, a lot of people know he’s a big guy, but he’s training for wrestling. He went to leg drop Cena from the second rope and literally landed with his ass straight on Cena’s head. Yeah, like we almost ended the franchise before he ever became a franchise, you know, I mean, and so, you know, those were just I don’t know, those are my impressions. You know what I mean? Like, and then, you know, by the time I came back to UPW, like Cena was already on his way. So it was kind of like, you know, we were always a couple years kind of behind each other. And, you know, we were never really close though. But you know, it was always interesting. We’re just very different guys.”

On turning 40 and age being a factor:

“Yeah, absolutely, it does. And that’s why like, everything I said to you rings true. You know, talking about the urgency and all that because, you know, I do understand that at least, you know, yeah, I’ve acquired all the knowledge and information. And I’ve been, you know, I’ve seen almost everything you can see in professional wrestling. But physically, you know, there will be a decline somewhere. You know what I mean? So, um, but also then, at the same time, I look at some of the guys in this business who are having the most success of their careers. Speaking of like, Bobby Lashley, AJ Styles and Jericho. Yeah, like, I mean, honestly, when you look at professional wrestling, it’s the type of work where really, you can kind of peak in your 40s. Because, I mean, yeah, it’s competitive, but we’re competitive in a different way, right. And we do work with each other. And it’s just at that kind of end, like, honestly, it’s such an art form, that it almost takes that long to really kind of, I don’t even want to say master it. Exactly. But like it really it’s an art form that you’re continuing to develop. And that’s actually what makes it fun is like anybody who feels like they have this shit figured out in the first three years the first six years even the first 10 years no, you don’t, but that’s the beauty of it is you’re constantly learning and getting better because there’s so many little aspects to it, you know. I mean, it’s not just what you see it’s not just oh, it’s a fight between two guys, it’s an art form and the selling, the offence, the believability. You know what I mean? The showmanship now, the all of that stuff packaged together.”

On being signed to WWE at a younger age:

“Yeah, and the funny thing is, so my whole goal when I was around, you know, we’re talking about that time when I was like 16 to 18 was, I knew what I wanted to do, and I just wanted to get there as young as possible. And I did that. But like so when I feel like there’s a lot of value, though when I talk to kids now I will tell them, like, you might not like let’s say you do want to be a wrestler and you don’t see like, oh, I don’t see any use for school now because I want to do that. But like the thing is, is whether you’re going to use that history class or literature, like in school, you pick up life skills that you need to carry on into your adult life in your profession. So like, yeah, you might not specifically need certain things, but you are still acquiring tools and like. So I tell kids, I’m like, that’s great if you know you want to do like, that’s one of the greatest things ever. Because like, it’s hard if you don’t, right. But like, don’t fast track it, you know, go finish school, go through, you know, whatever you need to. I’m not necessarily saying you have to go to college. But like, in my case, I didn’t even finish high school. Once I got to about the 10th to the 11th grade, I knew 100% I wanted to wrestle, I started working a job. So and like I just didn’t prioritise school and it just got to the point where it didn’t even make sense going, you know what I mean? And, but like, I’m happy to say now, like, so I you know, I tell kids, you know, do that, because then you can always go into whatever you want to right after, there’s not a big rush, you know what I mean? But like, you know, you fast forward now. And like last time I was talking to you, you know, I was staying with my dad in Michigan during the pandemic, and I started going back to school, you know, I decided, you know what, these are life skills that I still need to pick up like, yeah, they might not apply, like, it might not translate to a job for me, but like, hey, why not learn history? Hey, why not, you know, improve literature? Hey, why not see if you can pass a math class, you know, I mean, which I was able to do all those and it was like, it was really a great confidence booster for me, because I hadn’t been in any kind of educating, you know, circumstances in what, 20 years outside of like wrestling and critiquing wrestling, and psychology and wrestling and all that kind of stuff. So, for me, it almost felt like man, do I even have the attention span to get through a math class and pass it and you know, I did. So that was amazing.”

On becoming a fan again:

“Yes, exactly. And like, what did he love about wrestling? What what did he like about his favourite performers? And like, like, you know, I essentially became a fan again, for a point in time there. But then, like, it was just more about, like, how do I translate that? Like, how do I make that seven or eight year old, a fan of Chris Masters The Masterpiece or Chris Adonis? And like, you know, I just started looking at all the different aspects of wrestling, you know, what I mean, there’s so many different aspects, whether it be your gear, your presence, you know, politics, you know, what I mean? Even just like selling like, and just, you know, just seeing how, like, what I can do, like what mattered to me, as a fan. What mattered to me, and what can make me a fan of Chris Masters. And so like I, you know, do that , it gave me a chance to kind of evolve a bit as a performer, you know, what I mean, and some things just kind of fell in my lap. But you know, it was just, and NWA obviously, came on to, which has been a tremendous place to work, and a great place for me to kind of show who I am in 2023 now.”

On the infamous HHH backstage promo:

“I was aware of it ahead of time. It’s funny, because this has come up almost in all of my interviews, but I mean, there’s a couple of ways to look at that. Like Hunter, if you’ve looked into, like, if you watch his history, I mean, he’s very much a ballbuster, even to HBK. Right, his best friend? So I mean, like, yeah, the timing of it’s more like, it’s not something that I don’t think he would have. I think it might have been more about the timing of it, than anything, just because of everything we had been through with, you know, you talked about Eddie and then Chris, and then and then, you know, we were under so much scrutiny. And then, you know, I came back, you know, from rehab, and I was, you know, about 20 pounds lighter or whatever. So, I mean, it was just, it was just more about, like, if it had happened at any other time, maybe it wouldn’t have been, you know, as big of a deal. I guess, because I think, you know, I don’t think again, I just think, you know, he’s kind of a ballbuster so it wasn’t like that’s something he would have kind of said at any point in time. I just think it was maybe at that time, it was probably a bad time to say it.”

On Tyrus winning the NWA Heavyweight Championship:

“I mean, it was controversial, and it got people talking. And it’s like, it just is what it is. But it’s also an opportunity. I mean, like for all those people on the internet, you know, complaining about it, who would have thought that you know, Chris Masters could be your beacon of light. You would have never imagined that 15 years ago, and we’re like who’s that body guys? So like, Hey, I might be your saviour. You know Matt Cardona says he’s gonna save NWA. But I say Chris Adonis.”

What is Chris Masters grateful for:

“My health, my profession and my perspective on life.”

Featured image: Wrestling Headlines

Kid Kash (@davidkidkash) is a professional wrestler known for his time in ECW, TNA and WWE. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about how he got his start in professional wrestling, getting signed to ECW, being given the name “Kid Kash” because Paul Heyman thought he looked like Kid Rock, the restrictions he had in WWE, making his MMA debut, what he learned from Ricky Morton, 3 things he is grateful for and much more!

On Kid Kash’s first ring name:

“I was David Jericho from the start of my career. And me and Ricky Morton were driving down the road one day, and we were coming up and at this before I even got in the ring, you know, and we were just driving down the road. And we looked over, coming up with just different names. And I saw Jericho temple shrine sitting on the side of the road in I think it was Blanc Hill, Tennessee, as you’re coming down the interstate. And I just said Jericho. And he looked over at me and he was like, David Jericho. [I ask him] You like it? He goes it sounds better than all the other stuff we’re coming up with, let’s use it.”

On finding out about another wrestler with the last name Jericho:

“All right. When I saw him one time, for the first time, in Smoky Mountain Wrestling, him and Lance Storm showed up for a little bit, and they were The Thrill Seekers, and he was wrestling there. I had already dropped about the name because I started going up to you know, like all over the country and stuff like that. And then ECW whenever I went up there, we called Davy Morton. I was doing Davy Morton then, but no, actually shoot, I’m sorry. The first time I went up there, so it was after that, when I really noticed Chris. This was the first time I went up, they let me do David Jericho. And I did David Jericho for the first six months. And then one day I was just showing up and they were like your Davey Morton. Before my match that night, I went from Davey Morton to Davy Morton Tyler Jericho, because my son’s name was Tyler. We were still coming up with names in the dressing room. Chris was making a big deal, you know, a big splash and stuff like that all over the place. So we just decided to change the name. And then one night my son’s name was Tyler, Ricky’s name was Morton, and Jericho was what I had been using. So we came up with Davy Morton, Tyler Jericho. Well, then it went to Davy Morton Tyler Jericho Panzano whenever I tagged with Lil Guido. So I get to the ring and everybody started chanting, ‘what’s your name?’ ‘What’s your name?’ That was fun. It was just fun. That was part of the absolute best organisation I’ve ever worked for, actually really, truly wanted to be a part of.”

On a possible return to the ring:

“I do [want to have another match]. Well, I’ve actually wrestled a few just like really easy matches. The last four or five months, I wrestled Jerry Lawler there in Nashville. So we didn’t do anything. You know, I mean, nothing. I think I took two bumps. The bumps felt great, you know, felt like nothing, you know. I can tell I’m a little ring rusty, you know, my decision making is not like what it used to be, you know, so it’s like, I had to think a little harder, you know, remember stuff that I’d forgotten, you know, and hadn’t applied in such a long time. But it was easy. It was an old Memphis match, wasn’t anything good. And then the other match I had was a tag team match. Six way tag. Just took the hot tag, boom, boom, boom, drop, drop, drop. That was it. Let the other kid do the splash off the top ropes and he pinned the guy and I just cheered around with everybody else.”

On cutting back on high flying:

“I started when I was in WWE, which it wasn’t by choice, it was because they didn’t want me to do that much. They wanted me to still tell the story and still wrestle, you know, that kind of thing. And plus the matches are like anywhere from three minutes to, I mean if you got a 15 minute match you are a lucky, lucky man. Hell, after wrestling three and five minute matches, if somebody did ask me to wrestle 15 minutes, I probably could not have, probably got blown up. So you get used to wrestling such these quick matches, you know, but yeah, they would just, they came to me one night, I was like, try not to do the hurricanrana. I’m like, why not? Well, that’s Rey Mysterio’s move. Okay? Don’t do the moonsault off the top row. Okay, why not? Well, that’s Super Crazy’s move. Like, okay, so I couldn’t do the moneymaker pile driver either, you know, because they had the law. So that’s when I came up with the dead level, you know, the brain buster and stuff. So everything else was just elementary sh*t, if you watched the WWE, it was just crossbody stuff, I didn’t really do any kind of the stuff that I normally would have done. But then when I left there and went to TNA, I pretty much completely quit doing it cuz I was turned to you know, back to being a heel, wrestling, Jesse Sorenson and guys like that, so I didn’t really need to do the high flying and plus, some of the stuff was hard to do anymore. Like, I used to run up the rope and do the flying hurricanrana. But I noticed that my right knee wouldn’t jump as high as my left knee anymore, and I couldn’t do it from the other side. I had to continue to do it from that one particular side. You know, all my hurricanranas went this way. I was never trained to go this way. So back then I just, my leg wouldn’t get up that high to hit the rope. And if it did, it just didn’t have enough in it at that point to get me up to the top rope. I think who was it? Jesse Sorenson, like we’re trying from the other side. And it was, it was a mess. I was like let’s try not to do that. My coordination is just not the same.”

On today’s product and if Kid Kash is watching:

“I’ll still watch it. Every now and then I’ll watch the AEW, I’ll pop it in, you know. Some things I love to watch on a show. But then some things are like, I got to turn this [off], you know. I don’t really watch too much WWE. As for me, I came from the school of work, where you get out there and work, you know, but now it’s just so many promos, and just so you know, there’s no work. You know, it’s just promos all the time. You know, and I love watching women wrestle but Jesus Christ, how many women are gonna wrestle on one card? I mean, yeah, you know?”

On Vince McMahon retiring:

“It’s probably less politics, but I think it’s more woke still. I watch some of the show, I wouldn’t fit in there. You know, I could probably be an agent or something, but I wouldn’t fit in there as a worker at all, because just everybody’s so much younger. And everybody is, they don’t look the same as my era. Whenever I was wrestling, everybody, you know, I was a short guy, so I had to stand out. I couldn’t just be a high flyer, I had to really stand out. So I hit the gym, every chance I got and I got on steroids, I got on the whole nine yards just so I could get that physique, to stay on TV. But you watch it now. And you see guys on there that look like the guy in the crowd watching. And they’re putting them over big guys, you know, so I’m kind of confused. Does the storyline not fit anymore? You know, I mean? Is that how it is now because back in the day, the big guys used to demolish the little small weak guys. Now the little small weak guys are beating the big guys. So it’s weird to me, you know?.”

On still being called Kid Kash when he is older:

“[Chris references that Kid Rock is still called Kid Rock] Yeah, a little different though. You know, he’s a rapper and musician and stuff so he can probably get, I’m sure when he’s 70, they’re not going to be wanting to call him kid anymore. They’re gonna call it Bobby.”

On hitting a Hurricanrana from any angle:

“Yeah, well, whenever I was in ECW, everybody there my size was, you know, was a high flyer of some sort. And I used to wrestle guys like E.Z. Money, Chris Hamrick and guys like on the independent shows, Eddie Golden, like way back before I even went to ECW and stuff. And when I got there, everybody was doing it. And generally, it was just me doing it on the show, you know, the indie shows. When I got there, I had to just be more creative, you know. So, the hurricanrana is something that I had always kind of done and stuff. So I was like, what’s the one thing that I can like, make stand out above everything else? You know, that was such an easy move for me to do, because I was you know, I’m not a very big guy, you know, even in ECW I was probably only 175 pounds soaking wet, I’m about five nine. But I got a weird figure. I wear 32 inch leg jeans, I got long legs, but I have that short torso to where I look more jacked than what I really am. Only problem is I can’t get my legs to look like my upper body.”

On possibly inspiring Sting’s iconic look:

“Well, I’m not saying who, where he got it from, but I did a try out for WCW under the whole mask you know the whole paint thing and stuff. So I noticed about six or seven months later he started changing his face paint. So I’m saying, I don’t know, didn’t ask any questions, but you know he’s Sting and I’m not, so he can do whatever he wants.”

On MMA:

“I mean, I’ve done some MMA fights. I mean, I wasn’t like the greatest fighter ever, you know, but I did a lot of tournaments, NAGA tournaments, Pan Am’s and stuff. And then I did a few cage fights. I mean, you know, won two and lost two, you know. So, I mean, I thought about going in, but by the time I got to the point of getting into the cage, my God, I was like, 35 years old.”

What is Kid Kash grateful for:

“Family, health and the wrestling business.”

Featured image: Wikipedia

“Monster” Michael Todd (@monstermichaeltodd) is a professional arm wrestler who has won 21 World titles and 36 National titles. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios at Wynn Las Vegas to talk about how he got started as a professional arm wrestler, the best techniques to win any arm wrestling match, the injuries he has suffered, what his training looks like, why his mindset is so important to him and much more!

On becoming a professional arm wrestler:

“Okay, so I grew up in Arkansas, so I’m just a country boy, redneck from Arkansas who used to arm wrestle. Now, I wasn’t really into team sports, and then my father he had like, college scholarship to go play football and all that and he got injured his senior year, and he always wanted me to be, you know. I played backyard football, you know, like just out in the yard slamming people in the ground, and enjoyed that. But regular, you know, sports in school, I just didn’t really do it. I got into martial arts when I saw Karate Kid when I was a kid and I was like, I can take karate. And I got a black belt when I was 14, also in Taekwondo and in boxing and I was pretty proficient. But I always was a redneck who liked arm wrestling. And I used to, always arm wrestling my dad, like, he’d be sitting in a recliner, and I’d be a little kid and I put my arm up in the armrest and I tried to beat him, never could. When I was 15 years old, I finally beat my dad. And so I could beat everybody at school. And my senior year in high school was at Vo Tech. So I was taking auto mechanics, which I didn’t really do very well at. But I did a lot of arm wrestling at auto mechanics. I was at the cafeteria table in there like they go that guy there is second the state, like well, let’s arm wrestle. So I beat the guy. He’s like you should go to this tournament, and that was the Saline County Fair 1990 and I end up third place. That’s how it got started for me right. And that was it. I took third place I was hooked. I came back home I built an arm wrestling table or wrist wrestling table and that’s where you lock hands in the middle and you pin your opponent to your forearm. It’s not as much technique involved, more upper body strength, but I didn’t really build at the right height. I built it for my height so I’ve been like three inches too tall. And then fast forward and 36 national titles, 23 world titles, and I travel all over the world.”

On what makes Michael Todd great:

“My disgust for losing. I’ve always told people my disgust for losing. Well your desire to win every time, the thrill of victory, like my wife, she let’s me celebrate a victory for about a week. Walk around the house chest all out, she’s like, Yeah, dude, it’s just arm wrestling is not that big a deal your weeks up. But that loss eats away at me. And it’s really hard too, I hate losing. I try as hard as I can not do. Now, as far as whether strength or technique at an amateur level, technique is very important. So if he had a twin brother and I taught you technique, he didn’t know, you’re gonna kill him. Once you become a world class arm wrestler, we all know the techniques and it comes down to who’s stronger.”

On a winning mindset:

“Actually, I don’t know. I’ve always just been extremely competitive. My family will tell you don’t play cards with me. If you now start shooting the basketball, we got to start taking the score even if it’s 21. I mean, I can’t just do things for fun. We went bowling the other night, my wife’s birthday party, there’s about five people in the lane. I’m like, alright guys, I’m done, I gotta get my own lane. Because I can’t sit around and wait, right? Like, I’m just I’m extremely competitive always been that way. And it’s just, I want to fulfil my potential and every year in my life, whether it’s being a better Christian, better husband, better athlete, you know, so every day, I just try to be better than I was yesterday.”

Michael Todd improving with age:

“Well, that’s the one thing about arm wrestling is it’s tendon ligament strength. So, I mean, once you get real rigid, you actually become a better arm wrestler. They’re stronger and your tendons and ligaments and like my arm, I’ve lost 19 and a half inches of range of motion of my right arm. The doctor X Rayed 12 years ago and said they found over 70 fractures.”

On Michael Todd’s workout:

“No, there are some people that do that, they just prioritize just training the right arm. I tried to train like an athlete, and then I just incorporate arm wrestling specific exercises inside my circuit. So I’ll do like, so years ago, I used to, you know, multiple sets, like say I’m doing chest or lat pull downs, or whatever I do, you know, three sets or whatever, then I was like, that just takes too long. Because it wasn’t fun anymore, it wasn’t stress relief, it was a job. It’s something I had to do. How can I get this job done as quick as possible? So I would just do one set of 30, and then I go to the next exercise, and so I just started doing sets at 30 of everything. And then I started increasing the weight significantly. So like my chest workout years ago would be 225 on the incline, 30 reps. And then I do 30 Pull Ups and 225 on the flat 30 reps, and I do 30 lat pull downs. And it was just I was repping 225 all the way through my workout, you know, 30 reps. Now I do that, but I incorporate wrist rolls. So I have a wrist rolls, that cable pull that mimics arm wrestling and I do battle ropes to blow up your hands.”

On leverage:

“So most people think armwrestling is a pushing sport, like you just try to push your opponent down. Armwrestling is really a pulling sport, it is more of a tug of war. I’m gonna try to pull you as close to me as possible. And then I try to lay over you know, once I get you real close to my body, I try to bend my body over until I pin you.”

On gaining size:

“I was a 19 year old kid at my first national championship. I started arm wrestling in 1990. I was 17 years old, and just a redneck from Arkansas. And then now just you know, kept getting bigger and [bigger]. I mean I can gain weight really easy. Like I have an endomorph body type so I can’t get fat. I’m like a big 300 pound country boy if I just ate what I want. But if I eat clean, I look fit, you know.”

So like what’s a day in your normal diet?

“I mean, it’s normally one to one protein and carbs about 300 protein, 300 carbs and about 100 grams of fat. Try to keep it clean. The leaner I get, the more freedom I have. So the more cheat meals I eat, it’s about 4,000 calories.

On weight limits in arm wrestling:

“Okay, so I’ve been the heavyweight and super heavyweight world champion in one league or another for like the last 10 to 15 years. And so I’m actually cutting down, they got a new weight class, it’s kind of a change of the weight classes up. What used to be heavyweight is now a light heavyweight, 231 pounds or 105 kg. [Chris – that does not feel like a light heavyweight.] It doesn’t but I’m going after that world title. [There] is a young man from Kazakhstan. He’s a bad dude. But yeah, so I gotta pull him on January 21 in Istanbul, Turkey for the world title.”

How much longer can Michael Todd do this:

“I don’t think I’ve peaked yet. Honestly, I swear I tell my wife all the time. We have something really cool planned for this next year. So we did a tour last year. Last year, we jumped into a [RV], raised about $100,000. I got an RV, I wrapped it, and we did a five month tour. We travelled all 48 continental states 20,000 miles and I arm wrestled over 3000 matches, I would just pull out the armwrestling table and take on all comers. Right?”

What is Michael Todd grateful for:

“My amazing wife, my health and a positive support system.”

Featured image: The Sports Room

Jimmy Korderas (@jimmykorderas) is a professional wrestling referee, commentator and broadcaster known for his 22-year tenure with WWE from 1987 to 2009. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about how he got started in the pro wrestling industry by accident, getting a job with WWE, going from setting up the ring to being a referee, some of his favorite people to work with, the biggest mistakes he sees referees make now, being in the ring the day Owen Hart died at Over The Edge 1999 and much more!

Advice for aspiring referees:

“How to Look involved without being a focal point. Like I said, for example, the face-to-face. Don’t stand in between, be there for the talent, be close by so you can hear them and they can hear you. But again, don’t be a visual distraction, don’t oversell things. Like there’s referees out there that when someone gets punched in the face, they grab their chin like they got punched. It’s okay to react, you know, subtle reactions like ooh, ooh, that looks like it hurt. Ooh, that was you know, but if you’re going and like oh! and you know, you get kicked in the ribs or you’re, you know, grabbing your ribs and stuff like. No, stop selling what’s happening to them. It’s okay to react and make it look like Hey, boy, that looks like it hurt. That’s the art.”

On not being the most important person in the ring:

“You’re not there to be the star, the star is [in the ring] drawing, [it] is the talent that is in the ring, you’re there to help them tell their story without being a part of the story. Unless, of course, there’s a spot in the match where they need you to whatever the case may be, you know, be distracted by this or, or take a bump or whatever the case may be. But let’s say for example, two wrestlers come to the centre of the ring, especially on television, which is very important. And they do a face-to-face. Yeah. Your initial thought is to kind of stand between them, so to keep them separated. But at the same time, if you’re standing in the middle, who’s in the middle of the screen, the referee’s face. Stand off to the side, let them have their moment, let it breathe, let the audience absorb this, you know what I mean? Unfortunately, nowadays, you see too many referees and, you know, kind of overly interjecting themselves, let’s put it that way and standing out a little too much, in my opinion.”

On referees going into the WWE Hall of Fame:

“I don’t know. I would like to see that happen sooner rather than later, that’s for sure. And there’s so many candidates out there. I already mentioned a couple of like Timmy White, the Hebners, Tommy Young, you know, wow, Nick, Patrick, Charles, Mike. There’s just even even young hand Brian, you know, there’s so many referees that belong there. And, and, you know, you have announcers in there. Yeah, I’m not mistaken. So why not referees? Because, again, not being a focal point of the match, but also an integral part of the match. They help tell the story.”

On Owen Hart’s fall:

“Oh, my goodness. Yeah, Unfortunately, I do remember some stuff but other stuff is foggy. But I remember going to the ring, there was a hardcore match before the incident took place. So I went out to the ring to help them clear the ring of debris that was in the ring. And as on the screen was playing a pre-recorded interview that Kevin Kelly did with I believe it’s Kevin Kelly, did with the blue blazer Owen Hart. And I was in the ring kind of facing the jumbotron, holding that top rope and kicking stuff out of the ring moving towards that corner, and I heard some screaming. But then you know it, you’re in front of a live crowd so I don’t know what’s going on. And I felt something brush against the side here on my shoulder. It wasn’t enough to knock me down or anything but it was just very lightly like, but at the same time, the top rope I was holding sprung out of my hand and popped my fingers back like kind of jamming my fingers, and I looked around to see if the top rope broke, if that was what I felt. And when I turned I looked in the corner and there there was Owen, you know laying there, and again, I knew the entrance was supposed to be him descending but, you know, you’re not putting it together and you are like what the heck. And as I went over I called out a couple of times and it was just his eyes wide open. You can see through the mask not moving, and I just flipped out started calling for help, and just stood back in and took it all in while they put them on the stretcher to to escort him out. And I don’t know for some dumb reason I just, his cape blue blazer cape, I just scooped up all that stuff and walked back with it. I you know, gave it to somebody and watch them load them into an ambulance. And at the time I was, was a smoker, so somebody handed me a cigarette. I was sitting outside the arena on the steps like shaking with a cigarette and stuff like that, and Johnny D’Amico who worked in the production said they want you to go to the hospitals won’t get checked out. I said, really? I said, yeah, they want you to go. So I said, Okay, I’m gonna go then. So I went got checked out at the hospital and they in there. And they said are you with the gentleman, the wrestler that they’d brought in? And I said, Yes, I am. And they said it’s all sorry to inform you that he has passed. And I just for me, it was, you know, I called my wife, who was my fiancée at the time. I called her from there and just told her what was happening. And then from that moment on, after talking to my wife, I don’t remember going back to the arena, getting my stuff, then going to St. Louis. I just remember waking up in St. Louis the next morning. Apparently, John D’Amico had driven us to St. Louis, whatever. And it was the next day in St. Louis, that I found out, you know, when I walked into the building, the first thing was, you know, running into people going, are you okay? Are you okay? Are you okay? And, you know, running into Taker and Taker said say, Jimmy, are you okay? I’ll be okay. He says, if you need anything, you come to me, you know, and JR said the same thing as well. But then I ran into Lawler, Jerry Lawler. And he said, Do you remember anything from last night? I’m just saying, I just remember going to the hospital stuff. Like he says, I don’t know if I should tell you this, but you don’t know how close you became to becoming part of that tragedy. I said pardon me. He said, You know, he saw the last 20 feet or so of the fall. He said, the first thing that came to his mind was Oh, my God he’s gonna fall on Jimmy. And what I felt brushed by me was Owen falling. And when he told me that it was just.”

On who is the most talented in the ring:

“Oh, man, there was when I think back about it, you’re talking about so incredibly good. Randy Orton is just so darn smooth and so good at what he does. See, because as you know, Chris, wrestling is more than just the moves, it is the personalities, it’s the talent getting people invested in what they do. Randy was able to do it all and make it all look effortless, it was incredible. Eddie was one of those guys too, Eddie Guerrero. God bless him, you know, and you look back at other talents, you know, I know people are gonna say, well, Hulk Hogan wasn’t a great wrestler, technical wrestler. He was a great entertainer, he was great in the ring and getting people invested in what he did. And that’s the name of the game. I like to equate it to this, you know, people are talking about while the business has changed, it’s evolved. It’s more about the in ring product? Well, no, I get it. When you look at the wheel when it was invented, it was made of stone. And then it became wood, then rubber and vulcanised rubber, we have all these different variations of the wheel. But at the end of the day, that shape of the wheel is round, and that’s what professional wrestling is. Yes, it’s going to evolve a little bit in style and presentation, especially with TV and the advancement of TV. At the same time, the thing is you talk people into the seats, you talk people into the arenas, it’s the talent themselves. As entertainers, you look back at the era where we had John Cena, The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, you know, a bunch of talents that that’s what made the that era special, because it was the talent that drew people in not the fact that this guy could do this, and he could do a Twisting Burning 450 Hammer Phoenix Splash. That’s cool. Where everybody goes, Yeah, that was cool but, you know.”

When referees stopped being named:

“That stopped after I had left in 2009. All of a sudden, it was like, yes, we know that the referees are not to be a focal point. And for some reason, I couldn’t give you a reason why, because that was someone else’s decision, that we don’t need to name the referees and put any kind of focus on them. But if you watch any sport out there, and you know, obviously, professional wrestling is sports entertainment as much as the hardcore fans dislike that terminology, that’s exactly what it is, they try to emulate real sport. So in real sport, you have referee Bill Friday, you have referee Herb Dean in MMA, or John McCarthy. Yeah, you know, so it’s a little recognition but at the same time they’re not making them the focal point it’s just it’s kind of like a little shout out. There’s nothing wrong with that, but they’ve gotten back now under it seems like under the Hunter regime to at least acknowledge good job by referee so and so or nice call by referee so and so.”

Life before refereeing:

“I really was on the fence because I thought I was going to take [over]. my dad was a mechanic and he you know, owned a garage in Greektown in Danforth, which is kind of cool. And I used to, you know, work there with him and then I got some other jobs outside, because I discovered that being a mechanic was not my calling, and I gravitated to wrestling. I used to go to every show at Maple Leaf Gardens as a fan, and I went to the office one day and secured what would be the equivalent of season tickets. I would have the same seats for every show. And if you remember back in the day, maybe The Gardens had that ramp that went from the entryway, all the way to the ring, level with the ring. I was second row ringside right beside that ramp. And one of my hobbies was taking pictures. And what I would do is I would take pictures and they used to have a place up here called direct film, where you double your prints for $1. So I get my prints developed, I keep a set for myself and I take the second set to the next show and sell them for two bucks a picture, which would help fuel my wrestling habit and pay for it.”

On Jimmy Korderas’ match that sticks in his head:

“The one match again going into WrestleMania 24 Edge versus Undertaker in the main event. And one of the biggest reasons why is not just because good friend Edge and our, you know, our locker room leader, The Undertaker, who by the way, was our locker room leader not because he put himself in that position, it was the locker room that kind of elevated him into that position. He was kind of voted in, for lack of a better term as our leader. But, you know, if you read my book, and the forward, Edge explains that they requested me for that match, especially Edge wanted me to be the referee for that match. And that meant so much to me, it was so humbling. It was so, man, but then it also put extra pressure because now as they requested me for this, I better not mess it up, you know what I mean? So those thoughts are going through your head, but at the same time, I remember the day before WrestleMania sitting in, you know, at the hotel, we’re in the banquet room, you know, it was just reserved for us. And sitting at the table was Edge, Taker, Michael Hayes and me, and they’re talking over the match. Then, you know, all of a sudden they say Jimmy, what do you think? And I’m like, Oh, they’re asking my opinion too, this is cool. And then you know obviously that match I took a bump, and they said we want to bump the referee in this and blah blah blah. And then Taker just looks at me and says Jimmy you okay with taking a big boot? Absolutely. What are you kidding me? Taking a big boot from Taker, from The Deadman at WrestleMania. Yeah, yeah, bring it on. Yeah.”

On ever wanting to be a wrestler:

“Yeah, of course that thought comes in your head. But when you’re there and you’re watching it up close and personal and seeing the icing and all the soreness that goes on backstage, sometimes it hits you and you go, oh boy.”

On the first refereeing big break:

“Again, it was more along the lines of just listening to people and getting great coaching and you know, learning from some esteemed veterans. I already mentioned Pat Patterson. Gerald Brisco was a big help. Chief Jay Strongbow again, Renee Goulet, Tony Gurria, those are all the agents that were a big help and then you know, obviously David Hebner was a big help back in the day, you know, and their role as well. All those guys. Timmy White was awesome. So I had a wealth of veterans to learn from and absorb and be a sponge.”

On the first major match Jimmy Korderas refereed:

“Yeah, I did a Hogan vs. Mr. Perfect match at Maple Leaf Gardens, which is pretty cool. But being a part of the first very first Survivor Series in 1987 was very cool. Doing the women’s match, you know, with The Jumping Bomb Angels and, you know, with The Fabulous Moolah and that kind of stuff. Being a part of the first Royal Rumble that ever took place at Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.”

On the ref bump:

“You don’t want to look like you’re taking a bump as a trained professional wrestler, it has to look a little bit off, let’s put it that way. You don’t want to do it in a way where you hurt yourself. At the same time, like you said, it shouldn’t be a clean flat back and, and where the audience especially the fan goes, yeah, he’s taken bumps before he knows how to do it. It should look awkward maybe, should look a little off.”

On maybe wanting to be management:

“Thoughts were there. But at the same time, I also was thinking along the lines of, you know, as a referee, you have more longevity than as an on air talent or something like that. Because, you know, even Teddy Long as a referee eventually, as a general manager, for example, that runs its course eventually. As a referee unless, they’re tired of your work or you can’t [work], you know what I mean? So as long as you’re doing your job correctly as a referee, there’s no reason for them to let you go. If you’re not performing on television, or they’re tired of your persona and they want to move you on. You always run that risk as a personality.”

On counting nearfalls: 

See that’s a difficult one. Because you know it’s not the finish and you want to make it look as close as possible. Sometimes it’s okay at times to look like you’re trying to stop it, hit the canvas, but wave it off, you know, especially on a really, really close false finish. You know, not doing it all the time, just, you know, on a rare occasion, that would translate pretty good on television. I think that, I’m not gonna say any, but there are some referees out there today who have a tell on false finishes. And unfortunately, I’ll give you an example. When SummerSlam was here in Toronto and 2019 I believe it was. You know, the guys from our show were at the event and we did a little thing there with the WWE guys. And with the producer, I was sitting beside the producer of our show, and there was a match going on. And he was Oh, I thought that was it, I said no. He said Yeah, but you know, I said no, I don’t know what’s going on in this match. I’m just watching. A little later [he says] Oh, I thought that was at, I said it wasn’t. He says, What’s going on here? I said, well, the referee has a tell. And he goes really? What is it? I said, I don’t want to tell you. Oh, he said, he says okay, okay, then it happened again. And he goes, come on. You got to tell me so I told him what it was. He says yeah, I shouldn’t ask you to tell me because now I can’t unsee it. So ever since that moment, And all my critiquing that I do and analyse, I will not give away a referee’s tell on a false finish. Because if I do, then whoever watches it after that kind of says, yeah.”

On knowing a match beforehand:

“For the most of it, I try to be there. I want to hear, you know, pretty much the entire match what’s going on. Sometimes you’re busy doing other stuff as well, so you just get the main points. And a lot of guys will just say, You know what, don’t worry about it. This is what we’re doing for the finish during the match. It’s, you know, it’s gonna be fairly easy. Just follow along.”

On wearing multiple hats:

“Well, pretty much on the ring crew. The ring crew was, you know, looking after the ring, setting it up, tearing it down, and also maintenance on the ring too, as well. You know what needed if their boards needed to be changed or rope needed to be tightened or adjusted or anything like that. Basically looking after the ring.”

What is Jimmy Korderas grateful for:

“My wife, the career I’ve had and for making lifelong friends.”

Featured image: Wrestling Inc

Eric Bischoff (@ebischoff) is a professional wrestling personality, podcaster, entrepreneur and New York Times bestselling author. He joins Chris Van Vliet inside the Blue Wire Studios at Wynn Las Vegas to talk about his new book called “Gratitude”, the recent negative comments he made about Ric Flair on his podcast “83 Weeks”, why his co-host Conrad Thompson is a business genius, what he thinks Vince McMahon is doing since retiring from WWE, his thoughts on MJF in AEW, what he thinks CM Punk will do next, what he is grateful for and much more!

On the heat with Ric Flair:

“That’s a weird one. Six months ago I was out having cocktails with Ric Flair, and Wendy. I ran into him at an autograph signing at a convention in Houston about a year ago, we just had the greatest time. He called me in my room ‘come on down, we’ll have the greatest time, woo!’ I got the text. Then all of a sudden, I get blindsided. And I don’t know, I don’t know what got into Ric. Maybe somebody said something to him that I said, or he heard me say something that rubbed him the wrong way or he had some kind of a flashback. But I honestly don’t know. Even last night, I got into Vegas and I am sitting down and having a beer and looking through my social media. I see stuff that Ric said, I fire back, and as soon I was done, I said that’s it, I’m just not doing this. I have a lot of affection for Ric, I don’t know why, but I love Ric. And I’m sure I’m not the only one that loves Ric and does not know why they love Ric, he’s got that personality. I have a lot of respect for him, and I don’t want to engage anymore in the social media thing. If Ric wants to sit down, have a face-to-face conversation and tell me what I did wrong, how I p*ssed him off or irritated him or whatever, I am happy to do that and put it behind us and move on. But as far as the social media stuff, I’m probably not going to talk about it on my podcast anymore, because I am hoping that it just goes away.”       

On this all being on social media and nothing more:

“No! I don’t even know what I did! I don’t even know what I said. I called Conrad and said ‘Conrad, what the hell?!’ [Did Conrad know?] He doesn’t know, he doesn’t know.”

On if the heat between Eric Bischoff and Ric Flair is all pro-wrestling:

“It’s beyond that. [Is it personal?] Clearly, I don’t know what year it was, I had been in WWE for a couple of years. While I was in WWE, the week before the incident I am about to tell you, I show up to Monday Night Raw, we do TV and Ric is there and Arn Anderson is there. We go out for a beer after the show. Ric says ‘Eric, come on, we will go to the hotel bar, join us.’ So boom, went out to the bar and had a great time, just like old times, right? The following week, I show up to Monday Night Raw and am sitting in what they call the TV office, it was like a prop office in case they needed it. But I always used it for a dressing room because nobody else used it, I had the whole place to myself with a couch and a chair. So I’m in there and I am talking to my wife on the phone, it was my wife and my real estate attorney, we were closing on a piece of property. So I am on a 3 way conference call with my attorney and my wife, I am sitting in a chair. Ric comes walking into the TV office, Arn is behind him and Jonathon Coachman is behind him [Arn]. I’m talking on the phone, ok cool, it wasn’t my office, it was everybody’s office, I just happened to use it. While I am on the phone, Ric comes over and he just starts yelling and screaming at me ‘you MF-er! You get up out of your chair!’ I’m talking on the phone, and he just starts firing shots at me, he’s throwing punches at me, connected with me 3 times, while I’m on the phone. Here’s the deal, Ric Flair has been throwing working punches for so long, I don’t think he knows how to throw a real punch. I’m not saying that to be funny, or try to be a tough guy, because I’m not. But he hit me 3 times, and I still had the phone in my hand. For a minute I thought, is this a work? Is there a camera? Am I in a scene that nobody told me about? Then his lip started bleeding after he hit me for the third time, he was so mad that he bit his own lip and started bleeding all over himself, and I wouldn’t fight him.”  

What was Ric Flair so mad about:

“Well to this day I never really know because we never talked about it. I’ve been able to kind of piece together that there was a point in time in Ric’s life that was a challenging time in his personal life and somehow my name got thrown into a conversation. It just sent him into a tailspin and he got p*ssed off at me all over again, over something that had happened 10 years earlier. He just came in and started firing live rounds. I said ‘Ric, I’m not going to fight you. I’m just not going to fight you.’”  

On the CM Punk controversies:

“I don’t know [what is going on]. I mean, it is a trainwreck, that’s all I know. I wasn’t a big fan of Punk to begin with. I think he was overhyped. I think there was a great mystique, I don’t want to take that away from him, there was a tremendous mystique. When he dropped that Pipe Bomb, that was like rebelling against the man. Everybody in America at one point in time, deep down wishes that they could do what he did. That is what created that mystique, and that mystique lived, even though, you know, he showed up to the UFC a couple of times and got humiliated. It didn’t matter, he still had the mystique with the wrestling fans. When he got to AEW, I was excited, because I was interested to see how that would work. But if you go back and you listen to his opening promo, what did he do? He ripped Hulk Hogan. If you have to get yourself over with that kind of cheap heat, you’re not over, you don’t know how to get over. He was living off the momentum that was created for him in the WWE, he was living off of the mystique, he had it in his hands. I think that the way he was produced, his creative, I didn’t find it compelling at all. He is out there wrestling nobodies.” 

On CM Punk impacting AEW ratings:

“I know it’s sometimes unfair but go back and look at the ratings. Go back and look at the impact that CM Punk had on television ratings. It is the only thing that is black and white. He came out strong, and slowly week after week after week they continued to lose audience. The audience came, they saw, they left and they didn’t come back. What does that tell you?”    

On the power of social media:

“What makes it fascinating for me looking in from the outside is that I love how some talents are using social media effectively, and some talents aren’t. That surprises me, because wrestlers are normally pretty good at figuring out ways to, you know, stay relevant and get themselves over. Becky Lynch, I didn’t know who Becky Lynch was until I came across a couple of her social media posts on Twitter, this is back in 2018. I went wow, that’s pretty good, I’m gonna check her out. All of a sudden I am tuning into Monday Night Raw or whatever she was on at the time. I am tuning in to watch Becky Lynch, who I only knew about because I was really intrigued by how well she used social media.”

On the rise of Goldberg:

“Bill Goldberg is the perfect example. Bill Goldberg didn’t even get a letter next to his storyline. He was like what’s after z, we need a what’s after z story category, because that was what Bill Goldberg was when he came in. By that I mean that Bill Goldberg came in out of the NFL, elite athlete no question. Great looking character, looked like he came right out of central casting for wrestling. We put him in the Power Plant for a very short period of time, and then it was ok, let’s see how the crowd reacts to him in what we call a dark match. For all the listeners and people watching, a dark match is simply where you know, you show up for a live television presentation, and you have a couple of matches before you go on the air live. You do that for a couple of reasons, one is that you want to warm up the crowd for a little bit, if they need it. The other is that you want to take some of your younger talent that don’t have experience working in front of a crowd, and you get them out there on a limited basis. It’s not a real thing, but it is a lot better than just wrestling in the training facility. So we brought Bill out, and the reaction when Bill Goldberg came storming down the ramp was woah, wait a minute, holy smokes. Let’s see if that happens again next week. We do the same thing next week and it’s more so, then the following week it is even more so. Alright, he has only been in the Power Plant for 4 months, but we have got to get him on TV. And that storyline was a reaction to the audience. That whole career was a reaction to the audience.”     

On being able to appear for both WWE and AEW:

“Yeah that one [the AEW relationship] is not as good anymore, but that was my choice. I knew when I said what I was going to say that it will be the last time I get invited there. I was fine with that. I don’t worry about it, it is what it is. But when I was bouncing back between WWE and AEW, first time I got a call from AEW, I called Bruce Prichard. I said that I just want to let you know out of courtesy and respect for our friendship, I am still tight with Bruce. Please let Vince know, if he has got a question about this or an issue, please give me a shout. If not, I am going to go ahead. I got the word back to go and have a ball, it’s just communication and common courtesy.”   

On Eric Bischoff’s lowest point in his career:

“So I have never discussed this before, and I have to be careful about how I say it. During the AOL/Time Warner merger, there was a point sometime around the end of 1998. WCW was rocking and rolling, we were making money hand over fist, the ratings were great, it couldn’t have been better. I think it was around August or September, I got called to Harvey Schiller’s office, Harvey Schiller was my boss and the president of Turner Sports at the time. There was a corporate attorney there, general counsel, sitting in his office. I thought well this is weird. They sat me down, and they said ‘Eric, we just, we have to share something with you.’ I go wow, this is serious. [Schiller continues] ‘For the past several months, we have been doing some private investigation work and some forensic accounting, and we just want you to know that, because we have had to interview certain people in your company.’ I thought ok, cool, why? I probably wasn’t that calm, I got a little more agitated, there might have been an f bomb in there somewhere [laughs]. The corporate counsel said ‘Look Eric, we had no choice. An executive from Time Warner went to a WCW event.’ It was one of our bigger events. [They] Went to the event, ended up in an elevator with a guy wearing a WCW Nitro crew shirt. The gentleman from Time Warner was a very senior executive for Time Warner. This individual started asking the guy in the WCW shirt what do you do? Tell me about WCW. This guy was a disgruntled, he wasn’t really an employee, he was like a freelancer that every once in a while we would hire to help set up rings, stuff like that. But he wasn’t on the regular payroll, wasn’t a regular employee. This guy just unloaded all kinds of fabricated narrative, Dirt Sheet, Reddit type stuff. This is the one that really got to me, this is what they were told, ‘You are giving your friend Diamond Dallas Page $1.5 million and you are getting a kickback.’ That was the narrative, somewhere this guy had got a hold of it. That hurt me, I don’t know if it hurt me, but I lost faith. I had put so much into WCW at that time, put so much into Nitro, and I felt good about it. I loved working with the people, loved working with Ted Turner, he is an amazing person, I would cut off a hand right now if I had the chance to work for him if it was necessary. But that just really bothered me, and I don’t even know why, I think it was the lack of trust. The idea that they didn’t tell me until the investigation was over, ‘By the way, we have got nothing on you. We have been through you, your finances, your friends, your family, your neighbours, we know all about you.’ Well thank you very much! It put a dent in me, let’s put it that way.”            

On WWE listening to its fans:

“Obviously I wasn’t there on the inside when Vince left. I was there for 4 months, I worked with Vince almost every day. On those days we did work together, it was often for hours and hours and hours. I don’t want to say that I know Vince McMahon, because I don’t, I don’t think anybody does outside of his immediate family. We all get little glimpses of him, but I don’t think many people really know Vince McMahon. My experience was Vince had a strong vision, clearly, look where WWE is today, clearly he has had a strong vision throughout his life. The challenge for me and the people I worked with on the creative side were to come up with things that would get Vince’s attention in a positive way. You never knew what that was going to be, because there was no consistency there. Every day was a brand new day, it’s not like I could get a read on Vince McMahon. I think that stifled creativity a lot. You’ve heard these stories, and I don’t mean to share these experiences as like a tell all or anything negative, because it worked for them and it worked for Vince McMahon, I wish I could have figured those out. But you have heard the stories of showing up to television at 1 o’clock, tearing up the script and starting from scratch. Those aren’t exaggerations. That process, or lack thereof, is not conducive to great creativity. And I think, I’m guessing on this, because I don’t know Paul Levesque well either, I have worked a long time around him. Paul had been a part of that creative process long enough to know what the weak points were, to know what was holding it back, to know what was frustrating the people that were charged with coming up with good creative. I think that Paul made a lot of those changes very quickly, and I would imagine that the quality of the writing and the quality of the creative got much tighter. Writers got more confidence, because it was a more predictable environment, just the quality went up, that’s my take.”

On what Vince McMahon might be doing in retirement:

“I don’t know, like I said I don’t really know him. I know he is interested in cars, he’s got nice cars. But I have never heard a story of him like going golfing, yachting or fishing. I don’t think he did anything but work or workout.”     

On the brilliance of MJF:

“I have jeans older than him! He’s so good. I think the reason, well there are many reasons, but one of the reasons is that he lives it. A lot of guys that play heels on TV don’t play heels in real life and don’t want to be. It’s human nature, no one wants to be hated. I think wrestling in particular, it’s not like being an actor. You can be a villain in a movie, and everyone knows you are just playing a movie. But in wrestling, when you’re a villain in wrestling they think you are a villain in real life. It’s true though, isn’t it.”            

On if the story is ever changed on 83 Weeks:

“No, I have made a fortune in p*ssing people off. I have no inhibitions when it comes to speaking my mind. Plus, it frees you. I try not to keep things in. You ask about talking about uncomfortable things or failures, I don’t mind talking about that stuff. I actually feel liberated talking about that stuff, because I have learned to embrace it. Again, it all comes back to my wife, over 38 to 40 years, [she] has taught me how to become grateful and the instinct to look for the lighter things. But I don’t mind it, it’s all part of it.”

On heat from the podcast:

“That happens occasionally, but I don’t do it out of, I’m not trying to be mean or hurt people’s feelings or p*ss anybody off. I am just trying to be as honest as I can be, sometimes my delivery is aggressive, but that is just part of who I am. I am not trying to be mean or disrespectful, it is just part of my point of view. I’ve spent 30 odd years of people say things about me that are not true or put me in situations that never existed, or suggested they were in my mind. I’ve listened to that and not get mad about it. If I can learn to not get angry about the other things they say about me, then they can get used to it too.”

On why the new book Gratitude took so long:

“You know, I didn’t think that I had anything else to say. Even with the first book, Controversy Creates Cash, when I was first approached about that, well everybody already knows everything about what happened, does anybody care? The process of going through, well in my case my life and wrestling up until 2006, there was so much that I forgot about. You are living in that moment, you are doing it, thinking about what is next… I had never had time to sit down and think about all of the things that I was grateful for. So you go through the book and go oh wow, this was pretty interesting. Guy Evans, who was the co-writer, he called me and he said ‘I’ve been listening to your podcast, I think you have got another book in you.’ Once again I said no, really? But he kind of laid it out to me, so we gave it a try, it was such a fun experience.”

On the power of nostalgia:

“For me, all of this is like swimming upstream. When Conrad first reached out to me about doing a podcast, I had tried one previously, but it didn’t go anywhere and the chemistry wasn’t right. When Conrad called me, I was excited because of all of the success that he had with Bruce Prichard, like real success. So I knew Conrad knew what he was doing, but I asked him about the format, what does the show look like? He told me Monday Night Wars nostalgia era, and I was like oh man! Monday Night Wars, there’s been books, there’s been DVD’s, there has been 2000 shoot interviews. He said it would work and I trusted his instinct, he was so on the money. He has done a phenomenal job, not just mine, but like the 37 others too.”

On the most talked about episode:

“Probably Starrcade 1997, when Conrad yelled at me. He was MF’ing me, it got really hot, and people still talk about it all the time. So here is what happened, we are getting to December, and people go ‘well on this date, several years ago, Hulk Hogan beat Sting because he didn’t have a tan.’ I get that all the time! We are going to be doing a watchalong with [former WWE referee] Nick Patrick. I talked to Nick Patrick for the first time on the phone to do this in how many decades? It’s been a long time. Nick has his point of view and I have mine, we will see how it goes.”

On why Sting wasn’t ready at Starrcade 1997:

“This is going to suck, but I can’t, I just can only tell you what was going on from my perspective, I don’t want to try and get in somebody else’s head. I have a ton of respect for Steve Borden, so I am going to do the best I can here. But it was a judgement call, we got to a point where both Hulk and I didn’t feel like Sting’s head was in the game. It didn’t look like he was really, I don’t want to say he wasn’t excited at what he was about to do, but we had been building this thing up for over a year. Everybody else was excited about it, the amps were pretty high going into that day. But when we finally sat down and tried to figure out how we were going to do it, we didn’t feel like we were connecting, it was a judgement call. It wasn’t one that I made, I wish we went the other way obviously. I’ve also learned in the process of learning how to be grateful is to look on the brighter side, look at the things that came out more positively. It was an unfortunate situation, but we made the best of it, and I am still making money from it. So there’s that.”  

On what Eric Bischoff is grateful for:

“To be alive, my faith and my wife and family.”

Featured image: SEScoops

Rich Swann (@gottagetswann) is a professional wrestler signed with IMPACT Wrestling. He is a former Impact World Champion, TNA World Heavyweight Champion, X Division Champion and Impact Digital Media Champion. He joins Chris Van Vliet to announce exclusively that he has re-signed with Impact Wrestling for 2 more years. He talks about the unfinished business he has with AEW’s Kenny Omega, his goal to become a Grand Slam Champion in 2023, his TNA Wrestling Mount Rushmore, the best advice he ever received, his thoughts on the Forbidden Door and much more!

On re-signing with IMPACT Wrestling:

“Man, the world of Rich Swann has definitely been lighting up. I mean, I’ve got a one year old baby now, a little Richie Jr. And I’ve also signed a two year deal with IMPACT Wrestling. [Congratulations] I appreciate that. IMPACT Wrestling has done nothing but you know, treat me with the utmost respect. And it’s been a place where I’ve been able to grow, I’ve been able to watch other competitors grow. And I’ve been able to watch the company grow into a spot to where you know, it should be, you know what I’m saying?”

Why Rich Swann is staying with IMPACT:

“You know, right now, wrestling is just like I said, there’s so much of everything, all forms of entertainment. And wrestling right now is prospering. Like you have your AEW that’s doing great. You have WWE has turned around, turned a new leaf and they’re doing great. IMPACT Wrestling, the experience that I had ever since I started with IMPACT in 2018 has been nothing but love, nothing but prospering, nothing but watching the company grow into what it is today, and to be a part of that and helping that. After all the years of people saying, Oh, IMPACT’s gonna die? Oh, TNA is dead. To be a part of that, you know what I’m saying? Like and helping it come back up to where it’s at today? That right there makes me feel good. And like I said, it lets me know that I’m doing something right in this industry.”

On evolving:

“I’m very different, especially unfortunately, I had broke my back and my leg, my hip, and my foot. Everything, like everything on my right side was damn near damaged. And I was told by doctors that I wouldn’t walk the same let alone wrestle again. And for, you know, IMPACT, they helped take care of me when that happened. You know, and once I finally was able to come back, I became a world champion in IMPACT Wrestling. So that’s something that I’ll never forget, I’ll always hold near and dear to my heart. And I’m definitely a better performer than I was back and you know, that at that time. It’s definitely you know, taught me something.”

On becoming IMPACT World Champion:

“So personally, man, it just, it made me feel like all the doubters and the naysayers and the people that said hey, you’re not gonna make it in this business as anything. Because you’re 5 foot 6, you’re 175 pounds. Oh, you’ll never be… I was able to show that gold and put it in their face. And you know, personally and professionally, professionally you know, it definitely put me at another level. I was able to wrestle one of the most revered wrestlers in our industry today, Kenny Omega, in a high profile Main Event match, you know what I’m saying. Two companies came together, AEW and IMPACT Wrestling, one pay-per-view, one ring, two world titles. I would have never gotten an opportunity wrestling in other places, and I was just you know, elated.”

On unfinished business with Kenny Omega:

“There’s a lot of unfinished business. We never got a rematch, you know what I’m saying? Man, I know that Forbidden Door still open, your boy Cass just had a world title shot at IMPACT against Josh [Alexander]. You know what I mean? And he’s a part of AEW. Hey Kenny, this is a message to you. Don’t be scared, I know you beat me, I know you beat me. But hey, don’t be scared. Let’s run it back.”

On 2023 goals:

“Man, in these next 12 months, I want to do something that has been on my mind for a while, and that is become you know, a Grand Slam champion at IMPACT Wrestling. Of course, I’d like to become world champion again. I would love to find the tag team partner and get these Tag Team Titles, scratch that off my list. You know what I’m saying? I’d love to have Willie Mack with me by my side. That’s my partner, either Willie Mack or Ricochet. Those are my two guys. And I’m saying we’ve made a lot of history together and to have that, you know what I’m saying, like that right there would be like the ultimate. Like that would put me up there with guys like AJ Styles with guys like Sting, with guys like Booker, Kurt Angle, you know, Samoa Joe, like that would put me up there with that list. You know what I’m saying and like to be in there, like Goddamn, I did something with my life!”

On Rich Swann’s IMPACT Mount Rushmore:

“Easy, easy. For me, it’s easy, because like, these are the guys that definitely, especially when I was younger, and like just starting to get into pro wrestling as an athlete and everything like that. Like I would say, Sting for sure. I’d say Christian Cage for sure. Because he was definitely a big jump once, he left from WWE to come to TNA. And you know, it was, you know, nobody thought that like, oh, wait a minute. What’s what’s, what’s he doing here? So Sting, Cristian Cage, definitely AJ Styles. The last one, you are right it is hard. Samoa Joe for sure, he definitely had a type of aura about him that was like, alright. And at that point too, he wasn’t someone came over from WWE or anything like that him and AJ were both homegrown. And, like they, they helped make that, you know, Impact Wrestling, TNA wrestling, a staple.”

On Rich Swann playing his own entrance music:

“Hey, this is the thing, and I don’t want to hate on Elias. I don’t want to hate on Rick Boogs. I don’t want to hate on those guys. But God damn, I was doing that in 2008 playing my own song, beatboxing my own song, playing guitar on my own song. But Honky Tonk and Jeff Jarrett, they were doing it well before me. Yeah, you know what I’m saying? But just saying I was doing that sh*t.”

What is Rich Swann grateful for:

“My family, my son and professional wrestling.”

Featured image: IMPACT Wrestling

Speedball Mike Bailey (@speedballbailey) is a professional wrestler currently signed to IMPACT Wrestling. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about growing up in Canada, French being his first language and learning to speak English, how he got his “Speedball” nickname, his dream X Division opponents, his issues crossing the Canada/US border, how he turned the negative of not being able to enter the United States into a positive, wrestling fellow Canadian Josh Alexander, his wife Veda Scott and much more!

On future plans:

I mean, I’m gonna be with IMPACT Wrestling for a few more years. And I’m very excited about that. I want to grow along with IMPACT, and I think that’s a big part of it. I feel like, like, I’m not taking any credit for it, but they have absolutely been making all the right moves. And Scott has taken the company in a very, very interesting direction. And they have been growing, the shows have been consistently getting better. They’ve come out of the pandemic, and just knocked it out of the park. The live events are absolutely fantastic. And I think that I don’t think there’s a limit right now, to what I can do an impact. And I think that the more we all like all of us at IMPACT grow, the more the company is going to grow. And I feel like that’s limitless, kind of. But that being said, I want to outdo myself. And I know that people have said that my 2022 was a wild year, and my goal is just to make 2022 better, wherever and however that might be. So I like I am again, I am a much better wrestler right now than I was at the beginning of the year. I am focused on growth and continuous improvement. And I feel like I’ve achieved that. And I feel like my work itself is going to keep getting better in 2023. I mean, like with how wrestling is evolving and changing, there’s new opportunities constantly. I mean, forbidden door things that are happening now like they never have before. I got to wrestle Kenta recently at Pro-Wrestling Revolver at a match with Jon Moxley, I wrestled Will Ospreay earlier in the beginning of the year. I mean, I wrestled Dax Harwood two weeks ago in a, you know, big forbidden door extraordinaire, match. And I feel like that just makes the possibilities endless. And if I can continue to wrestle all the best wrestlers in the world and keep getting better while I do it. I feel like that’s enough of a goal.

Where the name Speedball came from:

“So the Speedball is a piece of boxing equipment that you just hit and it rebounds. And the reason that I was nicknamed Speedball Mike Bailey, is because there was a, his name was Michael Ryan, he wrote about Montreal wrestling, he since passed away. But in one of my early matches, he described my enduring style as bouncing around the ring like a speedball. And a big part of the reason I love that nickname is because I didn’t give it to myself, which is very rare in these hard times.”

On possibly being in the UFC if Mike Bailey was younger today:

“So I think so. But I am not like, I’m not spiteful. And the thing that I never had in any, like combat sports that I did, was like, you know that anger, that rage, that desire to beat my opponent and knock him out? You know, I just wanted to win. I wanted to be technically superior and win, and that was much more interesting to me and I never had any animosity towards my opponents. Even if they which is again, very much reflected in my professional wrestling and my persona on screen, but I never had any animosity, like even if they tried to like cheat, I’d be like, Yeah, I understand what you’re doing, I understand where you’re doing it, and it doesn’t really bother me. And I think that’s why pro wrestling worked better for me than actual, like, competitive combat sports because I like, I prefer teamwork to outright competition. I prefer working together in order to achieve a goal than trying to, you know, beat up another person. Like, I know that pro-wrestling is not the only avenue for that. And there’s like, you know, lots of stunts and stuff is something that I almost went into at one point, and was, you know, certainly interested in and there’s a lot of other avenues for that too. But pro-wrestling really fits my personality well, and much better than competing in MMA would have.” 

On having multiple nicknames:

It’s so over, it’s mostly through Twitch that I’ve given myself a lot of nicknames. So the number one is Uncle Speedy. That then goes by a lot and I don’t know why I’ve become an uncle, but I feel like that’s the place I occupy within the #speed fam. Which is because family comes first which is a fast and furious reference, which is very important to canon. ‘I live my life a quarter mile at a time.’ That’s the Vin Diesel voice.”

On things starting to shift:

So there’s been many moments where like, it’s come in such small increments. I’ve been wrestling for 17 years. I’m 32 years old, which is when I started when I was 15, and I started from literally the bottom, like it was in Quebec, which so there was a language barrier that kind of cut off the whole province from the rest of the world. And then there’s a physical border between Quebec and the US. I started taking bookings in January 2006. And later that year, is when Kevin Steen wrestled Christopher Daniels, in Quebec City. And that match was the first time in a very, very long time, like in decades that anyone was ever brought from outside of Quebec, to wrestle in Quebec. And that’s how just that’s just how isolated and difficult that was, at the time. So all this to say that there’s been a lot of moments where, you know, I was just doing wrestling, and then I thought, Oh, this is going pretty well. And then it wasn’t. And then it was again, and then [it wasn’t].”

On IMPACT:

“Yeah, and it’s been great. It’s been great to, you know, finally get to do it on a bigger platform than what I had been doing. I think PWG was a great example of that, because up until you know, last year, people would still go Oh, Speedball Mike Bailey, I love his match with Roderick Strong, which happened in like 2015. And I had been, you know, wrestling in Japan for DDT for like four years at this point. And I’d had way better matches there not because you know, not because I had been wrestling better opponents because there are very few than, than Roderick Strong. But I’ve gotten so much better in so many aspects over those five years that I couldn’t come into the US. So it still sucks to have people judge me on what I was five years ago. And it’s even worse to have people go, Oh, you weren’t great five years ago. And it’s like, well, I am a lot better now. And it was great to be able to come back to PWG in the beginning of the year and change up that perspective.

On IMPACT helping Mike Bailey wrestle in America:

“I think people don’t realise, I know for a fact that people are not aware of the calibre of talent that there is in Canada. The wrestling landscape is wild, it’s completely different now than when I started, it’s completely evolving. For a lot of people, this is how their path went right? They start wrestling training in 2018, they get a match on AEW Dark after they’ve been wrestling for, you know, six to eight months. And then now they’re trying to get signed, and they’re getting try-outs and stuff. I wrestled for, you know, five years until I received the first envelope that had five Canadian dollars in it, and that was my pay. And before that I just, you know, not even a handshake and a hot dog, five years of wrestling for free. But it’s not because anyone was taking advantage of me just because no one was making money. Because again, this is pre social media, where the only way to advertise your wrestling shows is by, you know, stapling the flyers to telephone poles and waiting outside of the WWE house shows that try to hand out flyers and get people there. And you’re not bringing in anyone. There’s no draw, there’s no big names, no one’s making money.

On getting turned away at the border in 2016 and what really happened:

So it hadn’t happened. I was fine, up until that point. But again, it’s extremely tricky. And the thing about the border is that everything is up to the agent, right? They don’t really need a reason to turn you around. And they don’t need a reason to, like, look further into your things either. They can just decide, you know, I don’t like your face, we’re gonna go and do a deep dive into everything you say. And also, the part that is complicated is that for, you know, every Speedball Mike Bailey and Josh Alexander that, you know, had the issues of the border, and then saw it through to the end, there’s 100 more Canadians that you’ve never heard of, because they weren’t able to pick up enough steam. And by the time, you know, they got turned around before they were able to actually get their name out there. And it’s been so much harder for them ever since. I was lucky that I’ve been able to do you know, PWG and CZW, and Evolve and a bunch of higher echelon places. And then when I was not no longer able to get to the US, I was able to go to England and Japan and you know, Germany and wherever else, because I had picked up enough notoriety in order to be able to have my name out there and be attractive to promotions overseas.

On a dream match:

“Oh, man, there’s so many. AJ Styles is, of course, number one. And I think the person that will forever be associated with TNA. But man, that early X-Division roster was something you look at it like Jerry Lynn matches from that time. Amazing Red, doing absolutely fantastic. [Chris] Sabin, who’s been there from the beginning, still one of the best. It’s interesting to see. And I thought I’ve what is unique about the X-Division is that it’s been able to for so long, maintain its identity, which is very, very rare in professional wrestling. Like do you think of the like, Intercontinental Championship in WWE, and it’s kind of the mid-card title. But it’s not associated with any particular style. 

What Mike Bailey is grateful for:

“My wife, the audience of wrestling and the existence of professional wrestling.”

Featured image: IMPACT

Matt Cardona (@themattcardona) is a professional wrestler who has worked for NWA, AEW, Impact Wrestling, GCW and was known as Zack Ryder in WWE. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about the incredible 2022 that he had, why he wants to go back to WWE, his goal to win the WWE Championship, his thoughts on Cody Rhodes wrestling against Seth Rollins with a torn pec at Hell in a Cell, how he has been able to monetize The Major Figure Wrestling Podcast, his infamous match with Nick Gage, getting the fans to hate him, what happened after his AEW debut and much more!

On wanting to be WWE Champion:

“I’ll put it out there, one goal that I’ve been saying for a long time is to win that WWE championship. That’s not a lie. I’d be lying to you right now. Listen, when I got released, the goal was not to get back to WWE. It wasn’t like, oh, what can I do to make them notice me? What can I do to get back to WWE? You can’t think like that. I certainly can’t. But I would be lying if I said, I never want to wrestle at Madison Square Garden again, or I never want to have a Wrestlemania match. Of course I do, because WWE is number one. So not saying, you know there’s this, this plan to go back as soon as possible. But before I hang up the boots, I’d love to go back at least one time, for sure.”

On conversations with WWE:

“Listen, I appreciate you asking me this, but here’s the truth. Like, if I were to go back, I wouldn’t reveal it here. And if I wasn’t going back, I wouldn’t reveal it here, because I want people, I want people talking. So the more they talk, you know, the more people are talking about Matt Cardona, the better for me. I’m the internet champion, then now and forever. So let them talk.”

On not returning to WWE as Zack Ryder:

“I mean, if it was up to me, if I would ever go back it would be as me, Always Ready Matt Cardona. Now if there was going to be a surprise run in or Royal Rumble something, if the Always Ready music hit or the Woo Woo, hit which one would get a bigger pop? I understand Zack Ryder, but I don’t want to. I don’t want to live in the past. You know, I’m saying like, I’m 37 years old, I’m in the prime of my career. I mean, listen, I always say like the PWI 500 Doesn’t matter unless you’re number one or number 13, and I was number 13. Which, you know what? I’m very very proud of that. The only unsigned guy in the top 20, I think it’s pretty damn cool, that you know that I’m being able to do GCW, IMPACT, NWA, all these random indies of all over the world and doing it on my terms. It’s so much fun.”

On not wanting to be tied down:

“Well, I mean, the AEW thing, listen, it’s not like they offered me a deal and I turned it down. That’s not what happened. What happened? I don’t exactly know. I did a couple shows there. I thought I was gonna be offered something, I wasn’t. Okay, now I gotta move on, you know? I just don’t want to be tied down anywhere. In WWE, not that had handcuffs on by any means, but I was there for so long. That’s when I was 20 years old, when did we get fired? 2020. So I was there for like 14 years, it’s a long time. So now it’s my chance to make my own schedule and be my own boss and branch out and do all these other things. Whether it be grow the Major Wrestling Figure podcast, or, you know, I just did the last match musical, I did a musical, you know, all these things I’m getting to try now. I just don’t want to be tied down anywhere. I don’t want to [go] ‘Hey, Okay, can I do this?’ I don’t want to do that.”

On WWE fans not knowing what Matt Cardona is doing now:

“100%. Listen, when I was a kid I was the WWE kid. I mean, obviously, I watched WCW, ECW, but I didn’t [watch everything]. And it was different then, but I didn’t follow the indies and stuff like that. I was strictly WWF, right, so I totally get it. And there’s people like, I meet them at conventions, and we just did like Wrestle Cade. [They ask me] ‘Oh, you still wrestle?’ Yeah I’m f*cking busier than ever making more money than ever, pal. You know, but like, I don’t blame them. You know. Not everyone is obsessed with this business like I am. Or, you know that not everyone has to be this diehard fan. I don’t fault them for that.”

On life after the WWE release:

“Well, that’s the thing because you know, I got released, I knew, okay, I’m Matt Cardona now. But who is that? I knew I needed to change, but you can’t just turn heel on the indies. You know, it just doesn’t work that way. So the deathmatch, the GCW, it really started this snowball effect where I go through to, you know, random indie shows, and it’s like 50/50 getting cheered or booed. First it’s like 25% getting booed and I’m like this is weird, then 50/50, then 75% get booed, now it’s 100%. I don’t get cheered anywhere I go, and I love it. And that’s what I need, I just needed something, the catalyst, if you will, to spark this new version of me. It’s been so much fun. And for a while, you know, I was like a babyface, and IMPACT and then like, I’d be doing an indie show the next night and getting booed. So like, I love that now, no matter where I go, people know f*ck this guy. It’s so much fun.”

On transitioning from Zack Ryder to Matt Cardona:

“I mean, even at the very end, like the past couple years in WWE, I was trying to be a little more serious, you know, got in better shape, dropped the Woo Woo sh*t. But like if you don’t get the time on television to showcase that. I mean, who really knows, right? So I think now, being my own boss, you know, I’m not signed to any company, I’ve refused contracts. I just want to be my own boss. And selfishly, I don’t want to answer to anybody. You know, I’m having so much fun and it’s working. And I love just being able to try things. All I’ve ever wanted was an opportunity to try and a lot of things that I’ve tried since being released have worked. Some things that I’ve tried haven’t worked. And that’s just how it is. That’s how you learn, that’s how you grow.”

On wrestling Nick Gage:

“I was scared to death and honestly before I walked through that curtain I’m like, they might try to kill me in this ring, and that would be the trending moment, right? Like, Nick Gage kills Matt Cardona at GCW, I was scared to death. I watched the Dark Side of the Ring, or at least I tried to, the Nick Gage episode, and I couldn’t get through it. It was so gory and disgusting. And I’m like, holy sh*t. I have to wrestle this guy?”

On possibly not going all in for the Nick Gage match:

“No, I knew that it was, I knew this is gonna be a big night. I wore all white, I knew I was gonna bleed, right? Of course, deathmatch, light tubes, glass, you’re gonna bleed. But my white shirt turned like maroon red. And there’s one point in the match, I superplex Nick through this pane of glass, and there’s like, it’s blood coming out of my arm but it’s like ooze. It’s so thick and disgusting. And the referee was concerned, once the referee was concerned, then I was like concerned. So then like, you know, I started getting lightheaded. We finished the match, I won, long story short, I’m the deathmatch king, but holy sh*t. And, you know, there’s no medical team backstage at the Showboat Casino in Atlantic City. There was this nurse, I think, you know, she was a nurse, she stitched me up, did a horrible job. She did her best with what she had, and she told me yeah, these stitches are dissolvable don’t take them out. Of course they were not. I got infected, it was brutal. It was the aftermath that hurt the most because I flew right away cross country to Disneyland, I had a big Disneyland trip planned. So John Carlo, if you know John Carlo is, he worked for GCW, works for AEW now, he didn’t have any bandages. So I just went to his hotel room and he taped towels around my body. That’s how I flew cross country, and I did all the rides at Universal and Disneyland.”

On Chelsea Green’s reaction:

“Well, she was the one who found me in that hotel room the next day, and she had to go get all the bandages and she bandaged me up and cleaned me up. But um, a lot of people thought I was crazy going into it. I got so many texts and DM’s like don’t do this, this guy’s crazy. I’m like, if I’m convincing people in the business, this is gonna be great.”

On Cody Rhodes wrestling with a torn pec:

“Oh, man. First of all, he had to do that match. Was it like this the smartest for his health? Maybe not. But it’s such an iconic moment, you know, and it really showed that he had these balls and the passion for pro-wrestling. I think he gained a lot of people’s respect if he didn’t have it already. Great, great night for him and he needed that. And I think Cody is, you know, it was a blessing in disguise to get injured, because now he gets two big comebacks in one calendar year.”

What is Matt Cardona grateful for:

“Chelsea Green, The Major Wrestling Figure Podcast and living my dream.”

Featured image: Sports Illustrated

Ron Howard is a director, actor, screenwriter and producer. From dramas like A Beautiful Mind (2001) and Apollo 13 (1995) to the hit comedies Parenthood (1989) and Splash (1984), he has created some of Hollywood’s most memorable films. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about his new movie “Thirteen Lives” and tells CVV the best advice he was given as an actor that he now applies to directing.

You’re so good at creating tension in all the movies that you have directed and you have done it again here. What’s the key to creating tension in a scene?

“You know, in thrillers they sometimes call them human interest stories, or tick tocks. When you combine those 2 things with beat for beat, what does it feel like to be involved in something that is so pressurised? Even if you have a broad sense of what the outcome is, you don’t know what people endured to try and achieve what was achieved. In this case, I thought it was exponentially dense with acts of heroism, large and small. There was so much volunteerism here, these weren’t trained firefighters doing their thing, or astronauts trying to get themselves home, soldiers in battle. These were people who did not have to be there. There was no guarantee that there was going to be a celebration at the end of this, in fact, it was most likely heartbreak. And yet they did it, they engaged, 5,00 of them, becasue they knew that it was the right thing. I admired that, and I wanted to celebrate it, but not in a sentimental way. I wanted to let audiences know that this is kind of what a miracle looks like, this is what the practical side of what it takes to create a possibility of a miraculous outcome.”

I’m curious Mr. Howard, do you have any advice that you were given as an actor by a director that you now employ as a director?

“Truth, always build on the truth. Understand the logic of it. Even if you are going to turn it into a comedy moment, or have to manipulate it in some way to make it achieve some goal in the story or the narrative. Start with the truth, and build some link between your head, your psyche, and what the character is doing. You might not agree with what the character does, but if you understand it and connect enough of yourself to it, then you are offering audiences something that is relatable. In this case, when Thai cast members started arriving, I relaized how vitally important it was to get it right, that this was there story, and I was an outsider wanting to tell their story. I wound up having a great creative experience, and an artistic one, working with these talented people. Some highly experienced, some newbies. Yet trying to find that truth and wanting to share it with audiences.”

Apollo 13, Thirteen Lives, 13 is a lucky number for you!

“I’m looking for another story with 13 attached. It seems to work for me, me and Will Chamberlain.”

Featured image: Britannica