Ryan Magin (@ryanmagin) is an entrepreneur and social media growth expert. He joins Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios at Wynn Las Vegas to talk about the formula to creating viral videos and posts on social media, how anyone can gain followers, why you should absolutely start a TikTok account, why creators are doubling down on Instagram Reels, the value of adding captions to videos, how often you should be posting and much more!

So if someone doesn’t have a TikTok account, should they have been on this yesterday?

“Well they should have been on it a year ago. There is still is time though. If you look at the time that Instagram has been popular and YouTube has been popular, TikTok has really amplified, especially over the last 2 years with everything going on. But I still think that it is so infant. TikTok is only a few years old, Instagram and YouTube didn’t pop right away, but the competition is coming.” 

Some people think that TikTok is just 98% dancing.

“In my world I have never done a dance or a trend. I don’t care what hashtags are popular and I don’t know what songs are popular. If I am going to turn this into a business, I can’t rely on external factors that make this popular. So I dove into the platform, which lead me to Reddit. Whatever is popular on Reddit is popular on TikTok. If you want to get a lot of TikTok views, you have to tap into the community and do it better.”

My girlfriend had 4 followers, posted a cute video of our dog, and it got 160,000 views. Now she has 37 followers, but she is like ‘How did this happen?’

“They do a lot of things and there are a lot of smart people behind the app. They make you keep going and go down that rabbit hole. Then you are just hooked. It’s just a never ending scroll and there is something there, that’s why Instagram and YouTube have now copied it.”

Do you think that there is a recipe for going viral?

“I do. Controversy is always the best recipe in my opinion. But also tutorials, recipes and matter of facts, practical people problems. TikTok doesn’t do well with the flexing culture. If people come on with the fancy cars, it might get a few views. But if you want to get the followers and the views, you have to give them something tangible. When they go to your profile, there has to be something else there to make them follow you.”

So if someone is grinding away and they only have 300 followers, what would you say they need to do?

“Look at your analytics and see which videos are doing better, then make more of those but make them better. TikTok is driven on watch time. The sole purpose should be to make the person watch the whole video, if not, it’s going nowhere. You have to make them watch 20 seconds, it sounds easy, but try to make them watch a full 20 seconds.”

So say you are doing one type of video, but you do something else and that takes off, should you follow that?

“So I experimented a lot. When I started on TikTok, I had some viral tips and grew to 30k quickly giving camera tips. But when I was making camera tip videos, it capped out at 100,000 because there were not a lot of people on the app. Now there are more, we are reposting those same videos and they are getting hundreds of thousands, because there are more people. There might not be a particular market yet, but niches will become more and more important. The broader the topic that relates to you, the more reach TikTok can give it.”

How do you feel about reposting your content?

“I do it all the time. I haven’t made a fresh video in 2 months. But it is also down to what kind of content you are making. We are making good videos that are not based on trends and will hopefully outlive the app. A lot of people want fresh and new, which is great until you get busy. I have reposted that have done a lot better and a lot worse. Right now I feel that it is more like the consistency over the content.”

What would you say is the viral formula?

“There is a formula to every viral video. There is a hook, a riveting story or something that is educational. It wasn’t something crazy like someone jumping off a building, but it is harder to make an educational video if there is no education. Say this video is only for men, then it limits who sees it. People on YouTube say ‘What’s up guys?’ So that will show it to guys, what about women? You have alienated half of the world. Say the video is about putting a shelf on a wall, if you say ‘What’s up guys? Here is how to put a shelf on a wall.’ It will only show it to guys. In our experience, the titles and hashtags don’t mean that much. They help in some scenarios, but I think hashtags box in the video before it starts.”

The amazing thing about TikTok is that the first 80% are people I don’t follow.

“That means you haven’t watched the ones you follow all the way through. We see a lot of data, and certain words will not go over 1,000. Anything with depression, COVID, virus, anything down that realm. If you talk about suicide prevention, the word suicide doesn’t work. If someone makes a video about their experience with pain pills, it won’t get the views that it deserves.”  

The micro content is now the gateway, it leads to the longer content. In my case, the TikTok clips and Instagram reels lead to the interviews.

“I think another argument is well how much influence can you give in 20 seconds? Well not a lot, but you can be lead to a profile, watch 30 videos and that’s 10 minutes.”

Everybody is an expert in something, figure out what it is and turn the camera on.

“Yes, but do it in a certain way. Like woodworking, break it down and teach it in a way where they will get the same enjoyment as you do. It’s not that easy anymore to go viral. The audience will tell you if your video is sh*t or not. It’s up to you whether you want to adapt or not. They drive what is viral, and what is viral on TikTok is viral everywhere. A lot of clients, their main focus is Instagram. They say ‘Put whatever you want on TikTok but not on our Instagram.’ Well you should care more about TikTok, because that is the more viral platform.”

A lot of people don’t want to join TikTok. They think it is for 14 year olds.

“Yeah a lot of people think that it is a young person’s app, but my demographics are like 18 to 30. But there are a lot of older creators that are blowing up.”

So what are 3 things that people can do right now to make their videos viral?

“One of the trigger words for TikTok is viral. We had a video on TikTok on how to make videos viral, it had 350 views after an hour. We took off the viral tags, reposted it, and it got 780,000 views. The word viral could be on the suppressed word list due to what is going on in the world. Also the hashtags may have not worked, and the video flopped.”

OK, so what are 3 things people can do to get 1 million views?

“Pay close attention to the first 3 seconds of your video. What I mean is provide something thought provoking or get people to stop scrolling. Say what is being said in a way that relates to the audience. The more you can give a personal story attached to the hook, the more people will watch the whole thing. And finally be relatable. While it’s cool seeing a Lamborghini and someone talking about not being able to drive it in Hollywood, I don’t have a Lamborghini and I don’t live in Hollywood.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for?

“I would say TikTok, being able to support my employees and family.”

Image credits: Instagram

D’Lo Brown (@dlobrown75) is a professional wrestler known for his time in WWE and IMPACT Wrestling. He also works as the Head of Talent Relations for IMPACT Wrestling. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios at Wynn Las Vegas to talk about his legendary career in WWE as part of the Attitude Era, being a member of the Nation of Domination with The Rock, Kama Mustafa (The Godfather) and Faarooq, why he considers himself the “Forrest Gump” of wrestling, his trademark headshake, working for IMPACT Wrestling, what he looks for when they sign new talent, how “the forbidden door” has changed wrestling and much more!

So what is your official title at IMPACT Wrestling?

“I am the head of talent relations.”

But if that’s your job, commentator is your job too? How many hats do you wear?

“Enough to keep me employed [laughs].”

So what is a show day like for you?

“I wake up, get to the building, sit in a production meeting and go through an agents meeting. I then break off and meet with talent about their match. If I get time, I break out the computer and see if there are any payroll issues that I need to deal with or anything out there that needs to be addressed. I then go back to talent and see if anyone else needs anything, then it’s showtime. So I put on a suit and scream at the top of my lungs for 2 hours.”

You and Tom Hannifan.

“Yeah Tom is such a great guy. He came in and injected an element of comfort. No disrespect to anyone else, but there is something about his voice that is so comforting and draws you in. He is so knowledgeable about wrestling and such a pro. I was so impressed from the moment he first sat down next to me.”

For those who don’t know this is the former Tom Phillips in WWE. That was a huge pickup for IMPACT.

“I was so happy when I heard that he was coming on board.”

Are you the guy that is out there seeking new talent?

“I am always looking. My emails, I get 100 a day from talent all over the country. Some are good and some are bad. But I get them and it is all consuming. Last night I was up until 4:30 watching videos of people trying to be that next person.” 

So if I want to get D’Lo’s attention, what do I need to do?

“Show me something that I have not seen before. Entertain me in a way where I can say yeah that translates to the masses. Give me something that I can sell to those above me and I can’t walk away from. That is a tall order. For example, we already have one Moose, we don’t need another. You as the person who is trying to get a job, what makes you stand out and what makes you special? You’ve then got 2 minutes to show us why you need a second look or a deeper evaluation.”

Is this about making a name for yourself on the indies?

“It’s not about making buzz , it’s just about being good at what you do. Your presentation, in-ring work, talking, your body, the way you are dressed… Billy Kidman is the only guy who has made money in a wife beater and shorts. Yet there are 100 guys wrestling in that look. If only one guy did it, I’m staying away from that.”

The wrestling landscape has changed over the last year, especially with IMPACT Wrestling and the forbidden door.

“IMPACT Wrestling is the backbone of the forbidden door. When you think about who is working with who, IMPACT Wrestling is always connected to somebody. [Whether it’s] New Japan, AEW, AAA, WWE, ROH, you name it and we are connected in some way, shape or form. We are the framework of the forbidden door.”

When Mickie James was announced for the Royal Rumble it was like wait, WWE is on this too!

“The second that the IMPACT Knockouts Championship came out to the ring on Mickie’s waist, that’s an acknowledgement that someone else exists from WWE. That was a huge get, huge for us and huge for Mickie.”

Do you think the door could now go both ways?

“Well never say never. That is the beautiful thing about wrestling, you can never say never.”

What was your first time doing something different?

“I think it was when the head shake first happened. The first time that I did the head shake, I knew I found something that was different from everyone else in the roster. When you are in such a tekent laden locker room, you have to find something that makes you stand out. If not, you are just another guy in spandex and baby oil. Hell, you are in the biggest company, you have to elevate up the card. If it wasn’t for the head shake, even in The Nation I had a certain amount of protection, but I was still just the 4th or 5th guy. Finally when the head shake happened, that was when things started and a focus was put on me.”

You had some great in-ring moves too.

“Those were the starting moments, but at the end of the day it is just a move. Only one guy has gotten over with a move, that’s Petey Williams with the Canadian Destroyer. Other than that, everyone does the same 12 moves of doom.”

The first time I saw that move, I was like how is this possible?

“Yeah I rewound that so many times. I believe Petey named it after one of the greats from Ontario Canada that was called The Canadian Destroyer.”

With The Nation and with The Rock, did you feel like there was something special with him?

“No not at first and even Rock would tell you. He had the failed Rocky Maivia gimmick, coming off an injury and had the pineapple hair. He was trying to find himself following the failed babyface run. Also he had some protection being in The Nation and he could make mistakes and have great minds around that would help him cultivate. The one thing I did learn about Rock was that he was willing to do the work and he would out work anybody. What I mean by that is there were times where we were all in the car and you could see him thinking. We would listen to the radio, he would hear a catchphrase in a song and 2 weeks later it would be in a promo. Because of that hard work, you could see this brother is putting the time in and working. If you go back you can see the evolution of his promom style. It took about 6 months, but the first time that he walked out in that black vest and called himself The Rock, well you know the rest.”

We now look back at the segment of DX making fun of The Nation in a really different way. Was there any trepidation at that time?

“No, and there have been a lot of stories out there. I can tell you that none of us had any real concerns about it. In retrospect, we could have done that segment without the black face, and I wish we had. It would have been just as good. Obviously I wished we changed that and we didn’t. Looking back on it in 2022, I’m not a fan of it. But in 1997/1998, it was a way to get us to go to war. Both the factions were over enough and connected to the fans enough that we can go out there and draw money, build houses and put up ratings on TV. We looked at the potential matches, and that peaked our curiosity. I think people look past the obvious elephant in the room.”           

I think even a few years later when WWE became a public company.

“You wouldn’t pitch that 3 years later. You would get laughed out the building if you pitched it a few years later.”

I mean with great respect, but IMPACT is back on the rise. What do you attribute that to?

“Consistency with storytelling, finding under utilized talent and giving them the opportunity to go out there and grow. Look at how different Moose is from his Ring of Honor days to now. Our locker room wants to be the best. Our Knockouts division wants to be and knows that they are the best women’s division out there. That is what separates IMPACT Wrestling, creative storylines, consistency and talent.”

How long before The Nation gets inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame?

“I don’t know. It would be an honor if it does happen but…”

Or does D’Lo go in first?

“I don’t think I have done enough in the business to warrant a Hall of Fame induction in my opinion. [In just WWE?] I mean it’s their Hall of Fame. I’ve spent more of my career in IMPACT than I have in WWE, twice as long. We are talking 12 years compared to 6 years.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for?

“My family, opportunities and this crazy world of professional wrestling.”

Jeff Timmons (@jefftimmons) is a singer, songwriter, producer and one of the founding members of the boy band “98 Degrees”. He joins Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios at the Wynn Las Vegas and blows us away with the tips and tactics he’s used to change his life. He talks about how he formed 98 Degrees, deciding on a whim to move from Ohio to Los Angeles, the importance of dreaming big, why he writes down his goals every day, how he met Nick Lachey, Drew Lachey and Justin Jeffre, what being a dad has meant to him, why 98 Degrees broke up, how they got back together and more!

You look so youthful.

“Thank you. We’ve always been gym rats, the guys in the group, but I think it’s diet more than anything. It’s a combination of diet and exercise, but I think diet is more important.”

What is your diet?

“It’s keto. I’ve been low carb since 1997. It was the Atkins diet and then it evolved. Basically it’s a high fat diet. All my profiles and stuff check out.”

I think from the outside looking in, a lot of people haven’t heard a new 98 Degrees song in quite some time.

“Yeah except for the diehard fans, and we have been touring since our comeback tour in 2013. But we have families and we have done this before, so we needed to figure out a way to do both, tour and be with our families and look after our other businesses. So we started doing this thing called the Weekend Warrior. This allows us on Friday and Saturday to do those dates, and then for the rest of the week we can concentrate on the other stuff.”

Where was the shift where boybands were not really a thing anymore?

“I want to say that in 2002, literally that was it. Literally radio was done and that’s it. What happened was that there was too many. There was too much pop and bubble gum pop, radio loved it and it was one of the best times. Tons came after that and the programmers, not necessarily the fan base, they were just sick of it. They said no to this type of music and stopped playing the records. That was why we all went away and nobody else emerged as a big time solo artist, with the exception of Justin Timberlake.”

I remember back in the day that you used to perform at malls.

“Before that, we actually performed at cheerleading camps before we got signed. We couldn’t get signed right away and our demo was done. What we did was that our manager was friends with the head of the National Cheerleading Association. He asked if we could go on a cheerleading camp tour, and that was how we started. It was crazy, but you look back at those times and you miss it. You don’t don’t know where things will go, but we were having a blast and it was just so much fun. Once you get signed, it gets more competitive and more of a grind and less fun.”

What do you think was the song that put you on the map?

“We had a song called Invisible Man, which is my favorite. Invisible Man came out, and Motown was trying to convince people that we were an urban group. They didn’t put our pictures on anything, they wanted people to think that we were an R & B group. The only place where the music video was served was a video channel called The Box, which was on UHM. You could call in and give the number that was on a list, and then they would play it.”

What was the next one?

“I think it was The Hardest Thing and then it was I Do. If you had 3 songs on an album then that album can go platinum.”

Do you still get the residuals?

“Yeah of course. They are not a lot, if you are not the songwriter, it’s nominal. Back in the day you used the CD sales and merchandise to make the money. Unless you wrote all the songs, which we didn’t. But we were songwriters, the label just didn’t want our songs to get on there. But if you didn’t write the songs, you made a little bit of money from the CD and the albums, you really made the money on the road.”

Isn’t this why everyone has a Christmas album?

“Yes, because it will get played every year. Also Christmas music before a certain year is public domain. So if you do your own version of it and your own arrangement, you can claim the publishing rights. It’s a great little money maker.”

If people don’t recognize you from your face, do they from the tattoo?

“There was a time when I was embarrassed by the tattoo. The music went away and it wasn’t cool to be in a “boyband.” People would nail me for the tattoo. I would wear long sleeve shirts to cover it up. I was married before, but then I got divorced and met my new wife. She was like ‘What are you doing? You are in one of the biggest groups of all time. Why are you embarrassed? You should be proud of it.” I’m like I should be proud of it, this is so strange. Why do you care so much about something that you created that went on to sell millions of records. I didn’t get the tattoo for a brand, I did it because it is my crew. I never thought of it as an advertisement to the group.”

Did you ever think about getting it covered up or removed?

“Yeah back when we were done. I would walk into Guitar Center they are like ‘Oh look it’s the 98 Degrees guy!’ I’m like ‘Yeah, and you’re still working at Guitar Center.’ Nothing wrong with that, but alright, at least I tried.”

You didn’t just try, you succeeded!

“Well I was like yeah but I was thinking this wasn’t cool anymore. That was when my wife hit me over the head with it and I am proud of this many years later.”

What advice would you give to people who are starting out now?

“I think it’s the same. The tools are different, but it’s always the same. Work harder than everyone else, and self belief is a big thing. Self confidence and self belief, no one is going to believe in you as much as you believe in yourself. Those closest to you may be the ones to discourage you the most, because they see you doing something that they were too afraid to try. Secretly they might be envious, but if you stick with it. Finally humility and to surround yourself with good people, which can be hard. But if you get rid of the bad, the good will flock to you.”

I feel like you willed this into existence with the success of 98 Degrees.

“Thanks man. You have to will it into existence, no one will believe in it as much as you do, so you have to put all of your energy and will into it. That doesn’t mean you can’t have balance, but you have to visualize it.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things that you are grateful for?

“That I am still around, my family and I’m doing what I love for a living.”

Featured images: Instagram

Powerhouse Hobbs (@true_will_hobbs) is a professional wrestler also known as Will Hobbs signed to All Elite Wrestling. He joins Chris Van Vliet to discuss how he got discovered and signed by AEW, what it was like wrestling CM Punk on TV, the breakout moments he’s had in his career so far, his workout routine, the importance of mental health, how Tony Khan gave him the nickname “Powerhouse”, his favorite big men in wrestling and much more!

What job did you have before AEW hired you?

“So I was working at Facebook and Instagram. I was running their facilities department, so I was running about 4 different buildings. Then I got a call saying that we are going to give you a month off with pay, and I’m cool with it. I can take my son Bam Bam to school and look after my other son Julian. I got home about 2:30, then got a call about 3:45 saying that they were going to terminate my contract. I’m like f*ck, but everything happens for a reason. I am glad that I got let go and I am living my dream.”

Look where it’s lead you know.

“Right. I was telling Christian how I am living my dream.”

I’m liking the gear that you are using right now. It’s a tip of the hat to Harlem Heat.

“Yeah those were my dudes growing up. Just the intimidation factor and they talked like my grandparents did when I was growing up. Things like, neckbones, sucka, my grandpa said that stuff to a tee. So those were my dudes growing up. Plus they look like me, so that was a good thing.”

So what was it that drew you to pro-wrestling?

“Pro-wrestling was already on by the time that I came along. So my grandparents moved from a small town in Mississippi right down the street from The Cow Palace. They took my dad, aunts and uncles all the time, every other weekend to see Pat Patterson, Peter Maivia, all those guys. By the time I was born, wrestling was on the TV and I was hooked.”

So at what point did you think that this was something that you wanted to try?

“I’ve always wanted to be a wrestler from when I was 5, that was all that I ever cared about. I played football, basketball and baseball, but wrestling was all that mattered. I remember going to a live show and being like OK, I know what school to go to, which was APW, which was in Beyond The Mat. So I saved up the money, pulled the trigger and that was it. We had 23 people start and there were only 2 people at the end.”

There’s a lot of people who want to be a wrestler at 5 years old but they lose track of it. For yourself, you stayed on course.

“It was all I ever wanted. Coming home from school we watched old wrestling tapes. Watching wrestling on Monday and having my grandpa flick between the channels on Mondays. I remember getting mad at my grandparents for calling the cable company and them saying the wrong pay-per-view. I remember my grandma saying ‘I want to order WrestleManiac.’ I’m like ‘It’s WrestleMania!’ Them not understanding what she wanted to order, but it was always on. I had the figured, drew figures on paper growing up.”

I heard in another interview that you were skinny growing up. How skinny are we talking?

“I graduated high school at 142 lbs. I was shorter, I grew and genetics happened. But it happened, my first wrestling match in a battle royal, I thought I was the business then. So I came in, threw some punches, got chopped and kicked, then out the door. That was the highlight.”   

What do you think is the biggest difference between the Powerhouse Hobbs that is sitting here right now and when you debuted 12 years ago?

“Confidence. Having the right people around to teach me. Knowing what I can do and can’t do. Knowing how to work a crowd, have fun and be myself. When I smile and give that snarl, that’s me, I’ve been doing that since football. I have been doing that to keep the bullies away, because they thought that I was crazy.”

What originally got you on AEW’s radar?

“I know a phone call got called in, and next thing I know I got a text from QT Marshall. I looked at it and I’m like this is bullsh*t, but I sat on it for a little bit and I responded. It was one of those things where I’m like do I risk flying to Jacksonville and possibly get COVID? Or do I say ‘Thank you, when things open back up…’ But I’m like I am a fool if I say no to this. I remember QT asking me if I was local to Jacksonville? I said no but I will find a way to get there. When I got there I was amazed at Daily’s Place. Everyone was friendly to me. I looked on the board and I got a match with Orange Cassidy. I’m like cool, I’ve been following the program and he has a feud with Chris Jericho. Then 12.36 seconds later I lost to Orange Cassidy, but I couldn’t care less if I won or lost, my main thing was how can I help out this show? I knew the pay-per-view was coming up with him and Jericho, and I knew it was going on the highlight reel because of my size and his size, and it was.”

What was the breakout moment?

“I think it was the battle royal and that match on Saturday Night Dynamite with Darby [Allin] before the pay-per-view. I think local people in California knew who I was, but Florida, like people who have seen AEW Dark know who Will Hobbs was. That battle royal was crazy, because it was the anniversary of my brother’s death. I was in this battle royal and one of the last six. When I had this moment with Matt Sydal and that spinebuster and I had that moment with Archer, I’m like I should be here. It all took off after that.”

When you came back through the curtain, did Tony Khan or anyone come to you and say ‘Yeah that worked.’?

“Yeah Tony Khan was like ‘Willie Willie Wille! Let’s go!’ So I’m like sh*t let’s go, let’s do this! I think the following week was when I saved Mox from [Brian] Cage and [Ricky] Starks, that was a big moment when Mox introduced me, I was ready to go then too.”

You have this real presence in the ring as a big man. Who was your favorite big man growing up?

“For me personally, I loved the way Yokozuna worked. I loved how Mark Henry worked, just those guys. I was even impressed with Big Daddy V, when he threw that back kick! Those big guys, it took so much for the little guys to get them down, and they could just hit them with one move, like look at Vader, I love Vader man.”

You did some enhancement stuff with WWE. Did you ever feel like that was a possibility?

“I did at one time. I got to the point where they bring you in to do a half and stuff and I’m like OK cool. Then there are people on the roster who are like ‘Hey, when are they going to give you a shot?’ So you know, guys alone telling me that stuff and that I have talent.”

Walk me through finding out that you will be wrestling CM Punk on TV.

“That was crazy. I remember if you asked me a few years ago if you asked me, I would have said no. But the fact that i am wrestling him in front of 20,000 people in Arthur Ashe Stadium on cable TV, I just have been dreaming. He knew how special that night was for me, it was a little over a month since my mother had passed away. So he knew what my mindset was and how I wanted the match to come across. I can’t thank him enough and I tell him thank you all the time so that was just special.”

You have mentioned your brother and your mother both passing away, which I am very sorry to hear. How have you managed to get over those really difficult moments in your life?

“I have great people around me. Also going to therapy has helped me out, not having those feelings jumbled. If you have too much bottled in, it can destroy you, you just have to find a way to get it out. Wrestling was always a way for my family to connect, we would have parties where the family comes over to watch wrestling. It was always a way to connect the family.”

Where did Will Hobbs end and Powerhouse Hobbs begin?

“The night I hit Cody Rhodes in the face with the FTW belt. That was the end of Will Hobbs. The next week I made my Powerhouse debut against Lee Johnson, and that was it. That’s when Will Hobbs went away.”

How was the call made to change your name?

“Tony [Khan] looked at me and was like ‘Powerhouse.’ I’m like alright, let’s go! I thought he might have seen some of my clips in the gym but I don’t know where he got it from but I am loving it. But it’s one of those things where you look at Hacksaw Butch Reed, people called him Hacksaw. I know that Butch Reed was a fan of mine, I’ve talked to his son. I’m like OK, I’m up there with Hacksaw Butch Reed, you know, Hacksaw, Powerhouse. It’s like my way of paying homage to him.”

What do you think is the biggest lesson that you have learned from being with Taz and being a part of Team Taz?

“Patience. Patience in the ring. Stalking, being true to myself and doing what I feel. Doing stuff that feels natural and put my size over. I am a big dude and I like stalking people. Taz has taught me that whatever you do in the ring, make people in the arena and at home feel it. I see people cringe when I hit people and I know they are at home too.”

Who is on your radar now?

“I want to work Eddie Kingston and I want to work Jon Moxley. I am putting this out there now I want to work Mark Henry. Also The Young Bucks, FTR… I want to work with people who have my style and people don’t, just things that mesh so well.” 

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for?

“My family, I work for an amazing company and that I can motivate people.” 

Image credits: AEW

Today’s guests are Corey Graves (@wwegraves) and Carmella (@carmellawwe). Corey is a color commentator and professional wrestler for WWE. Carmella is also a professional wrestler known for her time in NXT and WWE. They join Chris Van Vliet to talk about their new reality show called “Corey and Carmella” which airs on WWE’s YouTube channel. They discuss the very sexy trailer that came out before the show’s debut, their biggest pet peeves about each other as a couple, the fact that Corey is now officially cleared for in-ring performing after what was thought to be a career ending injury, they list their mentors in wrestling, the best advice they ever received in life and much more!

There are so many things to congratulate you guys on! Congratulations on your engagement and congratulations on the new reality show.

Carmella: “Thank you so much. We have so much to be excited about.”

Corey Graves: “It has been a busy several months for us.”

Well this is a good thing, right? Did you see the reaction when this trailer went out? A lot of people online went erm yeah?

Carmella: “We sure did!”

Corey: “That was by design man, we had to come out of the gate strong. We have really addressed our relationship on WWE TV apart from me fawning over her entrance, which is equally to make people angry as it is to let people know that this is a real thing. So we had to come out of the gate [strong] and we discussed with WWE how we wanted to roll this out, and we decided to take the sexy route. Just because this is so different to anything that WWE has put out recently. It’s almost a call back to The Attitude Era where it was OK to be sexy. Being on YouTube we had a little more leeway than being on a major network right now, so we are kind of exploring. This is as much of an experiment as it has been a goal.”

Carmella: “Yeah I’ve definitely read the comments. Not all of them because oh my gosh I don’t have that much time on my hands and I don’t want to be depressed. But you see things like ‘Carmella, she’s a freak, I’ve never seen her like this…’ Come on, it’s 2022. What you see on TV on Monday Night Raw, that’s not who I am in real life. Yes I like to talk about sex and yes I have stepchildren now. Yes I am a fiancée and you get to see me with my dad and all these different aspects of our lives that you don’t get to see on TV. But it’s time to normalise these things, it’s OK to be a little sexy.”

Corey: “And the sexy aspect of the show is just a part of the show, there’s a lot more to it. We just figured what can we do to get people talking, and there is definitely no shortage of dirty jokes. But ultimately, it’s relatively family friendly for the most part. I would say PG 13 with leaning a little bit towards R from time to time, but it’s not going to be anything that you have to pay money to subscribe to.”

Carmella you have in your Instagram bio that Instagram is not real life. Is this show real life?

Carmella: “It sure is, you get to see all aspects of our lives, we don’t hold back. It’s basically because of our podcast Bare With Us, where we try to shed light on issues that every relationship has and everyone goes through things. We just want to normalise it like talking about sex, talking about problems in the bedroom or lack of communication, who is doing the household chores this week? We talk about it with our listeners, we don’t talk about work and we don’t talk about life in WWE. We just want to show who we are in our real lives, and we have gotten a lot of great feedback with our listeners who say something like ‘Oh my gosh my husband does that too.’ We just give advice and that’s what our show is. It’s not about looking at our life through a filter.”

Corey: “And that’s kind of been the goal from when we launched Bare With Us was to be overly honest with our audience. There have probably been things we have discussed where they have thought that they didn’t really want to know that about us. But to the point about Instagram not being reality, everyone likes to show their greatest hits of their life. It’s the perfect moment, perfect dinner, perfect kiss… Everyone is trying to keep up with each other and one up each other. We are out there on the podcast and on the show showing you the B-sides, letting people know that we have a lot of the same struggles as everybody else. It’s real life, every aspect of it, and our podcast has sort of become a form of therapy for the 2 of us.”

Carmella: “He makes me legit cry on our podcast. He’ll be like ‘You are doing this wrong.’ I’m not a podcaster, I don’t know what I am doing, I’m just trying to be real. He’s like ‘Well that’s not what we are talking about right now.’ But we leave that in there for the listeners. We are not trying to portray ourselves to be a certain way, this is us.”   

It seems like you guys get along really well. I’m curious, what are some pet peeves that you have about one another?

Corey: “It’s going to sound like I am just trying to keep myself out of trouble but there aren’t many pet peeves about Carmella. The only thing I will say is every once in a while she will get very moody, seemingly without any reason. Yesterday for example I woke up and I could sense that something was up. And I’ve now learned that when I get that feeling that something is up, 99% of the time it’s not my fault, so I can just take a step back and let her be her.”

Carmella: “Just let me be in a bad mood.”

Corey: “And she works through it and ends up coming out of the other side. Yesterday evening we went out to dinner and it was great, we had a great time. But I would say if I had to pinpoint something that makes me nuts, then that’s it, just because it comes from out of nowhere. It’s one thing if I screw up, and I do, and I can expect it. It’s more when I wake up and say ‘Hey babe, let’s go and get some coffee.’ And she says ‘I don’t want to talk to you.’”

Carmella: “I guess I would say that I have two. One is when he texts me the letter k or just the ok emoji. It’s like come on, it drives me nuts. Number two is that you don’t stop talking. I get the point but you just explain yourself way too much, let’s just try and move on.”

You know he does this for a living?

Corey: “Thank you Chris!”

Carmella: “I know but I am not paying you at home to talk.”

Corey: “Then start paying me not to [laughs]. That’s a hell of an idea.”

I feel like everything is going so well in both of your careers. If we can take this back a few steps, I want to know who have been some mentors for you both professionally who have helped you guide the way for you?

Carmella: “For me I would say The Miz. Whenever I have an issue or a problem creatively or my character or something going on in a match, I go to him. If I could be a female Miz, that to me would be such an amazing accomplishment. They trust The Miz and they put him in any position and he’s going to shine. He is not afraid to lean into his role as a bad guy and I consider that the same to myself, I like to really lean into my role. Any time that I have a problem or issue, I go to him and he is going to be honest. Sometimes it is brutally honest, but he helps me out.”

What about you Corey? There is a big section that don’t remember you as a wrestler, they just know you as a broadcaster now.

Corey: “It’s really crazy that that time has now passed as a broadcaster that it has overtaken my wrestling career. But I’ve had so many people along the way help me and I wouldn’t be in the position that I am in if it weren’t for a litany of guys. Going back to Tom Phillips when we were in NXT together, he helped teach me a lot. Michael Cole has been instrumental in most of my success. It was actually after I first got injured that I had a conversation in New Orleans with Michael Cole. I mentioned to him that I had done some local radio, and he went ‘Hmm, maybe you should give broadcasting a try.’ That was how this all came to be was just that basic conversation. After a few months out of the ring he said to give it a shot, and it didn’t happen overnight. I spent countless hours in the Performance Center in our little booth trying to learn how to call matches. But I like to think that I have learned from everybody along the way from different broadcasters, whether they are intending to teach me different things or not. If I am learning something negative, I can utilize it and put it in my tool kit to where I am confident that I can now step into a role like a Michael Cole.

I obviously can’t fill Michael Cole’s shoes because he is one of the greatest play-by play guys in history. But I have learned enough from him and absorbed it by osmosis that I can at least prevent the ship from hitting the iceberg. Along the way I think I lose track of some of the amazing minds that I am privy to on a weekly basis without even realizing it. I get to learn from Vince McMahon. Vince McMahon, sometimes in the middle of a show or in the middle of a match, will go on a 2 minute diatribe of why I have done something wrong, what he liked or what he wants me to accomplish. But in the moment it is easy to forget that you are getting advice from the guy who is responsible for all of this. I would like to think that everybody I have worked with from this side of the microphone has taught me something, because this was never my goal. I’ve had to learn and I think that has kind of leant itself to my success. OK I can’t wrestle anymore, but I don’t know anything about this world, I have to be a sponge and learn as much as I can. I have picked up good habits and I’m sure I have picked up some negative ones. But ultimately, I am constantly learning. Even now I have some trepidation when I sit down and get the countdown to the opening of Monday Night Raw. You hear 3,2 and I’m still in that frame of mind of OK, let’s not screw this up tonight. I get a little nervous, but then I get off and cruise, but I can’t thank enough people. I would be here all day if I just tried to list everyone that has taught me a lot.”

Corey, how much do you miss being in the ring?

Corey: “I miss certain aspects of it, but I have actually grown to love doing commentary. There is a part of me that will never go away as a wrestler, I have dedicated 15 years of my life, travelled the world and had a taste of some success as a competitor. It took a long time with a lot of internal work and reflection to get to this point where I have now embraced my role and realized that this is my role now. I may not be able to go down as one of the great Intercontinental Champions in history, which was always the goal, but now I look at how broad my work has reached and how it still lives on in video packages. These moments along with other ridiculous things I say ends up on t-shirts on other superstars. I actually think that in a weird way I am leaving a bigger footprint as a commentator than I probably would have as a competitor. But I definitely miss it at times.”

I feel like with the reality show this just writes itself. It’s you guys vs. Miz and Mrs.

Corey: “The thought has crossed our minds.”

Carmella: “We are open to it.”

Corey: “This is dropping a bit too close to WrestleMania. Otherwise I would have put the push on hard. But you know, SummerSlam is going to be big this year.”

Carmella: “That’s true, you never know.”

Well this report came out that you are actually cleared for in-ring performance. Is this true?            

Corey: “It is factual. The news took about 8 months to break, which I am sort of proud of and surprised that in this day and age. I wasn’t hiding it from anybody, but it wasn’t something that I was bringing to the forefront. I didn’t want everybody to go ‘Oh my God, Graves is making a comeback!’ To my previous conversation, I love what I am doing now, but there is a part of me that would love that gratification. I am a guy who when I was wrestling I was mainly a villain. To me the gratification came as soon as the bell rang at the end of the match. To me, there is nothing more satisfying than taking the crowd on a rollercoaster ride and then losing. As a good guy, you usually pose and you have to pose for the cameras. But I would lay there on my back after the ref counted 3, I would look at the lights and just think that we did it. That was what kept me going was that exhale at the end of it. So there is part of me that is going to chase that forever, and I would be open to it if the opportunity presents itself to maybe step back into the ring once in a blue moon or maybe just once. But importantly I got medically cleared, so now we see where the world takes us. Whether it’s a match, a mixed tag team match or against Pat McAfee at some point. At least now I know I can do it without endangering my health, which is the most important. I’ve got to be there for my kids and my blushing bride.”  

Did you go in hoping to get cleared or was it a routine medical and they said ‘Hey you are looking pretty good?’

Corey: “There was a process to it. I had to take a few flights and see a few doctors and get several different opinions. But I brought what I got from my doctors and showed it to WWE and then I went through WWE’s testing protocol to verify. I met all of the needs that they wanted to see, and I am medically cleared. I am still listed on the roster as a commentator, as far as I know nothing has been pitched in creative meetings as to how we get Graves into the ring. I’m just taking it one day at a time, if it presents itself I am ready, but I am not going to make myself crazy not having a transition into the other side.”

Everything happens for a reason. Carmella, you auditioned for Tough Enough, you didn’t get in and you ended up being a Lakers girl. Do you ever think about what would have happened if you did get on Tough Enough?

Carmella: “I have no idea, but everything happens for a reason, I still ended up in WWE years later. It’s kind of crazy to know how that all worked out but again I went to LA to be a dancer. That was what I was going to do and I wasn’t going to give up my career as a Laker girl, that’s why I went out there. That’s what I was focused on and I am grateful that I did it the way that I did and it lead me to where I am at now.”

How did wrestling find you originally?

Carmella: “Well for me I grew up watching wrestling, my dad was a wrestler in the early 90’s. He wrestled every big name in the 90s and I was the coolest kid in 3rd grade. But It was never anything that I aspired to do, I wanted to be a dancer. But one thing lead to another, I had an agent that lead to a try-out with WWE. I figured that there was no better time than now and with my dad’s history with the company the stars aligned.”

Corey, you were in the indies for a long time?

Corey: “Yeah I am a lifelong fan. My dad to this day is still a big fan. My earliest childhood memories involve WWE in some capacity, action figures and live events. I got to high school and was trying to figure out what to do with my life. My parents and guidance counsellors were asking me what did I want to do with my life? I went through this depression and I was sure my life was over at 14. There was this terrible depression, which I realized was just growing up. My dad said to me ‘Why not do something you love? Go and be a bodybuilder or learn to box, be a wrestler…’ I’m like OK. My dad was a fire chief in my local town, he had no idea how to help me, but he had connections to a local promotion that they would do fundraisers with. In my freshman year of high school, I started training in the back of the storefront of an old shopping mall. I had the bug and sacrificed everything to try and get a shot. Sure enough as I was about to give it all up, I had a career as a 911 dispatcher and my first kid had been born. But within weeks I get a call from WWE and the rest is history.”

You are so quick witted on commentary. Is there a favorite line that wasn’t planned beforehand?

Corey: “Oh my goodness. 99% of the lines I am proud of are completely improved. Basically anytime that I make Michael Cole break, that is when I trust that a joke landed. Cole is such the professional and can deliver terrible news with a straight face, so when I break him, I know it worked. I shouldn’t admit this, but unless it is a statistic, I rarely prepare for a show. My wit has carried me this far and 3 hours is a long time, so I need to entertain myself for my own sanity.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for?

Carmella: “My health, my family and wine.”

Corey: “My children, my fiancée and for WWE.”  

Image credits: Instagram

Vanessa Van Edwards is the Lead Investigator at Science of People and is the bestselling author of Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People. Her new book called Cues: Master The Secret Language of Charismatic Communication is available on March 1, 2022. She joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about how charisma is something that can be cultivated, how to read body language, tips to improve your communication, how to have better Zoom meetings and much more!

Congratulations on the new book.

“Oh my gosh, thank you so much. It is a labour of ,ove that is 17 years in the making. That ages me! If anyone has a dream and you are on year 5,10 or 17, just keep going.”

I always say to people “just start.”

“Absolutely. This all started with a little folder I created on my desktop called ‘Curious Cues.’ It was a really weird time in the media where all these athletes were being accused of doping and there was also the Amanda Knox scandal. I was watching all of these interviews and I noticed that there were these patterns. These curious cues. Lance Armstrong was on Larry King Live and insisted that he did not dope. Spoiler alert here, Lance Armstrong did. But I remember watching that interview and thinking that something is off here. Right after he said ‘I don’t dope.’ He did a lip purse. This is something we do when we are trying to hold something in. So if you ask someone a difficult question, people will often lip purse. Liars do that to hold it in. Many years later he came out and admitted the doping, so I went back and looked for patterns. I noticed that there were patterns with the bad guys in interviews. But there were also cues for good guys who were highly charismatic and you wanted to know them. Little did I know that this would be the book.”

People think that charisma is something that you are born with and you either have it or you don’t.

“This is the biggest myth I wanted to bust. People tend to think you are charismatic or not, the same thing with leadership. While research shows that genetics can help to create natural born leaders, 70% can be taught and cultivated. I am not good at reading social information and reading people, so I had to learn about things like eye contact. But it can be taught, we can learn it together.”

So what steps can people take?

“The first thing that provided me with relief, and this looked at how we viewed charismatic people. What they found was that 82% of our judgements are based on 2 traits. These are warmth and competence. Highly charismatic people have that perfect blend of warmth along with capability and productivity. The reason why we like these people is because they have such a perfect blend of these factors. Most people, myself included, we have an imbalance. We could be high in warmth and low in confidence, or vice versa. Do you think you are higher in warmth? This could be people wanting to come to you for advice and telling you their problems. If you are warm, you are collaborative and relatable and people like hanging out with you. However, you might struggle with boundaries and being taken seriously. If you are highly competent, you search for truth. You are respected, but people might be intimidated by you, so they won’t invite you. Neither side is right or wrong, but you need to know where you fall.”

I have this belief that you can learn any skill. I feel like you have this belief that no matter what, you can always learn more?

“Yes and let’s break this down more. You might find that at work you are high in competence, and you can dial up when it’s needed. But also, they know when to dial up the warmth more, like when they are with their friends or their kids. I think the power comes with understanding how these two straights work, understanding the cues of these traits, and how you can dial these like a thermostat. I used to struggle with competence, but now I have found my groove, because I feel like competence comes from control. When I tried to be more competent, it did not work. I think that understanding the cues helps us increase the competence.”

When I did interviews with Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey, they both grabbed my arm during it. What’s that about?

“Ok let’s break that down. So touch, what happens chemically is the moment we have skin to skin touch, any kind, we produce a chemical called oxytocin. This is literally the chemical of trust. They found that when they sprayed this for people, they trusted each other more. This is the chemical need to give the collaborative and the open minded. If we are close enough to touch, we think that they are a friend not a foe. If we have a touch, our body produces the chemical to connect. When Clinton touched you, then you got a big rush in oxytocin, so did he, and this creates this beautiful loop. When you are with someone, try to start with a touch so you can create trust.”

What if you are on video?

“This is a question that plagued me during the pandemic. Can you produce oxytocin through a screen? Research has found that you can. After touch, the second way we produce oxytocin is eye contact. When people say that it feels like they are being stared into their soul, when we produce a deep gaze, it produces oxytocin.”

How did you get into all of this?

“Well in the business side I am a content creator. I have a YouTube channel where I posted my first video in November 2007. People were like ‘You’re doing what?’ But I have been posting videos every week since 2007. I noticed that if I referenced science, the videos did better. Then if I tweaked an experiment with my own stuff, that really increased the engagement. I would take a study that I liked and added my own spin. So for example, there was a study where they were looking at what smells men liked. There was an experiment where the same woman wore different scents and found which one men liked the most. The smell that did the best was vanilla, men like food. So I hypothesised that if men liked food, what if I got popcorn? Butter popcorn is the best smell in the world! I put it on and went out in the world and people loved it. We don’t just want academic stuff, we want real life. Little did I know that to this day that would work.”

If someone is going to a party next month, what tips would you give?

“There are so many good one. Firstly, think about space rules. Optimizing or leveraging these are great. There are 4 zones, public, social, personal, and intimate. The specifics vary across cultures but the principles are the same. We can be aware of people getting into our intimate space too quickly, this can bring up alarm bells. But this is why loud parties work, if someone says something, you can get into the intimate zones to be heard. But when it comes to video calls, we are only 18 inches away from the camera, it’s too close and you can get burned out. Going back to parties, don’t be in the intimate zone unless you are invited. The personal zone is the best because we are not too close but close enough to reach out and touch people. At a party, you can plant yourself and see how close someone comes to you. If they go to the personal zone, great. If it’s the social zone, about 4 feet away, it’s good to know and to respect them for it.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for?

“My health, getting through writer’s block to get through this book and for everyone listening.”     

Featured image: Creative Life

Embedded images: Instagram

Tony Chimel (@thetonychimel) is a ring announcer who was an WWE employee from 1983 until 2020. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about life after WWE, his new job at Trader Joe’s, how he came up with his iconic “Rated R Superstar” introduction for Edge, the many jobs he has behind the scenes including driving the ring truck, growing up on the same street with Gorilla Monsoon’s son Joey Marella and how he got started working in wrestling, his friendship with long time referee Mike Chioda, and he tells a great story about a crazy bet with Jonathan Coachman.

What a career you had in WWE.

“Yeah it was nice and lasted a long time. I never thought it would be like that and start out like that. But one thing leads to another and the next thing you know it is 38 years later.”

I would like to think that if COVID hadn’t come around then you would still be working there?

“Well that’s what I am thinking. I was ready to go when it first hit. I flew back from a show in Washington DC and flew home. The next show, I think it was in Detroit. I was getting on a plane and asking my boss ‘Are we doing this show or not?’ He was like ‘Just go like you are going to the show. And if you hear from me then we will let you know if anything changes.’ So I took off and I flew from Florida to Charlotte, and when I got to Charlotte I was told that the show is cancelled, so I turned around and went home. I never worked another show after that so yeah.”

People mainly know you as the ring announcer but you have worn like 30 different hats in WWE. What was the most recent job that you had? 

“I was working in the production office and making sure that everyone who should have rooms had rooms. Also making sure that the trucks get loaded, taking care of runners at the shows, dealing with bills and all that other stuff.”

Were you doing this job while you were ring announcing too?

“Oh yeah. Most of the time the ring announcing gig was the second part of my job. I have never just ring announced.”

His new job at Trader Joe’s:

“I figured out there is life after WWE, because you figure I started when I was 22-years old and now I’m 60. I found a job at Trader Joe’s, which I never really knew about. I had heard of Trader Joe’s, but I didn’t really know what it was. And when I first told my daughter that I was working at Trader Joe’s she was like ‘oh dad, that’s great. You gotta get this and get that’ and I was like ‘what are you talking about?’. There’s a lot of similarities because at WWE they always wanted to put smiles on people’s faces and at Trader Joe’s all they want to do is wow the customer and make the customer feel happy. I’ve always been a big customer service guy and traveling for a living, you don’t get any of that crap from the airlines and you get crappy customer service from hotels. At Trader Joe’s, if you call the store they actually answer. If you’re in there and you’re looking for something, we’ll help you and we’ll walk you to where you want to go. And the customers there are like cult followers, I didn’t get it at first but now that I’ve been there for a year I’m one of them. A lot of people love it and they swear by the store. The people are great, the bosses are great, the manager is great. Everybody’s great there.”

If we take this way back, it was ring crew that you did when you first started working for WWE?

“Yeah. Back in 1983 I was working the ring crew with Joey Marella. All that we did was drive the truck, go to the town and set the ring up. Then when the show was over we would tear the ring down and go to the next town.”

For those who don’t know, Joey Marella has a famous father.

“He is Gorilla Monsoon’s son, and that was how I got into it. I grew up in South Jersey and they happened to live 4 or 5 houses away. That was pretty cool having Gorilla Monsoon and their family as neighbours.”

How did it all start?

“When we were in high school, Gorilla owned part of the business, and he had a ring. So on the weekends and in the summer, we would drive to Baltimore, Washington, Scranton, wherever the show was. We would do the show and get paid like $50. To us, it was great. We were young, we could get out of town and hang out, do a job and get paid. I think when Vince’s dad died, Vince bought out Gorilla and he didn’t have the ring anymore. A few weeks after that, Vince called Gorilla and said ‘Does your son still want to set up the ring? Because he can set it up for me.’ Gorilla asked Joey and he was allowed to bring one other guy with him, so Joey asked me. We drove to Stamford and filled out the forms and we became employees. I think I was employee 33 of the company.”

So how do you go from setting up a ring to getting a microphone in your hand and becoming a ring announcer?

“Well the first time it happened we were setting up the ring in Pennsylvania. The show is about to start and Joey comes to me and is like do I want to ring announce? I said ‘Ring announcing? No, I don’t want to do that. I’ve never done it before.’ Then he’s like ‘They need somebody. The guy didn’t show up and they want you to do it.’ I’m dressed in sweatpants and a t-shirt, so what do I do? Then they said they’ll pay me $50 so I’m like OK, I’ll do it. They said to me ‘All you’ve got to do is not go in the ring. Just sit by the table and announce the guys as they come out.’ That was what I did and that was it. After a while when the business started to get bigger and bigger, we would be there timekeeping, taking jackets or playing music. You get to see what these guys were doing and how they are doing it. I don’t know how it evolved after that. But eventually it was like ‘Why do we have to fly someone in to do the show? Chimel will do it.’ I just started doing it in smaller venues. You see how other people did it and it went from there.”

You have that signature style. How long do you think it took to get that?

“I don’t know. I’ve always had this voice. I would just work on some syllables, lengthen some here and there and just be louder.”

I’m guessing that the first time that your voice cracked when announcing ‘The Rated R Superstar!’ It wasn’t on purpose?

“So here’s the thing about how that started. I used to travel around with Jimmy Korderas, the referee. We would talk and solve the world’s problems or whatever. If someone said something stupid, we would say something like ‘Wile E. Coyote, Super genius!’ So when the Mexicools came to WWE, I started introducing Super Crazy as [high pitched] Super Crazy. Then they left, and when Edge was The Rated R Superstar, I would introduce him as The Rated R [high pitched] Superstar! He loved it every time I did it. I was happy to do it. He would show up once in a while after retiring and he would say ‘Hey Chimel, you got your suit? Because you are going to introduce me tonight.’ I’m like really? I didn’t know he was coming. But that was fun and a pleasure to do.”

You worked there for 38 years, which is crazy! What was your relationship like with Vince?

“Vince was always good to me. He was just like a regular guy that owned the company. He knew me for so long, if he saw me in the hallway he was like ‘Chimel, you still working here? ’I’m like ‘Yeah I’m still here Vince.’ Either that or I would say ‘Yeah I’m here but I’m not working.’ He once came to bat for me big when I was ring announcing. I would get paid a certain amount to ring announce or time keep, and I was getting paid for both. After a couple of years of that, they said that they weren’t going to pay the timekeeper anymore, so I lost money. So I went to my boss and asked for more money for ring announcing so it evens out. He said to me ‘Chimel, where would you be working if you didn’t work for WWE?’ I said ‘Well I don’t know, but I am working for WWE.’ My boss always told me ‘If you have a problem with what I am doing then you can go to Vince.’ So I did. I said ‘Vince this is the deal. I’m doing both of these jobs, they took one away, I just want my money back through ring announcing. I will still ring the bell.’ And I told Vince what my boss said about not working here. Vince said ‘Please tell me he didn’t say that.’ I said he did. So I was tearing down the ring that night, my boss comes up and said we will talk about my pay on Monday. Vince must have pulled him aside and said to take care of him or whatever. I will never forget that Vince did that for me.”

Was it an intention move for you to step away from ring announcing when they brought new talent in?

“Well I did and I didn’t [want to step away]. At one point when you are there for 25-30 years, and I am teaching the Lilian Garcia or the Justin Roberts or whoever. Basically they are telling you that you are teaching them because they will be doing your job. That was why I wanted to do something else, I wanted to make myself valuable and do something else other than ring announcing. The ring announcing is the show, bit what are you doing 8 hours before or 2 hours after. There was a point where I didn’t want to be on the shows for 24 days a month and do all the house shows. There was a point where it was enough, my kids are teenagers and I didn’t get to see them grow up. It would be nice to be home 15 days a month instead of 7. I was OK not ring announcing if I could do production or just do TV. The house shows were such a grind back then because they would run so many. Friday, Saturday Sunday, do TV Monday, fly home Tuesday and my kids hated me on Wednesday. You get all your sh*t in on Thursday, then you go on Friday and do it all again. Then they would run the overseas tours in Europe, where you are on the road for 17 days straight. It was a great living and great job, but after 25 years I was like I don’t mind, someone else can ring announce.”

So when COVID first hit you were first furloughed and then later released?

“Yeah. I never not wanted to work. I was willing to get on a plane from day 1 to do anything. But when COVID first hit, I was sitting at home and was like well this will be great if it lasts a couple of weeks and I get a paycheck. Then they started running shows in Orlando and I said I would be willing to go. They said it would be laid back and I didn’t think much to it. A couple of months go by and I ask if I can still come and kept wanting to come in. They were letting the independent contractors work, not the employees. Then I got furloughed, couldn’t do anything. Then I got the call from Kevin Dunn, who said there was good news and bad news. The good news was that I was going to be getting my paycheck back. I’m like cool, because I got an email saying some are coming back in October, November or December, mine said I would be back in December. He was calling me in November and he said ‘You are going to get your paycheck because we are going to have to let you go.’ I said ‘Well the email says that I’m coming back in December. He asked me who sent it and I said human resources did. He wanted it forwarded, but he called me and said that’s it. I was getting my salary back because it was my severance, I was being let go.”

I’m guessing that introducing Edge was your favorite. Who was second?

“I always loved introducing John Cena, he was a good guy. The Rock was always good. Some names were easier to get out than others and I could get my sh*t in, but they were all good.”

You did all the announcing without an earpiece. How did you remember everything?

“Well if I did it now I wouldn’t know anybody. But when you are doing it for 5 days a week, like I’m announcing The Undertaker at 275lbs, it’s pretty much the same guy. If I write it, I would remember it more, so I would write down where they are from and their weight. Then when I sit down I am looking at the next match before the match in the ring finishes.”

This story about the greatest bet ever with Jonathan Coachman, it’s phenomenal.

“So back in the day, this was before [full time announcing] I was doing ring crew and announcing SmackDown. So during the Raw show, I would just hang out in the pre-tapes room. We would sit and watch Raw, me, [Michael] Cole before he did Raw and Coach. We would just be sitting out there and I told Coach ‘Hey Coach, I’ve started working out, running on the treadmill.’ Stuff like that. He said ‘Well what are you running?’ I said I was running a 10 minute mile. So he goes ‘[scoffs] 10 minute mile? That sucks!’ He starts getting on my case and doing that, we start going back and forth and he is like ‘I could beat you by 30 seconds.’ Cole then says ‘Well we are doing TV in a couple of months at state college in Pennsylvania. There is a track outside the arena, you guys can race and bet.’ So the bet was Coach would have to beat me by 30 seconds. I could either have a 30 second head start or start at the same time, whatever I wanted, but he would have to beat me by 30 seconds. I was actually starting to train and practice, Coach wasn’t doing much of anything. [Chris asks if Shane McMahon trained him] Well no, not necessarily. A secret promoter gave me some advice and bought me some new running shoes as well. I don’t know if it was Shane or not, it could have been. But anyway, I am training for this race and getting some advice from somebody, whose last name may have been McMahon. So we have this press conference backstage, this is all while work is going on at TV. I say ‘I’m training and I’m trying my best, cutting down my time, working out and eating better, this and that. I just hope I have a good race.’ Then Coach gets up and starts blabbing his mouth and saying this and that, he’s like ‘30 seconds? I’ll beat him by a minute!’ The Rock is at the press conference and he is like ‘Well why don’t you put your money where your mouth is? Make it a minute.’ So Rock called him out and Coach had to then beat me by a minute.

So the day of the race comes, and most of the company wanted Coach to win. There was only [Mike] Chioda, maybe the person that bought me the sneakers wanted me to win. But there wasn’t a lot of people that wanted me to win. So we are setting up for the race at college, and they bring out camera guys, Cole was doing commentary with The Rock and Kevin Kelly, they were doing commentary on this thing! I don’t know where the tape is but that’s got to be worth some money. I started to start the race at the same time as Coach. I was down to a 7 minute mile at this point, so I’m like he’s got to run a 6 minute mile, so God bless him. We started the race and Coach is maybe 20 or 30 feet ahead of me. Bruce is timing us on the first lap, we go around and it’s like 1 minute 25. We do another lap and Coach is still a little bit ahead of me, so he is going to have to start opening it up. We go around the 3rd time and he is only 30 feet ahead of me. I’m like Jesus, we are on the 4th lap, he’s really going to have to start opening it up. We are coming around and it’s the stretch of the race, I feel good so I start kicking it. I’m running and running and as Coach got to the finish line he ran a 6 minute 35 race I ran 6 minute 36, so he beat me by a second. So I won the bet. So the bet was if I lost, I would have to do a push up every time he said ‘Give me a push up.’ and I would have to say ‘I am a fat piece of sh*t.’ But I won, so he had to do a push up whenever I said and say ‘I am Tony Chimel’s bitch.’ So every time he did a push up, he had to say ‘I am Tony Chimel’s bitch.’ I had 100 push ups I could use at any time. We couldn’t do it like if he was doing an interview or if I was announcing.

We do the show and there is a production meeting the next day. Vince is in the meeting and he says ‘Hey Chimel, I hear you won the big race yesterday?’ I’m like ‘Yeah I did.’ He’s like ‘Any chance you can have Coach come up here and do a push-up on the table in front of me?’ I said ‘Yeah. Coach, get your ass up there.’ Vince was loving that. Then during the show, this is when they are having it taped, the timekeeper says to me that they want me to call Coach out in the middle of the ring. I’m like I can’t do that because we are at work. They say ‘They are on headset, they want you to do it.’ The next thing I know, Michael Cole comes down the ramp and he is explaining the race and the whole thing that happened the day before in front of 20,000 people. He calls me in the ring, calls Coach out and I made him do it.”

Did you use all 100?

“No, I saved 2 for when he is ready to deliver his first child and when is at the altar waiting to get married.”

So what was the timeframe between push-up one and push-up 98?

“I don’t know, 5 years?”

What advice would you have for an up and coming ring announcer?

“Well if you are going to be a ring announcer, try to get involved in something else other than ring announcing. They love it when you can do something else as well. I was given a microphone and grew with the job as the job grew. Another important thing is that you are not more important than the talent you are announcing. Put over the talent, not yourself.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for?

“My wife, my kids and my grandson.”  

Featured image: WWE

Taya Valkyrie (@thetayavalkyrie) is a professional wrestler known for her time in WWE, Lucha Underground, AAA and as the longest reigning Knockouts Champion in IMPACT Wrestling. She sits down with Chris Van Vliet at her house in Los Angeles to talk about getting signed by WWE and then being released less than a year later, what is next for her and her husband John Morrison, her clothing line “Loca by Taya Valkyrie”, her favorite matches, growing up in Canada and much more!

Let’s pick this up from the last time that I saw you in fall 2020. John [Morrison] is working in WWE, does John working for WWE help you get your foot in the door?

“It didn’t help me get my foot in the door but I do think that it helped me make the decision that I made to go there. Once he had left IMPACT, I was just like oh my God. We had been working together for several years for several different promotions, so the idea of us being able to be together again was a huge influence on my decision to sign with WWE. It’s a very long and stressful process, I don’t know if people know that, but it is a lengthy several months of paperwork and background checks, medical, all that stuff. This is all while you are trying to figure out well am I going to get this job or not? Once everything happened it was like we are doing this. That was a huge motivator for John and I to be together and working for the same company.” 

I’m guessing all these checks don’t take place when you work for another company?

“I have never had to do that before. In Lucha Underground we had to do a lot of medical testing, which is for the TV network 100%. They run the TV show, so it’s like the liabilities and stuff like that. But that is the first time that I have gone through something like that on that level. If there’s a skeleton out there then they will find it.”

But I imagine that everyone watches WWE growing up. It must have been exciting getting told that they want you?

“It was very exciting. I wanted to go there forever, that’s why you start wrestling, you fall in love with the superstars you see as a kid. So for me it was always like well I want to be like the Canadian icon Trish Stratus. Also Lita, Victoria, I have mentioned that I got into fitness competitions because I wanted to be like them. At a certain point in my career I thought that I wasn’t going to get signed because I thought that I wasn’t what they liked. I was critical of myself, I wasn’t 25 years old, there’s a bunch of stuff. Then as time went on, people like Asuka, Shayna Baszler, Mercedes Martinez were all getting hired. I’m also seeing Tamina and Natalya killing it on the main roster and winning championships, it was like well maybe this is a possibility.”

You had made a name for yourself too?

“That’s right. I am a former AAA Women’s Champion, longest reigning Knockouts Champion in IMPACT Wrestling. I was on 3 seasons of Lucha Underground, main evented on all of these platforms, put some respect on my name folks! No but it was cool like I’m going to give this a go, holy sh*t this is happening. I said in an interview that it reminded me of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when he gets the golden ticket. That was the way that I thought about it. I actually bought myself the book when I got signed to remind myself how I felt in that moment. It was such a big deal for me, I don’t come from wrestling. It was just years, 12 years of hard work. I was poor and didn’t have a lot of support, so I had to carve my own path. The opportunity to go there, I’m like ok. A lot of people were like ‘You should have known better. Blah blah blah…’ But it wasn’t about that. It was about do I at least try or do I spend my whole life wondering what if?”

But also you had seen John go there and he was very successful.

“Of course, and he’s my husband. Just like any job there is going to be good stuff and bad stuff but I was prepared for that. I don’t know if I was prepared for the level that it happened but I was like OK, I’m at least going to try. And they were super good to me when I first got there. They treated me like Taya Valkyrie and they were very protective of me. I don’t know if you look back at the Women’s Tag Title announcement. I am actually on the stage there, but they told me to not look at the camera. Because they wanted me to be part of it, but they didn’t want me to be seen because I hadn’t debuted yet. So you see the back of my head twice. But yeah Shawn Michaels and Triple H were super good to me. I started working with Sarah Motto in the girls class and training in the weight room with Sean Hayes. Things started going on and then WrestleMania came where Presley [Taya’s dog] debuted on TV before me [laughs]. But it was good, everything was hard and it was a totally different situation to what I had been in before, but if I survived all the drills and all the hours I spent in other places, I’m sure I can do it here. And that’s what I did. I had extra ring time and I was training every day doing promo classes and pitching creative ideas. Road Dogg and I would sit down and talk for hours and I was there with color charts and movie references. I would think about all this stuff because I care and because I love it so much. So things were really good and you can see what happened. As time went on 2.0 happened, and was when I feel like a really big change happened.”

And that was when Triple H was not there every single day?

“Yes. It was like night and day. It was a very obvious change of energy and a very obvious feeling. We were hearing all sorts of rumours about what they were looking for compared to last week. I was very confused and like well what is going on? This was in the summer and I had debuted in like March. It was so weird, it was the most confusing experience in my entire life. Having worked everywhere, I was left like what is going on?”

Do you feel like you are then walking on eggshells every day?

“100%, I think everybody was. I can only speak for myself, but I can say that the energy definitely shifted. We were hearing rumours all the time of ‘They are going to be firing people this week.’ So then the whole week everyone is scared. But we are all there busting our asses. I ended up training with Steve Corino and the boys in the tag class. I loved training with MSK and Imperium. They are pushing me and making me do new stuff. Everything was good and everyone was working hard, but the shift of how they wanted NXT 2.0 to be literally changed from one day to the next. So I feel it made everyone feel like they are holding their breath.”

I’ve also heard that if you are a Triple H hire then they wanted nothing to do with you in 2.0?

“I mean no one ever said that to me or confirmed that. But I don’t know, all I can say is that it was really confusing. I tried to make sense of it for a really long time, and I was really angry. But you can’t make sense of something that makes no sense. All I can say is that I worked very hard and gave everything I could, like I did everywhere before. But it was very confusing, I felt like I did something wrong.”

But that’s not the case. It has happened to dozens, hundreds of people in the last year. It must be difficult to not take it personally.

“I know and I am a sensitive person. When everything went down it was really confusing and heartbreaking for me. I felt like I let everybody down.”

It must have been confusing too because John is still working there at the time.

“Yeah. John was touring in the UK when it happened. Thank God my friend Heather Monroe had picked me up to go shopping when I got the call. So it was hard and it was confusing, I felt like I had let everybody down. I felt that I was representing the over 30 women that are still badasses, look good and can work, and I felt like I let everybody down. I know that I am putting that on myself and my mom has told me that. But it’s been really rough. Now I know that I did nothing wrong, but it just sucks. It sucks when you meet your heroes and you work somewhere that you dreamed about, but it is all just out of your control.”

You also feel like you will be the exception.

“Yeah I thought it would be different for me. I just think that I had to, because I know myself. If I hadn’t gone there, I would have regretted it forever. You can’t regret things, I don’t regret going there. I just wish that I had been given a chance.”

Was there ever talk of you keeping the name Taya Valkyrie?

“When I got there I went into meetings with Road Dogg. We are there hashing out who this character is going to be and just working out some of the little things. Like they loved the character, but they didn’t want me wearing a fur coat. The reason was because we were in Florida. I’m like OK, I don’t have to wear a fur coat. But then I discovered this amazing seamstress in Chicago that makes all these coats that I wear. I did want to evolve, but not go so far that people didn’t recognize who I was. So the hair got longer and the jackets got longer and bigger.”

So you were going to be Taya for a while?

“No, so everyone was calling me Taya at the PC [Performance Center] because they all know me. No one calls me by my real first name ever. Then they were like ‘Hey we are going to go through some names.’ And they give me a list and you can go through them and make suggestions. Man, I tried so hard to keep Taya. They didn’t want to keep Valkyrie because there is a Valkyrie that works for NXT UK. But with Taya I tried really, really hard. I’m sure that somewhere in a book there are some ridiculous names. So yeah it just started the 2 week back and forth of going through with the names.”

So how did you become Franky?

“Well Frankie is a name that I picked. I have always liked the androgynous names, the ones that can be used for a boy or a girl. I remember watching the Stigmata movie and her name was Francesca in it, but they called her Frankie, and I thought that it was really cute. Technically you could say that it was Francesco, but it comes from that. But I didn’t want it with the ie on the end, because that was too normal. I got to choose the spelling. Monet is what I came up with, I started to think of artists. My dad and I and my sister used to take us to see all the art galleries, so that was where I picked Monet.”  

So what is next now for Taya?

“Oh my God so many things. I was kind of scared and anxious coming back to the indies. I had no idea why, I have been doing it for so long. It felt like I had let people down and I was putting it all in my own head. It is hard mentally to go through all that stuff. I was putting things in my head that made me anxious.”

Is there anything you have learned from your time in NXT that you will take into your future matches?

“Definitely some of the psychology stuff. I was so fluent in Lucha Libre that it was interesting to have a better understanding in their type of psychology 100%. Also just taking my time and not rushing things. I feel like my selling has improved a lot to make things seemed bigger. If anything they have polished me up to make me bigger.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things you are grateful for?

“My health, my family and John.” 

Image credits: Instagram

David Carlin (@meethecarlins) is an entrepreneur, investor, and thought leader who have dominated the payment processing industry for two decades. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about his business Residual Payments, how he cultivated his passion for business, the best advice he’s ever received, how you can jumpstart your own business, the power of relationships, tips on working with a partner or significant other and more.

I think the best part about someone who is successful in business is that they do it from a place of necessity. You have found a need and ran with it.

“Some things that you do you won’t like. Sometimes those things that you love won’t make you money. That was why we built Residual Payments. Everyone goes to college or high school to learn about entrepreneurship, but no one talks about credit card processing. That was where we started Residual Payments to teach people about credit card processing.”

It’s something that I feel a lot of people think just takes care of itself.

“Yeah, my wife and I are very fortunate. Before I came along I was on the other side of the fence, I had a bike company that sold online and offline. About 10 years ago someone came to set up my credit card processing and I’m like yeah sure. I didn’t care about credit card processing, I just cared about making money. Now my wife and I have been in this business for 23 years, 30 years combined, it was all about the marketing, promotions and x,y and z. There was a lot of money you could shave off by investing in something that no one really wants to talk about. A lot of these people who have the online products, they get their accounts shut down because they are in the wrong places. If they get this right, nothing else matters.”

Taking this back, where did your journey begin?

“I’m a different mindset. As a kid, I would get involved with anything. I didn’t really work for anybody. I was very fortunate to have a loving family who supported me. So I never aspired to work for anybody or have it about the money, it was more about the thrill of the chase. It’s about how crazy of an idea I can have, and will this work? That is what entrepreneurship is all about. Even when the idea comes out of your head and you start the company, that is not the battle. It is then growing it and the competition, which is a thrill. As a kid, I would always look at pictures in a different way. If I am up against 20 people, I would think well how could I create something that the 20 people want.”

In building your business, what do you think are the 1 or 2 key things that have helped step your business up?

“The biggest thing is that there is no overnight success. We have been in credit card processing for a long time, we have seen everything. I have seen all the numbers and how long it takes for someone to build their business. If you believe you can get rich by doing a minute a day, you need help. When we were training people, we need to make it easier for them to learn. Then I started to realize that people’s brains were so messed up that we had to restart, because online it teaches you that you can get immediate results. If you are willing to set realistic goals, let’s say you want to be like Chris Van Vliet, set yourself a real long term goal and reassess it regularly.”

Everybody is looking for that quick fix. 

“The other thing is that even today, I’m on Chris’ podcast, it’s massive so I don’t need to go on anymore. Wrong! This may be the worst podcast ever or the best, it still isn’t enough, because it is not reaching enough people. You can’t rely on anyone else to help you get to where you need. Someone says they are going to connect you to that big person, you wait and you wait, and it never happens and you have wasted 6 months. I think everyone gets it wrong where they think that someone is going to save them.”

Your business partner is your wife, which I think is terrifying for some people! What do you say to people who are thinking of going into business with their partner or perhaps a best friend? 

“My whole thing in life is that I don’t really think, I do something and it will work or it won’t. I met my wife, moved in after 3 weeks and got married in a year. Only up until about a month ago was the first night I spent apart from my wife in 10 years. I’m in my house, this is where we work and we travel together. It’s a perfect marriage in openness, if we get in a fight, you need to squash it right away. When that big fight explodes but you know that you have a conference call, you are all screwed up. Whoever is wrong, we do a great job of apologising and talk it out really quick. 30 minutes later, there might be another fight but we will squash it quickly. If it rolls on and I had a fight before this, I would be so distracted. The other thing is splitting up tasks. We know what we are doing, stay in our lanes and trust each other.”

You play to your strengths too. The things you work on each day you are better at than your wife and vice versa.

“She has fear of being included and I have the fear of missing out. That is where we are ying and yang with all of that. We call each other out and you can be opposite in the ideas of each other. But when it comes to money, you have to talk it out.”

What is the best advice you have gotten in your career?

“I will pick 2. Firstly, my dad taught me that if you don’t have the cash for something, you can’t afford it. Just because you are making money then you shouldn’t be spending money. The second is there is nothing worse on missing out on a business opportunity because you took that vacation or bought that car.”

When a business comes to you and wants to grow, what does that look like?

“Well I ask them. So everyone wants to sell, they look someone up online and they want to sell. I take hours out of my way and talk about your podcast, but actually you want to start up an ice cream shop. When I am on calls, I naturally have a red face, but I don’t care. I will ask them 1) After we help with your accounts, do you have interest in doubling your sales? 2) Do you have the capacity to double your sales? Are you ready? They will say ‘We will figure it out.’ I’m like no, that’s a lot of charge backs, do you have things in place? Also, a lot of people need help with marketing, so we ask what is the directive? How much money do you have for this and what is the directive? When we talk to business owners, it is just a casual conversation. It’s all about asking the simple questions and talking to them like normal people.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for?

“The ability to change people’s lives, my parents and my wife.”

Featured image: Instagram

TJ Lavin is a professional BMX rider and the host of “The Challenge” and “Real World/Road Rules Challenge” on MTV. He joins Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios at Wynn Las Vegas to talk about how he went from X Games athlete to TV host, his serious BMX crash that left him in a coma, how he feels he would do as a competitor on The Challenge, why he feels he’s the luckiest guy on earth and much more!

When do you feel like you made the identity shift from BMX rider to TV host?

“Probably this year. I swear to God I was a BMX rider until I got hurt really badly in 2010. After that, I was still trying to be a BMX rider, but there is no way, you just can’t compete with those dudes. If you have a year and a half off from a head injury, it’s impossible to catch up, especially at my age. I was 33 when I got the injury, so you have to be really good to even come close.”

Were you nervous to step back on a bike after the injury?

“Oh yeah absolutely. I still am, I don’t ride BMX anymore, I just don’t want the injuries anymore. At some point you are like dude, it’s not worth it, I don’t want the bones to be outside of my body anymore. I once broke the bones so bad that I was like this is ridiculous, that was really dumb.”

But in the profession you are in, there is a risk of breaking bones.

“Oh sure and I have broken a lot of bones. I have a lot of metal in my body too and I am cool with that. But I am more physically fit than I have ever been and I am 45 years old. I feel great and more healthy, it’s a good place to be. Also I snowboard a little bit here and there, but afterwards I’m like dang that was scary.”

I feel like everyone reaches that age where they realize that they are not invincible.

“Yeah mine was 43. I bashed my head open at 41 and had multiple stitches and staples though. One handlebar went into the ground and the other went through my helmet and into it. It was gnarly like a fillet fish, that’s not a good look!”

How many bones have you broken?

“I have no idea. I have broken my wrist 6 times, 3 each. But I remember thinking that wrists are crap, I don’t know who built them but they are just terrible.”

What was the most painful one?

“Oh the leg injury for sure. The brain injury was nothing compared to the leg. It was a compound fracture of the fibula and tibia, and they went into the dirt, that is the bad part. When the bone hits the air, it’s a different level of pain. Broken wrist? I just go to the hospital with a frozen bean burrito, it was nothing. There are some amazing doctors here in Vegas, all the screws and plates. I am lucky that it wasn’t worse. With all the scars, I’m lucky that they want me on TV.”

Well now you are on TV and you can’t think about The Challenge without thinking about you.

“Thank you. So I was in Trinidad and Tobago, I remember sitting on the plane and thinking this is very scary. There is a dude with a cowboy hat on and he must be cast or something, he was actually in the crew actually. But I was like well who is on the show and who is not? We get there, load into a bus and we get to the hotel, I get a sick room. The next day, and I am never late, I take pride in punctuality. It’s raining in Trinidad, I get given a 3 page script and am told to learn it. I study the script and there is no way I can memorize it. So I read it and explained it in my terms, how to play the game, who is who, what is what… Those bullet points were memorized and spat out, no live read, straight to tape. I don’t think I have ever watched it, but I remember it all like it was yesterday.”

So how long does a season take?

“For a season of the flagship Challenge show, it takes about 10 weeks. I get these experiences and it’s crazy. I have been in over 50 countries, and to live in 20.”

You’ve said that you are the luckiest person alive, why do you feel that way?

“My life is just crazy. I have so many stories of luck that it is not even funny. Despite being in vegas, the luckiest city in the world, nobody can say where they are born, I was a lucky kid right out of the gate. My luck is insane right away from that, I am so thankful for that.”

You can’t control where you are born, but some of the other things that have happened you can control.

“Well preparation meets opportunity, that is luck. Well that is normally luck. I had to practice my bike for hours a day and then went on to win the contests, which was a deal maker. I ride bicycles for a living, that is insane!”

There is also the luck of the timing of the X Games.

“If it was 5 years earlier, I wouldn’t be here. My buddy was born 5 years earlier than me, so he was at the tail end when the X Games came around. But having won it a few times, there is no way I would be winning it if I wasn’t in the right place, right time at the right age.”

In another aspect of luck, you are lucky to be here with all the injuries.

“Just from the head injuries alone I am the luckiest person in the world.”

You were in a coma for 2 weeks?

“Yeah, 2 weeks. When you are in that and come out, it is a different level of luck. But when you try and get out of bed and you crash on the floor, everyone freaks out but I am better.”

What do you remember from the crash?

“I remember the day of thinking that I am going down. For a fact I was like dude, someone is coming for me and I was so scared. I knew that I should not ride, but I did. But I have done it so many times before and slammed, but it was cool. In my first double flip I did on my BMX, I was getting ready to ride down and felt like it might be the last time I could feel my feet. But I dropped in and just pedalled. Looking back it was stupid to try this, it took a lot of balls. But if you’re gonna be dumb you’ve got to be tough.”

So the next thing you remember is waking up in the hospital?

“Yeah. I remember squeezing my girlfriend’s hand because I couldn’t feel much after the crash. That I do remember. If you squeeze the hand 3 times it’s like ‘I love you.’ She then squeezed my hand 4 times like ‘I love you too.’ But it didn’t feel like 2 weeks, it just felt like I went to sleep and woke up. One of my first thoughts was man this is going to be expensive.”

Do you think you can create your own luck?

“I don’t think you can 100%. I think you need help. If you don’t believe you deserve it, then it’s never going to happen. You have to try, luck will not find you. But at the same time, you can’t be cocky or think there is no such thing as right place, right time.” 

What do you think makes a great Challenge competitor?

“If you are grounded, then that’s the key. But you have to have great athletics and agility. I think that agile dudes are better than the buff meatheads. If you don’t have agility, a lot of things will get you smoked.”

How do you think you would do in the Challenge?

“I think I would be great until we get to the eating portion. I would try but I would just throw up and it would suck. If we got to do a final challenge with no eating, I could kill it. I am competitive and run 5k every day, sometimes in flip flops and jeans.”   

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for?

“My beautiful wife, my daughter and my dog, that’s all one. Also all the free time and music.”

Embedded images: Instagram

Featured image: People

Matt Hardy is a professional wrestler currently signed to AEW. He is known in his career for being part of the Hardy Boyz tag team with his brother Jeff Hardy in WWE and TNA Impact Wrestling. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about his new podcast with co-host Jon Alba called “The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy”, his real life feud with Edge, why he decided to sign with AEW, he gives an update on Jeff Hardy after he was recently released from WWE, what his plans are to celebrate his 30th anniversary in wrestling, his favorite matches, competing in the first TLC match, how he created his “Big Money” Matt Hardy character and much more!

Congratulations on the podcast by the way.

“Thank you, it’s been a lot of fun. Each episode that we do, I feel more comfortable. Jon [Alba] is a great host, he really steers the ship well and does a great job. I like to go into a lot of details, but he does a great job on keeping me on the right path. It’s a lot of fun.”

You go into an extreme amount of detail and I feel that the fans appreciate that.

“I feel like that is the stage in my career that I am at right now. I am obviously getting towards the end of my in-ring career, I am at the point where I can make the transition into podcasting. I’ve been doing other things now, and especially as some of these things are 20 to 25 years old, to try and share those with the wrestling fans.”

Is anything off limits?

“I’m going to try and be open for business with most things. There’s some things that if we don’t go into, we just won’t address it at all. But if there is a subject I am dedicated about, I will go into detail about.”

I’m sure that fans listening will be wondering when the Edge episode will be?

“Yeah I am sure that we will talk about Edge, but we probably won’t go into great depth with the Lita stuff. This is out of respect for my wife, I won’t go into that and talk about that.”

Going into Unforgiven 2005 I thought that you might murder Edge.

“Looking back at it, we both had a really good relationship whenever myself and Adam [Copeland aka Edge] were working together. It’s funny because it became something much larger than it was, especially to the fans. It was like something that we had substance and could sink our teeth into. People thought that we would murder each other so we kind of took advantage of that.”

You say it’s near the end of your career. Do you have a timeline of how much longer you want to do this?

“No I don’t. I am just playing by ear and feeling it as I go. It just comes down to how my body holds up.”

Looking at guys like yourself, Christopher Daniels, Chris Jericho, Sting… You are all ageless in AEW!

“I am so happy to see Sting getting this run that he is currently getting right now. He was a generation ahead of guys like myself and Chris Jericho, for him to still be able to go out and be the megastar that he is and get the spotlight, I am so happy for him because he is the best dude. Chris Jericho as well it is amazing that his body has lasted how it has because we were doing that WWE grind of 10 days on and 4 days off for ever on house shows. We worked and worked, it really is amazing and a credit to everyone’s longevity and toughness to be working in 2022.”

We are coming up to your 30th year in the ring. Is there a match in mind that you want to have to mark that occasion?

“I don’t know. In a perfect scenario we do something with my brother. He’s kind of on that same timeline where his 30th anniversary would be in October 2022. I think having The Hardy Boyz having a marquee match would be the perfect way to celebrate it.”

So you are saying with him and not against him?

“Yeah. I think at this point in our careers we have each other’s back, I think the days of Matt and Jeff going head to head, we are done with that.”

I feel like it’s a when not an if in regards to Jeff coming to AEW?

“Well we have 12 appearances booked and a couple in the works. We are doing all that now and that’s it. I haven’t said anything at all about Jeff coming to AEW. Nothing has been done and nothing has been decided. He is still contracted to WWE right now. We are excited to do these indy dates, it’s going to be fun and just like the old days. It’s like the beginning of our careers again doing the grassroot companies and signings.”

When you step out of bed in the morning, what hurts?

“I mean obviously doing those leg drops, nothing hurts but my lower back and hips are beaten up. There is a lot of scar tissue and flexibility is the biggest issue. I am trying to optimize my conditioning and do yoga to increase my flexibility.”

I hear that a lot of moves where you land on your ass take their toll. When did you start feeling it?

“I started feeling it in the early 2000’s. When I did that leg drop off the cage at Unforgiven, at the time it didn’t hurt, but the next few weeks I couldn’t walk straight. It was after that when I changed the second rope leg drop into the very exciting elbow to the back of the guy’s neck. I wouldn’t then have to compact my spine every night. Remember at that time we were doing both brands and house shows 5 nights a week. It was easier to land on your feet than your back and crush the spine.”

Looking back what was the match that really put The Hardy Boyz on the map?

“Definitely the tag team ladder match against Edge and Christian. That was the match that took us from being WWE wrestlers to WWE Superstars. We turned a corner in that match and you could see the reactions at live events and they loved what they hadn’t seen before.”

Did you both have the goal of being tag team wrestlers growing up?

“Once we fell in love with wrestling, that was our goal. The only thing we aspired to do was to be the world tag team champions of the WWE/WWF just one time. If we achieved that, we were done and could call it a day. But we exceeded that many times over. We are very happy and blessed to have the careers that we have had so far and to achieve the success that we had.”

Once you got those titles, then what was the goal?

“We wanted to break new ground. We wanted to do things and be trailblazers in the tag team division. I feel like we did that with the tag team table match and the TLC match, it was something that started through us. The tag team ladder match was something that we started doing on the indies, and I pitched the idea of the tag team tables match. Just all those things together and the TLC staple, I feel like all the teams were obviously very influential. But if you look at the guys who took the risks, the majority of those would be Jeff. Christian would be down for some bumps, Bubba and D-Von would be the heels kicking some ass. It’s funny, D-Von would be up there with Jeff, and he was afraid of heights, we had to force him to do that spot where they hung above the ring. When my brother and D-Von were hanging above the ring in TLC 1, there’s a point, and my brother, he is insane and crazy, he is kicking D-Von hard. And D-Von is like ‘Stop kicking me!’ We could hear it from under the ladder. But D-Von took the flat back bump, and he promised after that we would never take a bump from that height again. All 5 members had to convince him to doing it, but props to D-Von, that was very impressive.”

How is Jeff doing? I think a lot of people saw that video at the house show and were really nervous.

“Yeah he’s good. It was basically, when he wants to share this story he will. But he was exhausted after driving all night, he was on late at SmackDown and they had a 300 mile drive, had a family emergency, he was just exhausted. I think he was just stressed out from everything in WWE, sometimes he gets in his own head, I think it is better with me there too, he can really get in his own head. He had stuff going on with his wife, there was a death in the family and he hadn’t slept at all that night. Then he went into work exhausted and whatever happened happened.”

People thought it must have been drugs, but the drug tests came back fine.

“Right. I have heard from a couple of people that WWE did jump the gun in making this rash decision. People say it was erratic behaviour, but honest to God that was his last spot in the match, he was technically done. This was Jeff being strange in his own unique way, just decided he was done and just jumped the guard rail and took pictures with fans.”

What was it specifically that made you want to join AEW?

“I know in Vince’s head he saw me as a producer. He wanted to use my mental ability to produce matches and be an agent. I still wanted to wrestle while I could, that is the opportunity that is allotted to me in AEW.”

I loved your Matt Hardy V1 theme song.

“Thank you. That song is super catchy. I remember the first time that I heard that song I wasn’t too sure, I was certainly unsure. But after 4 or 5 weeks, I dug it and I loved it.”

With all the different versions that you have created, how do you know if something will work?

“You don’t, and there has been stuff I have done that doesn’t work. There has been a lot of trial and error, I feel like there is something that you start and you evolve or change it. You just have to build your crowd and your audience. The whole time I was doing Big Money Matt with the AEW audience, who are a younger demographic than WWE. They are more into a sports-centric type wrestling, I am more into the over the top character. So I had to reel it back and have it as a work in progress. My work now is more to help the younger talent backstage. I am so proud of Private Party, when they pull the trigger, those guys are going to be ready this time.”

When you talk about life after wrestling, what will there be?

“Broken Matt has a strong place in my heart and I would love to do a series, I’m sure Jeff would too, he loves that nonsense. Hopefully one day we will get Jeremy Borash back and do some Broken Matt universe stuff.” 

What is the most proud moment in your professional career?

“It’s hard. There have been so many things which have been huge landmark moments. Winning the tag team titles for the first time, that was a big deal because that was the first thing that we set out to do, we had achieved the dream. All the TLC craze and matches we still hear about today, they will live on for infamy and infinity. Then there’s all the other tings, the leg drop off the cage, crazy competitions with MVP, so many things. The whole broken universe, because it became a viral sensation, the viral matches and sensations were everywhere. I remember after leaving WWE I kept getting asked ‘When are going to do another TLC?’ The Final Deletion was so popular, no one had ever done this before. Then everyone is saying ‘When are you going to do another Final Deletion?’”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for?

“My children, my family and my health.”

Featured image: Wrestling Inc.

Jonathon Kendall (@jonathon.kendall) is copywriting, funnel building, course creation, and capital raising specialist. His crowdfunding systems have recently raised over $110,000,000 for startups & iconic brands like RadioShack and Pier1 Imports. He is also the former CEO of MentorBox and masterminded the creation of over 300 courses for New York Times bestselling authors, and Pulitzer Prize & Nobel Prize winning intellectuals. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about the concept of your “Zone of Genius” and how you can stay in it longer, his favorite books, how he got started in business and much more!

I love that you have learned how to learn, which sounds crazy. A lot of people think that learning ends when they leave school.

“Yeah I get asked about this a lot on panels. People ask me ‘What is the one thing I could do?’ And I say ‘Become obsessed with learning and become an obsessed learning machine, sharpen the saw.’ I read in this book that if you fold a piece of paper, it’s twice as thick, then 4 times then 8 times. If you could fold it 50 times, how long would it be? The answer is that it would reach the sun! I feel like the compound effect changed my life. So I look a compound logs in investments, and that’s also how I think about learning, so I am learning 1%, 2%, 3%… I am staying on the cutting edge of things, even if it’s 1% a day, when it gets big, you won’t be able to keep up with me.”

Have you always been this way?

“I don’t think you can teach ambition, but I have always been ambitious. Growing up I would say that I wanted to be the president, I had these massive goals, but I am also very engineer oriented. I would walk that back to reality and figure out how I could get there. For example, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. I was getting good at the next thing, but then you reach a plateau in your ability. So the only way to get the next level is to level up, learn something new and become more powerful. The only way to do that is to learn. But you have to fail to learn and part of the cycle is being aware of what you did wrong quickly and trying to improve it. If you are scared to face the inaccuracies, it can be hard to learn.”

Do you actually want to be the president or have you just set a really unattainable goal?

“My wife actually vetoed that. My current one is to win the Nobel Prize for literature, which is so far away and so big. But with the big goals, you don’t feel the day to day pressure. I can continue to grind, and it gives me emotional distance from the goal. I am ok failing in the short term, but it is enough to force me to not take it easy.”

What does the day to day look like for you now?

“I have 2 companies that I am involved in. One helps raise capital with credit investors, and I also have an outsourced digital marketing agency. We have 400 employees who provide digital marketing services, video editing, ad buying and social media.”

If someone is looking to start a business, what advice would you pass onto them?

“I would say step one is to understand your unique value. If you can articulate to yourself what is the problem that you have solved and why should people buy from me? If you can’t articulate your niche, then no one should buy your product. You should ask the questions, and if you can’t answer it, then you shouldn’t make it. It’s like if you want a PHD, you have to do something that no one else has done. You have to be a niche of a niche and then articulate that. Next, be obsessed with getting your first sale. Figure out what you can do today, not long term. And if you can make one sale, you can make 10, then 100. Then you need to obsess over the point of sale. Is it a store, a website? There has to be a point where someone can give you money. Artists are terrible at this. They create this amazing product that is unique, but they don’t have a way to actually sell it. I ask artists ‘Where can I give you money?’ When people are starting out, create that basic store to get that first sale.”

In MentorBox you went from being a copywriter to running the company. What did you learn from working your way up from the bottom?

“I would say you have to be customer obsessed. You have to be obsessed with the product and giving value. Don’t wake up with asking how do I feel about it, wake up asking how you can give more value to the world. A lot of people are worried about me, me, me in a company, that’s not good. But if you give more value to the company, the powers that be will see the ambition, and you be given an opportunity. The opportunity won’t be immediately rewarded, they will test you. Your ego part of you might push back as it’s not your job description, and it’s a leap of faith, but over time you will figure it out. As you learn, you can give more value in the long run.”

What is the best advice someone has given you?

“Ryan Holiday wrote in a book ‘The obstacle is the way.’ I think people don’t understand the power of this. Whenever you have a problem, instead of thinking about it as this happened to be, think that this happened for me. Whenever things are coasting, that’s fine. But when things are tough, I feel stressed and things feel like they are falling apart, that’s exciting. Then I can really earn my freedom and my pay check. I enjoy the moment of stress, but it took a long time. It’s like beating a tough boss in a video game and then you get to the next level.”

Should everyone want to be an entrepreneur?

“No. Before being an entrepreneur I wanted to be a writer, so I studied structure and writing. I believe that everyone has a purpose and is going to do something, whether you are choosing to do it or not. I think it is back to self awareness, journaling and trying new things. The idea is that you are a type generally, there has to be a nurse type, an engineer type, leaders… I think my brain is organised in a particular way, and if everyone was like me, there would be no doctors. In one way I am lucky that society rewards my way with money, but it doesn’t mean we don’t need all the other professions. You just have to be aware of what you want and dig into that.”  

A lot of people would love to have a mentor. How would I find one?

“I have this opinion that you have to guard what you put in your brain. You start with the leading anchors and following people who are where you want to be. Now it’s easier than ever with social media. Look at who is in your feed and who are listening to. If you are honest about your goals and are the people you are consuming brainwashing you to become that person, most of the time it’s no. Cut out the noise, look at your friend and family groups. I am sitting in this chair, I don’t know how to build chairs. If I am honest that I don’t know and I specialize in what I know, this is humanity. You find someone who does know how to do these things.”

What is your favorite quote?

“I kind of made this one up, ‘There’s always another level.’ I never get complacent. I am at the 1%, I am grateful for everything. But when I said I wanted to be president, it wasn’t because I like power, it was more that this person has the most influence so they can do the most good. For me, when I look that we have 400 people and everything we are doing is reaching thousands, I think it’s good, but there is another level. That is what pushes me to the next level.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things you are grateful for?

“My wife, my employees and the gift of being alive.”

Featured image: PPCIAN

Christopher Daniels is a professional wrestler and also the Head of Talent Relations for All Elite Wrestling. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about going through the forbidden door to New Japan Pro Wrestling for his match against Gabriel Kidd at NJPW Strong RIVALS on Thursday, February 17 in Hollywood, CA. He also talks about wanted to be an actor before training to be a pro wrestler, working developmental matches for WWE, signing with TNA wrestling, being part of the only 5 star rated match in TNA history at Unbreakable 2005 with Samoa Joe and AJ Styles, his job as head of talent relations for AEW, his thoughts on retirement and much more!

How’s the eye doing?

“Yeah it’s still pretty much the same. But it’s alright, it is a flesh wound as they would say in Monty Python. It’s more cosmetic now than anything, I’ve been checked up and my vision is fine, it’s just gnarly looking. When I talked to the doctor, he said it can happen on occasion where haemorrhages don’t heal or drain. But it has nothing to do with the iris itself, it is just the white of the eye that is discolored. It could dry up in a week or it could be a while. I’ve had haemorrhages before, but for some reason this one is just sticking.”

This happened with your match with The Young Bucks on March 12th.

“Yeah we are coming up on 9 months now.” 

But in that time, you have opened the forbidden door.

“Yeah I have the key to the door and I have opened it up in a couple of different places. I had the match with Jay White in New Japan, and that was my first experience with them. They have a great setup going on there, and Jay White is an amazing wrestler. I didn’t get my hand raised that night, but I felt like I gave him the best fight that he had in a while. So yeah it was a good experience overall.”

So are you still on the road with AEW, even though we are not seeing you on AEW TV?

“Yes. I travel every week, there is a lot of behind the scenes stuff that happens. Whether it is coaching or talent relations stuff. But yeah I am on the road every week, and if I have indy bookings at the weekend, that’s where I go.”

If AEW is coming to your town and you are an aspiring wrestler, what is the best way to get onto AEW Dark?

“Honestly, the best thing for an independent wrestler to do right now is to do the work on the independents. If you can get buzz around your name now, then Tony Khan will find out about you. I get emails from guys saying ‘Hey I would love the opportunity, I am willing to travel, give me the chance…’ I wish I got paid for those, because I would be a rich man. But if you can get Tony’s attention with the work that you do outside of AEW, Tony is more likely to give you an opportunity to be seen. It’s really a matter of going out there and being seen. If you can be viral, Tony will figure out who you are and will reach out to see what you can do in an AEW ring.”

So going back, you signed a developmental deal with WWF in 1993?

“No, that was the rumour. I had met with Jim Cornette along the way, and he had offered me an opportunity to work in the Funkin’ Dojo with Dory Funk Jr. which is really the precursor to the Performance Center. They had camps at Titan Towers with Dr. Tom Prichard, Jim Cornette and Dory Funk. So he [Cornette] offered me a chance to go to that. I did that for a week, and this was the same year as the 50th anniversary of the NWA show, everybody in the dojo was involved in that show. I did that and a few independents, but that was never a developmental contract. It was never a try-out, it was an opportunity to work with Dr. Tom. Also in the camp was Kurt Angle and Dr. Death Steve Williams, Test, Steve Corino. There were a bunch of guys trying to get a job or go from developmental to television. The truth was I was just there for a week and went back to independents. When WWF came to town I would do extra work off and on, which I did until 2002. Then ROH and TNA became a thing, so I stopped doing try-out stuff.”

So there was never an interest by WWF to get you signed?

“If there was then they never said it to me. Honestly at the time, they were not buying what I was selling, and I get that. If you look at the way that the light heavyweight division was not emphasised, it’s all about timing. When I was available, there was not space for guys like me, they were struggling with guys like Taka Michinoku and the other smaller guys. They were on television, but they were struggling. But then it’s 2010 and they are like well let’s get the smaller guys and give them opportunities. At that time, I was entrenched in TNA and ROH, so there wasn’t much there for me.”

How has there only been one 5 star match in TNA?

“I think people don’t recognize how important crowd response is to the atmosphere of a match. I think I might have mentioned this before but I was in New Jersey for [ROH] Final Battle where Low Ki wrestled KENTA. The match itself was amazing and I remember thinking that this is a 5 star match. I remember seeing it get 4 and a half, but if that was in the Impact Zone, it would have been 6 stars. But because it was the New Jersey Rec, it didn’t sound like people were going crazy. But the Impact Zone with that crowd, it was the perfect spot at the perfect time, that atmosphere added to the enjoyment of the match. You can hear it on YouTube and it sounds like 10,000 people, but it’s like 1,000 tops? I think that whole package added up.”

It’s been 3 years now, how do you think AEW is going now compared to back in 2019?

“I think it’s going well. We have grown and we have established an identity. I feel like for the first year we were a well kept secret that was being spread around, then a lot more people knew about this than I thought. Before the pandemic hit, we were filling arenas and having sold out shows and big shows. The pay-per-view before the lockdown, it was sold out in Chicago, it was great. Now we are on the other side of the pandemic, we are selling well, but we have also added so many people that the landscape has changed. At any moment we can throw some guys out there and give you an amazing match. We had no idea that CM Punk and Bryan Danielson would be a thing, and we made so much noise that CM Punk said that this is a place to come back to. We had no idea it would be the case 2 years ago, but here we are.”

So when you come back I am assuming it will be as a singles wrestler. When you have teamed with Frankie Kazarian for so long, can you be ready for it to be broken up?

“Not really, we were not looking forward to it. But it was a calculated risk to make that offer. At the time there was a wide variety of tag teams in the company. I felt like there was an opportunity for us both to do some stuff as singles. I wouldn’t mind and I would love to tag with Frankie again. But if singles is the way to go, we were both accomplished singles before SCU. I know Frankie can go, I am looking for that opportunity to do the same.”

Last time we spoke in person you were the Ring of Honor Champion. What did it mean to finally accomplish that?

“I feel like it was like, you know, you don’t think you can tell a story over 15 years. The circumstances, we had no idea when Ring of Honor started that I would be around and be a contender for the World Championship. But the way with previous circumstances and precious bookers decided to use me, it just sort of fell into place. Honestly, the discussions of me being a champion didn’t happen until after Ladder War. The reaction to the match between me and Frankie, The Young Bucks and The Guns, a lot of people went ‘Wait a minute. This might be the time for Christopher Daniels.’ Someone mentioned it backstage after the match to me, and it sort of turned me into a babyface. The effort and punishment in that match, there was a ground swell that these guys are good and they can wrestle. That was where it all began.”

You were making waves in the 2000’s. Did WWE ever come knocking back on your door?

“No, and honestly the only time they could have, I was fired from TNA at the beginning of 2010. I made a phone call and no one got back to me. But right after that, Jim Cornette made a phone call to me and Ring of Honor reached out. The good thing about ROH is that they always treated me like family, so when that call came, it wasn’t hard to say yes. I had my best matches with El Generico, Kevin Steen, that year was so much fun. It culminated with me going back to TNA, because ROH was bought by SInclair, so I offered to do both. But at that time, Jim Cornette, and rightfully so, said that he couldn’t trust TNA to book me in the same strength that ROH would. I think TNA would have been very forgiving, and if they booked me badly, they would boo TNA and not boo Christopher Daniels. But that was the argument that was made and lost.”

So what’s next for you?

“Firstly there is New Japan Strong, where Gabriel Kidd and I face off for the first time. But I feel like for me it is facing a lot of younger guys who are trying to make a name for themselves at my expense. I faced Nick Wayne recently, who is like 20 years old, I have wrestling boots older than he is. I feel like my life is wrestling guys who are 10-20 years younger than me looking to get better by beating guys of my stature. They are going to be faster or stronger than me, but I will always have experience in my favour. I know what I can do that they can’t. I know what it takes to win, because I have been doing it for a long while. Part of the excitement for me is going in there with someone who is younger, stronger and faster, and then keeping up with them.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are you grateful for?

“I have avoided the plague like the plague, I have been COVID free. Also during the pandemic I worked for Tony Khan and the friends I have in professional wrestling.” 

Featured image: Wrestling Inc.

Mat Franco is a magician and the winner of the ninth season of America’s Got Talent. He has a residency at the Linq Las Vegas with his show called “Magic Reinvented Nightly” has a residency. He joins Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios to talk about how he first became fascinated by magic at age 4, the process of learning his first trick, how he creates magic tricks now, his experience on America’s Got Talent and winning season nine, his favorite magic movie and then he performs some unbelievable tricks for us!

Why do you think people are so fascinated by magic?

“I think that there is an element of mystery, but I think what a lot of people like about it is the element of surprise. It’s the same reason that we go to the cinema or the movies. Nowadays you can Google pretty much everything, but with magic, you can’t. There are very few things you can’t Google.”

When you look back at the old stuff, who inspires you?

“The stuff I read is usually folks that were around before I was able to see them. Growing up Lance Burton, who was a Las Vegas staple for many years. Also a guy named Bill Malone, who is an amazing close up magician, and Jeff McBride, who now runs a magic school. But I had seen all those guys and many others on television growing up, and that was how I got bit by the magic bug.” 

Do you remember the first trick that you saw?

“It is what they call a manipulation act. It’s an act where a magician would stand on stage silent, but there was music. It was all visual, like cards or producing doves. That is the most difficult act, because it is all show and tell.”

So what was the first trick you performed?

“I brought a few in to kindergarten for show and tell when I was 3. I had a magic wand that shrunk, a ball in a vase that disappears, and I tried to do thimble magic, which is ridiculous. What kid uses thimbles? I had these colored thimbles and I had no idea what I was doing, but I brought them in.”

So when did you really want to be a magician?

“It was right in that moment and before I knew what it took to make a living. I just knew it was something that I wanted to do. I had no idea you had to work and make money and all that, there are other people that do this so why can’t I? But then I realized that in showbusiness, business is the bigger word.”

At what point did you realize that you can make money from this?

“I would say at my first paid show, which I was around 10 for. I started doing birthday parties and performances on stage at school, I was just really ambitious.”

When you learn how to do a trick, it’s like a chef seeing how a dish is being made?

“Yes and no. A trick can’t necessarily be explained as ‘You do this, this and this…’ It’s more ‘This is why your brain thinks this…’ because I tricked the brain and you didn’t see it. It’s more about psychology. Think about Jimi Hendrix playing the guitar, you can see a closeup shot and slow it down, but not everyone can play it.”

How do you keep pushing the envelope now? What you are doing now is great, but you still keep finding ways to amaze people.

“I think it’s about stepping into territory that you haven’t yet. In magic, you are literally making the impossible possible, and you have to find a way to do it. There is sort of an endless supply of impossible things to tackle, so it never gets boring.”

So how much do you think your show has changed in all the years that you have been in Las Vegas?

“It’s changed quite a bit, but the heart is the same. The show is a version of self expression, being with the audience and creating that connection. But when I say that, it’s funny. The show is not about me, it’s about the tricks and the personality and the experience. So the tricks and productions have evolved, but the heart of it is still the same.”

So how long into the show before the audience are shocked?

“I would say that’s in the first routine. You want to start off strong. I start out with an interactive piece and end with a big punch that even the magicians go wow at.”

What were the steps where you realized that this could be a real career for you?

“I always thought that this could be a real career. Then, when I became 16 or 17, I started to realize what real life was and wondered if this could be a real career, because you start to question it, when reality sets in. So I went to college to study marketing and business to support my magic habit, and I thought to make a go of it. I knew it was a long shot, but my goal was to see if I could do magic full time.”

What did ‘Make a go of it’ look like?

“Well I tackled the college market first, I thought to myself well how do these guys, or anyone, get so good? The way they do it is by flight time and experience. My problem at 22 was that I would have a library show for kids one day, then a corporate show, then on college campus, then a birthday party. It was never the same show twice, I had to tailor each show, so I wasn’t getting the reps in. I just decided to tackle one age group, and I performed for the college students. I started marketing my shows and touring the country for 6 months a year with my one man show.”

What did your life look like before America’s Got Talent?

“I was doing the colleges and travelling constantly and being a road warrior. I was hoping to get onto America’s Got Talent so I could get more footage of me performing and book more gigs. But then I got voted to the next round, and then the next round… All I wanted was to get in a montage so I could say ‘As seen on America’s Got Talent.’ So I could put that on my posters for gigs. I wasn’t expecting to get a standing ovation each time, so yeah, that was way outside of my goals.”

So when you get to the next round and the next round, how many gigs do you have to cancel?

“I was doing both. I would be in Radio City one night, then in college the next night. It was really madness.”

You never had the vision to be a finalist?

“No, not at all. I didn’t even think about it until there were just 2 of us standing there at the end. Right as Nick Cannon opened the card, I peeked at it and I was like ‘Oh my God!’ I actually came in last but I changed it with sleight of hand [laughs].”

Writers get writer’s block, and I’m sure you get the same. What do you do to combat that?

“Pacing around, a lot of thinking and trying to be present. I am supposed to be focusing on x, y and z, but I am focused on the writer’s block. I try to let it knock around and get something to work out.”

So what went into the audition for America’s Got Talent?

“I wrote a card story, which was inspired to me by Bill Malone. He was the first to do it while shuffling, he was a pioneer of it. So I learned the routine and did it at private gigs, but it was time for me to write my own story. I remember writing it by a pool in a hotel while I was doing the college loop.”

Has a trick ever gone wrong? And if so, how do you handle it?

“Most often, the audience doesn’t have any idea. So I had a borrowed dollar from someone, it disappears and reappears in an impossible location, which was a ramen packet. The guy is on stage, opens the packet, and it is not there. I know that it is lost in the ramen somewhere, so I play it as a joke. Everyone knows it should be in there, they laugh and we all just move on.” 

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for?

“Family, fans and being able to work on my emotional intelligence.”

Image credit: Instagram

I just wrapped up No Sugar January, which is exactly what it sounds like: an entire month with no added sugar. While I started it for the obvious health benefits of not having sugar in my diet, I found there was A TON of benefits to my mental health as well. I learned very quickly it’s a lot easier to NOT to something than it is to START doing something. And that’s a lesson that seems applicable to so many areas of our lives. What’s something you could cut out, or at least cut back on, that would improve the quality of your life instantly? Because if you keep the same things, you’ll keep getting the same results. Let me know on social media what you thought of this and what you’d like to hear on our next solo episode!

Why I did No Sugar January:

If you follow me on Instagram on Twitter, you might have seen that I just wrapped up No Sugar January. This was an entire month, 31 days, of not eating any added sugar. Now I don’t think I need to tell you why sugar is bad for you, especially when you have way too much of it, Which was me for a long time.

When I was working at the TV station every day, it was right across from a convenience store. I would get those mid-afternoon crashes, and would CONVENIENTLY buy a big bag of Gummy Bears or Sour Patch Kids and that would tie me over for about an hour or so and I was feeling great until I absolutely CRASHED!

I have also always been the person who goes to a restaurant and looks at a dessert menu first, before figuring out what I’m going to order for the main course. Maybe you are with me on this one! By the way, if they had one of those cookie skillet desserts, you know the one where it’s a fresh baked cookie in a skillet topped with ice cream? It was over! Let’s just say that I had a bit of a problem with sugar, so trust me when I say that even though I know sugar is not good, that doesn’t mean that doing No Sugar January was easy at all.

What I learned:

There are a lot of things I learned this month from doing it. If this is something that you’ve ever thought about doing I would encourage you to try it. Maybe a month is too long, but I would encourage you to try this for a week, two weeks, three weeks… To be clear, this was no added sugars. I was still eating things like carbs and fruits.

I mentioned it to my dad and he was like “I’d love to do that, but I don’t know if I’d last a day.” I think it’s clear where I got my sweet tooth from!
So when I was doing this, I was posting updates all along the way. It wasn’t a New Years Resolution thing, it was me wanting to do this for a long time, so let’s start it now! The biggest question I kept getting was “How did you do it?”

How I accomplished No Sugar January:

You’ve probably heard me say this before, and it’s becoming a theme here, but just start! Instead of thinking of the month as a whole, I broke it down into weeks and then into days. I figured if I could do one day, then I could do two. Then if I could do two days, I could do a whole week and so on.
Let me tell you, day 1 and 2 the cravings were bad. Especially when I would eat something salty, I would instantly want something sweet afterwards. But a few days in those cravings went away completely. So much so that my girlfriend Rachel would eat pints of ice cream or cookies next to me on the couch and I wouldn’t even care.

The biggest thing I learned from doing this is that it’s a lot easier to NOT do something then it is to START doing something. It’s easier to not, for example drink soda, than it is to start working out or start reading every day. It’s those little changes like James Clear talks about in Atomic Habits which is one of my favorite books of all time, it’s the little changes that make a huge difference.
If you truly want to change your life you have to change the things that you do every single day because you are the things that you consistently do.
As Brendan Burchard says:

“First, it is an intention. Then a behavior, Then a habit, Then a practice, Then a second nature, Then it is simply who you are.”,

Over to you:

So it doesn’t necessarily have to be cutting out sugar for a whole month, but I would ask you, what’s the one thing you can cut out, or at least cut back on, that would greatly improve the quality of your life instantly? Maybe it’s spending less time on social media? Perhaps it’s not cracking that beer as soon as you get home from work every day? Or maybe it’s not hanging out with that person who always makes you feel like crap! For me, No Sugar January was amazing! I extended it into February for a few days, but then that cookie looked so good! I had one earlier today, and I got a headache 20 minutes later. The thing now is that sweet things now taste so sweet.

You tell me! It’s up to you. If you keep doing the same things, you’ll keep getting the same results.

Hope you enjoyed this one. If you did, please share it with a friend. And take a screenshot and tag me, I am @Chris Van Vliet.
We’ve got big plans for 2022, and I’m so glad that you’re on this ride with me.

Be great, be grateful and we’ll see you on the next one for some more Insight!