Dr. Greg Wells is a wellness advocate, scientist, TedX speaker and best-selling author. He talks with Chris Van Vliet about not only WHY we need to sleep better but HOW we can sleep better. He focuses on the science behind sleep, little hacks that anyone can do to get a better night’s sleep, how sleep affects other aspects of your life, how to sleep, eat, move and think better with 1% changes.

On the science behind sleep:

“I feel that in the past 10 years people are really looking at how to do better and feel better. Sleep is at the forefront of what everyone can do. We all sleep, we do it every day, hopefully, and we can all sleep so much better. So many people are struggling with sleep. Just to get us started, one of the things so fascinating about sleep is that we have discovered what is known as a glial lymphatic system. It is a network of vessels inside the brain that literally pump fluid through the brain as you sleep. It cleans out bacteria, viruses, broken down cells, waste products, then pulls them up to a network of vessels that are just on the inside of your skull. Then it drains them into the lymphatic system of the body, which is how we dispose of all of these things that we don’t want. The brain is literally washing itself out every night that we sleep, so it’s the fundamental thing we need to do to keep our brain healthy. There’s many other things too, but that is the coolest advance we have seen probably in the last 10 years when it comes to sleep. The imagery around it is amazing, we can see this happening live with some of the cool studies that have been published. It is absolutely amazing.”  

Is 8 hours enough:

“There’s a wide range for all humans. Some can do fine on less, some could do with a little bit more. What we have learned is that there are sleep cycles. In these cycles we go through stages and we cycle through those throughout the course of the night in 90 minute increments. On average, we like to get 5 cycles a night, which is roughly 8 hours. The research is quite clear, any less than 6 hours, or 4 complete sleep cycles, the risk of all cause mortality starts to go up. Many things are involved there, but a lack of sleep is associated with it. I always say bare minimum 7, I get that sometimes you won’t get enough and sometimes you need to sleep in. It’s all about getting the balance.”

On people who can’t get to sleep:

“Yeah the mind is racing and you are staring at the ceiling but you can’t shut your brain off. I think that is a symptom of the way we are living these days. We are going flat out, and there’s so much to do. There is looking at your phone, put it away and can’t get to sleep. One of the biggest things I think you can do is to not look at your tech for the last hour. These are these things called books, you can take a bath, talk to your partner. Think of all the things you can do to unwind. We need to give ourselves that chance to unwind and to settle, instead of sprinting to the finish line and staring at the ceiling.”  

On having an evening routine:

“The morning routine has gotten so much traction recently, but to win the day, you have to get a good night’s sleep. I recommend 3 times 20 minutes of unwinding, experiment and try things out, see what works. There are some amazing yoga poses that can calm you down, you can do slow breathing, communicate with people. These are all awesome things you can do.”  

Optimizing your sleep space:

“Humans have a structure inside the brain that is very sensitive to light. When any light, from the sun or a screen, goes through our eyes, that goes through your eyes, and can penetrate your eyelid. That light then hits the back of your eyeball, shoots electricity back to your brain. That electricity then makes it hard to sleep. Make sure your bedroom is really dark, you can invest in blackout blinds, or just get some paper. Make sure your alarm clock is covered up and your phone is covered up in the bedroom. Once the room is dark, keep it cool too. If your body is cooler by 1 degree than the day, it releases melatonin and can help you sleep better. Those are a couple of tactics you can do to help you sleep better.”

On how to get the kids involved:

“We kind of treat it like a digital sunset in our home. The whole house has dimmer switches installed, I am not moving for 10 years. I wouldn’t have done that in the previous apartment, I would have just been hacking my way through it all without spending any money. It does take time, we dim all the lights and have all the electronics set to a timer to night mode. It took us a while, but the concept of slowly decreasing the amount of lights and downshifting as a group works. When it’s time to sleep, I read a story and the kids are out. One of the things we did to get the kids to buy into the system was to get the kids to write their routine on the wall. They like to see the routine, follow it and see the next steps. From there, it was just so much easier for all of us.” 

On training to sleep better:

“So from 0-6 months of having kids, it’s a disaster. You don’t know if you can get through the next hour. There is a glimmer of hope where it looks like you can get through one sleep cycle without dying of fatigue. But slowly, it gets a little bit better. The key thing for those who are not good sleepers, you can train yourself to sleep better. The human body can adapt, when you lift, you get stronger, when you run, you get faster. We know that we can adapt, we just need to be consistent enough to nudge ourselves towards better sleep. If you stick with it, and it took me 6 months to notice, it is absolutely worth it.”  

On how a good night’s sleep can benefit you in a lot of ways:

“It all cascades. If you get a good night’s sleep, you make better decisions on the food you eat and eat better. Then, you feel better and more energized, you get a workout in. Get the workout in, you lower your stress level, then you sleep better. We can create these upwards spirals by working on these areas. Get the sleep down, work on the nutrition, then the exercise. This is a multi-year project to make you live longer and better. It’s not easy, but it does add up.” 

On boredom and what it can do for you:

“I love boredom, I think it’s awesome. Within 2 minutes when my kids say they are bored, they are creative and thinking of ways to entertain themselves. Because we have our phones, we are constantly engaged and never bored. But the problem is then it inhibits our creativity, our strategic thinking and all of the things we need to do to live life. I love the idea of using technology intentionally, but also unplugging. I have 1 hour a day where my tech is unplugged, the best time is during dinner with the family. We need a little bit of time to be bored, your mind wanders and then boom! There is something new you can create, you won’t get that if you are constantly distracted.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My family and their health and happiness, the ability that I can do what I want and I get to connect with cool people.”

Featured image: Speakers Spotlight

RVD is a WWE Hall of Famer and is well known for his time in ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling). He joins Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios inside the Wynn Las Vegas to talk about his legacy, his CBD brand RVDCBD, his wife Katie Forbes, his Mount Rushmore of ECW wrestlers, the best advice he learned from Paul Heyman, almost jumping ship from ECW to WCW, his relationship with TNA Impact Wrestling and more!

On meeting his partner Katie Forbes and his social media posts:

“That’s what’s funny. When people ask ‘What happened to RVD?’ I mean it’s not many, but you are not famous if you have some haters. So those comments come across, and they stand out because they are different. I’ve definitely been showcasing more every since I met Katie Forbes. She’s a party girl, she’s fun and she’s awesome. Together, we make such a good couple, because we are open and we are honest as much as we can be. Of course, I have taught her a lot, because I have more life experience than her. But that’s something that’s cool. We went on a Cardi B cruise, Katie loves Cardi B, if you see a Cardi B video you wouldn’t be surprised. This big producer, Q, I think he produces Megan Thee Stallion, he VIP’d me and we hung out in this jacuzzi with all these girls shaking their ass and stuff. We posted a video of that, it went viral. It was then I realized how much of an impact I have on social media. Because then, IMPACT [wrestling] started writing that into the script. Specifically, I’m putting stuff on there which you wouldn’t know unless you follow me on social media. IMPACT must have thought I have a pretty decent following.”

On who gets recognized more:

“I do. I totally get recognized more, but I don’t think I get looked at more. A lot of times we will be walking together, eyes will go to her first, then a second later it’s like, RVD?!”

On the relationship with WWE:

“I don’t know what will come of the relationship with myself and WWE. Even the merchandise that they make with me, I don’t know about it until it is out. It’s always been that way. Before I started collecting action figures, I used to sign them from the fans. I’m like ‘Oh I’ve not seen this one before.’ Now I have to get them all. There’s so many, I am obsessed with something when I get into something. There was a third party conflict though. I gave a third party permission to make an RVD action figure. They are called Heels and Faces, their work is really good. I didn’t know WWE was doing anything with me, but at the virtual San Diego Comic Con, Heels and Faces made their announcement about my figure. But also Mattel was making an announcement on the same day about an RVD figure, and I had no idea. WWE got a hold of me shortly after and made me cancel the first one. It’s understandable, but I just don’t know. People ask me if I’m going to be in the videogame, I don’t know, I have very little to do with it. They are just using my likeness.”

On if he can still wrestle:

“I definitely have matches left in me, I don’t know if they will be in WWE or not. I think probably, why not? But at the same time, there might be a why not I don’t know about, so who knows? I go with the flow.”

On his relationship with Vince McMahon:

“All along throughout everything, I have kept in touch with Vince [McMahon]. I know we have a good relationship. Specifically when certain things happen, there was something that got thrown around and got back to me that [Mark] Carrano said I was part of the concussion lawsuit against WWE, complete bullsh*t. It seemed in the moment to stop me from doing something I wanted to do. Very shortly around there, I talked to Vince and didn’t mention anything about it. There have been rumours that WWE had told me I could never wrestle for them again because of concussions, most people believed that was true. I don’t usually feel obligated to correct people when they are wrong, because you hear everything. But I have never talked to WWE about any concussions. That was some bullsh*t that someone pulled out of some divorce papers when the evil ex was being real nasty. At the time, she was saying that I was faking double vision, which throughout Headstrong was documented. But to get more money, my ex said I should have been working full time like I did in 2003. So that got out there and people think it is true.”

On showing up to WWE while still being signed to IMPACT Wrestling:

“Paul Heyman reached out to me, I then reached out to Scott D’Amore, and they gave me permission. I’m not afraid to do something that hasn’t been done before. I was hoping I could wrestle too. I was in my gear, I was ready, I thought I was going to run in, do a frog splash and all that stuff. But that all changed at the last second. Then I was like really upset, you get your hopes up and start compromising. But you get it.”

On when he first really felt like RVD:

“It would be at some point in ECW. When I first went there, I was very shy and didn’t want to be anywhere around a microphone, this was in 1996. I would run from the promo room and hope that Paul wouldn’t try and drag me in there. I didn’t know how to sell tickets by you know ‘Come and watch me! I’ll do some cool moves!’ My voice wasn’t even that mature yet, I sounded so different. But the more I did it, the more over I was getting. But when I won the TV Championship from Bam Bam Bigelow, that was when I crossed that line, and Paul told me that. The next show was at Queens, and I am trying to think of an advancement of my next cool move. So I ran some ideas by Paul and he said ‘I don’t think it matters what you do tonight, those people are going to love you.’ I was like, ok, whatever. I had no idea what he meant, but from then on the reaction was totally different. I felt like a superstar, I felt legit, and it gave me the confidence to say damn, what I am doing is working.”

RVD’s ECW Mount Rushmore:

“Sabu, of course. It’s hard to decide between Tommy Dreamer, Taz, Sandman, Raven. I would put Taz up there. Is Paul an option? But if it’s just performers, I would add Dreamer too.”

On nearly jumping to WCW:

“Yeah, I think that’s a pretty well known story. I went to a show that they had at Savanna, Georgia. I was living in a town nearby and ended up having a conversation with Eric Bischoff. He saw me at the time and he gave me the details. He said he wanted to give me a 3 year progressive contract and to think about it. But right after that, it got out and everyone thought that I was going to be leaving. It was after that the Mr Monday Night angle came from. Paul had sweetened the pot, because I had been left off of the first pay-per-view. But now, he was going to center the whole company around me and being wanted by all of the other groups. I was supposed to go to WCW, but instead I went to the WWF and was trying to do all the things at the same time.”

On People’s reaction when he left ECW:

“For me, it was like ‘I can’t believe you are leaving us.’ Looking at it now with this much age and this much experience, you never know what someone else is going through. But at the time, we can be judgemental, and I was feeling like going why are you guys giving up? I wasn’t giving up, I didn’t understand that. The answer was to blow ECW up so we don’t have to go anywhere else, and I thought that was possible.”

Some “RVDology”:

“Everybody has their own values. Almost every single conflict, and there are no absolutes, is because of a mismatch of values and a void of respect for the other person’s values. Whether we are talking about wars, animals, anything. For me, it’s easy to understand people’s perspectives. You don’t know someone’s values and everyone has their own importance, who am I to judge that? What if you like blue and I hate it? It’s like we are in the first grade, and some people never leave that state of mind. For some guys, that is what it is like in the locker room. For me, just being ok with that, but I still will be judgemental though. We all think that the way we do things is the only way to do them.” 

On the most asked about match in his career:

“It would probably be when I beat John Cena at One Night Stand and won the championship belts. If they ask me what my favorite match was, that match was great. Cena is great and great with that crowd, which were incredible. Besides all that, the story and the build-up was everything since 1996 and maybe before. Me and every fan in that building were fighting for what I believed in, which is why they wanted to see Cena go down, or they riot.”

On the One Night Stand Crowd:

“I don’t think anyone knew exactly how that crowd was going to be. I knew it was my crowd and they were with me, but I couldn’t have predicted that they would feel so much that way and be like ‘F*ck your t-shirt.’ What are the chances someone would do it and they do it again and again. But I had no idea it would be like that, John knew he was in for a rough night, but he was super cool and he had fun with it.”

On what he is grateful for:

“Katie Forbes, the universe and we are getting married in 8 days.”

Featured image: Wikipedia

Embedded images: Instagram

Chris Hutchins is an entrepreneur and the host of the popular podcast “All The Hacks” which you can listen to wherever you’re listening to this podcast right now. Chris shares with us some innovative ways to get cheap flights, free hotel stays, advice on how to land your dream job, how to start a successful podcast, clever investing hacks, and much more!

On where the hacks started:

“I feel like I wish I had a good answer for this. I blame my parent’s memory, they don’t remember many entrepreneurial stories about me as a kid. But I think the optimization game started in college. I realized I could take a bunch of people to Mexico for free because I had loads of frequent flyer miles. My parents had enrolled me into the United Airlines frequent flyer program as a kid. When I got to college, I had these miles on my account and I went to Cabo. I was pretty broke but I didn’t have to pay for it. That opened my eyes to everything, I then got a credit card to earn points and it just spiralled into optimization into everything.”

A hotel hack:

“I’m not sure if I have a favourite. One interesting one, which is really easy, and I’ve got loads of positive feedback about it. So when you book a hotel, book it with the hotel. Don’t book it with TripAdvisor, book it through the website. Then email the hotel, tell them you are excited to come and let them know who you are. Also mention any special occasions. I’ve had 20-30 people in the last month come back and say that they got some upgrade or free gift. Every message was so magical, it’s not a lot of effort and it works. It doesn’t always work, but it’s an easy one.”

Some flight hacks:

“Definitely don’t wait until you are within 14 days. At that point, the price doesn’t seem to come down. Somewhere in between a month to 2 months out is the optimum. All the ‘Buy it on a Tuesday at 4am…’ myths are just myths. Also use your miles if you can. You could book a ticket and the day before, a business class ticket might come up for $250 in miles. If it does, cancel your ticket and get a great deal last minute. Miles are good far out and last minute, cash is good anywhere in between.”

On starting his podcast:

“People often think that things are not possible. I started my podcast 5 years after I thought about it. I kept telling myself, does anyone really want to listen to this? Is it going to be worth my time? Finally, someone interviewed me on their podcast and said ‘So, tell me about this podcast.’ I respond ‘I haven’t started a podcast.’ He said ‘I know, because you’ve been saying it for 5 years, it’s about time you did it.’ Now I can’t believe I didn’t do it sooner. It’s great to say yes and just see what comes your way.”

On some time hacks you can use:

“I started realizing the concept of distraction. Before I was like, ok, stay focused, don’t get distracted. Now I realize that the opposite of distraction is traction. If you are distracted, you are not making traction to what you are caring about. I was challenged to start time boxing my day. So instead of having an endless to-do list, make time for it. You can make time for playing games on your phone too, just make sure you are being intentional. It’s about priority, I broke my foot recently, and I didn’t have time to go to the emergency room, but I did make time.”

On finding your passion:

“My brother in law used to be a professional golfer. He did it and he hated it. He now works in sales and is an amateur golfer, but he loves golf. One common misconception is that your passion has to be your day job. A lot of people play musical instruments, I’m not going to quit my job to play the piano to be a pianist though. A lot of people think their passion has to be work related, and it doesn’t. But if you want to, you should jump in and see how you can make that happen. There is an abundance of side hustle opportunities out there.If I want a job, I will find the company I am most excited about, and then I am going to go all in on it. It doesn’t always work, especially if you don’t have the right skillset, but there is nothing better than an employee that is so passionate about your business. I’m not going to overlook skills, but if there are 2 people and one is so passionate, I’m taking them.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My daughter, I found a company that can let me explore my passion and I can now walk without an air boot on.”

The All The Hacks Podcast can be found here.

Images obtained from Chris Hutchins’ Instagram.

Mirin Fader is a senior staff writer for The Ringer and a New York Times bestselling author of the book Giannis: The Improbable Rise of an NBA MVP. She talks about how her dreams of becoming a professional basketball player shifted to becoming a writer after an injury, how she got her start covering sports, her ability to get to the heart of the story, what her writing process looks like, how anyone can become a better storyteller and more!

On her love of feature writing:

“I didn’t want to be a beat writer, I didn’t want to be a breaking news person. That’s a hard path on its own. I just fell in love with long form writing and features, and I still believe that those stories matter. For me, even though that wasn’t a popular desire at the time, I didn’t care. This is what I wanted to do and I was going to go after it wholeheartedly.”

On her first dream of being a WNBA star:

“Yeah, I know, but I didn’t get the memo that you have to be tall to do that, and I am 5 foot exactly. But it’s such a hard road, and the joke in my family is that my mom would say ‘When you get to college you’re going to grow.’ That never happened. But I did push it as far as I could, I was that girl with the ball everyday. I was obsessed with basketball, I really wanted it. But it has just informed everything that has happened afterwards in my journalism career.”

On where the love of writing began:

“It happened in my first year of college. I was playing for Lewis & Clark College in Oregon, and I was just having an awful experience, it was so clear to me that basketball was ending. So I took this women’s writing class, and the professor was just talking about women’s writing and reading, and I’m like wow I love that too. I thought maybe I could do something with that. Just seeing one door close and the possibility of another door, it just kind of planted the seeds. Leaving a sport is really painful, I feel like dealing with the loss of identity and things like that over the course of that first year. But I started thinking that there is other stuff out there. But you never think of that as a child, you are 10 years old and you want to be the next Diana Taurasi, you don’t think what’s next until you have to.” 

Where the writing career began:

“I think the best advice I always have is if you are waiting for the answer to come to you, it just doesn’t. You have to go out and do stuff, experience it and see if you like it or if you don’t like it. I did apply for a lot of internships, and I didn’t get most of them. But I did get one in broadcasting with ABC in Burbank. I didn’t like it at all, I hated being on camera, but it was good practice. That experience made me figure out what I wanted to do and what I didn’t want to do. It’s funny because no one wanted to hire me to get the experience, it’s like the chicken and the egg. How do you get experience to get the opportunity if you can’t get the experience? So I had to do a lot of free work. I did obituaries, which has nothing to do with sport. But it was doing things like that that started it. I finally got that chance at the Orange County Register. I would just pitch every Monday to them. The stories were not interesting, little league, high school and junior college, all the things that nobody else wanted to do. But I have this dream to be a features writer, it’s not sexy subjects but it’s a start, never think an assignment is beneath you.”  

On where the big break came from:

“Ironically my big break came from one of my biggest disappointments, which was getting laid off at the OC Register after 4 years. At that point, I became a full time freelancer for ESPN and for Bleacher Report. A couple of months after that, Bleacher Report asked me if I wanted to go to Lithuania, because they wanted me to profile LaMelo Ball. His dad had just pulled him out of high school and sent him to play professionally in Lithuania. So I went to Lithuania for almost a month, and it was a big story. It was very controversial what was happening with LaMelo at the time. When I came home, it was the career driving story, and I got a job at Bleacher Report after that. Finally I got the job! I felt like I wasn’t going to make it, I was doing so many stories for both Bleacher Report and ESPN, but neither would hire me for over a year. Finally this moment happened, and it changed everything.”

How to write a feature:

“The first thing is just reporting. I have to talk to so many people who are close to the person, including the person, before I start writing it. It’s the art of reporting and the art of writing combined into one. I will usually talk to 20 – 30 people, but for the book on Giannis I talked to 221 people. I think first it’s about being super relentless in your reporting. Secondly, I think of it like writing a movie. What are my best scenes and what are my best images? It involves a lot of thinking and organising before I even write a word. I feel like writing is the least important part of it, that sounds crazy but it’s true.”

On trust:

“If they don’t trust you, then you don’t get the information, and you have nothing to write about. That’s why I say it’s an art before you get to the article. A lot of people don’t want to open up, because they are famous and they don’t want to put things on the line. For me, I just try to write human based stories that empathize with the person. I feel thankful that they do share their most vulnerable moments, and that is what makes a feature story so successful. Can you make a feature story that shows someone super vulnerable as opposed to just being an athlete.”

On her interviewing style:

“I don’t ever lead with sports questions. People know that I am sincere. Of course I ask about sports, but right off the jump they know I am trying to find more about them as a person, and not just as an athlete. I think people are really shocked that I want to know about them and where they come from. But trust is not gained in the first 5 minutes, it requires a lot of time to get to know their story.”

On advice for aspiring writers:

“It sounds really corny, but it’s true, be you on the page. I think a lot of us are taught to look at our idols and to emulate them, which is true and worthwhile. But at some point, you don’t want to sound like somebody else. I think a lot of my early writing sounded like people that I admired. When it sounded like them, it took away from what I sound like on the page. I think saying be you on the page makes me say I do have a voice, and it’s time to find out what it is. You do that by taking risks and trying to be a bit more confident, even when you don’t. Finding your voice is the best thing that you can do.”

On the phrase ‘You’re only as good as your last article?’

“I do [believe that] but I am working on that. It is very toxic. Because I am a former athlete, that phrase was ingrained into me in my childhood and I feel that with my stories. I’m in the process of learning that it is not healthy. Sometimes you do an interview, they are having a bad day, and you just didn’t get what you needed, or access was shut down, or maybe I wasn’t good enough that day. But it is hard because I am a perfectionist and I am hard on myself. I do feel that way, but I will let you know when I have an answer to that.”

What makes a great story:

“I think a good story hits you in some way. You don’t have to be emotionally affected and on the verge of tears, but you have to feel something. I want you to come away with some feeling. The next time you see that player on TV, you might remember ‘Oh when he was 7 I remember…’

On what she is grateful for:

“My family, my hands and food.”

Featured image: The Press Enterprise

Here! We! Go! Thank you so much for being with us for another solo episode. I say this with a great deal of love and respect for all of the guests I’ve had, but these kind of podcast episodes are my favorite kind, because we get to hang out one on one like this. Based on all of the amazing feedback from our last one, which was the “What are you waiting for” episode, it seems that you really enjoy these too.

So I think it only makes sense that we start doing these maybe a little more often. I don’t really have a schedule, maybe twice a month, maybe once a week, you let me know! Don’t worry, the interviews are not going anywhere, I just love the opportunity to hang out with you one on one. So if there’s something you want to hear, send me a message… either on Twitter or Instagram or shoot me an email, it’s cvv@chrisvanvliet.com.

Where it begins:

So if you haven’t noticed, I like to ask a lot of questions. It’s kinda part of my job, but I’m also a naturally curious person, I always have been. I feel that Tony Robbins nailed it when it said the quality of your life is a direct result of the quality of the questions you ask. Perhaps we should do a full episode on that topic? Everything you have in your life is the result of a conversation that you did or did not have with somebody. If you don’t ask, the answer is always going to be no. But a question that I like to ask when I first meet someone is: “What juices you?” “What drives you?” “What EXCITES you?” I think their answer says a lot about that person. I’m sure right now “What juices me?” “What excites me?”

What are you passionate about?

Passion is the secret sauce of life. Sprinkle some passion on anything and BAM! It immediately gets taken to the next level. If you’re passionate about your job, all of a sudden it doesn’t feel so much like a job anymore.
Throw some passion into a relationship, especially one that may have plateaued…. and oh man, you better hang on if you know what I mean.

But there are so many people who are living with zero passion… for anything. Perhaps I am speaking directly to you. I love this quote from Helen Keller who famously wrote “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” Or NOTHING at all! In other words, if you’re not on this daring adventure that life has for you, you’re not even living. I’m not saying you need to go out and quit your job and start filling your day with the thing that you love, but what I am saying is you need to start being intentional about doing the things in your life that really light you up.

If you love art…. make time every day, even if it’s just for 5 minutes to draw or paint. If you love baseball, why has it been so long since you threw a baseball or played in a league? And If you love comedy, start writing down some material and without telling anyone, go on stage at an open mic and do it, inject that passion into your life.
Start feeding those things that make you feel so good when you do them. Those are the things that put a smile on your face no matter what’s going on in your day, it’s always going to light you up.
Now I know what you’re going to say. “But CVV, I don’t have time for that!” Really? But you have time to watch all 9 episodes of Squid Game?!

For all the “I’m too busy people” by the way, have you ever done a time audit of your day? A lot of people say they work 10 or 12 hours a day, but if you were to sit down and actually write out what you do each day, I bet we could find a whole lot of free time where you’re really just scrolling on social media or sending stupid memes to your buddy. Nothing against stupid memes, I like them, I’m just saying, stop pretending you are so busy.
Want to start living a better life? Just add some passion to it. It’s that simple.

And if you don’t know exactly what you’re passionate about, lean into the things that make you happy. Like REALLY happy. Start doing more things that get you juiced.

Passion is the secret sauce of life.

I hope there was something in here that resonated with you and is going to make you take action today. Take that first step. I know the first step is always the hardest, but after that, it’s like a snowball rolling down a hill.

We’ve got so many more solo episodes like this to come, but until then…

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

Tony Nese is a professional wrestler for AEW (All Elite Wrestling) and is known for his time in WWE as part of 205 Live. He joins Chris Van Vliet from his home in Orlando, FL to talk about talking a contract with AEW, the opponents he’d like to face there, being released from his WWE contract, winning the Cruiserweight Championship at WrestleMania 35 against Buddy Murphy, when he started becoming interested in bodybuilding, why he eats ice cream every night, being a father and much more!

On bulking up:

“When I started wrestling, I was 120lbs soaking wet. I wasn’t going to get bigger over time, I think my body was done with height. But I had to get bigger if I was going to look believable on TV. I just started following tons of bodybuilders who had stories like that and needed to put on size. For a lot of them it was just eat, eat, eat, don’t worry about what, just eat. After a session, I would go to McDonalds and get a Double Quarter Pounder, 10 piece nuggets, a Fish Fillet sandwich and a triple thick milkshake. At night, I would make a stack of 3 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and I would set an alarm for every 2 to 3 hours. I would wake up, slam down a sandwich and then go back to bed.”

On signing with All Elite Wrestling:

“Thank you so much, this is awesome. It’s been a blessing, I am very happy. It’s funny, I got invited to go [to AEW]. They were like ‘Hey, we are in Orlando and we know you’re in Orlando…’ I’m like, yeah absolutely. I had been there before, during my 90 day non-compete just to hang out with my friends. I have tons of friends and people I have travelled with in that company. Everyone was super cool and super nice with me and I think they liked me. But then they invited me to Orlando, and it was literally 10 minutes before they went live on the air. I got pulled aside and they were like ‘Hey, would you be cool to sit out in the crowd, and we just keep showing you on camera?’ I’m like yeah sure, TV time, I’ll take it. So I just sat out there. At first I was like, is the house low? Then he explained it to me and I’m like that’s awesome. From there we got to discussing things, and it was super cool how they treated me off the bat and brought me in as a star. I am so appreciative of that.”

On who is his AEW dream opponents:

“I mean there are the obvious ones. You look at CM Punk, Bryan Danielson and Kenny Omega. But I can’t wait to get back in the ring with Alex Reynolds, John Silver, Ethan Page, these are guys I have wrestled on the independents. We hit off there and our chemistry was amazing. I can’t wait to be able to have those matches we had in front of 100 people, but now in front of thousands. But it’s an open field, one week I could be wrestling an extra, but the next it could be CM Punk.”

On his time with 205 Live:

“Yeah it would get frustrating at times. To us it would never make sense. We would pitch all these ideas, we thought it would be awesome that every once in a while you bring a guy onto our show that’s a name. It would help the 205 Live brand and the talent. I would understand their mindset [on that], but they would do other things I don’t understand and it would get you frustrated. Why wouldn’t you want to help everybody? I kind of feel like they had that core group of people where these are the ones we are going to care about, the rest of you have to hang in limbo. That’s just how it felt, maybe that wasn’t what they felt, but that’s how it felt while I was there.”

On what 205 was like and what could have been:

“We would always say that we were in this wrestling purgatory. Even though I was there, when it comes to the company’s decisions, I’m on the outside looking in too. This is all speculation, but it seemed like they had an idea for the show. It was Triple H’s idea, it was his baby. He wanted the show to have a yearly tournament, win/loss records, all that stuff, he wanted it to be a different feel. As soon as it was announced that the cruiserweights would be a part of Raw, that was where Vince was like ‘No, it’s my show now.’ All that other stuff went out the window. We even joked about it, we said ‘This is Raw light.’ We got our backs against the wall and after all the stars had competed. So Vince had control, but after a while he was like I’m done playing with this toy. He gave it back to Triple H, who was like, you’re Vince’s boys now, you are tainted to me. This is my speculation, but it feels like Triple H didn’t care about it either. We were in this limbo of the show has to be booked, but they were just like whatever, put whatever on and just move on. No matter how much we would fight, they were just like have a good match, and that’s it.”

Winning the Cruiserweight Championship on the WrestleMania 35 pre-show. Did it feel bitter that it wasn’t on the main card?

“Not necessarily. There were times where it would cross my mind of well it’s the kick-off show, but it is what it is. To WWE’s credit, they did very well in treating me and Murphy like we were on the main show as well. That whole week, I felt like I was a part of WWE and not on some sideshow. That was really cool. After the match, Vince was in Gorilla, he stood up and said ‘That’s how you start WrestleMania.’ I don’t care what people say, that’s cool.”

On if he knew he was going to be released:

“I had one year left on my contract, but I knew [I was getting released]. As soon as they moved us to be a part of the NXT roster, me and Ariya Daivari were like it’s just a matter of time. We got these new contracts to the Raw roster is a normal contract, but to the NXT roster is like a whoa contract. We were on the least cared about show in WWE history, and they just kept releasing and releasing. So we knew when it was time to look at NXT, we were going out the door.”

On what he wants his new character to be:

“So the premiere athlete is still going to be who I am and what I represent. But I do want it to be a little bit more of a serious thing rather than ‘Hey look at my abs.’ I love being booed and flexing, but at the same time, I switched up my look to where I am wearing more branded stuff. In WWE, I was just trying to pop by getting gear that just looked good. I wore a jacket because they told me I needed something up top. They said ‘You should wear something, but don’t cover up anything.’ For 1 show I wore a He-Man type thing, but nobody thought it looked cool, Vince said ‘Is he wearing a bra out there?’ Straight after I heard that, I threw it into the garbage. But now, I think this is getting old and it doesn’t represent me, I want to be taken more seriously. I want to be my own brand, that’s the attitude I’m going in with. I still will be kissing my biceps and flexing though.”

On nearly giving up on wrestling:

“Absolutely. The way it goes is the year before my try-out, that was my lowest point. I was working the same companies over and over, then do it again next month. Nothing was happening with WWE, so I started getting frustrated. I started talking with my wife and said this will be my last 2 to 3 years. It looked like I was going to be a personal trainer for the rest of my life, but my wife said ‘I would rather live in a cardboard box than have you give up on your dream.’ That was when I decided I would be with this girl for the rest of my life, but also it sparked me. I did one more push, this time with a whole new attitude. I reached out and got a spot as an extra in Buffalo in October. Scott Armstrong watched my try-out matches and said ‘If it was up to me, I would send you to Florida tomorrow. But it’s not up to me…’ I said ‘Can I tell people you said that?’ He said ‘Yeah, absolutely.’ I hit up everyone and said that to them, that’s when they emailed me back and said could I do a try-out in January. It all just turned around from there.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My family, my opportunities and my health.”

Featured image: F4Wonline

Joe is a bestselling author and the founder of Spartan Race. His new book called 10 Rules of Resilience: Mental Toughness for Families is out now. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about growing up in Queens, New York and working for some of the biggest mob bosses, how fitness changed his life, why it’s important to do hard things, why people are scared to get uncomfortable, how he founded Spartan Race and bought their competitor Tough Mudder and much more!

On having a difficult childhood:

“It is a crazy story. I grew up in Queens, New York, ground zero for the movie Goodfellas. A lot of organized crime took place and I wanted to be a tough guy. You grew up in that neighbourhood and everyone around you that has money and nice cars are tough guys. Also, they probably went to jail, because if you went to jail it was like earning your stripes or going to college. At a young age, like 8 or 9 years old, you start thinking could I do it? I got to go to jail. If you grew up in a neighbourhood where everyone goes to Harvard, you start to think ‘Am I smart enough?’ Here it’s the same thing. But my mother goes into a health food store in the 1970’s, and she meets a Yogi from India. He convinces her to stop eating raviolis and maybe become a vegan. So she leaves the health store and that’s it. She’s a vegan, she is going to meditate and teach yoga.”

On going to college and his first business:

“Not long thereafter, my parents get divorced. My mother is bohemian at this point, no one understands what she is talking about, including my sister and I. She moves us to Ithaca, New York. It is much more forgiving and much more open minded, it’s very hippy-ish. I go back and forth between living with my mom, but I really want to be a tough guy. Somehow I end up going to college, which was never part of my plan. Somehow I weaselled my way into Cornell University, and when I graduated, my friend convinced me to go to Wall St. At the time I had a business in Queens, I was cleaning pools. My customers were all the bosses or families of bosses of the mobs, I had 700 customers. My friend was pushing me, but I was making $250,000 a year with my pool business. I feel like a tough guy, I own my trucks and bulldozers, feeling good.”

From Wall St. to racing:

“Fast forward and I end up selling the business and go onto Wall St. I build up a pretty sizeable business trading equity and bonds. I wasn’t feeling very healthy on Wall St, I was very stressed out, so I went back to what my mother said. So I started doing some yoga and eating some plants. One day, I just start running up and down the stairs at my apartment block, and I stumbled upon this thing called Adventure Racing. There were these crazy races that went around the world, and the crazier the race was, the more interested I was. I can’t tell you how many ironman’s and marathons I did. If there was a race and it was challenging, I was interested. I had so much fun that by the early 2000’s, I was thinking it would be great to get out of Wall St and to do this as a business. It would be great to get people out of their comfort zone and get them to do something healthy.”

On early mistakes:

“I started it, but I couldn’t get anybody to come. Who would want to run a 350 mile race? That’s insane. My marketing was wrong, my product was wrong, and I would lie to people. I would say ‘Hey, come up to our farm in Vermont. We are going to have a BBQ weekend.’ I would wake you up at 5am and they would ask me why? I would respond ‘Well we have to carry the BBQ up the mountain.’ I would crush people by lying to them. Afterwards, they would say it was crazy but they loved it. But I turned it into a business and eventually that business became Spartan. Now we are in 45 countries with 1.5 million people a year taking part [pre-COVID]. We bought out our formidable competitor, Tough Mudder. I was fighting with them every day. Now, I am working on a TV show where I go around the world for the last 25 days. I go to business and beat the sh*t out of people [laughs].”

On what people say when they think about signing up:

“The people on the fence [about doing a Spartan race] will say ‘I got to get in shape first.’ Actually you have it all wrong. If you were going to get in shape first, you would already be in shape. Most people don’t do it, look at obesity rates and diabetes rates. At our core, we are motivated by the avoidance of discomfort. The thing is, when you sign up for this hard thing, then you do the work. Then it is more uncomfortable to not do the work.”

On the importance of being a Spartan racer:

“Some people go to church, some people identify with the place they work for. This is a really healthy community, 10 million strong that will do anything for you. In the middle of a race, they will stop and lend a hand. To be able to define yourself as a Spartan vs. a Hell’s Angel, it’s pretty good.”

On the new book: 10 Rules For Resilience:

“People need more resilience. It’s really a family book, I got the wakeup call 3 years ago, my kids were being asked by me to carry kettlebells through the neighbourhood. I used to make them carry rocks and all kinds of stuff just for exercise, sometimes in their pyjamas. Some lady pulls up and screams ‘Do you know him? Are you ok? Why are you carrying that?’ I said ‘Ma’am, they are my kids.’ I didn’t want to get in a fight, but it occurred to me that she hasn’t seen kids walking outside in like 15 years. Kids don’t go outside anymore, you can’t blame her. So I thought I really have to write a book on how to get kids outside of their comfort zone. They have to fail more and we have to stop over-parenting and overprotecting. Otherwise, you end up with kids that are obese and depressed.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My family, that I get to do this and I am alive.”

Featured image: Forbes

Brandi is a professional wrestler, television personality and the Chief Branding Officer of All Elite Wrestling (AEW). She joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about the birth of her daughter Liberty, the meaning behind the name, how different Cody is now that he’s a father, her journey into wrestling and the WWE, becoming a ring announcer, her reaction to Cody’s neck tattoo, what the future has in store for AEW, her reality show “Rhodes To The Top” and much more!

On having a daughter and how it changes things:

“It completely throws off my mojo of winging it, that doesn’t really work anymore. I was a pro at winging it. If you told me ‘Brandi, you’ve got an interview tomorrow at 6 o’clock.’ It’s embedded in my brain and it’s there. Now, Mandy is almost always at 6:05 is saying ‘Where are you?’ I’m thinking where am I supposed to be? Then oh my gosh! But yeah, I definitely have mom brain and I fully embrace it, and I am trying to get far more organized.”

On mom brain being real:

“Yes, absolutely. I was shocked as to how quickly it all kind of floats out the window. The only things that seem to stick are the things that are involved with the baby, like her appointments. Somehow I always seem to find time to shop for her, online shopping for baby clothes is my forte at the moment. But all of her stuff seems to make it, my stuff not so much.”

Is dad brain a thing?

“Oh Cody had dad brain before, it’s worse. He is really trying to find his balance. But the good thing is we are kind of surrounded by people who are empowering us and helping us, that has gone a long way. Otherwise I think we would both be floating out to sea on a raft, waiting for someone to come and help us.”

On being followed around by cameras for Rhodes To The Top:

“So they followed me from about 7 months [into the pregnancy], all the way up to the end and the beginning of the new baby. The hardest part of it was being that pregnant and having constant eyes on me and constant requests while trying to keep a good face. It bombed considerably, as noted in the episode where I had the meltdown about the bus and the bed not being on there. They were very kind to me in that moment. It was so much worse, I went out the world backwards. I don’t know how Cody missed that piece, but it’s no secret I hate The Nightmare Express.”

On why she doesn’t like the bus:

“To me, it’s a waste of money and a waste of time. I can take a flight and it is so much faster, or I can drive. But it’s a bus, it takes longer, I’ve never been a fan. So then being pregnant, totally not a fan. It’s uncomfortable, I’m like how do I sit? The only place to be comfortable was to lay down in the back. Also there is the nausea. I had terrible nausea for my entire pregnancy. Rolling around in the back of the bus was rough. That moment, when I realized that there was no bed on the bus, the meltdown was substantial. I did throw something, they didn’t show that. I knew what I was doing, but I did not care about the cameras in that moment. So I was so angry, but they let me look ok. I hope they do a scenes that didn’t make it though. There were some funny scenes with the guys that didn’t make it and some meltdowns with me. There’s also me going into labour on camera. I’m not sure how much is shown, but it’s pretty great.”

How Brandi found wrestling:

“Me and wrestling found each other in the weirdest of ways. I was one of the last Divas. I was in Miami and I was scouted as a model. So I was modelling and I was attending the University of Miami at the time. My agent called me and said ‘Hey, would you ever be interested in professional wrestling?’ I’m like where is this coming from? They said that they saw my pictures and they are interested in athletic models. I had figure skated for 17 years, so that made sense at the time. If any unique opportunity comes my way, it peaks my interest. I was a fan of wrestling as a child, so I’m like well let’s see what the training is like. I did a week of training, fell in love with it and I have ever since.”

What she is most proud of in AEW:

“I would have to say that it is a testament to everything that we have created. We have this phenomenal staff and phenomenal roster, all the way up to CM Punk. It is a testament to what we have built. It’s very exciting and it’s really amazing to see that. This is what we thought was possible, but now we are seeing ourselves come full circle. We are seeing people who we thought would thrive in this space actually thriving in this space. It’s just really rewarding. Even on the roughest or toughest of days, if things are not going great, I can look back and say I am a part of this.”

On what is the reason why AEW is so successful:

“I think that it was always just the perfect storm. You need the perfect storm of talent and behind the scenes folks that had the work ethic to make this all happen. It all came together at the same time. Tony [Khan’s] interest happening at the same time as everyone becoming free agents, all of that had to happen for it to work as well as it did today. People will always say ‘You wouldn’t have had AEW without this person.’ In reality, you wouldn’t have had AEW without all of the people and all of the wheels. That could be the people you see out front all the time, or just the people you don’t see, because they are not a character. Without all of that happening, I don’t think we would be where we are today.”

Advice from Dusty Rhodes:

“Dusty was always ‘Be straightforward’ as far as I was concerned. We would talk about wrestling and different aspects of it, he would say ‘Tell me straight, what do you want to do? What is the plan? What do you see?’ I would say to him what I would see and that this is my perfect plan. He would then say ‘Ok, you have to say that. You have to tell people this is what you want, because no one knows this. Even though you feel like you are making it obvious, it’s not. You have to tell people what you want and you have to show them.’ That is what has stuck with me and is something I have thought about in my transition of going from ring announcing at this comfortable job, to moving to the unknown. It wasn’t ultimately what I wanted to do. Mine and Cody’s move happened soon after we lost Dusty, I think a lot of his advice rang true to us of you only live once.”

On the meaning behind her daughter’s name, Liberty:

“I’m so glad that people are starting to ask about this! I feel like people think the reason is because of everything to do with Cody being a patriotic dude. That’s really cool, I love it, but I wouldn’t name my daughter Liberty for that reason. It’s because of Disney, we are both huge Disney fans. Before we found out that we were pregnant, we were at Disney and just walking around whimsically. We were just talking about kids and what would their names be. I said we definitely need to have a Disney connection, but it can’t be on the nose like Elsa. I can do better than that. So we were just walking around and talking, throwing things out there. Then we walked into Liberty Square in Magic Kingdom. I saw the sign and said ‘What about Liberty?’ Cody said ‘I love that!’ Cut to a year later and we are pregnant, and we knew that Liberty was going to be the name.”

On Cody Rhodes’ neck tattoo:

“I know a lot of people who have a lot of tattoos, so it’s not shocking to me that he would want a tattoo. And I have a lot of tattoos, but mine are smaller. I just thought that, and it’s just me, but it should go into more. Maybe we do a whole sleeve or chest thing. But he just wanted that one thing. I’m like, I just think it looks a little lost. But now I have grown into it and I barely noticed it. I never thought it looked terrible. Tattoos are expressions of you and what you love. Do what you like, it’s your body, who cares?”

On what she is grateful for:

“My family, God and every day I wake up.”

Featured image: Entrepreneur

EC3 (real name Michael Hutter) is a professional wrestler and bodybuilder known for his time in WWE, IMPACT Wrestling and Ring of Honor (ROH). He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about his new project “Free The Narrative 2”, working with Braun Strowman (Adam Scherr), the book and movies that inspire him, how he felt WWE dropped the ball with the EC3 character, his diet and workout regimen and much more!

On creating the Control Your Narrative YouTube channel:

“You said that I created something that will last forever. I think that was the purpose when I first created Control Your Narrative. [I was] Coming out of the WWE and the pandemic, but also re-creating myself as a character. One of the main things I wanted to drive home was to control your narrative and to tell your story. But the idea was to also create something that would last forever. So Control Your Narrative is the movement and Free The Narrative is the feature. The first one is me vs. Matt Cardona, and the second one is me vs. Braun Strowman/ Adam Scherr in his first match since leaving WWE in a dimly lit, disgusting bar. We put it out to the world and told a great story.”

On possibly moving into film making:

“I guess in a sense. We have no formal training in that aspect, but it doesn’t seem that hard. 3 acts, cool dialogue, interesting people with stories to tell. But maybe not, because the head is being scratched as we expand with what we do, but perhaps. I also wouldn’t mind being in them, and learn the process on how people direct and produce etc.”

On what he is the most proud of:

“I am most proud of this feature, Free The Narrative 2. There’s very few moments in my life where I felt like this was significant and felt great. I can actually sit here and breathe it, usually it’s like, OK cool what’s next? I remember that we put this together on short notice, all the people who came and helped out and donated their time and gave their trust to me. We film it and we have this experience where Adam literally became this new human being. I’m like this is insane, what’s happening? It’s like an exorcism of his past with a crappy wrestling ring. We are having a couple of drinks after and I’m like this is crazy. I walk back to the hotel and I think that this is the proudest thing I have ever done.”

On what is the most important aspect in wrestling:

“Storytelling. I think you can find a story within anything in wrestling. I think we are getting away from circumstantial storytelling in lieu of cool moves. Even if you have 5 minutes, there’s a story to be told, as opposed to going and hitting a bunch of moves in record time that people forget about immediately. It’s not always easy to find the story or delve into it. What suck’s, and what inspired this whole movement, is in the business of the 3 letter brands, no matter how much creative freedom you may have, at the end of the day, it’s still not yours. But that’s OK, you are paid to do your job for the people in charge. But creating this gives talent as much creative freedom as they want to tell their story. I can tell the difference, if I’m not interested in the story, everything hurts.”

On Braun Strowman/Adam Scherr:

“When you think of a guy like that, he was signed and put in the system. So he knows nothing but the system he is accustomed to, until he shows up to this dimly lit bar in downtown Orlando. Adam seeing that we had no catering, no locker room, he knows it going into it. But seeing him experience something different, it opens his eyes to see what else is out there and how does this work? What’s fortunate for him is that he had a great run and he is a great talent. He can pick anywhere to go and get a great reaction. But after a month, fans can go, ok, well what’s next? But his ability to re-create what he wants to be within the narrative, this is what he can bring to the table. As far as wrestling goes and where he goes, who’s to say?”

Wrestling and mental health:

“I think the Tag Me In movement is doing a great job. Mental health issues are a plague on our society, not just the wrestling industry. Everyone goes through it and it’s OK to talk about it. Being able to discuss things and having someone who is there to listen, that’s really all we truly need in the most part.”

On his new character:

“I pitched the whole character that this started as. I pitched it verbally, written, and then I filmed the promo that I released on the day I was fired, because I sent it to them on the day I was fired. So I was like I cut this great promo and I cut my hair, but it was overshadowed by stupid Drake Maverick and his crocodile tears. No matter what happened, I didn’t want people to think that I didn’t try. There was a time and I didn’t care and I wasn’t trying, but that’s not me. I’d rather go down swinging than be shot. But yes that was pitched along with an underground fight club essence to it. Then I’m released and 90 days later I have my match, which took place in a dimly lit underground looking garage. Obviously it is Fight Club inspired. But then a week later they start Raw Underground, so I guess they found my pitch in the trash.”

On where it went wrong in WWE:

“I think just the first segment where I come out and didn’t speak. I just let [Dean] Ambrose jab me a bit, it’s fun and whatever. He shouldn’t have been a babyface, but he had that great run with the company and now he is leaving, so people are cheering for him. I think the debut had no purpose. They called up a bunch of people in a rash decision, and I think they could have lived or died on their own, they didn’t need a bunch. But it doesn’t matter, there’s no point to any of it. On my end, dropping the ball was not doing anything to make them give it to me. I tried a few things, one thing I promised myself when I got there was I will never be that guy who is miserable and it doesn’t matter. And I became it, and that’s on me. But maybe it happened for a reason.”

On what he is grateful for:

“The people who have found themselves into my life, the trust people put in me and my aesthetics.”

Featured image: EwrestlingNews

Quinn Ojinnaka better known to wrestling fans as Moose, is a former NFL player and a current professional wrestler signed to IMPACT Wrestling. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about getting drafted to the NFL, playing 7 seasons with the Atlanta Falcons, New England Patriots, St. Louis Rams and Indianapolis Colts, pursuing his dream to become a professional wrestler after his football career, how he was given the nickname “Moose” from teammate Michael Vick, starting from the bottom in the wrestling industry, making a name for himself in Ring of Honor, becoming one of the biggest names on the IMPACT Wrestling roster, bringing back the TNA World Heavyweight Championship and more!

On not being a die-hard football fan:

“I was never a big football guy. Even playing, I never really was a football guy. It’s just one thing that luckily I was good at. When I got drafted by the Falcons in 2006, I remember on the first day in the building I run into Warrick Dunn. Stupid me, I didn’t even know who Warrick Dunn was. I remember meeting him and going ‘Hey, my name is Quinn Ojinnaka, what’s yours?’ He looked at me like, ‘You serious?’ It’s like in wrestling and meeting Sting and not knowing who Sting is.”

On his time at Syracuse University:

“That was when I really started taking football seriously. I had a really good senior year, because I had all these agents calling me and telling me that there was a chance I could get drafted here. Not only just drafted, but drafted high too. That was the only time in my football career where I took football seriously. I started grinding, doing the extra work and doing more after practice.”

On the next goal once he got drafted:

“Once I got drafted, there wasn’t really any goal. I was making a lot of money, I was a kid who came from nothing to making half a million dollars a year for the first few years in the NFL. I was set, there was no goal, I wasn’t thinking about when I am going to be entering this wrestling journey. To me it was how much money can I make at this level. I was buying things that I could only dream of having as a kid, cars, clothes, jewellery, life was great. But there comes a time where you are making all this money, but you are not happy with what you are doing. After I got traded away from Atlanta, that was when it kind of struck. I have all these things, but I’m not really happy, because football is not what I set out to do. I’m living a lie because I am not happy, I am just happy with the money it’s giving me. My play started going down, I started playing bad because I was so stressed out. But because I wasn’t enjoying it, I didn’t really care.”

On taking a pay cut to pursue his dream:

“I got released in 2012 and had the opportunity to play for other teams. But I decided to start this journey to be a pro wrestler. You go from the last pay check at the Rams, $60,000, the first match I got paid for was $25. But it didn’t matter because I lived what I was doing. The first few shows I did for free, as long as I drove up, they would give me a spot on the card.”

On possibly never becoming a wrestler due to football commitments:

“Honestly I didn’t really think about that. When I was playing football, I didn’t really think about when am I going to start wrestling? I was enjoying the money I was making, I still did watch wrestling whenever it came on. So I had enough money where I had a routine, me and some of my friends would fly to wherever WrestleMania was and make a weekend out of it. I did that every year, WrestleMania lines up with the off-season in NFL.”

The origin of the name Moose:

“Michael Vick actually gave me the name I think. It stems all the way from my rookie year when I was in Atlanta. There was a guy that was called Moose a few years before I got there, I guess I looked like him so that was how I got the name. I hated it at first, I wanted to be called tank, because everyone called me that in high school. But the rule in the NFL is you don’t get to pick your nickname. So it just stuck with me.”

On using the name Moose in wrestling:

“When I was in training, we would do this Thursday night free show for the fans. If the trainer thought that you was good enough, he would book you on the free Thursday shows. We would have at least 30 people in this tiny building, 30 people made it feel like WrestleMania. When he told me I was being booked for a match, I was like what can I call myself? I sat there for hours thinking about it, and someone said ‘How about you go with Moose?’ Everyone called me it so it was easy. I also thought if I started going ‘Moose!’ in my entrance, people would start saying it too. I had a buddy who could do music, so I said I just wanted it to say Moose the whole time. That was where my entrance music came from and it got over.”

On what was next after Ring of Honor:

“I don’t know how I got on their radar. I remember signing my first deal with Ring of Honor, which was $125 a show for a 1 year deal. When my contract was up, they offered me a salary of $20 grand. I signed a second contract and when that was nearly up, I knew I was getting there in wrestling. Then I got an email from Canyon Cemen at WWE, he was like ‘I know you did a try-out a couple of years ago…’ I actually did the try-out before I went to wrestling school, I got it because my team mate was James Laurinaitis [son of Road Warrior Animal]. He got me the try-out after I was done with football. I hit my head on the ground after doing a headlock takeover, I got real loopy. When my Ring of Honor deal was up, they wondered if I was interested in doing another try-out. Why wouldn’t I? It was my dream to work for WWE.”

On a possible WWE opportunity and the move to TNA:

“I remember doing the try-out and they were like ‘Hey, we really like you, but all we can offer you is a shot on Tough Enough. ‘ For me, I was in the position where Moose was going to be a household name, I didn’t want to stop everything and start fresh. So I was set to sign back with Ring of Honor, and I got hit up by IMPACT. They told me they would pay me 4 or 5 times more what I was going to be offered for my 3rd contract. To me, I looked at Ring of Honor, no disrespect, as a big named indie. I saw TNA as an actual wrestling company, because of all the history they had. This was my chance to go and play with the big boys, so I joined TNA, which is now IMPACT wrestling.”

On bringing back the TNA World Heavyweight Championship:

“I wish I could take credit for that, but we do have a great writing team. Jimmy Jacobs, Tommy Dreamer, Scott D’Amore write pretty much the whole show. It was their idea and when they presented it I went with it. The idea was such a great one, it reminded me of when Ric Flair went back to WWE and he had the NWA title and telling people he is the real world champion. It gave me the same vibe of me being Ric Flair and I’m bringing this title back in. Even though I never won the title, I just saw it in an office and picked it up. I’m being a d*ckhead and saying I am the greatest champion of all time. I think that helped my character development. It was one of those things where I bring a title back that I have never wrestled for and won it. But when you talk to fans on social media, they think I am the real world champion, but I never won it. Some fans actually believe me and believe in me as Mr. IMPACT Wrestling. That whole storyline helped with my development and my momentum.”

On his IMPACT Wrestling Mount Rushmore:

“When I’m picking my Mount Rushmore, I’m not picking names who have made their name somewhere else. So with that being said Jeff Jarrett, who created the company with his own money, probably should be on the Mount Rushmore. But I’m not going to pick him because he made himself in another company. Obviously he should be number 1, because without him there wouldn’t be a TNA. So my 4 are AJ Styles, Gail Kim, Eric Young and Chris Sabin. If I could pick a 5th person, it would be Abyss.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My wife, my 11 year old son and myself. It sounds selfish but as a kid, this is what I wanted to do. Me waking up every day and live the life I dreamt about as a kid, it’s awesome!”

Featured image: Wrestling-News.net

Adam Cole joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about his AEW debut at ALL OUT, his decision to leave NXT, The Undisputed Era, his entrance theme, why he says his trademark “Bay Bay” catchphrase, how he met his girlfriend Britt Baker on the dating app Bumble, his time in Ring of Honor, becoming ROH World Champion, his positive mindset and much more!

When did “Bay Bay” get attached to Adam Cole

“So I have been doing “Adam Cole Bay Bay” since 2009, but it didn’t catch on until about 2014. It kind of started early on in my wrestling career and had done a Maryland Championship Wrestling show. Joey Matthews [Joey Mercury in WWE] was on the show, and he was in the finals of the Shane Shamrock Memorial Cup. He was the heel, and he was just walking around going “Joey Matthews!” and putting his fists up in the air, and he said it so many times. I remember sitting there and thinking that is so smart. If you are not really a hardcore wrestling fan, if you remember one name from that show, it’s going to be Joey Matthews. So I thought how can I incorporate that into my own thing? I’m a huge Chris Jericho fan, and when he would stand on top of someone, flex and go “come on baby!” I was like oh, I will do “Adam Cole Bay Bay.”

On when it caught on:

“It actually did start as “Adam Cole baby!” But eventually it got more obnoxious. For 4 years I would do it and no one would do it with me, or they would boo. I did it a lot more than I do now as well. But eventually what happened was I got injured, I had to get shoulder, tricep and elbow surgery in 2014. I was away for 4 months, so I had that blessing of the fans missing me when I was gone in Ring of Honor. When I came back, they started doing “Adam Cole Bay Bay” with me. It just turned into this incredible thing now, that has just been a huge part of what I do.”

It was never meant to be a catchphrase:

“When I did it initially, there was no intention of people doing it with me. I was a heel and was trying to think of cocky, arrogant things to do. In my brain, I never thought that I’m going to turn this into a catchphrase. It really never was. It was something small to do in-between my matches to get people to boo. That’s exactly what happened in the early stages of it. I would do it in the middle of a match and everyone would be like boo! So that was always the plan. The fact that it’s turned into this huge catchphrase is something that went above and beyond my expectations. So there was no real disappointment in it not catching on, because it was never supposed to catch on, but here we are.”

On the origin of the Boom:

“That was just a little thing. I had been doing the finger, looking up and point at myself for a really long time. Again that was something that I had been doing in Ring of Honor. It’s crazy how that has caught on too, it’s wild.”

Chris: “Was it because it says ‘Boom’ in The Undisputed Era music?”

“I think so. It was one of those situations where I was just at rehearsals and I was just messing around. For years I had pointed at myself and said “Boom!” or said something. Because at that point in the song it had said it, I think Road Dogg said to me ‘Yeah, you should definitely make sure that you do that.’ I had been doing it for quite some time but they had noticed. So then I made sure that I consistently did it all the time, and then that caught on as well. So it’s amazing man, it’s so cool.”

On the game that made him fall in love with gaming:

“So interestingly enough, the first console that we ever had was the Sega Genesis. My first memory of my entire life, not just in video games, was me waking up at 6am and running downstairs to see that my dad had stayed up all night to get the best bike in Road Rash on the Sega Genesis. I was so excited that he got it. So early console-wise, it was Road Rash, Streets of Rage 2 and Sonic 2 on the Genesis. Then we got the Super Nintendo and we played Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario RPG. But I would say when I realized games were more than something to pass the time was the PlayStation 1 era of games. We are talking Final Fantasy 7, Resident Evil 2 and Metal Gear Solid. I think at that point I knew, man, gaming is really cool.”

On his early gaming memories:

“At that point, I was so obsessed with wrestling and wrestling only. My younger brother was really obsessed with video games, and I was really obsessed with wrestling. I would play these games and I would love it, but I never bought my own console. We either got them as gifts or my brother would get the consoles and I would play on them. In 2015, I was thinking more and more about how I needed to find a hobby, because it was just wrestling 24/7. He had gotten Halo 5, and it had just come out. He was playing it and he was going to bed, so I said ‘Hey Brent, do you mind if I play Halo 5?’ I stayed up until 7am and beat the entire campaign. I was like this is really fun, I’m going to buy an Xbox. Then the rest is history, I have Halo to thank.”

On the influence of Austin Creed and Tyler Breeze:

“Oh my God [they influenced me] so much. I had been thinking about streaming for quite some time, because I had been into video games for years at this point. But I always found some excuse like ‘I’m too busy. When will I have time to learn how to do this?’ When the pandemic hit, all of a sudden I had all this time on my hands. I had no excuse. Actually a year prior, Britt [Baker] got me all the gear one Christmas. So Austin Creed spent 5 hours over discord explaining to me how to barebones do my first Twitch stream. I have him to thank massively. So I used to stream just once a week, but as time went on, I’m getting to a point where on a good week I can stream up to 5 times a week. But Creed, Breeze and Swiss [Cesaro] all helped so much with getting me so excited about streaming. It’s fun to go through an exciting story, but when you can look over to the chat, see their opinions and talk to them, it makes it so much better. I think that’s a big reason why we were all so connected initially. But I feel the same way about my Twitch community, I love them to death.”

On streaming while in WWE:

“It was really important to me. I know that I have made it pretty apparent, even while I was still there, about how Twitch stream is something that I am really passionate about, it’s never going to go away and things like that. Twitch became a vital part of not just something that I did, but a part of who I am. I can’t imagine not being able to go on there and talk to the community or play games with buddies of mine. There’s so many things about Twitch that have become so important to me. And I really want to keep growing, I want to see where it goes and see how far I can take it. So yeah, keeping Twitch was very important to me.”

On the move from WWE to AEW:

“It kind of all happened so fast, because again, when the discovery of my deal coming up very soon, that was when all these thoughts and ideas starting entering my head. I want to make this very clear, and I know that everyone knows this, I had a wonderful 4 years at WWE. Specifically down in NXT with Triple H and Shawn Michaels, 2 guys that I respect the hell out of and have been nothing but so kind and so generous to me, and so helpful. I feel like I became such a better performer because of little things they have said and working alongside them.”

On what made him decide to move:

“So the decision actually was difficult in a lot of ways. With 9 year old me, my goal was to wrestle for WWE. Now I had this other opportunity, where I see this company like AEW, which has just grown massively over these past 2 years. I see a guy like Tony Khan, who is one of the nicest and most passionate about pro-wrestling that I have ever met. The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega and Britt all being there, that was nice. There was a phase where I was seeing Britt for half a day once a week. Now I can see her a lot more, which is great. I didn’t make my decision to come to AEW officially until like a few days before All Out. I remember laying in bed and weighing out the pros and cons and trying to decide what I wanted to do. It was 1am, Britt was asleep, and I was thinking about showing up at AEW, and I got butterflies in my stomach, I felt like a 9 year old kid. I have always followed my gut, and have always followed what my heart wanted me to do. There were so many pros to going to AEW. When you say you can tell that I am having the time of my life, it’s because I am, I am having a freaking blast.”

On telling NXT he was leaving:

“Yes. So I did make it very clear to them that I wanted to weigh my options, and I wanted to think about what I wanted to do. They could not have been more professional. They could not have been cooler about it and they never pressured me, they were awesome the whole way through. I think what helped, and this is public knowledge at this point, with everything going on, there was a short extension that I ended up signing. To me, it was such a no-brainer. They didn’t have to convince me and they didn’t have to talk me into it. I was in the middle of a program with one of my best friends, Kyle O’Reilly. It was really important to me that I got to finish that. And not just that, but just because how good to me they were that entire time. I think that was really helpful in terms of the respect on both sides, because hypothetically, I could have ended up walking out and debuting on Dynamite a few days later. But there was no chance that I would have ever done that.”

On communicating with both companies:

“I made it very clear to them that I was going to think about what I was going to do. Because again, it was tough, I had no idea. I couldn’t communicate properly with AEW until my contract was up. At that point, I felt like it would have been foolish of me from my own personal standpoint, to not at least wait and just see what was available and just see what the options were. But they understood that.”

On his job before wrestling:

“So I had one job before I signed with Ring of Honor. The one job that I had was I worked in a retirement home. There was a fitness center where people would come down and exercise, and if people asked for help on a machine or how to use a machine, I would direct them. I kept an eye on the gym to make sure everyone was ok. In-between that, it was literally in the same building, I taught kids swim lessons. That was the job that I had. Why it was so great is that they were so lenient with my schedule. If I said ‘Hey guys, I have to go to Europe for a week.’ They would just say ok, it was the dream scenario.”

On wrestling with no fans:

“That whole situation was so strange, especially now we are performing again in front of crowds. It is so insane how literally vital they are to what we do, so it changed a lot of it. First of all, the bumps hurt a lot more without a crowd and without that adrenaline. But of course I cared so much, because in my mind, I’m having this match and I’m thinking everyone is watching at home. Also, Triple H and Shawn Michaels are back there watching as well, I want to make sure I am doing good for them and for the people watching at home. But it just changed so much on how we approached matches and the way that we wanted to do things. It became more of a television show, because so much of it was to the camera, and so much of it was hoping that the people were feeling what we were trying to portray. When you have an audience it’s so much easier, because you get this instant gratification. It either worked or it didn’t work. During the pandemic, it was a total shot in the dark and it was a guess. It was definitely strange, and I am so happy that fans are back.”

On being a part of the “Wednesday Night Ratings War”:

“So for me personally, and this is always how I have been, being in NXT and being in AEW, I’ve never been someone who is super focused on the ratings war. I was always so focused on, if I was wrestling I want to have the best match possible, if I’m cutting a promo I want to have the best promo possible… Of course it’s really exciting to hear ‘Hey! 1.3 million, that’s awesome!’ or that I was in the highest rated segment on the show, that’s great. But if my match isn’t good, or my promo isn’t good, I don’t care how many people have watched it, I’m going to be upset. But it was a really exciting time, really cool, especially in the beginning. It was NXT’s first time on TV, which was really awesome. Now I am on the other side in AEW and seeing the momentum continuing to grow, it’s cool. I think across the board it’s good for wrestling. I think it’s cool that people can watch both shows and stuff like that. Sometimes I do think that the fans are a little bit too hard on either side. I was on the WWE side, but I still loved WCW. But I’ve always been someone who is like, man there are a lot of people getting a lot of TV time, or not been on TV before and getting the chance to showcase themselves. I just think it has been great across the board for the industry of pro-wrestling.”

Britt and Adam appearing on-screen together:

“I do love the idea of eventually doing something on-screen with Britt. I know I have been asked that before, and I know some people are like ‘Oh maybe you want to keep it separate’ or ‘Maybe you want to work together.’ I love the idea of that. There was a small phase when I was done with Ring of Honor, where for like 3 months I was doing independent shows. I remember doing shows that she was also booked on, and in a couple of those matches we got to do some mixed tags, or she had run in or I had run in, it was really fun to work with her. Eventually, doing something like that on the big stage that is AEW, I’m all for it.”

What he is grateful for:

“My family, my girlfriend Britt Baker and our health.”

Featured image: Sports Illustrated

Kimbo Slice Jr. is an MMA fighter, entrepreneur and the son of the late legendary bareknuckle fighter and mixed martial artist, Kimbo Slice. He joins Chris Van Vliet at his home in Los Angeles to talk about following in his father’s footsteps, creating a legacy of his own, growing up in Bahamas and Miami, his fights in Bellator, where he wants to fight next, his entrepreneurial ventures and much more!

On continuing his father’s legacy:

“So I always say this a lot. At first, you would think that I was following in his legacy, because it’s like [people think] “Oh his dad’s a fighter so he’s a fighter…” But this is something that I grew up doing and it’s something I love to do. So in a sense, yeah, I am following in his footsteps and creating my own. But now, at this point in my life, I don’t want to be known as just an MMA fighter or Kimbo’s son. I want to take it to a new level. I want to branch off into the business world and create my own legacy while continuing my dad’s legacy as well.”

On if he inherited his father’s fighting skills:

“Oh yeah, 100%. Honestly, I think I am a little bit better than my dad, as crazy as that might sound. Just because my dad didn’t run and he didn’t really train for most of his fights. He just went out there and fought these guys who were training 6 weeks to fight him. I’m training every day, I’m running, I wrestled in high school and in college. I did jujitsu for 2 years before I turned pro, I have a lot more background in fighting than my dad did in a sense.”

On his fighting style:

“I’m well rounded and I like to play on the ground a lot, that’s my thing. I feel like in the stand up part anybody could get lucky. If me and you have a fight and you throw a bunch of punches, one might land and do a lot of damage. But if I grab you and take you down, that’s a different ball game. When you get on the ground, you have to know what you are doing, you can’t get lucky on the ground.”

On realizing who his dad was:

“It was in 8th grade. When I was in 8th grade my dad had his first fight with Ray Mercer. It was the biggest thing popping and they couldn’t sanction a fight because they didn’t know [anything about Kimbo Slice] . My dad wasn’t a fighter and he wasn’t a pro, but Ray Mercer was a pro. You bring this guy from the streets to fight a boxer who killed someone in the ring, no one knows what is going to happen, so they can’t sanction it. So the match was an exhibition, it was all over the world and all over TV. He [Kimbo Slice] beat him and from that point on it blew up.”

On the name Baby Splice:

“I’m a baby version of him. At heavyweight he was 260lbs, I’m like 155. I mean I can be Kimbo Slice Jr. But I feel like that’s more like if I was a heavyweight. But I am literally the baby version of him. I weigh 100 lbs less than him.”

On deciding to become a fighter:

“So I can’t work the 9 to 5, there is not enough money in that. I needed to make a decent amount of money and fighting is something that I am really good at and have been doing for so long. I have to fight to get to this level where I am at now. I’ve done the fighting and got my name from there but now it’s time to do something more. It weighs on your body, this fight thing is rough. I turned pro at 24, I’m 29 now. My hands are all beaten up, I tore my ACL in a fight, it’s brutal. I do love it, but I love my health and I love my body more than the sport in itself.”

On Jake and Logan Paul:

“Yeah I definitely respect them. A lot of people hate them and say that they are not real fighters, but just get with the way and pay attention to what’s going on. These guys have millions of followers, put a lot of eyes on the sport. They are making the celebrity vs. fighter aspect fun again. I feel my name alone could get me a fight with any celebrity. I’m not going out there trying to kill you, let’s just go out there, have some fun and make some money. But if you try and come out with some crazy punches, I might hit you with a body shot or something. I’m definitely going to win, but do it in a nice way.”

On what he learned from his dad:

“Don’t depend on fighting. I could get hurt, and sometimes you have career, or even life ending injuries. That messes you up, and I have to think about that a lot. Now I think about it more than ever because of what it is doing to my body. Nearly everyone does not go into a fight 100%, they go in with an ache or a pain. But that’s just how it is on this level, it is what it is. I just know who I am and I need to be smart and use my head, just like my dad said. It ain’t all about trying to prove a point.”

On finding out about his father’s death:

“My stepmom called me, then my father’s manager Mike called me and he was just like [nods head] yeah. Then it was just like a media frenzy. I had just moved from Florida to Long Beach not 3 months before. I didn’t go [to the funeral], I’m not a big funeral kind of guy. The sinking and the negative vibes, it’s just too much for me. He was cremated and there is a memorial site too, but I won’t go there. What’s the point? I don’t need to go to a site, that’s doing nothing for me. It’s more of an energy thing right now.”

On how his dad’s influence saved him:

“So there was a time where like… So I was living in Miami, and Miami is horrible. I get out of college, move in with my mom and I’m like this is not it. I came from college in San Francisco and I saw a different lifestyle, and I’m like well I can’t do this forever. So I end up selling my car for $2000, and I blew it all on smoke, whereas now I haven’t smoked or drank for the past 5 years. Now I am stuck, I’m broke, living with my buddy and his family. They are so nice that they won’t say ‘Hey, you’ve got to get a job.’ They were with their son like ‘He’s my son he can move out whenever he wants to.’ And they were like that with me.”

“I’m not talking with my dad at this point. I can’t say ‘I’m living with my buddy and his family and smoking weed every day. Knowing how he raised me, how can I tell my father that? In my head I hear his voice telling me ‘You have to do something, you can’t do this forever.’ I’m like OK, enough. I get a job at a gas station, then I pay $200 a month in jiu-jitsu training. I do that for 2 months, do an amateur fight and knock the dude out cold. When I heard his voice that changed my life. So I talked to my dad after 6 to 8 months, when he asked why I didn’t call, I responded ‘Well what was I going to say? I wasn’t doing anything right with my life, I can’t talk to you. I stopped talking to him because I was so embarrassed, but I would still text him. When I got everything rolling, I called him and thanked him for how he raised me.”

How everything happened so fast:

“I fought in November 2015. In January I am in California, when I turned pro at 24. February and March, he hosts a signing for me, but this whole time he is in and out the hospital. April and May comes around, I am back in California training, but in June he passes away. That’s how quick everything happened.”

On pressure:

“It’s like 50/50. They say that pressure bursts pipes and pressure creates diamonds. With me, pressure is easy. My dad used to put me under a crazy amount of pressure. I’m 18 and I graduated with a 3.5 GPA. The next day my dad said to me ‘You have to leave the house when I leave the house to go and get a job.’ I had no room to chill, I had to get up the next day to get to the office and get a job. I never had that chance to relax. I am the oldest, so no one else got that treatment.”

On adopting his dad’s hairstyle for a fight:

“There’s no way! I’m just gonna be honest here, it’s not happening. This hair took me a long time and I started it when I was 18. But that was his style and he knew how to make it look good. People sometimes called him Mr T, he hated that! But if someone came along with enough money, yeah I would do it.”

On his other goals:

“Just to become a businessman. I am working on a lot of big things, I can’t talk about it too much, but I have something coming out like my own crypto, but bigger. It started off as my own crypto, but it just grew and it’s gonna be huge. I also have this show in Miami that is in the works, and it’s going to be big. I’m not saying I don’t love fighting, but I just love business even more. Going to the office and having meetings, that’s really fun to me. I am getting older and my body is getting beaten up, I shouldn’t feel this way at 29. It’s time to start using my brains before I get knocked silly.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My team, my wife and everything my dad has taught me.”

Featured image: MMA Fighting

Bobby Fish is a professional wrestler currently signed to MLW and known for his time in NXT as part of the faction “Undisputed Era” with Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong. He has also worked for AEW, Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about why he signed a contract with MLW, some of the matchups he’s looking forward to there, forming the Undisputed Era, being released from his WWE contract, what he learned from training with the late, great Harley Race, his plans after wrestling and much more!

On his upcoming MLW Debut:

“I’m excited. It’s an interesting place to get out there on the indie scene and kind of doing this thing freehand. When you spend a good amount of time in this business, you experience… Every place is different. No place is better or worse, just different. It’s certainly different getting back into the swing of things with where I am now and in a place like MLW.”

On becoming a singles wrestler:

“I think it’s like, you get your bearings, you’ve got to give yourself that time. But I think when you have done it for this long, transitioning between the two, I don’t want to say it is easy, but you know it’s going to happen. You just have to be patient with it sometimes. They both have pros and cons to them, just like anything else. But towards the end of our Ring of Honor run, Kyle [O’Reilly] and I stopped tagging, I did mostly singles. Then transitioning to NXT, it turned into a couple of years of mostly tagging. I don’t know how to categorize the tail end of my run, but now I am back to kind of a singles route, and I am happy about it.”

On his time in NXT:

“As a whole, I would say that it was one of the highlights of my career. Obviously the Tokyo Dome and New Japan stuff were highlights as well, I don’t rank things above or below necessarily. But debuting in the Barclays Center, standing next to 2 of my best friends, and getting that reaction that is now somewhat estranged to us, because of the lack of crowds recently. There’s all that, and as a whole, I think when we found out that it was going to be Adam [Cole], Kyle and I, that was NXT’s idea. It felt like we were just waiting for someone to come into the room and go ‘Ah! We were just screwing with you.’

On The Undisputed Era:

“From that point all the way to when they added Roddy [Roderick Strong], who at the time if they had suggested anyone other than Roddy, we would have been unsure. It was just kind of serendipitous in it being 4 legitimate close friends. It made it feel like we were not going to work. Even when we were running hard and we were the workhorses of NXT. I will say wholeheartedly and with confidence, we loved it, because it was what we went there to be, and it wasn’t hard. You were just hanging out with your buddies and it didn’t seem real.”

On possibly ending his career in NXT:

“I mean I was just trying to be present with it and not think too far ahead. There was definitely a time in my career where I thought the standards required in WWE would have ruled me out at that point. [Chris asks if this is in regards to size?] Among other things yeah. Let me put it this way, I am far from the prototype. And at that point in my life, even further from the prototype. So to get the opportunity that I got, for Triple H and Shawn Michaels to roll the dice on us and give us an opportunity to end up in this great group that was compared to DX and The Horsemen. It doesn’t get any more humbling.”

The origin of the Adam Cole boom:

“The whole thing, we were just feeling it out as we went. The music, I think any time you get music, you are kind of married to your previous music. When they gave us that music as a group, I kept thinking about the music that Cole came out to, then I started thinking about the music that Kyle and I came out to, and they are very different to one another, and very different to what they were proposing. So it was like well how are we going to make this work? Ideas got kicked around and “Boom” was one of them, and it ended up sticking. I think we each individually found our groove on the entrance, and it all somehow came together. And then, it didn’t all come together in the ring until Roddy was added. It’s interesting how it all came together step by step.”

On signing with MLW:

“The opportunity presented itself and it made more sense the more we talked about it. Having this opportunity caters to my style and there were some interesting matchups ready if I looked at them on the surface. It just made sense.”

Learning from Harley Race:

“Harley was somebody that after I had been working and trained, [he] had kind of polished my time there. Tony DeVito trained me originally, he had worked in ECW and Ring of Honor. He was the one who trained me, but after 5 years in I did the Harley camp and Pro Wrestling Noah started bringing me over. At the time, I thought I was going over to train. When I saw my itinerary, which was for 3 weeks and not 3 months, I couldn’t make sense of it. So I spoke to Harley and no one really had an answer. I went over there and when I got there, much to my surprise, they told me I was wrestling on Samurai TV. I was actually having my first match and off to races we went. But I guess it was a miscommunication, because from that day I just went forward as one of the working wrestlers. I didn’t know that I was ready for that. Each year I would go back to Harley’s and work with him. It was awesome to spend time with such a legend, he was one of the people who could polish up what was there.”

On the WWE release:

“It was a phone call, the same one that everybody gets. It’s just that it is what it is. The beauty of it is that now there are all of these opportunities, and it’s about figuring out what ones are worth taking and see where it goes.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My kids and their health, the opportunity to go back to work and for this morning.”

Featured image: Sports Illustrated

Greg is an actor, writer, director and the bestselling author of the book “The Disaster Artist”, which is about his role in the cult classic “The Room” with Tommy Wiseau. He joins Chris Van Vliet at his home in Los Angeles to reflect on “The Room” 20 years after making it, his interesting relationship with the film’s writer/director/star Tommy Wiseau, how being part of that movie changed his life, dealing with fans, some of the crazy plot points, making his directorial debut with his new movie called “Miracle Valley” and much more!

On first impressions on The Room from his family:

“The Room was really unique, because I saw it at the premiere. So I had all the behind the scenes footage and the rough cut, right when we finished filming. I took it to my family, who were wondering where I had been for the past few months. I’m like, well sit down and I will show you. I put in the movie and there is me in the car on the phone. My brother, who is trying to be supportive, says “Oh sh*t, it looks like a real movie.” I start talking, and my mom says “I see why you are not booking.” Then we start getting into the fight scenes where Johnny and Mark are grabbing each other, and my dad loses it. He normally would not care about this, but he said it reminded him of Seinfeld and he wanted to watch more. So we watched it until 1am, including the outtakes. They all loved it and they thought it was insane, so it was fun and I knew what it was.”

On the movie’s premiere:

“When it came time for the premiere, Tommy had filled the theater with 300 people expecting the next A Streetcar Named Desire. It was in Fairfax, Beverly, which is now a homeless shelter. At the time, there was a spotlight out front and everyone thought that they were getting a good film. So I walk in there, the logos come on, and people are laughing. I’m like oh no, it’s now real, and I can’t escape. Then the sex scene comes on, and you start to hear laughs and groans. I’m like, I’m gonna peace out in the lobby.”

“I walked out to the lobby, and a few minutes later people are walking out and shaking their heads. One guy looked at his friend and said “Dude, I will never get hard again.” At that point, I peeked back in and there is so much laughter. At the premiere, the crowd was eating that up. There is something about that movie that just takes you in, and every moment gets a reaction. After 20 years, how many movies can you say that about?”

On the cult following:

“Yeah it just brings you in. There is a point in the movie where you are either team Johnny or team Mark. I feel you start to get blown away by how insane it is when Johnny gets out the tape recorder. He is creeping around his own house, but he is acting like he has never been there before. The never ending tape and the spoons, it just starts to win you over to where you are in such disbelief, you are just wanting to see where it goes. I think it becomes so immersive that I have never seen anything like it.”

On Tommy:

“Yeah he is such a unique mystery. In Cold Blood is probably my favourite book. I have always been into solving riddles and mysteries, he’s somebody who you can’t solve. The more answers I get, the more questions I get, and then it came to a point where I just love the mystery and I don’t need to know more. People ask me “Where does he get his money from?” I tell them that I think it was real-estate or retail. But then they ask how did that make him all that money, I just respond that I don’t know, it’s better to not know.”

On how he embraced being in The Room:

“I was never embarrassed by it, but it wasn’t exactly the kind of movie that I was going to show dates and stuff. I did occasionally use the postcards given to me by Tommy though. So if I saw a cute girl, I would give her the postcard and invite her to this screening, hoping that they would never see it. So then when it started screening, people started showing up and they were quoting it. I showed up to a screening and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. They were quoting the lines, and they were treating Tommy and I like we were De Niro and Pacino. I knew what it was, but it was still fascinating to see this level of interest. It wasn’t until 2009 when an Entertainment Weekly article got released. The article talked about celebrity fans, it being taught in universities and how much it had been built up. That’s when I was like there is something here, not future acting work, but something here. So what can I do with this opportunity?”

On remembering everything for the book:

“It was such a visceral experience and I had told stories about it for so many years. Also, I had all of the behind the scenes footage. I could step in and watch scenes, then quote the dialog of what’s happening. There were just moments that you will never forget, so many moments where you are like well how do I explain this?”

On how Greg became Mark:

“I read the script and I was like “This is beautiful and I will help make it, but I probably won’t be in this.” Tommy goes “Ok, but big mistake, your choice.” I helped him cast it and we found another Mark, one of the rules was that mark had to show his ass too. So we are ready to make the movie, it’s the night before, and we are driving on Santa Monica Boulevard. We had an epic fail moment at the restaurant. These girls come up to us, cheery with wine, and Tommy says to them “So what do you girls do besides drink?” I’m like, this did not goes well.”

“We continue driving down Santa Monica Boulevard, we are screaming and laughing. I had a beard at the time, Tommy turns to me and goes “My God. You look just like Spartacus.” Spartacus didn’t have a beard by the way. He then goes “You have to play Mark. Biggest mistake if you do not play Mark.” Something came over me where I think, well I am on the set all day anyway, maybe I should just do it. He could see that he nearly had me, then he said “What if we get you new car? How about that?” Sh*t, he’s got me. But I got that feeling of I should do it. I don’t know if it was a combination of feeling free and having the beard, but I told him sure.”

On recasting Mark:

“The problem was that someone was already cast [as Mark]. So we turn up for the first day of filming and [Tommy said] “Greg is going to do some scenes as Mark.” Everyone is like err, ok. So we both do some scenes as Mark, but he is filming the other Mark on digital and me on film. It lasted about an afternoon before everybody found out. The first day was everyone that you would expect.”

On turning the book into a film:

“So from the day I started writing the book, my goal was for this to be a film. We got hooked up with a really good agent. He had never seen The Room but he loved the book. He had worked on No Country For Old Men, so I’m thinking Javier Bardem as Tommy, that’s it. The agent is like “Not so fast, Javier doesn’t read any scripts unless they are all in Spanish.” I’m like well ok, we can start translating it. Then we had a meeting with Tommy, and Tommy tried to turn that book meeting into a pitch for his new sitcom. The book agent says “I need to remind you, I do books to film.” I guess Sasha Baron Cohen was interested initially, which was cool. And then, the book goes out and time goes by. Three weeks later I get the call from James Franco and Seth Rogen. They had read the book on the set of The Interview. Half way through it they said that they needed to turn this into a film.”

What he learned as a director from Tommy:

“I think getting a movie made, Tommy went for it. Every day is a struggle on a movie production. Even if you have everything going for you, every day is a struggle. Things come up that you don’t plan for, it’s just about the power of pushing through and making the scenes on camera. Even if the scenes are not the best, at the end of the day you have something. There are 365 days in a year, and you can go “Oh we will shoot that another day…” I think for me the biggest thing was that he went out there and he got it made.”

On what he is grateful for:

“Family, health and an open mind.”

Featured image: Famous People Today

Jessica McKay (fka Billie Kay in WWE) is a professional wrestler and podcaster known for her time in WWE as part of the IIconics tag team with Cassie Lee (fka Peyton Royce). She joins Chris Van Vliet from her home in Orlando, FL to talk about being released from WWE in April, the new name of their tag team “The IInspiration”, the issues that she has run into as an Australian trying to get a US work visa, the lessons she learned from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and much more!

On the difference between Jessica McKay and Billie Kay:

“It’s so crazy. So I feel like I had this idea in my head when I was with WWE that Billie Kay had to be a certain image. I couldn’t talk about anything else, I didn’t want to, I was extremely private. I kind of let people know me, but I didn’t really, because it was just what you saw on TV, which was a couple of minutes at best. When I was Jess, my handle changes on social media and it was my name. It was so strange having people call me Jess, letting people in on who I am and what my daily life is like. For some reason I just had that wall up with WWE. I think people think you have to have a certain image to be in that company, like you can’t talk about certain things. That’s not the case, but that’s how I felt. I felt like I had to be this perfect little Superstar, and that’s not the case. But it was nice to have that relief come through.”

On being married and keeping her personal life private:

“It’s so funny. I would have people that I have worked with and saw every week have no idea that I was married. It’s something that my husband and I decided very quickly that we were going to keep private. He has his own career here, and I didn’t want to put him in the public eye. I was very private, I am private about my family too, I don’t post pictures of my family and I very rarely talk about them on social media. I feel like I am so protective of the people that I love. Let’s be honest, social media is a pain in the arse sometimes, I just want to protect them from that and be their shield. We made that decision and it was for the best, not many people knew [I was married] to be honest.”

On how they met:

“We have been together since we were 19 and we are 7 years married. We got married before I moved to America. So we literally got back from our honeymoon and I was like, OK bye, then I moved to America. He couldn’t move because he is on his separate work visa, so separate issues with immigration. We were apart for about 4 months before he came over.”

On expecting a WWE release:

“No. I was so shocked to be honest. There had been rumours. I remember someone saying ‘They are going to do releases after WrestleMania.’ I was like oh ok, I didn’t think that they would, just because the year before they did a ‘cleanout’ if that makes sense, but then I was like well maybe they will. But I never thought that I was in jeopardy so to speak. I was on WrestleMania literally 4 nights before I got released. I had been told of a possible storyline I would be going into, so that’s where the blindside came from.”

On letting Cassie know:

“The first thing I did was call Cassie [Lee] and she was in a massage. She finally called me back and she told me [that Cassie was released too]. I was shocked for both of us to be honest. I felt like I had so much more to give and Cassie had so much more to give too, they didn’t even scratch the surface with us.”

On the headshot resume gimmick:

“I really enjoyed that, and I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed it until I got released. When the breakup of The IIconics happened, I was so lost. I just felt like a piece of me was missing. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, and I was thinking what this character could be and where she could evolve. So I was really struggling, and TJ [Wilson] was the one who really helped me just embrace who I am, I would vent every week at SmackDown, and he would listen to me and would talk to me about it. When I told him about the idea of the headshot resume and what I wanted to do, he supported it. He was supportive of every idea I had and would make them 10 times better. It was a time for me to grow on my own, so I am glad that I got to do that.”

On how the resume segments started:

“So my first promo after being drafted to SmackDown, it was given to me. They said that I was going to hand a headshot resume to Adam Pearce. When we shot it I felt like there was something there. So I went to the writers and I said ‘I want to keep doing this. Because no one knows who I am on my own. I would love to keep doing this.’ They were like ‘Yeah let’s run with this.’ It took a bit of time to get caught on, but I was emailing a list of the people I could do this with. It was so neutral, it could be with a female, a male, a ring announcer, anyone. I would say ‘If you have 30 seconds to fill on a pre-show, I will be there.’ I can insert myself into any situation, and I think that’s what really helped. I was at every pay per view, I did a couple of pre-shows, then it was the Rumble and everything. It was just a lot of fun.”

On immigration issues:

“Yeah, it’s a long process. I feel like people don’t realize how tough it is for non-citizens to legally work in this country. It just takes a lot of time, especially with COVID and the pandemic. Everything is backed up by 2 years, so everything is still processing and we are still in this waiting game. But we are optimistic, we did everything the right way. Unfortunately there are so many people in our position that have been released and aren’t citizens. They have to figure it out on their own, which is what we had to do. It was very scary and very stressful, we didn’t know what that meant for our immigration, we had to figure it out on our own. But it was something that we got done straight away, and hopefully it’s kind of done soon.”

The meaning behind their new name The IInspiration:

“We were just spit-balling one day, I’m pretty sure Cass came up with it. She was like ‘Look. Here me out…’ and she said it and I love that. When we made that decision, it’s funny because the amount of times we say the word inspire or inspiration to each other, I notice it now and it’s all the time. It’s just crazy that we have never really thought about that.”

On not wanting to face Peyton Royce:

“Personally I didn’t want us to feud. I wanted it to be left open ended. I wanted there to be a reason for the break up, but not one of us blatantly turn on the other. That’s only because we thought that we would get back together in the future. But I also feel like every tag team does that, and I wanted to be different. And what’s different? Breaking up but not hating each other. It’s been done so many times, and we were thinking what hasn’t been done. So when we found out the stipulation was the loser was no longer a tag team I was like that’s perfect. It fits what we were going for, because they could have booked anything. But I always wanted to end it mutually so we could always come back to each other easier.”

On having some input in the split:

“We were spit-balling ideas and stuff, but at the end of the day, you just hope for the best. You could just show up and it be completely different. That was a lot of us talking and just trying to figure out what we would prefer, because we didn’t know when it was happening and there were question marks around it all. When we did find out about it and found out about the stipulation, I was like OK, we can work with this.”

On splitting up The IIconics:

“I feel like, and I’m not sure of the timelines of the stories, but from what I can remember, Vince saw Cass in the ring in a singles match. He thought she is incredible and she’s a star. Well duh! Yeah! I feel like there was a ‘What do we do with The IIconics? Maybe we should just split them up.’ I feel like that kind of sparked the conversation. But again, I wasn’t there. You don’t know what is said behind closed doors, you don’t know what is said in those meetings, so I have no idea what they thought the direction was. But we still had a little time together after she had that singles match so I feel like they were still trying to figure it out. But tag teams, unless you are The bloody New Day, I would have loved to be in a tag team for that long. It’s kind of inevitable that you evolve and go separate ways. I’m glad there was a draft coming up, because I knew they needed to put us on separate brands.”

On life after wrestling:

“I feel like when I got released I really had to look at that. That was the other confronting thing, I was like what do I do? This is insane. When I was released I was 31 and about to turn 32. I was like, hmm, this is life, I was so confused. But I quickly figured that out after the shock and grief went away. I’ve always been into acting, and I feel like all the people that get released say they want to get into acting. We are performers and we are on stage performing. But I’ve always been the biggest movie buff. My favourite memory is my brother and I growing up, obviously watching wrestling, but then him showing me movies. I would sneak into his room after school every day and watch Bring It On like 10 times. He showed me TV and films and I just fell in love with that. I’ve been doing acting classes for about a year now and I just fell in love with it. A lot of people say they would like to be an actor, as I did, but I didn’t know if I would love the process of that. Much like wrestling, you have to jump in and make it your whole life. When I started the lessons, I fell in love with it.”

On the WWE release:

“Yeah it was such a shock, and there are still good days and bad days. I just felt like I didn’t know who I was at all. My whole life I had been trying to get to WWE, and to have that ripped away from you, it was f*cking hard. People don’t realize that was my whole life. Everything I did was to be a WWE Superstar. You are in this bubble travelling, training and being on shows, and it’s amazing. But when you are out of that bubble, it’s like real life floods in. But it was tough, I didn’t leave my house for 3 weeks. I couldn’t talk to my family, I was so embarrassed and ashamed. And I had to really figure out who I was without Billie Kay. That sounds so silly but you really have to leave her. I had to say goodbye to her, she will always be a part of me but I had to let her go. I didn’t want to be defined by Billie Kay, that’s a part of me but that’s not who I am. It was so hard bringing out Jessica again, because I had been Billie for so long. I loved Billie so much, that’s why it hurt so much. The world won’t see her again, and she was f*cking cool, she was amazing. So it took a long time to get Jessica out again, and my family really helped with that.”

On advice given by Dwayne Johnson:

“Well when you look at his career you think wow! He just hustles, and I really respect that about him. When we met, he just said to me “Keep going.” I’ve never forgotten that. Amongst all the sh*t, negativity and drama, you just have to keep going. I have goals that I am going to reach, so I always have that advice in the back of my head.”

On what she is grateful for:

“My husband and family, Cassie, my life and my health.”

The Off Her Chops podcast can be found here.

Featured image: Instagram