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

Today’s guest is Dr. Brian Keating. Brian is a Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of physics at the Center for Astrophysics & Space Sciences at the University of California, San Diego. He’s also a public speaker, inventor, and an expert in the study of the universe’s oldest light, the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We dive into a fascinating conversation about space, time, aliens, time travel and all kind of other things that make my head explode. Buckle up!

On being an astrophysicist:

“I was but I didn’t even think it was possible to be an astrophysicist. I thought it was like being a wizard or being an ice cream taster, jobs that people you won’t pay you for. It turns out they will pay me for this, not terribly well but I’m a state employee at the University of California. Just don’t tell the governor I would do it for free! It’s the most fun job in the world, punctuated sometimes by sheer frustration. But mostly it is incredibly fun. I get to study the universe and think about how did the universe come to be? Where is it heading? How is it evolving? What is the ultimate fate? Not just humankind but the whole universe. It really is the most thrilling thing I can think of doing.”

On what he does:

“I try to think about things how they would relate to an ordinary person. Part of the problem is that most people don’t think about it that much. I think that’s cultivated by science done by specialist people operating in a specialized environment that people can’t understand. But then we ask people for money so we can fund our research. I think it’s a vicious cycle that needs to come to an end. I am trying to demystify science and the biggest concepts in the universe. Not by dumbing it down, I never do that. Instead, I want to take people on a journey in a language that they can understand, and deconstruct these massive concepts. So for example, I will ask you Chris, what is your favourite day of the year?”

Chris: I’ll go with Christmas.

“So what is Christmas? It commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ. Although I am Jewish, but he is still a pretty good Jew. It’s not just the beginning of his life, but the entire beginning of Christianity, which benefits millions of people around the world. So it’s an origin. For me, I think about my birthday, anniversary, my kid’s birthday and think what is that? It’s an origin. If it’s your origin, you didn’t see yourself born, you have to rely on the testimony of others.”

On his early love of space:

“So what about the origin of time? From an early age I was fascinated by origin stories. How did the Earth come to be and the Moon? Eventually how did the Universe come to be? It’s a work in progress that I’m still grappling with to this day. But the more you learn, the more fascinating it gets. As an astronomer, I encountered a telescope at age 12 and it really set the course in motion for my career. My mission in life is to get every kid on Earth a telescope. Maybe one day I will have my own brand. Wherever you are in the World, you can see the same Moon craters and rings of Saturn. You can recreate the psychological emotion and feeling that Galileo had in 1609, looked at the moon and went ‘Wait. The moon has craters?’ My one takeaway is get your kids a telescope. It can inspire a career or just inspire an evening.”

On it being a daunting task:

“Yeah. Well there are all sorts of reasons that it gives me hope. You see, science, unlike The Emmys behind you Chris, or a Nobel Prize, it is not a finite gain. You won an Emmy and someone lost an Emmy. That is a finite gain and a zero sum gain in a sense. Science does have those, such as getting into a good college or winning a Nobel Prize. But at the same token, it’s an infinite gain. You can never win science and go, yeah I did it, I got it. The way I think about it is that you are on an island, and that island represents knowledge. The island can grow and get bigger, but the boundary where it encounters the ocean of ignorance gets bigger too. But the line is much bigger than the area of the island. You make progress and you win. Mother nature is receding, but sometimes she will let you see a little bit of her secret. I think those moments of discovery where no human being on Earth knew what I knew now, that is the object of a scientist. We love that kind of state of uncertainty. Because uncertainty means opportunity.” 

How old the universe is:

“We have a very accurate analysis of the Earth’s composition, what it’s made of, how many galaxies there are and how many stars there are. It has come so far in the 21 years since I was a graduate student. When I was a graduate student, we didn’t know the age of the universe, it was uncertain. It could have been 10 billion years old or 20 billion years old. There were certain objects in the universe, very old stars, whose age we knew very accurately to be, say 11 billion years. People were saying “Well that’s kind of weird, there’s a star that is older than the age of the universe?” It’s like if you were older than your dad, you would be asking mom some questions. In this case now, we know that the universe is 13,798,000,000 years old, with an uncertainty of less than a percent. In other words, it’s like I can guess your age, but imagine I guess your age, I guess the day you were born, the hour you are born, the minute you’re born, as opposed to, well, you could have been born in 1990. Or you could have been born in 1960. Like, that’s crazy. Now we know it incredibly precisely, along with a host of other cosmological fascinating properties of our universe, including what’s likely to happen to it billions of years from now.”   

On if other life out there:

“Well, it’s very, very, very fascinating to me. Because we have no evidence of life on other planets or even within our solar system as of yet. We may have hints and there’s possibilities, and there’s water and there’s carbon and oh, well, water and carbon, given enough time, it’ll make you know about, you know, bacteria pop out. Now, that’s not really as well understood as people would think. So actually, just the sheer possibility. Imagine you say, well, America is really big, right? So there’s got to be people everywhere in America, but if you’ve ever been to the desert, there’s nobody out there. If you go 20 miles from LA, and you can be somewhere and there’s nobody around. So yeah, just the sheer potential for life doesn’t by no means guarantee the existence of life. And I have some thoughts about what it would mean if we definitively found the existence of alternative life in the universe, including intelligent life. And I don’t think humans really are capable of understanding how we would react because even scientists don’t know how we would react in terms of what a mysterious phenomena like UFO is. We don’t have any unified approach to that the way we do about how particles are formed, or how galaxies are formed. It’s much more open to kind of broad speculation, even at this point.”

On the odds being high on life out there:

“Yeah. So that’s a very, very often spoken of analogy, and I think there’s some merit to it. But again, imagine there were just like three things that you needed to make to make this conversation happen. Sure, you needed a universe to come into existence. That universe had to produce certain types of elements like hydrogen and helium that comprise the very first stars that ignited in the universe. Those then grew and made heavier elements like carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, all the things that we need for life for DNA. And then imagine that the DNA, the chemicals, just pure chemicals, assembled into molecules. Those molecules eventually were like amino acids and then proteins and DNA and then those evolved. So let’s say there’s five or six, let’s say let’s call 10 different steps…

The universe started, first stars form. Then they die and second stars form, they form elements, elements form molecules, molecules form amino acids, amino acids form proteins, and this is very simplified. Then that evolves to nonsense. Then oh, by the way, the first thing is that formed were kind of like fish, and then they’re like dinosaurs. And then an asteroid had to come and kill the dinosaurs for us to really become prolific as mammals on Earth, let’s say there’s 10 of those things. Each one has a one in 1000 chance of happening by random fluctuation, natural selection, and whatever. So that’s 10, that’s 1/1000 to the 10th power, that’s smaller than that than the total number, that’s larger than the number of stars in the observable universe by a very large amount. So even though you might, there are many, many stars in the universe, there’s by no means all the conditions necessary as as input conditions like I just outlined. By the way, there’s probably like 10,000 different properties, each one with a probability of one in a million of happening by random. So we just are not equipped to handle those kinds of analyses. And so we just kind of default to, well. that’s a lot or that’s a little and that’s where we get our emotions from.”

On alternate universes:

“It’s so interesting that there are scientists now for the first time and in my understanding in human history, who say, not only is there a multiverse, like multiple universes. But for us to speak about a universe is prejudiced and biased. In other words, the natural state should be multiple universes, just like the natural state is multiple planets, multiple stars, etc. So because of that, they say no, you have to prove it’s a universe not a multiverse.”

On The Matrix being real:

There are people that have done a great amount of research and books about this. There are equally people that think about, well, let’s say that that is true, and they make what’s called a reductio ad absurdum, like a logical extrapolation. So they’ll say “Well, if that’s true, then there was somebody that could simulate that civilization.” It could be something to a matrix on a matrix on a matrix, it just matrix ad infinitum. And then at some point, you run out of particles in the universe, like, are you going to make a computer out of every single particle in the universe? Use a particle of light and a particle of matter, and it becomes absurd. So for those reasons we look at it. I should say that it’s not quite true that computers can grow, you know, exponentially, right? We only have so much material on Earth. We only have so much in this galaxy, in terms of energy. So it can’t go infinite. Like we think about this thing like a singularity, but there’s actually no physical object known to science that has an infinite Liebig value, or an infinitely small value. In other words, negative infinity or you know, zero, even a particle has some width and length to it, and so too does, the universe. It does not have any place where there’s infinite temperature, infinite density, infinite pressure, those things don’t exist, except in the human brain. In other words, if you try to type in the number one divided by zero, which is fun to do on your smartphone. I won’t ask Siri “”What’s one divided by zero?” But it’s pretty fun to hear what Siri says.

On time travel being possible:

“So in terms of physical time travel, it’s very hard to resolve these various paradoxes that come up. When you talk about time travel, the famous one is, let’s say, you go back in time Chris, and you go back 80 years ago, and you kill your great, great, great grandfather. So would you be born? Who knows? Well, maybe you would. But maybe you wouldn’t, maybe you would be totally different. So then how did you go back in time if you were killed and you never existed? So there are all these paradoxes that come up with time travel that involve what’s called causality. How does a cause lead to an effect to take place? And without knowledge of how that could be really obtained, we’re left with kind of real speculation as to whether or not it’s possible. So right now we can talk about teleportation, we can teleport certain things in space, and they can arrive, and they can have certain properties that are almost like travelling at the speed of light. So some people say, well, it’s just kind of a small jump from taking a proton and getting all of its properties, and then transmitting the 10s of trillions of trillions of trillions of protons that you’re made of and teleporting all of them. But I think we’re a long way away from being able to understand that.”

On the possibility of teleportation:

“I say we already have a good means of teleportation, would you like to know what it is? So they’re called children. So children, whether or not their biological, adopted, ideological, are the only known methods that I can think about, or writing and stuff like that, where you can teleport. You can transmit your ideas, your essence, your values, even to the future, you can’t go back in time, you can go forward in time. But you can’t go, that’s the catch, you’re not able to go. Because 100 years from now, maybe medical science will advance and you can go, but most likely, it can’t. But you can teleport your values, and you can influence people as mentors. You’re doing this with millions, you know, thousands, hundreds of thousands of people are being influenced by you, and this will carry on digitally, into the future forever. So that’s why it’s very important to think about the influence that people have. And you’re saying you’re insignificant, no, you’re very significant, you’re able to influence the future, what else could you want?”

On losing a Nobel Prize:

“So we had made for the first time in history this detector, this telescope, which would be able to observe the earliest epoch in the universe’s history period of time called the Big Bang. So if the universe began at a single instant, then we would be essentially seeing shrapnel and the aftershocks. That’s not technically correct, but just as a way of saying kind of colloquially, that process could be witnessed for the first time by a telescope of the kind that I invented. And that telescope would not only see the beginning of the universe, but everything that’s happened in the universe since that time. What it’s made of, when it’s made, how it’s evolving and really demonstrates for the first time how the universe began. For that reason, we were told even from the very beginning, that we would win the highest honour equivalent to an Oscar in science called the Nobel Prize. That was like an idol to me and was something that I worshipped as a younger person. More people have been to space in the last year than have won the Nobel Prize over the last five years. It’s just unbelievably prestigious, and yet, it’s created by a single guy, Alfred Nobel, over 120 years ago. And it was his thought that he would make it to inspire people to create inventions that would improve the human condition and make humankind better.”

“Along the way, it’s kind of taken on this other role, like more like the Oscars are to incentivize. It was created to reward stuff not to incentivize stuff. It’s becoming not just a reward mechanism, but an incentivization mechanism. So I wanted to kind of talk about that in the book really. My publishers were kind enough to put these three chapters that talk about the Nobel Prize. It’s kind of like a choose your own adventure. If you don’t care about the Nobel Prize and you just want to learn about cosmology, telescopes and stuff, you can read it. So I was happy about that. So we built this telescope at the South Pole, Antarctica. So the very bottom of the world we had to travel to for reasons I talked about here, to observe this flash of creation. We claimed that we did do it, but then we had to retract it, because we actually made a type of error. When we analysed the results, we didn’t leave the lens cap on or get our thumb in the picture. Instead, it was that we interpreted a signal as being attributed to the beginning of time. But actually, it was caused by something much more prosaic in the universe, literally, this dust that fills our cosmos. “

“We had to basically kind of eat humble pie and retract that claim. It was a remarkable story immediately, headlines in New York Times, CNN, everything all around the world. And then eventually, we had to retract it and rewind it. And so I want to tell the story of why it was so important, how it touches these notions of origins and creation myths and stories. And also, what does it like to be an experimental scientist, not a theoretical scientist like Stephen Hawking, or Albert Einstein.”

On his new book: Think Like A Nobel Prize Winner:

“So that book started really because of the pandemic. If the pandemic had any positive side effects amidst all the tragedy of cause, it’s that we’re kind of locked in and scientists couldn’t really travel. A lot of them had books and things coming out. I had always been interested in the life of the mind as a scholar’s intellectual, interviewing as many people as I can, and kind of downloading their knowledge into my brain. A book is like a total hack to do years and years of worth of wisdom and experience into a couple hours to read. I interviewed nine Nobel Prize winners in the course of the last year. I decided I would take all those and this and edit the conversations, add some supplementary materials, some custom drawings, and really make it into something that you could digest at your own leisure. With a podcast you kind of listen linearly, you can’t randomly access stuff. This was like, you want to learn about how mentors influence people? Or how does the imposter syndrome, which features really heavily in this book, asks how does that, you know, affect my career as a car salesman in Nebraska? I’m not a scientist. So I wrote it, and especially not for scientists and some of the early readers that have been reading it and saying I didn’t think I would understand it.”

“But there’s no science in it, just you know, description of why they won it. But what I want to do is take what we call science, which in Latin means knowledge, it doesn’t mean wisdom. I feel like wisdom is much, much rarer, much, much less common than knowledge. And Wikipedia has a lot of knowledge, but I’m not going to ask it like, what do I do when my kid wants to, you know, drop out of college. So in that case, what I wanted to do is distil their wisdom. This book is out and its intent is to really demystify scientists and the process of science show sciences as human beings producing working in collaboration. Even though they might be rivals, competitors, fight, and warring to win this finite game prize. But at the same time they’re also battling this infinite game to understand our universe, and how we fit into it in the limited amount of time that we all have.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My health, to be in America and getting fired. Because I could then get a new job and I eventually met my wife and had children.”

The Kindle version of Brian Keating’s new book, Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, is available for just 99¢ this week only here.

Subscribe to Dr. Brian Keating’s YouTube channel here.

Featured image: Jordan Harbinger

The wrestling world has been peppered with the appearance of stars over the years.

From musicians such as Kid Rock, actors like David Arquette and influencers such as Kim Kardashian, stars have benefited from mixing it with the WWE and vice versa. Of course, the obvious crossover is other fighters, with plenty of famous boxers making cameo appearances. Mr T, Evander Holyfield and James ‘Buster’ Douglas are three who have appeared in one form or another.

There are benefits of using fighters in WWE scenarios; they can get involved in the action. Few could imagine Seth Green being laid out on the canvas by the Big Show, but when Floyd Mayweather stepped into the ring with him, there was an air of believability, certainly as much as you can expect from sports entertainment.

However, real fighters have competed legitimately in the WWE in some instances, either as special guests or fully-fledged stars. So, here are three of the best that have taken to the squared circle.

Ken Shamrock

Ken Shamrock trained as a wrestler under Buzz Sawyer, and after a stint in Japan, made his way to the WWE. He famously feuded with Vader, Bret Hart and The Rock. Those associations made him a main event draw, and he even fought the British Bulldog for the European Championship. He won the 1998 King of the Ring and held the Intercontinental title too. Whilst fans loved seeing him in the WWE, he was also highly regarded in the UFC. He’d been an MMA fighter since 1993, starting in Japan, and is now widely considered one of the greatest fighters in MMA history. His feud with Royce Gracie is as well-known in the UFC as any of the kayfabe battles he had in WWE.

Tyson Fury

Tyson Fury is pure WWE material, despite currently being the WBC Heavyweight Champion. He was set to face Anthony Joshua in what would be a main event in any sport, but as ESPN report, that bout is now not likely to happen after his fellow Brit fell to defeat against Oleksandr Usyk. He is set for a rematch with Deontay Wilder, the third in a trilogy, and one he is favorite with Bwin to win. That proves he is a boxer at the top of his game, with the skills to match the personality. That’s already led him to the WWE, a journey he is sure to take again at the end of his career. He fought Braun Strowman at WWE Crown Jewel, taking home $15m in the deal. He then teamed up with the same fighter in Manchester, defeating Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel.

Eric ‘Butterbean’ Esch

Eric Esch is such a hybrid he has two names; Eric Esch in the boxing world and Butterbean in the WWE universe. In 1997 he won the IBA World Super Heavyweight Championship, which he held onto for several years. He was well known for losing to Larry Holmes in 2002, but bounced back for his own trilogy of bouts against Kenny Craven. It wasn’t quite Fury/Wilder, but it was a headliner nonetheless. He also fought as a kickboxer and in MMA, plus he starred in the WWE. As Butterbean, the busy brawler defeated Marc Mero before being placed in a legitimate shoot fight at WrestleMania XV with Bart Gunn. He knocked the wrestler out in 34 seconds, having had him on the canvas before delivering the deadly punch. Sometimes, it pays not to mix sports entertainment and real fighting; just ask Bart Gunn!

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Credit: Megan Elice Meadows, Lesnar kimura lock, CC BY-SA 2.0

Jonah [FKA Bronson Reed in WWE] is an Australian professional wrestler known for his time in NXT where he is a former North American champion. He joins Chris Van Vliet from his home in Orlando, FL to talk about growing up as a wrestling fan in Australia, the influence of his fellow Australian pro wrestlers like Tenille Dashwood, Buddy Murphy, Cassie Lee & Jessica McKay, what’s next after being released from his WWE contract, thoughts on AEW, IMPACT & New Japan, his new podcast called JONAHDROME, his favorite movies and much more!

On his workouts:

“When I started in the wrestling business, I didn’t work out at all. I was sort of a bit of a scrawny teenager. Then my original coach made me do wrestling workouts, lots of squats and lots of push-ups. Then from there he was like ‘You should get into some form of weightlifting, whether it is bodybuilding or whatever.’ I sort of did my own bodybuilding for a few years, which wasn’t really getting me anywhere. I decided to invest in a coach and do some powerlifting and learned some strongman movements. That’s now where I am today, it’s power building, a hybrid of bodybuilding and power lifting.”

On handling the release and what’s next:

“Well it was very shocking at first. I would be lying if I would say I wasn’t upset and angry and all the emotions that come with something like this. It’s like the 7 stages of grief. Even though I didn’t physically lose anyone, it was kind of like Bronson Reed had died. I’d spent the last few years investing in myself and becoming that character of Bronson Reed. But now that’s over and I have to look to something new. I am bringing back a little bit of what I did before WWE and becoming Jonah again, but it was hard. I have been able to deal with it pretty well though. I’ve had hardships in life and in the professional wrestling business before that have sort of prepared me for if this day was to come. I just didn’t think it would be any time soon.”

On a contract extension before the release:

“I started at the start of 2019 on a 3 year deal. Only at the start of this year I signed a new 3 year deal. I was blindsided that halfway through the year that I was released. Also with where I was placed in the card and how I was utilized, I didn’t think it was coming.”

On the WWE release:

“It was definitely shock. I got the call while I was watching SmackDown. I was under the impression the last few months with WWE that I would be moving to a SmackDown or a RAW. When I got the call, I assumed it was about going to RAW or going to SmackDown. I was quite happy on the phone and ready to hear that news. When the call was that I was getting released, that mood completely changed. I was in shock and awe. I made sure to question why and they didn’t really give me a reason at all, which is even more frustrating, because then you question yourself, like what happened?”

On his reaction:

“I think shock was the initial reaction, but then I was more angry than upset. There was a lot more that I could have done, but that got taken away. But now I see that it is an avenue for me to do that somewhere else.”

On possibly wrestling somewhere else:

“Yes. I am in talks with the major promotions that you would expect me to be in talks with. Nothing is set in stone yet but there will be soon.”

On immigration issues:

“That’s a big thing that unless you are from a foreign country, you don’t realize. A lot of people who were released the same time as me, after the 30 days, straight away onto some independent shows. I have a lot of fans reaching out and saying ‘you should do this show…’ I’ve also had a lot of independent promotions reach out to me, but legally I will get in a lot of trouble if I do this. There are processes you have to do when you are a foreigner and I am working on that.”

On what he was taught in NXT:

“The biggest thing was working for TV. That was the biggest change for me, learning where the cameras are. They want to see more facial expressions. When you are working the independents, it is all about how the crowd is involved. When you start working TV, you forget that it’s about what the people at home can see and how they can get involved.”

On where the name Bronson Reed came from:

“I did actually. I pitched Jonah maybe 100 times [laughs]. My name was Jonah Rock, and they didn’t want the Rock part, obviously. I pitched all different last names for Jonah, and they just wanted to get rid of Jonah. So I came up with a bunch of different first names and a bunch of different last names. They picked Bronson and Reed and they put it together. I feel that that’s how a lot of people recently got their names.”

On becoming North American Champion:

“Before winning the North American Championship I was doing well. Luckily for me, Hunter sort of had his eye on me, and then in his mind it was hey we want to make you one of our top guys on our show. He had that discussion with me that I was going to eventually become the North American Champion. Then they had more things planned for me towards the end of the year, which are not happening anymore. But in the wrestling business, things chop and change so much. Even though I was told things numerous times, I always thought well let’s wait and see. Even winning the North American Championship, I was like I will wait until it actually happens. But Hunter saw something in me, which I appreciated. But when I became the North American Champion, I was a made man. Becoming that sort of champion, I think that people notice it.”

On his NXT theme song:

“I loved it as well. So I was lucky enough to work with the music people and Road Dogg, who was overseeing the music at that time. I had the generic, free music for a while on NXT TV. There was a huge list of songs that you could choose out of, and I recon I spent an hour or an hour and a half trying to find the best thing I could. I am under the impression that the theme means a lot. Your entrance music sets the tone for who you are and as you’re coming out, so I wanted something good. What I had was good, but I needed something custom and different. When they decided I could have new entrance music, I was very hands-on with Road Dogg. I was like I want a siren at the start. I wanted it to feel like a Godzilla movie. There needed to be deep bass like in hip hop. It sets the tone for the big guy coming out, and what they did produce was fantastic.”

On his finisher:

“I had been doing the splash off of the top rope and I said to Wade [Barrett] ‘I call it the Tsunami. It’s not just a big splash, it’s even bigger.’ I came up with that and we had different announcers at the time, and they were good. But as soon as Wade got his hands on it, and he didn’t tell me he was going to say it like that, I was like wow that’s great. Then it sort of became a thing. I definitely miss the way he calls it, becasue he calls it great.”

On what he can and can’t use following his release:

“Yeah I made sure when I was getting released to ask as many questions as possible, so going forward it makes it easier. Not just with wrestling but with the immigration side of things. I asked the things to do with intellectual property and Bronson and those sort of things. I’m glad that I did. At the time I was going to go back to Jonah or call myself Bron. Now I am glad that I didn’t, because now Bron Breakker is on NXT 2.0. I made sure to get a discussion with those things on what I can and can’t do.”

On his future goals:

“I want to be very active in the wrestling world. I also want to be on North American television, so that people back home can watch me. It shows that the current direction that WWE and NXT have said they are going in, I think it has deflated a lot of people back home that are indie wrestlers. They are like ‘Hey what do I do now? This was my goal.’ I want them to see that there are other avenues you can take and be successful. My goal is that you can prove that you can be successful but don’t have to be in WWE.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My wife, all the support from my followers and Starbucks.”

Bronson Reed can be found on Twitter here and Instagram here.

Featured image: Give Me Sport

The start of a journey:

The Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Step” I’m sure you’ve heard this Chinese proverb before. But the problem is a lot of people never take that first step. They look at that long journey in front of them and start coming up with excuses why they could never possibly complete a thousand mile journey. So they don’t even bother to start. Does this sound familiar? Of course you’re not LITERALLY taking a thousand mile journey. But maybe it’s your fitness journey…. or your journey into finding a new job… or into taking those steps toward a relationship. Or that podcast or YouTube channel or business that you’ve always wanted to start.

Let me ask you this: What are you waiting for?! Like seriously. What is standing in the way between you starting right now. Not next week or next month or tomorrow. Today? What’s stopping you from taking that first step? Instead of just talking about it or dreaming about it? Why not start doing it? What is the excuse you’re telling yourself? Because if you want it bad enough, you’ll find a way. If not, you’ll find an excuse. And let’s be honest any reason that’s holding you back from you actually doing it. Is an excuse. It’s as simple as that.

I’m sure you’ve heard me say it all the time, but if somebody else is doing what you want to be doing… that means there’s a path carved out for you to do it too. So, little Storytime for you.. For years I had been toying with the idea of starting boxing lessons. I grew up playing every sport imaginable. I started playing baseball at 4 years old. Hockey at 6, which feels like it’s mandatory when you grow up in Canada. I was on the volleyball team, basketball team, cross country team and track and field team in elementary school. The 100 meter and 200 meter were my best events until about age 12, and then it seemed that everyone got faster and I just stayed the same speed. In high school, I joined the wrestling team. I was always intrigued by boxing, but aside from throwing the odd terrible shot at a punching bag in the corner of the gym, I never really did it.

How Chris’ boxing journey started:

Over the last year or so, I really started thinking about starting up. But then those excuses started creeping in. You’re too old to start NOW! How much do you think that will cost? You’re going to be awful for the first year or two. That’s just SOME of the self talk that was going on. It’s like I had given up on the idea before even starting. Then I asked myself: What am I waiting for? Do I really want to do this or not? The next day, the craziest thing happened. I was working out and in between sets, I noticed a guy working out next to me with a shirt that said “Boxing Coach” on the back of it. I couldn’t believe it! What are the odds? I thought about it, did another set and then I struck up a conversation with him. As his shirt advertised, he was indeed a boxing coach and he lived in the same building as me. This was a sign. We exchanged contact information. And if you follow me on Instagram, you know that I now train at least once a week. I’ll admit I’m not very good, but I’m a heck of a lot better than I was before our serendipitous meeting. By the way, you can check out my coach on Instagram, his name is Salman and he’s @Salman.Boxing on there. But how easy would it have been for me to just keep telling myself I’m too old to start now? Or what’s the point? Or can’t you just do another workout that doesn’t cost anything?

Any regrets?

I was blown away when I read about a study out of Cornell University that asked people at the end of their life what their single biggest regret was. It wasn’t something that they did, but rather something they DIDN’T do. 76% of people said it was “Not living their ideal self”. Can you believe that? 3/4 of people on their deathbeds look back on their life and think about the things they didn’t do and the chances they didn’t take. Do you want to be part of the 24%, or are you ok falling into that 76%? What is standing in your way?

You’re never too old!

By the way, if you think you’re too old: Stan Lee, for instance, didn’t create “Fantastic Four” until he was just shy of 39. Julia Child wrote her first cookbook at 50. Colonel Sanders didn’t become a professional chef until he was 40. Didn’t franchise KFC until he was 62, was broke at 65 and didn’t become an icon until after he sold his company at 75. Is today going to be day one or just another day. You decide. It’s completely up to you. So there we go! Share this with a friend who need to hear this. And shoot me a message on Instagram or Twitter and let me know what you thought of this episode. There’s many more to come! Until then… Be great, be grateful and we’ll see you on the next one for some more insight!

More episodes of Insight can be found here.

Dr. Laurie Santos is a cognitive scientist and Professor of Psychology at Yale University. She is also the host of the extremely popular podcast called “The Happiness Lab” which is on the Apple Top 100 charts. She joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about the science of being happy, 3 simple things we can do in our daily life to be happier, the course she teaches at Yale University called “Psychology and The Good Life” and how you can take her course for free on Coursera, how Covid has affected our well-being and much more!

On whether happiness is a science or an art:

“I think in some ways it is both. The reason why I air on the scientific side is because so many of the scientific works study the kind of things that make us a little bit happier. You might not think that it is a scientific topic, how do you study happiness? But when you start to think about it then it’s an easy thing to do. Basically researchers bring people into the lab who are happy, and then they reverse engineer what these people are doing. How are they spending their time? You can then bring other folks into the lab who are not feeling so happy, then make them engage with the practices the happy people are doing in a controlled environment. You can then see if that improves people’s wellbeing. These studies have been done for the last few decades.”

3 things to make us happier:

“It’s not the things we think like winning the lottery. The fastest thing you can do to improve your happiness is to get in some social connection. Even really simple studies show talking to someone on your commute can boost your positive mood. That is just with a stranger, yet alone connecting with your best friend or someone you haven’t spoken to in a while. We forget the sheer power of social connection in boosting our mood. Secondly is gratitude, something that all of us can do. If we focus on the blessings and not the gripes we can be happier. Thirdly is presence. Feel what it is like to be breathing right now or sitting in a chair. Even if you are not feeling good, just being with that can improve your wellbeing in a great way.”

On why people don’t necessarily feel happy:

“I don’t think we were built to happy. Natural selection and evolution had a plan for us but it wasn’t for us to be happy. It was to survive and pop out some kids. Evolution did not care if we were anxious or sad, it just wanted us to get the job done. I think a big thing is a lot of us are defying natural selection by trying to be happy. We wind up doing it wrong because we are focusing on the wrong things. We focus on accolades, achievements and money. Research shows that none of that makes us happy, and if it does it is only briefly. We peruse all those things at the opportunity cost to the things that actually make us happy.”

On how the science of happiness started:

“I’ve been a psychologist basically forever. The specific interest in happiness came to me when I took on this new role at Yale campus. I’ve been teaching at Yale for an embarrassingly long time. In the last few years I took on a new role as head of college on campus. Yale is like Harry Potter where there are schools within the school. I’m the head of Silliman College, which does sound like it is from Harry Potter. This new role meant I was a faculty member living with students on campus. When I signed up for the role I thought it would be great. Young, happy minds all running around.”

On the wellbeing of students:

But there is a national students health crisis right now. 40% of students feel like they are too depressed to function. Over 60% report feeling overwhelmingly anxious. Right now, 1 in 10 students have considered suicide in the last year. I didn’t know this stuff until I started interacting with students. We have students who are in dire straights, but then we have the students who are just so stressed out. I was watching the students fast forward this time of their lives and I felt for them. My interest in happiness started becasue I wanted to help my students. I decided to pull it all together and teach the students this stuff in the context of a class. I didn’t expect the class to go as viral as it did, it was the largest class in the 300 year history of Yale.”

On what is in the class:

“So you walk into this big concert hall. The class really is like a psychology class. The students are hearing about specific studies and there are exams and grades. It’s one thing to tell students to be grateful and to get enough sleep, but until you show them the graph of mood score after 5 hours sleep. Students then see that and don’t want to be in that zone. I think there is something about seeing the scientific effects. This is true with nutrition and exercise too. When we see what really works, it can supercharge our change in behaviours.”

On how you can take the class for free:

“The class went so viral on campus and off campus. We had national and international news outlets coming in, filming the class and talking about it. I was so taken by the mental health crisis at Yale, but it’s not just the students. Adults everywhere need this. So we put the class online [link here]. You can log on and get the short version for free.”

On how Laurie manages her happiness:

“One of the things is that it is nice to be happiness expert becasue you have to practice what you preach. If not, people will call you out on that, especially students. I have to be the person who is trying these strategies out, and that has been huge for navigating all these changes in my life. I say no to a lot of things becasue I am trying to protect my time allowance. If I say yes to something, I may have to say no to downtime with my husband. It is hard and goes against the hustle culture, but it has made me a lot happier.”

On how COVID affected people’s happiness:

“When COVID first hit in March 2020, there was a huge amount of depression and anxiety. But I think that everybody expected that and for it continue. In practice, it has been bad but not as bad as people first thought. Many people have gone back to baseline. This thing that we could not get used to, it’s not fun but we did get used to it. Just like we think good things like money will make us better, we think that bad things will make us worse. It does in the short term, but our psychological immune system kicks in to make us feel better. We rationalise stuff and start to form coping mechanisms. We do stuff to feel better, a lot of these things have kicked in during COVID. Statistically, this pandemic did not affect us all mentally as we first thought.”

On what Dr. Laurie Santos is grateful for:

“My husband, my students and my health.”

Dr Laurie Santos can be found on Twitter here.

The Happiness Podcast can be found here.

Featured image: The Happiness Lab

The Voros Twins, Chris and Patrick Voros, are professional wrestlers and TikTokers based in Vancouver, BC. They recently celebrated 1.3 million followers on TikTok which makes them the most followed active wrestlers on the account and the 4th most followed behind Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Lana and Ryback. They talk to Chris Van Vliet about their goals in wrestling, being invited to a WWE Tryout, the benefits of being identical twins, how they were able to grow their TikTok so quickly, the importance of physically writing out goals and much more!

On how to tell the brothers apart:

Chris: “I think it’s just gambling. You have to guess and stuff.”

Patrick: “There are little things. Usually Patrick wears red and Chris wears blue. I guess that’s the main one.”

On being more famous for Tik Tok than wrestling:

Chris: “Yeah it’s crazy! We just hit 1.3 million people on Tik Tok.”

Patrick: “We are the most followed active wrestlers on Tik Tok. The Rock is ahead of us, but he doesn’t wrestle. There is also Ryback, but he takes other people’s videos and posts them on his account. Then there’s Lana and then there’s us.”

On if wrestling is still the main goal:

Chris: “Yes definitely. It was so hard with wrestling when we didn’t have it.”

Patrick: “I know some places in America opened up sooner than here in British Colombia. There was no wrestling here literally for 5 months. It came back a little bit, but the total shutdown for 8 months. It was a big break with no wrestling. A lot of wrestlers in the area kind of stopped posting content and disappeared. We did the opposite, we just threw things at the wall and see what stuck.”

On their first memory of wrestling:

Patrick: “I think our older brother got us into it. We watched it with him a lot.”

Chris: “But it was 2003, I remember Brock Lesnar’s Shooting Star at the highlight reel of RAW, because we didn’t see WrestleMania.”

Patrick: “I remember having the WrestleMania 17 TLC match on VCR tape, we would watch that over and over!”

On wanting to become wrestlers:

Chris: “So we did the backyard wrestling thing. Our company was called NXW, which is one letter off of NXT. We were revolutionary.”

Patrick: “But after high school, we didn’t start at 18. After high school we didn’t finish college, becasue it wasn’t for us.”

Chris: “We didn’t like being in debt. That was scary for us.”

Patrick: “But then a wrestling school opened up right by our house. We always wanted to be wrestlers, so it just kind of started from there.”

On being a tag team from day one:

Patrick: “I think we have had under 20 singles matches in total.”

Chris: “Even then, one of us is managing the other. We have been in a couple of Fatal 4 Ways and Fatal 5 Ways, but we just teamed up in the match. I’m not going to hit him!”

On the greatest wrestling brothers:

Patrick: “The greatest team would be The Hardy Boyz. But the team we look up to is The Usos. They are fraternal twins and have never wrestled each other. We look up to The Young Bucks in AEW a lot too. But there’s a lot of twin tag teams that we want to wrestle. D-Von Dudley’s kids are twins.”

On their WWE try-out:

Patrick: “So it was in August 2019 during SummerSlam weekend in Toronto. It was the first and only Canadian try-out in WWE, we were super fortunate to be a part of the 42 people involved. I think it went really well.”

Chris: “I think we crushed it. Personally, we felt like we did great. We trained for it and were in the ring every day for a month.”

Patrick: “We had all the basics down with all the rolls and stuff. The only thing we wish was that there was only one ring there, we wanted to do the whole 7 rings. There was a little bit less cardio, which we feel like we could have done really well at. When we left they said that we have a good look and to just keep wrestling and work on our social media.”

Chris: “We feel like we have done both. We are in the best shape of our lives right now.”

On being able to work in the USA:

Chris: “It’s definitely a challenge.”

Patrick: “We have done a few shows in Seattle and stuff, but it is hard crossing the border. But we make it work somehow.”

On dealing with negative comments:

Chris: “It doesn’t bother us but I can see why it would bother a lot of people.”

Patrick: “When we were going through some family stuff, should we get into this?”

Chris: “So our dad passed away in March, and we are still not fully done with [grieving]. Some people were saying some rude comments about our dad.”

Patrick: “That has been the only time we have been affected by hate comments. But it’s just as easy as a block, it was a tough time.”

On what they are grateful for:

Chris: “Our optimism.”

Patrick: “We are healthy and the Da Vinki meme.”

The Voros Twins can be found on Tik Tok here and Instagram here.

Featured image: Pro Wrestling Tees

Randy Couture is a UFC Hall of Famer, actor and former US Army Sargeant. His new movie called “The Manson Brothers Midnight Zombie Massacre” is available in theaters and on VOD. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about his Hall of Fame career in the UFC, transitioning into becoming an actor, his role in “The Expendables” franchise, his thoughts on how Jake & Logan Paul are changing fighting, whether or not he would want to fight again, his match against Brock Lesnar for the UFC Heavyweight Championship, his legendary matchups with Chuck Liddell and much more!

On when it was time to retire from UFC:

“You never really know. It took me a long while to warm up the idea to walk away from the sport that I had been involved in so long. I’d had every injury that I have ever had flare up again. It was the first time I remember my brain saying to me ‘Hey. Maybe you should do something else.’ Once that conversation starts, you’ve got to take it seriously. But I was comfortable that I was making the right decision for me. I was walking away from the sport on my own terms. I didn’t have a doctor or a promotor telling me I shouldn’t do it anymore. That transition for a lot of people is a huge task. It’s a big problem and a big piece of your identity.”

On what was next for him:

“Thankfully I had acting. I had been acting for 15 years at that point. So I could just shift my focus from getting ready for another fight and grinding out another camp to getting another movie.”

On how to prepare for a role:

“You are reading the story, understanding your character and how your character fits into the story. You have to find a way to relate to that character. At the end of the day, you are trying to find a way to tell the truth. If you are trying to act, nobody is going to buy it, it’s not going to work. You look at some of the best actors you can name, a lot of their characters are very similar. That has been the biggest challenge for me as an actor. I have spent my whole life as an athlete and boxing up my emotions. Now I want to let all of that stuff out, so it’s a little weird. But it’s been fun and fun learning so much about the process. I continue to get better each and every time I put myself out there.”

On the similarities between fighting and acting:

“I think you have to be coachable. They are both competitive. In acting you go in for a read and it is a competitive industry, especially right now with the Marvel films. But that taps into the fight mindset I had before. I can be as prepared as I can be and it’s like one hand washes the other. Being diligent, rested, ready to go. I like to be the first on set and know exactly what we are doing that day. Those are all things that came from fighting, wrestling and being in the service. You look at the world in a particular way becasue of those experiences, and you apply that to everything you face.”

On his future acting goals:

“I want to be challenged. Everyone always puts me in that box of ‘Oh yeah he is one of those fighters…’ It does bring the physicality to those action roles. And I love that genre, but I want the challenge. I want to do the romantic comedies, the westerns, things that people wouldn’t normally see me in. That’s the cool thing about The Manson Brothers Midnight Zombie Massacre, it’s outside the box for me. It’s comedic, and if I tried to be funny it would never sell. But that’s the good writing of Mike and Chris in developing that script. I had a great time doing that.”

On a possible career in WWE:

“You know they [WWE] never really approached me. I never received a message, they never asked me to come to a show. I don’t know becasue of my amateur wrestling background that I wasn’t going to be too interested in that. But it’s hard to say. I know the amateur and Olympic wrestling ranks as well as anybody. I chased that dream for 16 years. But the professional wrestling never really bit me. I watched it as a kid, but I knew it didn’t seem right. It wasn’t something that tickled me.”

On not being a mean guy:

“I think some of that comes from my wrestling mentality. I had to wrestle people who were my friends for a spot on the team. One of us was going home p*ssed off. It’s just the way it is in wrestling. I was never one of those guys who had to generate a bunch of animosity or run my mouth. For me, it was just an expansion of wrestling. There was a little bit of difference in the rules of engagement, but a very similar tactical sport. I just applied that wrestling mindset to that and kept that same attitude. I just wanted to be me, I didn’t want to create a persona or the things that other guys were doing to market themselves. So I kept it simple and I think a lot of the fans appreciated that.”

On crossover stars in the fighting world:

“These crossover fights… The only person to come the other way was James Toney in 2008 in Boston. That was a huge fight and a fight that I took very seriously. I felt like the reputation of our sport was on the line in some ways in that fight. I had a lot of respect for James a fighter. But the real question was how much MMA was he going to be able to learn. We answered that question very quickly!”

On Jake and Logan Paul:

“I’m not a fan of all the antics and the rhetoric from the Paul brothers. But if they are doing something, it is poking Dana White and shining a light on the disparaging difference between fighters pay in MMA and fighters pay in boxing. There is no transparency in MMA. How are you supposed to negotiate your fair value in the marketplace if no one knows how much money is being made in the sport in each and every event? That transparency is in boxing becasue of the Ali Act that was implemented in 1996, to protect boxers from the promoters that were taking advantage of the boxing world. We [MMA fighters] don’t enjoy that protection. It’s a simple fix, we have been lobbying hard to trying to get it to a vote in Congress and in The Senate. But the relationship between Trump and Dana White, it was difficult to get that done. We are not in that administration anymore, and still not having much success with it.”

On Dana White:

“I don’t have a relationship with UFC and that is largely down to Dana White. He thought I was the enemy quite a while ago when they bought the company. We butted heads immediately on ancillaries and contract rights. Nobody else was paying attention at that time and we were not getting along well, but they were stuck with me. I was the World Heavyweight Champion and signed with new management. We started pointing out a lot of issues in a 17 page document they call a contract. We kind of forced them to adjust a few things. But the backlash was they made the contracts even worse. That sucks for all the other fighters that didn’t have the leverage. But if it takes a guy like Jake Paul to get behind that, I’m all for that.”

On a possible comeback:

“Honestly it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I retired and came back once, I can’t see myself doing that again. I am 58, so 10 years out and I haven’t been in fight shape for so long and that is a whole different animal. To think that I am going to go back out to do one of these crossover boxing matches, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I have put my body through a lot of wear and tear with all the fighting. Now I have come to terms with that, going out on my terms is a good thing, I want to stick to that.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My mother, my kids and the opportunities bestowed upon me.”

Click below to check out the video version of this interview:

Randy Couture can be found on Instagram here and Twitter here.

Featured image: Bleacher Report