Chelsea Green is an actor and professional wrestler known for her work in WWE, NXT, Impact Wrestling and Lucha Underground. She sits down with Chris Van Vliet after being released from her WWE contract on April 15, 2021 and opens up about what’s next for her career. She also talks about how she fell in love with wrestling, training with Lance Storm, being on Season 5 of Tough Enough, signing with WWE, working for Impact Wrestling, winning the Knockouts Championship, leaving Impact for Lucha Underground, how Cody and Brandi Rhodes set her up with her fiancé Matt Cardona, his love for figure collecting, The Major Wrestling Figure Podcast, her plans to launch her own podcast and much more!

On her recent WWE Release:

“At first I was kind of emotionless and I guess confused. My way of handling that has always been to go into overdrive with what’s next? That’s always the way my brain has worked with everything. So even when I became the IMPACT Champion, literally that night, what’s next? What am I going to do next? I’ve always been that way, but it’s kind of not been a good thing for me also. I do feel like it’s been good for me this time around. It’s been good, I’ve just focused on what is next, how am I going to get my name out there? What do I need to do to kickstart my career back into the wrestling world and everything. I feel really good now. It’s crazy, it’s only been a couple of days but it feels normal now.”

On how her Partner Matt Cardona helped her through the process:

“He has been so, so great. First of all he warned me that this was coming. Not necessarily to me, that I was going to get fired. But he did call me and give me a 10 minute gap between the time he told me people are letting go and me getting let go. He gave me that warning then I texted him and said ‘OK, I’ve been released.’ I’m not joking he was home within 30 minutes. My Pro-Wrestling Tees store was up, he’s all go go go! Even harder than I was. I think that’s kind of the same way I felt when he was released. I was like what do we need to do? It’s nice to have someone on the other side of things keeping my head clear. But he’s so positive it’s been really nice. I’m able to bounce my ideas off of him.”

On if she thought the releases would not affect her:

“Yes that’s exactly what I thought. I’m not gonna lie though, hearing that Billie Kay was released, that was a shocker. That did make me question like whoa OK. So Billie Kay was just on WrestleMania last week, it hasn’t even been a week. And now she has been released, what does that mean for the rest of us? But I never thought I would be released before I had a chance to prove myself. That’s where the shock factor came from. It’s like but wait, I never got to show you guys how good I am.”

On why the release surprised her:

“That’s the weird thing. In my wrestling career, I’ve always been so lucky where everything has been my decision. I decided to go to these companies and I decided to push myself up the ranks. I decided to go all in on my Hot Mess character, I decided to go to Lucha Underground. All of these amazing opportunities, I was so naïve to think that’s the way wrestling is. I had just been spoilt. I didn’t realize until I got to the real world, which is NXT and WWE, that things don’t always work out the way that you planned. Your vision board isn’t always going to come to light on the year that you want it to. So yeah, it’s been eye opening.”

On future projects:

“In the immediate future, I’m working on starting a podcast. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, because I am such a talker. Anyone that knows me knows that. I get myself into a lot of trouble just by talking. The podcast may start in the next week. I’m just going to jump right in. I would like to get back to stunt doubling and a little bit of acting. Anything that allows me to talk. Wrestling too.”

On needing to find work:

“When I was released, a lot of people were like ‘Hey you’re ok, you’re a good hustler.’ But I’m like, yeah but I’m Canadian. I have to get a Visa and a Green Card. I have to figure out a way to live here. [Chris mentions getting a Green Card via marriage]. Oh trust me, I’ve already talked to Matt [Cardona]. I was released on Thursday night, and on Friday morning, Matt is on his way to Wisconsin. I texted him saying ‘We need to get married so you need to think about when that’s happening.'”

On constantly trying to get on WWE TV:

“No, and here’s the funny thing, I am ruthless. I show up non stop when I’m not booked, on the off chance. Lance Storm taught me always show up ready. I would always show up with my gear in the car, have my spray tan and make up on. There have been times where people have been needed last minute. I would send emails saying I would be there Friday, so if you need anyone. I would be the perfect post Mania debut, I’m your girl. I want them to hear me and see me, I haven’t stopped thinking about this. I was in their ear every week.”

On how she got a job at IMPACT Wrestling:

“I flew myself to NXT taping before I even got a job at IMPACT, I think it was 2015. I showed up, I emailed NXT and they let me be an extra. I think all of my girlfriends that week were used. There was Deonna [Purrazzo], Tessa [Blanchard] and me. They were used for those 2 days of tapings, and I wasn’t. I was so upset that I had flown myself from Canada and got new gear. I thought if they see me, they will love me. They didn’t book me, totally fine, they have a reason for booking extras the way that they do. I was sitting in Full Sail, and I thought if they [NXT] don’t want me, maybe IMPACT does. I called up IMPACT, got a try-out the next day, that’s how I got hired.”

On competition with the locker room:

“Yeah that’s the thing, you have to be really smart. It’s so much easier said than done. It’s kind of a Rockstar lifestyle. You get in so deep and you are competing for those top spots like in any company. You want to look your best, have the best gear, the best ideas. You’re constantly trying to keep up with the Joneses, and that’s tough.”

On WWE and NXT locker rooms:

“The locker room is so good at NXT. There is so much competition. But not direct competition. Everyone is so different, so how can I make myself different. Shotzi has got this great personality and green hair. Tegan Nox has all The Avengers stuff, Dakota has crazy kicks, how do you compete with that? Finally when you get up there, you are moved to the main roster. Then you have a whole new set of girls who you are looking at. I’m not Sasha Banks, I’m not Charlotte Flair, I’m not Becky Lynch, I’m not Bayley. How can I be the best me? In WWE you can never plateau. You can’t stay the same, that will be the demise of your career.”

On her various ideas for her character:

“I can’t tell you how many ideas I came up with. If I think about it, they all led back to The Hot Mess. But with that being said, it wasn’t The Hot Mess like you saw at IMPACT. I tried to pitch a darker, creepier Hot Mess that you could relate to. Not just like the girl at the bar, more so any psychotic person you’ve had in your life. It could be anyone. I was always working on ideas that led me turning into The Hot Mess. It’s what I love, I just want to do character work. I don’t need to wrestle. I’m totally cool with not wrestling, I want to tell a story.

On the audience crossover with IMPACT and NXT:

“That was another thing that I was naïve to. I didn’t realize that those worlds don’t necessarily 100% cross over. More people don’t watch IMPACT than do when it comes to WWE fans. I felt the crossover on Twitter. It helped me when I was nervous for those 10 debuts that I had. But it opened my eyes coming to NXT. I’m going to have to work hard and I’m going to have to reinvent. That’s something I was thankful to have NXT for. There’s so many eyes and brains that are there to dissect it and make it your own. I had a lot of people trying to make it work in a way we could see for WWE TV.”

On learning from breaking her arm:

“I really think that just over the past 2 years I’ve learned that hard work doesn’t always get you what you want. You have to realize that you have to be the right place at the right time and have a little bit of luck. I did realize you get other things. You might not get what you want, but something else great is going to come from this. Breaking my arm twice, I was so mad at myself, especially the second time. I couldn’t have been more angry. But what came from that? So many vacations, fitting in time for myself. I wouldn’t have done that if I had that time off.”

On plans post Survivor Series 2020:

“I don’t even know. I wasn’t told the direction I was going in, but it was a positive direction. I spoke with Vince, how many people can say they got a one on one with him. I had 2 sit-downs with Vince McMahon. After that conversation and debuting 2 weeks later for SmackDown, the world was my oyster. I was showing people I could wrestle and we would go from there. I wanted to show people my promo skills.”

On a meeting with Vince McMahon:

“I have no idea how he is with everybody else, but he was so open to listening to me. I think that’s the key, he lets you speak, and then he makes a decision. I have taken every opportunity I’ve had as a pitch. Whether it’s with writers, Triple H or Vince. I have so many ideas in my head, and I’ll give him any idea. I would say to Vince ‘What do you want and I will give it to you.’ Vince would say ‘OK what are these ideas?’ He let me list off 15 ideas, he wrote them all down. I had pitched them all and I typed them out. I write a good full title, a brief synopsis, all the things that could happen. I pitched them all and after that he wanted to know about me. Things like my family and whose career I wanted to emulate. I said The Miz, because I want to entertain and build an empire off of self deprecation. I don’t care if I lose, if people are laughing or cheering, I’m good. Miz will always have a career, because he is so entertaining, and that’s what I want. I want to be here the next 20 years entertaining people. I said to Vince ‘you know what? I’m not a great wrestler and I’m not trying to be.’ He laughed and said ‘No, I’ve seen you wrestle and you’re a good wrestler.”

On her character pitches:

“The pitches were always something I could see on the main roster. I’m not the girl who will put on gloves and spar with people. I’m not going to pretend to be someone I’m not, because that’s where the fans turn off. That’s why they connected so well with The Hot Mess. You have no ideas how many times people have said they saw something that reminded them of that. The things I did came from fan suggestions and co-worker suggestions. It was something people could relate to.”

On her time in Tough Enough:

“I do think my downfall in Tough Enough was that I was so tunnel vison on getting the contract, that I forgot about entertaining people. That show, we needed to entertain. I wasn’t going to be involved in drama or get involved in a silly storyline. If I could re-do it, I would go in all guns blazing. That was why Mandy [Rose] was so perfect for that show. She entertained us and came out with a contract.”

On her proudest moment as a wrestler:

“I would love for them to look up All In. Because I was so proud of the way I felt during that match. It was such a bonding moment between everyone in the background, all of the indie wrestlers, and the fans. The fans have been so die hard and want us to succeed. Going from wrestling in front of 100 to wrestling on PPV and TV and filling an arena. All in was the best moment of my career. I think All In was the biggest crowd I had wrestled in front of to that point.”

On how Cody and Brandi Rhodes set up herself and Matt Cardona:

“Cody and Brandi set us up. Who knows what Cody did but Brandi definitely planted all of the seeds. I will never forget when they came to IMPACT and every day for 3 days in a row, Brandi said something about Zack Ryder. At the end of the tapings I was like, what’s going on? I remember I was already following Matt on Twitter, so I went and unfollowed him. Then when he looked, I wasn’t following him and didn’t look like a fangirl. I did not want to date a wrestler. I told all the girls that I would never date a wrestler. First wrestler I date, we fell madly in love. I was pretty standoffish after our first date, because I didn’t want to date a wrestler. But he was pretty persistent, he did message me every day until our second date. After our second date, I’m like I love him, this is it. We had our first date at a sushi restaurant and I had to go to Canada for a month, because I had stunt work.”

On missed opportunities in WWE:

“I think not being able to see me talk and not being able to see the character side of me. If people didn’t watch IMPACT, they didn’t know that side of me. I’m excited to show people that, which is I’m not that person on social media. I’m not just that girl in a bikini I’m a completely different person.”

On what she is grateful for:

“For Matt and his positive outlook, for the connections I have from the indie scene, and that I ticked WWE off my bucket list and focus on whatever comes next.”

Chelsea Green can be found on Twitter here and Instagram here.

More podcast recaps can be found here.

Featured image credit: Instagram

Chris Mordetzkyis a professional wrestler best known for his time in WWE as Chris Masters. He is also known for his work in Impact Wrestling and NWA as Chris Adonis. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about how he got signed by WWE, “The Masterpiece” gimmick, being released and rehired by WWE, working with Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair, Bobby Lashley doing The Masterlock, his workout routine, battling his addiction to painkillers, become the NWA National Champion, his love of the Los Angeles Lakers, his friendship with the late Shad Gaspard and more!

On working with NWA:

“It’s been a lot of fun. It’s been good to get back to work and it’s been good to work for a company like NWA. I’ve been watching them over the past few years, I love the whole idea of what they are doing. It’s got an old school feel to it, the studio wrestling feel. I’m a fan of the storytelling of that era and everything that it represented. I like what we are doing collectively in the mindset of NWA.”

On his appreciation for NWA:

“That’s the wrestling I grew up on. I know that wrestling has evolved over the years, but I think that there are some things that should still stay the same. You know the selling, the storytelling and all that stuff. It’s not to say I don’t love the new stuff too. These guys are doing stuff and high spots that we thought we would never see. When you watch NWA, the guys don’t look contemporary to me.”

On if he has always been in great physical shape:

“I was really skinny growing up. I was as thin as a rail. My mom would call me the number one, because I was so skinny. I started working out when I was like 15 years old. Once I decided I wanted to become a pro wrestler, it seemed like a logical step. So that was my start in to working out. I had a first period gym class in the 10th grade and I did nothing in it. It was a short time after that, with wrestling being my number 1 love, I decided I really wanted to pursue it. Working out became the next step and I started doing it obsessively. I’ve got to thank my mom and dad for those genetics. The genetics determine the potential what size and build you’re gonna have. I’ve always been a tall guy growing up, luckily I had broad shoulders too, which helps the look.”

On early fandom and early days in wrestling:

“It blows my mind. I was the biggest fan you could ever imagine. When I first got called up to WWE and I was sharing the locker room with all the guys I grew up watching, it was so intimidating. As a wrestling fan, I wanted to meet everybody. HBK was my favourite, but I respected everybody. I just thought the world of professional wrestling. Me and my buddy used to sneak backstage at WWE house shows. That was where I got most of my pictures from. We would try to be as inconspicuous as possible. We eventually smartened up and stopped wearing wrestling shirts, so they wouldn’t identify us right away. I joked with Dave Hebner about it all the time, because Dave would always find us and kick us out. When I eventually was employed with WWE and I saw Dave, I reminded him of it. We would do everything in our power to avoid him.”

On how Chris snuck into WWE shows:

“We bought tickets to the show and my buddy found a service elevator. The elevator would take you right to the backstage parking lot. At first we would just go backstage, and I would remember seeing Bret and Shawn within 5 feet of each other. I couldn’t believe it. I was sprinting to meet them, but in my head I thought these guys hate each other [in storyline]. We kept getting kicked out so instead we would hang around the parking lot. We met a ton of people. I think I have a picture with Vince McMahon somewhere.”

On comparisons to wrestling legends:

“I think especially at that time compared to now. I think I reminded Vince of Paul Orndorff. I reminded Vince a lot of Mr Wonderful. They had me watching a lot of him and working with Paul on the weekend of WrestleMania 21.”

On his dedication to his craft:

“I was doing the schedule of school from 8-3 then working from 4-9. I needed to make money for all this stuff because we didn’t have a lot of money. I would go to the gym from 10pm until midnight. I didn’t make time for homework and missing days, so school suffered. I was spread very thin. I was working in a smoothie shop, Hollywood Smoothies. I then went to Jamba Juice, where I got promoted. I eventually worked as a trainer and worked at Muscle Mag International. That was where I got signed as a pro wrestler.”

On injuries early on in his career:

“I started training at 16, but I fractured my ankle. So I just spent a couple of years focusing on maturing and weight training. I came back pretty much immediately. I came back in great shape. I was going to UPW in California, which is like the west coast territory for WWE [Chris mentions this was where John Cena was discovered]. I think Cena started the same day as me. We trained a few months and I ended up needing surgery on my ankle. When I came back Cena went onto OVW and then to WWE. I was just a couple of years behind him. I was 18 when I came back, started training and got signed by the time I was 19. It happened real quick.”

On achieving his dreams:

“Obviously I would have liked to do a lot more in the business. But it’s fun to hear people that I grew up with say to me ‘you did exactly what you said you were going to.’ It’s great, especially when it’s your dream. That’s the kind of stuff that inspired people.”

On having to go to rehab:

“I had to go to rehab in my first WWE run. When I came out of rehab, I was lighter. Everyone thought I was on steroids, but it wasn’t. I had a prescription pill issue, which a lot of people have had in the business. When I was in rehab, I would wake up every morning and I would go on this 2 mile run. But for someone like me to do something like that, it was for my sanity. By the time I left I had lost 15-20 lbs. I came back slimmer, and I hadn’t really thought about it [the weight loss]. Because I was in rehab I had much deeper issues. When I came back to WWE, I heard a little bit of chatter. Then I felt some pressure to put on 10lbs and eat a little more. The reaction was enough.”

On people thinking he had a steroid addiction:

“I can’t fault people for that. If I was a casual viewer who didn’t see these interviews, that’s what you would assume. You know go to rehab it’s for steroids and he comes back lighter.”

On what pills he was taking and why he needed them:

“Just opiates in general. You hear a lot about this because of Hollywood and pro wrestling. The beautiful thing is when you look at the business now, they really have done a good job of washing that part. We have turned the page on that. For me it was opiates and muscle relaxants. I got injured, my eardrum got ruptured, I remember I was in tremendous pain from it. I had to go into ER because my ear was ringing, I couldn’t sleep. The doctor wrote me a prescription for painkillers. Just various instances of injuries and you take them, it comes more of a dependency. I had unlimited access to it and I was making a lot of money. It spiralled and became a big issue to me. It happened over time, I have an addictive personality. It took control of me for a good time there. But I feel very lucky that I survived. I was taking numbers so astronomical that I shouldn’t be here.”

On when he realized he had a problem:

“It took a while, because WWE had an intervention with me. It wasn’t really until I got released. I remember being in Europe for an independent tour, I had this moment where I looked in the mirror looked at everything I had lost, where it got potentially derailed, I think that was my moment. This was after going to rehab. You can go into rehab as an addict, but you have to believe in yourself. Rehab doesn’t work for everyone, because people going in are forced to or they didn’t accept that they had a problem. Sometimes you got to lose to have that moment.”

On injuring Stevie Richards in his debut match:

“I think I realized right away, because it was a miscue big time. I was aiming for the top of the chest, and I hit him right in the face. It was just awful, and the only time I have ever injured anyone. Stevie was angry backstage, and rightfully so. I think I just knew right away that I probably hurt him. It was a tough day all around. I got food poisoning the day before. Not that it has anything to do with it, but it was a rough day. I couldn’t hold down a drop of water. On top of it I try to muster the energy for this big debut. I psych myself out and end up nailing him in the face with this Polish Hammer. It sucked, I apologise to him to this day. I hold it as a badge of honor that to this day, that’s been the only injury I’ve personally caused.”

On if he considered not competing that night:

“It’s your debut. Anybody who loves wrestling, just imagine. You just know you have to do it. All I could keep down was a little bit of ginger tea. Pro wrestling is not like other things. No matter what you’ve got to get yourself out there and do it. The vignettes had been running for weeks and WWE circled that day. There was no way around it.”

On possible missed title opportunities:

“I think early on. I was considered for a lot of stuff. I was supposed to win the Intercontinental Title but then the intervention happened, so it didn’t happen. I was supposed to win the Tag Titles with Carlito on the WrestleMania where we worked Big Show and Kane. But that got switched the day of, because of a change of plans, which happens. That’s one thing you learn about wrestling, you don’t count your chickens before they hatch. Before something actually happens, you don’t count on it. There was a pre-taped shot with Vince and me where Vince alluded to me being the youngest WWE Champion of all time. This was even after Randy had won it. I know they were considering Cena and me for an angle. I think probably looking back, if anything I think Cena might have shot that down. I don’t think Cena was too happy working with me around that time. [Chris asks why] I could have good matches with HBK, but I felt Cena thought he had to lead me. It’s probably because I was new and stuff like that. It was just a little bit more difficult ring chemistry wise. I don’t even know that for sure. But I was working a lot with Shawn Michaels and I was working a lot with John Cena in the house shows. Shawn was an easier match, but how many years experience did he have. As over as John was, we both started at the same time. I think the lack of experience was the big thing.”

On his return to WWE not being as big of a deal as his first run:

“Absolutely. I came back and I was on RAW initially, but I spent a lot of time on Superstars. It’s a far different getting a push and not getting a push. That was the difference, but that motivated me to be the best in ring worker I could become.”

On a possible WWE Return:

“I’ve been out of the company since 2011. I’d love to come back for a Royal Rumble or something like that. [Chris asks if WWE have been in touch with him] No, I mean you never say never. I feel like they could potentially reach out again at some point. But I’m kind of at the point where at this point I feel like I have been exiled to a certain point. We’ve seen it happen in the past. Like I said, never say never, they could reach out to me for something. I’ve just kind of taken it off my list of goals at this point. I’m focusing on the NWA and my education. It would be an exciting thing, but when you haven’t been reached out to in that period of time, it feels like that’s it.”

On Bobby Lashley now using his old finisher:

“I’ve talked to MVP about this. It only makes sense. If anybody is going to use the full Nelson, the guy who broke it and a guy who is a physical force like Bobby Lashley. It only makes sense. It’s funny when he first started using it. All the mentions of people saying ‘That’s The Master Lock, not The Hurt Lock.’ I’d be lying if I didn’t say it didn’t create an opportunity, even if it was small. You know, whose got the best Full Nelson in professional wrestling. But it has been 10 years, and finishers are recycled in less time than that. But for no one to use the Full Nelson for 10 years. But yeah Master Lock vs. Hurt Lock, that makes sense.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My health, the opportunity of NWA and the drive I have to do all these various things.”

Featured Image Credit: E-Wrestling

Chris Masters can be found on Instagram here and Twitter here.

For more podcast recaps, click here.

Big Cass aka Caz XL (real name William Morrissey) is a professional wrestler known for his time in WWE and NXT. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Tampa and opens up about his return to wrestling after spending time in rehab for his struggles with alcohol. He talks about how he was able to get clean, getting into the best shape of his life, his current relationship with WWE, his interest in AEW, why he was fired from WWE, how Diamond Dallas Page helped him in his journey, his girlfriend AEW broadcaster Lexi Nair, his tag team partner Enzo Amore (aka nZo), what really happened when they invaded the G1 Supercard show at Madison Square Garden and much more!

On how it feels being back:

“It feels amazing. There was a point in time where I thought I don’t want to go back to wrestling. I almost hated it and resented it so bad. I woke up 4 months ago and realized that was the first thing I fell in love with. You want to do what you love in life, you want to do what you’re passionate about, or you’re not gonna be happy. I am passionate about wrestling, and I just started my journey to getting back into the ring.”

On where the journey back to the ring started:

“It started with little things like listening to Something to Wrestle With or listening to some wrestling podcasts. I hadn’t done that in well over a year, so it started with that. I was watching old WWE PPV’s, then I started watching old Ring of Honor stuff. Eventually it kind of consumed me a little bit. The gym was always a big part of my recovery, because it helps me mentally. When I decided I wanted to go back to wrestling, I got really serious. I was doing two days cardio in the morning, then I would life later in the day. Dieting like crazy. If I’m going to come back I’m going to come back in the best shape of my life.”

On whether he was done with wrestling before his comeback:

“Yeah I think so. I was kind of just looking. I was thinking about going back to school to get my masters in social work. I’m very passionate about recovery and I want to help people. That was an option, to go back and get my masters. I was kind of just looking at different paths in my life, and I told myself I wasn’t going back to wrestling. But yeah, here I am. I guess it was resentment, or just that I really hated it for a little while. I didn’t want to be anywhere near it.”

On it not ending right first time around:

“Yeah it didn’t end on my terms. I guess I can make excuses, but you blame everybody but yourself. Especially before you get into recovery. I didn’t want to associate with old friends or with old co-workers. I didn’t want anything to do with wrestling, I guess you just chalk it up to resentment. Reality hit and I was like ‘I really love this [wrestling].’

On if he expected the response following his re-debut:

“No I didn’t. I was speaking to [Luke] Gallows, he reached out and he told me to come to his house in December. I went to his house and he saw how good I was doing, how healthy I was. He said ‘let me get you on a show.’ I believe he booked me on the February show. The two weeks prior and the day of, I was super nervous. What if people don’t pop? What if people don’t react. Gallows kept saying ‘Just trust me, they’re going to react.'”

On what was going through his mind before the re-debut:

“Super nervous. What I did in the match was pretty easy, so we kept it that way on purpose. I wasn’t nervous about the match, I was nervous about the reaction. Are people going to cheer? Are they going to boo, which is better than being indifferent. But the biggest one was what if they don’t recognize me? If they were like ‘Who’s this guy?’ That would have been awful.”

On where he was mentally the last time we saw Cass before the re-debut:

“Doing what I do best, which is pretending that I was happy. I was pretending that I was doing real well and being positive, I was putting on a mask all day, especially in front of the boys. Also I was pretending I was doing great when I wasn’t. I was really struggling on the inside, and that’s something that I used to do real well. It was real dark on the inside.”

On if he knew he had a problem:

“A lot of people would tell me I had a problem. But I think I was so delusional, even after I had that first seizure in Philadelphia. I still didn’t think I had a problem. The next day I thought I had a problem, then 2 days later I was like no I can drink again. I guess after the rest of that year, with all the incidents that happened, and then finally when I went to rehab, was when I finally admitted that I had a serious problem.”

On who decided he needed to go to rehab:

“It was people around me. That was the reason why the rehab didn’t work the first time. Because when you are doing it to appease other people, to make them happy and to see you in a more positive light, that is just not the right intention. A lot of people do go into it for the wrong reasons, and stay for the correct ones. I unfortunately wasn’t one of those people. I went in for the wrong reasons, and I relapsed pretty immediately after I got out of rehab the first time. We are talking hours after I got out. I conditioned my brain to alcohol to such a point that I was mentally obsessed with it. So even when I was in rehab and I passed a liquor store, my brain would light up. Deep down, I knew I was not going to stay sober. I pretended like I was and I lied to myself. I would say ‘yeah you’re really going to do this.’ Deep down I knew I was not going to the first time.”

Chris then asks where did Cass think he was going to go from there:

“I thought I was going to be able to do what I’m always doing, which is pretending at the right times and suffering in silence on my own and fooling people into thinking I was doing great. You can only fool people for so long, the problem is that you’re fooling yourself. So I was really just lying to myself, fooling myself all the time. I thought I was going to pull this off for the rest of my life.”

On if he remembers the night of his seizure:

“I remember doing the signing. I remember I went to lunch with Gangrel. I remember talking with Bubba [Ray Dudley] and Tommy [Dreamer] in the locker room, going over my promo with Dreamer. I was supposed to be on right after intermission, but I had to go sign at intermission. I remember dumping my water bottle over my head [back in Gorilla]. My comb was on the table, and that’s the last thing I remember. I must have walked out to the merch table and I don’t remember anything except being loaded into an ambulance. [Chris asks about being at the hospital] I did what I did best and lied, tried to come up with some bullsh*t. I said maybe I’m dehydrated or I’m not sleeping enough, it’s exhaustion. I knew it was alcohol withdrawal, but I was too embarrassed to admit that to anybody. Some people knew because I had a bottle of liquor in my bag that I didn’t drink from. But I was super embarrassed.”

On if he had alcohol issues in WWE:

“No. When I was with WWE I had responsibility. I had to get on a plane every Saturday and do house shows and then go to TV. Once that responsibility went away, I had an apartment to live in, I had money in the bank, I had a car, I had everything I needed. I had no motivation to do anything. So I just drank all day after my release.”

On if the release was the catalyst:

“I think I had a problem way before. The release gave me the opportunity to live that way with no responsibilities, which is a horrible thing for an addict. 2017 was when it started to go downhill. You’re wearing a mask, you’re hiding and you’re making everybody think you’re ok. You drink in your room and you make sure that nobody sees you. There were so many things going on mentally, I was really struggling but I didn’t want to say anything. It shouldn’t be embarrassing but I was embarrassed and humiliated. I guess there’s a stigma around mental health, which is toughen up. Especially in wrestling or any kind of tough person business. It was telling myself ‘Just toughen up.’ But that’s the wrong way to go about things.”

On if he knew he was going to be released by WWE soon:

“Yeah I had a feeling. I was really acting out and really making a lot of mistakes in a fairly short amount of time. I definitely expected it, that’s for sure. [Chris then mentions the release was 2 days after the Money in the Bank PPV with no future endeavours line, which is usual with WWE releases] Yeah I don’t know what that was about. I remember the day I was fired. It was a meeting with Vince [McMahon]. Me, him and Mark Carrano were in there for quite a while and we had a really good conversation. The performance was touched upon for about a minute, in terms of Big Cass. That whole conversation was about William Morrissey. I don’t know why the future endeavours wasn’t included, I didn’t look into that. I thought it was amicable when I left the building that day.”

On if a WWE return is possible:

“I do. I think with time and earning people’s trust, just as I have earned my families and friends trust. People have to see you doing well over a certain period of time.”

On why now was the time to get clean:

“It became a matter of life and death. I had a few more seizures after the one in Philadelphia. It got to the point where I knew I was going to die. If I keep going down this path I’m gonna die. There was a point where maybe I didn’t even care about that, but for some reason at that point in time I did care. I was like I can’t die, I’ve got to do something about this. I could have easily given up, but some instinctual thing told me to keep going. The hardest thing to do is to reach out for help.”

On how much Diamond Dallas Page helped him with his recovery:

“He helped a lot. He was one of the first people to give me a platform and encourage me to share what I was going through. If I didn’t do that then people can’t relate to it. That was a big first step was me admitting it. I think I admitted it in a promo backstage after I wrestled Jon Moxley. But the video that DDPY put out really got the word out to what I was going through. And it was through Dallas that I met my girlfriend [Lexi Nair, daughter of Dallas Page and AEW Backstage reporter].”

On his future goals:

“So right now I am loving what I am doing. I get to pick my own schedule, work the shows I want to work, enjoy my time alone with my girlfriend. Tampa is a great city, we have two French Bulldogs, so spending time doing our own thing. Ultimately I want to get back to a big stage, because I have a lot of things that I didn’t accomplish in wrestling that I want to accomplish. Enzo and I, we had a good run, we were very memorable. I always want to be memorable. Being a champion to me isn’t worth as much as being super memorable. I want to be memorable as a singles star, that’s a goal of mine. I want to prove to myself that I can do it, because there was a long time where I thought I couldn’t do it anymore.”

“Also, keep speaking out about my story, addiction and mental health. Just help others, that’s the goal in life. I had money, fame and all this stuff, that doesn’t amount to sh*t. I get so much joy out of helping one person. So the goal in life is just to help other people.”

On Enzo helping him these past few years:

“He’s been tremendous. I was staying in New Jersey with him for a while. He was a big part in finally getting me to go to rehab. There’s so many stories of where I was in a hotel room in this city or that city, he’s have to fly out to come and get me. He’s been tremendous, and he’s been super supportive. He’s also super supportive of me getting back into wrestling, whether it’s us or just me. Enzo’s like do your thing man, I want to see you rise.”

On a possible future in All Elite Wrestling:

“I would love to go to AEW. I’d love to go back to WWE, go to AEW, IMPACT, New Japan, Ring of Honor, wherever. Those conversations with Gallows and Anderson have happened and it’s something I would love to do. But one day at a time is the way I take it, I don’t want to look too far into the future. If a phone call comes tonight that’s great, if it doesn’t come for another 3 – 4 months or a year, that’s fine too. I’m open to go anywhere and to have fun, and to make a name for myself.”

On pairing with Enzo Amore:

“When Enzo came to his try-out in FCW, he rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. He can be loud, confident and brash. But he cut a promo on his try-out that was incredible. I said ‘I hope they sign him because I want to do something with this guy.’ At the time I was looking to do more of this New York character. They ended up signing him, low and behold came to FCW. One morning and it says who’s going to start in the program next week, there was his name. I buddied up with him, and from the first time I saw him I wanted to do something with him.”

On where the idea to split up Enzo and Cass came from:

“I don’t know. I just know sometime in 2017 when they did the storyline with Enzo getting jumped, originally it wasn’t supposed to be me. But then I don’t know what happened, then they kind of just went in another direction. Me and Enzo thought it was going to be this person or that group. Maybe it was the week before that they told us. We were swerved, but I was kind of cool with it. I really wanted to be a heel and Enzo is a great babyface to work with. He can take a hell of an ass kicking, it looks like he is getting crushed out there.”

On people being surprised when he got released:

“A lot of people were, but I think it was justified. I was a liability back then. They didn’t know what I was going to do next. So they made the right call. Of course in the moment I was bitter as hell, but it was the right call. I wasn’t surprised. It could have been a phone call but it was a meeting with Vince at least. I met with Vince, it was a really good conversation, very productive and very focused on William, not Big Cass. Then they got me a flight home. I drove to the airport from there and flew home.”

On the G1 super card incident:

“That was crazy and out of control. Nobody knew, so I couldn’t quite get Enzo to process. I said ‘there’s 8 guys in the match, we’re only taking on 2 of them after the match. There’s 6 other guys involved, very formidable wrestlers, that don’t know this is happening. We might get our asses handed to us by 8 people.’ Yeah super nervous, and when we went out there and did it, that felt amazing. There were 6 people in the world that knew about this, including me and Enzo. We got changed at a friend’s office a few blocks by, we walked over to the building and we sent the text to person x. They came down, got us and put us in a room in the back. It was kind of helter skelter too. We had to watch the screen and wait for our cue. There was shock value, the heat we got I think came from guys not knowing. A lot of the times fans like to be smartened up as to what’s going on. There was resentment from some fans at least, they were like they got us.”

“No matter what anyone says now, 20,000 people in that building and I don’t know how many people watching at home, not one person watching at that time thought Enzo and Cass are going to hop the guard rail. The heat transferred from us to the management because we were just doing what we were told.”

On his daily routine:

“So I wake up and the first thing I will do is coffee. Empty stomach I immediately do cardio, which is usually interval training. Usually incline sprints or a rowing machine. I do that for half an hour, then relax and maybe eat something. Later on in the day, handle errands and stuff like that. Later on after that, go to the gym. I only do legs once a week, I don’t want to mess my knees up. Every other day is a push or pull day. I have a look I’m going for, if I do German volume training, I look like that. I do 10 sets of 10. Every time I work out, I do a different exercise.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My girlfriend Lexi, Tampa Bay and the wrestling business.”

Image credit: Bodyslam.net

Big Cass can be found on Twitter here

Image credit: Instagram @riazmeghji

Riaz Meghji is a television host, professional speaker, and author residing in Vancouver, BC, Canada. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about his new book “Every Conversation Counts”, how you can ask better questions in your life, the power of human connection, tips to make people feel famous when you speak to them, his favorite celebrity interviews, and more!

On the art of conversation:

“3 days before I gave a Ted Talk back in 2012. I was a business graduate that defected into television out of passion and commitment. A friend of mine Sam reached out and asked me what was the title going to be for my Ted Talk. Anyone who has the opportunity to present their material, it’s a real opportunity to impact somebody and inspire somebody. Sam asking that question made me wonder why do I love the art of the interview? When I really got down to it, the answer was the power of any given conversation. Not every conversation will be life changing, but every conversation has the potential to save somebody’s life. When I answered that question, I became more intentional in the title of Every Conversation Counts.”

On early mistakes as an interviewer:

“I would make the critical mistake of researching the guest and coming up with what I thought was a brilliant list of questions. When I watch the playback, I would say I asked all my questions, check. But I would miss the mark because I was caught up in all the research. The one key lesson is to overprepare to improvise. The research will give me confidence and show that person I care about the contributions that they have made. But the opportunity for real connection is leaning in and improvising. They may throw something at me that I haven’t researched, but it is a priority to them. Following that lead as opposed to falling back on my questions, that’s how the magic happens. One of the first questions I would throw to my guests in the green room was ‘Hey thanks for being here. What’s on your mind?’ The things that would come out of their mouth would help me understand the priority that’s occupying this person’s mental space. Lets explore this, because they will trust you and explore other mental spaces.”

On the more challenging interviews:

“You make me think of junket interviews. Where someone has that movie coming out, they are in a hotel for the weekend, we only have 5 minutes. They know their talking points, then it’s on us to break through that, which is difficult at times. Becasue there has to be a willingness on their part to share something new. They could be exhausted, it really comes down to a commitment to listening.”

On what made him want to go into interviewing when he was younger:

“It happened in early 2000’s, final semester of university. I was finishing my degree and I was going to be a broker. I had just finished facilitating a conference in Quebec for an international student group. The co-chair, charismatic and funny guy, sat in on my sessions. After the sessions, he said that I shouldn’t go into business. He thought I should go into presentation, whether it was television or other medium. However, because I am from a South Asian family, if you are not a doctor, lawyer, dentist or some sort of financial expert, that’s a problem with mom and dad. I was living the life of what my parents wanted me to be. After that conversation, the seed was planted. My parents were concerned. But now being a parent, I understand they were concerned for my wellbeing. They [my parents] worked hard when I was a kid, and they just wanted to make sure that I would be ok.”

On 5 habits to be a better interviewer:

“The first habit is listen without distraction. Our brain has an appetite for information. During a conversation, I could be looking at my phone, getting distracted, daydreaming. Look at our conversations and realize what’s getting in the way. Number 2, make your small talk bigger. Ask expansive questions, they start with how, what and why? Also, ask for stories, not just answers. Emotion lives in stories. Number 3, put aside your perfect persona. It’s important to lead with honesty and realness, and to put in the work to bring credibility to yourself. Number 4, be assertively empathethic. How can we discover before we dismiss people? Relationship is the foiundation for productiveness. When we disagree, it’s confrontation. Put the relationship first and knowledge second. Acknowledge what someone has said, no matter if you agree or not. People want that sense of belonging. Number 5, make people feel famous.”

On who made him feel famous:

“Tom Cruise. In Vienna, that was my first glimpse of how Tom operates. They told me that Tom would be with fans for hours before the red carpet and then hours with the press. That’s exactly what he did. I thought for sure Tom would brush by me. He came up to me, eye contact and he brushed off his publicist. He was present to answer the question. Everybody needs a champion to lift them up, and it can be anyone.”

On how the pandemic has affected behaviours:

“That human connection isn’t an option, it’s a necessity. Our touch points got overlooked. We were autopilot mode on how we checked in with people. You take that away, and you feel the degree of loneliness. The pandemic didn’t change your identity, it reveals it. It shows how powerful human connection is. What I am asking myself is ‘How can I have meaningful connections, regardless of the context?’

On where to start as an interviewer:

“The number one place to start is to understand the psychology of speaking. I ask if people are there to give something to people, or take something. I ask who in the room can share their perspectives, so I can understand the pinpoints of what people need. So there is clarity and alleviates the anxiety. It’s then about customising the message that serves them.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My wife and my son, a powerful team that got behind the Every Conversation Counts message and you Chris.”

Riaz Meghji can be found on Instagram here. For more blog posts, click here.

Image credit: Instagram @dopepickwan

Kevin Kwan is the personal photographer for comedian and actor Kevin Hart. I have known Kevin Kwan for years and am absolutely fascinated by his story. In this episode we talk about how first fell in love with photography, getting his first job by cold calling a photography studio he found in the Yellow Pages, the first time he met Kevin Hart, being by his side as he rose to fame, how you can land your own dream job and much more!

On his love for photography:

“Yes, always loved photography becasue it’s capturing memories, something you can look back to. Right now it’s funny how Kevin [Hart] just posted that fatherhood is going to be on Netflix and he’s like Kwan I need some pictures for Netflix. I was ready and I’m like I’m on it! A lot of good memories from those photos. They were taken in 2019 and now it’s 2021.”

On moving to America from Hong Kong:

“We basically learned English from school. It’s like people from America learn Spanish and French at school, but they suck at it. When they go to France or Spain they can’t do anything. I’m the same thing, I know the alphabet but I’m 17 I come here. I move to Tuscon Arizona, so it was pretty much all Spanish anyway. If you know English it’s ok, if you know Spanish, you’re good. My dad had some cousins out there and there was an opportunity for me and my brother to go to college there.”

On using film cameras when he started:

“At the time, it was still film time. We were still 35mm. When I come here, you go to Walgreens or Walmart and you get 24 or 36 exposures on your film camera that I brought from Hong Kong. You take photos, drop them off, wait 3 days.”

On where he grew up and how he got started in photography:

“Tuscon Arizona. I’m like hey how can I do that, seriously it was still Yellow Pages. They drop off Yellow Pages twice a year. The guy was like people come to my studio and they want me to take the photo. I was 18 or 19, I guess Kevin Kwan got to make a name for myself. I just looked for photography studios in the yellow pages. Me, my dad and my brother lived together, there was no internet at the time. Anything you try to find, you have to look at Yellow Pages. I would go in like an intern and take the photos.”

On getting vital photography experience:

“I stayed at home. The guy was really cool. He basically had a portrait garden, it was in the desert. He does a lot of scenery portraits. Also, he has this big cactus and a barn, it’s almost Hollywood. So he had this whole portrait garden that he built, waterfalls and stuff. He said I’ll pay you some money if you mow the lawn, clean up, stuff like that. I was cursing up at the time, but I paid my dues. Someone did it to him, he’s successful. Everybody needs to learn.”

On how he made money while being a photography intern:

“My dad would prefer me staying at home. My dad bought a duplex and rented the other side out. The tenant finally leaves, my dad let me live there. I would be working and all I would need is food money. With photography, weddings were good money too. We are talking 20 years ago here, the guy was taking $3,500 – $4,000 a wedding. He would pay me $100 to do it. I was around for 6-7 hours, so good money. I also tried to pick up part time jobs too.”

On how he met Kevin Hart:

“Not until I moved out to LA. I couldn’t live in Tucson Arizona because it was too boring. I finished college and got my graphic design degree. Then I learned photoshop, which at the time was from a scan from film. I moved to Atlanta, then Maine, and in 2003 I moved to LA. I’ve got a lot of friends from Hong Kong that were studying out here. For the first 5 months, I got parking tickets every month, that was extra money I didn’t need to spend. I was working with my guy Johnny Nunes, he was shooting a gig in Arizona. It was a hip hop gig, and I faked that I knew hip hop. That was my first time shooting at a celebrity event. So I told people that I live in LA.”

“I met a couple of the publicists and they invited me to an event in LA. I just brought my camera to fashion shows, parties, events, still no money by the way. That was how I met Kevin. I met his ex wife, who was like ‘Hey I want to be in photography too.’ I said ‘hey how you doing I’m Kevin.’ She then said ‘My husband is named Kevin too.’ And she brought me over to meet him, this was 2006. I didn’t know who he was, I asked what has he been in, and he was in Soul plane at the time. My room mate had the DVD, so we watched it, I had no idea what was box office or anything about movies. I kept running into him and we became friends. He asked me to take pictures for his kids birthday party I’m like yeah sure. I did weddings and families, so this was perfect. I went to his house and it became personal. He wanted family photos and we just talked, texted and kept in touch. He invited me over for Thanksgiving too.”

On when it really took off in his photography career:

“It was 2006 when we met and for a couple of years until about 2009, he was going into bigger tours. I didn’t realize bigger artists travelled this much. He was like, I’m going to take you on tour. He had this tour Laugh At My Pain. I just get on with his travel agents and he flies me out. We would be in 4 cities in a week, and then we would come home.”

On what he won’t photograph in Kevin Hart’s life:

“Most of the time, private time. Some of the private time, you will see. I already know what to put out and what not to put out. Like I’m not going to go into the bathroom when he’s in there. We don’t have to capture everything, I would just film with a purpose. I was on their honeymoon, that’s how close we are. I didn’t think I needed to work for his honeymoon, so I arranged to go to Hong Kong with my fiancée at the time. We book our tickets and everything, then Kevin was like why don’t you take photos of us on our honeymoon. I was like yeah sure.”

On where Dope-pic came from:

“A lot of times I would send photos to Kevin, and he would be like this is dope. Then we were like I’m going to be doing dope pics. Kevin then started the hashtag #DopPic so I tried to trademark it. When Crazy Rich Asians came out I’m no longer the only Kevin Kwan, I’m John smith number 423. I actually have a LinkedIn profile where people message me asking if I wrote Crazy Rich Asians.”

On his preferred cameras and his collection:

“Sony is the easiest right now. People ask why, if you shoot something you can just press a button and the picture is sent, like if Kevin likes it. I definitely own over 20 cameras though. When someone is shooting a movie, I would probably take over 20,000 pictures. The good thing about digital photography is no film.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My family, Kevin Hart and all my friends.”

Kevin Kwan can be found on Instagram here.

Click here for more blog posts.

Image credit: KRQE

Dr. Beau Hightower is a Naprapath, Chiropractic Physician, Certified Exercise Physiologist, Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, Master of Science. He joins Chris Van Vliet from his clinic, Elite-OSM in Albuquerque, NM. He talks about how he became YouTube famous for his work as a chiropractor, working with UFC fighters and WWE and AEW wrestlers, how he met his wife Lais DeLeon, his hammer therapy techniques, being a member of MENSA, Joe Rogan’s critiques of chiropractors, making more money from YouTube than from his clinics and more!

On how he got into chiropracting:

“Way back in the early 90’s I was a big football fan, wrestling fan first. First I liked the 49ers, so I was into Joe Montana and Jerry Rice. At the time, they had a chiropractor that was showing up on network TV with them and they were saying ‘Hey this guy helps keep me in the game.’ When I bandwagon jumped to the Dallas Cowboys in the mid 90’s, they also had a chiropractor. Tiger Woods, Arnold Schwarzenegger, they all had chiropractors. So when I got to high school, I was having some back issues. My parents had always gone to a chiropractor whenever they had pinched a nerve or had a rib out or something I would go. I would notice that I would run faster or have less back pain when I would get adjusted. That was how I became a patient. Then I played college Football.”

“I was a biology major originally, that was my first bachelors degree. I then came to find out that you can’t be a biologist from just a bachelors degree. You need a PHD in biology, and even then you only make $60,000 a year. I wasn’t super into anything other than insects, so my specialization was entomology. I grew up playing Pokémon, so it was like a real life Pokémon collection. You would catch a beetle, and pin it up, gotta catch them all. I wanted to go down that route and they were like ‘Kid there’s no money here.’ Well shoot, what else am I interested in? At the time I was into bodybuilding, after I got out of football.”

“I started thinking about it and my chiropractor played a lot of golf, had long lunch breaks, that might be the career path for me. So I started looking at pharmacy chiropractic physical therapy. I was strongly considering pharmacy, but they said 99% of the jobs in pharmacy will be in retail. I didn’t want to work in a CVS or a Walgreens necessarily, thank god people do though. To have somebody yelling at me why they’re medication isn’t covered etc, I didn’t want to do it. So I started applying to chiropractor school, I got into Parker University in Dallas and that was in 2007.”

“I went through that program, I joined a company in Texas, worked with some UFC fighters in Dallas and San Antonio. I then moved to Cincinnati, then Columbus where I worked with their Olympic team for about 8 months. Finally, I moved back to Albuquerque New Mexico and a couple of months after that I joined Jackson-Wink MMA, which is where I’m broadcasting from now.”

On where his unique treatment methods came from:

“It came from a lot of places. I do have a masters degree in Exercise Science, so when I got to chiro school, I was really good at diagnostics. With chiropracting, the education model is almost identical to medical school. So you take all these crazy classes, immunology, geriatrics, paediatrics, OBGYN, you have to take all these board exams on things that really don’t have anything to do with your clinical practice. So one of my criticisms of chiropracting education is trying to be too much like medical doctors, despite not having the same scope of practice at all. Unfortunately through that process, you don’t know how to treat muscular-skeletal conditions that well because you’re too busy trying to play primary care physician but without prescription abilities.”

“Immediately, I started to realize that there were holes in my treatment arsenal, so I started looking for things that would help me. So I took some soft tissue courses, and I ended up pursuing a second doctorate in nephropathic medicine, which are soft tissue connective specialists. That blended with our rehab education and meeting with some doctors from Holland and Thailand that did the hammer and chisel, and just trying to throw out the stuff that doesn’t work very well and keep the stuff that does.”

On why he uses a hammer and chisel:

“What we are trying to do is get a really specific movement of a very specific bone. So when you do a manual adjustment with your hands, you’re sort of opening up everything. When there’s multiple cracks, that’s multiple joints being opened. So using the hammer and chisel, there’s other forms that are similar to it, like activator for example. The activator is like flicking somebody, it’s not enough force to actually move anything. So sometimes, you got to get out the hammer if you want to get the bone to move.”

On his YouTube success:

“It was blind luck. I started a YouTube channel 14 years ago in 2007. I didn’t really post anything. During my masters degree, I was posting functional movement videos. My Instagram took off first. Historically what I was doing was sponsoring some of the fighters and saying we will comp your treatment, we’ll sponsor you for a camp, just put us on your shorts and show us some love on social media. By doing that, it grew up my Instagram pretty quickly. We filmed some popping of UFC fighters on Instagram, it hit the search page, over 1 million views. Next one 500,000 and 600,000. We were all like what the hell is this? Turns out there’s a weird ASMR fetish thing with cracking. A lot of people are in pain and they want to see other people get worked on, and you add that to the layer of MMA fans. So I took some vertical bone videos and threw them up on YouTube. What do you know, 3 million views, 5 million views.”

“I just happened to be at the front of a very weird edge of the chiro YouTube movement, one of the first ones to put videos up. It went gangbusters, the algorithms loved it, it was kind of like a Dr Pimple Popper type thing. We were like if we added interesting people in that would be cool too. From Instagram we had other athletes reaching out. We were like can we film this? Little by little it just kind of took off. Obviously then the algorithms changed and every chiropractor put their videos online. I’m just super lucky that I am one of the first to do it and having a lot of well known patients right off the bat.”

On people not agreeing with his practices:

“It comes with the territory. It’s funny because people are like you’re not a real doctor. OK cool, whatever you want to believe. We have patients that appreciate what we do, and there’s a ton of literature out there that supports what we do. Things are going to be polarizing, if we have learned anything in the world is that everything is polarizing. Whether it’s vaccines or the Earth being round. This is America and they are welcome to their opinions. By all means they don’t have to get treatments, they can grab their surgical knife any day they want to.”

On how he gets material for his videos:

“So typically, once every month or 2 months we will hit a city, and I will have a list of people who have reached out to me wanting treatment, 99% of them have reached out to me. We’ll collect 8 – 10 videos during that time, my wife comes with me. She will film and edit the videos, and we will put them up every week or 2 weeks until we run out of content. We follow the rules by state. In New Mexico there is a face mask mandate, but there isn’t in Florida. We do that for a week and then I go back to my regular job for 3 – 4 weeks.”

On if anyone can be treated by Dr Beau:

“Not during the pandemic but typically yes. we’re not taking on any new patients until our governor lifts our health order, because we are required to have our quarantine a week, we can’t just have people randomly coming into the office like that. Once the health order is over, we take new patients. We have people flying in from all over the world, Saudi Arabia, Canada you name it. They just come in like regular patients. They will come in 3-4 times a week, get themselves sorted out, we teach them how to take care of themselves. 99% of people we treat are regular people.”

On advice for aspiring YouTubers:

“YouTube wants you to be niche. So find a niche and be consistent. Make sure your thumbnail game is on point, pretty big deal. Give the people what they want not what you want to give them. If people are giving you feedback and you want to grow, you have to give them what they want. You have to offer value to your audience. Collabs are also great. Trying to figure out the new algorithm each month is the name of this game.

On what he is grateful for:

“To be healthy, my family and the opportunity to make people feel better.

Dr. Beau Hightower can be found on Instagram here.

More podcast recaps can be found here.

To watch Dr Beau work his magic on Chris, check out the video below:

Image Credit: Instagram @benaskren

Ben Askren is a retired UFC fighter, amateur wrestler, and podcaster. He joins Chris Van Vliet from his home in Hartland, Wisconsin before his boxing match with Jake Paul on April 17. He talks about why Jake chose him as his opponent, training with Freddie Roach, his retirement from UFC, Jake’s comments about his wife, what he remembers from the fight with Jorge Masvidal, his passion for BitCoin, WWE’s interest in him, and his trip to the Performance Center, Dana White’s $1 million bet on this fight, Snoop Dogg wanting to make it a $2 million bet, wanting to fight Logan Paul if he wins this and much more!

On how big this fight has gotten:

“I mean the guy’s got a huge social media following right? I realized that there was going to be quite a bit of attention on it. But now, especially with the announcement today, it’s going to be a really really big thing. You know [Justin] Bieber has got a very large following, Snoop Dogg has a really large following, there’s a lot of big names on this thing.”

On whether it feels like his biggest fight ever:

“[laughs], hmmm. It doesn’t to me. I’m retired, and this sounded like a fun thing, so I’m gonna do it. I’m working hard and trying to be a boxer. But for other things, those were my life. Wrestling, whether it was trying to win a state title or national title in college, the Olympics or the Olympic trials, those are huge things obviously. I’ve ever fought for or defended a world title in 10 of my 21 professional MMA fights. It doesn’t feel like the biggest fight to me, but yes I think there probably will be more eyes on this than anything I’ve probably ever done.”

On traditional boxing fans not liking the upcoming fight:

“A lot of people have an issue with it. I think it’s one of the things where it’s like I know it’s not ideal but that’s just the way the world works. If these people have gigantic social media followings, and they not as good at boxing as a low level pro, but they are going to get a ton of extra eyeballs.”

On why Jake Paul picked Ben as his opponent:

“I think there’s a combination of me having a pretty good social media following, and he probably thinks I’m not that good at boxing. Those are probably the factors that went into it.”

On Jake Paul’s boxing abilities:

“It has improved, but my whole contention, the whole thing that I have said from the beginning is that if he is good boxer, I’m probably not going to do very well. I was in there with Freddy [Roach] and this guy Gabe Rosado was in there and I’m like I want no part of him. That guy fought for world titles. I’m not that level boxer and I have no illusion that I am at that level. But I don’t think Jake Paul’s that good. While he may look good in those videos and stuff, there’s a big difference between being in the training room and then stepping out on a big stage fighting someone who will be in your face and hit back. I know how to deal with that type of thing and I don’t think that he does. So I’m going to try and expose him for what he is.”

On training with Freddie Roach:

“He was awesome. It was great spending a week out there and seeing how he and the other guys worked. He was great, I picked up quite a few things from him. I’ve had the luxury of being able to work with quite a few good people, but he would be at the top of the list.”

Comparing boxing training to MMA

“Boxing is so much different from MMA because it’s such a specified skillset, you’re only doing a small amount of things. There’s no kicking, there’s no elbowing, there’s no takedowns or grappling. So it’s like focus on this really small skillset. I’ve definitely gotten better at it. The other thing is that I did do some stand-up MMA, but most of my stand-up was how do I get close enough to take my opponent down. If I hit the opponent great, but I’m not too worried about that. Because once I get them on the ground, I hit them a whole bunch. Especially in the first couple of weeks, it was OK why am I doing this? Is it because I want to take you down or do I want to clinch you? Also, learning the differences in the clinching in boxing, which is mainly so they can keep their hand free so they can throw them. In MMA we can pull the opponent in to take them down, or pull them into an elbow. That’s borderline illegal in boxing though [laughs].”

On Jake Paul’s previous fights:

“They’re not very good right. I always say it’s so hard to judge someone’s skill level when this discrepancy is so vast. Nate Robinson looked like he had never been punched before, I think it was obvious that he had never been in a fight. How can I judge someone against that because that was so bad, almost everything is going to look good. The other kid that he fought was even worse than that, he was really bad. I actually don’t think that there is a lot to take away from those fights, besides that Nate Robinson got scared and he was able to land one right hand.”

On his favourite MMA fights:

“The ones where I was at my pinnacle were Douglas Lima. When I won the belt 18 months into my Bellator career, I was still figuring it out. I didn’t really know what I was doing but I was getting there. I took me a few fights after that, I think Douglas Lima was my 3rd title defence. So that fight, the Karl Amoussou fight and the Andrey Koreshkov fight were the ones where I was über dominant. None of the rounds were competitive I won every single round very easily.”

On Dana White betting $1 million dollars on Ben:

“Dana loves to gamble and he knows fighting, so yeah it seems reasonable for him. Snoop Dogg has bet $2 million against me and he knows nothing about fighting, and I guess he likes to waste money, so that’s also reasonable.”

On whether WWE have ever contacted him:

“They did, I went down there in October to the Performance Center. It was fun they we’re really cool. Back in my college days, there was this guy Gerald Brisco. He would always say ‘Ben, if you weighed over 200lbs I could make you a million dollars.’ I said to Jerry I’m not going to be that big ever, so sorry. When I was at the PC, Gerald hung out with me there too, he’s a great guy. I left with an open door there, I couldn’t do it full time because I have my wrestling academy. But they were really cool and they run a professional operation down there.”

On his prediction for the fight:

“Jake is predicting a first round knock out, but I think the knockout will be in the 7th.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My family, bitcoin and wrestling academies.”

Ben Askren can be found on Twitter here and Instagram here

Video version of the interview can be found below:

Image Credit: Sports Illustrated

Eric Bischoff is a wrestling personality, entrepreneur, television producer and co-host of the podcast “83 Weeks”. He joins Chris Van Vliet from his home in Cody, Wyoming to share the story of how he broke into the wrestling business, the lessons he’s learned from working in WCW, WWE and TNA, mistakes he’s made along the way, his thoughts on Sting and Goldberg still wrestling, the jobs he had before he got into wrestling, his career as a television producer after WCW was bought by WCW, what he’s learned working with Conrad Thompson and much more!

On how he first thought about wrestling:

“I started dabbling in front of the camera as a model. I did television commercials, I did print modelling and catalogue modelling. It’s not exactly television but it made me think about television differently. I started to think ‘well what if?’ ‘What if instead of doing a commercial?’ I stumbled into wrestling. I never planned on getting into the wrestling business, I was always a wrestling fan, but the idea of being involved in the business was something that wasn’t even remotely in my subconscious. Then Broadcasting was a manifestation of my early involvement of professional wrestling, and the rest is here we are.”

On moving to WCW:

“When I first broke into the business with the AWA and Vergne Gagne, I was in the office in sales and syndication. I was nowhere near the wrestling product or the production of it. Through a series of timing and coincidences, I ended up on camera as an announcer. I did that for a year or 2 with Verne and then he basically ran out of money and went out of business. For a period of time I was dead broke and I was working for a guy who was also broke. As a result I didn’t see a pay check for about 8 months. By the time I got hired by WCW as an on camera talent, I was so grateful for that gig I didn’t think about doing anything else. I was the guy who said if you want me to I’ll take out the trash at the end of the day. The rest of it just kind of happened naturally.”

On right place right time:

“I often say you can have all the talent in the world, if timing is working against you then it doesn’t really matter. Timing is so important. If Goldberg had come along in 1993, he wouldn’t have lasted 3 months. Rock came at a perfect time and found his real character at a perfect time, when wrestling was at a fever pitch. He had the right people to work with, the right character but he also had the talent.

On his feelings when WCW went out of business:

“No doubt. I don’t want to make this sound like I was angry or resentful, I didn’t like the way things ended because it ended on a bad note. I didn’t dwell on it, to me at that point in my life, my wife and I had talked about it. It was like OK that chapter is over. I would have rewritten the last part of it if I could but it doesn’t matter off we go. It took me a week to shake it off and decide that professional wrestling is in my rear view mirror. I was proud of it, I was grateful for it but I never thought that I would step back in it.”

On Eric potentially buying WCW:

“There was a letter of intent outlining the terms that had been negotiated between between Fusion media [the group Eric was with] and Turner Broadcasting. Everybody had signed off on it. Due diligence had been done, there was close to $1 million in legal fees. We had assurances from all of the top executives at Turner Broadcasting that it would go through. There was even a Wall St conference call announcing the deal publicly based on the letter of intent. My kids were young at the time, and I realized that once the deal was done, I wouldn’t see a vacation again for the next 5 years. The deal was due to close in the next month or 2, so I took my kids on vacation because I had a bit of time on my hands. We all went to Hawaii, thinking as soon as the plane lands back home we have about 2 days and off I go. While I was in Hawaii, I got the phone call saying that the deal was dead.”

On his future in wrestling:

“Maybe every once in a while. A couple of times a year I will appear on a TV show, I do it and it’s fun. I get to see people I’ve had relationships with for 30 plus years. I get to promote the podcast, and fans react to it in a positive way. But that’s it really. I don’t go to wrestling events and I only watch something if it’s interesting to me. I don’t block off my Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights for it. Also, I watch it differently to the average fan does. I’m not just watching the story, I’m watching lighting, camera cuts, sounds. I’m giving the show an autopsy, not watching it.”

On his son getting involved in the business:

“It shouldn’t have come as a surprise but it did. Wahoo McDaniel gave my son his first bump. Garrett was 4 years old and I took him to the AWA offices. Ray Stevens and Wahoo McDaniel were the bookers at the time. I took Garrett after work one day, we were all sitting around the lobby I think there was maybe a beer or two as well. Wahoo is playing around with Garrett and Wahoo picked him up by his ankle. Wahoo is holding my son upside down, and he slipped and let go, Garrett fell right onto his head. Into his teens, Garrett never said anything about wrestling. It wasn’t until I was in TNA that he said to me ‘Dad, I’ve always wanted to do this.’ I said ‘this is the first I’ve heard about it.’ He said ‘I didn’t want to tell you but I really want to do this.’ I told him great but if you’re going to do this you’ve got to do it right. I sent him out to Rikishi’s school, he lived in California to train. He then broke in as a referee.”

On feelings towards TNA:

“There’s a lot of resentment on my part towards TNA. Not necessarily the people, but more the missed opportunity. There was a moment in time while I was there that in my opinion TNA could have done what Bellator did. Viacom was in the mood, they were hungry and learned a lesson with the UFC, they were no longer interested in building other peoples brands. They didn’t want to own a brand but they wanted to own parts of it. I was a big advocate for that but I was met with all kinds of ridiculous resistance. That’s my resentment. I was going to make any more money, but it was such a golden opportunity that doesn’t come around very often. You hate to see somebody f**k it up. That aside, I had a lot of fun in TNA. The highlight was working with my son. Hulk Hogan is my best friend, and I got to work with Hulk, with Ric Flair, with Sting, Mick Foley, Kurt Angle, AJ Styles.”

On people’s view of AEW being like TNA:

“That’s stupid and ignorant, I mean that in the literal sense. People who say those things have no first hand knowledge or experience. They have theoretical knowledge based on their fandom. But they don’t really know what they are talking about. I think what AEW is doing is by no means ground-breaking but they are smart. Brining in former WWE talent with international brand equity and a fan base, what is wrong with that? If you have to rely solely on that I can see the argument. The wrestling audience is not one demo and it’s family viewing. If people today understood the challenge of building a primetime product, you have to appeal to a wide variety of people. If you bring in a load of young fresh talent, no one knows or cares about them. You have to build the relationship with the audience. AEW is bringing in equity with former WWE talent and scratching the nostalgia itch. But they are also simultaneously brining in new and fresh talent. The legends are not detrimental to the new stars.”

On superstars like Goldberg wrestling in their 50’s:

“Goldberg is doing it for the money come on. This is not love of the business or love to get out there and perform. In my opinion, sorry Bill, you and I aren’t close friends but we are friends. And if what I am saying Bill offends you then I apologise because I don’t mean it to but come on dude, do you think he’s doing it for the fun or do you think he’s doing it for the money? It’s smart it’s not a bad thing! I’m not putting it down. If I had the ability at Bill’s age, and look the way Bill did and someone gave me a 7 figure cheque to work 5 minutes come on! Lets be honest with ourselves and not bust anybody’s balls over this. Anyone would do it, we dream about that opportunity.”

On what he is grateful for:

“family, health, friends”

Eric Bischoff can be found on Twitter here.

The 83 Weeks podcast can be found here.

Video version can be found below:

Image credit Wrestling Inc.

Ian Riccaboni is an author, sportscaster, and play-by-play commentator for Ring of Honor Wrestling. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet from his home in Allentown, PA, and talks about being a batboy for the Allentown Ambassadors, acting in TV commercials as a child, his passion for broadcasting, how his mom would take him to wrestling events when he was a kid, paying his dues at The Monster Factory wrestling school, how he got his first break with Ring of Honor, what he learned from working with Kevin Kelly and much more!

On his first wrestling shows:

“In Allentown there’s a place called Ag Hall, which was where a lot of the WWF TV was from 1977/1978 to 1984/1985, but now it’s a building where they run the worlds largest garage sales. In the summertime, they would open up an area next to it and it’s called The Great Allentown fair. It’s kind of a grandstand, there’s a big stage like an old time movie with horse racing and the big concourse. Me, My mom and my brother went in 1991, we bought tickets, we were excited and I was a little bit nervous.”

“We went to Ag hall and we wondered where the wrestling was. It turned out it was in the grandstand section not in Ag Hall. So we turned up and only got to see the last 2 matches, the main event was Big Boss Man and IRS. 1994 was when I remember the first event, we had a superstars TV taping. I got to see Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Yokozuna, Razor, Diesel, you name it. My parents where getting bored because there were a lot of enhancement matches, but I was loving it.”

On appearing in commercials as a child:

“That’s the weirdest thing too, my mom always reminds me of this. I had a friend Tony, his mom worked for the company Kids Peace. When things came up, my friends mom would say that there’s a commercial coming up would Ian like to do it. I said sure, and as I was excited as my career progressed, my mom reminds me of these things I did to get me here. I volunteered to do school plays too, my mom has photos of me as a Mountie in the school musical.”

On how he got into the wrestling business:

“So I was 27 and my wife and I had just bought our first house. I was still working for a pharmaceutical company. I was doing a cable show where I was interviewing famous Phillies fans. One day I interviewed The Blue Meanie, he said why don’t we do it where there is a wrestling ring, lets go to The Monster Factory. I went with Larry Sharp and Danny Cage, and we had a great time. I said to Danny what if my friend [actually me] wanted to do wrestling broadcasting how would they go about that? He said you’re “friend” should learn how to set up and take down the ring, he should come to The Monster Factory and introduce himself to the wrestlers, he gave me a whole list of things to do. It’s about making yourself seem valuable without any expectation of being given anything back in return.”

On how he got into commentating for Ring of Honor:

“It is an interesting path, I thought that it was kind of rare. I’ve always wanted to do this, here’s a chance. So I started showing up, started putting up the ring and breaking down the ring with Damian Martinez, Matt Riddle, LSG. In February of 2014, Kevin Kelly came for a seminar. I said to Danny Cage Can I come to this? He said ‘Do you want a job in Ring if Honor or do you want to sit on your ass all day?’ So I said I would love to work for ROH. Danny said this might be your shot, so wear a suit and make your pitch. So I went and introduced myself to Kevin. He said we are looking to do this thing called Future of Honor. It’s either going to be individual shows or web broadcasting individual matches, but we need somebody. Kevin was doing all the events, so they needed a different voice. I started coming around in the summer of 2014 and over time if Kevin had other obligations e.g. New Japan.”

“By February 2017 I took the lead seat when Kevin signed with New Japan full time. I knew I wouldn’t be the permanent guy, but I wanted to have a shot and I got the shot and I’m still here 4 years later.”

On early memories at ROH:

“I called a lot of matches at The Monster Factory. What’s crazy is that it’s a lot of the guys that you see on TV right now. Matt Riddle, Damian Priest, LSG, Preston Vance were just working through the factory really. It was about 6 or 7 months from walking into the building before I called my first match. I think what broke the ice was me ripping matches from the secret YouTube page and putting commentary over them. I then said I would like to do this, how can we do this with a live feed and live microphones. It would be a lot easier to do this live. It took me taking that initiative to get there.”

On his first match that he called and advice from Kevin Kelly:

“It was Chris Laruso vs Cheeseburger. That was in Nashville, I texted Kevin saying I have some time off from work. If I come down, can I help set up. He said yeah and also bring your stuff. The thing I have learned the most from Kevin Kelly is preparation. That can also be anticipating moments as well as the history and the names of moves. For instance, what will I do if both men are down? What will I do if there’s a shocking roll up put of nowhere? What if there’s an unexpected moment. A lot of people don’t teach that.”

On being a more subtle commentator:

“I think that there’s something to be said for that. I didn’t really subscribe to that until I was a part of this video game that is coming out called Retromania. What was clear in the beta testing was that people were responding really negatively to my commentary. It was for different reasons, either it was too loud or it was too frequent. It was calling every move, tag and pin. There’s something to be said about not being everywhere and not being at the front of the line for everybody’s attention when they are trying to watch these athletes wrestle. That experience enforced that I can be excited, but the fans are not here to see me.”

On being a potential legend in the commentating world:

“I hope so, that would be really cool. I know it’s not a secret that I have had interest from other companies. One of the things that keeps me engaged is that there was 8 of us that could have been the guy. Ring of Honor now only has 1 television show and a few pay-per-view events. It was really neat to be the guy, be that person and have that identity. Ring of Honor have always been about the best wrestling on the planet. For me, it’s something that I can believe in. The company has always treated me well, even before the pandemic when we had my daughter, they paid me for a full month.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My family, the opportunity at Ring of Honor and my health in general.”

Ian Riccaboni can be found on Twitter here.

Video version can be found below: