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Ron Funches on comedy, losing 140 pounds, his love of wrestling, Joe Rogan

in LATEST EPISODES on Share

Image Credit: Instagram @Ronfunch

Ron Funches is a stand-up comedian, writer, and actor known for his work on Trolls, Curb Your Enthusiasm, New Girl, Undateable, Transparent, and numerous other TV shows and films. He joins Chris Van Vliet from his home in Los Angeles to talk about how he broke into comedy, getting his first big break in the business, performing on Conan O’Brien, his voice acting work, how he was able to lose 140 pounds, his experience attending wrestling school, his podcast called “Gettin’ Better with Ron Funches” and much more!

On his podcast:

“I wanted to make a podcast, I wanted to have a home for people to come find me because I do a lot of guest stuff. I’m always a guest in other peoples homes and other projects. People tend to enjoy what I do but I didn’t have a place where people could follow what I was doing and what I was about. I wanted to do something that I liked talking about, which is my general life. A lot of my affirmations came from what I was doing at home with our son. What I wanted to do was talk about a comedic version of self help. I didn’t want to take things too seriously, because I like self help, I’ve read a lot of books about it. I just noticed that being on Twitter that there has been a shift in how I have been communicating with people.”

On why he decided to start losing weight:

“It’s a combination of things. I noticed that my knees were hurting, I was getting on flights and a lady woke me up because it sounded like I have sleep apnoea, she was a nurse and said it sounded like I wasn’t breathing. I was like I’m fine, but later I thought a stranger woke me up because they were concerned about my breathing. Then there was this Thanksgiving where my mom came to visit me and wanted to buy me clothes. She came home and said ‘It hurts me to make me buy clothes that are this size. It makes me worried about you’

Those 2 events pushed me, and the fact that I had just started working on a show where the character was supposed to be a big guy [Undateable on NBC]. The creator Bill Lawrence came up to me and said ‘hey, I’ve seen you in the gym a couple of times. I just want to let you know that we like you. If you want to be this way, I’m happy, but we don’t need the fat guy [as a character]’ He introduced me to his trainer and I was like lets get to it. It was a lot of walking and throwing up for a few months. Before it was because my health is in danger. Now I’m 38 and I want to be in the best shape of my life by the time I’m 40. I was not in the best shape when I turned 30. It’s going to be a fight after 40.”

“I was 360lbs at my heaviest, I’m at 224 right now. The first step was a lot of walking and learning. I don’t have the tools, I never grew up like that. It was always going jogging but then going to Burger King. It took a lot of learning about diet, my wife has been a lot of help. The 2 things that helped me the most were walking and water. If I could give any advice, it would be find something that you can cut out, the first one for me was soda. I made a rule and I stuck to it.

On using wrestling to help him lose weight:

“I spent 3 months at the Santino Brothers Wrestling Academy in California. My friend had passed away suddenly at 34 and it made me realize any day I could die. I’ve always wanted to do a few things. Comedy was one of them and wrestling had been another, so let me go try. It was a great experience, it was nice to try something and not be good at it. When I tried comedy for the first time, I felt like I could do this. I was a natural at it, I could hold the microphone and be on stage fine. When I was doing rolls and taking bumps, I didn’t know what I was doing. I don’t get it or understand it, but I love it so I wanted to keep trying. It was when I realized that I am wasting peoples time that I decided to quit.”


“I wanted to work a match, but I also have a full comedy career. The wrestling was 3 days a week, but I would suddenly have to be out of town for 2 weeks filming. I wasn’t only hurting myself, but also hurting my partner in that time. When I come back, I’m behind and it wasn’t fair for people who were actually trying to become wrestlers.”

“We were in class and there was a show at the weekend. They recommended things like getting a part time job, travel and sleeping in your car. I’ve already done this for comedy! I’m not doing that again for wrestling.”

On how he realized that he was funny:

“Yeah but in a shy way. I wasn’t the class clown but I was in people’s ear making fun of the class clown. It wasn’t until I graduated high school that I was voted funniest person, but I was just talking trash. When you grow up in an unstable household, you learn to use humour to diffuse certain situations. I never thought comedy was a real job, it took a lot of bouncing around and my son being born and being diagnosed with autism. Then I knew that I need to pick a career.”


“I was working at a bank call center, it was my focus because my son was born. I was not good in a corporate structure, the only thing that saved me was that I was good at talking to people. Even though I wouldn’t take enough calls but I got good feedback scores. They then asked to make a training video, and they showed it at this company thing. I could hear them laughing and laughing, and I got that first rush. I was like oh I like that, and if they liked this, what if they listened to stuff I gave a crap about.”

“5 years after my first open mic. I bounced around doing a lot of part time work. We just lived very poorly for a while. My son was the breadwinner a lot of times, he was paying the rent.”

On why he moved to California:

“That would be the divorce (laughs). I didn’t have a steady place to live anymore. So I can either stay here, but I thought it would be better for me to move away. I was living in comedy flop houses and going to auditions on an empty tank of gas. It’s very dangerous, I have ran out of gas a couple of times on the freeway. Luckily, I made it to all the auditions, I didn’t make it back home. My dad had Triple A so he would call them to help me home.

On how he got to appear on Conan O’Brien:

“Conan O’Brien was my first big break. I auditioned and tried things out. I was in Portland and I got momentum from festivals and other comedians seeing me. Guys like Nick Kroll and Aziz Ansari wanted me to open for them. That taught me a lot about being professional and travelling. It was grinding and auditioning. That was how my manager Melanie Truhett saw me. She wanted to work with me and that led me to sending tapes to Conan. Eventually the producers liked it enough that we got it [the appearance].”

On his influences and meeting his hero:

“My 3 biggest influences are Lucille Ball, Mitch Hedberg and Dave Chapelle, who I actually opened for in Montreal. That was one of my biggest comedy accomplishments. They [the audience] did not want me, and by the end of it they loved me. I was like I am powerful, because they wanted Dave! I talked to him a couple of times and he has been very nice to me. He just likes to see other comedians succeed. He had his family with him, but he was very open and a very nice guy.”

On advice for upstarting comedians:

“It’s a great time to start, just get to in to it and write a bunch. Write about what makes you happy, be specific and write a bunch of stuff about what your viewpoint is. It’s like everything else, it’s just repetition and having something to say.”

On being on the Joe Rogan podcast:

“It helped a lot, it’s the biggest platform in the world right now. I could go on late night shows and not get the same reaction. I think Joe is one of the smartest business minds you could come across. He saw the podcast landscape before anyone else had one, and he used his MMA to increase his platform. That’s why I use wrestling, I look to him for a lot of influence in that. It is a double edged sword though. If I go on, my fans are mad because of guests he has had in the past. Then if I express my views, his fans get mad at me. ‘Who are you? You’re a sheep etc.’ Joe Rogan is a regular comedian, regular guy, but he is not the voice of a generation. He has no problem with me telling him things, but his fans do.”

On 3 things he is grateful for:

“My wife, my son and my home.”

Ron Funches can be sound on Twitter here and Instagram here.

Video version can be found below:

Rikishi on training Bow Wow, the Stinkface, his sons Jimmy & Jey Uso, Hell in a Cell, The Rock

in LATEST EPISODES on Share

Image Credit: KnockX Pro

Rikishi is a WWE Hall of Famer from the legendary Anoa’i family. He joins Chris Van Vliet from his home in Los Angeles to talk about his new YouTube channel called “Rikishi Driver Talk Show”, getting inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, his sons Jimmy and Jey Uso, his wrestling school Knokx Pro Wrestling Academy, training rapper Bow Wow, being part of Armageddon 2000 when The Undertaker chokeslammed him off Hell in a Cell, getting shot in a drive-by shooting in 1987 and dying for three minutes, how being part of Too Cool changed the course of his career and much more!

On Bow Wow beginning training at his wrestling school:

“He hasn’t started yet but we have been talking. Back in the day I was actually coming onto a flight in Atlanta, and as I was making my way to my seat Bow Wow was sitting there. I think he was about 9 or 10 years old at the time, but he was already making hit records, and we just kind of kicked off. Me, I was on my way to work and so was he. My father figure kind of kicked in saying I’m very proud of you and continue the hard work, make sure you do good in school etc.
27 or so years later, I see this tweet come up and I just put a message out to him. I just felt like I knew this kid for a long time and I just felt obligated to teach him the right way. He’s not in California, he’s in Atlanta. But he will be coming here some time this month to get it going. But I’m gonna train him like I train all my students.
We know his celebrity status, but for him to really understand the industry correctly, we got to put that all aside. He’s got to understand that when he gets in the ring how to protect himself, how to be a storyteller and all that theatrical movement. As of now, it’s not a publicity stunt, he’s actually going to train. But I’m excited and it’s good for business. If Bow Wow can come in and put asses in seats at Wrestlemania, then why not?”

On how he became a wrestler:

“Pro Wrestling saved my life. In San Francisco I was raised in the swamps of Sunnydale, which is the hood back in the bay area. I’ll be honest I wasn’t the best of kids that followed the rules. My background is my grandparents are preachers. We go to church and we pray all the time but I was going the opposite way. I ran with the wrong crowd and at 17 I got hit by a drive-by shooting. I nearly lost my life, I was actually dead for 3 minutes. Next thing I know I woke up in an ambulance and all I could see was my mothers face.
So I was in the hospital for 2 months, and when I got out my mother made the decision that I was going to leave California. She sent me to her brother’s Afa and Sika. I was 18 and away it went, I kind of just fell into the industry.”

On letting his sons The Usos be wrestlers:

“I was very apprehensive. Their upbringing and my upbringing were very different. They boys [Jimmy and Jey] they got a chance to go to college and they lived a good life. I went out there and did what I had to do to make sure that they didn’t come up the way that I did. Jimmy and Jey have been around the business all their lives. I just wanted them to do something different. The plan after I retired was to be on the side-lines of NFL. It didn’t matter what team. I just wanted to get an RV and travel to all of their games. One day I was out on the road, I came home and they both sat me down. They then threw the curveball that they didn’t want to play football, they wanted to join the family business. It was difficult for me because I knew if I went against it, that it wasn’t going to work out. So as a father you always have to support. It wasn’t my decision, but I explained what it’s going to be like.”

On when everything started to click:

“I want to say at the beginning of my career. What I mean by that is the lessons that I learned coming into this industry. I’m so blessed to have a family circle that is so tight. I started at 18 and turned pro when I was 20. Then I’m travelling to Texas with the Von Erichs I’m travelling to Puerto Rico with Carlos Colón. But all these experiences my uncle has taken us to, it really helped me prep for the WWE. By the time we came to the big time, I’m 23 or 24. We were the strong horses that the big companies look for to dance with their big stars. I was so used to making $30, by the time that I got to the WWE and made the big contract, it didn’t phase me at all. The value of making $30 for hard work on the independent scene, now when I come in to WWE, it’s just extra to us.
Our job was to stay employed, stay out of the drama and to protect every time we jump into the ring. My uncles used to say you respect that squared circle, if you do, you’re going to have a job for a long time.”

On the origin of his famous attire:

“When Too Cool hit, I knew it was all gravy from there. I was getting paid to stick my ass in people’s faces and bust a move. All these years it took me breaking my body, bumping, getting hit with chairs, you name it. Then finally, this is what takes me to that next level. I’m very grateful that all the fans really made me feel that it’s OK to be my size, wear a thong and do what I do.
The thong was all Vince McMahons idea. Keep in mind I was The Sultan before that. I signed a 4 year deal as The Sultan, I came on TV and I was crushing people every Monday night. I think it was 2 months, next thing you know they plan to go the opposite way. Bret turned heel and he was going up against The Patriot. So who better to put The Patriot over than the guy from the Middle East?
When that happened, I said to Vince “Where do we go from here?” He said “We’ll go back to the drawing board.” I had just signed my 4 year contract, so I just stayed out the way and didn’t make any noise. During the 90 day clause before your contract is over, I went to wrestle Kurt Angle who was just starting out in Memphis. Bruce Prichard saw me and I was 450lbs. But I could still move and I was light on my feet. By the time I came back after that match with Kurt, Vince wanted to have a meeting with me.

We had that meeting and away we went. He came up with the idea of wanting to do a Sumo. As soon as he said that, I thought of my cousin Yokozuna. I didn’t want to do a sumo character because my cousin had already done it. Then Vince was like “Yours will be different. I want you to show your butt with the shoot sumo gear.” When he said that I said “So you mean everything showing the whole thing [my ass] on TV?” He said yes, the real thing. I’m 90 days out from this Sultan contract. I’m thinking first about my kids, I didn’t want them to start ribbing my kids. So I took the drawing home and said I would get back to you [Vince].
I went home, had dinner and pulled the drawing out and said this is going to be my new character. I asked my kids “Would you be upset if I wore this on TV?” They were all fine with it and that was all I had to hear. I already knew people were going to be smirking at this. But in my mind, I’m going to make this work. I asked to change up a few things. That’s where the blond hair and dancing came in. I thought it would be cool for us to treat people with a dance. You’ve never seen it after a match before. We wanted to give them something special and the rest was history.”

On the origin of the stink face:

“I’m still trying to find this lady from Alabama. I wrestled Boss Man on a house show with the thong gimmick. When you clothesline someone [to set up for the [stink face] Boss Man fell down in position. There’s 20,000 people in the arena and all I heard was “Rikishi! Turn around and stick your butt in his face!” This where that slow look comes from. I’m looking slowly at the front row trying to figure out who is saying that. As I turn around and see Boss Man in the corner. When make that first step, the pop is loud. When I take the next step, it’s even louder. By the time I got to him and turned around, it was a pop I’ve never heard before. Keep in mind we have never done this. Boss Man then says “Alright baby, come on and stick that booty in my face, we’ve got em now! Bring it on baby!” He took that stink face like a champ. The next day was Monday night RAW, and that was when we introduced the stink face on TV.”

On doing the stink face to various stars:

“When the roster saw me come back in this new outfit, they all thought it was a rib, but they wouldn’t say it to my face. In our industry, everyone thinks a change is a rib. There were times where a lot of the guys took it [stink face] because they knew their role and it was my time. Booker T took it straight up, so did The Rock and Angle. A lot of guys didn’t want to take it, but they knew if Vince McMahon was going to take it [they would too]. When he was due to take it, he said to me “Rikishi. I hope you’ve cleaned your buttocks today.” But he took it like a champ. No one ever said to my face they didn’t want to do it though.”

On the Armageddon 2000 Hell in a Cell fall:

“I knew I wasn’t the person going over in that match. But I also thought what can I do to steal that away and have people talk about it years down the line? It was very nerve wracking. I watched Mick Foley fall off and could have died in any of those bumps. It was my time [to be thrown], and Undertaker was known for throwing people off [the cell]. I never knew that when my time came, it would be taking a bump backwards onto a steel flatbed truck. There’s no rewind from that. When he grabbed me, my last words to him were “Tell my family I love them.” But it’s that moment, you can’t turn back now. This is what you signed up for, what you trained for. People have paid their hard earned money to watch you guys do what you do best.
I’m thankful that I was safe and they still play my high spot in the years to come. Earlier Shane went up there and asked me if I want to practice it. I said no I just wanted to do it during show time. He went up there and walked me through it. He did it [the bump] a couple of times. When I got up there, I felt like I should have done it beforehand.

“They did have padding in that truck. But when you’re coming from a 50 foot cage and you weigh 450lbs, I hit every part of that steel flatbed and the truck went to the springs. Man, I was so full of anxiety in the moment, when I landed you can see my lips shaking. I moved my toes to make sure I had feeling in my body. I was laid out and they drove that truck to the back and everybody in gorilla gave me a standing ovation. After that I said “I’m doing that [big bump] one time and that’s it!”

On what he is grateful for:

“My family and my new grandkids.”

For more information on Rikishi’s wrestling school KnokX Pro click here.

Rikishi can be found on Twitter here and Instagram here.

Video version can be found below:

Sabu on working for Paul Heyman, his favorite ECW matches, why ECW in WWE didn’t work

in LATEST EPISODES on Share

Image credit: MMA Crossfire

Sabu and Super Genie (Melissa Coates) talk to Chris Van Vliet from their home in Las Vegas, NV. Sabu talks about his time in ECW, what he learned from working with Paul Heyman, how he got his infamous scars, his regrets not signing a $400,000 a year deal with Kevin Sullivan in WCW, his biography called “Sabu: Scars, Silence and Superglue”, his children’s book “Sabu vs. The Three Little Pigs” and more! He also discusses the lifesaving surgery that Super Genie had that causes her left leg to be amputated at the knee due to blood clots.

Super Genie on adjusting to her recent leg surgery:

Super Genie: “I’m hanging in there, it’s definitely a large change. The doctors don’t know what happened that caused me to lose my leg. I’ve been to all these specialists and had all these tests, [they’ve taken] 13 vials of blood and it’s been a shocker. I’ve made my entire career off of pro bodybuilding and pro wrestling and then suddenly to have your leg amputated above your knee it’s just quite the unexpected shock. [A GoFundMe has been created to support Melissa. To donate click here.]

“With the prosthetic legs, besides the procedures, is that you’re not just given them. If you want a really good one it’s super expensive, like $100,000. If I wanted to have a leg that brought me to where I was bodybuilding or wrestling wise, I can’t just have a basic leg.”

On how the leg injury started:

Sabu: “It started with pain in her calf, after a couple of weeks we took her to the hospital and they said she might have had a pulled Achilles. 3 weeks later she had pain in her calf again, so we took her back and they said her leg was dying.”

Super Genie: “Long story short it seemed like a pulled muscle, but in my family there is a history of clots, artery issues, vein and heart problems. I started to have pain in my leg 6 weeks before the amputation. I did what I should have done I went to urgent care. Unfortunately the doctor didn’t check my arteries, he only checked the veins. So it wasn’t a full exam. Weeks later I’m back in the hospital and there telling me they’re most likely going to have to amputate my leg, so it was just awful.”

On Sabu’s worst injuries:

Sabu: “The biggest one would be the time [Chris] Benoit threw me on my head, the broken neck that was pretty bad. The second one would be the scar I got on my arm when I wrestled Terry Funk. Right now my lower back is what hurts the most, but my shoulder and my neck are also really bad. But my back is the worst, I’ve got spinal stenosis in my lower back.

Chris then asks about if all of Sabu’s chest/torso scars happened at once and his barbed wire match origins:

“No it’s definitely real barbed wire. I didn’t actually sign up for my first barbed wire match. On my second tour of Japan, it just so happened that I was having a barbed wire match. I didn’t know about it until the last minute. So I didn’t think that much about it. I just took in my stride, try hard like I do any other time and hope that people liked it. I tried so hard that people thought I liked doing it, but I didn’t, I was just doing what was faced in front of me.”

“The first tour I did a barbed wire match it was just the one. But the next tour it was 3, and the third tour was 16. So they kept adding more and more with each tour. Every day of the final tour was a barbed wire match.

On why he used a steel chair in a unique style:

Sabu: “I just wanted to use a steel chair in a different way. So I would jump off it, or throw it or kick it or whatever, so it’s something different to whacking a guy in the head with it.

On the origin of the Sabu name:

Sabu: “My uncle [The Sheik] came up with it. He originally called me Sabu the elephant boy from Bombay India. Because his hero when he was growing up was Sabu Dastagir, who played Mowgli in Jungle Book. He used to run around town with a towel on his head. When he had his first child, he wanted to name him Sabu, but his wife wouldn’t let him, so they named the dog Sabu. That means I’m actually the second Sabu. The fans still thought I was from Bombay in India, so I changed it to Bombay Michigan. But in India, The Elephant Boy is like a cowboy, so I had a lot of respect in India.”

“He set me straight. For the 5 years, I was a regular wrestler. I didn’t leave the ring, did 10 minute matches and was only going to be first match of the show. From day one [Shiek] said you’re not going to be like me, don’t give me that sh*t.” Not that I didn’t want to, I knew that there was already him.”

On losing a potential $400,000 WCW contract:

Sabu: “It [the contract value] was a little more than that but close enough. It was 1 year guaranteed, 2 years maybe. They [WCW] offered me some money, I went down to have a meeting with JJ Dillon and Kevin Sullivan. They offered me this huge contract, and I was sh*tting my pants. So I said “let me take this back to my hotel and read it.” Kevin said “don’t read it just sign it.” I said “I have to read it,” when really I just wanted to tell my mother before I signed it just for the hell of it. But when I called my mother, she had a heart attack on the phone before I could tell her. So I hung up the phone and flew right home, and I was in intensive care with my mother.
I called Kevin Sullivan from the ICU and said I’ve got that contract I’m going to fax it over to you now. Kevin goes “too late,” and I lost the contract in 6 hours. They dropped it so quick because Paul [Heyman] called up WCW offices and threatened to sue.”

On trying out for WWF and experiences with WWECW:

Sabu: “That was only a 1 year deal, and it wasn’t much money and they said they were going to keep Sabu the way he was in ECW. But when I got there, they took Paul off of the booking meetings, so I had no one there who had my back. I said to Dusty Rhodes “why am I getting the sh*t kicked out of me in the ring?” And he goes “you don’t have any friends in the booking meeting.” I looked at him like he was one of my friends, but he repeated I had no friends and walked away. So you’ve got kiss somebody’s ass for them to bring your name up in the booking meetings, if you dont’, they just throw you by the wayside.”

“The WWF was just a try-out for a couple of days and I didn’t want to take it. Later on, when they called me to do the WWE ECW, that’s when they said that they were going to keep Sabu the same and all this stuff.
After I got there it slowly changed, and when Paul was out, it all changed. They wanted to soften be down for WWE ECW. I had already toned myself down, but they wanted to town it down even more. If I jumped off a chair and did a kick, they said you can’t do that, because that’s Jeff Hardy’s spot. I go break a table leg, they say no Elijah Burke is going to break a table leg. But I go it’s my gimmick. They respond not here it isn’t. Anything I said I invented, you didn’t invent it here. We would do WWE ECW hardcore matches on the road, and they wouldn’t be extreme matches. We wouldn’t even break a table or use a chair.”

On working with John Cena:

Sabu: “I liked working with John. I got a lot of bad information given to me about him, but it was all lies and jealousy. John could work, a nice guy, he wasn’t selfish and called my spots when I forgot them. Whenever I got lost he called it for me. We planned out half of the match in the dressing room, and called the rest of it in the ring. He was always on the right page. A lot of guys are jealous of him because of his big push, but he deserves it.”

On whether he should be in the WWE Hall of Fame:

Sabu: “I said I wouldn’t be because I think it’s the fakest hall of fame there is, but I would do it for the pay off. I would make sure that everybody knows that I’m a hall of famer because they say it. I’m supposed to be getting inducted into the Iowa hall of fame this year. That to me is a real hall of fame, because they put amateur wrestlers, pro wrestlers and even boxers in. But it’s all about wrestling, not which celebrity is on the show. But when I was there [in WWE] I didn’t have any hall of fame year or hall of fame matches in WWE. I think RVD will definitely be going in. One time, me and Rob [Van Dam] said to Vince [McMahon] “We are losing our fans.” Vince said “F*ck those fans, we’ll make new ones.” But the new ones are too soft. The original ECW fans were bloodthirsty fans that bought every show no matter how bad it was.”

On if he can wrestle now and retirement:

Sabu: “I wrestled in October, but I was in so much pain that I had to cancel my matches in January and March [2021]. I don’t know when I will be able to wrestle again until I get surgery on my back. After surgery I plan to wrestle again. For my final match, I want to wrestle Brock Lesnar. I told Paul I wanted to but he was on a different contract at the time.”

Super Genie: “If you did wrestle Brock then I think it would be your last match! (laughs)!

Sabu can be found on Twitter here.

Chris Gronkowski on playing in the NFL, his younger brother Rob and being on Shark Tank

in LATEST EPISODES on Share

Image credit: Instagram @chrisgronkowski

Chris Gronkowski joins Chris Van Vliet from his home in Dallas, TX. Chris is the CEO and founder of Ice Shaker and also the older brother of NFL star Rob Gronkowski. He talks about his time in the NFL playing for the Dallas Cowboys, the Indianapolis Colts, and the Denver Broncos, what it was like not being drafted, being the middle of 5 Gronkowski brothers, the moment that he knew Rob was an elite football player, whether or not he thought Rob would stay retired from the NFL, his experience on the ABC show “Shark Tank”, working with Alex Rodriguez and Mark Cuban, what fatherhood has taught him and much more!

On being one of 5 children:

“I’m still trying to figure out how she did it [raising 5 children]. I now have 3 boys, and 3 is a lot! Having 5 is a full time job, especially if you are playing sports. She fed us every meal from breakfast, she packed our lunches, she fed us dinner and we were not able to go out to eat. As soon as we could walk, we were out of control. My mom would tell us stories about how I would push the dresser over and block the door if we got sent to our rooms. I think I was 3 or 4 back then.”

On how they progressed as sportsmen:

“We’re definitely good. We were usually the best players on our teams. I think a lot of it came from being brothers and naturally competing against each other. We were always playing sports, our mom didn’t let us watch TV. It was always get outside and get that energy out. In high school, our dad realized that there were opportunities there and he got us a speed coach. That took us to another level. You can be strong but to have control of your body and to have speed is that number 1 asset to get to the next level. Without that I wouldn’t have got a scholarship. At that age, if you have the right coach you can really improve a lot.”

On how Football got started:

“Football didn’t start until high school. Even then it didn’t start until the second oldest Dan started. The oldest brother never played, he had no interest in it. My dad never forced us into it, we weren’t a football family. It all came about when people saw Dan, he was 6 foot 6 and 235lbs. Naturally everyone was like you’re playing football man. He ended up being the started quarterback and it was the coolest thing ever. I was sitting there and thought I got to be cool like my bro so that’s why I started playing. It was just the domino effect after that.”

On Rob in high school:

“The second he got into high school he was taller than me. He grew so fast, so he didn’t have the agility to control his body. But eventually he grew into it, at that point it was pretty impressive to watch. By his sophomore year (my senior year) he’s catching passes, he’s a featured player on the team. One time he scored all the points in one game. You could see that he was going to be next level. I do think that he is the greatest tight-end of all time.”

On playing in the NFL while not getting drafted:

“I wasn’t expecting it but I thought that there would be a small chance. As a fullback there’s maybe 1 or 2 guys that would be drafted, and I was hoping that I would be one of them. At the end of the day, it was almost better that I didn’t get drafted. When you do, you don’t get to pick where you go, especially late in the draft. When a team takes you that doesn’t really need you, you won’t start for them and it’s not a good spot. I went undrafted, so I could pick where I went. My agent picked a great spot for me, he knew there was a great chance I would get on the team if I went to the Cowboys.”

“Being undrafted is a one shot thing. When I went in, I did everything I could to be ready for that one opportunity. If you don’t perform then, you won’t ever get another chance again. You don’t want to be the only one in your family that didn’t make it, that was my mindset going in. I just wanted to play, I didn’t care where I went. Once I got there, head down and doing everything I could to be the best player that I could possibly be.”

On living in the shadow of Rob:

“It’s pretty sweet actually! I get all the benefits without getting my ass whooped everyday. As we grew up, it was about supporting each other and helping each other get to the next level. When you see someone get there, it’s just respect at this point. It’s a lot of work, every day in an absolute grind. It’s not a game, it’s a job and a very stressful one. To see him do it for over 10 years, I couldn’t imagine it for 5 or 6.”

On if Rob would stay retired:

“I thought he would. I know when I stopped playing, it was a huge relief. Football is the most stressful situation to be in. Any day I could be cut, I could be on the streets and unpaid. Every play could be your last play. I had to wear a mouthguard when I slept because I was grinding my teeth every night. If you were late to practice its a $1,000 fine or you get cut. It’s a crazy job, once I left that and slept in for the first time in 4 years, it was nice. Once you step away it’s hard to get back into that mindset and routine. He had a lot of good gigs and the money was still rolling in. But he went back because that fire was still burning.”

On how his business Ice Shaker got started:

“My wife has an engraving business, and she was getting a ton of these insulating cups coming in. I didn’t know what it was at the time but she engraved one for me so I used it. In Texas where it’s so hot it was pretty sweet. But then I had to go home and grab a shaker bottle that wasn’t insulated. By the time I got to the gym, the bottle was sweating. I realized there wasn’t an insulated bottle that could shake and blend. At that point, it was the simplest idea that no one has done yet. It wasn’t just for the gym, it was one cup to use all day every day.”

On being entertaining on Shark Tank and deciding to play flip cup:

“The flip cup was my idea. They wanted to do a fitness contest, but I wanted something that is entertaining. We would obviously win any fitness exercise, so we did something more fun. The producers at ABC didn’t want to do it because it promotes drinking, but we stated that we drinking water.”

“Originally you just have to send a submission video to be on the show. From there, it’s a 4 month process of the producers liking it, due diligence, tax checks etc. They want you to be prepared so it’s a good show, they do a lot of work. After it aired, the exposure from the show reached 5 million people. That turns into funding and it’s free advertising. From there the business grew. We could take it from one color and one size to take it to more colors and more sizes. First it started at sales of around $80,000, after Shark Tank it’s about $3 million.
It went from a side hustle to a full time business overnight. It [the exposure from Shark Tank] lasts more than just a day because of Hulu. Because it aired in October it fed into Christmas and New Year’s Revolutions. The pandemic definitely hit us at first, but now everyone needs a water bottle wherever they go. “

On his morning routine:

“It used to be going straight to the gym. But now with COVID it has definitely changed. We also had a kid during COVID, so now we are super careful. I stopped going to the gym and started doing home workouts. But you can’t do home workouts at 5am because it’s pitch black. I had to switch it up a bit and start doing stuff with the kids. When you are home all day every day you have to find things to do with them, I’ve started to do my workouts with them too. But now I’m waking up I’m crushing the most important things I’ve got to take care of for work. I then wake the kids up and try to get a workout in with them, try and get some energy out of them.”

On what he is grateful for:

“Electricity, my wife and my family.”

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

John Silver on Brodie Lee, The Dark Order, Being The Elite, working as an extra for WW‪E

in LATEST EPISODES on Share

Image credit: Instagram @silvernumber1

AEW star John Silver joins Chris Van Vliet from his home in Long Island, NY. He talks about signing with AEW, being part of The Dark Order, working as enhancement talent for WWE, his favorite memories of the late Brodie Lee (Jon Huber), his tag team partner Alex Reynolds, getting trained by Mikey Whipwreck, being able to show his personality on Being The Elite, his odd jobs before becoming a full-time wrestler and much more!

On jobs he had before AEW:

“When I got hired, I was working at a gym called Lifetime as a trainer. My girlfriend makes fun of me because I’ve had a million jobs. Since I was 18 I’ve worked in multiple pizza places, kickboxing instructor, multiple gyms. Basically anything where I could make money but also get off so I can wrestle. I got lucky because Alex [Reynolds] also worked at Lifetime, but at a different location. I got hired because my boss used to wrestle and loved wrestling. He let me have the days off but I had to show up on the days I wasn’t wrestling.”

On when he realized wrestling would be full time:

“I think it was when they put us in The Dark Order. Every time we went down to AEW, Matt Jackson always came up to us with an idea. But it was always very nonchalant, so I didn’t think it was going to happen. The first time we went down, we lost to Santana and Ortiz in a minute and a half. [before the match] We were pumped because we were hit up, then they said “Hey we wanna book you for AEW.” It wasn’t that we asked or anything, they came to us. When we got there, the board said local talent. We could have been anyone really.”

“We then thought we weren’t hoping to come back But Matt Jackson had this idea. He suggested that we come back every week and always announced as the local talent and lose. I was like whatever you want. It was then 2 weeks off, I thought we weren’t getting called back, but we were called for West Virginia episode of Dynamite. They hit us up, and we had the match with Trent and Chuck. They flew us out and put us up in a hotel. Matt Jackson then said “Oh we might put you in the Dark Order, I don’t know.” I didn’t know if it was going to happen or not.”

“I think it was another week or 2 we were off and eventually it started to progress. We started filming vignettes and all that stuff. Once we got into The Dark Order, we knew this was going to be our job.”

On a plan B:

“I was always trying to think of stuff that I would enjoy in case wrestling didn’t work out. I gave myself until 30. If I didn’t make it by then, maybe I would have moved to Hawaii, or somewhere nice and just work on the resort. I’m not big on a fancy car and lots of money, I just like to enjoy myself and enjoy my life. But it never came to that so we’re good.”

On his time as an extra in WWE and if he thought it would go further:

“No, because just the way that they do stuff. [In WWE] If you’re an extra, that means nothing, unless you are an extra that’s 6 foot 6 and jacked. If you’re not, they don’t care. How many people have been signed because they got squashed and WWE liked that? I knew it wasn’t very likely. Back in the day, they used to have you do matches during the day, and they would see if they liked you then. I’ve done extra work a bunch of times and I’ve had one match during the day against Alex. We had a good match it went 5 minutes, but I’m looking around and I don’t think anyone there is in a position to hire anyone. People said they liked it, but I never thought anything would come from it.”

On wearing masks in The Dark Order:

“It was weird. I feel like there wasn’t really a conversation on the mask situation. They gave us the masks, we thought that we were going to come to the ring with the masks on and take them off when we wrestle. Then they were like no it’s the opposite way. They already know what your face looks like, you come to the ring without the masks but you put them on when you wrestle. I didn’t want to wrestle with a mask on again, I’ve wrestled in Chikara with a mask and it’s not fun. Obviously, I’m just happy to be there.”

“But the mask is tight, it moves around, you can’t see as good as you normally can. They gave us the masks, and they were pretty crappy masks. So we had to buy our own. We had to have a conversation with Christopher Daniels on if we should, because we didn’t know if this was going to be for just a few shows. It ended up being a few months, but I needed to get something that feels good on the beard.”

Chris: When was it decided that the masks should come off?

“When BTE happened and people liked us. Tony watches it and went “Don’t wear your mask. You have all this character show your face, why are you wearing a mask?” I’m lucky he said something eventually. I thought it was funny that he said it as if I want to wear the mask all the time.”

On Being the Elite (BTE) appearances:

“I don’t know if it was Uno’s idea or Matt Jackson’s for us. He mentioned that we should do some recruitment bits for BTE. Uno said it would be good for Johnny and Alex. The first thing we filmed was a reason why we should recruit people. We had us in the room, Brody comes in, throws the papers at Uno and we saw so many comments about that bit. After that we knew we needed to film stuff. We need Brodie, we need the whole group.”

“BTE is 100% our ideas, 100% stuff we say. It’s just us being us, no one is telling us to do anything. It’s cool that people are liking it, because that means they are liking us as people. There’s not much of a character that I’m playing, it’s just us joking around really. It’s crazy how much that affects Dynamite. If you stuff on BTE, people will start chanting it at the Dynamite shows.”

“Me and Alex thought we were going to get fired. When the pandemic hit, New York was in lockdown, so we couldn’t go to any shows. And they Stu and Uno are from Canada, they couldn’t do any shows. We had Brodie do his debut, then after that we weren’t there so they added 5 and 10. Then we were like OK that’s it, those are our replacements, because they both go to Cody’s school, The Nightmare Factory. We eventually came back, we were in bad spirits, me and Alex. We decided to do the BTE stuff. And that completely changed everything.”

On how he met Alex Reynolds for the first time:

“It was when I started training at 14 years old. I think Alex was 18. He started training about a week or 2 before I did. I started training and Mikey Whipwreck was a trainer. With him you’ve got to do the basics right. We took about 2-3 months before we were allowed in the ring, it was just chain wrestling on the outside. There were 8 new people at that time, so we all stayed together. I think out of all those 8, only me and Alex stayed together. We realized that Alex lives pretty close to me, so I asked him for a ride home. My mum would drive me there and he would drive me home. Multiple car rides of 15 – 20 minutes. Once people started liking us, we started going to Taco Bell and hanging out. So it all kind of came from there.”

On working the Brodie Lee tribute show:

“I’m a pretty emotional guy, so that was difficult, but I thought I was going to be worse. The whole day was difficult, being around people. It was good too, but I’m like I can’t stop thinking about this. The match itself, if you look at the first match [Colt Cabana and The Young Bucks vs Matt Hardy and Private Party] If you look, I wasn’t there for the entrance, I come in late because I went to the back. I went to my room and I was not in a good mood. I forgot Colt was up and I forgot I had to do the entrance. When I heard the music and I thought screw it, I started running. You don’t see me coming out with them, but when Colt eventually does the pose, I’m there.”

“The match itself, I got out there and I have the match on my mind. In a sense it is taking me away from Brodie, but it’s something to think about. It was right after once I hit the [discus] line it kind of all hit me at once. So it was very difficult but it all hit me at once.”

On Brodie Lee as a person:

“He was the man. He was such a happy good guy. There was no negativity, he was always laughing, he would always have this big smile, especially with this big beard he had going on. But he’s just a good guy. He bought the ring jacket I have just because it would help me look more like a star if I had it. He also bought me matching gear that I wore at the Brodie show.
It was just supposed to be for the BTE sketch, and then I asked him he’s like I want to buy you this stuff it’s going to be cool. I’m like that’s so cool what’s the sketch. He’s like I don’t know, we’ll think of something. He didn’t have a real idea in mind, but he thought it would be funny if Silver dresses like me one day. It wasn’t cheap gear, altogether it cost over $1,000 that he spent on me that he didn’t have to, I didn’t ask for it. Just because he thought it would be good for BTE and for me and the skits we do.”

“He’s just super nice, always positive. I don’t think anyone has a bad thing to ever say about him. He was such a good guy, such a genuine guy and so funny too. We’re trying to get through these sketches, and he would purposely try his absolute hardest to make me laugh. If I laugh, we’ve got to do it again. You see so many sketches of him getting right into my face and screaming sh*t at me, and just trying to make me laugh. It always worked, which is why we had to start pretending we were crying because we were always laughing.”

On the Alex Reynolds injury:

“I didn’t know until Billy Gunn realized. I didn’t see it happen, I think I was on the floor. Alex was in the corner, so I go up to Alex and he was fine talking to me. We had to do something coming up in the match. Billy Gunn was like “go check on him now.” I go up to Alex and say “Are you good.” and he’s like “Yeah I’m good.” But he’s just laying there. I’m like OK this is our spot. Then he starts to get up and I realize oh no he isn’t good. But the way he was talking to me was fine. He wasn’t slurring or anything weird. So once he got moving, I could have grabbed him and done everything myself, but at that point he’s up and he’s there. It was so quick. I was going to try and tell Nick [Jackson] hey he’s messed up, but at that point he’s already doing everything. I think I said it as it’s going on, but I don’t know if he heard me. Nick realized pretty quick as it’s going on that Alex is a little messed up there.”

On future goals:

“I want to keep the ball rolling forward. Right now, I really can’t wait until the full force crowds come back, it’s going to be a whole different world. I always want to be on TV and relevant. I don’t want to fall off for a few weeks. Of course, you want to win the belt. This year I want an action figure too.”

On what he is grateful for:

“Where I’m at in life in general, my fans, my family and friends.”

John Silver can be found on Twitter here and Instagram here.

The video version can be found below:

Cory Sandhagen on his flying knee KO to Frankie Edgar, getting a title shot in 2021, the power of visualizatio‪n

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Image credit: Instagram @enterthesandman135

UFC Welterweight Cory Sandhagen talks to Chris Van Vliet from his home in Aurora, Colorado. He talks about his 28-second flying knee KO against Frankie Edgar, earning a title shot, what he learns from a win and what he learns from a loss, his training regimen, playing basketball as a kid, how he first discovered MMA, how much visualization helps him both in and outside of the octagon, his pre-fight rituals, how he got his nickname “The Sandman”, and much more.

On cauliflower ears:

“I was probably 17, that was when I got it a little bit. At 20, that was when I had it really bad in one ear. The way it works is the cartilage gets separated from the skin and it fills up with blood. If you don’t get the blood out, it will just solidify and that’s when it’s really big and ugly. Mine aren’t too bad, but at one point it was literally like having a ping pong ball hanging off of my ear. I was going to get syringes at King Soopers to get the blood out, but after a month they stopped selling me syringes because they thought that I was doing drugs. It starts in one little corner with a bit of swelling. But then you let it get hit a few times and that’s all she wrote.”

On his flying knee knockout:

“I have definitely been hurt after some fights, even if I win. But this one I’m completely fine, which I am blessed for. It doesn’t get much better than that. I didn’t think it was going to happen like that. I’ve never knocked anyone out like that before in my life. So it was interesting to go through those set of emotions. You are happy, but you also understand that the person that you have knocked out has family, friends and people that do love watching. It was a bit strange in that way, but it doesn’t get too much better than that. The knee was loud, and it turned his head pretty hard. I remember (because there’s no fans) sitting there afterwards and no one is making any noise. That was when I realized that it was not normal, it was pretty devastating.”

“I used to judge people a lot on how they acted after their fight. I would think that guy is arrogant or that guy is an idiot. But I stopped judging them because I did it a few times and the state of mind going into a fight isn’t normal. It requires a higher level of intensity that people might not understand. The adrenaline was still kicking in, and my corner said the fight was over, lets show some respect. I then settled down a bit and started to feel about doing it.”

“I didn’t get to speak to him later, but I sent him a message saying I hope everything is OK. It’s always a bit awkward after you beat someone. You don’t know what to say to them, especially as there is no sport that hurts when you lose like it does in MMA. He replied to my message, and all is good now.”

On learning from victories and defeats:

“I think you can learn from both, it just depends how honest you want to be with yourself. I think a lot of my success from me being really honest with myself. And me being like even if I did pull off a win, I would try to pick out as many things as I could that went wrong. That has been really helpful for me. I do think that losing, because I have had 2 losses as a professional, my one before last year was 3 – 4 years ago, reminded me that you are doing something serious that you can get harmed in.

It also reminds you that losing is the worst, you know. Having those conversations with people when you get back home, just the way people look at you and the whole experience of losing is miserable. I think sometimes you need to be reminded of that. After my last loss, I made the decision that I’m not going to lose again (laughs).”

On when his next title shot will be:

“The UFC is run like a business. The bigger your name is, the more likelihood you have of securing that thing. I know I have a lot of people in that division that are really huge names. The bantamweight division is a really hot division right now. I’m the new guy that is putting my footmark and stuff. If you look at it on paper, I definitely think that I have earned it, especially after something like my last fight. I think that I’ve deserved it and earned it. But at the same time, I’m not going to bank on it, I’m not going to put any eggs in that basket. Whoever they tell me to fight I’ll fight next, as long as it’s reasonable. I’m just going to keep it moving.”

On whether he watches his matches back:

“I watch a decent amount, to be honest. I’m a real visual learner, I learn a lot by watching. Whenever I feel like I’m getting too far away from things I do, especially in the training room, usually I will go back and watch a couple of my fights. I will go that was really good here and that was really good here. I think as far as film study goes, I probably do more on myself, watching myself making mistakes than I watch my opponents film.”

On why he decided to become an MMA fighter:

“It was probably when I was 18 years old. I had started training when I was 17. But before that I was doing some boxing and taekwondo, I actually grew up playing basketball. We were always a competitive basketball family, my sister was a basketball player too, so not playing basketball was never an option. I tried to make that suggestion to my mum when I was a senior in high school. She told me if I have to wear a singlet, the I’m not allowed to wrestle. So we stuck with basketball and I had been training for about a year.

“I had a best friend who lost his life when we were both 18. I realized really quick that all of this can be taken away, that’s how it happens, especially when you are young. That was pretty much the catalyst that made me go I am going to do what I want. I wanted the full experience of life, whatever it had to offer.”

On nerves and fighting with no crowds:

“I get myself in a state of mind where when I’m walking, there isn’t much going on. It’s pretty much just fight my best and keeping myself safe and that I’m hurting the other person as much as I can. That’s pretty much all that’s in my brain when I am making the walk. It’s more the weeks leading up to it that’s the nerves part. I don’t notice that there’s no audience anymore. My loss last year was my first fight without the crowd. I anticipated it, I can’t really make an excuse that it had anything to do with the result. But it was a bit strange the first time.”

On visualization:

“More or less. It’s also important to visualize a lot of the mistakes you might make too, so you don’t have an oh crap moment. Those are really important. For me it’s a lot of every little thing, every position, every advantage or disadvantage that might happen in the fight. What gets me really motivated is the post fight visualization. I like visualizing making a speech afterwards, picking up my pay check, facetiming my family and girlfriend. Also all of the people that I have made happy from my victory.”

“I use visualization in all aspects of my life. I’m a lot less hippy than I was 5 or 6 years ago. The word spiritual stirs up a lot of connotations that don’t align with my value system. I do a lot of visualization on what is happening inside of me, because a lot of things are happening inside of us. We have a lot going on, our world is very hectic and very fast. If you don’t sit down and sit with a lot of those things, they will manifest in some other way. I do a lot of meditation and visualization on me. What do I have to do to be a good person by the definition of it. It could mean baggage, I sometimes need to take a couple of breaths and be with my body.”

On his morning and daily routines:

“I have my coffee and mess around on my phone until the coffee kicks in and I’m more awake. I’ll usually get up at around 6:00 – 6:30. I usually don’t have anything to do until about 10. I will either read, meditate or do some visualization because I want to know what I want the day to look like. When I’m not training super hard, I need a lot more stimulation than when I am. It’s a lot of reading and studying. Right now I am reading Be Here Now, I also started reading The Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manly Hall. It’s a little bit out there. But when I’m training I don’t have the attention span to stick with a book like that.”

On where his nickname The Sandman came from:

“I’ve actually always kind of been called that. It doesn’t really have any character meaning. When I was a kid, my teachers always used to sing the Mr Sandman song. So that was a bit where it used to start. People also used to call me sandy, which I didn’t really dig. I’m never coming out to Enter Sandman by Metallica, it wouldn’t be true to myself. My Instagram handle actually comes from Enter The Dragon, which is my favourite movie.”

On 3 things that he is grateful for:

“That I don’t need to kill myself in the training room every day, that I have more energy to give to my relationships and that there is really nice weather in Colorado.”

Cory Sandhagen can be found on Instagram here.

Video version can be found below:

Mike Chioda on his WWE release, working for AEW, his favorite matches to ref, Vince McMaho‪n

in LATEST EPISODES on Share

Image credit: F4WOnline

Referee Mike Chioda joins Chris Van Vliet from his home in Tampa, Florida. He talks about being released from WWE after 35 years, working for AEW, the differences between refereeing in WWE and AEW, his favorite matches, what he learned from Vince McMahon, his podcast “Monday Mailbag” on AdFreeShows, the ring collapse spot with Big Show and Brock Lesnar, his advice for someone who wants to be a referee and much more!

On refereeing Chris’s favourite match: The Rock vs Hulk Hogan from Wrestlemania X8:

“There’s this picture on my Twitter account where I am watching Rock and Hogan, and we didn’t do anything in the ring, just the stare down. We had them on the entrance. Canada has been such an awesome crowd for wrestling, look at all the great talent that has come from there. Every guy from Canada knew how to work and how to tell a story. The Rock vs Hogan match wasn’t going to be a high flying manoeuvre match, it wasn’t going to be this amazing technical match. It was just icon vs icon, and it really tore the house down. They just had the people from the start to the finish, and they were wiped out after that match. All of the energy was just taken away after that. Chris Jericho (who was main eventing that show) knew it should have gone on last.”

Chris then recalls Hulk Hogan telling him a story off camera that the NWO turning on him after the match was not planned:

“I remember them coming down, and I remember them being back there. It was a question of whether they decided how that match went, and where they wanted to go for the next year with Hogan. So that was a call on Vince McMahon’s part I believe. I’m a believer that we should dictate the crowd, not the other way around. But on that night, we had no choice, it dictated where that match should have been on the card. I marked out when they had that stare down, it was a passing of the torch moment.”

On who called him from AEW and his last months in WWE:

“Cody Rhodes and Chris Jericho got in touch with me, which I really appreciate. I actually heard from Cody a couple of weeks ago, so I’m waiting to hear something back. I got a few more years left in me, I don’t want to be around forever though. A few years ago, Triple H came to me and said we are going in a different direction with the company and he didn’t want to see me in the ring when I am 65 years old. I agreed with him on that, I have accomplished everything I wanted to do in the business.
When I got released, I thought I was going to be transitioned to a training role at the Performance Center and train referees. But then I got the call on April 15th and I was shocked.”

On how he became a referee:

“At first I wanted to be a wrestler, but Gorilla Monsoon changed my mind. I worked for him, and he gave me the words of wisdom that long term career in wrestling is refereeing. You can have 10 good years as a wrestler, but if you keep your head straight and do the job right, you can be a referee for 20-30 years. He also taught me how to bump like a referee because they don’t bump like wrestlers do. So as a result I’ve had 33 years of refereeing, 31 of those on TV and 35 years with the company.”

On advice for anyone aspiring to be a referee:

“The biggest things are to be on time, don’t miss your flights and don’t party too much. You have to have a strong household at home so that the family is taken care of. You have to be prepared to miss holidays, because they are no days off. Step one is to go to the Performance Center, because that is where you will learn the quickest. You could spend 10 years on the independent scene, but it won’t be the same as what WWE wants. I am actually think about starting up my own classes, but how many people really want to be a referee? If you are a referee for WWE, you don’t get any royalties. The average referee makes about $125,000 but there will be around $30,000 in expenses. There’s fuel and travel costs for example. Then after that and paying taxes, the take home is about $60,000.”

Chris then asks about Mike being in a videogame:

“Yeah I was, but then I was taken out. I talked to John Laurinaitis about being in the game, then shortly afterwards I was out. I even said to John I would split the royalties with all the referees that have been here for a long time. But I was still taken out of the game. Instead, they took some guy from the office, paid him $2,000, and used him in the videogame instead. That was where it really hurt.”

On The Big Show vs Brock Lesnar ring break spot:

“That was very cool. The backstage producers wanted me to really sell the ring collapse. The wrestlers are selling it by being unconscious, I’m the one sitting up like holy sh*t what happened? The guys in my ear loved it. The pop wasn’t as big as Rock and Hogan but it was there. To get the ring to collapse, they put air bags underneath. When it’s time for the spot, they just release the pressure. We (Brock, Big Show and myself) didn’t rehearse the collapse beforehand, but they did test it with an empty ring. It was great to be a part of such an iconic moment in professional wrestling.”

On the Wrestlemania 19 Brock Lesnar shooting star botch:

“Brock almost hit that, and he was far out! That was supposed to be the finish of the match, but we went in a different direction. But that happens. Brock is such a big dude, but he is so athletic. I knew he could get it, but it was just too far out. When it happened, I just cringed. Thank god he was such a big dude, because anyone smaller would have broken something. When he landed on his head, I just hoped it wasn’t another Droz moment. It’s not a pretty sight, I just made sure that Brock was OK at the time. His eyed were glazed, he was not alright. I remember when we got Brock to the back, we rushed him right away to the hospital.”

On the Mick Foley vs Randy Orton Hardcore match from Backlash 2004:

“Randy did not like those matches, because he was not that type of wrestler. By the end of the match, he had about 50 thumbtacks in his back. I remember telling him “Just think about the payday.” It was a phenomenal match, but it was just a normal day for Cactus Jack though. For Randy, he was afraid of getting 10 scars, gashes etc, but he came out of it OK. There were thumbtacks everywhere. I remember wiping the mat before I counted, but I still have tacks in my hand. I remember thinking if this hurts, how does Randy feel right now? As a referee, I can’t complain at a few tacks in my hand if they are going through all this.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My mother, my wife, my health and 35 years of working for WWE.”

Mike Chioda can be found on Twitter here.

Video version can be found below:

Solomonster Sounds Off – How Jason Solomon turned his love of wrestling into a top podcast‬

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Image Credit: Twitter @solomonster

Jason Solomon talks to Chris Van Vliet from his home in New York City. He talks about why he started his podcast “Solomonster Sounds Off”, how it grew to be one of the most popular wrestling podcasts in the world, his first memories of wrestling, being an Orange Cassidy doppelgänger, the lessons he learned from his late mother and father, doing commentary for House of Glory with JDfromNY206, his love for the 1992 Royal Rumble, his favorite match of all time and more!

On being compared to Orange Cassidy:

“I don’t think I look like him and I don’t know how it got started. But it has taken on a life of its own though. Maybe he was doing a backyard wrestling league when he was younger, but one of the news sites had a screen shot of him when he was younger. When I saw that screenshot, it stopped me in my tracks. It looked exactly like me at that age. I tried to meet him on the Jericho cruise, but he chickened out. So I call him Cowardly Cassidy now.”

On starting his podcast and advice to others:

“The first year was 2007. I predate Joe Rogan, I wish I had those numbers though. Back then they were called audio shows, not podcasts. A friend of mine runs the website SEScoops. At the time, my thought was it was nice to have an aggregate site, but I thought it would be better to have an audio update. I pitched it to him to do one of these every week and he loved it. It’s harder to start a podcast because everyone has a podcast these days. It’s hard to build an audience, but I was lucky. I had people coming to this website, so there was a foot in the door there.”

“If someone wants to start a podcast, they need to do it because they love it, not just for the money. It took me about 4 or 5 years before I started to see financial success from it.”

On his day job:

“I work in PR, and I have for 16 years. Originally I was going to be in broadcast journalism. I wanted to be Mean Gene or Vince McMahon. I was midway through that field, working at my college radio station. I wanted to be the first person to bring a wrestling show to that radio station. I never had the chance though, but they wanted to offer me a rock and roll show. I didn’t want to do that and it got to a point where I questioned whether I wanted to do this. After talking to someone in my journalism class, I switched from journalism to PR and I found it more interesting. So I have stuck with that ever since.”

On doing commentary for House of Glory Wrestling

“It was being in the right place at the right time and knowing the right people. I am friendly with JD, who does the play by play for HOG. He does a tremendous job. He asked me to come down to the show because they were trying something. It was pitched as something similar to WWE Kick-off show. I’m wearing a grey suit in the middle of August. There is no air conditioning and I am sweating through. So we did the panel, and I thought I was just going to take a seat and watch the show. What actually happened was someone asked if I would be interested in doing one of the matches. It happened to be an Impact Championship match with Austin Aires as the champion. From there it just snowballed.”

On the impact of COVID and utilizing video content:

“Weirdly March and April last year were some of my best months. I was preparing for everything to go down, the only question is by how much? People listen in the gym, but they are closed for example. I was preparing myself for the worst. I wasn’t doing a lot of video stuff until May last year. I felt like such a dinosaur, my shows were just my audio over an image. The video was such a game changer, there’s this hunger for that kind of content.”

On the time he almost died:

“It was me being a klutz. We were staying in a house and my room was outside. The door was a sliding door. I thought it was open, it was not, and the door shattered. There was this pool of blood I am bleeding heavily. We are in the middle of Columbia and I have no idea where the nearest hospital is. Eventually we make it and I’m in the waiting room and there is a pool of blood forming under the wheelchair. There was no major artery damage but there was enough blood loss that it could have been fatal. When they stitched me up, there was still glass in my knee. So when I got home, I had to have surgery to remove that. The worst thing was I had no excuse for that, it wasn’t like I was drunk.”

On his love of the 1992 Royal Rumble:

“For a whole variety of reasons, it can’t be topped. Everything about it just can’t be replicated. For the first time, the title was on the line. Then there’s the star power. The commentary is amazing too, Bobby Heenan had his best night ever during that match.”

On lessons learned from his late parents:

“I don’t think it was one particular lesson. Their main goal was to raise someone that was respectful of other people. I think the biggest thing from my mums side was if there’s something you want to do, then do it. She loved the podcast, fans would come up to her because of it. My favourite podcast episode ever was the Mother’s Day episode where she was on.”

On 3 things he is grateful for:

“My friends, the success of the show and my health.”

Jason Solomon can be found on Twitter here.

Full audio can be found here:

Video version can be found here:

Matt Cardona on AEW & Impact debuts, marrying Chelsea Green, his bachelor party plans.

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Image credit Instagram @themattcardona

Matt Cardona (aka Zack Ryder) talks with Chris Van Vliet from his home in Orlando, FL. He talks about his appearances on AEW, the contract he had there, his debut on IMPACT, his goal to win the World Heavyweight Championship, his new podcast network “The Major Pod Network”, his friendship with Brian Myers, his wedding to Chelsea Green being postponed because of COVID, the original plans for his bachelor party, his Mount Rushmore of wrestling action figures and much more!

On his new podcast network, The Major Pod Network:

“There’s 6 podcasts right now. There’s the major figure podcast, the FWF (figure wrestling federation). It’s 6 months of me and Brian Myers rebooking the attitude era with figures. Brian has his own podcast called Extreme Conversations, talking about ECW with legit guys. For example an interview with Tommy Dreamer talking about Heatwave. There’s also Off the Hop Rope, which is about beer and The Game Marks podcast. The one that everyone has been talking about the most is the newest one, The MC True Long Island Show, which is a spin off of my YouTube series. The first episode of that comes out on the 17th February, which is 10 years to the day that I did the YouTube show. Originally I was just going to drop a reunion show. But we never got that far. Our producer suggested a watch along with what was going on behind the scenes, in my career and my life. It took me 10 years to realize that I had some influence somehow.”

On starting his YouTube series:

“With the original YouTube show, I was with WWE for a couple of years at the time. I did the thing with Edge and I was a Tag Team Champion, but I always wanted something more. I knew I was going to start a YouTube show, but I didn’t know exactly what it was going to be. I knew I had to try something, because just sending emails to the writers in WWE wasn’t getting it done. I had to take it into my own hands and do something for myself. I wanted to create so much buzz that I would be either noticed or fired. I didn’t want to get fired, I wanted to do more in WWE. But if they do release me, I had buzz to go to TNA or whatever.”

On what is different now compared to being in WWE:

“Creative freedom. I can do what I want without needing approval. I’m just trying to have fun with my podcasts. With the time off, I needed the time out of the ring. I didn’t feel like it was weighing me down until it stopped. On paper, 2020 should have been an awful year. I get fired from my dream job, I test positive for COVID and I have to cancel my wedding. But I thought it was a great year. I have been using it to capitalize on this creative freedom and build this brand. It’s been so much fun.”

On his journey to Impact Wrestling:

“After April 15th (the date of the mass releases from WWE), I was in contact with so many different people and promotions. The AEW thing worked out first. that was only for a couple of dates, that was all that we had agreed on. We agreed on a couple of nights and a PPV. AEW was awesome, but I was just in a long term relationship (with WWE) and I didn’t want to jump straight into another one. I was enjoying the free time at home, building the podcast. Time just flew by, it was the end of December and I hadn’t even been in a ring since September, yet alone had a match. The Friday before Hard to Kill I got a text saying do I want to work tomorrow? I responded “Always Ready.” There was no concrete plan and it just worked out.”

“I am a free agent for now, it’s awesome for me. I like to be able to bounce around and do what I want to do now. The podcast is nearly as important as wrestling is right now. I want to be able to do everything. Wrestling is the ultimate goal, but podcasting has been so creatively fulfilling.”

On who he wants to work with at Impact:

“Ace Austin, we had a match on night one. In 5 years, he will be a name that everyone will be talking about. But I’ve never wrestled Moose, I’ve never wrestled Eddie Edwards. Rich Swann, Chris Bey, so many guys. Then there is Gallows and Anderson and Eric Young, who I have wrestled before, but never with the time or the spotlight. I don’t want to team with Brian Myers again but if he wants a fight he’s got one (laughs).”

On his relationship with Brian Myers:

“Brian and I, we are pretty much brothers. We have known each other since we were 18. We were in WWE together and on the road together for 4 days a week. Then we would go home and live together for the other 3 days. It was too much, we got sick of each other for a couple of months. He’s somebody who I am super fortunate to have grown up with. On a personal and professional level, one of my greatest moments was when we won the Tag Titles at Wrestlemania. I had the best seat in the house for that.”

On having to delay his marriage to Chelsea Green and the original bachelor party plan:

“I don’t know when it’s going to take place now. It was supposed to be on New Year’s Eve in Vegas. But when we realized all of this was going down, we knew it wasn’t going to be happening. So we cancelled it before any of the serious planning went down, so it wasn’t as heart breaking. Her family is travelling in from Canada, so that’s a problem.”

“The original bachelor party was going to be Disneyland California VIP tour. Private guide and both parks in a day. Forget Vegas and strip clubs, I want VIP Disneyland.”

On a typical day right now:

“Usually, it’s pretty good. I’ve just got back from Impact tapings. Monday morning, I’ll wake up, make some breakfast and go to the gym. I then don’t really have to do anything unless it’s packing foam titles from website orders. I do all the fulfilment on that stuff. That way it is handled and shipped the right way. We record our podcast a couple of nights a week. I live in Florida, it’s beautiful weather, I can go to theme parks or hang by the pool.”

On his Impact dream match:

“Now that he’s back, I would love to wrestle Christian Cage. I would love to test my skills against him. Now that he’s back, who knows? I had some gear designed like his, but now that he came back at the Royal Rumble, I can’t wear it. But with the crossover with both New Japan and AEW, you don’t know who is going to show up.”

On a Mount Rushmore of wrestling figures:

“That answer can change day to day to be honest. But right now, for me it would be the LJN Macho Man, Hasbro series 1 Hulk Hogan, maybe then a Jaxx Stone Cold Steve Austin and a Mattel John Cena.”

On when he will retire:

“I’m now 35, so its’ my 18th year in the business, nearly half my life. When I was at Impact, I feel like I haven’t missed a beat. Guys like Jericho and Christian keep going, this generation of wrestlers have learned to take care of themselves better. But obviously injuries are going to happen. Your body is your tool and you have to take care of it. Whether it’s proper rest, proper nutrition, proper training, you have to be smart about it. I don’t want to be the guy where people think I should be done, but I’m not there yet. When I’m in the ring, I don’t feel older or slower. I don’t feel like I should retire, I will go until my body tells me otherwise.”

On possibly becoming Impact World Champion:

“That’s one of my goals. Every day I add Impact world champion to my list of goals for the day. I’m not there to pass the torch, I’m there to light a brand new torch. I’m here to make an Impact, I would love to get a title opportunity, so lets see what happens.”

On 3 things he is grateful for:

“Chelsea Green, the opportunity at Impact and my dog.”

Full podcast audio can be found here:

Video version can be found below:

Matt Cardona can be found on Twitter here and Instagram here.

The Mindset Mentor: Rob Dial on how you can accomplish absolutely anything with the right mindset

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Image credit Rob Dial

The host of “The Mindset Mentor” podcast, Rob Dial, joins Chris Van Vliet from his home in Austin, TX. He brings some incredible insight into how you can live a better life, the things you can do every day to help yourself develop a better mindset, the tools, and tactics he used to grow his podcast to the top of the Apple charts, his favorite books, why everyone should have a mentor and much more!

On what he does and how he got started:

“That’s really hard. If someone has just met me and I don’t want to get into long conversation, I just say I have a social media company. If someone wants to go in more detail, I say I teach people how to overcome their mental barriers by changing their mindset. There’s a lot of different hats that I wear. I started my podcast 5 and a half years ago, and people didn’t know what a podcast was. So I stared making social media videos, because that’s where everyone was at the time. I had to figure out how to put my podcast content into a social media video, and how to make that video go viral. I spent years figuring out how to make videos go viral. I was known as the social media guy after that, because we got 1.5 billion followers on Facebook. I got a lot of followers from that, and transferred them over to the podcast. I also teach people who are coaches how to grow their businesses.

Five years ago, Facebook was the thing before Instagram was the thing. When I started seeing videos going viral, I would get thousands more followers from that. I was still working at another company, but I hadn’t fully left yet. I was undecided on whether this is going to be my thing or not, and invest a lot of money into it. If one of my videos went viral, the only costs were production costs. I just try to give as much content as possible. My podcast are on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. We also just started Thursdays. I’m announcing this exclusively for you, we are going to be adding a Tuesday podcast. So there will be podcasts 5 days a week. We post on Facebook 12 times a day. We post on Instagram 4 times a day. I’m trying to combat all the negative things on social media with positive stuff. I’m trying to put as much positivity out there as possible. Some people think I might be posting too much, but I’m trying to fill their newsfeeds with positive stuff. We are trying to get them out of the mindset that the world is going to sh*t.”

On where he gets his ideas from:

“There’s a part of your brain called the reticular activating system. An example is if you buy a particular car, you start to see that car everywhere. At one point on time, I realized I was not just a person, I was a production company. When that switch flipped in my head, it was like ideas started to come in. I overhear people and I hear them say something, and I take little notes. I have hundreds of notes in my phone. We are almost 900 episodes in on the podcast. I have hundreds that I haven’t even done. That’s where the ideas come from. I’ll talk to some of my clients and think that’s a great idea, that should be a podcast episode. I overhear my friends talking, and constantly my head is thinking. There’s never a shortage of content.”

On how he beat the computer algorithms:

“That was the reason why I started doing 3 podcasts a week. Everything is run by computers and algorithms. I look at the algorithm and think how can I give these computers what they want? For example, if someone is putting out 1 episode a week and I’m putting out 3 episodes a week, the computer sees I’m getting 3 times as many downloads. Even if we are getting the same number of downloads per episode. The result is I am rising up in the rankings, so more people can see the podcast.”

On his first hit:

“The first video that went crazy was called “You’re being brainwashed,” which was about how the news brainwashes you with negativity. The human brain is wired to spot what is bad. This is because it cares about you staying alive, so you seek the negativity and solve it to keep alive. The news understands this. The more negativity they put out, the more people will see it. From this, the news gets more money from advertising. I explained this in a video where I said the world is getting safer. The world isn’t perfect, but it’s not as bad as it is made out to be. Within the first 24 hours, that video did 17 million views. When 200,000 followers came within 7 days, I realized I might be onto something. Every week I try to put out a video where I get as much information as possible in about 3 and a half minutes.”

On how human psychology is linked to his videos:

“Psychology has always been a big thing for me. I thought I wanted to be a psychology major, but then I found sales. I can make more money, I don’t have to get a degree and I can drop out right now. So I got in sales, and the psychology of sales was really interesting to me. Everything I do, I understand that there is phycology as well as computers. I’m trying to give everyone a movie in 3 and a half minutes. I’m always trying to think of the person that’s listening or watching. I don’t to just put stuff out for the sake of it. I try to figure out how to shift peoples mindset and how it can impact them in a positive way. If they do, they are more likely to share it.”

On how mentors helped his success:

“It was a big difference. I hired my first mentor when I was 19. I hired them for $500. I was lucky, because mine was really good. His name is Hal Elrod, the author of The Miracle Morning. I hired him and his best friend to coach me every week. It was a lot of money for me back then. I paid $350 a month for rent and $500 for the coaches. The one thing I remember is that I was really good at partying and making excuses. I grew up in a town with a lot of drugs and alcohol. I know 8 people that have dies from overdoses. I saw my life going in that direction, but then I saw the opportunity to go in a different direction and be successful. In the beginning I was late and coming up with excuses for why I wasn’t hitting my goals. My mentor said “If a business fails who’s fault is it?” I said “the CEO.” He then asked me “if you don’t achieve what you want at the end of your life whose fault is it?” I said “it’s my fault.” I wasn’t treating my life like I was the CEO of it. From there it all clicked. I stopped making excuses. This was back in 2006. Everyone should get a mentor, the average millionaire has had 7 mentors before they make it. A mentor could be paid or unpaid, just someone who adds value being around you.”

On his podcast name evolution:

“It was originally MWF Motivation. It came out Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and it was a motivational podcast. It was that way for about 3 years. I didn’t like the MWF branding, people didn’t understand it. I hate being called a motivational speaker, I’m not a high five, well done. I’m more telling it like it is and get you sh*t together type of guy. I thought that mindset was what the key is. The Mindset Mentor flows, and I believe that everyone should have a mentor in their lives. It stuck, I trademarked it, because I wanted to be the mindset guy.”

On people’s different mindsets:

“The fixed mindset says the world is happening to me. The “woe is me, why is this happening to me?” type of mindset. the growth mindset is how can I learn and grow from what has happened? A lot of people want change but they don’t want to change themselves. If they are that change, they can inspire others to make that change. If I lose weight, people will come to me and ask how I did it. But I go up to someone and talk to them about weight loss, they won’t want that advice. My dad died when I was 16, that was the catalyst for me to make the change.”

On how he grew his podcast listeners:

“I’m hardcore into gorilla marketing. In my old job at Cutco, we would give out 10,000 business cards to try and get people to apply. I got into this, I’m going to get my message out there no matter what. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday I had a massive list of all these Facebook groups. I would reach out to the organizer and say this is my podcast, how can I add value to your group? Instead of spamming, I would have a relationship with them and make their groups better. I would answer questions, but post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday that a new episode was live. I would then reach out to all the new and noteworthy podcasts. I would leave reviews, and ask them to do the same for me. About 40% of those did. I was then climbing up the charts, and getting more ratings and reviews. I didn’t want to invest any money, so I was working my ass off without spending anything. I fully believed in what I was doing, so I put it out there as much as I could possibly could. If I just made a podcast and put it out there, no one would find me.”

On how he makes money from his podcast and advice for new starters:

“There is no advertising at the start. We have mid-roll ads. For 4 and a half years, I didn’t have any podcast advertising at all. Instead, in the podcast I would tell everyone about all the things I was doing. I have all my programmes, whether it’s advanced mindset stuff or other parts of my program. When you start a podcast, do it on what you love. I looked at yours Chris before we started. You have a lot of wrestling content on there. But you are so passionate about it. I bet you could talk about wrestling all day. Because you love it, you want to do it. People see a podcast as a way to drive business revenue. For me, it’s how much stuff can I put out that I love. If someone wants to start a podcast, make it how you want to make it. My podcasts are bite-sized. My work is only 20 minutes away, and I couldn’t finish the podcast I was on. So I tailored it around my personality. Make it something you have loved, and it won’t feel like work.”

On how he defines success:

“I think success is different for everyone. It’s not just monetary, it’s also freedom. The freedom to do what we want, when we want with who we want. I think that freedom is what everyone is working for. I don’t want to be unfulfilled in what I do. A lot of people will make millions of dollars, but they won’t feel fulfilled. When you do something you love, you don’t have to make millions. If you could make $70,000 and have a podcast about your passion, that is success in my mind.

On 3 steps people can take to have a better mindset:

“Firstly, become more self aware. Secondly, find someone’s whose message you love. Thirdly, take the time to do these things every day.”

On his favourite books:

“Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and The ONE thing by Gary W. Keller and Jay Papasan.”

On 3 things he is grateful for right now:

“For you Chris for having me, for the fact the internet exists and my health.”

Full podcast audio can be found below:

More information can be found on Rob Dial here.

Rob Dial can be found on Twitter here, on Instagram here and Facebook here.

His YouTube channel can be found here.

The Bushwhackers on why they licked people’s faces, their return to wrestling, WWE Hall of Fame

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Image credit: WWE

WWE Hall of Fame tag team The Bushwhackers appeared on Chris Van Vliet’s podcast Insight. Luke and Butch discussed why they are making a return to the ring in 2021. They also discuss the iconic elimination of Luke from the 1991 Royal Rumble, and one time the face licking went wrong.

On fans thinking they were from Australia:

Luke: “Don’t worry mate, we get that all the time. A lot of Americans and British people that think that New Zealand was part of Australia. They didn’t even know where it was on the map. Being in the wrestling business for over 40 years, at least we have been able to put New Zealand back on the map. After being called Aussies for so long, we just used to say we were The Bushwhackers from down under.”

On why they chose to return to wrestling:

Butch: “The finish wasn’t how we wanted it to go. I was really sick, Luke came back one day and found me on my death bed with septicaemia, blown up like a balloon. Everything inside me was completely poisoned. Luke called me an ambulance, I died a couple of times on the way to the hospital, but they kept bringing me back. The same thing happened in 2008, I had another repeat and down I went. This time it was my wife that rang for the ambulance. They got me back again, woke me up, and pulled me back just as I was going through the heavenly clouds. I’ve been getting nothing but love from the fans. So me and Luke want to give some of that love back, especially with this virus going around. A lot of people know The Bushwhackers, hardly any of them know The Sheepherders, so lets do it all. Lets give them some Bushwhackers, Sheepherders, Bushherders, Sheepwhackers, lets do it all! Whatever they want, we’ll give it to them.”

On if the comeback will be as a tag team:

Luke: “No I’m going to be in the ring, and Butch is going to be on the outside. If it gets out of hand, Butch will be whacking them with the New Zealand flagpole. In our Sheepherder days, we were violent, vicious, and one of the most hated teams in North America. That will be coming too. If our opponents get out of hand, they’ll be getting hit with the flagpole. The pole isn’t wood, it’s made of steam pipe.”

On if the iconic face licking will be coming back in 2021:

Butch: “We will have to put a limit on that!”

Luke:” There’s a joke going around online that our face licking started the spread of the virus (laughs). If you did it today, we would be arrested.”

On their appearance on TV show Family Matters:

Butch: “We had a great time there. They were huge Bushwhackers fans, so they got in touch with the WWF, and arranged for us to go and do a show. We spent around 3 and a half days doing the show. They take you in, and you do rehearsals without an audience. Then they bring in an audience, and then we do it live. The first rehearsal is a stunt woman, she pops up in front of us, and I gave her this licking right on her face. Little did I know she had makeup on. I must have had an allergic reaction, because my throat just closed up. I went outside and was sick. The next day, they bring in the live audience. The music plays and the audience makes a hell of a noise. I get caught up in the moment, and I grab this lady and give her a licking again. I was sick on the spot and fell to my knees. We did that whole match with me like that. But we had a lot of fun, and people absolutely loved that show. Luckily I only had 3 words to say on the show.”

On a potential heel turn in the 90’s:

Luke: “No there wasn’t talk of it, but we did pitch it. When the booking slowed down in 1996, it was suggested we go heel. Vince said that we were so strong as babyfaces, that the fans would not accept it. It was the same with the tag team belts. We were so loved that we didn’t need them to get over.”

On the origins of The Bushwhacker name and walk:

Luke: “Vince gave us the name. When they sent us the contracts, it had the name The Bushwhackers on and we thought they were sent to the wrong people. Vince said he wanted us between The Sheepherders and The Moondogs.”

Butch: “The walk came from me. I’ve always walked a bit strange, I’ve got screwed up feet. If I was a horse they would have shot me! I’ve always swung my arms when I walk.”

On Luke’s elimination at the 1991 Royal Rumble:

Luke: “They said they only wanted me in for a short time. Butch was already out there for 20 minutes. I step in, Earthquake grabs me, and throws me out. I just keep on marching, I was only in the ring for 4 seconds. Butch lasts for another 5 or 6 minutes.”

Butch: “By the time he comes marching out and through the ring, I’m gasping for breath. I’ve been in there for 20 minutes. You can’t stand around during a battle royal, because there are so many cameras on you. You don’t know which camera is on you, so you can’t stand there with your finger up your nose. So Luke comes in, does his thing and gets out. He gets a hell of a pop! No one cares what’s happening to me in the ring. I’m ready to march back, but I can’t because I’ve got another 5 minutes. I was so p*ssed off. When it was my turn to go out, I got to back, grabbed Luke and said “you dirty bugger! You know how long I’ve been out there? You’ve just come in and got your feet wet.” And everyone always remembers what Luke did, they don’t remember what I did. What p*ssed me off the most? We got our pay check a week later we both got the same money for the match! But we’ve had many laughs and drunk many beers about that. The fans have never forgotten it though, and we love them for it.”

On the current tag team wrestling:

Luke: “They haven’t got the teams like when we were there. We had Demolition, The Rockers, The Road warriors, The Brainbusters. Today, there are only a few teams. Vince has never done the emphasis on tag teams like his dad did. Vince would put Hogan with Randy or Warrior for main events. These days, the psychology has gone.”

Butch: “They are amazing athletes, but they don’t have the chance to get the experience like we did. There are no territories anymore, they all work with themselves. They all come from training camps, so they don’t have the opportunity to gain that experience that we had. Some of the moves they do are amazing, they are such good athletes. We couldn’t do those moves. But unfortunately, some of them do these big moves when it is not time for it. But that comes down to the experience.”

For any booking enquiries, contact bushwhackerbrand@gmail.com

Full podcast audio can be found below:

Video version can be found below:

The World’s #1 Celebrity Voice Coach Roger Love – How to speak so people listen

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Image credit: Roger Love / Instagram

Voice coach to the stars Roger Love appeared on Insight with Chris Van Vliet. They discussed the beginnings of his career, working with stars, and if anyone can sing. Roger is the #1 celebrity voice coach in the world as has worked with performers like Eminem, John Mayer, Bret Michaels, Selena Gomez, Tony Robbins, Brendan Burchard and many others. He also taught Bradley Cooper how to sing for the film “A Star is Born”, he did the same for Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix for the Johnny Cash biopic “Walk The Line” and helped Jeff Bridges win an Oscar for his performance in “Crazy Heart”.

On people utilizing their voice more:

“The number one makeover people should be thinking about taking is a voice makeover. It’s usually at the bottom of their list. They think a new hairstyle or reading another book will get them what they want. But they are not thinking about the fact that they are opening their mouths, and people will be making judgements about them based on the sounds that they are making. We are all born with a voice, and we learn how to use it when we start to learn how to use words. We memorize the sounds of the people that are speaking to us. If your mother speaks airy, as soon as you can speak, you want to connect to her. So you will speak like her. If your dad speaks more masculine, you will speak like that. This is not the voice we are born with, it’s the voice that we ended up with. We are imitating those that we formed connections with. It’s time to start figuring out what do you really sound like? Maybe there is a reason why you hate your own voice.”

On transitioning from singers coaching singers to coaching actors and the differences between singing and speaking:

“People think that there is a difference between singing and speaking. I started as a voice coach and just taught singers for 17 years. At 16 and a half I was a coach for The Beach Boys, Earth Wind and Fire, and all these other amazing artists. Then, after 17 years, speakers started coming to me. Initially I told them thank you but I am a singing coach. I’m good at helping singers open up their mouths, and figure out what sounds should come out to influence millions of people. Eventually, the actors (Tony Robbins, Jeff Bridges, Reese Witherspoon) just kept coming. They all thought I was a speaking voice coach, so I decided that I was going to start working with speakers.

At first, I believed there had to be a difference between singing and speaking. After I learned and studied everything I could, I came full circle and I was wrong. There was no difference between singing and speaking. Singing is about melody, volume and pace. The same thing exists in the speaking world, it’s just that no one was focusing on teaching people how to add those musical influences in peoples speaking voices. All of a sudden I loved working with speaking voices. When you teach someone to sing, they can sell more songs and more tickets to concerts. But if you change the way someone speaks, you can change their life!”

On the steps to take to make your voice improve your life:

“There are 3 things. First, If you speak well, you can control other peoples perception of you. The number one fear in America is public speaking. I understand it, the reason we are afraid to speak in public is because we are afraid of being judged harshly. Secondly, if you know how to speak correctly, you can move people emotionally when you speak. The third thing, when you can speak really well, you can control the outcome of every communication that you have. You have to attach emotion and sounds to your words. We live in a world where saying the right things will give you a great life. The words aren’t doing it, it’s the sounds attached to the words. The brain doesn’t want logic first, it wants emotion first”

On how it began:

“It began with this little kid who if he was happy or sad, he would sing and it would change the way he felt. So I would just sing all the time. I figured I had to be a singer. When I was 13, I finally convinced my parents to take me to singing lessons. They took me to the most famous singing teacher in the world. 3 years later, he left to go to Canada. Before he left, he asked if I wanted to teach after school. The problem was I had no idea how to teach. He said “Don’t worry about that, I will pay you $100 an hour.” I then replied “I will be there Monday after school, and I will have business cards printed.” I show up on Monday, my first student was Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys. I have no idea how to teach voice. I’m sitting in front of a piano, Brian is there and it’s go time. He’s paying for this lesson and I want to get paid too. Everything in me wanted to say sorry to Brian and pay for his gas. I didn’t do that, I just gave it a whirl. I faked it until I made it and 6 months later, all of the top stars decided they wanted to stay with me. When the teacher came back from Canada, he made me junior partner. My career path was set at 16 and a half. I was going to finish high school and go to college, but I’m going to teach voice.”

On working with Tony Robbins:

“Tony is a very unique case. Imagine Tony is in high school, and all of a sudden he grows 2 feet in almost no time. When that happens, it affects your body in different ways. Imagine your vocal cords grow fast too, so they can barely fit inside of your voice box. There were some physiological things that happened where it was difficult to create sound based on the growth he had. The main reason he and most speakers came to me is because they are losing their voice, and they know I can make it so they don’t lose their voice again. I helped Tony work with his voice, so he couldn’t lose it. He could do 3 and 4 day events, and be really present and influential. We started working 30 years ago. He was already really famous, but he was losing his voice. At the end of the day he had no voice. At the start of the next day, he was really hoarse. Almost every morning we had to rebuild his voice. I just made it so he just had to do vocal exercises every day, and he had 30 years with no problems. His voice is not perfect, but it’s based on a certain physicality that is unique to him and his vocal cords.”

On preparing Bradley Cooper for A Star is born:

“Bradley Cooper wanted to sing opposite Lady Gaga, and he wanted to sing the songs live on set, not pre-record them. That is what is going to go out on the film. We worked for an hour, every day, for 6 months. I said “what do you want to use your voice for?” He said, “I want to sing.”

On the pandemic and adapting to video calls:

“I’ve been doing video sessions for 10 years, because I can coach all around the world. When COVID happened to world, I had this media down. There’s a way to communicate on camera, and have it be very connective. It didn’t hinder me as far as presenting content and teaching. Zoom is very intimate and very focused. If you allow it, it can be very connective. It wasn’t COVID that stole our voices, it was the internet. We started talking less, emailing more. We started thinking we could live our whole lives via email. When you think about it, how to we showcase emotion? We have to put in emojis, because the words don’t mean anything. I love the internet, but it stripped us away from one on one communication. Now, at least we are forcing people to do more audio text, using zoom etc. I think of it as an audio correction. When COVID is over, the ones who can speak will be the ones that will create the most change.”

On if anyone can sing:

“The answer is yes! Anybody can learn how to sing. Just because you sing along to Bruno Mars, and when you go high you go ouch, doesn’t mean you can’t sing. It just means you haven’t learned how to use your instrument. I say anyone can learn how to sing infinitely better than they do now. I’ve been the go to guy to help actors/actresses sing, that’s why they hire me. If you asked Joaquin Phoenix, who never sung before, to sing happy birthday, he wouldn’t be able to hit all the notes. He went on to sound exactly like Johnny Cash in Walk the line. I only had 3 and a half weeks to work with both Joaquin and Reese Witherspoon.

When you have the best technique, you can teach anyone to speak or sing. With a piano, you can play with 10 fingers. You ask someone to play, and they play with one finger. I then show them how to play with all their fingers. It’s the same thing with voices. I show them how to make all these notes. There’s chest voice that is thick and low. Then there’s head voice, which is higher and sweeter. Head voice shows sincerity and empathy. The area in between is middle voice, which most people don’t use. It adds magic, fun and excitement. No one went to see the 3 baritones in concert, they went to see the 3 tenors. The average human attention span is 8 seconds. As a speaker, you have 8 second intervals for the other person to decide if they want another 8 seconds, or if they want to leave you at that moment happily. If you make them feel things, they will remember what you have said.”

On how he got to work with Eminem:

“His manager/lawyer called me up. He said Eminem needed to work on his voice, can you fly out tomorrow. I flew out to New York next day. It turned out Eminem didn’t ask for a voice coach, but his manager/lawyer wanted him to have one. So I had to convince Eminem, on the spot, after flying to New York that he needed one. I taught him that night. Over the next couple of weeks I was on tour with him, showing him exercises. I don’t know if he still practices them. Sometimes I only have to meet someone once, and the way they sound changes forever. The truth is, everyone needs voice lessons, because people are listening.”

On how to get lessons with Roger:

“The best way to work with me is to go online. I have created courses, where in private, people can learn how to speak or sing. Go to rogerlove.com and play around. Do you want to speak better or sing better?” Make a decision and go from there…”

(rogerlove.com/insight will give listeners a $50 gift certificate. It can be redeemed for singing training, speaking training, or both.)

On 3 things that he is grateful for:

“My wife, my daughter and my son.”

Roger Love can be found on Instagram here.

Full podcast audio can be found below:

DDP has transcended wrestling and will inspire the hell out of you!

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Image credit: The Daily Beast

WWE Hall of Famer Diamond Dallas Page (DDP) recently appeared on Insight with Chris Van Vliet. They discuss his wrestling career, how his yoga program is helping current stars and his new documentary Relentless.

On his early attempts at wrestling:

“As you know, I am a people person. That’s why I am successful at every turn and everybody thinks “That’s impossible, what are you thinking?!” My wrestling career, I tried when I was 23. I had 3 matches, it didn’t work out for me in 1979. I got sucked in. I was already in love with the bar business, so I got sucked in to running my first rock n’ roll joint and I forgot about the dream. I came back to it in 1988 as a manager for AWA, which was ridiculous that I would have pulled that off! To understand how impossible it is for an outsider to get involved in the business, especially back then. My wrestling career was an eight year overnight success.”

On working with WWE Superstars:

“I’m building wellness centres for the boys. I’ve got Ivar from The Viking Raiders, he broke his neck. He literally sent me a picture of him diving through the ropes. That cat is over 300 pounds. He has been doing my workouts since before it was DDPY, it was YRG (yoga for regular guys). He goes back that far and it’s what kept him in the ring. He was on his way to the hospital and he said “can I come and see you when I am done?” Tomasso Ciampa is another one, he did the same thing. When Drew McIntyre tore his tricep, he came up here. He drove 7 and a half hours to work with me for four hours, and then drove back to Tampa. These guys look at me and go “How can he do this sh*t?” I’m going to be 65 in a month and a half, how am I still running like I am in my 40’s? I can’t go out there and bounce around anymore, but I can go out for one night and tear it down.” 

On his wrestling retirement and his relationship with Cody Rhodes:

“That stuff with Cody Rhodes, that was just fun. That was my last match though, and Cody is like my nephew. I just got off the phone with him and we talk every week. We had to get on a schedule because there were months where we wouldn’t talk. I would see him at my performance centre and I would go “Bro, I know you’re crazy busy, but I need to be able to connect with you.” Bottom line he goes “How about we just schedule it?” We agreed that Friday at 12 works so we did that. That time can change but it keeps us connected as he is going through this incredible ride.” Whatever he wants me to do, he just needs to fly me in, put me up and I won’t charge him. I wanted him to know I don’t want a contract, I don’t want money, I wanted to be his voice.”

On being a father figure to fellow wrestlers:

“I’ve always done it. I parented myself, I love my dad but he was a drunk. Now he is not because he is in a home. But give him a chance and he is going to hit the bar and have a couple of cocktails. By the time I was 3 years old my mum was married, divorced and had 3 kids, she was 19. I was raised by my Grandmother. She was a great lady but she was going through menopause. Because of that, I was always giving to people, it’s just part of what I do. Before DDP yoga even existed, when I was wrestling, I helped Kidman, Disco, Glacier, Kanyon, Raven. I mean I can name 30 guys that I either originally got jobs for that wouldn’t get it on their own.”

On his new documentary Relentless and the origins of DDP Yoga:

“It’s funny, you know Bryan Alvarez, well 12 years ago he asked me “Where is DDP 5 and 10 years from now?” This was 4 years before the yoga started. I said 5 years from now I will start to be known as the new Jack LaLanne meets Tony Robbins meets Drake Richard Simmons, and he laughed. Honestly, what I’m doing now in 10 years will dwarf my wrestling career. He didn’t believe me. I already knew what it did for Arthur, the disabled veteran. I didn’t have the form of a video. We remade it in 2012, myself and Steve Yu (Director of the critically acclaimed documentary The Resurrection of Jake the Snake), when you watch Relentless on Amazon Prime, The Resurrection will be one of the recommended movies to watch. If you’ve got Amazon prime, you can watch this. The reviews have been amazing. We started this about 6 years ago. Steve Yu wanted to create a mini doc that’s about 15 – 20 minutes that shows what our company is about. If you talk about Steve Jobs, you think of Apple and that’s it. If you think of DDP, you will think of both wrestling and yoga. ”

On the DDP Yoga app and what the schedule is:

“The app has a seven day free trial. Every Monday I put out a video for motivational Monday, there’s over 300 of them up there. Every Tuesday I post a new workout. It could be sitting at a chair, it could be psycho-extreme, it could be laying in bed. Every Wednesday is a new healthy recipe. Because of the pandemic, it’s what we are eating that night. Every Thursday I have added DDP’s tip of the week. That could be showing you how to do black crow, or it could be something I read on Facebook. Then there is fabulous Facebook Friday, over 56,000 people are on there. It goes up another 1,000 every week. I’m just reading stories that people are writing and putting my opinion on it. This week was about this couple. Because of the pandemic they wanted to take control of their lives. In 5 months she lost 83 pounds and he lost 107! They shared their stories, people are helping each other. The number one thing my program does is build confidence. I can prove it with one example after another.”

On his daily routine and living to over 100:

“The first thing I do. Once or twice a week I roll over and hug my old lady and hang with her for 20 minutes. If she is in a deep sleep, I leave her alone. I roll out of bed, there’s this thing, it’s this algae that is in chocolate. It has the highest antioxidant level that you can eat. I have that and then walk into my hyperbaric chamber, and get on my phone. I look at my emails, my schedule, set alarms for calls with Cody. So then I know what I’ve done and what I am going to do. I’m not training to be 65, because that could be here tomorrow. I’m preparing for 75, 85, 95 and even 105! My core is so strong, I could do a 20 minute match and tear it down. I won’t do that, because I know what damage it could do. After the chamber, my girl gives me a protein shake, and a lay on a beamer pad. It frees up my circulation. Being on this pad 22 minutes, twice a day. Within 5 days there is zero numbness. I’m constantly training to turn back the sands of time.”

On the future of DDP Yoga:

“Three years from now I will be training the top athletes in the world that are coming back from injury. I will be training a small group of guys that understand competitive maintenance. If you do the work at the 65 year old level, the chance of the 28 year old self getting injured is reduced by 50%. Look at Chris Jericho and AJ Styles. Chris can drink like a viking, there’s a guy who when he says he will do something, he does it and at the highest level. He makes a lot of money doing what he does but he would do it for free!”

On his appearance on Shark Tank promoting DDP Yoga:

“The disabled veteran video with Arthur went viral. He was a key component of it. People thought “that’s impossible! But if he can do it…” Arthur came with us to Shark Tank too. I never went for a deal, I just went to get awareness. I only offered 5%, it was so much fun, you can see it in Relentless. We filmed for an hour, but you don’t know what they are going to use. But if I edited it myself, I couldn’t have edited it better. We made $1 million in 5 days. I could do nothing for the rest of my life. If I die tomorrow, it would triple.”

Three things that he is grateful for right now:

“My partner Paige McMahon, my health and that in these hard times God has blessed me to do what I do.”

Full podcast audio can be found below:

Video version can be found below:

DDP can be found on Twitter here and Instagram here.

For more information on DDP Yoga, click here.

Relentless can be watched now on Amazon Prime 

Ryan Nemeth on his AEW debut, his brother Dolph Ziggler, being released from NXT

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Image credit: Instagram @ryrynemnem

AEW wrestler Ryan Nemeth recently guest starred on the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast. They discuss his AEW debut, being the brother to Dolph Ziggler and his new movie Heel:

On COVID testing

“I have a streak of negative tests. With AEW there are a lot of tests before, during and after. I have had more than fifty tests. When I book stunts/acting I always want to test before and after.”

On AEW and his debut

“Being there is kind of like a huge reunion. I have so many friends from NXT or other parts of wrestling. Walking in the locker room felt like home. I went to AEW to see Amanda Huber (the late Jon Huber/Brodie Lee’s wife) because I knew there was going to be a birthday for Brodie Jr. I thought I would surprise her and say happy birthday. I used to babysit him in Tampa. I wanted to say hi to her, I also secretly had my gear with me. They asked me “since you’re here do you want to wrestle?” And I said sure. I think it went well, I blacked out but I think I won (laughs). I was honoured to debut on Dynamite. It felt great to be back in the ring. During shutdown I have been doing a lot of wrestling but not in front of a live crowd. It’s been a lot of stunt work or coordinating for TV shows. AEW are super into promoting creativity, a very motivational and positive environment.”

On being the brother to WWE Superstar Dolph Ziggler

“There are similarities. We are brothers, we are related, we were both trained by the exact same people in wrestling. We grew up wrestling for the same school together. But I will say I’ve spent my entire wrestling career looking and dressing the exact opposite of him. He had blond hair, I dyed mine black. He wore pants, I wore shorts. No matter what I do, for a decade, any time I’m in a match, the internet says I’m a carbon copy of him. But we’ve had pretty different lives. He was a college wrestler, I focused more on acting and writing. In the past few years, to do so many of these things together is awesome. I never felt like we were competing for anything though.”

On NXT and being released

“It was working great for me there while Dr Tom Prichard was head coach and John Laurinaitis was in charge of talent relations. They had a top 10 list of talent and I was 3 I think. Almost overnight, someone took over head coach, someone took over talent and I didn’t seem to exist anymore. This new coach did not like me or my brother. He is not there anymore though. I didn’t believe in him as a coach, I just said it. An executive confirmed the coach didn’t like me, and didn’t know if there was anything I could do. When the executive called to release me, I asked if that was what’s happening here, he said yes. It’s just how wrestling works. The phone call, the executive thought I was going to go to Hollywood. One month later I moved to LA.”

On his new movie Heel

“The plot of the film deals with sexual assault in the world of indie wrestling. It comes from a very real place. I was ambushed with stories about assault. That’s why I took a break from wrestling. It was really close to home for me. I can’t speak on behalf of these people. Legally, imagine the trouble I would be in if I did speak on behalf of victims. But I can use art to encourage conversations about these things. I love wrestling and the people in it. But there are some bad eggs that do bad things and get away with it. There is not one solution to it, but it’s one that I can try to help with. I would love it to expand to a feature or a series.”

Ryan Nemeth can be found on Twitter here and Instagram here.

Full podcast audio can be found below:

Video version can be found below:

Paige VanZant from UFC to Bare Knuckle FC, meeting with WWE at the Performance Center, how she stays so positive.

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Image credit: MMA Fighting

Ahead of her first Bare Knuckle fight, former UFC fighter Paige Vanzant sat with Chris for an episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet. They discussed training for the fight, how bare knuckle boxing differs from MMA, and a possible transition into WWE in the future.

CVV: “PVZ in the house!”

Paige: “Yeah how’s it going?”

CVV: “I’m doing great thank you so much for taking the time to do this. You’ve got a lot going on right now so I appreciate you carving out a little bit of time for this.”

Paige: “Yeah for sure, thank you.”

CVV: “You’re getting ready for a big fight. As we speak right now it’s about a week away. How are you feeling?”

Paige: “I feel great. It’s a week out, it’s crazy. Right now it feels like the biggest fight of my career. I feel the pressure on me, the most adrenaline, it feels really good.”

CVV: “A lot of eyeballs on you for this. I don’t know if people at this stage of your career expected you to go into bare knuckle.”

Paige: “No they didnt. I feel like that was part of my appeal to go to bare knuckle because I knew I could make some big waves. I knew I was going to shock a lot of people by signing with them over other organisations, and I definitely feel like I did that.”

CVV: “So what do your days look like right now. I’m imagining that you’ve probably just trained a few hours ago and here we are squeezing this in?”

Paige: “Yes, so days right now. So typically eight weeks out from the fight I’m training 2-3 times a day. When it gets a little closer, and I’m getting my weight down, it’s very specific training. Then, of course, lots of cardio, lots of getting the weight in check and making sure I am staying as safe as possible in training too. I don’t want to get injured before a fight, so super specific training right now.”

CVV: “So you’ve relocated to Florida. Is training in Florida any different?”

Paige: “You know what? That was one of my questions going in. It is very humid here, but it’s also comforting to know that I am training as hard here as I ever have. But now I have the high level coaching, extremely high level coaches in this industry, that have trained champions. Now they are going to be in my corner, they are getting me ready for whatever happens. So it’s a really big confidence booster I would say being at such a high level gym.”

CVV: “How different does training look getting ready for a bare knuckle fight vs getting ready for an MMA fight?”

Paige: “It’s a big difference. I almost like this training better though. Something I have talked to Thiago Alvez with. He also fights for bare knuckle, and he’s one of my teammates and coaches. He has said his body almost feels better just doing boxing, because it’s the grappling and the wrestling part, you can’t feel like you can walk after. You’ll get yourself in certain entanglements, you’ll get stretched out in these crazy positions. Whereas in boxing you’re not doing that. So I feel like I can push my body much harder when it’s just boxing.”

CVV: “Do you remember what the first bare knuckle fight you watched was, and what your reaction was to it?”

Paige: “Yes. So actually the first bare knuckle match that I watched was BKFC. I was curious about Bec Rawlings, one of my old opponents in the UFC going into it, and I watched her fight. I was like, holy cow, this is legit, this is awesome!”

CVV: “And this is going to be you now. Do you have any fears as you go into this fight?”

Paige: “Of course there’s fear you know. There’s general nerves, but it’s the exact same as going into any fight. There isn’t more fear knowing that it’s a bare knuckle match. There’s a sense of relief that taking away the wrestling, which was my downfall in UFC, because my wrestling wasn’t up to par. Whereas now, I don’t necessarily have to worry about that. But I also put the exact amount of pressure on myself that I do with every fight. So the same nerves and same nervous energy.”

CVV: “I imagine most of the training you’re doing and the sparring you’re doing, you’re wearing some sort of gloves right?”

Paige: “Yes, most of the time. So whilst sparring we always wear gloves, but we go bare knuckle for some of the pad sessions. You want to be able to know what it feels like when you hit somebody so it’s not a shock to your hands and a shock to you. So it’s very specific training and I’m super fortunate that I’m at a gym with coaches who have thought these things through for me. I just do what they say and they have kind of prepared the way for me. I’m not the first person from my gym to compete for BKFC, so we have a cool little program going on.”

CVV: ”So if we take this back, who is Paige VanZant before you found fighting?”

Paige: “I was a dancer, my dancing was always competitive. I was still the same athlete with the same drive, it was just in a different sport. So competitive dancing, super driven, that kind of stuff. But before fighting, I don’t know I guess I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, but now I finally feel like I do.”

CVV: “What did you think you were going to be?”

Paige: “I didn’t know, I went to college early, I was super gifted academically, but I didn’t know what to apply that in. I went to college when I was 16. But it didn’t mean anything because I changed my major 4 times. So within that time I went from nursing major, culinary arts, physical education and business. So I was passionate about a lot of things, but I didn’t know what I really wanted to do.”

CVV: “You really ran the gamut of the possible career options.”

Paige: “I did, but looking back at it now, I was in physical education, which is what I do. I did culinary arts, I’ve been on cooking shows. So I’ve been able to touch upon all the different majors that I thought I would go into.”

CVV: “I skipped one grade, so I think we have that in common. I went to college 1 year early. I can’t imagine going 3 years early.”

Paige: “No it was just 2 years for me.”

CVV: “So you are at the same level as people academically, but socially maybe not?”

Paige: “No I was really lucky actually. I went to a community college program. So it wasn’t that kind of environment. I feel like it was a more focused environment, everyone just does their own thing. I don’t know how many people actually knew that I was in high school technically by age.”

CVV: “Hunting was a big part of your time growing up too. What specifically were you hunting for?”

Paige: “You know what, people think it’s hunting, but actually my grandparents were managers of a gun range. So I did most of my shooting at a gun range, not hunting for animals. I was on the shooting team at middle school, it was mostly target hunting.”

CVV: “So what kind of guns were you shooting?”

Paige: “So when I was in middle school they were air rifles, then I pretty much shot everything. When your grandparents manage a gun club, you shoot everything.”

CVV: “But you have been hunting right?”

Paige: “No I haven’t. I don’t know if I could kill anything, I couldn’t take the life of an animal. I’m extremely tough. If it came down to it, if I needed to. I guess I go fishing if that counts. My husband’s family is from Alaska, so they hunt for moose every season, because that’s the meat they eat all year long. That’s what it’s for. Maybe if it came down to that. I like to drive the four wheeler and look cute. I’m such an animal lover, so killing is the hardest part. I’m happy to shoot a target for you though.”

CVV: “I feel like maybe there are some similarities growing up between shooting at a range, with the accuracy and all the things that go into that and what you’re doing now for a living?” 

Paige: “Oh absolutely. Going into shooting it’s a lot more patience, but at the same time you can be a lot more analytical, a lot more thoughtful. In fighting you have to be patient with your shots. It’s a lot more highly paced most of the time, but it’s that patience and technique.”

CVV: “So you mentioned Alaska. I’ve been watching your YouTube channel, called A Kickass love story: with Paige and Austin. But you guys were just in Alaska?”

Paige: “We were. So before COVID, we would go back to Alaska 3 to 4 times a year. That’s like our second home. We think we will have a home in Florida and a home in Alaska, the best of both worlds. We absolutely love it there, and we went there for Thanksgiving.”

CVV: “So which city specifically is he from?”

Paige: “Ok I’m going to see if you can say it, he’s from Ninilchik, it’s technically just a fishing village. He grew up in the middle of nowhere. He doesn’t brag about himself enough, but he was the only person on his high school wrestling team, and then went onto college to become a national champion.”

CVV: “Who do you wrestle when there is no one else to wrestle?”

Paige: “I think his coach. Then they would fly around other villages and wrestle with other teams and stuff like that.”

CVV: “You truly have the best of both worlds. It’s crazy hot in Florida, and the winters in Alaska are crazy.”

Paige: “Yes. So when we left Alaska for Thanksgiving, I think it was like 10 degrees. We show up and it was like 80 degrees in Florida.”

CVV: “So he was on a high school wrestling team. Were you on any teams?”

Paige: “Yes, so in my freshman year I was a cheerleader. Sophomore I ran cross country, and junior and senior year I went to college. So I was only able to play high school sports for 2 years.”

CVV: “So when did the introduction to MMA come in?”

Paige: “So I grew up in Oregon, and we moved to Nevada for my dad’s job. Dad was a huge fan of Ken Shamrock, legend of MMA. So my dad was like there’s this legend, he has this gym here let’s go try it. So my dad did my first class with me, he was my drilling partner, I got to heel hook him and choke him. I was 15 years old and fell in love with fighting. Ken at the time, said if I stick with this I would be good at it.”

CVV: “So Ken was there from day one?”

Paige: “He was there from day one and I had no idea who he was. Now looking back, I’m like, holy cow my coach was a legend of a sport. So Reno, Nevada, this small town had this incredible coach!”

CVV: “So you were just like, who is this incredibly jacked guy?”

Paige: “Yes. He comes in, he’s jacked. I think Ken has this persona for the cameras, but he knew he was a badass. When he walked in, it was his gym and you better listen.”

CVV: “Is there anything early on that Ken taught you that you still apply to your training or fights now?”

Paige: “Absolutely, my heel hooks. I don’t do them as much in fights. I went for a heel hook at the last 10 seconds when I fought Felice Herrig. But there’s positions where you don’t want to put yourself in a bad spot in MMA. But in jujitsu my heel hooks are still really good. It’s the first thing I learned and I’m still passionate about.”

CVV: “Are you still in touch with Ken?”

Paige: “You know what, I did talk to him on the phone not that long ago. He has a son the same age, so we communicate every now and then. But it’s definitely been a while. But we still have a great relationship.”

CVV: “So do you remember the first UFC fight that you ever watched or were ever exposed to?”

Paige: “Yes. I think the first UFC fight I ever paid attention to was Forrest Griffin was the main event. He was my fight idol then and forever. He was the one I looked up to.”

CVV: “So you trained with Shamrock at age 15. How does it go from training to “I want to try my first amateur fight?””

Paige: “It didn’t take long. I couldn’t take an amatuer fight until I was 18. So 18 comes and the gym says they have their own show coming up, do you want to fight? I said sure I will take a fight. I ended up submitting the girl in 40 seconds. Then a month after my 18th birthday, this girl wanted this fight as her pro debut. I took it and got paid $800. My coach said you shouldn’t take it, once you’re a pro, you can’t go back. I needed the money so I flew out there and won my pro debut. That was the moment where I was done with school and I wanted to be a fighter.”

CVV: “How long after that did Dana White and the UFC start calling?”

Paige: “Maybe 3 fights later. Just turned 18, 3 fights later I turned pro, then I was signed to the UFC by the time I was 19. It was really amazing, really fast. I had my first fight with them when I was 20. Now at 26 I guess I’ve had my last fight with them. Now I am a professional bare knuckle boxer.”

CVV: “When you sign with UFC at 19, and you’re a huge fan of MMA, did you think you were going to be in UFC forever?”

Paige: “No, not at all. When I first signed the contract, which was for 4 fights, it was a moment where I was like I might be terrible, I don’t know. It was all happening so fast. I was treating it like I was only going to get one shot. They might hate me, they might cut me, I didn’t know what was going to happen. I treated it as I only had one opportunity to prove to the UFC that I belong.”

CVV: “I’ll never forget the fight where you broke your arm, go back to your corner, and then keep on fighting!”

Paige: “Yeah I talk about that with my husband a lot, because he was in my corner. I have now broken my arm 3 times, and I have separated my shoulder not long ago. In each instance I say I broke my arm, my husband hoes no you would be crying. I’m like no I know my body, my arm is broken. Every time my arm has been broken, he disagrees. My corner did not believe me when I broke my arm during a fight. In the middle of the fight, I could feel the bone clicking as I moved my arm. After the adrenaline wore off, it hurt even more. It’s crazy.”

CVV: “Do you have any fear going into your first bare knuckle fight? There’s a possibility you won’t just break your arm, maybe you will break bones in your hand as well?”

Paige: “You know what, hands don’t hurt as bad as arms. I’ve fought through an entire 5 minutes, 2 and a half bare knuckle rounds, with a broken arm. If I can do that, I know I will be fine if I break a knuckle. I know I can keep fighting. What worries me more are the things that you can’t control. If you get cut open, a doctor stops the fight. That would be very disappointing.”

CVV: “I think a lot of your fans are concerned about you taking punches to your face. After you signed, loads of people were tweeting these pictures of other bare knuckle fighters, what was your reaction to seeing that?”

Paige: “I’ve thought about this. There’s risks in every career you have. My risk is getting my face caved in. I would rather put my life in danger for 10 minutes than live a life that’s not fulfilled, not fun, not enjoyable where I don’t get to live life to the fullest. I would much rather risk 10 minutes than live a boring life.”

CVV: “I think everyone assumed that because of your husband Austin you would be taking a Bellator contract. Was that something that you were looking into?”

Paige: “Yes. Honestly I thought that when I left the UFC I would be signing with Bellator. I thought they would have the best offer, they treat my husband so well. The idea of competing on the same card and organization was really exciting. But then bare knuckle came along. It was like I had the angel and the devil on my shoulder. I had to go where the passion lied. The one that excited me the most was bare knuckle. I wanted to shock the world and show how tough I am.”

CVV: “There’s also an element of this contract where you are doing some commentary too?”

Paige: “Yeah so they opened up the contract where I could commentate. It’s an open ended contract, they are giving me the freedom to do other things if I want to. I’m locked into one aspect, but I can also do other things that will build me and them as brands.”

CVV: “How did you break going into bare knuckle to your husband?”

Paige: “It was not good. It was a hard 2 days where he would be really mad at me. He knew where I wanted to go, he was upset. There were so many layers to it. He was on the Dana White contender series, and had this spectacular finish. We thought he was going to get signed to the UFC and he didn’t. That was when I got so bitter about it. Then Bellator came around. Now he’s extremely supportive of it.”

CVV: “Which one of your previous fights should people put on to showcase what you can do in bare knuckle?”

Paige: “That’s a good one. Of course, performance wise I would say me vs Felice Herrig, me vs Bec Rawlings or me vs Alex Chambers. But I think the fight that proves how tough I am is a fight that I actually lost. It was me vs Rose Namajunas. We went 5 full rounds and it was a war. But I proved how tough I was. I got cut open in the first round, but I fought through every second of that fight.”

CVV: “What did you learn mentally from a loss like that?”

Paige: “I think I learned how tough mentally I was. I knew how tough I was but then the world knew how tough I was. Finally I could prove that you could put me through hell but I’m not going to quit. I think it proved that you are going to have ups and downs in your career, but it’s about going out there and fighting for yourself.”

CVV: “You always hear fighters talking about learning more from losses than you do from victories, is that true?”

Paige: “It’s hard to say. You do in a sense. Not a lot of people reevaluate their performance after a win. When you lose, you really take a step back and reevaluate. You try to figure out why, then you make the changes to make yourself better. When you win, you don’t necessarily make those changes to help growth. Technically, you can learn more from a loss but winning feels so much better.”

CVV: “You’ve got so much going on outside of bare knuckle. Do you remember when you went from a fighter to Instagram influencer and next level?”

Paige: “I don’t really see myself as an Instagram influencer. I just share my life and my love for the world and people enjoy watching it. For me I just feel like a regular person, especially walking into a gym. There are so many people that are way more successful than me. It’s hard to have an ego when you’re surrounded by people like double champion Amanda Nunes, she’s a double champion. When she walked in, me and my husband whispered “There’s the G.O.A.T.””

CVV: “You probably get messages every day from girls who want to do what you are doing?”

Paige: “I do, that’s special. Having people reach out to me that are going through hard times. Trying to inspire the younger, female generation is a lot of the reason why I do it. I fight through all the negativity and all the hardship. I try to not respond to hate in a negative way, It’s about rising through all the negativity and still being strong and true to yourself.”

CVV: “You’re in an occupation where there is a lot of negativity thrown your way. Everyone who watches MMA thinks that they are a fighter, but only a small percentage have actually taken a fight. So you put everything on display. I’m sure if you lose, you get all this backlash from people saying “You should have done this…””

Paige: “Yes. But that’s the hard thing about being in MMA or individual sports. All the eyeballs are on you and you can’t blame a teammate. When a team loses, the whole team loses. When I lose, it’s only me that loses. A lot of people see fighting as good vs evil. They pick their hero and they pick their villain. Somebody comes out on top, but people should see this as two superheroes fighting each other. When I was fighting Rachael Ostovich, someone from the media said you’re the villain in this fight. I was shocked. I have never said a negative thing about anyone that I have fought. So it’s interesting how there’s the good vs evil narrative in fights.

CVV: “How do you stay so positive? Because your smile is so damn infectious.”

Paige: “Thank you. It’s easy to be myself, it makes me feel good. Life is too short to be angry all the time. I could be very angry, especially reading the comments and the articles that are written about me. But if you focus on the good, soak it in. At the end of the day it’s just a job.”

CVV: “Was there one specific comment that made you go “I don’t need to deal with this anymore?””

Paige: “Yeah there are some. There’s always the occasional troll, and I can deal with that. But the people are hating on you, they do it because they have hate in their heart. I had one kid commenting and messaging me saying “you need to go kill yourself.” Finally I added him on Instagram and asked why do you hate me. Now we are friends. He ended up apologizing. A lot of people are just looking for a response. If you respond, it gives them validation. I believe everybody has good in their heart somewhere. If you attack someone you don’t know it has to stem from somewhere. Nobody better than you will put you down”

CVV: “Have any girls had one drink too many at a bar and tried to fight you?”

Paige: “No and I’m very lucky because girls are not like that. But I have been with quite a few of my fight friends and people try to challenge them constantly. No one has tried to challenge Austin yet, but he is good at playing the peacekeeper. He can literally be friends with everybody. He is more down to Earth than me, I get bigger road rage.”

CVV: “What is your biggest pet peeve while on the road?”

Paige: “When you are in the fast lane, and there is a car ahead of you driving below the speed limit.” 

CVV: “Who was Austin when you first met him?”

Paige: “He hasn’t really changed since I met him. I can hear him playing Call of Duty in the background, if I need to tell him to be quiet I can. When we first met he didn’t play video games at all. So his inner nerd has definitely come out. He tried to impress me by hiding the fact that he plays Fantasy Football and Call of Duty constantly. He was in 4 or 5 fantasy leagues this year. First time we met we were at a conditioning gym in Oregon. I was already working out, he showed up right after. He had a down to Earth look to him. He was actually wearing socks with flip flops, which is so uncomfortable. It didn’t take long before we were in love.”

CVV: “So you were the one that pursued him?”

Paige: “I like to say that I was. He doesn’t like to admit it, but it is true. We had a few people at our gym tell him that I was hitting on him. It took a little while.”

CVV: “I do a lot of interviews with wrestlers and your name comes up a lot with WWE. Do you have any interest in doing that?”

Paige: “I do, but I get asked about WWE a lot. I feel like that it’s something I would be good at. I was a dancer, so I would be very good at the entertainer and showmanship side of it. Then the combat sports world goes into the WWE. I couldn’t do both at the same time, so after I’m done fighting, maybe I will go over there. But the door is definitely open. There is definitely a path, and communication is definitely there. Once there is more free time in my schedule, I think there is something I would like to pursue.”

CVV: “So they have reached out to you?”

Paige: “They have. I have visited the Performance Center, because it’s up in Orlando. I was able to look around, and get a sense to what it’s all about.”

CVV: “I’m curious. Someone who is competing at the level you are competing at. Aside from training, your days are pretty set out with routine. What does the first 30 minutes of your day look like?”

Paige: “They are extremely boring. I get on my phone, check my emails, get ready and go to practice. After first practice it’s back to my emails. Eating is included in that. I am very passionate about food and eating.”

CVV: “The fight is a week away. How much weight do you have to cut?”

Paige: “I think I’m 10lbs over, which is perfect. It’s right where I want to be, it’s not a lot of weight to cut anymore. I want to get my weight to a point where I didn’t want to cut as much. The shots are mainly to the head. A lower water cut would minimise the risk of concussions?”

CVV: “Have you had concussions?”

Paige: “Actually I don’t know. I’ve never been diagnosed with concussion. At some point, maybe I have. One doctor thought I broke my nose before. The only fight injuries I’ve had are getting cut under my eye and broken arms. I’ve been very, very lucky.”

CVV: “Do you ever think about life after fighting?”

Paige: “I’m currently thinking more in the moment. I want to have kids and travel the world. I am fortunate that my career has taken me all over the world. Kids in 7 to 10 years. That’s all I have planned for the future. The rest is fighting right now.”

CVV: “Will you be vlogging the behind the scenes of your first bare knuckle fight?”

Paige: “I will. I’m going to try and film everything.I can’t guarantee that I will get a video out just before the fight, but it’s too much to edit before the fight. If he films enough, we will have enough for after the fight. It’s a lot to edit. The coolest thing is that I am taking a picture of myself everyday since I’ve started dieting and you can see how my body transforms on the day of weigh-ins. People take videos of themselves losing weight. But you can see the full transformation of my body up until fight night.”

CVV: “So when can we see this video?”

Paige: “I think after weigh-ins. Because that’s the end point of the weight cut. Where you start, how much you lose. People don’t show how much your body changes in fight camp as a professional fighter. We go through a lot in our training. Our body changes a lot in 6 to 8 weeks.”

CVV: “Have you had any interest from Hollywood?”

Paige: “I have. I have had interest here and there. I got interest for movies, but first things first is fighting. It has to coincide with my fight career. So once I put the pressure on my team to do more acting they will get on it, but I really wanted the last 6 months to work on my striking for bare knuckle. They got rid of all the background noise.”

CVV: “Is there anyone in the movie industry that you look up to and think I want to be like that person?”

Paige: “My go to is The Rock. We both have the same pathway of combat sports and working our way up into Hollywood. Be so successful in one career that it launches a new career. I was meant to be on Titan Games, but I broke my arm right before the show.”

CVV: “Will this fight will be in an empty arena.”

Paige: “Actually there will be fans. In Florida, people are crazy, it’s a no mask free for all. As soon as my husband and I got here, we both got COVID very quickly, even though we wear our masks and don’t go anywhere. There will be fans but it won’t be a packed crowd. I hear the fans when I am fighting though. I hear the “oohh” when I get hit hard.”

CVV: “What are 3 things that you are grateful for in your life right now?”

Paige: “My team and my teammates. For life, this new opportunity. So many things to be happy about.”

Full podcast audio can be found below:

Video version can be found below:

Paige can be found on Twitter here and on Instagram here. Paige’s YouTube channel, called A Kickass Love Story: With Paige and Austin can be found here.