Image credit: KRQE

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

On how he got into chiropracting:

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

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

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

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

On where his unique treatment methods came from:

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

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

On why he uses a hammer and chisel:

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

On his YouTube success:

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

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

On people not agreeing with his practices:

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

On how he gets material for his videos:

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

On if anyone can be treated by Dr Beau:

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

On advice for aspiring YouTubers:

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

On what he is grateful for:

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

Dr. Beau Hightower can be found on Instagram here.

More podcast recaps can be found here.

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

Image Credit: Instagram @benaskren

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

On how big this fight has gotten:

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

On whether it feels like his biggest fight ever:

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

On traditional boxing fans not liking the upcoming fight:

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

On why Jake Paul picked Ben as his opponent:

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

On Jake Paul’s boxing abilities:

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

On training with Freddie Roach:

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

Comparing boxing training to MMA

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

On Jake Paul’s previous fights:

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

On his favourite MMA fights:

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

On Dana White betting $1 million dollars on Ben:

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

On whether WWE have ever contacted him:

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

On his prediction for the fight:

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

On what he is grateful for:

“My family, bitcoin and wrestling academies.”

Ben Askren can be found on Twitter here and Instagram here

Video version of the interview can be found below:

Image Credit: Sports Illustrated

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

On how he first thought about wrestling:

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

On moving to WCW:

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

On right place right time:

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

On his feelings when WCW went out of business:

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

On Eric potentially buying WCW:

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

On his future in wrestling:

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

On his son getting involved in the business:

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

On feelings towards TNA:

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

On people’s view of AEW being like TNA:

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

On superstars like Goldberg wrestling in their 50’s:

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

On what he is grateful for:

“family, health, friends”

Eric Bischoff can be found on Twitter here.

The 83 Weeks podcast can be found here.

Video version can be found below:

Image credit Wrestling Inc.

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

On his first wrestling shows:

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

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

On appearing in commercials as a child:

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

On how he got into the wrestling business:

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

On how he got into commentating for Ring of Honor:

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

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

On early memories at ROH:

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

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

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

On being a more subtle commentator:

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

On being a potential legend in the commentating world:

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

On what he is grateful for:

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

Ian Riccaboni can be found on Twitter here.

Video version can be found below:

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:

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.

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: