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Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias Is A Huge WWE Fan! Drinking With Stone Cold, The Rock, DDP, WrestleMania

in LATEST EPISODES on April 8, 2025 April 8, 2025

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Gabriel Iglesias (@fluffyguy), also known as Fluffy, is a comedian and actor. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet to discuss his lifelong love of WWE, finally getting to meet The Rock, appearing in multiple WWE segments, the similarities between stand-up comedy and pro wrestling, working out with DDP, drinking with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, performing at a sold-out Dodger Stadium and the fine he paid for going over time, why his shows are family friendly and more!

Quote I’m thinking about: “Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” – Earl Nightingale

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On his love of the VW bus:

“It was my first car, and that’s where the love for Volkswagen came. A few years back, I got my ex-girlfriend her first car back and I said, That’s kind of cool. I got her first car back, not the actual one, but one that was way better. So I say it’d be kind of cool to get my first car back. A friend of mine now, Steve Reich. Him and Steve Hoffman, they’re Jay Leno’s guys. They went out and found me a Volkswagen bus. And they said hey, if there’s anything else you want let me know. And I said, Well if you come across another one of these, let me know. And we played that game for about two years, and it filled up the building, man.”

On finally meeting The Rock:

“I hadn’t met him. He was the elusive one. He was the chase figure, if you will, in the collectible section. I met him at WrestleMania. He was leaving the ring, he was doing the rehearsal, I was going out to the ring to do mine and we just crossed paths. I had a buddy of mine who had a big old camera, huge lens, very impressive. Not all lenses are created equal by the way. So he stopped The Rock. He goes, ‘Rock, quick pick with Fluffy?’ And The Rock was kind of thrown off by this big old camera. He looked at me and when he looked at me he went, ‘Oh, hey.’ When he went ‘Oh hey’, I said oh it’s on, recognition. And so he took the picture, and he’s like, What are you doing here? I’m like man, I’m loving this, this is cool. So the picture that you see of me cheesing is as real as it gets. That smile, I mean, I was so excited to meet him, because I had been trying the whole weekend to meet The Rock, and I came really close a couple times at other events that weekend, but right there at WrestleMania.”

On where his love of wrestling began:

“WrestleMania III. It’s 1987 I just remember my sister had magazines. Remember WWF Magazine. Yeah, back then wrestling was on Saturdays at 12 o’clock in the afternoon, and that’s where it started. I mean, I fell in love with it immediately. And after WrestleMania III it was on. Any chance I could get to participate or just watch something I was there.”

Who were your guys growing up?

“Growing up, it was always Hulk Hogan in the beginning. And it’s not till later on in life you realize, oh, man, look at all these great [wrestlers]. Now when I watch WrestleMania III, my favorite match is definitely Ricky Steamboat vs. Macho Man. That was such a great match. And then when you hear the stories about the amount of time it took to get it that good because Macho Man was so anal with his wrestling, and so he wanted to know every single thing step by step. So you could tell it was a badass match.”

On the similarities between comedy and wrestling:

“I want to say it’s exactly the same minus the bumps, exactly the same. You’re always promoting. You’re promoting the shows. You got to get to the venue by a certain time, there’s a sound check, you’re dealing with promoters. It’s very much the same, same thing. I think that’s why it’s like oh man, this would be cool. I did want to get into wrestling when I was younger, but I realized that I’m a pussy for pain, so I can’t handle it.”

On not getting involved in wrestling:

“I just gotta pass the physical, and that’s probably the main reason why I haven’t asked to participate in the ring, is I’m pushing 50. I got in the ring one time and it was scary. It was scary. You could feel the intensity. People say, Oh man, it’s fake. No. Maybe it’s predetermined but I felt the hits in the ring, and I wasn’t even the one getting hit and so, yeah, I’m good. I’d rather be on the outside watching.”

On his favourite moments working with WWE:

“Getting to host WWE Rivals was so much fun because I’m at a table with nothing but Superstars, and all we’re doing is talking wrestling. All we’re doing is talking about all these great matches from the past, and I just feel not worthy to be there, but at the same time I knew what I was talking about so I was like yeah, I can do this. So for me, that was super cool and to have these superstars talk to me like I wasn’t somebody down here. We were talking like equals, which I thought was great. And I had JBL, who I was totally afraid of when I first walked in, because I never met him, and JBL and I clicked so well and I could not believe it. I’m like this dude is hysterical. He was cracking so many jokes and he’s just such a fun person to be around. So after that, every time I see him, I’m like, there he is. I would just come up and say hi and that for me, was really cool. It was with Natalya, with Cody, X-Pac, I see X-Pac all the time. I saw him the other day. We’re always talking, he has a huge love for dogs, and so do I and so we’re always talking wrestling.”

On his segment with The New Day:

“They’re so quick, so it’s like you can literally knock it out in one take with them. There’s such pros, but they kept making us do it over and over and over to get the timing just right. So we shot our little vignette right there and then after everything was said and done, we’re walking towards the elevator and I go, Hey guys, would you mind doing one quick one with me? Yeah, let’s do it. What do you want to do? We just did one take, and then jumped in the elevator and I posted that later. But they’ve always been cool. I always run into them at Comic Con. They’re huge nerds when it comes to collectibles and stuff like that. So I’ll see them in San Diego.”

On a possible WWE angle:

“I hurt my hip getting out of bed this morning. It’s not a matter of time. What’s Cena saying, ‘Your time is up, my time is now?’ That’s where I’m at. I got a sciatica that would disagree.”

On previously doing DDPY:

“The DDPY, that’s a whole other thing too, man. You don’t realize that when you buy into that program that he actually calls you to check on you, to remind you you need to do it. Like if Richard Simmons back in the day was calling people up to tell him, hey, I can see you, I know where you’re at, get out of that drive-through. He would call me, it’s like he knew I was in a drive-through eating stuff I probably shouldn’t have been eating. I’d see my phone. I’m like, Oh my God, he’s got eyes. I answer, DDP is like, what are you doing, bro? I’m like, getting another drive-through. He goes I knew it. I’m like, Yeah, you did.”

Didn’t he chase you down one time when you were ordering pancakes?

“So this motherf*cker, I was taping a TV show called Fluffy Breaks Even. And the concept was fun, good idea, but it just didn’t really work out that way. The idea was to go out and eat whatever you want, and then you had to show what type of workout it would take to burn off all the calories you just consumed. We were in Atlanta, and yes that’s where he lives, and he always tells me, you let me know when you’re in town, brother. So I didn’t, and I had done a Facebook Live of me eating these crazy pancakes at this place, massive pancakes. It’s just more for show. But I went live on one of my social medias, and he was watching, and man it was like one of those Dog the Bounty Hunter type episodes where they’re like, Get in the car, and they recorded themselves getting in the car and going to the restaurant, which was only a few blocks away from his house. It was like an episode of Cheaters for food. He showed up there, and he caught me with pancakes. ‘What are you doing?’ I’m like, ‘Oh, she meant nothing to me.’ It was so embarrassing. He arrived with an apple. I’m like, Oh my God. So yeah, some fun moments. But he’s one of those people who has a huge heart, huge heart. He really cares, and the proof is in the pudding. There’s a reason why he’s helped so many people. It’s not like he’s making a ton of money off of that. He genuinely cares about people, so I do appreciate that.”

On his first big break in comedy:

“My first big break, I gotta honestly say that it was the first time I got up on stage. That’s probably the biggest break I ever got. Because if I don’t get to go up on stage in front of those 12-13, people, we’re not having this conversation. Day one for me was my biggest break. But as far as other opportunities that came across, Comedy Central was huge. I got to do a show called Premium Blend years ago. Tommy Davidson was the host of the show, and I had four of the best minutes of comedy in my career, and that opened up a door to a half-hour special, which then opened up a door to a one-hour special. Performing on its show time at the Apollo was huge for me as well. Harlem, New York, first time in New York, and that’s a hell of a stage to touch for the first time is the one in Harlem New York, called the Apollo Theater. The guy that went on before me got booed. He got booed so freaking bad, and then Steve Harvey, who was the host at the time, we both had hair then, I thought that was kind of funny we both had hair at the time. He looked at me and goes, you next. I’m like, You are evil, dude, really. And so I went up there, and again, I thought I was gonna fail, and I had four of the best minutes of my life on TV, and that opened up more doors, because that was on NBC.”

On whether Fluffy is Gabriel Iglesias’ alter ego:

“No, it’s more of a nickname. It’s not a gimmick where it’s like, now I gotta be a totally different person. Fluffy and Gabriel wear the same clothes. We have the same diet. But no, there’s not really [a difference]. On stage you see the performance, and that’s what I’m there to do, and I perform. And yeah, that’s what it is. But if you see me in the street and you’re like, I had a guy who came up to me, I was sitting there eating and he goes, You don’t look happy. I go, What do you mean? He goes, Yeah, your face, you look very serious, Are you okay? I go, Yeah, I’m eating. I’m fine. I’m good, yeah. He goes, You look very serious. I heard it enough times where I’m like, someone showed me a picture of me, and that’s why I make it a point to always smile in pictures and make big eyes and be very expressive, because apparently when I’m not doing that, I have really bad resting bitch face. So that’s why every picture is a ‘Hey!”

On sacrifices made for comedy:

“A lot of relationships, a lot of situations where I wasn’t comfortable. I had to give up sleep, time, and energy to other things. I gave up a lot of fun, a lot of moments, they’re like, hey, go with us over here. We’re gonna go do this. No, I got a long drive. I gotta drive to freaking Bakersfield to go do this show. I gotta sleep. People say, Oh really? But stuff like that, it all adds up. I have a lot of friends that had all kinds of fun back then and I look at their lives now, and I’m like, Yeah, I think I made the right choice by staying home that day.”

On selling out Dodgers Stadium:

“The biggest thing I’ve ever done in my life, and it’s in my hometown. Honestly, I thought about retiring that night. Because I said, How am I supposed to top this? What’s the next goal? How do you set a goal? Dodgers Stadium wasn’t even a goal. It was so unrealistic. It’s like, I didn’t find out I was going to attempt to do Dodgers Stadium until a little bit more than a year before I did it. So it was just like, wow, to be in front of that many people. A lot of people that were at that show had been following my career forever and had been to shows locally at dive bars. Because when at the end of the night I started mentioning all the places that I would perform around LA I’d hear people cheering like, oh, shoot, you were there. You were at that. So to have that moment in front of all those people and have Netflix recording it and basically archiving it as the biggest thing I’ve ever done. It’s just like, Are you kidding me? I cried. As soon as I walked down the stage I cried. I was on stage performing for about three hours. Netflix only used two. And then I called my friends to come out on stage with me, and then we started drinking, and we stayed on stage, I don’t know how much longer, but it was a few hours. The fine was insane. There was a curfew, and we went way past that.”

On finding out about the fine:

“No, no one pulled me aside and said, By the way… Because in the past that’s been the case, especially in New York. New York is one of those cities where you don’t want to mess with the union. Once you hit midnight, man, they start tacking. Because I remember I did a show at one of those venues, and they told me if you hit midnight it’s $25,000, boom, right there. You gotta be off the stage by midnight. I remember my tour manager at the time, he yelled out when I was in the middle of a bit, you’re about to hit over time, they’re gonna charge you $25,000. The whole crowd heard him, because he shouted it to me. I said, thank you good night and he goes, run your ass. I ran off the stage and I barely cleared it. Dodger Stadium was way more than that. [How much?] Quarter million. I tell people I’m the reason they could afford [Shohei] Ohtani. Because yeah, I didn’t leave Dodgers Stadium till four o’clock in the morning, and I was drunk. I had the best hangover of my life because I’m just laying in bed and I’m smiling. I’m like, can’t believe that just happened.”

On being in Magic Mike:

“I don’t love it. I mean, for me, it was a great opportunity. The fact that I didn’t have to audition for it. Channing was a fan and made me part of the movie. Out the gate, man, I’m working with Steven Soderbergh, incredible director. I’m working with Matthew McConaughey, are you shitt*ng me? Then I’m a huge wrestling fan and Kevin Nash, is in there. So the first person I gravitated to was Kevin, and he’s just massive, you see him on TV it is one thing that was the first time I met him, and he’s just so freaking tall. He’s really, really nice, and we clicked so well in that movie. But it was fun to do. I didn’t have the diet they had. Those guys had to stick to a strict diet of just protein, no carbs, bunch of celery. I’m watching all the food that they’re being given, it’s all measured and I’m like no, go ahead, have fun.”

On putting on family-friendly shows:

“It’s what’s best for business. Sorry, I’ve always wanted to say that directly into camera. It’s what’s best for business. If you have a show that’s open to everyone, that’s more people that want to come out and see you. People say, Oh, dude, what really? You’re going to do a kid show? What’s wrong with doing a kid show? That’s still butts in seats, that’s still people coming out, they’re going to grow up eventually, and I’m going to be attached to their childhood. Why wouldn’t you want to perform to as many people as possible? So if that means you got to take out a couple F bombs, or you got to make sure that you don’t do certain types of material in order to pull that off, why wouldn’t you? Then people say, well, that’s not pure, that’s not that’s not edgy, that’s not this, that’s not that. Well, where am I and where are you?”

What is Gabriel Iglesias grateful for?

“That I have real people in my life who care about me, health and that I have my passion.”

Samoa Joe’s Incredible Career In TNA, AEW & WWE, Brock Lesnar, MJF Shove, “NOPE”

in LATEST EPISODES on April 3, 2025 April 3, 2025

https://cvvtix.com – Get your tickets for INSIGHT LIVE in NYC & Las Vegas with VIP Meet & Greet!

Samoa Joe (@SamoaJoe) is a professional wrestler currently signed to AEW. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood, CA to discuss his careers in ROH, TNA, WWE and now AEW, working with the likes of Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar, the origin of the “nope” spot, the Muscle Buster that ended Tyson Kidd’s career, shoving MJF in NXT and the full-circle moment that happened in AEW, having to fill for time as WrestleMania 37 was delayed due to rain, playing the role of Sweet Tooth in “Twisted Metal”, his various voice acting roles and more!
Quote I’m thinking about: “Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” – C.S. Lewis

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On not being part of a Samoan wrestling family:

“I think Toa Liona is out there on an island by himself too. But other than that, I mean, there’s a few, but it became a funny thing because when I came up in the indies, a lot of Samoan guys who were around would kind of claim lineage to the, ‘Oh yeah dude, I’m Rock’s cousin. I’m this and that.’ And to me I was always like, I don’t want to be living off a family name that isn’t mine and doing that. So I was always real meticulous. No, I’m not an Anoa’i, but they’re an awesome family and they paved the way. But, yeah I was really kind of adamant I was gonna make my own name.”

On deciding on the name Samoa Joe:

“It was more of an exercise of necessity. So when I started, the internet wasn’t what it was today. I mean, people were still on AOL Instant Messenger getting bookings and you printed out your directions, there was no GPS, so getting your name out there was a difficult process. There was no Twitter, it was message boards and those message boards only really spoke to 20 people who were on that website or whatever. So getting this kind of exposure that many athletes are able to get today just was not a thing. Most of the time, when you got booked it was word of mouth. Somebody would recommend you. ‘This kid’s great’, they’re gonna bring them in. That was very much the case with me where a lot of, especially California promoters, they didn’t care about your tape. They didn’t care about whoever, they cared about the word of Christopher Daniels, they cared about the word of a “Shooter” Tony Jones up in AP. At the time they were the prominent guys, their word kind of got you in. So I started out as Samoa Joe just a joke gimmick like, oh we’ll just call him Samoa Joe and it’s like, you can play the stereotypical character, but you’re really a killer and you hate. The problem was I started having good matches early, people started enjoying it and promoters started asking, ‘I want that Samoa Joe kid on my show.’ I wasn’t going to change my name because I didn’t want to lose the booking. It was like, I don’t want to come up and be like Johnny Thundercock the next day, ‘Oh no, I want Samoa Joe. What’s going on here?’ So it was just a business decision. It really wasn’t like I wanted to be Samoa Joe or I sat at home coming up with this character like this is gonna be the guy. It was like, I wanted to stay employed.”

On his love of martial arts:

“I love martial arts, and to this day I still practice and still train and it was something I enjoyed. I love studying the art of it and understanding the concepts behind it. I just took stuff that I enjoyed and I tried to integrate it into my work. At the time Lucha Libre was so big, and then the aerial high flying, especially in Southern California with the border being right down the street, the influence was all over here. So it’s like I needed something to differentiate myself. So MMA was kind of coming into its own, especially here in Southern California. I knew a lot of the guys, so I just started saying to myself well how about I start taking some of those things and bring them over to kind of this genre, because I feel in 10 years this will be the biggest thing in combat sports, and I was right about that. I hope some of that stuff translates.”

On potentially pursuing UFC:

“It was open to me, but probably not. I’m an entertainer by trade, I understand how people view me as a wrestler and my style and stuff, but at my heart I grew up in show business and I’m about entertaining people, and that really was my goal with this was not to be a badass, but to go out there and make people happy and having a good night at the wrestling show.”

On people being intimidated by him:

“Which I never understood, because I try to be pretty chill and cool. I remember AJ, the great thing about him is that everywhere I’ve been, you’re going to see AJ, you’re going to see Chris Daniels. You’re going to see the same people over and over again, because they’re getting booked there too. We used to go to places and AJ would be like, ‘freaking guys intimidated or something’. I’ll be like, Why? He’s like, ‘I don’t know he thinks you’re a killer, you’re gonna kill him or something. I told him you’re fine.’ And I’m like, alright, cool. Then we get in the ring, gonna be fine. But a lot of times too it became this weird thing where guys would book me as a rite of passage. They’re like, ‘They’ve come up to you man, I saw you with Kobashi, and tonight that’s what I’m feeling is going to be tonight.’ I would roll my eyes, but AJ, you’d hear him in the back locker room just laughing. Don’t let him tell you different. He was horrible. I’d be like, I give the guy my best, but it would be funny, because I get in there with independent wrestlers, and they’d be swinging for the fences on me, and then I get upset, and then I ended up swinging the fence back. Then AJ is no help, because he’s like, ‘You see him killing him out there? Yeah, that’s why you don’t…’ I’m like, shut up AJ, so yeah, it became a weird thing for a while. But you know, what can you do? It’s a wrestling business.”

On what going to TNA meant to his career:

“To be honest, not a tremendous amount when it started. I had some less-than-good interactions with TNA early on. At the time I was ROH Champion. I was very, very focused on ROH and building the company. To their credit I was making a tremendous living at the time, especially for an independent guy working with ROH. They always took great care of me, especially when Cary [Silkin] took over. If you did good in video sales, he had no problem cracking a little cash bonus off, secret to the side. I thank him very much for that. But yeah, when I got the call for TNA, TNA didn’t have any TV. They had lost the weekly pay-per-views. People kind of forget about this. Was a transitional period. They lost the weekly pay per views. I think Dixie was just about to get involved, she hadn’t yet. They had called me up and before they had offered me a gig, they said, ‘Hey, can you come out and have a tryout match?’ I said, Sure, just send me the ticket and whatever the pay is. Then they called back and said, ‘Oh we don’t fly people out and there will be no pay.’ I called back and said, ‘Well, I’m not interested, thanks.’ And I hung up. Then they called me back again. They wanted me to be a bodyguard, I think for Johnny Fairplay and they wanted to call me Reality Joe. I said no, and that was the end of that. Then the third time they had lost their TV, they were only doing internet showcase shows. I get a call they said, ‘Hey, we’d like to you bring in. We’re gonna fly in, we’re gonna pay all this stuff.’ I was like, hey, it’s a good start. Alright, we’re really talking here. [They said] ‘We want to give you a look. We’re kind of in between TV deals’, stuff like that, so I just kind of considered it a booking. I didn’t really think it was going to be a long-term thing. Went there, had the match. They loved it, called me back and they wanted to hire me full-time. I didn’t want to be there full-time because they didn’t have a TV deal. I remember Terry Taylor at the time, who I love now and we have a great relationship, was really pressuring me, sign this deal, sign this deal, sign this deal. I’m not going to sign this deal, I’m working for ROH and I’m not going to be exclusive to you for whatever this is and give up that money. It’s crazy. They couldn’t believe that. ‘Well, we’re a big company, we had TV.’ I’m like, you had TV? Okay, great! It was really a weird process. Then my agent at the time got wind that a TV deal was forthcoming and he just goes, Hey, we’re just gonna wait it out until they get TV. And we did. And then when we got TV I said, I’ll take that contract now, it worked out a lot better.”

On working with Kurt Angle:

“I think they were great. Kurt’s status at the time, and who he was in the wrestling industry. I mean, in a lot of ways, I give Kurt a lot of credit because it legitimized me in front of a lot of people, because you hang with Kurt Angle and you go out there and you get down with him, then in many fans’ eyes you’re the truth, you’re the real deal. So, yeah, I mean, that definitely was the byproduct of working with Kurt.”

On the Brock Lesnar promo:

“Yeah, Brock was surprised too. [He didn’t know?] No, I mean, well a lot of that too and I’m not sure, there’s a lot of promos I had with Brock. But Brock really liked the kind of chaotic energy, I brought things and he loved that. I would say whatever I wanted to say to him and to his face because he understood what I’m trying to do, he understood. You want to flip off Brock Lesnar to his face and have people go, what are you doing, dude? That uneasiness, that kind of tension in the air. I think that also is just an important part of bringing interest and care into matches is building that tension, just knowing that when the dam finally breaks all hell’s gonna break loose.”

On the “You look at me when I’m talking to you” line:

“Yeah, I may have in the grand creative scheme of things went a little overboard there. It was fine. But I just remember when I walked back through the curtain, Hunter is like, Oh, awesome. Everybody’s stoked. And I remember I just looked over at Vince, and he’s just like, [flatly] ‘Yeah, good job.’ Because I think he wanted a different look to how everybody was in the ring. But sometimes when I’m out there, I’m on the mic and you get me jazzed up, and I’m all my sh*t, I just flow with the character, and then it gets wild.”

On if he had to prove himself in WWE as a non-WWE guy:

“No, they were respectful of me. Listen, I think Vince understood who I was and what I brought to the show. If anything though, and I understand this, you want your own creations to do the best. You want your own things that you’ve invested time, money and effort into to kind of go to the forefront. I’ve never faulted anybody for that. But at the same time, I’m never going to be less so somebody else could be more. I’m going to be the most me I can be. If you compete with me, and you’re up there with me, you’re going to look great. If you stay up here, this watermark with me, you’re going to look fantastic. But if you don’t, I’m not going not gonna slow my game up just to make the segment work.”

On his TNA Mount Rushmore:

“I think, AJ, Kurt, I put Abyss on there. A lot of people don’t realize the amount of physical punishment and hurt and pain and effort that Abyss put into a lot of the matches to make them happen, I think he’s one of those underrated guys in the TNA lore, really, really is. And Jeff, I mean, he started the whole deal and got it all rolling, and was a big, integral part of it for a long time. So, I mean, those are the guys that I have up there.”

On the MJF push segment in NXT:

“I remember just the whole segment coming together. What had really happened is we had done a couple runs of the common entering the arena shot, and I kept going I’m bored of the shot because, it’s just so walking to the deal. Then as a joke, I said, and I didn’t tell MJF the time because I was kind of just doing as a gag. I go, ‘Hey man, when I’m coming out now just really be clearing out the hallways for me.’ ‘Yeah, sure, bro, no problem.’ I come out and I shoved him and we cut whatever there. I remember I looked up and everybody was dying behind the camera. And I looked at him, and he was like giggling too. I think it ended up going to the truck Hunter was in the truck, kind of doing pre-production for the show and he just goes, Oh God, we’re keeping that.”

On having no idea what MJF would become:

“No, none. Well, I knew all the guys there at the time were, I think they were Brian Myers’ guys, essentially from his school, Create A Pro. I knew he had good dudes so I remember asking are you Brian’s guys, yeah, okay, cool. So I remember when I was doing the bit, the guy would get it, and he did. It was a hilarious thing. I’m glad we got to revisit it.”

On why he signed with AEW:

“I think the biggest thing was at first when I left WWE, I just signed my deal with Twisted Metal, there was initially a little bit of interest again from WWE and maybe redoing it, but at that point, I had started talking with AEW. So speaking with Tony and understanding kind of what he was looking to do at the time, and really being able to work out with my filming schedule, it just was a really nice fit.”

On if he has thought about when his career will end:

“Yeah, I do a lot. It’s probably coming sooner than later, which is fine. I think a lot of people from my generation, from what I’ve seen, if that they have the ability, we’ve done our best to kind of save up and we definitely don’t want to out stay our welcome, because we may have been privy to a few people may have done that in their careers. So I definitely don’t want to be that guy in mind.”

Is there a date in mind?

“No, I think it’s just really based on when my contract runs out. I think exploring those options as they go. I hate just saying retirement, because how many pro wrestling retirements never stick? All of them. So yeah, I will do this for a little longer and then yeah I think the end is probably sooner than any new deal being signed.”

On creating the muscle buster:

“I didn’t. So I was in the 01 Dojo when I started my career in Japan. I remember I was kind of like flipping through, they have all these baseball magazines, all this reading material and a bunch of Manga on the table because a lot of the guys enjoyed reading it. I remember I was flipping through Kinnikuman, and he was doing the muscle buster. And I was like ah. I remember I’d seen it a few times in Mexico and I was like that’s pretty cool I might start using that. Then I think at the time the promoter, Yoshiki Nakamura was with me. He goes, Ah, good move and they gave it to Sylvester Terkay to use. But then when Sylvester left, I got back on the Indies in the States and he wasn’t doing that, I was like I’m gonna start using it. So that’s pretty much how it happened.”

On if he thought he would do the muscle buster again after what happened with Tyson Kidd:

“No, and to this day that probably remains the largest regret in my career that that happened. [Chris: There’s nothing you could have done about it]. But that doesn’t change things for Tyson. Doesn’t change things for a guy who is probably one of the most passionate people in the world of professional wrestling. For a guy who has an amazing mind for it. WWE is fortunate to have him. Because even though he’s not in a physical role within the company, the finishes, his ability to put together matches and be a producer and agent are unparalleled.”

Did you think anything was wrong?

“No, not at all. No, didn’t feel any different. It’s just when I turned around and went for the pin and got back up, the only thing that even hinted that there’s something wrong is when Cesaro looked back up at me. I know when Cesaro is concerned and then I was like, oh my God, I hope everything is okay. Then we got in the back and he went to hospital and everything got checked out. But I mean, the whole circumstances regarding that and everything, it just makes me sick to this day that that guy is not out there being the Tyson Kidd that I know that he is. He’s an amazing human being. He a great understanding of a greater picture and when you talk about guys who who are great finish men, guys who can produce, he’s going to be heralded as one of the dudes there if he isn’t already.”

On concerns about using the move again:

“Well, I didn’t want to. It was kind of like when I got back into things in NXT. In NXT I used it. When I got to the main roster I didn’t. But it was mainly I tried to avoid doing a bunch or making it a thing. If he’s having a bad day, he looks over and he sees that, I didn’t want to replay the car crash in front of somebody. So I did my best to distance myself from it as much as possible. But that’s why just because this guy’s my co-worker, this guy I respect and I care about. I’m not trying to make him have a sh*tty day over it.”

On how he was paired with Hook:

“I think after we had the match initially, kind of discussed it a bit more and this and that. Then at the time, coming out of the championship program, I like Hook and I like Shibata. I know they’re just two talents that I just wanted to see kind of on TV more and focused on. I knew that I would have to go away pretty soon with Twisted Metal filming. So it was like going back into the championship program probably wasn’t a priority just because of timing and stuff. So I just wanted to focus on trying to really, really help elevate both of them and bring them to the forefront.”

On the origin of the “Nope” spot:

“Well, it started out as a gag, and it was a house show gag where I’d work Christopher Daniels and at some point I would call a cross body or something and I’d walk away from it. And Chris, to his credit, every time I did it, as he’s diving here he’s like, you son of a bitch, you dirty bastard, he would always like cursed little phrase at me as he fell to his doom. So it kind of started out as that, and then I remember I did it to him, and then him and AJ began requesting it on people, like, Oh, you got to get him with the walk away today. Come on, dude, it’ll be hilarious. You got to get him with it. So then it became kind of a bit when I started showing up on TV.”

On why he did commentary in WWE:

“They still wanted me involved in the company. They still wanted me to be a vocal presence on the show. But I was taking my time with the concussion. I wasn’t just going to come back until I had taken sufficient time and got the brain rest. I had two concussions very, very close together. All the research that was coming out, I just, I’m just not going to gamble with that. Just after seeing the massive effects it’s had on so many people in this industry and across sports period. My brain is not something I’m willing to bargain with.”

On WrestleMania 37 being delayed due to the rain:

“Oh, incredibly [chaotic]. I mean we were laughing the whole time but the biggest thing, which people don’t know, which was really the terrifying thing that was scaring us all was right above the ring. Especially where me and Michael Cole were standing, there was plastic over the thing and there was a big, huge water bubble coming through the plant, right over our head, right over commentary table, right over the first three rows. You could see this big water balloon kind of filling up at the top of the thing and it’s like the whole time we’re doing it there. We had the rain coats on but it wasn’t the rain. It was like if that thing went off, we were going to get waterfalled, it wasn’t even funny. So it was like, alright, well, here we are already and stuff like that. It was just a lot of you are stalling for time, and a lot of not there being dead air, just kind of filling it with whatever until we can get the show started. So yeah, it was an adventure.”

What is Samoa Joe grateful for?

“My family, my mentors in the business and those I have been on this journey with.”

Raquel Rodriguez On Liv Morgan, WWE Tag Team Champs, Judgement Day

in LATEST EPISODES on April 1, 2025 April 1, 2025

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Raquel Rodriguez (@RaquelWWE) is a professional wrestler currently signed to WWE and one-half of the Women’s Tag Team Champions with Liv Morgan. She sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Toronto, Ontario to discuss becoming a champion once again, how she was paired up with Liv Morgan, comparisons to Shawn Michaels and Diesel, taking time away to battle illness, why her finisher got renamed, her viral Walmart announcement, working with Ronda Rousey and more!

Quote I’m thinking about: “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” – Winston Churchill

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On being a 3 time Women’s Tag Team Champion with Liv Morgan:

“Well, not just me, but greatest. Well yeah, me and Liv are the greatest female tag team ever. I mean, you can’t deny it. We’re the first three time. Look at us work like a team. I mean, the past two matches, we’ve had tag matches with Dakota and Iyo, banger, the one we just had the other day when we won these bad boys back, banger, we can’t help it.”

On whether wrestling was always the plan:

“I think it was, for sure. So it’s funny, I talk about this pretty frequently but my dad was actually out wrestling the night I was born. He was at the hospital with my mom, but then the doctors told him, ‘Oh, she’s going to be a minute. So if you have to go to work…’ because he had a booking already, and his tag partner was with him, he’s like, Dude, we have time, let’s go. So my mom was like, It’s okay. They left and I think the second he left I was born.”

Did he think he could leave, do the match and come back in time?

“For sure. He came back after the match, 1991 was the year I was born, so I don’t think cell phones were super huge for my parents then, they’re not texting or calling each other. That was the big Zack Morris phone. So I understand that he came back and he was like, she’s here. Where is she? It’s funny, everyone in my family, my mom, my dad and my sister were all born kind of small and bald, and I came out with a full head of black hair, really, really tan, and big. I was like 10 pounds when I was born. So at first my mom thought I was gonna be a boy and she’s like that’s a girl, that’s not my baby. Then my dad, when he came back, him and his partner went to go look at me in the little viewing area. He was like, ‘Well, which one is it?’ And she was like, ‘This is her, the giant one over there.’ His partner at the time, he has a very southern accent. He’s like, ‘Whoa, that’s a huge baby.’ And I’m like I think I was just born to be with my dad and his tag team partner, because that’s what I love doing when we were younger, and we used to go on these road trips. I loved staying at the arena, watching my dad work, watching him do the business, and being a part of it. My sister and my mom would want to go explore the town, or go to the Corpus Mall or whatever, and I’m like I don’t really want to shop. I want to be here and I want to hang out. I want to see what’s going on. So I always wanted to do it for sure.”

On her father being a wrestler:

“Yeah, his name was Rick Desperado Gonzalez. He went by Speedy Gonzales for a little bit. He mostly worked the territories down in South Texas, Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana. He came up to Ohio a little bit. But yeah, that’s what his main area was, like the NWA era.”

On if her father had the opportunity to work in WCW or WWE:

“Not with WCW and not with WWE, but he did work with Shawn Michaels when he opened up his school TWA in San Antonio, Texas. And then he did do a few things with a lot of WWE Superstars. So I’ve seen videos of him because he went under a mask pretty frequently, and he would work as a luchador to be an extra or help Booker T and his brother when they were starting out, so him and his tag buddy actually helped them when they were starting out as well, and giving them their first matches and all of that stuff. The Godfather, I remember seeing him at a few shows too when I was younger, and so I thought that was so cool.”

On getting scouted by WWE:

“So Instagram was just starting out at this point too, it was starting to get its rise. So social media wasn’t a huge thing and I think WWE was looking at people on social media, but not really. They were going to fitness competitions and looking for athletes and I was already done with basketball. So I was like what do I need to do to get seen? What do I have to do to put myself out there? Tough Enough was starting back up that year so I was like okay. I did broadcast journalism, I could edit a video, and I made a little video and I submitted it for Tough Enough. I didn’t make it to the finals, but I think that helped a little bit in getting me seen, just like a hint. When I got the news that I wasn’t making it to the finals I was like well, what else can I do? I just tried to stay in the know. I was like, where are they gonna be at? Where could I go to get seen by someone? The try-outs came out at the Arnold Classic in Ohio and I was like, You know what? I had a good job after college that was really keeping me by and helping, letting me train and do all these things. So I was in a good position. I was working in student housing. I just think it’s so funny. So I started working in student housing while I was still playing basketball to help pay for my apartment with my sister, and it was a part-time job. So it was fun, because we planned the events at the apartments, and it’s mostly college students, because you’re in a college town. But as I kept doing it after college, I was like I can’t do this forever, I cannot be around college students this much or parents that much, either. But it was fun, and it was a really good position for me, but it showed me that an office job is not what I was meant to do.”

On the try-out:

“Yeah, bought plane tickets for me and my dad, and we went to the try-out. I showed up, I was in athletic wear, and I just walked straight up to the recruiter who was sitting at the WWE desk and I said, ‘Hey, I’m here for the try-out. I’m ready to go. I’ve taken a couple of bumps and rolls. I feel super confident about this. I just want to be a part of this try-out. What do I need to do?’ He got up from the table, he looked at my feet, and then he looked up at me, and he goes, Well, we kind of already have everybody for our try-out that we’re doing here at the Arnold for the exhibition. So he gave me his card. He’s like, send me some pictures and send me your stats and what you’ve done and stuff like that. So I did, and then literally within a couple of weeks later they replied, and they were like hey, we’d like to invite you to a try-out in Orlando at the Performance Center and that was in three months. So I was like, yes, they noticed me. So I went to the tryout, and I was in shock. I was expecting a lot more. I don’t even know what I was expecting. I think I was expecting wrestlers. I was expecting more people who had knowledge about wrestling, but it was all football athletes coming from the NFL, coming from college, or fitness models, bikini models, just really beautiful women, and also coming from different sports backgrounds. But I was like, okay, I see what they’re looking for here. So I stuck out for sure. I was this tall basketball-frame girl that was just super energetic and super passionate about it. I was like I’m gonna go out there and I’m gonna show them and I’m gonna scream every time they ask me something, and I’m just going to yell my name so they know who I am. I’m going to speak Spanish so they know that I have that in my back pocket, and I’m just going to do everything I need to do. I’m going to throw it all out there. I was so determined, oh my gosh. I know there was one part, and maybe Coach Bloom will admit to it if he remembers. But in my try-out he asked us a question after he had already said the answer. And he was like, ‘What makes a good roll?’ Me thinking everybody knows this answer. I was like, ‘A quiet roll?’ I was the only one who yelled. And I looked around, he goes, ‘That’s right.’ And I was like, Okay, I think that really solidified for me that they saw something in me.”

On Raquel and Liv being compared to Shawn Michaels and Diesel:

“I love it. I love it. I absolutely love it. I feel like Dakota and I had those comparisons in NXT too when we were tagging and so I was calling myself Big Mommy Cool for a while, because I love it. I don’t know if Rhea Ripley’s gonna like that. No it’s really, really cool and what a comparison to be compared to Diesel. He was just known for his swag and his attitude and his confidence so I tried to bring that. Especially coming back from my illness. I was like I want to come back and I just want to exude confidence. I want to exude machismo to quote a little bit of WWE there with Razor Ramon. But machisma. So yeah, I love that comparison.”

On battling illness:

“So I never really got a full diagnosis, to be honest with you. They said it was mast cell activation syndrome, but I got tested and that didn’t come out positive. Mast cell activation syndrome, for people don’t know, it just means your body is having a constant allergic reaction to everything, like things you were never allergic to before. Your body is just so confused from maybe stress, maybe trauma. It could be a lot of things, but now you just have a sensitive nervous system, and your body is just reacting to anything, like auto-immune. So I’ve always had eczema, even when I was younger, but it was very small areas right here, and so I think it was like 2023 I started seeing a little bit of eczema pop up on my face. I was like this is kind of weird. Maybe it could be some of the makeup because when I was little, makeup made me react. I was like it’s fine, it would come and it would go, it shows up for like a day like today. I think just from having such a long day yesterday and my bag getting lost and a lack of sleep, my body’s immune system is kind of lessened. So after last night’s match, and the makeup and stuff like that I think I had a small reaction just under my eyes and on my neck, which is random, because I don’t put makeup here. So honestly, it’s a puzzle. I’m still trying to figure it out. I still don’t know what it is. I still don’t know what’s triggering me. I think I have a little bit of mast cell, even though I wasn’t tested for it. I think you can still have some sort of it, because my body just reacts at random times.”

On taking time away:

“Well at the time that whole year I was actually like these reactions, I can deal with this. I can show up and I can be confident that I don’t need to wear makeup today. I have some eyeliner on, some eyelashes, and that’s about it, a little lipstick and I’m like that’s okay. This is my life, and I want to be open about it. I want people to know who are allergic to makeup that you’re beautiful and you don’t have to wear it. But at the time, a year ago I was swelling up. It was to the point where I was unrecognizable to myself. I was looking in the mirror, and I was like, Who is she? Who is this person? I avoided mirrors, I avoided cameras, I avoided phones. I didn’t want to know anything about the outside world, because I was just in such a dark place physically, and it was physically taxing, but I know that was taking such a big toll on me mentally. I told myself I cannot stay here, that this is right now but this isn’t forever. I have to tell myself that it’s gonna get better. I just kept telling myself that, and I think that really, really helps your mental state when you’re in these conditions and you can’t control it, because it’s out of my control. But I just kept telling myself, this isn’t forever. You’re gonna get through this. And again, my family. I’m so, so blessed because I have such a strong family that was there for me. My six-year-old niece is praying for God to take the redness away. She doesn’t have to do that, but she does that. She does that for me every night. I have amazing friends, Liv constantly checking on me, Jet from makeup always checking on me. Just really, really amazing people that wanted to come visit me, but it was something I had to get through by myself, for sure.”

On continued struggles with the condition:

“I think that’s what really crushed me at first too, because this was my dream job, I worked so hard to get here. I did everything possible, and I felt like it was getting taken away from me. I was like, no way I could be a wrestler with red skin all the time. We watched Elimination Chamber from last year, and as Liv and I are doing the commentary, watching it back and stuff my entrance happens and I just started bawling again. Because I remember being in that moment and being in Australia with my face swollen, having to take a steroid shot and having to stay in my hotel, because I didn’t want people to see me that way, and I didn’t want my coworkers to see me that way. I just felt weak, I just felt so helpless and so weak. So it was a really tough re-watch for me to watch Elimination Chamber again last year. But I know everyone’s like, no you should be so proud. You were so brave going out there, like red and with no makeup. But deep down, it was really, really hard for me.”

On being an inspiration:

“Oh, thanks. Yeah I really, really hope so, because I know that there’s so many young people out there that are going through this too, and I know how it affected me when I was younger and tried to wear makeup, and I would get reactions on my face. I just hope it really shows younger people that you’re beautiful the way you are. You don’t need to change anything. This is how God made you and just embrace it.”

On becoming a part of The Judgment Day:

“I had my connection with Liv, of course. So I had that beautiful connection with Liv. So when I was getting healthy and coming back, we talked a little bit and she was like, I think this is something that would be beneficial for the Judgment Day, especially just having her at the forefront with Dominik and I think it just brought another element to the Judgment Day. So it really wasn’t hard for me. I think I was just born in.”

On her Walmart announcement:

“You know what’s funny is they put that meet and greet on us last minute. So Liv and I got up early, and we’re like just around. We’re just having our little fun morning, and we go to do this meet and greet, we’re waiting, we’re just being us, having fun, getting ready, and we’re excited. We walk out to the Walmart through the back door where they have the table and everything set up, and I see the phone with the intercom, and the guy’s like, ‘Hey, I think I’m gonna make an announcement just so people in the store know we’re about to start the meet and greet.’ I was just like, ‘Can I do it?’ I don’t know why, what came over me, but I was like, Can I do it? I just wanted to be on a Walmart intercom. So I was like, this seems like a prime opportunity. And also I don’t think I was on that meet and greet with Liv. I think I just showed up with her because I was staying with her. I was like, I have nothing else to do, let’s go together. So we did, and I wanted to introduce her, and I got to introduce her as the greatest women’s world champion of all time. I got to introduce her as the first-ever Crown Jewel champion. And we had a really good little meet and greet.”

On how Liv and Raquel were paired up:

“I have no clue to be honest with you, no clue. They put us together when I had just gotten called up, I was still pretty new to the main roster and we were getting ready for WrestleMania. They were talking about an eight woman tag, and I think they needed tags at the time. There weren’t too many actual tag teams. So I think we just were in a random match together and we had really good chemistry. To be honest, we weren’t even really good friends then, she had her friends and her crew that she kind of hung out with, and I had mine, so we worked together and we did really well together and things just kind of like grew from there. Then Mania happened in LA, that was my first Mania and I got to tag with Liv, and we had the cool Powerbomb move. I think that was something that opened people’s eyes to what we were able to do. Then the Monday after Mania they were like, You guys are tagging again. It’s funny, because that Monday too, I remember we were in completely opposite matches, she was in a triple threat with two other people, and I was in a triple triple threat with two other people. Literally as the show’s about to start, the doors are opening, people are coming into the arena they’re like, scratch that, putting you guys into tag. So it just kind of went from there. I think what makes Liv and I work really well too is that we want to really elevate the tag division, we want to elevate any match that we’re in together, and we want to elevate each other. So when we talk about what we want to accomplish that night, or what we want to do with these tag titles, it’s always being on the same page with each other. So that comes with building a relationship with each other too. Because if we want to show people how good our chemistry is in the ring, we should have that outside too. So we really took the time to bond and become friends and yeah, it’s been so much fun ever since, because we really are good friends. Sometimes you have people who aren’t friends that are tag teams, and they’re great, and you’d still never know. But Liv and I, we really just got along, and we had a lot of the same values and beliefs, and it just worked. And so it was really, really fun getting to tag with her the first year, the second time we won it in London at Money in the Bank. Yeah, it’s been amazing.”

On working with Ronda Rousey:

“When I first got called up to main roster to work with Ronda, I was like I felt the pressure, for sure, and when I talked to people about being able to work with her and how amazing she is, it’s always mind blowing to me still that I got that opportunity to be in the ring with her and work with her and know her and put on what was a really good match. It was a really good mix up that we had.”

Where do you go from here?

“It’s tough. I definitely think I go to WrestleMania as Tag Team Champions, and me and Liv retain whoever it is that we will face. Then after that, I think we hold on to these bad boys for as long as we can, and we become the longest reigning, three-time greatest ever World breaking Women’s Tag Team Champions. And then possibly, who knows? If Liv gets a singles opportunity, and she gets to be Liv two belts, maybe there’s an opportunity for me to also be Raquel two belts and get a singles opportunity. You know, that Intercontinental title looks really pretty, and so does Chelsea’s United States Championship. Since I’ve been visiting SmackDown more, I’ve been admiring it a little bit more from afar.”

What is Raquel Rodriguez grateful for?

“My health, my family and for the position that I’m in to be able to shed light onto so many things that we deal with in this world that we never talk about.”

Cedric Alexander On WWE Release, Hurt Business, Possibly Signing With AEW, Lumbar Check

in LATEST EPISODES on March 27, 2025 March 27, 2025

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Cedric Alexander (@CedricAlexander) is a professional wrestler previously signed to WWE. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood, CA to talk about the release and his immediate reaction, if he is interested in joining The Hurt Syndicate in AEW, being a part of The Hurt Business and the group’s sudden break-up, getting signed during the Cruiserweight Classic, playing Gary Garbutt the janitor in a match with Roman Reigns, Drew McIntyre and Shane McMahon, the viral Lumbar Check on Candice LeRae, winning the Cruiserweight Championship at WrestleMania 34 and more!
Quote I’m thinking about: “Difficulties in life are intended to make us better, not bitter.” – Dan Reeves

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On the WWE release:

“Everything’s fine. You know, once I got that news, I wasn’t even mad. I kind of felt like a pressure was lifted off my shoulders. Oh wow, I’m free to do other things, cool, all right, let’s see what happens.”

On getting the release call:

“I was expecting to be angry and frantic. Actually, funny enough they called Friday night. I was in the middle of a leg workout. I’m doing squats, and my phone starts ringing. So I put the weight down, because I have a gym in my house so for me I’m just working out all hours of the day. So I pick up the phone, and I received the dreaded 203 number. I’m like, Okay, what’s gonna happen? I don’t remember the guy’s name. I think he said it was Will from TR. And I was like, Yeah, sure. What’s up? He goes, ‘Sorry, we’re gonna release you from your contract.’ My initial reaction was okay, cool. He goes, ‘Yeah, sorry to get this news on a Friday.’ So I had an NXT house show tomorrow, so I don’t do that anymore. That was my first question, too. He goes, No, you’re all good, just the 90 days and if you need anything let us know. I was like, okay, cool.”

On if he was expecting the release:

“I wasn’t expecting it, but it was the thing of I wasn’t surprised. I guess I kind of saw the writing on the wall after a while.”

On his immediate reaction:

“So I immediately thought to myself when I was released, I was like, Okay, that’s a job. Wrestling is my career. I may be out of a job, but I still have a career. All thanks to [Mustafa] Ali, he’s one of the guys that called me within the hour of me being released and was immediately like, hey dude, it’s all good. Just being super positive as you know Ali is, but yeah man, it sucked because it’s a dream job. It’s one of those jobs that I’m a kid and I’m like oh my god, I’m gonna wrestle for WWE. Then when it ends, it just ends. You just move on.”

On what’s next:

“I felt like I was completely started all over again, because I don’t know what’s wrestling outside of WWE for the last eight and a half years. Who’s hot on the indies? I don’t really know that much anymore, who’s a good place to get work? I am just completely lost, because being in WWE for nearly a decade, eight and a half years, you’re like okay, I don’t have to do anything, bookings just come to you, you get paid, and it’s like you almost get complacent because you’re like, Oh, something will pop up. They have all my booking information. They’ll put me in something eventually.”

On if he is interested in joining The Hurt Syndicate in AEW:

“100%. That’s a big chapter of my career that I really felt was never fully explored and I think it’ll be great to finish that out.”

On The Hurt Business suddenly ending:

“I knew something was wrong when Bobby won the title on that episode of Raw, and Vince made a very direct comment to not have me and Shelton get it in the ring and celebrate with him. That was when I was like, Oh, that’s not good news. Whatever’s happening next I’m not gonna like it. Then, slowly but surely, think was it two or three weeks later that we did the full breakup the first time of the three times we did.”

On there being more to The Hurt Business storyline:

“I think so, definitely. There’s so much meat on the bone that I would like to get to. But if I don’t, then that’s fine too. I’m game to go to New Japan, Mexico. So I’m just ready for things to happen. It’s one of those things where I’ve been sitting so long and I feel like I’m getting a little itchy, something’s gotta happen soon.”

On getting signed at the Cruiserweight Classic:

“Okay, that’s why I’m breaking the fantasy up here a little bit. Technically, I was signed right before that match. Actually, what got me signed wasn’t the match with Kota, it was the weight loss transformation that I did to get into the Cruiserweight Classic. So we’re going back to 2015 and I figured out okay, ROH probably not going to use me too much more, my contract is coming up in January. So I’m going explore this idea of doing WWE try-outs. So I had a tryout that I emailed Canyon Ceman for in January, and he said, ‘Yeah, come on down. We’ve been keeping an eye on you. We’d love to see you.’ I was like, Cool. Did the try-out, went great. They started asking people throughout the try-out, ‘Hey, can you lose X amount of weight for this tournament that we’re gonna do?’ And I was one of the guys they asked. I was like, Yeah, sure. And they asked me how much I weighed. I was 232. I legit had to get to 205. I remember asking, ‘Hey, do we have to be at 205 or would it be like around?’ He goes, ‘No, you gotta be 205.’ I don’t know if I could do that, but we’ll try it. But they told me this in the end of January, around February, and the tournament was in June or July, I believe. So I had plenty of time to lose it, but I’ve never lost that much weight. So I was like, I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to do this or not. The first two, three weeks, 15 pounds gone, I was like, Oh, I could do this way faster than I thought. So I’m calling Canyon Ceman every week and a half, two weeks or so just to kind of check-in and go Hey, I’m here now. I’m here now. Because at that point they never said, Hey, you’re in the tournament. They just said, Hey, keep in contact with us. We’ll see what we can do. And I think it was right at the beginning of June they announced me being in the tournament. I just got down to 205 right on the dot. And I’m actually so close to the point where if I ate a ham sandwich, I was too overweight. So keeping that weight down was not an easy thing for me to do, because I don’t think my body was made to be that low.”

On his relationship with Triple H:

“Honestly, it didn’t go past that, funny enough. You would think from that moment I’d be a Triple H guy. So there was a point where we were in 205 Live that he kind of had some say in there a little bit, and kind of took care of me. But I was never really a fully Triple H guy. I was more of a Paul Heyman guy. When he was writing Raw, and they drafted me out of 205 Live into Raw, I was more of a Heyman guy than anything else. Heyman give me a bunch of little sidebar conversations this, that and the other way more than Triple H did.”

What do you think you learned from Paul Heyman?

“Patience, for better or worse, patience. I remember there was one point I went to Heyman and I was just like, I was probably on Raw for like a year, but they haven’t really done anything with me. And I was like, Hey, Paul, What do you need for me in order to get to that next level? I think this is maybe right after we did the whole thing with AJ and the squash match we did on Night of Champions in Charlotte. He was just telling me just wait. We’ll take care of you. If you gotta wait six months, wait six months. If you gotta wait a year. Wait a year. And I swear I’m going, I will be the best soldier I can be and just wait it out. And every time they called me for something, whether it was the Gary Garbutt thing or any other random thing they asked for. I was, hey, I’m here. What do you want me to do?”

On Gary Garbutt the janitor:

“I got to work that day not knowing what I was going to do, which is the norm for WWE. I just remember sitting around, and then ref tells me, hey, we need you ringside. I was like cool, go down the ringside, hang out for a bit, talk to some guys. Nothing happened. Okay, then Shane McMahon comes and gets me and goes, ‘Hey, come with me to the production meeting.’ Oh, cool, all right. Following Shane to production he goes, Wait right here. I sit outside the chair of the production meeting for what felt like 10-20, minutes. Shane comes back out, and in that time they had already got the plan together for Drew and Shane to bully a backstage crew member, a janitor, and then for me to take his place, put his mask on and wrestle. I’m like okay, why are we doing this? It’s the story with Roman and Shane, all right, cool, fine. That’s good enough reason for me, and that’s all I got. Went out there and did the match. I remember calling the match with Shane and Drew, and I’m calling the spots I’m gonna do, and then I called the back elbow, and Shane goes, ‘So you think you can do my moves now?’ Sorry, Shane, this is what I was doing at the moment. What do you want me to do? The weirdest thing from that was then taking the mask off at the end of the match, and then having a smile on my face. It was the weirdest thing, because I remember the spot was to take the mask off and reveal it’s me, and I’m like. I hadn’t done anything on Raw at this point. I’m just a guy. A guy from 205 Live that most people didn’t who watched Raw probably didn’t see the show. So I’m like, All right, cool. Gonna take the mask off. I remember taking off and Roman goes do it slow. All right. I take the mask off, and I’m smiling, with a busted lip, because Drew just kicked me in the face with a claymore. And I’m like, Yeah, it’s me. It’s me, Austin! I’m thinking myself, why the hell am I smiling? I just got kicked in the face. Vince was like, ‘I want you to take it off and smile big, like you just got one over on him.'”

On the Lumbar Check:

“The funny thing is the less you try to sell it, the better it is. So I’ve had guys, I get them up and they try to recoil, because you want to get that classic bounce and recoil off of it. But it never really works out. Candice LeRae is the reason why people try to take it like that, actually. So I’m doing a show in Cleveland for AIW and it’s like an eight-hour drive for me from North Carolina. I’m driving up the whole way, and I know it’s like the six-person scramble match with Candice, ACH, I’m sorry I don’t remember names of the other guys in the match, but Candice LeRae and ACH were in that match in particular. I remember thinking, I do cool things with ACH all the time. That’s cool. But what can I do with Candice? She takes the lumbar check. And that’s as far as I thought it through, I didn’t think it was gonna get viral or anything like that. I remember calling it to her and go, Hey, you want to take this? She goes, Yeah, sure, whatever. And the moment I got her up and threw in the air, if you’ve watched the viral clip of it. You hear someone go, ‘Oh no’, bang, and she flies over my head by the rope. And I’m like, I just killed Candice. All right, moving on to the next part. And then I wake up the next morning. It’s viral on Twitter and millions and millions of views, I got death threats. Yeah, people thought I killed Candice. People legit thought I killed Candice.”

On the origin of the Lumbar Check.

“Mortal Kombat. I think we got it from Sub Zero. Sub Zero had a finishing move in the game where he rips your spine, it’s called the lumbar intrusion or something like that. We’re like, that sounds weird. So before I actually got that far, Steve Corino was trying to help me think of moves, names for it and we came up with a whole bunch of weird stuff and he said something with a check in it. I was like, I like that kind of but I don’t know what else to put with it. And then after kind of brainstorming with my wife or girlfriend at the time, Big Swole. So I was brainstorming. And she goes, What about the lumbar intrusion thing from Sub Zero? I went I don’t like that. I remember Steve Corino was like something check. I was like, lumbar check? Because you’re falling on the lumbar, and it’s great. I was like, okay, that works, perfect. We’ll go with it. And this is how it came up with the move. I’ve actually been doing that move since like the second year I started wrestling, so it’s not a new move for me, because I just randomly started doing it, just because I think, I thought it’d be cool. I saw Roderick Strong doing a one knee version. And then, yeah, that’s why”.

On winning the Cruiserweight Championship at WrestleMania 34:

“That for me was the childhood dream come true, so to speak. Because when I came up watching wrestling I always wanted to be a Cruiserweight, because my first match I remember watching was Juventud versus Ray Mysterio in WCW. I just remember going, that’s, that’s me now I’m doing wrestling, and so I’ve always been a big lover of the Cruiserweights.

So to be able to get to do that, WrestleMania was 75,000 people, and they put us on a pre-show. Most people look at that and go, ah, boo. It’s not the main show. That’s the pre-show. It’s like, brother, I’m walking out and it says WrestleMania behind me, there’s people in their seats, this is WrestleMania, regardless how you try to put that. With Ali, I don’t think you could have picked a better opponent for me, he took care of me. Ali was the, I want to say the sane one, but he was the more together one of the two of us, because I’m freaking out. For me, this is the biggest thing I’ve ever been on. I’m here. Last year I was injured. I couldn’t even go to WrestleMania. I had a meniscus tear. But then this year, I’m wrestling for the Cruiserweight Title on Wrestlemania, not thinking I would ever see WrestleMania, ever. So for me, I’ll never forget that match. I won it, my daughter was in the front row, my wife was in the front row, and so I will forever be grateful to Ali for pulling me together because I was losing it. I didn’t know how to handle it. Nerves were killing me. I flew my family out for that show. So my mom, my stepdad, my brother, his girl, his daughter, my daughter, my wife. So for me, it was just like, I can’t mess this up. If I mess this up, then everything just feels like it went down the drain. [How would you mess it up?] Blowing a spot, not being 205, because like I said, keeping that weight was hard for me to do. So I’m thinking of every little thing, what if I look chubby? What if my abs aren’t popping out? What if I’m not jacked? What if my gear is bad? There were so many things I was thinking about that could have went wrong. Just in my head, and I was my own worst enemy for that whole week.”

On if his wife Big Swole is still wrestling?

“She is currently not wrestling. She’s she’s doing more of the announcer hosting role. She’s trying to get into that more. Wrestling is just rough on her body. She has Crohn’s disease. So it’s not the easiest thing to come back when you’re wrestling. There’s thoughts about, okay, maybe doing one more run, maybe. But she’s pretty content with keeping her body in one piece and just sticking with more supportive roles in wrestling.”

What is Cedric Alexander grateful for?

“Family, health and patience.”

Lilian Garcia On Her WWE Return, Smackdown, Viral Moments With The Rock & Triple H

in LATEST EPISODES on March 25, 2025 March 25, 2025

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Lilian Garcia (@LilianGarcia) is a WWE ring announcer and singer. She sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood, CA to discuss being back in WWE and how her moment with Samantha Irvin on Raw led to her return to announcing, her 2016 departure and what led her back to wrestling, how the current era compares to The Attitude Era, her previous podcast “Chasing Glory” possibly making a comeback, memorable interview segments with The Rock, her storylines with Viscera, 3 Minute Warning and Howard Finkel, taking a Samoan drop from Jamal (Umaga), announcing Triple H as a former World Champion and the viral reaction, singing the national anthem at WWE events and more!

Quote I’m thinking about: “Sometimes when things are falling apart, they may actually be falling into place.” – Unknown

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On if Lilian thought a WWE return would be possible:

“You know, you should never say never, because I really thought that was it. I thought that that chapter was closed, especially when I walked away. I didn’t have to walk away in 2016 but I chose to walk away when my dad got sick, he was given two weeks to three months to live. He had bladder cancer and it had spread, and at that time he was living with me and mom had come to live with me. They were getting treated at City of Hope here in LA, and the treatments just didn’t work anymore. When I got that news, I remember calling the company and being like, I just can’t get on another plane. It was just devastating. My dad was so upset that I had left the company because he really felt responsible, but I kept going every day no, this is where I needed to be. This is where I want to be. Now he didn’t know he was dying. He had told us a long time before that don’t ever tell me if I’m dying. I think it was the Lieutenant Colonel inside of him, where I think it would just been devastating had he felt like I don’t have any more control. Because as an army person, whatever, you just feel like you need to have control. So it was kind of one of those things where it’s like no, I’m gonna step away just so I can spend some time with you and get you back to health.”

On not regretting the decision to step away from WWE:

“I will never regret that decision. He passed on Christmas Day of 2016 and I just remember he had said goodbye to us on the 20th, that was when he lost the ability to speak anymore. I just remember that by the 25th I looked at the cross that I had put, because he was a man of faith, and I put a cross above his bed, this was like at 12:30 that afternoon. I said to God, ‘If you want to give me a gift take him, because this is not my dad anymore.’ It’s the hardest thing to say, but I’m looking at this man, he was just trying to stay alive for us but he just wasn’t there. I always wondered why Christmas Day and he held on to that day though, because he knew how much we loved it. But I do remember this from the hospice people that were there, great piece of advice, and he said, ‘Don’t tell your dad to let go. As a Lieutenant Colonel, he’s the one that gave the orders, so just tell him it’s okay to let go if he’s ready.’ And that’s what I did. I whispered in his ear, and I said look, it’s okay to let go. You’ve really prepped me for life, your lessons. I don’t want to get teary-eyed here, but it was about an hour later he let go.”

On missing WWE when she left:

“Yes, I couldn’t even watch the product for a really long time, it was just too sad, too hard for me to watch, too many memories. I loved it so much. Like I said, from a little girl to all of a sudden, here I am and working with The Rock, Stone Cold, Triple H. The Attitude Era. I mean, it’s like D-Von and I look back, I remember him coming to me, we were talking backstage. He goes, Man, we just had no clue the era that we were in when we were in it, we just didn’t. I heard Triple H kind of say this the other day after Elimination Chamber and the press conference. He said, we didn’t really know that there was something so special about the Attitude Era. But now we look back and we go, that was a really special time, but now we can feel there’s something very special now, and I agree. It’s like now some of us that were there in the Attitude Era could really look at this moment and go, Okay, there’s a feeling that we’re familiar with. And this is really special.”

On coming back to WWE full-time:

“Crazy. I feel like this is a God thing. So when I left in 2016, took care of my dad, then my mom stayed living with me and then she eventually got cancer as well. In 2019 I went to PFL, the Professional Fighters League in MMA. So I started announcing for them. I announced for four years with them, but mom had gotten sick during that time, and so did the same thing for her, took care of her. My sister came. My sister did this as well with my dad. She basically lived with me so we could take care of both of them, and she passed in 2021. Then by the end of 2021, my marriage just dissolved. I had to make a really hard decision. It’s wild that I went to Spain, where I grew up, I went there to kind of tap into my younger self and to separate myself in the situation to kind of see things clearly. For three weeks I sat there and I wrote everything out, and then I came back and I made the decision, but I was devastated because I didn’t see it coming. I didn’t want this. But you get to a point where if you’re not living in a very healthy way, you got to make a decision.

So I needed to make that decision. I dissolved that, I kept PFL, I did the 2022 season, and then the 2023 season came and all of a sudden I lost my voice and I couldn’t figure out why. I went through four months trying to figure out what was wrong with my voice. I couldn’t announce. I could speak but I could barely sing, just anytime I went to do something forceful, boisterous, it was just like it would swell up and disappear. My vocal coach was telling me, because I was like, okay, maybe I should just be on vocal rest. He’s like, no, no, we can’t do that, because then you’ll atrophy, we got to work this out. But come to find out when I tried to do the championship for the 2023 season, I just couldn’t. It was at Madison Square Garden and that very next week, my boss called me. He’s like, we’re not gonna be able to sign you for 2024, we don’t even know what’s wrong with you. I was like, I don’t blame you. I’m like an announcer without a voice. But the very next week my voice cleared up and I’m like, what is happening here?

Sure enough, I had the house I was living in Laguna Beach, and I had it checked out. I thought it was mold, because I encountered mold in houses before, but it wasn’t. It was a gas leak, huge gas leak that I had had there for four months in, just inhaling all these fumes, and they’re like, Thank goodness you don’t smoke or you don’t light candles. That’s why I was so irritated. I had to go through hyperbaric chambers and detox and all, but by then I’d lost that. So then I ended up deciding by the end of 2023 to move to my parents’ house in South Carolina. So I left California. The house had been sitting there since my dad, they moved in 2016 so I went and wow, what a chapter. For eight months, sat there and went through all my childhood memories, because that’s the house that I grew up in from when I moved from Spain when I was eight years old. So going through all this stuff, my dad, my parents had added to the house, and by then it was almost 4,000 square feet, a lot of hoarding. It’s like that generation just wanted to keep everything. So I went through a lot. My sister would come back and forth from Nashville, but sitting with those memories in the house, wow, that was tough, and I dealt with that for eight months, and then that led me to Atlanta. I get to Atlanta, and I somebody suggested, oh by the way, at the end of 21, I am going to get to your question, but I think this is all important to lead to that.”

“By the end of 2021 when I’d made the decision, December 1 is when I finally told him, my friend extended her hand the second week of December. She’s like, ‘Do you want to go to Mariners with me?’ I was like, what is that? She’s like, my church. I was like, Well, I’m Catholic. She goes, Well, this is non-denominational. It’s like, okay, I’ve never been to non-denominational, it’s fine. I walk in and the band starts playing, and they’re playing for 20 minutes, and they’re playing rock music, and there’s lights and I’m like, wait, we’re not even in a church. It’s like in an arena. Am I at church or a rock concert? What is this? I was just so moved by it and the message and everything that I had to come back next week. By the second week I was like, I had to see if they need a singer. It’s like, I just got everything in me. I don’t know whether God, whatever, but everything in me is like go find out. Sure enough, they did a really quick audition. I heard that usually it takes six months, and I was in there in like two weeks. So I was meant to be. So I started becoming a worship leader and really that brought me back. I got into a church program that really helped me deal with my divorce and helped me deal with a lot of trauma that I’d been through in my life, and from that I ended up getting re-baptized.

When I say re-baptized, I was baptized as a baby, but I made the choice as an adult and it was on Easter Day, which was fascinating. Was amazing that it was that day because it also happened to be my grandmother’s birthday. My grandmother was the first 14 years of my life. She lived with us, and she’s the one that really just poured so much love. I know love because of my grandmother, so the fact that it was her birthday as well. So then when I moved to Atlanta I watched the movie The War Room, which is amazing. I created this prayer closet because it talks about it in The War Room, and is where I meditate and all. I’m sitting there and I’m like, All right God, I’ve done everything that I feel like you want me to do. I’ve stepped away from this, stepped away from that, lost my voice. I’ve found out what it was. But at the same time, I lost my job at PFL, didn’t get re-signed, and no income coming in. I’ve gone to this house for eight months and emptied it, still waiting for it to sell. I’m like, I literally have one more month left of income. You say you do not abandon, I feel like I’ve done everything you want me to do. I will trust but I am scared. And two weeks later, I get the call from Triple H to come back.”

On returning to WWE full-time:

“So here’s the setup too. Because I went to the house in South Carolina, then I find out that Raw is going to be in Greenville, and that was in May, months before. I find out they’re going to be in Greenville so I’m like, oh that’s only an hour and a half [away]. I hadn’t seen them in forever. Let me go down there. Just let me go say hi to everybody. So I reach out to him and I’m like, ‘Hey, can I come by? I’m like an hour and a half away.’ He [Triple H] is like, ‘Of course, we haven’t seen you forever. Come on back.’ So I said hi to everybody, and then he was like, ‘Hey, do you want to be on the show tonight? I’d love for you to co-announce with Samantha.’ I’m like, Oh, that would be so much fun. Sam was so excited. She’s so excited. She was telling me she’d been watching me and I had inspired her because I sang, and so she felt like she wanted to sing on the show and all. So when we co-announce, when I stopped in the middle of the ring and started complimenting her, that wasn’t part of it. I just really felt like that came out of me, really complimenting her. It just became such a moment that it just went everywhere, viral, my gosh, it was like the passing of the torch and all that. It was just so exciting.

Then I’m in Atlanta, I’m now living there, and Bad Blood is in Atlanta. I came back in October, so we didn’t know anything. I go to Bad Blood, I’m in the audience, I’m sitting next to Booker T. Then I get the call two weeks later, ‘Hey, can you come back?’ The thing is I knew when they offered it to me to come back, they did tell me, ‘Hey, this isn’t permanent announcing for Raw or SmackDown. We just really need you right now but this is a new era, we want to be completely upfront with you.’ Which I really appreciated. I said, Look, whatever you guys need, I never thought I was going to be back, and whatever you need, I love this business. I love the people I work with. I’m excited. So when they brought me back, I knew that Raw was going to be until the changeover in January 6 for Netflix, that I knew. And they were like, Okay, now we’re gonna put you on SmackDown but we don’t know how long. Every week that went by they were like, ‘I’m so sorry we need you another week, is that okay?’ And I’m like, ‘Of course it is. It’s fine. Do whatever you want. I am loving this, totally loving this.’ But what was so beautiful that has evolved from it is that even though I’m not gonna be the full-time SmackDown announcer anymore, they said, You know what, we love having you part of this, we want to extend, we want you to do Saturday Night’s Main Event. We think you’re a perfect fit for that. I love it. I get to wear gowns for that.”

On being back in WWE:

“Amazing, the fans have been incredible, just the love from that to the people I’m working with, to the new talent that’s there, the girls in the locker room, absolutely incredible. And they all reached out to me, or they’re like we’re gonna miss you on a weekly basis. They know I’m not gone-gone, but they’re like we’re gonna miss you on a weekly basis. Working back with Triple H and seeing all of these people that I worked with for so many years, all the agents now that are the producers that are there. It’s my family. I don’t have my parents anymore, I didn’t have kids, and I’m not in a relationship, I’m in Atlanta by myself. So it is my family, and that’s what’s so beautiful, and the fact that they said, Look, we really want to work this out to keep you in some capacity here. Man, that’s music to my ears and just to my heart.”

On the Viscera storyline:

“You know, that was never supposed to be a storyline. Never. So they asked, ‘Okay, can he just serenade you? We want to turn him into Big Daddy V where he starts going around to all these women and he gets all these women kind of thing. He goes, so we have an idea. We want him to serenade you.’ I’m like, yeah, that’d be fun. Well, it was like the most watched segment in weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks, or the year, or something like that. So it was like wait a minute, we have something here. So that’s when they kept writing something for us and it just kept evolving and evolving. Next thing you know, I’m proposing to him at the pay-per-view at Vengeance. Oh my gosh, it was so fun. He was so incredible to work with and they wanted to do this like, you know, Beauty and the Beast. He was a beautiful man. Like, seriously just a really big teddy bear. He showed up and he was like, ‘Oh, guess what we’re doing tonight.’ What? What are we doing? Things you didn’t expect.”

On the 3 Minute Warning Angle:

“So okay, I get the job as the announcer, replacing the legend Howard Finkel. I don’t remember how long after that, but he kind of in the storyline had been wanting his job back and he screwed me in something. I remember popping up with Trish. I even had a match with him. So he’s in the ring and he’s insulting me with something and then all of a sudden, Three Minute Warning comes. Then Jamal and Rosie are in the ring. They threw me into Jamal, which obviously we know later on was Umaga, but at the time he was Jamal, and they do the Samoan drop. He does the Samoan drop on me.

So we rehearsed in the afternoon and there was a mat. They brought this big mat, and they’re like, Okay, what we need you to do is to be able to take this. We need you to wrap your arms here and wrap your arms there, they’re teaching me, and I’ve been athletic my whole life. So I was like, this is the best thing ever. This is so exciting. And they’re like, okay, but when he goes back with you, you make sure you release all the air out of your lungs so that you don’t lose your [breath]. Well, I’m not a wrestler, so of course, in the action of it all, I hit the mat. Now it’s way firmer than the practice mat. The practice mat is super thick. But when I hit the ring, the fall is way worse, and I don’t let my air out because I don’t think about it. Sure enough, I knocked the wind out of my lungs and I could hardly breathe, but I knew I had to stay still because I knew that I was about to take the frog splash. I knew I had to stay still and they say that even looked worse but I didn’t even feel that one at all. But I did feel when I was going to the back and they were rolling me out in the stretcher, Chris the trainer is checking on me and he’s like, how are you doing? My head is throbbing like, what’s going on? He’s like you should be alright. Next day, I felt like the truck had hit me and it was because I thought that there was foam in the ring to support. No, it’s boards. That’s why they sound like, boom, boom. Well, imagine little old me coming and landing on a board all the way from up top. Sure enough, I’m gonna feel that, I’m not trained, and that’s why they don’t do things like that anymore. I’m actually glad and excited that I was in the era that I took that, it was a lot of fun. [He threw you up for that]. Yeah, I have so much respect from that moment right then. I had already respected the wrestlers, but I had so much more respect because I’m like, the fact that you guys do this 300-plus dates a year to your bodies is incredible.”

On The Rock playing a part in Lilian singing the national anthem at WWE events:

“He’s the reason I got to sing the national anthem on the show, because when we worked together so much backstage and doing all these segments, I remember they were setting up cameras or lighting. So we talk and he’s like, so tell me a little bit about yourself, and he wanted to get to know me. He’s one of the first ones that friended me. So I told him a little bit about me, and singing came up. He’s like, Oh, you sing and I’m like, Yeah. It was later on, I was getting ready because Howard always did the live events on the weekend, but I was going to be subbing in for Howard. He said to me, ‘Hey, you know what? Every weekend we play the national anthem as an instrumental before we go out there. Why don’t you talk to the producers to see if you [can sing it]? Have you ever done the national anthem?’ I said, Yeah, I did on my graduation for high school or college. Can’t remember. So he’s like, ‘Why don’t you talk to them and see if you can do it?’ So I talked to the producers. They’re like, ‘Well come in that day in the afternoon, let’s rehearse it and see.’ So I did it, and they’re like, oh my gosh, we’d love for you to do it tonight. So I did it Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and then by Monday, all the producers told Vince McMahon, they’re like, ‘You got to see her do this. She knocked it out of the park. The crowd went crazy.’ We were in San Jose, and he goes all right, I gotta see it tonight. So I did it that night, and then that was it. He’s like, I want you to do it at every event. I hold the record for the most times at WrestleMania, which is awesome.”

What is Lilian Garcia grateful for?

“The people that are in my life, the opportunities that I have and the fan base that is still with me.”

Chris Bey’s Inspiring Recovery After Being Paralyzed In The Ring

in LATEST EPISODES on March 20, 2025 March 20, 2025

Chris Bey (@DashingChrisBey) is a professional wrestler currently signed to TNA. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas to discuss the accident the night after TNA Bound For Glory that left him paralyzed, being told he would only have a 10-25% chance of walking again and defying the odds, the overwhelming support from TNA and the fans including CM Punk showing his support at the Raw on Netflix premiere, if he thinks he will ever wrestle again, the benefit show featuring stars from WWE, AEW and TNA, what it meant to be X Division Champion, his current quality of life and more.

Support Chris Bey here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/chris-bey-recovery-funds

Quote I’m thinking about: “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe

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On the video of his standing out of wheelchair:

“It took a lot of therapy, a lot of mental will, lot of days where I wasn’t better than the day before. So it sucked. You know, timing, a lot of my walking ability or standing ability, and trying to make my walking look as natural as possible. So I had probably only been up on my feet without assistance for three weeks at that point when I posted the video. So those three weeks were mostly me trying to make it look as normal as possible and not too shaky, so that if I did decide to post it I wouldn’t be embarrassed.”

On being in a wheelchair up until that point:

“Yeah I was in a wheelchair from probably, we’ll say a little over a month after the surgery is kind of when I was put into a wheelchair, that’s a little stretch, maybe three weeks after the surgery they started putting me in a wheelchair. From that moment up until mid-January, I was in a wheelchair.”

On what he remembers from the accident:

“I remember from the day being sore from Bound for Glory, crazy match. Once the adrenaline wore off at Bound for Glory, I was feeling it. So when I walked in that next day, I was like man, I hope I’m cutting a promo today. I said I did not feel like wrestling. As soon as I heard I was wrestling The Hardys I was like sweet, double-edged sword, because you’re wrestling the Hardys but then physically you don’t want to do it. But then I told myself and I told [Ace] Austin too. These guys used to do this six nights a week. We can do it. It’s no big deal. The match was going good. We had a lot of time, which was different from the first time we met those guys. Just team versus team. First time, we didn’t have a lot of time. This time we had more time. So we were all confident and comfortable with what we were doing. I’m in there with my best friend and two of my idols, it’s a night off essentially, and then a spot that you’ve done a million times up until this point goes wrong. As soon as it goes wrong, you don’t notice what’s wrong, you just know something isn’t right. I felt a jolt. It was a neck breaker. We missed each other, Matt and I, by an inch. I felt a jolt, and I felt a little bit of discomfort. Referee Daniel Spencer comes over and checks on me, ‘Chris, are you okay?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I think so, just roll me out the way’, because I needed help rolling out of the way. I didn’t realize how much help I needed. Austin said it didn’t look like I needed a lot. Looked like I helped too. I just felt like I wanted assistance rolling out of the way quick enough because I knew they had to do some more stuff. I didn’t want them to think that I was just selling and bumping on top of me, expecting me to move. I’ve had stingers before. I thought it might have just been a stinger.”

On if he was in pain at that point and what happened next:

“I was numb. It was a weird feeling that I can’t exactly explain, because I’ve never experienced it before. I just know it was kind of a numb feeling. I didn’t realize all of what was numb. I just felt a numbness. But because of the adrenaline and because of the perfectionist I am, I was thinking about the art we were creating and how my brush made a mark I didn’t want because the spot didn’t go perfect. So instead of thinking about how I felt, I was thinking about how to get back on track in the match. So once he helped roll me out of the way, I’m looking out of the side of my eye to see them do the next sequence and see if that goes right. It does. Crowd reacts and I’m like, okay, cool. It’s my turn to get back up and do my next spot. So mentally, I roll over and grab the ropes and sell around. Physically, I’m laying there. So Matt and Jeff come over to me and I was like, ‘Let’s just go to Swanton. Let’s just end this.’ Because I can’t get up. I’m already laying here. I’m like, let’s just go to the Swanton, which I’ve never had to cut stuff in a match before so my pride was hurt a little bit, but I just knew I couldn’t get up. I didn’t know why, though. So Jeff starts to climb the top rope, and as he’s climbing the top rope I’m thinking that I should be able to brace for this. So once again, mentally, I’m doing this motion. Physically, nothing’s happening, and I’m laying there doing this.”

“So I’m yelling at the ref now, telling Jeff not to do the Swanton now as he’s already climbing the top rope. Thankfully, he doesn’t do the Swanton. He protects me, drops a leg drop but misses by a mile, protects me and he covers me. I’m just so apologetic. I’m like, ‘Guys, I’m so sorry I messed up. I messed up the finish of the match, I messed up. I’m sorry.’ And they’re like, ‘No, are you all right?’ Our ringside doctor comes over to me, he checks on me, he tries to get me to squeeze his hands, and at this point, my fingers are shaking a little bit but they’re not squeezing. I tell Austin, I’m like, ‘Bro, take my elbow pads off me now’, because my arms are hot. The adrenaline’s wearing off and my arms are like a million degrees. So I’m telling Austin to pull my elbow pads down, because I’m thinking my circulation is just too tight. In my mind, in this moment 30 minutes from now I’ll be in the locker room talking about how crazy whatever just happened was, and I’m going to shake this off. I’m gonna catch a flight tomorrow and head back home, go back to the gym and get back to a routine. I’m laying there, and the doctor asked me if I can wiggle my toes, once he asked me that I go I can’t feel my toes. I realized then, okay, this is more serious. I’ve never had a real injury. I’ve had minor injuries, but I’ve never had a real injury. I’ve never had to have a surgery. So I don’t know what breaking a neck feels like. I don’t know what breaking an arm feels like. I don’t know. So I’m just confused in this moment, and I’m embarrassed. It’s probably like 2,500 people in the room and it’s dead silent, so it’s awkward, it’s scary. Austin’s there. He’s by my side, Matt and Jeff’s there, the ringside doctor, Daniel Spencer our referee is here, everyone’s around me, I can’t move. I can’t look left or right other than with my eyeballs. They put me in a neck brace and they put me on the stretcher. I remember telling Austin, ‘Hey, how cool would it be if I could just raise my hand like Jeff right now on the stretcher.’ I was trying to do it mentally. It wasn’t happening. He laughs, you know, tears in his eyes, he laughs. I’m like, ‘Alright, go tell Jeff the joke. Now tell Matt the joke, I want them to laugh now, lighten the moment a little bit.’ So he scurries over and tells them the joke. They put me on the stretcher, and I start to cry a little bit. I was like, alright, suck it up man. They’re about to take you to the back locker room. I don’t want the boys to see you like this. They take me through the back and they put me in the ambulance, and I wanted them to get my phone so I could contact my people, let my people know what was up. So they find my phone for me. Trey Miguel, he goes and finds my phone for me. Called my girlfriend. I let her know. She had already kind of heard about it. It was already kind of making the rounds internally and maybe online too with fans, but I know internally it was making the rounds. I called one of my best friends in Vegas, Shogun Stan, I told him that I was hurt and it’s time for him to hold it down because I don’t know what what’s about to happen. They’re speculating that maybe it’s just a neck break. They don’t really know.”

“They’re threatening to cut my boots off. They’re brand new boots. I’m like, ‘Don’t cut those boots. Show me a mirror. I’ll tell you how to take them off but don’t cut those boots. Those are brand new boots.’ They rush me to the hospital. Austin’s by my side, and I have them kind of going through my phone, calling people that are important to call. My mom, people who are reaching out, not too many people because it’s overwhelming. They’re shoving forms in my face asking me to sign stuff. I can’t move my hands. I knew it got really real when they rolled me over at some point and I saw my tights and my knee pads and my boots neatly stacked next to me uncut and I never felt them take any article of clothing off of me. I still didn’t know what to think. At this point, they told me they were gonna operate on my neck, and I’ve never broken anything like I said, so I don’t know if this how you’re supposed to feel when you break your neck. I don’t know if everyone who’s ever broken their neck has gone through what I’m going through in the moment. So Austin’s there and I’m trying to figure it out, I’m in so much pain at this point now. They tell me the surgeon is going to be there maybe 30 minutes, longest 30 minutes of my life, because I’m in so much pain, I just want to either end it or get under anesthesia so we can do this, because let’s get to it. What are we waiting for? The surgeon to get there. But what are we waiting for? I’m ready, and they put me under. Woke up the next day. It was day one.”

On what the spot was that caused the injury:

“We have a tag team finisher that we don’t even have a name for. It’s a combination of Austin standing in the corner launching me into the cutter, because I’m famous for the cutter, I’ll roll out of the way. He’ll run and do his finish of the fold, which is like a super fancy modified blockbuster, the best one in the game. As he’s launching me for the cutter, Matt’s in the middle of the ring. He’s our target. Matt is going to counter by just catching me into a neckbreaker. We’ve done the spot before, not with Matt specifically, but with a couple other people and it’s gone well, it’s not a difficult spot, per se. But pro wrestling, everything we do is dangerous, and everything we do is an inch away from a catastrophe happening. It was one of those things where it wasn’t my fault, it wasn’t his fault. It was just what happened in the moment. We missed each other by an inch, and it was life-changing.”

On the surgery:

“So they went in the front and they fused my C6 to my C7 which healed up pretty nicely. It was 19 staples across the front, which once I was finally able to move my hands a lot I was touching the staples a lot because couldn’t believe I had staples in my neck. What a weird feeling. They went in the back and they fused my C6 to my T1 because the damage that happened wasn’t just a neck break. It was also damage to my spinal cord, which is why I became paralyzed. So a lot of people don’t experience that exact thing, but people have their own stories, their own journeys. It’s difficult for everybody. It’s not a comparison.”

On his chance of walking again after the surgery:

“They x-rayed me before the surgery, and I do remember them showing me what my neck was looking like. I believe there was a fragment I was pushing into my spinal cord, and that was one of the issues. Afterwards the conversation was more so about what they thought recovery looked like, what it typically is in this scenario, and what they anticipated would be my result. They say you see your most results in recovery, like the quickest results in around three to six months. In about a year to 18 months is where you’ll see where you’ll be. For me, they were predicting about a 10 to 25% chance of walking again.”

On beating the odds:

“The day I woke up from surgery, the first thing I thought was that I’m alive. I was grateful to be alive, because if I wasn’t supposed to be here anymore, I wouldn’t have been. So once I woke up, one of the first things I kept saying was day one. People use that phrase before. It’s not a new [thing], I didn’t create the phrase day one. For me it just meant this is day one as far as my new life, my new obstacle, my new journey. I break everything up into seasons in life, the season that I chased this, the season that I pursued this, and this was a new season for me. So what made me not quit was I was alive, and when I got that diagnosis for maybe 24 to 48 hours, I was a little messed up about it. I just couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it, and I was telling myself it’s better than a 0% chance, but I still was doubting a little bit. But then I had a conversation with Punk, and it was very simple conversation where he said something along the lines of, I think that diagnosis and that percentage applies to humans and you’re not human. I had to put my whole life into perspective. I’ve had a less percent chance of becoming a professional wrestler and landing on TV. I’ve had a lot less odds with everything that I’ve done in my life up until this point. So who’s to say I can’t beat this one? And once I realized that 24 to 48 hours were over, it was go time.”

On when he first got an indication he could walk again:

“My fingers and hands started to move upward. My arms, from the elbows [Around what point?] Probably about a couple days and a weekend [after surgery]. Every day they would come in and monitor me and check for the first couple weeks where my feeling and sensation goes. So they’d start up here and they move down and go, ‘Does it feel normal here? Does it feel numb?’ And whatever I would say that it feels normal when it changes to numb, they’d mark it, they would keep track of that, and it slowly started to move but I didn’t have a lot of dexterity. I didn’t have that. So we had to work on all of those things. We had to work on trying to grip things. My girlfriend would have to text everybody back for me, or hold my drink for me while I drank, or feed me. I couldn’t grip things. I couldn’t move those joints, but I would do the little exercises they would teach me in the room at first, just to try to get some sort of strength back in my fingers. My fine motor skills are still not very good with my hands.”

On if he thinks he will ever wrestle again:

“Never say never, right? The day after day one, the day after the surgery, I was very content and understanding that my career was over. I didn’t see a world where I came back to wrestling. I was laying there, couldn’t move anything from the neck down. It felt like I had passed away, because there’s all this love for me online, they say you get your flowers when you’re gone. There’s all this love for me online that everyone’s telling me about and everyone’s calling me and having people reach out to me who I’ve never my wildest dreams imagined reach out to me. They’re making video packages about me. It was like I was watching and spectating my life and my life is now over, and wrestling is my life. It was my life. It is my life. It still consumes me. In that moment I was like okay, wrestling is over. I want to one day have a family. I want to be able to one day stand and run and play with my kids one day. Family was something I never thought about in my early 20s, but in my later 20s now being 29 is very important to me. It’s something that I want so badly, not now, but one day, and the the thought of never being able to achieve that broke me. That broke me, and that drove me more than anything because I had a great eight years in wrestling. Eight years, that was it, but I did so much in eight years that lived my wildest dreams. I feel like I made an impact on the world. I was able to help train, coach and motivate people who are in the game today. It’s a dream career, if it had to end, if it’s over now, cool. I want to walk, I want to stand, I want to be able to function. And then maybe a couple weeks ago now I’m walking again and I’m back in the gym. I told my girl, I was like, what if I do wrestle again one day? I’m still young. What if I took five years off, if I took four years off and came back in my mid-30s? It’s possible. It’s been done before. Nothing’s impossible, and that’s where the greatest story ever told is born.”

On CM Punk giving him a shout-out on Raw:

“How do you even put that into words? I was surprised. First things first, I was surprised. I was humbled, grateful. I just can’t believe that through doing what I wanted to do all my life and actually being able to be successful at it, I’ve made this much of a mark on people, because all I ever wanted to do was wrestle. All I ever wanted to do since I was a kid, I knew it. There was never anything else that I wanted to do more than this. There’s nothing else that I’ve thought of every single day other than this. I think about wrestling probably every single day. It’s on all of our minds every single day. So to look up and see this Netflix debut one of your favorite wrestlers growing up, and he shouts you out. One of my best friends was in the crowd. So he’s a big Punk fan, he was loving it. Everybody’s blowing up my phone about it. I’m still in the dark at the time, not posting. So I can’t really acknowledge it the way I want to acknowledge it, but I just can’t believe it. I just can’t believe him or anybody cares about me that much or thinking about me that much because I’m just a guy. I just wanted to be a wrestler. I became a wrestler. TNA has helped put me on a platform and give me the opportunity to do everything that I love, and this is the result. I have no words for it.”

On how TNA has supported him:

“They’ve been so great to me. They’ve covered all the medical expenses. They check on me almost every day. When I say they check on me, I mean from the roster to the talent, behind the scenes, people who set up the building and management, presidents of the company, people from Anthem, everybody from top to bottom has been so helpful and have checked on me. They’ve done auctions for me. People have donated their own personal items to help me. They do so much more than I could have ever anticipated or expected, and I don’t understand why anyone would think that they wouldn’t, they are a great company. They work very hard. We are a family. People say that and you’ve heard people say that about TNA, but it’s true. They had to almost get police escorts to get people to leave the hospital the night of my injury, because almost the whole locker room was outside of the hospital ordering DoorDash, waiting for me, trying to come in and see me. They had to tell everybody, ‘Y’all gotta go home. Y’all not gonna be able to stay here. He’s going to be okay. He’s in surgery now. He’s going to be fine.’ But everybody was out there, you everybody’s wearing the We Heart Bey shirts, the whole team, top to bottom, family is not even the right word anymore, because families sometimes betray you. These people are real.”

On WWE star Karrion Kross being a part of the benefit show:

“He and I have such a special bond, because I saw him online when I first researched the school, and he was their champion. I never saw indie wrestling before, so this is kind of my first taste of it and I thought he was a star already. When I got to the school, the first day of training I walk in and there’s no ring. I’m like, Where’s the ring? And then he walks in wearing this atomic stringer, jacked, and he comes in, he tells all the students that they had a great show at the casino that weekend. The ring would be here shortly so we could set up the ring and then we start class. I’m like, Oh, my first day I get to set up the ring, this is a real, true wrestling experience. This is what everyone dreams of. I’m gonna get to learn from the ground up. We did a promo class, he had me go last and he said I nailed it. I don’t recall what I said, but I know I spoke from the heart. I think I’m pretty good at promos, so I believe it was good enough, and from that moment on it was just always a connection. I had my first debut match at FSW, and as I circled the crowd to give everybody the traditional high fives when you make your debut, I see him sitting front row with the championship around his waist. I was like, oh man, he’s here, damn, the pressure’s on now he’s watching front row, and after the match I lose, and he comes and gets in the ring and has the ref come grab me and pull me back in the ring. I’m thinking he’s about to dump me on my head. I don’t know what’s about to happen and he does the slow clap thing and the fans clap for me. We would go on to have matches in California and other places, and then to draw one of the biggest gates for FSW at the 10 year anniversary in the main event where he came back from the hiatus after he was at TNA or something. I had been running the company for a while, and this was going to be the passing of the torch, because he hadn’t been beaten. I was the young guy, he was the already established guy, and my premise of the match was that if I beat him, I would become a living Las Vegas legend. I love the L’s, Living Las Vegas Legend. We had a great match, I won, and it was a special moment. Outside of the ring, we always had a great connection. He always was very helpful to me. He came to see me when I was in the hospital, spent some time with me, gave me some words of encouragement, gave me a gift that was very special to him. And for him to be able to come do this show is massive, because obviously the allowance from WWE, but he’s such an integral part of my career, especially in Vegas, and what we’ve done here. I wouldn’t want to have the show without him.”

On the ring break video he posted to social media:

“It’s funny, you ask if I was thinking about how lucky I was, and I know you’re referring to by not breaking my neck. I was thinking about how lucky I was by capturing it, because at the time no one would have believed it. I’m a young indie wrestler who hasn’t really had any attention yet. I was like, This is my way in, that’s where my brain went. I try to always not think about what almost could have happened, because there’s almost in everything if you think about it, this microphone could die. I hope it doesn’t. So as soon as I didn’t get hurt, and I got up, everyone was checking on me, are you okay? And I realized immediately I felt perfectly fine. I was like, Do you have the footage? You got that right? Let’s upload that right now. And then it started taking off. I was like man, this is sweet. I never actually thought about if I would have got hurt in that moment. Never crossed my mind. I know it was possible, but it never crossed my mind.”

On what it meant to be X Division Champion:

“That my name is etched in history and no one can take it away from me. Because it was during the era where we didn’t have fans, the pandemic, and the night of I remember riding back to the hotel in an Uber having the X Division Championship next to me and I wanted to see how many people were ever X Division champion. So I Googled the history of the X Division Championship, and as soon as I put it in Google, the top response that came up was first champion AJ Styles, current champion Chris Bey. I read it and I was like bro, this is real, this is really mine right now, I think I slept with it that night too. I’m a belt mark, don’t beat me up for it, but I slept with the championship and I realized you can never take it away from me. I didn’t even have a long run, but it’s about what you do with the championship. That’s what they say, the championship doesn’t make the champion, the champion makes the championship. It was one of those moments where I had it for maybe a month, but people still come up to me to this day, you were one of my favorite X Division champions. How? I didn’t have it that long, but it doesn’t matter, because they remember me with it. I’m a part of history.”

On if there was a chance to do more with WWE following his 2019 match:

“I believe there was. I know there were talks with a couple of people about attempting to get me a try-out. And I know if I would have had a try-out, I would have succeeded, not me being arrogant I just know myself. When I get an opportunity to do something, I nail it. That’s what I do. You have to believe in yourself the way I believe in myself. Because once you have a little bit of doubt, you make a mistake, and once you make that mistake sometimes it’s hard to recover from. I’ll make a mistake sometimes I’m like, Alright, let me make sure the next thing is perfect. Some people make a mistake and they fall from there. Everything else is a mistake. They can’t pick it back up. I’m the other way around, so I’m not afraid to make a mistake but I don’t plan to make a mistake. I plan to be perfect. That night at 205 Live I think went perfect. I remember when I came to the curtain I believe Adam Pearce put me over real nice, said some kind of words to me, and a bunch of people from the roster, the 205 Live roster, were very adamant on trying to get me a try-out, which I thought was really cool, because you hear people being afraid of people taking their spots or whatever, people not being helpful, I felt the complete opposite. I walked into WWE Gorilla as this extra and these guys were like, No, we need to get this guy a try-out. This guy should be here with us. So I was very grateful that those guys were so nice and so sharing of their spots and their opportunities. The next day I got offered the TNA deal, and I sat on it for a while.”

Do you think they saw your WWE match?

“I think they saw it. But I also know at the time I was building a lot of momentum with TNA, and I think that was just the thing that helped them pull the trigger. Because I worked TNA twice the month before in Vegas and twice in California the month before that, and then earlier that year also, and my goal had been to sign with TNA for that year. That was my goal that I was working actively for. I made it no secret to people in charge of TNA that I want to work here. So I think when that happened and I’d also just come off of doing Ring of Honor, they realized okay, if we don’t do it, someone’s going to do it, and we do want him. So let’s do it right now instead of waiting.”

On if there are any limitations right now:

“Not that I know of. I am good to stand for as long as I am and people offer me seats. They’re like if we’re standing around, they’re like please sit down and sometimes I’ll do it. But standing is better for me right now, actually, because when I sit down too long, my body locks up still, and I get spasms, still on a lot of medication to numb and block out the pain and also help enhance my and rejuvenate my muscles and my spinal cord. So I prefer to stand and honestly when I sit too long, I feel the effects of that.

Are you in pain right now?

“It’s just numb, it’s discomfort. It’s not pain. So my body’s more numb. My spinal cord is numb. I can maybe feel about 50% of the sensation in my hands, from the middle of my hand down to my elbow about the long head of my tricep on both hands are still numb. So I can feel this side of my arm, I can’t feel this side of my arm on both hands, so I have a lot of numbness still, but it’s not a lot of pain. So I still can’t do, I’m not able to yet, do a lot of things, but it takes time. I’m told that nerves take a very long time to replenish.”

What is Chris Bey grateful for?

“Family, friends and support system.”

Rob Van Dam On John Cena’s Heel Turn, Who Currently Has The Best Frog Splash, Paul Heyman, Retirement

in LATEST EPISODES on March 18, 2025 March 18, 2025

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Rob Van Dam (@TheRealRVD) is a professional wrestler and WWE Hall of Famer. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas to discuss the launch of OnlyWrestlers, John Cena’s heel turn and the reaction he got at ECW One Night Stand, what Paul Heyman meant to his career, why fans never booed a heel RVD, WWE changing its stance on marijuana use, who has the best frog splash, the secret to his crazy piledrivers, if he has retired from wrestling and more!
Quote I’m thinking about: “If you’ve forgotten the language of gratitude, then you’ll never be on speaking terms with happiness” – Inky Johnson
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On OnlyWrestlers:

“So OnlyWrestlers is an entity that I helped create, that I’m part owner of, and I like to explain it in two different halves. So half of it is a platform where it bridges the gap between the fans and the pro wrestlers in a way that I don’t think has been done before, and in such a way that I actually respond to all the messages that I get on my OnlyWrestlers profile, and the fans subscribe to their favorite wrestlers. We have over 300 wrestlers now and we’re getting more all the time, like every day. I still have a lot of my friends that I still have to teach them how to use it, but when they do decide to use it, it’s up to them how deep into it they want to go. Because on my profile I have a place for photos, for videos, I have a daily feed. I have a story on there, just like Instagram. There’s even a store where you can buy stuff on there. So each profile for each wrestler that the fans subscribe to it, they can follow their content. They can message them. There’s all kinds of ways to benefit both of them.

But the other half of it is that when they join and become a subscriber, then they’re part of this association, and moving forward, the association helps us with important decisions. So the OnlyWrestlers Association is actually everybody together, so it’s the fans and it’s us, the wrestlers, the company, and we’re running live shows. So the fans get to help us make decisions. They vote on things like who’s going to wrestle who. Sometimes it could be stipulations coming up. They’re taking a vote on which town we should actually come to, and also moving forward, the more we grow and the more the Association grows, the more the value of what they’re able to vote on grows as well. So the whole thing is just made to grow. We’re still at a point right now where that would say the beginning phases. It’s going to be our first live show on Thursday, March 20 in Hollywood. We’re excited about it. It’s star studded, a lot of fans are excited about it. And we’re also with this show hoping to raise a little awareness and some funds for the fire victims. I lived in LA for a long time, and also I was a big fan of those huge houses that burnt down, so I looked at a lot of those when I moved out there. Some of those fires were not too far from where I lived. But, yeah, we’re not gonna be able to do what the Grammys did or whatever. But it’s an important cause. I hope that we can raise attention and awareness.”

On OnlyWrestlers not being like OnlyFans:

“Very good point. But by the way, so here’s what I learned. I mean OnlyWrestlers sounds like Only Fans and that’s part of the catch with the name, it’s easy to remember. But OnlyFans got to be known for its sexual content. But did you know there’s actually a lot of profiles on there that have nothing to do with sex? So it’s up to the individuals on OnlyFans on what they’re going to want to share as content. With OnlyWrestlers, it’s what wrestlers want to share. So I wouldn’t join up if you’re hoping to see solo scenes, if you know what I mean, from the boys. But what I like to do, because it’s so easy to leave the story and it adds up. I like to keep up with me what’s going on throughout my day. ‘Hey, I just finished this podcast with Chris’, then I could add to it later I’m at the gym. Just could be whatever. But I wouldn’t go to OnlyWrestlers for this.”

On One Night Stand 2006 being the last true John Cena heel reaction:

“Yeah, that’s true. He knew what to do that night perfectly at One Night Stand, and he’s really great at what he does. So I think he’s going to really master the heel persona and take it some places that we didn’t expect. By the way, I mentioned this before, but I had seen him get booed. It wasn’t a lot, but leading up to that One Night Stand match, there was a town or two, I think it was in Wales, was the first time I think that I’ve heard it was very similar to the vibe in Hammerstein Ballroom, it was very similar. Anyway, that was the first time I saw him get booed, and he was great. I don’t know if I told you this story or not, but I’d never seen him [get booed]. Then he was like, ‘Good That’s right. Boo me. Let me know how you feel. As long as you’re out there in the crowd and you’re expressing yourself and you’re screaming that, I know you’re having a good time, and that’s what it’s all about tonight.’ Obviously he turned them all of a sudden, they were cheering him, and I was like wow, that’s why he gets paid the big bucks.”

On if he experienced a similar crowd to One Night Stand:

“Not exactly no, but there’s certain pockets around the planet where I could tell they were big ECW fans. One of them that sticks out when you ask me that was leading up to the match with Cena, because I had the Money in the Bank briefcase, I wrestled Matt Striker and it was in Belgium, and that crowd just stuck out to me as being the most ECW crowd that I had engaged since I left ECW at that time. It was obvious that they really watched it all. And I think also with the name Van Dam there’s a connection there, with Jean Claude Muscles from Brussels. So that was part of it too. But they were awesome. I just remember thinking wow, good to know if I never wrestled here in Belgium this one time, I would never know that they were such big fans of mine and everything I stood for the whole extreme hardcore movement and perspective.”

On what Paul Heyman meant to his career:

“Okay, so if I hadn’t met Paul Heyman I would have jumped probably right up to WWE or WCW, because at the time they were the top two. There was no seeing one of them going down and the other one sticking around. I wouldn’t have developed the way that I did. I wouldn’t have probably been as comfortable or fit in, because before 96 when I came to ECW, I was hardcore and I was doing things that I hadn’t seen done in the ring. When me and Sabu would wrestle we were diving out to the crowd and breaking tables and stuff and then when I wrestled Sabu in ECW the crowd had never seen anything like that, what we were giving them, but we had. So I feel like if I hadn’t come to ECW I wouldn’t have found a proper voice, and I probably would have been much, much different, whether I was as comfortable or not, it might have been better for business. I have a lot of things that work against me. To be the absolute best pro wrestler, what would that mean? You have to include not just your moves and you got a lot of P’s, not just your promos. What about politics? You got to be good at politics. That’s something I could never do. I forgot what I was going to say about some of the other P’s, but you have to be good at being a puppet sometimes, because you’re a vessel for other people’s values, creative ideas and stuff. And in a lot of ways, I wasn’t as flexible on a lot of stuff like that. I was more stubborn. So having all that, as details to answer that question, I don’t think it would have worked out as good for me if I wasn’t able to build myself in my more organic, natural environment. But in the end, if I would have been able to be, whether you want to see it as manipulated, but if I would have gone down some other paths and learned to like them, or deal with them, or whatever then, who knows, maybe a champion of the world right now.”

On it being hard to boo RVD as a heel:

“That sounds like a hell of a compliment. I feel like I get a lot of cheers, even against the plans or the agenda, sometimes in the wrestling environment. So that’s where everybody wishes I would just stay, but I’m so transparent, open-minded, open mouth, in a way that when I do my podcast or I do interviews or stuff, I stand up for things I believe in, and I talk against things even if they’re commercially accepted or government agenda or whatever. So I think through a lot of just being honest and genuine. There are some people out there that sure seem like they would prefer to give me a boo rather than a yay, at least that’s the way I take it when somebody tries to change me into them. But everybody has their own stink they want to put on you as the expression goes. I’ve always had that with wrestling. Even I think everyone gets it when you’re in school. ‘Why you hanging out with that kid? He’s not cool. Nobody likes him.’ I’ve always hated that. Hated all of that. So I found a common and comfortable bond with just being a non-conformist. And the more people talk about me being one of a kind and unorthodox, the more I felt like yeah, I’m proud of that.”

On the fan pushing Eddie Guerrero off the ladder:

“I’m just thinking it wasn’t the first time that I had that happen, or seen it happen, or have it happen when I’m in the ring. So I was just thinking, do they got it or do I need to do something? No, it looks like they got it. Alright, cool. I’m just going to keep working. Well, usually I find when the fans decide to breach the safety zone and get into the ring, usually everyone in the business wants them to regret it, that’s gotta be safe for us. It can’t be a normal thing to have to look, turn around and watch your back while you’re trying to watch your front. I remember Sabu talking about Puerto Rico years ago, way before I ever went, and he was saying that to get to the ring the wrestlers had to go underneath the bleachers, and that they would drop rats on them. Another thing he said they would do would be heat up coins. They would heat up coins, get them super hot, and then drop them on them, or even throw them at him in the ring. I wouldn’t want that to be the norm, let Puerto Rico keep that.”

On who else has a great Frog Splash:

“I think Montez Ford, definitely. And, of course, Eddie. You know me and Eddie’s, that’s the lifelong contendership everyone’s going to compare our frog splashes. [Have you seen Logan Paul’s Frog Splash?] I don’t think I’ve seen it. It’s probably pretty good. I’m sure it’s a move that out of all my moves it’s the least original. That one, I mean, I watched Tonga Kid do it, Jimmy Snuka, but I did kind of make it my own by turning in the air and being able to go all the way across the ring, I started going for the furthest corner every time for a while, that was my thing. And sometimes that’s cool if a guy’s closer to one corner, or go and grab the corner, look at the crowd and be like, Nah, go over to the other ones, like that. Sometimes that’s fun. And then sometimes I regret it.”

On how he sold the frog splash:

“Yeah, well that’s inconsistent as far as that goes. I mean, you can tell sometimes my face hits or whatever, but sometimes I could be winded or could be fine, or it could be a pretty solid hit. When I would do Frog Splash to Big Show and same thing to Mark Henry, there was no way that I was going to be able to reach the ground with my extremities. Not my knees, not my hands, elbows, nothing. It would just be like boom, because they’re three feet tall when they’re on their back. So I would go [groans] it would just knock all the wind out of me, and I knew that that was going to happen, but it was part of it, and hopefully it was worth it. Hopefully it was the last move of the night.”

On what hurt the most:

“Probably getting my ribs broke. That’s pretty painful. That’s a pretty painful thing to have happen. I guess my worst injury, because the only surgery that I’ve had was my knee in 2005 doing that 420 leg drop probably, but it was in a match with Rey Mysterio, that’s why I say that. But my knee had been hurt for a long time. I was just whittling my ACL down to nothing, and then I finally snapped, and that hurt, and I had to have surgery on that. But a broken rib is so bad, and I’ve done it a couple of times. Last time was just like three years ago or something in Qatar. It might have been 2021, otherwise 2022, and I knew soon as I did it but there’s nothing you can do to feel comfortable. It’s like everything you do, just lifting your leg, it’s part of your frame, it hurts to breathe. The whole time on the plane ride back, because I was breathing in a strenuous way, the stewards would come by and they would hear me just making these noises. They’re so bad. And they’d say, ‘Excuse me, sir, are you all right?’ And I swear every time they’d say that, I’d say no, and I look at them and they had no idea what to follow up with. Sometimes they walk away. Other times they’d be like, ‘Can I get you something?’ Yeah, another champagne.”

On WWE changing its stance on marijuana:

“It’s interesting in a good way. I can’t say I’m surprised. I always knew the direction that marijuana prohibition would go. I was just ahead of the curve like I am with a lot of things. I’m ahead of my time in a lot of ways. So when I started advocating and telling people, ‘Dude, put that cigarette down. That’s killing you, Marijuana is not.’ Everyone thought I was crazy back then. Smoking was so popular with cigarettes, which kills one out of two users statistically, long term, and I was learning that they say cannabis is a schedule one worst drug, but no one has overdosed from it because it’s not even possible. So I was like I gotta tell people about this and stuff. Back then they didn’t want to hear it, but because people like to be told what to do, they really do. I feel like people like to be told what to do, and then they determine their own self-value, self-judging by how good they’re following directions. That makes them a better person if they stopped all the way at a four way stop sign when there was no other cars around. In a lot of people’s minds, because they’re doing what they’re supposed to nowadays. Everyone before that was like, ‘Oh, marijuana is horrible.’ Now, because the government’s come around everyone’s like, well I eat a couple of gummies before I go to bed at night. It does help me sleep. What about all you guys saying it’s going to lead to harder drugs? When are all these people that are having a couple of gummies going to come out, ‘I went straight to heroin, and then that wasn’t enough.’ Because that’s what they believed before, before the government finally came around and said, Oh, we weren’t right about that.”

On if that would have affected his WWE Championship reign:

“Who knows where it would have went? I don’t know what [was planned]. I was always last one to to know what people had planned. I don’t know how long the championship would have been around, but for sure, I would have been able to do a hell of a lot more to keep ECW going.”

On if the reign would have been longer:

“1000%. Now, that was all because of the marijuana bust, which is not even a thing right now, in that same Hanging Rock Ohio for that same 18 grams you’re not going to get arrested. You’re probably just going to get let go. I said I was just ahead of my time. To me, what I’m doing right now isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just because the authority says that it’s bad. People that think that, no, they say it’s bad, that’s bad. Well, they change that all the time. Coffee’s good for you. Coffee’s bad for you. Guess what? Do some research make up your mind for yourself.”

On if he has retired:

“I don’t [think I am], and I don’t think I will [retire]. That’s how I feel right now. I feel like even if I don’t take wrestling bookings anymore, I don’t think I’ll make a big deal out of retirement. Because when wrestlers retire and they end up coming back and wrestling anyway. ‘No, I want one more match.’ For me, that is completely eating up the credibility that I had in wrestling retirement matches. I doubt that I’ll ever feel like, ‘No, I’m going to be different. I never want to wrestle right now. I’m done.’ I just see me is just going with the flow. And someday, when you say, are you still wrestling? I might say, It’s been six years, and then I might have a match.

I’ve always said also I want to price myself out and not wear myself and my value down. A lot of my peers, they were worth so much in their prime and then they are not worth as much, can’t get booked as much, so they come down and compromise and that has a cycle effect where they are worth less. But I’m not gonna do that, I’d rather have less people afford me until I don’t wrestle that way instead of wrestling myself into a grave and my last match was $5.”

What is RVD grateful for:

“My wife, my family, all the love from the fans, my freedoms and that I get to manifest my dreams.”

JD McDonagh On His CRAZY Injury, Judgement Day, Finn Balor, RKO Off The Cage, Tag Team Titles

in LATEST EPISODES on March 13, 2025 March 13, 2025

JD McDonagh (@jd_mcdonagh) is a professional wrestler currently signed to WWE. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet to discuss the scary bump he took on Raw, how he was able to finish the match and the injuries he sustained, his recovery and when he hopes to return to the ring, how he went from wrestling in Ireland to signing with WWE, joining The Judgment Day, becoming Tag Team Champion with his mentor Finn Balor, taking an RKO from the top of the cage at Survivor Series WarGames 2023 and more!

Quote I’m thinking about: “Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.” — Eckhart Tolle

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On how he is feeling right now:

“Time heals all. I wasn’t like this the first week or two after but I’m feeling a lot better now. [I’m feeling] pretty good. My lungs are good. My ribs are good. I’m just kind of waiting for the bones to knit back together before they clear me.”

On the scary announce table landing:

“I guess it was in the planning stage really. I needed to be on that side of the ring for something that was going to come up later on. So I said, I’ll just do it on the announce table side. I’ve done it on that side before, but whatever happened on this one, I just was maybe a foot too far forward or a foot too far back and wiped out.”

On his immediate thoughts after the accident:

“In that moment I was just thinking, when’s the next breath gonna come? I knew that I didn’t hit my head that hard, because I knew I’d missed a spot in the match and I knew what was coming up next. So I knew I wasn’t unconscious or anything like that, and then I don’t know, it was like an out-of-body experience, listening to Michael Cole with the concern in his voice. I’ve heard him all through the years being like we got to get a medic down here, and then all of a sudden you’re lying at his feet and he’s saying it about you.”

On getting back into the match:

“Everything goes really slow in moments like that. I wasn’t thinking I gotta get through this match. It was just okay, what’s next? Can I do that? Let’s do it. So I wiggled my fingers and toes and I was like, okay, I can do that. I got a breath back. I can probably stand up. So I stood up and got back in there.”

On if he knew how bad the injury was at that point:

“I thought it was maybe cracked ribs. I could feel my ribs on this side were like rice krispies under my skin, they’re definitely messed up. I couldn’t get a full lung full of air but I just thought that was because I was winded from hitting the table. Then the adrenaline kicked in and I was okay, I can do this. I can get back in there and do my part in the match. I didn’t want to leave the guys, especially because it was one of the first few weeks that we were on Netflix. Everyone’s excited about it, huge audience watching you for the Tag Team Titles, War Raiders’ first defense, yeah, I didn’t want to [quit]. If I can stand up and keep participating, then I’m gonna.”

On not wanting to quit the match:

“The thought of stopping didn’t even enter my mind. The referee came down, and he asked me what city we were in and what date it was. I told him that I’m okay and I told him where we were and what we were doing. I said, ‘Tell Dom that I’m okay and I just need a minute.’ He passed the message on, and then the ref actually got a lot of heat for it online, Shawn Bennett. But as far as him doing his job he can only do or relay the message of what I’m telling them and I told him I was good to go. One of the WWE docs came out in the ad break. She checked me over, and I knew if she touched my ribs she wouldn’t let me back in there. So she’d thankfully asked me about my head and my neck rather than my ribs. And there was a spot coming up in the match where I was needed so I was like, I gotta go.”

On what was going through his mind when he got back in the match:

“Just what’s the next thing? Okay, it’s a big back body drop. Not ideal. But the one thing that I did change in the match, and Dom is going to kill me for telling this story. The finishing stretch that we talked about. I said it would be cool if we could do 619, you tag me in, I’ll do a 450, I’ll bounce off and I’ll tag you in, you hit the Frog Splash. It’ll be like our super finisher. We’re super late in the match now so I have no energy left whatsoever, no air left. I tried to say to him, ‘I can’t do the 450.’ He didn’t hear me. He’s taken off for the 619 Please, God, just let him go up for the Frog Splash. He hit the 619 he runs across to me no, no! He tagged me in. So the one modification I made was I knew I’d really hurt myself if I did the 450 and I’ve done that moonsalt probably 10,000 times, and I knew I could kind of protect myself a little. And Ivar is a big guy, big landing pad. So I thought this is gonna be the last big move that I do. I’ll make it a good one, and get out of here.”

On after the match:

“So we got back behind, not even to the curtain. I had my arms over Dom and Carlito coming up the aisle way, and that was really hurting me. But I couldn’t take my hands off them or I would have fallen down. I didn’t want to fall down in Gorilla because there was loads of people waiting to go out to the next match, and you don’t want to sell for anybody in the office. So I just lay down on the other side of the curtain, thinking that I was out of the eyeline of people, but I was in view of the fans. They caught a photo of my feet sticking out into the entrance way they said JD has just collapsed backstage. But I just had to lie down and catch my breath. It wasn’t a full collapse.”

On the possibility it could have been his last match:

“No, I don’t [think about that] because I understand the risks that we take being a wrestler. I’ve been doing this for 22 years now, 23 years in September. So I know. I have seen people wiping out and losing their careers. I know that’s something that you gamble with every time you go through the curtain, but if you were thinking about it often, I think you’d psych yourself out.”

On his current road to recovery:

“I’ve been in the gym. I was doing skipping and really low impact cardio for a couple of weeks, and now I’ve kind of progressed in doing Pilates and other non-impactful. So I haven’t taken a bump yet. That’ll be the next step. Get back in the ring, hit the ropes. See if that hurts. Take a bump. See if that hurts.”

On when he hopes to be back:

“I’d love to be back yesterday. I’m so bored sitting at home watching the guys traveling around, I’m so jealous. They’re going to Europe this week. They’re doing Madison Square Garden on Monday, and then jetting off to Europe. So if I could be back, I’d be back right now. Hopefully, I’m going to put a time frame on it and say within a month I hope to be back, that’s what I’m working towards. So whether that happens or not, whether the WWE docs align, that we’ll see.”

On how he became a part of Judgment Day:

“I was just told when I came up to the main roster we’re gonna have you brush off Judgment Day, and that’ll be the way that we introduce you, and we’ll see what way the fans take it. There was the link there between me and Finn that we could work with, but I don’t think there was [a plan of] we’re bringing JD from NXT, and we’ve got this spot in Judgment Day for him. I think it was just kind of that was the in for me. I had good chemistry with most of the group, all of the group really, to be honest, and it just seemed like a good fit. And I ended up getting inducted by Priest.”

On the European wrestling style:

“I think we focus more on the actual mechanics of wrestling and manipulating body parts and we all know what it’s like to be in a real fight and to move somebody around. I had never cut a promo in my first 10-12 years of wrestling. I was just a guy on the card, just in one-off, individual singles matches. I didn’t need to learn how to tell a story until I was doing LGT in my 13th, 14th year of wrestling. I didn’t need to. It was just about having a wrestling match, an exhibition. That’s just the style of wrestling, certainly in Ireland and probably across the UK and Europe as well. There was less showmanship.”

On if WWE may have not been possible:

“Definitely, yeah. WWE was always the dream end goal. But I wanted to finance my life through wrestling. I didn’t want to ever get a real job, whatever form that took. I finally get my break and it all came through just sticking to the plan. Just keep on going. Keep on trying to have the best match on the card. See where it takes you. I don’t think too far ahead.”

On getting to WWE:

“So NXT UK opened up in late 2016 and we had the UK tournament in January 2017. In my WWE debut I split Danny Burch’s head open at the finish. I gave him a super kick and he fell and hit his head off the canvas. Bust himself open, and I was pulling him out. We were just about to go to the finish. I pulled him out by the ankle and the ref saw the pool of blood, and I saw the pool of blood, and the ref goes stay down or pin him. This is the finish, you gotta go home. I said, Okay, stay down. And I pinned him as hard as I could. And the ref goes, one, two, and he kicked out, and the ref counted three. The place booed, was the worst possible debut that you’ve ever seen. I came backstage, I was like, Oh my God I’m never gonna wrestle here again, waited all my life for this. But yeah, it is always worse in your own head. Danny was super cool about it. Everybody else was super cool about it. We moved on.”

On what happened next:

“I just moved up through the ranks of everywhere I’ve been. I came in NXT UK with that start, and I was like okay I gotta prove myself now that I’m not this heavy-handed, clumsy guy. I gotta put together a body of work here that people will take notice of. Then I kind of worked my way up through the ranks of NXT UK, until I was doing my events with Ilja Dragunov for the UK title. Then the opportunity to go over to America, I won the Cruiserweight title a week after NXT TakeOver Blackpool, I had a really good one with Tyler Bate. I remember off the back of that loss, that was the match that they decided we can do something with this guy. They brought me over to Houston for Worlds Collide, and I won the Cruiserweight title. That was January 2020, and my career was about to take off. And then COVID happened, and I was sidelined for about nine months.”

On winning the Tag Team Championships with Finn Balor:

“I said to you earlier WWE was the goal. But if you had to put a gun to my head when I was 14 years old and said, What’s your ultimate fantasy dream in wrestling? I would have said, win the Tag Titles with Finn. Honestly, so I looked up to him a lot because obviously the age difference. He’s 9-10 years older than me, and he’s lit the way for me in a lot of ways, showing me that it is possible. I felt kind of for a long time I was chasing him, trying to catch up to him. He did Japan, so I did Japan a few years later. He made it to America, and it took me a little while but I made it to America, and then for it all to kind of culminate with being his partner and lifting the Tag Team Titles together. It was super hard for me. I feel like, if I talk about it for too long, I’ll get emotional. It was so, so fulfilling and such a full circle moment for me on him training me. He felt the same way about it.”

On the RKO from the top of the WarGames cage:

“Yeah, that was my idea. My first idea was I was going to moonsault off the cage and they said, No you can’t do that. Charlotte’s gonna do that. I said, Okay, well then in that case, I have a slightly more dangerous suggestion. I said super RKO, and they asked do you think you can do it safely? I’d have to eyeball it. I’d have to get up there onto the cage and see the height and see, but I reckon I could. When we were coming through, when I was 12 or 13, you’re just a kid, you learn how to bump and hit a crash mat or whatever. We used to have a game where we would try and jump from ascending heights and put our hands behind our back and just take the flat crash mat. So you’d start standing, might go to the bottom rope, the second rope, the top rope, we’d be like pushing each other and daring each other to go higher and higher. At the end of it, I was jumping off a ladder in the ring onto the crash mat on the floor, and hooking my hands behind my back. So honestly, it felt like that when I was up there on the cage just about to do it, and Randy’s walking over. He’s eyeing me up and stuff. I thought about all those bumps that I took, I was okay. Just do it like that. Just put your hands behind your back and leave your head out there for something for him to grab and, yeah, thank God it came off great.”

On if Randy Orton knew it could be done safely:

“We got a crash mat out the night before. I hate blowing up the secrets in wrestling but we got a crash night out, he stood at the end of it, I got up on the cage and just jumped off. He eyeballed and he goes, I got you. I bet you do. All right, let’s do it tomorrow. The lights are on.”

On changing his name:

“They’re not too happy with you having your birth name as your wrestling. I kept it as close to home as possible. McDonagh is my mother’s maiden name, and then JD is Jordan Devlin.”

On if R-Truth has made him break character:

“He’s come close, especially on the live events. I’ll try and keep it together as much as I can on camera. I’m better than Priest at it. Priest was cracking up every single week.”

On how his lung was repaired:

“So they take a tube that’s about the diameter of your little finger, they poke a hole in between your ribs, and they stab it into your chest cavity, because the lung had come away from the chest cavity and collapsed, they need to suck all the blood and air that’s leaking from your lung in your chest cavity out so that your lung can expand and stick back to the wall of your chest. So I was on this suction pump pulling all the blood and air out for a day, obviously shallow breaths, like half lung fulls, and then they change it to a different machine with a lower form of suction, so there’s less suction, helping my lungs stay inflated. They’re saying if it would stay up. Did that for another day, and then they took me off the machine, took the tubes out, and my lungs stayed inflated and stayed stuck to my chest cavity. So they let me go home [from hospital]. I was blessed by the way. We were in Atlanta, Georgia, the next state up from Florida. If I had been in Colorado, I’d still be driving home because I couldn’t fly. My lung would have popped.”

What is JD McDonagh grateful for?

“That I stuck it out, my parents and my wife.”

Scott Steiner On Steiner Math, Bron Breakker, “He’s Fat” Promo, Big Poppa Pump, Hall Of Fame

in LATEST EPISODES on March 11, 2025 March 11, 2025

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Scott Steiner (@ScottSteiner) is a retired professional wrestler and WWE Hall of Famer. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet to discuss his careers in WWE, WCW and TNA, his insane body transformation when he embarked on his solo career, the inspiration for Big Poppa Pump and his signature chainmail, his iconic Steiner Math and “He’s Fat” promos in TNA, if Bron Breakker was ever going to use the Steiner name, a foot injury he is still dealing with to this day, his son signing a WWE NIL deal and more!

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On his son being signed to a WWE NIL deal:

“That came about because they saw it on ESPN, he had two games. One he outran them for 85 yards and scored a touchdown and ESPN picked it up. Of course, they had a side-by-side of me and him, and yeah it took off. And then that’s when they start to get interested.”

On if both of his sons could be in WWE at some point:

“I’m not sure. They both loved it when they were kids and when I wrestled. All sudden when I stopped they really didn’t pay attention to it too much. So I don’t know. Well, the thing that came about with Brock, because Brock, Brandon and Bronson [Bron Breakker], and there’s a couple other guys get in sometimes, sometimes Brandon’s basketball friends or Bronson’s other guys at wrestling, they’ll play video games. So with Brock talking to Bronson all the time, and of course he’s on a trajectory that’s unbelievable. So he talks to Bronson, talks to Brock, then one thing led to another and he got the bug. He went out. He wanted to do it. There’s not a better time to be wrestling, because there’s two [promotions]. WWE is doing phenomenal. Then you guys at AEW, so it’s always good to have competition. So I never really wanted them to go on the wrestling, but I let them do what they want to do.”

On if Bron Breakker was ever considered to use the Steiner name:

“Well they never shied away from that because he introduced us at the Hall of Fame. So for whatever reason they used Bron Breakker, but they know he’s a Steiner, so I think Brock would probably use a Steiner name. I’m not sure if it would be Brock, but it would be Steiner.”

On his image transformation when he went solo:

“They didn’t realize it was me the next day, because we wrestled at the pay-per-view when I turned on my brother. Then that morning I went to a salon. It was in California, and that’s when I bleached [my hair]. When I came to the building, nobody [recognized me]. It took them a while for people to recognize me, even announcers didn’t really click until, yes, I looked totally different. Which was the exact thing that I wanted to happen. I didn’t want anybody to think that I was still Scott Steiner of the Steiner brothers.”

On the inspiration for Big Poppa Pump:

“Well, it first started like it was two different personalities. When I first came out of college, I was a college kid, happy-go-lucky. But when you’re in wrestling for a while, things change. Setbacks, people keep you down, politics, you get p*ssed off. So at that point, when I turned into Big Poppa Pump I was very pissed off and people could just kind of tell that in my interviews. Because I was tired of the bullsh*t of professional wrestling, things that happened behind closed doors. You don’t really know what’s going on. Luckily, I had some guys in the back doors that told me what was going on most of the time, but a lot of times I didn’t know. That was a real thing back then the older guys keeping the younger guys down. When I said that I got beat in my first match after turning heel, the call was made by Hulk Hogan to have me beat. So the reason I knew that because somebody that was in the vicinity of talking to him. So it might piss me off, but you can overcome wins and losses. People can see your personality and what you do on camera. Wins and losses, you can overcome them. But when another wrestler decides he’s going to decide who wins, it is bullsh*t.”

Why do you think Hogan did that?

“He’s a motherf*cker. There’s no other way I can say it, he’s a piece of sh*t. We did a Nitro in Buffalo and I knew who I had to wrestle, per se. But ten minutes before the show went on air at ten to eight I didn’t know if it was going to happen or not. We had to wait until Hogan got to the building and say, clear it. Yeah, you could do what they had written down.”

On if he is still not good with Hulk Hogan present day:

“What am I gonna do now? But I don’t forget. There’s a reason why he got booed in California, all this stuff that came out with him, racist comments. Now you would never found that out if it wasn’t recorded behind closed doors. So I think a lot of people realize the perception, or the perception that WWE or WCW wanted of Hulk Hogan was not really him. The racist comment. Hogan and Savage. I was good friends with Savage, so I knew all the stories and he used to tell me all the stuff. Then of course the one time he tried to put me in jail. I was facing serious time. I could have been in jail for 15 years.”

What for?

“Well, I found out the bullsh*t he was doing in TNA. So when I left, I let it be known that the next time I see him I would slap the sh*t out of him. But I hadn’t seen him for like a year, then I had met his wife backstage, it was in San Jose for the WrestleMania. It was this platinum blond that was looking at me. But finally, I kind of remember meeting [her]. I was still wasn’t sure. So went up to her and said, ‘Are you Hulk Hogan’s wife?’ And she said, Yeah. At that point he was going to induct Savage into the Hall of Fame, which was bullsh*t. So I told her that. I told her he was a piece of sh*t for that whole situation, and I was going to slap the sh*t out of him. I said that, nobody heard me. It was very low-key, and I didn’t raise my voice or anything. Grabbed my bags and left. Well, she called Hogan. He came to the airport, and then he called the San Jose Police Department saying that I slapped her and I threatened to kill him. Well that’s terroristic threats and aggravated assault. So I got a call from the San Jose Police Department. It was on TMZ and stuff. And luckily it happened at the airport because there were so many cameras. Otherwise it would have been her and him against me. So that would have been a tough case in court. But since it was on camera, I told them don’t bother me anymore. It’s on camera, they stopped.”

On the origin of the chainmail:

“Well, I had the two girls walk out with me, and I went to a strip bar to find them some nice, sexy lingerie stuff, so they could walk out with me. And I saw that the chain mail in a case. I thought sh*t I gotta have that, and I wore it ever since.”

On his entrance with a tiger:

“Well, it just so happened that weekend we wrestled a few house shows before the Nitro and the guy showed up. So I asked him if he wanted to go to Nitro, which was good for him. He owned a bunch of animals. A lot of them were saved, so I asked him to come. I had to clear it through different channels but they finally gave it to him. Backstage there is a 2,000-pound animal, and Rey Mysterio was wearing zebra print overhauls, and he squat down. That cat was like that. That actually made the guy really nervous, because he said, please don’t do that again, because if he attacks you, I can’t stop him. So yeah, I noticed it got tense for a little bit. But then we did a walk-through before the show, which was a little bit different, because during the show air shot up. I think it moved a little bit, he felt the power, because it shocked him a little bit. He moved a little bit, and I was right next to him, so he moved me and it was like damn, that’s a powerful animal.”

On the Ric Flair shoot promo on WCW:

“Well it was the bullsh*t that was going on. It was something I thought of and I did [have a live mic]. Yeah, they tried to fire me for that, J.J. Dillon. [How did you not get fired?] Because it was bullsh*t. nWo went out there and attacked anybody they wanted every night. So I was pretty much staying with the standard of what the nWo did and the stuff they were trying to say, it was so in touch with my character. But then I got a lawyer, so then they tried to suspend me, which they couldn’t suspend me either. So nothing happened.”

On becoming more muscular:

“Well, I didn’t get a whole lot bigger. I just got cut. I mean, I got ripped. When I first got in wrestling being big was what it was all about, like The Road Warriors. I remember Hawk was doing a wrestling match against Lex Luger. I remember the line he said, cuts are for kids, which is what everybody thought, being as big as you could. But when I turned into Big Poppa Pump I had back problems too. So I had to get lighter, and I just got leaned out. Yeah I got more cut.”

On why he didn’t immediately move to WWE after WCW closed down:

“I was under contract. It was me, Goldberg, I think Nash and Hall were still under contract, so why would I leave? Because they were giving out lower contracts at the time. So it made no sense to me. I mean, they had called me up, and I had a number in mind they had to pay me, because they wanted me. Johnny Ace was calling me, ‘Hey, we got you wrestling with you and Austin against Scott Hall and Kevin Nash.’ Dangled that carrot. I said, ‘Yeah, all right, just pay me what I wanted.’ I don’t know, could have been bullsh*t, it could not been. But, then one other time in the summertime, we call it back, and that’s when WWE was getting into movies. Oh, you want to be a movie star, right? It’s like, I really don’t care. Just pay me what I what I asked for, and finally came about in October, November.”

On his foot injury:

“I wrestled one night in Tennessee, and the next morning I wrestled in Knoxville, woke up and it was like that. They said I hit that peroneal nerve, it’s called Drop Foot. But to this day I still will trip for the last, 20 25, years. I won’t fall, but I’ll stumble, because this foot is still dead and it still drags, it’s like that. I am trying to move it. I could do that right there. I can’t bring it up. So most of the time I wear a brace, sometimes I don’t. If I’m traveling, I’ll wear a brace.”

On the Steiner Math promo:

“No, I just thought about it. I knew maybe an hour before I start thinking about it, they told me I had to do an interview. I come from a highly educated university, so it just made sense. All the numbers made sense. And actually, there’s a Harvard professor, I don’t know, because everything you read on Twitter is 100% true, right? So he checked the numbers said, yeah, they added up. So I’ll take that Twitter feed.”

On if he thought it would be so memorable:

“I had no idea. I’m appreciative of the fans that still remember it. So yeah, and it turned out to be that people still talk about it to this day.”

On the “He’s fat” promo:

“Oh yeah, he’s fat, fat ass. I do cameos and, like a lot of times the guys will be like, ‘Can you please call my buddy a fat ass? He’s getting married and tell him you’re going to steal his wife.’ So the last one I did, he says, ‘Man, I’ve been working out. I think I’m in great shape, but I quit working out for a little bit. I need a pep talk. Can you call me a fat ass now?’ People still love that.”

On Bully Ray:

“I had lot of good time being down there with Bubba. And he did not like to be called fat, of course. So when he told me please don’t do that of course I’m gonna do it. So I remember, when I announced where he was from the state of obesity. Look at his face, he was [mad] but I could honestly say he’s probably laughing inside, because me and Bubba had some good times doing interviews down there. But it was being mean in a humorous way, and making it come out like you’re pissed off and being a prick.”

On the siren in his entrance:

“It was just something I came up with, was me and one of one of my wife’s friends she knew from back in Buffalo or Rochester. His name was Ben Zeblin. He did music, still does in New York, and I collaborated with him. We came up with that entrance music, which is why I could still use it to this day, because I own that.”

What is Scott Steiner grateful for:

“My wife and 2 kids.”

Will Ospreay On Signing With AEW, 5-Star Matches, Triple H’s Comments, MJF, Bryan Danielson

in LATEST EPISODES on March 6, 2025 March 6, 2025

Will Ospreay (@WillOspreay) is a professional wrestler currently signed to AEW. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet to discuss his past year in All Elite Wrestling which included matches against Bryan Danielson, Konosuke Takeshita and Swerve Strickland, having 48 five-star or higher matches from Dave Meltzer, some of his most painful bumps in wrestling, if he has ever thought about permanently moving to the United States, Triple H’s comments about being afraid of the grind and his response, if he has thought about slowing down in the ring, his go-to Nando’s order and more!

Quote I’m thinking about: “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” – Oscar Wilde

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On if he has thought about permanently relocating to the United States:

“Thought about it, because me and the Mrs. went to Disney World with the kid a little while ago, and was really fun. We done two weeks out in Orlando, it was all right. I don’t think I would live in Orlando just because, I don’t know, it would grate on me a little bit, but it’s crossed our minds. But I will be honest with you, I just like living in England. I love my country. I love just sitting there. I mean, it’s in shambles right now, be honest with you, but I still love it. I love seeing me Mom, I like seeing me Dad, like seeing my granddad. Now, my nan passed away, unfortunately, but yeah, I just love seeing my family. I love my country. I love Nando’s as well. It’s too good.”

What’s your order at Nando’s?

“Oh, mate, it’s two butterfly chickens medium, peri chips, creamy mash. If you’re not feeling mash corn on the cob, two Perinase dips and a bottomless drink.”

On if not moving to the United States was a factor in joining AEW:

“Absolutely yeah. Like, the offers were night and day as well. The whole idea for me was I wanted to make money from this and I wanted to have the most amount of time with my family. Although three days out of the week I would be wrestling, I get Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with my kid. Obviously when there’s a PPV it doesn’t [happen], but I get that time with my kid. [If] he’s not at school I get to do whatever I want with him. We play video games, we go out and we’d go on a mad hike. So for me, that’s way more important. I just didn’t want to do the move. That’s it. For me, I believe in what AEW is doing. I believe in the style. I believe in the genre. I believe it is actually the best wrestling in North America right now. I just want to drive that home. I want to be the guy so I want to just keep doing what I’m doing out here and just hope we can just keep freaking putting out these classic shows, man. The recent Dynamites and Collisions have been f*cking stellar.”

On the last year in AEW:

“I’ve enjoyed it. I feel like I didn’t realize the heights that I could reach here. It’s just been like a crazy little ride and I feel like there’s so much that I have done and I’ve experienced and I’ve not really digested it really well. There’s things that I have digested. But I just love the environment. I do love the work ethic that I’m putting in and there’s something about getting your gym bag and going to the gym, and actually putting your gym shoes on and doing it. For me there’s something about that when I have my little bag and I’ve got me backpack, and I get on the airport, and when I get here, there’s a little drive, and there’s a little work ethic that comes out of me. I’ve got a mission, and I really want to stick to it, and I want to keep driving home. How much AEW is the best wrestling here. I’ve just got that mad work ethic right now.”

What’s the mission for you?

“I mean, for me, it’s All In. I think that’s the one where I like, there’s 40,000 seats. That’s the biggest show that AEW does in North America. I really want to drive it home. I really want to put 40,000 seats in there. I don’t know what the metric is, and I honestly have no idea what we have to do that. But I’m making myself available and I live in England, I’m making myself constantly available. So if I need to go down to Arlington, I’m more than happy to go down. I want to go do the schools. I want to go do the news reports. I want to go do everything. Because I feel like my passion comes out when I talk about AEW. I flipping love it. I love what I’m doing. It’s completely changed my life, dude. Everything about my life has changed since we last spoke as well, and it’s been a crazy ride where I’m just super grateful. This is meant to be our big show. It’s All In for a reason. We’re going all in for this one. So I want all hands on deck, and I really want to persuade all of our punters and all of our fans to come over to Arlington on that day and celebrate with us. What was the highest one that have done in North America was the 20,000 in Grand Slam? So that’s 20,000 on the east. Then we had The Forum, and that was like, 15, 16,000 in there. Then you had North Carolina, which is 16,000. So it’s possible, but you have to make it easy for these people to travel. You have to make it accessible for these people to do this stuff. And I just believe in it. I want everyone to come down and celebrate.”

On his dream All In match:

“I want to be the main event. I want it. The reason why I want it is because I think they trust me, and I think the fans trust me with what the presentation and what the look of AEW should be. I think that says a lot, because I’ve never had that trust. Even when I had it in Japan, it wasn’t like they would give me Kobe and Osaka, those type of shows where there’s 4,000 5,000 people, that’s something that we can draw in. But ever since I’ve walked in here, I’ve come in with a great attitude of my whole mission is to build a team. I feel like whatever was going on in AEW before I got there I’ve helped out with trying to get everyone on the same page. It’s hard for me to put into words sometimes, but the only thing that I can say is I think the audience trusts me, and I won’t break that trust.”

On if he still gets nervous before matches:

“The Bryan Danielson one I got real nervous on. That was a super crazy moment. I could not believe this was even happening to be honest with you. Because when I first got there and I done the Takeshita match, and then it was like straight afterwards, oh yeah we’re going to do an angle with you and Bryan. I went already? So we had that. There’s a moment where I’m standing there opposite him and it’s just before the bell rings, we’re standing there looking at one another. He’s got this big smile on his face, and I just couldn’t help but look around as being like man, there’s 7,000 people in here. I thought for the life of me I would have been just a kid in Japan for the rest of my life. I thought that was that was going to be me, and then just to stand there and look at him and just be like, Oh my God, here it is. I said, ‘Sir this is going to be a pleasure.’ Then we backed up, the bell rang and I was just like, let’s go. I’ve never felt more like I finally did it. When Bryan and Kenny stood in the ring, the bell rung and the f*cking place stood up. I always wanted to be one of those guys. And at that moment I was like oh sh*t, I finally did it. I’m one of those guys now.”

On if he is thinking about life after wrestling:

“Yeah, of course I am. I always think about it. [You’re in your prime right now] Yeah, you always got to think. I’ve got a bunch of houses that I’m looking at now to do the real estate side of things. But more importantly, I always think this is great, but one of these days I do want to have a normal life. Imagine just me knocking on your door, Royal Mail outfit, f*cking van over there. Didn’t you used to be Will Ospreay? Yeah, I’d love that. It’s great. But right now, the focus is being the best wrestler in the world, performing at the peak levels.”

On if he thinks he is the best wrestler in the world:

“Yeah, of course not. I’m confident in my abilities, and I’m confident with my audience. Does that make me the best? I don’t know. Because I feel like the best is now so widely spread. Are you the guy that draws the most? Are you the guy that shifts the most merch? Are you best bell to bell? And I’ll just go I’m the best. I was out with my kid watching Cirque du Soleil at the Royal Albert Hall, and a guy came up and he takes a photo with me. Then Harry goes, Why does that happen all the time? I was just like, I don’t know how to explain it to him, because he’s six, and I have the mental capacity of a six-year-old. So I went, you know I do wrestling. He’s like, Yeah. I said I’m like the best. That’s the only way I could put it.”

On how he wrestles in his 30s:

“I can’t do the stuff that I used to do when I was 27. I can barely do a shooting star press now. I can still do it, but it takes a lot for me to do it, and it takes a lot of a build-up to do it. The body has locked up a little bit so then I had to adapt to my style.”

On his conversation with Chris Jericho:

“Yeah, he called me up. I’d done something stupid, I f*cked my neck up back in 2018 I’ve never been the same since then. It was against Marty. We did a Spanish Fly my f*cking head at the apron, but my neck contorted underneath me, and I just felt everything like a shot go down my arm. It was horrendous and I’ve never been the same since. But then the month after me and Kushida wrestling, and we did a DDT off the apron to the floor and I was fine. I was absolutely fine. I controlled my body on the landing, but it looked horrendous. Jericho got on the phone to me. It was just like, hey, look flipping hell, please don’t die. You gotta look after yourself, pick your bumps. You don’t need to be doing that type of stuff all the time. And that hit and I appreciated it, because especially at that time, Jericho only would pop over to New Japan every now and again. So the fact that he took his time out to be like, hey look, Rocky gave me your number I want to have a chat, let’s talk. Every time I’ve been around Chris, he’s always giving me great advice. Even being here, there’s promo things that I would do, and he went, Oh, who told you to do that? And I’d say this person told me he went, don’t do that because of this reason. And when he explains it to me off, yeah, of course. So, he’s been a real good hand to have backstage. And anytime I go, What do you think of this? He’s great in his honesty.”

Has it made you slow down:

“I mean, yeah, for sure. Because I want people to digest what they’re seeing, because I still do those stupid bumps, like the tombstone off the apron on the stairs. That was kind of silly. Yeah, looked great and everyone reacted, which it happens. But I also now plan those spots where I go, and this is where everyone f*cking complains about AEW. I do it because, personally, it’s like I just want to do it. I’m not like, f*cking kicking out and firing up and sh*t like that. I’m like, f*cking rolling my shoulder off and if people are popping off about it, sweet.”

On fans not being as critical about it happening in WWE:

“No. But then if I’ve had gone there, they’d be f*cking w*nking into f*cking tissues over me. But it’s the same. That’s why you have to separate it, otherwise you drive yourself insane. I think if you have something, my wrestling is my passion, it’s my job, most importantly. But if you have something that you’re passionate about, you really don’t care about what people are saying who have never impacted your career in your entire life. None of those people, once upon a time, they were big hits that anyone that’s ever complained about AEW like the grifters or whatever they’re called. I don’t know if that’s the right term. That’s what everyone says. But even if they say something, it’s like they’re not impacting our show. We’re the second most profitable wrestling company of all time. That’s not talked about enough, and everyone wants to dig on it. I get it, there’s things that we could generally improve on and I think it’s fair to listen to some criticism. But for me, I don’t lose sleep over anyone trying to tell me how to wrestle. Because now, look at me. I’m a f*cking idiot. I know I am, but I’ve carved out this little lane for myself. I was destined to be someone that either worked in McDonald’s or pushed trolleys at Tescos. But because I grafted at this, and because I learned the trade over in England and over in Japan, and my enthusiasm, my passion comes over here, I don’t let things like, oh this is sh*t. Why? Because it’s sh*t. Well, that’s not fair. If you give me criticism and you give me points that I can work on, then I’ll try my best to work on it. I’m not going to get it right away, but I think that’s the stuff that people need to speak more about.”

On Triple H’s comments and people believing they were about Will Ospreay:

“He was [talking about me]. I’ve got people that I won’t throw under the bus, saying, Yeah, it was about me. I’m not taking it personally like, Oh, that hurt my feelings. It’s just kind of like, all right, you take a jab at me, I’ll take one back. There’s nothing horrible about it. I don’t hate the guy. I’ve never met him. How can I hate someone that I’ve never even met? [Have you even talked to him?] No, I’ve never spoken to him, I got an agency talk to everyone. I’ve told everybody about my situation and why I want to remain in the UK, which is why that kind of hurt me a little bit, but not to the point where it keeps me up at night. I was like, Okay, you took a jab at me, I’ll take one back, and then that’s it. We’re done. Then someone was at this show that I was doing some stuff for Pro Wrestling Eve, and they do this thing called the Multiverse Rumble, and everybody dresses up as characters, and somebody dresses up as Triple H. I walked in here and I looked, I went I’ve got to do it now, haven’t I? [Why’d you have to do it?] Because it’s funny and if anyone doesn’t think it’s funny, then I can’t tell you what your humor is, but my humor is, this is hilarious. I’m going to do it.”

On narrowly missing out on a possible CM Punk match:

“Yeah, just narrowly missed it. But it is what it is, no issues with him on my side of things, I hope he’s doing well. [That could have been a magic match]. It could have been, but things happen and like things transpire. For me, I’ve never had an issue with him. He’s always been lovely to me.”

On the gruesome brainbuster in the Takeshita match:

“On the top of my glute, and then my pelvis. Because everyone thought it was just a scrape, it wasn’t. because those ropes are steel f*cking cable. So it hit my ass and put it back. Oh, mate. It was horrible. But I remember Tony being, you don’t have to wrestle next week. No, mate. I’m good.”

On how much longer he intends to wrestle:

“I don’t like thinking of it. I think I will one day just disappear. I will just go, Ah, this is me. I won’t have anything really. [You won’t have a final match?] Oh no, of course I will. But then that was the day I will grab the microphone on live TV and say the C word, and then just drop the mic, ruin this and then I’ll just go be a postman somewhere. Like that big Sting retirement, where everyone’s like coming out and like cupping their hands, tears in their eyes, and I just grab the microphone and go ‘c*nt!’ That’s the way I want to go out.”

What is Will Opsreay grateful for?

“Family, AEW and all the support.”

AJ Styles On Retiring Soon, His Phenomenal Career in WWE & TNA, The Undertaker, John Cena

in LATEST EPISODES on March 4, 2025 March 4, 2025

AJ Styles (@AJStylesOrg) is a professional wrestler currently signed to WWE. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at the DDPY Performance Center in Atlanta, GA to discuss his legendary wrestling career, saying no to WWE in 2001, his legendary matches in TNA, why he hated working in the six-sided ring, his shocking Royal Rumble debut that the cameras missed, being The Undertaker’s final opponent, the John Cena retirement tour, coming back from a near career-ending injury, when he thinks his in-ring career will end and more!

Quote I’m thinking about: “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow is our doubts of today.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

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On getting injured in his TV return match:

“I knew I’d broke it. Because if you’ve broken it before, same foot, I was like I broke it again, and I’m pissed because now I know how long it’s gonna take to get back. But again, little did I know it was much worse than a break.”

What was worse about it?

“Because it’s tendons, and my doctor, who is also my friend, was like do not look this up. I’m like I’m gonna look this up, and it’s a career-ending injury. It happens in car wrecks and in professional football mostly, that’s usually when it happens. And in football, of course, it’s one of those things depending how severe it is. I was literally by the skin of my teeth able to [come back], they were like we can have surgery, we could do surgery on your foot and it will heal faster, but there could be complications as you get older. We don’t know. We don’t have to have surgery, let’s try to do some therapy and get it back to where it is. Lucky for me I was able to get that therapy that I needed. Wasn’t easy. It sucked. It’s so crazy that you have to learn how to walk again to a certain extent, like how did I forget how to run? Little things like that. Because I was in a boot for six weeks, then I got six weeks in therapy, trying to figure this thing out. It’ll mess with you.”

On not losing a step when he came back:

“I think it’s one of those things where I’m so afraid of losing a step I’m doing everything I can to make sure it doesn’t look like I’ve lost the step. But it took a toll on me. Because I go out there and I got two gears, all or nothing. Is that one gear? I don’t know. But the fact that, yeah, I’m gonna go in there and I’m gonna give it my all. And then after the adrenaline wears off, I was like now it’s sore a little bit. So you might catch me limping afterwards until I get used to this foot, stretching it out, all those tendons and stuff like that. But so far so good.”

On if he thought this was the end of his career:

“I was like this is it. How am I going to recover again? I was like this might be it, and it sucked. Because like you said, I just came back. I was not hurt previously after I wrestled Cody in an “I Quit” match. I was not hurt during that time. So I’m sitting at home going okay, guys, okay. Then, hey, we’re going to bring you back in Nashville. It’s going to be great. Hurt myself, yeah I was p*ssed. I was mad. It may look like I was acting. I was not.”

On if there was a point where he felt like wrestling might not work out:

“I don’t know. I feel like things happen pretty quickly. I mean, I got in the ring way before I was supposed to because I could do flips. A month into training I was already in the ring. That’s way dumb. But the opportunity to learn from guys in the ring while you’re wrestling is the best way to learn, and you better learn quick or nobody’s going to want to wrestle you. So I was a sponge. Anytime someone told me something, they only had to tell me once. I was going to make sure that I remembered it, and it just kind of took off from there. Then we had a kind of developmental with WCW. First time I met Bob Sapp. He came in and became friends with him because he was doing his thing for WCW, and a lot of the other guys were there from WCW. So while they were watching their guys, they were able to see Air Paris and myself wrestling, having decent matches and doing some crazy stuff, and that’s how we got our opportunity in WCW.”

What was the first big break for you?

“I think that was it. That was the first big break. I was like wow, I get a chance to wrestle. Before that, I’d done extra stuff in WCW, but it was that chance to get in there and do it in the WCW ring in Baltimore, as a matter of fact, they gave us a trial in Baltimore, Air Paris and myself. Kind of busted out the shooting star to the floor in that match and other things that I’m sure I’d hate watching now. I started in 99 by 2001 I was in WCW, that’s kind of quick. So I was at the right place, the right time, the right guys watching.”

On how close he came to joining WWE in 2001:

“I don’t think it was close at all. [Did they offer you a developmental deal?] So it was after WCW went under. I’d been under contract with WCW for five months. Johnny Ace calls me and said, ‘WWE is not picking up your contract’, and it freaking broke me. So I went and felt sorry for myself for about a good week. And then I was like, Alright, here we go. I’m trying to think how quickly it happened. I want to say that at that moment, I believe the NWA was having their 53rd anniversary, and I believe that was in Petersburg, Florida. Anyway, somewhere down in Florida, and some Japanese guys are going to be down there. I was like, I’m going to go down there, I’m going to wrestle, they’re going to want me. I’m going to go to Japan to wrestle. That’s how I’m going to make it back. I went down there. I wrestled Christopher Daniels for the first time, first time we met, first time we wrestled, and we were just connected, it was perfect. Our timing was the same and Christopher Daniels at that time was if you can’t have a good match with him, you might as well quit. And we gelled so well. After that match, I really started traveling a lot. But I think during that time of doing indies and traveling a lot, I want to say that’s when I was offered [a contract]. I did two dark matches for WWE and I was offered a contract for $500 a week to move to Cincinnati. I’m sure you’ve heard this story before, but I was like wait, so I have to move to Cincinnati and I’ll make $500 a week? The same amount of money I was making at my bottled water job. And I’m gonna have to pay a lot more taxes on that $500 than I’m making now. I’m just thinking all this stuff. My wife can’t move with me. She’s in college about to finish, she’s going to be a teacher. I was like this just doesn’t sound right. And I believed in my heart that I was making the right decision and I even told Johnny as much as I’d love to come up there and train I just could not have my wife move in with their parents. I didn’t think that was right. My job is to take care of her, not the other way around. I mean, I said no to a developmental that’s never promised. HWA was the developmental back then. But you know what? Not only was it the best decision, because TNA would happen shortly after that in 2002, but HWA stopped being a developmental for them shortly after that as well. So I am guaranteed to not have made it through that cut. I wouldn’t have made it, and I wasn’t a big guy. What did I have to offer? There were no smaller guys that did anything in WWE that time. So I think it worked out pretty good based on what happened.”

On the TNA six-sided ring:

“The six-sided ring was different. It made us different. It sucked as a ring. I didn’t realize how rough it was on my body until we got back to a squared ring and I was like oh my God. I forgot that these are much better to bump on the actual mat, because it’s pillars under the six-sided ring, so you can move them in and out. Where in a squared ring, it’s in the middle, that bounce, whatever you might get. You could take a bump right on that pillar, so you can imagine that hurts. There was a point in time where we were overseas, we were in England and it was a big show, Kurt and I were wrestling, and he was going to give me the belly to belly off the top. I remember taking that. I go I’m never taking that again. Don’t ask me Kurt, it’s killing me. And then of course we get the squared ring he’s like Hey, do you mind? I’m like, Oh, okay. He gave it to me in a squared ring and I was like, Oh. I landed and it was like nothing compared to what it was. I was like, Oh, I can take that. Right then and there, as pissed off as I was about going to a squared ring and abandoning the six-sided ring, it was at that moment I go, I’m okay with the squared ring now. But when you saw TNA and you saw a six-sided ring, you knew that was TNA. No one was doing that, maybe in Mexico, but we made it who we were. I think they lost their identity to a certain extent when they went to just a regular ring, just like everybody else.”

On the TNA Unbreakable triple threat with Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels:

“Because we’ve wrestled each other so much, not necessarily in triple threats, but we wrestled each other. We know each other very well. It could have been better. We went home way earlier than we were supposed to. We got mixed up in a spot. Joe did something. I was like, Wait, are we supposed to be going here? Nope, bam. We did it anyway. So we ad-libbed a good 10 minutes of that match. All that at the end is totally ad-libbed. Thank God we knew each other so well, because we could just communicate and get to where we needed to be. So it could have been really good. It was just good.”

On when was the last time he did a Spiral Tap:

“That’s a good question. I don’t know. Maybe Matt Hardy, when him and I wrestled in TNA. Maybe it was Bubba. I can’t remember. Yeah, I’ve lost it. It’s a different kind of flip. It’s not the same. Even when I watch other guys do it, I still don’t do it like them. So yeah, they like to twist themselves over when they’re coming off. I don’t want a twist. I want a peak and then turn. So it’s a little bit different. So there’s a stalling involved to make it look beautiful and then go. But I’ve kind of lost it.”

On if he was approached by WWE while in TNA:

“No one ever really said anything to me, but I’ll tell you, there was an instance. It was a big meeting. Dixie came out and basically said something to the fact of, if you don’t want to be here, we’ll let you go. At that moment, I looked over at Christian to see what he was going to do. This was 2008, 09, 10? I don’t know, somewhere around there. But I was watching him because I looked up to Christian, he’s amazing too. This guy is a ring general, for sure. I was watching him to see if he got up, because if he had gotten up, I would gotten up too. Hopefully he would have gotten me in the WWE or something.”

On why so many people left TNA at once:

“They hired Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff. I believe Eric was trying to do the right thing, to see where we’re at as far as getting more eyes on us that we’re growing. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out the way it was supposed to. We lost a lot of money. I think I was kind of pissed at Hogan at the time, because I was like, why doesn’t he talk about TNA? Why is he not helping us? He’s not advertising at all. He never talked about TNA. I was pissed, but I now realize I think he was embarrassed. It was embarrassing to him to talk about that, so he didn’t. I think Dixie was trying to do some things, and it was just they keep butting heads, so it just kind of fell apart, and when it fell apart, they lost a lot of money. When they lost a lot of money, they expected me to take a pay cut. My contract was up.”

On his TNA Mount Rushmore:

“I’m biased though, because I’m gonna put my guys on there, the guys that I had unbelievable [matches with]. Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joe. I think a lot of people would say Kurt because he was there for a long time. A lot of people don’t know he was in TNA longer than he was in WWE. I would throw Frankie Kazarian in that conversation too. Low Ki was unbelievable, there’s so many. James Storm, Chris Harris, they were a big part of the growth. […] Elix Skipper, Beer Money. There’s so many guys that made such a big difference. It’s hard to put a Mount Rushmore together, because everybody has their moment and how they got there and how much they meant to TNA.”

On his Royal Rumble debut not being picked up by the cameras:

“You know what was such a cool moment, though. You guys made so much noise that the folks at home were like, what is it? Who is it? So it was kind of cool that it worked out that way. But yeah, that was such an unbelievable moment.”

On getting in great shape:

“Everybody thinks I bulked up. I lost weight. I was not any heavier than I was before, but fasting is a big part of my diet as well. I’d done a three-day fast, just water. I’d done that maybe a week before I came back so I was shredded. I literally just got through doing a six-day fast, just water. That sucked too. But again, anything worth doing is hard. All you got to do is sit in that cold plunge. That’s all you gotta do is sit down. All you gotta do in a sauna is just sit there. All you gotta do is not eat and drink water, these things are easy to do, or they should be, but we’re addicted to so many different, lifestyles of being easy and nice. You know what the worst time to get the cold plunge is? Is when you’re comfortable. It’s perfect outside, it’s perfect inside. Oh, it’s great. And then you get the cold plunge like. But if you can get used to being uncomfortable, it’s not that hard to be uncomfortable.”

On if he might wrestle John Cena on the retirement tour:

“I don’t know. I don’t make those decisions. I would love to have it, for sure, it’d be fun. Honestly, I think that there’s something about, I can’t explain it, why him and I gel so well together. I don’t know what it is, because we’re definitely not the same in any kind of way. It just works. The first time I got in the ring with him it was like, Wow, dude, that was cool. So, yeah, I would love the opportunity to work with Cena again.”

On his WrestleMania match against Shane McMahon:

“Well, it wasn’t that he was pitching [crazy moments], he just wanted to perfect it, whatever we were doing he wanted to make sure it was spot on every time and you got to respect that. That’s what I want. And then be able to bounce some stuff off of him, the guy could fight for real. So we were able to put a little bit of that stuff that he knew, a little bit of jiu-jitsu that he’s taken and make it work. It was really a fun match, really unexpected, I think for fans to see us have such a good match together.”

On if he has thought about how much longer he will wrestle:

“I’ve thought about it a lot, much more than I should have. I should have known what I was doing by now. But it’s so hard because you enjoy it so much and I enjoy being around my friends. Don’t get me wrong, I love being at home, but the opportunity to see them and see them doing well, seeing them smile, and seeing them grow. Some of these guys like Roman for instance, his selling is on a different level. Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, all these guys, they stepped up. If Roman stepped up, they stepped up with him. I just thought that was so impressive that they do that, and seeing them grow into these amazing Superstars. Gunther losing all that weight to get to where he’s at now as the Heavyweight Champion, it’s freaking awesome. Cody, seeing where he’s at and what he had to go through to get to where he was at, and what he’s doing now is at that position, he’s the guy. He puts the work in. It’s really cool to see those guys hustle as much as they are and beat themselves up as much as they have, and still do well. I like seeing that.”

On not wrestling in his 50s:

“That’s correct. I keep saying that. I’ve said this and said this, but I will not wrestle at 50, I promise you that.”

On coming back with his old theme song:

“It was my call to change it [when I turned heel] too. Because as a bad guy I thought my song was a little too cool. Everybody loves that song. I love the song, but that’s not who I was trying to be. I wanted you to not like me, that you despised me. I thought well if I change the song up, people are going to hate it, perfect. Then when I know I was coming back and I’m going to be the good guy again, I was like I want my old music back. And nobody said anything. They were like, yep, that’s fine. So yeah, that was my decision.”

On if he has a final opponent in mind:

“Nope, no opponent in mind. An idea that I will not share with you that I thought if I could get Undertaker to get in the ring with me, that I wanted to do. But there’s an idea there that I think kind of sums up who AJ Styles is, and we’ll see if it happens. You’ll know it if it does.”

What is AJ Styles grateful for:

“The relationship I have with God, family and that I have the best job on the planet.”

Lex Luger On Possibly Walking Again, Working With DDP, Hall Of Fame, Sting

in LATEST EPISODES on February 27, 2025 February 27, 2025

Lex Luger (@GenuineLexLuger) is a retired professional wrestler who previously competed in WWE and WCW. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at the DDPY Performance Center in Atlanta, GA to discuss working with Diamond Dallas Page to increase his mobility, the accident that left him paralyzed, slamming Yokozuna on the USS Intrepid, his shock debut on the first episode of WCW Nitro, beating Hulk Hogan to become WCW World Champion, the tragic passing of Miss Elizabeth, what his current relationship is like with WWE, if a Hall of Fame induction could happen soon and more!

Quote I’m thinking about: “We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behavior.” Stephen Covey

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On where his journey with DDP began:

“We’ve been obviously friends for years through wrestling. But the latest journey started when I had taken a lot of falls and I always wanted to get the most out of what I felt the good Lord gave me as far as recovering from my injury and function. I’m what Shepherd Center called like a one percenter, they’re a world-class spinal cord rehab center. I spent two years there back in 08-09 after my spinal cord injury, they called me a high-functioning quadriplegic. I have a cervical injury, which makes me a quadriplegic. Paraplegic is waist down, quadriplegic is neck down. So all I am supposed to be able to do is move my head and shoulders and need 24-hour care for the rest of my life, bathe, fed, clothed, and round-the-clock, care. I lived independently and I was able to walk out of Shepherd initially. I was pushing the envelope on my ability and mobility and balance. I started taking a lot of falls, and it got to the point where they felt I was endangering [my health]. My neurologist at Shepherd, Dr Bilski, told me, ‘Lex, you’re one of our miracles, but if you keep on falling like that you have to wear a helmet, elbow pads and knee pads like a skateboarder, or you’re gonna have to use some mobility devices like a walker and a chair for safety and balance, because we don’t want you back in here with a head injury.’ Which they also specialize in. Because you’ve already been here for a spinal cord injury, we do not want you back in here with a head injury. So I said, okay, and I started using the mobility devices, but I kept on pushing the envelope and walking. I was taking some really bad falls, a miracle I didn’t really have a bad injury. So they finally convinced me to use the chair and walker more, and I had to admit defeat when we got back together here recently, I got scared. It’s hard to admit for us guys, but I got scared of some of the falls and what they told me could happen. I started sitting too much, like anybody else, and not walking enough. If you don’t use it, you lose it, and I pretty much lost all mobility. My quality of life had dropped dramatically. I saw DDP back at Sting’s retirement match that we both were able to go to, which was awesome. I just said, ‘Hey, D. You think we could do maybe a little bit of work on getting a little more movement? I’m pretty much in this chair full time, I’m having trouble just doing everyday stuff and brushing my teeth and to shower, my quality of life’s dropped quite a bit, my energy levels, everything.’ You know DDP, all you got to do is tell him that he goes, ‘Brother, I’ve been waiting for you to come to me on this.’ So we went to work, and we made amazing progress that we were going to reveal to everybody for his incredible partner, Steve and him are documenting, kind of filming it and the progress, and it’s going to be pretty cool. I’m real excited and thankful for what he’s doing with me. Our friendship was always there, but our friendship is growing. So he’s a special guy.”

On what’s been the biggest change since working with DDP:

“Well, everything from being able to stand up and brush my teeth instead of being over the sink trying to. There’s things we take for granted, getting off of my chair into the shower. In the morning, you’re showering, you’re going to the bathroom, you brush your teeth. When you’re sitting it’s challenging and even to safely get from your chair to a toilet or anything. So just everyday functional stuff. I heat my coffee up in the morning, I could stand up and put it in the microwave now, I couldn’t do that. I was trying to reach, I was spilling coffee everywhere. So, things you think about. When I go to the grocery store now. I had to wait and my grocery store guys would know me. They see me pull up and they bring me out the power cart. Now I can get the power cart myself with stuff. So, I mean everything. I can shop again. I can go through my day with you. My quality of life and my function has increased dramatically. So it’s amazing.”

On how this would not be possible a few years ago:

“I had gotten scared and discouraged with the walking and all the falls I was taking, so I had really pulled back and was pretty much relegated and come to the terms that maybe I’m just going to be in the wheelchair the rest of my life. So I was gonna make the best of that, but still to have this gift by working with DDP, and a gift from God, I think to be able to get this increased mobility again is very exciting.”

On the accident that left him paralysed:

“I’m headed to San Francisco for an appearance. I had to get in that one last heavy workout and shower and run to the airport for an overnight red-eye flight from Atlanta into Frisco. I get in at like midnight or something. So I got in a heavy shoulder trap and neck workout, which they say may have been a factor, might not. So that was my last heavy workout ever. I was on the airplane, I was talking to somebody next to me and my head turned right after that workout. I turned my head back. This is just my theory. The neurologists aren’t sure that this had anything to do with it, but I kind of feel like it did, and they think it might have. I turned my head back to the front and I had this burning, stabbing pain between my shoulder blades. But football, wrestling, we get aches and pains, little pinched nerves all the time. So I go, man that didn’t feel good, that didn’t feel right. I got to the hotel, I checked in, and I woke up, I’m not sure what time it was. It was just pre-dawn, and I had the worst burning, stabbing pain in my lower neck, shoulder blade area, unbelievable. It was so bad. I’m a side sleeper. I was on my side towards the nightstand, and I was trying to get to a phone, so I figured maybe I’d get to the phone like a seal hit it with my nose. I didn’t know. I was in so much pain. I fell off the bed down to the floor. When I was on the bed, I actually felt like I was in those old metal diver suits you see, metal helmet from back in the mid-1900s. I felt like I was in one of those suits and there’s magnets pulling me from underneath, almost through the mattress. I didn’t know what being paralysed felt like. So I can move my head and shoulders, but that threw me off the bed. Now am up against the nightstand, my chin down to my chest, and I didn’t know this either. When you have a cervical high spinal cord it affects your breathing, which didn’t help my breathing. My breathing was already compromised, so I thought I was gonna suffocate. So now I’m up against the nightstand. I can’t move. I feel like I’m being pulled by magnets through the floor now, and I feel like I’m suffering. I thought that was it. And I tell people this, the Lord came into that room, proverbs three, five and six. I was a brand new believer. I didn’t even know I had a verse memorized in the Bible. But Proverbs, three, five and six, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not upon your own understanding. Acknowledge me in all your ways, and I’ll make your path straight. It was so calming when I felt like God was actually almost speaking to me. I didn’t hear a voice or anything, but that resonated so much to me that my breathing calmed down, my heart rate and I laid there probably for hours until they came for my appearance. When I didn’t answer my door they had to knock my door down. I locked my door. I put the extra lock on my door, which I don’t normally do.”

On what happened next:

“I couldn’t scream because my breathing was compromised. I can’t believe the guy heard me. He knocked on the door. I’m like, help. But they knew when I didn’t open the door and it was locked, I had to be in there. So that’s when they called 911 they came in and bashed my door down. And who’s there? Let’s go full circle back, DDP, who’s there out in Frisco for the appearance was there as well. DDP comes into the room and he convinces me. The medics had picked me up off the floor and sat me in a chair. I’m paralyzed in a chair, and I’m like, No, I’m okay. I think I’m dehydrated maybe. He [DDP] looks at me and says, ‘You gotta go the hospital. You gotta go with these guys, man, this ain’t dehydration, bro.’ So they took me downstairs. The medics were big wrestling fans, a guy and a girl. They looked at each other, I’m laying there. I can’t move up, but I’m listening to them. They go, where do we take him? They’re naming these hospitals, and they go Stanford, which is like almost an hour from the airport. The guy goes, ‘Oh man, we might get fired if we do that, but let’s do it.’ They drove me all the way to Stanford, which is a world-class medical facility. They were unbelievable. Ran every test you could possibly do. Once again, getting back to your original question, I’ve given you a really long answer. But they said it could have been the workout. We saw a little bit of stenosis, nothing from your wrestling and football career that necessarily made this happen. We see this in people all the time that never did sports or any high collision stuff. We put it in a category, kind of like a category we don’t know what you have or what cause of transverse myelitis, swelling of the spinal cord, massive swelling from C5 down to T5 and that’s lights out from there down. That’s it for the rest of your life. Because when they were telling me my prognosis a few weeks later, when I got to Atlanta, which was an unbelievable story, how I got to Atlanta, there weren’t any planes to get me there. I got to Atlanta and Shepherd Center, which is a world-class facility right here in Atlanta where I was living at the time. Which was a miracle. They put me in room 316, John 316. I go I must be in the right place. The two nurses were Grace and Hope. When I came into the room the name tags. I’m like, Oh my gosh.”

On if he hadn’t found God before the accident:

“Sting said that I would have committed suicide. My best friend. Because if you hadn’t been a believer before that happened. He goes, the old Lex, Second Corinthians five said we’re a brand new creation in Christ. So I’m a brand new creation. He said, If you hadn’t been born again at that point, everything was about you, your body, your workouts. You would have ended it.”

On The Total Package:

“Well, that was a heck of a nickname Dusty Rhodes gave me, The American Dream. I was in the back and he goes, ‘I want you to be the brains and the brawn and the beauty, because I want you to have the look, the brains. I want you to be the total package, baby.’ So he came up with that nickname. He came up with the finish the torture rack, because he thought it showed my body and my abs. It wasn’t an easy finish to execute on a lot of guys, but it turned out to be a really good finish for me. So yeah, he said, ‘I want you to just be the total package.’ And of course, I had mentoring from Nature Boy Ric Flair on that early on, as far as that persona. A lot of people said back then the old Lex took to that pretty easily as far as thinking he was the total package. Eric Bischoff, who and I become really good friends. People thought we hated each other, but we love each other now. Eric Bischoff said, ‘Lex thought he was the sh*t, and he made people believe him. He may have not been the greatest interviewer or worker in the ring, but Lex had an aura about him that he just thought his you know what didn’t stink. And he goes that came across on camera and in front of people, he said he believed he was the total package.’ And I did.”

On slamming Yokozuna on USS Intrepid:

“It was a great moment, for sure. I was actually petrified by the time I got on the Intrepid. Because they flew me on a helicopter, and I had only been on a helicopter ride once before in my life. I’m not scared of heights or anything, but I had this ex-Vietnam combat pilot flying the helicopter in, and we were there with no belts on, nothing, this helicopter with open doors. He was tilting and showing off on the way and I’m holding on for dear life. Then I go to the ring and they threw Bobby at me. I didn’t know Bobby was going to meet me. He was my heel manager as a narcissist. So Bobby comes up to me and I’m like, Hey Bobby. As I’m walking to the ring with Yokozuna, Bobby goes, ‘Push me.’ I go what? He goes, ‘Push me, you stupid SOB.’ I shoved him because I didn’t know Bobby was gonna meet me part way down, trying to stop me from going to the ring. But I then I got in the ring, and I cowboy boots so I had no footing. So I get nose and nose with Yoko, and we go nose and nose. We’re supposed to be trash-talking, but I’m telling Yoko we can’t do it. I was panicking. I got no footing. Yoko actually was a cool as ice Samoan. We call him the dancing bear. He was so agile for a guy at 600 pounds. He looks at me and goes ‘No problem, brother. Just get a wide stance, I’ll do the rest.’ People go you look so excited afterwards, did you know you were going to slam him? I go, Well, I was hoping. We did a walk through, but I’ve never slammed him. They didn’t want me in the walk through to hurt Yoko. I go hurt Yoko? What about me? I’m going to get double hernia trying to slam the guy. But we did it live first time in that ring, so I was really nervous. With no footing. Yoko just pushed himself around me. I had to help turn him and that ain’t easy, so I played a part. But I tell people I was so excited afterwards, even though I knew I was supposed to slam because I was so happy it came off. I go, Yoko basically slammed himself. He was that agile. He flipped himself off of me by getting a wide stance. Unbelievable athlete. One of the best big men ever. He doesn’t get credit for one of the best.”

On the Lex Express:

“My family was upset about the A&E special, they made it look like I didn’t enjoy myself. We had a great time on that tour. It was judiciously edited by Bruce Prichard to make it look like Lex wasn’t the guy and he didn’t have a good time. They took excerpts on that A&E and made it look like I was heeling on people during the tour, and I wasn’t upset, just spicing it up. I said they’re just throwing some stuff in there to tell their story. So it didn’t bother me at all that they put that stuff in there. For instance, they would show me acting like I didn’t get a suite at the hotel, and I was making a big thing at the desk. I was joking around with the camera guys and the desk people, but they made it look [different] on the A&E. You could portray something that I was throwing a hissy fit because I didn’t get a suite at the hotel, which was not what happened, but that’s what it looked like on the A&E. But I was laughing. I thought it was funny, so yeah, but they actually did a really good job on that.”

On Royal Rumble 1994:

“Bret tries to credit me. I credit Bret, the Excellence of Execution, because all I had to do was catch him and go backwards over the top rope, which is not fun. I didn’t even do a lot of backwards over the top rope kind of stuff, but I trusted Bret because he had to tuck my head and everything. Because when you go backwards on top rope, you gotta for safety tuck your head and everything. So Bret cross-bodied me and took us out, and then, man, he spider monkied me. He pulled me in and pulled my head in and they said Vince jumped out of his chair in the back. Because we walked through it however we’re going to do it. Bang, bang, bang, cross body, out. Vince goes, ‘Try to hit the floor at the same time, we’ll touch it up afterwards so we’re both at the same time.’ They even did it in slow-mo. What a miracle that you couldn’t tell in the slow motion who hit first. But Bret pulled me in so tight the way we hit the apron with me going backwards, and from there to the floor Bret just got us both level, and even we both hit it at the exact same time. That’s when Vince jumped out of his chair. Wow, oh my gosh. They nailed it.”

On what the plan was with co-winners of the Royal Rumble:

“There wasn’t really. Even SummerSlam, they go what a lame finish. You didn’t beat Yoko after that big tour. I go that was never the plan. Vince was such a fan of the Garden. That was his dad’s place. That was his place. He always stood at the curtain watching the match at The Garden to see the response of the crowd towards new talent. They don’t call it the Mecca for nothing, and that was Vince’s place and his dad’s place. So Vince and I had a very good relationship. He said, ‘If I put the belt on you, it’ll be at the Garden at WrestleMania 10. That’s going to be a big pay-per-view. And if I do, because I’m not saying you are…’ I go, ‘Well, I’m not asking you to promise me anything.’ He goes, ‘I’m not.’ So I was never promised the belt, and if it was it was going to WrestleMania 10. He went with Bret, which is a great choice. Bret’s a great champion. We had Yoko and Bret now wrestling for a title at WrestleMania 10. But I didn’t feel jilted or I’d been lied to it all because they never told me I was gonna be the champion. And I always, once again, go to what Eric [Bischoff] said, ‘Lex always thought he was the you know what.’ I didn’t have a problem with winning or losing or I always felt, no matter what, even when I walked out first on the Monday night wars and went from WWF at the time. Eric lowballed me and offered me almost nothing. I said, You know what? I’ll come in and I’ll become a big star for him, and he’ll take care of me. Which Eric did. I never lacked confidence. That was part of my persona.”

On being presented as the next Hulk Hogan:

“People say Vince wanted to be the next Hulk Hogan, which also was not Vince’s plan. Vince always knew that there was only gonna be one Hulk Hogan. He always wanted a merchandise selling babyface so I became the guy. But Vince always knew that the red and yellow, say your prayers and take your vitamins and all that, there’s only gonna be one Hulk Hogan. He didn’t want me to be another Hulk Hogan knockoff. He wanted me to be Lex Luger the babyface. Vince was actually very patriotic kind of guy. He wanted me to be the red, white and blue champion and sell a bunch of merch. He ended up going with Bret as the World Champion. But I always felt that if I stayed at WWE I was determined that I was going to get another shot at the title someday and be their world champion. So if I stayed there and Vince and I were trying to work it out. When I went to Nitro, that was a last-minute thing between Sting and Eric Bischoff that came out on a random phone call with Sting because of our friendship. I wasn’t under contract anymore, and we were trying to work it out on a handshake. I was going to stay at WWE. I had no plan on leaving.”

On his shock WCW arrival on the first Nitro:

“They kept it a big secret and all that. But we had no idea Nitro and the Monday Night War was going to get so big. Sting told me we’re going to do a Monday night show. I’m like, ‘Good luck with that. Up against Raw?’ That was my attitude. But okay. WCW was always a distant second kind of at that point. Yeah, we try harder, but we’re number two, the old car rental ads and stuff back in the day. So yeah, we didn’t know. We had no idea it was going to actually overtake them in ratings and stuff. My gosh, who would have thunk? So I had no idea. That moment when I walked out there, they had to actually pull me off the tapes we had already done for the shows for WWE. I was very uncomfortable because of my good relationship with Vince I couldn’t tell him I was going to do that. That was Eric’s one stipulation. I went home with my wife I go ‘Peg, he [Bischoff] wants me to leave, but Eric wants me to give no notice. Just show up on Nitro.’ I heard rumors that Vince was watching with his wife, and Linda turned to him, ‘If you ever bring that guy back…’ Because Vince always would forgive and bring guys back when people thought was impossible. I’m not sure if that’s true, but I heard that rumor that Linda was almost angry with me at that because Vince and I had such a good relationship, I didn’t even give notice. I walked out of Nitro.”

On why he was not a part of WWE after the WCW buyout:

“I was under contract. From the penthouse outhouse to the jailhouse. I had too much time and money on my hands. I had almost three years of guaranteed contract with Time Warner for a lot of money, and Vince couldn’t touch me. I would have had to give up three years of guaranteed money.”

On if he could have come to WWE later on and the passing of Miss Elizabeth:

“After that, everything happened. I got messed up on the wine and women, I had too much time and money on my hands. Got messed up on drugs and alcohol, and had a period where I was a complete train wreck. The tragic passing of Elizabeth. Obviously people go, ‘Well, he killed Elizabeth.’ Well, I didn’t kill her. But was I a contributing factor to the lifestyle I was living and her being around me all the time and she overdosed? Absolutely.”

Do you take responsibility for what happened to her?

“Absolutely. Sure, there’s always collateral damage to lifestyles like that, and she was part of it. So absolutely. Sadly.”

Was that rock bottom for you?

“You’d think it was, but that led me to more depression where I felt completely unlovable. I was never going to be able to be a part of wrestling again after that happened. Instead of, I hate to admit it, who I was back then. Instead of being so grieving over the loss of Liz, I was grieving over what this would do to me and my career, almost more so. I hate to admit it. Back then when I was done in wrestling and my fitness nutrition quest after wrestling, I was going to be a big fitness nutrition guy to have my own nutrition company and exercise. Well, no one’s going to want that for me now. So I went into massive depression, darkness, did more drugs, more alcohol. It wasn’t until at that point where I dug such a deep, dark hole, I always thought I could somehow work or be smart enough to get out of it. I knew I was at the bottom of a pond with no light, and there was no way to the top, and I was drowning in darkness. And that’s when I turned to God. I knew there’s no way I get out of this. So God, if you’re really real, you have to get me out of this, because I’m done.”

On fans still holding Elizabeth’s death against Lex Luger:

“No doubt, and I totally understand, I do, yeah. I get it. She was a beloved character, Liz, and I’ll always be tied as part of what happened with her. And I get that I have haters out there. I understand where they’re coming from. I get it.”

On not being in the WWE Hall of Fame:

“Well, people say that good things come to those who wait, always hopeful. If not, I still feel I had a great career. There’s a lot of deserving guys other than me who still aren’t in as well. So yeah, it would be a huge honor though, if and when it happens.”

On why he doesn’t think he has been inducted:

“I don’t know what criteria they do, because there’s a lot of other guys too that should have been in. I don’t know if it was me personally or anything with Vince at all. I’m not sure about that. Only they can answer that.”

On how his relationship with WWE has changed:

“I think they waited and observed that I was a different guy now, and I felt that they learned to maybe trust who I was, that this wasn’t some temporary thing, this is the new Lex Luger, this is the direction he’s headed with his life. So I’m thankful. But they’ve been a real blessing in every way, including financially. You know, they gave me new merch and gave me what the guys call mailbox money. So I am very thankful for them welcoming back into the family and making me a part of WWE. Obviously, the Hall of Fame would be the whipped cream and cherry on top for sure. If I never get in the Hall of Fame, I feel like I had a great career. That won’t change it, but it would obviously be a huge honor. Definitely the creme de la creme, for sure.”

What is Lex Luger grateful for:

“The good Lord, my friends and my family.”

Will Sasso Does Impressions Of Jesse Ventura, Scott Hall, Macho Man, Triple H, Ric Flair & MORE!

in LATEST EPISODES on February 25, 2025 February 25, 2025

https://cvvtix.com – Tickets are on sale now for INSIGHT LIVE in Toronto & Las Vegas with VIP Meet & Greet!

Will Sasso (@willsasso) is an actor and comedian. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood, CA to discuss performing his Jesse Ventura impression in front of the WWE Hall of Famer, how he perfects his impressions, his thoughts on celebrities in wrestling including IShowSpeed and Logan Paul, at the Raw on Netflix premiere, wrestling Bret Hart in WCW and he does impressions of Andre The Giant, Triple H, British Bulldog, Ric Flair and more!

Quote I’m thinking about: “Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.” – Suzy Kassem

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On how Jesse Ventura is unaware of Will Sasso’s impression:

“[Impersonates Jesse Ventura] Because I live in the Baja six months out of the year. And you know that, Chris, I don’t have TV. Why would I watch American TV there? We have satellite. I have solar. I’m four miles from pavement out there, and I can’t watch American news. But I tell you what I can do. I can put my hand into a whale shark’s mouth in a lagoon. They love having their gums scratched, and you look into their eyes and they’re intelligent. That’s why I don’t know who Will Sasso is, or whatever a name only a proctologist could love. I’ll be down in the Baja riding my electric bike. I charge my electric bike, and then I ride out and I get mangoes and I bring them back to the house. Of course, I always see large birds and I think they’re drones. I’m afraid of drones because if you say the wrong thing about the government and then you go picking mangoes, you’ll see an American drone. You can tell, they’re huge. And I’m like, That’s not a tropical bird of any kind. That’s not even a raven or a crow. That’s a big drone coming to kill me. So no, I don’t watch the American news.”

On showing Jesse Ventura his Jesse Ventura impression:

“I remember him going, ‘Hello Will.’ Which was like, it is one of those things where I’m like, I actually truly revere Jesse Ventura, I love that guy and it’s like, I don’t want to break his balls on. So when he’s like, ‘Hello Will.’ I’m like, let me get this Hackney bullsh*t out and try not to f*cking offend him. And, yeah, ‘Hi, hello, me. How am I doing?’ And then it was, were you in the studio going, let’s wrap it up. Because he’s not gonna go zoom, back and forth with you.”

On honing in his impressions:

“I don’t. If I can do it, I do it. Sometimes I can’t stop doing it. And then you’re like, that’s what I mean by annoying my wife. If we’re just doing anything like [impersonates Randy Savage] Shopping for throw pillows. It’s a Saturday afternoon. Yeah, you might want to do something with your time. Household projects, maybe catch a Lakers game. No way! My wife wants to shop for throw pillows. We’re going to reformation hardware, yeah. A little more expensive than some of the other stores. Not bad if you want to get a couch, yeah sexual couch, you’re going to want to invest some money, dear, aren’t you? Yeah, but throw pillows. Let’s go to Target. No, I don’t want to go to Target. Let’s go to reformation hardware.”

On wrestling Bret Hart in WCW:

“In my opinion, the greatest in-ring performer of all time. Or let’s call it like it is, the greatest pro wrestler of all time. I’ve said this about that match that Bret could have a match with a 300-pound bag of rice, which he did on that night. For those who don’t know what the hell we’re talking about, when I was on this television program Mad TV we concocted this feud that happened between Bret and I over a year or two from two different seasons. He gets mad at me, he attacks me. It was all cooked up and then all of a sudden, it turns into a wrestling storyline where I’m going to be [in a match] It is an homage, sort of, to the Andy Kaufman and Jerry Lawler thing. Bret was so game, and it was great. But Bret is also so old school that it’s like, we’re doing the match fly to Tampa, A couple of my buddies flew out to see it, because they’re like, we’re not going to miss this. We go out to a bar the night before, and we’re all in the same car, along with Brian Hart, no relation, writer, executive producer at Mad TV, also a huge wrestling fan, made this whole thing happen. It was Brian who was like, let’s get Bret on the show, I got a sketch for him, what if we did this? Brian was the guy behind this whole thing. We go into this bar and the night before, and Bret’s like, Okay, I’m gonna go in first, and then you guys can come in later. And my buddy’s like, no, we want to go in with you. Okay, so you guys and Brian, you come in with me, and then we’ll just wait a half hour and then come in and don’t sit near me. I was like, come on, we gotta [do this]? He’s like, no, no, no, the match is tomorrow. So we kayfabed it. I go into this bar that is also where Bret Hart is so people were coming up to me who are following this thing. I’m on TV, I’m on entertainment magazine outlets going, No I’m gonna sue the f*cking guy. He attacked me on Mad TV. I’m talking to Access Hollywood going I’m suing him. It looked legit. He hit me with a chair. He goes How hard Should I hit you with the chair? And in order so that it would look gnarly on TV, I said to the excellence of execution, go ahead Bret, hit me as hard as you can. You can’t hurt me. Because I really wanted him to hit me. I had raised welts on my back for like, a couple of weeks. [It wasn’t a steel chair]. It was like a steel framed with plastic. So it was probably better than getting hit with a real steel chair. But there was still a lot of apparatus there to raise and split your skin, and then I had an alligator pad on my knee and leg, and he starts wailing on my knee, and then he puts me in the Sharpshooter, and I’m screaming. Bret never hurt anybody. Taking a thing to your back, even that was a surface thing and I pissed him off, so he did it. And then we get to this thing, and cut to me in a bar with people going, you know, who’s right over there? Bret Hart’s over there. I’m like, no, what? Oh, holy sh*t. Then we got a match the next day. Come on, we’re doing this. We’re doing the thing. But crazy for him to be like yeah that sounds cool, let’s do it!”

On IShowSpeed being an entrant in the Royal Rumble:

“They did it right because he got his just desserts for stepping in the ring, and that’s what it should be. If someone comes into the ring, it should be [they get beat up].”

On The Bret Hart match:

“So our thing is here’s this big, goofy guy from Mad TV who’s had this problem with Bret Hart. Now it’s getting settled in the ring. You’ve got Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay, and the greatest of all time Bobby Heenan, which that alone, having Bobby Heenan call [my match], just unbelievable. Someone was like, well maybe Will Sasso had some experience with wrestling, perhaps in high school. What do you mean? We’re not detailing his high school wrestling career. He’s in there with The Excellence of Execution. They’re just calling what they are calling. But I bet in the back of their heads they’re like, Man, I hope he doesn’t get a move on Bret. This is dumb. So Bret just kind of beats the sh*t out of me the whole time. And Brian wanted him to. He’s like, maybe you just even take a chair like, Oh, is he gonna hit him with a f*cking chair now? Now he just puts the chair in the middle of the ring and drinks a bottle of water. I’m like, I love that. I might have even said it on the program here, so sorry if you’ve already heard this, but we go out there in the afternoon. He goes, Well, let’s just go feel the ring out. He gave me a Russian Leg Sweep and then I went and took the ropes. I think we talked about this. I took the ropes the wrong way and I was like, f*ck. It’s like that elevator cable from WCW. La Parka can jump off it. I go, okay. He’s like, you know, you’ll figure it out. You’ve watched this shit. I’m like, exactly I’ve watched this shit. What are you talking about? I haven’t been in there.”

On Logan Paul:

“He’s built for it. He’s such a natural heel. But also, you look at him, all the stuff he’s ever done, you just remember as a kid on Vine he’s jumping out of windows in college. He’s already, like a beefy, athletic acrobatic dude. It’s shocking to see the stuff that he can do. He’s got that new finisher that looks crazy. To me, that’s one of the coolest, weird things. You can’t even call it a crossover because he’s legit a professional wrestler. He’s a guy who’s like, I’m gonna do this. But also, the bulk of his sort of work, his existence right now is Impaulsive. So he does his show. It hasn’t gotten in the way of that, it’s made it better. He’s a savant at it, and not for nothing, they say he’s training with Shawn Michaels. So to have Shawn Michaels go here’s how you do a kip up, kid.”

What is Will Sasso grateful for?

“My wife, the new program that I am working on and the people I get to work with.”

Road Dogg Compares The Attitude Era & Triple H Era, DX, Smackdown, R-Truth

in LATEST EPISODES on February 20, 2025 February 20, 2025

https://cvvtix.com – Tickets are on sale now for INSIGHT LIVE in Toronto & Las Vegas with VIP Meet & Greet!

Oh you didn’t know?! Road Dogg (@BrianRDJames) is a retired professional wrestler and WWE Hall of Famer. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Indianapolis to discuss his WWE and TNA careers as a wrestler, what his role is now behind the scenes in WWE, the biggest differences between The Attitude Era and the current era, being a part of D-Generation X and invading WCW with a tank, the dumpster segment with Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie, his partnership with K-Kwik [R-Truth], why he thought CM Punk hated him, his battles with addiction, being the head writer of SmackDown, the storyline he pushed that never went through and more!

Quote I’m thinking about: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” — James Baldwin

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On looking back at his career:

“I’ve been there for a minute as far as realizing, man, I achieved a dream that millions and millions of people dream. I had a leg up, and I know that’s not fair to everybody, but I pray I carried the name even though I didn’t have the name Armstrong on my jersey. I pray I did the family well in representing it. But I also feel like I just stood on my own two feet too, and that feels really good. Well, I’ll tell you what I did when I did my podcast for a minute after WWE fired me for the fourth time [laughs]. I learned that DX was only like a 18 month run, it was not this great [long run]. You know what I mean? The Attitude Era was like a meteor that flew by, and it flew by really fast. I thought it was like a five-year deal. No, in 16-18 months DX was split up and then put back together again. It is all so crazy how fast it happened and how high it went.”

On why his podcast ended:

“So once they hired me back, it was kind of the task that I was tasked with, which demanded more time of me. It just demanded that I be on and last year, especially, some things up and down throughout. But I was on the road last year. I made every television show. I made every PLE, I was in the office. I was on live events. I was moving last year. This year, so far in the first quarter, just doing more content creating, and a lot of opportunities coming up for all these different platforms that are purchasing live action content. So we got the LFG that you probably saw on A&E plugged.”

On WWE LFG:

“I’d love to talk about that for a second if you don’t mind. So LFG, let’s f*** go, and I’ve edited myself. But it’s four coaches, they each have four individuals underneath them, and the coaches are The Undertaker, Bubba Dudley, Mickey James and Booker T. So this is literally at the ground level of these people learning to become professional wrestlers, sports entertainers and they got Undertaker teaching them how to do it. It’s the most access that I’ve ever seen given, because it’s uncomfortable for me, an old rassler, to give this much access to the public. But man, we are giving away the farm. It’s eye opening for me to sit back there and watch every episode and hear Bubba Dudley talk to some young talent, and I think to myself I was lucky, I had my family to do that for me. But holy mackerel, to have Bubba Dudley, one half of the most decorated tag team in the history of professional wrestling, The Undertaker, Mickey James, Booker T. You’re sitting under the Learning Tree of these people, and you’re in the infancy of your career. I get goosebumps talking about it, because it really is super exciting to see. You get to know The Undertaker as a dude just talking to another dude about wrestling. So it’s so cool, and the access is so unlimited that A&E’s got a hit on their hand. I can guarantee you that.”

On if WWE is giving too much away to the fans in the modern era:

“I’ve asked that same question to myself a million times, because it rubs you the wrong way as soon as you hear oh wait, we’re gonna say that. You’re gonna let that cat out of the bag, and it’s the finish, or whatever we’re going to talk about at the end of the day. I think the people, the WWE Universe, wrestling fans, they know what we’re doing. They know what’s up, and I think they’re okay with us not insulting their intelligence, but also not just go, ‘Here’s how you make a blade.’ We don’t do that anymore anyway. But I don’t think they mind us keeping some things to ourselves, but they don’t want their intelligence insulted.”

On if he saw the creativity in Triple H 25 years ago:

“So no would be the quick answer. However, I never saw him as my boss, but I saw him as he was going to be somebody in the wrestling world, because I saw how he thought. We worked, a bunch of you have probably seen Brian Armstrong versus Terra Ryzing 100 times on WCW. I knew then, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing in there and he was thoughtful putting stuff together in his head and I was like, Yeah, let’s do that. So yeah, I knew he was gonna be somebody and be something just because of the way looked and the way carried himself, and like I said, his brain.”

On what his current role is in WWE:

“So really, I’m still in charge of creative of live events. But now we have scaled live events back. Domestically, especially this coming year, we’re going to find out where our sweet spot is, but a lot of overseas live events coming up this year, there’s huge money there. The business side of things right now is so far beyond what they have ever been before, even Attitude, all that stuff is just putting shame what the business is doing now with Hunter at the Helmsley [laughs]. I know, I’m sorry. I’m a granddad.”

On the difference between The Attitude Era and today:

“I think the talent to be quite honest with you. The talent is a different animal, man. So I’ll tell you this quick story, and I’ve told it a million times, but when Edge and Christian came in, I used to scoff at them because they were on time and healthy and limber. They were doing exactly what a person in their line of work should be doing. I was still a party animal, so I scoffed at them and thought [differently]. Well now that’s what the athlete is, because that’s what the athlete has to be. You have to be that dedicated to your body and to this field and all that to be that. I would have never made it today. I mean, look at me. For the love of Pete, all these guys we just saw, Carmelo Hayes, and they’re all chiseled out of brick. They look like Greek Gods.”

On how he became self-aware:

“Sobriety. I’ve been sober 15 years now. I did it to save my life because when I got sober, I was just done. I was done living, literally. I wanted to kill myself, but I was scared my kids are going to find me with my brains blown out in the lawn mower shed. That really went through my mind a lot, 100 times, literally 100 times. But because it was, I was on a vicious cycle of wake up and do drugs and wake up and do drugs and wake up and do drugs and it was like oh God, I don’t want to live this way anymore. This ain’t how my mom and dad raised me.”

Did you see a way out?

“No, I didn’t know that there was one. And at that point I thought, well, one of these handfuls of pills is going to kill me and when is that going to happen? So look, I don’t know what happened. Finally, I was just with my brother. We were on a drive. We came from a show. I was hammered on Xanax, he just talked to me, and I just cried and broke down. I wasn’t working for this company, but the next day I called this company, and a certain lady I knew to call, and I called her, I was in rehab the next day, and that was 15 years ago. But even then, one of my biggest fears today is not being self-aware. That’s probably my biggest fear. I know I’m not. I say things and people will go [groans]. I just feel like I’m not fully self aware. Man, I want to be. I don’t want to be I want to know my motives. I want to question my motives. I question my motives. I’ll be honest with you about something. I questioned my motives about doing this interview. Because I said, why do I want to do it? You called me and I jumped at it. I was excited, and I told you earlier off screen, it’s for me, it’s for my ego. It’s to talk about how cool I was for a minute. Let me be back in front of the camera for a second. So I had to sit there and think about is that the right thing for me? This is where I ended up. I said, Well, what’s wrong with that? I’m not the guy that needs my name at the credits at the end of the show. If I contribute somehow, and the show’s cool, cool. But this was a moment from I’m enamored by you and your stardom and how far you’ve come and what you’re doing. So I thought, man, he asked me to sit down with him, I’m honored, but I’m also in it for selfish reasons, to try to stay relevant, for no reason at all.”

On R-Truth wanting Road Dogg to induct him into the Hall of Fame:

“I would be more than honored. I love him. I got some people in my life that I love, and he’s one of them. [That guy could wrestle for another 20 years]. Oh yeah, because he doesn’t have to do anything. That’s the magic and look, that’s what we do. That’s what we talked about earlier. People want to know the trick, they do, but they still like to be surprised. They still like to see an Easter Egg, or have to think to follow the story, and that’s what’s Hunter’s giving them. Hunter’s giving them good stuff, good wrestling. Oh, my Lord, it’s been a minute since we’ve had good wrestling that’s watchable, and three hours of it? Holy crap. And you’re three hours in, and you go okay, yeah, I did that. I remember three-hour Raws that I couldn’t make an hour into. I feel like you do too, but those don’t happen anymore.”

On if he had to mend some fences upon his WWE return:

“So it wasn’t hard at all. After I went there to TNA, and we were the Voodoo Kin Mafia, I said horrible things about him and Shawn and the whole deal. For one thing, I don’t think they ever watched or saw it. I don’t think they cared, because the front runner doesn’t look back. So I don’t think they really cared, but it literally was a conversation that happened when I came back. He literally sat me down and said, What was all that crap? I said Hey man, I was high. I was just trying to make a living, and that was the truth. I wasn’t going to fight nobody. I’m not going to go fight somebody, but we were supposed to meet him at the Alamo.”

On the fact that the door could have been closed:

“100%. Again, I commend his [Triple H], I don’t know how to say level-headedness in any other way, but he can look past that superficial nothingness because it was nothing and nothing became of it. He sees value in me and said, ‘Hey, do you want to come back?’ This was the conversation we had when I came back after I guess 2011. ‘Hey, do you want to come back and make some fun TV like we used to do in DX?’ And I said, Hell yeah, I want to. And he goes, Okay. And there it was just off and running. Me and him were the kind of the guys behind all the backstage stuff of DX. Chyna would chime in too because she’s hilarious. X-Pac and Billy were always there and on point. But it was when we were setting it up and how the camera was going to come in here, it was always just me and him talk, shooting the breeze and doing it. So it was natural for him to make that call and go, Hey, you want to do that again, and yeah, I do, it’s a blast.”

On why he thought him and CM Punk hated each other for 10 years:

“Because in my head I hated him, and I thought he hated me too. Yeah, a lot of stuff [happened], I went down back and forth and good times and bad times, but yeah, I just thought [he hated me]. So then the first time I saw him when he came back here, he stood up and he hugged me, and it broke my ice immediately. It also hit me right then, Hey Brian, he hadn’t thought a thing about you. It doesn’t matter what he thinks about me anyway, and I damn sure don’t matter. Doesn’t matter what I think about him. He realized that. I was here at 55 and holding on to that, and I was holding on to nothing. There was nothing there. There was no bad feelings. I don’t know. It was weird. And he’s a different dude today. I told him not long ago at live events and stuff. Hey, I really appreciate your attitude. And he said, Well, that’s the first time anybody’s ever said that to me. Well, I mean it from the bottom of my heart, because he’s a different dude. Me and him butted heads. He butted heads with a lot of people. He says what he means, he means what he says. He don’t mind if it ruffles your feathers. I kind of respect it.”

On the dumpster angle with Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie:

“That was a great day and a great time. If you go back and watch that, it got so heated and real after the push down. I remember Bradshaw always beating me up for some reason, reaching over people and hitting us and stuff. It got crazy in a frenetic way that helped the situation. Yeah, it got real for a second. And it kind of felt real even to us for a second. Because all the talent came around, and we didn’t talk about that, we didn’t rehearse that. So all of a sudden, everybody’s coming, and people are [upset]. Like I said, it’s 40 guys out there who are idiots.”

On how they rehearsed the segment:

“We didn’t rehearse with them in the dumpster, but we rehearsed with Vince in the dumpster. Yep, that’s a true story, and I’ll say this about him. He would never ask anybody to do something that he wouldn’t do himself. That’s the truth. Look, there were boxes and padding in there, and they drilled handles in there so they could hold it. We did the top down so the top wouldn’t open, so their hand wouldn’t go out or nothing. We made it as safe as possible. But then two humans just got pushed off the off the edge. And it wasn’t a huge drop, but it’s far enough to where you’re gonna hit, you’re in a crash.”

On if he instantly realised it was special being in DX:

“No, I knew that they thought we were special. I knew that obviously, there was Shawn’s back injury and how do we carry on from here? I knew that they thought highly enough about us that we were the answer and we weren’t a substitution. We were the answer to carry it on until he’s better. That was the whole thinking, and that made me feel real good. So I knew that because those two in particular, Hunter and Shawn, thought that to ask it of us that we were going to be taken care of. When I say that I mean creatively we’re gonna get looked after. When you have the landscape of a show in front of you, not everybody gets looked after. That’s just a fact of the business and how much time you have. A three hour show will help, but you’re going to get some mid stories that in a two hour show you wouldn’t get to. So I soon learned oh okay, they’re all in on us. But at the time that made me even more cocky. It made me even more arrogant, because I again, said damn right you think we’re great. Acceptance and perspective are the two most important things in the world to me, because if I can accept whatever happens, then I’m fine with it. I’m not going to kick against the bricks if I can accept it. And then you accept that whatever just happened and put it in the proper perspective. It’s like the apostle Paul preaching in prison in biblical terms. Holy Mackerel he was in jail, but he was his perspective was such that he could still preach a positive message. So that’s perspective, if I can keep my mind in the right space, I’ll be all right today.”

On the WCW invasion:

“There was little direction, to be quite honest with you. It was literally running gun. We had done that when I was the Roadie with real Double J. We did that in Brentwood after the OJ Simpson trial, me and Jeff and Vince Russo went out there, and you take a camera and you run and gun. It’s not legal and it’s not morally right, but we had fun with it. And again, there’s no direction, just you’ll hear Bruce Pritchard come by and go, come on, get in the van. We’d all run and get in the van. But it was great. It was guerrilla warfare. [The police grabbed me] a couple of times, and I had weed in my pocket. Just crazy stuff like that where you just go like, man, what were we doing and what were we thinking? But it was stuff that wins wars. That’s what it was and it worked. It was guerrilla warfare, and it worked.”

On a storyline he pushed that never went through:

“I’ll tell you this, and I’d love to have a conversation with you about it. It worked out exactly how it was supposed to work out, but I was wrong. I wanted Big E to win the title at Kofi Mania. I thought Big E was the guy, and a guy on my writing team who now writes for NXT said, ‘You’re wrong boss. You’re wrong. It’s Kofi.’ And I didn’t realize that Kofi had such a personal connection with the fan base. I was just looking for who’s the next guy and I didn’t think oh, the guy’s sitting right here. I was trying to make this guy over here and, yeah, never been so happy to be wrong though. What a moment. You can go back in time and fuss about what happened the next week or the next year or whatever. Who cares? Kofi won the title at WrestleMania, and nobody can ever take that away. Big E had his moment. It was gonna come around, just it wasn’t time yet. I saw something that it was there. It just wasn’t time yet. The timing was Kofi. It was Kofi time and have I never been so happy to be wrong and couldn’t be more happy for the guy it happened for too. If I was writing again, we’d do it one more time, because I think it would work again. I 100% think it would work again.”

On sudden creative changes:

“That’s the WrestleMania that broke me, that kind of broke my spirit and was the kind of one where I went home after that. There was a lot of all that leading up to it, a lot of talk about I’d been writing the show for a while, and it had been successful and not successful and successful. We were in a good place with it. But the times they were a changing and I felt a little less like it was my show, and when I fought for it I always lost. It was just one of those things where I said, Yeah, I’m done fighting this fight. It was really fun at first. I feel like I had a lot of creative freedom at first. I don’t know if you remember, but that first Backlash when Dean Ambrose was the SmackDown Champion, and it was, and it was Heath Slater and Rhino were the Tag Team Champions. It was a fun little wrestling show, a little two-hour fun wrestling show that was gaining some traction, and then it just felt like it drew the attention of everybody, then everybody wanted to play, and the sandbox that was mine was not mine anymore. That’s hard. I knew it wasn’t my show. I know the deal. But if I’m the head writer and this is my creative that I’d like to close the show ending like this, on the build-up to that Kofi Mania, I’d like to end it like this, and I don’t get good reasons why we not doing that. And again, me maybe being cocky and narcissistic. I think I know better than everybody. But here’s the truth about me, and this is cocky and narcissistic. I’m good at this wrestling crap. I’m not good at the physical aspects of it, but I’m good at putting it together. I’m good at thinking about what will get good reactions. I’m good at it. I know what I come up with for this segment, for this show, is gonna work. I know that for a fact. What you come up with the show, I don’t know if it’s gonna work. I can watch it work and go like, Damn dude, good. That was awesome. It worked, but I didn’t know it was gonna work because it wasn’t mine. But because I know how to go out there and make the people talk about me for a second, or get their attention and keep it for a minute I feel like I can do the same here, and I wasn’t being given that opportunity at the end. And so it was frustrating. It was creatively frustrating. And I think that’s the maybe creatively frustrating should be the era of that, because I’m sure I wasn’t alone in that.”

What is Road Dogg grateful for?

“Family, God and sobriety.”

Ludwig Kaiser On Gunther, Dating Tiffany Stratton, Giovanni Vinci, WWE Goals, Bash In Berlin

in LATEST EPISODES on February 18, 2025 February 18, 2025

Ludwig Kaiser (@WWE_Kaiser) is a professional wrestler currently signed to WWE. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Indianapolis, IN to discuss his journey from the German independent scene to the WWE main roster and how at one point it looked to be impossible, his partnership with and past matches against Gunther, his insane body transformation, being part of Imperium with his tag team partner Giovanni Vinci, wrestling in Berlin but not being a part of the WWE Bash in Berlin card, his recent matches against Bron Breakker and Sheamus, if he sees a breakout run coming soon, a possible babyface run, Tiffany Stratton winning the Women’s Championship and more!

Quote I’m thinking about: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller

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On when momentum started to build in 2024:

“Man it’s hard to say, just because like you said, a lot of stuff happened last year and it was a little bit of an up and down as well. I’ve been in the company for so long already, it feels like everything that I ever did or accomplished I really had to work hard for. Nothing was given to me and I think that definitely one of the major moments was basically right in the beginning of the year, the first few weeks, the match against Kofi Kingston. Giovanni Vinci was hurt couple of weeks back. The thing with the drop kick to the head and all of a sudden he was out. Yeah, the way this business works, right? All of a sudden you’re in that spot, and you get that chance that you haven’t really gotten before. So I was told very, very firmly, very directly what they wanted to see that night. I think it was a little bit of a test as well because they wanted a side that they haven’t seen from Ludwig Kaiser so far and a side that comes very naturally to me that I love to show but it was never time. It was just never that spot to really do that. And as soon as I did it the first night it worked, everybody saw it and I think that night definitely, right in the beginning of the year, was an important one.”

On what direction he was given for his mean streak:

“Obviously, when we first came in the focus was heavily on Gunther. To me, I hold pride in not only being a good professional wrestler but a good professional, and that also means to know your spot. I always try to add something to the act without taking anything away, that was always my goal. The tools that I have and that I can work with very well are perfect for what we do here for the main roster, and I found that out pretty quickly. So I found my ways just to make myself valuable, make the act better within the way I was given, or as good as I could.”

On how he got to WWE:

“The story that I’ve heard is that WWE was looking for a German wrestler, and they scheduled a tour through Germany to look at talent, go through all the different wrestling schools and stuff. And apparently Mr. William Regal, who I’m always going to be grateful for, saw my name on the list, he knew my dad, and they saw my picture. They saw everything, he pointed out me and said cancel the tour, we’ll take him. I was one of the guys. I never had to do a tryout, because I was supposed to do one, but two weeks, three weeks before I blew my knee out. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to say that. I’m not sure if I ever said that. But yeah, I got injured and I had to cancel the tryout. So obviously I’m in the match already, I thought Oh my God, this is over. Because when I first started this, I never thought I would go to WWE. It was not my big goal to be like okay, I gotta go to WWE or otherwise this is all for nothing. No, I wanted to do my dad proud. I wanted to be a professional wrestler. I wanted to see the world. I wanted to do all of that.”

On if he thought WWE might not be possible:

“I think so, yeah. Because back in the day when I first grew up in wrestling, it was very, very tough. Honestly, before Hunter had that vision and opened up that door for us, none of us, not Gunther, not myself, not Pete Dunne, all those guys, Finn Balor, I don’t think we would be here today. So without Hunter, without men like William Regal, men like Dave Taylor, Robbie Brookside, Fit Finlay, all those guys who paved that way for us European talent. I’ll always be grateful for that, definitely. Because without them, I don’t think we would be here.”

On his body transformation:

“I’ve been working hard. It’s every time in my career when I felt like I’m standing still here and I have to do something, because there’s only so many things that are in your hands, there’s only so many things you control in our line of work. My thing was always, I gotta make sure all my stuff is on point 11 out of 10. So yeah, I was looking at myself and thought what else can you do? I’m working out a lot, I go in the ring a lot and at this point, it was the diet that I could have worked on a little bit. I think I gotta say too, at that point when I lost that much weight, I really tried to bulk as well and I really tried to get as many calories in, because I worked out hard and stuff. But then yeah, I think 18 weeks with the reverse diet. The reverse diet is basically not going back to the calories that you used to eat, because you slowly, slowly, slowly go down a little bit. You cut the carbs here a little bit, you cut the calories a little bit. Then you lose weight and when you’re at the point where you are happy with the body fat percentage can slowly go up again. Because your body is so empty, basically, it sucks all the nutrients up so good and juices everything perfectly. But if you all of a sudden, of course, starve your body for so many weeks and then go back with 5,000 calories every day, then obviously that’s not going to be good. Everything slowly up, slowly down. Don’t shock your body like that. And yeah, that worked very, very well for me I gotta say. [Did you work with a nutritionist for that?] I did. A guy from Germany. He used to wrestle as well. I’ve known for a long time, and he’s really good at that. So he helped me out. He helped Gunther out. He helped a bunch of the guys out.”

On how he met Tiffany Stratton:

“In the PC basically. We knew of each other. Obviously, I’ve been there for a while, and, yeah, she got my attention a little bit. I would lie if I said I wouldn’t have noticed her. I think we kind of played the same game a little bit. We’re very similar in a lot of ways. We are both pretty stubborn, or we can be pretty stubborn I think. And I think nobody wanted to make the first step, really. But then yeah, coincidences, I was out with a couple of friends, and she was there as well. It was her birthday weekend, she sat down, and then I don’t know how it went, but somehow we got to that, hey, why don’t we go on a date?”

On Tiffany Stratton winning the Women’s Championship:

“It was awesome. I actually flew in because it was a huge, huge moment. Obviously, I was there for her NXT Championship win back then, so I really wanted to be there as well. We have such an amazing product, especially now. But the only thing that really doesn’t do justice is the reaction and the way things sound when you’re actually there live. That moment when she actually turned on Nia was crazy. You had to be there in order to understand that that was really a huge moment. Really doesn’t do it justice on TV. But yeah, it was amazing. I’m so happy for her because I’ve been there for the lows, I’ve been there for the highs. I’ve seen it all very up close, and she created something there. She’s doing amazing.”

On Ludwig Kaiser’s moment coming soon:

“I think that it’s definitely there. We’re moving towards it 100%. Being in the biggest and best company in the world when it comes to professional wrestling also means that you are facing the biggest and best competition in the world. That’s just how it is, and I’m not afraid of that. I’ve never been afraid of that. I’ve been wrestling for 10 years before I made it here and I restarted my career. I went all the way down to the first step of the ladder again, and climbed all the way up there. I did everything again, and to me, it is head down and work hard.”

On a possible babyface run:

“I never say never. I do believe that I that I can work babyface. I actually think that I could be a good babyface. I have a good babyface run in me. When I was in Germany and I was a babyface I was never the 100% of the crowd is on my side babyface. I was always very polarizing, either people really hated me or they really liked me. Most of the times the kids and the women like me and the men hated my guts. There was a time in wXw where I was supposed to be that babyface runner up, and they hated it. It was like 80% against 20% really killing me out there. But yeah, I do think I got it in me. First of all though, I gotta knock this heel thing out. Be natural and be happy who I am, because it comes obviously much more naturally.”

On if he sees an onscreen partnership with Tiffany Stratton happening:

“I don’t know. Obviously that’s something that would have to happen organically. I wouldn’t want to just to do that. Obviously we work in the same company, and that possibility is given. But I also like to keep my private life private, you know what I mean? I’m a little old school when it comes to that. But definitely when it comes to work I think we could do some great stuff. We could bring the Mixed Match Challenge back.”

On not being on the Bash in Berlin card:

“I did fight for it. I did. There were conversations about it, and it wasn’t really clear if it would happen or not. But again, it’s tough, man. It’s a PLE. We have so much stuff. If you look at the card that night, it is almost impossible to even get on there. So much star power. And again, we have the greatest superstars in the world. When I look at that card, I understand why I wasn’t on that card that night, but I damn well know I will be. I will 100% be. Because Germany showed out that night, and it’s a great market for the company, and, yeah it’s my first time there with WWE really. There’s a lot of shows to come, and a lot of opportunities, and I can definitely promise you, Ludwig Kaiser is going to use all those.”

What is Ludwig Kaiser grateful for?

“Family, my friends and my life.”