Latest / Brewsers / Brewsers #391- Darkfox Olumide

Transcript

Brewsers #391- Darkfox Olumide · Brewsers

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Bruisers, a podcast about beer, coffee, booze, and Bruisers.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: I am your host, Rio John, and today we talk
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: to the dark fox, Illumiday. We talk about getting into
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: the wrestling business, working with WWE and AEW, and so
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: much more. Illumiday is doing absolutely amazing things. You have
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: seen him recently getting chokeslammed by Obafemi, so obviously, you know,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: this man is on his way up, and he is
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: a very tall man as well. So, You don't want
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: to hear from me, you want to hear from him.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: So without further ado, here.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Is the Dark Fox Illuminae.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: I would like to welcome to the show Dark Fox Illuminae.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: How are you doing today, sir?
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: I'm good. How about yourself?
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: I'm doing well. So for those listening, kind of pin
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: us a word to picture where you're at and what's
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: going on around you.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: Where am I at? What's going on around me? You
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: mean in life? You mean in physical location? All the above.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: All the above. Well, I just came off was this
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: last week? All the time goes. Last week I wrestled
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: Jack Carwell from AAA. Awesome. SBW, so that went very well.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: Just had another match with Jason Xavier, who is a
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: gentleman I trained with. He's out here and out here. Well,
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: I'm in Reno now. But in Northern California, he is another,
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: just like me, both up-and-comers, top talent in our area,
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: to humble brag. We had a match as well at
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: the Ugly Dojo. So it's been a good, steady couple
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: of matches for the past couple of weeks, I would say.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Very nice.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Uh, which match back is this for Jack? Cause I
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: know he was out with injury for a little bit.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: What number do you remember?
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: Number maybe. I'm going to say something around like five.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: I know he, I know he came back from the injury,
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: went and wrestled for a triple a at least twice.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: I want to say at least twice and then did
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: some other independent shows and then came back to SPW. I,
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: this is not your first time wrestling Jack Cartwell, but how,
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: what was it like being in the ring with him again? Well,
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: this is a different Jack from the Jack that I
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: wrestled at least, I want to say, two years ago.
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: This one is different because obviously he has much more
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: of a... He's known now. He has a name value
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: and he's improved. He's denser than he was before. I
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: mean that in a good way. I mean that in
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: a good way. Yeah, he hit a lat spread in
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: that match. And I was like, oh, yeah, he really
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: has put on some... Cartwheels, he's a thick wheel now.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: But no, it was very good. It was nice to
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: see how far we both come in two years and
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: in different environments and in different growth rates, but both
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: growing nonetheless.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, obviously wrestling all over the world is on
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: your list, but do you see yourself wanting to obviously
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: go down to AAA or maybe even CMLO?
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: I don't see why not. Yeah. I mean, from what
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: I know, you don't need a mask to be a luchador,
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: but if I ever have to go under a mask,
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: I got no problem with that. I've wrestled under a
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: mask one time. That's lost footage. I don't know where
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: it is, but it did happen once, and it's hard
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: to breathe. That's what I can say about that. Okay.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: But I'd give it a try again. And yeah, international
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: work would be ideal, right? Yeah. I'm from England, so
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: to wrestle back over there would be nice. I mean,
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: I don't know if wrestling is kind of making itself
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: known in Nigeria because of Obafemi. So that would be
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: another goal is to go wrestle in Nigeria.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've talked to multiple people about this.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, even when I was lucky enough to talk
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: to PJ Black, like the wrestling in Africa is, I'm
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: not saying it's not happening because it is happening. but
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: no one's hearing about it or it's not like you're
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: not seeing WWE or even AEW try to even attempt
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: really to go and do any shows over there, which
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: I find to be bonkers considering it's like the largest continent.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: And yet there's, we're not doing any matches. Like what
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: are we doing?
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: I want to say is it's probably more than anything,
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: a logistics problem, a problem issue that they have to
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: kind of conquer. I know that they have the, um,
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: Is it the Ugandan? What is it? It's not mud wrestling.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I don't want to- Oh, yeah.
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: I don't want to disparage it. Yes, I don't want
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: to disparage it. But they have that over there, which
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: did make quite a stir for some time. And I
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: want to say I just saw, at least in NXT,
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: he was Idris Inofe. I want to say I just
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: saw him in a clip over there. Yeah. It is happening.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: It's a slow process, but I do think, especially with, again,
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: Obafemi kind of up and coming, and they even touched
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: base with it when Kofi Kingston was the WWE champion
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: because of Ghana. So I think it's happening slowly but surely,
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: but eventually they'll make their way down there. My guess, honestly,
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: would probably be they'll touch South Africa before they touch
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: the rest of Africa. That's my guess. Yeah. That's my guess.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: So now were you born in Africa and then moved
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: to London or did you, were you born in London?
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: No, my parents, my parents are Nigerian born there. Then
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: they moved to immigrated to England, which is where I
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: was born and then lived there up until I was
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: a teenager and then came here. Okay.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: So from what I hear when it comes to Nigerian parents, um,
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: They obviously want you to be like the lawyer. They
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: want you to be the doctor. They want you, you know,
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: the biggest things. And then you trying to tell them that, no,
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: I want to be a pro wrestler.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: What was that conversation like?
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: For me, I guess I'm blessed in a way that I... Look,
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: I'll be honest. I never liked school. I didn't like school.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: I couldn't... I just... it's not that I didn't want
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: to apply myself. It's just nothing specifically spoke to me
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: to take an interest in. But when I finally went
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: to college, my dad is a civil engineer. So I
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: was like, okay, I will be a civil engineer. I
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: took a couple of classes and I was like, there's
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: no way I'm doing this forever. Like there's no way
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: I'm going to do this forever. So went to school
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: then to become a physical therapist. Cause that's what I
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: thought I wanted to do. And they seem to be
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: on board with that. They're like, well, it's, Something. It's
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: kind of like a doctor. I was like, yeah, see, yeah.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: But then, unfortunately, I got bored of that because I didn't,
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: it wasn't exciting. If you don't, if my opinion as
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: a physical therapist, if I'm not working with athletes specifically,
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: it's just boring because you, no offense to, you know,
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: the older generation, that's who you work with. If they
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: slip and fall, you're helping them with recovery, but they're
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: not super motivated. So I tried that for a little
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: bit and then I decided to do some substitute teaching.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: So then I became a teacher out of that. And
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: my parents seemed to be OK with me being a
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: teacher because it's still a respectable profession. Doesn't make a
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: lot of money, but respectable nonetheless. And then a little
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: bit into that, I told him, I said, look, you
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: guys know my family is a wrestling family. So I
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: told him, I said, well, this is what I'm going
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: to do. And like I said, I'm blessed in that
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: I got my career first and then wrestling kind of
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: came after. In my opinion, I would have done it
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: the other way, but that's not what life had in
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: tail for me.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: Well, let's go all the way back in time. What
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: is your earliest memory of pro wrestling?
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: The rock and stone called Steve Austin. Okay. That's the thing.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: I can't remember the specifics, but I do remember being at...
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: it was either a friend's or a cousin's house. And
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: there was a promo battle between the both of them.
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: And it was how the people were just reacting to
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: them talking. Like the match, there was no match at
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: the moment, but then they were talking. I was like, oh, okay,
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: that's pretty, that's pretty dope. And then as time kind
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: of went on, I did have to take a break
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: from wrestling because my younger brother has autism and they
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: weren't sure how, watching violence would affect him growing up.
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: So we took a very long break. So that is
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: kind of what put it in my mind. And then
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: I played all the wrestling games. Here comes the pain.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: Like I had friends that watched it and they would
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: fill me in. Like they would talk to me about
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: RVD and I was like, who?
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: And then they were like, I remember the first time
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: I saw the name A-Train. Oh. Yeah. I read it
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: as a train.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: I was like, who is a train?
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: So that's how far out of the loop I was.
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: But then when I got to America, then I started
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: watching John Cena was in his Doctor of Phaganomics era.
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: So I was like, ah, okay. This is what I remember.
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: And then I saw Shelton Benjamin, Randy Orton. I was like,
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: all right, there's no reason why I can't do this
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: at some point. So it took a long time because
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: of circumstances. And I didn't know how to get into
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: the wrestling world, but my trainer ended up being a,
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: an upperclassman from high school. Um, we went to high
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: school together. You got to coach me actually in high
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: jump and all that stuff. Randomly found him on Facebook
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: as like a suggested friend. I saw that he was
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: a wrestler. I said, there's no way. So, Nathan Brick,
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: I asked him if he could train me and he said, yep.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: And that's how I got into it. But I think
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: another memory that sticks out specifically is the Sean Benjamin
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: super kick. Yeah. I guess Sean Michaels super kicking Sean
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: Benjamin is like one of the earlier memories that kind
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: of is like, all right, there's no way, there's no
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: reason why I can't do this. Not getting super cute
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: in the face, but, you know, the.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's super cute when we play it forever.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Forever.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: And it's very weird that I was talking to a
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: few people. They're like, it's not... That wasn't even the
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: first time he did it. I'm pretty sure the first
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: time he did it was to Rey Mysterio, actually. Right.
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: It's not, but for some reason, the Rey one isn't
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: the one that is... as memorable, and I can't tell
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: you why, because I watched them both not that long ago,
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: and they're both timing and execution on point. It's just,
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: maybe it was the distance, I think because Sheldon was
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: like three quarters of the way across the ring versus Reigns,
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: which was just a little shorter. I think maybe that's
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: what the difference is, but yeah. And then early memories
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: of like, I remember guys like Jimmy Wayne Yang, Okay.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: Just the cruiserweight time. Like I also remember that too.
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: And I was not a big child. I was a
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: very small one. So I was like, all right, the
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: quick and nimble guys are still doing this very well.
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: So there's no reason why I can't do this at
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: the quick and nimble level.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Now, obviously we're talking about how much you were watching
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: WWE while you were over in England. Was there other
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: wrestling that you were able to get at the time?
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Or was the, I guess, I'm trying to think what
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: independent would have been even, yeah.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: Not in the 90s. Not in the early 90s. And
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: at least, again, if it was a thing, it was
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: like underground. It was quiet. It was very hard to
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: tap into. Even here in America, when I got here,
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: there were a few independent companies in the Yuba City, Sacramento,
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: Marysville area. And I saw some flyers for a couple
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: of them, but I never really knew what it was.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: I just saw a wrestling flyer and a poster. I
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: was like, I don't really know what this is. And
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: I feel like for a lot of people, until you
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: get into wrestling, you think of wrestling and you think WWE, WCW,
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: that's it. Independence don't exist. International wrestling doesn't exist because
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: it's not what you're exposed to. Yeah.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: What was your first live show then?
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: First live wrestling show, period? Yes. It was a Raw
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: show at Arco Arena.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, see, it was Arco Arena. That's how old that is.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: They had a Raw Rumble back in the day. I
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: remember that.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: It was... So it was.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Well, that was like early nineties when they had that.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that was early nineties. But yeah, so that was
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: one of the earliest memories I have of watching, you know,
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: wrestling live. And then obviously when I got, when I
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: was about to start wrestling, the first independent promotion I
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: saw was PCW in Chico, California, actually. Nice.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: What was it for you that you were like, okay,
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: I want to do this. Not obviously, you know, being
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: a fan is one thing and we all love it.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: And obviously we, you see how many different levels there
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: are for people who love wrestling, but the people who
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: actually want to be on the other side of the
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: guardrail and in the ring and doing it is a
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: completely different situation. What was it for you that kind
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: of were like, okay, this is, this is where I
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: need to be.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: I think it was a combination of the physicality and
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: athleticism and the showmanship of it. I like, like I said,
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: early memories were the rock and stone cult, their showmanship
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: and the ability to just like command a crowd with words.
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: They didn't even have to do anything. And people were
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: losing their minds over, over these two. So I was like, that's,
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: that's impressive to quote unquote, be able to control the
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: masses with, with just words and presence. And then in
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: terms of, In terms of the physicality, I've always liked
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: athleticism and anything to do with physicality. So I ran track,
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: I did karate. My parents didn't want me to do
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: boxing because they didn't want me to get my brain
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: bashed in quite a lot. But it was something that
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: even as growing up, people were like, maybe you should
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: take up boxing or something like that. Yeah, I felt, no,
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: this is a place I can showcase my athleticism. Track
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: and field was, again, one of my big passions, but
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: I'm not, because of my physical stature, I'm not necessarily
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: the best built sprinter. I can sprint, but I'm not
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: the best built sprinter. And jumping was a niche that
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: I didn't get into until much later. So I was like,
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: you know what? I, I know I can do this
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: in wrestling. There's no reason why I can't. So yeah,
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: it's nice to make people smile, make people boo, make
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: people happy, make people sad while beating somebody up. So
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: why not? It's true.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: Well, obviously, you know, you have the conditioning when it
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: comes to track and field with that background, but when
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: you start switching to wrestling and you, that those workouts
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: are way different when it comes to what you got to,
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: obviously what you want to look like, how you're going
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: to pack on muscle. And then you obviously got to
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: keep in ring shape with the cardio up and everything.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: How do you kind of, what do you kind of
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: do when it comes to workouts now?
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: So now it's kind of, so I really didn't even
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: start lifting weights like that until I got to college.
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: And that's because they're like, well, you're a college athlete now.
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: So you're going to lift weights. Like that's just part
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: of it. So that was my introduction to that. But
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: then once I stopped running, I was like, okay, well
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: I have to lift a little differently now. And I
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: actually have to eat food. I wasn't, I'm not much
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: of a, I don't, I don't get hungry a lot
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: and I don't eat a lot. So when I started,
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: I was at least 20, 30 pounds lighter than I
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: am now just because, and being a runner, you want
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: to be, you want to have muscle, but you don't
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: want to be heavy. Right. Right. Slow you down. So
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: as time kind of went on, luckily my conditioning was
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: pretty good because I ended up becoming a 400 meter runner.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: So you need endurance to do that. So now it
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: just became endurance in terms of getting up, getting down,
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: getting up, getting down versus just constantly running. So a
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: lot of up and down drills is kind of what
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: got me there. And then as time went on, like
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: I said, just, eating more, finally paying attention to protein
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: intake and all that stuff. So I got significantly bigger.
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: I got pretty big at one point.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: What was the biggest you got?
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: I want to say it was like, what was it?
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: Two what? What was it? Must've been like 225, which
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: for me is quite... heavy.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Um, and you're six, what again?
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: I'm six, I'm six, three. Okay. That's right. I'm six, three.
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: So six, three, six, four. It really depends sometimes or
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: rarely because sometimes I look, it depends on how much
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: I got beat up and how much I'm hunching. So
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: that's fair. Um, but yeah, so when I started to
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: get a little heavier, actually that's when the cardio became
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: harder because now I'm bigger and I'm carrying it a
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: lot more and being a bigger, um, which is, I
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: don't consider myself a giant, but on the independent scene,
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: being a bigger guy in the ring, I'm doing a
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: whole lot of picking up, a lot of carrying, a
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: lot of slamming, a lot of basing. So my cardio
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: became in-ring cardio with a lot of matches too. So
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: I ended up having more matches in a week than
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: I would have training sessions at many points. So that
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: actually became my in-ring cardio. Yeah.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, like you just said, you, you're you
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: kind of do you got to do everything when you're
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: a big guy because you know there's not a lot
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: of other big guys on the independent scene uh so
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: when it comes to that obviously when you first start
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: you kind of have this idea of what your move
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: set's going to be like you said you really want
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: to be athletic so i imagine you were trying to
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: do some of the high flying stuff as well just
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: to kind of have a hybrid situation but when you're
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: being a base for a lot of guys, you being
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: a high flyer doesn't work either. One's got to be
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: a high flyer and the other one can't. So when,
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: obviously you've got to be fluid whenever, whoever you're wrestling,
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: but when it comes to your moveset, what were you
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: kind of wanting to start with?
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: And then now that you've been in.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: It, obviously for a while and wrestled all kinds of
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: different styles, which moveset do you kind of like, okay,
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: this one works and this one doesn't work.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: So originally my, in every... In every video game I had,
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: SmackDown versus Raw, whatever, I made myself a high flyer. Again,
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: like I said, the Cruiserweight division is what got me.
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: So Rey Mysterio, Jimmy Wayne, Brian Kendrick, they're the ones
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: I was like, bro, I want to do moonsaults. I
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: want to do all this stuff. But then as I
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: started growing, I was like, when you're taller, it's harder
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: to do these things.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: Well, it's already hard on your knees to be tall
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: to begin with, but then also jumping and everything doesn't
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: help at all.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: And that's, and then I had a torn meniscus. So
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: which kind of, I was like, see, this is just
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: a sign. I don't think you're supposed to be a
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: high flyer. So I do, my version of high flying
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: is because I'm explosive. I do jump quite a bit.
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: So I use my high flying to do a lot
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: of splashes and slingshots and top rope things if I
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: need to. So these are all things I can still do,
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: but I use them sparingly. And it also depends on
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: who I'm up against. Like against gentlemen like Frost and
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: Ace over here in NorCal. Frost is a 300 pound monster.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: So him, I can be a little more high fly guy.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because it's two big guys.
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: Exactly, exactly. And then against Ace, who is seven feet tall.
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: I'm a small man compared to him. So then I
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: can do stuff like that. But as I was kind
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: of going through, I looked at like the athletic type
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: of wrestlers. So again, Sean Benjamin, Randy Orton, they weren't giants,
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: but they could move very smoothly and had a bit
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: of a power game to them. So now I kind
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: of just switched to, if I can't do the high flying,
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: I will stop the high flying. And- plant them however
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: I however it is that I need to plant them
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: so that's how I kind of developed the the fall
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: away slam which I call the throw away or the
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: SOS the illuminator which is my finishing maneuver which is
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: it's a fireman's carry throw essentially it's the attitude adjustment.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah well but you're throwing them as opposed.
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: To but I throw them exactly I throw them versus
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: going down with them the t-bone suplex that one I
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: took directly from Sean.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: Benjamin have you met him yet I have, I have
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: met him.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: It was, it was very brief. It was one time
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: in AEW. It was because he was already, he was
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: kind of already doing stuff, but I talked to him
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: very briefly. Luckily, I guess in a good way, many
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: people have, they've looked at me and they said, you
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: Sean Benjamin is like your favorite wrestler. And I said, yeah.
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: And they're like, yeah, I can tell like just how
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: you move and what you do. And I said, look,
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: that's not, You'll never hear me complain about that comparison.
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: But yeah, so I kind of switched to a more
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: because athleticism doesn't have to be strong. Like, I guess
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: I'm strong for someone of my size because I don't
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: I don't think people look at me as strong. They
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: look at me as athletic.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because you're tall, but I'm not saying you're not
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: wiry by any means, but you have a thinner build
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: as a tall, but you obviously have muscle on you.
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes. And it's a very weird, and that's where
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: there was a point where I was going to ditch
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: the athleticism part and just go full strength. And I
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: had a couple of, like my trainer, Nathan, my trainer,
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: Terrell Tempo, and even my training partner, Jason, they were like,
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: I don't think you should. I don't think you should
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: go any bigger than you were because then you're going
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: to lose what makes you, you. So kind of another
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: person I can kind of look to for that in
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: today's era is Montez Ford, right? He's not, he's not
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: a giant. He's not a giant by any means, but
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: you look at him and you're like, yeah, if he,
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: he can move. And if you need to throw somebody,
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: he can throw somebody. Yeah.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: He even gained that little bit of dad weight and,
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: You get the pictures and you're like, nope.
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: It's that. Yep. And then he quickly said, we're going
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: to get rid of this bad weight. Yep. Yep.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: I can't, I can't be that guy. If my partner's
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: already lost weight, I can't be the fat one in
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: the group.
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: There's no way. Much respect. And they both, they both
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: put in work. So.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, without a doubt.
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: Well, so, I mean, you, you mentioned Oba Febby earlier
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: and you mentioned you're, brief period in AEW which obviously
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: you were able to wrestle in AEW which is awesome
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: but then you were able to you got chokeslammed by
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: Obafemi in WWE obviously they're different they're different companies backstages
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: are completely different also one is way.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: More it's not loose.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: But it's more I guess kind of like an indie
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: vibe even though they are doing promos everywhere they're doing
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: you know they're having at least 20 matches in a
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: two hour period which is crazy And then you have
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: the WWE, which is a little more, it's not stiff.
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: It's a little more structured. Yes.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: Structured is definitely the word I can use. But also
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: it's a machine that they've been doing for 40.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Plus years at this point. So what was that, what
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: were those experiences like for you?
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: Because like you said, you were able to run into
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: Shelton Benjamin or you were able to run into whoever.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: And I heard another interview where the Obafemi thing wasn't
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: even supposed to be, there was not supposed to be
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: any physicality. But of course, somebody had to get taken out.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: So.
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: So I guess I want to say it's probably an
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: even split now, how much time I've spent in AEW
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: doing extra work there and extra work in WWE. It's
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: kind of split now. Yeah. I guess the strangest thing
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: I will say first is that a lot of the
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: WWE guys that I knew are more of the people
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: I've seen in AEW, right? Because when I was there,
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: I've seen Christian, I've seen Edge, I've seen Chris Jericho,
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: Bobby Lashley, Sean Benjamin, like all these guys, I see
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: them in AEW. In AEW, it's very, I would say
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: it's more familiar in that it does feel, and this
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: is not a knock, because I know some people might
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: take this offensive. I'm not even, that's not what I'm saying.
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: I'm just saying my experience. It felt a lot closer to,
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: to what I do now when I wrestle wherever it
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: is that I wrestle. It feels a little closer to that. It's,
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: you do have more, I feel like you do have
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: a little bit more freedom of expression in how you
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: do what you do and how you wrestle. And you
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: have it in, like I see it in WWE as well.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: It's just, again, their structure and they're a little more
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: on you about look, timing is this, timing is this, nope,
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: can't do that. So, but they're both good vibes. But
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: because overall, when you're in, when I'm in these backstage
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: spaces and locker rooms, when I look at everything from,
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: you know, from an outsider perspective, it's the exact same
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: thing that we do on the independent scene. It's really
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: not that different. One has a lot more cameras.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: That's what it is. It's just a lot more cameras.
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: The building is bigger. Yeah. That's the biggest difference that
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: I can say between this level and AEW and WWE.
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: It's the amount of cameras and the venue. Yeah.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Well, then, like you said, they have to be strict
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: about the time because it's TV time.
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: And even though, obviously, Netflix is not TV, they still
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: want to do the Netflix, or they still want to
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: do the times, so that way they go to commercials
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: or whatever it is.
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: Correct.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: But, I mean, also, the men and women in the
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: ring need to also know about times.
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: Because, you know, even if they're at the lowest end
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: when it comes to NXT or the main event, timing
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: is everything, and, you know, you can't go– Obviously, at
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: a PLE, it might be a little different situation. But,
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: you know, they want to make sure you are on
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: those times because they.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: You know, they got ads to get in.
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: Right. Because time is money. Because if you go. Literally.
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: And even, yeah, exactly. Because I was even, I've had
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: training seminar, like training seminars with Gabe Sapolsky and stuff
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: like that. So they have mentioned in there, when it's
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: time to go, you got to go. Because guess what?
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: That extra minute you went over time is going to
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: cost them millions. Uh-huh. So you can't just, on the
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: independent scene, we go as long as people want. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: If you're allowed to, just wrestle for 30 minutes if
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: you want to. But on television, that's a skill that,
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: so there are some people that haven't got to experience
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: AEW or WWE. And I tell them, I said, you gotta,
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: when you're looking at these guys, Like, look at their
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: sense of timing, because that is what makes the difference
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: between us at the independent level and them up there.
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: They can have their match and know, I only need
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: 30 seconds to do this. And they know it to
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: a science. And I experienced that one time with Jack Vaughn. Yeah,
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: I experienced that one time in a trial match with him, actually.
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: I can't remember the last time. 30 seconds is going
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: to get done. And I kid you not, to a T.
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: I was like, see, that's a skill that you can
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: only get with time. And you have to actively practice it.
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: But again, on the independent scene, most people aren't thinking
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: that way. They're thinking in the moment, I need the
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: banger match. I need to do this or whatever. But
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: me and a couple of other people that I know
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: use it as you know, on-the-job training.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Of course, that's exactly what it is.
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: But again, some people don't view it that way. And
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: that's to each their own because everyone has a different goal,
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: different aspiration of where they want to go. But I
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: know that I've been at these independent shows when everyone
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: decides that they want to go 20 minutes. Man, if
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: you're not in the first three matches, no one's going
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: to care, unfortunately. Because it goes too long and people
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: get tired. People get tired. And especially in the summer,
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: people get hot. Oh yeah. And they just, they want
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: to tap out. They're staying because they like wrestling, but
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: they have no energy left to give. Yeah.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: Plus most of them bring kids and those kids get
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: tired as well at some point.
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: So, or depending on the time they got to go
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: to bed.
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: And so, yeah. And it can be a shame because
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: you want to, not everyone can be the main event.
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: And unfortunately, sometimes you've got to save, like, again, you
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: don't have to empty the clip. I think I've said
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: this on a different podcast. If you're match one, don't
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: empty the clip. You really only do three things and
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: then let the next match do four. And then maybe
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: let the next match do five. But by the time
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: it gets to the main event, they're the ones that
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: are doing all the things. But again, if you've exhausted
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: every single move and every single bump that can be
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: taken by the time it gets to the main event,
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: The reaction is next to nothing. And then it just
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: makes the people in the main event pissed off because
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: now they're just like, yo, we just wrestled our hearts
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: out for like 15 minutes. And like, yeah, but your
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: 15 minutes sucks now because they've seen an hour and
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: 30 minutes of this already. But yeah. Yeah.
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: That's why there's got to be communication with everybody on
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: the show to be like, hey, we're all doing this.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: We're going to do this.
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: Cool.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: I'm working this.
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: You're not working that? Great.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: We'll do it in our match. Or, oh, you're doing
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: it this way? Okay, we'll just do it in a
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: regular way or whatever.
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: So, yeah.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: Communication has to be not only with the people that
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: you are in the ring with, but people you are
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: sharing the ring with the rest of the night.
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: It's a team effort. Exactly.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because everyone's putting on a show, and you want,
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: even if you are going to be one of those
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: people that leave early, hey, it's okay. Some people drive
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: in from a long ways, and you got to get
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: to wherever you're going. I get it. But at the
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: same time, either stay for the whole time so you
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: can help either the show or production or whatever it is,
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: but also you want to know what those crowds are
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: going to get into. Because if you're going to come
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: back to that place, yes, they went great for your match,
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: but what are they also cheering for for the rest
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: of the matches?
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: Correct.
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: Well, if somebody has never seen you wrestle before, what
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: are three matches they should go out of their way
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: to watch?
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: I'm going to say me versus Jack Carville that just
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: happened at SPW. I'm going to say that one. I
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: think another good one I had was also at SPW,
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: a triple threat match. It was myself, Jason Xavier, and Truex.
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: And then... Probably... Probably myself versus Timothy Thatcher. Oh, I
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: love that. I would. Yeah, I think those would probably
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: be the most, at least from a recent standpoint anyway.
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: And all of those, I believe I'm a baby face.
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: So I'm a good guy. Okay. Which most people seem
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: to like. I don't do well.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: I was going to say you seem to not.
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: I look, I don't. I'll do whatever it needs to
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: be done. I've been a hired gun many times, but
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: no matter what seems to happen. Yeah. People tend to
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: take a liking to, to what I do. So even
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: when I was, I was a, I was a heel
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: champion for like 500 days or something. Nice. And for
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: like 300 plus of those days, I was cheered despite
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: the bad guy. So there you go.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: Have your parents seen you wrestle yet?
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: They support quite a lot. So they come to all
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: the matches that they can come to. My biggest fan
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: is my brother.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: Love that.
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: Close second is my mom. And I say close. A
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: very close second. But they all watch. They all support
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: quite a bit. In fact, I think they lost their
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: mind when they saw me on Raw with Obafemi. And Naip.
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: Nigerians support Nigerians. Nigerians support as a whole, but Nigerians support.
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: So they were like, you're in there with him. He's
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: the next, he's the anointed one and you're in the
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: same vicinity as him. So they were, they lost their
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: minds about that one. So that was quite something. Did
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: you get a picture with him? So I took a
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: picture with him months, months ago. Oh, okay. Before this was,
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: I want to say he was, actually it was probably
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: last year. He was still in NXT. And I took,
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: there's a picture of us at the airport because we
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: just happened to be traveling home at the same time.
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: So I was like, you know what? Why not? So
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: that picture and now the other picture is him hoisting
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: me above his head and putting me through the Met.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: What's it like being in Hell in a Cell? Because
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: it's the bigger one and they had to make it
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: bigger because of Brock and Undertaker, but On TV, obviously
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: it looks gigantic. And I mean, in person it does
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: as well, but like I haven't been inside of it.
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: So what is it like being inside of it?
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: It's very weird in that when you're walking, when you're
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: walking outside of it, you can see all the people,
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: you can hear all the people, but once you go
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: inside the cell, you can hear them. You can't really
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: see them because of the mesh. So it's kind of,
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: you're hearing noise, but you can't really pinpoint where, where
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: it's coming from. Right. And, it is much bigger than
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: what I remember like seeing on television because in person, yeah,
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: that thing is just, it's quite monstrous actually. So there
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: is an ominous feeling, but I do think if I
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: was there in a match capacity, I think, I think
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: it would have been more unnerving. Right. Just because I
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: know I'm like, well, this thing is going to beat
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: us up too. The cell may not move, but it
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: does beat you up too. Um, But just being in
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: it was a cool experience. I can't say I ever
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: thought I'd be inside Hell in a Cell, let alone
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: this early. And I've never even had a cage match.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay.
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: So that was my introduction to a cage match, I guess.
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I imagine being in the Hell in a Cell
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: is really awesome. It's too bad you didn't get to
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: be able to get at the top of.
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: It either, though. I don't even know. I'm not scared
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: of heights, but I don't know if I would want
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: to go on top of that thing. Like that's just,
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: it's a long, it's a tall thing to climb. Yeah.
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: And just, again, just being up there. It's not solid.
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: Like what I mean is it's not, it's not just
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: flat ground. Like it will, it would bend. So I
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: can only imagine what it's like to do any sort
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: of wrestling on top of that thing. How Undertaker, McFoley,
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: I don't know. kudos to them. And that's why it's
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: one of the most memorable things to ever happen in wrestling.
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: So yeah, exactly.
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: Well, who are some veterans that have kind of helped
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: you out along the way, you know, whether it be
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: obviously in the independence, but maybe even in AEW or
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: in WWE.
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: I don't, well, it's not name dropping, just whatever. Um,
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: William Regal, um, he, he has, uh, he gave us
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: like a talk and it was, uh, it was a
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: simple talk. It essentially was everyone needs to be unique.
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: Everybody watches current wrestling, which is good. but none of
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: us can be the current people because the current people
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: are already the current people. If you want to be
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: a high flyer, find a way to do it different.
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: You can't be Osprey. You can't be Ricochet. You can't
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: be Peck. You can't be, they are them. So you've
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: got to find your own niche. You got to find
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: your own way. Um, Jeff Cobb has given me some
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: good advice too, specifically also about if you want to
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: wrestle as a career, you need to learn how to
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: enjoy and have fun doing this as well. Because there's
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: a point where it switches to business. But if you
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: don't know how to have fun already, then you're just
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: going to be miserable. Who else has spoken to me?
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: Prince Nana has helped me quite a bit, actually. He's
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: given me quite a bit of advice on business aspects
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: outside of wrestling or to supplement wrestling as well. CM Punk?
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: Now that was a conversation. Yeah. That was a cool
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: conversation because he is kind of the person who broke
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: it down between the difference between independent wrestling And television wrestling.
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: And then the differences between wrestling and multiple, because he's
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: wrestled literally everywhere. Exactly. Except for Japan. I don't know.
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: Except for Japan.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: I think that, well, obviously Mexico and England.
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: Huh. Only America.
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: Now that we think about it, Punk can't be the
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: best in the world because he hasn't wrestled in all
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: the other, anyway, I'm just kidding.
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: But he has wrestled many people from the other parts
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: of the world. Well, yes.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: And he really helped make Ring of Honor what it
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: was at that time. And he was the biggest dude
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: he when people talked about independent wrestling it was like
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: before him it was like amazing red and um fuck
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: there's somebody else and it fucking is gonna ruin me
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: uh but then it was punk and it was samoa
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: joe and it was aj styles and all those guys
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: so yeah that's why he is the best in the.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: World yes reckless youth reckless youth.
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: That's the one i was thinking about that was one
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: of the other ones it was like before punk it
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: was like amazing red reckless youth and then everybody else
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: after that.
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah so And then also Mark Henry, Lance Archer. Again,
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: like when I, and a lot of these people are,
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: except for the only acceptance of this rule was William Reed,
• 42:05
  Speaker 3: because he specifically sat people down to talk to them.
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: All the other wrestlers that I named are people that
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: I approached to have a conversation with because a general
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: rule is, you know, well, closed mouths don't get fed,
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: but you have to, you're not asking them for a
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: life story. You're just asking for some sort of advice
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: or just, even if you're not asking for advice, a conversation,
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: they'll drop some knowledge in there, whether they expect it
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: to or not. So it's a matter of being respectful, obviously.
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: If they're doing something, don't bother them because they've got
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: a million things to worry about. But if they're kind
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: of off to the side, just chilling or taking inventory
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: of what's going on. You're allowed to talk to them.
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: You're allowed to ask a question. And if they want
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: to talk to you, they'll talk to you. If they
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: don't want to talk to you, they won't talk to you.
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: So that's the, that's another piece of advice that I got. Oh,
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: another one was a glacier. Yeah, that was actually, and
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: his was because when I say a kind soul, that's,
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: that's a, what a kind soul that man has. So he,
• 43:19
  Speaker 3: he is the kind of the one that sparked the, Hey,
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: if you see somebody just talk to him. If you
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: get nothing, you get nothing, but more than likely you'll
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: get something. Yeah. So yeah, I have, like I said,
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: I've talked to, and do any of these people remember me?
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: Probably not. Right. But, but I remember the words that
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: they gave me. I remember the advice, even when they're
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: talking to each other, I just eavesdrop, not in a
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: rude way. I'm not like in the middle of the conversation, but,
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: if I ever hear people talking, I've asked, I'm like,
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: can you, can I just listen in on this conversation?
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: And I said, yeah, whatever. They were going to talk anyway.
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: So absorb, the point is absorb as much knowledge as
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: you can. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And sometimes you like what
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: you hear. Sometimes you don't, but it'll, it'll probably benefit
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: you some way somehow. Yeah.
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: I mean, considering how many different podcasts there are, whether
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: the wrestlers are doing the podcast or they're on interview
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: shows like this, like, Even when you're on the road,
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: like listen to everything you can, like you said, whether
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: it be audio wise already or in person. So that
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: way you can.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: Actually, you know, there's knowledge everywhere. You just, you just
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: got to find it.
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: Correct. And then find how to apply it. That's the part.
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: Even when you absorb the knowledge. Okay. Did you just
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: take it in or are you now going to, if
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: they gave you 20 things, you don't have to use
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: all 20, just use one, just use one of the
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: things and work on it at the next, the next show,
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: the next match you have, or something along those lines.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: I'd love that.
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: Well, obviously show days can be very long days. What
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: are some standards you normally have in your bag?
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: In my bag, um, water, Gator lights, electrolytes, some sort
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: of drink with electrolytes in it. Um, some snack of
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: some kind tape. Obviously I got my, I got my
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: different tapes for different colors, whatever. I always bring, I
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: bring almost all of my gear every single time. Just
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: because I never know what color somebody's going to wear.
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: There's too much green on this show. I don't know
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: why green became popular all of a sudden. So now
• 45:36
  Speaker 3: I got to switch to a different color. Um, Bands
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: for warming up my, I have, if anybody knows, I usually,
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: when I go to shows, I, I dress up, dress up. I,
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: I like to look professional because I like, I like clubs.
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: So I like to wear my fancy stuff. And then
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: I will bring something a little more akin to this,
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: which is something I can warm up in something I
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: can move about in the ring. If I'm, trying to
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: get my spacing and my bearings down and a tripod
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: to always record my matches. All right.
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: Where do you normally put it?
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: Depends on the venue.
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: That's fair.
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: Um, but I usually, it's hard to say because it
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: generally just depends on the venue and where their hard
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: cam is, because even when they're recording, I record for
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: myself because sometimes they might take a while to get
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: the footage out, but yeah, If I recorded it that day,
• 46:39
  Speaker 3: when I go home, I can watch it immediately and say, well,
• 46:42
  Speaker 3: this was dumb. That was crap. This was good. Try
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: this next time. Or now I can see what I
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: look like. And while it's fresh in my mind, understand
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: what I was going for, what was happening. That's smart.
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: Well, I like to like, I like to ask all
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: the professional wrestlers a question. It may not apply to
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: you at all, but I'm going to ask anyway. Do
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: you have a double stick tape story?
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: One more time.
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: Do you have a double stick tape story? You know
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: what double stick tape is?
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: Yes. Okay. Like a double sided tape? Yes.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: Have you ever had to use it?
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: Yes, I have. Okay. Tell us.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: See, I didn't think that was going to happen. That's
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: why I'd ask.
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: Well, so I'm a teacher too. So I've used it
• 47:34
  Speaker 3: to mount stuff to walls and all that kind of stuff. I,
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: Can't say I like it. I can't say I like it.
• 47:41
  Speaker 3: It's a pain in the ass. It's, it's useful, but
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: it's just, it's just a pain in the ass. Cause
• 47:48
  Speaker 3: it just.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: They get stick to everything.
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: It sticks to. And the problem is if it sticks
• 47:52
  Speaker 3: wrong one time, it's going to stick wrong the second time.
• 47:55
  Speaker 3: And now I've wasted like a roll of this stuff,
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: just trying to hang one thing because it kept sticking
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: to what I didn't need it to stick to.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: Yep. Or itself in like the weirdest place.
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. Or it's, Or one side will stick very well. Well,
• 48:11
  Speaker 3: the side that'll stick to the wall holds up perfectly fine.
• 48:14
  Speaker 3: But then the side that is sticking to the object
• 48:16
  Speaker 3: that I'm trying to hang, that's the part that doesn't.
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: And there's no consistency. There's never any consistency. One corner
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: is double-sided stick. One side is one side. So, yes.
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: We can put a man on the moon, but we
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: can't get double-stick tape, right?
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: Ridiculous. That's human intelligence for you. There's some lapses in
• 48:37
  Speaker 3: our judgment sometimes. Oh, yes, big time.
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: Well, speaking of which, I mean, as much as this
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: is a physical one, it's also very much a mental
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: game as well. For you, what kind of mental workouts
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: do you like to do? Because obviously, when it comes
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: to wrestling, there's memorization, but then there's also either getting
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: yourself hyped up or flipping that switch before you get
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: in the ring, and then obviously coming down from the
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: match as well, because you get that many people cheering
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: or booing you, you're going to feel it. And so
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: you got to come down from that. What are kind
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: of some mental workouts you like to do?
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: Um, so it's, it's very weird and it's going to
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: sound whatever. It mostly depends on the match. It depends
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: on the match. It depends on the play. because if
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: it's a place that I've been to many times, SPW,
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: which is for all sake of purposes, my home promotion,
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: I've wrestled there for the past five years, five years. Nice.
• 49:33
  Speaker 3: So I don't particularly get nervous when it's time to wrestle. Yeah.
• 49:39
  Speaker 3: the energy will kind of start to build and I'll
• 49:44
  Speaker 3: be like, all right, here we go. But unless it's
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: something that I view as a make or break match
• 49:53
  Speaker 3: or a match that kind of levels me up, like
• 49:55
  Speaker 3: a match against Timothy Thatcher or a match against Jack Cartwheel,
• 49:58
  Speaker 3: like those are matches that proper made my head do this.
• 50:05
  Speaker 3: But then I would remember, look, you're having this match
• 50:09
  Speaker 3: for a reason. This, this is not by accident. This
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: is with a purpose. So you just have to do
• 50:16
  Speaker 3: what you do and don't, don't try to reach, don't
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: try to reach their level because in trying to do that,
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: you're going to slip. If that makes sense, do the
• 50:27
  Speaker 3: best you and everything else will kind of follow through. So,
• 50:31
  Speaker 3: and I'm, I pray a lot. So I usually, I
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: will say a prayer beforehand and even on the drive over,
• 50:40
  Speaker 3: sometimes I'll drive in silence just to kind of make
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: sure everything is settled. Whatever is on my mind that's
• 50:48
  Speaker 3: worrying me, now I can kind of face it in
• 50:51
  Speaker 3: the silence. Find a way to block out noise because
• 50:55
  Speaker 3: noise can get very distracting and you can't pinpoint what's
• 50:59
  Speaker 3: going on. So A lot of that's the come down
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: after the match is usually the harder one, just because
• 51:05
  Speaker 3: I'm very critical of myself. So I will, you know,
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: I'll kind of rip something apart. I'm like that. Why did,
• 51:13
  Speaker 3: why did I do that? Why didn't I do this? Blah, blah, blah.
• 51:16
  Speaker 3: But then I will again, kind of frame it in
• 51:22
  Speaker 3: the context of what happened. why did this happen? How
• 51:25
  Speaker 3: did it happen? Okay. So now we're aware. Now we
• 51:28
  Speaker 3: know what to do for next time. Yeah. If somebody
• 51:30
  Speaker 3: is going to land on top of your head, how
• 51:33
  Speaker 3: do you protect your head? Right. Or something along those lines,
• 51:37
  Speaker 3: but it is a lot of an awareness. I try
• 51:41
  Speaker 3: to be aware in the ring, not just, I'm not honestly,
• 51:47
  Speaker 3: I'm better. A lot of people like, Oh, you, Oh,
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: that's all choreographed. Right. And I'm like, Not for me.
• 51:55
  Speaker 3: I don't do that. I go based on flow. I
• 51:58
  Speaker 3: know what the other person does, so I know how
• 52:00
  Speaker 3: to counter it or vice versa. I'm not one to
• 52:07
  Speaker 3: hold a lot of space in my brain for planned
• 52:12
  Speaker 3: spots or whatever. For me, then I don't come across
• 52:16
  Speaker 3: as natural. I feel like one of my strongest suits
• 52:21
  Speaker 3: is my ability to react and just be natural in
• 52:26
  Speaker 3: the moment. Most of the best stuff I've ever done
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: in matches are the things that nobody knew was coming
• 52:32
  Speaker 3: and that I didn't even know what's coming. They're like,
• 52:33
  Speaker 3: what the hell? Why'd you do that? I don't know.
• 52:36
  Speaker 3: I just felt like doing it. So I did it. So,
• 52:39
  Speaker 3: and I trust my, I trust my instincts and I
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: trust my judgment. And I also trust the people that
• 52:44
  Speaker 3: have trained me and the advice that they have given
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: me to kind of shape how I think about wrestling
• 52:50
  Speaker 3: and move in the ring and, carry myself outside of
• 52:53
  Speaker 3: the ring as well. Cause that all makes a difference too. Yeah.
• 52:56
  Speaker 3: Without a doubt. Yeah.
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: People don't want somebody that's going to be, uh, not
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: a cancer to the backstage, but then add to the
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: show when it comes to.
• 53:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: Well, I have a segment on the show. I call
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: it the five count, which is five random questions. Okay.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: Number one. Uh, what would your last meal be?
• 53:16
  Speaker 3: Shrimp chow mein with potstickers. And if I could, some
• 53:23
  Speaker 3: cream cheese rain grills.
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: Oh, there we go.
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: Number two, if you owned a liquor company, brewery, winery,
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: coffee shop, or dispensary, which one would you own and
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: what would the name be?
• 53:33
  Speaker 3: It would be coffee. Funny enough, I was just talking
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: about this with one of my boys, actually. They're like, hey, man,
• 53:44
  Speaker 3: are we going to make a coffee company or what? Hmm.
• 53:51
  Speaker 3: So coffee, I know it sounds unoriginal, but believe it
• 53:57
  Speaker 3: or not, it works because of the dark fox. It'd
• 53:59
  Speaker 3: be the dark roast.
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: I was going to say, yeah, it's literally in the name.
• 54:03
  Speaker 3: It's in the name.
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: Number three, have you ever felt or seen a ghost?
• 54:11
  Speaker 3: I would say yes. In my culture, they don't call
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: it ghosts. We call it spirits, but it's essentially the
• 54:16
  Speaker 3: same thing. But yes.
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: Do you want to tell the story?
• 54:21
  Speaker 3: Um, so a lot of the times it kind of
• 54:23
  Speaker 3: happens in dreams more often than in my, you know,
• 54:30
  Speaker 3: regular life or whatever. But, um, I had a friend
• 54:34
  Speaker 3: who passed away, uh, when I was very young. Um,
• 54:37
  Speaker 3: I was there, he drowned. I was there, long story short.
• 54:42
  Speaker 3: So I remember feeling very guilty. I remember, you know,
• 54:46
  Speaker 3: you know, survivor's remorse. I think that's what they call it.
• 54:48
  Speaker 3: Survivor's guilt. So I remember thinking, I was carrying it
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: very heavy. And then I remember in the dream, he
• 54:57
  Speaker 3: never spoke to me. He never spoke to me, but
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: I remember him smiling, waving, and then walking away. So
• 55:04
  Speaker 3: I was like, okay, he's okay. He's not mad at
• 55:07
  Speaker 3: me because I thought he was. And every now and again,
• 55:11
  Speaker 3: I feel like I've sensed somebody's like hey don't go
• 55:18
  Speaker 3: this way or don't do this and i feel like
• 55:23
  Speaker 3: that kind of is what kind of sparked it if
• 55:26
  Speaker 3: i if i could say so so so yeah i
• 55:29
  Speaker 3: feel like it happens a lot more than i'm aware
• 55:32
  Speaker 3: of okay but it does.
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: Happen interesting okay uh number four who or what inspires you.
• 55:40
  Speaker 3: Who um you know that's a hard one i'm gonna
• 55:44
  Speaker 3: say my family but i will say specifically my brother
• 55:48
  Speaker 3: younger brother autism but one of the he is more
• 55:54
  Speaker 3: happy than most people I know and he has every
• 56:00
  Speaker 3: reason to be pissed off at the world and be
• 56:02
  Speaker 3: pissed off because he didn't ask for he didn't ask
• 56:06
  Speaker 3: for his situation but he rocks it perfectly fine everybody
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: loves him he loves everybody and when I see his
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: happiness I can't mad like there's no reason for me
• 56:17
  Speaker 3: to be mad if he wasn't autistic he would be
• 56:21
  Speaker 3: the wrestler in my family he would be in my
• 56:23
  Speaker 3: position and be better at it so he.
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: Is my motivation number five what would you tell your
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: 17 year.
• 56:30
  Speaker 3: Old self 17 what i got out was i would
• 56:37
  Speaker 3: tell him to relax Not be so anxious and don't
• 56:44
  Speaker 3: put so much stock in the future as in your
• 56:50
  Speaker 3: worth isn't based on what you accomplish. Pursue the, again,
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: getting all biblical, peace beyond understanding. Get that peace within
• 57:06
  Speaker 3: here because then everything else doesn't, it won't feel as heavy. Yeah.
• 57:13
  Speaker 3: It won't feel as heavy. And I think actually, because
• 57:15
  Speaker 3: I taught teenagers, as a high school teacher, I told them,
• 57:19
  Speaker 3: I said, you guys need to learn how to be
• 57:22
  Speaker 3: with yourself in silence because it makes a difference. Because
• 57:26
  Speaker 3: I know a lot of people that can't handle silence
• 57:29
  Speaker 3: because it's when you're the most vulnerable and it's when
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: everything that goes on in here, it kind of starts
• 57:36
  Speaker 3: to get loud. You got to be able to learn
• 57:38
  Speaker 3: how to quiet it on your own because... what happens
• 57:42
  Speaker 3: when you, yeah, you like to look at your phone,
• 57:43
  Speaker 3: what happens when the phone dies? So you're not going
• 57:45
  Speaker 3: to go stir crazy when you're in a place where
• 57:47
  Speaker 3: there's no electronics, when you're in a place where there's
• 57:49
  Speaker 3: nothing happening, you're going to lose your mind. So protect
• 57:53
  Speaker 3: your peace and learn how to control that on your own. Yeah.
• 57:58
  Speaker 3: I love all that.
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: Now, if people want to find out more about you,
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: see you live, follow you online, support you in any way,
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: how can they do so?
• 58:08
  Speaker 3: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok kind of Twitter, not Twitter X, whatever
• 58:15
  Speaker 3: you call it. Not really. But Dark Fox, Olumide. So
• 58:19
  Speaker 3: Dark Fox and then Olumide, O-L-U-M-I-D-E. There is videos of
• 58:25
  Speaker 3: me on YouTube as well. I have my own YouTube channel.
• 58:28
  Speaker 3: It's short. But if you just.
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: There's a good bit of matches on there, yes.
• 58:34
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: Everyone can be better.
• 58:35
  Speaker 3: Yes, I'm working on it. but there is somebody that
• 58:40
  Speaker 3: has started to like kind of archive that they have
• 58:43
  Speaker 3: like a playlist of me wrestling throughout the years. So
• 58:47
  Speaker 3: that is a good place to look as well.
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: I mean, you could put up your own footage considering like.
• 58:52
  Speaker 3: You said, exactly. And that's the thing before I, before
• 58:57
  Speaker 3: there's a bunch of matches I have, I just need
• 58:59
  Speaker 3: to remember where I stored them. That's what the issue is.
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: And it's kind of the other problem with digital stuff.
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: It's like, Where did I put that? What drive is
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: that on?
• 59:07
  Speaker 3: Is it on an external one?
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: Is it on a computer? Is it just on my phone?
• 59:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Exactly. But yeah, those would be the best places
• 59:16
  Speaker 3: in terms of wrestling. I mean, I wrestle quite a
• 59:20
  Speaker 3: few places, but you can definitively find me at SPW
• 59:24
  Speaker 3: in Elk Grove, California. You can find me at the
• 59:27
  Speaker 3: Ugly Dojo, which is in Sacramento, California. You can find
• 59:30
  Speaker 3: me at the Reno Wrestling Factory in Reno, Nevada. Those
• 59:37
  Speaker 3: are the mainstays. There's also WCWF in Yuba City, but
• 59:41
  Speaker 3: I've made appearances in Alaska and Texas and many other places.
• 59:45
  Speaker 3: So if you pay attention to my Instagram, you'll see
• 59:49
  Speaker 3: where I'm going and see where I'm at. There we go.
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: Illuminae, I've loved this conversation. I can't wait to see
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: what the future holds for you because I think it's
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: going to be very bright. I love where your head's
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: at when it comes to what you want to do
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 2: in wrestling and how you are wanting to be better
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: all the time. And obviously the business part will come
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: along as well. So, but yes, I can't wait to
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 2: see what the future holds for you.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 3: I appreciate you. Thank you very much, sir.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: No problem.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much to Illumiday for being on the show. Again,
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: definitely make sure to go see him live. Support him
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: in any way you can. This man is on the
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: way up, and he's going to do very big things
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: in this business. So while you're checking him out and
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: following him on social media, make sure to go follow
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: us on social media. It is BruisersPod, that is B-R-E-W-S-E-R-S-P-O-D,
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 2: on the Instagram, the threads, and the Twitter. If you
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: want to send us an email, it is BruisersPod at gmail.com.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: If you want to follow me directly, it is Rody John.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: That is R-O-D-I-E-J-O-N.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 2: Rody John is the name on the Twitter, and I'm untapped.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: In case you want to find out what I'm drinking,
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: maybe we can have a beer together.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: If you want to follow me on the threads or
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: the Instagram, it is OfficialRodyJohn. So until next time, make
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: sure to enjoy life, drink local, and cheers.