Latest / Scene Projects Sports Network / Shane Diesel: Wrestling Legacy, Announcing, and a Special Kobe Bryant Giveaway

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Shane Diesel: Wrestling Legacy, Announcing, and a Special Kobe Bryant Giveaway · Scene Projects Sports Network

• 0:06
  SPSN.
• 0:15
  Welcome into this episode of the Scene Project Sports Network.
• 0:18
  I am your host, Bubba Starts.
• 0:20
  And with me today is the smooth talking Shane Diesel.
• 0:24
  Shane, welcome to the show, brother.
• 0:26
  How you doing, boss?
• 0:28
  Man, I'm happy to have you on the show finally.
• 0:31
  I know we've been talking about this for a while, and you got a lot of stuff to talk
• 0:36
  about.
• 0:37
  A lot of lot of things happening down there in the wrestling community.
• 0:40
  Obviously, you're working with our good buddy, Matt Classic Creed, with the AIWF and doing a
• 0:47
  lot of wrestling coverage.
• 0:48
  But before we get into all the stuff you're doing now, love to hear a little bit of your
• 0:52
  backstory, man, and just give you the floor here for a minute.
• 0:55
  Okay.
• 0:57
  Well, now first, I'll I'll say, like, I'm overall I would consider myself mostly like a
• 1:03
  showman.
• 1:05
  I'm known as a ring announcer.
• 1:08
  Of course, with wrestling, you wear a lot of hats.
• 1:10
  I'm really deep into the Wrestling Fans International Association.
• 1:16
  I do a ton of writing for them and coverage, which actually helps me as well, and I I bring
• 1:23
  in a lot of people.
• 1:25
  I initially learned how to promote very well because, like, I was always a combat sports fan
• 1:35
  of one or another.
• 1:36
  Wrestling was my first love.
• 1:38
  I've loved it ever since I was, like, a little bitty kid, and I always wanted to be involved
• 1:43
  with it.
• 1:43
  But when I got to be a teen, like, UFC had took off and people like Tito were coming in that
• 1:48
  were kinda doing pro wrestling bits with it.
• 1:52
  So I started kinda breaking more into it and box boxing, but people around me weren't
• 1:57
  interested in it all the time.
• 1:59
  Like, on like, most people were only interested if it was a big fight.
• 2:03
  So I started learning, like, how to make every fight seem like a big fight.
• 2:08
  Like, it's the fight you need to watch and everything.
• 2:14
  And then years later, like, I I I had actually went around the world with a guy I met that
• 2:23
  worked for I don't know if you remember the XFL, but Vince McMahon's XFL, the initial one.
• 2:30
  We had a team here called the Memphis Maniacs.
• 2:33
  I had met their finance manager, and he actually happened to be a wrestling manager as
• 2:38
  well.
• 2:40
  I got to know him really well.
• 2:42
  He really liked me.
• 2:43
  He loved my passion for the sport.
• 2:45
  So at, like, 13 years old, he was carrying me across the country once my parents got to know
• 2:51
  him and everything.
• 2:53
  And I would go to wrestling shows and, like, do little bits.
• 2:56
  You know?
• 2:56
  I had actually trained very unsafely.
• 3:00
  I know now, but I had actually trained to wrestle.
• 3:03
  I mean and at the time, like, at 13, like, I was jumping off of roofs, jumping through
• 3:08
  barbed wire and stuff because, like, my whole life was, like, I was gonna be a pro wrestler
• 3:12
  when I got older until, like, I got it I got into working actually a couple couple months
• 3:22
  after I started touring the con country with the guy.
• 3:26
  And I started actually making money, and I kinda fell in love with money too.
• 3:30
  And even though I'd gotten into I'd gotten into combat sports, and so I started training in
• 3:35
  that and boxing, wrestling some, a little jujitsu, lot of shoot fighting, and stuff like
• 3:43
  that.
• 3:45
  But I'd always had the intention that being a professional wrestling world champion was what
• 3:50
  I was gonna be.
• 3:53
  And I would actually get people that reached out to me that wanted me to do it.
• 4:00
  And I would be on board with it, but I would hear all of a sudden, yeah, but you gotta pay
• 4:08
  $121,300 down or whatever.
• 4:11
  And I was like always like, man, there's no way.
• 4:16
  And then the people would be like, well, Shawn Michaels or Seth Rollins charges 2,400 down.
• 4:23
  And I'm like, yeah.
• 4:23
  But that's Seth Rollins.
• 4:25
  I mean, like, unless you are Seth Rollins or Shawn Michaels or, you know, Greg Anthony,
• 4:31
  would actually pay that for.
• 4:32
  But it just wasn't affordable.
• 4:36
  Greg made it affordable.
• 4:40
  The problem is I work, like, eighty hours a week.
• 4:43
  And what I had at the time is a day to day job.
• 4:46
  It still is.
• 4:47
  I'm I do it.
• 4:48
  I'm a captain, a security captain.
• 4:51
  And so I started doing that with it and training, you know, on Wednesdays and
• 4:59
  Saturdays.
• 5:00
  Got to where I could only make, like, one day a week at the most.
• 5:04
  It actually led to me getting a divorce and everything, which turned out to be the best
• 5:07
  thing that ever happened to me because I had 50% free time, and I devoted all of it to
• 5:13
  working.
• 5:13
  So that's how I got basically into that eighty hours a week thing.
• 5:19
  But with me working that much, I wasn't able to train and get going as fast as he really wanted
• 5:27
  me to go because I I could tell he saw something in me.
• 5:30
  You know, he saw charisma and he saw, like, a a certain I don't wanna brag on myself or
• 5:36
  anything, but, like, he saw that I had stage presence and and could be a great showman as
• 5:41
  well as a pretty good athlete.
• 5:43
  And, like, I'm also a wrestling historian.
• 5:48
  I've I've been studying it since I was old enough to talk just like I have my kids doing
• 5:54
  now.
• 5:56
  And so I knew everything from a fan perspective and had no idea how much goes into it from not
• 6:04
  a fan perspective until years later.
• 6:08
  So I started training with him, and even the one day a week was getting really hard because
• 6:14
  of the eighty hours and stuff.
• 6:17
  Greg kinda when he trains with you, he, you he starts to work towards, like, coming up with
• 6:22
  your gimmick and your the idea of what he wants to do with you.
• 6:26
  And one day, I just threw it out there.
• 6:28
  I was like, Greg, like, you know, most of the wrestlers start in masks because they're too
• 6:35
  shy or, like, they don't know if they'll give off the right vibes and all of that stuff right
• 6:39
  away.
• 6:40
  So they typically start off in masks or something until they get comfortable, you know,
• 6:45
  in front of the camera.
• 6:46
  And I was like, man, I can't do that.
• 6:48
  I was born to be in front of a camera.
• 6:49
  Like, that that's that's all I've ever wanted.
• 6:51
  Like, I had people have to know it's me, and people, like, will come because it's me.
• 6:59
  And I got to talking to him, telling him the few other things that I love, which is, like,
• 7:06
  6,000,335,000 other things that I'm actually interested in too.
• 7:11
  Just none of them as big as wrestling.
• 7:13
  That's, like, the that's always been, like, the biggest thing in my life, like, the biggest
• 7:19
  passion I've had.
• 7:23
  As a matter of fact, even my boss in the security world told me to go after training
• 7:29
  again.
• 7:31
  I saw it ended up leading to me getting a divorce.
• 7:34
  I don't mean to run on too much.
• 7:35
  I'm just trying to shorten the story down some.
• 7:38
  It it led to me getting a divorce, And so I I dedicated myself to eighty hours a week working
• 7:50
  and all of that, you know, just because I was, like, trying to take my mind off of things.
• 7:56
  But I just always enjoyed working anyway.
• 7:59
  And but my boss was, like, telling me, like, well, you only kinda like security.
• 8:07
  It's not like your passion.
• 8:08
  You know?
• 8:09
  You just kinda like it.
• 8:10
  If you're able to work eighty hours a week like you do and if you will dedicate yourself to
• 8:14
  becoming the best at this and you love wrestling that much, there's no doubt in my
• 8:21
  mind you can become something in it.
• 8:24
  So I get back into it.
• 8:26
  And about two months after, I I'm trying to rattle my brain about which character idea I
• 8:33
  would wanna be, And I'm watching today's greatest no.
• 8:39
  Sorry.
• 8:39
  I'm today's greatest showman.
• 8:40
  I'm watching the greatest showman, PT Barnum, the greatest showman movie.
• 8:45
  Not a 100% accurate, by the way, but just I'm watching it, and I love it.
• 8:50
  And so I reached out to Greg that day, and I was like, Greg, when the time comes, I'm a be
• 8:56
  begging you to be the showman.
• 8:58
  I'll pay for my own gear, you know, because, obviously, I'm working a ton and stuff, so I
• 9:01
  got a ton of money at this point.
• 9:03
  And he made it, like he he actually has it, like, where it's only, like, $20 a session, and
• 9:10
  he breaks it down per session so people can afford to go.
• 9:14
  You know?
• 9:15
  And, like, even and sometimes if you couldn't pay that day, you like, he would you know, as
• 9:20
  long as you showed up with it eventually, he'd be okay with that.
• 9:23
  Like, he was very work you know, he was able he was able to be sorry.
• 9:29
  My throat's kinda hurting a little.
• 9:32
  He was one of those people that was really easy to work with.
• 9:36
  And, like, he you could tell he wanted you to do it, like, because he was making it possible.
• 9:43
  But like I said, the eighty plus hours a week was getting to be a lot of work.
• 9:53
  You know?
• 9:54
  So I kinda had to hang it up for a little bit.
• 9:59
  And the place I was security for, like I said, I was a wrestling historian.
• 10:04
  But to be a real historian, I believed you had to preserve history to some way.
• 10:09
  And the place I worked for was a tourism place for Tennessee, and I knew all of this Memphis
• 10:16
  wrestling history.
• 10:17
  Our Wrestleplex here is called the Herb Welch Wrestleplex.
• 10:21
  Herb's brother Roy Welch and Nick Gulos actually founded the original Memphis wrestling
• 10:26
  here.
• 10:27
  Our lineage goes back to Memphis wrestling even.
• 10:31
  And I wanted I realized that there was no mention of it here, so I wanted that.
• 10:36
  And it almost literally took an act to congress, but I got that through.
• 10:42
  And, you know, I got I got the ability to promote wrestling here, to pass out flyers, to
• 10:48
  tell people to sign autographs, all kinds of stuff, and, like, got it locked in for tourism
• 10:54
  week booths and all this stuff.
• 10:57
  He then seen my grind and everything.
• 11:00
  I got to talking to him about how I really didn't wanna be anything but a showman.
• 11:09
  You know?
• 11:09
  I wanted to be today's greatest showman.
• 11:11
  I feel like that's what I am.
• 11:13
  I present attractions and promote things very well.
• 11:16
  I'm great at bringing people into any door.
• 11:21
  And I'm actually gonna talk about that here in a minute because I actually got something
• 11:26
  special for you.
• 11:29
  But I'm pretty good at bringing people in, getting followers, getting likes, subscribers.
• 11:33
  Just by, like, way before the, you know, way before you could click send a thousand invites,
• 11:40
  I used to just get on there and message people.
• 11:42
  Hey, man.
• 11:43
  Subscribe to this for me.
• 11:44
  I'll do this for you.
• 11:46
  You know, like and just grind my way to thousands of people, you know, day in and day
• 11:51
  out until I got what I wanted.
• 11:53
  And all I ever wanted to be was that wrestling champion, but ultimate showman, obviously, like
• 12:02
  Ric Flair or Dusty Rhodes, you know, like, one of the best showmen.
• 12:08
  I wanted to kinda do both, so I was like, let you know, I'm gonna beg you to be a showman one
• 12:14
  day.
• 12:15
  I realized the way he does it is kinda picking up on your personality.
• 12:19
  Sorry.
• 12:20
  I know of Brandon and Ray for a while here.
• 12:22
  But he picks up on your personality, and, obviously, one of mine was talking a lot.
• 12:32
  And then I started going through, you know, like I think you've probably heard me do this,
• 12:36
  but, like, I'll do, like, voices.
• 12:38
  I can do different voices.
• 12:41
  I'm not shy.
• 12:42
  I was a trained SkillsUSA, Tennessee statesman, and a public speaker for them.
• 12:48
  I was trained in public speaking through them and, like, could rattle off a speech in a in a
• 12:54
  second that I don't write or anything like that.
• 12:57
  I just would wing it, and they would say it was incredible, and I couldn't tell you three words
• 13:01
  I said.
• 13:03
  I started doing different voices, and he heard the announcer voice, and he was like, wow.
• 13:10
  And he was like, can you be an announcer this week?
• 13:13
  And I was like, yeah.
• 13:15
  And he was like, can you start Friday?
• 13:17
  And I was like, absolutely.
• 13:19
  And for me personally, this was even better than wrestling because I'm a fan at heart.
• 13:28
  You know?
• 13:29
  Like, I know the business, and I'm a big fan at heart.
• 13:34
  And so, like, when he offered me that, it's like so I get to be involved in every match.
• 13:41
  I get to be the first person they see that walks out there, you know, be the showman that
• 13:46
  hypes the thing up and everything and presents all the star attractions, which is all I ever
• 13:50
  wanted to be was a showman.
• 13:54
  I had the natural voice for it and the natural, you know, get up and get people hyped type of
• 14:00
  personality, but there was a lot to be taught, of course, and I'm still learning.
• 14:05
  Actually, I made a second or third in the announcer of the year contest this year.
• 14:12
  I and I believe I got the most votes from fans of anybody.
• 14:18
  But I'm glad they didn't give it to me because I still have a lot to learn, and I need, you
• 14:23
  know, I need something to strive for.
• 14:24
  So really glad they didn't give it to me yet.
• 14:28
  But I got started after that, And one day randomly said, man, this is so awesome.
• 14:36
  Like, not only do I get to do this, but for the matches, I got the best seat in the house.
• 14:43
  You know?
• 14:44
  And he come up to me, and he he'd seen me writing him and saying that I I was not too bad
• 14:51
  at writing, you know, paragraphs and stuff either and come up with a whole idea of me
• 14:56
  making a column for him called best seat in the house with Shane Solace.
• 15:02
  He was one of the board members, Greg Anthony.
• 15:05
  If I if I haven't said his name, his name is the golden boy, Greg Anthony.
• 15:08
  Two time AIWF world heavyweight champion.
• 15:12
  Held the belts for years, and the 150 promotion AIWF was only about 70 when Greg started.
• 15:24
  It was only around 70 something promotions in, which still a lot, But a lot of those
• 15:29
  promotions come in because they made Greg the champion that made them believe in the AIWF.
• 15:35
  That's how big of a deal Greg Anthony is, and he is absolutely one of the best minds for the
• 15:40
  business.
• 15:41
  And, like, he believe it it meant a lot because he believed in me enough to not only not make
• 15:49
  me wear a mask or something, but, like, to be able to get out there and show my face.
• 15:53
  He gave me a guy, and he's like, teach him how to announce.
• 15:56
  And it was, like, three minutes before the show started.
• 15:59
  And, like so I go out there from there.
• 16:03
  And, man, I mean, it's it's been about I've only been announcing for about probably seven
• 16:14
  months now or something like that.
• 16:16
  But, like, I've gotten I've gotten rave reviews from people like Downtown Bruno, Memphis
• 16:22
  wrestling legend, one of The Rock's best friends.
• 16:25
  I've gotten good reviews from Wildfire Tommy Rich, NWA champion.
• 16:32
  So
• 16:33
  you feel like you finally found your calling, you know, being such a huge wrestling fan and
• 16:38
  wanting to be a wrestler, but you really found what you do and what they, you know, call your
• 16:43
  niche maybe Yes.
• 16:45
  Your expertise over what anyone else.
• 16:47
  Something you can bring that not a lot of other people can bring to the table with the
• 16:52
  announcing.
• 16:53
  And I didn't realize that you were still so new at that part of it.
• 16:56
  I mean, the first time that I heard your voice, you sent me a voice message on Messenger.
• 17:01
  I said, yeah.
• 17:02
  You don't get to text me anymore.
• 17:05
  Yeah.
• 17:07
  Yeah.
• 17:07
  The southern draw.
• 17:08
  Yeah.
• 17:09
  You got you got a great voice and your passion for wrestling.
• 17:11
  That's what's needed.
• 17:12
  That that promotion, that you know, all of those things that you do very well, getting
• 17:17
  people fired up at the show and bringing them bringing that energy level up a notch is so
• 17:22
  needed because the action in the ring can be great.
• 17:25
  But if you don't have those other parts of it, you don't have those kind of showmen around it
• 17:31
  as well, that it it it kinda falls flat.
• 17:35
  And Yep.
• 17:36
  It's really cool to see what you're doing now with AIWF, helping Matt out with it's such a
• 17:43
  large operation.
• 17:43
  A 150 promotions now.
• 17:46
  We're very fortunate to work closely with some of them up in our area.
• 17:50
  Nick Stokey with Below Zero Wrestling.
• 17:52
  We're gonna be doing a lot of stuff with him, coming up here.
• 17:55
  They've got Winter Slam in February.
• 17:58
  So we'd love to keep including you more into our wrestling coverage and getting you on and
• 18:02
  and maybe teaching you how to host the podcast next, and you can start bringing in all these
• 18:08
  wrestlers and doing some more stuff with us.
• 18:10
  Hey, man.
• 18:11
  I gotta let you go.
• 18:12
  We we got a busy day at the studio here, but go ahead and plug it.
• 18:15
  I know you had a a big announcement for us here.
• 18:18
  So go ahead and share that, and I'll let you get out of here.
• 18:20
  Probably get back to work.
• 18:22
  Okay.
• 18:23
  So if you if you're watching this and you watch this all the way through and you can say done,
• 18:28
  since this is the same Project Sports Network, I want you to subscribe to this channel.
• 18:35
  If you're one of my followers, especially, subscribe to this channel.
• 18:38
  Let me get it out here for you real quick because this is this is kind of a big deal, and
• 18:42
  I think you'll probably know what this is.
• 18:46
  And you'll you'll probably get how big of a deal this is.
• 18:49
  If you subscribe to this channel and you comment done, not my channel, Bubba's channel,
• 18:55
  I'm going to give you one of you a free Kobe Bryant ungraded $2,155 rookie card just for
• 19:06
  commenting done, subscribing, and saying that you watched this whole show.
• 19:14
  That's that's crazy, Shane.
• 19:16
  We appreciate you doing that for fans of our show and your fans out there.
• 19:22
  Can't wait to get this one out for the people.
• 19:24
  I appreciate you taking some time for me today.
• 19:27
  Brother, be good, man, and we're gonna be sharing more and more of your stuff and
• 19:31
  everything that you're doing.
• 19:32
  Really appreciate you taking some time for me today.
• 19:35
  Oh, yeah.
• 19:36
  One last thing I'd like to say, one of my I I didn't say say what I do for the AIWF.
• 19:43
  I'm a national sales rep for across the globe, of course.
• 19:47
  They really liked my ideas.
• 19:48
  They weren't they weren't aware that I was new to the business either, but they really loved
• 19:53
  my ideas for how to make the show bigger.
• 19:59
  One of the things we're gonna do, and I was actually hoping to talk to you about this one
• 20:03
  day.
• 20:05
  Around February, I'm looking to premiere my first reality show for the AIWF.
• 20:09
  It involves my two sons living this magical life that I wish I could've lived.
• 20:14
  You know?
• 20:14
  Because we all start as wrestling fans with that gleam in our eyes seeing them as
• 20:18
  superheroes.
• 20:18
  Right?
• 20:20
  But these are two kids that get to do all of these special things that kids would love to do
• 20:25
  because of my involvement with it.
• 20:28
  So we're we're making a show called we're making a show called the solace boys wrestling
• 20:36
  royalty.
• 20:37
  It's a reality show about my two children.
• 20:39
  It's not me.
• 20:40
  It's a it's a show about them and about their experience as wrestling fans and getting people
• 20:46
  back to that experience as wrestling fans.
• 20:49
  Know you got a lot to do.
• 20:51
  No.
• 20:51
  That that's such a cool thing and to showcase the boys is awesome and that fan experience.
• 20:56
  I don't know if you watched I mean, obviously, you did.
• 20:59
  John Cena's last match, and there was a young fan that was given, given the guy who beat him.
• 21:05
  His name's evading me right now, a hard time.
• 21:08
  And, that's actually one of our good friends up here in South Dakota.
• 21:12
  That's her boy.
• 21:14
  Oh, wow.
• 21:15
  And they went totally viral.
• 21:17
  Millions of views on the TikToks and everything.
• 21:20
  So we love that fan experience.
• 21:22
  We all start out as that little kid, man.
• 21:25
  Yeah.
• 21:26
  And let me let me say one thing about him that this is something for wrestlers to know
• 21:31
  compared to, say, a Centimeters punk that will sit in there and wait for all the fans to
• 21:36
  leave.
• 21:37
  Before John Cena become the word life John Cena, I was in a show in Moline, Illinois right
• 21:44
  after he had had the match with Kurt Angle.
• 21:47
  Right?
• 21:47
  Like, the ruthless aggression match where he slaps him in his rookie match and puts on a
• 21:52
  great match against Kurt Angle, so you knew he was gonna be a star.
• 21:56
  But nobody really knew John Cena yet.
• 21:58
  And all the wrestlers, even the nobodies, the announcers, everybody was walking past the
• 22:05
  fans.
• 22:06
  I watched as the fans were out there begging for autographs and begging for people to shake
• 22:11
  hands.
• 22:11
  John Cena went out there and took pictures and shook hands with all of those people.
• 22:16
  So even though I never actually I never liked John Cena as a as a wrestler, but I always
• 22:22
  respected him and his work ethic and everything he brought to the table, and he is where he is
• 22:28
  because of work ethic.
• 22:29
  Guys, you can get anything you want if you work hard enough for it.
• 22:32
  That's a fact.
• 22:33
  Right.
• 22:34
  Shane Diesel, thanks for being part of the Scene Project Sports Network, and, we're gonna
• 22:39
  be talking a lot more with you, brother.
• 22:40
  So happy to have you on today, and we'll chat again soon.
• 22:44
  Right on, brother.
• 22:44
  It's great to be on.
• 22:45
  Take care.