Latest / ABJ / ABJ 2 | How Wrestling Changed my Life

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ABJ 2 | How Wrestling Changed my Life · ABJ

• 0:18
  We're back ABJ episode 2 How wrestling changed my life.
• 0:23
  Thank you all so much for this love and support you've given me
• 0:27
  on episode 1. I'm shocked honestly.
• 0:30
  I thought me just sitting in front of a microphone spilling
• 0:34
  my guts about the struggles of almost quitting this journey and
• 0:39
  not and, and I I did it so other people in the content space or
• 0:44
  creative space or anything can maybe relate to it and maybe it
• 0:48
  gives them a little bit of motivation to keep going.
• 0:51
  And, and I got a lot of awesome feedback.
• 0:52
  A lot of people commented and said really positive, nice
• 0:55
  things. That's really exciting.
• 0:58
  But we're here for episode 2 and this one's going to be how
• 1:01
  wrestling changed my life. But before we get into that,
• 1:03
  make sure you guys are checking the links below to follow me on
• 1:05
  all social media. I am on Instagram, Facebook,
• 1:08
  YouTube. You can watch this full podcast
• 1:11
  or you can check out the audio only versions.
• 1:13
  If you're driving in your car and you don't want to look at my
• 1:16
  face because it's not safe while you're driving, I am on.
• 1:27
  Hello. Hello Anthony, this is Sarah
• 1:32
  from Job Support and I'm calling because Bugs partner after your
• 1:37
  interview they want you to start this coming Monday.
• 1:40
  Perfect. OK so I will be sending the
• 1:47
  assignment sheet like with information for the start day,
• 1:51
  OK. Perfect.
• 1:52
  It's start o'clock. Is it start time at 6:00 or
• 1:55
  6:30? It's 632. 3633 perfect.
• 2:00
  Thank you so much you're. Welcome.
• 2:03
  Bye. Bye.
• 2:03
  OK. I almost hung up on that.
• 2:06
  That would have been bad. All right.
• 2:10
  Links below for all social media.
• 2:12
  You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube.
• 2:15
  This podcast is also on YouTube as well as the audio versions on
• 2:20
  Spotify and everything like that.
• 2:22
  So make sure you go and support both. 5 star review goes a long
• 2:25
  way. And then if you really want to
• 2:26
  support as you see me rocking my Cult of ABJ T-shirt, it's got
• 2:31
  the cool little ABJ on the patch and then the tag has the Cult of
• 2:34
  ABJ logo. I have a whole bunch of new
• 2:36
  merchandise over at 4th Wall. I think it's 4th Wall back slash
• 2:41
  ABJ 570, but don't quote me on that.
• 2:43
  The link will be below. But anytime you order something
• 2:45
  too, I send you a personalized message thanking you to do so.
• 2:48
  So I don't do the whole cameo thing, but if you like a cameo,
• 2:51
  go buy a T-shirt and I'll send you whatever you want.
• 2:54
  But yeah, but let's get into it. So it's going to be kind of the
• 2:58
  same thing. If if I ever found wrestling, if
• 3:00
  I never found wrestling, man, I honestly don't know where I'd be
• 3:02
  today. So I want to talk about how
• 3:05
  wrestling completely has changed my life from a fan to then
• 3:10
  chasing it and being a part of it.
• 3:12
  I'm going to be breaking this down into sections and and stuff
• 3:15
  like that and just kind of giving myself a key point.
• 3:17
  I kind of have a structure that I'm just going to kind of free
• 3:19
  flow based on each one. So I I do have a an idea, but
• 3:23
  I'm not fully I don't write anything out.
• 3:26
  I just kind of have like, Hey, I want you to talk, touch on these
• 3:28
  four things and then go from there.
• 3:32
  Towards the end of the episode, Lily is kind of hanging out with
• 3:34
  me. She's going to be listening to
• 3:36
  the episode and then she's going to be kind of gathering her own
• 3:38
  thoughts of this. And then she's going to ask some
• 3:40
  questions of maybe that you were thinking the whole time you were
• 3:43
  listening that maybe I missed out on or maybe to dive deeper
• 3:45
  into something. So first it's going to be first
• 3:48
  exposure and and my first memory of professional wrestling.
• 3:51
  So my first memory, I remember sitting with my friend Billy Big
• 3:55
  B and we were watching at the top.
• 3:58
  I still don't remember to this day.
• 3:59
  We just figured it out of what I was probably watching.
• 4:01
  I think it was like WrestleMania 3 or something, but it was the
• 4:04
  Rockers versus Tugboat in Earthquake and the Rockers got
• 4:09
  crushed. They got, they got absolutely
• 4:11
  annihilated. But I remember seeing Rockers
• 4:12
  come down through the crowd. It wasn't even through the
• 4:14
  crowd. It was just the entrance way.
• 4:16
  But in my little kid brain, it looked like they came through
• 4:18
  the crowd because the crowds are so much tighter to the ring and
• 4:21
  to the entrance way than they are now.
• 4:24
  And I just remember them like, man, these guys look super cool.
• 4:27
  And my dad was a DJ and he loved classic rock and these guys look
• 4:31
  like classic rockers. And I was just like, this is my
• 4:33
  team. I like these guys.
• 4:35
  So that was like the first thing that really pulled me in.
• 4:37
  I will honestly tell you, I was not a Hulkomaniac.
• 4:40
  I never had a moment where I, I was like, oh, Hulk Hogan is my,
• 4:43
  I was a Macho Man guy. I loved Mr. Perfect, I loved
• 4:46
  Rick Rude. I liked Roddy Piper.
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  I liked, I liked all the bad guys.
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  I just thought the, the, the bad guy characters were more
• 4:53
  entertaining to me. But yeah, So what pulled me in
• 4:57
  really was at first the entertainment, right?
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  So like I, I, I thought it was real just like anybody else
• 5:02
  growing up. And I thought the fights were
• 5:04
  100% like 2 guys going in there and the, the competition aspect.
• 5:07
  And I understood sports. I understood that like wins and
• 5:10
  losses and everything. But the stories, man, like it
• 5:13
  was, it was beautiful. And and then as I got older,
• 5:16
  definitely I learned not too far into it that like, because also
• 5:21
  like when you're a pro wrestling fan, you get the caveat of
• 5:25
  outside people, no matter what age, they have to always
• 5:29
  constantly remind you it you know, it's not real, right?
• 5:32
  You know, this is all fake, right?
• 5:34
  And like as a child, you don't need to tell them that.
• 5:38
  Like maybe a little bit to the aspect of like, hey, don't do
• 5:41
  this at home. What these guys are doing are
• 5:42
  professionals. Like in that aspect I get, but
• 5:44
  like it wasn't done. And for most wrestling fans,
• 5:47
  especially my age or younger, it wasn't done to like be a
• 5:50
  protective thing. It was done to kind of like,
• 5:53
  ruin or kind of be negative or just shit on something you love.
• 5:57
  And that sucks. Like, no one's out here
• 5:59
  bragging. Like, oh, you know, this isn't
• 6:01
  real. There's a lot of things that
• 6:02
  aren't real or I don't think are real that people base their
• 6:04
  whole lives on. And I'm not going to get into
• 6:06
  all that right today. I'm sure if you know my vibe,
• 6:09
  you know exactly what I'm talking about.
• 6:11
  But that's the kind of what it always came down to.
• 6:12
  I had, like, adults in my life or older kids who are like,
• 6:17
  you're watching that fake crap. Like, I was just like, yeah.
• 6:19
  And I like it. Leave me the fuck alone, You
• 6:21
  know what I mean? Like that's one of the biggest
• 6:23
  obstacles of being a pro wrestling fan that you have to
• 6:25
  overcome is the outside people just just like trying to
• 6:28
  diminish it for you, but you don't let them.
• 6:30
  If you generally enjoy it 'cause you like the athleticism, you
• 6:33
  like the storytelling, you like the character building, the,
• 6:34
  the, the pageantry to it, fucking enjoy it.
• 6:37
  It's it's beautiful. But yeah, just going into that,
• 6:40
  the characters, man, there was at the time growing up, man, it
• 6:43
  was very weird. Like there was there was
• 6:46
  barbers, there was, there was, there was thieves, there was
• 6:49
  clowns, there was zombies. Like the, the characters were
• 6:53
  all over the place. Old school WWEWWFWCW that I, I,
• 6:59
  I don't really know too much about WCWI was mostly AWWE kid,
• 7:02
  but our WF kid. But like characters were all
• 7:05
  over the place. They were larger than life.
• 7:07
  They were like everyone had like a job and it was just, I don't
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  know, it was weird. The energy was always just
• 7:13
  directly in your face. Every promo, people are
• 7:16
  screaming and they're wet and they're just muscled up to the
• 7:22
  gills. And the stories, like looking
• 7:25
  back at it now, they're simple and they're funny, but they were
• 7:28
  so wild. Like you lost the match, so I'm
• 7:34
  going to kick you in the face and throw you through a
• 7:36
  barbershop window. You were celebrating with my
• 7:39
  wife and I seen you touch her butt.
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  So we're going to fist fight over that.
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  Like it was just all over the place.
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  And they were fun. They were so much fun.
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  Jake the snake sicking a, a cobra on Macho Man's arm.
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  I was just it, it fucking drew me in.
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  Like I absolutely loved it. And, and then the collecting the
• 7:58
  toys and then playing wrestling and then, you know, just being
• 8:02
  completely immersed in it and sitting in my room and, and
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  doing all of that was just something for me that it is why
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  it meant more than just the entertainment aspect.
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  It was an escape for me. It was a way of like, oh man,
• 8:15
  I'm probably never going to be a, a, a really good basketball
• 8:19
  player. I'm never going to be a really
• 8:20
  good soccer player. I'm never going to be good at
• 8:22
  sports. But like I pay if I can get
• 8:24
  older and get bigger and stronger or not even like get
• 8:27
  bigger and stronger because like growing up, I watched Shawn
• 8:29
  Michaels and a huge reason why I became a Shawn Michaels fan is
• 8:32
  because he wasn't as big as everybody else.
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  Now in my little kid brain and as an adult, I know Shawn was a,
• 8:37
  you know, he was not in wrestling standards big, but he
• 8:40
  was, he's bigger. He's still very good shape.
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  And he was, he was, he was in a good size, but he looked
• 8:44
  realistic to me. He looked like achievable.
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  So it was it was the escape of like, can one day I be a
• 8:50
  wrestler? Can one day I get in the ring
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  and and wrestle. And I I mean, I wrestle with all
• 8:54
  my friends and family growing up.
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  So I was always the one who who took the heat.
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  So I always got beat up. I always sold.
• 9:01
  I was always the crash test on because I was the youngest and
• 9:03
  the smallest. But yeah, it, it just definitely
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  inspired me And it, it, I remember, you know, either
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  playing with the toys or being and in in in someones room.
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  We always sneak up and we wrestle on the bed and we have,
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  I have broken with my cousins and friends.
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  My cousin Jimmy, Oh my God, countless.
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  I think we're double digits. We're in the double digits.
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  There was not a bed frame in a house that was safe.
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  If me and my cousin Jimmy were there for more than two hours
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  and you couldn't keep us entertained because we were
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  going to sneak away. We were going to find a bedroom
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  and we were going to beat the everliving shit out of each
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  other and jump off of dressers and just wrestle and we would
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  snap legs off of beds like it was going out of style to the
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  point where we had to kind of start wrestling outside because
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  we were not allowed to wrestle indoors anymore because we broke
• 9:51
  so many beds. I remember we broke a bed in my
• 9:53
  attic. And this is going to be kind of
• 9:56
  like A2 fold story. I don't know why I'm telling
• 9:58
  this what I'm being I'm going to be honest.
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  We, we found an abandoned house in Maanee City growing up.
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  And I'm 1213 years old. We go into this abandoned house
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  and we're searching around and it's just like a treasure trove.
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  Like you're finding all this stuff.
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  It has been abandoned for years. And we come across a, a
• 10:18
  collection of adult magazines and movies and everything.
• 10:24
  And when you're 1213 years old and you stumble across this,
• 10:28
  you, you have just found the Holy Grail like you are.
• 10:31
  This is unbelievable. And I remember getting a bunch
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  of magazines and a tape and I sneak them back into my house
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  and I go up to the 'cause I had two rooms.
• 10:39
  I had the attic where I would hang out and then I my bedroom,
• 10:42
  which was on the 2nd floor. But I took all the magazines and
• 10:45
  I lift up the mattress 'cause I seen it in a gangster movie
• 10:47
  where they put all their money under the mattress and I laid
• 10:49
  all the magazines out underneath so they didn't pile up or look
• 10:53
  like suspicious. So all the magazines were there.
• 10:57
  And my cousin Jamie and IA couple days later, I didn't even
• 11:02
  tell them I had them there. We're wrestling.
• 11:04
  And all of a sudden, boom, big, big, big, big, big slam.
• 11:09
  Legs kick out and we run outside and we find a brick.
• 11:12
  We bring the brick and we lift up the the the bed and the
• 11:15
  mattress and we slide the brick underneath.
• 11:17
  And around that time my dad's like, what the fuck is
• 11:19
  happening? So he comes flying upstairs.
• 11:20
  He goes, what'd you just do? I'm like nothing.
• 11:22
  And he goes, why is there a brick under the bed?
• 11:24
  And I'm like, it broke. He's just fucking wrestling
• 11:26
  again and he's and he's like, let me see if I can even fix it.
• 11:29
  And he grabs the mattress and he ripped his pit.
• 11:32
  So when my dad, like myself, gets angry, you have to move
• 11:36
  things very forcefully and fast and show your test of strength.
• 11:40
  So he grabs the mattress and he flings it off the box spring and
• 11:44
  it is just lined with a with nudie magazines.
• 11:50
  And my cousin Jimmy looks at me and I'm just like, like
• 11:53
  Christmas story. Oh fudge.
• 11:55
  And my dad's like get him out of here, Stop fucking wrestling and
• 11:59
  go downstairs and playing the the go player N64.
• 12:03
  Yeah, so that was where wrestling and got me in trouble
• 12:05
  one time. But the creativity aspect.
• 12:08
  I remember getting the old school boom box and it's funny
• 12:11
  that I I remember being mad if I had to do this job.
• 12:15
  And honestly, it was such a good a good tool.
• 12:20
  Me and my friend Billy and a few other people, we would do like
• 12:22
  our own radio talk shows and radio station things fun right?
• 12:26
  Here I am. But we would also like
• 12:29
  commentate wrestling matches that weren't happening.
• 12:31
  I just remember we recorded and we'd be like, I would say what
• 12:34
  one guy was doing and he would say what the other guy was
• 12:36
  doing. But we had no idea what they
• 12:38
  what, what each of our vision was.
• 12:40
  And we would just do. We never listened to it back.
• 12:42
  We never studied it, but we just talked into a boom box and hit
• 12:44
  record and recorded our voices or we would literally record
• 12:48
  matches if we weren't in them and have commentary, which is
• 12:51
  funny because that's eventually where I LED.
• 12:53
  But it just, it gave me an outlet to be creative.
• 12:55
  It gave me an outlet to understand character building
• 12:57
  and understand theater and understand art.
• 13:00
  And I wish growing up I would have put the two together and I
• 13:03
  would have went to more theater of arts and less sports because
• 13:05
  I feel like I would have saved my body a lot more punishment.
• 13:09
  But. Man, it was.
• 13:11
  Just, it was, it was a creative outlet.
• 13:12
  Like I learned how to draw. I learned how to create.
• 13:15
  I learned how to use my imagination.
• 13:17
  I, I learned how to, you know, story tell and learn how to act
• 13:21
  and learn how to do all of that stuff as a young kid because I
• 13:24
  was so passionate about professional wrestling.
• 13:26
  And it, it was, it was an outlet.
• 13:28
  It was a, it's an art form. At the end of the day, it is
• 13:30
  theater, it is physical theater. It's so, it was just so wildly
• 13:35
  important. It was more than just watching
• 13:37
  it on TV. For us, it was man, this is this
• 13:39
  is everything. Like we want to collect
• 13:41
  everything. We had our own wrestling names.
• 13:43
  I was the heartbreak kid, Anthony Blackwell or Tony
• 13:45
  Blackwell. I didn't like Anthony growing
• 13:47
  up. And my cousin Jimmy, I'm going
• 13:50
  to actually kind of docks him a little bit, but his name is
• 13:52
  Barrett and he was Ji Double MYBA, Double RE double T.
• 13:57
  And if you're a Jeff Jarrett fan, he came up with his own
• 14:00
  Jimmy Barrett, Jeff Jarrett spin off.
• 14:03
  So it was just huge for us, man. And then, like, you'd find all
• 14:07
  the wrestling fans and it was a thing in like school for a
• 14:10
  while. It was not cool to be a
• 14:11
  wrestling fan. Like, you kept that shit on
• 14:14
  lock. You were not allowed to talk
• 14:15
  about it. You were not allowed to be a
• 14:16
  part of it until like the Attitude Era, when the Attitude
• 14:21
  Era Hitman, everyone in school was wrestling fans.
• 14:23
  And if you had a Stone Cold T-shirt or DXT shirt or
• 14:27
  something, like like you were loved.
• 14:29
  And I was like, Oh my God, this whole time.
• 14:31
  Like that was the one time where I felt like I fit in there with
• 14:34
  everybody because I was able to talk shop.
• 14:35
  I was able to talk wrestling with kids at school and I was
• 14:38
  able to fit in more because of that.
• 14:40
  And I just remember like it got so popular and the shirts at the
• 14:44
  time were so vulgar and bad for children.
• 14:48
  We weren't allowed how to wear wrestling shirts anymore in
• 14:50
  school, like DX shirts. The suck it.
• 14:53
  They were banned. I, I, I physically, I, I got a
• 14:56
  detention or I got written up or a sent to the office because
• 14:59
  like suck it if you if they heard you saying suck it.
• 15:02
  Fuck it, we. Didn't know what suck it was
• 15:04
  growing up. We were just like, yo suck it
• 15:05
  and they're like that's yeah, it was not good.
• 15:08
  But yeah, it was it was it was huge And and that was early
• 15:11
  stages are definitely something that was huge for me.
• 15:15
  And then I got older and around high schoolish, I got out of
• 15:20
  wrestling. I was like, this really isn't
• 15:21
  for me anymore. I I kind of listened to the
• 15:24
  outside sources. I want them to be honest.
• 15:25
  The outside people kind of got in my ear of like, this is
• 15:27
  silly, this is stupid. You shouldn't be a fan of this.
• 15:29
  This is for little kids. And I was like this.
• 15:31
  Could be further from I guess because the attitude era went
• 15:33
  away and then it went more to APG area and it was kind of
• 15:36
  catered more to children and I got out of it that whole
• 15:39
  ruthless aggressions attitude like that whole era.
• 15:42
  Post Attitude era, I didn't watch really anything.
• 15:45
  I watched WWE by WCW I've ever watched in that live.
• 15:49
  And then after that it was kind of it was kind of done for me,
• 15:52
  like the, the video games are done the the like.
• 15:55
  I did have a few moments in high school where my, my, my
• 15:58
  brothers, the littles got involved with wrestling and they
• 16:01
  were into it and I didn't watch it weekly, but we played the
• 16:03
  smack down video games and made our own storylines and we talked
• 16:06
  wrestling and we always had a love and passion for wrestling,
• 16:09
  but it wasn't something like we sat down and watched pay per
• 16:11
  views or anything like that. I couldn't tell you what was
• 16:13
  going on. I just knew who was in the video
• 16:14
  games. And then UFC came around and I
• 16:17
  was a giant, giant UFC fan. And then I watched Ken
• 16:22
  Shamrock's first match. I was like, oh, Shamrock's a
• 16:24
  wrestling guy. And then I watched Severin and I
• 16:26
  watched these guys who crossed over and I was like, oh, this is
• 16:28
  neat, but this is the real aspect of it.
• 16:30
  And I fell in love with that art form.
• 16:32
  And then I started making content about 8 years ago.
• 16:34
  And then wrestling was like, oh man, that would be fun to talk
• 16:36
  about wrestling. I don't know how many people are
• 16:38
  actually talking about that. That'd be fun to kind of go back
• 16:40
  into and talk nostalgia. Fun fact, everyone's talking
• 16:43
  about wrestling and podcasts. But I was like, I'm gonna do it,
• 16:46
  and I'm going to go to local shows and I'm going to invert
• 16:49
  immerse myself, and I'm going to get into wrestling and talk with
• 16:52
  my friends and do these weekly podcasts where we just talk
• 16:54
  about what's happening on television.
• 16:56
  And it was so much fun and I met so many cool people.
• 16:59
  I had a podcast where I actually had a local champion in Andy
• 17:03
  header, like he was the outbreak wrestling champion and he was
• 17:07
  sitting at our table week in and week out, hanging out.
• 17:09
  I thought that was the fucking coolest thing ever.
• 17:11
  And he became a regular and a very close friend.
• 17:14
  We had wrestlers who would come on and call in.
• 17:17
  And then I became really cool with everybody.
• 17:19
  And and then like I went to a PBW show and and they're like,
• 17:22
  hey, well, not just PBW, but I got kind of immersed in it and
• 17:28
  it it turned until you want to be backstage interviews.
• 17:30
  Do you want to try commentary? Do.
• 17:32
  You want to help? With production and I was in and
• 17:35
  I was hooked. And then most of my personality
• 17:38
  going forward was pro wrestling. I became fully the pro wrestling
• 17:42
  guy again. I felt like I was a child.
• 17:44
  It gave me a shot of youth into my arm that I needed so bad.
• 17:48
  And yeah, it's so much fun, but I kind of want to pull the
• 17:53
  curtain back. I'm going to break kayfabe.
• 17:55
  I'm going to talk about things maybe the wrestling business
• 17:58
  wouldn't like. And I apologize, but this
• 18:01
  podcast isn't just for wrestling fans.
• 18:03
  This is just for people who are like, even my interviews.
• 18:06
  I people, I don't listen to your podcast because I don't like pro
• 18:08
  wrestling. I never wanted to be just a pro
• 18:11
  wrestling podcast. I wanted to break that 4th wall
• 18:14
  and I wanted to show people that it's not just scripted dudes and
• 18:18
  their underwear beating up each other and, and just kind of
• 18:20
  making it more than just what it's boiled down to.
• 18:22
  What made everyone hate it and made me not watch it because it
• 18:25
  was like it was frowned upon and looked at different.
• 18:28
  And I wanted to make it more than that.
• 18:29
  And I, I felt like there was no other way I can get people to
• 18:32
  give it a shot again, unless I made it real, unless I unless I
• 18:36
  made it like no, there. There's more to it than what
• 18:38
  you've always been told. The behind the scenes, what goes
• 18:41
  into this, what tube talent do to when they get to a show like
• 18:45
  I, I, I literally infiltrated it.
• 18:46
  I got behind the curtain. I was on the other side of the
• 18:48
  guardrail. I seen how the magic is made.
• 18:51
  I learned this sleight of hand. I learned how the cookies are
• 18:54
  made. And I'll tell you what, once you
• 18:56
  there's a it's a double edged sword once you learn and
• 18:59
  experience when I'm about to not fully breakdown.
• 19:02
  So I don't want to give away everything, but there's some
• 19:03
  aspects I will tell you. But once you learn it, it can
• 19:07
  ruin it for you. And so it's, it's very dangerous
• 19:10
  territory. What we're getting into is like,
• 19:12
  does it does, will you lose the magic?
• 19:14
  Because like even me, like I do my watch alongs and I'll watch a
• 19:17
  match and I can see the referee talking or I can see the way
• 19:19
  they're moving with each other or talking with each other.
• 19:21
  And I've never trained, but like I can kind of see where it's
• 19:23
  going to go because you, you learn the form, right?
• 19:27
  So it's not just the matches, right?
• 19:29
  The biggest thing with professional wrestling, it is
• 19:30
  100% a scene. It is, it is a lifestyle.
• 19:34
  It is music, it is art, it is punk, it is travelling, it is I
• 19:41
  it's the entertainment industry. It's art, it is purest form.
• 19:44
  It's not just two people in the mid ring wrestling in a match
• 19:48
  and that's all a wrestling show is.
• 19:50
  These people travel from all over the place.
• 19:53
  Some people travel 345 hours, some people take plane rides
• 19:57
  from other States and countries to come to a tiny little fucking
• 20:02
  Firehouse in the middle of fucking New Jersey,
• 20:04
  Pennsylvania, New York, for less than fucking $100 or $50.00 to
• 20:11
  show off their character and their art form and their
• 20:13
  personality and just try to be seen by some new eyes and faces.
• 20:19
  And it's, it's beautiful and like.
• 20:22
  You guys see a poster of two people wrestling and you think
• 20:26
  to yourself, oh, they've rehearsed this and practiced
• 20:28
  this and did this for months. And that's not always the case.
• 20:33
  There is situations where if you see, you know, Draven Blaze, I'm
• 20:37
  just going to use some local stuff like Draven Blaze versus
• 20:45
  the Joseph Jordan or Junior Soba.
• 20:47
  They train together, they work together.
• 20:49
  So yes, they have touched, yes, they have figured it out.
• 20:51
  They talk on a more personal level.
• 20:53
  They work things out. They're at training class,
• 20:55
  they're practicing things and that those matches are good.
• 20:58
  But if you have two guys that are like, if you were to bring
• 21:02
  in, let's just say Sammy Chaos to a show and she's going to
• 21:06
  work. Riley Crowe They don't really
• 21:09
  work in the same places. They don't collaborate with each
• 21:11
  other very often. They don't really speak to each
• 21:13
  other. But they show up to a show.
• 21:15
  One drives an hour, one drives 3 hours.
• 21:18
  They show up, they get a little bit of ring time, so the ring
• 21:21
  gets set up, the fans and no, no fans are here.
• 21:24
  The ring gets built set up hours before a show.
• 21:27
  So if the bell is around 7, the ring is set up and prepared
• 21:31
  probably around noon, 1:00. And then if you want to get
• 21:34
  there early, you can. But most people don't show up
• 21:37
  until much, much, much later. Which is also another
• 21:42
  interesting dynamic. It's kind of like when the
• 21:44
  drummer shows up like 3 hours, 15 minutes before the set and he
• 21:47
  has to set all of his drums up and don't do what he has to do.
• 21:52
  I might have an interruption here.
• 21:53
  She's going to see my truck and come up.
• 21:57
  Oh, OK, nevermind. Sorry.
• 21:59
  But the yeah. So you would have that aspect of
• 22:03
  of wrestling where they just have like a few hours of ring
• 22:06
  time. They go, they go in there and
• 22:07
  they talk and they just go over certain things.
• 22:09
  But they don't even do like the full move.
• 22:10
  Like they'll do like a hoist up, like I'm going to pick you up.
• 22:13
  And then I'll. And then they just put them
• 22:14
  right back down like, yeah. And then we'll do this to this,
• 22:16
  to this. And then and within like 1520
• 22:18
  minutes they have, they have structured out their match.
• 22:21
  And a lot of it's just like playing chess, like, oh, I know
• 22:23
  if I move this piece here, this piece has to go here to defend.
• 22:26
  And it's, it's human chess. It's like, oh, by training.
• 22:29
  And this is what we're taught. This is how I do things.
• 22:31
  This is how this thing, this piece goes to this piece.
• 22:34
  And there's so many different levels to where people.
• 22:36
  Are in their chess mastery where like some people still struggle
• 22:39
  across the board like if I put my piece here, what would be his
• 22:42
  defense and all but like the wrestling, the aspect of
• 22:44
  wrestling is actually no competition right so.
• 22:47
  Like, hey, if you do this, I have to do this and I'll walk
• 22:49
  you through it and I'll help coach you and you'll see matches
• 22:51
  where someone takes control of the match and they're
• 22:54
  essentially telling the other person what to do the whole
• 22:55
  time. And they're teaching them as the
• 22:57
  match is happening live in front of a crowd.
• 22:59
  Like there's so many variables to a match that you don't even
• 23:02
  realize like one person could be completely in charge.
• 23:04
  The other person is just as good listening or there's someone
• 23:07
  who's brand new working a veteran, there's two brand new
• 23:09
  people. Then you see how that works out
• 23:10
  because neither one of them are probably, you're probably got
• 23:13
  this is going to be kind of not great, but let's see how they
• 23:16
  let's let's see how they create their art.
• 23:17
  It's fun. There's a whole production side
• 23:20
  of things. That's usually where I step in.
• 23:21
  You have to set up your cameras, have your hard Cam set up your
• 23:24
  commentary how the lights going to work.
• 23:26
  If the lights, if they dim the lights because they want more of
• 23:28
  an intimate setting, is that going to mess with the cameras?
• 23:31
  The music guys, hey, here's all your music.
• 23:33
  Get your music in. This is the order of the music.
• 23:35
  This is the order of the show. Go in show starts, you go in, do
• 23:39
  this, this, this a promo match, match match intermission.
• 23:42
  So there's a structure to a show on top of everything.
• 23:45
  And everyone has a role within wrestling, even if your role is
• 23:49
  on backstage interview. I just hey, here's the structure
• 23:52
  for this show. Here's what's going to happen to
• 23:54
  next show. I need you to help tell that
• 23:56
  story in 2 minutes or less on a camera so we can put it out
• 24:00
  online or put it in the production and so people can
• 24:02
  hear the story. You're a ring announcer.
• 24:03
  You have to get everyone's information, their height,
• 24:06
  weight, where they're from, monikers, how they want their
• 24:08
  name announced, have all that prepared commentary needs your
• 24:11
  notes of who's. Sometimes they don't tell you
• 24:13
  who's winning, sometimes they don't tell you who's losing.
• 24:14
  They want the commentary to be kind of natural and free
• 24:17
  flowing. But like selling the tickets,
• 24:20
  there's a ticket person, that person has a role like, but
• 24:23
  everyone kind of knows like they're all part of the show.
• 24:27
  And, and sometimes those, those outside people, the, the, the
• 24:30
  actually who's winning, what's going to happen?
• 24:32
  There's people who are there supporting their kids, who are
• 24:34
  running the tickets are part of the show and help set chairs up,
• 24:38
  who completely ignore the wrestling aspect because when
• 24:41
  the show starts, they want to be a fan.
• 24:43
  And I, I think that's kind of fun too when you go to shows and
• 24:46
  experience that. But there's people who come out
• 24:50
  and grab gear, like the wrestlers take off all their
• 24:52
  gear and they leave in the ring. You don't want fans to swipe
• 24:54
  that. Some of this is really
• 24:55
  expensive. And then you have to go to Lily
• 24:57
  because she now she got a machine and now she's going to
• 24:58
  make you new gear because some fans stole your shit.
• 25:01
  But no, there's someone who comes out and takes your gear
• 25:03
  and takes it to the back. So your stuff is safe there, you
• 25:06
  know what I mean? Like there's so many different
• 25:08
  roles that people don't even realize there's doctors.
• 25:11
  You have to have a doctor there, some depending on your state,
• 25:14
  but there's this and it's so it's such a there's so many
• 25:17
  moving parts to a wrestling show that like once you see that
• 25:22
  aspect of the business, you have you you gain that small
• 25:25
  appreciation without even learning the actual stuff.
• 25:29
  But yeah, like let's I'll kind of break down some more roles
• 25:31
  for you. So wrestlers.
• 25:32
  So they're your performers and your storytellers.
• 25:34
  They're the main ones who are out there that you're paying the
• 25:36
  ticket to see that you're all about that you want to follow,
• 25:41
  buy their merchandise. They're the stars.
• 25:43
  If you're in between the ropes and you're wrestling, that
• 25:45
  you're, you are, you are a big part of the show.
• 25:49
  You're, you're, you're, you're, you're the catalyst.
• 25:51
  You're the ones everyone's there for.
• 25:53
  You're referees. They're your flow.
• 25:55
  They're your communication. They're they're the
• 25:57
  communication from the wrestlers to each other, the wrestlers to
• 26:01
  the time keeper, which the time keeper is, we'll get into that
• 26:06
  to your people in gorilla and stuff like that.
• 26:08
  Gorilla is the this position either behind the curtain or
• 26:12
  somewhere close that are people keeping track of what's going on
• 26:15
  so they can keep time of the show or make sure everyone's
• 26:17
  safe. So like, if someone takes a
• 26:19
  really bad bump, the referee not only has to count or find out
• 26:23
  who wins, but they're generally checking on the safety and
• 26:26
  well-being being of the performers and they have the end
• 26:29
  all be all to stop it. Even though it's predetermined,
• 26:31
  even though it's not. I don't want to keep saying it's
• 26:34
  fake because it is disrespectful and I don't like saying it, but
• 26:37
  like, it's not, it's not real combat.
• 26:39
  It's not real. But they're taking real bombs.
• 26:42
  They're taking real slams. They are.
• 26:44
  They are always centimeters away from landing wrong and really
• 26:48
  hurting themselves, paralyzing themselves, breaking a bone,
• 26:51
  ripping ligaments or death. And I'm not trying to oversell
• 26:55
  that. You can die doing this.
• 26:57
  You can. You can jump off the top.
• 26:59
  You can I not even jump off the top rope.
• 27:01
  You can take a clothesline. You can take a back bump where
• 27:04
  you fall down and if you don't fall properly and you land too
• 27:08
  high in your neck or something along those lines, you can break
• 27:12
  your neck and die. And that can happen at any point
• 27:15
  in time. And that's where the training
• 27:17
  and, and your referee need to be there.
• 27:20
  There we have some situations just recently had online where
• 27:22
  referees see people get hurt and our referees get hurt and no one
• 27:26
  really saves them. And it's just like wrestlers are
• 27:29
  in the mode where you're kind of taught that old school mentality
• 27:32
  of keep the show going, work through your match.
• 27:33
  And it's just like you don't have to do that no more.
• 27:36
  If you're wrestling for less than 50 bucks in a gym, in a
• 27:38
  bingo hall or a fucking Firehouse, if you shatter your
• 27:42
  ankle, get the fuck out of the match.
• 27:44
  We we literally thought a guy really hurt his ankle but he was
• 27:47
  selling or working and we ripped him out of the match and he was
• 27:50
  angry about it. But we're like, no dude, like.
• 27:52
  You're you're too tough for. Your own good and we need to
• 27:55
  remove you from the situation that happens but yeah so
• 27:59
  referees are very, very crucial and shout out to you referees.
• 28:03
  I love you guys to. Death commentary.
• 28:05
  That's me. We are the guide.
• 28:07
  We're guiding the audience, but not so much guiding the audience
• 28:10
  that are in there in attendance. Now we do get lucky and there
• 28:14
  are fans who like the commentary and they like to sit close to
• 28:16
  commentary so they can hear us. But we're mostly for the
• 28:20
  YouTube. We're mostly for the wherever it
• 28:22
  gets posted later for people to enjoy.
• 28:24
  But we're telling the story sometimes or we're being funny
• 28:27
  or entertaining or just doing anything to keep you
• 28:29
  entertained. I have a voice going on of
• 28:31
  covering what you're watching. It is a very old school
• 28:35
  mentality of like or is is commentary needed?
• 28:38
  When you watch football, you can kind of visually see it, but
• 28:40
  sometimes they break stuff down that you're not like, it's hard
• 28:42
  though, right? So like football commentary,
• 28:44
  their job is to be like, oh, I think he's going to run the ball
• 28:46
  here. And they're kind of like
• 28:48
  spoiling it before it's happened because the commentary wants to
• 28:50
  come off as informed and teaching you.
• 28:52
  But wrestling, we can't do that, right?
• 28:54
  We can't be like, well, I think he's going to do this now
• 28:55
  because you're ruining it. You're ruining the art form.
• 28:59
  So there's a, it's very tricky being a commentator of toting
• 29:02
  the line of being a traditionalist, but also trying
• 29:04
  to be different and, and try something new and try something
• 29:07
  entertaining, but not get in trouble for not being a
• 29:09
  traditionalist. I struggle with that very often
• 29:12
  because I don't want to be like every other commentary you've
• 29:14
  listened to. I, I, when I, when you listen to
• 29:16
  a match that I'm on, I want you to be entertained.
• 29:19
  Whether it's funny, whether it's making you mad, whether it
• 29:23
  whatever. I'm trying to invoke emotion
• 29:25
  because the wrestlers are working hard to do that too.
• 29:26
  So I'm trying to add to that and sometimes people think I'm going
• 29:30
  into business for myself. But yes, I'm I'm a brand.
• 29:33
  I was hired to be there because of my brand and my brand brings
• 29:36
  people like you that are watching.
• 29:38
  Now you're gonna go watch my commentary and be like, well,
• 29:40
  I'm here because I listen to ABJ and now I'm a fan of these
• 29:42
  wrestlers. Now I like this promotion and
• 29:44
  that's what my job is to do. That's why I'm in this.
• 29:47
  This is why I like it. Production.
• 29:50
  So we have timing, music, backstage, camera work, camera
• 29:56
  people. They're the people who are kind
• 29:58
  of the lifeblood of the business.
• 30:00
  They're I'll, I'll also add a production ring crew.
• 30:03
  Ring crew are the are the end all be all.
• 30:05
  No one likes setting up rings. No one likes setting up chairs.
• 30:08
  No one likes breaking them down after a show.
• 30:10
  No one likes cleaning. But the ring crew, they are key.
• 30:14
  You are the, you are the lifeblood of the business.
• 30:16
  You show, you show up, you carry all the heavy boards in, you
• 30:18
  carry all the posts in, you carry the guard rails, you carry
• 30:21
  the chairs. You set everything up for people
• 30:23
  who show up, wrestle and don't help you break it back down
• 30:26
  later. And that's annoying and sucks,
• 30:28
  you know? Do you have timing?
• 30:31
  So people keep track of the show?
• 30:32
  Like, hey, we start at 7:00, we need to be out of here by 10.
• 30:35
  We have nine matches or sometimes 27.
• 30:39
  We need to get these matches in, out and done.
• 30:42
  So wrestlers need to keep their time when they're performing.
• 30:45
  Sometimes they lose track of time.
• 30:46
  So the production team will tell the referee you got 2 minutes,
• 30:52
  they have a little earpiece in and they have two minutes or
• 30:54
  they'll look over and they'll be like this 2, two minutes.
• 30:56
  Wrap it up, get it going, get them tell them to get to the
• 30:59
  finish of the match because we're running out of time.
• 31:01
  So they're keeping the time. Your music people are making
• 31:04
  sure they play the right song. So the right wrestler comes out.
• 31:06
  Your backstage is just a locker room, a locker room.
• 31:10
  They clean things up. They they go and grab their hey,
• 31:12
  you guys are next come out here. Hey, your match.
• 31:14
  This just happened. So they're they're.
• 31:16
  Kind of like agents. There's a backstage agents that
• 31:18
  tears like say hey, what's your match, OK.
• 31:21
  I think for the storytelling and what I talked to the the people,
• 31:25
  I think they want you to go in this direction.
• 31:26
  So maybe we're not going to tell you how to do your home match,
• 31:28
  but just do hit these beats, make sure these are the ways it
• 31:31
  goes down and you're good. They're also working with your
• 31:34
  promoters and bookers and they're the ones that put it
• 31:36
  together. Their promoters are the ones who
• 31:37
  promote the show, pay the money, and sometimes bookers and
• 31:40
  promoters are one of the same. Sometimes a good promoter will
• 31:42
  hire a better Booker who understands the the
• 31:45
  storytelling. But some promoters are just
• 31:47
  wrestlers who have become promoters, bookers and wrestlers
• 31:50
  themselves. So there's some shows where the
• 31:52
  guy in the ring wrestling is also the Booker.
• 31:54
  He's putting his money in so everybody else can perform in
• 31:56
  front of these people. He's the Booker.
• 31:58
  He got the venue, he did everything.
• 31:59
  They, she, whoever may be did all that work, but they're also
• 32:04
  still performing. So which is an interesting
• 32:06
  aspect because if they go out and hurt themselves in their
• 32:08
  match, they have to get rest of the hospital.
• 32:09
  Now you have a show with no Booker and you have no promoter
• 32:12
  and who's going to get paid and how?
• 32:14
  Who's going to tell the venue when we're, you know, I mean,
• 32:16
  there's a lot going on. A lot of variables, but man,
• 32:19
  these are the aspects of wrestling that you don't
• 32:21
  understand or you may not understand, but kind of pulling
• 32:25
  back the curtain. Things that I've learned is that
• 32:29
  storytelling to me matters more than the moves I really.
• 32:33
  You can do four 50s and super flips and all that and sure, the
• 32:37
  fans are gonna be like, oh, that was really cool and they flipped
• 32:39
  around a lot and they did really exciting things or they hit
• 32:41
  really hard. But a fan will remember more
• 32:45
  when you engage or interact with them or do something more on the
• 32:49
  lines of a moment or a funny, something funny or scary or a
• 32:53
  like more than they're gonna. Remember any of the matches
• 32:56
  timing and emotion is huge. Timing in a match is crucial.
• 33:00
  Like if you just rush to get to your next move, to your next
• 33:03
  move, to your next move, to your next move and you don't stop for
• 33:06
  a second. Let the audience feel what you
• 33:08
  just did, or give the audience a look, or work with your emotion,
• 33:12
  or work with the energy of the room.
• 33:14
  You could be one of the best wrestlers in the world, but
• 33:16
  you'd if you don't know how to work a crowd, you lost it.
• 33:19
  And that happens more than you know some.
• 33:21
  People are really good and they're very athletic and they
• 33:24
  can do the craziest shit. And they're so talented, but the
• 33:28
  character aspect, the timing, the reading, the room to feeling
• 33:31
  the energy to telling that story in the ring of being like, all
• 33:34
  right, cool. I I'm better than this guy at
• 33:37
  this aspect and I need to sell that.
• 33:40
  I'm better than him at this, but he's better than this than me.
• 33:43
  And then how are we going to tell that story, convey.
• 33:45
  That this is my strength and this is his strength and this is
• 33:47
  my weakness. This is his weakness.
• 33:48
  And how do we make that without telling the audience?
• 33:51
  This is what we're going to do? You have to show them without
• 33:53
  telling them. That's important.
• 33:56
  And how everything connects is so, so big.
• 33:59
  And commentary really, really made me appreciate that more
• 34:03
  because I have to then convey that sometimes to the audience.
• 34:06
  Or embellish it or make it stronger than it is by saying
• 34:09
  like, Oh my God, like great example of a show that'll be on
• 34:12
  YouTube soon for RWE was Philly Mike Swanson versus Richie Ruiz.
• 34:18
  Ruiz. And I'm terrible with Spanish
• 34:22
  names. I'm sorry, Richie, but Richie's
• 34:24
  more of a ground fighter. He's more of a he'll take you
• 34:27
  down, shoot a double MMA style fighter.
• 34:29
  And Philly Mike is just like a unpredictable, I'll poke your
• 34:33
  eye out, pull your hair, spit on you, take you outside the ring
• 34:35
  and street fight you. But in between the ropes, Philly
• 34:38
  Mike was getting smoked. He was getting dominated.
• 34:40
  But when Philly Mike took the match to the outside, he that
• 34:44
  was his territory. Territory.
• 34:46
  He made it. He made it ugly.
• 34:47
  He made it gritty. He made it tough.
• 34:49
  Richie tried to hit him. He ducked, he punched the pole.
• 34:51
  Now Richie's hands hurt. He can't grab submissions is
• 34:53
  Tarv. Now they're not telling the
• 34:55
  audience that, but me as the commentator, seeing the story
• 34:58
  they're telling. And sometimes, most times the
• 35:01
  wrestlers don't come up to us on commentary and say, hey, this is
• 35:05
  what we're going to do tonight, Which is not always a bad thing
• 35:08
  because if we're doing 12 match cards and every single person
• 35:11
  wants to remember 35 beats of their match and they're banking
• 35:13
  on me to do it, I'm not going to remember.
• 35:15
  I'm not. So I've, I've gotten, we've,
• 35:18
  we've, I've built that, that trust and respect with
• 35:20
  promoters, bookers and wrestlers that they can come up and tell
• 35:23
  me a little bit. But they're just trusting on me
• 35:25
  to do my job, and I trust them to do theirs.
• 35:27
  And it there's that, there's that trust, that trust factor
• 35:30
  they trust me to. Kind of make fun of them.
• 35:32
  They trust me to pick on them a little bit.
• 35:34
  They trust me knowing that it's not.
• 35:36
  I'm not really doing it to be hateful or vengeful.
• 35:39
  It's just trying to be do it. Letting me do my art while you
• 35:42
  do yours. And I respect that and I love
• 35:45
  that more than anything. But the fan interactions and
• 35:49
  meeting talent. So like when meeting wrestlers
• 35:52
  is real people, is is tricky sometimes.
• 35:55
  Sometimes wrestlers don't allow you to meet them.
• 35:58
  You are meeting the character. You're not meeting who's a
• 36:00
  character. I can kind of they wouldn't be
• 36:02
  mad if I said their real name. And Schultz, Schultz, John
• 36:08
  Schultz, you meet John Schultz. He he's soft spoken, he's funny.
• 36:13
  He can be very sweet sometimes very vulgar, but it's his humor
• 36:18
  sometimes. But when you meet JS Hawthorne,
• 36:21
  you're meeting an enigma. You're meeting a very boastful,
• 36:26
  a very proper, a very devoneer person.
• 36:31
  It's a different voice, it's a different style, the way he
• 36:33
  carries himself, his chest, his facial expressions.
• 36:36
  And and when he's at a show, he's that character.
• 36:39
  You're not meeting you're you're meeting Jazz Hawthorne.
• 36:42
  So that's kind of fun. And, and, and sometimes there's
• 36:44
  that barrier at wrestling where the fans, they want to be on the
• 36:48
  other side, they want to meet their favorite wrestler as their
• 36:51
  pure person and not the character.
• 36:53
  And my advice is don't, don't do that to yourself.
• 36:57
  Enjoy it. Enjoy what they're working for,
• 36:59
  enjoy what they're selling. If they're bad, enjoy them for
• 37:02
  being bad. You can pull them aside and be
• 37:04
  like, Hey, I like what you're doing.
• 37:05
  Keep it up. And they may not even
• 37:07
  acknowledge that they'll be like, go away from me.
• 37:09
  You know what I mean? You know what I mean?
• 37:10
  Like, but that's part of the show.
• 37:14
  How it feel like wrestling shows when you go to AWWE event or a
• 37:18
  big television event minus versus the independent scene,
• 37:22
  you're almost guaranteed you're going to meet your favorite
• 37:24
  wrestler that night like they're going to walk around.
• 37:27
  You're going to be able to interact with them, talk to
• 37:28
  them, buy merchandise from them personally where WWE and the big
• 37:33
  shows, they're behind lock and key.
• 37:35
  You're you're only out of meet them unless you pay big money to
• 37:37
  meet them. You don't have those
• 37:39
  interactions. All they really have is just
• 37:40
  like if they post something on social media or let you in on
• 37:43
  their personal socials. But independent shows, man, you
• 37:46
  can really grow with people and, and, and develop friendships
• 37:49
  and, and stuff like that and become friends with them and
• 37:51
  watch them tell their story and their art and change their
• 37:54
  character from promotion to most promotion and follow them across
• 37:57
  state lines and see them perform.
• 37:59
  And there there is that that respect between fans and talent
• 38:03
  for that. And we do have some of the most
• 38:06
  the best fans ever. Like we just recently lost an
• 38:11
  amazing fan. I don't know if should I put the
• 38:12
  name on I don't know, but you know who you are and everyone
• 38:17
  knows we just lost amazing fan. He was such a good dude, man.
• 38:21
  He came and supported. He actually bought one of my
• 38:23
  T-shirts and as a commentary person, like who the fuck cares
• 38:25
  about me or a content creator? But they were so fucking sweet
• 38:30
  and and we have so many of those that people come and they
• 38:32
  support us and they love us and they and they, they travel all
• 38:35
  across fucking state lines and follow us everywhere and support
• 38:39
  and come show to show to show. And it's beautiful and but
• 38:42
  sometimes fans get a little creepy and disrespectful,
• 38:47
  sometimes more with the female fans or sometimes you're
• 38:51
  working. This is, I'm going to kind of
• 38:53
  say the ugly stuff here too. It's not always Peaches and
• 38:55
  rainbows, but sometimes you have fans who let's just say they're
• 39:00
  in their political echo chamber and then they come to a show and
• 39:04
  they see a person of color or a person of the LGBTQ community
• 39:10
  and they have that old school wrestling mind state where they
• 39:13
  can yell and scream whatever they want and they start yelling
• 39:16
  slurs. Because back in the old school
• 39:18
  day of wrestling, that was kind of accepted and it was kind of
• 39:21
  leaned into with characters. That is not the case anymore.
• 39:24
  Please do not do that. Female talents if you see them.
• 39:28
  Hello. How you doing handshakes?
• 39:31
  Let me get your photo. It's not prom.
• 39:33
  Don't put your arms around them. Don't touch them by the waves.
• 39:35
  Don't grab them. Don't touch them unless they
• 39:37
  give you permission to. Don't compliment their bodies.
• 39:41
  They don't need that. Just just be a fan.
• 39:43
  Treat them like you would treat a male talent.
• 39:45
  You wouldn't walk up to a male talent.
• 39:46
  Be like man, you're at like, I love your thighs.
• 39:49
  Your butt looks straight in those.
• 39:50
  Then don't do it to a female. Respect them as if they're in
• 39:53
  there working just as much. Once again, female wrestlers
• 39:56
  back in the day were sexualized and glorified for that.
• 39:59
  And they're not that anymore. Sure, some of them are sexy,
• 40:01
  some of them are beautiful. Some of them still sell sex in
• 40:04
  their characters, but they're in the same aspect of the dudes
• 40:08
  they are working, they're grinding at, just as was they
• 40:10
  were back there. But they weren't taken as
• 40:11
  seriously by promoters and companies or the TV companies
• 40:15
  because the TV companies set the tone of kind of what we do in
• 40:18
  the business of like how things are kind of done.
• 40:20
  And it's hard to break those stigmas because if it's if it's
• 40:23
  allowed and okayed on TV, then how do we not allow it on the
• 40:26
  independence? Scene and sometimes that's a
• 40:28
  clash as well, but. You.
• 40:31
  Realize that you realize quick that these characters and these
• 40:34
  moments and these wrestling things are more than just
• 40:36
  characters. They're more than just
• 40:38
  wrestlers. They're more than just people in
• 40:39
  production. We're all people who are trying
• 40:42
  to chase something bigger than us.
• 40:44
  We're all like even me, the referees, the promoters, the
• 40:48
  bookers, they would love to get a call from the higher ups or
• 40:51
  make enough money to go and make this your full time job or
• 40:54
  perform on television or. To book on television to be a
• 40:57
  part of a. Creative team to be on the
• 40:58
  commentary team, to be a backstage interviewer.
• 41:01
  Everyone's working to get to that next level.
• 41:03
  And that's the beautiful thing about this journey is that
• 41:06
  sometimes your favorite wrestler is now on television like this.
• 41:10
  This guy right here my fighter attainment poster.
• 41:12
  You're looking at it right there.
• 41:13
  There's journey Burke, there's Marcus Mathers, there's Tony
• 41:16
  Deppen, there's Veda Scott, there's speedball Mike Bailey at
• 41:20
  the time Janella was AW and now back Marcus Mathers is now a W
• 41:26
  www.e ID prospect. He's he's signed speedwell Mike
• 41:31
  Bailey is is was a is now a was a champion in AW his tag team
• 41:36
  partners now a singles competitor.
• 41:37
  He's on TV every single week, wrestling on pay per views,
• 41:40
  traveling the world doing this and getting paid for it.
• 41:42
  So that's awesome when you're friends and you're and Veda is
• 41:45
  like right on the brink of being signed as a as as a commentator
• 41:49
  and and and as a female commentary.
• 41:51
  Not many. There's not a place on
• 41:53
  television you could turn on television and hear a female
• 41:55
  commentator. And I think Veda is going to be
• 41:57
  that person. So I'm excited for them too.
• 41:59
  I'm sorry, I don't I don't want to assume.
• 42:02
  I don't know if what Veda's pronouns are, but you know, a, a
• 42:06
  right. Hey, fam, yeah, female signed at
• 42:09
  birth. But yeah, I'm super excited for
• 42:11
  them. I I would love, I would love for
• 42:14
  that to be a thing. And and that's the that's the
• 42:16
  thing, like even though you don't make it to that next
• 42:18
  level, you're rooting for your peers too.
• 42:21
  And every single time you're there, you're like, man, why are
• 42:23
  you not on that next level? You're so good.
• 42:26
  And then sometimes people from the top level come down and
• 42:28
  support us or come and work shows with us.
• 42:32
  The grind is so cool and, and, and, and like I said, coming
• 42:35
  down and seeing something from the the TV side of things to the
• 42:39
  indie scene or watching the Indies go to TV is, is super
• 42:43
  fun. And, and that's kind of an
• 42:44
  exciting thing with the wrestling shows we're like.
• 42:47
  Hey, this show we're going to bring in this name and more fans
• 42:50
  flock because they want to see this name and then they leave
• 42:52
  bigger fans of the name because they got to see new talent and
• 42:56
  using someone's. Clout chasing, I guess you would
• 42:59
  say or showing using their stature to bring in new fans and
• 43:02
  be like I used to watch them on TV.
• 43:04
  Now they're local to me. I want to come see the show and
• 43:07
  now I'm leaving a fan of insert wrestler name here because he
• 43:12
  stole the show because he performed so well.
• 43:14
  You there's people like the Kodiak.
• 43:17
  I mean shouldn't say this. This is this is where I'm
• 43:20
  playing character, but I'm going to break carefree.
• 43:22
  I'm going to break kayfabe again here.
• 43:23
  Vincent Michael Vincent Michaels is one of the best heels in the
• 43:28
  Northeast wrestling scene. And I'm only saying that because
• 43:31
  we get to work with him at two companies in Northeast with RWE
• 43:35
  and WTW. But he, his heel work is
• 43:38
  unbelievable. He won't make the crowd fucking
• 43:41
  hate him. He is such a scumbag, such a
• 43:44
  piece of shit. But behind the scenes, I love
• 43:46
  him. He works so hard, he grinds,
• 43:49
  he's trying. He just came back from the
• 43:51
  European Tour in London. Like it's just, it's, it's he,
• 43:55
  he travels from school to school to school to get more education
• 43:59
  from different trainers and different people to try to
• 44:01
  evolve his game and get to the next level.
• 44:03
  And, and, and that is so much why I love this business.
• 44:08
  Perception versus reality. Sometimes, not every weekend
• 44:12
  when we tell you we're going to play wrestling, it's glamorous.
• 44:15
  Sometimes you're driving 45, six hours to a show.
• 44:22
  I have never personally have driven longer than 4, but it
• 44:24
  happens. You drive 4 hours to a show, you
• 44:27
  work 12 hours. So from a firm for me, from a
• 44:30
  commentator standpoint, I'm not saying that my job is harder
• 44:33
  than anybody else, but I have a lot to memorize.
• 44:34
  I have a lot of improv. I'm using my voice a lot.
• 44:36
  Sometimes I'm doing, I have to do a promo, sometimes I have to
• 44:39
  do backstage interviews. Sometimes I'm creating content,
• 44:41
  sometimes I'm doing the ring announcing and commentary.
• 44:44
  So it takes a toll on your voice.
• 44:46
  But also I'm working the whole show.
• 44:48
  If it's a 2 hour show and 16 matches, guess who's not getting
• 44:51
  a break? Guess who can't get up and pee?
• 44:53
  Guess who cannot like interact with the fans and grow his brand
• 44:56
  on intermission? Because I'm going to try to use
• 44:58
  the bathroom real quick or get a drink or get something quick in
• 45:00
  my stomach because I'm I'm dying out.
• 45:02
  That's me on commentary with wrestlers.
• 45:05
  They go in, they wrestle 9 to 10 minutes, they're done for the
• 45:08
  night. Go interact, go sell their
• 45:09
  brand, go do what they got to do.
• 45:11
  But working smaller crowds, sometimes you go to a show, you
• 45:15
  got 20 people there. Sometimes you got 15, sometimes
• 45:18
  you got less. And everyone, you kind of look
• 45:21
  around and you're like, how am I getting paid tonight?
• 45:23
  Because they made no money. And boy, I work really hard and
• 45:27
  I performed. But realistically, if I keep
• 45:31
  taking money from someone who sold 10 tickets at a show and I
• 45:34
  like working for that person and I want to watch them grow and I
• 45:38
  want to watch this promotion grow, if I take that money from
• 45:41
  him, he's not going, he's he's going to go in the hole and he's
• 45:43
  never going to run a show again. And this venue has a lot of
• 45:46
  growth. This venue could be cool.
• 45:47
  This town's really fun. We just need to do better as
• 45:50
  performers and promoters to make it so people want to come.
• 45:54
  So you have those aspects too, of like if the grass isn't
• 45:57
  always greener, but it's greener where you water it.
• 45:59
  Sure, you can go and work all these big promotions and you're
• 46:01
  going to be a small fish in the big pond, or you can stay at the
• 46:04
  smaller ones and watch them grow and develop with them and turn
• 46:07
  into something bigger. Sometimes you go into places and
• 46:11
  your venue's not the prettiest. It's a 1 bathroom situation with
• 46:15
  75 people who have to share it, so if you don't use the bathroom
• 46:18
  before the fans get there, it is a fucking disaster by the time
• 46:22
  you leave. Sometimes there's no food at a
• 46:24
  venue. Sometimes there's no drinks at a
• 46:26
  venue. Sometimes there's no air
• 46:28
  conditioner. Sometimes there's no heat in the
• 46:30
  dead of winter and you're in the elements while you're indoors.
• 46:34
  Sometimes you're outdoors and you're in the elements, You're
• 46:37
  doing commentary in the blazing hot sun for 12 hours and you're
• 46:40
  sunburned and you're blocked. Sometimes try to think of other
• 46:44
  things that are not very glamorous about professional
• 46:45
  wrestling. Oh, do you have rough fans?
• 46:49
  Sometimes people overstepped boundaries or personal space.
• 46:54
  Try to think of anything else that's not glamorous.
• 46:55
  Sometimes you have bad people in your locker room.
• 46:57
  Sometimes you have people in your locker room who shouldn't
• 46:59
  be in locker rooms. Sometimes there's people that
• 47:01
  are working your shows. Who morally you don't see eye to
• 47:04
  eye with or have done things that you don't like and you're
• 47:08
  like, well, boy, I don't want to work the same show with a person
• 47:10
  who has done this and that. That sucks.
• 47:12
  That's really hard. That's sometimes the hardest
• 47:14
  thing for me. Passion over money is a big one.
• 47:20
  It's hard to go and work for free.
• 47:22
  I know I'm very I'm, I'm very tough on the money side because
• 47:25
  I worked. For free for a very, very long.
• 47:27
  Time and I don't have a lot of money and sometimes those money,
• 47:30
  those shows for a lot of us is our gas way home.
• 47:33
  There's been times where I've went to shows I was like, all
• 47:36
  right, I don't have a lot of gas.
• 47:38
  I don't. I'm probably not going to eat
• 47:39
  today. And and and then.
• 47:40
  Lily's been a part of this journey too with me for a long
• 47:42
  time, where it's like, I want to be a good boyfriend and I want
• 47:45
  to support her and I want to be there for her and she was
• 47:47
  struggling with jobs and money. And on and it's not a big deal
• 47:51
  for me to go to a show and not eat or not drink and, and work
• 47:54
  my ass off and come home and try to figure out what I get here.
• 47:56
  But like, I don't want to put somebody else through that.
• 47:58
  I don't want somebody else to go 12 hours with me for a day and
• 48:01
  not eat or drink or have to struggle.
• 48:02
  And, and but they're, she's, she's a trooper, man.
• 48:06
  She, she's about it. She supports me.
• 48:07
  She wants to be part of this guy and she understands it too.
• 48:10
  And she, she's willing to do it. And that's not an easy thing to
• 48:12
  ask to somebody. And I'm very thankful for them
• 48:14
  to, for doing that. But like mainly a weekend we
• 48:18
  both weren't working. We we went to Philadelphia for
• 48:21
  almost 3 days and had enough money to maybe one of those
• 48:26
  three days and one of one of those three days, I think dinner
• 48:31
  and lunch was energy drinks that were given away for free by C4
• 48:36
  at a wrestling show. Like that was our only substance
• 48:39
  for the day. Oh, and then we found like a box
• 48:42
  of pizza that was left in a locker room and I think I had a
• 48:45
  slice of that. We got pizza.
• 48:47
  We ordered the pizza. After we, you know, I'm saying
• 48:49
  like, like the day of the like at the show, they think there
• 48:51
  was like pizza in the back and it had like it was like a
• 48:53
  topping I wasn't even into and it was like old and stale and I
• 48:56
  think someone took a bite of it and put it back.
• 48:58
  But I haven't eaten in a day and 1/2 so I ate it, sorry.
• 49:02
  But yeah, those, those those days are tough, the wrestling.
• 49:06
  And the only reason we got pizza when we got home is because
• 49:08
  Suplex paid very well that day and I'm very thankful for them.
• 49:12
  But to get there, I had to bank on getting the money.
• 49:15
  But sometimes you're not going to get that.
• 49:17
  And once again, passion over money.
• 49:19
  Do you want to do you want to chase this dream?
• 49:21
  Do you want to earn your spot? Because no one's just going to
• 49:23
  walk in and be like, OK, you deserve.
• 49:25
  This money, sometimes you have to work for it and sometimes you
• 49:27
  work for it for a few shows. Sometimes you may not get
• 49:30
  anything. It's tough.
• 49:32
  It's really tough and you have like essentially at the end of
• 49:35
  the day, especially from like from a commentary standpoint or
• 49:38
  a wrestling standpoint, is someone paying the price of
• 49:41
  admission to see you? Is someone walking in the door
• 49:44
  wearing your T-shirt supporting you?
• 49:47
  And if the answer is no, it's hard for you to justify your
• 49:52
  like, I want more money, I want to raise.
• 49:54
  I want like, if you're not selling 25 tickets at the show,
• 49:58
  you're probably not going to get bigger money on the show for
• 50:01
  someone who is because at the end of the day, that the people
• 50:03
  who would draw the more money and the people who are the
• 50:05
  bigger draws. Get the more money.
• 50:08
  This is why I really work hard to get you the listener to
• 50:10
  watch, support, comment, like and subscribe to their pages
• 50:14
  because that's how I show my value.
• 50:18
  But yeah, reasons why I respect it is the just the appreciation.
• 50:22
  I appreciate what the talent does.
• 50:23
  I appreciate what the what everyone goes through to do
• 50:26
  this. The understanding of the
• 50:28
  business, making connections, making friendships and and
• 50:33
  relationships with people is my favorite part of this.
• 50:37
  I have made lifelong friends you when you're in the entertainment
• 50:40
  industry, it is so much different from every other form
• 50:44
  of life of job or friendships of connections.
• 50:48
  And then you add the, the, the element of professional
• 50:51
  wrestling onto it, which is everything I said before about
• 50:53
  sometimes you're playing the character, sometimes you're not.
• 50:55
  Sometimes you're doing this, sometimes you're doing that.
• 50:57
  You're you're you're some of these people are putting
• 50:59
  themselves in the most vulnerable positions to go and
• 51:02
  tell art people that aren't comfortable in their bodies.
• 51:05
  Some people who don't really like their bodies and they're
• 51:07
  out there in almost their underwear performing for you.
• 51:11
  And then they come in the back and they get made fun of by
• 51:13
  their friends for their body. And like, are the fans talk shit
• 51:15
  about their body while they're out there because fans do that.
• 51:18
  Like, it's such a vulnerable thing to put yourself out there
• 51:21
  and to perform and to be open for the criticism, to be open
• 51:25
  for the heckling, to be open for the praise.
• 51:28
  And when you're in the trenches together and you're all working
• 51:32
  together at it, you want to protect each other.
• 51:34
  Like you don't say that, but then also like, you want to play
• 51:36
  into the character because that person might go sell a T-shirt
• 51:39
  later because he got made fun of.
• 51:41
  It's weird. It's a weird dichotomy.
• 51:46
  Yeah, I love it. But let's get into pretty much
• 51:49
  the reason why we're here. The bigger impacts it it, it
• 51:54
  LED. It led to the huge part of my
• 51:55
  content creation. This is why it's changed my
• 51:57
  life. It it led to a huge aspect of my
• 52:00
  content creation. It led to me doing watch alongs
• 52:03
  and live streams and having discord communities where we
• 52:05
  just talk wrestling. And then that has also LED into
• 52:08
  like horror movies and all the other passions and stuff I'm
• 52:10
  into. Cause most wrestling fans, I'm
• 52:13
  not saying this derogatorily, but we're nerds.
• 52:15
  We're pop culture nerds. Wrestling is pop culture.
• 52:18
  If 9 times out of 10, if you're a pro wrestling fan, I can sit
• 52:21
  down and talk horror movies with you.
• 52:23
  I can talk anime with you, I can talk music with you, I could
• 52:26
  talk sports with you. I can like, there's so many
• 52:29
  avenues and so many things at at wrestling shows because
• 52:32
  everyone's connected through everything.
• 52:34
  Because wrestling is such a, it's a gateway drug for pop
• 52:37
  culture. It really, it's the best way to
• 52:39
  describe it. You're going to, you're going to
• 52:41
  be into it, you're going to be in other things.
• 52:42
  And then you find more of your tribe and more of your people.
• 52:45
  It helps shape my mindset. Wrestling has made me so much
• 52:48
  mentally stronger than I can even imagine it is.
• 52:52
  It is such a life lesson, man. You go there and you, you make
• 52:54
  yourself vulnerable. You put yourself out there, you
• 52:56
  work a character, you learn how to, you learn psychology, you
• 52:59
  learn how to read a room, you learn how to read people.
• 53:02
  You learn how to go through these situations and these
• 53:04
  things. And if you can work a wrestling
• 53:06
  crowd, you could probably navigate life a lot easier too.
• 53:09
  Like if you learn the world of wrestling, the world, the, the
• 53:11
  real world is easy. The real world's fake
• 53:14
  wrestling's hard. Wrestling's real.
• 53:16
  It's, it's, it really is. I've used wrestling techniques
• 53:21
  at jobs with Co workers, with people on the street.
• 53:26
  I've learned how to de escalate situations or escalate
• 53:30
  situations because of wrestling. It's it's it's an art form.
• 53:35
  It's it's a psychology degree. It it's a little bit of
• 53:38
  everything. It's unbelievable.
• 53:42
  And and I'm very proud that when people.
• 53:44
  Associate ABJ and Associate Anthony Blackwell Junior
• 53:48
  Blackwell, Tony Tony Junior, Junior, any name I'm going by at
• 53:53
  any point in time. I, I, I would almost guarantee
• 53:57
  the first thing if you were making a bio sheet of who is who
• 54:00
  Anthony Blackwell Junior is, who ABJ is, one of the first three
• 54:04
  things they're going to say is pro wrestling.
• 54:06
  I think I've made myself. It's become part of my identity.
• 54:11
  You think me, you think wrestling.
• 54:12
  And if it's not the first thing, it's definitely in the top
• 54:15
  three. I have been the pro wrestling
• 54:18
  guy now for a very long time. Friends, family, people send me
• 54:22
  videos. That's another thing I love too.
• 54:24
  I get video sent to me and you're please, if you follow me
• 54:27
  on social media, you can send me stuff.
• 54:29
  If you find something on the Internet that you think is
• 54:30
  really entertaining or cool, send it to me.
• 54:32
  I would love to see it if, if it made something you feel a
• 54:35
  certain type of way, please send it to me.
• 54:36
  I like when people send me reels.
• 54:38
  I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm not even gonna look over because I'm sure
• 54:40
  she's staring at me because I don't always look at her reels.
• 54:42
  But I like when people send them to me sometimes not my
• 54:45
  girlfriends, but I like reels. I like when people send them
• 54:51
  what they're passionate about, because a lot of it's sometimes
• 54:53
  wrestling and it's fun when I get to say like, oh, that's a
• 54:56
  friend of mine. I've worked him.
• 54:58
  If you look another reel, I'm probably doing commentary on
• 55:00
  that match. That's exciting.
• 55:02
  I, I, I'm, I'm happy that my identity has become wrestling
• 55:06
  and has become the local independence scene.
• 55:08
  And, and, and sometimes people think of the, of the scene I'm
• 55:12
  in as that, that's the ABJ scene.
• 55:15
  Like that excites me. Like when, hey, I'm going to
• 55:17
  Northeast Pennsylvania, there's a 75% chance I'll be working
• 55:20
  with Anthony or, you know, I was that way in New Jersey for a
• 55:23
  while. Like where people like, oh, and
• 55:24
  I'm growing and I'm getting invited to other places and I
• 55:28
  love it. And I'm, I'm, I'm happy that
• 55:29
  wrestling has accepted me. I'm happy that wrestling has
• 55:32
  welcomed me. I'm, I'm happy to consider
• 55:35
  myself one of the boys in the back.
• 55:36
  That's not an easy thing to do as a commentary, as a not
• 55:40
  commentary, as a content creator.
• 55:43
  This business is protected. Not everyone can just come in,
• 55:46
  and when you come in, you got to work hard for it.
• 55:48
  And I'm thankful that this business has welcomed me, has
• 55:52
  accepted me as one of their own. I've made friends with people
• 55:55
  who are on TV, people who are legends, people who are soon to
• 55:59
  be legends. IT wrestling didn't just
• 56:02
  entertain me, it helped shape who I am.
• 56:05
  Without wrestling, there's no ABJ 100%.
• 56:09
  The reason I go by the three letter acronym is because every
• 56:12
  wrestling company has a three letter acronym,
• 56:14
  WWEAWWCWECWGCWABJ. And that's pretty much it.
• 56:23
  I'm going to close it out here. Do you have anything questions
• 56:26
  wise that I can pose to you? Oh, all right, you don't want to
• 56:30
  say them. So Lily's questions, do you
• 56:34
  think if you went into theatre, you would have stuck with it or
• 56:36
  was that too feminine? Interesting.
• 56:38
  Probably at the the time in high school because of the barriers
• 56:43
  and if you weren't an athlete or you weren't a jock, it was tough
• 56:46
  to stand out in my school. I probably wouldn't have stuck
• 56:49
  with it. I honestly know, I think if I
• 56:51
  would have got into it and I would have found my community
• 56:53
  and I would have found my people.
• 56:55
  And I think this goes for anything.
• 56:57
  Once you get into a scene, if you're afraid and I'm, I don't
• 57:00
  really have a younger fan base, but this can go for anybody.
• 57:03
  I want to do this, I want to get into this, but everyone around
• 57:06
  me is going to think I'm weird for doing it.
• 57:08
  Let those people think you're weird because the second you go
• 57:10
  in and you find your people and you find your tribe and you find
• 57:13
  that sense of community, you're going to fucking block all of
• 57:16
  that negativity out. So I, I generally think if I
• 57:18
  would have gotten a theater and I would have got into arts, I
• 57:22
  would have been picked on for a while for it.
• 57:25
  But I think I would have found people within it and I would
• 57:27
  have fell in love with it and those people, and I wouldn't
• 57:29
  have cared what people thought. So yeah, I, I, I'd like to think
• 57:32
  so, but definitely yes, it was definitely deemed as like a
• 57:36
  feminine. Don't do it.
• 57:37
  But I also played soccer my whole life and I was called gay
• 57:39
  for being a soccer player, but I loved it and there was nothing
• 57:41
  you were going to get me to talk me out of playing it.
• 57:43
  So I, I, I think if I would have went in and actually gave it a
• 57:46
  shot, I would have definitely stuck with it.
• 57:48
  Thank you for that. Another question from Lily, the
• 57:51
  panel here for being someone who didn't fit in at a young age.
• 57:55
  When did you actually stop, start not giving a fuck about
• 57:59
  fitting in? But about a year ago.
• 58:02
  I mean, I don't know, I, I, it, it, it's always been a struggle
• 58:07
  and a battle. And every time you change your
• 58:08
  scene, you're gonna go through it.
• 58:09
  But I honestly, I think, I think when I met the littles, when I
• 58:12
  met, you know, my, my brothers, I think when I isn't, I really
• 58:16
  stopped giving a fuck because I felt like I had friends who had
• 58:19
  my back. I had friends who that if push
• 58:21
  came to shove and things were gonna get to a physical level, I
• 58:24
  had people who were willing to throw down with me and then vice
• 58:27
  versa. And they just made me feel like
• 58:30
  I didn't need to give a fuck what other people said.
• 58:31
  I, I had a strong friend foundation.
• 58:33
  I had family, I had security. And that's when I really stopped
• 58:37
  caring. And then it became more of I
• 58:39
  cared about what they thought, which, you know, bit me in the
• 58:43
  ass sometimes. But at what point did you
• 58:46
  realize you can run? Oh, ruin the scene.
• 58:49
  Ruin the scene for everyone else watching.
• 58:52
  And what brought you into the commentary side?
• 58:56
  Uh huh. Lead you to going into.
• 58:58
  Commentary oh and didn't lead me going into commentary so I
• 59:01
  realized I can ruin the scene for people when I was bringing
• 59:04
  people like you in, when I was bringing like my ex in, when I
• 59:07
  was bringing your kids in, when I was doing watch alongs and I
• 59:10
  was meeting wrestling fans who are pure wrestling fans and
• 59:14
  didn't understand the business and we would be watching.
• 59:17
  It happened plenty of times. I think Lily realistically
• 59:20
  doesn't do a lot of the wrestling content with me in the
• 59:22
  watch alongs and the pay per views because I probably ruined
• 59:24
  on her too many times and the presses are also she quit I
• 59:27
  never get to. Enjoy a.
• 59:29
  Match yeah, because I'll be like, oh shit, oh, he's not
• 59:31
  really hurt. He'll be coming.
• 59:32
  He'll be right back in or see how they're hiding and they're
• 59:34
  peeking. They're going to come in and
• 59:35
  make a save. But to me that just it just
• 59:38
  comes out because I appreciate that they're doing that.
• 59:41
  It's not me trying to ruin it. It's me just pointing out, oh,
• 59:44
  this is going to be a cool spot because I see it coming.
• 59:47
  And I've learned during my watch alongs and my commentary that
• 59:51
  probably the reason why I don't have a lot of fans is because
• 59:54
  I'm too smart for some wrestling fans of some aspects.
• 59:57
  And I'm not trying to brag or be that person, but just shut the
• 1:00:00
  fuck up and and be one of them be one of us and and just enjoy
• 1:00:04
  it the way they enjoy it. And what brought me into
• 1:00:07
  commentary for a long time I didn't feel like I was good
• 1:00:11
  enough to be on commentary. I kind of talked about this in
• 1:00:14
  my podcast with the Kilowatt on you go watch on High Tension.
• 1:00:19
  That I worked with people when I first got into it that were like
• 1:00:23
  really popular independent scene, people in Camp Leapfrog
• 1:00:26
  people. Who were like.
• 1:00:27
  Coming from bigger promotions who had establishments and names
• 1:00:31
  and everything like that. And there was people doing
• 1:00:32
  commentary there who were also established and very well known.
• 1:00:36
  Some of them are now on TV. And I was just like, I can't
• 1:00:38
  jump into this commentary scene. Who the fuck am I?
• 1:00:40
  I don't deserve that. That I, I don't deserve to be on
• 1:00:43
  camera 'cause I haven't earned it yet.
• 1:00:46
  And then eventually it got to the point where like, no, you're
• 1:00:48
  going to fucking do it. We're going to put you in that
• 1:00:50
  position and that's what your job is going to be.
• 1:00:52
  And then I did it and I fell in love with it.
• 1:00:54
  So it was kind of, for a while I fought doing commentary.
• 1:00:57
  And then once I started doing it, I loved it.
• 1:01:00
  But then there's also like the battles of commentary of like,
• 1:01:03
  once again, not caring what people think because I do.
• 1:01:06
  And sometimes people are like, well, I don't like your style.
• 1:01:08
  I don't like the way you're doing it.
• 1:01:09
  And then I would try to change it and be more traditional.
• 1:01:11
  And then I'm bored. I'm literally at a show and I'm
• 1:01:13
  just like arm drag. Wow, he's doing so good.
• 1:01:17
  Look at him go. He's really working the arm
• 1:01:21
  great clothesline. And I'm just and I felt like my
• 1:01:24
  show sucked 'cause I wasn't being me.
• 1:01:26
  And then once again, I had to stop caring about what people
• 1:01:28
  fucking thought and just do what I do.
• 1:01:30
  And if you don't like me, simple, don't book me.
• 1:01:32
  I'll stay home. I'll live stream a wrestling
• 1:01:34
  show. I don't need to be.
• 1:01:36
  I love the independent wrestling scene, but if tomorrow it turned
• 1:01:38
  around and said, hey, you're not for us.
• 1:01:40
  Your style's not our thing. You need to go away or don't
• 1:01:43
  come or you're not welcome to be a part of us.
• 1:01:45
  I would still go and watch shows and support shows and and watch
• 1:01:49
  them and watch them on YouTube and support independent
• 1:01:51
  wrestling. I don't like it.
• 1:01:53
  That's, it's not an end all be all for me.
• 1:01:56
  I, I actually wish I was able to watch more wrestling, sit at
• 1:01:59
  home and watch wrestling because it's hard because I, I, I
• 1:02:02
  consume so much wrestling that it's hard to support sometimes
• 1:02:06
  the smaller companies, I think me taking a step back and not
• 1:02:08
  really watching as much. WWE has allowed me to have more
• 1:02:12
  time to watch more things like mystery wrestling and GCW and
• 1:02:15
  stuff on other platforms. And once I get caught up more
• 1:02:18
  financially and have more of a stable job situation and
• 1:02:22
  financial situation, I would get Fight TV back in independent
• 1:02:27
  wrestling. I'd IWTV back and and and and
• 1:02:29
  merged myself in more wrestling content.
• 1:02:31
  But yeah, that's pretty much all I got.
• 1:02:33
  If you guys have any. Questions that you want me to
• 1:02:36
  answer on the next episode. Comment them below.
• 1:02:38
  Shoot me admi will jot them down and I will put them towards the
• 1:02:42
  end of every podcast episode and give you a shout out.
• 1:02:44
  Lily was my first tester on doing this.
• 1:02:46
  So thank you Lily for sitting in here being bored.
• 1:02:48
  Listen to me talk to myself for 4550 minutes, but I appreciate
• 1:02:54
  you all so much. The next episode is going to be
• 1:02:58
  I have them all structured out here.
• 1:03:00
  I have a lot. Just give me a second.
• 1:03:01
  I have to scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll,
• 1:03:04
  scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll. I will be dropping these every
• 1:03:07
  Wednesday. I'm going to try weekly if I if
• 1:03:10
  I if I start falling behind, I'm sorry, I'm human.
• 1:03:13
  I have a lot of things going on but I'm going to try my best but
• 1:03:16
  I'm going to try to do these every Wednesday and keep these
• 1:03:20
  going. 5 questions will be every Friday and Monday until I run
• 1:03:23
  out of space and then it just goes either to a Friday or a
• 1:03:26
  Monday because it's hard to keep three pieces of content going
• 1:03:29
  every week. I am going to start doing live
• 1:03:31
  streams again so Please be patient with me.
• 1:03:35
  Sometimes I do it, sometimes I don't because I would I'd rather
• 1:03:37
  just sit in bed and then hang out with Lily because that was a
• 1:03:40
  thing too. I talked about before is I have
• 1:03:42
  to be more conscious about working with the people around
• 1:03:47
  me instead of making everything about my content.
• 1:03:50
  So if I miss some days, I'm OK. I just needed to prioritize and
• 1:03:54
  put my life first. So I think my next episode is
• 1:03:58
  going to be the Cost of Being Fake is my next episode.
• 1:04:02
  So I think I think that's where I'm going with it.
• 1:04:06
  I think I had it all that laid out.
• 1:04:08
  I don't remember. We'll figure it out people.
• 1:04:10
  But just TuneIn next week. Comment below, follow me on all
• 1:04:13
  social media and we'll see you all next time.
• 1:04:15
  We're out of here.