Latest / The Bootleg Kev Podcast / #440 - Swerve Strickland
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: What's going on everybody? It's the ae W. That's all
- 0:03Speaker 1: Elite Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion Swarve Strickland right here on
- 0:07Speaker 1: the Bootleg keV podcast.
- 0:12Speaker 2: Yo Man, Bootleg CAV Podcast Special guests in here. The
- 0:16Speaker 2: AW World Heavyweight Champion Swarve Strickland is here.
- 0:19Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen.
- 0:20Speaker 2: You I got to talk to this guy at Rolling
- 0:24Speaker 2: Loud and since then he has picked up this amazing
- 0:27Speaker 2: piece of.
- 0:28Speaker 1: Hardware, amazing hard work hardware.
- 0:32Speaker 2: Yeah, so I gotta ask you, man, Like it's kind
- 0:35Speaker 2: of crazy because I had seen you're kind of like
- 0:39Speaker 2: somebody on Twitter had posted I guess, like a Twitter
- 0:43Speaker 2: version of like your come up in the last like
- 0:45Speaker 2: three or four years, Like you had kind of went
- 0:47Speaker 2: from like being kind of like underutilized and underappreciated in
- 0:52Speaker 2: a different company to come into AW and you've been
- 0:56Speaker 2: making noise for you know, over a year now, And
- 0:59Speaker 2: like what's it feel like when you finally are able
- 1:02Speaker 2: to put this on and like hold that thing up?
- 1:03Speaker 1: Like, man, it's literally like I'm probably the only one
- 1:07Speaker 1: from like that two or five Live era to go
- 1:10Speaker 1: into world heavyweight title status. So crazy, just like yeah,
- 1:15Speaker 1: so like and if you look at that roster that
- 1:17Speaker 1: that that crop and talent. I don't think people would
- 1:20Speaker 1: have like really saw me as that at the time
- 1:22Speaker 1: there was there has been like I probably would have
- 1:25Speaker 1: been the last choice or one of the last few
- 1:27Speaker 1: choices of like one of the guys that could have
- 1:29Speaker 1: been like the headliner made a Ventor World Champion type
- 1:32Speaker 1: material in that era, and like I never would say
- 1:35Speaker 1: like I was like underutilizer and I just didn't have
- 1:38Speaker 1: enough time there. Like you see a lot of guys
- 1:41Speaker 1: who are main eventing over there now they had a
- 1:43Speaker 1: lot of time. It's been a long time to marinate,
- 1:45Speaker 1: get the character, but also like build equity with the company,
- 1:51Speaker 1: build time with them, they build like they grow. Like
- 1:54Speaker 1: that's like Drew McIntyre is a prime example of that
- 1:56Speaker 1: guy who's like the primest example. Yeah it was there,
- 1:59Speaker 1: but then got let go up and came back and
- 2:00Speaker 1: then like Okay, now he has a lot more time
- 2:04Speaker 1: and tenure, so now he can like grow with the audience,
- 2:06Speaker 1: grow with the roster, with the staff, with the marketing
- 2:09Speaker 1: team departments also made me like him, and I was yeah, yeah,
- 2:13Speaker 1: shout out Drew. He's a good home as a home,
- 2:16Speaker 1: he's a homie. But yeah, like it's just like it's
- 2:20Speaker 1: just like with that place, it's just about time and
- 2:23Speaker 1: equity and putting in like just he's building chemistry and
- 2:27Speaker 1: trust within that organization. And I just didn't have a
- 2:30Speaker 1: lot of time there, and then they didn't allow me
- 2:33Speaker 1: a lot of time. If I would have, who knows
- 2:35Speaker 1: what I would have been doing over there. Still, I
- 2:36Speaker 1: don't know. Maybe maybe it wouldn't have gotten better. Maybe
- 2:39Speaker 1: it would have, but like that's just that's how the
- 2:42Speaker 1: business works with these things. And I just got I
- 2:45Speaker 1: took my opportunity and I built time in equity with Tony,
- 2:49Speaker 1: and Tony trusted me from day one. Tony like literally
- 2:52Speaker 1: was like day one, I like, I have plans for you,
- 2:56Speaker 1: and I want to put you on to do what
- 2:58Speaker 1: you do, be you be yourself and go out there
- 3:01Speaker 1: before him because that's what I'm getting. That's why I'm
- 3:03Speaker 1: like bringing you in here to do Yeah it's oh yeah, yeah.
- 3:07Speaker 2: Well so that's one thing like with Tony is it
- 3:11Speaker 2: feels like he's like as much as he's a very
- 3:13Speaker 2: successful guy, very wealthy guy, it feels like when he's running, aw,
- 3:18Speaker 2: he runs like he's like a fan first which I
- 3:22Speaker 2: think is a very cool approach to like wrestling, because
- 3:25Speaker 2: we've always seen like certain people were like, man, I
- 3:28Speaker 2: wish that guy would get over, that guy would get
- 3:30Speaker 2: an opportunity. And I feel like Tony is the guy
- 3:32Speaker 2: who's on Twitter like I wish that guy would get
- 3:35Speaker 2: an opportunity, was right, But he's running the company. What
- 3:39Speaker 2: is like the like what do you think are the
- 3:40Speaker 2: misconceptions about Tony Kahan? And like what are what are
- 3:43Speaker 2: some things that like you've already kind of learned just
- 3:45Speaker 2: being so close to somebody like that who's a powerful guy.
- 3:48Speaker 1: You know, he's a guy that likes good wrestling. Yeah,
- 3:50Speaker 1: you know, he's like he's literally like as far as
- 3:52Speaker 1: like what he likes, he's one of the fans and
- 3:54Speaker 1: when it comes to that, he just likes to see
- 3:56Speaker 1: good wrestling. Uh, And that's what all EAT wrestling's mainly about,
- 4:04Speaker 1: Like how you went over the fan base is like
- 4:07Speaker 1: you gotta do it in the ring. Like there's certain
- 4:12Speaker 1: guys and certain people, certain acts and certain performers. They
- 4:15Speaker 1: get opportunities to do it another different ways and that's great,
- 4:20Speaker 1: but like, ultimately it's a wrestling company. It's literally like
- 4:24Speaker 1: primarily wed they had the best wrestling and to be like,
- 4:28Speaker 1: to be the top of that card, be the top
- 4:31Speaker 1: of the company, you gotta perform. And in the time
- 4:35Speaker 1: when all EAT Wrestlings started, that was kind of deprived
- 4:38Speaker 1: on national television.
- 4:39Speaker 2: Oh for sure a while, you know, definitely a dark
- 4:42Speaker 2: air over at the other.
- 4:43Speaker 1: Like and but they've always had great talent though for sure.
- 4:47Speaker 1: You know, it was just like the product was primarily
- 4:49Speaker 1: something what they wanted. They wanted to present, something that
- 4:53Speaker 1: was sports entertainment. That's what they built the bread and
- 4:57Speaker 1: butter from right, you know, that's what they do and
- 5:00Speaker 1: like nobody does it better than them. We wanted to build,
- 5:03Speaker 1: build our narrative, our alternative to what's unique to us
- 5:07Speaker 1: and what we the fan base was missing at the
- 5:10Speaker 1: time and what the industry needed. And it was just like,
- 5:15Speaker 1: we need an alternative. We need someplace where even people
- 5:18Speaker 1: that are over there that really wanted to break out
- 5:20Speaker 1: and just deliver the type of wrestling they wanted to do,
- 5:22Speaker 1: not the type of wrestling that they want to show,
- 5:25Speaker 1: the type of wrestling they wanted to do, show their
- 5:28Speaker 1: art and all the wrestling gave them that. And seeing
- 5:31Speaker 1: Moxley come over, you know, like feeling showing his rejuvenation
- 5:37Speaker 1: in the wrestling, rejuvenated Adam Cole, rejuvenated myself, rejuvenated, and
- 5:44Speaker 1: letting the creators and the artists create in Christian the
- 5:48Speaker 1: art Christian like showing like another like, man, he can
- 5:53Speaker 1: run with this thing another five ten years if he
- 5:55Speaker 1: wanted to know just the hell of a heel. He
- 5:57Speaker 1: always was such a good heel too, right, But also
- 6:01Speaker 1: aw allowed him to like really push the boundaries on
- 6:04Speaker 1: the material as well, you know, like there's certain like yeah,
- 6:08Speaker 1: there's certain stuff that you guys, yeah, yeah, even the
- 6:11Speaker 1: source material, like you can't say certain things like talking
- 6:13Speaker 1: about dead fathers and stuff like, there's certain ways you
- 6:16Speaker 1: can't like really go in a WW with aw Tony.
- 6:22Speaker 1: Really he gets a kick out of like pushing the
- 6:25Speaker 1: boundaries a little bit more and on national television, and
- 6:29Speaker 1: you know that's where competition always really stem from and
- 6:33Speaker 1: pro wrestling.
- 6:33Speaker 2: I was gonna ask you, like when you get over there, right,
- 6:37Speaker 2: because you know it's so hard.
- 6:40Speaker 1: I you know, I'm I love watching wrestling.
- 6:42Speaker 2: I'm not gonna I have a surface level understanding what's
- 6:45Speaker 2: going on aw at all times. But like I told
- 6:48Speaker 2: you before, the started like, it's it's harder for me
- 6:49Speaker 2: to watch it because I don't have cable and shit,
- 6:51Speaker 2: but I love wrestling. I watch I watch every pay
- 6:55Speaker 2: per view I watch. I go to fucking I try
- 6:58Speaker 2: to go to at least three or four a year.
- 7:01Speaker 2: It like, what for like, could you kind of like
- 7:04Speaker 2: give me an idea of what it's like like you
- 7:07Speaker 2: get to aw what are the things that you know,
- 7:11Speaker 2: you feel like, Okay, I have to do this, this
- 7:15Speaker 2: or this to start to make the fans give a
- 7:17Speaker 2: fuck about me? Because to me, that's the hardest thing
- 7:20Speaker 2: is like there's so many guys that are really good
- 7:22Speaker 2: at wrestling, and they can put on great matches, they
- 7:26Speaker 2: could take great bumps, they can make guys look good.
- 7:29Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's like the the.
- 7:31Speaker 2: X factor is like how do you get the people
- 7:33Speaker 2: to give a fuck about you like that?
- 7:36Speaker 1: Because that's where this comes into play. That's you know
- 7:38Speaker 1: what I mean.
- 7:39Speaker 2: And to me, that like, like you said, you didn't
- 7:41Speaker 2: have time to even figure that out really with WWE,
- 7:45Speaker 2: So like what were the things that you were able
- 7:47Speaker 2: to kind of like conscientiously do to kind of like
- 7:50Speaker 2: make people really give a fuck?
- 7:51Speaker 1: For me, it was always about like what lane isn't
- 7:55Speaker 1: being taken up for me? That's where I first think
- 7:59Speaker 1: in smart I look at I observe the landscape of
- 8:02Speaker 1: like everything. I start with my home base, which was
- 8:06Speaker 1: ALI Wrestling. I look at the roster, male female managers, groups, factions,
- 8:15Speaker 1: management managers. I look everywhere. Then I look at the archetypes.
- 8:21Speaker 1: What archetypes are being taken up. You know the jocks,
- 8:24Speaker 1: there's the right you know, the artists. Then there's the
- 8:27Speaker 1: dark characters of the House of Black. Okay, So you
- 8:30Speaker 1: look at all these types of things, I'm like, Okay.
- 8:33Speaker 1: Then it's like where do I fit in with these things? Where?
- 8:36Speaker 1: And then also like, what's what's something unique about myself
- 8:39Speaker 1: that I know that I truly know about myself that
- 8:42Speaker 1: I can really portray and display to the world in
- 8:46Speaker 1: my way? Where's my voice? So like, look at this
- 8:49Speaker 1: like it's als the music industry. Look at all these albums.
- 8:52Speaker 1: I'm like, all these albums that you see right here
- 8:55Speaker 1: tell different stories. They have different archetypes, they tell they
- 8:58Speaker 1: have different looks, right, just like how does a speaker
- 9:02Speaker 1: box like stand out to a Ready to Die from Biggie?
- 9:06Speaker 1: How does a college drop out with Kanye West stand
- 9:09Speaker 1: toe to toe with the Carter with Wayne, Right, how's
- 9:13Speaker 1: the chronic with the dog Pound and like all these things.
- 9:16Speaker 1: So you're just looking at like where can I get in,
- 9:18Speaker 1: where I fit in? Figure it out. Then of course
- 9:21Speaker 1: it's aw has to be proven in the ring. You
- 9:23Speaker 1: got to go out there and wrestle your ass. You
- 9:25Speaker 1: got to prove it in the ring. You got to
- 9:26Speaker 1: prove in the ring. Promos are amazing, and I would
- 9:32Speaker 1: say it's sixty.
- 9:33Speaker 2: Forty wrestling to promo or promo to wrestling.
- 9:36Speaker 1: Wrestling to promo sixty percent in the ring forty percent. Yeah,
- 9:40Speaker 1: another place is like more maybe flip the other way,
- 9:43Speaker 1: you know, yeah, you know for sure.
- 9:48Speaker 2: But now there's been guys that's been ninety ten promo
- 9:50Speaker 2: to wrestling.
- 9:51Speaker 1: And they've had long, illustrious careers. Something of them happens. Yeah, yeah,
- 9:56Speaker 1: some people like and there's very few people like that
- 9:57Speaker 1: can do that. Like even a MJF. He's like heavy promo,
- 10:00Speaker 1: heavy heavy promo, but at the end of the day,
- 10:03Speaker 1: he goes out there, he proves it in the ring
- 10:05Speaker 1: and he wrestles his ass off and he shows out.
- 10:07Speaker 1: You know, so I got a hell of a tan
- 10:10Speaker 1: when he was away by the way, Oh yeah, brutal.
- 10:12Speaker 1: He came out said, he looks like he came straight
- 10:14Speaker 1: from King Cool. Yeah, oh yeah, probably was, you know,
- 10:17Speaker 1: like all that rest man. But but he was also working.
- 10:21Speaker 1: His body shows it, you know, he looks great. But
- 10:25Speaker 1: uh so then you also got to find out once again,
- 10:29Speaker 1: you start all over again in the ring, where do
- 10:31Speaker 1: I find? Where do I fit in? Where Lane is
- 10:33Speaker 1: being taken up the luchadors, they're killing it, like it's
- 10:38Speaker 1: very hard to compete with like a vikingo a Phoenix.
- 10:40Speaker 1: You're not gonna out to the lutators. Then, just like
- 10:44Speaker 1: the grappling and the Greco Roman style, like well, Brian
- 10:46Speaker 1: dance is the best in the world at that, you know,
- 10:49Speaker 1: so and you just kind of like narrow it down.
- 10:52Speaker 1: So it's just for me, It's just like something that's
- 10:54Speaker 1: really I like film. I'm a big fan of like
- 10:56Speaker 1: film and horror. So I was like, hmmm, horror mixed
- 11:03Speaker 1: with a hip hop mogul. That's two different genres. But
- 11:07Speaker 1: if I bleed these together, I can kind of create
- 11:09Speaker 1: something very unique in something that's never been done, like
- 11:12Speaker 1: maybe maybe like I don't remember that ever, but just
- 11:15Speaker 1: for that sake. It's just like it's so far fetched,
- 11:17Speaker 1: and like if you say it out there, it's like
- 11:19Speaker 1: you said a lot was like, that doesn't make sense.
- 11:20Speaker 1: How do you make that happen? It's like, okay, take
- 11:22Speaker 1: like a Snoop Dogg bones shouts of Bones man, how
- 11:27Speaker 1: great of an actor? Snoop wasn't true, but it fits.
- 11:32Speaker 1: Then I'll take like I'm a Wesley Snipe fan. Then
- 11:34Speaker 1: there's like a New Jack City, a blade, a demolition man.
- 11:38Speaker 1: So there's all these like little elements. I'm like, these
- 11:41Speaker 1: are images that I like that almost like you're putting
- 11:43Speaker 1: your mood board together kind of in a sense. But
- 11:46Speaker 1: it's just I never put anything on that, but like
- 11:48Speaker 1: you know, mentally, you're like, it's just like that's what's
- 11:50Speaker 1: going on in my head. I'm just throwing all these
- 11:51Speaker 1: things out there.
- 11:52Speaker 2: And you're also like, you also do hip hop, like
- 11:54Speaker 2: in real.
- 11:54Speaker 1: Life, right right right? So I'm like, how do I be?
- 11:56Speaker 1: Like and I know, like the claim to had like
- 11:58Speaker 1: the hip hop the rapping thing going on. So I
- 12:00Speaker 1: was like, okay, how do I do? I'm still hip hop,
- 12:02Speaker 1: but I don't want to. I want to be something
- 12:07Speaker 1: business sense, So I was mogile kind of doing a
- 12:10Speaker 1: lot of things as it is, like acting and podcasting
- 12:14Speaker 1: and music and all the music videos. I direct them
- 12:16Speaker 1: all my music videos, producing and all that stuff, so
- 12:19Speaker 1: like it's kind of a mobile thing. So I just
- 12:21Speaker 1: came up with mogul to feel like just something bigger
- 12:24Speaker 1: than just rapping. So that's how that came about. And
- 12:29Speaker 1: then there was like elements like when after the all
- 12:32Speaker 1: In matches and going in the coffin and stuff, I
- 12:35Speaker 1: was like, I'm a big fan of Sweeney Todd, so
- 12:38Speaker 1: I was like, let me add a little like darkness
- 12:40Speaker 1: to the eyes, make me feel a little let me
- 12:42Speaker 1: go sink a little more deeper into the character and
- 12:45Speaker 1: darken it up a little bit more to feel like,
- 12:48Speaker 1: all right, something's different about Swerve than any other person
- 12:51Speaker 1: on this roster, and he's given me a different tone
- 12:53Speaker 1: and feel. But I never actually tell you what it is.
- 12:56Speaker 1: I want the fans to kind of like go through
- 13:02Speaker 1: go each week, but I want them to go back
- 13:04Speaker 1: and try to find and trace through where this really
- 13:08Speaker 1: crept in and really started. So now you're kind of
- 13:10Speaker 1: having fans doing their own like picking apart and find
- 13:13Speaker 1: it like kind of like like like once again, when
- 13:16Speaker 1: we used to buy albums, like in the day, we
- 13:18Speaker 1: used to go through the booklet for sure who yeah,
- 13:21Speaker 1: who produced, what the art, who's did the art direction,
- 13:24Speaker 1: who did this?
- 13:25Speaker 2: Let me look at the thank yous, who got thanked,
- 13:27Speaker 2: who got who the credit is?
- 13:29Speaker 1: Yeah, I kind of want that fans to do that
- 13:32Speaker 1: with me the character, rather than just like look at
- 13:35Speaker 1: me and see what you're getting, like, oh, we like them,
- 13:36Speaker 1: but what's more there? There's something more deeper. Let me
- 13:39Speaker 1: go out and find and search what's deeper with Swerve.
- 13:42Speaker 2: Do you remember like the first like real crowd pop
- 13:46Speaker 2: you got where you were like, oh.
- 13:47Speaker 1: It's working. Oh. I would honestly say, like when I guarante,
- 13:56Speaker 1: like I was getting good reactions and and then like
- 14:00Speaker 1: we were getting like when when it was really a
- 14:05Speaker 1: pop was New York, it was a Grand Slam we
- 14:09Speaker 1: had I would I didn't wrestle on Grand Slam, but
- 14:11Speaker 1: we had the local Embassy Gates of Agony. They wrestled
- 14:16Speaker 1: the Young Bucks and Hangman Page and Rampage that night.
- 14:20Speaker 1: So Grand Slam is arthur as Stadium, big, big, big venue.
- 14:26Speaker 1: We were coming out pretty late on the show on
- 14:28Speaker 1: Rampage and so the gates and agony and nine, I'll
- 14:32Speaker 1: go out to do their match. I come out in
- 14:34Speaker 1: the middle, like right before commercial break. I come out
- 14:36Speaker 1: in the middle of it to interrupt and pause distraction
- 14:39Speaker 1: a little bit. I come out on this big fur
- 14:41Speaker 1: coat from Daniels leather, shout out Daniel's leather, and the
- 14:45Speaker 1: music hits because like they had different music than me,
- 14:48Speaker 1: so they came out their music, so they didn't get
- 14:50Speaker 1: ninas dance yet. Middle of the match, my music hits.
- 14:53Speaker 1: Now I stops, looks up the ramp and goes Boom
- 14:57Speaker 1: starts hitting the dance, and the whole crowd starts doing
- 14:59Speaker 1: it with like in unison like Boom. I was like,
- 15:04Speaker 1: we got it. Now, we got him, Now we got something.
- 15:06Speaker 1: Now we got him. That's when I knew that was
- 15:08Speaker 1: like it was unless necessarily the crowd pop, but it
- 15:10Speaker 1: was the crowd interaction and the wave of just all
- 15:14Speaker 1: like I said, big venue, you can see it from
- 15:16Speaker 1: like here all the way up to the top and
- 15:18Speaker 1: like different parts. Then from that city forward, it was
- 15:21Speaker 1: just happening in every city and it's like, now I
- 15:24Speaker 1: hit that thing, tonight, do it? Do it? And that's
- 15:26Speaker 1: the thing that's where like a w they kind of
- 15:29Speaker 1: like they reward that feeling. It's like, all right, no,
- 15:32Speaker 1: this is working. I'm not going to pull you back
- 15:34Speaker 1: like it's going go with it, flow, do your thing, yo.
- 15:38Speaker 2: You Uh we talked a little bit about this when
- 15:42Speaker 2: I ran into a rolling cloud. But you had this
- 15:44Speaker 2: match where you were bleeding and the dude was tasting
- 15:46Speaker 2: your blood.
- 15:47Speaker 1: Out of your face. Oh yeah yeah full gear.
- 15:50Speaker 2: Uh well, kind of like you kind of said it
- 15:54Speaker 2: a little bit like you guys knew that was gonna.
- 15:55Speaker 1: Happen, do you? Everyone got tested to make sure you know, well,
- 15:59Speaker 1: every we get and pretty much every pat for.
- 16:01Speaker 2: People who don't know, there's like you guys are having
- 16:04Speaker 2: this match and then you're bleeding out of your face
- 16:06Speaker 2: and then the dude you're wrestling, who was it, Hayman
- 16:08Speaker 2: Hangman Page starts like pretty much like fountaining, founting, fountaining
- 16:14Speaker 2: out of your face and drinking your blood. Which it's
- 16:18Speaker 2: it's the most like hardcore ass shit I've seen. Sin's
- 16:21Speaker 2: like I was a little kid watching like backyard wrestling
- 16:24Speaker 2: at easy w but I remember how viral it went,
- 16:28Speaker 2: But like can you kind of like whose idea was that?
- 16:31Speaker 2: And like were you hesitant about doing it? Like kind
- 16:34Speaker 2: of walk me through like the build up to that
- 16:36Speaker 2: idea actually coming.
- 16:38Speaker 1: To hesitant on a lot of things. As you can
- 16:41Speaker 1: go through my history once again, if you want to
- 16:43Speaker 1: look up my history, you see me do some wild
- 16:45Speaker 1: shit in the wrestling world. It was just like we're
- 16:49Speaker 1: so deep in the feud. Is like he was so
- 16:52Speaker 1: enraged that it was almost like a disrespectful thing, Like
- 16:57Speaker 1: it just be such a shock value. Like that's how
- 17:00Speaker 1: crazy I pulled him into my world. If you know
- 17:04Speaker 1: Hangman Page, he's always been like through the history of
- 17:07Speaker 1: ALI wrestling, he's been like one of the truest like
- 17:11Speaker 1: goodie two shoes type guys, Like he had like a
- 17:14Speaker 1: drinking problem as on camera and stuff. But through all
- 17:18Speaker 1: and all, he always came out doing the right thing.
- 17:21Speaker 1: He had morals, he there's lines he didn't cross. He
- 17:25Speaker 1: was like an upstanding citizen and the passion of he
- 17:30Speaker 1: was the passion in the heart of ALI wrestling. And
- 17:33Speaker 1: then you pulled him into the darkness. I pulled him
- 17:35Speaker 1: so far into being into my world because I wanted
- 17:42Speaker 1: to get into this spot. He was a former world
- 17:45Speaker 1: a former world champion. I wanted that spot so bad
- 17:50Speaker 1: that I was willing to do whatever I had to
- 17:52Speaker 1: do and manipulate whoever I had to manipulate, which just
- 17:55Speaker 1: happened to be Hangman, because he was kind of like coasting.
- 17:58Speaker 1: He was like just riding the way of his contract
- 18:01Speaker 1: and stuff and just yes, boss, I do whatever I
- 18:04Speaker 1: need to do. And he was complacent, and I was like, well,
- 18:08Speaker 1: if you're going to be complacent, I'm not. I'm still
- 18:12Speaker 1: I'm starving over here, and you're getting out of shape
- 18:15Speaker 1: eating like you know what. I mean, you've been eating
- 18:18Speaker 1: for a while. Now. I deserve that spot. And if
- 18:20Speaker 1: you're not going to, if you're just one to like coast,
- 18:22Speaker 1: I'm gonna move you out of the way and take it.
- 18:24Speaker 1: And it came true. It came true. And I crossed boundaries,
- 18:30Speaker 1: like going into his house, like talking to his infant
- 18:33Speaker 1: child in the crib. That's so fucking crazy, you know,
- 18:36Speaker 1: recording it?
- 18:37Speaker 2: Can can Tony Khan work out the streaming deal so
- 18:40Speaker 2: I could catch up on all this shit?
- 18:41Speaker 1: I mean, I mean those are on YouTube, you can
- 18:44Speaker 1: always you could check those out as much as you want.
- 18:47Speaker 1: But like, I crossed the boundaries and I pushed things
- 18:50Speaker 1: to level where he became sold. Yeah, what the fu? Yeah,
- 18:55Speaker 1: I threw my merch shirt in this crib, so like
- 18:59Speaker 1: just put wishing the boundaries so much where I violated
- 19:02Speaker 1: a man's home insecurity as a man. Oh no, that's crazy.
- 19:06Speaker 1: It's you will be pushed to you crazy, crazy lengths.
- 19:10Speaker 1: So that's where like I'm disrespecting you so much I
- 19:14Speaker 1: want to take something from you.
- 19:15Speaker 2: So like you brought him to such a dark place.
- 19:18Speaker 1: Yeah, he was like so like it wasn't just like oh,
- 19:20Speaker 1: blood drinking.
- 19:21Speaker 2: It was just like no, what I'm saying, like, yeah,
- 19:23Speaker 2: like when you guys, whose idea was that?
- 19:25Speaker 1: I think I'm going to guess it was his.
- 19:27Speaker 2: So like when you guys take that to Tony does
- 19:30Speaker 2: Tony like yeah.
- 19:32Speaker 1: No, it's just like what you see or you guys
- 19:35Speaker 1: just do it on the spot. So Tony con didn't
- 19:37Speaker 1: know that was gonna happen.
- 19:37Speaker 2: No, wow, imagine you're the owner and like, yo, these
- 19:40Speaker 2: fuckers are out here drinking blood.
- 19:42Speaker 1: In the first five minutes of the match. It was
- 19:44Speaker 1: pretty It's like, what's our hook to keep them glued
- 19:47Speaker 1: to watch the rest of this match? I'm like, well,
- 19:49Speaker 1: there is not me just getting stapled in the face and.
- 19:52Speaker 2: Is that what would that be like a normal I
- 19:55Speaker 2: guess being in both companies, is it normal that in
- 19:59Speaker 2: rest sing where you guys will have a spot like
- 20:02Speaker 2: that that's so extreme or crazy that the higher ups
- 20:05Speaker 2: wouldn't know about it.
- 20:06Speaker 1: There's some that can that can backfire sometimes and it
- 20:10Speaker 1: has in both companies, like you know, like uh like,
- 20:15Speaker 1: but once again, when you're with somebody that's kind of
- 20:17Speaker 1: like trusted with the ball like me I was with
- 20:19Speaker 1: the Hang Them Page helped create this damn company, you
- 20:22Speaker 1: could afford to take those little risks like over there,
- 20:25Speaker 1: if you're in the ring with Dwayne Johnson, don't take
- 20:29Speaker 1: the risk. I mean you can, Yeah, you can't. He
- 20:32Speaker 1: can afford to say this. He can do it. He
- 20:35Speaker 1: can do it. But when you're in there with them,
- 20:37Speaker 1: it's like, no, I got it. Like so you kind
- 20:39Speaker 1: of like you kind of ride the backs of like
- 20:41Speaker 1: the guys that got the pull. So for me, it
- 20:44Speaker 1: was just like I feel like we can push things
- 20:46Speaker 1: a little bit more, like like when I was in
- 20:49Speaker 1: the ring with Darby. Tarby has a lot more tenure
- 20:51Speaker 1: and a lot more trust than I did at the time.
- 20:54Speaker 1: So like with Darby was like I want to push
- 20:57Speaker 1: the push this a little bit, and like Darby Derby's
- 20:59Speaker 1: Darby want to push the boundaries no matter what you know,
- 21:02Speaker 1: and so you kind of want to like those are
- 21:05Speaker 1: opportunities to be like I mean, they just it's risky.
- 21:08Speaker 2: He just set someone on fire with a flamethrower like
- 21:10Speaker 2: this weekend.
- 21:11Speaker 1: I mean, like nobody else is going to get that
- 21:13Speaker 1: kind of what the fuck is going on? Yeah, it
- 21:15Speaker 1: was like not a lot of people get that kind
- 21:17Speaker 1: of thing. But it's like once again, like he has tenure,
- 21:19Speaker 1: he has trust, and he's always been a great performer,
- 21:23Speaker 1: like Hangman Page is always been a great performer. So
- 21:25Speaker 1: they kind of have that, like that trust with the UH,
- 21:27Speaker 1: with the Tony Khan and with the aw to do
- 21:29Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, and the fan base welcomes it
- 21:32Speaker 1: because they had that trust with the fan base as well. Yo,
- 21:36Speaker 1: what was it like? Uh?
- 21:39Speaker 2: Give me like like when you were at the old place,
- 21:42Speaker 2: Like did you have any sort of interaction with Vince
- 21:45Speaker 2: when he was there?
- 21:46Speaker 1: Yeah?
- 21:47Speaker 2: Like how was Vince? Because obviously the story comes out
- 21:49Speaker 2: it's fucking crazy, which we all knew, and then Vince
- 21:53Speaker 2: just got who just dropped named uh and JF just
- 21:56Speaker 2: said his name on a w during his promo.
- 21:59Speaker 1: Once again, I talked about that trust and have a tenure.
- 22:02Speaker 2: Well, I feel like if you get that guy hot Mike,
- 22:04Speaker 2: no one knows what the fuck is gonna have exactly.
- 22:07Speaker 1: But like was like, what was.
- 22:08Speaker 2: It because I always I feel like like everybody.
- 22:11Speaker 1: Kind of knew.
- 22:13Speaker 2: Like the way he ran the company was very like
- 22:16Speaker 2: if you're big, if you look a certain way, you're
- 22:18Speaker 2: going to get the benefit of the doubt, whether or
- 22:19Speaker 2: not you could wrestle good or not, et cetera. Like
- 22:21Speaker 2: it was more about image and selling T shirts and
- 22:23Speaker 2: ship Like, what was your experience around Vince?
- 22:28Speaker 1: Not a lot? It wasn't a lot, right, No, Like
- 22:30Speaker 1: I've I've had like one or a couple of conversations
- 22:34Speaker 1: with them. I went to Titan Towers and spoke with
- 22:36Speaker 1: Lauren Ightis and stuff. But and like literally was a
- 22:39Speaker 1: wild alleged but yeah, like been in offices with them,
- 22:44Speaker 1: like as the hit Row crew, you know, all together, Vince.
- 22:47Speaker 1: I've only talked to Vince when I was like the
- 22:49Speaker 1: hit Row crew. Once again, this was like by the
- 22:52Speaker 1: time they already let go of BEFAB and it was
- 22:54Speaker 1: just me shanting dollar and we were just all like
- 22:58Speaker 1: just talking with them, told us how like things are ran.
- 23:02Speaker 1: It's like a little private conversation how things are ran.
- 23:05Speaker 1: This is where like we do what we don't do
- 23:08Speaker 1: things this like this boom boom boom. And like I was, like,
- 23:12Speaker 1: I have asked them a couple of questions. I talked
- 23:13Speaker 1: to them like a regular regular dude. Like like the
- 23:18Speaker 1: thing about like with me is just like I'm not
- 23:22Speaker 1: going to like I understand, I always respect authority. I've
- 23:25Speaker 1: came up in the military and I know like my
- 23:28Speaker 1: chain of command and I understand those type of things
- 23:30Speaker 1: and stuff. But like I'm when it comes to my
- 23:34Speaker 1: job and my passion and what my something I've been
- 23:36Speaker 1: doing for like fifteen years and like I'm I'm super
- 23:40Speaker 1: confident about that and I exude that and I stand
- 23:44Speaker 1: on my work and I'm always going to stand on
- 23:48Speaker 1: that no matter who I talk to, whether I'm talking
- 23:49Speaker 1: to Tony Connavincement, man a Triple H is Sean Michaels,
- 23:53Speaker 1: it doesn't matter to me. So I talked to him
- 23:55Speaker 1: straight equal and like if you don't like if I
- 24:00Speaker 1: was never disrespectful to him, but if I'm always gonna
- 24:07Speaker 1: ask questions to inquire, and I'm also going to if
- 24:13Speaker 1: i'm if I'm you know, I'm always going to like
- 24:16Speaker 1: necessarily speak what I feel is like right now, what
- 24:21Speaker 1: I feel is like, Okay, this is something I just
- 24:24Speaker 1: want to I just want to know I can always acquire.
- 24:26Speaker 1: I don't think anybody's ever going to question or like
- 24:28Speaker 1: punish someone for inquiring to how to make their job,
- 24:31Speaker 1: improve their job and do better. And if that's like
- 24:34Speaker 1: costly or anything, I'm like, Okay, cool, that's I'm always
- 24:37Speaker 1: going to find work. I'm always going to be like,
- 24:40Speaker 1: I feel like you can never be afraid to lose
- 24:42Speaker 1: your job. That's how good you have to be. That's
- 24:45Speaker 1: how I feel. That's how like you from real. If
- 24:47Speaker 1: you're if you're that good man, don't be afraid to
- 24:49Speaker 1: lose you You're going to always land on your phone,
- 24:51Speaker 1: all right? Cool? Like I'm a I'm like, I'm going
- 24:54Speaker 1: to make I'm going to make you feel like, damn,
- 24:56Speaker 1: I wish we had him here.
- 24:57Speaker 2: Has anybody in the brass, the management brass over there now,
- 25:03Speaker 2: because obviously you know Shawn Michaels, by the way, was
- 25:05Speaker 2: just on TV with Sexy Read last night.
- 25:07Speaker 1: Out sexy read in Sewan because that was Did you
- 25:10Speaker 1: see that she was in the VAM Why did you
- 25:11Speaker 1: not that she was amazing? Shout of them.
- 25:15Speaker 2: But has anybody reached out and just congratulated you since
- 25:17Speaker 2: you got the title?
- 25:18Speaker 1: Oh yeah, like the Triple H shoots you a text.
- 25:21Speaker 1: People reach it out nice, they show love like still like, I.
- 25:27Speaker 2: Never you have so many friends over there.
- 25:28Speaker 1: Yeah, I never left it with a bad rapport. Like
- 25:31Speaker 1: even like you know, like I'll still Sean Michaels and
- 25:34Speaker 1: me still say like Happy Father's Day, Happy Birthday and
- 25:37Speaker 1: stuff like that.
- 25:38Speaker 2: That's pretty cool to have that sewn. Michaels is a
- 25:41Speaker 2: He's probably my number two favorite wrestler of all time.
- 25:44Speaker 1: He's definitely one of my favorites. Like I'll still like
- 25:47Speaker 1: send an emoji in an IG story to Paul Hayman
- 25:50Speaker 1: and it will respond back. He's like, you know, what'd
- 25:52Speaker 1: you think?
- 25:52Speaker 2: I mean, listen, obviously you're an aw guy, but did
- 25:55Speaker 2: you did you? I was at I was at the
- 26:00Speaker 2: Hall of Fame when he did his speech.
- 26:02Speaker 1: I didn't get to see it all I saw like
- 26:03Speaker 1: once again, Twitter, nah Man.
- 26:05Speaker 2: I watched the whole thing unedited live and I was
- 26:08Speaker 2: just like, well, me and my son were like in
- 26:11Speaker 2: Philly and I was like, man, it was like Friday
- 26:13Speaker 2: night and I was like, I'm fucking tired.
- 26:15Speaker 1: We got into town in the morning.
- 26:16Speaker 2: I was like, I was like, we got the Hall
- 26:17Speaker 2: of Fame, Like we can go do I was like,
- 26:19Speaker 2: you know what, fuck it, We'll go to Hall of
- 26:20Speaker 2: Fame because it was SmackDown and Hall of Fame. Yeah, yeah,
- 26:23Speaker 2: and uh And I remember like it ran late, you know,
- 26:27Speaker 2: it was like we left after I think the rock
- 26:31Speaker 2: ended up going on like at the end, but I
- 26:33Speaker 2: remember just seeing the Paul Hamish. I'm like, this was
- 26:35Speaker 2: worth it because.
- 26:36Speaker 1: He was main. I feel like that man is always
- 26:39Speaker 1: worth the price of a mission anything he does.
- 26:42Speaker 2: What is it like having a manager or having a
- 26:44Speaker 2: guy who like a confidant, who's who you know? I
- 26:47Speaker 2: would because to me, if I ever got into wrestling,
- 26:49Speaker 2: that's the gig you were able to you know, how
- 26:52Speaker 2: to take some bumps, you get to talk your ship,
- 26:55Speaker 2: but you don't get fucked up in the ring. But
- 26:57Speaker 2: now you have a man like what.
- 26:58Speaker 1: Is that like? Is that pretty not? Was my first
- 27:00Speaker 1: ever manager I've ever had in my career.
- 27:02Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying, like, now you have a guy,
- 27:04Speaker 2: and like not anybody, not just anybody can get a guy.
- 27:07Speaker 1: That's you know what I mean? Like for me, I
- 27:08Speaker 1: feel like it's like how like what is me? What
- 27:11Speaker 1: is me and Nana's relationship to one another? Is he
- 27:14Speaker 1: a businessman? Is he? Uh? Does he get contracts done?
- 27:18Speaker 1: Is he a sleazy little like just like a guy
- 27:22Speaker 1: that like you know, like that runs like what is he?
- 27:26Speaker 1: What is the relation to Swerve? And what does Swerve
- 27:28Speaker 1: need that? That's that was one of the questions that
- 27:31Speaker 1: I asked myself, And like why does Swerve need Nana?
- 27:34Speaker 1: What what does Nana do for Swerve that Swerve can't
- 27:36Speaker 1: do for himself. Well, like now we're just asking those questions.
- 27:41Speaker 1: Now there's a multitude of the things he does. He
- 27:43Speaker 1: kind of does my bidding for him. He's also my
- 27:45Speaker 1: moral compass, if you know, toe certain things He's like no, no, no,
- 27:48Speaker 1: not right now. Boss, Let's go. Let's get out of
- 27:50Speaker 1: this because like I'll pop off and start a fight
- 27:53Speaker 1: and some wild ship right then and there, but not
- 27:56Speaker 1: as like nope, we got bigger things to handle, or
- 27:59Speaker 1: like hey, there's some news I need to talk to
- 28:01Speaker 1: about that happen on collision by the way, you might
- 28:03Speaker 1: not know. Okay, so now he's my ear to the
- 28:05Speaker 1: streets too. Then he's like, oh, oh you're in trouble.
- 28:09Speaker 1: Here's my head, my crown, use it. Okay. So he's
- 28:12Speaker 1: also like this, you know, then like Trisian's trying to
- 28:15Speaker 1: drive off and leave him. Nope, He's also a guardian angel,
- 28:19Speaker 1: so like he I define him on many different things.
- 28:23Speaker 1: He's also a music person. He's been in my music
- 28:25Speaker 1: videos and stuff like that. So he's been on interviews
- 28:27Speaker 1: with me, you know. So he has a multitude of
- 28:30Speaker 1: different uses and stuff that bail me out when like
- 28:35Speaker 1: I'm being overwhelmed. What's that your idea or did Tony
- 28:39Speaker 1: Tony k I want to that's dope. That was all
- 28:42Speaker 1: Tony Khan. Tony Khan was like, I want to do
- 28:44Speaker 1: a merger with a Mogul embassy with mogl affiliates in
- 28:47Speaker 1: the embassy and bring you two together because I think
- 28:50Speaker 1: we want to get them on all the wrestling TV
- 28:54Speaker 1: because they were doing a lot of ring and honor
- 28:56Speaker 1: and I think you could use heaters to be around
- 29:00Speaker 1: found you and I think not on you compliment each
- 29:03Speaker 1: other very well, and I was like, Okay, that's what
- 29:06Speaker 1: the boss wants, That's what we're going to do. Now
- 29:09Speaker 1: It's like, now, how do I blow this up to
- 29:12Speaker 1: more than just like hey, hi, hi guys, we're I
- 29:15Speaker 1: guess we're working together. Yeah, the teacher is putting us
- 29:17Speaker 1: together to do this assignment. Like how do we like
- 29:20Speaker 1: so we want to get a A? Of course, and
- 29:23Speaker 1: I think we wanted. We wanted. Our achievement is always
- 29:26Speaker 1: to get a A. But we had C level expectations
- 29:30Speaker 1: and I think we passed and exceeded. I think we
- 29:33Speaker 1: exceeded that because when we first started, I heard some
- 29:37Speaker 1: comments and like this where doesn't need that? Like what
- 29:39Speaker 1: what did these guys? What do they do? And then
- 29:41Speaker 1: like it's started growing. Then we started doing more devious
- 29:43Speaker 1: stuff on television, and I think that's where it really
- 29:46Speaker 1: really began. It was like, how do these guys interact
- 29:49Speaker 1: outside of the ring, like, because that's where a lot
- 29:52Speaker 1: of fans like want to we really become in tune
- 29:56Speaker 1: with the characters on television. How do these peop react
- 30:00Speaker 1: in real life scenario? You know it's real? You know,
- 30:03Speaker 1: like how does Roman talk with Paul? Like how does
- 30:06Speaker 1: like you know, how does I think One thing with
- 30:09Speaker 1: a w was how does m JF and Adam Cole
- 30:12Speaker 1: interact outside of this all those like throwing, playing dodgeball,
- 30:16Speaker 1: they challenging each other to drinking like alcohol back and forth,
- 30:19Speaker 1: and then going on fishing trips. I was like, Oh,
- 30:22Speaker 1: I feel more close to these guys because they are
- 30:26Speaker 1: interacting outside of just the wrestling rings. So there's a
- 30:29Speaker 1: little bit more to them. So when they do wrestle,
- 30:32Speaker 1: you understand the dynamic and you have.
- 30:34Speaker 2: More It's almost like it's almost like more than ever.
- 30:36Speaker 2: The fans are in on, like they're not just in
- 30:39Speaker 2: on whatever they see on TV right the.
- 30:41Speaker 1: Whole Like if I can put put it back to music.
- 30:45Speaker 1: We see artists perform on stage, but what we really
- 30:48Speaker 1: want to see is how they are in the studio
- 30:49Speaker 1: working in a song. We want to see that BTS.
- 30:52Speaker 1: We want to see like the Hard Knocked Life Tour.
- 30:54Speaker 1: It's like, oh, that's what they're doing back there. Oh
- 30:57Speaker 1: that's why I like, Yeah, that's what made those artists
- 31:00Speaker 1: movie that backstage. Yeah it was crazy, and it's like
- 31:03Speaker 1: I wouldn't be a rapper because this is the life
- 31:05Speaker 1: I want to see. This is what I want to experience,
- 31:07Speaker 1: and like, maybe some are doing stuff that you wouldn't do,
- 31:10Speaker 1: and maybe some are acting the way that you're like
- 31:13Speaker 1: you anticipated them to act, but you wasn't sure, and
- 31:16Speaker 1: now you're like, you know what, that's exactly what I
- 31:19Speaker 1: would do DMX with it. That's exactly how I would
- 31:21Speaker 1: be like acting backstage if I was in that position,
- 31:24Speaker 1: that lifestyle and that industry. And so now you're kind
- 31:27Speaker 1: of like connect with them a little more as people.
- 31:30Speaker 1: For you, what was first for you? Was it pursuing
- 31:34Speaker 1: wrestling or music. I didn't start pursuing music till like
- 31:38Speaker 1: four years ago. Okay, so the music thing is newer.
- 31:40Speaker 1: So you were never like writing back in the day. Oh,
- 31:43Speaker 1: I was gotten in the school notebook. I was like
- 31:46Speaker 1: listening to those albums up there, and like you were
- 31:49Speaker 1: just a fan. I was just I was just a
- 31:51Speaker 1: fan of it, and it was but I would like
- 31:52Speaker 1: rap along to them, and to the point where I did'
- 31:54Speaker 1: even I just knew the lyrics. I knew the cadences,
- 31:57Speaker 1: I knew the rhythm I knew I just knew it.
- 32:00Speaker 1: I had the muscle memory in the like of just
- 32:04Speaker 1: like following along to certain lyrics and then like then
- 32:08Speaker 1: as I got older and more mature with things, I
- 32:10Speaker 1: could really start like really deciphering like what they're saying,
- 32:15Speaker 1: why they were saying this, why the like lyrics were
- 32:20Speaker 1: like being used in a certain tone, what a double
- 32:23Speaker 1: entendre was. I'm like, oh, that's what I mean. It
- 32:25Speaker 1: started as also the matrix started being uncoded to me
- 32:29Speaker 1: a little bit more and more than when I actually
- 32:31Speaker 1: manteezy my codes to the source of podcast. He really
- 32:34Speaker 1: like opened my mind to like, this is why you
- 32:37Speaker 1: do it this way, This is why you do it
- 32:39Speaker 1: this way. But here try it, do it your way,
- 32:43Speaker 1: find your way. I'll guide you when you're like kind
- 32:45Speaker 1: of drifting off and everything. But just right now, just
- 32:49Speaker 1: it's like learning to paint. It's just like just paint something.
- 32:53Speaker 1: Just paint something. Just start with a blank canvas and paint.
- 32:56Speaker 1: And then as I've got more mature, I wouldn't say
- 32:58Speaker 1: I like became great at this, but like I'm still learning,
- 33:02Speaker 1: but like I'm being I'm still being guided, but it's
- 33:05Speaker 1: all starting to become a little bit closer, a little
- 33:08Speaker 1: bit more. And then like getting on songs with like
- 33:12Speaker 1: Mickey Fax and music Soul Child and Benny the Butcher
- 33:15Speaker 1: and tried to Mickey Fax he's an alien, Like I've
- 33:19Speaker 1: done three songs with them, and I'm.
- 33:20Speaker 2: Like, oh my god, he's like quite literally like a
- 33:22Speaker 2: rap like savant. Yeah, it's like I think he teaches it. Yeah,
- 33:27Speaker 2: I'm like, I think.
- 33:28Speaker 1: He teaches it. Like it's so good, like it's crazy.
- 33:31Speaker 1: And he goes and he goes like like head ahead
- 33:34Speaker 1: with a Royce a loop, eg, Like he goes head
- 33:37Speaker 1: to head with these guys and then like him deciphering
- 33:41Speaker 1: why things are said in the cadence and the inflection
- 33:43Speaker 1: of boom hitting it right here in the right time.
- 33:46Speaker 1: Then getting with Flash Garments, who's like heavily in the industry,
- 33:50Speaker 1: and like like literally in studios with Kanye, in studios
- 33:55Speaker 1: with Ryan Leslie, traveling with these people Leslie yes, and
- 33:59Speaker 1: like he's like, all right, now we're going to show
- 34:02Speaker 1: you how to make records, which is important. Like but
- 34:06Speaker 1: now I was just like living from like okay, this
- 34:09Speaker 1: is the local hometown like teacher to like okay, this
- 34:12Speaker 1: is like the next teacher, and but we're all still
- 34:14Speaker 1: working at we all still like performed on the Jericho
- 34:16Speaker 1: Cruise together and it's like Okay, these are my two
- 34:19Speaker 1: like mentors that really brought me together to do.
- 34:22Speaker 2: Didn't I just saw, like, did you just do something
- 34:26Speaker 2: with Fozzy?
- 34:28Speaker 1: It's coming up?
- 34:29Speaker 2: I saw I saw for Jericho pust A Flyer and
- 34:32Speaker 2: like you were on it too.
- 34:33Speaker 1: I was like, that's a random mixture of music that's
- 34:36Speaker 1: kind of a lot of wrestlings. But but it's like
- 34:40Speaker 1: that's how that's kind of how like my career has gone.
- 34:44Speaker 1: It's just like, how does serve get here, like roll
- 34:46Speaker 1: around a wrestler get on stage? Is it going to
- 34:50Speaker 1: wrestle and match? Like no, I'm doing music, Like so
- 34:54Speaker 1: it was like, how did this happen? How does that? Even?
- 34:56Speaker 1: Jericho was just like I'm shocked that you got that.
- 34:58Speaker 1: That's amazing. So but it's just like finding ways through
- 35:01Speaker 1: these canals that is this industry and just like you know,
- 35:06Speaker 1: but once again, it's still a learning process for me.
- 35:08Speaker 1: But I'm in the right places with the right people,
- 35:12Speaker 1: like I'm doing. I still come to LA and do
- 35:14Speaker 1: getting the studio with Chase the money right Chase Chase
- 35:17Speaker 1: man Like like getting it's a lot of like like
- 35:22Speaker 1: DJ Flip just throwing beats at me, throwing like it's
- 35:26Speaker 1: like come in, Well just welcomed me in with like
- 35:29Speaker 1: open arms. So it's really it's just really awesome. I'm blessed.
- 35:35Speaker 2: Talk to me about because like I feel like throughout
- 35:38Speaker 2: the history of like my you know, watching wrestling, like
- 35:43Speaker 2: wrestling has always been it has always felt in the
- 35:47Speaker 2: way that like black wrestlers are depicted on TV, it
- 35:51Speaker 2: has always felt a little racist, Like especially like when
- 35:53Speaker 2: we were growing up, Like there was always like I
- 35:55Speaker 2: felt like anybody who would come in would have to
- 35:57Speaker 2: have like a stick that was like super like stare typical,
- 36:00Speaker 2: and like.
- 36:01Speaker 1: It felt like we had two archetypes.
- 36:03Speaker 2: It was like you were either the blinged out dude
- 36:05Speaker 2: or like the militant dude. It was like, you know,
- 36:07Speaker 2: like and obviously, you know, shots of the Rock, who's
- 36:10Speaker 2: obviously a wrestler of color, kind of broke through a
- 36:12Speaker 2: lot of that, but you know, shots of Kofe Kingston
- 36:14Speaker 2: for winning the championship who you know.
- 36:16Speaker 1: I know that was a big deal, A big deal
- 36:19Speaker 1: for me for sure, last decade, definitely for me, I
- 36:22Speaker 1: mean just that whole era of the new Man lastly.
- 36:27Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. But like for you, like do you
- 36:29Speaker 2: feel like the industry has finally moved past that weird
- 36:34Speaker 2: because it really was a thing. When I was growing up,
- 36:36Speaker 2: I was like dog like.
- 36:38Speaker 1: Like I felt like Mark Henry was like a mix
- 36:41Speaker 1: of that too, Like he kind of broke the mod
- 36:44Speaker 1: a little bit. Yeah, because he was just the world's
- 36:45Speaker 1: strongest man.
- 36:46Speaker 2: He was just an athlete, yeah, he was. He was
- 36:48Speaker 2: a big I'm at Johnson too. When I was a kid.
- 36:50Speaker 2: I remember watching I'm at Johnson.
- 36:51Speaker 1: Yeah. I can't really speak on like what stoped from
- 36:56Speaker 1: being like the world champion and stuff, but like I
- 36:59Speaker 1: just remember liking him as a kid. He was just
- 37:01Speaker 1: a strong dude. He's a strong dude. But like just
- 37:04Speaker 1: Mark with uh Mark and Booker as the King Booker
- 37:09Speaker 1: my image, those two like and like the mid two
- 37:14Speaker 1: thousands early two thousands really broke the mold in a
- 37:18Speaker 1: sense for like that just at that window that time
- 37:21Speaker 1: period right there, it was just like they were just good. Yeah,
- 37:24Speaker 1: they were just good. They were just good. They were
- 37:26Speaker 1: just they were just good athletes. And Booker just was
- 37:30Speaker 1: just like so over the top outlandish, like like of
- 37:37Speaker 1: a character that he felt like larger than life. He
- 37:39Speaker 1: just went charger than life with sure. When Mark Henry
- 37:42Speaker 1: his in ring performance made him larger than life, you know,
- 37:46Speaker 1: So those guys just like kind of found another niche
- 37:49Speaker 1: into it outside of those stereotypical things. You know, He's
- 37:52Speaker 1: like he was black royalty king booker with Charmel his
- 37:56Speaker 1: black queen. Like you know, there were royal they felt,
- 38:00Speaker 1: and I always appreciated that for what they did, you know,
- 38:03Speaker 1: looking back on it and things like that. So for me,
- 38:06Speaker 1: it was just like once again, how do where do
- 38:08Speaker 1: I find my lane? And like so like my black
- 38:12Speaker 1: royalty is like with music in a sense, it's just like, no,
- 38:16Speaker 1: I'm not broke. No, I'm not like ashamed of who
- 38:21Speaker 1: I am. I'm not ashamed. I can go out and
- 38:23Speaker 1: speak about like, yeah, I'm a black World champion. I'm
- 38:26Speaker 1: proud of that. Like, well, what is things? It got
- 38:28Speaker 1: to be about color? Because it is about color. It is.
- 38:31Speaker 1: It's not even about me in color. It's about representation
- 38:35Speaker 1: and the color. It's about inspiring another young black kid
- 38:38Speaker 1: who's does who's watching right now doesn't think it's possible?
- 38:41Speaker 1: Yeah right, who doesn't think it's possible or he doesn't
- 38:43Speaker 1: see himself as that or I like this, I like this,
- 38:46Speaker 1: I feel like I feel like I'm somewhat like a swerve,
- 38:50Speaker 1: but I don't think I can. I don't think I
- 38:52Speaker 1: could ever get into wrestling and be a world champion
- 38:54Speaker 1: when now that inspires confidence and that kid, which is
- 38:58Speaker 1: worth confidence my social media tag for those kind of reasons.
- 39:02Speaker 1: It's not like, yes, I feel confident about myself, but
- 39:05Speaker 1: you can too. I want you to feel confident. I
- 39:07Speaker 1: want you to be inspired and like have your confidence
- 39:11Speaker 1: grow because a lot of like I was, uh shout
- 39:15Speaker 1: out Johnny Chris from Drinks with Johnny. I was with
- 39:17Speaker 1: him yesterday. We had a great conversation about the fact
- 39:21Speaker 1: that like, how did I grow to getting to where
- 39:24Speaker 1: I'm I'm at? I was like, well, I didn't set
- 39:27Speaker 1: like the goal was this or fail. And if you
- 39:32Speaker 1: look at things when you start, it's so broad, it's
- 39:34Speaker 1: so big. It's so hard to feel like, how do
- 39:38Speaker 1: I accomplish this? Because people want to like jump into
- 39:42Speaker 1: something and they compare themselves to like like a platinum
- 39:46Speaker 1: record on day two, and I'm like it always happens
- 39:51Speaker 1: with any industry and every like like universally, not even
- 39:54Speaker 1: just like and.
- 39:55Speaker 2: Then you can psych yourself out start feeling really about
- 39:58Speaker 2: your process and yeah.
- 40:00Speaker 1: Like even then like if you work like a regular job,
- 40:03Speaker 1: like you know, like you compare yourself, how do I
- 40:05Speaker 1: make like CEO on like your third week on the jobs? Like? No?
- 40:13Speaker 1: For me, how it started off with just like I
- 40:16Speaker 1: just want to wrestle on my show where I make
- 40:18Speaker 1: enough money to pay my phone bill for the month. Right,
- 40:21Speaker 1: that's it simple? And then like okay, cool, Now I
- 40:25Speaker 1: want to try to pay rent? Yeah, like what if
- 40:27Speaker 1: I could just what if I could don't have to
- 40:29Speaker 1: work anywhere else? Right? Right? Like what if I just
- 40:31Speaker 1: like do enough to Like I just want to get
- 40:35Speaker 1: on a flyer Now, I want to be the headline
- 40:37Speaker 1: of the flyer. Now I want to be like, you know,
- 40:39Speaker 1: I want to win a championship. Now, I want to
- 40:42Speaker 1: be in the championship of these indie shows. You know what,
- 40:45Speaker 1: I want to drive out of state to a wrestling
- 40:49Speaker 1: show and they pay gas money. That would be a
- 40:52Speaker 1: great accomplishment for me. You know. Now you're driving to
- 40:56Speaker 1: six different states and that radius. Now now it's like,
- 41:00Speaker 1: you know what, I want to get a flight now,
- 41:03Speaker 1: maybe someone, maybe I'll be good enough for someone to
- 41:06Speaker 1: book me and put me on a flight. Oh cool,
- 41:09Speaker 1: Now I can fly kind of like an hour away. Right,
- 41:12Speaker 1: I'm getting flights now I want to overseas tour. Now
- 41:15Speaker 1: your confidence is growing because now you know you can
- 41:18Speaker 1: make that money. You know you can pay off this,
- 41:20Speaker 1: you know you can pay rent, you know you can
- 41:22Speaker 1: now you probably can buy at least a car. So
- 41:25Speaker 1: now you don't have to bum rides anymore. Now you
- 41:27Speaker 1: know how Now you know you can afford better gear
- 41:31Speaker 1: to look better on those too main event to get championships.
- 41:35Speaker 1: And it's that's how your confidence grows. And that's for me,
- 41:40Speaker 1: is really where I felt like, I know I can
- 41:43Speaker 1: do this now when you don't think that you can
- 41:45Speaker 1: pull something off that you don't think so when I
- 41:48Speaker 1: get to like, aw, like, no, I know I can
- 41:50Speaker 1: do this.
- 41:51Speaker 2: Is it possible? Like I think about like the correlation
- 41:54Speaker 2: to the music industry where it's like, yeah, you could
- 41:56Speaker 2: be independent artists nowadays and like make a good living
- 41:58Speaker 2: if you kind of have a good fan base and
- 42:00Speaker 2: you get your merch Right, is it possible to be
- 42:03Speaker 2: an indie wrestler and kind of exist on the fringes
- 42:07Speaker 2: of the industry if you're not in one of the
- 42:09Speaker 2: two main companies.
- 42:10Speaker 1: Yeah, the Young Bucks did it for years.
- 42:12Speaker 2: Because you know, there's like the repro Wrestling Teas dot Com.
- 42:15Speaker 2: People sell merch on there.
- 42:16Speaker 1: And the Young Bucks like blew that whole industry up
- 42:20Speaker 1: out of the water, like back in twenty fifteen, might
- 42:24Speaker 1: pop up in New Japan, might pop up and do
- 42:26Speaker 1: a sugar pop up and still sell like two thousand
- 42:31Speaker 1: shirts at PWG out of boxes, not by the ring, right,
- 42:34Speaker 1: and then like you know what, maybe we'll just go
- 42:36Speaker 1: to the UK because we've deprived them of our presence
- 42:39Speaker 1: and their matches for so long. Let's go over to
- 42:41Speaker 1: the UK and do a tour with Kenny. It's bring
- 42:43Speaker 1: Kenny and Elite over there. I was on those shows.
- 42:45Speaker 1: I wrestled them on those shows, and they sold out,
- 42:49Speaker 1: Like I remember, they sold merch from the start of
- 42:51Speaker 1: the show all the way up until past intermission. While
- 42:53Speaker 1: the matches were still going on. People were still on
- 42:55Speaker 1: lines buying shirts from them. And we had to face
- 42:57Speaker 1: them in the main event three matches. That's crazy, three matches.
- 43:01Speaker 1: They were still because they were selling merch the entire time,
- 43:05Speaker 1: like y'all, like people don't understand, like y'all talk, like y'all.
- 43:07Speaker 1: Take the Young Bucks and these guys for granted, like
- 43:09Speaker 1: these guys were already doing that in like twenty twelve thirteen.
- 43:14Speaker 1: I was like I was on shows with these guys,
- 43:16Speaker 1: Like that was a time y'all had to be there,
- 43:18Speaker 1: like you know, like there was like they were getting
- 43:20Speaker 1: like their shirts sold in Hot Topic. Yeah I remember, Yeah,
- 43:24Speaker 1: I remember, and things like that like the Bullet Club,
- 43:27Speaker 1: you know, AJ styles with them, Finn Balor, you know,
- 43:30Speaker 1: like candicel Ray got a shirt from them.
- 43:33Speaker 2: It's so crazy if you think about the Bullet Club
- 43:34Speaker 2: and like how iconic that logo has become and how
- 43:37Speaker 2: it's changed and like people have used it for like
- 43:41Speaker 2: it's like it's and it all started as like the
- 43:44Speaker 2: wildest indie you know fact should probably ever.
- 43:48Speaker 1: Yeah, like man and all the people who came from it,
- 43:51Speaker 1: they were they weren't They were on the indies making
- 43:55Speaker 1: six figures bro crazy off of independent wrestling, like being
- 43:59Speaker 1: able to like wrestle when they felt like it, Russell
- 44:01Speaker 1: whoever they felt like it, when when wherever they felt
- 44:04Speaker 1: like it, and like could just like run the dollar
- 44:08Speaker 1: up like crazy. It was just like that was a phenomenon.
- 44:11Speaker 1: It was just like man, that there is a way
- 44:14Speaker 1: to make a living and like not have to be
- 44:16Speaker 1: in these places to really like buy a house. Buy
- 44:20Speaker 1: a house off of independent wrestling is insane in California. Crazy.
- 44:24Speaker 2: Tell me about the grind of wrestling, because I feel
- 44:27Speaker 2: like it is the most uh. I mean, you guys
- 44:32Speaker 2: don't get a day off like in terms of like
- 44:34Speaker 2: now you know there's an off there's no off season
- 44:36Speaker 2: in wrestling, right, it's this is every week.
- 44:39Speaker 1: Well, like people people want to be a wrestler until
- 44:41Speaker 1: they see how much they get paid in the entry
- 44:44Speaker 1: level of things.
- 44:45Speaker 2: And then like the level of work where it's like, yo,
- 44:47Speaker 2: this is your like you're you know, you might have
- 44:50Speaker 2: a day a week where you can fly home and
- 44:52Speaker 2: see your family and hang out maybe two.
- 44:53Speaker 1: Days like yeah, like I haven't been home in like
- 44:56Speaker 1: five six days just now, and that's not that crazy,
- 44:59Speaker 1: but like pay per view weeks to get does get
- 45:01Speaker 1: a little nuts. And then I'm home for like a
- 45:04Speaker 1: couple of days and I gotta go back on like
- 45:06Speaker 1: and I have other ventures too, So I got to
- 45:08Speaker 1: be in like New York for like the House of
- 45:10Speaker 1: Dragon's premiere with the championship.
- 45:12Speaker 2: You know, I gotta be you got the belt, so
- 45:14Speaker 2: you also are like I got to face the company.
- 45:16Speaker 1: Yeah, I gotta. I gotta get in like a day
- 45:18Speaker 1: or two early to like do these interviews, coming in
- 45:20Speaker 1: with speak with guys like yourself and like wave the
- 45:24Speaker 1: flag promote. You know. Then I got it. Then my
- 45:28Speaker 1: kids live out of state, so I got to stop
- 45:29Speaker 1: in see my kids, have time with my girls and
- 45:31Speaker 1: they're getting they're in high school, middle school right now,
- 45:34Speaker 1: so like get that time. Then back on the road
- 45:37Speaker 1: because like the turnover time is like oh so once
- 45:40Speaker 1: a week. I'm like yeah, but the time frame, you
- 45:43Speaker 1: still got to travel, so like it's yeah, like you
- 45:46Speaker 1: just snap your fingers and something. No, sometimes I gotta
- 45:49Speaker 1: be on Collision too, you know, like oh we couldn't
- 45:51Speaker 1: do that. We couldn't fit this on the show, throwing
- 45:53Speaker 1: on Collision on Sat Sauce, so you on Saturday. So
- 45:56Speaker 1: back out around, you know. So like it's a lot
- 45:59Speaker 1: of it's a lot and the higher you go, the
- 46:02Speaker 1: more responsibility.
- 46:03Speaker 2: I feel like, the higher you go, the more I
- 46:05Speaker 2: mean outside of like the guys who are quote unquote
- 46:07Speaker 2: part timers, but like the guys are on TV every week,
- 46:09Speaker 2: You're like shit, man, Like then the house shows.
- 46:12Speaker 1: Yeah, because like I can't afford that, and I can't
- 46:15Speaker 1: afford to have a sick day, like, oh, I'm not
- 46:16Speaker 1: feeling good. I'm just gonna stay home, Like I can't
- 46:18Speaker 1: take those sick days. I gotta be out there. I
- 46:20Speaker 1: gotta like remedy and figure it out, you know. And
- 46:23Speaker 1: on the entry level of it, it's like you got
- 46:26Speaker 1: to do that and then train, and then do that,
- 46:28Speaker 1: and then train and then and then eat and then
- 46:29Speaker 1: remember you gotta eat, okay on the road, eat on
- 46:31Speaker 1: the eat like and then eating good on the road
- 46:35Speaker 1: is expensive, like cheap food is like.
- 46:37Speaker 2: Cheap food is the best because if it's late, oh,
- 46:39Speaker 2: we get back to the hotels.
- 46:40Speaker 1: It's late. Try try to eat finding like salmon at
- 46:43Speaker 1: twelve one in the morning, good luck, Yeah, broccoli and rice?
- 46:47Speaker 1: Did you better pack it? You know? So like it's
- 46:49Speaker 1: it's like you got it. And then finding time to
- 46:51Speaker 1: work out, like because you've got to work about people
- 46:54Speaker 1: going to call you a slob if you look on
- 46:56Speaker 1: TV and then you're Alway's slacking off. He doesn't want
- 46:58Speaker 1: it as bad, you know, you don't want to show those.
- 47:00Speaker 2: How many days a week you go to the gym.
- 47:03Speaker 1: Four to five? Yeah, and they're not like small. They
- 47:06Speaker 1: like to two hours two and a half hour workouts
- 47:08Speaker 1: and stuff. So that's when I'm home, like on the road.
- 47:12Speaker 1: I shortened it because like time is limited. So it's
- 47:14Speaker 1: like hour at hotel gym. Yeah, hotel gym or do
- 47:16Speaker 1: you try to find a gym if you have the time?
- 47:19Speaker 1: If like, because finding a gym, wake up earlier to
- 47:23Speaker 1: travel to a good gym, right, you know, and and
- 47:27Speaker 1: also like unless you got hookups at those gyms and
- 47:30Speaker 1: stuff like that, you know, somebody get a discount of
- 47:33Speaker 1: not you're paying thirty bucks out of pocket to work
- 47:35Speaker 1: out at these gyms once again entry level, so thirty bucks,
- 47:38Speaker 1: then food and then buying your packet hotels sometimes rental,
- 47:45Speaker 1: then you know, checking bags. That was a lot. Like
- 47:49Speaker 1: it's small, but it adds up. You know, what do
- 47:52Speaker 1: your kids think?
- 47:54Speaker 2: Obviously your daughters I'm sure have watched.
- 47:55Speaker 1: You grind and grind and grind.
- 47:57Speaker 2: Yeah, from the time they're you know, babies to now
- 47:59Speaker 2: what did they think when you were able to be
- 48:02Speaker 2: you know, finally get this.
- 48:03Speaker 1: Yeah, my oldest is more emotional. She's in the fourteen okay,
- 48:07Speaker 1: so she's getting in that stage of like like she's
- 48:11Speaker 1: she's in basketball heavy into basketball AAU. We pay for
- 48:14Speaker 1: training or shooting training and like extra training off season training,
- 48:20Speaker 1: and she appreciates that, but she wants time with her
- 48:22Speaker 1: dad now. She's like, well I met, like, like, you
- 48:25Speaker 1: missed a lot of halloweens, you missed a lot of thanksgivings,
- 48:28Speaker 1: you a lot of things, like I kind of growing
- 48:30Speaker 1: up without you a little bit. And when I sat
- 48:32Speaker 1: down my promo a couple of weeks back on Collision,
- 48:35Speaker 1: that was really real. She does doesn't feel like she
- 48:37Speaker 1: knows me. It's because of like all the sacrifice. This
- 48:40Speaker 1: doesn't come without sacrifice nothing, honestly nothing in life. The
- 48:44Speaker 1: higher you go, you sacrifice way more. So I sacrificed
- 48:47Speaker 1: a lot of time. So I'm having those conversations with
- 48:49Speaker 1: my oldest. My youngest is like still like she's twelve,
- 48:52Speaker 1: so she's still like has that child like wonder tour
- 48:57Speaker 1: about things she do.
- 48:58Speaker 2: You have to like tell them like, hey, if you're
- 49:00Speaker 2: gonna watch me on TV this week.
- 49:02Speaker 1: So yeah, sometimes I'm just like, no, don't watch this week.
- 49:05Speaker 1: I'll send like part of the match, like you know,
- 49:08Speaker 1: certain things. So it's having those adult conversations with your
- 49:13Speaker 1: kids now, so that's for the stage I'm at. So
- 49:15Speaker 1: it's like she she likes it, but she's also torn
- 49:19Speaker 1: from it because because it took away, took time away.
- 49:22Speaker 1: So now it's like, all right, I gotta get I
- 49:25Speaker 1: gotta fly home see my kids. But even once again
- 49:28Speaker 1: flying home, senior kids, I'm not staying at my baby
- 49:31Speaker 1: mama's house. Like I gotta get to get a hotel, hotel, Airbnb,
- 49:35Speaker 1: rental for sure, you know, traveling around, so that takes
- 49:40Speaker 1: money away.
- 49:41Speaker 2: Talk to me, obviously, you know, Mercedes just got she
- 49:45Speaker 2: just got the belt to shot to her. I think
- 49:48Speaker 2: she was the is it the biggest free agency contract
- 49:52Speaker 2: ever signed at aw and.
- 49:54Speaker 1: Definitely probably for in the women's like in the women's
- 49:58Speaker 1: in the women's category, probably both, Like what was it? Awww?
- 50:03Speaker 2: What's it like having her in the locker room because
- 50:05Speaker 2: obviously she's had a crazy run doing New Japan and
- 50:08Speaker 2: like just kind of like I guess a mini version
- 50:12Speaker 2: of what Cody did when he left, Like just yeah,
- 50:14Speaker 2: you know.
- 50:14Speaker 1: It feel for me, it feels good to have like
- 50:17Speaker 1: a woman's match so prominent on the show, like as
- 50:19Speaker 1: one of the trouble main events and stuff. For double
- 50:21Speaker 1: or nothing. I want. I would love to really see
- 50:26Speaker 1: them main event like just being a vent period on
- 50:28Speaker 1: one of the pay per views coming up, because I
- 50:30Speaker 1: think Mercedes has that muchre star power and we believe
- 50:33Speaker 1: in her to do that. It feels good to like
- 50:35Speaker 1: have like that level of like okay, boom the bar
- 50:38Speaker 1: set right. You always want to set the bar boom,
- 50:40Speaker 1: you know, And I feel like she's really she's really
- 50:44Speaker 1: doing that as far as like what's what's it going
- 50:48Speaker 1: to take to be this champion? Now? It's like you
- 50:51Speaker 1: can't just settle for just like being good enough. No,
- 50:54Speaker 1: you got to set the bar and you go like,
- 50:56Speaker 1: all right, this is where we got to meet it now,
- 50:58Speaker 1: you know, and you want to do it in unique ways.
- 51:01Speaker 1: I feel like our World champions are pass former World
- 51:04Speaker 1: champion set up bar high too. I can't even make
- 51:06Speaker 1: us at the bar really high for sure, Like you know,
- 51:09Speaker 1: Moxley three times AW World Champions set the bar in
- 51:12Speaker 1: that category, you know, being like passionate about our business,
- 51:16Speaker 1: passionate about our company. You know. Then MJF, like youngest
- 51:20Speaker 1: AW World champion, set another bar with that rain, you know,
- 51:24Speaker 1: and like the quality of what he was doing on
- 51:26Speaker 1: television every week. So I got to find my way
- 51:28Speaker 1: to set a new bar in my sense of like
- 51:30Speaker 1: media is one of my ways. I feel like if
- 51:33Speaker 1: doing that kind of thing in my unique way, and
- 51:36Speaker 1: then like, okay, there's a new era of aw how
- 51:38Speaker 1: do I set that bar for the rest of the guys.
- 51:41Speaker 1: And we have a stacked roster, super ready ready to
- 51:45Speaker 1: get super at the bit. So I think Mercedes is
- 51:48Speaker 1: doing the same sense of just like with star Power,
- 51:51Speaker 1: and then now that she won the championship, had the match,
- 51:54Speaker 1: now she's going to do it to get in the ring,
- 51:56Speaker 1: Like all right, do you ladies already super talented, already
- 52:02Speaker 1: like great names. Now we're going to raise it up
- 52:05Speaker 1: a little bit more, and not just to compete with her,
- 52:08Speaker 1: but like literally come up and try to just be
- 52:11Speaker 1: on that level. I saw, did you see them?
- 52:14Speaker 2: There's like a meme I saw, And I don't know. Essentially,
- 52:17Speaker 2: I think Becky Lynch just deals about to be up
- 52:19Speaker 2: and she's about to be a free agent.
- 52:21Speaker 1: Maybe she just wants to be home with the kids. Man,
- 52:23Speaker 1: who knows, who knows who? Maybe she just wanted to
- 52:25Speaker 1: be home with the kids. Man, Because now, like Seth
- 52:28Speaker 1: has been hurt. He has surgery and stuff. So now
- 52:30Speaker 1: they're both they can be at home for like, let
- 52:32Speaker 1: some people just want to be home like for a
- 52:34Speaker 1: little bit. Yeah. Let let like like let's not see like, oh,
- 52:37Speaker 1: she's going to jump to here here here. I'm like,
- 52:39Speaker 1: let let her be home. Let it be a mom,
- 52:42Speaker 1: Let seth be a dad. Let them be a family
- 52:44Speaker 1: for like, give them that time because they fucking six
- 52:46Speaker 1: months or something. They worked hard for it and they
- 52:48Speaker 1: deserve that for sure, you know, And so I'm always like,
- 52:52Speaker 1: you let him be family first.
- 52:54Speaker 2: I was going to ask you, now that there's like
- 52:58Speaker 2: this power shift over or uh what they're called the
- 53:02Speaker 2: Triple Ah era, right, could you see a world in
- 53:05Speaker 2: the future because I think at Mania a lot of
- 53:08Speaker 2: fans were hoping that John Moxley was gonna pop out.
- 53:11Speaker 1: That was funny. I thought that was funny because.
- 53:13Speaker 2: I was like, oh my god, when I heard the
- 53:16Speaker 2: Shield music, I stood on the fucking chair.
- 53:18Speaker 1: I was like, knowing Johnny's probably like.
- 53:22Speaker 2: But could you ever see a world in which there's
- 53:25Speaker 2: some sort of like like they're never gonna officially emerge talent,
- 53:31Speaker 2: but like where there's like some sort of bleeding of
- 53:33Speaker 2: like the DC and Marvel universe.
- 53:35Speaker 1: In any way, if there's ever a time it could happen,
- 53:39Speaker 1: now is more likely than it's ever been. Right. I
- 53:44Speaker 1: don't think either person is opposed. But if there's ever
- 53:48Speaker 1: a time like a sor as Tony conn in place,
- 53:51Speaker 1: I don't think there's ever been a time that's more
- 53:54Speaker 1: likely than now. That's good to know. The percentages. The
- 53:59Speaker 1: percentage are higher than the percentage that went from zero
- 54:01Speaker 1: point zero four point four ticket, and that's more than
- 54:08Speaker 1: we've ever gotten.
- 54:09Speaker 2: How much did you love the NFL Draft? When Tony
- 54:12Speaker 2: Kahan was selling his neck injury during the NFL Draft.
- 54:15Speaker 1: Troop pros so good? True, Bro, I was actually at
- 54:18Speaker 1: the building. I was doing media at Jacksonville Stadium, and
- 54:21Speaker 1: I saw the setting up everything, So it was really cool. Yeah,
- 54:26Speaker 1: Like Tony's funny, and Tony's great and his dad is
- 54:30Speaker 1: a big supporter too. I got to meet his dad
- 54:32Speaker 1: a couple of times. Yeah, I thought it was awesome.
- 54:35Speaker 2: You guys just get Jackwires tickets anytime you want.
- 54:38Speaker 1: I get the sweet now too. I mean, you're the champ.
- 54:41Speaker 1: I mean, listen, hopefully they're a little bit bit. He
- 54:43Speaker 1: introduced me to Roger Goodell too. Football. Yeah. I got
- 54:47Speaker 1: to meet Kurt Warner the whole month. I n Goodell
- 54:50Speaker 1: not so, I was there for Sunday and Monday nights.
- 54:52Speaker 1: Are you a football fan? Big? Yeah? So who's your team?
- 54:54Speaker 1: I'm a Rams fan?
- 54:56Speaker 2: Really?
- 54:57Speaker 1: Why great to show on turf? Oh okay, that makes sense.
- 55:01Speaker 2: I was about to say it had to have been
- 55:02Speaker 2: because of like Isaac Bruce and Marshall.
- 55:06Speaker 1: I got to meet Kurt Water.
- 55:08Speaker 2: And what was that Mark Boulger?
- 55:10Speaker 1: After that? Mark was cool, he was all right, he
- 55:12Speaker 1: made it, he made a Pro Bowl two. But Kurt
- 55:14Speaker 1: was the guy like Stephen Jackson. Stephen Jackson like banger
- 55:17Speaker 1: running backs. Stephen Jackson was a mean ass man. We've
- 55:20Speaker 1: always had banger running backs. We've had like sure Marshall's
- 55:24Speaker 1: Stephen Jackson to Todd Gurley.
- 55:25Speaker 2: Gurley was cold, man. Fuck I forgot about Gurley even now.
- 55:30Speaker 2: What's it the new dude ship?
- 55:31Speaker 1: I Williams is cool. Yeah, Williamson, he's a he's a
- 55:35Speaker 1: Kien Williams is cool. When we just drafted Blake Corham,
- 55:37Speaker 1: so I'm like looking forward to like one two punch,
- 55:39Speaker 1: Like they're both scatbacks too.
- 55:41Speaker 2: So that's going to be really well because I'm a
- 55:43Speaker 2: Cardinals fan, which is we're in the NFC West with
- 55:45Speaker 2: you guys, and I mean I always tell people it's
- 55:49Speaker 2: it's nice being.
- 55:49Speaker 1: The day after actually the full gear match of the
- 55:51Speaker 1: Bloody Match, I actually went to the Rams game versus Seattle,
- 55:54Speaker 1: m My first time is so fie. It was like
- 55:57Speaker 1: it's beautiful, amazing, so crazy. Actually put in a a
- 56:03Speaker 1: bid for like the Aaron Donald jersey, the signed Super
- 56:06Speaker 1: Bowl jersey, and like it was like nobody, nobody signed up.
- 56:10Speaker 1: So I just like won it just flat out. I
- 56:12Speaker 1: was like, oh cool, So like now I got the
- 56:15Speaker 1: that jersey and the I was.
- 56:16Speaker 2: Gonna say, like, it felt like obviously the Rams won
- 56:20Speaker 2: Super Bowl.
- 56:21Speaker 1: They won one super Bowl with Kurt Right. Yeah. Two
- 56:24Speaker 1: we went to tow and we gave Tom Brady his
- 56:27Speaker 1: first wreck.
- 56:28Speaker 2: But I was gonna say, obviously you got to experience
- 56:30Speaker 2: that win. But I'm sure you were just getting into
- 56:31Speaker 2: the Rams back then.
- 56:33Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, like the mad No. Three say like.
- 56:36Speaker 2: Fast forward, like because as a Cardinals fan, I would
- 56:39Speaker 2: not know what it's like to every I'm a Son's
- 56:41Speaker 2: fan too, I don't know what a championship.
- 56:42Speaker 1: Feels like in life, none at all. I was so
- 56:44Speaker 1: close with the Pittsburgh Steelers christ Antonio Holmes, one of
- 56:47Speaker 1: the greatest touchdown throws ever.
- 56:50Speaker 2: But they always say like, well, like the Rams traded
- 56:53Speaker 2: all their all this equity to get to get the
- 56:55Speaker 2: ring and they got it.
- 56:56Speaker 1: Yeah, right, they cashed out, they cashed out.
- 56:59Speaker 2: Is it worth it?
- 57:00Speaker 1: Yes? Yes, yes, in this decade, we got it. We
- 57:04Speaker 1: got one in this day. I tell everybody, I'm like,
- 57:06Speaker 1: I don't give a fuck what happens with the Suns.
- 57:08Speaker 1: I don't care if this owner trades every fucking draft pick,
- 57:10Speaker 1: if we.
- 57:11Speaker 2: Get one ring and suck for the next twenty years,
- 57:13Speaker 2: I don't give a fuck.
- 57:14Speaker 1: Dude. Oh my god, it was tragic watching that this year.
- 57:18Speaker 1: This year, Yeah, it was tragic. I was like Bradley Bell, like,
- 57:21Speaker 1: I feel like this makes them worse.
- 57:22Speaker 2: It feels fucking terrible. Not to be nice guy, Yo,
- 57:26Speaker 2: obviously your hip hop guy. What are your first of all,
- 57:29Speaker 2: what were your thoughts on the Drake Kendrick Beef.
- 57:33Speaker 1: Like I said this before on something, I was like,
- 57:36Speaker 1: I feel like one of the things about like Drake
- 57:39Speaker 1: was already already fighting an uphill battle because we see
- 57:42Speaker 1: so much of them. He's overexposed. We see so much
- 57:45Speaker 1: of him for the last fifteen fifteen years. He's always outside,
- 57:49Speaker 1: so we always kind of know, like even if the
- 57:51Speaker 1: rumors are true or not.
- 57:52Speaker 2: True, but there's always something in the air about there's.
- 57:54Speaker 1: Always something in the air to kind of those have
- 57:56Speaker 1: those implementations, just play and you know people are going
- 57:59Speaker 1: to take things. This is running up anyway. We don't
- 58:02Speaker 1: know what implications are about Kendrick, so right then and there,
- 58:05Speaker 1: the wave is just like heavily on Kendrick's side, And
- 58:08Speaker 1: I think just playing into implications is what won Kendrick
- 58:12Speaker 1: from my and I just thought strategically he just like
- 58:16Speaker 1: timing was everything, Like bro when when he.
- 58:19Speaker 2: Dropped family matters and then like forty five minutes later
- 58:21Speaker 2: the meet the Grahams came out, was like he just
- 58:23Speaker 2: sucked the life out of the room.
- 58:24Speaker 1: We were in the car driving around Miami is Me
- 58:27Speaker 1: Shirt King Fade and Flash and we were like all right,
- 58:32Speaker 1: we were just sitting there waiting for our food and
- 58:34Speaker 1: then like Drake just dropped in matters and we got
- 58:37Speaker 1: in the like, got the food, got in the car,
- 58:40Speaker 1: listened to it, and then he was like yo, did
- 58:42Speaker 1: Kendrick just is this fake his ai? No, Kendrick just
- 58:45Speaker 1: dropped play it and we sat in front of his house.
- 58:48Speaker 1: We were dropping him off. We sat in his front
- 58:49Speaker 1: of his house for like an hour and a half
- 58:51Speaker 1: just listening back from Phoenix during the whole thing, and
- 58:54Speaker 1: I was just like, this is fucking crazy.
- 58:56Speaker 2: I was like, no, He's said earlier in the day,
- 58:59Speaker 2: Kendrick drop that freestyle where he like kind of warned
- 59:02Speaker 2: him like, hey, this is you got some leaks in
- 59:04Speaker 2: your camp.
- 59:05Speaker 1: You take it. Whatever you're gonna do tonight, don't do it.
- 59:08Speaker 1: It's just a friendly fade. You're taking it here, I'm
- 59:10Speaker 1: taking it. There's something you don't want to do. So
- 59:12Speaker 1: crazy man. And I think another thing with Kendrick is
- 59:14Speaker 1: like there's so many quotables. Oh yeah, so many quotables
- 59:17Speaker 1: on just a Euphori alone.
- 59:19Speaker 2: They're so Euphouri is my favorite record at all of them,
- 59:21Speaker 2: because I just thought I thought it was such a methodical.
- 59:24Speaker 2: It was a kill shot, but also like a literal
- 59:27Speaker 2: warning shot, like hey man, like there's a friendly fade.
- 59:32Speaker 2: Don't tell don't tell them lies about me, and I
- 59:34Speaker 2: won't tell the truth about you.
- 59:35Speaker 1: Yeah, I like Drake with the melodies. I don't like
- 59:37Speaker 1: Drake when he acts us so good Man, what is it?
- 59:39Speaker 1: The braids? It's like there's so many quotables from Kendrick
- 59:42Speaker 1: because of the way he says it in his voice
- 59:45Speaker 1: and the inflections. It's like it's so it's comedic, but
- 59:49Speaker 1: it's also like it hits, it's sharp. Yeah, so good Man,
- 59:54Speaker 1: the different flows, the like the shots of Kendrick Man,
- 59:58Speaker 1: it's just it's still like syllable schemes. Who's your like
- 1:00:02Speaker 1: top three or four all time? I mean, is one
- 1:00:05Speaker 1: of them? For sure? Sure? Like just on like if
- 1:00:09Speaker 1: you want to look numbers and statistics stuff, Drake has
- 1:00:11Speaker 1: to be up there and influence alone in the past
- 1:00:14Speaker 1: like fifteen twenty years. It has to be Kanye for sure. Yeah. Yeah,
- 1:00:18Speaker 1: And like there's so many more artists that could have
- 1:00:23Speaker 1: had more influence and from the from like the impact
- 1:00:27Speaker 1: that they made. I think Kanye's most influential artist because
- 1:00:30Speaker 1: he kept going. Because he kept going, He's influenced the world. Yes,
- 1:00:34Speaker 1: more than any artist.
- 1:00:35Speaker 2: I mean, I mean we're talking about like fashion, we're time.
- 1:00:37Speaker 1: Like like talking like just walking down the street.
- 1:00:40Speaker 2: Motherfucker's walking around with them fucking glasses you couldn't see
- 1:00:43Speaker 2: out of back in the fuck.
- 1:00:44Speaker 1: Like these, I'm like, I can't see I hate these?
- 1:00:47Speaker 1: What is going on? But people were wearing them, like
- 1:00:49Speaker 1: the haircuts, like the mohawks, mullet for sure, for all
- 1:00:53Speaker 1: things for sure, wearing suits and now like people don't
- 1:00:55Speaker 1: even that. People come on stage with full masks. I'm like,
- 1:00:58Speaker 1: I can't even see a face. Yeah, you know that's crazy,
- 1:01:02Speaker 1: all right. So you are facing Christian but tonight you're
- 1:01:06Speaker 1: facing kill Switch, yes, sir, and a bought HBO sponsored match, Yeah,
- 1:01:13Speaker 1: house a Dragon sponsored match. I didn't know.
- 1:01:15Speaker 2: I saw the flyer and I wasn't I didn't know
- 1:01:17Speaker 2: what the fuck was going on because I was like,
- 1:01:19Speaker 2: wait a minute, is aw on HBO Max now, because
- 1:01:23Speaker 2: that'd be nice, tony kah, but figure that out.
- 1:01:26Speaker 1: But it caught your eye, it did. Yeah.
- 1:01:29Speaker 2: I feel like if you get through the Christian thing,
- 1:01:33Speaker 2: the thing that everybody's gonna want.
- 1:01:35Speaker 1: To see is you VERSU m JF.
- 1:01:38Speaker 2: Possibly that feels like the impending collision that's going to have.
- 1:01:42Speaker 1: To happen, possibly.
- 1:01:45Speaker 2: Assuming you get to hold on to this, you know,
- 1:01:47Speaker 2: long enough, which I'm assuming you will.
- 1:01:48Speaker 1: But but that would be fun. There's a lot of
- 1:01:53Speaker 1: fun matchups going on right now. There's a lot of like,
- 1:01:56Speaker 1: you know what I think, Like, I think all these
- 1:02:03Speaker 1: all these matchups are all young, youthful too. True. True,
- 1:02:07Speaker 1: we're all with we all came up together and me myself,
- 1:02:10Speaker 1: mjf Osprey. We're all in the same like kind of
- 1:02:13Speaker 1: age group in the same era. Right. That's why I
- 1:02:17Speaker 1: feel like we moved to a different era, to a
- 1:02:19Speaker 1: new era. Stuff Like MGFF is a day one guy
- 1:02:23Speaker 1: out of three of us, but he's still with the
- 1:02:25Speaker 1: in the youthful spot. Yeah, we're still going to have him,
- 1:02:28Speaker 1: Jeff for like another decade.
- 1:02:30Speaker 2: I thought for sure he was out of there. I
- 1:02:32Speaker 2: was at Rumble in Tampa and I was just waiting.
- 1:02:34Speaker 1: I was like, well, at least we got Jade. We
- 1:02:37Speaker 1: got Ja shout out, shout out, amazing, good big home
- 1:02:42Speaker 1: of mine. Like she's great, still doing her thing. Yeah
- 1:02:45Speaker 1: for sure. I'm always excited to see what she does next,
- 1:02:48Speaker 1: always no matter what. But yeah, like our era is
- 1:02:52Speaker 1: like so like these these three guys are like, all right,
- 1:02:57Speaker 1: we're going to eat good for another sure, the companies
- 1:02:59Speaker 1: in good. Yeah, and we all care. We all care
- 1:03:02Speaker 1: about one another. We all care about the product. We
- 1:03:05Speaker 1: all care about pushing boundaries in our own ways. You know,
- 1:03:09Speaker 1: mine is cinematic. Osprays is in the ring, MGF is
- 1:03:12Speaker 1: on the microphone.
- 1:03:13Speaker 2: Right, you know, Yo, The last thing I wanted to
- 1:03:15Speaker 2: ask you. I feel like people don't understand. This is
- 1:03:18Speaker 2: more for people who don't understand how hard wrestling is.
- 1:03:22Speaker 1: I always say it is like.
- 1:03:25Speaker 2: The most physically difficult thing to put on a good
- 1:03:29Speaker 2: wrestling match because not only do you well, not only
- 1:03:32Speaker 2: do you have to be an athlete at the highest level,
- 1:03:36Speaker 2: you have to worry about so many different things happening
- 1:03:39Speaker 2: at the same time, you have to make sure you
- 1:03:41Speaker 2: protect the person you're wrestling with you it's it's the highest.
- 1:03:47Speaker 1: Dangerous skilled choreography.
- 1:03:50Speaker 2: Like when you have to hit like certain like spots
- 1:03:53Speaker 2: in a match, like it's it's just crazy some of
- 1:03:56Speaker 2: the spots that these guys hit on a consistent basis,
- 1:03:59Speaker 2: Like you know, for you, if you're wrestling somebody who
- 1:04:06Speaker 2: maybe isn't as gifted as you in the ring, is
- 1:04:10Speaker 2: it on you to make them look better and to
- 1:04:12Speaker 2: make sure because because at the end of the day.
- 1:04:14Speaker 1: I think my objective is to hurt people. That's what
- 1:04:18Speaker 1: my ob objective is. Officially, that's my objective, and that's
- 1:04:23Speaker 1: like now my objective is to do it in a
- 1:04:25Speaker 1: sense that protects this got it. That's that's how I
- 1:04:28Speaker 1: am with it.
- 1:04:29Speaker 2: Like, but I was going to say, like for you,
- 1:04:31Speaker 2: like to its care it just has to be like
- 1:04:34Speaker 2: super fucking difficult man.
- 1:04:37Speaker 1: To like like.
- 1:04:40Speaker 2: Just I mean for you, like like how long did
- 1:04:42Speaker 2: it take you to get to the point where you
- 1:04:43Speaker 2: felt very confident to say I could do thirty minutes?
- 1:04:46Speaker 1: And like when I honestly when I did thirty minutes,
- 1:04:51Speaker 1: it's like you have to do it, like you have
- 1:04:53Speaker 1: to get thrown out and thrown out there, and you
- 1:04:56Speaker 1: want to do it in spot. You want to do
- 1:04:58Speaker 1: it and get thrown out there in moments where they're
- 1:05:00Speaker 1: not detrimental with that. This is what the world sees first.
- 1:05:04Speaker 1: I kind of want to be doing thirty minutes behind
- 1:05:07Speaker 1: behind like maybe on a dark match or like even
- 1:05:09Speaker 1: dark matches. I would say, do it, like do it
- 1:05:10Speaker 1: on an independent shows match, like like put it, like
- 1:05:14Speaker 1: test yourself, push yourself to like go on, like maybe
- 1:05:21Speaker 1: it's in front of fifty people first, five hundred people first,
- 1:05:23Speaker 1: you know, like nothing crazy, And even if you crash
- 1:05:27Speaker 1: and burn, at least it's in front of five hundred
- 1:05:29Speaker 1: people instead of five thousand and then five million or
- 1:05:32Speaker 1: whatever watching at home or on YouTube, and that it's
- 1:05:34Speaker 1: just like no matter what you do after that, we
- 1:05:37Speaker 1: always have this match that's like you know, like that
- 1:05:41Speaker 1: was your that's we have this in the canal where
- 1:05:43Speaker 1: we can like always go back to remember he did
- 1:05:45Speaker 1: this in payperview, bombed on there, So like get those
- 1:05:48Speaker 1: thirty minute matches.
- 1:05:49Speaker 2: Yeah, if you're going to miss as spot or just
- 1:05:50Speaker 2: so do it off TV.
- 1:05:52Speaker 1: Yeah, Like like there's comedians that go into dive bars
- 1:05:54Speaker 1: and like, yeah they go work out their shors in
- 1:05:57Speaker 1: front of mics. Yeah, before they really take it to
- 1:06:00Speaker 1: Netflix and like do their comedies.
- 1:06:02Speaker 2: And I think being a wrestler is the most highest
- 1:06:05Speaker 2: difficult thing in the entire world to do physically mentally.
- 1:06:09Speaker 2: You guys are fucking modern day gladiators. Thank you, appreciate,
- 1:06:12Speaker 2: thank you for being I think the artist of the
- 1:06:15Speaker 2: highest calid I know. Listen, I always put on Twitter
- 1:06:17Speaker 2: wrestling is art wrestling, his artstling art man the highest
- 1:06:22Speaker 2: difficulty in.
- 1:06:23Speaker 1: The world period. It really, it really is. But when
- 1:06:26Speaker 1: it's done right.
- 1:06:27Speaker 2: It's like when it's done right, it's so beautiful because
- 1:06:30Speaker 2: you have storytelling and then you have the physical aspect
- 1:06:32Speaker 2: and there's just so much that goes into it.
- 1:06:34Speaker 1: I don't even think people understand. Like, and it's just
- 1:06:36Speaker 1: like man like like when all my podcast interview people
- 1:06:40Speaker 1: from other different forms of entertainment, we've all come across
- 1:06:43Speaker 1: the same struggle and the same like we all kind
- 1:06:46Speaker 1: of come together a little more because like we're not
- 1:06:48Speaker 1: too far apart and a lot of these ways right, Like,
- 1:06:53Speaker 1: like music is the same way. It's like when like
- 1:06:55Speaker 1: done poorly, it's like, uh, but when it's done beautiful.
- 1:06:57Speaker 2: But you can be but you could be like a
- 1:07:00Speaker 2: terrible rapper and like still like you know, go platinum.
- 1:07:04Speaker 2: I don't know if you could be like a terrible
- 1:07:06Speaker 2: wrestler and like be the world champion, be the world champ.
- 1:07:09Speaker 1: Well, I mean shot at Goldberg. Goldberg was terrible. That's
- 1:07:15Speaker 1: why I said this is not we're not too far apart, right, Yeah,
- 1:07:19Speaker 1: like shout out to right back. He held a belt
- 1:07:21Speaker 1: for a show mente Goldberg.
- 1:07:23Speaker 2: Yeah you're right there, it is, oh man swear, but
- 1:07:26Speaker 2: we still had influence.
- 1:07:27Speaker 1: He did have influence. I was influenced by Goldberg when.
- 1:07:30Speaker 2: We were little kids.
- 1:07:31Speaker 1: We were just like, you know, like I want to
- 1:07:33Speaker 1: see somebody spear Jack camp, that's all. I'm sure, Just like, well,
- 1:07:36Speaker 1: I want to see a minute and a half song,
- 1:07:38Speaker 1: shake my ass to it.
- 1:07:39Speaker 2: Yeah, give me a minute and a half SoundCloud rap song.
- 1:07:41Speaker 1: That's what Goldburg was. Anyway.
- 1:07:42Speaker 2: I appreciate you, man. I look forward to seeing you
- 1:07:45Speaker 2: defend this title. I look forward to your reign as
- 1:07:48Speaker 2: the aw Heavyweight Champion, and uh yeah, Like, can we
- 1:07:52Speaker 2: just like Tony Kahan, please, for the love of God,
- 1:07:54Speaker 2: please just can we get the streaming together. I'll pay
- 1:07:57Speaker 2: thirty dollars a month, Like right now, what are we
- 1:08:00Speaker 2: doing here?
- 1:08:01Speaker 1: Please make we got keV signed on already.
- 1:08:04Speaker 2: All my aw watching is on Twitter, that's it.
- 1:08:06Speaker 1: I'm just like, oh shit, what happened? Oh shit, this
- 1:08:09Speaker 1: motherfucker got sat on put on YouTube at least at
- 1:08:13Speaker 1: the very minimum.
- 1:08:14Speaker 2: My wrestling, my whole feed is like basketball, football and
- 1:08:18Speaker 2: wrestling on Twitter before you It's all just so. But yo, man,
- 1:08:23Speaker 2: I'm happy for you and I look forward to seeing
- 1:08:25Speaker 2: you do your thing.
- 1:08:26Speaker 1: Bro. Thank you. Yeah, fire, I got motion sickness me
- 1:08:30Speaker 1: and flash garments coming soon. There, it is go go
- 1:08:33Speaker 1: run that up, run that up.