Latest / ABJ / ABJ Podcast Ep 76 Dan Champion

Transcript

ABJ Podcast Ep 76 Dan Champion · ABJ

0:35
What's going on everybody? We are back three days in a row.
0:38
back-to-back to back-to-back to back a BJ podcast.
0:42
There's actually more having that.
0:43
You guys aren't seeing the days that aren't going live.
0:45
I'm still recording for future episodes.
0:47
We'll talk about that in a moment.
0:49
But we are back episode 76 with Big Dan Champion.
0:52
Super excited for this one. This guy been a fan of for a
0:54
long time. Worked with him at Camp
0:56
Leapfrog. I just missed a boat with him
0:59
and PPW but he's there now killing it.
1:01
Been a lot of different shows. We'll plug and talk about all
1:04
those later in the episode as well, so stay tuned for that.
1:07
All my guest links are down below.
1:09
Make sure you support as well as the links for a BJ anywhere you
1:12
find me on social media. Is there merchandise?
1:15
Some new logos just dropped the the I'm a Paul Heyman guy
1:19
inspired shirt just retweaked a little bit to be more inclusive.
1:22
So instead of I'm a Paul Heyman guy or girl is I'm a fan of a
1:26
BJ, which is hilarious And then real small podcast because you
1:29
know the bit so that's out there now.
1:31
So a lot of cool things we rehab some old logos that used to be
1:34
my old network that you could see now.
1:36
So the tons of stuff to use to support anything that you guys
1:39
do now when it comes to donations Patreon merchandise is
1:42
all going towards my trip that's coming up at the end of the
1:44
month. I will be in the UK for my first
1:47
ever major wrestling show I've ever been to.
1:50
I've never been to a pay-per-view.
1:51
I've only been to a RAW on the Smackdown and my first show
1:54
pay-per-view I'm ever going to go to is going to be all in in
1:57
Wembley Stadium. Wimbley's name is my bucket list
1:59
venue of all time. And the fact that it's a
2:01
wrestling show happening there, the fact that it's a EW, which
2:03
I'm a huge fan of, is happening there.
2:05
And plus it's going to have probably my favorite wrestler of
2:08
all, one of my favorite wrestlers of all time in the
2:10
main event, Hope to God he wins the title.
2:12
And also it's going to be the largest drawing wrestling show
2:15
in the history of the world. It's really, really close and I
2:18
think they're going to do it and it's just magical and I'm super
2:20
happy. So huge thanks to Raz and
2:21
Anastasia for helping me with that trip.
2:24
I'm. I'm.
2:25
I'm pumped, but anyway and also thank you to our sponsor, Suplex
2:30
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3:25
All right, housekeeping's out of the way.
3:28
It's time to get big. I I picked it.
3:30
I think it's a Cardi B song. I don't know.
3:32
I I don't. I don't know a lot of new music,
3:34
but I only know is a song says you got big, big energy.
3:37
And I thought it was hilarious, so I used it as a thumbnail and
3:39
it's just short. I thought it was funny.
3:42
I probably should have used Bruce Springsteen, but I'm sure
3:44
we'll talk about that in a minute as well.
3:45
But without further ado, let's bring in the biggest guest of
3:49
the ABJ podcast. What's going on, bud?
3:53
Have you ever been to that suplex store?
3:55
I have, yeah. It's awesome.
3:57
I love it. They, they, they have.
4:00
They reached out to me when I was at probably my lowest point.
4:02
My car just broke down. I lost my job.
4:05
I was struggling really hard. And they're like, yo, we've been
4:07
watching your content and we want to sponsor you and help you
4:09
out. And they have been absolutely.
4:11
They never met me from a hole in the wall and I went out there a
4:14
couple times, hung out with them.
4:15
We have some stuff planned in the future but they are sponsors
4:19
of the podcast and they're really, really good humans.
4:22
Yeah. Loving the death but how you
4:23
been man? So the we first met at Camp
4:27
Leapfrog and and and then did a couple shows there and then hung
4:33
out and it was a really fun did a great job and then just kind
4:37
of crossing paths here and there in the wrestling world.
4:38
But you've been around for a minute.
4:40
You've been doing this for quite some time.
4:42
You have accomplished a lot. You're so right now you probably
4:45
say what's your your home promotion that people can see
4:48
you at. Yeah, my home promotion is
4:51
definitely ALVAC Lehigh Valley Athletic Council out here in the
4:56
Lehigh Valley. We do know about maybe like a
5:02
dozen shows a year, maybe a little less than that, but
5:04
they're all great time. We have a big, big one.
5:07
Our WrestleMania is coming up September 16th at Steel Stacks
5:11
in Bethlem, Pennsylvania at the Arts Quest Building right now.
5:16
The music fest going on, they made the biggest music festival
5:19
in the country and right after Music Fest were there, so that's
5:23
very exciting. Are you doing the indoor one
5:26
again like the same place it was last time.
5:28
That venue is super. I missed it and usually every
5:31
time that something's happened with that, I can never make it.
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The one year I was in Vegas and my buddy was sending me pictures
5:38
of him at the show and it was funny cuz he took a picture of
5:42
the draw. That day was Orange Cassidy.
5:44
And he took a picture of him and Orange and I sent him a picture
5:47
back on Snapchat of me in Vegas wearing my arms, gasoline,
5:50
tshirt. So you know nothing to take away
6:15
from anybody. And he wrote, I guess he said,
5:52
like my buddies in Vegas wearing your shirt.
5:53
He goes, I don't care, you should be here.
5:55
That's all he said to him. But yeah, those shows are so
5:59
cool. They did a drivein show, a
6:02
brewery show, the steel stack show, the venues always
6:05
changing, and the venues are kind of like mashing other
6:09
things together with pro wrestling.
6:10
And I think it's genius. But just wrestling, like in a
6:18
VFW hall or something like that, that's OK.
6:22
But you can, if you can pair it up with some cool, like last
6:24
week we did Cocacola Park before an Iron Pigs game.
6:27
That's awesome. Yeah.
6:28
Yeah. We run at a social club called
6:30
Souls, which is like a bar that's open till 3:00 in the
6:33
morning. You know, it's a it it it it's
6:37
character, the building us character.
6:39
I'll say that. So those things are cool, you
6:41
know, Those things are really cool.
6:43
Yeah, the the one I went to was Avery Good's farewell show and
6:46
it was unbelievable. The highlight to me is when one
6:52
of one of my favorite wrestlers I've grown to love brought BP,
6:56
is the biggest fan of him. Ultraman is blacks band J, their
7:02
side of the stage. And then they just started
7:04
playing and a fighter erupted and they band just kept playing
7:07
the whole match and it was awesome.
7:12
But if you are in the northeast PA area or the Jersey, New York
7:15
and you want to take a ride down, follow LVAC on all social
7:18
media. I'm telling you, their shows are
7:20
amazing. Another cool thing about those
7:21
shows that I got to learn about myself is I don't mind vegan
7:26
food. A lot of vegan options.
7:29
They're they're big vegan supporters there.
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I had a vegan donut. I had vegan cookies.
7:34
I had vegan Pretz pretzel. I said no, it was not pretzel
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pizza. Pizza had, yeah.
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And there it was all amazing and it didn't.
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I I never knew or thought I was missing anything else.
7:45
If I feel like if that was a more bigger option, I would
7:48
probably learn more that way, right?
7:50
Right. Yeah.
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But it's just, I can't go to the store with my laziness and I
7:54
can't cook, so it's hard to be a vegan, I guess.
7:58
But well, let's dive into it. Dan, when did you fall in love
8:02
with the business of professional wrestling?
8:05
Right. My earliest memories, you know.
8:08
My dad tells a story where I would tell people that was Hulk
8:10
Hogan when I was like two or three years old.
8:12
So before, I really have memories of watching pro
8:15
wrestling, I was into pro wrestling then.
8:20
You were always a Hogan guy. You know, until recent, Yeah.
8:24
You know, as a kid, yeah, Yeah. I never bought into it.
8:28
I never got into the baby faces. See, I loved Hogan, Dad, I was a
8:32
savage guy. Your condition to that way as a
8:34
kid. Growing up in the 80s, the late
8:38
80s. But he was everywhere.
8:40
I had his poster, I had his toys.
8:42
I had everything. Yeah, the late 80s.
8:44
My dad was into the the fan clubs were a big thing.
8:47
So my dad got me into the Michael Jordan fan club, the
8:49
Rusty Wallace fan club, the Hulk Hogan fan club, and I believe
8:52
there was another one. I just forget what it was.
8:54
So I didn't learn about sports. I learned about this is the
8:56
person and this is the industry they're attached to.
8:59
So I remember I had all this Hulk Hogan stuff and I started
9:01
watching. I was like, I don't like him,
9:03
man. My dad's like he's like the
9:05
Jesus of pro wrestling. I'm like, I like that macho man
9:07
guy. I like the guy in the the kilt.
9:09
I like I picked all the bad guys.
9:11
It was like a thing to start wrong on my kid like the heels.
9:16
I'm cheering like, yeah, until Jake till Jake bit Muncho man
9:19
with the snake. I bawled like a baby because I
9:21
like Jake's too. But he literally, I think that's
9:23
my my condition fear to snakes at an early age but so yeah.
9:28
Do you have any memories growing up of like some shows or things
9:31
you did? Like, Sure?
9:34
What are some of your favorites? So I guess one of my earliest
9:38
memories is my mom's calling in to QVC to get us WWF trading
9:44
cards. And, you know, sounds like you
9:46
call in and they're like, hey, do you want to talk to the
9:48
guest? She's like, yeah, So she talked
9:50
to Macho Man. Oh my God.
9:52
He gave a shout out to me, my brothers, so that's cool.
9:58
My first independent wrestling show, well, my first WF show was
10:02
in Allentown at the Stabler Arena on a Bethlehem in the
10:05
Stabler Arena, and that was right near the beginning of the
10:11
Attitude Era. So I think it was the main event
10:13
was Brett Hart and Psychosid against Undertaker and Shawn
10:19
Michaels, something like that. And then my first independent
10:24
show was at my high school when I was in 8th grade.
10:28
And that just the independent show just blew me away.
10:30
It was, it was awesome. And then right at that point I
10:33
was like, do you remember? Who was on it?
10:36
Tito Santana was on it. A guy named Judas Young Light
10:42
and Mike Quackenbush was on it. Tiger Mulligan.
10:45
And then just a bunch of like other indie guys.
10:50
But it was, yeah, it was, it was awesome.
10:52
They they did that a lot in our area too, on our side of the
10:56
mountain of Pennsylvania and the very last show, and I think this
11:00
was the last show I can honestly remember in my brain.
11:03
And it was so crazy and they did such bad things in this show
11:07
that they just put the word out like no more wrestler because it
11:09
was always in schools like your school had it.
11:12
And they did a no holds barred any false count anywhere.
11:16
Steel cage match which I don't even know why they built the
11:19
cage because neither one of them were going to climb it and
11:21
neither one even used it. And it was Terry Funk versus
11:24
Abdul the butcher and they bled all over this school 1st 3
11:30
minutes the fork came out kicking the stomach.
11:32
Terry Funk pulled it out of his hands and buried it in Abdul's
11:35
head. And the the women and children
11:38
screeched and they all ran for the door like half the year in
11:41
the left because as soon as they got out of the cage and they
11:43
were bleeding everywhere, people just running for exits.
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And I'm there like this is awesome.
11:49
Yeah, that was it. That was the end of professional
11:51
wrestling in our area in schools.
11:53
I don't know who ran it, what the promotion was or how they
11:56
got it together. That would be the things I'd
11:58
like to know is like who ran the things that like cuz you didn't
12:00
like you said you remember the promotions name or anything.
12:02
Yeah, it was EWF Eastern Wrestling Federation.
12:07
OK. And I PW.
12:10
I think I PW still around. But it was like a joint show.
12:13
So I do remember I have the, I have the poster somewhere.
12:15
So that's why I remember that's so cool.
12:18
Yeah, that that was huge then and like I said, I didn't, I
12:20
completely fall off independent wrestling forever then I just
12:23
didn't know it was a thing. I just, I didn't know how it
12:25
worked. I was just so the kid who just
12:27
went to shows and just didn't know what to expect.
12:29
But that's why branding is important because you know, it
12:31
sticks in your head And now kids, you go to a wrestling show
12:34
and the brandings there and like, oh, I remember going to
12:36
insert wrestling company name here because it's they do a
12:39
better job at it. So when did you transition
12:42
actually before I asked that growing up, were you into
12:46
sports? What kind of person was Dan in,
12:48
in school growing up? Yeah.
12:50
What crowd did you fit in? I was big into sports, watching
12:55
and playing. I'm not the.
12:59
I wasn't the like big athletic guy you see today when I was in
13:02
high school, a little bit skinnier.
13:04
So I played soccer and I played basketball all the time.
13:09
You know, I don't know if I really had a crowd.
13:10
I just had my a group of friends that just got along with
13:13
everybody. Got along with yeah, what would
13:16
you We were Pennsylvania born and raised like the Allentown
13:18
area. No.
13:20
I was born and raised in Italico, Phillipsburg, NJ.
13:23
Oh, OK. Which is very close to
13:25
Pennsylvania. It's right across the river, so
13:27
it's pretty much Lehigh Valley, but my high school class had
13:32
myself Orange Cassidy. And lucky 13, we all graduated
13:38
the same year. Really.
13:40
Avery good professional wrestler, graduated the same
13:42
high school year ahead of us. So our high schools, a lot of
13:46
influence in the pro wrestling world.
13:48
You guys are like the new version of what's the school in
13:52
Minnesota that everybody went to?
13:54
Yeah, shit, We did a whole episode on it.
13:57
I forget the name of the school, but like every like rude.
14:00
I think perfect. Yeah, yeah.
14:02
Vern Gonye was like that wrestling coach there.
14:05
I cannot remember the name of that school, but it was like a
14:07
high school in Minnesota where like 16 wrestlers came out of.
14:10
That's insane. I actually seen my first lucky
14:12
13 match at Smash Master. He's so entertaining.
14:16
He's so good. He's really, really good.
14:19
So you guys always that crew. Was that your crew growing up?
14:23
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even with Avery was, even though
14:27
he was a year older than did you.
14:29
Always. See, I never really hung out
14:30
with Avery in high school. He was more of the kind of guy
14:35
that would go into like, the woods and drink.
14:36
He was like a popular kid. He was too busy talking to
14:39
girls, I guess. Yeah, I didn't.
14:42
I didn't really start talking to Avery, who, you know, right now
14:46
I'm not talking to him, right. He's kind of a piece of shit in
14:49
my book right now. But when we were friends, I I
14:54
met him the first time in our early 20s at a bar in
14:58
Phillisburg. We got talking and I got him
15:01
booked on one of his first independent wrestling shows, you
15:03
know, long time ago. So you broke him in?
15:07
I don't know if I broke him in, but I got him.
15:09
I got him. You got the ball rolling.
15:11
I guess, you know he was, he was one of these guys that just
15:13
wrestled in Allentown and I kind of got him out of that area a
15:18
little bit to different places, yeah.
15:21
But like I said now he he repaid me in a way a couple weeks ago
15:25
or a couple months ago. You know, so I guess he forgot
15:29
about the, you know. Yeah yeah, that's fucked up.
15:34
But when did you Robbinsdale? There it is Robbinsdale high
15:37
school Joey image with the save down there.
15:40
Appreciate that. So when did you transition from
15:43
high school sports the whole 9 and decide did you go to
15:46
college? What, did you start working
15:48
right away or did you just say, hey, I'm going to jump right
15:50
into this wrestling thing? How?
15:51
Did I change? Yeah, I went to wrestling school
15:54
right when I was 18. Right out.
15:57
I might still been in high school, in high school or that
16:00
summer after I graduated. I don't remember.
16:02
But, you know, I had, I mean, I worked and I went to Community
16:05
College at that time. And I was going up to Northeast
16:11
PA to train a couple days a week.
16:13
Okay at school. Ours, the one we don't.
16:18
The one that's not spoken at. Yeah, yeah, my bad, my bad.
16:22
I here's my here's, I'll just say here.
16:24
We're not right. We're probably not talking about
16:26
the same school. Oh, OK, OK, never mind.
16:29
It's just a shitty school. Then I went to.
16:30
Oh, what doesn't exist anymore? Yeah, a lot of good, a lot of
16:34
fun talents come out of back Breakers.
16:35
Because I'm a fan of. Yeah, fan of them.
16:37
I thought we were talking about the promotion slash school.
16:41
Oh. No, no, no.
16:42
It sucks everything that happened.
16:43
But what happened with talent and storylines there I'm always
16:46
going to be a fan of because it's it was it set a set of hope
16:49
at that that bar that was set by that talent is essentially what
16:53
we're watching on TV right now. I'm sure we'll talk about that
16:56
in a moment. But so when did you transition?
16:59
So you got training there, did you move then like your for like
17:03
because you were part of that promotion at some point in time,
17:05
right? Not, I mean, I mean I'll just
17:09
say it I, I I wrestled for your car like three times.
17:13
Yeah, before they. So it's funny, before they got
17:16
really popular. I maybe like three matches
17:19
there. Then they got popular and then
17:22
like they so at one point they wanted me to be an Ant that have
17:27
been awesome. Like when?
17:29
Not like when some of the other ants came along, like
17:32
miscellanea and I was supposed to be like Arctic Ant or
17:36
something like that. Like, what's the big ones?
17:39
The big? Aren't they like bull ants or
17:41
something like that? Yeah, yeah, it's supposed to be
17:43
something, but. What happened was like I was
17:46
told I need to buy like a helmet that was $1000 and I think that
17:49
was like 24 at the time. I just didn't have like $1000 to
17:51
pay for a helmet. So I didn't.
17:53
I didn't get that spot. But then like after their peak I
17:59
did like a couple more shows for them, like maybe two or three.
18:02
Yeah. So I wasn't in like Kolsha car,
18:04
I was like in the other the other parts, but that's fine.
18:08
Yeah, no, I mean like I said that whether a part, whether
18:11
you're part of the beginning or what anything that they're very
18:13
influential and a lot of cool things have come out of there.
18:16
So at around those times were some other places you worked and
18:19
what are some matches that you had that just really stick out
18:22
to you early in your career? My very first match was against
18:26
Matt Turner. Really.
18:29
Yeah. And we're talking 2003, 2000
18:33
somewhere along with there, so. You have to remember that like
18:38
when I first started wrestling, there wasn't social media.
18:56
What character was he at the time?
18:42
It was hard to get out. It's hard to get noticed.
18:45
So I think some of my early matches that I really liked was
18:49
one against Avery Goode, probably like the early to or
18:53
the mid 2000s. We had a match.
18:58
He was Sean Hayes, OK? Sean Hayes Yeah, so he has like
19:03
he has, he has Mick Foley and and all those other characters
19:05
blowing out. So we had a really cool match in
19:11
Allentown for Lvw for like Bud Carson, so that one was really
19:15
fun. He has like like 8 different.
19:16
I had a lot of fun matches in the place called So Me and
19:19
Orange Casta used to be A tag team and lucky we were called
19:23
the New Jersey Independent Allstars and we had so many fun
19:27
matches when we all first kind of started breaking in down in a
19:31
place called GBW. Which was ran by a dude named
19:33
Greg Excellence. It was in CZW for a hot minute,
19:37
but that was so much fun. It was a lot of fun.
19:39
So those are like some of my my better early memories.
19:43
We wrestled in Canada pretty early.
19:44
That was fun. So those are my early memories.
19:50
Fun matches I had. How did how did you land the
19:53
character of Dan Champion and where do you pull the idea from
19:57
this character from? Sure.
19:59
So for a long time, I was Danny Rage.
20:02
And it's such a stupid name and there's no, it's it's not even a
20:06
character. I was just a dude.
20:07
Yeah. So one show like it was like a
20:13
wrestling this fun show. And Bryce Bryce came up, he's
20:17
like you're Dan Champion now. So he just kind of said it.
20:21
I and I think it was in the works with Orange Cassidy.
20:23
Like when you think of something new.
20:25
So a wrestling fun show like Dan Champion came out.
20:31
So that's where Dan Champion was born.
20:32
And I don't know, I just pull stuff from every little place.
20:37
You know my character. Joey Image misses.
20:39
Danny Rage. Yeah, everybody misses.
20:42
Sure. I like the fact that Bryce came
20:44
up with that. That's awesome.
20:45
Yeah, yeah. I don't know if he came up with
20:47
it, but he's like on the show you're Danny or you're Dan
20:50
Champion. And I was like, well, I guess
20:53
every show from now on I'm gonna be Dan Champion.
20:54
Yeah, one of my favorite heckles.
20:58
Was to you and Bryce at that LVAC show when you're like, oh,
21:03
my beer. And I said tell him his beer
21:04
sucks. Yours is better at pill Guru.
21:06
And he just looked at like, he just looked at me.
21:07
He goes like, yeah, because you guys came out with the beer
21:11
that's like almost the same time.
21:13
Yeah, yeah. You're probably like, I got a
21:15
beer made about me and he's like, yeah, I got one too.
21:19
That was a fun Heckle. He's a good guy.
21:20
Very good guy too. How does Now here's the Here's
21:24
the question. And I'm not trying to like, I
21:26
don't want to word this wrong or make it come out wrong.
21:27
But like. When you're in this industry, as
21:30
long as you have been and you've been around so many people that
21:32
you've been around and you've seen you see them hit the the
21:35
where they're at now like it. Is it insane?
21:38
Are you? Are you?
21:39
Obviously you're proud, but at some point do you get any like
21:41
you get down on yourself? Does that cuz like this mental
21:43
game of professional wrestling where you feel like you hit
21:45
walls and you're not getting there where you need to be?
21:48
Like, how do you navigate that? No, Maybe.
21:51
Maybe that happened in like my 20s.
21:53
It bothers me, but you know, happened later in in my in my
21:56
mid 30s. So like I think it was like at
22:00
that point in my mid 30s, I'm like I know what I am.
22:04
You know, I'm not gonna get signed.
22:06
So no, I was and like I had a career then I had my own career.
22:10
Yeah, you know, outside of wrestling.
22:12
So I was very content where I was at and you know and then you
22:17
know it was just cool seeing your friends do well, you know.
22:19
So I I never, I never had like any kind of jealousy or I was
22:22
never frustrated. Yeah, I wasn't saying, like, I
22:26
wasn't saying thinking like a jealousy thing, but like
22:28
everyone, obviously. It's like you're trying out for
22:30
the team, you know what I mean? And everyone makes a team and
22:32
you kind of like, maybe you didn't and you're like, how do
22:34
you? Because that's that's something
22:35
that would probably like I got to figure something out like,
22:39
no, when everybody started, when all my, not all my friends, a
22:41
lot of my friends started signing, blowing up, I was
22:44
already, you know, 35. So I was like I was OK with it.
22:48
Yeah, I was very content and and then to be honest, like in my
22:51
own little way, I started getting noticed, you know, I got
22:56
out of like just wrestling in Pennsylvania, New Jersey.
22:58
I got you know, bookings with like AIW.
23:01
I got bookings like Black Label Pro.
23:04
You know, I got some really cool bookings and I started like even
23:06
now I'm getting used a lot more than I ever did.
23:09
So I'm just happy with that. I'm just happy still to be able
23:12
to still do it and kind of, you know, have some kind of
23:15
relevancy. Yeah, if people who have never
23:18
seen your recipe for were to say what type of style are you or
23:21
who are some people you emulate or try to pull from Azure style,
23:27
who would they be? No, I really like Davy Boy
23:31
Smith. I like big guys that have some
23:33
agility. Mike Awesome, Davy Boy Smith
23:38
Vader. To a certain extent.
23:41
Those guys always enjoy big dudes.
23:43
I can, like, move. They're just not like a big
23:46
dude. Yeah.
23:48
One of the ones that come to mind is like my mind
23:50
immediately, just because you guys are both like that bigger
23:54
statue size. But you were both athletic,
23:56
Brody. Yeah, yeah.
23:57
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's so crazy.
24:02
So when? You have you always learn more
24:06
to the tag team side and the stable side or do you do you
24:08
enjoy doing the stuff like maybe solo as well?
24:10
Like where do you If you would you have a preference?
24:12
Do you prefer to be solo or tag team or stable?
24:14
Oh, right now tag team, since I'm old.
24:17
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And and you just recently won
24:21
tag team championships at PPW, I'm not sure.
24:24
Are you Are you anywhere else that you're holding any gold?
24:29
No, there is I I was for a while the PWE heavyweight champion,
24:33
but I lost that month ago, no. So yeah, I'm as of now, I'm the
24:38
PPW Tag Team champion. There it is.
24:41
I I'm bummed. I'm not there to watch that.
24:43
Are you guys? I don't.
24:44
I don't know the care. Are you guys good?
24:45
Bad we're we're a couple of bad fellas.
24:48
Good. I love that healed and champions
24:50
the best. Your your run with as a heel and
24:53
leapfrog was my favorite cuz you come out you're still like goofy
24:56
and I think you and Abby tagging was so fun.
24:59
Like when you guys would do stuff together cuz it was just
25:01
so polar opposite. You like pick her up and use her
25:03
as a weapon. It's it's great.
25:08
Who are some people on the scene that you haven't worked either
25:10
with as a team, or are people you would like to or people who
25:14
you would like to square off against?
25:15
I think my dream tag team partner is Filthy time Lawyer.
25:19
OK, that does it for me. I don't know why we really have
25:23
nothing in comedy. I just think he's awesome.
25:28
He's awesome. Josh Bishop, he's great.
25:33
I really like him. You tagged with Rex before,
25:36
right? But probably, yeah, yeah,
25:39
probably no BAC I I had a couple of tag matches with Rex and I
25:42
just wrestled him a couple days ago, so I've done a lot of stuff
25:46
with Rex. Yeah, another big guy.
25:49
Very athletic. Big guy.
25:51
Athletic for sure. Yeah, What's that category?
25:54
Any other matches out there that you always wanted, that you
25:56
never had a chance to get? Who's the bucket list?
26:00
Mance Warner. I think that's a lot of fun.
26:04
I'm sure there's hundreds of people I'm missing, but those
26:08
are the ones that really stick out.
26:11
Logan. I've tagged with Logan, so I've
26:13
tagged with Logan. Yeah, but he's awesome.
26:17
Very good. Where's he at now?
26:18
Where's he wrestling out of? Yeah, he's he's from the
26:21
Baltimore area, right? I think so.
26:23
Yeah, I haven't. I haven't seen him since.
26:25
I always thought he was insanely impressive.
26:27
I thought he was really, really talented.
26:28
He just like he does VCW Virginia Championship, OK And
26:32
he's super good fight pro. Another guy too, underneath the
26:36
mask. Why?
26:37
I was like, why are you wearing a mask?
26:39
Like you're a good looking dude. Yeah.
26:42
Oh yeah, yeah, he's handsome for sure.
26:43
Yeah, handsome man. What are some outside influences
26:46
that had that you developed are incorporating the character of
26:48
Dan Champion. So when you when you were said,
26:51
hey you're Dan Champion now, obviously you had to spin
26:53
something into that. What are some like, what did you
26:56
pull from when it came for that character?
26:58
You know, as a heel? Nothing really.
27:00
It's just a a more antiversion of who I am as a baby face.
27:07
It's gonna sound weird, but a lot of things I do or things
27:10
I've seen Bruce Springsteen do in concert, like a lot of the
27:12
interaction with the crowd and things like that.
27:15
So I pulled that from outside of wrestling into what I what I do
27:19
as a baby face. But to heal, You know, maybe
27:24
like Mike Tyson, like his attitude in boxing or, you know,
27:29
like a Randy Moss from football. Like somebody who just thinks
27:32
like they're king shit. You know, something like that?
27:36
So you pull a lot from like like cocky, very arrogant, but very
27:39
good sports athletes. Yes.
27:41
Interesting. Interesting.
27:42
That's a cool development cuz like some people like, oh, I try
27:44
to emulate Kurt Angle or this person you you pull from outside
27:48
of that, which is super cool. I like that.
27:49
That's a different way of looking at things nice.
27:54
So outside of professional wrestling, what are some of your
27:57
hobbies or some things you like to do?
27:59
Oh, you know, I like going and I like it in like you like it in
28:02
the breweries. I like doing certain classes at
28:06
the gym. I like my peloton.
28:11
I enjoy live music, hanging with my friends, traveling, you know.
28:15
Peloton what? What one do you have?
28:17
The bike, bike or the bike? I want to get the rowing
28:19
machine. Yeah, that looks fun, right?
28:21
Yeah, you have to pay monthly for that.
28:23
Is it like a monthly subscription?
28:25
There's a subscription, but I think it like I think once you
28:27
buy it you get like at least a year free.
28:30
OK. I'm gonna look into it cuz I
28:32
don't think they're insanely expensive for the rowing
28:34
machine, right? And I think it folds up real
28:35
nice. I don't know, I I want to do
28:36
like a full body thing. So I think the rowing machine
28:38
would be a lot of fun brewery wise.
28:40
What are some of your favorite crap?
28:42
Breweries are just beer in general.
28:44
So there's a place in Bethlin called Bon, which I love, Bon
28:47
Brewery. There's a place called
28:51
Bogergeist and Easton that's pretty good that I like, you
28:54
know, tree house. That's like a major one.
28:57
I've had some tree house, love tree house.
28:59
That's like that that that's one for people who don't know.
29:02
So to cut you off there if Treehouse was a was they have
29:04
two locations now if I'm not mistaken their first location
29:08
you have to buy a ticket and you can only have like 1 beer
29:11
because it it flows so much and they get so much traffic and it
29:15
like it tripled the population of their small town.
29:18
They had to put add more stop lights.
29:19
They had to put like a person, like the direct traffic, like
29:22
this one brewery just exploded this small town that never had
29:25
it before and they make. Insanely good beers.
29:28
Like people travel from all over the world to go there and then
29:32
they buy like thousands of dollars worth of beer and bring
29:35
it home. Like if someone's going on a
29:37
treehouse run, they're like, oh, get me this, like it's it's a
29:40
big deal. Love City in Philly is really
29:43
good. I haven't been there yet.
29:45
Love City. Next time you go to Suplex, I
29:47
think you can walk. You can walk to Love City from
29:49
Suplex. Really.
29:50
Yeah, that's good. That's good.
29:53
To know that's good to know. I might be there a lot more
29:55
often soon. Once again, Hunter following you
30:00
on social media says Dan is insane when it comes to chugging
30:03
beer. I've seen it on his Twitter.
30:04
Oh yeah, that's one of my talents.
30:06
I can check. I can't do it.
30:07
What's the trick to it? I don't know if there is a
30:10
trick. I think there's one of those
30:11
things you can do or can't do. Yeah, and it sucks cuz when you
30:14
can't do it, you feel so ashamed when you're around people and
30:18
they're like, looking like I can do when you're like, what's
30:19
wrong with you? You're ready to throw off.
30:22
You're trying to dribble down the side of your face.
30:24
I don't have a beer. My fridge.
30:26
I don't think I would do one right now.
30:28
I have seltzer. I can Chuck it seltzer.
30:31
Is that is it possible? Like the the the the TV started
30:34
doesn't get you? I'll be right back.
30:36
Yeah, let's do it. We got Hunter.
30:38
You have prompted a Dan Champion beard chug.
30:41
And while he's gone away, make sure you check the link that's
30:43
popped up there, right there on your screen for all things ABJ.
30:45
Check out the link tree to do that.
30:47
Who's in the chat here? There we go.
30:51
I'll ask that when he comes back.
30:52
Great question, Raz. He did go through some of the
30:55
wrestles he liked to face early on on the podcast, so you can
30:58
check out the replay for that. Yeah, keep the questions coming,
31:02
everybody. I appreciate you guys for asking
31:04
them in. We got a seltzer.
31:06
I have a seltzer. This is just like floating
31:07
around my fridge. I love that the last one I have,
31:10
so I'm not a big fan of it, but you know.
31:13
For your I just had the the Arizona Peach Iced Tea one.
31:18
I normally don't like the like the.
31:21
I liked it. I normally don't like the Mike's
31:23
Hards and the Twisted T's. I think they're too sweet.
31:26
But that our Arizona was really, really good.
31:29
Yeah, I'm not usually a big fan of these.
31:31
Like, I like seltzers, but like these spiked iced teas and like,
31:36
sliders. Not really my thing, but.
31:39
Real quick, just for reference, hold that can up.
31:41
You got the Andre effect here. Look how big his hands are
31:45
around those cans. Dan is a very large man.
31:48
All right, here we go. There it is for the podcast.
31:54
Gone, Gone. We got a big bad chug on the
31:59
podcast. There you go.
32:01
Now, do you do the shotguns too? Not really.
32:06
They're they never like go off right in my mind.
32:08
Like, yeah, I can chug in the glass shotguns I can do.
32:12
But like if you don't do it right or if it doesn't open the
32:17
correct way, it's mess. Yeah, I, I, I also just like
32:21
craft beers. And a lot of craft beers are
32:23
insanely expensive. So I'm like, why would I chug
32:25
that? Like, Like, give me a little
32:29
lighter some. Yeah.
32:30
Tony Dad just got on me all the time.
32:32
He's like, why are you chugging that?
32:33
That's like a $9 beer. Definitely would know he's been
32:39
around beer a very very long time.
32:42
So style of beers. What are some what like if you
32:44
your go TOS, you know I was a big IPA guy for a long time and
32:47
I do like Ipa's, but the past couple years I've moved more
32:50
towards like. It's also seasonal, like in the
32:54
winter time. I love a good Porter.
32:56
Yeah, nothing. The darker beers are tough.
32:58
For me, that tastes like coffee. I like that.
33:01
Yeah, I don't. So in the winter time porters, I
33:06
still drink Ipa's. In the summer, it's just like, I
33:10
feel like that an IPA like me, because of the hopiness, is like
33:14
what really has to do with hangovers the next day.
33:18
So if I drink Ipa's all night and I'm drunk, my hangovers be
33:21
horrible. If I drink like ales and loggers
33:24
and things like that, it won't be so bad.
33:27
So I've been like more into like the ales and loggers and things
33:32
like that. Like I still like an IPA, but
33:34
like I can't. I can only have one or two.
33:37
Loggers, ales and pilsners are my go.
33:39
To are good too. Yeah, they're especially when
33:41
they're craft beer made. They're when they're made it a
33:43
crap brewery. They're just better.
33:44
I'm not big into sours. I actually don't.
33:46
I, I, I, I harpern. Harpern City.
33:49
I usually get us like so when I go to Depen's brewery because
33:51
their wall changes constantly. Yeah I have my go to beer that
33:55
I'll order and then I'll do like samples of the new beer just so
33:58
I can say I tried them and then I just do the little pores and I
34:01
try them and then I'm off to I'm off to my go to's.
34:03
But yeah, the sours taste good and they they hit all the
34:06
flavors are going for, but it's just that.
34:09
That that that gets me the bad acid reflux.
34:13
I do love Bloody Mary. That's like my go to drink.
34:16
Deppins Brewery does. I think they're Wednesdays.
34:19
They do a Bloody Mary day where they just are.
34:21
It might be on Saturday or something.
34:22
They do like Bloody Mary thing. Yeah, Free.
34:25
Free kills it. She's a big Bloody Mary person.
34:28
Have you tried the Stone Cold Beer yet?
34:30
Well, there's two. There's an IPA and there's a
34:32
logger. I've tried the IPA.
34:34
Yeah, the IPA, it's alright. It's all expensive for the the
34:38
IPA, but the I think the logger is better.
34:41
I haven't had the logger yet. This conversation makes me feel
34:45
bad for loving Rolling Rock because it's not fancy enough.
34:48
There's nothing wrong with Dirt beers I, I I live in.
34:52
It's technically still craft but I I'm, I'm the England guy.
34:54
My favorites, Lord Chesterfield. And it's only made in like a
34:57
small little area. That's my go to beer and it has
35:00
the same characteristics of a Rolling Rock.
35:01
It has that like that. That dank skunky.
35:04
Yeah. Yeah.
35:06
Like I I had Roller Rocks Bros. Like there's another way to play
35:10
some beer. Yeah, and then certain Ipa's,
35:14
depending on the style I said they taste, they smell like
35:18
catfish. The catfish smell any other like
35:24
when it comes to like wrestling, wrestling at a brewery.
35:27
What are some breweries that you think would be awesome if they
35:29
hosted wrestling events? Oh man.
35:32
Well, we did one. I did one at Love City so that
35:36
we had a great show at Love City.
35:38
I wrestled Ultramans. Is there last?
35:40
OK, that was a lot of fun. It's hard to say.
35:46
Most of the reason I've been into couldn't hold a wrestling
35:48
show. Yeah, that's the we did a
35:50
wrestling show there, but don't they?
35:52
Open. What's Wybacher?
35:54
Yeah, they closed and they reopened.
35:56
So they have new ownership now. Good, Good, Good.
35:59
I'm wrestling in a brewery on Saturday for Rad Pro Wrestling,
36:03
OK in Massachusetts. I wish I could give him a good
36:05
plug right now and say what brewery and is, but I don't
36:10
know, I forget all. Right now that I'm thinking
36:13
about more of it, I don't even think it's at a brewery.
36:14
I think it's just at the bar. OK, that's even better.
36:18
Bought beer and rustling should always out a place that serves.
36:21
That's for that. I'm sure I forget if it's a
36:23
brewery or not, but I did a show at a brewery that, you know, I
36:26
did a show at a brewery there. Their first show for Rad Pro,
36:30
which is a promotion of Northeast in the northeast
36:34
Massachusetts. And they had a smoked beer.
36:39
Like the hops were smoked. Yeah.
36:42
And it was like one of the most interesting gears I ever tasted.
36:44
It was just, it was different. I.
36:46
Haven't heard of Smith's great favorite, but it was like, just
36:48
something different. Yeah, Snitz Creek makes a smoked
36:52
beer and they smoke the I don't know if they smoke the the beer
36:56
or the the barrels it's put in or something, but they smoke it
36:59
in like a meat room and they it's called like the meat beer
37:03
and it has like a meaty, smoky taste.
37:06
They call Lebanon baloney beer oh.
37:09
Shit, yeah, it's called Snitz Creek.
37:11
They had. So if you ever in that area,
37:13
Pennsylvania or if you're coming this way or wherever I show
37:16
together, I'll, I'll try to get some.
37:18
And then I'll get it to you. Appreciate it.
37:20
There was a really good question here earlier.
37:25
I missed it. Oh, what has been some of the
37:27
best music concerts you've ever attended?
37:30
Oh, man. Well, I've seen Bruce five
37:33
times. I'm gonna see him next Wednesday
37:35
and probably next Friday. So Bruce tops it all.
37:38
The best show. The best, best Bruce show I've
37:40
been at was in 2016 or 17. He had as long as the US show.
37:45
So if you know anything about Bruce, he plays the long AT
37:48
shows. They go long.
37:49
Yeah, I heard. So I was at a show that was like
37:51
4 hours and 3 minutes long and it was like a lot of like, a lot
37:58
of like rarities, a lot of stuff.
38:00
Like, besides like stuff like a Harper fan from, like me would
38:04
like, love. So that's my favorite Bruce
38:05
show. Other than that, you know, I saw
38:09
I'm not a big Foo Fighters fan, but I saw them and they were
38:11
good. I had a big Foo Fighters fan.
38:14
They're OK. That's.
38:15
My favorite? That's probably my favorite.
38:17
That's your favorite? Yeah.
38:18
But also to be fair, I don't, I don't get, I don't get the the
38:22
love for Bruce Springsteen. I listen to his music and his
38:25
hits are I guess are OK at best. But like if you're it's either
38:28
you're a Bruce fan or you're not a Bruce fan.
38:31
And when the people who are Bruce fans are like they're like
38:35
Dead Heads. Like like like when you said you
38:37
only seen them five. I'm like that you that's rookie
38:39
numbers. You know I pump them up.
38:41
Yeah, I got them later in life. So I missed like a bunch of a
38:46
bunch of years of going to shows.
38:50
But yeah, I saw the Foo Fighters, like when David roll
38:52
the Furby's leg. So he was like, he was like in
38:55
that wheelchair or that that. Throne.
38:57
Yeah, the throne. So that was really good.
39:01
What else show that I really like.
39:04
I saw The Wallflowers. It was really, really good.
39:08
That was kind of recent. Yeah, I expected to be good at
39:10
all. I just kind of went to Go and it
39:11
actually looked really good. Well, where you're at up there,
39:14
right, is like you're you're in the Lehigh Valley area.
39:16
There's tons of places to see music and go through things.
39:18
Yeah. So right now, like I said
39:20
earlier, it's Music Fest, which is like the most amazing time of
39:23
the year There is shut down like Bethlehem and they just have
39:31
different plazas or big S tents, different bands for 12 days.
39:36
That's awesome. That's all steel stacks.
39:39
What's that? Is this all at Steel Stacks?
39:41
So a part of it's that steel stacks, that's S Bethlehem.
39:45
Then in North Bethlehem, it's like they have a bigger area
39:50
where they shut everything down. Is that more where the casino
39:52
is? No, that's more like, I don't
39:55
know if you're familiar with the area, but there's like a hotel
39:57
Bethlehem. It's like the main strip of
39:59
Bethlehem. OK, OK.
40:01
OK. I went to Steel Stacks once
40:04
during the I, I, I I always say when the last time they won the
40:09
but they always seemed to pull it out and win it but maybe not
40:12
this year but when the US girl women's won the when they won
40:15
the World Cup and they just dominated like the the final
40:19
game they were up by like six goals within the first like we
40:23
were looking for parking pulled in and it was our four nothing
40:26
and they just dominated. But that was I.
40:28
We have the steel stacks. They had the big projector on
40:30
the side of the. Oh yeah, yeah.
40:31
And then the place was just packed with people and fireworks
40:34
and smoke bombs. That is such a cool placement
40:37
and they do such a good job putting stuff in there.
40:39
It's it's a really good venue. Yeah, it's a lot of fun.
40:43
You know, our home at LVAC is always gonna be soapless, like
40:46
that dive bar. Yeah, you know, that's our,
40:49
that's where we had our first year of shows.
40:52
That's like our spot. But Steel Stacks is just like
40:55
another level, like how accommodating they are, how,
41:00
like nice and beautiful like the ring looks.
41:03
It's really, it's really special, really cool.
41:05
There any any more drivein shows before it gets super cold?
41:10
No, there's we only do 1A year. So yeah, that one already
41:13
happened. Rained out.
41:15
It sucks. Yeah, that was really cool.
41:18
I was it. You and Ultramanis right?
41:21
Were on the, the, the. Yeah, we were on the sign last
41:24
on the sign. Yeah, that drivein is.
41:26
So that is, I always tell people who are not from our area that
41:30
and I people from outside the area are huge, especially horror
41:33
community people. That's a very sought after venue
41:36
because I was in Denver and this girl's like, yo, you're from
41:39
Pennsylvania. Like she goes, I help
41:41
crowdfunded when they were like almost going to lose the
41:44
property. She's like because.
41:46
And she goes because it's a dream to go to.
41:48
Like she's like what? I'm like what?
41:50
You know, like how do you know about this directly?
41:52
Because it's like they do horror stuff all the time there and it
41:54
looks really, really cool. And the art of a drivein is so I
41:57
guess outside of the Pennsylvania Northeast Pete,
41:59
like the northeast side of the map, like driveins are not a
42:03
thing anywhere else. Like people like, what is a
42:05
drivein? Like I I was like, are you
42:07
crazy? We we had like six of them in
42:09
our area at one point in time. But yeah, it was really, really
42:12
cool. I'm, I'm glad they do the
42:13
wrestling stuff. What were the movies that were
42:15
going to play this time? The movie still played.
42:19
It was El Santo versus. It was like some lucha libre.
42:24
Mexican movie from like the 50s. El Santo versus somebody.
42:29
Doctor Wagner. I don't know.
42:30
It was like one of those like Lucia Libre movies, I think last
42:35
year was They Live Beyond the Mat, The Wrestler and No Body
42:45
Slam Sir. Urban commando stuff like that.
42:49
Urban Commando with Hulk Hogan, yeah.
42:52
I think those, and I think those were the four I could be.
42:54
I could be mixing up other years too, but yeah, those four.
42:58
At some point during the drivein series.
43:00
What's that? Those four movies definitely are
43:02
played somewhere in the three years.
43:03
Yeah, I don't. Know if I'm all together in the
43:05
right year now. LVAC is for people who don't
43:09
know what kind of die back that real quick.
43:12
No, No title belts. No, it's just kind of like you
43:15
show up, you get some fun matches together.
43:17
It's a different vibe. Yeah.
43:18
It's totally fun. I mean, there's storylines.
43:21
They're storylines, but there's no belt.
43:23
It's not that serious. No, it's very, it's very loose,
43:27
yeah. You know, we don't take
43:30
yourselves too serious. It is.
43:33
It is a lot of fun. Where in the world would you
43:37
like to wrestle besides the places you've already been?
43:40
Oh man, that's that's where Australian live watcher right
43:44
there. So he always hints that because
43:46
he wants people to say Australia.
43:48
Yeah, I love the wrestle in Australia there, you know, any,
43:52
really any, anywhere that would pay, like any place out of the
43:55
country that would pay my flight, That's why.
43:59
But even like, but that's the one kind of downside about
44:01
wrestling. It's like last weekend I was in
44:05
Pittsburgh and I would love to like hang on Pittsburgh.
44:07
But it's like you go there, you wrestle, you drive back.
44:10
You know, I never got to experience any town I ever
44:13
didn't commentary our production with because you're in working
44:16
and you're driving home 4 hours again.
44:19
I'm going to Cleveland in a couple weeks.
44:21
The the, the IT hasn't been announced yet, but I'll be in
44:24
Cleveland in a couple weeks and it's like the same thing I'm
44:26
trying to figure out, Like maybe I stay in Cleveland for a day
44:29
and like check some stuff out. It's a drop there, right?
44:32
Depending on where you're at. Like the the Baseball Hall of
44:34
Fame, NFL Hall of Fame, rock'n'roll and all there.
44:36
Not baseball, just NFL and. Rock'n'roll, yeah.
44:40
So I'm hoping to check that out. But yeah, that's the one thing.
44:45
Like you got like, I tell people who aren't into wrestling, oh, I
44:47
went to Cleveland and they're like, what did you see?
44:50
I'm like, maybe a gas station. Like, no, I got a slim gym at
44:54
the gas station. Also if you're if you're in the
44:58
area, there's a brewery. It's big in that area.
45:01
Fat Heads. Fat Heads Brewing.
45:03
But I think they moved to Pittsburgh too.
45:04
They're in the They crossed over from Ohio to to PA, but
45:08
definitely check them out. They make some good beers.
45:11
So besides you know, the music side of things and is there
45:13
anything else that you're into? Are you Gamer TV guy?
45:18
I have an act. I have a PlayStation, but I
45:20
don't really play it too often. Just like downtime TV.
45:25
I just, I watch like old ass shows.
45:27
Like I watch Seinfeld a lot. You like binge?
45:30
Watch the classics. I don't like Curb Your
45:32
Enthusiasm. I love.
45:35
Have you ever real quick? Have you ever seen the
45:37
documentary about curbing enthusiasm, How it saved a guy
45:40
from going to life in prison? I know.
45:42
That I haven't seen the documentary, but I know the
45:43
story. It's crazy.
45:47
That show saved a guy's life who was essentially racially
45:50
profiled and they were trying to pin a murder on him.
45:53
Yep, Yep. So nuts.
45:55
And he happened to be sitting it.
45:57
Look up the documentary. It's it's bananas.
45:59
Yeah, I know the story. I know the story every time.
46:03
I've never watched the show, but I only know about that show
46:05
because of that documentary. Yeah, I do the same thing.
46:08
I turn on Netflix and I watch The Office, Always Sunny Parks
46:12
and Rec. Those are all married with
46:14
children, over and over and over again.
46:16
I could watch any of those, yeah.
46:20
Now, besides the like, I wanna go back to the music real quick.
46:24
Are you more into the rock? Are you in the little bit of
46:26
everything? I'm into a little bit of
46:30
everything for sure. Is there a concert that you want
46:33
to go see or a band you haven't that you want to?
46:36
No, no, nothing. That nothing stands out.
46:39
Nothing like like like, I need to see this.
46:44
If you were able to go to a concert of anyone alive or dead,
46:47
and they hand you it and you could pick the ticket, who would
46:50
it be? Bruce, you're a psycho.
46:54
You could pick Zeppelin, The Beatles and you're Bruce
46:56
Springsteen. Oh yeah, I I, I 100%.
46:59
That's the love of Bruce Springsteen fans like. 80s Bruce
47:01
Springsteen OK, so you want to you will go back in time to see
47:05
Bruce in that era. Born in the USA tour I would
47:07
see. Or the reunion tour of the early
47:09
2000s. Those would be the two.
47:11
And see. I didn't know I could like time
47:12
travel with this. Yeah, yeah, you could.
47:14
Time travel you can get for. That, like The Beatles are
47:16
right, but they don't really do it, do it for me.
47:18
Like, if somebody's like, I would take it to go back in time
47:20
to see The Beatles, obviously I would say yes.
47:22
Yeah, yeah, You're like can we stop in the 80s So I can see
47:25
Bruce. I love that.
47:28
That's the love of Bruce Springsteen fans.
47:30
Like you're like anyone in the world like Bruce live or die,
47:33
baby. I I appreciate any promotions
47:39
that people can go see. You are are promotions that they
47:42
can go watch like either as an IWTV or or some more like can go
47:45
check out some matches or content of you.
47:47
Yeah, I mean, I'm on, there's a lot of me on IWTV.
47:49
There's probably a lot of me on fight.
47:51
That's probably some of me on the premier network thing, yeah.
47:56
And like promotions coming up, I have Rad Pro Wrestling, which is
48:02
kind of interesting. Like you're a different
48:05
character there. You're like time travel to the
48:07
90s. So I'm a milkman.
48:09
Some big milk. I love the milkman idea.
48:13
That's a lot of fun. Now do you step it up and be
48:15
like like the ladies in the audience?
48:17
You're like, hey, I'll be dropping the milk off at 4, like
48:21
the joke that Milkman's that you're the milkman's kid, maybe.
48:24
I'll try that. Maybe I'll try that line out.
48:26
Yeah, you could be like a heel. You could be the Eagle milkman.
48:28
And it hasn't been announced, but I'll just say because who
48:32
fucking cares? No one watches this.
48:35
I'm doing a IW in late August, so that's awesome.
48:39
They're like, yeah. A big deal, you know.
48:42
Then, of course. LVAC September 16th.
48:44
Steel Stacks take away if they're in the area of doing.
48:47
Selling out. So like, get your tickets and
48:50
all of the previous Lvac shows I believe are all on IWTV.
48:55
I'm actually almost guaranteed they're all on there, right?
48:58
Some. Not all, not all.
49:00
OK. Which ones are not?
49:03
There's there's the Steel Stack show from last year.
49:06
There's the show you're at. Where are those at?
49:10
The Weybacher Show. Yeah, like where can people
49:13
watch them? Oh, if there's not only WTV, you
49:16
have to buy that DVD. Physical media, baby.
49:19
Really. Oh, big time physical media.
49:21
I did not know. That like the Socal show.
49:23
There might be like 4 on IWTV because I thought that was
49:26
filmed by IWTV that day. Yeah, yeah.
49:29
Some of the shows like if if it's something like the the
49:32
brewery one, that's the brewery. That'll be live stream And then
49:35
that goes right to their on demand library.
49:39
Yeah, yeah. But like as Socals, like I said,
49:42
it's dive bar. They don't have that kind of
49:43
Wi-Fi for live stream. Yeah.
49:45
So Gary and his crew comes film it, and then it goes on DVD.
49:49
Or you can like, get the digital copy from Smartmark.
49:52
Now, a handful of those shows are on IWTV.
49:56
OK, so that's a smart move for Smartmark.
49:59
They're very hard work. I love Gary.
50:01
He's so cool. Gary Gary's somewhere I want, I
50:04
want. I want him on.
50:06
So he's been me. I don't want to even say me.
50:09
Brian goes to Tony Deppin's wrestling trivia and Gary and
50:14
Gary brings like him Carolina. Jim, I'm so sorry.
50:17
I forget the he has a ring announcer.
50:19
He goes with them sometimes and then no, another guy.
50:22
There's another announcer guy. Black glasses.
50:25
I I I'm so sorry. I forgot your name.
50:26
I'm having a brain fart. But essentially all these guys
50:30
go and and everyone's just trying to beat Brian and we just
50:33
drink and Brian just answers every question because he's a
50:36
goddamn guru and Brian got a question, right?
50:39
That of an independent question that Gary filmed and Carolina
50:44
Jim wrong. And that was a ring and answer
50:46
for and they didn't know the answer.
50:51
But yeah, so Gary's always trying to take Brian down for
50:54
his wrestling trivia and he, I think he did it.
50:56
They did it once. They beat him one time.
50:58
So the joke is he's always trying to take Brian out.
51:00
But Gary's a great guy. Gary is someone and Caroline and
51:03
Jim I'd love to have on here and and have a chat, but upcoming
51:07
shows like I said, definitely go check out those promotions.
51:09
LVAC on I, WTV as well as come go to the show, go to steel
51:14
stacks if you're in the area it's it's going to be
51:16
unbelievable and like I said it will sell out fast.
51:18
Last time was standing room only, and I we can't say
51:23
anything officially, but I will say this, if you are a fan of
51:28
all elite wrestling and you like a lot of their superstars, I
51:32
don't think there was an LVAC show that someone didn't show up
51:37
previously. At least two shows.
51:39
I can say Orange Cassidy was there and Eddie Kingston was at
51:44
the last Steel Stack show, if I'm not mistaken.
51:48
Who's that? Oh, and Willow.
51:50
Yes. And Willow was there.
51:52
So Willow was at the brewery show too, but that she was not
51:55
signed yet at that Brewery show. Yeah, And she broke hot sauce
51:58
with his face. I always say that's like, Willie
52:02
Willow is a gangster. You don't mess with Willow.
52:05
Another one who we absolutely love on this channel and support
52:08
so much. Actually, I was at a convention
52:12
and the guy had this, his own art.
52:15
He did like all these wrestlers and they're all like Sean Vint,
52:18
like all these old school guys. And his one independent drawing
52:21
that he had was a Willow drawing.
52:23
That's cool. And I was like, I'm buying that.
52:25
And I have yet to see her, obviously, because she's on to
52:28
bigger and better things. But I haven't this guy's custom
52:30
art of a Willow Nightingale. I'll send you a picture of it
52:32
and send it to you. But I was like, I have to own
52:34
this because it's like the fact that he had all these wrestlers
52:36
are the only independent person he has.
52:38
Willow speaks, longs for how she is a human being and how amazing
52:42
she is as a person. But yeah, so if you, if you like
52:47
that crowd and you're into that show up, show up to the show,
52:51
you never know who's going to be there.
52:53
Never know. Yep, it's always a mystery.
52:56
And Bryce is usually. Bryce is there if he's not.
52:58
Sometimes he shows up for sure, yeah sometimes he cut.
53:00
But he's he's there a lot of times too big supporter of of
53:03
that crew. Anything you want to plug.
53:05
Where can people find you on social media?
53:07
Any last things you want to get out, Dan?
53:10
Where can people find me? Social media, Instagram and
53:12
Twitter. My Instagram name is I Am Big
53:17
Dan Champion or no, it's I am Dan Champion.
53:20
I am Dan Champion. And my Twitter name is The thing
53:24
is Dan Champion won. No, I think it's Dan Champion
53:26
4/4, I think Dan Champion 4. There's three other people you
53:31
have to be I. Got suspended a few times, so
53:34
really the name that gave me. Yeah, just trying stupid stuff.
53:38
Anything you could say? No, it was anything that is
53:41
like, I'm gonna punch this person in the face and then I
53:43
guess yeah. So you can't, like, you can't
53:45
cut a promo, You can't like, work on Twitter.
53:49
You gotta keep it clean. You gotta be nice, everybody.
53:51
So. I never got.
53:52
I didn't get trouble for anything like.
53:53
Outrageous. Just like I don't know if you
53:55
told someone like F you buddy. Tell a local politician to jump
54:00
off a bridge and that got me in trouble.
54:02
He probably deserved it. He did deserve it.
54:06
So now keep it clean on the Twitter slash X.
54:12
But yeah, I mean I got nothing on supply but the the shows.
54:15
I'm coming up. Big Gav just joined the chat.
54:19
Gavin, who he comes all the shows dressed as people.
54:23
Oh. What's up, Gavin?
54:24
I know who you. Yeah.
54:25
Did you get a drawing? I did get a drawing.
54:28
You've made it. That's it, I always tell you.
54:30
I made it. If you get a gav drawing, you
54:32
have made it. Thank you so much for doing
54:36
this, Dan. The doors always open.
54:38
I really appreciate you coming on and doing this.
54:41
Like I said, a fan of you as a human as well as all the work
54:44
you've done and anytime that anytime you have anything going
54:47
on or you want to come talk about the next LVAC show or if
54:49
there's anyone on the roster you think would would be a fun
54:52
guest, bring them on. I'm always down to have people
54:54
and promote shows and hear their story.
54:57
We will be back again on Monday the 14th.
55:02
I'm going to announce next week's guest right here.
55:04
So you guys are getting the first access to it.
55:06
So Monday 7:00, Sean Carr will be on the podcast.
55:11
Then on Tuesday at 7:00 Devante's will be on the
55:16
podcast. And then on the 17th, I will not
55:20
have a podcast. That day I will be at Pilgaru
55:23
Brewing Company. They're watching the Fight the
55:27
Fighter Fighter Tainment show. I always been.
55:29
I've been calling a fight Fight Tacular, and that's not the name
55:32
of it. It's Fighter and Tainment
55:34
already announced Junie, who's been on the podcast.
55:38
They just announced Griffin McCoy and Jordan Oliver will be
55:44
in attendance, so a lot of cool names being dropped there.
55:47
What the hell do you ask Judy? He's been.
55:49
He's had like five matches. Yeah, he's kids killing it.
55:51
The kids. You should wrestle.
55:52
Judy. What?
55:53
Are you talking about though? Yeah, what's that?
55:56
Give me your favorite memory of your last five matches.
55:58
No, we learned how he in school. He was a theater kid and how he
56:01
puts his theater into professional wrestling.
56:03
I'm already over it. You got heat.
56:07
You got you and Judy one-on-one, baby.
56:08
Let's go. No, the guy's been doing
56:11
amazing. Actually, my opinion, the last
56:13
show, I thought him and speedball by Mike by Mike Bailey
56:16
stole the show. I thought they had probably the
56:18
best match of the night. Yeah, yeah, Jude, good kid.
56:22
So that's pretty much it. Next week, just two episodes and
56:24
then the last live episode of the month.
56:28
I'll. I'll kind of give that to you
56:29
guys here as well. So Monday will be the last live
56:31
episode. Everything after that will be
56:32
prerecorded while I'm in the UK rooting on a W hopefully future
56:38
world champion Adam Cole. Bay Bay.
56:39
But the last one will be on Monday.
56:42
The following Monday will be big dust.
56:45
That one is going to be out of control.
56:51
So guys, thank you so much for tuning in three in a row this
56:54
week. I know I hit you with a lot, but
56:56
I appreciate you everyone who keeps coming in the chat and
56:58
hanging out and and and and doing everything to support
57:01
this. It means more than you know.
57:03
But guys, we'll see you soon. This we're out here song.
57:06
Here's a song by the Converse Kid.
57:08
Billy Trey. I'm a.