Latest / Brewsers / Brewsers #400- Walker Stewart

Transcript

Brewsers #400- Walker Stewart · Brewsers

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Bruisers, a podcast about beer, coffee, booze, and Bruisers.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: I am your host, Roy John, and today we talk
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: to Walker Stewart. We talk about how he got into wrestling,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: working with New Japan, and so much more. I could
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: not think of anybody else I would want on the
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: show for the 400th episode other than Walker Stewart. Him
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: and I have gotten close in real life, and I
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: am such a fan of his work when it comes
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: to what he's doing with New Japan, and obviously AEW
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: whenever he pops in there. So you don't want to
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: hear from me, you want to hear from him. So
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: without further ado, here is Walker Stewart. I would like
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: to welcome to the show Walker Stewart. How are you
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: doing today, sir?
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: I am doing all right. John, how are you?
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: I'm doing well. Well, for those listening, kind of paint
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: us a word picture. Where are you at and what's
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: going on around you?
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: All right. Well, I am currently in a hotel room
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: in a ward in Tokyo called Soido Bashi, which I
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: think most people would know more familiar as being the
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: place where you could find the lovely Korakuen Hall. Very
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: famous arena in Japan. So I'm about like a seven
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: minute walk from Corquin. And I'm in the midst of,
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: I guess, a week and a half tour. Very short
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: one for me in New Japan Pro Wrestling and Stardom.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: And so, yeah, I'm just I'm here and I'm ready
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: to I'm ready to have a conversation. It's going to
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: be fun.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Well, for. OK, how long have you been with New
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Japan now?
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: So I think October marks. three years for me which
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: it's really flown by i mean i i've known you
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: prior to even me signing with new japan right and
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: uh it's it's one of those things where yeah i
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: mean you you can't really put it into perspective and
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: unless you really have to you have to think and
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: look back on the stuff that i've i've been able
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: to be a part of which is is really cool
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: and i'm excited to kind of talk about some of
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: that stuff with you but uh it's one of those
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: things where I don't think about it unless I think
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: about the fact that some of the people I've called
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: a bunch of matches for have retired now or out
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: of the business or, or, uh, you know, living it
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: up with their families while I'm still missing mine. So,
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: but Hey, I'm just, I'm just getting started on my road. Right.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: And so, um, yeah, I mean, it's, it's been three
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: years with new Japan now it's been about a year
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: and a half with stardom. Um, I, I worked with
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: them prior to even, signing a contract. So that date
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: for me is like a little bit murky, you know? Um,
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: but yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's been a ride, man. It's, uh,
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: I'm excited to talk about it.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Well, I heard that you got into pro wrestling because
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: of video games.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Is that true? Yes. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Um, so
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: I was like a big game guy. I mean, I
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: was like 10 years old. So who, I feel like
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: a lot of a lot of dudes when they're kids,
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: they either favor like sports or video games or both.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: And I was, I was definitely more on the video
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: game side. Um, I have an older brother named Josh and, uh,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Josh had purchased a, uh, copy of SmackDown versus raw 2009.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: And the fact that, uh, I can say 2009 and
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: tell you I was like seven or something is it
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: shows my age, right? Um, But yeah, I like I
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: was like seven, eight years old. My brother and my
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: dad were kind of more so into the wrestling games,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: not because they followed wrestling per se, but because they
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: were fighting games. You know what I mean? And like,
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: I think that you could say the late 2000s. I'm
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: sure there were releases of like a Mortal Kombat or
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Street Fighter, but like it's not what they were used to. Like,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: you know, this is very much more on the arcade side.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: compared to like the simulation style wrestling games that exist today. Right. Um,
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: so yeah, like I, I got into wrestling through the
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: games and it was a matter of realizing like, Oh, I,
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: I love playing as Ray Mysterio and SmackDown versus raw
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: 2009 on my PS3. And Oh, he's a real person,
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: you know, like let's, let's invest in this a little bit.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: And so, um, I tell people like, I didn't become
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: like a wrestling fan till like 2010, but that's probably wrong.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: It's just that, the, the earliest match I can remember
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: loving was, uh, it was John Cena versus Batista over
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: the limit 2010. And I remember this one cause it's
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: the one, if you, you might know, uh, John Cena
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: has Batista on the shoulders and he's like going to
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: do the attitude adjustment off the car and I quit
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: match and Batista quits, but he still hits him with
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: the AA anyway, which is like kind of a heel
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: move if we really think about it. But like it was, yeah. So, um,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: That was what really got me into wrestling, and I
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: started buying the DVDs, or my parents bought them, I guess.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Every video game since then, I became a bit of
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: a collector. Then when the opportunity presented itself for me
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: to be in the business, I took it by the horns,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: and here I am today.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: What was your first live show?
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: I got very specific answers for you. July 24th, 2021.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: I'll never forget it. um it was a American Legion
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Hall in Oklahoma City uh for a company that will
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: not I will not name because we got Heat Brother
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: and uh no I'm joking I'm joking they're great people
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: um but it's you know a company called Empire Pro
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: Wrestling uh out in Oklahoma City and you know it's
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: funny so like the the first time I went and saw,
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: maybe not the first time, maybe the second or third
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: I ever went and saw live independent wrestling was in
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: my home state of Oklahoma. I must have been 18,
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: 19 years old. I know I was in college at
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: the time. I loved wrestling. I would have gone to
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: a bunch of live stuff if I could have afforded
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: it when I was a kid. I'm out on my own.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: I have my own money. Let's go waste it the
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: way that I like to. Other kids are Like, I'm
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: going to I'm going to go go to parties. I'm
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: going to go do all this. And here I am going,
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: I'm going to go watch like 40 year old dudes
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: like hug it out in the middle of the ring.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: You know, like that was my thing. So, yeah, man,
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: like I ended up going and I was I was
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: pursuing a degree in journalism at the University of Oklahoma
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: at the time. And I was like, I want to
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: write about wrestling. And like I was writing about it
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: for some classes. Anytime I could tie an assignment into wrestling,
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: I would do it because it made it easier for me. Right.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: It was it was the thing I knew. And, you know,
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: I ended up writing about my local indie scene for
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: a Web site that I was working for at the time,
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: just making a little bit of chump change money. And
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: they they. The indie company I wrote about absolutely loved it.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: They said, can we have you come by a show?
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: What do you want to do? You want to do anything?
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: You want to do commentary? I said, I'd love to
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: do commentary. And yeah, Oklahoma City, Midwest City, VFW, or
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: American Legion or whatever, it was a card that was
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: supposed to have Sabu in the main event. And in
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: typical indie wrestling fashion, Sabu canceled the day of, but
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: he still... He said that he was too beat up
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: to work, but he still showed up for the signing. So, yeah,
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: what a worker, right? That was very much my welcome
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: to the business moment there. And yeah, man, like that's
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: just kind of as it's blossomed. It's really blossomed for
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: me in the, I guess, five years since then.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: What were you wanting to do with a journalism degree?
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: I don't know. Honestly, I think I wanted to work
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: it into being in wrestling somehow, really. Like, so I
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: was I was covering and they were all for some
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: smaller websites and like a little bit of a monthly
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: stipend here and there. But, you know, I was just
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: trying to get by. And at the end of the day,
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: I just wanted a degree. Right. Like I kind of
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: grew up being told you're you're not going to make
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: it if you don't have a degree as easily. And,
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: you know, my parents didn't want me to struggle. So
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: that was kind of pushed on me. Um, and so
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: I ended up going to OU for, I went to
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: a bunch of colleges. Actually I picked and choose where
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: I could get my credits.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: Um, kind of tried to be smart about that community
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: college stuff here and there. Um, and then I went
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: to OU for, uh, three years until, uh, really until
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: new Japan called me and I had one semester left. Um,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: and I, I, I told my parents, Hey, I'm going
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: to graduate. I'm going to graduate. And then, New Japan
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: called me and said, hey, if you want this job,
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: you got to leave now. And I was like, all right.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: I mean, the opportunity is knocking, and I got to
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: take it by the horns where I can.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, who's going to say no to that? Especially
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: if you're a pro wrestling fan.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, and it's funny. Like,
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: I love pro wrestling, but Japanese wrestling was something I
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: never really got into until I started working for New Japan. Like,
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: I had envisioned... The goal, and I think I made
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: this clear when I talked to you the first time,
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: my goal was never to be like a top indie
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: wrestling guy. I always wanted to work for a major
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: company and, you know, AEW, WWE, TNA, whatever it was
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: going to look like, whatever I could support my family doing.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: And so when the new Japan opportunity came around. I
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: never envisioned myself going international like that, at least not
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: as quickly. I don't know what I thought the timeline
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: was going to be, but it wasn't what it became.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: um and it just it's one of those examples of
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: things working out for the better uh because the plan
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: didn't go exactly the way i wanted right right so
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: yeah that's i mean that's out there well so how.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Did you how did new japan even get in contact
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: with you like how did how did you get on
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: their radar.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's funny. So I, I mean, again, you, you
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: saw the schedule I was putting up before I'd, I'd
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: been signed. I think that's something that a lot of people, um,
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: you know, I'm not, I'm not going to toot my horn,
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: but I was, I was kind of killing myself on the,
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: on the independence a little bit and, and not doing
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: incredibly high profile things either. I mean, it was a
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: lot of that 40, 50 people in the crowd attendance
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: in small towns, just trying to make those towns, right?
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: And I wanted to make shows that had connections on them.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: You know, hey, here's a guy that signed to the NWA.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: Let me call his match. And now I have that
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: in my back pocket to send to, you know, NWA
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: staff to, you know, maybe try and make something happen, whatever.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: And I was doing that all over the place. I
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: think the first New Japan contact came in November of 21, where...
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: a tornado had struck Sherman, Texas. And, uh, there was
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: a Texoma pro wrestling show, uh, which they used to
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: have an NWA affiliation. Now they still run over an Ardmore, Oklahoma,
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: if anyone's curious.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: Um, and coming up, if anybody wants to check that out.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think they run every Friday
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: or close to every Friday. Uh, um, it's been a
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: while since I've been tapped in over there, but, um,
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: you know, there's great people over there doing great stuff. And,
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: they had brought in Rocky Romero, who of course everyone
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: knows has a great new Japan history works in the office, uh,
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: now ties to AEW and CMLL. And that guy is
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: maybe the only person more employed to me than, than
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: me in wrestling. Um, and essentially I called Rocky stuff.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: I got to talk to him a little bit. Um,
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: you know, I, I don't know if he took me
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: as seriously as I, wanted to be taken, but maybe it's,
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: you know, I'm sure that guys like that all the time,
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: get these, uh, these guys go and I want to
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: be where you are right now, but it's like, you know,
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: being in that position now, I could tell you, like,
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: I would have looked at me and been like, all right,
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: we'll do the work then. Right. Right. Um, and I was,
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: I was on the path to doing that. So I
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: ended up later on down the line connecting with a
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: guy that I think you may be familiar with named
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Brutal Bob Evans. Bob Evans is a guy who had
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: a stint in Ring of Honor. He's a great trainer
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: up in the northeast coast of mainland U.S. And Bob
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: Evans had a very good relationship with Kevin Kelly, who
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: at the time in 2023 is leaving New Japan to
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: sign with AEW. And I had caught wind of this
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: through Bob. And, and Bob had kind of little, little
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: that I know Bob had been setting me up to
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: Kevin for a while now telling him that I'm, I,
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: not that I'm great, but that I work hard. And
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: I think that's what they wanted most. you know, I,
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: I'm more than willing to admit, I w I might
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: not have been ready for the opportunity from a broadcasting
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: perspective to be on this touring schedule. And, uh, you know,
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: maybe even from a personal perspective, I was 21 when
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: I signed with new Japan. And, uh, I mean, 21
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: and 24 where I am now don't sound like a
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: big difference, but, um, the personal and professional, it just, it,
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: it's changed tenfold for me. So, um, Yeah, like I
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: ended up getting in contact with Kevin Kelly, and I
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: basically asked him, hey, what does a guy have to
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: do not to, you know, I'm not telling you to
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: give me a job, but what do I have to
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: do to be your successor? And what would you suggest
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: I do? What should I study? What would I work on?
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: Where should I go? And I was working in a
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: 7-Eleven at the time in Norman where I was going
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: to college at OU. And I was in the freezer
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: stocking things, watching wrestling, which is where I tend to
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: like to have things going on there. And Kevin shot
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: me a call and was like, hey, if you want
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: this job, it's yours. And we're going to get you
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: a visa. We're going to get you a passport. I
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: kind of felt like I was being scammed at first, right?
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: Because who the hell goes from working in the ice
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: chest of a 7-Eleven to all of a sudden yeah,
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: we're going to put you on international streaming. You know,
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: we're going to put you in these spots that you're
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: not ready for, kid. Saddle up, let's go. But no,
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: it was all very real. And it wasn't exactly my
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: work that impressed Kevin. I think Kevin's a pretty hard
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: guy to impress. But it was the fact that I
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: was able to tell him, hey, I worked 220 dates
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: over the last two years, right? And that level of
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: work you know this yourself uh having worked in indie
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: wrestling a good amount yourself now i mean it's it's
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: hard to find bookings as a broadcaster right and it's
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: it's very difficult for people that everyone thinks oh my
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: second cousin can do the ring announcing and his jean
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: shorts and hoodie like especially kind of where we are
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: in the south well yeah they try right they try
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: and so um But, you know, it's a very different
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: ballgame if you want to present yourself professionally and, you know,
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: you want to try and, I don't want to say
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: make a bunch of money, but if you want to
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: try and at least profit and gas or something by
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: the end of the night. So, yeah, man, like it was,
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: that's a long-winded answer to what you asked me, but
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: like that's a good amount of context for you there.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's a podcast. I want you to talk
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: as much as you want. And obviously you get paid
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: to talk, so you can do it.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: Okay, yeah.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, speaking of your voice, you do have
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: a very significant voice. Your voice is not the same
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: as most people's voices. Was it something that always was
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: kind of this way? People were like, oh, you have
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: a really nice voice. Or was it just kind of
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: obviously developing over time?
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's funny because I'm still young enough to
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: remember not. having a voice that sounds like this I
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: guess right I mean you know you go through those
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: changes and yeah I mean I was always one who
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: was I think I so I grew up doing music
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: throughout school right and that was one of the other
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: things I was pursuing in college was I was going
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: to be an opera singer which I tell that to
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: people and they're like I can understand it by kind
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: of the gravitas of just the way I talk sometimes
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: but I grew up doing choir. I was a music guy.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: I was all over the place. I was singing in
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: churches and doing these state and international contests. I was
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: just having fun with it. Part of it, I knew
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: it was going to pay for my college, which a
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: lot of it did, which I'm grateful for. I think
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: in that realm, I had always gotten used to people
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: saying that I had a unique voice, but I didn't
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: really hear it. And I still honestly don't hear it.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: In fact, um, I think I call enough wrestling now
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: and I talk enough just in my daily life that
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: I'm a bit tired of my own voice. I'm shocked
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: that other people are not either, but, um, you know,
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: like it's, it's just the difference in how things are perceived. Uh, yeah, I, I,
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: I think that early on in my career, having a
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: voice that sounds so different than a I think it
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: aided me. It allowed me to be able to be
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: bad at the job and still get a little bit
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: of a pass because at least I wasn't hard to
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: listen to for everyone. There's some, I mean, there's some
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: people that aren't into it and you know, I'm not
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: going to be everyone's cup of tea and I think
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: that's okay. But, um, it's, it's definitely, um, something that I'm,
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: I'm happy about, even if it's not something I, I
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: worked hard to have, if that makes sense. Just kind of,
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: I woke up and it was like that, John.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, the, like you said, the music education
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: and studying opera is you are, you're able to control
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: your voice more and you're able to, especially if you
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: need to project it as much as you need to. So,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, it makes sense that you were, I mean,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: you kind of were slowly crafting your tool as you worked.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And, uh, I was, this is the exact thing
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: I tried to put over to my voice teacher at
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: the time at OU who was very unhappy about me
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: pursuing indie wrestling. Um, I mean, so like I told you,
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: I started in July of 2021 doing indie shows. Um,
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: and then I ended up in like January of 2023
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: dropping the music degree. So I did about a year
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: and a half maybe of, um, you know, doing indie wrestling.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: And I would, you know, I, I got pretty close
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: with my voice teacher and, you know, he was a,
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: he was a great guy, but he was one of
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: those people who, and I, I, there's a reason why
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: he's as successful as he is where, um, if you're
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: not fully focused on this one thing, you don't really
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: have the commitment to succeed in this business, you know?
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: And I think that, you know, to be fair, I
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: took that and I just applied it to wrestling instead
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: of applying it to music because I loved wrestling a
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: little bit more. Um, I think it came a little
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: bit more naturally for me as well. And, you know,
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: it's one of those things where I, I don't know, man,
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: like I got to do the year and a half
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: of indie wrestling while going to college. It was a
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: really nice balance. You know what I mean? I kind
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: of feel fine. a lot of people that are chasing
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: this dream who have to wake up and immediately go
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: do you know a 9 to 5 Monday through Friday
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: and then try and figure out their travel meanwhile I
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: was kind of doing some classes in the morning working
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: the occasional shift at 7-11 like my schedule allowed for
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: me to commit to this more than other people are
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: able to, if that makes sense. Right. No, it's true. Yeah.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's the openings. Like I had a friend
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: who is in a band and they were playing a
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: show just yesterday here at UTA in Arlington and their
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: drummer had his dad had passed. And so they had
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: a backup drummer, but he was like an hour away.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: And luckily he's a younger guy that he also was like, okay,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: let me hop in the car and I'll be right there.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: Sure enough.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Just things like that.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And, and that's, that's a lot of how my
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: journey went, man. I mean, I, I've been able to
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: document and I've been happy to be able to do this. Um,
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: like I, I keep track of every show that I do.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: I keep track of every place that I've been, every town,
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: whether it's something like you, you and I have commentated
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: some wrestling in studio, kayfabe, hush hush. Um, but like you,
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: you and I have worked together in that way. And I,
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: I track those events, uh, anything that I traveled to
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: in person as well. And, um, It's something I hope
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: to be able to look back on in another five
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: years from now when I reach a full decade in
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: the business, which will be the longest time I've committed
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: to doing anything, I guess, in my life. And the
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: short life that I've lived so far. And I hope
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: to be able to look back at that and just
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: be like, man, hopefully I'm working a little bit less
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: by then. I'd like to be home with my family
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: a tiny bit more. But at the end of the day,
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: being able to look back and say, hey, like I
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: got to go to all these places and do this
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: cool stuff. And, you know, I want to be in
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: wrestling as long as I can. But, you know, if
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: it's one of those things where the dream only lasts,
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: you know, the next five years, at least I can
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: say I had a good decade going for it. Right. Right.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: That's that's the cool thing, I think, for for me
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: getting involved as early as I did.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: So now I know you still work with a lot
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: of indie companies as well. And as much as commentaries
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: you're putting down, I was thinking about this before. I
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: was like, is he going to be the one guy
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: that has the most, he's called the most matches in
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: the history of wrestling? Because again, you're only 24 and
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: you've already, you know, done so much with new Japan
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: and so much with the Indies and you're continuing to
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: do so much with the Indies that statistically, if you
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: end up like Tony Shivani, where you're still calling it
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: in your sixties, you could easily be called the most
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: matches of anybody.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: That's a, I, you know, I'll be honest. I've never
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: thought about that. And that's kind of an insane thing
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: to put into perspective. Um, that's one of those things
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: that might push me a little bit harder to stick
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: around past my prime, but, uh, you know, it's, it's interesting.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: So you look at guys like Shivani and Jim Ross,
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: absolute legends. I've worked with Shivani a couple of times
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: in AEW, and I think that he's fantastic. And Jr
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: is my white whale so far. Like I've, I've been,
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: every time I show up, he's not been around, but
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: I really hope that one of these days that we
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: can share a booth together, a couple of Okies, a little,
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: a couple of Oklahomans in action. But yeah, it's, it's
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: interesting because a lot of those guys have called wrestling
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: all over, but you know, you take it back to
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: the territory days where some of them got their start
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: and there wasn't as much TV. There certainly was not
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: any streaming the way there is now. So I, yeah,
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: I think I've been able to get a lot of
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: repetition in, for a lot of different companies. I've worked for,
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: I told you, I keep track and I'm trying to
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: remember the number. Now I think 36 promotions in 2026 alone.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: And that is across, you know, Oklahoma, Texas, really all
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: over the States, Canada, America, or sorry, not America. I've
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: mentioned that already, Japan, Vietnam, China, Singapore. Like I, I
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: just kind of, I keep running the list, England. And in,
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: You know, it's cool, man, because, you know, I think
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: you can understand this being a Texan yourself, albeit, you know,
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: you mentioned Arlington. That's a good piece of the DFW area, right? But,
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: you know, I grew up in a bit of a
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: smaller town in Oklahoma where it's not like I was
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: having interactions with anyone from Vietnam or Japan or China
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: or Mexico even or any of these places. I was...
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: kind of culturally sheltered and not by choice. It's by
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: the geography and the makeup of those places. And so
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: I've taken a real interest and I found it very
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: fulfilling for me to be able to work with people
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: of all these different cultures that I just never would
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: have been able to touch if I had only stayed
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: in Oklahoma if I had gotten like a business degree
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: and and uh you know what I mean started working
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: an office job right like it's it's definitely shaped me
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: it's reshaped the way I kind of look at the
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: world you know um those are the parts of wrestling
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of people don't talk about right
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: there's there's a lot of people who have made their
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: career by going to Japan very young or going to
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Japan at a very influential time and you could talk
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: about Finn Balor or Prince Devitt, you know, a man
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: that we recently lost, uh, not too long ago in
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: pack Benjamin Satterley. Um, a lot of these guys go
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: to Japan very young and it just, it shapes the
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: way they look at the world and changes also how
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: they look at wrestling, because I'm sure you're aware of this.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure your, your listeners are aware or not, but, um,
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: Japanese wrestling, they, they, they take it very differently than, uh,
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: kind of the more entertainment based, uh, way that it's
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: approached in America. So, uh, very sports approach, very, I
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: might as well be going in to call, you know,
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: jujitsu or a martial art, the way that I approach
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: pro wrestling in Japan. And that's a very different way
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: than you really see American TV wrestling presented, let alone
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: indie stuff.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Well, it's also covered in like the newspapers and there's
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: magazines and not just wrestling magazines, but like the regular
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Japanese magazines as well.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: And it's, it's everywhere.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Like it, like you said, it's genuinely taken as it
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: is a sport. And, I mean, if you look at
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: the guys that are doing it, they treat it like
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: a sport as well.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And it's really been great, honestly, to see... I
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: feel like when you're in America, if you're a kid
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: who's a wrestling fan, you probably started off a fan
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: when you were young. All your other friends were fans.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: And then maybe.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: One 10th of them, you know, remain wrestling fans with
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: you and you, a lot of them grow out of
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: it and oh, it's lame. It's fake, whatever. And then,
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: and then you get to Japan and it's like, Holy hell,
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: the way that it is reacted to here. You know,
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: I called, um, we're, we're in the middle of a
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: tour right now called King of pro wrestling. Um, and
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: I called night two of the tour in Corican hall, uh,
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: just yesterday, uh, And there's a guy named Robbie X,
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: who's a British junior heavyweight, very much a hidden gem
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: of the British independent scene for a while, finally getting
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: his shine. And he was challenging for the IWGP Junior
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: Heavyweight Championship, top prize for the junior heavyweights in wrestling today.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: And Robbie X, like, he's down and out. He's down
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: and out the whole time. And our cameras picked up
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: right at ringside. Like, there are people crying in the crowd.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: at seeing Robbie X go through the suffering that he's
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: going through. A guy who is relatively new to the
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: New Japan system. They gravitated to him so quickly. And,
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: you know, actual tears are streaming because there is a
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: passion for the people involved, let alone for the respect
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: they have for the craft and for wrestling itself. And
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: it just is so refreshing to see people buy in
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: to wrestling here in Japan compared to the way that
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: you tend to see people laugh off wrestling in America.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Right. I mean, I was always the wrestling kid growing up.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: And then obviously I'm still the wrestling guy, if anybody
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: knows me and isn't into it. Like I've had someone
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: when I came back at Mutiny where a guy literally
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: owns a tap room down here.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: I go to every week. We're really close.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: And he, him and his girlfriend drove up to go
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: see the show because they'd never been to a show before.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: I've seen him before multiple times. And he was like, yeah,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: it was so much, it was crazy. Like I didn't think,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: you know, once you get somebody to do a live show,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: it's a completely different situation.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Uh, you gotta be careful which live shows you're
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: bringing them to.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Well, that's true too.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Uh, I've been very fortunate to, I had the
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: support of my family when I was coming up on
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: the independence and, uh, my family would come along with
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: me a lot to a bunch of different shows. And nowadays, uh,
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: I have my beautiful girlfriend, Yvette, who comes with me
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: to a lot of shows whenever I'm in America and
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: the travel is simple enough. Um, you know, we've, we've
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: gone to Florida together in Alabama and Texas, Arkansas. We've
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: been able to be all over with each other, which
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: is great. Um, it also means she's seen some of
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: the best in indie wrestling and a lot of the
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: worst wrestling. Right. Um, and you know, God bless her
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: for being able to put up with that. That's true
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: love right there. But, um, it is, yeah, man, like, uh,
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: you know, and I'm not, I'm not going to bury
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: anyone or any companies or anything, but it's, it's just
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: one of those things where, um, I take a lot
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: of pride in still being able to be a part
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: of some wrestling nowadays that isn't exactly the best in
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: the world. I think that is something that's unsung for
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: a lot of announcers. And, you know, when I remember
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: being unsigned and I remember here thinking to myself, if
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: I could just get on one of the big shows
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: that had great wrestling, I can show everyone how good
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: I can make this wrestling. But if it has great
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: wrestling already, then it's already great. They don't need commentary
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: to make it even better. What does need the support,
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: what does need the help is the wrestling where it's
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: a lot of guys who are fresh out of training.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: I know Arkansas right now, for instance, is really rebuilding
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: its scene after a good amount of people kind of
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: retired or left the business. So you have a lot
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: of greener guys kind of stepping up and saying, all right,
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: I think it's my time to shine now. It's making
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: those people that even if it's only 100 people watching
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: on YouTube or something for some of the independents that
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: I'm working, it's making those people that I take a
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: lot of pride in for the small viewership base that
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: they might have because it's the bigger challenge, right? If
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: I can get over a green rookie who's a year
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: out of training and might not have the best build
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: or might not have the best character foundation or anything
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: like that, if I can make that person sound important,
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to struggle when Hiroshi Tanahashi is retiring
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: in the Tokyo dome and I have to put over
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: his lineage. Right. So I think that's something that like
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: a lot of people don't think about nowadays, but I'm
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: also in a very unique position, John, where I'm signed
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: to a major company and I'm working a lot of
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: independent organizations. I can't really think of another announcer unless
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: I'm really missing something who is doing, uh, really any
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: independent organizations as an announcer, let alone, um, as many
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: as I've been able to be blessed with. So, um, yeah,
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: very unique spot for me to be in. And, uh, I'm,
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: I'm going to hold onto it for as long as
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: I can.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: Well, plus you're giving them the extra rub of having,
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah. Uh, Walker's two has commentated my match before.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: Like they'll put that on their YouTube or their social media.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: And then that's now another stamp for them, even though they,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: like you said, they may not even be a year
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: or two in the business.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: It's funny because I don't even look at it like that.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: I've been told that before. It's so, it's so hard, man,
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: because like, I got an email from, um, from someone
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: the other day, I call for a company called wrestle world, Texas. And, um, I,
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: I called, uh, I've been calling their stuff for about
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: nine weeks now. They're there. They do Friday night wrestling.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: They're bringing it back. It's the sportatorium days. Yeah.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: They're here in Carrollton DFW area.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yes, and I've been calling their stuff on YouTube,
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: and it gets some solid viewership on there. But when
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: I call indie wrestling and then I go to call
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: New Japan, I tend to feel to myself like no
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: one really watches the indie stuff I do. No one
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: really cares. You can kind of get into that mindset
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: just because it's a difference in scale, right? But I
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: ended up getting an email from a guy who is
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: in training over at wrestle world texas who sent me
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: this like very nice long kind gracious email going hey
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: like thank you so much for paying attention to us
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: and when i found out that you were calling the
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: stuff at wrestle world texas like that's part of what
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: motivated me to keep training i want you to call
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: one of my matches i'm sitting here thinking to myself
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: who the hell am i to be wanted right that's
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: a really that's a really weird thing like this is
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: a business where a lot of people you know, it
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: chews you up and spits you out. And it very
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: well still may do that to me at the end
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: of the day. But, you know, to get a couple
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: of reminders like that every now and again, it does
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: feel nice. I can't lie. But yeah, I mean, I
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: can't look at it that way. But the fact that
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: someone out there can, a couple people out there can,
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: it is very fulfilling. Yeah.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: Well, for you coming up, who were some commentators that
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: you were like, that for you is like, Oh shit.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Like if I were to have a, like you said,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: Jim Ross, obviously because of the Oklahoma boy and he
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: just didn't only one of the best commentators of all time,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: but then like, who are some other ones that you
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: really gravitated to?
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: I really love Jim Ross. Um, I have a, I
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: have a soft spot for Joey styles, uh, which is really,
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: it's really interesting because I, I solo a lot of
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: shows now, both on the independence and in new Japan.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: And I, most of my stardom career has been solo, uh, Um, so,
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: you know, they call it Joey stylesing, right. And being like,
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: he's the one who kind of made that. Um, yeah, man.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: So like Joey styles is one, uh, I, I grew
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: up like getting really into ECW when I was a kid.
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: So that like when I would go back and, you know,
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: buy the retro tapes or, you know, the WWE network,
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: God bless. It changed my life, man, because I was
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: able to go back and consume so much old content.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: And I was like 14. So I had all the
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: time in the world. Um, So, you know, there's all that.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: Tony Schiavone is another one who I really gravitated to
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: from his time in WCW. Modern day, I think he
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: gets a lot of hate, a little bit too much hate,
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: in my opinion, or a lot of it too much hate.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: Michael Cole is really the voice of my childhood. Yeah.
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: When you think about it, you know, me starting being
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: a fan in 08, 09, you know, 2010, whatever. So
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: that's another one that's on that list. if there is
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: a dream announcer for me to call wrestling with besides
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: Jim Ross, I think he's the given there. I would there, there,
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: there's a lot that I would do to call wrestling
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: with Mike today. Oh, okay. Mike, Mike today is one
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: of the most unsung. I think he's getting a lot
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: of the praise he deserves nowadays, but he wasn't in his,
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: in his prime and in his time.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: But I love what Mike today brought to, you know,
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: later our WCW broadcast or especially what he was able
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: to do in TNA. That's, that's the goat for me.
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: Just as a, as an all rounder in the, in
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: the business, I think Mike today would be that name. Yeah.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: I would always get excited when he got on commentary
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: for WCW. Cause I was like, Oh great. I'm going
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: to learn some stuff now because you know, back then
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: it was like the early days of the internet and
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: you can't look up a lot of these wrestlers and
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: figure out where they're from. And, who they actually wrestled
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: and all this other stuff, but he would give us
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: that information. And then, like you said, with TNA, he
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: was phenomenal with that. And then, you know, he, Taz was,
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: I think, a little better back then. I think Taz
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: has maybe sat in too much of his gimmick Jones now, but,
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: you know, it's, he was great back in TNA and he's,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: he's had some shining moments now.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no doubt. I, I think Taz is great as well.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: I think Taz is very funny. Yeah. I think you've
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: got to be able to bring a little bit of
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: light and humor to, to the broadcast occasionally to be
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: able to balance out these, the very serious undertones of
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: like a world title main event or a career, you know,
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: a career ending matchup or something like that. Right. So yeah,
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: no doubt.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: So, I mean, you mentioned it earlier about how it's,
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: Japan obviously shows up for wrestling differently. They cover wrestling differently.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: And when you were doing your commentary, obviously here in
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: America and in the South, different kind of commentary than
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: what needed to be done for Japan. When you actually
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: got over there for the first time, what was that
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: kind of, I want to get to the travel in
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: a minute, but I want to know about the commentary
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: situation you had going over there, considering it was completely
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: different from what they have over here in America.
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's, um, it's a lot more sports oriented. It's
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: a lot less, uh, I think when I was doing
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: commentary on the independence full-time, I was very, um, I
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: almost want to say I was a little bit Jerry
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: Lawler-esque in terms of my, uh, my, you know, whoa,
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: kind of, uh, reactionary, uh, approach to wrestling. Um, now it's,
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: it's very much, I, I do a lot of research. I, I,
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: I always did research on the wrestlers when I was
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: on the independence, but obviously it's very limited, right? There's
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: only so much you can find and you try and
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: find stuff on websites like cage match or pro wrestling
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: wiki or God knows what, but you, you, some of
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: it's wrong. Some of it's just not accurate. Don't know
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: how it got there, but it's just, you know, a
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: lot of wrestlers will tell you, Hey, that's not my information. And,
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: or the information could be outdated because people are constantly
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: evolving in this sport, right? Hey, Um, the name of
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: my finish has changed. My moniker has changed, whatever. And so, uh,
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: you know, you do as much as you can, but
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: at the end of the day, uh, there's always going
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: to be its limitation. And in new Japan, it's very different.
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: We have, uh, we're approaching 55 years of history in 2027. Um,
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: and I've been very blessed to be a part of
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: the last, uh, three, three of them. And, you know, I,
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: I have so much that I'm able to pull on
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: because if they, if a wrestler wasn't a part of
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: new Japan, uh, Uh, odds are they came from pro wrestling, Noah.
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: They came from all Japan. Um, they came from the
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: British independent scene, uh, you know, over a decade ago
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: with guys like Zack Sabre jr. And such. Um, so there's,
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: there's always other things for me to pull on for
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: anyone who's wrestling in new Japan right now. Um, and
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: so that, that gives me kind of a deep historical base.
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: And I, that was something that was super overwhelming for
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: me when I first started. Because, you know, imagine, I mean,
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: I was 21 trying to talk about a company that
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: is over double my age and its longevity. And also, like,
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: I was kind of thrust into the hot seat, so
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: to speak. So I was supposed to actually start January
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: of 2024. Wow. but there was, I think Kevin was
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: needed a little bit earlier in AEW and, uh, you know,
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: it just ended up, Hey Walker, can we get you
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: started two months early? Yeah, sure. Whatever. Uh, that also
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: means I lost a lot of preparation time. So I
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: started in the middle of super junior tag league, 2023, uh,
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: which if you know anything about New Japan, it's certainly
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: one of our more underrated, less appreciated, I think I
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: could say, tours. I would say the same, yeah. Yeah,
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: I mean, a lot of people will look and go, oh,
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: I can skip Super Junior Tag League. It's not that important.
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: And while I have a very different opinion on that,
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: you know, it is what it is. And so I started,
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: some people might see in a low pressure situation, but
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: I didn't really have anything to build off of because
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: the upcoming major card that we were having was power struggle,
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: 2023 in Osaka. And, uh, a lot of it featured
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: heavyweights that weren't on the tour. So how do I
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: talk about people that I'd never even talked about before?
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: How do I build to wrestling? I've never even seen, um,
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: it was difficult, man. It was really difficult. And, you know, I'll,
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: I'll put them over every single day as a wealth
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: of knowledge. Chris Charlton, uh, carried me best. He carried me, man,
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: for my first six months to a year, sometimes still today.
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: In terms of the wealth of knowledge he brings to
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: the table and what he is able to provide, it's extraordinary.
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: And it's something that the only way I'll ever be
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: able to match it is if I'm around for all
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: of it. You know what I mean? And sometimes I
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: can barely remember things that happened a year ago just
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: because I'm constantly moving with the system, right? But Chris
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: is able to reference things that happened in 1974, and
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: he's able to reference things that happened two weeks ago,
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: and he's great at that and tie it into the
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: modern day of the story. And that's something that I've
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: learned a lot from him. So at the end of
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: the day, getting back to the point, it is a
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: very different approach to wrestling. I use a lot more numbers. Uh,
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: I use a lot of stats, win loss records, um,
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: a try very, you know, a sports based approach, right. Um,
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: it's the same as in baseball talking about batting average. And, uh,
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: you know, I'm, I'm kind of trying to take some
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: of that, apply it to wrestling. Um, and I, I,
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: I've enjoyed it. I enjoy the way that it's, like
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: I said, Japanese wrestling has changed how I look at
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: the business and how I look at the pacing for matches. Um,
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: I used to be a guy who was very much
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: into the spot heavy. Uh, I think a lot of
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: people would call indie riffic style of wrestling. Um, and I,
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: that's changed a little bit for me now. I still
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: have an appreciation for it, but, um, like I said, it's,
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: it's very different ball game, what they're doing over here
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: in Japan, man. And it's not a lot of that. Uh,
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of people think if they do
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: more of that, they'll get over here. And, uh, that's
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: not exactly the case. Um, But yeah, man, I mean,
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: that's about the long and short of the question you asked.
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: A very different feeling. But I've been able to also
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: take the things that I have developed for myself over
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: in Japan and started applying it to my indie wrestling
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: commentary that I do over in the South. And I
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: think that's one of the reasons. I mean, I've never
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: had more indie bookings than I have nowadays. And, you know,
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: part of that's because I'm a workaholic and I don't
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: know when to stop. And the other part of it
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: is that I think people have grown a bit of
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: an appreciation. I want to say in the areas that
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: I'm working for the style that I bring, rather than
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: just being a guy who gets on here and goes,
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: all right, this guy's wrestling, this guy's wrestling and going, whoa,
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: all the time, you know? So that's, that's that.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: I know I've told you this in private. I will
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: tell you this for public again. Chris Charlton is one
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: of my favorites. His story is amazing. A, you know,
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: a English kid that loved Japanese wrestling so much. He
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: moved there and learned the culture, learned the language and
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: the history and has written multiple books about it. But
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: can you please tell him, I will again, say this publicly,
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: have him read his own books because he, I tried
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: listening to Eggshell's pro wrestling in the Tokyo Dome, and
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: it sounded like some guy from Jersey that had just
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: finished a sandwich. I don't know. No offense to that guy.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: I don't know who that guy was, but I couldn't
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: finish it. I got about five minutes in.
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: I was like, I don't want to.
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: Hear this guy try to read some Japanese names. It's
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: not going to work out very well.
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I hear what you're saying there. I've been trying
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: to pitch for me to read his audio books. Yes,
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: if you want to do it too, either way. I
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: think I, maybe we could tag team it. You know,
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: I'll do a chapter. He does a chapter. I think
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: we could figure it out. Um, but yeah, like I, I,
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: so it was the, they were the first things that
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: I purchased whenever I signed with the company. Um, and I,
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: it wasn't Charlton going, Hey, put some money in my pocket.
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: You know, it was actually, uh, Kevin Kelly who said,
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: this is what I bought when I started working for
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: new Japan. He said that he purchased the lions pride book,
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: which is the first book that Chris Charlton wrote specifically
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: about new Japan pro wrestling. And, um, you know, I
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: talking to Chris since then he's, he's told me like, yeah,
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: I don't really like how I approached that book or
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: like there's things he would have done differently, but it
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: helped me tremendously just to, to go from a guy
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: who had no knowledge, no base of anything in Japanese wrestling.
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: It set the stage for me. And, uh, you know,
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: I encourage anyone who's listening that may not, uh, know
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: a dang thing about Japanese wrestling and, might want to
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: get into new Japan. Um, a you'll hear my voice
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: a lot. So, uh, you can go out and do
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: that if you choose, but, um, yeah, pick up, pick
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: up Chris Charlton's book, lion's pride. It's a, it's a
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: really good read on Amazon. There we go. Yeah.
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: It's, it sets the base of, uh, how you need
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: to approach, uh, watching Japanese wrestling.
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: Yep. Yep.
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: Well, so your first tour over there, um, for those
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: that don't know you are, well, your build brother is six, six,
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: three 20. I've met you in person. Um, you're probably
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: every bit of six, six. Uh, what is, what was
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: the travel like getting to Japan for the first time?
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: Cause I imagine now that it's gotten easier by any means, uh,
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: but it may have gotten, uh, more.
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: Used to it. I imagine now. Oh man, I wish
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: I could tell you that that would be a real
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: nice story. Wouldn't it? Um, yeah, I mean, I, so
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: I'm a, I'm a larger fella, uh, that's never going
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: to change no matter what happens. And, uh, You know,
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: I'm here for a good time, not a long time.
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: Six foot six, I'm on the heavier side. And I'll
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: tell you this, planes are not my best friend. I
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: was having a conversation. He came over for a tour recently,
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: Claudio Castagnoli. And, you know, I got to tell you,
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: I really hate that guy for one reason. And it's
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: the fact that apparently that dude can just knock out
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: on planes immediately. Oh, I like that. We, we, we
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: were just, we, we were just talking and he's like,
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we'll try it. Like, cause I, you know,
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: when a, when a AEW guy comes over, you know,
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: especially a guy who might not have come to Japan
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: for a while recently, I asked him, you know, how
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: was your travel? How was, how was it getting in?
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: You know? And, uh, the answer that he gave me
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: was like, Oh, I just got on the plane and
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: I woke up and I was there. And like, I
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: was like, what are you talking about? How do you
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: do that? Um, there's gotta be, there's like some military
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: approach to falling asleep, right? They like teach Marines that
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: or something. I don't know. I got to figure it out,
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: but I'm not, I'm not someone who falls asleep easily
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: on planes. I'm tall enough to where if I want
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: to get comfortable on a plane, it means like my
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: knees are digging into the metal of the seat in
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: front of me. So, yeah, I deal with that a lot,
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: but like, you know, to be quite honest with you, John,
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: like the, the travel is the biggest complaint I could
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: have about my job. And if the worst thing that
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: I have to say about my, my job in wrestling
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: is a 14 hour plane ride from Tokyo to, to Dallas,
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: which is often enough what I take, um, you know,
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: just 14 hours of, out of my entire week, 28 hours,
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: typically in a combined month, you know, going there and
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: coming back for, you know, I usually tour once a month, uh,
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: you know, like that, that's, that's not a complaint at all.
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: You know, like I'm, I could talk, I could talk
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: all day about not being a fan of travel, but
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: at the end of the day, like it's a vessel
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: to get me to the thing that I do love,
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: whether it is going to Japan and calling the wrestling
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: that I love or going home and seeing the woman
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: I love. Right. So, um, I try to reframe and
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: reshape my perspective every time I'm on a plane. Uh,
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: but it's, it's kind of the same thing that happens
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: every time where I, uh, I get about 10 hours deep,
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: and then the last four hours I start going a
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: little crazy. And then I touch down, and I'm like,
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: all right, it'll be better next time. And it never is,
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: but I'm going to keep the optimism going. I love it.
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you keep focusing on the good things, and the
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: negative things will just be lost.
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: In the ether. Well, it's hard a little bit because
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: when I'm on a plane and, you know, I'm, God,
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: I can't go do anything. The most interesting thing I
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: can go do is stand up. You know what I mean?
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: I can stand up. If I want a change of scenery,
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: I can go stand in the bathroom for two minutes,
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: I guess. That's about the only opportunity you get to
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: do anything. If you've ever taken an international flight, it
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: can be a bit of a struggle sometimes. So, um,
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: you know, with that being said though, uh, yeah, I mean, I,
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: I just, I, I try to focus on the things
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: that keep me grounded. Right. And, uh, my woman is,
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: is absolutely the number one thing on that list. I mean,
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: my parents have been great supporters of me as well. And, uh,
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: you know, it's, uh, I do what I can. I mean, I, I,
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: I'm just a guy getting by, man. That's all, that's
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: all I can say about it. That's awesome.
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: Well, so, I mean, Wrestle Kingdom obviously is the, is
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: the biggest Japanese or New Japan show that there is.
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: It's in the Tokyo Dome every year. I've heard that
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: when some people go over there, obviously their first time
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: in the Tokyo Dome, they're just kind of like looking
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: around like, Oh my God, this place is huge. And,
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: you know, just kind of taking it all in. Tell
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: us what your first Wrestle Kingdom was like.
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so it was January 4th, 2024. I was two
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: months into the business. Sorry, two months into New Japan.
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: I had no business being there. I mean, really, I
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: was not prepared for the task at the slightest. And
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: to be fair, I did a better job than I
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: thought I was going to. It was a show. I'm
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: very critical of myself. It's a conversation I've had to
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: have a lot in the mirror recently where you know, I,
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: at a certain point I need to be proud of
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: the stuff I'm doing or else I'm going to be
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: miserable my whole career. Um, but I, I can be
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: a little bit too picky with a lot of the
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: stuff I do. Um, and that's the only way I
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: think that I'm going to get better. Um, but that's,
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: you know, it's a mental battle for me to have
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: not often that I walk out of a show feeling
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: happy with the work that I put out, but that
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: wrestle kingdom was one that I did. Um, and it was,
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: I mean, it was, it was pretty grueling. It was
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: like five hours. Um, you know, constantly being on, I
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: think a big difference between American TV wrestling and working
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: in Japan is that, uh, we don't get commercial breaks
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: in Japan. Um, we don't do intermissions in new Japan specifically.
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: I get them occasionally in stardom, but that's, you know,
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: a very different ball game over there too. Um, so yeah,
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: like the, my first Tokyo dome was, I mean, it
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: was pretty surreal to be honest. Uh, a lot of
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: people forget it's a baseball arena, right? So, you know,
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: I walk out of the duck out of the dugouts
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: into this massive open stadium. Like what, what am I
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: doing here? Right. It's the, it's the biggest thing in
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: Japanese wrestling. It's the coolest thing in the world. Um,
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: you know, I, I really love the Tokyo dome for
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: a lot of people. It's their favorite place to be. Um,
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: for me, I don't know if it's my favorite arena
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: in Japan though. Um, I have a great, I have
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: great memories in the Tokyo dome. I've been able to
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: work three shows in the dome so far. Cause we
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: did the wrestle kingdom 2024 and 2025. And then, uh, 2025,
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: we also did wrestle dynasty with our friends at AEW. So, um,
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: you know, got to do two Tokyo domes back to back,
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: which was really cool. Um, but like, I'm, I'm very
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: preferential to Corican hall, man. I'm saying, which is like
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: right behind the Tokyo dome. It's, it's very, very quick walk. Um,
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: I mean, just, there's so much history in the dome, obviously,
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: and some of the greatest matches of all time have
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: taken place there. Uh, but there's, I think coming from
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: the independence, um, Corcoran hall is like the dream independent
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: wrestling venue. If you can fill it because it's, it's
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: 1500 people, you know, you're obviously going to profit for
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: the most part. If you're running an indie show with
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: 1500 people paying in attendance and it's, it's such an
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: intimate atmosphere. It's, you know, 1500, but it might as
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: well be, 200 of you know i don't care if
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: it's 1500 200 whatever whoever's in that arena when the
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: lights go down are the loudest wrestling fans in the
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: world it's really it's really great so much passion out
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: of tokyo um for pro wrestling and and people will
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: travel from all over japan just to come to a
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: korokan show um and and the tokyo dome obviously but
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: yeah uh my first my first dome was uh was
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: pretty crazy and my other two were pretty crazy as
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: well and we're gonna be uh I did, I guess
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: I did another one this year. Tanahashi retired. We had
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: a new heavyweight champion. So, you know, a lot happened
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: there and I don't think it's going to be my last.
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: So that's that.
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, the first one you, you know, you called
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: was the first one that was back to one night.
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: Cause they, the three years.
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: Or two years before that, or three years, I guess, no,
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: two years. No, three years that they had done the
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: two nights because, you know, obviously with the pandemic and
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: everything in Japan was so much different. from what I hear,
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: luckily you were not a part of that because their
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: quarantine was way different, but yeah, you had, I mean,
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: on the call, you had Okada versus, uh, Brian Danielson.
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: You had Naito and Sonata. I mean, the, the list
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: goes on and on of like all these, yeah, this
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: card was amazing. Like I'm looking back, I remember this
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: card and I was like, God, this was such a
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: good card.
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Um, you know, Brian Danielson versus Kazuchika Okada up
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: to that time when I had to have been my
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: favorite match I'd ever called. Um, Because I was such
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: a big– I told you I got into wrestling 2009, 2010, whatever.
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: And so that would have been around the time Daniel Bryan,
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: a very different person than Bryan Danielson. Daniel Bryan would
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: have been making waves over in NXT and their little
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: game show version of NXT that they had at the time.
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: And you know what, man? I was a sucker. I
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: loved it. I loved every single second of it. I
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: loved Daniel Bryan and The Miz together. I was a child.
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: What are you going to say about it? I loved
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: everything about Daniel Bryan as a character, though, and then
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: obviously his run to New Orleans and the boyhood dream
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: coming true, WWE world title, and the guy who wasn't
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: supposed to make it made it. And that was a
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: story that really resonated with me and I found a
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: lot of appreciation for. So then that is someone Daniel
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: Bryan and Bryan Danielson and Pac are the two indie
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: wrestlers or people who I saw in WWE that inspired
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: me to chase watching old indie wrestling. And that's what
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: took me back to Dragon Gate USA, Dragon Gate UK,
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: all the things Pac did over there. Bryan Danielson in
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: Ring of Honor and being able to watch the stuff
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: that he had done around those parts. So me having
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: already a deeper connection connection to uh to brian as
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: a as a worker and being a fan and having
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: a real respect for the way he approaches the craft
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: and then being able to call danielson versus the guy
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: in japan up to that point in okada like that
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: was that was pretty monumental for me and the fact
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: that that match has moved down on my list because
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: so many other things in recency have picked up and,
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: and been bigger and been grander moments. I mean, that,
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: that really speaks to the way that the business is
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: trending right now, man. Right.
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: I mean, and then you, you mentioned it earlier about
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: calling the retirement match for Tanahashi, which first off, the
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: fact that he has to cut his hair is really
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: unfortunate because he had the best hair in all of Japan,
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: but you know, it's his retirement hair. I totally get it.
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: What was the, what was the emotion like kind of
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: that day? And then obviously, you know, calling the match itself.
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: Um, it was, how do you say this? Um, we
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: weren't mourning Hiroshi Tanahashi because he was, he's still with us. Uh,
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: and you know, he, uh, God, by God's graces, he
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: will be for a long time, but, uh, we were,
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: it was, it was something I guess that I had
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: had already had time to process because he had announced
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: he would retire, uh, in October of 2024, uh, He
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: went on this full run throughout 2025. I got to
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: call his last G1 Climax. That was something that really
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: meant a lot to me to be able to do. And,
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: you know, I think every single night, you know, there
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: was this sign that they'd put up in the lobbies
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: of these arenas that we were working where fans were
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: getting tickets or filing into the doors. And it would
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: be this big picture of Tanahashi and all these pictures
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: of him throughout his generation's you know, from Young Lions
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: to 2007's heavyweight title win and, you know, going all
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: the way through. And it would say something like 248
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: days left. And every time I'd walk into the arena,
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: I'd see that. So, you know, I watched it continue
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: to count down and, you know, I'm on the road
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: as much as anyone is with New Japan, you know,
• 57:51
  Speaker 2: and being able to be a part of these tours.
• 57:54
  Speaker 2: And so I would watch that countdown constantly. And every
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: time I'd be like, Oh man. You know, he's going
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: to be gone soon. He's not going to be calm.
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: There's nothing for me to call of his. I'm a
• 58:05
  Speaker 2: little sad about that, but it didn't really hit until
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: we got to the dome. Right. And that's just kind
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: of how that ended up being. Hiroshi Tanahashi is a legend, man.
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: And he's a great dude. I mean, he's, he's someone
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: who now I still see all the time in a,
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: in a presidential capacity when he comes around for, big
• 58:24
  Speaker 2: title matches or to do PR work for some of
• 58:27
  Speaker 2: the places that we end up traveling. And, uh, you know,
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: he's someone who, because he spent so long being one
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: of the boys and being one of the talent, um,
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: Tanahashi always checks in on you. You know what I mean?
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: And especially I'd say the foreigners, the international stars that
• 58:43
  Speaker 2: work for, uh, this company. And I'm lucky enough to
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: be one of those people occasionally where, you know, I,
• 58:50
  Speaker 2: I can't put into words how surreal it is for,
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: Hiroshi Tanahashi to approach you and dap you up and go, Hey,
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: you okay? Like, how's, are you all right? How's it going?
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: You know, um, you know, are you, are you enjoying
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: the tour or whatever? Just like little, little conversations like that. But, um,
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: it's nice to see that. you know, Tanahashi didn't just
• 59:11
  Speaker 2: disappear into the ether to never be seen or talked
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: about again. We still see him all the time, you know,
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: behind the scenes, he's always in the office, uh, if
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: you ever wanted to see him. And, uh, of course,
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: you know, he's making public appearances as well. Ringside during,
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: heavyweight championship matches and reading like the title proclamation inside
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: the ring so still very much figured in without being
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: overbearing and I think that really it really speaks to
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: the man that Tanahashi is because to be quite honest
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: with you John if Tanahashi said I want to be
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: the damn ring announcer for every single match to have
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: my voice heard who's going to say no to him
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: right he's the guy he's the ace man but you
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: know very humble Um, incredibly hardworking. And so the, the
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 2: biggest situation I could see in the Tokyo dome, uh,
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: just right in front of me at the time was,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 2: you know, this is the end of an era and
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 2: it's an era that I only got to spend a very,
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: very short period of time being a part of. Um,
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 2: but I'm lucky I got to be there for that
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: moment in time because, um, there are going to be
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 2: generations of wrestling fans coming forward who, um, you know,
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: who don't know the legacy that tanahashi leaves behind her
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: if you you know you could tell someone hey go
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: watch all this old japanese wrestling but you and i
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 2: both know it's a very high ceiling of of entry
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 2: for a lot of people it's difficult there's not a
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: lot of english commentary from 2007 so uh you're out
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 2: to 2012 and you know all that sort of stuff
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: when when tana was having his high runs so um
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: but yeah like i you know i can't say he's
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 2: dearly missed because i see him all the time But
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 2: I do miss hearing the Ace of the Universe's music
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: every single night and being able to call a high-fly
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: flow every now and again.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: It was funny when they... I think it was him
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: and Cena were kind of retiring around roughly the same time.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: I was like, could.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: They maybe one-off? I mean, you know, why not? Yeah.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: Of course that wasn't going to happen.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: It would have been really cool, right? It would have
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: been really cool. You know, I just... I think that
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: it's the cool thing about wrestling, man, the fact that
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: we're able to have these sorts of conversations. I'm very
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 2: proud of the partnership that New Japan has been able
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: to build with AEW, and I think it's something that's
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 2: been fairly beneficial on a couple of different sides. But
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 2: you can't help but think about the what-ifs. Exactly.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, you mentioned how there wasn't really that
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: much English commentary in the early 2000s when he was
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: really doing his thing. But you've done some really great
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: stuff with New Japan where you've made these or you've
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: been part of these videos that have helped tell the
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: story and the history when they didn't have the English commentary.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: How did all that kind of start coming together?
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're going to love this because it was a
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 2: Chris Charlton idea. So Charlton... uh ended uh i mean
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: the historian that he is um we were trying to
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 2: think of ways you know how could we attract people
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: to maybe want to take the deep dive into the
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 2: new japan world archive because we have so much content
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: so much content dating back to the 1970s um you
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: know a lot of it is a lot of it
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: is a product of the time like i've i'm working
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 2: my way through some of it right now and some
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: of it It's just a little harder to watch because
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 2: it's not the style we're used to anymore in the
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: modern day. Things move a little bit quicker than they
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: did back then. But how do we get people to
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: want to take the stab? And I think that the
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 2: conclusion that Charlton came to that I'm in agreement with
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: is that it's difficult for people to take a dive
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: into something that they don't have context to. And so
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: that's what's led to this process we have. Chris will
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: go through. He will watch a match. He'll kind of
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: do a little bit of research, and then he'll write
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 2: maybe a one- to two-minute piece that I do the
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 2: narration for, and we overlay it onto the feed for
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: NJPW World. And it's just a quick explanation of, hey,
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: this is what's been happening. Here's how we got to
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: this matchup. Um, or, you know, if there's not really
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 2: any context, it's like, Hey, here's this guy's history in Japan. Um,
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 2: and yet, you know, we have guys, you know, we
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 2: have bruiser Brody, Dick Murdoch, uh, you know, all these
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: sorts of, uh, figures who, you know, are big in Japan,
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 2: but kind of made bigger careers in all Japan pro wrestling,
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 2: the new Japan pro wrestling. Right. Um, and, and kind of,
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 2: so we'll give the context for what they were doing
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 2: over there, how they ended up over here. Um, you know, it's,
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 2: it's been, it's been really cool. And honestly, um, John,
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: it's really helped me a lot, uh, be able to
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: put a lot of things into perspective, you know, um,
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 2: every single match I've done a narration for, even just
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 2: in the two minutes that I've done them, um, I'm
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 2: in the process of going through and watching them now.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 2: And now that I can watch them with my own
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 2: narration on them, I can gain, I can gain what's
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 2: going on better in the match. Um, and, uh, you know, that's,
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: that's a really cool thing to be able to do. So, um, Yeah. I, I,
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 2: I'm big on history. I've always been a history guy. Um,
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 2: a lot of my time when I was a younger
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 2: wrestling fan was spent memorizing, um, you know, WWE or
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 2: American wrestling history. And then when I got into the business,
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 2: I started learning more about the territory system and, you know,
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: Bill Watts, mid South and, you know, dusty book in
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 2: Florida and, uh, you know, just kind of working my
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: way through those things. And now, uh, This part of
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 2: my life is, all right, well, let me learn about
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 2: the history of wrestling in Asia, you know, and my
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 2: hope is by the end of my career, I've pieced
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 2: together a lot of history and can call myself a
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 2: bit of an all-around worldwide historian. But, you know, we're
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: on the path to making that happen. Without a doubt.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, and you're also working with Stardom as well.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: Tell us how that started up as well.
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: So I ended up reaching out to Stardom. Stardom used
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 2: to be as a part of the same parent company
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 2: with New Japan Pro Wrestling and Bushi Road. And that
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 2: is no longer the case anymore. But around August of 2024,
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 2: I reached out to Stardom because I realized that there
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 2: was no consistent English commentary. And some of it was,
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 2: you know, hey, I really want to be someone who
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 2: can spearhead more English content coming to stardom. And, uh,
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 2: you know, the other of it was on some of
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 2: my off days in Japan, I'm either going to sit
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 2: in my hotel and rot all day, or I'm going
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 2: to work and I'd like to work. Um, and I just,
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 2: it was just going to be something new, something fresh
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 2: for me to be a part of. Um, I did
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 2: the 2024 five-star grand prix final from inside a studio, uh,
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 2: for video on demand watching, uh, I think that might
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 2: be available on Stardom World still. I'm not sure. We
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 2: migrated platforms not too long ago. But, yeah, like, it
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 2: just started that way, and then it ended up leading into,
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 2: all right, well, hey, you're great at commentary. What else
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 2: can you do? And so now I work in a
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 2: bit more of the international outreach side of things, a
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 2: lot on the media side as well, a bit more
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 2: of an office role, I guess you could say, than just...
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 2: doing commentary. And so, um, I don't have control over anything.
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 2: I don't manage a lot of things particularly. Um, but I,
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 2: I play my role right. And in the overall goal,
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 2: both as an announcer and as anyone working in the
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 2: office is to spread the name of the thing that
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: you love. And for, for me, that's going to be stardom.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 2: That's going to be new Japan. And nowadays in a,
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 2: in a smaller capacity that gets to be AEW as well. Um,
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: and so, um, Yeah, man. I mean, it's stardom has
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 2: been a fun time. It's been challenging because, you know,
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 2: the great thing about working for New Japan and, you know,
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 2: I'll put over Chris Charlton again. He's bilingual, you know,
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: so Japanese and English fluently. And so he's able to
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 2: be sort of that translation and knock down the barrier
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: of communication that there can be with the New Japan
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: office for me. Stardom, I don't have Chris around for.
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 2: And so it gets a little bit harder when it
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 2: comes to getting things done and fulfilling obligations. But, you know,
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 2: the office has been very kind to me. They've been
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 2: very welcoming, which has been a nice change of pace
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 2: in a lot of different ways. And yeah, man, I mean,
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 2: it's just it's just a matter of I've been very kind. lucky.
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 2: I've been very lucky. I've found myself in these positions.
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 2: I work hard to keep them, obviously, but these openings
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 2: have been around for me to be able to test
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 2: my strengths in different ways, and so being able to
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 2: put my brain to use for something other than just
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 2: the three hours of sitting down and calling wrestling every day,
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 2: it's been a blessing for me.
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: I love that. Yeah, I read recently that you have
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: signed a new contract with New Japan, and obviously that
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: continues with stardom and then obviously your relationship with AEW
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: as well you were able to call the shows here
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: in DFW recently what I mean I guess tell us
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: about congratulations on your new contract first off but tell
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: us more about this contract.
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 2: I mean you know so I make X amount of
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 2: money no I'm joking I'll give you my full details
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 2: I'll send them over now no I think that New
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 2: Japan I'll be around for about the next two and
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 2: a half years. And I don't expect that to change
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 2: even after that two and a half years goes. But,
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 2: you know, around 2029 is the time that that contract
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 2: will come up and then stardom in 2027. But I
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 2: don't see that going away either. Um, and now I've
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 2: been able to add AEW into the mix. So, um,
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: I'm not all elite per se. I don't want to start,
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 2: you know, we're not going to start buying headlines here. Um,
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 2: but I am, uh, I'm getting factored into a system
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 2: that I've wanted to be a part of for a
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 2: long time. Um, I even wanted to be a part
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 2: of it prior to being a part of new Japan, obviously.
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 2: Cause like I said, uh, American wrestling was where I
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 2: thought I would end up because I lived, I live
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 2: in America. Right. Um, so that's, that's a big aspect of,
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 2: of that there. Um, kind of the situation is just, Hey,
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 2: we're going to call you when we need you. And
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 2: I've gotten some, some dates from them coming up. So
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 2: actually in like, uh, six days time, you know, maybe
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 2: around the time people are starting to listen to this,
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 2: I might be in Cleveland, Ohio for a dynamite and
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 2: collision taping. And, you know, I, I show up and
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 2: if I get used, I get used. And if I don't,
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 2: you know, I, uh, I'm there contributing in the ways
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 2: that I can best anyway. Um, and it's been, it's
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 2: been pretty great. And I think honestly, this is the
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 2: perfect time for it. Um, because it's, it's coming, you know,
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 2: months off the back of our 2026 forbidden door pay-per-view
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 2: that I got to be a part of the, a
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 2: good amount of the broadcast for, which I was very
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 2: proud of. And, uh, I received some very kind words
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 2: from Tony Khan, um, who has been nothing but, but
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 2: gracious and supportive. And, um, that's a guy that you
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 2: want to work for right there. He'll go to war
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 2: for you. And we've seen it on social media. You'll
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 2: see it in the press. Tony Connell will fight a
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 2: battle for you because he believes in you and he
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 2: believes in pro wrestling. So that's a man that it
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 2: makes you want to fight for him as well. And, uh, yeah, man,
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 2: I mean, we're, we're fighting the fight over an AEW,
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 2: but the, the fight between AEW and new Japan is
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 2: going to be something that is, uh, you know, forbidden
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 2: door season. We always talk about it, but, um, you know,
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 2: in the, in the last week, we've had a lot
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 2: of issues between Will Ospreay and Callum Newman on TV, um, that,
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 2: you know, kind of the United Empire issues between AEW
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 2: and new Japan's version. And then MJF just called out
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 2: Ryohei Oyawa, so that is another AEW versus New Japan scenario.
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 2: Puts me in a bit of a tough spot. But,
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 2: you know, man, my thing is I have a very
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 2: worldly view now on pro wrestling, and it's not about,
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 2: you know, I hate the tribalism. Same. Everyone talks about, oh,
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 2: three letters, four letters, whatever letters make up. the company
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 2: where you work for, you know, you and I have
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 2: experienced it on the independent level, man. Like we're not
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 2: going to go into detail on that, but like we've,
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 2: the fact that places that are drawing 200, 250 people
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 2: can fight with each other about like their, their territory
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 2: lines and like who's running what days and go at
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 2: each other that way. And all this heat behind the scenes, it's,
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 2: it's so useless. And like, it comes, you know, from
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 2: the fact that, a lot of us start as fans,
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 2: I think. And, and a lot of people, a lot
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 2: of people play into that tribalism, John and, uh, you know,
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 2: AEW versus WWE, new Japan versus AEW. Uh, you know,
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 2: you know what I love? I love pro wrestling. Right. And, uh,
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 2: when one of us is doing well, I want it
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 2: to trickle to all of us. Right. And I think
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 2: when WWE is doing decent business, I think AEW ends
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 2: up doing decent business too. Um, you know, I'm not
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 2: one of these people who's going to say death to
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 2: any of these organizations at all, uh, especially the ones
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 2: I work for. So, um, but yeah, man, like, uh, the,
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 2: the AEW situation is just when I'm not, you know,
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 2: my new Japan contracts is my number one priority. It's my, uh,
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 2: my most confirmed dates. I'm not working any less with
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 2: new Japan. It's just, uh, when I'm able to be
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 2: home and able to be in the area of an
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 2: AEW show, then I'm going to be around, uh, And,
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 2: you know, the hope is that people can get a
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 2: little bit more comfortable hearing me over the next few years.
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: And as we've seen recently, a certain Adam Copeland has
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: started checking off venues on his list. And I believe
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: Tokyo Dome is one of the only ones left. So just,
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: you know, something to look forward to for January.
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no doubt. Yeah.
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: Well, if people want to find out more about you,
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: follow you online, obviously support you in any way they can.
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, you need to start getting the crazy merch
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: money coming in, but how can they support you?
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 2: I'm on all social media at VelvetVoiceWS. I am on NJPWWorld.com,
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 2: dead near every single week. We have events Sunday through Sunday, brother.
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 2: We got them all coming up. Um, and we have
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 2: a big event coming up October 12th in Ria Goku,
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 2: Samal hall, King of pro wrestling, 2026, October 24th. We
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 2: started our super junior tag league tournament, which is some
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 2: of the most exciting junior heavyweight wrestling that you can
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 2: find in the world today. And, uh, you know, if you,
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 2: if you want to support me, then I encourage you
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 2: to support pro wrestling at large. And I mean that
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 2: on a independent scale or with one of the major organizations. Um,
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 2: I think that's the, uh, the best way that you
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 2: contribute me in any way is supporting the thing that
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 2: I love. So, um, Yeah, that's about it for me,
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 2: but I'm on social media, and I'm going to be
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 2: around for a while now.
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: Let's hope. Walker, thank you so much for your time.
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: I've loved getting to know you as a person off
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: mic and as well as on mic, so thank you
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: for everything you've done for the business so far, and
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: I can't wait to see what the future holds.
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 2: Of course. Thank you so much, John.
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you so much to Walker Stewart for
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: being on the show. Again, I couldn't think of anybody
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: else I would rather have on the show for the
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: 400th episode than Walker Stewart. Again, he's done so much
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: for me in my professional and my personal life. So
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: he's such a great guy, and obviously we love what
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: he's doing when it comes to New Japan, and I
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: can't wait to see what he's going to end up
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: doing more with Stardom and obviously with AEW. So while
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: you're following him on social media, obviously go follow us
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: on social media. It is BrugesPod, that is B-R-E-W-S-E-R-S-P-O-D, on
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: the Instagram, the threads, and the Twitter. If you want
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: to send us an email, it is brewspot at gmail.com.
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: If you want to follow me directly, it is Roddy John.
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: That is R-O-D-I-E-J-O-N. Roddy John is the name on the
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: Twitter and on Untappd. In case you don't find out
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: what I'm drinking, maybe we can have a beer together.
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: If you want to follow me on the threads or
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: the Instagram, it is official Roddy John. So until next time,
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: make sure to enjoy life, drink local, and cheers.