Latest / The ExtraCooler Show / 115 | ExtraCooler, This Is Your Life

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115 | ExtraCooler, This Is Your Life · The ExtraCooler Show

• 0:00
  All right, it's time to answer the age-old question.
• 0:03
  We're going to play the game FM, KF.
• 0:06
  Marry, kill. All right, you've got AF1 marry
• 0:09
  one, kill one, Chinese food, Italian food and Mexican food.
• 0:16
  All right. Which one are you marrying?
• 0:18
  I think you Italians better go first on this.
• 0:23
  You know exactly where I'm going.
• 0:24
  I am marrying that Italian food 1000%. 100% me too.
• 0:30
  Marrying the Italian, OK? Yeah, easily.
• 0:33
  I I I'm gonna hop on the bandwagon.
• 0:35
  Actually, I'm gonna marry that nice little Italian girl.
• 0:38
  That's something I'm gonna do, said.
• 0:39
  I could eat every day. Yeah, easily.
• 0:42
  It's, it's, it's it's versatile. It's macaroni.
• 0:45
  It's OK. So what?
• 0:47
  What? All right, So what are you gonna
• 0:49
  kill off? I know Jim is gonna hate me, but
• 0:53
  Chinese food goes for me. That is the bottom of the tell
• 0:55
  them pole for for my liking. Disgust me.
• 0:58
  Yeah. I can't live without egg rolls.
• 1:01
  I can't live without dumplings. I would.
• 1:03
  I'm close to marrying Chinese food.
• 1:04
  Like that's where I'm at on this.
• 1:06
  Do you get your Chinese food delivered?
• 1:08
  Cuz I get mine delivered and it's amazing.
• 1:10
  Oh really? Nothing better than sitting
• 1:12
  there on a Sunday and seeing that Lady come up with that
• 1:15
  plastic bag with the paper bag inside.
• 1:17
  Miley. Smiley on it.
• 1:19
  Mine doesn't deliver. Mine's like.
• 1:21
  It's 4 minutes away, but still it's that's why you want to kill
• 1:24
  the Chinese. Food is that maybe.
• 1:26
  See. Maybe that's it.
• 1:27
  You got to think about that bag. Don't you love how packed it is
• 1:29
  too? It's packed.
• 1:30
  Always. I love it.
• 1:32
  And when you have a good Chinese place, it's like almost nothing
• 1:38
  better. But it's like so hard to find
• 1:41
  one sometimes. Yeah, that's it's true.
• 1:44
  That's part of the problem. Once you find one, you got to
• 1:46
  marry it. You can't Exactly.
• 1:48
  Exactly. Now I always used to kill off
• 1:51
  Chinese, but then I have kids, man, and kids are picky.
• 1:56
  So we Chinese food on The Reg in this house.
• 1:59
  So ready. I am going to kill off Italian
• 2:05
  food. And here is why.
• 2:08
  Hear me out. Hear me out.
• 2:10
  Remove pizza from the equation. Remove pizza from the equation.
• 2:15
  It does not hold the candle to that delicious fish Taco or
• 2:20
  burrito or it. It can't.
• 2:23
  I can't do it. I'm gonna marry.
• 2:25
  I'm gonna marry Mexican food. Lasagna ravioli.
• 2:29
  Yeah, I'm, I'm all taste the same.
• 2:31
  I just hung out with your father and your mother and I'm gonna
• 2:34
  call them and right on you. Yeah.
• 2:36
  Alright, it's it's time to start the.
• 2:38
  Show Chicken parm. Welcome to the Western Show.
• 2:44
  This is Lord Extra Cooler. And Welcome to the Extra Cooler
• 2:47
  show. Nobody eats beef or only on a
• 2:50
  boat, man. That's a problem, right?
• 2:53
  So, right. So what's in cooler?
• 2:55
  This blew my mind. Yeah, right now, yeah.
• 2:59
  Right. Now saying yeah.
• 3:02
  Extra credit. Sports, sports, sports and
• 3:06
  courtside heating. Extra credit Welcome to the
• 3:14
  Extra Cooler Show Welcome back to an extra credit episode of
• 3:21
  the Extra Cooler show. My name is Nick, otherwise known
• 3:24
  as Extra Cooler. I'm just kidding.
• 3:27
  I'm not going to kill off the Italian food I love.
• 3:30
  It's way too much. A little troll.
• 3:32
  A little troll. We've got the show, the The Hop,
• 3:36
  God's Back, Thank goodness Jimmy Polo's here, and Michael work
• 3:41
  rate. We are taking a break from our
• 3:45
  eight chapters of the summer of 1998 in Wrestling, and we're
• 3:50
  doing a little bit of a Summer Slam preview, but as usual, you
• 3:53
  can find us on Instagram and threads at Extracooler and Jonas
• 3:58
  over on Discord. What about X?
• 4:01
  Sorry, yeah, I'm really. You said it, did you?
• 4:06
  Nope. Not doing it.
• 4:08
  Nope. I'm ready to.
• 4:08
  Delete that. The DMX song.
• 4:10
  Yeah, where it's going, I'm sorry.
• 4:12
  The exhibit song is what I was thinking of.
• 4:14
  Yes. Speaking of letters, Matt, you
• 4:18
  got an S for us. I do have an S and it's Sean
• 4:21
  Stasiak, you jerks. I I do have to appreciate the,
• 4:26
  the troll job that happened last week in the in the opening
• 4:29
  question there. I was listening on an airplane
• 4:32
  as I was flying home and man, I was laughing out loud and you
• 4:36
  look like such an idiot as you have earbuds in and you're
• 4:38
  laughing to yourself in an airplane.
• 4:41
  But yeah, well done, guys. Thanks for holding it down.
• 4:44
  But I do have a little bit of housekeeping.
• 4:47
  So let's dive right in. First and foremost, my overall
• 4:52
  rating for the card. I think you all gave it a four.
• 4:55
  I'm going four and a quarter for this ECW heat wave.
• 5:02
  I I absolutely love the card. I think that was landing with
• 5:07
  you guys around the four. But there's just all those, like
• 5:10
  you guys talked about, classic ECW guys.
• 5:12
  There's classic WWF guys in there too.
• 5:17
  But I think Nick may be right that that extra quarter can for
• 5:20
  me has come because it was following Bash at the Beach,
• 5:24
  which let's be honest left us something to desire at the end
• 5:28
  of the day, even though I. Loved the first half of that
• 5:32
  card, so we won't believe her that point any further.
• 5:35
  But we did talk about Bam Bam Bigelow last week, and this was
• 5:40
  not the first time we covered a Bam Bam match in episode 46 was
• 5:45
  WrestleMania 10. And we covered Bam, Bam and
• 5:49
  Luna. How else can we get and Dink?
• 5:52
  Yeah, I was. Surprised Dink match.
• 5:53
  We forgot a Dink match. Mike, you work great.
• 5:55
  This is on you. I think you may bet we I bet we
• 5:59
  talked about it for like 1.8 seconds.
• 6:01
  Yeah, it was probably. Very.
• 6:03
  Mind us walking in the sink. Magic.
• 6:06
  Yeah, I think you did give it five cans as a joke, Michael.
• 6:10
  It sounds like his MO right here.
• 6:12
  That's about right. And then last on, you guys were
• 6:16
  talking about Sandman and Bam Bam Bigelow in WCW.
• 6:21
  Bam Bam jumped around a whole bunch during his career and he
• 6:25
  was in WCW from September 1988 through January 1989.
• 6:29
  But he would not sign an exclusive deal because of his
• 6:32
  extensive travel to New Japan Pro Wrestling.
• 6:35
  He returned in April of 1990 through August of 1990 That went
• 6:40
  back to New Japan. Then had his real extended run
• 6:45
  from November 1998 through March 2001 where his final match was a
• 6:51
  loss to the reason why this S is at the front of my tongue here,
• 6:54
  Sean Stasiak on Nitro, which was his last WWCW match.
• 6:58
  And then he did not accept the buyout from WWE and his WCW
• 7:02
  career was done. I know what I'm watching.
• 7:04
  After this we finished recording.
• 7:08
  Dial up Stasiak Bam Bam 2000 1. So Sandman here.
• 7:13
  He signed a three-year deal with WCW back in September of 1998,
• 7:18
  but debuted on Nitro against Bam Bam Bigelow.
• 7:21
  After he was challenged by Bam Bam and during the match he was
• 7:25
  defeated by Bigelow but was never given a name on screen
• 7:29
  during the entire segment. He was later named Hack HAK, and
• 7:35
  his presence was there to bolster the WCW's fledging
• 7:38
  hardcore division as listed on Wikipedia.
• 7:43
  Really. Hack competed in the Junkyard
• 7:46
  Invitational, which was won by Fit Finley.
• 7:49
  He suffered A separated shoulder and a neck injury during the
• 7:52
  contest. This turned out to be his final
• 7:54
  WCW appearance because during the recovery he was released as
• 8:00
  a costcutting measure in September of 1999.
• 8:04
  So just about a year in WCW. Interesting.
• 8:07
  Thank you. No problem.
• 8:10
  So. I have a feeling I'm going to be
• 8:13
  talking a whole bunch during this episode because I I went
• 8:17
  down the extra cooler wormhole if I think I'm going to call it
• 8:21
  that. We have a special date coming up
• 8:25
  for Nick here, August 8th, 2016. You posted a quote UN quote from
• 8:31
  start to finish, a picture of a drawing of yours which was
• 8:36
  Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels. Where you also delivered the
• 8:40
  final product just I think a day later.
• 8:43
  Next you started drawing Cena and Demon Finn Balor as Hasbros
• 8:48
  and extra cooler was born. So August is 2016 is 7 years
• 8:56
  ago, so we are here on almost. The will be off next week, but
• 9:01
  the 7th anniversary of back then.
• 9:04
  The extra cooler. The extra cooler.
• 9:08
  I went down that wormhole and I prepared a This is your life
• 9:12
  extra cooler. So we've got your your
• 9:16
  elementary school principal has recorded something for us, We
• 9:20
  have girlfriends, we've got a whole bunch of stuff planned for
• 9:24
  us here. But no Carly.
• 9:26
  Did Carly call in to buckle up? Boys, it's going to be a long
• 9:31
  one. But for real, Nick, take us back
• 9:34
  to August 2016. And I don't think we've ever
• 9:37
  really dove into the origin story of Extra Cooler here.
• 9:40
  So why don't you take it away and give us, give us the history
• 9:44
  lesson here. All right.
• 9:45
  So man, back in February of 2016 is actually where it all began
• 9:52
  because I had the idea to draw Hasbros with current roster guys
• 9:56
  and you guys were, you know, my sounding board as per usual.
• 10:01
  And I fired off some drawings of Kevin Owens as a Hasbro and
• 10:06
  Roman back in February. And I sent it out to guys like
• 10:10
  Stack Guy, Greg, Sam Roberts, Ryan Satin.
• 10:14
  They all approved and they were like, you know, glowing words
• 10:19
  were said about it. And then I didn't really do
• 10:21
  anything. I got a little bummed out
• 10:23
  because WWE released the retro line, the the reboot of their
• 10:27
  Hasbros, and there Hasbro looked exactly like my Kevin Owens not
• 10:32
  to, you know, pat myself on the back too much.
• 10:35
  So I kind of. Held it too.
• 10:36
  Yes, the Finn Balor one too. What do you what do you think?
• 10:39
  Can you unpack that a little? So then I didn't really do
• 10:46
  anything with it and then August rolled around.
• 10:49
  We were headed to Summer Slam, our second trip to the Barclays.
• 10:54
  And you know, at that point the merch was like, really repug
• 10:59
  that WWE was putting out there. There was not much, like any
• 11:02
  good merch that they had. It was being worn by other
• 11:04
  people. So I remember thinking like,
• 11:06
  what can I do to have something that'll stand out?
• 11:09
  And I just revisited the the Sean Hasbro, which was one of my
• 11:13
  favorites because, you know, he's my favorite.
• 11:15
  And I drew that, threw it on a shirt and was like, all right,
• 11:19
  let's see what I can do with this.
• 11:21
  I had been following Sheena Chick Foley at the time and
• 11:25
  asked for some advice from her and she helped kind of get
• 11:28
  things off the ground and get some eyes on it.
• 11:31
  And we went out to to Brooklyn and right off the bat some guy
• 11:35
  messaged me, like the account was like a week or two old and
• 11:39
  some guy messaged me on the train ride down.
• 11:41
  We bumped into, you know, some now you know, friends at a bar
• 11:49
  before the event. Yeah, the best. 4141 out, you
• 11:53
  know, And that's kind of like where things took off.
• 11:55
  And for anybody that's probably heard the story of me, you know,
• 12:00
  helping aid the name of Ecto Cooler, I'm not going to tell
• 12:04
  that story. But you know, back in high
• 12:07
  school when we were looking for screen names, Mike here
• 12:10
  recommended that I use Ecto Cooler as my screen name.
• 12:13
  And then when I was looking for something with this, like I
• 12:16
  said, you guys were my sounding board.
• 12:17
  Jim, you suggest did use playoff the Ecto cooler and go with
• 12:21
  extra cooler and here we are seven years later, it's it's
• 12:26
  insane. I keep with that seven years I I
• 12:28
  can remember like us like doing our classic four way text and
• 12:32
  just batting ideas around you know like which is part most
• 12:36
  like the most fun part of like you know operation.
• 12:39
  At least the podcast. Like it was yesterday.
• 12:42
  Yeah, it really does. And we we all headed down to the
• 12:45
  Barclays Center. Nick with his white white
• 12:49
  tshirt. I don't think I've seen you in a
• 12:51
  white tshirt ever since with just Sean on it.
• 12:54
  And yeah, it was pretty awesome. So I I have a further further
• 12:59
  history lesson for here. So let me let me clear my voice
• 13:03
  a little bit and let's continue down the path and I'll stop for
• 13:07
  some questions along the way. But.
• 13:10
  You started selling prints on Etsy for the remainder of 2016
• 13:13
  after this, but really in 2017 it started taking off as you
• 13:17
  started doing art for a bunch of important people with some big
• 13:20
  milestones wrapped up in there. I got paid.
• 13:22
  So the first one was Edge on Pro Wrestling Teas.
• 13:25
  You did another Hasbro knock off with that in February, but it
• 13:28
  didn't release until March of 2017.
• 13:31
  But. I got paid.
• 13:33
  Sorry. I got paid $25 in pro wrestling
• 13:35
  teas gift card money for that. That's awesome.
• 13:40
  Yeah, we all got to start somewhere, man.
• 13:41
  Exactly. What an awesome part of that
• 13:44
  story. Yeah.
• 13:44
  But really, this was the first kind of like Break, if you will,
• 13:49
  and Zack Ryder, who you had drawn A Hasbro of, you know, the
• 13:53
  connection to the figure collecting world and.
• 13:56
  Everything with with Zach Ryder and Matt Cardona now now named
• 14:00
  RIP Zach Ryder. But he reposts your art on
• 14:03
  February 20th of 2017 and you also get him a physical printed
• 14:08
  copy of that artwork on March 9th, 2017.
• 14:12
  And again, he he really helps to jumpstart.
• 14:16
  That was kinda cool. Here he starts wearing your
• 14:19
  classic Mega Powers Hasbro tshirt all over the place and
• 14:23
  really starts getting attention. You continue to move on and
• 14:26
  connect with people like Ted from wrestling for sale like you
• 14:29
  said Sam Roberts you did for the.
• 14:32
  Title too I think, right? You did for the title artwork,
• 14:35
  Joey Ginella. You did some commissions for
• 14:38
  Chris Hero, which was really cool, as well as Maria Canellis
• 14:41
  and Mike Bennett, but like, that's a freaking amazing first
• 14:45
  year. Like, tell tell me how important
• 14:49
  Zach Ryder, aka Matt Cardona, was to really getting extra
• 14:53
  cooler off the ground. There's probably no one more
• 14:56
  important than that man. And the fact that we're still
• 14:59
  here in 2023 and still talking about stuff that I've had the
• 15:02
  pleasure of doing with him but without him, I I don't know if.
• 15:08
  I mean, maybe I would have gotten here, but it would have
• 15:09
  been a much different path I'm sure.
• 15:12
  I can't, I can't agree more. That dude has has been nothing
• 15:15
  but loyal to you the entire time and we'll hear some more as we
• 15:18
  go along. So another really important date
• 15:20
  in the history of Extra Cooler in 2017.
• 15:23
  On April 10th you dropped the from the name and it was no
• 15:27
  longer the Extra cooler and it just turned into Extra Cooler.
• 15:31
  I still have artwork up here that says the at the extra
• 15:34
  Cooler. It's my my Ultimate Warrior
• 15:36
  Hasbro that's framed on my wall here.
• 15:38
  Was that a big decision in your head or you're toying you?
• 15:41
  For a while? Or do you just like this?
• 15:43
  Drop it? I don't know.
• 15:43
  I think it was just like get rid of the IT was just like extra
• 15:47
  baggage, yeah. You got to.
• 15:49
  Put it in every design, right? Yeah, exactly.
• 15:51
  It's annoying. It's clean.
• 15:52
  Yeah, you're a clean van. Yeah, exactly.
• 15:57
  So 2018 brought some really cool reactions to the series of
• 16:01
  Hasbro inspired inspired art that you did for the 25th
• 16:04
  anniversary of RAW, getting comments and repost from people
• 16:08
  like Mick Foley and Chris Jericho.
• 16:10
  But in early 2018, you really moved away from this Hasbro
• 16:13
  inspired art and you went in with something that we'll call
• 16:16
  the The little guys were born in April of 2018 when you posted
• 16:20
  Razor Ramon as a kid in this really cool cartoon style.
• 16:25
  You have continued to change up your style a ton over the years,
• 16:29
  and I found out and through all of this, this wormhole that I
• 16:32
  went. To.
• 16:34
  Yeah, you like to do it in the beginning of the year.
• 16:37
  It happened a lot in like January, February.
• 16:39
  But a lot of a lot of artists in the wrestling, in the wrestling
• 16:43
  space in particular have like 1 continuous style or they have a
• 16:46
  zone that they love to live in. But for you, you change it up
• 16:50
  all the time. What?
• 16:52
  Why do you find yourself changing your style so
• 16:54
  frequently? Boredom, boredom and inspiration
• 16:59
  is more like it. It's hard.
• 17:00
  There's so many incredible artists that are out there and
• 17:04
  like, I'm, I'm always looking at stuff and always seeing stuff.
• 17:07
  And to me it's inspiring and it makes me want to change and try
• 17:12
  out different things. But I also always go back to the
• 17:15
  fact that I my real job is an elementary art teacher.
• 17:19
  I'm constantly teaching kids different things.
• 17:22
  So, you know, rather than pigeonhole myself into one
• 17:25
  style, I I like to explore more. Plus it allows me, you know,
• 17:29
  different venues and different opportunities to work with
• 17:32
  different people because they could be like, hey, I want to do
• 17:34
  something like this, Can you help me out?
• 17:36
  And then the answer is usually yes.
• 17:38
  Like, not to, you know, sound overconfident.
• 17:42
  But yeah, I like to tell people yes, I can.
• 17:44
  And if I can't, then you know. So you don't mind if you
• 17:48
  interjecting real quick, but those ideas, when you do think
• 17:51
  of like changing it up like that.
• 17:52
  Is it like sometimes it just hit you like in the shower or
• 17:55
  something like that without doubt.
• 17:57
  Or do you sit down and think, you know, like, what am I gonna
• 17:59
  do? No, it hits me out of nowhere.
• 18:01
  Usually it's like when I'm scrolling or looking at other
• 18:04
  things, but it's rarely like sometimes I'll sit there and
• 18:07
  I'll be overthinking it and it's it's brutal.
• 18:10
  It's it I go in ruts big time and that goes back to what
• 18:14
  Matt's saying, like starting it back up every January school
• 18:17
  year starts in September, there's a low.
• 18:20
  Then the holidays start off and you know, lately I like to draw
• 18:23
  holiday inspired things and then January hits and you know we're
• 18:26
  entering wrestle mania season so some more wrestling inspired
• 18:29
  stuff can can bounce off. It makes total sense but you you
• 18:33
  gave me the perfect segue as you were saying yes to all of these
• 18:36
  people. You went a three month heater in
• 18:39
  early 20/20/18 with pro wrestling teas again to signing
• 18:43
  shirts for people like Roddy Piper, Eddie Guerrero, Macho
• 18:48
  Man, Shawn Michaels is on that list and also Rachel Ellering
• 18:53
  comes into the fold for the very first time.
• 18:55
  What do you remember for making all of those designs in a three
• 18:58
  month time, especially with? With Shawn Michaels, the Shawn
• 19:01
  Michaels piece of the barbershop.
• 19:03
  Yeah, the Shawn Michaels piece was like super fast.
• 19:06
  I remember Ryan from Pro Wrestling T's reached out to me
• 19:10
  and he said I need something done and I need it done right
• 19:15
  away. And I think it was like right
• 19:17
  before Wrestle Mania that this happened that he cut the
• 19:20
  ponytail and he came to me with the idea and I he's like, I need
• 19:25
  it, but I need it like in a day. And it wasn't anything crazy.
• 19:29
  But I remember those things are always hard because it's like
• 19:33
  he's got the idea, but he's got to get it approved by Sean.
• 19:36
  And so I'm drawing stuff, sending it to him, waiting for
• 19:39
  approval from Sean, bouncing it back and it goes back and forth
• 19:42
  so many times. And then next thing you know,
• 19:44
  Shawn Michaels is like reposting the artwork.
• 19:47
  I mean, there's like, there's nothing cooler than that.
• 19:51
  Like my favorite wrestler since I was in fifth grade, like, and
• 19:55
  I'm drawing artwork about him, you know, cutting his ponytail
• 19:59
  off, which you should have done like a decade earlier.
• 20:01
  He's recognizing. It this is a moment that stands
• 20:05
  out to me as someone who's a fan of your work, obviously, but
• 20:09
  also someone who's who's had like this front row seat to this
• 20:12
  experience. I can, I That's one that, like,
• 20:14
  is at the top of my list of listening like, Oh my God. 100%
• 20:19
  and the other ones are cool, but like Piper and Macho and Eddie
• 20:25
  obviously were all deceased when I created that artwork.
• 20:29
  So it all went through, you know, like their wives or ex
• 20:33
  wives or whoever holds that stuff accountable.
• 20:37
  But still incredible to do work like for them and to still see
• 20:42
  that artwork up on the Pro Wrestling T's site is pretty
• 20:45
  cool. So for those that have not seen
• 20:48
  it, it's Sean sitting in the barbershop and he's got short
• 20:54
  hair. The broken glass and there's a
• 20:57
  ponytail hanging from the broken glass and it says he'll turn at
• 21:01
  the bottom of the tshirt. It's it's phenomenal.
• 21:04
  And the fact that Sean, like, approved it and saw it, right,
• 21:07
  All right. That, like, could you imagine
• 21:09
  what that like to be a fly on the wall when he opens up that?
• 21:13
  I wonder if it was imagine him. I imagine him laughing, laughing
• 21:16
  to himself. Yeah.
• 21:17
  Is it laughing or being like, oh, this mark?
• 21:22
  So it was April 6th, 2018 when that debuted.
• 21:26
  So yeah, you were right, it happened right before.
• 21:28
  Wrestle Mania 2018 also brought your first of two cease and
• 21:33
  desist from WWE, but we won't talk about that one.
• 21:37
  Another big milestone was the wrestling for sale pop up that
• 21:41
  you guys that we all did at the Blind Barber.
• 21:44
  Hey, that means they saw it. Yeah, yeah, that's true.
• 21:47
  Yeah, we knew that from the Hasbro thing though, right?
• 21:49
  Yeah. Exactly.
• 21:53
  The Fort Wrestling for sale pop up in Brooklyn again with the
• 21:57
  Cheap Heat podcast in August of 2019, pardon me 2018, and you
• 22:04
  now have connected with those Cheap Heat guys as well as
• 22:07
  Cardona and Myers in person, which you then start finally
• 22:11
  creating art for the Wrestling Figure Podcast.
• 22:15
  The Major Wrestling Figure Podcast Excuse Me in September
• 22:18
  of 2018 The end of September 2018 was another huge milestone
• 22:22
  for you. September 27th in the May Young
• 22:25
  Classic, you saw your artwork on the television for the very
• 22:28
  first time with Rachel Ellering, who was then known as Rachel
• 22:31
  Evers and the Fight Forevers Tshirt.
• 22:35
  I remember marking out for this moment so hard.
• 22:38
  Can you tell me about that process and if there were any
• 22:40
  special hoops that you had to jump through to have her wear
• 22:43
  that on television? Even though that's the craziest
• 22:45
  part. Nothing.
• 22:46
  Nothing did we have to go through.
• 22:48
  This wasn't the first thing that I did with Rachel, who's also
• 22:51
  like I rank her in the top five nicest people I've ever worked
• 22:56
  with. And she came to me with this
• 22:59
  idea. We did a few different variants.
• 23:01
  And then she was like, after we did, she's like, by the way, I'm
• 23:03
  going to be wearing this at the May Young Classic.
• 23:05
  So your artwork's going to be on the network.
• 23:08
  And I was like, this is awesome. And I can clearly remember like
• 23:12
  they used to drop those matches in that tournament, like random
• 23:15
  port parts of the day. It wasn't like scheduled like a
• 23:18
  Sunday event. And I can remember going on my
• 23:20
  phone at work. And like, you know, scrolling
• 23:23
  through the network trying to find her match, just to watch
• 23:26
  like the intro and to see her with the shirt on is it's still
• 23:30
  like very surreal to me when I see those pictures and they pop
• 23:33
  up on my phone. Wasn't that one of the initial
• 23:35
  things we like in our little chats and our text group, you
• 23:38
  know, or in person even at the summer slams, you know, sorry,
• 23:40
  sound like Brett there. But to the idea of seeing it
• 23:45
  like you said in the beginning that the idea of seeing on TV.
• 23:49
  Yeah it was. It was really, really cool.
• 23:51
  But 2019 kicked off pretty huge with you did artwork around the
• 23:56
  man, Becky Lynch and the Kill Bill inspired gear that she was
• 24:00
  wearing. You released it on February
• 24:03
  26th, 2019 and then was hand delivered to Becky herself by
• 24:11
  your friend Mosh along with his with her custom made Mosh kicks.
• 24:16
  He is a friend of yours since college.
• 24:19
  And what do you remember from? What do you remember from that
• 24:22
  experience? And how did all of that Becky
• 24:25
  Lynch handoff come about? All right, so let's give you a
• 24:29
  little bit of credit. It was like she started wearing
• 24:31
  the yellow right on RAW leading up to her Wrestle Mania match.
• 24:35
  And you were like, you've got a drawer as Kill Bill.
• 24:38
  And I remember like spitballing and popping it out in the in a
• 24:42
  day. Because it was like one of those
• 24:44
  things where you got to do it, you got to get it out because a
• 24:46
  million other people probably have the same idea.
• 24:49
  And sure enough, I did it. I posted it and so many artists,
• 24:52
  wrestling artists like, commented, Damn, I had the same
• 24:55
  idea. And I remember to the advocate
• 24:59
  for your advocate. Right, right.
• 25:01
  You. Haven't heard the term advocate.
• 25:02
  Yet, yeah, the the So Mosh then messaged me.
• 25:07
  He was like, dude, are you putting this on shirts?
• 25:10
  Can I get one? So I, you know, printed him up.
• 25:13
  One sent it to him. He's like, I'm seeing her, I
• 25:16
  forget where, but he's like, I'm going to bring her a shirt.
• 25:19
  So sure enough it got there just in time.
• 25:22
  He went to Raw, gave it to her, made sure to take a ton of
• 25:25
  pictures, send them to me. It it it was wild.
• 25:28
  That was another thing that was up there.
• 25:30
  Just to see someone like that that you know was that that's
• 25:34
  obviously the peak of her career.
• 25:37
  There was a sense of pride for me as I was going back and
• 25:40
  scrolling through this, of being like, Oh my God, how awesome was
• 25:44
  this? Like this was the next level
• 25:46
  stuff, man. Like 2019 was like, this is
• 25:49
  early February, like this is amazing.
• 25:51
  What a what a great start. And we had more things planned
• 25:54
  for the remainder of the year. Or you did and we'll get to
• 25:57
  that. But yeah, the that was when my
• 26:00
  brain was working more in your artwork space, so maybe I need
• 26:03
  to turn that. Back on again and.
• 26:05
  Heard my love advocate again. Yeah, I love the way, like, you
• 26:08
  got on that. It's so fast where it's one of
• 26:10
  those ideas. You were like, you, right?
• 26:11
  I had to get on this now. And God, I remember seeing that
• 26:14
  being like, so the sexy shirt. They've come up to this point or
• 26:18
  like design, you know? It's it's the whole thing is
• 26:21
  kind of wild because like it's giving me.
• 26:24
  Like this opportunity to create this stuff, but without having
• 26:27
  these kind of things that we've talked about up until this
• 26:30
  point, I wouldn't be able to be doing half the stuff that I'm
• 26:33
  doing now. And that's I have a I struggle
• 26:35
  to pop out stuff like this nowadays, thankfully, because
• 26:39
  I'm so goddamn busy, you know, And it's constantly creating
• 26:43
  stuff for other people and rarely for myself, which is not,
• 26:47
  I'm not at all complaining about.
• 26:49
  So that really kicks off in 2019, which also brought some
• 26:53
  stylistic changes again and you really leaned into the mashups.
• 26:57
  So we saw Simpsons as wrestlers. We saw Looney Tunes Disney
• 27:01
  characters. You also added Ric Flair to the
• 27:05
  pro wrestling tease portfolio in one of my favorite extra cooler
• 27:08
  shirts of all time, the jet flying one.
• 27:10
  You did custom art for Brian Dipperstein from the Cheap Heat
• 27:14
  podcast and this massive, massive artwork.
• 27:18
  I've ever made. Yes, Andre and Hogan piece,
• 27:21
  which was incredible. That was a really underrated
• 27:25
  collab with Pollyanna where you did tribute to the Ric Flair and
• 27:30
  Steamboat trilogy, which I thought was amazing.
• 27:32
  Love that you. Did the wrestling for sale pop
• 27:35
  up again. And this time Rachel Ellering or
• 27:38
  Rachel Evers at the time levels up your artwork and now your art
• 27:43
  is now on NXT television, which is amazing, even more so than
• 27:48
  just having it on the network for the may young classic.
• 27:52
  You have a Marty Skurl piece. You have custom art for Chick
• 27:56
  Foley, who you admitted in the very beginning was instrumental
• 28:00
  in getting this off the ground too.
• 28:02
  But most of 2019 was spending your time illustrating your very
• 28:05
  first children's book, called S's for Suplex Through Trism
• 28:09
  Books. Tell us about all of the time
• 28:12
  and the experience and what goes into illustrating a book.
• 28:15
  Exhausting, mentally and physically exhausting.
• 28:20
  So this was, you know, working with an author, Ryan.
• 28:24
  It was a lot of fun, but we kind of went and illustrated a full
• 28:29
  version of a book that we thought was done and we said all
• 28:32
  right, show it to a few publishers before we self
• 28:34
  publish it. And sure enough, we got our
• 28:37
  first offer, who was just some publisher that just wanted to
• 28:40
  make some money off of us, which we then we actually turned down.
• 28:45
  And I can remember saying to Ryan, pitch it to TRISM one more
• 28:48
  time, because they had like the Cody book, they had the Young
• 28:51
  Bucks books and he did, and they were into it, but they wanted
• 28:56
  edits. So I ended up like redrawing
• 28:59
  probably like 85% of the book. Which has that. 92 wrestlers and
• 29:05
  yes. So talk about it was exhausting,
• 29:08
  like the deal was Ryan had to handle all the legalities
• 29:12
  because I didn't want to touch any of that that was written
• 29:15
  into a contract with the two of us.
• 29:18
  But like every time I go back and try and pick, like throw
• 29:21
  that book out there and I look at some of the names in it like
• 29:24
  it's wild, you got MJF in that book.
• 29:26
  You've got Brit Baker's hidden in that book.
• 29:29
  There's so many people. Those are the two that always
• 29:32
  come to the top of my mind. Yeah, there's a ton of of.
• 29:37
  It feels like half of the AEW roster is.
• 29:39
  Easily. Easily.
• 29:41
  I love the stories and the background on like cuz you're
• 29:44
  dealing with a lot of individual personalities too.
• 29:46
  And like, I'm not gonna say the name, I don't know if you want
• 29:48
  to say it, but like Emery, tell me a story like someone was
• 29:50
  like, came back and was like I had a few more muscles.
• 29:53
  Oh yeah, that's John Morrison. And then it turned out he's so
• 29:57
  he was actually one of the ones that we showed when it was done,
• 30:00
  and he was one of the ones that pushed us to try and find a
• 30:03
  publisher rather than self-publishing.
• 30:06
  And then afterwards he was like, you know, I was just busting you
• 30:09
  guys chops about adding more abs like.
• 30:12
  I love. I love that.
• 30:13
  So it's one of my favorite stories from the whole, right?
• 30:17
  Totally such such a worker, huh? 2020 kicks off with you winning
• 30:22
  a contest with your macho mouse design, and you vow to never do
• 30:25
  a contest ever again. But you're also met with even
• 30:29
  more stylistic changes as you introduce a Keith Haring series.
• 30:34
  Which I thought was absolutely tremendous, but 20/20 was really
• 30:37
  year, the year of the Commission as you were really busy working
• 30:40
  on commissions for indie talent like Dan Hausen, Ethan Page,
• 30:44
  Josh Alexander, Rachel Ellering again has been extremely loyal
• 30:48
  to you and tons and tons of podcasts from both inside the
• 30:52
  wrestling world and outside the wrestling world.
• 30:56
  Cease and Desist #2 comes along in June of 2020, but again, we
• 31:01
  won't talk. No, no, no.
• 31:02
  OK, so I want to talk about this one because this one I can
• 31:05
  remember so clearly. And here's why I could probably
• 31:08
  dig it up. My son, my second son was born
• 31:11
  on June 27th and I couldn't remember.
• 31:14
  We were going into the hospital on June 26th for my wife to get
• 31:17
  induced. June 25th I got the e-mail in
• 31:20
  bed at night about the cease and desist and.
• 31:24
  The guy's name is like Michael Witheroth or something like some
• 31:27
  something pompous like. Anyway, he I remember responding
• 31:32
  to him and my response in the e-mail was my wife's about to
• 31:36
  have a baby tomorrow. Like I could care less about
• 31:39
  this, like do whatever you want with my artwork.
• 31:41
  And I just hit send because I was so infuriated that I got the
• 31:45
  e-mail at like 10:30 at night. It was COVID, though, right?
• 31:49
  It was in 2020, so he's probably just sitting at home like
• 31:52
  rolling the Internet. Like 100% gotcha, but he didn't
• 31:56
  realize you're you. Know so God.
• 31:57
  Ultimate come back. A lot of a lot of times these
• 32:01
  well, in the two instances of these cease and desist, it was
• 32:04
  right around the time that Essence for Suplex was coming
• 32:07
  out. We did an Instagram live.
• 32:09
  Where you read the book and you did a whole activity for kids
• 32:14
  and it did like draw your own wrestler which I thought was
• 32:16
  incredible. I still have that sheet saved it
• 32:19
  had both of my kids drawing and it was it was tremendous.
• 32:23
  But right then is when it popped the the second season to assist.
• 32:27
  Thankfully that's it. There's only been two there's
• 32:29
  none more you've you've gotten more shrewd in the way that you
• 32:32
  that you operate. But S is for super.
• 32:34
  That's the Skinner shirt you made me.
• 32:39
  All right, all right. s s for Suplex is officially available
• 32:43
  in stores and online through TRISM Books.
• 32:45
  Amazon and Barnes and Noble in August of 2022, excuse me, in
• 32:49
  August of 20/20/2020 also brought the launch of this
• 32:54
  podcast which you are listening to right now in 114 episodes
• 32:58
  later. We are still here talking into
• 33:00
  microphones. So thank you to anybody that has
• 33:02
  been along from. All the way back in 2020, but
• 33:05
  2020 really finished. As you said, you like drawing
• 33:08
  Christmas stuff around Christmas time and this year it was very
• 33:13
  Muppets inspired. It was the 12 Days of Christmas.
• 33:16
  Not everyone may know, but Jim Henson is one of your biggest
• 33:19
  influences. What about his work really draws
• 33:22
  you to him? He's just always been my
• 33:25
  obsession. Like if you were to tell me
• 33:27
  there's. Like 1 pop culture thing that I
• 33:30
  like more than professional wrestling.
• 33:31
  It's anything that Jim Henson does.
• 33:34
  Like that's what I always tell people.
• 33:35
  Like you might not know this, but wrestling is not number one
• 33:38
  on my list. Like despite what you see on the
• 33:43
  extra cooler Instagram. But yeah, I don't know.
• 33:46
  He's just always been my guy. He's always been my favorite
• 33:49
  artist. I'm infatuated with him since I
• 33:52
  was a little kid. Well, it really starts to show
• 33:56
  even further into 2021 when you really bring back the little
• 34:00
  guys and they return in a big way.
• 34:03
  And this also this really awesome one line artwork that I
• 34:07
  thought was really truly amazing and I wanted to comment on how
• 34:10
  much I like that thank you. But in 2021 is where you start
• 34:13
  getting connected with chalk line.
• 34:15
  So your art shows up on shorts for the Chick Foley Show podcast
• 34:18
  and in August of 2021. You tease that you are working
• 34:22
  on a 1992 Royal Rumble piece for Chalkline, but it never sees the
• 34:27
  light of day. How bad does that suck to work
• 34:30
  on something like that for so long just to see it scrap?
• 34:34
  Very bad. I was like, what, 65% done with
• 34:38
  the back piece of that, and I thought it was such a cool idea.
• 34:43
  92 We were approaching the anniversary of the 92 Rumble,
• 34:47
  everybody's favorite rumble. It was a cool process, kind of a
• 34:51
  pain in the ass. Also because we had to take
• 34:52
  certain guys out of the back, that iconic poster.
• 34:56
  But Ric Flair replaced them, yes, and replaced them.
• 35:00
  Yes, and make conceptually though from like an outsider
• 35:03
  like that process listening to you or like hearing you more how
• 35:09
  you were gonna do it and like rush one it to be and like.
• 35:12
  And you knew that a portion of the Internet was gonna crucify
• 35:16
  you no matter what, right? 100%.
• 35:18
  So it was just fascinating. And I'm sad that that one never
• 35:22
  saw the light of day, but still I got to see a lot of it, so.
• 35:26
  And that one didn't get to see the light of day thanks to.
• 35:29
  The winner of that Royal Rumble Mr., Ric Flair he had, it was in
• 35:32
  August, he asked for his release from the company and they
• 35:35
  basically dumped like every single piece of merchandise and
• 35:39
  deal that they had with him and and couldn't do anything and.
• 35:42
  They never even got like the prototype stage.
• 35:44
  No, no, I never even finished it.
• 35:47
  I would have murdered for a one of them the words of Sid so
• 35:50
  bogus. That jacket was going to be
• 35:52
  good. It would have been better than
• 35:53
  the one. Possibly that actually came to.
• 35:57
  So we'll we'll get there. That's next year.
• 35:59
  So 2021 also sees your commission's pop off again with
• 36:03
  podcast like the Black Announce table and you even did artwork
• 36:06
  for Nick Gage right at the peak of that.
• 36:09
  But we also you made your way into Gallery 1990, excuse me
• 36:13
  1988 with this amazing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ninja Rap
• 36:18
  poster. What goes into preparing for a
• 36:21
  gallery like that? So it's actually pretty cool
• 36:24
  because they send out emails, right, of their shows and it's
• 36:28
  basically like once you're in, you're in and they should send
• 36:31
  out like a list of their shows and they're like, if you want to
• 36:34
  join any of these, reply to this e-mail, tell us what you want to
• 36:37
  join in on. And that one was like, you know,
• 36:41
  concert posters and you could pretty much do anything you
• 36:44
  wanted. And this idea, you know, I shot
• 36:47
  off a bunch of ideas back and forth with you three, as usual.
• 36:51
  And I landed on this, you know, to me, iconic.
• 36:55
  And I'm I still love that I have that thing hanging in my
• 36:58
  classroom. Very proud of that piece.
• 37:00
  It's sold out pretty fast at the galleries.
• 37:03
  And I don't know, man. I again, I've been so busy that
• 37:08
  I have not had a chance to return to galleries and I'm
• 37:11
  dying too. That was another one of those
• 37:13
  things that we all followed before yes, long before extra
• 37:17
  cooler and then yeah, to for you to be able to marry like.
• 37:21
  You know that concert poster style which we all love, right?
• 37:24
  And with, you know, your passions are millennial
• 37:28
  nostalgia stuff and like to create that just chef kiss.
• 37:33
  Thank you. So 2022 kicks off with a bang as
• 37:37
  you do a collaboration with Suplex wrestling for the Great
• 37:40
  Mudah as he is going through his retirement tour.
• 37:43
  But 20/22 was really all about chalkline, so this finally came
• 37:47
  together February 4th. A teaser was revealed about the
• 37:50
  artwork that you did and then you let you officially.
• 37:55
  You finally released your first officially licensed W www.eitem.
• 38:01
  On February 7th, 2022, this had to have been one of the biggest
• 38:06
  pieces you've ever worked on. So you touched on the chalk line
• 38:10
  process before, but tell me about the feeling that you had
• 38:13
  when you had the physical piece in your hand at the house.
• 38:17
  Like that. Must have been an insane,
• 38:18
  insane, cool feeling. So the coolest I think was like
• 38:22
  it got dropped in like late. Afternoon, evening.
• 38:25
  And then like waking up the next morning and I remember one of
• 38:27
  you sending in our text group like it's sold out.
• 38:30
  Holy shit, it's sold out. Like in 12 hours this thing sold
• 38:34
  out on their website and then feeling it, you know, like they
• 38:38
  sent me I think 4 different like 4 versions, not 4 versions. 4
• 38:43
  jackets they sent me, they were like, how many do you want?
• 38:45
  And I remember being like I wanted two of the smallest sizes
• 38:49
  for my boys, one for me. And my wife didn't want one cuz
• 38:53
  she shares the boys jacket. She wore a house show and then I
• 38:57
  wanted one for my dad and it was just, I don't know, it's a very
• 39:02
  surreal. I think like signing the paper
• 39:04
  on the WWE contract was probably the coolest part.
• 39:09
  That's amazing. Do you remember?
• 39:10
  The first summer slam when we went and the chalk lines were
• 39:13
  popping off and Oh yeah, like, yeah, could you imagine then?
• 39:18
  No. Is that would it like thought
• 39:19
  even crossed your mind? Like that was it was 2015.
• 39:22
  Yeah. Right.
• 39:23
  No. Oh, God, no.
• 39:24
  Then no way. No chance.
• 39:26
  I didn't think there was a chance.
• 39:27
  I think I. Speak for the rest of the guys.
• 39:29
  I will be buried in that job line.
• 39:32
  I don't care what my wife says. I don't care care me in that
• 39:36
  damn chalk line. It was your idea, so.
• 39:39
  It was really cool that you were able to tie it back to the
• 39:42
  beginning and it being Hasbro inspired.
• 39:45
  Although it's not Hasbro bro, we can't really say that, but.
• 39:50
  I think it was really cool, but. Yes, so sorry, just to touch on
• 39:53
  that. The coolest part was that Chalk
• 39:55
  Line said to me, like, listen, here's the deal.
• 39:58
  WWE does not have a license to these Hasbro figures anymore.
• 40:01
  It does not exist. So they had to get an agreement
• 40:04
  basically from WWE that if Hasbro came back and sued them,
• 40:09
  Chalkline would hang, handle all the legalities of it and WWE
• 40:13
  would not get screwed. Hasbro came back from the dead.
• 40:17
  Is that what we're talking? About here, yeah, yeah, well,
• 40:19
  Hasbro still exists. But like, I guess whoever was in
• 40:21
  charge of those figures and stuff, you know, just making
• 40:24
  sure. Truly fascinating stuff.
• 40:26
  So in June, June of 2022, you went back to the Galleries 1998.
• 40:32
  Jeez, I said 1998. Gallery 1980.
• 40:35
  But we're in the summer of 98 in our very.
• 40:38
  Summer. That's exactly it.
• 40:40
  And you did a three-part Nicolas Cage series around Conair, Face
• 40:45
  Off and The Rock, which I thought was really good too.
• 40:47
  We have to get you on a frigging airplane and we have to get you
• 40:50
  out to Los Angeles for. They don't have it anymore.
• 40:53
  It's not in person anymore. That's so disappointing.
• 40:59
  But we continue to see more stylistic changes in 2022 and
• 41:03
  logo work. Is is is happening a lot at this
• 41:06
  time in 2022 and continuing into 2023.
• 41:11
  When you team up again with Matt Cardona and really kick that
• 41:15
  relationship into high gear, you do the Always ready shirt, the
• 41:19
  Cardona the 13th, always collecting the indie God gear
• 41:24
  happens right around this time. Incredible cards.
• 41:27
  You do the Deathmatch King. Knock off of the Cody Tshirt,
• 41:31
  the Mount Cardona shirt, the indie God Mario Brothers shirt,
• 41:35
  All of these things happen, and this is the very first time that
• 41:39
  you're seeing your artwork on gear.
• 41:41
  Tell us how cool that must have been, and then tell us what it's
• 41:45
  like to work with Matt Cardona from an artistic standard.
• 41:48
  So seeing my work on gear is is crazy because I that's like a
• 41:53
  Ave. that I never expected to cross.
• 41:56
  Like, it's not something I ever thought.
• 41:59
  I I, it never crossed my mind like, oh, I got it designed ring
• 42:02
  gear like it. It never was.
• 42:04
  And he had me do the the indie God stuff and then he was like
• 42:07
  actually, I think we're going to make this into a gear.
• 42:09
  So here's some more ideas and it blew up it.
• 42:14
  It's it's surreal to see it. I look at his.
• 42:17
  There's times where I look at my DM's and I see like a
• 42:21
  conversation I'm having with him, and then the next man we're
• 42:23
  going to talk about. And one's wearing my ring gear
• 42:26
  and then the next one's wearing a design that I did on his shirt
• 42:30
  like it's crazy. So I'm a long way baby.
• 42:34
  Can I ask? Can I ask you something real
• 42:36
  quick? What?
• 42:37
  Do you get a lot of Dms from weirdos?
• 42:40
  Not as much anymore. In the early days there was a
• 42:43
  lot of weird Dms that would happen, like draw me, can you do
• 42:47
  me an edit? Like, first of all, dude, this
• 42:49
  isn't an edit. All right, Call, say edit one
• 42:52
  more time. I wish you could stun those
• 42:56
  people. I would love.
• 42:57
  Oh my God. So what's it?
• 43:01
  What's it like to work with Cardona?
• 43:03
  He's the easiest person to work with because he knows what he
• 43:08
  wants. He comes to you and he says, he
• 43:11
  comes to me and he tells me like, this is what I need, this
• 43:14
  is what I want. He'll show it to me and if I do
• 43:16
  something and he wants something change, he'll be like, he's
• 43:19
  straightforward, honest. We need to change this, we need
• 43:22
  to add this, we need to do that. And he knows, that's the best
• 43:25
  part is he knows exactly what he wants.
• 43:28
  There's never, there's never a window for me to be like or I
• 43:32
  should say not never. But rarely there's a window
• 43:35
  where I should be like. Hey, we should throw this in
• 43:37
  there because he knows. He knows what he wants.
• 43:40
  He knows what sells. And that man is a genius.
• 43:43
  It's amazing. So after Cardona you you
• 43:45
  mentioned briefly that you are starting to work with somebody
• 43:48
  else. Dax Harwood of FTR reaches out
• 43:52
  to you and your first design hits screens with a EW on March
• 43:58
  6th of 2023. And Dax is wearing the newly
• 44:02
  designed FTR shirt designed by yours truly.
• 44:06
  The extra cooler man. Then you get artwork on FTR gear
• 44:12
  and this this is a big one man. Tell us how this came about, and
• 44:16
  what it's like to work with Dax and AE W for that matter.
• 44:19
  Dax is another one who is super easy to work with because he
• 44:23
  comes to you and he comes to me, knows exactly what he wants.
• 44:27
  And this one was wild to me because.
• 44:29
  You know they were staying before anybody else.
• 44:32
  Yes, well he could. It was funny.
• 44:34
  He like tried to work me and like couldn't say it, but like,
• 44:37
  I got to find the quote in there.
• 44:39
  But he, he like dug up some artwork that I drew like six
• 44:45
  months previous and I hadn't reposted it or anything.
• 44:48
  And he was like, hey man, I like this, can we can I have it?
• 44:52
  And he like, so I sent him a copy of the print for his bar.
• 44:56
  It's like by all means. And then like a week later, he's
• 44:59
  like, I've got an idea for a shirt.
• 45:01
  Would you want to do it? And I remember asking him like,
• 45:04
  when would it be on TV because they hadn't come back yet or I
• 45:07
  was like, no, when will it be out?
• 45:09
  It's like, well, I need you to sign an A W release form.
• 45:12
  I was like oh OK And sure enough he showed up with it And then
• 45:16
  like Matt said, the other one was on their trunks.
• 45:18
  Like it's wild and spoiler alert, I'm currently finishing
• 45:23
  up a piece for their ring gear for.
• 45:25
  The the next big Payperview at Wembley Stadium like that,
• 45:29
  they're going to be wearing on their asses.
• 45:31
  Just really, really, really cool.
• 45:41
  Yeah, it was February because we were driving up to New Hampshire
• 45:44
  to go on the a winter vacation with you and your family.
• 45:34
  You posted that art in July and he didn't come to you until the
• 45:40
  next. And I remember saying to my
• 45:48
  wife, please respond, please read me this this text message
• 45:53
  and respond for me. And that text was to dex.
• 45:58
  Yes to Dex Wembley Stadium thing to think about watching like you
• 46:02
  were, you know, I was with you, so I know you're watching 92
• 46:06
  Summer Slam in Wembley Stadium. To think like what, 31 years
• 46:10
  later, you know what I mean? That's it's it's absurd and it's
• 46:14
  amazing. There's there is a lot of those,
• 46:17
  hey. Why don't you tell 8 year old
• 46:20
  self that you're gonna do this later in life type scenarios and
• 46:23
  another one of those happens in 2023, most recently designing a
• 46:28
  shirt for Pod Meets world and you did shirts and work for
• 46:32
  Topanga in the gang. Like how friggin amazing is
• 46:36
  that? It that one's, that one's wild.
• 46:40
  And this, this comes to fruition in in, you know in this summer
• 46:47
  and now we're sitting here recording on August 1st going
• 46:50
  through all of this and this is your life extra cooler.
• 46:54
  I do have a few extra questions for you, but I I appreciate you
• 46:57
  guys all sitting through 45 minutes of extra Clear History
• 47:01
  and chat. I'm so happy and so enjoying
• 47:05
  this entire thing. It's amazing.
• 47:06
  Why we're here? So what is your most prideful
• 47:10
  moment, peace or opportunity that Extra cooler has afforded
• 47:13
  you? This is hard, man.
• 47:17
  The jackets up there with chalk line because not only to get to
• 47:21
  do that and you know say I have the WWE licensed merchandise,
• 47:27
  but to then see people wearing it is so crazy.
• 47:32
  Then on top of it just. The FTR work, the the indie God
• 47:37
  stuff that with Matt Cardona like and not to be corny, like
• 47:41
  I've met so many people that I never would have imagined
• 47:45
  meeting. You know, we went to Summer
• 47:47
  slam, the first year was at Barclays in 2015 and we bumped
• 47:50
  into Frank the Clown and Noel Foley and we completely marked
• 47:54
  out, completely marked out. And then Fast forward what, 8
• 47:58
  years from then I never in a million years would have
• 48:01
  imagined. Even.
• 48:03
  That's the Impact Show and Poughkeepsie.
• 48:05
  Yes, Sam Roberts there. Yes, and had a conversation with
• 48:09
  him. Yeah, like it's it's wild.
• 48:11
  I always love seeing like you. I know you, you know, I've known
• 48:14
  you a long time and I know you're wrestling fandom and some
• 48:16
  guys you don't like. And then all of a sudden, like
• 48:18
  you either like your work or do something like that.
• 48:21
  And then you're like, ah, come on now.
• 48:22
  Yeah, yeah. Those are like my favorite
• 48:24
  little moments along the. Way or this guy unfollowed me.
• 48:27
  He's dead to me. KK Fay brother, yeah.
• 48:31
  So I I have two more, but I need to cite my source for this
• 48:35
  question. Aaron McCall, another artists
• 48:39
  out there has just launched and I absolutely loved his first
• 48:43
  season of Bad Idea Social Club podcast and he always asks his
• 48:48
  people during these interviews. Do you have any regrets?
• 48:51
  Now I'm asking you this as the artist, not the man, so this is
• 48:55
  extra cooler. Do you have any regrets?
• 48:58
  Yes, a lot. I don't some that I can't talk
• 49:02
  about because I can't really discuss here.
• 49:08
  I can discuss in the Discord. If you want to chop in, hop in
• 49:11
  there for some more details. What a plug.
• 49:14
  What a plug. But man, I don't.
• 49:19
  I'm sure there's a few. But I can't think of any off the
• 49:22
  top of my head. I'm sorry, I just can't.
• 49:25
  And shout out to Aaron McCall because I love his podcast and
• 49:28
  he actually invited me on for Season 2, which I'm pretty
• 49:31
  excited about. Can't wait.
• 49:33
  All right, let. Me ask you something real quick,
• 49:36
  Nick. When you see somebody wearing
• 49:40
  your stuff out in the wild, do you just go up to them and be
• 49:43
  like I drew that? So actually brings out a
• 49:47
  Sharpie, just signs it on their shirt without.
• 49:48
  Him asking. When we went to access
• 49:51
  WrestleMania 35, we bumped into one of the Mattel guys and I
• 49:59
  remember he was wearing the shirt that I had done for the
• 50:03
  Major Figure podcast and it was the the Statue of Liberty
• 50:08
  holding the Hasbro rail. And I walked right up to him.
• 50:11
  I was like, yeah, screw it. You know what he's going to know
• 50:13
  that I made that and it. It's wild, wild that it actually
• 50:18
  happened and that we saw someone wearing it.
• 50:22
  But the peak moment would be for you if, you know, we talked to
• 50:25
  the DMS, we talked about the chalk line jacket and the
• 50:27
  Topanga thing. The Boy Meets World Things
• 50:29
  really got me. Think about this.
• 50:30
  If Jennifer Love Hewitt dmed you and said, can you make a chalk
• 50:33
  line jacket of me, would would you retire like after you did
• 50:37
  that, Would that be it? Yes.
• 50:39
  Yes. 100% I would. I'm done.
• 50:43
  Goodbye. Goodnight.
• 50:46
  I have my last question. And what keeps Extra Cooler
• 50:50
  alive? What keeps it going?
• 50:52
  As frustrating as the algorithm is, it's the likes, man.
• 50:58
  The likes, the comments, the messages, the all right, that's
• 51:01
  definitely a part of it man. Just getting the reaction from
• 51:04
  people is huge. Plus having an outlet.
• 51:09
  Just to to do creative stuff. Of course.
• 51:13
  My kids get a kick out of it and my 5 year old is starting to
• 51:17
  understand wrestling more. And while he doesn't know some
• 51:20
  of the guys that I'm working with necessarily, he'll see
• 51:23
  them. I'll show him pictures of them
• 51:24
  on Instagram and he's starting to get a kick out of that.
• 51:29
  My job for the same reason, like little kids that I work with
• 51:34
  think it's cool, like the stuff that I'm doing.
• 51:37
  You know, my friends, my family, there's there's just so much
• 51:41
  motivation in this that, you know, it could go on forever.
• 51:47
  That's really awesome and I even I I'm searching for it in my
• 51:51
  long list of notes that I did for this insane idea that I had
• 51:55
  over the last couple of days. But even your son's artwork has
• 51:58
  now shown up on the extra cooler feed here, which is really
• 52:04
  amazing to see you. Fostering and really cultivating
• 52:08
  a next next generation of artists here and I hope that
• 52:11
  that's exactly what you're doing in your shoot job brother as an
• 52:16
  elementary school art teacher. So it it's really amazing to be
• 52:20
  along for the ride. I love just watching you Bob and
• 52:25
  weave throughout the chaos that is the the wrestling art world
• 52:31
  and and getting through all of that so.
• 52:34
  And it's and if I didn't say it like enough or get the point
• 52:37
  across like you three guys not to be corny like you guys are,
• 52:41
  what keeps this going? You know, Like if if it weren't
• 52:44
  for our chat and like the motivation and the ideas, the
• 52:47
  countless ideas that I've bounced off of, the three of you
• 52:50
  like, I would not be here doing this.
• 52:53
  You know, I can speak for the rest of the other guys.
• 52:55
  Like. I know, like like you're talking
• 52:57
  about the man's shirt before. Like when we float an idea to
• 53:00
  you as non artistic people and you're able to put that idea
• 53:04
  into the world and create it. It's such a cool thing to see
• 53:08
  and it's. Well, thank you.
• 53:09
  What a ride. So yeah, it's awesome to see.
• 53:13
  Thanks. Guys.
• 53:14
  So, Nick. Extra cooler this is your life
• 53:17
  is officially over. Thank you.
• 53:20
  I will hand the floor off to you and I think the original plan
• 53:25
  was not to go. Close to an hour.
• 53:28
  Yeah, not to go close to an hour, but we are going to
• 53:32
  probably release this as a bonus episode.
• 53:36
  In a week's time for when we're recording right now.
• 53:38
  So why don't you take us home, why don't you take the floor and
• 53:42
  we can go from there, so. Thank you, guys.
• 53:45
  Anybody that's followed me at Extra Cooler, followed my
• 53:48
  artwork, Tap that like button, left a comment, had a Commission
• 53:52
  done. Listen to this podcast.
• 53:55
  Here's to to seven more years or more.
• 53:59
  Next week we are returning with part one of Summer Slam 1998.
• 54:05
  I can't wait to talk. Talk about this pay-per-view and
• 54:07
  dive right in. So don't forget to follow us and
• 54:12
  subscribe, rate, review, you know, do all that fun stuff and
• 54:16
  we'll see you next week. Cheers.
• 54:20
  Cheers everyone later. Nobody eats beef oroni on a
• 54:27
  boat, man. That's a problem.
• 54:30
  Right. So right.
• 54:31
  So what's in cooler? Just blew my mind.
• 54:35
  Yeah, I know. Yeah, I know.
• 54:36
  Saying yeah. Extra credit port ports ports
• 54:43
  courtside heated. Extra credit.