← Outta Pocket with RG3
Outta Pocket with RG3
Seth Rollins CALLS OUT CM Punk to an MMA Fight and Declares himself MR. WRESTLEMANIA
01:29:21
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- [00:00]
A
Yo, yo, yo. Welcome to out of pocket with RG3, hosted by your boy and the 74 time all American, Greta Griffin. But make sure you guys, like, subscribe. It's our YouTube channel. We can't get this done without you. And our growth has been extreme over the past month because of you guys. So again, like, and subscribe to our YouTube channel and tell your friends to do that as well. Today we got a special guest, very special guest. A guy that I've been wanting to talk to, one that we've been wanting to talk to for a very, very long time. So much so that I have to, I have to go ahead and do this intro. Ladies and gentlemen, joining the show today is one of the most electrifying, decorated and respected superstars in WWE history. He's a Grand Slam Champion, a multiple time WWE World Heavyweight Champion, a Royal Rumble winner, Mr. Money in the bank, and the very first NXT champion. He's headlined WrestleMania, Stolen the Show around the globe and redefined what it means to be a modern day wrestling icon. Whether he's burning it down or building his legacy, this man is the architect, the visionary, the revolutionary. Seth freaking Rollins. Seriously, we would love to have you on routinely because we're big wrestling fans, but part of diving into the media space is not leaving what got you there. So we believe there's a unique, you know, connection between sports and entertainment. WWE wrestling, that's exactly. Sports and entertainment.
- [01:34]
B
That's all it is.
- [01:35]
A
So if, if you go call Bears games, right, they're gonna say, well, why is he, why is he calling Bears games? So if we can show them, hey, no, no, no, this guy knows what he's talking about. Football wise, hey, it makes that transition so much easier. And you don't need us to do that, but we would love to do that.
- [01:52]
B
Hey, I'm open to all opportunities, so yeah, we'll work on that for sure.
- [01:58]
A
Make sure that happens. Do you think you could play quarterback in the NFL?
- [02:05]
B
Like tomorrow? Like tomorrow? Are you going to give me some time? Are we going to put me in the Wayback Machine?
- [02:12]
A
Okay, let's, let's, let's, let's put it this way. Right here, I have some plays, okay? So part of playing quarterback is being able to repeat the play that they tell you in your ear.
- [02:22]
B
Goodness.
- [02:23]
A
Back to the team.
- [02:24]
B
Oh, my goodness.
- [02:25]
A
So I've got these, these are different difficulties, but we're going to start with the most difficult one first and foremost. All right. And we have a leaderboard right now of, of certain guys that have done this and how many words they remembered. So I'm gonna. I'm not gonna try to trick you. I'm gonna give you the play. You just repeat back to me as much as you can or you remember, and we'll go from there.
- [02:48]
B
Oh, God. All right, sure.
- [02:50]
A
First Play. Quest right, 351. Y slant, Z spacing. F seam.
- [02:56]
B
Oh, God. Quest right, 351.
- [03:00]
A
Okay.
- [03:01]
B
Spacing.
- [03:03]
A
God, that's actually really good.
- [03:07]
B
Something C. Okay.
- [03:09]
A
Okay. So you got questright. 351 correct. Then it was Y slant.
- [03:14]
B
Y slant.
- [03:14]
A
Z spacing.
- [03:15]
B
Z spacing.
- [03:16]
A
I've seen.
- [03:16]
B
Dang. What does that mean?
- [03:17]
A
That's actually really good.
- [03:18]
B
What's that mean?
- [03:19]
A
That's the best one so far.
- [03:20]
B
That was the best one?
- [03:21]
C
Yeah.
- [03:21]
A
That's the best one so far.
- [03:22]
B
Oh, okay.
- [03:22]
A
All right. So now I'm gonna go back. This would be the easiest ones.
- [03:25]
B
Oh, okay.
- [03:25]
A
Here we go.
- [03:26]
B
Okay.
- [03:26]
A
Gun trio, right 37 door.
- [03:29]
B
Gun trio, right 37 Door.
- [03:31]
A
There you go. Here we go. Double right, squeeze three, 300 jet, okie.
- [03:35]
B
Double right, squeeze 300 jet, okie, boom.
- [03:39]
A
All right, double right, three jet. Y branch tail.
- [03:43]
B
Double jet, three branch, three, three Y branch trail.
- [03:49]
A
Okay, that was close. That was close. It was double right, three jet, wide bridge tail.
- [03:54]
B
So.
- [03:55]
A
And here's your last one. One gun text, right. Quarterback draw. Can 350 Leo Twig.
- [04:01]
B
Whoa. One. Oh, my God. That one. That one got me. You said that. You said the other one was the hardest. That one was the hardest one.
- [04:10]
A
I'll give it to you one more time. Okay, pause that, but I'll give you one more time.
- [04:12]
C
Oh, my God.
- [04:13]
A
One gun text, right. Quarterback draw. Can 350 Leo Twig.
- [04:18]
B
Oh, my God. One gun text. Quarterback draw. Can 3 50.
- [04:28]
A
Yes.
- [04:30]
B
Something twig.
- [04:31]
A
There you go. That's actually pretty good. It was one gun, right. Gun text, right. Quarterback draw. Can 350. Leo Twig.
- [04:37]
B
Leo Twig.
- [04:39]
A
That's actually by far the best of anyone that's done this drill yet.
- [04:43]
B
That's hard. And that's like a different language.
- [04:45]
A
It is. And, like, for me, it's easier because I called this for 20 years.
- [04:49]
B
Yeah.
- [04:49]
A
Not NFL plays, but just plays in general. And people. People understand is it's not just playing. It's not just running away from guys that are £300. It's not about the pressure of the moment. It's literally about being able to communicate to your team with the coaches, telling you in your ear when you can't even hear yourself talk. So it always starts with Formation protection.
- [05:12]
B
Yeah.
- [05:12]
A
Play. Okay, so I know that. So I can visualize it as I'm calling.
- [05:16]
B
Yeah.
- [05:16]
A
But for someone who's never heard it, it's like speaking a foreign language.
- [05:19]
B
I mean, that's, yeah, that's just me trying to memorize the actual words.
- [05:23]
A
Exactly.
- [05:24]
B
Yeah. I can't. I have no visualization of what that's meant to look like or like, you know, like, like down distance, why we're running this play, what we're trying to accomplish with that. That's all like, so, no, I cannot play quarterback tomorrow.
- [05:39]
A
Maybe not tomorrow, but I think you're such a great athlete and you would be able to, to find a way to. I think you could complete a screen pass in the NFL.
- [05:46]
B
Oh, a screen.
- [05:47]
A
I think you can screen.
- [05:48]
B
All right. I'd like, I mean, yeah, give it a shot.
- [05:50]
A
I think you could, I think you could plead a screen.
- [05:52]
B
I'd love to do that. I, when I was, I played football when I was younger, I wish I had had more confidence when I was a young man because I loved playing. I love the idea of playing quarterback. And now the way I operate in wwe, I would be very much what you would call a ring general. So I do call the plays. It's hence the architect visionary part. Like, I do call the plays. Like, I, I, I'm someone in the ring that, you know, I could, I could see what's happening kind of like before it, it's going to happen. Right. Like, I visualize it the same way. So, like, you know, the language is different, but the same thing applies. Like, okay, I know exactly how the crowd's going to respond. I know what we need when we need it. I'll be the guy to get everybody to that place. So I feel like from a skill set perspective, I would be great as a quarterback.
- [06:41]
A
Yes.
- [06:42]
B
You know, but from a physical standpoint, you know, we'd have to work on my spiral.
- [06:48]
A
There you go. When's the last time you've, you've hit this move? Phoenix Splash. The Phoenix Splash.
- [06:55]
B
Oh. Last time I hit it was WrestleMania 33. Was it 33 in Orlando, I was wrestling Triple H is the last time I hit it. I don't know that I'll ever hit it again. I mean, that was, it's eight years ago.
- [07:12]
A
It's a crazy move, and it's almost like a running, running joke within the IWC or the Internet wrestling community.
- [07:18]
B
Yeah, yeah. That I miss it.
- [07:19]
A
That you miss it every single time. But I've seen you hit it.
- [07:23]
B
I have hit it.
- [07:23]
A
And it's an incredible move, but I bet.
- [07:25]
B
I bet in my life I've hit it less than 10 times.
- [07:28]
A
Really?
- [07:28]
B
Yeah. I hit it twice in WWE. Once, there's a Triple H one that I mentioned. Another one was in a triple threat match with John Cena and Brock Lesnar, Royal Rumble in 2015. Wow. So I've had it twice in WWE. I probably on my. In Independence pre WWE, I may have hit it. I mean, dude, we're talking. Yeah. Legitimately. We're talking definitely less than 10 times, maybe less than 5 times.
- [07:55]
A
Is there a reason. Is it. Is it such a. Does it. The move hurt you? Hurt the person you're doing it on, or is it just more of part of the story?
- [08:03]
B
No, it's not painful, but. So I like to bat at a high percentage. It is a very low percentage move move. So high risk, semi low reward for hitting. You have to wait. Like it. It. Okay, so I do this great move and I hit it perfect. Great. How much does that add to what we're doing? Say I go for the move and I screw the whole thing up. The risk is so high that if I do that and so I land on somebody's face, I land short with the move I land, I overshoot them. I. I don't make the rotation. There's so many things that could go wrong that I don't use it as a way to, like, hit so much. But what it does do, because it's such a cool visual, is that it adds a level of excitement. Excitement, Right. A level of tension. Oh, my God, what's he doing? And then you see this spectacular movement. So I always. Will you see me roll through on it a lot. I can do that fairly easily. Which. So that the risk is low.
- [09:05]
A
Yeah.
- [09:06]
B
Reward is high because you get people up and then you can pay it off with something behind it. So that's. That's the reasoning. Sorry if I've let you all down for so many years and now I've, you know, taken the toothpaste out of the tube for you. But that's. That's the reasoning behind it. I just don't have the confidence to hit it effectively enough to do it.
- [09:28]
A
And the reason I bring that move up is because when I grew up, it was the. It was the Jeff Hardys hitting the Swanton bombs off of the ladder through a table that you saw so often. And you don't see as much of that in wrestling today. But who, for you, was the inspiration behind the Phoenix Splash?
- [09:46]
B
Oh, the Phoenix Splash was Innovated by a Japanese wrestler named Hayabusa.
- [09:50]
A
Okay.
- [09:50]
B
He. He's no longer with us. Passed away some years ago. But he was a huge innovator in high flying maneuvers.
- [09:57]
A
Okay.
- [09:57]
B
Awesome dude. Had a great costume. He was. They called him the Phoenix. He had, like, just. I mean, his get up was so cool. And I probably discovered him late 90s, maybe, like, you know, the advent of the Internet and DVDs. It's Sam Goody when you could go and buy, like, random wrestling DVDs from your local DVD store or whatever. So I discovered him through that, and he innovated the move along with a few other ones, but that was a big one. I do another move where I do kind of a. A combination now it's fairly recent where I added like a springboard Swanton into an Acai moonsault that I also stole from Hayabusa. But yeah, he's. He's awesome. So I, I yanked it from him.
- [10:45]
A
Oh, it's awesome.
- [10:46]
C
How many times have you wanted to curb stomp just a WWE writer?
- [10:50]
B
A writer? Oh, yeah, man. Those writers have a thankless job, dude. They have a thankless job. I. I've probably gotten. I've probably gotten a promo handed to me sometimes where I've just been like, what is this garbage? But, but, but, but they, like, they are in such an interesting spot. The writers are. We have a great writing team. But, like, they. Wrestling isn't just written as characters, right? There's like this personal part of what we do. There's this connection between us as performers and characters, but also as people. Because, like, when I come into a room, to you guys, I introduced myself as Colby. Correct. But if I'm walking on the streets, I'm not Colby. To any of the people that recognize me, I am still Seth Rollins. Right? If I'm at a coffee shop drinking coffee, oh, there's Seth Rollins. Nobody says, there's Colby Lopez. And that doesn't exist anywhere else in entertainment.
- [11:49]
A
True.
- [11:49]
B
You know, George Clooney is George Clooney. He's. He's not like Danny Ocean.
- [11:53]
A
Yeah, one of his best Danny Ocean characters.
- [11:56]
B
You know what I mean? No one, no one does that. He's. He's just. Just like, you know, Seinfeld might be the closest one because he shares his name, but you know what I mean? Like, they go like, you know what I'm getting at? So there's this. There's this connectivity between our real life personalities and who we portray on screen that our audience attaches to, which is why we have Such a passionate audience because they feel like they care about us as people and not just as characters that they're watching. And so our writers have this task and they're trained to write for television shows, they're trained to write for movies, for characters. So they have this task of writing for pro wrestling where unless you've really experienced what that's like to be a real person and an actor, performer at the same time, it's so hard to come up with what I would say, what I would say in that moment. So they do a great job of giving us a template and the best of us, you know, we fill in the blanks our own. And sometimes, you know, writers end up being like almost like a guide through the promo or through the segment. Sometimes a stenographer with some good ideas, you know what I mean? And then for our younger talent, that's not, not as comfortable. They, they have to, they write out everything and they type everything and people have to, you know, read those lines or remember those lines. And so. But they have a very thankless job. I always try to give them a little bit of grace because I understand they're going through and they're not going to be able to like write for me. But yeah, I mean, especially in my, my earlier days when I was younger and a little more crass, I probably wanted to just throw them out of a window or in this particular situation, stomp them into the match.
- [13:45]
C
Did he ever hit you guys with some big changes before the shows or no?
- [13:49]
B
Oh yeah. I mean, look, you know, we went through a organizational change at the top in the last couple years and that changed everything. You know, we're very much top down company. So all the answers, if you want an answer to pretty much anything, you go to the very top. And the guy in charge now, Triple H, he likes to plan things out a lot more. He likes to let things play out without making, you know, last second changes. Previous owner of the company, not so much. He very much, you know, he very much liked to fiddle with things to the last minute. Sometimes you would go out and it look, it's live tv. So you do have to be able to do things on the fly. You do have to be able to, for example, in your matches you have to be able to add time or subtract time depending on what you have, okay. Where you're at in the show. If the segment before you go as long, you have to be able to cut down. So you have to know how to do that or cut your promo or if the crowd's giving you reactions that you weren't expecting, or maybe not giving you reactions you were expecting. You have to be able to do that in real time. But from, like, going in like a game plan perspective, we definitely have less last second changes than we used to say two years ago. So that has been. That has been a major improvement, I would say.
- [15:08]
A
Say, okay, you talk about script writers or the writers being able to capture the essence of the character. Well, there's a situation recently with Tiffany Stratton, Charlotte Flair, where they kind of go off schedule. It becomes very personal. Like, what did you think of. Of that situation on its own?
- [15:29]
B
Gosh, that's a tough one, because I do have some opinions about it, but there's sort of. How do I say this? I think no matter what, it's a collaboration. In my opinion, it should always be a collaboration. And look, I've been out there in the ring with people who I didn't like. You've worked with, I'm sure, played with people that you did not like. But there is a certain. There's a certain respect that you share and a communication that should happen and, and an understanding. You know, one, one of my favorite people in the world is John Cena. And John always told me whenever we would cut a promo together, you say, whatever you want out there, we're on tv. It's fair game, right? Anything you want. I am not. I have. My skin is thick. And in our industry, you have to be able to do that. You have to be able to have a thick skin, because the. The best. We are in the conflict business, and the best conflict that we can sell is real life conflict, because our audience is so smart, they can sniff things out from a mile away. So my opinion, what happened on what is last Friday, I guess it would be, was the best thing that could have happened for their story, 1000%. Because we're on this podcast talking about it right now, and had it not happened, we wouldn't even be thinking about it at all. So in my opinion, the direction it went, it's going to help bolster their match leading into WrestleMania. Now, can we get both of them to come together and work together? Tbd.
- [17:10]
A
Okay.
- [17:10]
B
You know, we'll see. I don't know. They've got a show. We'll see what happens. And like I said, I've been in the ring with people and I've been in promos with people that I didn't like, but there's always an understanding of what lines to cross. And look, if you're going to. If you're going to break that agreement, then you need to be prepared for what comes back at you. And I'll just leave it at that.
- [17:32]
A
Understood? Understood.
- [17:33]
C
I want to go back to something that you said in the beginning. You said that how wwe, or just the fighting scene, used to treat women back in the day. What has been the biggest change when you first joined the main roster and now in the WWE locker room, overall.
- [17:48]
B
Or just in the. In the arena of women, would you say?
- [17:51]
C
Overall?
- [17:52]
B
Oh, man. I mean, I came in, I joined a lot. I joined like the main locker room in 2012, and the business was starting to tame down a little bit at that point anyway. But I mean, we really. There's just like the animosity between performers. It just has really dissipated over the years. It used to be very much. I mean, if you start to go all the way back, it really was cutthroat.
- [18:18]
A
Okay?
- [18:19]
B
It was really cutthroat. And people were. Nobody trusted each other. There wasn't much camaraderie. Like, it was sort of clique camaraderie, but there wasn't like a community. It didn't feel like. It didn't feel like we were all in this together. And a lot of that had to come from or came from the fact that a lot of guys in the 80s and 90s would come from what we call different territories, so they wouldn't really interact with each other until they got to WWWE in the 2000s. And then as we got into the 2010s, you started to see everybody kind of coming from what we call our developmental system, which was down in Florida, Tampa, when I was there, and then later Orlando, where it is now. And so you started to see everybody kind of come from the same place. So they all got familiar with each other. And then, you know, the old timers, so to speak, not that they got weeded out, but, you know, they just. They time out as it. As it happens, as it normally happens. And so you. There just became a much more community aspect. The partying and the bullying or the prank wars or whatever it may be like it just started to kind of dissipate, you know, over the years. And so, you know, everybody just. Everybody's just happy to see each other. When we come together, you know, it's just not. You don't feel that occasionally I'll get the Tiffany Charlotte situation, or in my case, the CM Punk, Seth Rollins situation, where the people don't really get along with each other. But again, it's work and you just mind your own business. But that just is. That is not the rule anymore. It's very much. It's very rare when you come into those situations. So I feel like there's just not a lot of disruption backstage. And that, that, that harmony, I think, is actually what has led us into. You know, you mentioned that the attitude era was the golden era, but really we're in the golden era right now. In my opinion, the business is making more money than it ever has. You know, we're on the cusp. WrestleMania here in Vegas, two nights. It's already the highest grossing WrestleMania of all time, which will make it the highest grossing WrestleMania in the history or event in the history of our industry. Night one and night two beat out WrestleMania last year in Philadelphia. And so we're in such a great spot. And I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that everybody's working together to create what could be the, you know, what is a great space to work.
- [20:42]
A
Yeah. Like, almost building the storytelling that's so essential to the business.
- [20:47]
B
We're working together as opposed to working against each other. And, like, you get conflict, but it's controlled conflict. And I think our audience's education about what the industry is kind of went through a cycle. You know, we started to, like, peel. Peel back a little bit, the curtain in the early 90s, and so you started to see a little bit more. And that worked for a minute, and then I think it hurt the business for a long time. But now everybody's kind of smarter and they, We. We again, are showing them the business in a different way, I think, especially in the past few years. And I think letting them in on the storytelling a little bit more. And I think that's such an exciting aspect of what we do do in a unique thing. Yeah. And the way we do it and the way we're able to do it for, you know, a year straight with no, no stopping. And so I just think we're in a cool space with our. With our creative and with our relationship with our audience.
- [21:36]
A
No, I agree with you completely. And let's continue to get visionary in this thing.
- [21:40]
B
Okay.
- [21:42]
A
Drew McIntyre recently was talking, and he. And he said that, you know, Triple H, the match he had against Chris Jericho way back in the day, where he tore his quad off the bone.
- [21:51]
B
Yeah.
- [21:52]
A
And he finished the fight. Right. Finished it. He was in the walls of Jericho just like, dying millering. And he said, like, that's where he caught his inspiration from for, like, you're going to have to I'm going to have to die in this ring in order for me to look at the ref and say, hey, I can't go anymore for you. What's the worst injury that you've ever had to wrestle through in the middle of a match?
- [22:17]
B
There's two that jump to mind. One is the most prominent one that you might have known about, which was I basically tore every ligament in my knee on a live event in Dublin in 2015 when I was World Heavyweight champion. So I was doing move, which is like a sunset flip into a power bomb. So imagine a very large demon Kane. He's £300, and he's on the second rope, and he's, like, kind of bent over facing out, and I'm on the top over him. So I flip over over him so that I land underneath him. Then once I land underneath him, I pick him up, and there was a table I was going to put him through. Now, I've done this move a million times, but Kane's 7ft tall, so, like, his biodynamics are just weirder than a normal person. So when I landed, I didn't land. Maybe I landed sooner or later than I thought I would. I don't really know. But when I landed, my knee just buckled. Like, it felt like it was gone. Yeah, I mean, you've had a few knee injuries in your day, so, yeah, I mean, it was gone and was like, whoa, that was weird. And then, like, I thought maybe I dislocated it because it was kind of like, when I would lay on my side, it felt like it was just, like, opening on the inside, which later, I torn my McLaren. The ACL, you know, it's kind of a forward and back thing, so I really didn't notice the ACL that much, but the MCL was a full tear, so I noticed. Actually, it felt like my knee was just kind of flopping to the side and. And it swelled up really quick. Anyway, I got up and finished the match, but there wasn't that much match left to finish. Okay, that one. So I was like. I got up and I kind of wobbled out there with him through the table, and then, like, I don't even remember what we did, but there was only a couple things left that needed to be done. And we got out of there and. And then I got the MRI the next morning, and they're like, yeah, your acl, your mcl, your meniscus, it's done. You're. You know, you need to get the triad, as they call it, in the Biz, you need to go get that repaired. So I flew to Birmingham, and, you know, Andrew's office there did a great job on me, healed me up, and I was back at it in six months. But the worst one for me personally was I broke my jaw in a match right in the beginning. And this was in two. This was like, I kind of. I was in the middle of training, so it was late 2004, so I was like. I just started training, but I was. I was a backyard wrestler before I trained. So, like, I had worked out an agreement with my trainer that he would let me do these shows that I was. Already had been on, and we were in a ring. It wasn't in any backyard anymore. But he was like, yeah, you can still do them while you're training. And one of the guys who I was actually training with, we had a match together. And the first. Literally, the first thing in the match, he formed me, which is kind of like, it comes across your body like this, and you usually use, like, the meat of your forearm, and you just sort of put it in this pocket right here.
- [25:12]
A
Right.
- [25:12]
B
You know, like, it's pretty safe, but, you know, this is a nice, safe space. You can pop somebody and make some noise. You know, you get it in here. And he just, for whatever reason, didn't know how to do it right, and. Or didn't want to, you know, nerves, I don't know. But he basically elbowed me right across the bottom of the jaw, and it just popped. And I was like, oh. And I never had a broken bone until that point. I didn't know what happened. I thought I dislocated my jaw. So I kept, like. I was like, oh, I went down, or I, you know, stumbled. And then, like, was like, okay, we'll just go through the things that we're supposed to do in this match. And I kept trying to, like, you know. Yeah. Knock it back in, thinking I could get it, and, like, I would move it and it would pop, and I'm like, okay, there it is. And. But it wasn't. So the thing that. This is the gross part. Sorry. Listeners, beware if you're squeamish. This might be too much for you. So it felt okay when my mouth was open, my jaw was open. I was like, okay. But when I would close it, I could feel it separating in the center, and it was ripping the skin in my gums between the two. My two middle teeth. I could feel it, like, falling apart when I would. When I would try to bite back down. So I stopped doing that at some point and just kind of wrestled the whole match with my mouth wide open. And then I got to the back and I like this. I need a hospital. I need a hospital. Hospital. I kept trying to say hospital. And my. One of the guys who was there, who's now my partner at my wrestling school, he was like, popsicle. He needs a popsicle. Somebody get him a Popsicle. And I was like, no, hospital. So they took me to hospital to do the X ray. And I had like a little bit of a break up here, but the main one was right down the center. Like, my jaw was just broke right down the middle there in the lower mandible. So that was why it was pulling apart every time I would bite down, because it was still pretty attached here. So what I also found out, normally, you know, you get like your jaw wired shut when you break it, but because the break was in the center, they basically just put like a brace, like a, like, you know, then you get braces on your teeth. They basically just put a brace across my bottom teeth there. And it held it together that way so I didn't have to get my whole jaw shut. So I was able to, like, you know, I had to have like, soft foods for like, two weeks. And then eventually I could kind of. I remember the first thing I had was like a bite of like, thin crust. Pizza was my first real food. I was like, ah, nice, you know, and, you know, no complications, patience since him. But that was extremely painful and pretty grotesque as well.
- [27:43]
A
No, I mean, I'm on the edge of my seat listening to that story.
- [27:47]
C
Is that the hardest you've ever been hit?
- [27:49]
B
No. God.
- [27:49]
C
The hardest you've ever been hit?
- [27:50]
B
Hardest I've ever been hit. Oh, man. Probably a forearm as well from a guy named Chris Hero. So I've only been knocked out in the ring a few times, and this was one of them. I was like, on the outside of the ring we have these guardrails. This is before I get to wwe. And my back was against the guardrail, and it's about. About waist high, so it kind of acts as a fulcrum. Like if you were to get hit in front, you could sort of rotate over. You know, you protect yourself if you hold on with one hand and kind of like put one arm back. So it looks pretty gnarly. But I had every intention of getting. When he was gonna form me, I was gonna just go over backwards and kind of, you know, land safely like on my side or something, right? And he hit Me so hard. I don't even know where he hit me. I have no recollection of it. He crushed me so hard on this rolling elbow that he did. And I don't know if I was knocked out when he hit me or if I was knocked out when the back of my head bounced off the concrete. But I remember waking up and I wasn't out long. I remember waking up like on the concrete upside down, being like, where am I? And I, you know, once I kind of looked up and saw my surroundings. Okay, we're in Chicago wrestling. Chris. Hero. Okay, I know where I'm at, but dude, I was, I was gone on that, on that one. That was probably the hardest that I can remember. And I've been in the ring with some, you know, like Brock Lesnar is a big, strong dude and he could maul me if he wanted, but he was very safe. Bobby Lashley, who's a big giant, man, he is way stronger than he needs to be. Bronze Braun Strowman is another one. A big show chop is pretty, pretty bad because big shows he's a giant. He's this big, giant guy, 7 foot 2, one of the nicest guys I've ever met in my life. £500. But he's a shoot giant. Shoot meaning real. And like, he's like, his hands are so thick, they're just like. It's a dense brick. And he has a move where he just puts you in the corner and just comes down on your chest. And again, safe as can be. Like, not going to hurt me, but it's painful. It's a big thing, thick, like 12 pound hand just raining down on you. So those are a few ones, but I think that the Chris forearm was probably the one that I remember the most.
- [30:10]
A
Speaking of all those things, there's a certain level of toughness that comes to being in the ring and being able to do it at the high level. Do you think that the new wrestlers, the new generation, are they as tough as your generation?
- [30:22]
B
I always think that every generation is a little less tough because they don't have to be though, you know, like we. I don't have to worry about somebody like shanking me in the ring the way. You know what I mean? I'm talking about the guys in the 70s and 80s, like 60s, 70s, 80s, like there was genuine concern that, like I said, shoot means real in this scenario. They were going to. Somebody was going to shoot on you. And they were trained in ways like to hurt people, to make them do what they wanted because There wasn't as much collaboration, like, they wouldn't talk about what they were going to do ahead of time as much. And so you never knew if anybody was going to try to get an upper hand on somebody else. And so you always had to be prepared. And it was like you would err on the side of caution. So, like, if they were, if you even thought that somebody was gonna try something, you would just preemptively do it to send a message, don't, don't try, let's work together kind of thing. So, like, that generation is extremely tough. And they would be on the road and they didn't, they know, they didn't have the information that we had about prisoners, rehab and rehab. And so they just, they just drank and they took uppers in the morning and downers at night and never slept. And that's how they got by. And that's why so many of them are dead, you know, And I mean that with all due respect. It was, it was a really like just wild west business. And as it's turned into more of a business and less of a circus, we don't have to be as tough, as wild as they were. And so we don't. We have the knowledge and information of how to take care of ourselves a lot better than they did. And we use that knowledge and information to our benefit. And so, yeah, I'm always of the opinion that every generation is kind of a little bit wimpier than the other one.
- [32:04]
A
When you, you talk about the new generation, like, now you're seeing the influencers come in. You got Logan Paul, who didn't grow up in the wrestling business but is, you know, WWE Superstar, and you got, I show speed showing up in the ring and then Kai Sinat and all these guys coming out.
- [32:20]
B
Yep.
- [32:20]
A
Just. I know Logan's a little different, but, like, how do you feel as a guy that grinded to get to where you're at, to be in the position that you are with those influencers coming into the business?
- [32:31]
B
So I have mixed feelings on it. I think there's a place for it. Like, you know, wrestling's still not like the most mainstream thing in the world, and I still think there's like a bit of an audience that discredits what we do. And I think anytime you can bring more eyes to the business, it's very helpful. Logan is, especially Logan and some of these streamers, they bring eyes, the younger eyes to the business, they bring kids to the business, and that's our bread and butter, you know, families Kids, that's. Those are the people that are going to you hook them when they're young, they'll be fans for life, you know, like me, like you. Here we are. So I think that there's some use to them. I think it comes, it comes at a price and at a trade off because there are only so many spots available. And so when you have someone like a Logan Paul that you're going to pay a lot of money, is that worth it to you that for what it's going to bring in his. With his audience compared to what you are going to lose in time and equity and energy into say a prospect of some sort. So there's a delicate balance that I think needs to be found there. And I think Logan's different. You kind of mentioned and I think look, you know when you have like a Travis Scott or an Ishowspeed or whoever, they're they're doing one offs, they're doing little bits and if that adds to again the, the mainstream attention, I think it's totally fine.
- [33:50]
A
Right.
- [33:50]
B
My, my biggest concern and I, and I, I'll try not to do too much on this, expound on too much. But like the, my biggest concern is the generation that's being kind of groomed now. We are dipping our toe heavily into the nil world in wwe. So taking a lot of college athletes who are not, you know that maybe after, after college they know there's no future for them as far as money.
- [34:17]
A
In sports and whatever sport.
- [34:19]
B
Yeah. So we offer them deals to get paid while they're in college. So then come and be a part of maybe be a part of WWE when they get older. You couple that with and there's nothing wrong with training these people from scratch. I have no problem with that. They couple that with the fact that our live event SK schedule. So again we do our TV every week. But our live events, we used to do them every weekend, sometimes two shows every day on Saturdays and Sundays. I wouldn't do two. Like there'd be two running simultaneously in different towns. And that's where I learned my craft. That's where I learned the art of the, of wrestling and storytelling and being able to, to like I said, when they go, oh, you need two minutes off this match or you need to add three minutes here. Like okay, I learned the different mechanisms for how to do that on live events when there aren't as many restrictions as a television show that we have where you have to hit your numbers. But if you don't get the repetitions to learn that. I don't care what kind of athlete you are. I don't care like how, how impressive your vertical leap is or how many times you can bench press like £400. Like it, it's not going to translate because you don't know how to tell stories. You know, you don't understand. You might be a hell of a performer, but like, okay, I need a promo. Go out there five minutes and get it done. You need to fill time. And if you don't know how to do that because you haven't learned how to do that, you haven't practiced and failed so many times that, and there's no substitute for in game. Like you can learn a bunch of stuff in a warehouse. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like you can, you can line up and, and throw passes all day long. Like, you know, I watch these guys at the combine. This is just a little example. I watch these guys at the combine. They're, you know, okay, it's your, or it's your pro day or something. I'm like, dude, you've rehearsed this a million times. You know, these throws left and right. There's not 5, 6, 7, 300 pound dudes running at you, maybe unblocked. Like there's no substitute for that. There's no substitute for being in the game and seeing what, what these blitzes look like. So you can change your protection to make sure that you can get your, the ball out on time. You know, there's no substitute for that. You have to do it, you have to live it. You have to, you have to screw it up a bunch before you do it right. You know, you can go watch the film right and learn that way. But this, the, the timing, all of that. Same with our business. There's no substitute for doing a live show in front of a paying audience because they will give you instant feedback and you will know what you have to change. And so that's my biggest concern for our next generation is you have, you're plucking from like kind of a world that, that these guys don't really follow wrestling or you know, may not be fans didn't grind and then they're not getting the experience on top of it to learn how to be a part of what we do and learn how to tell those stories. So I do have a concern that over, over a few generations that might be harmful to the future of the industry.
- [37:14]
A
I think that's a valid concern. But before you get to that, no, it's great.
- [37:18]
C
My Little sister actually got offered by.
- [37:20]
B
Oh, really?
- [37:21]
C
Try out. She's six four.
- [37:23]
B
Oh, nice. Where is she going to school?
- [37:25]
C
Plays volleyball at the UW in Washington.
- [37:27]
B
Nice. Did she take the opportunity to try out? No, she didn't want to do it.
- [37:31]
C
He has very conservative, shy energy, which isn't.
- [37:36]
B
Yeah.
- [37:36]
A
Know a match for the.
- [37:37]
C
Her boyfriend. You met her boyfriend before the show. And he is. Loves wwe. Same thing. Grew up with it. Massive fan.
- [37:44]
B
Yeah.
- [37:44]
C
So he literally came here just to meet you.
- [37:46]
A
Oh, he couldn't wait to see you.
- [37:47]
B
Was that.
- [37:48]
A
He tried to play a chorus.
- [37:49]
B
Was that the big guy?
- [37:49]
A
Yeah, the big guy.
- [37:50]
B
Oh, I could tell he was nerv. He was nervous. Everybody else was chill. He was nervous. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I went to, like, shake his hand and he was. He was like, yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah.
- [38:02]
A
So no. And you know, part of your. I think it's a valid concern. 100. You brought up or. I brought up. I show speed in those guys and, like, what they do is they. They just. They get your viewership. Like, I know the spear that. That Bron Breaker put on.
- [38:17]
B
Yeah.
- [38:18]
A
Well, first of all, what was your thought on that?
- [38:20]
B
Oh, beautiful. The thing. Beauty, man. Well, Bronze. Bronze. He's an animal dude. He's like a 23 year old, just tank of a man. You know what I mean? He's one of those dudes that could just like from 0 to 60 so fast. He broke him. Yeah, he put him. He put him down for sure. Like, speeds like, I mean, not half his size would be. Probably overestimates, to be fair. He's a small cat. Yeah. Kudos to him for, you know, he took the thing. He took it full on. Braun didn't hold up, but it was a. That was a thing of beauty. It was a thing of beauty.
- [38:48]
A
Yeah. So Bron is actually my teammate in Baltimore.
- [38:52]
B
Oh, really? Yeah.
- [38:53]
A
So nice. When I saw that, I was like, I just. I know how Braun was. He played fullback for us with the Ravens. And I knew when I saw Speed turn around very slowly, I knew it was over.
- [39:06]
B
It was over.
- [39:07]
A
Because you know this. When you take a spear, it's a lot easier when you can see it coming.
- [39:11]
B
Yeah.
- [39:11]
A
Like, even if you're like getting up.
- [39:13]
B
Out of the corner, you know, you can brace.
- [39:15]
A
You can brace yourself a little bit. You still have to sell it. That wasn't a set. That was real. Speed was like, I don't know if he wants to get back in the ring after a move like that.
- [39:26]
B
We'll see. I imagine he'll be in Vegas for WrestleMania, so we'll see how he's feeling, but I don't know he'll be getting in the ring anytime soon. Yeah, yeah, that probably. He Braun hit one on Carlito on Monday that was amazing as well. You should go back and take a look. They got like the, I don't know if it's a jib cam or the, the drone cam of footage of it where he's running down the aisle and I mean, he just took off from like 12ft away and somehow connected perfectly. It was a be, it was, it was nice.
- [39:56]
A
It was unbelievable. But go ahead, get to the, to the. That's my only question.
- [40:01]
C
Like, are you, are you ever gonna rock with Hulk Hogan?
- [40:03]
B
Look, Hogan again, I, I, I'll kind of. I've, I've glossed over it a little bit. Hogan's always been great to me. He was a guy who I was a, I was a fan of when I was growing up. He's always been personally good to me. But I've seen, like, I mean, I, I'm not stupid. Like, I see everything that's out there. And, you know, he's someone who is, is, I think, a victim of his own ego a little bit. And he just doesn't see, he doesn't understand how what he does affects people around him. You know, I think he just lives in this, in this space that he's created for himself that, you know, he shaped his worldview and he's just, this is how he's going to see things. And I think if, if you're going to be like that and people are gonna, you know, people are gonna treat you accordingly. I don't know what to tell you. You know what I mean? But, like, it's just like any other relationship. Like, dude, if you're, if you are not a good person and it's in your moral ethic to not treat everyone with the same respect, regardless of what they do or, you know, where they come from or the color of their skin. Like, I don't, I got no time for you. Like, I got, I respect for everything you've done for my business. I really appreciate that. But as a person, like, we're not, we're probably not going to hang out, dude. You know what I mean? Like, it's just, that's just. Is what it is. And I just don't think he's, Whether he hasn't changed his personal beliefs or he hasn't taken the time to honestly make amends for some of the things he said and Done. I don't know which one it is. Maybe it's both. Maybe it's one more than the other. I don't know. But you put those two things together. I just go. I mean, you. You kind of have dug your own grave, man. So you. And if you don't feel like you want to make that progress in your life with the people around you, then I'm a person that. That's just not a kind of. The kind of person I want to associate with. So I'm. That's how it is.
- [41:58]
A
What would Hogan have to do to. To, like, make amends, basically?
- [42:01]
B
I mean, I think, again, I. You. First of all, you got to change the way you think, right? You know, you use the kind of language that he used in the way he used it. It's just not acceptable, right? And that, to me, is your mind that's telling you that's the way you think. So, first of all, you need to look at yourself in the mirror, and you need to realize that that's not okay. And you need to realize that you need to think differently. And how do you get yourself there? What process do you need to take to get yourself. What am I doing? Why am I acting this way? Why am I thinking this way? This is. If I learned. Is this learned behavior? You know, likely it is. Why did I learn this? I need to unlearn this. Because this is really. And why do people think that I feel this way? If. If I. If I'm saying that I don't. Why people think that I am this person? And you need to understand that those are valid criticisms and give validity to that. And then. And then apologize, like, profoundly apologize if that's something you feel you should do. And again, if you don't, then I think I got time for you. And the people that boo you when you come out to the arenas, they don't got time for you either. So there's not like that's just. Again, if this is the person you want to be, okay, that's who you want to be, But a lot of us just aren't going to have time for you. And I think it's a shame. I really do. I think it's a shame because just in my industry, personally, he's done a lot for it, and I think he has a lot to offer. He's not been one of those guys, those old timers who've, like, dunked on the business, the future of the business. He's never been that type of guy. And I think he's Got a lot to offer, and I just wish he would look in the mirror a little bit and be like, dude, I screwed up, and that's not who I am, and it's not who I want to be. And I apologize for that, and I hope that you guys can accept my apology. And I'm trying to do better every day. And I think if you just approached it that way, it might go a long way in helping him kind of build relationships with people like me who. Who are like, I ain't got time for you right now, man.
- [44:03]
A
And I know that's got to be tough for you because, like you said, you grew up watching. Like, he was one of the ones.
- [44:08]
B
That, you know, it's. It's not that tough. I guess it's just not because of what he. Yeah, because I just go, dude, I got no. I mean, I don't know. Like, once. Once you get. Once I got to a certain point, you know, you. Because you put your heroes on a pedestal, and then once you get to a certain point that you realize they're. They're just people too.
- [44:28]
A
Yeah.
- [44:29]
B
It stops. It starts being a little easier to, like, you don't forgive them for their, you know, mistakes. You go, well, you're a person just like me. So, you know, a tone or like, we. We don't have to be. Yeah. We don't have to be like this. I don't have to feel that way about you. I don't hold on. I don't keep nothing.
- [44:46]
A
Yeah.
- [44:47]
B
In life, like, I don't like keeping anything in my house, and I don't. I don't hold on to nothing. So, like, you know, how I feel about you today doesn't have to be how I feel about you tomorrow.
- [44:56]
A
Yeah. It's a movie. The Fault on Our Stars. Have you seen that movie?
- [44:59]
B
I have.
- [45:00]
A
Yeah. So it's one of the saddest movies ever. I can't get, like, through 10 minutes of the movie without crying. And that's, you know, as a man, it's okay to cry guy. But it. Part of the movie is that, like, sometimes when you meet, you know, these stars, these people that you put up on a pestle pedestal, and they're not necessarily who you expected them to be. Sometimes that can be tough. But I get your point exactly, of once you make that decision, you're a grown man. Like, you know the difference between right and wrong, and you're doing wrong, and you're purposely doing it, and you're not making amends for it. You don't have anything to do with them. Another thing that you also said not about Hulk Hogan, but about CM Punk, that's a real, like.
- [45:40]
B
Sure.
- [45:40]
A
That's a real. Not like, of each other in the business. And you said that he's a cancer.
- [45:45]
B
You are a cancer to that locker room. You are a cancer in my brain. You are a cancer to this business. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why? So he really likes to put out, especially lately, this. This image that he's, like, kind of, like, helping. He's willing to help the business. And, you know, maybe it's because I'm like, a scorned ex, if you will, but he's someone that I really believed in at a certain point, and I believed in what he was saying and someone that I would consider a mentor and someone that he was helping me. And it felt like almost like I had bought into that idea of what he was. So much so that I felt like I could help him do that. I could be the next person to carry the torch that he, you know, had lit and was kind of carrying himself. And, like, when you get abandoned by somebody like that, it's extremely painful, and it's. It makes you. You go, well, did it. Was anything he said real? Was anything he was actually doing legitimate, or was it all for him? And his. You know, his favorite. One of his favorite lines is like, oh, I'm not here to make friends. I'm here to make money. And I'm like, okay, yeah, yeah, you know, you can do both, right? You can make friends and you can make money. And, like, one doesn't have to come at the cost of the other. And, you know, maybe that's his explanation for why he had to dip on everybody when he did in 2014. And. And I think. I think my feeling is when I use the word cancer, it's very strong. Cancer, like, is a. Is a parasite. Right? It takes.
- [47:42]
A
Yep.
- [47:42]
B
It don't give nothing. And that's. It only cares about itself. Right? It replicates, and it only cares about itself.
- [47:51]
A
Right?
- [47:51]
B
And he. I feel he's that way because he. He infiltrates and he tries to replicate by, like, making it seem like he's helping out all these people and getting all these younger guys and girls to be like, oh, yeah, CM Punk is great. CM Punk. He helps me out. But he's just. He's just trying to replicate. He's just trying to put his ideas into other people's minds to create basically, like, a little army underneath him of people that buy into his bullcrap. And then at the End of the day, it's not for the betterment of the industry like he says it is. It's for the betterment of him. Because he said it himself, he's not here to make friends. He's here to make money. So when you start to do the math, where does it end up? It ends up in his pocket. And that doesn't help everybody else. So that's the reason I feel that way, and that's the reason I have said those things in the past. If you have a business full of CM Punks, people that are going to give up when things are hard and don't go their way, and then come back and take from the people who actually put in the work, if you have a business full of those types of people, the business dies. It does not survive. And so I just. I think that he's. He sets the wrong example across the board.
- [49:14]
A
Just like with a cancer, right?
- [49:17]
B
Exactly.
- [49:18]
A
Cancer fills your body.
- [49:19]
B
Kills you up, Kills you, kills you.
- [49:22]
A
That is. I mean, that's. That's really deep. I can feel the passion about that. And now you gotta go headline WrestleMania with the guy. And it's like, do you have any sense of. Man, when I put that curb stomp on him, man, when I hit him with that suplex, when I hit him with that Falcon arrow, do you get pleasure in that? Or is it just, you know what, we're in the ring, we're working together, I'm gonna do what's best for the company, and that's put on a phenomenal match.
- [49:53]
B
Oh, I'm gonna do all that. So, you know, there is a personal issue, and then there's a professional approach. And I feel like I'm able to do both at the same time. And so I would be probably lying a little bit if. If I didn't tell you that it was a little cathartic. Anytime I got to get physicality right, you know, involved with him, whether that be in a brawl or a match itself, like, there's a. There's a visceral feeling. You know, the way I will hit him is probably different than the way I will hit Roman Reigns.
- [50:34]
A
Right.
- [50:34]
B
It's just. It's a different feeling. And, you know, maybe at some point, once I get enough of them out, I'll feel better about it. But, yeah, there's certainly a different experience when you're in there with someone that you have that animosity for. It comes out differently. Yeah, there's a. There's a rawness to it. I mean, it's like you know, you play it. You play the physical game. Yeah, you weren't the one doing the hitting most of the time, but, you know, if there was someone that you had a real issue with it, it felt nice to score on them or to, to, you know, juke them out of their shoes a little bit. You know, if they've been talking smack about you all week or whatever and they're coming at you like, oh, they can contain you, and then you just show them up like, that's a. That's it. You know, that it feels a little bit better.
- [51:19]
A
No, I get that. And CM Punk also had an MMA fight. I don't know how many. Would you. Would you shut up? Would you fight him in an MMA fight? Like, would you really fight him for real?
- [51:35]
B
Sure. Yeah. I would not. I mean, look, I'm not. Again, I'm not going to just bust, you know, into his locker room backstage and start, you know, lighting him up. But like, if Dana White wanted to book CM Punk for Seth Rollins, you know, first, first, like, I guess non UFC fighter, Non UFC fighter fight on one of his cards. I put on the gloves and give it a go. It might be the only one I do, but yeah, I would do you put me in there with like any of the other guys in my weight class, I'm out. But yeah, I mean, Dana, you want to make some money, book it, brother. That would be fun to give us a few months, you know, Give me a few months. Give me like a training camp. But I feel like I could. I feel like I can handle myself.
- [52:15]
A
Oh, man, that would be. That would be box office.
- [52:18]
B
Hey, tko, man. We're all under one umbrella now, so.
- [52:21]
A
That is also true. That's a very easy transition.
- [52:24]
B
Could, could be the first.
- [52:26]
A
We want to show you the love that, that you've earned.
- [52:28]
B
Oh, I appreciate it. I appreciate it.
- [52:31]
A
Big wrestling fan, are you? Yes.
- [52:33]
B
That's great. How long you been a fan for? You been watching for a while.
- [52:37]
A
I mean, when I was a kid growing up, you know, all the way back to the wars between WWF and WCW. How old are you? I am 35.
- [52:44]
B
Okay. You were right. I'm 38. Okay.
- [52:46]
A
So that was my, obviously the golden era, but I've watched all the way through up until this point and gotten my wifey into. Into wrestling as well.
- [52:55]
C
I, I grew up in a foreign country, so I never got to see it or, you know, they didn't show it to us.
- [53:00]
B
But it was hidden from you.
- [53:02]
C
Exactly. But we do have a drawer in our house of Robert's childhood action figures. And 90 of them are WWE wrestlers.
- [53:12]
B
Nice.
- [53:12]
C
Most of them are missing an arm, some are missing a head.
- [53:16]
B
Sure, of course.
- [53:17]
C
But now our kids play with them. And Rob was like, don't break it.
- [53:20]
A
I was not expecting her to throw out the toy drawer.
- [53:24]
B
I love.
- [53:25]
C
That's how I learned about most of, the, most of the fighters. I'm like, hey, who's that?
- [53:28]
B
Who's this?
- [53:28]
C
Who's this one with no head?
- [53:29]
A
Yeah, Goldberg, Ric Flair.
- [53:31]
B
There you go.
- [53:32]
A
Sting, Scott hall, all those guys.
- [53:34]
B
Oh, you are a WCW guy.
- [53:36]
A
I was WCW guy at first.
- [53:38]
B
Okay.
- [53:38]
A
You know, but it's cool to see the evolution of wrestling and how it's come come about.
- [53:44]
B
Business has changed a lot in the last 25, 30 years, that's for sure. So it's cool. It's cool to have. I, I grew up in the early 90s being a fan, so I was like a WWF fan.
- [53:54]
A
Okay.
- [53:55]
B
Paul Hogan, Million Dollar Man, Jake the Snake, Macho Man, Ultimate Warrior, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels. These were my people. And then I basically have loved it from when I, my dad and my grandpa uncle took me to like a show when I was 4. And I probably had some familiarity with it before because I knew who everybody was. But that's like my first memory of wrestling.
- [54:18]
A
Okay.
- [54:18]
B
You know, seeing them live in person being like, whoa, real life superhero heroes. Right? They're not just comic books, they're not just TV shows. They're like real people in person. I want to do that. That's cool. I can do that.
- [54:29]
A
You know, you are certainly doing it.
- [54:32]
B
I'm trying, I'm trying. You want.
- [54:33]
C
Before, before we get to the wrestling questions, we like to start off our show with a little mental health check in. Oh, how are you doing as a person? Oh, personally, how are you doing?
- [54:43]
B
Fantastic. Yeah, I'm doing really well. You know, it's funny, I, you know, we always do New Year's resolutions, and one of them for me was to write more. I used to write a lot when I was, you know, just put pen to paper when I was younger and, you know, it's kind of like a therapy thing, you know, it's a thing just to do just to get out your thoughts, your internal monologue, whatever you're not discussing. And I was doing pretty good through January. And as most resolutions do, they start to taper off a little bit. But one thing I realized as I was going through this process, process was when I was younger, I was, I had so much more angst and I had no Outlet to have these conversations, you know, friends here and there. But I was so busy worrying about myself all the time that I wasn't doing. I wasn't just having regular conversations with people or anybody, you know, my folks or my. My partners or anything like that. And so what I realized as I started to write this is I didn't really have a need for it anymore. It felt like I was going through the motions rather than when I was picking up the pen. Something was actually coming out of me worthwhile. And I realized because. Because I'm in such a good relationship with my wife, she is my best friend, and I had. I have such an outlet to be able to talk about whatever I need to. So there's. I don't feel like there's anything in me that I'm like, I've got to get this out. Whether it's political or personal or emotional or, you know, with work, we. We relate to each other because my wife, Becky lynch, we do the same job. So we can talk about pretty much everything. Fatherhood, motherhood, whatever it may be. We can talk about all these things. And so I just didn't have this, like, burning need to get a bunch out of me. And so I'm in a really good place right now, you know, knock on. Knock on wood, that I don't feel. I feel very good about, you know, everything where I'm at personally, and. And I'm quite happy, so I'm pleased. Pleased to say that to you guys.
- [56:37]
A
You know, he already went there talking about his relationship with his wife, so let's go ahead and skip all the way down to that. To that section and just talk about you and Becky lynch and the ability to manage being Seth Rollins in the ring, but then being Colby at home. Like, how do you guys work? How does that work between the two of you?
- [56:57]
B
I guess there's not really a management structure, strategy. And it doesn't really feel like I. I enjoy being Colby at home far more than I enjoy being, like, a superstar on television or on the road. I. I much prefer, and I always have preferred, you know, being relaxed at home now over the past four years, being a father as well, and, like, kind of doing stuff with my daughter, whether that's taking her to activities, pick. Picking her up from school, just playing with her, you know, like, we started doing some Legos recently. Like, just little, what, whatever, you know, learning letters, because, you know, it's about that time, she's four and a half. So it's like, let's start to figure out how to read, you know, so just all these little things, I've always enjoyed that part of living and to be able to share that with, you know, a person or people in this particular situation, wife and daughter, be able to share all those experiences, experiences together as a family is something that I really enjoy. So there's not really been. Sometimes the hardest part is if I'm on the road too much or if I'm really enveloped in some sort of stressful situation at work, being able to like, shut that part of my brain down when I get home. Sometimes it can take a day or two to like, you know, get out of that space mentally, sort of compartmentalize it, put it over here. And when I'm not as stressed at work or when there's a low pressure situation or, you know, right now it's, we're in April and WrestleMania is a couple weeks away, and that is our Super Bowl. You know, that is high, high level stress. And sometimes it can carry over a little longer during these periods. So it's just trying to manage that and understanding when that stress is taking over your time and your energy and putting that in a box and putting it aside when you're at home so it doesn't affect the way you're communicating with your family. I think those are the biggest things for me. And just having an awareness of it and understanding why am I. Am I acting differently than I would normally and how do I take a breath and put that somewhere else so I can kind of be. Be dad or be the husband or whatever. But honestly, yeah, there's no strategy to it. It's just try to stay aware and keep each other in check. You know, if one of us is out of whack and being a little more stressed out, have the patience and the grace, but also be a good partner and be like, hey, snap out of it, like, who, who you want to be today? You know, So I think just the accountability in a partnership is important as well as the patience and the grace. So trying to find that balance without. Without getting anybody too upset, you know.
- [59:36]
C
How does your daughter see you and your wife? Like, was she coming out to Wrestlemania?
- [59:40]
B
So she'll be in Vegas? Yeah, she traveled with us for, I mean, the majority of her childhood. So she was born in December 2020. You know, Becky took nine months off, roughly, I would say, after childbirth, but she was back in the ring in July, so maybe less, less than seven. What is that, seven months, eight months or so she's back in the ring in July or August of 21 and then basically on the road full time. And we took our daughter with us the every weekend. So we would do shows, you know, our live shows on Mondays and then we would do our non televised events over the weekends, like sort of building up to the Monday tv and we would take her everywhere. We were fortunate enough to have a tour bus to travel in. So we'd get her on a plane, fly out that, you know, whatever it was Friday night, say we'd get to the town, we get on the bus, then we just go from town to town, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and she'd be at the shows. And you know, we had help, we were fortunate to be able to do that. But yeah, dude, she went with us everywhere and that was an awesome thing to have. And I think there was a lot of. We were like, ah, are we doing the right thing right by taking her everywhere? Because that childhood is not. Both of us grew up not like that. You know, we just lived in our house and did you know what I mean? We just lived in our houses. We weren't traveling. Like my family wasn't particularly wealthy, so we didn't even really take vacations that often, you know, like I had never even gotten on an airplane until I was 18 or 19 or so when I had to start traveling for wrestling. Like we would drive to Des Moines or Chicago and you know, go to Adventureland or Six Flags and, and that was like a big deal for me. And my wife again grew up in Dublin City in Ireland and same thing. They weren't really doing a lot of that. So the childhoods were what you would call normal, I suppose for the two of us. And so there was a lot of concern of like, are we doing the right thing by taking her with us on all these trips or you know, we depriving her of a normal childhood, whatever it may be. Now that she's getting into school age, it definitely is like, okay, we gotta try to keep her in one place a little more. I think that's what we're leaning towards. But yeah, it ended up being fantastic to travel with her. And I think we ended up spending more time with her than maybe other parents who don't get that. Because if you're working nine to five, five days a week, seem like this was a conversation at some point. If you're working a nine to five, five days a week, you're, you're putting your kid in childcare, you're hiring a babysitter or what have you, you're really not spending much Time with your kid on either side because you have to provide for that child. So we were really afforded the opportunity to have her with us pretty much all the time, aside from when we were doing our very specific work, you know, when we were out there doing the shows or appearances or whatever. Whatever. And, and so in retrospect, it, it actually worked out better. I think we got to spend more time and see more kind of milestones and more of the progress than maybe a, a normal couple might have. So. Yeah, we felt very fortunate in that regard.
- [62:56]
A
Yeah, it was a conversation for us because when I first started working at ESPN as a broadcaster, our kids were all, you know, not school age yet, so they traveled, all of them traveled with me everywhere we went.
- [63:06]
B
Yeah.
- [63:06]
A
And, you know, I was a big supporter of that because you want them to see the new stadiums and you want them to go to Raleigh, North Carolina to watch a North Carolina State game.
- [63:17]
B
Yeah.
- [63:18]
A
And as they get older, it becomes harder because you don't want to deprive them of the communal aspect of school.
- [63:24]
B
Yep.
- [63:25]
A
Right. But you can build memories with them until they're that 5, 6 age development. Now I, obviously their school age now I still want to take them every single week. She's like, well, they can't miss school every Friday. I'm like, yeah, they can, because they're not going to get this experience of, of being able to go to Alabama and, and watch the Crimson Tide win or lose against Georgia in a packed out, sold out stadium of 80,000 people. Like, those are very rare, rare experiences. So I know exactly, we know exactly what you mean by being able to have that time. Time with them.
- [63:59]
B
Yeah.
- [63:59]
A
To where you actually feel like you're raising your child.
- [64:02]
B
Yeah.
- [64:03]
A
And, and a part of their life as opposed to. Well, I gotta go, I gotta go provide for you. So. Yep, go, go hang out over there.
- [64:09]
B
Go do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [64:11]
C
Would you let your daughter become a WWE wrestler?
- [64:13]
B
You know, I think so. She's really not interested.
- [64:17]
A
Really?
- [64:18]
B
No, she does not. She doesn't care about it at all. Like, she's watched it on TV a little bit and you know, she went to all the shows, but she, she didn't like the loudness of it, like the loud noises. So like, even with the headphones on, she didn't like, she never wanted to go sit in the front row, so she's never actually been like in the space while one of us was working, ever. So she's seen it on TV and she's okay with it. And she sort of Gets what we do a little bit. But, like, if you were to ask her, like, do you want to watch Mommy or Daddy on tv? No, she's much more interested in.
- [64:50]
C
And just show me something else.
- [64:51]
A
She'll appreciate it later on, though, so be able to watch you go do your thing.
- [64:55]
B
I. I suspect at some point in the next few years, she'll get a greater understanding of what's happening. Even, like, you know, people asking for pictures. And she doesn't understand any of that. Like, she. She'll ask, like, why did he want a picture with you? You know, I'm like, oh, he knows me from tv. But she doesn't under. Like, it doesn't. Like, it doesn't.
- [65:13]
C
How is your daughter?
- [65:13]
B
She's four and a half.
- [65:14]
C
Oh, yes. Our daughter is seven and five. And they don't. They don't know it at all. Like, they'll be like, oh, they're taking a picture with Daddy.
- [65:21]
B
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like, it doesn't click. Tons of people know who they are. The biggest thing for our daughter is, like, she's starting to get upset now that they don't want a picture with her. She, like, you know, she likes to feel like, oh, I want to be a part of this.
- [65:34]
A
I want to be a part of this.
- [65:35]
B
So it's. That's. We know sometimes we'll be like, I'll just come on in, you know, come on, take a picture. But, yeah, yeah, she doesn't. If she wanted to do it. If, like. Because, look, maybe I would have said something different 20 years ago when I got into the industry, because the way it treated women was. Was rotten, if I'm being frank.
- [65:52]
A
No, no, be frank. It's called out of pocket.
- [65:54]
B
And what has happened over the last couple decades, I mean. I mean, you can see it in all of women's sports all over the place, and it's fantastic to see, you know, and I think hopefully that will only continue to progress. But the way our business is now, I would not encourage it. But if she was like, yeah, I'm interested in this, I would certainly not be shy about opening the door for her or, like, giving her an opportunity in that regard.
- [66:20]
A
No, that makes complete sense. And I don't know if you can tell, but she's. She's foreign. I don't know if you can hear the accent or anything.
- [66:28]
B
I got that. Where are you from, by the way?
- [66:30]
C
Estonia.
- [66:31]
B
Estonia, nice.
- [66:32]
A
Yes. So you know where that is?
- [66:34]
B
No. Is it Western Asia, Central or Eastern Europe?
- [66:41]
C
Eastern Europe.
- [66:43]
B
That area, to me, I'm Like, I don't even want to start to try to figure out where the countries are at.
- [66:49]
C
That's a great guess.
- [66:50]
A
No, there's a great guess. It's. Was it border Latvia right around Sweden. Baltic states or. Not states, but Baltic countries.
- [66:58]
B
Okay.
- [66:59]
A
And so I don't ever hear her accent.
- [67:03]
B
Oh, really?
- [67:04]
A
When we're together, yeah. Because I've become so used to it.
- [67:07]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [67:08]
A
But every time I watch back a show, I'm like, I get just. What did you. What did you say? Why do you sound like that? But that's just because I'm so used to it now. And I was watching some clips of you and Becky and you were making fun of her at her accent. I think it was one clip when she says she calls a garage a garage.
- [67:26]
B
A garage. Yeah.
- [67:27]
A
How much fun do you have, personally, with you and your wife of, like, just understanding and laughing at the accent?
- [67:34]
B
Oh, I love it. Yeah. She gets so mad at me because I can't do an accent at all. I just turn into a pirate. So I'm just like, iron, matey. It's not even like a. It's not even like a leprechaun Irish. It's just a straight pirate. That's pretty much all my accents. They all sort of start, okay, and then just drop off into becoming a weird pirate. But we have a great time. She says stuff like, you know, tomato instead of tomato. And she says the weirdest one for me is, you know, we say aluminum. Aluminium.
- [68:05]
A
Aluminium.
- [68:06]
B
Aluminium. What are you talking about?
- [68:07]
A
Is that a thing?
- [68:08]
C
Yeah, we say aluminium.
- [68:09]
B
Aluminium. What are you talking about? What are you. What? Aluminium.
- [68:14]
C
Hold up, Danny. How do you say it in Romanian? There you go.
- [68:17]
B
Yeah. No, I mean, if you look at the spelling, I go, okay, all right, fine, fine.
- [68:23]
A
Enunciate and pronunciate every single syllable.
- [68:26]
B
Yeah, I get it. Fine. But, yeah, yeah, that one's the wackiest one. Aluminum Garage. What are the other ones like, tomato? I don't know. But I always tease her about it. She's like, no, that's the right way to say it. It's not a tomato. It's a tomato. Come on. It's funny. I don't notice it either. Her accent when we're just having conversations until she busts out a wacky word like that. But, like, she's, you know, she's dipping her toe into acting and stuff. And so a lot of times they want her to do American accents, Right. If she's not playing a character that's, you know, should we Say, auditioning for a role that is an American girl or whatever, and that, you know her, she has a dialect coach and, like, she'll do these tapes and they'll be like, ah, you're. You're. American's not great. And I'm like, man, she doesn't. She doesn't. She's been in. In the States for so long, I barely hear it. Like, I barely detect it.
- [69:17]
A
Right.
- [69:18]
B
When we go to Ireland or we're around her cousins or family or any really anybody from Ireland, their accents, like, then they soup up. You know what I mean?
- [69:27]
A
Supercharges.
- [69:27]
B
It goes Super Saiyan. Yeah. It's like somebody just injected them both and went. And then I'm like, what are you. What. What's going on?
- [69:36]
C
You know, they still speak English over there. But, yeah, like I said, like, you hear Conor McGregor talk if he's in Ireland talking.
- [69:43]
A
I'm like, what?
- [69:44]
C
I can't understand a word you're saying.
- [69:46]
B
Like, you're speaking English. You can't not. Yeah, they're speaking English. I mean, we'll watch. We watch some shows, like, you know, that are based in Ireland or whatever. And I'm like, can I. Can I sub. Can I put the subtitles? Can you understand? I'm like, no, I'm sorry, I can't. I got nothing, man. I got nothing. Yeah, yeah, Straight over my head, straight on. Like, I'm gonna miss all this dialogue if we don't, like, put this on. So, yeah, she's great with it, but I mean, it's. It's. I'm the same way. I don't. When we're just talking, I don't really hear it. And then people are like, oh, your accent's too thick. And I'm like, I can't help you because I just. You just sound normal to me.
- [70:18]
A
Normal to me.
- [70:20]
C
People that can actually do that are so impressive that can actually be coached to, like, lose their accent. You know what I mean?
- [70:25]
B
Like, yeah, it's amazing.
- [70:27]
C
People in college told me, they were like, hey, tried. Tried speaking without an accent. And I'm like, do you do understand that I don't realize that I have an accent?
- [70:34]
B
Yeah, we have the accent.
- [70:36]
A
She's like, yeah, you have a weird accent.
- [70:38]
C
I don't know how to try to speak without it when I don't know that I have it.
- [70:41]
B
Yeah. She says that to me, like, oh, your American accent. I'm like, I don't got no accent. I'm American. What do you mean? It's kind of like a Little Southernish, you know, a little Midwestern. I'm like, no, I just speak normal. You know, you're the one with the accent.
- [70:54]
A
You're the accent. Haver.
- [70:56]
B
Yeah. Yeah. So we will get into that debate occasionally. She wins. But, yeah, it's. It's fun. It's a good time.
- [71:02]
A
No, it is a good time. And I'm happy for you. I'm happy that you're happy. You kind of.
- [71:06]
B
Thank you.
- [71:06]
A
You started the conversation off there, so we were going to get into that much later, but, you know, it was on your heart, you know, then I'm a full believer that if at home everything is on the up and up, then when you step into that ring or when I stepped onto that field, you just. You're in flow state then.
- [71:23]
B
Yeah.
- [71:24]
A
Because you have less stress and.
- [71:25]
B
Yeah.
- [71:25]
A
You want your home to be a place where you can come back to and. And not have to fight all the demons that you do out in the world. So I'm happy that you. You have found that. I've certainly found that with my wife. And that's why we're doing the show together.
- [71:36]
B
Hell, yeah.
- [71:37]
C
You mentioned that Becky has some Hollywood aspirations and that she's working on.
- [71:42]
B
Yeah.
- [71:43]
C
Do you have any?
- [71:43]
B
No.
- [71:44]
A
Really?
- [71:45]
C
You were in Sharknado. Was it Sharknado?
- [71:48]
B
I did a cameo in Sharknado many, many years ago. I'll take things that come my way. Okay. I shot a spot for Captain America, the new one, Brave New World.
- [71:57]
A
Okay.
- [71:59]
B
That got canned. They ended up rewriting the script a bunch and, like, kind of repurposing some of the roles. And so my role got. Whatever. I never. I didn't see the new one, but Giancarlo Esposito, okay, He's the one who kind of took over my role, like, kind of squished together with a couple other people in my group. I had a group of people that were gonna be a part of it. And we filmed. I mean, I was in Atlanta and we filmed like for three weeks, like this giant action scene to open the film. And I'm thinking, oh, that. Because my wife, she did an extra scene. Do you remember Eternals? Marvel movie Eternals. So didn't do well, but she did a post credit scene which still exists without her. They ended up. So the movie was tested badly. The post credit scene tested badly. So then the one she was in, so they cut her and ended up using just Harry Styles in the post credit. Remember, they cut her and one other person and used just Harry Styles, thinking that Harry Styles Post Credit scene would fire people up enough to want to make. They wanted to make a second and third, maybe even fourth and fifth.
- [73:04]
A
I remember that.
- [73:04]
B
And it did so bad. So it ended up kind of being.
- [73:08]
A
Kind of saved her, right?
- [73:09]
B
Yeah. Buzzing in the skies that she was. Wasn't attached to it. And so she. She. Because she was, I think, slated to be like a new eternal in the second or third film or whatever, so she got cut from that. And then I do this part in Captain America. Like I said, it's this big action scene. It was like we, you know, we blew up a fbo and, like, I was like, tackling Cap through a win. Like, it was awesome. Yeah, man. They cut me and. Yeah, then they called me and they're like, so, yeah, we're. We're. The script is going through some changes. Same thing. It didn't. The initial one didn't test well, so they started to make some changes, and whatever role I had got repurposed. And so I don't have any aspirations. I do have aspirations to get into your world, however, really the sports media world. As you may or may not know, I'm a very big Chicago Bears fan, unfortunately, loyalty. And so I'm a big Bears fan. I really like talking about sports, and I like talking about football. I have, you know, a lot of experience talking on a microphone in front of a live crowd.
- [74:14]
A
Yes, you do.
- [74:15]
B
I'd like to see how that might translate in that space at some point. And it seems a lot less physically demanding than falling down on my back all the time for years. And as I'm getting a little bit older now, 21 years in the business, I'm. I be 39 in a month. Like, you know, like, just like to see, like, to dip my toe. Did it. Did a few bits at Good Morning Football.
- [74:36]
A
Saw you on Good Morning Football. You did amazing, by the way.
- [74:38]
B
Thank you.
- [74:39]
A
Thank you saying that because you're here.
- [74:40]
B
Appreciate that. I had a lot of fun. It's not even really my. Like, I'm not a draft guy. I. I'm not a draft guy. So I was, like, kind of a little out of my element with that. Did my best, but I think if, hopefully I can get some more stuff later in the season when it's like, you know, we're in the mix. And, yeah, they start kind of talking about, you know, what I'm passionate about, but I hope, hopefully there's something there. And if the acting gigs come along, like, I'll take them if they feel like they're exciting to Me or cool options, but it's certainly not something I'm pursuing at this moment.
- [75:12]
A
Is. Is the talking football part of that? Is that only network, or are you thinking, like, in this form as well, from podcasting, daily shows, that type of stuff?
- [75:21]
B
You know, there's. There's conversations around doing podcasts. I'm like, I am so. I have so much admiration for people that jump into podcasting and are able to, like, turn it into something very successful because it's such a saturated market, very difficult. And to be able to find something that's unique and a presentation that people enjoy and want to continue to, you know, subscribe and listen to and tell their friends about, like, that is a hard thing to do. That is a hard thing to do. And so I don't have. I don't feel like I have the initiative to really want to push that. And, like, I know based on where my following is at with wwe, I could probably do that at a moderate level at first, but, like, I don't know if I have the passion to, like, really push that forward right now. Maybe at some point in a few years, it'll be there, but right now we're in talks. There probably need to be a big check written to. Really.
- [76:17]
A
Yeah.
- [76:18]
B
Want me to do that? So I'm in docs with a couple people to see if there's something there. But it's. It's very early stages, and I'm more of like a. Like, if you could put me in the booth to call Bears games, like, that would be, like. That's ideal for me, you know, that would be phenomenal. That'd be sick for me.
- [76:34]
A
Since you're saying you're in early talks, let's go ahead and start our negotiations now to get you to join on with us. Does. Does your wife have any aspirations of talking sports when it's all said and done?
- [76:44]
B
She's. She. She's. She has. No. She is not an athlete. Like, in the sense that she, like, she. Whatever I like, she'll just like it with me. Like, she does not know. Like, I'm still teaching her about, like, downs and distance.
- [76:56]
A
Oh, okay. Understood. Understood.
- [76:58]
B
Yeah. She doesn't know. Like, all that's, like, foreign to her for sure. She didn't even, like, you know, she's from Ireland and soccer number one over there. She didn't even. She didn't care about soccer. She's like, she's a Bears fan now. Like, you know, she's. She was, for example, she was a Cubs fan, but not because of any. Any reason other than her favorite band is Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder is a Cubs fan, so she was like, yeah, I love the Cubs. You know? Like, that's it. You know, she.
- [77:25]
A
She.
- [77:26]
B
And she love. But she loves a good. Like, she loves a good time. So she loves, like, the excitement of a sports game, or if, like, there's a close game on tv, I'll be like, hey, hey, come watch this, you know? And she loves watching me watch the Bears because that's a. That's a whole experience unto itself.
- [77:40]
C
Yeah.
- [77:41]
B
Every week is. I mean, the season was a. To itself. Yeah. Yeah. So that she. She loves that part of it, but, yeah, she's not. She would know what's going on.
- [77:51]
A
So. Yeah.
- [77:51]
B
You know, she loved. Was Hard Knocks.
- [77:53]
A
Okay.
- [77:54]
B
Because it got to the. Like, you got to see the juicy.
- [77:56]
A
Stuff and the storytelling.
- [77:57]
B
Yeah, she liked that.
- [77:58]
A
Yeah. So, I mean, we're. We're. We're doing this and having a good time with it. Advice would be we would love to have you on routinely. By the way, I know you. I think I saw you at a Ravens game.
- [78:10]
B
Yes.
- [78:10]
A
You're at a Ravens game.
- [78:12]
B
I did. I did do that.
- [78:13]
A
Yep. And I think my guy, my former teammate, Marlon Humphrey.
- [78:17]
B
Okay.
- [78:17]
A
Totally disrespected you, by the way. Marlon, we got a problem.
- [78:20]
B
He did.
- [78:20]
A
You know what I'm talking about.
- [78:21]
B
He did.
- [78:22]
A
He went and said hi to Angel Reese.
- [78:24]
B
Yes.
- [78:25]
A
And totally ignored you. And I'm like, you don't ignore Seth freaking Rollins.
- [78:31]
B
You know, I thought the same thing.
- [78:32]
A
What are we doing here?
- [78:33]
B
To myself. Look, you have a beautiful woman here. Maybe he just got tunnel vision. And I get that. I understand that injury. I get it. All right. Understood. Under. Maybe that's just where his mind went. Understood, you know? So no complaints. No complaints. I got no hard feelings for you, but, yes, I do.
- [78:50]
A
I. I. You handled it well, too, because you saw him, and I was like, you know what? I'm gonna bring this up.
- [78:57]
B
Yeah. Yeah, man. I'm gonna bring this up because I'm glad I was not the only one that noticed.
- [79:01]
A
I definitely noticed it.
- [79:03]
B
Zipped right by me, man.
- [79:04]
C
All right, before we let you go, we have a little segment called Rapid Fire.
- [79:07]
B
Rapid Fire. All right, good, because I've been expounding here, so I'll try to keep it tight.
- [79:12]
A
No, we love it. I love it. It's a great conversation.
- [79:15]
B
Yeah.
- [79:17]
C
All right. Who smells the worst in the locker room after a double double E match?
- [79:21]
B
Oh, man, the big boys. It's. It's the Big boys. I mean, it just happens. Mark Henry was one of the worst. And Brodus. Brodus. Clay was pretty bad, too. Sorry, boys. I love them both. But, yeah, Brodus and Mark were not, not, not the greatest.
- [79:38]
A
Okay, if the WWE gave you unlimited creative control for one night, what's the first match you'd book?
- [79:46]
B
That's great, man. You know what? This might be controversial, but I think the first one I would. I would do tomorrow is actually. Well, I mean, he kind of applies. I would. I'd want to get that Roman Reigns versus the Rock match out of the way. I'm sick of everybody talking about it. I just want to get it out of the way. Yeah. See how much you love it when you see it already happened twice. Yeah. Don't need it again.
- [80:13]
A
Okay, quick, quick, Add on to that. What fight would you book just for your own amusement?
- [80:20]
B
For my own amusement. Oh, man. What do I want to see? What do I want to see? God, I don't know, man. That's a tough one. That's really tough. Maybe myself versus John Cena. Oh, been a while. And. And John's on this retirement tour, and I. I'd like to be a part of that before he's done.
- [80:45]
A
Oh, I see it.
- [80:45]
B
I see it.
- [80:46]
C
What's your biggest red flag in wrestling?
- [80:49]
B
Biggest red flag. Oh, man. Biggest red flag. I think probably people talking about themselves first, like. Like, right out of the gate. You know what I mean? That first. When you first start getting too much. Too much talk and not enough listen.
- [81:09]
A
Okay. Do you prefer to be a heel or baby face?
- [81:12]
B
Heel.
- [81:14]
A
You've excelled at both. But why?
- [81:16]
B
It's more fun. Yeah, it's more fun. More room for error, too. As a baby face, it's a narrow target sometimes with our audience, you know, you gotta, you know, really find the hole to fit it in. But like a heel, you. It's so hard to screw up, you know, as long. As long as you're getting booed, you're winning.
- [81:35]
C
All right. Dream opponent that you've never faced.
- [81:38]
B
Oh, dream opponent could be active or. Oh, sh. Shawn Michaels. Shawn Michaels is my favorite, so I always would have loved to have gotten the ring with Sean.
- [81:48]
A
Who is the real Mr. Wrestlemania? Is it you, Undertaker?
- [81:54]
B
No, no, no. Sean Zog. But I'm of my generation. I don't think there's any question. Don't think there's actually anybody even close. Yeah, my generation. I mean, you look at the last 12 years, I missed one WrestleMania with the knee injury, but there's not even from a Match quality standpoint, storytelling standpoint. I don't think there's anybody even close.
- [82:16]
A
I'm stamping that last question.
- [82:18]
C
You are from Iowa.
- [82:19]
B
Yes.
- [82:20]
C
So how impactful has been Caitlin Clark to Iowa and to women's sports?
- [82:24]
B
I love Caitlin Clark, man. I love Caitlin Clark. I love it. Don't want to get blasted awesomeness here, but, I mean, it's Jordanesque. I mean, she's. She's changed the game. She's so unassuming. You know, you look at her, you don't think anything. You don't think she's a star. You don't think she's gonna just be balling out on everybody. And she does, you know, and to see what she's done for. For women's sports, you know, obviously the WNBA specifically, but just women's sports in general. Even. Even the fact that, like, you get this, all this conflict at the top in the WNBA now about arguing, like, whether or not it should be her or, you know, you know, is, like, Paige Booker's is coming out this year, and now she's going to be the top dog. And, like, just this con, like, is it Angel Reese, like, who deserves the credit? The fact that we're even having that conversation, I think is amazing. And to see what she's done and the amount of money she's been able to bring in for the women in sports, I love it. You know, in Iowa, we ain't got much, man. We ain't got no sports teams. That's why I'm a Bears fan. And so to see, like, people rally behind her is so cool. And, like, I get it mostly because my Facebook's private. All my other socials are, like, you know, public, but my Facebook's private. It's all my friends from back home in Iowa. So just every time, like, anything happens with her in the news cycle, like, they're all over. They're in such defense of Caitlin Clark, and I just love it. I think she's great. I can't wait to see, like, her sophomore year, what she's going to do. Like, it's going to be fantastic. And then you get this. This. I mean, it's only gonna grow. So, yeah, great question. Glad we got to talk about her. She's awesome.
- [83:56]
A
Great question. Last question for you. For me, really? Just for the entire show. This is your. Your hero shot, right? We ask every guest to give a motivational speech to the people out there, but it has to be geared towards something. That's your story. So we don't ever Come into the show. Like all. We want to ask him to say it this way, but listening to you talk, I think a big point of passion for you is the next generation of wrestlers.
- [84:19]
B
That's right.
- [84:20]
A
Right. So if you could look into your camera and give a motivational speech to that next generation of wrestlers that, you know, they might be 6, 7, they might be 15 years old right now, what is the advice that you would give them to motivate them to go out and become the next WWE Superstar?
- [84:36]
B
Oh, it's a great one. My advice to you guys out there, if professional wrestling is your dream and you love it and it's something you want to pursue, do not be afraid of the hustle. Do not be afraid of the grind. Don't let this new modern anti hustle, easiest route to the top thing. Shake your confidence and shake your resolve. Get out there and put in the work. You know what you need to do. You need to diet. You need to get to the gym. You need to watch tape. You need to get off your phone. You need to get away from social media. You need to stop listening to all the people out there. You need to focus in on a few people that you trust, you believe in, and most importantly, believe in yourself. If you have a dream, put the work ethic to use. Get in there, do the work, grind it out. Go for the opportunities, and when they come your way, swing big and don't be afraid to miss. And I promise you will hit some home runs. Wow.
- [85:50]
A
I mean, I'm motivated, I'm excited.
- [85:56]
B
Hustle.
- [85:56]
A
I might have to go hustle. I'm 35. It ain't too.
- [85:59]
B
We never stop stopping hustling, man. Never.
- [86:02]
A
I actually lied. I got one last thing.
- [86:04]
B
Oh, one last thing.
- [86:04]
A
One last thing. We had a video on Instagram.
- [86:08]
B
Okay.
- [86:09]
A
Of our family.
- [86:09]
B
Yep.
- [86:10]
A
Doing wrestling moves in the pool.
- [86:12]
B
Okay, great.
- [86:14]
A
Basically, it's my daughter's beating me, beating the crap out of me.
- [86:17]
B
I understand.
- [86:17]
A
Because I can't do the moves to them because it wouldn't be a good video. Well, it actually took off and it's got over a million likes.
- [86:22]
B
Oh, nice.
- [86:23]
A
1.1 million likes on. On Instagram. So we wanted to get just your natural reaction to this video right here.
- [86:30]
B
Okay.
- [86:31]
A
Tell me what you think.
- [86:33]
B
Wow. Big rko. Wow. Becky lynch leg drop and bulldog. Wow. Oh, my goodness. Bro. What? Whoa. What a spear, bro. And the rko. Oh, no. Oh, no. Drop kick to the back. You're gonna take her out.
- [86:55]
A
Wow.
- [86:56]
B
Oh, my goodness. That thing just kept going up and up and Up. And now I'm staring at, like, the. The final shot, and I'm. I'm wondering how you're still standing here. That is. That is you he's taking out, right?
- [87:07]
C
Every comment.
- [87:09]
B
Oh, is she okay, man? All right. That's pretty sick. That's pretty well done, I will say.
- [87:15]
A
So The. The question I have for you is our kids. You saw them when we. When you came in? Yeah, They're. They're huge wrestling fans, and we're trying to figure out or find our way to WrestleMania.
- [87:26]
B
Okay.
- [87:26]
A
So I know you're gonna be, you know, headlining and mainly bidding it. Is there any way you can get those little girls to WrestleMania?
- [87:34]
B
Well, you put me on the spot on camera. I can't say no now. I can't say no. Yeah.
- [87:40]
A
No.
- [87:40]
B
Hey, girls. Your dreams are dead. You're not ever going to WrestleMania. Not this year. Not as long as I'm with this company. No. No. We'll find a way. We'll find a way. WrestleMania is. There are still tickets available now, so we will find a way to get you to Las Vegas. If you'd like to come for one of one or both of those nights. We'll see what we can do. I will. I'll get Nick Khan on the horn. Nick.
- [88:04]
A
Nick.
- [88:05]
B
Holler RG3, man.
- [88:07]
A
Let's make it happen, baby.
- [88:08]
B
Let's make it happen. Nick's an agent. He's, you know, he's used to negotiating. Sure. We figure something out. Yes.
- [88:13]
A
So now we appreciate you coming on the show, you know, really just giving us your time, man. We talked about that. Fault in the stars, but getting a chance to meet with you and talk with you in this conversation, it's not that any of us are perfect, but you're exactly who. Who we thought you would be.
- [88:29]
B
Ah, cool, man.
- [88:30]
A
So that it's awesome to. To have you on the show and everybody at home that. That's watching, listening, whether you're driving, driving the world, work, drop your kids off at school, or just listening to us late at night, if you really want to have these real conversations, this is a place that you need to be. Hopefully we can convince Colby Lopez, that's me, further known as Seth Rollins, to come on the show regularly and do some things with us. But either way, we are going to be rooting him on not only in the wwe, but also in his endeavors in sports media. So make sure you guys like and subscribe to our YouTube channel, continue to support us. We've had massive growth, really, Even over the last 30 days, we've grown by over 100,000 subscribers. So we're just really doing a great job. But it's because of you guys. You're resonating with the conversations that we're having, and it's motivated us to continue to go. So we appreciate you. We appreciate you guys. We'll see you next time. Peace.