#2423 - John Cena

the Joe Rogan experience what's up John Cena in the fucking house let's put these on pretend we're professional what's up good to see you man thanks so much for having me my pleasure and there's no way I'm having a pro wrestler on without Tony Hinchcliffe of course He's the expert. He knows more about pro wrestling than I know about UFC. Yeah. Sometimes I translate little things here and there. That's cool. It's all right. Yeah, he has to. He has to. And he's a giant fan of yours, too. You know who else is a giant fan of yours is Bryan Simpson. Bryan Simpson was going on last night about how intelligent you are. It was really interesting. You sure it was me? Yeah, man. Well, you do speak fucking Mandarin, which is kind of crazy. Yeah, yeah. How long did it take you to learn that? Man, I was doing that for quite a long time. I've since kind of declined on the studies. A wonderful takeaway from the study of Mandarin, just because you know a language doesn't mean you know the culture. So that was a fantastic experience. But I studied Mandarin for like a decade. And I would say like not even conversationally fluent. It was a really tough hill to climb for me. It seems like a really big hill. It's just different. And even if you can speak it, can you read it? No, I didn't even bother to read. And reading all the characters, understanding everything, yeah. How long did it take you to learn? Around 10 years. Whoa. Yeah. And then I would dream in Mandarin and have conversations and kick down in that. So it became like a second language. But I lived in China for a little bit. I filmed a movie with Jackie Chan. So I was there for like six or seven months. I lived there in, maybe we were in Inner Mongolia, Yinchuan province, so like in China. Wow. And it was fun. Yeah, yeah. You were in Mongolia? Inner Mongolia, yeah. What's the difference? I don't know, because I've never been to Mongolia, but Inner Mongolia was, man, I was the only person that looked like me there. And everyone would say, look, it's big white guy, Honda Byron, Honda Byron, they would call me. Wow. Yeah, yeah. Wow. So what motivated you to learn that It seems like such a task Honestly man it was everything in my life seems to be wrestling related It was wrestling related Like WWE reach spread everywhere I mean, I've been able to, lucky enough to perform everywhere from like Moscow, Philippines, South Africa, Bangor, Maine, every place in between except China. China was like the one place that didn't understand what we did. So it's literally like it's a universal language because you can turn, it's like UFC. Like, you turn the volume down, but you can see, like, oh, this is two guys, best guy wins. I get it. The Chinese just didn't get it. So I figured if, like, one of our superstars spoke the language, maybe that would help break down the barrier. Was it your idea? It was my idea, but the WWE offers, and I think they still offer it, they offer a free second language program. So like when they rolled out the initiative of like financial advice and, you know, they'll pay for portions of your secondary education and free second language. This is like 2011, 2012, big talent meeting in like an auditorium. I'm one of the old guys at the time sitting in the front being like, these kids don't know how good they have it. I should stand up and tell them. I'm like, no, fuck that. I'm actually going to lead by example and take a language. so I signed up right then then there for China Chinese because I wanted to get us into China Wow and like I said it worked but it kind of only worked and they I think I think actually right now China is experiencing what wrestling is to them because like there's I've read articles that there's promotions over there that are thriving so like now they get it oh so they have their own promotion yeah yeah this is a fairly recent thing I think so I like I just read recent articles that like pro wrestling is thriving in china and they have their own like their own way of doing it wow yeah yeah wow that's wild it's wild how like expansive the pro wrestling business is that they would be that open-minded to say like let's let's give second language programs to the athletes well and you know i just it's it's weird the origins of the business or carnival related it is like a carnival attraction and then uh it was like ruthlessly territorial and then when it became national i was still trying to find its way it's almost like you see pro sports doing it you know the more a sport succeeds the more benefits they offer to their competitors and athletes so uh you know wwe kind of hit that stride yeah it just such a smart thing to do you know yeah well you give your channel give your talent talent the opportunities to gain knowledge and wisdom And the sad thing is I don know how many people did it or do it still Was there anybody other than you that you know of? Two other people. Who? Claudio Castagnoli, who speaks, I think, four or five languages already, and he just wanted to take a brush-up course, and Natty Neidhart. Wow. Yeah. That's it. That's it. Everybody else is like. Not going to do it. Too much work. Yeah. What was the not knowing the culture aspect? So, man, I got put in a bit of a hot spot with – I made a pact to myself when I was like, okay, I feel fluent. We would do these global press tours and I just happened to be on a global press tour. I'm like, you know what? I'm going to do 70% of my media in Mandarin, like in dialogue. And I got to say, I did it. Like, I went over there, spoke. People were taking off the translator headphones. Like, life was good. Everything was great. At the very end of the day, as with all these press tours, you do, like, a bunch of prompter reads. So I'm doing prompter reads for everywhere. And it's like, hey, go this place and see this movie. Go this place and see this movie. And no, my bad. I didn't check the reads because it's like an end of a 10-hour day. You do a million of these things. And one of them said, like, hey, Taiwan, see this, this. And it was all in Mandarin, and the opinion described Taiwan as a country. So be the first country to see this. Now, over there, they look through a different lens. Like, geopolitics are murky waters, man. And that's what I learned of, like, I just said it, left, everybody was cool, I did my thing. Like, I read the prompt. It was like a Ron Burgundy moment. Like, go fuck yourself, San Diego. It's like the most offensive thing you can say. So I'm like, man, you know, good job, John. you said you did 70% and people understood what you were talking about. And then they put that out and everybody was like, what the fuck did you just say? We don't, that's not how we do it over here. And again, just because like my takeaway, and it was a pretty tense moment for me. Like I had to apologize to China and in apologizing to China, I pissed off my home country. I'm a patriot. I love the United States of America and everything it stands for. But like no one, it was never enough. Nobody was happy, everybody was fucked up. And it was like murky waters for me personally And it was weird I think I might have been the only guy almost to get canceled for doing his homework You know like trying to like learn and try to do something But the cool takeaway, you know, we can learn from every mistake. My mistake was just because you know the language doesn't mean you know the culture. Did they even refer to it as Taiwan? I think they referred to it as Chinese Taipei, right? Man, what was in the – I know what I read in the thing. Oh, okay. So that's, again, I don't know enough depth to know that. And now, like, people are like, oh, man, can you speak Mandarin for this? I just won't do it. It's a skill that I have, but it's a skill that's going to remain with me because I don't have the depth of field to know what to call that place in that region of the world. And I haven't done enough research, and I don't have the wisdom, and I don't have, like, the cultural fluency, you know? So it was a cool lesson. It sucked because I thought I was just trying to do something good, But it was a cool lesson. Was it really that big of a deal? Man, I thought, like, I was filming Peacemaker season one, and when they came out with all of this stuff, I went directly to James Gunn and was like, hey, man, if you have to fire me, I understand. Wow. This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. Tis the season for identity theft. This time of year, most of us are checking off our holiday gift list. But guess what? Identity thieves have lists, too, and your personal information might be on them. Protect your identity with LifeLock. 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I wear Tommy John. They're great as gifts, and you're going to love it. Give the gift that lasts with Tommy John and get 30% off site-wide right now at TommyJohn.com slash Rogan with promo code Rogan. It was that serious? Yeah. But it wasn't even words that you wrote. Someone else, the WWE wrote it? That doesn't. No, no, it was for the movie I was promoting. Right, so the movie, the people that made the movie wrote it. So I don't know. Like when you do these press tours, let's say, if I'm doing a movie for Warner Brothers, let's say, let's use Peacemaker as an example. I'm doing a global Peacemaker tour, and we go into China, or we go into South America. You meet like the PR person there, and they have all the stuff you're supposed to do, and they curate your experience, and they hold your hand. You're like, okay, now we're going to go to this station. And by the way, they just want you to do some shout-outs. So any time I go anywhere globally now, as much as I want to thank fans for their attention and, you know, investing in the product, I really shy away from, like, speaking the language because I don't understand the cultural nuance. You know, I just want to be like, yo, man, thanks for watching what we do, and I love the fact that you're entertained, but I want to speak to you at a level that I understand that I'm fluent because your boots on the ground here every day, and I might say something that's a nice gesture but completely fucking offend you. And that's not good. That's not good for anybody. So was the teleprompter in English and you translate to Chinese No everything was in Mandarin And in Chinese they have the characters which are virtually impossible for me to learn There like an infinite number But they also have what's called pinyin, which is, it's kind of spelled out in English with phonetics. So it has the four tones. So if you were to put something in front of me in pinyin right now, I could definitely read it. And I got good at reading pinyin, so I was like, man, I could send all these messages in Mandarin, and then more people will know about this movie, and more people will know about me and more people will know about wrestling and more people will be excited. Looked good on paper. Just my follow through was a bit weak. You know, it doesn't even seem like that was your fault. Right. It's probably a PR's assistant assistant that's type that's probably in charge of doing the grunt work of typing in all the different languages and the different countries. Like it's tedious. From what I know, I know I'm going to learn a lot about you guys in this episode. But from what I know about you, you're you're into looking at looking things through different lenses and different perspectives. It also could have been somebody being like, I'm going to get this kid. But here's the thing. I do appreciate you saying like, it's not your fault. That's not true. It was my fault. And I think that's when I can start to work on like, well, what did I learn from this? And I could easily blame a PR, an assistant. I could say somebody had a target on my back, all that stuff. I fucked up. Did you suspect that somebody might've set you up? No. Well, you're saying it like it's a possibility. Well, man, when it happened, every theory came. Like, here's the thing. The world doesn't revolve around me, but my little world, everybody was like, they fucked up. They did this on purpose. I was like, well, first of all, who's they? So I was able to kind of eliminate all that. And once I realized I could still go on working, I really made a lot of people angry. And for that, I'm sorry. Like, again, I was just trying to. That's crazy just by saying that Taiwan's a country. In Chinese though. Right. You know, like those are murky waters to begin with. You know, like I'm not even thoroughly fluent on the U.S. policy. I think it's like territorial ambiguity or some shit like that. It's so weird and it's so fragile. And I got into some water I shouldn't have been swimming in. But that's on me. It was my fault. And I think that's important for me to bear the burden of that and be like, yo, how can I course correct? What did I learn? Who do I really really genuinely have to apologize for offending The biggest thing that was a kick to the nuts is when like people stateside got pissed off because you apologized yes in in chinese and and i understand it i mean completely like bowing down to the demand of this that gosh what a what a shitty move by me like i just i should have taken a breath again what did i learn don't be reactive take a breath find out what's going on find out the best path of action maybe give it a few days maybe give it a hot second and then move forward but immediately i was like oh they're mad you want us to do this fine no problem i'll fix it right now man that not only did i not try to fix the hole in the boat i sunk the titanic so it was but again it was a learning experience well it speaks to your character that you don't blame anybody else because i blame everybody else i'd be like who fucking wrote that Don't you know what you're saying or what you're making me say? The release you guys have for the show. I read it. You might be the only person. So that was whoever handed it to me. That was what they said. Like, I think you might be the only person who's ever read it. Man, if you're going to take liberties with me, at least I want to be able to read that you are. Right. You know what I'm saying? And I can't say I'm perfect with doing that, but, like, I was handed a release. I'm like, oh, man, can I just glance this over? for, oh, this says what I think it says. Okay, let's go. Trump didn't even read it. Just a... Tweets their own? Yeah, no, it's very smart of you to read it. You know, who knows, you know? Who knows? So this is, Tony, is this the full trifecta now? It's like if you've gotten all of your heroes on this podcast now? There's a couple more we can knock off out of the pro wrestling world. There's a couple more. Todd, let's, if you don't mind, if I can indulge, Talk pro wrestling heroes. Who do we need to knock off? Who do we need to do anything? Well, I mean, in all reality, and it's a diabolical, diabolical thing. Because, man, he can kind of invite. You can't. You can invite anyone you want in here. You just kind of got to give them the wish list. I mean, you got to start with the number one, without a doubt, Vince McMahon, who started this gangster shit and spread it around. I would definitely have him. It was a little. Man, he would be great. Yes. I, whatever magic you have out there and you have a lot of gravity. Do you think he'd be interested in doing it? Are you kidding me? I think he would love it. Really? I think he would love it I don know when the right time is but man don miss out on that opportunity At least send it out to the universe Yeah Well I would definitely Vince if you listening Vince, if you're listening. Let's go. I think this experience would be a great one for you. Is he still involved? Is he out? Is he in? He's out. He's out. He's out totally. Yep. It seems like he's the guy that will be out for a little while, and then something will happen that will bring him back in. No. Well, I don't know. Again, we were talking about, like, why is your last event in this place? I'm like, man, because I don't choose the events. All that stuff is so far above me. But I know now he's out. In my eyes, I'd like to think that time heals everything. And I believe in forgiveness. And I also believe in looking at the body of work. But I also know there's a lot of fragile stuff going on there. I don't know, man. I don't know. Yeah, it's a hot subject. It could get us into another Chinese Taipei incident. Well, no, no. Man, again, I've learned to become a little bit more accountable for what I say. And just because I feel a certain way about a person doesn't exonerate them from being accountable for their actions. Right. And just because he did start, quote, unquote, all this gangster shit, that doesn't mean he doesn't need to be accountable for his actions. Right. So let's figure out what that means and then figure out if we can move forward and bring that back in the fold or if it stays the way it is. What do you think, Tony? You think he's coming back? I think he would come here. Yeah. I think he would come here too. And I think that's one of the more entertaining people of all time. He created the entire universe. You've got to remember, Hogan's Hogan because of him. Cena's Cena. I'm me because of him. Yeah. Every single Stone Cold, he's like, that sounds good. Yeah, keep it going. We'll do the glass breaks thing and they'll throw you beers. I like it. Let's do it again next week. So everything that we think. When he sits here, you got to do that impression. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Stone Cold's another one that hasn't been on. Steve would be great. Oh, my God. You would dig Steve. Oh, yeah. I'm sure. Yeah. He lives out here too, doesn't he? Yep. Does he? Well, actually, no. Doesn't he have a ranch out here? I think he does somewhere. I think he does. Yeah. but I think he's based out of somewhere else now, New Mexico or Arizona. He's on the, he like, he's like kind of cool and reclusive. He like doesn't really do a lot. It's amazing. He would be a good get. And I'm pretty sure, I guarantee he would do it. Steve, if you're listening, I know you're watching, come on. kind of cool and reclusive. kind of cool and reclusive. He doesn't really do a lot. It's amazing. He would be a good get. And I guarantee you would do it. Steve, I know you're watching. Come on. Come on in. Let's talk some wrestling. I mean, everyone has him on the Mount Rushmore. Triple H, who runs it now, the son-in-law of Vince McMahon. Yeah. I mean, he runs the entire thing. I mean, you want answers to those high-level questions. Yeah. There's your guy. Yeah. That's the guy you need to get into. A lot of the stuff you probably ask today, I'll be like, that's way above my pay grade. This type of the year when life ramps up and demands more of your energy, more work, more plans with family and friends, and holiday travel, all while it's getting darker and colder out, you can let it all drain your juice. Or you can get out ahead of it with AG1. AG1 is a daily health drink that can help you stay one scoop ahead of all the energy drains coming your way this season. because the superfoods and B vitamins in every scoop of AG1 support steady energy production without the crash. In fact, just shaking up one scoop of AG1 in water covers your multivitamin, your pre- and probiotics, antioxidants, superfoods, and more. It's one simple step to start your day ahead of anything that might come your way, and that's why I've partnered with them for years. And when you need energy support, AG1 delivers with superfoods and with B vitamins that help convert nutrients into energy for vigor and vitality. Subscribe today to get this clinically backed formula in the flavor of your choice. Tropical, citrus, berry, or original to help you stay one scoop ahead. AG1 has a special offer today. If you head to drinkag1.com slash joerogan, you'll get the welcome kit, a morning person hat, a bottle of vitamin D3K2, and an AG1 flavor sampler for free with your first subscription. That's over $100 in free gifts. Just head over to drinkag1.com slash joerogan or visit the link in the description to get started. Well, if you don't know the history, Tony, at one point in time, was offered a job with the WWE before he really made it. No way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was offered a job to write for the WWE. Because Tony was a giant pro wrestling fan. And he'd already had a Netflix special. So he was known as a comic. It was before that. Was it before the Netflix special The first one The one that you released yourself Yeah Really Yeah it was only a couple years into me doing stand like seven nights a week at the comedy store all the time And somehow I ended up, someone's like, hey, I have a friend in WWE, if you want to have a meeting with him and just talk. And I went in with straight-up ideas. This, that, the Undertaker's brother comes back again, this, that, the next, like everything back and forth. I can't even remember any of them. It's been so long. But I went in with the whole thing. And this guy's like, where the hell did you like what? This is crazy. You just like did this. I'm like, yeah, I found out a couple of days ago we were going to talk. So but yeah, they offered it. But I would have had to move to Connecticut and take a train to New York every night to go do stand up. And that would have just been exhausting. And everything I heard because Patrice O'Neill, the late great Patrice O'Neill wrote for WWE for a while. Did he really? Yeah. Yeah. For like a couple of years, I think. What did he just wrote lines for them? Like, what did he do? The whole shebang. When you're a WWE writer, they make you write. It's not like a cute job at all. No, there's a lot of television, or there's a lot of content every week. Right now, I think they have three weekly shows. So that's 20, I think one of them is going back to three hours. It's like 50 segments of TV every week. Yeah, but I remember when you were talking about it. Yeah. When you were talking about potentially doing it, I was like... Yeah, it was tricky. And I was like, dude, you do not want to live in Connecticut. No. That's the main thing. If it was anywhere else other than Connecticut, it kind of would have made more sense. If it was in New York City, it would have been a no-brainer. If it was in L.A., definitely. But, like, fast forward. Now you're more and more involved. Yes. Well, this is the crazy thing. Like, we had talked, like, during the old days. Like, we would talk in the green room. I'd be like, that would be your ultimate dream job. Yeah. Like to make it as a comedian and somehow be involved in the UFC the way, or excuse me, in WWE the way I'm involved in the UFC. Like very similar. Yeah. And look. It's crazy. It's insane. I'm going tomorrow night. I'm going to be in the front row at the arena in my hometown. Are they here tomorrow night? Oh, man. Are you messing with me? Are you going to, is your music going to hit and you're going to pop out? I got one more left. This is what they do, by the way. Oh, yeah? Oh, yeah. I didn't even know they were going to be in town. He's correct. There's a lot of, you mess with people. You're right. But then somebody like me will actually shoot you straight and be like I not going to be there And I won be there And you be like ah now I just I building the equity for people to mess with people I giving 20 mulligans out there Tomorrow Never Music plays. Not a chance. Exactly. I heard a great story. You'll probably love this. You might even know the story, but, um, the undertaker, his wife and his podcast co-host went to WrestleMania. They're up in a fancy suite. This was, um, which one was it? The rock. I mean, her parents were, did you? Yes. You were there, right? Like that huge finish at WrestleMania like three years ago where it was just boom, boom, boom, boom. And all these legends were coming out. This huge finish. They can't even follow it. The ultimate climax of a WrestleMania. And one wrestler comes out, interrupts this huge main event, and then another one, then another one. Anyway, The Undertaker, his wife, and his podcast co-host were up in the suite. Undertaker goes, I'm going to go use the restroom. They're like, he's been gone a while. The lights go out. The bell tolls. They're watching from the suite. He's been gone for like 10 minutes, 20 minutes. He went and changed real quick. And then now he's- Came out as The Undertaker. Yeah, came out as The Undertaker. They're in the suite like, oh my God, it's The Undertaker. They don't tell anybody. It's so old school and awesome that they keep secrets so locked up that their own loved ones, his wife didn't even know. That's hilarious. Yeah. That is so crazy. It's fun to be able to surprise a live audience. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's got to be a big part of it. How did you get involved in pro wrestling? Were you a fan as a kid? I sure was. I think we have the same gravity of like, man, I was a super fan as a kid. But then I fell out of it, admittedly, kind of when Hogan went to WCW. So like I was into wrestling and then I wasn't. Then I got into sports or whatever. And then I got back into wrestling when everyone else did. When like Stone Cold Steve Austin became big. The Rock became big. The Attitude Era hit. and I was just working a dead-end job over at Gold's Gym Venice and didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. How old were you? 21. Wow. 21. I'd moved out to California not to be famous or anything. My degree was in Canis, and I wanted to, like, that was the center of the fitness universe in 99, 2000. So, like, all equipment manufacturers were there. I'm like, man, I'll go get a job with Hammer Strength or Cybex or like maybe golds or like put that piece of paper on the wall to like get a good paying job. It did not work. So I ended up like front desk cleaning toilets selling protein bars in that order So don ever buy a protein bar I just kidding But no I was kind of like a jack of all trades over there And a friend of mine, Chris Bell and Mark Bell. Oh, I know those guys. Yeah, yeah. They literally were like, dude, you talk about WWF all the time. You know, we train down in Orange County. And at that time, Chris Bell was kind of like writing for this promotion. And like, would you want to do it? And, man, that doesn't happen without them accidentally saying, like, yo, we train to do this. His documentaries are fucking incredible. Bigger, Stronger, Faster. And then the other one, the pill one. What was that one called? Magic Pill? No, what was the one, the addiction one that Chris released? But Bigger, Stronger, Faster is such a fucking great documentary. The Bell family, I've been friends with them for a long time. Great guys. Yeah. That documentary like blew the lid off of like the reality of steroids. Prescription thugs. Prescription thugs. That's another great one. Yeah. Crazy thing is he got addicted to pills while he was doing that because he had surgery while he was doing that and got addicted to pills while he's making a fucking documentary on people being addicted to pills. That's how potent pills are. A guy making a documentary about addiction, he just thinks, well, I'm just taking these because I got hip surgery. and I'm in fucking agony and then gets hooked. That's how crazy it is. Yeah, they're strong. Yeah, I would imagine. Did you ever have an issue? No. No, as a matter of fact, I've had fusion in my neck, right pec completely detached, reattached, both triceps reattached, both triceps scoped, nose relocated. Like, I probably am in, like, 10 physical surgeries where they got to go and correct something. Never taken one pain pill. Wow. I have all the prescriptions in the bottom drawer of my house filled. And it's weird because at every facility, the first hill they climb is pain management. You wake up from anesthesia. You're, like, gray and murky. And I've been in a bunch of surgeries at a bunch of different facilities. The protocol is always the same. Do you want something for the pain? here, we gotta make sure you take this with you because you're not in any pain. Yeah. Like, I understand because if you leave, if you're feeling okay, maybe you're high off adrenaline, I don't know, and then the operation sets in of like, holy fuck, this is a 10 out off adrenaline, I don't know, if you're feeling okay, maybe you're high off adrenaline, I don't know, and then the operation sets in of like, holy fuck, this is a 10 out of 10. I can't. I need something. I get that. But I guess from falling down and hurting my body a lot, like I know my pain threshold. Yeah. And the worst one was probably putting the whole pec back on and then attaching it. But when I woke up, I was able to mess around with a stress ball, and I never took one pill. That's amazing. And I still have the full bottles of like summer labeled 2008 is when I had my first surgery And they're just all there. There's a lot of people listening right now It was weird because the medical staff couldn't couldn't believe it like they're like you don't want anything No, because man, it's a I know I am with this. It's yeah, it's a fucking slippery road. I would just I'd be high on opioids all the time. I got my first knee surgery, I think, in 93 or 94, and they gave me, I got an ACL reconstruction, and they gave me Vicodin, I think. Pretty sure it was Vicodin. I took one, one day, and I felt so stupid. I was lying on my couch watching TV, and I felt so dumb, and my knee still hurt. It was just like it was distracting me from the fact that my knee hurt, but I'm like, I can't be this dumb. I'm dumb enough as it is. I can't add to my dumbness with pills. I just saw it coming. And also I knew a bunch of guys who had pill problems. I wound up selling my pills to a friend of mine that would sell pills. Gosh, I should have taken your idea. I could have made some cash. I only made like a couple hundred bucks or something. I don't even remember. It was like in the 90s. But I remember just that one pill. And so then every surgery I've had ever since then, they always offered me stuff, and I never took anything. I got my other ACL reconstructed in 2003. Never took anything. I got my nose fixed. It's like 2008. I got my nose reconstructed, deviated septum. The guy was insisting that I – he gave me two prescriptions for pain medicine. And I was like, I don't want anything. I was like, is it going to get worse than this? He's like, it could get. I go, right now it feels like nothing. It's like – but if you've been – again, like you, you've been beaten up so many times. Your body, you're so used to just being in pain. And I think for some people just the daunting anxiety of pain itself is like they just want a pill before they even realize like I can kind of just yeah it sucks but it not going to suck forever It going to heal So let's just deal with the suck and just lay here. Put some ice on it or whatever and just relax. And along with that, it's kind of like your body's natural way of saying, like, okay, maybe push a little bit more. Try to get a few more degrees of range of motion and physical therapy. Like if those senses are numbed and like shut off, first of all, you do feel just like I don't want to do anything. So you won't work. In many cases, you won't work to do the work to get better. Or you don't know the messaging. You can't listen to your body. Like if it's really, really in pain, maybe your body's trying to tell you something. I don't know. I always assume that people feel pain differently. I mean I just would imagine. Like people feel hot sauce differently. Like some people, they can't have any spice. Some people fucking can have like, you know, death peppers and they're fine. So I'll throw that out to the group. Is pain a personal experience? I mean, there's no way I'm as tough as you guys. So yeah, it has to be. But I think in other dimensions, you might be way tougher. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe. I think there's something. You don't know Tony. I can't imagine the dimension. I went and visited a firehouse the other day and I was going down the pole going, whee, like you guys wouldn't do that. I would do that. So in that aspect, you're tougher than me. Yeah, you could take ridicule. We could take ridicule really easily. But I don't know what it feels like for other people. You know what I'm saying? I mean, I would assume that everybody feels the same. But you know one of the reasons why I think maybe it is like it's different? Because my mom, my mom has a crazy tolerance to pain. Like my guy who, my stem cell guy in L.A., my mom had a real knee issue and he was treating her as well. And he goes, it's hilarious. Your mother's just like you. She just takes it. Like she doesn't even flinch. She's sticking it. Like he's like, that doesn't happen with like 75-year-old ladies. Like take a needle and shove it into their knee and push it. And she just doesn't move. And, you know, she's like, oh, it wasn't painful. It was no big deal. It's like a lot of 75-year-old ladies would be fucking sweating and freaking out and seeing the needle. Pretty sure I would be, yeah. But I don't know. I don't know what it feels like to other people. Like when I got my ACL my right ACL reconstructed it was a lot easier because it was a cadaver and I recommend it to anybody The difference between a patella tendon graft recovery and a cadaver recovery is literally like six months The difference is the cadaver was so much quicker. Wow. Oh, my God. Because the cadaver, they take it. I mean, it's all swollen and everything afterwards, but it's somebody else's tendon. They take an Achilles tendon off of a cadaver, so it's 150% stronger than an ACL. They fucking screw that sucker in place. little tiny orthoscopic holes, not nearly as invasive. And then five days later, you know Matt Lichtenberg? I went to his party for his birthday party five days later just walking around. And he was like, did you just have surgery? I go, yeah. It's not that big a deal. It feels fine. It was so much easier. The left one was brutal because they take a slice out of your patella tendon and then they take a chunk out of your shin bone and a chunk out of your kneecap and then they use those to screw this new tendon that they created into the shin bone and into your thigh bone. That was rough. That one was painful as fuck and took a long time before it felt normal. It took a long time before I could go down on one knee again. When was that? It was in the 90s. And then the other one was? Early 2000s. 2002-ish, somewhere around then, 2003. I mean, 10 more years of performance surgeries, 10 more years of medical. I just think it's the – because they still do that patella tendon graft, and I think George St. Pierre had it done that way. I know a bunch of people that I'm friends with had it done that way, and I was like, oh, don't do that one. Yeah. Do the cadaver. But people are worried, like, what if you get AIDS? Like, Jesus Christ, you're not going to get AIDS from it. Stop. And it's also – it's like you feel better before you are better, unfortunately, because the way the tendon works. So when they replace a tendon with a cadaver, it's not like you have this guy's tendon in your body. What it is like is that tendon is a scaffolding, and then your body re-proliferates that with your own cells. So over the course of six months, my body had filled in all of what used to be a cadaver with my own cells. So you'll feel like it's better before it's better. So a lot of MMA fighters, they start training too quickly and they blow it out again because it's still soft. That's always the concern. It's always the concern. You feel good. Yeah. I can do this. Especially animals. Guys who are just used to pain and used to pushing and they just pop it out again I know multiple MMA fighters that have had knee surgery and then blew it out while they were recovering And just a few months more, they could just... This episode is brought to you by OnX Hunt. Hunters, listen up. Millions of hunters use the OnX Hunt app, and here's why. It turns your phone into a GPS that works anywhere, even without cell phone service. You'll see exactly where you are, every property line, and who owns the land. You can connect your cellular trail cams, drop custom waypoints, dial in the wind, and a whole lot more. 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But I think some people, just any kind of pain, it's just they can't function. They're just in agony. And I think those people are way more vulnerable to the pills. That's just my assumption. That's a decent perspective. I would agree with pain is a personal experience. Like there are people who, I mean, I've seen people like, I can't believe you go through that. And then people will be like, but you get the shit kicked out of you. I can't believe you do that. It's all relative. I would be shit and cufflinks if you get that stem cell needle out. I would be sweating right until the fucking final moment. Like some stuff I can't take, you know. So I guess it is, it could be combined with like what we fear in life or maybe fear of hard work or fear of effort. Who knows? I don't know. I think it's also being accustomed to pain. You know, so if you, did you wrestle when you were younger? No, I played football. You played football, well that's just, I don't know. I don't know. I think it's also being accustomed to pain. Did you wrestle when you were younger? No, I played football. You played football. Well, that's just like that in that you're always in pain. I mean, if you're playing football, you're always colliding with people. You've got to have shoulders fucking with you, your back's fucking with you. It's never ending. I've always said that there's some value into losing a fight. Oh, yeah. I grew up with four brothers, and we kicked the shit out of each other, and I was not always on the winning side. So very early on in my life as a young person, you know what it's like to lose a fight. Oh, it's very valuable. And I think that there's a lot maybe to do with the pain conversation there of like just flat out getting your ass kicked and then being able to dust yourself off and be like, I'll get you next time. You know, like it's not over. You know what I'm saying? We're brothers. We're going to fight again. You know, like. It's also knowing like why did he beat me? What can I do to beat him next time? You know, like if you don't have that in your life. also if you don't know what it feels like to get your ass kicked you get a little mouthy i mean how many mouthy people do we know that have never been fucked up and i think that's why like there's real consequences if it actually comes down you start yelling and you get mouthy if it actually comes down to it and we've all seen many of these videos on the internet where someone just don't they don't know what the fuck they're asking for what they're getting into and then all of a sudden they're getting hit and man i'm not perfect and there are days where i'm short of patience but when it gets to that weird spot of like yo someone's gonna get hit in the face i always try to like lean on diplomacy always always yeah please let's not do that because that fucking sucks and i bet a lot of people say to you if i was you i'd be fucking everybody up that's dumb people always say that like it doesn't end with that then this guy gets his brother or he shoots you or they run you over with a car or you think you're gonna fuck somebody up and you get fucking handled right like you never know man you never know anybody else's story you know you never know to so many people out there that train today it's so much different than when i was younger like you would assume that like i assume that a good solid 10 of all men you meet have martial arts skills now because of the ufc popularity of it yeah certainly certainly in western society yes you know the gym there's a gym every plaza also there's so many kids that like watch UFC and then play, practice with themselves. And you could learn a lot just doing that Guys learn a lot just watching it on TV and then emulating it at home with their friends friends can tell those who watch WWE because when those moments happen they try to do some crazy Oh yeah How many guys have fucking thrown their buddy onto a conference table? You know, I mean the fucking sheer amount of punishment you guys put yourself through is staggering I mean it really is staggering, but Thank you very much It is all for the good. It's like a pro football player, pro hockey player, UFC. I think the beautiful advantage that we have is that we can make choices on what we do. So when you're in UFC and they close the door, it's kind of fucking best person wins. It's survival. When we're in WWE and we both step in the ring and they ring the bell, we're working together. We're working together to put on the best show for the audience. And in that process, you can calculate the risks you want to take. And I think that's what allows somebody to be able to perform for 23 years. You know, I don't know. I know that age-old stat that everybody says about, like, the average NFL career is, what, two and a half years or three and a half years. I don't know what the stat is on average UFC career. Like, how long, what's your window to be functionally profitable in UFC? But I know because our risks are calculated and we're working together rather than against each other, the math is way higher for you to have like a 10, 15, 20-year career in WWE. But that also is 10 more years of falling down, 15 more years of falling down. So it's weird. Like you can choreograph the risk, but you have to do it time and time again. And the schedule in WWE just changed. like to do 70 matches a year now in WWE is like man you you're a workhorse we used to do 220 230 which is so crazy it's it 220 days of trauma in a year because you're getting no matter what you're getting some trauma no matter what a guy body slams you something happened you're colliding you go off the ropes you're smashing into each other I get such a warm feeling when uh first go into the ring for the first time. It's like, oh, it's like a bouncy floor, and then they fall down once, and like the wind's knocked out of them, and they're like, my brain moved. Yeah, yeah. Now you gotta do that again and again. But it weird I gotten to work with a lot of stand and WWE is kind of changing I would say it on the progression of a stand making it to just like a stadium tour But man when I performed my sweet spot we ran very parallel lives. Like I've worked every city, Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom to Madison Square Garden, like to the Saitama Super Arena, to AT&T Stadium, to Bangor, Maine, or to Valparaiso, Indiana. Like you go to all of these places And it's like Friday you're in one place, Saturday you're in another place, Sunday you're in another place, Monday you're in another place, Tuesday you're in another place. One day to drop your shit, one day to catch your flight out, do it again. Like it's kind of – we're kind of like touring stand-ups in that regard. Very similar. Yeah. And you're responsible for your own trans. And I'm speaking from my – I don't know how it is now because I got one left and then I'm done. But you were responsible for your own transportation, booking your own hotels. Like you were they were just like, hey, we're starting here, running here. Good luck. Which is awesome because you create people are really independent when they when they go through that fire and you weed out the people who don't want to be there. Yeah, because they're just a sheer work, the sheer workload. Making those clubs and like making doing a tour. It's also the adrenaline. Like it's like, what do you do after a night? Like, dude, most jobs, people can't wait to be done and then go home and relax and fall asleep. where you're doing stand-up or obviously wrestling. You were just... You're done late at night and you're like, man, what the water rush. Yeah. Fuck, what can I do better? This is fucking killed. And then it's four in the morning. Yeah, you're buzzing. Yeah. You're buzzing. And it's also, it's really hard to have any kind of a normal relationship because you're just constantly not home. You're constantly gone. Like even your friends, like you really, as a touring comic, the best thing that I ever did is start taking friends with me on the road. Instead of just working with random guys that I didn't know in different towns. Those are fun sometimes. Sometimes. Two out of ten times, you meet a new friend. Eight out of ten times, you're with some annoying alcoholic who fucking sucks. And they're annoying and then they want to take you someplace and you get in trouble. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's certainly the normal life aspect of it. it's also like at full tilt, it's a, it's a very absorbing thing. It's a very selfish thing. So I think not only you don work regular office hours and you a nomad a gypsy but especially from a WWE perspective you you have to like you a you a startup founder you have to wake up thinking about it you have to think about it all day you have to go to sleep thinking about it wake up in the two hours of sleep did you get being like i remember this line or maybe we can do this stunt or whatever right and it's people who are in your sphere at least through my perspective and my journey man if you were in my gravity from like 2002 to like 2019 I wasn't a part of a team you did it my way like bus leaves at 10 if you're there at 1001 you're fucking left like we're doing this and we're training here and then we're doing this but it's it's so it's so the end product is good so like the dream job of like man I never the the six-year-old kid holding the paper belt can be an adult holding the real belt and get shekels for doing that and I don't ever want to I don't want to put that in jeopardy so you fuckers are gonna have to get in line and we're just gonna have to go like it you you know i i i was absent a lot in relationships because if it wasn't on my terms it didn't exist you know because here you got you you catch lightning out of a jar i'm a kid from west newberry who's you know come from a family of five and we there's always more broke but man we were a good level of broke and then now like hey if you just work hard at this thing you can kind of not ever be that again all right fuck this i'm doing this thing all the time but that comes with hey i'm getting married or like my grandfather died or i got a birthday coming up or like hey man you missed another thanksgiving you're damn right i did because i'm doing the thing yeah you know so that it's also for me at least it was it was that as well of like laser focus all things wwe well it's that and everything that you do where you want to really be successful. It takes, saying yes to the thing means no to everything else. I had Jensen Huang on the podcast the other day, who's the CEO of NVIDIA. One of the biggest companies on planet Earth. Huge company. Fucking dude still to this day works seven days a week. And he was talking about when he goes on vacation, I go, do you go on vacation and just put it all down? He goes, no, I work. He goes, even when I'm with my family, I have to work. I'm working. I work seven days a week. I don't take a day off. I love it. And he goes, and I'm terrified of failure. He goes, that's my motivation. My motivation is not I want to succeed. My motivation is fear of failure. Every day I show up saying, if I don't do this, we could fail. That's my motivation. That's my motivation. My motivation is not I want to succeed. My motivation is fear of failure. Every day I show up saying, if I don't do this, we could fail, and I'm going to work seven days a week. Everybody who thinks they want to be a CEO, you think you want to be a billionaire, like, you want to do that? You want to do that when you're 60 years old? Do you want to be working seven days a week all day long from the moment you wake up? He wakes up at 430 in the morning. He says he answers thousands of emails a day. I'm like, what? How is that even fucking possible? Gets up at 4.30 in the morning, answers all these emails, works all day long, constantly problem solving, making AI chips. It's fucking crazy, right? Yeah. But that's with everything. You want to be at the top of the heap? When you see mastery. There's only one way. Yeah. When you see something difficult look easy, there's a bunch of 4.30 in the morning wake-ups that made that happen. I think with everything in life. Yeah. Anything in life where you really want to excel at it, there's no shortcuts. Yeah. It doesn't exist. That weeds a lot of people out. It does. It does. And there's a lot of, man, armchair quarterback is the easiest and best position on the field. Yeah. I can do that. All I need to do is do this. Sure. Go right ahead. Yeah. Take your best shot. Yeah. Good luck. Yeah. It's interesting because it must weed out so many talented people. There's probably a lot of talented people that you've seen over the years that just didn't have that drive to constantly improve and succeed and really be thinking about what they're doing all the time. I like that statement because I think the talent is doing it all. You could have a... No, you can have one. You can smoke if you want. I don't care. We have fans in here. Yeah, with fans, let's suck out all the smoke. I think the statement of, man, so many talented people didn't make it. They may be an acrobat. they may be a fast talker but that's not the only attribute that makes one special you may be a great joke writer but man if you don't master stage presence a great joke writer with stage presence but if you can't lug the tour you're not talented for it it's really the grind it is, it's like the all encompassing thing so when someone with great athletic ability decides that it's not for them because eventually that is One thing about WWE for all the arguments of backstage politico everybody understands the sound of money And no one refuses it like i fucking hate this guy but i gotta give him another match it may not be but i now have to give him a 10 contract but when they go out there if the noise is there even if the they's fucking hate you you get another match i'm i'm proof positive of that meritocracy at work yeah like everybody fucking hated me why they hate you i was just real different like i i was just really different in what way um so i didn't rock i didn't ruffle any feathers when i kind of uh entered the business kept quiet did my stuff but i also didn't connect with the audience and and and i don't know maybe you guys see this in stand-up or not but then i got like a personality of like the white rap guy like the white hip-hop guy you know about that but like i'm economic i fucking went i fucking went all in, you know, urban gear, like, and I'm a hip hop head. So it's like, oh man, this is my sweet spot. This is the avenue. This isn't all of my personality, but this is one level that I can show that I think everyone will get. So if you go to Madison Square Garden, you get it. But if we go to Wheeling, West Virginia, you'll also get it. And you may like it in some places and hate it in some places, but everyone will get it. I will not be selling apathy. But in doing that, I never followed dress code i was saying disrespectful shit about my peers like i kind of did it my own way so i was i was kind of ruffling some feathers backstage or just i was taking big swings because i was gonna fucking get fired anyway the alternative was lose my job so i was like fuck it i'm going down swinging yeah and then the people behind the curtain were like ah the kid's disrespectful to the business he doesn't care about the business all the while i just want to keep my fucking job you know so the days behind the curtain weren't really invested but they were also humble enough to be like there's noise out there got to give them another match and one match at a time times 23 years of compounding interest we're here what did vince think about your hip-hop hated it and then loved it he hated it and then loved it and and i think I think I'm thinking for somebody, but I think from his perspective is, like when I hear somebody's idea for a personality, man, I want to be this sports agent guy or whatever, oh yo I have the idea of what that is in my head And if their projection of that idea doesn match my projection of that idea I like ah fuck I hate it but that doesn mean it can work so I think what maybe would happen was my perspective of the white hip hop guy from the mean street of Wes Newberry and Vince's perspective of John Cena the rapper we probably missed like he had an idea and I had an idea and usually he will craft it to his vision I got to give him respect for allowing me to run with it. Well, it's probably that fear of being fired that keeps you on the edge, too. Dude, that was it. The NVIDIA guy of, like, I don't want to fail. Yeah. I got the sit down of, like, hey, we're going to cut you because it's not working. You're out there for your matches. You hear the same thing. It's not working. And there's no argument there. I'm like, fucking all right. I got to touch the sun. I got to make it. I got to play for the Yankees. I got my one at bat. I'm Moonlight Graham. and then they heard me rap in the back of the bus and was like, man, Stephanie heard me rap in the back of the bus. It was like, yo, you want to do that on TV? I'm like, lose my job or fucking rap? Yeah, let's go. Let's do this. So it was Stephanie's idea? And it was a fucking accident, dude. It was an accident. It was my final overseas tour for the WWE, and the boys just spend time. Like, that's the one time they get the whole group together is overseas because you don't want to be herding cats like in Amsterdam or something. Everybody rides on the bus. You go from town to town. So to pass the time, the boys just do whatever. And they were freestyling in the back of the bus. And I normally just fucking kept to myself because I was raised in the environment of keep your ears open, keep your mouth shut, don't do anything less spoken to. So I did that. But I also didn't make any connections with people who were putting their lives on the line for me. Some of the guys you really beat the shit out of in the rings are your best friends. So I didn't have any of those connections. And I heard these guys rapping, and I just remember playing Roller Coaster Tycoon on my laptop, fold matching up, putting it away, and be like, I'm going to the back of the bus. And just waited my turn and then filleted like 12 guys. Yeah. And Stephanie was like, how the fuck did you remember all that? I'm like, no, no, it's freestyle. You just make it up. And she's like, well, make up something about me. And we were boarding a plane. And I literally, like, utilized the plane, the people getting on the plane, what she was wearing, what she was eating. She's like, would you do this on TV? and that's where we got a chance. Wow, that's crazy. It wasn like off to the moon I got a shitty chance on a small spot and that worked So then I got moved to the dog shit Saturday night program that nobody watches. But the cool thing is no one's watching. So I can do whatever I wanted. So I started saying more racy shit and dressing more outlandish and having more personality and claiming ownership of the show. I call myself Mr. Saturday Night. And it's the shitty show. You don't want to be Mr. Saturday Night, but I did. and then that got another match and got another match and one by one it kind of brought me here wow just a fucking happy accident man that's crazy all the way and even when the bells were like hey you want the whole thing's a fucking accident you want to start training fuck yeah sure all right great you want to start rapping yeah fuck it sure let's see what happens that's amazing it's a happy accident and for it to go all the way to last year's massive heel turn He went heel, dude. That was this year, by the way. Yeah. Yeah, that was this year. Yeah, it's been a year. It's been a year. Yeah, that was. That was at Mania. And man, literally, perhaps, other than maybe Hogan, right, the greatest heel turn in wrestling history. When a good, good, good, good, good, crowd-pleasing guy goes bad, bad, and dark, You had moments, the things you were saying, the way you were saying them. Epic, iconic, iconic heel turn. Cold, dark, working with The Rock. He was in cahoots. That's the good guy, Cody Rhodes. You can see the people's faces. That's the fun thing. This stuff is so simple, but if you take out the crowd in that situation and just put those three guys, it is really fucked up what we do. But when you add the audience in the back and all of their faces and what's going on, that's what makes what we do magic. face you you got like a mean guy face all of a sudden it's like you look like a different person that's interesting i was having a bad day well this is also when you'd already done a bunch of acting oh yes like this is this year yeah yeah yeah this is a february this year yeah how much of the creative control do you have over the aspects of that heel turn like for example one thing that I thought was the coolest. I was in the front row of WrestleMania behind the Spanish announce table. So I'm directly across from the entrance, you know the giant WrestleMania football stadium. row of WrestleMania behind the Spanish announce table. row of WrestleMania behind the Spanish announce table. So I'm directly across from the entrance, you know, the giant WrestleMania football stadium in Las Vegas. And there was no music and it was a black background. Normally he's the most color with the most iconic, loud, wild music, no music, black background. And in white letters, it just said Cena. and you just walked out with literally the statement was, I'm not here to entertain you people, basically, is what it felt like. And I loved it. I mean, this is the main event of Mania. You were so entertained. I mean, I wanted to entertain you. Fuck, I fucked up. Yeah, I have a degree in pro wrestling, but my master's is in heeldom. Like, it's like the bad. I just love a bad guy. And even ever since that bad guy turn, I feel like most bad guy fans do now newly connected with the back to the return of the good guy Cena. Yeah, there it is. Oh, I mean, it was literally just. I used to come out like a Tasmanian devil. Yeah. And then it's just reversed it all. And it seems like nothing, but it's iconic. Just cold as ice. Everyone else for four hours coming out with colorful music and pyro and all this stuff. And there's the guy that normally did it the best and the biggest. Just really not giving a fuck. And WrestleMania, if you're going to do it, you give your best entrance for WrestleMania. And this was, I guess we were going for the shittiest one. But it just rang the opposite in simple and true. The Octagon isn't just in Las Vegas anymore. It's right in your hands with DraftKings Sportsbook, the official sports betting partner of UFC. 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Bet must win to receive bonus bets which expire in seven days. minimum odds required for additional terms and responsible gaming resources see dkng.co slash audio limited time offer so like for example those things those details that's you mostly pitching to the creative team like like for example like the even just the white letters the black entrance is that how does that kind of come together so i think that's um i've and i've been lucky enough to kind of take this perspective of not knowing everything and realizing that even even with 23 years of fluency, I'm not the smartest guy in the room. I don't know the technology they have and what they can do. Now, granted, a black LED board, I could probably come up with that. But what I like to do is lean on my resources. Like, hey, let's go to production and see what production is thinking. And I don't want to tell them what to do because I want to hear their ideas first. And production was like, what if we just went basic? I'm like, how basic can you go? Yeah. What if we just blacked everything out? Yeah, but I know from what you guys have said, you also like to light the – no, no. What if we just black everything out? You guys would do that? Oh, that sucks. Yeah, let's do that. Yeah. So it's not me with all of these things. I don't have enough depth of field to touch all the bases, but I will go to every department and say like, okay, entrance is a big part of what we do. What do we do for lighting? What do we do for production? Go to camera. Like how do you guys want to shoot it? And then it trickles down. when you talk to the talent you're working with, how do we portray this message? And then, of course, it starts at the top with, creatively, I want to make you a bad guy, so we're going to do that. Okay, sure, we're going to do that. How do you want to do that? But I think it's getting, we have a lot of talented people, and just allowing them to do their job and let you know, like, oh, I was kind of thinking this. And then tell them, yeah, that's a good idea, let's do that. Yeah. You know? That's amazing. Because I don't know what I miss if I'm making all the demands. To show you the contrast, His opponent that night came out to I think it was 40 people on red white and blue dirt bikes all dressed like American people Nitro circus He comes out elevated from inside of the stage wearing this super gaudy mask that he has to take off Fireworks, fireworks, fire, sparks, smoke, all of these different things, and he just comes out blank-faced. I just got my bunk sock on the back, just right on. There you go. It's so funny hearing Tony talk about this because for people who don't know, the way Tony runs Kill Tony is basically a version of a WWE event. I mean, it really is. Like when he does the arena shows, he has everything set up like a WWE event. Yeah. I mean, even the thing we did with Shane, when Shane was playing Trump, when Trump and I were supposedly feuding online, Trump had said something about me online, and then Trump's talking shit, like as Shane's talking shit, and then the music plays and I show up behind him. It's pure pro wrestling. Oh, yeah. It's pure pro wrestling. And MSG's on their feet, shocked. You're surprising this crowd that thinks they're just there for a comedy show. Well, there's the panel. I guess that's what we're going to have tonight. But the surprises, the ups, the downs, and then he brings up Joey Diaz. So it's like, boom, boom, kind of like that big finish at Mania that I was talking about. Yeah. Superstar bringing up a superstar, music, music, smoke, fire. Yes. All these little things. The more you make it important. the more important it becomes. Yeah. As when, what he's saying is like when Trump was there, this was as Trump was running for president and Trump thought that I was endorsing RFK. So he got mad at me. So I said, I am here to endorse someone. And I brought out Joey Diaz. I mean, which is great because you get a reveal, but you get a different reveal and it's like, and everybody went nuts. And, but it's like the audience, they're into it. Like they're into pro wrestling. They want all the heel turns. They want all the chaos. They want all the pageantry and the fire and the explosions and all the shit. Man, you get any live audience, they're into all that. Like, watch a college football game. Right. Watch a soccer game overseas or football, as they would say. Like, the fans, it's like a group think of energy that's fucking nuts. Yeah. Like, audiences want it. It doesn't matter where you're at. Man, when comics just go out and light up a stage and they have that fucking stage presence and they just slay a set, the fucking audience is rolling in the aisles. Like you let them in And they can help make a joke that might not hit the night before Slay It all about the moment It all about being there and reading the people And the fun thing about WWE is you can go out there with an idea. I can only imagine this as kind of like stand-up where if you got your set and you tell the first joke to crickets, you may try another joke, and if that's crickets, you got to fucking pivot. So we go out and do something, and oh, man, they're into it. great all right we have them we just got to maintain their attention until we get to act three essentially but if you hear fucking crickets you're like all right we're switching it up fucking pivot right now and you that's the beauty that's that's one of the things that i love the most is the it's not just me and the other person out there like the audience is the act every like that moment only means something if you put a blue screen behind the people it is super fucked up like what the fuck are they doing and why does that mean anything right but when you let the level of the audience and everybody's on their feet they're no like it's fucking everything it's everything that's why tony's so interested in the coordination of it all and the setting and the sabotage and all the chaos that's involved in all of it these are these are human emotions that are universal everyone understands betrayal jealousy anger disappointment failure excitement like these are universal things that you don't, if we don't speak the same language, you still have felt these things and you could watch that. No one spoke in that clip, but you could watch that in anywhere in the world. And be like, that kid just got fucked over. Right. Oh, what's going to happen next? Like, that's the beautiful appeal of it. You know, it's, it's, we don't hit too far above our weight class. Like we, we try to send large scale universal messages based on true, real human emotion that we all know. Yeah. and up to that day, that moment, like even that thing that we were just telling you about, me bringing, him coming out, that being a reveal, him bringing up Diaz was coordinated literally, I think, 15 minutes before go time. Like literally me with a big piece of paper going, hey, Joe, what if we did this? He confirms it. So I go to hair and makeup where they're finishing up Shane as Trump, which in itself is just hysterical. I pitch it to him, he loves it. I go to Diaz, I say, Rogan's going to bring you up. And the thing happens quick. Whereas with almost every form of entertainment that we're used to other than... it i go to diaz i say rogan's gonna bring you up and and the thing happens quick whereas with it i go to diaz i say rogan's gonna bring you up and and the thing happens quick whereas with almost you know every form of entertainment that we're used to other than wrestling and like kind of you know kill tony in this instance everything's so pre-planned that if we over pre-planned it we wouldn't have had the topical rfk endorsement because it was like news that Yeah, sure. And so again, that inspiration, you know, totally comes from there. Because what else is doing that? At MSG, 10 minutes before the show, reorganizing things. So now we have to go to production and go, have Rogan's LED ready. And then Diaz in that order, you know, it literally comes from that. And when it goes right, there's not a better feeling in the world. I just get to sit back and watch. Yeah. But it's so funny that that connection with pro wrestling is really why you've made Kill Tony the way it is. Yeah. Like without your love of pro wrestling, it would be such a different show. Like if it was just run like a traditional stand up show. Right. It's there's so much else going on that makes it the biggest show. Yeah. Well, it's long term storytelling. We had a guy on on Monday that had been doing it 14 years. years and man he just his timing was off he struggled even after the minute i go you've been doing it 14 years he goes yeah man i go what do you how do you make money he goes i do this i go you do this for a living he goes yeah i go you must have better material i'm gonna give you another shot do another minute here we go ladies and gentlemen and i introduced him again and he bombs again and literally um i was talking with it about it with stephanie after the show because she just happened to be at kill tony on monday and she goes guy like that you know what happened you know what happens next i go hopefully hopefully the guy gets pulled out of the bucket in a month or two has a great set puts it together realizes oh his timing was off he wasn't taking a breath he wasn't connecting with the crowd he was just memorizing his stuff and and the story begins to be told about this guy. And sometimes it happens in reverse. Sometimes somebody starts off fire hot. Rocket strapped to the back. Yup and then and that kind of the sadder thing right Is starting hot and then never being able to touch that again Have a moment like your first time Well it like we were talking about people with talent We all know someone who killed during open mic days that we like wow this guy going to be huge They have like undeniable talent and they just can't manage it. They can't figure it out. They self-sabotage. They get addicted to drugs or alcohol or whatever it is. There are so many things. It's not just the ability to go out and do the task well. There's so many variables that will fuck you up. Dude, you're right. So many gifted people have just had that roadblock in front of them. Which is why I think conversations with successful people are so important because you get to hear those stories. You get to hear, like with Jensen the other day, he was talking about how NVIDIA was basically bankrupt. They were on their way out and someone gave them a chance. Like some one guy that was an investor gave them a chance, and then they wound up becoming successful. And then there was these moments. And people need to know that you're going to have those hurdles. You're going to have those roadblocks. You're going to have to figure out how to adjust. It's not easy. No one who has been successful at anything will tell you the whole ride was easy. Yeah, but a lot of the time, man, sometimes we'll be in it. I, so I've been through like three generations of knowledge and learning, uh, 23 years in the business that are operating at a high level. I have seen thousands and like, it is the man, if you're a stud in Peewee football league, then you go to this junior high school and then you're the number one player in college. And then you're the number one, number one player in high school and number one player in college eke out a spot in the NFL. And then a year later you're gone Because the funnel just gets so thin. Like, WWE has, like, 200 personnel in their NXT development program right now. Maybe 10 will make it. And of those 10, like, really, honestly, maybe one will make it. And what the hope is is over a six-year period of those classes of 200 that get matriculated probably every four months. So we're talking 6,000 people. I'm hoping one makes it. Wow. In five or six years, I need one. Because my top guy right now, my Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes and the Charlotte Flares and Becky Lynch of the world like they last half a decade to draw Maybe if we lucky maybe we get it more They can you know maybe parlay it into a decade or two But that's an anomaly. You got to play the legit math of like, after five years, I better have somebody in the on-deck circle. So out of like five, 6,000, I just need one. But it's still, everybody's biting their fingernails of like, we don't have the person yet. It's so many folks just don't make it. Just don't make it. Yeah, that's the parallel to stand-up. Yeah, it's, man. So, you know, there's so many people that we were talking last night in the green room. There's just thousands. And when I see them, like, in the ring do stuff, I'm like, I could never do that. But they just won't. They just don't make it. It's just there's so many things that fuck people up. So much self-sabotage. So much inability to stay the course. Being our own worst enemy. Mm-hmm. You know, I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Happy accidents, though. Fuck it. Well, yeah, happy accidents, but not just that. It's you being able to stay on course and you being able to recognize that, you know, okay, this didn't work. What do I do? You want me to rap? Okay, I'll fucking rap. Like, a lot of people would have been like, I'm not fucking rapping. That's beneath me. Yeah. I'm here to be a wrestler. Yeah. I'm not a gimmick. I'm not going to be a buffoon. Yeah. I'll be a buffoon. Yeah. Because it beats working a real job. It's not only that. It's part of the entertainment of it all even the cringe aspect of it. Yeah people like what is going on? Yeah, it's great. He loves that shit. Oh, it's the best The best you know who my guy is right now Dominic Mysterio loved oh my god, so he's No, you're here, I was gonna you weren't at Petco were you no gosh we had fun over there I bet I was I caught a lot of it. Yeah, man. That kid's good too like good good human I happen to be in Salt Lake City doing a gig. I was doing stand-up in one arena, and the WWE happened to be in the other arena in Salt Lake City just a few weeks ago. And I'm like, ah, darn. But I look it up, and it's a 5 p.m. taping of WWE. So I hit up my friends at WWE. I go, I'm coming in. I'm bringing my openers, right? Anyway, Dominic Mysterio is in a triple threat match, And his whole thing is he's wrestling royalties. Rey Mysterio son but he claims that he might be Eddie Guerrero son because his father one of the ultimate good guys of all time So basically he takes on the traits of Eddie Guerrero whose whole thing was cheating and lying and stealing breaking the rules in original ways all the time And he's doing a triple threat match, which means there's three guys at once, right? But if someone beats anybody, you could lose your belt. And his Intercontinental Champion, I think it's Intercontinental, right, is on the line. And he gets thrown outside the ring. And I'm having fun, right? I go, Dominic, cheat. Do something, right? And he's kind of on the other side of the thing. And he lifts up his head and looks at me and goes like that. He gives a big wink. And then he goes back down again. And I'm cracking up. I go, did you see that? I'm next to Pauly Shore. I go, did you just see him wink? He goes, yeah, man. What's he going to do, bro? But these two guys in the ring are wrestling, and one of them has the other one in a submission hold, a camel clutch. I can't remember who it was, but anyway. And I literally, even me, watching since I was a kid, and even though he just winked at me, it was just enough time. I forgot that Dominic was over there because this action in the ring is really happening. Something's about to happen, and you hear the bell ring, and I look over, and there's Dominic with the hammer in his hand, ringing the bell and the guy lets go of the submission and the referee goes what the hell and something i hadn't seen in 35 years of watching this thing he was he's innovative enough to find a brand new way to cheat in this twice yeah a brand new way to cheat and the crowd everybody's cracking up it's a whole new right when you think you've seen it all this guy who you would love. He's literally built like me. He flexes like Nate Diaz without flexing, and he's just braggadocious. Oh, yeah. He thinks he won. But the ref's like, no. And hold on. I got to cut to Dominic. He just loves it. Yep. There's our guy. Dirty Dom. Yeah. And the crowd just loves them. That's all of us right there. That's Matty Edgar, Joe DeRosa, Pauly Shore, me. It was DeRosa's first real record. And the crowd just loves him. And the crowd just loves him. That's all of us right there. That's Matty Edgar, Joe DeRosa, Pauly Shore, me. It was DeRosa's first real wrestling event. He had the time of his life. Childlike wonder. I love getting people in there live for the first time. Yes. There's something funny about a pro wrestler that's not built to. Oh, yeah. And he's the champ. And all these other guys, that guy pent up. Man, he just whipped my ass. Dirty Dom. He just whipped my ass. For real. I just lost the Intercontinental Championship to that son of a bitch. Covered in gold. Yeah. Probably, what, 5'9", 160? No, he's a tall drink of water. Is he? He's taller than me, but he's 170 pounds soaking wet. Yeah, exactly. He's such a uniquely American form of art. Yeah. It really is. It's weird because in pockets of the world, like it's, Japan has their own style of doing it. Latin America has their own style of doing it. The UK has their own style of doing it. But this. Yeah. Like the Japanese is very strong style with respect to martial art. The English style is very like catch-as-catch-can, a real like technical expose. The Latin American style, the Mexican style is high-flying. Mm-hmm. The American offering of like steak, sizzle, apple pie, ice cream, Fourth of July, everything, like huge. And that's all Vince, right? A lot of it. So is it all ever one person? Right, it's not. A lot of it is. A lot of it is. But promotions like World Class Championship Wrestling were some of the first to use music. Vince was the first to be like, rock and roll, get over here and get on cable and let's blow this thing out. I want to do it. It's not just something we have in a local VFW with cigar smoke and guys taking side action on carnival tricks. No, this is a fucking thing. And we are going to make this a fucking thing. Yeah. You know, it's also a fucking thing where it's a lot of it is not televised because you're just traveling around the country doing these shows. Yes. So that that the business model has kind of changed where media content is king now. So from what I understand from TKO and I know their executives will correct me. But from my perspective, we have scaled back on the live event only offerings, which helps, you know, lick the wounds. It's weird. Like you don bump enough or you don bump as much but you kind of need to get in there and bump to get your callus and to get your wind and timing so it it kind of you get your signals crossed but anyhow um the content that is provided is always available for media or or 99 where it used to be the opposite we used to do like four live shows one tv taping so you'd have four live shows under your match you know you do you You do like Lafayette, Little Rock, Pensacola, and then TV in Orlando, you know, and that would be the end of the run. And then you do it again of like Bangor, Portsmouth, Providence, TV in Boston, you know, like and then you'd go for another week and go somewhere else. But it's different now. It's like every piece is televised for the media, which is great because we get a lot out to our fans across the world. But like I learned I learned how to fail in those non televised events. I could take big swings because it's like, man, if I'm in the middle of a card in Valparaiso and I kind of fuck up in a gymnasium with 3,500 people, they might tell me to fuck off, but there's also the last match that's going to send them home happy, so let's try this new weird thing. And that's where, like, me being invisible starts. You know, it's just like, ah, I can try it, who cares? Because it's an environment where you don't want to fail. And now it's, there's way more advantage on getting our content out there, but production is super slick. It's like really precise. Everyone's really good. And I don't know how many people go out there and just like, like Dom. Like that was an example of swinging big. I'm going to fake ring the bell. Will people even get that? Who cares? Let's try it. Like he's, he's the only one of those guys who will, or very few of those guys will stand on an idea like that. where the other guys are like, no, I want to have a good choreographed performance because I want my stuff to look good because it's on television and going around the world. I loved the non-televised events, but it's not a good business model. So how does a young person coming up now learn how to fail? That is, I think, a conundrum that we're facing because you're failing in front of the world. Right. You know, it's weird. You can have, it's like you work out your set, but you can't do it on small clubs before you go to arena. It's like you would work out your set at home, and then you just play the Intuit Dome, or you play Barclays Center Like you don have a small room to be like all right I landed Oh man I going to rework that one You don ever have that You just have this You put it together in your head You think it's okay, and then you're out there. So I don't know. I'm not saying it can't work. I think it can because analytics show that it does work, and we have a lot of people watching now. But from my perspective, I really enjoyed the carefree nature of just going out and being ready for anything. and it being okay if I fucked up and I failed, if I told some bad jokes. I could come back and be like, that didn't work, that didn't work. And then you have a partner to be like, oh, and this didn't work, but this slayed. Why don't you do this again? Like literally that's where this came from, just fucking around at live events. And, oh, my God, there's noise. I'll do it tomorrow night. We're in a different town. Let's see if they can help. How did you come up with that? It was a dare. A happy fucking accident. My brother dared me to do it. Like when we, when I was in the middle of the, the rapping wormhole, I made, I'm a platinum rapper. I made my own album. So like in, in making, yes, drink it in, drink it in, in, in making the album, we would bring home all the tracks. And like my little brother was our test audience and he would do this dance where he would like shake his head and keep his hand in front of him. I'm like, that is man, look at you. He's like, you won't do that on TV. And again, I was on the programs that no one was watching. So it's like no one's watching anyway. Yeah, fuck you. I will do it on TV. And I did it on some meaningless Saturday show, and there was a little bit of noise. So I took it with me on the road for the next week and did it on the live events that weren't televised. There's a little bit of noise. Okay, like this is my thing now. This is my thing. And I just, you can't see me. And like that's, now it's a thing. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. So I did it on a dare. Wow. But like I also had, I was in a place to be able to tell my brother, okay, I can waste two seconds on an inside joke between you and I. That's the dare. It's not going to ruin the match. But if you're watching, if you're the only one person watching Velocity that night, you'll be like, inside joke. Got it. All right. Let's like shouting out your gaming group. Like seven people get the joke, but this is one of those things where it kind of fit and it stuck. Wow. It's just so many of those things in your life. So many of those like fortuitous moments Well you know admittedly I have an optimism bias I will admit that But life will deal opportunity It's a matter of understanding that it's happening. You know, don't get in your own way. Yeah. Like, say, yeah, come here. Sit with you guys. This is a new experience for me. Like, yeah, let's do it. Okay, great. um man first wrestler to ever retire yes that's a good idea we're just gonna do it yeah but you'll never be able to come back yes but the let's just do this thing like life is throwing me an opportunity to create a year's worth of programming narrative that i think will be interesting the alternative is to do what everybody else has done and maybe hang on too long people like man you should have left a few years ago now let's let's do this rap let's do this do you want to train it involves you working at this shitty job where you're probably gonna i try to be a cop and fail that was going to go down and join the Marines. That's lifelong employment. I'm, I'm really good with structure. I dig uniform. Like I give me what to do and like a code of conduct to live by. I have a feeling I would have fit in there. Great. I love being in shape. They feed you over there. Like, I think I would have done okay, but life put an opportunity in front of me and I was stupid enough to say yes. Going out naked in the Oscars. I was just on Jimmy Kimmel last night he's like man you want to do this bit i'm like dude i am super tired i'm on i'm on a different coast he's like let me send you the bit and i read it i'm like yo fuck all right i'm gonna do it what'd you do i shuffled out there with an index card over my dick oh that that thing yeah yeah but like man in a room full of not even peers or contemporaries like the pantheon of the professional goal that you try to reach. I don't know any of these fucking people. I don't belong in that room. Right. And he's like, yeah, man, just kind of walk out there naked. It'll be a fun bit. And he's right. It'll be a funny bit. But I could have got in my own way of like, now I got to fly. I'm exhausted. I'm going to make a fool of myself. I don't know any of these people. It's my first impression. I can sit on the couch. Like, that's the easy part. The tough part is like, life has dealt you this opportunity. Fucking say yes. 15 minutes before the show when you get a good idea. The easy thing to do is be like, do the show. The hard thing to do is be like, yo, let's fucking swing. Let's go for it. So it's not, like, I think those moments happen to a lot of us. And it doesn't have to be a lottery ticket. Granted, holy hell, those moments happen to a lot of us. So it's not like I think those moments happen to a lot of us. And it doesn't have to be a lottery ticket. Granted, holy hell, I've been given a lot of lottery tickets. But it could be something as simple as like, yo, you're in a crummy mood. Find a way to be kind. Like life just gave you an opportunity. The person getting your coffee was like, yo, have a nice day. You could stay crummy or you could be like, fuck, thank you very much. Appreciate that. Appreciate your time. Like that's an opportunity. You know, life is just a matter of, like, us reacting to what life throws at us. Pivotal decisions. And it doesn't need to be a world-changing decision. I think now, I don't want to say nowadays, I think we always think that, like, the decision needs to change the world. No, it's you just need to fucking commit and do something. As a 12-year-old, I want to start working out. And I liked it. And I just fucking keep working out. And now I can't live without it. It's part of my life. It's a fabric of my life. but in working out I've learned structure and discipline accountability essentially budget if you take in too much and you don't spend enough you're going to have some excess like these lessons that opportunity can teach you if you allow it me fucking up the thing I spoke about at the beginning like the easiest thing to do is your fault but if I take it as an opportunity of like alright you missed what did we learn where's the gain yeah you can move forward and i can move forward and wholeheartedly apologize to those i've hurt along the way and they don't need to forgive me that's on their terms i can't control that but man the sleep is a little more sound at night knowing like in learning this lesson or having this opportunity fuck dude i kind of trampled on your shit and i'm so sorry like i had such a shitty relationship with my dad and just recently we've mended fences and he's 80 so i'm glad i've done this because I mean we don't last forever he's going we're all going in the dirt soon you know but I just wanted him to be something else I always wanted that motherfucker to change I wanted him to be something else and finally I got out of my own way the hard thing is meeting that guy where he's at the hard thing is allowing him to be who he is take the weight off my backpack and say like yo I might have needed you to be this in my life but because you weren't man because of in being the dad that I had in my mind I got all these fucking cool male mentors who gave me a key to the gym at 15 and said you better fucking be here in the morning And like dude I still can feel a key in my hand from Dave Nock. The dean of students at Cushing Academy who bet on me. He was like, man, if you get your grades from C's to A's and you play two varsity sports, this place costs in 94, this place costs 35 grand a year. We will give you aid and you will have a place to learn. and that allowed me to become an adult. It allowed me the opportunity of being in a diverse group of students who, man, there's like royalty that goes to that school and then there's fucking poor kids. My roommate was a basketball player from Compton and then we got kids with generational wealth who they're naming buildings after. But when it's just like 450 kids in a social experiment, money goes away and you just kick it. So I learned to be friends with everybody. But I wouldn't have learned that in West Newbury where it's 99.9% white, 1,200 people in the small town, no stoplights. You either leave or you never leave. Like, just little things like that. You know what I'm saying? Like, man, I should do this. And deciding to meet my dad where he's at. And be like, dude, whatever I thought you were, you're not. You're just you. And I love you for you. And, man, when we sit, there's some shit that he'll say that's all fucked up. You know, he said some shit yesterday that, like, I don't think John's last opponent should be there. And people listen to him because he's a wrestling fan. He's like in the kind of like the weird subculture zeitgeist. And I want to call my dad and be like, what the fuck are you doing? But then like, no, he's doing what he does. This is him. This is the dad I, this is the John Cena I love. This is the guy I can sit down with. And part of that is being able to process all that. But the opportunity I get from that. I've learned about my father's story. I've learned about what he wants to do with his life. why he does what he does, maybe what he wanted to do, dreams he didn't have, so I can gain wisdom from there. But it's just that's the hard part. It's like getting out of your own fucking way to do the thing you really want to do. The easy thing to do is to hold a grudge against my dad. What I really wanted to do was tell my dad I love him and sit down with him and be like, yo, let's fucking break bread. Talk about whatever you want. And now we do that, and it's great. But that's a small example of the easy thing to do is sit on the couch and say, fuck it. somebody else's fault. Right. The tough thing to do is like life is handing me a moment right now. And dude, I don bat a thousand I mean it more like Major League Baseball I hoping 300 gets me in the Hall of Fame Like if I can capitalize on 30 of the moments that life gives me and squander the other 70%, I believe I will go into the ground being like, man, I earned life. If you can capitalize on 30% of the moments, you are in the 1% of human beings that have ever lived. I earned life. Yeah. So I'm just trying to get that, make it to Cooperstown. Yeah. That's the reality. And And also the reality is if someone doesn't give you what you need, it gives you a desire to get what you need. Sometimes it's a gift to not have like doting parents. Oh, my goodness. Like I said, I would never have gotten the beautiful guidance I got in life. I always had father figures because I was searching for it. And they found me. And I was also savvy enough to be like, this guy needs to stick in my life for a little bit. it sucks and he fucking pushes me but I gotta keep this guy around like just weird stuff like that I hear a lot of wrestlers a lot of times what do you want to do here I want to be champion okay the math of that's really slim I never wanted to be a fucking champion I just wanted to wrestle and if you're good it'll take you places where one day you can hold one of those but if you start with the goal of I want to hold one of those man am I pigeonholing my goal what the fuck do you really want to do i just wanted to wrestle and if i got fired by wwe i would try to go to japan i would try to go to mexico i'd try to go to the uk fuck it because i just wanted to do it but that also meant i would put my best foot forward and i wasn't shackled to i need to be champion or i'm not validated i'm not successful right you know what i'm saying yeah just give me a chance to go out there and get the noise and whatever else falls into place fuck it cool because what i want to do is just go out there and be in the arena It's funny because they talk about the noise the way we talk about the laughs. Yeah. It's the same thing. It's the same thing, man. It's the same thing. Yeah. You know? And I don't need to be the most decorated person, but it's weird because in not even trying, I have a resume that people will now measure up against like, oh, you got to win X amount to pass the hurdle. So it's weird. Like I didn't even try to do any of that. All I try to do is like, yo, just get me out there. And when you look at what I've done, and you've followed a bit, like, it was weird. I was in the main event of WrestleMania this year. And to talk to people, they were like, oh man that crazy The last main event of WrestleMania I was in was 2012 So you think that like oh john cena this guy everything handed to him he always at the top that was my first main event wrestlemania appearance as an attraction in like 13 years and in that span i worked new wrestlers i worked for lower level titles i sat ringside and crushed three beers and then got fucking squashed by the undertaker as a fan yeah like i did all sorts of shit you know but it because it was never about like i'm not a success unless i'm in the main event of wrestlemania no that's just a position with a ton of stress just fucking get me on the course just get me in the arena have me in section one shaking hands with people from australia and i'll make it the best fucking time they ever had it doesn't matter like just get me out there what i don't want to do is sit on the bench right you know so how did you go from that into acting like what was your first so originally it was a business choice Vince opened WWE studios and with the idea of if we make these guys movie stars more people come to the arena now as a young 20 something on the road people chant your name every night I'm like more people in the arena that sounds fucking great and his first movie was supposed to be with Steve Austin and the it fell through they were about to shoot in two weeks so movie pre-production is way longer than that but he was like you're going Australia to film this movie the marine and it it was tough it was tough I went from arrive in a town at noon work out get a good meal in crush the show have some beers on the ride to the next town fall asleep do it all again and it's like this whirlwind of electricity to okay you're in hair and makeup at six o'clock we're doing an explosion today so the lights are going to be weird and we probably will get to you around 5 30 p.m you just said it's six in the morning yeah so what the fuck you want me to do from here until 5 30 just hang out and i couldn't like as a young 20 something I wanted to be in the electricity. I couldn't handle the nature of the business. And therefore my passion wasn't in it. I wasn't fully invested in it. I am fucking here with you guys right now. We are talking about this. My mind isn't elsewhere on other shit. I want this to be, I wanna give you all I got, so I'm here with you. I was never there in those movies. I was always back in, fuck, maybe if I had the feud with this guy or if I could have done this, I want to give you all I got, so I'm here with you. I want this to be, I want to give you all I got, so I'm here with you. I was never there in those movies. I was always back in, fuck, maybe if I had the feud with this guy or if I could have done this. I was never there. And you could see it in the performance. So I kind of got run out of the movie business. I did so many shitty movies in like 2009, 10. My best friend, agent Dan Boehm at the time, I was like, man, we're never doing movies again, right? And as an agent, you're supposed to be the guy to pick you up. He looks at me dead. He goes, nope, we will find another way, though. He was honest. We are never going to run out of town, but we'll find another way. So we did. We did hosted some live shows, hosted some game shows, did little appearances here and there. And then Judd Apatow and Amy Schumer gave me a chance on Trainwreck. And it was a very small part. But again, like, just just get out in the arena and do your best. And I was in a fucking room with comics, like funny people. I don't belong there. But they created an environment where I wasn't judged. They only showed the good jokes. They didn't show the fucking 20 takes where I tried to tell jokes that sucked. The only ones that made the final cut were the ones that made people laugh. So they provided an opportunity for failure. And at that point, I've been playing the same characters since 2014, 15. I've been playing the same character on TV for 15 fucking years and now I'm like yo I get to do something different I can do this for 12 hours you want me to sit I'll go fucking read a book I don't care I'm in so I accepted the patient process of movies and then after that I got a little bit of noise in Trainwreck and then Judd sent word to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler who were filming up the road in Long Island and be like if you got a spot you should hire the kid and they made me a drug dealer in their thing and then like things started to roll downhill but it's very very small parts at a time and here i am that was 2015 here i am a decade later and i'm still trying to advance to fluency by no means am i like i'm the the 17 time champ of the acting community those are the motherfuckers i was looking at when i was naked you know right i'm aspiring to try to be that but it's basically the pivot happened when And I was like, yo, if you just invest in this, the hustle and patience you put into wrestling, at least you know you gave it your all You know be coachable be professional be reliable be interested And see where the chips fly And fucking say yes Well, it's also you had the objectivity, like the introspective objectivity to look at your past performances and say, I wasn't really in there. I wasn't. And I got run out of town. Yeah. I lost the job. So, like, here's that mulligan. What? Fuck, I'll never work in this town again. I will? All right, let's go. Let's try. What else could go wrong? They've already fired me. You know? So again, an environment and no one does it alone. The people I was around, Tina and Amy are the same way. Like, only show the funny shit, but try whatever you want. Like, fail. It's okay. And just because you're around people who do comedy for a living, all we need is three seconds and we'll be patient enough to give you what you need to give us that three seconds. You know? Yeah. It's just such a fun story. And there's only a few guys that have managed to make that leap from WWE. Obviously, The Rock is the big one. Sure. I mean, he's the biggest one. He's the biggest one to make that leap and now become a giant movie star. Well, I think it's a leap a lot of people can make. It's not from lack of talent. We talk about obstacles and we're in our own way. WWE is all-consuming. and you gotta remember like i i was their biggest act so at 220 shows a year for me to be like hey i need six months off to film this action movie that really fucks with the bottom line like oh yeah so the answer is no right you know and and and now with less live events it's still you you want to be on television it's like okay i need to somehow leverage my relevance with this to what it's going to do to film that, in WWE, if you're not, I'm going to retire on the 13th. They will be moved on by the Royal Rumble. And that is real facts. I will be forgotten. That is not a plea to sympathy of like, always remember me. By the Royal Rumble and the Roge WrestleMania, nobody gives a fuck. Because they're focusing on what the show is. That's like three weeks after I retire. Three weeks after I retire, nobody's going to give a fuck. and that's not, I'm not saying like what I did was meaningless, I've lived the moments, they're great, people move on. So when if I a talent who on TV and finally got one of those spots and edged my way in do I Is this the right time to leverage taking myself off of TV to do four months on something that isn't going to come out for another 18 months? And then I got to go back to TV hoping people still care that my ring work is still polished, that I still have my finger on the pulse. Like it is, we can get in our own way sometimes. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So I was just at the point in 15, 16, 17 where I was like, man, my body's kind of banged up. I'm a little older. I would like to take some time off. And how I talked about like every five years you needed somebody in the on-deck circle. So I'm running at the front for like 15. They needed someone in the on-deck circle. And then they finally got some folks. So they're like, yeah, we got folks. Yeah, go do the thing. It's fine. Go do it. So my passion for it was ignited at the perfect time when the office side of it was like, that won't affect our bottom line too much. Go give this thing a try. So, again, just happy accident, man. And I'm grateful for it. So now you're in the situation, you're going to retire. Yep. And then are you just going to go all in on acting now? So that's, again, beyond my control. Is that the goal, though? Is that what you would like? The goal is to live useful. That's it. The goal is to live useful and not lack like a depth of purpose in my life. You know, I can't control if the phone rings and they say, we want the kid in the picture. That's way beyond me. What I can do is when someone bets on me, do my fucking damnedest. For every dollar, I want to give them 10 back. I want to show them that I want to show you your time was well spent today. I want to give you my heart and soul. And when I leave here, you may be like, not my cup of tea, but the fucking kids are. You know, like that's that's all I'm trying to do. So if I can do that, maybe I get another maybe I get another match. Maybe I get another phone call. But I also realize my mortality in the retirement, like it's over. But also there'll come a day where you're all out there like the kids, not not cool anymore. I'm done. I'm on to the next shiny thing. I'm grateful for what I got, and I know I don't control how many times the phone rings. I just wanna, I never wanna phone it in. And when my time is up, it's over with, man. I'll do the rest of whatever life is. So I Do you think about that like what the rest of life is Do you have other interests Sure do sure do um love messing around with music i i never read as a kid so i reading more than i ever have um love cars love i'd love to just drive that like just being in a car and driving not track stuff just like going on long drives love that i see a bunch of sticks i love an occasional stick with some conversation i love boy did i miss out on loving connections in my life so i'm like Like, I have them now, and they're fucking so cool. So if a day is just spent with friends, or a week, or like, man, with WWE, I've been around the world like 12 times. I haven't seen shit. I've seen the inside of arenas, a hotel bar, and a fucking airport. Yeah. I want to know what Tokyo is all about. I've been there like 20 times. I haven't seen shit. You know? And I don't know if I'll ever get tired of that. I always have a curious nature on to what's next. I don't know what that'll be, but I never want to wake up and be like, man, life's taking forever. You know what I'm saying? I think there's always something to do with the day. So I don't know. Would I love to continue to tell stories and get paid for it? Fuck, that's a great gig. But it's also beyond my control. So instead of being like, I'm going all in on acting and I want to do this. and one day I want to win an Oscar. I'm not saying that approach is bad. I'm just saying my approach is like, man, when they do call, be grateful. And don't be grateful in the easy times. Be grateful when they ask you to work a 69-hour day. Or be grateful on that press tour when you get to read off the prompter and you're doing 86 reads. And the reads are so you can dress up in the costume and all that other shit. Like that's kind of more where I'm at. That's a great approach to life. How did you develop this philosophy? is this dude i'm not supposed to be here like i'm from fucking west newberry massachusetts i'm not supposed to be here and and that's another thing there's not a day that doesn't go by where i look at someone i love and connect with and be like man what a life i i understand how lucky i am and i understand i have been awarded more opportunity than one human being should get and it's from what I've tried to boil down to it, the best way to honor that opportunity is to do your best to try to live a good life. And a good life, that's almost like pain. Everybody's perspective of a good life. is to do your best to try to live a good life. And a good life, that's almost like pain. Everybody's perspective of a good life is different. I've come up with core values, and I try to live by those. Fuck, I'm human. I ain't perfect. But, like, again, when I go into the dirt, I feel as if I didn't waste it. And I don't mean grind. Like, Homeboy from NVIDIA, that's a grind. And I think a lot of him, there's fear there, but also a lot of that effort, he loves it. And that's what an ideal life to him is about. And if he goes in the ground working 70 hours a week, he'll go in with a smile on his face. I just want to go in when it's my time. I want to know that I honored the luck I was given by not fucking squandering it, by not wasting it. And that doesn't mean grind to a monetary number. It just means live a fulfilled life where the sleep is sound, the love is real, and every day you're driven with curiosity and purpose. And I don't know what the fuck that is. And it could change. Man, I thought I was born to be a WWE superstar. And then the elbows start hurting a little bit, and you're like, ah, man, I'm born to be a storyteller. And then you realize that, like, I'm not in control of any of that shit. That's just luck. That's somebody being like, oh, I liked him in this, put him in that. Yes, no problem. I think a key factor you're talking about here is gratitude. I was born to honor the luck that I've been given. Yeah. And just try to do my best to live a full life. Like, that's it. Yeah, and having gratitude about the life that you live and being happy, God, it's so hard but so important. And it's tough when you use that word because it's such a— I know. It's a new-agey bullshit word. It's a box. But nah, man. It's a real word, though. Real thanks is hard. Yeah. because you have to be thankful for the suck, for the pain. You have to be thankful for the lesson, for the journey. And again, these are all slangy, hashtaggy terms. I don't know what the fuck else to call it, so I'm just calling it what it is. They've been co-opted by people to just sort of bullshit and use those words, but the reality of those words is strong. It's very powerful. It's like grind. Grind is another hashtag word. But there is some realism to it. But that, from what I've figured it out thus far, that's my path. And when the facts change so does my opinion So we can come back here in a few years and I be on some other shit but right now that kind of where I at well it such a that the gratitude word has been really co by goofy people unfortunately but it doesn't mean you shouldn't use it yeah real word and and if if and the feeling the word makes you feel weird come up with your own word right thanks yeah whatever having thanks yeah I'm with you there yeah some words make me feel gross yeah it's about how overused they've been but like i i can't stray away from that one yeah yeah i mean we talk about gratitude all the time we're always like talking about how we're living the dream yeah like just being happy what are we doing just shooting the shit i know people are paying attention i know what the fuck you guys doing a lot a lot of people if you're still with us i can't believe it this is great yeah i was thinking uh i was talking to my buddy the other day, Peter Shore, the owner of the comedy store. And I was telling him about how just a few weeks ago, because now that I have a place that I like and a car that I like and a job and everything, everything's finally, it appears how I have always considered what the dream is that I was saying to my buddy the other day who I came up with, who I really started with, And I'm talking about like 14, 16 hour days at the comedy store. I'd answer the phone at 11 a.m. because back then they didn't even have a website. Hello, you want tickets tonight? Blah, blah, blah, blah. Work all night. Put on the T-shirt at 8 p.m. Tear tickets and check IDs until 2.30 in the morning. So I would hit overtime by like Wednesday or Thursday. But they couldn't pay overtime because the comedy store in 2007 was half to quarter empty. Anyway, so they would cut my hours, and I was paying $400 a month to sleep on my buddy's couch in his living room. And he had a bedroom, and my other buddy, Matty, had a bedroom. But Sandy was like, you know, he was like, the apartment was registered in his name. And I mean, terrible couch, terrible setup. I'd have to go through one of their bedrooms to go to the bathroom. So if you have to pee in the middle of the night, you're kind of tiptoeing through. You don't know what you're going to see. You don't want to make noise. You don't know what you're going to see, whatever. And I was talking to Matt a month or so ago, and I go, I think I still owe Sandy a little bit of rent money because I just simply didn't have it back then. Isn't that crazy? He goes, you do. He mentioned it last time because we were talking about how successful you are. There an accountant right there So I Venmoed him out of nowhere We haven even talked since pre he got a family i out here this that i venmoed him a thousand bucks out of nowhere and i go 2007 rent money as the uh as the um the memo part of it and he hits me up saying thanks and we're communicating and then i remembered that at one point i couldn't even afford the $400 a month for the couch. And there was another comedian that was a door guy at the store that did have the $400 a month because he was getting help from his parents. So I got downgraded to a beanbag for like a month or two. I was sleeping. Great for the spine. Oh, just horrendous. Exactly. A sore back for two months, just in pain all the time, but doing what I loved. So much of what you're saying about enjoying the process, enjoy what you're doing, because I really did back then. And I think about that now more. I've been thinking about that beanbag and that couch and that living room more than ever the last few months. You know, it's like that's talking about gratitude. It's like those are the things that that's who you are is enjoying that process. Yeah. And making the best out of it. And in my case of a similar story and from what I'm hearing from you is like you wanted to be there. You were not going to give up the beanbag. Oh, yeah. there's a lot of folks out there who are put behind the eight ball and really have to dig themselves out of a trench. When I moved out to Venice and I was working at Gold's, I was sleeping in the parking lot in my 91 Continental. And everybody's like, oh, man, you were homeless? I'm like, no, no, it was my choice. I didn't want to leave. My old man had a room for me. Nobody ever leaves West Newbury. My dad was like, yo, come back. You got a roof over your head. You get some fucked up job over here. You don't have to pay rent. So I had choice. I stayed in the car because I wanted to. Life was great. I got to see like the bodybuilders of the 2000s. I got to train at the gym and shower at the gym. And the rock came through. There's like an old picture of me in the rock somewhere where I'm in my gold gym club store shirt. And he's fucking doing this one. Like I got to see all these people. And it was fucking cool. And I wouldn't have left if they took the car away. And I had to sleep in the parking lot. Like I was by choice. You know, you slept on the beanbag because you wanted to be there. And the fun fact is. Look at that. That's me in the background right there. No, no, keep that. Hold on, I'm taking the phones off. I'm going in. Yeah, that's me right there. He had just taken a photo with me. And that me Wow That DJ Wow That crazy That 1999 Wow Yeah Fucking rock was white hot selling out every place Probably Staples Center, Anaheim, coming in to press some weights. Wow. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. So that's where the perspective exists. Yeah. Because I shouldn't have even been in the fucking club store selling candy bars. I should be in West Newberry doing what everyone else does. Like that's the tale. And I'm not. So I'm grateful for it. Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of people out there on beanbags right now listening to this. You need to hear it. Stay on the beanbag, man. Stay on that beanbag. 24 more hours. Who knows? 24 more hours, something could happen. Yeah, and the success would be so much sweeter. All so much sweeter if you do it that way. I mean, if you were a trust fund kid and you had plenty of money and your parents gave you $100,000 a year to go out and pursue your dreams and they paid for your apartment. For old friends and new. Coca-Cola. For everyone. Pick up some Coca-Cola at a store near you. Lemo, Lemo! And Doug. Here we have the Lemo Emu in its natural habitat, helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug. Uh, Lemo? Is that guy with the binoculars watching us? Cut the camera. They see us. Only pay for what you need at LibertyMutual.com. Liberty, Liberty, Liberty, Liberty. Savings vary. Underwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates. Excludes Massachusetts. Man, you know, I don't want to fuck on anybody's flex. You're right, but at the same time, if you understand that, right? If you understand I was put on the board ahead of everybody else, I was born on third base. Again, that shit's beyond your control. Right, but I think you need some failure to understand that. So if you're grateful for what you have, you will swing and miss and be accountable. Because you can't really control what you have. You can't control where you start. Right. You can't control where you go. have, you will swing and miss and be accountable. have, you will swing and miss and be accountable. Because you can't really control what you have. You can't control where you start. Right. You can't control where you start. You control where you're going. Or how you respond along the way. Yeah. And the kind of person you are to somebody who was born on third base, I think also will dictate your perception from the eyes of others. if you feel you are greater than fuck we're all human beings dog like nobody greater than nobody you know everybody's out there struggling and all of us especially in this area of the pale blue dot we all believe in capitalism so the fact that you were born on third base means everybody's doing their job and the whole system's working like you can't think you're when you start getting the like I never use this word I feel bad even saying it deserve when you start getting the deserve mentality of I deserve this fuck it what the fuck do you deserve man yeah that's crazy you know have you earned this have you earned it and if you feel as if you haven't what steps steps are you going to take to earn it if you're born on third and you feel bad about it take some steps to feel good about it i don't know what that is but if you're born on third and you feel you deserve it to me that's fucking sprinting through a minefield dog yeah that's not a good path and i don't i don't ever i don't ever want to fuck with somebody who turns like a hundred thousand into 10 million or a million into a billion that's good investing that's i mean that that's the system you you learned how to work the system it's just in the process if you think you think you're better than yeah murky waters man in in my perspective well it's just a terrible perspective anyway like you're just like because it's all right it's all kind of fugazi like there's all these paper ious or whatever it's digital ones and zeros like all right if it melts down are you really better than anybody you know a lot of times it's also a defense mechanism you know you pretend that you deserve it you pretend you're better than other people because maybe you don't feel enough or again everybody's walking through their own mile but like i don't feel validated or i want attention or i don't know i don't know man i don't know yeah yeah it was crazy hanging out with steph mcmahon and how human she was and hilarious and human. I was telling her, cause I was telling her like, man, you know, I always wanted to be a pro wrestler when I was a kid And then I realized I wasn going to be tall enough and I wasn going to be big enough And then lately I been meeting these guys and they not that huge and when I tell them that they go look at me you know Sammy Zane yeah hilarious guy yeah literally told me that he's like you could have done it I'm like yeah I guess I could have actually done it you could probably still do it and I was telling Steph that she goes do you think you can do a little something I go I can hit a super kick on anybody at any time from any place super kick it's Sean Michael's old finishing move. Like a high sabat kick? You would literally faint from laughter because you actually know how to fucking kick through a wall. But it's a kick. And the goal is not to hit the guy. Right, exactly. Come real close. And she's so cool. She goes, oh, that'd be funny if next time I'm with Triple H, you just super kick me out of nowhere. I'll sell it. I'll fall down. The whole thing. I'm like, I know. Stephanie, this is crazy. There we go. There it is. That's a perfect example. Man, you're on it. Okay, so a guy flies through the air and you kind of catch him? That's just one example. That's a really good example right here. But it could be from standing anywhere. It's just pretty much that high. You can do that? I can do that. Are you flexible like that? I'm flexible. At least I think I am. I don't know. We'll see. I was throwing a rock at a tree the other day for the first time in forever. I'm coming up about 15 feet shorter than ever before. That's what she looks like Whoa That looks real That looks like it's really hitting Two of the best right there It's on there You really got that kind of flexibility? You have to slap your leg at the same time And it makes everybody actually think that you did it If I did it to somebody you'd be like Dude you just fucking kicked him Slap the leg Slide a hand Slide a hand It's magic in the business man Yeah. There is. I want to see you out there. Hey, I wrestled with my pillow for like eight hours a day as a kid. I would do the entrances. I would record off of the cassette player. Remember how you used to have to- Dude, we had a whole league in our basement. Yeah, yeah. I didn't need the pillows because I had four brothers. We had belts, a league, personas. And in one persona, I would get my ass kicked all the time. And then there was one persona that could not fucking lose. We kept standings and stuff. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I don't know, man. I don't know. That's amazing. My brothers and sisters were all much older but we had a music class teacher in my grade school that didn give a fuck about his job He would just sit in the corner and play piano the whole time and let the kids do whatever we wanted And again we had entrance music We were all different people all the time. We'd run it back again, the entire 45 minutes jumping off of desks, cabinets, chairs. It's crazy how many injuries didn't happen. It's amazing how resilient, uh, kids can be when we The energy of youth, just bulletproof. God. Yeah. It doesn't make sense how arms and legs and heads and necks weren't broken. You also don't weigh that much back then. Yeah. That's a big part of it. Man, you're so full of energy. Man, I can tell I'm getting old because I can be like, is that chair okay? I'm going to be sitting for a while. Am I going to be all right? Is everything going to be good? I'm like, oh, man, this bed's going to kill me. Just laying down like this. The beanbag, oh, my God. I'd spend four hours in that thing. You'd have to cart me off. I think I'd just sleep on the ground rather than the bean bag. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Back then, it seemed like the better option. It was the better option. Yeah. Probably. That's hilarious, though. Yeah. Have you talked to them about possibly doing something? I mean, no, not exactly. At one point, there was a little chatter, but. Come on, dude. I think you've come up with an insane character. Royal Rumbles right around the corner. I have big shoes to fill over here. 30 entrance we need we need bodies yeah, I show speed did a good job at that man He got drilled out of his boots. He took The streamer famous streamer internet guy he took what's called a bump from hell He got speared at the was that the rumble yeah, yeah, yeah, he was He does some wild shit. He does he got in the cage with Dan the hangman hooker yeah and he's he's like he's game for anything yeah he has like um like a kinesthetic awareness like he's he's obviously an athlete yeah and he's brave like look at this shit watch his mother just leave screen see ya oh man oh my god i can't fake that oh my god but like you also have to the reason that looks so good a lot of that is because of braun but also a lot of that is because of I Show Speed. He committed to the fall and really tried to fall with snap and with quickness Like he good man He really is good And like you said like I seen a of the other stuff he does He does well He can get in there and mess around Oh, yeah. Well, he really sparred with Dan Hooker, and Dan beat the shit out of him, but he hung in there. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy enough to try. It's also interesting, these YouTube guys, they're just becoming famous, and there was no avenue for them before. They would have had to have been cast in a TV show or become something else. With limited spots. Yeah. And now they're doing it completely on their own and becoming huge. I mean, he's got like 50 million Instagram followers or something crazy. Yeah. And a bunch of content and a bunch of revenue to match that. And always working. Always doing something. Puts himself out there. Those guys hustle. Yeah. And all the content creators out there, people don't understand the hours. They may end up getting some financial reward, but when you break it down to hourly wage, they're working 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Like they don't stop because a lot of the content they make will have short shelf life. They're not essentially putting Gone with the Wind out in the universe. Like you're only as good as your next one, not your last one or the one you did. It's like you're only as good as what you're doing five minutes from now. And if you drop off the map, someone will replace you like that. Oh, my God, yeah. There's so many fucking streamers. There's so many people that are doing content. They work hard. They do. They work hard. And even the ones where it seems like a man to a perspective of like, I don't understand this. It's still the effort that goes into that. And it's not just what you saw. It's like, okay, you got to have a repeat performance. And then you got to keep coming and keep coming and keep coming. Like I do a movie and like I said, it's out in 18 months. In 18 months, they've already put out 10,000 videos. Right. You know, like it's bananas. It is interesting that nobody saw that coming too. Nobody ever thought that that was going to be a thing. I just think it's because we get so used to stuff. We get so used to consuming in a certain way. When something is new for us, it's like, oh, man, I don't know if that's going to take off. But there are young people who are experiencing everything at the same time and like, no, this is cooler. Right. It's way easier to do this. Also, he's really young. And when you start young, there's not a lot of expectations on you. No. You can kind of just do whatever you want. And if it works, great. Young and courageous, too. Just go for it. Yeah. Yeah. That's it's also a great example for other people that are thinking like, I'm kind of entertaining. I just don't have an avenue. too. Just go for it. too. Just go for it. Yeah. It's also a great example for other people that are thinking, I'm kind of entertaining. I just don't have an avenue. Let me just start making videos. You got a phone. You got a chance. Isn't that crazy? That's all you have to do is have a phone. It's nuts. You see the videos where he was sprinting with Ashton Forbes, that super jacked guy that does that morning routine that everybody made fun of? Because he has this morning routine where he dunks his face in water and then someone hands him his gold watch and he puts it on. It's like really kind of silly. Yeah. You know, and he had a whole series of races with him because he couldn't believe that this YouTuber guy could beat him because he's like this fucking super jacked, ripped guy who a lot of his online content is him running, and he just looks like a force of nature. And I Show Speed beat him like three times in these races, but he didn't want to believe that he lost, so he wanted to do it again. Let's do it again. Let's do it again. and I show speed talking shit to him. He did it again. See if you can find it. It's very funny. It's very funny because when you look at the guy, this guy looks like he could run like a horse. And I show speed is actually faster than him. I think he sprinted an actual Olympic sprinter. I mean, he started fucking around a little bit, but he held his own. That's crazy. Yeah. That's crazy. He was like right there with an Olympic sprinter. That's nuts. I think he won the gold, the guy that he raced. Really? That's, he's like right next to him. That's crazy. Like, and he's not even fucking training like that guy is. Imagine if he was. Like, that fucking guy, if he wanted to like fully invest himself into sprinting. He's only what? 20, 20 years old. That's wild. Wow, really? Imagine if that kid fully invested in that and then became an Olympic gold medalist as well. So that that where that where my mind goes as well It seems like you can but also why why not because it make his streams even bigger will it I don't know or will sprinting against a gold medalist getting in the cage with a fighter getting in the ring with a champion going to that guy's house and besting him at his own thing like he should keep doing that he shouldn't he shouldn't go into one the lane he's in I think he's doing pretty well right it's almost better losing to the fastest man alive by that much or like so I can tell by watching that like I love potential and you see that and you're like oh my god potential this guy could he could win it all find a video of him sprinting against that Ashton guy cause it's kind of wild for what this guy's got the world by the nuts right he should do what he's doing exactly what he's doing I only know him from that appearance at the Royal Rumble Like he got booked on the Rumble because he has a big following. I'm watching the Rumble. I go, who's this I show speed guy? And I go, wow, that kid took a hell of a bump. So I know him. This Ashton Forbes guy. No, look at the way this guy's built. Oh, my. He's talking shit while he's running. Oh, man. He fell. He's yelling. 40 million people. Is that right? The number of views in the corner? 40 million. Unbelievable. Wow. Oh, man. Look at that. Wow. Yeah, they raced a bunch of times. And the other guy, didn't that other guy, he played football, right? Not in the NFL, but I think like college football or something. Look at this fucking size of him, too. The other guy is fucking super jacked. Like, that's his whole thing is online content is him running, being super jacked. And he has to deal with iShowSpeed talking shit to him. And he's saying, like, play some of this. The first one I slipped. Second one you barely beat me Let run it again Well I got to beat you three times Come on let do it See when I see that right Let go again Excuse us It not a situation What is it 25 26? That's hilarious. He's talking so much shit. So I see this and be like, this kid should be a wrestler. Right. Because he is athletic and he can talk shit and back it up. My God, this kid, he would be a 20-time champion, whatever. No, he should do this. Are they running barefoot on the fucking concrete? I think so. Oh, really? Yeah. That'd be a bad decision. Come on, ass! Come on, ass! That was pretty close. Yeah, but he started before him. He started before me and still lost. He started before me and still lost. He should be doing that. Yeah. But, like, you see the sprinting potential. I see the WWE potential. He should do neither. He should just do that. Right. Well, he's already done WWE. I guarantee you they'd probably want him to do it again. Oh, my. I think he did a thing. He just went to, like, the Performance Center and did a thing. And, like, he's really good. Really good. He's got great instincts. He's got great timing. That's amazing. Yeah. And he's only 20. I mean, there's now, like, this is, like, full multi-camera, really good shooting. Speed vs. Pros, I think, because he's kind of doing that idea you just said. Yeah, like where he goes to people's expertise. Look at that, 46.2 million subscribers on YouTube. That's wild. Yeah, so I think he should just do that, you know, whatever he's doing. Why not? I mean, he's obviously doing it. Does he have a team behind him that's editing all this shit now? I'm sure. Probably. Oh, look at that. He's learning how to do flips. Oh, that's crazy. So he's really in it. Yeah. And I think it's just like show up for a few days and then go on to the next discipline. Wow. So he does everything Smart Very smart He spent all summer going to a city every day Everything was live streamed for like 24 hours straight They go to a city show up what the coolest thing to do in the city And do it. And then go to the next city the next day. Like what kind of shit was he doing? Go to the fair, ride all the rides, try all the games. A bunch of kids following him around. Next day, they were here in Austin going to Terry Black's. I think he went and did stand-up with Mark Norman in New York City. That's cool man That's wild He's so young too, only 20 That talented And just brave and courageous and going for it Like that's Regardless of what you and I think, he's doing exactly what he should be doing You know, he should just keep doing that And obviously not getting in his own way Not at all All the things you're saying, like capitalizing on every opportunity Story yet to be told Story, it's still got a lot of life left Oh yeah, a lot of life left Yeah. Yeah. But we'll see. He's doing great so far. Yeah. Amazing. I think we can wrap this up. It was a fucking awesome podcast. I really enjoyed it. Thank you very much. It is a real big opportunity for you to have me on here because the WWE folks that you have had, I think I'm still – I only got one date left, but I still think I'm the active one. I hope this experience has been good for you guys. It's been amazing. I hope you have more of the guys and gals from us in on your show. Absolutely. Every one of them has got a great story to tell. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think your philosophy is contagious, and I think it's really good for people to hear. And I think there's a lot of young people out there that are really going to benefit from a lot of the things you said. Because I think it's rock solid. That means a lot coming from you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. My pleasure. Tony, you're the man. Awesome. Thank you, guys. Appreciate you. Just call it. Bye, everybody. Good power. 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