Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Adam Pearce: Raw GM, Bray Wyatt Segment, Nick Aldis, Brock Lesnar Split His Pants

Episode Date: August 8, 2024

Adam Pearce (@ScrapDaddyAP) is a professional wrestler and the General Manager of WWE Raw. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Toronto to discuss how he got the job in WWE, why his first run with the company didn't work out, if there are ever any plans to have a match against SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis, being a 5-time NWA World Champion, his 2 matches in WWE, getting hit with 2 F5s from Brock Lesnar, becoming Postman Pearce in Bray Wyatt's Firefly Funhouse, his many arguments with Chelsea Green and more. Visit Adam Pearce's new website: http://itisofficial.org Quote I'm thinking about: "Love somebody today." Sponsors: PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank which was designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/ PRIZEPICKS: Download the app today and use code INSIGHT for a first deposit match up to $100! BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv BLUECHEW: Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at http://plunge.com For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are you, my friends? Welcome back to another one here on Insight. It's your friendly neighborhood CVV, Chris Van Fleet with you. Thanks for joining us in this one. And thank you for helping to make Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. But if you're one of the 75% of people who, according to the statistics, just listen to the show but don't follow the show, can I ask for a favor? Could you hit a vertical suplex on that follow button? on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening right now.

I appreciate you. Thank you. It is official. Adam Pierce is on the show and there is a lot more to him than what you see him doing on Mondays as the GM of Raw. He's been with WWE full time since 2015 where he's worked as a trainer, a producer. Now he works as the director of live events behind the scenes. That's in addition to what you see him doing as the on-screen.

authority figure. In the ring, he was a beast. And it's crazy that people don't even realize that Adam Pierce was just an absolute monster in the ring. Five-time NWA World's Heavyweight champion. How amazing is it that both the Raw GM and the Smackdown GM, Adam Pierce and Nick Aldis, are both former NWA World's Heavyweight Champions. And really, some of the finest talent to ever hold that championship. Adam Pierce says, such an inspiring story and hearing him talk just really shifted the way that I think about life. And I think it's, it's going to hit you as well.

Snap a screenshot and tag us so that we can share it out. He's at Scrap Daddy AP on social media. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. Also, he has a brand new website. Go check it out. It is official. dot org. It is official.org. How fitting is that. Here we go. Enjoy this one. Please welcome Adam Pierce. We are finally making this happen. We are. Thank you for making the time. I'm elusive.

You are? You are. It's long. Six months. It's official. It's official. We're here. We're doing it. We are officially doing it. It wouldn't. Yeah, I guess maybe like Survivor series last year. I think we started talking about this? That sounds right. Yeah. Here you are money in the bank. Toronto. Your hometown. That is my hometown. So welcome to my hometown. And welcome home. Thank you. It feels good to be home. Does it? Yeah. Yeah. I'm not home for very long here, but it feels good to be. You're not here for a long time. You're here for a good time. That's the one. That is it. Are people so surprised when they find out that Adam Pierce was actually a wrestler? I think it depends what people you're talking to. Are we speaking specifically of

WWE fans in the universe as it were. Yeah. Yeah, I would say the majority of them are, they give you a look. It's almost like Scooby-Doo. Yeah. Yeah, for almost 20 years. Yeah. Damn near 20 years. Yeah. I always want to say, well, you think people just find themselves in a wrestling, general manager position having never had any wrestling experience? Right. You have, like, when you look back at all of the different general managers, there's some sort of wrestling. like Teddy Long was a manager and also a referee for years. Yes, of course. Right.

It's not like you just fill out a job application on like Indeed.com or something. Yeah. What are your previous wrestling experiences? Well, I bagged groceries. I've watched it before. Yeah, right. So certainly you must have then know everything. Absolutely.

Yeah, 20 years is a wrestler. But then when you look at your pedigree, it's like, well, yeah, it makes sense why you're so good there. Well, I appreciate that. Five-time NWA champion. Imagine that. Yeah, five times. You know, I've talked to Our Truth about this sometimes, our truth former NWA champion as well.

I wonder how much of the modern audience today realizes the impact that people wearing that championship that 10 pounds ago have had in our industry. It's mind-numbing. Well, when you look back at the entire lineage, you know, and it's like it's flare and it's dusty roads and it's Harley Race and the godfathers. Incredible.

It's insanity. Just to have your name and clear. included in that list. I've said this a million times. I don't find myself in the position I am today without the NBA title. And I always took it upon myself, even in my era. So that would have been 2007 when TNA relinquished the title until 2012. I approached those years. And every time I had to defend the NBA championship in a manner that I thought Harley would or Jack Briscoll would. It wasn't about wearing 10 pounds of gold of the ring. It was about carrying on a lineage and giving it the respect that those guys did.

And I know having had conversations with Dusty and with Rick and the people who were in a similar position, obviously in a different time and space than I was, they appreciated the way that I wore that championship. Do you think you could still go in the ring now? 100%. Right now. Let's go. Okay.

How much are you paying me? Yeah, right? I don't want to wrestle. What are we talking about here? I don't want to either. Stop asking me. God, they want to know. They do.

And I appreciate that. Those that know, no. Yeah. But you're done, done. I've been done. Didn't it for 10 years. Yeah. December 21st of this year will be 10 years to the day.

I had my last pro match. Now, well, I have to back up. If you rewind five years or so, I guess you could say that I hold a singles victory over Shinski, in Akamara, which was in the main event of the Smackdown. This is true. The last tag match I had, if I'm thinking about that, was as partners with Braun Strowman for the World Tag Team title against the

hurt business, where I got beat. It feels like at some point in time, there's a storyline where the general manager of Raw, who's a former NWA World's Heavyweight Champion, and the general manager of Smackdown, who's also an NWA World's Heavyweight Champion. I feel like I know where you're going with this. It feels like there's something there. Yeah, there's something there. There's a lot of air and opportunity between Mr. Aldous and I would say.

But here's the thing. Like, you have to want that. And I don't think he wants that. You thought I was going to say. Yeah. No, that'd be fun. I think neither one of us, neither Nick Rye are ever going to angle for a position in the spotlight like that. I think we're both content and very happy and very honored to have the positions.

we have currently in WWE. There's only one general manager for the show. So it's highly important. It has been the pinnacle of my professional performing career, and I hope that continues into the future. But as I've said 100 times privately, publicly, I'm afraid to get my hands dirty either. So if the situation calls for it, I'm sure Nick would be down for it.

And I think there's a whole litany of NWI fans who have played that what if game. because I think our names are always connected when people talk about that, especially in the modern era, quote unquote, what would happen. I think it would be fun for a lot of different groups of wrestling fans. What are the challenges that come with the on-screen performances of being a general manager? Because it's a lot of screen time. Yeah, sure. And I'm sure it's a lot of remembering names and places and matches and like making sure you're saying the right thing at the right time.

And it's live TV. Right. Yeah. So that's awesome. I always say this position, okay, it's a supporting character on the television show that by definition isn't there to overshadow or step on the superstars. They are the beacons that we want the eyes focused on. But the general manager or the WW official that I played for years before that, that's an informational conduit to what you just said, to make sure that everybody understands the context of what is happening with these larger-in-life characters that are on their screen. every Monday and every Friday.

And sometimes they're there to focus the direction of the story. Sometimes the GM is there to change the direction of the story, but the story is always about the superstar. And as you said, that's highly important, you know, and it's fun. I have a lot of fun. How many on-screen hits is it generally speaking, would you say? It depends. I think the most I've done, I heard Regal one time say he did 13 segments out of 16 on a

raw. I don't think I've done 13, but I know I've done 10. Wow. 10 appearances in a three-hour broadcast is a lot. And sometimes they are having to do with the similar content. And sometimes there is a bunch of just wacky shit. Can I say shit? Sure, you can say whatever you want.

Sometimes, man, it's all over the place. You know, last Monday I had one little kerfuffle backstage that I had to be a part of. And that was it. The week before that, I had five or six appearances with five or six different topics. So it changes. What's your role with WWE behind the scenes? camera. I am a producer of Raw, currently, previous to that, Raw and Smackdown. I have been director of live events, which means I have written and booked the territory brother,

so to speak, did that for a long period of time, which was a lot of fun. I was hired to be a coach and a trainer way back when almost a decade. It's just around about a decade now. So I spent the first 10 months at the Performance Center teaching, which was awesome. in and of itself. How did this opportunity with WWE even come about in the first place? I call it time served. And a reason I say that is because you spend a lot of time in a vocation. You're going to run into everybody. You're going to run the gamut of the experiences and the people you run into and that you meet. And I see this quote all the time and I used it today when I tweeted something about River Ripley.

You know, I always be kind of the people you see on the way up because they're the same faces you'll see on the way down. I saw a lot of faces over 20 years. And thankfully, I guess, I had a good enough track record with the work that I had done independently. I was a freelance professional that entire duration, save for the five years I was under contract, ring of honor, two of which I ran the company. And that's where I got a taste of writing TV for the first time and booking a house show schedule and working contractually with talents to keep them in the fold and losing talents to other places and not to mention taking bumps.

So it just came around one day what's like, would you want to work for WWA? I got a phone call from a gentleman who I highly respect. And I won't name his name because I don't know how he would feel about that. But he posed the question to me, this was in 2012. He said, hey, man, if I told you that I think I could get you a job that you could have for the next 25 years, but it meant you'd never put your boots on again. What would you say? And I said, when do I start?

And here we are. And when did you start two years after that phone call? So that was in 2012. I had my official tryout, which, by the way, I went through the, the trial, the same trial that every wrestler would go through in August of 2012. Like we're talking like the in the ring, bumping. All the above. Oh, wow.

Yeah. I went through the actual trial. I went in knowing obviously why I was at that tryout. So it was eye-opening from that perspective because it was in LA, which is where I know you live now, but to see a lot of the hungry kids, both independent wrestlers from the area and also athletes at that time coming into this thing. And I'm like, man, everyone's buying for this dream. And in a sense, I was looking to turn the page on the dream, so to speak. And, yeah, it went great. That was August of 2012.

This is pre-WWE Performance Center. And they were still at FCW and Tampa. And they said, hey, we want to bring you on, but we don't want to do anything. We're moving everything to Orlando. So it doesn't make sense for you to move from San Diego to Florida, just to move however long it takes us to get the ground broken in the building in blah, blah, blah, in Orlando. So let's just wait until the building in Orlando's up and running and then we'll come back to this. And that felt like it took forever. So then you're almost like a lame duck pro wrestler because you know at some point you're just biting time.

Nothing's changed though, man. So 2012, 2013, I think. Or at the end of 2013, I think I made my first appearance as a guest coach at the PC. And then I did that for all of 2014 and officially joined the team in May of 2015. What do you think was the biggest thing you learned kind of behind the scenes? You worked as a wrestler for so long. But now you're behind the scenes. What was the biggest difference?

Well, aside from the scope of things, WWE, the pinnacle of the profession, is for a reason. Yeah. You know, and I think the thing that jumped out to me just from a coaching and training perspective, because that's what I was hired to do initially was, man, I had some really good trainers that taught me the same tenets that I'm being expected to pass onto the next generation. I feel like a glove in that place, I feel like. I think Matt Bloom, who's still the head coach there, would tell you that now. Once you learn the job and you can do the job right and you have enough tools in the toolbox,

always preach us to young wrestlers. There are never enough tools that you can put in your toolbox. You can sustain into the future in this business. You can have the future. You can have choices in your future. I didn't want to be, and I love that the brothers and sisters out there taking bumps. I'm 46 now. 10 years ago when I was 36 and stepped away, I didn't, I still had the same mentality I did when I was in my 20s.

I don't want to be like my trainers who are 46 taking bumps in the county fair because that's all you know. Put tools and jewel locks. You've got something in your Instagram bio that I love, work hard, treat people fairly, earn respect. That's it. Where's that from? That is from, um, my, parents largely. And they never said those words to me. Work hard as my dad. He was an industrial mechanic for 30 years. Retired. Then realized he hated being retired. Went back to work.

Worker County Reclamation Water District in Vegas for another 20 years. Wow. Retired again. It's finally retired now. He just built a house near me in Florida. Treat people fairly as my mom. Because you're going to have days, man. And I, people always, when they ask me, me about treat people fairly, I said the key word, and that is fairly. You hear doing unto others as you would have done unto yourself, right? But sometimes some people need to get slapped too. So it's about fairness, treat people fairly, you know, speak softly to carry a big stick, that kind of thing.

Yeah. That's my mom. And earned respect is that is how you succeed. And I don't care what your vocation is. I don't care what your goal is. If you work hard every day, you treat people fairly every day, you do those two things often enough for long enough. You're in respect.

Yeah, it's almost like an equation here, right? It is. Work hard plus, treat people fairly. Equals are in respect. Yeah. That's it. I'm your proof, I think, unless they're all lying to me. I mean, I think you've done it.

I try. Yeah, I try. People are so familiar with you as the authority figure or the general manager. Who was Adam Pierce, the wrestler? Oh, the wrestler? Yeah. Oh, Adam Pierce, the wrestler, the scrap daddy. There's only one.

Scrap Iron, Adam Pierce five times, and they be a world's heavyweight champion. was dead set every night I put my boots on into drawing negativity at all costs, at any cost. Everything I did was geared towards receiving a negative reaction from the paying customer, period. I love the just the sparkle in your eye as you say that. Because it was the most fun I've ever had doing anything in life. Because you can think about it. I can insult, denigrate, and cut down a room full of people, whether it was two people in Indianapolis, the smallest crowd I ever worked in front of.

Actually, two people? Two people in the ring broke in the first match. What? My payment was half a case of Mountain Dew that I stole from the promoter and the phone off his desk in his office. CM Punk can verify this. That phone hung in my mom's kitchen for like 15 years. Was punk on the same show? I can't remember if he was there or if he had just heard.

the lore, but he knows the story of the phone. That was Indianapolis, two people. Was it a snowstorm? Was there some sort of reason? It was just brother's brotherin. And sometimes, as you have, I'm sure, come across stories

in your wrestling days in reviewing people like me, you find these ridiculous stories that can't possibly be true, but absolutely are. So there were more people in the back than there were? 100%. But the show went on.

Yeah, well, I mean, the first match went on, the ring broke. Wow. And the brother's like, well, I mean, I can't pay anybody. The hell you can't. What can I take from this flea market we are? Oh, there's half case mound do. So whether it was in front of two people there. Or at the Tokyo Dome, because I've been blessed, man.

At the auditorial of Tijuana, Tijuana, in Mexico, I've worked everywhere and had been proud to do it. Is it difficult? Was it difficult 10 years ago to hang them up and know you weren't going to do it again? No. Really? No, it was time. And I think wrestling fans, they really have a hard time when I say it and I say it with conviction because it's true. Yeah.

Like, it was 36. My babies were new to this world. And I had an opportunity to turn the page. And I thought it would be ridiculous of me and very selfish, not to, not to at least explore it. Because you don't know what's going to happen. But yeah, you know, I had worked a long time and amassed a lot of tools not to put those tools to good use, you know, and had been prepared along the way. Like I said, Ring of Honor, Carrie Silken owned the company at the time before it went through its transitions, gave me the opportunity to succeed and fail on the fly, booking a touring schedule and writing and producing television for a bunch of guys in that locker room from 07, 08,09. in 2010 Ring of Honor, you look at that locker room.

A bunch of those brothers I work with today still. We will cut our teeth at the same time. So it was a very special time and a very special crew. Passion, drive, and patience. The formula for winning championships is also what keeps your ride or die alive. eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance. Superchargers, roof racks, exhaust kits, LED headlights, and more. Whether you're into speed, power, or style, eBay Motors has you.

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I, me, who's me? Oh, that's the end of the sentence. It's choices. Everything is choices, right? So this was 98, 99, and I was young and up and coming. And this is not pre-in-net because the internet existed, but it didn't exist nearly at the capacity or the way the world works with it or around it or because of it now. But I had some buzz and I had talks with WWF at the time and WCW at the same time.

And little conversations even with ECW and WCW's, I don't want to say offers, but what I thought they could offer seem to be more appealing to me at that period of my life. And I turned down their offer too. So here we are. Turned down New Japan. Sorry, I've said no a lot of times. a lot of people. I'm that guy. Was this just betting on yourself?

Always. Was it the idea of I'll say to know to them because there'll be something better down the road? I don't know that at 20 years old, you think like that? I didn't, I don't think I had that thought. You know, I really made hard feingle upset. And he was a real big proponent of mine at that period of time. Had a tryout scheduled in Connecticut at the tracks facility as it was called then, basically the warehouse.

And at the same time was having conversations, with J.J. J.J. Dillon and Paul Wendorf in Atlanta at WCW. And Paul O'Norff said to me, look, I can guarantee we will offer you more than you will get there. So you should come here. And I believed him. I believed him. So I canceled my trial with WWF at the time. And you had to do that with Howard Finkel? He was none too happy. Not angry because I don't think Howard could be angry. I never saw that in him. He was always great to me, but I could tell he was disappointed. Then I went to WCW at the power plant, had a week there, had a great week there, as you used to hear horror stories of how people were treated at the power plant.

I was not treated poorly in any way, shape, or form. Had a trial match against Bobby Walker, hard work, Bobby Walker. I don't know if you remember that name. If you don't look him up, he had no intention of making me look good in his trial match whatsoever. Didn't not want to be in the ring with me, did not want to put me over. We had a four-finger stinker as some would deem it, a horrible match. And I went into the office of J.J. Dillon and Dusty Rhodes was in there. Then Dusty said, well, how do you think that would kid? And then I said, I think it was the shits. And he just nodded and then pushed a contract in front of me. And I was like, interesting. But I went home and had that looked at by my attorney and I was engaged to be married

at the time, not to my wife now, to another lady and her parents were not fond of their daughter moving to Atlanta, Georgia from suburban Chicago at a very young age at that point. And I said, okay, I'm not going either. It didn't go. And what immediately followed that? Continuing to work on the Indies? Still brethren on the Indies? There was a group called WXO that had, I came to find much later, had paid for national syndication. So I was on that for three weeks and then it fizzled up and disappeared. So this would have been 2000, 2001.

And then I moved from Chicago to California to get away from wrestling and never got away from it. Kevin Kelly and Kevin Kelly hooked me up with a promoter named Rick Bassman who ran a company called UPW in L.A. They were a low-end developmental territory for WVE

at that period of time. And he said, hey, you should call Rick. And Christopher Daniels said the same thing. He was working for them as well. And the litany of incredible performers I went through UPW's doors, Samo Joe, John Cena, Edging Christian worked out of a mysterious work there.

I wrestle Diamond Dallas page there. I mean, everybody at one point or another went through UPW. So I got back in the business, back on the old, on the bike. We kept riding in California. How long were you away from it? You moved to California to get away from California? I moved in November 2000 and maybe four months, maybe four months. And during that period of time, I had met, moved in with, started a lot.

with the woman who would become my wife to this day the mother and my children best thing that ever has happened to me or ever will happen to me and she's like what are you doing i thought you were getting away from wrestling i'm just like man i am what i am what were you going to do who knows oh you didn't even know who knows i am the idiot that moved across the country for love i met my wife might as well tell this story yeah my brother joe was in the Navy. Joe, thank you for your service. I love you. I'll see you soon. He was stationed in San Diego. I'm living in Chicago where we grew up. I always said, hey, when you get discharged from the Navy, I'm going to come out to wherever you're stationed. We're going to pack up your car.

We're going to drive if we can drive wherever you're at. Drive home. Great. So this was in 2000, June of 2000. He says, all right, I'm getting discharged the week before your birthday. Also, my birthday is June 24th. Great. So I buy a one-way ticket out to California, a flat-time. to California. I get there and he goes, all right, man, it's great. You're here bad news. Uncle Sam's keeping me for another three weeks. I'm like, I bought him a ticket. Yeah. I got to get home. And I got to figure out how I'm getting home. He goes, well, you're here for a week anyway, right? Yeah. So we might as well party for a week, which we did, which at that period of time, pre-9-11, you could just walk across the border into Mexico.

So we did that several times. And on a Thursday, I was in a bar called Club A on Avenida Revolution in Tijuana. And saw this brunette across the room. And here we are almost 25 years now. Wow. Nuts. In Tijuana. In a dirty bar.

$5 all you can drink. What? $5 all you can drink. Five bucks, brother. That was the day. That was back in the day. Are they hoping you stay in Mexico? Is that the hook here?

I don't know what they're hoping. Five dollars all you can drink. Yeah, man. Yep. Six months later, I'm living. on her couch with her three roommates that we're all going to San Diego State University. They're like, who is the wrestler on the couch? And why is he living here? That's nuts.

Although moving from Chicago to California in November, I feel like that checks out. Fair enough. Yeah, I moved to Florida and December from Ohio. So you get it. I totally get it. And here we are. Wow. What a story.

She has funded, put up with, laughed with, cried with, gotten mad at, and been really grateful for my wrestling journey. And I am grateful for her. That is every emotion possible. That's what this business will bring to you. How does your try out with the San Diego Padres to possibly become the PA announcer? How does that fit into this whole story? That was awesome and on a whim. I just was talking to my mother-in-law about this yesterday.

She said to me, what would you have done if the Padres offered you the job? And I go, I don't know. I guess I would have taken the job. So I, David Marquez, who ran still runs championship wrestling, which used to be championship wrestling from Hollywood, and I had been friends forever. Going back to the 90s when he was still living in Missouri running things with Harley Race and Gordon Solie. I had a booking cancel on me. He tipped me off, hey, the Padres is.

they're auditioning PA announcers because their guy just retired and it was like the 10 year anniversary of the new ballpark and he says, we should go. And I'm like, what are you talking about? We're going to do PA for baseball? He goes, it'll be fun. Let's go. So he drives down to San Diego. We get in my car. We go downtown by the ballpark. We have a couple of cocktails and we audition. And they kept me. They did not keep Dave. He's pissed to this day about it. And they kept me along. It kept me along. And I got down, I think technically I finished fifth, although I don't think they publicized past the top ten.

I did three national broadcasts. That was a lot of fun. I love baseball. Can you give us a little taste of what you would have sounded like? Absolutely not. I can. Dude, the parallels I find looking at a baseball format to a wrestling format, are very similar. So the PA announcer, again, is now he's in the stadium.

He's not necessarily featured on the television or radio broadcast. But for the in-house crowd, he's the voice of God. He is directing the traffic. He is drawing the attention. He is moving your attention. He is informing you, right? So he would let you know, now batting the second baseman. Number five, Chris Van Vleet.

This is amazing. Wow. Yeah, it's fun. My favorite part of that would be sitting in the press box, watching contemporaries. from the broadcasting field. Vince Scully. I did an ESPN broadcast with Vince Scully. What?

We did a little production. I mean, he was with the Dodgers. Forever. Yeah. He is, he called Hank Aaron's record breaking home run when he, when he broke, I mean,

Vince Scully is the man. Right. On the Padre side of things at that time, Dick Enberg was their TV voice. Another broadcast. A legend, yeah. Charlie Steiner was doing a radio broadcast for the Dodgers, Fernando Valenzuela.

You know what I mean? Like I'm looking around the room at, holy hell, all these people who have absolutely every accolade in professional baseball broadcasting to their credit in a pro wrestler who has never done this a day in his life. What could go wrong? I am a big baseball fan. I grew up playing baseball.

I played into my 20s. My dad and I, have a tradition every year. We go to a different MLB stadium. I love it. Pekko is definitely one of the best modern day fields. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. Like it's hard to any of the modern ones, it's hard to put them up against Fenway or Regley, right? I was going to say, if you leave Wrigley out of it, we get a fight. Chicago good. Fenway and Wrigley are won two for me. Yeah. But when you look at the modern ones, Petco is so good. The way it's integrated into the city like that. Pittsburgh is great, too.

Pittsburgh's another great one. Whatever they call the one in San Francisco. I went to it was great. So good. My one regret, man, is that ESPN game with the Dodgers. We're sitting in the catering or whatever you want to call it. Eaton before the ball game. We'd already gone through our pregame prep. I had everything.

My notes, my liners, what I was going to read when, blah, blah, blah. Not to mention scoring the game, which was always fun if you really like baseball and you're scoring a major league game. The K and the backwards K. Of course. Pitch counts and all that stuff. Vince Scully walks in and everybody rose as if the king had just walked in. And he was so, oh, guys, it's just me.

Everyone, enjoy your meal, you know. And I was like, man, if I don't ask Vin Scully for a picture, I will regret this. And I already talked to him because, you know, the local press in San Diego, you know, they publicize all the local pro wrestler, PA, you know, half joking tongue and cheek. That was pretty good. The guy that hired Alex Mannyaki still with the team, he was for sure. I sat next to him in a restaurant before we even went into do the audition. I go, this guy's the, he wins now.

Like, he's amazing, and he got the gig. He was the right one to get the gig. But we're sitting there eating, and I go, if I don't ask him for this picture, I'm regret it. So I'm getting ready to do this. And a guy walked up to him just as Vince Scully had sat down and started to eat. And I went, oh, not when he's eating. And Mr. Scully still took the picture, still all that.

But I said, I'm not going, I can't do it now. I can't do it. I can't, this guy or just some guy, I don't know if you, what he was there for. I'm like, he ruined his meal. I can't do it. And I never did it. No picture. Do you still believe in the mentality of take the photo?

I believe in that mentality. I was not trained that way in the inner pro wrestling sense. Because think of how many, not even just wrestling legends you have backstage, but how many just, you know, celebrities are there? Yeah. You're saying, take the photo now? I don't see any reason not to. If you aren't disrespecting them,

interrupting them somehow, some way causing disturbance, the photo. Yeah. Why not? Yeah. Why not? I think those are words to live by.

Like, of course, you have your memories, but something about having that photo. Yeah, it's cool. Yeah. It's cool. You know,

you just have to make sure you do it in the right context and the right period of time. Yeah. You know, don't be an idiot. Sure. Yeah. So often you post on Instagram, love somebody today.

Every day. Try to. What do you mean? What do you mean by love somebody? I mean that as literal as I can say it. Love somebody today. Let me ask you this. You're a father.

You're a husband. You work every day. You're living in California, which ain't cheap. There is stress every day in your life. All of that can bog you down. All of that can beat you up. All of that can make you want to have a drink. When you are thinking about love,

is there negativity associated with that in any way shape of that? Yeah. It centers me. It started looking, it started off of looking at social media and how negative and divisive I feel like it is needlessly. I don't think people put much thought into it. I think the natural negativity of the human experience just comes out. people puke it out into the world and don't even really think about it.

It's because there's no repercussions on social media. It's unfortunate. Yeah. If you say that stuff in real life, someone's going to punch in your mouth. Yeah, you're going to have a very bad day. As my dad would say, you are one choice away from having a very bad day. But I would see this stuff and I'd be like, man, and my wife, like, she would notice it like, why are you in a bad mood?

You read somebody whose words on the internet and it spun you up and I go, you're right. How come nobody? People are so quick to, I hate this, this sucks, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, but nobody ever says, I'm happy. I love you. Let's be friends. Yeah. You know what I mean? So I just did it as kind of a social experiment just for me.

I was going to post love somebody today and see. I wanted to see how many people would respond with hatred if I'm being honest. And really, I don't really, I've never seen it. I don't think you, how can you, how can you throw darts at the guy who's telling you to love somebody? Right. How could you possibly be mad about that? There's a lot of though in social media. Well, it's easy for you to say.

Or that must be nice. It's like, but I think with this idea, love somebody. Yeah. Could I have the same person every day? Sure. Love your dog. Yeah. Love the guy in the street corner that said hello to you.

Are you a guy that walks down the street when you pass somebody, you ignore them? Is that you? You don't strike me as like that guy. So I like to think. We're pretty friendly. Right. And I'm from Chicago, which if you're not from that area, people think Chicago, blue collar, maybe we're rough.

No, we're not in New York. We say hello. We get offended when you don't say it back. My wife, that was a hard thing for my wife. She's like, why are you always saying hello to everybody? And I'm like, you grew up in L.A. and you don't. Why don't you? What is wrong with you people?

Yeah. I think the funny thing about L.A. is not that many people are from L.A. that live there. Right. It's crazy. So there's no real, like, Chicago or like, I lived in Cleveland for five years. Toronto for sure, like, you feel like that's your city. Right.

And you feel like the people that you're seeing in and around the city are your people. In L.A., you're from all over the country or all over the world. There's no, like, allegiance to the city. So it's just kind of like, I'm in my own lane, do my own thing. Bringing it back to a sports thing, I think that's why outside of the Dodgers and the Lakers, like, there's no, who's really, there's no. No, this is my team in L.A. There's your older Dodger fan, Showtime Lakers.

Then they went through a period when they weren't the Showtime Lakers and the entire city didn't care about the Lakers until Kobe came around and then all of a sudden we care about the Lakers again. That's why no football teams stick around. I'm glad the Rams are there now in the Chargers, which still breaks my heart to turn, L.A., but like, man, there was a direct correlation to how bad the weather is and how much you love your sports team. Think about it.

Interesting. Buffalo, Cleveland, Green. Dream Bay, Chicago, Toronto. Then on the flip side, think about Phoenix and Miami and L.A. and San Diego. There you go. Right. It's a really interesting thing. And I'm sure somebody in the comments is going to go, well, what about the Tampa Bay Lightning?

Yeah, yeah, because they're good right now. Yeah, right now. Yeah. You know what I say to that guy? Love somebody today. Yeah. Love somebody today. It's not hard.

Yeah. Here's what I see back sometimes, and I feel for people that will say this to me, I want to, but I don't get it back. Love is not a transactional thing. You don't have to get it back to give it, right? It's like respect. And if you are doing it just to get it back, then you're not doing it for the right reason. You're very wise.

Right? You're like Yoda. That's our anchorman quote, isn't it? Yes. Like a miniature Yoda. Covered in fur. Back sir. Bark twice if you're in Milwaukee.

You know I don't speak Spanish. It's one of the great movies. You're from San Diego. You lived in San Diego for a long time, 15 years. Yes. San Diego. Mm-hmm. My whales.

Drink it in. I would love to be a part of the Channel 4 News team. Oh, who would you be? Oh, who I want to be. Yeah. I would want to be brick. Of course. I love Lamb.

I love Lamb. Are you just looking at things and saying that you loved them? Hmm. I love Chris Van Valle. I love Lamp. Let's go through some of your greatest hits here in WWA. Oh, boy. You screaming war games recently was just perfect.

Well, thank you. Did you feel like you had to live up to what William Regal had done previously? No. No. This is like I would preach just the students when I was training people to wrestle. if you throw a lot of chops in your match, what does the crowd do? Woo.

Right. Yeah. When the crowd woos, who are they thinking about? Right. Not you. Not you, brother. So the last thing I wanted to do was to say war games like Regal. So I actually went to him and I said,

any thoughts on what you think this should sound like coming for me? And aside from him saying it shouldn't sound anything like me, he also said, you know, only said that like four times. and somehow they think I've been doing this for 30 years. He said, just do it like you do it. So I did. And it was fun. It was so good.

Yeah. Because it like it came across like almost like an angry dad. That's funny. You have figured out the secret to the majority of my performances. What would angry dad Adam say? There it is right. There it is. How about Brock Lesnar giving you two F5s and your panel?

That's splitting. That was amazing. They split on the first one, which was hilarious. I remember saying to Brock, I said, hey, I just want to, how do you grab for the F5? I know it's a fireman's carry. And so he showed me how he's going to grab me. And I said, don't worry, I'll get light for you. And he goes, you don't have to.

And I said, I know I don't have to, but I will. Brother, I got you. What a pro. What a freak athlete. Did you know they had split the first time? No, I didn't split until I got in the back. I was laughing at the fact that I split my pants. I was like, why don't you take two F5s and see what happens?

What's he supposed to give you two? Because he gives you one and then his music starts playing. Then he picks you up for the second one. Hence the true professional that is Brock Lesnar, he listened to the crowd because they started chanting one more time. Yes. One more time, one more time, one more time. And I'm laying there and I kind of look up.

And again, professionalism, we made eye contact. When the eye contact was sustained for longer than two or three seconds, I knew that one more time was about to happen. Which is cool. Yeah. Then we really saw your pants split. Yeah. Well, and you know what? And we got to give them a show.

That was, I mean, you almost gave him a real show. You know what I'm saying? Got lucky there. Your backstage stuff with Brock was hilarious. Yeah. Brock with the flip phone. When he named his moose after me. That was funny.

The only thing I'm mad about, not mad, that's not the right word. He's going through, Brock's going through his soliloquy as he's messing with the flip phone. He can't get it to work. And he talks about he skinned the moose and he gutted the moose and the guts weighed. And he kind of looks at it and he goes, 220 pounds. And I wanted to go, hey, Brock, 240, brother. 240, 220? I'm skinny today?

Brock bringing out the flip phone was met with like audible laughs. Of course. It was so good. And then when he snaps it. Yeah, snaps it like it's nothing. Yeah, well. Yeah. That was good stuff.

Yeah, it was fun. How about the backstage stuff with Chelsea Green? Just being a total Karen. Always an experience working with Chelsea. And easy to play off. When she would do her thing, and to this day when she does, it's almost like you don't have to say anything. I always tried to think about what would my face say to this person without a word.

coming out of my mouth. What do my eyes say? You know, I'm pretty, think I'm pretty good facially. And there's a tip for younger wrestlers too, like, sell everything with this, your eyes, your face. I was talking about it. Let Chelsea be Chelsea, and I just have to kind of react without saying anything. So much fun.

So good. Yeah. The stuff you did with Bray Wyatt as Postman Pierce. I thought it was so good. And what was it like for you working with him? He was great. I wish we could have done more. Obviously, I think everybody that worked with Wyndham would tell you that.

There was only, Postman Pierce appeared once, more just once. But I thought, what a creative way in this world of sports entertainment and pro wrestling. How do you, again, with the WB official or the GMB and the informational conduit, what does that conduit look like to the supernatural my family to bray you know to the fiend heaven forbid what would that look like and when they when the when the when the uh the postman idea when i read that i was like this is hilarious it's going to be funny and and what was awesome about doing the playhouse with him is whether or not you were working specifically or strictly off a script or not you had a lot of creative leeway he had all the leeway to make

make it as out there or as Bray Wyatt is as he wanted it to be. And I remember saying, hey, man, how did, like, of course, we have the point we have to get across, but, like, I just kind of want to be in awe of this place and look around. And I wanted to say, what the fuck. Can I say fuck on here? You say whatever you are. I wanted to, I wanted to, I stopped you, bullback and watch it. I walk in the door, I go, and then he starts talking.

But, like, it was fun. I still have the costume. What's it like when you're actually there? Like when you see it? The Firefly Fund House? I mean, you know, it's a set backstage in an arena, so it looked different depending upon what setting we're in. But like the puppets and just the atmosphere and the music,

the creepy-ass music, it's a lot of fun, man. And I think what's so great about those segments as it makes you realize how kind of weird kids shows were when we were growing up. Go back and watch Pee's Playhouse. I don't know if that's really a kid's show, is it? I mean, it was, I think it was marketed. The kids, wasn't it?

It was on Saturday mornings, wasn't it? Yeah, when it first came out? Yeah, there was definitely some adult humor, a lot of adults. It was bizarre. Yes. Yeah, mecca-Lechaheim, Mechahehnie home. Very bizarre. We had some in Canada that only my fellow Canadians will understand us,

but like the Pocodot door and you watch it back now, and you're like, what is going on? It was like, there'd be a man and a woman, and then one of them would disappear and turn into this like giraffe like a character called the Pokeroo that could only say Pokeru. Pocaro, Pocaroo, Pocaroo, Pocaroo! And I watch it back now and I'm like, what is this? What was consumed prior to the taping of this?

Prior to the Pocod Door. Yeah. Are you familiar with Captain Kangaroo or am I dating myself? Yes. We're similar in age. Are we? Yeah, I'm 41. Well, you look great.

I look old. It's very kind. Yes. Something wrong with Captain Kangaroo. to your point, these shows. If we do a deep dive, I wonder what, there was another Canadian show called Mr. Dressup and he kept all a,

he was, he's a legend, he's a man as a saint, but he would get all of the things that would be, I guess the costumes and things from the tickle trunk. Yeah, moving along. Yeah. Did you say tickle trunk? Dickle trunk. Okay.

You getting up in Bobby Lashley's face is great. And firing him. And firing him and catching yourself dropping an MFer. Live on TV. So I don't know that I'm giving any way that I shouldn't when I say this. I was supposed to say it without saying it. They wanted to come across like it was being muted. muted or beeped for TV.

And they asked me, do you think you could say motherfucker without saying the fucker part? And I went, I am a professional profanity slinger. Of course I can. And I did. And there was no need for anyone to hit the button at the network. I'll have you know. It was very well done.

It was perfect. Yeah. Yeah. Father mucka. That was a lot of fun too. Interesting to fire Bobby Lash. I fired, and I think I only fired Bobby and I fired Sonia DeVille.

Those are the two people I fired. It's to make you feel good when you fire someone? Like Bobby, I feel like he had it coming. He deserved it, right? Well, he was reckless in the way he was treating our staff, our security forces, and he shoved me against the wall. That's probably not good. Sonia was just undermining and conniving and just the general,

horrible human being to me at all time. So she deserved to be fired. But I did, I drafted her this year. I brought her back. So if she does it again, it's my fault. That's probably a questionable decision, wouldn't you think? I would think so. That history there?

Maybe a dumb decision. Well, see how it plays out. That's a good point. Yeah. That is the phrase I would like to give all fans of WWE. See how it plays out. Let's see how it plays out. Yeah, right.

It would be really interesting to see how this plays out. Watch the show. Watch the show. Enjoy the show. Perhaps less armchair quarterbacking, and more being a fan of the thing you say you're a fan of. If only, right? If only.

I'm still a fan. Are you? Definitely. We're doing this. Yes. Because we're fans. I feel like when you can remove yourself from it and watch it in the same way you would watch any other television program or a movie, you really start to enjoy it a lot more. I think, I don't think you can enjoy it if you don't do that, right?

Well, it's tough. I am not a movie critic. I'm not a music critic. I'm not a television critic. I'm not a critic of anything except for Green Bay Packer football, which I will go bat-shit loony over when they play horribly. But I find when I do that, I don't enjoy the experience nearly as much as it would, to your point, if I had just sit back and try to watch things. I say this to myself, watch this like your children will watch it. And obviously we have a different frame of reference.

We're not children anymore, but when you kind of remove the analytics from the, experience. Yeah. You actually experience it. Is Aaron Rogers the goat? He's up there. I think he needs to win another Super Bowl. Were you kind of like, as a Green Bay Packers fan, were you kind of happy, you know, with him going to the Jets and playing, was it two plays? No, I wasn't happy that I got injured at all. With him leaving Green Bay, I thought it was obvious that's what was going to happen. I was surprised it didn't happen the season previous. Just looking how Green Bay handles our quarterback situation. They did the exact same thing when they had Brett Farb.

Another one who's always been in the goat conversation, not so much now compared to the heyday, but Aaron Rogers sat behind Brett Farb for three years, and then it was, you know, as Grandma Pierce would say, should have got off the pot, time to play. Did the same thing. He draft Jordan Love. He sits for three years.

You invests first round money in a quarterback. He has to play. Yeah. And here we are. Tom Brady's got to be to go, right? I don't think anybody's going to win to the level that he has. And when people try to argue against Brady being the greatest of all time, like, but how?

Yeah, right. I mean, you can't argue with that success. Pat Mahomes is incredible. And he has the potential to beat Brady numbers eventually. Yeah. But look at those numbers. I know. And it's not just him.

He's going to have to have a system in place and not saying Belichester, the greatest fall time, but he is. I don't know how he kept that machine rolling with the interchangeable parts every year and it seemed like for, not seem like they were at the top forever. Yeah. And then Brady played that well until he was 45. Insane. It's not like you look at him at 43 or 44 and go,

Oh, you slip it. No. No, he wins the Super Bowl. He went to Tampa and did the same damn thing. Yeah, that's incredible. And they beat my Packers. And that night, perhaps I had a few drinks. Perhaps.

He needs to be like studied. Unreal. And I also, without talking too much about football here, I feel like there's a whole new generation of quarterbacks that are going to go, I want to do the TB12 method. Like I want to play well into my maybe late 30s or 40s. I want to do the stretching and whatever other things he does with his diet. I think we see, I mean, I just look at the, my son's 16 and he's a tight end, but he's six three and a quarter and 210 pounds.

And already a better athlete than I ever was ever in my life. And I'm like, what is in the food? These athletes are insane. They're faster. They're bigger. They're stronger. I will still whip you, boy. Actually, I don't even know if I can say that in a couple years.

I probably can't say that. But man, it's just, it's not. To your point, I think you're right. I think the athletes just take care of themselves better today. Does your son want to be a pro wrestler? Not a chance. No. Do you not want him to be a pro wrestler?

or is it he's just not interested um i don't think i would ever put constraints on either my children yeah that's the full stop whatever they want to do with their lives yeah i'm in full support of i had great people who thought being a pro wrestler was an insane idea i had great people in my life who were all about if you want to do it do it i think that's kind of where i lean um they watch my children and they watch casually. And obviously they know what their dad does for work, and they're into it. You know, when I do something on TV,

they think it's funny or whatever, their friends think it's funny. But I don't think either one of them really have any aspirations to go there out. They've never said that. I used to, when they were little, I had a problem because I was a heel for 15 of the 20 years I wrestled.

I had a real issue. I never wanted my kids to see me perform because I especially they were very young during that period of time and I thought I don't know that they are going to be able to cognitively separate the fact from fiction here if they see their dad being a vile human being as I was want to do as I said to you that was my goal in every situation was to breed as much negativity as I could I don't want people to cheer for me I want them to want this guy to beat me every time I'm in whether I'm wearing the 10 pounds of gold or not I want people behind the sky.

I just, I never let my kids see me wrestle. Never. They thought I worked at the airport. Because daddy was always going to the airport. When did they find that? You didn't work at the airport? When they were old enough to realize, like I have a picture of my son, when he figured out, like I had my gear bag, he would come and sit in it when he was like two and three and four.

And then, you know, they figure out, you know, what are these boots for with a pee on the side of them and these, what? You never wear spandex around. the house like in these robes and all this crap it's you know they figure it out but i just didn't want to i didn't want to tarnish you understand what i'm saying i got what you mean yeah it was difficult who are you most excited about on raw right now and it's such a new era there's a lot to be excited about um i'm such a fan of south rollins as a person and have had such longevity with him in different places in our wrestling journeys and kind of been intertwined that I always enjoy him as a performer, his thought process, how he goes about cultivating his character and how

that's changed over the years. And I am a super fan of Bronbreaker. I think he is as blue chip as blue chip can be. And he's still so raw and so young in our industry. Obviously, the pedigree is what it is. When you got Hall of Fame, dad and uncle, and, you know, it's kind of bred into you,

I think, from that standpoint, but he's such an open book and willing to try just about anything. His athleticism is insane. It's insane. It's nuts.

I was talking to him, being such a football fan. I don't take back to football, but, you know, he played in the league, and he was a fullback and then a running back.

And I just, I remember, I said, how much you weigh right now? He's sitting right around 250. I said, what would you play at? I assumed he played at a similar way. And he said, no, it was like 215, 220.

And I'm like, oh, my God, he goes, yeah, it was just so much faster than. I go faster. Faster than this? How could he be, you know what I mean? Like, he was almost disappointed. Like, I was such a great athlete at one point in my life. What are you nuts? And that's the opposite of what you hear.

Most guys are bigger in the league to absorb the hits. Like, you see alignment after they retire. they lose like 50 pounds well apparently brawn was lighter and faster and dare i say more maniacal yeah that just sounds terrifying yeah it does man i'm so glad we were able to make this happen so thank you yeah thank you it's been fun uh gratitude such a big part of my life same and i start an end every day saying out of three things i'm grateful for and that's how i wrap up every interview also adam what are three things in your life you're grateful for my health I don't think

I think we as a society in America don't value it enough never slow down, never grow old I always tell my kids so my health my family the love and support that they have

provided and continue to do so and the third today what's today? Today is a Friday and we are in Canada and we are breathing Toronto Air. And I'm grateful to be doing that with you.

Appreciate you, my friend. My brother. Thank you. I love somebody today. Great guy. Great conversation. I love the random anchorman quotes. We threw in there.

I love Lamb. I just hope this gives you a new appreciation for not just what Adam Pierce does on screen, but what any GM has ever done on screen. Like he absolutely nailed it when he said that the GM or the GM or the the authority figure, he's kind of like the narrator. And what a great parallel to, when he was telling the story about how he was almost the Padre's PA announcer. And the PA announcer, when you go to a baseball game, they're kind of like the narrator of the game. The GM, kind of like the narrator of the show, guiding you through everything that's going on.

I love it. I love it. Snap a screenshot and tell us how much you love this. He's at Scrap Daddy AP. I'm at Chris Van Fleet, and I think for a quote to end this episode, feels fitting that we leave you with one that we heard from this episode. Love somebody today.

It's powerful. It's so powerful. Love somebody today. Be great. Be grateful. We will see you on the next one. For some more insight, it's Ask CVV number 43 tomorrow. If you've got a question, send it in using that hashtag.

Ask CVV on social media or better yet, leave a comment on Spotify and we will see you tomorrow. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock, but there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley?

How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of them? To Rock. I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this.

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