Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Amazing Red: TNA Hall Of Fame, Why He Never Went To WWE, X Division, Inspiring A Generation

Episode Date: August 13, 2026

Amazing Red (@amazingred_iod) is a professional wrestler best known for his time in TNA, ROH and House Of Glory. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Orlando, FL to discuss being inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame and why he didn't expect it, returning to TNA after 15 years to compete in an Ultimate X match, being one of the most influential wrestlers of the past 20 years, how he invented the Code Red, having a dark match with CM Punk in WWE in 2005, why he started House Of Glory, breaking his leg while doing mocap for a WWE videogame, if going to WWE or AEW may still be possible, and more! Please support our sponsors: HELIX SLEEP: Flash sale! Go to https://helixsleep.com/cvv for 27% off sitewide! COZY EARTH: Go to https://cozyearth.com/CVV for up to 20% off! BEAM: Go to https://shopbeam.com/INSIGHT and use code INSIGHT for up to 40% off Beam’s Dream Powder DELETEME: Use the code INSIGHT to get 20% off your DeleteMe plan at https://joindeleteme.com/INSIGHT FACTOR: Get 50% off your first box, plus Free Breakfast for 1 Year with the code INSIGHT50OFF at https://factormeals.com/INSIGHT50OFF PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/cvv SEAT GEEK: Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/CVV Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount NORDVPN: Exclusive deal! https://nordvpn.com/cvv Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! PRIZEPICKS: Download the PrizePicks app today and use code INSIGHT to get $50 bonus credit in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup! For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.com If you have ever enjoyed any of these episodes, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast or Spotify? 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

Amazing Redd. Hi, how you doing? Great to see you, man. Nice to be here. Great to be here. Let me be one of the first to congratulate you on becoming a TNA Hall of Famer. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. You looked legitimately surprised. Yeah, yeah. I didn't know what was happening. All I was told by Frankie was stay here. There's going to be a shot between both of you. That's all I kept hearing. And then before the last part of the match was happening,

brings that stay close, stay close. And as soon as people are pottering, he grabs the mic. And as soon as he grabbed the mic, I instantly knew something's happening, something's up. What do you think it was? I thought he didn't cut a promo on me. So the last couple of matches I've had is like dream matches type kind of things. And a lot of the guys would take it upon themselves to grab the mic and big me up and put me over and, you know, very grateful of it. And I thought this is one of those things that he was going to do.

But I was thinking this is not an indie. This is DNA. You can't really do that here. And then when he started talking, he said, pay attention to the monitor in the back. They reached out a couple of times before about this situation, about Hall of Fame. And I just kind of, I'm good. I'm good. Thank you.

I'm good. Why did you say no? I'm, to say the truth, man, I'm not that kind of a guy. I just feel like I've done one thing in my life, wrestled, and I think I'm good with doing that. And I think when people come up to me and say all these great stories, it just kind of like puts me in the box. I'm just doing my own thing in my own lane,

and I'm very appreciative. I helped you out and stuff like that. But I think Hall of Fame is such a big, I don't know, I just didn't want to accept it. Is it also because Hall of Fame feels very final, and you're still doing this? still active? Yeah, that's actually a good way of thinking about it for sure.

And a lot of times, I don't feel like I'm old. Like, I know I'm older. I don't feel like I'm Hall of Fame bound yet. It's kind of the same thing you're saying. Because a lot of times I feel like I called it quits, and then I came right back to wrestling. So I think from here on out, I'm never going to retire. I'm just going to let it happen. Let it just happen.

Let's see what happens. So we'll never know when it's your final match? Never know. Never know. It will just happen. You just won't see me again. How did it feel getting back into a TNA ring after 15 years? Very, very surreal, very surreal, especially coming back to a match like the Ultimate X, which is, I'm afraid of heights.

I know it sounds ridiculous, but I'm afraid of heights. The ultimate X match always scares me, always. The ropes that you have to climb up and grab, you're not the local monkey bars. They're harder ropes. They hurt. Sometimes it's the buckle part of it. And I know it doesn't look like as high maybe on TV. But once I'm shorter.

So once I get to a top rope, I have to climb the truss on the side in order to jump up and grab the rope. But, you know, guys like Frankie Gazarian can just jump up and Spider-Man up there. And Frankie's amazing, by the way. That he's incredible. To be his age and to climb up there like that, insane. And he looks like he hasn't aged. At all. Right.

At all. And I thought I had that little gift. Well, you do. Oh, thank you. Thank you. But it's full circle, right? Because your last match in TNA in 2011 was an Ultimate X match. Wasn't it?

Yes. And you come back. So bad. families now. They're just wiser, grown. Like, we were such kids back in the day in TNA, at least for myself. And not everybody's like a grown man, a grown woman. And they have their houses, their kids. They're higher up on the car. You're higher up in the office. And you're so cool to see. So cool to see you. How did this opportunity to come up for you to go back to TNI now? So I've been resting for a house of glory actively for the last couple of years.

years and a lot of people that knew of me from TNA didn't know I was still wrestling. So I even got the tweets where they're like, oh, I thought amazing when I died. It just sucks to hear stuff like that. You died. Yeah, yeah, one of the harshest ones. But the resters knew, all the workers knew, and they were constantly hit me up and say, hey, you know, TNA, they're doing good and, you know, also AW and DW and they would try to get me to come back in some kind of way. And, um, They tried Hall of Fame. And once they knew I turned that down because I'm not that kind of guy. They're like, how about a match?

How about helping us in the back? And there was a certain point where I was just focusing on House of Glory. It was just focusing on my family, focusing on my relationship of God. And I just wanted to stay home, stay busy from what we were doing, make Hogg get bigger as a wrestling company. And I kind of want to turn everything around me off. So I kind of like said no to a couple of things, but not in a way where it's close forever. Just saying not right now. Yeah.

And then once my body started getting better, like I'm healthier. I feel like I've grown a lot since the last couple of years also. They kept a close eye on like my social media or lack of social media because I only had Twitter at the time. And it will start off with, hey, you're still wrestling. Hey, you look good. You're the last match you did. It was great. This clip is insane.

You sure you don't want to wrestle? and as it got later and later on in my career, which is recently, I was like, you know what? I think it's time to get back out there and try this again. And I think I'm mentally ready for that. Are you currently signed with TNI wrestling? I am nuts. I am nuts.

I am nuts. I was just going to do a one-off with the Ultimetics and got surprised with a Boundful Glory Hall of Fame. So I'm open to ideas. My thing is that at this point of my career, I want to be a part of something, but I want to make sure everything is right. I want to make sure that things are okay on both ends. And I want to be smart about this because seeing T&A put a picture of me when I'm like 18, 19 years old still under graphics. It does something to me where I'm not that guy anymore.

I'm a grown man. And I feel like a lot of the times TNA will see me as a little kid. will see me as that, no, look, that's our guy, you know, here's Ultimetics. But I feel like I'm at a point where we have to meet on the end and stuff like that and I won't help them and they help me kind of thing.

The U.S. soccer podcast. I'm your host, Megan Klingerberg, and after interviewing so many dudes during this men's World Cup, I'm so happy to be back with my U.S. women's national team players. I know the U.S. men's national team has changed how I think about myself, how I think about being an American,

how I think about being on a team. It's one year out from that World Cup, and we're going to talk about the brightest prospects in U.S. soccer. You ready? I'm ready. Let's do it. The U.S. Soccer podcast, presented by Henkoe. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. How do you feel like you've grown from that kid who debuted in TNA all those years ago?

So much, so much, so much. And it's kind of like a double-edged sword also because there's a lot of things I wish I never would have done back in the day, but then if I didn't do those things, I wouldn't be why am today? Like what? Just certain ideas, certain ways of life where I chose this way instead of that way. CNA was booking me at the time. I was a local kind of situation at a point, and all Japan came around. And all Japan, new Japan, there were promotions I wanted to go to so bad. And when all Japan came around, there was a, you know, they'd have been on USU for three months. TNA was not happy with it. And they were like, you're not going to, you can't leave for three

months. We got something with you here. And I remember right before I left, I had a cool outing with Raven. And it's where Raven was ending the show when he was like, calling out for for Jared, I think it was. And I came out of nowhere, beat him up with my Rivera jacket, and ended the whole show. And we went through a table. And then I heard Mike Teney say, Amazing Red is total, non-stop action.

And then it closes. Sorry. It closes the scene, right? That next week, I went to Old Japan. And they didn't see me for a while. And as soon as I came back, it just felt different. It felt different. and I think I made a mistake in that situation

where I could have done things better and still did all Japan and still been cool with CNA because at that moment, too, I was definitely a company man and I don't want them to think you gave me the ball and I don't want it. So I think that was kind of messed up on my end.

And Raven chose me because something with Xbox where he couldn't make it. So Raven was like, hey, what are you doing tonight? I was like, absolutely nothing. So what are you wearing when you leave here? I said, this, come out with that. I was like, okay.

I was in cornrows, blue sweatpants. Ridiculous. But that's one of those things I wish I would have done better. But being a kid in this business, especially being shy in the mic and cutting promos in front of Mike Teney, Jerry Jarrett, Jeff Jarrett. I was just a kid. I'm really just a kid being there and wanting to learn so much. And I feel like I've grown in. talking better, knowing myself more, being more confident.

And I wish I would have had that back in the day just to help me out. You had the huge benefit in TNA at that time where what you did in the ring could speak for you, right? Like you didn't have to rely on your promo so much because especially in those early days of TNA, what you did bell to bell was the most important thing. Thank you. Thank you. I would have loved to agree with that more because I think what also hindered me

really bad is the ability to speak. And I think everybody, if you're trying to be professional wrestler, yes, the moves in the ring are going to take you only so far, but you guys definitely need to work on your characters and your promos. Because I promise you, if I would have had those things

in luck at that moment, sky was the limit, for sure. What's interesting, I think people forget that promo stands for promotion. Yes. You're trying to promote your match, sell tickets, get people to watch it. Exactly. Exactly. How do you feel like you've worked on it? in the last 10 years or so and gotten better.

House of Glory. I'm going to jot all this down to House of Glory because being a wrestling trainer and then being forced into being people's like Dad or just a locker room leader. Yeah. And having to lead by example, it just forces you with so much responsibilities that you have to get better at what you're doing. And everything, House of Glory, instead of being like a more visual kind of person, I have to teach with vocal.

So I'm like, hey, look, do this, this and this, and then be visual about it, and then also come back and, okay, this isn't this. And I've learned to be a better pro wrestler because of being a trainer in House of Glory. So House of Glory definitely is one of the things. And just growing up in general and being a fan of pro wrestling, I am such a fan of pro wrestling. I watch everything good and bad, every promotion. And it just keeps my love, like, strong. Do you feel like confidence in something? that can be learned?

I think so for sure, especially with me. One of my issues was there were people in certain wrestling promotions that their promos wasn't that strong like mine. And I feel like they were giving the ball a lot more than I was. And if somebody is not good at promos, not good at being in front of the camera, not good at developing character, I feel like you just give them stuff to run with. until you literally see at one point, hey, look, it's not working out.

You know what I mean? And then do what you have to. But with me, I feel like every time I'm about to get something, it gets taken from me. Let's, if you can, bring up the crimson situation. Yeah. I was told, hey, look,

we have a guy. He looks just like you. It's going to be your brother. Who's this guy? No one looks like me. There's no way. He's huge. So it's going to be cool

because we're going to make him your younger brother. to be a smaller ringer brother. I was like, okay. One thing about wrestling I was told by Mikey Rupreck is once something is brought up for you to do in pro wrestling, always say yes. You have your foot in the door, always say yes. Because once you start, I don't know,

I am not in this type of predicament to say no to anything. So, of course I'll do it. And I talk to Crimson. You know, we're supposed to answer the Jeff Jarrett MMA challenge. He was an MMA guy at this point. The double J double M.A. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I was first on the list as far as, like, breaking his MMA record. And I call my younger brother, it's Crimson. This whole situation happens well, the skit or whatever. He goes to the back, everybody loves it. Oh, this is great. So I'm hype. I'm telling Crimson, this is great because now the resting world gets to see me develop character and be your older brother, like your bigger brother.

And I think there's so much cool things you can do with that. With like having a younger brother who's huge. So I'm talking to him, everything's great. I think it was as close as this. The next day I show up to tapings and Crimson is there with a suit on. So I was like, what's this? You got a suit. What's up?

He was like, yeah, they got me doing something with a suit. And I said, where's my suit? You know, do I have a suit? It was honestly, man, they just stuck me with Maine event mafia. I said, I just brought you out yesterday. Like, I'm your older brother, your bigger brother. I thought we had all these cool ideas. And he said, I'm sorry.

And, you know, kudos to him because that's his job also. You can't sell them, no. He just got his foot in the door, too, and he was a maid of that mafia. And I was home the next couple of weeks after that. So, yes, I do believe confidence can be developed for sure. I just think you have to run with him. AJ Stiles is another one. AJ used to cut promos where it was very country sounding.

Yes. Even AJ will say that. Yeah. And I was there watching this happen and they would tell him you have to like try to lower that. And me, I have a New York Puerto Rican accent that I'm trying my best still to have some wiggle room in there so people can understand me more. Before I used to talk very, very, very fast, which comes out once in a while. But now I'm learning slower down, opening your mouth more. AJ had the same situation.

but then I think they help AJ with some lessons of speaking and whatever it was and to help them. So I feel like if a lot of people didn't have help like that and, you know, if I had more time being invested in me, for sure, I think it would have been earned way more faster than it got something to be learned now. Do you think there was ever a path at any point during any of your TNA runs that would make you a world champion? I think so. I think so, especially like the whole thing with Raven. I think if I would have still with TNA,

got better at promo because right before that, they had me with Kikash, and I was, like, feuding with him. And it had me, which I didn't understand, they had me feuding with Trinity. You remember Trinity? He was, she was his manager. And a lot of the ideas were,

you're going to be mad at Trinity, and you're going to tell Trinity off, and you're going to want to fight her. Tell her you're going to fight her in this promo. And I'm like, I'm not trying to fight a lady. Like, that's not what I would do as a, Amazing Red or as Red in general. And that's why those promos came across very awkward.

And she was in my face and he was in my face. And he said, you're going to hit a girl? And my thing is, why would it face so a woman, I'm going to beat you up, you know? And why will they heal stick up for the woman and say, you're going to hit a girl? Why can't you beat me up? Yeah. So I was stuck in positions like that where, you know, it kind of suck. But once they got to the Raven situation, I think if I would have helped the situation,

better, it would have been higher and higher and higher. And someone that was in my position kind of was AJ Stiles, and he got the world title, tag titles, and look at him now. You know, he went on to do amazing things. And I think I would have been kind of like in that kind of order. Do you remember what the initial buzz was around TNA in those early years? First show I've heard of and I've seen was the Flying Novices. Yeah,

Nguyen Yes, Jimmy Wang Yang, my boy Against Loki I don't remember Yeah, I don't either But I know what you're talking about Yeah And that was, it was just my style

As soon as I saw that I'm like, that's on TV That's my style, I need to be here And me and Loki Very close, almost like brothers And everyone was talking about Hey, you gotta see this kid Amazing Reds, this kid Amazing Reds is amazing

and I still had no idea that I could make it on TV looking how I looked and wrestling the way I wrestled. But when I saw that match, I'm like, it might be a thing. And then shortly after I was booked versus Loki, they said, first match, let's see what we can do with you and Me and Loki did what we do. And ever since then, I've been a part of the company. How did you get on the radar?

Like you're talking about I'd love to be there one day. I think just wrestlers, man, they always look out for me. They always talk about me. And that's one of the things I teach my students is don't worry about getting your stuff in. Just worry about making the other guy look good, making them look good, giving them your body, trusting them. And, you know, it'll be a two-way street. I do the same. And I think I've gained so much respect by a lot of the people in the back, wrestlers, the workers, where a situation would be a, you remember,

of Sonny Siaki. Yeah. I was told, stay away from him. He's a jerk. He's a douche. He just cares about himself. I wrest with Sanisiyaki.

He's the sweetest man in the world. He's awesome. He's just like me. We're in this bubble and we just stay to ourselves. We don't really mingle as much. Not meaning because we're jerks, but we're not comfortable yet. And I think he was in that bubble a couple of times.

And I talked to him and he became best friends. Monty Brown. Kit Cash was one of them Jimmy Yang was one of them and I became cooler with them as we wrestled and they saw how cool I was and I think from there they gained his trust with me that

hey look you're starting a wrestling company you're starting a wrestling promotion get red he'll make a lot of your guys look great and he's humble about it and I think me as a promoter as a booker I would want someone like that you know what I mean just a guy that's ready

to ride off with you how do you feel when people say you're one of the most influential wrestlers of the last 20 or so years. I still can't understand it. I still can't believe it. Very humbling. But I will

say what just happened recently in the TNA locker room. It came on the monitors, Amazing Red Hall of Fame, and I was still cringing about it inside. But once I went to the back, I saw Santana there, my boy's

Santana, man. And I seen tears in his eyes and then I went to the locker room and everyone's there clapping and just hugging me and sharing stories of how I help them in the business. And I'm just there like, I have no idea. And it kind of just hit me where it's like, wow, you did this, man. Like, you really did do this. And I'm just very humbled. There's nothing else I can feel about this besides very appreciative and giving the glory to God. I just feel like, I will just a kid living a dream. Moving straight, just moving straight. Nothing else in my pathway.

And you could not tell me no. What did you feel you were doing that was particularly innovative around that time? A lot of the ideas of the things that came out my mind were because of how much they compare me to Ray Mysterio. And that's amazing. That's great. I used to love watching Eddie, Benoit, the whole cruise rate division in WXW. you, Ray, obviously, but I did not want to be Ray Mysterio, respectfully. I knew I had to wrestle like him because I was smaller like him, but I wanted, and I

always had my own pathway of how I wanted to be as Amazing Red. And it was very movie martial artist, Japan, Lucha, American style. I wanted everything meshed to give me the moniker Amazing Red, even the bigger. Like, wow, you know. this guy really is amazing. I kind of screw myself by doing that, by the way. Because that meant like every match, I'm probably going to have to try to outdo myself, which is what I learned from my trainer that you can only do so much every single match.

But Ray Mysterio is someone that I've been compared to where I was like, you know what, I've got to change this up. I got to do what I'm thinking. And if this move is done this way by 10 people, I have to be the one guy. that I did it this way. And then that move is cool from the top rope, but can I do it from the bottom row? This move probably looks like a complete failure, but let me keep trying it and see if people catch up with it. And then as little by little, it started being my own lane here and there, here and there. Big influence with my cousins, SAT, special announcement team.

Shout out to them, Quiet Storm, Chris Devine, Brian X-O, we just all had like this mindset, like we're going to be different. We're going to come out of Brooklyn, New York, be different and just get people talking. And was it just constantly trying new things? Constantly trying new things. Joel had this thing where he would do things with GI Joe's, and that's how the Spanish fly was born. What? Promise he was wait, told us also, GI Joe's put them together, threw them, they backflip.

He went to Mikey's one day. I had a move to try out. They had a move to try out. So the thing was like, I'll take their move if they'd take my move. So they were up first. Mikey's watching us. They climbed the top rope. They said, listen, you're going to front flip.

We're both going to back flip. Obviously, this is not going to work. So I'm scared. I'm like, no, no, no, I don't want to do this. Trust me, trust me. I made sure this work. Later on, I found out you did it with toys. But I'm up there and grab you in the double rock bottom.

And we're going to backflip. But then what made it safer is the crash bag was pulled in. So you know what, let's get it. Once they did the move, Mikey just like, do that again. Did it again. Spanish fly. That's how the Spanish fly was invented? Spanish fly.

Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And that's how we worked in the circle. It's just Brian got stuff, brand new. Chris Devine got stuff, brand new, Quiet Storm got stuff, brand new Quiet Storm. Originally was the one that did Canadian Destroyer. I did it as a mistake before him in another wrestling store.

It was a mistake? It was a mistake. It was countering one of Joel's moves, but he ended up being a power driver. Later on, Quiet Storm was like, listen, if I flip with you, can you land like a backflip? And I said, yeah, I could try that. And he ended up doing it. So I think each one of us from that Brooklyn era got something stolen from us. Even low-key.

Low-key's probably the most ripped-off guy besides myself. But we wanted to be different, and we picked things up like that. And like Quiet Storm, Divine, people in the Dundee, stole from them. Everybody thinks Pedy Williams invented the Canadian destroyer. Well, PD knows. I love PD's response. And PD said Scott DeMore. I saw him, which I love Scott DeMore.

But PD stopped playing. But anyway, again, before I was very not humbled to see people take from me so much, where I would be very bitter about it. Like, that's not cool because I busted my butt trying to make that a thing and you just took it. And now it's yours because it's on TV. And now it's just like, it's cool. Thank you. Thank you for keeping my name alive. Shout out to Zelina Vega, Dia for keeping my name alive and Derebe when she does it. I hear code red and my family just writes me, oh my gosh,

it said your name on TV. John Sina does a code red. It's John Sina's move. Ain't no way I'm taking that from John Sina. It's your move. No, I got an accent for permission. But how crazy is that? You invented this move that John Sina does. Again, man, no word. I have no idea. And it was a lot of people doing it where I don't know if it was the movie was cool or if they kind of took a liking to how I did it or they just wanted to make it their own, which is all cool. But the amount of people, even sting their cold red.

Isn't that crazy? But what wild me was the John Cena thing the most because my phone would blow up. John Cena just did cold red. I'm like, that's kind of cool. But it's kind of cool to see the things that you come up with that sound and look impossible be a thing. And even SAT, they get called Spanish Fly. Every time someone does that move, Spanish Fly. And I think that's also cool for them that they get recognition by that alone.

How did you invent the Code Red? So the Code Red was my younger brother. I had this on social media guys. You can check it out. I was literally 16 years old. I used to pick him up for a power bomb. And he always rolled behind me like a sunset flip. And I would always jump into it and just felt like a power bomb.

So I would call it the baby power bomb. And in order for my little brother to feel cool, I would, you're going to power bomb on me. But I would beat the crap out of him. I would be the crap out of him. My mother hated it because we ruined all our mattresses. And I have this all on BHS, by the way, which I'm going to plan soon. I'll release them on YouTube soon. You've got to digitize all this.

Yes, I have to. to because the VHS tapes they break. But I'm a power bomb you. He will power bomb me. And I kept saying that. So I was thinking, you know what? What if there's a wrestling move? You just go for a power bomb?

Roll back, boom. It worked. Then I seen Tijiri come out of a sunset flip, like in a bridge kind of fashion. And I was like, let me see if this works. I also trying to maybe set it to record straight because I thought I invented infrared, which is the corkscrew sent on. Yeah. That was the next move I did once the Spanish fly was made.

I went up there and I was trying to do a sky twist, sky twist suppress, which is a corkscrew moonsaw. And when I got up there, I kept spinning and added on my back. And Mikey said, do that again. Went up there. I said, it's a mistake. I'm trying to do a moonsail. He goes, no, that's your finisher.

I said, well, he goes, that's your finish. Land on them with your back, all your mic. And that's how infrared was made from what I thought. But then there was a clip of someone sending me on Twitter and said, I'm so sorry, I forgot her name, but a Japanese wrestler that was on WWF television, that was her move. It was also the sky twister press, but she also did it to her back. How different is it from the spiral tab? It's one more rotation. Yeah, so spiral tap is forward and the infrared is backward.

But we land the same way. But since I start off backward, I get one more rotation. And I was trying to get another rotation, but I'm too big now. But before when I was like 100 pounds, I definitely got the second rotation. Were you 100 pounds when you were wrestling? Like 110, 115. Wow. Yeah, yeah.

The U.S. Soccer Podcast. I'm your host, Megan Klingerberg. And after interviewing so many dudes during this men's world cup, I'm so happy to be back with my U.S. women's national team players. I know the U.S. men's national team has changed how I think about myself, how I think about being an American, how I think about. about being on a team. It's one year out from that World Cup,

and we're going to talk about the brightest prospects in U.S. soccer. You ready? I'm ready. Let's do it. The U.S. soccer podcast, presented by Henko. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Are you still looking to innovate?

Are you still watching wrestling and going, how can I figure out a new way to do it? The most humble way? The most humble way. No, you don't need to be humble. For the next 30 seconds, don't be humble at all. People still come to me, and they get their finishers, their moves,

their spots from me. And again, super humbling. And my thing is that a lot of people do come ready, prepared, they have ideas in the head already. I love bouncing back ideas with people. I love House of Glory to be, House of Glory, New York or South, to be places where you can come with ideas and we can just chop it up. And because I feel like in this profession, pro wrestling, you have to be different. Cold Red should not be hit since 2000s, early 2000s. the same way. Like, find a different way of getting into it, find a different way of doing it,

find a different way of doing Spanish fly, and make it your own. And I'm very creative still. And sometimes when I come up with stuff, like last week I came up with something. And I told the students, I said, you guys have to think. We have to be creative.

That's one of the biggest things about pro wrestling. I just, every match is the same. Every move is the same. Springboard cutter to me is as well as sprays. Like, find something else. You know. There's quite a few guys to do that. I feel like in the wrestling company,

you should be allowed one guy to do a particular move, you know? And I get DDTs are done by everybody, right? But I think it'll make the move feels more special. If on the show, there's only one cold red instead of four or five. Because then, yeah, I'm the one. So people gave me the idea, oh, yeah, but you're amazing red. So when you do it, it's a finisher. But when I do it, I say, yeah, but when you do it,

it shouldn't be a body slam. You know what I mean? Because the move itself looks weak when you do it early on the show I'm on and nothing happens. You know what I mean? Just more psychology. I thought into it where a company should have certain people stick with certain moves and everybody else. You shouldn't touch this move.

Is there a particular move you've given someone recently that you're really proud of? I told them I won't say anything. But this move, this young kid needed a move. to put a stamp on him that he's official. He's like one of the biggest heels. And the move he gave me was a flatliner. It's going to be a flatliner. I said, that's all you have is we're making you this big kind of person

and you have a flatliner. Everybody does a flatliner. Try something else. Months, months, months, months, months. And it was a spin kick. That's going to be your finisher? You're tiny. Like, that's not believable.

Let's find something else. I say, you know what? Come with me. We went by ourselves House of Glory And we just kept chopping it up And he had a cool idea I had a cool idea

We mixed it The move happened And when you could sell When the move is good Because when people around you go Oh And they've seen a lot Yes

And I'm like I'm like a little good Cool Try it again And I said If you do it If you could do it To two people

The same way On top of doing it to me We got it And you did it Perfect What is it? And I said That's your move

You keep it Don't sell nobody. Okay. All right. So one day down the line when we see this. One day. We'll reference this conversation. Yes, sir.

One day. But I just love and appreciate the way that you think about wrestling. Thank you. And like you're thinking about it now with the ability to have 20 plus years in the industry. But it also sounds like you were always thinking this way. So were you approaching wrestling this way, even when you were starting out? Yeah. Yeah.

I have a, I've had and had a big respect for pro wrestling. and I still do, and I feel, like when pro wrestling takes its shots and, you know, if it feels hard to watch it, like, it hurts me, you know what I mean? Because I know a lot of us are, we're very smart. We all love pro wrestling as we say we do. But I feel like I've given my body and my mind to pro wrestling in such fashion that if everybody else tried it in that same way, we would be more easygoing with how pro wrestling is and, like, how it's taken. I feel like a lot of us nowadays I'm worried about how am I going to get over? Just because social media can make a star in two seconds from a GIF.

Yeah. I think they're worried about having the GIF moves. Like once you have a GIF move, you're going to get booked. Instead of telling a story in the match? And it works. They're not lying about that because I've seen people be booked off of social media hype and GIFs. And it may either hurt them or it be a good thing because it may gas them up that they think that's it. And that's not it.

Because in pro wrestling, you have to take care of each other. I trust you, trust me. It's not a selfish thing. It should not be a selfish industry. And I think people just need to take more time and working on their craft and learning everything about wrestling. Like I said, I watch good, bad, intermediate wrestling. I think anything that's on, I'm watching.

And I'm always in my books, writing. Shout out some Mercedes, Monet, because, man, She comes to House of Glory South almost every week and just lines up with the students. She doesn't have to. She's made, bro. She's on TV with everybody. She's made. And she's coming there with her dogs and buses her butt all the time.

And in the books, ideas, and what do you think about this? Amazing. Just awesome. I love being around people like that. For people who don't know what you're talking about, tell us about House of Glory, House of Glory, New York and House of Glory South. So when I was going through this situation with TNA where I was home a lot, Brian, Brian XO came up to me with an idea of like, let's remember the idea we had? Let's start on resting school in the meantime.

And we'll get some kids and, you know, because we were, you know, we were, I guess, born around the ghetto and not many things were around that area that can big you up like, oh, wow, this is cool. Yeah. So we had an idea, opened the resting school. It was mixed with a boxing gym at this point. And what year are we talking here? 2011. Okay. And it started taking off.

And again, it's just maybe a better person by seeing all these kids wanting to be pro wrestlers and knowing that this may be a thing for them. From there, it got bigger. A lot of the students got better. Like private party, and they got signed. There was Kembroway, Charles Mason. You ever?

Charles Mason? Really good wrestler, man. Good, good person. There's a lot of, like, students that have that, like, prior to, whereas, like, a guy named Anthony Gangome was really good. It started as a school in New York, then became one of the biggest promotions. It just kept on going. Then Brian came up to me with a different idea.

Why don't we start running wrestling shows? And that's where I was like, nope, absolutely not. And, again, double-edged sword because. the wrestling school runs a wrestling promotion, the wrestling students in that school are going to think wholeheartedly that I'm going to be in the show, guaranteed. And that's not the case. I don't like that. So I said, listen, as long as you can take care of the shows, I'll take care of the school.

We can be 50-50, let's get it. He took care of the shows. It got really big. He said, I'm using help with people that are friends of us, like Tommy Dreamer and AJ Stiles helped us a lot. Jolito helped us a lot. that, Thea, Zanabega, helped us a lot. And it started taking off.

We started getting shotouts. And I'm looking at the show like, it's working. You're doing your thing, man. I can help if you want me to at this point. But again, also the students that were in these predicaments. And you always have to be there to. Because wrestling is hard, man. It's a constant struggle, constant sacrifice.

And I don't want them thinking that just because, you're part of the resting school, you go right in. You have to show me, you got better, your body looks better, your character is good, and then we could work with it. And now you've got House of Glory South in Orlando. Yeah. So the school got so big that everyone, again, the wrestlers again, you should come to Florida, you should come to Florida, you should come to Florida. I'm like, there's so many wrestling schools in Florida. I don't want to look like I'm competing. And they're like, no, no, no, trust me, comes to Florida, you'll get all the people. Yes, Florida does have a lot of a lot of wrestling schools, but like people.

Also has a lot of wrestlers. Yeah. And the wrestlers were telling me mostly, so I was telling them around, I think they just want me to be open the school for wrestlers, which I'm, I'm, I'm 100% cool with. So open the wrestling school up, we got some students and good guys. We got CJ, JJ, J.J., Joe, Marcos, good group of guys, man. And then every week, there's always a star that shows. are from TV, from A.W, from WWE, from TNA, from R.O.H. from Japan, you know, and I'm like,

you know what? This is, this is awesome. And it's a lot of the wrestlers that feel, they tell us that whatever vibe it is in House of Glory, they want it. And the vibe is, like you said earlier, we love pro wrestling. We just love it. And I don't, there's so much of pro wrestling that we can hate and be bitter about, like I was. back in the day that I don't want it. I don't want those, those vibes. I just want to be, I want to be okay with wrestling. I want wrestling to take care of me the way I helped it out.

Wrestling doesn't hold me nothing, for sure. But this is my way of still giving back to people, open doors for you, and have you guys come in, and we just love for wrestling. We share ideas left and right and become a sign cool. You had a dark match in WWE with CM Punk in 2005. Oh, man. It was posted on WWVOLF. Yes.

All kinds of very nice comments, people thinking like they'd never be able to see this match, they'd just heard about it. Yes. And it felt like it was like two timelines, like crashing into each other. What do you remember from getting the call for that match? And what do you remember about the match itself? I don't remember. One of the things about me doing stuff like this is that my memory has been jacked.

And yes, I can jot it down super. pro wrestling and getting concussed and knocked. But I don't remember how it started, but I know it was through friends again, looking off of me. And I've never wrestled seeing punk at this point. And it was supposed to be a squash match. It was supposed to be me versus, who was it? Matt Morgan, maybe.

I was supposed to lose in like two seconds. Yeah, yeah. He was squashing people at that time. Yeah, I was like that sounds cool. I was still ready for it. and I think it was Sergeant Slaughter. Somebody called me my government name and said, come here.

And I came over there. And one of the referees said, Hey, Red got something else coming up. So Reds been to be pre-show and you're going to have a dark match and you guys do this. So they gave Matt or somebody else a different kind of restaurant. So then my cousins were there and Jimmy Wang was there. And they were like, yo, when they give you dark matches,

that means they're looking at you to get signed. So I was, all right, cool, cool. I'm nervous. I see CM Punk. I've known him from ROH, but we never chatted as much. And he was very cool with me. We came up with cool ideas. And then Jim, what's his name?

My gosh. Ricky Steamboat was the agent. And, man, can I be transparent? Sure. This is how things went in my eyes, right? Ricky Steenboe wanted CM Punk to get signed he needed

CM Punk to get signed obviously right so right right before this match apparently what I was hearing is that um C& Punk was

this was his last ditch effort to be signed I've heard he just wrestled Valvinas and it was not good and he was blown up when CN Punk told people he was sick and they were like red this is his last

effort so that's added more pressure to me. He's saying like make him look good? So then we go to the agent and Steamboat was just giving him everything like Steamboat will do this blah blah blah. I mean, a Seampunk will do this, this and this. And then he asked me to do a heel thing. He said, you ever wrestle with heel before? I was like, yeah, but at this point I'm thinking he's telling me to be a heel so Seam Punk would be a face. And I'm like, yes, I've wrestled the heel before, but look at me and look at him. You know what I mean? It's not going to work. And it was

healed situations he had me bumping and he walks away and CM Punk respectfully tells me, listen, we'll do whatever you're going to do. Being very transparent here where the moves that I wanted to do coat red, my flatliner, my standing shooting star, I wanted to get

that out in the world that I made this up at that point because you're on the other B, once this happens to the B, it's officially yours. And every time I mention something to him, I don't know if it was him, every time I mentioned something to him, it came back and got vetoed. You can't do a shooting star. Kidman does it. And Kidman is going to, Paul London said Kidman's going to get hot. You can't do

Code Red because Ray does it. And he's going to get hot. And you got this move, you can't do that move. So Jimmy Wang is like my boy. He's like my brother and he's not going to lie to me. So he's coming up and he's like, they're kabbashing all your stuff, bro, purposely. And it feel like no one wanted me able to job here. I'm like, okay, that sucks. I wrestled with CM Punk. At the time, match didn't feel good at all. We just kept messing up and boshing and going to different things. And we go to the back, CN Punk gets taken by Johnny Ace, John Lornitis. And I'm there, like, waiting for seeing punk just to say, thank you. You know, I know the match wasn't that good. And Steamboat was just following him saying,

Give him one more chance. Give him one more chance. Yeah, I'm going to get some more teeth with this. Johnny Ace comes out of the room with Sam Punk. He was in the room. He comes out of the room. He goes, hey, have you ever wrestled in the big ring before? I said, yeah.

He said, where? And I said, all Japan. And when I said all Japan, that blew his mind because that's where he came from. It was all Japan. He was touring there. Yeah. And he was like, he was in all Japan? I was like, yeah, it was in all Japan.

How long? I said three months. Like, I don't know. Like three months on and off. He was like, well, you look blown up. So, you know, we'll give you a call. I said, and I did the unprofessional thing of saying, I look blown up. Because I were just wondering, I know what he means is because when we did mess up,

we didn't go to the, we didn't go to different positions right away. We kind of had this like, during the headlight moment where we're like, so I guess he took that as you look blown up. He told me that. I said, okay, anything else I have to work on? Yeah, get bigger. He walks away. I see CM Punk come on the door, walks away.

What's going on? Jimmy Ann comes up to me, and he goes, bro, you could tell wholeheartedly that was all him. You did all your stuff. You sold well, blah, blah, blah, everyone loved you in the back, and it sucks. That's how I have to be. Fast forward to when I got my second chance at the W. I was supposed to get caboshed by right back. He was supposed to beat up three jobbers.

So around what year was this? I don't remember the year. I know that it was a lot of controversy that I showed up at No Way Out. It was like Amazing Red and somebody pulled up so No Way Out and it was like he was having a dark match and I was just there just because they asked me to pull up. I'm sorry, I'm bad with dates.

I think it was like around 2012. It had to be around in 2011, around there for sure. And I was one of the drivers supposed to get beat up by Ryback. Get thrown through a table. Right back's going, how much you weigh? I was like, why? He said, because I'm going to throw you through the table. That's the first time I haven't met him.

I'm like, okay, I'm getting thrown at the table. Somebody shouts out, Red's not doing that. Red has something. And I got taken away from that. I didn't do that either. From that moment, I was thinking I wanted to see a punk something. I'll talk to him. And Sam Punk shows up.

I'm at the doctor. I felt someone hugged me from behind. Ride, right, right, what's up, man, what's up? And I turned around on to him. And I don't know what belt he had on, but he had on the belt. It was probably the world title or, like, one of the biggest belts. And I'm like, you know what? I'm not going to tell him anything.

Because he, it's just so much at this point, water on the bridge. But I was very bitter about that day, just because I feel like it was my opportunity also to be signed. And I didn't get that. But I was bitter about it where I felt like he ruined it for me. but I'm grown now to understand that like he had a job too you know this was his thing and and um it sounds like two guys trying to get a job yeah yeah no heart feelings and and and every that's what a lot of my guys who find the story out like oh see him hung you probably hate him i said no no i don't hate him i love that dude honestly and but there was that that situation and the other situation

that was sainty earlier prior was um the cruiseway classic so that's 2016 you're supposed to be the Cruz Roy Classic. I'm super hype. This is it. This is finally what this whole thing paid all for. I knew as soon as I stepped foot in any of these matches confidently, like, I'm getting signed. That was just a thing.

And maybe it probably was the idea for them also. So it's about to show up the Cruzebett Classic. And I get hit up about doing the 2K video game. And that was one of my dreams at the time to be in the video game and do more. Mocap and I thought that was one of my dreams. Doing this job sucks so bad. I would never do mocap for anything. So yeah, yeah, hear me out there.

What's so bad about it? Bocap is trash. Anybody that sells you otherwise is a liar. Anybody who had on the show that told you mocap was good, they're lying. That's like doing five matches at once. You're not bumping on the pillow. You're bumping in the ring. Everything's legit real.

And you're bumping constantly, constantly, constantly bumping. And so I'm hype. I'm seeing the suitcase stuff. Cool. I get dressed. I got the little balls everywhere, right? Real early in the morning, they're super excited to work with me. They're like, you know, I do a couple of moves.

Then they go up there. They go right into style, a-age style of stuff. Spiral tab. You could do that? Yeah. Let me see. Go up there. And up there, spiral tap.

All right, so look, we're going to have you do it a couple of times. And so in mocap for this kind of game, you have to, like, Like, do it and miss. And so do it and hit someone. And so do it. And if there's a ladder, they're a chair. They're a different cell. But you always have to get up a certain way so they can clip it and put it up there.

So I had to do this move like seven or eight times. And a spiral tap is a move I don't like because I'm looking at the ground. I'm looking at the ring. Instead of the infrared, I'm kind of like backwards. So I don't see what I'm doing. I just throw myself. But spiral tap, you can see everything. And I'm not a gymnast.

I just ran this jumping on the beds, so I'm not really a professional doing this. Yeah. I'm up to like eighth, ninth at this point. I get up there and I just had a gut feeling. Like, I got to stop. And Loki was there with me. And the guy goes, can you just do one more, man? I'm so sorry.

Can you just do one more? And we're going to have you do this and then we'll go into a whole set of moves after this. I'm like, man, that's more. My body's killing me. I go up there. There's two crash pads just for this jump, right? and in the middle of the crash pad, it connects. So I go up there, I'm like, all right,

and for some reason I just jump and everything just blacks out for me. And I don't know where I'm at. So I just jump, instant darkness, and I hear this. And I wake up and I'm on the crash pads and my leg is backwards. So what happened is that whatever flip I did, my one foot went in between the crash pads that connected. and I went the other way. And I heard the loudest,

but I didn't feel nothing. So I'm there, I'm hanging out, I'm just laying down, and everyone's looking at me. And Loki screams at the top of his lungs, is anybody going to effing help him? He broke his leg. And they're like, oh, oh, call, call, call somebody.

And then everybody started panicking. And once he said that when he took my leg out, it was backwards. Once I saw that, instant pain. Heat everywhere, everywhere, all in my body. And then I started screaming. And now at this point, I'm bitter about the seeing pun situation.

I'm bitter about the no way out situation. And this to me was like my last ditch effort of being a part of WWE doing a WWE game, no less. Broke my leg a half and I'm screaming like, I remember that at this point, I think I was cursing God out. And I blamed it on him. And I was like, why don't you want me to make it? why don't you want me to be great? All this stuff I did, paid my dues. I helped so many House of Glory guys.

Like me and Brian help open doors for them. Me and Brian also had a lot of these House of Glory students become best friends. We gave them superstars to wrestle. And I felt like not in a genie kind of way, but in a way where it was like, man, I did all this good stuff. And I felt like this was my time. Yeah. Why not now? Like, why do this to me now?

and it sucked. But to fast forward all that, I know why it happened. And that was a blessing in this, guys. It's weird as that may sound. At that may sound, breaking my leg was the best thing that happened to me. How's that? My family. My family and God.

I got cool and closer to my family and God. And it was more like, you're not ready. I don't know God's plans, but he definitely knows it. And it's literally like, you're not ready. And if I would have made it after the 2K game and the Cruiserie Classic, I would have been so, I would have lost my family completely. And that, to me, that don't go together. What was the timeline on you breaking your ankle and when was the Cruiserweight Classic

supposed to start? The week after. Oh, wow. There's no coming back from that. 2K told me to be quiet about it. The V told me to be quiet about it. And I forgot his name is, Seaman. Canyon Seaman.

He said, don't work. because we're going to plan to do a season two, and you'll be right on board for it. Okay. Well. Ain't no season two. I think it ended up being 205 live. Yes.

That's right. I never got a call for either. And I was fine because that was the strongest I've been after that surgery. After that surgery, I was more in the school. I was more with the guys, and that's what made this comeback even stronger, because I made this leg completely stronger than the other one. I was ready to go out there. And then it was like, I got nothing back, nothing back, nothing back.

All right, maybe I'm blackballed somehow. I have no idea. Do you think there's a chance you could go to WWE now? I'm hoping. Like I said, W-W-W, TNA, if everything aligns well, man, and we can work out something, I would be happy to be a part of anything. You want a contract's what you're saying. Yeah, I want to be taken care of, man.

I feel like a lot of people in this industry respect me. and they want to be around whatever ideas we have and stuff like that. And I feel like it should be a reality at this point because it's so humbling and cool to hear people say stuff. But I'm a, I got to see it. You know what I mean? Like, I appreciate everybody, but I've never seen it in pro wrestling where they kind of like bless me back. You know what I mean? The U.S. Soccer Podcast.

I'm your host Megan Klingerberg. And after interviewing so many dudes during this men's world, I'm so happy to be back with my U.S. Women's National Team players. I know the U.S. men's national team has changed how I think about myself, how I think about being an American, how I think about being on a team. It's one year out from that World Cup, and we're going to talk about the brightest prospects in U.S. soccer. You ready?

I'm ready. Let's do it. The U.S. soccer podcast, presented by Henkel. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You were underrated for so, so long. That's it. You're finally starting to get your flowers now. So how does that feel?

Like, is there resentment for not being looked at as a top star for all those years when you were innovating, when you were leading the charge? And now, finally, people are seeing it. I feel like I would have answered this question a lot different a couple of years back, like I said, because I was going through it in my mind. And yes, I would have had a lot of resentment. Because, again, people come to me. They tell me these things. Eric Bischoff said, I'm going to make a lot of money in this business at one point. And then Eric Bischoff helped make Sangriento.

If you remember that character. It was a Lucha character that no one knew what it was. They kind of handed me the gimmick, like, do something with that. And it was just a gimmick that I had to do something with. And I wrestled suicide twice. And they never heard of Sangriento. Oh, suicide again after that. And I was stuck in those positions so much that I was upset because I felt like I've given so much super wrestling.

like when am I going to get something back? And like when the leg broke, when I thought this was it, yeah, I was out of bad place in my mind. Now I can answer you and say, I'm happy. And I don't need flowers because the people that I helped out, they know who I am. I know who they are. And that's who I respect.

That's who I love. And like everybody that texts me or tweets me, Red, you need your flowers before you pass. Guys, I'm good. I got my flowers. I've always got my flowers. I've always got my flowers. I'm good.

How many retirements have you had? I had one. Okay. It was a mental breakdown. But that's all on me. There's a lot of stuff. Again, all that on top of having a resting school, on top of family life, not doing so well. You know, marriage at that point was not doing so well.

And I just felt like everybody went to me like, hey red, hey red, hey red, hey red, hey red, hey red, hey red. He'd been pulling a lot of different directions. It was just taking, take and taken. God showed me now, like, that's the way. life, man. I'm just pulling, going with it, like, with how this works. Because at the time that people kept doing that to me, pulling and red, red, red, I was stressed out because I kept giving and giving and giving. But I'm at a point where that's my thing. Like, I help. You know what I mean? How can I be upset about that? God gave me that gift. I help people. And I don't, I don't take it as

a bad thing no more. I try my best to help. And if I can help, I'm sorry about that. But I don't, I don't get stressed out about the pulling no more. I'm good on that. But before, I just felt like everything just hit me at once, and then I kind of quit on House of Glory. And I apologize to Brian about that, too. I kind of went on my own and was like, listen, I'm done. I had no show hit the show that we were supposed to have, and I was just mentally done. And me and Brian had a big talk. That's my brother, man. And we kind of like understood good and bad and understood that this is not what certain people want or whatever. And then it got me back. And then, and then it got me back. And then. I became a better trainer. And then from there, Osprey challenged me on social media about New Japan. And he was like, he has to be a part of it. I'm going to pull him out. I'm going to pull him out.

And all my students were saying, are you going to do New Japan? Absolutely not. I'm doing New Japan. I'm done. I'm good. Pulled me out of retirement. But Will Osprey said you were a huge influence for him. I bless that, man, bro.

He said a lot of cool things to me about helping him. And I see that he. does it to other people too. So kudos to All Spray, man, ricochet. So many people who swerve. A lot of these guys is bigging me up and saying all these great things about me. Frankie, because Aaron, bro, I love you. Eddie Guerrero had some very nice things to say about you. In itself, that's insane. Right, one of the greatest ever.

Ever, ever. And I remember an R-O-H where it was me and Eddie versus SAT. Yeah. at the ending of it he was he was the icy champion at the time they let him do this last kind of booking man that's so cool and I'm thanking Eddie and he had a cool old speech

he had a good finale part with Brian and we're in the ring and he passes the icy belt on my shoulder and I guess those guys are like no no no no no please he goes like he's kind of like foreshadowing that I'm going to be doing something really huge in this business and for him to do that

and then the talk afterward with him in the locker room, for him to put me in the book that he did, man, amazing, amazing, amazing. And again, very big on God. And we always talked about God first, and he was always praying for us, very, very strong faith on that, man. I love that. I just love that. Where do you see your career going from here? Like, you had one retirement, you came out.

Where does the career end now? Do you think about how much longer you want to do this? There's certain days where I get confused on which way God's pushing me to. But I think as far as resting, I think I'm good. Is there anything in the ring you can't do now? I'm good. I know. I feel like I'm good.

I feel like I'm good. People still say I run fast. I still have good cardio. I try to be as safe as possible with people on top of them, hopefully being safe for me because I am older. but I'm it's so I'm so blessed to be in the position to be at this age and still be able to work with them on that kind of level. So do you want to go five more years, 10 more, 20 more? Let's see, man, let's see.

Okay. Let's see. I'm ready for it. I'm ready for it. I feel like it's time to go over there now. You're going to be one of the rare people who are in the Hall of Fame and then still doing it. Ray Mysterio is doing it. Yeah, yeah.

God bless that guy, man. But yeah, that's why it felt so weird in the beginning to hear the Hall of Fame thing. You had a chance to work with Ray Mysterio. Yes. Like, how awesome was that? Awesome, awesome, awesome. I thought this day was never going to happen. And I remember I was very nervous.

The first thing he did was he said he tapped me down. He's pulling his boots on. He said, talk to me. What's up with you? Like, what you got going on? That alone made me feel completely okay. because as I kept talking to him, he was talking back with me

and it was more of a, oh, wow, he's a cool dude. And he can see that I'm a cool dude. And then from there, you talked about the match and it became a better match because of it. We just was hanging out and chilling. But in the beginning,

I was like, oh, I'm resting great Mysterio. I don't want to do this to hurt him. I don't want to do this to mess him up. Once he said, let's talk. Let's open up. I still use that to this day. Like, if I'm resting anybody, I'm like, yo, what's up with you?

Like, whoa, how you're good? Yeah, breaks the ice. You know, make them feel comfortable, breaks the ice. And I'm giving them my life, if you think about it, right? Anything that happened in that ring, the alphabet. And I want to feel like I can trust you. So hold these gems down and give them back to me. And I think every time I've had a good discussion with them in the back, we had great matches.

So I think it does work. There's such a fun moment in early T. where Don West is cheering for you and standing on the announce table wearing this ridiculous gold shirt, gold tie. Could you hear him cheering for you? Yes, yes. And it got me more excited.

That match... Go Red! Go! And I think also because Don West knew the... He understood what was happening in the moment because we were supposed to wrestle. It was a last minute thing. And they said, can you guys close the show? I remember it was like a 10 minute match

and ended up, the ref kept going, 50 minutes. Oh, you got 20 minutes more. You're going to have to go five more. And I took heat for the entire, I don't know what's 25 minutes of heat. So I think Don was like, yo, Red's getting beat up. Go Red go, Red, go. And I'm like, I can hear someone screaming that. And it got the people behind me even more so.

But then after that match, Don was talked to me so much about just being proud of me and holding it down for TNA at that moment. And then later on, he was telling me that night, later on, I'm going to find a way to manage you soon and help you out. And when he did, Don West made an action figure for me. He got me on T-shirts. He got me like made event kind of situations. And Don really took care of me, man.

And I'm not saying T&A wouldn't have done this if it wasn't with Don, but maybe. Don did help a lot with Amazing Red. And I owe a lot to Don West for sure. What do you think is the legacy that you've left? You're still doing it now, but you have left an incredible legacy. What do you think it is? And please don't be humble. I'm sorry.

That's why I suck at doing these things. I don't move by legacy. I really don't. I move by faith. And I feel like if people want to use it for their motivation to mark their legacy, good on them, so be it. And I'm proud of them and I love them. But as far as me doing this, I'm strictly about my family.

And I'm just having that so keep me moving forward. Love my wife, love my kids. And that's it. That's really much it. People around the bubble with me, love people, wrestling fans. Love all you guys. I just feel like as far as me planting a certain thing, legacy, I just feel like that's too

What I'm doing maybe leading by example is probably bigger to me than legacy. I think your work obviously speaks for itself. So if you don't want to say it, I will. Thank you so much, thanks. It's been an incredible career that you're still doing it.

Congrats again on taking your rightful place in the TNI. Thank you. Hustling Hall of Fame. Thank you. I appreciate you. Thank you for making this happen too. No problem.

Thank you for having me. Finally sit down with you. Yes. Thank you so much. Gratitude is such a huge thing for me. I know it is for you as well, a man of faith. What are three things right now, Red, as we sit here that you're grateful for? Health is definitely one of the top tier ones.

Health, just faith. And just abilities to help people. I feel like it's so cool to have. people that think of me in this way. And if I could help, I'm all for it. Well, I'm excited to see where it goes from here. Thank you so much. Oh, thank you so much, man. Good being here. Thank you guys. The Dan Bonino show. Folks, it's not my job to sit here and like try to stir you up for clicks. I think I've been very level-headed. I've had to tell people a lot of things they didn't want to hear. So let me tie together into a bullet point storyline. This information warfare against your

mind is very real. Be careful where you're getting your information. Do not gaff this off. Telling you like this is why I've been so passionate. This stuff is real. Now does it make sense? The Dan Von Gino Show. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.