Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Austin Aries: No sell at Bound For Glory, Christy Hemme incident, being fired from WWE, Jim Cornette

Episode Date: December 9, 2019

Chris Van Vliet sits down with Austin Aries at his home in Las Vegas for the longest interview in this history of the show! Austin talks about no selling John Morrison at Bound For Glory and whether it was a work or a shoot, he gives a detailed account of his incident with Christy Hemme, his release from WWE, his thoughts on Jim Cornette, how stem cell treatments are helping him and much more! This episode is brought to you by Roman: http://getroman.com/Bluewire Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's Chrysomania, brother. That's a great question. Look at you. man with the powerful questions This is the Chris Van Vlead Show Chris Van Vleet Show Ladies and gentlemen Chris

Chris Van And here we go How are you my friends Welcome to another audio adventure on the Chris Van Fleet Show This episode is brought to you by Roman And you'll have to You'll have to forgive my voice

If it sounds a little off In this intro here I think all the traveling has caught up to me. In the last 11 days, I've been to Chicago, North Carolina, Las Vegas, and just got back from Toronto. So I've been racking up the miles, been racking up the interviews. This, of course, being one of them. But it's one of like five interviews that I have in the can right now, ready to go. And a few more on the way before 2019 is over.

So huge year. Man, this is living proof that vague goals get vague results. And specific goals get specific results. You know it. At the start of the year, I said I was going to do 50 wrestling interviews in 2019. And I think we're going to close off the year with 100 or more wrestling videos in total. So, yeah. Thank you for being with me on these interviews.

Thank you for being with me as we started the podcast five months ago. because there's literally there's literally a sea of wrestling podcasts out there. Everybody has a wrestling podcast, right? I'm one of them. I'm one of those people that has a wrestling podcast. But thank you for choosing to listen to this one.

And thank you for sharing it. Thank you for tweeting about it and just getting the word out, taking those screenshots tagging me. And I always repost those, by the way. If you tag me in a screenshot, I will repost you. I'll retweet you, I'll restore you,

whatever it happens to be. So, yeah, take a screenshot. right now that you're listening to the show and I will uh I'll share that for you. I just honestly can't thank you enough for these reviews you've been leaving on Apple podcast. I'm going to keep reading them like this one from Ashley Kate. It took me a second there to find the name. Ashley underscore Kate in Great Britain. Thanks for listening on the other side of the pond. The title of this is modern podcast legend. Love Chris's podcast with the offering of an alternative and competitive program, the uninhibited and uncensored long format along with the colorful

and inquiring personality of Chris. Well, thank you so much, Ashley underscore Kate. And thank you to Samson for the audio equipment that allows the show to sound as good as it does sound. And a lot of people message me and they say, hey, what kind of mics do you use? And like, I think a lot of people think when you're a podcast or you have to use like three and four and $500 mics. Not the case at all. I use the Samson Q8. X. They're $89.99 each. And yeah, yeah, they sound this good. Check them out. Check everything else out at sampson tech.com. Man, my voices really sounded nice here. Uh, so Austin Aries has a lot to say. I mean, if you didn't know that already, if you couldn't tell from the runtime of this interview,

which is interesting because just a few weeks ago, Enzo had the longest interview on the show at just over an hour and 20 minutes. Well, here we are a few weeks later. This one checks in at two hours. And it probably would have gone longer, but the SD card I had my recorder was like 30 seconds away from being completely full. So I guess we're going to have to do a part two sometime soon. We talked about a lot. Austin has been involved in quite a few controversies.

And we covered everything here. The no-sell at the end of bound for glory with John Morrison. That whole crotch incident with Christy Hemmy. What happened in his run with WWE and how he says he actually didn't ask for his release, despite what the reports say. All this is just the tip of the iceberg. This is a fascinating and interesting chat with the always fascinating and interesting Austin Aries. We're in your house in Las Vegas here. In my house, the old 7th Street sanctuary.

That's what this place is called. Yeah. So welcome. Thanks for coming all the way here. Thank you. No, it's my pleasure to come here to Vegas. I hear Libby and her bell. That's your cat.

Yeah, my new cat. First time. First pet. I finally broke down. Well, you finally have time at home to take care of an animal. It's been tough, dude. You know, obviously, you know, we're traveling as much as we do, not really conducive to having certain type of pets for my careers.

Right. Well, so now you've got Libby. Yeah. And we're doing this. You know, I put it out there into the world that we were going to do this interview. We're doing it. It's happening right now. It's being done.

And we got just bombarded with people, you know, their opinions of you and different questions that people want to ask. And we're going to cover it all here. All of it? Everything. How long as how much time we got, you say? This will be the longest. Did you say an hour 54 and 54 seconds or something?

That's the longest we could potentially go. All right. Fucking, let's do it. We'll see. Sure. It's the internet. Thank God. Yeah.

That would have been tough. Two hours and no fucking F bombs. So, we're going to get. real here. I mean, you're my house. Yeah. This is, I think, this, Chris, this is, I think, the first and maybe the most intimate, anyone's going to ever really get to

see me. And that's kind of, and that's kind of like where things are at now, right? Sure. In my industry. And so, well, here we go. And this, this is intimate. You can tell people what's in this cup then. This is some red wine. Yeah. I think it's called Treehugger brand. Of course,

of course the vegans. Of course, the vegger's wine. Why wouldn't he? Oh, do How long are we into this now? We're not even two minutes in there. Not even two minutes tonight. And see, I let you all know I'm vegan. Two minutes in, right? Just true to form.

It took right there. That's it. We got to make sure we get that in, right? We couldn't possibly go more than two minutes. Why is that? You know what? It's funny because, you know, it is a stereotype and obviously it's there for a reason. I think it's for a lot of people who follow that way of life.

It's such as, you know, A, it took a lot and a strong commitment to get there. Sure. So you hold it as a strong belief. So like anything else, things that really kind of of identify who you are, come up more naturally in conversation. If you're, if you're a developed Christian or whatever, I'm probably going to find out within an hour of talking or 10 minutes of talking to you if it's something that really impacts your life. Sure. I think with veganism, because I'm surrounded so much by the antithesis of it, that there's a lot of opportunity to remind people or for it to come out or just to kind of just on one of those weird vegans and just kind of put it out there so that everything makes sense after that.

Well, it's out there now. Now it's out there. Now you know. I don't, I mean, there's so much to cover here that I don't know where to start. But I think that the, I think the best place to start is where most people saw you most recently was in WW. And that was WrestleMania 33. They didn't see me. Wow.

You were in MLW. Yes. There's nothing in between there at all. Yeah. There's lots of. Yeah. There was impact. Yeah.

Oh, there was that. Okay. I was just like, there's lots of things. I thought that was like, you were kind of taking a. a big show like the last place you were that anybody saw you but i think no i got you that's the big the most visible most recent most visible place well let's let's start with the biggest one i guess bound for glory that was you want to start there do you want to start there it's your it's your interview here i'm just i'm trying to follow along here i'm i don't know you take over here now i think it i think

let's let's go with wbdbd because i think that's the biggest thing that a lot of people are talking about is you know you know the questions it was russomana 33 was last time we saw you your match with Neville and you kind of smiled on your way out of there it seemed a lot of fans were you know pointing that out you know what I think that I saw that too I think that was the the last match at no rules I was it like the um we did the submissions match at help me out with the pay-per-views you know you're a fan of this stuff with all the hardcore matches um hell and a cell no the extreme rules oh extreme rules thank you I said I said no rules I Anyway, so we had a submissions match at extreme rules.

And actually, we were supposed to have, I think at one point originally we're told to have like a false count anywhere. So we were actually pretty excited to get to go out and have, you know, a different type of match that kind of showcased other parts of what we could do. And then it got changed to a submissions match. The most exciting hour of television, watch these guys do submissions on extreme rules. Very extreme. Yeah, submissions.

And so now we're just. Now I think it was more or less, okay, I think we're match two, which normally match two is not the spot you want to be in necessarily. It's not a glory spot. But for us that night, it was almost the perfect spot. It's like, well, let's do a submissions match when the crowd hasn't seen a lot of the other stuff yet. They haven't seen, you know, gauges and chairs and shit. So we'll get to go out there and they haven't been burnt out. So if we go and have a cool submissions match like we can do, like, we'll.

still hopefully have their attention. So like we were kind of happy to be in the early half of the card. Sure. So as happens, stuff and things. And so also we get switched to the semi-main because I think someone didn't want to follow the cage match and politics and things. And so we need a match to put there and we'll put those guys down there. And literally like for like just the only time we're just like of all the times to put us in the

semi-mainty. Like, like, this is all we've wanted, right? Like, think. And, but it was just like, we know why it's happening. And, and so we were just kind of, man, now we're going to be putting down to A ball a little bit here. Because we're going to have to follow a lot of spectacular stuff and weapons and things with submissions match. Not an easy, not easy, you know. And so I think, I think, you know, I think all of us were just a little upset at that turn of events.

We're just going to try to make the best of it. So, but. But I know the look that people are talking about I wasn't expecting the camera to pan in I want to explain it to you like this Have you ever had something happen I give an example of the day I was trying to throw something garbage right

A little piece of something garbage Throw it and you miss Yeah pick it up I can throw you miss and you miss And by the third time when you do you kind of laugh Like it's almost it's fucking comical Sure that you just No matter what you do you're failing

Yeah So people don't understand like this I got over on commentary telling everybody how fucking great I was. And then I came out and literally failed three times in a row at my task in every way imaginable. And this was literally the last straw. This was the last hope, the last chance, and I came up short. And so that looked to me and that emotion, because I'm a big, you put yourself in the moment and everything I think, a lot of what's missing in wrestling is not the motion to quote Terry Taylor of all people. Hi, Terry.

to quote Terry, and this is one of the things he said that sticks to me and makes sense. You know, there's a lot of, there's enough motion in wrestling. Sure. Where's the emotion? So you're saying your character had lost.

In that moment, I was, it was almost, I was sitting there almost at a loss. Like, I know I'm better than this dude. I know I can beat this guy. And yet for the third time in a row,

I've just fucking, I failed. And so it was that moment in my head of exasperation where it was almost comical that were like fuck like what what do you do and that was the moment I wasn't and that was in my mind and let me tell you and be honest in my mind also

I'm thinking to myself well this has to be leading to a heel turn because I have no value left as a cruiserweight baby face right you know I so the catalyst for something like this would make sense when the good guy can't get the job done being a good guy

you know he turns bad and brings the rules right right I mean But so there was also maybe that foreshadowing in my mind of like that look of coming over me of like fucking comical disbelief of my failure to like cynical like maybe I need to change something up. That's where I was at. And a lot of people read I think read into that a lot of different ways. Oh yeah. But that was really, you know, I was in the, you're still in the moment, right?

And your thing was just happened. I literally just failed for the third time. So it wasn't anything going on, you know, backstage, anything going on? It had nothing to do with that? There wasn't really nothing going on backstage. I mean, other than that match being switched, I think, listen, there's, and I can only imagine what it is now because things haven't obviously improved. There was an overall frustration, I think, not just me. And I know when I'm being vocal about things.

That's something that wasn't vocal, because I think I understood what was, what the deal was. There was an overall frustration, I think, with the lip service of, we want to make this important and brand it and have it stand on its own and then them not doing anything. thing that actually showed it. Again, putting us on the pre-show, the only thing for WrestleMania, going to WrestleMania, putting us on the pre-show for that. Or I'm sorry, it's not called the pre-show.

I'm sorry, it's the kick-off show? Kick-off show. We got, correct, it's not the pre-show. It's still part of the show. It's just not for the DVD. Which is why I quit. It was the DVD, everybody. We'll get to the DVD.

it wasn't about listen to me i was happy to be there you know i really was and people can say that i was the first music they heard that night i walked down in front of 60 whatever 60 000 at that time i took pride in the fact because i'd been there the year before and other restomania's and seeing how many people are sat down for the pre-show ready to watch wrestling yeah we both i think neville myself took pride in the fact that like people made sure they were there early and seated because they didn't want to miss our match yeah And we made a point to say, all right, well, then everybody better been there. So I thought the place was pretty packed, all things considered.

And I walked out there. And it was a great moment. It was one of the best achievements in my career. But for me, what they could have done for the actual whole 205 division by putting, you have two guys who you know are going to deliver. Go put us in a money spot on that card and let us showcase what this division can do. Not for us. if you're serious about making this something, then you need to do these things to help it grow.

Those are small decisions that were made that I think just were undermining the overall success. That was a frustration, but there was nothing going on backstage. There really wasn't, you know. There really wasn't, to my knowledge, up until the time I left. There wasn't any issues backstage that I was made aware of.

So I guess the biggest question is, what happened? You know, the stories are out there. that you were released. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So that's, and I guess people will read into that and assume that you asked for your release and then were granted you release and then you were released. Right.

That's, yeah, that's one thought process. All right. I mean, I wasn't, I didn't ask for my release. I really, I finished the level program up. I, you know, I'd been dealing with a couple hernia discs in my neck. You know, I was doing five, you know, and listen, that, and you ask anyone who's been there, man, that schedule. it's no joke you know

Seth Rowland says a lot you know a lot of times like you know not everyone can handle the schedule and like he's right like to be like in his spot and to be the man to be Roman rains the John Cena's to be those guys that are car on night in and night out and to do it five nights a week every fucking week like not everyone can do that physically like that's that's a reality like 100 percent so you know um just for me personally you know after you know going going through this the travel whatever I started having some neck issues like I'm not sure exactly it was one bump. It was just, I think, maybe accumulation a couple of small things. It just

kind of keep getting worse. And listen, the majority of us wrestlers probably have some type of herniation or, you know, bulge in our discs somewhere. I mean, sure. I mean, it's just, it's a part of what we do, right? So you manage it. And I was getting some cortisone shots to just kind of manage it, getting through the program. And, you know, coming out of that, you know, I talked to the doctor because I started to have, you know, some, some, some, um, uh, sensation loss and some, some, some numb in the hands and stuff. And the issues were kind of getting worse, you know. Yeah. And so I just kind of said to him, hey man, like, you know, this program's kind of finished up. I don't know if they really have any real plans for me. So, you know, this could be a good time

to give me a little time to, to get fucking healthy. Yeah. And so, um, and this is, and this is, and this is the nuts and bolts. Like, so on a Wednesday, I got a call from the doctor. And he's, And he left a message saying, hey, like, we're moving into not cleared for contact. You know, we're going to give you at least a month off. Start rehabbing your neck. You know, go from there. And so go to the PC tomorrow and start rehab. So Thursday, I went to the PC and started my rehab, you know, and it's actually kind of like, I was actually kind of relieved.

Like, it's nice to get a break. And, like, still be able to make some money, but like, heal up some nagging injuries, make a work on some things. You get to be at home for a long. Get to be home. Recharge. Yeah. care of some just house shit like I'm you know buying I'm buying a condo at the time like I'm just you know got personal life shit you're trying to deal with so it was nice to be like okay cool

like I just had this awesome fucking stretch like and I'll and because 205 was Tuesdays and we were at at raw and smackdown we were on the road an extra day than everybody else because we were doing both TVs then we went home and then we were on and then me and neville because we were the you know 205 program we were then on the road so I'd get home Wednesday you know and I was back out Friday morning so like 36 hours at home You know, so it was nice to be like, all right, I'm going to have like at least a month to kind of do this. And so, yeah, and then so it was Thursday. And then Friday I got a call from Hunter and just tell me I was being released.

Did he say why? He said he was really shocked. He was as shocked as I was. It was per Vince. I just didn't have anything for me. And that was it. And, you know, I asked him some questions. if it was because of some contract things that, you know, we were negotiating.

And if it was, you know, I was, I literally was surprised because there was no issues. I hadn't had any issues with anybody and have any. I know and I can be, I can be a fucking handful, all right? Like, I give you a fucking nightmare. I'm not going to skirt around that. Sure. And those rumors are out there. And some of those are well fucking earned.

Right. And when you put context to everything, maybe it paints a floor picture and maybe you still think I'm a huge asshole. and that's fine. But I'm just saying, like, in this situation, I certainly wasn't going out of my way. I wasn't expressing any frustrations. My only, the only thing I really said pertaining to me creatively was like,

hey, like, I have no value left as a cruise wave. It's not really my role anyway. Like, I didn't get over being a baby face on commentary. It was just Neville was so fucking hot as a heel. Right. And Vince wanted me and Neville. So, well, I'm a baby face. Yeah.

But that wasn't going to be my role long term. That's not where my most value is. My value isn't as a heel. helping lift other guys up man that's that's that's that's where I want to be so my whole thing was like hey like after this and you kind of killed any momentum I had as a baby face like you can literally do anything else with me I'll even put me back to nxte putting back in commentary put me in a tag team put me on anywhere else make me a heel the only thing I really don't want to do is continue being a

cruise weight baby face because you've killed my value would you have stayed on 205 as a heel? That's where I thought I was going to do. I mean, that would have been great. That's what I needed to do. I thought, you know, a lot of young guys there didn't have TV. A lot of young guys there were like, listen, I'm, you know, I'm not going to do this for another 20 years.

You need a guy that's a veteran that's maybe had a little experience to help some of these guys. You know, again, I grew up watching, you were talking, I grew up watching NWA, early 80s, you know, the horseman, flare, dusty, horseman. him. And, you know, Rick Flair, like, in the horsemen, those were the guys that made it, like, the straw that served the drink, as they say, like, you need a Rick Flair in that role. The value is in that he was able to make Sting, make Lugar, Ricky Morton, and Ronnie. Whoever, if you mentioned, I remember Lugar came out and said, I want to be a horseman. I was like, oh, fuck, this guy's,

this guy's for serious, because if you mention their name, you put yourself in this tier. So, as a program at 205 live like I felt like the position I that they wanted me to be was in some ways that this heel veteran top guy that then can take the you know only lorkins if you would have got a chance or any of these other guys Tony nieces or whatever and and lift them up yeah when they beat them yeah so yeah I was expecting and I got over being the heel not being I'm not a sympathetic character, right? Like, you know, sure.

Like, that's not where my money is, man. Like, that's just not it. You know? So, yeah, so I had no issue with being in 205.

You know, that was an issue. I said, I said, hey, put me back in NXT. Like, I don't,

like, I don't give the shit. Like, this is a job. I'm just saying from a professional opinion, which is probably my problem because, you know,

I'm not being paid to give those. Is that I don't have any value left to you. I have very little value left here. to you and the more you keep me in that devalued state, it starts to devalue me. And this is a business-to-business relationship. I'm an independent contractor. Your business and my business

are in agreement to do business together. But if your business starts putting my business as a position that undermines my value, well, that's kind of fucked because I've no way to get out of that, do I? So that's, you know, and that's, and so that was really, but no, I don't know issue with it. I was actually happy to be like,

shit, I'm going to get a month off, still collect some checks, get healthy, get the feeling back in my fingers. And then hopefully by then, they've got an idea like something good to do with me. So to get a call literally the day after I started rehab and being released, to everyone's surprise. But that means you got released while you weren't even able to perform. Right. Well, and so on the exit call with Mark Carrano, head of talent relations, you know, he was telling me like, well, hey, you can wrestle for, you know, Tommy Dreamer House of hardcore, but not for Ring of Honor, not for a time. I'm so, whoa, whoa, Mark. Like, I'm not cleared to wrestle for anybody, do.

Like, like, I just started rehab yesterday. Like, my neck's fucked. Like, I'm not trying to go work. Like, oh, that's, it's not what I have here. Okay, well, that's, I mean, I don't know what you have there, but I'm telling you, like, doctor called me Wednesday. I start rehab. Actually, like, give me some time to give my neck. Nah, here it says you're cleared with restrictions.

If we need you to wrestle, you're okay. And I just said, okay, but that's not, that's not the situation, bro. Yeah, yeah. I'm a lot of things and an asshole at times, but I'm not a fucking liar. And that's why a lot of you don't like me. Because, like, the guy doesn't lie and just fucking tells the truth is, you know, anyway. So we ended the call and, again, like, I sent him the voicemail from the doctor.

I said, hey man, like, just so you know, like, I'm not making shit up. And like, this was the message. Like, I was moved and not cleared. I don't know if you just haven't been told yet. That's the deal. And I heard nothing back. And then about two or three hours later, I saw reports from Mr. Meltzer that I asked for my release. Strange.

Huh. Strange. Because never in my mind, why would it, if I'm injured and I'm going to get some, time off but still makes some money. I don't even think like even in my private, my home, like I even like was like asked, like talked about, like it wasn't even something I talked about. It wasn't anything I'm even on my mind. So for that story to come out, I find, I found curious and also with the timing of it.

But again, like, I'm, you know, my ego is whatever. I'm just, I like, you know, I'm going to go with the truth. So I didn't, I didn't jump on that story and go, yeah, I told them the fuck off. They didn't tell me, you know, like, no, man, I got released. And what I was told from Hunter was it was Pervince. Hunter didn't know. He's very surprised. He actually said he would do some digging to find out for me.

He still haven't heard anything back. But, you know, was it kind of a blessing in disguise? Were you happy with your situation in WWE? This now freed you up to do whatever you wanted to do. I feel like I hadn't really, I don't think anyone really ever got to see what I can do there. That's what I'm saying. But that's, let's put this way. I think I was most disappointed, like, that, um, I, you know, I didn't get to really showcase

where I think, you know, my, my, my talents lie the best. I wasn't able to really, the only time I think people really got to see the true Austinnery's character was on commentary, right? Just because that was where I was speaking for myself, um, not really being, you know, produced. And, um, and I, and I, and I thoroughly enjoy the role of, of kind of being the, the fucking dick. Like, but here's why, and here's why, Chris, and this is the important part I think people don't understand.

Like, the role to heal isn't to make people hate you. It's, and it's the part that I enjoy is when it gets shoved up my ass. When you can make people enjoy, like, there's a lot of things I don't like about society and about a lot of people, right? Like, I'm definitely a different kind of cat. I think in some ways I get to kind of, like, play that worst parts of fucking maybe my son. and what I see around me and then have it get its come up and it's like it fucking should sure you know but to be the big bad guy that everyone wants to see fucking get beat and pushed off the mountain like you have to stand on the mountain for a while sure and so that's where the politics

and the eagle comes in of like listen I've never asked for a fucking title I've never asked to win a belt I've never threatened to leave if I had to lose one or not win one like that's absurd you know this is what Jim Cornett says about you though Jim Cornett doesn't fucking have a clue about me Like this dude worked with me for like six months and he like recreates history. And I don't know what I want to go to Jim Cornett right now. I might have to fucking like this joint. I'm going to go to Jim Cornett. Holy shit.

CBD, of course. Of course. I mean, we're in Vegas, but still CBD. I guess the thing from the outside looking at as a fan is you would accomplish so much. You're a world champion in TNA and Ring of Honor. And then you come into the, let's be honest, the lower tier show of NXT and then 205 live. I feel like that there was a possibility to do so much more with you in WWA. Yeah, there was.

I mean, there still is. But how are you? Not retired. How are you? Of course. Contrary to popular belief. How are you okay with coming in after being the world champion elsewhere, coming in to be low to midcard?

But everywhere I came in, I came in as low to midcard and worked my way up. I mean, and that's what you do. I mean, I certainly wasn't expecting or asking for any. thing to be handed because listen what i did for all those years at the level i did it at successfully was a lot different than what they do there like they have what they do there's different it's unique and you have to understand that you come in and you got to earn some of those opportunities and maybe there and maybe one of my failures was maybe speaking out and offering opinions before i'd earned the right to i don't fucking know i just maybe was too old and had been around this

shit too long to want to play a lot of the games there and i already knew us kind of going in um know I joke I was like coming in on double secret probation because you know basically I was told you know coming in you know like hey you know your reputation and talking to some of the guys you know particularly like you so cool man well a lot of these guys you know and you know I can probably name who they probably are like I tell you why they don't like me like I my bedside manner isn't always the best I'm very passionate about what I do I genuinely I like generally care about shit that's happening not just to me but like around me and to other people sure

maybe to a point to where it's detrimental. And so, like, you know, and I'm helping a lot of these guys in my time in Ring of Honor is the champ, and a lot of these guys were kind of green and cutting their teeth and trying to figure it out. Like, I didn't think my job was to be their friend. My job was to help them become better professionals. And if it meant telling Kevin Steen to do some fucking curls

and, you know, maybe lay off all the fucking coax or, you know, whatever. It wasn't because I was being a dick. It was because, like, dude, like, you're super talented. But, like, this is an aesthetic business. And, hey, you proved this all wrong. You fucking got over with whatever. work out fucking congratulations like like i think like i actually i like kevin like i don't think i was i wasn't trying to be a dick to those guys like to be a dick to him i think there was a lot of things

going on on the other side of the curtain i was dealing with that those guys weren't pervy to that was at in the sum that a lot of the shit that jim cornet doesn't talk about that were that were factors of why maybe i was coming to work yeah not in the best of moods i guess you could say um and the things i was fighting for that were happening that it seems like ringed of honor still dealing with issues they still haven't corrected that I was fighting for back then, doctors and hotel rooms and just overall treatment of talent. Like that's been a big issue for me my whole career is the way talent's been treated, and especially by people who've never been talent,

who've never actually had to do this for a living, but who profit off it. And you want to talk about Jim Cornett, who's one of the greatest fucking managers ever. Like I grew up watching this guy. I was super excited and stoked when he was being brought into work with him and super disappointed to see, like, how he is. is and the fact is like you know he's kind of got that old school carny mentality he's working everybody all the time he's working all his followers like all the shit he said it's funny he talks about trump and how much he hates trump but like he uses the same type of tactics to

like pander to his fan base it's just lowbrow shit but like you know got he hates you like he has no reason to you know he just dislikes me i think this is what it is jim i did an interview right and they're asking about ring of honor and they're just the differences of this and that and I said, I asked him, I said, what, which ring of honor? Because I said, Gabe's ring of honor and his vision was different from Pierce's, which is different now to, like, you have cornet in there. Like, it's kind of like Smoky Mountain of Honor. And he heard that and got super fucking, I think that's why he hates me, because I said

Smoky Mountain of Honor. Like, I just thought it was clever. And like, I didn't even hate Smoky Mountain. Like, I liked it. And like, I wasn't trying to, like, shit on your stuff, dude. I was just pointing out a difference between like the original ring of honor concept and Jim Cornett's concept were kind of on different ends of spectrum. So if you ask me a question about ring of honor, you need to specify which one you're talking about. And that was all I said.

And I think he heard it. And like after that's when he just fucking started going off on me and just burying me after he heard smoking mountain of honor. Oh yeah. So he really has it out for it. I apologize. And so I don't know if it's that or if it's or if it's the relationship I developed on camera with bananas that he's that he's that he's. a little taking the back and threatened by it's cool we're just friends jim he tells a story about how you weren't you told him in ring of honor that you couldn't take you took a bump that made

your dick not work he tells this story about this yes he oh and you were being you and you were a manager for a while okay let's clear this whole manager thing up because this is funny let's just clear this whole thing up with this is cornet shit the stuff he leaves out for i was the top paid guy there, by the way. Yes, he said by $50 with the top paid me. Yes. And when they wanted to negotiate a contract with me, I said, you guys, I want $52,000. I want $1,000 a week. And if you guys can't pay me that when I know Sadiq's making that, stealing that, then why are we even talking about a contract? I was the top guy not making $50,000 a year there. So let's just put that out there, okay? It's the top fucking guy. The bump I think he's talking about,

and I didn't hear his thing. So I saw some, I see some of tweets and comments come I'm like my dick not working like what he's talking about this is fucking great so I we're gonna match with the Colt Cabana and you ever see the move uh fireman's carry guy it was the cage it was the cage mat it was the fucking cage match in chicago where we did the gimmick door so he does the move where he's got in the fireman's he's staying on the second rope and then he drops to the mat he drops you you land on the top fucking turnbuck okay yeah right you see what I'm saying yeah so we're gonna do it in the cage I said oh this be fucking sweet so we can do it from the top because you have the cage behind you so you have your balance

what I didn't think about is because the cage was there I couldn't go vertical and flatten myself out to drop so I end up crotching the fucking top rope when he dropped me from his shoulders on the top drop me and I end up fucking crotching and yeah dude like some of the worst fucking pain in my life see Jim you went you've only taken one bump in your career and you almost fucking like broke your fucking back so you probably don't know where it's like to go and take bumps night in

and night out and all the shit that it can do to you So that's why you shouldn't talk so much about shit you can't do. So yeah, man, like this bruise developed like a week later. Like my whole underside from like taint up to tip was fucking like taint to tip. It was fucking like purplish blue man. I snapped a picture of it like. Oh, what? Well, no, I had to.

Like I've never seen anything like it. It was fucking absurd, man. And it was funny because like I took it at an angle and close. It didn't look like you didn't see like you know you didn't see tips so you just like it was kind of like that's a body of heart but I'm not sure what that is. So I remember remember me back for the holidays and fucking showing my family like showing my sister my mom like hell look this bruise I got from wrestling like oh my god what my sister what is that? What is that your elbow? Sorry that's not my elbow. Oh my god.

So that was the fucking it wasn't even a bump. It was like it miscalculated. be able to get my legs straight. And so I took like a fucking straight nutter from the from his shoulders to the top. And yeah, that shit hurt. So the manager thing, man, here's the deal. Like as I got to the end there and through the regime changes, you know, they didn't, I done everything there.

You know, I've been a real champ twice. Yeah, I was the highest paid guy, you know, like if you're going to retain me, like, well, what do you do with me? So I, I volunteered to say, hey, man, like, while I'm not doing anything like super under whatever that's taking all my time, like, why you let me rent? manager, uh, manager and Kenny.

And you're great on the mic. I just felt like, adding value. Not like, oh, I just want to be a manager now. Like he makes it sound like, I just wanted to be a manager.

The fact of the matter is like, I wanted to add value to what I was already doing. It wasn't like, I want to be a manager now instead. It was like, let me be a manager also. So I was doing both. And instead of a tennis racket,

I have a fucking Sherlock Holmes pipe. And, uh, and, and, and, and, and,

and I may have a fucking hall of fame and career ahead of me because I'm only fucking 40. That's right. Yeah. So you know what? Like I got a lot of time to catch up to all the gym's accolades that I'd get reminded of Well, I'm just some indie wrestling. Are you offended that he calls you a turnip eater?

No, turnips are great. You know what I'm offended by? Like, I'm offended by like, Like, like, like, little fucking bitch and like whiny bit. Like say, like, I think he calls you the tiny turnip eating man. Very, very, very tiny, tiny turnip eating man or something.

I don't fucking know. Like, God damn. It doesn't. It's cool. Like, listen. He's trying to make. money. It's all he's his job. He's got to make money. What else he's going to do? What else are you do? So he's got to stir the fucking pot and, you know, guys like me because I'm controversial, guys that

are fucking over like Kenny or, you know, all the guys. It's like, I want to be on Jim's shitless because all those guys are successful making money. All the guys he ate. So like, and here's the funny thing. I don't even disagree with a lot of stuff Jim had like this takes on wrestling because I'm a little more old school and I see what's saying. So like I'm not even like super fending because I know like a lot of it's a fucking gimmick. Like, he's got to sell subscriberships. But the fact of the matter is, and you know this, Jim, and you can say it's because you're professional or not.

But when we were in a locker room together in MLW, you sat in a fucking corner like a quiet little mouse, afraid to make eye contact with 85% of the locker room because more than one of us, more than two of us, probably more than three of us, went up to court and told him under no circumstances should you approach them unless it was to offer an apology in a fucking handshake.

And that's why he sat there and talked to fucking nobody, because when you're selling listenerships and there's a way to profit from it, you got a big mouth. But when it's just real, you just sit there and you know your fucking role. Well, there you go. And we'll leave it at that. And now I await your six weeks of podcasts because I just gave you a bunch of fucking

material you can fucking rant about. So, um, yeah, man, you know what? Like, it's cool. Like, uh, that time there was a difficult time. Like, there's a lot of stuff going on personal in my life. Sure. Um, that definitely was a dark period, you know, like, a lot of that was, you know, publicized as well.

Like people, people know that you had a breakup. Well, back, I mean, when that was back, I mean, yeah, and back then it was just, I mean, yeah, there's stuff going on there. And just stuff with the company that I've been dealing with, you know, contracts, the HDNet deal that they passed on because they didn't want to get rid of Sid because Sid knew all the fucking skeletons in the closet were and he had the key. So they rode that fucking ship to the fucking bottom until, you know, Sinclair came and rescued him. And when they passed on that deal because of those reasons and they basically sold all the boys down the river, because that was going to be real contracts and a real opportunity, and Carrie wouldn't take it because he had to protect his own interests. Well, at that point, I knew what the gig was,

and I wasn't going to keep my body out there. No, at that point, Jim, I wasn't getting paid enough to sit there quiet and happy and basically let you try to, you know, take all these kids who don't know any better and basically sign into a bunch of deals and sell them short. So I wasn't certainly going out of my way to cause problems in the locker room. But for a while, long before Jim had gotten there, especially because I had ran the school and I had students. And that's really where I got involved, is I had about my students to protect them. When they were getting put in situations where they being taken advantage of, I stepped up and spoke up.

And that obviously made me a target and hard to work with and a rabble rouser and a cancer to the locker room and a lot of things when you start calling people on their bullshit. And then those are the names that I think a lot of people Malkententent, professional professional, professional, professional, but professional malcontent. That's the one that I think those are the names that attach to you a lot. People think that you're a cancer to the locker room and you've, you know, you've been fired from every single place you've ever worked is what a lot of people will say about you. Or that I quit.

See, that's what I'm confused because I hear I quit and take my ball and go home or I get fired. Yeah. It is pretty special to be able to do both. Like to be able to accomplish both those things simultaneously. Not very many people can do this, but I've mastered the fucking heart of being fired while I somehow quit. Well, then I guess, you know, this has to lead us to bound for glory. Oh, man.

Well, you know, we'll talk about a bunch of other stuff here, but I think that that's... You know, it's about the time I stuck my balls in Christy Hemmy's face? Of course we do. Of course we do. Should we talk about that next? Hey, bro, it's your interview. I'll do whatever you want. I got plenty of liquor and weed.

We can talk about it all. Well, like, let's talk about it. You brought it up. Oh, no, I just, well, we go to Bon for Glory. We can go, well, you know what? They're all going to transition together. We're going to talk about everything here. Yeah.

But the Christy Hemming thing's a, you know, Christy Hemmington is a big thing. You know what? That's one of the biggest things that I think to this day really still bothers me. So it is something I want to talk about. We don't talk about it. We don't talk about Bonn for Glory. But it's just, that was, to have your name attached to something like sexual harassment is a big deal. and yeah it's uh and and for a lot of people probably go i don't even know what you're talking about

you know a lot of people prior are familiar with it so we'll set up the situation here basically she's the ring announcer yeah and she announces the wrong team and it's yeah that's that's that's in a nutshell on live tv that's in a nutshell what happens she's a mess up whether and the wrong i don't think the wrong music play but she's here she announced me and bobby as our opponents. Right. Caz and Daniels. And you guys are heels.

We're two of the top heels in the company. Right. And so I understand when I walk out the curtain, you're in, you're in the mode, man. You know, and I think that's, again, maybe some where wrestling. And I'll say what's wrong with wrestling. This is where you got change in language. Nothing's wrong or right about wrestling. But it's where it's changing.

And we can have opinions on if we like it or not. But like, I think that there's a lot of, there's no, people aren't in the scene anymore because there's no scene. It's just this kind of the fourth wall has been broken repeatedly. Right. But like, you know, you go out there in the mode. And so I hear it. And yeah, it's live TV.

And I'm trying to process. What do I do? I can't acknowledge. I didn't hear it. Because, you know, I'm thinking, no, we're live. I can't, we can't just do it over. We can't get an editing. It's my first thought.

Can we get an editing? Can't get an editing. All right. So understand the thought process. The ring announcer who's there to just announce name. She's eye candy. Now I'm not saying this. This isn't Dan, my real name in my house, saying this about Christy, the person.

I'm saying this. In the context of the show, she's there to be hot girl announcing names. And I'm the top former world champion bad guy with my partner, former world champion bad guy. She just basically just shit on us and disrespected us and felt no need to correct herself, which is I think where it was like she giggle it off. Like there was like, she probably was nervous, whatever. I probably didn't know what to do. Right.

Okay, cool. So I'm just thinking like, all right, what are I going to do? You know, so I didn't think out all the logistics of this. But in my head, I'm thinking like corner punch. If you don't want to be there, leave. Something I'm going to like, I'm going to kind of get in her face and make her do it right. Yeah. And once she does her job, she, like she dismissed us.

Once she does her job, I dismiss her. Like you don't exist. You're here for a single reason. Do it and now disappear. Sean, that's a very dick thing. Yes. I wasn't thinking that as a real person, right? Like that was in my heel mode.

I'm going like, oh, that's a fucking, let me get some heat out of this motherfucking thing, right? Right. So I kind of back, I get in there. And I'm still like, I'm thinking on the fly here. I'm like kind of backer and she backs in the corner. I said, do it again. I think I have to do it again right.

And she goes, uh-huh. And she says the name and I stand on the second rope and I do my pose. And, you know, I try to give her as much clearance as possible. I didn't think about heights or where I didn't think all this thing through. But I wasn't acknowledging her. It was like she was now vanished. And I assumed she would just vanish if she didn't want to be there. That's not what happened.

She kind of was obviously kind of like, what the fuck? And she kind of like tapped my leg and I hopped off. And I just stayed in character and that was it. And it was all very quick when you watch it back. It's like two seconds. Yeah. And so I didn't think much of it. You know, I just figured like, okay, cool.

Like we got some. You know, it's kind of a dick. Like it's, you know, it's, um, in the way I. I was brought up and taught like this, like this is what you do, right? Like we're, you know, cameras on, we're rolling. So, you know, I got to the back and, and no one said anything. Went through the rest of the taping. No one made any mention of it that there was any issue. I got home and then the next day I got a call from the office saying I was going to be fine five grand for the incident with Christy. And I was like, whoa, like what incident with

Christy? And like, well, the thing was like, whoa, I didn't even know that was an issue. Like, why didn't somebody why didn't anybody say anything you know like I was there the whole fucking day and no one came up and said what I was like yo and it was Al snow uh it was I just said hey Al let me call Christy and I talked to her I certainly wasn't trying to spend or whatever and um so I called her we talked for 20 minutes and she you know I explained kind of where I was at and I apologized if you know she fell whatever you know and I wish she would have came and said something to me and she kind of told me what her mindset was initially she wasn't but as a day when I on and people were kind of coming up to her.

She started thinking more about it and just, you know, and I get and I can understand too, like, you know, being a woman in the business, like you can, maybe some things can trigger you and maybe it's not initially or maybe when people start coming up and go, are you okay? Like, do you feel this way and you start thinking about it? You know, whatever. Like, I get it. She explained her part. I explained mine.

I told that I'd have any issue with her professionally. It wasn't anything to do. And it was cool. And we ended the conversation in good terms and all good. So I called Alback. I was like, hey, dude, like, we're good, man. I called trusty. everything's cool.

And he just said, well, like, you know, Dixie, you think you should make an apology. And I was like, what for what? Like, suspending disbelief is, you know, we got to tell him, oh, that was, that wasn't real. Or he's sorry for doing something as a bad guy, like, that made you not like him. Right.

I was like, I didn't, I handled it the way I needed to. Like, I talked to her. We're cool. Like, I don't care what people in line think. Like, you know, because she put some tweet out saying, like responding to some fans saying like did you like when he did that and she's like no it was inappropriate or unacceptable it's like well that's what she would say in character like of course it's not acceptable like it wasn't supposed to be acceptable right i was being a bad guy

like um but people took that mark madden he's calling people out here mark madden i'm not going to call like i'm not going to call like i'm not going to call him a bunch of names like a midget stripper and shit like he called me. But I find it funny that of all the people to champion women's causes, it's Mark Madden. Go look at that guy's feed and see what he thinks about women. Anyway, and yeah, Mark, I'll call you out. I never met you, but she sure took a lot of fucking time to make my life fucking miserable and paint me as something I'm not.

So if we're ever in the same room together, I'd like to meet you. It'd be nice. You'd introduce yourself properly to me. So, you know, but again, it's his job. He's a shock jock. I mean, what else are you going to do? I mean, look at them. The guy hates, listen,

you don't take care of yourself to that extent. You obviously, if you give us a little of a fuck about yourself, you obviously don't give a fuck about anybody else or what you do to their life. You're going to give a fuck what you're doing your own life. He really started beating the drum of what this was. And listen, what happens this year is that noise gets loud enough that now Viacom hears about it. And ask Spike what the fuck's happening with their rest of it. company to go to the wrestling company go what is all this shit sure we got to make it we got to make

it go away right we got to fix it so they want me make an apology and um you know i i did my normal shit that i do um pain in the ass and i sat without for 25 minutes preaching my case like this is whatever and it's irresponsible and we can make a joint statement as a company and like to have me whatever and at the end i said so i should probably make this apology right like it's the easiest thing And he goes, yeah. All right. So they just want to be heard. You know what I'm saying?

Fuck. So I go, all right, dude, like, I'll write something up and, uh, and put it out. And he goes, well, actually, I think Dixie already put something together for you. Wow. And I was like, well, I was like, well, thinking she, she can give me the courtesy of calling me then. Like, she can give me the respect and call me and like hear me out before she goes and puts words in my mouth and apologizes for me. And I said, and I read the apology with something, it was something like, I'm, I'm, I, I,

I want to apologize for my bad behavior against Christy. It was like, so bad. I wanted to be like, and I'm going to go sit in the corner for an hour and think about what I've done. And no PlayStation for me for a month. Like, I definitely deserve that. Like, the fucking juvenile kind of apology was there. It was terrible. So I waited for the phone call.

I didn't get it. So I got a call from Bruce, Richard, had a talent at the time. And we had the conversation. And I just reiterated like, hey, dude, like, first of all, Now things like sexual harassment are being thrown out there. Like that's like that's no fucking joke. And for me to make an apology like I just, why are we letting outside pressure tell us how to police our business?

You know, we ski our business, our business. And so I said we can make a joint statement. Like you're just coming make a statement. We're aware there's a concern over interaction between, you know, two of our characters. They've had, you know, we all sat down and had a great talk. Everyone feels comfortable. Like whatever, no smoke, no fire. Go about your business.

Well, the outside forces are because money is at stake here. Viacob's going, we're hearing this. Shut it down. Spike's like, oh, fuck. Hey, we're hearing this. Shut it down. And TNA's like, how do we shut it down? Well, but the responsible way to shut that down is to do it collectively not to throw

one party out in a bus. And that was all my contention was. And then also, if you're going to put words in my mouth and apologize for me, well, then give me the courtesy to talk to me. So maybe your words match a little bit of what I feel. them. And so, I mean, the statement could have been like, hey, like, they could have just came out and said, hey, like, he called her immediately. And they talked and made sure there was no misunderstandings between what happened on camera and off. And that was the reality, you know? And so, but as this thing kept playing out and kept growing, like, I'm just kind of in disbelief. Like, this has become a thing. I'm like, this wasn't a thing. This was, wasn't a thing. This was literally two seconds of me, just trying to on the fly cover this thing up as a bad guy. And now, like, I'm like a week. into this shit going like this is taking a life of its own this isn't cool and no one and no one's really working to shut this down they're just they're wanting me to just like take this rap and think like

cop to this shit that i didn't do and so i wouldn't feel comfortable apologizing for now what was being characterized as sexual harassment because she never said it was she didn't feel it was or is she just saying to you that it's fine austin and then telling other people i don't know man you know what i have an issue here here in retrospect when i look at how it all played out like i do feel like she Like, listen, I told her straight up, Christy, like, your tweet saying this was unacceptable kind of started all this. I said, you put a tweet out. Can end all this. Like, I can't say, hey, I called her and everything is cool.

But you can say, hey, like, he called me. Like, it's all good. And this goes away. She was saying, hey, they don't want me to say. I can't. They don't want me to say anything. Well, so now you're protecting your interests. And you're letting things being said that aren't true.

That's, that's not fucking cool. because you said something first of all you screwed up your job no offense that wasn't the first time or second third and then now instead of just taking taking the fucking ownership of that and and me okay i made a bad decision like i didn't think out all the factors and scenarios that was my bad i could have done a million other ways of being an asshole to correct her without stand the term buckle like i'll own that one like that's just a hey i'm bad judgment and but i'm not going to cop to fucking sexually harassing someone That's fucking bullshit. And also, I think it's funny that, okay, is it because she's an attractive female and I'm a guy?

So the connotation is, well, I must want to fuck her. Because that's kind of what's implied, right? I never made eye contact with her. I never made any gyrations or anything. So there was nothing sexual about what I did. But so if it's sexual harassment, is it because I must want to have sex with her? That's one thing I always found here. I'm curious.

Like, who's just sad and have a chance and I passed on it? I mean, maybe it's sexual harassment because it's unwanted, you know. you know she didn't have a choice in it she had a choice to leave it happened so quickly it did exactly right but but I get I always the question was like what has nothing to sex why does anything do sex

that was that was my it's because of where the line of sight was that's the only reason that was what it is right if you were on the bottom rope it wouldn't have been it would have been yeah but it was just kept like sexual grass like whoa like what's a sexual grass like I'm like I've had a couple longer term relationships

girls have been in the business I'm not you know that's not my M. I'm not that kind of guy. I've always actually been the opposite, very respectful to my colleagues. You know, I was taught the whole doors open, be a gentleman. So for now, this kind of being blown back in me was like, whoa, like, that was tough from that standpoint. But so, you know, this process, we get to this point where it's going on and on.

and finally I said to Bruce, you know, we were talking. And, you know, like lawyers are getting involved now. And it was just kind of like, my mind's fucking waking up with this shit every day, you know. And I said, I said, dude, I was like, why? I said, why we let in the work? I think, why we work these, like, work them? I was like, so I knew they had this idea for me to pop out from the suicide mask, you know, and pop for the option C thing. I knew there was something they had kind of in the plans.

I said, what if I go and make an apology next week lie? I'll make it right in the middle of the ring. And I'll probably, I apologize. I was offended, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I quit. Right. And I'm out of here. Yeah.

And then I'll be gone. Everyone thinks they got what they wanted. They got their apology. Yay, big bad guy's gone. There you get learned his fucking lesson. And then in a month I pop up with her suicide. We have a laugh. Gotcha.

Right. Like they got what they want. Ultimately, we fucking worked and got what we wanted. I was like, that's what we should do. It's like, it's like, there's silence. I'm like, don't say anything to anybody. Let me work this up the chain of command. I was like, okay, fuck.

This is working. Yeah. You might have something here. Holy shit after all this nonsense. Like we might come to actually some fucking. lemonade out of this? Holy five. The next morning, I almost forget this. I woke up in this headline, David Schwartz, Spike Rep, was interviewed by Mark Madden and all of his chins. I did fat shame you, dude, because that's a choice. I shouldn't celebrate the fact

you don't want to be healthy. And if you truly don't feel bad about it, there's no way to shame anybody. You couldn't shame me for being vegan. You couldn't vegan shame me. It's impossible. Because you're proud of being vegan? I'm saying if you truly believe in everything you are, like, How do you be shamed about it? Right. You can only feel shame if there's a part of you that has shame, I think. Anyway, devolving on a whole other topic. You see where the brain's overactive brain syndrome, Chris.

That's why the CBD helps. So, and he got quoted basically saying, we hear at Spike TV, do not condone sexual harassment. The incident with Austin Aries and Christianemi is being, you know, basically taken, handled. once again we don't condone sexual harassment and like now it wasn't a shock jock mark madden or fans this was like a spike rep unquote like attaching me to sexual harassment and that was effectively like a fucking game changer because at that point my attorney just put a gag order on me he's like he ain't saying anything like this is a serious offense that this has gone too far and so I basically crafted a long page statement you know apology statement that had all

the timelines of all the contact and all this shit and sent it to my lawyer to like then send to their lawyer and say we're going to release this tomorrow or if i can just clear this out and then i got a call from dixie mind and oh don't worry we don't need to do that it's all going to go away we're going to clear your name that mark madden we're make sure and uh and so all right like and the next morning's team z reported that i was severely fined and apologize profusely to Christyemi. And that's, wow,

so it got taken care of. So it went away and, and what do you say, dude? Like, first of all, understand this. When I broke in the business,

I was taught you protect the business, protect your, your opponent, you protect yourself in that order. So I always have held on to this, what happens behind the curtain, stays behind the curtain. We protect the business,

we protect what we do, the brotherhood. But let's be honest, you like the curtains fucking been ripped off. And I'm probably like one of the last marks sitting here, try to protect something that you can't protect. It doesn't need to be protected, I guess. So a lot of these moments, when these things come out,

it's like, well, you come out and blow the fucking doors open on all this shit. Like, I was still working there. You know, and it's a funny thing is you asked that question earlier, like how she was playing it. Well, like, after this went away, like, she moved to Nashville and got promoted and effectively worked in the office and was my boss. Wow.

What did that do? for you. It was, that was, that was interesting. Yeah. You know, again, I think that, you know, and my departure there at that time, you know, deciding not to resign there after my run was, in large due to that, oh, that played out. I remember telling Dixie, you know, because she was, I'm so disappointed that we couldn't

keep you here in long term. And I just said, Dixie, I said, I said, I said, that's true. I said, I'll never come back and work for this. me if I'm working for anybody. I'll come back here if I'm in a position of some power to actually do like effectively mixed and change. But I can't do this no more. Right.

Just didn't get it. How were you able to then go back to impact? Oh, man. We are just starting to get into it here with Austin Aries. But got to take a quick time out to thank our sponsors in this episode of the show is brought to you by Roman. And talking about a rectile dysfunction isn't easy. A lot of guys are like, ah, I just lost my mojo, or I had a long day at work, or sorry, honey, just not going on tonight.

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Oh, okay. I mean, honestly, when I got the call from Sanjay, it was before they named Scott and Don in charge and he called me. And, you know, it's post-W-E, so I was pretty booked up. And, you know, he asked, hey, you know, we're thinking about asking you if you want to come in and I didn't know who was in charge. You know, last thing he was going to Jeff, I kind of, so I didn't know what I was going on.

I said, listen to you. I said, I don't know who the fuck is running this place. I'm like, but one, you can't afford me because I can't even attach my brand to yours right now. It devalues me. I said, but I have no interest in coming to or working for anybody, but I'll come in there and run the place. I said, you need someone to like run this place. I'm interested in that job, but I'm not interested to come in there and wrestle for you all.

I said, dude, I said, so if you guys need help, like, turn this place around. I said, I've been there long enough. I've seen all the wrong ways to do it, you know. I think I might have some ideas of the right ways to do it. Okay. At least I'm invested. At least, you know, like, so, you know, that was my first play and that, that didn't go anywhere. But then, short order then obviously, Scott and down probably already at traction at that time.

So they probably hadn't announced it. I'm sure they were probably already in that spot. So then, you know, once I got named, you know, I never, you know, Scott was ever a guy worked for there. I know he has some different roles, but he wasn't necessarily a decision maker. you know, these guys, to me, all are clean slates and, you know, what they, when they called, what they put on my table creatively and also just from a, you know, financial standpoint and flexibility thing.

It was too good to pass up. And, you know, again, I wanted to believe like, hey, cool, like, this is a fresh start and opportunity to, you know, it's never been, it's never been because of the talent. Like, failures and companies are, wrestling companies are never because of the talent. you know, it's always because of the utilization of the talent or, um, the business acumen, you know, again, greatest show on earth happens, but no one's there to see it. Sure. You know, so I think, um, yeah, that's what let me coming back.

I mean, listen, I said, hey, we have this idea. You come back and we, you know, and I'd been doing, you know, I went to Australia and, and, and that promoted, you know, they wanted to put the title on me and, um, kind of helped build that, which was cool, you know, it means they get to come back. That's way I look at it. Um, and then like the, the other two in England kind of, kind of, you know, just came about and then uh but then when impact call it and say with this idea you kind of come in and and as a surprise you know beat eli world champ as like i say well if you're trying to peel to

my ego like you know my dick's out and it's hard it's like some other factors involved but um you know and hey man and elia was super professional i was like hey that's like on your side that's got to fucking suck or whatever um but i appreciate it and uh and he's you know he's probably went out there to be a good heel and foil and not not worry about something you're not worried about on his t-shirts, which is always a nice, nice gesture. Of course, this all leads to Bound for Glory. We'll talk about some other stuff too, but it leads to bound for glory. And I think everyone just wants to know what happened that night.

Oh, man. Had a great fucking vegan pizza. What do you have for cheese on your pizza? I don't want to get cheese. I don't want to get husky. So I skip the cheese. There it is. Wow.

There it is a guy. You're ready to bite husky jeans when you were a kid. Wow. Holy fuck. man. That's a very interesting word choice, husky. It's, it was the key of the tweet, I think. The key of the tweet was the word husky because fat just would have been too cliche.

And just, and I think people desensitized, but husky, I think there's a, it's for some reason it's almost more like, oh, call their husky. Like, what a dick. Like, that's a dog. It's a dog breed even. I want an asshole. Oh, man. So where do you want to start?

how far back I mean because there's a lot that's a funny thing a lot you know a lot of people were hitting me up afterwards and I was it a worker or a shoot I was like yes it's like what part man like there's you know like listen the best parts of wrestling is when you pull from realism so like the part the part where I got up and walked off and fucked everyone off and shit like you know I didn't go into business for myself like there there were other people that were aware that was going to happen there was a there was a there was a there was a there was a there was a It was my idea. It was an idea I pitched for a reason.

It was that those people knew of that needed to know. Was it an idea that was approved? By the people that needed to approve it and needed to know. Was John in on this, I think is the biggest thing? I'm not sure. I don't know if I told him that or not. Well, then it sounds like no. But it didn't matter for him.

Of course it mattered for him. This was his moment. But yes and no. And we can get to that in more of the depth of that. I do believe he knew. And to be fair, and I'll say this, we'll get to the whole story. But like, watching it back, I can see, I see, well, people are like fucking freaking out or whatever. But like, I could have done a couple of things that would have maybe had it play a little different that maybe would have been more to my liking.

but it garnered the reaction and result I wanted. Like, let's be honest. People are talking about it still. So let's, I mean, so we'll start there and we'll work our backs. So, you know, I had been under basically the original finish for that match was me over. Okay. They called and told me that months before. Even though your contract was going to end.

I had been only doing, and here's what I was doing there, signing three, six-month deals. Okay. Staying in that honeymoon phase. Wine and dine me. Maybe a little promise ring, but not the real thing because we all know what happens to get married for a while. People start to take care of themselves and don't give a fuck anymore.

Start talking to you a certain way, right? They got you locked down, but when they're still trying to, hey, you got anything to keep nice, right? Because my whole thing was like, I told like, guys, I don't want to work for you. I'll work with you. And I want to keep my flexibility. And here's the other thing, too. And I said this to him, I was able to get more traction working.

with other companies as their champion because I wasn't under any kind of deal where they had to fucking deal with them. They had such a bad reputation that it was a godsend for these companies to go, oh, I can have you on there and I only have to deal with you. Yeah, dude, you're good. It's good. I'm spreading goodwill for the company by them not having to go through all the normal channels you used to have to deal with this bullshit.

People know what they get with me. Like I'm, and I know a lot of you're going to find this hard to believe. Like, I'm as professionals as they come as far as like I do what I say. I show up. I fucking perform. I'm honest as the fucking days long, you know, like I don't mince fucking words. That's not for everybody. And especially in this business, it's very much not for certain people.

So the idea, so when they really wanted to, I said, listen, guys, I will take less money to keep my flexibility because I think I can do more for you and for me having that flexibility. May I lock myself in and become another, I'm not interested in that. And that number isn't one you want to pay. It's just not. I bet I've done the dance. So I was signing these short deals. And I never planned on going anywhere as long as things were cool.

And things were cool means we're communicating. And you're using me in places I can be a difference maker. If that's the champion because you have nobody better, cool. Listen, if I was booking, I'd be like the fourth or fifth guy to want to make the fucking champ. I'd hope there was guys that look better in a fucking poster than me. But if I'm the best you got, do it. Right? I'm not the guy aesthetically.

You might want to roll out there on the tonight show. This fucking guys are real champ. This guy's fucking a midget. You're a fucking teeny tiny turnip eating motherfucker This dude. Like I get like that's cool like It's not lost on me You know what I'm saying

But I'm that still like Now's the promo to John Like you may look like the guy But I'm the motherfucker right now Like doesn't matter what you look like I'm the part You look like the part I am the part Yeah you know that's reality

So They just called they called me before And just said hey man like you know We want to keep this on you We want to keep some continuity You know We want to keep your long term Off your long term deal

You know maybe you know this and that And, you know, we were talked about, I said, you know, I think OVE and these guys, you know, eventually give me babies faces. We got them being moosting and Kevin Cross. I thought we, you know, get traction in his heels. Eventually those guys flip and, you know, Sammy is the champ. I thought as a baby come, you know, probably around some time now was kind of the plan, you know. And I mentioned in the call, which was funny. I said, hey, I was like, there'd be nothing wrong with giving it to John for kind of like the Pentagon run.

Like, give it to them to kind of just freshen it up. I said the guy looks like a million dollars. You're trying to get a TV deal. He's on Survivor. Like, he's good to put on a poster when you're trying to negotiate shit, like way better than me. Yeah, sure. Like, give it to him for a little bit.

And if you want to put it back on me and then fucking heat and heat me up for fucking Sammy. Like, we can do that. It's cool. You know, I like to think I understand this now at this point. Like, I'm not, we all have an ego. We have to fucking. I have to have a bigger ego than most because I need to compensate for my lack of height, you know, because in this business, that shit really matters.

So I got to have a big eagle to stand on So I can see people and talk to him eye to eye Except for Vince Russo, he's way too tall I could never talk Vince Russo eye to eye Always got to look down to me Vince Ah bro bro bro bro bro just trust me bro I've been doing this a long time Really? Well I mean you were a former world champion and everything so fuck But there's guys smaller than you that don't have big egos

Who? Daniel Brian Okay And Well I mean Daniel Brian's I love Daniel Brian Daniel Brian's a fucking anomaly Like Finn back or doesn't have a giant ego?

Like it is, what I'm saying is it is possible, you know, just because you might not be as big as some of the former champions, you don't have to ride on your ego. Not necessarily, but I ask, you know, if we're talking, like, shoot, I'm a smidge under 5'8, you know, barefoot. Right now I'm really fucking lean. I'm probably about 160, 65 pounds. I don't think I ever topped 190. You know, I think my biggest ever was.

I know 202 my whole career never a day in my life. I was told my first match, every wrestler is 200 pounds. so my first match it was my second match ever every wrestler is 200 pounds and I'm like I was probably a buck 55 at the time right?

Galleons cut out like Speedos and borrow my buddy's boots and shit and I'm wrestling the guy who's like legit like semi-pro football player like 220 you know like like like like linebacker dude and all his friends are the front row these little bar right and grumpies

in Minneapolis so he went 200 pounds Austin areas like I come walking out and this whole front row of dudes go Baa! Two hour pounds is just fucking ride in my ass. Fucking tour pounds. Just the whole thing. And then I, you know, fucking good athlete or whatever.

And like I turned the match around like a fucking drop kick and then snapped off her flip leg drop on his fucking dude's dome and I just fucking look to the guys. They're all like, whoa. But yeah, man, so is it. We all have to be 200 pounds. So I've been 202 my whole fucking career. But like, so dude, I'm like, you know, you know, five fucking, you know, five, eight, 160. And when you start listing the number of guys who have held World Headway Championships, you know, in my size, like, it's not a long list because it's a hard fucking, like, it's a hard road to fucking pave.

And I'm not Daniel Bryan. I love Daniel Bryan. He's, he's fucking got a, you know, his, his, his EQ is through the roof. Like, I always felt like my IQ is pretty good. My EQ is where I suffer. I'm like aries dude I'm an emotional cat I think that's

I don't hide from that I'm a fiery dude you look to read in my horoscope I'm like fire on fire on fire on fire I'm like all my side's like everything's in fire I'm this guy looks at the guy's on fire so yeah

so I mean there's some of that but I think again again when I went to T&M my first time I think as much as like guys like Daniels push for it they didn't want to put me with Daniels and AJ and Joe they said now you make less money and you're with these guys

Like the X division. Yeah. And I came in as a formal champion, make an X amount. And when I came in and then they said, no, now you make this and you're with these guys. And, you know, not like I was, you know, long in the tooth, but I was 26, 27 compared to, you know, 19, 20, 21, being lumped in with these guys.

And I had to, I fought against that because that's not where who I wanted to be. And so if I would have just accepted where Vince Rousseau thought I belonged, that that's where the fuck I would have been. And I had to tell guys like Vince along the way, like, you got the wrong motherfucker. whatever you think I am, like you got the wrong dude. And if I need to leave and go prove it elsewhere and come back three years later and become a rule champion like I did, so be it. You know, and I learned some things along the way too, you know, and you grow and you learn some things.

Okay, what do I need to do on my end? Because, you know, I always start with personal fucking responsibility as opposed to blaming everybody. So like when I did my first round of interviews post-WWE and Jericho and this and that, everyone wants to hear you just fucking dish and just fucking dirt. I'm going to start with I'm going to own own my parts like yeah I wasn't really happy you know

WWW for some reasons and if they let me go and they set out and this is what all the unnamed sources are saying that I was never told well I guess so like I'll just own it

because you know was I hard to work with with the writers I mean I guess because that procedure there of the creative is fucking painstaking and it's like pulling teeth

so when they hand me a script and say say this and I go but I'd never say this like this can we switch some of this verbiage and they can't

just go, okay, I trust your professional thing. They have to go, well, I got to go ask Vince. And now they're fucking asshole tightens up and they, you know, fucking scare their shadow and they've got to walk back in the office. So having to deal with Aries, oh, fuck, he's going to fucking comb this thing over and probably want to change

shit and have to go into Vince. He says, ah, I fucking hate working with this guy. Not because I'm sitting there being difficult. And I use this analogy, and it's not, and this is not to fucking, what they do, they do better than anybody in the fucking world, okay? McDonald's sold a fucking billion hamburgers.

They don't want people there who are arguing pitching ideas to make the buns taste better if we steam them. And we season this patties more. They're like, motherfucker, we sold a billion these. We're going to sell another, just flip the burger. You just flip the burger. Would you stop telling us about if we salt the fucking fries? Just dip the, put the fries

in the thing. I was the guy who was like, dude, you're not a fucking, you're not here to be a gourmet chef, but you're a line cook. Flip the fucking burger. We have to do more, we got 10 more burgers tomorrow. And then we got to do more burgers. And so I just think it was that. Like, I enjoy a create a process. Yeah, I'm an overthinker. I'm, you know, I want, yeah, I'm going to sit here and come through this and, and pick these things apart. And in that environment, like, yeah, that's a pain. Yeah, I get it. You know, like, I wish someone were just said, or, you know,

again, if all these things are these huge issues, like they were made out to be by unnamed sources, certainly any of those sources could have came to me or anybody could have came to me and said there was an issue. I know I think there were some other issues in play. And there's always, you know, reasons and there's the reasons under the reasons but I don't really I don't I don't like to talk speculation right I'm not gonna just speculation why I think right I was shown the door but

you know I will I will talk about facts I like facts I want to bring it back to the Bound for Glory oh yeah Bound for Glory because we kind of got off a little off track there never never ever don't you think it's important that if the guy you're working the match

with we'd know everything that's going on there John was John John I'm I mean I just had to think about who knew everything I knew Pretty sure John knew yeah I wasn't specific about I said pretty much said like listen to You post match like you know one two three four five six I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna basically Fuck everybody off and walk to the back and you can just kind of sit there like what the fuck That wasn't supposed to be NC Understand all right so let's let's let's let's go back so they tell me this

Hey we're we want to keep this on you I'd say maybe put on John, now we're keeping on you this cool, great, whatever. Awesome. We do eight weeks of TV. And with that as the end of the movie, bad guy fucking prevails, you know, maybe a sequel. So, you know, one thing Brett Hart said is never, never be a liar. Even as a heel.

Like, you don't worry, like, your word has to mean something. So it's over the course of a career. Like, if you do, if you say something and you continually don't deliver, then your word has no value. So, I'm always very careful. my career of how I say things. There's a way to craft and say things and not say things. So I'll give you an

example. Like, I'm never going to, if I know I'm not going to win, I'm never going to tell you, Chris, I'm going to fucking beat you on Saturday night. Because if I lose, then my word means nothing. Chris, I'm going to fucking embarrass you on Saturday night. Ah. Yeah, I can argue I embarrass you. It did embarrass you. That's really interesting. A little nuance

context, right? So, when I walk in the ring to John and I say you look the part I am the part you're going to spend a million dollars on your hair and your robe and your trunks you're going to feel like after all your failures this is finally your moment you're going to walk in the bound for glory your six pack abs you're going to have six pack abs and you're going to walk in there and think this is your night and I'm going to walk down the aisle in all black, black boots, black trunks. I'm going to walk in the ring I'm going to show it doesn't matter what you look like when you walk in here it matters who the fuck you are when you get in the ring. That was the promo. Well, when I found out less than a week or so before I was doing some media and intuition, as they say, kicks in. I made a phone call, make sure everything was about to do a bunch of media here, promote this. Everything still is planned or well, actually, champ, we think we're going to do the title switch and the pay-per-view. And I was just like motherfuckers. And like, I don't give a fuck about dropping the bell. You have two shits.

I do care about the fact that, A, you're deciding this after we did eight weeks of TV, and now you just made me a liar for like probably the first time on my career. I told this gentleman to walk in and beat you. I just would have come in and said a million other things. Secondly, like, I wasn't let into this whole change of plans. You had some long meeting to change it and didn't feel the need to bring me in, which is fine, but communication was an important part of our process. And now, instead of having a good match,

you know, which I feel like is a heel if I'm retaining like, go have a good match that elevates your opponent. The moose match, right? You know, like that we had. It was like, which we did in like 12 minutes last time because the guys before us went over. That's cool.

They got match of the year for it, so it's fine. If I took 12 minutes to someone else's a match, I could probably get match to the year every night. Just saying, I don't know going two or three minutes over your time, but how do you go 12 minutes over in semi-main? Unless you're just like, ah, fuck those guys. Yeah, you're getting time cues. You know?

You'd think. But hey, just get your shit in, boys. Hey, hey, that guy's the world, you know, fuck world champ and I'm here. Fuck it. Be selfish, everybody. Sell your t-shirts. Fuck your opponent. Sell your t-shirts. That should be your new t-shirts.

Well, no, because we're going to get to this. And so they change that around. It's fine. It's whatever. I'm just, I'm put off by now what's becoming a lack of transparency and communication where that was what was most important in our relationships. So now I'm going, well, fuck. Now instead of a good match, this has got to be a moment.

And also, like, you know, everything that they said is changing. So now I got to start thinking about my situation. And so, okay, so I see John put the tweet out. Something made a comment about my height and midget, something, whatever it was. Or it's cool. Like, you know, I'm not legit, like, like, fuming. Like, stop growing a long time ago. I've heard them all.

It's good. But I do find it odd in this overlaid. sensitive time for telling anybody they're less than for for for anything for you know being fat for their you know sexual preference for being anything you know we're just very very and I'm not in a say it's a bad thing like we're very in tune with hey like we don't want to degrade people or you know it's not cool to demean anyone especially for things that aren't in their control right except for hype if you're a short guy fuck that like that's the one thing it's still okay to dunk on and I just find it interesting like society's like eh I have a

dudes fuck those guys like and well you can't compare that and it's like was an athlete i've been told my whole life i'm not as good as other people because i'm smaller than him i've literally been told a good big man beats a good little man every day so you're literally telling me no matter how good i am i'll always be inferior to someone who genetically has something i don't interesting yeah where do you where and where does this line get drawn of distinction do little guys not get picked on more than big guys in school i do they are they not bullied more are they not told in sports like, well, if you were this tall, we'd offer you the scholarship. I mean, these things do happen.

That is interesting. It's not a protected class. We don't talk about it, right? Because, well, you're a pussy. I'll get over it. Fucking Napoleon syndrome. Like, what? Napoleon's, you mean you have to over, like, listen.

And I had this conversation with Matt Bloom once because basically I'll let Matt Bloom and Michael Hayes call my whole first match with Baron Corbyn, which was the fucking shits. And so. And I said to Matt towards, I said, you know, I said, I just did that because that was my first match and my test. And I just basically like, I said, I would never wrestle a match like that. You had me even off the opening bell charge that motherfucker.

And why? Well, because you're mad. He ruins your moment. I'm like, yeah. So you're running a brick fucking wall, I said, you see I got here by being stupid? I was like, I was like, Matt. I was like, you're six foot eight. How many times you've ever fought a guy a foot taller than you in your life?

So I have a bunch of six foot eight guys telling a five foot eight guy to win a fight. Say, it doesn't make any sense. Dude, I was like, the reason I've been in my position is because I've never put myself in a position to look small. If I go run the guy and start trying to open, I've only did it one match, Samojo. Why? Because it made sense in the context of all the different styles people had tried before. Shocking, all this and that, whatever. But I knew it would fail there. But in this point, I'm not going to, the way I get back at this dude is I outsmart him outclass him because that's where I got this guy beat every day of the week. You're not going to go out fight

him, outpower him. So I'm going to run to this guy just to get flung back like a piece of shit. And then, and then it was suggested later, did I hop on, do you'll hop on his back? I fucking hate that spot because what happens the guy of fucking bugger on my back like every time but I did it but my whole contention was like

why you know like when you walk in a room at six foot eight you command a different attention and respect than I do at five foot eight and I have to earn that sometimes sure and so that's you know when people talk about it's like well there's a reason for it it's not I didn't ask this for me I would allow to just been the fucking

class clown happy go lucky fucking goofy dude but then that guy gets fucked with because he's small and then you have a choice to make and this is what you get when you make the choice and go and I don't want to be fucked with my whole life like you you know and so yeah there's a part of that but like it you know that's it's earned but so my whole point of my tweet yeah was to point out this hypocrisy and like it's cool like you can't make fun of fat people even though that's a fucking choice at the end of the day but sure it isn't a choice but that's fucking that's free game still and you know I'm not overly

sensitive to it I was trying to make a point to it and so the tweet I crafted made the point and I used the word husky about his wife and I used it about his gay look which I didn't know it's homophobic like I thought I was using it as a descriptive kind of like Elton John he's got a couple looks like his normal look and his gay look I wish I could pull off the gay look like Elton John well it's different because Elton John's gay though yeah it's okay that's definitely different I showed about 12 of my friends pictures of John Morrison and I mean you don't think fucking half I'm going to think the guy might be gay but the difference is he's He's not gay.

I didn't say he was gay. I said it was a gay look. Yeah. In this, in 2019, you can't, you can't do that. That's not, who's not, who's to say that a gay look isn't a good thing? Why is it a negative? I suppose it's open for interpretation. If I say, oh, he kind of looks gay.

Now do you have an image in your head? I mean, I mean, we do, right? But gay people come in all shapes and size. Of course they do, though. But we know that, okay, but have you ever seen a straight, have you ever seen a guy? Have you ever seen a guy just totally like looks totally gay? I know what you're saying. My point was I was very careful and very thought out on stepping on those words.

But I wasn't offending anybody. I didn't disparage anybody. If I didn't say, I'm not going to wrestle this dude because he looks gay, that's totally and fucking appropriate. That's fucking homophobic. That's fucked. To comment like, oh, you're gay look. Like, yeah, you look gay.

Like, oh, you're not. Well, you look like you are. Maybe it's the fucking hair or the shit. That used to be a. Yeah, you make fun of a guy. I goes, oh, you're fucking gay. Like, we're not there anymore. But if I, but I knew if I, I couldn't get the outrage if I didn't step on the word.

Right. But you can't use the word in a way because you got to think on Twitter, we don't use context. We just see the word, oh, my God, gay. We don't read context. So I mean, anybody if read the whole fucking tweet, they said, oh, my God, Husky wife, gay, fucking retard. The R word. The R word. I didn't even, I literally didn't know.

I didn't know what I had graduated the R word. Oh, yeah. Until that, I fucking never got the memo. I really didn't know and I'm not trying to be insensitive Like I grew up in a time where like that was just idiot moron retire Like that wasn't extra offensive And it had like what happens when we were on the fucking letters Can I have A?

I want to be the A word I like I'm so offensive like you can't you want to say my name anymore like oh We might begin to that point here I don't know by the end of this interview how much time I don't know I got 30 minutes yet I had to do this interview with a word I can a word a word So anyway so listen so I put that tweet out and and and and and and and And being that I'm not really a dick, I buzzed John, like, right before I text him. I said, hey, dude, like, I saw your tweet or whatever, and I thought about writing this for a response.

But I know how women are. And if you think the wife would feel anyway about this, just fucking whatever. I'll come up with something else. Like, no big deal. And this sucks that. And let me just, like, can I just stop and pause this? I hate that pro wrestling and social media has gotten a point

that I have to actually disclose, like, one of the fucking greatest works. ever just so people don't think I'm unprofessional and can't get work like it fucking like one of my best friends like he was so disappointed in me like because like he's like fuck him like just like do the like it's like yeah but dude like there's a certain point in this day and age we're like clinging to the work like it's only working like it doesn't work anymore because people don't think there's no work in anybody it's either it's real it's either we know it's work or it's real it's black or white so yeah there's no payoff like there was no payoff for me for me. perpetuating, like, it's easy for me to double down on what people think about me. Like, after this comes out in, in, in, in, in, WWE, you know, he's trouble missing that. Well, you don't think it was really easy to do something at the end of that match to make everybody go, oh, there's fucking areas again, doing it. Oh, see, there he is.

Like, you lean into what, like, okay, well, this is what everyone thinks, then this is going to be easy to make him think this. Right? Yeah. And so I put the tweet out there. So you reached out to John and told them this was happening. Hey, dude. Okay. What do you think of this?

I don't want to get him any real heat with his one. wife like you know just just just from a husband wife thing like sure oh he put this out there like why would you you know like and like so if you think she you know and they and he's like now we've both read it like she thinks it's hilarious like put it out there like okay so I put the tweet out there okay with his okay yeah just gave him the heads up like I didn't need his blessing but as a professional courtesy and it's like I you know I had no issue with John like like hey dude I'm not trying to cause you to eat with the wife being sensitive I'm not a dick but I think this should be a good response.

Put it out there and did not quite expect it to catch the fucking. But yeah, I think I did. Was it like instantaneous? Pretty much because within 30 minutes got a call from fucking Don going, Hey, champ. We got a problem here? It's like, not you too, Don.

Jesus fucking Christ. It's like, does anybody get what we do anymore as a fucking war? Like, for fuck's sake, we all know it's the work, but nobody knows it's a work. Like, we all know what's work, but not that austeris guy. That shit's real. So I was like, dude. Like he's like, well, I just, it's like, well, maybe you just take the tweet down because of some of the language. And if, if this was real and I was like, all right, tell him to take his tweet down to you, call me a fucking midget or whatever.

I would, I would think that everything can be a work as long as it's within the parameters of. Of what? Of words that aren't sensitive words, I guess. That's probably what it is. Husky is not a sensitive word. Husky wife. That's, that's, that was when everyone was most offended by. retard i mean

okay that one's that's that's if you had said flamboyant instead of gay then nobody would have talked about it and the tweet never happened chris you got to understand this works if i say flamboyant and big boned or voluptuous and you know mentally

mentally challenged scroll through it man you understand how this shit works sure what motivates these people i'll stand behind i didn't disparage anybody i made a point and to my point everyone jumped on me with a bunch of fucking really nasty shit to cut on my size and my height to prove that oh that's cool but i've been making reference to these things and i haven't used them in a in a disparaging way didn't even use them in a context to be mean-spirited like by the way i like husky women and who's just said maybe that was a compliment fuck i like you know um i mean for a vegan i don't mind a little meat on the boat wow right he does like me nice down i should do that if all comedians aren't pieces of shit like tom garland hey tom maybe

got mentioned in my video don't worry the cops will be coming for you soon wow yeah I've got that arrest warrant off for stealing the shit from my house but yeah we'll talk about that another time um so yeah I put the tweet out and then TMZ once again and this is why I was good to it was good to tell the hemi story first because like now mind you I'm I book for my deal you pay me flat rate I'll cover my travel I get there like I'm there I'm good oh okay wow hey less work for you you don't fuck my travel up give me discount tickets I fly my carrier choice. Wow.

I've actually never heard a deal like that. It's the dumbest shit ever. Like, why don't more guys do that guys? Why letting all these dudes book your fucking spirit air? So you're saying you're all in. Here it is. All experience. So you're saying you take a little more, more money up front.

And it's like, there's my price. What time you need to be there? And then you fly yourself in. Because if I need to change something or if I want to stay a day. You probably get burned sometime where you're like, oh, that flight's $900. No. Oh, okay. I say it evens out.

Sometimes I'll maybe make a little more. sometimes, you know, it costs me a little more, but a lot of times, you know, lucky enough, like the merch kind of offsets travel costs and my rates, my rates. Right. You know, whatever. Like, you got a pretty good idea what tickets are. I mean, I kind of quick, you know,

I'm going to get a book and you quick buzz and look at what they're at, and you just factored in. But for me, like, I figure, that's one lesson this guy has to worry about. And listen, I've had too, well, out too many fucking nightmares of shitty travel or you got a change of flight or this guy's booking your bullshit, three fucking connections and shit. It's like, I'm just going to Chicago to fucking Ohio.

You're kidding me? Like, we're going to Cleveland. You get three connections? They're through connections to get there. To where it's just like, and for them, they're like, oh, that's great. And so, and it works, it works out for everybody. Lots of work for them. And for me, it's peace of mind.

I get to keep my fucking status with my one air carrier. I know the hotels now. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's just, I think it's a smart way to do it. I started doing that and I'll never go back. So, but with this, I wasn't really told that I should come in an extra day early for media or for the Hall of Fame. So I booked my flight to come in the day early, not two days early. so I got a call saying hey champ

TMZ picked up on this they wanted to bring Johnny and tie on and my initial thought was oh that's fucking great dude like fuck yeah TMZ live and then my second thought was oh how funny how that comes full circle to where the fucking vehicle used to bury me all fucking bound for you know all those years back

as no anyway so they went and did that and you know buried me on fucking national television again where people don't know the day. And so that's good. And so then said, you had this idea for doing this little thing at the Hall of Fame ceremony, you know.

And so like just Donne myself. A couple people knew about that. Went and did that, which I fucking got pretty good. Yeah, yeah. Meanwhile, like contract stuff's now. Like they send me an extension instead of like the long-term deal they had said.

They send it last minute like when I'm flying over. It's kind of a little. whole negotiating tactic that have been a party to wait to the, you know, 48th hour and then put them in a corner and now you've got to make a decision, right? Unfortunately, this time, I wasn't blinking. And so I send them back and said, hey, just draw something up that gets us through TV because I'm not going to sign on for the same terms for another three or six months. I said, we've had, I said, we waited all this time and all this shit's changing. So my intention was, you know, basically, got, I had no problem dropping the title,

but my thing is I need to create a moment for this dude like we don't have any moment we don't have we have a lot of good matches I've got a fucking 15 years of good matches I don't you know yeah I can have a good match with you right now he would clear this table out we'd have a good match probably not with me I guarantee it you flexible I can bump

I actually train I actually train and that's if you bump actually trained to be a wrestler and see what we'd have a great match but my point is this like you know a lot of guys are folks and have good matches and I want to create moments and shit remember I want to pull on people's emotions and I want to make people believe. Right. And a lot of times when I think of a match like this

a title change, I'm thinking, I want to pick what I think is my opponent's weak. Weakness. Shaking his armor and then I want to basically strengthen it. Right? So like when I thought about John, I was like,

I mean, this guy's got everything, right? It looks great, fucking super athletic. You know, it's got a quirky, charming personality. Like, but the one thing I'll say, like, Fred's athletic and all this cool shit can you do? Like, is he mean?

Hmm. If I go spit in his wife's face, what's he going to do? Hey, man, that's not cool or is he going to fucking fight me? Like, what happens when this shit hits a fan? If this dude's going to be the world champion,

is he tough? Like, he can fight. Let me see like nasty. I've never seen that sigh. Let me see I pull that shit out because if I pull that out, there's no fucking chinks, right?

Yeah. That's one thing. I go, you're this, you're this, but I argue that. And then he is that. Yeah. Well,

OK. You're the champ. Right. So my old thing was I make this personal, you know, and now we're not going to have a wrestling match. Like, can you fight me? So that was really the mindset of it. And like,

and like kind of now it's having a good match, like create, just really focus on the emotion of it and trying to create this moment for him. And so we kind of get this whole thing where, you know, we have disagreements on television creative of what they wanted me to do and then what the follow-up was

and what I thought, I just didn't think it was beneficial for me, for the guys that they had behind me. I didn't think it was well thought out. I didn't think they had a really good plan. And I didn't feel obligated to sign anything to do those televisions if I didn't feel comfortable. Because it wasn't just me, but also the two other guys that, you know, that were connected to me then if you're undermining me or it's hurting them.

So I just kind of said, listen, guys, like, A, I shouldn't show up on, if I lose the title after talking shit, I shouldn't show up a week later anyway. and talk more shit. Right. It disappeared for a while. Show could probably use some fresheny up and just get me off TV for a bit. Let these guys carry the shit for a few weeks.

It's good. Let me go lick my wounds. Let me come back. Like, you know, like, first off, I was like, so I could not be there Monday. I was like, and honestly, like, just keep me off for a month. You know, or, you know, originally was like, keep me off at least two weeks. I had me come back week three, you know, or week four. But, but ultimately it was just the decision.

made it all right or and this was for TV we'll get to the end of the match but it was just like I'll go home we got four weeks to figure out the contract but leading up to it so now we're kind of going in this without really having a contract in place so effectively like when this match is done I don't really have anything yeah so my idea was listen like I want to leave with some fucking buzz I want to leave with some controversy I want to do something that gets people's attention and so that we have there's a payoff here I didn't feel like

we built this whole feud on the premise of the different ending of the movie so it felt like you know so I felt like there was we had one more

like we have a rematch like we can but if I leave with some buzz like you said earlier man you have great shows but if no one knows they're happening doesn't matter

and like that cruise is killing it man we're going out there fucking every show and fucking killing it and like well is anyone watching yeah

so you know my thought was like like, all right, so I'm going to play off a little bit of reality, right? Everything's just this major heat with me and John. Yeah. Like legit heat. Legit heat with me and him. And I understand this, dude. Like, I've, I've been malcontent and enough in my life to know what that feels like to be legitimately angry and salty about shit.

Sure. I wasn't at all. But I was able to fucking, for the minute I got there that day, just fucking harness it and radiate it. Because you know what? Like, you have to be working for the minute you get at the building because all the marks now we're in the back so you're working the boys they're not the boys they're all the unnamed sources so they can be put over in all the sheets let's just call like it is and a lot of times it's not the boys it's it's indie guys or extras or dudes that flame out in two months or two

years we didn't we didn't you know when you open the curtain up you let everybody in everybody even people who shouldn't be in right people who should be buying tickets so yeah you have to like you have to be working I'm not working the boys I'm at work and work does the start when you walk out of the curtain because those aren't the only fucking people you got to work anymore because if all the leaks aren't coming from the fucking people buying tickets it's from all the fucking boys so yeah so when i talk to match out with john and i'm going yeah man it's to be cool but you know what and then with this and i'm doing these hand gestures and i walk away for a minute and i come back and go like this and i'm doing this shit to him like this anybody not with an

ear shot it's sitting over there fuck man yeah these guys are really been doing that for years it's you talk to someone in the bar after the show when there's marks around. We know it's not real. It doesn't mean we have to remind them. It's fucking fake every 10 minutes. Like there's a way if you put a little thought in it to still like letting them maybe, I think some of them want to believe the magic. If you wouldn't keep telling them that,

you don't really saw them the bitch and a half every five minutes. And it's little shit of just like at a bar and going off the guy. I go, hey man, thanks a lot for the match tonight. You know, I appreciate it. We'll see tomorrow safe travels. But everybody knows it's not real anymore. Do they? Why we sit in,

and why are we sitting here talking about Bound for Glory last year? Oh, this is interesting. that you say that. If everybody knows, that's why they must know I must really be an asshole, I must really be unprofessional because we all know,

so there's no way that this was, we couldn't be worked. We can't be worked. So this guy, it's either, and that was the convention was the math words. Well, it's either a stupid idea

or it's real. Because we can't be worked. Right? We all know what's fake, right? Then why we even, the why is everyone asking me these questions? You all know what's going on. I'm asking me.

Or is, am I supposed to only, am I supposed to use your rules of engagement to work you? Oh, but you can't do these things because that's not what we think is going to happen. That's interesting. Because, you know, Connor McGregor didn't roll around laying on the mat

for 30 seconds after his match with, you know, Kibib, right? Yeah. He had to get up and just fight against him. He hopped in the cage afterwards, right? He wasn't, so my thought is everyone thinks after match you're supposed to do this. Roll around and agony and acting in there.

Yeah. Ever been a real fight? Or you ever watch MMA? Yeah. What happens after the fucking bells? They fucking sit there and sell and look all their wounds. Depends how badly injured they were, I guess. Yeah.

Starship pain looked like a devastating move. Well, you tell me. Hey, Libby, come here. The cat. Well, I mean, I'd throw around you for a second and see how it feels. What about flipping off Don as you're walking out? What are the smart marks know? They know that Don's.

in charge. Right. And he's also in commentary. That's something all scenarios would do. And I knew the camera would be right there for fucking Scott right when I came in the locker room. And my whole thing was, there you go. There's your fucking boy now. That's what you wanted. Now let's see what he's got. Let's see if he can do for him or for someone else what I just did for him. So now you go through the curtain. What happens? Well, I said the camera was there. Yeah.

Because I knew that was going to be there for that. They released the unseen backstage footage. All they was back there. And I told Scott, I said, not of all this. And this said, I'm the only one that's fucking professional and all this. And this guy goes, if you got to tell somebody you're professional, you're not professional, great fucking line. That's good. But legit, like, I'm looking at like this, Chris.

First of all, the plan was to have me come back. Hey, good guys. We got a month now before you guys come to my hometown in Vegas. Let's figure out this fucking contract deal. Let's figure out the right way to fucking have me come back and do this. Like, whatever, you know? We got a month now instead of putting me everyone in the corner and back. And fuck that.

and they just dropped the ball. They just didn't, they waited the last minute to basically put the same offer in front of me that had been in front of me before. And with everything that had gone down, I just, my counter was, let me come and be in and create, you guys are undermanned, you know, I get guys like, you know, guys like seeing Osangis leaving abyss is leaving. I come and being creative. Look at all, I said, no offense, guys, but I did more in a week with a fucking tweet

than you guys did in eight weeks of TV. Imagine if you'd told me in the beginning what you guys were going to do. Right. have me scramble at the end. I was like, you know, I'm just here to help. I'm not, I don't want to be a decision maker. I'm an ideas guy, you know. It's, you know, and, but they, they passed on that for conflict of interest or threatened by my acumen or whatever the real reason was. And that's cool. And so it's like, if I'm offering my time as a compromise, you're not able to pay me what I'm worth and you don't think that's valuable, then, you know, I just kindly, around December or

whatever, after I just declined on, on the contract and just told them, I was just going to kind of let it ride and do my thing. And I got to be honest, like, with all the respect to all the talent there, like nothing that they've done as a company's sense has maybe regret the decision. And if anything, it tells me I made the right one and how much, in a lot of ways, I think I was kind of holding some of that shit together. So, well, I know we never say never in the world of wrestling, but it doesn't seem like the door is open and impact, maybe. I don't think it's not closed. So here's the door. So here's the thing. Let me just say this.

Okay. So the funny part. So I leave there. First of all, I thought the match was awesome. One of my favorite matches ever. Like I said, dude, like, I had people going like, man, that's one of my favorite matches. Like, like a fight. Like, you guys are actually trying to hurt each other.

Novel concept. Novel concept. We were actually trying to fucking hurt each other and didn't like each other. We sold emotion. Wow, these guys, we know wrestling's fake, but these guys really don't like each other. There's a way to do it, guys. It was a way to do it. John was one of his favorite matches ever

He had you know And I told me before I went out there Hey dude like I got nothing but of respect for you Not but love So just know anything happens out there It's just because we're putting on a good show You know No bad intent behind there

It was a good thing because there's some live rounds We went on put a good fucking show But here's the thing dude I got up Once you three Four five six I got up Fuck you fuck you fuck you

I walked to the back I did that Now in the week after that moment okay first of all I'm I'm going to say this I left with more value than I actually walked into the match with for sure right

as a guy who just lost clean in the middle of the ring I left with value you definitely had more people talking about buzz and value as a loser than maybe even arguably I had walking in that so that was good um secondly uh yeah if there was a rematch now

immediately had value to where most rematches are kind of whatever so i thought okay we have we have intrigue we've got value retained here which if i never come back at least i had value walking out the door um but there was over a million oh a million views in the next week of that clip that's the name of the game how many of those people had no idea that show happened or john morrison was there austin areas who the fuck he is or a lot of people yeah and so my thing was like guys like if that's the last thing I ever do here I told me if that's the last thing ever do here I'll take the fucking villainize me

it's fine I'm a heel like it's my gift like I wasn't trying to shit on John's moment and I think like all you shit on his moment name me one title match switch you remember then's the last title switch you remember off the top of my head right now last one

memorable one quick the fiend just won the title okay well that was big when did you see it it was last month okay yeah How many in the history, like title switches do you remember? I mean, you're right. You remember the big ones? You remember that one? You remember Bound for Glory, John Morrison, title switch?

Well, people are going to remember this, for sure. I wanted to create a moment. So people say that ruined his moment. Actually, I created one in a way. But it was your moment. You took the moment from John. Our moment. That's why I looked at it because that wasn't supposed to be the,

Again, I guess just for, you know, for me. And now, and now I was, and so I pitched, even after we agreed that the contract thing wasn't going to happen, I pitched the idea they had homecoming in Nashville. And I said, well, hey, man, like, I'm still cool to do business. I just don't want to sign a fucking long contract. There's still, like, there's still payoff here. So I pitched the idea at the end of homecoming after the pay-per-view or after the main event match. You know what I don't like screw finishes. Like, after the match is done, these guys are laying there selling.

I hop the fucking guardrail from the crowd. I was like, don't tell anybody. Let me start fucking beating up John. I said, send the cops, and fucking arrest me. Just fucking, you know, fucking bail me. Wow.

I was like, dude, that will fucking get major buzz. I was just stoke the flame a little bit. Sure. I always want to get a payoff that wasn't supposed to be about me, dude. But you have to understand this.

In the position they put me in, I had to protect myself some way. And so I felt I did it in the best way possible to where, not only did I leave some value for myself. And yeah, I leaned into what everyone thinks. So it was easy. Of course,

he's an asshole. But I left with buzz and value to hopefully then come back. I also like, dude, how many times of a million people tuned in and watched anything that fucking company? No offense.

I'm just saying, like, that's the name of the game. I'm always thinking that. What do I do that? Tomorrow people are going to be talking about it. You know, for me,

it's about, you know, the role I have to play in that sometimes is the one that I played. Sure. I've accepted it for a long time. I think, you know,

when, when, when, what does they say art imitates life you know it starts to be you know it's when people start believing he's like I'm supposed to be selling this

to make people believe but they actually start to believe like ah fuck you're not really they guys knew this wasn't real so well with that said and as we this is this is by far the longest interview we've ever done man so thank you for hanging on to this. We haven't hit half the stuff which is crazy we haven't hit like half the notes I gave you bro if you

if you want to say you know you want people to be you know remembering you What are you looking forward to? What's next for you if we look ahead here? It's good question, man. Yeah, so that was an abrupt switch. You're like, oh, we got fucking 11 minutes left of audio time. We talked a lot about the Bail for Glory thing.

This is a dry run, too. This is just a test run. We're going to do this whole thing again, too. 10 minutes. We're just trying this out. We got this bells in the background. We got to edit that out. It's the cat.

That's the cat around. Just kidding. Liberace. So I got adopted it from, she was living at the Neon Museum here in town. And they'd taken her a few years back. If she was a stray, she used to be a pep, it was a stray. They named her Liberace and then found out she was a girl. So she's Libby.

But I say she's actually, we've spoken about it. And she, she had. You're the cat. Yeah, she identifies as a gay male, even though she's a female. So she's a little gender confused. But I respect her. I respected if you've got called Liberacee and let her do her thing. Well, what's next for you in Livy?

Probably nothing. You and Libby could go on tour. She doesn't like me that much. Yeah, she's, you know, she's like, she's a little like me. She's like people. No, I don't know, man. You know, I just, I did a lot of miles after the WW year. You know, just, you know, I got, you know, basically my 90 days, I rehab, you remember, you know, I got healthy enough.

That was interesting. We even talk about that. I did 225,000 miles. the year after. And so, you know, coming to this year, I, you know, he's been working on some other things outside of wrestling. You've been training with Frank Meir, who I think you can go get an interview with him in a little bit. Yeah. And kind of made friends with him out here over the last couple years. And he wants to get into wrestling. Yeah, he kind of expressed that. And I was like, well, if you're serious, man, like, you definitely are going to make some money if you want.

And, you know, so, you know, he had to get past Roy Nelson fight. And I kind of tagged along as his training partner for that. And, and we got past that. And, you know, he did great. And, and He's all intact. And so now, yeah, we're going to get through the holidays and see what's out there. And it seems like right now there's a lot of crossover in the world of pro wrestling. And I think, you know, Frank fits right in there. And, you know, for me, if that's something that he ends up doing and we've even talked about maybe, you know, a little tag team stuff. Okay.

Would be an interesting scenario. But I don't know, man. The MLW stuff was fun. You know, I enjoy my time there. I know that they, you know, like to talk about having me come back. You know, I've had other places reach out. I know hard to believe. But yeah, I've had places reach out and just kind of see where I'm at.

And, you know, it was good. I always say this, you know, the equation of life that we've agreed on is that we all work really hard to save our money up to buy our time back. That's right. Wow. And we save our money to buy our time back. That's pretty powerful. And so I worked my ass off really hard for a long stretch.

And, you know, I figured this year I kind of bought some of my time back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't feel the need to work every weekend or, you know, just take a bunch of bookings. I did some other stuff and enjoyed life a little bit this year. And, you know, I did some of this house. and congratulations for that. Yeah, thanks.

You know, it's a cool little spot here in downtown. I want to do, you know, do some cool stuff here. And I think that's one cool thing about, you know, I think one thing a lot of fans don't understand is,

first of all, like not everyone's motivated by money or fame or being on TV and shit. Like, you know, and then also, once you've achieved certain goals, like there's more to life than that. And,

and that the cost associated sometimes with those things isn't worth it. And for me, like, I love being my own boss. You know, like, fine fucking $2,000 for smoking something that's legal in my state that helps me with my pain management.

I like being shaken down by a corporation for smoking weed. Yeah. WWU does to their performance. Right. Especially if it's legal. Especially if it's legal. Especially if it's honestly, if you're looking at all the things we can be doing in a pain management business and medicinal CBD and marijuana is leaps and bounds above anything else

that they're giving people. So, you know, again, I don't, I don't like playing by fucking other people. rules if I disagree with them and you know what that's clear listen man like I've no wife I've no kids and I know a lot of my colleagues I've said this time and time again I give a lot of credit because they don't necessarily feel or think differently but they just got to strap on the fucking work boots to go make the paycheck because they have other people count on them and I have a little more liberty and freedom to maybe stand up and say some of those things out loud that they can't and for whatever reason like that's the role I've been given in life and I accept it and there's

a bad she comes with it and it's not that a lot of these other colleagues and I've been told, hey man, like, you know, we appreciate what you do or whatever, you know, I'm sure a lot of them think I'm a complete prick too, you are. That's fine. If you're, if you're universally loved, there's something wrong with you. I do take pride in the fact that, like, the only thing Jim Cornett and Vince Russo agree on is they both fucking hate me. And that should be like an award. Like, they should give that an award out every year for like the one personality that's so, like, just so polarizing, but yet still dead in the center that Jim Cornett and Vince Russo can't stand them.

Like, only thing these fucking guys agree on. Oh, then wrestling sucks if they're not a part of it. Those are the two things I agree on. So, yeah, will you get more views if I take my shirt off and smoke this joint? That's what Vince Russo did, right? That's what Rousseau did, right? That's what I told you I was going to smoke this marijuana on camera, bro. Ah, bro, I don't know.

Ah. I hope Vince Riso sees this. Vince, come fucking hang out and have a drink. The funny thing is, like all these guys should talk. I don't have any, like, bad will against these guys. But, like, a lot of it's with dudes, it's like, you know, like, I can do your job, but you can't do mine. I don't say it to be a dick, but it's like, you know, without pro wrestlers putting their buys on the line, like, what are you fucking write about? Or what do you manage?

Who are you going to manage? You know, so, like, just throw some respect on the fucking backs of the guys who actually can go and do it. Yeah. It's not to demean all the parts we play, but when guys have this flipping attitude that somehow they're fucking superior, it's like, you, we never fucking had a match. And I even say this is the dirt sheet riders. This is not to call anyone else specifically, but like, how can you be an expert of something you've never fucking done? Yeah. How can your opinion hold more weight than the opinion of someone who's actually done it?

Sure. Calling a match with someone, negotiating a match with someone is fucking an art and difficult. Like, then going and performing that match and all the factors that go into that. Like, there's a lot that goes into these things that if you've never done it, it's like, can imagine like being a baseball player and being a fucking, never being a baseball player, but I'm an expert on pitching. Like, you may be an expert on physics and spin. but like there's a lot of things that you just innately could never be an expert on if you've never actually done it. And also if you grade every match on the scale that it's supposed to be the WrestleMania main event, I think it's being disingenuous to match ratings.

Because if my job was to go out there match two in eight minutes was to put this guy over super strong. Right. And get the crowd, you know, super behind them. And I did that perfectly. That's a five-star match. Yeah. Because I wasn't asked to go out there and give you fucking 15 false finishes and oh my gods. but the guy's start wrestling

because I think that's the only kind of match that has any value because if it's not that match then it doesn't matter that's fucking bullshit because that's some guy that's never had one fucking star match or a two star match

or a three star match or a four star match or a five star match he's had no fucking matches that's right so his scale goes over here with all the people never had matches scales which you can be a great pundit

and you can be a great critique or you can be super knowledgeable you can love it and be passionate and have all the fucking insider information and I'm not discounted any of that and fucking build it and put your time

in and awesome like you've earned all that however if you've never put boots on and gone in the ring and done it if you never called a match out and then performed it and this isn't to demean anything it's to say there's a part of it you can never truly understand yeah and that's coming from guy who was the biggest wrestling fan of anyone I knew in my whole life my whole fucking life for 22 years I knew everyone's name I knew everything about everything about wrestling knew everything about wrestling and then I I had my first week of wrestling school and realized I didn't know fucking shit about pro wrestling. Yeah. This has been a really interesting conversation.

We only scratched the surface, bro. Which is crazy. Maybe we should just have a show. Should we just have a fucking TV show? Sure. I don't know. The Austin and Chris show? Really, you'd let me put my name first?

You'd have to. That's really fucking mess. No one's tuning in to see me. Are you kidding me? I have no. I have like two fucking YouTube subscribers. Well, you have far more Instagram followers. Yeah.

But I, But I think all catfish, who send me like nude pictures and then ask for one's back. Like, come on, people. Does that work? I don't. That's the blue check mark. I want to. So you know, Marty grah beads is one of my, if anyone takes this, it was one of my bits for standard.

But you know, Marty grail beads, right? Yeah. I'm going to make blue checkmark necklaces. That's interesting. What do you think? You throw Marty gar beads at chicks. They throw, you're showing your tits. If you throw on the blue checkmark necklace, they show your pussy.

Wow. There you go. That's what the blue check. Unsolicited pussy pictures. That's right, guys. We keep striving for the verified blue cheques. checkmark if that's what you're missing in your life. Some of these ladies are terrible photographers.

I've got one. Like, are you kidding me? Like, I had to ask you like, what is this your ear? Holy shit. Like, why so, why did you give me the close up? Is this your ear? And I realized, holy shit, that is an ear, but it wasn't hers. We did everything this interview.

Holy shit. I want to thank you. Oh, man. Thank you for inviting me into your home here. I appreciate, man. Thanks for coming out. I should say I got this kind of facilitated through. a friend who hooked me up with bio accelerator stem cell

I mean, Frank are going down to get some stem cell procedures done for my neck finally, hopefully to get that fixed up, get all the strength fully back in here. But yeah, so I mean, you know, I just want to give that little shout out, bio accelerator. We're going to go down to Medellina Columbia next week and hopefully get fixed up. A lot of the WB guys and other pro athletes, MMA guys,

have been going down and having great results. They're doing stuff like CTE and shit too, which I think is cool. Yeah, obviously we get our heads bumped around. So yeah, looking forward to that and that kind of like to facilitate this. Yeah, yeah. You were like super cool. Just be like, oh, man, I'll fucking hop on a planet come down. I flew here.

Yeah, it's a six hour flight. And I appreciate it. Yeah, it's good. And we'll go have some fun the night. We'll get Frank, a little interview and maybe do this again. That could be a whole different thing. Yeah, we'll fill up another 154. I need a bigger memory card.

So my longest interview before this was an hour 20 with ends in. It just dropped last week. We even talk about the time that fucking TNA traded me under the radar like a slave to ring of honor. Well, I guess we'll just have to have a part too In like a couple months And they didn't have any medical then either I was fighting for that Obviously that never got remedy that sucks

I guess we'll end on that Oh man No I want to say thank you Oh man Yeah we're in the sanctuary Thank you We do hugs and shit I love it

Cool I appreciate Thanks for having me And hopefully you still have a career after this And it's my channel So Well there you have it My friends Austin Aries

Has a lot to say that is a long interview. Thanks for being part of it the whole time here. And like he said, we're just scratching the surface here. Just scratching the surface. But I'm really curious. I'm really curious to hear which parts stood out the most to you. So take a screenshot.

Tag me, tag Austin areas. Let us know that you're listening. Let us know what you thought of the interview. And, man, I mean, we covered a lot of heavy stuff there. Covered a lot of controversial stuff, bound for glory. Very interested to hear what your take is on. everything he said there, the Christy Hemey thing, the W.W.E.

thing, the Jim Cornett thing, and everything else in between. So, man, let me know. Let me know what you think. Also, the day after this interview, Austin and I met up with Ryback, who also lives in Las Vegas. And we shot a workout video with Ryback,

who is a beast of a human, by the way. He's 300 plus pounds right now. So you can check out that interview, or not an interview, you can check out that workout. Me, Ryback, and, Austin area is working out in Ryback's home gym. It's up on Ryback's YouTube channel. And another interview with Ryback that I just did will be up on my channel and up on the podcast very soon.

So keep an eye out for that. And I think we'll be seeing Ryback in the ring very soon. This is not a prediction, by the way. It's not like, I don't know any, well, it is a prediction, but I don't know any facts. But I just think that he's working his way back up to a return to the ring. He's almost 100% healthy. So I think we'll see him back in the ring again very soon. And who knows? Who knows when was the Austin Aries back in the ring again? I hope it's soon. He's so incredibly talented. I was thinking back to some of his ex-devision matches and TNA. Man, so good. So good. So we're rounding out 2019. What do you have on tap for 2020? No, you. No, like I'm asking you. And this quote, I think sums it up best from Paulo Colello.

I think I, I hope I said that right? One day you'll wake up. And there won't be any more time to do the things you've always wanted to do. Do it now. So boom, there you go. You don't even have to wait until 2020. Do it right now. We will see you on Thursday. This, I guess, was kind of a bit of a bonus episode because we have so many interviews to cram in before the year's done.

So we will see you on a regularly scheduled day of Thursday. And hopefully my voice sounds better by then. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about.

You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform.

You've been warned.