Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Bobby Roode Is Absolutely GLORIOUS!

Episode Date: February 22, 2024

Bobby Roode (@realrobertroode) is a professional wrestler and producer for WWE. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Tampa, FL to talk about his incredible career, growing up in Peterborough, Ontario, wanting to play professional hockey as a kid, how he started training with Val Venis, getting his first big break with TNA, joining Team Canada, seeing Petey Williams do the Canadian Destroyer for the first time, being randomly paired with James Storm to form Beer Money Inc., becoming a 2-time TNA World Champion, getting signed by WWE in 2016, how important his "Glorious" entrance theme was to his character, winning the NXT Championship, his tag team with Dolph Ziggler, how a neck injury and surgery has kept him out of the ring, his current job as a WWE producer and much more! Quote I'm thinking about: The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. - Carol Dweck Sponsors: ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv BETTERHELP: Get 10% off your first month with the code INSIGHT at http://betterhelp.com/insight MUDWTR: Get 15% off with the code CVV15 at http://mudwtr.com/cvv MAGIC SPOON: Get $5 off with the code CVV at http://magicspoon.com/cvv MYBOOKIE: Bet on WWE! Get up to $200 cash bonus when you use the code CVV and sign up at http://mybookie.ag BLUECHEW: Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at http://plunge.com BONCHARGE: Go to http://boncharge.com/CVV and use coupon code CVV to save 15% on your BONCHARGE Infrared Sauna Blanket! For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chris. Oh, hello, my friends. Welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CVV Chris Van Fleet. It's stuck in my head. It is every day. That downstate song is stuck in my head. How good is that? Also, how is February almost done already? I feel like we blinked and we're already two months into 2024. Crazy. But oh, man, thank you for being here. Thank you, as always, for making Insight one of the pop wrestling podcast on the planet. And if you're one of the thousands of people who listen to the show, but don't follow the show, and yes, I'm talking to you right now. I know you don't follow the show. Seriously, what's stopping you from hitting that follow button? If you've ever enjoyed any interview that we've ever done here, please take a second to support the show just by hitting that follow

button. It helps so, so much. So thank you in advance. And we have an absolutely glorious episode for you today. This was awesome getting to sit down with Bobby Rood. And you know me. I always get excited when I talk to my fellow Canadians. And we've had quite a few of them on the show recently. Lance Storm, Chelsea Green, Chris Jericho, Ethan Page, Tyler Breeze. And today with Bobby Rood. And what an incredible career he's had. I mean, think back to the impact that he made, pun intended, I guess, when he debuted in TNA, dude looks like a star. And then we had Team Canada.

He became Robert Rood. Then he's randomly paired up with James Storm and they form one of the greatest tag teams, at least in the history of TNA wrestling. Beer Money Inc. He's an eight-time TNA tag team champion, two-time TNA, world champion,

does all this great stuff in TNA. And then in 2016, he goes to WWE. Coincidentally, I don't know, but it's the same year that AJ Stiles goes from TNA over to WWE. And I think we know it. It's the entrance theme that really gets Bobby Rude over. Glorious. So good.

And he talks about how special that was, how that entrance theme really started to change things for him. And he did so many great things in WWE, but then a nagging neck injury in 2022 led to surgery. We haven't seen him in the ring since. But he's been working in WWE behind the, the scenes as a match producer. We get into all of that, but he says he still does want to have another match at some point. So I've got my fingers crossed that we'll be seeing that match

sometime soon. This is a fantastic conversation with Bobby and a look into like who he is and what makes him tick. And if you really think about it, this is a very rare interview. He really doesn't do a lot of these. So I'm so grateful that he found the time for us to do this in Tampa, Rumble weekend, super busy weekend, but he found the time for us to do this. So if you enjoy this, snap a screenshot, tag us on social media so we can share it out. He doesn't use social media very often. In fact, he hasn't posted anything on Twitter or Instagram since 2023, but tag him anyway. Who knows? He's at Real Robert Rood. I'm at Chris Famfleet, and please welcome Bobby Rood. I'm so excited that we're doing this. So thank you for finding the time.

Of course, no problem. Of course. A fellow Canadian. Yeah. Proud of the pride of Peterborough, Ontario. And I was telling you this when I saw you in Chicago for Survivor Series. You live in Peterborough. I do.

And you're born and raised in Peterborough. That was my first ever television market. Checks TV in Peterborough. Yeah. And I lived in Pickering. So you know, that's not close. Well, I mean, it's like now with like the 407, it's like 45 minutes, not even 45. So I was doing the 401 to the 135, 115.

That's something like a 25-minute drive. It was about an hour total. Total show, yeah, yeah. And it was because no one in Toronto would give me an internship. But this station was like, yeah, sure. You were dumb enough to do it. Dumb enough to put this guy on TV. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll give you a chance.

Yeah, no, it's crazy because when you told me that, I was like, wow, Checks, because I used to, like, I would go to my grandmother's house. My parents would have Checks news on every night. That's wild. And, yeah, like, Gary Dalladay was. Oh my gosh, the sports guy. Yeah. And his son, Pete Deladay now has taken over his position and he has a son that's my son's age.

So it's like, yeah, like once you're a borough guy, you don't leave the borough. You know what I mean? It's just everybody kind of knows everybody. But it's ironic that you worked for Czech television. I don't know how you still live in Peterborough and you're on the road as much as you are because you're not that close to the airport. I'm not. I'm well, like I said, with this new highway, this toll highway, which toll highways aren't great, but it's a quicker drive and you're not on the 401,

but I can get to the airport in like an hour and 10 minutes. I guess that's not horrible. And it beats living in the city. You know, I'm not much of a big city guy. I don't know if people realize that you still work for WWE. Yeah. Still here. But I mean that with great love and great respect.

Sure. When we're not seeing you perform, it's like, oh, wait, he's still doing something. So you're working as a producer. I am. Yeah. I had two neck surgeries. I had my C5 C6 fused in November, November 30th of 2020. And then May 11th of 2023, my birthday, I had my level four and five fused.

So I have a two-level fusion. Was this just a nagging injury or was there something that happened? A lot of wear and tear over the years. I can kind of relate it back to almost 10 years to the day that I got re-injured. it was just a weird circumstance. I was in a match with Rob Van Damme and just something happened. I don't know what it was.

It wasn't his fault. It wasn't my fault. It was just something happened. And I just landed on the ground. You know, he does that front suplex thing where he lands you on the barricade and then jumps off and does that twisting leg drop. And Rob and I worked together for a month,

at least doing live events, doing this exact same thing. just so happened to be on pay-per-view that this happened and my leg went numb for it that felt like you know a minute and a half the two minutes it felt like my leg i had no feeling in my leg but watching it back was more like 10 seconds but i had no feeling in my leg and then i ended up finishing the match uh in it that was a ladder match finishing the match ended up uh wrestling the next day and the day after i think i want to say i wrestled a j on television um the next day and had Like, no issues.

Yeah. Totally fine. And then I remember waking up that Friday, that week, and it felt like I had a golf ball in my back. And I had no, I went to my cupboard to pull out a coffee mug to make coffee. And I grabbed the coffee mug and my wrist just went like this. I had no strength and just like lost everything. And I thought, I was just, you know, I'll go to the gym and roll out and wet workout. It'll be fine.

Yeah. Just a stinger. And, man, I lost all kinds of strength. I lost a bunch of muscle and I had a lot of nerve damage in my neck. But at that time, I just became world champion at TNA. Yeah. I didn't tell anybody I was hurt. And different time, of course.

Sure. Yeah, I worked through it. And miraculously enough, you know, I kind of, the injury kind of repaired itself, so to speak, I guess, for 10 years and was able to continue on and do what I've done. And then just so happened to be. in Emerilla, Texas in a match with Omas and just landed wrong and nobody's fault again. Just, you know, I think just the wear and tear over the years, just kind of my neck just said that was it.

Do you think now that your next fuse that you could wrestle again? Ironically enough, I just got green lighted. The fusion has completely fused. So as far as like looking at it from, you know, a medical point of view, you know, it's safe to get back in the ring, I guess. at almost 48 years old, given the opportunity that I've been given now to work as a producer,

which was my goal, you know, coming to WWE almost eight years ago. Yeah. You know, I'm quite happy doing this. And I feel like, you know, I've had a good run, as they say. And I'm happy to do what I'm doing now. But look, it's Royal Rumble weekend.

It is. You could hear the, you could hear, we could hear glorious, hit one more time. We could, but I don't think this is the year it's going to happen. I can almost promise you that. Maybe next year. Well, this will be out after anyway, but maybe next year.

You never know. I mean, yeah, sure. Like, could I do this full time? There's no way I could. I'm, I'm, and look, to be honest, the injury is, you know, I have three levels that are bad. You know, the level six and seven are not good either. So when I got my injury back in 2022 when I, when I re-injured it, I got an MRI done the next day. And like, you know, I mean, they said that, you.

you know, your three levels are just not good. Two levels are not great. Um, you need to get fixed. So I went to Birmingham and saw Dr. Cordova, who was amazing and, uh, he just, you know, thought we need to do a two level. Because the thing was is that I wasn't living in any pain. I didn't have pain. I, you know, I could go through the day without feeling any sort of pain that the issue

with me was my strength. And then because I was losing strength, I started to lose muscle in my right arm. And it just scared me because the first thing I thought of was like Paul Oendorf, right, and his injury. And that's what was happening to me. I was starting to atrophy really bad in my shoulder and in my bicep. So long story short, I was set to get a two-level fusion back in November, November 30th of 2020. And Dr. Cordova called me the night before and I was in the hotel room in Birmingham, I'm getting ready to get up at 5 a.m. the next day to get up and go to do the surgery.

And he's like, talk to, you know, a couple of the doctors. And I think we can just get away with doing one level. I think you're going to be fine. So we went in and we did the one level and, you know, I felt great. You know, I not felt great the next day, but like, you know, after the six weeks of doing nothing and once I started the, you know, the physical therapy and, and all that other stuff, I felt pretty good. Like my strength was coming back. And I felt like that. muscle was coming back and then just out of the blue I remember March the 10th I just remember having such wild pain that I never experienced before and I don't know what happened we really don't know what happened but I remember getting really sick and vomiting and blacking out and then

kind of coming to and not being able to like raise my arm up over my head so what happened was the level above it just went so level four and five just kind of went for whatever reason. So in hindsight, maybe we should have got them both done at the same time. But look, that's life and we just move on. But so I had to get this other fusion done. And, you know, that level six and seven, like I said, is still not great. But I'm feeling better.

And so I just don't mentally, I don't think I could take the risk going back in the ring and working a full-time schedule, just knowing that as well as, you know, I just, I feel like I look differently too. You know what I mean? I always kind of prided myself in the way. that I looked on television and, you know, I love being in the gym and working out, and it's just, you know,

when you physically don't look the same, it's just a mental thing as well for me. You probably want to have one last match, though. I think everybody would like to have one last match, right? But sometimes you just, when the wheels fall off, the wheels fall off, you know. It's just, that's the nature of the beast in this sport in this industry. Well, if they were going to fall off anywhere,

pretty good for them to fall off in WWE. 100%. And you to land on your feet with this, job that you're super passionate about and that you're crushing. Well, yeah. I mean, it's like I said, that was kind of like the game plan when I came to WWE. I had my conversation with Triple H before coming to NXT.

And, you know, at that time, I was almost 40. You know, so I remember him, I was on a three-way call with him and Matt Bloom, and I remember him asking me. So what do you want to do? Do you want to come here and coach? You know, do you want to be a coach? And I'm like, well, maybe one day. Like, that's my goal, but I feel like I had a lot left in the tank.

Yeah. He gave me that opportunity, which I'm super grateful for. And, you know, here I am today. I had a pretty good run in NXT and then had a pretty good run on the main roster. And, you know, it is what it is. You know, like I said, when the wheels fall off, the wheels fall off. And everything before that, too. And I actually don't know where to start with your career.

But let's start way back. Sure. Do you always want to be a pro wrestler? I wanted to be an NHL hockey player. that's spoken like someone who's from Peterborough, Ontario. So like, you know, as you know, being Canadian from Pickering, it's like, when you learn to walk, you learn to skate. Yeah. So I started like, my dad had me on skates when I was three, you know, pushing the steel chair on the ice and you're kind of walking, you know, learning to skate and then playing hockey at four, you know, and then watching hockey net in Canada every Saturday with my dad watching the Leafs.

Don Cherry. Don Cherry and Brahma McLean. You've got the Peterborough. Pete's right there. Pete. Yeah. And I was a crazy story. I was like a stick boy for the Peterborough Pete's when I was in grade seven, grade eight.

So that's a minor league team for everybody in the OHL, the Ontario. Yeah. It's like, yeah, you basically get drafted to the NHL. I was a stick boy the year that Ty Domi played there. Wow. Mike Ritchie was there. I stopped, I think, right before Chris Bronger, but a lot of great hockey player. Like I just, I lived at the rink.

I was a rink rat. Like I just, I lived two blocks away from the arena. I grew up two blocks away from the arena. So every day I would just be there at the arena. And I remember one day watching Steve Eisenman actually lived a block away from me. And he lived right around the corner from the arena. He would billeted there. And I remember one day seeing Steve Eisenman walking to the rink.

And I was like, I mean, I fell in love with Steve. I mean, he was my favorite hockey player of all time. I have his jersey hanging up in my, in my man cave in my house. But anyways, yeah, I just, I grew up wanting to be an NHL hockey player. But as far as, you know, the wrestling business, I was alive when the very first WrestleMania happened and I watched it on close circuit television in my uncle's bar in a little private room and watch the episode of Saturday Night Live with Hogan and Mr. T the night before, you know, staying up late.

I was eight years old and I just absolutely fell in love with it. And I knew like one day if I wasn't going to play hockey or be a pro athlete, this is what I was going to do. Were you ever close to playing pro hockey? No. I mean, I look at I played so travel hockey like AAA hockey like I played for the Pets and they all throughout you know up until my midget year, my draft year and we didn't have a great team. I ended up going in a different direction and playing high school hockey, which was still really good hockey, played on some really good teams and won some championships. But then I played one year of tier two junior A and then At that point, I was 19, and then I was like, nope, I'm not going to be going anywhere here.

So it's time to get into wrestling. And that's what I did. Quick pause from this conversation, because I need to tell you about mudwater. If you're a coffee drinker, listen up. Mudwater is a coffee alternative made with four functional mushrooms. It has only a fraction of the caffeine of a cup of coffee, but you get natural energy without the jitters or without the crash of coffee. This is all day energy. And yeah, it's called mud water.

No mud is not one of the ingredients. It kind of tastes like cacao and chai had a baby. I love the taste of it, and it's something that I drink every single day. And because it's that sustained energy throughout the day, you don't find yourself reaching for that second cup of coffee like you do when you drink coffee all the time. Go check it out right now. You'll get $20 off when you subscribe at mud water. dot com slash CVV. You'll also get a free frother and a sample of their delicious coconut

creamer that I love. Go to mudwater.com slash CVV. That's M-U-D-W-T-R.com slash CVV to get $20 off your subscription and your free frother. That's mudwater.com slash CVV. Who is your guy growing up? For wrestling? Yeah. If Steve Eisenman was your hockey player, who was your wrestler? Well, of course, you know, the era that I came up in, I was a Hulkomaniac, of course. And that's crazy that you worked with him all those years later. Yeah, right. Yeah, I'm sure we'll get into that. Yeah.

I was a Hulkomaniac. And then, but ultimately, like my, of course, Brett, Brett Hart being Canadian, but my all-time favorite, and I, you know, I'll say this to the day. I die. I think one of the greatest performer anyways, Mr. Perfect Kurt Henning. He was the reason why I got on the business. absolutely 100%. Yeah. It's not, it wasn't easy at that time as a Canadian.

Yeah. To break in, to do this for a living. The indie scene anywhere wasn't what it was then, like it is now. How did you even get noticed? Well, I broke in with Sean Morley, so Valvinas. Yeah. Broke in with him. He lived, we trained at the same gym,

kind of became friends. And I actually broke in in his backyard. He had a ring set up. his backyard in 1996. So, broke in a little bit there and then kind of got away from it because he obviously went on to bigger and better things. He spent most of his time in Mexico and Japan and Puerto Rico,

and right before he came to WWE in like 98 or 97. And then in 98, I started training with him a little bit. We reconnected and he got me in touch with Shane Sewell, who was his tag team partner in Puerto Rico. They were the Glamour Boys. Shane lived in Peter Roy. He owned a restaurant at the time. and we drove two and a half hours to Hamilton every weekend for about six or seven weeks.

And he just one-on-one train with him, you know, Saturdays and Sundays. And before I knew it, I was in my first match, June 20th of 1998. And I feel like with everything was going on after WCW went under and ECW went under, TNA starts up, the timing was just so perfect. Timing is everything in this business. I'm sure you've heard that before. Sure. For my career, timing absolutely was everything. And you going into TNA at that point in time

and spending the amount of time that you spent there, but you going into TNA at that point in time, it was like right place, right time. Absolutely, 100%. Yeah, and it was just by fluke. You know, I was doing a ton of enhancement matches and dark matches and stuff for WWE, right? From 99, I was like a year in the business

and I started like coming to do. I wrestled Perry Saturn on a huge, taping or a Saturday night whatever it was. It wasn't a velocity, but it was like shotgun, right? Shotgun or something. Yeah, and it maybe maybe. Yeah. But it was at the point, he was with Terry Reynolds was his

valet and here I was like wrestling Perry Saturn, like a year into the business. How did all that not lead to you getting hired by WWE? A lot of things, I guess, just and look, this is not a bad thing because I appreciate

them telling me. I was a good hand. They just creatively never had anything for me. I was also Canadian. So it was, you know, I needed to get a proper visa. And then back then, you know, look, I'm six foot and, you know, 225. Back in the attitude era, I'm not a big dude. You know what I mean? Back then, like there was some giants.

And I just, I was a good hand. And I could make guys look good and, you know, give, you know, I was a good enhancement guy. but I was never, I don't think, considered for, you know, a full-time job in WWE as a performer. I mean, we talked about a developmental contract. I did a developmental, I guess it was like a camp in Cincinnati. And I did quite well there. Dr. Tom ran it and, you know, everything was pointing towards me being hired finally in 2002, I believe it was. And then Cincinnati ended up closing down HWA.

closed down. It was one of the developmental territories for WWE. It was HWA and OVW. So when I finished that camp, I went home thinking I'm going to get signed. Yeah. Week later, they shut it down and fired

a bunch of guys and moved the guys that they kept to OVW and just, again, just never got hired, but kept coming back and kept showing my face and doing these enhancement and dark matches for the next two years until 2004. But that was the best thing about TNA. is it found a place with people like you,

when there really wasn't a lot of places. No, there wasn't. Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, thankfully, that came right with WCW gone. You know, there really wasn't in the independent scene was not great. Yeah. You know, at that time.

So, yeah, TNA came along at the perfect time for me. Where do you think the magic really started to happen for you in TNA? You know, kind of immediately, to be honest, you know, team Canada really kind of got over quickly and I wasn't even supposed to be a part of the I wasn't even part of the original team Canada Teddy Hart I took Teddy Hart spot you know Teddy couldn't come back or something happened with Teddy I don't know what it was but I got a call from Scott DeMore on a I think it was like a Thursday and somebody like can you get to Nashville next Wednesday and it was like yeah no problem and I went and then the rest of history I was sent home with a contract and

became a part of Team Canada and like TNA was just starting to take off in 2004 we ended up going to getting I think it was a fox some sort of fox I can't remember the station but we ended up doing getting away from the weekly pay-per-views eventually we ended up getting TVs so we would go to Orlando we would do our our pay-reviews on Wednesdays and then fly Thursdays to Orlando and shoot TV so things just started to take off when I got there the timing was impeccable you remember the first time you saw a Canadian Destroyer? Yes. I remember seeing Petey do it for the first time and being like, how is that even possible?

Yeah, and Chris Saban, I think he, I mean, he's probably told the story, but it was all Chris Saban. I mean, it was Chris Saban's idea. And Chris was like, I think he was the first one to take it. Because basically you're just doing a backflip. Petey's just hanging on for your dear life. I mean, but Petey got the credit, but it was the guys that were taking it that really made it look good. But it's the idea that like, it never been done before. No, no.

and like to do a move, even in that era, that had never been done before. That's unheard of to see something for the first time. It was, yeah, and I got to see it almost every night. Yeah, yeah. It was,

I mean, Team Canada was a lot of fun. And then, you know, we kind of broke up and they kind of sent everybody on their own way. And, yeah,

I think the spark was when I kind of got off on my own and started wearing the robe and had the ballet and all that stuff. And I feel like there was, it was something about that. It was maybe a little bit of, of like old school. Throwback, definitely.

And that's what I was going for, for sure. And it was, it was so great. Because it was like, we knew how talented you were in Team Canada. Yeah. But then you went off and did your own thing and was like, oh, yeah. Well, now we can see. Right. Yeah.

So I think that was like the taking off point for sure. I interviewed Moose recently, the TNA world champion right now. And I said, who's on your TNA Mount Rushmore. And he, let's see if I can get it right. Oh, my goodness. So he was like, AJ, of course. Jared, because Jared started it. Abyss and Kurt Angle.

Yep. And so many people were like, I got to put Bobby Root on there. And think about the time that you spent in TNA. Yeah. And all of the things you did before Josh Alexander broke your record, you were the longest reigning. I was. Yeah, I was.

And that was a crazy. I spent 12 years there. Yeah. You know? And that time kind of flew by. I got to be in the ring with and learn from a lot of, I mean, Kurt Angle, I learned learned so much from him. And when those guys started to kind of trickle in and, you know,

Kurt came in first, I think, in 2006. But even learning, like, as a part of Team Canada, getting to wrestle with BG James, Road Dog, and Conan, in our truth, like we had great chemistry together. And just learning from those guys and, you know, eventually, like I said, learning from Kurt and then Booker came in, you know, and then, you know, we had Jeff Hardy and Rob Van Damme, Kevin Nash.

Yeah, just staying. Yeah, staying, like just, yeah. And then the Hogan era, of course, in 2010 came in and that all changed again and getting a chance to work with Rick Flair. You know, Rick was like our manager, you know, when we were running in the Fortune deal with me, Kazeri and AJ and James Storm. That was just, I mean, it was just surreal, you know what I mean? But you just, it was just like, go to work and do your thing. But like, looking back on it, it's like, well, I get to, you know, I work with Hulk Hogan. I got to work with Rick Flair.

I got to work with Sting. Like, those are some pretty huge names that I grew up watching, you know. Yeah, when you look at the highlights of TNA, especially like the golden years, if you will, of TNA. You're either there or you're adjacent to all of these McMassive moments. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, it's pretty crazy when you think about it, yeah, definitely. Whose idea was it to pair you up with James Storm and form beer money? Dutch Mantel. Yeah, Dutch was pretty instrumental in that, and Jeff Jarrett too. I mean, Jeff, look, Jeff, if it wasn't for Jeff, I don't think I'd be here, you know, doing this still. I mean, Jeff gave me the opportunity in TNA when nobody else really would.

So Jeff, I owe a lot to Jeff Jarrett. But it was Dutch that came up with the beer money thing. At the time, I was doing my singles run, and James was doing his singles run. And we were just kind of floating around, kind of mid-card guys. They had an idea to put us together and just, like, I'd throw away tag team match. and we just kind of had this something spark there. I don't know, and Dutch saw it, and Dutch just, you know, once you're in Dutch's sights,

and he's, and he likes something he sees. He just kind of, he kind of runs with it and makes it his baby. So, yeah, we were just, we were paired together, and I remember, I think we had a match. It was, again, we weren't beer money yet, and we had a match, and we did a backstage promo right after, and I think it was Vince Russo that wrote it, But it was, I think that end line was something to the effect of the two things that make the world go around was beer and money.

Because I was like the Wall Street, you know, guy and James was the beer drinking cowboy. And we just said, like, two things that make the world go around are beer and money. And then it was like a light ball went off and we're off to the races. What was your friendship like with him before you guys got paired together? Just, I mean, honestly, we were just working no different than the closest friend I had there was, Eric Young. You know, Eric and I, we traveled everywhere together and stayed together. And like, we were like husband and wives on the road. But James and I, I mean, we were just, you know, business associates really. It's just, you know, we never really hung out together. We never drove

together. We never really did a lot of things together. But just when we came to business and we, we just went out and we did business. That's amazing that you could have the chemistry that you guys had when you're just really work friends, if you will. Yeah. And that's all it was. And we just, you know, we knew what we had. You know what I mean? We knew what we had in the ring, and he was a super talented performer, and we just kind of gelled together.

It was like oil and, you know, the characters were like oil and water. We're totally different. But that's what makes tag teams work. You know what I mean? So, yeah, we just knew that the chemistry that we had, we knew what we had when we just ran with it. How different was it wrestling in the six-sided ring?

People ask me that all the time, and I don't have a good answer, because I never really knew the difference except it was a little bit harder to fall on. And the ropes were a little tighter? I've heard that. I didn't find them any tighter. I don't know.

I've also heard guys say it was harder to go off the top rope, but I guess you're not doing that a lot. I don't do that. Top ropes. Don't be out of that. Ropes. Like the angles different? The angles were definitely different.

Yeah. So like I remember like taking a superplex or whatever, you know, taking a move. It was definitely hard to get your footing. And it was different, but it made our company, that company different. Oh,

I was a big TNA fan. Yeah. I remember buying the best of AJ Stiles DVD Part 1, Part 2, and wearing it out and watching every match on there. Age is incredible. What do you think,

like you said you learned so much from Kurt? What's something you learned from Kurt that we would see in your matches later on when you're in WWA? Just, I mean, I don't know if it was the match, just the, from the mental aspect, right? The wrestling IQ. Him and I had really good chemistry together.

I loved working with Kurt. He was like one of my favorite opponents And I remember one time, and this was Kurt's like, I guess it was his like first retirement tour. And this is when he was finishing up with T&A. And we were overseas. And he had three matches left. And he picked his opponents. And it was, I think it was Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre, Drew McIntyre, Drew Galloway at the time and myself.

And, uh, I was still part of beer money. And Kurt and I were obviously both baby faces. So we, when I, uh, when I was a, you know, and had our match. And I remember getting to the back thinking, we never threw one punch throughout the entire, like, 15-minute match. Like, that's kind of unheard of, right? Like, you, at least throughout a match,

somebody's going to throw a punch. Yeah. And we just worked. Like, it was just, there was something about Kurt that just, you know, you could just get in there and just feel it. And he would take you where he wanted you to go. And just learning that, just the pacing of it and when to pick up the intensity and when to slow it down and when to, like, feel the people.

when to kind of just change gears. He was a master at it and just, it's pick up on things like that. And I learned that from a lot of different guys. What about AJ? Because everybody, you know, when you talk about TNA, AJ's the first person that people talk about.

You had so many great matches with him. What's the thing you learn from AJ? Being a pro. I mean, AJ's a pro. You know, he was just in tune with what he could do. And, you know, he obviously he could do. he's super athletic. You know, one of the most athletic guys

I've ever been in the ring with, but he knew that he didn't have to do that all the time. But when he needed to pull it out, he could pull it out and do it better than anybody else. You know, he was just, I don't know, he could just, one of those guys that you just have, I don't think he could have a bad match with AJ Stiles, you know, he's just that good.

How much did TNA change in the Hogan Bischoff era? And how much did you feel it? It definitely changed, you know. I don't know, it was different. for sure. And I can't really put a finger on what exactly changed, but I could just feel, and it was great for a while. It really was. And look, I can't really say anything bad about Eric Bischoff or Hulk Hogan. They've made me their champion, and I had a really good run. You know, but it was different for sure. It's just like this is the changing of the guard. I don't

deal with change very well. You know, and I think it's just, that's just the nature of the wrestling business, you know, but when change happens, people kind of freak out a little bit. but yeah I don't know what it was I think it was like it was okay for a while it was good and then I think just the kind of the wheels just kind of fell off and everybody just stopped carrying and I think there was too many cooks in the kitchen did you just show up to work one day and you're like oh there's a four-sided ring now yeah really yeah basically yeah I mean I heard rumblings of it like when hogan and bishop came in that they were going to switch back to the more traditional style more traditional look.

And yeah, it was just one day you just walked in and the six-sided ring was gone and the traditional enforcement ring was there. Yeah. And look at it. It was just one of those things. Okay. Yeah. It's going to work.

Well, and then the match, I mean, the match quality was still just as good. Yeah. Yep. It was. And, you know, I don't know. I guess to the viewer, maybe people obviously noticed because it was so unique, the six-sided ring. But as a performer, at least for me, personally speaking, I didn't notice much of a change.

Give me your top three TNA matches. Oh man. Top three. Like from a performance standpoint, from... Just your favorite, like, maybe it was a favorite storyline that culminated in a match. I mean, obviously winning the World Championship. Yes, that was pretty... That's definitely on one of the top three.

I don't know which one it would be, but... Yeah, they don't need to be an order. Yeah, and I mean, just, I don't know if there's any, like, particular matches. I think it's more for me. It's, like, just the story and in the environment and where we're at, like, the matches I had with Sting, the matches I had with Kurt, obviously being in the ring with AJ. But, you know, one of the most memorable times that I had was like a non-tellant. Nobody ever seen it except the people that were there in the audience in England.

We were on a European tour and Hogan was over there because I think we were shooting TV one of the nights, but Hulk came in night one and we were doing just a live event. And I think the match was supposed to be Sting. I don't know what the match. Maybe there were singles matches. At the time, I had the title at the time. So I don't know if I had a championship match that night against Storm or what it was. But ultimately, it ended up, we ended up doing a six-man tag.

And it was myself, Bully Ray, and Kurt Angle versus James Storm, Sting, and Hulk Hogan. And we did that match every night. I think it was like a five or six-night tour. That's great. We did that match every night. And we even did it like we shot TB. And then when we went dark, we did that match to finish the end the night. Wow.

And it's still a part of history. I was a part of Hulk Hogan's last professional wrestling match. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. And it's the moments, right? It's those moments you kind of look back on and go, wow. Yeah, that's a pretty cool moment.

Yeah. I mean, you had so many of those cool moments. Yeah. So many. Can you believe Sting still wrestling? It's unbelievable. Yeah. He has one more match left.

Yeah. next month as we sit here, but yeah. I mean, it's crazy. Yeah, yeah, he's, I'm happy for him. Yeah, he's had an incredible career, yeah, and just such a good human being. How did you know it was time to move on from TNA? Just, I felt it. Just from a personal standpoint.

And look, I owe everything to, you know, like I said, to Jeff and to TNA, and it really put me on the map. But ultimately, I grew up at WWE guy. You know, I watched, that's what I grew up. I watched WWF every Saturday and Sunday from the time I was eight years old to now. You know what I mean? Like, I didn't get a chance to watch any NWA stuff or Florida Championship Wrestling or, you know, any of that stuff. Because it was, you know, where I grew up, it was just WWF.

I didn't get to see any of that other stuff until I actually got into the business and traded DVDs and stuff or VHS tapes even. So, you know, and look, I, from the moment I broke into the business, I did everything I could to be a part of the WWE, WWF back then, you know, doing the enhancement matches and the camps and the tryouts. And I drove all over, you know, I flew myself to Calgary to, you know, to do an enhancement match. I was booked. They said, can you go to Calgary? I was like, yep, no problem. You know, and I just got there. Yeah. Um, so ultimately, like, that was my goal was to be a part of the WWE. And, uh, I just, there wasn't anything left for me to do at TNA. You know, I, I saw guys like Samoa Joe, um, succeed in NXT. I saw AJ, you know, start to succeed in Japan. Guys that were with me and that I worked with throughout my career starting in 2004 up until that point in 2015, 16, they're gone. And like, there's, an influx of new guys coming in.

And I mean, that's just the circle of life, really, with this business, right? And then new guys come in and old guys will leave. But I just felt like there was nothing else I could do. A two-time world champion, multiple-time tag team champion, you know, so I just knew that if I was going to go or at least give the WWE a shot. Yeah. This was the opportunity. This was the time. Like I said, I was almost 40.

And you debuted the same year as AJ. Yes, I believe so. So he did the Royal Rumble. I started in NXT, I believe, that summer. Yes, I believe so. I mean, those are two big TNA stars going over to WWE. Yeah. Your entrance theme got you over immediately. 100%.

100%. And true or false, this was originally supposed to be the theme song for Shinski Nakamura. I believe so. Yeah, I believe so. And I remember, I think you're right. I remember just being a, and it would, Look, when I signed, I had no idea about this song, right? I, we kind of talked, we being Triple H and I talked a little bit about what I wanted to do and character-wise and what I was, what I was doing at TNA.

And, you know, I always like wearing the robes. I always like being like a throwback guy. Yeah. Not that I wanted to be Rick Flair, but I always just love that look, you know. I wanted to bring the robe back. And, you know, I was at NXT TV one day. This was before I debuted. He's like, I want you to listen to this song and, you know, listen to it.

And it was like, yeah, I don't know. What do you mean? Right. It was just, it was different, right? It wasn't like a traditional theme song. But then I was like, well, this might work with like the robe and like, if the presentation is right, this will, this will work. And the presentation was above and beyond what I ever imagined, right? Yeah.

But yeah, definitely that song changed my career, really. And it's crazy to think about that. Everything else could have been the same. The presentation, the wrestling, the gear, everything. With a different song, your WWE run might have looked completely different. Yes, 100%. Yeah, no doubt. And, yeah, that song, I mean, people still talk about that song today.

You know what I mean? My friend entered to his wedding. Yes. To that song. I've seen a bunch of the, yeah, and that stuff is wild to me, right? Like, it's unbelievable. And when you see, and I mean, I'm at a hockey game. You know, the Nashville Predators used it.

for when after they won hockey games, they would play my song. What's the story behind that song? It was just a song that they created him. They were waiting for the right person. I guess. I guess so. Yeah.

It was just kind of sitting there in the library, apparently. And yeah, I was just lucky enough to get it. And then it turned into, I love what Johnny and Tomasa were doing with the glorious bombs. Yeah, yeah. And that made it even like more of this thing.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we just did that as a joke. And the first one was such a hit that we just continued to, continue to do them. It was whenever we had some downtime

and NXT on the road shows, because we all traveled together on the bus, right? So we'd always think of creative ideas, things to do. That song is like the epitome of what your character was, though. Like, you could play that song for someone who's never watched wrestling before and they'd go, oh, yeah, I think I understand

what this guy's all about. Yeah. And then when you actually see what your entrance look like, it's like, oh, yeah, that's exactly what I envision. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's just a, it's amazing how one little thing,

can change everything for you. Right. And that's the nature of sports entertainment, right? It's like you could be the greatest wrestler in the world. You know what I mean? Bell to bell.

Yeah. If you don't have that connection with the audience, you're just another guy. You had such a great run in NXT. I loved it. I loved it. You put on some incredible matches

there with some amazing opponents. And it was just like, I loved it because if someone hadn't watched TNA, it's like, yes, you get to see what Bobby Root's all about. Right.

Yeah. I mean, I was, I wasn't sure what to expect from NXT, to be honest with you. Because at the time, you know, I was going to be, I never watched it. You know what I mean? I was busy with TNA and then I would watch Raw or SmackDown, but I never really watched NXT or, but until the time when I saw Joe and Austin Aries, I believe at the time where that left TNA and went to NXT, I kind of like paid attention to what we were. was going on. And then when I went to

NXT and like the song and the whole like at that point NXT and again it comes down to what we talked about earlier like the timing of everything right? It's like the timing for me to go to NXT when I did was perfect because guys were getting called up

and spots were starting to open up and they needed guys that had some in ring experience and guys that had some you know people recognized so to speak you know And I just happened to step in and kind of fill those shoes immediately. I got to work with all the top guys in NXT.

I got to work with Finn, got to work with Nakamura before they all got called up. And I just slid in there. And the timing was perfect. And then the timing was right when you got called up too. I think so. Yeah. Although I feel like on the main roster, they were trying to figure out like a tag team partner for you. You tagged with so many people.

Yeah, I feel like I'm a tag team guy. I don't know. like I don't know you've had a great single. I have, but I've also been like, I love tag team wrestling too. Like I was a big tag team wrestling fan. So I don't know. A lot of people don't remember the work you did with Chad Gable. No, and that was, Chad is so underrated, in my opinion.

Like sitting here today, I can tell you he's one of the most underrated guys in our business. He's phenomenal what he does. And he's a natural and he reminds me so much of Kurt. you know he can be he can do anything you know in the ring he can be uh this badass you know uh amateur wrestler you know he can come off the top rope he can entertain you backstage you know he's just he's so good and like when chat and i tagged together we had a really good chemistry but we never really seemed to do a lot on television but when we did the live events we had matches with the revival that were like

some of the greatest tag matches that have ever been a part of in my entire career. You know, we were going like 30, 45 minutes every night on these live events. So yeah, I mean, getting a chance to work with Chad, I thought we had really good chemistry, but I wish we got a chance to do a little more.

Talk to me about WrestleMania 34, making your WrestleMania debut. Yeah. And it's at a four-way match with Randy, gender and Rusev. Yeah. And it's an incredible match.

It's quick. I remember that. Our time got cut. I remember that. That was a little bit disappointing. I remember our time got cut. I think the girls went a little bit long, but I was really just looking forward to,

I'm obviously getting a chance to work, and it was for the U.S. title, right? So, like, getting a chance to work with Randy and who I worked with a couple months prior. I think I dropped the U.S. title to Randy, the month prior or a couple months prior in a singles match, which was one of my favorite matches, by the way.

But yeah, getting a chance to work with all four of those guys at WrestleMania in front of 80,000 people. But the thing that I was looking forward to the most was my entrance. At WrestleMania. And it got cut. Yeah.

So, I mean, it is what it is, but like, yeah, I mean, yeah, I can always say I got the opportunity to work at WrestleMania and that was like bucket list for sure. And not an entrance at right. You didn't. I got the entrance,

but it was like a quarter. entrance. Like, that entranceway was like a mile long, of course. But like, I think I got three quarters of the way down and the next guy's music it. So I didn't get to do the full. Yeah. Glorious entrance.

But, you know, it's a WrestleMania. And then you're paired with Dolf. Yeah. And like, you guys, you guys did some great stuff together because your boat so talented in the ring. And then there's that, what happens in this match with a dog food? Who. Yeah, that was.

I don't know, that was a Roman Reigns thing, right? He was the big dog at the time. WWE, man. Big dog needs dog food. That's what we got to do. Yeah, so I don't really remember a lot about it, but I do remember the dog food and I remember it stung, Corby. Yeah.

That was when we were like Corbyn's heaters, I think, Dolphin I. Yeah. I feel like your memory is so sharp. And I was actually surprised before we started rolling, you were like, oh, yeah, I get tagged in stuff. when I was on Twitter and I don't even remember these matches. A lot of times I don't. Like a lot of things, I mean, I'll see something and it'll refresh my memory,

but like it's not one of those things where I can, hey, hey, yeah, I remember back in the day when I did this. Like, I don't, I don't remember a lot of things. I'm shocked because when I saw you in Chicago, you were like, yeah, of course I remember you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I remember faces and I don't make great with names. Cleveland, I believe.

We did. Yeah. Yeah, I think it was out of TNA. Yeah. And I, I, I went to a show and then I went, we went out for wings afterwards. We did. Okay, see, I don't remember the wings. I just remember meeting you. And it was like you and bully and there was a bunch of people there. And I was like eating these wings as this huge TNA fan, but also like this TV host and being like, this is the coolest thing ever.

Yeah, I remember meeting you. I remember like, I remember things. I just, when it comes to like things I've done in the business, it's just I needed a little refresher. But it's it's because you've done so much. I guess. Yeah. I mean, I guess I've had. I mean, up until I mean 25 years. It's a long time. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like there's still got to be one more match. You never know.

You never say, you never said. AJ would make a lot of sense. I really wanted that. I really did. There was a moment in the last Royal Rumble I did, the one in St. Louis. I think I came in early four maybe.

And we had a moment. Agent, I had a moment. And there was some rumblings, you know. People kind of remembered. But it quickly went away. I got eliminated. whatever, but, yeah, yeah, who cares, are you? Nobody remembers that.

Yeah, yeah, nobody remembers. But, yeah, if there was one guy, I think, yeah, that would make the most sense. I think there would be a story. Like, I'm all about story. Like, there's got to be a reason, right? There's got to be people need to emotionally have to be invested in this. And I want people to care. And I want some meat on the bone there.

So I think the AJ would definitely be that guy. We never had an opportunity to work in a singles match. How does AJ Styles look this great? Like he looks the best he's ever looked his entire career now. Yeah. It's weird as you get older, like muscle memory and I mean, AJ's always been in good shape. Yeah, of course.

You know, like, even back 2004, 2004, 2005, he was like always looked super athletic. He always worked out. He always took care of himself. But I think now, like, when you're in your 40s, I think you just look at food differently. You look at, like, training differently. You just become a little smarter.

Yeah. But yeah, he's in great. he looks and Randy too. Yeah. A little bit of time off does wonders. Time law does wonders. I tell you that. It really does.

Like when you're on the road grinding every weekend, you know, three or four days a week, it's tough. You know, it really is. And especially when it comes to eating and sleeping and the recovery part of it, like the recovery part of it, for sure is like when you get our age like into our 40s, like the recovery part of it is, is everything. Yeah. You know, sleeping and getting treatment and whatever it takes, you know, If you go on no sleep, like I need at least seven hours a night now, seven, eight hours, or I'm done. I used to wear a whoop strap. I noticed you're wearing the loop.

Yeah, I've had it for a year. I'm not sure if I'm going to re-up it or not. I just recently stopped. And it would blow my mind because I would feel rested. Yeah. And then I would look at my recovery, like, numbers and it'd be like, no. Yeah. You must stop.

Yeah, same with me too. And I get mad at it. If I have like two drinks, it's like, oh, yeah, you're going to have a terrible sleep time. Yeah. So I think, I don't know how much you drink, but like if I do the same thing, like, if I'm sitting around and I have a couple drinks or a couple beers or whatever, like, it'll, my whoop will buzz on my phone and say like high stress. Like, I'm not stressed. I'm sitting back like having a beer. Like, I'm, there's no stress here.

My resting heart rate at night would be like 50-ish. Okay. And if I drank, like, let's call it like, you know, a handful of drinks when you're watching the game, like four or five drinks. Sure. My resting heart rate would be in the 70s. Oh, wow. Yeah. Okay.

And it's like, you're not going to have. a restful sleep when your heart rate's that high. No, not at all. Yes, this thing's pretty incredible. I really like it, but at the same time, it's like, I don't know, I think a year. I'm with you because like once I already dialed in kind of like, if I work out this hard, the result's going to be this. If I don't drink or if I eat this type of food before bad, the result's going to be this.

Once I figured that out, I'm like, I really need this thing. Same. Yeah, I'm with you. You figured this out. Yeah, yeah. As one of the guys in TNA, and a lot of your friends are still there, how do you feel that TNA is bad? I think it's great.

You know, I'm happy for them. Look, it doesn't matter. Like, I'm a WWE guy, of course, but I want to see my friends succeed. I want other companies to succeed. You know, it's, I do have a lot of friends still there. Eric Young is still one of my closest friends. He's still there. And I'm happy for him.

You know, Scott DeMore is a guy that was, you know, one of the guys that really helped me along early in my career when I was breaking in, getting me booked on a lot of independent shows in Canada. So I'm happy for him, you know, and I think, uh, you know, and I think, uh, to see that, that TNA logo again is, is, is great. Yeah, nostalgia's like a, it's a very powerful job. It's very powerful, yeah. And they're, they're picking up some steam, so good on them. I mean, and we see nostalgia in WWE all the time.

Yep. I mean, that's what this weekend's all about. It really is. The Royal Rumble, we've got 30 chances at that nostalgia pop. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. And I think that, yeah, I think that's like, it's totally understated how important that,

like, nostalgia feel is. And I think that that works for a lot of characters, too. like, oh, this guy reminds me a little bit of this. Yeah. And that makes me feel a certain way here. Yeah. How easy was it for you to make the transition to the producer role? Honestly, well, so for me, I was off for almost a year, at least a year with my, with my surgeries.

So, you know, I was kind of during that time, after my first surgery, I was like, okay, I'm going to get through this and I'm going to be back in the ring in six, nine months. I'm good. And then I remember. going the last February going to while I was injured I had my surgery in November and February was the I believe it was a raw in Ottawa so I drove two and a half hours to the show and see everybody and I was there and I was like walking around ringside and thinking of myself man I don't know if I could do this full time anymore like this is with the one fusion like the one level and I'm like I don't

know if I could, I don't know if I could go out there and do this every night again. And then I saw Jason Jordan, you know, and I saw Bruce Pritchard, Bruce came up to me. He's like, hey, man, I, you know, obviously, you know, asking me how I was doing, you know, from a physical standpoint. And he's like, hey, what did you ever thought about working as a producer? And I just, I kind of thought about for a second. And not at that moment with him, but I kind of walked away thinking like, yeah, like I think I'd really like to do this, you know, or at least give it a shot anyways and see if I'm any good at it. Because I feel like I have a pretty good mind for the business. You know, I have, I have some good ideas. And look, I still have a long way to go. I'm still

learning the creative aspect of it. I think I could be a really good coach and help guys in the ring, you know, the younger guys, the younger talent coming up. I really like to help them with their in-ring stuff, but I really want to get good at the creative stuff, you know, and I'm good at it, but I want to be great at it. So, you know, being in the business. He's helping you be great at it. A lot of guys. We have a great team.

Yeah. I know, like I talked to TJ and he's like crushing it as a. Oh, my God. TJ's great. Yeah. I mean, we have a really good team, a really good core of guys. But Michael Hayes is at the top of the list, you know, obviously. And I've been fortunate enough to be kind of tagged along with Michael.

since I started back in August as a producer. So like, and Michael is, you know, geez, I'm going to knock this microphone over it. Michael is like, is like, as far as it, when it comes to producing, I mean, he does all the main events. He's with all the top guys and all the top stories. So immediately kind of, you know, jumping into the deep end with him and just learning from him

over the last, however long it's been six, seven months. It's just, it's been incredible. And, I mean, I still have a lot to learn, but, I mean, he is, I'm sure a lot of people are familiar with, you know, Paterson and how smart he was. Yeah. You know, Michael Hayes is like the Paterson of this era. He's that good at what he does.

So just getting to learn from him and learning from all the other producers. Like I said, we have such a great team. T.J. is one of them. Obviously, he does a lot with the women. He does a fantastic job with the women. You know, Jamie Noble is another guy that I lean on a lot. You know, Adam Pierce is great. I could sit here and name them all because we really do have a really, really good team.

There's something about Canada that produces amazing wrestlers. I don't know what it is. Yeah. But when you look at the list. There's some pretty crappy ones, too. It kind of evens out. Name one. Yeah.

Who's on your Canadian Mount Rushmore? Oh, Brett would be on there for sure, obviously. Edge, say. And there's got to be like, I know I'm going to miss somebody. This is the tough thing about Mount Rushmore. There's only four. four guys right like i'm just thinking the success of these guys had and just edge and brett i could say christian too but i know i know i'm going to leave i know i'm going to leave somebody

out i'm going to leave here tonight and think i'm like why didn't i say him but um we need one more jericho maybe yeah no i'm kidding of course i mean yeah come in there yeah no of course chris i mean again like i'm trying to think of guys that back in the day paterson yeah like like Pat was a Canadian, you know what I mean, even though he... Stu Hart. Stu. And Owen. Owen is another, yeah.

I mean, there's so many guys. Do we count to Piper? You can, yeah. He's a Winnipeg guy, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's an incredible list. Yeah.

A few crappy ones. Yeah, you know, it's always, it's always crappy one. But I know, I mean, yeah, like, yeah, there's just a lot of good, it's hard to pick a Mount Rushmore, you know, whether it be Canadian or throughout the business. It's just very, very good. I mean, it's just, really, I mean, it's just, really. opinion, I guess. Do you think there's one overarching life lesson that wrestling has taught you? To take one day at a time. And, you know, just obviously for me, it was just trying to, you know,

stay humble and always keep my ears open, always willing to learn. You know, you're never, you could always be better, you know, and that kind of translates into life. You know what I mean? You can always be a better person, you know? So that's probably one of the big. biggest things, my biggest takeaways for sure. I love that we've been able to spend some time here. I feel like that we could talk for five more hours, but everything in your career. Yeah.

I end every conversation with gratitude, because it's such a big part of my life. Yeah. I say three things I'm grateful for when I wake up. I do it before I go to bed. And that's the question I ask every guest at the end of the interview. So what are three things that you're grateful for in your life? In no particular order.

Family for sure. You know, family definitely. You know, I have three boys that, you know, I know it's probably cliche a lot of the wrestlers that say this, but like your kids take a brunt of a lot of things, right? Like, you're not home a lot. You know, and when I was, you know, early on in my career,

I spent a lot of time away from home, so I missed birthdays and in sporting events. All my kids played sports and, you know, it was. So I physically was never, you know, not there enough, in my opinion. And so, you know, but they supported me and were proud of me and still proud of me. So definitely family, you know, my wife, Deneen for sure. She's my rock. Without her, like, there's no way I would be able to do what I've done over the last few years,

especially through WWE. So number one is definitely family. Number two is health, even though, like, with my neck. That's the only surgery I've ever had throughout a, you know, in-ring 24-year in-ring career. And it ultimately ended my career, you know, but I have good health, you know, waking up every day. Yeah, I wish I looked better. But I mean, like, like, yeah, I mean, my health is good. Like, I sad to say, but like there's, I get text messages.

It feels like every other week that, you know, somebody that I grew up with that I went to high school with or played sports with that passed away, like my age, right? It's like, it's crazy. People dying so young and people. you know, just being grateful to wake up and have my health, you know. And I'm grateful for, grateful for the business, you know what I mean? This gets really giving me a great life. I didn't want to be a 9 to 5 guy. You know, I never, I never wanted to work for the man, so to speak.

Yeah. I always wanted to be some sort of pro athlete, whether, like I said, whether it be a hockey, pro hockey player, whatever it may be. And, you know, I just, if it wasn't for the wrestling business, I'm really not sure what I'd be doing. Yeah. So very grateful for the business for sure. I got one more for you.

What's the difference between Bobby Rood and Robert Rood? I think Bobby is a little bit easier going. You know what I mean? He smiles once in a while where Robert is just like pompous and no time for anybody. I don't know. I mean, I don't know what it is. I mean, when I, I guess when I did my singles run, I guess I did it in TNA too, right? Robert Rood, yeah.

I just, I guess it was more of a eulish take on my character, being called Robert. Bobby is more like, it's a friendlier, friendlier name, I think. I don't know. Yeah. I'm glad I got to sit down with Bobby today. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Thank you.

You're welcome. No, this is so great. Really appreciate you making the time. Yeah, no problem at all. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much for being with us. And a huge thank you to Bobby Rood for finding the time on a very busy Royal Rumble weekend in Tampa to make this happen.

Like I said at the beginning, he doesn't. do a lot of interviews. So this was a special one for me, not just as a Canadian, not just as a wrestling fan, but the fact that he doesn't do a lot of these. And we got a whole update on everything that he's been doing and all the great work that he's been doing behind the scenes, too, as a producer in WWE. So glad to hear that he's recovering from those neck injuries. And I hope that we see him back in the ring at some point soon. Even if it's just for one match or a Royal Rumble appearance, dare I say it would be glorious. Snap a screenshot if you enjoyed this episode and share it out on social media,

tag us so we can share it. He's at Real Robert Rood. I'm at Chris Van Vleet, and here's a quote from Carol Dweck to wrap up this episode. She's a great book called Mindset. If you're looking for something new to read this weekend or this month or this year, whatever it happens to be, check out Mindset by Carol. Dweck. It's so fascinated how it talks about the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. But her quote is, the passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it even or especially

when it's not going well is the hallmark of the growth mindset. Be great. Be grateful. We will see you on the next one. It's an Ask CVV episode tomorrow. So if you have a question, send it in using that hashtag Ask CVV. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock, but there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley?

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

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