Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Cedric Alexander On WWE Release, Hurt Business, Possibly Signing With AEW, Lumbar Check

Episode Date: March 27, 2025

https://cvvtix.com - Get your tickets for INSIGHT LIVE in NYC & Las Vegas with VIP Meet & Greet! Cedric Alexander (@CedricAlexander) is a professional wrestler previously signed to WWE. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood, CA to talk about the release and his immediate reaction, if he is interested in joining The Hurt Syndicate in AEW, being a part of The Hurt Business and the group's sudden break-up, getting signed during the Cruiserweight Classic, playing Gary Garbutt the janitor in a match with Roman Reigns, Drew McIntyre and Shane McMahon, the viral Lumbar Check on Candice LeRae, winning the Cruiserweight Championship at WrestleMania 34 and more! Quote I'm thinking about: "Difficulties in life are intended to make us better, not bitter." – Dan ReevesPlease support our sponsors!   PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/?ref=tibclouxSEAT GEEK: Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/CVV10 Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount   TIMELINE: Go to https://timeline.com/insightto get 10% off your order of Mitopure!  STASH: Go to https://get.stash.com/INSIGHTto see how you can receive $25 towards your first stock purchase and to view important disclosures   MAGIC SPOON: Get $5 off your next order at https://magicspoon.com/cvv   VUORI: Get 20% off your first purchase! Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet at https://vuori.com/cvv  FABRIC: Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family. Apply today in just minutes at https://meetfabric.com/CVV   ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv  HUEL: Get 15% off plus a FREE Gift for NEW customers with the code INSIGHT at https://huel.comMIRACLE MADE: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://trymiracle.com/CVV and use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF   ZOCDOC: Instantly book a top-rated doctor today at https://zocdoc.com/insight   BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv   BLUECHEW: Get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at https://bluechew.com   PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at https://plunge.com   For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you have ever enjoyed any of these episodes, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast or Spotify? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.    Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Fleet. How are you, my friends? Welcome back to another one here on Inside. I'm CBV. Chris Van Fleet, thank you so much for being with us on this one. And thank you for making Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. Hit a lumbar check on that follow button. It is such an underrated move, by the way.

And I'm so glad I was able to talk to Cedric Alexander about it in this conversation. but hit a lumbar check on that follow button so you don't miss out on anything. And if you're listening on Spotify, could I ask you for a quick favor? It'll take like three seconds. Could you leave a rating on there? I know it sounds so trivial. It's crazy that I'm even asking this, but it means so much to help the show continue to grow. We're at 9,500 ratings right now.

So close to 10,000. Could we hit 10,000 before WrestleMania? I guess honestly, we could hit it before this weekend, but it is not up to me. It's up to you. So when you're done hitting that lumbar check on the follow button, please go into the show's main page, look for the three little dots, dot, dot, dot, dot, and then hit rate show and then the stars will pop up. So I will thank you in advance for that. We just announced a live show in New York City the day before SummerSlam. This is Friday, August 1st. Tickets are on sale right now at CVV. ticks.com. There's also the option for the VIP tickets, which include a special Ask CVV before the show,

and then a meet and greet with the photo and the autograph after the show. So you can grab those tickets at CVVTX.com. And if you're going to be in Vegas for WrestleMania, you can also grab tickets for my show on Thursday, April 17th, which is happening at Circa Resort and Casino, CVVTIX.com. Great to have Cedric Alexander on the show for the first time. He's currently a free agent after being released from WWE in February after nine years with the company. He's so talented. After his 90 days are up, I don't think he's going to be a free agent for very long. There's a lot of rumors online about him rejoining the Hurt Syndicate in AEW.

We talk about that during this interview. It just feels like in general, W.WE dropped the ball with the Hurt business. They were so over and then it just kind of ended. And that was it. We also talk about his emotional moment where he got signed after the Cruiserweight classic, that incredible match with Cota Abushi, followed by the please sign, Sadrick, those chants. What a moment.

And what a way to get signed to WWE. He also had that random match. I've always wondered about this. He played a janitor with a luchador mask. He was Roman Rain's tag team partner against Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre. We get the whole story about that and so much. more here. Snap a screenshot. Let us know you're listening and tag us. He's at Cedric Alexander 1 on Instagram. He's at Cedric Alexander on X. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. Here we go. Enjoy this one with

Cedric Alexander. Great to see you. Great to be seen. Yeah. How are you feeling? I'm doing great. I'm doing great as well. Yeah. How are you doing with the news? Good. Good. Everything's fine. You know, uh, once I got that news. I was, uh, I wasn't even mad. I wasn't even mad. I was kind of, I felt like a pressure lifted off my shoulders. It was,

oh, wow, I'm free to do other things. Cool. Yeah. All right, let's see what happened. You say you weren't even mad. What could you have felt?

What were you expecting to feel? I was expecting to be angry. I was expecting to be, you know, frantic and whatnot. But actually, funny enough, they called Friday night.

I was in the middle of a leg workout. I'm doing squats. and my phone starts ringing, so I put the weight down because I have a job in my house. So for me, I'm just like working out all hours of the day. Sure. So I picked up the phone and I received the dreaded 203 number and I'm like, okay, what's going to happen? And I don't remember the guy's name. I think he said the name was Will from TR.

And I was like, yeah, sure, what's up? He goes, sorry, we're going to release you from your contract. And I was like, my initial first reaction was, huh, okay. cool he goes yeah sorry you get his news on a friday and i was like oh that's yeah so i so i had a show nxte for a house show tomorrow so i don't have to do that anymore that was my first question too yeah yeah and he goes no you're all good just the 90 days and you know well if you need anything to let's know like cool were you expecting this i wasn't expecting it but it was it was it was the thing of like i'm not i wasn't surprised it's i guess i kind of saw the writing on a wall after a while

And it's kind of just, eh. But also, you went through so many other rounds of releases. Yes. And you stuck around. And all those times I thought they were going to release me. Like there was some major ones during the pandemic. Yes. And you stuck around for those.

And that's what made me think, like, man, maybe there is this real future for me in the company here. And then, you know, that just kind of peter out to whatever else. But you seem like you're in a great headspace. Yeah. So I immediately thought to myself, when I was released. I was like, okay, that's the job. Wrestling is my career.

You know, I may be out of a job, but I still have a career. That's such a great way to look at it. All thanks to Ali. He was one of the guys that he called me, like within an hour of me being released and was immediately like, hey, dude, it's all good. You know, just being super positive as, you know, Ali is. But, yeah, man, it was, it sucked. Yeah.

Because it's, you know, it's a dream job. It's one of those jobs that, I'm a kid. And I'm like, oh, my God, I'm going to wrestle for WWE. Yeah, and then when it ends, it just ends. You just move on. Who else have you talked to since getting released? Who's really helped out? Sheldon.

Sheldon's been a big help. Lense, Loretto, me, and Ritai, he's been a big help. Just, I've had people reach off to me, interesting that. I didn't think I, I guess, had a good report with. I guess, you know what I mean? Dakota Cair reached out to me and just gave me well wishes. I was like, oh, that's cool. I appreciate that.

Me and her have very few conversations, you know, throughout the locker room, but it was cool. But I guess when you're hearing from some of the people you've listed off, they've been there. And they know, like, what it feels like. And it probably feels like you've just been punched in the gut. Yes. And it's like the carpet's been, rug's been pulled out from underneath you. And it's like, well, now what? this is all I've known in your case for eight and a half years.

And now I've got to figure this out. And I felt like I was completely started all over again because I'm like, I don't know what's wrestling outside of WB. Like for the last eight and a half years, like, who's hot on the end is? I don't really know that much anymore. Who's a good place to, you know, get a worker? I just completely lost because what's, because being in WB for nearly a decade, you know, eight and a half years, you're like, okay, I don't have to do anything. Bookings just come to you.

You get used. You get paid. And it's like, you almost get just get complacent because you're like, oh, something will pop up. They have all my book information. You know what I mean? They'll put me in something eventually. And now it's like you're back in the driver's seat. Yes.

Which is both amazing and also scary, right? Terrify. Absolutely terrified. Because you can now work anywhere you want, any time you want. And the same time, you've got to find all those bookings or agree to all those bookings. Yes, great old. And then for me, the biggest fear was taking care of family. You know, I got a 11-year-old daughter at home. I got a wife who is battling Crohn's disease and is doing very well at this point with it. But things like that, the quality of life stuff. That's what scares.

Yeah. Me wrestling and making money, I'm not worried about that because I feel confident in my ability to do so. But keeping up the quality of life that my family stays sufficient is the scariest. Do you already have some bookings lined up for when you are in the rest? Oh, yeah. Yeah, at this point I got the first three months. Amazing. Pretty good. Yeah.

That's great. But now all my weekends are gone. That sucks. I had the Hurt Syndicate on recently. We did a live show with them in Toronto. And your name came up. Yeah, my boys. Right?

It's like you guys were in the Hurt business together. Yep. It feels like we're missing a member there. So, you know, you know. my wife said when I was released, she said, the world works in mysterious ways, and this is for the better. You don't know why yet, but it is for the better.

And I was like, no, I do know why. I'm going to be up with the boys later. Yeah, do you think that you'd be open to the idea of going to AEW joining up with the Hurt Syndicate? 100%. That's a big chapter of my career that I really felt was never fully explored. And I think it'll be great to finish that out. Yeah, like the HIRP business came to a, like a screeching halt in WW.

Yeah. There was so much more story to be told there that is now continuing to get told in AEW. But that, it was just weird. Like, did you feel that too? Oh, 100%. You guys had so much more to tell. It, I knew something was wrong when Bobby won the title on that, on the episode of Raw. And Vince made a very direct comment to not have me and Shelton get it in the rain.

and celebrate with him. Huh. That was when I was like, oh, that's not good. That's not good news. Whatever's happening next, I'm not going to like it. Yeah. And then slowly but surely, I think, was it two or three weeks later? We did the full breakup the first time.

The first time the three times we did technically. I wonder how different that faction would have been if you guys had a crowd. Right? Because it was foreign in the Thunderdome. I had dreams of like seeing a sea of fans with like gold, eyes and suits on. That was my dream. It just would have been so different if every week that was continuing to build with the

momentum and the crowd getting into it. And instead, you're kind of doing in a vacuum with the pandemic. Yeah. I felt like it kind of helped in a way because I felt like I got the best performance out of myself in those scenarios. Interesting. I was trained under George South and North Carolina. So we did a lot of a carnie.

wrestling. So, like, I'm, I'm used to wrestling not in front of, like, five people's sometimes. Was that Carney-esque or Carney ass? Look how may it look how to be. It was Carney. Wait, can I curse? Of course, sure. It was carnies hell. Cardi is hell.

Ask if you could curse and then you say hell. Hey, I'm a good Christian boy. My mom told me not to say that worse. But it was some carnie-ass wrestling. It was Carney. Like, I did birthday parties and behind people. people's houses for kids. There's not a lot you can do wrestling-wise.

That would embarrass me because I've done it all. So how did the Thunderdome era help you then? Yeah. So for me, it's just like going back to bum Indies, you know, when I was two years or a year into wrestling. It's like, oh, there's no people out there? That's fine. I used to wrestle like this.

It's just training session. It's a training session. I've wrestled in front of crowds in front of five people or in front of one time, George had me sell tickets to a show and it was all my family members because no one else was coming. That was it. And like, he was, oh, no, he told me later that, oh, yeah, this show is just for your family. We didn't give anyone else tickets.

Oh, okay. Cool. So it was all 15 people in my family just like around the ring. Like, yeah, chat for me. So in the Thunderdome, you're like, yeah, it just feels like it's the start of my career. It feels like home again. But there's a lot of people, though, that if they came up through the WWE system, they're not used to that. Oh, not at all.

They're used to crowds everywhere. I've always thought the way that would be about. training was way to streamline. Go from straight to learning a wrist lock, a body slam, a couple holds, and then you're on TV on level up or NXT or whatever it is. Yeah, but where are you learning? You know, they have PC shows and stuff like that, but I've always found it better to, I don't know,

more of the grunt work. You know what I mean? But there's a little bit of both, though, because there's a lot of indie guys that have told me, I had to unlearn things for the TV style of wrestling. Oh, yes, yes, yes. And that's what they do that people don't think about is that TV wrestling and indie wrestling are two entirely different things. You're going to work to the cameras.

You can't work to the crowd on TV because the crowd's not big audience, really. It's people behind the camera. So you want to make sure you see that red light. That's where you're going. Yeah. There's a lot of story that was still left, a lot of meat left. on the bone there for the Hurt business. We're seeing it in the Hurt syndicate,

but we're only seeing it with three members. So there's a lot of people that want to see you rejoin with those guys. You know, I've seen a lot of people that don't want to see it. Come on. I've seen a lot of people that don't want to see it. They want to see like Will Hobbs or someone else in there, which... Like a new member. They want to see a new member.

Well, it can be Will Hobbs, and then in 90 days, it can also be you as well. It could definitely will be me as well. Is that where you want to be? I think so. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. It's just, there's so much meat on the bone that I would like to get to.

But, you know, if you don't, then that's fine, too. You know, I have, I have Jamesville, New Japan. Mexico's going to be going for me. So, you know, I'm just ready for things to happen. You know, it's one of those things where I've been sitting so long and I feel like I'm getting a little itchy, you know? It's time to, something's got to happen soon. Well, it has to be difficult because when you're in WWE, it's every week, right?

You're on the road every single week. Yep. And then you get released and like it just stops. So for me, I had like a prelude to the stopping because when I was on Smackdown, I'm traveling every week. And I'm doing a dark match or something else here. And then I get moved to NXT. And NXT is only like an hour and a half job from my house. So for me, it was just, oh, get up Tuesday, drive to NXT, do the show, drive back home.

Perfect. So it sounds great. But there's like, I'm used to traveling. I'm used to going long. distances and seeing a, seeing a different city. And I mean, I'd actually do anything in that city because I'm so tired from traveling, but go to the gym or, you know, like, a hobby spot or something. And then you do it in Orlando. It's like, I've lived in Orlando. I've been to Orlando. There's stuff there. I don't know. Yeah. That was just your commute. Just to commute. Just get there, go home

and I'm just like, ah, just felt no thrill from it. You know what I mean? Yeah. So you're, you're antsy. You want to, you want to get back into that. Yeah. And it's, I feel like the longer I sit around, the more I just, more sweaty I get it. You know what I mean? But with 90 days, you've got 90 days to get into the best shape possible. Yes. So that when you do make that reappearance, wherever it is, you look your absolute best. That's the hard part now.

Because for me, working out has always been, like, a thing I have to do. But staying disciplined is even harder. For me, okay, so let's say, I'm, I have a sweet tooth. For me, it's candy. I have a... What is this specific? Couser, kids.

Sour patch kids. I can't get enough. So, like, I'll eat one or two, and then I, okay, I'll, cool, I'm good. And then I think I'm good for two days, and then, like, three bags have been disappeared. And I go, I didn't do that. That was my daughter.

She ate all that candy by herself. I didn't do it. So it's, yeah. I just got to get disciplined with the diet part, but I've been doing... boy tie, jujitsu, and just MMA training to get that cardio back. Because I hate running. So doing that training, we'll give my cardio back out to where I wanted to be.

Yeah, just try to make it work. Sure. You've got such a great story. It's almost like a story book, like a fairy book story, fairy tale story. But the way that you got signed in WWA. Yeah. It's like Cruiserweight Classic. You go out there and you have just an absolute.

incredible match. And then it's the please sign Cedric Chance. So you weren't signed before that moment. Okay. This is why I'm breaking the fantasy up here a little bit. Technically, I was signed right before that match. Actually, what got me signed wasn't the match with Coda. It was the weight loss transformation that I did to get into the Coo's Weight Classic.

Because I, okay, so we're going back. 2015, I figured out, okay, R-OH, probably not going to use me too much more of my contract coming up in January. So I'm going to explore this idea of, like, doing WB tryouts. So I had a tryout that I emailed K and Seaman for in January. And he said, yeah, come on down. We've been keeping an eye on you. We'll love to see you, whatever like that.

And I was like, cool. The tryout went great. they started asking people throughout the trial, hey, can you lose X amount of weight for this tournament they were going to do? And I was one of the guys they asked. I was like, yeah, sure. And they asked me how much I weighed. Yeah, what did you weigh? 2.32.

And you legit needed to get to 205? I legit had to get to 205. I remember asking like, hey, did we have to be at 205? Can we be like around? He goes, no, you got to be 205. Wow. I was like, I don't fucking do that. But we'll try it.

And I had, but they told me this, end of January, around February. And the tournament was in June, June, July, I believe. So I plain time to lose it, but I've never lost that much weight. Yeah. Like, so I was like, I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this or not. And the first two, three weeks, 15 pounds gone. I was like, oh, I could do this way faster than I thought. So I'm, and I'm calling Kenyon Siemen every week and a half.

two weeks or so, just kind of check it and go, hey, I'm here now, I'm here now, because at that point, they never said, hey, you're in the tournament. They just said, hey, keep, you know, keep in contact with us. We'll see what we can do. And I think it was

right at the beginning of June. They announced me being in the tournament, and I had just got down the right at 205, like right on the dot. And I've actually so close to the point where if I ate a ham sandwich, I was 208. And then, all right, cool. I get it. So it was keeping that weight down was not an easy thing for me to do because I don't think my body was made to be that low.

But it's an impressive transformation. If you look at the photos before and then you look at the after, like you got shredded. I got an apex for the first time. I never, I don't think I ever get that again because the carbs and everything that you have to not take in. Energy you're going to lose just trying to get that low for me. It was, it's not sustainable. But I think it's motivational, though, for people who go, I'll never have abs. I could never do that. It's like, oh, yeah, try. You could. How disciplined are you?

And the only thing I did differently from when I was regularly training around that time was I drank more water, ate more baked chicken. Okay. So that was your protein? That was my protein because it's easy to get down. Steak is a little too heavy for me at the time. So I just went with big chicken, more cardio and more sleep. sleep. But I was more angry because I'm not taking in as much calories either. Sure. Yeah.

I was just so antsy all the time. But it was good. So you were signed before that match with Kodabushi. Right. Literally the week before. But it's such a beautiful story, though. With the crowd chanting, please sign Cedric, Triple H comes out. We're like, ah, our chance. This guy. The chance made it happen. We changed his mind.

Oh, got to. Yeah. I remember I remember finishing that match with Cote Abushi and that was when the moment that I knew like I had a great match like I knew I had a start making match the minute the bell rang

and it was over I just remember the fans losing their minds and I'm like I'm holding back tears already because I knew like that was that was what I wanted to be and you can see like on I guess the camera's caught me like as I'm trying to get up and I'm just like I'm holding back tears and I'm just bawling out

and I go back to the back after Coda has a celebration. The first person I see is Jack Galaher. He's wrestling to Zawa on the next on the next tapy and he goes, fuck a hell mate. They got to follow that now. I was like, yeah, sorry guys. And I'm still crying at this point and then Tomaso, Chappel, Chappel comes up to me and just gives me a big old hug because Tomasso is one of those guys that along with him and Steen, Kevin Steen, or sorry Kevin Owens, um,

were those guys that really helped push me to get to that point. Him, uh, seeing Carino, we're all like big influences. You're going to be, you're going to be where you want to be. You're going to be a WWE.

I know you will. And they were the, the biggest, I think, uh, what's where I'm looking for here? Tree leaders there for that. So that was,

so for me that was, that was pretty, pretty emotional moment. And then right after Tomaso comes up, Triple H grabs me by the head and goes, that was amazing. That was amazing. Go, go, go back out there. Curtain call, go.

I go, the hell's a curtain call? What are you talking about? What do you mean a curtain call? Go back out there, go. So I go back out. Fans are chanting, please, sign Cedric. And I know what on the YouTube clip they had, it was like a minute and a half, two minutes of them chanting that. It was legit, it went on for like five straight minutes.

Wow. They cut that up. It was legit five straight minutes. And they cut it to a point where I was, trying to go back and leave, but they're still chanting. And the cameraman goes, no, turn back around. I go, all right. Crying more, just crying more. And then I hear them erupt again. I go, what the hell? I had to turn around. And there's Triple H. Oh, what's up? Hey, boss, are you? And there's an awkward fumbling of the handshake with a water. And I was, I was a mess.

I was emotional a mess. But there's no better way to start your WWWA career. I don't think I could have ever picked anything better. Unless you made me W.W.B. Champion on spot. Sure. It's the only way you could have a top there. It's just such a beautiful story, though.

Of like, you go out there and have a great match. And then we have the extra layer of like, the crowd loved it so much. They don't want us to see you go. Please sign Cedric. Oh my gosh. We're chanting so much that the boss is coming out here. Wait.

Does that mean it? He's going to sign him? Oh, wow. It's amazing. It's, I will cherish that moment for the rest of the moment. Yeah. That's a career life-defining moment. What was the relationship you have with Triple H in WWA?

Honestly, it didn't go past that. Funny enough. Like, you would think from that moment I'd be a Triple H guy. Yeah. Not right. No, I mean, I know, so there was a point where we were in 205 live that he kind of had some saying there a little bit and kind of took care of me. But, like, I was never really a fully triple H guy.

I was more of a Paul Heyman guy when he was writing raw and they drafted me out of 205 live into raw. I was more of a Heyman guy than anything else. Heyman would give me a bunch of little sidebar conversations and in the stead of the other way more than triple H. What do you think you learn from Heyman? Patience. For better or worse, patience. I remember if there's one point I went up to Heyman. I was just like, I was probably on rough like a year, but I haven't really done anything with me.

And I was like, hey, Paul, what have to do? Like, what do you need for me in order to get to that next level? I think this is maybe right after we did the whole thing with AJ and the squash match we did on Night of Champions in Charlotte. And he was just telling me, no, just wait. You'll be, we'll take care of you. Wait, wait, wait. If you got to wait, wait, six.

If you got to wait, wait, a year, wait a year. And I just remember going, I will be the best soldier I can be. And just wait it out. And every time they called me for something, whether it was the Gary Garbrand thing or any other random thing they asked for, I was, hey, I'm here. What do you want me to do? So the Gary Garbutt thing you're talking about. Garbutt, Garbutt, garbrand, whatever.

It's a funny that you don't even know the name of this. mask character. Once I took that mask off, I was like, oh, geez, this is over. Okay, it just seems so random that you're wrestling in a match under a mask with, is it Drew McIntyre, Roman Raines, and Shane? Yep. Yep, yep, yep. I got to work that day, not knowing what I was going to do, which is norm for the, you know, for, for, for WB. I just remember just sitting around and then the ref tells me, hey, we need you ringside. I was like, cool, go down the ringside, hang out for a bit, talk with some guys. Nothing happened.

Then Shane McMahon comes against me and goes, hey, come in a production meeting. Oh, cool. All right. Following Shane in production. He goes, wait right here. I sit outside of the chair of a production meeting for, but felt like 10, 20 minutes. Shane comes back out, and in that time, they had already got the plan together for Drew and Shane to bully a backstage crew member, a janitor. and then for me to take his place, put his mask on in and wrestle.

I'm like, okay, why are we doing this? It's the story with Roman and Shane. All right, cool, fine. That's good enough reason for me. And that's all I got. Went out there, started and they did the match. And I remember calling the match with Shane and Drew. And I'm calling the spots I'm going to do.

And then I called it back elbow. And Shane goes, so you do my moves now, bro? Yeah. I was like, oh, sorry, Shane. this is what I was doing at the moment. What do you want me to do? Well, yeah, that was the weirdest thing from that was then

taking the mask off at the end of the match and then having a smile on my face. It was the weirdest thing because I remember the spot was to take the mask over the real it's me. And I'm like, I hadn't done anything on Raw at this point. I'm just a guy, right?

A guy from 205 Live that most people who watched Raw probably didn't see the show. So I'm like, all right, cool. I'm going to take the mask off I remember taking it off, and Rumi goes, it was slow. All right. And I take the mask off, and I'm smiling, like,

with a busted lip because Drew just kicked me in the face with a Claymore. And I'm like, ah, it's me. It's me, Austin is. That's me, Austin. That was me. Oh, Austin. And I'm thinking about, so, why the hell am I smiling? It just got kicked in the face.

Were you the smile? Yeah. If you would one and then take the mask off. it would have been like, oh, he got one over. Wow. Nope. Vince wanted me to smile. But you lost and then made the big reveal.

And Vince was like, you got to take it off and want you to smile big. Like you got one over on him. That one really doesn't make a lot of sense. No, it doesn't. But whatever you want, whatever you say, boss. You did it in that match and you've done it in other matches. But the way you take the Claymore from Drew McIntyre, no one takes a Claymore like that. I think, I remember taking it.

taking the Claymore from Drew that night. And he just said, man, can't can't do a good, good bump out of him? I was like, brother, put the boot up. I'll do inside out. He goes, all right, cool, cool. Then we go through the spot and do it. And I guess the biggest reaction of any Claymore I've ever seen him. That was me, guys.

But in order to booted me, but I did the move. But in order to take it like that, you got it actually. You got to eat it. You got to eat it. I think me and Tozal are the only two guys to ever take it like that. and he just kicks you in the face. Sorry, guys, another really about that. He just kicks you in the face.

It looks so good. It's, you just learn to put enough arm up so he doesn't blow your teeth out. Man. It's actually, I was trained in such a way that I take more pleasure and pride in how I make my opponent's moves look. to like, oh, you got to take my power driver or my brain buster thing. Like, don't. You're going to give me the claim where I can make a lucky million bucks. So we'll do that.

We'll do that instead of me doing my move. That doesn't mean anything. I will do this move that can make the lucky million bucks. But then it comes right back around for you because when you do the lumbar check, some people, like sell that like crazy. You know, it's the funny thing is, the less you try to sell it, the better it is. In what way? So I've had guys to like, I get them up and they like,

try to like recoil you know because you want to get that classic bounce and recoil off of it but it never really works out um kandis loray is the reason why people try to take it like that actually okay so i um i'm doing a show in Cleveland for AIW and it's like an eight-hour drive for me from North Carolina and I'm driving up the whole way and I know it's like this six person scramble match with Candice ACH. I'm sorry, I don't remember name but the other guys in the match, but Candice Lorraine and ACH

in that match in particular. And I remember thinking, I can do cool things with ACH all the time. That's cool, but what can do with Candice? Ah, she took the Lombard check. And as far as I thought it through, I didn't think it was going to get viral

or anything like that. I remember calling it to her and go, hey, you want to take it this? She goes, yeah, sure, whatever. And the moment I got her up and threw in the air, if you watch the viral club of it, you hear someone go, oh, no. there's a very audible like, oh no, bang, and she flies over my head by the robot.

I'm like, I just kill Candace. All right. Moving on to the next spot. And then I wake up the next morning. It's viral on Twitter and, or Twitter was a thing back then, but fine or whatever. When that was a thing and millions of millions of views, I got death threats. What? Yeah.

People were, people thought I killed Candle. People who legit thought I killed Kansas. People need to realize these are two consenting adults that agreed to do this maneuver. It was, people don't understand that. And I'm sure there was a big hug backstage. Oh, my gosh. She's like, oh, my God, it was so easy. I was like, are you sure?

Because I thought I killed you too. But, no, she was, Candace is a champ. She's a champ. And we got other bookings out of that for AIW for a singles match that was good and everything like that. The weirdest thing about that came out of that whole thing with Candace is that now every other indie booking I was doing, I was beating up some random girl. Like, they were to recreate that one day.

They want to recreate that thing. We're like, oh, you're going to go viral for doing this to a girl. I'm like, I don't think that's going to go how you want it to. But all right. Whatever. Prize picks is the best place to get real money sports action. With over 10 million members and billions of dollars in award. winnings, prize picks has made daily fantasy sports accessible to all.

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sports opinions into real money all season long on prize picks. Download the app today and use the code Insight to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. That's code Insight to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5.00. lineup. Prize picks. Run your game. How'd you come up with a lumbar check? Mortal Kombat. Mortal Kombat. Whose move is in Mortal Kombat? I think we got it from, I think sub-zero had a finish, a finishing move in the game where he rips your spine out of your back. It was called the lumbar intrusion or something

like that. And we're like, that sounds weird. And then, uh, so before I actually got got that far. Carino, Steve Carino was trying to help me think of moves, names for it, and we came out a whole bunch of weird stuff. And he said something with a check in it. And I was like,

I like that kind of, but I don't know what else to put with it. And then after sitting and kind of spring something with my wife or a girlfriend at the time, Big Swole, Erie Monroe, or Eric, I don't know what you want to call it now, but Big Swole, we're calling it a Big Swolf right now. Sounds great.

So he was in her brain. storming and she goes, what about the lumbar intrusion thing from sub-zero? I don't like that. And I remember Steve Carino was like, something, something check. And I was like, what was lumbar check? Because you're falling on the lumbar and it's great.

Okay, that's work. Perfect. We'll go with it. And this is how it came with a move. I've actually been doing that move. Jeez, since like the second year I started wrestling. So like it's not a new move for me. Because I I just randomly just started doing it

just because I thought it'd be cool. And I never seen it. I don't take that back. I saw Roger Strong do a one-need version. And then, yeah, that's why I... Roderick's song does all kinds of... He does all kinds of backbreakers. He had real heat with me for a while

because I was doing that finish in R.A. Really? Oh, yeah. Yeah, there was a show in Pittsburgh. I'm wrestling Andrew Everett. And the booker at the time, Delirious, goes, hey, I want you to do that, that backbreaker finish? because I wrestled AJ Stiles on an indie show the week before,

and he sold it like a million bucks. He was like, yeah, we're going to do that finish for you here, so you can get you over as a singles guy. All right, cool, cool, cool, cool. And Roderick was on commentary because he was supposed to wrestle Paul in London, originally, but then Roddy got injured, and then Paul was going to wrestle me, but then Paul pulled out, and then we got Andrew Reverend come in,

so, all right, cool, we'll just do this with Roddy on commentary to start the little thing with me and Roddy. and we're going through the match and everything normal. And then I hit the finish. And you hear Roddy goes silent on cup of chair. He just goes quiet. There's a pin one, two, three. And they're like, hey, Roddy, you saw that?

Huh? Huh? What's up with that? And then he gets up and throws a waterball in the back of my head. What hell is that? So I don't know if he was like, shoot, shoot upset. But it felt like he hated me for a while because of that. Like you took his move.

Roddy is the biggest guy for, bro. I can't take my mood, bro. I do that, man. can't do my move. I was like, I get it, Roddy, I get it. It's your move, but for right now, I'm going to use it.

If you go to AEW, there's a story there. Bro. Can you do chaps against Roddy? He does everything. He does everything. Great wrestler. Yeah, look, he's awesome. I've had some of the best matches of Roddy.

So, like, it's fun to be like, ah, bro, you can't do my move. But, like, no, he's still great. I can't say he's not great. What did WrestleMania 34 mean to you? You and Ali for the cruiseway championship and you win it in New Orleans. That for me was the childhood dream come true, so to speak. You know, because when I came up watching wrestling, I always wanted to be a cruiseway.

Because my first matter of remember watching was Puvintude versus Ray, Mysterio and WCW. I just remember going, that's me now. I'm doing wrestling. And so I've always been like a big, lower cruiser weights. Is it because you saw yourself in them being a smaller guy? Yeah. Yeah. I've, I've always looked myself as a smaller guy, but I've been told tremendously that, no, you're not a small man at all, so you can't be a cruiserweight. Because when I was going to be in a cruise weight class, I had to lose 30 pounds to get there.

So like, I get why people say that. So, but for me, I've always been just that style, just cruise away style. So like, or I guess the mirrored version would be X Division when I was coming up. So, like, that whole style was just, like, I thought was so cool. I'm with you. That first hour of night show for the last year or two? Money. It was the cruiserweight hours. Couldn't tell me anything.

And after that, I had to go to bed anyway because it's time for bed at school. And that's what I got. But so for me, that was always like, that's where I want to be. I want to be a cruise weight champion. So to be able to get to do that, WrestleMania was 75,000 people. And like, they, they, they put us on a pre-show. And, like, most people look at that and go, ah, boo, it's not the main show.

That's the pre-show. I was like, brother, I'm walking out. And it says WrestleMania behind me. And there's people, everyone in their seats. This is WrestleMania, regardless how you try to put that. So, and then going out there with Ali, I don't think you could have picked a better opponent for me. And he took care of me. Like, Ali was the.

I want to say the same one, but he was the more together one of the two of us, because I'm freaking out. Like, for me, this is the biggest age I've ever been on. I'm here. Well, last year I was injured, so I couldn't even go to WrestleMania. I had a meniscus tear. And then this year, I'm wrestling with a cruise weight title on WrestleMania, not thinking I would ever see WrestleMania, ever. So for me, it was, I'll never forget that match. And you won it.

And I won it. And my daughter was in a front row. My wife was in the front row and saw it. I will forever be grateful to Ali for like pulling me together because I was losing it. I didn't know how to handle it. But just nerves? Or what was it? Nerves were killing me, man.

I flew my family out for that show. So like my mom, I stepped out. My brother, his girl, his daughter, my daughter, my wife at the time. What? No, she's a girlfriend at the time. Wife now. Bixwell was all there. So for me, it was just like, I can't mess this up. If I messed this up, then everything is just feeling

like it went down the drain, you know what I mean? How would you mess it up? Blowing a spot, not being on, not being too old five, because, like I said, keeping that weight was, like, hard for me to do. So, like, I'm thinking of every little thing. Like, what if I look chubby? What if my abs are popping out? What if I'm not jacked? What if my gear's bad?

Like, it was so, many things I was just thinking about that could have went wrong. So just in your own head. Just in my, and I was my own worst in me for that whole week. For that whole week. Because I just, it's WrestleMania. And what did Ali say to kind of caught me down? Just, just tell, hey, man, chill, man.

It's just, it's just like 205. It's just because we had wrestled, what was it? It was, uh, 205 right after Enzo had left the company. Yeah. And they, they tried their like, and we had a whole big meeting about it to like rebrand 205, more like, wrestling, wrestling. And me and I leave with a main event of that met for that, for that show.

And that's kind of that put everyone in the headspace, like, these two guys are going to be the guys to get the title next one of them or whatever. So for me, it was just, just him being the ring general that he is. You know what I mean? He was able to calm me down and just keep me in a good headspace because I was, I'm overthinking everything. Hey, well, how do we sell this? and I don't want to be too stiff here

because there was a lot of things in my head that was just messy, messy because I was, between the two of us, he's what, almost twice the experience I do, especially around that time I was, what, six, seven years into the business and he was, what, 10, 12?

So I'm looking at him and like, hey, I think I'm, I'm overthinking this, what are we got to do, what are we got to do? He's really able to just help clear my mind. There's something scary, though, about looking your dreams dead in the eye. Yeah. So if your dream as a kid is to be in WWE and then on top of that to one day hopefully, possibly perform at WrestleMania, oh, and then maybe I won a championship there,

like it's tough to look that in the eye and not be nervous about it. 100%. It's one of the things you get there and go, oh, wait, I'm here. Now I have to perform. Yeah. You can say, oh, I'm going to be the greatest. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that.

But then sometimes you look at it and go. can I do all that stuff I just said? Yeah, now you have to. Now you don't have, you don't have a choice. Yeah. You got to blank it out and go. Yeah. Do you have that championship in your house now?

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's a replica of that and the tag title. Nice. That me and Shelton, yeah. I made sure I got those two. Now 24-7, all right, we can leave that. No, you don't want that.

That's nice. That's just, I didn't like the design of that belt. It was cool. I don't think anybody did. I just. Big old coin. That's a big, big, Big golden coin.

How many times did you win the 24-7? That's funny. I won that the most three times. For like how long? 10 minutes? Five minutes? I think the longest I won it was an hour. An hour?

An hour. Hey. I won it. I want it from, I want it early in night during the pandemic and then lost it later that night to Shelton. It was interesting. Well, that was kind of the way that championship went.

Like, look how many times our truth won it. What is it like 112 times? Not only so many, but. maybe 47 or something it's got to be so ridiculous it's so ridiculous it's a lot he's like technically he's got the record for most absolutely i'm gonna look now we have all the world's information in our pocket it's right there he's got i don't think it's i don't think it's in the hundreds but it's a lot if it wasn't hundreds i wouldn't doubt it at all no there's no there's no there's no let's take bets i take bets we got it's not even close not even close no i'm gonna go i'm

go 70. I think, I think close. 54. All right. That was off. If it was Price's right rules, I would have won because I was under. You didn't hear you were under. That's fair. Right. You can't go over. But to be fair, as many times you've seen him with that title, it feels like he's, he's the guy.

When you think of the 24-7 championship, you think of our truth. It's true. And the comedy that he brought along with it. It's so good. And that's the thing, because when that championship first came out, it was met with a lot of like, what the heck is that? Why didn't you just call that? Why didn't you just bring back the hardcore title.

That's what I thought they should have done. It's all the same rules. I specifically remember Mick Foley bringing out of the bag and being like, here it is. And the crowd going, right. What? Because that was the, when they were doing like the one hour raw,

like after dark thing or something like that. He brought it out of the bag and there was like crickets. And it's like, hmm, you got an uphill battle from here. And our truth just took that and ran with it and turned it into what it became. Truth makes anything gold. Isn't that amazing?

Anything. I love that guy. Actually, Truth was the first guy that I met as a wrestling fan. Huh. And I remember so distinctly, it was a great of Cold Center, Charlotte, North Carolina. I'm walking through the main interest to get to get to the show. And Truth, in full gear, walks out. He was used K-Quick at the time.

And I was like, how old was I? I had to be like eight, nine years old. And I'm like, it's a wrestler. Mom, it's a wrestler. Look, look. I'm staring up at him. I just go like this. He goes, what's up, dog?

Sorry about that. He goes, what's up, dog? And keep walking. I was like, that's a wrestler right there. Went out later that night, had a match, killed it. Like, truth has always been the guy. Did you ever, you ever tell him that story? You know what?

I never told him that story. I never told him that story. Truth, now you know. Yeah, you just heard it now. That's cool. That's a full circle moment. And he's just a cool guy, man. He's awesome.

He's from a hometown, too. So I was like, we're boys now. Man, even more layers to this being a full circle story. Like, I think often about like if this doesn't happen, then this can't happen. And if that doesn't happen, then this other thing can't happen. I do think that if truth hadn't been such a positive guy, that just that one time as a kid, it might have ruined my whole thing for us and probably. Amazing, right?

Yeah. I think about that a lot. Like, if truth hadn't dapped you up when you were a kid, that could have, butterfly effect could have. could have changed my life right there. Imagine if he had, come on, man, let's go to ring. And I'm like, what over to that, I'd done? What if he had just, like, I've just been just a total dick to you.

Yeah. And that's crazy, right? And those things happen all the time. That's life-changing events, yeah. Right. And you're hyper aware of that yourself in the position that you're in when you're meeting fans and just like. At the very least, I try to be.

Yeah. Sometimes, you know, you're in an airport or whatever, like, all right, I don't want to talk to people, leave me alone. Yeah, but at least, oh, wait a way. wave or a smile. Oh, no, no, always acknowledge. Always some kind of acknowledgement. Because these people took their time to be here, spend money,

to come see you. It was like, hey, at least say hi. I may be busy doing something else, but that acknowledgement always meant a lot. How scared were you when you were climbing up to do that massive dive that you did on Raw? Okay, so about that. It's no one of those things where something just happens,

and I'm like, yeah, sure, let's do it. So I get to raw that day I know I'm kind of in this starting thing with Drew that has the Usos and Roman and Samoa Joe all kind of in it and I'm involved in this brawl and we're all just sitting there and trying to figure out hey how we this is got to be

a crazy thing to end raw how do it how do we do it and people spit ball and stuff and spit ball and stuff and then Drew and I know where it just goes what if he jumps off the stage and everyone what

would you say Drew? Yeah, what if you're just up on the stage? And I'm like, yeah, sure. Yeah, I can do that. Because Michael, hey, look right at me and goes, you can do that? Yeah, sure. You also don't want to say no. I don't want to say no at all.

Especially because, like, this is the first thing I'm doing after being drafted from 205 to Ross. I'm like, all right, I got to make this good. Yeah, and it's your chance to make an impact. We're 100%. So we're walking through and I'm climbing up there. And I'm like, oh, dear Lord, this is huge. Huge. And the staging is such a way they still had like,

there was the platform there. And then above is still like the screen that they kind of hang from the building. And I'm standing about, you know, gauging the jump. I'm like, if I jump too far out, I'm going to hit my head on the screen. I feel like.

So I'm like, I can't jump far, but I can't jump. I can't not jump. I can't just like fall gracefully. You know, I got to make it some distance. So that was terrifying. I just remember going, yeah, we can do it.

Let's do it. That's it. I just looked at it once. I said, sure. Yeah, let's go. They look like little ants when you were up there. I mean. And I'm like, I'm going to hit somebody.

I'm going to hurt somebody. Like, there's no way I'm going to not get screwed up on this thing. But I remember when the time came for it, Drew throws me off the stage. And boom, I'm rolling. And I'm like, all right, got to climb up. And my heart is pounding out of my chest. I'm like, this, in my mind, everything's going wrong. But, like, I can't think about it.

I got to go. I got to go. I get up top. Here we go. stage dive. And as I jumped down, I hit Drew's face with my chin. No one's bleeding,

but my jaw is like erupting right now. It hurts so bad. And we got to finish out this roll going to the ring and everything. So yeah, that I get volunteered a lot for crazy bumps that I just go, yeah, sure. I can do them. Well, what's another one? Oh, God.

The cage match with Omos and Bobby. Lashley that they had on raw. This was after Herbiz broke up like the second or third time. I got to the building. And Shane Helms came to see and goes, Hey, you might take it a bump off the cage?

What? A bump off the cage? Like, yeah. In a production meeting, he said you could do the bump off the cage. I said, I guess I'm doing it now, Shane. Sure.

We're going to take the bump off the cage. And we didn't even really walk through it because they put the head of the cage down. And I got it stood up to see how I would feel taking a bum and I'm like, this, how do you want him to do this? Because, like, Bobby's going to throw me off. And the way the cage was,

they wanted Bobby to, like, press me and throw me that way. But the cage is a little bit too tall, and the ropes are not going to give them the stability to do that. So we're thinking, does he just drag me off? And we just, we have no way to do it because while me sitting up there on the cage is going, how am I going to take this move? Bobby and Omas are going over their match because Omas is still fairly green

and he's still new to wrestling. So this is probably his, at this point, eighth match, so they're trying to get that figured out. And I'm up here on the top of the cage going, we don't know how we're going to figure this out. We're going to just, I'm just going to jump. Okay, cool.

We're just going to jump. And like, we don't have time to go, climb the cage. I'm up there. Bobby's grabbing me and I'm like, I guess we're going. And he just dumps me off. dumps me off the cage and just splat.

I thought I died. There was a moment there. I thought some things were coming out of me that I didn't want to come out of me, but I was good. It was good. Did not poop my pants? Did that fall feel like an eternity? It felt free.

I thought it was going to go straight to my head because the way Bobby had grabbed me is like, I can't, there's no funny for me to like flip. Like, I had to take a back month. Yeah. How am I going to do this? The way he grabbed me. It was like, I was either going to fall forward or I'm going to like take a, almost nose dive.

That's kind of how it felt. I got clear over. Like when I watch it back, full flip, boom, bump. Everything's fine. It sucked, but I was a lot. But in my head, I'm like, I'm going down. I knew I was going to go ahead first in my head. Man.

But, you know, Yolo. When the boss says, can you do it? You say yes. And you do it. You make it happen. What were you feeling when they told you were going to share a beer with Stone Cold? They didn't tell me.

They didn't tell you. They did not tell me. They did not tell me. That whole thing was meant. So this was after the rivalry with Drew, I believe. I was going into a thing with AJ. This is right before King of the Ring and stuff like that. And this is supposed to be like my crowning moment to show like,

oh, there's new singles guy on the scene. And it ends with me giving AJ the Lombar check. getting the one, two, three. And Stone Cold came out and done something early that night. And I was like, cool, cool. Didn't think much about it. So I get the Lombard check, one, two, three. Music hits immediately.

And no one knows about this. Like, no one in matching news. He was coming out. So we're just like, you're in Madison Square Garden. So we're like, oh, it's Madison Square Garden. It's Stone Cold? Someone's getting stunned. Who's getting stunned?

So I'm like, he's got to stun one of us. And then he comes out. I just put his, puts it all over. He mentioned me by name, which. To me, oh my God, I cried. All the inside is. Stone Cold Bear was my name and watched my match and put me over. It's like, great.

Man. That's a kid's dream. Then he starts throwing beers. I'm like, yeah, right. Let's go. Stone Cold, man. That's, yeah, that's one of those moments. That's going to live forever.

Like, Sherry beer's the world. You didn't even know he was in the building? No, he was in the building. I knew he was there. Okay. But he wasn't supposed to come back out. But what was supposed to happen, supposed to be me getting the pin on AJ,

and that was going to kind of set up the rivalry we were getting into where I challenged for the U.S. title and everything. It was like, oh, he pinned the U.S. champions, though. Like, oh, he's next in line. Yeah. But the way it was told to me was the only reason that happened is because Vince wasn't sure about the reaction I would get by pinning AJ. That's how it was related to me.

I don't know if that's true enough, but that's how it was relate to me. When I hit the move, they immediately hit the music. It was supposed to be regular hit the music. We all celebrate it. faces. But he's like, no, send Stone Cold out. He thought there'd be a better reaction. And he decided that on the fly. And I was like, I'm fine with that. Stone Cool, came on giving a pair? I'll take it. The whole time you're cheering with Stone Cold and drinking the beer, are you like, it's happening, right? Like, he's going to stun me at some point here, right?

Someone's got to get a stunner, right? Yeah. And then we do the whole thing, like, then AJ comes back. He gets the stunter. And all that, all right, cool. Someone got it. I'll be. Someone got it. I'll take it. He's like, I'm in order. I'll do it. You're probably thinking in your head like, oh, and how do I want to sell it? Do I want the realistic cell, like the Kurt Angle cell or do I want like... Go to go with the rock, doing it. It's the over-the-top cell, yeah.

Springing, it's like headsprit. I don't know. I was thinking, I don't know how I'm going to do this. Please give me one. Please. That's such a cool moment. Never. I'm never going to get it. You've mentioned your wife a bunch during this interview. Is she still wrestling?

She is currently not wrestling. She's doing more. the announcer hosting role. She's trying to get into that more. Wrestling just rough on her body. She has Crohn's disease. So it's not the easiest thing to come back when you're wrestling. I believe she hasn't wrestled since 2022.

Nope. Not since that. There's thoughts about, okay, maybe doing one more run, maybe. But she's pretty content with keeping her body in one piece and just sticking with more supportive roles in wrestling. Did she miss it? Oh, 100%. I feel like every wrestler.

And every single time we sit and watch wrestling, whether it's AEW or WV or some indie stuff, she'll just go, oh, I want to get back in there, do that. And then she'll start critiquing people like, oh, they should have done this, but I would have done this differently. And I was like, yeah, I know you still got the bug. The bug never leaves, right? It never leaves. She was going to be wrestled before we started dating, she said, but she just never did it.

So I was like, oh, that's okay. I'll train you up. I get you in there. Who thinks the best piece of advice a veteran has given you that you carry with you in every match? Or just something that made you a better wrestler? Something that made you step up. Slowing down.

Slowing down is probably the one I use the most. Yeah, because when I was coming up, I was like, get to the spot, get to the spot, make it, make it good, make it exciting. And then, ah, wait for the reaction. It's like, yeah, but then that's gift wrestling. People don't remember that as long. So you can make those moments and slow down, let it breathe. Let everything you did the last two minutes mean something as opposed to going, spot, spot, spot, spot, spot.

No one remembers that. You know, they can remember the last five things you did. But if you do it, do it, breathe here, breathe here, let it. So let people remember what you just did, your reaction is so much better. AJ Stiles was on the show recently and he said, wrestling is what happens in between the moves. Yes. Yes.

and I had never heard it put so succinctly before, but it's so true. 100%. You can, it's one of those things like, especially coming up in the Indies, like, you're always here, the move don't matter. And like people go, no, the move is too better. I can do a Canadian show. I can do a shooting star. He's like, yeah, but I can do a punch and get the same reaction.

You got off that shooting star just because of how I built it. That's what AJ was saying, like, that he lends a lot of his longevity to. Yes. He's like, I don't need to do. the shooting star, the $450 every time, if I can get the same reaction for a punch. That's like... AJ's probably the guy watching most that... For his selling.

Yeah. Selling of the moves. Like, for me, for... He takes a punch and it's like, you just kill that guy. Why'd you do that to him? Yeah. I say AJ's probably like... I'm not rushing more of wrestling.

You know, who else doesn't get enough credit for their selling is Roman reins. That's another one. That's another one. I think that people are just so used to seeing him in that top guy position that they don't realize that, man, when he is taking somebody else's offense, he makes them look like a million bucks. Well, yes.

Roman, I think, just gets the bad rap because, like, the company pushed him so hard, so people would want to push against that. Yeah. But not realizing, like, that's the way we all want to be pushed and brought up. we all want to get those those spots and, you know, be in the ring with the legends that you learn from like that. Because I think Roman's probably greatest wrestler in this generation probably. It's hard.

It's hard to say because we're in it right now. But like I feel like he was getting the Sina treatment like 10 years ago. Oh, you know what I mean? 100%. Right. Well, he was definitely the Sina guy. And now we're able to appreciate Sina because he's at the towards the end of his career. And I feel like we need,

it's easy to see Romans insanely talented, obviously, with everything he does, in the ring on the mic, all of it. But I feel like we need some time removed from it to go, hmm, you know what? We didn't realize how good we had it. It's one of those things you go, oh, it's gone.

It's been gone for a while. Ah, now we're realizing it. And him turning heel was the best thing to have in his career. One, and being with Paul? Yes, that moment where the camera zooms out, it's Paul Heyman sitting next to him. And it's like, oh, what are we in for now? What is going to happen next?

Yeah, that was great. Who were your guys? growing up. Ooh, Rob Van Damme, Jeff Hardy, AJ style, Samoja. Wow. Christopher Deyes. Five great ones.

Those are my guys. Yeah. Absolutely famous. I think you can see in your style that you've borrowed a little bit from all of them. And that's what I try to do. I try to just take a little bits that I like because, like, I'm a huge AJ

fan. But I love the way AJ sales more over the way Joe sells more. But Joe hits and makes everything look so snug and crisp. But Daniels is such a ring general. He's so, he's so many things I could pick from each person. And our video is just cool. When I saw the best moon salt ever for the first time, it just so clean the ways. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Bloom. It's a just and it's like, not even like the craziest thing he can do. No, but it's so smooth. Like, it's effortless the way he does it. The way he does the heat, he's done that same move for, what, 30 years?

Yeah, I think so. Like, I couldn't imagine doing a lumbar check for another 20 years. You know what I mean? This is bad on your knees, but he's doing a moonsault. It's so clean. And it's clean. Yeah. I wanted to stay.

There was one time we're at an Orowid show, and he's with Kazarian and Scorpio. they're the, what was it, SCU, S-U. S-U. And I remember going, all right, I'm going to, I'm going to try to double jump, so I just see if I could do it.

So I just did the double jump, and Daniels looked at me and goes, never again. Sorry. Let's see if I could. Do you want to try? I love how excited you are about what's next in your life.

Very excited. Do you feel like maybe when you're in WWE and things are just being given to you, do you feel like it's easy to get complacent? 100%. It's easy to place and it's easy to say, oh, I want more. I deserve more because I'm here in WWE.

Which I think that's why I didn't, which is both a good and a bad thing, which is why I think I didn't fight as much with the office when it comes to like getting opportunities. Because, as you know, WB's foot. Everyone can wrestle on that. You know what I mean? So it was a case of like, well, if I'm complaining to the boss that, I'm not getting an opportunity. I need this, that and the other.

Every other guy is doing the same thing. So how do I make myself different? I'll just take what they give me and make it work. So I feel like that was probably the one thing in my career that may regret a little bit is that I didn't sit by the office and, you know, fight and talk to writers all the time. It's like, I just didn't want to stress. I just felt it was more conducive to my time to be better in the ring. be better on the mic so focus on that stuff and so when it does come yeah i can be like i'm ready yeah

i'm excited to see what's next for you i'm super excited the world is your oyster now and i'm excited what they say that's what they say there's a bunch of pearls in here and every interview talking about gratitude because it means so much to me what are three things in your life cedric you're grateful for right now oh family health and patience right back to patience it's it's it's saved me a lot um or or you say patience or faith because because of my patience i've learned to be to be trusting more trusting in in fate and my faith just helps me be more trusting and patient so i guess they're interchangeable in some ways yeah but um of course the family because they keep me saying you know um on on days where i'm

I'm like, ah, I don't want to work out, or days where I'm like, I'll bump too much from this ring or I'm hurt and like, I'll come home. I'll hug my wife, hug my daughter, like, oh, I'm okay now. Everything's fine. Yeah. Hey, Daddy, how are you? How was work? It was like, it was fine. It was good, baby. I'm home now. I feel good. Thanks, man. Thank you. Thank you to Cedric for coming into the studio for this one. And thank you for being here and staying all the way until the end. It'll be so interesting to see where Cedric goes next. math is correct. 90 days from his release date will be May 8th. So it'll be really interesting to see what happens in and around that time. But man, he is so talented and just so underrated.

Snap a screenshot. Let us know you're listening and tag us online. He's at Cedric Alexander 1 on Instagram. He's at Cedric Alexander on X. I'm at Chris Van Fleet and the legendary football coach, Dan Reeves, had this great quote. Difficulties in life are made, are intended to make us better, not bitter. That's good. Be great. Be grateful. We'll see you on the next one for some more insight. We've got Ask CVV number 76 tomorrow. Leave a comment on Spotify with your question. Send it in on social media with that hashtag Ask CVV or shoot me an email CVV at chrisfanbleat.com. See you're right back here tomorrow as we end the week with AskCV. 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. Jim Rome's show podcast. What should be? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.