Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Charlie Haas On His New Look, Team Angle, Returning To Wrestling

Episode Date: December 3, 2021

Charlie Haas (@charliehaas) is an amateur wrestler and also a professional wrestler best known for his time in WWE. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about his new podcast called Wrestling's Greatest Podcast, how his love of watching pro wrestling as a kid led him to start amateur wrestling, forming a tag team with his brother Russ Haas, how Russ's death effected him, getting signed to WWE, becoming part of Team Angle with Shelton Benjamin and Kurt Angle, his marriage to Jackie Gayda and their recent divorce, his return to pro wrestling and new look and more! For more info on Charlie's Haas's podcast called "Wrestling's Greatest Podcast" visit: https://www.thehaaspod.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. For more information about CVV and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com 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

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Blaine! All right, here we go, my friends. Welcome back to another audio adventure on Insight. I'm CBV, Chris Van Fleet. Thank you so much for being back with us. This is episode number 285 for the podcast, closing in on 300. And this is episode number 115, just for this year alone.

115 episodes in 2021 and a lot of you have been with us for every single one. Also, how was it December already? How was it almost 2022? This year is just flying by. Charlie Haas has a heck of a story and so glad to have him with us here. If you're not following him already on social media, he's at Charlie Haas, that's H-A-S on Twitter. and he's at Real Charlie Haas on Instagram.

If you're not following me, it's just at Chris Van Fleet. And wherever you're listening to this right now, make sure to check out Charlie's new podcast called World's Greatest Podcast. Great name, right? Makes sense because, you know, the tag team with Shelton Benjamin, world's greatest tag team, world's greatest podcast. World's greatest fan, or at least the fan of the week,

Corey Snellson, who says, CBV, the man, the myth, the inspiration. Listening to the Ryan Panaded episode right now, such a great guest. One of my side hustles happens to be content creation for a house flipper, and this episode has really inspired me to pitch a full-time gig with this successful flipper. Thank you for the diverse guests.

Carrotop was amazing. I feel like your show is a roadmap to taking action on goals. Thank you, CBV. Hands down my favorite podcast and favorite host, vague goals get vague results. It's written big on top of my whiteboard because it's not only true, but an effective way to stay focused. Thank you so much, Corey, and you're right.

Vague goals do get vague results. I actually just wrote out my goals, like physically wrote out five goals that I wanted to crush in 2022. Then I wrote out a deadline for each one of them, and I wrote out the steps that it would take to get each, goal accomplished. I highly recommend that you do the same. This is a very powerful exercise and be specific with your goals. Don't say, I want to lose some weight this year. Be like, I want to lose 15 pounds by July 1st. Well, how are you going to do that? And then figure out the way to do that.

Reverse engineer your way back. I should do a whole episode about this. I feel like we should. But if you want to shout out on the show for free, of course, leave a review on Apple Podcast. We read one out on every single episode. And while you're leaving a review for my show, leave a review for the world's greatest podcast as well. All right, let's get to it. The host of the world's greatest podcast. Please welcome Charlie Haas.

Charlie, I'm pumped about this. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to go. I really am. Well, and congrats on your new podcast, by the way. Let's get that all out of the way right now.

So wherever people are listening to this, they can listen to your podcast as well. Right. Yeah, so my podcast is called The HOSPOT or Wrestling's Greatest Podcast. What we're doing is we're covering all aspects of wrestling. Everyone knows my background and how important amateur wrestling is to me and was to me. So what we're doing is we cover all aspects to where we go from pro wrestling one week to amateur wrestling the other week. We go with the amateur wrestling.

I'm diving deep into, you know, we're interviewing the top high school prospects that are in the country, even the top youth prospects. And we asked them, you know, what their work ethic is, what universities they're looking at, and, you know, and what, where they would hope to be, you know, if they want to continue into college for wrestling. Then we go out and we interview the top tier wrestling coaches, say Penn State, Iowa State, Iowa, Oklahoma State, just to name a few. And we'll ask them what they look like, what they look for in a top prospect. And then what they look for and, you know, whether it's just not a wrestler, but also a student athlete, you know, because they're building. for four to five years and they want to make sure they have the right people in place to continue their success. Like Penn State right now has the perfect blueprint for it, although they did get beat by Iowa last year. But you know, they've won the last nine out of 11 national titles. So,

and what we do is also, it's also really important for women as well because women's wrestling and amateur wrestling is actually saving men's wrestling. Iowa just announced that they're going to start a women's team next year. Penn, Clemson started one. You know, there's over 13,000. 1,300 scholarships for women, but we only have like 1,100 women wrestling right now. Wow. So we're trying to get it and get as, we're trying to get as much notice out there for women to let them know, like, hey, you know, if you continue in the sport, you can get your college paid for, you know. And amateur wrestling is such a great, it's great for women especially because, you know, you may have a type of sport where you have different weight classes and you may have, say you have a girl that's a little bit on, that's a little bigger on. on and wants to play like center midfield and soccer, but it's really impossible for her to play

that. You go to wrestling, she has a chance to wrestle against girls, her own weight, with her own experience. She has a chance to, if she wins a state title, you know, she has a chance to go on. And even if she doesn't want to stay a title, but she is successful, she does have the chance to go on to earn a scholarship. And then right there, you're building self-esteem, you're building, you know, she's just building a stronger mentality towards the workforce, you know, because what she can use,

that she learns in wrestling is that she can apply that to life, you know, and that, you know, maybe she's put back into an uncomfortable position, but she learned to get out of it, and she can apply that towards, like, you know, towards, you know, life, you know, when you get, when obstacles like death

or taxes or divorce or, you know, anything that gets thrown at you, you learn how to get out of that. And I think it's a great, great, it's a great success for women. It's going to help men's wrestling for sure, but it just helps women in general to become a stronger,

advocate for, you know, life when it comes to obstacles start running their way. So I'm looking forward to seeing what our podcast could do. We want to do is bring, we want to bring, for the amateur side, we want to bring coaches together with student athletes that they haven't met yet, and maybe that they've missed, you know, in their process of recruiting, and we can maybe hook them up to where they can get a scholarship or, you know, they can get looked at, or maybe they can go from a D2 to a D1 level. And, and then with the pro side, I just want to, you know, go, to the stories that I, you know, I had over the professional, my professional career. And then, you know, reconnected the people I met from the independence all the way up to

WWE, up to Japan. And just to tell the stories that we had and the fun times we had. But also, maybe there is a chance to connect the amateur wrestling to the professional wrestling, like, say, with the Gable Stevenson. And maybe if they want to become a professional wrestler, I can use my connections to help them get into, you know, instead of fighting in UFC, maybe they'll want to go to WW or AEW. So help out there. I think that everybody is very familiar with your amateur background, but now you're coaching amateur wrestling. Yeah, I'm coaching. Yeah. You talk about what some of these recruiters are looking for. What do you look for in one of your hours?

So, you know, I coach youth program that's like, you know, from kindergarten all the way up to high school. And when they get to high school, they really, I kind of, they push, I push them on over to our, the high school team that we feed into. And that's Allen, Texas. And they're going for their 13th straight state title this year. So Jerry Best is the head coach there. Him and I grew up in Oklahoma. We know each other. We're like brothers. So I run the youth program.

But what I keep telling the parents is that, you know, amateur wrestling is a marathon. It's not a sprint. That you have to, you know, listen, this technique is very hard. There's a counter to every counter and there's a counter to every counter counter. You know, you just can't go in there and say, hey, my kid's a great athlete. Yeah, that'll pay off. But, you know, I'll take hard work off or talent any day. You know, it just, and that's what it takes to become a successful imitruster.

You've got to put in the hard work. Yeah. And the parents just want to see, they want to see success right away, and they want to win now. I'm like, well, here's, what's the long, what's our long-term goal? Our long-term goal. And that is to get a scholarship, is to get our college, or to get our education paid for. And I go, and then from there, then you can say, okay, to win a national title or to be a four-time All-American or to be an All-American. Like, but right now, we just have to, we just got to keep the,

parents focus to say, look, you know, they may not be good right now, but for, you know, in five years, six years, they may be the person that's getting pinned. They may be the, they may become the person that's pending everybody. So, you know, the switch, the green light turns on differently for everybody at different times. So you just got to stay focused and you just got to keep the kids, you know, it's a difficult sport, it's a hard sport, but you got to keep the kids having fun and just let them know that, you know, hey, it doesn't matter right now. It's, it's, It's what happens in the future is the most important. I can relax that so much.

I was a high school wrestler. I didn't win a match for a long, long time. But I learned so much about myself and so many life lessons that I carry with me now to this day. I'm curious for you, Charlie, what do you think is the biggest life lesson that amateur wrestling has taught you? So it's taught me, like I said, okay, wrestling puts you in uncomfortable positions. Nothing like putting your hand, your hat thrown on you, your arm twisted behind your back or over your head. Then you have to learn how to get out of that. So, you know, so what it taught me is that if I can get out of these moves in amateur wrestling,

then I apply that work ethic towards life. That I should be able to, you know, not only to succeed, but also to overcome adversity, you know, when that's thrown at me. Like for instance, my divorce with Jackie, very difficult, very hard on the kids. But, you know, it's taught me to, you know, stay focused in that, you know, things are will turn out, you know, in the long run, you know, they'll turn out the best for you and for the kids and they'll work out that way. You know, same with when my dad and my brother died. You know, it's, you know, death is thrown at you and you're like, you know, you're the only male figure in your family now.

And you're like, man, where's that male bondage? And, you know, you have to learn to overcome that. And so, you know, it's taught me that, you know, hey, I've been backed in uncomfortable positions. But you know what? I just keep my head straight on and I just keep looking ahead. then I will overcome and I will figure out a way to get out of these uncomfortable positions and be successful and to move on. I'll never forget, but I'll be able to move on.

And that's what it's taught me so far. I think that you surprised a lot of people with this new look. Like when this video came out, this interview that you did with Hannibal, you had a new look and I think that a lot of people were worried and concerned, but you're okay, right? No, I'm fine. You know, it is just like, here's, here's my, you know, when people quit working out, either they get, they, with my jeans, when I quit working out, I just get really skinny, man, and I just get lean.

I just, I don't know why. A lot of people either eat a lot or get fat or, you know, they just, they look, get out of shape. Man, I just, that's just the way I've always been. So when I start working out, that's when I start to bulk back up. No, but I'm fine. I, I mean, that divorce took a lot out of me. And, I mean, I quit working out. I was, I mean, I was depressed.

And, I mean, you lost everything. You lose your partner for 15 years. No, she's, no, she's with her boyfriend. They have a new baby, and I'm happy for them. You know, your kids are like, dad, you know, what's going on? There's somebody else living your life. And it's tough, man. And that is, man, that's what really hurts, you know.

Then you read what the people are saying about you. That's why I try to block that off. And, you know, then my daughter's reading this, and she's all upset. And I'm like, man, I just wish people understood exactly what was going on in my time of my life. I mean, there's, you know, divorce is like a, it's like a death, you know, in a family. You know, my dad just died and my wife and I are done. And, you know, it's just, it was a tough situation. And, but, you know, like I said, I've learned to overcome it.

But, I mean, I got back in working out, back lifting. I thought it was done wrestling. You know, I have to thank Robert Langdon. He got me back into it. And, you know, James Beard. SWE, and now I'm, you know, from there, now I'm looking, like, I just signed a 28 match deal with world-class pro wrestling. So I'm excited about this. Yeah, what brought you back to wrestling? Because like you said, you had, you know, a bit of a

hiatus from it. Yeah, well, I was, I was done. And Robert Langdon brought me in. They were doing a, they were honoring me to go into the Texanoma Pro Hall of Fame. And they said, hey, we just want you to come out, just take a look at the new talent. I really didn't know that what's going on. So they brought me into the ring, and they presented me a ring and all that for the hallfam, and I didn't even know that was going on. I was like shocked. But when I was there, Ted, James Beard was there.

And he was like, hey, you know, Charlie, wouldn't you get back in the rest? I'm like, man, I'm so out of shape of this. He's like, no, why don't you try? I go, oh, James, look at me. I'm like, I got to get back in the shape, all this and this. He's like, well, you never know until you try it. So my kids were like, come on, Dad. And, you know, they really, they saw me when I was little.

They haven't seen me wrestle. And, I mean, it's been a good two or three years. So I don't even know where I'm going to be at wrestling. So we started with, at Tex homo pro. Then I moved, then I said, okay, I told James, I go, I go, my cardio is fine. I go, my look doesn't look good, but my cardio is fine for SWE. Well, you know, so we went out to SWE. I tried the first match.

And then, let's see, it was Kevin Solon was there. He was in Teddy Long and Tom Lance and they were like, they're like, man, you're, you have that gear that, you know, people haven't seen in a while that changed to fifth gear. Like my, I guess like I'm a heel, basically. And, man, I just, my style is a little bit different now from what everyone does. It's like where I'm not so much worried about the moves. I'm worried. I concentrate more on the work between the moves. I also bring the crowd into it.

I interact. And that was something different that they didn't have. And I bring it up to a higher level as a hill. Like, I mean, it's intense, very intense. And people were like, whoa. So I, you know, so I have this new, it's something that people haven't seen in about three or four years. So I have this new attitude with this new look. But, you know, it's all right.

I kept reading everyone's like, ah, he's sick. He's all messed up or whatever. But I'm not. I'm fine. I'm just, and I thank those people for giving me more fuel to add to the fire. But I'm healthy. I'm back up to two. I'm 230 pounds.

I'm 6 to, I put 315 up for like five times on the bench, which isn't a lot compared to a lot of people. For me, I think it's good. That'd be incredible for me, so yeah. I mean, and I'm happy and I'm working out. And so I thank you for everybody's concern. But, man, I got to do is just go on and watch the progression from SWE to now. I mean, I'm, dude, I'm right where I'm at.

I'm right where I want to be. When you thought that you were done with wrestling, where did you start to transition your life into? What were you doing? amateur wrestling just just focusing on the coaching um also i was doing um uh i was working in medical device um so i was selling um spine which is medical device spine hardware so i was working for new base of spine then i started working for acuity surgical so i would go into basically like the neurosurgeons or the uh sports ortho doctors that work on spine and and try to convince them why our screwing plates

and our why our procedures would be better than uh say strikers or zimmers or uh any other you know company out there. So it was, yeah, I was usually using my degree finally. I know that most people, when they either retire or they step away from wrestling, like, you can't ever really fully get away from it. So how good did it feel when you finally went back out there in front of a crowd? I was scared. I was nervous. But then when I, but you know, when I, when I heard them cheering, I was like, well, okay, that's good. But then when I heard them booing, I felt better. I don't know why. I just, I like being a deal better. It really does. It's always been easier for me to be a hill.

I just find it easier to just, like, get people to boo me. You know, it's hard for me to, like, dig down and say, come on, man, cheer for me. But it's so much easier to say, I don't need your guys' help. I can do this on my own, you know. I don't know. What I've done for the last three or four years is, you know, I've had a lot of hardship, but I think I've taken all that. And I have, you know, I have been able to embrace that, but I could have been able to let it portray in my character when I wrestle.

and especially in my, when I do my, when I do my vignettes or when I do my promos, it kind of carries us over there, carries into that. And people are like, man, he can really speak. He can talk. Like, we never heard that part from, you know. So, you know, which is true, you know, I mean, I was down and out for a while. And now I'm like, you know, and I'll tell people in the promos, I'm like, look, when you're basically almost homeless and you're, you're that close living on the streets.

When you've lost everything, I go, you're not scared of anything, you know. So I promote that into my promos and my people, which it's true. So I'm just taking parts of my life that's been happening that people haven't seen or heard of. And I just mix that into with what's going on in the wrestling world and what Charlie Haas is doing. Yeah, and Charlie, I'm so sorry to hear everything you've been through. I'm curious, it's not a day when you decided I got to turn this thing around. Did something specifically happen to go, let's get out of this funk? Yeah, I think it was when, you know,

when you're going through all the divorce papers back and forth. And I'm like, you know, and then, yeah, especially when I'll tell you what the day was, is when you sign the papers and then your son calls you and he goes, Hey, dad, man, there's somebody over here living, somebody in my kitchen eating my cereal. I'm like, yeah, he says he's living here to get used to. I go, right then I'm like, man, I was like, what is going on? I had no idea. I had no idea that there was somebody else like that, you know, and boom.

The kids never met him. He's there living. So, yeah, I think that was when I said, you know what, it's time to start feeling sorry for yourself. I've got to let me move on. You know, the papers are signed. So, you know, it's time for me to move on. And that was, yeah. And, I mean, it sounds like wrestling came around at the right time.

Yeah, it all came at the right time. Well, wrestling is like your first love. So to be able to, you know, fall back into love with that, it sounds like it's completely changed your course. It changes course, you know. And it's even to the point where I had the amateur wrestling school. But what I want to do is I'm going to open up, you know, the professional wrestling school. as well. And what I want to do is I just want to, you know, there's two, there's two projects I have going on. What I want to concentrate on just tag team wrestling so I can, you know, I'm doing singles

myself, but I want to help the tag team wrestlers out. I'm, you know, I think that it's become a lost art. And I think that if, you know, the problem is, I think the hills think too much into it. I think they tried out shine the baby faces. And that, it's just not, it's not a good recipe for a tag team match. I see the rough skip very long. a lot in the matches. I want to be able to teach him what Arne Anderson taught me and what Jerry Briscoe taught me or taught Shelton and I when we were tagging. And I mean, when you have the best mind in a business like Arne Anderson that he just, he put a stamp of approval on you on how to do tag team wrestling, then I want to be able to pass that down. And I think that

that's something no one does. Everyone has pro wrestling schools, but they don't have any pro wrestling schools that specify tag team wrestling or work for tag team wrestling. So I want to do that. To them also, I'm starting a junior wrestling alliance, which is for, it's for, you younger kids from my ages 10 to 15, 10 to 16. And I'm not, and I know everyone's like, oh, wait, hold on now. You know, these kids are too young. You can't teach pro wrestling the kids. But I'm like, you can. And what I'm going to do this different is that they won't wrestle outside the ring. They won't go off the top turn buckle or anything like that. There's not going to be able to do power bombs or, or the power bombs or spine busters.

Anything that's going to give a whiplash where it's head first, we won't have that in that. In this alliance, what we will do is we will concentrate on chain wrestling, how to work the crowd, the timing, the spacing, you know, your hip toss, your body slams, the psychology, you know, hill versus face, how to get heat, body parts to work. Because I'm sitting there going, you can teach a kid to do that. And I've done it with my two kids, my 11 to 9-year-old. They're already wrestling against each other in front of crowds. and they're doing a great job. But if you do that at this age, and then by the time they're 18, 19, or 20,

you can have another Randy Orton on your hands. And I think Randy's at the best there is right now. You know, I just, I mean, I don't know. It's hard to say, okay, at 18, you can become a pro wrestler. We expect to create all this knowledge into you in three or four years to be on top, if not next. I'm like, it's impossible, you know. I mean, you don't wake up in the morning and say,

hey, I'm going to be a professional football player and then go out and try out for the Cowboys. No, you start from the time you're in little leagues, you know, baseball, pee, you know. I mean, it's just, it's so, why not? You know, hockey, you've got to start from the minors. I mean, below the miners, like from a youth foundation. And those kids get a lot, I mean, come on, youth football and hockey and lacrosse,

there's as much head injury or concussions than there'd be in professional wrestling, you know. So I'm just saying, what I'm doing is I'm taking out the major moves that could prevent, that could cause, I mean, can cause concussions. And we're just teaching them the basic space, you know, timing and spacing is the, and footwork is the key to professional wrestling. If you're going too slow, it's the right speed for television. And of course, at the young age, they have to understand the win or loss, like how that's predicted and how that goes.

It's already been exposed. And once my kids understood it, they're like, oh, they just want to work for the match. They don't care. And that's the big difference. So I'm excited. We'll see where it goes from there. The thing I love about your story is if we take this way back, pro wrestling is what led you to amateur wrestling, which is.

So interesting because it's usually the other way around. I know. I know. Yeah, when I was a big pro wrestling fan, my first, I mean, growing up watching, my first, I turned on TV and I saw Lou Al-Bano and Ray Crippler-Stevens beating up Jimmy Superfly Snooka. And then they had piled drove him twice on the cement. And then he saw the big X go through there. And this is for WWF at the time. And I was like, oh, my God, this is great.

This is great. And then, man, it was, I was hooked. And then, you know, cable just came out. 605 to 805 WTBS, you know, Gordon Sully, Georgia Championship Wrestling or World Championship Wrestling. You know, and then I was able to get, you know, then midnight, Devon Erick's world-class championship wrestling, you know. And then there's a lot of different territories that I was able to pick up because of cable. But yeah, when I got to, when we were in Oklahoma, I went out, I saw it for seventh grade junior high, they had wrestling. I was like, oh, I'm going to go off the wrestling.

It's great. So I got there and I thought it was, I thought I was going to walk into a room with a ring. It was not, it was all amateur wrestling mats. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. And I'll tell you, we were talking about it, like the first two, three years, I mean, I got, I was just, I got my butt kicked. And it was, it was terrible because these kids have been wrestling since they were like kindergarten, first, second, third grade. Like, you know, the way I'm teaching my kids now, you know, but, I mean, that started in seventh grade and I didn't get good until, like the end of my ninth grade year. I mean, until I really just turned the corner.

But, I mean, I stuck with it. I mean, because I, actually, my seventh grade year. It was so bad. I went out for the basketball team after wrestling, and I didn't make the team there, so I went back to just get my butt kicked in wrestling. So there was really nothing else to do. So I can't jump. So I might as well hopefully eventually I'll learn how to wrestle. So it paid off, though. We always hear stories about how you or Kurt Angle, Shelton Benjamin, Brock Lesnar was an easy transition for amateur wrestling to pro wrestling. How easy is it really? I think it's an easy transition if you're a fan.

if you grew up watching it. So it's kind of like if you're a fan of the EFC. Like if you know all those holds and all the technique that, you know, Joe Rogan's calling out in the middle of a EFC match, then it's good. Like for me, when you hear when I grew up hearing Golden Solie or Jim Ross, you know, talking about, oh, he's got the headlock takeover, the Irish whip. Oh, it's an up and over. Oh, baseball slip between the legs, arm drag, you know, hip-top, you know.

I think that was easy because I knew everything they were talking about. So when I started training, my Mike Sharp started training me, he was like, he would, he's like, do you know this? I'm like, yeah, I know that. I know that because, I mean, you're a fan. You know, like some of the moves I could do already because I probably practiced on my mom's. I didn't have access to a ring, but we destroyed a lot of bed frames on the king-sized bed of my parents' house. So, you know, drop kicks, yes, body slams and all, the suplexes. So, you know, I think, I thought it was an easier transition, especially when you take the work ethic of an amateur wrestler.

That helps out a lot as well. But I mean, the biggest difference, though, is in amateur wrestling, the last thing you want to do is be on your back. And in pro wrestling, you have to somehow get comfortable with that. Right. You have to, you have to something. You're exactly right. You know, it's kind of, it's also very similar to like when I get a bunch of people who come in to be one of amateur wrestler. Well, I go, what other sports have you taken?

Oh, we do Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Well, so with that, that's great. But we have to teach them that you can't pull anyone in a guard. You can't go to your back. Amish Wrestling, you never want to go to your back. It's always you got a hand control workup. You want to control the hands and be able to get up and get your hips out from underneath and escape. You know, where, you know, in amateur wrestling and in pro wrestling, you have to be comfortable to be on your back, you know.

And it's something that you just have to, that's something you have to put in the back of your mind and you have to work for. Yeah, with your incredibly decorated amateur career, how did WWE find you? So I was a tag team with my brother. And, you know, the Steiner's were over in WCW. Jerry Briscoe heard that there was a brother tag team out from Oklahoma that was on the independence. And that was us. And he got word to Kevin Kelly to look us up and try to find us. And Kevin Kelly did.

We were working at the time we were the Jersey All pro tag champions and the CZW tag team champions. And we just started working for Jim Kettner, who used to run ECWA, the Super 8. It was a big tournament at the time. And so we, Tim Ketner got in touch with us, said, hey, we'd like to take a look at you guys. So we came in and we did our first dark match in Madison Square Garden, which was like pretty, pretty, I mean, yeah. So we did our first dark match there. And then they came to us that night. They said, hey, can you guys be in Pittsburgh the next night?

We're like when, like tomorrow. So that was where Smackdown was being filled. We're like, yeah, sure. So we made up whatever lives we had to work, called in sick and we drove to Pittsburgh. And then when we got there, after that match, Jerry, Jim Ross and Bruce Pritcher, like, Cos Brothers, we need to see you.

And we went in there. And we thought they were going to say, thank you very much for your time. We need to work on us. They gave us developmental deals to go to report to Memphis by December of 2001. So that's what we did. So, I'm sorry, January 2001. So that's where, and we were excited, man.

So that was, you know, but we spent, you know, people don't know, we spent about five years on the independence prior to that. So it wasn't like it just happened. I mean, we're working our butts off everywhere. And, you know, we were trying to get an ECW actually. But, you know, it didn't work out that way. That we actually ended up, you know, with WWE. And then from there, we were down in Memphis and then got sent to Cincinnati, HWA. They closed down Memphis.

And what happens? they buy WCW and ECW. And then so then we're like, now we have, they buy those and then they bring all the, all the people in from those organizations into the developmental territory. And at the time you only had the two territories. It was OVW and HWA.

And now we're like, like, you know, we're trying to tread water, trying to get through all the debris, you know, like it was a shipwreck and we're trying to float through to the top of the water, catch our breath. And, you know, we're passing all this debris. And it's like all these other wrestlers that are coming down like,

that are being thrown at us. And then my brother dies. I'm like, oh, my God. You know, so like it's just, I mean, I'm talking about, you know, talking about adversity, you know. And like I said, wrestling teaches you to get out of one comfortable position. So I was able to survive that and then, you know, and prove myself even after his death that, you know, that this is my goal. I still want to focus on making it to WWE. And I know I know it was under a developmental contract, but to get to the top.

And so eventually it worked out. And they put Shelton and I together, you know, a team angle eventually was supposed to be Kurt. Shelton, myself, and my brother was supposed to be four of us. So, you know, went to three instead of four, but it still worked out. So. Yeah, you talk about getting out of uncomfortable situations. Like, how much did your brother's death impact you at that time? It destroyed me, man. It was like, it was like the basically, um, it's like the divorce with to Jackie. I mean, you mean, you're, he's your best friend. You grew up with your little, your baby brother, your little brother. And then he dies. You like, you find him dead. You're just like, man. I mean, this is this really happening? Um, it was tough it really was i had to

then you have to call your mom and dad and tell you you found your brother dead and that's not that's not good and um it was uh yeah i didn't think i was going to be able to get out of that i really do i didn't know what you know i didn't know how to survive that but then i didn't know what wwee was going to do i didn't know if they were you know they signed the hoss brothers not charlie hoss and uh you know um thank god that jim ross saw he's like hey we can still do this was charley and shelton um And then Arne Anderson, you know, he's like, let me take Charlie and let me take Shelton. Let me see what I can do with him for about a year.

And, uh, and he, you know, we, we basically just travel with, um, with, um, Arn. And, you know, he put us like, you know, in the ring prior to our, you know, to the house show matches or the dark matches, you know, and, uh, man, and then after and taught us, man, he taught us everything he knew. And he, his heart was into it as much as ours, man. And that's when I knew was someone really cared. And, uh, you know, he really put everything into us. And Shelton, thank God, I just found a partner that was like, just like my brother, you know.

And he is my brother, actually. And it just worked. It wasn't too, I mean, Shelton had the same goals as I did. And it just, I just was lucky, very lucky. And Kurt Engel has said, and I couldn't agree with him more. He said that the run as Team Engel should have gone on way longer. He said like it's just in like three years. It should have been.

And what people don't understand is like at the time that we were getting hot on Team Engel, who's getting hot who is hot over on the unraw and that was it was evolution and uh but then when you when they have four guys and you have three and all of a sudden like you know when they do the mix

they would do our mix um pay-per-views and we're starting to get better reaction than them you know and I don't know what they'll say but you can ask Kurt and our and Shelt may not say because he's with WW now but dude we were getting a better reaction than they were we're getting and I think that

had a lot to do okay it's time to split them, you know, so because they kept evolution going. And that's just the way it is, you know, it's just that it's the way it is. Yeah. Would you say that Kurt is one of the very best you've ever been in the ring with? Yeah, you know what? Because, you know, Kurt was never a fan of pro wrestling. And either was Brock, but they were able to pick it up like that. Yeah. Yeah, I think Kurt, Kurt was very, very good. To pick it up at such a short time, yeah, he's one of the best ever. And he understood the psychology, you know, And, you know, does he know all the moves and all that?

No, but he would come and you'd say, hey, man, how do I do this? Or what's the move for this? You would show him? And he'd know it right then and there. He know how to do it. So he's got an audit. He's also got a very good, um, he'll tell you too. He's got a photographic memory.

So everything that they would write down, he would memorize like that. So he could do the speech really quick. So he's very, very intelligent human being. He just was able to pick up the sport very well and he was able to apply it. you know and i think that a lot of that has to come with his amateur background as well just being so successful right i think that's part of being an amateur wrestler right that student mentality of like always constantly learning every single time you're on the mat all the time because whenever you're taken down or if you're putting a hole like you got to know how to you got to rely on the technique on how to get out

of it you know or if you it's something you got to feel the technique if you feel something getting ready to be put on you you you better start thinking right there getting you know going into that rolydecks in your brain but I feel that arm bar coming on. How do I get out of it? All right, elbow down, pull the arm out, you know, hip down, which hip goes down. There's so much to it. You have to, you know, and that doesn't come overnight. And it's just, it's repetition after repetition. I always say, consistency is a mark of a champion. So you've got to be consistent in your work. And that's one of my mottoes. And also those little things make a big difference. You've got to know the little things in order to make the big difference. When you talk about Arne Anderson and everything

you learn from him and those little things, what's something we could see? see Charlie Haas doing in the ring now that might have been implemented by some teachings from Aaron Anderson. One is, so the way I work is, I work the body part. I work body parts. I, and it's just an old cliche, Arne Anderson would say, he's like, you know, we go out there and we're going to, you know, we are going to render that, you know, that body part useless until we're going to beat him with it or make them submit with it.

He goes, you don't go into Walmart and buy a four-legged table. I mean, three-legged table, do you? No. He goes, you know, so you got to look at that opponent has, is a table. He has four limbs. We're going to take off one of those limbs and beat him with it. So that's what I do. So I will go, I will look at my opponent and, okay, if he's a high flyer,

and I'm going to try to ground him. If he's a giant, I'm going to take a leg out. If he's strong upper body, I'm looking to take out an arm. You know, so you got to look at your opponent. And then you got to look at the psychology. Like the other day, I worked a match. And I don't think anyone's ever done this before. Kevin Sullivan, I asked him about it.

like, let's try him. And the guy was in good shape, really young, really. So what I did is I worked, I worked his eyes. So, I mean, so every time he right off the bat, he started out wrestling me, I just blinded him. Boom, he couldn't see. Every time he started coming up, I go right back to the eyes. I mean, I used the ropes to rake his eyes. I use the mat, my, my laces, my, the hill in my shoe. So I just, I work, I mean, that's the body part, right? Can't see, can't wrestle. So I thought it was genius. So, you know, so. The left gives you, what, a five count to keep going with that? Yeah. So every time, you know, if I'm trying to take a turn buckle off the ring, the rest over there trying to put it back on, I'm just gouging his eyes when he's not seeing me. So it's, I mean, it's perfect. Classic. I love it. Yeah. And that's the thing is like, I use the ring as a mat as a weapon. And so I got, listen, I'm older. I can't do the front flip. I was never able to do front flips or anything. So I do incorporate gymnastics for amateur wrestling. I think it's very important because it builds. It's

your strength and you can't teach kids to lift when they're little, but they can do gymnastics and it makes them stronger, especially in amateur wrestling. I never had a chance to, my brother did that, but I never did that. I wish I did because today everyone does all these flips and are all very acrobatic in pro wrestling. But no one works body parts anymore. They work, so they're so worried about getting all these moves in, I'm like, man, I'm going to take it to a different level. What's old is new. And I'm telling you right now, if you just work the work between the moves is what's important. I incorporate the crowd. I make sure they hate me. I find that one person that wants to just punch me right in the face and I'll get

right in their face. I'm like, please hit me. There's that barrier. If they hit me, I'd be glad. I'd be like, yeah, I'm having food throwing at me. I'm having people tell me, this gets so loud. I can't even cut the promos. I'm like, I'll start to speak and they get louder and louder. And I'm like, you guys are really, I'm going to sit here all day until you guys quiet down so I can finish what I have to say and then they get louder. I mean, it's just, it's that reverse psychology that, you know, I've learned from Arne. And really, it's the old Anderson, you know, that's the old Anderson, you know, work ethic, man. You just, you just wear them down. You make the baby face fight from underneath. And if they can't do it, if their intensity

doesn't match yours, then you know what? You just, you just beat them. That's it. So, and that's what I've been doing, man. I've been, I've been, I've watched so much old, old school stuff. And, uh, and I just apply that. After team angle broke up, what direction were you given for your character? I was lost, man. I'll be honest with you. That is where like I said, I was always a tag team wrestler. I was never a

singles wrestler. And all of a sudden, who's Charlie Haas? They put me with, I had a great match with RBD, and then I had a really good match with Rico, and they put me with Rico together, and we won the tag titles there. And that was tough because I love the character.

I loved working with Rico. Other tag teams refused to work with us because they didn't want to be in the ring with Rico because of the character. And it hurt him a lot. I knew he was upset about that. And some of them were, some of them, man, took, what would you call it? They took it out on him in the ring physically, you know, when they had to. You know, it was uncalled for some of the stuff that he went through.

And I think today, you know, he's suffering through concussions and all that stuff. that he's having, you know, he's having some mental and mental issues right now. Wow. You know, yeah, but, but you know what? It was, but we had a great tag team, and we won the tag team titles. That was really cool. And then when they separated us, then I had it went to singles. And that was tough because I didn't know Charlie Haas as the, as a singles wrestler.

And is that when you were doing the impersonation gimmick? Yeah, Johnny Ace came up with that. And, you know, I think it was, they were really trying to get rid of me. trying to, you know, they were trying to find a way to get me out of there. But, you know, what I did is I looked at it as a chance to honor the people I grew up watching, embrace it. And I did the best I could. Like, I didn't want anyone to say, oh, yeah, he has a bad attitude. Let's get him out of there.

Yeah, I just like, you know what, you know, it's funny. Like, I get more people coming to me and like, hey, remember when you did this character, this is a character. Like, as part of my career, I look back in, I'm not like, well, I did it because I had to. I really wasn't, I'm really not proud of it. but I you know it's not something that I wanted my career to be based on but I guess a lot of people liked it and they watched it because I get more people come up to me like oh that was the best stuff you know when you were doing this and that so I guess it made you know I guess other people they liked it and that's cool but um you know I think that I keep trying to tell them like well if you watch your stuff now over at SWE or where I'm at today you know you'll see it's a different Charlie Haas you'll probably like that better but you know teach their own so I mean if I was able to touch someone's lives by honoring some of the legends we had. And yeah, that's cool. Did you ever do an impersonation where the person was like,

no, no, no, this is how you do it. Like they were walking you through their entrance? No, with Brett Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin, man, they would call me like on Tuesday, so, okay, next Monday, here's who you gotta be. And I would go, and I mean, I would watch day after, like for those five days, everything they did, everything they did, the way they walked in the ring,

The way they got in the ring, the way they would get out of the ring to put the, you know, like Brett would get out of the ring a certain way to put the, I always saw he, his laces would always be tucked over. I don't know, it's hard to explain. I have to go back and shake. But he would good. I love the detail. It's great. To put the glasses on the, you know, on the child. And he would get back in.

But it was to the detail, like Austin, you know, man, let's see who else. Oh, JBL was the best. That was, you know, I did it so good that, um, it almost broke him in the ring. Like he almost started laughing and he slapped a bottle of Mama Joanna out of my hand. I pulled out another one. He was like, and I went, it was so good that they had me do it the next week. It was a continuation of it. And JBL was actually, he wanted me to be like his sidekick, like a, like, you know,

boss hog had Dewey Hogg, you know, and the Duke's Hazard. So I'd be like in shape JBL at the time. But, and, you know, and him and I, but because of that, him and I are really good friends and, you know, really good friends. So, you know, but he was, he was, he was, he was. a big fan of it. He was trying to get, he was trying to get, he was a big fan of all my stuff we were doing then. He was trying to get, um, you know, Vince to make me like the CHL. So it'd be, but they went with a different direction. But yeah, I was really, I was excited about that, um, but, you know, when you start hearing from the people that you're, you're, you're, what do you call, that you're

honoring and they enjoy it, that's good. The one I didn't like was when I, we did it when I had to do a, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, you know, because they were, um, you know, because they were, I don't know what was going on between JR and WWE, but they wanted me to really make fun of them. Here's a man that signed me to my contract, you know, and I was kind of putting, my feet were put to the fire to that. And I was like, I wasn't too happy about that. So, you know, I think I've apologized to him for it.

And, you know, it's just still one I wish I could have said, you know, put my foot down, said I don't want to do that. But it's not fair, but, you know. But you're putting a bad position where it's like, you know, you probably don't even really have the option to say no. Yeah, you really don't. You know, and I didn't have the pull or the time. Like, I wasn't at that level to worse.

So, no, we're not going to go that direction, you know. So, and that's one thing. I regret doing, I mean, I just, I just, it wasn't fair to him, and I apologize to him for it. And I have, but we've talked, but still, I just, it was wrong. I just felt like. But it sounds like you kind of knew after Team Engle broke up that, you know, you didn't really have much direction, that your time maybe was limited in WW.

Yeah. It was. I think it was limited and I was doing whatever I could you know I was I was married I had kids you know kids on the way and there was really no place to work afterwards TNA was just starting I mean going to Japan I'd go you know and I did go to Japan work for all Japan new Japan I was doing down to Mexico but then you know you're back home there's no your wife's got you know four kids and you know a lot's going on and you're trying to you know it's she's raising them and you're never home so there's a lot of pressures of you know, your home life and all that. I mean, maybe that was a lot of the reason towards our divorce as well, too. So, you never know. It's just, you were trying to keep your job as long as you could. Like I said, there was nowhere else to work.

There wasn't an AEW. You know, Ring of Honor was just off and running. You know, they weren't given out contracts. And, you know, there was nowhere else really to work like there is today. That's why, you know, I'm excited for professional wrestling at where it's at today. Yeah, it's a completely different landscape now. Like, you know, if you don't sign a WWE, you can go to AEW. or M-Pact or Ring of Honor or MLW or New Japan or or.

Yeah. I mean, which is great. It's like, and I keep telling everybody, I go, I look at those other, all those other different companies that you mentioned as like a territory, as it was when I was growing up. And because we have internet TV. I mean, I never thought internet TV would take off.

I just never bought into it. But then I'm like, the pandemic hit, unfortunately. But then people are like, okay, we got to cut the cords. They started cutting the cable, you know? And I wouldn't start. All of a sudden, man, Roku has, you know, Roku and Firestick and, you know, and I mean, Chromecasts and whatever out there. But all of a sudden you get Pluto TV.

I go to Pluto type in like Fight TV and I got, you have TNA or Impact, you have MLW, you have PCW ultra, which is unbelievable, which I think. I went to a show recently in L.A. Incredible. Dude, I'm like, how is no one taking this company and like, I mean, this thing is like there, if you watch them on, if you just watch them on, if you just watch. them on Pluto, their productions better than Ring of Otters. I mean, it's unbelievable, man. I'm like, this is great. And their talent is so good. I mean, it's really good.

So I'm glad, thank you for being an advocate because I always tell people that. They're like, well, we haven't seen it yet. I'm like, go watch them. I go, you got MLW. And then you have, like you said, AAA has their own, AAA has their own channel on Pluto. And, I mean, it's just, and then you got, you know, New Japan, USA is real big here now.

Ricky Romero is the booker there. I know Tanahashi is the USA champion for that. But I mean, dude, there's so much, there's so many places to work now. And I'm like, you know, you know, eventually everyone wants to go to WW or AEW, but these other places have a chance that give you a chance to work, to make a living. But you learn your craft. And if you go from organizational organization, you'll learn their styles. By the time you get called up, man, you're going to be very well marketable, you know.

And on top of that, you've now got the ability to make money with merch, like pro wrestling teas.com. was not a thing, you know, 10 years ago. You can make money streaming, whether that's on YouTube or on Twitch. Like there's other opportunities to make money outside of just, you know, being an indie darling, which is what your option was 10, 12 years ago. Right. 100%.

So I believe that I tell the, I tell everyone, I go, don't be in such a rush. Build your, like you said, build your, your marketing, build yourself, become a self-marketer. Or, you know, build your marketing like around Twitter. which are YouTube, because the more followers you have, the more, you know, the more undeniable you're going to become. So I say, build your name, build everything, your brand, build that brand. So if WWE wants you to say, hey, we want to sign you, but we're not going to go with your name. We're going to go with this thing.

No, I don't think so. What do you mean? Well, no, because I got like two million followers already, and I did it without you. So I'm going to stay with my name and I'll just go somewhere else if you don't appreciate it. Like, I mean, I always told everybody, everybody, Joe Henning should have been Joe. go ahead. You don't bring him in and make him a McGillicuddy. How can you do that? You're going to make him uncomfortable in his own skinny can't.

No one, no one. I mean, he's a third generation wrestler, man. Let him be him. And I'm like, you just don't go in and change it and say, no, you're going to be a McGillicuddy. Well, I mean, that's, no one's going to, I mean, the only person that made that work was Lucille Ball, you know, you know, because she was Lucy McGillicuddy. You know, I mean,

and people even, that's throwing my age way back there, but if anyone knows what they're kind of what they're doing with Ron Breaker right now. I know. he's a Steiner. Just let him be, I mean, just let him be a Steiner. I don't get it. I really don't.

Well, you know what will happen is he'll leave or leave to go to EW? They'll bring him back and he'll come back as Steiner. I mean, that's what will probably happen. I mean, it's ridiculous. I just don't get why he wouldn't be Steiner in the first place. And, you know, I had a similar conversation with Eddie Guerrero's daughter. And it's like they didn't want her to be a Guerrero because those shoes were too big to fill. And I'm like, that's ridiculous.

It's your real last name. They're letting, they're letting Dom do it with Ray. I mean, so why wouldn't they, you know, I don't get that either. I mean, I think a lot of it has to do with, not Rick, but I think probably, you know, it might be because of the comments or maybe the way Scott feels about WW. Maybe, I don't know, maybe they're trying to stick it to the Steiner name. Maybe it knows, you know, they hold, who knows, I mean, that's my personal opinion, so. Yeah.

But, you know, with this amazing landscape of indie wrestling right now, where can we see you most often? Okay, so, man, I am, I was with, I mean, SW. I'm the SWE World Heavyweight Champion. And I am going to be with wrestling for, they've worked out a deal with Tom Lance has worked out a deal with pro wrestling, actually world class pro wrestling with Jerry Bostic. And so I'll be on there as well. So I'll be defending my SWE World Heavyweight title coming up. And that's going to be against Gino Medina. He's an MLW star.

And that is going to be on December 11th. So it's coming up. And where it bounces out? Is it in Dallas? Yeah, it's in Dallas, Texas. They have, and actually I signed a 28, 28-dil. There's a 28-match contract with a world-class pro wrestling. So I will be wrestling for them.

And they'll be all throughout the Dallas. I mean, they wrestle from anywhere from up in Texas all the way up to Missouri, wherever they're booked. So, you know, I'm looking forward to working with them. They got some great, you know, there's been a lot of people that are from SVE that'll be there. And there's also going to be, there's a lot of people that Jerry Bostic has developed in his own with, you know, with world class. That's going to be really good. I'm excited because I'm going to be working with not only Kevin Sullivan, but I'm also going to be working with Eric Embry, who's one of the bookers as well. Now, Eric Embry's, you know, I've gotten to know him.

And people understand that with Eric Embry, he helped revive the world class territory when the Von Erics were, when it was towards the end of the world class era. And when the Von Erics were, I think Kevin was the only one that was left. And, you know, it was dying. And he came in and revived that whole territory for a good year or two with his big, his big feud with Scandar Akbar. So it was a really good, it's really good to be working with him. You know, he's old school. And so am I. So I'm excited, man.

I'm excited to see where this goes. I mean, you got Kevin Sullivan and Eric Embry working together. You can't get better than that, you know. Because my goal is, you know, is what's good for Charlie Haas afterwards. Yeah, I want to be, I want to book. I want to write. I want to help develop talent. And I think, I mean, when you, yeah, look at it this way.

Kevin Zolvin, the last, he's the last living link to Eddie Graham, who is one of the greatest bookers of all times. Anyone will tell you. So if I can learn from him and Eric Embry, then, you know, it just helps my dossier, my CV, my resume, that much more when it's time for me to hang it up totally and try to pursue other, you know, other parts of wrestling. Yeah, so December 11th in Dallas. I'm actually going to be in Dallas that weekend, so I think I will see you there then. Well, I would love for you to come out there. We would love to have you out there. That'd be awesome, yeah. I think I would love to

have you out there, man, and maybe we'll work it out to where you'll be a guest ring announcer or something. That's what I'm looking at. Okay. Yeah, all right. Yeah. Now that I'm in their champion, I think I got some pool. So, yeah, let's bring out. I'd love to have you as a guest ring announcer. And what I'll do is I'll talk to Jerry Bostic to have you guest ring announced for my match. I would love to.

That'd be so cool. Okay. Well, I mean, if I'm already going to be there, well, let's make this out. Yeah, so why not? Let's do it, man. I think that'll be perfect. So, yeah, I'll put Jerry in touch with you and we'll have that, man. Oh, my God, man.

Do you kidding me? That'd be great. Have you as a guest ring announcer? That'd be awesome. Oh, man. I'm in. And so anybody that's in, you know, the Texas area or Dallas area is listening, come join us, December 11th. December 11th, definitely.

It'll be, and it's also going to be at a, oh, let me think how it's going to be, I want to say it's at, give us all the details here. It's going to be, yeah, okay, so it's going to be at the, let me pull up the poster here. Well, Mick Foley's on the card, which I'm so stoked about. Yeah, and it's going to be at the Southern Junction. That's where it's going to be located at, down in downtown Dallas. Mick Foley's going to be there. Who else are going to have? Like I said, Eric Embry will be there on hand, you know, to sign autographs.

I think Jacob Fatu's there, too. Yeah, Jacob Fatu is going to be on there. You'll see myself will be there. Who else they have Jacob Fatu? Then I want to say some of that there's going to be some really good girls, ladies' matches. I want to see that they're going to be there. Carlito is on this poster that you sent me too. That's right.

Yeah, Carlito is on the poster. God, I've seen Carlito in a while. We're really good friends. You guys got to go see Carlita. You guys got to see Carlito. Yeah, wrestle. He's phenomenal. And who else is at Southern Junction?

It's in Dallas. I want to say it starts at 7.30. But, you know, doors will open. I'm sure they'll have a meet and greet prior to that. Yeah. And it's worldclass pro wrestling.com for tickets and more info. But all you need to know is Charlie's going to be there in the main event. And now I am going to be there.

So, Josh. Yes. So we, I'm excited. Yeah, so now you have to come. So I'm excited, man. Thanks for, accepting that offer and coming. That's going to be great.

I mean, if I'm already in the area, let's make this happen. Why not? It's going to be great. You should have done this in person. Geez. I know, I know. I should have flown out to where you're at.

We could have done this. I know. I mean, you're all over the place. So I'm sure that other than Dallas, our paths are going to cross, you know, much more than just this one time. Oh, definitely.

Definitely. And, yeah, hopefully, maybe this will be a working relationship. Maybe this will be this will go off good. So I'm hoping. Yeah, well, we'll see. Look, it's so great hearing your story. And I'm very inspired by how you've dealt with the hardships that you've had and how you've come over. You've come over them. And you've come out a better person on the other side of them too. You know what? I mean, I'm sure a lot of people that don't have been through a lot harder of things than I have. You know, but that's my story. And I'm not saying mine's the hardest. It did by any, you know, by no means.

it is. But, you know, it's just, it's just if I could help somebody overcome, you know, go through that I can overcome what I've been through or help them, then, you know, then so be it. I mean, then that's, then I would like to do that. Yeah. Look, I end every interview talking about gratitude because it's been such an important thing in my life. So what are three things in your life right now that you're grateful for? Man, my kids, and I'll be honest, I think I've become a guy, I have a better, stronger relationship with God now than I ever did before. I think, honestly, I think if my wife and I, at the time, Jackie and I had a stronger relationship in God,

maybe our marriage would have been saved. But as me as a human being, I have a better relationship with him. My kids are grateful because I, by no means, have forced it on them, but they're closer to God because of that. And my daughter wrote me a letter, say, Dad, thank you for bringing me closer to God, you know. and I wasn't even trying to do that. That really was heartfelt. And for my family, how close they, you know, my dad and brother are gone, but my sisters and my mom, how much they've been there for me.

So I'm grateful from family, my kids, and God. Love that. Charlie, thank you so much. And I will see you December 11th. Yes, sir, man. We definitely will. And I'll put you in touch with Jerry. Definitely.

Thank you so much, Chris. I appreciate it. Well, there we go. December 11th. Dallas, Texas, I guess we'll see you at World Class Revolution. So if you're going to be there, it would be so awesome to meet you. So stop by and say hello. Big thank you to Charlie for joining us.

Thank you to you for always being with us. Take a screenshot. Let us know what you thought about this one. Let us know that you're listening. Tag Charlie, he's at Charlie Haas. On Twitter, he's at Real Charlie Haas on Instagram. And I'm at Chris Van Fleet. And I'll leave you with this quote from Joe DeSenna.

founder of Spartan race, who we had a great conversation with last month. That man's work ethic is next level. And he said, there are no bad days, just bad attitudes. Ooh, how true is that? There are over 20,000 individual moments in each day. Don't let just one or two of them ruin your entire day. Did you have a bad day? Or did you just have a bad 10 minutes? And you allowed that to affect you for the other 23 hours and 50 minutes of your day. Hmm, something to think about as we head into the weekend. Have a great weekend. Be great. Be grateful. We'll see you on the next one for some more insight. 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. Ticket banjov, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.