Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Chavo Guerrero Explains Those "Prostituting" Tweets To Rey Mysterio, Dominik's Heel Run In WWE

Episode Date: May 11, 2023

Chavo Guerrero (@mexwarrior) is a professional wrestler known for his time in WCW, WWE, TNA, Ring Of Honor, AAA, Lucha Underground and AEW. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at his house in Orange County, California to explain the recent controversial tweets he sent to Rey Mysterio about him "prostituting" Eddie Guerrero's name, his thoughts on Dominik Mysterio's heel run in WWE, his time in Lucha Underground, his iconic "Ooooh Chavo" theme music, we discuss whether he is the only wrestler to appear in WCW, WWE, TNA, Lucha Underground and AEW, his favorite memories of Eddie Guerrero, his beer called "Los Guerreros" and much more! For more information about CVV and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are good. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Blenie! Who Chavo! It just feels like the right way to start this one out. Welcome back, my friends, to another audio adventure on Insight. Yes, we've got Chavo Guerrero in the house. Actually, it's Chavo Guerrero in my house. He lives about like 20 minutes away.

So it was an honor and a privilege to be able to have him as a guest in my house. to sit down and just be able to share this conversation. And it's been three years since we had him on the show last. So a lot to catch up on with him. I mean, in that time, he's been in AEW, so there's definitely some stuff to talk about there. And I guess the biggest thing, or at least the most topical thing,

was those tweets that he sent out recently about Ray Mysterio and prostituting Eddie's name. You know what I'm talking about here. we get to the bottom of that. But first, make sure you're following the show, wherever you're listening to this. We're getting bigger and bigger every single episode. And it's because of people like you who listen and follow the show and also who subscribe on YouTube. I mean, I posted the numbers on the CVV clips channel the other day. And last month in April, we did 52 million views. Yeah, 52 million views on the CVV clips channel. So all of that is because of you. So I just want to say

thank you for being on this journey with me. If you enjoy this episode, please snap a screenshot, share it with a friend and also tag us on social media. Let us know that you were listening. Let us know what stood out for you. He's at Chavo Guerrero Jr. on Instagram. He's at Mex Warrior on Twitter. I am at Chris Van Fleet. And let's do this. It's me and Chavez Bravo Guerrero on Insight. Thank you so much for coming by. Yeah, man, finally, right? We've been trying to do this for a minute, right?

And we finally were doing this in person, too. I know, I know. It's cool. It's easy that you're in Southern California with me, you know, just a lot of times I try to, when I go to L.A., I try to knock out two or three things out at a time. So I was trying to, like, give you to, you know, kind of do yours, but do somebody else at the same time

or do a, you know, show or whatever. But this is perfect. We're in your house, beautiful home. Thank you. I love it. Isn't it funny that when you live in Southern California your Orange County. L.A. is like a trek now. Like, oh, man, I'm not going to L.A. anytime soon. L.A.'s, man, it just, you know, L.A.'s, it's 40 miles away, 40 to 60 miles away, but it's an

hour and a half to three hours away. What's the longest drive you've had to go to L.A.? So, also the shortest. Well, usually, so back and forth, you know, we're doing glow or doing whatever TV show I was doing at the time. Yeah. Friday nights, Friday, 5 o'clock coming home. It'll be about three hours for 62 miles. That's crazy. Yeah, the same drive will take me, you know, an hour and five minutes with no traffic. It's crazy. Yeah, I think my quickest was like 42 minutes one day, and I was like, I can't believe it, to get to Hollywood.

Yeah. And then one day, like, I think that same day took me almost three to get home. Really? I was like, this is just crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're looking great, by the way. Try it, man. You know what I...

Look at the veins on your arms. You know, man. It's called being home, hitting the gym. at the same time all the time. And, you know, you got a home gym, right? I do have a home gym that's really, really, I got, you know, everything I got in a regular gym,

you know, Smith quality, a gym quality Smith machine. Nice. High pool, low pool, dumbbells to 90 pounds. You know, three different gym quality cardio machines. So there's no excuse. Yeah.

But at the same time, I still go to a gym as well. I was secretly hoping you were going to bring some beer. You know what? It's, uh, that's a great idea, but it's getting canned. It got canned yesterday. That sounds super fresh. In New Pax, I just don't have it.

It's in West Covina, so I would have had a gone and got and picked them up. So if anybody knows, I have my own beer, Los Giroz Mexican Lager with a loss of brewing company, and it is the best Mexican lager you've ever had. I mean, I'm telling you, I'm a beer guy, I know beers, and because it's not mass produced, it's, you know, a craft beer and they put only the best ingredients, and it's awesome. It sounds out all the time, but it's good. time, but it's good. Yeah.

So you created some real heat recently here. Yeah, man. People actually think that you are upset with Ray Mysterio talking about Eddie Guerrero and paying tribute to Eddie. Look, I've said it before, and Vince 100% believes this, just like Jerry Jarrett, the Jeff Jarrett's father. Real issues create real money. And this is nothing that I didn't do in 2000.

It was the same thing. You want to be a Guerrero. You'll never be a Guerrero. You're jealous of us, that whole thing. And people just latched onto it. Well, did they forget? I don't know. But what happened was that I did a virtual signing

with Nick from Captain's Corner. And he actually, somebody asked about, you know, I'm happy about Ray Mysterio coming out at, at WrestleMania, you know, with Los Guerrero's music, not Eddie's guerrero, Los Guerrero's music, my voice, Eddie's voice. recorded that, you know, Viva la Rasa, we lie, we cheat. That was our voice, my name is his voice.

And I was actually, so I kind of looked at him, he looks at me, and I said, so I just started playing with it a little bit. And I got done. Because right before that, on the interview, I'd said, you know, I'm all about love. I think he gave me a Bud Light, so I was drinking to Bud Light. And I said, isn't Bud Light doing the LGBTQ thing? And I said, I don't know why everybody's all mad about it. I go, just, who cares?

If you're cool, then you're cool. If you're a jerk and you're a jerk. I don't care what your sexual preferences or your ethnic. or your gender. And then I said this. So nobody's listening to that part. Everybody's supposed to hear what they want to hear. But so I said that and kind of

tongue-in-cheek a little bit on there. You know, I'm kind of laughed. We're talking about that, you know, Dominic is probably a Guerrero, you know. I think that I mean, it was 100% sarcasm. When we got done, he looks, he looks at me. Nick looks at me and he was like, wow. And I said, you know, come on.

That's a total work. He's like, man, but it was like real. People could really jump on that. And I was like, just watch. So Nick Hausman text me and goes, hey, man, your stuff's all over the news. What do you, like, internet and stuff? What do you mean? You're like, your post picked it up.

What? And I'm like, really, I literally was kind of being tongue-in-cheek on it, you know? I'm kind of laughing about it, you know, whatever. And joke, you know, hey, look, I'm sorry that nobody knows who Ray Mysterio is, but you want to let you want to be a girl. always wanted to be a Guerrero. It was very cunning cheap. I said, well, watch, I tweeted it, text him back and watch my next week.

So that's what I said, this last tweet about him being a Guerrero, wanting to be a Guerrero and using the guerrero's name to his own benefit. Yeah. It could be real. I mean, if I was really, really pissed off, I could really do this and people would latch onto it. So people just started going nuts and going crazy. So finally, after I started messing with him,

started messing with him, I said, okay, guys, you know, I don't know what I said, like something like it's a... He said you were being a heel. That's the arm of being a heel. One thing that Vince McMahon told me and my dad was included talking about Eddie as well, he goes,

you know why I like you Guerrero's? I love that everybody has a Vince. And I'm like, why? He's like, because you aren't scared of heat. You love it. And we're like, well, of course. Me and my dad were like, well, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

We want to fight our way back from the ring to the dress room. every single night and sneak out the side window. I go, he's like, oh, I love it. That's what you guys have balls. That's straight in the viz. But it's just, it's, it's the art of, of heat. Yeah.

People forget, yes, I'm doing stuff in Hollywood and all that stuff, I'm still a pro wrestler. Of course. That's what has fed my family for 85 years. Over 85 years is pro wrestling. That's the only thing. Now, I'm doing pro wrestling stuff in Hollywood. But still, I'm still connected to that world.

Yeah. So I just had a little fun. And people still, I mean, literally, I just had somebody else going, telling me like, like, I could pick my phone around. I just start going through the tweets. And they don't want to look at the other tweets that I put like, okay, guys, wasn't real. And they're like, yeah, you're just backtracking. You're just doing this.

And I'm like, oh, my God, really? Are you guys that easy? Yeah. I love wrestling fans because they're that easy. At the same time, you're guys, come on, really? But the line in wrestling is like razor. They want to believe anything they want to, they want to, and I don't know anything else like that, except for maybe like a soap opera, you know, soap operas, you know, they kind of start believing,

like Luke and Laura, we're really together back in General Hospital days and all that stuff. That's a deep cut right now. Oh, no, I'm going back, I'm going back. That's when, you know, we used to watch it. But they want to believe so bad. People are like, oh, Eddie and Ray, Eddie and Ray. I'm like, wait a minute, you hated Eddie when he was telling Dominic that I, I'm your poppy and stuff with that.

You guys hated him. Now you're something like, yeah. Oh, they're like brothers. And I'm like, well, yeah, they're fondness of each other. And when Ray says, oh, they were like, oh, they were best friends. I'm like, no, they weren't best friends. They were not best friends. I know what you perceive now.

But that's not what that was, even when Eddie passed away, the day that Eddie passed away, Ray found out like everybody else. I didn't call Ray. I called Chris. This may be a stupid question, but you were close. to Eddie than Ray was? Eddie was my brother. Like, we grew up together as,

he's three years apart. He was, we joke because he was my grandpa's late mistake and I was my dad's early mistake. We both were not supposed to be here. But 100% we were brothers. We grew up like brothers, we fought like brothers, the whole thing. He didn't meet Ray until he was 18 years old.

So there's a massive history. Yeah, 100% we were brothers. So, Ray was, And we were all close. But, you know, like, there doesn't say Remasterio on this shirt. It says Eddie and Chabba. Yeah. I put, I didn't have to put Chavito because it was me and my dad, but we might add a Dominic.

I mean, but I don't think Ray's going to make it. I love how much they're leaning into that. And you see how fast that is. It's so easy. That's the art of being a heel, like right there. And people like right away, like, oh, he got us again. When I turned on him in 2007, everybody knew what was going to happen. But because we let it go on for like three months, they forgot.

So when I ran in the ring and Cosray the championship from Booker T, or I dropped the championship to Booker T, and I hit him with the chair, people were like, ah, we forgot. He's a Guerrero. And it's like, well, yeah. It's the art of deception, the art of heat. And being heat, you just got to, you say stuff that's real. I think that's what a lot of heels are missing today.

They want to be mean in the ring, but it's not, people want to believe. They really, really do it. We've just seen it. That was that easy. Yeah. What kind of conversations have you had with Dom? Oh, I've talked to Dom. Absolutely talked to him.

Now, I haven't talked to him since he started doing the whole Army Poppy stuff. But, uh... Man, he's leaning into that. Well, it's great. I find, look, we didn't really like when they were bringing up Eddie's name in the past. Like with Randy or they brought it up and nothing against Randy. with different stuff and other stuff involving Ray as well. This is the one they should have brought it up.

This makes sense. The other ones was just, was cheap. What's great about this is wrestling fans never forget anything. Right. And they're bringing up something from like two decades ago. Well, look, look, let's go heel mode. Okay, Ray, how old and slow and not relevant are you? because all you're doing is stuff that was two decades ago.

You're doing the LWO. You weren't even part of the LW. And you're bringing that up. And now you're lashing out to stuff with Eddie from when Dominic was six years old? Okay, there you go. He'll, right? Right away, it's true. I'm totally happy for it.

I'm like, yeah, it's awesome. Dominic's getting his heat. It's great. It's the hottest thing on WWE. Yeah. But it's that easy to go right back to it. And because it's true to it. It's like, you know, you're right.

What has he done lately that really matter that wasn't suffering two decades ago? And then, you know, like their show, I just saw on TV, they showed an old vignette of Eddie and Dominic, when Dominic was on the swing, and Eddie was there going, yeah, Dominic, hey, I'm here watching you. Hey, buddy, how you doing? It was like no creepy weird. And people are, they hated Eddie for that. Yeah.

I was like, oh, that's okay now. It's really where they're such a blurred lines. But I love it, though. It's great. When Dom started growing out the hair to look like Eddie, I'm like, oh, they're onto something. Yeah, no, that was really cool. Yeah. And even in that Captain's Corner virtual signing, I said, I'm like, I said something about Angie having more Guerrero in her than Ray.

It was like, oh, but it's, look, if you're going to go to that storyline, it's awesome, right? Yeah. It's great. What do you think is one of the most misunderstood things about Eddie? Because I think that people will remember the same handful of things. Sure. I think there's some things maybe they don't remember. You know, well, Eddie was, you know, very gracious.

He wore his hard on his sleeve, good and bad. Because there's the saying in wrestling, the real giant in pro wrestling was Eddie Guerrero because when he got mad, you could not calm him down. But it's because he felt slighted, like he gave you his heart and you did something to him. And, man, he would, we'd have to calm him down. I remember the singer Baby Bash one time

and we were all out. And somebody messed with Eddie and Eddie, we had to calm him down. Like, dude, just realized. He was like, ah, I really want to kill this guy. And I remember talking to Bash again recently. He's like, man, I was scared. He's like, I was scared.

I got really scared. But Eddie, you know, we both grow really fast. Yeah. We're like, he and I, I don't know where it came from, but we're both like Bruce Banner. And the Incredible Hulk. Like, we're totally mild manner until we get mad. I was like, ah.

Yeah. You mentioned the Hollywood stuff, and I love that you're now the wrestling guy when it comes to Hollywood. So wrestling coordinator, that's your title on Young Rock. that on Young Rock, I'm the wrestling coordinator and wrestling consultants. I got two titles. And it's every episode, or is it any episode with wrestling? Every episode.

Wow. So there's been three years, 30 episodes, I guess. Well, more because we had Christmas episodes. I think it's more like 32 or 33 episodes, yeah. How did you get that job? They called me. So I originally started, you know, doing stuff with Glow and being the Rustic Coordinator for the whole season.

And you're also training people on Glover. right? Oh, well, that's what Rustin coordination does. When you come in as a wrestling coordinator for a show, I'm involved everything in wrestling. So I'm training the actors,

I'm reviewing scripts, I'm helping out with set design, and then choreography, of course. And then I'm behind the camera with the director helping get them the shots that they want. Wow.

So I'm 100% there, working hand-to-hand with the DP. and so I'll say hey man how are you going to shoot this okay so I'll tailor the wrestling towards that I remember one time in Young Rock Marty McGrath was our is our DP and Jeffrey Walker was our director on this episode where I had one of the wrestlers he was pressing one of the other wrestlers of the actors pressing the other actor and and then he was going to try to drop him so then I saw they had a crane in there or a jib you know it's something as we call it, which is the big crane camera.

And I'm like, hmm, I go, hold on a second. And I, not that I stopped production, but I said, I pull the director aside, I pull the DPS side, hey, I see you have this in here. So originally I was going to have him press him and drop him. But what if I have him press him, when you coming in with that camera, I'm going to press him and hold him.

We can hold him for two or three beats. And as soon as that camera pulls back, that's when I let him, I have him drop. And originally he was covering in right there, but then we have B camera over there that's plain, that's really playing good. When he drops, I'll have him hold until the camera pulls out, drop, and he'll circle the other way, which is going to seem weird,

but then when he covers, he's facing B camera. Man. And they're like, let's try it. They're like, that's a shot, and that's a shot that made it. Now, I am not the director, but I'm helping the director get him his shots, his wrestling shots. Yeah.

In a sense. So what's the biggest difference between an actual wrestling match and actors doing those moves. Yeah, two different, completely different things. On these same family, yeah, sure. But what we do on camera, on a TV show, or a movie, won't play on TV, on wrestling on TV. But what we do in wrestling on TV?

So what's the biggest difference? It's definitely different because, like, for instance, if I'm grabbing a headlock on a, like, WWE, there's four sides of the ring. I need to show four size of that ring. And really, I've got to show those six cameras that are playing. On a TV show, I'm not doing that. I have one, usually one side we're filming.

Sometimes we have three or four cameras we're filming this way, because that's where it's lit. It's lit that way. We won't show the backside because now you're seeing, you know, the other cameras and stuff. Yeah. So I'm playing one side. And then another time, like, in the ring and pro wrestling,

we're doing everything in the center of the ring, because that's just we're, you know, the sweet spot of the ring. is and that's where we want to do everything. But on, let's say Young Rock, a lot of times I would cheat the move because we had a steady cam in the ring. So I would cheat the move sequence, whatever, and I would cheat it almost all the way to the other rope.

If you were looking at it as pro-rusting style, it looks completely odd. But because there's a camera in there, you cannot tell. It looks like they're just doing it normal. But it's like two feet from the other rope. So different stuff, little trick. that we do.

What would you say is the thing that actors have a really difficult time picking up in the pro wrestling world? So, pro wrestlers have a hard time bringing it down. From pro wrestling, it's so big because we have so many people trying to be big. When any pro wrestler goes to acting,

they've learned to kind of like, okay, it's here. It's your face. And so for pro wrestlers to actors, but from actors, pro wrestlers, it's very hard for them to make everything really big and punches because they're used to just doing like real quick like punches and kicks like I'm here guys

you're just too quick it's got to be really big so a punch of pro rossing punches really big like the undertaker's got such a great pro wrestling punch because he comes all the way back and he's six foot 10 and it just looks so great would that work in MMA heck no it wouldn't work in any way but pro wrestling it looks because you can tell if I, in pro wrestling

if I punch somebody and nobody sees it, well then it just didn't happen. Sometimes those are the ones that hurt the most and they look the worst. Yeah. But sometimes the really big, huge ones look amazing and I don't feel them. So trying to get an actor to do

wrestling stuff sometimes is hard and trying to get a wrestler to do acting stuff is a little hard. What about when an actor takes their first bump? Ooh. That's, I really try to limit that as much as I can. Sometimes we have to.

And you have stunt doubles in there? Sometimes. Sometimes I don't. Sometimes I don't. Like for Globe, we had no stunt doubles. We had the girls doing their own thing. We had for Young Rock, all the actors did their own moves because we were like on a film in Australia.

And it was really hard to double some guys, especially Uli, who plays, you know, wrestling Dwayne Johnson. he's a six-foot-six, you know, Tongan that's in really good shape. Yeah. And a lot of times when they start getting older like that, like Tongans or the Polynesians, they'll start getting bigger, you know, like, you know, like a Samoan style. Yeah, sure. You start getting bigger.

So it's hard to double him because he's not. He's got a small waist. He's playing Duane Johnson. So it's tough to get a double for him. Yeah. You know? And really, so I taught him to do everything. And he's awesome.

Do you think a good work a match? Yeah, well, because he's, so the one thing about all the Polynesians that I had on the show, the Wild Samuans and Uli, who plays, you know, Duay Johnson, they were all footy players, so rugby players. They're all don't mind contact. They're all down with contact, and they were all. all ready to go. So they were very natural. Something about, and it's not just the Samoan dynasty family, it's like every Polynesian I get in that ring, there are such athletes, incredible athletes.

They're really good. And I've said it before, the best, I mean, there's a lot of pro wrestling families, you know, and the best pro wrestling family out there they've had the most is that some Samoan dynasty. Yeah. Fatu's and because they've had so many champions and everyone that comes up is just so good. In fact, we're working with Warner Rukishi's sons right now doing a new show on Apple TV is called Lute with Maya Rudolph. So we have a wrestling episode coming up

and I cast him as one of the wresters. I love that when there's a wrestling episode of any show right now, like you're the guy who gets the call. Sometimes. For the most part. That's pretty amazing. Because they know it's going to be good. Of course.

I know what I'm doing now. It took me a second to transition into that, but I had, just like Pro Wrestling in Hollywood, behind the camera, I had some really good teachers. I love how there was some exchange you had where guys like, what have you done lately? Yeah. And you're like, I've won a SAG Award.

Well, here, let me send you the SAG Award, and I was nominated, well, here's my Emmy certificate that I was part of the Emmy process. And they're like, oh, well, I mean, well, you know. Yeah, but I mean, yes. It's so funny how much. People are. I know.

I know. And now we have coming out is that Iron Claw movie. Yes. The story of the Von Erich. Zach Ephron looks like a monster. He was awesome. That guy's a machine.

He doesn't stop. The shape that he got in for that movie. And he really busted his ass in the ring, man. He was really cool. It's really cool to work with. It just really just, God, man. He was, I can't say anything bad about him. He brought it every single time.

I remember one time he wasn't feeling good. He was a little hurt. And they're like, hey, you know, we got you, you know, we had a double for him. He's like, no, no, no, I'm going to do it. And he just powered through it. He would be, and I'm like, bro, I had to like stop him. Like, this is a wide angle. I don't need you in there.

Let me get you out of there. He's like, no, it's not going to look good. I'm going to be. And I was like, bro, I don't need you right there. And he's like, I had to talk him out of it. Man, but that's sad. He's a workhorseman. Did he take to it pretty quickly?

Yeah, really fast. You know, it took to it very fast as well. It was Jeremy Allen White, who's the bearer. Aaron Eric. Harris Dickinson, of course, also who plays Dave Von Erk came out. They're just, God, they all, they all put the work in. What's MJF doing in that movie? Maybe you can't give too much of... Well, I tell you, he's... I've heard that he's in it.

I'm not sure about it here that he's in it. I think he said that he was in it. Yeah, yeah. So if he said he was in it, really... So you're saying we'll recognize him when we see him. Yeah, yeah, definitely will. And he brings some MJF antics to it, for sure, you know. But the guy's...

He's one of my favorite heels out there. Speaking of being a heel, he's the guy that what he does is real. You know, that's why he's such a good heel. He believes his hype. He talks to you and he tells you how good he is. And it's, it's, you want to argue with him. But at the same time, you kind of can't because he's good, but you hate him. He's really good.

People don't really know what's real and what's not real with him. Yeah. I think it's brilliant. I love it. I love it. He's not scared of the heat. And that's really, really cool. Yeah.

And it's a lot of people that aren't. They're not, they want to play the wrestler in the ring, but they don't want to play the wrestling in the ring, but they don't want to play the wrestler out of the ring. The prolethy heel, kind of they go hand in hand. The wrestling fans is very hard for them. Like we've talked about, to throw those lines or to separate those lines

because they're like how, you know, they see how you are in the ring. All of a sudden they think like, oh, that's what you are out of the ring. And everything we really do in the ring, at least with me, it's, that's my ultra ego. That will come out in real life. That, yeah, I remember there was a guy

in a wheelchair one time, We were talking crap. We were backstage and we were all trying to do a meet and grief, and he was talking crap to me. And I told him in front of everybody, I said, hey, man, you've seen me on TV. I will push that wheelchair over. Keep talking.

He shut up. Now, I'm glad I didn't have to push that wheelchair over, but hey, if you would have had to, you know what I mean? That was like, that's the way it goes, man. We saw you in AEW for a little bit. Yeah. That was cool. Seeing what you were doing with And Dry.

You know what? That was fun, man. I had a good time there. It was real quicker. We were just getting into what we were starting to do. And Young Rock called for that other season. I knew it was coming. And I had told Tony, I got to go do Young Rock at some point.

He's like, I'll deal with it basically when it comes. And then it came and I said, look, man, this is what I'm really making over there. He's like, oh, God, that's a lot. So I don't know if you can. He's like, go ahead. According to Tony, he was like, go ahead, go to do what you got to do. It was originally supposed to for two months. It ended up being three months.

Wow. So then when I came back, he said, do what you got to do, and you'll have a job when he came back. And things just changed over three months. Yeah. So there's a chance we could see you back in the other than. Yeah, sure. Of course, man. I'm still on good terms of those guys, for sure.

Unless the Rock keeps calling you. Well, that's a thing. It's very hard for me to do wrestling stuff for long periods of time. Yeah. Because, you know, I mean, my bread and butter right now is really, is any TV show and a movie because that's, you know, it's a union. And it's my insurance, my pension, all that stuff. You don't get a pension in pro wrestling. So that's a lot of it's, you know, you get done.

And hey, I'll get the rest of my life after I quit, you know, and you get a, you know, $8 to $10,000 check for the rest of your life. I'll do that. And you get those nice residuals right now, too. No, for sure. When you're on camera, on camera plays really well. Yeah. The residuals.

I make off camera as I'm a coordinator, I make my money in the front end. residuals as an after you make on the back end a lot. So, you know, I kind of do a little bit of both. We call mailbox checks because... Mailbox money. I go to the mailbox. It's probably, you know, every week I probably get four to ten checks a week. Yeah.

And some are for, you know, three bucks and summer for $2,000. It just really just depends. They don't know. I would love to know with someone like Samuel L. Jackson who's been in 100 films. What's his mailbox? He gets the $2 checks, too. I'm sure he does. He probably gets a hundred of those.

Oh, but he gets, but he gets, you know, he still gets the $30,000 and $40,000. Yeah, the Avengers money. Yeah. Although that money is just, all fiction money, yeah. That and, yeah, he still gets that kind of stuff. You know, when you start doing stuff like producing,

when you start producing, you start producing, you know, and you're on that end. Yeah. Make money for life. All those Seinfeld guys, they're making millions every year of reruns. Yeah. I think one of the biggest things people don't,

talk about enough in your career is the incredible matches you had in Lach Underground. Oh, thanks, man. Yeah. Like the work you did there, especially that match with Ray, but all of the work in general was so good. You know, God, so Lucha Underground, that's my baby, because when they, when I think Chris Joseph called me, they called me and said, hey, you know, we have this new thing started, and I had never even heard of it. We want you to be part of it.

I'm like, okay. Then I started talking to my agent at the time, and I was like, well, who's, you know, Who's running this? Well, Mark Burnett's guys come. Have they done wrestling? And they're like, well, no, I said, look, I was just coming off WW. I think, no, I'd stuck TNA. And I was like, you know, wrestling's very specialized guys.

So when they brought me on as producer, and when they did that, I didn't know how much I knew about wrestling. They didn't know, but I didn't know. So I got there, and I was talking to camera guys. you know, Mark Burnett's camera guys are the best, but they had never filmed wrestling. So I was teaching them how to film wrestling. I was teaching sound, how to mic it.

I was teaching director how to direct it, how to start calling each camera and switching cameras. At one point, they're out on the ground, and the director's like, well, why are they on the ground? I said, well, they have like a 10 second to get in. Oh, I had to teach them wrestling. I was doing with set design, with

wardrobe, all the stuff. Like, they're putting spikes on... I'd go, you can't do that. They're in the ring going to hit. At one point, set design, we had four-foot mats. And these guys from Mexico, I mean, they're flying.

They're way past them from them. So I said, hey, after the first episode, we have to get eight feet mats on the ground because this is an old warehouse. This isn't like a studio. It's an old warehouse. And stuff's on the ground. I go, we need those mats.

And the citizen was like, you know, we just don't have the money for that. We don't have a bunch of that. And I said, okay, look, these guys from Mexico, when they get hurt over there, there's nobody to sue. Here, they have marked me. She's like, well, and then the showrunner, Eric Van Wagner had just walked by. He goes, Chauvel, what's going on? And I explained to him.

He looked at the showrunner and said, older than that's that fast. Wow. So I was kind of like in on everything. So that was, man, Lucha Underground was. my baby, man. Really, really was. I love the matches that we were doing there. And the wrestlers that came out of there.

Yeah, that was a real breakout spot for a lot of people. Like, I think about, like, what ricochet did there is Prince Puma. RICO. RICO. Brian Cage before. The Lucha Brothers. The Lucha Brothers came in. They came in, you know, Phoenix and Pentah.

And, you know, they're like, you know, in the ring, just circling, do all this and stuff. And I go, guys, you have to stop. I go, we can't shoot you. We're chasing you the whole time. They're like, what are you talking about? Chavo, what are you talking about? I said, okay, I can't explain the camera of this all. And I go, guys, how long have been there missing?

Like, well, 10 years. I said, no one's ever taught you this before? I was like, okay, so I started explaining, okay, that, stay there. You're telling them one to shoot. They shouldn't be trying to find you. You're telling you shoot me here. Yeah. And they're like, oh, oh, oh, so to this day they call me,

hey, maestro, maestro, a teacher. Maestro, hey, maestro. Yeah, so it's pretty cool. But, you know what I mean, guys, like, Willie Mac and God, man, there was Evil Lee's

kicked blood over there and Matt Cross. It was so many guys came out of there. Jack Evans and a helico doing the stuff

as they did. These guys were so good. I can't even name them, a Thunder Rosa. They were all, they were all of these people that couldn't get jobs in WWW or were let go.

And I'm like, who's hiring over there? Because these guys are like amazing. Everybody in Lucha, pretty much went on to do something else somewhere else. Yeah, we got a little hand in there. Karen Cross was there. Yeah, yeah, Karen Cross, yeah, that's right.

Yeah, Kevin Cross, we come back then. Yeah, yeah, we all kind of had a little guerrero teachings in there. You know, I was one of them. There was a little other ones, but yeah. With everything that you've done, what do you feel like your legacy is in wrestling? You've got the last name. Sure. What's Chavo's legacy?

You know, what, I'm not done yet. You know, I really want to be that guy that kind of, brings wrestling to Hollywood in a bigger aspect than it is yet. I talk about being an actor, but behind the camera. So Eric Bischoff told me that one time we were talking. He goes, you know, out of everybody that's transitioned to Hollywood, he's like, oh, you know, Rock, Sina, Batista, different people. He's like, man, I like what you're doing.

It's because they have a shelf life. Now, Rock is smart because he made his own production. company and he's going and going and going. But let's say a 65-year-old leading man role, there's not too many of them out there, right? So he goes, you can keep doing what you're doing behind the camera until you're 80. I want to direct.

That's my next goal. That's where I'm going to go into is directing. Wow. And so anytime I get on a production, I'm always following the director and really kind of working hand-to-hand with him. And the last two guys, so Jeffrey Waihe, and Sean Durkin, I worked, Sean Durkin's Ironcloth, director, and writer.

And talking to them, they're like, you know, mention what I want to do. They're like, Chalkley, you're already doing it. You're already, now we, there's a little bit more to what we do, but you're out there. I'm looking at you half the time going, what did you think about that? I think I'll shoot that again, but I want to shoot like this. Okay. I feel like if you keep going, you're going to direct an episode of Young Rock at any point. I hope so, man.

That's, I hope I get there on that. Let's put that out into the universe. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to direct an episode of Young Rock coming up. That could be the first, that's pretty awesome to direct, you know, network television. That'd be awesome, man. Let's get that DGA card going there, the Directors Guild. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't mind to do that. Do you think you still have another match or two left in you? Absolutely. I mean, I feel great. You look great. I don't think I could do the schedule that we used to do. That was, you know, 200 plus days a year. I don't want to do that.

But yeah, absolutely. In fact, I'm wrestling just Sunday night. for the Lucha Brothers at their place was the Christopher Daniels. Yeah, so that guy is, just like you, like you guys have both found the fountain of you. Well, just, you know, it's, I'll, what's that Toby Key song?

I'm not as good as I once was. But I'm as good once as I ever was. Yeah. I can go one match and I'll kill it. But I'm not going to do it five days in a row. I don't want it. I'm wanting my body hurts when it happens, you know? When you're in an autograph signing,

What's the one thing that people always want to bring up? Oh, autographs, well, it's Pepe. Everybody brings up Pepe. They'll bring up Curvin White. They always remember the weirdest things. No matter what you're doing. Well, wasn't Kerwin White three weeks? Yeah, it wasn't that?

Well, it was a little longer than that. It was a little longer. It just, you know, I wanted to go all the way with that. I know. Well, you told me in our last interview. You wanted to come out with the white robe on. I wanted to do all of that, and Vince loved it. Oh, yes.

Because to me, it's like playing a role on TV. It's like playing a role in a movie. So if I'm doing that in a movie, it is what it is. No one's going to really think twice about it. So I kind of think about it that way. Not everybody does, but sometimes you make it kind of real. Wrestling bleeds into reality so much, though. They can't blow the lines.

And it's funny because when you see Sylvester Stallone on screen as Rocky, you see Sylvester Stallone playing an amazing character. You don't see Rocky. Right. You see Roy's Silverstone walking down the street. You're not going, hey, Rocky. You're going, hey, special Saloon, what's up?

Right. If I walk down the street and I would have people from those last tweets, I have people going, you know, Ray's better than you. I'm like, really? Are you serious?

Yes. And they can't separate the two. Which is a good thing. What about your theme music? Do people sing your theme music to you? Oh, absolutely. I hear it Uchamu all the time. I hear that all the time.

I'll be driving on the street sometimes. And I hear like a random, like where did that come from? No, I'm serious. I hear it all the time. That's what was so good about that era of WWE theme music. Was within one, two beats, you knew exactly who was coming out. Yeah, so when they made me that music, I had some other music that was using WCW that led over here.

And Kevin Dunn goes, hey, you know, we want to come up with this new theme for you. I'm like, okay, so Jim Johnson and him, you know, kind of came up with something. And when it came up, at first I was kind of, all right, that's okay. Kevin was like, trust me, it's going to be good. So I'd listen to him, and of course he was right, because right now you hear Uchavo, bam. Yeah. What's the match that everybody comes back to?

I get a lot of them, but the one really is me hanging in the stereo upside down and breaking his knee is me when I did that. People were like, man, I hated you for that. I hated you. You made it look so real. It was. It was a real thing.

And we were doing that whole thing, like, dude, you're not a guerrero. You're trying to be a guerrilla, but you're not a guerrero. You know? And then after that, we, so that was SummerSlam. I think SummerSlam. He went out with a knee injury, he got his knee worked on. Yeah. So a year later, a next SummerSlam, I had to, he wasn't in back yet.

He wasn't cleared. So I was carrying that angle because we were going to go back to work again. And that's when I was coming out with him. with his mask on and pretending that was him and talking like I was, I am so scared of Chavo Guerrero and he is much better wrestler than me. And I was very small and doing his moves and that got heat. People hated me for that, but it was fun. Yeah, you're like a real heat magnet.

It's heat, man, we know how to get it. I had good teachers. Eddie was, people forget how good of a heel Eddie was. People hated it. Yeah. Then when we were both doing Los Guerrero, they remember the funny parts and we started doing

but at first they hated us that's where the whole light cheat steel came about and they I mean they would call on us you know every derogatory Hispanic name in the book and throwing stuff and stuff and that's what we liked

because we never we like the office kept asking hey why don't you guys do like two double frog splashes for like the finish we're like why if we do that they can only clap you

like well they suck but man that was the finish that's why we would cheat to win. Every single night, when we won, we could retain those championships. We did it. We cheated. But everyone would still cheer you guys. Not at first. They hated us until they booed us and boot us and booed us and booed us out of the buildings. Until we went to Vince McMahon and we said, hey, we have this idea. We wanted to do some vignettes. About some lying, cheating and stealing. That's all. I love it. That's great. Let's do it. Well, we didn't know. We just stopped

backstage vignettes. No, they rent, they, I was already in L.A. They flew everywhere. Eddie out to Beverly Hills. They rented a house in Beverly Hills. We had a shooting crew and catering and trailers. And I was like, gosh, I don't think Eddie. I said, man, we got to knock us out of the park. And that's where we filmed the baby sleeve stealing the baby bottle one. We did the pool party one.

We did the one with the valet, not the valet, but the one where we stole the girls from the guys that were walking by. We stole their girls. We did like three of them. The first day. And we went from being heels where people boo the heck out of us. The baby bottle vignette aired. And the very next week, we came out again.

And our music hit, nothing changed. And we walked out like all greasy and slimy and oiled up. We walked out and everybody cheered us. And we went, oh, no, baby faces. We messed up. We ripped ourselves. That was not our. our goal.

We wanted to be heels to the end. We talked to Triple H and H said, guys, you got really entertaining and you started making them laugh. They started liking him.

Yeah, yeah. Right from there, we started to become baby faces. We still lied, cheated, and steeled, stole, but we did it cute ways. Yeah. We did funny ways now.

Trying to think. You know, Andy, with the chair Yeah, yeah. It was still lying. Still cheating. Yeah. Trying to think, are you the only wrestler who has worked for WCW,

WWE, Impact Wrestling, Ring of Honor, Lucha Underground, and AEW? I don't know. That's a great question. See, I don't keep stats of all that stuff.

People, like, ask me, I was... Everyone in the comments is going to be like, well, yeah, there's this person. Yeah, I don't really know, to be honest. I don't really keep... I know I've wrestled for those guys, and I just, you know,

like, I don't know, like, my... championship count every time I've got to sign something. I really think so. Yeah, maybe, right? I don't know. I'm sure that we're going to get corrected here. But maybe, yeah, maybe. Once you start throwing Lucha Underground and TNA in there too?

That's the thing. And AAA and other places like that, you know? Everywhere. Yeah, I think. I don't know. CMLLs. Because I think there's a lot of people, obviously, that did WCW, WWA, TNA. Sure.

For sure. Sure. Then you throw in AEW on top of that, not really. Christopher Daniels might be the. And Ring of Honor, he didn't do, well, he didn't do, he didn't do Luce Underground. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, I don't know.

Look at you. Who knows that? That's pretty cool. With all the time that you are spending in Hollywood right now, what do you think of these whispers that Roman Reigns is going to eventually start spending some more time in Hollywood? Awesome, man. I love it. It's a tough transition. Yeah.

Not everybody gets really lucky. Not lucky. It gets the right place, right time. like The Rock and Sina, those guys, they were good actors. They're both very good actors. Dave Batista's a very good actor. Batista has gotten, they've gotten better and better and better.

So I don't know how good Roman Raines can be yet. I have really only seen him play Roman Raines. Yeah. I haven't seen them break out and play other people. Batista's played, you know, Drak's. He's played serious guys. He's played... He was so good at Knock at the Cabin.

Yeah, he's played mean guys. So good. So he's got this. range now that he's like he found. Yeah. You know, and he worked really hard at it as well. Yeah, he told me he was really difficult because when he first broke into Hollywood, he was just being cast as, you know, the big...

He's a bouncer. He's a bouncer looking guy. Exactly. He's a big, huge dude. Yeah. Like, naturally, he's such a big guy. So that's hard for Hollywood to go look past. And he worked on, like, making sure that he was cast in roles that he saw himself in.

Yeah. And which is not always easy, you know, because if they don't see you in those roles, man, You can't convince him. Yeah, and he's like, you know, whatever, this is, a 10-year overnight success in Hollywood. Yeah, yeah, totally, yeah. Seena's first movie, everyone forgets this. His first movie was like 17 years ago in the Marine. Yeah.

Sena's a good actor, man. He's good, he's got good comedic timing. But I knew that in a locker room, we would have good banter back and forth. And Eddie would always kind of laugh and be like, man, you guys, like, you and Cina would always come back and joke and do this back and forth. Yeah, yeah. He's so witty. If Eddie was still here with us right now, what do you think he'd be doing?

You know, Eddie had a great mind for the business, great mind. He just didn't want to be on the road anymore. I remember him. He loved his family a lot. He really, really did. And he wanted to be home with his family. And I remember, before he passed, you know, probably six months before, and I remember him coming to me and saying, I don't want to, I don't want to be here.

anymore. I said, what do you mean? Because I don't want to be, I don't want to wrestle anymore. I said, well, dude, you drop out. Yeah. And he got mad at. What am I going to do? What else I'm going to do? He's like, this is what, this is what we do. We wrestle. Yeah. And I said, you're right. No, I know, but I go, man,

it's your hat, your life, your family life is much more important. Yeah. Then, you know, what does it matter if you're away from him a lot of time? Yeah. That's really why I left W.W.E. my kids at the time were

8 and 11 maybe and I just didn't want them growing up without a death and just being on the road I'd already been on the road for like 20 years and I didn't want to be that wrestling casualty and divorce from wrestling and the whole thing

everything you work hard for and you lose it because you know it's it's got to be that happy balance. So I didn't want to be divorced. I didn't want to have my kids grow up without a dad. And that's kind of why I left. And that's funny because they really don't remember me being gone all the time.

Wow. A little bit, but they're like, guy, I was there for their whole junior highs in high school years. Yeah, yeah. I'm encroaching on this myself because, you know, I'm going to be a father for four weeks here. And I travel a lot for what I do. And I'm trying to figure out the balance here.

Man, it's tough. It's tough because you've got to pay the bills, and this is the way you pay the bills by traveling. But it's a happy medium, man. Why are you doing all this? You're doing it for your family. So you have to enjoy that part. Yeah.

Yeah, that's tough. Yeah. And congratulations, by the way, yeah? Yeah, thank you. Oh, I feel all the emotions right now, right? I'm scared, I'm nervous, I'm excited, I'm all of these things. But it just feels like it's flying by here. And it will fly by.

I look back now, my kids are 20 and 23. Wow. And I was like, God, remember when they were little babies? Like, we were just trying to get by. You don't know. They don't give you a manual. Like, here you say, you know, you're just trying to get by. Like, I'm, you know, I can't wait until they start walking, you know, so that, you know,

they don't have to carry them all the time. Then they start walking down. You know, it's like, God, it's so tough. But every year was, every age was so awesome. Yeah. I was like, oh, do you remember when they used to do that? You remember when they used to do this? So now, man, we'll hope we'll get grandkids one of these days.

Not too soon. I really appreciate you coming by. Thanks for having me, Matt. Totally. And I end every conversation talking about gratitude because it's such an important part of my life. And I just want to acknowledge you for the career that you have carved out for yourself.

Right, man. Still going, I haven't read about it. There's still more chapters coming through. So I wake up every day I say out loud, three things I'm grateful for. I do it before I go to bed too. So what are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now?

You know, that's the three that everybody says, but it's true. my faith, my family, and my health. You know, because without either one of those, it's, you know, what is it, if I don't have my health, well, you're not around. Yeah. You don't have your family. What am I doing this all for?

I'm not just doing it for me, you know? And, you know, my faith, man, to be honest, I'm, and, you know, I'm, you know, I'm, God-fearing and the whole thing, but it's, it changes. You know, at every chance you get older, you start seeing more different perspective and stuff and things that I thought when I was, you know, 15 and 20, I think differently now. You know, so I just, you know, just know, there's something out there and you got people looking, watching down over you. So I'm really, you know, grateful for that.

Yeah. Well, grateful for you. Thanks, man. Thank you for coming by. Always, man. Always, man. Always a pleasure. I feel like we've got to go grab Los Correos of beer now.

A hundred percent. We'll do that. We'll meet at the brewery and we'll go, we'll throw a couple down. All right. All right, brother. Thank you, sir. Thank you. All right.

There we go. What a legend and what an honor to have Chavo in my house for this conversation. Please snap a screenshot, tag us on social media so we can share this out and we can re-tweet it and re-story it. That's not really a phrase, but you know what I mean on Instagram. He's at Chavo Guerrero Jr. on Instagram. He's at Mex Warrior on Twitter. I'm at Chris Van Fleet, and please answer us that question.

Has there been any other rest of it? that has competed in WCW, WCWE, TNA slash impact, Lucha Underground, and I guess technically also ECW. I mean, it was WWE's ECW, but I guess technically also ECW and AAA? I think the answer is no, but I would love to be surprised on this. I would love to be wrong on this. So let us know. I'll leave you with the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger,

and I'm just so excited because I'm interviewing him. Tomorrow. He has a new show on Netflix called Fubar. And I'm just so inspired by, look, Arnold is the example of like, if you can dream it, then you can do it. And everything that he's done from bodybuilding to politics to movies and everything else, he's absolutely crushed. So I'll leave you with a quote from Arnold. The worst thing I can be is the same as everybody else. Yeah. Be great. Be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock,

but there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987, Hammer Alley. Ever heard of then? To Rock Bottom.

Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Alley. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.