Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Chavo Guerrero: How He Taught Zac Efron To Wrestle For 'The Iron Claw'

Episode Date: December 12, 2023

Chavo Guerrero Jr. (@mexwarrior) is a third-generation wrestler and is known for his time in WCW, WWE, TNA, Lucha Underground and AEW. He joins Chris Van Vliet in Hollywood, CA to talk about working as the wrestling coordinator on "The Iron Claw", teaching Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White how to wrestle, what their skillset looks like as actors compared to professional wrestlers, how he became Hollywood's choice for wrestling choreography in TV shows and films, his thoughts on whether they should make a movie like "The Iron Claw" about the Guerreros, his opinion on Dominik Mysterio using Eddie Guerrero's name and much more! Quote I'm thinking about: "More is lost by indecision than wrong decision." - Cicero Sponsors: BONCHARGE: Go to http://boncharge.com/CVV and use coupon code CVV to save 25% ZBIOTICS: Get 15% off with the code CVV and have a better morning after you drink at http://zbiotics.com/cvv FITBOD: Get 25% off when you use the code INSIGHT at http://fitbod.me/INSIGHT MYBOOKIE: Bet on WWE! Get up to $200 cash bonus when you use the code CVV and sign up at http://mybookie.ag BLUECHEW: Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com GHOSTBED: Get 40% of your purchase with the code CVV at http://ghostbed.com/cvv MIRACLE MADE: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to http://TryMiracle.com/CVV and use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at http://plunge.com For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are go. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Blele. Okay, welcome back to another one on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet. You rock. Thank you so much for being here. And thank you for making Insight,

one of the top wrestling podcasts on the planet. And also one of the top sports podcasts in the world. We've been climbing up that chart, too. So thank you for being here. I know a lot of you have been here for a lot of you have been here for a long time. The podcast is almost five years old. A lot of you have been here since day one. On the flip side, a lot of you are just finding the podcast in the last few weeks of the last few months. So thank you. Both categories, both ends of the spectrum. I appreciate you. And we are

just getting started. What a fun one today because, ooh, chavo, chavo, chavo back on the show. I was like a very high note that I hit there. The timing couldn't be any more perfect for Chavo to be here with the Iron Claw opening, at least here in the U.S. on December 22nd. And if you don't know, Chavo has become the guy in Hollywood when it comes to coordinating and doing the choreography for any wrestling scenes in TV shows and movies. He worked on Glow. He worked on Young Rock.

And now he's the wrestling brains behind the Iron Claw. So yeah, he's the guy who taught Zach Efron, Jeremy Allen White. and the rest of the cast how to wrestle for this. And I have to say, when you're a wrestling fan, you look at wrestling scenes very differently, you look at it with a different eye. And the same way that, like, if you're a musician,

if you know how to play guitar, you look at music scenes in movies differently, this is the best depiction of in-ring wrestling that you will ever see in a movie. And I know that's saying a lot because, like, how good was the wrestler, right? I'll say it again. This is the best depiction of in-ring wrestling you'll ever see in a movie.

So we get into all the behind-the-scenes stuff here. Don't worry, by the way. This is a spoiler-free interview. This will only make you more excited to see the Iron Claw. I know that might be hard because you're listening to this going, I can't wait for this movie to come out. I saw the trailer a few months ago and I can't stop thinking about it. I need to see this movie.

When this interview's done, you're going to need to and want to see this even. more. And we get into some other stuff here too. Like everything that Dom is doing, Dominic Mysterio is doing with Eddie Guerrero's name, just so curious what Chavo thinks about that. So we get into that as well. If you're listening to this and you're one of the people who listen to the show regularly, but you don't follow or subscribe, could I ask for your support? And I know a lot of other shows when they say support, they really mean money? Like, can you support the show by joining my Patreon and paying a recurring monthly fee, that's not what I want at all. Could you just take a second to hit that follow button on the app that you're listening on

right now? That one little thing, hitting that follow button, hitting that subscribe button, which is, of course, free helps the show so, so much. And as the show keeps getting bigger right now, the number three wrestling podcasts in the world as I record this, as the show keeps getting bigger, the guests will only keep getting bigger. So please hit that follow button. And also, snap a screenshot if you enjoy this episode and share it with a friend. Tag us on social media so we can share it out as well. On Twitter, Chavo is at Mex Warrior. On Instagram, he's at Chavo Guerrero Jr. I'm at Chris Van Vleet,

and all right, enjoy this conversation with Chavo Guerrero. There's a lot of buzz for this movie. As I'm sure you know, right? I do know. It's been happening for months, but now that the movie's about to come out, I don't know about you, but I've been getting a lot of texts. Have you seen the Iron Claw? What do you think about the Iron Claw?

What can you tell me about the Iron Claw? You know, when I got approached by Sean Dirk and the director to help him make this movie, I didn't know who the production company was. And I really didn't, I was kind of like, all right, let's make this movie.

It sounds like it's a legit thing. And, you know, there's a lot of not legit things in Hollywood. People contact. acting you all the time. So then I agreed to it. I was telling my youngest son, who was a junior in college studying film.

And he's like, so he researches it and he's like, oh my God, dad. It's an 824 movie. And I'm like, all right, is that good? Like I've heard I know 824. And he's like, no, that's my favorite production company. You don't understand. This is the most incredible thing of all time. I'm a great, awesome. So then

as we keep going, you know, they're 824, they still try to pretend they're a small production company, but they've won like two of last five Oscars or whatever, you know. So they're very, they're getting much, much, much bigger. So it's a really good thing. It's a really cool thing.

And just to be a part of it, it's like awesome. But to be more of it, you know, I've said that a lot in time. God, just to be a part of this cool. Yeah. But to have when the director's like, hey, can you help me make this movie? I'm like, that's pretty huge. Yeah, you're not just a part of this. Like when I was at the press conference, right?

The day after the premiere when I saw you in Dallas. Right. Every single person that sat there on the press conference mentioned you by name and said that they wouldn't be able to like be doing what they were doing if it wasn't for you. It's good to hear. You know, you don't get that all the time even though you're,

you know, you're putting in the work. But, you know, I just created, I created a bond. Wrestling creates bonds with people. Being on the road, traveling on the road, you know, like, you know, working, you know, being in the trenches, we call it, with other wrestlers, of course. but also when I'm training actors,

you know, there's this trust that we have to build in each other. They have to, I have to get theirs. And when that happens, you just create this bond, you know, and I think that, you know, I have a bond with all of these actors. I know them as people, not just, you know, Zach Ephron, the actor or Jeremy Allen White, you know, the bear. I know him as the guy in the ring, let's do this, you know, kind of thing. So it's pretty cool to be able to get that rapport with people.

Yeah. I don't know if there's ever been this much excitement around a wrestling film. Like when the wrestler came out, what was that 15 years ago? Of course there was excitement, right? And that went on to have an Oscar run. I feel like now, maybe it's just the state of the world that we're in right now, there are a lot of eyeballs on this movie from wrestling fans. I was concerned at first thinking, okay, are we going to get, you know, a lot of eyeballs and this?

How big of a movie this is going to be? How much they're going to put into it? Because there's been other wrestling movies, of course, you know, back, you know, for the last 40 years from Paradise Alley with, you know, Sylvester Stallone, basically. But to see the buzz that an actual production studio, like a legit one, put behind their movie and made of all the movies, they get coming out. They made us their Christmas release. Yeah. That's pretty big. That's pretty big. And it's, that's, you know, one of those moments, you know? It's amazing. Like, people I haven't talked to in years saw that I went to the premiere and they went, how's the movie? And I'm like, oh, wow. Like, yeah, man, you're that,

like, and we're talking big names in WWE. Yeah. We haven't talked to in years are like reaching out. The guys would go call you back and then all of a blue call you back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. And, and those people are excited. Right. So if those people are excited, I already know that fans are excited, but if people who are in WWE, people who are in AEW are that excited,

I can't, I can only imagine how excited fans are about this. You know, they should be. They should be because it's doing a, one of the most influential families of wrestling, a service, really portraying their story and not making it a martyr film

where you want to leave and slasher wrists. They're actually making this movie, like a really true, awesome movie about, it's not a wrestling movie. It's about a family who happens to be wrestlers. You know, does it make sense? It's like the Orange County Choppers,

that TV show wasn't really about building motorcycles. It was about this family dynamic. It's kind of the same thing what is going on with Iron Claw. Yeah, the great thing about this is you don't need to know anything about wrestling. Exactly. You don't need to have ever watched a wrestling match to appreciate this movie and the relationships

between these characters. But with that said, this is the best in-ring wrestling I've ever seen in a movie. Ever. There you go. It's got Guerrero name on it. It's just, it's so believable.

Because I think Zach told me, he only trained for seven weeks. Is that right? Right. He looks like he's been doing it for decades. We, you know, you squish in as much as you can and whatever they can absorb.

Every actor's different. but you know Zach was able to absorb a lot so we kind of spit them through it but you know I threw a lot at them and you when you're creating the scenes you know you have there's a lot of things you have to take in consideration you have to take in the script what the director wants how the DP wants to shoot it but also where your actors can and can't perform so you have to work within their parameters once I can get them to like I said give me trust and just know that I'm not I'm never going to put them in harm's way Safety is the number one important thing for me. Of course, we have to get this shot,

but at the same time, I have a hurt actor, and it's bad. So the number one thing is safety, and I won't let them do anything that I'm sure they can't repeat 100 times. It's one of those things. You know, there's fluke accidents, some freak accidents, things that happen. But, you know, and I explain to the actors, I go, guys, and same thing with my glow girls, you know, everybody on that awesome Netflix show,

I explained to them, you all know how to wrestle. You just don't know you know yet. And they're like, what do you mean? So I portray it to acting a lot. What do you do in acting? You know, constantly you're convincing, you know, the studios that you're better looking than you are, you're a better actor than you are, you're taller than you are,

you're much more handsome or much more beautiful than you actually are. They're like, yeah, I go, that's what I've been doing in wrestling for the last, you know, 20 years, 25 years. people every time they see me, I thought you're a lot bigger. Well, yeah, I portray myself a lot bigger. There's things that, there's little tricks that we have,

and I take a lot of those tricks and put them into the acting, put them into Hollywood. So those actors, I'm showing them, I go, you may not be able to do that move, and that's okay. There's a hundred ways to we get from A to B. Let's figure out what's best for you,

and let's make that work. And then I got a lot of Hollywood tricks as well. This episode is brought to you by Bond Charge, and I have been loving their infrared sauna blanket. And if this holiday season you're wanting to burn some more calories to help with weight, or if you're wanting to detoxify after indulging in one too many holiday treats, check out the infrared sauna blanket from Bond Charge. It works by raising your heart rate to that of physical exercise,

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three-piece towel set and an additional 20% off. Again, that's try miracle.com slash CBV to treat yourself a friend or a loved one this holiday season. If there's any TV show or movie right now that has pro wrestling in it. They're calling you now. You're the guy in Hollywood. So walk me back. How did you get this role to begin with? You know, after wrestling, you know, when I stepped away from WWE, I was like, what am I going to do? You know, I just couldn't be on the road. At that time, we were on the road 250 days a year. There was one year I was on the road. I was in a hotel room 300 days that year. Wow. So I was only home 65 days the entire year. So I was like, I can't do that anymore.

Like, not just for mentally, but my body. I knew my body was to start breaking down. I go, I have to start getting an exit plan. I should have really started five years before this, 10 years before this, but, you know, we're so, the Guerrero's are wrestling, wrestling, wrestling, wrestling. So when I stepped away, I was like, what am I going to do?

Let me, possibly, let me try get into some stunts and some acting. That's what my uncle Mondo did when he left wrestling. He retired with, you know, a sag pension and was, you know, all about acting in stunts and stuff like that. by his mentor, Gene LaBelle, my mentor as well. So I started doing that a little bit. And I was, you know, start taking driving courses and, you know, high fall courses.

And my wife looks at me, she's like, why are you doing that? You're not just a stuntman. You're like super specialized in what you're doing. Yeah. And I was like, yeah, I guess you're right. So, like, the pieces fell into play and, you know, in the right spots.

And I became, you know, the person for glow. and that morphed into, you know, Young Rock and all these different TV shows that I've done, you know, like one-offs. Like, I just did another show on Apple TV called Lute with my Rudolph. And they had a wrestling scene? They had a wrestling episode,

so they called me up, and I, you know, put Ron Funches through it. Oh, we love Ron. Yeah, Ron's great, right? He's so good. He was a big wrestling fan, so it made it so much easier. He's even had a match.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, it's like if there's a wrestling show, they're calling me, If they can form me, let's do it. But how does the original phone call work for like, we've got this show called Glow that we're working on. Can you be the wrestling?

So the stunt coordinator, Shauna Duggins, she calls me. She goes, hey, I'm the stunt coordinator for this new TV show called Glow. And I'm like, that's like, glow from my gorgeous ladies of wrestling. She's like, yeah, I'm like, well, that's funny because my uncle was the original trainer of the original Glow Girls, my Uncle Mono. And she's like, oh, wow, that's great, awesome. So they brought me in for an interview And they interviewed

I guess they interviewed I had thought Like I was just going in like getting the job like No no no I had an interview like they interviewed like 10 people And when I got there there was you know Roundtable of producers and And EPs and I mean just writers and all these different people So I went in there and kind of like

I just didn't BS them I basically told everybody like hey look Everybody's going to tell you in Hollywood that they can do and everybody's full of crap. I'm going to tell you what I can and can't do. And if I can't do it, I'll tell you I can't do it, but I probably know somebody that can't. So let me make a couple phone calls and let's make it happen.

They really like that, you know, and it just, so I got the job, you know, whatever it went on. But when the show ended due to COVID and all that kind of stuff, I got an email from Liz Flea Hive, one of the executives, We were the creators, the showrunners, her and Carly Minch. So I got an email from her, she says, look, this was a show about women wrestlers.

We had women directors. We had women showrunners. We had women, a stunt coordinator. It was women, women, women. She was, we were dead set on having a woman wrestling coordinator. And then you walked in the room. And I was like, really? She's like, yeah, like you, you, what?

other person could have navigated training 14 girls and two stunt girls and and I go, yeah, I guess you're right. It's like, I was like, I grew up with women, like all my cousins. I was the only cousin around all these girls all the time. So, I don't know, I guess I learned how to, I guess she said navigate your way through it, but you know, just get along and that's how that kind of happened. I don't know. It was really weird.

It just happened. But I felt like it was going to happen. I was like, well, you know, sometimes you can just tell. I'm like, I'm the guy. Just give me in the room. I'm the guy for this. So how long between you meeting Zach Ephron to actually filming the wrestling scenes in the movie?

When I first met him in the ring. We talked a couple different times. I got on the phone. You know, yeah, you know, I have a ring set up in Irvine, California, and he's in L.A. So he first didn't want to come down. I started driving down to, because I have a very private area,

it's not like, you know, because L.A. is so expensive, it's so hard to have a great training facility. That's not in like, you know, like a, like a barrio or like the... There really are a lot, you know. I think other than Rakeshi's school in the Valley. But still, you know, that, that, you know, that's awesome school, but it's not, you know, it's not in a super safe area.

And it's also not technically in L.A. Right, right, right, exactly. So, you know, it's really expensive to do that. So, you know, there's not a lot of great places to train that are private, you know. It's one thing if you're going to, a school, but look, I'm going to shut down the whole school because I have an A-less actor in my place. Well, that's what I have in Irvine.

Super secluded, very, very nice. There's, it's, there's no issues where I could have, I could have, you know, whoever that I could have the rock in there, you know, the number, and number A-list, any A-less actor I could have in there and it's super nice for them, very clean. great facility and super private. So that's kind of what we did. And he first didn't want to drive down, but then he's like,

once he came down once, he's like, okay, this is our place, 100%. So he was driving in an hour. Usually it's me driving up an hour, you know,

to a facility that we can train people at, but because I'm in Orange County, you know, we know, as you as you are. I'm also in Orange County. But, you know,

he was coming down and it was just, we had great sessions, man. We had, we probably worked maybe 10 sessions and we just get them in the ring at first and get him,

even before we really had the script, like the final script, just getting familiar with the ring and what we do. And I always have, I kind of train them like getting a child into the ocean. You know, you have to show them, hey, this is fun, but also these ways can kill you. You have to have respect for that. You have to, you know, know, know your place. The same thing with being in wrestling as you've been in. It's very dangerous.

People think, oh, it's a trampling. And it's really not. Yeah. It's really, really not. It's metal and wood and a little thin mat. And, of course, my ring is because it's a shooting ring.

I have it definitely more padded and more safe, and it's really perfect shooting ring in. But I had it kind of show the actors. Like, guys, you got to respect this, but let's get to work. So how different would it be if Zach was training to be a pro wrestler versus training to play a pro wrestler in a movie? How different is your training?

80% different. So different. I'm not training these actors to be in a Russellmania match. I'm training them to look like an actor in it. I look like a wrestler in a scene. And it's really just like

move for move, I guess, really. Like they're not filming entire matches. No, in Iron Claw, we film entire matches. Sean Durk and the director really wanted to get the feel of a real match and then pick and choose what he wanted. There's other productions

that I'm shooting. like 30 seconds or 10 seconds or sometimes we want one move but Sean wanted these wrestling sequences so we if you see one of the opening matches that happens to be me and

Zach in that's probably a 10, 12 minute match and we we filmed that probably 10 to 15 times wow so I tell I tell you know the actors I go sometimes this is easy

than what we do in WWB. But sometimes it's much harder because I can, you know, give me, I'll go 20 minutes in a match at WrestleMania. Great, let's do it. Or in a pay-per-view. But I'm 20 minutes and I'm done.

I go, you're doing this three to four to five or ten-minute match 10 to 15 times. You're doing it over four hours. And then you're taking a break to go to lunch and then you're coming back and we're filming it again.

Yeah. So that's, it's very difficult. By the end of a couple of those matches that Zach had, he was spent. You couldn't in the match, but afterwards he even came to me and goes, man, this is maybe one of the hardest days I've ever had on set.

This is really, he's like, wow, yeah. The shape that he's in in this movie? I saw him transforming. I mean, he already came in in shape, but he's a machine. Jackson, he's just a machine machine. But, you know, we'd be training, he'd get off, you know, hey, man, I got to take a break. I got to eat this meal. So he's eating a pre-made meal or having a shake as I'm talking to him, you know,

and he was constantly just feeding the machine. there's the reason why he looks the way he does. I mean, he was in contest shape. Oh, yeah, he looks like he's about to step onto a stage. It was crazy. He was a bodybuilder.

It was crazy. He looks painfully in shape in this movie. Yeah, you know, I mean, really, I mean, we were trained together a few different times. In fact, we trained in my house one time. I was like, hey, man, he's like,

I got to get a workout out of him. I said, well, I'm only, you know, 10 minutes away. I got a gym at the house. I got a really nice gym. So he came in, we trained to the house. And then my wife, she's like who's coming over

and I'm like Zach so then he comes and she comes over we know make food and he hanging it off

like four hours and my son's there and his girlfriend at the time's there and she's like does this happen all the time

she have the actors coming out well sometimes but then you know I have a you know a 1963 SS Impala a convertible

that's in front that was the first car that me and Eddie ever went on TV with that John Sina previously owned after that and gifted it to me after Eddie died. Wow. Yeah, it's pretty cool.

Since then, I've had a complete redone frame off restoration and stuff. But Zach saw him, like, oh, my God, this is amazing. See, you want to go for a ride? He's like, yeah. So we went for a ride around the block, and I got to pump a stereo in it. I'm going to cruise it up and down the block a little bit, like pump the stereo. Well, as I go up as cold a sack and I come back down, well, one of my neighbors comes out. They go, hey, you know, no one pumps around here like Chavo.

Like, hey, what's up? What's going on? And so I pull up, and Zach, Ephron, in the pasture seat. And my neighbors, his girlfriend was like, oh, do you live around here? And I go, this is my friend, Zach. And they're like, oh, hi, do you live right here? He goes, no, I live in L.A. She's like, oh, he's like, I'm thinking about buying a place around here.

Oh, you should. You should. It's really cool. He's like, all right, cool. We drive off. And then like two hours later, I get a text from her, like WTF. Was that Zach Effron? I'm like, yeah, I told you with my friend Zach.

And she's like, oh my God, like, what the heck? How was that happening? Long story. Wow. Funny. When you go to a wrestling school, the first thing you learn is how to bump. Is that the first thing you're teaching actors? No, God, no.

I tried not to bump them. Okay. As much as I can. Now, sometimes, you know, there's, sometimes you can't avoid it. But I work around it. So a lot of times I'll have the actor in there with another actor who's maybe a wrestler in the perfect world, that they can bump and it hides those bumps.

I mean, that's what we do in wrestling as well. There's a lot of times I'm in there with somebody who's hurt. You'll never tell if they're hurt because I'm the one doing all their moves. I'm the bump, bumping around, moving around. And I don't know if everyone realizes this. For every actor in the movie, there's also someone who can do the stunt version of that. Yeah, but it didn't necessarily, the match with, with, um, Kevin Von Erick and Harley Race.

Yeah. The match with Kevin Von Eric and Rick Flair. Yeah. Those were actors. Wow. So I had two actors in there who never wrestled before trying to get matches out of him. You know, Aaron Dean Anderson did one was Flare. And then Cam and Anton was Harley Ray.

So he looked great. He did. He sounded just like Harley Race. Yeah. I was kind of telling him, he came up to me afterwards at Premier in Dallas and he was like, he goes chival you you made us look so good man he goes

originally I thought like okay we're just gonna be to rustic but you he's like I don't know how you did like he was so amazed and I was like man there's just these little tricks and working with the director and working with the editor and working with you

and on certain things I mean he he was so appreciative like it was really cool I go man you made me look good but he was like I can't believe you made me look like that wow yeah you can't hide

running the ropes. And I was actually really impressed that there's that shot in the trailer, where Zach is hitting the ropes and hitting the ropes. You can't fake that. Right. And if you're not good at it, it is so telling. Oh yeah. As a wrestling fan, you'd be like, that guy clearly has no idea what he's doing. But Zach looked like he was a veteran in there. You know, some people can do it. Some people don't, if he couldn't run the ropes great, we wouldn't have had that shot in there. Interesting. You know what I mean? We would have shot something else. so that you got to do great, like, you know. But he did run those ropes great, you know,

and first they're always, you know, you've been in a ring. And how many times did they go hit the ring and the ropes are like, yeah, we'd really want to do this. And after like three or four times, like, oh, ow, oh, I didn't know that this hurts so bad. And in fact, I think Jeremy talked about that. It's like, man, like, there's everything in the ring hurts. I couldn't, he couldn't believe how much it really hurt. But you get kind of use.

I try to get them slowly introduced to the pain and kind of start liking it. So what does this script actually say when it comes to a match? Does it... Every script's different. Okay. This script was, you know,

Sean was a wrestling fan, so it definitely had some ideas what he wanted to do and the way he, you know, talked about things. But still, I'm like,

okay, hold on. I got through my head, okay, my job is to make it better. It's like, um, that one company, we don't make things.

We make them better in a sense, but, Alcona or Alcon. But the one scene in there, he wanted something happening in the match, but the dialogue didn't match that.

So I pulled him aside and said, Sean, that doesn't, what's your, the dialogue, what you're saying is not matching what we're doing in the ring. He's like, well, let's rewrite it right now. And I'm like, huh? And he's like, yeah, let's, so we rewrote the scene right there.

We rewrote the whole little scene like, how, How they were going, we wanted them to talk so that it matched the match that we were doing. So that was pretty cool. Like, you know, I don't think I got a writer's credit, but. You got a lot of credits, though. Yeah, I did. I got three credits.

So what are the three credits? Three credits. So one, the big one, you'll see that one, is wrestling choreographer. You know, the terminology in movies, it's always a little different. So this one was wrestling choreographer so they could have me my own screen credit, which is massive. You know, it goes from, as you saw the movie. movie. Yeah.

You know, the actors, to the directors, to the executive producers, and then my loan credit on the screen. Yeah. I was pretty fabulous. Thank you, Sean. Appreciate you, bro. Awesome. Because I don't think you have a line in the film, right?

I did. But it got cut out. The scenes got cut out. You know, when I did that scene, I was like, I don't, this is not a super pivotal scene. My acting was far and beyond everybody else's. No, but, no, but. It wasn't a pivotal

scene and you kind of know sometimes they got to trim the fat a lot of times it's very easy to trim things down you can't add it's that's super hard to go reshoots and add more things that's that's super costly, it might as well just let's just get more stuff in there and then we can cut it out as we go

so it wasn't super pivotal that scene so I thought that may be cut out and it was I knew that you'd be in a lot of scenes in the movie but it's such a true testament to how good you are that you almost don't notice you because you're making the other guys look so good in those scenes. That's our job, man. That was my job actually in wrestling as well.

You know, there was a play called, I want to see the wonderful world of Chad Deity or something like that, written by Christopher, oh, God, can't remember now of a sudden. I'm going blank. I should have thought about it. But he wrote this play, and I saw it in LA with Betty White was there, it's pretty crazy. And he said, he goes, I had you in mind when we wrote this play.

So what do you mean? He goes, well, it's about a wrestler that's always making everybody else look really good. That's so good that nobody can make him look good. But that was our job forever. You know, as Guerrero's, we were pretty good in the ring. Our job was really a lot of times to help guys and elevate them and make them look really good. And Eddie Stubles, Eddie shot for years until finally they thought, God, this guy's really good.

Let's see if we can propel him somewhere, you know. But for years, he was making people look good. I remember in WCW, Eric Bischoff came out of the ring, and Conan was not having great matches at the time in WCW. And then Eric put him with Eddie, and they came out of the ring. And Eric runs up to Conan and goes, oh my god i could knew you could do you such a great job and we all looked at him like it was it was he what are you talking about it was a hundred percent and i'll call you out on that one

eric a hundred percent and maybe he was just giving conan props because it was all eddie eddie made him look like a hundred like a million dollars yeah but that was how good eddie was and that's what we just learned from all of our family that was we're supposed to make people look better but in the movie back to that your question that is where Sean Durkin approached me and say, hey, can you play this role in the movie? I'm playing the original seat sheet, Ed Frot. The original Sikh, the first one who was Sabu's uncle,

who was, I remember watching him as a kid. He used to rush for my grandfather, and he was so maniacal and sadistic. It was so crazy. But when he asked me to play that role, and at first I didn't want to, because it's going to take me away from watching behind the camera with Sean,

how are we going to, you know, shoot and tweak the, these scenes. You know, because I'm constantly, you know, any rustling scene, I'm behind the camera with the director and really looking how I can, you know, pivot the wrestlers

to certain cameras and kind of tailor the scene to make it look better. So he said, this is just a pivotal part of the movie. I really, I need you in it. I said, okay, let's do it. I'm glad I did it, you know,

it's a great thing, but... It's the first wrestling sequence we see in the movie, too, isn't it? For the, yeah, for the most part. Yeah. I think when it starts off with Holt. Fritz, yeah, way back. You're doing that very start.

But it's, yeah, yeah. It's Zach's first match. That's why Sean came to me to do it. Yeah. I tell you what, though, after we shot that, because that's the very first scene, the wrestling scene, we shot, and we even though it doesn't play first,

after that, any question that any executive producer or the director or the line producers had, it was just, just give it a job. Whatever Chabber Shabba. At first he was like, you know, I would get questioned at times. We can't do this.

Well, why? Well, you know, and I totally get it. They don't know who I am. They don't mean, they trust me, but they don't know. Then after that scene, what I said, went. Was there any point in your career of doing this where they go, you're not really a Hollywood guy?

I get you're a wrestling guy, but you don't see things as a Hollywood guy. No, because I, I didn't come in the very first time and pretend I was a Hollywood guy. I would definitely step back and let the Hollywood people do their part and then me do my wrestling part.

But I'm a really good learner by watching. And that's how I learned kind of how to do all this, really, not only from my family, from watching Vince McMahon, from watching Kevin Dunn, from watching Triple H, from watching all these guys and how they did. They didn't take me aside

And Vince wasn't going, okay, child, well, this is A, B, C, D, D, how will you think? No, but I learned all that by watching him. And then same thing with Hollywood. Once I started getting it a little bit more and a little bit more, I had some really, really good teachers, really good people that I was watching. But that's kind of how I became that guy.

So now I am that guy behind the camera. So eventually I'm going to direct. That's where I'm going. I follow directors all the different time, all the time, and different movies and really kind of watching. Same thing. studying how they do it.

That's my next role is directing. That's really where I'm going. Do you have a script? I'm writing one right now. Is it about the Guerrero? It's not about the Guerrero's. It's not about the guerrero's,

but it's pretty awesome. I don't want to give way too much. It's got something to do with wrestling, but it's pretty good. In fact, Dave Batista, my boy Dave, his production company,

Dogbone Entertainment, he's got his own production company, the whole thing, and we're doing a little collaboration, and hopefully we'll get this thing made. Oh, this clip is going to be played back in like two or three years on this movie. I hope so, man, I hope so.

You know, I really love to at least, if I'm not direct it, at least I know you write it, you're a screenplay. I'm going to have a lot of saying it for sure. But we'll see. We'll see if that one goes through. I got a few different ones. You know, like I create as well, I created the Tales from the Territories with seven bucks with Gwen Johnson.

Yeah. And we shot that. So that's kind of on the realm as well. It's creating stuff. And just, you know, you're, to make it in this business, you have to have a lot of irons in the fire. You really do to kind of really, you got to, until you become, you know, Spielberg or the, you know, the producer, main producer guy or whatever it is, you got to kind of be really good at everything. And those guys are. Those guys, the reason why Sean Durkin wrote this movie, because he wrote it. He, he helped, you know, with his DP, Matias, really, they, they worked together on how, like, I was like they were connected to hip, you know.

So you, Sean at one another time, I see him get a little frustrated in the, in their more film this rustling scene. And I'm like, what's wrong? He's like, man, he's like, I don't have a cut part. I don't have a cut point. I'm like, okay. He's like, I'm really good at editing. I just know that I don't have the cut part.

I said, what do you need? So, great, hold on a second. So I went to the actors. I said, this is what I need you to do this, do this, do this. I'll just do this. I'm ready to shoot it. So they shot it. We got done.

and then Sean looked at me and goes, that's what I needed. Man. Because he needed this cut point. Once we had that, okay, great, now because he can see, he can visualize

where he's going to kind of splice in a sense, splice that together. And, you know, it's editing and he can just see that. So he just didn't have it. So explain it to me,

I got him the shot. Do you think with what you've taught Zach Efron and Jeremy Allen White that if they were in the ring with a veteran, They could have a match on Raw this Monday. Really tough. Really, really tough.

Now, not saying that they aren't awesome, but I didn't train him for that. I didn't train him to go to a match. Give me a month with them. Absolutely. Jeremy was incredible in the ring. He was so good. He would just kind of sit in the corner

and kind of thinking. I'm like, you're right? He's like, hold on, hold on. He's like, all right, I got it. Let's go. Wow. He was really, really good like that. They were all really good.

just in there are all different ways. But I didn't train them to go have match. I trained them to look like a wrestler in a scene. But give me time with them. Like if I was training for a match, it's a different thing. Yeah. You know what I mean?

That feels like the Logan Paul method. Logan Paul, man, he's doing an awesome job. He's doing great. But when we talked about that, I almost feel like he's doing perfectly for a celebrity. But those kind of matches is not the matches that we actually do in the wrestling ring. Yeah.

You know, he's planning a lot of things, you know, A to Z. Yeah. They look great. You know, he looks amazing. The emotion that he has. And not to take anything away from him because he's far and beyond, I think, anybody. A lot of the rushers that I see now, he's doing so much better. Even Triple H was like he has no business being this good.

No, 100%. Yeah. But at the same time, we don't really do that. I don't work on a match for a month. Yeah. Or six weeks. I, you know, man, because there's so many times. We would just go in there and call it like a pay-per-view.

match in the ring. Eddie called the match with him and JBL when Eddie got all the color he was bleeding all over the place. You remember that? When he dropped the belt, I believe it was. He called that match in the ring.

Originally, Paterson had come up to him goes, hey man, how about we do this? How about do that? And Eddie just didn't feel it. He looks at Pat and he looks at JBL and JBL will tell you that. He goes, man, Eddie goes, I don't I don't feel of this. Do you mind if I just go in the ring

and do it? And they're like, okay, this is the main event of a pay-per-view. Okay. He went in there and call the entire match out there. Wow. When you call it, it means you're playing by feel. It's almost like a comedian. You have the comedians that are really good that they have their jokes, they're set from A to Z lined up.

And it's great when it goes right. But when it doesn't go right, it's really bad. I love the comedians that are, you know, they have an outline, but they're able to play out the crowd, And really, you know, they say some jokes here and there, but, you know, wherever they go wherever the night takes them, you know. And those, that's, I love those kind of comedians.

That's the rushes I love as well. It's kind of becoming a lost art. But, you know, guys like, you know, Triple H and John Michaels and those guys were so good at it. You know, they're really, really good. Was there something that Zach Efron did in the ring that you were like, I can't believe you're picking this up so quickly? I'm got a lot of things. A lot of things.

They all did something in the ring that was really, really good. I was like, kind of, you know, like, shake my head. Like, wow, okay, you weren't supposed to be that good. But because you're doing that, that gives me another idea. I think you can do this. And I would make it a little bit better. Zach's cross body was very impressive. Well, I told him on that, I said, hey, man, so we started off very slow on the bottom rope,

to the second rope, to the top rope, with pads and everything. But once we got to the top, I said, okay, look, the higher you go, the easier it is. And he was kind of like, what do you mean? The reason being is that as me as a spotter, if it's so low, I can't catch you. My reactions have to be so fast. But when you jump so high, you're floating. I can see you and you can see me.

It seems like it's going to be harder, but it's easier. So he just trusted me and we just went for, like, I still have the video on my iPhone of us practicing, you know, and him jumping like, like, oh, high. I'm like, whoa, this could be great. So then on camera, he jumped so high, he jumped out of frame. I'm like, okay. So now we had to shoot it, pull back a little bit.

Let's shoot you. That's how high he goes. I was like, wow, amazing. And he just said an interview where he just got done jumping out of, you know, cross-body and some guy in the audience was like, no, boy, you're really flying now. And he was like, holy moly, I was doing it right. But, you know, that's the whole trust. Yeah.

There's another example there. They had to trust me. You're the guy catching him. And I don't know if everybody who's seen the trailer realizes that's you in there in that very pivotal scene. Right. That's just another example of you shining the light on somebody else. Well, there's two ways to catch somebody in wrestling. You catch them with that force, bam, and you really show that.

Or I slow them completely down. I don't care if they're a 300-pound guy jumping on me. I have to grab them, catch them around like my arms around their waist, and I have to slow their body weight down so they hit with a lot less impact. Because we were taking that right to the wrestling mat, not with a pad, a stunt pad. Every time we shot it was right to the mat. it hurts coming off that high, you know, really does. And you have, I can't expect them to know how to fall like a wrestler.

I, as the wrestler, have to protect them. And that's why a lot of times I need a wrestler in the ring on certain scenes. People that are familiar with the Von Erick story, obviously know it's tragic, right? Right. I didn't think I'd be like as emotional watching this film as I was. I don't want to give too much away. We've been really good here at being like completely spoiler-free during this. but the scene towards the end,

you know what I'm talking about? It's like, oh, it got me. You know, that goes, that's all, not only the story, amazing, it's amazing story, of course, but the way Sean shot it,

he got you so invested to the characters that you really give, you give a shit about them. Yeah. You really do. Even if you've never, don't know who the Vinerich family is,

and you don't know who wrestling is, you care about those characters. And when the things happen to them, that happened, you're like, like, oh my God, like, I can't believe there just happened. Like, very Game of Thrones is, I'm re-watching Game of Thrones right now, and it's amazing how they kill these main characters,

and I'm like, ah, I forgot, I forgot, it was amazing. But, you know, that's what we do in wrestling. We tell stories and we have to get you invested to me as a wrestler. for instance, I think I've told this before, but one movie I saw had all of these explosions and the whole movie was this real big high-flying crazy car crashing

things are exploding all over the place. Well, after 30 minutes of explosions, I get it. Okay, you can blow some stuff up. And tell me a story, like make me care about these characters. And then at one point, the main character, like, his friend dies and, you know, there's still explosions going on. And he's like, no. And which fast and furious movie are you talking about?

In a sense, that wasn't that, but yes, the same thing of those. That's how those movies are supposed to be. But once somebody dies, you don't really care about the guy. You're like, okay, just blow some more stuff up. You don't care. And I think we talked about them the last time maybe on your podcast. But at the same time, I saw Bridges of Madison County. And not that I wanted to see it, but I did.

My wife took me to see it. Not one explosion, but at the end when Clint Eastwood was going to go to Merrill Street and didn't go and it was raining and there's this little pole dunk town at this little stoplight and he didn't go to her but I was heartbroken. I was like, oh my God,

the movie ended and I just sat in my seat like, like, dang, why? Why didn't you go to her? I almost wanted to cry. But it's because he got invested in the character. Yeah. That's what we do in wrestling.

The same thing, and that's what we do in movies. It's very similar. If I wish I would have known, I would have been involved with movies before I was a wrestler. I would have been a lot better rustling. That's interesting.

Absolutely. How important was it for you to have these actors wrestling like Carrie Von Erich, Kevin Von Erich, like Rick Flair, like any of the big names you have in the movie? Because it's one thing just to learn those moves, to make them look realistic. It's another thing, it's like leveling up to go, yeah, but you've got to make it look like Rick Flair. Okay, who can look at Rupert. Ripler is so iconic.

It's very difficult to look like Rick Flair. It's very difficult to look like a Kerry or Kevin Von Erick, a David von Erick. very, very difficult. So we try, I can teach them to the movies all they want, but, you know, I try to get their innuendos, like the stuff that they do in the ring,

their little tells that can tell who that is. Yeah. I can throw a drop kick, but can I throw a Kevin Monter at drop kick? Totally different. I try to get Zach to throw Kevin Monard drop kicks. And, you know,

it was trial or error. Some bad it works. Sometimes it didn't. Yeah. But I think they, we kind of grab that essence a little bit, you know. What does Kevin think of the movie?

Kevin really liked it. You know, we're curious on that because, you know, this is his story about all of his family that, you know, tragically passed. And he really liked it, you know, and I think Bruce Pritchard just said, you know, this is very, you know, it was really good, but it wasn't 100% accurate. We're like, duh, this is a based, Bruce, it's based on a true story. What movie is ever exactly the same? This is not a documentary. Yeah. This is the movie.

One Von Eric brother isn't even in the movie. Exactly. Exactly. And I brought that up to Sean when I read the script. I said, you know that there's the other... Chris Von Eric's not in the movie. Yeah. And Sean had a great point.

He just said it just was just too much. It was too much tragedy. I mean, we only have a certain amount of time to tell the story. And where... You know, they go from two suicides to now three suicides. Exactly. And I explained to... Was it?

It's Carrie's children. So I don't know. I think it was Lacey and Holly. And they kind of mentioned, you know, Uncle Chris is in the movie. And I said, well, let's think about where the movie wanted to go. We're telling a great movie. We're doing a documentary, two different things. And they're like, yeah, you can have a point here.

And I said, a documentary, and we're going to put it on Discovery Channel. You know, the whole three-part series, you know, whatever. Great, let's do it. To tell it justice. I go, but for a movie, I mean, who wants to see a three-and-a-half-hour movie? Yeah. With more and more tragedies and more and more. That's tough.

That's the biggest complaint about Martin Scraise's new film. It's too long. It's three and a half hours. Our tension span is so small now. Anytime I'm going to see a three-hour movie, I'm like, I don't know if I have the time for that. Like, I mean, I got to take, I go to the bathroom halfway. By the time you drive to the theater, watch the trailer, sit through the film.

Exactly. I want a little. I'll watch it at home on my, you know, my theater at home. Yeah. And, you know, I can pause it when my wife's talking or I can go, you know, I can fall. I'm getting tired. Let me, you know, start this again tomorrow. Sure.

All day long. but three, three and a half hour movie is very tough to watch. There's a line at the beginning of Cody's entrance theme. Wrestling has more than one royal family. Obviously, that's the Rhodes. That's also the McMahon's. That's the Guerrero's. That's also the Von Erics.

I'm sure there's some other ones that you could throw in there. Yeah, we got the blanchards, the Orton's, the whole Samoan dynasty. I mean, there's got so many, so many of them. But yes. I feel like they could make a movie just like the Ironclothes. about your family? They probably can. You know,

we've had it, we've had some definitely triumphs and some tragedies in there as well. I've had people reach out to me, Pedro Pascal.

Wow. Talked about it, a couple of other, the lead from the Mayans. Would Pedro play Eddie? Yeah. Wow. Crazy, right?

But, but we've had some people reach out and, and do some stuff like that, but are we still writing our story? You know, who knows?

It's like, who knows? Yeah. You know, that's very possible. I feel like the story is still being written. I mean, the fact that... My story is, at least. Chaval Girl Jr. story is still being written, but Girl Story, we definitely could, you know?

Your story in Hollywood's really just getting written. Just get started. 20, 30 years from now, we're going to be talking about all of the wrestling films that you were part of. You know, you... I hope. I hope, you know, I hope we continue doing that. And not just the wrestling films,

other films, you know, I want to branch out from not just wrestling. Once you become director and start directing, you have that eye or you don't, and hopefully I'll have it. I feel like the story is continuing with everything that Dom is doing these days. Yeah, Dominic Osterio's killing it, right?

He's doing so good. I mean, he's far beyond where he should be as far as being good as well. And part of that is growing up with Ray as his father, or is Eddie his father. Yeah, right, right, right. You know, that's pretty cool. to see them doing all this stuff

and we talked about that before. You get a lot of people especially because Eddie had how monumental and like cults following he has and how many people see how really great

he is and was you get a lot of people really trying to capitalize off of the Guerrero name and Eddie's name. I see it all the time. I mean, I mean, I just saw it on a house show the other day I was on,

and they started doing Eddie Spots, and I'm like, why are you doing that when I was next after you guys? Oh, yeah, we didn't think about that. I'm like, guys, I get it, but you just did it, and everybody thought about Eddie. They didn't think about you. And they're like, yeah, you're right. But I see that a lot.

And if anybody can do it, Dominic can do it, and Ray can do it because of what's, you know, the history with them and stuff. When you started seeing Dominic growing out his hair, having the Eddie moment. He looks like Eddie, right? He looks an awful lot like Eddie. Early, right? Is he really as Eddie's poppy?

I don't know. You tell me. You know better than me. Right. I guess this is a question for Angie. Like his father is 5'4 and Dom's 6-2 or whatever. Well, then Eddie was only like 5-72. So maybe somebody else.

But, you know, they're doing an awesome job with it. And which I like is that they kind of let it go. They didn't continue doing it. He's still not saying, like that was very prevalent in the early parts of their storyline. But now I don't even think Dom's even really... He does the frog splash. He does a frog splash.

He looks like Eddie's 100%. He's got a great frog splash. He does. Yeah. And he knows, I mean, doing that frog splash, it knocks the crap out of you. It hurts you sometimes more than hurts a person down there. He doesn't do the three amigos anymore.

Good. I like that. Thank you very much. Thank you for not stealing everything. But is it, and obviously he's paying homage to Eddie and your family. Is there? Well, he's also collecting a big paycheck for as well. And I don't know.

He certainly is. If the paycheck wasn't there, would he still be doing it or would he have got moved on to imitating somebody else? That's what I always kind of wonder about. It's like, okay, hold on a second. Because, you know, the zeros behind those numbers are probably pretty big, especially right now the way WW is paying. To me, it's like also, it's great.

Awesome, you're paying homage, but are you, what's your motive? Is there any part of that that bothers you? When Eddie's daughters aren't reaping the benefits, yes. To me, I'm always looking, and if anybody should be making the money off of Eddie Guerrero,

it should be Eddie's daughters. I'm sure they're still making money off of the merchandise. I don't know if that's correct. Okay. All right. I don't know that's correct.

At least talking to them about it. Wow. I'm not them. I'm not they say I'll be y'all, but that's something that I would definitely wish that they were. Yeah. You know, that, I mean, they, that's her dad. They shouldn't have to worry about,

that should have been in their, you know, their, his will, his, his persona, his name and likeness should be to them. Just like Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley went to, first went to Priscilla, but his, granddaughter

who was in that when the TV show Riley yeah she owns Graceland now wow

that went to her she had a fight Priscilla for it a little bit from what I'm understanding but um she owns that it's the daughters

you know and then after um her mom died um Lisa Marie Lisa Marie after Lisa Marie died

went to her but Lisa Marie had that owned that Graceland stuff so I just Eddie's done daughters don't have something like that.

And I, and I really, that obsessed me a little bit. I mean, anybody, right? Sure. You think you should have gone up to the daughters for sure,

but. Yeah. So that's maybe something we hopefully can change. Yeah. In the future, I really would wish them, because it's not for me.

I don't really need them. I got my own thing. Yeah. Let them make the money off of their father. Do you think about Eddie every day? Yeah. He's always there, man.

He's my brother. You know, technically he was my uncle, but, God, we were so close. We grew up as brothers. He was three years. an age difference.

Absolutely. And, you know, anytime you're on social media, I get posts every single day. People posting or tagging me on Eddie stuff. So I see it every single day. So do I think about him 100%? But it's good.

It's a good thing. You know, maybe you have you not forget, but also sometimes you just want to move on as well. Yeah. Well, he has such a legacy. It's such a legacy in the sport. He absolutely does. He absolutely does.

And which is so good at his craft. Speaking of social media, why did you decide to be at Mex Warrior on Twitter? You're at Chavagrao Jr. on Instagram at Mex Warrior. Because Twitter was the first

kind of really the first big-time social media where you get all your stuff out there. You had Facebook at a time. Facebook wasn't that yet. I used to visit for like, you know, my own personal things from people from high school

and that kind of stuff. But Twitter and somebody already used at Chavo. Okay. Oh, just Chavez. And at Chavez-Garero. And I believe they used At Chavagabroo Junior.

So I'm like, well, what else I'm going to do? That's why I used At Mexican Warrior, at Mex Warrior. That's why I did that. And I don't know. There you go. I feel like you could probably get at Chavagraero back if you wanted it. If I wanted to pay for it, right? I don't know.

It makes some sort of like a trademark claim and just be like, hey, that's my name. Yeah, you know, yeah, but, you know, people trademark. You know, dot coms and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. Thank God I own chowbroughbrogion.com. But there's other stuff. things that I tried to get that, you know, we're taken already. There's people that that will, I mean, it's a great little hustle, the side hustle,

they actually trademark all of these domains and then we'll sell them off. If somebody wants them, so you trademark, I don't know, like a Nike.com before Nike, and the Nike's got to buy it from you. Of course, that didn't happen, but just something like that, you know. How often do you keep in contact with Dwayne Johnson? with his production company a lot with Dwayne himself Dwayne's a pretty busy guy

If I need to call him Different story I could call the people To get to take a message to him 100% But he's got He's pretty hands on during Young Rocks Yes he was definitely hangs on during Young Rock Really the main wrestling guys

Was Brian Gerwitz And myself We really had a lot to say with the wrestling but we always deferred to Rocky, I still call him Rocky, to Dwayne. We really deferred to Dwayne and everything because that's his shows, his character that we were opposed, his story.

So any of the wrestling stuff, we kind of would run it by Dwayne a lot of times and he'd give the thumbs up or, hey, change that, add this, you know, stuff like that. What about Vince? So you talked about Vince earlier on. What do you think is the biggest thing you learned from working with Vince McMahon?

Vince, I've learned a lot of, of things what to do and what not to do as well um you know Vince he's what I've learned from Vince is the main thing is this and it's coming from Vince's mouth to me he goes you know Chavo and his his voice his deep voice he's got this everyone does events I love it Chavo I have I have failed a lot more than I've succeeded but when I succeeded I succeeded very big and I made me think like he was not afraid to to to crash and burn. You know, he, if he, to help finance the Ali and Noki fight, he helped finance Evil Caneval jumping the Snake River, if I'm not mistaken. This is things I've heard, of course,

I wasn't out there, but those, you know, those weren't real, there's a lot of big flops, but also he financed, you know, Russellmania by mortgaging his house and mortgaging everything. And he told me, he goes, if this wasn't a hit, if Russellmania 1 was not a hit, he was done. Wow. And of course, look what it turned into. But I learned that. You know, I really learned that from Vince was, was, don't be afraid to fail, you know. And you never lose. You just learn. Yeah. You really, you really don't, you know, and I wouldn't be where I'm at now with my failures in the past. They put me on this path and made me make certain and right decisions later on. it's pretty amazing because a lot of wrestlers don't think about life after wrestling.

Right. You were very good at going, all right, what's next? Maybe you could have done it earlier, like you said. Absolutely. But this career that you're doing now has the potential to overshadow what you did before. Yeah, I just got there from Eric Bischoff the other day. We were having a beer at one of the Russell Cades, you know, Russell Ballers Cades. We're having a beer and he goes, charmed, he goes, this is from his mouth.

And I don't know, his opinion in mine, but. he goes, out of all the people that got into Hollywood, you're doing the best. And I was like, okay, hold on. There's Dave Batista, there's John Cena, there's the Rock. And he goes, well, except for exception for the Rocks, who's got his own production company. He goes, but everybody else has a shelf life in a sense.

Yeah. He goes, yours doesn't have a shelf life. You can do it until you can't think anywhere. You can be 85 years old still doing what you're doing. I go, I guess you're right. That's true. But I didn't really think. about it that way. I just, you know, I've been on camera a lot and, and that's very, very hard for

wresters. We're such egomaniacs that we have to be to be in that position to be a pro wrestler. Yeah. But I just feel that like I didn't want to stay on camera and have to, okay, I got to be the one. I've done that. I want to be behind the camera and it's much more rewarding to me. Like, I see what something starts out on paper or as an idea and we follow it all the way through. and then I see it on the screen or on TV and it's like, wow, that was a lot of hard work

and we got it done. It's pretty cool to see that. It's really, it makes me think. It makes me use my mind a lot. Wrestling, being in the ring to me, it was just, to me, was just second nature.

And I didn't, it was just like a sixth sense. I didn't have to think. It just happened. Yeah. But in, in Hollywood, you definitely do have to think and just really use your brain

and it's like a jenga puzzle. Constantly like, like, I'm doing like, like, rain man. I'm like, okay, the square root of the hypotenuse, the light triangles. I'm putting all these things together. Like, okay, that has to work. And then I got to put this camera on this camera angle on,

and I got to use this actor's ability, but then I got to change that because I got another actor in here, and then we've got a script, and it's a lot of juggling act. It was awesome, man. When you get it done, it's amazing. There's sometimes that I'll just sit in the ring.

I'll go to the ring before we shoot. I'll get there an hour before, and I'll just start looking at, placement where I had, okay, okay, I had placement of these guys here. And I'm kind of like really thinking about how, how am I going to, how am I going to, how are we going to shoot this? Is that right? Maybe I should pivot these guys on this part of the sequel, of the wrestling choreography this way. And then there's another thing.

Like, sometimes they bring in different cameras that I didn't know they're going to have. For instance, on Young Rock one season, they brought in a crane, a jib, a crane camera. And I'm like, oh, I didn't know you're going to have this. I said, hold on a second. I said, okay, when we first shot there, we had, at one point I had one of the wrestlers pressing another one of the wrestlers and then dropping them and going to something else. I said, well, now you have the crane there.

What if I had, if the rest, if the actor can do this, I'm going to have him press this other actor and hold him for my two or three beats until I see that crane pull out. As soon as that crane starts pulling out, I'll have him drop the wrestler. But when he drops, I'm going to the rest of the actor, drop the actor. but then I had him circling to his left, or I had him circling to his right, but that's crossing B camera.

That camera plays really good at this part. So I'm going to have him, it's going to seem weird, but I'm having him crossed through the left and then face B camera after that. So we shot it, and they're like, that's a shot. That's it.

So it's a very fine line because I'm not directing, at least not yet. I'm not directing. I'm working with the director to have, to get him that, shot.

Yeah. In a sense, you know, it's, it's a fine line. I'm not trying to step on any toes, but I'm, we're both trying to put on the,

the best, you know, the best scene is possible. Thank God, I've had only great directors that saw that. Yeah, absolutely, just do it.

And I haven't had the people that are like, egomaniacs going back, no, I'm the director. I say, so until then, when that comes,

and it'll be, you know, sometimes you've got to shut up and like, all right, you're a director. And they, you know,

And there's a lot of times that I second guest, Vince McMahon. And then afterwards, I'd see it on TV. And I'd be, damn it, he was right. You know. So we've both seen the Iron Claw. Yes. What do you think wrestling fans are in for when they see this? They're in for an awesome ride with some really great wrestling,

but a great story. It's a great story about a tremendous wrestling family that had a lot of trials. and it really shows the glue that can either keep a family together or can completely tear them apart. Yeah, and get ready to cry. Yeah, you know. There's definitely a few of those things. For sure, but also, too, I mean, you could have left the screening thinking,

okay, I got to, that's it. My life's over. I'm slid my wrist because being so sad because that's what that story could have gone. But it didn't. And if you look at the end, you almost leave like, I mean, it was a standing ovation in doubt. That was pretty awesome, wasn't it?

I wasn't sure what to expect because I saw a screening of it, but a screening of just me and the director and the editor is one thing. I'm looking at, you know, how are the Rustin fans going to react? I'm like, you know, there's people that are not happy unless they're unhappy, so they're going to criticize anything. And I get it. I get with, I'm going to, I already know I can always tell what they're going to say about certain things. And maybe not the wrestling scenes,

but a certain actor's portraying other people, you know, I could see it. But at the same time, that's not, we weren't really tailoring it just for them. We're telling it for, you know,

for the mainstream audience to actually see a great film. Yeah. So I just think that the wrestling fans are going to see something that's pretty awesome. That's paying homage to their,

what they like. Yeah. wrestling fans what happens a lot of times they get you know they'll get made fun of because you're liking wrestling from people that don't get it and once people get it like oh i get it now okay but this is like we're doing it a service like really really like giving these wrestling fans something awesome they can be proud of that's what i'm really proud of yeah i mean the excitement leading into this is huge i think after the movie comes out people are just going to be talking about this like crazy So I'm so glad we got to like dive deep into this.

This is going to make people even more excited to see the movie. I hope so. I hope so. It's a great film, man. It's a great film and it's just go watch it. Even if you're not a racing fan, you're going to love it. It's like Ford v. Ferrari. Yeah.

If you didn't want to make a racing fan, it's still a great movie. Yeah, great example. So I'm going to ask you the question that I ended our last interview with and that I end every interview with. What are three things in your life you're grateful for right now? I always say my family's. you know, number one for sure, you know. I'm grateful for my faith also as well. I'm just grateful to wake up every morning.

You know, I'm grateful to wake up and be like, I got a pretty good life. My wife is, my life is pretty, it's pretty awesome, you know, and sometimes I just look around my, you know, my house and my family and just think like, right now, so I'll decorate for Christmas and stuff, and I looked at my wife the other day, and I was like, hey, thank you for making our house

a home. Because it's, it really is that. It's a testament to her. It's 100% her. But I said I'm really grateful for her. You know, I'm in a really good spot. I love that. Yeah. Chavo, so good to see you.

Thanks, man. Great to see you. Thanks for having me. Of course. My pleasure. Awesome. Hey, there we go. There we go.

I told you in the intro that this interview would only make you more excited to see the movie. And I mean, come on. Come on. I've seen it twice now. I saw it at the world premiere. in Dallas. That's where you saw

some of those interviews on the red carpet. I also saw it last night at the L.A. premiere. And by the way, John Sina was at the L.A. premiere. Couldn't see him, but I heard he was there.

No, John Sina was there, chatted with him briefly. So the movie comes out in the U.S. at least. December 22nd. As a wrestling fan, you're going to love it. If you're not a huge wrestling fan

or someone in your life that you want them to come see the movie with you, but they're like, It's a wrestling movie. I don't know. It's a movie, like Chavo said, that just, it's for everyone. And it's mostly really about, like, relationships and family, everything that goes on with that. You're going to love the movie.

If you enjoyed this interview, if you loved this interview, snap a screenshot and tag us. Just let us know that you're listening to this. Tag us on social media. He's at Mex Warrior on Twitter. He's at Chavo Guerrero Jr. on Instagram. I'm at Chris Van Fleet on all. of them. And how about this quote from Cicero to wrap things up here? And I just feel like it's fitting for Chavo's whole story of like, what do I do after wrestling? Like, what should I get into?

This quote is so fitting. More is lost by indecision than wrong decision. One more time. More is lost by indecision than wrong decision. Be great. Be grateful. We will see you on the next one. For some more insight with former WWE superstar Lacey Evans on the show. 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 banjo, but get up in here. The Jim Rome show podcast. What should be?

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