Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Chris Bey On Joining Bullet Club, NJPW, IMPACT Wrestling & Betting On Yourself

Episode Date: June 15, 2022

Chris Bey (@dashingchrisbey) is a professional wrestler known for his time in IMPACT Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling. He joins Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios at Wynn Las Vegas to talk about how he got started as a pro wrestler, moving his entire life to Las Vegas to chase his dreams, how he got signed by IMPACT Wrestling, winning the X Division Championship, his main event with Rich Swan, joining Bullet Club in NJPW and much more! If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Blenie! Oh, man. Oh, man, I love when we can say it. Welcome to another episode of the Chris and Chris Show. We did it yesterday, that great conversation with Chris Hemsworth. We're doing it today with the ultimate finesseur, Chris Bay. And I've said it before, I will say it again.

I haven't met a Chris that I don't like. And this story is just going to inspire you. so much. Talk about someone who left everything to chase their dreams. That's what Chris Bay is all about. For him, it's pro wrestling, but I know in your life that you have big dreams or big goals that you want to chase after, but something's standing in the way. And I'm hoping this episode gives you that nudge that you need to get out of your comfort zone. On social media, he's at Dash and Chris Bay. I'm at Chris Van Fleet, and please snap a screenshot, tag us so we know you're listening and so we can share this out. And if you haven't yet, make sure that you're

following the show wherever you're listening to this right now, because we've got some big interviews on the way, really big interviews on the way. Miles Teller, Awesome Kong, Kevin Hart, Woody Harrelson, and former UFC heavyweight champion, Frank Mear, just to name a few. So good. But right now, it is finesse time. Please welcome Chris Bay. Welcome in. Thank you so much for coming by. I'm here. You're here.

This is crazy. We're making this happen. Let me look. Take it in for a second. Make sure it's real. Look, I still do that too. Good. I record here like every two-ish weeks.

And every time I walk in here, I do the exact same thing. I go, I get to record here. Hey, never lose it, bro. Look, it's your name. And the lights. That's my name. Well, it's also your first name. You know, we're sharing the name.

I haven't met a Chris I don't like. Like, come on now, me neither. I don't, I really don't think so. Yeah, me neither. The ones who spell it with a K, they can lose, but I don't know. They're decent. They're decent. They're decent, but they ain't us.

Yeah, they're not. They're just not chrises, you know? No, yeah, exactly. It ain't got to. No. They're not. It's like, like, when you crumb with the paper, Chris versus like Chris, you know what I mean?

I love how you have such a great name, Chris Bay. Yeah. And then when people find out that's your real name. Yeah. It's like, oh. Like, I don't even think you could have. come up with a name, a wrestling name that sounds like good? I couldn't.

My first wrestler name was terrible, and everyone made sure. It was actually terrible? It was actually. Like the name terrible. No first one last year. Terrible, Chris Bay. Terrible. What was it?

It was, so shout out Roderick Strong. It was Chris Strong, the genetic genius. Oh, that's pretty good. I thought it was pretty hard, but everybody in Vegas all my trainers and stuff, they were like, wait, your name's Chris Bay? they were like, why don't you just wrestle is that? Yeah. I didn't know how wrest it works.

So I was like, I don't want to get heat with anybody. This guy thinks he's so cool to use his name, whatever. So I was like trying to. This guy thinks he's Kurt Engel. Yeah. Orr. Randy Orton, I'm trying to think about other people using the real name. John Sina, right?

John Sina. Dr. Thuganomics. Wow. So your original name was Chris Strong. My backyard wrestling name was Chris Sharp. Look. C.S. I think that's actually pretty good now.

C.S. And C. C.S. Chris Sharp and Chris Strong. We could have been like the sharp, strong tag team. Come on now. Come on now. The Chris and Chris connection.

Ooh, now with the CNC. We're making this happen. Come on now. Oh, we already got the pose. Wow. Yeah, we got it. But Chris Bay is a really good name. Thank you.

And there's so many things that can, and you've already played into it so many times. So many things that that could work with. Yeah. Did you realize that a kid, like when you were a kid, that you had a great last name? When I first realized it, I was in middle school, and I was writing down my initials on a piece of paper.

It was biology class. Terrible by biology. So I wasn't paying attention. And I'm just writing down my name like a million times over and over and over. And just looking at it. And I think that's when it dawned on me. I was with my old friend P.K. at the time. Shout out P.K.

And I'm looking. I'm like, yo, hey, read this right here. And I was like, imagine this. He's like, Chris Bay, dog. I'm like, yeah. Imagine that. Like on the back of the football jersey or something. Like on a back of like, imagine that.

That would look cool, right? Yeah. And I was going to start rapping again. I had written raps and stuff at the time. So I was going to start rapping again and recorded stuff. So I was like, okay, I'm going to drop everything under the name Chris Bay. That's how I'm going to do it now. It's still going to the world of its own.

Yeah. I never even thought about how cool it was until I wrote it literally a thousand times and saw it in front of me. And he was like, yo, this is actually really cool. Was this you practicing your autograph or literally just printing out your name. I was printing it out the next week I was practicing the I like the evolution of that story. You got to walk before you crawl. Did you think at one point as a kid that you were

going to play pro football or you wanted to? Never, never, never, never, but I just, I know the, like, the aesthetic of a football jersey and how cool it looks. Three letters and two numbers. Yeah, that is pretty cool. I'm saying, I don't even watch football. Never really have. What? I've owned football jerseys. I've been fan of football players throughout the years. Like, are you? used to be a Cowboys fan in the early 2000s,

just because I like stars. You know, my first tattoos is a star. The logo alone sold me in the colors. I was like, okay, cool, I can rock the Cowboys. My best friend was from Texas. He was a big Cowboys fan. So I was like, yeah, I'm with you guys. Everybody, where I'm from is a Redskins fan

or whatever they call themselves these days. The Washington football team? Yeah, basically. Is that the name? That was, they just got a new name, right? The Commanders. The Commanders. They were the Washington Football Team for a few seasons.

Okay, yeah. Now that the Washington Football Team. it out. Yeah. The commanders. Thank you. They rep commanders out there. I don't.

I rep whatever my friends rep. So that's kind of how that's, I wasn't a football fan. I just was thinking about the aesthetic of a football jersey. Man. Yeah. So where does your story begin? Not as a wrestler,

but as you, the man person. Yeah, yeah. I was born in Maryland originally and I grew up in Alexandria, Virginia. So pretty close to D.C. Very close to D.C. A lot of my family is still in that area there in D.C.

there in Maryland, pretty much 99% of my family with the exclusion of myself and my grandmother and uncle who live here in Vegas. But all my family's back there, started back there. I grew up in Alexandria, Virginia. I have five older brothers. And where are you and the six of you? I'm the youngest. Wow.

I'm the baby. You're the baby bag. The baby baby. That's exactly why I'm so tough because they was jumping me coming up boy. They was giving me the beats by Dre. Where are you in size then compared to them? Well, naturally, I was always super small until high school. And I was like, okay, I want to be a pro wrestler.

I should start lifting weights. I started lifting weights. But height-wise, I'm taller than my mom, taller than my dad was. I have a couple brothers who are taller than me. But I'm the most, I would say I'm the strongest. I'm the most aesthetically pleasing, I guess. They don't look bad, but they don't go to the gym. You have the most finesse.

100% clearly. Most clearly. That's the first drop. The finesse. We're counting how many times

we can do a finesse drop during this conversation. Yeah, yeah. Bro, they beat me up, man. It was good times. They were wrestling fans, so that's how I first got into wrestling.

Do you remember the first match that you saw or the first, like, maybe person that really drew you in? Yeah, yeah. The very first person I saw in the moment, too, I remember watching wrestling,

you know, whenever my brothers had it on because mind you at the time I'm probably you know three very young attitude era what people call the height of wrestling I remember going to blogbuster

and getting Survivor Series was it 99 or 2000 where a Triple H big show in the rock fight for the WWE championship so I'm hit by the car or whatever so they do this other thing Triple H's entrance

bro Ambien the champion's strapped up, delighting the song. And then when he takes the belt off, it's. That moment alone, I was like, yo, I got to be him. Like, I got to be Triple H tomorrow. Like, mom, next day I'm tying socks around my elbows for elbow pads and around my knees. I'm like, yeah, this is the look right.

I don't got boots. So I got the long socks. So it looked like boots, you know, like I'm walking out of my drawers. It's crazy. And you're three? Oh, yeah, spinning water all over the house. Yeah, my mom was not happy. It's amazing because I was a huge Triple H fan.

at that same time. I'm obviously, you know, a bit older than you. Yeah. It's amazing how it just goes to show how an entrance can change your opinion about somebody. Oh, 100%. Like, you know, Triple H was my favorite wrestler at that time, but it was a lot of it because of how he entered the ring. Uh-huh.

Yeah, it tells the story. And that was when he had the one, two. Is this the one? That's the one right there. Yes, that's the song. Oh, so good. My time. Yeah.

Oh, Jimmy, he with that triple H. That still is on my workout, believe. Whenever that comes on, I start flexing my quads real tight, get the last pop in. Who is that the best Triple H entrance theme? Yes, 100%. Yeah. Someone was debating, wasn't you? Someone was debating on Twitter like a week ago.

No, it wasn't you. Someone was debating whether Line in the sand or the game is the better Triple Age song. And I was like, yo, what about? Line of the Sand isn't even a Triple H song. There's also King of Kings. King of Kings is. I would have took that. And then there's the Hunter Hearst Helmsley song.

Come on now. I'm going to make a Twitter call when we're done here. And those are going to be the questions. Make it real. Make it legit. Don't throw a line in the same. Okay. So we got my time.

My time. The game. The King of Kings. Okay. All right. So rank them for me right now. Right now. Okay.

From best to worse. Yeah. Best to worse. Okay. So we'll go my time first. The game next. Because King of Kings is cool, but it ain't like. Down to it.

You know what I'm saying? It was like it. It was like an alternate theme. Yeah, exactly. And for that, I'll give it fourth place, and I'll give Hunter Hearst 3rd. Wow. Because I like to shake things.

I like controversy. Wow. Why would you do that? It's because I'm the Bay Blood, okay? That's me. Okay? That's me. I'll do a courtesy for you right now if you want.

You know, I'll give it to you because if it wasn't for Hunter Hurst Helmsley, we wouldn't have Triple H. Oh, facts. Yeah. No. So, okay. You have to go through certain levels and character arcs to become who you all. And everything had to happen the way it was so we could get the guy.

So was it at three years old? You know, you don't really have a full concept of how the world works. Yeah. But were you like, I want to be a wrestler when I grew up? It was between that or the first black president, Obama, he beat you to it. Tight. I was at seventh grade when I vote. I was tight when you got it because I wanted you to win.

But you also took my whole dreams away from me like so many years before I could even try to achieve it. It's crazy. I was black president at my elementary school. I was trying to be you before you was you. You were class president? No, school president. Yeah, man. Hey, congratulations.

I was Valley Elementary School. Shout out. Wow. No, I was that, but it was around eight, I think, when I knew I wanted to be arrested. It was the moment where Eddie Guerrero won the WWE championship from Brock Lesnar. And that summer, whenever they released his cheating, death, stealing life DVD, I don't know if you remember it. Yeah, of course.

I got that DVD, and we couldn't afford cable, I think, that summer or, you know, whatever. So we're just watching DVDs and stuff all summer. So it was a lot of bring it on reruns, you know what I'm saying? And, like, a lot of cheating and that's stealing life because that was the first wrestling DVD I got. I had a couple of VHS, and that was the first DVD I got. And I watched it every day for that summer. I swear to you, every day I watched it over and over. So watching that story play out every day.

Yeah. Every day. And then my family, you know, I've had people who had alcohol addictions, you know, other addictions, people going to jail, you know, people killed, whatever. I've had a lot of hardships throughout my family that I've seen growing up that when I saw Eddie's story, I was like, you know what? He had so much adversity and he was able to overcome it. He got his family back, you know, he made it to the top of the business where people

thought he never could. And not only that, but the adulation and the building when he won the title, watching that every day, I was like, man. And I never even knew how it was going to end up playing out because at the time, you know, he talks about when he goes up on the ramp and he holds his title up and he's thinking about his dad. I still had my dad in my life all those years. So I never knew that my story will one day kind of repeat the same similar, you know, but just that story, man, I was like, man, this is what I want to do with my life. I want to make people feel how this is making me feel, how this has made me feel every day this whole summer. That DVD was an escape

for me and those moments were escapes for me. So I knew when I saw that, that it was what I wanted to. I feel like when you tell people you want to be a pro wrestler, it's kind of met with like, all right, but what do you want to really do it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, all the time. My mom and dad were certain

that I was going to grow out of it in my teenage years. They were certain. Because my brothers all did. You know, my brothers didn't stay past 2001. That was, I may be able to stop watching wrestling. So for me, you know, 2007, 2008 comes around him

12, 13 now. Still buying figures. My dad's like, yo, I'm not buying you. No more figures, bro. You got to get a new hobby because this ain't it. So, all right. We collecting DVDs now. Okay, that's what it is. I'm going to get all the DVDs and just binge watch everything. So there was no more figures on the DVDs.

And they were certain that I was going to grow out of it. And fortunately, I never did. Yeah, you still might grow out of it one day. It's possible. I thought it was going to happen. Not long ago. I thought it was going to happen, but we're still here, baby.

I want to go back to what you were saying about Obama. Yeah. What did it mean for you in 08 when he got elected? Man, it meant that we were legit living in new times. That's what it felt like for me because I didn't understand the struggles of the people of my past because I didn't live it. And at the time, I was so young that I really couldn't concept or, you know, fathom the concept. So when Obama won his presidency and people were happy about it and just seeing such a strong representative of us and someone so well-spoken, so educated, seeing that, I was like, man,

okay, so this hasn't happened up until this point, but it seemingly just happened so easily. There's no limit. There's no limit now. what they say we can or can't do because clearly whatever we can't do we can do. Yeah. So what else have they told us that we can't do that we can probably do? That's when those wheels kind of started turning for me. Just the way that he spoke was like he's so charismatic.

Yeah. And, you know, being wrestling fans, you're like drawn into that, like just naturally. Yeah. Like the way that he spoke, I was just like, it's just so charismatic. Whether you vote for him or you don't vote for him, when he speaks, you're just like, you want to pay attention. He has flavor. That's flavor.

That's some flavor. Does he have some finesse? There it is. Shout out Tasha Steele's flavor and finesse. You know what I'm saying? Clothing line coming soon. We're color-abbing, but he had a little bit of finesse. Not as much as the ultimate finesse.

Your girl's favorite. But he had a lot. That's such a good line, by the way. I'm so glad. I'm so glad Jay White has a cool accent. Because I've been saying it for a year and a half and nobody realized until I finally got Jay to say it. And everyone's like, yo, that's the coolest thing ever.

And I'm like, thank you. Teardrops. I've been saying this for a long time. But I tell Jay, too, I'm like, yo, thank you for being you. Because when you said it, you made the difference. He does have a cool. He really does. He's just cool.

He's just cool. Well, so were you. I think that's why we get along. I think that's why it works. He walked in the room and someone was like, yo, get a jacket because it's chilly in here. And then I walked in the room and someone was like, yo, is this? it's raising it here. And then they look and they've seen

the two coldest people that ever existed. Oh! Yeah. Ever and pro wrestling. That is a bold statement. It's a bold statement. I plan to back it up throughout the next couple years.

I love it. So what point in your life do you realize this is actually a reality? You can actually do this. And by the way, the reason we're sitting here in Las Vegas in this beautiful studio is because you live in Las Vegas.

I do. The story begins in the D.C. area. Yes. But you move out here for wrestling. Yeah, yeah. So I implore all wrestlers to do your research because there's so many schools throughout the country that you can learn how to wrestle from that will offer you different coaches, different availability, different styles of training, different techniques, different opportunities. I had been doing research since maybe I was 15 or 16, you know, high school,

I'm in computer graphics class, not doing any computer graphics work. Adobe photo, I wish, now looking back, I'm like, man, I wish I was actually doing work because that stuff could have came in handy. Illustrator and Photoshop, I was somewhat decent until I stopped paying attention. So I wish I would have paid attention a little more, but I used to be researching emailing Team 3D Academy. Hey, my name is this, sat in a third. I want to train. What's the age requirements? Email in Ring of Honor.

Hey, my name is this at the third? What's the age requirements? Email in any school I could see watching Santino Bros. videos on their YouTube channel, like, making sure the teacher is coming. Let me, okay, that's how you do an arm drag. I'm a tap in. I was tap in, already doing my research. And then when I was 18 to 20, I graduated.

I knew I needed to, wrestling was what I wanted to do, but I had no money. No. I remember one day specifically sitting on the side of the road, and I had like 70 cents, and I was just like, man. I can't even afford to go in here and get something to eat. Like, I got, I got to get a job, like something. But it was hard, I guess, fresh out of high school with no experience at 18. I guess a lot of people in my town had gotten to it a little earlier.

So people have experience at 16, 17, whatever. I just wasn't getting hired anywhere. Shout to my brother at the time who made a call to his old job, Rocklands Barbecue in Alexandria, Virginia. And they took me in with open arms, man. And that became my family for the next two years. What was your job there? I was a cashier service representative, so I did everything from ringing people up to

serving the food, to cleaning the restaurants, we did catering parties. I did it all, man. What was the best item on the menu? It depends what you like, man, but you get the three meat platter and you'll go crazy. Done, done. You get the brisket, you get the chopped pork, and you get the full chicken. Two sides of your choice, a nice little piece of cornbread on there. You can't go wrong.

So you get the job, then you start saving up? Yeah, I'm saving up, I'm saving up, and I'm watching wrestling. I'm saving up. I'm watching wrestling, I'm saving up. And the more I save up, the more I'm letting the doubts of people creep into my mind because my friends are off at college and they're coming back and they're, you know, the time off. And they're coming, seeing me at the restaurant. I'm behind the counter.

They're on the other side, which symbolizes freedom to some people's viewpoint, whatever you're looking at. I'm in this box. They're not. They're just like, yeah, man. So how's the wrestling thing going for you? And I'm like, you know, they're still just saving, trying to figure it out, you know? And the more of the time is going by,

more, I'm like, man, I am procrastinating. So I'm looking, I'm looking. Fast forward to my 20th birthday, February, 2016. And I'm like, you know what? I had a friend who lived here in Vegas. I was like, you know what? I've never been to the West Coast. Only ever seen it in movies.

I'm going to go to Vegas for my movie. So I came to Vegas, and I'm used to having winters on my birthday. You know, growing up in the East Coast, it's cold. I get snow on my birthday a lot of times. Yeah, yeah. It's 13 degrees when I board. this flight. I land in Vegas to 76 degrees. And I'll never forget

thinking, I've never experienced a birthday where it's not cold. So I'm having the time of my life throughout this Vegas trip. I'm there for like three or four days. And the last day, it dawns on me where my buddy is just like, yeah, man, they probably got wrestling here.

And I was like, they probably do. Yeah. And I looked at up, future stars of wrestling. Okay. I didn't have enough time to go see the school, though, before I left. which that just I was like, damn, am I going to go back on another vacation or what? Because I wish I would have got to see it.

So the next month, my dad passes away. I get the call that, you know, he had been going through colon cancer at the time. I get the call that things are getting rough. So it was like a two-week period of my life where I would get off work, these long shifts at Rocklands

and go sit in the hospital with my dad where he was unresponsive, you know. It went from the first day where he was still relatively normal, eyes open, but still not responsive to like, now his body starts rejecting the medicine and I'm watching my dad's, like, physical appearance change and his body's just swelling up until like the last day where they're just like, yeah, it'll probably be pretty soon now. Now I'm in the room with him, and I'm in the room with him, and I'm standing over him,

and I'm just like, man, this is real. And when I finally felt like my knees were no longer strong enough to stand, I went and took a seat. And it seemed like as soon as I took a seat, the machine started beeping, and the nurse came in. And I remember telling me, like, if you have any last words, you know, now is the time. And selfishly, the first thing that went through my head, the first two things was one, I'm never going to get to feel an embrace from him again. I'm never going to get to, you know, shake his hand, hug him, you know, hear his laugh.

And selfishly, and I still call this so selfishly, the second thing I thought was he never got to see me pursue my dream of being a pro wrestler because he bought all the wrestling toys, all the DVDs, took me to like 12 or 13 WWE events. He did not care for wrestling, you know, but like, but he knew you did. He knew I did, you know, and I think fondly of all those trips sitting in, in D.C. in the arena, watching my heroes for the one time of year I get to see wrestling because I had no wrestling friends who liked wrestling. I had nothing but getting out of school and going and watch it on TV. or when they come to town the one time of year.

So I'm remembering looking over at him and him just like, and I'm just like, but he's there. He's there, you know? Yeah. And those are probably some of your best memories, but I. Oh, the finest memories, bro. Like, I wouldn't trade it for the world. And after that happened when he passed away, his funeral was the same week.

A funeral and birthday was the same weekend of WrestleMania 32. And I decided to go to Connecticut for WrestleMania 32 to watch it on pay-per-view with one of my friends who I had been friends with online for a while, who's a huge wrestling fan. I was like, you know what? I'm going to go hang out with him for the first time ever and be around someone who cares about wrestling right now because that's what I need to be around. So I remember doing the funeral, hopping on a plane, going to Connecticut, watching NXT that weekend, watching Hall of Fame. And here we all watching WrestleMania. The biggest WrestleMania there was up until this point there in Dallas. Dallas, Texas opening match,

Zach Ryder, Matt Cardona is in the match when he's not even supposed to be. I think Neville got hurt or whatever, and he wins the intercontinental title, and his dad gets in the ring. And I'm watching this pissed off because I'm like, I'm never going to get to live this moment.

How the hell did I just have to bury my dad two days ago? And now I'm watching this guy be celebrating at WrestleMania when the Intercontinental Championship with his dad. And I'm just like, you know what? That's it. I'm getting the fight. off my ass. I got to do this, bro. I have to do this now. Excuse me, my language,

I have to do this now. I started really researching Future Stars of Wrestling and seeing what the cost was, the tuition, seeing what the cost of living in Vegas was compared to where I was. And I made a call. He left a message. And they called me back right when I was about to start a workout. Joe DeFalco at FSW Futures of Wrestling. He gave me the whole lowdown. No pun intended because they do have DeLo Brown over there. Gave me the lowdown. about the school. And I was like, man, that sounds great. I'll probably see you in a couple months.

And he was like, all right, sure, whatever. I hung up the phone. I spent the next like two weeks really deciding if this was the move I was going to make. And then I bought a one-way ticket to Vegas and no insurance. I remember clicking no insurance on it because I was like, nah, that's going to give me a out. I need no outs. Yeah. And I remember going to my mom's room and be like, hey, I just bought a one-way ticket to Vegas.

I'm moving this summer. She was on. and you're going to do what? And I was like, the wrestling, with a wrestling school, she said, okay,

wow, that's what you're going to do. And then you actually did it. I did it, yeah, that's how I ended up here. Wow. I mean,

and there's so many people that want to do something. We'll use wrestling as an example. They want to do it, and then they will start with the excuses. It's too far. It's too much money.

I don't want to be away from my family. I don't want to be away from my friends. And it really just comes down to is it something that you want to do or is it something that you're committed to do it. Yeah. Yeah. There's a difference.

Huge difference. John Ashraf talks about this all the time. Being committed to something means that it doesn't matter anything else that's going on. It doesn't matter what all those excuses are. You're going to make this thing happen. Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly what you did.

That's how you have to do. I used to say the phrase, put my back against the wall so I could do it or do it. Give myself no other choice. You either do it or you do it. You know, there's no don't. You need to do it. That was my mentality about coming to Vegas and making this happen. I legit.

And we were touching on this before we started recording, but people don't understand how much you really have to sacrifice to do this. You know, I didn't just sacrifice the time away from my family and missing my relatives growing up, you know, or, you know, my nieces and nephews growing up. A lot of funerals, a lot of people passed away as soon as I moved, and I couldn't go back for the funerals, you know what I'm saying? I didn't get to be there for my family and for important moments.

After like six months of living in Vegas, not being able to maintain a job that would offer me the time frame where I would still be able to train because for me, training was number one. So when I got a job, it was like, okay, well, we need you to work from 6 to 9 p.m. And it was like, ah, well, sorry, because wrestling training is from 4 to 6. or four to seven, four to eight, whatever. So I ain't going to be able to make that schedule. Oh, yeah, we need to work this weekend.

Well, we have a show, and I'm not booked on it, but I want to set up the ring and help pay my dues, you know, because what did you do for money? Bro, nothing. Wow. Yeah. What I ended up doing first was when I got to that point where I blew through my savings

and I realized I wasn't going to have anything else, I sold on my finest possessions. I sold all my guitars. I had a wrestling belt collection, which a lot of wrestling fans know me before being who I am today, they know me from being on YouTube. I started a channel when I was 12. I used to do belt content where I'd show my replica belts or show, you know,

I ordered it on a re-leather strap, whatever it was. So a lot of people know me from that stuff. I sold all my belts, sold all my guitars. All I had left was a bed, the bed that I didn't have my car anymore. I couldn't afford the apartment anymore. So I had to, for a while, I was sleeping in the school, that I had to move into a friend's place of mine and I was sleeping in the kitchen.

Yeah, I was, but I knew, I knew when I was making all those decisions, man, I knew that if I had wrestling, the rest of it wouldn't matter to me. You know, like where I was sleeping, how much I was eating. Stuff really wouldn't matter to me if I had wrestling because up until that point,

20 years of my life, I've been obsessing over wrestling and didn't have it. And now I finally have it here. So, yeah, I'll trade it all for it. How close were you at any point to going? I'm just going to fly home, Alexandria. Never. And my mom hated me for it because there was times where I'd call her and I'd break down.

I'd just be like, yeah, like, this is hard. I can't seem to get on my feet. I can't seem to make some money, whatever. She's like, yeah, you know, you can come back here probably. and get that job you're working at Rocklands and stack up some more money and I was like, listen, and I know you're not going to want to hear this,

but, and I could hear the pain in her voice, and it pained me to tell her, but I was like, I will legit go homeless here and be homeless here before I go back there because the difference between me here and me there was I got to be me here, and I made a career off. I was outcast.

You know what I'm saying? Like for wanting to be a wrestling thing, people thought it was funny, you know, Like they thought, oh, yeah, you're too small. You'll never, I didn't want to be around that. That place was terrible for me so much so that I avoided it up until a couple of months ago when I finally went back to visit these whole first time. Yeah, all these years I avoided it because of how much I hated it.

I used to have nightmares that I'd go back and someone would try to like hurt me or something, you know, like because where I'm from is a dangerous place where I'm from, you know? And I just didn't know what type of impact I was leaving on the world, whether it was going to be positive or negative, because even the most positive people get targeted for, you know, negative reasons. And, yeah, but when I told I was never coming back, like, I'd go with nothing here,

but still not come back. At what point did things start going your way? Like, you know, you're training and you're fully trained, then you work your first match. But when do things start going your way where you don't have to sleep on the floor in the kitchen? I started to get it a little better with it towards 2018 you know, closer to that time.

2018? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You would already wrestle for Impact at that point. Well, the first time I touched Impact was in 2018. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It took me a while because I was young and dumb, man. I was not at all concerned about real life.

I was only concerned about wrestling and making it in wrestling. So I was negating everything from credit to like my bills to just how much money I have saved. Like I wasn't thinking about any of that because I existed before without all of that. And here I am in adulthood. I don't got, I don't have my dad to tell me these things. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

Like he was, he was a very smart person. And I still ask my mom these days and I still ask myself like, why is he not here for me to ask him these things? And my mom apologizes because she's not able to answer these things for me. But I didn't understand. So I was struggling for a really long time. I just was hiding it because I knew I had this big, brilliant plan that if I worked very hard and hustle quick, I would get a contract somewhere. And then from there, I could start taking other stuff more seriously, which is a terrible idea in hindsight. But it worked out for me.

But yeah, I was going through it. But it wasn't until I stopped wrestling as Chris Strong and I started wrestling as Chris Bay that the wrestling started to make sense. And then things started to fall. That's like prophetic, like the fact that it took you coming back to you back to Chris Bet. Yeah, yeah. To your real name. Yeah, I got it. I had a small injury in the summer of 2017.

And that gave me the chance to get new gear made that said Chris Bay instead of Chris Strong. And come back as Chris Bay at the first match, bro. I just felt the difference. I was out there entertaining the people. I was like, I don't feel like I'm trying to figure out what I should be doing now. I feel like I'm just doing whatever I feel. feel like. Yeah. And that's when it's you're just getting. It's more like you're reacting

rather than like thinking about it. You're in the moment. Yeah. Yeah. What do you think is the biggest lesson that you learn from your father? It's it's a balance between his work ethic and then the man he was and his ability to be patient and handle situations

without you know without moving too fast. You know, he'd move at the perfect speed. Like, I always enjoyed whenever my mom would yell at him because I knew he wasn't going to yell back, you know, like stuff like that, you know, like, I love watching how he handled himself, how he conducted himself with women, how he spoke to people, how he conducted himself and my brothers when he was upset with us, you know, who he was as a man and how he moved

and his work at him, and he worked so hard. He didn't live with us. He worked so hard. He lived in Maryland across the bridge, but that's a 30-minute drive, so we'd see him every weekend. But he worked so hard, you know, five days a week, and then weekends, he's there for us full-time. Taking us to get whatever we wanted, whatever we needed. And all the while, his past that I found out about towards the end of his life, which I knew vaguely, you know, he had been to prison and stuff. But I didn't know he had done so much time that it was like my lifespan at that point.

He did like 20 years in prison. And I was like, I'm 20 now. Like, when did that exist? When did that? At what point did that happen? During your lifetime? This was before me.

Yeah. So like stuff like that where I'm like, oh, so you were a totally different person and then you changed into this incredible person I know today. That's why I'm not so quick to write people off now because I've seen someone personally near and dear to me change who they were and become a better person. That's a great point. Yeah. MVP has a TED talk where he talks about, you know, MVP obviously spent a lot of time

in prison. Yeah. He does a TED talk. where it's like, even though I've served my time, and now I'm out, he still, like, has trouble, like, getting a mortgage, like, basically, I've served my time, but you still see me through that lens. Yeah, yeah.

I love in this story how, like, you saw your dad in a different lens because that man didn't exist for you. Exactly, yeah, exactly. He was just awesome, man, and I wish he was here to put his two cents on what he thinks about. I'm sure he'd be very proud of it. Yeah.

Because when you look at your career on paper, it's amazing. Like you touch impact as you phrase it, but like your first match in impacts like a year-ish into your wrestling career. Yeah, yeah. That in itself is mind-blowing, especially for me as a huge impact wrestling fan, like with AJ and Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle. Like that was what made me a massive impact on TNA fan. And then like you work for WWE, what is it like three-ish years into your career? career. Dude.

It's great. I don't know if I've ever told this publicly, but I did extra work for WW also when I was like a year and a month in or something like that. Where can we see you? So I'm not on screen for this. But I did like a three-day loop with them. And then they gave us to pre-show tryout matches in front of the roster. And I got to wrestle with the Staples Center when I was like 21 years old, like a year

in the wrestling. One of a local wrestler here from FSW, my first tag team chair. champion partner here. My first, like, person I trained with here, this guy named Nino Black. Yeah, he's a local wrestler here in Vegas. And me and him, I just lost the tag titles at the time. And I was like, you know what, bro, if we're going to get matches, like me and you have to wrestle each other here, you know, in the stable center. And that was like a year in. And now you've, you've really made a name for yourself in Impact. Yeah. Like Impact wrestling, uh, Ex-devision champion. I mean, the X-Division also has a very, it's very near and dear to me.

It should be. Yeah. The Exhibition is so special. It's nothing like it, man. Yeah. I credit it for a lot of the style of what wrestling has become, you know? Definitely. We can start with like the Genesis and the cruiserweight division of WCW, but like.

Ex division. And a lot of it was Samoa Joe coming in. Yeah. And it was, you know, it's not about weight divisions about no, or not about weight limits, about no limits. And Samoa Joe really, like, prove that. Yeah. Now you guys are taking it to a whole new level.

level. We have to. Did you see what those guys did that? I know. We don't have a choice. I know. Yeah, these guys set the bar, man. When I first saw the X-Division stuff, that also first drew me to TNA. I was like, oh, yeah. Like, I was so WWE that you couldn't pay me to watch something else. But I saw a six-sided ring. I saw guys like AJ Styles, Christopher Daniel, Samoa Joe, Sanjay Dutt, you know what I'm saying? Motor Street machine guns. I was like, yeah. And then I see like other people, too, who had been in WWE, the rhinos, the team 3D. And I'm like, okay, yeah, so this place has credibility.

But now, yeah, especially something brand new. Especially that era, I'll say it's the pre-Curdangle era. Yeah, right before, yeah, yeah. And then Kurt Engel comes in and everyone kind of goes, oh, yeah, oh, this is legit. And I was, I was, at the time, I was stoked because when Kurt Angle went over to ECW, I didn't, you know, he's still in WV, I don't care. Yeah. But, like, right before he left WWE, there was a show that I went to a Smackdown in the

ECW taping. And I drew, like, Kurt Engel and his singlet at the time that WrestleMania 22 singlet, my favorite singlet of his, I drew him like, full body on this big poster board of it. And I was so, like, excited.

To the point where the show's starting, you know, everyone throws their signs at my mom tried to pick that sign. I'm like, no, no, no, hold this one up first. I want to hold that one off. I want to hold that one off. Tell me why they did a, I think a pre-tape in the back,

where Kerrangle gets, like, ejected from the building and he doesn't even come out that night. And I was like, bro, I made this whole sign for you. A couple weeks later, he's in TNA and I was like, when they did that video where he's in the ring with the hood on, and then he pops it off and he's going,

I love that, right? I was like, oh, no, this is happening. Yeah, this is real. That's exactly what he says, too. Oh, it's real. It's damn real. I was like, oh, this is actually real. Yeah, yeah.

And at that time, I was like, oh, like TNA was like, that best kept secret. You know, it's like when your favorite band, like it's played on the radio for the first time. Yeah. That's kind of what it felt like when Kurt Engel went to TNA. You're like, oh!

And then right after that, or not long after that, it was Sting and Hulk Hogan and like Eric Bishop of the whole, you know, everybody. And Kurt came right after Christian. So like, it was just like, that's true. Christian was a big one. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. When Christian hit, yeah. I still love his theme song. That's my favorite theme song. I had to purposely stand in gorilla at Balancho. for glory to feel that when he came out. I was like, man, ain't a way I'm not about to sit here and feel this.

Did you pull Christian aside and be like, all right, look, give me something. Or did you ask him to me something? 100%. Yeah, yeah. One of the first days he was there, I asked him if he could watch some of my stuff and give me some feedback at the time. And he did.

And I was- What feedback did he have for you? Just some basic stuff about just not wasting motion in wrestling. I'm just picking apart some specific some specific moments of my match where I could have made slight adjustments that would have just changed the whole perception of what just happened

and kind of protected it a little bit more even though that wasn't a lack of protection when you were talking to someone like Christian has wrestled everybody under his son and has been doing it for so long it's the little stuff that really is going to make the world of a difference anyway but he was so cool man when you get to the level that you're at

it really is the 1% changes yeah yeah those little things that are going to make someone legendary or just, you know, another wrestling. Exactly, yeah. But it's also interesting to put your career in perspective, and we kind of list it off, you know, from some of the highlight moments there, but you're only five-ish years in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's crazy.

Yes, that is crazy. Yeah, it's hard. And I don't know if other young wrestlers who have had success relatively quick can, you know, sympathize with this. But I think it's hard to, when you have such success so fast, it's hard to realize what is now realistic or unrealistic of a goal to set for yourself and how you should feel about not attaining it or attending it. Because I had so many goals for myself that I was going to set out on a long course

that were happening so fast. And I was just like, okay, well now I just have to set the bar here. And then I set the bar here and then I didn't quite reach the bar there. Well, yes. You ever reach you, yes. And that's the key. Yet, you have to remember that there's a yet because when you're giving it so fast, you expect it now.

You start to inadvertently expect it now. I didn't want to be the guy. I'm like, oh, yeah, I expect this because I don't. But like, naturally, I was like, well, if I did everything else that fast, how could I, why am I not doing this as fast? Why is this taking me longer? But, like, you're going to get to a point, though, at 29 and 31, you know, when you're post a 10, you know,

years into the business. They're going, oh, my God. I worked my ass off to get where I'm at now. Yeah, yeah. And maybe there's going to be a point where you're like, yeah, it's about time. Exactly. Yeah. And that edge that people get, you know, is what helped build a lot of our greatest versions of the people we love the most. When I think about that edge, I think about, you know, when Triple Age did the thing with Jim Ross. And he listed that he was the game. Yeah. That was the moment. Or when, you know, CM Punk did his pipe bomb. That was like his moment.

That shifts the tides for people. So you want to create a moment? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Many moments. Yeah, and you need the edge to do that, though. So what's the goal? Let's call it the goal in the next 12 months then. Yeah.

To keep shocking the world with everything that Bullet Club is doing. Because Bullet Club is something that people want to say, you know, it was watered down. This was its, this was that, nah, you ain't seen nothing yet. You're talking about the big LG. You're talking about Carl Anderson. Talk about the ultimate finesseer, your girl's favorite wrestler. Talking about Switchblade, Jay White.

Now you're talking about Juice Robinson. You know what I'm saying? We're only getting bigger. Are you getting a piece of that sweet, sweet bullet club birch money? Part of the thing that helped me balance the budget a little bit better. Hey, hey. Hey, give me some of that. I got it in your shot there.

We can do it on the two shot here. No, it's Bullet Club, man. Does that mean everybody who's ever been a Bullet Club member gets a piece of that? Or just the people in Impact? I've never asked, but... Well, are you getting one-sixth of this or one-sixth of this? Whatever is the current... There's not 64 members, I'm sorry.

There's 16 as what I saw the Internet saying. So probably a 16th of the... But... Because that is a hot selling shirt. Yeah, no, yeah. I was talking about this with Tom, but like it's, I think it's the NWO shirt and then that shirt. Yeah. Or like the iconic.

And the DX shirt. Yeah. Those are the iconic wrestling shirts. So much so that in my regular life, I see people wearing bullet club shirts who have no idea who I am. And I think that's awesome, to be honest, because I don't expect people to just know who I am. But I'm a fan of when things can lead over into real life outside of wrestling world. and you can just feel cool wearing without being like,

oh man, I'm wearing a wrestling shirt. The amount of parodied shirts off the Bullet Club shirt, like almost every independent wrestler has some version of their name or face in a Bullet Club style shirt. Yeah, yeah, no, I've seen it, and I'm glad I never created it

because I waited patiently, and then my time came. Funny story. When I first got into wrestling and I was training under Kenny King, you know, he's working at a ring of honor at the time, and Ring of Honor came to Vegas This is Samstown.

I see Bullet Club in person for the first time. And I'm like, I see Adam Cole. And I'm like, yo, Bay, Bay, Bay. Bay, Bay, Bay. Bay, Bay, Bay. Beye, B-E-Y, B-E-Y. Maybe, Adam? We'll talk, Adam.

So you see him. I see him. And I'm working the cables for the camera ringside. I'm ringside. So I'm inside the guardrail, feeling this energy of the crowd, seeing the music, or hearing the music, seeing the music, seeing the Adam Cole come out. And afterwards, I was like, man, this is sick.

And I think I went on my Facebook. And I was like, yo, everybody has a Bullet Club t-shirt. I want a Bullet Club T-shirt. And Kenny King messages me. And he's like, you know, are you in Bullet Club? And I was like, no. And he was like, maybe worry about some Chris Bay works right now. You know, some Chris Bay merch right now.

And I was like, okay. And that was a legit moment that I started worrying about making my own merchandise and stuff and figuring out, okay, I'm a wrestler now. I should figure out about merchandise. But that. always escaped my mind until I joined Bullet Club. And I texted Kenny and I was like, hey, I got my own Bullet Club merch now. I was like, here's this Vanessa Club shirt that you can get on Shop Impact or Shop New Japan, two different versions.

And it's official, like a referee with a whistle. This is actually a Chris Bay shirt. I love asking this question. If somebody has never seen a Chris Bay match, which match do they need to go and look up immediately? Man, that's a tough question. I feel like whenever people ask me that, I don't know how to answer it because I always, I almost always turn the question back around to people. Who do you want to wrestle?

Who do you want to see me, wrestle? What's your favorite match? What's your favorite match of mine? If someone's watching this on YouTube right now, what's the next match they need to, or the next video they need to queue up? Well, I'm going to say because it's just my most recent stuff that you can find out there because I'm big on like, watch what I'm doing right now. Because even if you see something from a year ago, maybe I don't perform at the same level. That's a good point, I think, in a lot.

of professions, where if you don't personally look back on your stuff from six months ago and kind of cringe a little, then you're not doing something right. You're moving in the wrong direction. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I'm the same way about this. You should be because this is nerve wracking. Honestly, sitting here talking to people, interviewing people like, doing interviews is weird. So I can only imagine like being the interview. I just have to listen. That's all. My entire job is listening. But you got to have a cool personality too. You know, I guess. Some people aren't as cool. But I'll, I'll give you a short match.

I'll give you a short match. Jay White and Chris Bay versus Motor City machine guns because obviously you know Motor City machine guns. Okay. So that takes the tag team box. That's the tag team box. You want a singles match? I'll give you two for this.

Okay. And one is older, one is newer. I'll give you Chris Bay versus Rich Swan for the World Championship and final resolution. That only regret I have about that match is that you didn't win. That should have been the actual thing. I didn't finesse it and just get a tight hook on that pen. But my real regret was that it was during this pandemic where no fans got to see it live.

Because if you watch the performance back, me and Rich, we both put so much emotion into it. So to have it in front of an empty house, it just doesn't hit the same as it would if the people were there to feel it. But it was still one of my favorite matches I've ever had because whenever I wrestle Rich, he gives me my funnest matches.

It's just something about him. Yeah. And then that or myself versus Laredo kid from Impact Wrestling recently also. It was probably a couple months ago. They're both on YouTube. All these are on YouTube for free except the Rich Swan match. But me and Laredo kid, check it out. It's lit.

You can see me wrestle that Lucha type style. We went like 20 minutes or something crazy like that. So it's a nice long match. You'll get a feel of how I can go over a course of time. And then there's a crowd there. So there's audio. Did you say that people mistake you for other wrestlers frequently? Yes, all the time.

And at first I thought it was just a trolling thing. But now that it happens more in person, I can see it's not as much as a trolling thing as a... Who is it? It started with Kofi. I can see it. With the hair, yeah. But he's gone on his New Day podcast to clear up that he got the blonde from me. So shout out to Kofi for telling that story because I told it so many times I thought

I was lying. Because, like, how do you tell, you know, like, yeah, yeah. Yeah, people would be like, yeah, yeah, sure, Chris. Exactly. So, like, when he said it, I was like, bro, you don't even understand how much that means to me. I was doing 205 that time I did it. And me and him had met before.

So he, like, he was passing by air, like, a lot of media people with him and stuff. We said, what's up in the bar? He was like, oh, I like, yeah, I like, you hair. It was freshly blonde at the time. He was like, yeah, I was thinking about doing it. Now, I see it. You know, it looks like a good idea. I'm like, do it so they could call us the same person even more.

We both laugh and, you know, spread off. That's exactly what happened. He debuts on Smackdown with it. My timeline's going crazy. Oh, yo, it's Chris Bay on SmackDown. Oh, no, it's just Kofi. You know, but shout to Kofi. He's the goat, man.

And then now it's becoming more so swerve. It was happening. Yeah. It was happening a little bit, but it was still dominantly Kofi, but I guess now that Swirv is on AEW. It's just happening more. We're at Waleh Mania a couple weeks ago, and me and him were walking up the stairs,

and I'm right behind him. And this girl looks me dead in my soul, bro. Like walking in my... She's like, oh, my God, Swerve, can I get a picture? Like, looking me dead in my soul to the point where I stop walking. Look at her and look at him and look back at her. And I was like, it's literally the guy right in front of me. And I just kept walking because I was like...

It's like that Spider-Man meme is the pointing. Yeah, it's like, bro. People are like, are you... Is it trigger you? You need a photo. It can, yes. You need a photo of you, Swerve and Kofi together. doing that.

The day we get that, the internet's finally going to be like, oh yeah, they look nothing alike. Once you put us all three side by side, I think of it.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, Chris is like so short next to these guys. You don't really look that much like them. Yeah, no.

And I've had my moments where like, I've benefited off it. I went, I ran in a jack in the box at the inside was open one time at 3 a. And I ran in.

I was like, hey, the guy was like in the back cleaning. I was like, excuse me. Can I buy a milkshake? He was like, yeah,

give me a second. and he comes up to the front, he's like, hey, you're that wrestler, aren't you? And I was like, which one? He was like, coffee. And I was like, yes, sir, that's me. What's up with that milkshake, though? Is that on the house or what?

And it was. So I was like, hey. You know, like, I've reaped the benefits, but it sucks just because, like, you work so hard to separate yourself and be as you as possible. And then you get immediately discreet. credit by people who weren't even caring to look at the work. They're just like, oh, yeah, you looked at this person. So you're that person.

And you're like, okay. I accidentally peeked through the curtain like two weeks ago at New Japan to film something from my vlog. Someone saw me and they were like, yo, kicks of the bay. Shout out all my feet at work. So I'm like, yo, yeah, let me get you on the vlog real quick. So I'm filming it. Yo, he's like, yeah, kicks of the bay showing his shoes.

And I hear someone in the back in the crowd go, yo, swerve! And then like, I legit disappeared. The curtain. And I was like, bro. Like, bro, I just wrestled like two matches ago. And you're just assuming now that he's here when you just saw me out there. Like, he was grabbing popcorn during that.

He had to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you missed the best match on the night where I was team of Scott Norton. Come on now. Come on. Come on. He didn't have no finesse. Clearly.

Clearly. Another drop right there. Is he what I did that? Are we up to four or five drops? I don't know. It's much more accountable than I assume. It could have been way more. Yeah, yeah.

I was holding off. That's just adlib, some of the finesse. Finesse. Finesse. So the ad lib, whatever you said. There it is. Those are three great matches for people to check out. Have you seen those matches?

I saw the match with Rich Swan. Okay. So good. And you're right. That's a match that as good as it was would have benefited so much more from being able to work off the crowd. Yeah. Yeah.

I heard someone, it was Hurricane, actually. He said, wrestling without a crowd is like a comedian without a crowd. Like going to a comedy show. And it just feels like every joke's falling flat. That is the best description of how I was trying to figure out the pandemic wrestling because I'm a vocal wrestler. I like to tell one-liners. I like to do stuff like that.

Like, if you ever see me live in action, you'll catch a lot of stuff you probably won't get on TV because I'm very vocal like that. And during the pandemic, it was just like a lot of feedback from agents. Yeah, maybe not do that. Excuse me. Maybe not do that. you know, maybe wait until we get crowds back. And I'm like, how else do I entertain the people at home when they're watching this?

If all they're just going to hear is me breathing the whole time, like, whistling physical, like, you don't think that will still help me stand out as me, like, or even- So weird watching those matches back now. Yeah, it's cringy. Yeah. It's cringy. It, and we worked so hard, man.

But there was, it was like, man. I do appreciate that while everything else stopped, NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, All of them. Wrestling never missed a beat. Wrestling got you. Wrestling will always be there for you. Yeah. Always be there.

Why was it, and you told me this off air, why was it that you were unsure about wrestling over these last two years? It started with the pandemic. It started with that because once the world had to legit stop, I'd been going nonstop.

Outside of little injuries, I have been going nonstop since I moved to Vegas, trying to make a career, trying to get signed, trying to do whatever the goal was for that year. I was setting goals yearly. And at the end of 2018, after I did extra work with WWB, I said, okay, I just did impact. And I said, okay, I want to sign with him. So that's where I'm going to work towards goal-wise.

I spent the next year chasing that contract. And then I finally got it, and everything seemed like it was about it great. And I thought I had it all figured out. And then anybody who's anybody existent got shook up by everything that happened. And the reason why I say that is because this isn't a sob story for me because everybody got affected, not just me. But in my position where I got affected at, here I am in Vegas, 2,000 miles away from my family. They're trying to figure out what's going on over there. I'm for the first time not wrestling in five years because we didn't film for like the first nine weeks, I think.

That was my first time off since I started. So here we have time off. The world's shut down. People are trying to balance what's important to them. And I was starting to realize how much my family was important to me. You know what I'm saying? My nieces and nephews are getting older up until this point. To the point where now they can call me or, you know,

have someone call me and they can talk to me and they have a better understanding of what I do. They watch what I do on TV. And I'm just like, man, I'm away from them all the time. I'm not wrestling right now. If things were to stop with wrestling, what would I do to survive? And I started asking myself that. And then I was trying to figure out that for a while. And then I read a book called The Millionaire Fastlane by M.J. DeMarco, which even though

the title makes you think, okay, yeah, he's trying to learn how to get rich. It just taught me a lot of ways to think positive. You know what I'm saying? It switched my shift to thinking of my perception of things. So when I read that book, I got motivated. I bet. I got a gym membership. You know, I was like, all right, cool.

I'm about to get my real life stuff together. Now the world stopped, too. I was, okay, it's time to get my real life stuff together. So focusing all my real life stuff, everything from my vision to my tooth at the time that I got knocked out wrestling in 2018 that I never was able to repair, which weighed on my confidence all these years, whether you see it or not. Now you see me, you know, ultimate finessey, a girlfriend wrestler. I smile a lot. But if you reflect back to me before this bullet club stuff, I didn't smile as much as I smile now.

It was because I had a missing tooth and I was so subconscious about it that if I'd catch myself smiling, I'd prevent myself from smiling. If I'd do something cool in the ring that would make me want to smile, I'd like, I can't have this camera pick up my tooth right now. Like, it was messing me up.

So, like, I finally started fixing all that stuff. Things are great. I've made more money than I've made my life up into this point and then I blew my calf out. And now I'm sitting at home. for two months and I can't even walk to my kitchen and make myself some food. And I'm like, what if this was more serious? What if I would have to have certain? What if I would really be out right now? How would I survive? Like, what am I doing with my? Because these bumps hurt. Now I'm

actually hurt. And I'm like, and fans at the time are still not in attendance at our shows and impact. So I'm like, I'm not getting any type of response off of what I'm doing other than responses online, which for you know, the most part, can be negative. Because those aren't the people who pay to come see the show's live. Those are just people who talk from their phone or whatever. They're not actually coming to support you. So my whole career up until with impact at this point has been in front of nobody. I won the exhibition title in front of nobody, live on paper review, went to the back,

called my mom on FaceTime. She fell asleep and didn't watch the paper. Like, stuff like that is happening to me. And I'm just like, yo, is any of this even real? Like, at this point, like, it doesn't even feel real. now I'm getting hurt. Like, nothing felt certain, and it didn't feel like I was going

in the right direction of what I should be doing. So I started to feel like wrestling wasn't for me anymore. I started to feel like, okay, like, I'm getting older now. I was 25. I was like, okay, now I'm 25. I'm looking towards the later half of my 20s, what do I want my 30s to look like?

I have to start planning for that. What do I want my 30s to look like? And I was like, well, I want to be mobile. been a lot of pain right now. So I want to be mobile. I want to have enough money where I don't have to worry about whether I can afford to eat today

or whether eating today is going to prevent me from eating tomorrow or whatever the case is. You know, like, it was a lot of that that I had to figure out. And then doing, once we got back to live events and we started hitting towns and I started going to these towns

I had never been to and my shirts are selling out at all these impact shows. And yes, it has to do with the Bullet Club stuff. But they're also supported me. So I appreciate it. Now I get to feel that again. You know, you meet people and people tell you how much you've inspired them or, you know,

and it reminds me that, okay, yeah, that's why I got in this business in the first place. It wasn't for the money. It wasn't for what I thought was security because I never thought about the money growing up. I didn't think wrestlers are rich. That wasn't my thing that I thought. So I want to be a wrestler to be rich. So I wasn't thinking about money. I wasn't thinking about financials.

I was just thinking about what you do out there. And then as I started to do it, I felt good. great. And then once I had to stop for that first, nine weeks, then I felt it all. My body finally got to stop. So everything caught up to me. And I just felt like trash. And it took me a long time to shaking. But now doing shows again, meeting people, hearing people's stories. It reminded me of what I'm doing this for and the legacy that I'm trying to leave behind and how much is in front of me rather than what's behind me. You've got a lot in front. Yeah. And I think it's hard to put that in perspective.

when you're 26. Yeah, it is. But these next five years, especially, are going to be so pivotal in your career. Yeah.

So the first five were for kind of like planning your flag, I'm here and you're learning. You're always going to be learning. Always here. But the next five to ten are going to be like,

this is what Chris Bay is all about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I can't wait to show people who don't. Yeah. The people who are still waiting

for me to be in front of a platform that they'd wrap, I'd rather prefer to see. I'm going to invade that Territory. Trust me. Bullet Club will be there. We will be everywhere. The forbidden door is open.

Forbaden door, as I like to call it. Oh. Yeah, it's in a book. You can read it soon coming out of Zune. What is it? The art of finesse, right? You know, it'll have all the bay puns for you, Sun Bay through Monday.

Everyone you want will have. So good. I love how your story is one of sacrifice. So good, because everything, you've sacrificed so much in your life. to get to where you're at right now. But you really are just getting started. Really just getting started.

But you have to remind myself that. And then I have to remind myself to be grateful and to be thankful and to also not lose sight. What a perfect segue. It's like you've listened to an episode before. I end every conversation talking about gratitude. Oh, do you? So what are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now? First things, first, the ability to wake up today.

You know, a lot of people didn't. A lot of people didn't. A lot of people won't make it to the end of today. So I'm just grateful that I got up because once you get up, you have a chance to do whatever it is that it is that you want to do in life. You have an opportunity to take a step towards that. So my first thing that I'm grateful for is waking up. We've all got 24 hours in a day. You all have 24 hours in the day.

I'm also grateful that my family has been supportive in this journey. and that they are doing well also, you know. Their health is all fine. I get to do my first show back home next week. First one, Maryland Championship Wrestling. So all my family and friends will be there. I'll be there too. Will you? Yeah.

Oh, so look. Look at that. I don't know what to tell you about what you're going to see. Apparently, I need to eat Jimmy seafood while I'm there too. That's what they say. I haven't had it. But I also need to have it. So maybe we can have it together.

Done. Maybe we can have it together. But I've heard a lot of great things. about MCW. Yeah, no, me too. I've been trying to get there for years. The only reason why I didn't train there originally was because it was too far originally from where I was at.

I didn't. Yeah, Vegas was much closer. Yeah. It was closer in the idea of the cost of living where I would be. And then also the idea, another reason why I moved to Vegas rather than going somewhere close, I knew if I left everyone I knew and everything I knew, there's no distractions. Burn the boats. Yeah, there's no distractions.

I want to take the island, burn the island, burn the, the boat. Yeah. There it is. So we got family. We got the option of waking up today, which I'll just go ahead and bundle that with health. Because, you know, health is well. I'm grateful for so many things, bro, but I want to give the last one to all of you.

When I say all of you, I mean, you, I mean, people in the back right now. I mean, literally everybody's going to watch this, the people who have come to see shows that I'm on, even if they didn't come to support me, if you bought a shirt, if you didn't buy a shirt, if you liked me, if you hate me, like, you hate me. I'm just grateful that you watch because this is all I ever wanted to do. You know, like all I ever wanted to do, all I ever imagined myself doing was being an entertainer. I used to think about being watched all the time. You know, when I started my YouTube channel when I was 12 and it took off.

I didn't even expect it to take off. I was just like, man, I want to make content because this is what everybody I like do. They're in front of a camera. So I have to be in front of a camera. And then there are a couple thousand views, a couple thousand subscribers. I'm like, yo, this is, people are actually watching this. And they built some of my friendships that are my best friendships to this day. I'm just grateful for all of that love and attention because I know that it may seem like

such a small thing, but it's the fuel that gets me up every day and reminds me that I have a part to play. I have a role to play in this world. And before I leave this world, I have to. have to do the work. I got a lot of work, but in front of me. I want to make sure I get it all done. Love it.

That is such a great spot to end. Why don't we end with one of these? Thank you so much, fellow, Chris. Yeah, oh, likewise, Chris. This was a great interview full of finesse and full of insight. Wow. See what he did there? Wow.

I love this guy. This guy. This guy. No, it's got. Thank you, brother. No, thank you for having me. This has been awesome. My pleasure.

Dream come true, man. I've been watching your stuff for years. That's how I know I'm going in the right direction. Yeah. Up. Top floor. I'm coming to this summer. There we go.

Talk about dreaming big and betting on yourself. What a story Chris Bay has, and he's just getting started. Huge thank you to him for joining us inside the Blue Wire Studios at the beautiful win, Las Vegas. and I appreciate that you brought us along, wherever you are right now, whether you're working out, walking the dog, driving to work,

maybe you're at work right now. I appreciate you. You're awesome. Give Chris a follow on social media. He's at dashing Chris Bay. Give me a follow at Chris Van Fleet and snap a screenshot. Tag us so that we know

you're listening to this one. And I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes ever from Tony Robbins. You know, I always say vague goals, give vague results. And this is like right in line with that. Setting goals. is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.

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. You're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of them? To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Alley.

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