Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Chris Van Vliet is interviewed by WrestleTalk's Louis Dangoor

Episode Date: June 23, 2020

This episode features an interview where I was the guest for WrestleTalk's Louis Dangoor from the YouTube channel "WrestleTalk Interviews". A big thank you to Louis for doing his research and making this a really fun conversation! We talk about some of my favorite interviews, how my YouTube channel started, my broadcasting background, the advice I received from The Rock and John Cena, what it was like being part of the first episode of AEW Dynamite and much more! Thanks to Bet Online for their support on this episode! Use the code BLUEWIRE for a new welcome bonus on your first deposit at http://BetOnline.ag Please take a minute to fill out this BlueWire survey for your chance to win a pair of Apple AirPods! https://bluewirepods.com/survey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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That's a great question. Look at you, man. What's the powerful questions. Woo! This is the Chris Van Bleach Show. Chris Van Bleach Show. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van!

What is going on and welcome to another installment of the Chris VanVille? Fleet Show. This episode is brought to you by Bet Online. And as you saw from the title, this is a bit of a different interview because I'm the one being interviewed here. Most of the time, as you know, I'm the one asking the questions. It's what I love to do. I'm a very inquisitive person. It's just by nature. I like to ask questions and find out what's going on. But I've done quite a few interviews over the last, probably the last year, but certainly more since the quarantine started, or as I heard it so eloquently referred to recently as the Great Pause. So since the Great Pause started, I've been a guest on quite a few different podcasts, quite a few different

YouTube channels. And I figured I'd post a few of them here over the next couple weeks, couple months, so that we can get to know each other a little bit better. Because I think a lot of people, you know, just think of me as a YouTuber. I certainly am. Or as a, wrestling interview, which I also am. But this is actually my 15th year in broadcasting, working both on TV and on the radio. So we'll get into all of that and how that all came to be. Plus, of course, we talk about some wrestling stuff here. This is with Louis Dangor from Russell Talk. And their YouTube channel, Russell Talk interviews, just started a few months ago. And this thing is growing like crazy. So if you haven't checked this out yet, please.

Russell Talk Interviews is on YouTube. And Louis just did a great job. But tons of research into this and just a great conversation here. So I'm glad I'm able to share this with you. And I hope that you appreciate this. You know, just a little bit. If this isn't for you, that's okay. I just thought I'd put it out there.

And, you know, maybe you could find out a little bit more about me. But first, you guys are so awesome with helping to share the show, get the word out that this podcast even exists. And the podcast officially turns one year old tomorrow, June 24th. That's the podcast anniversary. I don't really have any big plans for it. Other than a new logo, not a new logo, but a new image for the podcast. I talked about this a few episodes ago. What's with that picture right now where I'm like pointing under the logo? Like, hey, look at that thing underneath the Chris Van Vleet show logo. So we're going to update that, make that look a little bit better. It won't look that much different. But I just figured it would be time to. freshen it up. And thank you for these reviews, like this one from Steel underscore Bound,

who titles this, Chris is one of the best podcasters. The man has talent and has made him where he is right now. Chris, if you somehow read this, keep up the phenomenal work, bro. Well, Steel Bound, not only did I read it, but I just read it on the show. So thank you for taking the time to leave this review. And thank you to everyone who's listening right now in whatever platform you happen to be listening on. Thank you for subscribing to the show so that you know these episodes are dropping. This was, I didn't plan to put this one out there. Truth be told, it was like Monday evening. And I thought, I've done a lot of interviews recently. I think other people might want to hear them. Maybe. I don't know. So I reached out to my awesome podcast producer slash editor, Donald Paz, and I said, I think we should do this? I think we could turn this around for Tuesday morning? And he said, yeah, man, let's do it. So, here we go. So Donald, I know you're listening to this right now as you edit this. You're awesome. And thank you. Thank you for putting this together so quickly. So here we go. As we dive into this interview I did with Louis. We talk about a lot of different things here, like how my YouTube channel

even got started because it was pretty much an accident, how this thing started nine years ago. We talk about my favorite interviews and what I learned from interviewing people like The Rock and John Sina, what my appearance was like on that first episode of AEW Dynamite. And, and so much more. I hope you enjoy it. So let's get right to it. Please, cue the awesome transition sound effect. So Louis Dangl here from RussellTalk.com and I'm joined by Chris Van Fleet. Chris, how you doing? I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me on. Before we continue, did I get your surname right?

You did. Thank you. It's one of those that's very difficult to pronounce. I've been, I think I'm probably responsible for a lot of your YouTube revenue over the past. a couple of days because I've been going through everyone thinking, how does he say a surname just to make sure I get it right? It's one of those when you look at it, you're like, this could be all kinds of Van Vliette, Van Villet, Van Vleet, and that's as simple as that, once you've said it once, you'll be able to get it every other time after this.

So where does it, you're, but you're originally from Canada. So your name's Canadian originally? I don't know of anything's, you know, natively Canadian. anything with a van in front of it is Dutch. So my family many, many, many generations ago. My father's side came over to Canada. Actually came over to North America because Canada didn't exist at the time in the 1600s. And then when they started driving the lines between America and the British area, half the family went to what ended up being Canada and half of them stayed in America.

So, yeah, it's a difficult name to pronounce. And I wish that at some point when they were coming over, that boat, you know, 400 years ago that they had figured this out and no one would be able to say this. I think it's, as you say, once you say it once, once you hear from the horse's mouth and you explain how to pronounce it, it's not too bad. But have you ever had one of those instances where someone said your name wrong and you're just like, I want to correct you, but I just can't bring myself to do it.

Yeah, yeah. And I think that like earlier on in my life and my career, I would like go out of my way to like point out like, hey, come on, you said it wrong. You spelt it wrong. I had this, like, thread going on my Twitter for the longest time, like what you, like, how they were misspelling my name. Like, I would get a letter that was spelled completely wrong or they would write it down. Like, you're invited to this event.

And I'm like, well, I'm not invited. Chris Van Violette is invited. And I'm like, now I just like, whatever. It's close enough. Or just call me CBV. Makes it easy. See, you've got that advantage. So my name's Louis, L-O-U-I-S.

And the amount of times I'm Lewis is unbelievable. Well, I believe it. I mean, shouldn't Louis have just an E at the end? See, yeah, so you think that, obviously a French name. So when I went to France and the guy at the passport control was like, oh, Lewis, I'm like, it's from your country. How do you not know? And he's like, you British people, you always call yourselves Louis. I thought you'd be like that too. And I'm like, no, no, no, I'm Louis. I'm Louis. I'm Louis. It's fine. But speaking about those of names, when you, obviously, as I did for you, I prepare for the interview. I research how to pronounce your name. What does preparation for you look like when you do an interview? I think that you can't ever know too much.

So I'll go in and try to learn as much as I possibly can. I think if I don't know anything about that person, Wikipedia is a really good place to start. It kind of just gives you a chronological order of like how that person has kind of progressed in their career. A really big one that I think a lot of people don't use is I will use Google. and YouTube's auto fill. So I will type in the name of that person

and then see what the first bunch of search terms are. And I go, huh, okay, that's a thing that people are really interested in. If it's a wrestler, I'll watch as many of their matches. I'll watch other interviews to see, like, you know, how they interact with people. But I think that if I'm about to do an interview with someone and they're going to give me an hour of their time, which I'm so, like, super grateful for,

I want to be as prepared as possible that if they turn left when I'm thinking they're going to turn, I just went right. But if they turn left, when I'm thinking they're going to turn right, I want to be able to follow them down that path. Well, before you do an interview, do you ask, is this going to be in character or is it not? Because I've always sort of a worry I've had,

if I ever go into an interview and don't ask, and I'm sort of preparing questions about them, their life, their sort of chahar growing up, being a wrestling fan, and then they do it all in character. I'm like, all of those preparations out the window. So do you ask beforehand, what's the school? I've had a lot of people ask me. They're like, is this in character or not?

I'm like, no, please, like, just be yourself. I want people to, like, find out who you really are. But then there's the odd person who's like, is it okay if we stay in character? And I'm like, sure. As long as I'm aware of, you know, are they going to be on this side or this side, I think I can, you know, kind of flow with it and go from there. And I think that that's what makes wrestling so interesting, right? Like, what's so fascinating about wrestling is this, this thin,

line is so thin between where the person ends sometimes and where the character begins or vice versa. Whereas, like, if we were to sit down and have an interview right now with Tom Cruise, you know you're not interviewing Jerry McGuire. You know you're interviewing the man who plays those characters. In wrestling, like, are you getting Nick Nemeth or are you getting Dolf Ziegler? You know, it's just a strange, weird line. I think sometimes you get Nick Ziegler or Dolph Nemeh. where it's a bit of both and you're like,

there's a bit of his character in here, a bit of not, so it's a bit confusing. But I think one of the things with your interviews, and I said the same thing when I spoke to Alicia, too, was they feel more like a conversation as opposed to an interrogation, which some interviews do,

where it's sort of very much question and answer, whereas you all feel like you guys bounce off each other. Is that something you do intentionally and you've had to work on, or is that just sort of an approach you've taken and sort of fallen upon? No, I want to thank you for, you know, noticing that and saying that because it means a lot to me. That's, I've always wanted any interview that I watch or any interview that I've been a part of to feel more like it's a conversation. Some of the broadcasters that I've looked up to have always had that style of like, it's just two people hanging out and a camera happens to be there.

So I made a really conscious effort early in my career. And I've now been a broadcaster on radio and television for 15 years, which I think a lot of people, don't know. I think a lot of people just think I'm a YouTube interviewer, which I'm so happy to be able to do that. But my career has been on radio and television. I think that that's kind of helped to inform these style of interviews. And I've just also noticed that when you go into an interview that you're watching as a fan on YouTube, the thing that other fans appreciate the most is when you get a moment when that person is not acting like they've acted in all these other interviews. And, you know, when I was interviewing like, I was interviewing like the stars of the Twilight movies when those were really big. And they were so used to answering the same questions, the same way all the time. And if they were to do like one tiny little thing that would kind of be different from the other ones, that's what all the fans would key in on. So I started trying to create those moments kind of organically just by having a conversation.

And I think that a lot of people don't realize that the interview, I'll put interview in quotations here, begins the second you step in the room, The second one of these calls begins. And I think that too many people kind of go, you know, oh, the interview begins when the camera starts rolling or when, you know, when the red light is on. And I think that it begins the second you walk into the room, the second you shake their hand, you're creating that bond with them. And I think that that's such an important thing to remember.

And so speaking about that bond, have some of the people that you've interviewed either once or multiple times you've got on so well with and you've built such a rapport with that they've ended up being friends of yours. Yeah, yeah. And it kind of blows my mind that, like, there's some people that I can text after they do something really cool on TV. Or if I just have a question about something, I can just reach out to them.

And that was never something that I ever imagined would be possible. And I remember some of my colleagues when I was just starting off in television, they would be like, oh, I went to a party with so-and-so the other day. And I'm like, hold on a second. You went to a party with them? I'm like, that's a thing that's possible. And they're like, well, I don't know, I've just, I've interviewed them so many times and, you know, we just became friends. And I'm like, it would blow my mind.

And it took me many, many years to get to that point where I had interacted with someone well enough that that kind of bond was created, but also that barrier was broken of like journalist and then interviewee. You know, it got to a point where just it was like, oh, hey man, if you're in town, let's make this thing happen. And I'm like, okay, that sounds great. Is it, I presume it's nice for you as well, the more you interview someone, you probably notice a change in them where they start to open up more. And I presume distinguish yourself from just another journalist, starting them blanket questions to get clicks on whatever their respective site. Is that one of the most rewarding feelings for you where it does, again,

just feel more like a conversation between two friends? definitely i will say though that the more that you interview someone sure the conversation gets easier but it almost gets harder to find like new stuff to talk about because it's like i've interviewed dolf ziegler like 16 times before i've interviewed the rock who's amazing and i can talk to for hours and hours but i've interviewed the rock nine times not that i'm counting on anything but it gets to a point where you're like what new things could we touch on right now and i look at look to people like when David Lerman would have the same guests on frequently or Jay Leno or now Joe Rogan will have the same guests on frequently. And I'm like, that is an absolute

skill that they are not only successful at, but they are mastering. And it's something that I want to like be better at because sure, it's great to have this awesome conversation with someone, but I think it also needs to touch on new things every single time. And as you said, You've into you guys like The Rock who are just the biggest names. I think if you asked 10 people, at least nine would know who the Rock is. Who are some people, other people that you've interviewed that you think, wow, this was a big one, that you always have to pin yourself and go, this is real. Well, I think that a lot of people will only know the wrestling interviews that I've done.

But, like, I've also interviewed, like, you name it. I've interviewed almost every celebrity. I've been so fortunate to work as an entertainment reporter. So I've interviewed Oprah, and I've interviewed Tom Cruise and Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts, and I've interviewed Steven Spielberg. And, you know, the list goes on or not. I'm not trying to name drop here. I'm just trying to say, like, this is how grateful I've been to be able to share just a few minutes with these people.

And usually I walk into an interview going, you know, it's just a conversation with another human. But when you're standing outside of a door that has Steven Spielberg written on it, or like I was, the interview I did with Tom Cruise was on a red carpet in Paris in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, and he's walking along the line and you know like, okay, two more interviews until he gets to me. Okay, he's right next to me. One more interview than I'm going to talk to him. There's just something like, you know, your heart starts racing a little bit, your hands start getting a little clammy.

You're like, what did I ever do to, like, earn this position that I'm in right now to be able to share a few minutes with someone like that. It's just, it's mind-blowing to me. Well, as you mentioned, you've interviewed sort of who's who pretty much a lot of a lot of big people. Is there a couple of people that you haven't interviewed that you'd really like to take off the bucket list and get something arranged with? Well, Vince is always going to be number one on that list. And I don't know, you know, he doesn't do a ton of interviews, so I don't know how possible that's going to be. But I will keep putting that out into the universe and hoping that that happens. I'm such a huge fan of Christopher Nolan.

and I think that every film he's made has just been such a masterpiece. So I'm hoping that one day I'll be able to, you know, just sit down with him and just have a conversation with him. And with Vince, by the way, it's not just a wrestling conversation I want to have. And I think that so often wrestling fans look at him as, you know, this wrestling guy, which he is. But at the same time, he's this brilliant entrepreneur and this brilliant businessman who has created this world that you and I wouldn't be having this conversation. if it wasn't for Vince McMahon. So we just love to just tap into, you know, the business mind that he has. And I think, again, speaking about your interview style, I think a lot of these wrestlers

and even actors that people get interviewed all the time, it's a lot, they get asked the same questions about their work as a record, their work as an actor. But you're sometimes feel more like you're asking about them personally, which I'm sure they appreciate. But have there been any times where you have sort of delved into the more personal life behind them or the more side away from the rest of thing? They're perhaps almost a bit blindsided by not expecting you to ask those sort of questions. There's definitely been times with celebrity interviews where you're getting ready to do the interview and their publicist or someone from the movie studio will say, just so you know we're not going to ask about their divorce or their kids or, you know, whatever it is.

And usually I'm going, oh, I didn't care to ask Ben Affleck about his divorce or whatever, but they just like put it out there, like, just so you know, this isn't going to be a thing. But there's been times when I think that I've had conversations of people where it goes to a place where I don't know if they've ever talked about those things before, or it goes to a place where they just haven't really wrapped their head around that or, you know, you know that I say vague goals and vague results all the time. So I like to dive into that type of stuff a lot. I'll ask someone like, you said you want to get better this year, like in what ways?

Like, what specifically do you want to do? And I think a lot of people are like, oh, I've never really thought about it like that. And I'm like, oh, that's cool. Like I'm glad that we can expand our minds together here and share in this conversation. And the cool thing about the way that interviews are going now in terms of like podcasts and YouTube is there's no time limit anymore. It very much used to be like if you were on the Today's show, your segment was six minutes long, and that was it, cram as many things as you can in six minutes. Now an interview can be 46 minutes or an hour in six minutes or two hours in six minutes.

And I think that that's what's so cool about it. And that's why when you have these long-form interviews, they feel more like conversations because you're not like in a race to get to the end of that interview. And sort of on the note of the way interviews are going now with more time. and obviously what we're living through at the moment, where things are predominantly and pretty much exclusively through Skype and video calling, does it make you appreciate the world we live in now where 20 years ago, you may not have been able to speak to so and so over Skype?

You might have just had to do it exclusively face-to-face, but now you can, and it is almost like you're sat in the same room. So do you think your job would be considerably harder to do what you're doing through a pandemic like this if we weren't living in 2020 like we are. Oh, there's just no question. I don't know what any of us would be doing if this happened 20 years ago. Netflix wouldn't exist. The internet's still in its infancy. You know, we would all be losing our minds, I feel like, even more so than we are right now. I never wanted to have to do interviews like this. I love being able to do interviews in person. I love being able to shake

someone's hand, look them in the eye, and just feel their energy, which I think does help an interview. I'm so grateful, though, that this is an opportunity and a possibility now. We're living in the future. Like, we literally are living in the future. If 10 years ago, you told me that you could open up your cell phone, which at the time was probably flipping open, well, maybe like 14 years ago before the iPhone, that you could have a face-to-face conversation with someone in real time. They would never believe that. Like, this is seriously some sci-fi stuff. And there's a lot of people that are like, well, the Internet's made us all worse.

The Internet's made us compare ourselves to each other. Sure, I think what's wrong is always available, but so is what's right. And the Internet has connected us all. Like, people are able to have actual long-distance relationships now, not just like city to city, but like continent to continent. And I think that I've kept in touch with so many more of my friends from high school and college than I ever would have if we were, like, writing letters or long-distance phone calls used to cost like a dollar a minute.

What a world we live in now. And I'm super happy that we're able to live in this together right now. Yeah, well, speaking of obviously what's going on at the moment, how have you been coping aside from the doing interview side of things? How have you been finding, staying at home? How have you been keeping busy? Any Netflix shows you can recommend people to watch? I think everybody's watching Tiger King, right?

I haven't. I haven't. What are you doing with your life? I'm watching all of your interviews to prepare for this. Well, thank you. I miss the gym more than anything. Like, these at-home workouts are not real workouts. And I'm not a coffee drinker.

Like, my day begins with me waking up, grabbing a protein shaking, and immediately going to the gym. So, like, the fact that that's not in my day right now, and I'm, like, lifting water jugs and doing step-ups on my cooler, like, that's one thing I've seen. certainly missed, and I can't wait for that aspect to come back and be normal again. But I'm still auditioning. I've still had a movie audition last week. I had an audition. I was a TV show last week. Like, stuff is still continuing on, and I'm trying to do as many interviews as I can.

I actually just did an interview with Will Osprey, which was such a good interview. And, man, if he can make this thing with CM Punk happen at the Tokyo Dome, he wants it so bad. We spoke to him Only thing. We spoke to him before WrestleMania and you could tell it was almost like the kid in him

fantasy booking a match like any other people I'd like to see these things it was almost like you saw when I brought it up he was like oh C.M. Pug yes please and it's like if he does make it happen

it'll be incredible. So I've just been doing as much as I possibly can do and I think that too many people are caught up in the day to day of like oh I'm putting on sweat pants every day or I don't have to do my hair.

There's no motivation in your day. And I think that that's easily, you know, easy to understand that. But I think you've got to realize that this is going to come to an end. Sure, we don't know if that's in two weeks or two months or whatever. But I think that it's important to plan for what's coming next. And I think that there's going to be a huge wave of opportunity, you know, coming after this. And I think that it's important to kind of set your sights on that and not lose sight of the fact that life is going to to be normal again soon.

What have you been planning for sort of post-coronavirus? What are some things that you want to start ticking off and start getting done when this pandemic blows over? I just laugh because it's like in the post-corona world. Well, I was supposed to move to Los Angeles last month. So that was a big thing for me. I was supposed to move there mid-March. That's obviously on hold right now.

So that's been moved to June. And I have a lot of friends that work out there. my agent is based there. And it's just a lot more opportunities for a broadcaster and a TV host. And I've done some acting as well. I've been in some commercials recently. I was just in a movie at the end of last year. That's the place to be for that.

So that's one of the things I'm focusing on. I've now set the goal of a million subscribers on YouTube, which you guys are going to crush this year. Hopefully. We're hoping so. You guys are, you guys, the amount of content that you guys put out is, mind-blowing to me. And I feel like I should take a page out of that book and put out more than one or two videos a week. You're like two videos a day. It's incredible. Incredible. Well, I mean, at the moment, especially, Olli Davis, who runs Russell's Talk. He's,

he's the only one with the green screen at his place. So he's been working like crazy. So we're trying, we're trying to put content out, different kind of stuff. Like, I will say that if stuff like coronavirus wasn't a thing, we probably wouldn't have had the chance to set down. You would have been too busy traveling to places. I probably would have been too busy writing news. But circumstances like this, I guess I don't want to say it's a blessing in disguise because obviously people have very sadly lost jobs, lost lives,

but it's led to a different way of doing things. It's definitely refocused what's important too. I think that one of the biggest problems with this is, The term social distancing makes us feel like we should distance ourselves socially. I think we should be closer than ever socially, physically, absolutely. But we should be distant from each other. But I think that people are taking that term a little too literally. And I think that there's some people that maybe live alone that, you know,

haven't had any sort of social interaction. And I think that it, like I said, focuses on what's important now. And I think that social aspect is more important than ever. I mean, we were speaking just a couple of minutes ago about how the world's changing with stuff like Skype. And I mean, I've spoken to my grandparents probably more than I ever have. If I can get them to figure out how to use Skype, of course. That's impressive.

That's impressive. We can do that. The first few, we sort of get Skype up and they're like, they phone me. How does it work? I'm like, you press this button here. I'm like, well, it's not working. It's okay. All right.

So let's hit pause on that interview. and man, this mic sounds so much better than those mics in that interview. This episode is brought to you by Bet Online, and there's no shortage of action going on at our exclusive partners at betonline.ag. Sports are slowly making their way back, and Bet Online is leading the way with the best odds and lines for all UFC, NASCAR, boxing, and soccer matches. And if you need even more, well, they've got simulated NFL, MBA, and UFC simulations all day,

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and I think that switching it to wrestling, I think WWE has had to refocus how they do things as well. We saw with the Firefly Funhouse match and the Boneyard map, they're changing the way that they do these. How have you found watching the no-fan shows? And have you been like some people that have struggled to get into it or have you just enjoyed it for what it is and the distraction that it provides us at this time?

Well, I'm just so happy that there's something out there that's giving us the tiniest little sliver of normalcy in our world right now. There's no other live television programming on right now other than the news. So the fact that there's no sports out there, but wrestling is showing us that, like, life does continue on. I appreciate that so much. I'm a little confused why the ratings are as low as they are. We are literally a captive audience right now.

Everybody is at home on a Monday night, a Wednesday night, and a Friday night. The rating should, in theory, be through the route. And I think that that's kind of fans going, maybe this is a reminder that things aren't normal right now. But I appreciate it. And I think that WWE making those small changes with WrestleMania to have the Firefly Funhouse match and the Boneyard match, I think we're really interesting.

I'm very curious to see if that continues on after this. Because if you had the option to do that in front of a live crowd, or do it the way they did it, they wouldn't have done it this way. It felt a little bit like the final deletion, which I thought was great. I loved. But that didn't really catch on back then. Now I feel like there's a chance for this to be a thing. So when it goes back to actual audiences and, you know, the shows are looking normal again,

will that stuff happen again? I don't know. And I think that the answer is probably not because we could have that live reaction, which I think is what these matches are. desperately missing. But AEW's done a really good job of putting people around the ring, filling the arena with at least some sort of noise. So it's not just like you hearing literally every step along the canvas and every punch, everything, you know. Do you, how much a sort of the current product do you keep up with, do you, how much do you

watch on a weekly basis? What do you watch live? Yeah, I watch it all. I, I for sure watch dynamite every Wednesday and I watch Smackdown every Friday. I'll kind of watch bits and pieces of raw because three hours is a lot. Three hours is a lot to watch, especially right now when they're just showing us replays. Like, when they showed us like half of the Royal Rumble, I was like, why did I tune into this? So I keep up with all of it. And I think what's cool is we live in a world now that if you did happen to miss something really big because you had something going on, it's going to be on Twitter almost instantly. It's going to be turned into a thousand videos on Instagram.

So it's kind of hard to completely be blind everything that's going on because, you know, we live in this very small world where if you like wrestling and I like wrestling, somebody's going to text it to you or send it to you or you're going to find it in your feed somewhere. And you mentioned watching obviously the current product and preparing for interviews earlier. Do you watch the stuff, say, for example,

you got an interview with Kevin Owens on a Tuesday. Do you watch Raw for the sole purpose of preparing for your interviews, or do you watch it just because you're a fan, you've always been a fan, and it just so helps that you get to prepare for your interviews at the same time? Yeah, I've been a fan my whole life. So I watch it, whether I have an interview coming up or not. Like, I'm super passionate about wrestling, and the fact that I'm also passionate about broadcasting,

I think makes me look at it in a little bit of a different way. So I'll be watching it, even if I know. ever had another WWE interview ever again. I'm just, I love it. I wanted to be a wrestler when I was growing up. It was a backyard wrestler and WWF at the time was it. That was, you know, what we watched every single Monday. And Sunday I watched here. I watched everything when I was a kid. I watched metal. I watched Jack and I watched Sunday night heat and I watched Smack. Yeah, I watched it all. And obviously, I watched your interview with, that if I call it, interview your show with Sean Spears and Ty Dillinger.

How was it getting chopped? And as your chest recovered yet? My chest has recovered. Thank you for asking. So this is something that Sean Spears had been talking about for a little while. And he's someone who I did the interview with him. And after that interview was done, he's like, man, I really enjoyed that. Like, I think that you're great.

Like, let's do some more work together. And I was just blown away and so flattered by that. But he said, look, I. open this wrestling school up, I'd love to have you come down there and kind of do something. I said, any way I can promote your school would be, you know, I'd love to do that. So I happened to go up to school and I said, look, I went to wrestling school many, many years ago, but I went to wrestling school. I've taken some bumps. I'd love to not only do an interview with you and Breeze, but I'd love to take some bumps, run the ropes and, you know, kind of just show a little,

you know, how it's done. He's like, well, I think that we should also chop you. And I said, I'm up for that. I mean, I don't think one chops really that interesting, though. I said, why don't you line up all your students and have them all choppy? I think that'd be a better video. So it was your idea. Yeah, yeah. So this was not what you, you didn't see that part on camera, right?

So I said, just line up all your students. He's like, are you sure? I'm like, yeah. I mean, what's the worst going to have it? They're just chops. Little did I know that the way that they do it at Flatbacks is everybody gets two chops. So there was eight students and two wrestlers.

being Spears and Breeze, so you do the math, that's funny chops. That's a lot of jobs. So after, I don't know, I'd say the first four, my chest just kind of went numb and, yeah, it stopped kind of feeling it. But it made for an interesting video, and both Tyler and Sean Spears messaged me after and said, thank you. We're now booked up completely for the rest of the year. Like we've got, we've had more calls and emails than ever.

So I think it worked out for everybody. So is that something you like to do? Use your platform to help others, not just showcase their personality a bit more, but if they've got things like a merch store, I guess, or a struggling, or they've got a school, or they've got a big project coming up, do you try and sort of, if you know, for example, someone's got a YouTube channel, they're trying to get off going, and you see it on Twitter.

Do you sort of message them and say, listen, do you want to get something going so we can promote, that or is it just sort of circumstantial, the stuff like Breeze, they approach, and Spears, they approach you with that idea? It just kind of, usually just kind of happens. Like, I did an interview with Caitlin Celeste, and she was growing her YouTube vlog at the time. And I said, oh, well, like, we just happened to be talking about it during our interview.

And I said, oh, well, I'll just, I'll post it in the pinned comments below. And if anyone is watching this wants to subscribe, they can. And I think she had like 15,000-subscribers. and then the next day should 17,000. So it was just like, oh, if I can help it all, like obviously you're a wrestler, a lot of the people watching my videos are wrestling fans, it seems like the perfect marriage, right?

So I don't ever want to shill anything out, but if someone has a YouTube channel and I can help to make my audience aware of the fact that they have a YouTube channel, by all means. Like, I'd be happy to do that. And obviously you did stuff with AEW. When you spoke about the shill, obviously, I'm not saying you're an AW shill, but some people, I guess, was there a negative reaction on some of your videos once you appeared on AEW? Was some people like, oh, you sort of took the easy way out or sold out?

What was interesting is I did a lot of AEW interviews last year before I ever appeared on Dynamite or before I ever did that control center segment on the road too. And it was just because AEW superstars were so accessible. Like WWE, you've got to jump through these hoops, and it's like very bureaucratic. And I get it. You know, they're running a multi-billion dollar company. I get it. With AEW, it was as simple as like reaching out to a friend of mine who happened to be working for AEW and going, hey, man, want to do an interview?

And they'd go, sure. And it was like, okay, great. So I think that there was like this backlash at first that I was just doing too much stuff with AEW. and not doing enough stuff with other promotions. And it was like, I'm just doing what's accessible to me. And I think Ring of Honor actually started to see that because Ring of Honor started going, who do you want to interview?

Let us know and we will make them accessible for you. I went to a bunch of impact wrestling tapings and they went, who do you want to talk to? And then I just started doing those interviews. I wish the WWE would do that. So I think the people just kind of went like, he's doing so much AEW stuff that he must. be, you know, in bed with them. And the reality of the situation is, I worked two dates with

AAB. It was amazing and such an honor and such a dream come true to be on that type of stage doing that. But I can interview whoever I want from whichever promotion that I want. I think that that's obvious. And, you know, you look at the last handful of interviews I've done. I just did Will Ospre. That's New Japan. And I just, you know, I had Breeze on there recently. That's NXT. I just had, or 205 live, I guess, just had. Just have. Leo Roshan that will be airing soon. That's NXT. Of course I've had, you know, Excalibur was my last AEW interview. The list could go on and on and on and on. But the thing I want to, you know, point out is I will literally talk to anybody that's available. And of course, impact people,

you know, I didn't mention that, but I've had many impact people on. The most recent one is Ken Shamrock. And we've heard Vicki Guerrero say after she appeared on Dark and did that guest commentary role, that she struggled to get WWE talent on her podcast. Was there any similar backlash with you? I presume based on the fact that you're still interviewing WW talent that there hasn't been, but was it slightly harder to arrange interviews with them because of the work you've done with

AW and appeared on Dynamite and the Road 2 series? Yeah, I haven't had any issues. And I would have to think that when Jericho talked about that issue and also Vicki Guerrero, they were probably dealing with someone directly in WWE and who's probably giving them X amount of interviews a week or month or whatever that happened to be. And I just imagine that after they, you know, worked with AEW, that person just went, oh, yeah, that's not going to happen anymore. So I haven't run in any of those issues. And once again, like I'm willing to talk to anybody.

And I'd like to kind of be neutral in all of this. I think there's great things that AW is doing. I think there's great things that WW is doing. I think there's bad things that AEW is doing. I think there's bad things that WWE's doing. Same goes for Ring of Honor. Same goes for New Japan. Same goes for Impact Wrestling. And all of them, MLW, all the way across the board. And I think that, unfortunately, there's a lot of podcasters out there

that would rather just focus on all the terrible things that's going on in the world of wrestling. Those people probably don't get very many interviews either. And I think that's important to point out that there is a lot of great stuff going on. There is. There is. And I think that one of the things that, As you say, social media can be such a negative place, but it's nice when people start to share positive vibes,

positive sort of affirmations and things like that. Something I've been doing that I mentioned you before we started recording was sort of starting a chain where a couple of interviewers or people that I speak to, they recommend two or three people who are doing similar things to them that they should check out. So for you, who are two or three other journalist, interviewers, broadcasts, even people outside of the world,

wrestling world in your sort of movie and celebrity journalism world? Who are a couple of people to look out? I just did an interview with Simon Miller and I have this the utmost respect for what he does and how hard he works and like so many of us. He dreamed to be a pro wrestler and then he actually followed through on that dream and now he's doing it. So my hat's off to him and I can't say enough good things about him. He's also like the nicest human. So Simon Miller is definitely one of them. I know you had a leash on recently and I appreciate her hard work. and her work ethic that she has. You know, she's from crazy.

She's from my hometown, Pickering, Ontario, Canada. And crazy to me that two people from the same town could both be doing their own thing in the same realm, which, you know, blows me away. So Alicia's been, you know, she's had a great career so far. She's only 24. So, you know, the future is super bright for her. I think I have to point out, like, two of my really good movie, interviewer friends. And if anybody watching this is a movie fan or watched any movie interviews,

you'll know who Kevin McCarthy and Jake Hamilton are just because they're just so good at what they do. And my friend Jake Hamilton, he's had these moments with celebrities where he's just kind of thought outside the box. Like he danced with Angelina Jolie. He danced with Angelina Jolie in an interview. And another interview, he interviewed Morgan Freeman, who of course has the greatest voice ever for narration and voiceovers. And he goes, I know you probably won't be there one day when I finally do pass away, but I wrote a eulogy. Could you read this right now on camera so that I could play this back at my funeral one day?

And Morgan Freeman read a eulogy for my friend Jake. So I think it's those types of moments that make me think outside the box that makes me go, if I just ask Tyler Breeze and Sean Spears to chop me, like, do you think it'll happen? If I just ask Bill Goldberg if he could put me up in the jackhammer, which he did, do you think it could happen? And I think that the thing you got to remember out of this is the worst someone can say is no. And I think that too many people are scared to ask.

So it's in watching those moments that my friends have done that makes me go, I can do this. And if someone says no, oh, well. Well, something I asked Sean Rossap when I interviewed him last week was... He's another great one, by the way. I feel bad for not mentioning him. He is, and he's a lovely guy, and he was very generous for this time. And he said it's all about building relationships with people.

Same with Ryan Satin. He said, it's all about who you speak to, putting yourself out there, going to press events. Would you agree with that statement? And it is just about talking to people, putting your name out there, And is that how you are in the position you're in now? Yeah, it's just about the relationships that you build, but that's just life in general. That's not just the wrestling world. That's not just journalism.

That's not just a career. That's just life in general. And I think it's about, like, the most important thing in what we all do as journalists or as reporters or as interviewers is what's in it for the other person. Obviously, if I'm going to spend some time with any sort of wrestler, I'm taking their time away. That's what I am getting in return. I'm getting their time and I'm getting the ability to put this out on my platforms. What's in it for them?

And I think that if you can show that there's some sort of value for them in whatever it is, whether it's an interview, whether it's them giving you a tip for someone like a Ryan Satner or a Sean Ross Sapp, I think it's important to provide value. And I think that too many people take the you part of YouTube too literally. It is not about you, the person making it. It's about you, the person watching it. And I think that people need to realize that nobody's reading your articles or watching your videos because of who you are. They're watching your videos and reading your articles because of who they are.

And when you mention, obviously, when you sort of arrange something less is perhaps putting across what you can do for them, what sort of things do you mean on that? I presume you sort of alluded to with Sean and Breeze they're giving their school a showcase. Is it sort of things like that where you go, you can promote X, Y, and Z, or perhaps even someone's had a bit of a run-in on Twitter with someone where they haven't come across that well,

would you sort of not say to them explicitly you can sort of redeem yourself, but it's sort of an unspoken thing between you two where it gives them a chance to show that that perhaps that tweet was ill-advised and not in their best interest. So what sort of thing do you sort of say this could be something that I could give to you? Well, I think I'm aware that most people of any sort of level of celebrity are getting approached all the time to be on a podcast, YouTube channel, you know, magazine article, whatever it is. And I think what stands out

to them is if you lead with how can I help you, even if you only have a small following, I think if you can lead with that, because I think most people lead with, hey, here's what you can do for me. So, you know, I'll usually just point out like, hey, I have this many subscribers or I have this many views, or people like John Cena of the Rock, Dave Batista, you know, Tony Kahn, Cody Rhodes, whoever, have trusted me with their time. You know, I'm hopeful that you can also trust me with your time. And how much has that been a learning club for you? As much as the interview side of it, dealing with people. And has your sort of experience broadcasting and things like that, massively helped in that

sort of people management side of things? Yeah, I think that's important. And I think that having a background in broadcasting kind of makes you understand the inner workings of how these things go. The thing I never understood until I got on a broadcasting, that the only time that most people are doing interviews is when they have something to promote, whether it's a movie or an album or a book or whatever it happens to be. I would always wonder, like when I was a kid, I'm like, well, how come we haven't seen an interview with Denzel Washington lately?

And it didn't dawn on me until I started doing this. Oh, he doesn't have any movies out. Like, he's not just going to go on there and talk about stuff. So I think that that's always been a big leverage point. Like, oh, you've got this new book coming out. I'd love to help you promote your book. Oh, you just launched a YouTube channel. What can I do to help you get your YouTube channel out to more people?

And I think that that's a big thing that I understand. Kind of the marketing side of things came from, you know, my background in broadcasting. And you've, I mean, you've spoken, you mentioned there, I think it goes like Tony Carr, guys that have trusted you with their time. There are some people that you've interviewed that perhaps you went in expecting one thing. I know we're not supposed to judge as humans, but I think it's inevitable going into things we do have presumptions about people. Who is someone you interviewed that you just thought

you are not at all what I expected you to be like once you've sat down and had a chance to speak to you? Well, I think Ryback really changed a lot of people's opinion about him and certainly changed my opinion about him too. I think that too many of us thought that Ryback, or Ryan, his actual name is Ryback now, Ryback the person, was a lot like that bully character

that he was playing in WWE. He's actually a very thoughtful, self-aware person. person who reads a lot of self-health books and it's always thinking like, you know, positive stuff. He actually told me the interview that he did with me actually helped people realize who he actually was as a person. Like the fact that he told me that, he's actually told me that a few times now. It's actually meant a lot to me that, you know, our conversation between the two of us in an empty hotel room that we put out into the world was able to have that kind of impact. So that was a big one for me to make me go, oh, wow, like I'm glad that other people were

able to see this side of you. And obviously, you mentioned something that he said to you that meant a lot to you with helping other people see what he was like. And there's certain other things where after an interview someone has said something to you or a couple of days later, sent you a text that have really sort of filled you with just pride or made you put a smile on your face. Well, There's something like when I interviewed John Cena last year at Russellmania, that one meant a lot to me personally. It was supposed to be a 10-minute interview and it was going to be like to the minute, like 10 minutes, to the second. And he walked up, I met him at a gym, WrestleMania weekend, obviously the busiest weekend of the year when you're a wrestler. And it was the only interview that he was going to do.

And first of all, that was amazing. And at the 10-minute mark, I went to wrap it up. And I don't know if you've seen this or not, but he reaches in his phone, grabs his, or reaches his pocket. It grabs his phone and goes, we still got more time. And I'm like, oh, my God, wow. But the interview itself, he said something in it that's actually stuck with me from that day onward. He says, control the controllable. And too many people are focused on the things that they have no control over,

and putting their efforts and their thoughts into things that, you know, are just wasted because they have no control over the outcome there, especially with the world we're living in right now. I was going to say it's particularly speaking about. control and the control of what it's something that I think a lot of people could do with hearing at this current time. Yeah, that's something that's really stuck with me. Like, don't worry about the things that you have no control over. And that's especially what's going on right now. So that's been a big, just kind of life lesson. And the Rock also said something in an interview with me. Rock's always very kind with his compliments, very generous with his compliment.

He has this way of making you feel special, even though he's, you know, the biggest, are in the world, but he talked about how him not making it to the NFL was the greatest thing that didn't happen to him. And that's such an interesting thing that so many of us have these ideas in our mind that our life won't be good until this happens or that happens. And he basically went, I had set all my sights on making it to the NFL and think about it. If the Rock wasn't played in the NFL, he wouldn't be the star that he is now. And it's amazing that someone like him, biggest star in the world is able to have the self-awareness to go, I'm super glad that thing that I wanted my whole life didn't actually happen to allow this other stuff to happen.

And do you ever sort of in an interview think, wow, this is amazing? Or is it afterwards you have that period of reflection and sort of self-reflection on how the thing went? Or are you sort of in the now moment that you're sort of there in the moment, not getting to strike. from what the person's saying, but sort of having to go, wow, this is amazing. Well, if you look at the look at my face during the John Cena interview, I'm like, wow, the whole time. And I'll be honest, I obviously live the interview as it's happening, live that conversation. I will watch it back as I'm editing it, but that's usually it. I'm not going to go back into the archives and re-listen to or re-watch my interviews.

So it's usually it's happening in the moment. And then it's, It's usually me watching it back in the edit where I'm like, oh, wow. Like, I thought that was powerful when I was standing there, but now that I'm watching this now, like, that's even more profound than I could have possibly imagined. And so you don't mind watching your stuff back? Because I've heard some people that absolutely detest having to rewatch their stuff back so much so that they'll find other sort of editors to do it for them just because just the thought of their own voice cringes them out. Yeah, I don't understand that because I think they, how are you going to get better as a broadcaster as a presenter without watching yourself back?

And that was something I was like, it sucks. For the first like 3,000 times you watch yourself on camera or hear your voice, it sucks because you're like, do it really sound like that? Do I really do that thing with my eyebrow when I talk? Like all these little things that only you pick up on. But when I was starting off my television career, I realized I had to do that. do it because that's the only way you get better. Because we have this idea in our mind of how we are and the person that we are and how we look and sound, it's not until you watch it back when you're able to watch it kind of objectively where you can go, oh, crap, that needs to

change. And so does that thing too. And advice to people who are younger or even not that want to do something in a couple years' time similar to what you're doing, what, what, would your words be to them and how would you suggest that they go about achieving a career for themselves? I think it's important to start doing it. And I think there's too many people, probably a lot of people watching this right now, who've always thought about starting a podcast, always start about, thought about starting a YouTube channel. And that's it. That's the only step they've ever taken. I think it's important to actually start doing it. And I guess the only way you're going to get better at this is by doing it and then doing it some more. And I think that,

So, you know, without sounding too cliche, vague goals get vague results. And I think it's important to set specific goals for what you want. If you want to create a YouTube channel just so you have something to kind of show your friends, great. If you want to have a YouTube channel where you can get to 750,000 subscribers like Russell Talk, I mean, I think that that's important too. But I think it's important to know what those goals are as you're going in so that you have something that you're driving towards. Otherwise, it's like getting in the car and not knowing where you're driving to. You're just going to drive around in circles and never end up anywhere. And before we wrap this up, because you've been incredibly generous with your time,

a question that I've asked everyone that I've interviewed so far and something I'd like to continue going, is there an unpopular wrestling opinion that you've got that's not shared by the majority that you'd like to share with us? An unpopular wrestling opinion? Of any time? of any time of anything so for example i spoke to kenny macketosh about two hours ago and his thought what he thought the iron man match between shorn michael's and brett hart was slightly tedious oh yeah exactly so it can be anything i mean i spoke to shawm or sap and he said he didn't find he didn't sort of didn't say that people who do find him funny are

wrong, but he said he didn't find Michael Nacazawa's brand of comedy particularly funny. So just stuff like that that you might have an opinion that you don't think is shared by the majority of people. I mean, this might be shared by other people, but I just think that Dolph Ziegler was like eight years ahead of his time because Dolph Ziegler is so incredibly talented. You know, one of the best Matt technicians, one of the best pure wrestlers in wrestling right now. It's a great look. He's great on the mic.

charisma. And I feel like he came up in a time when guys who were his size weren't getting the love that they should have been getting. So I think that if Dolph Ziegler was 28 now instead of 38 now, my God, we would be talking about him being like a 10-time champion or something like that. And, you know, Dolph will tell you that as well. I think you've got lucked out because that's a opinion I 100% agreement. But no, thank you very much, Chris, to me incredibly generous of your time. If people want to check you out, check out what you do, where can they find you?

Oh, thank you for taking the time and reaching out to me and making this happen. It's not often that I'm on this side of the interviewing. How does it feel to be the interviewed rather than the interviewing or the interviewer? It's always so weird, you know. You feel like when you're the interviewer, you're the one in control, you know?

But no, but thank you for taking the time. and I'm at Chris Van V-N-V-L-E-T. That's how you pronounce it. V-A-N-B-L-E-T on all social media and on YouTube. And please, give me a follow. I've got a whole bunch of new interviews on the way right now. And I look forward to when we can do interviews again and shake hands with people. We'll have a virtual hand show before we can talk. Thank you very much, Chris.

You've been incredibly generous for your time. And stay safe and hope to see you back again, shaking someone down and then look at them in the eye before too long. Thanks so much, man. Be well. Yeah, you too. So that was a little bit different. I hope you enjoyed it.

Big thanks to Louis Dangor for putting in all of the research and all of the effort to make this such a fun conversation and a fun chat. I hope you learned a little bit more about me and about what I do here. And I feel like, I mean, I said at the start of the show, I'm going to pepper a few of these in every once in a while. Every now and then when I think that they're something that you guys might like, to hear. So if you are interested, give it a listen. If not, wait until I have a guest like this Thursday. My guest is Deanna Parazo, and there's so much to talk about with her leaving WWE. She was part of the

big release on April 15th that she's like really happy that she got released. Because, I mean, it's not me saying this. I think she completely, she does completely agree that she was underutilized in NXT. So she just made her impact wrestling debut. We dig into all. of that. And I can't wait for you to hear this on Thursday. I saw this great quote from Grant Cardone. You know, I like to end these episodes with a quote. This one is, it speaks to me. Just remember, the people that say your dreams are impossible have already quit on theirs. Hmm. Oh, that's so good. Hope you enjoyed this one. There'll be some more coming out soon. So enjoy your day. We'll see you Thursday with Deanna Parazzo. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s, flat.

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Ever heard of them? To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Alley. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.