Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Colt Cabana on his time in WWE, signing with AEW, his new podcast

Episode Date: June 8, 2021

Colt Cabana is a professional wrestler, podcaster and entrepreneur. He joins Chris Van Vliet from his home in Chicago, IL to talk about his new podcast called "Wrestling Anonymous", what he learned from working in WWE under the name Scotty Goldman, why it took him so long to join his friends in AEW, how he was the brains behind starting Pro Wrestling Tees, working as a commentator in Ring of Honor, why he loves comedy wrestling and more! Submit your Blue Wire Hustle application here: http://bwhustle.com/join 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://chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All right, my friends, and welcome back to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm Chris Van Fleet. So good to have you with us on this one. So good to have Colt Cabana back on the show. Our last interview, which was also our first interview, was close to two years ago. You can check it out. It's episode number 33, which is crazy to think about. That's almost 200 episodes ago.

It's from September of 2019. It was actually the first episode that we ever did in front of a live crowd. It's at the all-out. side party that was put on by pro wrestling teas. Get it, all out. And it was the side party. Yeah, we did it right before the all out pay-per-view in Chicago. The plan is to do more episodes in person and in front of a live crowd as soon as all the COVID restrictions are lifted everywhere. So keep an eye out because I would love to see you there. I would love to meet you there. And I'd love to hear from you who we should do these live in-person interviews in front of a crowd with.

So let me know. Look, obviously a ton has changed since last time we had Colt on the show. Most notably the fact that he's now joined his friends and he's part of the AEW roster, but he also has a new podcast called Wrestling Anonymous, which you can hear wherever you're listening to this right now. And we dive so deep into his entrepreneurial ways that really changed the landscape of not just indie wrestling, but pro wrestling as a whole. Without Colt Cabana, there is no pro wrestling teas. And I think you could make a pretty strong argument that without Colt Cabana, there's no AEW. Think about it.

If you aren't already, give him a follow on social media at Colt Cabana. You can find me at Chris Van Fleet trying to hit 100,000 followers on Instagram before the end of the year. I'm like, 5,600 away. So if you're listening to this and you have Instagram and you don't follow me on there yet, I'm hoping that could change. I'm hoping that can change today. Please? So here we go.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome. Colt Cabana. Good to see you, my friend. Great to be seen. How are you? I'm doing great. Is this a sewing machine that's behind you? Yeah, people get a glimpse into my, my office slash sewing machine room,

slash gear room slash merch table, slash everything. There you go. There it is. That's my sewing machine. I've made many a gear that have been seen in New Japan, Ring of Honor, and AEW. Are you still making your own gear? Of course.

You can never find anyone. I mean, listen, do you want me to, have you gone into gear making on these shows before really? Not as in depth as we're about to right now. It's just, we find, as wrestlers, we find,

see, this is why pro wrestling teas is so great, something we have gone about. As wrestlers, we find people who make something, who do something good at something we need, and then we tell all of our friends, and then they become overwhelmed, and then they're unreliable.

So if someone finds a gear maker, it's one person. You know, I had a tweet the other day that a lot of people seem to enjoy where it said, you know, easy money. Everyone stole easy money's moves. So he stole everybody's money by, you know, not giving them their gear, which was something he was notorious for. It's just because he got so overwhelmed. And then he's got 25 orders and you, you know, as someone who makes gear,

it takes a day, you know, or a pair of trunks takes a couple of hours. And then so I, you know, I can't find anyone that I, that I just can count on. So I know I can count on myself, the story of my career, Chris. And also, you know, I'm frugal too. So where do you even begin to learn how to make gear? Okay. So I went to high school with a friend of my name Jocelyn. Jocelyn moved down to Georgia to become a softball player.

She ended up marrying a actual professional wrestler while I was. in wrestling. She knew nothing about wrestling. His name was Crew Jones. They moved back to Chicago and Crew and I were both like struggling wrestlers and crew was like, I got to make my own gear. And I was like, I got to make my own gear. And so then Crew Jones's mother-in-law taught him. He came over one day, gave me like a three-hour crash course. And ever since then, I've been just trying to get better. And it's been a whatever, an 18-year process to learn how to make gear. But the problem when you start making gear is all of your buddies start going, I hear you make gear.

Right. So I've made two pairs of gear. I've made one for Matt Cross and one for Sanjay. Years later, I saw Sanjay selling them on his Facebook. And I was like, Sanjay, I gave those to you for free.

And he's like, I made some money off of it. I was like, so also I know when you get gear, it's, you know, I'm so picky about it. So I don't want to have to like give it to somebody else

and then being like this fits wrong. I don't want that pressure. I just want that pressure for myself. So I only do it for myself. So I had Conrad Thompson on the show a few months ago, and I called him the podfather of wrestling interviews. And I got corrected by many, many people saying, sure, he has seven podcasts.

And he does very well. And he's at the top of the charts. But Colt Cabana, he is the true podfather of wrestling interviews. Well, Conrad's always been very kind and quick to say that. It's appreciative. And Taz is always, you know, he was one too. that was quickly to correct. I actually said the other day,

and I've said this before is with the Young Bucks, it's like, you know, I set this kind of, not the standard, or I figured out this model of independent wrestling and how to kind of make yourself your own business.

And then the Young Bucks kind of saw it. And then they were like, oh, but I know how to grow this thing even bigger. And I think Conrad's the same way. It's like, you know, Conrad realized the greatness of podcasting

and saw that, you know, maybe I was having some success at it some of other people. And then he, you know, through his business mind, just blew it up. And so I always give props to the Young Bucks and to Conrad. They're, they both know exactly what they're doing. Sometimes I believe, uh, as a control freak a little bit of myself, like that's some of my downfall is that I've never been able to give more people, uh, things to do. I want to do everything. Because I want to control everything. So with the Bucks, it was, you know, his Matt's wife, you know,

Dana and they started, you know, letting Ryan get really more into it with pro wrestling teas for their business. And for Conrad, he's obviously streamlined everything. And for me, it's always kind of been a mom and pop shop. And I kind of like to keep it that way. So yeah, I have been podcasting. You know, it's something we've gone over. 2010. I saw an opening the market. I said, when is somebody going to do this show? And then finally, I did it. And then, you know, just recently, I've started a new podcast called Wrestling Anonymous. And I was saying, when is somebody going to do this kind of show? And I realized, oh, that's, that's me once again. I'm going to do it. It's something completely different. And I think that's the fun of it is, you know, there's so many

podcasts, wrestling podcasts in the podcast space. And, you know, the better ones, they rise to the top. And then you're looking for new, like, what are new genres in the podcasting wrestling space? And so this, I think this definitely is one. And so I'm excited to jump into it. So when we did our last interview. It was almost two years ago and you were done with the art of wrestling. You basically said, look, I've talked to everybody. I've done everything I can do busy with other things. Why are you getting back into the podcasting space now? Well, the pandemic and quarantine has kept us at home. That's created a lot of podcasters. Yeah. And it's also made me realize that I maybe don't have to wrestle 200 days a year on the road. And maybe there's other ways of,

expressing my creativity. I love the idea of editing and producing and directing. I love to be, you know, like doing these podcasts because it is post-produced and I'm collecting these phone calls from other fans and I'm editing them up together and I'm figuring out the best order of how to put them. Essentially, I'm a curator for this show. It's really inspired me a lot. And so, you know, I can substitute going to shows. And in the past, it was like, I need to go to shows because I wanted I need to be on that show with Demolition Smash so I can get him on my show because I did them all in person right so yeah I would see an opportunity of like oh just incredible is going to be in this area I should do that show because yes I'll make money from the show and I'll sell merch but

I'll also get to have just incredible on my show and that's going to be a good week for me whereas this is streamlining through you know Google voice people just sending a message so I don't it's the the hustle to get to these shows isn't as imminent and and I and I And I'm taking the quarantine and I'm taking COVID very serious. And so it's nice to kind of a realization of my own life of that like I don't have to race back on the road to hustle because through through Twitch, through Patreon, through podcasting, through YouTube. I'm able to make a decent living. And then most importantly, you know, I was able to sign a contract with AEW. and Tony Khan has kept everything moving, everything going.

He's done it all safely. And TNT has, you know, allowed us to do every other week so we can fly in every other week. And because of AEW, you know, I'm definitely able to make a great living. And that's kind of, I think the main reason of why it's easy for me to jump into podcasting and maybe push back on doing every single independent wrestling show ever. So the idea behind the new podcast, the idea behind Wrestling Anonymous is basically how wrestling has transformed the lives of fans. And like you said, you're taking phone calls from people who are basically telling this story.

Funny stories, sad stories, and everything in between. Yes. Yeah. There's a lot of inspiration through this. I think there's a little inspiration. There's a lot through nostalgia. I love the idea that I'm doing this show, but I know in 30 years people are going to be able to look back and hear these stories of these times and the current times. and then also pastimes. So there's that. There's a lot of like old timey radio that I feel I'm really

inspired by. This is essentially a hotline call. And I love, I love being, like I'm calling myself the curator. I love being the curator of this. These aren't my stories. These are everybody's stories. But sometimes we don't have a place to put these stories. So I'm giving everybody a platform. And I did say in like my trailer that for years, fans asked me to be on my show. And it broke my heart that I was like, this isn't a fan's show. It's for the wrestlers. The art of wrestling is where we tell our locker room stories because it really did come out of me, you know, essentially like in the Wrestling Road Diaries won.

You know, it's me and Daniel Bryan and Salernaro and we're in the locker room and we're just cutting it up and we're having a good time. And I thought it was so cool that that I could give the fan the, I could show the fan that this is what the locker room is like. And then that almost brought on this bigger picture of this podcast is, well, I can show everybody what every, you know, what a locker room is like with every wrestler.

And I think the stories just drive people to think of their own stories. And so now this is the platform for everybody's own stories. And yeah, like, you know, the first episode, it, there's variations of this,

you know, one of my favorites is this guy who brought, brought his kid to a show and Hakku. wanted to play with the kid and Haku started telling this one-year-old that he was going to train him to be a wrestler when he was older. Or stories of another guy talked about, and a lot of us have the same story of how he used to call the WCW hotline because Mean Gene told him to. And then his dad sat him down with this phone bill at the time, which was hundreds and hundreds of dollars. And I think we can all relate to that. And I get to kind of pick which ones, you know, kind of fancy me.

you know, it's essentially I'm the one who gets to pick. So it's kind of the ones that I pop for almost. And that's my job as as the host. I've always said that wrestling is kind of like that scene in stepbrothers. When you find out that somebody else is also a wrestling fan, it's like, did we just become best friends? Yep. And unlike any other sport, I mean, I'm sure there's a few TV shows that have that,

you know, that link. But if someone's like, oh, I'm a baseball fan, you're like, oh, cool, I'm a baseball fan as well. But with wrestling, I don't know, it's something that's like, ingratiated in who you are. It's like part of your personality. And because wrestling has been looked down upon, you know, it is the redhead stepchild. You know, when you just said that, I thought of freaks and geeks. It's like, if I know someone who liked freaks and geeks, the TV show, you know, that was on one season or whatever. I would be like, oh my God, did we just become best friends? Because I, you know, I feel someone who liked that show is on the

same wavelength as me in terms of, you know, TV and comedy and humor and all that. And I think wrestling is the same. For some reason, there's such a weird mixture. And I'm preaching to the choir because if you're here, you're a wrestling fan. So, you know, there's some mixture of it that's so weird that, you know, why do we get sucked in? Who knows? Because I feel we all did from such a young age. So it has some, you know, we don't know why. It's something deeper mentally in us. You know, I don't know. I always say for me, it was, I'm an 80s kid. So it was just a mix. It was a mixture of like, I love sports, but I loved he. Man and Teenage Mutinyin Ninja Turtles and I love Blood Sport.

And, you know, so like, that's just like the mix. I feel wrestling is just the mixture of all of that. Before you were a wrestler, I'm going to put you on the spot here for a sure. Before you were a wrestler and you were just a fan, I mean, you're still a fan now, but before you were performing, what would be the story that you would call in with to your show? Okay. And I'm going to ask you the same question right afterwards.

So I want you to think while I'm saying. I better prepare. Okay. So I have done a little bit of standup before. and I love doing it like in Chicago. I'll go to an open, not an open mic, but just like a local show.

Marty DeRosa is my buddy, a long time buddy. I hope a lot of people know Marty. And he's almost like one of the kings of stand up in Chicago. And so I started developing this story. I'm not going to tell the whole thing, but essentially when I was 16 years old, I was in an AOL chat room and a guy hit me up and he was like,

oh, you know, it says in your AOL profile that you like wrestling. and I was like, yes, I like wrestling. And in his profile, you know, it said he was 40. And, you know, it said he like Greco-Roman wrestling and bodybuilding. And, you know, so he was like, hey, I'm out of practice. Would you like to come over and wrestle with me? I have some mats in the basement. Oh, no.

And then I was like, that's super weird, dude. And again, I'm 16 years old. I'm like, I'm not going to do that. I should meet you first. So I know you're. on the up and up, then we can go practice wrestling in your basement because I was 16.

And, you know, he didn't know what I looked like, but I was, you know, I was a, I just loved professional wrestling. I was a football player. And I just wanted to wrestle. That's all I wanted to do. So bad. And so I was about to go and meet him at this local pizza place.

And then my mom stopped me. And, you know, I put comedy bits into it in stand up. But essentially my mom stopped me. And she's like, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm going to meet this guy for pizza to see if we could wrestle in the basement. and she put a, you know, she put a halt to that. And, you know, the punchline is, is like, well, what he doesn't know is that, you know, if he was that way, I would, I would beat the crap out of him.

Yeah. Your mom might have stopped you from getting abducted. For sure. I mean, for sure she did. And that's why we think we know everything when we're that age. And looking back on it, it's crazy. But it's also, it just shows how much I loved pro wrestling that I didn't have, you know, in my school, there wasn't a lot of wrestling. fans, if any. And so I was just dying to connect with wrestling fans, dying to connect with wrestling fans. And this was someone I saw as someone who also liked wrestling. And yeah, little did I know. Maybe his intentions were good. You never know. Right, right. We don't know. We don't know. But that's, that's, you know, that's the kind of story that I can see being on the show, a wide variety, anything, anything, anything that has any kind of story that has anything to do with wrestling. I think for me, like when I get into something, I dive all the way in. I'm super passion. It's just like my personality. I don't check the depth of the water. Don't check the temperature of the water. I just dive right in. And when I became like a big wrestling fan in the attitude era, I was 15. I was aware of wrestling before that. I was a high school wrestler. But a buddy of mine named Vince, you did this crazy thing in the 90s called talking on the phone, which is so wild, right? And I knew Monday nights at 9 o'clock, our phone call would abruptly kind of

come to an end because he was a huge wrestling fan and Raw was on. And one Monday night, our conversation wasn't done. So I said, I'll all hang on the phone with you so we can keep talking. I'll put on the TV so I can watch this thing you're watching. I got so sucked in. It was Rock, or it was Austin and McMahon was a big storyline at the time. And it went from me like never watching any wrestling to watching everything. Raw and Nitro and Thunder and ECW and jacked and metal and everything. Heat. And then I became, came very quickly became a backyard wrestler. Yes.

We would all walk home from school in this big group together, and our one friend Becca had a trampoline in her backyard. So that trampoline quickly became the place where we learned how to do rock bottoms, choke slams, stunners, the really easy moves. Then through a friend found out that he had some gym mats in his backyard. We started a backyard wrestling federation. And my parents hated wrestling. Still do.

Still do very much. so much so that I would watch TV in the basement and my dad would stand in front of the TV. And I'd be like, Dad, I can't see what's going on here. The Rock's doing something. My dad, like, my dad would call it pornography. Like, so, so angry. But my mom was like, you're not, you're not backyard wrestling. And I would pack my gym bag.

Say I was going to the gym. I feel so bad. I lied to my mom. And I would go to my friend's house and we would backyard wrestling. And then one day, she's like, why do you have knee pads? and tape in your gym bag. Were you wrestling? And I was like, yeah, yeah, I was wrestling.

So, and I didn't stop. I just said, look, this is a thing I love. This is the thing I'm passionate about. We do this as safely as we can. And we're going to continue doing this. And then not long after that, I threw my body off a bridge. He broke his leg, became a viral hit in 2001 on like lime wire or Paza or something like that. Yeah, what are the?

college humor or whatever. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so I think that was it for me. And then after that, I, you know, I vowed that I was going to train to be a pro wrestler and did. And then, you know, long story short, was basically at this crossroad like, am I going to continue with wrestling school because I'd been there for a few months or continue with school school because I was in college and decided I'd continue on the broadcasting path. And now I'm really fortunate I can still dip my tone of the wrestling world. Great conversations like this. I was going to say, when you said, mom, we're doing it safely. But my first question was like, but were you? And it's so funny.

When I went to wrestling school, I realized we did everything wrong. We were giving everything on the right hand side and wrestling. It's supposed to be all be done on the left hand side. Oh, it was terrible. I love it. It was as it was, I look back at it now and I think if my kid did that, I would be terrified. Terrified. Imagine if your kid said they were going to go meet a 40-year-old in the guy's basement.

I mean, luckily, luckily we get out, you know, we've. We get out of it and we're safe, you know, for both of us. Did you determine at a young age that you were going to be a pro wrestler? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I remember watching, because, you know, it shows my age. I was born in 80. So, like, when I was 14, like a 94 APW was the first one to really utilize the internet pretty well in, like, video clips.

No, I say that. I believe Ruckus was the first person who used the video very well. He used to do backyard clips that I would find probably on Kazar or whatever you were saying, right? Like he used to wrestle's Claude Morrow in the backyards. I remember him doing like crazy flips. And later I learned out him and Sanjay, you know, they were in those best of the backyard videos. But APW was doing those garage wars. And they had a guy, you know, it wasn't Roland Alexander who was tech savvy.

You know, he just took your money and asked you to read your labels, right? It was one of their back end guys who just who had figured out the internet a little better than most of the wrestling people. And so I remember they had like a summer camp that you could go to. And I remember being 14 or 15 being like, mom, I want to go to this summer camp and her obviously being like absolutely not. And so that was that was like something I remember from a young age. And I also got the torch. And I'm and I've been cleaning out my room here. And I have torches back to like 93, 94.

So I was 13 or 14 reading about the insides of wrestling. And that's really when I started reading, you know, I credit that all the time as like, when I saw the results of like USWA, 75 people, you know, like I was like, oh, I could wrestle in front of 75 people, you know, I knew I couldn't wrestle in front of, you know, 10,000 people with Vader and Sean Michaels or whatever. But, you know, I could be whatever. I could be on those crappy little shows. Like there's shows for people like me. That's what I always thought.

So even at that young age, I think reading, you know, the quote unquote, shirts from a very young age helped guide me to realize it was a realization. And which is funny because I think it would scare a lot of people away. But for me, it really made it closer to home like, oh, this is something I could actually do. I never saw myself as a large and the life person. I was just a, you know, a chubby Jewish kid from the suburbs. So like, you know, I didn't see myself as a big star, but I could, I just wanted to wrestle so I could see myself on smaller shows.

And reading about reading on the torch and reading the inside information really made it more real and realistic for me. What were some of the jobs that you had growing up while you were trying to make it in wrestling? Oh, let's see. I mean, I was a umpire. I was a little league umpire for a lot of years. I had to, so I had to get, I did go to, so when I did go to college and I got my degree in business while I started training in 99. I went to school in 98. I tried, I won my mom said I couldn't go to wrestling school. So I played football. I think I told you that before. I quit college football after a year, started training. So stayed in school.

I had the school, Western Michigan made me get an internship. So I had to get an internship. I almost got it at Wow Magazine, if you remember that one. Yeah, of course. Yeah. And that was right around the corner from where I live. And I was wrestling at the time. But I think Bill Aptor blew me off at the point.

He would, you know. So I got one folding boxes in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which was an awful job. But I think the main job that I had after graduating college and like being a ring of honor superstar at the time, but there wasn't, you know, there wasn't that much money there. And hustling and going all over the places for two years, I was a teaching assistant. And I worked with kids with, I was a one-on-one with a kid with Down syndrome. And I worked also with kids with special knees as a middle school teaching assistant. Wow.

And, you know, what happened was, I think I made $11,000 a year doing that. and it got to the point where I think I made $7,500 or $8,000 a year wrestling. Wow. And I was like, I think I could do the wrestling full time. You know? And so after two years, I stopped teaching and I became a full-time wrestler on $7,500 or $8,000. And I always remember reading William Regal's book where Regal basically said, you know, he came from a good enough family, but he made himself poor.

And that is something that always stuck with me and something that I had done is essentially I made myself poor. I didn't count on anybody else. I said to myself, I make this much money. I'm not going to overspend. I can only spend on rent and health insurance

and the gym and some food. And that's what I did. And that's why a lot of my frugal ways are the ways they are. Luckily, I make a lot more than that these days. But it's still burned in my head is like, we're not going to make much money in wrestling. and I still like can't believe every year I still make great great money.

It blows my mind. I always assume it'll just go away the next year. You must be like investing still so much of it. Like you probably still live that frugal mentality. I do. Yeah, I do. And I, you know, and I had some crazy monetary stuff that happened to me a couple years ago.

And since then, even then I doubled down harder on investing and learning about investing. And I've really, you know, I got a lot of money taken away from me. So I really learned how to invest my money smartly, which is, it's weird that I wasn't doing that before that. But also, a lot of me was like, I can't have this plan because I never, I never know when it's going to get chopped off. So I never wanted to be it. I never wanted my money put into something that I couldn't take it out of.

That always scared me. But since then, I've gotten a little smarter and wiser with my investing, which is good. But I did love the job teaching assistant. but the problem was is I was working Monday through Friday. And it got to the point where I had asked the principal, I was like, can I take Friday off? I have to fly to London to do it, two shows. And I don't think every teaching assistant was flying to London.

You know, Matt Stryker and I had a very similar thing going on. You know, he, luckily my principal was all about it. He hit it and then got in a lot of trouble, obviously, from the New York media, for those who don't know that story, is he did a tour of Japan, didn't tell anybody the New York school system found out, and he got in a lot of trouble for taking sick days to go tour with zero one. Luckily for me, you know, my team was a little better, or not a little better. I mean, obviously, my team was more, was all about my dream, which was great.

And then following the second year, it was just so hard to balance both. I was ready to dive in and do it full time. Well, and you didn't have to lie to them if they were in on this dream with you. Yeah, they knew. you know, Mr. Cabana was a pro wrestler. I remember one time I came to class, I'd wrestle AJ Styles. This was 2000, let's been 2003. 2003, Jesus.

IWA mid-south, Clarksville, Indiana, in front of maybe 75 people. And he, you know, he does that second rope, moon salt into the reverse DDT. I love it. Yeah, well, this point, I do it in WWE, by the way. Oh, those ropes are probably hard to do it with. Well, he did it to me, Chris.

but I was a little too close and he didn't float up as much and shot straight backwards and the back of his head just went right into my eye and it swolled up my eye yeah and so the next week and a half

I was the teacher roaming the halls with just this giant black eye and a lot of the teachers knew what I did but I didn't really tell the students so much so I think they just all thought Mr. Cabana was was fighting in the streets you know a wild man

they called you Mr. Cabana well they didn't call me that but Mr. Colton. I won't, I'll break K-Fave for you. Whatever you want. Well, we can blur the lines there. I call my mom Marsha Cabana, so. At what point did you realize in your career that things, like, were starting to fire on all cylinders,

and that this was actually a path you could go down and make a living at? I think it was when Ring of Honor was constantly booking me for over. three figures a booking. I don't like to brag. You know, I think I figured out, yeah, like if I can get six bookings at a hundred bucks and make 50 bucks in the merch stand, I can do that. And then I would, you know, I would make more than that. And then I would put that money away and I would still try to make that baseline figure. But I think it was Ring of Honor that really gave me the confidence because it was a constant, it was like two or three or four bookings a month. that I knew I would always have that for decent money at the time.

And then I knew Ring of Honor would boost my profile and I can make a little better money other places. And that's kind of how it's always worked for me is that you boost your profile. And then you try to, you know, you try to tour a little bit with that profile. And that's something I've done my whole career. And so, you know, luckily for me, it didn't get so giants quickly that taking a step back. Like a good example would be some of these wrestlers who get who are making six figures with WWE, but necessarily haven't lived that independent life. That's fine. But when they get back to the independence and they're asking for $5,000 a shot because that's what they got for their check,

yeah. Like here's a wake-up call. It's going to be $75. And let's be honest, I don't even know if you're going to make that back in ticket sales, friend, you know? So it's, it's hard. It's good for me that I never had to take too many stepbacks. And I've always gradually just climbed in terms of notoriety, in terms of physicality, in terms of financially. And that's been a great career trajectory for myself. I mean, you made a name for yourself and you were definitely like, people were finding out who you were through Ring of Honor. WWE finds out who you are, sign you to a deal, which I would think is the big step that

you take in your career. I was really surprised to learn that you actually took a pay cut to go to WWA. Yeah, like a 50% pay cut. That's huge. Yeah. That's just what it was. You know, I remember my friend saying like, my friend who was in the same boat as me,

maybe a year and a half before, and he was just like, this is the sacrifice you have to make because the potential is there and the potential isn't there on the Indies. And what's funny is, you know, years later when I came back and I started my own thing and it got to the point in 2012,

2013 or whatever, where I was making more money than lower card or even some of the mid-card W.W.E guys, which was not a thing, which, you know, I don't even think it wasn't ever a thing. It's crazy that I could sit here and say that. Not a lot of people even really know that. But at that point in 2007, 2006, you know, there was a ceiling to independent wrestling and independent wrestling money for most people. And so, yeah, I took an investment myself. And I said, like, if I'm going to become a millionaire, whatever it is, I think, I guess WW is the only way that I can

do it. And so I'll dive in. I'll move to Louisville. And let's give it. shot. Louisville, you were there with OVW. At what point during your tenure there did you realize this is not working? Oh, the first day. No, just kidding. It wasn't not working. It's, it was, I always knew that like I said, I was, I'm never a bigger, larger than life guy. I didn't look like Ricky Ortiz who was there. You know, I didn't look like Dahl's, I didn't have Dahlv Ziegler's body. I didn't look like Jake Hager. You know, these were all people. that were there with me in OVW. I didn't look like Drew McIntyre. So I always knew I had to sneak in as like a like a bit player. Like I always saw the Santino role. And I'm not saying as Santino,

but if you know, the story of Santino was like they were going to Italy. They needed someone Italian. Oh, Santino, can you speak Italian? He's like, yeah, sure. Boom, he's on the show, right? He's Canadian. Right. Well, you know, you do what you got to do. So I was like, you know, like I'll be in the system. I'll be really good. I know I can get over in Louisville. I had wrestled there for years with IA. So when I started in OVW, the crowd down there knew who I was.

So I was over right away. You know, me and Spears were the two-time tag champions. I was a television champion. In that little system, I was over and I was good to go. But that doesn't mean anything in the big time system. So, you know, what was I hoping for? They were going to tour Israel. you know, maybe they got an Israel TV deal.

They needed a Jewish wrestler. You know, maybe they needed a funny sidekick. I had pitched ideas to be the general manager of Sunday Night Heat, which at that point was taken off TV and just on www.com. I thought that was a funny idea. You know, I was trying to, I was trying to weasel my way in somehow. I didn't expect to be called up to wrestle John Cena. And there's a story I tell where I think it was Dave Lagana goes,

like, pitch me an idea. And I was like, I want to be the Sunday Night Heat general manager. He goes, that's what you're pitching? Like, you got to think bigger than that. And I was like, okay, so the next week I wrote, here's my pitch. I debut at WrestleMania. I beat John Cena. Undertaker comes down.

I pile driver at him. I, you know, I take both belts. I'm the champion. You send me to, you know, letterman, whatever it is. And then he was like, okay, I see what you're saying. I was like, yeah, I got to sneak in the back door here, buddy. That's how this place. When did you make the conscious shift that you were going to go from, and I'll use

air quotes here, regular guy wrestler? to comedy guy wrestler. So this is something that I think a lot about and I well, so they say being your natural self-right is the right move

in professional wrestling. And I'm going to use Nigel McGinnis as an example of like I, at a point I was regular guy wrestler and I was doing really good on the independence and making a name for myself. And I am a good wrestler. And I really thought

about the longevity of my career. And it's like, I could go. And another side note is like I was on shows with Loki, Christopher Daniels, AJ Styles, and those guys were the best. And athletically,

I was not better than them. So I didn't, I didn't see a point in like trying to have their matches because they would be the best. But I look at Nigel. And Nigel said to a point where he wanted to be a main event player. And he said, I looked at the system of how it was built,

the independent system, and you had to beat the crap out of yourself. you look at, you know, the matches he had with Daniel Bryan, and he did become a main event player, but he had a two-year career on top of the independence and, you know, like a cup of coffee and TNA. And so I really said to myself, like, you know, I could drop myself on my head every single match and I could, you know, really destroy my body and have a good two, three-year career on top. Or I could wrestle very safely, develop this completely different style. and enjoy pro wrestling.

It's really, I love pro wrestling. I just love the idea of going from town to town, you know, especially after my WW run from like 2010 to 2000, even to the pandemic, it was just like, I would just hit up all the shows. And, you know, I wasn't necessarily spot-lit in by a company. I was just a traveling comedian salesman. And that's, that idea has given me such longevity in wrestling.

It will give me more years. And I hate to harp on Nigel. I love Nigel. I think he was one of the greatest wrestlers of my generation. But, you know, sadly, his wrestling career got cut very short. And mine has many years to go. And I do attribute that to the comedic wrestling style and just trying to be as safe as I can with my body while giving the most entertaining performance I can give. And I think that's the important thing is when I go to these small towns, when I go to these places, when I go to Japan, you know,

the people enjoy the wrestling. Some of my favorite experiences is tagging with Yano in New Japan where our reactions, I'm sorry that we do not wrestle like Abushi or, you know, Okada. And I'm not saying our reactions were as big as Abushi or Akata, but I'm saying we got reactions. You know, the same way the other wrestlers for the crazy moves.

We got reactions. And it was through making the crowd laugh. And there's something to me about seeing like a nine-year-old Japanese girl just laughing so hard. I think Yano and I both, like, I think we don't speak the same language, but I think we both have the same feelings when we see a little kid enjoying our match.

At the height of your time on the Indies, as a percentage, what were you making from your rate to wrestle? And what were you making from merch and autographs and everything there? I always say it was like a third split for the most part. So like it was like rates, one third. podcasting stuff, another third. Merchandise was another third.

Wow. But the fact that merch is making as much as your appearance fee, that's impressive. And I was, you know, I was before pro wrestling, before Ryan and I came up with pro wrestling teas, you know, I was selling coltmerch.com, you know, so there were not a lot. There's a handful of wrestlers that we're doing. I'm not going to say not a lot. There was a handful of wrestlers. So I was taking advantage of online orders, telling people that it was coming from me. and still I ship out of this room right here.

You know, I still do the same thing. So, and then there was, and still is, you know, extra, there's acting bits. I was making a lot of, I was making really good money doing mocap, you know, in the video. I did a lot of video game work that nobody really knows about. What video game would we see you in?

I mean, I think WW2K 11 through 19. Oh, you and Eli Drake. Me, Eli Drake, Sanjay, J. Leithel, Trent. I mean, there's just Micahey, Michael Mondo. There's so many of us that were like unsung heroes of those video games, which in hindsight, like, we didn't get paid that much. But compared to our wrestling rate, we were, you know, for five, eight days in a row and being put up in a nice hotel and being fed. And, you know, like, it was the greatest gig in the world.

Yeah. But the fact that you were, you were very much at the forefront. We talked about this a lot in our last interview, but you were very much at the forefront. for changing the way that pro wrestlers made money, change the way the independent pro wrestlers made money. You double down on the merch table. And now it's weird if you go to a wrestling show and you don't have a merch table. I know sometimes I look at myself and I'm like,

I think I had a lot to do with this. And I'll look at like the other wrestlers who are brand new who had had two matches and are like, have a bigger merch table than me. And I know they don't even know who I am. And I'm like, oh, God. But, you know, like, what am I, what is this? Like, I was like, you're not even going to give me some space at the table because you got here first.

And like, I'm not saying I'm playing the vet card, but sometimes I'm like, come on, can I get some space here at this table? I always feel bad for some of those guys because they've got a suitcase full of three smalls, four medium, seven larges and so on and so on and so on. You know, and sometimes you only sell a shirt or two. And it's just town to town to town with a suitcase full of merge. Yeah, I like, it's a wake-up call. I like that, actually. You could feel bad for them. I like, that's a reality check, Chris, you know?

Like, I like that. When I'm, when I'm moving big merch and then I look over in this person with 85 shirts and they only sell one, like, yeah, you should, you know, get, I'm like, get a little more over in the ring. And that's how this stuff moves. I just feel bad because they've put all this money in the inventory that may not sell. Yes, but that's, so that's what a lot of people don't understand about pro wrestling. The wrestler specifically is the merch moves when you. get over. So you, unless you have the greatest design or you're sponsored by Nike or whatever, like the merch moves because you're over as a performer and the people want to support you because

they like what you're doing and they love what they're doing and they want you to do more of it. So they want you to be a wrestler so you don't have to get another job. That's the beauty of the merch. So the better you get at wrestling, the more you learn the moves, the more you learn how it works, you know, that it's so, people want to know the keys to selling merch. It's being a great wrestler. It really is. Some people are great wrestlers, but they're not good with the merch. You can get, you have to be the great wrestler and then also be good with the merch. So that's the number one key to move and stuff is being, is being good. Outside of wrestling, what's the biggest entrepreneurial skill that you learned through all of this? I don't know if it's,

to me, I don't know if it's this thing that will give me the most success, but I like creating, I like puzzle. I like analytical and puzzle making in my own head for different things. So it gives me a lot of satisfaction. This will come back to wrestling a little bit, but it gives me a lot of satisfaction to have a match, to put it together, to know the scenario, you know, to know where we need to go in two weeks, to know the outcome and then start putting the puzzle of a wrestling match together or when it comes to editing or podcasting is clipping it together. Like if I did an Instagram, a live Instagram where I take phone calls with fans and then I know I want to clip that into a three minute YouTube clip. I love finding the best pieces and finding the best comedic aspects and where

the laughs are going to be. That's why I really enjoyed, that's why I enjoy doing the comedy outside of the wrestling when I go to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival or when I go on to, you know, a wrestling or a comedian's podcast or if I do improv shows with my friends in Chicago is I like, I like doing the math of how the jokes and the jokes structure and what will work best and why it will work. And just, you know, like with wrestling, I do that math in my head, but I do it really fast because I've been doing wrestling for 22, 23 years now. So it works really fast. And so with comedy, I've been doing comedy a long time through wrestling, but on the stage it's a little bit different. So I enjoy that process of trying to get fast and better in an outside wrestling aspect with comedy.

It's weird to say through analytics because comedy should be like a creative venture. But I feel my creativity and comedy pours out well while doing weird puzzles and analytics of the art itself. I know that sounds strange. No, but you're basically saying you love the process. Yeah, there you go. Journey is, in fact, the destination. Right. I think a lot of people were surprised that it took you so long to sign with AEW.

You know, you were such good friends with a lot of the EVPs. And I think that a lot of people assumed that you'd be one of the original people that were announced. Why was there a lag until you joined? Yeah, it just, I think, you know, I was with Ring of Honor and there was just some things, there was some things politically going happening just in general and it just wasn't the right time. And it got to the point where I just kind of said to myself, well, I got to the point with Ringavander where I was just like, I think my time here is done. They really focusing me on a commentator. And I still felt I had good years wrestling left.

And I felt I was just going there not to collect a check because I loved working with Ian. And Ian Rickabani is so good. I don't know if he gets the credit that he deserves. So good. We had him on the show a few months ago. Yeah. He's amazing. And I got a great respect for commentators like Ian, like Kevin Kelly, like Excalibur, who,

and Tom Phillips is another one who I did a tryout within 2013, who can retain the information. You know what I'm saying? It's so wild that they can retain this city, you know, right off their head. It's such a skill to have. And so, but, you know, I felt that I was just going there to go there. I liked commentating, but I wanted to wrestle. And so I had made that decision. I told the powers to be.

And then at that same time, I had gotten a really good spot with New Japan at the point. So this is when me and Yanos started kicking out. So I said, I think I'm going to focus more on New Japan and the independence. And then I, you know, I told the bucks that like, hey, you know, here's my situation. And, you know, I'm out there. If it's something you want, I'm there. If it's not, no big deal. You know, I'm just letting you know that I'm kind of free and I'm roaming around.

And so, yeah, the bucks went right to Tony and they all had a meeting. And, you know, they were like, yeah, of course, you're a lot of the reason why a lot of this is happening. And we want you on board. And however we can use you, we want you to use you. And, you know, I don't think, I knew right away, like, it's not like I was there to be the John mostly of the promotion, but, you know, Matt, Matt Jackson said something like, we, we just want your brain around. And so, you know, they've used me in an aspect of like a wrestler. I'm also a coach or slash, you know, a producer there. I help with a lot of like the dark Matt, the AEW dark.

And I'm there. We have great coaches. We have these coaches who have been around, you know, for years in different systems. But it's, I think it's important. that, you know, this was all built around essentially, you know, the Bucks and Kenny and Cody and hangman, you know, that era of independent wrestling, something I've been around for so long. And so to have a mind from that era to help with the wrestlers, you know, I think it's just as, obviously I'm not near a Dean Malenko or, you know, an Arnd Anderson or, you know, Billy Gunner, whatever it is. I don't have their experiences, but I do have the experiences that they don't have of the grind on the independent scene and that kind of new modern style of wrestling.

And so that's, you know, doing that and being around and helping young wrestlers and being a part, you know, a pivotal player. I don't know, a player within the dark order. You know, I was going to say like a game player, a sixth man off the bench, whatever it is, you know, just being around. It's been great. And, you know, Matt, you know, said, we would just want you around. It's important. And I feel it's important to be around. And when I'm around, it feels important, you know, that I'm with my friends.

We're making art. I help within this art. I can help young wrestlers. And also I can help old wrestlers who might not understand this new, you know, era of wrestling. And I think it's important that AEW keeps to the new era. Kenny Omega is our champion at the time that the time that is going out, is important to represent this era of professional wrestling. And, you know, I just think that's important. And I think we're doing a great job. And I love, I love that I signed. Also, I signed a, I hadn't signed a contract since the, the WW one where I signed for 50% less than I was making in my whole career. And then I sign a contract. And a month later, the world shuts down and independent wrestling stops.

So, I mean, what a sign that was if it was a sign. You know, I don't believe in a higher power, but if I did, he, he, she, then they were helping me out. Yeah, it was perfect timing for you because all the money you would have been making from independent shows would have disappeared and has disappeared. Yes, yes. Gone. Yeah. Gone. So, I mean, so grateful for Tony Khan. Not only am I grateful for Tony Khan. There's, you know, hundreds. of people that are grateful for Tony Con and TNT for being flexible and saying, hey, you know, you could tape every other week, you know, and Tony had this safe outdoor place that he, obviously,

daily place with Jacksonville. So that, it just all, everything aligned so well together. And he saved a lot of people's lives. If anybody else owned AEW, started AED, it wouldn't have been possible. It just so, just so happened that they had TIA Bankfield next to it is this Al-AW. outdoor amphitheater called Daly's Place. It just so happened that you can snap your fingers and you'd already done a show there. Let's do a whole bunch of shows there now. Yeah. And there was, you know, there's so much, there's just so much space. It's so, and so when, you know,

when everyone's saying social distance and be outside, it's like we were outside and we were social distance. It was great. Yeah. And well, and also there were some shows at the nightmare factory, which I think you guys kind of, I don't think, you guys were there at that time. Yeah, I was part of, Yeah, and Tony talks about those days of like it was such a trim down roster. And that was so scary. You know, I was going to drive to those shows in the last second. I was just like, you know, driving and getting out for gas is just going to be as brutal as getting on an airplane with two people. There was two people on the airplane.

And so, you know, I had three masks on and I had like a hoodie over my head. And I was just trying to get away from everybody. But there was nobody on that airplane. It was such a wild time to look back at, and especially in 10 years to look back at. Oh, my gosh. O'Hare Airport, which I had gone to for 20 years, every single week jam-packed, and it was crickets. Wild. So wild.

Yeah, this is going to be an era that we look back on, like you said, in 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, and we go, that was the COVID era. Things were a little bit different then. And I, you know, I'm romantic about that kind of stuff. And, you know, it's fun. I guess it's okay for me to say that because I'm healthy and I, you know, but so many people lost their lives and lost loved ones and jobs and the economy and everything. So it's very sad. And I'm, you know, I'm, you know, I'll just, I wear my mask.

I got my shots. I'm vaccinated. And I'm, you know, doing, I'm doing and did my part. When you talk about your style of wrestling being able to give you some longevity, do you think about what's next for you in this industry? can you wrestle into your 50s? Yeah, into my 60s, I think. Into your 60s.

I mean, look at, listen, what I'm no Billy Gunn, he is a freak of nature, but oh, is he 58 now? And he looks better than not only half our roster, but I would say 80% of our roster, including his children. So, you know, you look,

it gives me a lot of hope to look at wrestlers like Billy, to look at PCO, Christopher Daniels, even Christopher, Daniels, yeah, and just say to myself like, oh, you know, when I was in my early 20s, I was like, I guess in my late 30s, I'll have to hang it up. And, you know, I don't see it happening anytime soon. And, you know, if I'm not able to stick with AEW for the rest of my career, which I hope I do,

you know, I'm happy to be, to do, to play my softball league of the independent, you know, like old-timer softball league, you know, a couple times a month go out there and wrestle on the and have fun. And so that's kind of how I view it. But, you know, I think people get the idea that I've been setting myself up for post wrestling my whole career. Yeah. Through, you know, just learning the merch, learning the multimedia, all of this stuff. It's something I just don't worry about. As someone who's always had a lot of worry about their future, I just don't worry about my future in that way. Because, you know, I just don't worry about my future. And, you know, I think I'll be fine.

I think you'll be totally fine. I mean, you've got other great business ventures that don't involve wrestling as well or don't involve you being in a ring wrestling. Right, and that's the most important thing. And I've said that a lot, again, and I'll reiterate,

is when I got fired from WWE, I said, I never wanted to put my eggs in one basket. I have to just make a bunch of different baskets. So if one gets taken away, I still have a lot of options. And that's what I've done since 2009. I've made sure I have a lot of options. options if something gets taken away. And you know what? Like, sorry, but COVID is one of the,

COVID took everything away from a lot of people. And luckily, I had different things that I was still able to do and still able, you know, still able to make some money. What would your best advice be for the 17 year old kid who's listening to this right now and wants to be a pro wrestler one day? This is the advice I give to everybody at my school, when I do seminars, whatever it is. But I say have small goals. I'm not sure if I said this on your podcast or not before. Yeah, small goals are so important. If you go to wrestling school saying I'm going to be in WrestleMania, that's my goal. And you don't make it to WrestleMania, you're going to consider yourself or your career a failure. But if you say to yourself, I want to learn how to do a drop kick. I want to learn how to do a body slam. I want to

have one match outside of the state that I live in. I want to get flown to a wrestling show. I want, you know, Chris to interview me one day. Like these are, you know, you have these little goals. That's not a little goal. I apologize, Chris. But no, you know, that's a real small. You know, I'm building up. And so if you have those goals and they're obtainable, you know, you get a sense of satisfaction

from each individual goal that you hit. There's a spurt of dopamine. You feel like you've done something. And so, sure, maybe, you know, your ultimate goal is to be an AEW wrestler, but make sure you have those small goals so you get satisfaction out of learning how to do a hip toss. So almost like stair steps.

So like you've accomplished this one goal, now onto the next little goal. So all these little micro goals. And I've always said like it's so important to celebrate these little wins along the way. Sure, if your goal is to get signed to AEW or to wrestle at WrestleMania, great. But that might be 76 goals away from where you currently are.

Right. Or 10 years or 50. 15 years for a lot of us. Look at the Sammy Zanes and the Kevin Owens and the Eddie Kingston's of wrestling. And it's so great. But, you know, if you thought they were holding out just to make it to where they've made it, it wouldn't be possible. They've had these little goals, yeah. Who has been the biggest inspiration for you both in wrestling and outside of wrestling? Oh, that's a hard one for me. I get it. Listen, I get, I've been doing the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which is the largest comedy and arts festival in the world for the past, I think, seven years.

And obviously not last year or this year because of COVID and everything. But that's where I get a lot of my inspiration is from live performance and comedy and comedians and alt. Alt performers, you know, punk rock scene, although I'm not that much into music. Like, I love the idea. The DIY performer. I get so much influence and inspiration for the DIY performer. And so I can't necessarily like, I don't want to put my, you know, I don't want to say this one specific person. Because it really is a whole scene of, you know, very early.

It was like Eddie Pepitone doing, who's a comedian doing these YouTube shows that I started doing a YouTube series kind of based off that inspiration. Or even Chris Getherd, who was signed by Comedy Central and then got fired and then started his own public. Access show and you know, got that all the way to comedy, you know, back to, you got to show based on that on True TV or Mark Marin, you know, starting in the, in the garage, nobody listened to his podcast and it blowing up. And there's just so many different people over so many different walks of life. But a lot of it isn't necessarily wrestling. And I, and I've said that because, like, I don't, I don't want to copy people in wrestling too much because they're already doing that thing. And so a lot of times I'll see wrestlers do like moves that other people do

that are in the scene at the moment. You know, when the young bucks were super kick happy and then everybody in the independent scene was all of a sudden they were doing super kicks. You know, I didn't say it out loud, but I would just say to myself like you're there. They've done the super kicks. Why? You be somebody else. Be something different. And so it was always hard for me to take inspiration from wrestlers in the currency. Now, of course, obviously, like, I took a lot of inspiration from old British wrestlers, Les Kellett, Cat Weasel, Vic Faulkner, Massambula. These are wrestlers in the 60s who I don't think a lot of people even know who they were.

And I think there's a lot of great wrestlers who do that, who go back and kind of grab some of those tidbits. But, you know, I grab inspiration from, from modern-day comedians and DIY artists. And I do, if I could give, back to that 17-year-old question. Please. Yeah. Is, you know, I don't know. Don't make your persona somebody else's exact persona who's doing it right now. Otherwise, you'll just be a second rate somebody else.

That's just great life advice, really. There you go. It really is. I wrap up every interview talking about gratitude because I think it's such an important thing that if you can be grateful, you'll live a great life. It's right here. Be great. Be grateful. What are three things in your life, Cole? That's a YouTube plaque. Well, this one is. What are three things in your life, Colt, that you're grateful for right now? Three things? Three things. Well, my family who's very supportive of me. The positive wrestling

fan base, I will say that. Although, you know, that negative wrestling fan base in their head, they are positive to the stuff that they love. But they're very negative to the stuff that they hate. But great, yeah, great wrestling fans. And, oh, I don't know. What am I grateful for? A loving, I want to say like a loving person as there's just so much, whether it's politics or an open-minded person.

And I'm grateful for open-minded people who want to become informed, who want to learn, who are understanding of other people. And I think that's so important. You know, I'd say it's so important now, but it's always been important. And I'm grateful for those people. And I'm even more grateful for those people who can get through or get that message through to people who are a little stuck in their ways and maybe stuck. in the wrong ways or, you know, just, I'm not saying my way is right or anybody's way is right,

but I will say, you know, hopefully be open-minded and willing to learn and just, I don't know, don't be so short-sighted. So those people, I'm grateful for them. That's, now, that's powerful because there's a lot of people that are stuck in their ways that go, I believe this thing, and I'm not talking politics here, I'm just talking life in general. I think this is the best flavor of ice cream. I think this is the best wrestling company on the planet. I think this is the best pizza topping and I'm not going to see it any other way. Why can't we just go, oh, that's cool. You like cookies and cream? Wow, I like mint chocolate chip. Great. Let's eat ice cream together. It's all subjective. Yeah. And not even get to political,

but like there's a lot of people, if we did get political, there's a lot of people who see, this has helped me a lot is that sometimes I'll get fired up at a different, and at someone, how someone feels and I'll be like, how could they feel that way? I hate it. that person, right, like at first. But then I look at my AW locker room and I know there's people who feel different ways that I feel, but I'm like, but they're my friend and I've gone through war with them and I like them a lot. Like they are a great person. And that helps me keep me in check that we don't have to, we don't have to attack the other side and, you know, we can all have the rights to our own opinions. I'll say that. Yeah. You're one of the nicest guys in all of

wrestling. Well, some people won't say that. I always have such a great time talking with you, whether it's on camera or off camera. So thank you so much. Again, people can check out your new podcast, Wrestling Anonymous, wherever they're listening to this podcast right now. Welcome back to the podcasting game to our podfather of pro wrestling podcasts. I just, I loved podcasting when I first heard it. And I think it was just a little earlier than a lot of wrestling fans knew what that

podcasting was a thing. So I love jumping into the medium and learning about microphones and sound. And I'm still learning before this even started. Chris was telling me some stuff, some tech stuff that I'm going to use moving forward. So I love being in the podcasting realm. I thought I was out for a little bit. And it kind of made me sad. And so when this idea came up, it made me happy.

And it's gotten me really inspired for the, you know, my, you know, right now AEW is A. you know but b c d and e and all that all those other things i'm excited to jump into that also when it comes to technology i've been doing a lot of twitch too and i don't know if you've touched on twitch chris at all or no i've been a guest a few times but i've never i don't it's fun i love it uh i play games and it's my sense of humor and it's essentially live streaming but with something to do so that's the games part of it and um it's a lot of fun so uh i'm at twitch tv uh slash twitch titch tv slash twitch TV slash Colt Cabana. Throw on all your socials.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Twitter and history. I'm at Colt Cabana. I started TikToking and then I stopped TikToking, but I still watch TikTok. I'm the same. I had some videos that like blew up on TikTok and then other videos that got like 300. And I'm like, huh.

Okay. Yeah. I watch it all the time though. I think it's such a fun medium. That's so addictive. Yeah. Yeah. So addictive.

And it will be, I don't know the future, but like, you know, people should be the way, the way people were jumping on podcasts, people should be jumping on, if you're, if you're a content maker, you should be jumping on TikTok, if you could do it the right way and make good videos. If you can figure out, because it's a very specific style or type of video on TikTok that works. And I get it. Like people want to feel something. They want to laugh or they want to like feel something in their heart. And if you can create that kind of content that is shareable, you're going to be a star. It's just a matter of actually figuring out what content that is. Yeah, actually I'm friends with these two twins out of

Vancouver, they were putting up the ring when I was doing an ECCW show years ago. And I just thought they were the funniest dudes ever. And their names are the Voros twins. And I told them to get on TikTok. And then they, do you know that Da Vinci one? Of course. Yeah. And so then they blew up on TikTok. I'm not taking credit for it, but I was just like, you guys were made for TikTok. And so, right, they're not high profile wrestlers yet. But they're high profile on the social media. And they're doing really well. So it's really cool. Yeah. Yeah. Colt, this is such a pleasure. Thank you again. Thank you. You're doing great. I'm proud of you. I've told you that last time. Keep doing it. I'm working towards that YouTube plaque. I'm putting up Wrestling Anonymous stuff on my YouTube strictly to get that frigging plaque. I'm very jealous of you right now. Well, I am only doing this because I'm able to stand on the shoulders of those who came before me. And the shoulders who I'm standing on are yours.

Look at these traps, baby. That's it. So thank you so much for even creating this lane that the rest of us can now be in. That's very kind of you. We'll end it there. Goodbye. Well, there we go. So good to have Cole back on the show.

Definitely go check out his new podcast called Wrestling Anonymous, wherever you're listening to this right now. And snap a screenshot. Let us know that you're on this ride with us. Share it on social media. Then I will reshare it, whether it's, that's on Twitter or Instagram, just tag me at Chris Van Fleet. And I hope you're inspired after hearing Colt's story of focusing on the things that you want in your life and then going after it and making it happen.

As the legend Bruce Lee once said, if you love life, don't waste time. For time is what life is made up of. Be great. Be grateful, my friends. We'll see you on the next one for some more insight. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes.

So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it. Get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef?

Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.