Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Confronting EC3 About Control Your Narrative, Austin Aries & Banned Moves

Episode Date: March 25, 2022

EC3 (@therealec3) is a professional wrestling known for his time in WWE and IMPACT Wrestling where he is a 2-time TNA World Heavyweight Champion. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Orlando, FL to talk about Control Your Narrative and what exactly it's all about, the backlash he received after hiring Austin Aries, why he banned superkicks and Canadian Destroyers at his CYN show, what his workout routine looks like, his earliest memory, his WWE release and much more! For more information about Control Your Narrative visit: http://controlyournarrative.co 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 CVV and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens, which is a super important part of my morning routine. With one scoop of athletic greens, you get 75 high-quality vitamins, whole food source superfoods, and probiotics to help you start your day right. This special blend of ingredients supports your gut health, your nervous system, your immune system, your energy, recovery, focus, aging, all the things. And best of all, it tastes amazing. and it's really helped with better sleep quality and recovery for me. Whether you eat keto, paleo, vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, whatever it is, it fits right into your diet. Look, lots of people take some kind of multivitamin, and I think it's important to choose one with high-quality ingredients that your body will actually absorb. That's why I drink athletic greens every morning, and that's why it's recommended by professional athletes in all kinds of different sports.

Right now, it's time to reclaim your health. and arm your immune system with convenient daily nutrition, especially since it's cold and flu season right now. It's just one scoop in a cup of water every day. That's it. No need for a million different pills and supplements to look out for your health. And to make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a free one-year supply

of immune-supporting vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athletic greens.com slash insight. Again, that's Athletic Greens. com slash insight to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. Athletic Greens. This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens, which is a super important part of my morning routine. With one scoop of athletic greens, you get 75 high-quality vitamins, whole food source superfoods, and probiotics to help you start your day right. This

special blend of ingredients supports your gut health, your nervous system, your immune system, your energy, recovery, focus, aging, all the things. And best of all, it tastes amazing, and it's really helped with better sleep quality and recovery for me. Whether you eat keto, paleo, vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, whatever it is, it fits right into your diet. Look, lots of people take some kind of multivitamin, and I think it's important to choose one with high-quality ingredients that your body will actually absorb. That's why I drink athletic greens every morning. And that's why it's recommended by professional athletes in all kinds of different sports.

Right now, it's time to reclaim your health and arm your immune system with convenient daily nutrition, especially since it's cold and flu season right now. It's just one scoop in a cup of water every day. That's it. No need for a million different pills and supplements to look out for your health. And to make it easy, athletic greens is going to give you. you a free one-year supply of immune-supporting vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase.

All you have to do is visit athletic greens.com slash insight. Again, that's athletic greens.com slash insight to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. Athletic Greens. All systems are go. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris. Are you, my friends?

Oh, welcome back to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm CBV, Chris Van Fleet. Thank you so much for being with us on this one. And look, I get it. I understand. EC3 and control your narrative isn't exactly everyone's cup of tea. I know that. EC3 knows that.

But I applaud him for doing something different. And we talk about that, some of the decisions that he's made with this, and so much more during this conversation. Take a screenshot. Let us know that you're listening. Let us know what stands out for you the most here. And tag us. EC3 is at the real EC3. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. And speaking of social media, you may have seen it earlier this week, but I am beyond excited to announce the first ever live podcast episode of Insight. It's happening Thursday, March 31st, during WrestleMania Week in Dallas. and we've got a big guest, both literally and figuratively. Adam,

Cher, better known as Bronz Strowman and WWE is going to be joining us, and this is his first interview since being released from WWE. So he has a lot to say. In fact, on Instagram, he said he's spelling the tea all into the river.

So you can check out my Instagram, my Twitter, his Instagram or his Twitter for ticket information, but tickets start at 25. There is the VIP opportunity for meet and greets. I would love to see you there. The first ever live episode of Insight.

Oh, man. This first of many, too. So we've got some other big guest lined up for the rest of the year, but I would love to see you there in Dallas. I can't wait for that one. If this is your first time listening to the show, by the way, please take a second to click follow or subscribe wherever you're listening. And you can be like Mars Bar 420, who's our fan of the week.

He says, Mount Rushmore, a podcast, long time wrestling fan. longtime listener of the pod. My favorite part is getting to catch up with some of my favorite wrestlers. CVV always asks intriguing questions and just keeps a great pace. I can't recommend this podcast enough. Well, thank you. I read one review on every single episode. It's my way to say, thanks for being on this journey with me. So if you have Apple Podcasts, leave a few words on there, and we'll shout you out here for free. Of course. If you happen to listen on Spotify, it'd be so awesome if you could go in there and leave a five-star rating because Spotify just started doing this. We now have, I think it's 525 ratings on there. You guys are awesome.

Let's see if we can get to a thousand. Let's see if we can get to a thousand ratings. Boy, I put myself on the spot here. My birthday is two months away. Could we do it by May 19th, a thousand ratings on Spotify? I know you guys can do it. So let's make that happen. Boom, put it out there. Thousand ratings on Spotify. It takes literally three seconds, so maybe two. I don't know. But if you could do that, that'd be great. All right.

It's a long intro. Let's dive into this. Please welcome from Orlando. That's where we did this interview. E, C, three. When does chest day begin? Chester day will begin immediately upon this interview's conclusion. Well, I guess it is Chess Day right now.

It is. Friday being Chess Day, my entire programming, it's discombobulated, as you could see, because yesterday we were going to film a leg workout, usually leg days. Thursday, shoulder days Friday, but because of scheduling conflicts, I had to move leg day to Monday. Then we had a back day yesterday. A hell of a back day.

Which will be on a YouTube channel very shortly. This is a great little precursor of that. It's a little teaser to what's coming. Because we're such, you know, Hollywood artists that we've filmed out of order. That's it. You know, but yeah, we had a great back day. Then you had to go do arms with Killer Cross.

Which also is a, you know, we're teasing that workout that's going to be coming to the YouTube channel And then so yes, chest day normally not on a Friday will be this Friday immediately upon completion of this interview and cordial goodbyes. Does everything else in your life have this much structure or just your workout and eating? If my business had this structure, if the narrative had this structure, if my personal finances had this structure, if my life had this structure, I would probably be a lot less psychotic. But no, only my eating and training has this structure. Why don't you take some of this and pepper it into the other? other things in your life.

Because all those other things I feel like the universe puts me in the position it needs to be and it'll all work itself out. As long as I work out on time, I don't care what happens during the day. I drank two pre-workouts yesterday. You did. One was a berserk from Black Magic Supply, promo code EC320. The other was, I believe, chemics from the guerrilla chemist. And that promo code, I believe, is just EC3.

And you preferred berserk, if I recall. It was a better flavor for me. It's delicious. I saw a Billy Gunn. Workout pre-workout right here? Well, I guess you don't remember because yesterday during our back day, I mentioned the story. You mentioned it, but the video hasn't come out yet. I know.

Yes, do you want to see it? I'll pull it over here. All sorts of. Look how jacked he is. He's so jacked. He's so tall gunpowder. Like, oh, like Billy gunpowder. That too, but I think being in the supplement game, the whole aspect is like, what's fun about it is naming your supplement.

crazy shit. Gunpowder. How do you not take gunpowder? Promote maximum strength, enhanced energy, and focus. Can we see the ingredients? Yeah, I'm trying to see how much caffeine is in here. I believe

it's 350. Oh, 450. Well, that's no, that's an energy point. Okay. So I believe I did ask him and he says, 300. Very nerdy now. A lot of citroline. That's good. Where's the beta aliline?

I don't think it has beta aline. But that's what I want the tingles. Well, if you want beta ale and eat straight, go to bulk supplements.com using promo code EC3. And they do separate all their ingredients. So, like, in theory, the perfect pre-workout you want, you can make yourself with just the ingredients. Have we ruined the shot now by getting too close together? I doubt it. Okay.

All right. But thank you for inviting me to the gym. That was a great workout. It was a great workout. I was going to love that. Why is your eyes still black? What's happened here? I was punched in the face.

Was it by a man? or was it by life, you decide. So what happened to Leg Day? Because you said, like, everything got messed up because you almost died. Well, in theory, we were coming off of our very first live event, huge success, amazing time. But the next day, we had a pre-production

and we had a narrative seminar that took a lot out of us mentally because it's such a bonding experience between ourselves and the talent we bring in. The following day, we had our very first shoot with Pro Wrestling TV at ProWTV. for Free the Narrative 3 and there's a lot of responsibility

and burdens on us especially when you're performing you're producing you know you're kind of responsible for a lot of things going on and you have a great team around you but you're like mentally make sure you need to be a part of everything

because you're just a neurotic overseer of things and so from like the exhaustion plus we're fighting a fake culture world the whole entire week before that so much so much happened with exhaustion and mental and physical And then I'm...

You're talking about the comments online. No, stuff like that. But like the physicality and then training, leading up to it to like look super, super fucking jacked and ripped. But yeah, by the end of it, I was laying in bed after a very successful day and a very great day

and a day that's going to send us off into the future. And I kind of like had a moment in my bed where I felt like I was almost dying. And you said, you know what? I probably shouldn't do leg day. No. was like, I'm going to have to move leg day by at least three days. And then, therefore, I did.

What I did do is I finally took two to three days off completely. And I ate like a pig. Then I felt worse because I was eating like a pig. So that didn't help me. And then trying to segue back within what we call a delode in training. So then I had to delode legs first. Yada, yada. And then it's Monday.

Something else happened with new programming for my mobility coach, where I didn't want to intertwine my new clean and jerk routine with back day on the same day. So I had to move leg day to Monday, leg day aesthetic Monday, which was Monday morning. Therefore, Thursday morning would have been leg day aesthetic day with you and I at the dump, probably. But it got discombobulated and here we are.

And this is like that scene in the hangover when Zach Gelfinac is seeing all the numbers in front of him. I feel like Charlie Day sitting at the board, smoking a cigarette. That's my training regimen here. By the way, happy birthday. Oh, my gosh. Today.

Yes, birthdays aren't real, though. The only birthday you have. The only birthday you have is the day you were born. Each and every day after that is just a day for you to find out who you truly are. It's a celebration of your birth. You only celebrate? It is a celebration. You didn't celebrate it the first time it happened.

You don't remember. I came screaming in the world saying, hey, mom. You definitely didn't say, hey, mom. Vividly. I'm like, get this umbilical cord. The hell off me. throw that placenta on ice let's go it's leg day

you saved the placenta very nice very forward thinking you're doing talk about my mom's innards man would you and that we're going to go way off on a tangent here but do you remember what your first memory was yes I do my first memory was my very first surgery when I was three years

old I had a bleeding ulcer and the very first memory I have is them pulling staples out of my stomach when I was coming off of anesthesia like by very first memory is the most excruciating pain I've ever been in. Wow. Without this turning into a therapy session,

this may explain, you know. A lot. Yeah. Yeah. Here we are. This may explain how you, and I can I like remember the lights too. And I remember they put a cartoon on to distract me. But I couldn't be distracted because they're pulling metal

out of my body. But you were like there was some sort of anesthesia, right? So you're, you know, feeling the pain. Yeah. I was coming off. I was coming off. of it and feeling the pain. Well, with all of that said, happy birthday. Thank you. Happy birth.

Where are we, by the way? People are going to look at this. They're going to see that we're in the rant room right now. Yes, we're live in the rant room here at Control Your Narrative Headquarters, aka Justified Prince. If you ever need your t-shirt maids, go to Justifiedprince.com.

We make your dreams wearable. And at Justified underscore Prince on Instagram, but we're almost too busy to do that job. It's kind of, I dare I say, the soap creation in Fight Club. This is Justified Prince is sort of our front for our nefarious side business, which is control your narrative. There's been a lot of comparisons between what you guys are doing and Fight Club. Do you think those are justified? Absolutely, because we stole a lot of ideas from it.

There's no doubt about it. Well, and then, yeah, there was one comment actually recently. Somebody should tell EC3 that Fight Club is. parody and he's not really Tyler Durdin. And I said, the fight club is satire. Yeah. Until EC3, he's not really Tyler Durdin.

And I said, professional wrestling is satire. So you're making my point. I'm aware. In fact, I'm so self-aware. I can handle any of your grueling questions. What about like if someone were to come in here? Explain what the rant room is.

Because it's a fascinating idea that I think a lot of people went, they're really going to do that. Yeah, I'm a man of my word. The rant room originated because it sounds cool in my mind. And in our first feature, Free the Narrative. I always thought that if I was creating this army of men, that there would be this therapeutic room where there would be a camera on and they would walk in. It's almost like a confessional from a reality show, but they walk into the rant room and they just...

This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens, which is a super important part of my morning routine. With one scoop of athletic greens, you get 75 high-quality vitamins, whole food source superfoods, and probiotics to help you start your day right. This special blend of ingredients supports your gut health, your nervous system, your immune system, your energy, recovery, focus, aging, all the things. And best of all, it tastes amazing, and it's really helped with better sleep quality and recovery for me. Whether you eat keto, paleo, vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, whatever it is, it fits right into your diet. Look, lots of people take some kind of multivitamin, and I think it's important to choose one with high-quality ingredients that your body will actually absorb. That's why I drink athletic greens every morning, and that's why it's recommended by professional athletes in all kinds of different sports. Right now, it's time to reclaim your health and arm your immune system with convenient daily nutrition,

especially since it's cold and flu season right now. It's just one scoop in a cup of water every day. That's it. No need for a million different pills and supplements to look out for your health. And to make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a free one-year supply of immune-supporting vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athletic greens.com slash insight. Again, that's athletic greens.com slash insight to take ownership.

over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. Athletic Greens. Orlando and it was utilized. So who was in there? Well, a fan came to the VIP. He asked me, there's a rant room real. And I said, absolutely. And he said, I'd like to talk to Austinaries.

And I said, shit. Okay. Okay. I don't know if he's here yet. So I go to the back, I go, you know, I know he's there. The one problem with the rant room is I should have, you know, I meant it for me directly, but then bringing other people into my insanity wasn't the best choice. But those that support it were behind it.

So Austin, you have a request for the rant room. And he says, okay. So I find the guy. I go, ready? And he says, yeah, until I grab him. Okay. And Austin comes in and there's this electrical. closet with the rant rooms written on the door, I bring the two in there. And for three minutes

that I stood there, this fan proceeded to do nothing but talk about how good of a wrestler Austin Aries is and how much he respects him. And I'm telling you, there's a, there's like, it's a, at a, the tin roof, so they serve food. There's forks, spoons. There's knives in this rant room. And for three minutes, this fan, bless him, talks about too Austin to his face, how cool he is, how much he respects him, how much he likes him, but I know he wants to get to what he really wants to say because he's going, I just wish you, I just wish you, and then Austin finally,

you just wish I'd what? And he goes, I just wish you'd stop tweeting your opinion so much. And Austin goes, why? It's mine. And the fan really had no justification, like, answer to it. And then I'm like, I think this is good. I have other things to do. Can I believe?

I was like, yeah, it's fine. But what I learned is that face-to-face, proper discourse, discussion, different opinions, different objections, different lives can find common ground. They can find peace. And maybe peace is what the rant room is for. Well, the interesting thing is anyone can say anything when they're hiding behind a keyboard, hiding behind a username. I had a great line.

Ditch the keyboard and let it rip. I thought that was clever. That's pretty great. I think the people don't realize when they're typing it out and they're putting it out into the world that number one, I don't think people realize that other people can consume this. And maybe the person who you intended this tweet for is going to actually read that and even respond to that.

Yeah. I vividly remember one, like, you know, I've seen and heard a lot of crazy shit throw in my way. None of it really bothers me. But one stood out where one nice young lady, I'm sure, told me, you're a depressive meathead and I hope you kill yourself. And I'm like, ow! What am I doing?

Could you imagine if you had said that to her? Not about the meathead part, but... I would never say that to another human being because I'm too busy succeeding and fighting for things that matter. I've never met one person who has trashed an athlete, an entertainer, a professional wrestler, a politician, ever, who's ever done anything good, true, or worth doing in their lives.

I just don't think that exists. Is the rant room going to be in Dallas? Absolutely. Absolutely. And for $100, you can rent it whoever you want. Not true. For $100, you can have a VIP meeting greet. If you want the rant room, I'm going to clear it with the person you want to rant with or at.

And if they accept, they have that choice. So wait, it's not an extra amount. It's just $100 for the meet and greet. And if you want the rant room, it's just like, that should be an extra thing. You know what? Russellmania week. Yeah. I'll open it up the GAs.

I'll open it up. And they pay the $100? No, they can pay the... It's going to be a line now. We'll see. I doubt it. I doubt it. I don't know.

There are nobody is going to talk to someone's... If WrestleMania was in New Orleans, it'd be a completely different thing. Yeah, but these will be coming from Bourbon Street. Yeah, they'd be like, well, I know why you suck. Yeah. I mean, well, I know why it's up, but let's hear it. What do you got? When you announced that Austin Aries was part of Control Your Narrative, I think

people got really upset. A small vocal minority did. But then our tickets. He was trending on Twitter. He's trending on Twitter without even tweeting. That's publicity you can't buy. That's true. Mr. what is he? Arts and Culture.

Mr. Arts and Culture. Yeah, but, you know. People have very strong opinions about Austin areas. And I know this because he was on my show and people had very strong opinions about me even giving him the platform to speak on my show. That's what I don't get is how do you know what someone thinks, feels or even truly says if you don't hear what they think or understand what they feel or where it's coming from or actually listen within context of what is truly being said. So what was your idea

behind bringing him into the project? Mostly he reached out prior to us even announcing that we are becoming a real, you know, promotion in a sense, or we have television or running a series of live events or we're really growing at a rapid rate. Before all of that, he just said, I kind of, I dig what you're doing, and I'd love to be a part of it one day. And I'm like, here's a guy, former world champion, one of the best wrestlers in the world who went away for a long time.

When he went away, it was on a personal journey of discovery. It wasn't because he was blackballed. Like, he just had to get away. And like, that's a story worth telling. That's a story worth hearing, I think. So he reached out. And then we had a very intricate phone call

within my partner, JC, the narrator and I, and we were like, we're feeling this. This feels good. let's look at the downs. Okay, he's controversial. He has opinions, but there's nothing cancelable. So he has his opinions.

What we're fighting against is, you know, the perception of somebody based on what you don't know anyway. So it seemed logical. It seemed in a sense safe. Plus, if I'm inheriting a world champion in the ring, here's a guy that when we're bringing up the next generation of talent,

to think differently, work differently, act differently, you know, truly be able to. to encompass what we think this industry is, he's a great guy to do it because he's so good. And he's a leader. He's a locker room leader. He's a leader in his own life.

And I respect that. Do I agree with him on things? I don't know. Probably not. But I can have discourse and I can have discussion. And I can live happily knowing that maybe we don't see eye to eye on certain things, but we do have the same vision for what this industry could be.

I think that people went, EC3 is attaching his name. to Austin Aries. Therefore, he must agree with everything that Austin Aries stands for. And they're kind of lumped you together. That's a terrible mindset. And that's, I think, what the problem is with society and culture here. You're either one thing or the other.

It's very interesting. This team or this team. But that's not true at all. Now, and these teams are now against each other. But the majority of people are on neither team, and they're in the middle going, you suck. You're nuts. Yeah.

You know, so whatever. But then at the same time, announcing Austin Aries, unbeknownst to us, at the exact same time we announced Austin Aries, a vicious, horrific, terribly unfounded, untrue, completely asinine, created by somebody who's probably out to destroy us. Rumor arrives on Reddit, and people believe it. So it was almost a perfect storm of, oh, this may have two and two together. That's who they are.

Yeah. What did you do to combat that? I did an interview, dispelling each and every facet of it. And then because I offended so many people, I was deplatformed from that thing where I would have an interview. What were you de-platform from? Well, because apparently I said a number that has some sort of racism ties that I'm so unracist I didn't know existed in saying just a number. So immediately people assumed that. So where have you been to platform from?

Well, nowhere specifically. Fifell was I was doing a weekly interview with Fifell to kind of build up how it would, yeah, with Sean Ross Sapp. I was doing, because what we're doing so interesting and unique were an unfunded, completely independent sort of group trying to jump into the wrestling fray with no corporate backing whatsoever, no, you know, financial like income. were really putting our all into something unique and organic and hoping to see it grow.

So I thought it would be a cool story for Fifele to document the week by week of this leading up to our show in Dallas. And it keeps us in the news cycle. And we were doing it. It was cool. And then like, wow, you really got a real story now because this is happening and this is happening. But then I said a number.

And it wasn't that people took it the wrong way because if you watch it within the context, it's obvious I don't know what I'm saying. The interviewer states, He obviously doesn't know what he's saying, but the way people report it is that I said it with all the intent in the world because that's what I would do is like...

Because people just read the headline. They don't actually like watch the interview. But I'm almost glad that happened because context is so important and context is what's lost. And if I have to die on the sword that the people that are in the middle who say you suck and you're insane

are seeing how this infiltrates their news and people's opinions, maybe it awakens them to the fact that they are being lied to and manipulated so they can be therefore controlled. And the fact is happening in something so insignificant as pro wrestling. Imagine what's going on in real life. So what is control your narrative for people who may be hearing about this now for the first time? To control your narrative is to tell your story. That is my intent for it. But we ask everybody what it means to them and we always get unique and different responses. What does control your narrative mean to you? Well, I'll get to that in one sec. I think it stemmed from the idea that in WWE, you didn't have the opportunity to control

your own narrative. And that's very simple, but at the same time, did I not take the opportunities necessary to control my narrative and stand for what I believed in, whether or not it would lead to my termination, downfall or release anyways? Did I try to play it safe too much? Did I hide behind the fact everybody else feels the same way and it's a group think and it's a toxic group thing that nothing matters. Did I fall in line with that and not control my narrative enough to

look, I might get fired, but I will, should I have just burst my way into Vince's door and tell him, here's why you suck and I'm awesome. Maybe. So, like, I take full accountability. But you're making a good amount of money. You've got exposure on TV.

When you're booked on TV, it's like, oh, do I really want to, I don't really want to compromise that. You don't really. Yeah. Until it's, you don't, but you kind of do. And it just depends. Do you have the guts and the courage you?

And at the time, I didn't because I did. I mean, where was I? I was in a, you were a mute. Yeah. I was in a mute, concussed, out of action, brain hurt, like, bad place mentally because of this. World goes, world burns in front of us with a pandemic and a shutdown. a lockdown. Like, I'm sitting there. You were released one month into the pandemic.

Even into that month, you know, that was a time where people, like, were trying to get released and they wouldn't let anyone go and they were trying to make their big stands on social media like, I asked my release and they didn't give it to me. And like, oh, you poor bastard, shut up. Shut up. Stop complaining on social media wrestlers. You suck. Stop. Anyways. But I'm in that position. All right. I'm making good money.

I have a family whose business is suffering because of these lockdowns and these shutdowns. I need to make sure I can take care of them. We're starting a new business here. I need to make sure I can take care of this and our employees. Like, I can't give up that even though every day I'm more and more miserable. And then it happened and I was completely relieved because I didn't have to make the decision. The universe made it for me. And I've said this to you before, but it's just so crazy to me that former Impact Wrestling

World Champion, you had such a great run there. And then you go to WWE and it's like they don't know what to do with you. Yeah, I mean, NXT was cool for a little bit, but I was never meant for the NXT. It was more like, oh, where are we going to find something for him? And then when we were called up, it was very rash and unplanned and unpurposedful. So you think, well, that's okay. I'll make the most of it. Like our vignettes were shot.

I mean, back in the day, vignettes were shot with intent and purpose. Yeah. But it was called up in a mass group and, like, we're shooting our vignettes in our homes and stuff. And I'm like, this doesn't feel like this is destined for whatever. And then, yeah, I'm a mute when I'm fairly capable of speaking out loud. But it's pretty clear that the people there had never seen your work in Impact Wrestling perhaps. Well, the people there that brought me in and knew me, the agents and were, friends and fans of my work did, but they also did not step up and say, because one man's

opinions, the rule of law there, that, hey, no, don't make him a mute. He's good of talking. You could probably get a lot of booze and then people will pay money to see him get beat up. It seems, though, that if you have success elsewhere, they don't want you to also have success in WWA. I don't know. It's really hard to think of someone who is super successful in impact. And Ring of Honor, obviously, there were many examples of people who were successful in Ring of Honor, but not a lot of people who were successful in Impact Wrestling other than AJ Styles. Yeah, is that it? Joe too much.

But those are also Ring of Honor guys, though. Yeah. I don't know if we're reading too much into where they came from, because I don't think Impact was ever even on Vince's radar where he's like, I'm going to buy them and destroy them. But I do think that it's one man's opinion. and it's made immediately, and unless you do something to change that, it doesn't matter what you do because it'll never happen for you. Because everybody, again, unlike me, well, I was at the time, but job scared,

trying to hold on to their job and their position and are going to rock. And pay a mortgage and pay a car payment. Yeah. Pay for their real legitimate kids. Real life, yeah. Three of them. Wow. I have six. So, EC 4, 5, and 6. They're bastards.

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and five free travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athletic greens.com slash euthers. Insight. Again, that's athletic greens.com slash insight to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. Athletic Greens. I will answer your question now. What does it mean to me to control your narrative? And I think it's the idea of living life on your terms. And I define success as being excited for what you're going to do that day and then being proud of what you've done at the end of your day. That's it for me. Were you proud of of your day yesterday.

Damn right. You should have been. In fact, I said that to Zeus. Yeah, two when we got back to the hotel. All our workouts, traveled the, you know, traveled across the country. Yeah. Hanging and banging, rock and rolling. Got some green beer, right?

Did you? No. We did drink old-fashioned last night. See? Yeah. You'll see it on the YouTube video, but he's asking me about drinking beer and I go in a rant about how beer is estrogen, beer is soy. Beer makes men weak.

Like, if you're going to be a man, drink straight whiskey or tequila. So we have some whiskey. And you're a man. Yeah. And happy with your day. And I think... Every day, though. And that's every day, though.

That's a great day. And then control your narrative really was started as my partner, the narrator, and I, brainstorming on, like, creating a character. And how can we do this within 90 days from post-WWE? Even though this is something I was pitching to WWE at the time. But upon release, I was already... The day I was released is the same day I filmed this vignette, when I show up with a shaved head and this promo that,

essentially aired in my socials and we'll probably start reusing our stuff. The same day I filmed that was the same day I was released, which again is the universe speaking in strange terms, but then taking that and we have 90 days, like let's make something creatively unimpeded and see how we feel about it and very successful and very happy with what we did. For me personally, how fulfilling it was to be able to create on my own terms who I envision this person would be or become based on. his past, but also

it was so self-fulfilling because being created, no matter how much money you make, unless you're creatively satisfied, you're never satisfied, making zero money, but super creatively, yeah, super creatively satisfied that we wanted to bring that opportunity

to other talents. So you put that together 90 days. It was, it doesn't feel right to call it the cinematic style of matches, but, you know, it was during that time when you couldn't have crowds. So now you're doing these shows in front of crowds.

Is that the plan moving forward? The plan moving forward is to have sanctioned and then filmed for TV live matches. Weekly, monthly? We're looking at it like this. We're going to release the third narrative feature to kind of put an end cap to what we started. Okay. And then we're going to... You like doing things in threes.

It's weird, right? It's a good number. It's a universal number, I think. I don't know. It's in my name. Okay, so you're going to do a third one. Yes. upon that's releasing, we will then therefore look to create within that style,

but will we uniquely brand it with our new partner, other creative minds, new talents, and sort of create a seasonal aspect that would be about an eight to 10 episode run leading into one giant show where the payoff is the story of wash unfold over television. Upon that show taking place, we will then more than likely be on the road, six whole weeks touring, filming

for what would then become sort of a more live show in front of human beings and more traditional in a sense, but then introducing new people. New concepts, new stories, new characters from there, maybe take a week off

and then restart the process until we're billionaires. Billionaires. Why not? I want to ask you a very broad question. I'm just interested to see what your response is to it. what are your general thoughts on pro wrestling right now? I don't like it.

It doesn't engage me. I can't watch it. Like you famously, infamously perhaps said that pro wrestling was killed for you when Goldberg beat the fiend. It did because I know Wyndham very well and he's super creative mind.

And I know how much he put into creating that character and that whole, you can tell when it was him, especially when it started. I'm like, this is so outside the box. This is so impressive. This is so, not

WWE. This is a one man's vision being relaying out in real life with that platform and it caught on like wildfire. Like everyone was into it.

Yeah. And then it slowly you could see oh, this is popular. You can sort of see people starting to get involved in it and then it's kind of

deluding. It's kind of diluting. But watching him create that leading up to WrestleMania where he created an unbeatable

monster killer that if gets beaten on a grand stage means everything for the person that beat him. The story that was told upwards to it. Yeah, like that hell in the cell match with Seth Rawlins. Yeah, why was it red? I still don't know.

This one's so rad. I couldn't concentrate. Very red. Didn't like that. But him, watching him put his heart and soul into something and then someone just going, nah, it's over. Like that and flipping the switch on it.

Even though it's working. And what are we going to do? I don't know. Have the, have Goldberg beat him in three minutes. Do you think he purposely sandbagged that jackhammer? I don't think he's a pro. I don't think so. I don't remember it very well.

Just that end up being like a snap suplex. That sucks. I was too busy going, I think, because at that point, I was doing this. Because, you know, the spirit. I'm like, all right, I know what's going to happen here. It just sucked to watch because at that moment I knew no matter what I would do, what I can create, whatever I saw myself as. and put out there, it would never matter because if this didn't work, then what's going to?

Because it was so good in the original. Do you think that what you're going to do moving forward in your life and your career, five, 10, 20, 30 years from now is always going to be tied back somehow into wrestling? Well, 30 years, world will be over, so I don't have to worry about that. Wow. Really? Well, yeah, if you wouldn't, like, there's just some clock and it's supposed to end at 2040. So, whatever.

Yeah, so Joe Rogan put that out. Is that what Joe did? Yeah, okay. Oh, there's EC3. Quoting Rogan. Oh, crazy Bernie Sanders supporter. What a right-wing zealot? Like, shut off.

What are you talking about? Guy has opinions, and he gets people different opinions on the show, and they talk about it. Big fucking deal. Anyways, 20 years, maybe, well, creating within the realm, I think would be great, but branching out of it as well. If we create something, which the goal is, and we state it in a lot of our propaganda and our pieces, create something that will last, there will always be a tie to it. But then we'll probably also know in 20 years,

like I'm late 50s, I should, I don't know what's cool anymore, but like hopefully I've molded enough minds that are independent thinkers that have become creative and looked outside the wrestling bubble, I call it,

and have the mindset to carry forward something unique and different. Yeah, that'll be the goal. Did you? No, that'll chime in. I'll show up, Let's open my private jet. Private? Oh, yeah, because you'll be a billionaire.

Oh, well, that's the billionaire walk. Apparently, yeah. Oh, man, let's see. What do you got for today? Nope. All right. Dog shit, dog shit, dog shit, dog shit, dog shit, horrible. Absolute worse.

This sucks. Oh, my God, who's watching this? Three hours of this? You're kidding me. No more. Can't take it. This sucks. Sounds like you don't watch a lot of Rar Smackdown.

No, I like to watch things I enjoy. It's not that. I love the talent. The talent works, you know, super hard when they're not complacent. It's just, I know what it could be, and I know what it attracted me to it from childhood to teens to 20s to pursue it as a life to still this day. And I don't see it often.

Do you see it in AEW? No, not really. I see a lot of complacency in the same moves. And then I'm, well, how can you make moves mean something again? Because they don't mean anything. in one fell swoop, one fell, one little purposefully misspelled Instagram posts, I made three moves that are so overused, so oversaturated, so watered down, mean everything. By just banning them.

Think outside the box, do something different, or creatively do them in a way where maybe a referee doesn't see them. Maybe they lead to disqualifications. I don't know. Making them mean something means they're an asset to tell stories, derive emotion, create a moment, which is what this industry is about. So I don't see it often. It was the super kick?

Superkick, the Topay Suicida and the Canadian Destroyer. So I'm not seeing you can't jump over the top rope. You can ploncha, you can't buscotta. I'm not saying you can't moonsault to the outside. I'm not saying you can't lion salt or quadru-brae to moon-salt. I'm not saying you can't flip dive. I'm not saying you can't cannonball dive. I'm not saying you can't do a 720s whatever twist.

I'm not saying you can't do a Phoenix fucking splash. All I'm saying is stop going through the fucking middle road. Okay, everybody does it. It's not cool if everybody does it. I feel for P.D. Williams and the Canadian destroyer. I'll tell you what. The plan I have for P.D. Williams, if we ever get the chance to work together, the end conclusion is going to have the roof explode.

I feel for you. I do owe you a podcast I forgot about that just now but let's talk I feel for him because the first time I saw the Canadian Destroyer went

How? What? How? What? I remember replaying the video frame by frame by frame by frame

by frame to go Okay, so he then the other guy And I still didn't understand how it worked I still I was working a match with the

Pentagon Right? Yeah He does Yeah Penta Zeromero Yeah He was Pentagon at the time

Yeah. And we're putting it together and he's like, talking to me about this match. And like, he's like, yeah, but there's a destroyer here. His English isn't that great. So how does he describe it? It wasn't bad. Okay. Like, I'm understanding it, but I'm like, is there a language barrier here?

Or is he telling me I'm going to be giving him the Canadian destroyer twice? And I'm like, and you're going to give it to him? Yeah. That's what he was talking about. I'm like, I'm like, wait, I'm giving it. I don't, what I'm just, I don't know. I mean, okay. I change it.

But I let him give it to me. And it hurt. Oh, it could have been offended if I didn't get my foot on the ropes. But I protected it because that's what you do. You protect moves that are super cool. Did you see that people made a big deal out of your comment on the news story about Marco Stunt getting released? What did I say?

You were basically like, oh, be a man and fire him. Yes. Am I wrong? Well, I think that you're looking at it as a sports-centric thing. Like, if this is sports-centric, if you play for an NBA team or an NFL team, you get cut. That's just unfortunately how it works in pro sports. And you're saying if there's going to be cuts, then just make the cut. You can't be everybody's friend in business.

And as a boss, I think, like, you kind of have to have the wheel the hammer sometimes. And I seemed here that Marco was unsure of what might have been happening. And it sounds like his texts weren't getting responded to. That sucks. You know what? And then sometimes no response is a response. And that's, that's one thing. advice now. Yeah, that's one thing too, that as I assume whatever scene role I have now,

czar of nonsense, leader of the CYNC, CYN catastrophe, I try to get back to everybody because there's nothing worse. Nothing worse. And this happens all the time, even as a top level talent. I can't understand it. And I can call many people out on this, but it's like you pitch and you put your heart and soul in this pitch and this idea, this idea that is created to generate money. For you, your company, time, effort is put into a clear direction. I think all this could work. I'd love to hear your feedback. And if you say yes, great.

If you say no, I accept it. But if you don't respond, I get so fucking mad. Because just have the courage to say no. Just say no to people. And the same thing as being a boss. Just have the ability, like you can't be everybody's friend. And it sucks, man. It sucks to hurt someone's feelings.

I don't even pay, and I had to fire a talent. And it was heartbreaking. Heartbreaking. You don't put it your talent? Well, we do now. We're making money. But at the time, like, we had no financial, but I had to let him go for the time being. And it was a horrible feeling.

But I had to give him that the clarity so he knows, okay, I can move on. And the fucking mentality of ghosting somebody in a relationship with. It's okay to say no. It's okay to say no. That was great. We're almost at,

I said it would be 40 minutes and we're almost exactly at 40 minutes here. Do you remember the last question that I asked you on the last podcast? I end every conversation with this. Oh, shit. And when I say it, you'll go, oh, yeah, that one.

Yes, I will. I live in a state of gratitude all the time. I think it's so important to focus on the things that are happening in your life rather than focusing on the things that you don't have in your life. That's so good. So I end every conversation asking my guest, what are three things

in your life that you're grateful for? I am grateful for health because I felt for a minute it felt like being taken away. And I'm like, oh, geez, this is good. I can't be more grateful than I am for family. See, I'm getting all choked up.

He's a son of a bitch. Yes, I mean, my family means everything. On your day of birth. On my day of birth, mom and dad. I'm sure we can come back to a phone of messages from them, but like, you know, they mean everything to me. But the final thing might get me is I'm thankful for everybody within control your narrative. From our new television partner to my best friend and partner, J.C., to the Titan with a swollen throat that couldn't come here to speak today. Ron Stroman.

Yes. Adam Scher. He's a Titan now. to each and every talent that have found trust in leadership in me. Like, it's a burden. It's not a burden, it's a responsibility to owe them a lot. It's a Durden. Yeah.

It's a Durden. Oh, here he is again. He's Tyler Durden. But it's, I got a few messages from some of the guys, especially the young up-and-comers, we're like, happy birthday, dear leader. I'm like, yeah. feel like a cult

in a way, which I love. But then my response is, well, thank you, but I'm not your leader because you are the leaders you've been waiting for. Like, you're your own leader, you know? If I could show them that, maybe I led them to that, but in theory they are their own leaders. So I like that quote.

Control your own destiny. Yeah, maybe your narrative too. Yeah. What a tricky word narrative became. But I'm thankful for everybody that made this possible to get here because the potential in the future and the upside is so high and even if it came like even if cancellation screaming halt nuclear bomb blew it all up and his dust and residue and broken bones in my body and i am nothing left at least i tried and i'm thankful for that

you're all in on this all in man it's the only way to be it's the only way to get anything done yeah it really It is. I mean, there's probably a million stories of people all in on things that have never panned out that you don't hear. And were they really all in? Maybe not. But then how many great success in world changing, not world changing, but life changing, or world changing in a sense, stories are told because this person went all in with it and believed in it so much they carried it through. That is literally every success story. Every one of them.

From entrepreneurs to athletes to world leaders. Are there any people you're selling sporting clothes out of your trunk? What do you got in that garage? A bunch of supercomputers? What are you going to do? Deliver books? Like, you know? What happens?

Yeah. The Facebook. The Facebook. Yeah. You like, you're like hot or not, you're dork? No, but I know how to steal it and make it my own. What if someone actually comes to the rage room and like just wants to scream at you for three I can listen to it.

And you just sit there? Yeah. And then you shake their hand when it's done? I hope they feel better. Do you feel better? They probably need a hug after that, actually. Like a lot of this stuff we're doing and what we notice from the seminars

and even before our narrative filming, the feature is, it kind of became a support group for a lot of people. And we didn't, it wasn't intentional, but that's what it's become. And if that's what the message that we can carry over to fans when they get past all the,

the horse shit and bullshin, whatever, and like, yeah, I'm going to lean into it, I'm going to troll you a little bit, and it's, I'm going to poke you, and you're going to scream at me, and it's going to be cool, and then one day you're saying, I'm a genius,

or you say, I suck really bad, and that's fine, because whatever, but at the end of it, what we're creating is something more that's kind of beyond wrestling that hopefully brings people, whether they're together or whether they become their best self,

like, they're in a better place for it. So that's the intent. I like it. I hope so. We'll wrap it up on that. That's good. Happy birthday, my friend.

Shut up. Happy birthday. Happy. Thank you. All right, let's eat some gunpowder and hit it. Let's do it. There we go. Big thank you to EC3.

And as we mentioned it, I flew into Orlando and we did a workout together. We did this interview together. So you'll be seeing that workout on my YouTube channel very soon. It's just like that workout I did with Billy Gunn and Mike O'Hern. badass workout. I also did a killer workout with Killer Cross, pun intended, of course. So that'll also be on my YouTube channel very soon. And I can't wait to see you in Dallas for our first live episode of Insight with the massive Bronz Strowman, aka Adam Scher. I just can't wait. I can't wait to see you guys there. So check out my Instagram or my Twitter for more ticket information.

This is the first of many interviews where we can all be together for these. I'll leave you with the words of Joseph Campbell, who said, if the path before you is clear, you're probably on someone else's path. Very applicable to this conversation we had here today. Be great. Be grateful. Have an amazing weekend. We'll see you in Dallas for some more insight.

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