Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Dan Soder's PERFECT Macho Man & Andre The Giant Impressions, WWE, Roman Reigns, Stand-Up Comedy

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

Dan Soder (@DanSoder) is an actor and stand-up comedian. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Los Angeles, CA to discuss his lifelong wrestling fandom, his perfect impressions of Macho Man and Andre The Giant, the similarities between stand-up comedy and pro wrestling, dealing with hecklers, possibly doing more in the wrestling world, being a massive fan of Roman Reigns' transformation, and more!  Quote I'm thinking about: "You can't have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time." - Charles KetteringPlease support our sponsors!   PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/?ref=tibcloux   SUPERPOWER: Go to https://Superpower.com and use code CVV to get $50 Off your annual Superpower subscription. Live up to your 100-Year potential. #superpowerpod   SEAT GEEK: Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/CVV2025 Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount PRIZEPICKS: Download the app today and use code INSIGHT to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup!  TIMELINE: Go to https://timeline.com/insightto get 20% off your order of Mitopure!   VUORI: Get 20% off your first purchase! Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet at https://vuori.com/cvv   ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and reach your financial goals faster: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv MIRACLE MADE: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://trymiracle.com/CVV and use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF   ZOCDOC: Instantly book a top-rated doctor today at https://zocdoc.com/insightFAST GROWING TREES: Get 15% off with code INSIGHT at https://fastgrowingtrees.com   BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv   BLUECHEW: Get your first month of BlueChew for free with the code CVV at https://bluechew.com   For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you have ever enjoyed any of these episodes, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast or Spotify? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.    Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Fleet. Welcome back to another one here on Inside. I'm CVV. I'm Chris Van Fleet. Thank you for him play on this episode. And thank you, as always, for helping to make Insight the number one wrestling podcast on planet, Earth. Hit an elbow drop on that follow button on Spotify or Apple Podcast or wherever you're listening right now. So you don't miss any new interviews every Tuesday and Thursday.

and Ask CVV every Friday. And this Friday is a big one. This is Ask CVV number 100 this Friday. I can't wait. The hilarious Dan Soder is on the show today. He does the absolute best macho man impression you have ever heard. Like, because this is just audio, you'll think that we hit play and you're listening to a recording of Macho Man.

It's that good. Yeah. People that worked with macho in the... the 90s have told Dan that this is absolutely the best macho they've ever heard that it sounds just like him. He also does an insanely good Andre the Giant. And that's not one you hear often, an Andre the Giant. So on top of the impressions, not only is he a fantastic comedian, so funny, he's also a diehard, massive wrestling fan, which is probably why he nails these impressions. We talk a ton about wrestling. We get real nerdy about wrestling. We get real nerdy about.

about wrestling here. And he's also about to go on tour. So if you live in the U.S., there's a good chance he's coming to a city near you. It's called the Golden Retriever of Comedy Tour kicks off September 25th in L.A., but there's all kinds of cities that he's visiting. The dates are on his website, dan sodder.com. Snap a screenshot. Let us know you're along with us on this ride and tag us. And follow Dan. He's at Dan Soder. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. And let's do this, ladies and gentlemen, the hilarious, Dan Soder. So good to have you in here. I mean, incredible.

I'm saying this is, it's, it was crazy to meet you in the lobby because it's like when you meet someone off TV because I love the podcast. Oh, dude, thank you. The episodes with Saso, as I said before. Oh, he's the best. Will Saso is king. I love the episodes, but you're like watching the podcast build into this thing where now you're getting breaking wrestling stories happen on your podcast.

And it's wild because all we're. really doing is just like hanging out for an hour. Yeah. And then someone takes that and they go, put it everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. You and you and Sam Roberts are the beat reporters of wrestling. Kind of accidentally. You guys are going to be like Woodward and, uh, you guys are going to break wrestling stories. You're like, you have your like a water gate. You guys come together and cork board it. And a lot of times like, we're just like talking about like, oh, what happened when like WWE didn't renew your contract or what happened when AEW didn't renew your contract? And then And five minutes later, you're like, oh, wow, that sounds pretty newsworthy.

It reminds me of when you ask comedians about clubs they've worked. And if they don't like it, they go, guys, a piece of shit. And you go, what? And they go, there's no green room. There's no bathroom anywhere close. There's no good food. And you're like, damn, you're just wrestlers get out of a company and they're like, they sucked. This is what they did wrong.

And then I'm watching at home. As a fan of wrestling, you love just hearing all of it. That's what I love about the podcast. You're hearing stuff where you're like, I didn't even know that. like in interviews. It's great. And then it sends me down wormholes of the internet of watching matches. But I'm sitting there also going like,

I didn't know about that. Yeah. And I've been watching wrestling my whole life. Yeah. Whoa. Yeah, it's great. I love when you like, you've talked about being at WrestleMania 18.

I talk about it every single day. It is probably the most jealous I've been of another fan being at an event. I would say WrestleMania 3 is probably the top one that I'm jealous if anyone was there and remembers it. Sure. I mean, 17, 18, 18, 18, and 19. Because 17 and 19,

you have Rock, you have Rock, Austin. The best matches. Yeah. Yeah, I love it, dude.

The funny thing, and I've told this story before is my friends and I bought those tickets in like November. Sure. We were like online, like ticket masters,

the second they went online. Yeah. We had a budget and we spent $135 Canadian. Someone's punching a wall that went to mania this year. To sit in the 16th row. Yeah.

Oh, my God. And I remember like, There was a part of us where we looked at the card initially, and you got to remember where the world was at wrestling in 2002. Yeah. Where, like, the invasion had just happened. The roster was, like, way too bloated. They got clunky.

Right. I think as a wrestling fan, we thought that the invasion was going to be a lot smoother and without a hitch. And then you realize, like, oh, no, they really are just stacking another company on another company. And they're also just burying all the WCW talent. And we didn't realize all the guys we wanted to see at WCW were like, I'm staying. home. I got these guaranteed contracts.

Right. Why would I get out of this? So it was the invasion, but it wasn't really the invasion. It's like if the invasion left their best soldiers at home. And they go, you guys, you guys are getting paid, R&R. We didn't get sting until like 10 years later. Yeah. At WrestleMania.

Yeah. In Santa Clara. Yeah, 31. Oh, man, that which was great. So my friends and I looked at the card and we went, do we really want to go? Yeah. And I remember we asked a scalper right before we walked into Skydome. We went, how much would you give us for these?

What would have been the price? I don't know because like my one buddy, Greg, was like, come on, man. It's WrestleMania. We got to go. We're here. Right. So, and it was cold. I remember it was cold.

We just got off the go train. We're standing there with the scalper and we said, how much for these? And he goes, I'll give you like 200 bucks. And I'm an 18 year old college student. $200. That buys a lot of beer. Yeah, yeah. And Greg goes, come on, man.

Let's go. You would have been regretting that the rest of your life. Absolutely. Because the. Even on paper, I remember the lead up to that match was like, I grew up a huge Hulkomaniac. Obviously, the Rock was the coolest guy in the WWE. I mean, just the character was incredible. But I remember at the time going like, I kind of wanted Austin Hogan.

I remember being like a little burnt about not getting Austin Hogan, which they kind of referenced. And then it happened and you're like, that's exactly what I wanted. There were so many silly things in the buildup that I feel like we've forgotten. Yeah. like Hogan hitting rock in the back of the head with a hammer. Yeah. Oh, yeah. They used to do stuff in the early 2000s where you'd go, that just ends the story.

You just killed a guy. With a hammer. That's blunt trauma. That's blunt force trauma. The rock promo where he cut on NWO when they first show up, where he goes through Hall, Nash, and Hogan. Unbelievable. I think it's when Hogan asks to take a picture with the rock.

Yeah, yeah. Picture. Picture with the rock. Yeah. It's unbelievable. Those promos are so great. Those were like, they had magic backstage then. Like the ability to like the end of the attitude era of like floating into a promo and it just being unbelievable.

Hulk Hogan ran over the rock with a semi-truck. Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. And they would blow up stuff. What's funny is I was telling you before the podcast, I've been watching a lot of WWE Vault. Oh, it's so good. Because you can go back and watch. Specifically, I've been watching Saturday night main events from the late 80s when they have

McMahon and Ventura on commentary because they're just like great together. McMahon does such a good job playing the like dorky commentator while Ventura is the heel. And it's great. You forget about small stuff they used to do in the late 80s that I wish they'd bring back, specifically head clunks. We don't have enough head clunks anymore. That's so true. There's a moment, there's a great Savage Brett Hart match, which I was telling you about,

Saturday Night Main Event. And there's a moment, Brett Hart's still in the Hart Foundation. And this is how early it is. They don't even have logos on their gear. They're just pink and black. And Anvil and Jimmy Hart are on the apron, distracting macho man. And he fucking clokes them together. And I was like, there's a move we need to bring back.

Bring back the head clung. I thought as a child that worked. They did it in one of Hogan's movies. And I was like, well, that works. It's in wrestling. So when did you start watching? I think the story is my mom dropped me off. My parents dropped me off at a babysitters,

and they were watching WrestleMania 2. And they came back. Like live? Yeah. So you were two? That was like two years old. It was two years old, maybe like two and a half. I'm a little bit older than the rest of them.

So like you and I are a month apart. Yeah. Okay. So were you May or July? I'm May 83. Yeah, I'm June 83. So it was like, I was like two going on three. think when it happened.

Right. And we are the same age as WrestleMania. Yeah, it's great. Every year you go, WrestleMania 42 coming up. It's great. 42, about to turn 43. Yeah.

And but my mom said they came to pick me up and it was just like, oh, we picked up a wrestling thing. And it was like, oh, I love Hulk Hogan. And it was because it was Hogan Bundy. And I was just like, wow. Yeah. And then they got me the for, they got me for my birthday, the LGN, the like big wrestlers. The wrestle buddy?

No. Oh, the big rubber ones. And I was just obsessed with them. And then I remember that Christmas, that was like a Chris, one of my first memories, Christmas they got me the, I got the ring for my birthday. Oh my gosh. But for you guys rich? No.

Middle class, baby. You used to be able to afford stuff. And then we got, um, the big gift I got for Christmas that year was the blue steel cage that you pressed on. And it was like, I had that my, I think until like I went to college. That was just in the basement. You just see the ring filled with the big LGNs. So who was your guy growing up?

I was a massive, I was a massive Hulkomaniac. I mean, 80s, growing up an American boy in the 80s, Hulk Hogan, a dad that wasn't around, Hulk Hogan, you're just like, oh, that's my dad, yellow and red, let's go, drop the leg on him, brother. And then as I got older, I started really loving the way Brett Hart worked. And I thought Brett Hart was cool with the leather jacket and the long hair. But it was, I think for me it went, Hogan, Austin, and then Savage when I got older

and I would start watching this matches being like, oh, he's the best. Yeah. He made everyone look like a million bucks. And I think that people like seem to only remember Macho Man for the promos. Yeah. You go back and watch his work rate in the 80s and 90s. Watch this match with Brett Hart. What they do is they do an injury on macho man's leg.

And remember this was like the realest move back when I was a kid when they would take the leg and slam it on the outside of the pole. And Brett was so good at that. Great at it. And what they did is macho man. goes out. And I never noticed how scared Miss Elizabeth was all the time. She was always terrified to do anything. She has like Jamie Lee Curtis and Halloween energy the whole time she's just like walking like. And it's the thing that I was, I always thought it would be funny if like macho man was jump scaring her at home.

And that's why she's always scared. You know, she's like, Randy. And he's like, oh, oh. Because that's always she had like the, but there's a moment where she goes and she's like helping him. And he's like, my leg and he takes his, he takes his boot off. Similar to what Dirty Dom and AJ Styles did, but he takes it off. And then Brett just works the leg. And macho man keeps the leg up the whole match,

doesn't put his leg on the ground. And then the finish is great. Because it's like a finish where you're like, oh, great. Because you're like, how is he going to compete? His legs busted. Dude, Savage was, Savage was the man.

At what point in your life did you realize that you did an absolutely perfect macho man? Thanks to my roommate, Vic Garcia. He's a huge wrestling fan, and he's the one that brought me back. I had like five years of not watching wrestling, didn't have a DVR. And it's funny, everybody has that story. Yeah. I mean, there's, of course, people that watched all the way through.

But I feel like everybody falls off for a little while. Yeah, mine correlated with drinking and party. It was like became 18. The Attitude era ended. And I went to college, and it was just kind of this moment where you didn't have DVR. If you didn't catch raw, you had to go either on the dirt sheets online or you just like, you borrowed your buddy's VHS. That's exactly it.

If someone didn't tape it for you. Yeah. So I just drank. And so from about like 0, 03, around mid-03 to 07, 08. Ruthless aggression. I missed it. I missed the whole ruthless aggression era. But what was fun was my buddy Vic, who became my roommate in New York, stayed in it.

So he'd be like, no, you got to watch Mania this year. You got to watch Maintain. And I'd be like, all right. And then I'd come back in and I'd be like, oh, I'm back in. And then I'd go drink and party. And then I'd forget to watch. And then the second I got DVR, it was like raw Smackdown on the DVR every week, caught up. So are you going back and watching old stuff?

Yes, which was incredible, especially when the network came out. Yeah. The network dropped and I was like, oh, I'm going to go watch 03 to 08. And so I did the major pay-per-views and watch the storylines. I mean, angles best matches. You have like, oh, for sure. Michael's coming back in 05. So there's like all this stuff that I got to watch that I was like,

damn, I missed great wrestling. And that version of Sean Michaels might be better than the 90s version of Sean Michaels. Which I didn't watch live. So whenever you get into that like argument with other wrestling fans and you go, nothing tops. WrestleMania 13, Sean Michaels. And you're like, but WrestleMania 25, Sean Michaels. Unbelievable.

And that's when I was totally back. 25. I was watching Raw. I was following again. So you're like the Rick Flair match, the Undertaker match. You're watching all that. And you're like, yeah, this is, he's unbelievable. And look, I don't care which version of Sean Michaels you think is better.

It's like they're both incredible. Just unbelievable. Right. So if you like WrestleMania 10, Sean Michaels or you like WrestleMania, whatever, Sean Michaels versus Rick Flair retirement match, great, cool. The answer is yes. As I got older, those were the wrestlers that I started really like and were the guys that just made matches look unbelievable for everybody involved.

no one that looked like a superhero, just someone that looked like, damn, this could be like a real fight. These guys are scrapping. I was saying, I think my favorite match of all time going back and watching it as an adult, my favorite match of all time is Kurt Angle,

Chris Benoit, Royal Rumble, 03 for the World Heavyweight. I mean, it is, it's unbelievable. The reversals they do in that, you just watch it and you go like, it goes from a crippler into an ankle, and he was on your podcast.

Yeah. It's such a hard. Hard hitting match, too. It's unbelievable. It's guys that are working that you're like, holy shit. Yeah, Kurt Engel said, like, he felt for a while he wasn't allowed to talk about that match, obviously, because of what Chris Benoit did. But he's like, but that then rubs on my legacy of like, that's one of my favorite matches

ever. And Chris Benoit was one of my favorite opponents. He brought out the best in me. There is this tough part of life. And it just happens in a lot of different things where you have to separate the art from the artist. and there are matches of Benoit's where you're like, I mean, the shit he has with Guerrero.

That was what locked me into WCW in the early days was when they were doing that cruiserweight division and I'm watching like Dean Malenko, like just work a guy's leg where I'm like, is this real? Because you're coming from the WWE, which is all big moves, big finishes, and then you watch Saturday night on TBS.

You're watching WCW and you're going like, well, hold on now. This guy's like hurting this guy's arm. And saying you like Kurt Engel versus Chris Benwai does not condone, does not say like, oh, yeah, you know, it's, what Chris Manwa did was terrible and awful. It'd be worse if you were condoning what he did and not the matches. They're like, no, no, no, I want to put that over.

And you go, no, that's the absolute wrong day to half. But if any rational person would go, yeah, that's disgusting what he did. But you go back and watch that match in 03 and you go, how are these guys doing this? Yeah. There are moves where you're like, as a lifelong wrestling fan, they're like, this is unbelievable. You know, there are modern matches that do strike that chord with me, specifically, like, obviously Omega Okada. But then I loved, like, the Omega Osprey.

Those to me were like, those were, what I love about New Japan, was New Japan for a while there felt like music in Williamsburg in like 2006 where you're like, oh, you don't know about New Japan. You're like, you don't know about Russell Kingdom. That was what Chris Jericho did, going over and having that match with Omega. It just brought in a lot of fans where you're like, oh, New Japan is unbelievable. And then you watch Osprey climb the rankings. And then that Omega Osprey match, I was like, that might be my favorite match at all time. I remember seeing Will Osprey Russell for the first time and being like,

that doesn't seem humanly possible. I mean, him and ricochet. Unbelievable. You watch that match and you're like, holy shit. These guys are so athletic. that's what I want more of the old head bumps, but I also realize that we're in an era of like insane athleticism. I just love that wrestling is a buffet.

Yeah, it's great. I love that if you love the little red jello cubes, they're there. If you like the guy carving the prime rib, that's a possibility. If you just want crete cheese and crackers, that's there too. You can just go grab whatever. Just have soup if you feel like it. Sure, macaroni and cheese is over here. And I love that that's what exists on a wrestling card.

Well, also, there's this era of, I don't think we've ever been more blessed as wrestling fans to have all the options we have. It is an embarrassment of riches. And we're acting like rich kids. We're going like, I don't want this one. And you're like, it's unbelievable. We're getting this. We're getting, like, WWE is firing on all cylinders. AEW is putting out awesome programming.

And then you also have TNA. You have indies that are great. I don't know. Like, I'm excited for Cardona, uh, killer crows. Ross. Me too. Like, I'm like, he shows up, which I'll also, him and Saso, the Ventura's. Do you have a Ventura?

I don't have a Ventura. But do you know James Adomian? No. Hilarious comedian. Enlightened me. Unbelievable, Jesse Ventura. Used to do a web series called Jesse Ventura's conspiracy theories. And back of the day in UCB, he would bring me on as macho man to do conspiracy theories.

So that was where I used to do this thing with a cast member of Billion. David Costable, who's unbelievable, played wags on billions. And I would send him voice memos of Andre the Giant doing conspiracy theories. So he'd just open his head like, the earth is far. We've never been to the moon. And he'd be like, what is this? Why? Why is the flag waving when there is no air in space? Dude, you can't be said to me this.

The water is making the frogs gay. And he's like, what the hell, dude? I would just send him, we'd be like film it all day, and I would just want to send him Andre conspiracy theories and I'd be like on the ride home. Because I thought it was funny. This episode is brought to you by fast-growing trees. Fall is planting season.

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That's code Insight to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks. It's good to be right. Can you cut an Andre promo? I have a comedy. You're out in heaven, but I am the king of the clouds. Ask anybody, Hager, I won't have them. There's the three rematch?

I don't think you're going over in heaven, brother. I think Andre's putting you down. I'm how old here. This is none of rainy night in Puerto Rico. Do you watch those like Puerto Rico matches? Yeah, I may watch everything. When they're outside and they're like slipping around and you're like, this is so dangerous. There's no way they would have let wrestlers, modern wrestlers, go out there and just like slip and, like, I think it was like a John Stud Hogan match you can find where they're like, it looks like they're on ice.

And you're like, get them out of there. They're going to blow their knees. That's the great thing about wrestling is like, the spectrum is so wide. It's crazy. Right. It's crazy. And it's sometimes the most fun is being at a gym in New Jersey. I used to go, my buddy Pat Buck, who's at AEW,

but I used to go watch Pat's promotion in Jersey with Sam Roberts. And you're like just in a gym. But on that match was like, I looked at that card recently because I saved it. It was like MJF, Anthony Bowens. It was like a bunch of wrestlers that are like, oh, and we saw them just in New Jersey at a, in like a gymnasium. One of the coolest things about wrestling is how accessible it feels, especially on the indie level.

Oh, yeah. So like, if you're going to go, see somebody at a local indie promotion this weekend, you can then go have a conversation with them at a little table and take a photo with them for whatever, 10, 20, 30, 40 dollars. Right. From them. And that's the coolest thing is like, there's not this separation of like ordering from their website and then it gets filled by this warehouse.

Like, you're buying the shirt. Right. You're asking a guy who just, who just bladed and he's got like a thing and you go, do you have Excel? He goes, let me look. You know, like that thing for the look back on the merch table. Hold on. Let me see real quick.

And you're like, oh, your bandage is leaking. It's just like coming down. He goes, sorry, I took a suplex on packs back there. Yeah, I, it's, being a wrestling fan is like, the tribalism online sucks to watch sometimes because you're like, guys, just enjoy it. Yeah. You don't have to ruin, you don't have to go out of your way to ruin a thing.

Like, in my career, I've been very, very careful to not get too involved with wrestling because I enjoy it too much as a fan. You mean, like, to do a guest. spot. Well, I mean, more than like, there's been ideas of me, like, hosting a show about wrestling or something or doing something more like a structured show about, and I'm kind of always just like, now, can I keep that? Can I just keep that for myself? I just like going. I like watching it, turning my brain off on the road and watching like, I get so excited when I know there's like a paper view and I'm on the road. And my openers have to just sit there and watch like a laptop.

that's what happened with SummerSlam. I'm like in a comedy club green room watching SummerSlam on my laptop and they're like, you're up in five. I'm like, hold on. I got to see where this, I got to see who gets this. I love it.

It's just like a thing where I'll love it the rest of my life. I think at the end of the day, what seems to get lost online is that we all like the same thing. Yeah. We all like this beautiful thing called professional wrestling.

And you can give your opinions on it. Sure. Absolutely give your opinions. If you like this match or this match, but you don't have to go like, if you like this company, you don't know what the hell you're doing. And you're like, all right, boys, let's hang out. And again, back to my buffet example here.

You wouldn't hate the entire buffet if you don't like the chicken drumsticks they have on there. Yeah, you're not going like, well, that's not how you eat a buffet. And you go, well, how do you eat it? You get exactly what I get. And if you don't like it, you don't like buffets. And you're like, shut up. You don't even like food. Yeah.

You don't know how to eat. And you're like, well, you get exactly. I have to, to live, you stupid asshole. Of course I have to live. Yeah, it is funny, though, thinking of, like, if the internet was around, because you hear stories of wrestlers being, like, pretty, you know, they're like entertainers. Sure.

They're athletes, but they also have the, like, they want to get over, like, entertainers. But, like, macho man on, like, the board being like, yeah, I don't even think it was that good of a match. He's just like, he's all, that's all mad. He's just like, ah, yeah. Well, maybe if another company put a guy. I over. Yeah.

Just talking shit. Look, look, everybody does a macho, but how is your so perfect? I think it's how deep my voices. Just naturally.

I think naturally I have a deep voice, but also it's the key is, break it down for us. Back to my buddy Vic, we used to cut promos on each other about like roommate stuff where I'd be like, uh-huh,

yeah, electric bill hasn't been paid. Yeah. Gonna be a little bit of, a problem. I'm going to be a little bit of a problem when they shook the lights. That's the night that the lights went out in Georgia. Yeah.

And it's like, it's all fingers for me. If I get the little finger wag, if I'm standing up, you'll see me grab my belt. But that's always the like, he was old school macho man promos. He just whispers in a whisper yell.

And that's what I always thought was funny when I was old. Or he'll just be like, like a dad getting mad, but he doesn't want to yell in front of his friends. Or he's like, I told you to pick up her. Toys, yeah. I told you to pick up your toys and now they're all over the floor.

Yeah. Just like, that always was what he reminded me of of, like, a parent that wasn't trying to lose his shit in front of company. He's like, oh, yeah. Which one of you didn't flush? Do you ever see that video of that Scottish lady where she comes into the thing and she's like, Which one of us didn't flush when you took a sheet? And her kid goes, it wasn't me. Well, it was one of years.

That's what I used to do Macho Man doing internet memes like that Being like, which one are you? Yeah. Disgusting. But I spit a lot when I do Macho Man So I have to be careful when I do it. The fingers and the glasses

Adjusting the glasses. I told you producer because when you put the glasses on You've got to just grab them. It's all, yeah, there's a very thing. There's a very, and you can just do song lyrics. That's like a cheat code for Macho Man. If you can just do like Give me some Taylor Swift maybe.

I don't know, Swift, but you can do like Rolling Stones. You can't you hear me knocking? Yeah. Uh-huh. On the window. Yeah. You just do like random, you can just do random like guns and roses where you're like, welcome to the jungle.

Yeah. Yeah. Welcome to the jungle every day. It is a fun one to do. And it's one where I love my fiancee, but she's gotten to the point where she goes, oh boy, here we go. Like what happens? He's like, like it's like a, like it's almost like a.

seizure. She was like, here he goes. He's doing the macho man. When did the internet find out about this? I think it was Opie and Anthony and then Sam Roberts's show because Sam was like a wrestling fan and he's like, dude, you do macho man. Great. And then I had this really cool moment. Damien Sandow does a really good macho man. I don't know if you remember that. Yes. When they, and Axel did like the, the, when he was dressing up as all the different characters. But he would do macho man and then Curtis Axel would be Hulkomania. Yeah. I don't know if you remember that.

They did like a mega powers run for a little bit. Damien Sandow does a great war. I mean, Jay Lethal is the king. Jay Lethal does the best. Rick Flair and macho man. And we were on the iron chic roast together. And I got to, it was like this moment where I was like, can I do my macho man for you?

And Jay Lethal was like, yeah, because he was doing black machismo on the roast. and I was like, I did it. And he was like, oh, yeah, dude. And it was me, him, an MVP in the green room. Yeah, this is when MVP was in New Japan as the Intercontinental title holder. And we were doing the chic roast. And I have a picture on my laptop of me and Jay Lethal doing the mega powers handshake with

with MVP in a Japanese baseball jersey behind us. I'm like, this is one of the coolest pictures I've ever had in my life. But doing that for Jay Lethlellan on him being like, oh, yeah. It's like you play a guitar for a musician. And they go, that is how you do. And you're like, okay, I just, I just wanted to know. But yeah, it was doing the macho man was very fun. But the network came out and they were like trying to get comics in New York to come up and do talking head shows.

Just like random stuff. So I go up to Connecticut and I'm doing, they're like, can you do macho? We're going to do you versus Damien Sandow doing like macho man's. And I'm like, it's just me, a producer and a camera guy. and I film it. And we're done filming. We do a bunch of other segments or whatever. And this is one of the coolest moments after that we were filming,

older camera guy. And he comes from around the camera. He goes, hey, man, that's what I'll let you know. I've been working with the company since about 1981. It's the best Randy I've ever heard in my life. And I was like, I didn't everybody to tell. I was like, I was just texting my buddy, Dan St.

Germain. I'm like, dude, this guy just said I did the best Randy of all. So it was awesome. Oh, man. And there was a, we, you know, know, we wrote a cartoon, me and my buddy Dan wrote a cartoon with Stone Cold Steve Austin. And Peacock bought it and then eventually passed on it. But I got we get to do Zooms where I was doing Macho Man and Andre.

Part of the cartoon, the cartoon was the premise was Stone Cold Steve Austin works at a law firm. So it's called Stone Cold Law. It's fantastic. Yeah. Well, the thing was, every episode will work to the point where like you don't know if Stone Cold going to be in the courtroom. And then it's like, in the glass breaks. We had a mockup of him in a suit with the knee braces over the suit and the vest over

the suit jacket and just comes in and, you know, he's like, we have the jury going like, what? And he's like, plus Ferguson says what? And he like argues the case like he's gotten a promo. But part of the show was he goes to this like other dimension that. that we called habeas corpus, and it's all dead wrestlers and dead Supreme Court justices,

arguing law cases. And that's how he goes to, like, find his case. So it's like macho man with Scalia being like, position is nine-tenths of the law. Yeah. And he's like, I don't know. And doing that voice for Austin was like crazy for me. Yeah, what an Austin thinking is.

He's like, I love it, brother. He was like, God damn. Like, he was the first time we did Zoom. And he goes, God. damn, I love it. And you're like, this is a story. This is the, this is the story I can really only tell here because you would appreciate it. Please.

Because it's entertainment meets wrestling. But we were pitching the show on Zoom. This is during COVID. So you couldn't go in person to pitch the show. So Steve, you know, is like at his ranch on Zoom. He would always like show up on Zoom in a way that you're like, stone cold. He just like, like, bloop and pop up and you're like, oh, damn. I'm in my like, at the time, girlfriend's, like, guest room.

and I'm like, hi, Steve. You know that, like, Zoom wave? Like, hi. But we were pitching. It was the Cartoon Network, and we were pitching the show. So we had, like, written the show and we were, like, trying to see who wanted it. And it was our first pitch, and we bomb. Me and Dan bomb so hard.

Like, dry mouth bombing, being like, so then the show, he would argue these cases. And you're just watching the execs from Cartoon Network. be like nothing and you're watching stone cold Steve Austin watch you bomb on a zoom and the meeting we stop right and it's at this moment where Dan and I stop and we go so that's it's the show and you just hear Steve go well I don't know what the hell that is but that ain't the show I signed up for and then he goes through what the show is and you watch the cartoon that cartoctor cartoon that execs like light up and he's like, and then I'm arguing cases and I'm breaking it down and he's just like going through doing it.

And then they sign off. And it's the three of us. And we're like, sorry, Steve. And he's like, hey, next time let's prepare. Let's like have some bits or whatever. And he signs off. And then Dan and I call each other and we're sitting there. We're so embarrassed because we bomb in front of Stone Cold Steve Austin. And then I stop and I go, dude, we hot tagged Stone Cold Steve Austin. He came in and hot tagged the meeting. And it was like, bam, bang, stunning him in. Like, dude, it was one of the coolest moments of my life where you're like, oh, Stone Cold just cleared the ring. We were like, we were losing.

We were getting our shit kicked. And then he came in. It was awesome. Could this show ever see the letter day? I don't really know if he would, you know, like if Steve wanted to do it. I'll tell you a real mark moment I had. He butt dialed me and I called back immediately too fast to the point where I called back Steve.

I see, Stan, did you try calling me? Right to the so point that Katie did the reach out thing. No, don't go. Yeah. Like that. I went, oh, Stone Cold called me and I missed and she went, don't talk, and I just dialed. And then he just didn't pick up because he was probably like, God, who the hell? But he was awesome. He was really cool to work with and really like open for very funny jokes. That was like the really fun part. It was like pitching him jokes and him being like, yeah, dude. Do you still text him every once in a while? No, no, absolutely not. In fact, we felt bad. Hey man, saw you at WrestleMania 41 thumbs up. That beer looked delish. No, we. Once it was like, there became a point where we were like, we'll just deal with peacock and we'll let Steve. Kind of like that thing where you want to let him like, let him rest, dude. He's the man. And also he did like, that was when he did mania with Kevin Owens.

It was awesome. Oh, that was so cool. And we did want to say something because, man, Kevin Owens, the best. So great. The best. I mean, as what I love about Kevin Owens is, is he's a guy that you watch that you go, he loves this shit. him and Sammy love this shit. Best friends coming up.

I can't say enough. He looks like my former co-host of the Bonfire, Big J. But Kevin Owens is the man. And he's a guy that I've loved since watching him on the Indies. Does doing the macho voice hurt your voice? Like you can only do it for limited amounts of time. I did it on a cartoon called Paradise PD for Netflix. Yeah.

And they did like a dead macho man. And after I did that recording, session, I went home and I was like, what the hell? Because it's so like guttural, like, yeah. Very much. Very much a possibility. Yeah, the possibilities. Rainless.

More cheese and the cheese. You just would say random, macho man talked like he was always coming out of a nap dream. Like, you know, it's stepbrothers where he goes like, the clown has nobiness. Like, that's how macho man talk. Or he'd be like, yeah, if Shamu can't fly. And why does he have wings? And you're like, I don't even know if that's real. I don't think that's a real thing.

I don't know how true this story is, but I heard someone say to Macho, like, hey, if you keep doing that thing with your voice, like, you're really going to ruin your vocal cords. He's like, what thing? Yeah, what thing are you talking about? Even his how I talk. Interviews with Lanny, Pafo, he would say like, oh, that was just like his voice after a while. It was just grumbling. That's wild.

Yeah, just talking to him. I mean, there are moments where he had to, like, call in a pizza order. And they're like, is this, this can't be like, yeah, uh-huh. You guys still doing a buy a medium, get a large for half off? And they're like, is this macho man, Randy's having? I mean, I love, I just love hearing stories about him. Also like the stuff with him and Andre that he, Andre hated the baby oil, which was like a great moment in the Andre Doc where

Hogan said that where he's like, oh, baby oil. It's fantastic. The Andre stories to me will never not be awesome. Yeah. What a legend. He just was always, and he seemed like funny, like a very funny dude. Like to have a thing where you're growing and it's uncomfortable all the time, but then to still be funny about it rules to me.

I feel like every wrestling fan does some variation of macho man, Paul Kogan, and Austin. Yeah. They might not be good, but if a wrestling fan goes, oh, yeah, you know what they're talking about. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

And that might be the only thing they can say. They go, listen, brother. Yeah. Let me tell you something. The dude. Yeah, that's the best. And I never got a good... Sasso's Hogan.

I'm waiting for the day we can do mega powers. We've DM'd about it. About doing his Hogan... I should have both you guys. Oh, my God. I would... I would lose it. Because his Hogan makes me laugh.

When I listen to Dudesie and he does Hogan... I know it's not around, but like, when he did Dudesie... Yeah. He just does... Because what he does the funniest is he does social Hogan. He does like... All right, dude. He does the very, like, I'm having a casual conversation, Hogan.

And that makes me laugh. And his, when he does the rock, Derrimana, that makes me. Sasso makes me laugh so hard. Because he can do them all. I can only do Andre and Macho Man. I want to learn how to do Hawk from LOD. That would be such a deep cut. Because he has my favorite promo of all time, possibly.

SummerSlam 91, right after the Mounty and the Big boss man loser spends a night in jail match. And you'll, if you want it, you can fast forward to it if you have Peacock or if you're in the UK, like on Netflix. 91 SummerSlam right after the Mountie, big boss man. Jimmy Hart's losing it in the locker room. He's like, someone's got a pain, buddy, me, someone. And he's like losing it. And then it cuts to LOD, about to wrestle the nasty boys. But they're cutting a promo on the natural disasters who try to jump Andre. This is, this is when Andre's got like the hand crutches. And,

and they, like, surround him at SummerSlam. The best part about LOD promos was that it was always animal that started. And he would give the, like, like that gruffie,

like, what I get this out of you? And then he ends it, and he just goes, tell him, Hawk. And that's always where, and then this one specifically,

Hawk goes, whelp! And he hits this Welp, that's like a Minnesota accent that I can't get. And he goes, whelp, seems to me that it seems to me that the natural disaster's just bit off a little more than they

can chew. And then he cuts their greatest promo where he's like, we'll see you down the line. And he ends it talking shit about the nasty boys. And he has my favorite line where he goes, because there's boys, there's men, and there's monsters. Oh, what a rush. And you're like, I want to run through a fucking wall. If I watch it on the road, I'm just like punching the walls of a Hilton. It's unbelievable. LOD's promos. Loved them. There was something about those backstage promos back then.

They were just amped up, right? Cocaine. Probably a lot of blow or something. But you see that and you're like, you'd be like an eight-year-old. Just like watching at home like. And your mom's like, hey, did you clean your room? You're like, not now.

I need this. My buddy sent me a vintage clip. It was a behind the scenes like we saw the whole count down three, two, one. And it's Hogan cutting a promo one take with Warrior just standing there the whole time going, Warrior doesn't say a single word. He didn't need you. He just needed to flex and breathe.

And it's funny because before, they're just both standing there. That's so funny. And then three, two, one, oh, let me tell you something. It goes right in. I mean, automatic. Hogan could just cut promos automatic. And then you see it, like, later in life, it's like, oh, he always is in promo mode now. Like as you get older, he's just always cutting promos.

Warrior had the best deal of everybody. He just had to breathe and say nonsensical shit. He just had to go like, as I walk over the valleys. And you'd be like, this is unbelievable. I remember being like a kid and being like trying to listen to see what it meant. He's like, the warriors, they take my soul and they wrap it in iron. And you're like, what the fuck? It's funny to think of him and Macho Man taking naps and talking like that.

He's like, yeah, dude, Warrior. And then he looked fantastic. Oh, yeah. The paint was awesome. Cool as gear. Like, it was like early 90s aesthetic lightning zaps with neon. He looks like a bodybuilder that wrestled. And then he just had the most amount of hair spray in before, like, up to WrestleMania.

Before he left, the first time, his hair was so voluminous. And, like, you could tell it was hair sprayed. And then he's just like, I am down to, right. I love that. I love that it never made sense. And then what an entrance song. Great. Sprints to the ring.

The best is. Grabbing the ropes. The best is watching. There's a DVD that they put out when the WWE didn't like oil. I remember this. The ultimate, the self-destruction of the ultimate war. Shout out Vic, my roommate. We had it and we just drink beers and watch it.

Bobby Heenan's story about Warrior working with Andre. Bobby Heenan is, first off, is owed credit from my entire generation of stand-up comedians. Because we watched Bobby Heenan all, like the ones that loved wrestling, we'll all self-admit. Like friends of mine that love wrestling, like Michael Che, Sal Volcano, like the guys that we talk about, we're always like, oh, yeah, Heenan was the funniest. He would just say stuff. that you're like, Bobby Hennon's, but he's telling that story about Warrior working with Andre, and he's like, it was supposed to be a spot where Andre like whips him into the ropes and turns around and then gets clotheslined, but Warrior was doing it too fast and he would hit on, like bump Andre.

And he says, Andre makes a noise where he was like, and then Bobby after the match that night, because they were like working the road doing dark matches. He's like, he's got to get that spot. And then Andre's like, don't worry, boss. I'll make it. And the next one, he puts him into the ropes and just puts his hand out. And he said, the warrior just ran right in Andre's fist. I mean, this is Bobby Heenan telling the story.

But he said he cracked the makeup and he was like down and then Andre just pinned him. Because it's just a dark match. And they're like, all right, well, I guess Andre's been in warrior tonight. But I love that. I love the thought of, I always loved, it made me love the Undertaker more. Because he obviously was one of the greatest ing ring performance of all time. Coolest character. Also, just like when you meet him, what a dude.

Yeah, it's great. I met him through Bruce. Pritchard, and he was just like, the guy. You're like, you are who I hope you were. But then you find out he was like the sheriff of the locker room. And you're like, I love hearing those stories where they're like undertake, you know, even with court. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm just kind of being like, he'll just tell you like, hey, brother, the boys, like that kind of talk. Comedy needs that. We need more of that. We need an undertaker to be like, too much crowd work, brother. It feels like, though there are a lot. of similarities between coming up in comedy and coming up in wrestling.

Both carnies or both or both absolute carnival performers. But you're also that you're on the road. When you're starting out, you're doing it for very little pay or no pay. Or no pay or just for pure just promotion just to get into it, just to learn how to do it. You're also, you're listening to the crowd, did this work. Okay, I got to work on this. I think there's also a big thing of like wrestlers, a lot of times are wrestling fans. And a lot of times comedians are comedy fans.

So they get into it and they go like, I remember this guy doing this and this. And, you know, I think there also is like borrowing. Like you see comics take stuff that you go, oh, he got that from this guy. Or he doesn't realize he's doing this guy. Because like you look at Billy Graham, superstar Billy Graham, and you're like,

oh, he was the prototype for like the entire generation I grew up on. And I didn't know who superstar Billy Graham was. And then you start watching these old promos and you're like, this motherfucker. had everything. He had the rhyming, you know, like, you see a little bit of Billy Graham and matrimand. You see a little Billy Graham and obviously Holcogen.

Yeah. But like other ones and you're like, oh, this guy just took all that stuff. And I think that's similar to comedy about how like certain comics can influence you. You know what I mean? And like you go out there in the same way you would go out there to call a match. You think something works and the crowd is acting a little bit differently. And you got to do that in comedy. Yeah, you got to address it in the room.

Or how often do you go, man, this joke crushed in New York, but will it work in Florida? All the time. And you try to see if you, you know, your closing joke is like your finisher. And you're like, how do I, you go, how do I build it up? And then finish where there's a pop. You want to pop where you want to get the crowd in. It is. It really is the relationship with the crowd and how guys do it.

Certain guys do different stuff. And I also do think the shit talking is probably pretty similar. Sure. Like, we're like, yeah, you know, he's doing a lot of like crowd work is the way they go, he blades every match. You know, it's like, he's getting color in every match. And you're like,

there is a similarity. I would say, uh, I don't compare it because those guys are beating the shit out of themselves. Yeah. Every night. And we're just, our egos are getting bruised every night where you go,

do you don't think that's funny? Well, I thought it was funny. When talking about the, the finisher and comedy, we've all been to the show where the comedian lands their last joke and they go, well, I'm Chris Van,

please. You can't do that. And you're like, oh. You can't get your finisher and go, I guess I'm going to hook the leg. You know, like, begrudgingly hooked the leg. I'll get out of here. But yeah, there are like, sometimes you do your finisher and there's no pop. What do you do when you get heckled?

Like, because I'm sure it happens frequently. And like somebody's trying to make the show about them. Yeah, you, you know, you give them receipts. No, there are. That's what, that's sometimes what I think of, like the old school clips of, like there's one where a guy jumps in the ring and on nitro and Scott Hall beats the hell out of them with Kevin Nash, which is a great clip. Um, but that's kind of what it is where you go like, all right, I'll give you a little, I'll do some talking back and forth. You know, like kind of like

when a, when a heels walking to the ring and someone's yelling and they yell back a little bit, and then you go to the ring. But then if they, if they jump the barrier, they're going to get receipts. Then you just kick them out or you just like, you're like, I don't want you here right now. Yeah. Because we're all trying to enjoy something. Yeah. If you're trying to get, you know, how a wrestler must feel. It's like, you're trying to get actually violent with me.

I'm not being violent. Yeah. I'm, we're having a match. And they're like, no, they come over and you're like, but I could get violent with you, you know? And that's kind of what it is like with a heckler where you're like, I'll give you a little bit. But if you start messing up the show, well, then now we got a problem. Yeah, no one paid to see you in the crowd, buddy. There's a thing that I saw the great, the late great Patrice O'Neill do, which is a move that I use.

similar to like taking stuff from Billy Graham. Yeah. But Patrice O'Neill would do this thing where he would ask how many people are in the group if they were heckling and if they wouldn't shut up. You go, how many people in your group? And they'd say it and you go, great, I'm going to pay for your bill. And they're like, hey, you're like, okay, now leave. He goes, I paid your bill.

Get out of here. And I've done it. I've done it like probably four or five times. And it works incredibly. That's a great move. And then I'm sure there's tons of applause too. Because what you're doing is you're removing the, the, leg for them to stand on of I paid to be here. It's like, well, sure, you did. But now I'm paying for

your drinks. So there's no problem. And you can leave. What a move. And then people around always, the people around go, thank you. Thank you. They would not shut the hell up because that's what you're kicking out. I don't care about people screaming out because you can make that funny. It's when people are talking and they're ruining a part of the room where people are trying to listen. And you're like, just don't do that. Don't ruin the show for other people. You're If you want to talk, get up, go to the bathroom and talk. Don't like in the room because then people are doing like, when you see audience members do that when they go like, and that's when you're like, might have to come in the crowd.

Might have to get violent, brother. And it is, yeah, that's when they hop the barrier. That, to me in my mind, is them hopping the barrier. The concept of what you do for a living when you break it all down is wild. It's wild that anyone pays us to do it. But like the fact that you stand at the front of a room with a microphone. Sure. And you talk.

And like, see, to me, I'm like, I feel like I'm just getting one over on everybody. I'm like, you just let me do that? I should be working somewhere doing this in the back. What a profession. Yeah, but like, I'm more amazed with mechanics. I'm like, you can build an engine? You can just put an engine together? And they're like, yeah, and you go, yeah, screw the dumb shit I'm doing.

Look at what you're doing. Like a small business owner to me is someone where I'm like, you just had an idea and you created a business. That's the people like, I truly think those are the people we should be like, it shouldn't be actors and actresses. It's easy to put on makeup and pretend you're British. It's hard to run an exclusive Cinebond store, you know, or like, it's hard to sell bracelets. You're doing the same thing, though,

because you're taking an idea, a concept that's relatable to the masses. Yeah. And you're distilling it down into a digestible and funny dialogue. Yeah, I mean, for me, I think it's just, more like, I just want it to be funny. That's all I've ever cared about is just I really love being funny. And that's why I loved comedy so much. And I loved comedy in a way that I was like, I just want to be a part of it. I just want to see if I can do it. And if I can do it, then this is the greatest thing ever. So what was the moment where you went, I think I can at least try? I lived for a summer.

I stayed for a summer with my aunt up in Alaska, up in Kenai, Alaska. And I worked at a fish cannery for a summer in between my freshman and sophomore year of college. And it was like the hardest work I've ever done. You're working like 16 hours a day. I worked on the dock crew. I wasn't out on a boat, but I worked at the cannery with like dudes, like guys my age, but they were like, I was like a soft-handed little lady man from Colorado. Like they were blown away that I couldn't do stuff where they were like, hey, can you change? change, they'd be like, hey, change the hydraulic on that crane. And I'd be like, pardon me?

And they kind of realized like, oh, but my value, just like in high school football, my value was, I was very funny. And so I was like a tension breaker. Like I would just be the clown. I loved football. I sucked at it. But I was very funny. And at football camp, I do prank phone calls and shit.

And they'd be like, oh, this guy's hilarious. And then in Alaska, we'd sit around at lunch and I'd just be making these. guys laugh that I didn't know in a way that I was like, I should try. I should like maybe try. And then I asked my aunt. We were watching Daniel Tosh on Comedy Central. It was one of his hours. And I love Daniel Tosh. And I just looked at my aunt. We were smoking cigarettes inside. I remember that specifically. We were smoking Marlboro lights. And I was like, you think I could do stand up? And she didn't even like blank. She was like, yeah, absolutely. And that's just kind of like having someone that you is in your family go like, yeah, you could do that. And then I went, you know,

I went back to school at Arizona and Tucson, and then, like, I think a couple months later, I finally got the nuts to go try and open mic. So, and then from that point, were you hooked? No, I did it once. And I just rift. I didn't know. You didn't have anything prepared?

No, I didn't know. I kind of knew that, but I didn't know. I watched a lot of comedy, but I didn't actually understand what the process of joke writing was. I thought you had an idea and then you just expounded on it, you know, like cut a promo pretty much on stage about it. And so I had like three, topics that I wanted to talk about.

And I did my open, first open mic and it went like, great. It went like great. And I was like, oh, wow. But I blacked out. I didn't know how I did it or what I did. And then I bombed for like five weeks in a row. Just, I mean, eat shit. Did not get a laugh.

I think any of those open mics. And I worked at this radio station at KFMA. And there was a comic that was on the morning show. He passed away, but Dave Ashley. And we were at a, we're at like a work dinner. And I similarly to like, I went up and I was like, hey, I'm doing open mics and I'm bombing. And he's like, are you writing jokes? And I was like, well, I have like ideas.

And he's like, no, you have to prepare. And that was the moment where I was like, oh, I have to write Joe. And that really started me like sitting down, writing, learning how to write, watching comedy different to see what the writing of a joke was. and then I went back and I started just doing open mics and then it was like from there I didn't stop. But there's a lot of people that would give up. They would bomb once and go, well, that's not for me. Yeah, I think it's just kind of like, you know,

it's like probably in wrestling taking a hard bump. You just take a hard bump and you go like, all right, well, do I like it? Do I like it or do I want to stop doing it? And there was just never in me. I was like, this is so fun. Because when it's good, it's like great. And then I also really love comedians. I like being around.

I like being one of the boys, like in the locker room. Like, I really do love it. I love talking about it. I love breaking down comedy. There's like, to me, that's why what I was saying earlier about wrestling fandom is so important to me. I want to keep that fandom because comedy, it is hard on comedy fandom when you're in it, but I still love it.

I love when a new special comes out and I get to watch it and I haven't seen whoever's run any of that material. So you're like, oh, oh, oh, you know, it's like watching a, it must be how wrestlers watch other company's paper views where they go, oh, they're going to do, like, I imagine people in the WWE watch the swerve, Strickland,

you know, like the all-in with, or it was unbelievable, like at Hangman Page and Moxley. Like that finale, like just matches like that, where you've got to probably watch your buddies and go, oh, I haven't seen them work in a while. And you go, this is unbelievable.

I love this. Where do you look for material? Like what? Is it just in the world? Yeah, it's just, it's, whenever I have an emotional reaction, whenever I'm wrong emotionally, which was a lot.

But I'll like, I'll like do something stupid and I'll be like, I feel really embarrassed. I should write this down. And then you go like, you learn how to turn that into something. Is it just a note section in your iPhone? Yeah,

I have like a psycho. I have one of those. I carry around, but then I also have it. Oh, an actual notepad. Yeah, which I was joking with on another podcast about this, but you look like a psycho when you write stuff down now. It looks like you're going to write tickets.

Yeah, where I go, no, right, let me bill you for that. But then you write down your jokes and you have like, geez, look at that. Yeah, you just, you just kind of have ideas. And what's great about it is like something, something won't work for a while. And then you'll be like writing and you'll look at your notes and be like, oh, I forgot. That's actually like a good idea. Like you'll find the unlock. And then it'll work.

And then you just, you try it like, you know, I work the comedy seller in New York City. And Mondays is New Joke Night hosted by this great comic Wilson Vince who does a great job of bringing you up. The audience knows you're trying it. And then afterwards, he comes on stage and talks to you about, like, what you, and sometimes it's, like, really helpful. Because in conversation, you'll say something

and you'll go, like, I never even thought about that angle. And then you try it again, and it works. And you're like, well. Do you feel it's easier to put actual pen to paper rather than typing it in your phone? I like both. I like, the phone is in the moment of don't forget this,

but then I like sitting down and, like, for an hour trying to hammer out stuff. Yeah, there's something about that connection of your brain to your hand of like actually forming the letters and writing them out. I like, you know, I have like a huge word document that's like 200 pages of just because just every day you just sit and just have like a diarrhea dump of the brain and be like, I'm thinking of this. And sometimes I'll go back to like 2022 because I have it all dated and I'll be like, oh. And what's really fun is sometimes you'll see ideas that I know now later have come together in a lot. long bit. So you're like, oh, that idea was never connected to this idea. And then when I put them together, they worked. What do you think is the biggest difference between someone who's new?

They're a yearish in and someone like you has been doing it their whole career. I think it's stage time and comfort on stage and comfort with themselves. I think like the thing I regret the most about being a young comic is, you know, that's what they say in wrestling. Slow down in the ring. And I think on stage you're just like, do you want to get the laughs as fast as possible? And I don't think I relaxed enough. That was like, when I was 20 years in, I was finally starting to be like, even if this is a bad set, okay. But when I was young, I was like, they all have to be incredible sets and the best set

that anyone's ever said in their life. And then you would bomb and you would like really take it hard. But now you go like, yeah, it's, we screwed up. I see where I screwed up. I could have done this. I should have changed the set. But you're not like as tough on yourself. I noticed like seeing an opener versus seeing like the main comedian and how smooth.

the transitions were from a veteran comedian. Versus like the opener going, so I was at the airport the other day. Yeah. Anyone been to an airport? And there are, what's great is like being friends with comics that I grew up idolizing. Sometimes you get notes and you go like,

oh, that works. Like I got lunch with Colin Quinn and he was like, sometimes you should just act like you're enjoying yourself even if you're not. And I was like, well, that's stupid. And then I did it. And I was like, he was right. Like in my head, I'm like, you could feel. the audience like adjust. And it's like, I'm sure there's wrestlers that have tips for younger

wrestlers where they go, if you really want to fire them up, do this. And they'll pop. And you go like, oh, I didn't even know that. I didn't know you do that. You make that look natural. And you go, yeah, I just, I just do it. And it's like, that's what I love about comedy that I think is very similar to wrestling is there's like little tiny tips about how to get over on stuff. I'm just blown away that you can go on stage and know everything for an hour. There's no, um, or Oz or searching for the next word. I think there are, but you don't see them. It's like the way that now I'm really,

I really, really notice when I watch wrestling matches when they lock up. And I love that everything comes back to wrestling. It is. It is. But when they lock up and they're like, then you see them say the move, that's like when a comic will be like,

what's going on here? Are you guys doing that? You're like, oh, you're thinking, you forgot your bit. And you want to go like, oh, yeah, anyways. Let's go right back into it. You're like, all right, now they're back in their bit. But you could see it.

If you watch and you know the comic, you're like, yeah, they forgot where they were going with that. Who were your all-time greats in comedy? I mean, that's tough. I think doing a top five isn't justice. Sure. I think a top 10. For me, my favorite of all times, Dave Chappelle. I think Dave Chappelle is the greatest stand-up comedian of all time.

I think he's got the work to prove it. I think the library of stuff he's done is just proven. And then I think second for me is Carlin. And then I can't put numbers. And then no, in no particular order, I would say like Louis, Burr, Attel, Maria Bamford, Patrice O'Neill. There's like a lot of guys that I want, Greg Geraldo, just guys that Colin Quinn, Colin is a guy that I think is still doing awesome work and like evolving. Legends.

Yeah. And it's, it's fun to watch those guys and get older and then like bump into them. You know, always back to wrestling. But there are like these WrestleMania 18 moments. you're like, holy shit, I'm on a lineup with fucking Louis CK. And you're like, this is crazy. So to bring this back around full circle. So, WrestleMania 18 is the moment where I'm like, I can't believe I was there.

I can't believe I saw that. What's that moment in wrestling for you? Oh, man, as far as wrestling goes, I don't really know. I got to be at SummerSlam and watch AJ Style Sina in 2016 or 2017. And I also got to watch, I think, my wrestling moment for that was watching Finn beat Seth for the first red belt when he injured his shoulder. Yeah. When I watched the demon beat Seth at SummerSlam. That was one of the coolest moments I've ever been to live. If you had a time machine, a DeLorean. Yeah.

Hit it in 88. Hit an 88 on them hose. If you could go back to any wrestling match or any wrestling moment, where would you go? What would you want to see? Steamboat's, uh, Savage, WrestleMania 3, Intercontinental title. I mean, that is the best match of all. And I don't know if you know what you're seeing when you're seeing it. I know. I know I said Angle Benoit is my favorite match, but the amount of times I've watched Steamboat Savage, it's just perfect.

So good. It's a clear heel versus a clear baby face. And they just are like, the way they work off each other is unbelievable. And also, you think about it, being at the Pontiac Silver Dome, largest wrestling event ever. and just like you don't know what you're seeing, but you know you're seeing something special. Everyone's waiting for Hogan, Andre. So to be waiting for Hogan Andre and then to have Savage and Steamboat come and steal the show.

Yeah. And you're just like, oh, my God. That must have been so exciting to watch that match and know you still have Hogan giant. You still have Andre Hogan. That's like when you wake up for work and you realize you still have an hour and a half that you could sleep. where you're like, oh, my God, I'm so lucky today. Just knowing that you still have the main event after you watch Savage and Steamboat.

I thought it was 8 o'clock, but it's only 6.30. Oh, my God, I love this. I'm going to roll back over. Oh, I'm going to put a pillow bit through my knees and now I'm absolutely going to sleep more. But yeah, I would say, WrestleMania. What would be yours?

I would love to be there for King of the Ring, 1998. The promo. No, no, no. Hell in a cell. Oh, that's a. That's Mankind Undertaker. It was Austin promo, 97, 96. I think.

Yeah, hell and a cell. The thought of going back to not knowing what you're witnessing, but the moment where he tosses. At nowhere. And that's the thing. It's out of nowhere. They're not teasing it. He's not teetering on the edge.

No. Or come back. It's just out of nowhere. Undertaker just grabs him and throws him and we're like, yeah. And then. Did we just witness it? just a murder? You expect the pay-per-view to go off the air. You expect them to go, like,

guys, we have to, something really bad just happened. And like, watching the paper view, you can tell that Lawler and J-R have no clue what's going on. They're like, they're raising the cell and Undertaker's still on it. And you're realizing they're raising it so they can get the stretcher in there. He's crazy. But yeah, through the top, like, Undertaker staring down at him, that iconic shot. And it's clear the match is over. Yeah. And Foley's on the stretcher. And you can see him fighting everyone off to, like, go back and not just go back and

continue the match, but go back to the top of the cell. Yeah, I'm going to rewatch that because that, we've had so many hells in the cells now that you don't realize that people didn't know what they were seeing. Yeah. They were like, oh, a steel cage match. Oh, but you're going to chain the top, which WCW fans remember from being from war games and it going horrible. When they try to suplex and the legs kick up,

if you watch an old war games when they had the cage on top, they could barely do moves because it was like right on top. So then the hell in the cell is like so high up. And you're like, oh, this is great. So it'd be that or Bash at the Beach 1996. Because no one would see Hogan being the third man. Would you have thrown stuff? I think I'd have to.

Everyone did. I think I wouldn't be one of the first people to throw stuff. I need the amount of bring back paper cups. Because paper cups being squashed and thrown, that's wrestling to me. A Pepsi paper cup crushed and thrown at a heel in the middle of the ring. I know we did the streamers from Japan and got on in the Indies. Yeah, Ring of Honor does it. Yeah.

Great. Bring back paper cups so we can toss them at heels. It's so fun and it doesn't hurt the guys. There's nothing better than that incredible aura moment of Scott Hall getting the diet Coke or whatever it is, thrown at his head, and he just uses it like hair gel. Yeah, he's, that was, walks towards the camera. What a badass. Also, great Bobby Heenan moment is, if you're a Hulkomaniac, we're the same age,

and you grow up a Hulkomaniac. Yeah. That turn at Bashar the Beach, you get Bobby Heenan vindicated. Bobby Heenan goes, I told you. The second that Hogan turns, well, he also does the what side is he on? Which just, I mean, come on, Bobby. Come on, Bobby. did. Come on, Bobby. That was like...

What do you mean? Whose side is he on? It's Hulk Hogan. That was like when Arne Anderson recently, when Roman came back and Arn told Cody we're going to have some help and you're like, so Romans's here. And everywhere, like, I remember watching that paper view being like, so Roman's in the back. And then they're like, Roman's here. And you're like, Arn, you son of a bitch.

But yeah, when Bobby goes, what side is he on? And then when Hogan turns and Hennon has his moment where he's like, I've been telling you, I've been telling you, this guy's a horrible guy. And you're like, Heenan's right. Bobby was right the whole time.

That blows your mind as a kid because I think we're 13 at that moment. And you're like starting to go through puberty and you're like, hey, maybe Heenan wasn't a bad guy. Maybe the Heenan family really was. I mean, it was diverse. You had King Kong Bundy and Hakku. Yeah. I think that's a great moment. The forming of the NWO.

Yeah, it's not just the heel turn, which I think that is the greatest heel turn of all time. The most surprise. Of course. but it's the payoff afterwards. Like here we are almost 30 years later. We're still talking about the NWO. It was, because you know what it was? It felt real.

There was a reality of like, well, I know these guys. That's Razor Ramon and that's Diesel. And that's Hulk Hogan. And what are they doing? And the idea that these WWF, at the time, WWF, guys would come over and try to ruin the company made sense. It just all lined up perfectly. Yeah.

And the lines were still being so blurred at that point in time. Like, this is 96, 97, then into the attitude era. And of course, the Monday Night Wars at that time, the lines were so blurred of like, what's real and what's a storyline. Yeah. Am I watching a work? And the way that Tony Chivani would sell it when Hall and Nash first showed up and they were just sitting there and just like regular clothes, he goes, I know those guys.

Because I remember being like at home doing the Leo meme. We were like, that's right. There you go, that's Razor and that's Diesel. Why the hell are they doing there? And you don't know, you know, now we all know about the curtain call because of the internet. Yeah. We all, but we didn't know that because that was a house show at MSG. So no one, I'm in Denver, I'm in Aurora, Colorado.

I don't know about they, they were leaving and they all broke K-Fabe. I have no idea about that. I just know Diesel and Razor Ramon are now in WCW. I didn't even know they were leaving the company. Yeah. That's why it worked. Because for a lot of us, there wasn't the connective of the internet of, now I know when guys' contracts are running up.

There's like a countdown to when someone contracts are going to run up. Back then, they just popped up like Lex Lugar, just pops up on Nitro. We're wearing a pirate shirt. Yeah, and you're like, okay. But that was that kind of surprise, which they did recently with Rusev. I think they still exist more now.

They can do it. They exist more now than people like to give them credit for. Yeah. Like people like to say the K-Fab's dead. If K-Fab's dead, why were you questioning whether Seth Rollins' injury was real or not. Why were you questioning if Carrying Cross was going to take his contract? People are still questioning that.

If KFabe's dead, shouldn't you know the answer to that? You should know that he's doing it. And then there's the people that act like they do know and they're still guessing. Right. He was doing this because of that. And you go, I don't care. I'm excited to see Cardone a cross. I just love that he showed up.

And I love that. I love that there's like, because of the internet, you can now follow guys easier. Yeah. Where it was like kind of harder when MVP went over to New Japan and started wrestling. It was like, I would like see in pro wrestling illustrated like, oh, MVP's in Japan now, but now I can just watch New Japan. There still are a lot of legitimate surprises in wrestling. Like John Moxley's showing up with the first double or nothing. I was there. Me too. It was great. Look at us. That was awesome. Wow. Did you cry during the Cody Dustin match?

Unbelievable. It was unbelievable. I'm an only child and I wanted a brother at that moment more than anything. And it was that match, Cody Dustin Rhodes at all in Vegas that first year. Oh, my God. And Jericho. Double or nothing. Yeah. And Jericho Omega was unbelievable. That whole pay-per-view was great.

So great. And there was a moment where we were with a bunch of comics. We were supposed to do the Rick Flair roast that weekend, but he had heart trouble. So they recalced it. So, but we still got tickets to double or nothing. So we were like, there was a bunch of comics there. It was like me, Mike Lawrence, Dan St. Germain, Ron Funches, and we're all hanging out.

And we go backstage after the pay-per-view, like in the meet and greet area. And we're talking. And then J.R. walks by. And we all get quiet. And as he walked by, you just hear Ron Funches go, man, we're fucking nerds. He goes, we all just went quiet like the president was walking by because we're all like, as J.R. walked by.

But that pay-per-view, Moxley showing up, which, again, like you said, there were rumors, but everyone was like, I don't think so. And then he shows up and gives, I mean, DDT's Omega on the casino chips. Yeah, that was great. That was, yeah, I love wrestling. I love wrestling. It's the best. We get to go and, like, we just went to the Raw after SummerSlam and I just loved it.

I was like, man, this is, I wish I went to more wrestling. The thing I love about wrestling the most is when you find a fellow. wrestling fan. You instantly become best friends. It is. I, um, I was on the road opening for some of Shane Gillis's arena shows. And we were in Cleveland. And with Shane, he's so famous now that athletes just come to the shows. Like, he doesn't have groupies. He has like athletes. So you meet like the offensive line of like, you know what I mean? The Browns instead of meeting. It's not like hot girls. It's like guys that can pass pro. You're like, it's not a hot chick, but I can get six, seconds in the pocket if I need it.

So we're hanging out and we're in Cleveland and we do the show and the Kansas City Royals are playing the Guardians and we get done with the show and it turns out the royals after they had a day game, they came to the show and they're hanging out. And I'm backstage talking to, you know, some of them and Vinnie Pasquantino and I start talking about wrestling. He goes, you're a wrestling guy? I'm like, I'm a wrestling guy. And it was like, well, it was 30 minutes.

We're like, oh, how do you think mania's going to go? I think it goes like this. We were like trying to predict what was going to, this was before WrestleMania, what we thought night one was going to be in night two. And then just immediately you're like, well, I know something we can always talk about. And you feel like you have to apologize to everybody else.

I know you understood nothing of what we were talking about. What's crazy is when you're talking wrestling with like a pro athlete, you kind of don't feel that because you go, well, he likes it. You know, if I'm talking about it with like a regular another comic, I go, hey, let us nerd out. You know, but with like a pro athlete, you're like, well, this guy just went yard today. So you want to talk to him? That guy just went oppo.

Why don't you talk to him? There's nothing better than seeing someone who's like, Uber successful in another venture. Yeah. Whether that's sports or it's comedy or it's movies or whatever. And they're just as nerdy about wrestling as we are. You know what blows my mind? Rick Rubin, huge wrestling fan. I had no idea.

Shoot. Loves it. Really. Loves it. Thinks it's unbelievable. Rick Rubin needs to come on the show. I would watch that interview. I will watch that interview and it happens.

But that's what I love was when you find out, you're like, oh, you love this shit too. Because then you can just talk about stuff. And it's all like excitement. You're just like, what about this matter? That's what it was. When Vinny and I were talking about it, you go, I think night one, maybe they do the title like this.

And it's like, it's just a fun thing. And what I love about wrestling fans is we all go through the moment where everyone makes us feel bad about it. where they go, you like wrestling? And then you, as you get older, I would say that to the teenage fans watching this, if they're still watching. There will be a moment where you learn how to stand up for yourself.

And you go, I do like wrestling. And then people go, oh. Like now when people go like, I had a, I remember this specifically, I was on the road promoting shows and I had to go do morning radio, which was like a thing, sometimes you still do,

but you'd have to go to promote the shows. And before the show, before we go on the air, one of the producers on the show is a wrestling fan. And he's like, you're a wrestling fan? He's like, oh, that's what he said. He goes, you watch SmackDown? This is when Smackdown was still on Thursdays. And I was like, oh, yeah, dude, great, AJ style, blah, blah, blah.

And we go on the air. And it's like this, I'm not going to say what city is, but he's a hack. And he's like, one of these guys that's like, all right, coming up. We got dad from billions. We got Dan Soters. He's going to be at the funny belt all weekend. Dad, and then he, like, he's got that, like, purgy voice.

And he's like, I'm hearing that you like, like wrestling? Is that true? I go, yeah, I love it. And he's like, when's the last time you watched it? And I was like, last night after the show, I watched Smackdown. What's up? And he's like, okay, so you, do you think it's real? And then I just went off on the guy. And I was like, what do you like? I bet I can find something that you like that I think is lame as hell. So what are we doing this for? Do you think you're going to make me not like wrestling? And watching, like, barking him down was one of the the most best feelings in the world of just a lifelong wrestling fan of like, shut up. You have a soul patch. Who are you to tell anybody? You look like a shit. He had a soul patch and you're like,

to speak bad about anything I like is insane when you have that on your face. And yeah, it was just like a good moment and like watching the guy was like, all right, all right. Watching the producer be like, thank you. You can just tell this guy just takes abuse for it all the time. And you're like, no, fuck that. Wrestling rules. I'm not going to not say that. Is there a clip of this somewhere? No, it was on local. It was on terrestrial radio. But it was in Albany. Okay. I'll give away the city.

Okay. But I remember that. And like not like, it was, I worked myself into a shoot. Because by the time I left the radio show, I was like, I don't want to talk to you. I was like,

no, you went after wrestling too hard. I'm not cool with you. I had a clip that went viral when I was a guest on a podcast. And the guy's like, you like wrestling? I know. You've seen it?

Yeah. I know which clip you're talking about. Yeah. Triple R or whatever. Like, come on, dude. Don't do this. Yeah. And also, do you like movies?

Yeah. Oh, don't you know they're fake? Yeah. Oh, wow, but you still like him? Oh, you know, Superman doesn't actually, he doesn't fly. He's, that's all CGI. Did you stand outside of the Broadway show Hamilton and go, you know, that guy's not actually Alexander Hamilton?

You're not Aaron Burr. That, your response to that in that moment was like, that's the solution. You just go like, well, what do you like? I just love the phrase, don't yuck other people's yums. Yes. So if you like it, great. Is it hurt anybody? Okay.

Cool. It's an old school phrase we need to bring back. I don't care for it. Because it doesn't. It's not anything. You're just saying it's not for me. I don't really care for it. Not my cup of tea.

Yeah. I have a lot of friends that golf. I don't care for it. I stink at it. Great. It makes me angry. But you're probably not going to make fun of golf and try to belittle your friends for liking it. Yeah, go golf.

I think it's great. You guys love it. I'm not going to shit all over it. There's people that don't like stand-up comedy. I get that. So what do you just go up there and you like tell you little stories and you go, What the fuck do you do? How miserable is that person up to be?

There are a lot of miserable people. There are a lot of miserable people that are like, oh, so are the story is even real? And you're like, yeah, they're based on truths, I guess. I don't know. What do you do? Do you break up hugs? What do you do?

Do you ever laugh? Stop. Unclinch your asshole. What kind of rabbit shits do you take that are little pellets? Open your butthole. Release it heard. Have fun. I've never understood that.

I've never understood people that go out of their way. And it is, ground zero is being a wrestling thing. Because it's the thing, the thing that everyone does. And you know this. And viewers of home know this. Oh, yeah, I used to love it. And then I stopped. And you go, cool.

Yeah. Probably start watching it again. It's still really good. It's pretty great. You know what it is really fun? Getting someone back into wrestling. Yes. I used to do a thing when I lived in Queens,

and there would be a lot of comics that lived by me, is I would invite people over for the Royal Rumble, wrestling fan or not. And then everyone buys in and spends $5 a number. So you can buy up to three numbers. And then you do a hat and you draw a number and they get like the 13th wrestling or the fifth. So you know, when someone gets 27 and the Royal Rumble, you go, you son of a bitch, you might win it. This is the wrestling version of doing squares for the Super Bowl.

Exactly. Perfect. And it's so fun. I'm stealing this. It's great. Because if you get number one, you go, what, are they going to Rick Flair? No one Rick Flares anymore. No one goes to full distance.

But sometimes they go late. And the great part about wrestling is, even if you get, if you pull number one, there's a moment where you go, it's good. And then they go over the roads and you go, and then like, it's always funny when a non-wrestling fan wins the pop. Because they go, I like wrestling now. Like 200, 200 bucks. You know, like Cody Rhodes hasn't come out yet. And you're like, oh, there's only like a few numbers left.

Or specifically when I would do these, Roman Raines, you would hear the Roman, the burner. And you'd be like, who got? Not Roman. The old Shields up. When he was doing the... Danner! And you'd be like, another one would be like,

Dan, there'd just be one guy that's like, I got him. And you're like, you don't even know what this means. You're probably going to win. And we're going to riot. That's been my favorite thing is watching Roman Reigns go from being a guy that everyone was like, enough to everyone being like, I can't get enough. I need more.

The OTC and you got to give credit where credits do. Yeah. Paul Heyman, baby. You want to make someone a legendary... I was on the same. flight is Paul Heyman. I was working the club in Winnipeg and WWE had a show up there. This is when Brock was still touring. So Haman was with Brock. And our flight was Winnipeg. There's no direct Winnipeg to New York. It went Winnipeg, Minneapolis, Minneapolis, New York. And

Heyman and I were on both the same flights. Didn't say anything. The first flight was very early in the morning. In between flights, I went up to when I was like, I just think you're like, an elite manager in one of the greatest of all time anyway. And that was all I needed from the advocate. And I was just like, yeah, that's all I wanted to say. And it was like, you want a nerd out. You want to be like, can I ask you 20,000 questions? But you can just see it was like a guy traveling in the morning.

But you look great. You know what I mean? Heyman's the guy. Yeah. Look at his career. Polly dangerously, all this stuff, to giving Austin the confidence to talk in the ECW and cut promos and become Stone Cold. Like, that confidence led to Stone Cold.

Yeah. And I feel like with Roman specifically, he made Roman believe in the character. Yeah. And it's not to say that Roman didn't believe in the big dog, but there was something about Roman turning heel and returning and everything about that that gave him a whole fresh new outlook. With the wreck everyone and leave.

Yes. That kind of like... The new teeth at that point. Yeah, the new, the sweet when he was still getting his asses. But now he's got him. But there was, it was like, Heyman helped Roman add gravity, like this like heavy gravity to his character,

where you watch his entrance and you go, the entrance is 15 minutes. It's great. And it's unbelievable, the ones in the air. That whole bloodline storyline, I mean, I loved it. And it was.

It was like adding Heyman with the promo where they opened. I think it was, I don't know if it was a raw or Smackdown. And they're on that couch. And it pans out. and you got Haman there and you're like, beautiful. I can tell we're in a new era of wrestling right now

because not just fans coming back, but new fans. Yeah. I'm meeting so many new wrestling fans for the first time in, probably since the attitude era. Could you imagine fresh eyes on Brett Hart, Stone Cold,

WrestleMania 12? Like putting that match on for someone that's never seen it and they go, well, he's got him in the sharpshooter and he's bleeding. What do you mean? the match is over and you go, yeah, he bled out, bled out on the mat. And you're like, it's crazy. Just like showing them stuff. There was stuff, the Savage Brett Hart Saturday Night Men event.

You can watch it on WWV vault, but watch specifically, there's a moment where Elizabeth is on the apron and there's a cracked egg in rubbed into the mat. And you're like, what happened on that episode where there was just a cracked egg and then they just had the match? Like they didn't even, it's wild. It's like I love little stuff like that. We go, oh, they didn't even clean up that ring. But, like, because I'm watching it with new eyes. I'm like, yeah, yeah. I obviously didn't watch it when I was four. I don't remember that.

But like going back and watching me, I didn't even clean up the egg? I think that's what's great about being a new wrestling fan, is you get to go back and watch stuff. Similarly to what I told you when I caught up on 2003 to 08, where you're like, oh, dude, as an older fan, I got to appreciate 05, Sean Michaels. The best thing about your macho is you can talk about just ridiculous things.

Do you have an actual macho man promo that you, you know to a tea? There's two that I know, but I probably haven't done them in a while, so I'll butcher them. But they're both Steamboat promos, and it's the cup of coffee in the big time. Yeah. Couple coffee in the big time.

That's Ricky Steamboats, a cup of coffee in the big time. And I don't know where he goes from that. But then the other opening line is where he's like, I am the undisputed intercontinental heavy wage. I will remain the interkind. That's the one line that I do know where he goes. I am the undisputed intercontinental heavyweight champion,

and I will remain the intercontinental heavyweight champion. Yeah, dig it. And then obviously the one that I do know is the Gene Okerlend, where he goes, a superstar in the WWF that has done seamlessly a 180. And you just hear, yeah, 180. And he goes, and then another 180. And he goes, another 180. And he comes in and he goes, and the beat goes on, and the beat goes on.

Yeah. That was the one promo. That was the one that I learned how to do the voice off of by watching that one. That is brilliant. The be it goes on and the beat coes on. And then it's always the grab of the, yeah, I'm understanding a little bit more and more. Yeah. I'm becoming sentient.

When I met him, it was awesome. It was. You met him? Yeah. During promoting the rap album, be a man. Be a man, Hoban. Yeah, be a man, Hulk. And then there's like just another rapper that's like,

macho man and I hanging out. Like, shut up. I used to work at this radio station in Tucson called K, it's still there, KFMA, and I went in to get my paycheck. My boss knew I was a huge wrestling fan. And he was like, you should go into production studio one. And I was like, oh, you guys need me do like, I'd do like silly voices and stuff for like the weekend promos. He's like, go see Chris.

He's in production studio one. You should go in there. And I was like, oh, okay. Being kind of weird about it. All right. And then I got, there's like super heavy. doors on these production studios. So I'm pushing the door open and I just hear,

you're listening to Tucson's New Rock 92.1 and 101.3, KFMA. Oh, yeah. And I'm opening the door going, damn, dude, who's doing this macho man? And I open it and it's, it's Randy. Like in with the mic, standing up with the voiceover, Mike giving drops.

And he had his glasses on, had the glasses on. And it was, I think, when my buddy Shirm was doing it. my buddy who worked there and he was like, oh, Randy, this is, uh, Dan. He works at the radio station and he turned around with his glasses and he took them off and we made eye contact and I remember just being like, like in France, like, I remember being like, oh my God, you're so intense. And he was like, very nice to meet you.

And I was like, nice to meet you too. And he was like, I remember how big he was and just being like, it was like the picture when you see little kids meet Santa for the first time. And it shook his hand and. You know, we didn't have camera phones. So I did, no one had a camera, couldn't get a picture. But there's no picture of it? I just met him.

And I was like, went outside stunned and smoked a cigarette. But I didn't want to bother them because they were, they were getting them to do drops for the radio station. But I was like, oh, dude, macho man. Well, look, this is the closest I'll ever get interviewing macho man. Man, Conrad Thompson had an idea before Lanny Pafo died that he pitched me where we do like, Lanny reaches out to macho man from the dead

and he wanted me to do macho man and I was like, I can't do that. As someone that's lost people in his life, I don't feel comfortable doing an accurate voice of someone that he was close to. To his brother. And Conrad was like,

oh, that's fair. But I was like, when he pitched it, I was like, this is morbid as hell, dude. Being like, I'm missing, because if someone could do my dead sister's voice,

I'd be like, hey, can you say, I'm proud of you? It's like, I'm very proud of you. And then I'm, that I'm calling him every night going like, I remember that when we were kids.

I can't do this anymore, man. Yeah. But it was like having people that knew him say it was a good voice. Like when Bruce Pritchard told me I did a good Andre, I was like, that made me feel great. Where I was like, okay, okay, yeah. Still the most fun thing to do. Oh, good. Dude, thank you.

Thank you, man. Thank you for all of the laughs here. This is amazing. I'm going to tell you, man, as a wrestling, fan, you're doing awesome work. We love it. We love the interviews. It's great seeing these guys come on here and talk about stuff. You know, the Kurt Angle interview is great. I love when you have Carrying Cross on, when you had Ventura on, Sasso. It's just keep doing it, dude. This podcast is as a wrestling fan, a five-star match. I'm giving it a five-star. Wow. Yeah. Thank you. We'll leave a five-star rating on Apple.

Also on Spotify. You know that I will end every interview with the same question. So, first, First of all, what are three things macho man, Randy Savage is grateful for? Yeah, for baby oil. Yeah. For sunglasses and for Miss Elizabeth. Yeah. Reunited. And it feels so good.

And what are the three things that you're grateful for? Wrestling, stand-up comedy, and just the ability to be a fan of both. Yeah. What a, it's amazing. Yeah, it's very fun. Yeah. Life doesn't always suck. There's some good stuff out there.

That's right. And sometimes wrestling really helps turn the brain off. And just enjoy. Just enjoy it, brother. Thank you, brother. Thanks, brother. There we go. Man, that macho is so good.

So good. What are three things machos grateful for? I love it. And that Andre, out of nowhere. Amazing. Head to Dan's website. Dan Soder.com. Grab tickets to see him on the golden

Retriever of Comedy Tour this fall and snap a screenshot. Let us know what you thought of this. Let us know what you thought of the macho man and Andre impressions and all of the other silliness and nerdiness and tag us. He's at Dan Soder. I'm at Chris Van Vleet and we'll wrap up this episode with a quote from Charles Kettering. You can't have a better tomorrow if you're thinking about yesterday all the time. Be great and be grateful, my friend. We will see you. you on the next one for some more insight. We've got MVP joining us on Thursday.

One of my favorite conversations of the year. You don't want to miss this. I will see you on Thursday for that one. 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, but get up in here.

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