Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Dave LaGreca: How Busted Open became Sirius XM's most popular sports show, Bully Ray, Tommy Dreamer, Mark Henry

Episode Date: January 7, 2021

Dave LaGreca, the host of Busted Open on SiriusXM joins Chris Van Vliet from his home in Hawthorne, New Jersey. He tells his fascinating story of how he got into broadcasting, getting his job at SiriusXM, how he was able to convince them to do Busted Open, growing the show from one-hour a week to 3-hours a day and 6 days a week, his opinion on wrestling shows with no crowd, his favorite match of all time, what it's like working with Bully Ray, Mark Henry and Tommy Dreamer and much more! Submit your Blue Wire Hustle application here: http://bwhustle.com/join If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  For more information about Chris and the podcast go to https://chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's Chrysalamania, brother. That's a great question. Look at you. man, with the powerful questions. This is the Chris Van Vleet Show. Chris Van Vleet Show. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris! Well, here we go.

Welcome to the Chris Van Vleet Show, and thank you for being with us on another audio adventure. If it's your first time here, I am obsessed with the idea of finding out what makes successful people so successful. On each episode, we have in-depth conversations and reverse engineer the habits and techniques of the world's top athletes, celebrities, entrepreneurs,

even radio hosts. If they are the best at what they do, I want to get their insight and help you apply it to your own life. And when you think of wrestling radio, you immediately think of busted open. And it was such a pleasure to talk with Dave LaGreca about how he built the show and how it's grown so much since it started in 2009. Take a screenshot right now, share it on Twitter or Instagram, and tag us so we can say hi. I'm at Chris Van Vleet. Dave is at David Legreca I. And make sure to subscribe to the show wherever it is that you listen to your podcasts.

If that happens to be Apple Podcasts, could I ask you to take a minute out of your day at some point to rate and review the show? And if you don't have the time, I completely understand that maybe you aren't able to rate and review the show. but if you could just rate the show, it would take you like three seconds to scroll down, click those five stars, boom, that's it. And it would be so, so helpful. This review comes from Anthony Rodriguez, who titled this, You Have to Read This. I guess I don't have a choice now.

Hey, Chris, I just wanted to let you know how essential your work really is. Listening to your podcast slash interviews is something that really gets me through my day. I just recently lost my job out of nowhere, very well-paying an awesome schedule, and had to scramble to figure out what to do so I could rack up some money for bills. I decided to drive for DoorDash and Uber Eats recently to see how it worked, and I just thought it'd be miserable and dreadful

to do this job without having anyone here to talk to. I'm familiar with your work because of YouTube, but never was really an avid listener since I'm not really that much of a podcast guy. But let me tell you, doing deliveries all day long gets so much easier when I listen to the CVV show because of the way that you conduct your interviews.

It makes me feel like I'm sitting right there, at the table with you and your guests having a conversation with you guys. My day goes by way faster and easier, and it wouldn't be possible without the one. And only, insert Justin Roberts' voice, Chris Van Fleet. No, seriously, thank you and keep them coming. And we got the beer cheersing emoji. Well, seriously, Anthony, thank you. And I can only imagine how long it must have taken you to write that review.

So I very, very much appreciate it. it. And I hope that you and everyone else tells your friends that, yeah, I don't just have a YouTube channel. I've got this podcast over here as well. And in fact, we put a lot of content on the podcast that doesn't go on the YouTube channel. So like, you guys are getting a bonus here. So look, just thank you for being part of this show. And, you know, I just want to help to continue to spread the word. And I know the conversations like this one with Dave LaGreca is certainly going to do that. His story of how he got started in radio. is fascinating. My first job in radio was when I was still in college, and that's the case for a lot of

broadcasters. But Dave actually had a whole different career first, and then decided that wasn't really what he wanted to do. And he decided that he was going to chase after his dream of working and broadcasting. And he did it. He left one career behind and then just dove into this other one with a fresh start at 30 years old. And as my friend Michael Yo likes to say, dreams don't have deadlines. It's so, so true. So enjoy this insightful and inspiring chat with Dave LaGreca. Well, here we are, Dave. How are you? I'm great. Thanks for having me on. This is an honor. I'm really, really excited about this. Oh, the honor's mine. And I look, looking behind you right now, I don't know if you have enough of your own head cut out back there. What's going on here?

Listen, I miss seeing them in the crowd since there's no crowds anymore. Yeah, I guess I got to change this up. It's not just me. You could see, you know, Cody and you can see bully and you can see Mark Henry and Tommy Dreamer. So it's not just me, but yeah. But there is a lot of you there. There's a lot of me. I feel like, I mean, you mentioned there's no crowds right now.

I haven't been to a live wrestling show since February. I feel like it's been a long. time since I saw you. I think over a year. It's been over a year. It's been over a year. And you're right. I think the last show that I was at live was, was February. Yeah. Crazy. It's crazy. I mean, it's anybody's best guests right now. But if you had to put out your best guess into the world, when do you think we start seeing crowds? I mean, AW has some crowds. But when do you think we start seeing like, you know, a fuller capacity crowd? I'm going to cross my fingers and And this is going to even sound outlandish when you think about it.

But I think it's going to probably be towards the middle or end of the summer of 2021. I mean, I never would have expected that this was a, would have gone as far as it has. But with that said, it's actually been really interesting watching how all the different major wrestling promotions have dealt with this. What's your take on that? I agree with you. You know, if you would have said two years ago, we would have hit a pandemic, I would be

like, oh, I was pulling out my hair and running around screaming, but I guess it's the spirit of that of us that we were able to just roll with the punches, evolve and do what we can. I mean, listen, there's so many people out of work. There's so many people that are sick. So many people have passed. And we've been able to really roll on. And it's crazy to think that pro wrestling, Chris, has never stopped.

Think about it. Like, it never took even a week off. and I think AEW has done a phenomenal job almost since the get-go. WWE is, I think, done a great job with the Thunderdome. And it's good to see Ring of Honor and MLW back doing shows as well. And, you know, we're, what, eight months deep into this, Chris? And I've actually kind of gotten used to the fact that there is no fans. When I go back on the network or YouTube and I see a show from a year ago, two years,

it's almost jarring seeing an arena full of fans now. Yeah, it's strange. And when you watch a movie and there's like a crowd scene, you're like, oh, where's everybody's mask? This is so weird. You're right. It's even like when you watch TV or commercials when, you know, because now we interact with wearing masks now.

It's just so surreal right now. I think it's been really easy for a lot of people to dump on 2020 and say, oh, this has been the worst year ever. But, you know, I feel like there's been a lot of silver lining. Like I did all my interviews. till the pandemic started in person, Zoom has afforded us the ability to do this. You know, we're on completely opposite coasts right now. That's one of the silver linings here.

But also the fact, like you said, that wrestling has been the one thing that hasn't stopped through this, that's been pretty special. Yeah, and as a lifelong pro wrestling fan, it's great to see that before any other sports league was able to adapt, we adapted first, you know? And Chris, you know, this pro wrestling always gets done. dumped on. And it's good to see that, hey, you know what? We survived. We even thrived during this pandemic. So it's good to see that even when you look at the viewership and the ratings and the numbers, for the most part, it's about where it was, you know, prior to the pandemic. And I think

it shows the loyalty and how diehard pro wrestling fans are. The ratings have been really interesting to me because when this thing first happened and it was the middle of March to the end of March, literally every person in America was sitting at home. And I thought the ratings were going to skyrocket. Because before the pandemic, you had an excuse to not watch wrestling. You know, you were maybe you were at a barbecue or a birthday party. You were at your kid's soccer game. You were doing something else.

Now you had no excuse. We were sitting at home. I knew where every single American was at 8 o'clock on a Monday night. They were sitting on their couch deciding not to watch Raw and deciding not to watch Dynamite and SmackDown. What do you think, you know, is the reasoning for that? Well, I mean, we could get into Raw a little later on. There's probably other reasons why people have tuned out a Monday Night Raw.

But I think at first, the crowd is such a big part of pro wrestling. Yeah. You know, you can watch a football game and not even know if there's a crowd or not. Same thing with baseball. But with pro wrestling, it's almost like another personality, another character on that show. and I feel like at first, and I know a lot of friends that felt this way too, you know what?

I'm going to wait until crowds come back before I start tuning in. And then as the months got longer and longer, people then decided, all right, this isn't going to happen anytime soon. So I'm going to go back and I'm going to watch. But also the WWE with the Thunderdome and the LED screens, at least it has some kind of presence of a crowd.

Like you mentioned before, AEW Dynamite at Daly's Place, you know, whether it's 500 or 1,000, people. At least there's some people in attendance. So I think that's helped draw fans back into watching on TV. Well, an AEW made a really interesting decision early on. They pointed the camera where it mattered the most. They pointed the camera at the ring and at the entrance way. Whereas if you flick channels to NXT that Wednesday night, they were basically shining a light on the audience and going, hey, look, everybody. No one's here. Yeah. And they did. And that was a mistake. I think

AAW adapted pretty early, where WWE took a little bit for them to get on track. I think they realized some of the mistakes that they made. But you can't point the finger of blame at any organization. I mean, this is unprecedented. They're trying to do what's best for the fans. So, listen, they did their best. At first, it didn't work. I think they have something now that's succeeding.

And I've gone on the record to say that I still think WrestleMania is one of the best shows of the year because they put that together with like a week's notice. It's crazy. It's crazy. And, you know, those are still some of the most talked about matches of the year. It's hard for me to go back and watch that WrestleMania, though. Like, if I sit on my couch and I go to the WWE network, it's hard for me to watch a WrestleMania where there's no fans. Because the most jarring thing when you go back, if you go back and watch that is,

if you remember for WrestleMania 36, they had a great opening montage. For those about to rock by ACDC, and it's as like, you know, Socialmania 36 and you're waiting for that big pyro explosion and it's an empty performance center. Yeah. And even though everybody on that car did a phenomenal job and worked their butts off, it is difficult for me to go back and watch that show. Dave, what you've built with Busted Open is pretty incredible. And I want to acknowledge what you've built. I mean, the show has been on for more than a decade now and this is the go-to place to hear amazing wrestling interviews before

they were really existing on YouTube. Well, thank you. I mean, you know, we kind of, you know, predated even, you know, podcasting and stuff like that. I'm old and this show is, you know, over 11 years old now. And we, SiriusXM got behind it. So I'm very, very thankful to Sirius XM.

And for the people who started this show with me, Doug Mortman, Mike Riker early on and, you know, my PD, Mother Marissa and Andy King, you know, we've had a lot of support from serious X-M. So I'm very, very thankful for that platform. Well, let's take it back a little bit because you've been working at Sirius XM before Busted Open. So what were you doing at Sirius before the show came around? I worked on the NFL channel. So I worked with the NFL for 13 years. But Busted Open was something that I always kind of wanted to do. I always wanted to do a pro wrestling show. I thought that that would be a

really good fit, especially for Sirius XM because of that niche audience. But, you know, Yeah, I worked with the NFL. I was the morning show producer called The Opening Drive on their channel. I loved it. I loved the world of the NFL, but I got to be honest with me, I love the world of professional wrestling, a heck of a lot more. Were you on air before this? I did some on-air stuff, but never to the extent of busted open. And I think that's kind of why I've been able to adapt so well with our nation, with our busted open fans, is because I'm just a fan.

Like I don't claim to be a journalist. I don't claim to be a reporter. I try to give the fans perspective on things. And so sometimes, like, my opinions could be completely out there. As you know, Chris, a lot of fans' opinions tend to be. But I think this show morphed into, you know, the Hall of Famer, like a bully Ray and a Mark Henry and an icon like Tommy Dreamer. They give their experiences in the ring. and I kind of give what I feel as a fan that buys a ticket and watches on TV.

So I'm guessing that when this began, you were still doing your stuff with the NFL network and busted open was just kind of like the side project you were working on. I'll never forget, Steve Cohn, my boss said, yeah, Legreca, you can do your wrestling show, but don't let it affect your day job. You know, but in time, it grew, you know, one hour, one day a week to two days a week, to three days a week, to two hours, to five days a week for three hours, and now six days a week for three hours. And, you know, we were, we became the number one sports show on Sirius XM,

which blows my mind when you think of all the amazing sports programming. And, you know, our podcast debuted at number one. Our show was the number one show, sports show on Sirius XM. I, in my wildest dreams, Chris, I never would have expected our fan base to get that big. So I think, you're talking all sports here. Yep, yep, absolutely, absolutely. And we have great sports programming, but on the same side, on the same side, we're

the only pro wrestling show. So you have multiple baseball and football and NBA shows, but, you know, we're the only show dedicated to pro wrestling. And that shows you how rabid this pro wrestling fan base still is. Oh, without a doubt. But with other sports, it's really easy to localize it, right? You might have your New York Giants show, or you might have your, you know, Los Angeles, Dodgers show or whatever.

Here, you're speaking to not just WW fans, not just AEW fans, not just New Japan fans. You're speaking to wrestling fans all across the board. Well, Chris, you know this. Like when I was working on the NFL channel, if we had an offensive lineman for the New York Jets on, the only people that are going to listen to that interview, hopefully, are New York Jet fans.

Yeah. Other fans aren't really, aren't really interested. But when you talk about pro wrestling, if you put Kenny Omega on the air, everyone's going to listen to that. Rick Flair, every wrestling fan is going to listen to that. So even if you're a diehard AEW fan, you probably still like the other shows and the other organizations and vice versa with the WWE. So I think we're lucky in that respect, Chris, that our fan base is probably going to listen and watch everything. You touch on an interesting thing, though, because ever since the advent of AEW, and we're coming up on, it's about two years since they announced it, January 1st, 2019. Ever since AEW came around, there's been this real divide of like, you're either a WWE fan or an AEW fan and there's no in between.

And the last time I checked, we were wrestling fans. When did that shift? Chris, it blows me away. And you couldn't be more right. I'll send out a tweet praising dynamite and people will call me an AEW mark and ask me why I hate the WWA. And if I say something good about the WWA, I'll get the same tweets from other fan bases. I honestly, Chris, I don't know. You know, I'm 49 years old. I've been a pro wrestling fan for 40 years. When I was a kid, I watched everything. I watched any pro wrestling show. that I can get my eyes on. I can't believe that the fan base is so divided like they are. It's amazing to me. And listen, we have a tough enough time with people outside our community, right? Like, you know, people who don't understand pro wrestling hate on it. And I know for myself when I was in school or work, I always had to argue with these people, fight off these people because they didn't get it.

I'm not used to now fighting with people within our own community. And I can tell you, Chris, that I don't get paid by anybody but Sirius XM. But I have been accused of being on Tony Kahn's payroll, Vince McMahon's payroll, Corpauer's payroll. It's crazy. I get paid by Sirius XM. My opinions are just the opinions of a fan. But I don't know where this started.

I guess I think what it is, Chris, is that a lot of people, wanted the Monday night wars back. Like I think ever since that ended, I think a lot of fans wanted that competitive juices flowing once again. But I think what a lot of younger fans don't realize that when the Monday night wars were happening, that was a war between WCW and the WWF, not the fan bases.

Yeah. Like so, you know, the fan bases watch both shows. Yeah. So I think like a lot of younger fans don't realize what exactly. made the Monday night's work, the Monday Night Wars work. And listen, I know for myself, I'm so thankful that there is an AEW. Because Chris, you know, for the longest time, the WWE ruled the pro wrestling world. It's good that there's another show and another organization that's successful and that

fills arenas. So I don't understand where all the hate comes from. I would have to guess if the internet existed, the way that it does exist now, if the internet existed, in the late 90s, maybe the Monday Night Wars would have felt a little bit different. You're probably right. I think it is the culture of social media and, you know, people like to get their opinions heard. They want to attract likes and retweets. So that probably has a lot to do with it. Maybe you're right. Maybe if there was, you know, the social media, the way it is now in 1998, we would add the same thing then. Because what Impact was competing with Raw on Monday nights, for the short period of time that they did,

it got pretty feisty. Like, you know, impact fans were like, Can't believe you're watching Raw. WVB fans are saying, I can't believe you're watching Impact. It was crazy. Yeah, and again, I think that affected impact

because I think a lot of people didn't give Impact Wrestling or TNA wrestling at that time, you know, what, you know, the credit that they deserved. And I just know, like I said before, Chris, and I know you're this way as well. When I was younger,

if it was pro wrestling, good or bad, I was most likely going to watch it. And I think the culture now is, instead of saying, boy, I love Pepsi, the culture is now, I hate Coke. You know, I think that's the culture right now. Yeah. I want to take it back to how this show kind of came together. It's like you said, you know, got to prove for one hour a week, what were the kind of metrics you were hitting or what were the benchmarks you were hitting for them to go, huh, yeah, they're

on to something here. Well, just like pro wrestling fans are, we fight for what we believe in. So when it came to busted open, our fans just shouted from the rooftops. You know, they wanted more. And they let it be known. They sent emails. They made phone calls. When Twitter, they sent tweets.

They wanted more from this show. And they were extremely vocal. And I'll never forget the day when I was called into my boss's office. office and I was told that, hey, we're pulling you from NFL and we're going to put you on busted open. I never would have thought that that would ever have happened, ever. And it gives me goosebumps even talking about it right now. But again, Chris, it's the power of the pro wrestling community. Yeah, but Dave, you got to, you know, pat yourself on the back here. You were the one who created this. Well, I have a very hard time of patting myself on the back. Don't let the fat heads fool you, Chris.

I have a hard time patting myself on the back. I've been lucky to be around of a team of really good people that believed in this show and got behind it. But again, the busted open nation, I give them all the credit. They wanted more and Sirius XM delivered. I would have to imagine that when you turn this into a podcast, that that's really when things started to ramp up because not everybody is a serious subscriber. Yeah. And I think the podcast and the Sirius XM app where you can get the show on demand, that really helped.

Because, you know, we're on from 9 to noon Eastern Time, you know, Monday through Saturday. So a lot of people are commuting to work. A lot of people are at work. And then now a lot of people are working from home. So it's good to have it where you can listen to it any time. And for sure, the podcast version is definitely done a lot big numbers for us. which I'm very, very thankful for. Yeah, this is changing everything.

Look, I grew up, you know, my very first job was in radio, and then I transitioned to television not long after. But it used to be appointment viewing or appointment listening. You know, if you weren't listening to your show between nine and noon, we didn't listen to it. That was it. And the cool thing now is we have these supercomputers in our pocket that allow us to listen to whatever we want and watch whatever we want at any time.

Yeah, it's true. And, you know, like you said, everything's, on your phone. So, you know, you can listen to my show at 9 o'clock or midnight or 1 o'clock in the morning. It doesn't really matter. Another thing, too, and for better or for worse, Chris, and you probably know this. Once you're in the public eye, you're in the public guy. So I learned early on that my life is the same as my life on the radio. My fans, the nation, they know about my daughter. They know about my wife. And that's a good thing and could be a bad thing at times. But, like, I leave my life wide open on the air.

So I think that's another reason why a lot of fans have been attracted to the show. Well, you've taken the morning radio show approach to this, which is why you guys have been so incredibly successful. And also, you know, Bully Ray, Tommy Dreamer, and Mark Henry help a lot as well. All three of those guys are completely different than the other. And they all have, you know, a tremendous perspective on the business. But it's different. So, you know, if you listen on Monday and listen to Bully Ray, it's going to be a completely different show on Wednesday when Tommy Dreamer is on and a different show on Friday when Mark Henry's on.

I have to say, it was very jarring when I was at Double or Nothing last year and we're doing the media scrums after the event. And I turn around and there's the world's strongest man who is now the world's strongest reporter standing next to me asking questions. It was the strangest, wildest, most amazing thing. The best thing about it, Chris, and I was laughing out loud, because you've been in those media scrums before. And, you know, you kind of fight for a position to get your microphone close to whoever you're interviewing to get sound. Like, when it's Mark Henry that, you know, it just kind of parts and he just kind of walks right in. Also, too, like, you know, Chris, you would ask a question and then it would be another person's turn. When it's Mark Henry with the microphone, he just kept rolling with the questions, which was pretty funny.

But no, but, you know, Mark, you know, put his journalistic hat on. Mark was not, you know, WWE performer, WWE Hall of Fame or Mark Henry. He was host of Busted Open, Mark Henry. I really appreciated that for Mark. You'll have to forgive me. They are testing the fire alarms here while we're doing this interview. At least you know you're safe, Chris. At least I know I'm safe, but my ears are going to, oh, my goodness.

Hold on. Hold on. We'll wait. We'll wait. We'll wait for this. Okay. Okay. Good. I was curious if Mark got any sort of flack from WWE for appearing, you know, on camera, backstage of the WW event. No, as far as I know he did not. Yeah, no, as far as I know, Chris, he did not. I know that Tony Kahn really appreciated the fact that Mark, he wasn't expecting Mark to be there and to do that.

So I think that kind of, you know, surprised Tony Khan in a good way that, hey, you know what? Like, hey, this is must see. You know, people are here, even a Hall of Fame or like Mark Henry. But I don't think he got any flack at all. I think, I think, honestly, the WWE understands Mark Henry's role on Busted Open. Which is fantastic that they're willing to, you know, work with him on that. Yeah. What's been different for the show, other than the length of time that it's on the air,

What's been different from the show in 2009 versus busted open that we see now? Well, in 2009, we probably had 12 listeners. And the one thing is, you know, when you first start, Chris, you know, you have a small amount of fans. You almost know your fans by name. And then it grows and grows and grows, which is great because now you're reaching more people. It's hard for me. I still want to keep that contact with the nation that they know that. Hey, I'm still your friend.

I'm still a fellow fan. But when things grow, that's probably the biggest adjustment for me is the sheer numbers. We did our 10-year anniversary party in New York just before WrestleMania. It was the Saturday before WrestleMania 35, and we were doing it at a bar in the city. And I remember getting there about two hours before the show. And there was a line on 39th Street that went all the way to Fifth Avenue. No way. And I was like, wow, I mean, what I was like, and I saw that line.

I'm like, oh, no, don't tell me there's another event here. And then I realized those were nation members waiting to come in to the restaurant. And it was a 600 max capacity for the restaurant. And we had 750 people show up. And like, the owner came to me and was like, I'm going to have to call the fire marshal. Like, I don't know, like, we've never experienced this type of crowd before. That was like the first time I realized, wow, like we're reaching people. We have that kind of reach.

I don't think until that moment, until you physically see faces and people, you don't realize the reach that your show has. That's such an interesting point because you can see the numbers of how many people are listening or, you know, watching if it's on YouTube. But then when you physically see what a few thousand people, you know, maybe 10,000 people look like, you're like, my goodness, all these people are aware of what we're doing. here? Yeah, it's crazy. It's exciting. It's exciting. But it was almost overwhelming for me because I just never attached the two. Like you said, it's usually just the number that's on a piece of paper. Yeah. But when you physically see the people, it means so, so much to be definitely one of my career highlights for sure. Everyone has such a different path in the world of broadcasting, like, and everyone has like a crazy way to how they got their first job. What was it for you?

How did you get your first break in broadcasting? It's funny you asked me. I was a bank manager. And I did radio in college, but, you know, life, you know, life takes you a different route. And I got married and bought a house. And I became a bank manager. And then I got divorced. And when I got divorced, I said, I really don't want to be a bank manager. If I don't do something now. And I was 30 years old, Chris. I wasn't like, you know, right out of school fresh face. I, you know, I was 30. years, I said, if I don't make a choice now and do try to do something different now, I never will be able to. And I started interning at WFAN in New York. And it just kind of built. It just built from there. Worked for WFAN, work for ESPN Radio, worked for the National Hockey League.

And then in 2004, got the job with Sirius. But it's not that easy to just, you know, show up and get an internship. No, no, no. Especially at 30 years old. think that people need to hear this, that like if you're doing a job right now that you don't love, there is another option out there. Like, there is an option to go and chase your dream if you're willing to make some sacrifices. And sacrifice is the key word, Chris, because I still had bills to pay. You know, I can't just like give up on my job and then try to chase this dream. So it became,

you know, I had my full-time job from nine to five and then I did an internship at night. And then, you know, my first radio gig was overnight. So I literally was working overnights and then come home, take a shower, put a suit on, and go, you know, play the role of bank manager. I did that for a while. And I had to sacrifice my personal life in order to get this radio dream on the road. But I think sacrifice is the key word. If you're willing to sacrifice, nothing's guaranteed.

But if you're willing to sacrifice, there's a chance you might be able to live your dreams. Well, it's not an either or situation. I think that people need to realize that. They need to, you know, they need to realize that if I go chase this dream, well, you're not giving up on the current thing you have now. Yes, you need to still pay your bills and everything like that, but you can do both. You know, maybe that's your nine to five, but what's your six to midnight? Yeah. And listen, you're going to, in the, you open up your mailbox. There's going to be envelopes with people wanting money from you. If you don't give them money, they take away the things you already have. So you have to pay. You have to pay for those things, but there has to be the sacrifice. And the sacrifice should never be your family and your sacrifice should never be your income. But you're going to have to sacrifice, you know, your entertainment, your leisure time. That's the first thing you're going to have to sacrifice and take away from your calendar. I just want to pause for a second because I know we have a lot of podcasters who listen to the show and a lot of aspiring podcasters as well. And I want to tell you about Blue Wire Hustle, which is a brand new program where you can host your

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You can also check out the description box of this episode to find out more info. But again, that's bw hustle.com slash join. So how were you able to land this internship at 30 years old? Well, it actually, a lot of people say, well, maybe my brother helped. Because I don't know if you know who my brother is, Chris, Donald Ligreca. He works for ESPN Radio in New York. So a lot of people think, well, you know, your brother probably helped you. It actually hindered me because when I went to FAN for the interview, my brother was their competition.

So they were thinking of actually not giving me the internship because they thought, oh, my gosh, you know, his brother is working with the competition. You have to win people over. You have to, when you get the opportunity and you get, and this is for anybody that's listening, when you get that opportunity, you, when you get that opportunity, you, you, you have to win. have to show that you're the best you have to show that you're willing to sacrifice you have to show that you're you're going to be the hardest worker in the room you have to have that message come across it's difficult to do but once you can all you need is that foot in the door once you get that foot in the door i early on chris i bought a photo album and i still have it i have a photo album that i said i am going to fill this photo album with the moments of my

radio career. I did that before I even got the acceptance letter of getting this internship. I said, I am going to fill, that was my goal. And I have a shelf full of photo albums filled with great moments

in my career. Don't take no for an answer. There's, you know, if they want, if they want six hours, work eight hours. They want eight hours, work 11 hours. If they don't, if they want you to work Saturdays, work Sundays. Always go above and beyond. And I, you know, write out your goals. You know,

what's your short term goals? What's your long term goals? I had a list of five short term goals and I had a list of five long term goals. And your long term goals might look like that this is crazy. This is just a dream. But I fulfilled my short term goals and I have fulfilled my long term goal. So there is a way. I love that you're saying this stuff because people will look at someone like you as a very successful show and go, oh, you know, he just got lucky, happened by accident. The fact that you're saying, no, I broke this down into small goals and bigger goals and I crossed them off as I made them happen. I think it's so important to realize that that's how this process works. All you have to do is call my best friend Ellie. My best friend Ellie, who I have been friends with

since grade school. He's still my best friend to this day. He'll tell you what I sacrificed, because there was months and months where he just didn't see me. You know, like we were used to hanging out almost on a nightly basis. And there was a long time where I just didn't see him. And so he'll, he always says that because people bring that up. And he'll always be the first one to say, no, you have to understand that it's not luck, it's hard work. Is there luck involved sometimes, sure, but I would say it's 10% luck and 90% hard work. Yeah. I think it's, I say it all the time. Vag goals, get vague results. And it's super important to be specific on what it is that you want and where you're heading. Otherwise,

you're getting into the car and you're just going to end up driving around aimlessly. Yeah. And I actually get a little emotional when I talk about it because, Chris, and I'm sure you have your story too. There's things you've had to sacrifice. Sure. There are things that probably could have made you that you know was going to make you happy, but you had to sacrifice those things in order to do this, what you're doing now. And I wouldn't trade anything in for what I'm doing now. I'm sure you say the same thing.

I'm living a dream. Yeah, my story is interesting. I mean, I live in a different country now. You know, I'm originally from Canada. And, you know, of course, there's a lot of sacrifices. But like you, I wouldn't trade anything, Dave, because, you know, it's put us in the position that we're in now to be able to do the thing we enjoy every single day. Absolutely.

And being able to watch pro wrestling and talk about it and people actually listen to what I have to say. It's great. And to work with Bulli Ray, Mark Henry, and Tommy Dreamer, you know, again, I got a great team. And, you know, Ed Robinson and Gabby Lospisa, like just people that really work hard for the benefit of a good radio show. When you say that people are actually listening to what you say, what has been the opinion you've had that has been the most controversial or got the most criticism? There was, the WWE, this is going back years ago, Chris. The WWE came out with a list of the, I think it was the top 20 greatest superstars, top 20 greatest superstars.

my personal, the greatest wrestler of all time to me is the nature boy Rick Flair. They had Sean Michaels number one. And I said, on the air, I said, Sean Michaels is overrated. Now, that was based on Sean Michaels being number one on that list. I think Sean Michaels is a legend. I think show Michaels is one of the greatest of all time. He's in my top five of the greatest of all time. but I can't see him being number one.

Well, nobody took the whole WWE Top 20. All they heard me say was Sean Michaels overrated. And my producer being my producer at the time, Mike Riker, he got Sean Michaels to be a guest on the show. Oh, no. So I had to bring that up.

And to bring that up to Sean Michaels on the air was awkward, difficult, but I had to do it because it created so much controversy. Wow. What did Sean say? He said, well, who do you think is number one? And I said, Rick Flair, and he goes, go back and watch our match from WrestleMania 24. He listened to what I said in that match. And I said, okay. That's interesting.

You know, speaking of the interviews you've done, you've done the one that I want to do more than anyone. You've interviewed Vince McMahon. man. I'm curious to know what your conversation with Vince was like. Yeah, I got to speak with him. It was right around the time when he was giving away a million dollars, you know, every Monday night on Raw. I don't know if you remember that. That's going back to the early days of busted open. And, you know, I'm an old school NWA territory guy. So the one thing, the one conversation that we had was about how he kept those territories alive, you know, at that time, this was pre-WWE network with DVDs. Like, he could have squashed all that. You know, he could have just said, hey, pro wrestling started and ended with the WWA and kind of just pushed all those territories to the side.

But instead, you know, he put out documentaries and DVDs, you know, with them. And they live on the WWE network. So we talked a lot about that and just, you know, just kind of comparing him to the other major sports and how he's able to maintain and keep that popularity. But most of what we talked about was just old school pro wrestling. I mean, I have such a reverence from Vince McMahon and such an appreciation for what he's built.

I mean, Dave, you and I wouldn't be having this conversation right now if it wasn't for Vince McMahon. I, Chris, have as a fan, I have a love-hate relationship with Vince McMahon. And the reason being is that being an old-school NWA fan and an old-school territory fan, he basically ended that whole system, for better or for worse. Listen, I mean, obviously for the better, I mean, you know,

we never would be seeing sold-out stadiums for pro wrestling if it wasn't for Vince McMahon. But, and you can look this up and your viewers can look this up. There is a day that will live in infamy in pro wrestling, and that's Black Saturday, July 14th, 1984, when I put on Georgia Championship Wrestling to see Gordon Sully and instead saw the face of Vince McMahon on WTBS. And that was kind of the push of the WWF going to a national product and kind of the end of the old school territory system.

Well, I mean, NWA is back. And I guess you could argue now with the fact. that anyone can upload a video to YouTube, territories could really come back now. You don't need major broadcaster behind this anymore. Yeah, and I think like there's certain minds. Corpauer, even Triple H, they have that old school NWA mentality. Triple H grew up a fan of the NWA. Corpauer, you know, his mentor was Gary Hart.

So this is what they know. This is in their blood. And I think we are right now seeing a recreation of that old territory system, not in the same way because everything is national, everything is accessible, like you said, on your phones and YouTube and everything else. But I think that drawing board is kind of like the mantra of what's going on in modern day pro wrestling right now. Yeah, it's evolved a lot. Like I've been a lifelong wrestling fan, but like really became a hardcore fan when I was a teenager.

So we're talking like the late 90s. In your opinion, how much younger, you're so much younger and so much more handsome than me, but you have better hair. So, geez. So how much would you say, as a fan, it shifted over these last 20 years? And how much more do you think it's going to shift over the next 20? Well, I think what the big shift now is, it's, you know, when you grew up, like you said, and first started watching in the late 90s, more about character and personality.

I think now it's more about the athleticism. It's not really about the larger than life characters. It's almost about, well, are they relatable to me? You know, whether it was the 80s with the Holkogen or the 90s with the rock, over the top personalities and characters. But now it's like, hey, you know, Kevin Owens, a little bit relatable to a lot of pro wrestling fans. And I think relatability, but definitely the athleticism,

more than the over-the-top character. And I'm looking forward to see where pro wrestling goes. Pro wrestling definitely evolves every, you know, every 10 years we see it evolves. So I'm interested to see where pro wrestling is going to go next. I love the fact that in all the years that I've been a pro wrestling fan, women's wrestling is the best that it's ever been. Across the board, Chris. Like, you know, you look at NWA A-A-E-D,

NXT to WWA, like, this is really some of the best things, some of the best wrestling that we've ever seen since I've been a fan in 40 years. Are you of the belief that so many wrestling fans are of the belief that wrestling used to be better back when? Are you of the belief that wrestling was better? And like, should we be nostalgic for that time? I always, I kind of believe in looking forward instead of looking back. but listen, I'm an old school fan and I'm very nostalgic when it comes to pro wrestling.

I think the art of storytelling and development of stories and being patient and that slow burn of a story I think was much better back when I was younger and watching pro wrestling. You know, you saw stories develop for months. I think a lot of it is the monthly pay-per-view. You now see storylines that only last a few weeks. because you have a monthly pay-per-view.

And I think things are rushed. You know, case in point, a Carmela in a ring with Sasha Banks for a championship on a pay-per-view, when, you know, for eight months, you didn't have any singles matches. Like, why not bring Carmela back, develop her character, tell a story about Carmela, let her have matches, and then work her way up the ladder to have a match with Sasha Banks. So I think, you know, when I look back, I think the athletic, and the match quality is probably better now than it's ever been, but the art of storytelling was definitely better 25, 30, 35 years ago.

This might be a difficult one to answer, but if you had to put your finger on just one, what is the worst wrestling storyline in your opinion of all time? Wow, the worst. Well, there's some bad ones now. But there's some that, you know, they stand the test of time. I mean, I think the Katie Vic, everybody will go back to Kane and Triple-Aid. Everybody will go back to Katie Vic. That's just like, that's probably like what were they, that's like the what were they thinking?

You know, like, what could you possibly be thinking that you thought that this was a good storyline? That's probably the worst one. One that kind of frustrated me from right now, Chris, is the Lana storyline. Like you see Lana go through a table for nine weeks and then, oh, well, you got the TLC pay-per-view. So I'm guessing Lana is going to put Naya Jacks through a table. And then she's pulled from the match. And now the story's completely dead because you have new tag team champions.

Like I scratch my head. I wish, even whether it was good or bad, if you're telling a story, end the story. You know, finish that storyline before you move on to something else. Yeah. Look, all wrestling organization. do this, but WWE especially wants you to just kind of forget. And when you have the goldfish memory sometimes of like,

that thing, that storyline that we never wrapped up, eh, don't worry about that. Yeah, and like whether it's rowing with a spider in the cage or, you know, things like that, like, I think we've become programmed, Chris, to forget. Like, it's so funny, when I go back and I watch pro wrestling from the 80s or the 90s,

it's so funny how I remember everything But then I watch a story from the beginning of 2020, and I was like, oh my God, I completely forgot about this. So I feel like we're almost programmed now as fans to forget. I'm still trying to figure out who was behind GTV 20 years ago. There was never a payoff to that. Yeah, the raw general manager, all those weeks and all those weeks. That was Hornswoggle, wasn't it?

Once long as is the answer for every storyline. Why not? He lives under the ring. He's always there. He has that kind of access. You see a very different side of Bully Ray than I think a lot of fans do. And I experienced this, I've interviewed him many times, but I experienced this in the really long interview that we did,

is there's so much more than meets the eye with Bully Ray. And I feel like where Mark begins and where Bucke begins and where Bolle Bully ends, the lines are very blurred. Yeah, I mean, yes. I think what you hear on Busted Open is pretty much who they are. Bully is extremely opinionated. He's extremely loyal and a great friend. And I can say great friend attached to Tommy and Mark as well.

Tommy Dreamer is just like is closest to me as far. he's just a fan. Like he'll text me at 1 o'clock in the morning about some, you know, Thunder Bowl Patterson match that he just watched from, from 1982. And Mark Henry reminds me of like my buddy that, you know, whether it was an eighth grade or, you know, senior year in high school, he's a prankster. He's just a jokester, you know.

They're all very, very different. But to all three, I say they're extremely loyal and just amazing great friends. that I'm so blessed to have in my life. It almost seems like Bully Ray is too good at playing his character because, you know, I've experienced this many times. People think that he's actually like a mean person. He's not a mean person, but you don't want to get him angry. But I would not call him a mean person.

I am shocked, quite frankly, Chris, that bully is not working for a WWE or AEW. you know, he's got this term that he uses if I had the pencil. And he'll take a storyline or a match and he'll just retool it. You know, as he says, he tightens the screws and it makes you look at it in a completely different way. He does that on a daily basis on the show. Not that I want this to happen because I don't want to lose bully, but I'm shocked that he's not working for a WWE or AEW shocked.

Well, it's really easy for us to sit back, you know, in our armchairs and play armchair quarterback, you know, every Monday morning or Tuesday morning, I guess, after Raw, Thursday morning after AEW and NXT. But I think the thing that fans don't realize is it's not easy to write a three-hour TV show every single week or a two-hour TV show if it's NXT or Dynamite or Impact or Smackdown. Not everything's going to be a home run every single time. Well, you know, you look at a TV series like Law & Order, let's just say. You know, it's an hour long and they basically tape like 23 episodes the entire the entire year. You know, Raw is on just raw as an example, three hours every single Monday night.

That's got to be extremely difficult to do. But Chris, just as if you're watching your favorite hockey team or your favorite NFL team or baseball team, my job is to critique what I see. So I'm a diehard Cowboys fan. but like if they had a really bad game and you know, Dak Prescott or, you know, Ezekiel Elliott had a bad performance, well, you know, you got to speak on that or a head coach had a bad performance. You got to speak on that.

It's the same thing with Monday Night Raw. Hey, we got it. We understand that it's a difficult thing to do, but we have to react to what we just witnessed the night before. Yeah, and I think that it's funny because on paper, nobody's trying to make segments that don't work. trying to book matches that don't work. Sometimes it just doesn't work out. Yes. Sometimes it definitely doesn't work out. I just feel like I just wish they would put more thought and give a little

bit more credit to the fan. I think a lot of times, and I'm just speaking of Monday Night Raw, because I love Smackdown and I love NXT. So I'm not talking about the WWE in general. Like when I criticize Raw, a lot of people think I'm hating on the WWE. Well, if you listen to the show, you know I love Smackdown and I love NXT. But I think with Monday Night Raw, I don't think they give enough credit to the fan. A fan, they say the fan is too impatient. I don't believe that. I think if you tell a good story, we'll be patient and let that story play out.

If you give us a good character and good character development, the wrestling fan will, But wait for the payoff. I just feel like raw, a lot of things are just rushed. And where they start from point A and where they go to point B is completely off track at times. I think, and this isn't going to happen because of advertising dollars, if Rock could go back to two hours, I think that a lot of problems would be solved pretty quickly. Yes, I completely, you know what I wish they would do, Chris? A lot of, they do a, WWE does a tremendous job with a job with their documentaries on the network. Yes. So good. I wish they would take those elements and put those on Raw.

Like, give me a mini documentary on Monday Night Raw about Live Morgan or about Keith Lee or about Drew McIntyre. That will get me more emotionally invested in their character than a backstage vignette or a match. If you let a little realism bleed into the show, I think the fans will get more emotionally invested. And wrestling still has an issue with this. It doesn't matter which organization. Wrestling still has an issue of, like, bleeding that reality, this person who they are when they're not, you know, on camera,

they've trouble, like, they've trouble bleeding those over. Yeah, and again, it's hard to describe to the non- Wrestling fan, right? Very. You know, like my brother, who's not a fan, he's like, what do you, this is just fake? And it's like, well, yeah, yeah, that match is predetermined, the outcome is predetermined.

the outcome is predetermined, but did I just, would I witness in that last segment? You know, was that, was that real? Was that truthful? You know, like when CM Punk did the pipe bomb promo? Why did that work? Because it was like, well, wait a second. This is a WWE superstar mentioning Cokeabana and Ring of Honor. And at the time, Brock Lesnar and New Japan.

Like, he's not supposed to do that. And I think like those little element, you don't have to go all the way, Chris, but just enough elements of realism to make even the hardcore old school pro wrestling fan think, like, am I being worked or is this real? You know? Well, there's nothing like this that exists in entertainment anywhere. Anywhere. Sure, you can call it quote unquote fake or predetermined.

You can say that, you know, they're playing a character. Yes. But when, and I always use this example, when Brian Cranston steps off the set, he is no longer Walter White. He is no longer the character from Breaking Bad. His Twitter handle is Brian Cranston. And that's the crazy thing here, that the lines are so blurred in wrestling

that, you know, Dolf Ziegler is Nick Nemeth. And Nick Nemith is Dahl Fzigler, but on social media and everything and, you know, in the public eye, he is still Dolf Ziegler. It's just this weird thing. Yeah, and it's the same thing with like a Drew McIntyre.

Like, he's cutting a promo, talking about when he was in three, man band that was, you know, fired from the WWE. It's like, well, well, that actually did happen, but that wasn't what I saw on Monday Night Raw. This is what happened behind the scenes and now he's

talking about it on Monday Night Raw. Yeah, that's what makes it so special, Chris. That's why it truly is an art form. And that's why I always be a diehard pro wrestling fan is just the mystery. There's, whether it's

whether it was in, you know, the days of Luthes or right now from what we watch on Raw on SmackDown, there's always this mystery around pro wrestling. And it's continuing to get, I feel like, more and more mysterious. Yes. And that's why I'll always love it. That's why I'll always love it. That's why there'll always be things for us to talk about.

And that's why you're able to be on six days a week. Yeah, it's crazy. Three hours, six days a week, you know, you would think there's not enough wrestling to go around, but there's enough wrestling to go around. I don't know if people understand how difficult it is to make even one hour of radio. And the fact that you guys have three hours of radio every single six days a week, it's 18 hours of content a week. That is not an easy task.

Yeah. And Ryan McKinnell hosts on our Saturday show. And I do Monday through Friday. Ryan does Saturdays. He does a great job. But you know what? Chris, in some ways it is difficult. but in some ways it's so easy.

Like there's days, probably more often than days that there aren't, where I could go another hour. Like, we'll have a conversation going and it's like, all right, the time's up. And I was like, well, I still had this to say and I still wanted this to say. And the biggest thing, Chris, that's being on live radio that makes the biggest difference that it's not just an original podcast, but that it's live in the moment is callers. You know, it's two-way talk. So we take calls.

and we're able to do that in the moment live, which is a huge help when not only filling time, but also developing topics as they go along. I want to thank you for, you know, on occasion you've shouted out my interviews. And that's the coolest thing for me. So thank you for doing that. Jim Ross told me early on. And I don't even think if he remembers this or not. It was very early on.

And he was always so great with his time. and I remember him telling me off the air, I thanked him for coming on. And he said, well, yeah, because you're part of the pro wrestling community. So, you know, if one person, you know, thrives, then everybody kind of thrives. And I've always had that mentality. I never speak poorly of any other shows.

If I do, it's in fun and ingest. But, like, Chris, I want your show to be successful. I want Alicia Atooth to be successful. Sam Roberts, you know, Jim Ross is Conrad Thompson. Like, I want everything with pro wrestling to succeed. That's the message I want to get across the fans when it comes to AEW and MLW and Ring of Honor. Don't hate on something. Don't ever wish that something would go away.

Like, Impact, I watch Impact every week. I want it to do well. Because the more these other things do well, the more that we're going to do well, as a community. I want the whole pro wrestling community to be successful and strong. Rising tides lift all ships. And I think that people need to realize that. Rising tides lift all ships. You know, WW getting better is better for everybody.

A.E.W. getting better is better for everybody. And it's a balance because I do have to be honest about the shows. And if I don't like it, I'll be honest and tell you I don't like it. But at the same time, I would never ever wish for an organization, go away or a show to be canceled or anything like that. No, just the opposite. I want it to be stronger. Like you said, Chris, it's all about that tide. We're riding that tide right now. So I want it to go higher. I don't want to lose that. What is the go-to favorite match for Dave LaGreca? It's the match between Rick Flair and Terry Funk. I quit match. It's my all-time favorite match.

on commentary was, I think, the two greatest announcers in the history of pro wrestling, Gordon Solie and Jim Ross. In the ring as the referee was Tommy Young, who in my opinion was the greatest referee of all time. On the list of the greatest pro wrestlers, my number one is Rick Flair. Terry Funk is my number two. And the fact that they were in a match together, I quit. It's to me the greatest match of all time, Chris. Wow.

Most people just list a match. You listed a match for like 10 reasons. This is incredible. Man. It's unbelievable if you get the chance. You know, two words, five letters, I quit. And it's a fantastic match. And it stands to test the time.

Dave, you have to realize and appreciate that you have the dream job of so many people all across the world. I appreciate it. And Chris, I don't take it for granted for a moment. I love it. I love doing what I do. as we're talking, I'm off, and I don't know what to do on myself. Like, you know, it's when you truly, like, you hear it all the time.

When you love what you do, you don't work a day in your life. And I've been very thankful for the last 11 years. I haven't worked a day because I've been very, very happy with what I do for a living. That's amazing. This has been such a great conversation, Dave. I'm so glad we finally made this happen. Chris, you're a great interview man. I appreciate your work.

I watch what you do. And I think you're phenomenal at what you do. And it's truly an honor. I look behind your right shoulders and you've got some gimmicks on the shelf that shows you how good you are. And you deserve it because you are phenomenal at what you do, Chris. So this is truly an honor for me to be on your show. That's very kind of you to say, Dave. And likewise to you, what you have built over the last 11 years with,

busted open is truly incredible. And now you have this great cast of characters who are filling that rotating chair that you have. It's amazing. And you've been the voice of the fans before this, you know, thing really existed. So, uh, congratulations to you on that. And also thank you for that. Yeah, and I hope this isn't a rip. I have to, I hope this actually goes up. Oops. You're on to me. Dave, thank you so much. Thanks, Chris. Truly an honor. I really, really appreciate the time. Thank you. Well, there you go, my friends. And I think a word that immediately comes to mind from this conversation

is patience. I mean, think of how patient Dave had to be to get his start in radio. And then to be patient as busted open was, you know, kind of a side thing because he was doing his main job at Sirius XM and doing busted open on the side. And then how patient he had to be watching it grow from one hour, one day a week, to what they have now, which is six days a week, three hours a day. That's incredible. And radio is not easy. I said this in the Sam Roberts interview, but it's not easy.

Filling three hours every single day is tough work. But Dave, along with Bully Ray, Mark Henry, and Tommy Dreamer, make it look so, so easy. So my hat's off to them. I love this quote from Joyce Meyer, who says, patience is not the. ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting. Be great. Be grateful, my friends. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s

flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock, but there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. You're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of then? To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987.

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