Insight with Chris Van Vliet - D'Lo Brown On The Attitude Era, Head Shaking, Nation Of Domination, Why You Need To Stop Sleeping On IMPACT Wrestling

Episode Date: June 13, 2023

D'Lo Brown (@dlobrown75) is a professional wrestler known for his time in WWE and IMPACT Wrestling and is the Head of Talent Relations for IMPACT Wrestling. He joins down Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios at Wynn Las Vegas in this conversation from March 2022 to talk about his legendary career in WWE as part of the Attitude Era, being a member of the Nation of Domination with The Rock, Kama Mustafa (The Godfather) and Faarooq, why he considers himself the "Forrest Gump" of wrestling, his trademark headshake, working for IMPACT Wrestling, what he looks for when they sign new talent, how "the forbidden door" has changed wrestling and much more! For more information on IMPACT Wrestling visit: http://impactwrestling.com Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV at http://thecoldplunge.com Quote I'm thinking about: "If you're serious about changing your life, you'll find a way. If you're not, you'll find an excuse." - Jen Sincero For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.com 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.  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are gathered. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bruny! You made some time for us, so thank you so much. Oh, bro, of course, I'm going to have time for you. Invite me down to this plus studio my second time here. Of course, I could. Look at this place, right? Man, I wish I had this place.

I'd never leave it. I put a bed right over there. That's where my bed's going to go. This would be my TV. This is a TV. That's incredible. Let's throw Liverpool up on this thing. I don't want to leave.

But you're off to New Orleans tomorrow. You're a busy man. You know, with all my impact stuff, I travel a ton. And between being on camera and working in talent relations and it just, it's just all consuming. But I love it. I wouldn't have it any other way. What is your official title at Impact Wrestling?

Head of talent relations. Do you have a business card that says that? No, bro. That's too much, I don't put that off. Business card. Digital. It's right here. Does anyone have a business card in wrestling?

I don't know if anybody does. It's just an exchange of phone number. Basically. That's your business card. If you have my number, you have my business card. But if that's your job, then commentator is also your job, too. Yes. Me, no color commentating.

How many hats do you wear? Enough to keep me employed. Okay, on a show day, what is like, wake up, get to the venue, then what's it look like for you? Wake up, get to the building, sit down, go through production meeting, go through an agent's meeting, then break off and get with talent about their match. then when I have a free time, break out my computer, and see if there's some payroll issues I need to deal with

or something, anything out there that needs to be addressed, go back to talent, go over notes that if I'm going to do some announcing. Oh, and then, by the way, it's showtime. And let's get out there and throw the suit on and go scream at top my lung for two hours. You and Tom Hannafin? Yep. Tom Hennifton. I mean, what a great guy.

I love that dude. Came in and injected. We talked about this off air, injected a, of a sense of comfort and no disrespect to anybody else, but there's something about his voice that's, it's very comforting and draws you in. And he's so knowledgeable at wrestling, just an all-round pro.

Like, I was so impressed with him the first time he sat down next to me. And for people who don't know him by his real name, it's Tom Phillips from WWE, who's now the lead play-by-play commentator alongside you in Impact Wrestling. And I think that comfort factor you're talking about is people know that voice. Yeah.

So when they hear you, that voice, they immediately go, oh, I'm used to hearing that associated with wrestling. So it doesn't take them out of the product as much, perhaps. No, it draws them deeper in, and that's a beautiful thing. And then you throw in, he's talking about compelling storylines. And while that's happening in the ringers, incredible wrestling action going on, it's a complete package to me. That is a big pickup for Impact Wrestling.

It's a huge pickup. I was so happy when I heard he was coming on board. Yeah, how'd you guys make this happen? Or I can't, I can't disclose that. Show's over. Show, done. Done. I can't.

I plead the fifth. Are you the guy who is out seeking new talent now? I'm always out there looking. My email, I get, no exaggeration. I get 100 emails a day from talent all around the country. Wow. Some good, some bad, some who don't ever need to apply for a wrestling job. But I get them and I look at them and it's all consuming.

I was up until literally 430 last night watching wrestling videos. of people who are trying to be that next person. Okay. So if I want to get DeLo Brown's attention, if I want to get signed impact wrestling, what do I need to do? Show me something that I've not seen before. Entertain me in a way where I can say, yeah, that translates to the masses. Something I can sell to those decision makers above me. Give me something I can't walk away from.

That's a tall order. It is, especially in the world that we're. we're in right now because it's very hard to one up the people who have already won up the people who've come before them. But you have to because let's just pick an example, pick anybody on TV, you know, Josh Alexander, okay, we don't need another one of him. So now you've got to come up with something creatively different that draws my attention as much as he does. Moose. We only need one moose. We don't need two of them. So now you is the person who's trying to get a job or trying to hone your craft, what makes you different, what makes you stand out, what makes

you special, and then have to highlight that to show you've got two minutes, three minutes to show us why you're special enough to go, all right, this deserves a second look. This is a third look. You know, maybe we need to bring this guy in for a deeper evaluation, guy, girl, whatever the, you know, who they ever they are. They worn a, you know, in a person, talking to or maybe a dark match. Show me something different. So is the idea to make some buzz for yourself on the Indies? It's not about making buzz. It's just being good at what you do with the overall product, your presentation, your in-ring work, you're talking, the way your body looks, the way you're dressed, you know, there's no way I can put a guy. I mean, okay, only one guy has made money in a wife

theater in shorts, okay, Billy Kidman. Only one guy did it. But yet there are a hundred guys out there still wrestling in that look. Yeah. If only one did it, then I don't want to go that way, because odds are another one's not going to come along. A lot of guys making a living with a shaved head and a goatee, though. You know what, though, but, bro, I'm not in the ring anymore. I'm a, hell of an office look. Yeah, you do. Yeah, the glasses and everything. The glass, yeah, the glasses, change everything. It does. Look, everything I feel like has shifted in professional wrestling over the last handful of years. Yeah.

And especially over the last year or so with this forbidden door. And that really opened up with Impact Wrestling. It didn't open up with Impact Wrestling. Impact Wrestling is the backbone of the forbidden door. It is. You think about who's working with whom and Impact Wrestling is always connected to somebody, whether it be New Japan, AEW, AAA, WWE, Ring of Honor, you name it. We are connected to them.

way or shape or form. So, um, we are the framework of the forbidden door. Yeah, the Don Callis and Kenny Omega stuff at first kind of when people go made people go, oh, yeah, if this is possible, what else might be possible? And that started the dream match booking scenarios. And then all of a sudden you start seeing them play out where, oh my God, they're the good brother standing next to the young bucks. Um, yeah, wait a minute. There's, there's Christian. He's, he's back in impact wrestling. Is the Impact World's Champion? I mean, like, yeah, I mean, just those two opening this door, kicking it down, so to speak, has really revitalized wrestling over the last 18 to 24 months.

And then I think that a lot of people with the Royal Rumble and Mickey James went, what? WWE's in on this too? Yeah, and, you know, the second the Impact Knockout's Championship belt walked out to the ring around Mickey's waist, that's an acknowledgement from that company that someone else exists. Yeah. It was a huge get and awesome for us and awesome for Mickey. I don't know how much you can speak to it,

but how did that all come together? Just a lot of work, and I'll leave it at that just a lot of work. Do you think that it hurts Mickey in any way that she's not in the Final Four in the Royal Rumble as the Impact Champion? No, I think just Mickey being there. Mickey could have done a bushwhackers and walked out and gone right to the top and walk right back and would have got great buzz

just from being there. And if you noticed no other woman other than Charlotte walked out with a championship belt. So that says a lot even more. So being in the Rumble, how long she was in the Rumble, look, she got to eliminate one or two.

I think that's awesome. And it was, once again, it's great for her and it's great for Impact Wrestling. And it's great for the business. Do you think that door could now go both ways? Yeah, you never know. It's wrestling. Never say never?

Yeah. That's the beautiful thing about wrestling. You could never say never. I mean, and we were joking about this off camera. Really anyone at this point could show up anywhere. Yeah, I mean, and, you know, I said it earlier. It has an air of NFL free agency. Yeah.

You know, it's kind of got that vibe where once that window hits and you know that window's open, And like, anybody can go to one or 32 teams. So where are they going? And what's going to happen and what storyline is going to come from that? So it's been this way in wrestling for the last nine or 10 months where it seems like every two weeks, someone's 90 days are coming up or someone's leaving a company. Hell, we had just a huge departure just a huge departure just two days ago. So, I mean, it's, it's this business right now is so fluid that it's, it keeps everyone's, mind on it and it keeps the fans interest. And to me, the winner of this is the fans.

At the end of the day, the fans are winning because they're seeing these, once again, fantasy bookings, these jumping ships moving from company to company. This is an awesome time. And the fact that fans know the 90 days and then they go, ooh, this paper views right around this time. Right. You can look and you go, oh man. Yeah. Bound for glory is one day after the 90 day. Wait a minute. Slam of Versi was the perfect example of that. Yes, yes, Selmaversie, when the Good Brothers came in and Cordona and Myers and Eric

Young and it was like, my God. Yeah. You know, it was like, and it was just literally, it was the, it was Saturday before it, midnight. Yeah. Boom. Yeah. And there we are Sunday live on TV. So it's, it's such an exciting time.

The big departure that you're referencing from a few days ago is. Cody Rose. Yeah. And this is, what's your take on everything going on there? I don't know. I mean, I don't want to go too deep

because I don't like speaking about other companies, but it's just going to be interesting to see how it plays out. It's, it's a big move for someone that high up on the corporate structure to move companies.

So let's just see what happens. I mean, maybe he's not moving companies. Maybe this is all just a giant storyline. Who knows? Yeah. That's the interesting thing about wrestling right now. You got you, everybody's, everybody's guessing.

And if you have the fans guessing, then wrestling wins and the fans win. Yeah. You mentioned him briefly, but Matt Cardona has been doing such a great job at that. I give you one question. Has anybody had a better last 12 months than Matt Cordona? I don't think so. I don't know if anybody's ever had a more successful independent wrestling run in the last year. I mean, it is just what he has done is just mine.

blowing. And no disrespect to Cardona, but he was portrayed as a third-tier guy when he left. And to rebrand, to revamp, and to make himself the pretty much legitimately the top independent player out there is mind-numbing and amazing for him. I'm so happy for him. I mean, I can't tell him times I've told him, like, bro, I mean, I can't believe the run you're on. And he's, you know, I've gotten from him. I can't believe. I was like, don't think about it. Because the minute you think about it, it might end.

Just let it roll. Let it keep rolling. And he's been doing a lot of this when there were all of these restrictions with the pandemic. Yes. And he was still finding a way to get booked and get over and to fill the arenas. Yeah, I mean, he made the most out of this pandemic time. I mean, you know, he goes and becomes a GCW heavyweight champion. Your phone is ringing right now.

Which free agent could it be? I can't. That's why my phone's down here. I feel like Adam Schaefter right now. Yeah, seriously. So the win the GHC title and then culminate off, you know, he wins the impact digital media title. And then, you know, a week and a half ago,

he wins the NWA world's title. I mean, one of the most sacred titles in our business and now is around the waist of Matt Cordona, a guy 18 months ago who was sitting at home or sitting in catering. and now he's he's he's got i mean i i it's hard even put in words yeah how good of a year he's had and it's could be it's because he's got himself over yeah he's made himself interesting well i mean he he he is out there i mean and in his songs is always ready and he's proven he's always going to be ready for whatever challenge it's going to be no matter if it's impact or nWA or or gcdb or

hell it could be the kipsy armory he's going to me he always going to be he's going to be he always to be ready for that challenge. Well, and I think that people saw him because of 14 years in WWE. They saw him as like this Jersey Shore guy. Yeah. They saw him as the Broski.

Yeah. And then he kind of played into that for a little bit when he got released. Now he's a completely different character. He's free. Like he's, he's found a way to free himself from that,

from that character of the Broski. Now, he'll still say Brozky every now, but he's freed himself of that mystique. And he's created a whole new aura about himself. And that's, that's a testament to him. him and his hard work and his his want to his want to be better so i mean hats off to him and this

kind of goes back to what you were saying earlier like do something that you haven't seen before and and show me and he took he he unwrapped himself and showed the world he was something different yeah and what he was different is like just i want more of that yeah so what was that moment for you what was that moment for delo brown uh wow i think the first time was the head head shake was the first time the head shake happened, I knew I was just, I knew I had found something that was a little different than anybody else on the roster. And when you're when you're in such a talent-laden locker room, you've got to find something that stands out. If not, just, just another guy wearing spandex and baby oil. I mean, hell, you're at the top of the, you know, you're in the biggest

company, but you want to elevate up the card. Yeah. And if it wasn't for the head shake and you know, because even in a nation, I had a certain amount of, you know, protection for me in a nation, but I was still just the fourth guy, the fifth guy, depending on the numbers. And I really didn't stand out other than, you know, take a bump deal. I'd take whatever big bump I could, but that didn't really play out. And finally when the head shake happened, that's when things started, there was a focus put on me. But there was, like, you had some memorable moves, too.

Yeah, but sky high, the frog splash. And those were the starting pieces of, you know, getting attention. But at the end of the day, it's just a move. Like, I think only one guy has really gotten over from a move, and that's, you know, the Canadian Destroyer in Petey Williams. Other than that, everybody does the same 12 moves of Doom. You know, I love Petey.

And the first time I saw the Canadian Destroyer, I went, what? Oh, my God, how? I remember rewinded a hundred times going, how is that possible? I remember playing it like frame by frame and going, I still don't get it. Yeah, I'm going, how is that possible? I think it's unfortunate that there's a lot of wrestling fans out there that don't know why it's called the Canadian Destroyer. Yeah.

I forget his name. He was one of the greats in Canada, who was the Canadian Destroyer. Brett Hart. No, not Brett Hart, no. One of the greats in Canada. One of the greats Canada. He was a great from the Windsor, Ontario, Toronto area. And he was a Canadian Destroyer.

And Petey named it after him out of respect. Oh, wow. And now, like a big bad bunny does it now. Yeah, now it's a transition move. And you do on your weights from the, you know, hotel room down to the lobby. There's a lot of that. Yeah.

But when you look at what you were doing with the nation, everyone you were surrounded by. All hallfamers, all top town, all guys that I was fortunate enough and blessed enough to be around. And first and foremost is Ron Simmons. I mean, to have that man as your mentor, your life coach, your pseudo father, it doesn't get any better than that. And mind you, the whole time, I idolized this man growing up. Wow.

So to have the, you know, the opportunity to go from watching him, hell, I was in the arena when he won the WCW World title from Big Van Vader in Baltimore, Maryland. You were there. I was there as a fan. Wow. So to go from that to five years later, standing in another ring in the same building, standing next to the man, surreal.

Had you already started wrestling at that point when you saw him? It was right on the cusp. This was 93-ish, and I started in 94. So, yeah. And what he did, I mean, he broke so many barriers with that. Absolutely. He showed, he showed. people of color that you could be good at this.

Yeah. And he became that shining light and he opened the door. And, you know, myself, there's a bunch of others who go, I did this. I got into this because if Ron could do it, then there's a path already laid for me to be able to do it. Yeah. And man, you know, they say never meet your heroes. I'm so glad I met mine. What about Rock?

When Rock joined, did you go? Oh, yeah, he's something special. You know, not at first, no, and even Rock will tell you, no, because at first he had come off a failed Rocky Maya via gimmick. He is coming off an injury. With the pineapple hair, as he would call it. With the pineapple hair and the frilly, you know. Yeah. And even he would tell you he was trying to find his, he was trying to repackage himself. And he was, he wanted to get rid of that mystique of that failed baby face. And he, you know, he got, he was afforded the protection of being in the nation where you were allowed to make mistakes and had,

great minds around you that can help cultivate you and then the one thing I did learn about Rocky was he was willing to do the work he was willing to outwork anyone and what I mean by that was there are times we would be in the car and he would just you could see him thinking we'd listen to the radio and he'd go oh what was that and he'd be a catchphrase of a song and today's later you're here in a promo um we would watch movies and he would he would take from pop culture um and he would the things that would work, he would keep in there, the things that didn't he would get rid of. And you saw that, and because of that hard work, you want, okay, this brother's working. Yeah.

This brother's, he's putting a time in. And, you know, looking, feeling every incarnation of how we would try different promo styles, finally get the one that work. You can see the evolution of it. If you go back and watch Raw, you can see the evolution of his promo styles until finally about, it took about six months for him to really hone in on it. And when he did, that's when he walked out on the stage in that black vest and he called himself the Rock for the first time against Steve Austin.

And, well, y'all know the rest of the history. I asked the Rock what his most memorable promo was of all time. I mean, it's so difficult because the Rock's had so many promos. Right. And he said his most memorable promo was the one in the nation where he said, you know, the Rock's a lot of things, but sucks isn't one of them. Because that was the turning point of him turning into the Rock. And I think that was one the first time.

you referred to himself in the third person, referred to himself specifically as the rock. And so that was the birth of it. And that was the growth of it. And I will tell you, one of the greatest seats to ever have. I had the best seat in the house to watch the brightest superstar in the history of this business

light up and take off. Yeah. And for that, I'm thankful and blessed. Okay, quick pause from this episode because we're excited to welcome Blue Chew as a brand new spree. sponsor on Insight. And they're hooking you up, guys. Your first month for free. When you use the

promo code, CVV at checkout, you just have to pay $5 for shipping. Yeah, your first month for free. So now you can increase your performance and get that extra confidence in bed with bluechew.com. Blue Chew is a unique online service that delivers the same active ingredients as Viagra, Seyallis, and Lovitra, but in a chewable tablet and in a fraction of the cost. And you can take them Anytime, day or night, really, whenever the mood strikes you. And the process is super simple. You sign up at bluechew.com and then you consult with one of their licensed medical providers. And once you're approved, that's it.

You receive your prescription within a few days. And there's no awkward conversations. There's no waiting around at the pharmacy that's just shipped to your door in discrete packaging, by the way. So the neighbors don't have to know what's going on here. The mailman doesn't have to know what's going on here. But let me tell you, when your package arrives, your package arrives. Mm-hmm. So Blue Chew wants to help you discover your options at Blue Chew.com.

And like I said, they're really hooking you up. Use the promo code. CVV at checkout, and you'll get your first month for free. Just have to pay $5 for shipping. Yeah, your first month for free at Bluechew.com. Use that promo code. CVV. Big thank you to Blue Choo for being on board.

And don't forget to use that promo code CVV for your first month for free. Guys, free. Just pay $5 for shipping. I think we look back now on that segment with DX making fun of the nation of domination in a really different way. Yeah. Was there any trepidation at that time when that segment was being pitched? No.

And, you know, there have been a lot of stories out there. I can tell you that none of us had a many big, concern about it. In retrospect, we could have done that segment without the black face. And, you know, I wish we had of. And it would have been the same.

It would have been just as good. Obviously, I wish we had to change that. We didn't. You know, looking back on in 2022 eyes, not a fan of it. But in 1997, 98 eyes, it was a way of getting these two factions to war.

because we knew that both of our factions were, I use the term, over enough or connected with the fans enough, that we could, you know, go out there and draw money and fill some houses with it and put up some ratings on TV. And then we look at the individual matchups that we could have, you know, and that's what piqued our curiosity. I think people look past the obvious elephant in the room. I think that even if it was just a few years later

when WW re became a public company, that segment would have not even been brought up. You couldn't pitch that idea three years later. Yeah. You couldn't even, you'd get laughed out of a building. You pitched that idea three years later. That's what you said about,

the segment would have been the exact same without blackface. It's so true. It is so absolutely true. If there was never any blackface, you would have never known a difference and it would have been just as entertaining. I mean, that whole segment was DX entertaining everybody. And they could have done that easily,

just, you know, without the blackface. Yeah, and like, I don't, you definitely could not do that now at all. But you brought up off camera and it's so interesting, like Robert Downey Jr. Mm-hmm. In Tropic Thunder. Yeah. Which in the context of the film makes a lot of sense.

Yeah, because he's a, he's an actor playing a role. Uh-huh. And the actor in the role he's playing is of an actor who's playing another role. I'm a dude playing a dude. Who's playing a dude. Yeah. And it's very, it's convoluted. And, and that was 2008. Yeah. Nominated for an Oscar the next year, which, look, that was an incredible performance.

It was a great, I mean, also, I remember that when he finally, you know, you saw his blue eyes for the first time, was like, holy hell. Yeah. Holy hell. It's really him under there. Yeah. But, I mean, obviously that character couldn't have existed without blackface. So. Yeah. Well, I mean, I guess the idea that. There was his, he dyed his pigment of his skin.

He died pigment of his skin and done something to his hair. So he was, he wasn't blackface. He was actually dark skin. Yeah. I don't know. It's, you know what? I'm glad I don't have to worry about pitching that creatively to anybody. Yeah.

And I'm sure people bring that nation thing up to you all the time. Oh, yeah. I get it all the time. I get people looking at it with 22 and two eyes going, were you mad? Were you angry? Well, today I am. but in 98 97 98 I'm not I wasn't I was like I said we're just trying to create a good

segment is it also because of the speed of which you know television wrestling works like you're creating those segments writing the show each week and then you're probably not getting the script till what day before day of you if you were lucky back then you know some guys would get it two or three days ahead of time some guys would get it day of some guys would get it you know as they're walking to the ring. Yeah. So it was a different time. Thankfully, we don't live in that time anymore,

and I'm glad we're here today. Yeah. But, you know, once again, I wish we can go back in retro book it and do it a different way. When I tweeted out that I was going to have you in the studio here, people were pumped. Of course, everybody wants to ask you about the head shaking.

I am genuinely curious. If you have any residual effects from you? None whatsoever. None whatsoever. You don't have to like see a chiropractor every few days? No, no. I just, it was something that came natural. I don't. Can you still shake it like that? Well, that's not quite it. Well, I got the headphones on my. You can take him off for a moment. No, man, you got to pay for that. HBO help brother out. I'm genuinely like surprised that you're not like, yeah, man, my neck. No, no, no residual effects at all. I only pulled my neck one time. I'm, I'm genuinely surprised that you're not like, yeah, man, my neck. I only pulled my neck one time. doing it.

We had done a show, I forget, somewhere near New York City, and we were flying to Germany the next day. So we did our show and then hopped on a, you know, a flight to Germany. I remember sitting on the plane all night long. And then we landed and went right to the arena to go do a show. And I remember walking in, boom, and I was like, oh, that hurt. That hurt. Because I had slept in my neck all night long.

So I was like, that hurt. And that's the only time I've ever had an issue with it. The thing that I love about the head shake, and I had Godfather in here recently, and the thing I love about that, like, there was something about the attitude era where you were over before you even stepped foot into the ring. You were over from your entrance, or you were over from your gear. I don't know if that still exists in the same way now. No, I don't think so. I mean, times are different, but there's an air of connectivity.

and fans got invested in certain characters. I mean, we all know how we felt when we heard the glass crack. Sure. Or the gong. Or the if you smell. Adam Schaefters texting me right now. Who's this? Let me see now.

Hold on. Oh, my gosh. I don't know. Okay. Oh, okay. But, you know, there's certain... We saw that luck.

You know, certain musics that connect you to people. Yeah. And I think music's important. I think music's the... the staple of your entrance. You're looking at the wheel deal now. Iconic, you know, that record scratch of mine, people loved it. And the minute you walked out, they let you know how they felt,

whether they liked you or not, you knew instantly, you know, 18 and 20,000 people were going to let you know how they felt about you. Jim Johnson, Jim Johnson is the master. Genius, genius, genius, genius. The master at that hit, that first hit of a song, the glass shattering, the gong, the record scratch. We can go on and on. on. There's so many of them. His concept was, you should know who's coming to the ring within

two seconds up here in the beginning of their music. So what was your reaction the first time you heard your theme song? I flipped out. Um, he and I, what was originally, that song, that track was for Mark Henry myself. There was an original version was tag team. It was a tag team version. And so I remember sitting in the studio and, you know, that's me laughing on you to ha ha ha ha ha. It's because like he would get sound bites from you. He would get little things from you and then it's like watching, I would assume it's like watching Picasso work. Okay? Because he would just sit in there and go, laugh for me.

Hit a button. Just go woo for me. Hit a button. And then he'd be like, oh, hold on a second. Sit there, sit there and go, what do you think about this? And he would give you a rough idea. And if you gave me the okay, be like, okay, I've got some artist down in New York. let's see if I can get a run of this and get a working copy of this.

And I'll be back with you in about a week. And then a week later, he came back with, you know, dangerous door. And I was like, wow. Oh, man. I was like, I can't believe that's my music. Are there still things from WWE that you get residuals for still now? Yeah, to the day I die. Which is why video games?

Video games. No more anything like DV, stuff like, at video games is mostly a thing. Those playing cards, action figures, that kind of stuff. Music, like plays on Spotify or something? No, no. I assume that's all Jim Jocelyn. You lucky bastard you.

Oh, yeah, he was telling, I had him on the show. Lucky bastard. So it's a little bit of mailbox money, they call it in the entertainment industry. Mailbox money that, you know, recorder comes in, you go, oh, okay, cool. What do you think is? the biggest difference from the era of wrestling we're in right now versus the 90s when you were coming up. Wow.

I mean, if you compare, I would say this, the free agent era compared to the attitude era where it was the Wild West. You can get away at a lot of stuff. Whereas today it's, it's the art of the free agent. It's the 90-day generation. It's, it's, it's the fans know everything. And the fans are, they know 90-day clauses before, people in offices do.

I mean, they've already, when they hear X's got released, they've already calculated the 90-D-down and go, he can be available for these 10 shows. Yeah. So that to me is, it feels like today feels a little more of like, go back before attitude and go to the territory era. Because it feels like there's a bunch of, a bunch of territories out there now as opposed to one or two giant companies.

And I feel like this is with great respect. for Impact Wrestling, I've been a fan forever. Impact wrestling is back on the rise. Yes. What do you think you can attribute that to? Just consistency in storytelling, finding unutilized talent, like, I'll give an example, Deanna Parazzo,

and giving her the opportunity to go out there and show. Finding talent and them working above. Look at how Moses changed himself from his Ring of Honor Day is till now. He's a completely different individual, completely different wrestling talent. That want to in our locker room is the difference between us and any other company. And I'm not ashamed to say that. I mean, our locker room wants to be the best.

Our knockouts division believes and knows they're the best women's division in all of wrestling. And they believe it in their core. It's not just some talking point. They believe it. There's no question. And to me, without a doubt. Yeah. So that's the thing that separates impact wrestling or and gives us, I think, our edge is creative

storylines, consistent wrestling in the ring, and just compelling talent. Yeah, I just feel like, unfortunately, you guys had to clean up somebody else's mess. Yeah, well, you know, it's a story of life, isn't it? I guess. When you date somebody, you're actually paying for the sins of the person that you're with and their ex. So you pay for that for a little bit. So it's, it's, it's what you do.

And you guys are now being able to reap the rewards of being able to perform in front of an audience. Yes. And I think that people are going, oh, man, like, this is some really high quality wrestling. I have said this, and I say this with no disrespect, but if you're sleeping on impact wrestling, that's a you problem, not a me problem. I think there's been a lot of people that may be lapsed on impact wrestling. I will tell you, if you give impact three shows, three weeks, three weeks, you'll be back for the fourth and you'll stay with us.

I think our TV is done in a way where it draws you in. It doesn't insult the intelligence of the viewer, and it pays homage to what wrestling is supposed to be. Is there a plan to start touring with the show again? That's always the million-dollar question. And look, I know it takes a lot of resources and the biggest resource being money today. That's the only resource you need.

Well, you'd also got to drive the trucks around. Well, but it all starts with money. You got to pay you guys to drive those trucks. Yeah. But there was a point where Impact Wrestling was live. Yes. Every week on TV. Yeah.

And you can only hope that that's our ultimate end goal. You can only hope that that's where, as we grow, that's where our success will take us. As of right now, I'm just happy putting out a quality product that, that you can see on YouTube television if you're a YouTube. Oh, please put it out there for everybody. Access on X-TV. Where and when? Put it all out there.

Thursday night, 8 p.m. access television. Come check us out. You can get us on YouTube. You can get a YouTube insider. You can get all our programming. I think it's $3.9.9 a month. You can get the entire Impact Wrestling library. So we're out there.

The old catchphrase is, if you have the Internet, you can watch Impact Wrestling. You guys have a substantial amount of subscribers. YouTube too. I mean, a lot of people, a lot of people consume our content through YouTube. Yeah, think 4.3 million subscribers on YouTube. Yeah. Woo. Yeah, no. So, I mean, we're putting out content and, you know, that number speaks to the volume of fans who are entertained about what we're doing. If they weren't entertained, they wouldn't be there. Are we going to see you back in the ring ever? Hell no. Hell no. Oh, it's quick. No, no, no, bro. I've had my moment in the sun. I'm good. For sure, because we all know how

wrestling, resigns. Once again, never say never. But look, I've had my moment of sun. I get so much more

joy now out of working with a talent and then sitting back and watching them go out there and perform and be the best version of them. To me,

that's just as exciting and as being in there myself, but I don't know how to get hurt. How long do you think it's going to be until we see the nation in the WWB Hall of Fame? Oh,

I don't know. I don't know. I mean. Or is it, The Rock goes in first and then the nation goes in. Well, I mean, it would be a great honor if it happens. I don't know if it will. Really?

I have no clue. I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't think I've done enough in the business to warrant a Hall of Fame induction. I mean, just my opinion. Now, when you say in the business, does it, is that just WWE? I mean, that's, that's their Hall of Fame.

Yeah. But I think there's also, like what have you done? You got an amazing career and impact after. that. I mean, I'm, I'm, I've spent more time in Impact Wrestling than I ever did in WW. I spent twice as long in Impact Wrestling. Wow. Yeah, people don't, people don't think about that. I knew it was longer. I didn't know it was twice as long. How many years versus how many years? Uh, let's see. I came to impact the originally in 2003, spent two years here, came back again from 08 to 13. So there's seven years and I was in WWE 5. Oh, no,

done. Double. Yeah. And then now, but. And then, add on this run here, another, it's cut right at double. So we're talking at 12 years compared to six years. Yeah. And I, you were part of a faction that had a lot of people talking. Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm very fortunate. I've been, I've been in, someone said to me out there, like, you're always in a group that's over. And I'm like, I'm just lucky to be around. Yeah, it's like, you and Xbox are always in a group that's over. I don't know what it is. I don't, I never ask why. If you ask why, the answer you get may end it. But, you know, I've enjoyed my time in the nation, Ace and Eighths, the gangsters, ROD in Japan.

If you don't know, we were Bullet Club before Bullet Club. Google it. And so I got, I got, I'm very fortunate where I've been in my career. Someone called me the other day, they called me the Forest Gunper Wrestling. Because no matter what, I'm always around somebody like, You could, every one of the dark side of the rings, you could go ask Delo for a comment because he knew that person. That's so true. Yeah.

When I heard it, I was like, don't in, that's not an insult. That's pretty much compliment. Seriously. Yeah. You probably have, I could name literally any wrestler. I've been in the ring with him or I've, yeah. And you've got a story about them. I've got a story about him.

The Undertaker. Oh, hell. Best Domino player ever seen. It's about him and him in the finals of Domino tournament. Man. Wow. Oh, I'm not going to name a bunch of people, but I certainly could. Yeah, no, when I heard it, I was insulted.

Then when I think about being called the forest gump of wrestling is not a bad spot. That should be a T-shirt, I feel like. Hey, if someone copyrights or someone puts it out there, I break a brother off royalties. I think you better recognize. You better recognize. Hmm. Yeah, there it is. What do you think is on the horizon for impact as we look forward to the rest of 2022?

I think just, once again, more compelling storylines. and a way of keeping a buzz and keeping the industry talking about this small little engine that could that keeps on going. This episode may come out after this weekend, but we'll talk as if it hadn't. There's a lot of 90s days up. So I feel like people could pop up. And here's the beauty of wrestling. Surprises are part of it.

Yeah. I hate spoilers. I'm one of those who I won't be watching TV and go, holy hell. Yeah. Like I don't want to read so-and-so signs with impact and then going,

okay, well, now when, it's not the anticipation and not the surprise of when they're going to, if they're going to debut or who was debuting, but when they're going to debut. And it's a different kind of feeling. So I like it. There's so much unknown out there right now.

I like it. There's so much transition from place to place and talent going moving around. I like it because it's causing an excitement buzz about the industry again, and I love it. Who do you think's been the biggest surprise in Impact Wrestling? Biggest surprise debut in your time there. The Good Brothers was a good one because no one thought that, you know,

that was a high-end, high-end tag team, and everyone assumed they would go somewhere else. Seeing Eric Young walk back out there, seeing Christian come out and challenge for the, you know, and become walk back at us at the Impact World Champion, You know, seeing, I mean, golly, seeing Frank Kazarian come back to the door. I mean, to say, to honestly, to put the highlight on one is to undersell the rest of them. It's true.

Because we've done a really good job at surprising people and keeping it underwrap. So, I mean, hell, even Kenny King coming out and joining the Honor No More band, those sons of guns, was a big debut. So, I mean, I just, I like what we're doing. Can I still call it TNA? Or is that? No, that's. People still do. I know.

It's brand confusion. But it's impact wrestling. TNA is, TNA is part of our past and we don't run from it or hide from it. In 2011, it was very confusing when they were like, we're called TNA, but it's actually impact wrestling. And our show is called TNA impact wrestling. And I was like, yeah, it was, it was brand confusion.

Pardon me? Yeah, there was not a concise view on the, the marketing of the company. It's impact all caps. Yeah. Impact, all caps. Even when I send my text, I'll be like, yeah, I'm ready to talk. Capitals. Impact.

Yes. Even when I send my text, I send it all in capital. All in capitals. You were such a delight to hang out with. Oh, bro. Thank you, man. You can say the same about you. I just appreciate you coming by.

You're a good-looking dude, man. Come on. Two good-looking dudes right here. That's what this is. Man. I end every conversation with the same question. Because I'm all about gratitude. I wake up every morning.

and I say out loud three things that I'm grateful for. And I end every day the same way. So what are three things in your life that you're grateful for? I'm grateful for my family. I'm grateful for the opportunities that were given to me. And I'm grateful somehow I found this crazy world of professional wrestling. Because it's give me a life. Everything else I'm grateful for, it's given me a life and take care of all that.

So I am grateful for every aspect of wrestling from the companies I've worked, with to the fans, to the guys I've been in the ring with. I'm grateful that every morning I wake up and I go, I'm happy to go to work. I love that. Delo. Thank you so much. My man. 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. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley.

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