Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Eric Young On Confronting Vince McMahon, Leaving WWE For TNA, Bray Wyatt, SAnitY

Episode Date: October 3, 2024

Eric Young (@TheEricYoung) is a professional wrestler currently signed to TNA Wrestling. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood to discuss his time in TNA and winning the World Championship twice, trying out for WWE early in his career and not getting signed, being part of Team Canada, his role as a comedy wrestler, signing with WWE and his work in Sanity, getting called up without the rest of the group and what went wrong on the main roster, returning to WWE for a second time and nearly being aligned with Bray Wyatt, why he thinks he will retire in TNA, a scary incident where it looked like he might lose his ear and more! Quote I'm thinking about: "People quit when things get hard because the thought of something being hard forever is unbearable. But nothing hard last forever. You either quit, it gets easier or you get harder. No matter what, it always ends. But you only lose when you quit before you see it through." - Alex Hormozi Complete this survey for your chance to win $500: https://bluewirepods.com/survey Sponsors: VUORI: Get 20% off your first purchase! Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet at https://vuori.com/cvv MANSCAPED: Get 20% off plus free shipping when you use the code CHRISVAN at http://manscaped.com HELLO FRESH: Get free breakfast for life at http://hellofresh.com/freeinsight ZOCDOC: Instantly book a top-rated doctor today at http://zocdoc.com/insight BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv MAREK HEALTH: Get a 10% discount on Marek Health's Optimization Package with code CVV: https://marekhealth.com/cvv BLUECHEW: Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank which was designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/ PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at http://plunge.com For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you have ever enjoyed any of these episodes, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast or Spotify? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oh yeah, welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CBV, Chris Van Fleet, and there's a lot of wrestling podcasts out there. So thank you for choosing to spend some time with us here right now on this one. And thank you for making Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. If you haven't yet, slap a sharpshooter on that follow button on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening right now. Man, I love Eric Young. And it was so great having them in the studio to catch up.

We go way back, way back to when I checked out his wrestling school called Russellplex, Ontario in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, back when I was still in university. I think we're going back to 2003 with that one. And when you think about TNA, Eric's one of those guys who was there for all of it. And he did all of it. 2004 to 2016 and then he was there again, 2020 to 2022. And then returned again last year. He lives and breathes and eats and sleeps TNA.

And he pointed it out during this conversation, but I never really thought of it this way. He was a comedy act for so many years of his career that it really preserved his body, not taking bumps for, it was like nine years, I think it was. And that's why he's able to go. Like he still can go at 45, or 45, almost 45 years old.

Love Eric Young. I love seeing all the success that he's had in TNA and also the success that he had with sanity and WWE. And he's got a new show that he's hosting on Access TV called Vinyl Obsession, where he talks to celebrities and musicians about their love of vinyl. It debuts October 6th.

So this is the perfect time to have him back on to talk a little rassling and talk a little music as well. Snap a screenshot and let us know that you're listening. and tag us. He's at the Eric Young on Twitter. He's at the Eric Young IG on Instagram. I'm at Chris Van Vleet and all right. Here we go. Enjoy this one with my friend, Eric Young. So I was going through my emails yesterday. I was trying to find the email that I sent you in 2003 when I was coming to your wrestling school. Right? I wanted to train as a pro wrestler and I sent you an email. You were like half an hour from where I went to college. I was at Wolf

from Laurier University in Waterloo. You were in Cambridge. Yep. And I came and I checked it out. Do you remember that day? I mean, I do remember meeting you and I remember meeting you at the school. But pass out. I don't remember many details.

That one day that I came. Yep. I was watching, just, you know, on the sidelines, just kind of watched this. The guy broke his arm. Oh, man. Like of all the days that I were to go to your wrestling school. Good introduction. Yeah.

Oh, this is what I was like. And then I never ended up attending your wrestling school. And you probably thought, oh, it's because that guy broke his arm. Wow. I remember both things, but I didn't have any idea. It was on the same day. Yeah.

I mean, traumatizing. And it was, it didn't kind of break. It was. Oh, it was hanging there like this. It was gross. I don't remember what the move was. I don't know if you remember that. They were doing, I believe it was headlock takeovers.

And he kept reaching across the guy and putting his arm down. And just before he did it, I said, stop putting your arm over there. I remember that. Stop doing that because the guy's going to fall on your arm and break your arm. Yeah. Sure enough. I remember that. So the rule of stories, listen to what I say.

And then, like, it was like 20 minutes into the practice. Yep, yep. And you're like, well, I guess I'm taking on the hospital. So sorry, man, we'll be in touch. I was a child at that point. I'm young. But I was, like, taking care of these kids that were younger than me. So, like, I felt obligated to take this poor guy to the hospital.

So he ended up doing fine. I think you retrained somewhere else and started wrestling independence and stuff. So needless to say, I did not find that email because it was in my university. an email account, which obviously I have no access to anymore, but I was like, I wish I could have read you this email and found this. I also thought it was crazy that you would have been like 22

at the time. Younger than that. Yeah, I would have been 20 or 21. With a wrestling school. Yeah. Which is I mean, probably not great. I think the wrestling school at that time was more for a place for me to stay sharp. I was kind of cutting down

my independent dates. I was kind of only doing independent shows that were good. Right. opportunity to wrestle somebody that was better than me or just as good as me or whatever it was. So it was more of like a risk and reward. Like I didn't want to work a show in front of 25 people wrestling a guy that was untrained and get hurt because I was right on the cusp of like signing a deal. Or at least I thought I was, you know, and it was a great way for me to be in a ring three times a week.

I ended up, I mean, having really good success there. Yeah. Surround like guys that I'm still best friends with today, Crazy Steve, Sean Spears, Jake O'Reilly, like, these are some of my best friends still today in the world. So I got very lucky. I mean, person to person, we had a really good success rate coming out of that wrestling school.

So apparently, I kind of knew what I was doing. What a different scene, though, that was going on in the Ontario wrestling scene at that point versus now. Yeah. Yeah, a real hotbed. Yeah. I don't know.

There's something in the water in Canada. Seriously. We just make really good professional wrestlers. And, yeah, like, I mean, you know, you know, Ronnie, Sean Spears tied up. Ellinger, whatever of his aliases you want to call him. And he was one of those guys that was, he was better than me the first day he was there. You know, like he just, you could show him something and he could do it almost instantly.

And, you know, full circle, like, fast forward. We end up wrestling each other in NXT. He worked in the WWE before I did. It would, you know, it's like he's my son, my pro wrestling son. And he did it. And he did it faster than I did. And he's one of the best guys ever and crazy talented. Did you see a path to get there in the early 2000s as a Canadian?

wanting to do it at the highest level in the U.S.? Yeah, well, it's hard. Yeah. We've chatted about this on the way over here today. It's American people or American wrestlers or people in entertainment in general don't understand the extra added level of difficulty because coming here and working here without a visa or without being married or without, you know, something is illegal. Completely illegal.

Yeah. So it makes it so much more difficult than anyone realizes like me and Bobby Rood. were very close to being hired by the WWE, probably around 2001. We had done, who knows, 20, 25 dark matches and try out things. And they were interested, but it came down to, they were going to hire us. And we came up in a meeting and they're like, oh, well, they're Canadian. And they're like, oh, well, who else could we? I don't know who the two other guys that they hired were.

But it was basically us, but because we were Canadian, they didn't end up signing us. So, yeah, it just adds this really, really difficult layer that most people aren't aware of. But did it even seem possible to try to, to, chase after that? Well, I, you know, my mom and my dad were both very stubborn people, and I come by that very, very honestly. And there was nothing else for me, you know, and I, I think it could have backfired and been terrible in life, you know, like I put every one of my eggs in the pro wrestling basket. There was nothing else. I didn't go to school. I had no education. I had a terrible job. I had no other tangible skills to do anything else.

Everything in my life from the age of 15 or 16, basically, was designed and chosen so I could become a professional wrestler. And to me, that meant signing a contract so I could tell people, this is my job. It had nothing to do with being on TV. It really had nothing to do with even making money, which is stupidity. It was just about signing a contract to say, this is my job. This is what I do for a living. I don't have another thing that I do.

This is how I feed myself and this is how I clothe myself and have a home for myself. It didn't matter what level that was as long as I could. That was the ultimate goal. And I did that in 2004. But it didn't really seem obtainable. To be honest, at any one point, even when I got close, it was like maybe this is as close as I ever going to get. But when you're seeing people like Edging Christian and Valvinus and Test and all of these other Canadians' from our area doing this.

You know what's possible. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, I mean, there's this weird brotherhood. Like I can remember, you know, being very good friends with Jay and Adam both and not knowing, you know, Jericho or Lance or any of the other Canadians. But those guys would like kind of look after you when you were there because they knew I was Canadian. So they're aware of the difficulty. They're aware of how good I must be to be in that position, how hard I've worked to be in that position.

So they would always kind of check in with you during the day. make sure no one was messing with you or whatever because it was, I mean, a different era at that point, you know, like, don't look Steiner in the eyes. You know, he's crazy. That was a thing. Oh, it was a thing. Yeah. I mean, you would hear. And, you know, fast forward 15 minutes, 15 years later, I'm very close with Scott Steiner. I'm buddies with him. He's doing jobs as a supererick on house shows and we're having the best time of our life. So it's, it's wild. But those guys, I mean, I'll never forget that. You know, like Chris Jericho, even Benoit at the time, you know, which is another topic in itself. But he was. a guy that looked after me, looked after Bobby and looked after the Canadian guys because there's this weird kind of unspoken bond there because they understand how difficult it is. But if you were so close to getting him with WWE, WCW didn't exist at that time. It's gone. TNA wasn't what it was. It was like, I guess, very early.

Maybe it didn't even, it didn't exist in 01, but 02. It's starting to become a thing. It was the paper views, the weekly paper views. If you're not in with WWE and they're not giving you a chance is like, this isn't going to happen? This isn't going to happen. I mean, and the truth was is even TNA in 2003 didn't even really see it. I mean, I didn't know what anyone was making, but I didn't think that it would be a place where I could work and make a living full time. You know, they're doing the weekly pay-per-views, you know, Wednesday nights.

I think the pay-per-view cost $9.99. I remember. Yeah. Like, Shamrock and all these other people, like that there's no money left there for me or for guys like me. But then started getting kind of, you know, went down and met some people there. and then got booked on one of the paper views and did like a tryout match. And so there was interest in both places at the same time. And I was just trying to keep as many of my options open as I could because I wanted to do it full time for living.

But then how do you work in the U.S.? Back to what we were talking about. Yeah, I mean, it's a wild story. And I don't know if I've ever said this in an interview, to be honest. So I'm going to Nashville and I'm doing independent shows. And I had been backstage at TNA a couple times. And then I got booked on one of the shows and it was like a six-man 10. and I can't remember who it was.

I want to say it was, it was, they're getting ready to do the World X Cup, but I wasn't on Team Canada. Team Canada hadn't been formed yet. And it was me, Elyx-Skipper, and Shark Boy were Team USA,

which is hilarious, wrestling against, I want to say it was Hector Garza, a basimo Negro, and heavy metal, the, from Team Mexico.

But I'm really bad of remembering those things, but I think That's what it was. So the first time I appeared, I was on Team USA. That's hilarious. The very first time I ever appeared. And just kind of as a throwaway thing.

But I had met one of the girls. They had like cage dancers. If you remember that, they had like girls and bikinis dancing in between the matches. And sometimes during the entrances, I met her and we became friends and started hanging out and kind of dating. And, you know, that went on for a couple months.

And, you know, wrestling for the WWE and trying to get across the border, sneaking across the border, basically illegally, and I don't even know if I can get trouble for saying that now, but either way. I'm sure the statute of limitations are gone. But this is one of those things where you cross the board and they go, what are you going here for? And you're like, I'm going to see some friends. And you're hoping they don't check your trunk and so you have gear in your suitcase. Yeah, what are these spanned expanse for? I'm like, me and my friends are in some weird stuff.

But yeah, so we met each other. And it started as a joke where she was like, well, why don't you just marry me and you can live here at my place. And then you're here. And, you know, you don't give them an option to not book you. You are not using. A green card marriage. Yeah. Yeah. So that's, that happened. Wow. I'm living in Cambridge. I own a house and me and another guy are the co-owners of this house. I have a good job. I'm running a wrestling school, pretty successful wrestling school. And I walk to Scotia Bank. And they say there has to be a transaction. My buddy gives me a loony. He's fine the paperwork. He buys the house. My portion of the house from me for a dollar. I leave my couch, my bed, my dressers, my TVs. I leave all everything. I own, pack my clothes and my wrestling stuff, drive across the board, sneak across the border. My aunt drives my car and I sneak across in my mom's car. I get in my car, drive down to Nashville. My mom flies down a couple days later. We go to the courtroom during my soon-to-be wife's lunch break or work. We get married. And now I have a, basically, a green card. And I'm living there and living

with her. And then like basically three weeks after that, I signed my first deal with TNA wrestling. It was for four shows for the World X Cup. But from that day until now, I've never been unemployed. Man, that's wild. Yeah. So it's definitely like we talked about it. You said, well, I'm just going to move to L.A. Yeah.

You know, and for me, it was moving to Nashville and making it harder for them to say no. You know, and I did took on all that risk and all that financial burden and walked away from everything in my life on the hope. You know, the hope. And if I don't think I would have regretted it. even if it didn't work out, I can always go back. My thing was I could always go to college. I could always get another job. I can always get another house.

But that kind of an opportunity may not come along again, and I'm not going to miss it. What was the general feeling about TNA early on? That it wasn't going to survive. You know, I can remember thinking that when I was, you know, 21, 22 years old. Like, it's just not financially because you're just doing the pay-per-views at this point. Yeah. And there's like big name guys on there that are not cheap, right? Like, you know, they're are big ticket guys that are making probably very good money.

And they're not going to appear on it unless they're making good money. Yeah. Because those are the rules. So it's not like they're, oh, Jeff's a friend of mine. So I'm doing him a favor. There was a lot of money being spent and not enough money coming in. And then they get the deal with Dixie Carter coming in and taking it over, basically, as the CEO. And then the Fox Sports.

thing starts to happen. So now we're shooting paper views on Wednesday nights in Nashville, and then we're out all night. It's, you know, it's five. We've got to go to the airport, get in a car, somehow get to the airport, fly on a southwest flight. There'd be 40 of us on the plane, fly to Orlando land, take a bus to Universal Studios and shoot the Fox Sports show there in Orlando. And at the time, there was very little wrestling in and in Florida or in Orlando. So I can remember the team Canada versus Sanjay Dutt,

Chris Saban. And it might have been Shark Boy. It was me, Bobby, and Petey in a sick man tag. And Sanjay Dutt gave me like a hip toss. And I took a bump and the place just came unglued. For a hip toss. For a hip toss. And I remember looking at Bobby Rood after the match and saying,

man, I hope we can do all the shows here. And we got what we wish for. And then, you know, you're taking bums on ladders eight years later and there's 45 people there and nobody cares. Well, isn't that the thing about the impact zone where it was the same fans coming every week? Yes. And it was like, show us something new. Yes. Like we've seen this before.

At first, it's amazing. Because these people are so plugged into who we are, what the story is, what the product is. It's the same people. Because they're super fans. They're super fans. Right. Only super fans are at this weird soundstage and standing outside and 100 degree weather for five hours waiting to come in. but yeah it was it was amazing when we first started there amazing and the crowds were amazing

to them like we started doing these weird like oh we'll do two back to back because we can save money by not flying people back and forth all the time well that made sense yeah and then you know there's different there's times like i can remember spending eight or nine days there in a row you know living out of a sleep in and wrestling in front of 145 people and like it was it was wild you know wild. And like you saw, you know, the highest of highs there, the lowest of lows. But that was a very exciting time in my life, in my career, because I'd finally signed a contract. I'm doing it full time. I'm working independently all over the United States because TNA was becoming a real, in no way were we competing with the WWE, but it was becoming a very valid option.

Oh, it was a viable number too. Yeah. Especially with WCW and ECW not existing anymore. It's like if you want to watch something else, well, here it is. Yeah. And I think, They did a really good job of making it completely different, trying not to do what they were doing. Because competing with them is stupidity as, as, you know, Ted Turner found out. You know, it's, you just, there is no competing with them where they were the New York Yankees and we were the Mississippi Mudhens. And that's okay. We're still playing the same sports. Still still the same thing.

Still the same risks. Still the same rewards. And then over time it built into this, you know, very legitimate alternative. Do you remember the first time you saw the six-sided ring? Yeah. Like, I don't remember the day. but I remember seeing it. I remember being really excited about it

because for me, at that point, TNA was growing and we had our hardcore fans, and those people were watching the shows regardless, right? No matter what, we're getting the same numbers every week because diehard wrestling fans, die hard TNA people, they're watching how a company like this gets to grow is by getting casual people,

getting people that only watch the WWE and only know about the WB to watch this other pro wrestling thing. and if you're flipping channels and you see this six-sided ring, for an average person, they see a four-sided ring, they just think it's the WWE, but the ring looks different, right? It's just pro-wrestling at that point was a monopoly. It was owned completely by the WWE.

So any wrestling on TV was WWE or WWF. So I think having the six-sided ring, visually, instantly, you know it's something else. And it just your whole life, it's been four sides. And I know in Mexico they had done six sides, and I think that's kind of where they adopted the idea from. But the six sides was very compelling visually, I thought. The bump was interesting.

Kevin Nash has one of the coolest stories ever. We're doing media. I think me and him are tagging together, which is wild, right? Like I grew idolizing this guy. He's the coolest. We're still buddies to this day. And we're on like some country radio show. And, oh, you know, we got a house show tonight in Columbia, North Carolina,

come on down, whatever. and like, what's it like wrestling inside this six-sided ring? And he said, well, to be honest, there's just a couple more corners for me to put guys in and give him elbows. And I mean, to this, I can see it in my mind's eye

and I hear his voice. And he meant it. I mean, it's just a beautiful thing. He was such a smart guy. Got it. Was hilarious. Has always been amazing to me and taking very good care of me

and been a very good friend to me, which is kind of surreal, you know, kind of surreal. But I'll never forget that quote. Were bumps harder in this excited room? If you got away from the middle, it could be just because of how it was constructed. The ropes was like running into the wall because they're short. Yeah.

They're cable. They're airplane cable that are tightened with turnbuckles. And now they're not 18 feet long. They're six feet. So running into it was like running into the wall. You know, and you get used to it like anything. Some guys really hated it. I never really bothered me.

And part of that I think is a lot of the sixth side of time was I'm doing the comedy stuff. So I'm on vacation. I've had, I have nine years of my career where I barely took a bump at all, barely had matches. You know, most of the time I would appear on the show, and it wasn't to wrestle. It was to do something else. Yeah. So, I mean, obviously a very fond time for me and very memorable time for me, but very strange to be making a living as a pro wrestler, but not really wrestling at all. Do you know if when they rebranded the TNA earlier this year, if there was ever talk of bringing back the Sixth Outer Ring?

For sure there is, but they don't. I'm sure they exist somewhere. But then there's this whole other thing cost to now you have to have a truck. And this truck has to drive all over the United States hauling this six-sided ring. When we go to towns, we're using rings that are in and around the area. And then they dress it up to make it look like the TNA ring. The TNA ring looks like the TNR ring. The ring is never the same ring.

It's a different ring in every city that we're in. So there's this whole other cost of having this because the six-sided. The only place that had it was TNA. And they had that point, it was big enough where they had a truck, a ring truck. And it drove from city to city to city to where we went. So we would have the truck, or we'd have the six-sided ring. But I don't think that's viable for where TNA is now. And the truth is, is, I don't know if the six-sided rings even exist.

And so I'd have to have them build. They've got to be somewhere. They've got to be somewhere. Yeah. I mean, the metal, the metal of anyways is somewhere. Yeah. I'm sure. It would be an interesting deep dive for somebody to find out.

How did the comedy stuff even come to be? So I think we're doing Team Canada. Team Canada is about to break up. You know, Scott DeMore, me, Bobby Rood, P.D. Williams, A1, and Johnny Devine at that time. But they've decided it's kind of ran its course, you know, and we're going to split up. And Dutch Mantel is kind of one of the head creative guys there. And I've got a pretty good relationship with him. And he's like, I had this idea that I did with Savio Vega, where he gets really paranoid.

and he's, the thing in Puerto Rico was where he got addicted to, like taking medication and the medication made him nuts. So, like, well, we can't do that on American television, but we want you to be, you're paranoid about it getting fired. You think that this is the end of the road for you. I'm like, well, how paranoid?

And they're like very, you're very paranoid. So I just went all the way over the top, you know. And they wanted me to be funny and kind of be wild and goofy and like a lovable loser character is what they were looking for. So that's what I did. I just, you know, pyro goes off. If you ever been in an arena when pyro goes off, it's terrifying. Yeah.

It's so loud and it's hot. So that became a thing when we were still using power techniques. Everyone had them for their entrance, you know, and it would go off and I'd fall down and hold my heart on the ramp. And just everything I did, I wanted to convince people that I was worried and I was scared. And like I went almost eight years where I didn't physically lock up with another person. That's initiating contact. Yeah. You know, trying to explain that to guys that are wrestler, wrestlers was not ever fun, but it was important to me.

Like, I couldn't be this person that was paranoid during promos or paranoid during my thing. And then the bell rings and I start power slamming guys, there's a disconnect for me. If I'm scared, I'm scared all the time. When I'm wrestling, when I'm out of the ring, I'm at home, it's a mental condition. It doesn't just go away because the bell rings, right? I didn't want to be a pro wrestler. I didn't want people to view me as a pro wrestler. I wanted them to view me as their friend or as this person they felt sorry for.

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It predated what our truth is doing now and was doing at that time. And I feel like you don't get enough credit for how great you were at that. Yeah, I obviously enjoyed it. What's funny is I'll do seminars now. And I was like I had never done comedy wrestling a single time one day before that, ever. Wow. I got hired by TNA wrestling because I was a good wrestler. Yeah.

Independently, I traveled, you know, all over and wrestled all over and had high profile matches on independent shows and was, you know, world champion in 10 and 12 different companies. And all of a sudden, now I'm this guy that doesn't even wrestle and I'm the funny guy on the show. But, you know, my advice to people now, and I, I'm glad I did it. I just leaned all the way into it. The company that was employing me said, this is who we want you to be. So there's no sense of being resistant to that. I'm going to prove that whatever they want me to do, I can do it. I can do it better than they think I can. So I just leaned all the way in. And the truth is, it's like, Condi has always been a part of wrestling. that that part has always been part of wrestling a comedy actor a comedy spot you know you know back in

the day it was little people or you know sometimes the girls would do funny stuff or you know Adrian Adonis was he was still a wrestler but there was like a comedic part the overtop flamboyancy of who he was so for me um I loved it man I like I just I love doing it and there was no pressure like and they trusted me. They just said, you'll just show up and just say whatever you want and do whatever you want. So, you know, I had free reign to kind of do anything I wanted all the time. So anytime you see me on TV, there's no script. And oftentimes I wouldn't even think about it. I would just be in the moment and just do what I thought a crazy person would do. You had some hilarious moments. Yeah. Like calling Delo Brown, Seelow Green. Oh, yeah. I mean, there's millions and millions of views

on that. Oh, it's so good. That's some of my favorite stuff is that whole Scott Bayo thing. And that happened on just not on accident, but just there was no plan to it. I was doing a thing where I was, I'm terrible with memory, but I was the TV champion. So I'm like, well, in Eric Young's mind, I'm talking to the third person here, but in Eric Young's mind, crazy messed up wild Eric Young, if the TV champion can only defend the TV belt against TV personalities, that's the idea that I had. So we did this thing, Jason Hervey from the Wonder Years is one of the producers. and creative guys have the thing.

And we have a thing where he's doing a, they're doing like a fake interview. And I come in and I like challenge him. And he's like, Eric, what do you do? And I'm like slapping my arms and like circling him and stuff. And he doesn't understand what's going on. And then he turns away and when he turns back to me, I super cap and I cover him and I count myself.

Now I beat Jason Hervey. And I know that him and Scott Baylor are buddies. But just off the top of my head, I look right down the barrel of the camera. I say, your next bail, you punk, like that. Just up. just on a whim.

And Jason Hervey gets up from selling or whatever. And he says, oh, my God, I'll call him right next. Maybe we can do something. And then, like, two weeks later, I'm here in L.A., like running down Radeo drive and my gimmicks with my tasseled pads. And I've got no shirt on. And we go to a golf course and I jump out of this tree in my underwear on Scott Baio and fight them. It was, it was wild. It's some of my favorite stuff.

But the Dilo one was that was on my journey to L.A. and I come into this convenience tour and he's in there and I'm convinced that he's see low green and uh there is a resemblance. I guess there's a resemblance there. But yeah, yeah, Dela was awesome, a great sport about it. And that show, that clip on YouTube has like millions and millions. Well, you roll him up too. Yeah, yeah.

Get a quick, get a quick victory on my way to L.A. It's a warm up. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, roll them up good too. I did class my hands and everything. You did. Yeah, yeah. The whole series of you.

that. Locking up with random people? Yeah, locking up with fans. What's the story behind the hitting yourself first? It's like, you know, like, you'll see people that are like not wrestling fans. They'll see guys do that. Like, from in the 80s, it was a thing that guys did. And I can remember being a kid and being like making up that story in my head. There was some kind of a weird signal.

Like Rick Flair would do it and like, Hern Anderson would do it. All the older guys would do it. And I didn't, when I was a kid, I was convinced it was some kind of a secret signal. him. You know, he's communicating to him in some way. And I don't, I don't know, I still don't know what it's about. But it was funny and it was a way for me. People would do it to me, like during my entrance, I would look and they'd be like, yeah, like slapping their arms. And it's amazing.

Like, I mean, the power of television is whatever you want to be over can be over. You just got to do it. But then sometimes there's things that get over just because they get over. 100%. Yeah, 100%. The perfect example is that is I'm, we're wrestling. This is during Team Canada times. I'm wrestling. and Conan and I think it's our truth. It's me and Bobby Rood. And Conan says, I just did this show in Mexico. And my shoe fell off.

And I threw it at the guy and it got so over. So it's going to be this thing that I do because he wore Air Force Ones when he wrestled. He went to do a front roll and his heel got hooked on the bottom rope and his shoe fell off. And the guy went to the corner and he just picked it up and they're like, throw it, throw it. And he threw it and hit him. So he's like, I'll whip you into the corner. And when you go to the corner, hook your arms and be sound. in the corner. I'll take my shoe off and I'll throw it. I was like, okay, great. Yeah, cool.

And I go to the corner. I have my arms like this. And he, I mean, it's like a plastic brick. Right. He winds up. And I'm like, what if it hits me in my face? It's like, lasting dumb and dumb and dumber line. Like, what if he shot you in the face? But he throws it. He throws it. I've taken it over the top rope before. Like, I go into the ropes and hold the ropes and it throws it. It hits me and I go backwards over the top. Like, I got clotheslined. But yeah, I mean, sometimes the coolest stuff in wrestling happens on a complete accident. Do you remember the person coming to TNA that really moved the needle? Because there was some big ones early on.

Yeah. Christian Cage coming from WWE and then angle a year later. Yeah, I think, I mean, the biggest for me, personal-wise, is Christian. And that's, he came by choice. You know, Kurt had been released. And him coming probably is an even bigger deal numbers-wise and, you know, visually. But I think as a wrestler and as knowing the full story of both sides, Christian turned down a deal there to come, right?

Because he felt he had a lot more to prove in the ring. He wanted to be the guy. And he's one of the best professional wrestlers ever. And I would challenge anybody that wants to argue with me. As a person that's done it at a very high level for a long time, a guy that shared a ring with him, he's just one of the best. He's one of the best minds for it.

And just overall, his body of work is actually incredible. and him betting on himself to come there, making that a thing for other guys. You know, I think partially making that a thing for Kurt and for, you know, later on for Booker T. and Rob Van Dam and these other guys that whether they were under contract or not, they realized when they left the other place,

wherever they were, it wasn't an option for them to continue to be on TV, to keep their name in the wrestling world. So, yeah, to me, Christian is the biggest, because it was by choice, not by necessity. Yeah. So, and that's, that's no slide on Kurt or any of the other guys. Like, I've had to necessarily move to another place, too.

You know, that's, that's just business. But I think, to me, the biggest is Christian because he chose. The Kurt Angle announcement felt like it came out of nowhere. Yeah. Like, it felt like it was a legitimate surprise. He was working for the other company. Yeah. Right.

And then, you know, weeks later, he's in the ring with Joe and head butts Joe's face into another week. And he's bleeding all over place. I mean, literally, like, that just happened on a whim. And if you asked Joe, he didn't know. And I don't think Kurt knew, but Kurt got so wrapped up in the moment that he had bought it him for real. And you couldn't have written that better, right? It made it real, and it made Joe real, and it made TNA real. All in whatever it was an eight-minute promo, or Kirk barely said anything.

Yeah. It was real. He made it legitimate. It's a real, we're not competing, but we're, we're an actual valid choice. If you're a pro wrestling fan, this is a real thing going on. If you look at all of TNA's history,

what do you think was the prime of TNA? Yeah, I want to say it's right in that wheelhouse. You know, probably 2008 to 2012. That's when it's really rolling. We're doing house shows every weekend. We're going to the UK and, you know, doing really good numbers there. It was on, I don't can't remember it,

sky or whatever it was it was on the free channel right so tna in the united kingdom is massive at one point it was out rating the w w w e because w w w is on a pay channel so you had to have like an hbo style channel to watch the w w w p w p and a wrestling fan tn a was available to you for free and on any tv in the united kingdom and will osprey talks about it that's what a j styles and x division that's what made will osprey want to be a wrestler he's a he's a T&A fan. That's what made him want to get into pro wrestling. And at that time, we're doing really good numbers there,

huge houses there. We're wrestling all over North America. You know, house shows Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and live TV is doing well on Spike. It's rating. Actual, you know, big names are coming over. They're in the mix.

There's a bunch of, you know, homegrown talent like AJ and Joe and Bobby. And, you know, I'm in there. I'm not, you know, at that level yet. But I'm, you know, I'm very involved in what's going on. So very exciting time to be part of it. Yeah, the roster was stacked at that point in time. Yeah, loaded, man, loaded.

So how do you go from comedy stuff to then winning the TNA World Heavyweight Championship? Yeah. I mean, for me, like I said, like I was hired there because I was a wrestler. So that's always something that I've been able to do. And I always remember, like, your name coming up early on. Like, you and Tyson Duke specifically were like, these are our guys in Ontario. Yeah. Like, they're going to be doing something somewhere at some one time.

Yeah. I mean, I think I was definitely one of the top guys in and around Ontario. And in Ontario at that point, it's a hotbed. So, like, being one of the top guys there meant something. It meant something in the real wrestling world. And I'm kind of wrestling all over Northman. I'm wrestling in Pennsylvania. And I'm wrestling in Indiana and Michigan.

I'm kind of all over the place, you know, kind of building my brand or whatever you want to call, building my name and building my notoriety throughout, you know, independently. But, yeah, going to TNA and becoming the comedy guy was certainly not how I designed it, you know. and is not what I dreamt up being, you know, as a kid, but it, you know, it allowed me to get this TV show. It allowed me to do all these other things. And then transitioning from that and doing kind of a short heel run and then doing like, who got, front line and doing all these other gimmicks along the way.

Kind of made me once I got to that point where I, and it just kind of happened organically where I'm just kind of a baby face on the show. But I think I'd been there so long and I had so much equity. and been a guy that always kind of stuck by the brand and stuck around. MVP's like the commissioner and we caught this promo and he's talking about, I've been here long enough. I just, I didn't think about what I was going to say.

I just listened to what he said and then I just react how I think somebody that who had been there for 12 years would react. I got mad. You know, like, I've earned this. You know, I'm good enough and I'm going to show the world that I'm, I'm a world-class professional wrestler. And in that moment, like, it just organically happened. I was getting really good reactions on all the shows and had all the tapings.

Nick Aldous is the world champion. They wanted a baby face to take it off of them, and it just kind of happened. You know, it's going to happen. And it's one of the coolest memories of my life. Two months before that, if you would have said, that's what's going to happen. I would have said, probably not. You know, and that's just how crazy it is. How vindicating did it feel?

Oh, for sure. It's vindicating. Yeah, it's, I mean, I have said this before, and I mean, if you're in the professional wrestling business and you don't want to be the world champion, then you're either lying or you're in it for the wrong reasons. And in the end, it's a prop. You know, it's, I didn't win anything. Someone said, we want you to carry it. But with that responsibility, that's the drug of this multimillion dollar company that's airing these shows that millions of people are watching. We're saying, you're the most important piece. And we believe that you can carry in, Trister, or hold the fort while we're

transitioning to something else. That level of responsibility is something that I've always wanted. And I've known, not kind of deep in my heart, I've always been good enough. But actually getting it, being able to have that feather in your cap is very vindicating. I'm skipping ahead here for just a second, but what did that win mean versus winning it more recently for the second time? Well, the first. Like, you never forget your first. sure that's uh and at that point i mean the second one was strange because during covid right so there's there's no fans in in the arena um which is very wild um and at that point like you know i'd done lots of other things and my name was was big and it wasn't a stretch for me to win that world title the

second time i think it was a bit of a stretch the first time i think there was a lot of people that were resistant to it and that's okay i don't i'm not embarrassed by that at all um but yeah the first one was huge and my mom was still alive and she was staying at my house. I didn't even really know I was winning it until I got down to Orlando and I was, I think I was shooting the end or maybe the start of the second season of Off Your Hook. So I flew home and I had the belt in my bag and she didn't know and I got a really cool picture of her holding, you know, sorry man, her being able to hold it. Yeah, it's special. Yeah, very special. Yeah. Wow. You were the guy in TNA for so long. People associated your name

with TNA for so long. Yeah. What went into this, the decision to leave? I think at the time, I kind of had done everything. You know, there wasn't a ton left for me there to accomplish. I'd been the world champion. I'd been tag champion. I've been TV champion, global champion. Knockoutes tag. Knockouts. Never. Me and nobody

the OTP. Never lost those belts. Just so everyone knows. So technically, we're still the champs. Yeah, they took them from us. But yeah, it just, obviously, you know, I'd always wanted to wrestle. in the WWE. That's my dream. And the opportunity came around. And TNA's people were kind enough to let me kind of finish up my deal there and move on to a different opportunity.

And, yeah, I mean, had a meeting with Hunter and it went well. And, you know, the rest is kind of history. So it was like fulfilling a lifelong dream was part of it. Also, it was kind of, I think, time for me to move past that. You know, at the time, TNA was certainly declining. You know, we had moved from kind of network to network to network, and it was getting, you know, it was shrinking. And I knew it was kind of a matter of time before bigger opportunities were just going to kind of go away because of the circumstance that the company found itself in at the time. And obviously, WWE is not going anywhere.

NXT at the time is the hottest brand in pro wrestling. I don't, anyone that says it wasn't watching or wasn't paying attention. It was white hot. And, you know, guys like Shinske and Bob. Bobby Rude and Adam Cole and FTR and like they made it into this viable. It wasn't an option. It was the number one thing driving the WWE. The other shows were obviously bigger and doing bigger numbers,

but the tickets that sold first were takeover. They go into a place, they go into New York on WrestleMania weekend, takeover Saturday night sold before anything else. They were sold out instantly. It was the hottest brand in pro wrestling. And to be part of that was a massive honor for me. And at the head point in my career, very exciting. Well, when you went there in 2016, so did Bobby Root.

Yep. So, now you've got three like born and bred TNA people going over to WWE, which seems like such a shift there. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, it was, I mean, it was the big game in town. For sure, right? They had control of everything. And as they showed, they were doing, you know, the best shows.

And if you were doing this professionally, that's where you wanted to be. That's where the money was. That's where the fame was. That's where the Norgeridey was. And that was the end game. Like that's the top of the mountain. So going there at that time was amazing. And in NXT was like I never wanted to leave.

I loved it. I loved it. I loved the whole thing. Sanity with, you know, Dameau and Wolf and Nikki. Me and Triple H became very close. And I was very hands on in selecting the music and doing the entrance and how we looked. And I was very involved in all of that.

And it was, Sanity was one of the hottest acts on NXT for those two years. So something I'm very, very proud of. But then they do this weird thing that was going on at that time where they bring you up, but just you. Even though sanity's so hot, they just brought you up by yourself. And then it didn't feel like there was much of a plan for you

on the main roster. Well, the plan was it was the three of us and not Nikki. And we didn't like that. She was such an important part of what the group was. Yeah. And the first time you see me, it's me by myself. But that's because our debut was supposed to happen on SmackDown. We were supposed to come out.

Our music was going to hit. We come out of the end of Smackdown. We're going to do this thing with New Day. I'm pumped. They're three amazingly talented guys. They're crazy over. Austin is still a very good buddy of mine. I knew Kofi a little bit and Biggie a little bit.

But just being around them those few couple weeks, they're just good people. And I know it's going to be amazing to work with them. And the sick man tag that was in the ring. I want to say it was Ms. Ms. Joe and someone versus New Day, and it went long. It's live TV, and it went long, and our entrance got cut. And the end of SmackDown is supposed to be us standing at the top of the ramp, and our music playing.

It goes black. That's huge. Yeah. But instead, it's the end of the match. Ding, ding, ding. Smackdown's over. Wow. Because they ran out of time.

And just a victim of circumstance. All this weird stuff happens. Are you standing backstage going, ooh. I'm standing there in my sanity gear, right? We're literally in standing in front of the curtain. Yeah. We're waiting for them to count us down and say, go. Yeah.

And they're like, nope, we're cutting it. And it's heartbreaking. Yeah. It's heartbreaking. But at point, sanity is such a hot group that they'll figure it out. Something else will come along. Yeah. A big deal.

And I think it was maybe a week or two later, we're in a thing with the Uso's. We were like black track suits during one of the breaks and they hide us into the ring and we come out from underneath the ring and we beat them up and get really good heat. And sanity was like number two trending in the world that night. and half of the audience doesn't know who we are because they just are people that watch SmackDown in Raw. They don't really watch NXT. But it was still a popular enough group that, you know,

we made a pretty good impact. And, you know, the Uso's are awesome. I'm pumped to work with both of them. And then we're on a house show before, I think SmackDown is at, in Ontario here in California. And Shinske gets attacked by one of the bomb-sniffing dogs during the day.

He's in the chairroom and this professionally trained dog. They're going around looking for explosives, and it just attacks. He bites his like, yes, they go to the hospital. So it's supposed to be Shinske versus Jeff Hardy. Jeff Hardy is the intercontinental champion that night. And they're like, well, who do we? Someone's got to wrestle Jeff. And I think it was Brian James said and thinking he's doing me a favor.

We're still buddies. He's a very good friend of mine. He says, Eric Young's great. He could do it. Well, not fully thinking that through. That means the first time you see Eric Young on television, he's going to get beat. Right? And I think winning and losing has never been super important to me,

but there's times when you need to win and times when you need to lose. And when you're first debut, they're breaking my legs before I can run, right? I'm getting beat. And there's no shame and beat. I'll lose to Jeff Hardy every night. I'm one of the most well wrestlers of all time. Yeah. But it was kind of the beginning of the end right away before we even got started.

And, you know, I don't really know what happened. Nobody, nobody can tell me, he, you know, the person in charge, we all know who that is. not allowed to say the name, just kind of didn't like it, didn't get it, although it was his choice to bring us up in the first place. But at that point, like, this is what would happen. There's just no rhyme or reason to any of it, you know, and just a victim of circumstance.

And the fans liked us, all the boys liked us, the internet, you know, it was a buzz about sanity coming up. Everyone liked us. The unfortunate truth is there's one person that didn't get it, and he's the only person that matter. And you told me the last time you were on the, show. You confronted him. And you were like, what are you doing? Yeah, yeah, sure did. I'm,

I talked to him like I talked to anybody and I interrupted. I was told to do it by people there and I went and interrupted a meeting he was in. He had a very good conversation and he said, you have ideas. I said, yep, sure do. Came in the next week, pitched ideas. He was very open to him and is very complimentary and, you know, thank you for bringing this in. Thank you for showing initiative. And then they sent Damo and Wolf back to NXT. And then I, he got sent over to Raw and it got worse. I mean, I didn't do anything.

I didn't make a mad. I didn't have a bad match. I didn't. There's nothing I did. He just decided that I was no good at whatever I was that I was doing. I wasn't doing anything. I don't know how you come to that decision. But it's,

and I've said this before too is, is I'm not the first person that he's missed on. Won't be the last. Right? Well, hopefully I'm one of the last. Yeah. But Kenny Omega was there and couldn't last eight months. So one of the.

best bell to bell ever in the universe. And he couldn't survive. So it's, it's, uh, it's frustrating more than anything. I'm not mad about it. I'm, I'm, I moved on for sure with my life. I'm very fulfilled, very happy person. I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. Um, but it's a very disappointing thing. Yeah, very disappointing. So when you got released when, you know, the world shut down with the pandemic, yeah, it didn't come as a surprise then? No. I mean, I was making very good money and wasn't going to work. I, I, I would have fired me, you know, like, I was well aware. it was coming. You know, I didn't think the group would be that big. Like, I mean, there was guys that were working on TV, like Rusev and a bunch of people. Like, I mean, it was a bloodletting. And

I was definitely in that group. I can't remember someone put the numbers up. I want to say it was, like, 125 different guys or whatever it was, it was a lot all at once. So, like I said, like, I'm not traveling down to Orlando where they're shooting, you know, the COVID-restricted tapings. I'm not talking to anybody. I'm well aware that it's coming. I'm kind of hoping that I'll sneak under the radar somewhere, somehow, you know, and continue on, but that's not what happened. Got released during that, and Scott DeMore, who I've been friends with for 30 years, is one of the first people to call me and apologize and say he's really sorry that happened. But, you know, in a week, let me crunch some numbers and figure some stuff out. Let's talk.

I really want you to be in to come to TNA. So that was surely a relief at that point. Because at that point, at that point, I've got 90 days. Yeah. And I'm going to be unemployed and maybe making $0. And it wasn't, wasn't it like 90, day 91 or 92 with Slam Reverse? Yeah. I think it was actually was day 89.

Okay. Yeah. So I had talked to some people there in legal and they said they're, they're not going to worry about it. Yeah. I think slam reversory in front of nobody. Yeah. Where I was like a mystery, a mystery person in the, in the five way for the world title was, I think, day 89. So I was surprised to see you back in TNA because your character had been killed.

Yeah. You got murdered. Yeah. I sure did. Yeah, it's happened a couple times. Yeah. But I guess, I don't know, just can anything happen in wrestling? Is that what that is? Yeah, I think it's the unwritten rules. There are no rules, right? I watched Cody Deeter stab you. Well, it's implied. You never actually see it because it's too hard to make it look cool, one.

And the truth is, like the production people, there, Eric Tompkins is the head of production in TNA, and he's grossly unknown and underpaid and underappreciated. He's one of the best of what he does. And it's really, that's his vision of being able to keep things open with no idea that I'm ever going to come back. But, I mean, coming back, the whole thing that we shot, like riding the motorcycle, and there's the monologue over top. I got to write that. I wrote every word of it.

And there's something like super special about that as a crew. creative person getting to dictate. You know, not you know, when I win and when I lose when I, you know, but being part of that process, it's a drug. Like, it's just a drug that can't be bought. And, um, having that

responsibility or having that trust, you know, the respect of there should really be someone professionally doing it, but them saying, well, like, give it a try. And then I wrote it like, no, it's actually perfect. So like word for word, I wrote all of that. I wrote You know, the T&A thing when Scott got let go and the Rara, those are all my words.

And it's real to me, you know, it's something that I really enjoy. I wouldn't say that I'm a writer, but I really like doing it. So coming back and I didn't really want to leave in the first place, to be honest. But it just was the opportunity to go up there and be there and do something special with the idea that was proposed to me was just the thing I couldn't turn down. But coming back is, was it coming home. And like I said, I'm a big believer in fate. I have a tattooed on the inside of my arm. And I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.

Didn't you briefly go back to WWE after being released? Yeah. So the video where I am not dead and come alive, and that's after me. That's me coming back the first time. Yeah, I went. So I was employed by them for, I think, eight or nine months. People don't know this because you weren't on TV. Yeah, some people know.

but I think the majority of the world, they don't understand because I would never show up at TV. The truth is I never left my house. So, yeah, I was proposed a gimmick to work there with two guys and was super excited about it. And then that didn't happen. And one of them was Bray. And then Bray passed away, which sucked and is unfair in every way possible. So then it's like, well, you know, pitch some new ideas.

And then the person I worked for it before forced his way back in. and I just kind of said, there's a lot of reasons where I didn't want to work there at that point, but the number one reason was I just, I don't want to work for a person like that, you know, and this is long before all the other stuff would come out, but I'm,

I was pretty convinced I knew who he was and how he was. And most of all, most professionally, one, but more importantly for me, morally, I just can't work for a human being like that. So I asked for my release and was granted it. And I'm not saying any of the stuff

because I had to sign an end. NBA. So, yeah, it's a weird, it's a whole weird thing. Does this mean you would have been part of an early iteration of the Yide 6? Yeah, I think the original idea was me, Bray and Bo as a trio. That's what was told to me from Hunter, basically. And so, you know, obviously, I'm going to jump at that. I'm friends with both of those guys. It would have been, creatively would have been just an unbelievable opportunity. Working there, working on the main roster, you know, wrestling all over the world with two guys that I get along with well. And obviously a huge part of the show at that point, you know, like The Feend and Bray coming back was one of the most popular things at that time, one of the most viewed thing. Like they'd put up those viral videos. Yeah.

They'd be viewed within six hours by millions of people. So being part of that was very appetizing. Yeah. And it's kind of not in my wheelhouse, but close enough to my wheelhouse where I would have really enjoyed it. And it would have been challenging, but in like a really cool. away. So I was obviously very excited. And then all the stuff happened with the sale and all this other weird stuff. And the other, all of a sudden, I wasn't working for the person who hired me. And I wasn't willing to do that. And I don't regret it. Not at all. And I'm, I think it's the coolest. For me,

it's not lost to me that I was able to walk away from money like that, you know, stability like that because of what I believe, beliefs that I, the kind of human being that I am. And that's not a lot. 10 years ago, I don't know if I would have been able to make that choice financially or personally or certainly not professionally. And I'm in a position where I'll be fine. I'll figure it out. And I hadn't even talked to Scott at the time or TNA. About going back to TNA? We had zero conversations about it.

I just knew I wasn't going to work for the WWB union. So it's a wild one. Yeah. You know, but the truth is it was 100% my choice. I think there will be a lot of people that think that's stupid. a lot of people that won't make that choice. But I think for me and my career, I think it's one of the proudest things I've ever done, to be honest.

This episode is brought to you by Rocket Money. This right here is the $20 that Rocket Money saved me on my direct TV stream bill. And this is the $10 they saved me on my cell phone bill. Yeah, you can even see. Great news, Chris. It says so right there. Rocket Money automatically scans your bills

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of $500 million in cancel subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year when using all of the apps features. So stop wasting money on things that you don't use. Cancel those unwanted subscriptions by going to rocketmoney.com slash CVV. That's rocketmoney.com slash CVV. It seems like a lot of the success that TNA is having now can be attributed to Scott DeMore and the vision that he had. Yeah, no doubt.

So then how surprising was it when he got fired? I mean, so I was one of a few people that kind of knew the rumblings and got to keep that to myself and no one else really knew it was coming. So I didn't like that. I don't like holding stuff from people, but it's not, it's none of my business. You know, that's not my information to share. Even though I know, I knew it was happening kind of in the works. And when I first got heard about it, I was like, that can't be, right?

That's this place exists because of the work that he's done. You know, this place is dead almost. You know, it was on life support. And Scott's work and his vision and his undying belief that it can be a real thing is the reason it is where it is now. And I think even the people that run it now would agree with that. In the end, I just think it's business. And, you know, one guy got into an argument with another guy and one guy lost. And it's kind of really as simple as that.

And I'm sure there's a lot more to it. I'm not privy to those things. To be honest, I don't want to know since Scott's been a very good friend of mine will continue to be. I had 40 people at my wedding in Las Vegas, and he was one of those 40. I've been close with him for 30 years. I've known him since I was 16 years old, and he's done a lot for me. And I've done a lot for him, and I will continue to do that. But it was very surprising, man.

And there was obviously a meltdown in the locker room. And some of these people there have never wrestled, never worked for anyone else. He's been their only boss. he's the only person they've ever went to when they've had a question, ever went to for advice, right? He's been their only boss. So all of a sudden, this is my 10th or 12th time. The guard has changed for me working there. So it was, I've gone through it before.

And I'm sure it will happen again because it is just business in the end. And everything changes in the entertainment world, the turnover can be lightning fast. You know, you can be working for one place for a certain amount of people. and two weeks later, those people are all fired, and now you're working for a completely new set of people. It's a wild world. You know, it's a wild world. And I wish it never happened.

You know, I wish Scott still work there. But that's not the reality. I wish my voice didn't sound like this. I wish my mom didn't die from cancer. Those are things I can't control. And I try not to dwell on it. I only can just move forward, respect the past and respect what he did. And I always will.

Scott could call me right now and say, I'm in trouble. I would leave right from here to the airport and fly to away. wherever he is and help him any time of day, night. Doesn't matter what I'm in the middle of. He's one of my very, very close friends and has helped me at time. I'm probably not sitting here talking to you without Scott Moore. And that's the truth. So it's unfortunate for sure, but everyone else is just trying to move on.

And the truth is still doing very well. Yeah. Since you brought it up, why does your voice sound like this? Okay. Yeah. So I just had last Thursday, my 30th throat surgery since 2004. I woke up. I'm living in Nashville at the time. Married to that girl living at her house. And my voice is scratchy. I'm wrestling for TNA at the time, Team Canada. And I go to like a walk-in clinic.

I'm Canadian, so I'm new to the American health care system. Isn't that funny? Good job, everyone. It's terrible. So I'm new to it. I happen to have insurance and pay for it and all this other stuff. So I've applied for Blue Cross Blue Shield, I think it is. And so I go to this walking clinic. And I said, I don't know. There's something wrong in my voice. I'm losing my voice.

And he's, you don't do this and do that. He goes, yeah, I don't know. I'm thinking I have laryngitis. And he says, no, you definitely don't have laryngitis. But there's something wrong with your throat. You're going to have to go to a throat specialist. So three or four weeks later, I go to a throat specialist. And they go in, like, through my nose with this like camera, which is very comfortable

and I'm sure. Relaxing. And he's like, try not to swallow the camera. I'm like, okay. and he's like, oh, you have this thing called papillomas. They're basically nodules or warts that grow in your vocal cords. And it's like a common cold, like a virus. Like you have it, I have, everyone has it.

But only certain people, it becomes aggressive. And in my case, in 2004, it became aggressive. And they go in, they'll remove them. And then sometimes you have one and they don't come back. Or in my case, I've had 30 since 2004. Brian Pillman had it. I don't know the numbers, but I heard when he passed. He had had 136 surgeries on his throat from when he started getting it.

And I don't know how true that is, but that was the number I heard. At this point, I do it at about once a year. Obviously, I mean, it could be worse. It could be cancer or something that they couldn't correct. Are you not able to talk after these surgeries? No, I mean, it's always different. It just depends on how much there is and how much they have to remove. So it's the level of damage.

The truth is, like, I kind of like that my voice sounds like this. I mean, you sound like a wrestler. I think a person listening can close their eyes and know it's me talking, right? It's very distinct. That's true. I'm not going to win any sitting competitions. I'm not going to be a front, you know, a diabolical front man for a rock and roll band anytime soon. But I, you know, it is a distinct thing.

And the truth is, is that I sound like a pro wrestler. You sure do. So I'd already been a pro wrestler for eight years before my voice started to sound like this. So I guess I just kind of grew into it, I guess, professionally. It sounds almost like Stivo. I don't know if Stivo has the same thing. Yeah, yeah. I wonder if he does.

I mean, I grew up watching, you know, CKY and Jackass and his voice is very similar. Obviously, if you listen to Brian Pillman talk, it's different because his voice is different. My voice is always kind of deep and raspy, but nothing like this. Is this like Macho Man? Yeah, I don't think he had it. I think his just kind of sounded like that. And I've heard, I don't know how true that is. I've heard that his speaking voice was kind of a work.

Oh, really? Yeah, that he, I mean, he didn't sound way off, but like how he spoke in promos where it was where you go like this was put on. Huh. I heard a story where someone was like, if you keep doing that with your voice, you're not going to be able to speak. He's like,

doing what with my voice? Right. Like that was his voice. Yeah. I mean, it's a, what do you have, an old wives tale,

and urban mouth. I don't know. But yeah, I've heard both. So mine sounds like this. I, like I'll go people, you know,

I'll meet people at signings and stuff. Like, oh, you really do sound like that. I was like, yeah, 24 hours a day, 365 days we were old. Or are you going to a store and I'm buying a candy bar.

like, oh my God, are you sick? I wish. I wish I was sick. No, this is just how my voice sounds all the time. What happened to your ear recently? Oh, yeah. It almost fell off. No, yeah.

I didn't. I'm not great on social media, but there was all the stuff like it had to be reattached and all this stuff. It was obviously very serious. I had a huge cut on the back of my ear from a table spot I did with Frankie. And totally my fault. I'm doing the Spanish fly. And I know when he does it, he kind of goes. sideways a bit kind of turns to one side. And in my head, he went this way, but he actually

doesn't. He goes this way. And I'm going this way and he's going that way. And I ended up busting the table with my head. I mean, really, I probably should be dead. If you watch the clip, maybe you could, you know, pick it up and put it on here. Of course. And as soon as I hit, you can just see the blood just stream down. So the internet does what the internet does. And his ear got ripped off. Man, that sounds awesome. You know, that sounds super cool. I'm not going to correct them. I'm just going to let them say whatever they want. Because the truth is, is whatever they say is always going to be cooler than the truth. Sure.

So, yeah. They never let the truth get in the way of a good story. That's it. That's the rule. I'm never going to let truth get in the way of a good story. And the story was that I had to have my ear reattached. It definitely, I think it was eight stitches behind my ear, but it was just bleeding nonstop because of where it was. Oh, just like a thin area.

Yes. I got it. Just where it was. It was just bleeding. And they couldn't get, they glued it and it just kept bleeding. So I had to go to get stitches. Saturday night, Las Vegas, sunrise or something. There's the hospital like right downtown.

It's interesting. It's an interesting place on Saturday. I bet they see some stuff. I mean, I got in quick. I had a towel, and it was like purple blood. Like it was just gashing blood. So I went in pretty quick. I was, as a Canadian, you know, you'll respect this.

I went into an emergency room and had stitches on Saturday night in Las Vegas and was out in 45 minutes. Oh, man. So I'd still be in the waiting room. I think the quickest I've ever been in the ER in Canada is like 10 hours. Right. Yeah. It's brutal. Yeah.

So like, going back to the point we were making earlier, both of them have their pros and cons. Yes. The American health care system and the Canadian health care system. I think somewhere in between would be a real excellent system. I don't pretend to know anything about it. Me neither. Canadians want to say that we don't pay for it.

I have some property on the moon. If that's what you truly believe, and Americans pay way too much. Yeah. And there's no regulation to any of it. It's insane. It's insane. But I'm, you know, there's nothing I can do about it.

The lady, Dr. Galen Garrett, is one of the foremost. professionals, like people fly from all over the world to Vanderbilt Voice Center in Nashville, Tennessee to have this woman perform the surgery. And I'm lucky enough that I live there. She's in my backyard. I've known this woman for 20 years. And she's the one that's done every single one of my surgeries. I'm still alive. She hasn't killed me yet. So I'll just keep going. Do you ever wonder after getting one of those voice surgeries that you're going to like wake up and like you're going to, hi, my voice is like this now? I mean, I pray that never happens. And it's always like a bit different. You probably can't hear the difference. But I can always hear the

difference. It's like it'll be a little bit deeper or a little bit more raspy, just kind of depending on where it grows on your vocal cords. I'm luckyly it could grow into my windpipe that my career would probably be over because I wouldn't be able to breathe. So it could be way worse. If I never get them again and I never go back, I always say that, you know, like, oh, how are we doing today? It's like, you know, great. Good to see you again. I was like, I'm not going to lie and say, it's not good to see you. Yeah. I hope to never see those people again in my life. But the truth is probably around this time next year, I'll be in the hospital, yeah. You've got, So much exciting stuff going on outside of wrestling,

but do you think about how much longer you can wrestle? Yeah, for me, when I was young, when I first started, I started when I was 17. And I've always said, if I can do it and do it at a high level, I'll continue to do it. I love doing it still. You know, the problem is the part I love is the shortest part of my day. That's wrestling in the ring.

It's all the other stuff. I was living out of a suitcase and getting on a plane and being crammed in a thing and not sleeping and being pulled in a million directions. and I'm really done with most of that stuff. And I mean, I've earned a spot, you know, in the world where I don't have to deal with too much that's irritating. But I can keep up with anybody. And I think I'm still very good at it.

And the minute that I think I can't keep up or someone has to carry me or it really hurts me or I don't get excited to do it, I'll quit. I'll quit right there on the spot. No matter how much money I'm making, no matter where I'm working, I'll quit because I love it and respect it too much. I'm not going to be the guy at 65, you know, some young person is carrying me through a match or, you know, we can't do that and we can't do this because it hurts or I won't be able to stand up or whatever. I'm not doing that. I'm taking up, at that point, I'm just taking up space and it's unfair. And I definitely want to retire.

You know, I want to not have to do this at some point. My plan is, you know, maybe another four or five years. I think of a bit of an anomaly at 44. I'll be 45 in December and I don't think my wrestling today is much different than it was 15 years ago. I'm certainly not the athlete I was 10 or 15 years ago, but I'm 10 times the pro wrestler I was. I can solicit more of a reaction and do things with greater ease than I could at that point because of experience. There's just no replacing it. You know, I've been doing it a long time.

And I think I'm in an original or really interesting place because I've seen the card from every angle, right? I've been the opening match. I've been the main event. I've been the exhibition champ. I've been the tag champ. I was wrestling women before it was a cool thing. I wasn't even allowed to touch them. And some of those matches I'm super proud of.

I mean, Jess, ODB, had to do all the work. But because I wasn't physically allowed to, couldn't lock up with them, you got a 15-minute pay-per-view match. with Gail Kim and Madison Rain, and it's you and ODB, as one fourth of the combatants. I'm not allowed to touch anybody. And no one said that was terrible. People didn't write emails to T&A saying,

I never want to see that on a pay-per-view again. That's a compliment. It wasn't certainly the best match on the show. It certainly wasn't the favorite match I've ever had. But I'm very proud of people didn't say it was terrible. A lot of that stuff, people love the whole thing with me in ODB and me wrestling, the girls on the show. It was the thing that I loved.

love doing it. It was super fun. Most of them are super over. I made my job super easy. But a lot of the constraints, people didn't understand. I wasn't even allowed to, like, back them into a corner because it was too aggressive for Spike TV. So it was a very interesting time. But yeah, for me, like, I've experienced almost everything there is to experience in wrestling. I've been the funny guy. I've been the psycho. I've been the regular, you know, just kind of vanilla, whatever, you know, and there's very few people that can say that. And that's not, I, I'm not the best wrestler. I'm not the best talker.

I'm not the best funny guy. I'm not the best crazy person. But I've been able to be very good at all of it. And it allowed me to experience all kinds of things that, like some guys that are very good at one thing, they only just do that one thing for 30 years. And there's nothing wrong with that. Yeah. Right.

Ricky the Dragon Seamboat was Ricky the Dragon Seamboat every day, all day, every year that he wrestled. He was the same gimmick, the same gimmick, be the same things, look the same way. And there's something very proud to say. Like, that's a hell of run. He's one of the best to ever do it. Yeah. But he did one thing, his entire career. Yeah.

I've done 30 different things, and I'm not done yet. So it's really cool. And I think it gives me an understanding of wrestling that very few people have. Do you see yourself ending your career in TNA? I do. Yeah. Yeah. That's the hope for me.

I've done. I've already, we talked on the way over. I come from a town, population of 70 people from rural, Ontario, Canada. I'm, you know, I was promised there'd be no math today. The percentage chance of me sitting here talking to you about all these things I've done in wrestling and had these TV shows and I've done all this stuff, it's less than 5%. Oh, it's got to be way lower than that. It's probably lower than that. The truth is being a Canadian, it might even be negative, you know.

So I've accomplished more than I could ever possibly dream. Pro wrestling has given me this amazing life. I've wrestled all over the world. I've wrestled in 40 different countries. I've been paid to do it. I've seen things that I never thought I'd see. I've done things I never thought I'd done. I've been a world champion twice.

I've held eight different world tag titles. I've won NXT tag titles, match of the year, performer of the year. Like, I've done everything that I ever thought it was. I had one goal, and that was assigned a contract to say, I did this for a living. I did that in 2005. Everything passed that. It's just been the cherry on top. And I'll do it.

it as long as I can because I still love it. You know, I still love it. And it's given me this amazing life. But yeah, it's a it's less than 5% chance that I'm sitting. I'm living my dream and that's cheesy as that sounds. And that's that's not lost on me. I'm very, very lucky. Well, look at the opportunities that's given you outside of wrestling. Yep. So your TV show vinyl obsession now on season two, congrats on that, you know, getting renewed for another season. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, uh, it's weird to think. Like I think, uh, doing TV shows and, you know, I still would love to try my hand at some acting and stuff. But it was never something that I pursued because I was too busy pursuing wrestling.

I think it was something I was always interested in. The fishing show just kind of fell in my lap. I was so jealous of that, by the way. We did have this question today. It's a big fisherman myself. When you got that show, obviously, it's very happy for you. But I'm like, I want a show like that. Yeah.

It's a wild story. This is a classic thing is treat people how you want to be treated. No. And be interested in everyone. And I've been like that in my whole life. And I think you would have to, this isn't going to sound conceited, but I think you'd have to fucking search pretty high and hard to find somebody that doesn't get along with me or doesn't have something kind to say. Because I treat people how I want to be treated, everybody.

And I was friends with Jess Ward. Jess Ward was one of the production people at TNA. She's now married to Tomaso Champa. She was on the first Tough Enough. If you watch the First Tough Enough, you'll remember her distinctly. She was the, she was taking horse bumps over the person that was down on all fours and, like, fell on her head and really hurt herself. Yeah. That's Jess Ward.

She took, you know, production and film and stuff in college. And I, we were very good friends at T&A and hung out a lot, talked a lot. We were still very good friends to this day. Never dated or never anything like that. Just this person that I really like talking to and was very good friends with. She did some projects for her film school. And I was like a detective in one of them. And I played a role in a funny person in a music video that she shot for a project.

Then when she left T&A, she started in the television world. She worked on Big Brother. She worked on a real world. She worked on a bunch of reality shows. She met this guy, Dan Brie, Dan Bray is the guy that came out for the concept of the show, off the hook, extreme catches. They worked on a show together called Slice, where they would cut things in half. Oh, yeah. You remember that?

It was on Discovery or something, maybe history. And they would, oh, let's a 747, we'll cut it in half. So kind of a weird show, but it was a show, and they worked on it together and became friends. They initially, Discovery or Animal Planet cast a professional fisherman. I don't know who it was, but some guy that did it professionally as a professional fisherman had like an outdoor network show or something at one point. They cast him to be the host. And they did the sizzle reel, which is a short miniature version of what an episode would be like.

And all the people attorney didn't like it. He's so busy talking about braided line and what lures he's going to use. and they're trying to make this appealing to the masses. So they put a thing up on like a message board saying, we're looking for a host, has to be good with physical comedy, has to be comfortable in front of the camera. And Jess read it.

I don't have access to that stuff. Jess Ward read it and said, we probably hadn't talked at that point in six or eight months. And she just kind of texted me out of nowhere and said, hey, a friend of mine's got this show about fishing. And I think you'd be perfect for it. Do you mind if I throw your name in that to audition?

And I said, yes. I'm certainly not going to get it. Right. And like three days later, this Dan Brie calls me. I've been watching your videos on YouTube, the one where I roll up Delo and the thing and I fight Scott Beo in L.A. I think you're hilarious. I would love for you to be the host of this show. But there's a process to it. So, you know, this goes on time. Dan, I'm wrestling full time. I'm wrestling in these. I'm literally working full time. And he's calling me like every couple days. You know, you're, you know, it's down to 50. It's down to 25. It's like, dude, don't stop calling me. I'd love to do it. And if I don't get it, it's no problem. And if I do, cool. You don't have to update me until it's over. And I was in New York, actually, with my wife doing something.

I don't remember what it was. Visiting my cousins. My cousins live in Brooklyn. And I got a call from Dan. And he said, it's yours. You got the job. And we shot a sizzle reel. It went around eternally.

And at this point, I know nothing about TV. I still really don't. But I know nothing about it. Right. It's a completely different world than the wrestling world. So it gets. We do the sizzle reel, and it gets passed around eternally throughout discovery, and everyone loves it. And right away, it gets greenlit for 12 episodes, which is rare for a debuting show.

A debut in show is typically 6 to 8, but right away 12. And we go right from shooting the sizzle real till like three weeks later. We're straight out shooting the first episode. And it was 12 episodes. We were still shooting the first season when it started airing. And it started airing, and the numbers came back and were crazy. They were hoping it to be really good in the male demographic. The truth was it was kind of universally loved by everybody.

So it was very surprising to them. There was actually a huge female audience watching the show at the time. And they renewed it while we were still shooting the end of the first season for 12 more episodes for season two. And we did very well. I was Tony on the way over here. I was kind of the chosen one at Antoplan. I'm standing on stage with Oprah Winfrey and the CEO of Discovery at Upfronts, which is a big deal. You know, I'm hanging out with Morgan Freeman.

He did the voiceover for the science. network and he's backstage and we're chit-chatting and I'm like this is my life is insane you know drinking whiskey with jeremy wade the river monster show and just i'm uh hanging drinking at the bar and eating with harold and kumar because they had a special that was coming on discovery and like all this happened in a span of six months wow yeah and uh all of some i'm i'm on esPN and i'm on fox and friends i'm on uh good morning america i'm a real celebrity you know an actual celebrity and uh my contract I came up at the time, and I was able to renegotiate and make my first real money ever. And, yeah, I owed a lot.

And it was very well received and the show did well. And we kind of ran out of stuff to do in North America. Like the first show that ever aired, you catch a shark from a paddleboard. There's nowhere to go. Yeah. Right. So we did 24 episodes in and around North America. And then it was a discussion of we want to continue doing the show, but we ran out of things to do.

So we could still do off the hook, but we'll have to go to, like, Australia. or Africa or someplace and be there for months. And I said, I'm willing to do that. But you're going to have to increase the pay because I'm going to have to quit wrestling, which I don't want to do. I mean, in the end, that's maybe the smartest thing I ever did. Because, you know, you fast forward six months later, I go from standing on stage with Oprah Renfrey to being unemployed at Discovery in Animal Planet.

They did another show called No Limits, which I thought was another great show, and it just didn't do well. they put it on a weird time and a weird date, and it just didn't get the viewership, and they ended up not even hearing them all. I think they aired six of the 12. But it was a very good show, a show I was very proud of.

Yeah, and then all of a sudden, I went from being the chosen one to basically being unemployed by them, almost overnight. But now, fast forward, 10 years later, you've got this other show. Yeah, yeah, in between. I told you, I shot a pilot series for Travel Channel,

and it never, ever aired. There's a whole bunch of weird stuff. A bunch of people got fired. And it wasn't one of their shows, so they moved forward in a different direction. So that's your show never aired. Somewhere out there, there's a whole 60-minute show about the fountain of youth, starring me, where I dove in a freshwater cave. And we flew to Bimini, and I was hand-feeding hammerhead sharks and all this wild stuff. But yeah, and I went back to TNA and had approached them, pitched an idea that I had about a vinyl show.

I'm a crazy vinyl collector. I have over 2,000 albums at my house. I've only been collecting them for about eight years, nine years. So it grew quick. And music has always been a massive part of my life. It's neat to me because now I'm working on this music show. I'm clearly not a singer. We've discussed this already.

I can't play an instrument. I can't write music. I can't read music. I know nothing about it. But what I know, I think is the most important thing, is that I'm in love with it. I'm in absolute love with music and musicians and the story of it and lyrics. and sound and how it all comes together. I love it.

And they already had the show Vinyl Obsession where they'll bring in, you know, professional artists, like the first season they had Billy Gibbons from Zizi Top, and they had Joe Bonamossus, who's a massive in the blues space. Anyways, and they come into a vinyl store, and they would just let them tour the vinyl store and pick up their top five vinyl albums of all time. But they wanted a host.

So I had pitched this other idea, which also could get made down the road, but they said we want you to host vinyl obsession because we want there to be a host. So I welcome them in. And this season that's coming up October 6th, there's Sebastian Bach from Skid Row, Debbie Gibson, Jeff Timmons from 98 degrees, Steve Vey from Frank Zappa, Mike Dern, bass player from Green Day, Chris Schifflett, lead guitar from foo fighters. Like there's some heavy hitters.

And Bobby Bones, we talked about him, Melissa Joan, Hart, Dave Mustaine, Marcus King. It's like there's a, the episodes are unbelievable. And it's just me and them, chilling in this record store, talking about what they love about music. And then we sit down and do an interview like this for about an hour and a half where I'm just talking about their top five, why they chose them, what it means.

And there's all these cool through stories about their sister gave them the record or they stole it from their sister or their mom and dad listen to it. And that's why they still love it and have this connection. So the deep dive on that was my favorite part. But yeah, I can't wait for people to see it. You know, music is kind of universally loved in a part of everybody's life. Yeah. And we have country stars and rock stars.

And, you know, there's a wide array of different people. And the overarching thing is they're all super interesting. They're all super famous. And they've made a massive impact in the musical world. And then getting to know them and what they love about music and what their favorite albums are was really eye-opening to me. So October 6th on Access.

Yeah, October 6th. I think what's so cool about music is it means something different to something. Right. Like you and I could hear the same song, maybe it doesn't mean anything to you. But to me, that's the song that played at my high school graduation or something like that.

And it takes you back to a place at a time. Yep. It's crazy. Yeah, it can really transport you. Yes. Yeah. And that's learning, for me, like, liking an artist,

and then finding out what made them get into music and what, you know, kind of orchestrated them into that style of music or what drew them to that kind of style of music and why they're making the version of music that they make. It's fascinating. And the recall for something, like, Dave Mustaine is, you know, he got kicked out of Metallica for being too much of a partier.

And his recall and his memory for stuff and people's names and dates, it was incredible. And he's a god in the thrash metal space. And I hung out on a record store and chit-chated with him about music. for two and a half hours. It was incredible, man. And the show, I've seen a couple of the screeners, and it's so slick, and it moves well,

and just got to work with a ton of super talented people. I can't wait for people to see it. It's just a really cool show. Even if you don't know who these artists are, learning about it. And the truth is, is vinyl music is massive. It's overtaken in 2017. It's the number one way people buy physical music.

Obviously, digital music is number one because it's easy and it's on everyone's phone. Right. But from 2017 to now, the number one way people consume physical music is through vinyl. People collect vials that don't even have record players. Like it's back in the biggest way. And in every city, you can buy vinyl in Walmart. You know, it's everywhere.

And I think they've access and the people that made the show and now me have stepped on this goldmine of content and stuff that people want to hear about and talk about because everyone has a connection to music like you were saying. everyone on earth. If you can hear, if you have hearing, you know, and I think even people that don't, there's a connection to it. It's been part of your life, your whole life. Whether you're a mega fan or not, music is universally loved by almost everybody that walks this planet. So it's got to make you think. What are your top five final? So, yeah, top five. I think it depends. And I always say this during the show. It's an impossible thing. And I think, did you catch me today? I'm in a very good movement. I'm in LA, you know, with a buddy of mine that I've known for 20-something years. we're talking about how cool I am.

I mean, it's a very good day for me. So my choice is today, you know, when my dog passes away, it's going to be a very different list. Sure. But yeah, for me, Rage Against the Machine, self-titled,

Rage Against Meem, their first album is perfect. And you can't convince me otherwise. Actually, I'm wearing, they're not as well known as Rage Against Machine, but this is my favorite band in the world right now,

Black Pumas. Their debut is called Colors, and it's an amazing album. If you haven't listened to it, you should. They're amazing. Eric Burton is the frontman of them, and I think he's the best frontman to ever live. I've seen them in concert three times.

Eric, if you see this, I love you, and I want you to move into my home. But yeah, that would be on there. Silver Chair, Frogstomp. That's a nostalgic album. One of my first albums I bought as a kid with my own money. The first three albums I bought was Green Day, Duky. Me too. Silver Chair, Frogstomp, and Weezer's Blue Album.

Wow. The first three CDs I bought with my own money from a job that I had. My parents saw the parental advisory thing in the dokey. And they were like, wait a second. I'm like, well, it's like two words. You know, it's fine. It's fine. I already know them.

Yeah, right. Yeah, it's mostly the Shoverscher one is nostalgic, but I think it's a really good rock album. The thought of the guys from Silverchair were like 13 and 14 years old when they wrote it. And if you listen to it, you'd be like, what? There's no way people are this angry at 14.

Like, it's wild. That would be on my list. it's cheating and I think really like hardcore music people will say it's cheating but I pick Chronicles by CCR it's their best of. People like that's cheating you can't pick a best of album but they're such a fascinating

rock and roll band they were really only around for less than 10 years and they have 50 like hits like you hear it and you're like oh this song they have 50 of those and they were really only around for 10 years right there's like a rocket ship like

this to the top of music and then just disappeared. Yeah. Yeah. So that's definitely on my list. I think we got one more spot. Yeah, one more spot. I'm trying to think of the list I put. I think I would probably put dress on Brise's on ZZ Top on there.

What a list. Yeah, grew up listening to them, one of my dad's favorite bands. But again, if you asked me this in 50 minutes, it might change. It might change. Man, this was a long time coming. Yeah. And I want to say congrats to you on everything, both in the ring and outside of the ring. October 6th on

access, everyone can check out. Final Obsession. I hope that this is, I hope there's many more seasons after that. Because again, everybody has a story about music. Yep. And in hearing, even just hearing you lists off those five albums, me and everybody watching this episode or listening is going, ah, what are my five? I'm going to go with one of those that Eric listed off. Yep. I love that. Yep. Yep. Yep. That's the beauty of music. So I wrap up every interview with a question about gratitude because it's such a big part of my life. What are three things, Eric, that you're grateful for right now. Number one, the world in the industry of pro wrestling. I'm certainly not sitting here without it. It's, I've said this before, and it's the truth. Before, other than my mom, my dad and my

sister, pro wrestling was the first thing that I loved, really loved, truly loved, and was obsessed, like probably unhealthy, really, if I'm being completely honest. Pro wrestling in the world of pro wrestling, my friends, my family, my wife, people that are close to me, like without them, there is nothing, right? There's just nothing. And I would think opportunity is, you know, I can't single out one, but living life with opportunity, being able to live in Canada and live in the United States, and we talk about us in the car right over, is like, the American dream is still a real thing.

I'm living proof. right i'm a short chubby nerd from Canada in a tiny town of 70 people and I've wrestled all over the world entertained millions of people I have a very unbelievably amazing life

because of opportunities that have been given to me a lot of that I've earned but I was willing to walk through those doors when they presented themselves so those three things pro wrestling friends and family that would probably be number one and number three is opportunity because it's a beautiful thing man

It is. It is. It is everything. And I love the idea of if this thing doesn't happen, then this thing doesn't happen. If you don't say yes to this, then this thing down the line can't happen. Yep. And you're living, breathing proof of that. 100%.

It can be done. We're both there. We are. Yeah, we're both there. Look at us. Yeah, look at us. Look at us. Eric, so good to see you, man.

Cheers, man. Thank you. Thank you. Man, EY is awesome. Love that guy. Check out Vinyl Obsession on Access TV beginning on October 6th. And when Eric Young returned to TNA in 2020, and then a few months later, won the World Heavyweight Championship for a second time beating Eddie Edwards, I was like, yeah,

that is my guy. That is my guy. We told the story at the start of this episode, how I went to his wrestling school, and that guy unfortunately broke his arm, and I ended up training somewhere else. It just didn't work out. It wasn't anything to do with the broken arm. It just didn't work out. But it reminds me of, like, you meet some.

someone and in that instance it was a couple of emails and then I spent whatever it was that half of that session before it got cut short at his wrestling school but you meet someone and they leave an impression on you and it sticks with you and think about any time that you've met a wrestler or a celebrity or someone even if it's just for like three seconds and they were nice to you and they smiled at you you know you're in that long line at like a convention or something like that and they take the time to to smile or make a joke that leaves a lasting impression. That's the way that you'll always think about that person. That three second slice of their life and slice of your life is how you will perceive that person from now on.

I think about that all the time. Had Eric Young 21 years ago just been rude or mean to me, obviously we wouldn't have had the friendship that we've had, but it would have really soured me. Maybe on wrestling as a whole, maybe on the business as a whole, maybe on my intentions to want to train, but he was so kind, so nice. He still is to this day. And I just appreciate him so much for that. And amazing to be able to catch up with him and huge congrats to him on all the success that he's having, both in and out of the ring. Like, Eric Young hosted a fishing show. And of course, yes, I'm very, very jealous of that. But Eric Young hosted a fishing show. Eric Young is hosting Vinyl Obsession. Like, I love that while he's been as successful as he has been

in the ring with his wrestling career. He's also had these successes outside of the ring as well. Amazing. Snap a screenshot and tag us so we can share it. He's at the Eric Young on Twitter. He's at the Eric Young IG on Instagram. I'm at Chris Van Vleet.

And we will wrap this up with a quote from Alex Formosie, which I feel is going to land with a lot of people. People quit when things get hard because the thought of something being hard forever is unbearable. but nothing hard lasts forever. You either quit, it gets easier, or you get harder.

No matter what, it always ends. But you only lose when you quit before you see it through. Be great, be grateful, my friends. We'll see you tomorrow for some more insight. It's Ask CVV number 51. Send in your questions if you haven't already. And we will see you back here tomorrow for that one. 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 Alley. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.