Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Erick Rowan Honors Bray Wyatt & Brodie Lee, WWE Return, AEW Appearance, Beating Roman Reigns

Episode Date: November 2, 2023

Joseph Ruud (@erickredbeard) is a professional wrestler known as Erick Rowan when he was in WWE as part of the Wyatt Family. He currently wrestles under the name Erick Redbeard. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Hollywood, CA to talk about the passing of Windham Rotunda (Bray Wyatt) and Jon Huber (Brodie Lee/Luke Harper), how he joined the Wyatt Family, being The Rock's last opponent at WrestleMania 32, having the distinction of being one of the last 4 people to pin Roman Reigns, what got his wrestling journey started, his brief appearances in AEW, will he return to WWE, forming The Bludgeon Brothers with Luke Harper, the original plan for what was inside of his cage, his recent acting roles and much more. Enter to win $2000 and 2 tickets to UFC 296 here: http://morganufc.com/cvv Sponsors: GHOSTBED: Get 40% of your purchase with the code CVV at http://ghostbed.com/cvv MYBOOKIE: Bet on WWE! Get up to $200 cash bonus when you use the code CVV and sign up at http://mybookie.ag FITBOD: Get 25% off when you use the code INSIGHT at http://fitbod.me/INSIGHT ZBIOTICS: Get 15% off with the code CVV and have a better morning after you drink at http://zbiotics.com/cvv MIRACLE MADE: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to http://TryMiracle.com/CVV and use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF BLUECHEW: Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at http://plunge.com BONCHARGE: Go to http://boncharge.com/CVV and use coupon code CVV to save 15% Quote I'm thinking about: Stop being afraid of what could go wrong and start being excited about what could go right. For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are go. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bleas! Okay, welcome back to another one on Inside. I'm CVV. Chris Van Fleet, thank you so much for being here. And thank you for making Insight,

one of the top wrestling podcasts on the planet. So whether you've been listening for years, or maybe this is the first episode you've ever hit play on, I appreciate you. And could I ask for a very small favor? please hit follow on the podcast app that you're listening on right now. Three quarters of the people listening to this are not following the show yet. So if you were one of them, it would mean so much to me if you became a follower because the bigger the show gets, the bigger the guests get.

And there is a lot in this conversation with Eric Rowan, who now goes by the name Eric Redbeard. The first thing that you think about when you think of Eric is the Wyatt family. And it's so heartbreaking to think that in two and a half years, we lost John Huber, better known to fans as Brody Lee or Luke Harper, and Wyndham Rotunda, who of course was Bray Wyatt. And Rowan shares all kinds of great memories of working with both of them, the brotherhood that they formed. We also talk about how he got into wrestling in the first place as a six-foot-eight, 320-pound monster of man. and check this out. Not only is he the Rock's last opponent. That was WrestleMania 32, that very, very quick match.

He is also one of the last four people to pin Roman Raines, along with Shane McMahon, Baron Corbyn, and Jay Uso. If you enjoy this conversation, please share it out and take a screenshot and share it on social media. Tag us so we know that you're listening and also so we can re-torn tweet it or re-exit, repost it. You know what I mean. He's at Eric Redbeard. I'm at Chris Van Vleet. And please enjoy this conversation with Eric Rowan. He's here. He's here. He's good to see you, my friend. Great to see you in person. In person. Last time we did one of these,

it was through the Zoom screen. I think you just reminded me it was three years ago. Yeah, a little over three years ago, which is crazy. The world was in such a different place, three years ago. It finally seems like it's getting back to normal. I feel like we're maybe there, close to there. I mean, the news is full of craziness, so maybe we are. I don't know. I don't know.

Lots changed for you in the last three years. And I think the biggest thing people want to know is, how are you doing? I'm doing okay. I mean, it's obviously been rough for wrestling world. and you know it's it's just one of those things and with you know the passing of John you know Brody it was a shock and then with with Wyndham it's like you don't know where to start or begin and it's it's one of those things that you know when you experience loss it's like you don't know how to react

then I still don't know how to react. And no matter what I do, I always feel, you know, them with me. And wrestling's worse, I think, because when I'm in the ring, I spend so much time with them that when I do any show lately, it's constantly reminded. Either by just popping myself in the ring by doing a move and thinking of somebody yelling in the corner at me and laughing or the crowd reminding me.

And it's just one of those things. And keeping busy is, you know, my key to just kind of move it on and, you know, concentrating on my family and myself. I think people only really think of the fact that you spend time with them in the ring. But, I mean, how many hours, days, weeks, months were you guys traveling together? Countless. I mean, it's crazy to think about. But like, especially back in like 2012, 2013 when we debuted, it's like you're on the road like literally 260 plus days a year.

You're seeing these people more than you are your own family. And whether you like each other or you don't, you're stuck with each other. And you better either learn to get along or your life's going to be miserable. And luckily we all got along and as the years were by, you know, our bonds got stronger. But like, man, like when we were starting, it was literally Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, you know, home for a day and a half and then back on the road. And then they'd do the European tours to be like a month straight, then home for a couple days and then back on the road constantly. So it's crazy to think about it was just countless memories and things that are like frayking. arguments in your head about like times you spend together and it's you know it passes you by so

quickly when you guys are thrown together how do you go from strangers to then friends to then it grows into like you just said like a brother brotherhood i mean each journey is different for everybody you know there's some wrestlers that are don't can't say each other and don't talk to each other outside the ring it's just it's just what happens uh and you know of course i think me and me and john we went through that stage early on that will publicize that we had this friction between us. And I think it wasn't until like towards the end of the wide stuff. And like really like when we did the Walsh and brother stuff that we just had this mutual respect of each other and basically said, hey, we've been stuck together.

We wanted to do single stuff, and for some reason, like, it brought us closer together, which, you know, would have tore apart many a day teams. But, like, I think the more time we spent together, the more we jelled as a team and the more we jelled as friends. And, you know, when Wyndham was no different, he was always there, you know, than when life, it's just hard to reflect. on these memories and be able to come up with the correct things to say because there's is no correct or right things to say. It's just we spend so much time together and you have tiffs with your family. We have tiffs as a team. We have and but like the good thing with the three of us is we usually had one, you know, like, oh, whoa guys, calm down. This will be good. So, like, we never had, like, crazy fights or anything I could remember.

It was literally just a family dynamic. And I think that's what I always remember, especially when we were riding together early. And we learned really quick, we needed to all ride separate and to really make this work. Did something happen? Nothing ever happened, but I, like, I remember in the beginning we had to share rooms. And I'm a horrible snore. Like, I'm, I need to go get a sleep at me, a machine or something, because I, I, I remember. I'm loud.

And if you're sleeping in the same room with me, you're not getting much sleep. You're getting a lot of sleep. I'm getting great sleep. But getting a pillow thrown at you every night in the middle of the night and me waking up, mid-sleep, sitting straight up being like, I can't help it. Like, I don't think that's really going to help, you know, it's going to cause a little friction. So I remember that. Once we stopped riding together, I think that really helps, you know, all of our friendships. because I think we were all getting better sleep.

You know, plus it's always good to have a little bit of privacy on the road, you know. How difficult is it having the constant reminders? I mean, I just picked you up from Jimmy's World Order. You did a signing there. And I'm sure you're signing photos where it's the Wyatt family. It's constant reminders, I'm sure, in your personal life, but it's also constant reminders in your professional life every single day. I mean, if I didn't remember,

then what does that say? Like, what does that say? Like, what kind of impact do these people have on me if I didn't remember? If I wasn't reminded, they obviously had a profound impact on me and my life. And me being reminded of it, you know, it makes me kind of smile. You know what I mean? Just because I'm constantly reminded of them in my life and what they meant to me. you know, whether it be what we went through together,

the hardships, the good times, the laughs, just from the feeling at the bottom to feeling at the top of the world. Like, these are just all sorts of different memories that I don't think I ever want to forget. Somebody's being robbed outside. Yeah, well, this is Hollywood for you. And that token, I'm going to take it. drink of this energy drink.

This F3 energy drink's going to fill you with it. F3 energy. These things are very good. I only know what you think of that original flavor there. You know, it's not bad. What is the main thing that people have you autograph at these signings? The main thing? Yeah.

Is it masks? I mean, the masks you can't find. So I sell some masks. Like I created, like I found a company that made them. do exact replicas who once wore it in a ring and I handpaint a few of them just to sell something a little different. But those seem to be the bestsellers and the most normal thing I think I saw on. I think people are blown away when they meet you in person to realize how big you are. Like, yeah, you look big in the ring, but then I think they stand next to you, like a normal sized human like myself,

stands next to you and like you're almost a foot taller than me. Well, I think people think I'm shorter than I am because we would be wrestling guys like Big Show, Callee. You know, we'd have big guys like Tenzai, Brodus Clay. I'm trying to think of every Kane Undertaker, like just giants that were still wrestling on the roster. Mark Henry, I think I said. So I just, when you put me up against somebody like, we're in Mysterio. Yeah, it's, you see the size of. difference, but I never really think about it that way. I just think about my size being a hindrance

and hitting my head on things when I walk, you know, walk onto a plane. It's very uncomfortable. When you walk onto a plane, I'm sure that everyone's sitting there, like as you're walking, everybody that's sitting there is going, oh, I hope he's not sitting next to me. Good, because that's exactly what I think. When I see a wide-shouldered young man walking under a plane, I'm like, please, please, not here. Could you imagine two wide-shouldered young men? so you and somebody else next to each other, there's no room for a third person. I mean, I've, I've, I've,

I've had to be on planes sitting next to, uh, Ryeback or, uh, big Captain Mike IRS, uh, we're stuck together in one, one seat like, like a little two by two. Not fun. And you,

I mean, who are you, nobody's going to want to sit next to that. No. It's not like you're going to switch seats. Do you mind sitting over here? No. No.

At what point did you get to be this tall? Like it, when did you get the growth spur? What age? I think I was around 18. So you were like a normal. I was like 6.6. 6.7.

Right now I'm about 6.8. But yeah, it's always been like tall. How tall were you at like 12, 13? I don't remember. It's so long ago. I guess. But like I do remember being incredibly like, you know, skinny, frail, like a beanpole, like, ninth grade I was like six foot four and like 195 pounds okay like I was I was skinny and it

wasn't until I started lifting weights I think that I like started gaining muscle and get in size so when you're a big guy and you're watching pro wrestling is it the other big guys that you're like I see a lot of me in those people well that's one of the reasons I got into pro wrestling is like he watched it as a kid and then you fade off usually and then I when you get older, so like me around like junior, senior year of high school, so like it was like 98, 99. I started watching again and I was like I saw guys like test and cane specifically at a no mercy like pay-per-view. My buddy had gotten and then we we just watched it and I was like, man, those guys were about my height. Like, man, I wonder if I could do that one day.

And I started watching them. I played football and I started watching all this wrestling. and there were all these big giant men like Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, you know, they had the big shows, The Undertakers, you know, just, and I was just like, man, that looks like you could be fun. And I was like, I wonder if I could do that. You never know. And then I went to an indie show while I was still in college football, but I had like a respiratory virus.

So like it was undiagnosed, ended up being RSV, which is. mostly in infants. So, like, I was having trouble just walking at that time. Wow. And breathing. And I was, like, an oxygen trying to finish games. Wow. And I remember going to some local independent show.

And on the show was WWF cruiserweight champion at the time, Jerry Lynn. And I was like, wow, this is the first time I'd watch wrestling live. And it was just like a little indie show in Minnesota somewhere. And Jerry Lynn was wrestling, uh, a, guy named Mitch Paradise, who was like a local big man legend in the Midwest. And, you know, he's like 6-6, 6-7, like 290 pounds, just like Greek god physique, like the prototypical, you know, WWF wrestler back in the day. And I saw them have just an awesome match that like looked realistic, hard hitting. And I just fell in love with wrestling.

completely. And I saw that the guy putting on the show was a guy in Terry Fox who worked with Eddie Sharkey. And I was like, how do I train? So that was kind of my intro to like, this is what I want to do. It was the first lava that I'd never been to. But that's a big jump to go from that looks like a cool thing that I see on TV to I think I can do that cool thing that I see on TV. Yeah. And all I had to do was just quit college to pursue it, but my mom was not too happy with, you know?

How do you break that kind of news to your mom of like, I want to try to be a wrestler? Sorry, I'm quitting college. Well, there was a compromise in there where, hey, mom, I'm going to not quit college. I'll move to like a junior college. I was like, I'll pursue like a degree, like a two-year degree instead of the four-year.

But I'm going to train to be a wrestler at the same time. That lasted about a semester. And then I was like, well, I need to get a real job. So you got to support yourself. So I worked at a gentleman's club to support myself while pursuing this wrestling dream. And then it just takes you in all sorts of different directions because I started training in 02. So 03, we have you first match. And then you're just on this journey, but you're stuck kind of in the same spot.

You don't really know, am I supposed to travel all over? Are I supposed to pay to travel? Where do I wrestle? You're kind of just doing local stuff. And then the first time I ever paid money to do a camp was a Harley race camp. And that was, I think, Beer City Brewzer had talked me into doing it. He was wrestling as dinty Moore at the time out of Wisconsin. So I went with him and another guy named Elvato, and I spent 500 bucks to do this camp,

week-long camp for for harley and it was going to have simon dean was talent relations to w w we at the time and they had pro wrestling no way there so i did the week-long tryout i busted my butt i went in the gym and i trained after you know we would we would do the wrestling during a day and i was like afterward i was like i got to go train i got to you got to work out too so then i worked out in the gym but i was the only one working out in the gym but the only other people were in there were the pro wrestling NOAA people. Perfect. So I think they saw that and they saw the dedication I had because I was the only one that was in there after all the training we did.

And then they came time to do the show. They pick a certain amount of people to wrestle the show. There was a problem where my blood worked and go through to wrestle in Missouri. So I was devastated. I was like, I made the show, but then I couldn't wrestle on the show. Yeah. It was like a highlight show at the end of the camp. whatever I watched the show.

I'm like, oh, that was a waste of $500. And then, whatever, I went home. And like two days later, I got a call. They won't believe this, but they want to have you come out and live in the dojo. And I was like, oh, well, cool. I'm working corrections at the time. And I'm like, I guess I got to tell them I need to quit this corrections job I just got. It seems to be this common thread with a lot of aspiring wrestlers that they work at a gentleman's club.

Like you work the door to gentlemen's club, right? it. Work the door, but you're also the bouncer. There's probably a lot of unruly people. You take the money and you pour the drinks. It was it was it was a NA, N.A. non-alcoholic. What drinks are you pouring then? I'm pouring old duels, you know, not alcoholic beer. Wow, that's zero percent. Somebody wants a cappuccino. Somebody wants a soda pop. You know, I'm there. Oh, that's right. There's certain states where if the women remove all of their clothing, you can't drink alcohol, that. Yes, but it was a gentleman's club.

It was not a strip club. That's right. You don't call it that. This episode is brought to you by Ghostbed. And if you're looking for the key to top-notch performance, it all starts with a good night's sleep. And that is coming from me, someone who is not getting a lot of it

with a newborn in the house. And if you're striving to reach your potential, it's time to pay attention to your sleep quality. That's where our friends at Ghost Bed come in. For over two decades, Ghostbed, a trusted family-owned business, has been dedicated to crafting premium cutting-edge mattresses that prioritize both quality and cooling comfort. Every ghost bed mattress is a testament to years of expertise, featuring luxurious materials

like contouring gel memory foam and cooling quilted covers. But here's the kicker. Ghostbed is also known for having incredible sales, making top-of-the-line sleep accessible to everyone. And for a limited time, you can snag an incredible 40% discount on your purchase by using the code CVV. You get a 101 night sleep trial, along with free shipping and returns when you purchase a mattress, so you can try it in the comfort of your own home. And Ghostbed has a dedicated team of sleep experts on standby to help you find your perfect bed. So head to ghostbed.com slash CVV to get started and use that code CVVV.

for a 40% discount on your purchase. UFC 296 is just around the corner, and Morgan & Morgan is giving you a chance to win tickets to be there live. Morgan & Morgan is the official injury law firm partner of the UFC, and they have a proven track record of fighting for the people with over $15 billion recovered for their clients. They're giving one lucky winner, $2,000 and two tickets to UFC 297, to see Leon Edwards defend his UFC

Walterway Championship against Colby Covington December 16th live in Las Vegas. Entry to win is super easy. Just text CVV to 4-4-484-373-3742 or just click the link in the show notes. It's super easy. It's MorganUFC.com slash CVV. It's funny how there's a lot of, like,

there's a lot of, I just had Carrying Cross in here and he worked as a bouncer. And like that seems to be a common thing where it's like you're working as a bouncer because you can handle your size. And that's kind of like all I did like because you had to support yourself. So I would either bounce or do corrections or do security for either counties or just different kind of things all within security. and so like that that was just kind of the thread of everything I did and yeah someone would be crazy to try to step up to a guy who's six foot eight and three hundred pounds there's a lot of

crazies out there so you're saying that this is not uncommon no i mean it happened to me today oh i don't there's yes it was went uh to the signing today and there was a 7-11 and uh this guy was out front this this frail individual and he basically said you tough, you can fight. And I was like, I don't fight. I said, and then he's like, well, I do. And then he like, try to get my face. What?

I just walked fast and I wasn't going to start anything. I go in, I buy some energy drinks, whatnot. And as I'm checking out, five cop cars are outside, five, which was nuts and obscene to me. And I look, look around as that guys, you know, being talked to by five. police officers and I'm like asked people who work there but like what happened well I guess the guy's been threatening everybody that's been walking through the whole day oh my gosh so they called the cops and they said this is LA so usually the cops don't show up but five is pretty overkill I guess they weren't doing anything but yeah but speaking of crazy tough guys yeah well welcome to

L.A. by the way that's not an uncommon story I think so it's a fun day for fun start to my day you know jeez well I hope the end of your day is better I hope so I'll be on a plane home. How long into what you were doing did WWE start taking notice of what you were doing? It wasn't like, so like when I got back from Japan, I was a single dad. So Harley wanted me to move to Eldon to keep training and doing his shows, and I couldn't do it. So I had to go back and I had to get another job to kind of support my son and me. and just wrestle on the weekends.

And if you know anything about trying to make it in wrestling, the last place that you want to go is to stay in one place and just learn from two or three different promotions around you because you're not going to get any better. You're going to get bad habits. Luckily, I was able to work some guys that were pretty good. So I remember FCW had like a FCW recruit site where you like upload like a match.

It wasn't like you send a tape. whatever but she like upload a match and then so like I did that I uploaded a match and I was just like well it happens it happens if not I'm supporting my son and I'm working a decent job doing security for a county and getting benefits and all that and I don't know like again about a week later after that they wanted to fly me out for a week long tryout for FCW Tom Pritchard was down there Steve Kern so went out and did that and the rest was history What do you think was the thing when you went down there that impressed them the most? I don't know.

I just know that with me personally, everything I do I put my heart and soul into and I'm not going to give up. And I just try to keep getting better and learning from any kind of like mistake I make in my head. I'm a perfectionist with myself. And you always learn something new every time you do anything. What was the original pitch for the Wyatt family? How did they lay it out for you? I don't think there was like an original type pitch. I know Wyndham was trying out this Whalen Mercy type cult character,

but there's no way the company was going to have. have a 30-person cult come out, you know, and travel on the road every week. So I know we like with Dusty Roads class, we like had like different people and different versions of like people come out with them. Like one was like Rick Vic, who was later in the Ascension, Brody and me. And like one like promo we did, we were like kidnapped Enzo for making fun of us or something. just weird stuff we would try. And when it came time to,

like they did like a, a video, but I wasn't included in this video. I think it was like Eli Cottonwood and, uh, I think Audrey Marie and Brody and they all did like this video concept for the wide family. And then Brody debuted as like the, the first son on NXT.

And then like two weeks later, like a day before TVA I said, oh, we want you to be the second son. I was like, okay. Because me and Brody

had been taken for a while down in the next D. It made sense. So I was like, okay, but all I have is trunks. You know?

Yeah. And I was doing like this, this, this, this, this, this felt not

Viking stuff, which I told, I was told would never work, by the way. You could never be a Viking. Viking gimmick won't work. It would never work.

Oh, that's interesting. I can't believe that. But, no, why. So luckily in the trunk of my car, I had a pair of pajanaba bottoms. You know, I had jeans, but I didn't want to wear what Brody was wearing because he was wearing the jeans and the flannel and the A shirt.

I was like, well, what the heck am I going to wear? Luckily, I had a pair of coveralls from a reality show to Norway from a farm with green coveralls with like reflective yellow on them that looked horrendous. But I cut the sleeves off and like, It seemed to be a good look because I was a fan of horror movies, just the same as Wyndham and the Michael Myers aesthetic, the slip not aesthetic of the coveralls, but like cut the sleeves off so you could actually show some, you know, like physique. Yeah. Because those things don't really show much physique at all. Yeah.

And they're very hard to work in. So my movements were extremely limited. Could you have like cut armpit holes or something to, you know, make them a little bit easier to move around in? No. I tried everything. I went and I ended up getting flight suits later on that fit a little bit better, but like I could barely move. It wasn't until I started wrestling in jeans that I was like, man, I can move so much better. I don't think people take that into account at all. No, they just think I'm a slow big man, which is fine with me. No, no. Were you originally just Rowan when you debuted in NXT? No, it was always Eric Rowan. But when Bray says it, he says, this is my other son, Rowan. Like, he doesn't say Eric Rowan.

I don't know. I just know they always announced me as Eric Rowan. Maybe he just called you as Rowan. Actually, the announcers didn't know your name at that point. It wasn't until the Bludgeon Brothers, the official name changed to Rowan. And then I feed it with Roman. And Vince got confused. And he couldn't say Rowan and Roman at the same thing.

It was like, it was like, you know, like one of those like, can't say it three times Rowan, Roman, Roman. Did he threaten to change your name? So he's like, send you back to Eric. That's when everybody was losing their name. Yeah, but I got my back. I was one of the few to get it back.

At the time. At the time, and that it started to be a thing because remember Apollo Cruz was just Apollo, and then Austin Theory was just Theory. Ali was just, there was so many. There was so money. It's not bad. Not bad, right?

Yeah. I got a few more for you. A few different flavor. pretty good speaking of roman i saw such an interesting fact i don't even know if you're aware of this you are one of the last four people to pin roman reigns are people upset about this no no not at all because because to me should i mean should he feel bad for losing to a six foot eight 330 pounder no this is being celebrated it's like i think that it's such a because he hasn't lost in so long that it's like these are the last four people that beat roman romewomen rinds.

So who are the other ones? It is Shane, you, Baron Corbin, and Jay Uso. Jay Uso beat him? Yeah, like not long ago. But not for the belt. Not for the belt. Like the tag match, oh God, everyone's going to just destroy me for this. But I think it's a fun fact of like, oh my gosh, it's been that long that, you know,

someone who's not even working there anymore has a victory over him. Yeah, it's been a while. You should be working there. You should be working. It was good to see you back. The circumstances weren't great, but it was good to see you back on WWE programming for the Bray tribute. I feel like that should have led to something else.

Like what? You being there a week later, you being there the week after that, like I just feel like there's something there. And the same thing happened in A.W. You were there for the tribute to John, and it's like, now what? Like, and was there ever talk in AEW of you doing more stuff?

Because you made one other appearance there. I mean, I think there was always something about like possibly in the future. And it's always that possibly in the future thing that I always hear. And it's like, if it's the right time, it's the right time. If it's the right thing, it's the right thing. I, what I loved about wrestling was always surprises. And guys would come out and it'd be like, holy crap, this guy just came out. And now he's like got this storyline.

the spewed and now he's a hot commodity instead of like oh this guy just came out well where is he now he hasn't been on tv for like three weeks that's not exciting to me like what's what was exciting to me was these guys like i remember when nash hall and hogan came and this was like during no way out with w w e and it was like holy crap these guys are here now and like then they got stuck in all these like top feuds with like the rock and it was like it was exciting because it was like something different to watch and you were instantly hey this is who I am and this is what I'm going to do and here's why I'm doing it like and I don't think there's a lot of that happening right now when John went to AW and everything with the dark order there was a lot of whispers of like it would

make sense for you to be there at the same time when he was debuting was there ever talk of that happening? When Brody was in AW originally, when he made his debut there? Oh, so we talked a lot

like when he was doing it because I was always like, I'm so happy for you. Like you're having, it looks like you're having a blast. He's like, he never was given much promo time in WWE.

So like watching him do the, even the, the, the, the BTE episodes. I would watch that just to watch his segments because he's having fun.

He's speaking. He's being this character. He wanted to be. And he was a fan of like mobster movies and stuff like that. So I hear him watching this giant man do Joe Pesci. Like it's crazy. Like, he's just throwing papers at people. And he can tell he's just having a blast.

And I was on the phone with him talking about how happy and happy it was for him. And like, he had this like spark under him about how much fun he was having. And at the same time, I think I had started doing some films. And he was throwing back the same things to me and how excited he was for me and like what was going to happen for me in the future. So it was that kind of mutual thing. And then there was never any talk of it. I mean, we talked eventually about maybe doing some sonics together or maybe like doing a couple, you know, like shows maybe in Japan or something. But like we had never talked about doing anything there because he was building something for him.

and we had fought so hard to get out of each other's shadows for so long because we were always connected and we wanted something for ourselves and to see him start to get something for himself and for me to be able to branch off and do stuff for myself like those were great conversations to have you know and as far as like after he passed it's like I wouldn't want anything to do with Dark Order, ever. And it's not because I don't think those guys are cool. It's because that was his legacy. He created that.

In such a short amount of time, he made them something very special. And nobody should try to replace that. And those guys do good by honoring him, but I don't see them ever being as big as they were with him. Well, he's irreplaceable. Oh, absolutely. He has this, like he's, has this like charisma about him that, yeah,

the dark order's great, but they're not him. And I feel like it's the same with Bray. And I'm actually curious there. After you got released, and then Bray was doing what he was doing, was there ever talk of bringing you into that world two years ago,

three years ago? Wouldn't have been talked to me about wanting to involve me. But, you know, it's all about timing and places and story. and what works best for the company, you know, and it's not all individual's decision. So, yeah, we've had conversations about, like, things we'd like to do

and, like, stuff in the future, but, like, you know, life happens, and things happen and unfortunate things happen that are way more important than anything to do with this fictional wrestling that we do. It's interesting because I say Bray Wyatt, and then you answer Wyndham. What's the difference between Bray Wyatt and Wyndham? Bray Wyatt, character. Wyndham Rotundo?

Human being. John Huber, human being. Brody Lee, Luke Harper, characters. Eric Rowan, Eric Redbeard, character. Joseph Rood, human being. Like, we don't talk about actors being being, oh my gosh look it's it's the guy from this movie like and then he named the character and you yell it out like you don't do that you mean you don't you don't yell to val kilmer mad martigan

what a deep cut on that but but you don't that's great but you don't and wrestling's the only thing we're calling everybody by the character names it's such an interesting thing and And in this day and age with K-Fabe, all but being dead in the water, like, I don't understand why we're all we're supposed to be this character outside. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah, you can keep KFAB. When we're on TV, when we're in the ring, the show, we're that character. When we're out in an airport, when we're out with our families, we're.

just us. If you want to come say hi, cool, but respect the boundaries of us being human beings and not just being with this wrestler. Like, because like I get it. Fans sometimes feel like they're owed something. And yes, we wouldn't have jobs if it wasn't

for the fans, but either with actors. Actors wouldn't have fans if it wasn't for them to watch the products to pay for this prescriptions to the, you know, like the at home stuff and it's always odd to me.

It is. Could you imagine seeing Brian Cranston in an airport and being like, do the thing. Say my name. Say it. Say it.

And I'm sure they get it. I'm sure. But not at the extent that professional wrestlers get it. Do you think it's because Brian Cranston has played 50, 60, however many characters he's played?

Do you think that's why? I'm sure that it has something to do with it. And like, I think that's what I love about acting is you can play all these different characters, as opposed to wrestling where you're just basically the same character, but you're exploring more of that character and getting deeper and deeper as the seasons of wrestling go. Yeah, and then some people have another character that's vastly different from the character that they were playing before,

but you're going to have, what, two, three, four characters in a career? Mostly it's just people getting confused between what's the character and what's the storyline. Yeah. A storyline is just that character doing something different. Yeah. But it's still that same character. And there are plenty of examples of, you know, like stunning Steve Austin is vastly different from Stone Cold Steve Austin. And I'm sure we could give plenty of examples like that.

But in a great career, you have three or maybe. Like smoking guns, Billy Gun is very different from Billy and Chuck Billy Gunn, which is very different now from Daddy ass Billy Gunn. They're all some sort of version of Billy Gun, though, I guess. All sort of the same, right? I guess they're all, yeah, I guess so. But you're doing a lot of acting. And in that, and in this conversation here,

I think people are seeing like, man, Joseph speaks really well. Like, maybe they should have given him a chance to cut some more promos. Oh, man. I just think we were missing that. You know, it's funny because, uh, I remember I did a role for a TV show and like I spoke more in that one role than I did I think like half of my career, which is nuts. It's it's nuts. Like I don't get it sometimes and like what?

It's been, I think it's been three years since the pandemic started and all the releases happened. and yeah, I've been like on national television with other promotions with AEW, but not once have I been given an opportunity to speak. That's that's crazy to me. And I don't know why. I don't know if people don't think I know how to speak. But I'm obviously sitting here talking to you. And you know, you can you can watch anything I do on film.

It's, you know, they're obviously different characters, but it's still spoken word. Film is basically the art of screen presence speaking. Think of the character work that you could do after everything that you've been through in the last three years. That promo that you're going to inevitably cut one day, you're going to have a lot to say. I don't know. I don't control it. I'm having fun doing what I'm doing. If somebody wants to creatively do something with me, cool.

If not, I'll still have an outlet to speak. So I'm fine with that. You're doing a lot of auditions right now, right? Well, I was. There's currently a strike going on that needs to be settled. and they're not asking for much. So hopefully there's something settled within the next 30 days, because I think they're on day like 101 right now of this strike.

I would really hope it's done before the end of the year. Well, you hope. Because if you're at home, what are you going to watch? I mean, you're going to watch reality TV? I mean, I saw there was new SNLs coming out, and I was like, how is that possible? And I was like, oh, that's because it's underage. a different section.

Yes. And those writers were on strike. Those writers are no longer on strike. But the actors are under a different code because it's like it's, it's like an improv TV show. Yeah. Which is like professional wrestling. There's, if you're a say, you're still able to wrestle us.

You're doing, doing it, rocks doing it. But it's under a different code. It's under like a reality type script, not scripted, non-scripted show. I think what's going to happen is the networks are going to see the earner. from Q4, and they're going to go, oh, my God, this is not good. And the strike will end either end of Q4 or beginning of Q1. Because I think that the strike was barely going on at the end of Q3. They were like, oh, we're fine.

The numbers still look okay, subscriber numbers, and everything looks okay. And I think that at the end of this quarter, they're going to go, oh, yeah, we need new shows and actors to do them. Well, it's like right now everybody's catching up on those old shows. and it's like just, I was just on a flight from from Sydney today to come here to LA. Which is insane, by the way. Thank you for being here. Oh, no problem. You were in Sydney at some point while you were still awake.

Exactly. You might have slept a little bit on the plane, but it's always so weird when you leave Australia and you come here and like you gain so much time. You leave there at like noon and you land here at like 1 p.m. It's odd. I'm a time traveler. But yeah, I said that's my daughter. She's like, what day is it? And I tell her it's like a day ahead. Yeah. Like, I'm in the future. You are.

What's going on back then? Give me the lottery numbers. But, but no, it's, uh, it's just, I don't know. I lost my train of thought. You were saying on the, on the flight over you, please, drink some more after energy. On the flight over here, you were watching a show, catching up on a show. So, yeah, so I feel like there's so many shows that people are right now, divulging all this, this stuff that's older.

Yeah. That may be canceled already. Like, I think I was watching on the plane. I was watching a show called, I don't know, Rabbit Hole with Kiefer Silverland. Great show. I have like three episodes then. I'm like, man, like a good show.

But it's like there's so many shows that people probably miss because there's so much new content. But then what happens and everybody watches all that content? And they just like, you have nothing to watch. Yeah. And then what do you do? It's almost like we're in this paradox of choice right now. because there is so much because it's Netflix and Hulu and Paramount Plus and Apple TV and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and movie theaters. Of course. YouTube, yes, where we are right now and movie theaters. And I still think that nothing beats the theatrical experience. There are very few moments in life where you put your phone down and you focus on what's happening and you're present in the moment. This, what we're doing right now is one of the very rare ones having a podcast conversation.

Our phones aren't on the table. We're not watching them light up. No, who texted me? Who is that? What's that? Yeah. Oh, sorry. What's that?

Yeah. Oh, sorry. Oh, yeah. It's just a hand. And the movie theater is another one where it's like you're going in there for two, two and a half hours, whatever it is. And your focus is on the screen. Yeah. I mean, nothing like, nothing like the movie theater experience.

I mean, I love going to the theater and just watching the classics. Like, whenever they have like the retro nights and they show the old films, I'll, I'll bring my daughter, like some of the old. I made her go to Bill and Ted's excellent adventure. Like, she's got to watch the classics. I think one of the first movies I'm going to show my daughter is back to the future. I just love that movie. I think it's the perfect film. And if it happens to be playing in a theater, even better. Anything with Christopher Lloyd's got my checkmark approval. Great Scott. I know you're a big horror guy. Give me like top three for you. So I'm weird when it comes to horror. Oh, boy. So like the top of my list,

Texas chains, number two. Number two. Dennis Hopper's craziness, Bill Mosley's Chop Top, Bill Johnson's Leatherface. Then you have the DJ, the helpless DJ who tries to fight her way out, but Leatherface has the Hots for her. It's a weird movie. And what's Dennis Hopper doing? He's so mad. He's deranged the whole movie.

I love it. That's classic 80s. And then you go from that to the weirdest of the Halloween. Halloween three. Wow, these are deep cause. So this is Season of the Witch, and Tom Atkins is just trying to save the world from this crazy scientists that are trying to take over the world on Halloween night with these masks he put on and they melt your face.

So those two are up there for my all times. But then when you, I think, get into the other ones, I'm always like back and forth on what I'd like, you know what I mean, as far as like my third best horror movie. And I can never decide. Like I love my bloody Valentine. Oh, yeah. Like anything, I think I can pick any movie from the 80s. But like I love campy.

So it would probably be a maximum overdrive. Do you remember the most scared you've ever been watching a horrific? Maximum Overdrive? Okay. The pop machines. If you haven't seen this scene, I can give it away because it happens at the beginning of the movie. Basically, all the machines turn like there's an asteroid, this thing in the sky that makes all the machines come to life and start killing people. Cars are running over people.

Law and movers are going and running over people's legs. And there's this one scene with a pop machine. And this coach put like a quarter in and he's trying to get the money out. And it's just, the pop just comes out like 90 miles an hour, hits the guy in the groin. He bends over and it starts hitting them in the head over and over again. And it kills the guy. Oh, geez. And then it starts going after this team of little leaguers.

And it just starts spitting out pop cans left and right. And it's the most absurd thing I've ever seen. But then you found out later on that Stephen King, who directed it was on cocaine the entire time. So it made sense. But I love that movie because immediately West of us, you know, the badass in that movie. Repo Man was always up there too. It's just this crazy movie about aliens. Well, you've definitely given horror fans some very interesting deep cuts to go back and watch now.

Just anything from the 80s. Watch it. Really, the 80s in general. Some, especially when it comes to horror, some weird stuff going on there. I mean, prime time for horror, wrestling. Yeah? Music. Got some good metal bands.

That's true. Yeah. Yeah. So it's, 80s was a good time. Plus, I was born. Me too. 80's the best time. Cheers to some F3.

You should be drinking it. Cheers to some F3. All right. I got tropical theory here. I think a lot of people forget that the Rock's last match was against you. Yeah. Well, it was a shorter one. I don't know why you got to remind me of this.

That's an honor. You know, you say it's an honor. But then I started really thinking about it. Some fan came into the signing today, and he was wearing the rocks, Brahma bowl, like shirt. And I was like, really? Like, come on. You get a little bit of my face.

He starts laughing. And it got me thinking, what does Brahma bowl stand for? So what does the Brahma stand for? So I looked it up because I was curious. Brahma is a Hindu god. that means the creator the creator the creator

bowl so it got me thinking what what is what the hell does that mean I really want to know like how did he come up with that and you're the kind of guy that'd be able to ask him that question I will ask him this next time so please find out why he wanted to be the Brahma bull

that's like me being the Loki sheep that's pretty good too the god of mischief that's pretty good a sheep I mean, it's ridiculous sounding, but it actually might work. But don't you feel like this is a nice notch on the belt to say, like, yeah, the Rock's last match is against me? And I shouldn't feel bad because he's technically a Hindu god? No.

I just think that people go back to like, oh, it must be Sina, right? It must be WrestleMania 29, Sina, yeah, the twice in a lifetime match. Oh, yeah. But no. It was it 32? It was WrestleMania 32. Yeah. How did you be the,

how were you the guy for that? Because Ron couldn't be beat. They had to protect Wyndham. And John had just suffered a torn Patella. So it would have been paper rock's issues between me and John taking the quickest pin. So, yeah,

I just happened to win the short straw on that one. Again, this should be an honor. No? It should be an honor. You shared a ring with a rock. No. Like as Joseph Rood, yeah.

It was an honor. As Eric Rowan, it was humiliating. Was there, and I'll speak to Joseph here. Yes. Was there talk of it, like how fast were they trying to make this match? The fastest in history. But were they like, okay, rock bottom one, two, three, the match could be done in five seconds, four seconds, six, seconds, seven? Like, did they?

They just said rock bottom one, two, three. Okay. They want to get it done before 10 seconds or 8 seconds, whatever the record was. So they could beat the record. Absolutely. Because the rock jumps on you for that pin. Like I've never seen the rock go for a pin ever. I'm really appreciative of that.

He didn't do the Randy Orton pin where he hits the RKO, does a couple poses. Yeah. And then slowly goes on the guy. Well, then he wouldn't have beaten the record then. At what point do they tell you you're going to be having a match with the rock? Like the day before. And your reaction? I'm not in the Andre the Giant Battle Royale.

I was supposed to say that angrily, but I did. It's the rock. No, exactly. So, you know, it could add worse things to do that weekend. I think you are severely underselling how cool this is. It's weird to me because it's like it's work. And yeah, you have fun, cool moments and things that stick out on your head. was that the coolest moment I had in the ring?

No. I've been fortunate enough to do a lot of cool stuff. But yeah, it was cool. But was that the dream I had as a child? No. What was the coolest moment you've ever had in the ring? The coolest moment I had in the ring? Besides pinning Roman brains.

It's a pretty good one. Well, I did enjoy that match, and only because at the end of it was a surprise. And the surprise was John coming back and knowing I get to tag with them the next, you know, pay-per-view and have at least one last quick run before he, you know, left. So that to me was a cool special moment because that you could see the real brotherhood there. You know what I mean? And that last few weeks we had together was probably the most fun I've ever had wrestling.

You know what I mean? But obviously, I think when I look at moments of just different career. things. I think, I think me and him winning the belts at, you know, WrestleMania 34. It was probably probably one of the highest. Maybe it's not a specific moment, but when the Wyatt family

entrance caught on, especially at, you know, at a WrestleMania stadium, that must be one of the coolest things. Oh, those entrances were fun. They were cool. I did a lot of shit knocking underneath the mask. To who?

I tried to bring up. break the other two guys. Never worked, but I tried. So what were you saying? What were you saying? I said, must suck. I said, so how's it looking out there, guys? Like, just, just rubbing them, like, like, I don't know, man.

We're just having fun. Like, me and John would be under the ring watching some of Wendham's matches, and then we'd just be ripping him during his, like, matches, like, just to each other. Like, and then we get at the back, back and be like, oh, yeah, good match, man. I always wondered when did you guys film the name of the city. We're here. Was that filmed right before? Was it live?

What was the deal? Usually we did that for just a pre-tape at every town. So just at some point throughout the day, got you guys together. Yeah. And we'd do it. We wouldn't do it live only because the lighting and all that sort of stuff had to be a certain way. Right. Yeah.

That was a very cool entrance. Oh, it was always fun. Yeah. I mean, I think that entrance and New Day's Biggie introduction is my two favorites in wrestling. Oh, that's pretty good. Yeah. Don't you dare be sour. For your world class, take you chance and feel the power.

But he'd do this weird wiggle while he does it. Oh, because he's doing that lot. But he'd be backstage doing it live. And nobody would see him doing the wiggle. Feel the power. And he would just go nuts with it. I mean, you could feel the energy. Speaking of the tag team championships,

what you had with you and Daniel Bryan, I felt like there was something there. What happened? I mean, we were on the pre-show as tag champions. I mean, what's that tell you about how they viewed the tag teams at the time? Especially when Daniel Bryan was, you know, just world heavyweight champion. And then... The eco-champ.

Yeah, the eco-champ. You know, so like to then go to trying to like make the tag titles mean something. And then being on the pre-show, you know, it's kind of like a, kind of like an insult, I guess. But like we tried the best we could and at least it led some sort of feud. You know what I mean? And then to me, I was happy with the end of it because I finally got to get a microphone and start talking for a few weeks. you know so which again was probably the most fun i'd had when they're letting me talk and you know kind of like be a character that i want to be and then uh the cage stuff happened but like you know

i can beat that in the head all i want you know but like when you go from talking on a microphone and having a story to basically having no direction and being told not to speak yeah it's it's kind of a creative headache uh it's kind of like being cast in a tv show and every week you got like your own backstory and like you're like explaining more yourself to the audience at home and people are getting invested and then all of a sudden you're like in like three episodes in the background yeah yeah it's just kind of like a deflater but like the cage stuff was really cool and we talked about it at great length during the last episode yeah what the original plan was there but it was so good and it actually kind of ties into what you were saying earlier about like the element of surprise you came out with

that cage and for weeks people were like what's in there what could it be is there's something in there and i think that element of like not knowing was so intriguing revealing it at all i think was a mistake jump the shark yeah the classic saying jump the shark but but hey it's it's all hindsight it's all what what happens happens uh and it can't be changed uh people remember it good batter and different, which is a good thing. But I liked your idea of like maybe there's nothing in the cage. And it's like it's, it's you, you projecting something into the cage. Maybe it's the worst fears of your opponent or whatever.

That's so smart. You know what's not smart? A giant spider. I'm sorry. Well, that's you saying it. You can say that. I can say. Look, everybody knows.

I was dumb. Okay. And I don't often say negative things. about wrestling. That was dumb. What are you looking at? Sorry. I'm looking at the spider.

Oh, you're doing the third thing where you stare at the camera. You're like, you're actually breaking that fourth wall. I was cutting a promo. But promos you don't break the fourth wall, do you? Don't you talk to the people at home, brother?

Yeah, but you don't look directly in the camera. You don't? You're doing it right now. See? This is terrifying, by the way. I'm going to blink. There, I've ruined it.

Block asleep. You don't look in the camera when you're cutting a promo? you look at the people. What if it's a backstage promo? I never looked at the camera. Who'd you look at? What'd you look at?

The interviewer. I'm just looking at the interviewer. Or the back of my mask. It's all so true. Yeah, I guess. Or I tried to do a Rubik's Cube or something for six weeks. Is that a thing? Well, you know, there was a promo once where they said I was a genius and everybody believed

it, but yet it took me. six weeks to finish a Rubik's Cube, which wouldn't that tell you I'm not a genius? I mean, those things are hard. Yeah, but people can do them in like 10 seconds. Or last three seconds. Crazy. I can't believe it. I think it's fake.

There's no way. I can't believe it either. I got to see it to believe it. When I see those videos, I still don't believe it. No. Because they like hit the thing to start the timer. It's done. Like what?

It's crazy. I don't know how we got on this topic. Mad respect. I have an insane amount of respect for anybody who's the very best at what they do like that, especially when people can accomplish things that I know that I couldn't accomplish unless I had decades of work put into it. It's amazing what you can accomplish that if you put your mind to it, back to the future. It blew my mind there, but I was thinking of this other quote where it's like we underestimate what we can do in a decade and overestimate what we can do in a year. And it's so true, right?

People just look ahead like one year of like, oh, well, I thought last year I could do this thing by now and I didn't. So that really sucks instead of going like, well, what if the goal is actually 10 years from now? And I'm chipping away at it every day for the next 10 years. Or what could I do today to help me get farther along tomorrow than I was the day before? I love that so much because then the next day, you're that much further than you were the day before. 1% better every day. I mean, even 0.5%. Even 0.1%.

I mean, change your diet. How do you do it? Let's just take away one thing a day. Oh, I eat this candy bar. I'm not doing that today. Well, now I'm going to take away another thing. Well, I'm not going to do that apple. It just added too much sugar to my diet.

Oh, I'm going to replace that apple with some spinach. Oh, now I'm going to do that every day. Pretty soon your diet's perfect. and you're looking better already. I say to people, like, just take out the soda. Like, stop drinking soda pop, whatever you want to call it. Just take out the soda. This is sugar-free.

Don't take out the soda, but I'm trying to drink the peach mode. Peach mood's great. There's no caffeine in that one. Did I say peach mode? See, that's something that, again, reminds me of John and Windham. They would always give me crap because I always mispronounce things. Like I just said peach mod instead of peach mood. It's clearly peach mood.

But sometimes I read things and I say the wrong pronunciation. And you're looking right at the camera too. And right at the camera. Now that I've embarrassed myself with my speech. Is there one? Maybe it's piece of advice. Maybe it's story from Wyndham that you're reminded of every day that rattles around in your head every day?

So I don't I don't think it was more advice and I think it's just being confident and this comes from John as well in yourself because you know what you do best. It's good to go outside your comfort zone. It's good to try different things. it's it's it's it's it's good to fail like those are things that help you that make you better do things outside your comfort zone like that's the that's the ultimate i learned from those guys don't always stick to things that you're comfortable with because if you always do that what what are you going to improve on how are you going to improve yourself like somebody who's afraid of public speaking.

A, do a speech in front of somebody. No, no, no. If you're in school, you got to do a speech for it. I don't want to do a speech in front of anybody. I'm not going to do it. I'll get the F. But if you do the speech in front of people, it's nervous at first. But then if you do another one, and another one, and another one,

what was once outside your comfort zone is now something easy. Yeah, I think that when people say, I can't. it sets them up for failure because they think that I can and I can't are such powerful phrases because whatever you put after that, you start to believe in your own self. Don't be afraid to be silly. Don't be afraid to do things off kilter, like, you know, a scream there, a goofy dance here, like, who cares? Who cares what people think?

Yeah. And that's something I've always thought. it's like you're you you know who you are you don't need to put a front on about being a certain type thing what you don't need to you i heard for the longest time you look a certain way this is how you should act it's that goes back to the whole thing of because of the way you look this is the way you should sound well you look like you should speak like this there's no there's no read or wrong just because you look a certain way never judge a book by its cover yeah ever everybody's different everybody's unique in their own silly wonderful way everybody everybody brings something

incredible to this world and don't take other people's opinion and have it shape what you want to be and who you're going to be don't be to be the weird one. Like honestly, like I feel like a lot of people are afraid to be themselves because they're afraid

of how they might be judged. And you shouldn't be afraid. Be who you are. That's so good. All right, so I asked the same question at the end of every episode. And that was so good, by the way. Gratitude is such an important part of my life.

I wake up every day. I say out loud, three things I'm grateful for and I do it with my wife before we go to bed, even if she's crazy tired because we have a five-month-old baby. What if you're fighting? We don't. Everyone fights. I got to say, knock on wood. We haven't really had any real fights.

Oh, a fight, a tiff. A disagreement over a piece of bread. Is it rye bread? Is it wheat? How dare you? It's wheat. There has to be something, you guys. agree on. I mean, there's, I want to watch sports. I want to watch the opera. I do. I don't know.

I just think that there's more important things to focus on. We haven't had like a real fight. Knock on wood. Now I'm, I'm sure I'm jinksing it now. But yes, we do it every night. Sometimes she's like, oh, I'm tired. Can we just do it tomorrow? I'm like, no. Just got to do it tonight. That was a fight. That's a fight. That's a fight. That's a fight. That's a tiff. Hey, let's do this. Oh, come on. Let's do it to do it. She's like, all right, I'm grateful for you and the baby and the dog. Wow, and then you feel great because you're like, wow, I've got, you know, even how we're tough today was. I've got some pretty cool stuff.

So what are three things in your life, Joseph, that you're grateful for as we sit here right now? I'm grateful for my wife. I'm grateful for my kids. And I'm grateful for my health. I love it. Yeah, health's always one that I'm listing off too. Without health, what you got? I mean, you're healthy till tomorrow.

Yeah. And you live till tomorrow. So good to sit down with you today. Oh, it was good to actually see you in person. Yeah, I know. So, so good. Yeah. So thank you very much.

Oh, you're welcome. Oh, man. I love that story at the end about embracing what makes you uniquely you. Don't be afraid to be weird. I loved it. Love this conversation with Eric Rowan. Eric Redbeard, so, so much. And I know there's been talk of like the Wyndham Six being a thing.

It would be such a shame. Number one, if that's not a thing. And number two, if Eric Rowan is not involved in that. He has so much talent. And it's actually, it blows my mind that AEW hasn't picked him up or WWE hasn't re-signed him. It seems like a travesty, especially after getting to know him in the first interview that we did, if you want to go check that out from three years ago.

and also during this conversation. I loved it. I hope that you did as well. Please snap a screenshot. Let us know you're listening. Tag us so we can share it out as well. He's at Eric Redbeard. I'm at Chris Van Vleet.

And speaking of things being shared, I put this on Twitter the other day. It got a lot of reposts. So I will share it here verbally as well. Stop being afraid of what could go wrong and start being excited about what could go right. Be great and be grateful. Have an amazing weekend.

We will see you on the next one for some more insight. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do with rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media

about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Ticket ban you of it. Get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.