Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Ethan Page On Becoming NXT Champion, Leaving AEW, Joe Hendry, Shawn Michaels

Episode Date: September 24, 2024

Ethan Page (@OfficialEGO) is a professional wrestler and the current NXT Champion in WWE. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida to talk about his surprising arrival in WWE, winning the NXT Championship in record time, why he left AEW, the first conversation he had with Shawn Michaels, the upcoming NXT move to the CW Network on October 1st, being the subject of one of Joe Hendry's famous parody songs and more. Quote I'm thinking about: "Life isn't about being perfect, it's about being ridiculously passionate that people think you're a little crazy" - Case Kenny 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 FACTOR MEALS: Get 50% off your first box and 20% off your next month at http://factormeals.com/Insight50 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 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

How are you, my friends? Welcome back to another one here on Insight with Chris Van Fleet. Hey, that's me. I'm CVV. Chris Van Fleet. I had a blast last night. Monday Night Raw in Ontario, California. It was amazing being there in the building.

And seeing so many of you guys, being able to say what's up, talk a little wrestling while also watching a little bit of wrestling. Hope you guys had an amazing weekend. Thank you for being with us on this episode. And thank you for helping to make insight the number. one wrestling podcast on the planet. Hit a power bomb on that follow button so you don't miss out on any of the big interviews that we have in the next few weeks.

And then some of the big interviews we have to just round out 2024. This has been by far the biggest year ever for the podcast and the YouTube channel. So just want to say thank you for being on this journey with me as we continue to climb up the charts. and I can't wait to show you how we're going to wrap up this year and what we have in store for 2025. It's big. So good to have Ethan Page back on the show.

We go way back like 15-ish years. And if you've been listening to the show for a while, you've heard a few of these interviews with him. And we talk about it here on this one, but he's been on the show at every different stage of his career. And look at him now. He is the NXT champion from his debut. to winning the championship was a record 40 days. And just as his friend, I'm so happy that the world's finally seeing what he's capable

of. And with NXT moving to the CW, beginning on October 1st, even more people are going to be able to see what he's capable of and just everything that is going on in NXT. And speaking of that, we recorded this interview about a week or so ago at the Performance Center in Orlando. I know this is the podcast version. I know you're just listening to this right now, but if you have some time today,

check out the video version of this on YouTube. We recorded it on one of the actual sets they use for NXT. It looks beautiful. This might be the best-looking interview we've ever done. I know that the one we did with Edge was a pretty beautiful-looking interview in his home gym with the titles behind him there and his bright edge colors like the red. like very prominent.

I know that was a really nice looking interview. Just check this one out. And not just this one. It's going to be this one we did with Ethan Page. We've also got Thursday's episode with Sean Spears. And then next Tuesday, Trick Williams. So just a bunch of NXT stuff filmed at the Performance Center. Snap a screenshot.

Let us know you're listening by tagging us. He's at official ego on Twitter. At official underscore ego on Instagram. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. and here we go. Please welcome my friend, Ethan Page. Oh my goodness. I'm ready for you, Chris.

Look. You live in the boyhood dream. You are really good at this because you couldn't have picked it better. Yes, I am. I am living the boyhood dream. It's like I'm just as a friend. Yes. I'm just so happy for everything that you've done in your career.

but this is like the cherry on top. Yeah, that's how I feel. And because I'm Canadian, I'm going to do exactly what you did. I'm very happy for you too. Well, we were talking off camera. I was texting you about this too, them mentioning you on Raw. It's incredible. That was mind-blowing to me.

Yeah, it's all natural too. It just seems like the natural progression, the growth, the fans just, yeah. Joe Tessator name dropping me was like, what? Yeah. What? Crazy. Incredible. And in the way, the way,

They did it. It was like, oh, this guy's an entity already. Everyone should just know CVV. You know those letters? This is so passive, just, oh, on CVV. Well, here I am on CVV. And you're the Nxti champ. Hell yeah, I wanted to start with this just to be able to show you.

Look at those side plates. Do you want to hold it? Wow. Could I? Yeah, we're buddies. Oh, my goodness. You're not going to, like, hit me from behind, are you? No.

That was just for Trick Williams. Hold on. Let me just put it over my shoulder here. There you go. All right. So please continue your interview. I go to the other shoulder, right? That's probably more comfortable.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm still learning everything here, but you actually have to have the W pointing inward. Oh, my gosh. Come on. You got to follow the rules, man. I'm holding the belt incorrect. You're going to get me fired.

There's rules? For photographs. I've got too much inside going on right now. Okay. There you go. So that's correct. That is correct. I'm a company guy,

making sure we're doing this right. Wow. I feel like the real, champ here. Yeah. Feels nice, right? And I just hold it for the rest of the interview. If you wanted to, honestly, sure, because it is very heavy. It is. Look at you, man. Thank you. I think what's so impressive about it is, would it be disrespectful if I pass it off camera? Well, just pass it, yeah, pass it to someone off camera here. I think that would totally be. Yeah, there we go. That makes perfect sense. Thank you. Thank you. Be careful. It is very heavy. I also don't want to drop it.

from your debut to you winning the championship. Yes. 40 days. Which I guess is a record. At least I'm going to, if I'm wrong, it's because that's what I read on the internet that fans were saying. It's a record. Yeah.

Yeah. Fastest championship. And I also think, Vic Joseph was saying this to me that he thinks that I think I think I have the most PLE main events consecutively and the fastest amount. I'm on a really good run right now. Yeah. How does it feel?

Validating. I think that's the perfect word, validating. It's like imagine your whole life you have this vision of what your potential could be. And no one around you sees the same vision as you. And then magically, the greatest wrestler of all time just has the same vision as you. And it's like, y'all let you do that. And here I am. Doing it.

Wow. The Boyhood Dream, dude. What was your first conversation with Sean Michaels? It was hidden in one of these back rooms in this building. And essentially, it was like, hey, I don't know everything about you, but you seem like a guy that's never been given a fair shot. So I'm going to give it to you. Wow.

Yeah. Do you know what specifically he saw in you or a match or a promo or what? No. Well, also, I'm not going to question it because I've just like, I've been in the game so long that someone looking me in the eyes and being like, I'm going to give you this chance. So like what you wanted to accomplish, you can try it right now. Wow. Yeah. That was it for me. I was like, cool. Like someone's telling me I'm giving you the ball. So if you do well, we'll both do well. Well, and it's not just someone that's telling you. No, the greatest wrestler ever. Yeah. Dude, you don't have to tell me. This whole thing has been extremely weird. And then to get like the guidance of Matt Bloom and Terry Taylor and then Fit Finley, any of these guys that I want to either pick something from or ask them questions or they are just willing to just help you out. And that's not something I've ever experienced. You're like, it's such a competitive business, especially everywhere else that I've been.

Like, you can have camaraderie with, like, fellow wrestlers and stuff like that, but not many guys are just walking around being like, hey, do you want to get better? This is how? No, because they want to do it themselves. They want that position. Yeah. But here, it's, I mean, especially NXT. I don't know the main roster yet.

But with NXT, this is such a great environment to hone your skills and to get better. Yeah. When you left AEW, did you even know that this would be a problem? possibility? No, I had I had 70 independent dates scheduled because I was like, oh, I got two kids, got this house, these cars, and I moved to America. Like, we just got our green cards. I'm like, this is where we live now. So I have to make sure that my children are fed and the bills are paid. Yeah. So no, I didn't. What went into the decision to leave where you were at in AEW? It was time. Yeah, it was time. And I wasn't getting.

what I magically got here, which was the opportunity to show what I bring to the table. It wasn't magic. It was hard work and preparation and the right time and the right place that all conversion came together. This here,

to me, is preparation meets opportunity and the amount of preparation that I got. It's a lot. So it was like, you mean in your career? Yes, yeah, yeah, 17, 18 years of preparation.

It's a perfect amount, guys. Honestly. But there was a point in time where if your age began with a three, you're probably too old for NXT. Well, dude, I feel old. Like I'm training with 20-year-old college athletes that are freaks of nature. That's what this place is. Breeding freaks of nature. And then here's my broken down 34-year-old ass in training and working out with these guys looking around like, oh yeah, I'm the old guy now. But you've got seven, 18, 18 years of knowledge and you've been there. Which is rare here for sure.

And you've seen it all. Yes. So when you left AEW, how did this even come about? I'll tell you. I took all those independent dates and I was just kind of betting on myself trying to, I guess, get some upward momentum back into Ethan Page. And I'm very big on like following trends and patterns. And I could tell that I was on like a downward tick.

And there wasn't anything that was going to change. there so I had to kind of change my environment to be able to change my momentum and I like I said I booked up maybe I'm over exaggerating but up close to 70 60 shows for the remainder of 2024 and I did a great wrestling show in Winnipeg and on my layover from Winnipeg to Detroit because I was landing in Detroit to drive for revolver wrestling in Dayton Ohio I got a phone call a number that I didn't have in my phone. And they were like, hi, is this Ethan Page? Yes. Oh, this is so-and-so from the WWE. Yeah, sure. Yeah, we'd like to offer you a contract, um, this long, this amount. And I'm just like, this is not real. I was going, yeah, honestly, that sounds fantastic. They hung up on me.

Okay. My phone rings instantly. Hi, this is so-and-so from WWB. And I was like, whoa, wait, that phone call I just got was real. Yeah. And you agreed to everything. So we would like to email to you, have it signed, sent over. I'm like, whoa, whoa, so that I'm calling my wife. Yeah, I think the WWE just offered me a job. She's like, wait, aren't you coming? Yeah, I'm on my layover. Like, I'm about to land and I have to go do this show.

But, yeah, I think I'm going to work for the WWE. Yeah, yeah, okay, cool. Were you also like, we just bought this house in Michigan? Dude. I think we're moving to Florida now. Yeah. There was that. For sure, obviously.

Well, the weather is slightly better here. It is a lot better. and we're big Disney people, so that's an exciting part. But the toughest part was like I got two kids. My daughter just started kindergarten. So she's going in, she's in grade one now. So she just got familiar with the school, which was another big thing. It was a great school too.

And the biggest thing was uprooting my family from something that we were growing roots into to start pretty much all over in Orlando. Yeah. It's been all right so far, though. Well, very resilient children. I've said it before. I'll say it again. You don't have to shovel sunshine. Nope, you don't. You don't, but you can sweat it.

And I sure have. Do you remember what I texted you when I'm like, you moved to Orlando, right? You're like, yeah, I said, here's the advice someone told me when I moved to Florida. Oh, please share this because it was great. I remember showing my wife. It was the great, great quote. It is no disrespect. I loved Florida. I enjoyed my time here, but someone told me this like my first week in Florida. And they're like, it might not make sense right now, but one day this quote is going to resonate. that Florida is a sunny place for shady people. And I went, wow. And, yeah, I saw that.

I've seen a couple things that I've had me scratch my head. Florida man is a real thing. Yes. Florida person is a real thing. Yes. Yeah, yeah. No, definitely. Have you seen alligators yet?

Not yet, but I, so we live in a beautiful area. I see deer all the time. And apparently I'll be seeing black bears, which I did not, yeah, in our backyard. You got to take the kids to gator, World. Everyone says this to me. Why? Oh, it's fantastic. Jeremy Borash is like adamant on that I need to get a season pass at Gator World. It's like a zoo just for Gators. I know. You get to feed them. Yeah. That sounds dangerous. They're down below and you're tossing the food and they don't really seem that interested. Yeah, yeah, nice. It's too hot for them to move. The gators aren't the,

like, people think that they're these aggressive things that are going to like eat you. Yeah. Gators are just, no. Well, that's propaganda. I mean, I'm just saying, like, There's a bike trail in the Everglades where you can bike and there's like gators like right next to you. Hell no. Yeah. That's not Gatorland, right? That's not Gatorland. Okay.

They're behind fences at Gatorland. All right. You're the fourth person to mention Gatorland, so I think I'll check it out. You need to go to Gaterland. I will. You need to go to Gaterland. I will, yeah. So between that phone call of here's a contract, here's an offer.

Yeah. How long is the timeline between that and making your debut? Ooh. My debut was like two weeks later. Maybe less. That's quick. Because I had to come down here to do like a physical, meet with everyone.

And then the following week I debuted. So maybe, yeah, two weeks or less than that. And people immediately knew who you were. Which was cool. And I don't know if I'm like revealing how self-conscious I am as a human being. But obviously that's like on the back of your mind. Like is anyone going to even care? The lights on, lights off, lights off, lights on thing.

Doesn't always go great. Well, when the lights go off, it could be anybody. That's what I mean. Could be the Undertaker. And when it's not Saboo, and it's Ethan Page, you know what I mean? But people were very excited, and it's cool that we got to keep the momentum going, because that's, like, very hard in wrestling. But it was also that you were catapulted right into the main event.

Yeah. So, you know, you're attacking Trick Williams. Now it's tied into the storyline of, oh, you've been attacking this whole time. Now there's a storyline. Is Ethan Page going to get a title shot? Oh, my goodness. is Ethan Page going to win the NXT championship? Wow.

And so not only that, when I did win, I'm winning in pretty much my hometown, like 30 minutes outside of my hometown with my family in the front row. So, like, this whole thing has been a dream. And it's still going. It's been nonstop. And then every time I think it's going to slow down,

something crazy happens. Like, we just had no mercy. It was like almost 9,000 people. Me and Joe Hendry, place was electric. the whole time. Like, this whole run has been incredible. You won in the most heel fashion possible.

Trust the process, Chris. I have not questioned a single thing here, and we've created so many moments. And that is like one of my favorite, getting knocked out and falling into the championship. Yeah. I mean, that's going to be memorable just in itself. I mean, when you look at the history books,

it doesn't say how you won. Right. You won. Right. Yeah. I'm okay with them saying how I won. To be completely honest with you. Because it's different.

And to not have any ego in it, because, like, I understand. I want people to think that I'm a despicable human being. And to win like that is, that's a disgrace. And I honestly, I love it. The tie-in with TNA is so interesting. You've obviously got, you know, such a history there. Right. What does it mean to see people like, you know, your good friend, Jordan Grace,

doing big things here in NXT? It's so cool. And even to see the rascals, like, I mean, these are guys and Jordan, too. Like, I would spend so much time with them years ago, especially vlogging and hanging out and just getting, like, close with these guys. To be able to share this with them and to be able to experience it, like even having Rosemary come, like the fellow Canadian wrestlers,

same thing, like we're close to the same age to be able to accomplish, this is everyone's goal, WW. And to be able to accomplish that and do it with people that I'm familiar with when things weren't going so good and it was a lot tougher to make ends meet. It's amazing to share that with people that you struggle with. At any point, did you give up on this dream? Did you think this wasn't going to happen? Come on.

Of course. Like eight times. Yeah. But I will say anyone listening, anytime you get to that point where you feel like it's all coming to an end and you want to give up nine times out of ten when you tell yourself, nah, I got to keep going. That's when something great will happen.

What made you keep pushing through that and pushing forward? I don't know, because I definitely could have stayed and just collected a check for a long time where I was. And I just looked at my age and it was like, I had the same thought. Like, usually the number three is not a good number to start with to try and come to WWV. I just knew I had more to offer the wrestling business in general and not just like personally for my career. like relaunched Alpha One wrestling in Hamilton. I wanted to be more creative, hands-on. I missed helping cultivate talent too and like actually recruiting independent people that

I thought were really good and just needed a little, I don't know, guidance on character work or how to do things in the ring. And another thing too is independent shows don't really do storylines that often. So putting guys in positions to be able to do show-by-show storytelling is very beneficial for their careers. I just wanted to offer more to wrestling, and I wasn't able to in the position that I was. Prize Picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app

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we had where I drove you last time after the last interview and you were just like, I want to get into such great shape that people are forced to notice that I'm putting in the work. Yeah. What was behind that? I mean, I guess just getting noticed. And it's, you have to be self-aware enough to say like, okay, things aren't happening for me. Why?

And I mean, you can blame other people all you want, but nine times out of ten, it's you. So if I'm the problem, what is the problem? And if that was one of the problems, it's time to fix it,

I guess. And I don't want to ever give anyone something to be like, he's great. but let's get rid of all the butts. And that's like the attitude I've had since being here is exactly that. It's like I've had every opportunity for 17, 18 years to do things my way. I'm done doing things my way. It's like, look, I have all my bad habits.

Please fix them. Tell me what they are. I'll happily get rid of them because I'm here to be a WWU superstar. I'm not here to be what Ethan Page thinks is good. Not everybody's that coachable though. Good. I don't want him here then. that's why I'm here.

You could have every excuse imaginable to not be in the shape that you're in. Probably. But I've got a wife. But I've got kids. Yeah. Yeah. But, but, but all these different things.

You still carve out the time for it. And you know how many young and up-and-coming wrestlers that don't have any of those other things still don't find the time? I know. I judge them. I mean, I judge myself. Like, I've put on a couple pounds that I know I need to get rid of. That was definitely moving to Florida and the stress of everything.

but it's that self-awareness for sure. You can definitely make a million excuses. I have a million excuses. What's the story behind using the ego's edge? So, I mean, it actually goes back pretty far because when I came to AEW, my finisher at the time at Impact was a spinning rock bottom.

I used to call it a spinning dwayne, a big fan of the rock, you know? So I would do that as a finisher. Yeah, a few times, yeah. So I would use that as my finisher, but when I looked at the roster at AEW, there was like seven people they were doing a rock bottom, a Yoranagi or some version of that as a suplex. And so I was like, oh, it's very used. And the only person that was doing any kind of move where they're hoisting someone up like that was Lance Archer. And he did it where the person was facing forward.

No one was doing the razor's edge. And at the time, I was doing the border toss on the independence as like a false finish or secondary finisher. So I had just pitched that that would be my finish instead of something that's been repetitive. I always tried to avoid any moves that I would do. And I try that here too. That's why I don't do the jumping cutter anymore. I just try and make sure everything that I'm doing is not being done on the show. So when you see me, you see something fresh, you see something different, and you see what's mine.

It's like, oh, that's Ethan Pages, whatever that is. How excited are you about the CW deal? Dude. Debuting on the CW. So huge. I'm just just the viewership alone growing like in one day. It's like, oh, we're going from this amount of people being able to see you to this amount of people being able to see you selfishly. I'm excited as company-wide.

Like, CW seems very proactive with teaming up with us to promote this as something huge. And when you have the network that's excited to have wrestling to be promoted, I mean, obviously we're excited about it. I think it's going to be a very big collaboration. What went into Cody running into you, Lexus King and Sean Spears, just randomly standing around? I don't know. You know what I do here?

What I'm told. And I'm going to leave that at that, okay? You know what? Fans really seem to enjoy that moment. The Spider-Man meme brought to life. Yes. 100%. We even did the photo.

Yes. The photo of... Everyone Port Night Show. Yeah. That was a fun night. You just seem really happy. I'm like very happy. Extremely happy.

Like I said, like this is everything that I dreamed of to pretty much every detail is happening right now. I'm living through everything that I ever wanted in wrestling. And it seems like it's not. stopping. So I'm just going with the flow in a very good way. Was this announced table bump you took recently your first announced table bump? What a great slash dorky question to ask. And the dorky wrestler in me is like, yeah, please ask me about this. First of all, the first time I ever put someone through an announced table was in my very first match in the WWE. What? Yes. I power slam trick Williams through the

the announce table. So I'm like this one, this is my first match. It's in the main event of a PLE. That's already crazy. Like, okay, we'll check that off the box.

It's for the title. Cool. We'll check that off the box. I'm on all the advertising in the venue and whatever. I'm like, oh, we could check that off the box.

And I'm putting this dude through the announced table in my first match. But yeah, Tuesday this past Tuesday, or I don't know when this is going to air. Trick Williams' last main standing match with Pete Dunn,

that was the first time I've ever been put through an announce table. is there a moment when you're floating through the air going, I hope it breaks. Dude, not only do I hope it breaks, but then there's like the part where gravity gets weird because you like hit the table, but then the table also breaks.

So there's like two impacts. There's the impact on the table, sorry. Then there's the impact on the ground. Two for one is no good for me. Yeah, it's like boom, boom, yeah. Yeah. It's jarring. Yeah.

Yeah. What's been the most surreal moment about your, months you've been here in NXT. Oh man. What a great question. Probably throwing out the first pitch at the Colorado Rockies game. I used to have a VHS.

I don't remember what it was called. It was the Rock's VHS. They like kind of followed day in the life of the Rock. This is an old WWF. Hopefully I don't get in trouble for saying that tape. And I would watch it all the time. And in this tape, he would go to the store and buy his shirt, his shoes.

He's like, whatever, cutting promos the whole time. He went and got his hair cut. Then they take him to, I think, a Pittsburgh Pirates game. He throws out the opening pitch. They got him sitting in this booth, signing autographs with fans. And the whole time, I'm like, about to watch Braun throw this pitch out. So I know I'm only going there to meet the fans. I'm going to root on Braun, take some pictures with the mascot, whatever.

So we meet all the fans. And then they came over and they're like, hey, change your plans. throwing out the pitch. And I'm like, no, I'm not. I am not an athlete. I'm going to screw this up for sure. And Braun's over there saying, I'm going to throw this thing 80 miles per hour. So I'm egging him on the whole time, not thinking that I have to throw this pitch. So they say, no, no, you got to throw the pitch. I'm like, oh, cool, cool. Now I'm super nervous. So I'm in pretty much these shoes, pants like this, not prepared to do anything athletic. But you look great. That's right. That's all that matters. Really. So they take.

take us out there and we're just about to go on and the camera pans from wherever they're shooting to us. And then the way the camera is looking at us behind the cameraman is the giant screen. And then I saw myself holding up the belt in the jersey holding the ball and I had a flashback to when I was a kid seeing the rock throw the first pitch. In that very specific moment was the most surreal thing that's ever happened in my career. Because I, I was like, oh, like I had the vision of the whatever 10-year-old kid at the very same time as being the 34-year-old man who's doing the thing that I used to watch. It was very weird. Yeah. Did Joe Hendry tell you what that song was going to be like? No. I also said I don't care. I was just like, go for it. Whatever I, whatever you find, go for it. Don't mention my kids and I don't care. I don't care. at all. It was hilarious.

And then he showed that stupid video. Hold on. I'm glad you brought this up because I told my wife that I really wanted to brag about this. It just didn't seem like a thing to say on social media. So I'm glad I get to do it on your show. Please. My daughter is now a published photographer and a worldwide videographer. She filmed that video of me in the Bowser costume doing that.

curls on Halloween. And then a video game magazine put pictures out of my Sega Genesis collection. And I was like, oh, you're going to be funny if my daughter took these photos. So I'm just saying she's very talented for only being six years old. Wow. Yeah. That's amazing. Videographer for the WWE. The Joe Hendry effect seems very real. Yeah. It's like that crowd is, they're hot for him. And not only, because a lot of the same faces I see in the crowds when we do the events here. When we went to Denver to see that it's not just something localized, like this is a worldwide phenomenon.

And I don't also just mean Joe. I just mean NXT in general because we have the same people. So we don't know that when we hit the road, who's watching the show, who's popular with the fans, who's absolutely hated by the fans. So to walk out and be booted out of the building, to walk out and people are singing the song from the TV show telling me to put my clothes on in this arena, not in Orlando. I was like, oh, this is great. It's catching on with people and they're invested in it.

Who's the dream match? You're in WWE. There is a... Are we talking possible? Sure. Who's possible? It's probably Randy Orton. Yeah, I would say that is the...

I mean, one of the best. ever past 20 years here how many more does he have i don't know i mean if i look at him i'm gonna think a lot looks like a million dollars credible uh he's the guy i mean he's the bar as far as how you want to be as a wrestler i know he's great i don't know yeah the rock is obviously numero uno i don't know how many more matches he plans on having i don't know how many egos edges he has left in his career. You think you can get the rock up for that? I'm offended.

Of course you could get... You've seen me. Of course. I've seen me. Lance Archer. Got Lance Archer up for it. Of course. What a silly question.

Come on, Chris. What a silly question. Of course. How great would it be to sell the people's elbow? Has anyone smiled while anyone is doing this over top of their face? The hell's this guy grinning for? Shut your damn mouth. Yeah, there's a lot of possibilities.

I know. I've heard John Cena's going to work a handful of matches. Listen, John. If you just want to take a little jump to NXT, I would happily welcome you here, bell to bell. Well, you got some big names coming to NXT. You don't got to tell me. That first episode alone,

where you got Sampunk coming. Can't wait to find out why. it's in Chicago, so that's fantastic. I mean, I feel like if anybody's coming to NXT, you should probably talk to the champ. I mean. Yeah. And not only the first episode,

which also has the Miz, by the way, Ms. TV will be on the first episode, October 1st. Then October 8th, we're going to St. Louis, where we might see my dream match. Who knows?

You know who's from St. Louis? Randy Orton. I'll defend the title two weeks in a row. All I'm saying. Randy Orden for the NXT championship? Sure. Why not? He's never won it.

Add it to your resume. Yeah, why not? Yeah. Man. Anything can happen in this era of wrestling. I'm just hoping the voices he's hearing are telling him to wrestle me. Jeez. Yeah.

Yeah. Wow. I mean, anything's possible here. Right now, literally anything is possible. What's the biggest thing you've learned from being here in the PC that you will wish you had five years ago, 10 years ago, whatever, start of your career. The most important thing about wrestling is the way it makes people feel while they're watching. And that's like not to harp on, you know, just the fact that I let them tell me what to do.

But that's legitimately it is like I focused on in ring. I've focused on promos. I've focused on every aspect of it. now it's very much the emotional part and committing to making sure that the fans are feeling what we want them to feel whether it's sympathy for whoever's ass I'm kicking or make them absolutely hate me for being a piece of crap and it's more about creating the emotion and the moments instead of what is physically happening in the ring. It's not about move to move to move right about telling that story.

Yeah and the emotional part of it and it. the human part of it, actually. Yeah. Your promos have always been so good. But now they're dialed up even more. Yes. That's also them too. Like this is like the most hands-on anyone's ever been with me in my entire career.

Before it was like self-regulating, self-teaching, reading comments online and trying to dissect them, whether it's like constructive or not. It's like, okay, well, okay, how can I get better at this? How can I get better at that? But then also, any of my criticisms that I felt like I had. in my career before, I was never active enough to kind of work through them. So if it was like, oh, those promos are good, but, you know, it's very much like one emotion. It's like, okay, well, I never got the opportunity to have enough time to be so conscious of it that while I'm out there, I'm fixing it or working on it.

But here, it's like so many repetitions over and over, and they give you the opportunity to fall in your face and learn. And it's like, hey, this time, this was like this. next time let's try this. It's like, okay, I'm going to give it a shot. I never wanted to wear my glasses on television. I never thought I'd be a guy wearing a blazer. So it's like, hey, you see this in me.

Now I see this in me too. And look what we got. We got a WWU superstar. This episode is brought to you by Timeline. Timeline is a Swiss-based life science company, and they're a global leader in Eurolithen A research. So what's Eurilithen A? it's a powerful postbiotic that's nearly impossible to get from your diet alone.

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dot com slash insight for 10% off timeline.com slash insight. Hey there, it's Sam Roberts. You may know me from WWETV, SiriusXM, or my podcast, not Sam Wrestling. If you don't, when you're done with this podcast, I would recommend you go and you search me out. You can find me on Apple, Spotify, wherever you get audio as well as YouTube,

where we post the entire podcast every single week, not Sam Wrestling, is the best wrestling recap show that you're going to find anywhere. We do three things. We watch the product. We speculate wildly. And we remember, everything counts. If you're enjoying yourself, I would recommend doubling it up today.

Listen to the rest of this podcast. Then listen to Not Sam Wrestling right now. Wherever you got this podcast, you'll find me. Just look up Not Sam Wrestling. Thanks. Do you still not repeat your shirts? And you're going to ask me this. Will we ever see this shirt ever again?

Yes. You will. I know. What? Yes. This is a different... Who is this man sitting in front of me? I mean, it's a man.

That's for sure. For me, you won't see the same combination. Okay. So I might wear this shirt again, but never with this jacket and these pants and these shoes. The pockets squares falling down a little bit. Oh, no. This is all new to me. It's also two pocket squares.

Ooh. So we may see this shirt. Yeah, you might see the shirt. Not the combination. I'm going to try and keep things looking different, but yeah, it's a different wardrobe for me. So I'm still starting out fresh.

All the other shirts that you said you... Rest in peace. You can't bring those back? Maybe. But I also said I'd never wear them again. There's that like, ah, we'll see. I wonder if I could fit into one of your shirts. I would love to.

You want some? I'll mail them to you. Oh, that'd be beautiful. I have an entire closet full. And then a garbage bag underneath. I don't think, uh, I'm about 185. I think we're quite a bit off here.

I don't know, bro. Some of those shirts were a little tight. That's a little tight? Yeah. I remember you saying like you'd order them and they would, you know, they were supposed to be your size. You're like, oh, this is four sizes too small. Oh, yeah. I would order two.

A large and an extra large, sometimes double extra large, just because I didn't know how they would show up. But I did watch. Hold on. I did watch your interview with Scorpio Sky. They were not $6 shirts. I know. Listen, $8 shows? Okay, Chris.

Weren't they from like DHGate or TEMU or something? I can't say the website because it's, I, they'll get clipped. Yeah. But no. Okay. But yes. Oh, I see what. Yes.

No, but yes. Yes, I see what you're saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Maybe $9. They were $20 to $30. Excellent. With free shipping.

That's right. Well, when you order enough, yeah. You need one for every week. Yeah, but you look like a million bucks now. Thank you. I actually have to go talk to a guy who pulls out a measuring thing, and it's a whole process. Okay.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of it. Yeah. You look like a million bucks. I'm a fan of the end result, that's for sure. I mean, look at this. It's all the matters. Thanks, Chris. Yeah.

You look like a superstar. Heck yeah. Yeah. I am one. W.W.B. Superstar. You clearly are. Yeah. What do you think that the Ethan page that debuted all of those years ago in Canada?

Are you talking like first match? First match. would say about this Ethan page is sitting in front of me right now. Oh, he'd be so proud. Without a doubt, he'd be so proud. In the performer I've become,

in how I've handled myself, how I've changed the way I perceive professional wrestling, I'm just very proud at how I've been able to maneuver throughout my career constantly leveling up and never having to do anything dastardly or politically or yeah i'm very proud of

myself i mean that's probably why i took so long to get to where i am but yeah i'm happy with how i handled myself people also underestimate how difficult it is to work in the u.s when you're not from there and both of us know that yeah that's a whole hurdle that I had to jump that my, I guess, peers slash competitors did not. Yeah. Yeah. But it's been amazing celebrating your journey with you, like, from seeing you at just getting bookings in the U.S.

Yeah. That's a big thing. We're seeing you at an AIW show in Cleveland. And be like, you're here. Dude, they were one of the first ones, maybe the first one, to ever just be like, yeah, we'll give this guy a shot. And then when you got signed to impact is like, you got a contract. No, the contract wasn't the exciting part.

Was the work visa. Because listen, I put ink to paper before impact. Not that beneficial. But Scott DeMore getting me my first work visa changed the trajectory of my career because now I'm legally allowed to do anything I want in America, wrestling-wise. That really started the snowball effect. Yeah, and then it was just laying all these bricks one on top of another. Yep. And as your friend, it's been really cool to say.

Thanks. I appreciate it. I appreciate you giving me the platform at every big milestone that I've had. And it's cool to look back and see the progression of my career. And not only just like physically, but there's mentally too. Like I can go back and listen to where I was headspace wise then. And it's very humbling to hear the way I'm talking at whatever points of my career to see where it's. things have gone. You were a tag team champion with Josh Alexander the first interview we did. Yep. That was in Los Angeles. Yeah. Then the next interview was when you had just signed with A.A.W. Then we did an interview when you, I think were with, I think it was with Ring of Honor. You were doing stuff with Ring of Honor. That was the one we did in the Las Vegas studio. No. So that would have been when I was with Dan Lambert and Scorpio. Yeah. Which was, that was fun as hell. Then it was bringing

came into the studio in Hollywood. Yeah, now here we are. And here we are. You're the NXT champion. Now you've got to come to me, Chris. And we're in the performance. I flew on a red eye last night that left at 1135. I landed here at 7 a.m.

Heck yeah. Went straight to a hotel, took a shower, and here I am. You're doing the gauntlet today. You got everybody. Hell yeah. I'm very excited to see these interviews that you filmed. Well, I'm excited that you are one of them. Heck yeah, me too.

I'm so happy for your success. Congratulations on everything. Thank you. And let's see. Maybe your answers have changed. but what are three things that you're grateful for? Ooh, always at the end. I am grateful for my wife, especially right now for us to have to.

I mean, the house we had at Michigan was our dream home. So we had to leave that and take a chance here. And it's a lot more expensive in Orlando than where we were in Michigan. So it was a big change. And I'm very grateful for how resilient my wife is and how supportive. if she is. I'll also say my children too because they also had to

like my poor daughter looks at her what are they called yearbooks from her kindergarten class. She misses all her friends. So I feel like a terrible dad for chasing my dreams and ripping her away from people she just started to care about.

And I'm also grateful for I'm grateful for the coaching here. It's honest. It's direct. and as long as I'm willing to take it, it's only made me better. And no one's playing games here. And I really appreciate that. Well, dude, keep doing it.

I will. And it's so good to see you again. Yeah, dude. Thank you so much. Honestly. It's always so good to see you. Well, there we go. Man, all of this couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Huge congratulations to Ethan Page on all of his success. But also, and probably more importantly, congrats to Julian. The actual guy. He never gave up. And there were times when I'm sure he wanted to give up and he's doing it now. And I just, this was such a great conversation with him at such a great point in his career as well. So I'm pumped for Ethan slash Julian and I appreciate you for being with us on this one. And also for listening all the way until the end.

We're still hanging out right now. And I appreciate that. If you're still with us, take a screenshot. tag us. Let us know you're listening. Let us know it stood out for you here. He's that official ego on Twitter. He's that official underscore ego on Instagram. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. And we'll wrap this up. We'll send it on home with a quote from Case Kenny that I came across this week and I just love. Life isn't about being perfect. It's being about ridiculously passionate that people think that you're a little crazy. I feel like maybe I didn't say that correctly. Life isn't about being perfect. It's about being

ridiculously passionate that people think you're a little crazy. Because I feel like it does take a little bit of crazy to get to the level of some of the people that we're talking to on the show here. Like to get to that tippy top of the industry, I feel like you just, you got to be crazy, passionate. Be great. Be grateful. Have an amazing day.

We will see you on the next one. We'll see you on Thursday for some more insight with another friend. Sean Spears back on the show. Hopefully no chops. Hopefully. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock, but there was one band that had it all.

Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of them? To Rock Bottom.

Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Allie. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.