Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Frank Mir wants Brock Lesnar in a pro wrestling match, WWE, Cain Valasquez, veganism, Austin Aries

Episode Date: December 26, 2019

Chris Van Vliet sits down with MMA legend Frank Mir at his home in Las Vegas. He talks about his foray into pro wrestling, wanting a rematch with Brock Lesnar, being trained by Austin Aries, breaking Tim Silvia and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria’s arm, switching to a vegan diet, his daughter Isabella Mir’s MMA career and much more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Chris Van Bleet Show. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Vleet! Hello again, my friends, and welcome back to the Chris Van Fleet Show. Or if it's your first time here, welcome. Thank you for joining us of all the wrestling podcasts you could be listening to right now. Thank you for spending your time with us. Thank you for the ratings and views that you've been leaving. And thank you for being with me on this journey in 2019, whether it's been here on the podcast

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So Frank Meir is an MMA legend. And even if you've never watched UFC, you know that he's the guy who handed Brock Lesnar his first ever loss in UFC. and it was in Brock Lesnar's first ever UFC match. It was in his UFC debut. And if you didn't know that, well, you know it now. Frank made him tap out to a knee bar a minute 30 into the first round. However, Brock would go on to get his revenge a year later with a TKO victory over Mir. So they're one and one.

But that was 10 years ago. And there's been a lot of talk over the last 10 years about them having a rematch. And it sounds like it just may happen inside a wrestling. ring. I mean, we've seen Ronda Rousey made the jump from MMA to pro wrestling. Frank Trigg, Matt Riddle, filthy Tom Lawler. Most recently, we saw Kane Velasquez actually doing that program with Brock Lesnar. So why not Frank Mear? He's been trading with Austin Ares in Las Vegas and says he wants to make this happen before he's too old for it not to happen. So Frank invited me into his home for this chat. And man, I love how well-spoken he is.

He's also smoking a cigar during this interview, which watched the video. He just, I don't know, it just makes it that much cooler. He's been a great MMA commentator through the years, and you can totally see why he's just so relaxed. He's outgoing. He's well-spoken. And I think that it'd be amazing to see him in the ring. I mean, he's been doing like some of the shoot fighting, like the blood sport type of stuff with Austin Aries. It'd be so cool to see him transition one more step into pro wrestling.

And he's well on his way. It sounds like we may see him in a pro wrestling ring. sometime in 2020. So I really enjoyed this. I know that you will too. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Frank Mier. Welcome to Stoge here. Yeah, thank you for inviting me to your home.

My pleasure, man. Glad to have you good enough. Yeah, it's beautiful being here in the Mere residents. You get the Christmas tree behind us here. Yes, courtesy of Mrs. Mere. And she'll see her decorating a tree. That's actually a smaller tree for us this year because I finally, after, you know, Bella's 16, so, you know,

Jennifer and I've been together now, you know, married for 16 and together for 18, she always wants to do these nine foot, 10 foot. I mean, we were in an apartment we first got together and the tree like bent at the top, you know? Oh, man. So finally I'm like, look, you know, can we just go small? So that's only a seven-foot tree. So, like, basically two-thirds of her ornaments are still packed up. And she had to, like, be selective.

And then I'm like, I don't know what's worse, having to put them all at the end or having to sit here and go, which one, this one, this one, what about this one? I'm like, this is like clothes shopping all over again. Oh, my God. You've got tall ceilings here. You can have like a 20-foot tree. I think, what's the tallest we ever had? I think we went 12.

Okay, 12-foot tree. Wow. Man, geez. I do like, though, like we're in Las Vegas. It's fairly warm. We're in the desert, but it still feels like, you know, it can still feel like Christmas. Yeah, it still gets super chilly here.

I mean, my pool still, if I don't have the water features on, you'll wake up and you'll hear the water running. It's because it has a freezing sensor. So, I mean, it drops below freezing here. Man, yeah. So you're training in the gym every day. Yeah. I mean, that's my job.

And it's also, I enjoy it. I always tell people this when they wonder about that. They're like, you go to the gym every day. You know, there's 90% of the people I'm in the gym with don't get paid to be there. They actually pay a membership to be there. I happen to be lucky that I'm actually getting, I get to make a living. Like, I don't have to now take a shower from the gym just to go to work or coming from work and then changing my clothes at the gym. that's more of the norm of what happens.

So me training in the gym and training all the time, I'm just blessed that I get to do something I love and for some crazy reason I get paid for it. But even if you're not training specifically for a fight, you're still in there all the time. Yeah, I mean, I grew up in a gym. My dad came over from Cuba. You know, obviously boxing and judo and wrestling

is a big part of the culture there. And when he came over, obviously he was enamored with boxing, but my dad likes martial arts. And so I think he wanted to get more into fighting. So he opened up a karate gym, But our karate, especially from what he did in the 70s, was very much full contact. And so it looked very more reminiscent of above the waist kickboxing, meaning that all the kicks were from the waist up, but still full contact with the hands and with the kicking.

And so I grew up in that. I mean, my furthest memory, I can't remember what it was like not to be in a gym. And so, you know, my kids are saying, like today, you know, my daughter, because she's in the GCS Academy of Fours are a much more flexible schedule because they're all athletes to go there. So when she gets done today, she was at the gym with me. We're both on the mat while we're drilling. There's a big class. 50 pros on the mat.

We're all working out. And there was a combination called off. And there's my daughter with her partner. Dad, were we supposed to throw the kick before after the cross? Well, it depends on the feeling on the angle. So, you know, I mean, and at the end, I'm sitting there. And she had to get ready because she has wrestling practice.

So she didn't do all the live around sparring. You know, she gives me a kiss on the cheek. Oh, dad, I got to go home real quick. I'm going to go get my lunch and then I'll see you later. I'm like, okay, baby. You know what I mean? Like, that's my life. Right. Well, you're just coming off the Roy Nelson fight.

Yeah. How are you feeling after that win? Oh, it's great, you know. That's your first win in like four years. It was, you know, coming because of the suspension and then, you know, I'm dealing with that garbage with Usada and then, you know, coming into, you know, Bellator, you know, first fight I took off, you know, Fador and, you know, I was rusty because I knocked him down, but then got crazy and tried to chase him and fought completely

out of character and emotional ended up losing that fight. Then the last fight, freak accident, which probably never happened again or since, you know, just were just a weird breakage with against a clinch against the cage with no mouthpiece. And so just kind of a string of bad luck that really kind of tests you. Because, you know, a lot of people, you know, it's easy to stay in the gym when you're winning. You know, at the same time now you haven't won a fight, you know, and it's going on four years and you're sitting there going, oh, man. And then now it's not like I'm a guy in his 20s.

You're like, well, you know, it's a slump. It happens to athletes. You're going to get out of it. You know, now not only am I battling that. but I'm battling them, you know, you're in your 40s now, dude. You know, maybe it's time to hang it up. Maybe it's time to call it. You know, and then fighting somebody like Nelson

who has more overhand right knockouts than anybody else in MMA right now, you know, and who I beat previously. So I knew he was hungry and wanted, you know, to make sure he took my head off. You know, there's a lot of factors that really, I think I'm blessed to have because I always think adversity

and testing yourself like that. At the end of the day, if you survive it, I mean, a long version of the Sun Tzu statement of, you know, that which doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, right? So as you sit here right now, are there any effects from the Roy Nelson fight? No, I'm actually good now. I try to get back in there a week after the fight, you know, against my wife's judgment. It's like, oh, because, I mean, my shin was split.

And when you split your shin in the fight, it's not because it was split from the outside end. It's your shin bone cutting through your own. Your tibia is shaped kind of like a triangle, like a sword almost, you know, or one end of it, you know. And so I actually cut my own bone cut through my flesh with the real. deep cut. Probably should have it stitched up, but I didn't. It was something, can I just want to get home? And so that took a little while to heal. And then I made it public, you know, I tore my labor, I'm really bad on my shoulder. So that was rough because obviously training for the fight, the adrenaline and I was pumped up, man, for about two weeks afterwards, I even tried, like I said,

I went back to the gym. One of the guys, he's a light heavyweight, Corey Hendrix was getting ready for a fight at the ACA over in Kazakhstan. So, you know, he helped me prepare. prepare for the fight. So I wanted to get back. And that's part about martial arts. You get back in the gym and you help you guys out. Man, it was the first day back. We're drilling. He throws a body kick and I check it with my shoulder and pull, you know, and all of a sudden like, boom, my arm drops. I just walk off. I'm like, I thought I could come back. Dude, I can't. My body just, I'm in too much pain. So then I took off another two weeks. So actually, this is the first week. I mean, we started hitting the gym a little bit last week, lifting weights and stuff and moving around that way and shadow boxing and I've been going to wrestling practice to my son. So taking shots and, and, drilling moves with him. But as far as first day back sparring, today was the first day back sparring and firing off. And actually, I felt great.

I mean, obviously I'm 15 years, 20 years older than everybody on the mat. But, you know, I felt, you know what? I'm blessed with the fact that...

The answer is yes. I'm blessed that for whatever reason, my father's genetics being Cuban, I'm super quick. And so being my size and being quick. And then add the fact that I know more than most people's coaches. know about fighting you know what I mean sure and so my strategy my timing is just really good so

even today I went three rounds with three professional fighters and and it wasn't a good day for them and then round four everybody's like oh you're doing so awesome let's go because we're supposed to do five rounds I'm like okay I know you guys got the impression that I because I'm doing well but I'm tired now I'm gonna sit down so I sat down the last two rounds I'm like well three rounds the first day is not bad you know you look great like what do you wait sitting here right now I'm 270 that's solid yeah yeah yeah and a lot of that's to do with my uh one thing i always made a mistake in the past in my career especially the last 10 years because i got so much into lifting weights is that oh i need a bunch of proteins so very much animal products and just trying to you know

you know always thought that size mattered you know it does but with that came a lot of bloatedness and i think extra weight especially around my midsection that wasn't necessary and now you know i'm still not where i want to be but if you see the last fight my body fat is coming down and A lot of that is first, you know, I'm kind of taking the baby steps. It's been about six months now. I gave up dairy, you know, and just won't have cheese or anything, milk products. And then I've pretty much abandoned all red meats and chicken and whatnot. The only thing I still have in my diet besides plant-based is fish.

I can't give up sushi yet, guys. So you're like a pescatarian. Yeah, so in making steps, you know. And, you know, there's full days that I'll eat, you know, as a vegan, you know. know, you know, I have no problem hanging out with Austin. We'll go out to restaurants and we eat the same way. And that's why I always tell people when they ask me, like, well, how do you feel them all? Honestly, I tried keto.

I've tried this. I've ran the gambit with every weight of diet. This lifestyle is the easiest because the food all tastes good. It's easy to eat a vegetarian meal and have it taste good. And then because it's vegetables and it's not calorically dense, I can eat a lot. So I walk away from a meal. I mean, I can eat like a half a pound or a pound of breakfast. Brussels sprouts and it's not bad for you.

And, you know, hey, if it's made ripe with a little of vinegar on there and flash fried, the stuff is good. You know, so, and at the end, it's like, well, you know, it's healthy. But you mentioned Austin. It's Austin Aries, who was recently on the show and is actually just sitting right here. Yeah. There he is. There's Austin Aries, everyone.

Grace man that ever lived. Yeah. How did you guys become friends? Actually, I do a podcast called Phone Booth Fighting. My partner, Richard Hunter, is a vegan. He's been so now for 10, 15 years. You know, by the kind of the same path I did. So, I went to pescatarian, then he became a vegetarian, you know,

where he still had eggs and then eventually, you know, straight vegan, him and his partner, Jen. And so our podcast runs a gambit. He's extremely left. I'm much more of a moderate. You know, I'm still pro-guns, but I'm pro-choice on, you know, things. So, I don't know, I always tell people, where does that put me? I'm okay for guys to carry a gun at their wedding.

and as long as they marry another, and they're allowed to marry men. I don't care, you know, which I think just makes us libertarians because I'm like, dude, I don't think the government should tell you two 18-year-olds what they have to do with their life.

So as you're not hurting somebody else, who cares? But anyways, yeah. So his book that came out, his press personnel came and contacted us and because of Richard's connection with that we brought him on. And it was funny because at that point,

I had tried, I had a stint for my life where I tried, I thought I was eating like a vegan for about six months, you know? just basically I was doing like oh it's french fries and it's vegan right yeah uh and so uh but i never i always had my suspicions of you know we're omnivores we're bears we're supposed to have meat you know or you know like come on how can you don't see any guys that look like me and and pushing weight around or throwing guys through the air you know then you know here comes austin a little spark

like fucking sits down and like looking at his arms i'm like this dude's a real athlete like look at his shoulders you know his body stature So I was like, really? Like, you know, and then I asked the same stupid question. He's probably going to get asked about a thousand more times before they ever bury him. Is it like, well, how do you get all your protein? You know? And so, you know, and he was actually not a dick about it.

And, you know, and answered my question, he goes, surprisingly, he was like, I think because it was coming from a genuine place. Some people ask that question because I think they think they're going to mock your answer. You know, like, someone asks you something like, oh, yeah, well, how do you manage this? And it's like, dude, do you already have a preconceived notion? You're trying to set me up where I was just like, no, honestly, man. Like, look at you. You're muscular as shit.

How are you able to do that? So I think because he saw the genuine, you know, interest in me that he was just like, well, look, I mean, honestly, look, I, you know, mac and cheese and I do it this way. And then, you know, cashews and then the lentil. And, you know, it's 30 grams. He goes, are you eating 30? I'm like, no, hold on. I mean, so from there, it sparked an interest.

We started talking and hanging out. And then I think the next evolution of it was is that, you know, guys who keep trying to make breaks into pro wrestling and stuff. And there's always been kind of an animosity or a rivalry, I should say, between fighters, you know, professional fighters and MMA or wrestlers, professional wrestling. And I never really understood why because it would be like me being mad at Keanu Reeves. Well, you're not a real guy. What are you doing? It's like, well, hold on, man.

This is a different platform for entertainment. You're an entertainer too. You know, you're not just walking around beating the hell out of people. You're putting on a pair of shorts. People are paying to show up to be entertained by your ability to fight. there's rules to this. It's still a sport. And then under that, guys, I realized,

I'm like, well, professional wrestling is the same as making movies. It's a different genre or different medium for the same genre of, and it's all martial arts. So then we started, I told them, I have an interest in trying it out. You know, I've been doing stand-up comedy. You know, why not? You know, let me go out there and try. So I went to the gym with them.

We went to Future Stars of Wrestling here in Vegas. And the first practice, actually, I interrupted him about how. halfway through. I was like, dude, I got to apologize. I never had a clue how much there is to this. Because it was funny. I realized that I was saying something to him leading up to it that was insulting. And I didn't realize I was being insulting, which he, Austin, you know, as contrary to belief, is not a constant asshole. He actually let me off the hook with it because when he was like, well, you're only going to need to learn certain spots. You only have to learn these aspects of my craft. And my answer to that was like, no,

want to learn it all being genuine being like well no no I don't want to take shortcuts because i already established a name let me learn everything that's what i meant by it but then i could realize that i'll never learn everything there is about what he's learned in 20 years just like if austin were to tell me hey man i want to learn everything you know in the next six months yeah it would be an insult to be like really i've been doing this since i was four years old you think that in six months you're going to know everything i know impossible it's and but he realized that was just being humble and not being a dick where I'm glad because a lot of people could have taken it that way.

So that's when I told us. I said, I'm sorry, I apologize. You're right. There is no way I'm going to learn even a quarter of everything there's to learn about this craft. Were you always a pro wrestling fan? I was a fan back in the 80s

when my dad, you know, obviously during that, you know, macho man and Hulk Hogan and whatnot. And then still when, you know, Stone Cold Steve Austin came on the scene and, you know, NWO, almost all my friends, everybody was super interested.

But then once I turned professional, in fighting, honestly, it was a divergence. I have so much time in the day, and I was spending my time watching videos on pride and UFC, and I wasn't paying attention to the pro wrestling scene at all. Well, you kind of had, like, disparaging things to say about pro wrestling when you first fought Brock. Right.

And, you know, like, obviously your opinion must have shifted a little bit at least since then. You know what? My opinion of Brock changed in the sense of, I still want to stomp his ass. You want to kill him, don't you? Yeah. Yeah, I don't want him to be the first I can really have death anymore. Parapalegic, maybe.

You know? You want him to be the first squared circle death. Yeah, we'll see. Yeah. So, no, obviously, look, honestly, you know, he has kids and a wife. I hope that he can breathe the next day after I fight. I just wanted him to struggle a little bit to do so.

Maybe he just can't chew a steak for a month. It's nice. But, but it's for, far as his ability to to react and sell in there, blows my mind because I see how, pro wrestling, right, because I see how hard it is for me. All the time, I mean, there was one time, Austin was doing a splash down and I'm supposed to lay,

and he's showing me how to take it. Then he goes, and then I do my interpretation of a cell on it, you know, and he just starts laughing at me. I'm like, what's wrong? He goes, until you get somewhat better, I'm just going to keep laughing at you. That was horrible. You know, because my whole life,

I've been taught not to show pain, not to show discomfort. Even in the fight with Roy Nelson, one of his left hooks inadvertently just kind of got thumbed in the eye. And so my vision in my right eye completely went out. Like, you know, you jam someone hard enough and it's just a blur. Sure. Well, if I start blinking and touching my face, you know. So I have to sit there and I'm looking at him and I'm moving my head and I can't see for

shit. I can see with my left eye, so I have no depth perception. I'm sitting there going, okay, just it's going to come back. It's going to come back. You know, you know, and then I'll send, you know, throw a pump a jab a little bit. I'm like, okay, let me walk away from my blind side. And then boom, my vision came back in. I couldn't tell anybody and show, you know, even if, you know,

these guys will go to complain to the ref or something like that. I'm like, dude, you're showing your hands. Yeah. Don't, you can't suck it up, you know. And so, you know, so that reversal of having to portray emotion and tell a story with my expression. Yeah. That's difficult. It's hard.

So you've worked a couple of bloodsport. matches, which is like the work shoot matches. Do you have intentions to work an actual pro wrestling match? Yeah, I just think that right now those opportunities came for me, you know, working at the blood sport and then the event they had here, the future stars of wrestling event that Austin will actually be on next weekend. Those are easy transitions because it's just, you know, it's grappling. Yeah. So that I do every day. I roll with guys all the time where it's like, all right, I can roll, the person weighs 120 pounds. And if I feel what you're doing, I can go with the throws and maneuvers.

And I know how to be a good partner and work. And so that wasn't hard. There's no ropes there. There's no having to sell, really, you know, as much. So I didn't want to fool anybody and go, I'm ready for to jump right into a full-blown match. I'm like, well, no. Look, if I can start being in that genre and start to move and take these baby steps,

why not? You know, the equivalent of if you're starting in a professional fight career, it's like, all right, your first fight, you're going to wear head gear. there's to be no elbows. You're making steps towards what you're trying to do. And why not? There's so many new moving factors and so many moving parts, the more you can eliminate certain aspects of it to focus on

and then increase and add to your plate as you get better. And focus on your strengths, which you have, you know, many of them from the career that you've had. So where are you at right now with your pro wrestling training? I still count out loud when I'm running the rope. One, two, three. Yeah. Twist.

No, there's still a lot of thinking. And so, you know. You can bump? Yeah. Actually, taking bumps was probably one of the easier aspects for me because it's just tumbling. You know, sitting like, okay, this part's cool. It's the, honestly, probably if I had a report card, taking bumps are falling.

You know, I'm athletic. You know, I could do a cartwheel, you know. That part is an easy transition. It's the selling. That's the hard part for me. You know, and knowing how to, and also, too, how to feel another guy. I'm not used to you cooperating with me. Or in turn, I'm not used to giving up.

parts of my body. You know, if someone starts to reach for my arm, my intention's not to go ahead and give you my arm. You know, my intention is, oh, you want my arm? Like, that's one of the first things I teach people mostly in fighting is like, hey, if you feel somebody wants something, even if you don't know what they're doing, don't give it to them. You know, if I feel you going for my leg, I don't know, I might not know what leg lock you're going for, but let me just remove my leg from the equation. You know, if you pull something, I'm going to push back, you know, and that's just kind of like a real dumb down version of until you can catch up like fake it till you make it you know like

if I'm pulling your arm don't let me have it and now it's like no now it's the opposite now you're gonna want to go ahead and position and move in a certain way that you're able to flow with another human being well we just saw Kane Velasquez in there and I feel like the door is wide open if you do want to make this happen no and I do well here's my thought

process on it obviously I could just jump in there and just cash in on a couple times and show up and I hope that Kane's not doing that well I can I don't care what King's doing, but I kind of did the same thing when I do stand-up comedy. There's a novelty of, what's his name, from two and a half men, the actor. Yeah, Charlie Sheen. Charlie Sheen.

There's the Charlie Sheen factor, right? And that's when somebody really doesn't know what the fuck they're doing in something, but they have such a name that they can probably fake it and make it, right? So he did that one-man show, and it was a complete disaster. He had no intentions. But he made all kinds of money doing it. Sold out, fucking jumped on a fucking dollar. I actually went to one of them.

Was it as bad as people said? I just kind of sat there and told stories for an hour. And we went, eh, all right. All right. That's not quite as bad as some of the reviews. Just scade them.

And then his response was like, well, fuck you, I got your money. I'm like, I don't want to be that guy. And so in other aspects of my life, I haven't been that guy. It comes to podcasting,

doing stand-up comedy. I don't want to just cash in and go, well, I have my name. I've done my work here. I think one, it's not only is it you're shitting on your fans I think you're shitting on the other people

that have been part of your sport like I was upset when CM Punk got to have a UFC fight for his debut well if all of a sudden I my first ever pro wrestling match get to jump into an AW or or a WW or a WW match what a fucking asshole you know I mean so just on my name I jump out there not going to look very good

I'm not going to do a great job but uh and what does that say to all the guys that have worked that have wrestled for 50 fucking bucks for fucking five years. You know what I mean? Like it's kind of a spit in their face. And now I was the one upset before when one other guy came over in my sport and just took another. That was my problem with it. I wasn't mad at CM Punk for getting an opportunity.

I was mad because it took opportunity away from somebody else. I'm like, well, there's one less guy on the card now that he's been working his ass off to be there in this world. You just jumped over and get to take a spot and be on a main card. Like, that's kind of bullshit. And so I'd be hypocritical if I would. was that same guy. So I generally want to learn and put in and build myself up. Now obviously I'll never be at the same level of somebody who has just, you know, like Austin, who's wrestled for 20 years.

I won't be able to do a 15 minute match and just flow and figure it out, you know, five minutes before the match goes, hey, is your spot, my spot will go here. No, no, I don't like this. Okay, yeah, give me this. You know, that's not going to happen for me. But as far as given a genuine effort to be respectful of the guys that have put in their working time, I want to be that guy. And then the way I look at it, the reason why I like it is because the same reason I like movies. People are always being inspired, right? And it draws people over. I was inspired by Bruce Lee and Jim Kelly back, you know, in the 70s, you know,

when they came out with, you know, Into the Dragon. Steven Seagall, Van Dam, these guys inspired me. Were they real fighters? And Jim Kelly was, you know what I mean? Bruce Lee even is arguably, who knows? You know what I mean? Like obviously all the tales of him being, you know, obviously this ferocious fighter, but I don't know if he really was or not.

I never seen him in a UFC fight. I never saw him fight. You know, he never did kickboxing matches. There was professional boxing back then. He didn't do that. But I was still inspired by him. He still got me to want to train martial arts and countless other people, right? So I think that that's one thing that I can bring into the, you know, into the ring is that I can show people martial arts still working.

And I think that's something that's kind of when I watch wrestling matches, that's probably why even I, you know, look, sometimes I look at guys. I'm like, hey, man, that's awesome. You can do some flips and jump around, but everything you're doing is completely unrealistic. It would never work. But I remember watching wrestling matches in the 80s and going, oh, well, that would hurt. Oh, that would hurt. That would tear your arm off. Like, there was a certain sense of realism that really that I think they've completely divulged from.

And I think there's a hunger for that now, because if you watch, like, you know, the John Wick movies with Keanu Reeves. You know, you got guys now that, you know, they show him YouTube clips of him training and doing three gun challenges and, you know, working from long gunshots. and transition to a sidearm. So now people go, oh, obviously that that's a person under perfect conditions, not messing up. That'd be like a guy shooting 33-pointers in a row. It's possible. Not probable in real life, probably, but it's still possible.

He's not standing out in the parking lot, kicking it, and all of a sudden it flies 500 yards and goes, it's like, okay, that could never happen. So I think that bringing that realism back into the pro wrestling world with my legitimate brag on an MMA is really honestly, the, you know. you know, the way to go. I mean, yeah. I find it humorous, but I mean, hell, you have guys in sport now that, like, you know, their penis is a weapon. You know, guys in grabbing,

they're getting thrown around. You know, it's comical, it's funny. But I think that it doesn't inspire kids to want to learn martial arts. And, you know, if wrestling was a real martial arts at one time, and then the entertainment aspect of it, I think just added more people to have flair and be interested in it. There's a real dividing line, though, between wrestling and pro wrestling. like pro wrestling is it's entertainment you know yeah but it can still be based in reality if joey ryan wants to flip people with his dick and people cheer for it then you know that's the thing yeah but it's the same thing as watching a movie i find watching movies that are realistic

when i see guys clearing a house and i go oh look that's actually based on reality right you know when i see other movies i'm just not interested when i watch the guy with the six gun that never runs out of bullets and he just stands there and everybody falls down and you can walk you know even sometimes i mean i watch well i'm like wow they never the bad guys, they're just going to hit him, you know what I mean? Like, that bothers me. Maybe, Joey Ryan has a magical, you know, package. You don't know until you try. I don't know. Maybe he could legit flip you. I don't know. Probably not. But I think that is just a, no discredit to anybody else, but I think that that is just a, a symptom of the fact that everybody wants to

show how athletic they are, how much entertaining they can be. And I think that, you know, this is still a combat art, right? It's still based on the fact of, combat. And I think bringing back a certain element of realism to it, it can still be entertaining because there's still a story being told. There's still a narrative, just like a movie. I don't think that the narrative has to be that I can flip better than you or I'm more athletic and I can do this. I think there can be a narrative that's great, you know, hey, puts more pressure on the writers, but then just, hey,

step up your game. Make the writing and entertaining and make the moves legitimate. You know, Ken Shamrock just took a dick flip recently. Do you really? Yeah. Yeah. Did you know that? Yeah. I did. Yeah. Yeah. What's the last thing

when you did again? Took a dick flip. Yeah. Before that. Yeah. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. You know, he's in your world.

If we look ahead into 2020, Frank, does this mean that if you don't want to jump right into AEW, don't want to jump right into WWE? Does this mean we'll see you working some indie matches? Yeah, I think that's actually the area right now just because. Yeah. Talk to Austin. Austin areas is your manager.

Yes. And so. I think working that well I mean also too I keep talking awesome about like you know tag teams I think is easy also too a method in because already like you know it kind of sucks because I've gotten to watch a couple of Austin's matches from the outside but I think being in there and being with somebody who's a veteran knowing what they're doing I mean I wish we can take him and in the MMA and me do that well like hey we're going to have a two on one fight I'm going to do 80% of the work you just jump in here and you're going to be in here and get to learn like what an advantage to take over but MMA doesn't really afford that I mean there's certain parts of rush that we can do it, but for the most part, you know, but in our world or in the pro wrestling world, I can jump in there and watch and see how things are being done and, and take these intermediate steps so that I can build up a legitimate repertoire. Everyone's clamoring for that third match in the Brock, you know, trilogy. Are you saying that this might happen in a pro wrestling ring instead of in an MMA forum? Well, right now he's retired MMAs, so I don't know if I'm going to be

able to get that. We know how retirement's in MMA often working. that. Yeah, true. I'm hoping. Look, I think that it only makes sense the two of us fight again. I mean, I made him tap the first time. He finished me with strikes the second time. I mean, both the fights think were exciting to people to watch. So I don't think he wants, I'm sure it bothers him every time people talk about me. I made him tap. I made him scream uncle. He sat there and, you know, you know, slapped my leg asking the referee to save him from, you know, disfigurement. He has to sleep with that. You know what I mean? And the same thing. Hey, he kicked my ass in one of the fights. I mean, I got up, didn't know where I was,

I mean, he gave me a good ass with him. Why wouldn't he want to go there and finish it off, you know, one last time? I do, you know. As you were heading into that first fight with Brock, were you like, I'm just going to destroy this guy? No, contrary. Really? Honestly, it upset me a little bit because I looked at him,

watching film and whatnot and getting prepared. I knew who he was from wrestling at Minnesota. So I looked at him as, oh, I'm fighting a guy who was a national champion wrestler. Yeah, yeah. He lost his junior year. to Stephen Neal, you know what I mean, who to me was one of the greatest heavyweights of all time. This guy, you know, his junior year, Stephen was a senior year. You know, Stephen Neal was already a national champ from his junior year.

I think the runner-up is sophomore year. So, I mean, he's up there with pedigree that's extremely high. I mean, Neil went on to go ahead in 1999 was the world champion. Dan Hodge recipient, and then, you know, the reason why he didn't continue on wrestling is because he went to the Patriots and got a couple Super Bowl rings throwing guys around there. So, you know, I looked at Lesnar as a very legitimate. threat because of his wrestling background. Big, strong, athletic guy

that knows how to wrestle and there's always be a good position, right? And then I was backstage, getting ready for the fight, you know, the week of doing PR and stuff. And one of the other fighters on the card, and the story would be better if I can remember who it was, who it was, but I just was so, like, in shock that after what he said to me, he goes, I just remember the kid kind of, grab me on the back of the shoulder, he goes, hey, man,

you got to do this. It's, you know, it's MMA versus pro wrestling. We can't look at you. And I looked around, I'm like, oh, you think he's a pro wrestler. Please tell me no one else thinks this guy's just a pro wrestler. Like, the dude's a national champion wrestler. Like, legitimately, you know, like, I'm like, what? So then that actually put a lot of pressure on me because I'm sitting there going,

people are going to think that he's just a pro wrestler? Like, no, give me anybody else. Most of the other pro wrestlers don't have a background in combat. I think that's why the wrestling looks the way it looks. They don't really know what an arm bar is or really, legitimately know how to hit a double on a guy who doesn't want to go down. And so, you know, there's some guys that look at it. I see him throw a punch.

I'm like, I guarantee that dude's never even been in a real fight in his life. Oh, God. And so, and here you have a guy in Lesnar who legitimately was a fighter. You know, I mean, the guy, I mean, he didn't become the champ because he, you know, he sucked. You know, and so that was upsetting. And so I was really focused to take him out. But Brock's got to know he's going into this fight with you and you're like a legit killer. Like, you know, he's got to see the tape.

I remember watching live when you broke Tim Sylvia's arm. I actually want to ask you about that. When you slapped on that arm bar, where you're like, I'm going to break his arm. No, actually, I was holding on because I locked up the arm bar and he actually slipped his elbow out. But I wanted to transition to a triangle, which was to get to my head to the other side. So when he went to lift me up, I just bridged to make myself very heavy as kind of a lever. I always tell people it's like if you lift up a stick from the end and it's long, it's going to be heavy. If the stick were to, you put the center of gravity of the stick underneath the weight of the stick,

well now you can lift it up with a little bit more ease. You know, like holding a baseball bat and holding it up vertically, you know, now it's about balance. But if the bat were to swing out, well, now the bat's going to have some weight to it because of the leverage. So when someone goes to pick you up, you want to be as long as possible to make it to where now is difficult for them to slam you. So that's all I was doing was just kind of leveraging. my body out so that way he would have to fall back down and when he fell down that forward pressure would basically throw him into a triangle so it's a move i had done in practice many a time especially in jiu jihitsu so as i'm doing that all of a sudden his arm just gives loose i just feel pop pop pop

and it opens so i'm like oh i don't know what i have but i have something and it's being destroyed so let me keep driving my hips forward so i just kept driving forward until herrb dean came in and told me to stop the fight. So when I rolled off, I was like, oh, the fight's over with. And then his mannerism afterwards kind of threw me because, I mean, my coach and I were looking at him. He goes, did you break his arm? I'm like, maybe his elbow just dislocated.

I'm like, dude, something popped. Something opened up. So like, oh, we're going to restart the fight. I'm like, cool, start me back in the arm bar. Yeah, he wanted to keep fighting. Yeah, but the way I looked at it, I was like, hey, I had your arm. Give me back your arm. And we could get starting.

So that was kind of the disagreement we had. You know, I was like, well, put me back in the same position. You know what I mean? you give me your arm and we can start all over. So then they're like, well, we're going to have to start you neutral. And so then my coach is freaking out. But I'm like, eh, you even see me kind of like, hey man, we'll do it again. We'll do it now.

All right. So I started wrapping my glove up like, all right, start the fight again. Because in my mind, I was just going to throw a head kick right at his arm. You know, because, you know, when he goes to block it, I'm like, we'll find out real quick if it's broken. Which thankfully, her, you know, and the doctor came in, I think it was Goodman, stopped the fight. Because had they, could you imagine, I'd have thrown a full blast kick at his arm and it wasn't detached. it might have been bad for our sport. What about the other broken arm at Nogera?

Yeah, that one I feel bad about and I knew that was going to happen just because, you know, an American versus Brazilian jiu-jitsu, you know, even though it was Japanese art was really modified to its current state in Brazil, you know. And when I had them in the Kimora,

I remember once I had it slipped to a certain angle, I'm like, okay, it's done, I have you. You can see me in the fight starting to look for her because I knew. He's not going to tap. So as soon as the referee jumps in, I can let go of pressure. You know, because I's still a fan of Ogaris, and I'm not a guy who's trying to. I've never tried to maim somebody in our sport.

If you get hurt by me, that's because you don't protect yourself and the referee didn't get in there. I'm not trying to get an extra. I've never been that guy that, you know, if the referee grabs me, I keep twisting. I think that's wrong. I think that, look, we're both martial artists, and I always tell this to people, when people sit there go, how much you hate the other guy? I mean, there's guys have liked less than others.

But for the most part, if all of a sudden in the middle of my fight, let's say the power goes out. And they say, I'm sorry. You know, Dana comes out. Hey, look, you know, fights postponed. We'll come back in the next week. You know, everybody go next door to the bar. Drinks are on us. And I'm sitting at the bar and having a beer.

Who do you think I have most in common with? Who do you think would probably be the guy that I'd be sharing a beer with? The guy in the front row who's screaming obscenity. it has no clue staring them up what the hell's going on in a fight who hasn't been in a fight since he got beat up in fifth grade probably not you know what i mean like i'm probably going to be hanging out with the guy i was fighting he knows what it's like to train he he's into the same interest that i have he has injuries and in pain and same fears and same angst and same goals that's a dude i'm going to share a beer with so as far as wanting to shred his arm i didn't want to i was hoping

it just dislocated at the elbow when it did finally pop and then you even see later when i stood up and I was doing the interview. Like, I'm kind of looking over at him. And the fact that they're bracing his arm, I was like, well, shit, it's just a dislocated elbow. Like, what's going on? Maybe dislocate the shoulder. And then I never, my wildest dreams, imagine that Camorra,

the hammerlock could have destroyed his humorous that way. You know, spiral fractured, you know, to put it back together with, you know, a halo. You're a strong man with great technique. Of course that would have happened. Well, I just thought that the weak link would have been the shoulder. I figured out would have tore his shoulder. tore rotator cuff, which is a horrible injury.

You know, I don't want that anybody. But I thought that the soft tissue would have went first. But I guess at the angle that I had it, it broke at the humorous. Is pro wrestling the transition for you out of MMA? Like, how many more years do you think you have in MMA? I'm going to keep fighting. I mean, I'm 40 now. And there's guys that are in mid-40s and later that are still very successful in MMA,

especially the fact that I'm a heavyweight, it makes it easy. because, look, Demetrius Johnson loses two-tenths of a second of his reaction time. He's fighting guys that are fighting at 125 pounds, you know, fly weights that are, you know what I mean? Lightning fast. Lightning fast.

I'm over 200 pounds. We're quick, but I can lose two-tenths of a second and still see a right hand coming from the best fighters in the world. It's not the same speed. Even, you know, Deonti Wilder, who has the best right hand in all of confidence, combat sports, right? You can still see it. It's not so fast. Now, Lomachenko, even though he's a

softball, still the backside punch, that punch will be harder to see. If you lose a tenth of a second of reaction time, you ain't seeing that. That's why even in boxing, which is very much of a reaction sport of eye hand coordination, you see champs and guys competing, you know, into, I mean, look, Ortiz who just fought for the title, it's 40 years old. You can be. Randy had a great career. Yeah, I mean, even at light heavyweight, you see it. I mean, I still think he won the fight. Dan Henderson when he fought the Englishman. Bisbing?

Yes, Michael Bisbing. But you can't remember me. I'm picking up from all the hints here. Yeah, thanks, man. It's like we're married. Yeah, so, you know, Bisbing in 46, I mean, hell, he dropped him in Florida him in two different rounds, which I thought both those rounds, it looked like Bisbing was in survival mode.

Those should have been 10-8 rounds. You know, even Bisbing wants to win the other. other three by a point each 10-9-10-9-19 you win two rounds by four points now i mean just it should have been his fight you know so i mean and we're making this argument about a 46-year-old yeah so other than brock lesnar who are the matches that you know as you continue on here that you need to have oh i really besides brock because of the history that we have i don't really have anybody else that meets that uh namesake uh look when i go out there and compete in martial arts i'm still competing for the same reasons i competed the very first day i ever stepped on a mat

You know, at six years old, my first taekwondo tournament, right? I'm out there to prove myself. And maybe if I fall short, why did I fall short? Now I can go back to the gym and work on it, you know? You know, all arts are about an expression of yourself so you can see the working parts and see how you think and see how you move and where are your shortcomings, where are your strengths. And that way when you go back to the drawing board, you have somewhere a direction to grow. That's why I want to keep fighting.

I don't know what I would do if I retired. If I really didn't have a reason to get up and go train, I don't know. Well, sounds like you'll keep training no matter whether you're fighting professionally or not. It sounds like that's just part of year. Well, it's been a blessing of a curse. The story I told earlier about having my daughter. My daughter now is going to be, she'll be the champ. She's going to be the number one female fighter in the world.

And what's her name? So everybody will know. Isabella Mir, Bellamere and Lady Mir on Instagram. She's already a state champion wrestler. She's how old? 16. She won the state championship in eighth grade here in Nevada for the girls, which is a high school tournament. So she's competing against seniors and juniors.

And I mean, I think her longest match was 30 seconds, you know. You know, she goes and trains with me at syndicate and trains over at Drysdale's. And she's going with full-grown women that are world champions. And, you know, and I've had to give a couple pep talks to them afterwards. Like, it's okay. I know. She's just different. You know what I mean?

You know, women, you know, they handle their losses a little bit differently. But so that being said, I'm always going to want to be on the mat with her and training with her. I mean, how, my dad still jumps on the mat and trains with me, you know, and he's in his 60s. So I think that once it's, if you really love martial arts and you're doing it because of the love of it, I can't imagine why, just because if you're not getting paid for prize fights, why wouldn't you train anymore? Yeah. That's not. Right.

The only reason why I do prize fights is because it affords me not. to have to go to work and I get to go to the gym all day. It's kind of like this circle of like, okay, well, if you want to train all day, yeah, I like training. It's cool. Cool. And at the end of it, if every three to six months you jump in and let everybody see you fight somebody, you can keep training.

I'm like, all right, that works for me. If it makes the wife happy and I get to go to the gym, I'm good, man. Do you have another Ballator fight lined up as of right now? Right now, contractually they have until I think about February, giving me my last fight on the contract. But I haven't had a chance to speak with Scott. I text him after the fight, but he has a lot of big things going on. So hopefully that when he had some time, you'll hit me up again,

and we can sit down and talk if I'm going to extend. But my thing is I really would like to have much more of an open ability, unless you're the champion, this whole being held under one promotion, you know, I mean, look, I'm fighting once every 10 months, you know, there's bare-knuckle boxing now that I'm heavily interested in. You know, there's all these different ventures. And unless you're someone's champ or the number one contender, why can't you fight other places, you know?

Unless they have a fight for you, I mean, I could fight every weekend, you know. Why not? You know, I mean, there's only so much time on this earth. I don't want to just spend it waiting in the, you know, in the wings. Bareknuckle, is that something we might see you with? Oh, yeah, 100%. I will do a barrenacle fight. Wow.

Yeah. Well, it's also to my devious master plan. I want to bring back barrenuckle MMA. I think it's much truer to the original art, you know, for a hand-on-hand combat, you know. You know, people don't get to wrap their hands and put gloves on before they get into a street fight. And so punching someone bare-knuckle,

you can't do it the same as if we're fighting professionally with our hands wrapped. You can't hit as hard. You can one time, but then, you know, you have quite a few bones in your hand that are not really designed to hit someone in the skull. And so that's why when people sit there and go, oh, bare-knuckle boxing so much more dangerous,

like, no, it's not. What are you smoking? Not talking about us. Or this cigar that I've been interrupting. I'm sorry. Yeah, that's okay. You barely been able to smoke it at all. We'll get to it.

Yeah, thank you. JP grabbed them up from Cuba. Oh, awesome. There you go. There you go. So anyways, my hand being wrapped and reinforced with tape and gauze and putting a glove over. There's a misconception. And people go, oh, that makes it safe from.

I know it doesn't. You know why we do that? Because there's more knockouts now, because people can hit harder. It protects the hand. It doesn't protect the head. I would fight anybody in the world in a stand-up fight. I mean, even Francis Angano, Deonti Wilder,

they want to hit me bare-knuckle, I'll take it. Let's go. Wow. You're not going to be able to, I guess the easiest way to explain this to people at home is if I said, hey, you see that the cinder block wall in your backyard, go ahead and blast it, bare-knuckle. Most people are going to like, I'm not going to hit that. I'm like, cool.

But if you let me wrap your hand, if I had a stitch, Jacob Durant back here, we can wrap your hand and put a glove over it, you'll hit it. Yeah. I mean, it might jack up your, you know, and that's an extreme version of it. But you'll punch the bag hard because your hands are reinforced. They're wrapped up and gloved. You go bare knuckle on it. You can't, your wrist folds over, you break bones in your hand. You can't generate the same amount of power.

Now it's more realistic to what a real fight would be. It's like, well, you can kind of go medium power to the head. you better place your shots very well because you're going to bust your hand up. And, you know, even the bare knuckle we have now, it's not true bare knuckle. They're allowing them to reinforce the back of their hands and their wrist. I wish it would just go back to the true art of it. But like there's no material from the elbow down naked. Wow.

Well, okay, so we're going to see you in bare knuckle and it sounds like we're going to see you in pro wrestling. And really it's the best time for you to be getting into pro wrestling with success of Ronda Rousey. Yeah. Wayne Velasquez's back into this. Matt Riddle, Tom Lawler, all this, you know, it's perfect for you to get in there too. Yeah, I think so. I mean, and then bringing, like I said, I think that I think it's necessity now because, look. Oh, okay.

Shh. Hey. Sorry, my attack dogs. Yeah. You can hear their attack dogs. Yeah. What does I think of? It's the perfect time to get into pro wrestling with, you know.

Well, the fan just. It's been laid there. And I think that it's a necessity because, look, 20 years ago, you know, a guy could put someone in an arm bar and he can, you know, harvest the energy of the crowd to fight through it. I think now most of the fans know that, oh, that's bullshit. You're in an arm bar. You got to defend it. There is no muskling out of this. There is no, you know, because.

20 years ago was Shamrock, Severn, and Tank Abbott, I guess. Yeah. Were the, I guess they were the three that were in pro wrestling. Yep, they moved over to Abbott. I think then Abbott became what, with the WCW? and then the contract problem. He was in three count. Remember the boy band with Shane Helms and Evan Courageous?

Did he really? Yes. I'll show you after this. Okay, I'm going to be embarrassed because it was funny. I watched a fight with Abbott. He had a fight with Ferozzo. Their rematch was in a backyard with a bunch of guys just drinking beer and smoking cigarettes.

And I fought Tank Abbott. So I'm watching this fight and it was just hurt my feelings. It was sad. You know, when you sit there and you see somebody that you're like, oh, man, that dude was really, you know, It's hard for me to tell my kids like, yeah, I fought this guy. This guy was dangerous, scary dude. He put people in comas.

And then now we're watching them around. I'm like, oh, please stop. Someone turned the camera off. Did he not have a buddy there? Yeah, that was bad. Well, as we wrap this up, once again, thank you so much for inviting me into your home. This has been a great chat. Yeah, thanks, man.

What advice do you have for someone who's watching this video and wants to break into MMA? Obviously, just, you know what? Life, martial arts, everything is not a spring. You know, if you sit there and start setting goals, like, I want to be here in a year. I want to be here. Look, long-term goals are great, but they don't override short-term goals. Sit there going, hey, look, I want to join a gym, and I'm going to a lot that with my

work schedule and my social life with my, you know, my significant other, I'm going to have two hours a day to dictating to training, you know, five days a week. That's the first steps that people, you know, really you have to make. Can you set yourself up for success? You know, like, well, I'm going to be a fighter. I'm like, okay, well, how are you going to get there? And everybody wants to be at the time. top of the mountain. I'm like, cool. So what

trailer are you going to take? What direction are you going to go? Do you have the right shoes? Do you have the right gear? Do you have the right, you know, the map? Do you know where you're going? Do you have the right people to assist you along the way? So I think just sitting back and being logical about how you're going to get through the next six months. All right, you want to be a fighter, that's great. What are you doing for the next six months? What does your training

going to look like? What gym? What money do you have to train for, pay for training? And then on top of that, the next level is once you're in there and you are moving around, you only have one body, you know, I really wish that I would have, especially the mixed martial arts world, you know, everybody's about taping it up and drop a couple Advil and just, you know, just forget about it. Just, you know, muscle, you know, nut up.

Jesus, I hate that expression. Rob some dirt on it, you know, bullshit mentality. And, man, I'm paying for it. A heavy price now. You know, I mean, yesterday or the day before we did our Christmas photo shoots with my children and my wife. And they had different rooms as you're going through to take a. picture with Santa Claus and, you know, keep you entertained, you know, making cookies in one, decorating cookies, and Mrs. Santa Claus is another, and elves. And there was one room where it was

like a snowball fight. And there these little soft, like spongy Nerf balls that were simulated in a snowball fight. Okay. So my daughter who, you know, she's firing, you know, 80 mile an hour fastballs at people, you know, she jumps out there. And my wife goes, oh, jump out there. So here's my kids playing. And I go to grab a ball. I threw one. And I felt like someone stabbed a night. into my shoulder as I throw the ball. I can't play with my kids certain sports without warming up and getting ready. I'm like, well, I could do this,

but I better drop a bunch of cratum and take a bunch of CBD and then let me go ahead and do a external rotation warm up. And that's all from being stupid when I was young and not really respecting the, hey, you're injured. Chill out. You know, oh, you busted your ankle. Maybe don't go ahead and go for a sprint right now.

Why don't you, we can work on this. There's other ways around it. So I think being respectful of your body and realizing you are mortal, as much as fighters have an immortal mentality that I can overcome any situation. Look, father time and reality of your body, you're still an animal.

You have the limits to what you can do. And look, the limits can be impressively far, but they're still there. And so being respectful of your body is something I wish I would have really taken a heart when I was younger. Well, once again, thank you again for this. Appreciate it.

Looking forward to seeing you in a ring again and in a cave again. Thank you. It's going to be awesome. Thank you again. This was great. Well, there you have it, my friends. I've such a great chat.

Man, he's so well-spoken, isn't it? So it's not a matter of if we'll see Frank Mir in a wrestling ring. I think it's a matter of when we'll see Frank Mir in a wrestling ring. A big thank you to Frank for inviting us into his home to do the interview. Also, thank you to Austin Ares for connecting Frank and I and also for driving me to Frank Mears house to make that interview happen. I mean, you heard Austin was off camera there. Just having a drink.

Just enjoying the conversation. conversation. But yeah, a big thank you to Austin for connecting us. And, you know, he was very hospitable. Austin was very, very hospitable in Los Angeles. So, you know, big thank you to him for that. And thank you to you for listening to this all the way until the end. Please, do me a favor. Take a screenshot. Tag me, tag Frank Mir. Let us know what you thought of the interview. And take a second to subscribe to the podcast and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. And really, you know, just help to get the word out there as we close out 2019. And we head. into 2020. We've got big news coming up for 2020. This isn't official yet, but I'm going to

throw it out there. It's not official. I don't know when. I don't know where and I don't know with who, with whom, but we're taking the Chris Van Fleet show on the road in 2020. We're going to be doing some live interviews, both the podcast and the YouTube channel interview on the road in a theater. And I want to do it with you. So let me know where we should do it. Let me know with who we should do it with. So keep an eye out on my Twitter and my Instagram at Chris Van Fleet for the official announcement there, but just know that this is happening. And I probably shouldn't be saying it yet because it's not quite official.

But we're looking at February 28th in Chicago. It's the weekend of the next AEW pay-per-view. So it's just a matter of who's going to be on that stage doing the interview with me. Who would you want to see and who would you want to get a picture with after? So it's going to be the live interview. and it's also going to be a meet and greet afterwards. So keep an ear on the podcast, keep an eye on the YouTube channel and look for the announcement on Twitter and YouTube as well

because that is happening soon. Man, I'm so excited. I'm so excited to share this with you because usually it's just me and one other person and a camera, often in a hotel room or like this one, just in Frank Mears dining room. It'd be so cool to share this experience with you. It's such an intimate, awesome experience,

and I can't wait to share it with you. As we head into 2020, and it's not just the year 2020, it's perfect vision, right? 2020. And I want you to have that perfect vision every single day as we head into the new year and in the new year as well. Don't be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart. That's from Roy T. Bennett. And I think that's so fitting as we close out, not just the year, not just 2019, but as we close out the decade.

Don't be pushed around by the fears in your mind. be led by the dreams in your heart. Got one more podcast in 2019. We'll see you next Thursday and oh man, it's going to be such a good one. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock,

but there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of them?

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