Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Freddie Prinze Jr. On Working For WWE, Issues With John Cena, His Wife Sarah Michelle Gellar - Interview From January 2021

Episode Date: December 30, 2021

Today's guest is Freddie Prinze Jr. (@RealFPJr). FPJ joins Chris Van Vliet from his home in Los Angeles, CA in this episode that originally aired on January 29, 2021. This was one of my favorite interviews of the year! He talks about his time working for WWE, his career defining roles in "She's All That", "I Know What You Did Last Summer", "Scooby Doo" and "Summer Catch", why he left acting to be the best father that he could be, growing up with a legendary father, stories about training with Chuck Norris and Muhammad Ali, his wife Sarah Michelle Gellar, his role in the Punky Brewster reboot and much more! Get 20% off your first purchase at True Classic Tees with the code CVV20: https://trueclassictees.com/discount/CVV20 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. For more information about CVV and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bleed! Let's do this thing. How are you, my friends? Welcome back to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm CBV Chris Van Fleet, and we made it. We made it. Can you believe 2021 is over?

I've said this before, but I feel like this was either the longest year ever or the shortest year ever. You know, I'm going to go with the last year ever. You know, I'm going to go with the ladder. It just, that's it. It just flew by. And I can't thank you enough for being on this ride with us. We did 136 episodes this year. 136.

And if you subscribe to my clips channel on YouTube, which is appropriately called CVV clips, you've seen that I've posted quite a few clips from my interview with Freddie Prince Jr. that we did back in January. It's not only one of my favorite podcast episodes of the year, it's one of my favorite podcast episodes ever. And if you haven't heard this before,

you are in for a treat. He's an incredible storyteller, and he is such a passionate person about the things that he's passionate about. And he's passionate about being a father, about comedy, and he is especially passionate about professional wrestling.

He actually has a new podcast out called Wrestling with Freddie, which you can find wherever you're listening to this right now, And he talks about the times that he worked in WWE. That's right, times plural. He worked there two separate times, 2008 to 2009, and then again, 2010 to 2012. Give him a follow on Twitter. He's a great follow. Real FP Jr.

And on Instagram, he's at Real Freddie Prince. If you're not following me, I'm at Chris Van Fleet. Our fan of the week is Jay Lopez, who left this review on Apple Podcast, that says, the bees, knees of podcasts. Hi, Chris, first-time listener, and now I'm officially a long-time fan. Keep up the great work with your great guests and even better inspirational quotes.

Cheers, Jay Lopez. Well, Jay, thank you so much. I read a review on every single episode. We will continue doing this in 2022. So if you have Apple Podcasts, leave a few words on there and we'll read them out. Also, did you notice that Spotify now has not reviews, but they have like a rating system.

So if you're listening on Spotify right now, go in there, just click the five stars. That's it. It takes like half a second to do it. But it'd be so, so amazing. I appreciate that so much if you could go in there because this is real. I know you hear a lot of podcasters talk about it,

but they talk about it for a reason. This is what helps the rating system. Apple, Spotify, all these different apps. If they see the people are listening and rating and reviewing, they're like, oh my gosh, this must be important show. We should show this to more people. So I'd be so grateful. I don't ask for anything. There's other shows that have Patreon or have a PayPal account. I don't ask for anything. I put this all out there for free. I would just think the least you could do is maybe take

30 seconds out of your day to leave a few words or click five stars. It'd be just so great. And also subscribe on YouTube. That would also be really appreciated. All right. Let's dive into this. an amazing conversation with an amazing individual. Please welcome. Freddie Prince Jr. All right, man, we are doing this. FPJ, CVV. Do people actually call you FPJ?

My wife did and changed my whole nickname. Until then, most people called me FJP, because my middle name was James or is James. And when Sarah met me, she only knew me as Freddie Prince Jr. and she called me FPJ and it just stuck. So she hung that on me. So yeah, it's totally legit. But it'd be FJPJ, which doesn't flow.

No. Does that mean you called Sarah SMG? No, because I grew up playing Call of Duty and that's the submachine gun. So I just call her Sarah. Where in Los Angeles are you? We're in like the Brentwood area, basically. Okay. I'm in Studio City, so not too far away from you.

Yeah, I grew up down. there. Thank you for taking the time to do this. That's my pleasure, man. It's my pleasure. I got a little extra time today. We were supposed to do it yesterday, and I didn't press send on a stupid message, and I'm so sorry. No, it actually worked out well. I live in an apartment building here, and right as we were about to do the interview, they came into

like replace sprinklers, and they were making a lot of noise. I'm like, that wouldn't have worked out. But you've been pretty busy. You've been filming Punky Brewster, which I think for a lot of people who are around my age, are going to be like, Punky Brewster is back? That's what I thought. I was done. I wasn't acting anymore.

I just wanted to write stuff and do my game channel. And I was literally writing season four of WWE's Up, Up, Downs, Rollout, their D&D game. I did their season three. And so I was doing a Wild West for them this time, which would be D&D, but in the Wild West, they'll go through a portal. And I grew up watching Quantum Leap. And my buddy called me, this actor that I'd worked with before, and he said, they're a remake in Punky Brewster,

and they really like you to play the dad. And I was like, no, man, I'm not, I'm not trying to attack right now. And he was like, dude, it's a reoccurring. He's like, and it shoots in L.A. And he was like, just read it. It's good. You'll love Soleil.

I've known. It's Brian Austin Green was the one telling me this. Oh, wow, yeah. He goes, I do it, but I booked a job and I can't. And I was like, oh, all right, I'll read it. And so I didn't read it for like two days because I was writing stupid Dungeons and drag and stuff because that's more important to me. And he called me again.

And he was like, you jerk i told him you were going to read it and you didn't he's like read the script i was like oh my god i'm so sorry so we hung up and i read the script and i laughed like five or six times in a 22-page script and it made me feel so good and they were they said uh i called him i said i liked it and uh they said it'd only be like three or four episodes which was perfect and it'd be in l a and i just needed to meet with sale and so i got to meet with solay the original punky brewster yeah and we were on the Universal lot and we were eating in and out burgers under the clock tower from back to the future. Oh my gosh. And we're just talking about the show and seeing if we dig, like if we click, right?

And this girl comes up who works at Universal. She looks like a host, right? And this is pre-COVID. And she says, I'm so sorry, you guys, there's about to be a wedding proposal here at the clock tower. I don't want to ask you to me. And Solan and I both jump up and we're like, oh my God, don't apologize. We're gone. So we run over to this little alcove. And if. they ever open the tour again, you'll see it. If you're facing the clock tower to the left, there's like the stairs that go nowhere. So we sit on the stairs and just continue talking. And all of a sudden, that same host comes up with the girl she's going to propose to. And we're both like, oh my God. And the tram car pulls up as she gets on one knee and it's playing

the back to the future theme music. Oh, wow. And the whole tram car starts clapping and they're like, Yay, she said yes, she said yes. And I kind of looked at Solan, I was like, yeah, let's do this show. What a magical moment. It just felt great. So I did the pilot, and the kids are real, real special. And a couple of them have enough experience that you're not just seeing their talent. You're seeing them apply skill to their talent.

And I just remember having this awesome experience. And at the end of the pilot, they said, hey, man, we loved you. Would you be a series regular? And it just felt, I've been in this business long enough to know when something feels good. You ride that wave. You're going to get waves that suck. But it's the wave you're on. You can either bail out or ride it in and paddle out again.

And this was a great wave. And I recognized it at 44. And I was like, yeah, man, I didn't even tell my agent. I was like, dude, I'll do it every episode if you want. I'll be here. And they called my agent and he called me the next day, or my manager, rather. And he was like, what are you a series regular now? It's like, yeah, man, let's just make it work.

And I really loved working there. And so we did it. It's on Peacock. And we finished our whole first season right before they shut L.A. down again. And none of us got it. We were healthy and smart. And we wore our mask and we got through it. And I had an absolute blast, man.

And I think the thing about being a series regular is it's like a Monday to Friday job, which is really cool. It is. And a sitcom is a favorable schedule. But I'm a full-time father, man. You know what I mean? So it was important to me to be home. Once I had kids, I really took a step back and started pursuing other.

I mean, you know, I worked for WWE. You know what I mean? Like I did all kinds of weirdo stuff and was just really done with the business. You know, I always was wary of it because of the tragedy of my father in this business before me. For those of you don't know, look him up. It was Freddie Prins. He did way too many drugs in the 70s, got way too famous, way too quick, and he died. So, you know, I've always kind of had like that Heisman stiff arm out towards the business, so to speak.

But once I felt I accomplished my goals, it was easy to walk away. And that was literally like, I think two weeks later, I went to WrestleMania, met with someone who worked at WWE. And they're like, yo, you need to work here. I was like, okay. And I took the job. You know, you could have had that Heisman stiff arm up for your entire life. I mean, you grew up in Albuquerque. You were the furthest thing away from Hollywood.

What made you start to go down that path? This story is beautiful to me, but when people hear it, they always go, ah, but it doesn't suck. It's actually good. So my grandfather never liked my dad. He always told my mom, you know, he's going to fool around on you. He's not going to be reliable. By the way, everything my grandfather said was true.

Okay. Like my dad was fooling around with Pam Greer, with Rachel Ward, with the mom from growing pains, Joanna Kerns back in the day. That era. He was running around and he hurt my mom real, real bad and my grandfather never got over it. And when I was 16 years old, he had cancer. And it was to the point where we put him on hospice care, meaning you can bring him home because he doesn't have much time left and he should pass with his family, right?

So his name was being toughest dude. I know he looked like Popeye to sailor man. Not joking. Just like Robin Williams dressed up as Popeye in the moon. And he had anchor tattoos from being a lot. the Navy on the USS Nevada, which was like the only ship that escaped Pearl Harbor. He was an engineer. He worked in the engine room. He said, I never saw, he said, I never saw the war, but I heard every bomb dropped. That's what he told me when I was like 12. So he's in his,

he's in his hospice bed, his death bed. I know that's morbid, but sure, he's a beautiful man. He lived a long life. He's in his 80s. And my granny said, a, your papa, that's what I called him. She said, your papa wants to, wants to talk to you. And we knew. This was like the last couple days. So I go in there and he takes my hand. And he was always so frigging strong. Like I never beat him in arm wrestling, never saw him lose an arm wrestling. And his grip wasn't as strong.

And so right away, I was real just 15, 16 and emotional and a little scared. And he says, did you clean your room today? And I said, yeah. And he goes, I'm so proud of you. And then your 15 year old brain, you're like, All right. Proud of me for cleaning my room. I didn't know that's how he was trying to show love, you know.

And then in the same breath, in the same damn breath, he says, you know, your father really screwed things up for this family. And it's up to you to fix it. And he died an hour later. He died an hour later. So he just dropped this albatross necklace around my neck and said sail away. And so as soon as I graduate, at high school the day. I don't even think I went to my graduation. I think it was the day I was done

with school. L.A. was closer than New York. I moved back to L.A., which is a city I was born in. Yeah. And moved into one of my godfather's apartments in Burbank and started the journey, man, started the journey. Well, not only, you know, did you have the legacy, you had your father's name, which you could also, you know, have to try to live up to. Yeah, it's weird. Any junior can relate to this. When you're a junior, you're basically a statue built to honor that which walked before you. And it's difficult. It's not a weight, so to speak. It's a prison, but you're not in a cell.

You're in a hallway that never ends, and you've already gone too far to ever go back. And there's no doors on the wall, so you can't take these side exits. So a lot of people turn to other things to sort of find an escape. Unhealthy things, drugs, alcohol, stuff like that. Or in my case, my godfather, fortunately, I've lived a blessed life, man. My father charmed a lot of people who when he died, they weren't going to let that happen to me. So one of those men was Bob Walt. And Bob was the man who trained Bruce Lee when Bruce came to America.

And the guy Bruce beat up in all his movies. He was Carl Miller, the guy with the scar down his eye. Yeah, yeah. Wow. Nutsack and was like, you lose Carl Miller. That's my godfather. So I turned to martial arts, and that's what really was my escape, was getting to spar. He introduced me to Jiu-Jitsu in 1989, I think it was, with John Jocx Machado, and I thought

I was a hot shit little junior wrestler, and he just clowned me in two seconds, had me on his shoulders and spinning me around going, which window, which window? Like, he's going to throw me out, and I was just hooked. And when you're trying to keep someone from choking you out, you can't think, Woe is me. I didn't get to have a sandwich with my dad. You don't get to have any of those thoughts or you go to sleep. So it was a huge escape for me and really benefited me much more so when I got on my own path and started becoming successful in my own right. Yeah. Dealing with all the outside pressures of the business, some of them which really beat me down and some which I was able to shake off.

You know, it's different for everybody. But martial arts was a. savior for that. That's all because of my godfather. Guys like Bob Wall, judo Gene LaBelle, which was the LaBelle lock for Daniel Brian in a while. That was the guy who used to choke me out, man. I call him Uncle Gene. Like, he taught me the standing front choke and said, to your friends.

Like, those were the guys that really made sure I stayed humble and connected to what was important and not get sidetracked. They really shattered those walls down. that I felt trapped in and showed me this much broader road that I could be on. Didn't you also train with like Muhammad Ali and Chuck Norris? Okay, so it's sort of. So when I was 15, I won a big karate tournament out here in California or in Nevada.

And I thought I was hot stuff and my godfather said, he goes, ah yeah, he thinks you're pretty good. He lived in Tarzana, California on a street called Donna, in Turin, Donna. Turin, Donna. They don't live there anymore. And two houses down was Chuck. And these guys were just frat boys. Like, they were old men that would go to UCLA bars, start fights with linebackers, win, and then go home. Okay? Like, that's what these guys used to do. So I go over to Chuck. And I had known Chuck since I was born, basically. He was at my first birthday party. And my godfather, let me smash my face in the cake. He was like, nah, he should do that. My mom's like,

oh, Toledo. He's like, no, he's a boy. Let him be a boy. And so I go over there. And I won the tournament, because I was a good boxer. And Taekwondo guys back then had no hands. They were all kicks. And as long as you stepped inside, it was a rat. So I had a great jab. And I'm a South Paul, but I would fight orthodox. So my left hand was a really clean jab.

And I'm popping that jab out there with Chuck Noritz. Okay. Just pop. Pop thinking on hot stuff, right? And he doesn't, like, his whole thing was he never sparred hard. He would always let guys win. And then when he go to tournaments, he would turn it on, right? and no one ever understood like, man, I'm beating this guy's ass in class,

and he's killing everybody in his tournament. So that's just his style. So he threw one wheel kick. And this is the man who taught me how to throw a wheel kick. And my jabbs out like this, and he hit me in the rib, and he broke my rib. Oh. I dropped. I didn't know it was broken.

I just knew I was hurt. Sure. I dropped to the ground, and they're all laughing at me, like, ah, you knocked the wind out of him. And I'm like, I think I was crying probably. Chuck felt terrible. and he realized I was really hurt. And so my godfather picks me up,

walks me back to his house, where I was staying at the time. And my godmother, her name's Lillian. She's like five foot two. My godfather's like six one. Just stud, right? Big badass guy beats up linebackers. He's an old man.

Now he's still with my ass. Just for calling him, oh man, he will the next time I see him. And we walk in a house and she finds out what happens. And you find out real quick who runs that house. She dressed him down. I mean, it was a Vince McMahon level promo when he would hate a match to the point where Bob went from standing to sitting like a child in the kitchen like breakfast nook just taking this beat, this verbal beating. And she's scared. Lillian scared.

She's like, you, Kathy, my mother, Kathy is going to shoot Chuck Norris. And my mom would. She was crazy. She's the license gun owner. So she was like, we can't even tell her or she's seriously going to kill him. And then she's going to kill you. So I got to stay in California for the whole summer. My godfather lied to my mom, said, hey, he's loving it out here.

We're going to take him surfing. My daughters are going to take him shopping for new clothes. They actually did do that. That part wasn't allowed. I had sick clothes when I got back to Albuquerque. And girls actually liked me for the first time because my older god sister, Shannon taught me how to talk to girls. She's like, you're too nice.

Be a jerk until they grow up then be the nice guy you are. And it worked. So I got to stay in California the whole summer with a broken rib. But that was the Chuck Norris story. The Ali's story was my father. My father was friends with Ali, and Ali used to spar with him and whip his ass and not even be like nice about it. Just like pepper him up. Wow.

And my dad loved it. So he started training with Bob Wall because Bob was the guy who trained all the famous people back then in the 70s. He taught Steve McQueen how to fight. He taught James Garner how to fight. All these like want to be tough guys who weren't. They weren't shit until they started training with real tough guys. and learned how to fight. So my my godfather teaches him the left hook like just a real clean left hook.

Yeah, my dad was orthodox. So one day they're at all these house and, uh, they're sparring in the living room and my dad catches Ali with the left hook and Ali doesn't fall, but the couch is behind him. So it sits him down and my dad did a me Muhammad Ali impression. Look it up on YouTube. He beat up George, my dad hosted the tonight show for Carson when he was 21 years old and did a bit with George Foreman where my dad was all Ali and George played George and my dad knocks out George for him. They reenact Zaire.

And then he had Paul Williams, who wrote The Rainbow Connection as the second guest. I think George was first. So anyway, he catches Ali. Ali goes down. My dad does his Ali impression, runs in the bathroom, grabs a towel, wipes the blood off Ali's nose, gave him a bloody nose, jumps in his 75 metallic blue Corvette stingray and hauls ass home. By the time he gets home, Ali's already called the house,

gelled at my mother. Did you tell that boy, I'm going to kill him the next time I see him? But my mom thinks he's serious. So my dad gets home. My mom's screaming and yelled, I'm going to leave you. What did you do? She's freaking out.

He's like, no, no, no. He explains the situation. And he got it framed on crushed purple velvet, like a war metal, right? And then framed in dark wood with a placard. And it says, Ali's blood. It was right before my dad's birthday. I think it says June 19, June 20th, 19th, 1975. and my mom still has it to this.

No way. I've asked her for it a million times, and she literally has told me to my face, when I'm dead, you can have it. This is the greatest story of all time. I'm telling you, man, my dad, he touched a lot of souls, and all those souls really blessed me. So I have lived a charmed life.

I always try to make that clear. Yeah. We had hard times, but as far as, like, people looking out for me and making sure that bad stuff didn't happen to me, ain't nobody ever had it better than I be. Your dad died when you were really young. You were one, right?

Not even, man. Not even one. So how did you get to know your father as you started to get a little bit older? Comedy clubs. I've been in them since I was 12 years old, even when I wasn't allowed to be at him. And I would bring spiral notebooks just like this, which I still write all my D&D stuff in. You can even see, this is a Sea of Thieves one that I'm getting ready to do. Look at that.

Um, but I would go and I would write down as fast as I could all the comics jokes. I'm a sixth grader, mind you. Um, every summer break, every winter break that I could get out her I wouldn't even when I was 18 and moved out. I would go almost every night and I would write down the joke and then I would write down on a level of one to five how loud the audience laugh. Huh. And I would learn and a lot of these comics when they would get off stage would tell me stories about my dad and comics do not hold back. I remember old school legends like Bobby Slayton, this old like New York comic. And he'd be like, oh, your father was such a piece of crap.

Anytime there was a girl I'd put like two, three hours to talk into. He just walk up and steal it from me. Fuck him. He was a funny guy, though. He was a funny guy. And they're like, walk away. I'm 12. Okay?

I'm 12 in hearing this stuff. Richard Pryor was the same. Richard Pryor discovered my dad. He discovered my father and got him his manager. They had the same manager who I call Uncle Ron to this day. And Richard was in love with Pam Greer. So when Pam fell in love with my dad, Richard lost it.

He just lost it. And he made my Uncle Ron pick. He was like, you got to pick, you got to pick. And he picked my dad, which was a mistake. But he picked my dad. And Richard was super pissed. So when I first met Richard, he was already pretty sick. And he held my hand in a similar way my grandpa did.

And he said, boy, your father was a motherfucker. But he was a funny motherfucker. And I loved him with all my heart. And I started crying. We're in the Mitzie's comedy store. And he was going to perform. And I'm like, how was this guy going to perform? They wheeled him up on stage.

He's in the damn wheelchair. And they adjust the mic for him. And it's so tense in there because nobody wants to see a hero fail. You don't want to see Joe Namath stumble. You don't want to see you don't want to see people who you don't want to see Mike Tyson get knocked out. You know what I mean? You don't want to see a legend fail.

Yeah. And so it's so. tense in there and his voice was weak and he says I was at a multiple sclerosis function with Annette Funicello and the whole crowd's just like

oh no, oh no. And then he says, I don't know how vulgar I can be on your. Yeah, whatever's the internet. Okay, he says, so he says I was at an MS function with Annette Funicello and she sucked my dick and he

all of a sudden this like fire lit in his eyes and they went from sleepy to wide open and he did this four minutes on a blowjob from Mickey Mouse Club girl and as it ended his energy kind of faded and his helper came up and he said well I guess that's all the time I get now and they wheeled him off stage and I went up I gave him a big hug and he said I love you and then uh and they they took him way as that that was the only time I ever saw in met him man but yeah a lot of this is all just because of my father and people's guilt, which is unnecessary. They shouldn't feel guilty.

He made his own choices. But their guilt has forced them to be more than generous with me over the last 44 years a month. Still to this day, man. I've even given some of those spiral notebooks that I wrote the jokes in to the comics who did it years later. I gave one with Chris Titus. I was like, yo, these are jokes you wrote in 1992.

And these are the responses from the audience. He was like, are you kidding me? Why are you even allowed in there? I was like, dude, my dad gave bud his startup money for that club in 1975. Do you think that you'd be the man that you are now if your father wasn't the man that he was? No, I think I'd be a screw up. I'd probably be like most successful guys' fathers who don't have to be anything but their father's son and don't have to make their own bones.

And it doesn't matter if they fail because they know. know there's a net underneath them. It's a lot scarier. People always go, if you don't take a chance, you won't make anything happen. Well, that was pre-internet when people shamed you for failure instead of saying, yo, man, just try again, dude. The richest people in the world fail more than they succeeded. Right. So, you know, I was real blessed in that regard. That sounds weird. But because of his mistakes and the failures he made, they were painful, brutal lessons, but lessons just the same. And I had a lot of great men in my life to be role models for me and show me what a man is all about and how a man's supposed to behave and more importantly how one's not. So, you know, I don't,

I want for a father, but I don't want for anything. Does that make sense? Of course that makes sense. I feel like this has made you an incredible father because of the fact that you didn't have a father growing up. That was always the most important. That's why I said it was easy to walk away from a business. Like once my kids were born, that was it. It just, I just want to hang with my kids. I want to be with my kids. You know, I write a lot of like RPG stories and stuff. And my daughter just started doing it. Like she's starting to do what her daddy does. Wow. Rocky's starting to take, you know, his boxing and martial arts a little more seriously because he sees his dad out back working hard. And so now I'm not asking if he just comes out,

you go, dad, can I talk with you? And he's eight, you know what I mean? So he's got that eight-year-old voice, which I'll be so sad. And his name's Rocky. Of course he's going to be a boxer. I know. What can I do, man? I was such a Markford. I love Sylvester Stallone. He's like my hero. Oh, it's so good. So when you walked away from acting, did you and Sarah have a conversation of like, I'm just going to walk away? You keep doing this. We're both going to walk away. Like, what's that coming? She knew. She knew before we ever even dated. I've always been real up front and honest and open about my feelings for this business, the people in it, the people that you're forced to deal, forced to deal with and have to if you want to be successful.

Some of the sacrifices necessary to achieve what you want are just sacrifices I was never willing to make, man. Like it's just not, I just was wired different. I was wired by a bunch of old school karate guy meatheads. you know, that loved their wives, but they didn't take any BS. And in this business, you have to be able to put up with BS. You have to be able to put up with small talk and chit-chat. And I just can't, like, I can't even do it for 30 seconds, Chris.

I'm not even joking. I literally like, okay, so let's get to the point here. And it offends people. So I'm just like, I'm not going to change. I'm 44 years old. Like those days are done, man. You can change the little things about your personality. But once you get to that one part, that's it.

You either put the toilet seat down or you don't. You know, like, it is what it is. If you grew up going to comedy clubs, your father is a comedic legend, how did you not go down that path? No. Are you crazy, dude? Are you crazy? You got the chops.

You're hilarious. Brother, there's funny, and then there's like stand-up comics. Like, my dad, and you can ask, let's people like Jerry Seinfeld, ask George Carlin back in the way you can't now. But, you know, these were men, ask Richard. These were men that have all said the same thing. Had he lived, he would have been the greatest ever. That's insane.

That's a psychotic thing to say. And the greatest ever said it. And that's Richard. There is no greater. Everybody else a thank you to Lenny Bruce. But Richard is the best, period. His work still holds up to this day. Whereas other legends from my generation, who I would argue in court for, I'll listen to

their records. I'm like, yeah, that don't hold up. You know what I'm saying? So, but Richard was. was the one. So, you know, there's no way that I'm going to put my feet on the same boards that he put his on. Like I almost said no to Saturday Night Live when I had to host that for a Miramax movie I did. Lauren and, and that piece of shit, Harvey were friends. And so he was like, hey, you got to put Freddie on SNL to promote this movie. And I was like, you know, you should have asked me. No,

I'm not doing that. And they were like, no, you got to do this. It's coming out against, I don't know what it was coming out against, but like we need, you know, we need the push. We need the push. So I went and did S&L and I couldn't tell you a single thing that happened. Like I have no, I have no memory. Like I legit had to just turn on a switch, go on autopilot, and not be there.

Because everything about it felt wrong. Like I didn't, I don't know, man. It's a difficult thing to verbalize. It was more just this numb kind of, I was in Hawaii when I was there. I'm not even joking. Like I was on vacation in Hawaii the entire week. Maybe your dad filled in for you on that. I've never even watched it.

If it was funny, it was him. If it sucked, it was me. I think it's crazy to think that Neil Patrick Harris and you went to the same high school. Yo, he's the reason I went into drama. class. No way. I'm not even joking, man. And I whipped a guy's ass one time for trying to talk trash on Neil my senior year in high school. So it was La Quava High School. And I'm not going to say the guy's name because social media, he'll get shame. But I was a freshman or sophomore and Neil was a senior and already hyper successful. And he came back to the school on elective day to where kids get to like observe demonstrations of the elective so they can choose what electives they want to take you want to take arts spanish drama right i went into the

drama classroom because everyone was like oh neil's here and i went in and he did this impression of dudley more from arthur that was so on point like i could i literally and i love impressions right like my mom let me spend a summer with charles fly shirt okay because he wanted me to get to know my father he's a crazy stand-up comic borderline genius insanity and the voice of roger rabbit and he got me really into voices at a young age, so I got good at it quickly. And I saw Neil do this like staggering. He's like, tell him having a potty. And he's just doing this great thing. And I was like, yo, I think I can do that. And I joined drama that year. And I worked so hard, man, Mrs. Sullivan, shout out. I love you. God bless you. I loved it so much. And it was because of him.

And two years later, I come to L.A. I'm in a hotel waiting to go to an audition. And we're sitting in the lobby. And he's sitting right next to me. And I look over and we didn't know each other in high school. And I tell him, I go, hey, man, oh, my God, you're the reason I'm sitting here. Right. And it blew him away. It's like, oh, my God, look where I was.

And we started talking and getting along. And then we became friendly after that. We don't have each other's phone numbers or anything like that. But anytime we see each other, it's always it's all love and all friendship. But yeah, he's the reason why. And two years later, my senior year, this guy was trying to talk shit and cut a left hook. He went to sleep. And your boy had to go home for three days.

suspicion. Man. You know, you're a lot of things to a lot of different people, depending on which movie that they resonate with, you know, the most, they relate to the most. For me, I play baseball growing up.

No way. Really? Yeah, those guys get so mad it's not a documentary and it's a romantic. I'm like, dude, your girl made you go what you think it was going to be. I love Summercatch.

I love making it, man. Ryan Dunn's an incredible, not just character, but just great baseball player, too. great he was great not good great pitcher his mental wasn't great though his mental was well we see that at the end of the movie at least i smirk yo so that day yo this is this is so humiliating all right so i'm not even going to preface it when i hadn't pitched in eight weeks because it doesn't it wouldn't have mattered if i pitched every day it was on steroids um so we go to the old synergy field which is no

longer there it's where the Cincinnati reds used to play baseball and uh they tell me yo you're gonna get to pitch to Griffey. We're going to do this final thing. He's going to take you deep. I'm like, that's amazing. So he shows up. His dad shows up too. They're both there.

And it's on a game day. So we're just going to shoot it and then get out of there and they have a night game, right? So I meet junior. And being a junior, like we kind of have a cool one of those conversations. We had the statue conversation that I mentioned earlier. Yeah. And he was like, brother. He goes, I know how that feels.

And I remember saying, I go, dude, you shattered the statue. I'm like, you're the only one. Like, you're the only one. that's ever shattered the statue. And so we're sitting there, we're doing our thing, and they bring my double in to throw some pitches

while I'm warming up, and he's, you know, Griff's just crushing it, and I get in there. And the first pitch I throw in, because I'm a jerk, is a circle change. And I'm supposed to just throw a straight one down the middle,

right? So I throw a circle change. He still hits it, but it's foul, and his dad says, you swing like your mother. Okay. I look at his dad and I'm not like, I literally yell, shut the bleep up, because now I'm dead. Okay. Like, why are you going to piss? I'm an amateur, if that, right? So my next pitch, I throw, and it's probably about 81, 82. And it's as hard as I can chuck it at this. Batting practice for him. And it's straight down the middle, though. I had, I had good accuracy and I had good technique. They had pros teach me how to pitch. And he launches it. BOW, bough, four, five, six in a row, right?

So then the director, Mike Tomlin gets this idea, he sees on the green like wall. It says, welcome to Synergy Field. And he says, hey, Ken, do you think you can hit a home run over the Welcome to Synergy Field side? And he goes, yeah, no problem. And now I'm just like, you don't say it like that. Be more respectful.

And he's laughing, right? And I'm just, you know, talking Kevin Hart trash back then. And so I throw my next pitch. And very, it's in the movie. Very first one, I throw it. It's a little bit low, boom, right over the Welcome to Synergy Fieldside. And Mike goes, we got it, we're good. And Griffey went 0 for four that night.

So the Milwaukee Brewers, you owe me a grant, you owe me gratitude, you owe me thanks because that night you won because of me. Wow. Growing up in high school, I got the greatest compliment of all time frequently. People would tell me that I looked like you. Dude, when this interview started, I was about to say, oh, my God, look what you. you have to look forward to in 20 years. Dude, you're only seven years older than me.

Oh, well, then you just have better jeans than I do. This is being seven years? Wow, it's like looking in a mirror. This is like, to quote Michael Keaton from Mr. Mom, it's in its transition phase. But when it comes in, man, who tell him, Captain Grabeard is going to be in full of life. You're a silver fox.

Dude, I've been silver since I was 25. It's just none of the movies wanted anyone to know. I thought it was like the greatest, because you were such a heartthrob, and I'm like, well, if I could have just 1% of what Freddie Prince Jr. had, well, I mean, I'm okay with that. It's all my mama, man. My mom's was gorgeous. I look like her. It's why we both look very feminine and pretty. Was it easy for you to slide into that role of being a heartthrob? I wasn't cool in high school. So I was very, here's a funny story. I've never told this because I was always too embarrassed. And I was only asked in the 12.

20s before I had dealt with all my shit. So I was a scrub in high school. I had no girlfriend. If I went on a date, it's because they asked me out, and that happened twice, okay? And it's just because I was too soft to do it. Like, I just didn't have confidence with girls at all.

If I wanted to take them out, I'd be like, this is the stuff. I'm still into this today, by the way. I'd say, hey, do you want to go to the arcade and play 720? It was the skateboard game. Yeah. They did skateboard talk, and these bees would chase. I thought it was the greatest thing.

So why wouldn't a girl like that? And they'd be like, no. And so that was kind of after four or five of those, that was a wrap. You know, before the internet, guys didn't know girls played video games. We couldn't find y'all. And, you know, I was born in the wrong time. So I was very uncomfortable with it. And then we did, she's all that.

And I had this, like, relationship with Jody Lynn O'Keefe's character. I don't remember the character's name. It was like Taylor or something like that. And Jody had been in the business. forever. She was on soap operas. So she had already had like 800 smooch scenes and you know, it was all good. I'd had one.

Okay, I'd had one smooch scene on a tiny independent movie with Tori Spelling called The House of Yes. That was my experience with the ladies. And it wasn't the best. And so all of a sudden we have to shoot all these like

these photographs that'll be on set to like showcase our relationship. Right? So it's all stuff that happened in the previous year. So it's just us and a photographer, no director, no Rob Escob, no Arlie Fleming, no producers, no Rachel to get my back. She was like, she was so good to me, man. She's like my sister still to this day. She knew how scared to death I was every day on that set.

She was the only one to knew. And Jody. And so we're on a beach. And he's like, okay, so you guys need to kiss. I'm going to get some photos of you kissing. And I literally, Jody looks at the color, drain from my face. and starts laughing, not in a mean way, but in an, oh my God, you've never done this way. And she's done it since she was 12, right?

Sure. And so I look at her and she just sees like the shame all over me, right? And she puts an arm around me and she says, you don't have to worry about a thing. I had to kiss grown men when I was 16 years old. I was just like, I don't, and she may have said eight, I don't remember what she said. But she made me feel so comfortable. and I had to now smooch this chick that I had met the day before as if we had been together. And it wrecked me.

I'm telling you, man, I was pouring sweat, nervous to all hell, probably hung out in my trailer and just didn't want to come out forever afterwards, deleted a lot of those memories like SNL because it was just, I did not know. The answer is no, I never felt comfortable with that. Wow. Now it's easy. Is there a difference between kissing in real life? and kissing in a movie?

Like, is there a difference? You don't always like the person you're kissing. Well, sure, but like, is there, like, do you have to, like, do more or less tongue, more or less lip? I know, is there anything different? It depends. I mean, I'm more robotic about it than most.

I try to establish what's going to happen before we shoot so that the director knows where my hands are going to be. The actress knows where my hands are going to be, and then I know what you're going to do as well. Yeah. And I thought that was normal. Apparently, I'm really weird because no, one I've ever worked with has ever

They're like, oh, I thought we're just going to kiss. And I'll be like, all right, I remember, I did this weird sci-fi movie called Wing Commander and Saffron Burroughs. And I have this like scene and we do the kiss, right? And we stop and she looks at me and she goes, no time? I was just like, oh my God. Wow.

You thought I just came from church. I was like, I didn't know. Do we do? Like, I just felt like a fool. And Matt Lillard's, they're like laughing at me, right? And so it's just, I was never good at it. And it was always way harder than it should have been. And I almost always worked with women who were awesome about it and didn't make me feel worse than I was already punishing myself.

Like I mentioned before, you were a lot of things and a lot of different people. Are you the she's all that guy to most people? No, Scooby. Scooby. Because the Scooby generation is more prevalent on social media than people of my age or your age, right? So your age, I get a lot of she's all that love. A lot of she's all like seven to ten years. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. That was it. I mean, that was the launching pad. It wasn't, I know you did last summer. It was that. So that was to most people like when I was having my success and all that stuff. But now this new generation, it's all Scooby Love all the time. And I've never even seen the movie.

I've only seen two movies that I've been in. So people are always like, hey, man, what's the scene like? I was like, bro, you tell me, man, I read the script. I knew how it ended. I didn't want to see it. And I guess there's now a small percentage of Star Wars fans thrown into this mix, right? But it's fringe, right? Sure.

The animation world is a very different, and Hollywood treats it differently as well. They treat the actors poorly. Like they won't allow, I shouldn't say this, but I'm going to because it's not right. They wouldn't allow the voice actors from Rogue One to walk the press line as the same time as the live action actors. So there's this wall, right? And they're like, you're an actor, but you're not one of you're a voice actor. And I hated that because some of those people were my friends, right? Yeah.

And I remember when we were doing the first season of the cartoon. they don't pay these people anything it's a it's a quantity work that's how they have to go and i shouldn't be saying anything so season two i was like yo you're giving me a raise like this is the biggest hit disney channels ever had like you got you're not even paying a scale like well no it's it's the honor of working for star wars and i laughed i was like yo that's hysterical it's show business which words bigger and uh i said i'm i'm getting a raise and that's it and you're giving everyone else whatever you give me and so we renegotiated and made sure i made sure everybody else got that bump on the on the following years as well because it's just and i never knew this about the voice over

industry because i had never been involved with it the only things i had done were like a video game that someone offered my manager and i happened to play the game the previous one it was called mass effect and i was like oh my god that's like one of my favorite games of all time yeah yeah i'll do but that was my only experience really other than like a couple like tiny things i had never really worked with voice over actors, which I just call actors. It's so silly. But he's a television actor. That was in the 90s.

That's what it was. Oh, you don't want to work with her, Freddie. She's a TV actress. I'm like, what am I? You're a film actor. I'm like, okay. Actors still in it, but whatever. Shifted so much.

Now people are like, I want to be on HBO. Yeah, man. It just really shifted. Oh, and you weren't allowed to do commercials in the 90s. Catherine Zeta Jones was like, I don't give a shit about your rules. I'm going to do a huge one and everyone was like, she opened the door. So, so yeah, man. So it was, it's a, it's a tripped out world, but the Star Wars love has been, it's weird.

There's a lot of people that are angry. The franchise didn't age at the same rate they do. And a lot of people that don't understand who it's made for, right? Like every generation needs its own Star Wars. Like when the second trilogy came out, people my age dumped on it, right? And then the new one comes out. People love the second one, dump on those. But it's still consumption, right?

It's complain, consume, complain, consume. But it's art. So if you hate it, you're right. It sucks. And if you love it, you're right. It's, bro, there are Picasso's that I've looked at and been like, man, that's trash, bro. I wouldn't pay a dollar for that. And there's others where I'm like, oh, my God, I can sit here the rest of my life and just be happy.

You know what I mean? So it's the internet has turned it into commerce more than. an art, right? And so all the art has been removed and you have to sort of like pick aside as if it's a political topic. So I don't, I'm not that into Star Wars anymore. I'm more probably a trekking now. Wow. You know, it's, it's Star Wars love, but also like a lot of backlash like for the, wow. And they agree about the franchise made people very upset. Oh, they got, but, but I will say this, the people who were upset were the people whose cards that got pulled, right? Like, all I'm saying is if you're going to make a monetized YouTube channel, right,

and you're going to talk about other people's content because you don't have any, then, and you want me to respect you as a critic, all of a sudden this isn't adding up, right? All I'm seeing are insults and you hate that women run it and all this kind of stuff and this guy sucks and that guy sucks, but I'm not seeing any criticism and you want to call yourself a critic. And if that's what you want, cool and I it's I'm an old school guy so I don't hate the player I just hate the game I don't

respect their hustle I don't respect their game I think it's transparent and I just wanted to show other people how transparent it was by dropping knowledge and it wasn't any of my opinions it was all stuff from the people who created star wars I was just dropping the stuff they dropped on me and in since then Dave phillone said some of the same stuff I've said and now people believe it And in the years to come, more of that stuff will get said. I just say stuff sooner than they want me to, so they get mad at me. But yeah, they'll figure it out, though. But again, it's art.

So they didn't like the, I didn't, nobody, here's the best part. No one asked me if I liked any of the new movies. And I didn't, I didn't connect to any of it. I liked Rogue One. And the first 20 minutes of solo, because it was slow. Yes. I didn't show you anything. But you can't make movies like that today.

Everybody, you need everything in that first act. So it's for me, an old school guy, I don't binge television shows. I like to wait a week. You know what I mean? Like I like to discuss it with my friends as opposed to having a 12-hour session. I can't do that. There was a movie called They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Marathon Dancing, where people would dance to death to make money during the Depression.

Video game streamers do marathons. I can't do marathon anything. Like I just, I like to take my time with stuff. But yeah, I didn't click with any of the new ones. My kids did. So it's a great movie. For me, it wasn't. cares. There seems to be a lot of parallels in what you're saying to the wrestling world. A lot of

parallels to people because think of how many people in 2021 are going, man, you used to be better back then. And then everybody from the attitude era is going, man, used to be better back in the Hogan days. And I hated the attitude era. I thought it was, I'm the only guy my age that I thought it was. You are. I thought it was comical. I thought it was goofy. It looked like all those talk show host TV shows where everyone just fights over like Richard Bay and Jerry Springer and all that crap. By the way, those shows killed the after-school special. I was in the very last one, and we got canceled for Richard Payne.

It was me and Jessica Alba, and I get her pregnant, and I don't want it. Summer cats again. It's very dramatic. I was Jessica Biel. But that was Jesse Biel, yeah. I have so many jessees in my life. But yeah, man, wrestling's a trip because to me, it's one of the purest forms of art, that and stand-up comedy.

And it's wrestling even more so, because it's the little. literal translation of blood, sweat, and tears on a literal canvas. I mean, that's what they're wrestling on unless it goes outside the ring. So I look at it for the art. I look at it for the storytelling. I'll be real, though. Like, Friday Night Smackdown is way superior to Monday Night Raw right now. There are segments on Monday Night Raw that I can't stand and I wish I could fast forward.

Then there's others where I see Randy do the mask kind of victim thing and I'm like, 4B10. Like, I like when they take shots. I'm one of the only guys that liked the Bray Wyatt John Cena, crazy pre-shoot match. I thought they took a shot. I thought that was incredible. It didn't work 100%, but they took a shot and they both committed to it.

And that's the most important thing in wrestling is if the wrestler is not able to commit to the idea or the gimmick, it won't work. And one of the frustrations I think fans have is the forcing upon these young talent gimmicks and ideas that they can't commit to because they don't have the experience, but they're too afraid to say no, because if they do, they won't get called up. And that's just a cold business fact. I mean, it existed when I was there and it exists more now. I think they pulled people up too soon. I think there's other people that should be pulled up that they never do. I don't like what they do with any of the Japanese talent. I can critique it all day, but there's still

so much. The level of wrestling today, the level of athlete and their ability to tell a story when allowed is better than it's ever been in the history of the business. You have women doing stuff that Fly and Brian

Billman was doing only better. Like it's insane. And there's more than just WWE now. And you have access to wrestling globally through the internet. And you can find these people. Trust me, W.W. he's trying to find him.

I'm thinking about starting a wrestling federation for crying out loud. I mean, I go to indie shows, and I go to Brian Kendrick's wrestling pro wrestling shows before COVID happened. And it's like if the kids in the hole and Paterson created a wrestling league in 1977 and you're just sitting there watching, it's hysterical. So wrestling to me is in some ways better than it's ever been. But it's never going to be the 80s. That's gone.

Because once the secret is revealed, the trick's no longer a trick. Yeah. There was a scene in that Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman. The prestige. The prestige. And Christian Bale's character, the other brother, reveals the bullet catch to his brother's wife who would never give up the secret. And she's telling him he can't do the bullet catch unless he shows her.

And he frigging shows her. And then she literally blows it off. And it's like, oh, well, once you know it, it's not that big a deal. That's what happened to wrestling. That's why guys like Dutch Schultz were the man, dude, slapped a, I called him Dutch, but you know what I'm talking about. That's why when Schultz slapped that reporter in New York across the face and said, does that feel fake?

That was a great day for wrestling because he was protecting something magical and special. So the business is different. It's changed. It has to evolve. Believe me, I rewrite promos as I'm watching them, brother. I see people all the time. like if I was writing for them, I know I could get them over. I know I could get them over.

Yeah. You know what I mean? Just based off what I did 10, 12 years ago. Well, who was an example of someone 10, 12 years ago that you got over that without your help maybe would have struggled? Well, it was, it's always a group, right? Like there's ever one person and only the talent can get themselves over. Okay.

I've written some great promos, but the talent couldn't get it over. And I've also seen some horrible promos, but the talent was so good, you couldn't write them bad. Like they could just get anything over, right? So when I started there, once I kind of got my bones and did some good promos for Big Show, they had just split up, Paul London and Brian Kendrick, and I wrote a couple cool ones for Brian. And then I wrote an Undertaker promo that Taker said, that's who I want writing my promos, right? So that gave me a lot of credibility. And that's when Michael Hayes came up to me and Krista Joseph.

And they said, Jeff Hardy. And I said, what? And they go, you got to make him champion. And this was all, he's like, Freddie, I'm telling you. They're like kids to him. He's like, now listen, you can do this. The boss loves you right now. You're going to write the story.

We'll book it because you can't book for shit. Which I can't, still to this day, I can't book a match. But I can write you the promo that'll get your match over. I just need like a like a legend to kind of book it for me, right? Because it's just not my, that's not my skill set. But I can write any match you book. I can make people care about it. So shoot, I made Mexican, well, I know I better.

Yeah, that dude had some trouble. So we're not going to talk about that dude. But I made Mexican people hate a Mexican wrestler in Arizona. Okay. Like, that's hard to do, but I pulled it off. So anyway, I start writing this story for Jeff. and he had been in the news and he had been taken heat. And so instead of like hiding from that,

I just kind of embraced it and called it this gray area, right? That he could exist in his imagination, right? And there is no black or white. And the people that commit to that world want to pretend people like me don't exist, but I'm going to show both sides that I do. And we started writing these promos for him and I started working with him and talking them about the feeling that we would do and the look that we would have to make it look creepy.

And DJ, Krista Joseph, shot almost everything, including the London one, because I wasn't trying to go. Vince was like, what do you mean? You're not going to London. I was like, I ain't leaving. I'm not going to London, man. I wrote it. You guys deal with that madness.

I want to fly on a plane with you for eight hours, bro. So Chris shot it. Freebird booked it. And I wrote it. And they executed it beautifully and started with him and Take her. and this argument that they were having from backstage and in the ring and it sort of blossomed at Armageddon

in this triple threat match that he ends up winning and then stands on top of the Armageddon sign and had his hands up and I'm watching from the wings like, is he going to fall? Of course he's not going to fall, but I'm still freaking out.

And that was the one that probably, and I got the idea over in the production meeting, a lot of people did not want Jeff to be champion. And my whole strategy, and I've said this a couple times, but it's show business. And one of those words is bigger than the other. And so that's my philosophy on a lot of pitches and a lot of the ideas in my head, right? So I went to Vince after everybody said no, and I showed him Jeff's merchandise sales.

And I said, yo, he's selling more than anyone, anyone by almost double. And there's no belt on. There's no belt. Don't call it a belt. There's no title. That's better. And so we go in and I'm sitting there. And there's people in there working against me.

Not everybody at the company like me. It took about six months for people to like be really cool to me and start respecting what I was trying to do with the talent there. And Vince looks over at Kevin at Kevin Dunn. And I don't remember who else was at the front table with him. I think it was Brankerworts. And he goes, nobody touches Jeff to Armaged. And I knew right there. I was like, he's winning the belt.

He's winning the belt. I knew it. right away. And I'm like this and Freepard's kicking my feet under the, or Michael Hayes is kicking my feet under the table because he knows if they see me react, they'll take it away, right? Just to teach me a lesson because they're psychos. And so I calm myself down. And then some of the people that were mad at me stormed out. I stayed in, Vince looked at me, gave me a nod. And I knew we were golden. So I just wrote it out from there and we got to make him champion. And I left the company shortly thereafter because my first child was born. And I got to be

a dad and then I made the mistake of going to SummerSlam when it was in LA and I went early to just to say hey to some friends and Vince pulled me aside and over to the ring and started talking to me and he says uh he goes yeah god damn you know we'd love to have you back and I didn't have a father right so if you call me son it it's like it's like a worm on a hook and I'm a hungry bass right and I'm like you know Vince I got my kids now and he literally puts an arm around he goes, well, we could really use your son. And like with Punky Brewster, I was like, yeah, okay, I was it. And I was back and he made me do this like promo class where I taught everybody how to act

doing the same acting class stuff that I did when I was 18 and moved out to L.A. Wow. I think there's a lot of people that are going to be listening to this right now going, I didn't even, I didn't know that Freddie Prince Jr. work for WWA. Do you even want to start working there? I grew up loving pro wrestling. And I just, you know, I. I knew that I could write, I don't want to sound like, I don't want to sound arrogant,

but I knew I could write well, okay? And I knew I could write well for talent. And I knew that I could hear them speak and write words that they would say instead of what sounded good in my head that I would say. And that's a hard disconnect for a lot of wrestling writers to make. And it's a step that television writers have to be able to make. Screenwriters have to be able to make. If all your characters sound like one writer wrote them, you failed.

You failed. If the wrestler you're writing for sounds like you, you failed. You failed the wrestler. The writer's job is one per, and it's only 10% of the equation, right? Like it's, it's 80% on the wrestler. It's 15% booking and it's 5% writing, right? Like, I've seen horrible promos get over because the talent's so money, right? But, you know, I get sidetracked a lot when I talk wrestling because I really

do care about it. But I knew that if I just sat with him, I could, here's the best example. MVP was at the, who's now holding raw together by himself, basically, him and Alexa Bliss. So he was doing a pro a promo against Jeff. They had a match coming up. And he was writing a promo with Krista Joseph. Chris won't mind me saying this. And it wasn't working.

Like they just, they were both trying to figure it out. They had 100 notes from Vince. that screwed them all up and 100 other notes from other people. It's just too many cooks in the kitchen, right? And I'm kind of sitting in the cut, just kind of like spying on them, right? And MVP hated me, hated me, did not want to speak to me, right? More than Sina. Seena didn't like me to the very end, right?

And he was like, hey, that was a really good promo. And I just know sold that I was like, yeah. So but MVP hated me. And he was a legit dude, right? So I'm hesitant to go up because I already know like his feelings about me. but I already knew how to fix the promo. Like I had already written it in my head. I heard what the problem was and I just knew.

And so I was like, screw it. I'm going over. If I get to fight, I get in a fight. If I get beat up, I get beat up. I've been beat up before. So I go over there and I say, hey, guys, I know I'm interrupting. I think I got this. And I just acted it out.

I freestyled it right there, right? And he looks at me and his look went from like, I'm going to kill you to hold up. Wait, say that last part again. is that what he says to me. And so now I already got them on the hook. I just got a reel him in and not put you hard, right? He's the hungry bass now.

So I cut the line again, but I cut it as it. I told you I'm good with voices. So I do this MVP voice, right? And I cut it like he cuts it. And I go, you can take that as a line reading or you could take it as, you know, inspiration, make it yours. I go, but I really think that'll help you. And he goes out and it cuts the promo and it kills it.

I mean, kills it. and Vince went from not looking at him that highly in just a moment to all of a sudden going, wow, this guy's sick on the mic. This is the guy that I originally signed. I forgot he could do this. And I started, you know, getting a little bit of love from the guys after. I didn't tell Vince I wrote it. I said that him and DJ did it.

And that got me some love from DJ and from him. You know, that business is all about passing, knowing when to pass credit and knowing when to not let people take your credit, right? Yeah. So if it's a small thing, it's all. always like, nah, man, it's them, it's them, it's them. And if it's a big thing and people are trying to screw it up, that's when you got to step in and go, Vince, when I conceptualize this alone in the first place, the idea that you like, this is what we discussed. And we're getting sidetrack now

because you're letting other people's opinions on this wrestler get involved with the creative process. And sometimes I would win that argument. More than not, I would lose that argument, because he goes with what he knows. And he goes with who he knows. And he has a history with those men. and he didn't have a history with me. So my victories were always surprising in the production office. And I had more than most, but it was always an uphill battle. To this day, does Cina still have an issue with you? I'm sure he doesn't.

I'm sure he does. Check this out. This is how I started. He started off calling me Ashton Cusier. Oh, nice. Yeah. And like Hollywood, right? And so I started like an acting class, like a promo class, basically.

And this is what, like 2000? 2009? Maybe. I'm sure it's on the internet somewhere. So I'm there and I have about the class started and we had like two people. And by the time we left, I had like 80% of the roster. Okay. We literally have to take up the top floor of stadiums because I'd have like 40,

50 people in a room all trying to get time, right? It got horrid. So we're in there. And I would basically bring them scenes from movies that I knew they had like. I'd say, hey, what are some of your favorite films? and that I would bring them a scene, a two-person scene, right, where they could act with another person, and I would show them how the actors in that movie broke it down

based on my experience, right, how I think they broke it down. And I would then give them monologues for movies I knew they loved, so it would be easier for them to remember. And they would have a guide, like a great actor, sort of like giving them this guideline as far as, you know, what works. And then they can steal from that actor, make it their own. Or in some cases, if they didn't have the acting chop, I would tell him, just steal it.

Who cares? Like, Razor Ramon is Tony Montana. It doesn't matter. Like, you just got to own it. You have to believe in it, right? So we're doing the scene. I think it was Edges tag team, Cordona and Zach, and Zach, yeah.

Zach Ryder and... Jack Ryder and what do they name his tag team? You know who I'm talking about. Yeah, of course. The action figure dudes. I love this guy. Yeah, Kurt Hawkins. Kurt Hawkins, thank you.

So they're doing a scene from the first bad boys movie, right? And John walks in and totally like interrupts the class and just sandbags the whole thing, right? And I stand up and I go, hey man, let me talk to you outside. Now, I'm not getting fired. I can say anything I want to this guy. The only person can fire me is Vince, all right? And he's already empowered me enough that I know. So we walk outside.

I go, dude, what are you doing, man? And these are his words, not mine. He goes, well, maybe, you know, I'm a Neanderthal, but you either have it or you don't. And I go, brother. You have them. So you don't need to be here. But someone has to show these other people how to do it. And if you're not going to, then who is?

And he didn't say anything to me and he just walked away, right? And I went back inside and everybody was like, dude, we thought you guys were going to fight. I'm like, shut up. We're not going to fight. We're trying to help you guys. So we got back into it. And Big Show did Christopher Walkins monologue from Pulp Fiction. And it was amazing.

It was amazing. And he just like, and he did it to Hornswoggle. Like Hornswogel was the kid, the young Bruce Willis character. And I'm literally sitting. I was like, dude, that was sick. And I wrote a promo for him the next week where I had to create this, describe this whole new match they were doing. And it was like three pages long. And he storms in.

He's like, did you write this fucking war and peace? And I was like, dude, you did such a good job, man. I'll break it down with you. We'll trim it up. We'll bust it out. And we did. And he did a great job with it. But yeah, man.

So there were people there who definitely. definitely did not want me there. But I would, I can honestly sit here and say, if someone there didn't respect me by the time I left, they never made it public to me. Like, by the time I left, everyone that I worked with respected the hell out of me. I've heard them say it publicly to my face. I've never heard any of them say it bad when I left. Because I was, I would go and ask questions, man. I would talk to Aaron Anderson. I would talk to Pat Patterson. I would talk to Dean Malenko. I would talk to these guys because I can't book. And that would be a lot. I would be a my first look i don't know how to book a match but i can write you anything yeah just kind of help me out

with this and they get mad i i i only asked 99 questions instead of 100 because wouldn't anybody else ask him shit because they just a lot of the writers there were frustrated and they were just like let's just get through it he's going to rewrite the whole show anyways or eff it and my thing was like there's a reason my promos are getting on and and yours aren't because he knows you're waiting for him to rewrite you and you don't argue when he does and i'd be in there with with him for 20 minutes He'd be yelling at me. I'd be yelling back, you know, but if you believe in an idea,

you've got to fight for that idea. And beyond that, your sole function is to not get yourself over, get the talent over. And if you have a promo that can do it, it's your responsibility. Well, in my, I'm not trying to say what the law should be.

But for me, it was my responsibility to fight for that promo and that talent. I didn't always win. And it sucks having to go to a wrestler and go, it's dead. I had to do that with Hurricane L. Shane won't mind that I said this, but I had this whole, like, return of the return of his character, basically.

And we had all this, like, film and war, like comic book, flash animation that was going to reintroduce him and it got killed. And I had to be the one to tell him. And that sucks. And I get why writers don't want to do it. But then don't take the job because it's a hard job, man. The wrestling business was the hardest job I ever had. And we started this conversation by me telling you, I knew I could basically write better than everyone they had there. Which I'm not trying to say I was a better writer than it because they had two good writers there who I really respected when I worked there, two of them. But that was it. That was it. They were right working. Did working in wrestling make you not like wrestling as much? Because that's a pretty common thing with people who leave the business. So I didn't watch the product for about seven months when I left because I hated knowing careers were going to change based on what happened in a match. Does that make sense?

someone would give a bad match and when i'd be in gorilla with vince that would be the end of that person's career like the storyline you had for them gone everything gone because of a blown spot or a promo had a mistake and it was just gone because they were looking for a reason the term they would use is called dead money they say it's dead money stop thinking about it i got told that multiple times i just i didn't care what anybody said i didn't need the job so i just never quit and just kept ragging on him until he healed just a little bit. You know, it's a lot easier to be brave when you have a suit of armor, right? Sure.

So you understand. So you understand. There were a lot of people there who needed the job and I didn't necessarily need the job. So it was a lot easier for me to stand up for myself. Yeah. I just know that like for as much of we love wrestling, once you peek behind the curtain, it's kind of like the Wizard of Oz. Yeah.

Go, oh. It hurt me for about seven months. months. I couldn't really enjoy it. But I watch it now, my kids are what gave it back to me. Oh, okay. My daughter watches it. When you're working on a movie or when you're working on a television show, it's a very cohesive unit. Everybody's working together for the greater good of the show. Sometimes. Right. Sometimes. But in wrestling, everyone's working for the greater good of themselves. But that's the job description. So that shouldn't be put on the wrestlers, right? Like, they have to. It's when that philosophy that you just said is wrapped around.

around everyone else in the company. And it is. And you're right. And the people that call them out on that are correct. That's the problem. That's the problem. I mean, and it was a speed bump that I hit every single week when I worked there. And I was on the jet with Vince for every episode. I made every live show.

I just didn't go overseas. That was it. And it would drive him nuts. But I was there all the time. I witnessed this stuff happen all the time. I saw people's careers get made and destroyed on a whim. I would fight sometimes. And Vince would laugh.

People go there was a I don't know can I tell it I'll tell it all right Okay, so this is gonna be tricky I got a cloud some of it or people figure out okay so there was somebody who worked there when I worked there Um This is tough and they they took charge of another division within the company one that Vince didn't care as much about And I noticed that the product they were purchasing were simply old products that this person had done and then simply put a different name attached to the product. So it was basically selling his own stuff to the company. And I knew what their budget was.

And it was a lot. So we'll just throw out a number $20 million. Okay. Sure. And we're on the tarmac. And I said, Vince, you know, this guy is just giving you stuff that's already been rejected. and it's $5 million a pot. But he's, that's $20 million, man.

And he looks me dead in the face. And he goes, Freddie, it's $20 million. Get on the fucking plane. And I literally was like, can I have his job, please? I have a bunch of scripts that sunk. Like, come on, man. What are you talking about? But his mind is wrestling all the time.

His way to fix the problem is 80s reganomics, money. that's fixed every problem the company's ever had. So when you present a creative solution to a problem, it's a much harder boulder to roll up the hill, and you start to feel like Sisypice. And it's not just that it's going to roll down. His story was he was cursed to roll it up, even though he knew it was going to roll all the way back down.

And that's what you deal with as a writer in that company. And that's why it breaks so many of them, and they won't fight because it's just a treadmill of doom. But it's still my favorite job I've ever had, man. I swear to God. Whether you love him or you hate him, Vince McMahon is a genius. I love him. He understands psychology at a level that he'll never get credit for, never get credit for.

For better or worse, his understanding of the human condition and that there are no good or evil people, there are just people whose morality shift depending on how much pressure they are under. And that is a direct quote that I will never forget from V. KM. So it is, I mean, it's that shellfish in a bucket philosophy. And he's not wrong. There's genius psychiatrists that think the exact same thing. So it's, you know, his understanding of how to market to the different territories, who's going to win in those territories, what kind of match they're going to have in those territories. It is next level genius. And I'm next level idiot when it comes to

that. You know what I mean? But his understanding of like acting and writing and those types of things is also locked into the 80s. So that's where he lacks, right? Like that's his his his shortcoming. So what and that's why you want balance in wrestling, right? Because you need those minds that can book and understand how to book where this match will have the most impact where it won't why you can't have a steel cage every week because it like all these philosophies, philosophies are virtually impenetrable.

But their lack of understanding of storytelling outside the ring is. is really where I think they struggle. And I think that's where most of the criticism comes from, except for the wrestlers that people just want to hate for whatever reason, legit or non-legit. What do you think happens when, you know, when Vince eventually ends up passing on 10 years, 20 years, 100 years from now, who knows?

Never. He's Robocop, but yeah. Yeah, I feel like he's going to, yeah, he's going to live forever. What do you think? I live you and I, but yeah. Really? Yeah, what do you think, what happens to WWE then? man i mean this is kind of criss so

instead of taking salary when i worked there i took stock so my whole salary was stock oh wow um and we just sold it uh last year like right right before at like 45 dollars it was a lot and i got it at like nothing um because it was nothing in 2009 or 2010 sure yeah the stock yeah but i believed in what i was doing at the time and and I believed in the and I believed in the company I just I believed in the company um so I saw them selling stock right because he was purchasing the XFL at the time and and all that stuff and so I thought they were getting ready to sell the company I was like yo this might not be with their family in 10 15 years this may go to like the dog when the when Fox bought the Dodgers

right and then I saw Fox by Smackdown and I I was like, dude, I think Fox is going to buy WWE. I seriously do because they were selling stock, Connor and and Vince Bow. And so I had sold all, and that was public. That's not like a secret. And so I sold all my stock and and cashed out. And then just kind of like sat back and waited. So half of me thinks that Hunter will take over, which would be good for the business,

even though I wasn't Hunter's favorite, favorite person. And we didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things. His mind for wrestling was sick. Like even if I disagreed with him, I still like, yeah, it's a really good idea. I just don't, I just would rather be mine. You know what I mean? Like, so we just liked our own shit more. But he can do everything.

He can book. He can write. He can act. He can conceptualize just ideas. You know what I mean? Like how do you come up with the fiend? You know what I mean? Like Bruce Richard had to conceptualize it or Bray had to, somebody had to conceptualize it before

anything was ever written. Hunter can do that. He can write. He can wrestle. He can teach. He can teach, not tell, teach. And again, this is somebody who probably doesn't even like me that much, but I'll still say great things about it because it's true.

Like I've watched him do it back state. I've seen him show guys how to work their way through promos. I've seen him work with the women in such a respectful way. So if he takes over, I think the wrestling business would be in the perfect hands. And I think you would start seeing much more of the television promises you get, right? Like when the McMahon family says, We're going to listen to the fans. No, they're not.

That's just a promo. But when the Hunter's there, he already knows what y'all want, and he's going to be more able to give that to you. If it doesn't go that way, if it does go, by the way, we're like a conglomerate buys it, like a Rupert Murdoch or a Fox, then it's done. It is done. And that product will suffer the same way the Dodgers sucked,

because it's just an acquisition. It's not something they care about. It's simply a business acquisition. It's why when basketball teams get sold all these new billionaires, it's a toy to them. It's not something they care about. It's not like the bus family, right? Like, Gene Bus, that's her life. Like, the Lakers are her life.

She's not selling the Lakers. Like, that's not going to happen because she cares about it. It's like the McMahon family. So if they're not connected in some way, via marriage or blood, then I don't see it doing well. Because once it's corporate ownership, I mean, it's hard enough to make wrestling in a publicly traded company. Yeah. When you have shareholders to deal with, you know what I mean? There's a reason that it's licensed to USA and they don't own it.

That means that they kind of own, WD sort of owns them in some respect. Like they're not beholden to notes the way a television series is. Yeah. Like USA can't say, you know, we'd really like to see a story like, it doesn't matter what you want. Like, just quote the rock. It doesn't matter what you want because it's just licensed. Then someone else will buy it.

So, and they need content. So it's a tricky thing. You know, and it's a huge show for them because it's not, it's non-union. It's not a do with any of that. Like they just have the licensing rights to air a show where all the suits make more money than everyone else. And that's every business, but, you know, that's another. I mean, you're clearly still super passionate about wrestling. I love wrestling.

What made you quit? I had, I had, uh, there was a show called, I think it was called Tough Enough and they tried to bring it back. And Stone Cold was a judge. And there was a mom that wanted to be a wrestler, and she said she was doing it for her kids. And Steve Austin said, that's bullshit. He said, you know how many times I won Father of the Year? And he put a big goose egg up. And I was watching that show in the writer's room.

And I stood up, and I walked to Gorilla, and I gave Vince my two weeks and said, I'm trying to win Father of the Year, man, I can't work here anymore. And he said, talk to me after the show. And I talked to Stephanie after the show. He got in the limo and was flying back to Stanford and I was flying back to L.A. And I let her know and she was like, man, we were about to give you smack down. You were going to be the head writer. She was like, she was disappointed, you know.

And I was like, look, you know, I love you guys. But I'm a dad and I'm out. And that was that. And I quit and I never looked back. There's times that I see wrestlers and I go, man, I can write for them so well. But you have to give in order to make, in order to work in the wrestling business or be successful, But you have to be willing to give everything. It's commitment.

It's all your time. It's all your energy. I mean, I've written a couple sneaky things for friends that have gotten on. You know what I mean? So over the last few years. And I just say, hey, tell them you wrote it and, you know,

get yourself over and do your thing. And I've seen it on TV and been like, oh, well, I kind of skirt it up. Well, yeah, okay. I see what they're trying to do here. But I could never, it wouldn't have ever been as good as if I had written, it and I was in Stanford taking the train up like I did every day from New York and taking that train

back every day home. I mean, five days a week. I took the train from Manhattan to Stanford, Connecticut, there and back. And on that train, I would just put on headphones and I would write wrestling. And I would get home and I would write wrestling. I would wake up. I would write wrestling. The difference between you and some of the other people who work behind the scenes there is you don't need the money. You know, you and your wife are fine. Other people, it's a job for them. Yeah. And they have to protect themselves. And that's why they can't. So it's not just on them. You know what I mean? Like it is, but I just want people to have an understanding as to why they don't shout as loud as the people on the internet shout. Because the people on the internet don't have to take care of our kids with a check that comes from WWE. And these people do. So when you get told no, you go, okay, yeah. And that was one of the reasons that Stephanie told me I should work for her dad. She's like, you'll say no, but you'll have a, you'll have an answer. You'll say this sucks, but you'll, you'll have a, you'll say this sucks. But. You'll, but you'll, you'll say this sucks. But. But. You'll, but. You'll say this sucks. But. But you're. You'll. You'll. You'll. You'll. You'll. You'll. You'll. You'll you'll have a fix and you won't be scared to do it. And she was right.

And she encouraged me to do that. She said he needs those voices. He needs voices that argue. Him and Pat used to argue back and forth all the time and they made great wrestling, Freddie. So don't be afraid to do this. She's really the one who empowered me the most to do that before anybody else said, hey, make sure you believe in your ideas.

That was all step, all step. Because I probably would have shown him Uber respect, which I did, but Uber, like where it's too much respect, right? And Steph got me hot to that. She's like, no, no, no, don't do that. Be yourself, be real. Talk to him the way you talk to me. And I think you'll do well. And she was dead on, dead on.

I've loved this. I feel like we could talk about wrestling for like eight hours. Yeah. Maybe we will next time. Yeah. I mean, all we did was scratch the surface. We just scratched the surface. I can tell you some stories that, I mean, there was the pitches that I would get from

some wrestlers were so crazy. Some were so amazing. some might have to kind of teach them how to conceptualize these ideas. But I had one guy that wanted to be an astronaut and fly in from space every ring. And I said, okay, what's the like what's the motive behind that? And he goes,

man, it just looks sick, right? You've got to tell us who it is now. No, I can't do. I can't throw people under the like that. I like, thank you for this amazing conversation. Thank you also for giving me a glimpse into what my future is physically going to look like. Yeah, sorry, bro. I'm going to be that handsome.

amazing. Kind words. And I end up for the line. It's the only room I can do this in and I have skylights. So there's no shades for him. So you're getting all this weird lights. If you lean in right now, it's like God is like touching you.

I'm all about gratitude. And I end every interview talking about gratitude. And I say that if you can be grateful, you will live a great life. So I want to know, Freddie, what are three things that you're grateful for in your life right now? You got it. The first we discussed at length, and that was the sort of father figures that I had to kind of let me know what was right, what was wrong, how to accomplish my goals at a very early age.

A lot of people give advice and they never tell you like, if you didn't learn this when you were eight, it's going to take your lifetime to figure out. They just want your money because they're selling you a book. So I had men that really cared about me and looked out for me. So I had mentioned their names earlier. my uncle, I call him Uncle Bob. He's my godfather, Bob Wall. Always been grateful for him. Always been grateful for my uncle Jimmy, who I was named after. That's the James in my name. He was a Vietnam vet. He was a man who taught me how to treat women, how to treat him with respect. His sister was my mother. So you damn well know that I did that. And it's one time, man, my mom had this boyfriend and homeboy hit me. I was 13 years old, close fist, punched me in the face.

And my uncle Jim, he was a Vietnam vet, black belt, no joke kind of guy. He came home. I didn't even cry or get mad because I knew my uncle was coming. And I knew what was going to happen. My uncle Jim comes. I told my uncle James, I go to school that day, Eisenhower Middle School. This was the seventh grade in Albuquerque, New Mexico, rode my bike home. My uncle Jimmy is there on the front porch.

Come with me in the garage. My mom's at work. Okay. Go in a garage. Son of a bitch is duct taped to a chair already has the show. shit kicked out of him and my uncle goes either you hit him or i'm going to hit him again i was 12 i was too scared to hit a grown man he goes all right but you still got to watch boom cracks him one more time home boy drops down takes me back inside the house when my mom comes home she asks i'm not

going to say his name she asks where we'll say joe where's joe and my uncle jimmy says you broke up he comes back here again we're all gone wow dude so he taught me how you about respect and things like that also and then the third thing that I'm that I'm most grateful for is my children they they breathed a lot of life into me my whole life never getting to have a father it was all about becoming one one day I always you know when I when I was a sixth grader I was sleeping over at my buddy Chris Sandoval's house and I woke up and it was late it was probably like 11 o'clock at night and he wasn't in the room and that's must have been what woke me up I heard some noise and I

walked into the kitchen and him and his dad were in there and they were eating milk and cookies and they didn't see me I was in a hall is dark right they just had a little light on in the kitchen and I had never been like genuinely jealous of a friend in my life I got jealous like any other kid did he got that toy I wanted but this was like someone I knew and loved and I was like angry and jealous I was 12 and just discovered what, you know, testosterone is as you start to hit puberty, right? And so real emotional. And I went back in his room. I started crying.

And I made him call my mom to pick me up to, uh, to take me home. She didn't get there to like 11.45 and drove me home. She was super mad. And then she saw what I was so upset about. And I said, I just want to have, I'm a cry. I just want to have milk and cookies with my dad one day. And, uh, I remember the look on my mom's, that's why I'm getting upset because it just broke her heart, right? broke her heart.

And I remember the first time Charlotte came into my wife's in my room. It was like, we put our kids to bed early. She was like 9.45. She says, Daddy, I can't sleep. And I literally just like, foo! And jumped out of bed and was like, I got you, baby. We were right downstairs and we had milk and cookies, man. And I just had this like, oh, I'm getting too choked up.

But I just had this like beautiful moment with her that I always wanted to have reversed. But because even though it was the other way, it was even. even better than if I would have had it. So those kind of moments is really just keep me grateful and know that I was on the right path. It's constant confirmation that the choices I made were the right choices in my life, the right choices for my career.

I've had zero regrets, man, which is so rare in this business. I mean, zero. Always treated people good. I always did the things that I thought were right. They didn't always work out. Got plenty of failures, more failures than successes. But those failures are all lessons and they build you unless you keep making them over and over again.

So painful or not, man, like I've learned a ton. And once I hit 40, just life got a lot easier for me, man. I just started other than me not being able to light an interview. But yeah, man. So those would be the three things I'm most grateful for. Man, my godfather, my uncle and my kids and my Xbox. I've got to have number four. I'm always grateful for me the honorable mention.

Yeah, you got to have a little honorable mention in there, man. Gotta have some Xbox. Thank you for this amazing conversation. And I just want to acknowledge you for an amazing career and an amazing life. Appreciate you, man. Like I said, dude, I've been real blessed and I'm very aware and grateful for it. And those amazing people are the reason I'm here. We'll talk again.

And we can get into anything you want, man. I will see you at wrestling shows. in L.A. Yeah, when they open our damn city up, man. Well, you know, that'll be in like five years at this point. Yeah, see you in 2030. It'll be great. You'll have this beard and mine will be down to here. I'll look just like this when I see you.

That's right, brother. That's right. All right, dude, I love your be great. Be grateful sign down there. I love that you have a championship belt. Kind of wish I had one. And, you know, Emmys are what they are, but wrestling titles are way better. Thank you so much, brother. You got a man. Thank you. There we go.

What a guy. What a conversation. And what a story there at the end with the cookies. And what a way to end, 2021. Freddie has a podcast. It is called Wrestling with Freddie. You can find it wherever you're listening to this right now. And I can't wait to head in a 2022 with you.

Hmm. If you aren't already, please take a second right now to follow insight on all of the apps that you listen to podcasts. And please, Spotify now has a rating. system, please click five stars on Spotify. It'd be so, so helpful. 2021 was a great year. Let's make 2022 even better. And since we talked about him during the interview, I'll leave you with the words of Muhammad Ali, who famously said, don't count the days. Make the days count. Be great. Be grateful, my friends. We will see you on the next one. We will see you next year. for some more insight.

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

He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it. Get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What should be? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.