Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Freddie Prinze Jr on working for WWE, real life issues with John Cena, why he left acting to be a father, being married to Sarah Michelle Gellar

Episode Date: January 29, 2021

Freddie Prinze Jr. talks with Chris Van Vliet from his home in Los Angeles, CA. 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! Support the show by supporting our sponsors! Get your energy back, sleep better, and block out the unhealthy effects of blue light with BLUblox. Get free shipping worldwide and 15% off by going to https://blublox.com/CVV or enter code CVV15 at checkout. 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 Chris and INSIGHT go to https://chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, y'all? It's Druski, and I've teamed up with Mountain Dew to produce a hilarious new basketball podcast called The Do Zone with Drewski. Learn the backstories of your favorite ballers and celebrities like Jamal Murray. Did you have like a favorite team? Was it the Raptors at the time or no? Was the Raptors even started around that time? Come on, bro. I ain't that old, fam.

You're talking like I'm 50. Taylor, Rokes, Asian Wilson, and many more. You won't want to miss this. Listen to the Doozone with Drusky on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Welcome to the show. I'm Chris Van Fleet. And if it's your first time here, I'm an Emmy Award-winning TV host, obsessed with finding out what makes successful people so successful. On each episode of Insight, we have in-depth conversations and reverse engineer the habits and techniques of the world's top actors, athletes, entrepreneurs, you name it.

If they are the best at what they do, I want to get their insight so we can apply it to our own lives. And you know Freddie Prince Jr. for movies like, she's all. all that. Summer catch. I know what you did last summer. I still know what you did last summer. Scooby-Doo. Scooby-Doo, too. Down to you. I mean, that's just a handful of the films that he's been in. And I can't even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this conversation. Because for someone that's achieved the level of success and the level of fame that he has, he's just a great guy. Someone you'd want to have a beer with, if that was, you know, a thing we could do right now. Oh, and by the way. His wife is

incredibly successful in her own right. Actually, you know, I don't think Freddie would mind me saying this because it's true. She's actually more famous than him. You know, in case you didn't know, his wife is Sarah Michelle Geller, aka Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And it's really interesting

hearing about Freddie's love-hate relationship with Hollywood, how he left his acting career behind to focus on being a dad. But now he's back in acting. He's back in the reboot of Punky Brewster on Peacock. We talk all about that. And of course, his time working in WWE. Both times. Both times. He's been employed by WWE twice and has a lot to say about what goes on behind the scenes there. Also, so interesting hearing him talk about behind the scenes in movies. Shirtless scenes,

kissing scenes, we talk about it all. Take a screenshot, share it on social media. Tag me. I'm at Chris Van Vleet on both Twitter and Instagram. Tag Freddy. On Twitter, he is at Real FP Jr. And on Instagram, he is at Real Freddy Prince. And don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. And if that happens to be Apple Podcasts, I will be forever indebted to you if you could leave a review on there. Like this one here from Sound of Settling.

That's what it's called. That's the username, at least. The title is Awesome Podcast. Start listening to the podcast specifically for wrestlers, but quickly became a fan of Chris's ability to not have an interview, but an actual conversation. Hearing his guests go from guarded at the start to quickly realizing that he wants to truly hear their story is amazing. Love the podcast and look forward to all the future content.

Well, I appreciate the kind words, my friend, and I look forward to the future content as well because we are just getting started here. And I'll continue reading one review on every single episode is my way to say, thank you so much. We're aiming for 2,000 reviews before my birthday, before May 19th. And by the way, if you listen on Spotify or Stitcher or Google Podcasts or any other platform, I'm equally as grateful for you. They just don't have reviews. So that's why I read the reviews from Apple Podcasts. Let me tell you, what a freak this was talking to Freddie Prince Jr.

We cover so many things I didn't expect to cover. like his amazing stories with Muhammad Ali and Chuck Norris. This is so good. Please welcome the legendary Freddie Prince Jr.

All right, man, we are doing this. FPJ, CV. 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. Now, does that mean you called Sarah SMG?

No, because I grew up playing Call a Duty and that's the submachine gun. So I'd 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.

It'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, you're going to be like, Punky Brewster's back?

Well, that's what I thought. I was done. Like, 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, sorry. And my buddy called me. me, this actor that I'd worked with before, and he said, hey, they're a remake in Punky Brewster, and they really like you to play The Dead. 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. 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 Dragon stuff. 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 said, I called him. I said I liked it. And they said it would only be like three or four episodes, which was perfect. And it'd be in L.A. And I just needed to meet with Soleil. And so I got to meet with Solay, the original. 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 Solay 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 so lay and i was like yeah let's do this show and it was 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 that you're not just seeing their talent you're seeing them apply skill to their talent and uh i just remember having this awesome experience and at the

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, 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 mess 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. And once I had kids, I really took a step back and started pursuing other things. 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. farm 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. My dad was pulling around with Pam Greer, with Rachel Ward, with the mom from growing pains, Joanna Kerrins back in the day. But 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 Ben, toughest dude. I know he looked like Popeye the sailor man, not joking, just like Robin Williams dressed up as Popeye in the moon. And he had anchor tattoos from being in 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 the war, but I heard every bomb drop. 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 it's a beautiful man. He lived a long life. He's in his 80s. And my granny said,

Hey, your papa, that's what I called him. She said, your papa 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 in 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? And I said, yeah. And he goes, oh, I'm so proud of you. And in your 15-year-old brain, you're like, all right, proud of me for cleaning my room. Like, 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 graduated 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. LA was closer than New York.

I moved back to L.A., which is a city I was born in. 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 it's, 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 like 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 Wall. 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. guy with the scar down his eye. Yeah, yeah.

Wow. Knut sack and was like, you lose, Carl Millett. That's my golf. 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 Jocs 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 wind though? Which window? Like, he's going to throw me out. And I was just, 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.

It's guys like Bob Wall, judo Gene LaBelle, which was the LaBelle lock for Daniel Bryan in a while. That was the guy who used to choke me out, man. Like, 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, oh, yeah, he thinks you're pretty good.

He lived in Tarzana, California on a street called Donna, in 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 and he was like no he should do that my mom's like no he's a boy let him be a boy and so i go over there and i was 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 wrap 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 norris Okay, just pop, pop, pop. Thinking I'm 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 these tournaments. 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 jab's 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 was like, I think I was crying proudly. Chuck felt terrible when 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 is like six one. Just stud, right? Big badass guy. He 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 broke. 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's 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 godfather teaches him the left hook, like just a real clean left hook.

My dad was orthodox. So one day they're at Ali's house and 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. a mean 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 Ali and George

played George and my dad knocks out George Foreman. 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,

yelled at my mother, 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 yell, I'm going to Ali's going to kill 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, it 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 19th, June 20th, 1975. And my mom still has it to this day.

No, why? 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. 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. 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 them. And I would bring spiral notebooks just like this, which I still read all my D&D stuff in.

Oh, you can even see. This is a Sea of Thieves one that I'm getting ready to do. Look at that. 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. 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 laughed. 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 uh 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 mincy'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 a damn wheelchair and they adjust the mic for him and it's so tense in there because nobody wants to see a hero fell you don't want to see joe name at stumble 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 Punicello.

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. It'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 them off stage. And I went up. I gave him a big hug and he said, I love you.

And then they took him away. That was the only time I ever saw in Metta, 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 of months.

Still to this day, man. I've even given some of those spiral notes. notebooks that I wrote the jokes in to the comics who did it years later. I gave one to 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 budd 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 there's a net underneath them. It's a lot scarier that 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. That sounds weird, but because of his mistakes and the failures he made, they were painful, brutal lessons, but lessons just the same. Sure. 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, he goes, dad, can I talk to 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'm 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 that comes? She knew. She knew before we ever even dated. I've always been real upfront 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 was just like, I'm not going to change. I'm 44 years old. Like those days are done, man. You could 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. So 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 legend ask people like jerry sinfeld ask 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 wow that's a psychotic thing to say and the greatest

ever said it and that's richard there is no greater you 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 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 that piece of shit, Harvey, were friends. And so he was like, hey, you got to put Freddie on S&L 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 I was. 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.

What? So it was La Cueva High School. And I'm not going to say the guy's name because social media would get ashamed. 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 electives so they can choose what electives they want to take. You want to take art, Spanish, drama.

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 Moore 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 Fleischer, okay, because she 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 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 my eyes. 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. Two years later, my senior year, this guy was trying to talk shit and caught a left hook. He went to sleep and your boy had to go home for three days of suspension. 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, I love it. Most guys get so mad it's not a documentary and it's a romantic comedy. I'm like, dude, your girl made you go what you think it was going to be.

I love Summercatch. Dude, I love making it, man. Ryan Dunn's an incredible, not just character, but just great baseball player, too. He was a great. He was great, not good. Great pitcher. His mental wasn't great, though.

His mental was below. Well, we see that at the end of the movie. At least I smirk. Yo, so that day, 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 wouldn't have mattered

if I pitched every day. It was on steroids. So we go to the old Synergy Field, which is no longer there. It's where the Cincinnati Reds used to play baseball. And they tell me, yo, you're going to 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 a 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 and 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. 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 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 good accuracy and I had good technique.

They had pros teach me how to pitch. And he launches it. Bow, blah, four, five, six in a row, right? So then the director,

Mike Tomlin gets his idea, he sees on the green like wall. It says, welcome to Synergy Field. And he says, Hey, Ken, do you think you get 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 page 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 Field sign. 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. Quick time out from this chat to thank our sponsor, Blue Blocks,

because like you, I have been spending far too much time since quarantine started, staring at screens. I mean, almost all my interviews, including this one, are done on Zoom now. But I would notice that by the afternoon, my eyes would be feeling so heavy. And then when it came time for bed, I had trouble getting to sleep, which I thought was just because I was working too much. But it turns out it was from too much blue light. Blue light damages our eyes and leads to digital eye strain. Symptoms of digital eye strain are blurred vision, headaches, and dry-watery eyes, and for some people, it could even cause heightened anxiety, depression, and low energy. Well, Blue Blocks was created to fix this problem and block out the blue light with high-quality lenses.

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additional counselors in all 50 states. So the special offer for anybody listening to Insight right now is 10% off your first month. Just go to betterhelp.com slash insight. That's BetterHelphelp.com slash insight. Growing up in high school, I got the greatest compliment of all time frequently. People would tell me that I looked like you. When this interview started, I was about to say, oh my God, look what 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 me in 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, telling you, Captain Greybeard's 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 compliment because you were such a heart throb 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 I was always too embarrassed and I was only asked in the 20s before I had dealt with all my shit.

So I was a scrub in high school. I had no girlfriend. Like if I went on a date, it's because they asked me out and that happened twice. So, 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 skate or dog, 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 rap. 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 Lin-O-Keefe's character. I don't remember the character's name. I think 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. Okay, 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 Robiscove, no Arlie Fleming, no producers, no Rachel to get my back. She was my, 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 who knew. And Jody. And so it's, 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. We got this. 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 I was, 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 don't 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. And I thought that was normal. Apparently, I'm really weird because no one I've ever worked with has ever wanted to. 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. 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 there 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, a lot of things are 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 That's All like seven to ten year career, right? 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? Like, 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 uh the first season of the cartoon you know they don't pay these people anything it's a it's a quantity work that's that's how they have to go and i shouldn't be saying anything it's whatever um so season two i was like yo you're giving me a raise like this is the biggest hit disney channel's ever had like you got it 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 show that's hysterical it's show business, which words bigger? And I said, 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 following years as well. Wow. Because it's just, and I never knew this about

the voiceover 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 it. Um, 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. Um, it's so, it's so silly. But, um, 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, what am I? You're a film actor. I'm like, yeah. Okay. Actors still in it,

but whatever. That shifted so much. Now people are like, I want to be on HBO. Yeah, yeah, man. It's 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 yeah, man. So it was, 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 and people love the second one dump on those. So, 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 could sit here. the rest of my life and just be happy. You know what I mean?

Yeah. It's the internet has turned it into, into commerce more than 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 Trekkie now.

Wow. You know, it's, it's Star Wars love, but also like a lot of backlash, like for the, wow. And they freak out of that 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. 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 since then, Dave Faloni 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. 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. 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. Who 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 Bay. It was me and Jessica Alba and I get her pregnant and I don't want it. Summer cats again. Very dramatic. It was all. Oh, no, it was Jessica Bill.

But that was Jesse Bill. 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 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, 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. You know, 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 Pilman was doing only better. Like, it's insane. 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, WWE's trying to find them. Like, I'm thinking about starting a wrestling federation for crying out loud. I mean, I go to indie shows and I go to Brian Kendricks wrestling pro wrestling shows before COVID happened. And it's, it's like if the kids in the hall and,

and Paterson created a wrestling league in 1977 and you're just sitting there watch, 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 she shows her. And he frigging shows her. And then she literally blows it off. And he'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, I called him Dutch Schult, 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, you know, I was writing for them. I know I could get them over. I

know I could get them over. You know what I mean? Just based off what I did 10, 12 years ago. Well, who is 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 never 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 shows,

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. 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 legend to kind of book it for me, right?

Because it's just 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 him. 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 taking 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 to the United. 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 that Chris shot. it. Freebird booked it and I wrote it. And they executed it beautifully and started with him and Taker 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. It 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 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. And so we go in and I'm sitting there and there's people in there working against me.

Not everybody at the company liked 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 Brank of Words. 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 Freebert'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. And 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 L.A. 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, he goes, 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'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'll go. That 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. you work for WWE? Do you even want to start working there? I grew up loving pro wrestling and I just, you know, 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 them, 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 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 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. Sina 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 it. I was like, yeah, 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, you 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. That's 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 too 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 could 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 he 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 known when to not let people take your credit, right? Yeah. So if it's a small thing, it's always like, nah, man, 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 sidetracked 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, always. To this day, does Cina still have an issue with you? Sure, he doesn't. I'm sure he does. Check this out. This is how it started. He started off calling me Ashton Cusher. 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 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 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 liked. I'd say, hey, what are some of your favorite films? And then 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 chops,

I would tell them, 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 Edge's tag team,

Cordona and Zach. And Zach, yeah. Zach Ryder and... Jack Ryder and what do they name, his tag? You know who I'm talking about. Yeah, of course. The action figure dudes, I love those. 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 you outside. Now, I'm not getting fired. I can say anything I want to this guy. The only person I can fire him is Vince, all right? And he's already empowered me enough that I know that.

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 it. 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, thought you guys were going to fight him. 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 Hornswoggle 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 to next week where he 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 show you. 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 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 him say it publicly to my face. I've never heard any of them say it bad when I left.

Because I would go and ask questions, man. I would talk to Aaron Anderson. I would talk to Paterson. I would talk to Dean Malenko. I would talk to these guys because I can't book. And that would be my first. Look, I don't know how to book a match, but I can write you anything.

Just kind of help me out with this. And they get mad. I only ask 99 questions instead of 100 because wouldn't anybody else ask him shit? Because a lot of the writers, they were frustrated. And they were just like, let's just get through it. He's going to rewrite the whole show anyway. So F it.

And my thing was like, there's a reason my promos are getting on. 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 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 response to, I'm not trying to say what the laws 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 Helm. 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 noir, 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. A 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. 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'd say it's dead money. Stop thinking about it. I got told that multiple times. 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.

It's a lot easier to be brave when you have a suit of armor, right? Sure. 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. It hurt me for about seven 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 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. Yo, there was a, I don't know. Can I tell it? I'll tell it.

All right. Okay. So, oh, this is going to be tricky. I got to 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 say, Vince, you know, this guy is just giving you stuff that it's already been rejected. And it's $5 million a pot for these. 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. man what are you talking about but his mind is wrestling all the time his his his his his 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 sisyphus and you where you it's not just that it's going to roll down his story was he was curse 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 this 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 VKM. 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 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 shortcoming. 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 all these philosophies, philosophies are virtually impenetrable, but their lack of understanding of

storytelling outside the ring 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 crazy. So instead of taking salary when I worked there, I took stock. So my whole salary was stuck. Oh, wow. And we just sold it last year.

like right before. At like $45? It was a lot. And I got it at like nothing 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 I believed in the company. I just, I believed in the company. So I saw them selling stock, right? Because he was purchasing the XFL at the time 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, when Fox bought the Dodgers, right? And then I saw Fox buy Smackdown.

And I was like, dude, I think Fox is going to buy WWE. I seriously do. Because they were selling stock, Connor and and Vince, both. 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 was like, yeah, it's a really good idea. I just don't, I just would rather do 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 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, oh, 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, we're like,

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 an acquit. 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, be it 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, 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, 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 sag. So it doesn't have to 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. When you're clearly still. super passionate about wrestling.

I love wrestling. What made you quit? I had, I had, 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 guerrilla 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 talk to me after the show and uh I talked to Stephanie after the show he had he got in the 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 and you were going to be the head writer she's like can't believe and she was disappointed you know and I was like look I 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, you know, 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, 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, tell them you wrote. it and you know get you get yourself over and and do your thing and I've seen it on TV and been like oh well I kind of skirt it up but 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 well then I would get home and I would 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 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 you'll have an answer. You'll say this sucks, but 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. He said 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 stuff. 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,

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 could 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 I'd 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. I can't throw people under the books like that. I 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. It's the only room I can do this in and I have skylights.

There's no shades for him, so you're getting all this weird light. 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 you a lifetime to figure out. They just want your money because they're selling you a book. Um, 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. He was was my mother, so you damn well know that I did that. And this 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's 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. 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 tape to a chair already has the 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. Homeboy 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 about respect and things like that also. And then the third thing 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 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 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 the hall. It was 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 that. 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, to take me home. She didn't get there to like 11.25 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 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 in bed early. She was like 9.45.

And 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 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 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. You've got to have number four. I'm always grateful for me.

That could be 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. I've been, like I said, dude, I've been real, 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 him, man. Thank you. There we go. F.P.J. And I have been such a fan of his work since I was 13-ish. So to be able to spend this time talking to him about absolutely everything, including wrestling, was so, so cool. What a great guy. And I told him this story after we were finished recording, but I figure I'll share it with you.

I should have shared this during the interview. But I saw the movie, I know what you did last summer when it came out. I was 14 when it came out. And I saw it at the movie theater at the mall. That was like a 10-minute walk from my house. And I was so scared by that movie. movie. Then I swore, when that movie was over, I swore that a man with a hook wearing a trench coat was following me home. I was turning around all the time like, I swear, I swear, I see him. I swear I heard

him. I was so scared that I ended up sprinting my way home. Yeah, and I got home, like completely out of breath. My mom's like, what? What, what, what do you, why are you so out of breath? Didn't you just go see a movie? Take a screenshot. Let us know that you were listening to this one. A lot of great W.WE insight in that conversation. What a great wrestling mind he has. Tag me. I'm at Chris Van Fleet when you share this on social media. Tag Freddy on Twitter.

He is at Real FP Jr. On Instagram, he's at Real Freddy Prince. And since we talked about the late, great Muhammad Ali in this interview, and we heard that amazing story from Freddie. I'm going to leave you with a quote from Ali, who said, don't count the days make the days count. How good is that?

Be great. Be grateful. We'll see you on the next one. For some more insight. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock, but there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley?

How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. You're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of then? To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this.

Hammer Alley. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.