Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Ian Riccaboni - The Voice of Ring of Honor Wrestling

Episode Date: March 12, 2021

Ian Riccaboni is an author, sportscaster, and play-by-play commentator for Ring of Honor Wrestling. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet from his home in Allentown, PA, and talks about being a batboy for the Allentown Ambassadors, acting in TV commercials as a child, his passion for broadcasting, how his mom would take him to wrestling events when he was a kid, paying his dues at The Monster Factory wrestling school, how he got his first break with Ring of Honor, what he learned from working with Kevin Kelly 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, Phil.

You're talking like I was 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. Well, let's do it. Welcome to Insight. If you're new here, thank you so much for joining us on this audio adventure. I'm Chris Van Fleet. I'm an Emmy Award-winning TV host, and I'm fascinated with finding out how people are wired to achieve greatness. On each episode, we have in-depth conversations and reverse engineer the habits and techniques of the world's top athletes, actors, entrepreneurs, commentators, you name it.

If they're the best at what they do, I want to get their insight and help you. apply it to your own life. Ian Rickabani is not only an incredibly talented play-by-play commentator as the voice of Ring of Honor, but man, he is one of the nicest people you will ever meet anywhere within wrestling or otherwise. And his story is one of passion and grinding to where he is right now. It was such a pleasure to show this conversation, show this time with him. If you're not a subscriber, you're going to want to be after hearing this conversation.

Take a screenshot, tag us on social media. Ian is at Ian Rickabani. That's R-I-C-A-B-O-N-I. And I'm at Chris Van V-V-L-V-L-E-T. And can I ask for a favor? If you have a minute today, could you leave a review on Apple Podcasts? It would be so helpful.

So, so helpful. Attilia P says it's truly an insightful podcast. One day I saw his interview with Chris Jericho in a car pop up on YouTube and I watched it. Ever since then, I could not stop watching his interviews. I've learned so much from the wrestlers that I grew up watching. And it's amazing how open they are in these interviews and the stories that they share. Chris is amazing at what he does. And I can't wait to see who he interviews next.

Well, thank you. And I can't wait to see who I interview next either. That interview with Jericho is one that I think a lot of people will mention like, that's the first interview of yours I saw, which means a ton to me because Jericho so kindly gave me that time. He hadn't really done any interviews with anyone talking about signing with AEW. So I drove four hours to where he was doing that it was a live podcast in Ocala, Florida. I drove four hours there. Did the interview in the backseat of his car for 20 minutes.

Got in my car, turned around, drove four hours back and started editing it while we were driving back. So it always means so much to me when someone says that they watch that interview. So thank you. Speaking of Florida, speaking of upcoming interviews, I'm going to be in Tampa for WrestleMania weekends. So if you're there, please let me know. Send me a tweet, send me an Instagram message. I'd love to see you there.

I'm going to be at RussellCon at the Fandu Belt's table that Friday and that Saturday. It'd be so great to see you. Be so great to snap a photo with you. So can't wait to see you there. All right, my guest today is the voice of Ring of Honor. Ladies and gentlemen, the amazing Ian Rickabony. Ian, I wish everyone could see what we just went through to make sure that this looks and sounds as good as possible. I've been told that lighting is the key to everything, and that's an old carry-silken axiom.

And you know what, I couldn't go on without the lighting being just right. We're getting some interesting winter weather with the snow reflecting and the sun going down. So we're trying to light the room as best we can here with all the external elements. Now we spent the last 10 minutes figuring out how this could look and sound as great as possible. But here we are. Yeah, we made it. And I'm so glad to be here. No, thank you for coming on.

It's always so interesting to see where people are doing these from. I believe it looks like you're in a spare bedroom right now. Yeah, yeah. This is the guest bedroom. This is when my parents come up or my wife's parents come up. This is where they stay. And it's about to be redecorated with some wrestling stuff. So, yeah, I got a whole bunch of these 195 Parkhurst wrestling cards.

I just happened to have them here. But I finished the set. And yeah, I got some displays coming. So next time, Grammy Moo and Grampi Do and Nona and Nona come up, they'll be enjoying enjoying some vintage wrestling trading cards. These are the greatest names ever for grandparents. Right. Yeah, those, well, Nona and Nona are Italian, so my last name's Rickabani. And then Grammy Moo and Grampi Doe, for whatever reason, my wife calls her mom moo and her dad do. And so they just became Grammy Moo and Grandi Do. Oh, my gosh. I love this. What hat is this that you have on, by the way? This is the LeHare Valley Iron Pigs. They are a AAA team for the Philadelphia Phillies. and they're in Allentown, my hometown.

And I don't want to say too much right away about Allentown because I'll take up the whole interview. Well, you and I have baseball in common. I grew up playing baseball. My dad and I now have a tradition where we go to a different Major League Baseball Stadium every single year. We've been to 23 of them. So you and I definitely have a lot of common ground there. Absolutely. Yeah, my dad and I, it's interesting, my dad was never a huge sports fan.

And he made it his mission to kind of do similar things with he and my brother as kids, because my brother and I were always really into baseball, really into basketball. I got really into wrestling, obviously. And it wasn't his favorite thing, but he'd make really good efforts to take us to see the Phillies. And then, you know, take us to see. We had a team called the Allenton Ambassadors, which is a minor league team here for a while, and made sure that we were able to see and do the things we liked. He and my mom would take us to the wrestling, but my mom would love to go because if

ravishing Rick Rood was there or later, Edge and Test, she had an enjoyable time. Oh, my gosh. How did your dad feel about this? I think he was okay. He got wrapped up in the spectacle. You know, he doesn't necessarily dislike wrestling, but, you know, he still talks about to this day seeing Psycho Sid and The Undertaker. And whoa, those guys were huge.

And do you remember Yokozuna? remember so it's really neat after all these years that he still remembers going to those events you know as a family everybody together and just you know him bring up these names and he'll bring him some some ones off the beaten path too like uh hey do you remember that guy that was a dentist you know Isaac yankum or hey who was that guy that had the the red trunks he was jacked and he eventually described Ahmed Johnson so you know he's got this keen memory for for folks we saw in person And yeah, it's amazing. And I really admire, you know, being a dad now and knowing that, you know, my kids aren't always into the same things I was in.

I really admire him trying to reach out and really kind of grind through going to see wrestling or taking us to baseball games and things like that. Well, not only did you have the Allentown ambassadors there. You were a bat boy for them, which I am very jealous of. Every time I go to a minor league game, I'd be like, how can I be that kid? Yeah, and it actually came about because my dad and I went to a lot of games, and we just got to know a few of the people there. And eventually, one of the owner's nephews was a bat boy. And, I mean, the attendance at its max was 4,000. So you had a good chance of knowing, you know, knowing somebody or meeting the owner.

So over time in 98, I was a bat boy for a couple games and then the whole season was for 99 and 2000. And it was neat. We had some major league players. We had Kim Betteese who had a big hit in the 93 playoffs for the Phillies. Rich Hunter, the pitch for the Phillies, Trey Beeman. And then they'd bring in kind of like wrestling because it was unaffiliated minor league baseball. They'd bring in the legend. So I got to meet Pete Rose, Steve Carlton, Goose Gossage, Buck O'Neill, all of these

Hall of Fame players and ambassadors and things like that. So it was a really cool experience to have as it's going into my teenage years. I hate to do this to you. you mentioned the 93 World Series. You're from Philly. I'm from Toronto, so you know where this is going. Yeah, I... Mitch Williams.

I actually blame it less on Mitch Williams and more on the 15 to 14 game. The Phillies should have never lost that game where 29 runs scored. David West had a bad night earlier in the night, and it shouldn't have got to Mitch Williams. They should have won game six, and it should have never even...

If David West did, you know, what he did all season. That's the part they don't talk about. By the time the ball got the Mitch Williams hand, he was in a jam. And I don't necessarily blame him. I think there's a lot of different things along the way that went wrong in game six. And they should have been trying to close it out in game six. They should have won that game that was 15 to 14. Well, you know, no matter who you cheer for, that Joe Carter home run is one of them. I think it's the most legendary home run in all of baseball. It's definitely up there. It's, you know, there's that. There's Kurt Gibson, Bobby Thompson. You know, there's been a couple, too. You know, for me, I think of Utley in

game one of the Tampa series in 08, you know, just kind of set in the table and setting the tone. There's some fun ones, too, from that 08 Phillies team. Joe Blanton, a pitcher, went deep. And I think game three. So it's just, you know, the Phillies, we end up getting. one of my lifetime, which is all I asked for, just wanted one in one, world series. Yeah, at some point. Right. Still waiting on that Sixers title. I'm a Sixers season ticket holder.

And I'm still waiting on the Flyers Stanley Cup. And I think a lot of people are. It's been since 75. Man, I was a big Ron Hextel fan. Yeah, he was great. So you're a season ticket holder for the Sixers. How often do you go to games? Yeah.

Before the world closed down, I was going. to maybe one out every four. And I have the full season. And me and my buddy Chris, he and I went to high school together. And we became very close, even beyond high school. It was something where as a kind of a reward for, not a reward, but to celebrate him beating leukemia for a second time, we went in on six or season tickets together.

And we've had them since 2012. And we try and go to as many as we can. what's interesting is that, you know, over time they become more desirable, obviously, as they become a better team. So the first year we bought them with the 12-13 season, we literally, there were times when we could not give the tickets away where no one would take them. And that was the year they tried to trapper bind them. They were borderline playoff team. They missed the playoffs. And that was the year before they blew it all up. And then talk about, you know, trying to give tickets away, we couldn't, you know, for the next two or three years.

And then Abed finally took the court and all of a sudden, hey, Ian, you still got those tickets? Hey, yeah. So yeah. So it's been, it's been fun, you know, when everything's opened up, these days with, you know, with Ring of Honor and everything, usually one in every four games or they're about we get to go to. Do you remember the first live wrestling show that you ever attended? Yeah, I have kind of a funny story about that. We, in Allentown, there. There's Ag Hall, which was where a lot of the WWF TV was from 77, 78 to 84, 85. And that's in a big building where they now run garage sales. They call them the world's largest garage sales.

Wow. And in the summertime, they open up an area next to it, and it's the Great Allentown Fair, and it's kind of a grandstand. Like you'd see on a postcard, it's a really neat architectural setup, late 1800 style. And there's kind of a big stage. And almost, you know, if you've seen an old-time movie with horse racing, it's kind of like that set up where it's a very steep concourse. And so my mom and my brother in 1991, they were all excited. They said, Ian, we're going to take you see wrestling.

And I said, great. And we had bought tickets. And I was all excited. I was a little nervous. But we went and we went to Ag Hall. And we were wondering where the wrestling was because that's where the wrestling had been for years. It turned out it was in the grand sense. stand section. So we really only got to see the last two matches. The main event was, I believe,

big boss man and IRS. So we didn't necessarily get the best event. But over time, you know, 1994 is when I really remember the very first event. And that was in Bethlehem, which is Neighbors Allentown. And we had a really fun superstars TV taping. And I got to see Brett Hart and Yokozuna, Owen Hart, Razoramone, Diesel, you name it, they were all there. And it was a lot of fun. And my parents, I could tell we're getting bored because you'd have some of the more enhancement style matches. So they were kind of like, these matches are lasting a minute. What are we doing here? And I was loving it because I got to see everybody. I mean, you dropped some big names there. Who was your guy when you were a kid?

Oh, when I was a kid, I really liked the Ultimate Warrior. He was my guy. I liked anybody with face paint, Ultra Warrior, Leader to Doom. I did like Brian Pilman and Tom Zink, some of the kind of earlier high flyers, at least earlier for my lifetime. But yeah, if they had face paint, if they did cool moves or bright colors, I was so home. Did you ever think when you were a kid that you'd be working in wrestling when you grew up? It's interesting. As a kid, yes.

when I went to high school, no, because for better or worse, you do have teachers and you have guidance counselors that try and do the right thing. And they try and say, hey, you might be able to do this and you probably can. But just in case, have you thought about becoming a computer software engineer? Have you thought about becoming a scientist? If you thought about becoming a nurse? Have you thought about becoming this? And they mean really well. And it's a good thing to have in the back of your mind that, hey, if this is a good thing, This doesn't work out. I'm going to have to try and do something different.

Sure. So, you know, by the time I got to high school, I was a little scared off about it because you start to think about the odds. You know, for wrestling right now, there's a handful of TV shows. So there's maybe eight people that have the role that I have right now. And if there's, let's say, 10,000 people that really want to do it, that's really low odds of being able to go on and do it. And when you get to college, though, I can. kind of fell backwards into a couple things. My first week on campus, I got cast for an MTV special with Bill Gates. And I was only on it for 30 seconds, but it was cool. And I thought,

wow, all I did was send in my picture and I wrote a little thing. And this is going to be easy. I'm going to be on TV forever. And that was four years later. I got my next TV thing. So there was a time as a kid, absolutely. And, you know, in high school, I was. I started to think about maybe a backup plan. I even got in a wrestling ring when I was in high school. My friend Chris, who's stand-up comedian, he got us into the Wild Samoan's Training Center. Wow. Yeah, we filmed some stuff for his film class at DeSales University in Allentown.

And we had a lot of fun. But that moment, that first time I fell on my back, I knew that I was not going out to be a wrestler, no matter what sports I played, no matter. I just didn't have the pain tolerance. And all it took was one bump. And I knew that wasn't it. You know, you mentioned this thing that you did with MTV. You were also like a child actor. Like you were in some commercials growing up, right? Yeah. And that's the weirdest thing to you. And my mom always reminds me of this. She, you know, my mom, my mom always reminds me that, hey, this is not a surprise to her. Because when there were things that came up, I had a friend Tony, who his mom worked for this company, Kids Pease. and they're an organization that helps at-risk youth in Lehigh Valley. And, you know, his mom said, hey, we're filming a commercial.

You know, would Ian like to do it? And I said, sure. It was with Jim Kott, who was a baseball player who won 200 plus games. And there's a really good pitcher. And so that was kind of the first thing I did. Then I did one with the ambassadors. And so as I was excited as my career progressed, my mom was, you know, the eternal believer and you know, it's just saying, hey, this shouldn't be a surprise. You've done these things to

help you get here. Yeah. It's great. You should celebrate, but don't act like this was a surprise. You were the, you know, you may be shy, but you were the one that was raising their hands to try and do these things and try and be in the commercials and trying, you know, volunteering to do the school plays and musicals and things. So yeah, it's weird because over time I forget that. And my mom, you know, she'll pull out the photo album and show the people. pictures of me as a Mountie from the school musical or things like that. But you were going to college, you studied communication studies, right? Yes.

So same here. So when you were going to college, did you have the dream, the idea that you were going to get into broadcasting when that was done? I did. And I was looking for different opportunities. I was really into music. And I did, I got enough of a following in college that I had a commercial on MTVU or I was a semi-finalist in the Best Music on Campus competition for 2006.

So I thought there might be fruit there, you know, singer-songwritery stuff. I later wrote a TV show theme song. The show won an Emmy. I did not. The song did not get nominated. It's called Lehigh Valley TV. And so they won six Mid-Atlantic Emmys. And unfortunately, we tried to get the song nominated.

It did not meet the standards of the Mid-Atlantic Emmys. But, you know, I tried to keep up with that. I tried to do different things around campus. I didn't do the journalism path. I know a lot of people that do communications and media, they either double major or they take a lot of journalism classes. I did a lot of television and film classes that weren't necessarily production-based. They were kind of deconstructing film, deconstructing television. I did a few things that would supplement broadcasting, public speaking, persuasion and propaganda type classes,

and those were the things where I would get the reps, so to speak. But I found it more useful to try and volunteer. For instance, in Orlando, in between my freshman and sophomore year, I volunteered and read the news on the Orlando NPR affiliate. So I went down, I stayed with my brother for a summer. He happened to live by the NPR station. I went on the website and noticed, hey, they're looking for volunteers to do this. This is free experience. I mean, this is something that you can't buy this kind of experience.

So I would do things like that and I would look for different ways to get involved in broadcast and TV. But I think that's so important to key in on that. So many people don't want to do an internship or don't want to volunteer because they go, my time is worth more than this. And I always try to explain to people, you can't buy that kind of experience. You need to go in, cut your teeth, pay your dues. And I'm so happy to hear that you did that. Yeah.

And there is, once you're experienced enough, once you have sort of a brand or a product or something that people are asking for and asking about, that's when you can start to make those decisions. But there is a point where you need to find you. And a lot of companies aren't going to pay you to the time to find yourself. I was fortunate enough with Ring of Honor where I was the backup play by play guy. I did the internet exclusive matches. And that was good enough to help find me when the opportunity came. But I came in, I don't say a finished product because I still have a ton to learn.

But I came in a lot closer to being a finished product because of those experiences, because of being at the monster factory for as long as I was, because of the, you know, the volunteering at the NPR station doing cable access TV in 2009 and 10, you know, those are sort of things that, again, it's that, you know, it's that mom on, you know, tapping the shoulder and reminding you, hey, you've, you've worked really hard at this. There are things that you've done and you've given up a lot of your time, enjoy this. So, yeah. Yeah.

What was your job after you graduated? Oh, what's that? I'm sorry. What was your first job after you graduated? I worked at a Marshall's department store. Hey. Yeah. And it was the perfect job at the time.

I had applied. I got my degree in media and communications. And while I was at NYU, I thought, I want to work in residence life. I want to work in the dorms. And so I went to the University of Pennsylvania and pursued a master's degree in education management. And while I was there, it wasn't right for me. I could tell.

So I finished the degree. I got out. I applied for a ton of jobs. And the only person that called me back was seasonal employment at Marshalls, the department store. And I knew I was going to have to start paying my loans soon. I moved back in with my parents. I kind of, you know, bit my tongue and bit my lip and moved back in and started to save some money. And from there, once you have a job, it's a little easier to find other jobs. So I started working for, uh, if I started working for, uh, pharmaceutical call center after that. And then, you know, that gave me some flexibility to pursue the wrestling. And I'm still doing the music a little bit. There's a weird intersection where my band actually played music at wrestling shows for a while. So there was a lot of different things. But yeah, the first job out of college was I was the shoe coordinator at Marshalls. I love me some marshals. There's some good deal than a Marshalls. Right. What kind of music did you? play. Or you do a lot of rock. Yeah, we played a lot of Bruce Springsteen stuff, a lot of original stuff. The band was Midnight Accord. I think we have some lingering web DNA out there where he might

be able to see, you know, see us play. Our big claim to fame was that we once had Colin Jost and Nassim Perjad jump up on stage and sing TNT with us at a club. So it's... Nice. Yeah. But we had a lot of fun with that. You know, as a teenager, I'd go to see Bruce as much as I could, Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. So I really liked, you know, I like 60s, 60s R&B, soul, bend into Bruce Springsteen, that 70s rock. And we just did a lot of that. We tried to do some originals too. You're like a Renaissance man with all these stories. You've done it all. Bat boy, band member, marshals in the shoe department.

Voice of Ring of Honor, you know. I try. I try. I always want to keep moving. It's so weird. I have this kind of internal desire just to not stop learning and doing different things. I played the bass guitar and I sang in the band, but before that, I played the viola and the oboe. And there was always just this weird need to learn.

And I can't, I could ever put my finger on it. I think that's why, like, wrestling so much. Yeah. There's so many wrestlers, so many moves, so many different ways to tell a story that it's always like a choose-your-own-adventure book. There's always something to be created and art to be created out of the environment. So, Ian, what is it that you're learning right now? Yeah, learning right now, it's how to call matches in a bubble environment, I think. That's the big thing.

And I've been really lucky that Caprice Coleman's my partner. These matches that we're having in Ring of Honor were focusing a lot on the pure style. right now. And I'm lucky to have a partner as knowledgeable as Capriese's in martial arts, in submissions, in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, who knows and can talk to the moves that we're seeing because he's actually trained in them. He's actually experienced them. And so I know what they are, but Caprice can tell you how they feel. And so that combination has made a really nice pairing. And the tricky part now is calling the matches in the bubble environment. There's the hesitancy.

There's the hesitation that you don't want to be too loud, but you got to let it all out. And it was after the first couple of matches. I talked to Jonathan Gresham, David Finley, Jay Lethal, Rocky Romero, and spoke to them and said, hey, can you guys hear us? How does it make you feel when we get to a nine or a ten? or Caprice yells out, oh, my God. And it adds, you know, the general response overall was it adds something for them, you know, without the crowd being there, without the extra noise being there.

It kind of helps feedback some of the energy in the building. Do they ever react to what you're saying? No, but we had a near miss. There was one of Caprice's signatures on big impact moves is the, oh my God, and he does it really loud and, you know, it's great. And a lot of our production team broke at a time, you know, at a time when he did that in the last taping. But the wrestlers do not.

The wrestlers are focused on the match. So the production team, you know, we've mixed them down if you could hear them in the broadcast. And thankfully, thankfully that did not make air of them breaking. Because you've been, you know, if you watch UFC now and they're doing this in their bubble, Sometimes the fighters will react to what the commentators are saying. Like Michael Bisbing or Daniel Cormier will say, oh, you know, he needs to really go for a mountain here. And then like the fighter will look over.

And then like actually like do the thing that they just heard. We've had instances like that where we've had instances where I'll say something or Caprice will say something. And then we'll realize that that's what ended up happening. And then Capri, we have to acknowledge it. You know, the, you know, Caprice will say, Ian, they must have heard yet, or I'll say, Capricier, they're on the same wavelength. So there's, there's instances where that has happened, for sure.

How did Ring of Honor find out about you? Yeah. So I was 27 and my wife and I had just bought our first house and it was a little tiny house in a place called Glenside, Pennsylvania. And I'm still doing the pharmaceutical thing. And I was traveling a little bit for that. And I started at the Monster Factory. I was doing a cable show called Phillies Nation TV.

And I was interviewing famous Phillies fans. So I interviewed Mark Summers. I interviewed Tony Luke, the cheese steak guy. And then I interviewed the Blue Meaney. And so Blue Meaty says, hey, why don't we do it where there's a wrestling ring, where there's a cool environment? Let's go to the Monster Factory. And so we went and I met with Larry Sharp and Danny Cage.

Danny was about to take over. And we had a great time. And I said to Danny, hey Danny what if my friend wants to do wrestling broadcasting how would he do that and he said the friend being you yeah oh absolutely about this tall wears glasses right he's about six feet tall red hair um and he said well your friend should come learn how to set up the ring break down the ring uh your friend should start to come around the monster factory more and introduce himself to the wrestlers and gave me a whole list of things to do and everything he said was spot on and again it's

that idea of making yourself valuable and providing some sort of worth with no expectation of being given anything back in return. That is a different path. Most commentators take the broadcasting path. And then, you know, maybe they're calling play by play for baseball or hockey or football, whatever. That's like the wrestler slash referee path, which is so interesting to hear about. Yeah, there's only a few of us that kind of came in this way. Off the top of my head, You know, Jim Ross did something similar. Kevin Kelly did something similar in Florida with Eddie Mansfield's promotion. They broadcast out of Universal Studios.

And that's really it. I mean, Michael Cole was a war correspondent. And, you know, a lot of the guys that you see, I know, Richard Pokini was an NHL commentator. So it is an interesting path. It's kind of rare. But I thought, you know what? I've always wanted to do this. Here's a chance.

And so I started showing up, started putting up the ring, breaking down the ring. with Damien Martinez with Matt Riddle, you know, those guys and big crew and now LSG who was in Ring of Honor as well. And in February of 2014, Kevin Kelly came per seminar. And I said to Danny Cage, I said, Danny, you know, can I come to this? He said, do you want a job in Ring of Honor or do you want to sit on your ass all day? And sorry, sorry for cursing. Dan Housen is going to be very upset. The internet, we can say whatever we want.

Sorry, Downhousin. Yeah, sorry, Dan. And so I said, yeah, I'd love to work for Ring of Honor. He goes, well, this might be your shot. Show up, wear a suit, and, you know, figure out what you're saying and make your pitch. And so I went and I introduced myself to Kevin. And he said, hey, we're looking to do this thing called Future of Honor. And Future of Honor is going to be, it's either going to be individual shows or it's going

to be web broadcast and individual matches, but we need somebody. Essentially, you know, he was doing an hour, a week of TV. he was doing all the pay-per-views, the events, the DVDs, they need to see a different voice. And he said, come on in, we'll get you in the mix. And so started coming around in the summer of 14. And over time, I started filling in for Kevin, if Kevin had a different obligation or if you had to go to Japan. And then by February 2017, I took the lead seat. And it was when Kevin signed with New Japan full time.

And, you know, all I ever wanted, my plan was that if Kevin, got a different opportunity or Kevin decided to retire to just be the first one they gave consideration to. Yeah. I knew that I might not be the permanent guy, but I just wanted to have a shot and I got the shot and I'm still here four years later. So if you know me, you know how much I love sleep. I talk about it all the time because I know how important sleep is, which is why I prioritize it every night. But life is too short to sleep between anything less. than really nice sheets. But maybe you looked at some retailers

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What matches were you calling before that Ring of Honor, before you had that basically a shot with them? Yeah, I called a lot of matches at the Monster Factory. And what's pretty neat is it's a lot of the guys you see on TV right now. So, you know, Matt Riddle, Damien Priest, LSG, who was in Ring of Honor, Press 10 Vance, the Dark Order and AEW was there. Nick Comerato, who would be signed by NXT, and now I think might be with A.W. Or a nightmare family.

Those guys, there's a really good guy named Billy Damiana, who I think is a guy that W.E brought him down for a tryout. And for whatever reason, it didn't work. and when it didn't work, he hung it up. And that was just a few years ago. So he's a guy that I hope maybe reconsider. Because I think he was a natural. I think he might still have more left.

But stuff like that, yeah. You know, just whoever came through the Monster Factory, we'd have a lot of the guys you see on TV before they got signed up come through. So how long did it go from you walking in there for the first time, starting to set up the ring, shake some hands, meet some people, until you were calling your first match in the monster. factory. About six or seven months. That's a long time. When you're in it, when you look back, just six or seven months, but when you're in it, that's a ton of time. Yeah, and I think what broke the ice,

and this is like Danny Cage kind of operates. Danny, um, Danny can can be very hardheaded. Danny can be stubborn. Um, but it took me ripping the matches he post off the secret YouTube page and putting commentary over them and saying, I'd like to do this. please, you know, how do we get a live feed? How do we get the live mics? It'd be a lot easier doing this live because I'm there anyway. It took me kind of doing that, taking that initiative to show them, hey, this is something that I'm working on. I'm trying. I'm doing. And I think I have a shot to be decent at this. And this is how I can help the Monster Factory besides, you know, setting up the ring, besides setting up the chairs and taking the tickets, that sort of thing.

I love this because so many people have big dreams like this. And then they just sit back and wait for it to happen. And they wait for their phone to ring. Well, guess what? Your phone's not just going to ring. And I love the fact that you took the initiative to go, here's what I want to do. But also, here's what I can do when you have a second watch this.

Yeah, absolutely. And there's going to be times when just that initiative, I guarantee that Danny didn't watch everything. You know, I guarantee, you know, he'd give me pointers from time to time. And Kevin Kelly was really good at that. Our executive producer right now, Delirious, I've known him since 2014 when I started coming around Ring of Honor. He's been good at giving me pointers and things.

But even just the fact that, hey, this person's hungry enough. They're sending me things. I might not be able to watch them all. But you know what? If they're that dedicated and I've seen two or three out of their six things that they've sent me. Yeah. You know, the one time I showed up in San Antonio, I had frequent flyer miles. And I thought, you know what?

It might be fun to go to San Antonio. I've never been. And this was before we had kids. And I showed up and I went to start helping the ring. And Kevin Kelly pulled me aside. He said, hey, if you're going to show up and do this and no one booked you, you're at least going to call a match. So don't get all sweaty.

Get your suit on. Just relax a little bit. You'll call the opener. You'll call the dark match. I'll give you feedback on it. And it's that sort of thing where if you're showing the initiative, if you're trying to get better, if you're listening back to your own stuff, you will get better and that will open some opportunities for you.

And I think most importantly in all of what you're saying here is you bring value. You're bringing, you're showing them. It's not just what's in it for me. It's here's what I can do to help you. Yeah, absolutely. And that's, I learned that from brutal Bob Evans. He's a guy that had been a journeyman for a long time,

had been wrestling, I think, since 1989 or 1990, and got his first ring of honor break in 2010 or 2011. managing Mike Bennett. He was a manager, and he eventually turned that into a regular wrestling spot in his early 40s. And he's a guy that same kind of thing where, you know, if you can serve first and kind of say, hey, this is what I can do. I'm going to give you this one for free. Or I might give you these couple for free. But over time, you know, here's how I can help and here's I can get better. That leaves an impression, I think. And that's when we bring people in for a ring of honor tryouts and seminars and things like that whether it's wrestlers, referees, announcers,

that's the sort of thing we look forward to is, you know, not that you work for free, but what do you bring that's different than everybody else? And can you find a way to show us that? Do you remember what your first ring of honor match was that you called? I do. Chris LaRousseau versus cheeseburger. I love cheeseburger. He's great. Oh, he's great. Now going by the world famous CB. And that was in Nashville, Tennessee. And that was one of those situations. where, you know, I texted Kevin. I said, hey, you know what, I have this week off from work or I can get a day or two off from work. Sarah has family in Nashville. If we come down and, you know, can I help set up. And he goes, yeah, you can help set up and bring your stuff. You know,

we'll find your way to work you in. And that was the first time I called a match and cheeseburger won with the Shote. So what was, what was like one main thing that you've learned from Kevin Kelly that you still apply to your broadcast now? Definitely prepare. Preparation, preparation, preparation. There's a lot of things that come with that too. Sometimes preparing is anticipating moments. It's not just knowing the move names.

It's not just knowing the history. It is, what will I do if, what will I do if there's, if both men are down? And it's a big moment in the main event. what will I do if there's a shocking roll-up out of nowhere? What will I do if there's an unexpected outcome? And that's the kind of preparation that a lot of folks don't either think about or teach. Some people are really good at it spontaneously.

But if you're not there yet or if you don't have a feel for the game, you know, I was only, you know, less than four years in when I became the Ring of Honor lead announcer. So I didn't have the feel that I do now. And I will hopefully continue to get better over time. But being prepared and thinking about different things that could happen in the match and having a slight plan, not writing it down necessarily, but having a slight plan for things that could happen and trying to anticipate what might happen.

So when you first got your first break with Ring of Honor, I imagine you were still working in other jobs. So what was it that you were doing at that time? Yeah. I was doing pharmaceutical reimbursement. I was traveling, traveling the country quite a bit. That has nothing to do with wrestling. No. What I would do is I would go into doctor's offices and it was a neat job. I would, I'd go in and it was for a children's pediatric product and I'd go in and I'd help

the physicians ensure that their patients could afford their medication. And so it was really neat. I got to travel all over the country. My territory was. Maine to North Carolina, to Nebraska, to North Dakota. So I had the north. And I got to see every state in that geography except for North Dakota. Wow. At what point did you realize I can do this wrestling thing full time and I don't need to do this pharmaceutical reimbursement job anymore? Yeah. So the interesting thing is I am my father's son. And so I I've maintained that and I'm a seasonal adjunct professor at the Holy Family University in Philadelphia. So, yeah.

So I have taken that to a different role. Regam honor pays me great and it's not a matter of, it's not a matter of finances. There was a moment in 2018 when I signed my first contract renewal where there was the moment of realization of, hey, I could, I could stop doing both. I got my first contract in April of 2017 and then renewed again in April of 2018 and in 2019. I signed a two year and then so on. So it's very interesting because as I'm just engulfed, as I was engulfed in student loan debt, which is about to be done. Hey, congratulations.

Thank you. You know, as I was trapped in that and then we had kids, I thought, well, wait a minute. if I can do everything, as long as I can do it, I might be able to save for our kids to not have to worry about this problem. So I actually maintain both. It's kind of wild. And I teach usually teaching the spring at Holy Family University. What do you teach?

I teach introduction to sports media. Oh, wow. Who better to learn it from? This is great. And that's really neat too because I bring in, I brought in Kevin as a guest speaker. I brought in Jeff Jones of AEW as a guest speaker. Colt Cabana has spoke to my class.

So I brought in a couple local sports personalities too, who've, you know, Pat Gowan, Spike Askin, guys that if you're from the Philadelphia area, you might be familiar with. And that's been a lot of fun too. You know, you mentioned your kids, and I'm really curious to know what they've taught you about you. Yeah.

I've learned I'm a little bit more patient. than I thought I was. And that's something that you have to find. Because when you're traveling, a lot of things can go wrong. Flights get canceled or switched. I'm so impatient that I'm the type of guy. When I come home from Ring of Honor, I usually have to connect through Charlotte to get to Allentown or connect through Philly, which is only 50 miles away. But if that next leg gets canceled, I will hop in a rent a car and drive home. You know, Charlotte's eight hours away. I'll make the eight hour drive rather than staying overnight and waiting for the next

flight the next morning. Or Philadelphia is a little bit easier. It's only an hour away, but, you know, I'm so impatient that I'll do that. So they've taught me a lot of patience. They've taught me a lot about dinosaurs, which does not help in any of my roles. This just adds to you being a Renaissance man. So I know a lot about. ankylosauruses, t-rexes, spinosaurus, stegosaurus, alasaurus, you name it.

Are they, are they, I mean, I haven't learned about dinosaurs since I was a kid. Are they now teaching that they are like, you know, could have had feathers? Is that like a thing we know now? Yeah, so I've read a lot about that. And I've also read articles that dinosaurs might not have looked like we think they looked. And the example that they use is the hippo. So the hippo skull, if you look at a hippo skull, it's not what you think a hippo looks like. And so there's, there's scientists out there that are kind of warning

that, hey, in the next couple of years, if we get this technology right, where we can kind of map out the DNA better and see maybe exactly what a dinosaur look like, there might be some surprises. The T-Rex might not look like the T-Rex we know and love now. Oh, that's going to be so funny. That will completely ruin Jurassic Park for us. Right, including the feathers, the potential of the feathers. Yeah. How old are your kids? You have a boy and a girl, right? Yep, four-year-old Zach and Nora turns to February 26th. Oh, wow. You've got your hands full with everything.

Yeah, it's fun, though. You know, my wife, I couldn't do any of it, but I couldn't do all of it without my wife. She makes a lot of sacrifices. She's the one that takes care of the kids when, you know, when I have to travel for a ring of honor, which, you know, thankfully isn't much anymore. It's a couple of bubbles every couple of weeks, you know, a couple days in the bubbles every couple of weeks. So the burden's a little less strenuous. And, you know, Zachary's growing up. And he, at four, we can trust him in a room with his books or his toys or his tablet. And he's a little less hands on. Nor is still, you know, Nor just turned two. So she's, he needs a lot of attention

and care. So, but they're starting to play together and they're starting to really have fun together. So that's really neat to see. And, you know, there, Sarah, though, my wife is definitely the, the hero of the family, and she's the one that keeps it all together. I love that. When you are on the road, who's the person that you're traveling with and rooming with? Yeah, for a long time, it was Colt Cabana. Sure. And I have some. Your broadcast partner at the time. Yeah, yeah. And it was so much fun to travel with him. I learned a lot about him. I learned a lot about saving money while traveling with him. Ringelander is awesome and that they'll pay for the rent-a-carra, the flight, the hotel. But like almost every other company, you know, if you're an

independent contractor, you got to pay for your food. So Colt and I found new ways to save money on food, making and packing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And again, this is, you know, from two guys that are being extremely well compensated. Like, we did not have to do this, but it would almost become a contest on on who could eat cheaper and who could get the most, most bang for their buck. And I'll never forget walking through a grocery store with Minoro Suzuki. And Minoro had a lot of different groceries. He had some meat. He had just a lot of different things. And there Colt and I are ready to split a dozen bagels and a thing, a powdered peanut butter and an all natural jelly for the entire week for breakfast.

So while everybody else is going to Denny's and Outback and Texark and Texas, this roadhouse. You guys are like, let's just find the nearest grocery store. Right, but Colt also is super generous. So whenever we did go out, Colt would usually pick up the tab for me. And that's not something he ever needed to do. But it was always something that he wanted to do

and really appreciated at the time. And I tried to explain to him, hey, Ringham Honor's taking care of me. I'm new, but they made it worth my while. And the other things taking care of me, you don't need to do it. But yeah, he would always You know, when we will go to Denny's.

And, you know, there's a Denny's near the Buffalo airport that we had a lot of fun at. You know, whether we were doing the wrestling in Buffalo or going to Toronto and then coming back and staying in Buffalo to travel after that, the Denny's by the airport would always be a lot of fun. And he'd always pick up the tab there. Now I travel with Caprice Coleman. And Caprice is a lot of fun for different reasons. Caprice and I actually have much more similar music tastes, believe it or not. he's real big into 60s Motown, he's real big into some of the 70s rock stuff, the 80s hip hop. So we get along in that regard because we always are on the same wavelength music-wise in the car.

And that can make, you know, traveling from Atlanta to Nashville a lot quicker. I love the hip-hop references that you work in your commentary. Like these random 80s and 90s hip-hop lyrics, I'm like, ah, I got that. I understand that. Yeah. that comes a lot from my brother. The two sources of that are my brother. And I watch a lot of sports center, which is huge in the U.S. on ESPN. And there were guys like Dan Patrick, Keith Overman, Kenny Maine. The list goes on. And they would make these references to songs from the 50s and 60s in the 90s,

or even 70s. So, you know, to give it that space and that proportion, I thought, well, what if I kind of do the same thing? What if I talk about a lot of the stuff that I liked and weave it in? You know, Dusty Rhodes always gave that advice too. You know, you can borrow things you see in movies. You can borrow things that you hear on the radio. If it inspires you, why not use it? And then there's a famous Jim Cornett quote where stealing from one person's plagiarism,

stealing from a lot of people is reverence or, you know, I forget what his quote officially is, But if you steal from one person, it's plagiarism. If you steal from many, it's research. That's what he says. So, you know, I did a lot of research, you know, in my time on commentary. And you'll hear things. There's been some deep cuts, you know.

Not a lot of people caught the Houdini references I made. Not a lot of people caught the, geez, I don't even know, Fab Five Freddy references. But a lot of people did seem to catch the run DMCs. You know, some of the LL Cool J, some of the more common ones. Yeah. Follow me down this path here

because I think it's a great compliment when someone doesn't notice the commentary. Because if they do notice the commentary, sometimes it's not for the right reasons. So someone might be watching one of their favorite Ring of Honor matches ever and not even really realize that you're walking them through this experience.

Yeah. I think there's something to be said for that. And what's really interesting is I didn't really start to subscribe to that until I was in this video game retro mania that's coming out. And what was clear in the beta testing was that people were responding really negatively to my commentary and Colts commentary in the beta run. And it was for different reasons. There's two reasons. One, it was too loud.

And they mixed it down and they made it blend with the crowd noise. And now it's really cool. And the other was it was too frequent. and that it was just calling everything. It was calling every move. It was calling every tag, every pen. And there's something to be said for that about not making yourself the front of what people are seeing and not putting yourself to sort of the front of the line of a person's attention

when they are trying to watch these athletes grapple and wrestle and determine who's the best wrestler. So, you know, just that experience really helps. helped reinforce that in me that, yes, I can be myself. Yes, I can be excited. But you know what? They're not here to listen to me. They're here at worst for the whole package. And, you know, maybe, you know, maybe specifically to see these two or two, four or eight guys or gals wrestle. So knowing that, you know, there's a little bit of element of, you know, can we do this where we're informative, but we're a little bit of white noise. And we're just that nice soundtrack. that's that's part of the growth and the growing experience that you still work on no matter

if you're four years in or 10 years in or 20 years in yeah and whether you love him or you hate him the absolute best at that is Joe Buck he's so good at just letting the moment breathe and then it almost feels like if you're watching this on TV you're like it's like this is what it would sound like if I was there right you know Joe Buck is somebody that again I think everybody everybody who's a baseball fan might feel, or even a football fan too, might feel like he hates your team. Yes. I'm an Eagles fan, diehard Eagles fan, but I've talked to Dallas fans and Dallas fans, oh, Joe Buck hates us. And then I'm like, no, Joe Buck hates us. Like, didn't you hear that? But it's because he's just presenting factual information and he is the person, again,

like you said, where, you know, the end of the night call, the, my favorite's the moonshot, Matt Stairs, where, you know, you just see the ball leave Dodger Stadium and you just see it and you feel it and you feel the air just deflate out of the Dodger fans. And then just real simple moonshot. And then, you know, that's all it needs to do sometimes. Who were some of the broadcasters, wrestling or otherwise, that you looked up to growing up. Yeah, kind of surprising, but if you listen to me for any amount of time, Vince McMahon. Sure.

What about over? Yeah. I mean, there's something. We talked about not making yourself a center of attraction, but just the energy and the enthusiasm. Yeah. He's somebody that if you are a kid and you're watching that, you're like, this is the coolest thing in the world.

This dude's so excited, how am I not supposed to be excited? If this man who's 40 years old, This guy's as old as my dad, and he's super excited about it. I got to be excited too. This is so cool. So, Mr. McMahon, it was one of those guys. Yeah.

I was like Tony Chivani. Tony was a guy that, you know, he seemed to just know his stuff. And you kind of build that trust that this guy knows his facts. You know, he knows the wrestlers. He gets his information correct. But he had those peaks and valleys too where, you know, if there was a big moment, You know, even today in AW, the sting, the sting, you know, like, he still still knows when to flip it on and flip it off. And then Jim Ross is probably the third in terms of, you know,

when I was a kid, my first exporter to Jim Ross, we got WCW in 1990 or 91 for the first time. So Allentown, growing up before there was cable or before cable was huge, we got all syndicated shows and we get the networks from New York and Philadelphia, and some Allentown stations, too, that actually carried wrestling. So we finally got the NWA in 1990 and just hear Jim Ross for the first time, you know, talk about the athletic backgrounds

that everybody had, talk about, you know, just the importance of the purse and the championship and, you know, whoever's got the championship because it's the most money. And, you know, you want to be on the magazine covers, and this and that, and building the stakes around everything, there's no better, you know, there's no better than Jim Ross. Well, you just named three icons there.

Yeah, right. Do you want to be the guy that 10, 20, 30, 40 years from now, people associate Ring of Honor with your voice and their favorite moments? I hope so. That'd be really cool. I don't know that it's a secret that I've had at least interest from other companies. And one of the things that keeps me really engaged and involved in Ring of Honor was kind of a point I made earlier. There's maybe eight of us that have the privilege of being the guy, you know, and Ring of Honor right now only has one television show.

And we only have a handful of pay-per-views a year. We had a number of live events before the pandemic. We used to have about 40 a year. But it was really neat to be the guy, you know, that every time that you turn on Ring of Honor, you'd hear me with, you know, with one exception. the, you know, the week my daughter was born. So, you know, it was always neat to kind of be that person and have that identity. I didn't mention his name, but Joey Stiles was somebody that you can't talk about ECW without talking about Joey Stiles. So there's this, I don't know if it's ego. I don't know if it's the desire to kind of build and cement a legacy. There's always that little

piece in the back of my head that I always lived during of honor. It's something that, you know, was created when I was in high school and I bought the VHS tapes and later the DVDs. It's something I followed for a long time and it's always been about the best wrestling on the planet. So for me, it's something that I can believe in. It's something, it's a company that's treated me right either before the pandemic. You know, when we had my daughter, they paid me for a full month. I didn't work a single show. They've made travel arrangements when they didn't need to for me.

They've done a number of different things. They've, you know, just been awesome. So I have this extreme loyalty to them. I hope it's reciprocated. I feel like it is. And, you know, I think I have an opportunity. There's not many people that can say that they've done what Joey Stiles did, where for almost eight years straight, he was the guy.

Yeah. And so I'm hoping that I can sort of build upon the same thing in Ring of Honor. Well, you were part of such an historic event with All In. And, I mean, that was so cool seeing you there, hearing you there. I, like a lot of other fans, just assume that when AEW became a thing, that you were going to be attached to that. Was that ever part of the conversation? You know, I don't know. And that sounds like such a weird thing to say.

There's a couple folks who are now involved in AEW that said, hey, just keep in touch. A lot of people's contracts in wrestling tend to expire on January 1st. And mine had a weird cycle. Mine ended on April 1st, my wife's birthday. just because when I started in 2017 as a full-time guy. So I think there was some assumption that I was available and I had a lot of interest. And, you know, they had said, you know, Matt Jackson's just simple keep in touch. And I don't know what that meant or means.

Maybe they had something in mind for me. Maybe they didn't. And, you know, it's exciting to see them succeed. It's exciting to see what they're doing. And, you know, at the same time, you know, there were some other offers on the table as well, which made it even more anxiety inducing because April 6th was Madison Square Garden. And so there's, I definitely had to make some sort of decision by April the first. And I wasn't going to call Madison Square Garden and then bold. You know, I wasn't going to, I wasn't going to do that.

And so I knew that I had to tell somebody sooner or later what was happening. And I remember when I decided, Ringabonter, you know, I pulled Carrie Silken aside and I said, Carrie, I love his place. I love what we built. I might have other options. There's a concrete one. There's kind of a keep in touch one, which we mentioned with AEW. And I don't know what that means, but, you know, I want to stay here.

And so Kerry, this was in Atlanta, in center stage, he walked the building. And Kerry's not the fastest guy anymore. He's had hip surgery and back surgery. He walked the building until he found Joe Koff. And Jokoff pulled me aside and said, you know, Carrie says you got some different options. What do you think? He's like, if you want to stay here, we'll make it work. And I said, yeah, I'd love to stay here. And he said, well, what do you want?

And I gave him a number. And he said, let me talk to Greg. And we'll see, you know, we'll see what we can do. And he said, I'm not going to tell you yes or no because I, he's like, to be honest. You know, he said, I'm going to be honest. I don't focus that, you know, those line items, not something I do. that's something Greg manages. And the next day in Charlotte, I had a contract for 2019, 2020, and so on.

And so, you know, that was, I don't know if I was ever in AEW's plans. One thing I do know is that for all in, we really hope Tony Chivani could have gotten off from football that day. It was always one of my dreams to call a match with Tony. And, you know, we were hoping that he'd get off. The original team before it was ever announced was some sort of rotation of me, Colt, Tony and Excalibur. And then Colt wanted to wrestle.

And then Tony couldn't get off or something. I think that's what happened. He's still calling Georgia football, which SEC football, you know, is king. So then it became Excalibur and I and then Don Callis worked in. So that was such a cool event. And I don't know if it'll ever happen again. I hope it will. I hope there would be some sort of thing where organizations can come together and make

it even bigger this time. I mean, there's, you know, there was no CML representation last time. So bringing some CML guys. There was only one women's match. So make two women's matches, three women's matches. Bringing some All Japan talent, Noah, DDT, just bring everybody. Make it a real kind of world series, you know? Yeah. I think that'd be really cool. And I think that would be something that would be doable, especially now, because things, you know, live events with the pandemic, You know, you can't really have fans. It would be something to kind of just do in secret and then one day announce it and already have it filmed. Yeah, that's true.

So, I mean, you know, it would be really cool. It was kind of a once in a lifetime thing. But I'm really proud of the AW guys. Sometimes I feel like, you know, sometimes I feel like maybe I could have gone there. Maybe I couldn't. Only, you know, Cody, Matt, Nick. You know, the only of those guys will know, only Tony Con will know. But, you know, I left it open until I had to make a decision.

And Ring of Bonner's always been great to me and loyal to me. And they've bent backwards and sideways for me. So I wanted to be there for them. So at the end of the day, it came down to loyalty. You had this other concrete offer from WWE, right? So it's other concrete offer. You're like, but I'm going to stay with the company that's been loyal to me. I'm going to be loyal to them.

All right. Absolutely. Yeah. Then it's, you know, it was tricky. because there's people involved. BJ Whitmer is one of my best friends in wrestling. And he, you know, he ended up with a great role in AW. Yeah.

And I would love working with BJ. He would continue to work with BJ. It would have been neat to call match it with Jim Ross and Tony Chivani. And, you know, Excalibur and I thought did well at all in. So it would have been cool to see kind of how that all felt together. There's also the part of you as a kid that, you know, WWE, when you're a kid, that's that's the thing you know that's the thing that you want to do sure and it's really weird to have somebody reach out and and have interest and have to tell them hey you know what i'm good

it's really you know you have all those dreams as a kid and then you know to have to say hey you know what i don't want to take that meeting because i don't want to have to say no and i know in my heart that i'm going to have to say no so let's not have the conversation so i don't have to say no you know it's it's one of those things where i don't want to go to that that rabbit hole and I don't want to blow first impression because Ring of Honor is what I knew that I wanted to do. Yeah. It's also wrestling. You know, who knows what's going to happen? Oh, geez. Yeah. I mean, with, I would have never guessed that WXW from Germany would be on WW Network. I would have never guessed that, you know, I knew AEW had a good shot at success, but they're a little bit

more successful. And I think even the most optimistic person would have guessed. Yeah. There are different times when, you know, impact. I like them a lot. I watch them. There are different times in their history where, you know, they had a video game. They're on Spike TV. And then they hit some hard times on their back. Same thing in the Ring of Honor where, you know, we'll lose, you know, five, ten guys at a time.

And then next man, woman up. And, you know, just, you just kind of soldier on. So you really don't know what's next. So, I mean, it's not obviously no forever. But I just, I love what we're doing right now in Ring of Honor. and I've always appreciated how they treated me. I just love your positive attitude and your drive. You were such a sweetheart of a man.

I mean that with great love and great respect for you. Thank you. I appreciate it. I've really enjoyed this, and I think that it's great for people to learn a little bit more about the man behind the voice, because so often they're just hearing you. Often they're not even seeing you for very long.

So it's nice to know what your path has been to get to this point. And I'm excited to see where this path continues for you. Yeah, there's so much, so much more to come to Ring of Honor. And right now, I think Ring of Honor is in a phase where, you know, there's so much wrestling available. A lot of it's free. A lot of it, you know, if you're a cable subscriber, if you have an internet connection,

you can watch A.W. Dark. You can watch Impact. You can watch WWE. But Ring of Honor is the same way. You know, you can watch Ring of Honor on Fight TV, on Orwaytristling.com. And right now, I think we're getting slept on a little bit. I think there's between the pure wrestling, between Roosh, Dragon Lee, you know, the stars we have from Mexico, Bandito, who was in the main event at all in,

Jay Lethal, Jonathan Gresham, you know, that kind of talent. You know, it's something where, you know, with the ebbs and flows of kind of what's popular and what's being overlooked, I'd say we're on the overlook side right now. And I think that 2021 is just going to be a huge year. for Ring of Honor, because as the word starts to get out, you know, people who give us a shot and who watch us that maybe haven't seen us in a year or two since some of their favorites went to different organizations, they become repeat viewers. So if you haven't checked us out in a while, you know, I appreciate, you know, just the opportunity to turn on Ring of Honor and to see

Jonathan Gresham or to see Tracy Williams or to see Roosh. You know, there's nobody like those guys right now. Yeah. I've really enjoyed this. And I end every interview talking about gratitude. I start every day and every day with gratitude. So I say that if you can be grateful, you'll live a great life. So what are three things right now, Ian, that you're grateful for? Oh, geez. Definitely my family. You know, absolutely.

And just that, you know, my wife who just quit a job to take a new job and, you know, brand new journey, you know, she's still the rock of the family, even though, you know, I try and play with the kids as much as I can. read and we have a lot of fun. Mom is still mom and mom's the one they seek first. So just her balancing everything and, you know, when she's on a work call to try and scurry them away or to do some fun with them, so they don't, you know, you bug her. You know, I'm super grateful for my family and just the support there. Grateful for the opportunity at Ring of Honor. You know, they, there were things that, you know, again, there were moments in 2020, whether it's the pandemic

or other situations where Ring of Honor's future was a little cloudy and it was a little up in the air. And I'm just grateful that the folks in charge, I mentioned Joe Koff, I mentioned Greg, Gary Jester's another, who was the longtime promoter for us, just had a vision and wanted to restart safely. And, you know, by doing the bubbles and spending the extra money to bring us all in for a week, by making sure that we had the accommodations and things at the arena and the testing, it's kept us safe and it's kept our family safe. So I'm grateful for that. And I guess just for our health in general, we've been extremely lucky and that we're in a position, you know, financially right now. We're secure where we don't have to work in an environment where we're exposed to more risk. We don't have to do things that put our family's health in jeopardy. And so I've just been grateful that, you know, we've had those accommodations over the last, geez, 10 months, 11 months. that have kept us safe and healthy and, you know, able to do all the fun things, you know, beyond wrestling.

We've been able to sled lately and all the snow we've got. We've been able to take the kites out and fly them around in the park and do fun stuff like that. Oh, I love it. Those are three great things. I've loved this. Ian Rickabonnie. Thank you so much. Oh, thank you, Chris.

It's been a pleasure joining you. I love it. That is a story of a guy who had a dream and chased after that dream. And most importantly, he brought value. That is huge. If there's one thing that you take away from this whole conversation, it should be that. Bring value in everything that you do. That's how Ian is doing what he's doing right now.

Value. Make sure to subscribe to Insight wherever you get your podcast. Tag Ian and I on social media and let us know what stood out for you the most in this interview. I'm guessing it might be value. He is at Ian Rickabani on social media. I am at Chris Van Fleet. And as the late, great Jim Rohn famously said, you don't get paid for the hour.

You get paid for the value that you bring to that hour. 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.

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