Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Ivar On His Singles Run, Crazy Athleticism, Injury Update For Erik, Viking Raiders

Episode Date: May 23, 2024

Ivar (@ivar_wwe) is a professional wrestler with WWE. He is in a tag team with Erik called The Viking Raiders. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Philadelphia to talk about the incredible athleticism he has his size, how he got paired with his tag team partner Erik, working as a pro wrestler since 2001, the name changes from War Raiders to War Machine to The Viking Experience and now The Viking Raiders, William Regal being the reason they signed with WWE, his recent run as a singles competitor, Valhalla putting antlers on Michael Cole, how his match with Kofi Kingston changed his career and much more! Quote I'm thinking about: The biggest mistake we make in our life is thinking we have time." - Kobe Bryant Sponsors: PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank which was designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/ PRIZEPICKS: Download the app today and use code INSIGHT for a first deposit match up to $100! BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv BLUECHEW: Use the code INSIGHT to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv BETTERHELP: Get 10% off your first month with the code INSIGHT at http://betterhelp.com/insight PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at http://plunge.com For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oh, good to see you, my friends. Welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet. How's your week going so far? Pretty good week up to this point? Thank you so much for being with us. And thank you, as always, for helping to make Insight, one of the top wrestling podcasts on the planet.

You help by listening to the show, but also by following wherever you're listening right now. And also, if you're feeling extra generous, a rating on Spotify or a few words as a review, or a few emojis as a review on Apple Podcasts, that would help out a ton. Ivar hardly ever does interviews. So I feel pretty honored that we were able to sit down

and do this one in Philadelphia. We recorded it during WrestleMania Week in front of a crowd. This was at one of the WWE priority pass on location events. The same place where we did the interviews with Ron Stroman and Tiffany Stratton, Liv Morgan.

We have two more on the way from Carmela and Sonia DeVille that you'll be seeing soon. Ivers is just such an interesting guy. He's been wrestling for 23 years. He had his first match in 2001 and was a singles guy for a while, but it was in Ring of Honor, where he was paired with the man that we now know is Eric, and they formed a tag team called War Machine. They were tearing it up in Ring of Honor, tearing it up in Japan, and that's when WWE and more specifically William Regal took notice and signed them in 2018. Now, over the last bunch of months, as you know, Eric's been injured and Ivar has been doing his thing as a singles

competitor. And you've seen it. He does stuff as a 300-pounder that he just shouldn't be able to do. And he does it with ease. And obviously, this was recorded before he came out to say that he had a very serious injury. So wishing him a speedy recovery and wishing both of them a speedy recovery. Snap a screenshot. Let us know that you're listening to this and tag us so we can share it on social media. He's at Ivar underscore WWE. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. And here we go. Please welcome Ivar. Ivar, ladies and gentlemen. That music is oh. Yeah, I should have. Should have won last night. Wow. That music is

very menacing. I feel like you're going to come out here and I don't know, tear my flesh apart or something like that. It should be a concern, yeah. It is. Maybe I should move my chair a little bit further this way. I'm not fast. You're good. You're a large man. Yeah. You're a large man. How much does a man like you eat in a day? Oh.

Oh, ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-hoo-ho. Way too many calories. Way, way too many. Do you count calories? Oh, no, no, no. It's too much. It's too much. Count macros.

I've tried it. It's just any happening. You don't do a lot of interviews, so I'm just pumped about this. I'm excited to you. Yeah, this is a great experience for everybody in here, so I can't wait for this. Your athleticism blows everybody away. I think that people aren't expecting a guy of your stature to be able to do moon salts. Yeah.

How did you even figure out you were capable of doing some of these things? Oh, man. When I was a kid, I had a trampoline. And I definitely did a lot of flips on the trampoline. But having a trampoline, it builds the confidence to even attempt it. So having that confidence, then, you know, slowly becoming a professional. wrestler and then trying in the ring. Having the confidence doing stuff on the trampoline,

gave me the confidence to do it in the ring. Like the first time you do a flip on a trampoline, are you like, oh my gosh, I'm going to land on my head? Yes, but when you're a kid, you don't have that rational fear all the time. So I was able to do it before that fear would kick in. Doing it on a trampolines, one thing. Doing it off the top rope is something else.

How do you build up the confidence to go, yeah, I can climb all the way up there and jump backwards and hope it works out. just do it. Yeah, there's no, at least for me, it was just do it. It wasn't, I know guys who, uh, they had to work on the back flip, but have to work, go in the first rope or have someone in the ring and guide them over with the flip. But, uh, with me, it's just to go and do and that was it.

And it's not just the moonsault, like you're doing cartwheels, you're doing all kinds of things. And I just think it's so impressive. And I think that that's what makes your move set so interesting. Yeah. We always talk about it as far as the tag team goes. I think what's made us a very successful team is our dynamic because it's flip-fought from everything else you've ever seen before.

Eric is the small one, but he's the strong one. He's the power. And I'm the large one, but I'm the high-flyer. And that's what makes us a very unique tag team. How did you guys get paired up in the first place? It was Ring of Honor. It was the 2014 top prospect tournament in Ring of Honor. we'd never met before,

and we ended up wrestling in the finals, where I won. And the Ring of Honor didn't know what to do with us, so yes, please, thank you. I beat Eric in the finals, 2014, top proxed winner. But then Ring of Wonder wasn't sure to do with us, and they put us together as a team,

and then we set the world fire. And you've got to figure things out pretty quickly, like this is someone who you've wrestled against, but never with. So how do you start to build the chemistry up? A lot of it, I mean, just talking, hanging out. When we go on the road with Ring of Honor,

it's making sure we're in the same car so we can talk about things. And it was weird because at the time, like I'd already been wrestling for like 13 years, him like 11 or 12. And we'd never met before. So we didn't know each other at all. And as we started talking and stuff, we realized we're both straight edge. And we both

have different parts of the country, but our stories in wrestling were fairly similar. And then our mindset's about wrestling. Same page. So just we were very fortunate to be paired together because there's guys who get paired together and they are not friends. And they do not get along.

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and before undertaking a new health care regimen, including EES system. And you've been a wrestler now for 23 years. Yeah, which is amazing. Congrats on that. You're still doing this. Yeah. Where'd that journey begin and when did you fall in love with pro wrestling? I can tell you the moment I fell in love with pro wrestling.

It was Monday Night Raw, Ray's Ramon versus the one, two, three kid. or the Lightning Kid at the time. Yeah. So I wasn't a fan at wrestling at all. Some of my friends were, I didn't care for it at all. But I happened to see that match because Raw was on USA and I happened to be put in through stations and there was and I saw that match.

And this nobody beat this megastar. And like that moment made me a fan, but it also made me want to do this for the rest of my life. Did it seem like a path that was something that was attainable for you? You're a kid going, I want to do that thing, but. Yeah, I mean, I didn't know how I was going to do it, but it was the goal, right? And that was the dream. And then as you get older, you learn like, oh, there's a wrestling school.

Killer Kualiske's for a wrestling school in the Northeast and like guys like Triple Age, China and Perry Saturn. Oh, man, Bloom, Baldo, A-Train, Mongolian, whatever we want to call him. Yeah, he went there. Oh, man, there's a place I can go. And even that route was weird because I couldn't afford it. So I'd go to a different school, but it was just trying to figure out. And then I eventually made it to that school and catr wrestling. And it's a whole thing.

But as far as being a kid, it was never a question of, like, how it was going to happen. It was when. And it was me just figuring out how to navigate that. And where'd that self-belief come from to know, like, I'm going to make this happen? I just don't know when it's going to happen. Yeah, that's a good question. I don't really, like, it's something that I felt in my soul. Like, I didn't want to do anything else.

There was nothing else that I wanted to do. And I was a kid, I don't know, maybe I shouldn't say it, but I did backyard wrestling. Like, I ran my own wrestling, little wrestling promotion when I was in high school. So did I. So did you. Yeah, so did you. Yeah. So did a lot of us, I think.

Yeah, of course. Lucky I could still walk. Yeah. Land it up my head a lot. Yeah, same. I still am. But, like, I ran my own little promotion. And like, so I wasn't, I didn't go out for the football team.

I didn't go out for the baseball team. like I was just writing backyard wrestling and storylines and figuring out how to do crazy things back then. So like it was always the, it was the goal. What was your backyard wrestling name? Oh, I had several. Okay. You want them all?

I'll just give you a couple. Okay, give me some good ones. Ernie, the cab driver, Wilson. Was he a cab driver? Yeah, he was a dancing cab driver from the clubs of Boston. That could work. That's pretty good. Yeah, he was good.

There was Toddy the body. That guy's got a future. He does. He does. I think the main one that I had was the Road Todd. The Road Todd. Yeah. The Road Todd.

Yeah. Well, it's me. It's me. It's that T.O.D. You know. The T.O.D. Yes. Who were your guys growing up?

Who were the people you really looked up to? So I always love, early on, it was the underdogs, man. It was one-two-three kid. It was Marty Chennetti. Aldo Montoya. It was those underdogs. I loved them. And that story,

that's what drew me in, right? And seeing the ones three kid beat Razor. So all those underdogs I love and, you know, as I get older, it's guys like Sean Michaels and Triple H

and, you know, those big stars from that era. But I think, ultimately I think Sean's my guy. And that is our training, it switched to more. Then it's like, I love Mr. Perfect.

He's my favorite all time. Mr. Perth is my favorite all time. And then as I get bigger, as I get larger, then it's like, man, watch him some Bam Bam, Bigelow, watch him some Vader. So it evolves, I feel like. Yeah, you've now crossed over into, you're in the big man category. Yeah.

And a whole different category of, you know, supremely talented workers there. Is it Bam Bam? Is he the guy you look up to in that category? Yeah, I think so. Bam Bam, Bam, Big Bossman, Vader. I think Bam Bam, because Bam Bam Bam Bam was in the, in the WV. Yeah. When I first started watching. So, like, Bam, Bam, Bam, all of stuff is doink and stuff.

And, like, yeah. And then I feel like his matches with, like, Brett Hart, they still hold up today. Like, you watch Brett and Bam Bam. It's like, this is awesome. And Bam Bam did these things where you're like, wait a second, he's able to do that? Yeah.

And that's what you do now. It is, yeah. Bam Bam used to cartwheel. It's wild. Also, how much of a full circle moment to go? I looked up to Sean Michaels. Oh, yeah. By the way, now I work with him.

Oh, man. And Triple H. When we went to NXT, like, it's still like it's mind-blowing to think about the night that we won the NXT tag championships so take over Phoenix us versus NSPyada era and we win the titles and then we're going back to the locker room

and before we get through the curtain Sean came out halfway onto the stage to greet us and to hug us and like man what a moment what a moment for us We still have a picture. I don't know if we shared it publicly, but we had a big Viking entrance that night, and we got a picture of all of me, Eric, Valhalla,

who was secretly under some of the Damascus shoes Sarah Loga, at Logan the time on the main roster. Yeah, yeah, give Bahal some props. And then Sean's with us with all the Vikings. It's a backstage photo. It's so cool, man. You went through a few of the backyard wrestling names. You also had a bunch of names before NXT,

a lot of different names that you went by. Yes. What were some of the gimmicks that you had that maybe didn't work that led you to where you are now? So I start, most of my, the beginning half of my career, I was Handsome Johnny. So much so that there's still a lot of guys who call me handsome. Kofi still calls me handsome. Tomaso still calls me handsome. My wife calls me handsome.

Thank God. I would hope so. Thank God. We get in the fight and she still call me handsome. It's hilarious. So Handsome Johnny was a big one, but it was Hansman Johnny. It was, I did the Duke of Elegance, Don Chesterfield for a minute, who was also back at wrestling characters.

I brought into pro wrestling. Todd Hanson, the brand new bad, Warbeard Hanson, and then ended up in Ring of Honor. Hanson Row. You guys made such a name for yourself in Ring of Honor. There was so much of a buzz around you right before you got signed to NXT. What was really fueling that? So Ring of Water was big for us,

but I think it was the New Japan. stuff that really gave us that buzz. Ring of honor was big, but at the time, New Japan, it felt so much bigger. You made it in Japan, then all of a sudden, you're making it everywhere. So New Japan felt like what was really putting us over the edge. But that whole time from those like two years before we went to NXT, we were on the road constantly, and it was Japan, Mexico, England, Ireland, Canada, Ring of Honor, back to Japan, back to Ring of Honor.

It was just, we didn't stop. We did the Butlin's camp stores in England. Like, we were just on the road, on the road. There's a two-month period of time where I was only home for three days. So it was wild, but all that was giving us that big buzz, you know, all with a goal to hopefully make it here someday. And there's all this buzz going on. I'm sure you're hearing it behind the scenes of people going,

at, WWE's going to hire you or you're going to get some looks from NXT. When do you start believing that hype? Man, so honestly, like in 2011, December 2011, I had shoulder surgery. So where we trained, we trained with Mike Hallo at the Keata Training Center, which was also part of Killick-Quilisks for wrestling school. But the goal there was always WWA, WWB. It was never, go to Ring of Honor, go to Japan, go to other places, always work here, work hard, and we'll all try to get you to WWB.

That was the end goal, right? And then in 2011, December 2011, I had shoulder surgery that didn't in my career, but they were very concerned it could because my laborin was so bad. And when I came back from that, I gave up on the dream of a BBB. I said, you know what? It's just not going to happen. I'm not 6'2, 240. I don't have abs. I don't fit that mold.

That was the mold that whole time. From 2001 to 2011 when I was trying, that was the mold. I didn't fit that mold. And I felt like I failed so many times and all these. the opportunities that I had. And it's like, you know what? I'm going to forget it. I'm going to grow up my beard.

And I'm just going to go for a ring of honor. I'm going to try that. So I can do something in this business before it's too late. But ultimately, putting all my eggs in the ring of honor basket instead of the BV basket, it got me here in a whole different route that I didn't know was available. So for us and Eric as well, like we didn't think about this as the goal. We thought a ring of honor was the goal. And then all of a sudden, you know, we see New Japan, you know, over the mountain top.

We're like, oh, no, we might be able to get to New Japan. And then after that, it's like, oh, we're on a show in England. And William Regal's there. And he talks to us. We're like, oh, that was interesting. Is that what started the wheel's emotion? We believe so. Yeah.

He didn't say anything then, but it was. And then he did a chaotic wrestling show, which is where I'm from in the Northeast. and the promoter told me, he's like, can we get you and, you and Ray at the time? You and Ray here? I'm like, yeah, absolutely. And we flew ourselves to that show. Like, we didn't get paid. We just, we wrestled the main event and, you know, Reel's looking at us again.

And then we did a New Japan show, and he just happened to be in Japan. And then, like, the talk started to happen. But it was kind of crazy, the whole way it all mapped out. But, and we had all that buzzes. stuff, but if we weren't, didn't happen to be on that show in England, the progress show, and Regal was there, maybe we didn't have a conversation. Yeah. But we happened to be there.

And then we got ourselves to the next one. Then he happened to be. It's like, it just. I love how life works like that. It's timing. If you're not in this place at this time, if this thing doesn't happen. That's why I love Back to the Future. It's my favorite movie of all time.

Yes. Because if all these things don't line up, Marty's not even born, you know? Yeah. He's got him on the picture. That's right. That's right. Soccer Federation present the U.S. Soccer podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Klinemberg.

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The U.S. Soccer Podcast, presented by Henko. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. The name-changing thing is a, it's a common thing now, right? So with your career, you debut as War Machine. Yeah. Then War Raiders. Yeah. Then the Viking experience.

Yeah. Which people did not like very much. They still don't like it. That's true. And now it's the Viking Raiders. Yes. Why so many name changes? We knew coming into NXT that our names had to change.

Mainly because right. Around the time that Ringgoarner named this war machine, there was an in May fighter who got in a lot of trouble for a lot of things. We don't want to mention it. So we had the conversation with AAA, she said, I can't have kids Google on that, right? Yes. Absolutely.

And don't Google it. Yes, it don't. It's not worth the time. So we're like, all right, so then we came to a bunch of names. And War Raiders is what was settled on. So we had a little bit of the element from the Indies where we were a war machine and a little bit more Viking. going forward with the Raiders.

No problem. And the fans were fine with it. They were fine with it. And I think we asked if we could keep our hands in row names because of, you know, we were associated with that with the titles in New Japan and Ring of Honor. So people did search us. They all pop up. So there's plenty of it.

Honor was totally cool with that. So that's how it started. But when we got called up, yeah, that was a little rough. So the way the story goes is Vince, Vince loves Vikings. So he found out there's a team in NXT that were Vikings. And he's like, yes, I want them. And now they wanted, he wanted Viking in our name.

And they couldn't pass anything through legal. There's already a Vikings football team. There's already a Vikings TV show. So none of the names they were trying, whatever they were getting through. And then somebody, I wouldn't say who, because it was asked in the media, meeting like, what are they? How to describe them? And then somebody describes us as like, oh, they're this, they're that. They're like a Viking experience. And it was a, that's it.

They're the Viking experience. And not one person was happy or okay with that except for the one man. So we were stuck. And then our debut, we find out last minute that were coming in. We get flight cancellations. We don't land in, it was in Montreal. We don't land internationally in Montreal until I didn't have getting to the building until almost 5 p.m. The day of, our debut. So we couldn't even talk to him. We get there. We see like on the Tron Viking experience.

I'm like, oh, man, what is going on? So we went to talk to him and be like, look, we can't be this amusement park ride name. And we talked to him and like he respect. And we went there and we were told about the whole Viking thing. So we were told like, he were going to pitch names out and just make sure it says Viking. in it. So we had like, I don't know, six or seven names, Viking names that we had picked. We'd already given up on our regular names. Eric and I have our, no problem, whatever. So on top of the tag team having a different name, you've got different names too.

Yeah, and that wasn't worth even trying. So we're just trying to change because the tag name was so bad. It was awful. It still is. It still is. It still is. It haunts to this day. And when we were listing off these names, we got to Viking Raiders and he stopped us. say, look, this is how we're going to introduce you to the audience, the main roster audience, and it doesn't work, we'll change it going forward. And literally two days later on the website, it changed. So you were Viking experience for... I think three days.

So one show. Yeah, one show, three days. And it haunts us to this day. Like the tweets after this, like that came out, it was bad. It's bad then. It's still bad now. Every week. It's fine, though.

It's fine. At least everybody remembers it, right? They do. Ivar is not bad. No, it's not bad. So the other thing, too, is he didn't care who was who. Oh, my gosh. And so we had to have the discussion right afterwards.

Pick a name out of a hat. Well, yeah. Well, I mean, if you Google top Viking names, you see Eric and Ivar. But so he didn't care which one of us was which. So we get to talk to him when I looked at Ray at the time. And I'm like, Ray, I can't be my brother's name going forward. because my brother's name is Eric, E-R-I-K, spelled exactly the same.

Please, please. He's like, okay, yeah, you can be I, I, I'll be here. How is Eric doing? He's great. It was just here. We did, like, meet and greet, and he's there for the weekend. It's just, I mean, it's neck surgery, so it's, it's a matter of time, and everybody's neck and heals differently.

Yeah. So it's a matter of him getting cleared. So, I mean, he's doing great. physically great. It's just doctors need to clear them. Sure. And they need to get back to the ring. And so it'll take some more time. But, you know, so you'd worked as a tag team wrestler for so long.

Now you're doing a lot of single stuff now, you know. So I joke a lot about this. So when we were in Ring of Honor, we got put as a team, we're catching fire. And then he gets in a motorcycle accident and tries to ruin my wrestling career. So now I've got to do single stuff in Ring of Honor. So then I get a big push in Ring of Honor. I'm wrestling the main event of the pay-per-view for the title, and he returned and tries to ruin my wrestling career again.

Well, he's getting ready to return, I think, to ruin your wrestling career again. Yes, exactly. It's all over again. Yeah, it's the same thing. Every great tag team at some point, someone turns on the other person. I feel like there's going to be a great program with Eric and Ivar at some point. Yeah, I don't know. We're a package deal. And just like the new days of package deal, I feel like we're a package deal.

The Bustos were a package deal And they were. Well, we're seeing how that's working out for them now. But that took a long time. So I don't know. But I feel in my heart, we're team when we're team, we're in this together. We wouldn't be where we are today without each other. And I feel like just like the new day, we're not going to split for anything.

Maybe each of us have single stuff on the side, but we're team forever. And Valhalla is part of this package, too. Of course, yeah. What a fun moment with her putting the antlers on Michael Cole. Yes. Was that just a spur of the moment thing? Bahala, Bahala planned it. Actually, Bahala had planned it for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks.

And there was never a moment to do it. Michael Cole had no idea. So it was for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks and then finally we had this opportunity for her to get it in there and she got it in. And Michael Cole played along with it so well. Yeah, it was the greatest moment of his life. That was better than his WrestleMania match. I mean, that's actually true. Yes.

That's not, yeah, that's true. Yeah. But what a fun moment that became. something that was even bigger than what it was on TV. Yeah. It caught fire on the internet. It went a little viral, yeah. Yeah.

And Michael Cole just seems like he's having so much fun right now. Yeah, he is. He's the best. He's definitely the greatest. Where are your antlers? Oh, well, we had them before. But that was more of a before Viking Raiders thing. Now I got the crown.

That's right. The crown's probably much better anyway. It's cool, yeah. Who are the people in the ring that you like to mix it up with the most? I love wrestling ricochet. I was going to say. You guys just had a match recently. Yeah, we have great chemistry.

It was so cool because we got to wrestle the Barclay Center. And almost five years today, earlier, we had the takeover match, like, or War Raiders versus Alasher Black and Rickett for the tag titles. So it was so cool to be back in the same building to get the rest of Rurice again. But I love wrestling Ricochet. But honestly, a lot of the guys have been wrestling recently. I love wrestling. And our chemistry is great.

I love wrestling in Bronson. I love wrestling Otis. Chad Gable, what an amazing. talent. I love wrestling him. I wrestled Sammy's aim for the first time ever. That was awesome. I've been having this little singles run. I mean, wrestling guys for the first time ever in singles matches constantly. It feels like every week is a new matchup that I haven't done before. It's been a lot of fun. To borrow a line from Big E, it's big beefy men slapping meat. Big meaty men. Slapping meat. Slapping meat, yeah. Yes, there. We had a little, little meaty man

slap meat. We had a little meat man last night. was a little meat mania. Yeah. What's different when you're working someone like ricochet versus working someone like Bronson? It's very different. Okay. Yeah, it's very different. It's very different because it's not the same story, right?

Two big guys or a big guy and little guy. And big guy and little guys always needs your story to tell. So it's... David versus Goliath. Yes, it seems to be easier, right? But Goliath versus Goliath, it's, you know, it's Kong versus Godzilla, and it's a whole different story. So I like them both.

They're just, they're very different to put together. I don't think people realize how many people that you have trained in your career. Yeah. Can you give us a few that we might not know? Yeah, so I've helped train guys like Kofi Kingston, guys like Tomazzo Champa, guys like DiJack, NXT, or Oni Lorkin from Inexi. T. I trained Mercedes Monet. I was one of her trainer. She had three trainers. I was one of them. So it's a long list. Pretty much most people who came through New England at some point,

I helped train him. You and Kofi had a sneaky good match the last time you guys were in the ring together, like sneaky good. Is that because there's that long history? You know, no. So, I mean, you could say that, but I think it's because Kofi's an amazing human being. That's what it comes down to, unselfish. And like all the stars aligned on that. It was the night that it was what started this whole singles run. It was the night that Eric was taken off TV because they discovered atrophy. And he needed the neck, the neck thing.

So we were scheduled for a two out of three falls match with New Day. So that match got scrapped. And they just decided to put me and Kofi into a singles match instead. But they didn't cut our time. So we had the same amount of time as we would have had for a two out of three falls match. Oh, wow. And then, you know, I'm like, this is probably my last match because historically, when one tag guy goes out, both tag guys got to go out.

So, you know, I said that COVID-Dens is probably my last match. I'll be out with Ray while he's getting fixed up. Just like, all right, let's just do it. Let's just do the match. Let's kill it. And that's what we did. And after the match, I got called over and say, hey, I've already mine sticking around and doing some single stuff while Eric's out.

I'm like, absolutely. So that match was the match that really changed the trajectory that you were on? Yeah, 100%. Wow. And it's because, and then part of it is COVID being like, oh, I get to give him his flowers now. Yeah. You know, I was very fortunate. I got to be at WrestleMania when he won the title.

Oh, wow. I got to meet him right through Gorilla afterwards, and it was a real special moment. And I'm excited because I'm going to be there tonight for Tomaso's first WrestleMania. Oh, wow. I'll be there for the same thing. So I get a little emotional talking about. about that, but I'm really happy for those guys. But so Kofi just being unselfish and being the great human being that he is.

And just, he's a former world champion. He doesn't have to do good things for me. And he does. He does for everybody. So it's because of Kofi. I've heard people say that if you don't like Kofi, then there's a problem with you. Oh, for sure. Because everybody likes Kofi.

Yes, everybody likes Kofi. He's the greatest. Talk to me about what it was like, Russellmania 35. Kofi Mania. He wins the championship. a big celebration in the ring. As soon as he comes back through Gorilla, what's it look like?

So, yeah, he does the stuff in Gorilla, but he comes out and he sees me, and he just loses his mind. You tell me how to bump. You know what Coppe gets. You tell me how to pump. Here we are. Here we are.

He's all fired up, man. Oh, it was such a good moment. There's footage up somewhere. I hope to see it someday. Oh, that's amazing. It's been so good to be able to catch up with you and spend some time with you. Yeah.

Actually, I'm curious before we wrap this up, when you sit next to somebody on a plane with big beard and you're wearing something like this, what do people assume you do for a living? Oh, well, when they ask, I say I'm a male dancer. I mean, that's maybe not untrue in certain ways. Maybe they're like, do you play football? Is that a...

Yeah, yeah, football or they always think I'm either a strongman. Oh, yeah, sure. Or I do, like, beer competitions. You should do beer competitions. I probably should, yeah. I feel like it's a Travis. see that you don't. Yes.

Look at this thing. Yes. If it's unbraided, what does it look like? It will currently be a mess. Yeah. But it's this big, bushy, fantastic, massive thing. Incredible. Yes.

All right. So I'll ask the same question at the end of this that I ask everybody. What are three things that you're grateful for? Because gratitude is such a big part of my life. Uh, who, yeah. Three things, huh? Well, three things right now today. One.

One is to just to be. here living this because especially from when I got injured in 2020 like I thought my career was over when I had that neck injury and being able to be here now as an active wrestler at WrestleMania 40, the biggest WrestleMania of all time, just being here and present, signing autographs, seeing the fans, I'm very grateful for that. I'm grateful that I can still be here and see. some of those guys that I trained, be here. Eric and Vahala came in.

I haven't seen Eric since he had surgery. To see him here and know that he will be back, it's just a matter of time and to know that we're going to be doing the Viking Raider thing again on the big stage. I'm grateful for that. And I'm just grateful for the love and support from the fans. When I got signed,

this is a little bit of a long story. I'll try to keep as short as possible. But when I got signed, And I dreamed of that moment to be in chaotic wrestling in my home promotion and to be able to do my whole speech to leave and be like, you know what? I did this to prove everybody wrong. But when I got out there to do the speech and I was in the ring, I realized I didn't do it to prove everybody wrong. I did it to prove everybody who believed in me that they were right. and I'm grateful to every day be able to succeed

and know that I'm doing it for everyone who believed in me. Such a good guy and wishing him and Eric a very speedy recovery from their injuries and hopefully we see them back in the ring very soon. Together as the Viking Raiders or separately as individuals wishing them a speedy recovery and can't wait to see them back soon. Did you see that match that Ivar had with Rikish? on raw like a month-ish ago.

So good. So good. I feel like Ivar as a singles competitor, we're just scratching the surface of what's possible here. So good. Snap a screenshot and share this online and tag us. Please. He is at Ivar underscore WWE.

I'm at Chris Van Fleet. And this quote from Kobe, I feel like it just hit a little bit harder. Maybe it's because I live in and around L.A. Maybe it's just because Kobe was taken from us far too soon, but what a quote here. The biggest mistake we make in our life is thinking we have time. So be present, be kind, be in the moment, because you're never going to have this exact moment ever again. The biggest mistake we make in our life is thinking we have time.

Be great and be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. We've got Ask CVV. Number 32 tomorrow. If you have a question, send it in on social media or comment it on Spotify. And we will get to a ton of those tomorrow. We'll see you then. Jim Rome takes on sports.

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

Take advantage of it, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.