Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Jelly Roll: WWE Debut, SummerSlam Match, 250lb Weight Loss, Randy Orton, Logan Paul, The Rock

Episode Date: October 23, 2025

Get tickets for Insight LIVE in San Diego & Las Vegas! https://cvvtix.com Jelly Roll (@JellyRoll615) is a Grammy-nominated singer. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Nashville, TN to discuss his success in the music world and how that led to a spot at WWE SummerSlam 2024, chokeslamming Austin Theory, teaming with Randy Orton at SummerSlam, taking a frog splash from Logan Paul on the announce table, giving Drew McIntyre a Black Hole Slam, how he lost 250 pounds, finally meeting The Rock after a decade of speaking with him, interactions with pro wrestling legends, if another match could happen, and more! Please support our sponsors!   PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/?ref=tibcloux   SEAT GEEK: Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/CVV2025 Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount   NORDVPN: Exclusive deal! https://nordvpn.com/cvv Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! PRIZEPICKS: Download the app today and use code INSIGHT to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup!  TIMELINE: Go to https://timeline.com/insightto get 10% off your order of Mitopure!   VUORI: Get 20% off your first purchase! Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet at https://vuori.com/cvv   ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and reach your financial goals faster: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv MIRACLE MADE: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://trymiracle.com/CVV and use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF   ZOCDOC: Instantly book a top-rated doctor today at https://zocdoc.com/insight   BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv   BLUECHEW: Get your first month of BlueChew for free with the code CVV at https://bluechew.com   For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you have ever enjoyed any of these episodes, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast or Spotify? 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

You're good? Dude, I'm awesome. Oh, man. Dude, I was telling you when you pulled up, my wife was outside, and I pointed at you. I was like, my favorite podcast is my driveway. Dude, thank you for making this happen. Dude, thank you, man. I infamously don't carry a phone pretty much like ever.

Yeah. And I have a laptop instead. So I'm still a real, like, YouTube guy. Like, I'll just get lost in YouTube. So, like, huge, huge fan of the show, brother. Man, that means so much. And I'm a huge fan of yours. And I love that we can come together to talk about your wrestling

Yes. It's my wrestling career. It's so fun to hear. And I can tell that you're on YouTube and you're a big wrestling fan because I saw you comment on one of Santi's apps videos. Oh, should we start with Santi? Sure. We want to start with Santi? Yes, because listen, I want to appeal to everybody who watches Santi's channel right now. I think for Santi to finally oil himself up and expect me to do a shooting Star Press is a little a little, I think it's a good negotiating starting point. You didn't even pull off the shooting star press? Yeah, yep, yep.

And I counter you, Santi, publicly with, you should finally oil up for your channel if I can do anything off the top rope. If I can come off the top rope, if I went from 500-something pounds to being able to come off that top rope, Santi, you owe it to your subscribers to oil up. Let's make a deal and virtually shake on it now.

You know what I'm? That's a deal. I love Santee, too, by the way. That's a deal. I truly do love Sondi. But that's wild that you were already paying attention in what people were saying about you getting into WWE.

Well, the fun part of it was I wasn't paying attention to what people were saying. I was just watching what I was watching anyway. So once I didn't, it was the funniest, it's the part of it I didn't think about. As a wrestling fan, I watch you, like I watch Santi, I watch what wrestling culture, the UK guy?

Yeah. He's a hoot and a half too, man. He's funny. Simon Miller? Wild takes. Yeah, man. He's great. So these are just guys that y'all are already in my algorithm.

You know what I mean? I'm already watching Cody's show. I'm already watching Taker's six feet under. Like, I'm already watching all this stuff. I'm already listening to Bubba on Sirius when I'm in the car. You know what I mean? Like, so then I get involved. So imagine my thought.

I'm like, I don't think about, oh, these people are going to have an opinion about me being involved now. I wasn't even thinking about it from that respect. So I'm just watching my normal programming. And then I'm getting brought up. I'm like, oh, wow, fun. But you're a hardcore wrestling fan. love wrestling, man. It's like I've always loved wrestling. And then in the last, especially, I've always said this opening, the last five, you know, eight, 10 years as I spent a lot, I spent

two, 300 days a year on the road. So it became something we could do on the bus. Like, we'd all watch the highlights on, you know, Mondays or if we couldn't cast the show, like we'd keep up with it through highlights. And people don't understand, but as a musician, I don't listen to a ton of music. That's surprising. Yeah, it's like, I don't want to be influenced by what's happening right now. So, I'm very careful when I'm in writing mode to not listen to very much current music. I just try to like, I know what's happening so I'm never unaware, but not be influenced by. I never want to be in the studio, you know, thinking about what one of my friends is doing.

You know what I mean? So I'd rather be in there thinking about what Jim Crocey was doing in 72. So that's where your inspiration comes from? Or we listen to a lot of podcasts. See the catch? See that turn? See that flip? So that's how we kind of got involved in wrestling and stuff.

It was an alternative to like sitting on the bus and just jamming music and smoking on it. So who's like the, who are the early wrestling memories for you? So I'm 41. You know, dude, my mama had a crush on Brutus, the barber beefcake. You know what I'm saying? I don't know if you've went back to look at them recently to see if did your mom have a crush on him too? My mom thought he was like the hottest thing ever. So awkward now when I look back at that.

So I have those memories of like that kind of stuff. We went to fairground wrestling all through the like early night. 90s, too. Even high school, when, like, Smoky Mountain Wrestling was first really getting going, we'd drive to East Tennessee or they'd come here. It was just something we were into. All the WWF house shows would come through the municipal auditorium. And then the WWF was, like, one of the first things that ever came to the Bridgestone when we opened the Bridgetown.

You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, we had ECW coming to the municipal back in the day, TNA. We had all the good stuff. This is where TNA started. For sure, man. Yeah. You got to think, dude, wrestling in the South are so hand in hands.

For sure. Like, you know, like, wrestling in Southern culture is like a really big thing for us. Yeah. So then in the last five to ten years since you've gotten back into it, who are the people that you love watching? Oh, dude. I mean, obviously, like, Romans' arc's been great. Yeah.

Seth's In Rings are just like, me and you were talking about this off-camera. It's a great time to talk about it now. I think what makes the greatest heels is like to some degree, it's not easy to be a heel. Like people use that loosely, but like, you know, you can position yourself to make people not like you,

easier than you can position yourself to make people like you. Sure, you make fun of the town that you're in. For sure. Yeah. It's kind of, you know, but the hard part is what makes a great hill to me is

how great can you make the baby face look? Hmm. You know what I mean? How much can you bring them up? When we were talking about guys like Austin Theory, you know what I mean? Like how great at that heel? is. You know what I mean? Of like

these, these, uh, Seth Rollins to me. You know what I mean? Like, he makes Cody Rhodes look like an absolute rock star. For sure. You know what I mean? Like, you know, like, for as much as an asshole as Seth is on the microphone in the ring, he's putting everybody over, every time all out, Sean Michael style. You know what I mean? Like, it's hard to take that from him, you know? Yeah. But these are the guys,

I don't know. I've loved everything that's happening, though. I think, I think I said this a lot to the point of exhaust, but I think wrestling is cool now as it's ever been. Like, I've been looking for this, too, as a wrestling. Like, when I got involved in a match, I was one excited that I was, like, famous enough to finally get the celebrity because somebody's going to get it. Y'all, don't be mad at me.

Somebody was going to get it, y'all. At least somebody who cared got it. You know what I mean? And, but also, like, to be a part of a time where, like, do you remember what it was like, we're the same age, when you would go to school in the late 90s, mid-90s-ish, and all of a sudden there was this thing kind of happening. You would see someone walking down the halls

wearing an Austin 316 shirt or a DX shirt and you're like... That you've been going to school with for five years. Yes, and now you're like, wait a second. Did we just become best friends? Yes. Do we have something to now talk about? Every single Tuesday morning. Dude, and it was like all of a sudden,

I wasn't a cool kid. Like, I'll be the first one to say that. Like, I wasn't the coolest kid at school by a country mile. But some of the cool kids started getting into wrestling. And I was already into wrestling and knew about it. You know what I mean? So, like, I was watching that culture shift happen,

and I'm watching it happen again. Because I'm also watching balances be made that couldn't be made before. Like, when I'm watching Cody Rhodes right now, this is kind of a deep to talk about, but he is, to me, the epitome of a wrestler. Like, the suit, how he carries himself, some of the greatest promos, ultimate baby phase. But what he did that was different, like,

think about Hulk in the late 80s, was like, I liked Hulk in the late 80s, because I was, you know, early 90s, because I was a baby, and it was a great thing for my parents to push on me, vitamins, prayers, you know, whatever. Yeah, Halcomania was running a lot. For sure. But my older brother couldn't necessarily feel it, right? My oldest brother, who was 12 years my senior kind of probably looked at it like,

ah, that's kind of corny, right? Where 18, 22-year-old kids can look at Cody like, this dude's a gangster. But my 9-year-old son can also look at Cody like, this dude's my hero. Right. You know what I mean? Like Roman Raines has got that same depth. where it's like grown men, gangster men acknowledge the tribal chief. You know what I mean?

And my son's like scared up. You know what I'm saying? It's like the coolest thing ever, like, to see that happening again. It kind of makes me wonder with how over Cody is and how much every age group loves Cody if he could turn a heel right now. Because who's going to slide into that number one baby face spot right now? And I don't think that there's anyone there. Yeah.

I don't think it's, you know, I don't know that anybody's there, quite yet, and especially with Sina leaving. Yeah. But I think, like, listen, man, can we quit forcing this Hill narrative on Cody? Like, we didn't do that to Sina.

We let Sina be the baby face for decades. You know what I mean? Like, you feel me? They still booed him. Yeah, yeah. They booed Sina for many years. They choked on them sometimes, right? But it wasn't in a, necessarily a bad way.

And I think there will be some core wrestling fans that will start doing that to Cody sooner than later. And that sucks. It's like, let him have his run, dude. Like, we need this. The business needs this. And it kind of happened at WrestleMania 41

because everyone wanted to cheer Sina. It's a Sina's final WrestleMania match. So they're booing Sina, which then means you, or they're cheering Sina, they have to then boo Cody. Yeah. And it's like, oh, wait a second. This is kind of turning on its head here.

No, it was, you know, which is what made their Summer Slam experience so much more special because, like, everybody then had the freedom to just cheer for both. Right. And just be so happy for the moment. When that Titan-Dron lit up with the colors again for Sina for the first time in months?

I jumped out of my skin, Chris. I was in the suite, and I was sore, I was hurt. I'd wrestled the night before, so I was in, like, hurting shape. It's the only time I stood up all night, except for the one time they put me on camera before Fatu's match. You know what I'm saying? I jumped out of my seat.

Because I was like everybody else in the room. I was watching, and the black came, and I was like, if it don't light up. Yeah. And right when it lit up then, too, I knew what was going to happen next was we were in for a match. Oh, yeah. What about Sina doing that right?

like it's almost like we're watching such a great love letter to wrestling from Sina on the way out and it's also so true to who he is as a human because one of the biggest arguments people would say about him was he can't wrestle. Yeah, five moves of doom. And we're watching this dude put on clinics every night and throwbacks and getting so deep

that he's having to show us the Easter eggs the next day to make sure because critical mass misses it. Like, I'll know y'all miss what I did that for. You know, like it is, Everybody who's like his heel run was a failure, if that's what it took to get what we're going to see now. Because I'm into this point where it's like, that's all I want to see.

I don't care if he talks on a microphone again. I don't want a storyline. Like, you just keep putting him in there with the matches he wants and giving us these kind of bangers. And dude, thank you, Sina. That match with AJ Stiles is one of the greatest John Cena matches of all time. I felt that way about his match with Logan. No, I love that match with Logan.

For the record. Another 25 minute didn't leave the ring, banger. And then I also felt that way about his match at SummerSlam with Cody. You think he's going to keep doing it to us? He has to. They can keep getting better. He has to because the bar just keeps getting raised, right? It also comes down to dance partners, though.

Like, AJ's the kind of guy you want to show it with. Logan, despite our issues, is the kind of guy you want to get in there with. But how can he have a better match? Four dates left as we sit here right now. I don't know who any of those opponents are going to be. How are you going to top that AJ Styles match? Well, I think I've seen somebody say this on your program. and I agree.

I think, I don't know if it tops it, but I think that he goes out putting brawn over. Do you think that Braun Breakers is his final opponent? I don't know if it's a, I mean,

I think Sena's going to want to go out on his back. I agree with that. You know what I mean? I think that he's just too much of the business dude and him not to. Yeah.

And the question is, does he put over a heel or a young kid like Breaker or does he put over a baby? Because I think when you look at the list of the people he hasn't worked with yet on this tour,

there's five, to seven names that stand out? Could it be Dominic Mysterio? Is it Gunther? Is it Braker? Is there an outside chance that we have a match with Roman? He hasn't been part of this conversation.

Is it maybe a returning edge if that's even possible? All of those are really interesting to me. Dude, it's crazy. Just two nerds talking about wrestling. I'm so excited about it. Are you going to go to this final match? Of course.

I already booked my flight. I feel like the biggest mark ever to go, but I'm going for sure. not a mark in a bad way, just like, I told Seena when he was here shooting what drives you. I was like, I'm going to come to as many of your retirement matches as I came. So you're going to be there? I plan on. I don't plan on Led and Sooner retire without me sitting there for sure.

How many have you been to on his retirement tour? I got to wrestle at SummerSlam. What a sentence that is. We got to do Paris now. Yeah. When did I see him earlier? I seen him one more time. I don't know.

I don't think I got to catch him in the hill run at all, though. So I think that's the two times. But I'm going to go see him as final, and I'm going to see him again in What's the What is it, the PLE The PLE in November? So that's Survivor Series Yeah, in San Diego

Yeah, I think we're gonna come out for that. I think I'll be coming right back from Australia just in time. Perfect. Yeah. Because Sina, I believe it. It's like, it's why I went to see John Jones fight last year,

which I think John will fight again, but I was like, if this is John's last fight, I don't want to miss it. Like, I think, I don't think we're ever going to see Sina wrestling. I agree. I think we'll hear the music

and I think we'll see him. Yeah. You know what I mean? Because it's two in his grain, but I don't think we'll ever Watch, we'll get to Cicina do this. I think he'll have some appearances like The Undertaker does now. For sure.

It pops up here and there. It puts the rub on somebody, makes him look good. Yeah. But I'm with you. December 13th is his last match. Last match. And that's it. Jeez.

What a gangster way to go out, man. I hope I tour like it. Like, I pray I have the, I admire John in so many facets of his life and how he handles his business in himself. But like, I also pray I have that attitude of like, all right, this is it. Have a final tour. Go out and actually say, go by and then go home and actually be at peace with it.

But, dude, with music, you can do this until you're 80. For sure. Like, with wrestling, you have to stop because your body says you have to stop. 100%. With music, you can do this forever. The difference is, though, and the same thing, though, that is the same is it's a heart thing, too. You know what I mean? Like, it's a body thing, but for us, it becomes a, it's our body, too, a little bit.

Like, at some point, it's the wear and tear, and you're just out there on autopilot. And I just want to make sure I'm never on autopilot. I know that's nothing not why John did it. It was a body thing for him. But in my business, I correlated to how it transfers to me. And it's like I watch so many artists that are on that stage now at a certain age that really aren't on that stage. Not because they're old, even. Sometimes they're young.

They've just been touring for 25 years. And you can just see it in their soul. They're tired of singing this song. Could you ever picture yourself not being passionate about music? No, dude, I still get the almost diarrhea poops every show. You know what I'm saying? Like, I still get that nervous every time I go on stage. You know what I'm saying?

So if we were to catch you backstage five minutes before you're going out, what do you look like? I'm shaking. For sure. I'm like visibly like my hands are visibly shaking. Every time. Sweaty palms. Like I joke with my crew about it.

Like you'll watch my palms. Like if you shake, if you're one of the last people in my crew that shakes my hand before I go out, you wipe your hand. You know what I'm saying? Like for sure. And then when you get out on stage,

do your nerves just immediately calm? Not immediately. It normally goes into the first song or two. and it depends. If it's alive, they never come. Like, live, live,

if I'm live to a crowd and a television show, I'm shaking the whole time anyway. You know, it's just... But that's where you know you're doing the right thing. That's how I know I'm still here

because I love it and it scares me the way. You're living in your purpose. Nothing scares me any other way. Man. For sure. I love that. Yeah.

And I felt that at SummerSlam more than I have even in me. So did you're working with WWE? Did that begin when you wear that raw in 2023? I would say That would be the beginning. Well,

this story gets so much cooler for me. So Neil Lowey, I've said a few times, is my hero. He's my baby facing this. He's been the head of music and he's been the, one thing about the WWE is,

I'm sure you know this. So many of their staff have been there decades. Neil's been with that company 30 years. And so he comes to me about the Summer Slam in Nashville when Brock and Roman. Yep.

And I wasn't here. I was on. In 2022. Yeah, 22. He comes to me in 21. I had an office in downtown on Music Row, I was fielding record deals at the time. And I was figuring out what I was going to do in my life.

I had had a song called Save Me, come out in 2020 that had kind of went viral. And I was just like really making what was going to probably be, what turned out to be the biggest decision in my life. And this wrestling, I'm a huge wrestling fan. They keep going, hey, the head of music wants to come meet you and wants to hang out for an album. I was like, wow. They was like, I don't know. He just wants to come meet you. I was like, I want to meet anybody from the WWE.

And we sat down for two hours and talked about Jordan's wrestling and music, like two guys that grew up together. And here's how gangster Neil Lowey is. At the end of it, he goes, well, we have SummerSlam coming in Nashville, and we have a song. We'd love you to sing, and we'd love to sit your ringside. You know, you're a big part of this city. And I was relatively underground, but he just had his pulse on what was happening here in Nashville. And I was like, man, I'm actually on tour that day. But, dude, if you'll let me sing the song.

So I was the voice of the SummerSlam 2020. That was my voice for that particular record. And so then when the WW comes around, every time they came, I've been to a couple Rawls before that. We just didn't do nothing on TV. I'd just go hang out with Neil or somebody in the back. And that night they were like, yo. And that was the first night Randy gave me the rub.

You know? You push down JD McDonough. Then you push Dom. Yep. And then the rub that Randy gives you is he goes, oh, smells good. It was the best rub ever, dude. And I'm sure y'all know this about the Viper already,

but none of that happened in rehearsal. You know what I'm saying? In rehearsal, I was supposed to push Dom into him and he was supposed to table him. Okay. You know, like, do the Randy table drop? You know what I mean? So I was going to push him back.

Randy's going to be like, and I was going to push him in and he's going to. And instead, it was like, so when Randy does it, walks over to me, I was like, oh, this is the coolest thing ever, dude. And it was cool because I was. I was getting stone in the back, so that's what he was alluding to. You know what I'm saying?

I smelled like a big reef relief. But he's just so awesome. And then I was in the back that night doing my interview, I think maybe with Jackie. And he stopped and crashed my interview, put his arm around. He was like, man, I'm proud of you, man. A lot of the celebrities have come here, you know, like gave me like the big rub on camera right then, too. And I would have never guessed that that was going to blossom to us being able to wrestle together. Well, that, I guess, ended up leading to SummerSlam the next year in Cleveland.

Also, Randy grew up in St. Louis, but he has Knoxville roots. Oh, yeah? Yeah, like born in Knoxville, kind of grew up East Tennessee. I think daddy and them lived out there for a long time. You know, a lot of wrestling history right there in East Tennessee. When you do that spot at SummerSlam in 2024 in Cleveland, it was clear that you were a wrestling fan. Like, it was clear that you belonged in that ring.

You got Austin Theory up so high on that choke slam, that one-arm choke slam, by the way. Yes. Which was all Austin Theory. Once again, the greatest heels make the baby. faces look incredible. That's all Austin. I mean,

that dude's a seller and a half. But he was the dude. I wanted to Undertaker style it, you know, because that's what I grew up watching, was like throw the arm over, kind of like I did Logan in the actual match. Yeah.

Which, thank you, Taker for giving me that, that nod. But when I went to it, Austin was like, one arm, it will get higher.

I was like, you sure? He was like, trust me. I'm gonna, he's like, this is like breaking all KFA, straight shoot.

He looks at me and goes, my brother, I'm going to jump through the building. He was like, I got you, dog. Because I was so nervous. I was so nervous, I made him make us work it out

on a crash pad 30 times. He was like, they were so over at him and the Mids, but they were so patient with me. You know what I'm saying? They were like, it's this easy. And me and Ron Killings are homies, so he was just back there laughing.

He was like, jelly, I swear you're going to be fine. I was like, okay, cool. How did that feel out there at SummerSlam for that spot? I still think about it. Like, you've seen the picture in my garage when you're going to have the picture hung up

when you first walk in my garage. It's like, dude it was it was i can't even describe it the feeling of like and we'll talk about this we talk about summer slam i'm not new to crowds chris you know what i mean like man i'm still getting nervous in front of big crowd but like god bless me like you got to think by the time i walked in that ring at summer slam i just got through doing 27 stadiums with post malone here in america i just played that stadium i'd know i played met life you know i'm not metlife i played um where the Mets play,

a city field a couple weeks before. You know what I mean? So like, I'm not, but it was a totally different feeling walking out there in Cleveland, you know? And it's the real theater

of the unknown for me, you know? And these guys are so comfortable up there and I am so not. You know what I'm saying? It was like, it's just cool, man. So how did that spot

with theory at SummerSlam last year turned into a match this year? Well, I'm walking up into a gorilla and I'm like, obviously losing my, mind. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm definitely a very inflated version of myself. And I see Triple H, and I'm like, Triple H, I got to do this again. I got to take a match, bro. I'm going to go lose 100 pounds and come back and take a match. For the record, I had had a big disconnect

between what 100 pounds was going to feel like and how much I actually needed to lose. That's a whole difference in my mind. You know, I'm all jacked up on Mountain Day. I'm like, dude, I'm coming back we're going to do this man. And what I love about Triple H is he's very direct. He's serious, but he's sincere. You know what I mean? Like there's a real sincerity in his face. You see

the seriousness, but I think you've got to look at. His eyes are sincere. His face is serious. His eyes are sincere. And I've seen them eyes, they really softened. He shook my hand. He said, brother, you lose that way. You got home here. Why was 100 pounds the number? I guess in my mind, it was like a realistic shot. Like, I should be able

to lose 100 pounds in a year. I've already I've lost, it took me, I lost 50 or 60 pounds in this amount of time. Like, I was just like, I don't know what I was thinking, Chris. I was just doing screwball math. You know what I mean? I was just gassing myself into it. I was really just shooting my shot. You know what I'm saying?

Did you believe Triple H when he said, if you lose the weight, you've got a match? For sure. I could see it in his face, man. Like I said, he's got a serious face, but it's also very sincere. You know what I mean? So then is that what started the weight loss journey? It had started before that, but that is what gave me, it was the next goal. So this whole weight loss journey for me,

has been goal driven. And when I walked up, my first goal was to just walk a 5K. Like, Burt Kreischer and Tom Seguer, two of my friends, they're comedians. And they were doing their first 5K, and I was like,

you know what, dude, if I don't go walk this with them, I suck. And I started, I couldn't walk a mile at the time. I was 500-something pounds. What was the heaviest you ever were?

5-40. 5-40. Yeah, 5-40. And what are you now? I'm right at 285. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Congratulations.

Thank you, man. I feel really, really, really, really good about it too. Like, I feel great. You look great. Yeah, man. It's a totally different experience. But, uh, so I went and walked my first 5K in May.

You know? How'd that feel? It felt really, really good. And I was already kind of gassed up. So even before that, when I seen, when I came and sang at WrestleMania, night one when I did America the Beautiful, I seen Triple H again. He was like, you look like you're down a couple pounds. I'm like, I'm working, man, I'm working, you know, in case y'all ever need me.

And then, you know, it was like, I'd, I'd, I'd, that was, that was, I mean, that was a, we'd already started pushing that way. So the weight is, it was just one goal. And then when I left SummerSlam, I was like, all, I got a year to SummerSlam. And then just started turning up. So then when did it start turning into serious conversations about a match at SummerSlam? Before WrestleMania in Las Vegas, I'd already got down like 60 or 70 pounds. And I started looking at, it was a God thing, man.

I traveled like 300 days a year. And I traveled so hard that my management this year was very intentional about giving me more time off. So they had booked the entire month of July off, except for this one thing where I was going to host Kimmel for a couple days. And I was going to have the whole month off, and I was going to stay here and write my album,

because I haven't wrote it in a year. I've been just taking time off writing to just allow life to happen. And I started calling management in January and was like, hey, man, I think I'm going to be able to use July to wrestle the SummerSlam, like I told Triple. place I wanted to do. And as you can imagine, management was so against it. Nobody on my team was cheering for this to be a reality. You know, that's another fun thing to talk about this. It's like, I haven't got to talk about none of this. So forgive me if I'm just blabbing.

This is great. But nobody else has cared to hear about it. But I talked to management. They're just like, hey, man, you know, it's going to cost you a lot of money. You got time to write. You're always complaining about not having time with your family. Have you ran this about your wife. And I was like, yeah, I prayed about it. I talked to my wife and kids. You know, I was like, they'll come see me in Orlando. I was like, I want to move down there and just move to the PC for the month. This is January. And I'm like, and I want to rent two houses and I want to put a studio in one house and I'll write them while I'm icing down every day or see what my body can handle, you know, because I didn't know what I was going to be able to handle or not. And they were

like, look, you know, keep thinking about it. As we get closer in a year. And then as we get close to WrestleMania, I hit Neil and was like, hey man, if I'm going to do this at SummerSlam, like, what's up? He was like, can you do a ring check the night of WrestleMania? I was like, no problem. And I showed up and I was like, what time is the ring checked? He was like, can you wait until midnight? And I was like, yeah, no problem.

And I stayed there and watched. I was going to watch the whole show anyways. And at midnight, I walked into that room with Bruce Richard and a couple of the producers. And I proved to them I could take a bump for about an hour and a half. I mean, I don't want to say it was a rib, but they were definitely there to see if I had any bitch in me. Had you trained at any? I knew nothing.

You hadn't done anything. I'd done some stuff whenever I was a kid. We had a wrestling ring chains from DOA, had a spot in Laverne that we'd go to when I was like 10-11. It was so sick, dude. I'd go jump off the top rope on crash pads. But I hadn't really never properly trained at all. I knew nothing about it.

I understood it from being a fan, which is way disconnected from the physicality of it. Sure. We are all grossly underestimating how much all of that hurts. So, I mean, I knew I'd be good with the mic, and I knew I could get the storytelling side. You know what I mean? But I wasn't sure if I could do the physical side,

and that's what they were worried about, too. So who were you in the ring with taking those bumps and locking up and figuring out? Well, you don't really do a lot of locking up then. You do a lot of, like, just like flat snapbacking. Okay. You know what I mean? Like, you do a lot of ring running.

They show you how to run the ropes. because, like, dude, those ropes are cable. Oh, yeah. They're hard. Have you ever ran a rope? I trained, yeah. First time you hit him, you go, ah, immediately.

You bruise. Yeah. I don't care who you are. Charlotte Flair told me this. It was so cool. When she came back from her injury, because she caught me, like, you got to remember, I'm at the PC suffering.

So everybody's having to watch me just limp around. I'm clearly not able to hide the fact I'm hurt. And Charlotte gave me the best advice. She walked over and she said, baby, I'm going to tell you something. She said, when I came back from my injury, it bruised my back. She's like, I've wrestled.

my hole. She's like, it's just you're fine. And I was like, thank you. Because you're starting to have moments as a man. I've never done nothing as physical. So I'm like, dude, am I way weaker? Have I thought I was tough this whole time? And I'm just like mad, soft? And then they're like, no, dude, this is like, and they started telling me about how many athletes drop out. Athletes that are getting paid good money to train there every day. Sure. Athletes from college that are like, I just can't do this. It's harder than they thought. You know, so they kind of put me through that for like an hour and a half. You're just holding

the middle rope swinging back. And they're showing you how to tuck your in and not throw your head. You throw your head everywhere. You wake up there with a trainer? Yeah. You wake up the next day with a pulsating headache all the way down through your neck and spine and forehead. And they tell you exactly where the headache's going to be.

You know? And when I woke up the next morning and they said, tell us how you feel tomorrow the day after if this is what you want to do. And I text them two days later and said, I'm all in. And they were like, how sore? I was like pretty sore. You know what I was saying? I was like, pretty sore.

I was like, not sore enough to detour me. Yeah. I was like, well, that's step one. So then where to go from that? there. I said, we set up times to go to the PC and they gave me the window and they gave me choices. This is so inside baseball. They were like, hey man, we can send a ring to you and a couple of trainers a couple days a week. Or you can come down to the PC and train unlimitedly, but you'd have to live in Orlando. And Matt Bloom kind of runs some of the coaching up there, coach Matt Bloom. And, dude,

I just, I went and did another ring test with them down there because then I had to get approved by them that like Sean Michaels comes in, Matt Bloom, Coach Mawls, Brookside, like it's that moment. You know what I mean? Like, it's a real moment. Yeah. And you got to prove to them you can take the bumps to, you know, or you can at least know something. And I just had fell in love with Coach Bloom.

I fell in love with all of them. Like, just the love in that room of the PC just overwhelmed me. So I was like, I want to go to the PC and do it for sure, for sure. Did they tell you you needed to be there a certain amount of days? Well, no, no, they were cool with whatever. The biggest thing was, if I did it at home, I didn't get Coach Bloom or Coach Mawls. Like, I would get maybe one every now and the end. You know what I mean?

And I was like, no, I really want these guys pouring into me every day. So that's what really ultimately why I picked Orlando. So how long did you live in Orlando for? I lived down there for probably 40 days, 45 days. I trained five, six days a week during that time. You must have been so sore. We did two a days the last two weeks. I had bone bruises.

Like, I'm not going to, like, I'm not looking for. for sympathy on your YouTube channel here, or somebody's gonna make fun of me, maybe, but it was brutal. It was like, it taught me so much about me as a human. You know what I mean? Of, like, how brutal it really was. Is it the idea of like,

even though I think I can't do this, I can push through and, you know, there's success on the other side of it? Yeah, for sure. I think also it was like, I need, that's another reason I signed up for it was, the selfish side of it was, I want to learn about me.

Like, what can I take? Am I as capable of this as I think I am? How crazy in my mind? I, because I'll tell you another part of this story that's fun. When I watch Logan go through that table, I'm trying to think what table spot it was. I'd seen, I'd obviously seen the one where he did it to KSI. But right then, weird, and I didn't know Logan was going to be a part of this, but I had a vision of taking that spot. Like, clear as day.

And I was 500 pounds at the time. And I was like, I'm going to take that spot. Like, we're going to have the most viral moment. I'm going to make this spot famous for Logan. You know what I mean? Like, you know, like in my heart, I felt that way. So we started training. So when I went in there, I went in there, that was like a North Star for me.

I was like, yo, especially whenever it started coming together who the opponents, how the matches were going to line up. And it was Logan. I was like, this is like, this weird things I pray about in my backyard are happening, right? Like, I'm going to take the table spot. You know what I mean? At what point in your training, did you maybe turn the corner? and go, okay, I'm starting to get this.

The last couple days. Here's the worst part. When I wrestle again, it's going to be, I know why Bad Bunny did it. When you wrestle. When I will wrestle again for sure. Because I know why Bad Bunny did it now. He was my hero in this scenario. Like, I watched his matches every night before I went to sleep.

When I would go home and ice my arms, just to kind of gauge, because I was like, if I can just do half as good as Bad Bunny did his first match, I might get a little love. The problem is we don't think about Bad Bunny's first match. It's true. We think about this absolute clinic of a banger that was backlash. That entrance that he had. I don't want to talk about.

So it's like watching that overwhelmed. Sure. But when you would watch his first match where him and Damien were tag partners with the MIS, it started becoming way more of a realistic goal for me. Yeah. You know what I mean? Because I was like, okay, what are my moments in this thing? It's a great point.

Nobody remembers that match. He did a Canadian Destroyer in that match. A Canadian Destroyer on the outside. out of the ring. With John Morrison. It was his big moment. That was his big moment in the top rope crossbody.

Yeah. You know what I mean? Was like his two big moments in that. He only took, and not dissing, but like in a, he only took a couple of snapback bumps in the whole match. It's true.

He just sold like a clinic. I mean, he sold. He raised the bar so hot. He's the reason I signed up. Bad Bunny was the first celebrity I ever watched Do It that didn't disgust me a little bit. You know what I mean?

I know exactly what you mean. We don't have to name names, but there were a lot of people, especially during that raw general manager, guest general manager era, raw guest host era where you're like, that person doesn't even know anything about wrestling. Oh, dude.

They're just here. That's what we talked about off camera too. It's not only do they not know about wrestling, that's why when they were like, do you want to do a jelly roll song? I was like, no. When they asked me, because you know, they asked, they're like, hey, what are you promoting?

Is it the tour? What's the next? You know, like, what do you want to promote here? I was like, I booked this around a time I have nothing to promote on purpose. As a fan, I'm disgusted. When these guys come in the wrong. ring and do a whack move they halfway learned in the back two seconds ago just to grab a microphone

and go watch my new show on NBC. You know what I'm saying? It's just so pisses me off. You know, I was like, I don't want to talk about nothing jelly rolly. So what was your goal in doing the match? Well, I knew one, it was a three part thing, personal. It was very personal to me. Like a lifelong dream selfishly, Chris, it's hard to admit it this honestly. But I'm an honest guy. Like it was a chance of a lifetime that I thought I had to do. And I had to do it. And you grow up watching it like I did and dreaming of it. And then add the component that I came from being so morbidly obese.

Can you put clips on this? Sure. I know you can do it on your Patreon. But there's a moment where I fall down when I choke slam, Austin Theory. And we do the five knuckle shuffle that I fall down. And I am struggling. I'm so fat. I'm struggling to get back up, that the Miz and our truth come over and help.

And I have the Miz on this arm and I have Our Truth under my other arm while that arm's holding a rope. I was so fat that the SummerSlam before Logan Paul jumped through me on a table. I was so fat one year before that it took two grown men and a steel cable rope to get me up from one move down. And one year later, I came back and took a suplex. Man. Two snapback bumps. chops. I mean, I took bumps, bumps. You know what I mean? Like, that is all a part of the story for me. It was like proving that I could do that. Like, that being a North Star for me. Two, wrestling's so cool right now.

Why is it not being explored in pop culture? That was like frustrating me a little. You know what I mean? And when it did make pop culture, it was always for the wrong headlines because a celebrity involved didn't commit or whatever the case. may have been. You know what I mean? So I was like, dude, there's a chance we could actually bleed this thing like back into the streets like wrestling used to be. Like, we might be able to blur the lines. We were having conversations early of like how Drew's disgusted by me being there, how real that can feel or not feel. You know what I mean? Like Logan and me really this feeling tense. Also, like, can we take the storyline to Kimmel? Can we take it to ESPN's get up? Can we take it to like pop culture, like, I thought I could bring that to the table a little bit. You know what I mean?

It was like a real big part of it too was like almost like wanting to be one of the guys blowing the trumpet for like, yo, y'all are missing one of the greatest shows in the world, right? You know what I mean? And then I think the third part was I wanted to see if it was something I could do. And if I could do it and was able to do it, would I be able to do it again? You know what I'm saying? Frankly?

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My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Clevenberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Time's ticking. I think you can feel the intensity. All the guys are wanting to really take their claim, and they want to be on that World Cup roster. There's no doubt about it. Hosting the World Cup on the home soil comes with its pressures, but we just, really excited just as the people are.

The U.S. Soccer Podcast, presented by Hencoe. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. And this wasn't just a match at SummerSlam. There was so much buildup to it. So, like, let's talk about some of that. It kind of begins here in Nashville with that Friday night Smackdown. You come out, you're singing your song, you're performing, and then Logan Paul interrupts this.

Inside Baseball, Easter Egg, and me and Logan started teasing it two weeks before that. Logan did a podcast with my friend Cambay. Brown, a country music guy. And he asked, Kane asked him about me in the, like, opening clip, you feel me? Yeah. And Logan just immediately dismisses me. You know what I mean? Like, and so we all took that clip and started. So we were already

like, I like that. Trying to, like, that was me and Logan's early ideas of like, how can we make sure this feels more personal out of the ring? So you're singing liar. And Logan Paul interrupts this incredible performance. Crash is my set in my city. Disgusting. I felt so bad for your gear. I did too. I was like,

oh, that's very expensive gear. First of all, it's not cheap gear. For the record, that actually was some of our gear. You know what I'm saying? There was definitely a couple of things that we intentionally were like, yo, don't touch that speaker and he still touched the amp. He did it maliciously, too. But at that point, he's just, you know, he's loaguing it out.

I'm like, yo, there's a thing happening everywhere. I'm like, if that motherfucker touches that one amp to the lift, it's going to cost me $1,200. So it begins there, and then it takes us into, is it Saturday night's main event, where you make an appearance there? Yep. You take a Claymore? Take a Claymore. What a big first bump to have to take on TV.

You should have seen a lot of claymores in this whole thing. I took so many Claymore's. I took more than Cody did, for sure. We get to Saturday night main event, Goldberg's retirement, Matt. Just electric night. That was. Oh, yeah, it's the next night right after the Smackdown. Yeah.

To me, that was the night that it came alive. You know what I mean? Like, that was the night that the storyline. And that was also the night that I realized that I could get over in the room. I expected to get over in the Nashville. I will say, bias. Legendary booze when Logan cut me off, though. I mean, it was insanely loud.

Yes. Could you hear him? Not at first. Because the booze were so loud. It was so deafening. But what I noticed in Atlanta was the cheers. Like, I really like the jelly roll cheers, like chance. Like, I was like, okay, I'm getting over in the room.

You know what I mean? Like, that was the first time I felt. When I had to make that decision, whether or not I was going to get involved or not, when I went in there with Logan, you know. And when I made that decision and I felt the room, it was a, it's, dude, you don't feel that when you sing as much. You know, like, because when you sing, you feel the emotion of the song. Yeah. You don't feel the emotion.

of the unknown happening in the room. Isn't it so interesting that the through line in both of these is storytelling? Yes. Right? It's what you do with the lyrics that you write and when you sing them. And that's what we see in the ring.

But two completely different ways to tell a story. I don't get to use my words hardly at all. You know what I mean? That was what was so fun about the challenge. Like for the whole match, which we'll get there, but telling that story was so important how we told that story. Yeah. So that then does, it takes us to Jimmy Kimmel.

So your guest hosting Jimmy Kimmel. And it ends up leading to you choke slamming Logan Paul through the desk. Yes. Dude, the Kimmel thing was dope because, think, Randy comes out first and we do a full segment. Just me and Randy, just talking about, you know, childhood stuff, cool stuff like that. And then Drew crashes.

And this was what was so fun to me was this was the moment I knew we were on to something big. Because we'd all talked about this backstage. I was like, I hope this crowd gets it. You know what I mean? Like, I hope they get it. Because the crowd has a big job to do in our storytelling in wrestling. You know what I mean? When you're telling a story in wrestling, they have a job.

And this is a Jimmy Kimmel audience, a live taping L.A. Hollywood Boulevard audience. You know what I mean? And they may not be wrestling fans. They wasn't. So inside. Before, I did what Kimmel did. I would go between guests, Kimmel walks up and does crowdwork.

Hey, where are you from? You know, just kind of makes conversation while they change the set over. And I'm doing the, doing the had the magic thing because we're having to change desks. And so I'm talking and I'm just like, all, first of all, before my friend comes out here, how many real wrestling fans are out here? Dog, you could have heard a mouse piss on cotton. You could have heard a fly fart. Not a soul in there, Chris was a wrestling fan. What are these references?

I'm telling you, dude, not a soul in there was a wrestling fan. So right then, I went back to the table and I was like, ooh, hope they get it. You know what I mean? And the moment Drew comes in, you could, the tone shift in the room felt like, it felt like 90s TV. When you didn't know what was happening on a sitcom like Jerry liked to ooh. So they immediately did that. And then by the time Logan comes, they, just boom. So right then I was like, if they got it, they're going to get it. We're going to get it. We're got. You know what I'm saying? Like if we got it across

of this room, it's going to be got. You know what I mean? And then you got Logan up and you slammed him through that desk. I truly believe that when they recap the 2020s, I told Logan this, that will make it. That little clip, that might be the only thing me and him do this whole decade that makes a whole decade recap. But there will at least be that one. One little moment that'll probably go. So then that takes us to SummerSlam. You want to hear funny inside baseball store? Please. They wanted, they should, you know, like,

the rules were they had to make a stuntman do this to, like, practice the table thing. Okay. So this stuntman's over there never took a bump in his life. So he's like, how do I go through this table again? I'm like, up, tuck your chin, flat on your back, slap attack the mat. I'm trying to teach a stuntman how to take a bump.

And I'm watching Shane Helm and Sean Ciddleman. over there losing their mind. And you know, Shane Helm, I don't know if you've met Shane. I love Shane. Oh, he is the dude, bro. Love Shane. Shane Helm is the guy. Hurricane.

Hurricane is going, just let the wrestlers wrestle. Like when Shane's up, he just can't contain himself. He's just shaking. He's like, just let the wrestle do the wrestling. Finally, Sean's like, I'll just, can I do it, please? So finally, I've slammed Sean. You know, Sean walked right now. We don't even talk.

I just, Sean goes straight up, straight. It was just such a unique, like, understanding nothing like understanding nothing like that had ever happened, ever at Jimmy Kimmel or late-night TV. You know what I mean? Was how big of a deal that was. I don't like, I'm more proud of that than probably anything else we did for this match because it truly was a pop culture moment. Yeah. You know what I mean? Absolutely. And that's something that even if you weren't a wrestling fan, it got out into the cultural zeitgeist. People were aware of it. That's what I meant. It was pop culture. Like, it went so far beyond wrestling culture. You know what I mean? Like so many people seen.

that moment. And I was excited because I thought Randy Orton, the fact Randy Orton hadn't been on late-night TV in 21 years, like, almost, yes, almost made me mad. I'm like, this dude is a legend. You know what I mean? Like, this dude is like, you know, just be throwing rose pedals at this guy.

Well, we know. Yeah. So the day of SummerSlam, what's going through your mind all day? I'll tell you what's going through my stomach. I'm going through it. Man, to say I'm thinking about anything else, but the match is a lot. Like, all you're thinking about is the match. You know what I mean?

Like beat for beat for beat. Yeah. That's all your thing. I walked into Logan's dressing room 30 times. We'd go, hey, man, just hear me out. And then I would just run the match through to him. And he just smiled and be like, I remember my first match too, bro. Like, not in a mean way, like in a cool way, you know.

Shane, I'd make Shane come to my dressing room every 20 minutes. But I just want to make sure this is this, right? He's like, yeah, you get, bro. Shane McMahon? No, no, no. I love Shane too, though. Talking about one of them. Talking about underrated, great wrestler. Oh, Shane Helms.

Do, yeah, but talking about Hurricane. Sure, and he was the producer in the match, right? Yes, sir. So I was thinking you would have come out to one of your songs. Makes sense, right? Your jelly roll. Why not pick one of the songs from anything you've recorded? Came out to a Toby Keith song.

What was the reason behind that? Dude, first, Toby loved wrestling. Remember, he had us had some in-ring involvement back in the day. Yeah, he was, did some early stuff with TNA. Exactly. Yeah. Toby's always been a fan of just that kind of culture. And it was important not to do a jelly roll song.

Like we talked about earlier in the pod, I didn't want to be, I wasn't here to sell jelly roll product at all. Like it was important for this not to be like a, oh, this is what he was here for a moment. You know what I mean? Like, I was here for the match. And I was just thinking about great wrestling stuff.

I was like, I need something catchy. And I knew I needed it to come out the first time I cut Logan off in Cleveland. So the whole time I'm flying to Cleveland that night, I'm like, I got to come up with a song. And I just wanted to do Who's Your Daddy by Toby Keith. I love the song. And it just felt right that. You know I got it.

So come and get it. Who's your daddy? And I think it needs to be something memorable. And like now you let me do that a few more times. You'll hear it. You'll instantly. You know what I got it. What a great way to come in.

And I call, I call Neil and I'm like, hey man, I want to do Toby Keith. Who's your daddy? He's like, you walk out in two hours. I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. the song, he's like, I'm not going to get that cleared in two hours. I was like, no, Neil, we'll get it cleared. He's like, you're going to get this cleared from a label in his estate in the next two hours. I was like, for sure.

Does you so confident? One, the Toby Keith family are awesome. Like his son, Steele, his sister, Toby's daughter, like, these are salt of the earth people. Like, do anything. Like, the kind of people you want to pull up behind. you if you got a tire broke on the side of road. You got a flat tire, pray one of the Keith family pulled up behind me. So I was like, and I knew that they would get it.

And they had helped me with an American Idol thing. One of my kids at the end, I say my kids, because I loved him. I mentor to the kids on American Idol this year. They're my babies. And he wanted to sing a Toby Key song. And initially they wouldn't clear it, you know, because they're very protective of Toby's estate. Sure. They don't want to like over-exposed to, like, they're very, very strategic in his legacy.

And a side note, if you ever go to Tulsa, swing by the OK Kids Corral, OKC, anywhere in the Oklahoma City area, Oklahoma area. But they give housing to kids that are getting cancer therapy. Wow. It's really, really cool. So I just knew that, you know, they'd love it. But the cool thing was not only did they clear it in two hours with the fastest song ever cleared in WWE history, they cleared it all the way through. You know, they were cool with it. You know, I probably used that song seven times throughout the course of this, six times throughout course of this.

and every time. You got a sign every time. Wow. Every time. Clear it every time. Then when you came out, you sang a little bit of Randy's song. Mm-hmm.

That was cool. What a moment that was. You know, Paul Heyman, inside, I'm giving you all the real stuff here. That was Paul Heyman. I was cutting my promo in front of Paul Hamon.

And I was like, and then I'll say something like, you know, but y'all are wrong if y'all think I came here alone. And then, you know, it'll be like, I hear voices in my head. And I just said that to Paul.

And like, when Paul gets, excited, dude, nothing will make you happy. He's like, it's like watching a kid get excited. Paul went, that's it. That is it. You know how animated Paul is. He's like, that's what you do. I was like, yeah, that's it. Right? Paul, he's like, no, no, no, not the promo. Everybody does the alone thing. That sucks. But the singing thing after the alone thing, that's different. Pretty good Paul Hayman. Was that? Is that a pretty good Paul Haynes? You know what I'm saying? And I was like, he was so real. And I was like, you're right. And he grabs me again for I turn around.

He looks at me so serious and he goes, jelly. You're the, you, nobody else can do that. You can. So I was like, got you. I was like, make sure they don't hit it then. Make sure I sing anything. You know, because this is happening right as I'm walking out. I'm reading Paul my promo one last time to make sure that,

because I didn't really have the promo memorized. I kind of freest out half the promo that night. It was just one of those things. You know what I'm saying? I wasn't as ready as I could have been, frankly. So what was the main story you wanted to tell in the ring? The, well, I had, the story I wanted to tell in the ring was, one, I don't belong here. It was important to tell that part of the story.

I think a lot of celebrities don't come in and do that properly. You know what I mean? Yeah. You know, like, I wanted to make sure there was a real moment of like, especially when Drew walked. You know what I mean? Like, I wanted to always show that Logan was better than me, but I wanted to make sure that that was clearly in a different class than this grown man that's been wrestling his whole life. And it was important, but then it was important to show the story

of the story of jelly roll of the like overcoming adversity. My favorite movie ever is Cool Running. What a movie. It's a great movie, dude. And it's like, it shows that sometimes you can do everything right, but the sled will break. You know what I mean?

Was like, I did everything I could write. And that's the last part I wanted to tell the story. It's like, I did everything I could, y'all. But the sled broke, man. Like, I didn't, there was no way I was going to beat these wrestlers. I thought for sure you were going to win. That's what typically happens when a celebrity comes into WWE.

Yeah, I fought that immediately. One of the first things I fought was like, yo, man, I don't want to go out. And was that the original plan? Was it to have you win? Yeah, yeah, it was originally Baby Faces Up. So the day of, I'd been dropping it in Shane's here the whole time. I'm like, Shane, I want to lose this match. And he was finally like, brother, you have to take that up with them.

You know, and I was like, cool. So I came down and me and Triple H talked about it right there at the ring that day. I said, you know what I'm coming to talk about? He said, let me, I want to hear it. and I gave it to him and he was like, all right, all right. What was the pitch? It was an easy pitch. I was just like, it took three things.

One, it's the right thing to do. We'll start at core. Like, let's just start at core values here. No celebrity has any business coming in and bidding a wrestler on their first ring without some extreme circumstance. You know what I mean? Like, if Randy comes out and double RKO's everybody while I'm out and puts me on top of somebody, you know what I mean? But, like, you know what I mean?

But two, I can always come back. Like, I don't think any other celebrity ever really cared enough to think full angle through. You know what I mean? Was like, if I lose this, like, I love Logan. That's my friend in real life. But every time he's in that ring now, he's got a wonder if at some point he's going to hear, you know I got it. So come and get it.

You know what I'm saying? He's got to wonder about that a little bit. You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, Drew too. If I really owe one of them, it's Drew. You know, so that was part two of it was like, I also was like smart enough to be like, yo, I want to angle in. And I was like, and I don't want to be remembered as a story.

celebrity who did the thing. And uh, Triple H stopped me. This will probably be an unreal because it was so gangster. He said, I will tell you this though. He said, Floyd wanted to lose the big show. That's super. I don't know if I should even be sharing that, but he told me that and I thought that was cool. So I love the story because like, I love the story that you guys are telling on the ring because it's very clear that like you don't belong, right?

Like that's the story that's being told there. But then when you did start getting some offense in, you surprised a lot of people. Yeah, yeah, that was the goal. Yeah, that was the goal. Yeah, that was a go. It was cool. We knew that if I took, we knew that we could show a little something early to try to get people in.

Can I tell you how great Shane and Sean are as producers? They were telling me they were like, look, by the time that you get to this spot in the match where Randy comes back in, I mean, Drew comes back in and kind of throws you around again, he's going to hit Randy with a cheap shot. And that's going to finally be the moment. Two or three times before that moment,

going to get really close to just like losing their mind about Randy getting in the ring, but they're going to start the Randy chant right then. And he was like, that'll be the hot tag. And I remember thinking, you know, how can you be so certain the timing of that? You know what I mean? And I'm not bullshit, dude. As soon as Drew goes out that ring. Andy, I was like, and in my mind I'm going, that what we're doing next.

That's the next spot. It's the hot tag. He's coming in and perfect. And in my mind, I'm like laying there, you know, acting like I can't get to the corner, but I'm really thinking, fuck, Shane, you're so good. You know what I'm saying? I was like, did you expect the jelly, jelly roll? No, but it was so good, dude.

It's the first thing Logan said when I came backstage and Drew, they were like, you got over, dude. Yeah. It was like, especially in the room, because I want to remind people watching at home, they're not, when you're actually in the room, you're not dissecting, you're, you're living in it. You know what I mean? And like, that's where you can tell if something's actually working.

Because they're not hearing commentary. They're not seeing the story from multiple angles. They're seeing it from their seat and what's on that screen. And you are selling them an entire story in silence. All you're hearing is the booms.

Dooms. Ah, ooh, you know what I mean? Like, it's crazy when you're in the rooms. That's, please, every wrestling thing, try to make you. your way to a live show if you've never been, you know? I didn't expect that.

And also what I didn't expect was whenever they were carrying me out and I did the turnaround. Like, I thought I'd get a pop, but I didn't think I'd get like the pop. You know what I mean? It was like, that was the moment for me to. You had a black hole slam. Dude!

Abyss gave it to me, by the way. Yeah? He's the one who came. He blessed it with me from day one. He's like, you know, I did it forever. He was like, because he produced my Smackdown segment. And he was like, dude, I did it forever.

You should do it. It's the original boss man slam. And I love the big bad boss man anyway. So I was like, dude, no way. He's like, big guys look like rock stars doing it. He's like, trust me, dude. I was like, thank you. It looks so badass.

It was cool, man. Yeah. So when you're setting up for Logan Paul to frog splash you through the announce table, it's going through your mind. Because you can't practice that spot. No, no, no, dude. Thank you for bringing that up.

I practiced everything but that. So it's the real, it's the scariest part of the night. It's also the moment you know that's going to go. Because like me and Logan had extensively been like, look, man, this, like, if there was ever a time for you to jump out of the gym,

and I know you jump as crazy as you can every time, but if there was ever a time, like, this should make every headline in the world. Like, we knew we had that kind of a moment if we did it right. And, um,

I do remember, the hardest part was I don't know if I should get this inside but I got onto the table wrong which everybody talked about because I had to slip back and did the worst job selling my slip back but equally I was scared because of where my back was sitting at that moment

I'd never been through it and I didn't know where this thing was going to break so like I had just a genuine self-preservation like fuck what everybody thinks this is scary as fuck you know what I'm saying but then I looked up and when Logan took the two bottles I just remember thinking

I'll never, I'll talk about this on my deathbed. Like, I'll tell this story of what's happening right here in this moment till I die. You know what I'm saying? I don't know.

How many other things in my life I'll think are cool enough to talk about until it's all over? But I will, for sure, sit right here and think about this moment, dude, and he comes and he hits me and all I hear is

the clear sound of every bit of his air. coming out of them. Like a... Like that. And I'm like, oh shit. So as soon as I land, I cheat over immediately towards Logan real fast and cover my mouth. And I'm just like, you're okay, bro.

Like, I was worried. Like, I heard him, dog. Like, he ate... I don't think he hit the table, Chris. I think he hit all jelly roll, dog. I think he's been used to jumping on people that are like half my width. You know what I'm saying? So I don't think he fully...

Because he couldn't practice for it neither. You can't put a jelly. Ellie roll size doll up. You know what I'm saying? Like, you're just having to kind of guess. You know what I'm saying? And he went, and then I roll back over, and I'm laying there. And I'm hurt, of course.

I mean, because you don't hit that spot and not hurt a little bit. You hurt a lot the next day, but even in the moment. And I just remember looking up and seeing Fat Joe. And that's my friend. And Drusky was standing up behind him. And their faces were concerned. And right then I was like, I was like, I just got to sell it.

I was like, dude, no lie. I spent the next two minutes selling to just Fat Joe. Nobody else. I don't know how much of it was on camera, but I was just selling because I was like, if I can get Fat Joe to believe this, it's getting there. And then I think people in the arena,

people in the stadium didn't know if you were actually heard or not. Because everyone came over and they were attentive to you and then they put you up and they're starting to walk you to the back. And I think there were a lot of people going, well, that's what happens when a celebrity tries to wrestle. That's it. And I walked by my wife. And I remember looking at her and I just, I was just, I was just, I just said, I just wanted to finish.

And then I watched her face change. I was like, oh, she thinks I'm hurt too. So right then I was like, this might be getting over. You worked your wife? I worked. I worked my wife, dude. I was like straight up, dude. I worked Joe.

I worked Drewskiy. I was working, dog. I was like, I got to sell it. Because I knew that my moment of if I really was going to get over was going to be when I turned a ring. And then you came back into the ring. What a moment that was. Man, what a moment, dude.

Got fired up and just got to run that sequence. To be able to forever, I thank you to Drew McIntyre for putting me over in that moment, too. He didn't have to take anything from me. You know what I mean? Like, he didn't have to work. He didn't have to take a bump from jelly roll a couple of times. He took a couple of big jelly roll bumps for me.

Taking that boss man slam. Sexy. I'll think about it. You know what I mean? The Logan moment. The choke slam moment, which was a cool callback because when we first started

with Logan, he told me I wasn't a wrestler when he was beating up on me the very first minute of the match. So the last minute of the match, I got to choke him and look him and I and go, you're not a wrestler neither, Logan. You know what I'm?

And it was like, it was a full circle for me. Did you do everything in that match that you were supposed to do? Yeah. Yeah, I took a couple of things that we called on the spot that wasn't even in the match.

Like what? A couple of chops. Like when Logan crawled the post and did the character moment, like this was all stuff we were just chatting on there. Oh, man. That's cool. That's what I really wanted to. I was like,

I hope it gets flowy enough that we're talking. You know what I mean? That like, not talking like, but like in a way that we're getting to call stuff. Yeah. And Drew hit me with that first chop and it landed and I felt it and I covered. And right then I was like, one more, Drew, one more. Drew was like, all right.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah. When you got to the back. Because, like, I wanted to take a Drew chop. That was important to me, too. You know what I'm saying? Like, I had all these little weird things I wanted to do as a fan. You know what I'm saying?

I was like, I got to take a chop. When you got to the back, what was the feeling? A dude, electric. I mean, everybody was like, they were so excited. Randy was a hero through this whole situation. I mean, we really became buddies, dude. We talked pretty frequently now. We send each other videos or he kind of,

who inspired me to start lifting. I hired that trainer you just met because of Randy Orton. You hadn't been doing any lifting. I hadn't lifted at all. I'd only done cardio. Wow. Yeah, and I told Randy that. And Randy was like, yo, bro, next step. How had you lost the weight to this point?

Cardio and eating. Just, what would, like, you just cleaned up your diet? Yeah, very clean, though, man. Like, cleaning it up as one would be almost a grossly under way of expressing. So what are we talking about? Plants and plants and pros. Oh, I don't eat processed food. I cut processed foods out two years ago.

Now, I'm not like a super weirdo about it. like Thanksgiving, I'll have dressing. You know what I mean? Like, for sure, I'm going to eat some dressing on Thanksgiving. But I'll eat biscuits and gravy on Christmas morning. You know what I mean? Cornbread on New Year's Day with black I peas because these are family traditions from the South.

Yeah. But other than that, it's like I said, that's my three days a year that I'll eat processed foods. So take me through the other 362 days of the year. What are you eating? Lots of plants, lots of proteins, fish, lots of chicken, lots of turkey. Stay away from red meat.

I eat red meat like twice a month and make sure I get my iron and get what I need from it, but it just doesn't do right about my body. Big fan of red meat for everybody who's eating, I think it's great. Carves, I keep like complex carbs

the best I can. Oat, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, sometimes some balsmadi rice, but ultimately just lots of vegetables. And then just lots of walking, running? Lots of walking, running, walk, run,

boxing, basketball, wrestling, fun stuff like that. Just all that stuff that's like really cardio-driven. You know what I'm? mean, but I learned a lot in the wrestling process of just how weak I was. And I told Randy that. It's how we had to talk. How do you feel about all this?

I said, man, I actually feel good with the moods, but I just, I don't feel, I know that I, I know I need some strength, though. What's the goal with your weight loss? What are you looking to get to? I don't know if I have a goal yet. I just, I don't, I know I feel a lot better now, but like my knees hurt, my hips hurt from all the running. I want to get small enough where I can do the physical stuff I want to do in life and not

feel like torture for it. When we walked into this room, there's all these plaques and photos on the wall of you when you were a lot heavier. Who do you see when you see that guy? Man, I see a guy that was telling the world he had addressed his mental health and hadn't. That's deep. Yeah. But I see a guy who was telling the world that I was prioritizing my mental health, but my physical health was showing the polar opposite. My physical right now is a direct reflection of what's happening between my mind.

of me saying the things I used to eat, of me taking the time to process the emotions I used to eat, expressing them and accepting them and making peace with them. You know what I mean? Or accepting them for what they are. I had to start treating food as I treated every other drug addiction in my life. Like getting off cocaine and codeine wasn't easy for me initially. It's something that took a lot of time, a lot of 12-stepping.

You know what I mean? A lot of sponsoring and programming to figure it out, realizing that I can't do it casually like some of my friends. I got friends right now that can go out and have a couple of shots and do a line of Coke and just go have a great night. And it'll turn into a 10-day bender for me at best. You know what I mean? I have that same kind of problem with food with sugar. You know, like I don't, I don't, me and my wife tell this story together now a lot.

When I first married her, I'll never forget this. She, she ordered a candy bar one night from the store. And this woman ate half of the candy bar and set the other half on the kitchen counter. And we had just started dating. So I obviously wasn't going to eat the candy bowl. But I thought about it every time I walked by the candy bar. And by like the second day, I was like, hey, do you want me to throw this candy bar away? You know what I mean?

What I was really good now is, can I eat the rest of the candy bar? But I realized I don't have that kind of wine. You know what I mean? Like, I eat every candy bar in this house that they're here. If you had a 20 pack of candy bars here and I found them, I would eat them all at one point. Now I've done a lot more work. Now I can walk into a room full of candy and be like, whatever. You know what I mean?

But initially I had to like really figure it out. What was the moment where you realized that you needed to make a change? I don't know what exactly it was. I think I just, I started feeling like death. And I mean that in the most like literal way you could say, Chris. Like you felt like you were going to die? Yeah, man.

Like I would lay in, I do, I was 500 something. I had to sleep in a certain position because if I rolled one way, I'd choke on my spit. You know what I mean? Like, it was like really getting bad. Like it was affecting every part of my life, not just some part. Like being big affects most part, but I mean, there was not one part of my life that wasn't affected.

Yeah, it was just horrible. And I was just so sick of it. And I knew it was a food problem. And I knew that my schedule was so stressful traveling 300 days a year. I just had to do it. I had to really make some crazy changes. So I went and did like 30 days of pretty intensive therapy about it just to really figure out the root of it. completely changed my eating habits,

hired a full-time nutritionist. Then he ended up moving out here and cooking too. So now he not only does the plan and he'll whip it for me too. So now it's like it's just gotten really easy. And I quit making a thing of food. Like I don't do dinner meetings. I don't do lunch meetings. I don't live in that space.

There's so many things. And I don't think people think in this way. So many things that we do in our life are around food. Let's go have lunch together. Let's go have dinner together. Let's have this family meal together. And it's just not, and it's also just not what I want in my family anyways. You know, me and my wife have been talking about having a baby.

And it's like, I don't want to raise a kid that are 80% of our memories around kitchen tables. I think kitchen tables are a great place to make a memory. But I think so are the mountains. And so is the late. You know what I mean? And so it was just walking around the neighborhood and walking through the farm and going and playing with the donkeys. You know what I mean? Like, I think that's the stuff.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So how do you feel now? I feel great, man. I mean, I'm hurt. Like, my hip hurts, my knees hurt. Like, I'm in pain. From what? I think it's just from running really hard and just from carrying the weight.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah. For so many years. And then, like, as I'm getting in more shape, I'm really starting to push myself. As I'm starting to get in shape, I'm really starting to push myself, too. So it's like, I'm just kind of beating myself up. But you feel all right? Feel great, man.

Mentally, I feel better than I've ever felt physically. We were talking about this, cardiovascular-wise, breathing, respiratory-wise? Oh, dude, I don't even feel like the same guy. You know what I mean? like I don't look at a flight of steps with absolute fear. I used to look at steps like they were like absolute demons. Like it was a devil incarnate. Like anything but the step, no.

And then I'd have to ask questions like, how many flights? And then is there a place we can regroup before we walk into people? Because the worst thing was having to walk up three flights of steps right into a room. You know, and I'm sounding like a French bulldog. You know what I'm saying? For the first 20 minutes I'm in there? Yeah. It was horrible.

You know what I mean? I think about it, dude. My wife, God, if you think about how absolute miserable our sex life was because of me the last half decade, just, you know what I'm saying, what she had to deal with. If you lose enough weight, you're going to have to change your name. No, dude. You're not a jelly roll anymore. No, I just get rid of the roll, baby. I always have a little jelly in me.

You know what I'm talking about? I always have a little jelly in me, Chris. What did it mean for you when you finally got to meet The Rock after chatting for, you know, the better part of a decade? dude it was like I almost cried when I hugged him just from all the

all he's done for me you know what I mean as a friend and just like I don't know if I've ever expressed this this way but dude

when he first discovered my music and sent me a message he was the biggest box office star in the world at the time and I was

a underground rapper from Antioch Tennessee with a hundred thousand YouTube to the crowders. You know what I mean?

And this dude just immediately started pouring in him. Like sending voice notes. Like not even just like messages on Instagram, like voice notes. Like so you know it's him. You know? It's like, hey, brother, man, just want you to know, man. I've spent some time in Nashville, gave me his Nashville history. And he was like, I understand you.

The world I understand you. Be patient with them. They might not get it now, but they'll get it. You're speaking for a group of people that's unspoken for. This dude's saying stuff to me like this a decade. you know what I mean like I like the concept that I would go on to have the success I've had is like so far-fetched in my mind at that time but like he just seen something in me that he thought he just needed the poor love into wow and then from then every big I always say this openly every big moment I had in my career for the longest time one of the first two messages I would get would either be the rock or Joe right and these are two of the biggest you know what I mean yeah like to show you similar spirits of like just, like when I made my grand old opery debut,

I think I posted Grand Ole Opry invite video and then like eight minutes later, I had a DM from Duane. DJ was like, yo, the grand old Opry, that's my dream, you're living my dream. Like, he's joking with me. You know, I'm like, dude, you're the biggest star in the world. You know what I mean?

You've lived every one of my dreams, you know what I mean? Yeah. But he's gassing me up that I'm living his dream by singing it just like, what a sweet soul. So to meet him was like put all that, together, man, was just really, really sick. What did the Rock say after your SummerSlam match? Dude, killer.

Like, just all praises. Just, dude, you did it. Because I talked to him about it then. I was like, man, I think I want to get involved in a match. He's like, you're getting healthy enough. I was like, yeah, man. He's like, go shoot for it, brother. And he's just like, DJ's energy is how can I help?

Like, he's got that energy in life. Like, when anytime you get around him, it's automatically is process and then he's how can I help. So he immediately, I'm like, I'm like, I'm going to get in a match. and he stops, we're walking, and he stops and looks at him and go, how can I help? You know what I mean?

I'm like, no, no, I got it. I'm talking to triple light. Like, we're good. He's like, just let me not. You know what I mean? But like that instant like, that's his spirit in life, though. You know, Tops made a trading card of your,

have you seen this? It's cool. I'm on the top rope. Yeah, we got this here. I haven't seen one in person. Oh, you haven't seen one in person. No, no, this is it. Here you go.

So check this out. Dude. Look at this. Tops now. No way. This is so cool. Now. Dude, this is so good.

Isn't that so cool? Oh, I just got the choke slam. No way. Dude, this is so sick, Bubba. I'd seen it online, but I haven't actually got to see it yet. There's one in there for you. Oh, thank you, brother. You can keep one of those.

I love this, man. I hate that Logan whooped me and pinned me, but every picture is either him going through Kimmel's desk of this shot. Yeah. It's all right. There's an iconic picture of him and Drew standing over me while I'm just looking like a dead carcass. remembers that. Yo, I tell you a funny part of the story,

I didn't get, one thing I do want to correct, though, on the record is when I took, when I got that power slam off the rope for Logan, and I paused for a minute before I went for the pen, uh, that wasn't a pause because I knew Drew was coming to kick out. That was the first time in the match I'd hurt myself.

I had the opposite of what happened to Logan when he jumped on me, happened. Something about when I landed that power slam took all my breath. So I was like, and I just had to have a moment like, what are we doing next? Because I genuinely like it, I don't know. I think maybe we bounced at the same time

just hard enough that he bounced back into it. I don't think I had him tight enough to my tummy. I think I had him out. So when he came, he bounced back up into me, which was a me thing, obviously, amateur mistake. But yeah, man, that was a... Did you hear what Michael Cole called that move? The jelly to belly.

No way, the jelly. I love Michael Cole, dude. And did you hear what he called the Black Hole Slam? Uh-uh. The Black Roll Slam. No. I think he just came up with that in the spot, too. Michael Cole is the dude.

Isn't he the best? He's the dude, man. He's the best. Nah, he's the dude. Yeah, you can have one of those. Dude, thank you. Of course. I can't get over how cool this is.

Isn't that so cool? Yeah. What was even cooler was that, uh, Randy, let me hit the, with him that night. Right before we went out, I was like, can I? He was like, of course, bro. I was like, yes. Yeah, so you guys are both on the top rope. Yeah.

You're waiting for it. I'm just looking at it like a big kid. Randy just as cool as ever just throws it up. And then looks over at me like it's all good. He does it all cool. And I'm like, it's like the polar opposite. Are you when Randy now like bonded for life because of this? I think so, man.

I hope, I hope Randy feels the same way I feel about him. I feel like we're going to be brothers forever. Yeah. I like literally. Like I said, I hit him up as much as I can. Like he was, he was an angel through all that. He was the most patient. gave me the best advice.

Like, all three of them do with Rehanger. Everybody in that WWE sphere, like, I can do nothing but like praise them and thank them for how I got treated. I mean, all the way, dude, I mean, Stu Roddoll.

Stu, the cameraman? Dude, everybody treated me like. You know what I mean? Like, every corner, I when I went to clash in Paris, it felt like a family reunion. Like, I went into the men's locker room like I was wrestling that night. And like everybody was just glad to see me. It was like it touched my

soul. You have this real energy about you though, where you speak to people like you've known them your whole life. And I'm so grateful that you, you do that with me, you do that with everybody. Where does that come from for you? I think it's just just trying to be honest all the time. You know what I mean? Like it's just who I am. It's just nothing but love. Yeah, it's who I was in my neighborhood. It's like who I, this tracks back to who I was as a kid, I think. I've just, always been loving and just like, I'm blessed to be the baby. So I might grow up a little too loved almost. You know what I mean?

I had a bunch of big brothers that always, they picked on me, but they loved me. You know what I mean? They made sure I walked early. They made sure I talked early. You know what I mean? Like I had those kind of brothers and older sister that were like determined to love on me. So I just tried to do that. Are you able to be present enough with where you're at in your career now to look back

and go, this has been pretty cool. Not just the wrestling stuff, the music stuff as well. Oh, dude. In every way, Chris, I live, I can tell you everything I was thinking about during that match, but not limited to, I feel that about every show. You know what I mean? Like, I am, that's where I'm big about not having a phone. I don't carry a phone. My presence in moments is, I think, my superpower.

Like, I know, dude, that's another reason I did it. Let's be honest. Dude, that is a once in a generational story. Oh, yeah. multiple, that's a once in a multiple, like, maybe ever. There may never have another guy that went through as much of a dramatic transformation as I did to get in that ring. But it's not just the wrestling, it's all of it. It's all of it.

No, dude. Most musicians don't get to play in stadiums. For sure. How many did you play in with Post Malone in this tour? 27. Twenty-seven. Doing them again next year with him, hopefully. It's a, I mean, every, I was thinking about just this year alone.

You know what I mean? Of, like. Dude, you did a song with Bon Jovi. I did a song with Bon Jovi, dog. M&M. I was on Eminem's last album. I was on Little Wayne's last album. I was on Bon Jovi's last album. I was on the biggest Christian song of the year.

You know what I mean? I just won three Dove Awards. You know, like, this isn't bragging. This is just me showing you the presence of life. Please, yeah. The little moments. Like when I'm in my, I'm at the Saddle Dome in Calgary. And they come to my dressing room and go,

you're not going to believe this. Brett the hitman Hart's in there. And I go right now. They go right now. And I go spend two hours with Brett Hart, who is just the sweetest dude. You know what I mean? And we're recapping real wrestling stuff.

Like, I'm so present in all of the moments of like, post Malones last night in London. Like, whenever I got to pour that love into him, you know? I got to do something similar every night on tour. But, like, that's the presence. of like, I don't want to look back like I have so many friends

that had these moments and look back and go, I wish I was paying attention. And I know that I'm like flat in it. I hate to keep going back to the match, but there was a moment in my match talking about you be flat in it where right after I hit Drew

with the boss man slam, Logan was already posting in the corner. And how the wrestling comeback formula works is I've already got the crowd roll. I've already came in. I've already hit Loew. Logan. I've already hit Drew, I turn around. I got Logan coming off the top. I'm supposed to go straight over to Logan and keep the flow going, right? That's the pacing of how wrestling work.

I stopped. I looked up and I let that 60,000 person swell. And I'll never forget. It's the only time I think Shane gave me credit for something for real, for real, because Shane was like, hey man, don't do that. I was like, I'm going to do it, Shane. He's like, you might lose them. He's like, if they're already rolling from the combat. You know what I mean? He's like, trust me, I do this. I was like, but trust me, man, I need that moment for me. I need to just take one moment in that ring where it's not about selling a character

and just feel it. And that was that moment, dude, and that place fucking roared. So by the time I got back to Logan, I was so gassed up because I was like, oh, good, it didn't backfire. Because I wasn't sure. I was okay if I lost them, too, because I knew that I needed that moment. Like, because you're so making sure you're, you're doing the character, the match. You're making sure you're telling the story so much that I was like, I need one moment

where I can actually just look up and go here. You know what I'm saying? That was that moment. Yeah. Are you that present in every show that you do? Oh, yeah. Like you take a moment from every show. Every show.

Every show. Every show. I remember every face, every sign. I'm like super, super into that. It's, it's like, I think it's my. Why I love performance so much. I connect that deeply with it. Did you always think you'd be here?

No. No. Never. Never thought I'd be this big. Never. I didn't think it was going to get out of clubs. I thought, like, Tech Nine was one of my favorite underground rappers ever. And if I could have, I used to tell, I actually did a distribution deal with this company for a while.

Tech Nine and me have a couple of big songs together. And I used to tell this guy, Travis O'Gwen, one of my early mentors in the independent rap scene, I used to go, man, if I could just have, like, a third of the career tech. A fourth of the career techs having. Like, you know, that'll be crazy. My first Red Rock show was with Tech. And even then, I remember leaving Red Rocks and thinking, I don't think I'll ever headline.

Man, maybe next time I can be two or three, because I was one of three, it was me, rich, then Tech. And I was like, maybe next time I can be, it'll be somebody, me, then tech. You know what I mean? Like, that's just, I never dreamed it would get this big. What was the song that changed your career? Save me. Beyond the shadow of it down.

There was a lot of things leaning that way. Creature with Tech 9 went platinum and had a really big response. Bottle and Mary Jane. Like I had a bunch of songs that started really gaining steam. But something about Save Me just resonated in a way that I could have never predicted. And then what's been the song in the last, call it, three, four years that have just put it over the top? Man, this is where God's been so good to me, Chris, is that I think every song I put out this year, they've all been features. I haven't put out a jelly roll song yet.

But every one of them were on pace to be bigger than every song I've ever had. Wild. Bloodline with Alex Warren. Yeah. Where we talk about breaking generational curses. Is it almost 200 million on Spotify? I mean, it's already getting up there, like, save me at 400, I think. I mean, it's halfway there and saving me.

He's been out four years longer. Hard fought, hallelujah. Like, dude, these songs, this amen song with Shaboozy could end up being big. I'm not counting it out. You know what I mean? It's crazy, dude. It's like I'm, it's the coolest thing right now. I'm in the career spot where I know a lot of people came to my show to hear me,

sing save me, but they're excited to see me sing something they heard three months ago. We went to a gas station on our way here. Liar was playing in the gas station. Yes. Let's go. Then we drove by a billboard with your face on it for the Opry. Yes. Like, what world are we living in here?

It's amazing, right? Dude, when I'm associated with the Opry, like, I'm a face of the Opry is it doesn't get no cooler. Like, the craziest thing that I'm taking from this is you're saying, You couldn't even have dreamed this big. Yeah. And you're living it. Living it, dude. I dream bigger.

Like, dream bigger. Those are two powerful words. Yeah, dream bigger. Like, even, like, whatever you think your dream for this channel is, God might be looking at like, man, I wish he'd open his eyes. You know what I mean? Like, I think sometimes some of us think we're dreaming too big and we're actually dreaming so small, God can't actually open it up for us yet.

He's like, I can't believe for you. You know what I mean? And now I'm starting to dream crazy. What we talked about off camera, on camera that you're not going to put out, that's how I'm starting to dream. Like when I started looking at things different, when things started happening for me, and then I started realizing the power of projection, not manifestation or vision as much as just like projecting and being willing to work towards that projection.

Yeah, yeah. Of like, I want to lose enough weight that I can get in this ring next summer slam and not take two grown men to help me get up. That was my bare minimum. You know what I mean? Now you know what my next one is. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Like, you know, it's these, like, measurable goals. You know what I mean? They call them smart goals. Yes. You're familiar with this concept? S-M-A-R-T, each one stands for something. Yeah, like strategic, measurable, actionable, you know what I mean? So, like, these, like, y'all look this up.

It's a great system. But, like, setting smart goals now, like, realistic within what's in front of it. I'll give you a big one you can put out. This is an exclusive. I ran my first 5K two years where I walked it. I kind of light jogged one this year. I should put up my PR by Thanksgiving if my knee feels better, which would be my first time I run a 5K pillar of post,

which would get me ready for a 10K. A lot of my friends are ultra-marathon runners like Cam Haines. I hit Cam Haines and Ian Lario's my chef up last night. Literally, I texted him this last night, and I said two years from today, I want to run my first 50K with y'all. 50K is my goal. So I got to do a marathon first. There's obviously a lot of steps that have to come,

but I want to do an ultramarathon through the mountains, 50K. Oh my gosh. With Cam Haynes. That's one of my dreams right now. But equally, when I was 540 pounds, Cam used to tell me, this is back when I didn't believe in me. This is why I've changed. Cam Haynes used to go,

I'm going to get you up here on Piscop one day. It's a thousand feet elevation, straight up a mountain in Oregon. Cam Haines runs at 10,000 days and bloominet. And he was like, I'm going to get you on Piscuit with me. And I was like, whatever, Cam. And I walked Piscuit with him last. year. Now I walked it. It took me an hour. You know what I mean? But like I'm gonna run it with him next time.

Oh man. So like now when I text Cam and I'm like we're running a 50K Cam's like now we're cooking big guy. You know I love Cam though he's like he could probably do it next fall. I'm like that's ambitious. I was like we're gonna aim for 27 here cam. What's the moment that made you want to change everything from going to jail 40 times in the life that you were living? Was there a moment that made you want to change? Adulting parenting. Beautiful little girl man just becoming a father? Yeah, she was born when I was in jail. And getting that kind of news in there just reminded me. It really put a spotlight on how horrible of a human I was to myself. It was the first time, I probably first time I seen myself the way the world seemed.

You know what I mean? And that changed everything for me. I was like, man, I really am a really scummy human, you know? And I don't deserve to be responsible for a whole other human. And, you know, that was the first thing to change my life. was almost 18 years ago. I was in jail because that little girl had turned 18 in six months and graduate. Wow.

On her way to college. So that was the first thing. What came after that? I look at life like a linear footage of Godwinks. And it's rather or not, you pay attention to him. But he's always winking. He's sending something our way. Music, when I came home, I immediately had a friend who had a camera and worked at Best Buy and was like his name's Chad Arms.

I shout him out every interview I do about it. We don't talk much because I'm busy, but he knows I love him. You know what I mean? But he showed up with a camera. It was like, yo, rapping this thing. I'm putting on this thing called YouTube. You know, that was step one of like, right then, little Godwink started changing my life.

That would be the beginning of me building you. I'm back vlogging on YouTube again. I'm back really pouring my heart into YouTube again because I miss it. I miss like where I started at. Yeah. And that was the first one. And then, you know, music, writing songs, getting falling in love. And then Bunny meeting the right woman.

Like it was the first time I met a woman I wanted to like do right by And so marriage falling in love has changed everything The real answer Chris love every time it's ever been love It was love of a little girl It was love of my wife Losing the weight started becoming love for myself Starting to love myself for the first time But every other time something changed in my life

It was all triggered by love Isn't it amazing that you can pour your heart into these lyrics pour your heart into writing one of these songs and so personal to you and then when you release it or you're playing it live that thing that's so personal to you in your life can apply to somebody else's life. Feels even more personal to them.

You know what the crazy part is when I first started doing it I thought I was writing because nobody was seeing what I was seeing or feeling what I was feeling and I needed to express it like that kind of almost like nobody knows this pain feeling, you know?

And then the real beauty of it became, no, man, I felt like everybody feels. Everybody's had a rough day. Everybody's lost somebody they loved. Everybody's felt hopeless. I didn't realize that. I thought at the time early in my career, I thought I was the only person that felt way. And that's why I was writing, you know, it was my way of getting it out of me.

Then you start to see how many people it touches. That's when it gets cooked. You're like, oh, man, this ain't my story no more. I'm telling our story. Now it's deeper. I don't even write my story no more. Now I'm writing our story. I'm writing the story of the people.

know the people I love, what the feeling is, what I feel like somebody needs to talk about in pop culture. Because sometimes I write songs just because you're like, man, Winning Street when I wrote that song about sobriety, it wasn't to be niche, a niche or niche or whatever they say. It was to be more like, hey, man, I don't think people have ever talked about this or seen it from this light. I hope I can reframe it in a way that'll make somebody feel okay going to get help,

you know? So it's always trying to write with purpose. I grew up in a neighborhood I thought was so unique. I felt the need to be the person, the journalist of it. I was like, there's no way this kind of white trashy exist anywhere else but here. So, and I thought one day I was going to be famous because I was from such a unique area. And then I realized that it ended up working out for me because everybody's from Anniak to some degree. Everybody's got a dude, you know, like I to this really weird way represent somebody.

Everybody's known at some point in their life if you grew up any kind of middle or lower class. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't know, it's just what I thought was my, I thought it was my superpower because it was so special to me. But it was my superpower because I was just able to vocalize what was happening to us all. What's amazing, though, is even though you've been through all of this stuff, you still have a smile on your face. You are one of the most charismatic people I've ever met. And I've met a lot of charismatic people.

Thank you, but it's just nothing but like, you're just excited about life. Yeah, man. I am too, but I just, I love seeing it in somebody else. It's cool to be excited about, man. It's like, I love my kids, I love my wife. I love your show. I love that I'm doing this. I love that we're getting to sit here and just talk about wrestling.

And like life and like that you do this for a gig. Yeah, I can't believe. How fire is that? I can't believe it. You know what I mean? It's like you just get to travel and go hang out with pro UFC fighters and recording artists all in the same day and fly home and you'll tuck your kids in bed. That's the best. You know what I mean?

Like you'll literally be home in time tonight. to like see your babies go to sleep. It's amazing. I can't believe it's cool. What's not to be excited about? Oh, no. And anybody who's not excited, I encourage you to start finding it.

Yeah. It's out there for you somewhere. And that's why gratitude is such a huge thing for me. That's why I end every interview with like the gratitude question because like, there is good in every day. And you may not see it sometimes. But when you can see someone who is successful going, man,

I'm hoping that someone watching this or listening to this can go, you know what, it's been a rough day. Things aren't going my way, but I do have my health. For sure. I can be grateful for that. I'm going to be grateful for my family. I love that. Even with the weight loss stuff for me,

it was another reason I did it walking at first was we have a treadmill. My wife has a gym. You came through. We're almost feeling this out there. I didn't use it at first because I was like, I don't want to pin myself to having a crutch of like, I need a gym. I need a gym.

like a mental component for me was I'm going to tie my shoes and I'm going to go outside and walk and go for a walk anywhere I can go for a walk anywhere yeah there's no excuse and then the first day it rained my wife's got the video footage of it

the first day I had to make a big decision in my life and I said walking in the rain and that's what I did forever I just now went back to I just now felt comfortable enough in my journey to go to the treadmill because now I'm like I don't need to prove nothing to myself and go out here in a hundred degree heat you know what I mean like I just got my treadmill

But initially it was like just that gratitude of like, man, I want to go outside and feel the air. Like be grateful that I can walk outside in the open air. You know what I mean? That I live in such a beautiful part of the countryside that I get to walk down the street and just look over and see rolling hills and like neighbors all wave at me. And then it became fun because my neighbors started, I run through this neighborhood next to my neighbor next to my house. And this neighborhood would start cheering for me. They'd never stop me. They'd just come outside and go, yeah, we see you.

You know what I mean? I look back now like, dude, they've been watching, they've watched me run off 200 and something pounds. Wow. You know, but do you ever do like inventories at night? What do you mean? So this is, have you ever been to AA? No.

It's a really cool concept in AA. They do gratitudes and they do inventory. Okay. So you start every morning with gratitudes, right? It's like early morning anchoring. Like you just immediately get into your gratitude bag. Start with grateful. But you end your day with an inventory.

Grateful to end it with a gratitude, but you end it with sitting down and going, all right, every interaction I had today, where did I win and where did I? And you spend 20 or 30 minutes actually, like, really, this is what changed my personality a lot as far as, because, like, how I interact with people. Because when you start really, at first,

it's mountains of stuff, obviously. And then it starts getting cool. You start getting better because you start thinking about it during the day. Like, do I want to think about how I dealt with this later? I'd rather deal with it right now. You know what I mean? And you look back and be like, ah, you know what, man? my kid came downstairs and she poked her head in and said hi and I was on the phone.

I should have just hung up that call and chased her out the door and spent five minutes with her. It could be something that small. Yeah. But like I make it a point now to go into my inventory and go, what could I have done to be just a little bit better though? And it's not just family members. This is like the cashier at the grocery store. I could have been, you know, maybe I didn't look them in the eye. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Like I just grabbed my receipt and ran. That's just not my character style. And, you know, like I can make peace with it immediate. You know what I mean? I inventory at that night, do better. I love that. I'm going to start doing that. I want to give you a fun one here.

If you were to make a Survivor Series team of other country musicians. Oh, this is fun. Who are the other four in your team? Oh, I get four, right? So it's you plus four. Yeah, it's me plus four. Okay, I'm going to take, oh. I always, we're going to start with the two obvious, which is Morgan and Kaye.

Okay. Kane Brown is in stupid shape, like ridiculous shape, and Morgan Wallin is scrappy. like as a human. You know what I'm saying? And these are both my friends. So I'm taking them for sure. I guess now we got to start getting real strategic. Yeah, you got two left.

Yeah, I got two left. And I definitely, definitely, we need a big man. Because you've got to assume the MFTs are going to be there. Right? You know what I'm saying? You're not the big man anymore. Yeah, I'm not the big man. So we need like a big, big man.

I don't know if I'm going, I might go, oh, this is so good because I'm thinking to two people right now. I'm thinking Parker McCollum and Riley Green are two just full-blown athletes. You know what I mean?

But I can't take them both because I need to save that last spot for another scrappy guy. So I think I'll I'm going to go Riley. Parker, I love you. I'm going to go Riley on this one just because, you know,

Robilly's, I don't know, he's from Alabama. Parker's from Texas. It's so tough because my last, you know what, I'm going to go Riley because the Texas woman takes Cody Johnson. Cody Johnson's not, he'll be our shorter guy, but he's, that dude rides Bulls. You know what I'm saying? Like, I just, you know what I mean? Like, I don't think anybody in the WWE, none of the MFTs want any of that smoke with Cody Johnson.

So yeah, final answer, Cody Johnson, Riley Green, Morgan Wall and Kane Brown. What a team. That's my squad. What a team. That's my squad. Honorable mention Post Malone. If anybody's injured, Post is coming in because Post really, really, really wants to settle his dispute with Seth.

Oh. You think Post Malone's going to get in the ring? I don't know if he'll get in the ring, but I can tell you this. He took that personal. Posts don't take much personal. But Posts text me ten times, but, yo, fuck that Seth Rolls. He's been, Post is the nicest dude ever, by the way.

Post is the nicest, never say nothing bad about anybody guy ever. Post Malone, Seth Rollins. Yeah, yeah. This could be a match. Dude, listen, man, Post kind of wanted, dude. When Seth was talking shit to him that night, Post was like, dude, you're being mean to me? Fuck you, man. Me of all people?

Post is truly, people were like, Jelly, Roe, you're the nicest guy ever. I was like, you haven't met Post Malone. I was like, I'm kind of an asshole sometimes. Post Malone, always a nice guy. I appreciate you, man. Can we talk about Seth Rang for two seconds? Let's do it. What do you make of this?

Ooh. I think he's actually injured this time. But this is what I love, Jelly. This is what I love about this. era of wrestling. Everyone says, ah, K-Fabe's dead. No, K-Fabe has evolved. And we saw that at SummerSlam with the crutches being tossed off to the side by Seth Rollins. I was backstage losing my mind. Unbelievable. I think that, I mean, look, Seth leaves it all in the rank every single time he's in there. And I think that this feels like a legit injury. And if he's not, if he's working

us, amazing. But if this is a real injury, I hope that he takes his time to heal up. What about with the B&B security. Bron and Braun? Yeah. Why'd he turn on him? Or why they turn on him? Well, let's talk about this for two, say. Okay. And obviously, behind camera, I'm a Paul Hamer. But this opened up so much.

Right? So if Seth Rollins is actually injured, the World Heavyweight Championship will be vacant. I think this fast-tracked Bronbreaker to either be the world champion or be a number one contender and get it within the next maybe 12 months or so. But look, we all know Bronbreaker.

Do you think Brock was a one in the? No. He's going to. What if Brock? Brock is a Heyman. And they did plant that seed. Do you want to talk about one of the, they planted this seed?

They planted that seed with Paul Heyman introducing Brock for the John Cena match. The bronze were there? The bronze were there. Remember when he's seen him backstage and he said, we should talk? Yeah. The two bronze were standing there.

No, Brock Lezner. is not one and done. Could you imagine the faction that would be if Brock Lesnar came back in team with Braun and Braun. Or maybe they're fighting over Paul Heyman in some sort of way and we get Brock Lesnar

versus Braun Breaker at WrestleMania. No. That feels possible. But just I love it because anytime Paul Heyman has options, wrestling's at its best. Oh, for sure. Because like anytime you don't know where Paul

could go because at any moment, Paul could turn on them a ride with Seth, You'll always have the back thing going with seeing punk in the deep dark corner. Helman Roman and Helman Brock are there. So as soon as you put them away, you've just now added a whole other group of people that now I'm solely watching what Paul Heyman does because he'll tip us off the next. Because I'm still remembering the night that Paul Heyman was talking to, was it Jay or Roman? And he was like, when he started the Oracle thing, he said, I know these things. Your family ain't your family.

I know these things. I see these things. You remember that? Yes. Like, I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it. Like, he's planting, like, that's another thing I love when people are like long-forms, long, long-story-telling's dead.

I'm like, y'all aren't watching it. No. You don't care about the Easter eggs no more. Like, he said this, this was three, four months ago. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, and I don't know what it's going to turn into, but I remember watching then.

You know what I'm saying? Like, you know. But I love that we can be this excited about wrestling because there were some long stretches, jelly. I know, dude. And you're familiar with them where it was, it was rough. Oh.

And it is so good again. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's so good, Chris. I just want to touch on that because I'm watching all the angles and I'm like, and I love it because I'm in the company but not in the company. You know what I mean? And I have no clue.

Like, I have no clue. You're a future WWE Hall of Fame now. Dude, God. I'm serious. I tell you what I know for sure. Celebrity wing, although there hasn't been inductee in the celebrity wing in a while. No, I should be it. But I want to run it back.

I want to do one more. I know why Bad Bunny had to do backlash now. because I know he walked out of that ring that night knowing how much more he could give. You want a singles match this time? I don't know. I don't really know what I want. I just know that I need to,

and I promise y'all, I'm not going to keep darkening y'all's door. But one, a dream scenario is, I'd like to get involved for, like, a run. I'd like to wrestle every Friday. You know what I mean? Like, I'd like to get involved. Okay.

For, like, a six to nine-month run. But I definitely got to do one more, though, man, just because I, it's like anything, else in life. You did it once and you think you were prepared, but you wasn't. Yeah. And you leave there. All I could think about is everything I know I could have done a little better. You know what I mean? And like, I just started getting really comfortable bump in the week we went out there. Like, I'm so much more comfortable taking full-blown clothes lines and stuff

now. Like, I got so much more I can do. And I got to make Santi oil up. If I'm, if it's on me, you know what I'm saying? If I'm the last of getting Santi-oiled up, dude, I got to do my part. Well, brother, thank you. What a great conversation. I'm How grateful am I to be able to chat wrestling with you? Thank you, bro. That was fun. So I'm going to ask you the question that I ask everybody at the end. Gratitude.

What are three things that you're grateful for right now, Jelly? Right now, I'm grateful for my family and marriage. My marriage is strengthening every day, and it's all God. I'm thankful for my faith, growing in it every day, slowly but surely. I'm still a cussing Christian, but I still get close. to God every day, man. And I'm really thankful for that. And I'm thankful that I'm growing in grace with him

and that I don't feel like I have to be over-preachy about it. Like, I think I can just kind of let what God's doing shine through me and I'm really grateful for that, that I don't feel this like need to appease a certain group of people with my actions. Like, I know what me and God got going. Yeah. I'm grateful for that.

And I am, ooh, this is probably the best one. I am grateful that my music has helped people all the way in Australia to the point I'm getting to go there and sing. Like, I'm so, like, I never would have thought. Like, I'm getting messages from Australians

that are like, yo, everything from losing friends, the overdoses, to, you know, the stuff we struggle with here, they're like, you have no clue how much this music means to us here. And to go somewhere that's 16 hours from here and sell out, you know, Rob LaVar Arena,

where they, you know, like, I'll do two nights. Where was Crown Jewel at? Perth. Yeah, I'll do two nights at that arena, I'm hurt. You know what I mean? Like, I'll do two nights at every arena in Australia and like five festivals. It's like crazy.

You know what I mean? Like, I'm just grateful that the music, I didn't think my music was going to make it out of South Nashville. You know what I'm saying? Like, I thought maybe it'd make it to East Nashville at best. Yeah. And the fact that it somehow has made it all the way to the other side of the world, man. I'm grateful for that. That's amazing.

I'm grateful for you. Grateful for you making the trip, dude. Grateful for the invitation. And that, your music, making it to the other. side of the planet is just a tribute to who you are at your core. Thank you, brother. So, thank you, man. Thank you, my brother. Love you, man. We'll talk again after the next one. Can I wait? We'll recap. Oh, yeah, last hit, last hit. Uh, uh, Paul, Walter.

Paul Walter. Houser, yeah, love you, brother. Love you, brother. Love to see you sometime. Come see me. You know where I'm at, though. That's the only problem. You got to come to where I am, baby. Come on. Love you, brother. Thank you, dude. Thank you, brother. Peace. 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.