Insight with Chris Van Vliet - John Morrison on returning to WWE, Austin Aries no sell at Bound for Glory, The Miz, Taya Valkyrie

Episode Date: September 17, 2020

John Morrison sits down with Chris Van Vliet at his home in Los Angeles, CA to talk about his new movie "Speed of Time". He also discusses his return to WWE after 8 years, his crazy ladder match at WrestleMania 36, his favorite WrestleMania moment ever, what he has learned from being friends with The Miz, his thoughts on being the most successful Tough Enough winner ever, how he stays in shape at age 40, his wife Taya Valkyrie and much more!   Please subscribe and support the show by supporting our sponsors!INDEED - Get a $75 credit to boost your job post by going to http://indeed.com/BlueWire   BETONLINE - Get a new sign up bonus by using the promo code BLUEWIRE at http://betonline.ag/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's Chrysalmania, brother. That's a great question. Look at you, man. With the powerful questions. Woo! This is the Chris Van Vleecho. Chris Van Vlead show. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris

Van. Welcome to. or welcome back to the Chris Van Vleet Show. This episode is brought to you by Indeed and Bet Online. And guys, we did this interview in person. I got to tell you, as much as I've enjoyed the convenience of being able to do these interviews since March, using the wonderful technology that we have in 2020,

nothing beats being able to look at someone in the eye when you're speaking to them. John Morrison lives about 10 minutes away from me, so it was so nice of him to invite me over to his house to sit down and catch up on just a whole bunch of stuff. I mean, our last interview was in February 2018, so obviously, you know, a lot's changed since then. For starters, he lives in a different house

than the one that we did the interview in last time. You might remember that one. Remember he had a wrestling ring in his backyard? And if you haven't seen that video, I encourage you to watch this. John actually taught me some wrestling moves in his backyard, including a springboard, which he admitted here that he thought I would like fall on my face and embarrass myself. But I hit it. I can't believe I hit it.

But I hit a springboard in John Morrison's backyard. I can't believe that's a real sentence that I just said. But yeah. And so look, a lot's changed since then. He's also now married to Taya Val. They were only engaged the last time. We did that interview. He was working for Lucha Underground at that time.

Since then, he's been with Impact Wrestling. And now he's back home in WWE. He also has a new movie called Speed of Time, which is just fantastic. And it's so much fun. Nick Nemeth, aka Dolph Ziegler, has a starring role. I guess a supporting role in this film. So before we get to it, before we get to the interview, which is so much fun, thank you so much for these reviews.

now up to 1173 on this road to 2,000 reviews. And I'll be reading one out on every single episode. And for those of you keeping scored home, this is the third episode this week. Jesse Bombardier titles this podcast, Excellence. Love the podcast, incredible questions and guests. I cried during the Ben Wine of you, by the way. Yeah. And that was some serious stuff.

I watched the YouTube version to see your sexy face. Hmm. I listen to the audio version while at work. Makes my workday go by faster. Thank you, Chris. Can't wait to see and hear more. Well, there's more in the way, Jesse. Thank you so much for that.

And thank you for watching both on YouTube and listening to the podcast. I just wrapped up a fascinating interview, by the way, with Chris Hemsworth stunt double. So you'll be hearing that one coming up soon. his name is Bobby Holland Hanton. And just blown away by the stories that he has. He's doubled Chris Hemsworth now for like 12 movies. So yeah, it's just amazing. So you'll be seeing that in the next couple weeks.

Make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss out on that. So I'm very, I was just so excited to, one, do an interview in person, but two, just catch up with John Morrison. It was so great to see him make his WWE return in January. and it's so interesting to hear how much of a different place he's in now, both personally and professionally compared to his first run in WWE.

We talk about why he decided to leave then, why now was the right time to come back. We also talk about his love for movies, not just starring in them or watching them, but he's also written movies, produce movies. He's done the fight choreography on movies like this new one, speed of time.

and if you heard my interview with Austin Ares, you heard Austin Aries side of what happened during Austin and John's now infamous Bound for Glory match. Well, you're going to hear John's side of it here. So this is great stuff. So good. So give it up for John Morrison. Well, thank you.

Thank you for inviting me into your home. Well, the good thing about inviting you over here means that I didn't have to drive anywhere. There's really no extra convenience. No LA traffic right now, though. It's coming back. Have you noticed that? A little bit.

A little bit. A little bit. Yeah, look, I would expect nothing else than to be surrounded by workout and fighting equipment in your home. It's, you know, the quarantine, it's the pandemic. You have to have a pretty sweet home gym. This is, and we're only seeing just a little bit of it. And that actually is a floor model of the exercise equipment placed by my house.

Because when I got to Big Five originally, they were sold out of dumbbells. And I was shocked. I was like, the general public. beat me to the dumbbells? How did that happen? So you're like, well, if I can't get dumbbells, I'll just buy this giant thing here. Yeah, and that turned out to be like the best move.

You know what I mean? Because you can do pretty much everything if you got a pull-up bar. I mean, to look like you're not, you know, you're no slouch here. This is just self-tanner. A lot of blood, blood, sweating, Tanner. So if I put a whole bunch of Tanner on,

I'll look like this. Next time we do an interview. Uh-huh. The day before, we'll do like a whole, like, a TV wrestling prep on you. Shave, Tanner, the whole deal. Diuretics, everything. I don't know if anybody wants to see that, but I don't know if people want to see it or not. I just think it's dandelion root. Oh, man. Come on. Amher hour? It's the organic stuff. You need the chemicals. Jeez, I'm sorry. Actually, I don't know what's in there. Dandelion root is in there.

That's one of the things, right? The natural diuretic type stuff you get from GNC. Yeah, right. So I watched your film yesterday, speed of time, and I loved it. Thank you. I'm really excited about the speed of time. I'm excited for people to check it out. I feel like it's the strongest thing that I've done. And basically the cool thing about, I mean, obviously wrestling is you get this instant feedback from the crowd. But in film is getting the reaction from people who watch what you did. And that's happening on Thursday with speed of time. And I'm really excited. Well, the thing is with a match, it kind of happens. then, you know, you have another match a few days later, a week later, whatever. With a film, this thing, like, lives on forever. It's eternal. Yeah. It's true. The amount of matches that you can have in a year, especially if you're on a full-time WWE road schedule pre-lockdown is, I mean, 200, 250 even. Yeah. So if you think about it, like, the sheer number of that

every night is crazy. You just leave a big footprint out there. versus a project like the speed of time, which, I mean, we did it pretty quickly, but it's going to take at least a year. And I think from the time we started writing speed of time till now, now it's been a year and a half. But it's still relatively fast. So the concept here is this is a time travel movie. Yep. You're traveling back in time to help your other version of yourself. Yes.

So Johnny Killfire is my name from the future. And the gist of it is I go back in time to stop myself from creating a pizza app that destroys the space time continuum. The space time continuum gets destroyed and these time borgs show up and wreak havoc on the earth. So the only responsible thing to do is go back in time and prevent myself young me from doing that. But young you really isn't that much younger than you. And I love the joke in the movie. Stem cells. That's how you look young.

Stem cells. Everyone knows stem cells. And ironically, so William Stribling and Russ Nicol, both very talented writers that I've been working with for a long time, wrote this. And they didn't know that I'd bend to stem cells, like get stem cells in Columbia and actually a few weeks ago again in Baltimore at a different clinic. Wow. I'm a stem cell guy. I love those things. I call them stemmies. But in the context of the movie, yeah, it's just a joke. Everyone in the future looks young. What are you, what part of your body you're getting stem cells?

When I went to Columbia, I got everything. Like I got both knees, ankle, shoulders, elbow, two vertebrate in my back, two in my neck. And I felt the biggest results from my joints. So in Baltimore, I went and I got my knees and my elbow done. I don't know if you can see this elbow, but I dislocated it about two years ago. And it's making a lot of noise. Hold on. Let me put my mic to it when you do that.

It's like two dry spines. You know what I mean? Just rubbing them together. Like there's a little bag of nuts and bolts in there, you know? But in all seriousness, it's hard to believe you sitting next to me right now that you're 40 years old. You look great. Very immature also. Well, that helps.

Yeah, that helps. Legitimately, I think it does help. I think, I mean, immature has got negative connotations because whatever. But if you think young, usually you stay young. I think that's a good way to put it. Well, also, and you have eight-pack abs, you know, stem cells too. The stem cells, of course. But eight-pack abs since you were probably, were you born with abs?

You know, some of the guys in the locker room were actually just asking me the same thing. And maybe not born with them, but I've had a six-pack since middle school. But I was also like a bean pole. I was the skinniest kid. My freshman year on the wrestling team, I wrestled at, 103 pounds. So that means sure I had some little abs, but I had like bone arms and bone legs. I had like no meat. And how tall were you? When I started, I must have been 5'3. I wrestle at almost the exact same size, my freshman year of high school. I was 5-2 and 102 pounds.

Yeah. See? And I remember going to a wrestling meet and they didn't have enough people that were as small as me. So I had to wrestle up a weight class and I got destroyed. I remember like, I got so many good wrestling memories, but there was one 64 team invitational in particular where I made it all the way to the finals because I was pretty good. But also, like, most of the time, the 103 pound guy is a freshman, a younger guy. And when I got to the finals, the guy that I was wrestling was clearly a senior. And he was just like a, it was like I was a boy and here's like a full grown man. And he's got like a mustache and he had like all these tats. And I remember looking up at my parents and they were both like, get him, John.

And I looked at this guy and I was like, oh, no, this is not going to go well. And did it not go well? No, it did not go well. I think he was just about to like beat me technically, which means 15 points or more. Yeah. But instead he decided to pin me. Oh, no, nice guy. Yeah.

It did not go well. So with the concept of speed of time here, what's your favorite time travel film? Oh, that's a tricky question. I got to go with Bill and Ted's the original, right? Well, what's your favorite time travel film? My favorite time travel film is the greatest film of all time, back to the future. Ooh, that's a good one too. Right?

But there's a ton of great time travel films. Back to the future. I forgot about that. Damn it. How could you forget about Back to the future? I mean, I know the movie, but you just, you know, when you get a question and... Yeah. I've just got Bill and Ted's on my mind because I watched the new one recently.

Oh, what did you think of it? It wasn't as good as the original. Well, I mean... It held my attention, though. Yeah. It was a cool scene in Keanu and Bill S. Preston Esquire, that guy. Although you're watching movies with a completely different lens now. Now that you've made movies as an actor, now that you've made movies as a writer and a producer,

you put a movie on now and you're kind of like, oh, interesting choice. Taya brings that up all the time and says that I ruined movies for her. Because I do. Like, I'll call stuff out. I'll be like, oh, like, the boom just, like, dipped into the top of the shot there for a second. Or, like, that's a weird shadow of the camera guy. Oh, look at the reflection. You can see something there or that line right there.

That's all ADR. They didn't get that. There's no way. It's not clean. But I point that stuff out. And that's like the negative stuff that I pick on. But the positive is when you think about the storytelling and how they're doing it, it's a much more productive and interesting way to watch movies. And I do that too.

Which of your films are you most proud of? Boone, for sure. Boone the Bounty Hunter. I mean, that's the only one that I did the whole process for. Like, wrote, produced, action design. And I can't say I directed or edited it, but I was involved in the post process. And I acted it, you know?

Yeah, no. And that one was a laborer of love. And it felt like, I mean, basically, that was the reason that I left WWE, not specifically to make Boone the bounty hunter, but to have creative autonomy. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. And we were talking about that before we even started. Like the idea that, hey, I've got this cool idea. Like, I want to do it the way I want. Yeah. And not many people get to do that. It is difficult, too. Was, did Boone turn out the way you wanted to turn out? Um, well, I'm a perfectionist.

So nothing that ever works out the way that I wanted to. But close. Yeah. Especially given Oh, God, we could talk about Boone forever. Given, like, what Boone ended up being, yes. I mean, the first scripts of Boone was written as maybe a $10 million action movie. And I tried to raise money for that $10 million action movie and quickly realized that I was going to give a first-time pro wrestler filmmaker $10 million to make Boone. So as the drafts went, it progressively became cheaper and cheaper. while maintaining the character integrity.

And it ended up, I mean, I think it ended up being perfect. Like, it's, it's hard to, like, look back and say like this, that. Like, I could have changed a few things here and there. And I could have. But the best thing for me to do is just look at it and use all those lessons for the next thing. And actually, and speed of time is a great example of, like, an evolution. That's the next thing. And you did, like, you did like some fight coordination on this film.

Like, your resume with the film stuff is now stacked. Well, it's fun. I like doing this stuff. So Boone integrates pro wrestling, parkour, and some traditional stunt choreo. And speed of time is very similar because my fortees are parkour and pro wrestling. And so speed of time is pro wrestling, parkour, some traditional stunt choreo and laser guns. Yeah, there are laser guns. So say in Boone, I hit a Canadian destroyer.

off a wall run onto a guy. And it was the first thing we hit in the speed of time. Canadian Destroyer, but then when the guy pops up like, pop, blah, pop, laser gun, shoot him right in the head. And I think to me that's the interesting thing about having the creative autonomy to pitch these crazy ideas in the action design. Yeah. So where can people see speed of time?

Oh, speed of time on September 17th. This Thursday will be released internationally. on a platform called Dust. They have a YouTube channel, a Facebook page, and an IGTV gimmick, all of which will be streaming the speed of time. And if you do watch the speed of time, please comment, let me know what you think.

Tag me. Tag me. Tag me. Tag people. You know, tell your friends, family, and frenemies to do the same. And tag Dolph Ziegler. It's a nice surprise that out of nowhere, yeah, Dolf Ziegler shows up. Dove Ziegler is from the future also.

And, you know, in the future, I guess, in the speed of time world, when you take stem cells, you come back ripped with long hair. That's the secret. Yeah, I think that's what happens. We were joking about it on set so much. Like, not only does stem cells, like, keep you young and fixed stuff, but in speed of time, they also give you, like, kind of 80s glam rock hair. You guys both look great, though. Well, I feel like a billion pesos. I guess that's a lot of money still.

I guess it's pretty good. Someone's like doing the calculation right now. Yeah. That's a solid amount of money. That's a good. Yeah. Yeah. It's good to see you back in WWA.

Like you were gone for a long time. You were gone for almost nine years. Yeah. Did you ever think you'd be back? When I first left, I thought that I was going to be back in a year or two. I thought I was going to leave WWE. I hadn't thought of Boone the Bounty Hunter, but I left because I wanted to make a movie. And not just be in a movie, but I'm a film major.

I went to UC Davis. That's what I studied in school. So I wanted to do the whole process, write, produce, star, work on the action design. And when I left, I thought that was going to take a year, maybe two. Nope. That's not how movies. How long work I can tell. I mean, the whole process from like coming up with the idea to like,

release was five years. Wow. Like that, I mean, it took a really long time. And I could probably do it a lot faster now. Sure. I could avoid some of the pitfalls. But, um, so I had always intended to go back to WWE. And, um, as the years went by, I kept in touch. I never, uh, I was never on bad terms with anyone. And I remember whenever they're in L.A. I'd visit. And I want to say like 2016, 17, had a conversation with Carrano and he said, we'd love to have you back. Although if you'd sign again with Lucha Underground, it's probably not going to happen.

Oh. And I signed again with Lucha. Was that? So it wasn't like a screw you, WB thing. It was just like, take the sure thing. Well, it wasn't even a sure thing.

It was just, I was still not finished with Post on Boone. I was in the midst of things. I had a lot of things going. Lucha Underground, I liked. I always feel like that's an underrated show that a lot of people missed out on. Everyone would agree with that for sure. And they made me a really, really nice offer.

Luch Underground did. And I took it in a nervous way because, you know, you always want to finish where you start, or for me in wrestling, especially if you start at WWE. Like you want to finish at the highest level. And I'd always seen having my final run at WWE. So when I hit like Vince Up and Krono up about coming back, I was really excited when they seemed interested.

I put it that way. I could just hit Vince up. Yeah. What's up, Vince? I wasn't very casual about it. I got to say I was a little bit nervous. But that's what I did. Wow.

So is this your final run then? I mean, yeah. You still look. Look, amazing, though. By final run, let me, like, explain what a run is. I mean, I'm still on like a, what, like a 17-year run from when I started. So this, like, like, final run could mean, like, five years, 10 years, 15 years, who knows? 17.

17 years. Yeah. That's what I mean. Like, whatever, whatever happens, I'd like to finish out at WWE. Yeah. It's been so great. Hopefully in front of people. Fans.

Hopefully that's soon. At least you got to debut in front of fans. Yeah. I as a fan, I wanted to see you debut at the Rumble. I thought that that would have made a lot of sense. I don't know. I'm laughing right now because I debuted in a backstage vignette with Ms. And if you really think about it, my debut was, hey, is, is Ms. there?

Here's John Morrison. Nope, Ms. isn't talking right now. Thanks, see you. And close the door. So basically, my debut was telling the, interviewer that Ms. was unavailable. And I walked after that aired and they were following me with cameras for The Chronicle and saw Ziegler, like, we kind of like crossed in the hallway. And he just goes like, hey, sweet debut, bro. And we high fives, both like super sarcastically.

And they put that in the Chronicle. I was like, dude, that's my favorite part of the Chronicle. Hey, sweet debut, bro. Thanks, man. Yeah. I'm back. What was the plan that you had in mind? Um, it's tough to have a plan because I've found with WWE, if you have a plan and it's like, I want to wrestle this person and do these things, that's not like how it works really. Your plan should be mostly all about you, your character. How do you interact with everybody else on the roster? So I had been and still have been working on that. Like, what do you, what would I do in the ring against Otis, obviously?

I've done that a lot. Roman against Seth, against Ray, against Buddy Murphy, against Daniel Bryan, Riddle. Like that, like, who am I to those people? Like, what is, who is John Morrison? That's the, that's the key to figuring out where you fit into the business. And the answer is different for everybody. Is the John Morrison in 2020 that much different than the John Morrison in 2011 when you left? Definitely. Yeah. I mean, The guy that I am now, I know who I am a lot more now. And I know where my sweet spot is. I didn't really understand it in 2011.

And a lot of it is maturity. I mean, a lot of it's like acting classes, reading acting books, like some kind of in-depth character study type things. And then it comes down to, I mean, we can do a whole two-hour thing about this. I think about this nonstop. figuring out what it is about you that people want to see. Like you specifically, like, why do people watch Chris? Like, what, like, what do you have?

Like, what's your thing? Like, if you come out and you tried to act like Batista and be like this tough muscle guy, it's not authentic. No one's buying that. Yeah. Same for me. Yeah. Like, I can't come out like a, like Brock and be like the, this behemoth guy because it doesn't,

it's not how people perceive me. So figuring out how you're perceived. and then picking the part of you that's the most interesting, I sometimes call it shiny. And living in that moment in that energy all the time is the key. And it's a lot, it's very difficult. I can say that and I can know that, but it doesn't mean I can do it. But it sounds like you've grown as John Morrison, the performer,

and also John Hennigan, the man. Yeah. And also, I realized, that those two things in all of entertainment are a lot more important than I first realized. Like who, like, for example, Chris, the man is very important. Sure. Because you've got your on-screen, like, host, like, personality, your real personality. I'm guessing that probably pretty similar.

Similar-ish. I feel like when the camera gets turned on, turn it up. You mean, you have to. Right. Because otherwise it gets flat. communicating to people. Yeah. But I guess to your point, being more self-aware or knowing the more all-encompassing version

of yourself after a bunch of authentic introspection gives you a fuller picture of you or gives me a fuller picture of me. Yeah. And then when you take that full picture, you go to some sort of entertainment venue, wrestling, and say like, okay, this is the real me. Now, what parts of this are going to fit in there? And for acting, sometimes it's very little. Wrestling, it's a lot more, and you're playing that character for a lot longer.

Yeah. But, man, like, like I said, this is the kind of stuff that, like I kick around my head, 24-7, nonstop. It's like communication, it's star quality, that it factor being shiny, like figuring that out. And I guess if anyone really does figure it out, they end up becoming like The Rock or Stone Colds or Jason Momoa or Chris Hemsworth or whoever like we're talking about. That's somebody who's authentically matching up the shiniest parts of themselves with the way they're perceived and delivering. I find this just fascinating. So where did this process begin for you of finding the shiniest parts of yourself? I mean, really wrestling, right?

And I wasn't self-aware enough to, like, go into this type of introspective, like, state, you know, when I first started. When I first started at OVW, I remember thinking, like, if I told a joke or, like, did something keyish to, like, Capitelli, for example, like, if we did a push spot where I pushed somebody over and they fell in their back, like, I would almost break character and laugh. for two reasons. One, because I thought it was funny, but two, because I was so excited that I was in the ring and I did something that works.

Yeah. So that, like, completely used to, like, pull me out of things. Like, I would be in the ring and The Undertaker's music hits or Jeff Hardy's music hits. And, like, sometimes I would just be, like, in the ring.

And it's almost, like, subconscious. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. And I guess because I was such a fan of the business and entertainment and I like having fun, that type of stuff still affects me, but it has to be just contained because that distorts your power, basically, your energy or whoever you are in the moment that takes away from it, unless it's a conscious choice. It sounds like you couldn't have got to this place if you hadn't left WWA.

Completely right. You did so many amazing things after that. That's completely right. Because a lot of the stuff that I'm talking about is like acting type stuff, acting character work. And it's frustrating. And one thing, man, there's a couple things. Actually, more than a couple things. There's so many things.

But what I was going to say is people watch entertainment to feel something. It's the simplest way that you can describe it. Actually, it's a Vince McMahon quote. Television is a feeling. He said that. That's what it is. That's what people watch. That's what people watch entertainment. It doesn't mean it has to be tragic or dramatic or comedic or anything. It's just any feeling, right? Yeah. In order to be on camera and communicate those feelings, you have to be vulnerable, raw, uncomfortable, unbalanced sometimes.

Yeah. And it's hard. It's hard to walk around and carry all these, like, crazy emotions that feel like they're tearing you apart. But if you can do that and you can contain that energy, that's star quality. That's what it is. I think there's a lot of people, especially in the acting world, that when they're starting out, they go, I just feel so stupid doing this. Right.

That's not, I wouldn't do that. And it's like, no, of course you wouldn't do that. You're not doing that. The character you're playing is doing that. Completely. Exactly. Like, in Glorious Bastards, for example, is,

are the Nazis in that? Would they really kill Jewish people? No. No, it's a movie. Yeah. Clearly. And thank God. It's, that's just a movie. But in wrestling, same thing. Would John Morrison, like,

look over? see a guy eating a ham and say like, hey, you fat turd cutter, why don't you eat a salad? I forgot about turd cutter. It's one of my favorite words. But that's the, I mean, that's in character, right? I mean, yeah, yeah. I guess if the cameras aren't rolling, then it's not. But when you say that on TV, that that's in character.

Yeah, yeah. When you first left WWB. Here's a funny little thing for you. Okay. Might sidebar you to something that you wanted to ask me about. No, we've got all kinds of times of time. When I did Survivor, they did a background check. And they look for any potential negative or offensive thing that you've said throughout your entire life.

Guess how long my background check was? Probably pretty long. 200 pages. Wow. 200 pages. A lot of turn cutters on there? They had like, one of my favorites was they had a picture of me in the ring with a blazer looking like real smug like this. and I had diamonds on my abs.

And it says in an instance, in 2009, Henigan opened a blazer and said, the diamonds on my abs are worth more than enough to deport every illegal alien from this city, referring to Latin Americans in San Diego. And I was like, but I didn't even write that one. They wrote, it was clearly part of the show. Yeah.

But it's just funny to go through that report and like read like someone. who really academically like broke down just how I was offensive. But obviously it wasn't too offensive because you got on Survivor. That was the funny thing too. I was like when I looked at the thing, I like called him and I was like, hey, guys, like this is all in character stuff. You know that, right? And they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we just do these background checks.

Like those, the stuff that we reported was just what we found is there's, we didn't find any red flags. But 200 of those things, each little individual instance, like instance. So a big thank you to you for making this show possible by listening right now. And a big thank you to our sponsors. Even though sports had a break, your business didn't. You had to keep moving. And that makes hiring more important than ever. Indeed is here to help.

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Don't forget to use the promo code bluewire at betonline.ag. That's blue wire, all one word, blue wire. Bet online, your online sports book experts. When you left WWE in 2011, did you instantly go, oh my gosh, now I'm free to do whatever I wanted, or did you have a moment where you went, maybe I should have stayed. The maybe I should have stayed moment usually doesn't come for a year or two.

Okay. When you leave, you're glad to be gone. The world is there. You can take whatever you want. You're free. Your time is your own. It's not having a paycheck for a couple of years. Then you kind of start thinking like, shoot, maybe I should have stayed.

maybe I'd have a house instead of a movie. Yeah, but you were still, you were still working with Impact, MLW, Lucha Underground. True, but like, I mean, WWE is, um, is the biggest and the best organization of them all. It always will be. And, um, I loved wrestling. I clearly never stopped.

Yeah. But, um, I guess to your point to answer that question, um, I didn't feel that way. I never really did, actually. because I felt like every time I just felt like as far as wrestling went there was so many opportunities and I was having fun

like AAA Looch Underground Impact wrestling like five star wrestling in the UK all these little independent promotions that were really good that I got to wrestle for and I'm glad I did it like I don't think that

actually a lot of guys in the roster that came up from the independent scene did that they were there I never was because I was from tough enough. Yeah. But being able to see what that is, all those people hustling, trying so hard, wrestling in small buildings with packed crowds, wrestling in small buildings with no crowds.

Yeah. That, like, to me, as far as my wrestling experience was missing, and it would have always been missing if I didn't leave. You joke about, like, if I didn't make a movie, I'd still have a house. Is that a sore spot for you? Like, you sold your house to finance boom. Oh, yeah, I joke about it, but it wasn't. a pretty sweet beach house in Manhattan Beach.

Let me tell you. Yeah. The Manhattan Beach is pretty sweet. I drive by that thing and I look up and damn it. I bet you there's one day you'll go back. You'll be able to buy it back. Yeah. You absolutely could.

Yep. Glasses half full. Oh, I'm sorry. Another few years at WWE. Honestly, two things. Yes. And the second thing, I'm joking. The reason I made, no, but the reason I made Boone wasn't like,

make money. I knew that. Yeah. And if I didn't do what I did, I would have just left and not had a movie. And so I wouldn't do anything different. Yeah. At what point did you start thinking, maybe I should get in touch with WWA? It'd be cool to go back. When, uh, so when season four of Luch ended, they have like, uh, they have some stuff

on their contracts where there's a tail and the tail doesn't start until the episode to stop airing. And, um, so I'd signed with impact. And when everything was free and clear, I decided I'm a free agent again, completely free, like no ties anywhere. I'm going to figure out where I want to go. So I talked to WB and I talked to AEW. And I had a really good conversation with Vince. And they made me a really nice offer and I ended up taking it.

And now you're back with your best friend, The Miss. That's great. Yeah. you know, greatest tag team of the 21st century. Wait a minute. You got to do a look at me. You got to look that way, kind of, and then up that way. The greatest tag team of the 21st century.

I kind of did it. Yeah, it counts. I don't know. Yeah. Well, it was great to see you on an episode of Miss and Misses. Oh, man. This is like crushing it with that stuff. Wait until we have like a bromance episode.

And I think it's going to air in like December maybe or January. I don't know. But I'm not going to say anything. aside from the fact that we watched a rough cut together at the at the TV hotel and we're dying laughing and part of him also said it was like man like were we just a couple of jerks just laughing at ourselves on a reality show because it's us yeah I hope not so hopefully when people see it they think it's funny too and were you surprised at all that Miz got a reality show nope yeah he's he was like Mr. Reality show in the 2000s and he's

very involved in Ms. and Mrs. I mean, he's, him and Marys both are executive producers. Oh, wow. But they're not vanity credits. He's, he's giving notes on rough cuts. He's coming up with stories. He's working with the producers. Wow. He's earning that EP credit, which I think is cool.

Because when I'm in the car with him and I get to listen to these phone calls, and like he's talking about the ABC story. Yeah, yeah. And like, USA's got different notes than Buna Murray, the production company has. So it's actually been fascinating for me to, so you're, that kind of listen to some of that. You're taking these notes so that you and Tya can have your own show. That's what you're sad. Potentially. I mean, I've always been more of a scripted guy,

to be honest. So what's like pie in the sky scripted idea? What is it for you? You know, the funny thing is I've had, when I left, I have all these, like, weird ideas that aren't like $100 million dollars movies. But William Wallace Sasquatch Hunter is a, is, One that I like. I got a beat sheet for it. It's pretty sweet. I'd watch that. Descendant of William Wallace. His name's Billy. He works for Scotland Yard. He's trying to bust a drug ring. He gets suspended. Goes to the highlands of Scotland when his grandma tells him that he actually is a descendant of William Wallace.

Then a Sasquatch takes his high school sweetheart, and they realize that the Sasquatches have been smuggling these drugs. He gets killed by a squatch, then resurrected, and has Sasquatch-like powers. So that's just one. I got some others. I mean, you worry. shark nato five i feel like that's a kind of a shark nato-ish story i got one for you i mean if we're rolling actually hold the four down i'm going to grab the barricane poster it's just over there oh okay oh my god well they won't be able to hear you as much as if you're over there but wow john's bringing a poster over here oh okay no you weren't you weren't you weren't

kidding we can put it behind us i think yeah well maybe i get to like hold it back here so this is another kind of idea that would be fun. And since you said Shark Nato, this is very shirknano. Oh, it's both of you guys. Yes. This is me and Ty. We got Presley. If you think about it, it's a hurricane with bears, you know, it's a prehistoric bears, koala bears, brown bears, black bears, grizzly bears. And your dogs even in this. Oh yeah, the dogs in speed of time, too. Yeah. See him? Yeah. Yep. There's going to be people that are watching this that think you're joking. Oh, I got a barricane song and everything.

Yeah, no, he's not joking. Did a knockoff on that scorpions like, rock you like a hurricane. Run away. It's a hurricane. Yeah, yeah. I'm not joking. I got a lot of weird ideas. Do you have like any like super dramatic, like serious ideas?

Nope. The most serious one that I have is, uh, ooh, this is just be fun. We can develop this together with people watching. There we go. Someone watching this is going to finance your film. It's not necessarily called quick souls, but the idea is souls are born into the world with only four days to live, to figure out what it means to be human and fulfill their potential. And then in the last hour of their life, they have kind of a superpower hour and then they expire.

So it's partly inspired by Blade Runner because the Blade Runner's only had four years to live, four years. Yeah. But this is four days. So the crux of this is, there's a villain and a hero. And they're both kind of friends, but then they both quickly realize the villain's purpose is to hurt and destroy. And the hero's purpose is to save. But the hero falls in love with another soul, quick soul.

And he has to choose between spending time with the woman he loves and saving people he doesn't know from this other guy. So that's pretty serious. You got a lot of ideas up there. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I was also thinking Suburban Commando, too. I mean, that's a...

Who wouldn't want to watch that? What's your favorite movie of all time? Rumble in the Bronx. Okay. Yep. Second favorite movie all time. Drunken Master 2. I have not seen that.

Really? Sorry. Drunker Master 2 might be the greatest Kung Fu movie of all time. And you are a Kung Fu guy. I'm biased to Rumble in the Bronx because it's the first Jackie Chan movie of seen in the theater.

Okay. And when I was a kid, I skateboarded to the theater and watched that like 10 times in the theater. But Drunkenmaster 2, I think, is Jackie's strongest movie. Is he your favorite actor of all time? My favorite action actor of all time. Okay. Yeah. I had the privilege of interviewing him for like 15 minutes. What?

Yeah. Yeah. What? Yeah, it was like three years ago. Normally those TV interviews like four minutes. At the end of this interview, I want to see some of this Jackie Chan thing. He was so great. it was so great so kind yeah who's your favorite actor then of all time if he's your favorite

action star of all time man um Bruce Willis is up there for me especially early Willis did you see moonlighting by the way no his very first thing die hard would definitely be my first introduction to him um he perfected his uh diehard stick on moonlighting oh which is um it's a good it's very interesting to watch young Bruce Willis on Moonlighting. I'll have to look this up. I'm trying to think of other guys that I think. Hemsworth are like.

I think Tom Hardy might be the best actor out there right now. He's very good. How about you? Favorite actor? Of all time, I think that when you have a movie with like DiCaprio, you know it's going to be so good. You qualified it, though. With what?

When you have a movie with DeCaprio, it's going to be good. That's what I'm saying. No, but I'm saying that he makes the movie great. Okay. His performance is going to be so good. So I think that he's definitely someone that I go, oh, yeah. Yeah, he's up there for me too.

Daniel Day Lewis, unbelievable. Mark Ruffalo, so underrated because... Let me ask you this, though, the Revenants, right? Yeah. DeCaprio and Tom Hardy. Good example to me of Tom Hardy acting circles around DeCaprio. Now, here's the thing. I don't think...

We could get into this whole tangent here, but... This is subjective. There's no answers. Yeah, right. I'm not saying that the Revenue was Leonardo DiCaprio's best performance, but I think that he was owed the Oscar for Wolf of Wall Street, and I think they looked at Revenue went, oh, I feel like we... Maybe we missed out there. I agree. Yeah, that makes sense to me. Because, I mean, you got Tom Hardy, acting circles around them, and then that bear.

The bear was very good. The bear was very good. The bear was a real bear. It looks so good, though. The bear didn't get nominated. The bear did not get nominated. Bear got snubed. Would you ever shave your head for a role? I would depend on the role. Okay.

Big time. And I've had that question asked to me a couple of times for smaller projects and I've always said no. That makes sense. I mean, it took you a long time to have these luscious locks that you have now. And it would actually, it probably won't happen now. But for a while, I was thinking when I was a AAA champion that it would be cool at some point to have like a mask versus hair match.

because for for someone who's had long hair since tough enough like me yeah um the hair actually means something yeah and i mean masks obviously means something too well sure would you ever cut your hair like like tough enough john sure like um okay man my my dad asks me that same question almost every week yeah yeah i'd consider that i was i remember being so blown away when you won tough enough i want Of course this guy's going to win tough enough. He looks like a million bucks. And then you went off TV and then you came back and you were huge. And I remember going like, this guy's massive now.

So what was the conversation like when they said like you got to put some mass on? It's not so much of a conversation is they mentioned that. Yeah, like you got a size up. You got a bulk up. But also when you're there realistically, me and Matt Capitelli walk in OVW, fresh off tough enough. And there's 50 hungry. guys that have been there for years that are all 220 to 300 pounds yeah and what were you season

of pro wrestlers i'm like at this point like 185 okay um and uh i'm famous from mtv and so we go out and like people are like oh my god it's matt and john if i'm tough enough and like these other guys that are just so much bigger and like really nice and polished and um just bring generals are around and um no one really had to say like uh hey dude If you want to be a professional wrestler, you need to bulk up a little bit. It's just, it was almost like it went without saying. Although, um, what did JR? Like Jim Ross came down and, um, he has a funny way of saying everything.

He's like, if you want to draw money in this business, you've got to have a good upper body. Good, good pecks, shoulders and biceps. Forget about your legs. No one gives a good goddamn about your calves. I might get a pat on the ass for your quads, but that's it. That was that was J.R.'s advice. Wow. So how much did you went from 185 to what?

I mean, I'm 210 now. So it's not really that crazy if you think about it. That still is a lot of size. The thing is people usually think I'm a lot bigger when they see me on TV. Example. When I was tagging with Ms. who was 220 at the time, whenever we went to his parents' house,

his dad would always be like, God, Michael, you've just got to get bigger. John, look how much bigger than you he is. And he would always be like, Dad, I am. I'm 220. He's 2.20. He's 2.10. He's like, well, he looks bigger. He just looks a lot bigger. And Mike's like, well, thanks, Dad. Do you know why that is? It's because I'm fat. Okay. Thanks, Dad, for pointing that out again. But staying lean is the tricky part. Well, you're very lean, though. You're very lean. Do you think that you're the most successful person to come off tough enough? definitely the most successful winner.

If you don't, the most successful winner for sure. It depends if you count Ms. as coming off tough enough or not. Why wouldn't you? Sure. Because he was on that like weird season that wasn't like a year season. Then no.

I mean, I can't say that I had a more successful career than the Ms. Yeah. You had a more successful career than Maven. Yes. And most, actually all the winners. For sure. All the winners.

Yeah. Everyone except Ms. I mean, just really had his nose to the grindstone and been bootstrapping it for years and proved everybody wrong. And now, you know, they probably paid off for him because he finally gets to tag again with John Morris. That's the ultimate prize. He made it. Is there something specific that you learn from Ms. or you have learned from Ms. and you've known him for two decades now? like one thing um you're saying you know a lot like a lot of like no it's like let me think of

all the stuff that I've learned from his and try to pick one um because I've learned a lot from the guy um I'll go back to some of that energy stuff that we were talking about yeah so he's always been on really authentically himself right and um I don't think he was ever as introspective as I am about it because I drive myself nuts, like, taking notes and writing stuff down and ideas and, like, a line that Errol Flynn might have said in the movie Robin Hood in the 30s. And then like, oh, what did Bruce? Like, stuff like that. That's like almost like obsessive. But what he's always done is be authentically himself. So there's no cracks in like him and his character. And there's no, there's no gaps, basically. I believe him. Yeah. That's, I think,

think the biggest factor in success or failure in entertainment. Yeah. If you have cracks and people see through you, it shatters that theatrical reality, the suspension of disbelief. And you feel like, oh, this is, I feel dumb. I feel insulted. I feel like changing the channel. So because he never does that, I think I attribute a lot of what he's achieved to that.

Well, Mike is the mess. Yeah. And the Ms. is Mike. And I think that's, yeah. And, and, you know, on TV, like, like, you've got, like, kind of an arrogant, brash character. And then there's also the parts of him that are a really loyal friend and a guy that's fun to ride with and tell stories and, um, wants to work out sometimes.

Not all the time, but sometimes. Oh, man. I'm sorry, miss. So he's the guy you're riding with now. I guess, yeah, we don't know. I'm riding with anyone now. Yeah. It's all just, just locked down.

But yeah, when I came back, it's usually easiest to ride if you're in a tag team with your partner because you can, you're in the same match. So you show up and leave at the same time. You usually get booked on appearances together. Yeah. And if you're in a car with like four guys and like suddenly someone has like a weird appearance. So they have to like the first match guy is riding with the last match guy. Yeah. Like the first match guy wants to like get to the building maybe a little extra early.

Yeah. Maybe leave. it intermission. But anyway, it usually makes sense to ride with the guys that you're wrestling with. I feel like if we look at WrestleMania this year, obviously a lot of people were talking about the Boneyard match, a lot of people talking about the Fire 5 Fun House match. But when you talk about the in-ring matches,

you guys stole the show. And you were wrestling like there was 80,000 people in the performance center. This is great. Continue. Tell me more about my great match. Thanks. Yeah. And like I felt like, and I still do feel like I've got a little chip on my shoulder, something to prove. But especially during that match, I felt like I had this chip of my shoulder of stuff to prove. And everything worked out for me that time. I don't necessarily like playing it safe. I like taking chances. And there's a couple chances that I took in that match that could have gone wrong. The rope walk, for example, it's a really big risk because I'm not like 100% on that. I'd say I'm like 50, 50.

Sometimes when I had the ring in the backyard last time, I was up to like 70, 80% I could make it. But I'm glad I took that chance. I'm glad it paid off the spiral tap out of the corner onto a oos on the ladder. Yeah. There's a lot of things in that match that felt good because I was flying really close to the sun, so to speak. Do you know what I mean? Close enough that like if I had gotten burnt, I would have fallen and would have hurt or been awkward. And I didn't know necessarily if I was going to be able to do some of the things that I tried.

And they all worked. Was it because you didn't have the adrenaline from the cradowing from the crows? crowd being there? Like you might have been more than 50-50 on the, on the rope walk. No, no, no, no. Because when I'm in the moment, like the crowd gives you adrenaline, but I also just was really locked in that day. Oh, you can tell. Like the ropes. I mean, I have like a million things. We wanted to talk about specifics. A million things to say about the ropes. But if you keep your eye in the corner and you disrespect the ropes is what I have in my head. Like if you rope, you're just a rope, I'm walking on top of you. For some reason, that's like what I tell

myself mentally and that takes me across. Wow. I like taking chances. I don't know what it is about me, but I feel like I've always been pulled towards stuff that some people say is unnecessary or crazy or high risk. And when you do that, you have to be ready to crash and burn sometimes. And at this year's WrestleMania, some people, yeah, we're saying, oh, because there's no people, there's no people, there's probably a lot less pressure. But it didn't feel that way to me because I always get more nervous about failing or crashing or embarrassing myself in front of my family, friends, and coworkers that I would in front of a huge audience. I know that sounds weird, but it's like this little group of people are the people that I respect

the most in the world and they're all watching me. Like, I feel like the, I don't know. The pressure was also maybe up a little more. This is your first WrestleMania in, Nine years? Sounds. I'll take your word for it. About right.

Yep. Yeah. Nine years. Wow. What is your favorite personal WrestleMania moment? Who, uh, got to be the moonsault with the ladder in, uh, Orlando, actually, wrestling.

I need 24. Oh, places. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. You did that or like when Snoop dogs, Rodey, like that Pope magic Don Juan, told me that Snoop wanted to buy one of my fur coats.

What? That was pretty red. hold on you can't just like say that and like passing what yeah like the uh it's upstairs upstairs in the floor of the closet it's a brown thing with leather and crystals and things i mean he seemed uh he seemed very high this guy at the time and uh snoop was also so i don't even know if they knew what was going on but they totally would have bought it from you uh probably you didn't want to but snoop wasn't there well it was brand new this is like a brand new thing i got it made just for this resslimania when you get something new you get something new you

new year and not like, oh, yeah, here, take it. Because you don't make, you don't get like a ring coat made to make a profit. You know what I mean? No. That's not why you do that. Wow. Feel like you should have sold it. Felt pretty cool, though.

This would be a much better story if you said, yeah, and then I sold it and he, like, gave me a briefcase of money. Well, if he had a briefcase of money, it might have had a different ending to the story, but I don't know what, like, like, what is he going to offer me? Like a, like a bag full of blunts? Yeah, you like a case full of money, sure, okay. Now, this means a lot to me. Something like this is going to be like 30,000.

Man, I wonder if he still remembers. You're like, oh, yeah, here's 30,000. There's no way he remembers. When you're on the road full time, though, it's not like a, you're like working so hard and you're making money. You don't really think about, I mean, like the Carney, like John Morrison, when you're gone. Oh, yeah, you get Carney.

You sell stuff. I've sold for coats and tights. Like you figure out how to make that money. Sure. But when you're in WrestleMania and you're on the road, that's not what you're thinking about. Yeah. Okay. So that's your second favorite WrestleMania moment.

Yeah, yeah. Probably, probably that's number two. So at the end of last year, I had a very long, very interesting interview with Austin Ares. And a lot of the interview was about the match that you guys had a Bound for Glory. And he said that both of you guys, like, really love that match, that he said that you said it was one of your favorite matches ever. Is that fair? Yes.

It's a match that I'm very proud of, and it's one of my favorite matches. He might not be one of my favorite people. But it's one of the only times in my career where I feel like everybody, like, everybody believed in that match, including me. It felt real. It felt like the two of us had a real issue. and the issue was not resolved before we went out to the ring. So there was so much uncertainty surrounding that match. People, including myself, I mean, Taya, Moose, Killer Cross on the outside for him,

were wondering what was going to happen. And it feels like that type of moment, that type of situation is exactly what wrestling was in the glory days back when like everything was k-faved. Everyone thought everything was real. Yeah. But that in a, in its own way, was a real authentic moment. Yeah. And because of that, it felt different. And it, yeah, it felt different. It's something that I still, I think about it a lot too. It was a really cool experience. I mean, he raised a really good point in our interview when he said it was a memorable title change. And you think about it, like in TN. A's history or Impact Wrestling's history. Yeah, that's definitely up there. People definitely

remember that match. Yeah. And I mean, and after the match, like, the entire roster is asking me about it, like, specifically. So it wasn't just like the people in the stands that were buying in, everybody. And I think that that type of situation is something that's missing from the business today. That suspension of disbelief in a, you can't. You can't. can't go back to saying, I'm going to try to kill this guy for real. That's like that day is past. That time is done. But stories can be real. People can believe in me and believe in how I feel and how someone else feels. Yeah. So issues can be real. And I think that's part of the way the business is going to evolve. What Austin was saying was it's no longer just about working them, working the

of fans. He's like, because a lot of the guys backstage are fans. And he's like, it's about working everybody now. And that's, I don't know what actually happened there. You know, there's only two people that really know what actually happened. It's you in Austin Aries. But I feel like everybody did get worked. Yep, including him. Maybe he may work himself. So it happens when you get that crazy. You say a bunch of stuff and you lose track of what's real and what's not. But yes, that is a good, I don't know, a good way to explain that situation. And that's like the goosebumps, like the field, like the unknown. You know what I mean? I mean, hey, the infamous doors quote, the reason they call their band

the doors is there's the known and the unknown and in between are the doors. The unknown on the other side out there is fascinating. I feel like that's part of the draw of wrestling. This business is the mystery. So if you can find ways to bring that back into the business, I think that's the evolution of it. I feel like this is such a different conversation. We're going pretty deep in this one. I'll link up the other one. Like I'll put a link down below in the description.

You're like just joking around and doing springboards last time, huh? That was great. Yeah. People still comment on that video or still like will message me about that video. Like I fully thought that you were going to just eat it. That's what you wanted me to do. I did, I did. You're like, do you think you can do a springboard?

And I'm like, I never say no to anything. I like it when people think, oh, wrestling's easy. I bet I can do a springboard. Oh, yeah, go have a shot. Let's see what happens. It's like a perfect springboard. I don't, actually, I got my hands wrong. You landed on your feet.

I landed on my feet, surprisingly. Yeah. I think that there was like a 99% chance I was going to fall on my face. and I hit that 1%. It's on tape now. And I will never do another. I'll never do another springboard in the rest of my life. You don't have to.

Because I did a perfect springboard in John Morrison's backyard. One and done. Sometimes you just got to know when to call it quits. This has been so much fun. And thank you for like inviting me over. Yeah. This has been great. This is like we were saying earlier before before we started talking.

It's nice to not have that lag time. Yeah. Like with all the Zoom interview. and I can hear you. We're in the same room. We're in the same space. And, um, like Zoom, look, Zoom is an incredible technology, Skype,

Streamyard, whatever you happen to use. But even though we're in 2020, it's still slightly clunky. Yeah. Even if there's a half a second pause, it just makes it a little. Words get dropped sometimes too. Right.

I mean, here we're able to like kind of jump on with the other person saying in a Zoom call, it's like you've got to wait. And then you can talk. Yeah. I'll talk. Yeah, the waiting and talking takes the humanity out of it. Yeah.

This is why Joe Rogan doesn't like to do these interviews virtually for that exact reason. And it makes sense. Yeah. Of course it makes sense. You can see the guy. You can't read body language. Yeah. But everybody is.

You don't get to see the barricane poster. Oh, I was also going to grab a shoot. I was going to grab Presley. Oh, my God. One of the stars of speed of time. Yeah. Okay. Let me grab Presley.

I'll be right back. I think they will actually pause this one. Okay. So time out. Time in. Ladies and gentlemen, the star, the true star of speed of time.

Presley. He plays Dr. Bark Zuckerberg. Computer hacker of the future. What was your inspiration for Bark? Yeah. He's a dog, a few words. He's really internalizing. I can see it in his eyes.

He just takes things in. He's yawning. How dare you? Wow. I think he said he wants bacon. Pretty sure that's what he said. Or cheese. I don't know.

Who wouldn't want bacon? But I think this is a first. This is a first on the channel and the podcast. Ooh. Yeah. Big time. Another yawn. Are you kidding?

Quit yawning. Buddy. This is a big deal. Hey, buddy. We're on Chris's show. Yeah. We're talking about your movie. So,

Presley also is in the speed of time. Make sure to check it out. Tag him at the P-boys if you've got any constructive criticism on his acting. See, your buddy. He's just sauntering off. Hopefully he doesn't chew through a cord that's plugged into the wall. He's not going to do that. I'm just kidding.

But back to the speed of time, I'd been working with Russ Nicol and William Stribling for years on a lot of projects, a feature that we had fully written that we all thought was pretty good. And another couple of things. And before I went back to WBE, we realized, you know what? Like, it would be really cool before I'm back on a full-time schedule to actually do something. Yeah. Something feasible.

So that thing was the speed of time. They pitched this to me. And I immediately loved it. We got the city of St. Petersburg to pitch in and give us some incentives, partial funding, and access to some really awesome locations that we would not have otherwise. It looked so good. I got to work with people like Ziegler, Nick Nemeth, and McColl, who plays Sergeant Badgettaker, who is someone that I met through my acting coach.

It's an actress that I've got a lot of respect for, and we had a really fun time on set together. And I think that people are going to like this movie. And really, that's my goal. of making movies. There's a lot of people who have stories they want to tell for different reasons. And for me personally, I was always a big fan of wrestling and action movies because they let me dream when I was a kid. It was my form of

escapism. So the speed of time, I think, nails it. It's got a very fast pace. It's kind of like Rumble in the Bronx meets Back to the Future, meets Terminator, meets 21 Jump Street. And it's a quick watch. Yeah. Yeah. It's very quickly paced. Yeah. So again, speed of time, 917. It's on Dust. It's on YouTube. It's on IGTV. It's on a bunch of places. Watch it, check it out. Give it a like. Tell your friends. Share it. Comment it. Review it. Do stuff on IMDB2 because that one's important. Did I forget anything? Are there any of the things? Maybe you can shout out this right here. Ooh, you guys see this thing? Yeah. I don't know if you've heard of loka clothing, but it happens to be, Taya's clothing brand. And she's been working really hard at this. She bleached treated and tied

this shirt herself personally. And it's great for me because I don't really shop for clothes anymore. You don't have to do. I just wear loco stuff nonstop. And I get a lot of compliments on it because it fits well. It's good material. And people usually tell me that I look put together now. And I never heard that before. Wow. Yeah. This is one of the first times that I've walked into a place and had someone say like, oh, cool clothes, you look like you're matching or you're put together, which is great. So, um, Loka is available at tieavakery.com. That's her shop.

And her fall line is, uh, coming mid-October. We're going to have a big announcement about that in mid-October, maybe a party. I mean, a socially responsible, small party, of course. And, um, go out on Instagram live and show everybody. all the new styles. Well, if you have any extra invites for that party, maybe let me know. Oh, you're talking about yourself.

Oh. Yeah, sure. Sure, we do. Yeah. I mean, that's a, yep. Is this still on? Oh, wow. John, so good to see you.

Congrats on everything. Thanks again for having me. Thank you. World. Adios. Oh, I'm Presley. Yeah. Yep.

Interview over. Well, there you go. Thank you to John and Presley for inviting me into their home. A thank you to Tya as well, even though, you know, unlike Presley, she didn't stop by the interview. Take a screenshot. Tag us. I'm at Chris Van Vleet. John is at the Real Morrison on Twitter, and speed of time is available now. I said in the interview that it's a quick watch, but like I literally mean it. It's 13 minutes long. So you have 13 free minutes today. I'm sure of it. So go check that out. And you know how they say that you should never show up to someone's house empty-handed? Well, I came to John and Taya's house with a six-pack

of white claw. Mango flavor, of course, the best flavor. Isn't it crazy? John is as ripped as he is and would even consider drinking a white claw? Just so great to see him in person. So great to do this interview in person. And so great to see him back in WWE. And hearing the way that he just breaks down his character was, it's absolutely fascinating. Like he, he dives deep into his character work, and I just love it. Hmm. I'll leave you with this quote from the great Dr. Seuss, who says, be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.

Have a great week. Be great. Be grateful. We'll see you soon. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today.

No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it. Get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef?

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