Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Johnny TV & Taya Valkyrie on AEW, Being Married In Wrestling, Viral Moments, Lucha Underground

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

John Hennigan (@therealmorrison) & Taya Valkyrie (@thetayavalkyrie) are professional wrestlers signed to AEW. John is also known by his ring name Johnny TV in AEW as well as John Morrison, Johnny Nitro, Johnny Impact, Johnny Mundo and others. They join Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood, CA to talk about the season finale of their show "Johnny Loves Taya" on the AEW YouTube channel, how they pitched the original idea to Tony Khan, signing with AEW, their memories of working in Lucha Underground, their matches against each other, how Johnny came up with his move Starship Pain, the iconic ladder moonsault at WrestleMania 24, Joey Mercury's brutal ladder accident, whether they would wrestle each other again and much more! Watch "Johnny Loves Taya" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6Lp7UyDzXA&list=PLILTWWX_AIJTbkLzCpEnHudFu1HZuTIvT Sponsors: PRIZEPICKS: Download the app today and use code INSIGHT for a first deposit match up to $100! BABBEL: Learn a new language and get 50% off your lifetime Babbel subscription at http://babbel.com/cvv MAGIC SPOON: Get $5 off with the code CVV at http://magicspoon.com/cvv RHONE: Upgrade your closet with Rhone and use CVV to save 20% at https://www.rhone.com/CVV ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv BETTERHELP: Get 10% off your first month with the code INSIGHT at http://betterhelp.com/insight MUDWTR: Get 15% off with the code CVV15 at http://mudwtr.com/cvv MYBOOKIE: Bet on WWE! Use the code CVV to get a 50% welcome bonus when you sign up at http://mybookie.ag BLUECHEW: Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at http://plunge.com BONCHARGE: Go to http://boncharge.com/CVV and use coupon code CVV to save 15% on your BONCHARGE Infrared Sauna Blanket! For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chris. Hello, my friends. Welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CBV, Chris Van Fleet. Thank you for being here. And thank you for making Insight, one of the top wrestling podcasts on the planet. Also one of the top sports podcasts on the planet.

So we're talking all sports podcasts. So that's like Pat McAfee, New Heights, everything on Fox Sports or ESPN. I appreciate you. If you're new here, Could I just ask for one small favor? Could you click that follow button on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening to this right now?

It's easy. It's free and it helps the show a ton. It also makes sure that you don't miss out on any episodes when they go live. And you know, it's funny. Just last month, we were talking about how we had never had a wrestling couple on the show together at the same time. Like we've interviewed the husband or wife, the boyfriend or girlfriend, but we hadn't had them on together.

And then we had to Neil Dashwood and Mike Rawlis. You know them as Emma and Madcap Moss from WW. And here we are with another wrestling couple, Johnny and Taya. He's Johnny TV and A.W. You know him as Johnny Nitro, John Morrison, Johnny Impact, Johnny Mundo, lots of other Johnny names. They've made magic individually when they were doing things in WWE, Lucha Underground, TNA, Now they're making magic together in AEW. And what they're doing on their show,

it's called Johnny Loves Taya on AEW's YouTube channel, is just fantastic. Episode 10, their season finale goes live tomorrow. If you haven't checked these out yet, go watch a few episodes and you'll be hooked. They're funny, they're witty, they're a little bit silly, but they're just so entertaining.

And they're like four or five-ish minutes each. So it's a super easy watch. Go check him out again on AEW's YouTube channel. Johnny loves Taya. So good. Snap a screenshot. Let us know that you're listening. Tag us so we can share it out. She's at the Taya Valkyrie. He's at John Hennigan. That's his real name on Instagram. He's at the real Morrison on Twitter. And let's dive into this. Enjoy this conversation with Johnny TV and Taya Valkyrie. Well, here we are. The Stars of Johnny Loves Tye. Hello.

It is great to see you guys. Nice to see you too. It's good to be seen. And welcome to the new studio. Thank you. It's beautiful. Yeah, it is. West Coast Creative Studio. You guys look like stars here and you're rolled up in a black SUV.

I mean, come on. There's an SUV fancy now. Yeah. What do you mean? It's above Uber XL? Like Uber Black? He's just making things up. Uber Black Fancy.

That's where you can. guys rolled up in. We need our own. Yeah. We need our own little section. You started the last interview we did wearing the sunglasses in like five minutes and you're like, do I want to be sunglasses guy? I don't know.

That sounds so, John. Do I want to be sunglasses? Like that. Yeah. So we'll be sunglasses guy for now. We'll see how that goes. You just take them off. Maybe you put them on?

I got my own here. Oh, then maybe Tyone needs to put these on. Sunglass. This is two stars. Oh, wow. These are stars. Yeah. When you guys walk through...

I'm just in a bedazzled track suit, you know. Yeah. When you guys walk through the airport together, when people will shine. And even if people don't know anything about wrestling, they're probably like, who? Who are these people? Didn't you just ask me that?

Like, the other week, you were like, what does it feel like to, like, walk around in real life with yellow hair? And I was like, I mean, people stare at me on a regular race, with or without yellow hair. Because, I don't know.

Because I don't look... Because you don't look... Fere or leather or feathers. Yeah, we just don't exactly... She can do it better. We just... Better. than you.

We don't exactly blend into the crowd. It's like you guys were made for wrestling. Well, we've talked about the airport test before, haven't we? That's a real thing. Yeah. That is a real thing. Tai A pass is the airport test every time. 1,000 percent.

And I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad. It's a good thing. That means you're a star. It's a good thing if you're a per wrestler. Who is this weird looking chicks? I mean, if you're like a teacher or a librarian, maybe no. Especially if you're an undercover. Yeah, I'm not, yeah, I'm not doing that for a living, that's for sure.

Yeah, if you were any of those things, you wouldn't want to stand out. Yeah. You guys are pro wrestlers for a living. But your job is to stand out. Actors, entertainers, producers, writers, creatives. Yeah, when it comes to Johnny Loves tie, you're wearing all of those hats. Is that right? A lot of them.

I would say this is a three-person collaboration. A friend of ours, Justin Donaldson, has been shooting. like directing, editing, supervising posts, doing so much work. But we collaborate together on the stories and say after we leave here, we have one day to finish all that we need for episode 10. It's mostly done. We have pickups, yeah. So we're going to do some like confessional shoots and some different things later today.

But yeah, it's like never ending. But we're almost done. The season finale is coming out. And it's just been like so much work and a labor of love. And, like, I just feel like we are so much more layered than just pro wrestlers, you know, and it's been an opportunity for us to showcase how creative and how different we can be than some other, you know, pro wrestlers or different stories that you see about couples and stuff like that. So, like, do you know, any other pro wrestlers who would buy a skateboard, cut it, and have put on the trucks,

and then ratchet, a llama on a stick to it so they could ride it down a hill? I also witnessed this yesterday. I also had to glue sliders to my shoes so I could slide. What? Oh, yeah. Just wait till the finale. If you went on my Instagram story yesterday, you would have seen that I was like, and here's the other thing. All the tools in our house are mine.

Yeah. And they're labeled. They're like, Kira's toolbox. Don't touch. Do not touch. And he was on the patio, sawing a skateboard together to make this rig to shoot this one part of the finale pickups and stuff. and I was just in the house going, oh my God, I hope he doesn't cut his finger off.

Like, why is he drilling? We don't have like a tool bench or like a table to do any of this. So he's put this skateboard across two, like, box jump, boxes. So like, plyometric boxes and weights. And weights holding the skateboard down because I was like, it's going to hit you back.

It's going to, you know, what if it comes back onto you or something? And he's just like putting up weights. And I was watching it. from inside and I'm like, this is not good. Even my mom like texting me and she's like, what is John doing with? It really makes you feel like

Regal's original theme music. He's a man. Such a man. Yeah, with your wife's tools. I'm going to bedazzle them next time. What was the original pitch for this? Was it to Tony? Did you say we want to put together

a reality show? No, first of all, it's not a reality show. It's a rom-com scripted. Oh, yes. Yeah, this is fully scripted. It's fully scripted. But, so I think... Our reality shows also fully scripted?

No. They should be. They should be. Or they should cast good actors. I think for, when we came up with the idea, it was because we were finally getting put together in AW. And we were trying to find a way to introduce us again to that audience. Because even though a lot of people might know us from Litch Underground,

from Impact, from AAA, from everything else we've done, we are very aware that, like, a lot of the AEW audience, like, might have to be reintroduced to us or like get to know us again. They also may know you guys as individuals. Yes, 100%. And I already been like in AEW for like six, seven months when John and I started finally being together. So I really, we really wanted to find a creative way for them to get to know us.

So the original idea was to like for Johnny Loves Taya to kind of be like a backstage segment and then also like try to find a way to incorporate it for like pushing like an angle or something, right? like speaking about the person we're going to be wrestling or whatever the storyline is. And then from there, it kind of evolved into what it is today. And like we had been pitching this back in like September and just like any story or anything, like it's going to take convincing. It's going to take us like we'd come up with the jingle.

Brina Campbell like did all our music. We had come up with like two. Way too many ideas. Way too many ideas. But we had like two or three different like, like, I don't know how you want to call it. Like two minute segments that we had made to like. proof of concept, for example, about what we wanted to do.

And then finally, like, Sanjay, Mike Minceri, Tony Khan, everybody kind of was like... Who brought Justin to one show in Ontario. Yeah, to, like, shoot stuff. And, like, eventually, like, everyone, one day, it was like, we love it. Let's make it. Let's do 10 episodes.

Like... The beauty of it is, because it lives online, you have the time and creative autonomy to put out what you want. Yeah. If it's a segment on, like, dynamite collision and rampage, something like that, there's not enough time and there's not enough, like, real estate on those shows.

Yeah. So if you really want to get into the nitty-gritty of our relationship, who we are and storytelling that way in depth. And also, it's heightened because we're nuts. I guess in real life, too. But it's... 100% of real life. Especially in this show.

Like, we go, like, hard. Yeah. And we really are, like, such creative perfectionists and we both have so many ideas. So we wanted to make sure that, like, whatever we were. putting out there, you know, is genuine to us and makes sense and is funny and different and makes people think. And like, whenever you're putting your art out there for the world to see, there's going to be people that get it and there's going to be people that don't get it. But we just were very confident in like the concept and everything. And like we started shooting

it in November. A little wing foe. Oh. We started to wait for a minute. Well, I want this is my little wing quote. But like we started shooting it right there. And that's going to be too late. Go ahead. It's time, please. We started shooting in November. And as you can tell, we're still, like we said,

doing pickups for the finale, but we shot the finale in February. Like, you know, it's been a never-ending labor of love. Okay, continue. Give us the love. It's not too late. It's not too late.

Little Wayne, like, someone asked him, like, how he decides what music to make or, like, what is why? Yeah. He's like, yeah, man, I just think whatever, I think it's cool. And if you like it, we'll probably get along. If you don't like it, then we probably ain't

going to be cool. And it's like it makes a lot of sense. Like if you're trying to create something to please somebody else, then it's not authentic to you. Then it's see-through. And I guess that's what we're going to say. I guess sellout. Really kind of, you're just like,

how can I figure out how to hack the system? That's not really hard then. Yeah. And neither one of us wanted to do that. No, we were very... Like, we want to do a very specific thing. And to do that, you have to sometimes go outside the box. And that's what we did.

There's a lot of outside of the box here. Like... What do you mean, Chris? Episode 8, the musical. Oh, my gosh. So good. Not only that both of you guys clearly went for it, but the writing of these songs, the singing, dancing, the outfits.

Let's say singing and dancing. I might have had to change my name to Johnny Auto Tune for that episode. That episode, I don't think people realize, like, and I don't think we did when Justin came up with the idea for it, how much work was going to go into that episode. We turned that on in 10 days. Wow. Ten days from, like, I've got an idea to, like, burning the songs, recording, like, tracks for us to, like, sing to, us recording. us recording our own tracks, then recording the video, then editing, and then turning it in. Yeah.

Wow. It was so much work. I got a side question for you, Chris. Hey, we're going to do a song where you and two of your friends just are all dancing together. She's like, oh, I got my two friends. I choreographed. I choreographed. Someone asked you, like, do you have two friends that want to dance to do in a video?

You should have called me. I would have done it. Actually, you being a dancer. would have been freaking hilarious. Because when I saw you guys in Iron Claw, you guys were like, we're filming this thing. Yeah, we were doing kickups for it. Maybe you could be part of this.

I'm like, done, like, let me know. Never got the calls. Listen, but you need. Yeah? Keep your phone on. I mean, can you? No. It doesn't matter.

I mean, you've got enough athleticism that it doesn't look like you can't dance. I'm relying on the power moves, so pretty heavy. As you should. I have no rhythm. John has no rhythm and can't count music. I'm sorry. But he's got a wonderful teacher and you.

Oh, yeah. She'll let me know. Free with me. I'm like, one, two, three, four, five, six. And I've been dancing and doing musical theater since I was like two years old. And it shows. But I was like, how can you not feel this? Like, how can you not, like, understand this?

And he's, yeah, it was just such a learning curve for both of us because I've just never. You're training to be a professional ballerina. Like musical theater Until you were like 17, 18? 22. Yeah, like you were on this path of like you were in like music and theater and then like wrestling. It's all the same. Is it?

Yes, it's all the same. Ballet with body slams, really. It's literally all the same. I feel like this one maybe hurts a little bit more. Ah, no. If you've done ballet. Ballet is very famous. Yeah, ballet is one of the hardest things you could ever.

That's why I hate when people are like, wrestling is not ballet. I'm like, have you done ballet? Anyone who says that? It's because they've never done ballet and never had a crazy teacher that's... Huh, I'm like you in mind. Yeah. Football season may be over,

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and before undertaking a new health care regimen, including EES system. What's the most painful thing in ballet? Have you been dancing on your toes since you were nine years old like I did? I mean, I can't say I have, no. There you go. Are your toes, do they look like ballerina toes? I mean, does that thing when he stands way up on those toe tips? Yeah.

Like, I was nine years old when my ballet teacher told my mom that I was going to go on point. And I was the youngest person, like, in the school at that point. And, yeah, like, I was dancing in me. point change since I was nine. So. Wow. I guess, I mean, so your feet hurt from that. Well, yeah. It's just different parts of your body, right? Yeah. It's just, it's, uh, you know, probably not good for your ankles and your hips and your feet as a tiny child. But also, like, I don't know. Like, that was just like, I've always been an artistic person that presents my art through movement. And that's exactly what wrestling is to me. What do you think Johnny Loves Taya leads into in terms of AEW story,

lines. Well, I think it's really helped to remind people of who we are, establish us again as characters together. I think it like positively influenced the way that people perceive us when we were doing our angle with Dalton Castle and everything like that. And like moving forward, like I just, you know, we hope to be able to create a second season and we hope to continue doing this because we've had a lot of fun. In generally, yeah, I think that's the main thing. It's really fun for us to do. We get to do it together. It's like for work. technically, but it's a really fun way to spend time together. Yeah, and we hope that, you know, ideally, if the network wants to give us a 30-minute sitcom,

that'd be great. I'm going to reach for the stars here. Hello? Let's put that out there. Into the camera. Yeah, you do a four-hour sitcom. But I would love that. I mean, this is just the calling card for how creative and amazing.

No, but like how creative and, you know, how hardworking we are and in making things and and creating art and content because. We're passionate about it, and I think it comes across in every episode. But here's the thing with art is people only see the finished product. They only see a set. They don't know the... Exactly. They only see the, whatever, it is, four minutes, eight minutes, whatever.

They just see that episode. How much goes into each episode? Depends on that episode. Like, Nigel called and said he was going to go roll around like 11. And I just woke it up and I was like, so last night, our editor's power went out. and at 2 a.m. I drove to Calabazas to pick him up to drive him to our house. To make sure that... So he could finish the edit and export it and get it to AW's social media team.

Yeah. There's been so many. Like, I'm not going to be able to make it. People don't know that. Like, that's just one little example of, like, how much goes into it. There's sound, audio, lighting. It was writing. And the meetings we've had and the creative, yeah, like sitting down and being like, hey, what are some stories we can talk about?

Because every single episode is like something that's kind of happened in our life that we've just kind of recreated in like a more comedic way, for example. Like the shark party, I always go back to that because shark parties have been going on in our house for years. We've got some shark party ragers. Yeah, we've had shark party ragers. Even the shark party that was on Johnny Lov's tie was like nothing compared to some of these shark parties we've had. But like we take these like real life funny things. that, like, happen to us or with our friends. Like Seinfelds and Kirby enthusiasm are very similar.

They take stories that are real that have happened to members of the cast to heighten them and then apply them to an episode. Yeah, and that's what we've tried to do. And we're just very lucky that we've had such a supportive, you know, L.A. team. And when I say that, I mean, Justin, who's worked so hard, Brenna, doing all our music, friends who have shown up and, you know, been in episodes. My girlfriend's coming, like Lauren Holly. to learn choreography and get cake thrown in their face.

Like, we've had so many people that are also just being very supportive of it. And everyone at AEW for, you know, getting behind this crazy idea and letting us make this crazy, kooky series for them. It also shows off how great of actors you guys are. And I mean this with great respect. There's wrestling acting sometimes and there's, like, acting. And what you guys are doing here, like, feels very authentic. Thank you.

I would agree. And I think that Taya is an extremely natural actor. Her process and my process are so different. Ooh, what are they? She just nails it on the first take usually. And then I'll take, I want the script overnight, and I want to read it and make notes and have like little motivations and secrets and all the crap. Yeah, and I'm like, why can't you just do it?

Like, I just, but I mean, That's how we are with promos too. But I also, to be fair, though, like, I know who Taya is better than anybody else. So when I'm, like, being Taya on the show or being Taya in a promo backstage or whatever it is, I know exactly how I want to be in that moment. And, like, if I was playing a different character,

maybe it would be different. But, yeah, I feel like I just am able to... And even though, like, Taya on Johnny loves Taya, and Taya in a promo about the boys being eaten by bears with Dalton Castle are completely different versions of me, they're still the same. If that makes sense. I don't know.

I get caught up in lateral moves, if you don't know what I mean. In terms of your character? Oh, like, if you're like acting, you can stay aligned five different ways. Sure. Yeah. Like, I can just pick one.

These pretzels are making me thirsty. Yeah. And these pretzels are making me thirsty. These pretzels are making me thirsty. Like, what do you enunciate? That's the kind of. concept called Tarzan words, actually. That's a real thing?

Yes, like picking which words to enunciate versus which ones to gloss over. Oh. So the more like you look into that, then you're like, I could have just said these pretzels of making me thirsty. Yeah. Which is probably how you just wrote that down. Yeah. And it started underlining pretzels and thirsty and R.

And that's what he will do. Because I'm just like, I would say it like this and I would just say it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. When I, the very little bit of acting. training that I did. I think one of the biggest things I learned was like, in real life, you don't think about punctuation. You just kind of talk. The words are coming out of your mouth. You're not thinking about comments or periods or whatever. When you look at a script,

you're like, these pretzels are making me thirsty. I'm going to eat one now. And like, it's just so strange because you kind of overthink it. Completely. One thing actually that I've learned, I think is really funny to people who don't know this is you never really, hit pronouns really hard. Like, he said this about this guy. You know what I mean? Like, we should go to the beach. And if you do that, it's really awkward.

I was going to say, I'm like, awkward. But you, I did one thing where you, I did that on purpose, because the character was basically that I was myself from the future. So, like, there's. Oh, and the speed of time. Oh, yeah. Now I'm like... With Nick Nemith.

Nick Nemith. Big Star. Nick Neumith. But like, there's all these rules that are floating around my head like that and Tarzan. He overthinks everything. Yeah, I'll put it that way. Whereas I'm just like, how can you not just spit it out? Does this, do you think any of this applies to what you're doing in the ring?

Or you've both been doing what you're doing in the ring as wrestlers for so long that that's just second nature now? Regarding like the actual matches or promos? I'd say matches. Like, maybe you're not even thinking about stuff now. Yeah, I feel like definitely everything all correlates together. But also in matches, I feel like we don't have the time to like overthink certain aspects of it. Don't realize how little time we have to put matches together.

And also just in there, like when if your time changes or if the fans are reacting a different way, or if there is an accident or like there's a million things that can go in different ways, right? So you're just kind of going instinctually. That's a different muscle, right? Is actually being able to listen. Yeah. Because I would say change in that seconds.

Right, because I would think someone who's early on in their career is just going, this is the match we planned. We need to do this. I need to give you three, four arms, you know, three four arms and this and kick this. Yeah. No, like when you're in there, especially in live television and on paper views and different things, like things can change in 0.5 of a second, and you just have to be ready to adapt with it.

So you don't have the time to like, overthink the pronunciation of something or the... And how often are you like, you know, you think you're halfway through the match with what you've planned, and then the ref's going, one minute left, and you're like, oh! I feel like it goes both ways.

Sometimes I'm like, holy, this is, this feels like it's going forever kind of thing. And then sometimes you're like, oh my God. Like, and then you're like... Usually that one. That one, yeah. Get your time. Not even that.

Every once in a while, though, you're like, okay, we hit the break spot. And they're like, okay, 10 minutes on the other side of break, you're like, 10. Yeah, it's very, like, mostly now. And I feel like now, especially because, like, I've gotten in the rhythm of, like, how time feels at AEW. And I know it's like a weird thing, but it feels different everywhere. Sure. But, like, how it feels and how the TV time feels that now I feel like it goes by so quickly. Whereas before or when you're getting used to just, like, how they.

call the times or how they break down matches or like, because every TV show is different. It's kind of like screws your head a little bit because you're just still figuring it out. But now I'm like, it just, what do you mean three minutes already gone by? Like, it just like. This is like a strange analogy.

But like say you're like, you're talking on the microphone versus wrestling a match. If you're going to make a point, maybe you take a pause before you made the point. Like the last thing my dad told me before. I never saw him again was Bada-da, and then you spit it out. In wrestling, the pause is physical.

It's not necessarily like a verbal breath. It's like if you're going to punch someone in the head, like you don't just do that. You can kind of like grab them and like think about it for as long as you want and then deliver a strike. Right. And they mean different things. They have different types of intent.

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But you've got a bunch. We have a guest star spot for Chris Van Lee. Oh, okay. So many. Yeah, we have a lot of ideas. And also, I think it's really fun because I'll tell you what my idea was for you already, like after, when we get a fucking, oh, I can't wait. Can't tell everybody on camera.

Okay, well, I'm in. I don't even care what it is. I'm in. But it's so fun because, like, I feel like at first people were just like, what is this weird thing that you guys are doing kind of, thing or didn't get it. And now it's cool because, like, I have so many people who are like, so when can I be in an episode? And they're like, can we, are we going to, are you guys going to be shooting another episode? Blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, we're done.

We're done, guys. The response has been really good. Like, if you look at the comments, like, people are like, yes, this is equal parts, hilarious and a little bit silly and goofy, but like so good. We just, I want people to just have fun with it and not overthink it and not, you know, try to analyze it because it is that. It's campy. It's John and I. It's our characters. It's, you know, Presley and Bowie are stars.

Based on the fact that we, like, really care about each other in real life, obviously. But in the show, the two characters really care about each other. Yeah. And if you're watching a show and you can tell, like, the two characters just hate each other, yeah. It's not fun to watch. Yeah. Is this a little bit of your dogs on your shoulder there?

Oh, oh, my God. Totally. I got Bowie on me. Oh, yeah. He does that. They're with you everywhere. They're literally everywhere, yeah. I mean, every other interview I've done with you guys at your house,

they've made a cameo at some point. They're very disappointed that they're not here. On camera or just off camera. They're booked right now. They might be more famous than you guys. I mean, Presley has his own action figure. So Bowie's upset. Bowie's thinking about doing an only pause.

Oh, my gosh. Just paw pictures? Oh, yeah. Pictures of his tobyn. A little to bean picks. His one pink toubing that he has. on his back foot. A lot of money we made.

It's going to be expensive if you want to see that guys. You debuted as Johnny Elite. Now you're Johnny TV. What made the switch happen? I think because Johnny Elite, like the Elite is a group already that's established. And I think Johnny Elite was like Tony's first idea. And then when I came back and it was, I'm not signed full time. It doesn't make full sense.

to have a Johnny Elite and a group called The Elite, hence Johnny TV. And TV, like we mentioned last time, TV is perfect because it's ambiguous. It could stand for anything. You've had so many names. Why not just be John Hennigan now? That's too late. I like kind of this fake name thing because it's almost like I'm someone else in the ring, whereas John Henigan, like, I could play that.

It wouldn't necessarily have to be me just like an actor playing a role in a movie. But the Johnny TV thing just spurs a whole bunch of ideas. Like, what if I was suddenly like lawnmour man and I could come out of TVs? What if I have like a TV power? Like that TV is off and suddenly it's on. Not longmore man. Cutting a promo. Like there's all kinds of just fun like puns and thinking.

that go along with TV. And also TV stands for Ty Valcray, guys. Come on. It could. Does the last name have to have two syllables so we can chant it? Because you were saying the thing about John Hennigan is you can't chant John Hennigan. That's another thing. John Hennigan.

Yeah, it's bad. Johnny Hennigan. So it's going to be like, Hennigan. Okay. But like, Johnny TV. Yeah. Johnny Mundo. Yeah, they all work.

Johnny, Nitro. Johnny, Impact. Yep. There's many more. Keep going. Johnny Blackcraft. Yeah. You got a lot.

Cabiero. But, like, Cabiero was specifically designed for people, because I was a heel, instead of saying caballero, just say a word that rhymes with caballero in Spanish. Isn't that too nice? Yeah. Oh, I'm unaware of this. It's where we're not going there. Let's speak Spanish.

We'll know what we're talking about here. Yeah. How many of these are true? trademarked? No. You know, like, I realize it's almost pointless. Like, I wish I had trademarked

Nightshow or Morrison, but, like, couldn't, because they were WDWEs IP, and they were pretty good about renewing the trademark upon expiration. So then, like, if I trademarked impacts, then I go to Luzter Underground.

Well, that doesn't make sense, yeah. And then I go to AEW. Yeah. Wherever I go now, I think, I'm going to have to change my name. But I feel like that's part of the gimmick. Yeah, that's the appeal. And people are like, I don't understand why.

It keeps changing his name. I'm like, do you not get the joke? Like, that's... As far as it, like, more names than, well, more John-based names probably than anyone in the history of wrestling. Uh-huh. Oh, definitely. The hero of the thousand names. That...

Yeah, I mean, who else could possibly have that many? I think Johnny Gargano has two. Yeah. Yeah. I challenged him, by the way, for Johnny Wrestling one time. What happened? He was excited. Then he ended up signing.

Well, maybe in the future sometimes. Yeah. That would be a cool match. The Battle of Johnny's. You could have like, winner of this match gets the moniker, Johnny Wrestling. You could have had a series here and it goes back and forth. You could have like a best out of 21 or something.

That could have been great. I mean, mixed tags. Wow. You could have been Johnny wrestling for a little bit. Yeah, that's right. Mixed tags. Husband and wife versus husband and wife. So bad for it.

his wife. Yeah. Oh, that's true. I feel bad for anybody who's in there with Taya. I wrestle Taya. I know. When you guys wrestle each other,

like, are you a little bit more stiff with each other? She is. You? Yeah, I am too. Yeah. Well,

there's this unwritten role where like the closer of a friend you are with someone in the ring, usually you hit him a little harder. 100%. For some reason. You can't get any closer friendship than husband-wife. Yeah.

And I feel like, yeah, like, some of my best matches are, like, against my best friends. And, like, every time I'm just like, what the hell? But she's also saying the same thing. And we're just, like, laughing almost. But you know, no one's going to be mad. Like, when you come back, like, no one's mad. Everyone's happy. The match is good.

And it kind of, like, you get kicked. And then you're like, oh, yeah? Well, I don't know. Kick you back. Remember when you didn't return that dress, you borrowed. Yeah. But you know, it's not intentional. You know, they're not hitting it.

100%. Right. Although, but at the same time, aren't you like, I don't want to hurt my wife. I don't want to hurt my husband. Or are you like, didn't take the trash out. Remember when he left those dishes in the sink?

Yeah. First of all, like, she's got plenty of reasons to want to kick me in the head. Second of all, like, I've kicked her really hard. And she is very tough. Like, tougher than a lot of guys. I remember in AAA a bunch of times.

and he was always pitching like misdirection spots where like I'm the one getting kicked. She's holding somebody. And Pentagon and Pentagon moves on the way and I get kicked. Super kick. And every time I was like, oh my God, what is wrong with you? And like I just have like a bootmark on the side of my face and like

Phoenix and Pentagon after I were just laughing. I'm like, this is not funny guys. Pentagon looks like he really lays it in. Maybe he's just a master of it. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. But even like Gunther was like I've never been chopped harder

than I was chopped by Pentagon. I'm like, if Gunther's saying that, then that's a hard chop. And Penta's the one that taught me how to chop. Oh, boy. So we'll just put it at the... He has the gloves on. Does that make it worse? And then he slowly changed it off. Yes. But yeah, I used to, I remember when I was first in Mexico and I would do the traditional like this way chop. And I just could not, it never made noise. It looked like shit. Like it was just not, it was not cute. And then Penta was like, you have to do it like, if to throw it like a baseball. And he taught me to throw it overhand. And like a baseball.

So that's why I chopped like that. And now I'm like, uh-huh. I don't shop. Why not? Basically, there's nothing worse than like a quiet. Yeah, no, you have to make noise. And that was the biggest thing he taught me. And like, now I love an over.

But also like, if you want to chop me, I have no problem. And I always ask people that like, like, do you want to get chopped? Yeah. Are you a person that doesn't like it? You know, certain things like that. Is you going to shot me and it gets a reaction? Yeah. And like, it's not like I'm a.

And they usually do. Yeah, but it has to make noise. I feel like someone chops you, they might hurt their hand. Like, you're just... You don't have much body fat. Yeah, but it's just a shop. It's just a chop. The secret is not bad.

If you open up and give a target, you can get a good noise, and you can always tell someone's a little bit, like, scared when they do, like, a little bit of a shoulder turn because they've had too many jobs, so they can't quite take it. Which is a really fun thing to look at. during a chop exchange, you're like, oh, one of these guys is going to give in, who's it going to be? And whoever does, like, one of those first is the guy that, like, oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I've taken chops.

I was going to say, I feel like I've seen some video of you taking chops. I went to Sean Spears and Tyler Breeze's wrestling school. And flatbacks. Yes, which is a great school in central Florida. And they were like, Spears was like, ah, but I give you a chop. And I'm like, I'll take a chop. Like, I used to train. I'm fine with that.

Yeah, didn't you do a springboard? I was first try. In your backyard. Yeah, when he had the ring. Like, was like, on Varna. Thought that he would fall. I was like, don't reach down.

You're going to, like, and he's like, who are like, what the hell? I got lucky. That in your head, like, I don't know. Look, I wanted to do this very badly. And I was at a crossroads.

And I was like, I will choose my communication studies degree and wrestling will always be there. And I'm grateful that that happened, but I feel like Chris Sharp is my wrestling character. I feel like Chris Sharp is still. He's in there. He's in here somewhere.

He'll come out in season two of Johnny Lof Taya. Every once in a while. Oh, yeah. Oh, there he is. Comes out. Chris Sharp can be a manager. He could be. I think I'm fine, just asking questions.

Thank you for letting me borrow this to prove my point. I think I'm fine with that. Well, I think Chris Sharp should definitely come out in season two. I don't know if we want them to come out. You're not CBV in season two. Oh, boy. Chris Sharp. I've already got that.

I guess your name could be good sharp. We'll discuss it afterwards. You know, who cares? When's Barracane happening? Oh, geez. Did you see episode nine? I did. The script of Barricane, too.

You know, Barricane is still CBD. It's, uh, people are clamoring. for it. Revelstoke. There's a lot of bears that he would be good for, get them work. They've seen the poster.

Yep. There's, yeah. We've got a lot of bear-related storylines. Tony Kahn could fund this. I feel like he should. Barracane. Barricane.

Tony. Barracane. And then two and three and four and five. Franchise. Yeah. Theme parks. I mean, if Shark Nato could work, Barricane is, it's right there.

Oh, right there for the taking. And CGS. so much better now. Very true. You know, originally, I pitched bear cane to the Shark Nato guys because I was in Shark Nato 5. That's right. And they specifically said that the fur on the bears is like way more expensive than a CGI shark. Oh, wow.

And it made sense. Yeah. Yeah. But I think the technology's improved. 2024, 2025, you know. Isn't the whole thing with like with something like that? They make each individual hair on the animal, right? Isn't that how it works?

Not a CGI person. For CGI or practical? Well, it would be CGI. You're not having practical bears. You've got to have people in bear suits. You have to have both for what I want to do because sea sharks, they know, they're just shooting and shots and guns. It got a little ridiculous.

Bearcane, I think. You want to wrestle sharks. I want to be hitting, like, Canadian disorders and these things. Yeah. Man. And that's like a whole different level of like difficulty. So who's going to be in these bearsuits? All of our friends that we can convince.

Tall, tall wrestlers that can take Canadians? It's not every wrestler? And misdirections of super kicks right in the face? Can every wrestler take a Canadian destroyer? No. No. Oh.

Liz can't. What? Oh. Isn't it just, do you jump? No. Oh. There's a little more to it. Yeah.

For some reason, I think you could. I'd love to give it a try. Maybe. Chris Sharp could, though, for sure. Oh, I might need to borrow this glasses. I'd be really worried about landing on my head. It's the secret is you have to trust the person that is delivering the Canadian. I trust you.

Because they can protect you or not. Yeah. With your legs. Yeah. And if they don't protect you, you have to protect yourself. You look like you gave a great one. Bunny gave a great one. Bad bunny gave a great one to you.

He protected back. He didn't really protect me. He didn't know. His timing and everything was perfect. It looked fantastic, though. But I knew ahead of time, if you watched back, my elbows were past my head. Which is the secret for it. To protect yourself.

Because if you land in your head, you're landing all your weight in your neck. Yeah. But if he's supporting himself, like, with his shoulders. So if you've got the guy's legs. and you land like this, you're landing basically on that, which I spend a lot of time training. Protect yourself. So why didn't it work with Bad Bunny?

No, it was perfect. Oh, it was perfect. But he's, you know, I just, like, that was the first Canadian he gave live. And he did, his timing was perfect. He didn't even practice on, like, crash mats? No, we practiced on crash mats. Oh, okay.

But I mean, live. Oh, yeah. And, like, also, like, without the crash mats. Oh, man. There's a couple of the crash mats that we did. There was one he gave me on a crash mat that almost flew out of the ring. Man. He's a very quick and good learner, because he could whip and tuck and grab, so we'd get a lot of momentum,

which made me feel really good about hitting it at WrestleMania. And you did it, and it looked great. And that was kind of like, that was a line in the sand, I think, for people to go, oh, Bad Bunny actually can do this thing. Yeah. Wow. And he cares and it shows. Like that I think is the biggest thing for sure.

Yeah, he didn't just, from what I understand, didn't just show up. No. Well, let me talk about this last time. He moved to Orlando and trained. Yeah. Same with the match for. Very seriously. Yep.

Yeah. Like, he does not want to have a bad wrestling match because he really respects and is a fan of the business. Yeah. And he's got all that entertainment background so he knows how to entertain. If anyone, like, To me, I think he's the most high profile, humble, and deserving star celebrity guests that wrestling's had. He's such a megastar. And for him to be willing to take those risks is actually pretty crazy.

And he pulled it off. Yeah. Pulled it off. But he's a fan his whole life, you know? And he committed to it. And John's an expert with celebrity matches. Yeah. Maybe we'll still collaborate on one of those reggaeton songs.

Yeah. Oh, it could go both ways. Maybe on season two of Johnny Loves Taya, he could do the musical version two episode. You never know. It won't. Bad Bunny. I feel like we need a title shot for you, Taya.

I feel like this needs to happen. I mean, duh. Yeah. And I feel like people who have maybe just only seen your work in AEW and are familiar with what you've done in AAA, Looch Underground. It's very annoying. When people act like they don't know. Maybe they don't know.

Maybe they don't. Yeah. I mean, clearly they don't know or else, you know. I mean, there's something that don't. When the first time we went out together and when we came back, like, there's a dozen people that were like, wow. Whoa. You guys have really good chemistry. And we're like, well, we started working together in 2015 and have worked.

We're married almost six years. You know we're married, right? Yeah. We're worth each other. How many countries have you guys wrestled in together? It's got to be like a dozen, right? Maybe more? I don't know.

Over 10. A lot. But we work together quite a bit. That's why it was interesting. It was very interesting. So where do these people who haven't seen that work? Did they need to go back to AAA? Should they watch some of those matches?

I hate referring to old matches because if we had a match tomorrow, it would be so much better than this. Yeah. Yeah, like even when I watch like clips of us on Looch Underground, which like people bring up all the time or impact, which when we were both like heel champions and everything, like I just kind of almost still giggle at it because I'm like, my God, this feels like it was so long ago. And we've evolved and changed so much. And I feel like our confidence and everything has evolved so much. And I think that that's what's interesting now is like we have grown both not only as human beings, but as merry couple, as performers and as entertainers that like whatever we're putting out now is just even so much better. than what it was, even though people always want to go back and be like, well, I really liked this.

I'm like, well, let us show you how much more cool and better we are now. And I'm just excited to see what's going to happen next with our stories and where we're going to go and for both of us to have the opportunity to showcase what we've worked our entire lives in, which is entertaining and pro wrestling and the magic that is Johnny and Taya on TV. I think people bring up Looch Underground because they're very nostalgic. Oh, always. Everyone loves me.

And that was one of those things that was taken away. like, before we were ready for it to be taken away. It's like when the boyfriend or girlfriend breaks up with you instead of you breaking up with them, you're like, oh, but I still. I'm not ready. Yeah, we were going to go to that wedding together this summer. And then you win them back, and then you break up with her just so you can win. Ah.

Just so it ends on your terms. Don't do that. Don't do that. Yeah, like for us even, like the next season that was going to come of Looch Underground, we were supposed to feud. Guys. Because the finale was she was possessed by that demon. I was possessed by a demon.

I was a god. I attacked him in a locker room and strangled him on the bed. Did you see that? I did it by him. And she's like, I'm not your wife. Yeah. I'm a god.

So like we never got to do that. And it's so sad. We also feel the nostalgia. We also feel like the disappointment that we didn't get to finish the story. But toggling back and forth between being like my wife and like this evil demon. Yeah. We had so many ideas you can only imagine. But yeah, like,

the thing. We love thinking about those things, but it's more exciting for both of us to think about what's going to happen and, like, for me to go after championships, for him to go after championships, for us to have new rivals. And stories. Yeah, stories more than anything. And just creating this new era of Johnny and Taya. That's the biggest thing is stories what brings us into this. Stories is what makes us hooked in wrestling. That's what I liked about the Dalton story. It didn't involve titles. And title is like everyone's first go-to. Like, Who's the best? I'm the best.

I'm the best. Let's see when we wrestle for the heavyweight title on Wednesday. And that is cool. And that's something to be said. But since not every story can beat that, it's good to think of other things. The United States Soccer Federation present the U.S. soccer podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Clemenberg. 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're just really excited just as the people are.

The U.S. Soccer Podcast, presented by Henko. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. I think that both of you guys should have titles, and I think that it's just a matter of time before this happens. For example, I'd love to see... you versus Tony Storm or you versus Soraya. But in more than just like a one-off, like it was a story. Yeah.

Me and Tony have only wrestled one time in Calgary that battled the belts last summer. And the finish of the match was actually not even on TV because of a hailstorm that happened in Calgary, Alberta. So no one even saw the finish of the match. And I think that the work that Tony Storm is doing right now as timeless Tony Storm is absolutely fantastic. And I know that that character with Ty Valkyrie's character would be pretty iconic and very fun if it means that we are rivals, if it means that we are, you know, two Hollywood starlets from different eras. You know, it just would be very interesting. And then like what he said about Saraya, like Saraya and her brother are very interesting to us too because neither of us have wrestled either one of them. I think that they're an interesting dynamic.

I think that they would lead to first-time matchups also mixed tags and things which we really want to do because we haven't had the opportunity to do any mixed tags. And we have a really cute matching gear guys. Yeah, a lot of it. And, like, I just think it would be really fun. And, like, I just were always... Well, they're both very good, but also very different from us. Yeah, they're very different from us.

They also, you know, love wrestling and telling stories. And they, you know, I think that we could really create something really magical and different. And it'd be special, I think. Yeah. And I think that... Is your TV ready? Are they not? That's our thing.

No, if they're TV ready? Are you TV ready? I think so. I'm not TV for 20 years now. Wow. We'll have to test. Find out. We've got to get another ring.

Yeah. Oh, boy. Do something crazier than a springboard? Could I do Star-Shapain? Could you? No. Yes. You heard it here, folks.

No. Next time, we're getting a ring. Chris Sharp. Chris Sharp. Maybe it'll be Sharp. There you go. How did you come up with Starship Pain? I went through this phase as John Morrison where I was writing poems.

And one of them was called Starship Pain. But how did you come up with the actual, like, move of it? Oh. I'm like, what? Well, yeah, the titles were interesting to me. So basically, like, my finisher. it was like a yang time. Crossed true off the top.

And even in my 20s, it started just taking a lot out of me. Like, that's a lot of impact on your knees, your elbows. And then I realized they could hit like RVD split leg with a twist. And it

looks cool because it's fast. But if you think about, like, you're basically three to four feet lower. And that's much less, like, speed and like force on the landing, which is, I came up with it basically to save my knees. Wow. Is there anything now for both of you guys that when you get out of bed in the morning hurts?

Is there anything that doesn't hurt? I feel great. Taya watches me get off. It's like a roll onto the grass. And I have like, you know, like in, you know, in Hollywood, they call it efforts. making noises. I'm like, are you going to die? What is going on?

The rest of us call them dad noises. Yeah, shut up. I'm like, what is? Just go to the bathroom and close the door. Efforts. You're waking me up. Honestly, physically, I feel better now that I have in a long time. Is it that your schedule is lighter now?

Is that what it is? I mean, I think there's just like a number of things. I just think I take better care of myself. I think that I'm not wrestling five days a week. I think that I've just perfected my ability to survive. Survive. Training, strategy. You've been working.

Yeah, I work really hard. I've, like, lost almost 40 pounds in the last 10 months. There's just a lot of things. But I feel like, yeah, I'm just in like a really good place, physically, mentally, the best I've felt, yeah, in probably years. Yeah, you look dialed in. Thank you. Yeah, you look jacked.

Thank you. Stacked. and ready to attack. I'm like, oh, no, where's it going? It's, you look like you're on top of your game, too. Like, not that you ever weren't, but I don't know, there's something that you're doing now that feels like it's like the best you've, you've been.

Well, that's the thing. Like, I also, because someone, one of my girlfriends is like, what are you doing? What's going? What changed? And I'm just, you know, I just, and I think more than anything, it was like mentally being in a good place. And I feel like I was struggling a lot. especially after WW with self-confidence and anxiety from my whole experience.

And, like, you know, it was my experience. No one can, like, say they know how I felt or what I went through or whatever. And the things that come from that and, like, the self-doubt. And then, you know, the internet and, like, people love to come after. I mean, anyone who's in public eye, I feel like that goes for everybody. But I feel like women are given a lot harder time, most of the time. And, you know, I dealt with a lot of that. You responded to, which I really appreciate.

Yeah, and I bite my tongue and I try to not instigate because when you respond, it creates, like, it's like putting chum in the water and the sharks come. You know what I mean? Like, it just, even though I feel like I have to stand up for myself and sometimes I just have to because I can't take it anymore, I've learned to just like step back and like separate myself from that because it's not real. And like, I just started just really taking a look inside myself and inside like what I wanted of like. and what I want professionally and personally and everything. And I've just been in a better place mentally where, like, I was ready to, like, make the changes that I needed to do to get to where I am now. And so I don't want to say, like, I don't care what people think anymore because that's not true.

But I just... Yeah, like, I just started just being like, you know what? Like, people are going to love me. People are going to hate me. People are going to have problem no matter what I do. I'm not going to make everyone happy. People are going to talk shit about everything no matter what. And, like, Twitter X or whatever has just become an absolute.

cesspool of opinions from people that will never ever live my life or understand where I'm coming from or can't lace my boots or can't like people are giving opinions about things they don't even know. I said like you trip falling out of bed and you're trying to tell me that I need to be better at my job. I'm like, I don't come to your work and tell you that. I don't know what you do for living and I don't care. But like I've just come to a place where I just am confident my ability and understanding that I will not make everyone happy and I have to be okay with that. And I think that that has really changed my perspective and my confidence and what you see now is a result of that. Confluence to me.

Yeah. I'm just, I'm just, yeah. Like, when I watch Taya now, I feel like she has 100% confidence. And out of that confidence,

sometimes comes just like weird stuff. Oh, yeah, I do all sorts of weird. You can't plan, but she knows where the camera is. It's organic. And those are the moments.

that you don't plan that just happen that I think are the best. And because I'm so much more confident in myself more than

the physical at all I think it's definitely like a mental thing. And like I learned this from Presley basically. So like Presley is a shark guy and the sharks actually

but um a serious conversation and you go to France welcome to my life everybody. If a shark stops swimming his eyes. That's right. And if you're not chumming the water

the sharks aren't swimming so ba-b-b-b-b-b-b-da- there they go. Killing the sharks. Killed them sharks. Confidence 100%. And now you get a TV ready tie. It's too much to call those people on Twitter sharks.

So we don't want to do that either. Bottom feeders. We just did sharks so we could make the reference. The wrestling. It goes way back to that Woody Allen quote. But yeah, I don't know. How does your brain work? It's very complicated.

I deal with this on a regular racist. Like a relationship is kind of like a shark. A shark when it stops moving instead. And what we got here is a. that shark. You don't know that one? No. I think it's an Einstein quote, like

life's like a bicycle, like in order to keep the balance, you've got to keep going. Yeah, that or force gum. It's the first cum quote? No, it was ice. Life is like a box of chocolates. That's that. I know.

You know, it's life is like a box of chocolates too. That's the Mandela effect. People think it's life was like a box of chocolates. Oh, really? Yeah. I always thought it was life is. Yeah. Oh, life is like a box chocolate.

Yeah. Life was like. No, no, it's the other way around. Life was like a box. I don't know. It doesn't matter. Anyways, what I'm trying to say is that I am confident. I do what I want.

I don't care what people say. And I work my butt off and everyone should recognize that. And they do? Yeah. Life was like a box of chocolates. Either was or is. Chocolates are good. I like chocolate.

Man. I've always wanted to ask you about the moonsault with the ladder. How did you even think it was possible to do a moon salt with a lot? ladder. You know, I didn't really know. It's another job thing. I'm just going to figure it out. Just live on television at WrestleMania.

So, Roslmoney 24 comes out. No, this was before Snokey. Was that before Snokey? 25, I think, was Snokey. This is pretty snooky or 26. Anyway. But basically, if you think about it, a ladder is lighter than a person, right? And now we've seen guys like Bandito doing moonsols with people.

Holding a human. Which is nuts. The hardest part for me about that was climbing up to the top rope while holding a ladder. Because you don't have a free hand. And then now suddenly you're like got this awkward. It's not like a little weight. It's just like a big awkward thing that's bumping into the ropes where you're trying to march up. Yeah, it's not exactly small.

But then you got the landing too. for myself. I was like, this is one of the first times I've been on mania in a featured match. There had been like three years in a row where you got a tag match. And then like the day before like, your tag match is now the dark match. And for this one match, I was like, okay, I'm going to do a few things that are going to be my WrestleMania moments at this match. And I don't care what happens, but they're having.

I'd be worried being the person getting moonsaulted on with a lot or more than it. Well, if you watched the clip closely, nobody. Nobody was there. Bill left. They cut. And luckily, I kind of landed on my feet and rolled back and, like, knocked into everyone. But no one really caught me. I'd be worried about your landing.

In WrestleMania 24, that wasn't the worst for me. If I did a back flip from the top rope onto my feet now, the ankles and knees would not be happy. What was the worst for you? On that one? Yeah. Actually, that was fine. The suplex, let's see,

Shelton gave Kennedy a sunset power bomb while I was hooked for a superplex on top of the ladder. That one hurt worse than the ladder. That sounds horrible. especially because of the positioning, I landed very close to the side of the ring. And I remember thinking like, oh, God, I guess to roll out now for a little bit. And I think that must have also been the match that, like,

the ladder got tipped and I thought I was going to be able to nutshot myself really easily. And I did nutshot myself. But, like, I didn't get a foot on the bottom. Like, I don't know, like, to this day, like, how I didn't, like, rupture, but not or a sad. I don't know what happens. Like, you know, like, whatever you call it, the medical term.

Yeah. Like, not damage. Yeah, rupture. Yeah. Explode. Oh, my God. I think it kind of like scraped the side and it still like did like a little pinch. But, um.

All right. Anyway. Yeah, yeah. Subject change. Speaking of ladders, what were you thinking when you were in the ring when Joey Mercury ate that ladder? If you watch that clip close, we both took the ladder. I'm a little taller than Joey,

and he was over, leaned over, and the ladder hit me on the chin, and I went out one side of the ring, his eye, and he went out this way. I didn't see what happened to him. I thought my jaw was broken. I'd never been hit that hard in my life. And I was on the floor holding my jaw

and just, like, quietly trying to decide if I was hurt or injured. And then... Because there's a difference. Yeah. If you're injured, then you're like, I'm done, match over. If you're hurt, you're like, I can go.

I can finish this. So a minute or two goes by, and it's almost time for me and Joey to run back in the ring. And I crawled over and I was like, where's Joey? And I looked up the ramp and just saw this trail of blood

and like the trainers escorting him out. I'm thinking to myself like, oh. Yeah. We saw a lot of stuff. stuff left. And then I just kind of ran in and tried to do my best to do what we were both supposed to do as a tag team by myself. Wow. And then, man, that night was rough. Like, we were in the hospital for about six hours. He stitched his cartilage that reset his bone

and his orbital. And then they stitched his skin on top of his stitched cartilage. Wow. Yeah. I think that's the gnarliest ladder accident I've seen to this day. But because the second it hits him, His face just immediately starts bleeding. It's like he does this, and when he takes his hands off, it's like a pump. Just like someone like... Well, yeah, and your face and your head always bleed a lot. I mean, he had broken nose, broken orbital. Like, just, he was messed up.

What's the most painful spot you've been in Tyah? Um, I mean, I've been very lucky in my 13, 14 years of wrestling. like that knock on wood. Place, there's plenty of it here. No, like having my nose broken sucked. I mean, I've been kicked and dropped and all sorts of things. Like, you know, especially like with some people aren't there to catch you when you're diving the outside. I've had several of those.

I've had several, you know, different people kick me in the head that weren't supposed to kick me like that. Come on, John. I've been power bombed multiple times by Brian Cage. That sucked. There's the one where, like, you got bumps off the apron and someone was supposed to. to catch you? Remember that? No, it was a trust fall to the outside off the top, or on the second rope.

But it's like right there. You just didn't catch me. I hit the ground. It's not funny, but like. Or this was during COVID times. I was not caught doing this like trust fall thing. And during COVID times for TV, like people don't realize that sometimes they were like, stop, do you want to do it again?

Oh. And I was like, no. We're just going to keep going. Like I was like, I'm not doing that again. I think there's a lot of that. But, yeah, I think, yeah, I don't know. I've been very lucky and I will keep being healthy and not broken. Do you think we'll get to a point where you guys work each other in AEW?

I mean, I would love to. In AEW, it's tricky because they're not, they got nature, gender violence. And, man, I'd love to beat the crap out of attire. Because I think that shows... Right back at you, babe. Don't you think? Like, treating each other like equals, being able to punch each other and kick each other in the face.

And also, we've, like, done it before. Like, we've had two matches against each other. We've also tagged together against each other. We've, like, you know, in the world of professional wrestling... And we're talking about performance are, obviously. Yes, this is not... Come on, guys. But, yeah, like, this is...

A wrestling match. This is wrestling. I mean, he's the best wrestler in the world, in my opinion. And, of course, I want to wrestle the best wrestler. the best wrestler in the world. So I would love to have a match against him. But, you know, top two wrestlers in the world right there.

Boom. Well, I hope everybody goes and checks out. Johnny loves Taya. Yes. Episode 10, the season finale. The season finale. It comes out tomorrow as this is airing. I mean, I don't know what you guys have up your sleeve

because the first nine episodes have just been all kinds of wildness and silliness and campiness and fun. We're going to close it out with the biggest blowout coolest finale. in all of John Lipsy history. A lot of surprises. I don't usually wear sleeves, but... You're wearing sleeves? No, I don't usually wear sleeves.

Oh. I mean, I'm professional for... You're wearing sleeves right now, yeah. Yeah, I didn't want to just show up like a meter. Does that T-shirt have sleeves? No, but it's an extra medium. It's a TV medium. It's a medium for sure.

Or TV large, as we call it. TV large. But the finale has, like, a lot of, like, special guests and different people and other people from the AW roster. and we worked really hard on this entire season on this really special project. And I hope that everyone's really enjoyed these 10 episodes and hopefully we can do 10 more.

Look forward to do it. How can I be as ripped as you 24-7? What are you training at? L.A. Fitness? We got us? Okay. I'm going to let to work on a schedule. Okay.

You need a workout together. You need a workout. You need intermittent. like cardio for your actual cardio, but then you need recovery, cardio, steady state to recover so your muscles recover. And then if you want to specify, you can do a skill because you can work skills longer than you can train. So maybe like four or five hours a day. We're talking like five, six, seven days a week. I have a child. Well, I have the child work out too. The child. A little bit of Hercules. But something cool. Like, little.

Chris Sharp. Yeah. Her name's Logan. Little Logan Sharp. Yeah. She is going to be. Oh, she's going to be Jack. She's going to take down Brock Lezor's daughter.

Oh, wow. Wouldn't that be something? Brock Lezzer's daughter is like a mini beast. I would run away from her too. Yeah. She looks like she's like six, four. I think I don't know away from her, but she just shot foot me. She was.

Yeah. Before I. can get away. But congrats on the show. Thank you so much. Congrats on allowing your creative juices to flow very freely in this. I love it. Thank you. And like we just want everyone, yeah, to enjoy the show, enjoy AEW. Keep following everything that we're doing, the Mr. and Mrs. TV. And hopefully we'll have some cool things to announce soon. We'll start with Miss TV. What are three things that you are grateful for in your life right now? I am grateful for our marriage and our love for each other. I'm grateful for the optimism and happiness and excitement I have for what's next.

And grateful for my family friends. That's good. I love optimism. That's great. Mr. TV. Okay. It's your last name. Yeah.

Dang. First, it's really good ones. You just copy hers. I'm grateful for daddy's boy, boy. Mommy's boy, Presley. Most of all, I'm grateful for the first lady's. in town. Me.

Thanks, guys. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Of course. And Chris Sharp. I'm grateful for Chris Sharp. We were almost cut there too. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Now we can cut. Well, there we go. Big thank you to Johnny and Taya for coming into the new studio, West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood. What a great looking spot.

Go check out this interview on my YouTube channel, and you'll see exactly what I mean. Just such a cool atmosphere sitting there at the table. I don't know. It just feels great. Go check it out. It feels great, but it looks even better. So go find that on YouTube.

And while you're on YouTube, go check out Johnny Loves Taya. It's funny because the intro to their show is Johnny loves Taya. You'll see as soon as you watch this, that'll be stuck in your head, along with all the other songs that they sing on the show. Go check it out on AEW's YouTube show. channel and you will be hooked. Snap a screenshot. Let us know that you loved this episode and tag us so we can share it out.

She's at the tie of Alchari. He's at John Hennigan on Instagram at the Real Morrison on Twitter. And I will leave you with this unknown quote to end this episode. It is fruitless to wish you had started years ago. In the future, you will wish that you started today. Be great.

be grateful we will see you on the next one for some more insight with the man Becky Lynch we'll see you on Thursday the Hammer Alley podcast an 80s flashback mockumentary back in the 80s there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock but there was one band that had it all Hammer Alley whatever happened to Hammer Alley How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video

They're a band from 1987 Hammer Alley Ever heard of then? To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Alley. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.