Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Justin Roberts on signing with AEW, leaving WWE, his famous "John Cena" and "Undertaker" intros

Episode Date: July 5, 2019

Justin Roberts sits down with Chris Van Vliet at his house in Phoenix, AZ. He talks about leaving WWE, signing with AEW, Brandi Rhodes, Double or Nothing, his famous introductions of "John Cena" and "The Undertaker" and much more! Audio equipment provided by Samson Technologies: bit.ly/CVVSamson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This podcast episode is brought to you by Coors Light. These days, everything is go, go, go. It's nonstop hustle all the time. Work, friends, family. Expect you to be on 24-7? Well, sometimes you just need to reach for a Coors Light because it's made to chill. Coors Light is cold-loggered, cold filtered, and cold packaged. It's as crisp and refreshing as the Colorado Rockies.

It is literally made to chill. Coors Light is the one I choose when I need to unwind. so when you want to hit reset, reach for the beer that's made to chill. Get Coors Light and the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart. Celebrate responsibly. Coors Brewing Company, Golden Colorado. It's Chrysmania, brother. That's a great question.

Look at you, man. With the powerful questions. Woo! This is the Chris Van Vleecho. Chris Van Bleach Show. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris! I love that it's Justin Roberts

who announces me in the intro of every episode and now we've got the full interview with him welcome again my friends to the Chris Van Vleach show thank you for downloading this episode thank you for the five star reviews that you've been leaving it's pretty awesome we've had over 100 reviews so far 113 to be exact as I post this here in the US and the podcast as of today as of right now

is only 11 days old so please keep them coming in. Let's keep the podcast growing. And we're going to continue to put out the audio version of these interviews. So you don't have to stare at us on YouTube the whole time. Don't worry, though, for all my YouTube subscribers, YouTube will always be the most important thing. But the podcast will always be an option for you as well. I've been reading one of these five-star reviews at the start of every episode as a way to say thanks. Also a way to say that, hey, if you leave one, maybe you can be part of this show too. The Steve Guy, he's part of the show now. He writes, top-notch as the headline. Chris Van Vleet is a top-notch interviewer of all kinds of personalities. Comes as no surprise that he does such an amazing job talking about a subject he loves like pro-rassling with all its stars. And yeah, he spelled rassling with an R at the start. So thank you, Steve.

It's true. I love me some pro-rassling. I actually wanted to be a pro-rassler growing up. I went to wrestling school for a short time when I was in college. I've told the story before. But basically between driving an hour each way, four days a week, to train to be a wrestler and going to college, something had to give. I couldn't do both.

So I'm happy that my college degree has allowed me to be a broadcaster, to be on television, to be on radio, to now have a YouTube channel and be a podcaster. It's kind of all come together. And I'm happy I'm able to be part of the wrestling world in some sort of small way with these interviews. and also working as a ring announcer. I work currently as a ring announcer for Blueprint Pro Wrestling in Deerfield Beach, Florida. And that brings me to this chat with Justin Roberts. He was the voice of WWE for 12 years with his iconic introductions of The Undertaker,

Jeff Hardy, and of course Gian Sina. Yeah. Interesting how he still says John the same way in his introduction with John Moxley. Did you catch that at Fight for the Fallon? It was always his dream to work for WWE. He wrote a fascinating book about his journey there called Best Seat in the House, Your Backstage Pass Through My WVE Journey, where he talks about how, yes, he was able to work in WWE,

but it wasn't exactly everything he dreamed it would be once he got there. He goes in a lot of details about his issues that Triple H had with him, and we talk in this interview about why he decided after five years away from wrestling that he signed with AEW. But first, the Chris Van Fleet Show brought to you by Green Roads, and not all CBD products are created equal. I mean, we've heard a lot about CBD over the last year or two, and a lot of companies have launched, hoping to cash in on this CBD boom, but they've got low quality formulas. Some of them don't even have actual CBD in them. Green Roads, though, was founded by pharmacists, and they're dedicated to improving the lives of people who take it.

And people like me, I take it. I take the CBD oil. A few drops under my tongue. Super easy to take. It's helped a lot with inflammation. And also helped a lot with focus. It's not a miracle drug by any means, but it's kind of helped, you know, just one of those days when you feel like your brain's going 1,000 miles an hour, it takes your brain down to like,

you know, maybe just a dozen miles an hour or something like that. So I enjoy it. Also, the relaxed gummies have been really good. And they taste like actual gummy bears. So use my code, Chris 15, to get 15% off your order. at greenroadsworld.com. The CVV show also brought into your ears by Samson Technology

and they've really helped out with the amazing audio equipment that we're podcasting on. I mean, we've only had a handful of podcast episodes under our belt. I'd say we're sounding pretty good. You can go to samsonTech.com to see all their products.

Now, I know you're listening to the audio version of this instead of watching the YouTube interview, but I encourage you to check out the interview just because when, Justin says he's a fan. He means he's a hardcore fan. His office is like a shrine or like a museum of wrestling.

And the memories he's had in the wrestling business and it's all up there. I mean, it's unlike anything I've ever seen before. Justin's someone I really look up to and admire that he set a very specific goal to work as a ring announcer. You know, we talk a lot about specific goals and not vague goals. He set this goal to work as a very specific goal. to work as the ring announcer at the top level and he wouldn't stop until he accomplished it. He did it for WWE.

Now he's doing it for AEW and there is a ton of little nuggets of knowledge to take out of this, both for wrestling and just for life in general. So please enjoy my chat with Justin. Try to be a ring announcer here. Roberts! Well, thank you for inviting me into your house.

Welcome. And you can clearly see that you're, I guess you're a little bit of a wrestling fan. A little bit. Yeah. A little bit. Maybe too much. Maybe.

I think for wrestling fans, all in was the first time that they saw you in like four-ish years. Yeah, I'm going on the fifth year right now. Of being gone from WWA. Disappeared. No, you're not disappeared. No. What have you been up to? Anything that's popped up that sounds fun.

I've been touring with Tool for the past few years. and done some TV shows, some movies. I've announced for World Arm Wrestling League. I've announced for Lion Fight Muay Thai. Just anything that's popped up, a lot of voiceover work. Trying everything. When you say you're on tour with Tool, what are you doing with them? I'm hosting their events.

They started experimenting with like VIP events, and then I would come in and say, hey, what if we do this or what if we try this? And just hosting things, events as they pop up. just whatever they need. And it's been fun. So I read your book. Do that during the day and then watch them play at night. That's not a bad good.

Yeah. I read your book and you were talking about you got that job with Tool because they're massive wrestling fans. Yeah, Adam Jones is a big wrestling fan and we used to always talk and just talk about everything, not really tool, not really wrestling. We just talk. And when I wasn't in the company anymore, he said, hey, when I was with the company, he asked, would you want to introduce us at a show? I said, yeah, that'd be awesome. So I introduced them and that was cool.

When I wasn't with the company, he said, hey, we have this event coming to Arizona. I think you'd be the perfect host for it. You want to give it a shot. So I did it and it was a lot of fun. And that night he came up to me and he goes, that was awesome. You have to come on tour with us. I was like, okay, twist my arm. And then that was it.

I think we need to point out the fact that you're pretty much the size of a wrestler now. Just for your challenge. This is amazing. Obviously, you've been in the gym. gym and people don't usually see this because you're wearing a suit or a tuxedo, but you've been working out a lot. Yeah, just trying to be healthy. I was on the road for a really long time and it wasn't as easy to eat well and to be in the gym five days a week. So I just take that pretty seriously and trying to get in good shape and get ready for May 25th. And now this will all be covered up,

May 25th, Double or nothing. Congratulations on the, you know, I'm being the ring announcer with AEW at Double or Nothing. Thank you. Thank you. I'm excited for it. looking forward to it. Had that all come together? I did all in in September and then that was awesome. That was an amazing show. I had a great time and then I got a call and said, hey, are you available to do some other stuff? If anything pops up? I said, yep. And so then I got the text. I got a text and it was Brandy. She asked me about doing it. I said, yeah, absolutely. I would love to. You were actually the one who trained Brandy when Brandy was a ring-en-ass. This is all coming full circle.

Yeah. Yep, I trained Brandy in Knoxville. That was the first time that I had met her. We met in catering and she was going to be a ring announcer. So it was like, hey, teach Brandy what you can and she's going to be announcing. So we sat down and she picked up everything very quickly. She was very good. Great personality.

And I knew she was going to be good. And she was a great person on top of it. I think for a lot of people, when they saw you at Double or Nothing, or they saw you at All In, they're like, oh, there he is. We haven't seen him in so long. Yeah, it disappeared and then suddenly reappeared. You write in your book about how WWE and Vince specifically told you to tone down your ring announcing. When you went in for All In, did they give you any sort of guidance? It was kind of the opposite. It was, go out there and be you. Cody and the Young Buck said, go out there and turn your volume up, you know, be yourself, do what you do.

And so I kind of forgot what I did. I was in a groove. I was doing it four times a week every single week. And then to not be in a wrestling ring for a long time and then to show up in the middle of the ring at all in, it was like, oh, I need to get in that groove. So I think I eventually found that groove. Have you been told anything for double or nothing? No.

No, I haven't been told. I haven't asked anything. I'm a wrestling fan, as you could see. Oh, really? I couldn't tell. I love watching The Road to Double or Nothing each week and watching being the elite on YouTube. Both shows are on YouTube.

And each show gives a little hint of something to come. And I love waiting each week for those shows and finding out just a little bit of, oh, cool, this person's going to be on board. And that's going to happen. And I love watching as a fan and not knowing anything up front. And you write in your book about how you never want to know the finishes to matches, too.

No, I like to sit there and enjoy it as a fan and be on the edge of my seed. And are you going to say, the winner is this guy or the winner is this guy? You don't know because you don't. So it's truly special. I mean, think back to like the Undertaker Brock Lesnar match when Barack ended the streak. I didn't know the outcome. So when I made the announcement, it was a real announcement, you know? I was there.

I was there in New Orleans and we all just kind of stared at each other like we didn't know. Yeah. Was that supposed to happen? Yeah. Like, was that a mistake? Because it was a big pause before you made the announcement too. It was about a minute pause, which wasn't normal. It's usually the bell and then the announcement.

Yeah. And the bell rang and my stomach dropped. And I just, I looked at it. I'm like, is this a mistake? I didn't know. And I just sat there. And then like a minute later, Mark Yaten, the timekeeper went, which was my cue to make an announcement. so here's your winner.

Was that one of the more memorable calls that you had? Yeah, for sure. And I always say it was one of my biggest post-match announcements that got the most minimal reaction because it wasn't everybody booing. It wasn't everybody cheering. It was just, huh? Like, it was different.

This was a different, huge announcement, different reaction. As a lifelong wrestling fan myself, it has always been my dream to work for WWE. Then I read your book. Follow your dreams. Right.

And your book certainly talks a lot about following your dreams. If there's anything negative, though, in my book about my experience, I would never want that to turn you off of working for that company. My book is my experience isn't what I went through.

But to anybody who says, hey, I want to work there, absolutely, follow your dreams. Go work there. And hopefully you're going to have an awesome experience all the way around. So don't, don't let anything that was, you know, possibly negative in the book deter you from doing that. I guess there were just times that I was, you know, kind of blown away by the fact that you'd be told one thing, you'd go do it,

and then you come to the back and they go, why'd you do it that way? And you'd be like, because you told me to do it that way. Yeah, no, I didn't say that part. I would just say, I don't know, I'm sorry. That's right. Oh, yeah, oops, I didn't mean to do that. Have there you talk very openly about how triple H was not that nice to you. Has there been any backlash from him? I just, you know, I said that we weren't on the same page and we weren't. But there are a lot of people that I worked with where we're on the same page. We had a great relationship.

He and I didn't. And that was that, you know, it's that's in the past. I don't work there anymore. So we don't have to work together. So. who are some people that you were on the same page with are still on the same page with who do you still keep in touch with a lot of guys you're there you're with them more than you're with your family and friends for so long and you know them they know you and um you're obviously into wrestling and into the

same things and you're on the same page and you work together really well so you have that bond and you stay in touch just because you don't work at the same company anymore doesn't mean that you don't stay in touch so there's a lot of people that i still talk to you're you're on the same and I've met so many great people that are so many. So, I mean, obviously you live here in Phoenix. Thank you for inviting me into your home. Dolph Ziegler lives here as well. We did an interview in his backyard a couple months ago.

And then he interviewed you. Wow, you've been watching the channel. Yeah, you're great. I think you do a great job. Oh, well, thank you. So I was happy when you reached out about doing this. Yeah, no. And people ask me all the time, how did you get to interview this person

or how do you get interviews in general? And, you know, to put this out there, I sent you a DM and you, you know, I'm very grateful that you responded, and we kind of took things from there. I don't imagine that you respond to everyone's DMs, though. No, I don't look at the folder when you don't follow. I know the folder, yeah. Yeah, yours came in, and I saw it, and I had just seen your interview with Dolph and with Chris Jericho,

and I like the idea of the backyard, and then Jericho and the limo, and this is cool. He's very good. He's very good at what he does. He asks great questions, and it's not a traditional. like, hey, let's be in front of a green screen, whatever. It's something random like this. Yeah, well, a lot of wrestling interviews will put their logo back up here.

Well, I'd rather do it in an interesting place. Like, I've had so many people, like, when I've just been at the grocery store or something, go, oh, I saw that time you did an interview with Chris Jericho in a car. Yeah, that's great. Like, I didn't do it in his car to be interesting. It's what worked on that day. You took advantage of that opportunity.

It was the only place we could do. do it. That's awesome. Yeah. And that's another thing I respect. You're a go-getter. You want something. You go out and you do it. You're making this thing happen for yourself. And that's very admirable. I appreciate that to anybody out there who wants to do something and takes the initiative to make it happen. That's really cool. I woke up at 445 East Coast time, which was 1.45 your time this morning. I boarded a five-hour flight here to Phoenix. My friend, Terry Hitchcock lent me her car. I drove here, met up with you, and we're making this happen. That's very cool. Thank you for coming out. doing this. I know. Thank you for watching this. I know that being a ring announcer working for

WWE was your dream job. You chased after it with an insane amount of passion. You made it happen. Now that you've checked that off the list, where do you go from here? Well, when I was doing WWE, it tied me up, like I said, at least four days a week, every single week, year-round for over a decade. So I was really living in a bubble. And I'd come home for a day or two, whatever. I was on autopilot to get everything done. I didn't really know. what was going on in the outside world. So I wanted to take the time mostly to just not do anything just to sit back and get my head back together and just relax and be here for my family because I was always away. I wanted to be around with my family. So that was number one. And then I wanted to see what else was out there.

I wanted to see what else was out in the world that I didn't know about or maybe I did know about it and I wanted to give it a shot. So I did that. So I got to try so many different things in the past four years, There's so many different opportunities that came up and I got to try them out and I enjoyed all of them. I enjoy all of the family time that I get. And with WWE, that was my dream. That's what I wanted to do. I dreamed of being in that ring with those wrestlers that I grew up idolizing with being at those events that I was announcing. Above the camera is not showing it, but above there is a Monday Night Raw poster.

It was on my wall when I was a kid. The one up there, you could see it. They can't. We'll show you after. So Monday Night Raw poster was on my wall as a kid, and then it was on my wall when I was the announcer for that show. And it's cool to think I was the announcer of that show. And I did everything I dreamed of and everything that I could even dream of and worked with all these superheroes and these idols of mine. I got to work with all of them.

And I lived out my dream. And now, after trying everything that I've tried in the past four or five years, and after living out my dream at W. for over a decade. I'm in this mode where I'm excited to move on to do professional wrestling again because I love professional wrestling. Is that the third time that I've said that? I apologize. A little ticker down here or something. Keep track. I love wrestling. And now it's like this next journey isn't something that I've dreamed of. It's something that we could create. And I think this is going to be something where we will be able to create new superheroes, new wrestling idols, new storylines that people are still talking about. The way that I talk about

storylines from the 90s, people could talk about the storylines that happen at AEW in the future. You know, in 15, 20 years, there could be somebody who was like, hey, I grew up watching the young Bucks. I grew up watching Cody Rhodes and I want to work for AEW and be a part of A.W. And I think it's just exciting to be part of something totally new. I live my dream. So now it's time to help create something with these incredible minds. Chris Jericho, Jim Ross, The Youngbox, Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, all of the great talent, great minds, and create something special that people are going to dream about wanting to be a part of. How different is it for you going from the guy who is banging on doors, trying to make things happen, to even get an audition for

WWE, to now being in a position where they're calling you, AEW's calling you and going, hey, are you available for this thing? It means a lot. I appreciate it. There's a lot of great talent out there, and I hope that by bringing me in, I could add a small amount to the entrances, because that's what I do, is I try to enhance the entrances as best as possible. So I hope that I could add just a little bit of flavor to the incredible product that they're going to put together.

And I'm honored and happy that they want me to be a part of it. It's very cool. You talk about flavor, and of course, you know, that's, for me as a fan, I can't see John Cena coming to the ring without hearing your call or The Undertaker or Jeff Hardy. Thank you. Did those kind of evolve over time for you? Absolutely. People would ask me, you know, how did you start doing that? And the Undertaker introduction, it wasn't something that I said, I'm going to go out there and I'm going to do this.

Because, again, I was told in the ECW days, the WWE ECW days to tone it down. And so the big announcements that I was doing, I could. I didn't do. So I did tone everything down, but over time when I, it was not something that I rehearsed, practice, it was just something that I felt in the ring. Whatever came out, it was I never practiced any of my announcements. It was whatever came out organically from being in the middle of the ring, feeling the energy from the fans, feeling the music of that performer, you know, the chills that are

coming out from The Undertaker and that dreary music and the gongs. It's just something you feel. I would do the Undertaker introduction and then I might add a little bit more to it and okay cool I didn't get yelled at for that so I'm going to add just a little bit more and before you knew it it took on a life of its own and the same with the John Cena and the Batista and the Jeff Hardy those ones kind of stood out to some fans it's it like gives me chills even just thinking about it now it's do you have do you have some prepared for AEW? I said that I don't practice or rehearse anything but I have to be honest with you. As soon as I found out that I was going to be doing

this, ideas just started coming to my head and I do have some ideas somewhat based on what I did it all in. And when I watch all in, it's like, oh, I could have done this and this could have been better. You critique everything. That's how I've always tried to grow as an announcer. I've been very critical of my own work and how could I make this better. So I do have some ideas in mind of ideas that I'd like to try that maybe aren't so traditional. and as long as the company's cool with me trying these different announcements, it's exciting to think about not just being standard and, you know, giving the same introduction to everybody.

I don't want to do that. I want to make the announcement appeal to each wrestler that's coming out. Kenny Omega is a good name for that. I was really excited to announce Kenny Omega. I am a huge fan of his. I had never met him. I had never seen him in Perkins. I've seen his work online and he's incredible and when I was talking to Bobby Cruz about

all in he said is there anything that you want to do and I said I would love to announce the villain Marty Skirl I think that would be a cool name to announce and I was going to and then the night before or the day of it changed and I ended up getting Kenny which that was the one that's like I I put it out there that I wanted to do Marty's but I also kind of wanted to do Kenny's, but I didn't want to put two out there. So, I mean, I wanted to do any on that show that I could because that was an awesome card. There was a great show. And I was happy to do anything that I could.

Marty's name is, I just feel like there's something to work with. That would be fun. And then I got to announce Kenny. And so here is one of my favorite wrestlers who I don't know coming out, who I've never introduced. I've never practiced saying his name. and it was just I like what came out I'm sure it could be better

but I like what came out and it felt big and it felt cool I've done a little bit of ring announcing I ring announced in South Florida at Blueprint Pro Wrestling in Deerfield Beach although after doing just you know whatever we do 7, 8 matches

my voice is so hoarse after yeah you're beating your throat you know, really it takes a beating. How do you do this for days on end? And when you're, you know, you're doing way more matches than that. I was, again, in that groove where I was doing it so often. My throat was just used to being just destroyed. And then now that it's not used to that, I don't know,

I have to get back in that mode and have to, I've been doing warm-ups. I don't sing. I'm not a singer. I'm not a good singer. What's a warm-up then? When I'm doing voiceovers, knowing that the show's coming up May 25th in Las Vegas, double or nothing at the sold out MGM Grand Guard Arena. Nice plug.

Thank you. Like we didn't know, you know, when and where. I'm doing voiceovers, but I'm also trying to warm up my throat. I didn't used to do that when I was at WWE just because I was doing so many shows. It was kind of conditioned, even though I probably should have won. I know you did have. you did have an issue with your voice. Yeah, I had an infection, a throat infection during September 1st and all in. There was, my throat gave out on me the week before and I was on a

bunch of medicine and it was, it wasn't fully ready to go, but we got through it. So I'm warming up when I do voiceovers. I'm singing a little bit and just trying to warm up my throat. So So, uh, but you also, a lot of parole champ. Oh, okay. Like, even floor. Even floor. Yeah. People know, like Adam Sandler, uh, prologam.

People don't know how good your impressions are. Oh, come on. So not only, I didn't, so I keep saying I read your book, but actually listened to your book. And you do some of the impressions in there. I was telling the story in the book. And if it was like a Vince story, I would just go into like a Vince voice or Howard Finkel. Howard Finkel, though. You like that one?

Please. Ladies and gentlemen, the greatest of all time, Howard Finkel. Oh, wow. But you also in the book talks about, you talked about how you had something with your voice where your voice was closing up on you while you were out of school. Oh, yeah.

That happened a few years ago. Laryngosasm? Is that what was going? Yeah, yeah. I haven't talked about it for a long time. It was like laryngeos spasm, where my throat would just close up on me and I couldn't breathe.

And it would usually, happen at night, but sometimes, like in my hotel room, but sometimes it would happen right at the start of a show. And I'd go out there and I couldn't breathe. And the music's playing and I'd go out there and I'd be like, and then the music would come down and then eventually it would come back. And the doctor said, if you just like breathe through a straw, that'll help come back. But obviously, I didn't have a straw with me. So I would like pretend that I had a straw in the ring and then it would come back. It was part of the, I think, whooping cough. I talk about on the book where and I remember it.

It's been a while since I've thought about it, but there was a really weird, scary deal for a couple of months. I think I was really blown away by how much detail. Like, you knew dates and cities and this happened here and that happened there. Were you keeping a journal? Do you want to know why?

Do you know how I kept track of all that? The one thing that I really kept track of in all those years was I would keep track of the dates and the cities. And I do have a weird memory where I could think back to, okay, I remember on this loop, this story happened in this building. I remember buildings, gyms, hotels. And I remember we went from this city to this city to this city. So then I could look back at that list and I knew it was in this year.

Okay, here's the loop. Here's exactly the towns that we went to. So by keeping track of all of those dates, sometimes we'd be in that town here, but then four months later back in that town, but that was the loop that I was talking about. So I knew two shows later, this is the city that we were in. So a lot of times it was like that. Sometimes it was because I knew somebody in that town or I remember being there. But that's, that was the basis.

And in the book, if you have like the hardcover, throughout the entire book, all those dates are listed out. All of every single show that I worked is listed in the book. Like when it says chapter 19, all the dates around it were dates of shows that I worked. Oh, wow. I think people don't realize how. It's never explained in there. Well, thank you.

There's a lot more that goes into being a ring announcer rather than just saying names and weights and cities. And if you're a wrestling fan, you're watching this right now, every ring announcer at your local show is doing this as they're announcing and they're looking at their notes. How are you able to remember? And they're lucky. I wasn't allowed to. You weren't allowed to. And you don't have an earpiece. Right. So you're basically told your direction before you go in the ring and or sometimes when you're in the ring from somebody over there and you're like trying to read their lips and they're frantically like trying to get something to you. And I, okay, think I got it.

Red light. But there's a lot more to it than just saying the names, though. Like, it's like a very underappreciated job, is what I'm trying to say. Yeah, for sure. And it's also, you know, it's a smaller part of the show. People aren't coming to see the ring announcer. Like I said, I'm there to enhance the entrances and try to make the moment feel special, try to make the moment feel appropriate for whatever is going on in the show.

If it's a title match, I want to build it up. It's a big, exciting moment because it is. It's a title match. Or if a giant superstar is coming out, you want to introduce that performer like a superstar. You just, again, you want to feel the atmosphere and give the appropriate introduction or announcement at that point. I was always fascinated by the way you said the Hispanic names. Because I would just say Ray Mysterio. Right.

But is it because you live in Arizona or why? I just, I wanted to pronounce everybody's name correctly when I was just doing the Muay shows fights, they're not shows fights. When I was just doing the Muay Thai fights, I would sit there with their way-ins and talk to every fighter that came up and made sure that I got the pronunciation of their name correctly, pronunciation of their hometown correctly because that's what I was there to do was to save their name. So I needed to make sure I said it correctly.

As a ring announcer, that's your number one job. So there was no backlash on that. Vince wasn't like, say it American. Yeah, they didn't like the rolling of the R's for Ray Mysterio or Eddie Guerrero early on. So I kind of scaled back on that in the early days. I would still pronounce it correctly. But like for Ray Mysterio, I announced Ray at All In. And I remember watching Joel Gertner in ECW and he introduced Ray.

And that just stuck with me. And I really like that. I borrowed Joel Gertner's overrolling of the R's and Ray. And there's a picture from Ray on that wall. And I believe there's like 18 R's. He liked that. Are all the weights and hometowns still somewhere up there? They used to be.

Let's see. Let's see. Let's see. If I give you one, let's see. I used to have everybody's waiting. We'll start off real easy. Giancena. West Newbury, Massachusetts, 248 pounds.

And I think at one point it went to 250. I thought it was 246. You'd know better than me. I don't know. It's, it's been a long time. What about our friend Dolph Ziegler? He was Hollywood, Florida, 213 pounds, if I remember. Wow, okay. Eddie Guerrero. El Paso, Texas, 218 pounds, maybe. Wow. Daniel Bryan. He was awesome, by the way. Eddie was the best. Daniel Bryan was Aberdeen, Washington, maybe 209 pounds. Wow. I haven't thought about this. But they're all coming back to you. I don't know. They are.

I'm getting the hometowns really, but I don't know about the numbers. They're all coming back to you. They are. All coming back. I haven't been practicing Celendia. Is that Celine Dion? I haven't been practicing her while trying to walk. Didn't you just say, I don't sing.

I'm not a singer at all. No. Sincara. Sincara was Mexico City, Mexico, one hundred ninety-eight pounds, maybe. I think at one point there was, quite a significant jump in the Sincara weight. That was one name, though, where I would announce Sincara.

I took Spanish throughout junior high, high school college, so I know it's Sincara. When he came in, it was like the office-based moment of everybody coming up to you and saying, hey, you know it's pronounced Sincara, right? And then they would, yeah, yeah, that's, and like five people would come up. up to me and make sure that I was going to pronounce it correct. But I got this. This is cool that they're letting me say Sincara correctly. Because with Ray Mysterio, a lot of people say Ray Mysterio versus Reimisterio.

However do you do. Here's an interesting one. What about Chris Jericho right after 9-11? When Canadians weren't allowed to be Canadians? So when he went from, was it born in Manhasset, New York? Oh, is that one of us? At one point, I think he was born in Manhasset, New York. and then it became, was it Florida from Tampa, Florida?

Right, I think so. Yeah. I'm glad you know the answers to the. I just threw these ones out there. Have you ever thought of how you would announce yourself? Yeah, yeah. I get to announce some cool people. I don't want to announce myself that.

You've thought about it. Yeah. No? No, but it's got an R. I'm looking at the back of the Diamondbacks jersey. Yeah. So I'm looking at it. How do you say?

Okay, there's R's, there's something to work with. Edwards. Edge and Kane early on, I used to think, these are so hard to announce because there's not much to work with with Edge. But I found a way. McFoley, actually, I'm on the back of those trading cards that you could see again that they can't. Sorry. We'll do it at the end of the video.

I always do a wrap-up. We'll do a tour around here, and we'll wrap up the video together. Mick Foley says something on the back of the trading cards about that. I found a way to make so many syllables out of everybody's name. I found a way to like stretch everything out. And I did with Edge and Kane. What are your hopes for AEW? Because it's a very exciting time to be a wrestling fan.

You're now part of this. What are your hopes as a fan and also as an employee? Well, that's the thing. I watch it and it's, I don't even know if I could say this, but, and this might be the fourth time now, I want to, I look at the company as a fan from a fan's perspective. I'm looking at this as my hopes and, like assumptions because I don't I don't know I don't ask anything not told anything I don't know what

the plans are I would hope that there are characters that I could get behind as a fan and then storylines that I just get wrapped up and that I'm following from week to week and that's what I'm really looking forward to sitting at ringside watching you know every event whatever it is and I said week to week but I don't again I don't know anything so um you know if it's week to week watching everything unfold. And I feel like that's probably what they have in mind. Tony Kahn's kind of said that in our last interview. Tony Kahn, and I've said it in Twitter when posting your interview with him,

which is the interview. He is, I said, the biggest wrestling fan I've met because I watched WWF, WCW, ECW, ECW, Global, Windy City, any wrestling that I could, USWA, Glow. He watched all of that and way more and retains everything. thing and he's just so knowledgeable and loves the business. The Young Bucks, Cody Rotes, these guys love wrestling. And what got me back into wrestling, because I did take a little break when I came off the road, I just, I didn't watch much wrestling.

And then again, I started watching everything that was out there just to see what was out there. I think you mean sports entertainment. So what got me. back into it was being the elite on YouTube. I watched that and was so entertained and I didn't, I didn't know much about it. And I kept looking on YouTube to see if there was another episode and then I found out it was a weekly show. So I started watching being the elite because I was learning about these characters, learning about their storylines. And then the storylines were paying out on Ring of Honor TV, Ring of Honor pay-per-views, New Japan TV, New Japan pay-per-views.

So I had like a vested interest in these shows because I knew these characters and I knew the storylines of what was going on. Same with All In, a lot of those storylines were taken from everything that was happening on being the elite. So Young Bucks and Cody Rhodes and Chris Jericho and Tony Khan and all the minds behind this and Jim Ross, I mean, you've got all these storytellers and guys who that's pro wrestling. And so I'm confident that they're going to continue to do a hell of a job. I mean, look at the young bucks. Look at how far they've come without a giant machine behind them. The young bucks are self-made. Yeah. And Cody too. Cody, I mean, he did work at WWE, and he got a lot of experience and exposure there. But when he took a chance on himself and he left,

look at what he did for himself. And Brandy right alongside with him. And she's awesome. She's very, very, very, very smart, very entertaining. She's, she's the perfect, just part of that team. It's an incredible team. And I have, I have faith in all of them. I'm very excited and optimistic. So, you know, you mentioned a lot's changed for Cody since he left WWE. What's changed for you since leaving WWE? A lot. I really, I got to live out the dream. And that was awesome. Hey, you were there 12 years. And there was good, there was bad, there was everything, but that's going to happen. Nothing's ever going to be perfect. You're going to get good and bad. And I was very honest when I did interviews and when I was promoting the book and all that. But I've really had a

chance to just like relax and get my head together and again spend a lot of time with my family and just I like to say like come back down to earth. And I'm really just at a good place and excited again to jump back into wrestling. So I needed to step away for a bit. I'm a good place. And I'm bit and just kind of lay low and take very, very short-term gigs as they popped up and not do anything long-term until I found what I really love. And I enjoyed everything that I've done. But I love wrestling, and I'm really optimistic and excited about getting back in with AEW. I mean, you were so honest in your book.

You've been so honest in these other interviews you've done. Are there, now looking back in hindsight, do you wish you hadn't written some things you wrote? there is so much negativity in the world right now. And I don't know when this happened. Maybe I just didn't realize it a long time ago or if it's something new. It's just, it is so negative. There's so much negativity in it. It kills me.

And I had told, I think it was an interview with Ryback on his podcast and I said, if I were to write the book now, I would probably write, I worked with John Cena and he was a really great guy and the rock. They don't get nicer than the rock. and just talk great about everybody and just be positive and talk about only the positive stuff. If I were to put the book out now, I'd do that because there's just so much negativity out there. So I haven't even read my book since it came out. I mean, I did the book entirely myself, so I kept reading it and editing and reading and editing it.

So by the time it came out, I didn't want to look at it. And then when enough time had passed, I thought, okay, I could look at this again. but I just, I didn't want to see any of the negative stuff and get brought back to that place. I just like, okay, cool. You know, I told my story. Good and bad told the full story. And the good outweighed the bad. I will say that.

And I'm happy for my time at WWE, happy for all the experiences I got to have and the opportunities. And I probably didn't say that as much early on when I was fresh out of there. But now that I've had time to just sit back and say, hey, I, had an incredible career and everything I was able to do, you know, they, they gave me that opportunity and I'm appreciative for it. And if it weren't for being able to do that at WWE, I probably wouldn't have been called to do AEW. I don't know, but I think it's safe to say. So, yeah, that's what's changed for you in the last five years. What do you think's changed with WWE over the last five years? You know, it's a, it's a company.

that's been around for a long time. My childhood revolved around it. I still go back and watch all of the shows that I love for my childhood. It played a huge role in my childhood and played a huge part in my life. It became my career in my life. So there are a company that's been around doing wrestling for a long time, and they do wrestling how they want to do it. It's their company, and they have that luxury of being able to do whatever they want in their shows.

So, W.W.E is WWE.E. So they, from week to week, from month to month, they might say, hey, going forward, we might do this and no longer do this. We're going to start doing this. And, you know, they have always kind of set the standard in the industry. So they keep doing what they do. You know, they're running their ship. Although I think that May 25th as a fan is going to be a line in the sand. Like, I think that this is going to be like a person.

like a pre-AEW world that we're sitting in right now and a post-AEW world, which some people will be watching this in. What's cool is talent probably has to choose, am I going to go work for AEW, am I going to go work anywhere else, any of the numerous promotions out there? Fans don't have to make that decision. When you're a wrestling fan, if you're not into what one company is doing, you don't have to watch them, you don't have to bury them. You just, you watch what you're into.

So the cool thing is wrestling fans win. They could watch all the companies. They could watch one of the companies, whatever they want. When I used to watch Nitro and Raw on Monday nights in high school, I used to have a flashback button. So it went back between T&T and USA just by pressing a button. And that's what I did. I went back and forth. I didn't choose WCW or WWF.

I love wrestling. Was that five? Might be six. Seven. I don't know. You guys tell us. So you just, you watch both. And if you want to stay on Raw Longer, you watch Raw Longer.

If Nitro's doing something cool, you watch Night Show. I watched both shows. And that's the glory of being a wrestling fan. You could watch whatever you want to watch. And especially nowadays, you could watch something live. You could watch something later on. Yeah. It's great.

Technology. You've got great acoustics in this house here. So I wonder if you can give us one of your classic introductions. I just want to hear how loud it is and just feel it. Maybe, you know, you tell me one of your, you know, one of your, you know, the ones you're really known for. I'll let you choose. Wow. Because if I choose wrong here, people are going to be like, why'd you choose that one?

Well, then if you choose something cool and then it doesn't sound good because it's going to come on. The acoustics aren't like in an arena. I have a mic you can hold if that helps you out. Does it have like reverb and echo to make it sound like? So I have one where I'm going to my voiceovers. I'm going to go ahead and pick. The Undertaker from Death Valley, weighing to 199 pounds. See, it's already not as cool.

Oh, this is great. What are you doing? The Undertaker! I'm up from May 25th. It's been such a pleasure chatting with you. It's really cool that you flew all the way out here and took the time to do this. And I appreciate it. And again, appreciate the way you hustle to do this from your career. and all the great interviews you do, John Sina.

That was an awesome interview. Thank you. Tony Con, Chris, Jericho. We have a lot in common. Dolph Ziegler. We both chase after our passions. And I've always said that vague goals get vague results, and specific goals get specific results.

And both you and I have had very specific goals in our life and in our career. And it just goes to show that if you chase after them, they are all accomplishable. I say this a lot, and I don't mean to, but it's true. Follow your dreams. Anything and everything truly is possible. If there's something that you want badly enough, you can get it. You just have to put everything into going after it. So I encourage everyone out there to do it.

You're doing it. I did it. You're still doing it. It's possible. And what I wanted to do was just impossible, kind of. And I did it because I wanted it and I made it happen. So try. If there's something,

you want. Don't talk about it. Do it. Thank you. Thank you, Chris. All right. That's some great advice to end with there. If you can dream it, you can do it. Thank you to Justin Roberts for inviting me into his house in Phoenix, Arizona to do that interview. I really love Phoenix, by the way. What a great place to be. I mean, I love living in Florida. That's where I currently live. But there's no mountains here. And the morning that I did the interview with Justin, I actually woke up super early, watched the sunrise from Camelback Mountain, an amazing place. Congrats to Justin on everything that he's accomplished in his career. And congrats to him with signing with AEW.

I'm super excited to see what happens with him as we head into All Out. And as we head into the TV deal that's going to start on TNT in the fall. Big thanks to you for downloading this episode. And thank you to everyone who's leaving those five-star reviews on Apple Podcasts and really helping our ratings and helping our ranking on there as well. Thanks to Greenroads. You can go to Greenroadsworld.com. Use my code Chris 15 to save 15% off.

Also head to samsontech.com to check out some great audio equipment if you're thinking of starting up your own podcast. So this is the most recent episode we have here. Although, who knows, you might be listening to this in the future. And if you are, that's amazing. Tell me how the flying cars are and everything else there. My next interview, though, that if you are listening to this in July, my next interview that I'm doing is with the Young Bucks. So if you have some interesting questions for the YoungBucks, send them on in. I have a post on both Twitter and on Instagram.

If you don't follow me on Twitter or Instagram, now's a good reminder. Now's a good time to, you know, take seven seconds right now to go and do that. But send me your questions for the YoungBucks. I look forward to seeing your questions and I look forward to seeing what you think of that one. Once again, have a great day. And like Justin said, if you can dream it, you can do it. 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? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.