Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Kid Kash On The Moves WWE Wouldn't Let Him Do, ECW, His Resemblance To Kid Rock

Episode Date: January 5, 2023

Kid Kash (@davidkidkash) is a professional wrestler known for his time in ECW, TNA and WWE. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about how he got his start in professional wrestling, getting signed to ECW, being given the name "Kid Kash" because Paul Heyman thought he looked like Kid Rock, the restrictions he had in WWE, making his MMA debut, what he learned from Ricky Morton, 3 things he is grateful for and much more! For more information about Chris Van Vliet 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

All systems are gathered. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bleleet. We are back at it again. Welcome to another audio adventure on Insight. I am CVV Chris Van Vleaf. Hope your 2023 is off to a great start. We had a record year for the podcast last year. So just wanted to say thank you for supporting the show and for continuing to support the show.

No matter who the guest is, no matter what the topic is, you guys. show up. And for that, I'm so, so grateful. On today's show, when you think of ECW, there's a few names that immediately come to mind. RVD, Sandman, maybe you're talking Raven, Tommy Dreamer, Rhino. Those are the kind of guys that will always be on people's ECW Mount Rushmore. But ECW wouldn't have been what it was if it weren't for guys like Kid Cash. I was such, I a huge fan of the way that he worked in ECW. Loved seeing him in TNA. Unfortunately, I don't think he was really given a chance to show what he was

capable of in WWE. And we get into that and so much more with David Kidd Cash. Give him a follow on Twitter. That's his username on there. It's David Kid Cash. I'm at Chris Van Vleet and Henry Kay. Thank you for leaving this review on Apple Podcast. Thank you for being our fan of the week.

He said, five stars, amazing host, plus impressive guests, equal exciting show. Great job with this. Well, thank you so much. I'll continue reading one review on every single episode. So if you haven't left a review on Apple Podcasts, or if you have left a review, go in, add a word or two, add an emoji or two, and it'll pop right back up to the top of those reviews, and we'll read it out here on this show.

It's just my way to say, thank you. Thank you for being you. All right, let's dive into this. Ladies and gentlemen, Kid, Cash. It's just so awesome. Thank you for making the time to do this today. Thank you for asking me. You're a big deal now.

That is not true. But thank you for saying that. Yeah, you interview everybody now. I'm trying. I'm trying. But you were actually one that I would, I've always wanted to interview. And if we go way back here, there was a point in 2000, 2001, when I'm wanted to be a pro wrestler.

And I remember having a conversation with, he was Cody Steele at the time. Now he's Cody Deiner in Impact Wrestling. Okay. And he goes, whose style do you like want to emulate? Who do you really like? I said, kid cash. I love the way that he wrestles. Yeah, I was all older places.

The thing that I think I was so impressed by was you could hit a Hurricane Rana from like any angle. Yeah. Well, whenever I was in ECW, I, you know, everybody there, that was my size, you know, was a high flyer, you know, of some sort. And I used to wrestle guys like Easy Money and Chris Hamrick and guys like that on the independent shows, Eddie Golden.

Yeah, like way back before I even went to ECW and stuff. But when I got there, everybody was doing it. And generally, it was just me doing it on the show, you know, the indie shows. when I got there, I had to just be more creative, you know. So the Huracurana is something that I had always kind of done and stuff. So I was like, what's the one thing that I can like make stand out above everything else? You know, there was such an easy move for me to do because I was, you know, I'm not a very big guy. You know, even in ECW, I was probably only 175 pounds, so good wet, you know.

Wow. Yeah, yeah. I'm about five, nine, but I got a weird. Well, I got a weird figure. I wear a 32-length jeans. I got long legs, but I have that short torso to where I look more jacked than what I really am. Yeah, yeah. Only problem is I can't get my legs to look like my upper body.

That's why you wear pants when you wrestle. That's right. And that's one reason why I did. I was like, because that was, whenever I first went there, I was still doing the Davey Morton, Tyler, you know,

Jericho kind of thing. I was Davey Morton, but more David, Jericho. I was David Jericho from the start of my career. And me and Ricky Morton were driving down the road one day and we were coming up a day. This is before I even got in the rain, you know. And we were just driving down the road and we looked over coming up, coming up with just different names. And I saw Jericho's Temple Shrine sitting on the side of the road. And I think it was Bluntville, Tennessee, as you're passing coming down the interstate. And I just said Jericho.

and he looked over at me and he was like, David Jericho. You like it? He goes, sounds better than all the other stuff for coming up with. He goes, I like it. Let's use it. But now it's synonymous with Chris. I mean, at that point, I'm guessing,

you didn't know that there was this wrestler in Canada, wrestling with the last name of Jericho. No, I started legitimately in 1989. I didn't really start. I didn't meet Ricky until like 90, 91. and that's you know before that I was actually doing a uh the crow gimmick I was painting my remember the crow yeah the movie Brandon Lee yeah which ended up inspiring sting eventually well I did a I'm not saying who who where he got it from but I did a

I did a tryout for WCW under the under the whole mass you know the whole paint thing and stuff so I noticed about six or seven months later he started changing his face pink. So, but you're not, you're not saying, yeah. Not saying, I don't know, didn't ask any questions, but, you know, he's stinging, I'm not. So he can do whatever he wants. But I think what I think changing the name kind of like, and the whole look helped me out a whole lot more to, you know. David Cash is a pretty great wrestling name, though. Kid Cash.

No, David Cash. Like, if you were coming up now, your name would be. David Cash. Yeah, oh, absolutely. Well, now that I'm kind of starting to get back into the ring, I've actually dropped the kid. You know, I'm doing David Kid Cash, you know, now. So I'm a little, I'm 53, so I don't think I can legitimately let me call Kid anymore. Kid Rock is still going to be Kid Rock forever. Yeah, a little different, though. You know, he's, he's a rapper and musician and stuff, so he can probably get a, I'm sure when he's 70, they're not going to be wanting to call him kid anymore. They're going to call him Bobby.

I don't know. The beach boys are always going to be the beach boys. They're not going to be the beach men. You got a point. You definitely got a point, man. At what point in your career did you find out that Chris Jericho's, you know, wrestling, last name was Jericho? All right. When I saw him one time, for the first time, in Smoky Mountain Wrestling, him and Lance Storm showed up for a little bit.

and they were the thrill seekers. And he was wrestling there. I had done already dropped about the name because I started going up to, you know, like all over the country and stuff like that. And then ECW, whenever I went up there, we called me Davey Morton.

I was doing Davey Morton in. But no, actually, shoot, I am so sorry. The first time I went up there. So it was after that when I really noticed Chris. But the first time I went up, they let me do David Jarrett. And I did David Jericho for first six months. And then one day I was just showed up and they was like, you're,

you're Davy Morton. Then the very before the, before my match that night, I went from Davy Morton to Davey Morton Tyler, Jericho because my son's name was Tyler. We were still coming up with names in the dressing room. Chris was making a big deal, you know,

a big splash and stuff like that all over the place. So we just decided to change the name. And then one night, my son's name was Tyler, Ricky's name was Morton. And Jericho was what I had been using. So we came up with Davey Morton-Ty-Morton-Tyler-Jerico. A lot of names.

Well, then it went to Davey Morton-Tyler, Jericho, Pizano, whenever I tagged with a little Guido. So I get to the ring and everybody started chanting, what's your name? What's your name? That was fun. It was just fun. It was part of the absolute best organization I've ever worked for, actually really, truly wanted to be a part of, you know. So who was it?

Who wasn't that initially said, you know what? You look a lot like Kid Cash. Kid Rock. Or Kid Rock, sorry, I Kid Rock. Well, what happened with that is, I think, who wasn't? I think Joey Stiles had said something previously to me one night. He goes, he mentioned Kid Rock. I didn't even know who Kid Rock was.

I've always been like a heavy metal guy. you know, like some heart and then, you know, through the, you know, the heavy beaten type heavy metal. So I didn't really listen to rap or anything like that. And I hadn't even heard of Kid Rock at that time. And he kept telling me I looked like Kid Rock and I just kept saying, yeah, cool, man, all right, man, yeah. But one night I wrestled, oh, God, I can't remember I was wrestling. I was wrestling somebody, but they were putting us, they were producing the show at Paul's house in the basement. and back then they did it by VHS.

So they remember, I don't know, you probably remember back in the day, or you may not, but back in my day, if you wanted to record something like that, you had to use two VCRs and a TV. You played it on one and you recorded it on the other. And that's how they were doing it.

And at the end of my match, as I was up on the ring ropes doing this right here, I came back down, the tape ran out. And when it ran out, MTV was on. It clicked immediately right on. And the song, Cowboy was playing by Kid Rock. And it was almost sort of similar, you know, camera features.

Because at the end of mine, I was up on the ropes doing this. And then whenever that clicked on, he was up in the camera doing this. I want to be a cowboy, baby. As soon as that happened, Joey Stiles looked over at Tommy Dreamer and says, damn he looks so much like kid cat uh says looks looks so much like david jericho and uh so they just decided at that moment i was like kid catch um the very next week when i showed up well we were i think we was at wilkesbury uh yeah we were in wilksbury at uh the ice hockey rink and uh we were all just kind of sitting around talking Tommy dreamer walks by and he says uh hello

everybody saying hello to Guido, hello to Nova, hello to me. He goes, he walks by me. He goes, oh, by the way, you're no longer David Morton, Tyler, Jericho, Bezano. He's like, I'm not. He goes, no, he goes, now you're a kid cash. I was like, okay. He goes, start dressing like Kid Rock. And I like, okay, I looked over and Noah's like, who's Kid Rock? At that time, everybody just got together. That's what I loved about that company, the dressing room was just so warm and stuff. I was the outsider from Tennessee, you know, Johnson City, Tennessee, and they just

took me in and just, you know, love me like a brother. So it was like really cool. They all help me get the gimmick together, get the music together. Jason Knight actually helped me out with some look and stuff like that a lot. I was always so blown away that ECW

was able to just use these like songs that you would hear on the radio. And I'm like, that would not fly now without a lot of licensing money. I never understood that because it only puts the musician over. Sure. You know, I mean, the more the music is heard, the more they're going to sell, you know. But I would just think like every time, for example, when Sandman comes out to Metallica,

I would think Metallica is going, all right, well, that costs X amount of dollars every single time. Yeah, I mean, I can see that, but it's also being played at a wrestling show. Sinonymous, right? Man's come out to lots of other songs, but that's the one we all think of. Yeah. I used to love back in the 80s. I remember when they first started using music. Yeah.

It was amazing. Yeah, I grew up on NWA in mid-Atlantic wrestling and stuff. And every Saturday morning, you know, you would watch the guys come out of the curtain. They go straight to the ring. The first time I heard it is when the Freebirds came into the NWA. And that was the first time I'd ever heard anybody play. And then Jimmy, the boogie-wuggy man, value, he came out to what was. was at the book.

I can't remember the name of the song, but it was, yeah, I don't know. Do you remember that song? I don't know. Uh, ooh, uh, co, co, kitty. Talk about the boy from New York City. That's a great. Yeah, that was him. That was the song.

I don't remember the name of it. I think it was the boy from New York City. I think that's what it was, yeah. Has this come full circle? Have you watched what NWA's been doing over the last few years? Just a little bit here. and there. I see it on my boring hour

at work. I'll throw on some YouTube and watch it and stuff like that. So you're still watching a decent amount of wrestling? I was still watch it. Every now and then I'll watch the AEW. I'll pop it in. Some things I love to watch on that show, but then some things are like, I've got to turn this.

Then don't really watch too much WWE. For me, I came from the school of work where you get out there at work, you know. But now it's just so many promos and just, you know, there's no work. You know, it's just promos all the time. And, you know, and I love watching women wrestle, but Jesus Christ, how many women are going to wrestle on one card? I mean, you know. Well, they've got a lot of talent, right? Both men and women in the locker room. And there's only three hours of television time. Well, that's three hours on Monday, two hours on

Friday. Yeah, it's a, it's a lot, right? It's a lot. It's a lot. Yeah. Back in the day, I thought it was good for the business, but now I wonder if it is. It's just the, it's just the airways are so saturated with it. I mean, you know, you got so much WWE, so many nights. Then you got AEW so many nights, you know. It's every night of the week. It is. I mean, do people really watch that much wrestling? I think that there's like, There's definitely a subsection of fans that watch everything, right? Three hours of raw Monday, then NXT, then Dynamite, then Impact, then NWA, and Rampage, everything. Yeah, I get it.

I think whenever I was coming in the business, that's whenever I really stopped watching it as much when I became a wrestler. I grew up watching it like religiously, you know, like every Saturday morning. And then it started coming on Friday nights and then Sunday mornings, you know, it was, just yeah the more it came on the more i watched but then once i became a worker it was like it wasn't appealing to me anymore only thing i really watched was my matches to get good you know to better myself and didn't really care to watch anybody else's matches after that was there a point before you became a pro wrestler where like i know you were doing stuff with boxing do you think that was ever a career path at any point yeah i would i said never honestly uh i had had wonders about

what it would be like to be a pro wrestler, but I didn't really play football or baseball and stuff. I boxed, sort of boxing at the age of seven, you know, in the YMCA, I would do the Pee We League tournaments and stuff like that. And then I started taking Crom of Maga martial art whenever I was 10. Then I started taking Akito, you know, at 13, you know, and then wrestling. Now, that was the only high school sport that I attended was wrestling. I wrestled in high school. I didn't, like I said, I didn't even play football. I was too way too short to play basketball. And baseball for me was way too slow. You know, I just just stand there, just stand there, you know.

And football, for me, it was just not rough enough. I liked, whenever I was about 13, 14 years old, I saw some clips of my neighbor had of some rugby. And when I saw rugby, I was like, that's what I'd like to do, there. Yeah, man, it was just real. It was more real. I grew up in the mountains of Virginia, the Blue Ridge Mountains. I mean, so when I grew up, I mean, we didn't play video games.

We didn't do stuff. We were active, you know, we went to play the war with our pellet rifles up in the woods and stuff, you know, and pegged each other. And, I mean, we wrestled. You know, we actually had a churchyard that was down the street and we would have wrestling. I mean, and we didn't know about the fake. we watched it on TV, but we didn't know it was fake. So we would go down to the church yard and like the whole neighborhood kids.

I mean, there would be like 20 of us out there. And we would just have a wrestling aroma, man. I mean, drop any pile driving each other, going to can't move your neck for like three or four weeks, you know, because you got pile drive by the kid, your neighbor, you know. We just kind of grew up rough like that. So football didn't really impress me because it was just too many pads. they stopped so much, you know, there's always a timeout. There's always this.

There's always that. So I like a sport that's continuous that shows its athleticism. Soccer's one. Those boys run constantly for like 90 minutes. Yeah. That's a lot. I can never do that. I would never be able to do that.

Even whenever I was young, I couldn't have done that. You know, I mean, that's just insane. So that to me, that's real true athletic. And if you can get out there and just do those kind of things. Rugby, they don't wear any pads. They're beating the living piss out of each other. And they just keep on going. I saw a guy get cut open.

He goes to the sideline. They put the glue on it and stuff. And then they give him one of them the old school leather helmets. Like they used to wear back in the NFL back in the other. Yeah, yeah. It puts a leather helmet on. It gets right back out there, blood coming down his face. No spread all over his face.

I mean, I just loved it. I just, I wonder if UFC was, you know, where it is now when you were growing up, if you wouldn't be an MMA fighter or pro fighter. I mean, I've done some, some MMA fights. I mean, I wasn't like the greatest fighter ever, you know, but I did a lot of tournaments, Naga tournaments, Pan Ams and stuff. And then I did a few cage fights. I mean, you know, one, two and lost two, you know, so, I mean, I thought about going,

but by the time I got to the point of getting in the cage, my God, I was like 35 years old. It was what I'm saying. If you know, it is where it is now when you were 18 years old. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if my body could have held out, I probably would have kept going, you know, if that was the case. But I was actually doing a lot of training. I was doing a lot of Naga stuff back in the day.

And then when I ran across wrestling, you know, it was just kind of, you know, I guess the belief of fame. and, you know, and just being living like a rock star kind of appealed to me at that. I mean, isn't that what happened? It did. Yeah. I mean, I had a great time. I tell everybody, you know, my, I'm broken up and I'm, you know, I'm 53. I just had a hip replacement.

I had a knee replacement. Well, great. Well, I still go to the gym. I mean, you know, that's still religious to me. I still try to eat as best as I can. But I did notice that I refurb. retired back in 2015, and then I tried to do one more MMA flight. And I did that one in 2016 there in Nashville. Didn't go too well. My body just was not ready for that kind of training.

Over the years, I've torn my meniscuses, my ACLs, my PCLs. I've torn my rotor cups, two or three different times apiece, you know, just as a wrestler, broken my ankle twice, broke my leg. I got a metal rod in my leg. I got a plastic kneecap. I've broken my jaw. You know, I've broken my neck twice, you know, over a 30-year period of wrestling.

In my head, I thought I'm still alpha. I can still do this, you know. I trained for 16 weeks. And about the 10th week, I tore some partially tore my rotor cuff. And laid off for about two weeks. It started feeling good. just like it back, just like it did whenever I was wrestling. I would tear something, just kind of watch it, never went and got it fixed.

I would just watch it and don't do too much, you know, getting a ring and just, you know, just don't do any hip tosses, you know. And then eventually it would heal, you know, because your body will heal itself. But it was still torn in the place that it needed to be fixed. So it just set it up for other tears in the future. So I had a small tear, started feeling good again, started rolling again. Well, I got up to the week of the fight. Everything was great, feeling great.

I get in the damn cage in the first 39 seconds of the fight. Now, bear mind, my fighter got, I switched fighters three times. So I had to continuously, you know, every couple of weeks, I had to start switching and getting new people to come train with me and stuff. The first guy was a kickboxer. So he wound up breaking his foot. So I had to get another fighter. So the next guy was a Samba guy. Perfect.

That was down my alley. He winds up backing out too over, forgot what it was. But then the third guy was a purple belt jujitsu kid who when I read his stats, his stats said he was 18 years old and he was six foot. Those stats were taken about four years. Okay. Before I met this kid. He was 24 years old.

He was six foot four. And by that time, he became a purple belt in Jiu Jitsu. Mind you, I'm a black belt in Krav Maga. Okay, I'm also a black belt in Akita. And I do have a blue belt in Muay, but I have absolutely nothing in Jiu Jitsu. I've taken a lot of Jiu Jitsu over the years to be able just to get up off the ground. I've never worried about anything else further than that. I'm a true wrestler.

or don't like to be on my back at all. So that was the only reason why I've ever messed with Jiu-Jitsu in the past was to learn how to get up off the ground to get back to my feet. So this kid, he comes in and he was a ball of fire. As soon as the bell rang, he comes flying across the rain with six-foot long legs trying to kick me. And immediately, you know, I'm 50, no, see, I'm 47 at that time. And I just win, you know.

plan A, plan B and plan C went out the door. So then we initiated plan D. Plan D was just to do what I do. And I was to get in as tight as I could, you know, work the body, try to get him on the ground, not stay there because he could get me, but just ground and pound, get in, get out kind of stuff, you know. That was the idea. But when I went in, I went for a big, nice uppercut.

And whenever I did, I caught him on the chin, but he's six foot four. He stood straight up with it. and a rookie mistake, instead of pulling it and then going for a single leg or a waistlock, I try to drive it. And when I did, I popped the whole rotor cuff. The rotor cup popped. The arm just went completely down and limp,

and I went like this. He clenches me and knees me really nice. Got me right, got me right up under the chin. It knocks me on my back onto the canvas. When I hit the canvas, I tore my bicep, my trap, and my peck. Jeez.

Yes. You ever heard of anybody tearing a trap? I've never told you. No, that was possible. Yeah, I didn't either. The back part of my trap pulled, balled up right there, my shoulder balled up over here, my bicep pulled up over here, and then my peck pulled over here. This is your body saying, you know what, David, maybe you shouldn't be in there.

Yeah, and I was, you know, I mean, I had the adrenaline going. I got immediately right up. It didn't really rock me. It just knocked me on my ass. But it's not like a wrestling ring. You know, when my back hit it, I hit plywood, you know, and that was it. And I think that just, you know, the jolt of all of that. And then plus what I didn't already tour just boom, just went.

And I realized I got back up on my feet, couldn't lift my arm. Referee calls the fight. And that was it. And so I went through. I have a period of about two and a half weeks, pulling all my torn muscles back into position. Oh. Yeah, they're not perfect, but they're back to where they were. Like my bicep, it was back here.

So it took me about three days to just dig down and pull, pull, pull. And you're doing this? You're not going to like rehab class? No, I did it all myself. Yeah. My girlfriend and I did it. Yeah. She would be my next.

crazy that you're not like working with like a physical physical therapist that's going all right let's stretch this out here no the the guy that told me about it was the the EMT at the fight that night and he was a bodybuild and he was a he was great big jacked up guy and he was like okay look man he goes you got you got a number of injuries here he goes which one do you want to get fixed first he goes I would get the rotor cuff fixed the muscle you can manage you know you can probably to get that to where you need it to be close to it anyway. I'm like, okay, whatever, you know, he goes, but you only have a week to do that with all your muscle because your muscle will start, you know, tying back into itself. Sure, it's like atrophy, right? Yeah, and I'm like, okay, so

what do I do, you know, so he actually started the process with my bison. My bouset was just completely flat, right there on the top. Yeah, it was a huge, but I looked like a baby's head hanging out the back of my arm and I just kept pulling and pulling. He showed me. It took about three days for that. It took almost about a week for my trap and my shoulder to get back into place where it was, but they're not perfect because you can still see dips, you know, little imperfections and stuff, you know, like my, my bicep, you can see like an indention right here, you know. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. Now, whenever I pulled it, I got it right on top, but it was kind of turned to the side, just a little then and I just didn't worry about it.

But yeah, I would pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, tape, tape, tape, tape. Yeah, pulling tape. With all that said, do you want to have another wrestling match? I do. Well, I've actually wrestled a few just like really easy matches the last four or five months. I wrestled Jerry Lawler. They're in Nashville. So we didn't do anything, you know, I mean, nothing.

I think I took two bumps. the bumps felt great, you know, felt like nothing, you know. I'm a little ring rusty, you know, my decision making is not like what it used to be, you know, so it's like I had to think a little harder, you know, remember stuff that I'd been forgotten, you know, and hadn't applied in such a long time, you know, but it everything, but it was easy. It was an old Memphis match. Wasn't anything good.

And then the other match I had was a tag team match, a six-way tag. I just tipped the high tag, boom, boom, boom, drop, drop. That was it. Let the other kid do the splash off the top ropes and he pinned the guy. And I just cheering around with everybody else. So, you know. At what point do you have to make the decision? Like, you were doing so many high flying things, right?

At what point do you decide like, you know what? It's probably better that I don't do as much of that for the longevity of my career. I started in when I was in WWE, which. it wasn't by choice. It was because they didn't want me to do that much. They wanted me to still tell the story, still wrestle, you know, that kind of thing. And plus the matches are like anywhere from three minutes to, if you got a 15-minute match, you were a lucky, lucky man, you know.

And hell, after wrestling three- and five-minute matches, if somebody did ask me to wrestle 15 minutes, I probably couldn't. I'd probably got blown up. So you get used to wrestling such these quick matches, you know. but yeah they they would just they came to me one night they was like trying not to do uh to her corona i'm like why not well that's ray mysterio's move okay don't do the uh the the the moon salt off the top road okay well that's super crazy's move like okay so i couldn't do the moneymaker pile driver either you know because they had the the law so that's when i came up with the the dead level you know

the brain buster and stuff. So everything else was just elementary shit. If you watch the WWE, it was just cross-body stuff. I didn't really do any kind of the stuff that I normally would have done. But then when I left there and went to TNA, I pretty much completely quit doing it

because I was turned back to being a heel, wrestling Jesse Sorensen and guys like that. So I didn't really need to do the high flying. And plus some of the stuff was hard to do anymore. Like I used to run up the rope, leap out and do that herd, flying herriton. Yeah, it's insane.

But I noticed that my right knee wouldn't jump as high as my left knee anymore. And I couldn't do it from the other side. I had to continue. I had to do it from that one particular side. You know, all my hurrah coronas went this way. I was never trained to go this way. That's funny. Wow.

Yeah. So back then, my leg wouldn't get up that high to hit the rope. And if it did, it just didn't have enough. offended at that point to get me up to the top road. Yeah, yeah. To get it. So I think who was it? Jesse Sorges was like, we're trying from the other side.

And it was, it was a mess. I was like, no, let's try not to do that. My coordination is just not the same to the right as it is to the way. How different did TNA look for you? Because you were there, you know, in two separate times. How different was TNA in the mid-2000s versus the mid-2010s? Uh, the first time I thought, you know what, honestly, I was so miserable there the first time. I hated life. I didn't want to be there. I mean, they were just, they pick and choose to they were going to put over.

And I got, I got the understanding about, you know, what was going on. But they lied to me about giving me more money, you know, because they had just started. It was like, hey, if you can, if you can work for us for this right here, then. at the end of the year when we make some profit, you know, then we'll give you more on your contract. And at that time, I didn't really care as much because I signed a contract with XWF, a company that Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart had. And I signed a like a five-year deal with those guys, and it was a no-compete. So even though we only did, I think we did about 10 complete shows. That was between tapings. and then we went to Puerto Rico and did some stuff,

and then we went out to the Midwest and did some stuff. That was it. I kept getting paid because I had that no compete clause. So I kept getting paid for like over four years. Wow. Yeah, and I was like, okay. So the money I was getting from that was a really good contract, and I was getting really good pay.

So I didn't really mind so much at the time. Well, of course, when that ended and stuff, you know, the first year ended, I was like, okay, you know, let's talk. and they didn't want to talk to me about money. They just want to talk to me about resigning. And I was like, no, we're going to talk about money. You know, that's what we do. This is how the game is played, you know.

So they didn't want to talk money, so I didn't want to resign. Well, then they rolled me over without my knowledge. The deal wasn't a contract. If they make anything of your likeness for merchandise, then they have the opportunity to roll you over. Well, they made an eight-bought. 10. That was it.

They made one A by 10 of me and they rolled me over and I was just like living. I was like I came, you know, you didn't even, we didn't even have negotiation. We didn't even talk about it. You know, you just did it. And then expect to me to show up the next week because I didn't show up one week because I thought my contract was done. Sure. And next thing, I know Bob Ryder's calling me, you, you're a little late, aren't you?

And I'm like, what are you talking about? I'm done there. Oh, no. rolled you over. And I was like, wait a minute, I'm talking to the WWE right now, bro. Yeah. You know, I didn't want to stay here no more. You lied to me. You didn't want

to, you know, you want to pay. And back then, AJ Styles, the Americas Most Wanted. It wasn't anything personally against those guys, but it was like, wait a minute, how are these guys who can't get themselves over? Because they used me, my first year was to wrestle AJ Stiles.

That was it. I wrestled his ass. a hundred times. There was no sense to any of. Because what they wanted, they wanted somebody with an established name to wrestle these young guys who didn't have any name and couldn't get themselves over. So that's what they basically was using me for.

And I mean, what angle do you have with somebody if you go out there every single night and the baby face beat you and you go to the pay-per-view and the baby face beat you? What sis does that make? Yeah.

You know, it made no sense. So at that point, I was just like, wait, I mean, you know, I'm just done with this, you know, company. And then they tried to do it with me and Dallas, Lance, Lance Hoyt, Lance Archer, whatever you're telling. They try to do that with America's Most Wanted. Now, what you would see on TV or you would hear on TV is Cheers, but that was audioed in. Anytime those guys came out, the crowd shit on. And it was hard for us because the people already knew me. They knew me from ECW and all that other stuff.

So I was already a fan favorite coming in, even though I was working Hill. So I was getting cheered. They were getting booed. But yet they were making twice the amount that I was making. You know, couldn't do promos, couldn't do anything. I mean, you had to, when I first met him, you basically had to lead them around. You know, you, you know, so, and AJ, you didn't have to lead around. But AJ, you just had to calm down.

AJ was just that young guy and man, so athletic. You know, he just had, he was me whenever I got started. I wanted to do every move in the book, you know, and every match. And so, you know, you had to work with him, you know, calming down a little bit. Place you move here, settle here, shine here, you know, you got to roll the basics down. But how are these guys making twice the amount that I'm making? And, you know, and I'm really not asking for that much. I'm just asking because I'm, you know, they didn't know I was getting that other check.

But, you know, so, but I still wanted to. If they gave me the money, then it showed me that they respected me enough to, you know, to, you know, they respected my character. They respected my talent. And to me after that, they didn't. So me and Dutch Mantel, I kind of had a little argument about it. And Duchess says, you are such a, you are probably one of the best heels that I think I've ever seen in this business. You can make somebody just want to kill you. You know, you just, the fans hate you.

And he goes, but you're such a good heel that you could lose. every single night and it wouldn't matter. I get it. I get it. But I wasn't ready for that. Sure. You know, I didn't have,

you know, you might have ideas for me, but I also have ideas for me too. Let's collaborate and get together and work these deals out. But there, it was their way or the highway. So why was it different the second time you went back to TNA?

Because a lot of those guys were gone. That was more like the, like, And Sting like that era of TNA. Yeah. And I didn't have a work in relationship with Hogan, you know, as my boss with the ex-WF. And Hogan and I were cool and I've been around Bischoff and stuff.

And I had actually signed with WCW, you know, before whenever I left ECW before I did the XWF thing. It's just that what I signed. And then like two weeks later, WVASI. Yeah, that's crazy. And then how can you get rolled over? A lot of guys that were signed to WCW got rolled over to WW. I turned it down.

Oh, wow. Yeah, John Lern. I signed a nice contract. Jimmy Hart was an agent for me. Jimmy Hart did a lot for me in this business. I mean, he really did. He spoke a lot. And he had the, you know, he had the name that people listened whenever he mentioned

something, you know, where he suggested something. So he got me a lot of good work. he was one of my best friends, you know, he really helped me out. But he got me a great deal. And whenever they called me, John Laronitis called me and said that, you know, of course, I got the same story. Like, we got so many guys. What we're going to do is we're going to send you to a heartland wrestling. And we're going to renegotiate your contract.

I'm like, ding, hold on. What do you mean renegotiating my contract? Yeah. He's like, well, what you signed is no longer going to be voided because we're going to just drop, we're going to drop you down to 65,000 a year, and you're going to work for Heartland and train at Heartland until we're ready. And I'm like, okay, well, how long will that be? Well, kid, you know how this business is. It could take three weeks. It could take six months. It could take six years. Who knows? and I'm like, I see.

Okay, so I'm going to take a drastic, drastic pay cut. Yeah. And at this time, I was already in my 30s. I was an established grown man. I had a family. I had a house. I had a neighborhood to live in. You know, you know what I'm saying?

I had paid taxes, you know, I had a life. And they wanted me to just up and root myself in Ohio. not Ohio, who was Cincinnati, and go work for Heartland Wrestling for $40 a night. And they wanted me to train on a WWE contract? On a WWE contract. That's crazy. Wow. Until they were ready for me to come up.

And I just said, you know what? I called Jimmy. And I was like, man, I just don't know. And he goes, well, tell me how you feel about it. And I was like, well, wait a minute. I mean, I was in ECW. I was a star there. I had a contract there, had a good contract there.

I signed with WCW. They gave me a really nice contract. I even had a guarantee to win the light heavyweight title. I mean, you know, that was even in my contract, you know? So I was like, how do I go from this to down to this? I mean, I just don't think that I could live off of that. I mean, I'm not going to sell my house. I'm not going to leave my family.

You know, and no, I can't do that. I mean, it's just, I just can't do that. Yeah. Jimmy was like, well, if that's where your heart's at, he goes, that's where I would follow. And I was like, all right. So I turned him, I turned him down. And I didn't think that there was any hardship until later on when I heard through the Gravind and John Larnett told people that I did bad business.

Wow. He was disappointed in me and stuff. and wanted to work with me, but I do bad business and stuff like that. And he kept that up until the time I actually went to work for WWE. But right after that, I went straight to work for ex-WF. I mean, it was like as soon as I turned that down within about a month, Jimmy's calling me up and I'm signing a deal with those guys. The United States Soccer Federation presents the U.S. Soccer Podcast.

My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Klinberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Times 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. It's so interesting that you clearly made a name for yourself in ECW. And ECW is around for nine years. here we are 20 plus years later people still chan ECW when you or Tommy Dreamer, Rhino or whomever goes out to the ring. What do you think it is about ECW?

And I say all the time that nostalgia is like such a powerful drug, but what was it about ECW that 20 years later we're still talking about it? I think what grabbed me with it. I was working in North Carolina on an independent show with Ron. Van Dam. And that's when I first met Rob. He, him and Greg Price, Greg Price was the guy running the show. And I think Rob worked as a partner with him. Plus, he was his big star. So I was sitting there and they popped to me smoking weed in my car before the show. They were over there smoking weed in their car and they could see me through another car and I'm smoking.

And so they beep in the horn real loud and stuff. So we just kind of instantly became friends and stuff. well on that show that night I wrestled my kid and we had a really good high flying match and stuff and Rob pulled me to the side that night and he was like hey you know he goes you should come to ECW honestly at that point I'd never even heard of ECW and he was like yeah it's on the FSM channel fSS channel for sports south and I was like oh okay so I'll have to check it out yeah yeah so he gave me his number and everything like that well back then I was, you know, you had to save all your money. So I drove from Johnson City to Winston-Salem, Salem.

I did the show, and then I drove all the way back to Johnson City so I could save money. I got back home about one in the morning and turned on the TV. And I was looking for it because he kept telling me about it. And I found it. And it was Mikey Whiprek and a little Guido wrestling. And I was just watched them. And I was just like, well, shit, I can do that. I can do them.

I've been doing that for years. Sure. shit. So I was like, all right. So I called him up. And I was like, hey, I was like, I'm sitting there watching this. I was like, yeah, I'll do it. When, when you guys run in again? He says, tomorrow. I was like, where at? He goes, Philadelphia. And I'm like, oh, shit, okay, never mind. He goes, if you show up, I'll get you, I'll get you work. He says, I think only thing you need to do is just be seen. I'm like, okay. So my girlfriend at the time, talking to her and I was like,

uh, what do you think? She goes, that means you'd have to leave in about an hour. So I took a shower, repacked my clothes, got in the car, drove all the way to Philadelphia.

Uh, took me about 15, 15 hours. So I got there and met him at the travel lodge, the old school, the old travel lodge. And, uh,

took a nap, uh, we got something to eat. We went to the gym. Then I, we went to the building. When I walked in, he entered,

me, he was going to introduce me to Paul Heyman. But before he could get it out of his mouth, he says, David Terrico, how's Ricky Morton? I was like, he's great. He goes, uh, got you gear. I was like, I do. And he goes, good, you're on in about 15 minutes. Wow. I ran outside, got my gear.

I changed actually in the parking lot. And when I came back in, I was in a six-man tag. And, uh, with J.T. Smith, uh, Axel Rotten. Uh, I think, um, God, Hike Myers. There was a couple of, I can't remember, I think Nova and, who was it? Little Guido.

And we just, I took a chair shot from Axel Rodden that completely folded right over my head. But I did get to pop out of Heronan O'Hara. And so they loved it. And Tommy was like, that's what I loved about the fans there. They were already smart. They read the sheet back. there were sheets there wasn't any computers so they read the sheets and uh they knew who i was so right when i hit the curtain uh tommy says listen he says they're probably going to shit on you

so don't let that bother you at all just go out there and wrestle your match don't even listen to the crowd usually a new guy especially wearing you know fringes and stuff down your because i was wearing my rock and roll express outfit because i've tagged him in with rickie and he's like looking like you look they're probably going to shit on. As soon as I went out, the whole crowd started chanting rock and roll. Wow. I had, yeah, it was just a good night, you know, and then after the match, you know, Tommy was like, great, loved it.

Go talk to Paul. So I went to Paul. It's like, do you like it? He goes, I loved it. I was like, can I come back? And it goes, good. Come tomorrow. Stan Allen.

And I did that for about a year until I broke my leg. And then when I broke my leg. But what it was, ECW was real. You know, even though it was fake, but to the fans that were watching and to us who were working there, it was real. Every single pay-per-view we did was WrestleMania. Paul never once had anything to do with our gimmicks. You know, he would give it the okay, of course, but he didn't dream up anything like, you know, WWE does or like T&A did, you know, don't come up with gimmicks.

They let you do it. they let you call your match. They let you say what you would say on a promo. There was no skit writers back there. It was all you. Every single person in that dressing room, whether you were part of their clique or not, we were all brothers.

It was just a very different organization, a very different dressing room. I've never been in another dress room like it, not even on the Indies. I've heard a lot of competitors. from fans between AW and ECW. Do you think that there's any merit to that? None.

None. I don't know where they would even get that. I think it's probably because for a long time, all there really was was WWE. And then here comes this young upstart that's not playing by those same rules, which I kind of could see with that being the case with ECW. When I watch E-A-W, A-E-W, I see Ring of Honor. Sure.

Yeah. Now it is a ring of honor, too. Yeah. I mean, honestly, I mean, unless you're John Moxley, Chris Jericho, the guys that might, who, and I don't want anybody to take this the wrong way. I mean, if you're on TV, you can work. but the guys who know the real work, you know, Chris gets out there and still has a wrestle, you know, he still works the crowd, he's still, you know.

The other kids, they're just spot after spot, after spot, after spot. And they do like a whole series of spots that, you know, they would not like wrestling me because I like to make sense of things, you know. So if this guy's like holding my arm doing a little, and over around going to twist me around going to spin me around and all this other so i didn't cut his ass off a long time ago you know i mean i because i like to like things to make sense you know but they

have some great talent there uh pock i used to wrestle pock before he was even in the w w he was back uh he was living in england and wrestling in dragon skate oh wow yeah he was skinny uh and me and him we would tear the houses down france and England, Germany. I mean, that kid, I knew back then, I even told him back then. There was a couple of times that they wanted me to go over, and in the middle of the match, I just decided, I'm going to put him over, you know, because he deserved.

You know, the kid even back then was probably one of the hardest workers, the most talented guy. He was the AJ Styles of England back in the day. Yeah, he, you know, I did a lot of high flying. I did a lot of crazy moves, but there's guys that were much more athletes. and talented. AJ was one of, you know,

much more athletic than me. And Pock, he was so much more athletic to both of us. Do you think about how different your career would be had you been given a full run in WWE?

You know, unfortunately, you got let go. Yeah, well, you know, that was my fault. I mean,

that was, I don't, you know, I smoked weed in Montreal, Canada. And that wasn't, that was just a place

where, sorry about my cat, Oh, who we got here? Who's that? That's CC. Cookies and Cream. Yeah. I got three feral cats that I brought inside, and I got three rescue dogs, right.

Wow. Yeah. Is it because you smoked weed in Canada, or is it because you smoked weed in Canada? No, because I smoked weed in Canada, Montreal. You know, I didn't already fail one drug test, and what's crazy about that one is, like, I am a weed guy, you know, and if you know anything about weed guys, you don't, a weed guy doesn't do any really other drugs, you know, it's like I don't even really drink, never really have.

I drink like Guinness and I'll drink a Guinness with my dinner and then I won't have another a six pack of Guinness and my refrigerator will last the month. So I've never been a hard drinker or anything like that, but I've always smoked my weed. I spoke since I was a teenager. But I was in the WWE and we had a long run. We did a, I think, like four days in. Then we went to Europe, came back right into another four days. And I went home.

Well, I got with some old friends of mine that popped into town there in Nashville and stuff. And next thing you know, I did two little, two bumps of cocaine with them. just too. And I was not never been a cocaine guy. You know, I've never been that guy. But I just did two damn lives. That's all I did too, just two. And so that was on a Friday night. And then, uh, Wednesday of next week went right back out on the road. We were in Louisville, Kentucky and I drove from Nashville to Louisville. Well, it wasn't out of my system yet. Right into a drug test. Because they don't they, it was all random. They didn't tell you when it was going to happen, you know, you just, and what was funny about it is we had just had one, like not even

two weeks before that. So generally, they gave us a month, you know, but this one popped another one in right quick. But, uh, yeah, so I popped it. I got a working suspension. I had to work, but I didn't get paid. Wow. Yeah. And nothing was ever really said about it. You know, I mean, well, of course, something was said about it, but I explained to Johnny, you know, test me now. I get, test me tomorrow. I get, I bet you it won't be. in my system because that's i didn't do a lot and i only did it just a couple days ago that's just not what i do and he was like well you did it you know and i was like yeah i get it and i've never touched it or done it since you know so uh but what what what happened was is uh yeah so a couple i don't know

about six months later we were in montreal getting ready for pay-per-view and uh i'm in the parking garage and uh so me uh rob uh a guy from canada that brought the stuff and Booker T, Batista, there was a bunch of us out there. And we're all passing it around. I leave because, you know, I'm the new guy. I'm the earlier in the car, you know. So I had to run and meet up with Jamie because me and me and Jamie were the pit bulls. I had to get ready and stuff like that.

So coming through, well, Brooklyn Brawler passes me. And he goes, hey, you old kid, what's that smell? What's that smell, kid? I was like, I don't know. He goes, no, no, no, seriously. hook me up, hook me up. I was like, I don't have it. I was like, you can go walk down there and right around the corner.

I was like, everybody, that's where everybody's at. I was like, I don't have it. I'm in Canada. Can't bring it up here. You know, oh, come on, you, you can hook me up. I won't, you know, don't, don't, don't bark me out like that. And I was like, seriously, go down there. You can find it.

And so that was it. I left very next morning. We fly home. I'm walking in the door. and boom, phone's ringing. John Laronitis. Yo, kid,

tell me you didn't smoke weed in the parking garage in Montreal Canada. And I was like, yeah. And he was like, so you're admitting it? I was like, yeah. I was like, it's on the,

you don't even drug test for it. It's on our drug test. And, you know, we don't, back then, the, weed wasn't even an issue on a drug test. So even if you had smoked weed, they didn't do anything about it.

It was the performance drugs and the, you know, the cocaine's. Sure, like hard drugs, yeah. The pills and stuff. That's what they were looking for. And he goes, so you mean to tell me that Montreal, Canada, one of our biggest venues in another country, you have the audacity to go smoke marijuana in a highly, highly illegal country. And I was like, well, yeah, I wasn't like the only one.

There was a group of us, you know, and he goes, I don't give a fuck who the group was. He goes, I'm talking about you. And I'm like, okay, yeah, but I admitted. Yeah, I did. I didn't know that that would be a problem. I don't know what I'm going to do. So we get off the phone and probably about an hour later, he calls me, tells me I'm released. Wow.

Yeah. I didn't argue it. I mean, you know, I kind of got it. You know, I'm not, I wasn't the draw that, you know, that everybody else was, you know, so. And then come to find out, uh, he calls me back a couple of weeks later. Uh, he actually did a really cool thing. He, uh, called me back and was hooking me up with Japan. Yeah, he made, he talked to some people over there and he was like, give him a call.

He goes, I've already kind of set it up. You can go over there. And I was like, so why did you fire me then if you're going to. Yeah. And he was like, it wasn't me. He goes, but here's the deal. He goes, we got. too many guys running around thinking that they can just do whatever they want to do.

He goes, and I'm not saying it's just you. He goes, it's other people too. He goes, you were the guy that was made an example. Wow. That's what. But I didn't. You know what? I mean, it's sucked.

But honestly, have you heard people tell you that they dream of going to WWE? And then when they get there, it was nothing like they was expected. That is almost every person that has been released. Exactly the way it was for me. So I got to be straight up forward honest with you. When he told me that, it was kind of a relief that I didn't have to go back. There's just so much politics there, man. The politics there was just unfucking real.

I wonder how different it is now that Triple H is in charge and Vince isn't there. It's probably less politics, but I think it's more woke still. I watch some of the show. I wouldn't fit in there. I could probably be an agent or something, but I wouldn't fit in there as a worker at all because everybody's so much younger and everybody is,

they don't look the same as my era. Whenever I was wrestling, I was a short guy. So I had to stand out. I couldn't just be a high flyer. I had to really stand out. So I hit the gym every chance I got. And I got on steroids.

I got on the whole nine yards. just so I could get that physique to stay on TV. Sure. But you watch it now and you see guys on there that look like the guy in the crowd watching. It's a different era, that's for sure. And they're putting them over big guys, you know, so I'm kind of confused now. Does the storyline not fit anymore? You know, I mean, is that how it is now?

Because back in the day, the big guys used to demolish the little small weed guys now the little small we guys are beating the big guys. It's weird to me. I mean, it's certainly a different era. I mean, and you got into it in the late 80s. There's been a lot of eras between now and then. Yeah, that. Who was that kid, Lilo somebody?

Leo Rush. Maybe. Did he come out with Bobby Lashley? Yeah, yeah. Okay. I can't. It's been a year or two ago. I was reading.

I was reading on the line and stuff like that. And so he was like, I guess when he left, it was in a contract negotiation or something going on with him. And now he was a cruise away champion. He had basically my kind of run whenever I was there. You know, it wasn't super.

It wasn't, you know, spectacular, but it was a decent run. It was a good run he had. And he was not really good on the mic. Him? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, he was. Okay. But the, thing about it was he's still a cruise away yeah you know what i'm saying now my era whenever i was there a guy me would probably make no more than a hundred hundred fifty thousand dollars here okay okay on their contract uh now you make so much more on your merchandise but your contract

back then a hundred hundred and fifty dollars was probably tops for a guy like like me uh so he's he's arguing and bitching and complaining and uh they're they're you know, describing what he says, you know, on the interview. And he says, yeah, he goes, so they wanted to give him the renegotiated his contract to $350,000. Yeah. And he was upset about it. And he couldn't feed his family on $350,000. And I'm sitting here thinking, where was that money whenever I was there?

You gave me $350,000 back then. I would have fucking done. I would have mop the floors before I left. the building you know what i'm saying i mean how are these people that before he came to wwe was not making that kind of money not even before he did his little contract negotiation sure you know what i'm saying so how in the world can somebody of of his size his stature his placement you know be so upset about 350 000 that he doesn't want to resign yeah and it just blew me away I couldn't believe it.

That's why I realized that just the times have completely changed. The business evidently has completely changed. I mean, if they're giving guys $350,000 a year, holy shit, let me be an agent up there. What are they paying those books? Maybe that's something you need to figure out. Oh, I don't know, right? What do you do it right now for work? I'm a commercial construction project superintendent.

We build high rises. We don't do anything over 20 floors. Does anybody that you manage or any other BCW fans? Oh, brother, every day. I got every job I've been on. I worked construction even whenever I was wrestling because I knew, one thing I learned a long, long time ago, just by being in the dressing rooms watching the old guys,

you know, I remember back my first couple matches, I'm sitting in the same dressing room with Bill Edie, the mass superstar, Greg Valentine, the Bushwhackers, Terry Funk, and I'm watching all of these guys. And I'm saying,

you know, I'm like, my God, you know, these guys are old and stuff and they're still doing this. Yeah. You know,

and then plus Ricky, you know, Ricky trained me. Ricky Morton, one of the greatest baby faces of all time, you know. And he is, what, 76, 77 years old?

He's still doing it. Still doing it. But here's the sad thing. What can he do? That's it, yeah. He's never known anything else. He's never done anything else. And I didn't want that for my life, you know.

So I went throughout the 30 years that I was wrestling. I got a college degree. I went on, did an online college and got a international business and marketing degree, which helped me in my construction career. You know, I was in the union. So I would wrestle Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I was working 12-hour days for the union. Wow. So, yeah, I mean, even when I was into WWE, I would fly home.

I would fly home on that night after my match because they were cool with it. They didn't understand why I was working, but they respected it. And they went on HINSTF flying me out the next day. They would fly me out that same night. I'd be back in that's really respectable because you're right there's so many wrestlers that don't ever have a backup plan and then they get into their 30s and 40s and beyond and they go this is all I know I don't know how I grew up in the industry you know I mean my my dad was a welder so first thing I did in construction well I was a pipe welder and then I wound up joining the carpenters

union about 10 years later but that's because I moved to tennessee started wrestling and all this other stuff you know, the job that I had while I was wrestling here in Tennessee when I first got here, I was a pipe welder at Eastman Kodak in Kingsport, Tennessee. And when that contract ended, there was no pipe union in Tennessee. And I didn't want to go back to Virginia. I didn't met a girl hair, the fellow love, you know, and all that stuff. So I wound up moving from Johnson City to Nashville thinking there would be a union there, but there wasn't.

So I wound up joining the carpenter's unit. And I stayed with those guys for over 28 years. Ken Cash could do it all. Well, I just seen the writing on the wall. Sure. I knew what I was doing to my body. I already knew because whenever you've already been into martial arts and boxing, you know, before wrestling, you're already doing a number to yourself.

Yeah. You know, your body, you're already starting to kind of feel it. By the time I was hitting 30, I was already feeling everything I didn't already done you know so yeah so i i just knew that there was going to have to be an afterlife i knew that i couldn't do this shit forever there was no way and that's when i started uh you know i just went on ahead and stayed with the union even though i was wrestling and being in the union you're very they're very flexible that's one thing i loved about the union i could go do a european tour i just walk up to hey look i got to do a european tour next month uh can you take me off the

books and then I'll be back on this specific date. You can put me back on. Okay, yeah, sure, no problem. Wow. And then, yeah, and then there's, if you ever watch some of the entrances that I had back in the day, I would wear my union shirt to the ring. And that got me over huge with my union hall. So they would do pretty much whatever I would want.

You know, I remember going about four and a half months, you know, doing tours and just wrestling all over the country. And when I came back, I went to work with a fair. next day. I called them the day before. I said, hey, I'm back in town. Okay, great. Next morning, I got a phone call. Hey, are you feel okay? You want to go? We got you right now. Okay, good.

And I would go to work. Yeah, your work I think is insane. That's amazing. I love it. Well, there was just a couple. I mean, wrestling, you can't get insurance. When I broke my leg there in ECW, tore my knee out, had to get a knee replacement, had to get a metal rod, put my tibula and all that. other stuff, tore my ankle out of shit out of pin, screw and bolt put my ankle and all that.

There was nothing. Nothing. No insurance. And when I went, well, I had insurance, but I had an independent contractor's insurance. Right after my surgery, the very next morning, they woke me up and canceled my insurance. Wow. Yeah. So that's why I went back to the union.

I went back to the union. I got full coverage insurance. all this time that I wrestled. You don't get a 401k. You don't get retirement. You don't get Social Security. None of that. So with the union, I was getting all of that while I was wrestling and I was making that wrestling paycheck too.

Yeah. And, you know, I mean, working for the union went bad. I mean, working on getting scale pay of like 45, 65 an hour. And you work 12 hour days. the union, anything over eight hours is overtime. Sure. So you're working four hours extra overtime every single day. Man.

You know, so yeah. I mean, everything was coming to an end. So I needed to prepare for that. And then once I got my degree, I walked right into the union hall. And I was like, hey, I've got an international business and marketing degree. And while I'm at it, I'm also doing online for construction management, which I got certification and construction management. very next day instead of booking me out as a journeyman carpenter they started booking me out as a superintendent a project manager all you know to all these big big huge projects so the big one i did is i did the are you familiar with nashville no much yeah i was there three weeks ago

all right uh on church street there's the it's called the church street tower it's the biggest building in the whole entire state of tennessee yeah yeah that's mine wow yeah yeah yeah Two and a half years we built that thing right down. This whole conversation has been so fascinating. I want to thank you again for finding the time on a Sunday to hang out and chat about everything. But before I wrap this up, I was talking about gratitude because it's such an important part of my life. When I wake up every day, I say out loud three things that I'm grateful for. So that's how I end every conversation. So, David, what are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now?

I've always been grateful for my family, my mother, you know, that's my family, my mother, my sister, my brother, my father. When I, when I walked in to the house and I said, I'm leaving town, never coming back, I'm going to be a professional wrestler when I had never had that conversation with them before ever, it just blew them away. But they stuck by me through the whole 30 years, supported me through the whole 30 years. There wasn't anything that if I ever needed, they wouldn't have been there for me on. You know, so that meant a lot to me. My health, I'm just still blown away at this point that I'm still in the health that I am. Even though I've gotten a hundred broken bones in my body, you know, I'm still able to get up every morning and go to work, you know, and go to the gym. I'm in the gym at 4 o'clock every morning.

I get up at 2.30 every morning. I drink my coffee. I go straight to the gym. I'm in the gym by 3.34 o'clock. Almost bedtime that here now. Yeah. I come home. I take a shower.

I get ready for the day. And then I work till 5 o'clock, you know. And I'm from 6 to 5. I'm at work. I'm building, you know, some important things in my life. You know, I mean, some important things to the city, some important things to the state, you know. So I feel fulfilled that way.

And then I don't know. I guess the one thing that I have, Well, I always have to be grateful for is just the rest of business. You know, the rest of the business gave me a life that I probably would have never been able to live or lead for as long as I did. I mean, I'm one of the few people that I know in my personal life, you know, outside of wrestling that doesn't have a bucket list. You know, I've been to over 65 different countries. I've lived in four different countries. I've traveled the entire world.

I've been to every single place I ever dreamed I wanted to go. I've done pretty much everything I wanted to do. You know, tried everything I've wanted to try, you know, said everything I've wanted to say. I mean, so I would have never gotten those kind of opportunities if I hadn't had gotten to that certain level in the wrestling business. But the wrestling business, you know, allowed me to get to that level, though. You know, the fans, if it wasn't for the fans and stuff.

So I'm always grateful for any kind of any of my wrestling fans, you know. So if it wasn't for them, there wouldn't have been a kid cash, you know, so that's what I'm always grateful for. Yeah, those are three great things. Well, again, David, thank you so much for everything. Yeah, man. Thank you for the years of memories. Well, thank you for the opportunity, man. Like I said, it's really cool.

I've watched a lot of your videos, man. Oh, wow. Oh, yeah. Whenever I'm at work, I have an hour of just kind of. of downtime when I really don't have to do too much. So I'll sit there and watch YouTube. I watch a lot of your interviews. Oh, that's so cool.

Well, now we've made one. Yeah, exactly. I've never, I'm, it's a privilege, honestly, to be interviewed by you, you know. Well, I have to thank Renee Dupree because I saw you on Cafe Dune, Rade. And I said, hey, how can I get in touch with King Cash? He goes, here, this is his Facebook. She has a message. I love, Renee.

He's all so cool. Yeah, so thank you again. Hey, thank you, man. Anytime. If you ever want to, you've got me, no. Oh, your phone's written.

Look at this. Perfect timing here. Yeah. Rocky. Can I go Rocky? The Bernie. Of course. Yeah, man.

Huge Rocky fan. Huge Rocky fan. All right. Kid Cash. What a guy. Give him a follow on Twitter. At David Kid Cash. Give me a follow as well.

I'm at Chris Famfleet. And one of my favorite books over the last handful of years is a Atomic Habits by James Clear. If you've read it, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You know just how good it is. If you haven't read it and you're looking for a book to read in 2023, I would say definitely add atomic habits to that list.

And I'll leave you with a quote from the author, James Clear. And I love this so much. The seed of every habit is a single tiny decision. Think of those single tiny decisions that you're making here in January of 20. 23 that will lead you through the rest of the year and through the rest of, I could be through the rest of your life. What kind of person do you want to become through those single tiny decisions and those habits that you build? Be great.

Be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about.

You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.