Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Mark Jindrak On Being An Original Member of Evolution, WCW Getting Purchased By WWE, His Return To Wrestling

Episode Date: March 18, 2022

Mark Jindrak (@jindrak1) is an actor and professional wrestler known for his time in WCW and WWE. He chats with Chris Van Vliet about the crazy story that lead to him becoming a wrestler, training at the famous WCW Power Plant, being a member of "The Natural Born Thrillers" in WCW, WCW getting bought by Vince McMahon, what the reaction was like for Shane McMahone backstage at the final Nitro, being an original member of Evolution with Triple H, Ric Flair and Randy Orton and why he was replaced by Dave Bautista, finding success as a wrestler in Mexico under the name Marco Corleone, his current job grading sports cards and more! For more information about CVV 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 go. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Berlin! Welcome back, my friends, to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm CVP Chris VanVley. Thank you so much for being with us as we welcome the one, the only Mark Jindragg to the show. And I love how this conversation came together.

I was at a wrestling convention in Hamburg, Pennsylvania last July, called Legends of Hamburg. That's where I interviewed Maven, by the way, if you've seen, heard that interview. And set up at the table next to us was Mark Jindrack. And when you see this guy in person, he's a big dude. So when there was a break in the action, I went up, I introduced myself and I asked him if he'd be interested in coming on the podcast.

Took a little while. But here we are. And at the heart of this story, it's all about those moments that change your life forever, those right place, right time moments. And it sets you on the path that you're on right now. And for him, it was WCW, followed by WWE, followed by a really successful run in Mexico as Marco Corleone. And he's at Marco Corleone 23 on Twitter, if you're looking for him, at Jindrack 1 on Instagram. And I'm at Chris Van Vleet, if you're looking for me.

Take a screenshot. Let us know that you're listening to this and tag us at those social media accounts we just listed off so we can share it. And if this is your first episode, please consider subscribing on whatever. app it is that you're listening on right now. Our fan of the week is G.C. 1,200. He says, Delo Brown interview is spectacular. Great interview. DeLo is definitely the Forrest Gump of wrestling.

He's been there, and what a way to convey that in the interview. I love it. Keep up the great work. Well, thank you so much. Appreciate you taking the time to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. And if you're listening to this on an iPhone, please leave a few words. Leave a review on Apple Podcast. We'll shout you out on the show.

That's what we do. it's our way to say thank you for being on this journey with us. And if you're not an Apple podcast listener, if you listen on Spotify, they've got ratings on there now. We just hit 500 ratings recently. So geez, you guys are on 500 ratings in like, I think it was like three months.

So amazing. So if you have Spotify, it takes, I don't know, two seconds to go on there, click the five stars and that's it. So thank you. I say this a lot, but super grateful for you guys.

So thank you. Now let's dive into this. Ladies and gentlemen, Mark Jindrack. Mark, you were one of those guys that when people see you, they're immediately like, that guy's tall. Like, you must get asked several times a day. How tall are you? Yes, I mean, sometimes, sometimes a lot more America.

I mean, a lot less than America. In Mexico, of course, you know, my height was a big, big differential between myself and the average Mexican height. But here in America, there's people a little bit taller, you know, the average height is about a little higher. Yeah, it's definitely not 6-6th, though. No, no, no. 6-6 is a good height, though.

I like it. Yeah, you're one of those people that when you see you, you're like, oh, that guy has played a sport at some sort of professional level, possibly basketball. Yeah, I get that. I do get that a lot. Like, it's a way I dress too. Like, I walk around everywhere with Jordan's on or, you know, I'm still, I'm 44 years old, but, um,

You know, my wife, in Spanish, she calls me a rappero anciano, which means an ancient rapper. Because that's the way, like, I kind of, you know, and I laugh. I look in the mirror and I'm like, you know, usually I wear my hat backwards and I'm wearing some kind of jogging suit or something. It's just, you know, I just, I don't want to grow up, you know. So luckily my wife accepts me the way I am, you know. But yeah, everyone thinks I'm an athlete. You posted on Instagram the other day that you were back in the ring for the first time in four years.

So I guess the first part of that is, was that in Mexico? It was almost in Mexico. It was in Laredo on the first night. And then the next night was in El Paso. And, you know, like it was four years. I got into ring a little bit here in Knoxville. You know, Kane and Dr. Tom Pritchard have a school here. So a couple nights I went down and did some in-ring like blow-up drills and stuff.

but, you know, I really, I firmly believe at this age, you know, like my bumps are limited. So, you know, I just wanted to make sure everything, you know, in terms of, I ran every day a few miles, you know, made sure everything was good. But, like, I wrestled and, you know, it was good. Two shoe shows went well, and I missed the ring. And it's crazy. Just even, like, I felt like it didn't skip a beat almost, you know, and it was four years. But, like, I guess it's a weird thing. It's just time changes, but not that many.

Time goes on, but things don't change that much, it seems, you know. And it was good to be back, like, almost in Mexico. You know, I think at the end of April, I'm going back and wrestling some shows there in Mexico City, Cancun, and I want to say Medida. So I'm looking forward to that. I haven't been back in Mexico since, but almost, you know, like I said, Al Paso and Laredo. Your physique is clearly still in ring shape.

Like, it was phenomenal. Like you're like, oh, I'm 44 now, the ancient rapper. No, like you're just as jacked as your WCW does. Well, yeah, I mean that is I felt like I looked apart, you know, and that's, that's important to me. I didn't want to be age is just a number as long as you still look apart, you know, because if I came back and I looked like a little bit off and I grant you, I still have for my dates at the end of April, like I'm going to improve my body even another 20, 25 percent

because, you know, these things that when you're in a regular life of working, you know, a nine to five or or just not, or just not training the wrestle for years and years, you, you work out, you don't work out to that extreme level like you would if you're in ring, you know. And, you know, so I basically for three years, I didn't, I trained like a just a normal person, you know, maintaining, maintaining and just keeping a halfway decent. diet but like you know once I decided to get back into the ring I knew that a lot of decisions would change you know what what I ate how I slept stretch how he stretched you know like when I was wrestling I was always like a guy who was always very active and stuff hyperactive and moved around a lot I would always stretch and stretch and stretch all day like stretch people thought I was weird I was always touching my toes and you know but like that's that's really stretching is very vital and I don't in an I haven't done yoga or anything.

And I've tried it and I just don't like it, you know. But I try when I stretch it, I try to mimic as many yoga moves as I can, you know? So, and I'm the guy like on Instagram that follows all these health and safety, you know, like stretches and stuff. And I'll save them for later. And I'll literally like watch these videos in the gym and mimic these stretches, you know, over and over. And, you know, it just helps. even 10, 15, 20 minutes a day helps. I would think the greatest motivation to stay in shape,

like we're talking during your prime here, is the fact that you're going to be walking around on Monday night on TV and your underwear. Yeah, right. Yeah. I mean, that is a big, well, well, also, that's what I was always known for, you know, like, not known for, but like, I was, quote, unquote, a body guy, you know, like.

You and all the natural born thrillers were bodyguess. Yeah. Yeah. So it just doesn't, it doesn't work, like, And especially in Mexico, you know, when I was the Marco Corleone character in Mexico, that was my thing. You know, like, and even some, even more so like television, doing television in Mexico, they're, they're, you know, the, the Latin culture is very, you know, they're, it's a, you know, it's a, you know, it's a, they're not afraid to show some skin, you know, so when I get on TV and do these shows, you know, before I know it, I always had my shirt off, you know, they, they'd count me to take my shirt off and stuff. And it worked, you know, it. take my shirt off and showing an eight-pack helped cover up some of my lack in Spanish the first couple of years, you know?

So, but then I learned Spanish and, you know, and everything else changed, you know. What did, what did you weigh your ultimate body guy peak? Way? Yeah. Probably 250, 255, you know. I have a really athletic frame. Like 5% body fat, though. Yeah, not much body fat, you know.

I can like it's very well proportioned as well you know it it it wasn't like uh like I think I could have held 285 2090 pounds easy and it still looked halfway normal that makes any sense because I was I was very proportionate you know yeah so if we go way back here mark like I think that wrestling kind of found you through a series of you know very interesting events and we'll get into that but like what did you want to be when you were growing up it was always geared towards sports It was always about sports, sports, sports, sports, sports. You know, growing up in Syracuse, Auburn, New York, it's called, actually, Auburn, New York. You know, big Yankee country, upstate New York.

So like Reggie Jackson, I love Reggie Jackson. I love them 44 now, and he was number 44. Syracuse basketball growing up, you know, I always had aspirations playing basketball. Anything, basketball, baseball, football, but it was all about sports, always, always, always. I can remember what that. college for basketball, right? Yeah, it was Division III. I played Division III, a smaller college here around Rochester area in New York.

Good competition. You know, I really blossom into a more like elite athlete in college. You know what? High school, I felt like I, you know, I graduated age 17, so it was like I still had like a baby, young body, you know, going into college. And then I filled out a little more in college. And then once I started, once I started getting. more of a man body that's when the wrestling came about and stuff so just in time you know but still even

when i started i was still i still had more of a young you know young frame you know i didn't peak to like my late 20s probably so what were you doing for work when you were in college nothing nothing i mean college i mean we we had i mean we had work programs and stuff on on school but it was basketball yeah with basketball and stuff but uh you know so really nothing i mean uh i i i mean uh i uh i i I didn't get a job until after I decided to, originally what I had done is in that kind of, the segue into like how my wrestling career kind of began. After my sophomore year of playing basketball,

a couple of my friends were graduating, and they moved down to Florida, Orlando, Florida. And they started their careers in food service. So they said, hey, Mark, you know, why don't you, you know, we're all good friends and stuff. I was going to go into my junior year and they're, you know, of course, starting their careers. They said, why don't you come down, do us a favor, drive the U-Haul so we can drive our cars, and, you know, spend the summer with us.

They lived on right on Universal Boulevard there. So right near SeaWorld, so it was right in the hot, you know, so I didn't have a car there. Oh, yeah, International Drive, right? International Drive, yes, International Drive Boulevard, I'm sorry, I've spent so long. International Drive. Oh, there's Universal Studios there. It makes sense. Yeah.

You know, right there on near, sea world and so I worked I got a job in the summertime working waiting tables at a Denny's there and right there on international drive and near Seaworld and that was a deal like I worked the graveyard shift at night we're open 24 hours oh I bet you saw some shit well nobody nobody yeah I saw some I saw some shit nobody really wanted to work that that gig so I made a little deal like in my friends you know they started a career I'm working 70 hour a week so literally they had the weekends off, so they're ready to go crazy because they're still young guys themselves, you know,

and so it was the summertime and stuff. So I'd get to have the weekends off as long as I worked the crappy graveyard shift. So that's what I did. And yeah, you saw some characters. And one of the characters, a few of the characters that came in one night was actually the night that really kind of changed my life. And working at the Denny's was probably like 11 at night,

and these two guys came in. One was the name was Barry Houston. another guy's name was Alex Wright. Alex Wright was, that's one of the kid in WCW. Actually, I wrestled him a ton in WCW. And the other guy,

Barry Houston, I don't want to use a word like, he was more of an enhancement talent on like the Saturday night shows and stuff where they filmed there in Universal Studios in Orlando. So I guess they just got finished their gig of filming there and got some food there at Denny's. So I waited on them and just conversating and stuff.

And, you know, the guy, Alex is more. more like to himself and just eating and stuff. And the other guy, Barry, was more conversational. And, you know, he asked me like, hey, you know, there's nobody really in the place. It was kind of dead at the place. And he's like, you're a pretty big guy.

You know, you play sports. You like wrestling? I was like, man, I used to watch wrestling. But yeah, I play basketball. I'm just down here for the summer with my friends and stuff. He's like, oh, man, you should be a wrestler. And I was like, you know, and I was still under the illusion that I, you know, maybe I'm not going to go pro in Division III, but I always thought that I'd be able to play

internationally or something. sneak on one of these international teams. But yeah, so the night went on, we just chit-chat him more. And it wasn't like a formal invite, but like I brushed off the whole wrestling thing. We had some wrestling stories, you know, and they left. But the one thing I noticed what my ego, like my athletic ego was, is I'd look at other guys and say, you know, like I'd see them. I seen him walking out. I was like, man, well, physically I'm bigger than those dudes, number one.

I know I'm more athletic than they are. They can't 360 dunk. like I can. But I saw them hopping into a sweet ride. It was probably a rental, but like I just had an illusion of like, man, if they're doing it, like, I mean, you know, how hard can it be? And in the most respectful way, because they're a really nice dudes. Well, Barry Houston was.

Alex Wright was just to himself. So they leave, whatever, but non-sant meeting. Cool. They left. Later on that night, it was probably like three in the morning. And there was nobody in the restaurant, which is me, the dishwasher, and the, the cook. And these two kids come in, not to say kids, but like probably early 20s, they come in, they ask, hey, can we have four quarters for a dollar? It's your thing. And as I'm open the register,

I look up and there's like a gun and a pipe. The one's got a gun and the other's got a pipe. They're like, give me all the money. And I was like, yeah, no problem, no problem. Just don't, you know, don't shoot. Don't shoot. I gave him the thing. They got it and they left. It wasn't that dramatic of a scene, you know? And when they left, my young, my young, my young cast thought like wow this is oh my god he's got i got held up this is kind of cool like this is a first you know because i you know before then i you know i came from auburn new york you know and a small town like 26 000 people and then in school the kayuka kiyuka college in pennia new york penya new york is like an homage town so you know and from there of those two things i was in

like a small world and then i go to orlando yeah um you get robbed and gun you know i'm thinking man this is the wild wild west like dung dung gun slinging and and uh so i got held up and the cops came police is that the next move yeah the police came the police came yeah i called them um you know i told them what happened blah blah they did a report by five like five in the morning i was i was out of there they they caught me the the the regular manager store manager came in handle everything i went home now it was like five in the morning still so want to wake my friend up, friends up because they're sleeping. They've got to get up and they got to work 12 hour days. So I just waited, you know, I'm just going to go to the community. We lived in

an apartment complex with, you know, those community pools, jacuzzi. It's like, you know, I'm just go there in a jacuzzi and chill out. And lo and behold, when I go to the pool and stuff, I see that wrestler Barry Houston. He's there with a girl who actually, he was dating from the same, just ironically dating in Orlando. And he was hanging out with her at the pool. They were drinking. And, you know, the conversation, you know, continued. I told him what had happened. I told him what had happened. He was like, wow, that's amazing. And he said, see, when you, you know, sometimes in life, anything can happen. So, like, he's like, I think you should reconsider this wrestling. Now, like, I had my shirt off now and I was always always like physically, genetically,

genetically, Jack, like Mike Sanders would say. I always, you know, like when he saw me in my shirt off, he was like, man, you are, you're built really well. Like, you're still young. He goes, you're probably going to fill out pretty well in the next few years. I said, I think so. I hope so. My dream was always looked like Ivan Drago, you know, from Rocky 4. That's what I was always sure. You will lose. Yes. I must break you.

But yeah, so we had a long conversation. He dies. He dies. He dies. We had a long conversation, not too long. I mean, but long enough for him to say, look, what are you doing tomorrow? And I was like, I'm, I got the police people who were supposed to come to my apartment. And I was supposed to help them do the drawing or whatever, like, you know, for the.

Yeah, like the composite sketch. Composite sketch. That's what's called. I said, besides that, nothing. He goes, okay, well, I'm probably going to sleep in. I'm a little drunk right now. But when I wake up, we have to be the Universal Studios tomorrow around like three or something. They were going to film again.

And he goes, why don't you come along as my guests? I'll have you look around. I introduced you to Sarge. Sarge was ahead of the power plant. And he actually did us on the ring crew. So that was his side gig and then, you know, and he hated doing the ring crew and set up the ring and stuff. So he get pissed off and go back to the school and take it out of the students, you know. And so I said, I accepted his offer.

I said, sure. And I went down there and stuff and it was crazy. It introduced me to, it was like I had a blast from pass because my wrestling recollection was I stopped, you know, right around the time, like, Great at the WWF era were like all the, the cartoon and stuff and the WrestleMania 3, probably got to about WrestleMania 4 or 5, and I kind of just put it on hold on ice. Wrestling is just kind of disregarded. So a lot of those stars I watched growing up, the Mr. Perfects, the Rick Rudes, the Brutus Beefcake, you know, all those guys are in WCW now.

Yeah, yeah. So I'm walking through the backstage of Universal. I'm seeing these guys. I saw Virgil. I was like, holy shit. I saw the, I think the million dollar man was there too.

Like all those old WWF characters are now, you know, in WCW. I saw hacksaw. I saw like Booker T and Stevie Ray. I remember Barry Houston said, hey, book, Stevie, Mark's going to try out the power plant next month. He goes, don't hurt no bone mock, you know. As he said, I remember rings my head all the time. And to think I wrestled with Booker T in WrestleMania 20, you know, so just I saw rookie Goldberg, you know, like passing through, you know?

So it was a great, it was a great experience. And the funniest thing was Sarge, he was set up the ring. It looked like he was hating life and very introduced me to him saying, Sarge, this is Mark. He's actually going to try out the power plant. And he's like, I said, hey, Sarge, put my hand out. And he goes, do your fucking squats. That's all he said to me. fucking squats.

I was like, holy shit. So I actually went home, you know, and did my squats. But yeah, and that was, I mean,

that was just like a blast of, past. I felt like it was something that was meant to be, especially with the whole holdup thing. And just like Barry Houston, his girlfriend was in my same complex. I decided to go take a swim at five in a morning.

I just seen out of a movie. Seriously. Yeah, it's, it's crazy. You couldn't write a better story, you know? And the best part of it all,

This was like the ultimate like, wow, is, you know, after I met everyone, they had stuff to do. So I just wanted to say hello. And I was walking off the lot there, going to go, you know, go back to my place. As I'm walking off, I see a Mercedes, black Mercedes pull up. And as it gets closer, it kind of stops. The window goes down. And it was macho, man. He looked at me.

He goes, ooh, I thought you were Alex right. his voice and he drove drove off but it was crazy because Alex Wright was the other guy that was involved yeah yeah late night dinner and uh it was the macho man you know snap into a slim gym like this is i mean it's like i just the 13 year old me just like exploded at that you know like in my it was crazy and it was um that was like the cherry on the on the top of the sunday you know like after that i was like you know what i'm gonna train the hell of my junior year of school, I'm going to make this and I'm going to move to Atlanta.

And it's actually what I did. You know, so. Well, I think that we all have those moments in our life that change and shape the direction of our life. I don't know if most people have it condensed into like a few hours like you did with meeting professional wrestlers and getting held up at gunpoint and composite sketches and then going to a jacuzzi at five in the morning. Like, this is insane.

Yeah, yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. but I think sometimes it's supposed to feel a little crazy, you know, like, you know, I have strong faith, you know, and I believe things always happen for a reason. Like, I pray for things and I feel like it's, I never feel like it's some kind of magical thing that, you know, for those who believe in God, that God just grants you these spells like some magician. I believe he gives you you opportunities in other, in order to make your dreams come true, you know, like he gives you the right avenues and keys and you just have to look for him and, you know, and take them, you know, take them. And, you know, I just, I just really, you know, I'm thankful for all those chain of events and more so like Barry Houston, you know, like I don't keep in contact with them anymore. You know, I'm sure with Facebook and stuff, I could find them, I could track them down.

But, you know, him and Alex Wright, you know, he didn't have not much to do with me at that time, but like him and I became pretty good friends as well. We wrestled each other many times. you know so it's just it's just crazy it's crazy how things work out i think we've all heard the stories of what training at the power plant's like but what was it like for you uh you know what it was it was it was tough it was tough but uh i was i was definitely ready you know um the one thing was in my favor was the the tryout itself favored the athlete that was more like well-rounded you know like I could run efficiently.

I could, I could, you know, I had good endurance and agility and speed. So all those things. And I had good cardio as well. So I was big. But like I said, I was always well proportioned, you know. I could be 240 pounds, but I look like I'm 220, you know. So, you know, even I, even I, you know, but then when I as I got bigger, you know, as I got the 250, 255, I looked more like 280 because just the way I wore it, you know.

so yeah from that fateful night to you making your first appearance on nitro how long was that that was um that that thing that whole thing happened i want to say in october of 97 october of 97 that happened and um the first nitro was the first nitro what my first signing of my contract of WCW was April 7th, 1999. So through the math, it's like maybe a year and a year and a half pretty much, you know, a year and a half from

time that hold up to contract about a year and a half. And then after signing, that was April 7th, 1999, we did some Saturday night TV appearances. I say we, because that whole time was always me and all the power plant.

You know, the guys that were given opportunities to the Boulombos, the Stasiax, O'Hare's, the Johnny of the Bulls. You know, they're all giving us, you know, opportunities at the time. So we did some Saturday night stuff. But when I really, our first big stuff was Nitro was June 26th, year 2000. That was my 23rd birthday. So I remember these days. I'm really good with dates.

You're like rain man here with these dates. Yeah, right. And it's funny. As I refer to myself, we can talk about this later. but I grade cards for a little great sports cards. And that's my profession and stuff, which we've talked about before. That's what you do now for 11.

You grade sports cards. That's a huge business right now too. Big business. Like, in fact, my brother, my brother's, like, he just sent, he had an armored truck come to his house and pick up 30 to 35. I don't want to say 35 of his cards to bring them to a vault in Oregon. That's where all the big wigs keep all their,

They're big cards, their big money cards. My brother's 35 cards were valued at like $5.1 million. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. And like, you know, so when I was, my brother's 11 months younger than me. So, you know, when we were growing up and stuff, he was very, we were very competitive athletically that he was, the difference was he's 6-2, 6-3 and I'm 6-6. You know, those three inches mean a big difference in athletics, you know.

Sure. But, you know, he went. on to be an engineer, which, you know, he makes good money and stuff. And when I was out wrestling and stuff, so like in those years,

like 2007, 2008, when the economy was down and stuff, he was buying up all these, like, like, he would play sports cards like the stock market. You know,

he knew which cards were going to go up. He stuck, stuck to his, like, you know, just getting the messies, the Jordans, the LeBron James,

the core players, the core superstars, the goats, per se, you know, and he just, he bought some crazy, crazy cards like and the boom just hit during the during the pandemic and stuff and sports

cars become really really hot again where all the you know athletes and DJs and stuff are getting into it and stuff so and it was always a childhood passion of both of ours um so logically now you're on both ends of it you know he's collecting him and you're grading him yeah well i collect them too i started collecting two after wrestling and then and then when i some of my investments like hit well, I thought to myself, man, there's got to be a way I can do this, you know, incorporate this, because I was kind of lost after wrestling. At least, you know, I could have still wrestled in the pandemic and I was like, you know, there's no, no even sense of doing this. So I just put it on hold and, but I didn't know what to do in terms of work, you know, so, um, the sports cards,

you know, I moved here to Knoxville, Tennessee because there's a company here called HGA and we grade and authenticate cards. Like, our deal is we, um, we're kind of like the newbies. were like rookies on the scene. The big for people know about cards, the big companies are BGS and PSA grading companies. But we're, the thing about us is like BGS and PSA, they're kind of like,

you know, they're the industry's finest right now, but they have got boring slabs, we call them, the cases, they're kind of boring, you know? And we, we have colored slabs,

you know, custom slabs, which people love. And it's really kind of, it's working well for us, you know, so. also have like six month waiting lists right now too we are we're behind we're behind a little bit we

all the company is behind we're a little less behind but um just you know a couple times we had a shutdown uh for covid you know when all these variants whipped through and everyone gets it you know it's it's it's kind of rocky roads for about a month and and that stuff slows down production and the thing is the the people sending the cards and the great hasn't slowed down because it's It's like the industry normal now. Like to have like a card just raw, you know, ungraded is almost like if it's good, you've got to protect the investment, you know? So you send it in.

We, we, I say, I, that's what I do the professional grading. I do about 160, 200 cards per day. And, you know, I got my reading glasses on. I'm looking at all the corners. We grade by corners, edges, surface. And, you know, it's just, it's, uh, and centering. And it's just a card, it's crazy. Look at, you can look at a card and you can say, oh, it's perfect, you know, the eye.

But once you get under like a light and a little bit of magnification, like, it's, it's crazy. It's crazy how a 10 card can turn into an 8.5, like, you know, and a snap, you know, and that's a big difference. I've also seen people collecting and grading, like obscure things, like a Thomas Jefferson autograph or something like that. Oh, yeah, like crazy stuff. Yeah, like that, like, like. Like my brother, like, who's super huge, he's always getting to these crazy auction. After a while, like, you get all these big cards, you know, like, what's next? What's next?

And you always try to get one up your collection. And, you know, and the other day, he was looking at this auction for a Ronaldo player card, but of him when he was nine years old playing. So it was a card from like, I don't know, I want to say 1997 or say, I don't know, But it was like, Rinaldo was nine years old. And it was, you know, nine-year-old him, has name on there. And it was going for some ridiculous money, like $16,000 or something. But what a fun little tangent this was into the trading cards.

Yeah, right. But and what a mug. Oh, that's what she said, mug. As you said, yeah, we love the office. Like, like everyone loves the office. So good. And we saw this mug. And I, you know, we always give each other a little.

gifts and stuff. So who knows when it was. It might just been like a small like surprise gift, but yeah. So what was the big break for you and WCW do think? The big break was I think Vince Russo, you know, in the fall, the fall of WCW. I hate to say that, you know, but when it was,

ratings were diving and, you know, like all those same ex-WF guys were kind of just draining the payroll, you know? So and they weren't really producing anymore, you know. So it was just, it was dying. So, you know, basically all those young guys who were ready to go,

all got a chance, the natural war and thrillers. Like those guys that just mentioned, you know, Johnny the Bull and the Chuck Bulmbles, the Stacey, X O'Hare's, we all got chances. Elyuk-skipper, Reno, Alan Funk, Quiwi. So, yeah, so it just basically, that was our break, you know, Vince Russo, that new blood came in and we kind of like the natural one thrillers. It was a great thing about breaking out in the TV. It was kind of easy for us, actually,

because it's like imagine starting the first day of school, a new school, but you're with six-year friends, seven-year friends, you know, like, we probably got a little bit of heat because we were too clicky, you know, like, you know, clicks never work out in wrestling sometimes. And we, you know, backstage, we stuck to each other, and nobody punked us, you know, like, and there's always going to be, if you're just solo,

if you're riding solo as a youngster, there's going to be people that wrestlers that help you and lead you in the right direction. Then there's other guys get jealous, maybe want to take advantage you or don't give you much shit in a match or something. But when we were, you know, with the boys,

you know, like nobody, nobody mess with us, you know? I mean, people mess with us, but we, you know, we held her own, you know. This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens, which is a super important part of my morning routine. With one scoop of athletic greens, you get 75 high-quality vitamins, whole-foods, superfoods, and probiotics to help you start your day right.

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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 Clemenberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup.

Time's ticking. I think you can feel the intensity. All the guys are wanting to really take their claimant, 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. Who do you think was the most underrated of the natural born thrillers? I think the most underrated was probably the, you know, I mean, in the realm of stars, I think any one of us could have excelled and became a star. You know, like, I mean, like really became a, like in Mexico, I became a big star, like a real big star like um it was more probably for tv than i did and stuff but um you know oh hair oh hair had

he had a lot of star power probably you know the look he had the probably best look of all of us um when i saw him do the shantan bomb for the first time i was like wait a second a guy that big shouldn't be able to move like that yeah yeah we all everyone at that that power plant were pretty athletic freaks you know once we got that core and got you know the try out over with like We went to work, you know, we're, we're well trained and stuff. And, you know, Palumbo, Polumbo, too, you know, like, he had a lot of star power, you know, his motorcycles and stuff. He, he's done TV, you know, with a show and discovery and stuff.

Yeah, yeah. Wrestling. I loved, I loved the name above average Mike Sanders so much. Above average Mike Sanders. He was, he was smooth on the mic, you know. So good on the mic. Like, I feel like he didn't, he didn't get a chance in WWE, you know. And I feel like if he did get his chance, he would have been.

and he would have hit a home run, you know, and, you know, so plenty of guys, you know, like, Yeah, I cut you off. You were saying Stasiak, too. Stasi, you know, second generation guy, you know, with his father had big success and, you know, and, you know, for one reason or another, like everyone had their own path and success, but, you know, you know, everybody had, you know, everybody had a chance. I think, I think we all got a chance, one of them, you know, except for Sanders. I feel like Sanders could have gotten a little bit.

better chance than WWE. How did you guys find out that WCW was being bought by Vince? You know, there was always rumblings of a backstage. And then it was just, I think it was a Panama City show where they came. You know, Shane with Shane McMahon came with that's how you found out. Yeah, it was kind of. I mean, like there was rumors and stuff, but you didn't know it was true. And then we knew about it like, I want to see the night before like in the morning

of or whatever. we were already there. I know we were already in Panama City, but there was uncertainty the whole time. Like, is this show going to happen? And I wasn't actually on that Nitro show, but I did the dark match. They did a dark match before they went to TV, you know, so that was crazy. I did a dark match. It was, it was, I want to, I'm a friend of him to remember why I wrestled, but, you know, I remember coming back from my match, coming backstage, and, and those guys were there. And I was like, wow, this is crazy. And I felt good because I had a good match.

That dark match, I had a good match. I remember the crowd, because it was the first match, too, like the crowd participation was pretty sweet. So I got good pops and stuff. And I remember coming backstage, I looked pretty good in shape and stuff. So I felt like, I felt confident. Whatever the, you know, was going to go on and whatever direction they were going to take us, I felt like had a good chance because, like I said, we were all like young gunners.

We all had great bodies, uh, uh, wrestling lives in front of us. And we weren't big overhead, you know, like all those, like I said,

all those big stars are making big money, the Lex Lugar's and Kevin Nash's and stuff. And, uh, they're all making big, my buff bagwall. And, and we weren't.

We, you know, we got entry contracts and stuff. We, we made decent money, but easy contracts to pick up. So, you know,

so a lot of us were also one of the first 10 to do like the invade, invasion angle. Yeah, yeah. Do you remember the reaction to people seeing Shane McMahon backstage at Nitra? Yeah. You know, there was a mixture. It depends like kind of what kind of wrestler you are. There are some like me. I was always a fan of his, you know, so I saw him and I was like, oh, man, it's going to be pretty freaking cool, you know, the, I want to mix it up because he seemed like a cool dude, you know, like I had an uncle, I have an uncle Pete that reminds me a shame of man a little bit, you know, like, and, and, and, and, and, you know, and, and,

And Shaney Man was exactly the guy I thought he was, you know. So for me, it was cool. There's other guys that are kind of marking out a little bit, like, you know, I don't know. I just seemed like they, you know, won to start the butt kiss, kissing right away. And then there are other guys, I think, didn't care because they had big contracts with WCW. They were guaranteed. So it was a mixture of emotion. But like, but like it was all a big surprise, like a surreal, surreal, like, event.

You know, Shane McMahon had a show with other. WWWE officials, you know. I remember watching that on TV live. And I remember Shane looking really nervous in the ring. And maybe I'm just projecting here. But the way I like imagined it is like he gets there and like people are like, what are you doing here? This is our turf.

Like get away. It's actually nice to know that he was welcomed. Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, I don't know. It was it was just the whole company. It just felt like it was going down fast. Like it felt like the Titanic, whatever you want, the Titanic, whatever knowledge you want to use.

But like it just felt like it was the end, you know. And I guess him being there and just was ripping the band-aid off, you know. And the fact that he was there to go on TV was very interesting as well. Great storyline. Absolutely. Like, like Twilight Zone stuff, you know? So it was what's great was, although pretty shortly up, you know, picking up my contract and stuff.

I was part of a little bit of part of the invasion stuff, but O'Hare myself, we went to developmental right away and stuff, you know. But, like, at least we got part of the stuff, like, in Atlanta where, like, five of us were fighting with five of the WV guys in the ring in the middle of Atlanta, and all of a sudden, like, the ECW guys come from the crowd

and they join us. And, you know, that was crazy for wrestling. Like, every wrestling fan's dream, you know? Like, it was, like, wow. That just, that just happened. and we got ECWWCWCW. Like it, it was crazy, you know. So I'm glad I'd get to be part of that a little bit.

And even my time when we got sent down to developmental, you know, OVW was at that time, it was arguably the greatest class of wrestling or that, you know, era of wrestling ever, ever, you know, from Cinas, Batista, Lesnar, Sheldon Benjamin, Charlie Haas, Randy Orton, myself, O'Hare, Victoria, Jackie Gata, I mean, Big John, what's the gosh, what's the name? Big John. I forget.

You can't remember. We're friends. But everybody, you know, like a ton of people. Yeah. So that was a great experience as well. And I think that's where we really, in WCW, we were green, really green, got through them TV. And we survived because, you know, in a pack, we all were little, and our athleticism. We did like crazy moves like Sean O'Hare de Swanton or I did some springboard clothes

lines and stuff. You know, for big guys, like that, wow, kind of covered up our shitty, you know, arm drag we took, you know, like, so we're agreeing. But in WWE, we kind of exposed their stuff a little bit, you know, so they sent us to developmental, which it sucked at the time because it felt like you're going backwards. But like, then you're in a class with all these, like, unbelievable wrestlers who was about to break out as the next stars. And you're like, you know what?

This isn't so bad, you know? And then you make a bond with those people, you know, like Orton and I became good friends, Charlie Haas, Shelton. And then you come from the next level, the next level. Garrison Kade, I forgot about him, God rest of soul. Nick Denzmore, you know, Eugene, Rob Conway, the Bashams.

I mean, I can't, I'm still naming people from this class. So every day our classes were ridiculous. you know and uh promo class and we had fun like it was it was big fun we worked hard but you know it was big fun i just felt like unfortunately a lot of the guys who were stars in wcd really didn't get a chance to shine in w f for for whatever reason maybe there was too many people on the roster maybe they were focusing on their guys but it was just unfortunate because i loved both raw and and the guys i loved on nitro like you guys weren't really getting a lot of air time yeah yeah I mean, I think it was because a lot of us were green, you know, and, uh, yeah.

And like I said, again, thank God, like, you know, we're, when you're six, six, you know, especially at the time, you know, WWE was still kind of still kind of, you know, it was, it was still, it wasn't until about 2003, 2004 when Eddie Guerrero or Crispin Wall and stuff, you know, started winning champion, like, where it actually accepted before, it was always like, besides like Brett Hart. It was always like the psycho Sid and Sean Michaels. Like they were really the only ones. Yeah. Like usually it was a, even the rings kind of

like favored a big man, you know, running the ropes like the ropes are but like, you know, um, so it was like a changing of the guard kind of, you know, so. Yeah. Was you being friends with Randy Orton what led to you originally being part of evolution?

I don't know. You know, that I don't know. Um, actually you know, Before the, you know, I think we just kind of were becoming friends in Louisville. When I had flown up to Stanford and they had told me about, I remember I was there with Mordecai. They told Mordecai about what the gimmick they wanted him to work on, Orlando Jordan. They told him what he was going to do and I was going to be in the evolution, you know, so. And then that's when I was going to be in evolution.

And Orton, you know, obviously was joining Evolution as well, this group. Like that's when we kind of like became friends. And we started hanging. We figured, well, you know what? We're going to be in a group. So let's just, you know, let's hang. We started going to the gym together and stuff and Louisville. And then on TV, we just continued our friendship and stuff, you know, which turned into a brotherhood, you know, it was crazy.

Him and I were just really, really good friends. We really enjoyed, like, traveling together and stuff. And it was just fun traveling. And I think it was a little too much fun. That's why, you know, eventually I got kicked out of the evolution. idea but um you know that i mean it was great times he's a really good guy and he's in my opinion top five easy top five of all time wrestlers in w v so how long was it from them pitching you the idea of being an evolution to them just changing their mind and deciding you know what we're going to

go with somebody else i'm not sure the timeline but like the timeline i always envisioned my like way was going um i mean that's what we became friends and then he started to sending us up on TV. And I want to say I was doing like maybe just heat matches or something or I don't remember. But I remember just personally, even though I knew I was part of the group, I remember just getting scared about it because I remember every week on Raw they would do these polls. I can almost hear Jerry King Lawler and out like, who's the next member of evolution? You know, like, and it shows a poll like of Tast or Kevin Nass. or Jericho or somebody like a big star's like stars like you know I can't remember the exact

names and I was like man like I'm the next guy like but like they're naming all these they're having these poles that I hyping it up and like yeah I was you know I had a little we're tag team champions in WCW but it was not you know I was not that known you know so I felt like they're over they're hyping it up really big and then like also like I I never came connected with triple age, you know, like, maybe I always felt like we had a relationship where like maybe he was like an older brother and I was like an annoying younger brother, you know? And just Orton and I, like I said, Ordin and I together were just, we're too immature young, young guys who love having fun, you know, like we enjoyed like traveling the road.

It's crazy. Like we, you know, you always rent cars with your bodies and you travel city to city. and of course him and I travel together and guys are always zooming out of the arenas to get to the next city like I can remember Bob Holly and stuff going yeah I think we can make it in two hours and 45 minutes the next town he's talking to somebody else you know and me or Norton just took our time

we'd stop and stop at like a 24 hour Walmart or something because we needed to get some shaving cream or something like and just take our time you know and stop at a convenience store and you know get a slush pop or something you know something stupid but um that that you know those those times were fun and what happened was when the the whole idea was coming to evolution triple h started getting us together on the house show loops so it went from me and orton having a great old time uh you know from city to city turned into

uh car rides with triple h rick flair and both myself and randy um which was cool but like our young you know, our young bunch was kind of cramp on our style, you know, like, like, man, no, Flair, Flair wasn't. Flair was always cool. Like, in fact, I think that was like the deciding factor were like triple H's like, man, I got to cut the cord on this. And he referred to it in that documentary about Ruth discretion and stuff, the little, he was like, I wanted to kick him out of the car.

I would kick him out, you know, throw him over a bridge or something. And like, it makes sense because we're like, man, we're like young kids, you know, like, are we there yet? That type of stuff. And if we're, we're being annoying kids. you know, Flair really Flair really loves the he's got

he's still a kid in the heart himself Rick Flair, you know, so with these, like I said it a million times it seems like, but with these car rides you were supposed to be talking about the X's and O's and the the, the formation of the group and what it means and stuff turned into immature hour

for me and Orton in the back seat. Like literally, the only thing was missing was AAA's turning around. Like, you know, basically, I'm going to just pull this car over and spank you. guys like that's that's the only thing it was missing and then and then that wasn't that us being immature idiots um it'd be like rick flare like you know asking us about like oh the girls we met you know a few nights before or something and then i'm sure rick was trying to pick him up with you guys

too well he'd always he but the the conversation would go in that direction that was not the the direction that triple h wanted to go it was supposed to be more towards like you know x's and o's and talking about business and stuff. And like after a couple of loops, a couple car rides, he probably, like many, who rode with me in Orton, probably won that he, like he said, he wanted to kick us out, the car, kick us over a bridge or something. So was it Triple H who finally said, sorry, Mark, or was it Vince? Well, no, no, it was, it was, you know, in a documentary too, like,

for me it was like a relief to hear you know like the real thing that happened and she said i told vince he's not for the group and vince said yeah he is and he goes no me rick he what i didn't like is he included rick in that i mean me and rick felt he wasn't good for the group like rick never had a problem i think it was it was it was triple h you know like um but he he's one to pretty much put the axe down you know and um you know he talked about it you know we're supposed to bring our suits to film the vignettes and stuff and they filmed it um and i i guess he kind of like knew i was going to be in it you know so it kind of sucked you know but um and it was but like i said i was so mature that i didn't even realize it was going on really you

it was like it's like when you're an athlete and stuff when you're young and an athlete and you have that like you just you just feel like you can create anything you want like sure you know so you've got to be able to look back now with high insight and go, geez, that would have been a really big opportunity for my wrestling career. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Every time I see Batista in one of these direct TV commercials or whatever, or these, you know, for his movies to think about that. But like, we're different kind of wrestlers, you know, and he might have fit the enforcer thing a lot better than I will. You know, like, so I don't, I don't, you know, looking back on it now, like, you know, you can, you can always

say what if and stuff but it always you know forever go back and forth but it's one of these things where was it good to happen about you know because then i went to mexico and like i i you know and you became a mega star there and i don't know if a lot of people realize that you were a huge star in mexico yeah you know it on tv it kind of i kind of flew into the radar for a while because i had a name change i was marco corleone you know and and uh you said that with the most american non spanish accent ever. Yeah, yeah. Actually, if I said like American to be like Marco Corleone, you know, where, but like in Mexico was Marco Corleone and the A, Marco Corleone. And that, that was kind of like, you know, the one thing in that whole documentary, W.B, which they didn't really express was like,

or talk about the, you know, they have to do it because it's WWV videos where it's not the end-all be-all. And they act as if it's like, you're not an evolution. Then I, you know, I'm road kill you know like it didn't happen like that you know like yeah we parted ways i got the the dreaded call from johnny lyrnitis and got released and you know but like not too much shortly after that i discovered mexico you know and kept kept going you know so you know how did you get this break to be on this soap opera the the the soap opera in mexico yeah oh yeah um because that's really what broke out for you right no no not really not really um What kind of, I give credit for my breakout with, in 2006 when I went there, the crazy thing, the crazy thing, what happened was, that spot for Marco Corleone was actually for Chuck Palombo.

Because Johnny the Bull and Chuck Palumbo went in March of 2006, do some ultimate, ultimate dragon shows, okay? And they had like a little angle that are running or something. and after that they came back, you know, came back to the States, W.W.E. rehired Chuck Palumbo. So now Johnny the Bull is going to go back in May of 2006. And now he needed like another Italian buddy to be FBI with him. So Mark Jindrake, you know, wasn't really intense. So I went over there and I was Markle, they made the name of Marco Corleone for me. And I played that Italian guy in May of 2006. And immediately I fell in love with there, you know,

And so my big break was basically getting a chance of wrestling in Arena Mexico and CMLL. That's the company, Concejo, Mundiala, Lucille, Libre. So I got the wrestling with there. And at that time, every Friday in Arena, Mexico, that's like the Cathedral of Lucillebra. That's like our Madison Square Garden. But we run that every single Friday night. So we were having crowds of 11, 12, 13,000 people, week after week, because the figure at that time was called Mystico. which became, I don't know, Caristico or Sincara or something in WWE at one point.

But Mystico was super, super over in 2006. So basically, when I decided to eventually stay there and become a regular wrestler in Mexico and live there, you know, I'd be tag team partners. It was always three on three. And usually my partner was Mystico. So they'd see Mystico, but they'd also see this guy that was 6'6, without a mask, 255 pounds. And my athleticism really started working for me because in

WWE, the athletic things I wanted to do, like we did that, Garrison Kidd did that drop kick thing where you'd hold the guy up and I'd drop kick him. You know, that was pretty cool. But like, it just, it was always one of these things, we're like, well, if you're doing this and what's Billy Kidman going to do?

You know, like if you're going to do a springboard clothesline, that they always kind of put the brakes on the stuff. Like I kind of had can cuffs of my athleticism. but Mexico was like if you can do it, do it the bigger and the better the cooler, you know and my first matches were in CMLL

were with Alberto Del Rio, who was Dos Cadas Jr. And Liz Mark, who was in WCW for a few years as well. They spoke English, so it was kind of, you know, so I was a Ruto or a heel when I first came and then once I

learned, you know, started learning Spanish, I saw Mexico was like because if if anyone knows like the character of vampiro obviously and from wrestling he was a mega mega mega mega mega mega star in the 90s I can't say it enough he was a huge huge star and uh I kind of I saw the I envision the chance to become that same guy you know but like the 2000s version of you know but in many regards I felt like I was in Arena Mexico that was my arena as well because they had that ramp leading to the ring so my famous move

was the Eric Corleone or Arrow Italia, they call it, where I'd run down the ramp and jump over the ropes and do like a flying crossbody. And that stuff was like, man, that was next level. Athleticism and stuff, you know, it was crazy. And for me, it was super simple. But for the people watching, it was like, you know, this guy is pretty big, you know,

and I was really muscular at the time. And like, just really, just in really good shape. So I got over. I started getting over. And then I got over, like, they're a cool move. So it was like the whole heel, Rudo character, like, that's just, as a foreigner, you always become, in a Mexico, they always put you as like the bad character because it's easy to be the bad gringo, you know?

Sure. But I didn't, you know, like, and it was crazy because when I, my last time in, you know, Smackdown and stuff was with, I travel with, you know, Ray Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero. Those guys are, when I travel. partners. So the Mexican culture, I kind of had a back, you know, learning of the culture, but not so much, you know, so just going there and stuff, it was, it was kind of just surreal, you know, and just, I ended up getting, you know, I just got over, you know, I got over. It was almost like I got released. I never thought I'd get released from WWE, first of all,

because when you're an athlete's athlete, like, you saw those things in the WWE videos and that thing, like one time I jumped up, I jumped and touched something. I think it was 12 foot two on the first Shane McMahon in Staples Center. I touched something in Staples Center and they measured it 12 foot two. Like I had, you know, I just, but for some reason. And backstage, you asked a lot of the guys that were there at the time. The whole thing on me was, man, like, I was always a character backstage. Like, Me and Orden had our little antics and stuff.

And I just fed off of him and fed off the boys. I love the camaraderie backstage, you know. So that just made me happy. and I'd be very outgoing charismatic backstage. And a lot of times people would say, man, why can you do that out there? And I always had like a disconnect for some reason. And it just, when I got released, it was like, what?

Like, okay, well, maybe, you know, maybe I struggle who Mark Jindrack is. You know, because Mark Jindrack is a guy who collect baseball cards and stuff and plays video games and kind of to myself, you know. But like, you know, then all. a sudden, like, it just kind of like, they released me. And I was like, man, this is, this is strange. Like, I've always been just an athlete. Now what do I do? You know, like, I'm not going back to Denny's, my tables. You know, so it just, it really light a fire on my ass, you know, like, it was like, and I wasn't feeling Japan, you know, a lot of, unfortunately, you know,

a lot of, I mean, unfortunately, wrestlers, they love Japan, you know, like, they love the culture. And I love the culture too but like it was never like a dream of mine like i want to say this not no disrespect to the you know the professional professional wrestling but like it was never my like dream like if you would have given me a choice be the 12th man on the NBA bench and you'll play like five minutes the whole year 82 games five minutes or be the heavyweight champion and going on a huge long run like a jvl or something i i would rather be the 12th man on the NBA bench you know like that's where your passion was your passion my passion was so it just you know just it lit a fire under my ass so when i went to mexico was like you know i didn't i didn't know politics anymore i didn't know who were the big

political figures were and stuff and i made my mark quick you know like i remember one time there was a a guy dr wagner you know he's a mexican legend there you know and uh his brother was silver king who passed away i rest his soul ramsis um and i remember like a match you know in arena me he he slapped slapped me in the face slapped the shit out of me and i took his head off of the clothesline like shoot style you know like and i probably wouldn't have done that in w w v i knew it was like a political figure that could bury me you know yeah and i didn't give me shit in mexico like i just said you know what fuck it you know i just got i just got fired now i'm gonna just show you want to see my i thought you want to

to see what I got, see what I got. And like, that's when I did my best stuff. And I got over in the ring. Like, I got, I got over as Technico, a baby face. I started doing the Rick Rood. Rick Rood and Kurt Henning were always my favorite wrestlers. So I started doing the Rick Rood and, you know, hip swivel. And that got over huge.

It was crazy. So, um, you had that. So things were going so well for you in Mexico and you were so over. What brought you back to the U.S.? Well, um, well, actually go back a little bit. you that's when I kind of go over and that's when the the acting came along okay that's when the novellas the tea the big time TV what was what was your line on the novella you're telling boy I said picadillo so yeah that was my famous line um this no does that mean so pop I'm gonna

I'm gonna make chop me to you like I'm gonna chop me to you like it's like an old school like if I said that to you in a fight like I'm gonna make chop me to you boy you'd be you probably laugh and be like what the hell you like you're like you're You know, what do you be talking about, grandpa? And just the way I said it. So, like, in this soap opera, it was prime time, you know, like, they're not, they don't come on in the afternoon here in the United States. They come at prime time. This was, like, a huge, huge production.

And the crazy thing was the first episode was me and pretty much the main star. His name was Fernando Colunga. Kind of referred, he's like almost like the George Cooney of Mexico, very respected actor, very private, very, you know, that handsome Mexico guy. You know, like, so we filmed in Chicago, and we felt like I was like a Russian, like, you know, a bad guy and stuff. And we ran into each other in Chicago and the story goes like, you know, I actually ran into him. He was on his bicycle. My limo hit him.

And I'm like, oh, you know, I thought he was going to sue me. So I was like, if you need anything, come see me. And in the story, he finds out that he has a daughter of seven years old that his ex-girlfriend didn't tell him about. So he doesn't have much money. He needs money for a plane ticket. So he comes to me. I give him the money for the plane's sake,

but I dirtyly stash money inside of a suitcase saying, well, you know, can you bring the suitcase to an orphanage on your way to Monterey, Mexico? He's like, yeah, sure. He gets caught by the police crossing, you know, and border, you know, and he tells the cops of me. So they come, they arrest me. It's supposed to be a one-shot deal. It's at one episode.

But when I was in jail, my lawyer says to me, yeah, you know, Jesus Garcia, that was the main character's name. El Canto means he sung. He told on you. And in my cell, I get all mad and I gather myself. I said, Ellen Felice, the Jesus Garcia, which means, you know, kind of like the ungrateful Jesus Garcia. I said, lo, boy, that's our picadillo. And I said, it's super peculiar.

As like Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 90s would say, I'll be back. Asla Vista, baby. which is a chop up yeah exactly it's not a tuma like that it hit like that like wow if i'm mistaken it trended on twitter in mexico like trended on twitter um the it was supposed to be one-shot deal but like the producer after that that blew up it was getting crazy social media hits and stuff and remember and i want let me let me say this the ratings for the first episode was like 33 okay Yeah, 33. Not like, you know, raw.

When I was on Raw back in the day, I did like a 2-7, 2-9. People were like, oh, this did like 33 with a 56% share. So it was on open TV, free television, Televisa in Mexico. So huge. Yeah. And they all heard that saying, they asked for Picario. And they went crazy for it. The next day, the production crew called me and said, you know, they loved it.

And they're going to keep me, start filming from jail. Because I'm in jail. but I'm going to keep saying and eventually I'll get out of jail and that one episode turned into like 187 episodes like a crazy amount to where to where like I starred like the name of the episode

actually Uri Petroski was my name so Uri escapes from like I had like five or six episodes named after Uri and and let me and grant you after it did huge ratings in Mexico it went over to Univision in the United States and on national rankings,

I used to get the national rankings for national TV, like we're talking Fox, NBC, ABC, and Univisions on those, you know, one of the big ones. Yeah. Like literally, that novella would be top five every night in ratings. Like one night we were as high as three.

Like I think it was like the Major League Baseball All-Star game was number one in ratings for the night in national TV. Number two was like some kind of like big reality cook show. And number three was poor Kail. Elmore Monde. That was my novella. And like, it was crazy. Like, number six was like modern family. Number eight was like, you know, two and a half men or something. So like, it's crazy to think on a given night nationally. Yeah, yeah. More people saw Uri Petroski than Sophia Vergara, you know. So, you know, going back to what I was saying then, like, if everything's going so well,

why not stay in Mexico? Well, what kind of happened over time was Lucha Libre, declined big time the business in in 2006 2007 2008 even 2009 lucha libra is boom in that you know but like all a sudden like that on that same television uh televisa and tvs tech are the big ones the the free open tv wwe came on those channels now in 2009 so all of a sudden like the point where they just dominated the tv screen so like we we'd always get pushed to side. We'd be on Televisa, but like if there's a soccer game or some kind of sporting event more important than all right, we get pushed aside. And to the point where like we end up going with another TV, you know, syndicate that was way, way, way, way less rating. So honestly, for a while,

like, I'd still do these high rated morning programs or novellas. Like after that novella, I would, I'd get a lot more like I was the big guy, you know, like you wanted to. And it was crazy the next the next um soap opera that came out by that producer i came back and i said the same slogan table as their peak ideal so imagine like you know Arnold Schwarzener used an i'll be back i'll be the same in a different in a completely different movie you know like but i was a good guy this time like i helped the good guy character you know so funny um so i wrote that way for a while and um you know just so all these parts will come along but like what was happening was the wrestling gigs. Just my body was rich. Like, I remain one of the top stars at CMLL for a while, you know,

like one of the top technicos. And in 2017, I just started getting, you know, I started getting older, you know, like nearing 40. I think the thing that really killed me is I started making more trips back in the United States. My son, who was born in 2016, he's five now. You know, he was one year old and stuff. and I'm still traveling around Mexico and stuff. I just, you know, it got a little more unsafe in Mexico the time. You know, like it just the pace or the value, the pace went down. So like literally my money from 2006 to 2017, 18, went down drastically.

Even though my startup became bigger, like the pace and went down as my starting got like. So I almost made the same as I first got there because, you know, know it just it sucked and then and then in 2017 one of our top baby faces named atlantis uh he went down with a bad like betel an knee injury or something so i worked like an obscene amount of times it just burnt me out and started making more trips with my family back to the united states showing my wife who who had never been to the united states before before me you know like started showing all these places and i just you know i just i decided to make the move and it actually worked out because it happened right before the pandemic.

And it just because of the pandemic, it just, I stayed out of it. I stayed gone, you know, so I just felt like it was time. So that's all it really was. And then the acting gigs, too,

like, I figured I picked that, still pick that up in the United States and do more of that. But like, I just. You still can? No, I still can.

I still can. Not a lot of 44-year-olds that look like you. Oh, appreciate it. Appreciate it. And I, you know, I can do some,

you know, older dad parts or something. I don't know. What are you? Older dad? Geez, come on. I always, I'm always harder on myself, you know.

I always make it sound worse than it really is. Like, should I pull up this Instagram photo and remind you of what you look like? It's unreal. Yeah. Which one you're referring to? The one you just posted the other day when you were, you said you were back in ring shape.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I worked really hard to get back in shape like that. You know, I never really got. of shape. It's just if you keep a good diet, you know, if you eat well, I just think that whatever you put in your body is how you're going to look. You know, like I might be not as big as I was

before, but it's just because I don't eat as much, you know, so. What are you weigh now? Like 225? No, no, no. I'm probably now about, I think, 238, 238. Right. So again, I look a lot skinnier and thinner, but I hold the weight really well. So, like, you know, but I like, what's good is

because I took some dates in the wrestling, you know, again, it's helped me get back. It kind of helped me get back in the shape I want to be in after wrestling. That makes any sense. Yeah. I don't want to carry all that 250 pounds around and stuff. And if I ate like crazy five, six times a day, I could get back to that. But like, it's too much.

It's too much, too much, too much. It burns you out. So I, you know, but getting back that push, you know, like it, I want to be that range like 230, 235, like rigid, rips. you know, athletic frame, like, or you open to into my 50s, you know, I want to be like that athletic speaking. Are you open to taking more bookings now?

Yeah, yeah. But I find myself doing more Lucillebri bookings, you know, because there's kind of like two wrestlers, you know, like one is Mark McOrlione, who's, you know, in your southern part of California, southern part of Texas. And then you got Margidrak, the rest of the United States. And to be honest with you, like,

we know i could i i i could talk about my all the things that happened all the wonderful things that happened in lucia librae all the events where i shined huge pops like wow events where i met like crazy people and stuff um you know where i was the star of the show where i was a star of like i had moments you know where in wwe like i'm like a lie it felt mediocre at best the whole time and i know i don't feel like i was like the enhancement talent i don't feel like i was a superstar you know so um and that's not the way i roll you know like i i demand excellence and and but it showed me and it and it should show a lot of people especially now especially now there's so many options go to is wwee wasn't always the you know at one point in time you think at that point

in time you you know before i knew about mexico it was like well the only way to get the 10 in the wrestling world is five plus five that's wwe you know but as i found wrestling in mexico or you know this or like you get the 10 by 8 plus 2 and 7 plus 3 didn't always have to be the proverbial or the run of the mill 5 plus 5 you know and yeah that's what I learned and and um it was it was great like I'm glad it happened um you know you can always look I always go back and say what if with with evolution but like I had a really cool 12 years like really really good time really cool 12 years where like like I was for for probably a peak 2008 2009 2010 like I was a hot hot hot figure in Mexico like in all like the the big star magazines I was winning like best abs and you know

um dated a few actresses and stuff or you know or or you know you get in those uh paparazzi magazines and it was cool like it was and my friends were there with me like i was my best friends there were to rocky romero um and alex cosloff you know um yeah so those guys are my my boys you know it felt like natural born throws all over again and um it was just a great great time of my life and then eventually when I settled down and became, you know, I understood who was who in Mexico and, you know, I gave a shit about the political structure. You know, I simmered down. I got, I found a beautiful woman, married her. We had a baby together and, you know, it's kind of the rest of this history, you know, so. Yeah. Look at you now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much. I've been trying to

make this interview with you happen for so long. So, like, since I saw you, I think it was last summer at that Yeah. Yeah, Legends of Hammer in Pennsylvania. First time I saw Maven in the wild too. Yeah. Yeah, that was when I did, I did an interview with Maven that day. And then I came over to you and I'm like, we need to do an interview. So we're doing it now.

I'm so glad. Mark, this has been amazing. So thank you so much for taking some time tonight to do this. No, thank you, man. I love seeing your post on Instagram, all the great artists and stuff that you've interviewed and stuff. So congrats to you. Like, it's really, really awesome. Thanks, man. I feel like you and I are just both getting started and I love it, you know?

Yeah, right. Future is bright. I end every conversation with the same question because I love gratitude. I practice gratitude every single day. So, Mark, for you, what are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now? My family, number one, my family, peace of mind, you know, like mental health and mental being okay inside your body. is so, so underrated, you know, like it's such a big thing. So I have peace. I've real pure peace.

And I think I'm grateful for having faith, being brought up with faith and having a church I can go to and flex my spirit. So, yeah, those three things. Family. Flexing in the gym and flexing in the spirit. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Mark, thank you so much. Appreciate it, man.

Thank you so much. There we go. that we could finally make that interview happen. We've been talking about that since last July. So thank you to Mark for joining us. And how cool does this job sound? Grating sports cards? That's like a dream job right there for a lot of people. Dream job for Mark Jindrack. And as always, thank you for being on this audio adventure with us and share this episode with someone who needs to hear this story and take a screenshot, share it on social media. Tag us so we can share it as well. He's at Marco Corleone 23 on Twitter at Jindrack 1 on Instagram, and I'm at Chris Van Vleet.

We'll leave you with the words of Maya Angelou, who said, if you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Be great, be grateful, have an amazing weekend. We'll 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.

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.

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