Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Matt Cardona on AEW & Impact debuts, marrying Chelsea Green, his bachelor party plans

Episode Date: February 19, 2021

Matt Cardona (aka Zack Ryder) talks with Chris Van Vliet from his home in Orlando, FL. He talks about his appearances on AEW, the contract he had there, his debut on IMPACT, his goal to win the World Heavyweight Championship, his new podcast network "The Major Pod Network", his friendship with Brian Myers, his wedding to Chelsea Green being postponed because of Covid, the original plans for his bachelor party, his Mount Rushmore of wrestling action figures and much more!  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.   For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to https://chrisvanvliet.com  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram:instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter:twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook:facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube:youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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Good to see you. If you're new here, I'm Chris Van Fleet. I'm an Emmy Award-winning TV host. And I'm fascinated with finding out how people are wired to achieve greatness. On each episode of Insight, we have in-depth conversations and reverse. First engineer the habits and techniques of the world's top athletes, actors, entrepreneurs, influencers, you name it. If they are the best at what they do, I want to get their insight so we can apply it to our own lives. And I'm pumped to have Matt Cardona back on the show.

He was last on in May, but a ton has changed since then. That was just a few weeks after he was released from WWE after 14 years. And since then, he's debuted on AED. He debuted on Impact. In fact, he's still wrestling for Impact. He was supposed to get married to Chelsea Green on New Year's Eve. That was postponed. He got COVID.

Then he beat COVID. And now he's just started a new podcast network. So it was so awesome to catch up with him. And I can't wait to see what he does next. He's just full of ideas. Take a screenshot. Let us know that you're on this ride with us. And tag us so we can say hi on social media.

I'm at Chris Van Vleet. Matt is at the Matt Cardona. And of course, you can listen to his podcast, the major wrestling figure podcast, wherever you listen to this. So subscribe to his show, subscribe to mine as well. And thank you for the influx of reviews

that came in over the last week. Oh, man. So great to see that. This one comes from Sean Hussein, who says, CVV is a beautiful man. Thank you. Thank you, Sean.

He says, what can I say about CVV? Well, I can say he is a real, beautiful man, or I can say he comes from the greatest country ever, Canada. Well, that's true. Seriously, though, Chris's podcast is the best podcast out there. Chris isn't afraid to speak his mind in a respectful way where everyone feels comfortable.

He asks the hard-hitting questions that no one will ask ever. And he's just an overall great human being. I hope that one day I can get an interview from none other than CVV. Well, thanks so much, Sean. And I look forward to interviewing you one day. I'm guessing maybe you're training to become a wrestler. So I want to wish you the best of luck on that journey. And if you're listening to this and you haven't left a review yet,

please take a second right now to leave one on Apple Podcasts. It helps the show out so much. And I read one out on every single episode. For free, of course. You know, we don't charge for shoutouts here. If you want to support the show, I mean, just leave a review. It's that simple. Or maybe buy a shirt or a coffee mug.

at chrisfamily.com. Just saying. Speaking of merch. Speaking of merch, my guest today is a merch monster. I love this guy. Please welcome. Matt Cardona.

Man, you got a whole new background. Everything is new in your life. This is, I mean, it's like I'm talking to a different person now. Yeah. So I got these, these are the calyx shells from IKEA.

You do it horizontal, vertical. They're a nice little backdrop. They are. Yeah. Between those shelves and then like the clear glass display case, IKEA is just like decorating your whole place. Oh my God. The DTOP is what we call them from the IKEA. Well, that's what they're called. We call them the Detov Ziegler. It's a nice, affordable display piece, you know, for figures. I mean, it's not four figures, but that's what we use it for. Yeah. So congratulations to you. You've got a podcast network now.

Yeah, I mean, I appreciate the congrats, but we started it. that makes it even better. You're the way who started it. Right. But I think when it first got announced, so many people were congratulated me. I'm thinking like, well,

do they know that it's my podcast network with my podcast? But thank you. I do appreciate that. But that's like, you know, that's like congratulating someone when they start a business.

You can't be like, well, I started this business. That's true. You're right. Congratulations. Okay, I see it. I see.

You're right. So how many podcasts are on the network? Oh, my God. There's six right now. So there's a major wrestling figure podcast Which started I've heard of that one Yeah yeah yeah

So then August of 2018 And it was it just has spawned into this Now we have a podcast network Where we have something called the FWF The Figure Wrestling Federation There's a whole season up there Six months of Brian Brian Myers and I

Rebooking the attitude era with figures It's pretty ridiculous So we took a break after season one And put that on its own feed So you can kind of like binge and listen Listen. Brian has his own podcast called Extreme Conversations about ECW and getting legit conversations with guys from ECW. So you won't have a one hour interview with Tommy Dreamer, but he'll interview Dreamer about various different topics and that will be the episode like Heat Wave.

So there's a bunch of people about Heat Wave, you know, stuff like that. Off the Hop Rope, Game Marks podcast. We just brought those on. Those are two podcasts. One's about mixing the perfect beer and the perfect match. And one is about, wrestling video games so that was a perfect thing for our brand and then the one that people have been talking about uh i guess the most the newest one is the mc true long island story which will be i don't know if it's a spin off or a continuation of my old youtube show well it's you looking at every episode of z true right right that's the idea so like episode one we haven't we haven't filmed yet it comes out next week it comes out the 17th which will be 10 years to the day that i i did the

YouTube show. And my idea originally was to just drop like a reunion episode, like on that date. And we kind of planned it. But it didn't really, we never really got that far. And our producer, Smart Mark Sterling said, why don't we do almost like like a, not a watch along, but if someone were to watch episode one, then we talk about it for whatever, half hour, four to five minutes, but not just what happened in those three minutes, but what was going on behind the scenes in WWE in my career and my life.

And it is an interesting story, if you will. And I think it's taken me 10 years to realize, damn, I did have some influence on how things are now. Well, you were also so close to it, right? You were so close to what was happening at the time that it's hard to, in the moment, be able to realize and appreciate what's going on. Now that you have the benefit of hindsight, you can go, oh, my gosh, maybe I did actually, you know. Yeah, I don't like to Barry Horace myself.

but I'll do it right there it is uh no but it's uh I'm nervous I'll be honest because I haven't watched these episodes in a really really long time um I said it on some other interview like I did episode 100 which was in the beginning of 2013 and I watched all 99 episodes before that before I sat down and wrote it and edited it and I haven't watched them since so that's a long time and I did just watch episode one to see if there was enough meet up the bone to really do like we're not we're not trying to make a three hour show every week yeah half hour for five minutes something snackable but i'm like wow there's a lot here a lot of cringeworthy stuff for me but it's uh i don't have a good memory and there's a lot of things that i wish i would have like

i would have kept track of and i think this is my way of kind of like going through my life and not that i'm writing a book but this is kind of like my book like my story and my interpretation of it and i'll watch each episode uh as a reminder of what was going on and you're kind of you know when you did this, you're kind of doing it in a vacuum. So you don't realize like what episode 23 was. And, you know, it could be great or it could, you know, be completely forgettable. Oh, 100%. And there's definitely a bunch in there that are, especially in the second half where W.W.E takes over where it was like busy work. I just didn't want to do it. I was just throwing them up. But there's some, some gems in there. And I'm proud of the whole process. And with this,

this podcast now, it's not like a bitter podcast. Like, oh my God, they should have used me with nothing like that. It's really to just go take a trip down memory lane. And if I can inspire just one person to take a chance on themselves, whether it be in wrestling or in life or whatever, then it's all worth it. I love that. When did you start to realize that you needed to take a chance on yourself? So with that original YouTube show, you know, I was in WWE for a couple of years of that time.

And I was tag team champions, you know, did the things. with edge. It was cool. But I always wanted, I always wanted more. And I don't think that's being like selfish. I don't think there's anything wrong with getting through a certain goal and then I wanted to accomplish more. I think that's progression. That's how people become successful in life, you know, having that determination and that motivation inside them. And, you know, and that's how the idea for the Zee-Trolong Island story came about. So I wanted to do something. I didn't know, I didn't have this master plan that I was going to, you know, I knew I was going to start a YouTube show. I didn't know exactly what it was going to be.

but I knew I had to try something because just sending in those emails to the writers at WWI it just wasn't getting it done. So I had to take, you know, literally into my own hands, take my career into my own hands and do something for myself

and luckily it paid off. Did you ever think when you were doing that? Oh my God, this might get me fired one day. Yes. So that's a quote that I've said before. I wanted to either get noticed or fired. I wanted to create so much buzz

and listen, I didn't want to get fired. I wanted to, and I didn't create a YouTube show to be a YouTube guy. I created a YouTube show to get notice to do more on WW program. But my goal was, okay, with this YouTube show, I want to create so much buzz. Hopefully, WWE does use me, but if they are to let me, like, you know, release me, let me go, I'll have Buzz to go to, what, TNA, whatever was going on at the time. So I wanted buzz one way or another.

Yeah, now here we are. It's been, it's like eight months since we did our last interview. But so much has changed since then. So if you're able to look back now at everything that's transpired since you were released from WWE, what would you say of the biggest differences for you? Creative freedom,

and by creative freedom, I mean like I can literally, I can do this interview with you right now. I don't have to send it in and ask for approval. I don't, you know, right now there's people at WWE getting emails saying like, you tag someone so on your Instagram post. I can tag whoever I want. You know what I'm saying?

I can do whatever I want. I can say whatever I want. And I'm not doing anything bad. I'm just trying to have fun with this major wrestling favorite podcast or with the MC Truling Island story. And it's, I'm a very creative person. And to have this outlet,

it's been so fantastic. And, you know, with the time off, I kind of needed some time not in a ring, you know, because I've been wrestling for so long. And like,

I was just, it wasn't really like weighing me down until it stopped. And I was like, whoa, this is like real life. Like, this is a weekend? You know,

like what? And I'm like, this is awesome. So it was like this perfect storm that like it just needed to happen. And on paper, I guess like 2020 should have been horrible for me. If you're just reading like a sheet of papers like Matt Cardona, here's his 2020. He gets fired from his dream job. There's this global pandemic. He, you know, he gets, he tests positive for COVID-19.

He has to cancel his wedding. All these bad things, I guess on paper. But like I thought it was a great year for me because I was just using all this time to like capitalize. on this freedom, this creative freedom, like build this brand, start this, this podcast network. I have all these action figures from all these different action figure companies that I have a hand in. It's been so much fun. And you're putting all this together now. And this is still like while the pandemic's going on. So like when this thing is finally over, I feel like it's going to just explode for you. Yeah. I mean, luckily there's been a lot of people who, you know, we were nervous

as a business. Like, oh, man, like, how are our numbers and stuff going to do? How are our sales going to do? but like people, they were stuck home too. They wanted something to get away from all this, you know, this crazy world. So they want to listen to wrestling figures for three hours a week or whatever or buy some figures online. So it was awesome to be in that spot with so many of our fans. Did you ever think when you were a kid, you know, playing with action figures, collecting action figures, that you'd be now a grown-ass man and this would be part of your job?

Oh my God. It's unbelievable. Like Chelsea and I would get, not arguments, but, you know, she's like, what are you doing in there? I'd be in my office for like two hours of time at night. I'm like, babe, I'm doing my figure photography for this FWF podcast, but it's literally like this is part of my job. Like I need to do the figure photography, make it seem like, you know,

sting is burning the undertaker alive, whatever. And then like, that's what I'm getting paid to do right now. It's ridiculous. It's so much fun. As have you, you having this much freedom, has that like sparked anything in Chelsea, do you think? I think so. I think, you know, right now it's been hard.

hard for her because she got injured and stuff like that. She's like totally motivated like on wrestling right now, which is good. Like you, that needs to be your focus. If you're in WWE, like your main focus should be WWE. Even when I was there, that was always my main focus. But like, you don't like the show. Like, of course I want to be, you know, on every show. I want to be in this main storyline.

I want, hey, fuck it. Make me be the next goal. I'll be undefeated. But it doesn't work that way, right? So like the major wrestling for your podcast was my creative outlet. So if work was great on Monday, great. I'd still go have fun and podcast Monday night. But if work sucked, great, I'd still go home at podcast Monday.

Like, it was just something I needed. And now with all the freedom we have, we can really do whatever we want. And not everything's going to work, but if we have the opportunity, that's all that matters. If we fail, fine, but at least we have the opportunity to fail. And now we saw you debut in Impact, which was so cool to see. So tell me how that came together. Yeah. So, you know, after, what was it?

April 15th, the release day. You know, I was in contact with so many different people and promotions. And the AEW thing worked out first. And that was only for like a couple dates. That's all we agreed upon was, I think it was like two dynamites and a pay-per-view. I think I did like one more dynamite. And AW was awesome. It was fun.

It was great. But I was in such a long-term relationship. I didn't want to just jump into another relationship with anybody, really. And to be honest, like I was enjoying the free time at home, building the podcast. And time just kind of, it flew by. You know, they say like time flies when you're having fun. Like I was having so much fun with this podcast thing. It's like the end of December.

And I'm thinking like, wow, I haven't been in a ring since September. Like not only have I not had a match in September, I haven't even been in a ring. So that's what I was like, you know, I should probably start like at least like go to flatbacks and take a pump or two. You know what I'm saying? And before I knew it, I got a text. It was a Friday before Hard to Kill saying, hey, do you want to come to work tomorrow? And I said, you know what? Always ready.

Yeah, and that's exactly what I wrote back. Always ready. It just kind of worked out. You know, there was no like real plan beforehand. Of course, I had been in talks to them for a couple months, but it was nothing like concrete. And it just kind of worked out. So you're happy being a free agent. You can wrestle wherever you want to wrestle.

Yeah. For now, I think it's awesome for me, especially with the climate for the wrestling business, the world. We don't know what's going on. So I like to be able to bounce around and do whatever. I want to do right now. And I also think, like, with this podcast thing, like, that is my, not my number one goal, because, of course, wrestling is my number one, but it's like, it's like really close. Like, I love doing it.

It's so much fun. And, like, the community that we've built and it's been successful with live shows and podcasts and merch and now YouTube stuff and Twitch stuff, it's just like, I want to be able to do everything. Yeah. So. There's also longevity in podcasting. You can podcast.

when you're 80. You probably can't wrestle when you're 80. Right. I mean, wrestling is the ultimate goal, the ultimate dream, but the podcasting has been so creatively fulfilling. When you debuted in AEW, I think you turned a lot of heads because people were like, I knew Zach Ryder was jacked, but Matt Cardona is beyond jacked now. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we might have talked about this in the last, well, I don't know, when do we, I think maybe we were just DM in about this, but like, I was always the same size. Like, Maybe throughout my 15-year career in WWE, like I gained a little bit of size, but I don't know. Like, even that day at A&W is like, oh, man, I'm not looking at my, I'm not looking at my best.

But then, like, everyone, like, made it seem like I was the warlord. I was like, well, I guess perception's reality that that's fine with me. I'm not going to complain, but really, nothing really changed. So, like, as you sit here right now, how much do you weigh? Probably like 215, 220. That's really solid, though. It's like 3.15 p.m. I had a flight this morning, so I didn't eat enough today.

I'm probably like 217. Okay, 270 on the dot. Probably 217. But it's interesting hearing you explain the situation with AEW because a lot of wrestling fans will go, well, Matt's not on AEW anymore like what happened.

Like why would they get rid of him? And you explaining like, no, that's not what I was looking for at that time. It was just cool to go in and do a couple dates. Yeah. And that's not saying I'll never want to go back. Yeah.

You know, it was just, you know, I have a very great relationship with Cody, obviously. Tony Kahn. Everyone was super cool when I was there. And I loved my cup of coffee there.

It was awesome. Yeah, I got a T-shirt. I was on paper view. It was on dynamite. It was awesome. Everyone was super cool there. And it's a great place. I mean, look at Wednesday night.

The Wednesday night war, that one's loving AW. I love it too. But I'm not saying I won't go back. We only signed for that particular thing. And that was it. But you've also, now you're in a company. Now you're working for Impact. But there's a lot of legacy there.

Like, I was a massive TNA fan beginning and like, like, oh, 40, 506, and like, you know, Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, AJ Styles. And now you're part of that legacy. Yeah. I mean, it's pretty wild that it's been around for almost 20 years, if not 20 years, right? That's pretty nuts. And all the things that they have done and all the guys they have found.

And I just think impact right now is a great fit for me. Because, like, you know, like, I feel like impacts have had highs and lows, well documented, and myself included. And I feel like right now we're both like on the road. rise on the up and up. And I think we're a perfect fit. And I also think I'm going to get the most opportunity to impact right now. So when you look at the landscaping impact, who are you looking forward to, you know, mixing it up with?

Yeah. So, I mean, Ace Austin, night one, we had a little match. And I can just tell right away, I'm like, this kid's got it. You know, he's just a pro. And I think in five years, he's going to be a name that everybody's talking about. But there's so many hungry guys on that roster. And so many guys I've never really wrestled. Like, I've never wrestled moose.

or Eddie Edwards, Rich Swan, Chris Bates, so many guys, or guys like Galson Anderson, who I have wrestled, but never really, or Eric Young, who I've wrestled before,

but never really with the time or the spotlight. Then, of course, is Brian Myers there. If you want to team with the guy ever again, but if what's the fight, maybe we'll fight.

You know, you mentioned the good brothers. You mentioned Gales and Anderson. I feel like you have so much in common with them with all of the stuff that you're doing outside of wrestling. I just think they get it. And they're somebody who they're not just going to sit around and wait for opportunities. You got to create your own opportunities, make your own, especially now when we have the freedom to, you know, go out and do it.

Like try to do whatever you can. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. I mean, I'm not saying throw everything against the wall, see what sticks because you want to have like quality products out there or whatever you put your name to. You know, it has to make sense for you and your brand. Oh, God, I hate that word brand. everybody said that. No, you're a brand now. Right, but you know what I'm saying?

Like, you know, it's just great to just try all these different things. And whether, you know, the Good Brothers and the major Western Fair podcast had that connection with Super 7. And Super 7 makes some of the greatest toys, actual figures out there. So when those Good Brothers or Matt and Brian figures come out in the market, it's going to, like, you know, Mattel figures are great. A.W. Jasper figures are great. But these Super 7 figures are going to be better.

Sorry, guys. Can you give us your best Brian Myers story? You've been friends with him forever. What is the best Brian Myers story? There's so many. You know, Brian and I, we are pretty much brothers. We've known each other since we were 18. You know, definitely haven't been, you know, imagine like, okay, this is how I put it.

When we were in WWE at one point, we'd be on the road together, whatever, four days, whatever. Then those other three days, we'd go home and, like, live to. together. So it was like seven days a week. It was just too much Matt and Brian. So we got sick of each other for a couple, for a couple months. But I think the best story between me and Brian, um, I've told it before. So I apologize, but it's such a great story.

It's when we first kind of met and he knew that there was this WrestleMania set of action figures at Toys R Us. Oh, yes. You told me this. He screwed you. Yeah. I screwed him. Yeah.

Yeah. So there was a set. The way it works is like there's six guys in a set. So in a case, there's two of each guy. His friend went there, bought one set, hid the other set for him. And Brian let me know, okay, there's a set of Toys R Us. I just met you, you're a cool guy. Whatever he said, I don't know.

Yeah. Well, let's split it three and three. I said, okay, cool, man. But I had already text my dad or called my dad to say, hey, dad. These figures are hidden at Toys R Us. You better go go scoop him up. And then I went with Brian, Toys R Us. I'm like, where did they go?

It looks like somebody who took him. but it was me, I took them all. And years later, I confess. But it's just a lot of stuff like that. It all mostly evolves like wrestling figures, but he's somebody who, you know, I'm super fortunate to have known and grown up with. But I think like on a personal and professional level,

like my greatest story for him, involving him is when I, you know, when we won the tag team tiles of WrestleMania, but for me, like I kind of already had my moment a few years prior with the ICT towel. But for me, it was about being like front row for his moment and being involved. And like literally, I'm on the floor, laid out,

hearing the fans, like, chanting for him. I know what's about to happen. You hear the place go nuts. I had the best seat in the house. So that was cool to be a part of that. What do you think is the story that he's going to tell at your wedding about you? I'm not going to let them talk.

He knows some dirty ones, some dirty secrets. I don't know. He might tell that WrestleMania story. And you're like, you might tell something super embarrassed. When is your wedding happening now? That's a good question. I have no idea.

It was supposed to be... Is Chelsea now? She does not. No, it was supposed to be New Year's Eve, this past New Year's Eve. We were going to do it in Vegas. And then, like, when we realized all this was going down, I'm like, this is not going to happen. So luckily, we had canceled it before we got into the serious planning. Like, we picked the venue and stuff like that, set out to save the date.

So we didn't really... We never picked the main course. You know, we had to get that... We didn't get to the nitty-gritty that way. We're picking napkins yet. Yeah, we didn't get that. far. So it wasn't as, you know, like heartbreaking. Like, you know, there's so many people whose weddings had to get canceled and postponed numerous times. Yeah. We just don't know when it's

going to be because we don't know when we'll be able to do it. Well, her family's traveling in from Canada, which makes sense. That's a big problem. That's a big problem. Yeah. On behalf of my fellow Canadians, I apologize. Maybe it's new year's, it's new year. It's possible. I mean, she's, she kind of just wants to go into like the courtroom or whatever. I'm like, babe, if we're spending all this money, let's let's let's make the real wedding. I don't want to go to the courtroom now and then spend the money later. I won't want to do it. So what was the original bachelor party plan?

Oh, man, the original the original bachelor party plan was going to be Disneyland and California and California Adventure VIP tour, private guide through both parks in a day. That was going to be, that was going to be the big bachelor party. Forget Vegas. That's it. Like a strip club. I want to go to Disneyland VIP tour, skip the,

the lines. And then what's that club? The club where you, you know, have dinner? Oh, Club 33. Would you be dining at Club 33? Yeah, I've been to Club 33 before, but you can't just get it to Club 33. I know. So I do not think for our Bachelor party, we'd be dining there. If somebody has a hookup, let me know. How did you get into Club 33? I know some people. I know some people. Wow. Bob Eiger invited you in. No, I wish. No, it wasn't Bob. It wasn't Bob Eager. I mean, I've wanted to go in there, but I just, I don't know the right people. Tell me what it's like in there. It was, it was super intimidating because, like, you felt like you were being watched the whole time.

Oh, because they're like, who's this guy? Well, right. And, like, it's very intimate setting and there weren't a lot of tables. I think maybe, like, three other people were eating there. When we went, it was a nice, like, multi-course dinner, very expensive, super nice. I was like, am I holding my fork in knife correctly? Like, I don't know what I'm doing, you know? But it was great.

And they had tons of merch that, like, of course, you spent all. this money on the food and then they have this exclusive merch to you got to buy two spent all this money uh it was worth it when i go again absolutely i absolutely so the bachelor party would be disneyland california invention that i'm thinking maybe you end the night with like that um medieval times or something because that's in orlando uh maybe we head on over to universal try to get all the parks in oh i mean that's kind of far away that might be a two-day thing it's kind of a two-day thing yeah one's anaheim and the other one's in you know l a i'm a big theme park I know you are.

It's been closed for this whole pandemic, so I'm itching for it to open up. I live about two minutes from Universal, and I keep looking at it out my window going, I can't experience this. Well, you're going to hit Super Mario World coming soon. We don't get that here in Orlando. Well, you're welcome anytime. What is the greatest theme park ride of all time? It could not, you know, maybe it's not in existence anymore, but what is in your opinion?

I think last time about the greatest Disney World ride, but what's the greatest theme park? park ride. Oh, man. I'm sure I said the Tower of Terror is my favorite Disney World ride. I think that still might be the greatest theme park ride of all time. All theme parks included. I'm talking like you see it from a distance. I'm seeing like the line, the queue, the ride, the, the, the merch at the end.

Definitely Tower Terror. What I do like about Disneyland is there are some rides there that are exclusive to Disneyland. Indiana Jones is one of them. So that's a really good one that still holds up. And Space Mountain is different at both parks. Yeah, so a lot of the rides are like slightly different. Space Mountain slightly different, yeah. And in Space Mountain, I can't remember which one,

there's one where you sit next to your friend, and there's another where you sit behind your friend. So I think Disneyland you sit next to. Okay. Yeah. I don't know what we, this has gone off in quite a change. That's the best part we can talk about anything. I mean, we really can talk about anything, which I love.

By the way, where's the Internet Championship? Well, we have the new internet championship is back there. The old one is hanging up and you can't really see it, but it's hanging out. The area that we did the interview last time. Probably, that's probably where. Yeah. You know, so I figured once I got released, I needed to make all this merch, all these t-shirts, new gear. I'm like, maybe I should make another internet championship just in case.

I was like updated logo. So I did. And I haven't really used it for anything. But now with the MC Trulong Island store, maybe we can sell some foam, replica belts or something, who knows? You were like the merch like master. Like every time I go in your Instagram, there's a brand new thing you can buy.

It's brilliant. Yeah, I just, because I'm a fan at heart too. So I make things that I would like as a collector and fan. And also like we're big about like making things limited. And I know there's a lot of people who don't like that, you know, but I believe that in this toy business, because that's what it is. It's a business.

It should be about, you know, the demand needs to be greater than the supply. So like if we're making, for instance, our foam major recipe podcast titles went on sale today. We only made 300. Like, why couldn't have we made 3,000 so more people would get them? Because I'd probably stuck with 1,500 of them. You know what I'm saying? I already have a garage full of junk. I don't need more like major pot and macrodona junk.

You know what I'm saying? Well, you also create demand by saying there's only. 300, you know, when they're gone, they're gone. People go, well, I guess I'll buy one now. Right. Yeah. And trust me, not everything we have sold has been a home run. Like, we have this thing called Stomp in Paradise. And it's basically like this underground, like army, but like in paradise. I picture like Thunder and Paradise.

It's like a spoof of Thunder and Paradise and this action figure line from the 90s called Stomp. Anyway, long story short, I thought, oh, why don't we sell like beach balls and sunglasses? is total bomb. We were given those beach balls away. So that's what your garage is filled with now. We gave away. But they were for a certain point. We gave away.

So if those were the most surprising that they didn't sell, what's been the most surprising item where it sold out way quicker than you could have possibly imagined? On our podcast, we say scratch that figure itch. Yeah. And we made backscratchers. Actually, I have one right here for you.

Limited edition. Scratch that figure itch, backscratcher. You put in your pocket, but it's extendable. You know? It's extendable. So when you're in the store, you know, scratching that figure. Literally scratching.

And they sold out really, really fast. I was shocked. How much did those sell for? I think it was like 20 bucks, 50, $20. Wow, amazing margins on those. That's right. And now if you have them on the secondary market, you can probably get like 50 bucks for it.

What is your most prized possession that is not an item that you created? Hmm. I have a lot of cool wrestling figures, a lot of cool starwheres. Wars things, but I definitely think, like, one of my favorite wrestling figures are things that, like, have never been released, things that, like, you saw in catalogs or magazines or even online. Yeah. Yeah.

So I have this, like, macho man. He's in green trunks. And it's the Hasbro figure from the early 90s. He comes in orange trunks in real life. Like, that's how we all got him. But he was supposed to be in this J.C. Penny ring with Hogan with green trunks. It's in, like, the J.C. Penny Christmas catalog. Low story short, it comes out orange trunks like the normal one.

But I got my hands on the hand-painted green one from the JC Penny catalog. And that kind of started my whole pre-production prototype obsession. Is that one of a congen, yeah. In theory, it's one of, maybe there's two others out there. Who knows? But that's the only one that's ever been seen in existence. Is there an item in your collection that you look at and you go, oh, I can't believe I paid that much for this thing? Oh, yeah.

there's definitely a couple things. Or like, I definitely overpaid. I probably don't need this thing. Yeah, I don't know if it's overpaid, but more like, okay,

so for instance, those, those Hasbro figures, there's this, you can Google it. It's a moon belly Kamala. It's like this limited edition Kamala. Like,

did it come out? Was it just like pre-production? Anyway, when it's released to the public, he's got a star on his belly, painted on his belly. But this one has a moon painted on it. So people have said there's 12,

people said there's 24. Anyway, I do have one in the package. I spent $11,000 for it. It's the most I've ever spent on a figure. I don't regret it because it's worth that, if not more by now. But it's like, I don't know. I like Kamala a lot,

but I already have Kamala with the star in the belly. Did I need to spend $11,000 for the moon belly? I did. I did. If you ever, you know, we're in a pinch, like you said, it's probably worth that much or more. but would you be able to find a buyer for it? Yeah, so there's a bunch of like idiots like me,

and I say that with all due respect. We're just obsessed with this. There's so many things in my tour room that I couldn't give away. They're worthless. I don't buy things to resell them, but it's good to know that there are some things that I could sell for some serious money.

And it's an underground community, but it's there. So what is the most coveted item that you still haven't got your hands on yet? Yeah, so now we're at a point where, like, it's more of, is this even, like, real? You know, you hear these, like, these internet rumors and stuff like that. So there was this rumored diesel figure. The United States Soccer Federation present the U.S. Soccer Podcast.

My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Clemenberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Times ticking. I think you can feel the intensity. All the guys are wanting to really take their claim. 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. That didn't come out in like 95 from the Hasbro line. Rumored for years, like it was supposed to come out. Obviously, it didn't come out. But there might be a hand-painted prototype out there. I do in my collection have the drawing because back in the day, there was no like computerized art for these figures.

would be hand drawn, like the sketch. So I do have the sketch, and I do have, they got the head, so I have the head, the unpainted head. But I need to know, is there like this hand-painted prototype that was going to be used for some, you know, catalog or something out there? I don't know. If there is, I need it. This is intense.

I mean, this is an obsession. Oh, 100%. No doubt about it. It's totally an obsession. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Is there something interfering with your happiness or? as preventing you from achieving your goals? BetterHelp will assess your needs and match you with your own licensed professional

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That's betterhelp, help.com slash insight. How long into dating Chelsea did you go, all right? I've got to tell you something. Yeah, it had to have been like up front because I had just moved into my house. So I didn't have my toy room set up yet. But like I think maybe I started getting like the display cases like moved in. So I think she should. She slowly saw the room get filled up to now where, you know, now she's all in or she knows

that I'm all in. But it was very early on because you can't hide that forever, no way. You know, you guys are going to run into a problem if and when you ever have kids because your kid is going to want to play with all this stuff. Oh, yeah, that's just not going to happen. There's going to be, you know, they're going to have to know that that room is, you know, off limits. That's dad's room.

We'll make another toy room for you. Yeah, they'll have their own toy room, you know, but daddy's toy room off limits. You know how ridiculous that is to say out loud? I know. Brian Myers has daddy's toy room in his house and his kids, they understand. They get it. He taught them from an early age. My goodness.

Yeah. You know, AEW just came out with their line of action figures. Do you have those now? I do. And it's weird because I don't, I have weird rules when it comes to collecting, right? Because, like, you need to, I believe everyone needs to make rules for themselves. There's no right or wrong way to collect. This is like Fight Club.

Yeah. But for me personally, I don't collect. like current people. And by current, I mean, so I, this is the sick rule that I made in my head. I debuted in WW 2007. So that's when I consider that I made it as a wrestler. Okay.

So any figure after 2007, I don't have to get. I don't have to collect. However, so like if Mattel in like 2021 makes a 1996 undertaker, I can get it. But if they're making a 2021 undertaker, I don't have to get it.

Does that make sense? It makes sense, but you put so much thought into this? No, no, because there has to be rules. So these AEW figures, by my rules, I don't need to get them because obviously they're after 2007. But it's a new line, a new company. And I'm also a podcaster about toys for research I've needed to get. So I think they're great figures. So you broke your own rules.

Well, I say they're for research. Like, they're not on display anywhere, you know. They're not on display. But I got it for research purposes. So much of your time now, I guess, is being devoted to the podcast and everything that surrounds that. And less being devoted to wrestling right now with the weird time that we're living in this world. So what's a day look like for you right now? Oh, man.

Usually it's actually pretty damn good. I can't lie. I just got back from impact tapings. That was a busy week. You know, left Monday. It's not Friday. So it was a week being gone from home. And that's pretty easy.

You fly into Nashville. You tape and then you fly back. That was it. So I've been doing, so let's say Monday morning, tomorrow morning, tomorrow's Monday, right? No, tomorrow's, we'll pretend it is. Let's pretend it's Monday. Yeah. I'll wake up, maybe around like 9, 30, 10 o'clock, make some breakfast.

I'll go to the gym. And then usually, like, I don't have to do really anything unless it's like a week where like we're selling foam titles and I got to pack them up, you know, or like Monday night. You're doing the fulfillment. Yeah, I do all that stuff. Wow. Yeah. So it takes a lot of work.

But that way. It's like, I don't know. I feel like it's handled the right way. I know it's shipped the right way. Stuff like that. And then, you know, we record our podcast a couple nights a week because now we have like different spinoffs. And I'm always making like YouTube stuff or Twitch stuff. So a lot of it goes to the podcast. But like, you know, I don't really have to do anything. It's great. And I live in Florida. It's beautiful weather. I can go in the pool. I can go to the theme parks. I'm loving life over here. Do you think you could get your podcast to a point where it's replacing the income that you had in WWE. I do think that for sure.

Yeah, I think it's totally possible. So I will say that the company, the major wrestling favorite podcast as a company, made more last year than my WWE contract. I'll say that. No way. But that's not, but that's split,

you know, between me, Brian, you know, we have a producer. You know what I'm saying? There's other things. But I don't know the net or the gross.

I'm not a business man, whatever. I don't know. That's all that's all. those terms. The amount of money that did come in for the podcast was more than I made in WWE or more from my contract year. And just think when you're able to do more live shows, well, that just starts to be even more more. Right. So we're excited to try other things. And we're going to do a live wrestling show that we're going to do. Obviously, we're not going to have people in there.

You know, Brian has his creative pro school in New York. So we're going to film something on a close set, you know, with the people that we, you know, talk about a lot on the podcast and we're going to do a show and we're going to stream it somewhere and just like all these different, you know, avenues to make money. Crumbs make crumb cake, baby. It's a little here, a little there and it all adds up. That's the shirt. You still haven't made it. I've not made it yet, yeah, yeah, but it's true. I firmly believe in that. Crumbs made crumb cake. And the fans who have been so dedicated to us and who've told someone about the podcast that has spread because we're so fortunate to be able to do this.

Yeah. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that not only did you make your AEW debut since we last spoke, but so did Smart Mark. That's right. He did. He did. Smart Mark made a little AEW. He was in the main event.

Yeah, I don't know if everybody knew this. Yeah. Because Smart Mark is a, you know, he's our producer. He's like the unsung hero of the podcast, but he's also a wrestler. So, and if this has opened up some opportunities for him, then I'm glad. So, you know, for people who might know, not have caught his debut, let everyone know what he was doing. When he wrestled John Moxley and he's got that full body suit on, like a Jim Cornett

style suit, he's ridiculous. Smartmark is a great guy. And like I said, literally the unsung hero of the podcast. He is, you know, he edits the shows. Now with the pandemic, he kind of like hosts the shows because with Zoom, you know, he's in there to make sure everything's recorded. I'm like, well, if you're in here anyway every three hours, I might as well talk a little bit. Sure. You know what I'm saying? So it's just been a lot of fun and without, you know, I think

you need three passionate people. That's who we are, me, myself, Mark and Brian, and that's what makes this whole thing work. And it's like, if we weren't passionate about this, it would feel like a job and it wouldn't be as fun. Because we're doing all this work, but it doesn't seem like work. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, of course. And we're ending up getting paid for it, which is nice, of course, but it doesn't feel like work at all. So his character was that he was MJF's lawyer. And that's his, that was his whole like shstick. on the indies that he's people's lawyers and he's putting all these funny videos so i hope i you know i hope people would notice him it was hard not to notice him i was like he's a pro he's he's a total

pro i mean like again so much has happened in the last year and it's so easy to focus on all the negative things that 2020 brought us but man 2020 was a pretty damn good year for you yeah no it totally was and it was a lot of fun also uh you know i got to work on things like those super seven figures like literally creating action figures from a concept to now they're almost out we saw the uh the test shot the unpainted test shot today like to see this concept you know i'm like oh i just said oh let let's it'd be cool if we had a wrestling figure that had many wrestling figures with it and now that's what they're doing as an accessory it's like pretty wild um you know where when we're in w w we're doing a podcast about wrestling figures metell won't even make us wrestling figures

and now we're free and we've made so many since since April it's been nuts you know you mentioned that going to the gym is part of your every day so what's your split look like at the gym? Yeah so it's funny like I go to the gym every day because it's been something it's something I've been doing for I don't know almost 20 years it's routine like I don't wake up

every day but oh man I can't wait to do shoulders today like I don't think anyone really wants to go to the gym but like I just have to and I'm there I bust my ass right now I just do almost like a one body part of day but like with some extra so like I'll do like back some days I'll do like back and buys chest and trit nothing crazy I try to hit everything I try to hit everything like twice in a week and a half if that makes sense okay that makes sense who was the body guy for you when you were growing up oh my God I mean like you look now you anyone who is like looking at the ultimate war he was like this freak just like chisel like of course

I would love to look like that. I'll never look like that. But like, you know, there's just so many guys. And I think nowadays it's, I think now you can like, instead of spending all this money on personal trainers, you could just like follow someone's like Instagram or go on like Google or YouTube and just find these new, you know, tips and tricks. And that's why I kind of love, that's what I love most about going to the gym,

is that like you can learn something from anybody and pick something up. And that's just not the gym. That's not just wrestling. That's life. There's always room to learn and grow. When we were growing up, though, like some of the bodies were ridiculous. I mean, you mentioned Ultimate Warrior, but Lex Lugar, Davy Boy, like, those guys were bodybuilders that also happened to wrestle. Yeah, it's why.

And they all just looked so good. It's not until you, like, go back, like, oh, my God, like, look at the rear delta on Rick Martel, you know? You know? Like, all just jacked up. Yeah, I saw, like, an old video of Shamrock when he debuted in WWF, and I was like, I forgot how gigantic he was. was huge huge it would have been nice to see russell shamrock an impact you know what he was there last time uh and i almost went up to it because he was the this is ridiculous the figurassic federation at the time he was the hardcore champions i want to go up and tell him but i didn't get to tell him

but i did tell delo that he won he won the fwf tag team titles not once but twice and the fans voted him tag team of the year with mark henry so he was very honored by that what's dilo brown's reaction of that. He loved it. He loved it. We had D.L. So we do live podcasts and we had Dilo as our surprise guest, one of the surprised guests, and he came out with the, I got the FWF tag team title that he came out

and the place pop. It was nuts. He's probably doing the big time head shaking. Oh, 100%. It was so great. If you look at everyone who's ever worked in Impact and there's been some huge names there, if you could have a dream match with anybody in Impact, who would you want it to be with?

Oh, man. now that he's back wrestling, I love to wrestle Christian Cage. You know, like I got, I was fortunate to wrestle him a lot early in my career, but I think I've definitely grown as a performer. I would love to test my skills against him. And now that he's back, who knows?

Yeah, he could be a great fit and impact. I think I saw something on the internet or on Instagram the other day that he won the NWA championship, like, I think it was like 18 years ago. Oh my God. Time flies. Or 16 years ago? Yeah.

Crazy. It's funny because I, you know, after I did the impact last month, well, damn, I need to get some more gear. Right. So I started like designing some gear. And I actually picked one of Christian cages like impact gears to kind of like base something off. I got design. It's not made yet, but I got to the design process. And then he comes back to the world of Rome.

I'm like, well, damn, I can't wear it now. I'm going to look at a big mark. You know? It's one thing to wear something of a guy who's retired, but he's still in the business. Well, I mean, he's not working at impact. That's true. That's true.

I'm still going to be in a made. We'll see. And also with the crossover that Impact's been doing with AEW, we could see you as an impact wrestler in AEW. Yeah, I think that's the coolest part about what's going on with those two companies right now. And also with like New Japan, it's like you don't know who's going to show up.

And I think, you know, in this era of wrestling, It's very hard to surprise people or to surprise, you know, keep a surprise. You know, if you know you're surprised people, it's hard for not to slip out there. But I think they've been doing a great job with those and shocking people. I just think like some of those moments, like your debut, some of those moments, I'm just like, oh, I wish there was a crowd here for that. Yeah. I mean, you would meet both, but it is what it is.

You know, the world has to move on. It has to adjust and evolve. And I think, you know, we're all looking forward to that time. We can get fans safely in there. But for now, the show must go on. Yeah. You know, a lot of people talk about the Mount Rushmore of wrestlers, but I'm really curious, Matt.

What's the Mount Rushmore of action figures for you? Oh, wow. Mount Rushmore of action figures. I think this is similar to like a Mount Rushmore of wrestling question because if you ask somebody, same question on two different days. I get two different answers. Of course, yeah. I think maybe the Mount Rushmore for me would be the LJN macho man.

He's like the rubber macho man. It's like this. I put that in there. Maybe Hasbro, Series 1, Hulk Hogan. It's funny, I'd say that.

And like, I had this stuff right here. I can pull it out for you. Oh. Well, show and tell here. Oh, man. This is getting intense.

Digging back there. I had to take off the headphones for this. I don't have them all here. I wasn't prepared for this question. But this is, this would be in my, my Mount Rushmore. Oh,

yeah. I don't, I don't really collect figures in the package, but this is like my my number one. So how to get this one was Machiman L.JN. That would definitely be on there. Next up would have to be the Hulk Hogan has, bro. 100%.

I think every kid in the 90s had this, whether they're like wrestling or not. How much did you pay for that one? Let's see. Then maybe a jacks, maybe some sort of Stone Cold Steve Austin because Attitude Era Austin. And then I guess you got to go Mattel.

What Mattel what I put there? It's tough. Maybe some sort of John Cena Mattel. Okay. There's been so many John Cinas. They actually just, they're making a John Cina in his NWO gear from that WrestleMania. Yeah.

Firefly Funhouse Match was really cool. You're going to have to buy it. No, I'm not. That, but he debuted before 2007. Yeah, but that event is after 2007. But I guess it's like to pick an alternate universe. So maybe, ooh, I don't know. I got to really think about that.

How much was that Hogan? How much did you pay for that Hogan? Well, I mean, I don't need to brag, but this particular one is a, this is a, like, reproduction one has like a green standard tag on the backs. This is like, this is like a real,

this is a real heavy, heavy duty item. Too much, let's just say. More than that macho man? Oh, yeah. This macho man wasn't that expensive. Maybe like 500 bucks, which is expensive.

Don't get me wrong. That's a lot of money. Sorry, action. figure. But all collectibles are going up. Look at the, look at like basketball cards, baseball cards, even wrestling cards. Like that rock rookie card just sold for over 40 grand. And it's like a card that's like ripped out of a magazine with like the perforated like sides. That's crazy to think about. It's going up. So why don't why do you take them out of the package? I know you want to let them breathe, but wouldn't they be worth so much more? For a lot of reasons. Like I don't

buy these things with the hopes that they'll gain money. I don't care. Like I'm sure they're going to. Yeah. Some of them will. Some of them will. Some of them will. But also the real estate. Like I like them on display. If I just had like a bunch of boxes stacked up, that just looks like my garage. It doesn't look in my toy room. You know, my toy room has them all nice doing poses or just standing up straight. I like them better out of the package.

Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. And then you can still sell them loose. Yeah. Like nothing I really buy. I buy to resell. Of course, there are some times where something's too good to be true.

And I have to just buy a lot of things, pick out what I want and sell the rest. Yeah. I'm a toy business. man, you know. You know, we mentioned earlier, you can do podcasting until you're 80. You can collect figures till you can podcasting to your 180. You can collect figures forever. How long do you think you can wrestle for?

You know what? Like so I'm now 35 doing the math in my head. Am I 35? Yeah. So this is my 18th year in the business. Wow. So you've wrestled more than half your life. Which is, oh my God.

Is that legit? Oh, my God. Wow. 36 would be half. Oh, my God. Wow. Thank you for making me realize that and feel really old. No, you should feel really accomplished.

But, okay, sure. So I was in the ring this week in Impact, and I personally feel like I haven't missed a beat. So you look at guys like Jericho or Dustin Rose or AJ Stiles or Bobby. You're like, Edge, you know, Christian, these guys in their 40s, 50s, some of them, And they're still going. I think, you know, this generation of wrestlers have learned to take care of themselves better. And there's so many things out there.

Guys like, DDP with this DDPY helping people out. Like, it's possible to, you know, obviously injuries are going to happen, right? And there's going to be unfortunate things. But it's possible to take care of your body to, because this is like, you know, our tool. If you're a wrestler, your body is your tool. And you got to take care of it, you know, whether it be proper rest, proper nutrition. proper training, you know, you got to be smart about it. So Jericho's doing this into his 50s.

That's 15 more years for you. Is that something that you want to do? Listen, I don't want to be the guy where people watch, be like, oh, man, he should probably just hack it up. But I don't feel like I'm there, you know? No. No, of course not. I definitely feel like Jericho either.

Oh, yeah. Like, so, you know, I could, when I'm in the ring, like, I don't feel older. I don't feel slower. If anything, I feel like I've gotten better and better over the years. So I don't, it's like scary when you put it like that. Like, oh my God, I'm 35. Like, when should I retire? I don't know.

Like, I guess what my body tells me to. Yeah. You know, or maybe, unfortunately, I hope this never happens. Maybe one day you have to retire. Right. As of now, like, I'm not. I knocked on wood there, by the way, for you. Yeah.

I'm not thinking of in those kind of terms right now. It's exciting, though. It's exciting to think that you are. like in peak physical condition, you're in peak mental condition, you're doing things in the ring that you've always been able to do. It's amazing. No, it's fun. It's fun like, you know, at impact, even at AW, like, ooh, like, I have an entrance. You know, I'm not like already in the ring. I think that's another thing why people are like, oh my God, he got so big. Well, maybe because like I'm, like, presented as a star and I have like an entrance at music and I'm a lot to walk out and be me

as opposed to like standing in a corner while someone comes down, you know what I'm saying? Like, Yeah. It's all like perception. And that perception is reality quote. Like I hate it, but it's true. It's so true. And there's no reason that you can't be the impact world heavyweight champion. I mean, that's definitely one of my goals 100%.

Every day I wake up and this is going to sound cheesy. I don't care. But I list things that I'm grateful for and goals I have. It just puts me in like a better spot for the day. I do it every day too. Yeah, I'm not a naturally positive person. And I think I have, we've talked about this. Like I've kind of almost trained myself.

myself, you know, and I'm not where I need to be either. You know, there's still more to go, but it just helps me every morning. And now I've added Impact World Champion to that list, you know, because that's definitely a goal of mine, 100%. Well, I think this is something there to not be the impact champion, you're 100% wrong. I've said this too. I'm not there to pass the torch to guys like Ace Austin and stuff like that. They're great. But I'm here to light a brand new torch and carry it myself. It's such a big thing for people to key in on that successful people always set out goals. I always say vague goals get vague results.

Specific goals get specific results. It's so important to know where you're heading so you can actually point yourself in that direction. Yeah, and I think, you know, that some goals are more long-term and that's fine, but you should definitely set yourself up for some goals in between so you can feel like you're winning along the way

and build that momentum. Yeah, these like, you know, celebrate those little wins. Like that's a really important thing. Yeah, I agree. And, I mean, we were able to celebrate wins the debut in impact. That's a win for you. And then in a month or two or five, we can celebrate you winning the championship. I mean, that's the goal. I mean, just being an impact for, like, you know, of course,

wrestling is my love. It's been my love my whole life. But just being there for that weekend, it made me be like, all right, we need to start doing this more often. We need to, you know, just the, it sounds so stupid, but just thought of like, oh, wow, like, I need to get some more gear. Like designing gear. I just missed all that. And like, so I'm glad to be an impact. I hope everyone watches on access every week. And I'm just really excited to see what happens. Like I said, there's no long-term deal or anything like that. But I'm here, you know, to make an impact, as cliches it sounds, I would love to get an impact world title opportunity.

So let's see what happens. I love that you said you start every day with gratitude because I do the exact same thing. And I end every interview by asking you, what are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now? Right now. Okay. Well, Chelsea, for sure, my fiancee, I will say that. I will say I am grateful for the opportunity at impact, you know, because it was one of those things that we had been talking, but it wasn't like, okay, I'm going to do it this

day. I wasn't training for a certain show and it just kind of worked out. I'm grateful that I had the opportunity and, you know, I'm grateful that I made the most of it. But another thing I'd be grateful for. Hmm. My dog? You can I say?

You can say whatever you want? Yeah. I love my little dog. He's not little. He's pretty big now. So Chelsea's on my case. In those pictures where you're holding him up. He's a big boy.

You know, Chelsea was on my case. He was so long about getting a dog and I put it off. We ended up getting three cats. And I finally, you know, I let my guard down and she got the dog. And at first, I didn't want it, but he's the best. I couldn't picture my life without him. He's the best. I love him.

Oh, aren't they the best? So great. A lot of work, but it's okay. Major pod network. That's where everyone can check out what you're doing. Yeah. And, you know, the major wrestling career podcast. And then, you know, February 17th, we start the MC Truelong Island story.

And I think it'll be an interesting take on like a story of how someone like took his, you know, took his career into his own hands. And it's not a happy ending, but is it a happy ending? It's really up for your interpretation, you know. I don't know if that's. story is completely done. I mean, you're living. Yeah, no, for sure. But that, that 100 episode story is very,

it's, it's going to be an interesting take. And I think at the end of the day also, it's like, good or bad, like I don't regret any of it. And it's made me the performer I am today, the person I am today. So I wouldn't change anything of it. You know what I'm saying? This is not going back, like

hindsight being 2020. I wish I would have done that or this should happen. It's none of that. It's no bitterness. It's just to look back at a slice of time. And what was going on in the business in my career. And like I said, if I can, you know, give somebody some motivation to bet on themselves and start something for themselves,

then it'll all be worth it. What a great way to end it. Matt Cardona. Thank you so much. Oh, thanks for having me, bro. Matt Cardona, my friends. And I think you could make a strong case that he would make a great impact wrestling world champion.

So if you happen to be listening to this in the future, and Matt Cardona is the champion, or was the champion already, then I guess we can say, yeah, I told you so. And wow, that man loves toys. He might love toys more than T.J. Wilson loves cats. And that, I mean, that is saying a lot. Take a screenshot. Share this on social media so he can say hi.

Tag me at Chris Van Fleet. Tag Matt. He is at the Matt Cardona. and I love how Matt bets on himself. I love it. It's so inspiring to me. And it reminded me of this quote from Beyonce that I'll leave you with.

Beyonce says, I don't like to gamble. But if there's one thing I'm willing to bet on, it's myself. Be great. Be grateful. We'll see you on the next one. Have a great weekend.

We'll see you on the next one for some more insight. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world. of rock but there was one band that had it all hammer alley whatever happened to hammer alley

how did they go from top of the rock i'm looking for a music video they're a band from 1987 hammer alley ever heard of them to rock bottom dude i was born in nineteen eighty seven i can't believe he's doing this hammer alley follow and listen on your favorite platform