Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Max Caster's Most Controversial Raps, The Acclaimed, Scissoring, AEW Tag Champions

Episode Date: May 7, 2024

Max Caster (@PlatinumMax) is a professional wrestler signed with AEW where he is part of The Acclaimed. He joins Chris Van Vliet in Philadelphia, PA to talk about how he comes up with the lyrics for his freestyles, his most controversial raps, being paired with Anthony Bowens in AEW and forming The Acclaimed, learning from "Daddy Ass" Billy Gunn, the origin of "Scissoring" in AEW, advice Cody Rhodes gave him about his raps, filing a trademark for "Best Wrestler Alive", the tweet he made about not wanting Shelton Benjamin in AEW and much more! Quote I'm thinking about: "By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail." - Benjamin Franklin Sponsors: PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank which was designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/ PRIZEPICKS: Download the app today and use code INSIGHT for a first deposit match up to $100! RHONE: Upgrade your closet with Rhone and use CVV to save 20% at https://www.rhone.com/CVV BLUECHEW: Use the code INSIGHT to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv BETTERHELP: Get 10% off your first month with the code INSIGHT at http://betterhelp.com/insight MUDWTR: Get 15% off with the code CVV15 at http://mudwtr.com/cvv PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at http://plunge.com For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chris the what is happening my friends welcome back to another one here on insight i'm cbv chris fan fleet thank you for being with us thank you for making insight one of the top wrestling podcasts on the planet if you haven't yet please you just hit that follow button on apple or spotify or wherever you're listening right now that one tiny little thing you just hitting that follow button would mean so much and it would help us to continue to climb the charts where the number three podcast right now. It's just a matter of time. It is just a matter of time before we are at number one on the charts.

My goodness, we've got a lot to talk about after this past weekend with backlash and that crazy crowd in France. So make sure you listen to Fridays, Ask CVV episode. And if you have a question for it, you can send it on social media using that hashtag AskCV or email it in. CBV at chris fanfleet.com. I feel like I should start this one today with a, yo, listen,

Platinum Maxcaster is with us and he really doesn't do interviews at all. But we were both in Philadelphia during WrestleMania week. We sat down for this interview right after the Ring of Honor, Super Card of Honor show that Friday night. There's so much to get into with him. From being randomly put into a tag team, with Anthony Bowens during their AEW debut to what the acclaimed has become now.

And they're one of AEW's first real homegrown talents. And they've been AEW tag team champions. They've been AEW TRIOS champions. In fact, when we've recorded this interview, they were the TRIOS champions. Not anymore, obviously. That is now being held by Bullet Club Gold, Jay White, Austin, and Colton Gun. But they've done so much. And the thing is, when their music hits, everybody wants to see what Max Castor's going to say during his freestyle.

And some of those freestyles have definitely pushed the envelope. We talk about scissoring and daddy-ass, Billy Gun. There's a lot. So snap a screenshot. Let us know that you're listening and tag us. He's at Platinum Max on Twitter. He's at Best Wrestler Alive on Instagram. And he's actually trademarked that, too.

trademark the phrase, best wrestler alive. We talk about that as well. And tag me. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. Here we go. Please welcome platinum Max Caster. Listen. Is that good?

Listen. Yeah. It's more nasally. Listen. Yeah. Annoying. No, it's not annoying. You got to cut through on the high end.

Yow. Yeah. Listen. Yeah. It's nothing like your actual voice. Probably not. No, it's not. I do it because when I was learning how to record myself

and I didn't know how to mix well, I would just go, oh, let me just try and sound like Drake because he's in the higher register, and it would cut through the beat a lot better than me rapping way down here where my voice might be if I'm talking regular. But now I'm up here and I'm cutting through and it's way easier to mix like that. Is this why Eminem's voice is so high?

I don't know. Who knows, right? Maybe. I'm sure he started on bad microphones like I did, but that's the story of it. That's why I have such an annoying rap voice. How much thought goes into every freestyle you do? Man, we would sit for a long time, especially when it was just me and Anthony before Billy had come on, and we would just sit there and just throw lines back and forth. And Anthony was my, like, perfect sounding board. He would tell me, okay, too far. I go, okay, let me bring it back a little bit.

He goes, okay, maybe try it this way. And I go, oh, okay. So I would, like, walk away and I would attack this line from a different angle. And then it would be perfect. So it was really collaborative. at a certain point, I think we kind of got away from that and we don't talk about it as much and I would have to chase him down for whatever reason.

He's busy, he's got his outside stuff or he's getting warmed up for the match and I'm just sitting there like, God, we got to attack these guys and we wrestle the same guys over and over. Hey, I need a new way to insult the dark order. We've wrestled them so many times. Like, we'll joke about it. They're like, I'd like to see what you come up with this time because I don't know what you got left.

Like, I've killed all of them so many times. So it's a lot of thought and, you know, a lot of reading the news and what does this guy look like? What is Middle America going to find funny? It can't be so niche that only I laugh at it. Right. Because that's a lot of things for me. But, you know, I watch like Jimmy Fallon's model. Colbert's monologue.

What are these people joking about? Okay, let me try something in that realm and just go from there. Do you come up with like, this is the word I want to rhyme? This is the word that's going to be the end. So how can I find a way to get to that word? Sometimes. Sometimes it just, it's the punchline. You know, the second half of the line, you got the setup and then you get the punchline.

And sometimes I'll have the punchline. And sometimes I'll have the punchline perfect, and I can't get that perfect setup line. So I go, okay, what if I flip the words in the punchline, so it's just backwards? And oh, I could find a rhyme in that one. So you have to be flexible. I can't get married to things too early

because I just put myself in a hole. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. So I don't know. It's really just play. playing with words. That's what I do. I play with words. And I think that's the most fun I can have outside of wrestling is just bending the English language in different ways. When did you realize that was a skill that you had? That's a good question. The whole story of why I started rapping is actually wrestling related. John Cena was in a music video with an underground rapper named

MERS and MERS was a big wrestling fan and he had John Sina do a feature in his video so John did a verse he did the music video and me at like 14 years old was like amazing yeah let me look up more MERS and growing up in New York we get a lot of like 50 cent a lot of dip set uh the locks so all this like hard gangster rap and then Mers was like a little bit more relatable to me a guy from the suburbs, and I was like, man, he's not rapping about all the stuff they rap about on the radio. Maybe I could rap about my life. And so it kind of went from there and just reading interviews and listening to songs. Oh, how do you write a verse? How does music structure work? I taught myself how to make beats because I had nothing to rap over. So I go,

let me try and sample stuff. And I would do that on the desktop in the kitchen. And that worked up to my own computers and stuff like that. And no one was rapping over my beat. So I'm like, I guess it's just me. So I'm like the one man band in my house. It's just me humming. And then on the computer, like, do, do, do, do, okay, let me start writing. Were there people in high school that would like have rap battles with you? Was that a thing? Or were you just writing your own lyrics? More, more of my own. My one friend who lived across the street, he would come over. We had like the real bad desktop mic back in the day. And so we would just like crank the speaker, turn the beat up. The mic is recording all the audio. So it just sounds horrible. And we're just like trying a rap.

And like I have it somewhere and I could listen back. And it's just like, yeah, you guys are 15 years old, just not knowing what the heck you're talking about. What's so interesting about what you do is you have to put so much time and thought and effort into the freestyle as you're coming into the ring. And then the same amount, if not more, effort into the actual match that you're having. Yeah. And I don't think people appreciate that. In fact, I think I did such a good job with the raps that even the wrestlers on the roster would look at me in Bowens and say, okay, well, Bowens is going to do most of the wrestling.

and Max is just going to sit on the outside. And then when I would come in, it would catch them by surprise. And they go, wow, this guy could actually wrestle. The only person who actually said it publicly was Dax from FTR, which is like high praise, because I consider both of them top five wrestlers in the world individually. So for him to like come out and say that and I know he had his, you know, preconceived notions about me when I got hired to AEDU. for him to say that about me was was a huge honor and it still is and i and i respect him way more now than i already did so um and a few other guys have said it and yeah even billy one one match we had

he just said that was the best you've looked and i was like for billy gone yeah he's he's a very very harsh judge so so this is kind of like people going oh oh you're actually good at wrestling yeah oh yeah Yeah, best wrestler alive. Trademarked. You've trademarked it? It's 100% trademarked. You're serious? I am the best wrestler alive, according to the U.S. government.

Well, there it is. That's right. Wow. Listen to the government. How was that not trademarked before? I don't know. I also think Nature Boy technically isn't trademarked right now. Really?

Mm-hmm. The Nature Boy or Nature Boy? It would be one and the same. Well, it's going to be after this interview. Sure. Someone should jump on that. I had one of my students was looking into it. He's like, maybe I should just trademark this and steal it from everyone else who was the nature boy. That'd be an interesting lawsuit. Yeah, it would definitely get brought, you know, to attention. I don't know to court, but yeah, trademarks are a great thing. You know, I am the only platinum that's allowed to be in wrestling. I'm the only best wrestling. I'm the only best wrestling.

alive and we have a few others. So I'm happy with that. Best Wrestler Alive is pretty high praise and I'm happy to carry that title. Were you literally just looking at possible trademarks? You're like, oh, that one's open? Well, I might as well take it. No, it's really a Lil Wayne reference, best rapper alive. And I'm like, okay, I'm a rapper. But I'm a wrestler. Yeah. Best wrestler alive. And that was even before I was in AEW, I'm like, okay, this is my mindset now. So I would do these raps every week on Instagram,

I put it on the Twitter and everything and every rap would just kind of be about, I'm the best wrestler

alive. And it rhymes with so many things. You could mess with the syllables. So, like,

I could hit it from so many different ways. I'm like, all right, this is great. And I just got into that

mindset on the Indies right up until I got signed. And then we had to, you know, pivot to tag wrestling.

Me and Anthony were not a team before. coming to AEW. But, like, that's where I always want to be as a wrestler is knowing unequivocally that I am the best in the room, whichever room I walk into. And I don't know if I give myself enough respect now to feel that way. Like, you know, we think a lot about the raps.

I got to think about my tag team partners. But when it comes to me, I need to know I'm the best. and I think I'm close to that mindset again. I'm getting back to it. I'm pushing myself to do some new things. And I think we'll see a max that people haven't even seen before on TV. What do you have in store? You know, it's I think different ways to present what I do.

You know, I don't ever want to stop talking, you know, but people have heard me talk a lot. But can I give them a new way to hear me talk? I think so. And I just need those opportunities. And I need someone to believe in me. And I need to have the proof of concept. And we'll see where I could test it out. You might want to keep an eye on the indies of this summer.

If I get some time, we're going to go test it out certain places. But I think that's where I want to go. create a new way for people to hear me say the things I have to say. Prize Picks is America's number one fantasy sports app with more than 5 million members. It's the most fun and exciting way to get in on the action while you watch your favorite sports and players. You just pick more or less on two or more player stats for a shot to win up to 100 times your cash. It's playoff basketball season. Now is the time to join the prize picks community of over 5 million members who have all

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And right now, my listeners get 20% off sitewide when you go to that website. That's shopdoer.com slash insight. Shop d u.er.com slash insight. Don't wait, go there today for 20% off. I'm curious how you structure the words that rhyme. So when you say lots of things rhyme with best wrestler alive, what rhymes with that? So many, okay, it's hard to say now like the actual words, but it's the syllables. Best wrestler alive, it's five.

But I could also say best wrestler alive. So now it's six. or the best wrestler, a lot. He split up the syllables a little bit differently. And, you know, fans, especially when I started doing the rap stuff on TV, would write, you know, I liked it, but that word didn't rhyme with that word. And that just showed me like a blatant misunderstanding of what songwriting is because it's the syllables that rhyme. not necessarily the words in a Dr.

Seuss sense, but it's the syllables. And so, you know, I don't know whether it's just ignorance or what to the hip-hop genre, but it's the syllables that rhyme. So, you know, I could have like perfect syllables, but if the end consonant isn't the same, they'll be like, Max, that didn't rhyme. I'm like, write a rap.

Please write a song. Tell Taylor Swift, her words don't rhyme because they don't. Tell Phoebe Bridgers, her words don't rhyme because they don't. Not perfectly, but they're still great songs. This reminds me of that clip.

Maybe you've seen it of Eminem, nothing rhymes with orange. Yes. And then he lists off like five things that rhyme with orange. Yep. And it's like, you're right. It doesn't need to like,

the syllables don't need to, or the word itself doesn't need to rhyme. Like the pattern needs to sound the same. Yeah. And that is probably the most important thing I do in front of the crowd is get that, like, that pattern and the syllables to hit perfectly because, you know, I could rhyme any word with any word, but if it doesn't flow properly, it's not going to hit as hard. So, like, a lot of care goes into that.

and like, I only have so many syllables in each line. I only have so much time in each measure. So I has to count. Yeah. So we, like, I sit there and just edit, edit, edit, edit, edit, edit until it's perfect. And then that's it. How did the acclaim come together? It was just two guys that were on their own, just brought together.

Yeah. Do you want the long story or the short story? I mean, we had Anthony on. He gave us a great story, too. sure yours will be similar so yeah anthony was being called in uh it seemed like they were going to hire him and i don't know if they knew what they were going to do with him and someone had said to tony why don't you just hire max caster if you're going to hire anthony and i guess tony then associated us together.

And then he goes, I'll just make him a tag team. And me and Anthony had been acquaintances. We actually have a lot in common. I'm from Long Island. He's from Jersey. We're both trained by Pat Buck

at the creative pro schools in the two different states. Both mixed race, both worked in sports media. Both went to college. He was a college athlete. I was a college athlete. college sports broadcaster and like all these things just we had in common and then on top of that

we're like a good yin and yang it turns out he's a more sociable guy i'm more you know putting the whole presentation together with the words then he's putting the presentation together with the entrance and where he goes and i go oh i should do that and uh it worked out in that way so i think Tony just associated us with each other and said, have a match, try it out. And after that match, he gave the high sign to whoever it was. And they go, okay, let's get you guys some contracts. And this was during a time when, like, you know, pandemic wrestling was weird.

I think we can all agree to that. Especially when you're coming out and you're addressing an audience that's not there. Right. That was a tough one. That first match with best friends, me and Anthony will never watch. that entrance back because it was so, like, cringe. No one's reacting. No one knows what they're watching.

Like, who are these guys? Gear doesn't match. Anthony doesn't know what he's doing. I'm just talking. Anthony's like, yeah, good, good job. And it's just very awkward. But I think that's what makes us really lovable, is if you started watching in that period,

you saw us develop everything in front of a camera. We would try things. Things would be discarded, but the things that worked stayed. And, you know, I think we grew with the audience. And I don't know if anyone else in wrestling has had that opportunity, especially for that long. And then when fans came back, it was a big validation for us that, They actually liked us.

We were like, oh, we had no idea. You guys are also like some of AEWs really, like some of the earliest homegrown talent, right? Like there's not a, there wasn't a lot of homegrown talent at that time. And it was like you guys came in and you're certainly one of them. Yeah. I mean, I think me and Anthony are the best purely homegrown talent AEW has ever created. We had not been on major wrestling television as signed wrestlers prior to that. We literally had our first match together on an AEW show.

And who went as high as us? And at this point, we're still doing fine. We're still very, very popular. I mean, we just showed up at the Ring of Honor show, the pay-per-view, and that crowd was super excited to see us with no announcement. I think if we are announced, that's appointment viewing because they want to know what I'm going to say. They want to see Anthony and Billy interact with the people. And it's really like a big feel-good party when we're out there.

So for us to kind of cultivate all of that and they create scissoring the pink daddy ass, which was like... Is that, okay, is that officially his name now? I don't call him that. I call him Billy. Or silly Billy. But they write his name as Daddy Ass and I guess. Because I thought at first he was Daddy Ass Billy Gunn.

I did too. I don't know. But then you see the, like, the Marquis. It's just Daddy Ass now. I'm going to ask him this tomorrow. Yeah, please. I'll text you. I'm interested.

I haven't thought to ask. All I know is... He's your partner. He's your Trio's partner. What's your name, sir? Again, I just call him Mr. Gunn. I call him... Anus-Ballie Gunn, evil anus William firearm.

That's great. That could? Yeah. Feel free to use that. If he wanted to start acting like a 16th century... Evil Anus William Firearm. Yeah. I told him that.

He's like, that's the... dumbest shit I've ever heard. Yeah, that sounds like something Billy would say. I know. All right, man. Can we talk about your appearance in WWE? You said you hadn't been signed there, but you appeared there. Sure.

Let's talk about it. And it's out there. Everybody knows it happened. I suppose. I've never acknowledged it. Oh. But go on. You were one of Bobby Lashley's sisters.

Sure. You know, young wrestler, hungry. $500, you know, a quick drive, three hours. I hear the catering is great. Catering is great.

Yeah. What else could you ask for? I think, you know, most other wrestlers, aspiring wrestlers, would have taken that booking. It was a very last minute thing,

from what I remember. They had called, I think, the week of us, like, can you come to Raw? Go, okay, no idea what they wanted me to do. got to be in a dress.

You know, I don't know about that. You know what Kat Williams says about tan skin guys and dresses. It's a little like a slippery slope. But again, it's like you're getting paid. You're getting on TV. I'm like, this will be good for my career. And who knows it might lead to something else. Sure.

You're backstage there. Sure. Signed. They thought of me. Like, it was, they were like specifically. Yeah, what's bring you in for them? I go, okay, that makes sense. Sammy Zane is dressed up three men to lure Bobby Lashley to the ring and now we have to beat

him up. Fine. Very, very cartoonish, very like Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, I thought. And, you know, people, I don't think people really responded to it. It still gets brought up as one of the worst things on their show of all time. But I thought it was great. I don't know if that's all, of all time. And Katie Vick's pretty bad.

That is bad. I think in modern era, we're up there. You're part of history. Yeah, and I appreciate that. I think only one, maybe two people have brought me a picture of that to sign. Do you sign it? They pay. All right. What else am I going to do?

Yeah, I mean, I guess you. Yeah, I mean, why not? Yeah, I can be bought. Did anything else lead to anything else from that? No. That was kind of it. I didn't expect anything. I think after that I had my WWE tryout at the Performance Center, which was completely independent of that. And at that tryout, they had told me, you did great. Go make a name for yourself and we'll talk to you then. And it took me, I think, another year and a half before it came down to the decision of AEW or WW. They were both

offering at the time. What was it about AEW that was that much more appealing? That's a good question, because I gave it a lot of thought. And I almost did the NXT thing. And this is 2020? Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, the full story is they had a guy on dynamite that, Um, they did a match with on one of the live shows and then the very next week or something, he signed with WWE. Like they swooped in, boom, grab this guy right up. And he's still there and I'm sure he's doing great. Uh, I don't keep up.

But, uh, I think Tony or whoever got word that WWE had been interested in me. I'd done a couple of shows on pay-per-view with David Marquez. and that's when they called me. And I go, oh, okay, this might be it. And then I think AEW got wind of that, and then they go, in my opinion, let's swoop in on these guys and take this guy that they want.

And I was, I think, the beneficiary of that. And just the environment there, even when I worked there as an extra at AEW, it was night and day different than working as an extra for WWE. I think I changed in the men's locker room as opposed to a curtained off area at the back of the arena.

It was like the only memory I have of Brody Lee in person is me and him just sitting across from each other, him as him and me as an unsigned guy just putting on my boots. And I'm like, wow, this is actually way different. And no one even cared. Everyone was just like, oh, yeah, yeah, you're here. you're you're wrestling today good for you um and i i feel like that put me more at ease and then

the fact that it was tony's idea to put me and anthony together to be the acclaimed to give us that name and he seemed yeah this is this is an exciting thing this is my idea and i hadn't heard anything specific i technically didn't have a deal on the table with wb e but they were flying me down to come meet and hang out and see if I was a good fit. And they put that contract in front of us. And that was it. It was like a leap of faith for me and Anthony together to do that. And now you get to learn under Billy Gunn.

Yeah. And I mean, he's an all-time great tag team wrestler. You guys have a great tag team. What have you learned from him that have made you guys better? I think it's just how harsh of a critic he. he is and not in a bad way. It's just he cares. He's, I think, made wrestling way easier for us because when you don't know that people like you, you start throwing stuff at the wall. Should I take more risks? Should I be edgier? Should we change the color that we're wearing?

But when he got added on, it just kind of elevated everything we were doing. It added nothing of Billy Gunn, whatever he's done in his career, specifically. It was just now Billy Gunn is doing the acclaimed stuff. And it kind of just validated everything that we did. So it made wrestling easier for us because it took all of that guessing out of it. Like, do people actually like this? Oh, yeah, they do because now they're way more into it. We have a co-signed from an absolute legend. And we're having all this success. And then the other thing I would say is just the amount that he's welcomed us into his life. And he's always been very selfless because he says, you know, whatever you guys want to do.

Here's my idea. Whatever you guys want to do. Okay. And we can always work from there. And his idea is usually a good idea. And we will go with that because it's Billy. But we could always say, Billy, I don't know about that. and he'll go, okay, let's see.

And we will see. So he's welcomed us into his life and his career. He calls us his kids, and it gets conflated with his actual sons, Austin and Colton. And sometimes his wife has to ask, okay, which kids are you talking about? The good ones are the bad ones. And we're obviously the good ones. So, you know, it's, you know, helped me, I think, in like my family, like as an uncle, sometimes I'll tell people about my my brother's kids.

I go, you know, my kids or this. And I'm like, they're like, you have kids? I go, well, no, but I feel like they're mine because I love them. So I feel like that's Billy's relationship with us. Can we figure out how he's like somehow reversed aging? It's insane. I don't know. Some people, politicians use adrenaline chrome apparently.

some have said not me um i would never uh but billy's billy's done great he's great the the bad thing about being partners with billy and anthony is they look so remarkable physically that i could do everything to make my body look great and it's still going to pale in comparison to both of those guys so i'm in the best shape ever right now i have abs i'm a little bit vainier i'm cut a little bit bit and I look good if I'm by myself, but then you put Billy next to him. He's way up here. You put Anthony, he's way out here. And I'm just like, I'm always going to be the medium guy in this team. That's okay. But at least I can rap. Oh, yeah. These guys can't rap. That's what I got. That's why I'm still on the team. Have they ever tried? No. We did say if a show ever falls on April

Fools, Bowens has to do it and I have to do Bowen's part. That'll be like in, two years, I think. Maybe. I think there's a, like this year, it was Monday this year. Yeah. There we go. 2026.

We got to make it back far. If you guys are still a tag team, by then, every great tag team breaks up. Yeah, you know. And they turn against each other. I don't, I don't feel the animosity yet. And you would think, right?

It's been almost four years. It has. And it doesn't feel like that. Because we could look back on, on the start, and it seems like yesterday. And again, like for me, I feel like I don't give myself enough respect to say, I am a veteran in wrestling. I am one of the most popular wrestlers in AEW.

I am a locker room leader. Even if it's by example, people could watch us and say, I want to aspire to be that. And I don't know if I give myself enough credit for that because, you know, I don't even know if there's a reason. I, that's one of the things I want to improve this year. It is hard to give yourself praise, though. It's for some people, for me, definitely. And, you know, that's where best wrestler alive comes from. It's just, we got to reiterate that.

We got to drive that into everyone else's head, but also my head, and come out of that on the other side way better and actually the best. And when people call me the best, that's the validation. And they will. it's not going to be tomorrow. But one day it's going to start and it's going to keep going and keep going and everyone's going to say,

wow, I never realized how great Max is. And I think it all just starts with me and in here. So that's what we're working on this year is along with the physical improvements, it's just making sure that I know that I am the best. 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 Klinemberg.

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 stake their claim, and they want to be on that World Cup roster. There's no doubt about it. Hosting the World Cup on the home soil comes with its pressures, but we're just really excited just as the people are.

The U.S. Soccer Podcast, presented by Henko. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. What do you think of the comparisons to John Sina? Because John Sina had a freestyle gimmick. I mean, John is a great guy, great rapper, one of the best wrestlers of all time, a huge influence on me. I think it's very flattering when people compare us. He was nice enough to reach out to me. And even before all the over-the-top success, the acclaimed had, he said, I see what you're doing.

And it's great. Keep going. He's done interviews about it. He's been asked in interviews. And there was one day where he was in whatever magazine and the person asked him. And it was there in print. Max is a great rapper. He's doing what I did way better than I ever could. Wow. And that was the same day I wrestled CM Punk. And I'm like sitting before the show just having this weird moment. like my one idol, my other idol in wrestling, just kind of in my life right there. And it was very overwhelming in that moment. So I like the comparisons to Sina. He obviously is one of the greatest wrestlers in the history of the sport.

And, you know, I hope to be like him one day. Does he still reach out to you? Just send you a DM? A text. He got my number. Uh, but, uh, it's, it's been a while, but I want to say the last time was in that, uh, match with Keith Lee and swerve at all out. Um, I lifted Keith on my shoulders and gave him an AA and Tina gave me praise on that. So that was big for me. He put it on his Instagram too,

his very mysterious Instagram. Uh, uh, art. Yeah. And, uh, you know, again, validation that we're doing something good. The way he sends texts are not just like, hey, good job. He sends like, yes, like a paragraph. Like it's always so thought out. Every time I get one, I'm like, how is this like a real thing? You would think it's AI. What?

It's so, like, profound the things that he says, I don't know how to respond. I just want to say, like, thank you so much, thumbs up. And I know it's not enough. So I'm like, thank you so much. This means so much to me. You know, this reminds me of an anecdote. Maybe you should use AI.

I should. Hey, AI. What would I say if I was responding to John Cena's text? Respond to this text from John Cena, the 16-time world champion. I should use that next time. I mean, see what it says, you know? Use it as a building block. He's going to know.

Yeah, he would know. Yeah, he would know. you got CM Punk good when you when you wrapped on him so good in fact that he smiled yes he did i mean yes he did uh i'm trying to remember what i said i did too on him yeah because we wrestled uh him along with ftr uh me austin and colton one so i got him on that one too you said something about his movies his movies are the only thing that make me go to sleep uh which i thought was clever something about his teeth his teeth teeth are messed up. He's like, the molar. Yeah.

Something else. I don't remember, but it was, it was, it was a memorable one for sure. Are there any raps you feel like you've gone way too far on? No. There's raps that other people have thought I've gone too far on, for sure. But everything that I've ever said and done has led to my career being at this point right now, and I can't regret it. I've never. I've never walked out there and been like, yeah, this is too far, but I'm going to say it anyway. I think it's funny. Whatever I say, I think it's funny.

If it's a bad joke, it's a bad joke. It didn't land. Oops. You know, stand-ups, you know, they work material out in front of a crowd. If it doesn't land, they just go, oh, okay. Next joke. That one didn't work. I kind of don't have that luxury.

It's, yeah, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, you know, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, If it's really on the line, I'll kind of walk around to different people that I trust and go, what do you think of this? And if they really, really don't like it, I might try and rework it, but, you know, I might also say it too. Like Twitter got very upset about the Simone Viles line. Sure. But Twitter's not a real place.

People think it is, but it's not. So who's really upset? Did you, after that one, have to, like, run the? by people for approval? For a time, but that stopped pretty quickly. Of course, I wasn't going to go there again. It wasn't even that line in that rap. It was the Duke Lacrosse, right?

And that is a whole, to me, a gray area because it's an accusation, but a false accusation, but it's also referencing something that, you know, is very sensitive in the world, which is sexual assault. And I get it. It's a very touchy subject. Probably shouldn't have said it. But in retrospect, how could I ever regret that? Because when I returned to TV, it was like a hero's welcome.

So why was I being rewarded for the most horrible thing that anyone's ever said? We walked out. It was, I believe, Chicago. and it was a dark. I want to say 2021, Chicago, one of these shows

before the pay-per-view. And we walked out and it was, yeah, so happy you guys are back. Like Anthony had been wrestling singles matches in the time that I was away

following that. And you could feel the energy just wasn't in the room. As great of a wrestler as he is, if he kept going, it would have come together and people would, get on board, but that's the yin and yang of us.

Yeah. Is he's going to have the platform to do what he can do as long as I'm there and vice versa. And I think we've closed the gap on each other. He's become a great interview, and I've become a more outstanding wrestler because I'm trying to focus more on that, not so much on the rap. And we've kind of closed the gap and we're becoming more one in the same. But, you know, it helped. Like that suspension, that thing that I said, the outrage helped my career and Anthony's career in turn.

So, you know. It's so ironic to say me getting suspended helped my career. It did. Say what you want. in the moment people were really upset. I thought it was great because I go, oh, well, I'll just do some more like that. It was a little too far. Things got really, really touchy when the network starts calling.

And that's what really did me in. Something had to be done. And I agree with that. I'm cool with that. I only apologize to Tony and Anthony Bone. and they both appreciated that and accepted that. And we moved forward. And when I came back, we figured out, you know,

wouldn't it be funny if I just read off a sheet of paper, a corporately written rap? And we started doing it and the fans are booing. And then we rip it up and they start cheering. So it's like, this is what they want. They want me to be me. Everyone wants all the wrestlers to be themselves. themselves, really, or extensions of themselves. And, you know, I feel like I'm one of the only

wrestlers who's not afraid to be himself. I use my real name, my government name. You can look me up. I will say what I want to say. I'm okay with that. I'm okay with the consequences. And we keep going. But our popularity speaks for itself. What about when you reference WWA? Sure. Yeah, that's a double-edged sword. Because you can get them on something. and it'll be a good burn, but you're also putting more light on their product, which they don't need it. They're already, however many years they've been in business, 50, 60, 70, if you count all the way back to the territories,

they had that credibility built in, that longevity. So do they need that from the four or five-year-old wrestling promotion in AEW? no, they really don't. And at a certain point, people would say, hey, stop doing that. And I listened. I really try not to do it anymore

because it just creates more more eyes on their product and not ours. It makes us seem second rate. I think it also makes fans go, why are you watching the other product to be familiar with this stuff to then be able to create lyrics about it? Sure.

I mean, there were certain things that had nothing to do with the TV show. Reference Vince McMahon on, I think, the very first time that any sort of allegations came out. When he retired, I referenced him. And that was, like, news. It was news news. So I thought, you know, that's a little bit better than me saying their TV show, they did this. Yeah. On their internet show, they did this.

It's way different. Laurenitis had done something, I think that's different than reacting to their TV show. So I would pick and choose, but honestly, it was never a good idea because it would just, you know, create shots back and forth. And now you see them taking shots at us. And of course they are. If, you know, they're running hot and anyone's going to ask them about AW, of course, they're going to take shots because we took all the shots at them.

Fair is fair. I'm cool with that, but when it comes back around, you know, we're not, no one's going to complain. So when the rap started out, there were no parameters. Now it sounds like there's some, there's some parameters here. There's parameters that I put on myself, but the only feedback I got from that first rap that we did was from Cody Rhodes. And he said, be edgier. And I go, say less. So like, be less like Will Smith. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Be edgier. And that's what we went with. And it worked. So he was right in that. Can you go too edgy, too far in certain situations? Sure. But you got to test the water. Who do you look up to in music? Who inspires you there? Oh, man. My number one rapper of all time is a man named Slug from a group called Atmosphere. That's a deep cut. Yeah.

Uh, Murs, who I referenced before. Kanye West, Tegan and Sarah, one of my favorite bands, the killers, the cure. All these things kind of go into my music production, especially. I obviously can't sing. I definitely can't sing like women sing. I wish I could because it's beautiful. But it kind of goes more into the production, but the rapping is, you know, again, talking about things that are relevant to.

me and not trying to put on a facade for anyone. I think fans when they first saw me do this on TV, on AEW, they were like, rappers aren't supposed to sound like this. They're supposed to shoot guns or sell narcotics or, you know, whatever else. It hurt women or whatever. And, you know, I'm just kind of here rapping in my nasally voice, saying things that are kind of silly, kind of edgy. And they're just like, I've never heard any rap like this.

But it's very palatable for people who are being introduced to rap. So I think it's good in the sense that, you know, I'm a lot of people's like entryway, gateway into actually liking rap. A lot of fans will say, I don't like any rap, but I'll listen to your songs. And I go, great, that's awesome. And if that leads to them finding any other rapper, that's awesome. And I'm technically a part of the culture of hip hop. And I always try and remember that when we bring it to wrestling.

Can't all just be, well, what would a wrestler do? It's like, I am a rapper too. And I have to honor that as well as the sport of wrestling. You feel like you wouldn't swerve really relate on that? Like, it's the wrestling and the music? I don't know. I honestly have not talked to him too much about it. He's, I think, in his own lane, doing great.

I'm in my own lane doing great. I don't know if we ever did a song together, that it would sound good because we have two very different styles. But, you know, that's a question for swerve, I think. So that's music. Who inspired you in wrestling? A lot of people. Billy Gunn was one of my wrestlers, favorite wrestlers growing up, ironically.

Which version of Billy Gunn? New Age Outlaws. Okay. I mean, there's so many versions. There is. The one Billy Gun is fantastic. Yeah, I missed that whole thing, but New Age Outlaws, pushing the dumpster off the stage. Of course, we got to resurrect that doing a dumpster match with his sons, which is like a full circle moment in my life.

John Cena got me back into wrestling when one of my friends was like, oh, there's this rapper on the wrestling show now. I go, oh, I have to watch that. And I got hooked again. I'm trying to keep digging in the crate here. I would say more as like a wrestling student and watching wrestling and trying to apply it to myself, guys like Red Heart, Rick Flair, Shabbata, Naito, Danielson. And then my favorite of all time, like the guy who put the spark in me is Nigel McGinnis. which is way left field because I don't wrestle like him at all, but there was just this one ROH show at Manhattan Center,

and we're sitting, I think, balcony like front row, and it's him and Claudio in the main event, and I had watched this whole show, and it was a great show. But, you know, everyone's style is kind of the same. Nigel's style is just way left field to everyone else. And I sat there and I go, this guy has all figured out. If I was ever a wrestler, I want to be like that guy.

And then I became a wrestler and realized that's not my strong suit. I probably can't do all that, but I can do the things that I'm good at. And I'm happy I got to tell him that. And I don't know if he's accepted that or he really internalized that because he's a very humble guy. But he does need to know that he's a huge. reason that I wrestle. Wow. Yeah. I can't believe you guys were able to get away with scissoring on TV. Yeah. Cisering is great. I've heard a lot from the lesbian community about how they like scissoring, how only some lesbian scissor. One lady was like,

you have to be skinny to do it, so it's not every lesbian. I'm like, I never said it was it's just something we do as a handshake. So there was a certain point where we were asked to stop. And then we tried some other stuff. And we're throwing the A down. And I'm like, man, a scissor would go so good in this. But I'm like, um, milk it like udders. And Anthony's just like, what are you doing?

I'm like, oh, this. Cisoring was the thing. I can't tell you when I knew for sure that it was going to lead us to success. But once people started making their own cardboard scissors, that would open and close. And I'm like, oh, yeah, if they're making art out of what we say, that's moving the culture. That it was great T-shirts. Then it was National Scissoring Day. Yeah.

Then when you guys won the tag championships, everybody's scissoring now. It was great. It was great. National scissoring day was probably my proudest moment as a wrestler because we were in Washington, D.C., the home of politics in the United States. And for that, you know, 12 to 15 minutes or whatever, everyone was on the same page in that building. And it felt like there were no problems in the world. and everyone just wanted to hear us say things and scissor each other and everyone's wearing pink and everyone brought their scissors out. And it was just like this really big feel-good environment in the

middle of like one of the most divisive cities in the world. So that was never lost on me, the fact that we did that in Washington, D.C. And any other city, it would have been okay, But for sentimental reasons and, again, like cultural reasons, I don't know if anyone on the wrestling show picked up on, but me to say it's not about being red, it's not about being blue, we wear pink. And everyone goes, yes, we do. I go, great.

So we're all in agreement in this one moment, and we could all enjoy this time where we're not yelling at each other. And it was very, very special. Anthony told me that there was like a real possibility that Chuck Palumbo was going to make some sort of appearance here. Billy and Chuck, come on. We've tried. He's a busy guy in his own life. And I finally just met him at an autograph signing a couple of weeks ago.

And he was nice guy, amazing guy. He's like, you work with Billy? I worked with Bill. It seemed like he doesn't follow, but just having that connection and a conversation with him about our tag team partner is a special thing. So I don't know if he'll ever show up on the show. I wish you would. We've tried Bart Gunn. We've tried Rico.

I think we've tried Sean Waltzman. No one is showing up for Billy except for Max Castor and Anthony Bowens. Bark gun would be fantastic. They would all be great. They all, I think, deserve a little bit of a moment along with us because we've given Billy so much. Billy has given us so much, but they're part of that family, too. So if they ever wanted to, if they ever came up, the invitation's always there. But if they're busy, they're busy.

They have their own lives and not everyone can be a wrestler on TV all the time. How different is trios wrestling versus the tag wrestling you guys were doing for so long? It's so different because I do less work. I know a lot of it is not about me. I have the microphone, and that's my spotlight a lot of the times. If Anthony says, I think I need to be in there more, I go, great. If Billy says, I need to be in there more, great. If they go, Max, you need to do it, great.

But I'm very hands-off in that because, you know, we're out there trying to win a match. If you guys think you guys have the answer, that's cool. I'll be here representing us on the microphone and doing my part that way. But I'm never going to try and shoehorn my way past these guys. Again, they're two high-level wrestlers. Billy being a legend, Anthony being, you know, if I'm the best wrestler alive, Anthony is there with me. because we are equals. So who am I to argue with these guys?

So in a tag match, just for the sake of math, it's 50-50-ish. So is this, and this is going to turn into Steiner math now? It could. Is this now 33 and a third? It feels like that. Some matches, I don't come back sweating. That's probably not a good thing. Right.

You would think. But if these guys are handling business, I can help where I can help. Yeah. I'll see my opportunity. I'll say, okay, here's where I can jump in, but it's your guy's call. Tag team wrestling, it's a lot more of like the brotherhood, the partnership. And with three guys, it's a little less dire of a situation. If I get caught in the middle of the ring in a tag match, I have one guy.

Trio's it's two. I think the drama's a little bit lessened in that sense. And that's okay. I don't know if we are what A.W. envisioned when it came to Trio's titles, you know, even in that initial, like, first wave of Trio's teams, it was Young Bucks and Kenny, great wrestlers, but a completely different style,

best friends. Great wrestlers, completely different style. us we're great wrestlers but no one else has our style especially that this high on the card and we ended up with these and i don't think it's what everyone expected from trios wrestling when you hear it with a w you you think oh let's you know bring out the ladders let's bring out the tables um some lucha guys whatever we're very much not that so i don't know if we are the best fit for that division, but we've run it. You make it work.

Yeah, for almost a year now. So you guys are stuck with us, I guess. Why'd you have to do Shelton Benjamin like that on Twitter? Because we don't want them. Why not? What are you talking about? What's it going to do? Take up my TV time?

This is one thing I learned when I was, you know, getting signed to AEW. I got a call from QT Marshall, who I love. I love and respect because he's a great wrestler and he's very honest. One of the most honest guys I've ever met, if not the most. He called me up and he's like, Tony wants you to come in. I go, is this a joke? I don't know. He goes, look, I'm a wrestler.

I preferred if you didn't come here and work because you'd be taking a spot that I want. And I go, oh, that was some real shit. I respect that guy. And ever since then, he's always kept it on that level with me. So I got to keep it on that level with everyone else. Every single free agent that comes up in professional wrestling, fans want to go, they'd be great in AEW. They'd be great in AEW.

We only have so much TV time. Some of that needs to go to me. I don't want all of it. I'm not selfish. But I'm the best. So if... Very humble, too. Of course.

But if people start calling for Shelton Benjamin or Motor City Machine Guns or whoever, it doesn't matter. And not to single anyone out, my sentiment is, why would we want them? We already have the best roster. We already have the best wrestler alive. If you want anyone to come in and do whatever role they're going to do, I bet I can do it better. I bet Anthony could do it better. I bet we have a guy on there that's not even getting used on our roster that could do it better. So what are we really doing? We're just bringing in

stars that were made other places to do what? Less work ourselves. I'll work for that. If you want me to fill someone's role, I can work and do that. It's not going to be overnight. It's not going to be, okay Max is now this guy no but I could work there um but I you know it's insulting to me as a veteran and a top wrestler and one of the most popular wrestlers that fans will go well we want this other guy now why you have the best literally the whole roster you have the top of wrestling so if that's got to understand how people read this on Twitter they read this and they go, he's saying, you know, you're not good enough. We don't want you here.

We're full. That's how people are reading it. Yeah, but it's true. Prove that you're better than me. I mean, Shelton Benjamin. I mean, he's fantastic. He's okay. Stop it.

Like, he's good. Stop it. He's good, and he's got a lot of accolades in his career. But, realistically, what does he bring to the table that let's say Josh Woods couldn't do, who is a heavyweight champion NCAA wrestler. Maybe there's just a nicer way of saying it that wouldn't make people so upset on Twitter. Twitter's not a real place, so who cares? It's not a real place.

And, you know, I think people are shocked when I'm honest, because the only time they really hear me talk is into a microphone and I'm telling jokes. But if I'm honest about my career, what's wrong with that? Apply it to anyone else's job. Apply it to your job. If someone comes in and goes, I am Chris Van Vleet number two now, and I want to interview everyone before you do. There's a lot of those. And you know what I say?

There is. I say clapping for others does not take away from my own success. I clap for everybody. I'm excited for them. Sure. But if they start taking your YouTube page and, you know, you know, delete your videos a little bit. They're going to delete my videos?

Or maybe you get less interview time with the people because they have to go run next door. And that happens. And I'm like, hey, so-and-so, that was a great interview with this person. And I know that I'll get another one on the next time, you know? You get one, I get one. Sure. But maybe there is no next time for me. If someone takes my spot, someone takes my TV time, when is my next time?

And just to be clear, this isn't just a show. on Benjamin thing. No, this isn't anybody, everybody. Not at all. I will say right here, great wrestler,

and I respect them a lot. But why would I campaign for anyone to join the company when we already have the best wrestlers? I'm here. Put me in that spot. And it'll be great. But if I'm going to sit here and go,

wow, yeah, we need more on this roster, no, we don't. But then what happens every time someone gets signed? I'm insulted. I really am. I want to see them prove themselves.

And, you know, talking about the people that we've signed recently, I think Will Osprey has proved himself. Give him all the credit in the world. He's an amazing wrestler. Okada, I think once he's situated in the country and he's on TV every week, we will see. But that doesn't take away from how great of a wrestler he is. He's here.

We got to live with it. But if you had asked me before we signed him, Max, do you think Okada should be here? I go, if you want, but I could do that for you. What if I say, do you think Adam Copeland should be here? I think he's proven himself. I mean, of course, he's a Hallfamer. No, he's proven himself in AEW.

I'll be honest. When he was brought in, I was skeptical. as you go, you know, he's done so much. What else could he really want to do? This is my company. Again, you're stealing RTV time, but he's proven himself to be a leader and someone who's going to go out there

and put in the work in the ring and pull guys aside. And he's pulled me aside and said, hey, I saw your match, here's what I think. And I go, thank you so much. And I appreciate that. Yeah. But there's a lot of guys who wouldn't do that.

What if to play devil's advocate here? What if Okada, Osprey, Adam Copeland, because of the ones we just named, what if they bring more eyes to TV, which then bring more eyes to you? They could. I don't know if they have. You know, wrestling and TV is a lot about how you make people feel, but not just once over a long. period of time. So these guys can come in and there's some general excitement when they first show up, but are they going to sustain that? And we have to wait and see, but, you know, we've worked so hard to get to where we are in the company from literally, ground up, homegrown,

purely. And then to just have guys who were stars somewhere else, did their whole career somewhere else come in and now they're perceived to be on top of us, it's an insult to me. I'm speaking for me. I don't want to speak for my partners or anything like that. It's an insult to me because of all the work we've put in. If other people help along the way, sure, but not many of these guys have ever campaigned to wrestle me and Anthony. And I think there's a reason for that is, one, because they don't want to get embarrassed via me on the microphone. And they know that we are younger and hungrier and ready to go.

And, you know, they want to be in their comfort zone wherever they are. And I get that. But we have the tendency to bring people outside their way. comfort zone. So I, again, take that personally when me and Anthony are the number one thing in wrestling period. And then none of the top wrestlers are saying, you know, we can actually better AEW if we put on a top level fight with the two top teams or, you know, two of the top teams. FTR was the only one team that, you know, agreed to wrestle us. And that was. And that was great. And again, I respect them for that. But there wasn't that, like, clamor from everyone in the

locker room. Like, put me with a claim. Put me with acclaimed. None. And I, again, take that very, very personally because that shows that people are afraid to try and help the company as a whole. Do you think they're worried about what you might say? Yeah, I am. Are there certain people that you just can't wait to cook. Like you've got some lines already ready to go. Not so much. I feel like I've gotten everyone so far, but again,

new guys who have come in, put me in that position. It's, you know, I'm going to hit them hard. But we've also wrestled a lot of the same people over and over, especially as Trio's champions.

So we run out of things to say and, you know, it gets redundant or whatever. And I think that's where like fans have lost a little bit of that excitement for us is because no trios team wants to come challenge us. You have top trios teams. You have top guys who can make a trios team. Top guys who can call their own shots

and no one's saying, I want to create some excitement with the acclaimed. I want to fight these guys. I want to see if they're actually the best trios team. And it seems very short-sighted or very fear-driven where they don't want. that kind of smoke from the actual top wrestlers in the company. You think that might change? After this, maybe. A lot of people are going to see that. That's fine.

Yeah. And I don't think I'm out of turn saying any of that. It's true. No one, no one, even if they said, you know, it wasn't the right time. You know, the timing wasn't right. You guys were busy. I was doing this. was off injured. No one has ever come up to us and said, you know, I really, really wanted to

fight you guys at the time where you guys were at your peak. And I think there's a problem with that because why wouldn't you want to be part of the best thing in wrestling? So because wrestling as an art is so subjective, when you say things like the best thing in wrestling, the hottest thing in wrestling, you know there's a lot of pushback to that. Well, at that time, there was none. There was no pushback. People were scissoring. People were into it. It was a communal thing. Everyone's doing it. They would leave shows and the chant would start as they're walking out. You know, National Scissoring Day. Turn to the person next to you and show them a sign of

peace via scissoring. And it brings people together. It really does. And I think we created something very special in that time. But we got a lot of a pat's on the back for it, but not a lot of, hey, maybe we can make this even bigger, make this even better. It was like, wow, you guys have done so great. We go, thanks. And then they go, okay, that's it. What would you have wanted, you know, on the other side of that? A challenge. People to be pushing for a match with me and Anthony or with Billy involved. It's, again, guys I think are afraid to take that chance with us because they don't think they would win. You don't think you would beat us.

You don't think you would come out on the fake place Twitter looking cooler because Max roasted you. And Anthony had the whole place saying, Cizor me, daddy ass. And then Billy Gunn was just like building up the. crowd through the whole match and, and, like, all these things are about us and nothing is about anyone else. And, you know, also to their credit, I'll say Swerve and Keith took the challenge. And that was before they knew that the fans were going to go crazy in that one pay-per-view match. But those fans quickly turned that match to everything acclaimed.

They stole Keith's chant, you know, O. Bask in his glory, to O. Cisor Me Daddy. At that point, that was gone. He, you know, he lost that. And I think it comes back from time to time, but now it's in A.W. It's the O'Cissor Me Daddy chant.

You know, there was a moment in that match where Anthony had to just hold swerve down to the mat and say, what is happening? And look around and go, what? So really, this crowd is in our corner? It was very surprising. And then since then, it took on a life of its own. And those guys stepped up to the plate over and over with us.

And I think we had some of the most memorable matches in AEW history. So what are the matches you're getting now? You're just getting the matches that you're booked into? Yeah, I'm not the booker. I don't make those decisions. So I do the best with what I'm given. And that's, you know, a thing I've learned from Billy is we can only do our best. We can sit around and hope and wait and say, we want to be in the main event of this.

We want to wrestle this team. We want $50,000 hung above the, like all. We could call any stipulation that you could think of. But if that's not what's in the cards for us, we just got to do what we can do with what we're given. Well, I'd say, you know, you have, your bag is behind you. It's off camera here. You've got a championship in there. I'd say things are pretty good. Things are good, but where's the challenge? We've been Trio's champions for almost a year, nine months. I've got to get two friends here and challenge you guys. Please. Yeah. Yeah. Get the other. Chris Van Vleet's. Yeah. Chris Van Vleet number two. It'll be like me, Sam Roberts and Ariel Hawani. We could beat those guys. You would, yeah. It would be awful. Yeah, especially Sam Roberts. Yeah, you know, he can lift a lot of weight, though. Really?

Yeah, he posts these videos sometimes of him like deadlifting. And it's like, that's shocking, how, like, how strong he is. We'll put Billy on him then. Would I get you? Yeah, I think so. Okay. Oh, we would definitely lose. This has been fun, man.

You don't do a lot of these. I don't. So I appreciate you. I want to say this is my only interview in a year. and the last person who did a wrestling interview with me was an eight-year-old kid. Wow. Yeah. Well, I'm in that same league.

Yeah, you're with Awesome. Oh, AJ Awesome. Yeah. You were on the AJ Awesome show. I was. Oh, AJ's awesome. Hey, man. Hey, AJ.

Hey, what's up? What made you decide to want to do something? Sometimes you got to talk. I think people misunderstand me. And I just wanted to clear things up. Yes, I really do feel that way. Twitter doesn't like you very much. But it's not a real place.

It is for the people who spend a lot of time on Twitter. Well, that's fine. You know, Disneyland is a real place for Disney adults, but it's... It's not a real place. Not really a real place. I'll end this with the same question I ask everybody at the end, because gratitude is such a big part of my life. What are three things in your life you're grateful for? Man, my genetics?

Boy, say that. It sounds funny. It sounds like the start of a heel promo. It's not. I was been blessed with height over six feet. You know, body makeup where I can get abs. I have a good skin color. My hair has not left me.

You got plenty of it. Oh, yeah. My dad and my brother, it's, it's, it's, going. So for me to have all my hair is a miracle. So my genetics, I would say my brain, my creativity, and good old-fashioned professional wrestling. There it is. That's right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Well, there we go. And guess the acclaimed were the Trio's champions will be recorded this a month ago. They're not anymore. Bullet Club Gold, which is Jay White, Austin, and Colton Gunn.

They are the champs now after winning at AEW Dynasty a few weeks ago. But it's just a matter of time, I think. Ford the Acclaimed has some sort of gold back around their ways. What an interesting conversation

with such an interesting guy. Snap a screenshot. Let us know that you're listening to this and tag us on social media. He's at Platinum Max on Twitter. He's at Best Wrestler Alive on Instagram. And now you know the meaning behind Best Wrestler Alive.

I'm at Chris Van Fleet. and I'll end with this quote from Benjamin Franklin. By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. Be great, be grateful. We will see you on the next one. It's episode number 600 with a very special guest on episode number 600. I'll just say, you think you know him. So we will see you on the next one for some more insight.

Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand.

He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it. Get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.