Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Miro: "I don't want to talk about Rusev", how he and Lana met, AEW debut, Bobby Lashley storyline

Episode Date: September 29, 2020

Miro talks to Chris Van Vliet from Jacksonville, FL. He talks about why he signed with AEW after being released from WWE, how he met his wife CJ Perry (Lana), what it means to be "The Best Man", learning to speak English from listening to Tupac Shakur songs, sleeping in his taxi while attending wrestling school, how he felt about Bobby Lashley and Lana making out with each other on Raw, the real plans for the Liv Morgan storyline that interrupted Lana and Lashley's wedding and much more!  Please subscribe and support the show by supporting our sponsors!  DOOR DASH - Get $5 and zero delivery fees on your first order of $15 or more when you download the Door Dash app and use the promo code BLUEWIRE BETONLINE- Head to http://betonline.ag and use the promo code BLUEWIRE for your new welcome bonus! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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This is the Chris Van Bleach Show. Chris Van Bleach Show. Ladies and gentlemen. Chris. Well, here we know. Yeah, this is the Chris Van Bleet Show. Thanks for being with us on this one. If it's your first time here, welcome.

Thanks for stopping by. And if you've been here before, welcome back. Take your shoes off. Stay a while. This episode is brought to you by Door Dash. bet on line and who better to talk to than the best man himself. What a ride Miro's been on from a kid growing up in Bulgaria, learning to speak English with dreams of being a pro wrestler,

to now recently signing with AEW. And it's just amazing hearing him tell his story of how this all came together for him. So snap a screenshot. Let us know that you're with us on this ride as well. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. Tag Miro, he is at 2B Miro. And I got to say, we did this interview over Zoom, and he is rocking that blonde hair.

I joked that him and his wife are now able to share the same hair dye, which he seemed to like. And if he didn't like it, well, I'm just glad it was over Zoom. You know, and he couldn't physically hurt me. He's just such a laid back guy, though. He's so easygoing. And in terms of his talent, in the ring,

I think we've only scratched the surface of what he's truly capable of. If you haven't subscribed yet, maybe you could consider doing that at some point today on whatever app it is that you're listening on.

I'd hate for you to miss these interviews that we have coming up. There's a lot of big ones here. Dominic Mysterio, jazz, gangrel, Chavo Guerrero, and a fascinating chat with Chris Hemsworth stunt double,

Bobby Holland Hanton. So make sure you subscribe. And thank you for the reviews that have been coming in. Big, big review week last week. So thank you for all those. That specific goal of 2000. 2000 reviews is getting closer and closer. And speaking of that, Allen 6754 titles this review, 2K reviews.

Here we come. Doing my part to get CVV to 2K reviews. And then a few emojis. That's it. That's the whole review. Short, to the point, perfect. that's really all we need. So thank you, Alan, for that. And I'm going to keep reading one out on every single episode for the dozens and dozens of people who are listening. Although with Miro on the show, I feel like there might be dozens of dozens.

No, I would think there's hundreds of dozens. Thousands of dozens. Well, he is no longer Rousseff. In fact, he told me in this interview that he didn't even want to talk. about Rousseff. But we talk about his journey from WWE to AEW, although he says there's still another place that he wants to go to. And he didn't mention it by name, but it sounds like it's going to happen. Let me know where you thinking it is. I think he's referring to New Japan, which would be amazing to see him in New Japan. We talk about how he met Lana and how he felt watching her and Bobby Lashley be all over each other every week on Raw. We also get into what the real plan was for Liv Morgan interrupting Lana and Bobby Lashley's wedding.

And his story behind his fixed goal of wanting to move to the U.S. and become a pro wrestler, it's so inspiring. He was driving a taxi, sleeping in that taxi before going to wrestling school. Man, prepare to be inspired here. So, ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for the best man. It's Miro. Miro, we are doing this thing. Thank you so much.

Of course. Thanks for having me. We've been trying to do this for a while, so look, we're finally making it happen. We're here, and I have all the words. Well, I appreciate you looking great with the blonde hair here. Thank you. Thank you. It was my wife's idea. I wrote with it. It was it so that you and your wife could have the same hair color? I guess. Maybe she didn't let me in on the joke. I don't know. But I don't know, it was quarantine.

And one day she was doing her hair at home. She said, you want to do it? but why not? So I just tried it and I really liked it. It felt fresh and it wanted to become indifferent. So there you go. You seem really happy. Oh, yeah, it looks good. Yeah, you seem really happy.

Been watching your videos on Twitch, been watching your videos on YouTube. You just seem like you're in like a great place now. I am. I am. I am because I am my own boss in a certain way. Twitching, I do whatever I want. And I love Twitch. YouTube, you know, we throw some stuff over there from Twitch and some original content.

But there's just nothing, I don't know, there's just nothing. There's nothing to be worried about. And I've never been worried about, even before. It doesn't matter what people think I was always been happy, always been happy. It's just going to work with a little bit of a dreadful moment. But now the thing is gone. There's no dreadful moments in my life at all. So how did this all come together?

How did AEW happen? How did it happen? That was a great question. So I was sitting at home doing my Twitch and we found out that they're interested. We found out that they're interested. So we got into contact. And it didn't start off great because I had other opportunities. But I knew I didn't want to go just any place.

I knew I wanted to go two places, AW and another one. Being WWE? Well, no. Just trying to make it clear here. No, there's not a place that I really want to go, and I will go eventually because that's just how it's going to happen. So, yeah, they called me, they contacted, and we talked back and forth, back and forth,

and even Chris said that when they wanted to bring me in, they wanted to bring me in with a purpose, not just to bring me in just for just to be there. So they came up with the idea with, you know, Kip and and the best man. And I think the best man is so suiting because of everything I do. And I thought it was a great schick. And it's not just the schick. It actually fits my personality. And that's why I was an old brain. It was that yes, let's just do that. Well, I think people think that, like, you're going to be the best man until Kipp and Penelope's wedding. And then, you know,

you're going to have to figure something out. But like, the way that you're saying this is you are the best man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's not I am his best man. I am the best man. I'm the best man of everything. And I explained that. I said, you know, I can kick your ass in the ring. I can kick you ass in any video game. And I have a woman of everybody's dreams. And if there's a kid that doesn't want to be like me, then I'm doing something wrong. You know, so that's why I mean I'm the best of everything I do. I'm always the best. I always compete to the fullest. And they will never change. This seems like a kind of take on Jericho or Punk's best in the world or best in the world at what I do. That's kind of what this sounds like. No, they're, they're goats. They're not best.

Natty is the boat. Jericho is the goat. I'm the best man. It's very different. I heard you talking on Twitch about how like you didn't have clothes for your debut. So like, did this happen kind of like last minute? No, no, no. The thing is it didn't happen last minute. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. But I had no. it's so hard to buy designer clothes or clothes in general. Like it's, it's, it's, when you're as big as you are, it's hard to buy clothes, I'm sure. I wouldn't say I'm only, I'm what, 270, 280? That's not only. Yeah. I mean, it's a normal human being. It's not like a big show. It's not like I'm freaking, um, I don't know, somebody big. I don't know,

Brian Cage. Ryan Cage is huge. I don't know how he buys this clothes. Um, but anyways, yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't the last minute. I knew. was coming and I thought I had a plan. It's just that my plan did not fulfill, just like this last week. And then finally, I couldn't get the clothes. I tried to get this stylist to do it for me. It was too late for him because of my size, once again. So I had to do it. Just I found a couple pieces in Miami and my friend went, picked him up, sent them to me. And I had my outfit. So it wasn't last minute, it's just that you couldn't find something that would fit you. I just could not find something that would fit.

I could not find something that would get to me in time until friends step in. You had a moment on dynamite last night where it looked like you might have hurt your leg. Is everything okay there? I'm pushing through everything. No matter. You can't hurt me. Can't hurt this, man. It looked bad there for a second, though.

Well, it was a nasty tumble. You know, I saw a good old freaking Joey, Janelle, whatever the freak his name is. He came in like, did he just hit him? me like I'm just standing on the apron for no reason he comes across and hits me and he knows I thought he should know better than this so it charges ass and you know he ducks out of the way it was very uncomfortable I just landed right on it it was kind of a but I'm good I'm good I'm good when you look at the whole landscape here in AEW who are you just so excited to get in the ring and work with I keep saying that like there's so many good people I've been so impressed

with so many people. They're so, so good. They have so many tricks. They can put it from any pocket. But I'm really impressed with Hangman. Hangman is really good. Obviously, we all know how good the bucks are, and we know how good Cody and Boxley.

And all these other guys that haven't people seen on TV. Like Scorpio's Kai, Scorpio's tie is so good, man. The Butchers, the lucha Bros. My favorite people is of all time. But there is one person that I have never been able to step in the ring. And that's Kenny Omega. And ever since he kind of, well, ever since I saw him doing stuff in Japan, I was like, whoa, I really want to work this kid.

Because it's not just that he's so good and he's intense and he's got everything. He's got it down to a T. But he's also a big dude. And, you know, you can see many big dudes with great physiques, do a lot of great, not crazy stuff, but a lot of like cool maneuvers. So that's why I feel it can be a great matchup. just because he loves video games I do and wrestling and everything else, it can be one great. Well, it could be a wrestling match. It could be a Twitch battle. You could, you guys could just

pretty much do it all. It would be everything. Because when you're the best man, you're the best of everything. You know, you talk about being a big dude, but when you debuted, you looked so lean. Like, I think that's the leanest we've ever seen you. Yeah, yeah, I've never been so oldie before. But once again, being at home and being able to focus on my diet and my work. workout and getting Jerry Ward as being my nutritionist and my workout program. Everything, everything just worked out. And once again, I hate, it was the pandemic and the gym closed, but so what?

We opened our own gym in the garage and we just had to do what we have to do because I knew where I'm going. I knew what I wanted to get. And I always worked in my physique. Even before when I was big, I was always working out. It's just the nutrition was something that was like. lacking, but Jerry Warren got me on point. So what do I need to eat and what specific exercises do I need to do to have traps

that are growing out of my ears like yours? Let me see your traps, though, first. Okay, let me see here. That's not bad. That's not bad. You have a little tiny man holding to your shoulders. I have a big man holding on my shoulders. So it's like they're holding on, they clamped their hands like, hey, buddy, don't let me go.

Don't let me go. You just can't because those traps are so big and nobody can let go. Is it just a lot of shrugs? That's all I got to do? Like, I would say yes. But at the same time, I hate sounding like this because people are like, oh, look at this guy. I just think they just grow naturally. Like, I don't have to do anything extra. They just grow.

And I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't have no secret. I'm sorry. It's just natural. But shrugs will help you 1,000%. Oh, you know what I actually do. I'll tell you this.

Okay. Okay. Here's the secret. I do, I do shoulder raises wise. I do wise. So if you lay on the incline, when you go wise, so you hit your upper traps going down on the side, like down your spine.

So there you go. If you want to let me advice, I will say go with the wise, but go light because once you go heavy, you start including your shoulders. You do not want to include your shoulders. Were you that guy in high school who was just a, like just a beast of a man?

No, no, no, no, not at all. I was first, I was really fat, then not really fat. I was just overweight. But once again, I had no idea about nutrition. I was working out training all the time. I just didn't know. We eat rice and beans every day. We don't have money for meat.

We don't have money. We eat bread. We eat sugar, everything. So until 16, I was just heavy. But then I think puberty hit. And over the summer, I just leaned out. And like when my height went up. I was playing basketball all the time, so they helped out a lot.

And from then on, I think until 18, when I graduated high school, and I was rowing, so I got to rowing. You can't be too heavy for rowing. Once to move out of that, I started training really seriously in the gym and paid attention more to my physique. And you moved to America with the plan that you wanted to become a wrestler. Oh, yeah. Where did that idea come from? I was six, so-cold Cogan, and one of the VHS, tapes that I borrowed because we didn't have anywhere else to watch. And I saw it. I was like, yeah,

I want to be like, Hogan. And that was it. It was my fixed idea. He was, he was everything to me. He was America personified. You know, say your prayers, your vitamins. God is good. And just do the good work, man. And be charismatic, smile and be supportive. That's what I took from Hogan. And what better message that was. Yeah. So I've interviewed Gang Realm many times. I was living in South Florida, went to his wrestling school, which is incredible. And he's so, so proud of what you've accomplished. And he tells this story of you would, like, sleep in your car and then like come out, go to wrestling school with him,

and I believe Rikishi, then go back to your car. So you were living in your car. I wasn't living in the car. I had an apartment, but I was driving taxi. When you drive a taxi, you just need to put your hours in. So sometimes I'll come from a night shift, which is usually I'll start at seven of the night. But if we had an early morning practice, I had to put an all-nighter.

And instead of going home, driving a taxi, it's about 40 miles for a resting school up in the valley from the South Bay Area. And park there, maybe sleep for a couple hours. Then they'll come. They'll open the school. I'll go and train, then go back, then find it asleep, then work out, and then I'll go at night and work again. Anybody that's listening to this right now needs to understand, like, the pure dedication that you have. You have to. You have to.

And then that's what I'm saying. If you're an American person, you have so much more advantages than everybody else in this world. And you just have to do the work. There's nobody's going to come and hand you down anything. You just need to put in the work, man. And then everything, in everything you want to succeed. You've got to put in the work.

Well, look, you and I have that in common. I immigrated here from Canada. You immigrated here from Bulgaria. Yeah. That process is not an easy. process to make happen. No, no. When you're a foreigner, there's nothing easy coming to America. But again, I had the idea. I had the fixed idea. I didn't care. No foreign answers. I didn't have any doubt. So as soon as I had the opportunity, I got my work and travel visa when I was 18 or 19,

actually. And I came to America right away. Richmond, Virginia, didn't work out. Yeah, I really sucked, actually, in Richmond. It's not just the Richmond as a city. It's just a situation, painting houses outside in the heat, and being unable to paint houses because I just don't know how to paint houses. Got fired a month in, thrown out on the streets with no money. And there it comes, again, fight life. You know, I just went, I came from back home in Bulgaria when I was fighting life to come to America.

But I knew that it's not just going to be. you know, oh, beds of roses as soon as I get there, it's going to be a fight. And I knew that. So I was prepared mentally that you got to do what you got to do and go through the bat until you get to the good. How good would you say your English was when you first moved here? I spoke English. I once again, because I knew I'm going to go to America at third grade. I started learning English.

But everything was just so, like, once again, I'll hate to say it like it was meant to be, but everything up to this point, like it led me to, because video games was English. I love video games, so I have to learn English to see what they're saying. At the same time, I wanted to learn English because I'm going to America. And watching all these movies, they prepared me. Again, movies, English, I have to open the dictionary sometimes and look for a word or listen to Tupac songs. Oh, what does that word mean? I have to find a big dictionary.

It's not Internet. It's like the big dictionary. When you open, it's like, oh, okay, you read this word. And that's how you learn. And then on top of there, you're going to school and you learn more and more. But everything, everything led to me coming to America becoming a professional wrestler.

I think it's crazy that you learned English a little bit from Tupac. Oh, of course. Of course. Tupac, my favorite rapper of all time. So obviously you're very proud to be Bulgarian, very proud to be from Bulgaria. What was your reaction when they told you your character in WWE was now going to be from Russia?

I mean, it don't matter. It didn't matter because you see this with the Olympics all the time. Now, you see a certain country goes and reach out and gets other people from different countries, and then they make naturalize them into theirs and compete. It's just, in my eyes, it made sense. I don't think we told that story right. I think we just threw it out there. But it didn't matter because we had so much heat. It didn't matter what we did.

They probably even gave it more heat if anything else. people in Bulgaria hated it. They probably still do. But it didn't matter. I was living my dream. You could have gave me freaking Tennessee flag. I wouldn't care. How much did you have to help Lana with this Russian accent that she was doing?

Yeah. She's a great with an accent. So she lived in Latvia in Russia for 12 years. She graduated at a ballet school there. the only American to graduate at ballet school. So she had the accent. She had the perfect Russian. And that's why when Dream first saw her doing a promo class back in 2013,

on the second week, he said, maybe if you want to make it, you got to go with Nero. And that's what happened. He saw it at the second day he saw her. He would put it together and we made it throughout the world. So Dream know what he was doing. And God rest is so, man. He's just an amazing conversation.

So I mean, so you and Lana were paired up, but like there was no romantic interest at first. You were just friends. You were just partners in the ring. How did it springboard to that next level? Just spending time to get outside and bonding over different things. The first bond was because of Eastern Europe, she lived in Russia. I lived in Bulgaria. So it's very similar.

She'd been to Bulgaria as well for a dancing competition before. So we bonded over that. Then we started going to church together on Sundays. So we bonded over God as well. We bonded over the love of pink. We love pink. She's the best singer ever. So little by little.

And then we started writing the shows together. But once again, I never had any intentions of us becoming something because Cedger was a great friend of mine. And I did not want to ruin that by any means. And usually, you know, it can get really complicated. it. But fate had something else. And I love that moment. I mean, I love my wife. It's, as I said, anything about bitterness, they can be there because they gave me my wife for nothing else. In terms of like complicating things, when you guys started dating, did that make things

complicated from a storyline perspective? No, I wouldn't say. So I think everything was good. I think people were trying, because back in those days, you kind of had to like keep it on the low when dating somebody because it was strictly not illegal, but it was frowned upon. And when we got into the main roster, everybody was like, oh, you guys together, you guys together. And I say no. And they'll say, well, then we'll flirt with her. And I said, okay, she's with me.

But it didn't complicate things at all. I think we rolled together, we slept together, we ate together, we trained together. 99.8% of the time since 2013, we've been together. Wow. So when these releases started happening with WWE, A, did you think that you were going to be released? And then when you did, did you go, all right, well, CJ is going to get released to that? No, I didn't think CJ will release at all. I think she's their top talent.

She has her social media alone cost the money they paid her. So, and she loves it there. I mean, she loves the opportunity, you know, to perform and all that. But I didn't think she's going to be released at all. But when they started happening, I kind of had a feeling. So I almost called Corona myself. I almost called him, hey, are you going to fire me? But then he texted me to call him.

And I was like, okay. And I'm waiting outside of a veterinarian, like veterinarian to get my dogs, like shots or like something was wrong. So I was thinking of something completely else and where they called me. But it's not, who cares, man? It's just life. Life takes curveballs. But that's not a curveball. That's actually a straight home run.

There's no curveball. That's a home run for me. Did you immediately know what you wanted to do next? Oh, yeah, absolutely. I had a five-minute anger. And then I knew right away. I knew right away where it was going to go. And I had no doubts that I was going to get to AEW because I always admired AEW.

ever since it came out and people may not want to admit it, but we all watched AEW. We all wanted to see what it's all about. And for the beginning, I didn't get it, to be honest. It was like, oh, these guys are so athletic. They have so many cool maneuvers. But it wasn't until I got here that I sat down and watched.

And I said that before, it's the different styles. It's what AW gives you that no other company can because we have no restrictions. You come in, you show your style, and that's what you do. We're not going to say, hey, buddy, you're great. Come and now do this formula because there's only one formula. No, you do you, man. You do your stuff.

You show your style, whether you come from Japan, Mexico, Texas, New Hampshire, whatever you come from, because everybody hears their own style. And not until I sat back and watched it for like two hours, like, wow, I get it. now. Because wrestling is like martial arts. And we, it's professional wrestling, but it has a little good, you know, like martial arts in it, like different styles, like martial arts, like yoga, like judo, karate, all these stuff. Like professional wrestling is the same way. They have the Japanese style. They have the Lucha Riviera style. They have the this style, that style, the strong like, it's the same thing. And you can see this in A.E.W. Night in night in and night out with matches

that you've never seen in any other show. Variety. It's just beautiful thing. It's professional wrestling where it was supposed to be. You've counted on restaurants, and now they are counting on you. And while their dining rooms may be closed, they're still open for delivery with DoorDash.

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How different have you been treated here versus your time at WWA? It's not about different. It's just that I love AEW. Two weeks in there. I love the attitude as everybody. Everybody's there to also, they want to help each other. Like after the match, they're done, they go and ask, hey, did you see? Do you have any feedback? Because everybody wants to be good. There's not that ego. It's like, Africa killed it.

None of that ego. None of that. We all want to be good. And it doesn't matter if you've been in the business for 15, 10 or five days. It doesn't matter. You go find somebody and you or they will come to you because we all have the same goal. It's not, it's not about you and me. It's about let's bring AW.

to be where there should be, where we can be at the top of the chain. And we're going to get there. We just need a couple more months. That's it, just a couple more months. So how different is Miro from Rusev? I don't want to talk about Roussev. Like, who cares about that guy? Miro is a guy who is the best man at everything.

And I love Kip. Kip is a great kid. And I will always have his back. And that's the thing. Me and him were best friends. I'm the best man at him, but also the best man for everybody. So people need to be careful how they treat him because they know I'm there. And I've noticed that even since yesterday, the first match, there was a lot more respect shown.

And that's what I'm there for. I'm there to protect the kid and I'm there to go and conquer first the wedding, which is going to be amazing, because once again, I'm in charge. and have fun, man. It's all about having fun. And in the ring, it's going to be business, right? But outside the ring, you know, wants to have fun because Miro loves video games,

Miro loves to hang out, because Miro is a real freaking human being. We don't go moping around unless you're really miserable, and I really feel bad about you. We don't just walk around like this all day because we have feelings that we go through in and out. I don't have to yell or I don't have to be mad at everybody because I'm told to.

I can just be me and use my real emotions in a certain settings. Well, before, it was very hard. You know, when it comes to the wrestling weddings, you're like pretty much an expert on this now. How many wrestling, look at how many wrestling weddings you've been a part of? I had so many. I had three or four. Was it three or four?

Does it count if you were hiding in the cake during one of them? Yeah, how do you get in the cake? was one, then the other one was me and Lana, once or twice. I think twice. And then we got married on total divas as well, two times there. So my life is for weddings. And the funny thing about this is before that wedding, I have never been to a wedding before, ever. Ever. I know. The one time I was at a wedding, I was a kid. And then later on when my friends started to get married, they were in Bulgaria, but I wouldn't come. I can't go because I was stuck here.

And now, I think my wedding was the first wedding that I actually attended. And I attended four of my own wedding. So that's kind of a record there, I'm pretty sure. Wow. Well, as we know, wrestling weddings never go off without a hitch. Like something's going to happen here. But that's what you're there for, right? That's what you were there for Kipp and Penelope to make sure that this stuff doesn't happen.

Exactly. They're my peeps. I got to protect them. I got to make sure that they get married. than they live happily ever after, just like me and C-D. I do want to ask you about the last wedding you were part of with, so that was the one where you're hitting the cake. So Bobby Lashley and Lana's wedding,

what was the plan supposed to be for Liv Morgan and Lana? No plan. No plan. One-time pop. Really? No plan. Yeah. A lot of things were made for one-time pops.

So it was just, just going to that was it that's crazy that was it people thought that the worst thing and they made all these things no it's a it was a one-time thing that it was a great going to get people talking because at that time the showrunner was about people get talking and controversy and that's what the whole thing happened you know the bobby thing it was all about controversy and that and we achieved that unfortunately now there's no follow-through yeah but that's what happens when you change people all the time. Like there's no follow-through.

You build all that. You build CJ to leave her husband and be the worst. She's still probably the baddest heel on their freaking show. And now she's doing all this for what? To throw away everything you did the whole year before?

Like nobody remembers that. But again, that's them. They can do whatever they want. I'm just saying that I'm just stating the obvious. But yeah, one time pop. Was it difficult at all to watch Bobby Lashley be all over your wife's storyline or not? Oh, it's a question

You need to ask her and him Because I wasn't kissing him She wasn't kissing You know, it's their choice It's not their choice They were just, that's what they were told To use real aggressive kissing Was it

Was it good to watch? No, I never watched it But at the same time I understand It's a work, it's we're actors But the question that you just ask It's the one that always people ask me And every time I respond the same And wait, ask her. She's the one kiss him. Ask him. Ask him. He's married. He's got kids.

They got to watch the show. Yeah. You know, ask them. Don't worry about me. But nobody ever asked them. They just asked me. I don't know. Well, I guess if I had Lana on here, I would ask Lana. Right. Right. Well, I think the thing is people, the thing with the wrestling storylines is people don't think of Bobby Lashley as being married because they don't see his wife every single week on TV. They see you and Lana together and they go, oh, well, of course they're together. And now there's other things happening on the side. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, the thing is it was hard because it's real life. And then she was sold not to post any Instagram photos of me. So now you're taking a work and translating to real life. And of course, CJ being the most professional wrestler there is out there. She follows instructions to the T. She doesn't post anything with me. She does everything right. But it doesn't matter because at the end of the day, somebody gets tired and everything goes, throws away.

while we don't do that. We follow through. We'll follow along the stories. And one story leads to another and to another. And they're all so easy to follow. And it all made sense. It's not thrown away stuff. It's not, let's move on and forget what happened yesterday.

None of them. And everything is thought out way in advance, as it should be, as it used to be. Was there a plan for Rusev Day that maybe didn't end up following through on? There's never going to plan for Wilson Day to begin with, not a long to finish. Yeah, I had Aiden English on recently. He was basically saying, like, it just kind of happened. And then they couldn't ignore it because it was too popular.

It didn't happen. And then once you start, yeah, steamrolling with, you know, they just start pulling the plug and they just, it is what it is. I mean, I just, it brings me down because they really disliked it. And I told them that because, but everybody was scared to tell him. And I was like, no, I'm going to tell him

because we're trying to highlight Aiden in a few spots. And they told us, no. Aidan was supposed to do this dive and they say, no dive. Okay, what about Beville's life? No, no baseball slide. And then I got pulled him aside and they told me we can't highlight Aiden. Like, what? How isn't they make even sense?

I was so mad and that's what I'm saying. Once again, you can't do this, you can't do that. But why he can't? Why do you stop him elsewhere, getting, We're getting the reaction that we want. That's what pisses me off. I don't get pissed off about, you know, they should have been this or should have been that.

No, it's about you're taking opportunities that we're there. We haven't a match already. You're stopping them from showcasing them. I don't understand that. You guys were both so over. I mean, Rusef Day was being chanted louder than anything. It feels like from the outside looking in that that should have had the momentum

to push you to become a world champion. I thought I was. I thought I was. Honestly, I did. And that's why I tore my bicep two weeks before my AJ match. But I didn't tell anybody because I thought, I thought that was my moment. I thought it has come because the people kind of led me to believe that this could be my moment. And they booked me this one off with AJ, which we didn't even have a live event match.

Because, you know, once you, if you have a title match, most likely you run like two. loops before that, get your timing, get your match, kind of worked out. None of that happened. None of that happened. If we had one match straight up on pay-per-view, nobody cared. Then they moved down to the next time. Like, they used me as a filler. The top act of the company, they use me as a filler. And they will tell you the desire of how much they wanted me there. So, and I knew that. So I was like, all right. Well, if you guys want to do that, then I'll still do 100%. But when the time is right, I'll go to a place when they will support me.

Because even when you're a businessman and you're investing in a stock, why would you sell or why would you cut that stock short when it's escalating or it's up? Like, as a businessman, it makes no sense. So it has to be something personal. But I'm in a way better place. I love AW. And I would love to be here for a very, very, very long time. Well, and it sounds like, you know, you do have your eyes set on the top here.

You've got to have your eyes set on what Moxley has. Well, of course. Who doesn't? If you're in the business and you don't have your eyes there, then what are you doing here? Like, I'm not here just to kill time or I'm not here to fade away. I'm here to be a freaking world champion. Like, it doesn't matter if I'm with Kip, without Kip, or whatever it is.

I always have one going on. And that is to lift the AEW World Heavyweight title over my head and stick it to all the rings, all the brasses, and everything else in between. This is exactly what's going to happen. I'm so excited for you. I am too. I am too.

I can see it. I can taste it. It's just a matter of time. How different is the mirror that's sitting here versus 10 years ago? when WWE signed you and you went to FCW, how different are you from then? So different in a matter of just life. When, you know, when life beats you around or moves you around,

you just got to take all the experiences. You just got to remember what those are, whether they're good or bad. So that's what I do. I just take notice of what happened before. And I try and, you know, if it comes around, knowing how to react in that situation but just when you're young man you're young you don't know anything you think you know stuff well you don't know you know nothing and that's what i'm

trying to explain to people like when i was 20 with 25 there's no way i could have known the stuff that i'm 30 when i'm now when i'm 35 right and now i'm trying to tell these kids hey you don't have to kill yourself you don't have to bump on the floor every single night to people for you to think that you're a crazy wrestler. That makes no sense because let me tell you, I have three surgeries. You don't want to have any of that. You don't want to have fusions. You don't want to have shoulder. You don't want to have any of that. You just, wrestling is great. We all love wrestling. But we are taking the wrestling to such a degree that it's just going to be dangerous for everybody. We can all scale it back down and still make it

makes sense. So that's what I would say to myself and to everybody out there. There is young. Just save them bumps missed. Tell them crazy bumps. You have a huge 20 by 20 ring. Use your head and be smart. As we wrap this up, because I want to be respectful of your time. So thank you. What is your favorite match of all time that you've been in? It's yet to come. Wow. My favorite match is yet to come. And it's going to happen in May EW. Of course it is. Mero, thank you so much.

This has been amazing. I'm so excited to see what's next for you. Thank you, Chris. It was finally good meeting you and talking to you. And I'm sure we'll do it again after I bring that title over me. Sounds good. I'll come there. We'll do it in person.

There you go. That sounds like a plan. Ah, did you hear that? His best match hasn't even happened yet. Oh, the best man. It's just a. It's a fun, loving, easygoing guy. And he loves gaming.

So subscribe to him on Twitch if you also love gaming. And if you love this chat, snap a screenshot. Tag us. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. He is at 2B Miro. Also, consider subscribing and leaving a review. I mean, you've already spent 35 minutes with us. So why not leave a review?

It's just another 30 seconds out of your day. I have a prediction. I have a prediction. Miro is going to be the AEW WorldChance. champion in the next 18 months. Is that too long? Maybe 12 months? What do you think?

He's just such a force in the ring. But with that said, there's a lot of people hanging out in that top tier that could easily be the champion this Wednesday. I mean, think about it. MJF, Cody, Jake Hager, Brian Cage, Chris Jericho. I'm sure a few other people come to mind. But, like, you know, if any of those people became the champion on Wednesday, you'd go, oh yeah, yeah, that person's, yeah, they deserve to be the champ.

But I'm just so blown away hearing Miro's focus and determination to move to the U.S. and not just pursue his dream to become a pro wrestler, but to become a pro wrestler at any cost. And I think this quote from George Lucas says it best. Always remember, your focus determines your reality. Hope you enjoyed this chat with Mero. Be great. Be grateful. We'll see you on Thursday with the vampire warrior himself. Gangrel.

Woo. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air.

It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of Sports Smack. Ticket Manjo, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.