Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Nick Gage On Death Matches, Almost Killing David Arquette, His Time In Prison - Interview From May 2021

Episode Date: February 23, 2023

Nick Gage (@thekingnickgage) is a professional wrestler and the "King of the death match". He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at Slingshot House in Santa Monica, CA in this interview from May 2021. Nick talks about his episode Dark Side of the Ring on Vice TV, how he became interested in his ultra-violent style of wrestling, being inspired by Cactus Jack and Terry Funk, his dream opponents, going to prison for bank robbery, dying during a match and being brought back to life, almost killing actor David Arquette in a match, what scares him and much more. For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van! We're doing it, man. All right. So good to see you. Yeah, absolutely. I'm glad we're finally making this happen. Yeah, I agree.

I ran into you WrestleMania Week, WrestleMania weekend. Yeah, Tampa. Yeah, and we're like, we need to sit down and make this happen. Yeah. I was a little surprised that you asked me to do something like this. Come on. I was more surprised that you were like, hey, man, I watch your interviews. Absolutely.

All the time, man. All the time. Big fan. I just love pro-restle, man. And the way you do your interviews, which is like kind of like you ask good questions, but you keep it lighthearted and stuff like that. So it's pretty dope like that, man. And we're like a very professional podcast out of here.

Look at this. I know. I feel fired out right now, man. Or it's Slinghot House in Santa Monica. Absolutely. And then you're going to be doing some stuff with GCW this weekend in Las Vegas. It's a big weekend for you. Yeah.

Because as we sit here right now, your episode has not aired yet. No. out of the road. And I have not seen nothing, but maybe the little clips they put on online. I've seen Nali episode or nothing like that. So I'm going to be watching for the first time, like everybody else. What were your thoughts when they reached out to you and said they wanted to do an episode? At first, you know, I turned them down, man. I just didn't want to do it. I didn't want to put my life out there like that. But after I sat down and talked to people I trust and love me and, you know, they said it was a good idea. And I changed my mind. I said, let's do it.

it and I'm kind of glad I did, man, because them people are advice. They're very nice people, man. They were really cool and they treated me great. And I was happy I did it, man, really. You've got a hell of a story. Yeah. Inside the ring, outside of the ring, and dark side of the ring encompasses everything that you do. And I want to take this back for you.

What was your first ever, I don't know, first ever introduction to wrestling? Oh, it's like everybody else, man. Big NWA fan. So, you know, with that, sitting down a 605 TBS, watching, you know, the same old Rick Flair, Lex Lugar, you know, horsemen, all that shit grew up on that. NWA I loved. W.F was like, ah, but I will watch it because I love pro wrestling. You know, I had my bigger brother, Chris, and we would just wrestle and had my cousins and we'd just wrestle in the yard. and, you know, I was always getting beat up

because I was the younger one, you know what I mean, until I got my weight up. But, you know, introduction's the same, man. And, you know, you love pro wrestling. And, but it was like once ECW hit, man, it was like, oh, God, because I stopped watching. I stopped. I fell out of love with pro wrestling

around the early 90s when WCW was kind of getting corny. Yeah. WF was already corny. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, I'm fucking watching. and TV and some random channel in Philadelphia, and all of a sudden I see these guys going through tables and all this stuff. And I was like, what the hell is this?

And they got me back in love with it. And it was awesome, man. So, you know, shut up to ECW. Were you like a daredevil of a kid before that? No, man, not at all, man. I love baseball. I play baseball all my life. I was a sports junkie.

Love sports to the day, man. And, but I just, you know, I loved wrestling, man. You know, and my brother loved it and like all my friends loved it. And, you know, we did the backyard thing where we had the trampoline. But we always took it a level up, man. We would like set up the trampoline. And then we would like set up bar wire around the trampoline, have no road bar wire. Oh, my gosh.

But what was cool is while we were in high school, we would like hand out flyers and everything. And then we would charge and people will come and pay tickets, five-hour ticket. And we had like hot dog stands, man. The people would show up. Yeah, we put like a whole venue on. We had our own merch and everything. You know, it was hardcore backyard wrestling in HBW. You were like an entrepreneur back when you were a teenager.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, me and my brother, man. So it was dope, man, you know, and we would have our own videotapes. And we would, you know, give them out to the school, you know, to the kids in the school. And they were like, yo, you guys are crazy. You are crazy. And, you know, what was kind of cool is the wrestling, coach seeing it and he was like you gotta be on the team man and and um i wrestled my 12th grade and uh what did you weigh it what did you on that wrestling team was i oh i was like 220

you were you wrestle at 220 yeah i was heavy weight man yeah i just fell in love with it i always watched it on tv um but once i did it i was like wow i should have did this my whole life man i wish i did it when i was five years old i love this shit man is this you versus another man You know what I mean? And it's one. But you've got to realize how juxtapose those two worlds are, Nick. Like the amateur wrestling world is all about like playing by the rules, basically. And the type of wrestling that you do is the exact polar opposite of that.

Totally opposite, you know. But it's okay. You know, I started listening to Kurt Angles podcast, which I fucking love, man. And he just buses it down, man. And it's cool to hear how he went from the amateur style, which. It's not even an amateur, man. It's a professional style, man. I don't, you know, to the transition into pro wrestling

and how, like, he got looked down on and, you know, all his peers didn't like that style and shit like that. So that was pretty cool. But, yeah, I wish I did that my whole life, man, because the training was awesome, man. I went from, like, I was probably 240 in high school, 220, 220, 220, 240.

Yeah. And once I started training, man, I got down to, like, 210, 2115. Yeah. You know, muscles started coming in. And I used to beg the coach, like, man, let me wrestle 215. He's like, no, we need to be a heavyweight. So.

If you did that your whole life, do you think that your style now as a pro wrestler would be more technical? Or do you think you'd still love that? Oh, well, listen, my favorite style of wrestling is technical wrestling. I love technical wrestling, man. That surprised a lot of people, I'm sure. Yeah, I love it, man. And I love when it's done right.

And, you know, I was a big fan of, um, Japanese wrestling. I did a lot of tape me out. I'm a little older, so I was back in the day with the tape trading days and everything like that. But once I found the Terry Funk and Cactus Jack I W-A match, it was over after that, man. Right. But I still watched the Super J-Cup. I love that, you know, Shinjo Atani is my favorite Japanese wrestler of all time, which I got the wrestle twice, which is so fucking awesome. Yeah. And, you know, I just love all styles, man, but the technical style, like, like, new school guys, like Kenny Omega and stuff like that and guys like that, man, I just, I love their work and shit, you know. And, you know, another good one who is actually my friend who I'm so proud of right now is Drew Gulac.

He is the technical wizard, man, you know, and I just love watching him fucking doing this thing in the double. to eat right now. It's so awesome. You've got to understand how many people would be surprised to hear this with the style of wrestling that you're famous for. Yeah, yeah. I love that shit, man. And actually, I owe him a receipt, man. So once he gets, you know, somehow we can get in the ring together, man. I need to fucking wrestle him one more time.

And he knows the reason why. Hopefully he'll listen to this. But, yeah, man. I think there might be a lot of people that don't think you could even have a technical style of match. Yeah. If I really dedicated myself, I think I could do anything I want. Sure. If I put my mind to it and be very motivated and dedicated to it.

But I'm really trying to put this death match stuff on the scene. I really think it's starting to get people are starting to understand it now because we actually have people who can work the death match scene that are wrestlers. Yeah. You know, back in the day, it really got looked at frown upon because all they thought, was pick up this thing, hit him over the head, and that's all you see. But now you're looking at it, like, guys are in there working their asses off. And I just think it's another art form of wrestling, man.

You know, and look, you had an exploding barbed wire match on fucking TV. Yeah. So it's come a long way, you know. John Moxley had some really nice things to say about you in this episode, saying that you were one of the best storytellers in there, regardless of the style of wrestling that you did. Yeah, yeah, man. I try to tell a story.

I try to, you know, I try to engage the fans and everything like that, man. And, you know, Moxley's not my favorite guy right now because he wants to come out here and, you know, take over my shine. And maybe with a couple DDTs that really fucked me up, man. You know, that bundle of two sliced my head wide open. And but... Are we talking about Tampa here? Yeah, we're talking about Tampa, man. So, but I always like Mox.

Be honest with you. When I got locked up, I was in my cell and I see Moxley for the first time. And I was so proud of him. and I'm fucking freaking out. And I'm telling him I sell he like, yo, that's my fucking boy right there, man. He's like, you don't know that I'm all of. I'm like, yes, I do, man.

That's my boy, man. Actually, I wrestled his ass up. You know what I mean? And it was just so cool to see him fucking shine like that, man. This is when he was in WWE's Dean Ambrose. Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah. And they came out as the shield.

And I seen it for the first time because, you know, we didn't have cable in there, but we had, you know, channels in there. And, you know, of course, Smackdown was on regular TV. So I got to see it. And then once I seen him, I was like, yeah. Like, you know, Blarrow that would come up and visit me all the time. And he was like, yeah, fucking Mock's got signed.

I'm like, fuck, yeah. Like, I'm one of them guys who I'm not a hater. I love when my friends fucking succeed, man. So when I hear that, I was just so excited for him. You know what I mean? Then to actually see him on TV come out and actually get the push. that he got. And then I was just so proud of him, you know.

But I knew he had it in him, man, because once I rested on once, I was like, man, this dude's got it. Yeah. If he just starts putting a little more things together, man, he's going to go. But I didn't think it would be that quick to get signed, but that was awesome, man. So if you have a trampoline with barbed wire ropes when you're a teenager, what's the trip to, like, the Home Depot look like when you're buying all that stuff? It's not Home Depot.

Okay. We went to a farm and bought bar wire office guy who owned a farm. So we take these poles and we would bang them into the ground. Okay. And we would wrap the bar wire around the poles. So it would wrap around the trampoline. So it looked like a no-rope bar-wire trampoline match, you know. And we will go in, man.

And this is legit bar-wire. And this is real bar-wire, man. You're not bending down the barbs. I would never snip my bar-wire. I've never sniffed bar-wire in my life. It was always been real And every match I've been into And if someone tries to snip it

I tell him Don't you ever fucking snip my bar wire man This shit's real man And that's what separates our death match Like GCW Yeah You know all the glass is real man All the bar wire's real

There's no fake shit There's no Hollywood glass in there You know what I mean I know what you mean You know That's sugar glass Yeah that's real glass man

You know it just has to be tempered glass You know So it's It shatters. It won't poke nobody and, you know, we're not trying to kill each other. I mean, it looks like we are. Even though it's called a death match. Yeah, which, you know, been there and done that with the death, but, you know,

but, you know, it has to be tempered glass. But other than that, it's real glass, man, and then everything's real. And I think that's the way I want it. Oh, man. What was the first hardcore spot you ever did? Oh, God. And I'm guessing it. It was backyard.

Well, yeah. Okay. Do you want to go back to? Are we talking, was it a light tube? Was it a barbed wire? No, it was definitely not light tubes. Light twos came later. I would probably, I mean, like, what a chair shot?

I mean, would you call that hardcore? I guess that's like the gateway drug. Yeah. I would say the barbed wire, you know, I've been thrown off the roof of my house. You know, we did spots off there. We know, we did the fire where we let the tables on fire. We did the choke slam. You know, but I guess the bar wire fucking would be my first shit.

The first time you did it, did you go, oh, man, this is for me. Yes, absolutely. Or did you go, man, this really hurts a lot. Or both? No, I know. I know. I loved it. Yeah.

And I remember, like, if anybody knows my brother, man, you know, God rest of soul. He always had to win, man. So he always take everything so seriously. And I'm more laid back, you know, unless it's like my career now. But in the backyard, it's on a career. You know what I mean? Yeah. And he would whip me so hard on that bar wire.

And I remember I hit that bar wire and like I flew into and got tangled all into the shit, man. And now I was like, damn, man. But I was like, yeah, I'm all right. You know what I mean? Yeah, I'm all right. This shit's cool, you know? So how does it go from the backyard to getting paid to do this? So this is a funny story.

So we started handing out the tapes, you know, to all our high schools and shit like that because we didn't see my school. So the guy I grew up with, shout out to Ace Robinson, had a tape and he gave it to his dad. And his dad was linked to NWA, New Jersey. Okay. From back in the day, Dennis Corleuzeo and a couple of other guys. Donnie B., I think is another guy. And he gave, you know, John Zandig seen the tape and he had a school. And he invited us to the school after he seen the tape.

And the funny part is, is I had a baseball game before I can go down there. So I had to play the baseball game and then shoot over there. Okay. So I couldn't find the building, man. So I missed this train and shit. Yeah, my brother was so mad, man. I remember we got to fight that night, man, a fist fight and shit like that. But I made it the next day.

And, you know, I picked the back bumps up quick, man. We picked that shit up quick. Yeah. that gym. I remember I remember I would go to the school till 10 o'clock, run home, get a shower real quick, and get to my job at shop right overnight at 11 and work 11 to 7. And that was Monday through until Thursday. Man. Yeah. And then I was playing baseball games on top of that. So you knew pretty early on you wanted to be a pro wrestler. Oh, I knew it. Yes, absolutely. Did you know early on you wanted to be a death match wrestler? Oh, yeah, absolutely. I wanted to be a,

a heart, well, death match were, I wanted to be an extreme wrestler, hardcore wrestler. I wanted to be ECW style wrestler. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's what I wanted to be. And then, you know, and you always want to take it up a notch,

and that's when the light tubes started coming in the play. Were you the first person to bring in light tubes? Nah, I think the Japanese were. Yeah. I remember, God, I forget what match it was, but I remember the one guy threw it at him, and it got stuck in his back. I forget what matchout was.

Okay. It's crazy. I believe I was the first one to introduce the stable gun death match. Me and my brother, we did a ladder. Break the Barriers. They put on a show, Break the Barriers, where it was all these independent companies on one show. And CZW was just getting started as a company.

You know, we changed from a wrestling school to a company. So we knew this was a big match. And we toured the fucking building. The boys hated our guts, man. I remember that shit. They hated us. And we had the staple gun, and I'm hanging up high, and we had to climb the ladder.

I got the stable gun. And, you know. Oh, my gosh. What match do you think you're best known for? Wow. Wow. Well, I'm known for the one where I got the cut under my armpit where I died. Yeah.

You know? And I wrestled seven days. later if no one knows that. That's insane, by the way. I went to... You wanted to finish that match, which is crazy. Yeah, I did. I wanted her to thank God, and she's an awesome

later, and I called her a bitch on tape, and I feel bad. I apologize to her. She was an awesome lady, man. And, yeah, I just wanted them to tape it up. Thank God they didn't, man, because I would be, you know, we wouldn't be having this interview right now. And, you know,

I got flown in, and then I got released to the hospital on Tuesday, but they had that bag under your arm. where it's draining the blood and all that stuff. Oh, my gosh. I got that taken out on Thursday with the 30 staples and then I wrestle Saturday. Yeah, man.

So it's just, you know, listen, man, you got to love this business. And if you don't love it, you're going to find out real quick. And it's going to eat you alive and you're just going to go get another job, man. But I know I love this business. It's in my blood. I've been doing it forever, man. This may be a strange question. Yeah.

But it feels like the obvious question. What kind of insurance do you have? I've stayed insurance, man. And it covers like death matches? I don't go to the hospital at all, man. Be honest with you, I can't tell you the last time I went to a hospital out there at death match. I can't remember last time I got stitches from a death match.

The last time I got glued up was at Tampa because Josh Barnett, I went to use the shower and he was in the room, you know, and he's like, let me clue you. up. And I was like, I can't say no to Josh Barnett. He's the fucking man. It was his show. It's pretty badass. This badass dude wants to fucking glue me up. But I don't get glued up, man. I just make sure I take care of my cuts. I make sure I keep them clean. And if it's really, really bad, or if I got a really deep one, then, you know, gets bad after a while, then I got to go to the hospital. But I don't go to the hospital or nothing, man. What hurts on you right now as you're sitting here.

I'm good, man. Yeah, but I'm sure your threshold for pain is way different from mine. I don't know, man. Like, my calf was really killing me from that injury, but it's fine now. Chris, I'm going to tell you the truth, man. I wake up every day and I'm going to a problem getting out of bed or nothing like that, man. You know, I mean, if you want to go get little things, like my neck don't turn the right way all the way, you know, so I got a little bit of that. Probably my elbows are really messed up.

He's got a lot of scars. Yeah, they're really messed up. So, but it's like other than that, you know, my knees don't bother me. I just, I don't know, man. I don't know. I guess I was blessed with healing very well. How did you get to a point, though, where you decided I do need to start taking painkillers? Oh, man, Jesus.

I didn't even have that story where, like, I get an injury and I took him. I don't know, man. I was smoking weed and guys like, you're gonna try one at ease? And I was like, fuck it, yeah. Well, we're talking like a percocet? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Well, that might have been smaller, like a viking or something like that.

And then I like the feeling and then, you know, you know, works, man. And you know, you can you give them some more of them? And then, you know, you can't take one or two no more. Now you take it four or five. And the crazy part about the fucking pain killers is that it creates pain. If no one knows that. Because I had lower back pain. I was like, damn, man, when I was taking them pills.

When I stopped taking them pills and started working out, all that pain went away. So I thought I had like a back injury, but really it creates pain in your body, man. It's weird. I don't understand it, but it's the truth, you know? How did it graduate from painkillers to going, oh, heroin's even cheaper and it's the same feeling?

Like you just said it. Really? Yeah, but I didn't, I didn't do too much of the dope. I got locked up pretty quick, you know what I mean? Yeah. But, you know, it's just cheaper, man, you know, but I only did a little bit of that, you know. But I couldn't even tell you where to get it. My buddy had it and I tried it, you know, and shit like that.

Yeah. Do you not go to the hospital? Is it like a pride thing or just like, I don't need it? Oh, yeah, it's a pride thing, man. You know what I mean? I dig pride and not be able to go to hospital unless I really have to, man. You know, I want to be able to be able to fucking make my pain and threshold of pain or the tolerance, if I'm saying it the right way, to be top-notch, okay? Yeah.

So if I start going to the hospital every time, I think it's going to mess with me mentally. Like, you know, damn, man, you can't handle that shit or you can't handle that. But what the fuck are you going to hospital every time? Yeah. I don't know, maybe it's just something in me. Even when I was a kid, man, I would never go to hospital, man. I'm going to, you know, but no, I never go to hospital unless I really, really have to, you know, like the cut under my armpit, shit like that. Well, that one made sense.

Like, you literally died in a death match. Yeah, I died in the helicopter. They brought me back to life, thank God, you know. But think of how apropos that would be, if that is how you went out. Yeah, I would have loved it. You know, thank God I would have way out. But thank God you didn't? Oh, thank God I did.

know. And, you know, there's two things that it might sound crazy, but thank God that I didn't die. And thank God I went to prison, man. Really? Yes. I mean, just prison, like, I was able to sit down. I was able to work out. I was able to meet my fucking Eastern Block crew. When I go out there and say Eastern Block, that's me and three other guys that we watched each other's back.

And they were good dudes. And they taught me like shit, man. And one taught me how to work out. The other one just had this knowledge in his head, man. And the other one was just a tough motherfucker, man. And they taught me shit. And I was able to sit down and realize that, damn, I do love it. Because I started going to pro wrestling.

I started wrestling. And I didn't like it. But I would just go for the fucking envelope. You know what I mean? Sure. Yeah. I mean, I would like it a little, but it was like, I was getting tired of it. And then once I got locked up, I was like, damn, I fucking love this shit.

You know what I mean, Chris? when he take it away from you, I was able to sit down, I was able to think about it, I was able to figure the business side out. I was able to figure my character out. I was able to figure a lot of shit out. You know, maybe I didn't need the fucking seven years.

You know, maybe I could have had a year or two and I would have been on right, you know? Yeah. But, you know, it is what it is. What are you going to do? You want to go in there, rob bank? You're going to go do some time, you know? Yeah.

So did you think that through before you robbed a bank? Oh, no, there was no thinking. I woke up one day, man. I was down on my luck, man. A really down in your life. Yeah, really, really down. People were tired of my shit, you know. He'd been kicked out of where you were living.

Yeah, which is bullshit, man. I would never do that to one of my friends. I don't care what he's going through. And it was really cold out, man. And the funny part is, is I went in one bank and I pussyed out. I was like, oh, man. And I walked down the street yelling at myself. And I went in the next bank and robbed that motherfucker.

You know, and then I fucking, and then I went around the fucking thing, took my clothes off and had on the other clothes. And as I'm leaving, a cop's right there at the crosswalk. And it's one of them crosswalks where the pedestrians get the right away. So he let me get the right away, but they didn't, like, hit the button yet. You know what I mean? I was really fast on that shit. Yeah. So I just walked right past them, man, you know?

And then I just went down the street. And then, like, as he left, I was like, gone. Do you understand how ironic it is? You walked to the ring wearing a bandana covering your face. Yeah, I know. And then you robbed a bank with your face out for you. Yeah, I know. You know, I get, you know, teased with that shit sometimes.

Moxley pointed that out in Dark Side of the Ring. Well, I could give you my rational. Please. I didn't want to go in there and get caught without spending that fucking money. I wanted to go in there, get the money, get out. They're able to go with jewelry the money and spend it. I know I'm going to get caught, man, because guess what? The FBI and the cops.

and detectives, they're really good at their job. Yeah. They don't want people robbing them. Eventually, even if I had the mask on my face, eventually people are going to go, that's Nick Gage, man. Look how he's wearing his fucking shit. You know what I mean?

Eventually, it's going to come out. Yeah. My plane, my thought was, get the fucking money, get out of there, go enjoy yourself for like a week or two, and then, you know, take it from there. Did you think at all, like, how long you might be locked up for?

No, I've never been in trouble. I mean, I had little punk-ass priors, man, No, like, jail time or nothing like that. No, I didn't know anything about it. Wow. I just knew that I'm going to go away for a couple years, you know what I mean? What specifically did your notes say when you went into the bank? And do you remember writing it out?

Oh, yeah, yeah. I wrote the note in the bank. So I went on like the back of like a deposit slip or something? Yeah, I went to deposit slip and I wrote, give me the money. We can put this out now. I have a gun. Yeah. I try to say that.

that I didn't write that so they can knock some time off. And I thought I was the nicest bank robber. And so I had to yell at her really. I was. I was like, calm down. It's okay. Just give me the money and I'm at it. You know, and then she was just like,

I was like, give me the fucking money. You know what I mean? I had to. You know, and I felt bad doing it. And she, you know what the funny part is? She quit her job right after that, man. You know what I mean? Which I feel bad about.

Yeah. But my punk-ass lawyers, they gave me because if you don't have no money to give you public defenders. Which, you know, you might get a good one, but nine times out of ten, you're going to get one that sucks or wants to just cut a deal real quick. Played out, yeah.

And this guy's fucking not arguing nothing for me, but he wants to argue the $150 that I got to pay the girl. So I whispered in his ear and I said, sit the fuck down now. This is in court. Yeah, this is in court. the first time I went to court

this is how shady that these people are is I never got what that was that thing called you get a piece of paper and it has everything in there like the police report it has the police report

it has everything it's a I forget what it's called but if anybody's been in trouble they know what I'm talking about has everything in there your interview with the police all that shit and I never got it

you're supposed to get it and I'm already in court, and I never even looked at it yet. And this guy's fucking cutting deals. Then all of a sudden I'd look over, and it's sitting on his fucking desk. Yeah, and I start reading it. And I'm like, wait a minute, I didn't say that. I didn't do that. So in court, I start freaking out.

Yeah. I'm like, fuck this. I ain't taking the fucking deal. This is bullshit. I didn't say I was going to fucking shoot her and all that shit, man. I didn't say any of that. And this is bullshit. So they came in and fucking cuffed me up real quick and shocked me up and got me out.

And the funny part is the cop's like, you did the right thing after he got me through the door. He said, you did the right thing, man. Yeah. How much by- Oh, it's called, excuse me, it's called a discovery. Yes. Discovery. And I never got my discovery.

And you're always supposed to get your discovery. And for some reason, I didn't get mine. And like, he just keep coming with a deal and a deal and a deal. And I'm like, well, why don't I just look at the discovery first? Maybe we can get this knock down from five to three because I've never been in freaking trouble. Well, I've set little punk-ass crimes, but like nothing serious. Yeah. Like receiving stolen property, I think I had on my record.

And now you want to keep taking this five-year deal. What about three years? You know what I mean? Or something like that. And where's my discovery? Oh, it's coming. No, no, no, no, no. It's coming.

And then I find out it's sitting on his fucking desk. I freaked, man. And he had to hit the. mute button. There's a mute button up front, right? Because I'm fucking dropping F bombs and all that shit because it's bullshit. Well, you could have been held in content of court. Yeah, I was freaking out on them.

And the lady, the prosecutor, which she was a real one, she's what a piece of work she was. She said, oh, you don't want the deal? You don't want the deal? Okay, okay. And then like a day later, they came with a 10 on me.

Yeah, 10 within 85 means you have to do 85% of your time. Right after that. And I was like, man, damn, man, did I fuck up? You know what I mean? When you came up with this plan to rob the bank, how much money did you think you were going to get? Uh, well, like in movies, you know, they're walking out bags of money. You got $3,000. Yeah. I would have got more, to be honest with you. She was reaching underneath. I thought she was hitting the button. But now that I read my discovery, she was actually getting the water fucking money. I would have like 10 grand.

Okay. Man, I wasn't thinking, Chris. Come on, man. I'm in there. fucking faceless just trying to rob a bank. I'm just totally down and out on my luck, man. You know, I didn't really care. I just needed enough money to do what I wanted to do, you know? And so I didn't really have a money or I didn't have a fucking something in my head like a, oh, I want fucking eight grand from this thing or 10 grand.

I feel like you could have gotten like a hundred grand. I wish, you know, I would have been on the run a little longer, you know. But, you know, everything happens for a reason. Well, and that's the thing. You said that your time in prison has made you the man that you are now. Oh, I absolutely believe that. So would you go back and change anything? Oh, no, absolutely not.

Really? I mean, listen, yes, I would go back and change things. Like, I would not rob a bank and actually do the right thing and go with rehab and then and learn the 12 steps and figure it out that way. You know, instead of going to the bank and have to sit down in jail and fucking figure a shit out. Did you have to get sober in jail, like, real quick? Yeah, I just, oh, absolutely. They don't care, right? Well, I was placed as soon as I got locked up where I was charged with strong-arm robbery,

so I was placed in with murderers and guns. So if you had a gun or you're a murderer and robbery, you were placed in that cell. And, yeah, there's some tough dudes in there. So I was like, fuck this. And I literally late three days later, I just started working out around this, you know, you're in this little, you know, they let you out of a cell and you have a day room. And I just started working in a day room. But I think what helped me out was, is I've been myself, I stayed myself. I wasn't like trying to act like a tough guy.

And I'm very quiet. You know, I kept my mouth shut. You know what I mean? I know my goal. Get out of here, go there. No trouble at all. And get the fuck home and start rust. wrestling again. You know what I mean?

So, but that place was crazy. I remember one time I reached under the table and I just felt all these razor blades under the table and I was like, oh man, this shit don't go down. And one time it went down, it was called fight, what did I call it? It was like Saturday fights, man.

And it was like Bloods and Crips. And the Bloods ran the bottom tier and the Muslims ran the top tier. and if you wanted to be a crippling stant and stay on that fucking tear you have to fight another blood so they were going rooms all day and fight it was awesome man

they were just bang back back back back and the cops are so like out out like there's like a fence there's a fucking a glass wall there's another fence and then they're in a bubble okay so they're all the way out there man you've got time yeah and then you go in the back

and you just make sure that you don't have a group of people looking through that little window so there's no fucking cops don't see that shit. So you just let them go do their thing. And they would just bang it out. They banged it out all day and night with straight fights. Said her like, Gage,

you're up next. So I was like all right, well, let's fucking rock. They called you by your shooting or you're working here. Well, yeah, I went Gage in there, man. So if anybody knows me, I'm Gage in prison, man. You know, I don't know these people. So they're not going to call me by my first name.

Only friends and family or people who love me, call me Nick or Nick. And, you know, so I went by gauge in there, man. So, you're like, you're up next. And I literally got up and said, let's rock. But they were just fucking with me, man. You know what I mean? Because I'm neutral, man. I ain't part of no gang or nothing, man.

You know, I just roll solo. I just want to watch a little ESPN. I'm going to work out, wash my clothes. You just want to do your time. Yes. What was your first night in prison like? Um, well, it suck because they would keep you in a, it's called a tank. So you go in, you go down, you're downstairs and you just go into this fucking cell that's holding.

I'm trying to take what 20 people was in there with me. And they're all there on their first night too? Yeah, they're waiting to go up to the tears, you know. They're waiting to go up to their block, you know, but they don't, these guys are slowing their paperwork. They don't give a fuck. So it takes them like 24 hours to freaking get you up to a block. Oh, my God. You know what I mean?

So, uh... So you got a bunch of pissed off dudes. Yeah. All in this one room. Um, yeah. And, um, I was, you know, I, I just laid there and kind of fell asleep and chill, man. People left me alone. I always had my weight up.

Even when I was doing drugs, man, I still have my weight up, man. So, like, and I went up and, and 24 hours later, like, Wilson, and I'm like, yes. You know what I mean? Grab your mat. Grab your shit. And let's go. And they put me in three North Sea, man, which is a murders block, man. So I went there.

And, you know, I just, you know, been myself, man. I stayed quiet. And they're like, who the fuck's this dude? Then all of a sudden, you know, my shit comes on the news. And they're like, oh, shit, he's a wrestler, man. And so they all like that shit, you know. But were there certain people, though, in prison that were like, this guy thinks he's tough? I'm going to show him what tough is.

Yeah, but, um, No, I never ran in that problem. You know why? Because I was in that fucking yard lifting them weights and going hard. And I stuck to my crew, and I never act tough, you know. I knew, but I never backed down. You know what I mean? If you're going to fucking say you want to fight, I am going to like that fight you.

I have no problem doing it, man. I've been doing it my whole life, man. So, boy, I never really ran into a problem. I had this one problem, man. I used to work on a cow farm. That was my job, man. Cows and shit, yeah. What?

Yeah. So I'll give you a little thing on, so they put me on the cow farm as a job. Actually, I asked for the job because I have friends there. So I went to medium status. I went from maximum, which is, you know,

hardcore criminals. Yeah. And then if you're good and you earn points, you go to medium. I went to medium for two years. And I earned my points and I went to minimum. Minimum's great. You get to move around.

You're not in a cell no more. You know, it's dorms, and you get a job or like a real job. So I have friends down there, and they're like, come on down to the farm. So I was like, oh, yeah. And so I got second ship farm. And they had the silo where you throw cow feet out of the silo. And I said, yes, I want that. It'll work on my cardio and it'll work on my abs and it'll work on my back.

I mean, I'm already thinking, let me train and get really. right. So when I get out, man, I'm looking different. I wanted to look different when I got out. You know what I mean? Yeah. Because you could blow, listen, I blew up fast when I was in prison. They gave me a job in the freaking kitchen. Every seven days a week,

you had to wake up four in the morning. And you can eat whatever you want. And it was just butter on everything. This butter tastes good, you know. It's a shitty food. But if you throw a little pound of butter on there, all of a sudden, them pancakes are tasting like buttermilk from high hop. You know what I mean?

So I was buttering on everything, man. I blew up to $2.50 with a gut, man. I was like very like, I was like, dude, I got to get out of this kitchen. So this one guy came up to me and he knew I was, you know, I was a quiet guy. And he knew I was a nice dude and everything. And he's like, you know, Sister Carina is looking for a person. And I became, you want to believe it. I became the assistant of chaplain, you know, for Sister Carina.

Wow. Are you a religious person? Um, you know, you know, I, I mean, I believe in God and everything like that, you know, mom, mom raised me like that. But do I make church every day? No. You know, you know, you know, do you know, do I, you know, every meal, every dinner. Me and my wife say a prayer, you know, um, but do I, you know, make, I should make church a little more than I do, but I'm not a huge religious guy, but I believe in it, you know what I mean? You feel like your church is in the ring. Yeah, it is, man. Yeah. I love that place, man. And that injury really, really sucked, man, sitting home doing nothing. I hated it. It bothered me so much, man. Yeah, if you're not earning money from wrestling, you're not really earning money, right?

No, no. You know, that's my job, man. Yeah. I don't have no other job, so. Can't help but notice you have an energy drink, but you also have a knife sitting next to it. Oh, yeah, man. I stay with a weather, man. You never know if someone's going to fuck with me.

Did you fly with that? No, man, TSA. Actually, I got an awful. You checked your bag. Actually, I got an argument with the lady there because I didn't know that you couldn't wear them gator masks. And I'm just thinking. That's a recent thing, though. So that's not your fault.

I'm just like, what's the difference? That's a CDC thing very recently. So they made you, they made you wear a mask. Well, yeah, I have my, I have my Sixers other mask in there. Shut out to Sixers, my favorite basketball team. And we were on fire right now. Yeah. Yeah, we're taking over to playoffs.

So I had another mask. But she was very ignorant. And if you ever go through an airport, I fly a lot, man. They're just so ignorant sometimes, man. You don't have to talk to people like that. But the other part is I try to look at two sides of the thing, man. Look how many people they have to deal with. That's it.

I fly a ton too. I'm with you. And look how many people probably are so ignorant to them. You know what I mean? Well, unfortunately, for every person like me or you that flies a ton, Yeah. The guy behind you or the guy in front of you might be flying for the first time. Yeah.

And they have no clue how this works. Yeah. But the other part is, you know, like, well, go, you know, find another job if you don't like do this job, you know. But it is what it is. You know, I just didn't. And then she was like, there's a camera watching us. And I'm like, why did you say that? Do you think, like, I was going to, like, attack here or something? Like, I was, like, thrown off.

And then I just put my mask. You definitely have this air about you. Yeah. Where if you didn't know who you were and what you did for a living, you might go, it's a bad dude. Yeah. And if anybody knows me and knows all my friends

and everything like that, man, they know I'm a good dude, man. I'm a mellow dude, man. Yeah. But it's just, I don't know, it's the way you carry yourself. You have this energy about yourself. Like, maybe you're living the gimmick a little bit.

Well, everybody knows that. Everybody that's been in this business and made it knows they're part of their gimmick. Yeah. You know, mine's just turned up a notch, you know. Look, I know you've got goals and Factor is here to help you achieve each and every one of them. Fuel up fast with ready to eat nutritious meals delivered straight to your door, leaving you time and energy to tackle everything on your to-do list.

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That's code Insight 50 at FactorMeals.com slash Insight 50 for 505% off your first box. 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 Clevenberg. 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 Hencoe. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Where does the real version of you end and the gimmick version of you begin? Or are they both melded together now? Oh, show day, man.

I start turning it up a notch. Definitely when I wake up on my damage show day, man. We're about to fucking wrestle. Okay. So you wake up on show day, what happens from there? I just start zoning in, man. Okay. You know what I mean?

I start thinking about the match. I start thinking about other things, especially like if it's a tournament, you know, you got to go three rounds or whatever, man. And like this day and age, man, all these death match guys are fucking tough, man. It's like, it used to be like these tournaments, You would have like, all right, well, this guy's tough first round.

I'm going to roll through it. He might be tough. But the second round guy is kind of a little iffy, you know what I mean? So I might be able to take that round off. I'll beat them, but I might be able to take that round off. You ain't got that no more, man. You got animals every single run, especially GCW. Yeah.

We bring nothing in but animals. You know, look at Alex Colon. Shout out to Alex Colon, man. He's one of my favorite death match guys going today, man. I have seen that guy get so cut up and beat up and just in the locker room cleaning himself up and not even crying about it, not complaining or nothing, man. And it's just, you know, I feel like I'm going to be wrestling him soon. I better get fucking ready, you know.

You're probably at the point of your career now where you've got some of these up-and-coming guys that are going, you inspired me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even like the non-death match guys want to wrestle me. And have a death match? Some do, yeah. Yeah. And I take pride in that.

That means that the words going around that Nick Gage is good at what he does, you know, for guys that want to do that. I mean. Well, you're kind of like a, if you're going to have a death match, you want to have a death match against Nick Cage. You don't want to just have a death match. You want to have it against the king of the death match. You're damn right. Yeah. I'm the god of the shit, man.

And I really believe that, man. I really believe that. I really think I'm the best one going right now. But, you know, people are on my tail, man. And you just got to remember, man. I'm 40 years old. I've been doing it since 18. I must have went through three generations already.

Yeah. You know what I mean? And I'm still going strong. It's not a lot of longevity in what you do. No, there isn't. And I'm still going strong. And the hunger's still there. You know what I mean?

Yeah. And I also want to show these young motherfuckers that I can hang with you guys. Yeah. You know? I remember before the pandemic hit, I remember telling myself, I am not going to turn down one booking

unless it's like a guy that don't know how to wrestle and shit like that because I would not get in a ring with inexperienced people. You know, you need to be trained. You need to know this business. You need to learn how to fucking work this business. But I told myself, I would never turn down any fucking thing.

I mean, all them guys on the WAD TV right now, I must have wrestled them all about. in the day, Keith Lee, wrestled, all them guys, all in death matches? Nah, Keith Lee wasn't a death match, but I would have loved

the wrestling, him in a death match, maybe one day. He would have been great, right? But, like, think about it. You can go train somewhere to be a wrestler. You can't really train somewhere to be a death match wrestler.

Yeah. You kind of have to, like, learn trial by fire. Literally, trial by fire. Yeah, absolutely. But I always tell to people, me at Homicide, we opened up the compound for a little bit, and we were training wrestlers, and a couple of them were like, well, I want to be a death match wrestler.

And I would just tell them, listen, you need to learn how to wrestle first and then get in there and then figure it out. But you've got to learn how to wrestle, man, you know. Beyond what happens inside the ring or in a wrestling match, what scares you? What scares me? Heights. Yeah, I hate heights.

I love life right now So death Death kind of scares me a little bit Yeah You know I'm getting a little older in age You know and I'm just scared You know you never know in life You know what I mean

But I do you know Go to a doctor and get yearly checkups So I need to get the new one But my last checkup was great So Does your doctor think you're insane? Yeah Especially when I come in all cut up

I try to wear the hat You know what I mean but when the hat comes off and the scars are all over like that. A lot of scars. Yeah. I think I'm okay though, man, with my forehead and stuff like that. You're not like Steve Carino's forehead. Listen, there's no, all my shit's hard way.

I don't do any of the poke and whatever they call that shit, man. I don't like talking like that. Everything I do is a hard way. I'll be honest with you. I was trimming my nose hairs and I cut my nose right here. That shit hurt, man, really bad. So it's like I get this glass and I get light two smashed over me and I'm okay with that. But I use a nose trimmer and then I cut myself right here and it's fucking killing me, man.

So it's crazy. I have little cuts, you know, like them little cuts in your hands and shit, man. We just got a cat. Me and my wife was a kitten crying outside of our house on our fence. So we went and grabbed them and we brought him my house and now we have a kitten. Man. But every time I pick him up, man, he just scratches. the crap out of me.

So them little cuts, man. Kill me, man. I hate that. But then I got a six inch gas. Like, I got glass right here in my body from like 2000. Two thousand. No.

Yeah. I got one right here. I got another one down here when I faced Nate hatred and a two hard light dude death match. So it's like you always going to like kind of touch it and be like, yeah,

you know, shout out to Nate, man. You know, big Nate because he passed away too. So do you want to keep that in you? Yeah, I do, man. You know, it's just memories. I'd be honest with you, when I had my arm injury and I told the doctor, can you just start cutting all this glass out? I mean, he's like, it's fine.

I healed over it, and you're all right. That's what the doctor told me. So you have, that's in your arm or your side too? Oh, yeah, it's right here. Yeah, you can sit. Let's play with it all the time. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, I see it poking out.

Stop that. Like when, like, for me getting this injury, I kind of got out of shape a little. But once I start getting in shape, the triceps start popping a little bit, you'll start seeing it poking out, especially when I'm doing, like, you know, tricep extensions and stuff like that. Yeah. Poking out and shit like that. At the end of the Dark Side of the Ring episode, you basically say, you know you're not going to be here for a long time. Yeah. It kind of made me sad because you are a great

guy, and all of your fans want you to be around forever. Yeah. The reason why I say that is because My parents died at the same age which was 48 So I kind of like I hope I don't go down 48, you know what I mean? So

Well that was like your mom died A breast cancer Yeah mom Yeah I loved her man She was awesome My dad I believe died I had a loan cancer

I want to say My mom fought it So she's a tough lady man I think that's where I get it from Yeah So she fought it for like Three or four years My dad just

just didn't fight it at all. He just, you know, pulled the hospital a little bed up to his house, had the nurse come in, and he just, you know, withered away. And I was too young to, um, to realize my dad and shit like that.

I'll tell you this craziest story. Listen to this one, Chris. Okay. So I never really got close to my dad. I would see him every other weekend. He would pick us up. I would go upstairs, play Nintendo, whatever.

I'll go shoot ass with front. You know what I mean? We really never sat down and kicked it, right? So as I'm, locked up, like I was in prison, and they came and locked me up in prison. They thought I was doing something illegal. So they threw me in fucking another fucking jail. It's like reception.

Okay. Is this solitary confinement? I'm not in solitary, but I'm almost there. Okay. Okay. It's reception. So you go to reception, and from reception, you go see a classification, and they're saying you what prison you want to go to.

So I'm in that classification, and I'm just waiting for someone to come talk to me. I don't know why I'm locked up. I have no clue. They didn't tell me nothing. They just can't cuff me, pulled me in a van, shot me there. So I've been there so goddamn long that I became a runner, which means you get let out of your cell and you hand out the trays, you mop, do all that shit, which is good because you're in your cell 23 and one. So I go down And these guys are like

Yo and I was mentally tough I was like these motherfuckers are not going to break me man They're not going to send me here They think they're going to break me Because all you're getting is three meals You don't get no canteen no nothing You get three meals and I did

And I feel like they sent me there to break me And shit So I did the total opposite I'm out in the freaking yard Bang and pushups I'm banging pull-ups I'm running They had like weights out there I'm hitting them.

I'm a big circuit train. I'm a big hit guy. You know, high-intentioned interval training. Yeah. Huge on that. You know, I'd like to get the heart rate up, shoot it down, shoot it back up. So I'm doing that. So I go past this one cell.

I'll hand their train. They're like, yo, you mind if we work out with you the next day, right? These two guys. I said, yeah, no problem, man. Come on work out. Yeah. So they worked out. Well, halfway through the one guy quit.

And I'm like, all right, man. Get the fuck out of here, man. Go, all right. All right. Cool. Now we just keep working out. and he tried to blame it off and they didn't have enough food. Well, guess what, bud?

I don't have enough food either. You know what I mean the same shit. You are. I might get a little extra because I'm a runner, but it's bread I'm getting extra or maybe an extra apple. Okay? It's not like I'm going to steak or something or where they're bringing me food. Listen to this. So I'm mopping and he goes, hey, Nick.

And I'm like, yo, I never get called Nick in President Gage. Yeah. And I'm like, yo, why are you calling me? calling me by my first name. Who the fuck are you? And it turned out it was my first cousin, Dennis. Yep, Denny. I haven't seen it.

It's my dad's brother's kid. And I haven't seen Denny forever. But I knew Denny was locked up for a vehicle manslaughter. So I was like, holy shit. So I'm like, yo, Denny, what's up, man? So Denny's the one that quit on me during the training. If I fucking knew my cousin quit on me, he would have never quit. So you're training with him and you don't know it's your cousin?

No, I had no clue. I just haven't seen him. him for that. Yeah, sure. It's like, so I was like, oh, yo, yo, Danny, what's up? So my, my cellie left the next day because it's classification, so you just go to your next prison. And I got him to move him. I got the cop. I was cool with the cop. So I got him to move him to myself. And Denny was there for five days before he left. And he got to tell me stories about my dad, him and my dad were good friends. So I got to hear all these cool-ass stories my dad was that like I didn't get to hear, you know, or I didn't get to ask them because I was just too young to like, you know, I was like 14.

I didn't really care, you know. So that was dope as though, right. Yeah, so you got to meet your dad. So I got, yeah, in such a shitty ass hole. Wow. shitty-ass place like that. Something positive comes out of that. That's why I always tell people, man, you can always turn a negative into a positive, man.

And that's what I did in prison, man. I might be in prison, but I'm going to turn and I'm going to. get sucked every positive thing i can get out of this motherfucking place at what point in you being locked up did you start to think about returning to wrestling oh right away man oh okay right away um that's why you're training so hard not right away but um you know like a couple months down the line i was like all right yeah you know i want to fucking do this so i started training and then once i um that's why i scream uh free free two six that's my boy man and uh he taught me how to lift the right way way. He taught me how to work out. He told me how to eat, diet, and do all that shit. So that's why

I scream free to six all the time, man, because he's locked up right now. You know, he wanted to do hustle and do his thing to feed his family, and they locked him up for eight years. So I said, dude, I'm going to keep your name alive until you get back out. You know what I mean? Then he's going to be in the stands at your matches. Yes. Yeah, I love him. I mean, seriously. He's a natural athlete. He was the dude where he was on the high school football team running for 300 yards a game. Man, you know what I mean? Yeah.

Full ride to Temple would have, and he was smart dude. I think it was marine biology. Am I saying that? Yeah, yeah. He got a full ride for marine biology at Temple University. Smart dude. Well, he was going to go to Iowa, but Iowa fired their football coach. So he went to Temple, which was a bad idea because he liked smoked crack.

And if you ever been to North Philly, he crats right around the fucking corner. So he told me this one story. I'll shout up 3-26 for this one. He told me there's one story that he smoked crack in the bathroom right before the ESPN game against the Miami Hurricanes. And this is 2002. If you know anything about sports in the Miami Hurricanes, that team was loaded and he came out last.

And he was all on cracking shit. So the cameras are in his face. He said, I'll never do that again in my life. So you can tell. So you know two six is a little shot. You know what I mean? But aren't we all in a little, you know, I was crazy-ass story. But he taught me how to clean, man.

He told me how to do all these different lifts. I was one of them dudes where I would work out and turn it up to a hunter. But I didn't realize how to work my body out the right way. Why am I lifting? Why am I doing this reps or doing this or why am I attacking the muscle this way? Yeah. And we got close, man. He came into the thing.

And he's like, who works out the hardest here? And like Gage, man. And he went and worked out. And turn around, this dude was a beast, man. This guy was a beast. You know, he was cleaning 315. My God. He was benched 405.

He was squat. His numbers were just, he was like, at one time, he's like, I'm going to outlift you by a hundred on all power lifts. But the only thing I could keep up with him was squats. You know, my squat was, my PR was... 545, I think. Dude. I hit a PR 545. You know what?

Let's keep it at 505. I might not have been parallel, but 505 was definitely... That's impressive. Yeah. Well, we were working out every day, man. There's nothing to do. You know what else is there to do, right?

Well, there is. We had a job. This is how my thing... I wake up, go to breakfast, get ready for a yard at 7 in the morning, go work out for an hour and 15, hit them weights hard, hard. I always tell people, man,

You go and work out, you know, first, you know, get introduced to the weights. Slowly get in there. Once you're ready, you go attack them weights. Okay, you fucking attack them with them. You know, you just got to attack them motherfuckers, you know. And once I started attacking the weights, man. And then after that, we would come back and then we would have to go to the cow farm. And that's when I would throw 2,000 pounds of cow phoebe.

You know, I would always, I always call it stick and twist. So I will work my bleak muscles. Yeah, yeah. And shit. And then he was afraid, 26 was afraid to come up there at first. He's like, man. And then finally he came up, man.

And it would just rip our abs up. And that's why I would do it, you know? So did you reach out to GCW as you were about to get released? Well, GCW started off was when I first got released. When I was locked up, I had all these fans sending me cards and letters. Letters, keep your head up. And I'm like, wow, I'm this popular.

These people are taking time out to send me these letters and doing all that. And so I was like, how can I get back to these crazy motherfuckers? Oh, that's right. Let's put on a death match tournament. So we did the NGI one, which I missed because I got locked up again. Yeah. You violated your parole, right? Yeah, I violated that bullshit.

What was the violation? Yeah, it's just fucking bullshit. Okay. We don't have to get into it. Yeah. And so it was a incest, you know, and why I was locked up, I lauded out fucking took it to the next level and started fucking running shows. And then by the time I got out, you know, I was ready to rock and roll.

And the fans just loved me when I got out, man. Which was dope, man. It just gave me that energy I need, man. And you looked like a different dude because you've been working out so hard. Yeah. Man, we were working out hard. I remember we worked out 26 days straight in a row. You know what I mean?

That's a lot. And this is, and this is without no protein, you know, there's, you know, there's not too much food in there. This is a prison diet. Yeah. Well, I had a guy in the vegetable, the garden. Okay. So he was my guy. So I would get him, give me vegetables and sneak them to me.

And we would have, like, veggie wraps and shit like that and stuff like that. So is prison? We try to, you know, eat the right way. Is prison in real life like it's portrayed in the movies? It depends where you're at. So if you're at maximum security, yes. You got to watch a bag, you know, you got to all that stuff, man. You know, guys want to take your canteen, man.

Some of them dudes don't got family. They don't have money sent in. So they're hungry, man. You know, and, you know, with that gang shit, too, man, I seen this one time, man. These guys are reppping this blood gang and all that shit. Then I literally watched his boys sit there and eat while he had no money or not and just starve. And they didn't give him nothing. So I went over and I gave him a bunch of shit, man.

Wow. Yeah. And that's supposed to be his gang. He's supposed to throw down at any time, any place, anywhere. Yeah. And ruin his life and get more time because of that. But you won't give him a fungo. You know what a fungo?

You don't know what a funger is like, I don't know. No. It's on Chris. And fungo is like, I don't know, it's just all this bunch of bullshit into they take crackers and they take crackers and the dough. And then they put like, you know, somersets in there and all this bullshit in there. It's great.

It tastes awesome, man. But you can spread it out throughout a lot of people, you know what I mean? And they let this guy hungry. So I went over there. But like a couple months, what was it? Oh, I went to another prison after that. And then I asked the guy, like, yo, why? And he's like, well, you don't know what that man did.

Did not get fat. So I started figuring out, well, he must have some fucked up shit for them to eat that shit right in his face. And he's hungry and he's complaining. And this is a big ass dude. Like, if he really wanted to, he can go over and slap that dude in the face and just take his fungo. But, you know, there's you already in the gang and shit like that. But between this story of you helping that dude out, you adopting this kitten in your yard. Yeah.

People are beginning to think. Be into pain the ass right now, no, man. People are beginning to think that Nick Gage is actually a sweetheart deep downside. Yeah, I'm a good person. You know what? I'm a strong believer in, man. Always be yourself, man. I don't care, man.

People want to fucking say names about you or whatever, man. Well, fuck them people, man. Be yourself and always be yourself, man. Life's going to be awesome for you. So I got no problem saying all this stuff, man. I'm comfortable with myself. I love myself, you know. I wish I was in better shape.

But other than that, you know, and I try to preach that on the road, man. Yeah. You know? And, you know, especially like, you know, like with the trans and stuff like that and the gays, I sent them tweets out for that stuff, man. And they get it the hardest. And we're starting to understand that like, this is great that people are like, you know what?

They're accepting who they are, man. And it's awesome that a guy can come out and say, you know what, this is me and this is the way I am. Yeah. And this is the way I want to live my life. And I think it's dope, man. And, you know, I feel the same way with everybody. Yeah. Everybody would just be themselves, man.

I'm telling you, you would feel a lot better about yourself. This is who you are. Yeah, and, like, you're unapologetic about it. No problem, yeah. But you have a lot of detractors. You have a lot of critics who say that's not really wrestling. Yeah, you're right. What do you say to those people?

I understand what they're saying. You know, I get it. But I just think it's another R-Fort. form of wrestling. You know, I'm pretty sure back in the day when Dusty was bleeding all over the place, I'm pretty sure there were some people saying, well, this ain't wrestling. This guy's bleeding all over the place, you know. You know, I just think it's another art form of wrestling.

I'm pretty sure that they were saying when guys started high flying and started taking in the air instead of Matt wrestling all the time. I'm pretty sure people were saying shit about that. listen, man, I don't listen to them people, man. You know, I have a mindset. I know what I love and I know what I want to do. You know what I mean? Yeah.

And I'm easy going. You know, why? Because when I went to prison, man, I learned patience and I learned how to practice that shit. I know how to take one thing and let it out of this, go in this year and out of that fucking ear. That is a skill. And another thing is, is I'm not really big on that internet, man, because there's a lot of people and a lot of haters on there. that are we're tough guys that can type real quick and say all the shit about you, but when they see you, they don't say the shit about you.

You know what I mean? So, you know. What kind of backlash did you receive after the David Arquette match? Well, I never go on the Internet side. I don't even know, man. Because, I mean, that became a mainstream thing. Yeah, I was on TMZ. I don't believe it.

Yeah. My wife's like, you're on TMZ. I was like, no, I'm not. TMV. You know, I took it, you know, he needed to stick to the script, you know what I mean, and he went off the script and shit like that, you know, it wasn't my fault. Listen, I'm very good at what I do in death match wrestling, and I know how to do things to take care of you.

It might look like you're fucking getting hurt and you're getting crushed, but really, like, I know how to do things that won't hurt you as bad as if I do it the real way. You know? Do you think he just got scared? Yeah, absolutely. And your pizza cutting his forehead and then your pizza cut his mouth. Yeah, but just relax. You know, you're not the first guy.

I'd said, you know? That's, I mean, think about that. It's tough to relax when someone has a pizza cutter in your forehead. Yeah, but he already knows, man. You know, we had discussion already. You know what I mean? You know, it's entertainment, man. I'm not going to cut your frigging thing open.

But if you're going to move your mouth open like this, when I tell you to stand still, relax. You know, I'm entertaining my heart's race. Are you even thinking about this? You know, another thing is, you know, he tried to spin and hit a double shoot on me when I'm crushing a glass on his head. Dude, I'm going to relax, calm down. I'm going to crush it. I'm going to carve your fucking head with the glass.

You know, that's what I'm going to do. So how did you get the light tube in his neck? He spun and tried to shoot a double on me. And I had the glass in my hand where I was going to, you know, I know what I'm doing, man. You know what I mean? And when I was here, he's spawning, and it went in his neck. And at first I was like, damn, I just killed David Arquette. That was my first thought in my head, right?

So, fucking rewind this. This is another funny story. For me to go out and get the glass, I had to go to the back and get the light tubes. And when I went in the back to get the light tubes, I seen Chris Hero. Shout out to Chris Hero. I haven't seen him forever. So I was like, oh, yo, Chris Hero, what's up, my boy? in the middle of the match.

And then I went back out and fucking grabbed the light tubes and fucking crushed him and shit. I thought that's a little funny part. Do you know? Do you think he knew what he was getting himself into? No, I don't think so.

I think he was doing it for the documentary. I didn't even know he was shooting a documentary. I went out and had steak dinner with him and explained to him, but this shit's real. He took you to like the fanciest restaurant in Hollywood, by the way. Yeah, yeah, it was really nice. You were probably surrounded by like, kinds of like A-listers.

Yeah, it was really nice of them, man. Yeah. Food was very good. He was cool. That's the oldest restaurant in Hollywood. That's like they shot a bunch of scenes from Quinn Tarantino's new film there. Yeah. That is a very like.

I did not know that. Yeah. Now you know. That's pretty close. Like he took you to the spot. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. And he wanted to do fire and I, I x-a-n that because.

He wanted to do fire? Yeah. Well, I've been lit on fire before, man. Yeah, of course. So it's dangerous. You can't control it sometimes, man. So I just ex-knate that. Okay.

I try to explain to him, man. All this shit's real, man. This glass is real. This shit's real. I think he, fuck, it's when I started turning it up a notch, I think he started like, oh, whoa, wait a minute. You know, is this guy taking liberties on me or whatever? But no, I'm just going in, man.

You know, what am I supposed to do? Take it easy on the actor, and then I got to wrestle friggin' G-raver, or Alex Cologne or slack or any of the awesome crazy things. deathmatch guys. Yeah. And then go in on them. You know what I mean? So you treated him like you treated everybody else?

Absolutely. Yeah. You know? Absolutely. And I, of course I did. Have you talked to him since? Um,

no. He called my house a couple times where he wanted to use the footage for documentary. And I asked for some money and he told me he don't get money out for documentaries. So I said, all right, bye. And then he kept calling and then his wife called.

And then, um, I said, well, you know, what are you going to pay me? You know, like, why are you going to use my footage? And I'm pretty sure you guys are going to make money off this document. His wife was producing the film. Yeah, I'm pretty sure you guys are going to make money off his documentary. So what they did is instead of that, they gave me a gift and they sent me a king-sized mattress.

So that's what I got out of. Okay. Were you okay with that? Well, it's a little weird, you know, but, you know, I still have not opened it to this day. What? My house, yeah. You should probably open it. I like my bed right now.

So I want to keep it in the thing. So when my bed goes, I have a new king-sized mattress bed from David Arquette. I mean, if this bed is good enough for David Arquette and his wife, Christina, is probably good enough for the King of the Death Match. Yes. Yeah. And, you know, and it's a king-size, man. So it's huge.

King for the King. There you go. Damn fucking right. It makes sense, right? Yeah. Yeah. I feel like, you know, when I speak them words, I really truly believe that I am. the king of the death match man

I feel like I'm the god of this shit man who was it before you oh man is it funk I had to be fucking cactus jack okay you know um yeah god I love Terry funk man you know I had to be Terry funk there's probably some Japanese guys that I'm forgetting

their names because I suck with names that that really fucking went hard shit like that but it um Catsis Jack was my favorite all I can give you a little Cactus Shack story. Please. So I got out of jail and I went to this one show that he was on and I wasn't wrestling,

but I wanted to go see the boys. And so I say him and I run right up to him and I say, you know, I'm Nick H. Good to meet you. And I just wanted to let you know. I just wanted to say thank you for getting me involved in death match wrestling. And he apologized to me. And I said, don't you ever apologize to me. I love this death match wrestling.

wrestling and I'm the best motherfucker at it. So thank you. And I just left after that. He looked at me like I was crazy. Mick Foley hasn't had a death match in like 20 years. Yeah. He was in my corner one time for a free of what company

it was. It might have been J.C.W. Or something like that before G.C.W. came along or something like that. He was in my corner and it was so awesome. You know what I mean? I did tournament of death. C.C.W.'s torment of death. Yeah.

And after I was, I was, he was, I mean, I did. was done that, I hopped in a car and went and did another show. And he was on that show and he was in my corner and it was so cool. And I took a picture when I'm giving him the middle finger. So it was dope, man. Do you think you can wrestle this style in your 50s? I don't see why not, man. You know, I'm just, I'm a day by day by guy. You know what I mean? We'll see what happens. You know, I got AJ Gray on Saturday. That dude's tough as hell. You know, and we'll see. And survive that one. Move on to the next one. but I will wrestle until I can't go no more.

My body won't let me go no more. It's just in my blood, Chris, man. I love this shit, man. And I hope that when I can't go no more, there's some way I can find a job in wrestling that I can do that allows me to stay in this business my whole life. I just hope so.

I pray for it, but we'll see. Yeah. We'll see. What did you think of the exploding barbed wire match that AEW did. I mean, it was on, obviously, on national television, so it couldn't be a crazy death match.

Yeah, I seen clips of it. I probably watched most of it. I thought it was okay, you know. Good for, you know, cable television. Yeah, it was okay. You know, I don't know what happened at the end if it was supposed to be like that. You know, they're very good at fucking messing with your mind

a little bit, and maybe they did that on purpose. I don't think so. Or you think they just fucked up. I just think, look, I don't know, right? But I don't think that that's how they would have wanted that match to happen. Especially the ending. With Eddie Kingston in there, yeah. It's huge.

If anybody said the old one with Hyibusa and Otani, I mean, Otani. Look at the other guy's name. Look at me in names, man. You told me earlier. You're like, I'm not great with names. Hyabusa and the other guy, which I should know. Everyone in the comments, I figured out here. It blew up.

You know what I mean? That was such a cool, fucking visual of all that smoke and blowing up and all that. And then you have poppers go off. So, and I was really surprised because, you know, them guys, you know, those guys love pro wrestling too. And they take their jobs very seriously. And I'm surprised someone like Kenny Omega would, you know, But what are you going to do?

And they got money, too, to make that shit fucking happen. Yeah, that's why I think that an explosion didn't go off. Like, obviously... Clearly, something happened. They would... I would think that they would have rehearsed it. Yeah, and you got that long-ass countdown.

Yeah. You know, which, you know... Another thing is, is, you know, there's nobody... No crowd, man. I would love to see them do it outside. You know what I mean? It would have been dope, man.

Well, it is kind of outside where they did it. Is it really... Yeah, Daly's play. is like an open-air amphitheater. Yeah, I've never been there. So when the ring's set up, it's outside? It's open air. Okay.

So you ever been to like a concert where there's no doors or anything? You walk right in, there's a grandstand, but there's a roof over it, but it's open air, which is how they've been able to run this during COVID. I got it. Yeah. Yeah. You know, maybe if we had the fans there, too, it would have been. Oh, that would change everything.

Yeah. But what are you going to do, man? You know, you can't change things. You just got to move. and stay positive. Is there anybody you haven't wrestled yet? Yeah, there's a couple guys.

Other than like Cactus Jack? Yeah, I wish I would love the rest of that guy, man. Terry Funk, man. Yeah, there's a couple guys that haven't wrestled yet. Did they know you want to wrestle them? Do you want to put it out there?

Yeah, I mean, I wrestle Kenny Omega. I would love to wrestle that guy, man. It's a legit death much. When I seen him Um, uh, wrestle that guy, the Japanese guy from New Japan. Uh, who's the, what's there? In New Japan? Yeah.

Tonahashi. Now the guy, he went, uh, he did. Oh, on Wednesday? No, no, this is old school before he went to AEW. He wrestled. He did the, um, he wrestling for an hour long. They're world champ. New Japan guy.

The world champ right now is Will Osprey. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, will's my guy. How about that, right? Shut out the Will. That's my boy. I didn't know that I stopped following New Japan for a little bit.

Hey, it won like a month ago. Anyway, he wrestled somebody at, and their matches. Abushi? Uh-huh. Abushi? Yeah. Uh-huh. Anyway, it was a masterpiece,

and their workability is out of control, man. So, you know, I wrestle any, I always put myself out there. I'll wrestle anybody anywhere, anytime, man. Yeah. I'll stick to that until I can't do it no more, you know. And does it matter? to you if you go over or not? Certain times, but not really.

I'm not a big fan where I need to go over or not. I just want to have an awesome match. I want the fans to be entertained. Yeah. You know, sometimes you got to go over and keep your name up there, you know, but it doesn't bother me. I got no problem looking at the lights. Yeah. So.

How do you want to be remembered when this is all done? Oh, wow. Great question. I'm just a guy who fucking gave it his all. man, never backed down and gave it 100% and really loved this sport and really helped put

death match wrestling on the map. You know, I want to be a guy who really fucking, I remember when they tried to fucking get rid at death match wrestling, CZW, which is a company I built and now fucking sucks. And it bothers me to say that,

but it does, man. They try to get rid of death match wrestling. And I remember sitting there in my room. I was at a halfway house by then, saying, I'm going to put this shit back on the fucking map. And that's what we did, GCW and us. We put it back on the map. Yeah.

And we found all them talents that people said can't go or can't do that. You know, we found Eric Ryan, who CZW cut and got rid of. You know, we fucking had Nate Hatrick come back, you know? You know what they did with Nate Hatred and Dewey Donovan, man? As soon as I got locked up, they cut them right away, man. So I said as soon as I get out, man, I'm going to get them back. As soon as I got out, I called Nate. I said, let's fucking get back on the fucking thing, man.

And we're going to be a hate club again. We started doing the hate club thing. And Dewey, I told Dewey, anytime Dewey can show up any time, any show, you're going to walk out with me, man, because you're fucking my guy. And I brought him back, too, man. You know, I just didn't like how he fucking did people dirty. All them people that helped you build this company. and you want to fucking start grabbing guys who can give two fucks about the ZCW name.

They just want to have a stepping stone and move on and shit like that. Well, what about the guys that fucking help you build this fucking company? You know? So we try to have them guys in GCW, and I think that's why GCW works, man, because there's guys who fucking really love this fucking company, man. You seem really loyal. Yeah, very loyal person, man.

Yeah. Yeah, you know, I'll have to die for some people, man. you know, I'll fight for some people, man, and I don't fight for a lot of people, you know. I stay out of it, you know, too, but there's a couple people and I will fucking really go in for, man, you know? I've shot out to Matt Justice, too. That's my fucking boy.

He's a guy I'll fucking go in for it. I know Matt from AIW. Shout out, yes. Yeah, AIW is like my second home, man. I love them people there. They're great people, man. They are. John Thorne's so good.

Yeah, shout out to Thorny. man, Thorny. As soon as I got out of prison, man, Thorny put me right in the mix, man. He used me nonstop, man. And he wanted me to do a lot of wrestling instead of death match. So I got to be able to pick my ability and start, you know,

get my craft a little better in the ring instead of just, you know, doing death matches. And I heard from Thorny, but I had to go, I had to do something else so I couldn't go out there. He wanted to fly me out there. And I tell Thorny, man, man, man,

I'll drive out there. got no problem driving to Cleveland, man, but I couldn't do that show, but I'll be back out there soon. And I love that place, man. Yeah, good people. They are. I think between this conversation

and Dark Side of the Ring, this is going to be a lot of people's first time meeting you, first time figuring out, yeah, which I think is a great thing. So if someone's going to go on YouTube right now and look at their first Nick Gage match, which match should have been? Wow, one of my first match.

No, just what, if it's going to be their, first match of yours that they say? Oh, shit. Because after listening's conversation, they're going to go look. I really love my Sequel Pay match. I believe it's Tour and Survival. It's how I go one-on-one with Sequel Pay.

And I just love that match, man, because that dude's a machine. And it just made me realize that, like, I fucking still do this and I still go hard. And I fucking and you want to know a little small fact about that match. Yes. He was the first guy up. So we had a razor board in there, which is, you know, the razor's board. Yeah, of course.

And I took a drop toll hold onto the razor board, and it cut me right down here. And I went in the back, and I was like, damn, I'm, what do I piss myself or something? But it was blood. My pants are all wet. And I just taped it up, and I wrestled two more rounds with it. Oh, my God. still bleeding. So it didn't get your femoral artery.

Oh, no. Well, you did get. But it got something. It just would not stop bleeding. But I forgot about it because I had to go to the next round. As soon as you're done that, you're moving on to the next guy. And I had to wrestle. God, I would wrestle after that.

Some other fucking, I think Japanese or Mexican dude who goes hard as hell too. And I was just bleeding. And then I wrestled Tremont at the end. which was the cinder block, you know, where we laid the cinder block, canvas cinder block match. And he gave me that power bomb through all them light twos, man. And I went in the back, man, and we had showers there at the time. And I fell down in the shower, man. And my wife came in and sat me on a chair.

And I had to sit in the chair. And I kept nodding off and passing out. And I just lost so much blood. I didn't go to hospital or nothing. Dude. I just laid on the car. couch because I had the, my ride was laudered out. So he had to, like, you know, handle all the shit and just laid on the couch. And we stopped somewhere to get food. And I was in and out of it.

And I drank some orange juice and I ate a little bit of food and I kind of got back to normal. That was a scary one because I fell, man. And I was in bad shape. You know what I mean? Like, I fell in that shower, man. And we had to put me in a seat. And I never had to do that before. So that was a scary one. But I was fucking that sequel pay match, man. Okay. So that's the match. That's just one of my favorites.

You know, it comes in. There's just, there's a lot of them. I really like the match. Me and my brother did. It break the barriers back in the day to put CZW on the map. It was a ladder match to the fucking staple gun. And it was cool because all them motherfuckers hated on us, man. But they never sent any words to us.

They never came up to us. They were nicest pie to us in our face. And we had John with us and they would us. So Zanday, what a fuck. fucking, you know, they were a little intimidated by John, you know what I mean? Yeah. And John, these are my fucking guys, John would say. So they were like, you know what I mean?

But I always catch them fucking yapping their fucking mouse on the side and shit. That's that saying in our face. You know what I mean? But we tore it up, man. We put CZW on the map, right there. It was awesome, man. We had, you know, the psychology might not have been good. You know, it was a lot of spotty shit.

But I think that's what we need. needed to do. Plus, we didn't, you know, we were still green horns, man. We didn't really know how to put the fucking story in there yet. We fucking did that spot and they loved it, man. The crowd was going nuts. Yeah. I know we had the match of the night. And, you know, helped out. You know, the biggest thing that I take away from this conversation is you are a real dude. Oh, thanks, Bruce. And you are a passionate dude. Yeah, man. Yeah. But you were also a really loyal guy. Yeah. And behind all of this, you have a real soft spot in your heart. You do.

Yeah, I do, man. Yeah. I love the ones that love me, you know what I mean? Sure. A lot of people love you. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, God.

It's crazy, man. I don't even know if I would be doing this right now if I wouldn't walk out there and they would be chanting MDK and shit like that, man. And MDK started with just them people write me letters, you know? Keep your head up, man. and it's not like it was like all right so I get locked up I have five years to do

and it's not like that year one all right you get all these letters year one and then year two they slow down they never slowed down I just kept getting them from you know until I got out and it just

and these people or take a time out of their way to write me a letter and get a stamp and send it to me I don't know these people you know what I mean but you've impacted their life

not only that they sent me money you know what I mean and I didn't need money I had a job man job me for me for my canteen and everything like that. And I was just like, well, how can me and my fans

be as one? Oh, you know what? We're going to be a motherfucking gang. Yeah. And then I just, you know, I remember the murder death kill. I said that in an interview one time, a promo. I'm going to say, you know what? We're going to be the murder that killed gang. Me and my fans is one.

Yeah. So everywhere we go, we're going to represent. And that's, you know, and that's how it started, man. And it just took off. You know, I had to keep saying it a little bit for them to understand it. But after that, they started chanting that shit. I don't know if they didn't, thank God for GCW and thank God for the fans showing up and chant that shit. I don't know if I would be still doing this, you know?

Because if there was no GCW, I would have to probably do that CZW shit. And I remember I got out of prison. I went to my, I was booked for a CGW show. And I just looked in that locker room. And I was just like, this is not what I remember. Yeah. You know, nobody's fucking talking to it. other they're all over on the side there's no like atmosphere there's none of that shit going on

that it used to go on when like drake younger was there and all them guys and shit like that man i was just i was like man i don't think i could have to survive there i would probably like got a job or something you know yeah so fucking thank god for gcm you thank god for the murder that killed yeah you know this has been one of my favorite conversations ever really yeah this is so in depth. Thanks, Chris, man. I mean, thank you. Thank you, Dick.

Thank you for the time. Yeah, man. Like I said, I'm a fan of yours, bro. I watch your show, man. Likewise. I love when you fucking interview, and you've done so many cool interviews with so many cool dudes.

Rhino was one of my favorite interviews. You didn't buy the boat. Yeah, that's his arena. I didn't know that. I didn't know anything. You would think rhinos a fucking beast and an animal. You know, you think he'd be down in the basement.

and raw meat. He owns Big Daddy's boat yard. Yeah, and then you've come to find out, man. He's a boat guy. He's a straight-edge guy. Yeah. And it's just, I'm going to never found out if you didn't interview him. So that was pretty cool, man.

I appreciate that. Yeah, no problem, man. I end every interview talking about gratitude. So I'm really curious, Nick. What are three things in your life that you're grateful for? I'm grateful for my wife. I'm just grateful for the people I'm surrounded by right now. And what's the third?

I'm just grateful for my health, man. I'm a healthy dude right now because of all that fucking death match shit and all that shit comes out of the tubes and all that shit comes out of the tubes and all that glass. I am healthy, man. You know, I barely get sick, man. You know, I take care of myself. I just started to stop eating red meat. So I'm trying to do that thing.

I don't know how hard that is. I'm hearing a lot of things about this plant-based diet, you know. You're getting up air and age, man, so I think I got to switch my diet around. Stop saying, you're only three years older than me. Stop making it seem like we're old. Yeah, well, you know, once you hit 40, man. Stop it. Stop it.

It switches a little, Chris. You know, and, you know, look at Tom Brady and stuff and like guys like that, man. Yeah, he's a machine. They eat right. They see their diet's right. And the way they work out, and all of a sudden, they're in their 40s playing, you know, hard sport. So if I want to continue doing this, I feel like maybe if I switch my dye and I work out differently and maybe I could keep going, you know. You need to watch this Facebook mini series

called Tom versus Time. It's Tom Brady like docu-series. Not that many people know about on Facebook watch. It will change your whole perspective about all of that stuff. Because in the documentary, he's 39. I think he's like 43 now. You guys a machine. Yes. Yeah. But there was this one story about Tom Brady. There's a GM, I think he was on the Rich Eisen's show, that they said that he heard the music blast and shit like that. And he came down and it was Tom Brady on a Friday night in Boston sitting there training. And he just won his first Super Bowl and he could be out partying, he's young and everything

like that. And he's got, and he's there training. and he's working on his technique. And then he said the guy was leaving. And he told the guy, hey, man, don't let anybody know I was here. And this is why I don't care what football team you cheer for. This is why Tom Brady is the goat. Yeah.

Yeah, he's the goat, man. He's awesome. I'm a Giants fan. So I love Lawrence Taylor, who is the go to fucking linebackers. But it's a cool story. You know what I mean? And it motivates me. I try to find little stories like that or little qubits.

quotes that'll motivate me in my life. You know, I'm a big, strong believer in that. You know, so. What's your, we'll end on this. What's your favorite quote? Well, man, you're going to put me on the spot there. Or what's a quote that really speaks to you right now? I don't know, man.

I'd have to get back to you on that one, Chris. Get back to me on that one. Too many chair shots. Too many fucking chair shots. Send me a text. You know what's going to happen on that one, Chris? We're going to stop this interview and then I'm going to come on with that fucking quote. I had a couple quotes I hung in my locker when I was locked up, man, but I can't remember them right now.

Do you know who they were from? I just ran the magazines, probably from men's health. I used to get men's health when I was in there and stuff, you know, shit like that. You know, I used to get the fucking, who is the big muscle fucking magazines. Flex? Yeah, Ronnie Coleman's one of my favorite dudes. Yeah. I just watched his documentary on Netflix.

It's a little sad, but yeah. His body's going through it. But, you know, that guy was a machine. Yeah. And I'm a strong believer in fucking when you're lifting, the real lifters are going to get in that fucking squat rack and lift. Yeah. And some dudes are going to be afraid of that squat rack

because they don't want to walk like a duck the next day. But to stop walking like a duck, you got to start, you know, getting the squat rack and you got to start hitting your squats, man. Because, you know, everybody knows, you know, that takes the most testosterone and throws it through your heart. whole body. Yeah. Do the squats.

You know? Yeah, man. Man, I want to quote for you. I just want to, if we're going to end right here, I just want to give a shout out to my murder death kill gang, man. I want to give a shout out the Eastern Block. It's going to be hard for them to hear it. And I just want to say rest in peace to my tight team partner, Big Ney Hatred.

And rest in peace to my brother, Justice Payne. You know, I miss my brother, man. I was literally a board. a flight when someone texted me and said, did you hear about your brother? And he was going through some mental problems with his wife and all that and stuff. And I thought

Chris was just acting up again. I'm like, no. And then he goes, well, oh, whoa, I don't want to tell you. And I'm like, oh, shit. So he told me, and I got on that flight, man. And I love wrestling so much that I literally wrestled all three of them matches

that weekend when I knew my brother just, you know, passed away. So, you know, you know I love this fucking shit when I'm fucking doing that. And you know he's with you. Yeah. Yeah, I feel him. Yeah. You know, I feel him.

And that's why I changed up my little intro. So, and that's why I try to speak his name anytime I can. But, you know, I'm going to be out here represent for him and my mom and every other family. Remember, it's passed away, man, until I can't do it no more. Yeah. You know? We're grateful you're still here. Yeah, you know, they try to take me and it didn't work, so I'm still here, you know.

I'm here for a reason. You know, if I was going to die, I was going to die. But for some reason, I got saved and, you know, I think I'm here to inspire other people and motivate other people to do good in their lives. Yeah. I feel like that's what I'm put on this earth. Now, how am I going to do that? Right now, it's probably through pro wrestling. You know, but I think that as I speak to the boys, I noticed that when I went out with the injury, the locker room was kind of a little off in GCW.

But when I came back, you could just feel that fucking intensity back from the boys. And I just went around all of them and talked to him and kicked it with them. I actually, you know, because I only took one match. Yeah. And Manny Weekend, usually I just go. The one with Moxley. Well, it's different now, but the old many weekends. COVID changed it.

Yeah. The old mini weekends, you would have show after show after show, and I would take as main as I can. But this time, I was like, I just went one show, and that show against R.S. Pussy. You know what I mean? So I was able to talk to all the boys, man, and they're all like, yo, I'm glad you're back, man,

and all that shit and stuff. So I figured that shit out. But I figured I motivated people when I was in prison because I was motivated my boys when we were lifting and everything like that. So I think I, you know, I think I'm a strong. motivator and shit like that. Yeah.

You know, I'm gonna, you know, so. You lead by example. That's what you do. Yeah. I try to, man. Yeah. You know, sometimes my example is, you know, not the best, but, you know, I try to. But I will fucking, I will give you, um, hard work and I will be dedicated.

Yeah. You know, that's what words I live by right there, man. Yeah. You know, and I always tell the young ones, man, you know, and they always hit me up. I do cameos and stuff like, what's your, you know? awesome by the way. I love cameos, man. I don't know why I love them. I don't know how I love them, man. And these cameos I would get are so aspiring, man. It's like, wow, these people are like sending me these messages. And I would just preach, man, just, you know, stay motivated, stay

drive, stay driven. Yeah, yeah. You know, if you have a problem and you have a mental health problem or anything like that. Find someone that you could talk to that loves you and you can really talk to because I was one of them guys where I bottled everything up and I would keep it on the inside. Then I realized, man, like I found someone I could talk to and it worked, man. I was able to get it all out, man. So if I have little issues in my head, you know, either go to the gym, which I found fucking is a great stress reliever or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, discuss it, man. Discuss something with them.

You know what I mean? Yeah. You know, I was one of them guys had too much pride to be like, I ain't going to say anything, man. But, man, pride, pride will put you down, man. If you don't fucking talk to somebody. Yeah. So anybody out there who has that mental health issues or down or anything like that,

find someone that truly loves you. And it might not be someone like your brother or sister, man. It might be a friend. It might be someone you just meet or something like that, man. But just find someone like that and just have a combo, man. You know, don't have to be something crazy combo, you know, start small. We'll be able to get that out of your chest, get that out of your head, man. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, I'm a strong believer in that too, man. Yeah, me too. To be able to talk to somebody and everything like that. And it's great to see in 2021 that going to a therapist or we're discussing shit like that. It's starting to be acceptable now. Yeah. When back in the day, it was like a man was like,

Yeah, you're going to a shrink. Yeah, you're a pussy. You're going to do a shrink. Yeah. Go fuck are you. Man the fuck up. Yeah. To now it's like kind of getting accepted.

Yeah, it's almost commendable. Like, oh, you go to a therapist? Oh, me too. Yeah, which is awesome, man. Yeah. You know, which is dope, you know. So, you know, I'm able to talk to a couple people, which is dope, you know.

Yeah. And, and a lot of wrestlers, man, I could talk to, man. You know, I became friends with a lot of guys, once I get out of prison, man. You know, they look up to me and shit like that. So it's cool as all. I really appreciate your time here. Yeah, no problem.

This has been such a great conversation. Thank you for being so open, so honest about everything. Yeah, yeah, that's the way I am, man. But I like at the start, you're like, nothing's off limits. I'll talk about whatever. Yeah, yeah. I'm an open book, man, and I'm comfortable with myself and everything like that. You know, everybody knows my history.

Everybody knows my background. You know, I did something stupid, but I strongly believe that I wouldn't be the person I am now if I didn't go through that situation. Yeah. You know, and I just took all that fucking positivity and used it to my advantage and just kicked all that negativity to the curb, man, you know? And it worked out so far, you know? You know, it's great, man.

Yeah. It's just everybody's hitting me up, man. You know, you're ready to come back. You're ready to fucking wrestle. You're ready to come back. It's just awesome, man, you know? Yeah. So, Chris, I appreciate you, man.

You know, being a dope dude, being a cool guy, man. So thank you, man. It's my pleasure. Yeah. Seriously. My pleasure, too, man. Thank you. Seriously.

You're welcome anytime at GCW. If you want to come to a show, you're more than welcome to come in the back. I love it. If anybody fucking gives you issues, you fucking say, yo, go get gage. And I will handle that shit for you, okay? I'll remember that. I hope nobody gives me issues, but. Yeah, anybody gives you problems.

You go, yo, where's gauge at? Yeah, we'll make sure we handle that real quick, man. Appreciate you. Yeah, no problem. I appreciate you, too, Chris, man. Thank you, man. Shout out to all the wrestlers out there, man, follow your dreams and keep doing what you want to do, man. Just always work hard and stay dedicated, man, and stay focused.

And you can accomplish anything. I'm a strong believer in. If you put your mind, body, and soul together, you're unstoppable, man. This is Nick fucking gauge. Shout out to my murder, death, kill gang. Shout out to Eastern Block. And shout out to the hate club. You know what it is?

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

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