Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Nick Gage on death matches, Dark Side of the Ring and almost killing David Arquette

Episode Date: May 17, 2021

Nick Gage is a professional wrestler and the "King of the deathmatch". He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at Slingshot House in Santa Monica, CA to talk 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.If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.comFollow CVV on social media:Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVlietTwitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVlietFacebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVlietYouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

It is literally made to chill. Coors Light is the one I choose when I need to unwind. So when you want to hit reset, reach for the beer that's made to chill. Get Coors Light and the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart. Celebrate responsibly. Coors Brewing Company, Golden Colorado. Well, here we go, my friends, and welcome back to another audio adventure on Insight. I'm Chris Van Fleet, and thank you so much for being with us wherever you happen to be right now

and whatever you happen to be doing. Whether you're working out, walking the dog, cooking, commuting to work, working. I always love hearing those stories that you're listening to this while you're working, but whatever you're doing, thank you. I super appreciate you. And the timing for this interview couldn't be any better. Just a few days ago, Dark Side of the Ring aired their in-depth look at Nick Gage and the insane story that he has both in the ring and just in his life in general. We talk about it here, but I think for a lot of people, they might have been aware of who Nick Gage was, but Dark Side of the ring really introduced them to like what he's all about.

And this conversation takes that one step further. And as you can see from the runtime, this is one of the longest conversations we've had on insight. And with that said, it's one of my favorites as well. A big thank you to Slinghot House in Santa Monica for setting us up in their sweet podcast studio for this interview. Yeah, we did this interview in person in an amazing setting. So that's why it sounds so good.

We use the same mics for this interview that I'm talking into right now, like the studio mics, and the studio just looks so awesome. Check this out on YouTube. It's like a Joe Rogan vibe in there. You'll love it. Take a screenshot. Share this with someone who you know will love this. Tag Nick on Twitter.

He's at the King Nick Gage. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. And if you're new here, please take a second to follow or subscribe on whatever platform is that you're listening on. My birthday is just two days away. On May 19th, you know the goal was 2,000 reviews before my birthday. So if you're listening to this on Apple Podcasts

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no, no bounds. From his award-winning approach to interviewing athletes and celebrities in numerous fields to constantly innovating his approach, motivating those around him to be better. this podcast is a must listen. Well, thank you so much for the kind words. And I'll keep reading one out on every single episode

for this episode and the next episode. And then that's it. I guess we're going to have to set a new goal. After that, we'll have to figure out what the new goal will be. Right now I'm working on the goal of getting more subscribers on my second YouTube channel. CVV clips.

If you don't subscribe to CVV clips yet, it's simple. It's clips of my favorite interviews, all in one place. CVV clips. So if you subscribe to my main channel or you're listening to this right now, take a second to subscribe on there. My guest today calls himself the king of the death match.

This is an intense conversation and it's also a fascinating conversation because we see a side of him that I don't think he shows off very often. Please welcome Nick Gage. We're doing it, man. All right. So good to see you. Yeah, absolutely. I'm glad we're finally making the first.

this happened. 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 wrestling, 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. It's pretty dope like that, man.

And we're like a very professional podcast setting here. I know. I feel fired up 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, no. And I have not seen nothing, but maybe the little clips they put on online. I've seen Narely 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? 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. And I'm kind of glad I did, man, because then people are advice. They were 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. Like 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 at 605, TBS, watching, you know, the same old Rick Flair, Lex Lugar, you know, horseman, all that shit. up on that. And W.A. I loved.

W.A.F. was like, but I would watch it because I love pro wrestling. You know, I had my bigger brother, Chris, and we would just wrestle

and at 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? So I got my weight up.

But, you know, introductions is the same, man. And, you know, you love pro wrestling. And, but it was like, once ECW hit,

man, And it was like, oh, God, because I stopped watching. 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 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, shout out the 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. 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 rope bar wire. 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 would come and pay tickets, five hour ticket. We would have like hot dog stands, man. 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 wrestle on 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. And, you know, we would have our own videotape. And we would, you know, give them out to the school, you know, the kids in the school and they were fucking watching.

They were like, yo, you guys are crazy. You are crazy. And, you know, what was kind of cool was the wrestling coach seeing it. And he was like, you got to be on the team, man. And I wrestled my 12th grade. And I what did you weigh? Where was I? Oh, I was like 220.

You wrestle at 220? Yeah, I was heavyweight. Yeah. And I just fell in love with it. I always watched it on TV. 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.

You know what I mean? And it's 101. 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, how 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, 240.

Yeah. Once I started training, man, I got down to like 210, 215. Yeah. Like, 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 you a heavy weight. So, but. 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 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 Japanese wrestling. I did a lot of tape, you know, 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. It was over after that, man. Right. But I still watched the Super J Cup. I love that, you know, Jinjio Otani is my favorite Japanese wrestler of all time, which I got to 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 love their work and shit. you know and uh you know another another good one is who is actually my friend who i'm so proud of right now is uh drew gulac he is the technical wizard man you know and i just love watching him fucking doing his thing in the w a year right now it's so awesome you've got to understand though how many people would be surprised to hear this yeah style of wrestling that you're famous for yeah yeah i love that shit man and uh um actually i owe him a receipt man so uh once he gets uh

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.

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 are who can work the death match scene that are wrestlers. Yeah. You know, back in the day, it really got looked afrown upon because all they thought was pick up this thing, hit them 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 do. Yeah, yeah, man. I try to tell a story. I try to, um, you know, I try to engage the fans and everything like that, man. You know, uh, 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 Mokx. Um, be honest with you. Uh,

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 my cellie like, yo, that's my fucking boy right there, man. He's like,

you don't know that motherfucker. And I'm like, yes, I do, man. That's my boy, man. Actually, I wrestled him.

Actually, I carved 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 as Dean Ambrose. Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah. And they came out as the shield.

Yeah. 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 them, I was like, yeah. Like, you know, Blardo now would come up and visit me all the time. He was like, yeah, fucking Max got signed.

I'm like, yeah. Like, I'm one of them guys who, who, um, uh, 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. Yeah. And actually get the push that he got. And then, uh, I was just so proud of him, you know.

But I knew he had it in him, man, because, uh, once I arrested him once, I was like, man, this dude's, this dude's got it. Yeah. He just starts to play. 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 bar 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.

We went to a farm and bought bar wire off the side guy who owned a farm. So we take these poles and we would bang them into the ground. Okay. And we will 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 bar-s. I would never snip my bar-wire. I've never sniff bar-wire in my life. It has always been real in 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. Yeah. 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, so it shatters. Yeah. We 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. Yeah. Yeah. Which, you know, been there in the, on 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. Yeah. What was the first hardcore spot you ever did? Oh, God. And I'm guessing it was backyard. Well, yeah.

Okay. Do you want to go back to the yard? Are we talking? Was it a light two? Was it barbed wire? Oh, no. It was definitely not light twos. Light twos came later.

And what problem? I mean, like, what, a chair shot? I mean, would you call that hardcore? I guess that that's like the gateway drug. Yeah. I would say the bar 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 you 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 blew into it and got tangled all into the shit, man. And 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 went to same high 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 he's 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 in a 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. And he knew he had something, you know. And then we just practically lived at that gym. I remember I would go to the school till 10 o'clock, run home, get a shower real quick, and get to my job, a 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 hard, well, death match world, 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 then you always want to take it up a notch. And that's when the light tube 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. Forget what match at was.

Okay. It was crazy. I believe I was the first one to introduce the stable gun death match. me and my brother, we did the latter 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 down. The boys hated our guts, man. I remember that shit. They hated us. And we had to stay-ball gun

and I'm panging up high. We have to climb the ladder and grab the staple gone. 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 did, 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 I 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 wrestled Saturday.

Yeah, man. So it's just, you know, you got to, 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 in 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 after a 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 glue 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 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 cap 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 that 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 knee. Ease 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. And I was smoking. And I was like, fuck it, yeah. What we're talking like a percocet? Yeah, yeah. 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. You're like, oh, yo, can you give them some more of them? And then, you know, you can't take one or two no more. Now you're taking 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, man, 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 in.

But really it creates pain in your body man. It's 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. It's cheaper, you know, 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 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, 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 take pride and not be able to go to hospital unless I really have to, man. You know, I want to be able to be. I want to be able to fucking make my pain and rest hold a 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? You're going to hospital every time? Yeah. I don't know. Maybe it's just something to me.

Even when I was kid, man, I would never go to hospital, man. I'm going to that. You know, but no, I never go to hospital unless I really, really have to. You know, like to cut under my armpit, shit like that. Well, that one made sense. Like, you literally died in a deathmage. Yeah, I died. 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 went out like that. But thank God you didn't.

Oh, thank God I didn't. You 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. 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 I realized 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? 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 all 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 on your life. Yeah, really, really down. You know, 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 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 rob that motherfucker You know, and then I fucking

And then I went around the fucking thing And 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 that you walk to the ring wearing a bandana covering your face? Yeah, I know.

And then you robbed a bank with your face. Yeah, I know. I get, you know, teased with that shit sometimes. Moxley pointed that out in dark stuff. of the ring. Well, I could give you my rational of his.

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, be able to go with joy

of 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 back. 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'd never been in trouble. I mean, I had little punk-ass priors, man, but no, like jail time or nothing like that. No, I didn't, I didn't know anything about it. 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. I tried to say that I didn't write that so they can knock some time off. And I thought I was the nicest bank robber. Until 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, ugh. I was like, give me the fucking money. You know what I mean?

I had to. You know, and I felt bad doing that. 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 lawyer, they gave me. Because if you don't have no money, they give you public defenders. Yeah. Which, you know, you might get a good one, but nine times. out of 10, you're going to get one that sucks or wants to just cut it deal real quick.

Right now, 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. Is it 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 um what that was that thing called you get a piece of paper and it has everything

in there um like the police report it has the police report has everything it's a um i forget what it's called but if anybody's been in trouble they know what i'm talking about has uh everything in there uh your interview with the police all that shit and uh 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 my 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 jacked me up and got me out.

And the funny part is the cops Like you did the right thing after he got me through the door He said you did the right thing man Yeah Yeah How much by what's called, excuse me It's called a discovery Yes

Discovery and uh 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'd 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 knocked down from five to three

Because I never been in freaking trouble well I except little punk-ass crimes, but like nothing serious, you know, 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. It's coming. And then I find out it's sitting on his fucking desk. I freak, 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. 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. 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? 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 lot of fucking money that 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. 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 uh 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 got 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 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 shit out. Did you have to get sober in jail like quick? Yeah, I just, oh, absolutely. They don't care. They don't care. right? Well, I was I was placed as soon as I got locked up where I was charged with strong armed robbery so I was placed in with

murderers and and guns so if you had a gun or you're a murderer and robbery you're a place in that cell and yeah there's some some tough dudes in there so I was like fuck this and I literally like

three days later I just started working out around this you know you're in this little you know they let you out of the cell and you have a day room. And I just started working in a day room. But I think what helped me out was 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 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, 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 stand and stay on that fucking tier, you would have to fight another blood. So they were going rooms all day and fight. It was awesome, man. They were just bang, back, bang, and the cops are so like out, out like there's like a fence.

Yeah. 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. Yeah, you've got time.

Yeah, and then you go in the back and then, 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 shoot or you're working. Well, yeah, I went, 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 Nikki. And, you know, so I went by gauge in there, man. So, yeah, 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.

Just want to do your time. Yes. What was your first night in prison like? Well, it sucked because they would keep you in it. 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 20 people was in there with me. And they're all there on their first night. Yeah, they're waiting to go off 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, 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. I was, you know, 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 had my weight up, man.

So, like, and I went up 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? And 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 no, I never ran in that problem. You know, why? Because I was in that fucking yard, lifting them weights and going to, 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, but 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, milking cows and shit. Yeah.

What? Yeah. 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 for maximum, which is, you know, hardcore criminals. And then if you're good and you earn points, you go to medium. I went to medium for two years. Then 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 dorm. 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. So I got second shift farm. And they had the silo where you throw calphi out of the silo.

And I said, yes, I want that because it'll work on my cardio and it'll work on my abs and it'll work on my back. I'm already thinking, like, man, let me train to get 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 because butter tastes good, you know, it's their shitty food. But if you throw a little pound of butter on there, all of a sudden, them pancakes are tasting like buttermilk from IHOP. You know what I mean? So I was buttering on everything.

Man, I blew up to two-fifference. What 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's looking for a person. And I became, if you want to believe it, I became the assistant of chaplain, you know, for sister Carina.

So. Wow. Are you a religious person? You know, you know, 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, I'm doing every day? Um, yes, I do.

I say a prayer every meal, every dinner. Me and my wife say a prayer, you know. Um, but do I, you know, make, I'm shouldn't 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? Like your church is in the ring. Yeah, it is, man. Yeah.

I love that place, man. And, uh, that injury really, really sucked, man, sitting home. I'm 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, no. That's my job, man. I don't have no other job, so. Can't help I 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 know, you never know if someone's going to fuck with me. Did you fly with that?

No, man, TSA. Actually, I got an argument with the lady there because I didn't know. You couldn't wear them Gator mask things. 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're on fire right now. Yeah. Yeah, we're taking over to playoffs. But so I had another mask. But she was just 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 prior are so ignorant to them. You know what I mean? Well, unfortunately, for every person like me or you that flies a ton, 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.

You don't like to 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. The United States Soccer Federation presents the U.S. soccer podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Klinberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Time's ticking. I think you can feel the intensity.

All the guys are wanting to really say. They're claiming, and they want to be on that World Cup roster. There's no doubt about it. Hosting the World Cup on the home soil comes with its pressures, but we're just really excited just as the people are. The U.S. Soccer podcast, presented by Henko. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. 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, it's just, you know, mine's just turned up a notch, you know.

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Just go to BetterHelp.com slash insight. That's BetterHelphelp.com slash insight. Where does the real version of you end and the gimmick version of you begin? Or are they both melded together now? Show day, man. I start turning it up a notch. Definitely when I wake up on my damage show. man, we're about to fucking wrestle.

Okay. So you wake up on show day, what happens from there? I just, I just start zoning it, man. Okay. You know what I mean? I start thinking about the match and start thinking about all the things, especially like if it's a tournament, you know, you got to go and rerounds 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 like you would have like, all right, well, if this guy's tough first round, I'm going to roll through him. 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 him, 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.

We bring nothing in but animals, you know? Look at Alex Cologne. Shut out to Alex Cologne, 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. 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 Cage 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. Yeah.

You don't want to just have a death match. Yes. 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, and all them guys on the WADTV right now, I must have wrestled them all back 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 man. 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 and 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 him, listen, you need to learn how to wrestle first and then get in there and, you know, and then figure it out.

But you got to learn how to wrestle, man, you know. So beyond what happens inside the ring or in a wrestling match, what scares you? What scares me, heights. Okay. 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. age, you know, and I'm just scared, you know, you never know in life, you know what I mean. But, um, I do, you know, go to a doctor and get yearly checkup, so I need to get the new one, but my last checkup was great. So does your doctor think you're insane? Yeah, um, 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 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. It killing me, man. It's crazy. You had 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 a house. And now we have a kitten. But every time I pick him up, man, he just scratches the crap out of me. He said, 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 two, 2000, 2000. No. Yeah. I got one right here. I got another one down here when I faced Nate Hed or a 200 light dude death match. So it's like he always going to like kind of touch it and be like, yeah, you know,

shout out the 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. Be honest with you, when I had my arm injury and I told the doctor, can you just start cutting all this glass out of me? He's like, it's fine.

it healed over it and you're all right. That's what the doctor told me. So you have it. 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 I'm like for me getting this injury, I kind of got out of shape a little. But once I start getting in shape and 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. 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 both died at the same age, which was 48, so I hope I don't go down 48, you know what I mean? So well that was like your mom died of breast cancer. Yeah, mom. Yeah, I loved her, man. She was awesome.

My dad, I believe, died of lung 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 didn't fight it at all. He just, you know, pulled the hospital bed up to his house,

had the nurse come in and then just, you know, withered away. And I was too young 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 basketball out 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. It's reception. So you go to reception and from reception, they stood, you go see a classification

and they send 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 came, cuffed me, put 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 1. 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 in that it.

And I feel like they sent me there to break me. Shit, so I did the total opposite. I'm out in the freaking yard banging push-ups. I'm banging pull-ups. I'm running. They had like weights out there. I'm hitting them. I'm doing this.

I'm a big circuit train. I'm a big hit guy. You know, high-intentintentioned 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. they're trained. 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, cool.

Now we just keep working out. And he tried to blame it all. And they didn't have enough food. Well, guess what, bud? I don't have enough food either. You know,

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 getting a steak or something Or where they're bringing me food and listen to this

So I'm mopping and he goes, hey Nick And I'm like, yo, I never get called Nick in prison, it's Gage And I'm like, yo, why are you 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's my dad's brother's kid 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 forever. So I was like, oh, yo, yo, Danny, what's up?

So my celly 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 got him to move him to myself. And then he 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 how cool 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. They're like, you know, I was like 14. I didn't really care, you know. So that was dope as hell, right? It's like you got to meet your dad. So I got, yeah, in such a shitty-ass hole, 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 suck. 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. That's why you're training so hard.

Not right away, but, you know, like a couple months down the line, I was like, all right, yeah, you know, I wouldn't fucking do this. So I started training. And then once I, that's why I scream free to six, that's my boy, man. And he taught me how to lift the right way. He taught me how to work out. He taught 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 a hustle and do his thing to feed his family, and they locked them 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? And 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. And he was smart dude. I think it was marine biology. Am I saying that correct? 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 to smoke crack. And if you ever been to North Philly, cracks right around the fucking corner. So he told me this one story. I'll shout up 3-26 for this one. He told me this 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. And he bugged out. He said, I'll never do that again in my life. So you can tell you, so you know, two six is a little shot out. 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 will 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. He's like, who works out the hardest here? And like Gage, man. And he went and worked out and turned around. This dude was a beast, man. This guy was a beast.

You know, he was crazy. in 315. My God. He was benching 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 hunter on all power lifts. But the only thing I could keep up with them 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 a 505. I might not have been parallel, but 505 was. definitely power. That's impressive.

Yeah. Well, we were working out everything, man. There's nothing to do. You know what else is. 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, when you go and work out, you know, first, you know, get introduced to the weight. Slowly get in there. Once you're ready, you go attack them weights. Okay. You fucking attack them. You know, you just got to attack them motherfuckers, you know, and then 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. You know, I would always, it's, I always call it stick and twist. So I will work my bleak muscles. Yeah, yeah. And shit. And then he was afraid, two six 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 eyes. 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 when I was locked up, I had all these fans sending me cards and 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.

But 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 success, you know? And while 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. I was ripped up, man. I was ripped up, man. We were working out hard. I remember we worked out 26 days straight in a row.

You know what I mean? 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, man. 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, 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, with 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? You don't know what a funger is like, I don't know. It's just all this bunch of bullshit into they take crackers. And they turn the crackers in 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. You know what I mean? And they let this guy hungry. Huh. 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. To knock him. 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 around.

slap that dude in the face and just take his fungo. But, you know, they're seeing 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. He's being a pain in 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. Be yourself. Always be yourself, man. I don't care, man. People want to fucking say names about you. whatever man well fuck them people man be yourself and always be yourself man and life's gonna 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 and and i try to preach that on the road man yeah you know and and um you know especially like you know like uh with the trans and stuff like that and the gays I sent the tweets out for that stuff man and and they get it the hardest and it's start we're starting to get understand that like this is great that we're like you know what they're accepted and who they are man yeah 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 art form of wrestling, you know? 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, 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 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 keyboard 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 couldn't believe it. Yeah. My wife's like, you're on, you're on TMZ. I was like, no, I'm not. And I was on TMZ.

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 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 right, 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're not the first guy. I'd say, 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 this 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 the ground.

My heart's race. I even thinking about this. You know, another thing is, you know, you try to spin and end a double shoot on me. when I'm crushing the glass on his head. Dude, I'm like, 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 he's, when I was here, he's spawning and it went in his neck. And at first I was like, damn, did I just kill David Arquette? That was my first thought of 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 crush them and shit. I thought that's a little funny part. You know, um, Do you think he knew what he was getting himself into? No, I don't think so. Yeah. I think he was doing it for the documentary. I don'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. Um, I think he got- He took you to like the fanciest restaurant in Hollywood, by the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was really nice. You were probably surrounded by like all kinds of like A-listers. Yeah, it was really nice of him, man. Yeah. Who was very good.

Um, he was cool. That's the oldest restaurant in Hollywood. That's like, they shot a bunch of scenes for, from Quinn Tarantino's new film there. Yeah, that is a very, like... I did not know that. Yeah, not 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 ex-aing 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-nate that. Okay. I try to explain to him, man. All this shit's real, man. This shit's real. I think he fucking, when I started turning it up a notch,

I think he started like, oh, whoa, wait a minute. 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 frigging G. Raver or Alex Colon or Schlack or any of the awesome crazy 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 of course I did. Have you talked to him since? No.

You called my house a couple of times where he wanted to use the footage for a 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 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 documentary. 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? In my house, yeah.

You should probably open it. Well, 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 Arkansas. I mean, if this bad's good enough for David Arquette and his wife, Christina, is probably good enough for the king of the death match. Yes, yeah. And, uh, you know, and it's a king size, man.

So it's huge. King for the King. There you go. Yeah, you 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? Yeah, I had to be. fucking Cactus Jack, man. You know,

um, 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. Yeah. Because I suck with names.

That, that really fucking went hard. Shit like that. But it, uh, Cactus Jack was my, my favorite all time. I could give you a little Cactus Jack story.

Please. Um, so I got out of jail and I went to this one show that he was on. And I wasn't, 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 Gage and I'm 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. I said, don't you ever apologize to me. I love this death match 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. Crazy. Mick Foley hasn't had a death match in like 20 years. Yeah. He was in my corner one time for, I forget what company it was.

It might have been JCW or something like that before DCW came along or something like that. He was in my corner and it was so awesome. You know what I mean? I did I did tour him in death. CCW's Tourment of Death. Yeah. And after I 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 one and gave him the middle fan. 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, 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 the shit, man.

And I hope that when I can't go no more, there's some way I could find a job in wrestling that I can do that allows me to stay in this business my whole life. I just hope so. You know, I pray for it, but, you know, we'll see. Yeah. You know, 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 didn't, I, I, I, I, I, I probably watched most of it.

I thought it was okay, you know. Good for, you know, cable television. Yeah, it was okay. Okay. You know, I don't, 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, they did that on purpose. I don't think so.

You know, 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 end. Especially the ending. With Eddie Kingston in there, yeah. It's huge. If anybody's seen the old one with Ayabusa and Otani, I mean, Otani, look at the other guy's name. Look at me in names, man.

I suck at it. You told me earlier. You're like, I'm not great with names. Ayabusa and the other guy, which I should know. Everyone in the comments. I met him too, man. 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, 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.

Well, clearly something happened. 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 place is like an open-air empathy. Yeah, I've never been there. So when the ring 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 grand stand, 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 on, you know, and stay positive. Is there anybody you haven't wrestled yet? Yeah, there's a couple guys. Other than like Cactus Jack? Yeah, man, I wish I would love to wrestle that guy.

man Terry funk man um yeah there's you know there's a couple guys I haven't wrestled yet but did they know you have want to wrestle them um do want to put it out there yeah I mean I I you know I wrestle Kenny Omega I would love to wrestle that guy man so with you get death when I seen him um uh wrestle that guy the Japanese guy from new Japan uh who's the what's in New Japan yeah he was onahashi 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 He wrestling for an hour long They're world champ New Japan guy World champ right now is Will Osprey Oh really Yeah

Will's my guy too Shout out the Will Man That's my boy I didn't know that I stopped following New Japan for a little bit Hey won like a month again

But anyway He wrestled Somebody And their matches Abushi Uh huh Abushi Oh man

Chris Anyway, it was a masterpiece And their workability is out of control, man So, you know, I've wrestled 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 And I want the fans to be entertained. Yeah. You know, you know, sometimes you got to go over and, you know, and keep your name up there, you know, but it doesn't bother me. I got no problem looking at the lights, you know.

So how do you want to be remembered when this is all done? Wow, great question. I'm just a guy who fucking gave it is all, man. Never backed down and gave it 100% and really loved this sport and really help put death match wrestling on the map. You know, I want to be a guy who really fucking, I remember when they try to fucking get rid of 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. 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. That's what we did. GCW and us, we put it back on the map. Yeah. We found all them talents that people said can't go or can't do that. You know, we found Eric Ryan who he sees the W 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 do we 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 ZZW name. They just want to have a stepping stone and move on. 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 die from 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 i shot out the matt justice too that's my fucking boy he's a guy i'll fucking go in for i know matt from a i w shut out yes yeah a i w is like my second home man i love them people there um they're great people man so um john thorn's so good yeah shout out to thorny man thorny um as soon as i got at prison man thorny put me

right in the mix man he used me non-stop man and and he wanted me to do a lot of wrestling instead a death match so i got to be able to pick my ability and start you know get get my craft a little better in the ring instead of just you know doing death matches and uh i heard from thorny but i had to go um i had to do something else so i couldn't go out there you want to fly me out there and i tell thorny man man i'll drive out there i 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 people. 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. Yeah. So if someone's going to go on YouTube right now and look at their first Nick Gage match, which match should it be? Wow, what my first match? No, just what, if it's going to be their first match of yours that they see. Oh, shit. Because after listening's conversation, they're going to go look.

I really love my SiclePay match. I believe it's Tournament's survival. It's, I go one-on-one with SiclePay. 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 can still go hard and I can fucking. And you want to know a little small fact about that match. Yeah.

He was the first guy up. So we had a razor board in there, which is, you know, the razor's board. And I took a drop toll onto the razor board and it cut me right down here. And I went in the back and I was like, I'm like, I pissed 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, I was dead. But it got something It just would not stop bleeding But I stopped

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 tubes, 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 couch because my ride was laudered out. So he had to, like, you know, handle all the shit. I 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 just 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 it was fucking awesome that's just one of my favorites You know, it comes in, there's a lot of them. I really like the match. Me and my brother did to 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 have. So Zandai would a fuck. And they were a little intimidated by John.

You know what I mean? Yeah. And 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 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 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.

but we fucking did that spot and they loved it, man. The crowd was going nuts. I know we had the match in 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, Chris. 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, 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. Then year two, they slow down. They never slowed down. I just kept getting them until I got out. And these people are taking time out of their way to write me a letter, 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. Dude, not only that, they sent me money. You know what I mean? And I didn't need money. I had a job, man. Job paid 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 death kill 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 had 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 each 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 survived there. I would probably, like, got another job or something, you know? Yeah.

So, fucking thank God for GCW. Thank God for the murder that killed game. Yeah. 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, Nick. 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. Yeah, I didn't know that. You know what I mean? I didn't know anything. You would think rhinos are fucking beast and an animal.

You know, you think he'd be down in the basement eating raw meat until he has to go. He owns a big dad his boat yard. Yeah. And then you've come to find out, man. He's a boat guy. Yeah. He's a straight edge guy. And it's just that.

I'm going to never found out. You didn't interview him. So that was pretty cool, man. Yeah, 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 that 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 deathmatch shit and all that I'm light tubes and all that shit it 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 started stop eating red meat so uh 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 know I'm getting up air and age man so I think I got to switch my diet around I'm saying you're only three years older than me yeah stop making it seem like we're old yeah well you know once you hit 40 man you know shit shit switches a little chris you know and um you know look at tom brady and stuff and like guys like that man you see that they eat right they see their diet right and the way they work out and all of a sudden they're in their 40s playing you know a hard sport so if i want to continue doing this i feel like maybe if i switch my diet and i work out differently and maybe I could keep going, you know.

You need to watch this Facebook mini-series. Okay. Called Tom versus Time. It's Tom Brady, like, docu-series. Yeah. 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 are a machine. Yes. Yeah. But there was this one story about Tom Brady. That 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 fucking 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. 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 was just, it's a cool story. You know what I mean? And it motivates me.

I try to find little stories like that or little quotes. Yeah. That'll motivate me in my life. You know, I'm a big strong believer in that. You know, I'm a big, what's your, We'll end on this. What's your favorite quote? Well,

you're going to put me on the spot there. Or what's a quote that really speaks to you right now? I'll have to get back to you on that one. 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. 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 watch this documentary on Netflix, man. Yeah, his body's going through.

But, you know, that guy was a machine. 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. 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 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 whole body through the squats, you know. Man, I want a 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 to Eastern Block. It's going to be hard for them to hear it. And I just want to say rest in peace to my tag team partner, Big Nate Hatred. And rest in peace to my brother, Justice Payne. You know, I miss my brother, man. I was literally boarding a flight when someone texts me and said, did you hear about your brother?

And he was going through some mental problems. 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. 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 representing for him and my mom and every other family member has 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'm, 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, talked to them and kicked it one of them. I actually, you know,

because I only took one match. Yeah. And Manny Weekend, usually I just go. The one with Mock Slay. Well, just Manny Weekend is like, um,

it's different now, but the old many are weekends. COVID changes it. Yeah. The old mini weekends, you have show after show after show. And I would take as main as I can. Yeah.

But this time I was like, I just want 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 motivate my boys when we were lifting and everything like that.

So I think I, you know, I'm a strong motivator and shit like that. Yeah. You know, I'm going to, 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 hard work and I will be dedicated. Yeah. You know, that's what words I live by right there, man. Yeah. You know, I always tell the young ones, man, you know, and they always hit me up. I do cameos and stuff like, which are awesome, by the way.

I love cameos, man. I don't know why I love them. I don't know how I love them, but 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 can 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, you know, and it worked, man. You know, 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. Yeah. 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. thing, 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 some crazy combo, you know, start small. We'll be able to get that out of your chest, get that out of your head, man. It's going to work. Yeah. You know, I'm a strong believer in that too, man. Yeah.

To be able to talk to somebody. Yeah. And everything like that. And it's great to see in, in 2021, that going into 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. Oh, you're going to a shrink? Yeah. Yeah, you're a pussy. You're going to do a shrink? Yeah. The fuck are you? Man, the fuck are you?

Man, 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, you know, which is dope, you know,

so, you know, um, you know, I'm able to talk to a couple people, which is dope, you know, and,

and, 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. So, 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? That's great, man. You know, 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 Gage 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. There you go. It's hard to wrap it up any better than that. But wow, what a story he has. And if you haven't checked out the Dark Side of the Ring episode about Nick Gage,

do yourself a favor at some point this week and watch it. It is. It's just incredible. There's a lot to unpack from this one. But I would love to hear what resonated with you the most. Snap a screenshot. Tag us on social media. On Twitter, Nick is at the king, Nick Gage.

And I'm at Chris Van Fleet. And since Nick couldn't think of a quote to end this on, I'll give you a great quote. You might have heard me say it before, but it's such a good quote from The Rock. And he says, it's nice to be important, but it's important to be nice. Be great. Be grateful, my friends. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock.

But there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of then?

To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Alley. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.