Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Paul Walter Hauser: Emmy Winner To Pro Wrestler, AEW, Hardcore Matches, Playing Mick Foley In A Movie?

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

Paul Walter Hauser (@paulwhausergram) is an actor and professional wrestler. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood, CA to discuss his roles in "Cobra Kai" and "I, Tonya", why he turned down the opportunity to be in a movie with John Cena, having wrestling as a side quest, not being discussed in the celebrity wrestling conversation, taking bumps through glass and onto thumbtacks, working with AEW and MLW, which spot hurt the most, his upcoming role as Chris Farley, potentially starring in a Mick Foley biopic, and more!   Please support our sponsors!   PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/?ref=tibcloux FACTOR: Get 50% off your first box, plus Free Breakfast for 1 Year with the code INSIGHT50OFF at https://factormeals.com/INSIGHT50OFFSTASH: Go to https://get.stash.com/INSIGHTto see how you can receive $25 towards your first stock purchase and to view important disclosures   SEAT GEEK: Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/CVV2025 Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount   NORDVPN: Exclusive deal! https://nordvpn.com/cvv Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! PRIZEPICKS: Download the app today and use code INSIGHT to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup!  TIMELINE: Go to https://timeline.com/insightto get 10% off your order of Mitopure!   VUORI: Get 20% off your first purchase! Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet at https://vuori.com/cvv   ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and reach your financial goals faster: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv MIRACLE MADE: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://trymiracle.com/CVV and use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF   ZOCDOC: Instantly book a top-rated doctor today at https://zocdoc.com/insight   BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv   BLUECHEW: Get your first month of BlueChew for free with the code CVV at https://bluechew.com   For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you have ever enjoyed any of these episodes, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast or Spotify? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.    Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chris So good to see you Always good to see you Always good to see you Good job not aging Oh Way to go Well I guess

I don't know I feel like it's gonna hit me one day One of appearances One day I'm gonna wake up And like I'm gonna look 70 I feel like Nah you're gonna be more of a Keanu Reeves type of aging I think it's just gonna be a slow

Slow burn of Of just a little bit of droopage But the handsome face will still be there You know Thank you It's good You're looking well Thanks

Yeah, I feel good for the most part. Wrestling doesn't make your body feel great. But, but yeah, no, you were just referencing that Jamie Taco sketch I did for it. I think you should leave. Yeah. Which is weirdly one of like the things I get called out for the most. That is? Yeah, no, I think I could like, I could get it.

I could be like the villain in the last Fast and Furious movie. And I would still be Stingray and the guy from I think he should leave. You're in that episode for like four minutes. Yeah. It was like a nine-page sketch. It was so long. We shot for like a 13-hour day. It was like the last day of shooting before they shut down for COVID back in 2020.

But it's such a funny premise that like you get, you get this role in a play, you're playing a henchman, and Jamie Taco keeps stealing your lines. A line stealer. Because he speaks so fast. So fast. And I'm so emasculated by a, you know, as a man and as an actor, which is also. funny the way they cast it because the guy looks like he works at you know like he's a senior in high school and he's the the mouthy guy working behind the snack shop or something after school he just doesn't seem like a real threat and uh and it's so funny the way tim robinson had me play it you know

he literally gave me line reads like he would come tim robinson would be like say it like this honey i audition for a play and i got the part and it's like when you see him doing it. You're like, oh, and then you see me doing it. It's like, clearly there's Tim's DNA in the delivery. It's so funny. Did you see friendship? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. It was, it was funny. It was, it was. I want to talk about someone who has an age. Paul Rudd looks incredible. Yeah, that guy is scary, uh, forever young. He's like 50, 52. I don't believe it. He's a vampire. I'm sure he believes it. As we get older, it's, yeah, it's tricky to, although, you know, those Marvel movies he does the Ant Man thing. That's kind of, you know, those Marvel movies. He does the Antman thing.

that's kind of nice too because a lot of the action is probably it's not like he's being shrunk and jumping around he kind of gets to usurp that part of it maybe but no I meant to say you look good and back when I shot that in 2020 I was like a 285, 290 pounds. I'm probably hovering at 245 right now. That's amazing. And planning to get down even lower.

I'm about to do two movies back to back, one for Sony and one for Paramount. I'd like to get down to about 225, 230 and just stay there. and then wait till I shoot the Farley movie if that happens. And then the Farley movie I might have to put on a little bit. You're going to be,

man, this is huge. You're going to be Farley. Well, see, the movie's not greenlit. This script is great, though, dude. They sent me a brand new draft. This is like the fifth draft or something. And I read it on the plane ride here to come here this week.

And I was like, oh, it was like this funny feeling in my belly. It was like, oh, wow. based on where the script is, it's like there's nothing else to do. It's truly ready. Now it's like the baton is about to get past to me. And it's all my responsibility to not screw it up.

And this would be your first, like, leading man role, right? I think it might be like the fourth. Richard Jewel, I guess. Richard Jewel. I think Blackbird was kind of a two-hander, I guess, you know, me and Taryn. And then, uh, luckiest man in America where I play the, uh, Pressure Luck guy.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But I haven't done it much. It's crazy. I was talking to O'Shea Jackson. The other day, him and T.J. Jefferson came down for the MLW show. We did in Long Beach a couple nights ago. And we were talking.

We were talking about like responsibility on set. And we were supposed to hang when he was shooting with Dave Franco in Atlanta. And he's like, dude, I looked at my schedule. I had one day off. And I was like, oh, yeah, you were starring in it. And we laughed because, like, when you're a supporting actor in a movie, way more chill. way more chill.

It's like being on the pre-show at WrestleMania. You're still in the big show, but it's not like you're going to have to do Detroit Free Press and Good Morning America and everything. So we're kind of used to chilling, but when we star in stuff,

it's a crazy amount of work. There's, like I've heard a lot of actors talk about when you're number one on the call sheet, things change. Like everybody's looking to you for a little bit of guidance on set. Well, there's some of that too,

assuming you have some leadership skills. Thankfully, I've been blessed with some of that through even in high school. I just did a billion extracurricular activities. And, you know, theater or two is such a team sport. You can learn some leadership skills there. But I have been on sets where you wish you could look to that guy or gal and you can't. And you're like, okay.

But I, yeah, no, it's a lot of, somebody told me recently they go, they said something I've seen you do on set is that you're holding space for a lot of other people while you're still performing. And I think that just means being present, being socially or emotionally available, and not just hibernating in like a method actor world. You've been in so many things. You're now fall into that category of you're that guy from that thing, right? Because you've been in so many different movies and TV shows.

What's the role that people associate you most with? Oh, like I said earlier, it's definitely Cobur Kide, the Stingray character. That would be number one. number two is probably Richard Jewell. That movie's really grown on people in a sense of like, I think people found that on Amazon Prime to rent or it was free if you have the subscription and then like airplanes. People were watching Richard Jewel on airplanes.

It's still on Delta. I was flying Delta the other day and they had I Tanya, Richard Jewel, and Lucky's Man in America. Do you like put it on? Look around. No, do you imagine? You imagine? I did it once with It Ta-Tani, though, where I did purposely.

But it was me going, oh, I haven't watched this in a minute. So I threw it on and was like, such a weird little movie. Like, it's- You're so fun in that movie. I mean, it's a fun role, you know? It's very much like, ideologically, the guy is just way off the reservation, you know? And if you play it straight, kind of like, I don't know, maybe a Cohen brother movie, you know, something's funny, but it's being played

earnestly. I think that is like the secret sauce to that type of role. I see a lot of comments on your wrestling stuff that's like Stingray's a wrestler now? Yeah, yeah. That's everything. I mean, like I said, I could play Winston Churchill. There'd still be somebody at a Broadway show in the back row going Stingray, security will be pulling them out, you know. But, you know, good problem to have. It's totally like a quality problem for sure. And I love that it makes like kids and families happy. Like there's something's happened in the last couple of years where I think it was a combination of movies I did.

It was like Cruella, Cobra Kai, inside out to I did an animated film called Orion in the Dark on Netflix. And then I now have this show called The Chosen Adventures, which is like an animated version of the biblical show The Chosen. and it's fun to see families rally around you as a performer and as a artistic person. It's really sweet. I mean, especially when you're a father yourself. Like, you know what it's like to have your kids watching stuff. And it would be stuff you're proud of that you would want your kids to watch or watch with them, you know. There was a big moment in culture when Shrek came out or Toy Story because it felt like parents could appreciate and enjoy the entertainment almost congruently with the children.

That was a big deal. So I'm always looking for, if I'm going to do a family piece of some kind or a kid's movie, can I do one that I actually think is cool? Not just, I'm the voice of the, you know, giraffe in Madagascar 9. You know, like I think it's important to still, even when you're doing children's entertainment, to hold yourself to a certain standard of excellence and try to tell the best story. Are you at the point in your career now where you're able to choose the projects that you work on? Oh, yeah, no, for sure.

I mean, I passed. Amazing. I pass on X amount of things, and that's another privileged position to be in. Maybe it'll come a moment. And there have been moments. I won't say what projects, but there have been two or three movies or shows that I've done where I've gone. That was more because I needed that in that moment.

I needed some money and I didn't have a million offers. So you do something. But for the most part, I would say my batting average is like a, Hall of Fame numbers as far as like, not, I'm not talking performance. I just mean like choosing good stuff. Well,

getting the Hall of Fame, three out of 10, you know, that's it. Not asking much. Right. In baseball, if you bat 300,

you're a Hall of Fame pretty much. Yeah, I think, I think some of these people that oversaturate themselves do lose favor, maybe not monetarily,

but definitely in the eyes of the audience. The other day I was like watching TV. It must have been, one of the games was on. right, like Thursday night football or whatever. I must have seen Kevin Hart more than I saw the broadcasters.

And it was just, he had like three commercials on it once. And I'm like, what the hell is going on? Like what? How are, how and why are you doing that much? Like how much he can't need the money unless he's like buying crack for 40 of his closest friends or something. I'm pretty sure he's good financially. Like, what is it that makes a man of his.

talent and stature and positioning still go out and go, man, I got to do a commercial for Capital One. Maybe it comes from a point, I don't know, I'm just guessing here. Survivor's guilt. Right. Like, you didn't have anything. So, like, how could you say no to stuff now when, like, who knows where you're going to be in a year or two or ten? Like, if you're saying no to stuff now, what's that saying to the older version of yourself?

Sure. Maybe it's a fear-based mentality. Yeah. Or you feel you owe it to somebody. I don't know. I remember there's a story I've told once or twice of like after I did a black clansman, I Tanya was coming out and it's like so right as I was signing with CIA because I had a kerfuffle where an agent became a manager and I had to like play musical chairs for a minute with my representation

but there was a time where I was given an offer for Hawaii 5O to do like a guest star. multiple episodes, I think. You're like, yeah, well, you know, you can do like three or four episodes. We'll pay you like 40K. You'll be in Hawaii for a month at a five-star hotel. And we want you in the writer's room. We think you could have fun helping craft the character based on what we saw in it. And I was like, yep.

And they're like, you're going to work with, you know, Hurley from Lost, you know, that Jorge Garcia. And I was like, oh, dude, I love Lost. I tell the CIA and they're like, yeah, no. I'm like, but I don't want to go to Hawaii. But Hawaii. But I come from a family of pastors and teachers who made that in a year sometimes. That was their gross, not net.

And they were like, you can't go from Marga Robbie and Spike Lee to Hawaii 5-0 based on where you're trying to head. I was like, okay. So I passed. And God bless you. I passed. He's like disgusted by me. He had to turn away. He was like, you piece of, I passed.

And then a week later. I get an offer for Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. And Netflix, basically, for the episode or two that I did, they paid me a bag of pretzels on an airplane, basically. I made zero money. But I was on something I was really proud of, and I got to work with some brilliant comedic people. And it was like, okay, I guess I'm in the Cool Kids Club,

but there are sacrifices that then need to be made if you want to be perceived a certain way. And I think that's some of the business stuff behind in the scenes that people don't know is going on. A lot of business decisions. And I'm picking and choosing, too. I got offered Ricky Stenicki at one point, the Efron-Sina movie. And it just wasn't a lot of money.

And, you know, they couldn't, they didn't want to fly my whole family first class to Australia. And I was like, that's a long flight. That's not mad chill. And I kind of had that Matt Riddle moment, not, you know, you heard recently, he had that thing where he's like, you guys put me in second class with a ham sandwich between three people, squished with, like, yeah, but this was me seven weeks out going, I don't think that makes sense for me. And I passed and I felt horrible because I think Zach Efron's really fun. I like him.

And did the wrestling fan and you go, I could have been in a movie with John Sina. Don't you want John Sina to think you're cool? Yeah. You want to work with him? He's, he's so funny. We're going to become best friends. We do a movie together, John Sina. And the director, Pete Fairly.

so it's like a lot of cool a lot of cool elements of like the boy in me was like yes but I passed and then dude life is just weird where I passed on that and then

like a year and a half later I got offered two years later I got offered balls up which is a Pete Fairley movie with Mark Wahlberg and they paid me we flew to Australia

they flew my whole family first class it took care of us I was like, it's so weird that when you take the gamble on believing you know your value. Yeah. You know, whatever someone wants to call it, I call it God. But, you know, fate, God has a way of rewarding you for that, I think. So long as it's not out of some ego, some ugly ego thing. For me, it was more like I just got to know, you got to know what your value is.

So how does wrestling fall into this? Because I imagine you're not making a lot of money, if any, with the wrestling matches you're having. Right, right. My pay differs based on the company, too. You know, if I'm working, if I were to do something with TNA, say, and they were like, hey, come do a match with A.J. Francis

or a tag match, you know, you're going to be paired with the rascals against three heels. I would want, you know, 10 grand for that match. Because to me, you're also getting eyeballs and press and whatever else comes with it. And I'm going to go out of my way to make it as good as it possibly can be at the risk of hurting myself. But if action wrestling down in Georgia is like, hey, do you want to come fight, you know,

take an L to Adam Priest or tag with your buddy, Darien Bankston, I'm not going to charge them more than three or four hundred bucks. And I still got to drive down there and drive back. And I don't know if I'm selling merch or not. And I don't know if I'm going to need, you know, I don't know if they're not going to have catering catering. Like, you know, there's X amount of things that you give up to just wrestle and have fun. So you're wrestling because you love it.

Yeah. Yeah. And I need. You love it. I love it the way I love acting. But I also need my reps. I need to get my reps in. And I wish I was getting those reps in training.

But I don't have a ring right next door to me. And I'm still a father at three and acting and producing and writing. so it's tricky. But I do hope to get to a point where I can be in the ring and work a little more safely. I've never hurt anybody else in the ring. I'm proud of that,

but I have hurt myself two or three times, and that sucks. You've wrestled, is it 23 matches as we sit here right now? I don't count the 23rd, you know, somewhere in there, there was a no contest where Damien Chambers came in

and broke up a match between me and Danhausen and Iowa. I don't count that. You don't go. So it's 22? 22, I call it, yeah. Which is crazy. because I think a lot of people watching this,

maybe they've seen one or two of your matches, but you're not in the conversation of celebrity wrestlers right now. I know, and it's frustrating. I'm not going to, like, pretend it doesn't bother me a little bit. Yeah. Really? Yeah, I'm working really hard,

and I'm, you know, not every match is a banger, for goodness sake. I've had some smelly-ass matches. There's probably six or seven of those 22 that I would like to hide somewhere and never show anyone. But there's probably four, five, even six that I'm very proud of that I'm like, you should watch me enjoy Janella at Defi.

You should watch me in Steve Macklin at Revolver. You, you know, you should watch this promo. I cut an MLW. This episode is brought to you by Factor. When you're on the go and you're busy, finding time to cook can be tough. That's why I love Factor. Their chef-prepared, dietitian-approved meals make it easy to stay on track and enjoy something comforting and delicious, no matter how hectic your schedule gets. I packed factor meals for this interview that you're listening to right now. Choose from a wider selection of weekly meal options, including premium seafood choices like salmon and shrimp and no extra cost.

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Join the millions of businesses transforming how they work with Zapier and AI. Get started for free by visiting Zapier.com slash insight. That's ZAPIER.com slash insight. So what's the idea behind you even getting into wrestling? You're a Golden Globe winning actor, primetime Emmy Award winning actor. From the outside looking in, someone's going to say, this guy doesn't need to wrestle.

I certainly don't need to. I just, it was a dream I had since I was a kid and I always, I always thought that would look more like, you know, snooky at WrestleMania. I'll come do a celebrity tag match where I'm only asked to do four moves the entire time. You know, I grew up in that era that you did where Dennis Rodman did a leapfrog over somebody while they ran the ropes. And he hit a clothesline and did an elbow drop and it was enough and we were all grateful and thought it was cool. Yeah. It wasn't not cool. But I care too much about wrestling and have way too much pride that I,

I want to go off ladders, go through tables, go through thumbtacks, get piled driven by Adam Priest in Vegas. Those are things that have happened. And I'm proud of that. And I hold myself to a standard, not that I'm ever going to be as good as a Kyle O'Reilly or something. I'm not an idiot. I'm not Kyle Fletcher.

But I'm also more than ready to say when my run is done, whether that's in two years are 10, I guarantee if someone is looking at statistics on paper and they're being logistical and realistic, there is no way in hell they're going to say that bad bunny and Stephen Amel, Logan Paul.

There's one, Logan Paul I won't touch because he's putting in the work. But I think as far as Pat McAfee, bad bunny and say Stephen Amel, like, I'm going to blow past them if I haven't already for some people. And that doesn't mean I have something against them.

It just means like I'm, this is competition. I'm playing for keeps. I'm trying to make an impact. I'm trying to get eyeballs on the product. It's not a cameo where I just kind of pop in and pop out and make a bag of money. It's real. Did it start out as a cameo?

Did this start out as I want to just do one match? No, I always, I always wanted more than one match. And I hadn't even planned to wrestle right away. I was going to wait until I lost more weight. And then Sammy Callahan was like, like, do you want to come do a show for a revolver at the Ukrainian center in Glendale? And that kind of kickstarted it.

And when you're in the ring, for those that don't know, like, the adrenaline you get, mind you, I wasn't an athlete. Growing up, I was doing theater and, you know, starting bands and stuff. I wasn't playing high school football. I had never had an adrenaline rush like that. And I was like, this is addictive. I'm not addicted to the pops. I get pops every day.

That's, that's, I don't probably take it for granted. But I am addicted to that adrenaline and the idea of competition wanting to show up and perform at a high rate with no takes. You don't get a second take in wrestling. Acting, you can do 20 takes. They're like, you're brilliant. You're like, yeah, you didn't see the other 19 wrestling. It's like you just got to do it. What does your wife think of this?

She does not like it. No, at all. But, um, but I, I, I always, tell her the truth. I'm like, I take calculated risks. And there was a time when I was taking edibles and drinking scotch and partying around this city in Hollywood. And that was way more dangerous than I think wrestling. So this is your outlet? It's one of them. Yeah. I think cooking, I think cooking, screenwriting, wrestling, I have a couple different outlets that really serve me. I would love to take up golf at some

point, you know, Walberg helped me get my first pair of clubs and was really sweet and gifted something to me. But I just haven't gotten out there yet. I need to do that. So what is like, you always hear these stories about the wrestlers turned actors like Dave Batista, John Cena, the Rock. They can't be wrestling while they're on these productions because if they get injured, everything has to come to a screeching halt. Right. Have you had these conversations of like, hey, Paul, you know, if you get hurt. 100%. Yeah. There's a lot of people relying on you. We had, we had, I did a pre-tape in 24 for MLW.

We did a match that was famously panned by the online community. They despised it. I had a match with Tom Lawler and it was a cinematic and re-watching it. It's like,

it's, there were a couple of things I would do differently. I would shave off three or four minutes and I would also make it more 60 or 70% of him. I would change the ratio a little bit on who takes web, but that match we had already shot and I was doing whatever I was doing that summer.

It must have been the Walberg movie because I was in Australia and they're like, is Paul fighting a match tonight? Because they saw it like on Instagram or something. And my manager is like, no, he taped that. They're just going to air it. But they were like freaking out ready to like read me the riot act because they thought I was wrestling while I was shooting. I just don't know if they fully understand wrestling. You know, like I don't know if everybody in Hollywood.

Hollywood understands that like, I don't know what it is even. No, no, I think, yeah, I think, yeah, some people also think it's MMA. I've had people be like, are you sure you want to do that? Like, like, those guys can kill you for real. I've seen people leave the ring with their eyeball hanging out. And I'm like, no, no, no, this isn't like Bellator. This is, this is, you know, choreograph violence. It can get violent, but we're also not trying to kill each other.

Yeah. We're having a match. We're telling a story, hopefully. And that's another thing. I realized after my ROH match with QT Marshall, I said, wow, this is a difference between telling a story in the ring and just having a match. And I much prefer telling a story. And I'm trying to do that moving forward. You did it all in that match with QT Marshall.

We went for it. You did. So barbed wire bat barbed wire. Real barbed wire, by the way. I have the bat at home barbed wire bat barbed wire chair kendo sticks thumb tacks real kendo stick which hurt like hell you're in solo we'll go through each we'll go through each one here in glass as well yep so let's let's start with the barbed wire that was crazy hit me in the stomach but my shirt caught it didn't feel it that much at all uh and then rolled on my back felt that a little bit

had some cuts on my back and then was trying to roll it it into my face and I was like I was he he didn't stay long he knew better than to keep it on their long but there'll be people watching this going I know he said real barbed wire but we know it's not real barbed wire right no it is because when the prop guy hands it to me backstage I grabbed it like it was a toy and I cut my hand immediately I was bleeding immediately I'm not kidding it was so scary um not scary because I knew QT's so good he I knew we would go somewhere with it but we you know, he's a safe worker still, even in a dangerous match. And then the table set up, I had planned to,

there's a moment where he slides a chair at me and I ducked it. And then he throws one and I ducked it. That I was almost worried about more than anything. That, like, that could have really hurt. If that chair hits your temple, that's bad news, Brown. Bad news, Allen, sorry. But the table, I was going to do an air raid crash and I felt him slipping. and I didn't think I could grip him to get him underneath, you know, in that kind of headlock position when you do an air rate crash.

So I just kept them on my shoulders and did the Finley roll through the table, which we never practiced it. I've never done it before. It was an absolute audible in the moment, me thinking that was somehow safer than doing the air raid crash. Oh, my gosh. That wasn't the plan? Nobody knows. But I had the boys texting me. I had Brody King and people hit me up going, love that Finley roll.

And I'm like, I'm glad it turned out. okay because I've never done that before. Because if you don't fully rotate, you're spiking yourself on your head with another human attached to your shoulders. Well, there's that. And then there was also the thing of,

if he doesn't go flat and I somehow biff the turning, he might land on his neck. But I just felt the center of his weight on the middle of my back. And I'm like, okay, so long as I do a somersault, only I can get hurt from this, hopefully.

Oh, my God. And we're both fine, obviously. We're fine. How about the thumbtacks? Oh, man. First off, that kendo stick hurt like hell. Kendo sticks don't, you can't really, the only way to fake a kendo stick is for a guy to hit you very lightly.

And nobody does that because they know it's not going to be, you can't sell that. Because the great thing about the kendo stick is the sound. Yes, at least on the back or the head. So if you just hit someone lightly, there's no sound and it doesn't look good. So you need the sound. Yep. So that hurt a lot.

The thumbtacks, I didn't even feel. I didn't even feel the thumbtacks were my idea. QT's like, you know, they're all like, are you sure you want to do this? I'm like, yeah, I'm going to be doing this in the match. Just wait. And, but when I poured out the thumbtacks, I didn't pour them out in the middle of the ring, which I should have because that's the softest, bouncer part of the ring. I'm not thinking 15 minutes into a match or blown up.

I poured them near the turnbuckle, which is arguably the hardest part of the mat, you know, pretty equivalent to the apron that everybody's like, that's the hardest part of the mat. The turnbuckle is too. And so when I took that power bomb, for one,

you can see me pulling up my shirt. Yeah. Because he was, I was hoping he was going to pull up my shirt like a hockey fight, you know, to expose the back and then we could see the attacks, see the blood.

That was the plan. He didn't, for whatever reason. And so I'm literally trying to pull up my shirt as I'm in the power bomb position. It looks so goofy and stupid. He power bombs me and the wind got knocked out of me. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't talk.

So him and the ref were like, let's close this up. And then he didn't want to get thumbtacks in his hands or body. So you see him roll me up with my legs. But it was weak so I could kick out easily. And then I was trying to set something up in the corner. And of course, he hits me in the ball back. and got me with the diamond cutter,

which was more offensive because I'm dear friends at Diamond Dallas Page. But not just a diamond cutter. Not just a diamond cutter. Yeah. A diamond cutter onto a table with glass on it. Yep.

You can see QT's back. The glass sliced his backup. That's real. No, no blood packets there. We, after the match, we were both really like, we're both freaking exhausted. Like, he's in great shape.

But I saw him be tired. He was exhausted. But again, someone from the outside looking in is going to go, man, what a talented actor, Paul Walter Houser is. He's a Golden Globe winner. He's an Emmy winner. Why does he want to do a match like that? That's fun. It's really fun.

I had a hyper-violent match with Joey Janelle in Seattle this year. And I took ailed driver on a chairs. I delivered a butterfly suplex off the top. rope on it. We both landed on chairs. He DDTed me in the floor and it hurt like hell. For whatever reason, it wasn't the fakes DDT in the world. I think he thought because there was a mat on the outside, he can do it harder, but that mat

squished like a pillow and I felt the ground. I did a centon, Somersault senton off the stage onto him, onto chairs. We went for it, man. And I think once a year I would like to do that. But what I'm learning is I have to work a different style if I'm going to maintain it. You know, I'm barely a part-timer. A lot of these guys and gals, the Mike Bailey's of the world, they're wrestling two, three times a week.

So if I'm going to keep doing this at a level that I want to, I have to get in better shape. I have to change my style a little bit and then reserve those crazy matches for once a year. Was that the type of wrestling you liked growing up? Somewhat. I was really more into guys like Dean Malenko, to be honest. I loved Lance Storm, Dean Malenko, a guy like Chris Canyon who had an innovative offense, who was so out of his time.

Chris Canyon was doing some like almost PWG style stuff. Big WCW guy? Very much so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But WCW really fell off middle of 98. I just stopped caring. I just was like, yeah, clearly the creatives getting bad were beating Goldberg for no reason. You're not making Sting a priority.

You're just putting them in Wolfpack. now you're bringing in, you know, Brian Knobbs and Vampiro, and I just don't care. One of the saving graces of that period, though, was that first hour, the Lucha, like the cruiserweight hour? Oh, man.

Come on. I mean, psychosis, Kidman, Hello, Blitzkrieg. Three count. Three count were great. Three count was so good. Legitimately good.

Yes. Talk about PWG. Those guys were just like, first year wrestling students the way they acted. They would just do something and be like, hope this turns out. 8 o'clock to 9 o'clock before Ross started. Like the cruiserweight hour was unbelievable on Nitro. The second half was always fraught with like an undesirable mixed tag match with managers,

like a promo that goes on for like nine minutes. And then the main event was like two big names, but they phoned it in. And it's like Kevin Nash and the giant. And of course, it's just a bunch of end. members beat up to Giant. It's a schmaz. It's in DQ, whatever. Like, it's really sad. If you watch early WCW, which I do, I go on YouTube and I constantly am just like, you know, typing in names like Dustin Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, Rick Flair, Sting, Vader, Cactus Jack. Early WCW matches are unbelievable. They are so fun. And the guys are killing themselves at the time for what they were doing.

but people got lazy. This whole thing of like the NWO, the school of cool, all those guys stopped trying. Really, though. Are you telling me that Kevin Nash in 1999 had a good match ever? Did he ever have a good match after 96? When the NWO got 46 members or whatever it did, like things got way too watered down.

That's a pivot, though. I'm talking about like people's efforts. did Scott Hall or Kevin Nash ever have a good match after 1996? In WCW? Anywhere. Oh, wow. I guess not. You know, and I'll pivot because I love Scott and Kevin as performers and Kevin as a great actor,

kind of an underappreciated wrestler-turned actor, I think. I'll do you another one. What about a guy like, Bill Goldberg, did he ever have a good WCW match after, say, 98? I'd say after the streak ended, there were not a lot of great matches. Rick Flair, you don't remember a good match of the Steiner brothers. Scott and Rick didn't have a good match after 97. And it's funny, the common denominator here as we approach.

97, right. The common denominator as we get towards the end of WCW is the wrestling just wasn't that solid. But people don't talk about that. They blame creative. Yeah. But if the wrestling was on par with what WWU is doing, it might have survived. But WWE's wrestling had to get better. And there's so many different moving parts, right?

Like, WWE wouldn't become what it was if it wasn't for the NWO and if it wasn't for the screw job and Mr. McMahon becoming a character. Right, which had that not happened to, you know, who knows. Yeah, right. Really. I think, you know, Malcolm Gladwell talks about tipping points. Yeah, I love that ball. And he's brilliant.

It's funny. I didn't know about the tipping point book, and I just started reading Revenge of the tipping point, which is a sequel book. Yeah. It's like an idiot. But anyway, same idea,

a different volume. Sure. But, you know, I do think lethargy became a tipping point for WCW. What do you mean? And not putting on good matches,

not caring about, like, if they're in Biloxi or Tupelo, which was like typical WCW territory for traveling for, Thunder, Nitro, Saturday night, whatever they're doing, those guys weren't showing up going, man, we got to put on a great match from Biloxi.

They weren't. Yeah, and there's that quote, right? That's not okay. In my opinion, as an artist, I think that's fucked up. There's that quote about like it's hard to get up and train hard when you're waking up and satin sheets, right? And it's that idea of like when you're young and you're hungry, right? Of course you're going to wake up early.

Of course you're going to put in the work. It's like, we need guarantee. money. They finally get guaranteed contracts. Then they're like, okay, now we don't have to do anything. It's like, good God. It should be the opposite. It should, it should elicit, you know, great responsibility, one would imagine. That's how I feel with acting. It's like, if you don't care, people can tell. Yes. They are going to know. And you are suddenly not going to be in demand.

So you got to do what Anthony Hopkins or Denzel do. They never got rusty. Denzel Anthony Hopkins, Robert Duvall, certain actors as they age, they're still taking it serious as a heart attack. I remember an interview I did with Servester Stallone, and he was talking about how, doesn't matter how you're feeling that day, doesn't matter how you feel about the script.

You need to remember that film is forever. You need to remember that, like, your performance here, someone's going to watch 30, 40, 50, 100 years from now, and they're not going to know what headspace you were in on set or what was going on behind the scenes. All they're going to see is that scene. And he's like basically saying,

you've got to deliver. That's good. Yeah. And that is stuck with me for a long time of this idea of like film lasts forever. Yeah. I mean, forever in quotations, obviously not in the literal.

Sure. Because to be honest, something I've had to make peace with not to be a downer, but to illustrate some truth, hard truth would be, it is about making a contribution in the moment and knowing that you served that moment in time. And that has to be enough.

The immortality thing, got all these tech billionaires who are getting blood transfusions and doing all sorts of weird stuff to try to stay young and live forever. It's really kind of pathetic because it's not like they're really living life in a holistic manner anyway. They're just pursuing money and wanting to kind of be. noticed as the creator of some innovative thing or invention. It's kind of like the pursuit

of making yourself God. You know? And I think like in reality, if you looked at everything, it's like, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. Nobody gives a damn today,

but he did. There are inevitably going to be people that meant a lot in a moment and that was good, but they won't be remembered later. And we're already seeing that in repetition. with the advent of internet-based content.

Is Saturday Night Live as powerful as it once was? No. Our movie theaters is powerful as they once were, no. Is news media as trusted as it once was? No. And this sounds like that famous Marshall McLuhan phrase, the medium is the message, right? It's like this idea of like the medium of a movie theater

or Saturday Night Live or whatever the example happens to be might have meant something. thing in a different era to a different generation. Yes. Right. Yes. And I think, I just think it's really healthy to have that perspective in mind, a realistic perspective, rather than idealistic, because I think people get really married to perfection and to the pursuit

of wanting to be the greatest. And it's like, that's good, but like, no one's talking about Dr. J. right now. They're barely talking about Jordan. They only are because of last dance. It is about Kobe. It is about. Jordans are on everybody's feet. Yeah.

I mean, the shoes have become more powerful than the sport, to be honest. That's a good point. To some degree. But anyway, I guess I don't know why I'm like preaching like that, but I guess what I'm trying to get at is it would be healthy for a lot of these uppity people to kind of stop and face the fact that like you're not that important. You're the fact, you know, you are afforded a place in. this world based on viewership and the fact that people like you.

And that needs to be important. And I guess that comes to the WWE thing that I, I just wanted to make mention of the ticket price thing, which is I love the product. I think it's as polished as it's ever been. And I think they're making superstars out of guys like Jay Uso, who another company wouldn't be able to do that with him. I think the pursuit of pleasing share.

shareholders and being a publicly traded company and obsessing over money is really gross and it's going to hurt the fan base and the grandpa who would tell his grandkids like I was at WrestleMania 3 in the Pontiac Silverdome. He's not going to be able to afford to take his grandkid to WrestleMania ever. The nosebleeds will be a thousand bucks. So where does it go from here? I think it just gets worse. It's not like they're going to backpedal and be like,

you know what, you're right, Paul Houser. We should be more like George Bailey and not Mr. Potter. But if Rod keeps selling out, if WrestleMania keeps having record numbers, why? It'll become this dushy uppity thing that only a bunch of rich, like tech bros and investment bankers go see. Average people won't be going to that. So you're saying the hardcore audience, they'll get priced out. I'm like if they already haven't been. I think that's factually happening.

Yeah. Not that everybody's destitute, but the country, if you look at the trends, because I'm only going off trends. I'm not saying like, I've arrived at this knowledge. It's more me tracking. And with AI and with job loss and us being on the verge of another recession, all the trends tell you that people have less and less disposable income and it will be more necessity-based income. So the way the world's going, people aren't going to be able to afford it. actually. It's, I wonder, like, I wonder who the fans, like, we're fans now because we watched in the 90s and early 2000s, right? Like the attitude era is like when I got, it became a big rustic.

Yeah, I was, I was like early 90s, uh, free pay-per-view, class of champions. That's how I became a fan. Oh, wow. Yeah. So like, I think about like, are there going to be people that are our age in 25 years going, man, it was, WrestleMania 40 is a big inflection point, I think, for a lot of people. WrestleMania 38, I feel like it's a big inflection point, too. Like, Cody comes back. The world feels like it's back open again, you know, full attendance at WrestleMania instead of the year before with half attendance. Are there going to be people 20, 30 years from now that go,

if it wasn't for WrestleMania 38, 39, 40, I wouldn't be a fan now. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think creatively, like I said, my buddy Rob Fee is one of the head writers at WWE right now. they hire you hire smart guys like rob fee you get better storylines you get better reviews you get more eyeballs and that's what's been happening from you know the uso tribe and the cody finishing his story and you know now the reinvention of you know paul haman who he represents kind of his new

dangerous alliance that's great writing yeah that's great creative so the creative is pulling people in But I just think it's sad the way the world's going that, you know, a guy like me can afford to take a son to WrestleMania someday. But I don't know that my neighbor can. And that bumps me out. Do you think it's going to become like the Super Bowl? Like what's the cheapest? Oh, yeah. No, totally.

Right? The Super Bowl is like, it's a scene, right? Like the cheapest ticket for the Super Bowl, like five grand. But nobody complains because they go, it's the Super Bowl. That's what prices are. And I think that that's okay in theory. because if you have a marquee event on that level, like, yeah, I get it.

Like if you, and by the way, me as a businessman, if you ask me to star in your big movie, I better be getting paid something. I'm not going to do it for Schedule F. I'm not going to ask for 80 grand if I'm being asked to do a massive thing. So I think, I think it makes sense that one of their,

one or two of their live events could be event-time. as that. I just think like, don't do it to everything. It feels like they're going to do it to everything. It feels like we're there. Yeah. Yeah, we can kind of read the ring on the wall. And I also just wish places like did discounts for military veterans and stuff. Maybe they do, but just some breakage for culture and know that like, you know, you still want to honor fans.

You don't have to be a slave to your fans. That's not healthy. have boundaries, have standards, but good to honor people too that have been riding with you the whole time, you know. This episode is brought to you by Rocket Money. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are right around the corner, and sometimes they have a tendency to turn smart shoppers into impulse buyers when they see, oh my gosh, everything's 50% off. Rocket Money helps you stay focused on your budget, not just the discounts. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps you find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings.

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My friends at Timeline are offering 20% off just for you because you're listening right now. Head to Timeline.com slash insight to get started. That's Timeline.com slash. Insight for 20% off. Your cells. Well, thank you. If you've got a friend in WWE, could you have a match in WWA? Yeah, I got a couple buddies there.

I think the people I'm closest with over at WWU would be Rob Fee. My buddy Keith Blomberg is a lead. I went to his wedding. I love the guy. I wish I was there, yeah. They put Ryan Nemet through a table. As they should. Yeah.

Ryan deserves it. Yeah, he deserves that. A couple of banquet tables at weddings. That was fun. That's hilarious. I'm sitting next to Omas and we're like, what is going on here? Jonathan Tucker sent me the clip.

And then I go, that's the dude who did my podcast with me that you were on. And he was like, oh, yeah. Yeah, that is. It was funny. He just like,

you forgot he met the guy. No, I would love to do someone at some point. That would be mutually beneficial. I don't want to do the, hey kid. you know, we'll let you jump the guardrail one night at Smackdown and knock somebody out. I don't want to do that.

It would have to be a real match. We would need 15, 20 minutes. I'd want to do it for real, you know, the way Bad Bunny did. Yeah. With Damien Priest, you know. I would love to see that. See, man. You're watching from here.

They're like, no, you criticized us. We don't like you. Okay. We're both over it then. We're good. Maybe it's you and Mark Wahlberg doing something. I'd love that. And I've talked to Mark about it.

He's talked to, he's talked to Ari Manuel about it once or twice. Okay. Yeah. So, uh, you never know. That could happen or,

uh, or, you know, I, I, I love, I've met jelly roll. We got along really well.

We got a lot of commonalities with being Jesus guys, being wrestling fans, uh, incredible weight loss. Yeah, yeah. I could see doing something with him. He and I do like a,

uh, uh, uh, no DQ, you know, hardcore tag team match where we get the, to be these big burly white dudes, you know, showing up looking like we came off the couch, but still doing some cool stuff, you know?

When you did naked gun, did you know that Cody Rhodes was already part of the project and also the other big wrestler cameo, which we will not name? No, no. I did not know three wrestlers would be in that movie. But, yeah, no, I saw Cody in the film. I saw him on like a call sheet or something. Maybe it was a deadline article. And I was like, oh, wow, it's so funny.

I remember taking him out to lunch after he quit WWE and just telling him if I can be helpful at all to your Hollywood pursuits, let me know. And I think a lot of people don't realize his initial goal was Hollywood. Yeah, no, he made it sound like, oh, I'm just going to have a couple of matches, you know, match with Kurt Engel, match with, you know, Adam Cole. I think he looked at it like this list of names I came up with will be kind of my swan song. but, you know, I think he realized how much fun he could have, you know, writing his own ticket. And then, of course, it blew up into forming the second biggest wrestling company in the world

and then getting to go back and do what his father never got to in WWE. It's incredible. And before all that. And by the way, he did a good job and naked gun. It was good. It was funny. Yeah, he was great in that. Yeah, it's fun.

Before all the wrestling stuff, Cody moved out here to Hollywood. to chase an acting dream. Yeah. It doesn't get talked about a lot. Like, he came out here, paid his dues and, like, tried to make it work. He took legitimate classes and met people and was coming up with a sort of a group. And then I think, I think, you know, wrestling is athletes resistance when your dad is dusty roads, too, though. But yeah, now he's getting to do it.

So, I mean, it comes around full circle where Cody's doing naked gun and street fighter, I think. Yep. And I just talked to Adam Copeland. He's off doing the beekeeper sequel with Jason Statham. I'm the beekeeper. I just pulled in, I just pulled in Lance Hoyt and my buddy Colby Carrino and my buddy Matt Palmer. I had them do an indie film with me in Texas.

So it's fun seeing wrestlers get into the film industry and make their way. And I had a couple reach out and ask for advice and stuff. And I try to try to be helpful. but what they learn pretty quickly is that there's no cheat code. It really is like you're going to have to immerse yourself the same way you did wrestling. Is there anything that translates over from wrestling to acting? Yeah, not being afraid to look foolish. And putting ego and vanity aside is really good.

And also physically, you know, they have a sense of physicality and know how to move. And then also not being afraid to talk in front of people. If you can talk in front of 10,000 people at a tape wrestling show, you better be okay talking in front of 30 crew members and two cameras. But I've heard the big difference is when you're in a ring and you're cutting a promo or you're even wrestling, you're doing it for everybody, right? You're doing it for the guy in the last row. Yes.

When you're wrestling or when you're acting, you're right here. Yeah. And you just have to dial that back, which is tough. You know, I was working with a wrestler recently doing, an acting thing and I could see they were still kind of playing to the crowd in the scene and I was kind of like

we just got to we got to bring it down and I got to tell them think of a time you were think of the time you were actually upset with a loved one and kind of go back to that feeling in your body how your body feels and the restraint and the normalcy

that is met with the ire or disdain or whatever it is. And I think, that helps. Just a lot of people, myself included, we need calibration. It's not that they can't act, it's that we just need a little direction. And I've been doing that with MLW, producing segments

backstage, directing segments, co-writing segments, and the biggest thing I'm trying to impart onto that roster that I'm working with is like, hey, let's try to find a way to personalize this. Let's bring as much purpose to it as possible, even if the storyline is kind of thin. Make something up. Say something.

something that feels impactful that almost adds more purpose. In acting this so often like there's the why, right? Like what, why is my character doing this? Do you bring that when you're talking to wrestlers about promos and matches too? Big time. And I'm preaching it to myself because a lot of times I'm just like, good guy versus bad guy, go.

And it's like, no, that's not. Audiences are too savvy. That worked in 1988. It doesn't work now. There has to be more going on. And most of the time, people almost like the villain more than the hero. Now, why is that? Probably because you don't have any purpose or personality in this thing.

You got to build that. I'm fascinated by the idea that the villain doesn't see themselves as a villain, right? Whether we're talking about a superhero villain, a serial killer, whatever the case may be, like, they somehow justify their own actions in their head. Like, they're not going out there to go. I'm going to ruin someone's day and be a villain. Yeah. Yeah. I think we also have seen like a whole.

a lot of villain origin stories, which is helpful too to see that, like, there's a turning point where they go wrong. Maybe they started right and they went wrong. Maybe they're a victim of circumstance, et cetera. And wrestling has a great opportunity to tell those stories. You know, Daniel Garcia right now in AEW has this thing going on where he's telling Matt Menard, like, I loved you and we were like brothers, but you're a loser and I became a loser because I was hanging out with you.

I had to hang out with winners to become a winner. It's like I remember, I remember vividly having one or two friends kind of leave my side in junior high and high school, who I thought would never not leave me. But then they hung out with a different group and I saw like, oh, you know,

they're kind of more the cool kid jock crowd and I'm more the creative, you know, class clown crowd. And that was hard. So I think a storyline like that can really hit people if it's done right. You know, are there any storylines that you're a fan of right now that you're like, this is working? This is good.

It's funny. I was going to ask you what your all-time favorite storyline is. And when you ask me that, I just immediately go back to the one that sucked me in was Austin McMahon. Like that's the storyline that like, I think a lot of people can relate to this idea of like telling your boss to F off essentially, you know. And that's something we can all, even if you can't ever do that in real life, you go, pretty cool to just envision that. And if that's a story or a movie, the movie of McMahon, Austin is kind of like R-rated Looney Tunes almost. Like it's kind of just bizarre, set piece, absurdity stuff, but it's also, it's also like hyperviolent,

like the stuff they're doing to each other. Yeah, yeah. I think for me, I always go back to, can I say a handful? I don't think I can just start the one. Yeah. But I would say like Rick Flair and Vader in 94 at, I think it was Super Bowl or something. There was, you know, Flair is saying goodbye to his kids and being documented in the car and the limousine going to the fight. And it's kind of like him saying like, I might die in that ring.

And you're like, that's the best acting Rick Flair ever did. Like you believe everything he's saying. And you believe that Vader is this otherworldly power that kind of can't be beat. Yeah. And that he's the savior of WCW in this moment. That I think was tremendous, albeit kind of brief. I don't think that dragged out longer. I think I honestly think that my favorite storylines have been,

my favorite storylines have been Sting and Darby Allen teaming up. and him having that third act in wrestling, I think that is an awesome story and how it started as one cinematic match and then it just grew and grew and grew. And then another one I'm obsessed with is Johnny Gargano and Tomaso Champa. That lasted a while, and I never got sick of it.

I always liked it. I always cared about both guys, even if I was mad at one or the other. And every match was so good. So good. Everyone. Yeah. And you can tell that because they were best friends and our best friends,

they were laying it in a little extra hard. Oh, and that's the whole thing I had to learn, which is if somebody likes you, they will lay in harder. That's like a thing of familiarity, you know? Like,

it's funny. Yeah. No, Champa Gargano. Yeah. I think they're two of the best doing it. I, sometimes guys get lost, you know?

There's a couple guys. Do you care if I have some people join the conversation? I know that feels weird. someone's going to join us I am a couple friends brought by this is a dear friend of mine his name's Kevin

I'm sorry Oh you know him was carrying cross Yeah he was just in the studio the other day Robert Rude I'm sorry you know him is Bobby Rude But you know these are two examples of guys That really kind of fell through the cracks And

And I felt like Bobby Rude deserved way more than he got with just being teamed with Ziegler and kind of being a sea list tag team the way they were booked. And then this guy, Cross, I mean,

he's, he's really, really talent. He has a lot going on. Yes. And to not be able to figure that out and keep him happy and keep him on staff, uh,

seems a little ludicrous to me. I really like this version of carrying cross. Oh, you don't like this, the grass skirt or whatever? The mask. But the helmet? Good Lord.

What was that? I think he's asking the same question. But this, like, psycho version of him with the shaved head and also, like, how dare he shave his head with that luscious full head of hair that he has? How dare he? How dare he? Him and Drew McIntyre. I asked him, I said, because he was here like a week ago, I said, would you ever go back to this version? He's like, I don't think I would, like, want to mentally go back to that version of myself.

He's like, I've grown. I'm a much better person now, but. That's interesting. Yeah. Like, that was a different part of his life. You know, we're talking tipping points. I think there's a weird thing where, like, sometimes one tiny change can sabotage an entire wrestler's run.

Yes. And let me give an example, two examples that are similar. When they change Shinski and Nakamura heal, and they changed his music from the rising sun or whatever, Nope. Didn't work from the outset. Never worked.

And I think they changed his music because they didn't want this guy to be a heel, but you're singing along to his entrance theme. So that's why they changed his song. And same thing with Glorious. The theme for Bobby Roos, glorious, never should have left. They should have kept that. It was over. Yep.

There was never going to be anything more over unless by fluke. You know, guy like Chris Jericho can get a clipboard over. Not everybody can do that. And that? I'm sure you had gold. I'm sure you've heard the story. That song wasn't even originally intended for him. Right.

Who was it for? Shinske. Yeah, that's funny. So originally it was going to be. Chiske had two bangers. Originally, Glorious was going to be for Shinske and they went, let's try giving it to Bobby Rood.

That NXT run of 20, NXT 2015 to 2018 is maybe my favorite wrestling company run of all time. And I'm talking including attitude. Wow. Because the talent there, is psychotic. They were over

because they're in that tiny little arena. Yeah. And the takeovers felt gargantuan. You cared. Every fight had a big fight feel.

You never see that now. Takeovers then were so, so special. They were nuts. Yeah. The thing that's unfortunate specifically about Bobby Rood was his work in Impact

was amazing. And there's a lot of WWE fans that never saw him as the WWW or the Impact World Champion. They didn't see how great his run was there. Your money. Fighting Kurt Angle and AJ Styles and Sting,

like some of the biggest names in our industry. And then part of one of the greatest tag teams in TNA history, beer money. I love beer money. Right. Fantastic. Him and James Storm were both. Yeah.

There was the time, it's funny, I fell out of wrestling for a while for a number of years, probably 2006 to 2011 around that time. But I got back in because of, in 2011, I started watching Impact. I started watching ROH when I was living in Michigan for a little while.

And beer money, Generation Me, Motor City Machine Guns, their tag matches were just, no one was as good as them. Yeah. Their tag division for a moment was the best one of any company. What was your first wrestling show you ever went to live? I went to a house show for WCW 96. The, it was probably like the first half of 96. It was before, might even been 95.

It was before the outsiders, the NW invasion. But the main event of the house show was a triangle match, as they called it, between Savage, Sting, and the Giant. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I remember you telling Ariel Hwani that if we look very closely, if we look very closely at a night show in 1997, we can see you in the audience.

Well, that and closely because they do, a zoom in on me when the disco inferno's coming out. You're singing his thing. I'm singing disco fever in a sting t-shirt. And Chivani says, there's a little disco fan. And, you know, the crazy thing about that is then 30 years later, I'm wrestling for ROH at the ECW arena. And the first person I see backstage when I'm coming back to talk to the medic is Tony

Chivani, sits down with me and does an off-the-cuff interview and gives me a hug. It was nuts. Man. Nuts. Could you imagine going back and talking to that version of yourself in 1997? It's just funny how like dreaming looks like delusion until it happens. And then it's like, man, how many more things should I've done this with? You know, belief is just such a prerequisite for a lot of beautiful things in my life.

And that was, that was getting to work. I mean, there are just some people that like, Like, yes, Clint Eastwood was a big deal. Bruce Springsteen working with him was a big deal. But the fact that I've worked with, the fact that I did commentary with Tony Chabonnie and Nigel McGinnis on collision, the fact that I did a segment for MLW with Eric Bischoff is crazy to me. Crazier than working with Clint Eastwood or Mark Wahlberg?

Well, I think, I think strange, for sure, just stranger, because I assumed Walberg and Eastwood would still be making movies when I broke into Hollywood. Yeah. I never assumed Chavani and Bischoff would still be around and doing stuff. That's a good point. Yeah. And at a high level. Crazy.

What gave you? I had dinner of Sting the other night. Sting, we share a booking agent, Gilbert Boyas with time appearances. I text Gilbert all the time. Is Sting ready to do an interview yet? Gilbert's the man. Does Sting want to do an interview with me? Yeah.

And by the way, I didn't get a verdict on that. but I did your name came up at the dinner and I was because he was asked dinner with sting well he asked what I was doing going I told him I was going to LA is what are you doing there I was like I'm gonna I'm gonna do the van Vleet show and go to this premiere and whatever uh and yeah he kind of smiled I think he knows you want him on the show but he's he's very selective he just doesn't do well he doesn't hasn't done a sit down interview and who knows how long yeah and and I think he'll do one off the cuff you know, some kid catches him backstage with a little microphone in their hand, the fuzzy little Lavalier, he'll do three minutes with them.

But he's a reserve guy and maybe there's something wise to that, not spilling everything. Maybe there's a time to do it or maybe he'll put a book out someday. You never know. I met him at Russell Con last year in SummerSlam in Cleveland. We had a lovely conversation. He said you're a good guy. Like he knows who you are and he likes you.

Just he's hesitant to jump in. Thank you for putting in a good word for me. me. Who knows what might actually happen? I hope, uh, sting if you're watching. Yes, Sting if you're watching. I stand by Chris Van Fleet. I think he's got a good soul. Good face. He's a good guy to know. And, uh, and I always love talking to him. Man, thank you. And thank you for name dropping me on Ariel Hawani show. Like I would, you were like two minutes into that interview and like, like, whoa, wait a second. Thank you.

No, no. I think you and Hawani are, I think you know you're top of the heap. You're, You can be as humble as you want. Your numbers don't lie. You know how far you've gotten from where you began. And somebody asked me the other day, they asked me about you, and they said, you're like, how did that guy, like, seems like out of nowhere he was, like, the wrestling guy. But I said to him, I go, you can find videos online of Chris doing interviews at 18 with, like,

some, you know, Sears catalog off the rack suit and, like, a mismatching tie and a ton of gel in the spiky hair. And I'm like, this guy's been at it for 20 years. This did not happen overnight. Yeah, and it's like I posted a throwback of me anchoring the news in Cleveland in, I don't, 2012 or something. I couldn't believe how many comments were like, I didn't know you worked in local news. It's like, that's all I did before this. Yeah, and they don't know how many times you had to put yourself up and fly yourself out for a junket or.

Oh, man, or how many times I shot a wrestling interview on my iPhone with my buddy holding it with a, a mic that was attached to an XLR cable. And his thumb is slightly over the camera. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Or like my one buddy would like shaking around the 10 minute mark. Yeah, no, it's we all remember those days. We all have those days. And being back in Hollywood, we're in, we're shooting this in the Hollywood neighborhood of L.A.

I have so many memories of walking to the cheapest grocery store there was. I forget the name of it, but it certainly wasn't a Gelson's. It certainly wasn't a Whole Foods. And just like buying bulk cereal and stuff to make bean and cheese burritos, and those were my groceries. And I barely had money to do anything. Maybe you go and perform a set at the belly room at the Laugh Factory,

but then you try to then weasel your way into the big room so you can watch Mark Marin or Chris Tucker or whoever. Like, I have so many memories of the hard days here in Hollywood in this neighborhood, specifically begging for a job at Subway to make sandwiches. Man, showing up with a resume in a shirt and tie in them telling you, no, we just sent two people home. we were already overstocked. What gave you the belief that this was going to work out?

Because earlier you talked about how powerful belief is. Yeah, I think I just, I think I knew I had something. What that something was, I don't fully know how to define or describe that, but I, I think I had some X factor of comedy chops and relentless desire

and maybe even just some innate likeability. And that I thought maybe this and work, maybe this plus sweat equity in time will equal a result. It's worked out. It's been all right. It's been okay. I got this Springsteen movie coming out

that I'm excited about. I want to plug that. It comes out October 24 in theaters, probably a good amount of theaters. It's a pretty big movie. But Jeremy Allen Whiteplayed Springsteen. I play Mike Batlin, his guitar tech and it's a really personal story that isn't so much a Wikipedia page biopic

where they're like, we're going to show you every little thing that you've heard about. It's more like a snapshot biopic about Bruce grappling with his past and depression and loneliness and then kind of finding his way and surviving this dark moment. And then that was like the penultimate stop before he like, blew up with born in the U.S. So when you get a script, the words are obviously there, but how do you flesh this out into a character? I mean, first you got to,

first you have to actually know what is the purpose of the character being in the movie at all. And you got to come from a place of being cognizant of the purpose of the existence and what's being asked. And then once you fulfill that, then you can just have fun living in it. And it's not so much that you're making

hyper consequential choices as an actor, but you're just kind of having fun, like, it's like moving into a finished house or apartment. It's not like you're going to knock down a wall, but you're like, oh, what chair do I want in the corner? What, you know, mini cactus am I putting on that end table? You're just making all those type of decisions. Yeah.

And as an actor, to me, that's like the most fun is like, how can I think of little things to? And as a wrestler, you start to find little things where you're like, You know, what face am I going to make when I have the comeback after I've been getting my ass kicked? What line am I going to repeat in all the promos? Like, those things are fun to work out. What's been the thing when you watch your wrestling matches back? You go, I finally figured that thing out.

Or like, I wasn't great at that at match one, but here I am 20 matches in. I'm doing that thing right. I think awareness of the camera. I think feeling the lens on you. and knowing that you're having to, it's not just that you're blown up and you're trying to stay in it, it's that how are you telling the story

with your face still? Because there are early matches of mine where I'm just like this the whole time, just open mouth, trying to catch my breath, trying to, and you can see I'm not being present because I'm just worried about

what's the next move, what's the next move, what's the next thing? And so once you get comfortable enough and seasoned enough, you slowly start to shed some of that fatigue mentally and physically, and you can stay in the moment and have, like, moment to moment acting.

You know, I did, it is small stuff too. Like, people probably watch it and don't think much of it, but I did a snap suplex onto the floor to QT Marshall in our ROH match. And as I stood up, I just kind of looked at him like this. And it was like this little face I made because he was trying to suplex me onto the table. And I stopped it and suplex him onto the floor. So there's a look of like kind of like how dare you try to do that or like or like I got you. I got you. I got your number.

Yeah. Just keeping it real and keeping it present is a skill most wrestlers are great at. But the fact that I'm like still learning that stuff recently shows I have a lot to still figure out. What's been the thing in wrestling you've done that's hurt the most? Physically. Yeah. The elbow drop I delivered on a BRG at Battle Riot for. MLW.

Off the ladder. Yep, that hurt. And by the way, it wouldn't have hurt that much. There was a padding outside next to the ring. We weren't on the padding. Had we just moved it slightly,

and I landed on the padding, it would have been fine. I hit the elbow perfectly in the middle, but then my butt cheek, my right butt cheek and my hip slammed in the concrete, seven, eight feet off the ground. Hard to recover from that and fake that.

that sucks. And also, I didn't want to put too much of my body on him to, like, crush him. I was like, just hit the elbow. You'll, you'll fall, you'll, maybe you'll twist your ankle or something, but you'll be fine. In the moment, you don't, you're not thinking totally. You're just like, I believe I'm going to be okay. That's a, that's a big belief thing, too. I believe these guys are going to catch me if I do a cent on off the apron, you know?

the other thing is of course the power bomb from QT Marshall Maven who I'm a big fan of his YouTube page and I loved loved your interview with him recently oh thank you Maven yeah I like him a lot I want to see him make some form of a comeback in a company and be an active

member of a company I would like to see that but but Maven said of all the moves he took in his video where he takes all the finishes he said the power bomb still hurt the most. And I was like, you're telling me, man, I took one power bomb and I felt like I was out of commission. So, yeah, falling on a concrete and getting a hematoma in my ass cheek and being power bombed in the corner turnbuckle area, that was the worst.

You think about your kids when you're doing this? Like, you think about, like, what if I get hurt and, like, break my light? because we're talking about earlier not being able to finish a movie or something, but what about like, man, it's fun to play with my kids right now. What if I wouldn't be able to do that because I broke my arm or my leg or something like that? Yeah, that would suck. Thankfully, that hasn't happened. And that's when I talked to my wife and my agents and manager.

I talk about wrestling as a calculated risk because you are taking a risk, but you also are trying not to get hurt. And by the way, I also do my own stunts and, you know, 90% of my own stunts in my movies. So it's also like... What's the craziest stunt you've done? Um, I mean, I was on a harness and dropped like 25 feet down. That felt pretty crazy. That felt kind of crazy.

What movie was that? That was for the Wahlberg movie balls up. There's a moment where, like, yeah, I won't give it away. Um, and then also just like fight, fight coordinating. stuff. I mean, the thing about fight choreography is some of it is really easy, but what's difficult is doing the whole choreography 10, 20 times. You get tired out, you get blown up. And that can be dangerous just because you make one wrong move or you mess up some of the blocking. And if you're a, sometimes if you're eight inches off, it's like, you might break

your arm. So that's, and they try to give. me stunt people, but I just, I can't. I want to, I, it's fun. I want to do it. And it also looks better on screen. Also, like, that's pretty bad ass that you're doing it. Everyone talks about Tom Cruise does his own stunts. Paul Walter Hauser does his own stunts. We do different kinds of stunts.

His are like he's playing chicken with God. Like, I dare you to kill me. Come at me. I still can't believe he's climbing on the Burj Khalifa and Mission Impossible. Was that five? It was wild. It's just insane. I mean, yeah, anything can go wrong.

Owen Hart, man. Right. You can have a million things go right. But if one thing goes wrong, it's, it's doomsday. I don't want to end on that note. I was going to ask you, I wanted to ask you the following. We've talked about Rushmore before. I'm sure we'll do this again in a couple years.

Sure. I'd love to have you back. We've talked to Mount Rushmore. Let me ask you, who is your Mount Rushmore of what you? of what you think is the future of wrestling based on who you see working now, say like the median age being between like 22 and 32. Any company?

Who is your, yeah. Okay. Wow. You're asking me the questions now. I'll try to answer it too. Okay. I don't want to answer too soon because if I start answering, you'll just be like, oh, yeah, he's one of mine.

So I'll give you my four and then you can give me yours. And if the answers overlap, great. Yeah, yeah. Dominic Mysterio. that guy is so talented and the way he's leaning into this heel gimmick that's actually getting cheered and like the way that he was getting early comparisons

to the Eddie Guerrero stuff because of the ladder match the custody ladder match years ago. Yeah, yeah. Then he grows out the mullet, grows the mustache. And he's doing so. Yeah, yeah. He jokes about it, but he is a 20-year veteran.

And you can see just the little nuance and the little things that he does, Dominic Mysterio, future champion, for sure. Yeah. MJF. Who is better on the mic at even, like, early promos, like even a year or two into the business, his promos were so, so good.

Yeah, he didn't just get good. He's very good. And every promo, like, he's doing some promos recently, which are very intense and like it's a different side of Max that we haven't seen. And I think the thing that gets lost with Max is because he's so good on the mic, it may be overshadows how great he is in the ring. He is such a good wrestler. And I think that when you're so good on the mic, people just go, he can be an okay wrestler. Oh, no, he's not an okay wrestler. He's an excellent wrestler.

And he's doing basically PWG Rick Flair. Wow, that's a great one. Honestly. Yeah. Because he does these high spots and crazy things and he's wildly athletic, but he's also still doing old school selling. Yeah. And playing into some. of the comedy wrestling too. The United States Soccer Federation present the U.S. Soccer podcast.

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presented by Hencoe. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Bronbreaker. And I think that when you talk about someone who's going to be a future world champion, I think it's a question of who becomes world champ first. Is it Dom or is it Braun? They're both so talented.

I think the future will be built around those two guys and some others, but like those two guys will be part of the main event picture in many, for many years to come. Interesting. And the intensity that he has, also the comedy? Yeah.

He brings so. many like, brings a lot. I love the little. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's so funny. That's great.

Explosive speed. A lot of wrestlers have done spears before, but nobody's spears look like brawn breakers. Not like that. The one he delivered down the ramp way. To Carlito? That's, I mean, I don't know that I've ever seen a spear that cool. And he just bounced off. It looked like a car.

Yeah, it did. It looked like a car wreck. And it was a person. He just bounced off of him. And you're like, oh, okay. It's nuts. Whoa. Yeah.

And then Ria Ripley. And like she's already been to the top of the mountain. She's already had incredible WrestleMania matches. My favorite match so far this year is that triple threat that she had at WrestleMania this year. Oh, yeah. That was wonderful. Bianca and EOSCI.

Amazing. And I just think that she has, she's a 10 to 10 in every category. She ticks every single box. So I think that when we talk about. the future being built around a young person in the future, I think the women's division is going to be built around Rio Ripley for many years to come. So there's my answer. Yeah, no, I think she could be the Brock or Sina of the women's division in the future.

And she's also the nicest person you could ever meet. I haven't met her, but I'm a huge fan, huge fan of her work. And is it her husband, buddy? Yeah. He's a wonderful wrestler too. I think he's got a little lost in the shuffle because there's such a big roster over at AW but but I man alive

that guy I remember buddy Matthews had a match with Mustafa Ali and it was where they did I think they did like they did off the apron I think they did a Spanish fly through the announce table they literally leapt together front words backwards and a Spanish fly

what had to be about eight feet landed it I mean crazy stuff Crazy. So that's my four. Yeah. Love those guys. What do you think? So you named two that I knew for sure we're going to be in there, which was Dom and MJF. I was going to say them for sure. And I was going to say Kyle Fletcher and Brown Breaker are the other two.

Sure. But I now have a little hesitance and pause because I'm like, Ria Ripley, man. But who do I eliminate from that group? based on whatever, I don't know, man. Ria Ripley deserves to be up there. I guess I would have Ria Ripley replace, ah, you know what? I'm going to have her replace MJF because I could see MJF

not wrestling in the future because he's enjoying Hollywood and it's way safer and he can make the same amount of money eventually. Yeah, yeah. I think we could also do four men and four women, And we would realize how. My four men would for sure be Dom Braun, yeah, who we said, Kyle and Max. I feel like the future of the wrestling business with the talent is in such great hands. Like when you look at how many talented people's ages begin with a two or they just turned 30 or 31, man.

So many, so many talented wrestlers. It's like scouting Saturday Night Live, seeing who comes in and being like, man, they're going to be the next Phil Hartman in four years, you know. Yeah. Sting was your guy? Was he your? My number one on Rushmore. Yeah, it goes Sting, then Brett, then Flare, then Jericho.

And then the rest. It's a WCW heavy. Yeah. Although I don't think Brett gets really any respect for his work in WCW. I think people kind of... It wasn't his fault. Definitely. Man alive.

Yeah. That Starcade idiot. you see. Oh, man. I can't play. How do you botch StarK97? I'm with Conrad Thompson on that one. My buddy Conrad, I agree with him. Like, the whole thing of like, well, he didn't come up. He wasn't in the best shape. He didn't seem very tan. It's like, so basically Hogan was being a doofus. Hogan was being a dick. That's the answer. Well, I can't say that because I'm Eric Bischoff and he's all code. But no, yeah, those are my four. And then my other six of my top ten are probably

Arne Anderson, Kurt Engel, McFoly, Dustin Rhodes, Randy Orton, and Arne Anderson, Mick Foley, Dustin Rhodes, Kurt Engel, Randy Orton. That last one's tough, man.

I don't know who that last one is. It might be, uh, it might be Ray Mysterio or Kenny Omega. Love it. Is it true? that you could possibly be playing playing Mick Foley in a biopic?

Yeah, I won't get into details, but I've been approached about it, and we're talking to the producers right now, and we've been in discussion for a while. I also got approached to play two other people in the wrestling world in the last couple of months alone. So I'm just kind of like waiting it out to see what rises to the top.

Because, you know, movie making is so weird. It's like it might seem like a sure thing and it goes away and then sometimes something just pops up out of nowhere. A Mick Foley movie would be incredible. The way we're talking about it, I want to do a Mick Foley limited series. Do like a four to six episode thing and be able to tell the story a little more fully and not just be like, remember the time he fell off the cage? It's like the guy's done so much more than that. He deserves more respect than that too.

Well, there's so much meat on the bone, right? Because it's not just the stuff he did in WWW. Yeah, it's the stuff in Japan. It's the stuff as Cactus Jack. It's the stuff with Terry Funk. Dude, love. There's so many different things. There's a lot. And there's also a story of someone who is trying to get over. And they're like, what do I have to do to get over with you people? And, you know, trying to make the bosses like you, which didn't really happen until 97. And even then, the boss didn't fully understand him, but he saw that he was getting over. And Mick was taking ownership on the character and saying, well, this is. is what I'm doing. And lo and behold, Hall of Famer, one of the greatest fallout time. I wonder what Mick's career would look like if they hadn't decided to start Hell and a Cell on top of the Cell, right? Like, I just wonder. I wonder if Helen Assel just been a traditional match inside the cell, like they're locked in. I wonder. I wonder what his career looks like. I think he's so talented, he would find a way to get over and become memorable. But that match

catapulted him. Well, here's the other thing. What if he never gets up and climbs the cage with a tooth in his nostril? And get slams through. You want to talk a tipping point? I think everyone would have just been happy he was still alive after the first one. But the second one was where they were like, we knew you cared about us, the audience. We didn't know you loved us.

My favorite part is when he's tearing himself away from Terry Funk and the referees. He's still looking forward? Yes. It's amazing. Yeah, that's great acting, though. And that is what I meant earlier when I said I had a tiny moment during the QT match where I was still in it making a face at him. That was the best I've ever seen it when Foley is like,

I'm literally usurping how much pain my body is in to stay in character and make a face and stare at Taker while I'm fighting off those guys. I mean, that's brilliant acting, though. That's not wrestling. That's acting. So there's moments where I see wrestlers rise to the occasion and they give a chillingly good performance and your hair stands up on your arms and you're, you know, I saw it with Sammy Zane and Kevin Owens in their match at a battleground. I think it was 2015 or 2016. There is a brilliant moment where Kevin Owens is given one of those expletor type suplexes by Sammy and then Kevin just. gets up from it, no cells it and goes, and goes after him again,

he hits it again, and then Sammy takes a moment to, like, close his eyes, and then open them, goes and hits the Huluva kick, holds him up, like, like, I love you type moment,

like holding his body as it's like sinking in his arms, but then sets him back up, does the Hulucakeek a second time to send it. But like the, all the, it's what happens in between, right? Yeah.

You know, that's wrestling. Wrestling is in between the moves. And that's hard. It's hard. That part is as hard as anything. Yeah. Because sometimes you have tunnel vision.

You're just thinking about the moves. Well, I want to acknowledge you. You're not just a celebrity wrestler. You are a wrestler. Acknowledge your tribal chief. You are doing it. I want to give you your flowers as you're sitting here in front of me. That's kind of you.

Thank you, bro. But it's true. And I think that there's a lot of people that see somebody from another, that's been successful in another avenue. And they see them coming into wrestling and they go, ah, you don't belong here. Well, you, sir, you do. You belong in wrestling. Thank you, man. I hope the, and then to be fair, like, I love Indian food.

My wife doesn't like Indian food. I got friends who swear by tuna tartar. I'm not a fan of it. At some point, it does just also become a thing of, do I like this flavor of wrestling or not? And for those that don't like what they see me doing wrestling, flavor-wise, you still have my love and respect. and I completely understand and I honor the fact that it's not your vibe. But just know that from a standpoint of trying to love the industry and be additive to it,

at least know my heart's in the right place. I'm not getting rich off this right now at all. And I'm doing it because I love it. And I just cast three wrestlers in a movie. I'm trying to get back to the boys and the gals in the locker room too and take care of them whenever I can. Well, always great to see you, man. Thanks, dude.

Thank you for coming in here. It's fun. You know what question's coming. You know my final question is. Oh, yes, of course. Your finishing move is gratitude. Yeah. We're in the gratitude era.

Yes. Oh, wow. Better than, oh, my God. Better than what was it when Pock was Neville and they were like, we're in the altitude era. I'm like, keep trying to get that over. You absolute morons. What are three things, PWH?

You're grateful for right now. I'm grateful that I just had breakfast at a place down down the street called the butcher the baker The cappuccino maker on sunset. What a name! Yeah, great, yeah. It's a lot to type into the navigation.

But I had brunch with my buddy Alex Meyer, who is a medical doctor who lives in St. Louis, and we grew up together, and all we did back in the day was watch comedy and wrestling. And, you know, really fun to kill. catch up with him. I hadn't seen him in four years or something. And, and, you know, I think he gets

to kick out of the fact that I didn't change. I'm still doing all the same stuff. Uh, I played the same joke on him, but with JBL and Jeff Hardy. Oh, did you bring them as well? Oh, no, they stayed. They stayed back. I just switch it up, you know, creative has nothing for them. Uh, my, so my brunch date would be one of the three. My number two would be, um, my number two would be that, that dinner I got to have a sting a couple weeks ago in Houston. That was one of those things where it's like that getting to be in his orbit as a peripheral buddy of his, nothing in Hollywood will ever be cooler in that.

Period. End of story. You know, if I was texting with Brad Pitt or Denzel, it wouldn't be cooler than having dinner with Sting and talking about faith and family and wrestling. And then my number three would be my wife and kids are coming out tomorrow. They're going to be in town because I'm doing Celebrity Jeopardy to raise money for Serve L.A., which is a nonprofit I work with out of Los Angeles to clothe and feed the homeless

community. And they do stuff like haircuts and, you know, they really try to serve them in multiple ways. And then later in the week, we're doing a premiere of a new TV show I did called The Chosen Adventures. It'll be on Amazon. And it's the biblical take that you've seen live action in the Chosen series that became kind of a worldwide phenomenon. It started as like one of those crowdfunded things and then blew up and, you know, people are fanatical about it.

So I'm doing the animated version of that. I play a sheep, a fat sheep. I do the voice of. So I'm grateful I get to have my family here to celebrate these fun, crazy, silly things I get to do. And, yeah, as you know, you have, you're a father. I have two. And, yeah, I have three under the age of five right now.

So you're in it. We have two under two. Oh, 2002? Yeah. Are they twins? Irish twins? They're 19 months apart.

Buddy, we're in it right now. We are, I say that all the time. We are in it. Oh, crap. Yes, literally. Paying the price. Literally. Okay.

What are your three? Oh, my gosh. Thank you. Wow, no one ever turns it around. Oh, I just assumed we were. Oh, I love this. Me and my roommate, Vinnie Chibber, this actor, buddy of mine, we live together for like four or five.

years and we would do highs and lows and weekly goals every Sunday night before we started the week. Man, I love- Super healthy. I love that so much. I also love the idea of doing it on a Sunday, looking back at the week that was, what went right, what went wrong, what could I improve on? And then you look ahead to the week of like, oh, man, I can show up to this a little bit differently now that I'm aware of it. Yeah, you're like, you're emotionally venting while also then pivoting to being like strategically analytical. I love that. Yeah. Grateful for my wife and kids, Rachel, Logan and Cooper. I'm so grateful to be a father. And there was a point in my life when I just didn't know if it was for me. I was so laser focused on my career. Oh, sure.

We've all been there. Right, that I just didn't have time for anything else. And I was just so focused on like what was next and trying to like be so honed in on this moment and like making this as good as I could that I wasn't thinking about anything outside of it. Becoming a husband at 39, a father at 40 changed my life in the best possible way. Yeah. And everything I do now is for them. And I love that. I also like to point out the grateful things, like, not the obvious ones that I always

hear at the end of every episode, but like, I'm grateful there wasn't a ton of traffic driving in today. I live in Orange County. Sure. It only took an hour and seven minutes to get here, which is like a dream. It will take probably two hours and ten minutes to get home today. Or is that. And that's okay.

that is what it is. Why we have podcasts, these great things in which we are entertained while in two hours of traffic. That's why we did this at 11 because I knew there'd be really no traffic on the drive-in. So I was grateful when I got in the car

and it said like an hour or six or something. I was like, that's okay. I like that. Yeah, it's good to voice gratitude for the little things too. Because, of course, we're all prone to taking things for granted. But the fact that I get to sit down

with my old buddy from high school, sit down with you. I'm headed to a pitch meeting with a production company that I love. And then tonight I'm going to the Frankenstein premiere with my buddy Sebastian Stan and Julian Sergi. Amazing. It's like a big friend day for me. I can see all my buddies. And I'm grateful that I get to do this.

Like I started in radio in 2004. I started in TV on my 22nd birthday in 2005 in local news. in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. I just love the idea of telling stories. That was my whole thing that I was drawn to with broadcasting. And I love that in a different medium now, I get to do that as well. I get to sit here and listen to people's amazing stories. And how lucky am I?

But you also, and I'm just getting to end it, I just want to pay a genuine compliment, but maybe it'll illuminate something for you. Remember, though, that you are a collaborator in their story. The questions you ask, the different elements of bringing up something controversial or fun or something that never been asked or mentioning gratitude and maybe they haven't thought of gratitude. That shapes the story and interview and the person and they leave maybe even feeling differently. And I think that's the real secret sauce because anybody can ask questions. Sure.

But if you're setting an atmosphere that makes people want to say more or say something differently, and then you are curating that and kind of helping drive that vehicle, it's really powerful. And you do a good job. And there's a reason you are where you are. Well, thank you, man. I appreciate that. And there's a reason that you are where you are. Can't wait until you win an Oscar.

It's just a matter of time. You know the only thing I care about with winning an Oscars, so I can use it as a foreign object. and a match. That's obviously the only real thing we're talking about here. I'll do like Finn Baller's Kouda Gras, but I'll do it with the trophy. I notice you...

I'll put it between my feet, jump off. You use the Golden Globe as a foreign object and you don't use the Emmy. Is it because the Emmy's too pointy? The Emmy will say for a death match, that'll be GCW. Because like the wings off the Emmy. No, that thing could take your eye.

I don't let my kids near it because I'm like, dude. Me either. If they're playing around are they trip and fall, the jugular. It'd be terrifying. Whereas the Golden Globes, just a blunt object. Just your garden variety blunt object that people go out of their way to break into a home in Laurel Canyon to steal.

I love that your foreign object is a golden globe. Stupid. So, so, so me. It's the most me shit ever. And I think part of, I'll leave you with this, which is, and I've talked to people about this before, Part of the fun of doing what we do is honoring your inner child. You know, it doesn't mean you negate responsibility or you, you know, regress in some bit of accountability.

But anytime you can find a way to honor your inner child, it's, it's very, very satisfied. Yeah. What a great spot to end this on. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why?

Because I have a job to do with rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you. Lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it, but get up in here.

The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.