Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Peter Avalon On His AEW Status, Training David Arquette To Wrestle & More

Episode Date: July 14, 2022

Peter Avalon (@pavalon) is a professional wrestler known for his time in AEW, TNA and Championship Wrestling From Hollywood. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at his house in Burbank, CA to talk about his current status with AEW, how Tony Khan came up with his character "The Librarian", working his first match for NJPW Strong, why he feels wrestling is like The Muppets Show, how he started training actor David Arquette to be a wrestler and much more! Use the code CVV to get 40% off your Magic Mind subscription at: https://www.magicmind.co/cvv Create a beautiful website for your podcast in just 5 minutes: https://www.podpage.com/?via=cvv If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are gathered. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bleley. Greetings and salutations. Welcome to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Bleet. Thank you so much for being with us as we dive into Peter Avalon's story. I feel like for a lot of AEW fans, he's a bit of an enigma. Who is he?

What's he all about? How did he become the person who taught David Arcad how to wrestle? in David Arquette's backyard, by the way. So many great stories in here, so much great insight. Pond, of course, intended. And our last episode was in Tito Ortiz's house in Huntington Beach, California. This one's at Peter's house in Burbank, California. And nothing's better than doing these in person.

I talk about that all the time. But nothing's better than doing them in person actually at that person's house, like on their turf. I just feel like they open up a little bit more when you're coming in, to their space. So great conversation here. And if you're not following him already, toss Peter a follow on Twitter. He's at P. Avalon on Instagram. He's at PPA all day. And if you're not following me, I'm at Chris Van Fleet. I'll assume that you're following the podcast because you're here right now. But if not, give us a follow or subscribe wherever you're listening right

now. And I've mentioned it before, but I'm not a coffee drinker. I just never have been. It's never been my thing, which I know is very difficult for a lot of coffee drinkers to hear. I mean, I dabble with energy drinks every now and then, but there's just always too many crashes and jitters. And I'm looking for something that keeps my energy like steady throughout the day. Have you heard of Magic Mind? Magic Mind changed everything for me. It's this little two-ounce green shot that tastes great. And after the first few days of using it, I noticed that it made me more productive and I get more done in less time because there's neutropics in there that help improve focus and cognition really helps with memory recall too. And Magic Mind has

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Give Magic Mind a try, and you'll have like a steady energy throughout the day with no crash. And it's worked so well for me, and I'd really encourage you to try it out as well, especially if you're having trouble being at 100% on some days or on all days. Magic Mind's just been a total game changer for me. Head to MagicMind.co slash CVV. Join a community of go-getters like me and you who want that constant energy, who want that great cognition, who just want to, like, get the best out of every single day with as much focus as possible. By the way, use the discount code CBV. You'll get 40% off your first

subscription or 20% off your first one-time purchase. That 40% off code, by the way, only lasts for the next 10 days. So jump on it while you can. It's magicmind.co slash CVV. That'll also be in the show notes or just use the code CVV. You'll get 40% off your first subscription or 20% off that one-time purchase. CVV is the code magicmind.co slash CVV. All right, here we go. Let's dive into this. It's me and Peter Avalon. Thank you for inviting me into your home. Absolutely. Welcome to my humble abode here in Burbank, California. We live not far from each other. Not that far. Yeah, so I'm glad we could do this in person.

Absolutely. What is this behind, before everybody starts asking, is this, looks like you as a member of the shield here. That was when I had my run in the shield. I was the fourth member that they didn't quite make television. They decided that Moxley and them could be by themselves. Actually, this is called Pact to Vengeance. It just came out.

Then Kavasinski, he's a pro karate guy. He makes tons of films, independent films. He's got it on his Patreon right now. This is actually Patreon. Excuse me. I don't have one of them. I'm whatever. Don't patronize it.

I don't patronize my Patreon. Leo Fong, he is a legend in the, in the, in the 70s and 80s kung fu scene and the kung fu movie scene. LoBlow was his big movie.

This is his actual last movie that he did before he passed. And it features me and Diamante. I didn't realize we'd be promoting this available on VHS, according to the poster here. Wow.

Right now it's available online and it should be available in wider release pretty soon. So anyone can go watch this right now? Yeah, just go go find Len Khabisinski on his Patreon. Give them a follow and it should be on there. So I'm excited. I wonder how loud that the AC clicking on. I forgot that we have the AC so I could turn it off.

I don't know. It's hot here. It's going to be. It's hot. We're in the valley. Yeah. It's going to be like 90, 100 today. Yeah.

You know, people that are watching this in Arizona are going to be like, come on. That's, we're in Nevada. Shout out to Arizona. of my second home at one point with championship wrestling from Arizona, so I'm very familiar with how awfully hot it got there.

Real hot. At minimum 120, it felt like all the time. How much acting are you doing? I'm trying to do more and more. I just got myself a little commercial agent, and I'm working on getting some more agents. I just did this film. I just did a music video

with Jacob Sartorius, who's a very talented young man. And he's over on TikTok. So he's got millions of followers on there. He's great. So I'm just doing little things here and there while also staying busy with wrestling. I'm still appearing at AEW. I'm booking and writing and appearing on championship wrestling, which we do every month at the Irvine Improv.

So it's fun to say that I'm a Irvine Improv headliner. And then I'm doing GCW with my man Ray Rosas and we're doing prestige wrestling. and then we have epic pro wrestling coming up. And so I have a lot of stuff, Lucha Vovum. So I've staying very active, very busy, and I'm having a lot of fun. Well, I think people, when they don't see you on AEW every week,

they were just like, well, is he still there? Is he not? Oh, wait, he's on dark now. Right. You could see me and Nemith and the rest of the wingmen, Sazar and J.D. were usually main eventing dark. Weird how that works out,

that people are wondering where we're at. We're not on the flyers. Any of the advertising, hell, it's hard. They don't even post anything. any of our pictures on on greenfly, but it's funny that we will main event most episodes of dark.

And we are, I think now, 0 and 672 to the dark order and to the best friends. Yeah, we're doing really, really well every month against both teams, yeah. When you put out that tweet basically saying, I'm taking bookings now, I think it made people ought to scratch their heads a lot and go.

It's weird that people in wrestling, you know, whatever. Start to think and have to think of ideas. It's not the people in wrestling. It's the fans who are seeing that. That's what I meant. Wait a second. What does this mean?

Yeah. It means I'm still there and I'm just doing more things. And there's more to life than, you know, dynamite and rampage because I'm dynamite since day one. And then they're doing their thing. So I'm going to do my thing. Well, there's a lot of people who are taking indie bookings. Absolutely.

A ton. We could list off 50 of them right now. Beautiful, Tony, for letting us have the opportunity to do that. to expand our horizons while still being able to work at AEW. So it's great. Shout out to Tony for that. Are you still pretty? Of course.

Look at me. I mean, look what you're wearing. Look at me. I'm relaxed. Well, you're in my house. I'm relaxing. Yeah. So yes, I stay pretty.

I stay professional. I stay producer now at championship wrestling. And then... It's a lot of peas. It's a lot of peas. I'm very, uh, very good at alliteration. Yeah, pretty Peter. The whole week I was calling you pretty Peter Avalone.

Like you're really putting a real spin on that for you. A little E on the end, little. Why not? Aksante goo, perhaps. I wanted to do a take. I wanted to be Prince Peter Avalon at one point and write myself as like a Spaniard prince and put a little italic over one of them.

It was an idea I had for Hollywood that never ran with. I feel like you and Aaron Stevens, aka Damien Sandow, in Hollywood Championship Wrestling from Hollywood, could be like something really good. Well, funny, funny you should say that. he was writing the show before I took over. So that's fun.

I just feel like, you know, maybe it's the robe. Maybe it's the alliteration. I don't know. We're both handsome. Oh, so pretty. Stunning. I know. Yeah.

Yes. Where did the idea for the librarian gimmick come from? That's all Tony's idea. That's all Tony Kahn's idea. I had Cody when he was there and was, and AWW was still kind of of just an idea that people were talking about it. I had a DM from him after working with him at a championship

wrestling. He DM he's saying hey hold May whatever date and it was going to be it ended up being the first double or nothing. May 25th I think May 25th yeah so I said hold that date and I said okay and then at a bar wrestling show at the bootleg we're downstairs

and I believe the bucks came I think Chris Daniels maybe Scorpio was booked and they just started kind of telling me this idea about the librarian and it was Tony's idea and after them explaining it to me and they said after Tony explained to us idea the idea we thought the only person that could get this over and play this well is Peter Avalon and I said oh thank you so they explained the idea they explained this and then we filmed a bit for BTE and then it was just kind of off off to the races they would still kind of decide what the character

was like was going to be as as time went on. So the idea that Tony wanted, he's just he wanted a librarian. It's a character that got heat by saying, you know, shush to everybody. And I work at the library. And that was pretty much the gist of the idea. The Bucks wanted to do the take on it where it's,

I'm Peter Avalon and I'm going to take this, this dumb part because I want my foot in the company by any means necessary. So we're kind of acknowledging that, Oh, this gimmick's dumb, and I'm going to do it because I want the job. And then we kind of played it like that on DTE. And then I just ultimately, I just kind of just started, I just became a librarian and started just believing it. And then the team with Brandon happened and then the split happened.

But Leva was also a library as well. That was also just kind of done on the fly. So I was under the idea that I was going to be the only, I was the librarian. I was under the understanding that I was the librarian and BTE. We were talking about that I'm the librarian. And then this thing came out where they're going to do a contest where people could send in promos to become the librarian. He kind of told me that it was going to happen.

And then they had an idea for it where there's two librarians down. I'm like, hey, whatever, I'm down for whatever. I'm open. I'm professional Peter. And I can make anything work. Another alliteration there. Absolutely. Professional Peter.

Can make anything work, especially anything silly. So whatever. And then these promos happen. Levis naturally gains traction. She's just good at what she does. She's just good at what she does. She's a natural entertainer and she's good. So now she wins the contest and we're partnered together.

And then here we are today. It was kind of just kind of written as we went on. And there was a lot of my own brainchild trying to think of what to say. Tony wanted to be very Lanny Pafo, but I didn't want to be just a direct Lanny Pafo. So I was like, maybe I don't do poetry. Let me, maybe I'll be, let me, let me dive in and see what a librarian actually does. It's like, I know he's not just a dude who reads books.

A librarian is a read book. So librarian is the not, he's Google before Google. You know what I mean? You go and talk to him, so it's like, you can find out information or he can point you in the right direction to find information. So I was like, that's what I'll try to do. I'll just, I'll spit facts. So I would look like, I would, maybe I find some sports facts and I'll just start reciting facts.

So that became kind of my, my, my thing for a little bit as I come out and I kind of, I try to take little jabs at the sports teams. And I had Jen Sturger there at the time. She was my, my, my, my, my, my clue into anything that was sports related. So, and she knew her, she knew her stuff, man. So I would go over terms like, okay, where are we at? Okay, what team? What happened?

She was no, like, she was hammering off like, like, current, current, and stuff like this guy's this and her he's injured this and this was like oh shit I don't know any of this stuff I'm just I don't I don't get shit I'm not an NFL NBA guy I so she helped me big time with any of those promos

the crowd loved saying they did that was so over I still get shushed and I my match was sunny kiss at a fight for the fall and was the first time I got to actually wrestle as the library and I just remember this was again everything was

kind of just done on the fly. Nothing has been hammered out. There's not much. I'm getting my reps on air as the librarian on what this character is. I have nothing really. So this is before I kind of started doing just the shush stick where I walked down to the ring, just shushing, just shushing. So now, so I have no idea what I'm going to do as the librarian, transitioning from being

professional Peter at the Hollywood show, and then being producer Peter at my Arizona show. Like, those are two separate characters. And then I was still doing the stripping P.P. Ray Act, which is a completely third separate character. So now I have a fourth character that I have to develop, but I don't know what the hell it is. So I come out to just silence. I have the mic because they expected, they wanted

me to eventually say a little something to get to Sonny's entrance. And I think I hit him, I'm getting booed the entire way down. And I was like, hell yeah, all right. That's awesome. This feels good. Hell yeah. They were booing the hell. I didn't have music. They just had the Titan Trond that just said, quiet in the library.

Me and Leva come out, I think I paused at the top of the ramp and continue down. heavy booze. I was like, yes, great. This is wonderful. It's working. I think I get into the ring and I start the hard cam and give them one long, and it's just boo, and they're booing the hell out of me. And I'm like, this is great. This feels so good. It means, me and Sunny have a nice little five-minute match. Good little pre-I think it was a good little pre-match. I mean, didn't overstay our welcome. Sunny comes out with a little song and dance number.

Fun little match. Sunny wins. We go home, they go home happy, go into the pay-per-view, happy and excited and awake. like is the point of the pre-match, you know. And then when I got to the back, Tony was ecstatic. He was so stoked. He was, he was, if he's behind the table here, I'm coming in, he's, oh, Peter, Peter, that was great. Peter Avalon Championship Wrestling from theft in Hollywood.

My man, that was wonderful. Hell yeah. Great job. Great job. And he's telling me how great I did. And then putting over championship wrestling, which is, which is awesome. Hey, thanks for watching. You know, so he was so stoked that it went so.

well, and I was stoked that it went so well, and it just had a natural people just had a natural inclination to want to boo this. Don't tell me to be quiet. They did. And they did. It was great. How many texts did you get when WWE got a character that was shushing people? Quite a few. Quite a few. I would get tagged on

social media. I'm like, what is it? I'm like, oh. Shush. Well, good for you. Yeah. You were shishing people first. That's right. I'm the shush. man. As you know, wrestling fans just like to be in on it, I feel like. So if it's like like when they came up,

I was there, actually, aside for the fallen, when that came up on the Titan Tron or whatever I would call the Tron, geez. Everyone was like, well, I'm in. Like I'm in on this with you now. Yeah. Yeah. It felt good. So for them to really react the right way, I was like,

oh yeah, let's see, let's see what we can do. You know, even if it's just like a once in a while thing, I come in I say, quiet now and I get my ass whooped in a couple minutes. I think we did that a couple times. Once with Luchosaurus and once with Moxley. And then, yeah. I feel like in the early days of AEW, everyone that got signed as an AEW original had an inn. They knew somebody that got them in. Was it Cody for you? It was a bunch of people. I am a one-of-a-kind character in professional wrestling, and I can play one-of-a-kind characters.

There's like, it's great that people practice this character for so long, but I can be a good character with just nothing given to me, you know, like the librarian, there was nothing given to me. And I made it something completely unique. So I'm a one-of-a-kind character. I forgot what you were. So who was the inn? Oh, it was a bunch of different people.

It was Cody. It was the Bucks. It was a lot. It was most of the EVPs, Sands Kenny. He's the only one I hadn't met at that time. I guess you were working with the Bucks quite a bit in California. No. you would think, but I met the Bucks in my original training in 2007.

I trained at the school in Anaheim, Stanton, right next door, at this, at this jihitsu center, Charles Mercury was the trainer. He's an old PWG guy, SoCal guy. Scorpio Sky was one of my trainers. He would come through. And since they were pals with all the guys in the area, the Bucks were still coming up at the time. So they came through to roll around in the ring.

Scott Lost was there. We had Chris Hero, Candace Lurray, a lot of people that would come through. And then that's how I met the Bucks is they came through training once or twice. And I would hold around with them. And they're like, hey, you know, those kids talents and he wants it. And I got to meet them the first time and saw them wrestle at, AWS nearby and EWF nearby when they were slick Nick Jackson and Mr. Instant replay Matt Jackson, freshly called the young bucks not too long ago.

You know, I think even before they were, this is before. they had started working PWG too. I was there at the first PWG match and I was excited for them because of the training that I had with them. I was like, hell, yeah. My pals are debuting at Gorilla. And I think they wrestled Scott Lost and it was either Scott Lost and Joey Ryan

or Scott Lost and Chris Bosch. They had a whole group called the Dynasty and it was the combination of them. I want to say it was Chris Bosch and Scott Lost. I'm not 100% sure. Russell the Young Bucks in their debut and it was a wonderful match. It was great.

And it was just early. on showcasing what they can do. But it was all, it was, it was those guys. And I'm glad that they thought of me, but I guess it's one thing to say, like, yeah, my pals got me in, but they all in unison clicked when an idea was given to them of this character. They said, oh, Peter Avalon, immediately Peter Avalon. So it's like, yeah, I had that way in, but all their brains went one direction when they

were told something. What is the way that you approach a character? Because I think there's a lot of people in pro wrestling that have this idea in their mind when they go into train. Now, I am going to be this. And then they point everything in that direction. And you know as well as everybody that doesn't always work that way. Most of the time, doesn't work that way. What's your approach to a character? Just kind of see what flows and just kind of, you know, throw stuff against the wall and don't be afraid to look stupid. I ultimately think that's what kind of stops a lot of people is they're kind of ultimately afraid to look stupid. But it's like,

you're in wrestling, bro. It's completely stupid. The whole thing off the bottom. I think it's the idea of looking stupid in front of a crowd. I get that, but it's like you have to, I feel you have to go into that

with the same mentality that like a comedian would. You know what I mean? When they do like an open mic, like Gilbert Godfrey, rest in peace is a legend, but he would go up on stage and didn't give a shit

what he would say. And sometimes he'd get heat for it. Yeah. I'm not saying go up there at Friday get heat. You know what I mean? Like go up there, middle fingers,

racism and sexism and anything that you're, it's like, whoa, no. But like, you know. Don't be afraid to take chances. Yeah. Don't be afraid to slip on your ass and banana peel pie in your face. Like I remember going into wrestling school thinking that too. I was like, okay, I have an idea.

I want to, I want to be like, I think I need to be tough. So it's like, of course, I'm trying to be tough. At the time I'm watching, the new wrestling I'm watching at the time passed beyond WWF. E at the time was like, like, I had discovered me, low key, Davey Richards and all these guys. It's like, okay, they're tough. They're kind of this. So it's like, maybe let me try to act like that. And then I'm not doing that.

Like as much as just I'm trying to do that in training, what naturally will come out is not that. You know what I mean? I'll be in spots trying to act like that. And then I make a mistake. And then I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah. And then my natural stuff is coming out with people. We're having fun. We're doing this.

And then it's like, oh, let me just try something else and be a little more natural. And then when I could be more natural and then slip on a banana peel and do this. And then it's easier for me to kind of play tough. Yeah. You know? Like, I don't know. It's also getting life experience in every other stuff, too. Well, I think it's also like there's wrestlers that have been doing it for three years,

and they feel like they are a veteran now. And you can now, I get just so distracted with a bunny hopping around over here. This is great. You know, you've been doing this for so long now that you're like, no, that's not how it works. You need a whole bunch of reps to really be able to say, I know what's going on in the wrap. Yeah. It's a whole different world, especially when you're not, when you're trying to play something that you think is not you or not. yourself but it's like oh no that is it's you it's yourself that's got to be difficult though

when it's a promoter or maybe it's a trainer going this is what I see for your character and you're like but I don't I don't look in the mirror and see that when I look and see myself right there was a lot of that it was some of that early on Marquez had an idea for me and I had a I haven't I hadn't fleshed out my pretty Peter idea yet and I kind of told him like well who and he was like Oh, of course. Like every other one else and blah, blah, blah, blah. And that's a good day, Marquez. It was a very good day.

But then, like, maybe I didn't take the exact thing he told me to do where it was like this weird, not this weird. It was looking back in hindsight, I think I could have played the gimmick very well, just not at that point in my life. But it was like a pompous popper type, you know. And I just remember thinking, I was like, I was like, that's not me. But then now, I've taken a lot. lot of stuff that Marquez's said and done tweaks, I've taken a lot of stuff that other people have said and done this and done this that have said. They tried to say

in something, but you just kind of take little things and make it yourself, but it's also being open and receptive to that feedback too. And also sometimes people are giving you feedback that comes wrapped harsh. And then it's like, fuck you, excuse my French, you know what I mean?

No. But then you look back and you're like, hmm. Yeah, you're like, if you had said that a little bit differently. Yeah. So I put that in a compliment sandwich. That is one thing I've learned with a lot of people in wrestling is they don't have tact. No tact. And I think that might be because

of it being wrestling. They feel everything has to be, let me tell you something, brother. It's like, how about some fucking tact? Yeah. Yeah, if you could build the constructive criticism sandwich of like, you did this well, the bun, you could work on

this, the meat. Yeah. But if you also do this. That's a beautiful way to help people that don't know what tact is. To like, here's how to do some tact. Whereas like, I've been right away, here's you've done this and this and this wrong. And then it's just how you say it to people, you know, be endearing.

Don't be a prick. And I feel like that's what happens a lot of times backstage when people will talk about the locker room at this company is not as good as the locker room at this company. It's because, you know, it all trickles down from the top. And I'm not talking about any company in particular here. But sometimes it's like, if the person at the top who's making the decisions doesn't have a good way of delivering this.

Now you just feel like crap. Yeah. Yeah. It really, there really is a talent in being a, damn, I forgot the word, like a, not like a delegate, but like a diplomat. Oh, yeah. Very diplomatic. Yeah, sure. How to sit someone down and say, this is how with this and this and this.

Because there's leaders that can, there's leaders that can lead, but they're not diplomats. And then vice versa, you know. Having that kind candor, candor and being able to say like, hey, you could work on this. but also you did this thing. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Exactly. How do you feel that mustaches are cool now?

Because, oh, look at this. We got a little. He's back. Hey, buddy. Because, like, I feel like, with great respect to you, you had a mustache ironically for many years as part of the character. Now they're, like, cool to have a mustache. A lot of this stuff I ended up doing is very, was always kind of done ironically.

And then it just kind of turned to like, oh, it's not bad. I actually like this. Like, I kind of, thanks for making sure he's not chewing the cables. I just want to make sure that he's not chewing your cables. He's a little, little, little, little, little, little, He's okay. He's okay. What was I saying?

I forgot what I was saying? I mean, it's a great looking mustache. Oh, thank you. Like the same thing with like when I initially had the long hair. I did have the mustache as a rib. I had this awful beard.

And I was like, I'm going to get rid of this beard. I shaved it. And then I just had the mustache. And I showed, I think I showed Marquez because Hollywood Towers for a few years was Marquez had a,

at the front house and then there was a back house on the same lot and i lived back there the director of the show lived back there and then some other wrestlers lived back there and the third roommate would always circulate regardless at the current situation i had shaved that i went over was like what do you think uh what do you think is very very poncho right it's like he's like keep it all right it was a new year it was new years it was a new year's like i'm gonna I'm going to clean it up a little bit. I'll go to this party. Yeah.

I just mess with people. And then everyone was like, what are you doing? What are you doing? And I was like, oh, this is hilarious. And I was like, I think I'm going to keep it.

All these fucking people are reacting so funny. It's people I know. It's my pals, you know. They're giving me such odd looks. I'll keep it. So I just kind of tried to clean it up and make it as nice as possible. And then it's like, I like it.

Now, it's part of who you are. It's part of who I am. I've had it for so long. I've cleaned it up even more to the point now that I do like it. So I tried, I had the man bun for the same thing. I was like, yeah, I kind of like it. And then ultimately, he was like, I don't like it anymore.

So now I got this thing. At first I was trying to have bangs to go back. This thing, you don't even have a name for it. Yeah, I was like, I was like, I'm going to try to go something silly. And then I was like, I like, I like it. So it kind of ends up just rib. I kind of ribbed myself into liking it. And then it just kind of works out that it ends up being, I guess,

hip at the time. The mustache was just a rib, but it was in. And now it's more in. The United States soccer. Federation present the U.S. Soccer podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Clemenberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Time's ticking.

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in 2008 for November. All right. You know, the charity that raises, you know, awareness and funds for men's health. And I grew this in 2008 and it looked awful. And I got made fun of mercilessly. Did it again in 2009, the same thing. Now, here we are 14 years later and it's cool. It's cool. The exact same

ugly mustache. Damn. There's some good mustache out there. Dax has a real good mustache. Oh, yeah. Tyler Bateman has a wonderful mustache with a little less little twirl there. So there's some good moustaches out there. Royce Isaacs has a real nice mustache. Great mustache.

I feel like you could be related to Rick Rood. Oh, the hair and the mustache. Yes, absolutely. Same physique too. Same spot on. I know. Everyone tries to be like, he's like a smaller version of it's like,

no, the cameras have just gotten better. That's right. It adds how many pounds? 10. Yeah, that's it. That's all I mean. I'm huge. Yeah.

We have a backdrop here. Is this for auditions? Yeah, I like to do, I'll do the, You do green screen auditions? The self-tapes? Just self-tapes? Yeah, yeah. Like self-tapes, but I'll just put it on a green screen. It's easier just to have.

I feel like this wall would be, I think it's a little better looking than the white wall. I think it would be funny to that they could also maybe add something to it, maybe a giant cat behind. I feel like when a casting director watches an audition tape, they decide in the first four seconds or not. Probably. Yeah, like, probably decide from your slate.

Probably from the green screen. They're like, this guy's a rookie amateur. Or this guy knows what he's doing. Wow. Is that a green screen? Yeah. Wow. I think I've done, I got it for like to do like TikTok and Instagram stuff.

And then just to kind of play around to make my own things. Like I went to Goodwill and I bought a I bought this plaid jack and I was cutting like car and car salesman type promos and stuff. So just kind of play around and you know what I mean? Well, I feel like if you live in L.A. You have to. Yes. Everybody has dabbled at least a little bit. In something.

And something. Yeah. I mean, we all have those friends that are auditioning. Every day. Ryan Nemeth is real good at all that. He's a Hollywood honk, and he's, yeah, he's grinding. He's grinding. And that's the thing is, I think a lot of people move to L.A.

with the hopes and dreams and aspirations to be an actor. And you realize that your job is really just to do a lot of auditions. A lot of auditions, and it's not one of those things that it's just like, there's a person, there's the face in the crowd, and it's so make-believe, you know. I knew someone out here that they would just go to Hollywood and walk up and down Hollywood Boulevard because they thought that that's how you get discovered. All right. And then it took, I think it was a casting director that was like, no.

No. That's, you just got to make the auditions and put them out there. Yeah. And then just kind of try to figure it out from there. Pretty much. It's a lot of figuring it out. But you've lived out here your whole life. I am born in Murray. Despite.

No, I am born in Carson City, Nevada. Born there. I'm from Carson City, Nevada. You ever been there? Never been to Carson City, Nevada day in my life. I like to keep Marquez taught me a lot, most of what I know

about television, wrestling, and just television in general, a lot of stuff. And I remember we had this academy in Anaheim called Mach 1. And Mach 1 was an organization ran by a beautiful man named John Ian, rest of peace. And they helped a lot of the guys

at the time to develop quicker because they ran weekly Friday shows. But they ran it like television. And so it's like we would tape it. The footage would never see the light of day, but we taped it because Marquez is in the back watching on a monitor with Johnny and we had guys like Adam Pierce around and other people that were talking about and we were able to talk about the footage. And we had headsets miced up with the headset and the headset and everything. So we're keeping times and running it like a real TV show. But it's a rinky dink little room that like had these little little short bleacher seats around.

So it's like you get one or two, three rows of people. Max and then you're getting NWA title matches from Adam Pearson and then you've seen the early guys like Kevin Martinson and Huma and Watts and myself and all in Scorpio Sky and you're seeing all these guys that are like the earlier develop some early development wrestling here learning that develop TV and they just they they helped us grow as performers so much because they would keep our time they was like you know we have two minutes remaining and help us keep time and it was just for practice just for practice wow mock one would have their own students and the academy was ran by at the time,

Joey Ryan and Kevin Martinson. So they trained, they had a few people that came out of their, nobody that's around anymore. The star that the school was Nick Madrid, and he had since retired. So you're saying you were very, you kept very much to KFa because of that. Because of this, yeah.

So because of that, everybody was built from Los Angeles. And Marquez, if I like, how are we going to be, you know, an international show? but everyone's from Los Angeles. So it's like we started just making everybody from different places. So early Ray Rosas, they made them, I think, from Phoenix, Arizona. And they made, uh, or Albuquerque, New Mexico, something like that. And then they're like, they moved me from wherever I was from.

And Dave, I think was watching Bonanza that day. And he's like, Carson City, Nevada. So I have been from Carson City, Nevada since 2000. You should probably pay a visit there. I have had an idea to go there and make like a mockumentary of like, oh, here's, you know, my hometown. So it's still in my pocket to do. But you are like born and raised in California. There's so few people.

I live in Burbank now. I was born in Burbank, the hospital over here. I grew up in Rancho Cucamanga, same town as the Young Bucks and Brandon Cutler. Never met them over there. They went to Rival High School, Altiloma High School. I went to Los Osos High School. Our wrestling teams were rivals. Were you on the wrestling team?

I was on the wrestling team for two years. My freshman year and my sophomore year, I broke my arm in my fractalum. fractured my arm in sophomore ear and my grades were dropping so my mom and dad were like um son did you fracture your arm wrestling uh it was a my own team fractured my arm bro we were playing a game i think called like shark or piranha or something and uh you like pulled me and i just took a weird impact on and i had this fracture for a little bit and then my like my grades were dropping so when i i had to i had to make the i had to quit i had to quit so i feel like with the california wrestling scene Like there's a lot of people.

There's tons, bro. And there's even post-pandemic, there's tons. I have no idea who any of them are. But just the Los Angeles region is like you and the Young Bucks and Luchosaurus. And Joe Boy, Scorpio's Chai. Right. John Morrison lives here now. Taya lives here.

Like, there's so many. Eli, Drake was here for a long time. Our scene has always kind of been low-key, like huge. Like, John Cena was trained out here tomorrow with Joe. People don't talk about that. That's where he was discovered. UPW, Venice Beach.

And they were all here at the Venice Beach, UPW, a lot of them, like John Cena and Frankie, because Arian, they were all there. California has had a history of developing stars and having stars come through and be here. They all go other places. You ever thought about living somewhere else? I don't know. I love being able to go other places. Don't get me wrong, but the best part about some of that is getting the hell out of

there coming back. I love it. I love coming back. Everyone's like, LAX sucks. Yeah, but everywhere else does. L.A.X is pretty bad. Have you been to Orlando? Orlando? That is my least favorite airport is Orlando. It goes, or it goes Orlando in Dallas. I think I don't like, and I'm so sorry, everyone, I don't like Atlanta. Hot Lana. Yeah, I mean, the airport. Atlanta's a great too. Atlanta, the town is wonderful. Atlanta's great. The airport, though, I'm not there enough, so I'm not Yeah, that one, and I've connected Dallas a lot. Dallas, I connect a lot, and I despise it. And I fly American, so it's like you'll land in A,

and then you got to fly out a terminal D for your connection, which is like six stops on the train. I got stranded there, and they lost my bag, and because of that, I missed out on having a match with one-on-one match with Billy Gunn. What? So Dallas, I have heat with Dallas. Have you ever made up for that match? No, I've been in a bunch of tags,

where he was in it, but I'd never, I never got to do the one-on-one, and I don't know if it'll happen now. It needs to happen now. I would love it. I was ready. I was ready. I'm the one that dubbed them Aspoid.

Danhausen is not going to be happy about that. It's all right. Wait, what do you mean? There's a promo. You said this before Danhaus? Yeah, like way, way before. It was me and Sean Spears against Austin and Billy.

Colton wasn't there yet. Being the librarian, I got the top on the mic, and I forgot what I said exactly. But I was like, Billy, Gunn and Son, what does that make you? The ass boy? And then we got like that was ass boy chance going on and everything. So it's cool, it was fun.

Is there footage of this somewhere? I posted it. It's on dark. It was on dark. And then I posted it on my Twitter. It's on my Twitter. I'll find it. Everybody in the comments is going to be finding this now.

You've got to find it. Wow. This is like breaking news, I feel like. It's all right. Because they're so over now is the ass boys. They are the ass boys. It's all right. My check will come.

it should they're embracing it but they they do not like it i called i had them in the studio recently and they're like don't say that terrible it's all right the heat should be on you though yeah it should be i started it i'm sorry who's someone other than billy gunn that you want to work with and i haven't had the chance to work with yet oh there's tons of people there i would love to have a match with christian kage i think even page i would like another one was i wanted to wrestle scroarion brian brian diamond dallas page gdp would be great brian's a little too big and scary Oh, there's another LA guy. Yeah.

Oh, he's, yeah. Now he's in Vegas. Yeah, yeah. I wanted to wrestle Scorpio Sky when he was the TV champ, of course, who didn't want to, you know. But I feel like that's just a small list. There's a lot of, like, super talented people there. Tons of people there, yeah. What's the one match that you go back to?

It might not be AEW could be anywhere that you go back to and you're so proud of that. Probably a lot of the work that I did on my championship wrestling. from Arizona show. I'm very proud of my title match with Nick Aldous. I'm very proud of the matches I had with Tim Storm, the two that we had leading up to our third at NWA 70, which I'm proud of as well, because I think we stole the show on a show that we weren't supposed to,

and we were the match that had to suffer the issue with the bad timekeeping of the rest of the show. We kind of got rushed, but we had a wonderful segment and stole the show, beautiful match. So probably a lot of that work that has stemmed from championship wrestling from Arizona.

Even stuff that's not my own wrestling, just stuff that we produced because we really made an impact in Arizona and took a show that legit, we got worked by some promoter on the ground. It stole thousands of dollars from us. Never booked the star of the show that we were promoting. No way.

Yeah, at the time it was Alberta Del Rio before everything. And then he was never, booked. The guy took the money and ran his own show somewhere else, and we just didn't have a way to make anything this happen. We drew eight people that day to crown our first champion, and then we turned the show into a sellout show at the Nile Theater month after month after month, after month after month, going from eight people to almost, to the promoters not wanting to work with us, to almost the show shutting down, to selling out the Nile Theater every month.

So I'm very proud of the stuff we did at championship. Brest in Arizona. Very proud. Do you look back at your time in TNA fondly? No. I I loved working with Ethan, Ethan Carter, EC3 is a is great. He's a great guy. And he was very helpful with me because like he knew what the role was. He knew that it's just I'm just, get my ass whoop. But he wanted to make sure that I came out of it as well, you know, well that it's like he knows like he knows I'm not supposed to come out of it well. This is all for him, but he wanted to get as much as much mileage as I could get out of it. And I think because of that, and everything we were able to do with that,

I was able to get a good like six months out of the 2013 run I did as Norferno. A lot of the, what a name, by the way. Right. I think that was a Dave Lagana thing. I remember Taz, Taz ribbed about it. And yeah, what a silly name. But then the management switching and stuff during my time there in the back and everything. I think Jeff Jarrett, Jeff Jarrett was a, was the producer of most of our stuff and was real behind the the nerd stuff. And then when he left, nobody was really gung-ho about it anymore. We had a couple things go and then we just stopped getting used. So you look back on it not well because of...

I was going through my own shit in my life. Like I was physically probably at my worst, which is odd. Stuff will fall into my lap at the worst, like, personal points in my life. And that was one of them. I was at like my skinniest. I felt like shit. I was not a bad relationship. I was just doing a bunch.

I was just, it was just bad. And then I get this, I get this gig because they needed a person that, uh, get this. They needed a person is what I'm told that doesn't look like a wrestler. And everybody that they would suggest it looked too much like a wrestler. And at the time, I didn't look enough like a wrestler. So they said, perfect. I was like, they didn't tell you this, did they? I found out later.

But I was like, yeah. So it's like, it is what it is. I kind of figured after seeing how EC3 looked, I was like, oh, I know. what this is and how they told me to dress. I was like, I'm not an idiot. I know what this is. You don't, like, you don't have to say anything. I know I'm supposed to be just a fucking joke, schmuck, job jobber kids, whatever.

I'm going to play it to the best of my abilities because wrestling's fun. And that's what you do. Yeah. Like, I feel like whatever you're given, you give your all to. Hell yeah. Which was what we talked about at the start of this conversation. Thank you. I tried to give meat to a Norferum character.

Like, it wasn't supposed to have any meat. And we ended up being there for a little bit. They made us nerds. They bought us. They bought us clothes from Target to try to give us like their idea of what a nerd looks like. And they made us look like these tech guys. They started to film promos with us and the other people. There's this one that I never used that I was so excited about.

It was Brooke Tesmacher was dressed as very Princess Leia. But they couldn't call her Princess Leia. But it was clearly a nod at Star Wars and us being nerds. And we were just supposed to be like, oh, like blown back by how beautiful she is. just like, oh, and like, it was fun, filming it. And she was a great sport of us having to just like stare at her, you know, at her and make her, like, oh, this is so dumb. But she was a great sport.

We were, it was, it was a lot of fun and it never got used. We did a bit where just Taz comes out of the toilet just from taking a shit and he starts talking shit to us. And I was like, I was like, hell yeah, this is what wrestling's about. I was looking back, but it's just like, oh, it's all stupid. It's all fucking dumb. Of course, Taz is going to fucking. fucking barriers. They're going to take these two schmucks that they know they're not going to say

anything or do anything about it because they're these little boys and they should be lucky to be here. And it's like, so let's have Tazs come out and figuratively allude that they are shitty because he flushed the fucking toilet. I love wrestling, man. I love it. You ever sign Norve things when you're at conventions? I did. I, if I ever did see that, if I ever to see that fucking picture of me, we're like in my singlet doing this and it's like a white background, I look all. awful again. It's like, whatever, I'll sign it. I hate it, but I'll sign it. When was the last time you signed one of those?

Fair recently. Yeah? Yeah. Because the last convention I saw you at was the LAX fan fest. When we set this up, actually. A lot of people will have random stuff is when they are waiting at the airport of the hotel. You know what I mean? Those finds that come to find you there. They'll be like, hey, Peter, Peter. And I'll sign something that's like an old professional Peter Avalon from Arizona, 8 by 10. And they flip it over. And I'm like, oh, no. Oh, no. I do get excited, though, when they have me sign Peter Avalon and Ray Roses, P.P. Ray stuff, that's not in California. Because I'm like, thank you for watching me and my tag team.

Those are all deep cuts. Yeah. Those are really deep cuts there, I feel like. Yeah. Like if someone's digging that stuff up. That makes me feel good. And then I know they're real because I all of you like, what's your name? So I can kind of like address it to them.

And they have no qualms about it. So it's like, oh, they want to keep this. They're not trying to eBay it, you know? Because there's a lot of people I think that found out about you, when you debuted an AEW. Yeah. There's a lot of people that don't watch wrestling

beyond what's on television. Yes. And I've always tried to make myself that kind of wrestler that if they are watching me, it could be a fan. Ideally, they're not a wrestling fan. I'm a, I make people into wrestling.

Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's what we did always at bar wrestling. Me and Ray, it was always like, the dudes would bring their girlfriends or their friends.

And then you have this group of people there, but there's one wrestling fan amongst the six of them, you know. But by the end of it, there are six Peter Abelon-Rae Roses fans. You know what I mean? And then we sell five T-shirts to the dude's friend, but the wrestling fan didn't buy the shirt. So it's weird how it works, you know?

It's so interesting that there's a lot of gimmicks right now where maybe they're not meant for the people who are the hardcore wrestling fans. Yes. Like the one you're just describing or like Orange Cassidy wins over a lot of people. Like that video of him at double or nothing, the first double or nothing, giving the, uh, the kicks to the, you know, the deadly orange casualty kicks. That has like 40 million views on AEW. I believe it's the, I believe, and I could be wrong,

I'm not fact checking this right now. I think it's their most watched video on the AEW. I would not be surprised. Because that's the type of thing that you can send to somebody and go, have you seen this? Yeah. Like the slow motion wrestling. Yes.

Which was, that was done out here, wasn't it? There was some stuff that was done out here, and then there was done stuff done in Shakara back on the East Coast. but I'm not I can't think of anything specific where do you sit on that like kind of taking the piss out of wrestling I love it yeah yeah I love I love all different kinds of wrestling that's why I sometimes get bummed when a lot of wrestling isn't a variety a variety act I prefer my wrestling to be presented like the Muppets as opposed to uh MMA UFC because then I will if you at least for me I will if you if you try to make it too much like a sport I will watch it like a sport. That means I tune in at the main event. You know what I mean? I'll have it on in the background to kind of listen to.

But then I'm talking to like my homies. You know, hey, let's have a beer. You know, we're talking shit. Hell's work and blah, blah, blah. And then once in a while we're like, okay, oh, ooh, you see that replay? Oh, yeah. But then most of the time we're just talking.

Yeah. Whereas the Muppets, I'm watching the whole damn thing because there's silly shit happening. Everything's kind of short bits. And then it's, the idea of the Muppets is that it's the show within the show. So it's like we get to see the show happening backstage. And then we also get to see that. that the show that these characters intended to put on

is what's happening in the ring. And you start to see that too, you know? So there's something happening all the fucking time. So that's why it's like, oh, it's a lot to watch. It's entertaining. It's this. But where it's sport,

there's only things happening in the ring. I've never heard that analogy before, but that might be the best analogy I've ever heard for pro wrestling. Yeah. Wow, that it's like the Muppet show. Yeah, so it depends on how you like to watch. Some people I know don't like the Muppets.

They don't like that. It's a cartoon bullshit. So, of course, they can't watch, you know, something that's presented that way. The W.D.F. is going to be too cartoony for them. They have to watch, you know, New Japan or something that's presented more sport and serious. Nothing wrong with that. That's just how, you know, different strokes are from folks. Well, each company has its own audience, I think they're speaking to.

And I think that that's a huge misconception. Right. That not all of wrestling is for every single fan. Find what you like. And you can find what you like within those shows, too. Yeah. You can like this character or this match from this company. and like this character or this match from this company.

And that's okay. Absolutely. More best than the better. But there's a lot of people that are like, well, I don't like WW because I like this other company. Or I like AEW, which means I don't, you know. Original PWG, I think, let me see, maybe maybe 2005, six, seven. I see the poster I have on my wall is from 2007. I got into the business.

This is May, the DDT4 tournament. My birthday. Wow. May 19. Yeah. I'll have to show that post after. DDT4, 2007 was the very first tag tournament they had.

And I was there. And I started training wrestling the next month. And just, damn, I forgot I was getting at it. We were talking about liking one company, not liking the other company. That version of PWG from that era, probably like 2005 to 2010-11.

It was super variety. Like, they had these super matches. But then they also had funny. and then they had the locals, and then they had this, then they had that. Like, everything was kind of different. Nothing was just a super show

of straight tough matches. It was like, you had the opening match was like maybe a zany six man featuring some of the locals and it was a different flavor of all the people. It was like, oh, shit, oh, shit, oh, shit. And the next match was maybe something

a little bit more work rate, a little bit more serious. So it's, you know, someone in from Japan and he has a real more serious match, which was a little bit, and it's a little bit more longer and methodical

and more grappley. serious as opposed to the crazy six men that we saw. And then the next match, oh, they didn't have very many of them, but it's like maybe a women's match, you know what I mean? And then the next match is Lucha.

And then the next match is Kikutaro being funny. It's hilarious, silly. And then the next match, it's like a serious, badass tag match with like the Briscoe brothers or something. And then intermission. Then we come back and we have like a,

a zany tag which features a mixture of just everything. Because it has like the Los Lucha, Zokrae and Phoenix, doing crazy shit over here and the rockness monster is doing crazy shit over here and then you have a ricochet doing some crazy shit over here and then someone being silly over here and then you have your PWG main event which would be like you're bringing whoever your stars in at the time here's your Eddie Kingston a couple times they had him Chris Hero you know

and then he'll maybe Russell the the better local like the Scott Lost or he'll Russell another flying that you wouldn't expect to see him wrestle like a Davy Richards or El Generico or, you know, look, I'll watch this show. That's what I'm saying. And then, yeah, they had like El Generico in a tag team with Quicksilver, who was a local guy who was hot at the time. And then, you know, a human tornado was doing cool, a great feud with Chris Hero with Candace Luray kind of sprinkled in the middle.

And now she's showing glimpses of her being able to kick ass with the dudes. And then they had Necro butcher coming at the time to be in these crazy brawls with guys who wouldn't expect. And they had Eddie Kingston. And then they had all the locals that everyone fell in love with. You had Scott lost Chris Bosch, Quicksilver, like I said. And then later on, you had other locals coming in like myself, Ray Rosas, the Rockness

sponsors, Yuma, Kevin Martinson, Ryan, Russ Taylor, Willie Mac, and to be able to have us sprinkle in there with all these other guys, Brian Cage. And it was just, it was a, uh, I think the point of what I'm saying here is it's okay to like what you like. Yes. And it's also okay to not like what you don't totally. But it's not. okay to not like someone or someone's opinion for what they don't love.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that like there's so much of it out there, especially now. I just know much wrestling. Especially with a show like that, which is a mixture of everything. That show you just listed is so good. Yeah. Yeah. I brought friends to those shows and they were not wrestling fans and they didn't like every match. But I remember at the end of it, I would ask him, who did you like? Oh, man, Pac was amazing. He did those flips and the blah, blah, blah. It was like, oh, and who did you like? Oh, man, Chris Bosch is a dickhead. He's a puncher dudes in the dick, but he's hilarious. You know what I mean? It was great to see who they liked.

And it was none of them knew any of those dudes were until that day, you know. What advice would you have for someone who's an indie wrestler that wants to be remembered on a card like that for someone who might not be a wrestling fan? Watch the show and try to do something different. Sometimes that works out. Sometimes it doesn't. I've had it where I've, like a comedian, you know, flat on my face, no reception. You're like, oh, give that little Lucy.

I think I shouldn't have done that, you know, but then sometimes like, oh, I didn't expect that to work. Or, you know, you tried something accidentally and, oh, that worked, really? You know, like, yes, I just don't be afraid. Some of the best gimmicks come from these, like, try it one time. I don't even know what I'm doing. You'd be surprised at how much stuff is, like, successful that was, really? Okay, well, I guess that's my act now.

Like, E.B. Ray weren't strippers at first. Someone just shoved the dollar bill down Ray Roses's, uh, trunks out. one show and then everybody in the front row followed suit and here we are making hundreds of dollars every dance. We make a lot of money, bro. That's a brilliant gimmick for making more money. Bro, at prestige resting, we walked away each with like $2.50 in our pockets

of just extra cash. People were shoving tens and 20s in our pants. Wow. Yeah. I would never want that gimmick to go away. I'd never do. It motivates me to keep working out. Seriously. Yeah. What does your workout schedule look like? I try to be in the gym at least three to four times.

I try to be in every day, lift weights at least three, four times. Just different cardio. I like to do the, I like the box of the bag. I like to do the bike. I'll run around the neighborhood if it's not too hot. So I'm just constantly doing. I like, there's a F-45 is a functional fitness gym. I'll sometimes take classes there.

There's MMA gym around, just come and this roll around. You do some M-A? I've done a couple things. with Josh Barnett at his spot. Don't get crazy. Just a couple things. Legit. I went two times there.

And then just a couple little things here and there. But I'm trying to clear up time within my schedule that I could take something more consistent on top of the workouts and stuff that I do already. So it's that on top of like your schedule is all over the place. It's all over the place. With AEW stuff with indie bookings, conventions. You know. I just, yesterday I just confirmed I'll be at New Japan Strong.

in August, so I'm excited there. Wow. Yeah, so that'll be dope. And then we just got some, we have GCW this Friday. I don't know when this comes out, July 15. So this will come out this week. All right. Yeah, so Friday, yeah, that'll be fun.

So it would be nice that everyone, for everybody to see how much money me and Ray will make dancing in L.A. You ever had a death match? Ray's had two of them. I've had none, but I've had, that goes through my mind a lot. I mean, when you start dipping your toe in the G-C-1-0. WCW water. I think it would have to be a lot of money behind it. Because to see, to want to see pretty Peter in a death match, it's hopefully there's a big paycheck behind that one, you know.

I had David Arquette on the show and that's my student. He said so many great things about you. And I don't know if everybody realizes this. Like he learned how to wrestle because of you. Yeah. How did that even come together? I was the head trainer at the United Wrestling wrestle center, which was an Oxnard, so it's about an hour, hour and a half from here when the championship wrestling show

was filmed out there every month. And I was, I was recommended to David, and then I got a phone call. I was actually, I think I had a private class

or I had a private that day, so I didn't answer the phone. So after I was done, the guy had left. I checked my phone. I had a voicemail from, from David Arquette and I thought it was a rib

at first I was like yeah right you know then I called them up it's him so we scheduled times for him to come down to the Russell Center in Oxnard he came down I think two three times very first time I made him puke man

I made his ass puke I wasn't trying to just you know rough and it was hot I became two or second or three where did he puke from like just rolls rolls

it's hot in that it was hot in my school and then teaching rolls. It makes he dizzy, especially if you're not used to it. And then he came two or three more times. And then he bought a ring and set it up in his backyard, which was near, I lived in Sherman Oaks and he lived nearby. And I would go to his house and train him in his backyard. And this was like the thing of like wrestling lore of like, wait a second, David Arquette has a ring in his back yard. And then I would hear stories of like, Jungle Boy would just be like hanging out there

and John Morrison. I think that was John Morrison's ring. Wasn't it? No, it was. John Morrison had a ring in his backyard. If it's the ring I'm thinking of, I think the ring that Morrison had, was moved to another gentleman's house that was a stunt man, and he has since sold it.

That's right. Yeah. So Arquette bought like a brand new ring? He bought a brand new ring, and I think Jungle Boy now has that ring. This is true. Yeah. I know that.

Yeah. So you were doing all the training with Arquette at his house in its backyard. At his backyard, yeah. That's pretty amazing. It was awesome. He had a beautiful backyard. It was fun when his sons would come out and watch Charlie, the oldest.

He loved the ring. He was like, oh, this is great. He's seen the bouncing and the noisy, the noises. And he wanted to get in and fight us. He wanted to play. And David had to tell him like, all right, buddy, you got to get out. And he just wanted to play. But then Gus, his youngest, man, poor little guy, everything scared him, like the noises.

And he's just like, ah. And I say, no, Gus. You trained a former WCW World Heavyweight Champion. Yeah. That's amazing. It was awesome. It must have been pretty cool to see what he ended up doing in wrestling. It was great because we were filming.

He wanted to do his documentary. Yeah, which is a wonderful documentary. It's so good. So it's great that I was able to be a part of his story of redemption, but also a part of the story of saving his life. Because before he started training and getting healthy, the wrestling was a part of his getting in healthy. It was a part of it,

just a part of what he had started to do. But he had like a heart attack not too soon before that. So it's like getting fit and all the stuff he was doing, wrestling was a part of that and it helped save his life. So it's like if I could be, it was just a little part of that and that's wonderful. He saved his lives. He's there with his wife, his children, and

you know. The thing that amazes me so much about his story and it's so inspirational is he had the dream that he wanted to be a pro wrestler. He wanted to make good on everything that happened in WCW. He started training in his 40s after having a heart attack. I listen to that and go,

we should have no excuses for anything. No, and it's like, at the same time, I wanted to be like, after all that, I was like, why do you give a shit about any of these dudes' respect? You fought death in one, bro. Like, what do you give a shit about some dude on a couch? Yeah. Do you want his respect?

But my pay, power to you, man. And he has earned it. Hell yeah. And that's the amazing thing about it. The death match. he hit me up the week before, two weeks before asking, hey, can we get together for training? I have a hardcore match coming up.

I couldn't make it work. I couldn't make it work with my schedule. I think I was traveling, whatever I was doing. And then I see what the match ended up being. And I was like, David, that is not a hardcore match. I was like, David, you know, you're not supposed to die. Yeah. You should have told me it was a death match.

Like, I could prep you for hardcore. Yeah, you mean, you go through a table if you want, if you have to take a chair, I guess, protect yourself. Like, you know, like a glass and fire, bro, I'm sure. here on your own. Yeah. Well, then maybe you don't want to do a match like you've,

comes back to that. Man, yeah, my poor face. Yeah, it's too pretty. It's too pretty, pretty Peter Avalon. I agree. I've really enjoyed this. Yeah, hell yeah. Thank you for letting me come by.

This is great. Meet your rabbit who's somewhere over here. He's in the box. He's playing. He's playing. Oh, yeah, look at that. There he is. Your rabbit just, where does your rabbit sleep at night?

He actually, I think, sleeps late afternoon. So he just lays out on the car. It's funny when I walk out. The rabbit doesn't come in the bed like a dog? No, I keep my stuff separate. Okay. It's mostly because I can't pick up the wires and stuff in my room off the ground.

So I'm just, just stay out, bro. I don't want you to eat this stuff. I end every conversation talking about gratitude because it's such an important thing to me. I start and end every day saying I'll out three things I'm grateful for. So what are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now? my my current career my future career prospects and my bunny ed brown love it thank you so much thank you there we go my friends so glad that peter could welcome us into his house for this one so glad that you joined us in there as well for this conversation and we mentioned it here but if you haven't

seen david arquette's documentary you cannot kill david arquette you're missing out it is phenomenal And whether you like wrestling or not, it's just fantastic storytelling. Hey, if you enjoyed this episode, please do me a favor, share this with a friend, and take a screenshot, tag us on social media so we can share it as well. On Twitter, he's at P. Avalon, on Instagram, it's PPA all day. I'm at Chris Van Vleet, and in the words of Thomas Jefferson, never put off till tomorrow what you can do today. Be great and be grateful.

We'll see you on the next one for some more insight. 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. the spitfire of sports smack. Ticket ban you of it, get up in here. The Jim Rome show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.