Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Powerhouse Hobbs on Mental Health, Being A Skinny Kid In High School, His Goals In AEW

Episode Date: March 3, 2022

Powerhouse Hobbs (@true_will_hobbs) is a professional wrestler also known as Will Hobbs signed to All Elite Wrestling. He joins Chris Van Vliet to discuss how he got discovered and signed by AEW, what it was like wrestling CM Punk on TV, the breakout moments he's had in his career so far, his workout routine, the importance of mental health, how Tony Khan gave him the nickname "Powerhouse", his favorite big men in wrestling and much more! For more information about CVV and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Blitz! Greetings and salutations, my friends. Welcome back once again to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm CVV Chris Van Vleet. So good to have you with us. And isn't technology a beautiful thing? I mean, not only has it brought you and I together for this right now,

but in the case of this interview, we did it with Powerhouse Hobbs in his car as he was leaving the gym. Yeah, of course he was leaving the gym. I mean, have you seen the size of this man? And we dive deep into his story of how he was a skinny kid in high school. Yeah, I can't believe it either, but that's what he says. A skinny kid in high school to the imposing figure that we now see in AEW. And I also love how open and honest he was about mental health

and the importance of talking to someone when you're dealing with something in your life. You can find him on social media at. True Will Hobbs on Instagram. He's at True Willie Hobbs on Twitter. And you can find me. If you're looking for me, I'm at Chris Famfleet. If it's your first time here, please take a second right now to click subscribe or follow on whatever app that you're listening on right now. If that app happens to be Apple Podcasts, if you're listening on your iPhone, it'd be awesome if you could leave a review on there, because I read one out on every single episode as my way to say, thank you. Thanks for being on this journey with me. And also, like, hopefully that maybe you'll want to leave a review and then you'll

hear your name. Shout it out in your message. Shout it out on the show. So this is what Never 117 did. Never 117 is our fan of the week. And they say, the source for interviews in entertainment. And the was the T-H-E-E-The source. Chris crushes the interviews, whether it's John Sina or the Rock, Justin Bieber or Anne Hathaway, this is a must subscribe. Well, thank you so much. Never 117 for the kind words. Yeah, The Rock, John Sina, Justin Bieber, Ann Hathway. And if you listen to the podcast, you know that we interview people from all different

walks of life because I just want to figure out like, how did they get to be as successful as they are? How can we reverse engineer their story back to where we are right now? So thank you for the review. Please, if you could leave one, that'd be awesome. If you have Spotify, they have ratings now. So click the five stars on there. All right.

Let's dive into this right now. Please welcome Powerhouse Hobbs. Dude, it's a pleasure to have you on. Thank you so much. My pleasure's all mine, man. We're in the car right now. Where are you? I just left the gym?

I just left the gym. Just pulled up in front of my crib. So are you an early? gym goer, a late gym goers, just kind of like, you know, whenever it fits into your schedule. I like to get it down in a morning, but I was running a little bit late today. So, you know. You say morning, are we talking like 6 a.m., 5 a.m.? Hell no, I did that for two years.

Like, I got used to get up at 3 a.m. being in the gym by 3.30, go to work by 5.30. And yeah, I go at least now, but like 9.30, 10 o'clock. maybe 10.30. Well, you know, different when your full-time job is wrestling, right? Yeah, yeah. You got to keep the body right, man. Stay tight. What was the job you had before AEW signed you? So I worked at Facebook and Instagram. I was running their facilities apartment.

So I ran about four different buildings. And then I got a call saying, hey, you know, we're going to give you a month off with pay. And I'm like, okay, cool. I'm with it. You know, take my son, Bam Bam to school, my older son, Julian. Then I got home about 2.30. Got a call about 3.45 saying, hey, we're going to terminate you on your crew. I let you guys go.

I'm like. So, but everything happens for a reason. So I'm glad I got to let go and living my dream and doing things and handling business. Yeah, look where it's led you now. It's amazing. Yeah. man, it is crazy. Like, I was telling, who was I tell?

I was telling Christian, just like, I can't believe, you know, I'm living this dream and I'm all these places every week, you know. So. Is your son's given name, Bam Bam? No, is it? Okay. It should be because that's how he only responds.

His actual name is Royce. Very different from Bam Bam. Yeah, everybody calls. Bam Bam. I'm a big Flintstones dude, so that's how I got to name Bam Bam Bam. Well, I wasn't sure if it was Flintstones or Bam Bam Bigelow. It could be both. It could be both. I mean, I got some Bam Bam Bigelow gear, you know, that I've worn before. So the gear you're wearing now. I like it. It's a tip of the hat to Harlem Heat. Yeah, yeah. Those are my dudes growing up, man. I just wish I would have had a matching new rag,

you know, to come out with, you know. So, but those are my guys growing up. Like, just the intimidation factor, how, you know, they talk the same type of jive that my grandparents talk, you know, like it's going to be all like neck bones, sucker, you know, my grandparents said that stuff to the teeth. So those are my dudes growing up. Plus they look like me. So that was a good thing. Yeah, when you were growing up, what was it that initially got you into pro wrestling? So pro wrestling was so pro wrestling was already on by the time I came along. So my grandparents moved from a small town in Mississippi, right down the street from the Cow Palace.

So they grew up, or not grew up, excuse me. They took my dad and my aunts and uncles all the time almost every other weekend to go see Ray Stevens, Paterson, High Chief Peter Monvilla, Pepper Gomez, you know, those guys. So by the time I was born, wrestling was already on on TV. So I just got hooked. At what point did you go, man, that's something that I want to try? I knew I always wanted to be a wrestler from like I was four or five because that's all I cared about.

Nothing else. I mean, I played football and basketball and baseball where wrestling was all that mattered. And I remember going to a live show. And I was like, okay, I know a school I could go to. And there's a APW, you know, which was on beyond the mat. And I'm like, all right, I grew up going to those independent shows. and say that my money, what I had and pulled the trigger, and that was it.

We had 23 people that started off with it. I was only two at the end of the whole class. Man. Look, man, there's a lot of people that when they're four or five years old, want to be a pro wrestler, and then, I don't know, something changes as they get older, and they lose track of that dream. For you, you stayed on it. It's so much.

Yeah, that's all I ever wanted. Like, coming home from school, we watched old wrestling tapes. watching wrestling on Mondays with my grandpa having him flip the remote between the Monday night wars and trade and taste with my friends about different pay-per-views, me getting bad at my grandparents for calling the cable company and trying to order the pay-per-view, but they were saying the wrong name. Like my grandma called one time and said, hey, I want to order a restlemaic. And I'm like, oh, it's WrestleMania, you know, them not understanding what she wanted to order. So, but It was always all, man, having figures and posters, draw my own, you know, wrestlers on

with pen and paper and crayons, you know, so. I heard you say in another interview that you were skinny growing up, which is very hard to believe, but like, how skinny are we talking? I graduated high school at 842 pounds. At the same height that you are now? I was shorter. I grew. You know, genetics happened.

So, you know, come from a line of big bowl people. So, you know, it happened to think my first wrestling match, I got thrown in a battle royal. I was still training just because I had some generic gear. I was the first one of the first one to have boots. I got thrown in the battle royal. And I thought I was a business then. Like all the other students were like, yo, you're in the battle. Well, my gosh.

Yeah, I came in, got some four-hous punches in, got chopped by everybody, got kicked, punched, and whoop out the door. So that was, that was a highlight for me for about like two years. Dude, if you were 142 pounds when you graduated from high school, and you are quite literally double the size now. Yeah, yeah. I'm a whole different person. Wow. What do you think is the biggest difference between Powerhouse Hobbs, Will Hobbs that's sitting in front of me right now, and when you debuted originally, you know, 12 years ago, 13 years ago? Confidence. having the right people around me to teach me. Knowing my abilities, knowing what I can do, what I can't do,

how to actually work a crowd, how to have fun, and how to just be myself. I think the best thing about me, when I come off in the ring and I smile and give that snarl, that's actually me. I've been doing that snarl for, since Pop Warner Football, You know, the PAL League, I've been doing that for the longest. And I used to do that just to keep people like bullies away from me.

They thought I was crazy. Can you give us a little right now? Oh. You should see my daughter do it. She's, yeah, she can do it. She can do it pretty well. What was it that originally got you on AEW's radar, do you think? I know a phone call got called in

and you know next thing I know I had QT Marshall send me a text and I looked at it and I was like bullshit like like QT Marshall was texting me and I sat on it for a little bit and then you know I responded back and you know it was one of those things like okay, should I risk flying all the way to Jacksonville and maybe get COVID?

But I say, hey, you know, I think you, but if we don't want things to open back up, I'm like, man, I was like, I got to be a fool if I say no to this. So I remember QT asking me, is, hey, are you local to Jacksonville? I said no, but I'll find a way to get there. He gave me a thumbs up. And when I got there, I was just amazed at Daly's place. everyone was friendly to me. I got to the back, looked on the board.

I'm like, okay, I'm on, I got a match tonight. Okay, cool. Orange Cassidy. Okay, cool. I've been following the program, you know, knowing he's in the big few with Chris Jericho. I'm like, okay, cool. Then the rest happened, 12.3, three, six seconds later, I lost Orange Cassidy. So, you know, but, you know, I think it's one of those things.

that I could care less if I'm one or not. My main thing was just how can I help out this show? And my main thing is I orange beat me and it was on and I knew the pay-per-view was coming up with him and Jericho and I knew that was going to get put on like a highlight reel, you know, just because my size and his size and it was. So what do you think it was it really like? What was the breakout moment? Was it the Battle Royal, you think? I think the Battle Royal was. That in my match on that Saturday night dynamite with Derby.

Yeah. Before the pay-per-view. You know, people didn't. I think local people in California knew who I was. But as far as like other people, Samway, AW Dark, they knew who Will Hobbs was and that battle war. It was crazy because it was, it was the anniversary. three of my brother's death.

And it was just like, okay, I'm in this battle roll. I think I was like one of the last six at the end. And I had a little moment with Seidel and hitting that spine blushing. And I had a moment with Archer. And at that point, I'm thinking in my head, I'm like, I should be here. You know, and everything took off after that. Yeah, was there something that when you went through the curtain on your way back after that match did Tony Kahn

or anyone else say something to you that made you go okay yeah that worked yeah Tony was yelling was like Willie Willie Willie Willie let's go let's go and I'm like shit let's go let's do it what's next and what we doing next week and I think the following week was when I saved Mock's from

K's and Starks that was a big moment for me like for Mocks to you know, to give me that perfect introduction the way he introduced me. I was like, I was ready to go then too. Well, there's something about seeing you in the ring, right? You have this like real presence about you. You're a big man.

And I'm so curious, growing up, who do you think was the best big man? From me growing up, I was always, and I'm not saying that because, you know, he's been a mentor to him. I think like me personally, like watching was. like I love the way Yoko worked, how quick he was for his size. I loved how Mark Henry worked. And, you know, just those guys, like, I was even impressed with, like, with Big Daddy V. Like, when he threw that little back kick, like, got off his feet, like, he, like, he, like, 500 pounds doing that.

So it was, I loved all the big guys because it took so much. for the little guys are taking them down. And they could just hit it with one move, like Vader, will hit somebody with that Vader, that Vader splash, and just look at them. I'm like, okay.

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Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Do you think there was ever a point in your career? Like, I mean, it's crazy that you guys. got discovered like a decade into your career, especially with how talented you are and the amazing look that you have. Was there ever a point where you were like, man, this thing might not happen? Yeah, there was that those few times. But then I would think about, okay, well, what would my grandma and my grandpa say? Like, you know, just they raised us and they teach us to quit. So whatever way you got to find a way to get there. You, that's what my grandma would say,

you better get there. So you got to find a way. With doing, you did some enhancement stuff for WWE. Did you ever feel like that was ever a possibility? Within. Yeah. I did add one time, but then it got to the point where it was like,

okay, they're just bringing you in just to do a hand and stuff. Okay, cool. And then you have people, you know, that actually are on the roster and are like, hey, man, when are they going to give you a shot?

Like, you know, so. and you just let alone guys actually worked there that said that to me that let me know i i could go but i had talent so and then it must have seemed like such a completely different situation where you fly yourself into jacksonville and you're not just there to be an extra you're like you're on the show that first time you're on a w yeah i i i was there was no guarantee that i was going to get a match huh you know and did you so you paid for your own flight did you also pay for your own hotel when

you got there too yeah Yeah. Wow. Everything. A car, flight, you know, hotel, food, all that stuff. I got to cater when I was there. But my own way of getting there and getting back, that was all on will. That was me.

So, you know, you got to spend money to make money. So. Well, that's what we like to call betting on yourself. And like clearly that bet. If you don't do it, nobody else. Nobody else is going to do it. I was always told about my grandparents, you know, your special list and that.

But once you get out in this world, you got to prove it to everyone else. So that's what I tell. That's what I tell my 16-year-old. Walk me through. You find out that you're going to be wrestling CM Punk on TV. It was crazy. Like, I remember like, okay, you would have,

you would ask me a few years ago when I wrestled like would I be wrestling him five years ago whatever I don't have told you no he wasn't even wrestling no and just the fact that I'm wrestling him when the 20,000 plus people are at their ass stadium cable TV like come on now like I must have been dreaming and he knew how special that night was for me um and it was a about a little over a month after my mom passed away. So he knew what my mindset was and how I wanted this match to come off. And I can't thank him enough to tell him thank you all the time. So that was just special.

With so many of the things you're mentioning here, like your brother passing away, your mom passing away, and I'm so sorry about that. How have you been able to get over those really difficult moments in your life? having great people around me going to therapy has helped me out not having those feelings jumbled in because i believe if you have too much bottled in it can destroy you you just have to find a way to get it out and wrestling was always away from my family to connect like we would have like parties just you know people my family

coming over watching wrestling you know so wrestling was always a way for us to connect and it helped me out so much you know I'm guessing there's still parties going on but now they're watching you and you're not there yeah yeah they they better be watching me if they know was good for they want a Christmas present or something they they better be watching where did the transition officially happen where you went from will hobbs to powerhouse will hobbs to then just powerhouse hobbs the night i hit cody rose in the face with that ftw belt that was the end of will hobbs and then the next week i made my my powerhouse hobbs debut against lee johnson and then that was it so you know that that's the night that's the night will hobbs

went away and where or how was the like call officially made to change your name tony looked at me as like powerhouse i was like all right let's go i thought he thought he might have saw some of my clips in the gym but i don't know where he got it from and i'm loving it and it's one of those things like you look at hacksaw-bitch read like people call them hacksaw And I'm like, okay. And I know for a fact, Butch Reed was a fan of mine. I've talked to his son.

And, you know, I'm like, okay, I'm up there with Butch Reed, like Powerhouse, Hacksaw. Even like Hacksaw Jim Duggett. They call him Haxall. Like anybody with those, like, strong names, like, you know, it's my way of, like, kind of almost carrying on and paying homage to him. well look if anybody was going to be called powerhouse like you fit the bill you try to call me powerhouse it doesn't make it it could work i vouch for you i vouch for you you might be the only one

i got your bag that's all that matters what do you think's been the biggest lesson you've learned from teaming with tas and being part of team tas patience in the ring you mean in the ring uh stalking being true to myself doing what I feel, do stuff that feels natural, put my size over. Like I'm, like you said, I'm a big dude. And when I work, it's just like, I like stalking people. Like, I like, Taz has taught me that whatever you do in the ring, make the people in the arena feel it, but make the people at home feel it.

And when I hit someone, I see people, I go around and I look and I see people cringe. And I look at the camera and I know there's people at home turning away, like once you see me do something. So that's what I give off. Who's on your radar now? Who do you really want to have a match with that you haven't been able to work with yet? I want to work Eddie Kingston.

I want to work John Moxley. I definitely want to work. FTR. I'm throwing us out there. I'm looking at the camera. I want to work Mark Henry. Young bucks. I want to work people that have my style and who go against my style.

I think everything matches so well. What do you think is like the one match that maybe it's the CM Punk match, but what's the one match that you're like so super proud of? And it might not even be an AEW. It could be somewhere else in your career. But what's the one match that you're really proud? out of. So there's, I just answered this question. So it's my match with, I think the match that these matches had all eyes on me because I felt each, each one was a, was a test. Like my match

with Christian, that was a test. Like, okay. The way I looked at it was, I felt people wanted to, people felt like maybe can, can, will go. So my match for Christian and the, a match with Hangman Page, you know, than the match with CM Punk, obviously. Then my series, uh, three matches with Dante. So all those matches for me are like, just going up like, you know, I feel like just personally like, can we,

the way I look at it, can we test will? Like, yeah, and I felt everyone out, hit a home run on, on everyone. I've turned heads and, I made people like, okay, this guy can be, you know, champion. Um, material, you know. Yeah. Do you feel an added pressure?

You know, you have three kids. You're providing for them. Your dad. Do you feel an added pressure now every week to go out an absolutely. Yeah. I got to. I can't fail. I can't fail my kids.

I refuse to. Um, I'm, I'm a believer that I, I like to think. to think and I know because my son has told me that I accomplished my dream. But even though I accomplished it, I still have goals and still have things set. And I want them to look at me and be like, okay, well, dad's doing his thing. You know, we can do whatever we want. But having that pressure going home and have those eyes look at me knowing I feel that, that shit ain't never going to happen.

Like that that's that that's that will's not doing that we we not doing that so that I refuse to ever let that happen. Are you raising some some up and coming wrestlers you think? I think so. Bam Bam likes to wrestle everybody. So I only tell him you know, they can wrestle with your brother and dad. You know, we can't we can't take that to school because we've had a little had a little instance before. But it's possible. I mean, if they want to dibble and dabble in it, cool,

me, if they don't, that's whatever you all want to do, you know, all support. Do they have your size? So my 16-year-old is a human beast. Are you ready for this? Okay. He's 6'5, 210, I think, 12, 13 pounds, size 17 shoe. and he hasn't even started puberty yet. And they're saying he's going to be anywhere from 6-10 to 7-1.

Has he been recruited for any sport? Well, he's playing high school basketball now. I would hope so. Yeah, he's going to a great Catholic high school to play basketball. But you just like, look at him. I'm like, if I had your height, man, you know, but he's he's he's a beast bam bam is is off the charts with everything and my daughter she's just off the charts too so she got some superhuman babies amazing that you're 16 year olds bigger than you

and you're so big yeah i'm like looking at him i told another day i might take the trash out he stood up off stood up and got off the couch and i looked at him i said boy just go take out the garbage like like duck when you talk to me like you know knock it down a few i've thoroughly enjoyed this i want to be respectful for your time uh respectful your time because you just got out of the gym here what what day was it at the gym by the way just just cardio just cardio today what do the other days look like what's the split look like tomorrow what are we doing tomorrow we're doing a little chesticle and triceps and some abdominal.

International chest day. I love it. You know, that's how we do it. We got to. So is it push, pull and then legs? Is that what you're on?

Yeah. Nice. Trying to give away all my secrets. Well, now you don't know. Sorry. Just try to dig here. I want to be as large as you.

Don't do that. You'll try to take my job. Then we're going to have problems. I don't. That's not happening anytime. You can take my job. That's much more likely. No,

no, no, no. I end every conversation with the same question because I'm all about gratitude. And I want to know for you, Will, what are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now? My family. I'm grateful that I that I work for an amazing company. And that one thing that I want to say last week when I was in the grocery store, I had some kids come up to me and just, are you powerhouse?

I was so cool. It's the grateful that I can motivate people. So, you know, I just, I come from a two square mile city, East Paul Alto, and it's a former murder capital of the United States. And, you know, and there's great things happening out there now with Facebook being there. And just I'm grateful I didn't succumb to, you know, being locked in a penitentiary or dying at an early age because of my grandparents. look where you are now man like this is so excited and i feel like you're just getting started i am just

think about just think about where i'm going to be like it's it's crazy you know i sit back and i write down my goals and shit's going to happen like i said i refuse to come home and and look at them and fail like that's yeah oh man it's so powerful and i can't stress this enough it's so powerful for people to hear that it's not it's one thing to have goals but it's another thing to write down your goals. Yeah. That makes them real. Yes.

You have to. I remember drawing, me like six years old holding up a championship belt. You know, and first step is winning this ladder match and then kicking whoever

has that T&T championship. So, you know. Well, I'm so excited for what's next for you. And I know that if we were to have the same conversation at this time next year,

we'll be talking about like a lot of very different We should. We need to make it happen. Let's do the next one in person. Okay, I'm down. Thank you so much, Will. Thank you, Chris. Appreciate you. Okay, big thanks to Powerhouse Hobbs for the great conversation.

And of course, we wouldn't be here without you. So a big thank you to you for joining us and for listening all the way until the end. Share this with someone who you know will be inspired by this. Take a screenshot. Let us know that you're listening. Tag us on social media. Will is at True Will Hobbs. on Instagram. He's at True Willie Hobbs on Twitter, and I'm at Chris FAM fleet. And I'll leave you with

this quote that I love so much. It's an amazing quote. It's from Erica Jong, who says, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more. Be great, be grateful. We'll see you on the next one, which is tomorrow 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.

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