Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Rampage Jackson On His Failed TNA Run, Destroying That Door, Powerbomb, Why He's Not In The UFC Hall Of Fame

Episode Date: June 13, 2024

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (@rampage4real) is a mixed martial artist, actor and former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood to talk about his legendary MMA career, beating Chuck Liddell to win the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship, what went wrong with his run in TNA Wrestling, how he got the role to play B.A. Baracus in "The A Team", the real story behind destroying the door on The Ultimate Fighter, powerbombing Ricardo Arona in PRIDE, his favorite flavor of F3 Energy, his involvement with United Fight League and much more! Quote I'm thinking about: “Life is a guy trying to play a violin solo in public while learning the music and his instrument at the same time.” - Joseph Campbell Sponsors: PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank which was designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/ PRIZEPICKS: Download the app today and use code INSIGHT for a first deposit match up to $100! BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv BLUECHEW: Use the code INSIGHT to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at http://plunge.com For more information about Chris 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

Hello, friends. Welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet. Thanks for being with us on this one. And thank you, as always, for helping to make Insight one of the top wrestling podcasts on the planet. But if you're one of the thousands of people who listen to the show, but you don't follow the show,

can we change that right now? The more people who follow the show, the bigger the show can get. And as you've seen over the last few months, the bigger, guests can get. So hit that follow button on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or wherever it is that you're listening right now. Quentin Rampage Jackson is back on the show, a former light heavyweight champion in the UFC, a freaking MMA legend. How is this man not in the UFC Hall of Fame?

That's actually one of the things we talk about on this interview. I mean, he has wins over Chuck Liddell, Vanderley-Silva, Dan Henderson, Keith Jardine, just to name a few. you might remember as a wrestling fan, his very brief run in TNA in 2013, which really should have been so much more. He debuts. He's nose to nose and a face off, a stare down with Kurt Angle, and then really not much comes of this at all. But he is returning to the ring for Josh Barnett's Bloodsport on June 22nd in Tokyo, so that'll be very interesting. A lot of big names on that card. Snap a screenshot. Let us know that you're listening and tag us so we can share it out. He's at Rampage 4 Real. That's Rampage, the number 4 real. I'm at Chris Van Fleet,

and Rampage is also a co-host on Jackson Podcast. That's J-AXX-O-N. So when you're done with this one, go check out Jackson Podcast. Some of the recent guests include Rick Flair, Ken Shamrock, Tank Abbott, and Ray Mysterio, and the whole host of other. massive guests on there. So go check that out when you're done with this one. But let's dive into this right now. Please welcome the legend himself. Rampage Jackson. Rampage back on the show. Man, it's so good to see you. I thought you were about to say Rampage Blackson. I feel like we need to crack into one of these. Oh yeah, man, it's my favorite right here. It's so good. What is your favorite F3 flavor?

Citrus. You go with the citrus. My favorite's the tropical theory. Yeah, they're not bad. I like the tropical. I mean, they're all good. Original's great, too. Yeah. I like how sweet original is. It tastes like cotton can in a little bit.

The amount of comments I get of like, are those things actually good? It's like, no, they are. Yeah. Like, take a sip of any of these flavors. They're so good. I've never met anyone that didn't like it. That's Harrison. Harrison Rogers, our friend who started F3 Energy and also UFL.

He's like, we 100% of the time, 10 to 10, always pass the taste test. Yeah. And it's true. Yeah. You give someone any of these flavors and they're going to go, yeah, that thing tastes great. When he first told me he was going to make a healthy energy drink, I've tasted stuff like that before. And I always had this funny aftertaste. So I was thinking that it was going to be one of those.

Yeah. And I tasted like, oh, man, there's not a fun aftertaste. But I tasted it months after it was released. I wouldn't even touch it because I was still on a monster. Right. Because I'm real lawyer like that. I wouldn't even taste it, even though I was on a contract with months. I wouldn't even taste it.

even behind closed doors. The funny thing is people will look at this. They'll go, oh, wow. Oh, Gensig. Oh, B-C-A-A. Like, Ginklil-Baloba. They're looking at, okay. And then they taste it.

They go, oh, that's actually good. And you're like, oh, yeah. Like, you could say it's just good, not actually good. Yeah. But I think that people assume it's not going to be good because it's healthy ingredients. Yeah. That's why I assumed I was wrong. So you were with Monster for so long.

Yeah. What made, I mean, it was a, how long was that partnership? It was a long time. At least 15. I'm bad with time. I'm not about me. But it was at least 15 years. You might be bad with time, but you look like you've never aged.

Man, people keep saying that. I don't see it. But you know what, though? My dad looked young for his age. But then all of a sudden, he just turned like 67. And now he looks old. But I don't see him every day. You know, he lives back home.

I saw him one time. He came to visit him like, damn. Yeah. You look like you could still fight. I feel like I can still fight. I'm trying to do some boxing. Yeah. Shannon Briggs keeps stuck in you.

Yeah, yeah. Shannon Briggs, he's scared. Come on. Yeah. Come on. He's the pro boxer. He's scared. You guys have been talking about that for like five years.

More, right? About four years. Jeez. Yeah, man. Is it ever going to happen? I hope so. Like, we got really close here recently and then it wasn't his fault that it's not going to happen this time. But he's still trying.

And we haven't announced to the fans that it's not going down. I don't have the heart to announce that it's getting pushed back again. Because I think the fans are going to give up because the fans really want to see that. Of course. You guys seem to really not like each other. Yeah, but he's cool. Like, I'm, I'm a, I'm a lay it out right here. It's like, we're not buddy, buddy, but I do like him because he's funny,

but then sometimes he takes it too far. He takes it too far, and then I'm like, man, this guy's so annoying. I can't wait to knock him out. So you were with Monster for so long. Yeah. What made you come over to F3? So, if I'm going to be 100% honest, Harrison Rogers, I love that guy. What a great guy.

He's a great guy. And so doing business with him with the, MMA league, he decided to share with the fighters to give the fighters, like, benefits and shares in the companies and stuff like that. And so he figured if he made something like an energy drink or something along those lines, he could, you know, share more money with the fans, with the fighters. You know, if they had like a longevity contract with him. And I was like, man, you know, me being selfish with my monster deal, you know, I'm loyal to a month. I was like, man, don't start an energy drink, please. I'm like, do supplements or something.

You know, don't start the energy drink because I couldn't be a part of it. And he was like, oh, no, don't wear it, you know. You know, I understand that you wouldn't monster and stuff like that. And then he started putting it, you know, putting it on the matth, had to repost it. And then he started making UFL shirts, but it had F3 on them by. Like, man, I can't wear that shirt, you know. You know, I get sued and stuff like that. He was like, oh, yeah, you know, I understand.

And then after a while, I saw what he was doing and I felt like he needed more exposure and stuff like then. And my contract with a monster is like for a year at a time. And then you go to a period and where you have to resign. And then I just saw Harrison trying to get F3 off the ground. I kind of felt like, man, he's such a good business partner. And he treats me so well. And, you know, in my line of work,

sometimes it's hard to come across good business partners and people like that. So I was like, all right, I'm going to. you know what I said? I took a risk. I'm going to step away from, from Monster Energy. I feel like they didn't have enough athletes

and people represent them. They really didn't need me. So I went to F3 and Harrison, you know, he took care of me. I was all right, I'm coming over. Because it was only fair because, you know, he's promoting all over, you know, UFO and everything.

He made it into the shirts. I'm going to be around it and posting it and going to be having F3 all over the mats and stuff like that. I was like, you know, I hope monster understands. Harrison Rogers takes care of people. Yeah. That's what's so great about him.

He's such a good friend. He's such a good person. What he's doing with the UFL, United Fight League, is he's taking care of the fighters. And it's crazy to think that this hadn't been done before. Like you're in there, you're getting beat up and beating people off for a living. And he's saying, oh, yeah, we're going to give you guys health benefits. Yeah. Can't believe that hadn't been done before.

Right. I couldn't believe it. He's just putting the fighters first. Yeah. Like, like, he was a fighter. And, you know, I didn't even know it at first, but he was training to be a fighter. I think he'd done, like, two MMA amateur fights. He did.

And then he said he got married and his wife's like, I don't think I want you doing that. I give him shit about that. But I'm glad. I'm glad that was a good decision because think about it, he turned to a businessman. He's a brilliant entrepreneur. Yeah. It was so cool. We were at UFL four, was that two, three weeks ago?

Yeah. I was sitting right behind you in that area. It was so fun watching you watch MMA. Because you get into it. Yeah, it was fun. That was a good show. That was a great show. That main event was so good.

Yeah. The matchmaker did a great job, I think. A lot of the fights was so close. So close. And then, you know, it was a few knockouts. But, you know, it's MMA. It didn't happen. I feel like I was watching you, watching the fights, and I'm going, he still wants to get in there.

Oh, man, I miss it. It's been four years since I had an MMA fight. But Josh Burnett hit me up the other day. He was like, hey, you got time to train MMA because I've been training in boxing. And I was like, oh, damn, I need to go start training MMA because I'm doing that blood sport for him in Japan. And that's pro wrestling, but it's like an MMA fight. Yeah, you guys are going to be grappling. And also, it's pro wrestling.

But there's no ropes, right? There's no rope. So I don't know. I don't know what to expect. It's like, it's grappling, but it's kind of, it's a little, it's kind of real. It's kind of scripted. I don't know what to expect. This is going to be great then.

So am I punching and kicking and knee in the MMA? I don't think you're legitimately punching and kicking a knee. That's no holding back. Okay. For me, it's no holding back. I learned this about myself when I went to Thailand with Bob Sap and we did the two-headed boxing. And it's supposed to be in entertainment for fun. But it's just something that came over me and I was trying to knock the other people out.

Yeah, I just couldn't hold it back. When Mike O'Hern posted that you guys would be fighting, I'm like, this can't be real? Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, there was, April's foods. But the thing is I was dealing with these people in Qatar and they asked me not to promote the pro wrestling thing first. So I couldn't even say nothing about it. You and Mike O'Hern would be just, I mean, if that was real, that'd be silly.

But that's not actually the fight. No, no, I'm fighting some Japanese guy. I think they say his name is Shrek. Well, it just sounds like you're going to beat his ass. I'm going to beat his ass because I can't hold back. I'm sorry. I probably won't do no, I won't have my knockout power, but, you know, I don't know how I'm going to hold back.

Because when I spar, when I go light, it sucks, you know. I was sparring boxing against the day with my friend. He said, oh, it's close to my fight, so let's just go easy. I'm thinking to myself, like, how in the fuck I'm going to do this? Can I say fuck on your show? Of course you can. Yeah. How in the fuck I'm going to do this?

You know, because you got to punch low? I don't know. I just try to pull back some of the power. I don't know. When you're normally sparring, what percentage are you giving? Oh, me, it depends on how hard my opponent. goes. Okay. Then whoever I'm sparring with, I like to go, I like to go, you know, just regular, you know,

not slow, not holding anything, but not knock out, try to knock him out. But then if he tries to hit me hard, then, okay, all right. I'm happy. All right. I don't got to hold it. I'm terrified sparring with you. I am easy to spar with, though. I just go hard as you go. As nice as you are when you're not in the cage, and you are one of the nicest people have ever met, you can turn it on like that. You become a scary man. It's weird. It's weird. That's one of those weird things. Where does that come from?

Man, I don't know. I don't know. I know I have two personalities. I know that much about myself. You know, I'm two people. I'm quitting, and I'm Rampage. It just happens. What are most people calling you in real life?

Most people call me Rampage, but, you know, but I have a lot of names. Some people call me Q. Some people call me Page. Some people call me RAM. I don't say what people can call me. When you say that you can't turn it off, when you were doing stuff with pro wrestling,

was it difficult to pull it back a little bit? Oh, no, no, that's totally different. If it's pro wrestling and stuff like that, if it's not like MMA style, yeah, that's fun, you know. I always wanted to be a pro wrestler, so that's fun for me. I'm not really trying to hurt nobody or, you know, knock nobody out when it's pro wrestling.

Was there a point in your life where pro wrestling seemed like the thing you were going to do instead of getting into MMA? Yeah, I didn't even know what MMA was. When I started wrestling in high school, I was disappointed when I found out it wasn't pro wrestling. Because, you know, I grew up in a certain side of Memphis where we didn't have wrestling in high schools.

And then my mom remarried, we moved to a better side of Memphis and the schools was better. And they had a wrestling team. I'm like, I'm going to go join this pro wrestling team. And I get there, like, they got singlets on. They wearing head gear. They, you know what I'm saying? They all hug on each other.

And we're all like, what the hell is this? And coach is like, what did you thought you was about to do? You thought you were going to run the ropes. Yeah. I was like, what a ring. It was mats. I've never seen it. Never seen collegiate wrestling before my life.

But did you fall in love with collegial wrestling? Oh, man, I fell in love with it because, you know, I picked people up and slam them. And my coach, he taught me how to slam people legally. And I had to drop to my knees first before I actually let them hit the mat. Yeah? Yeah, that's the legal way of slamming and collegiate. But freestyle, you can do whatever you want. Man, I feel like you're a dangerous man in there.

I feel like he'd be a very dangerous man to be looking across the ring from, the cage from, whatever it would happen to be. My young day, that was the fun times. I used to be so strong to pick people up from any position in the slamming. Jeez. Yeah. So how did that, how did, first of all, being in love with pro wrestling, thinking that wrestling was pro wrestling, how did that lead to, oh, this is going to be something else, this is going to be MMA? That was all was a mistake. So I ended up going to college for wrestling, and I got injured, and then I came back home.

And one of the guys I used to wrestle against him and I became good friends at the time. We always used to see each other in the finals and the tournament. In our way class, we were the two best wrestlers in Memphis, and his coach and my coach was best friends. So, you know, we had to practice together sometime. So we stayed in touch over the years. And when I came back home to Memphis, he was training for an MMA fight. He took me to my first MMA fight, and I had never really seen it. One of my coaches in college was doing UFC, and I still didn't watch it.

I just heard about it. His name was Valer Manticinco. He was one of my coaches in college he fought in the UFC back in the early days. So he actually took me into a fight, and I saw this guy, submit a guy, and push his face off with his feet. I was like, man, that guy's a dick. I would like to fight that guy. And, you know, time go by And he asked me to have him train for a fight.

I'm there for like two or three days. I'm having to train for a fight, wrestling, and he's showing me some stuff. And the coach said, like, hey, you want to fight? Like, yeah, win. He was like, three days, the champion's opponent pulled out. Okay. Now I was like, okay, I don't know.

Let me think. Then my friend said, like, that's the guy you said, you want to fight. I said, all, I signed me up. Wow. So I went out there and I fought the champion of Memphis with three days notice. And then what happened?

I beat them by decision. Man. They did my friends like, oh, you're a fighter now. I'm like, okay. Is that the moment where you realized you could be a fighter?

Yeah. Did you make any money on that fight? Hell no, I was amateur. I didn't make nothing. I was getting my ass kicked. I tried to throw him out the ring because I was tired.

They threw him back in the ring. I was like, damn. I was just trying to get the fight over with. But, you know, I'm like, you know, I could do this. If I learned some stuff, I can do this then maybe like six months later when my friend sent for me out here

and I moved to Huntington Beach and started training with a Brazilian black belt named Fabano Iha. And then my fight career was born. It's so funny that when people think of Huntington Beach and wrestling and fighting, they always think of Tito. Yeah. But not you.

No, Tank Abbott was first from Huntington Beach, but for some reason you know, Tito his whole person's answer was Huntington Beach, so that's why. It was in his nickname, right? The Huntington Beach bad boy. Yeah. I guess if you were the Huntington Beach beast or something.

People would associate you with Huntington Beach. Yeah. I remember the first time I saw Tito, I was working, I was working at this Vietnamese bar club, but, um, were you a bouncer? I was a bouncer. And, um, and, but on, on certain days, they had, like, club rubber after hours.

I don't know you ever heard of that, but, but back in there was like a wild, it was like a wild party. Like, women would be coming in with, like, just bikinas on and chaps and stuff. It was like a weird after party thing. And Tito showed up. And the guys was like, oh, they'll go Tito Ortiz. I'm like, okay, who is that?

And I was like, you're an MMA fighter and you don't know who Tito Ortiz is? I said, no, I don't know who he is because I really wasn't watching it. And I really wasn't a fan of it, but, you know, I just like to do it. And he's like, he's a UFC champion right now. And I saw him, I looked at him. It looked like a big white dude with a big blonde head. I'm like, oh, okay. They said, you think you could take him?

I don't know. I ain't never seen him fight. But back then, no way I could take him. Did you become friends with him after that? Yeah, we trained together. We was on the same team for a while. And training with Tito actually got me better. Him and Rico Rodriguez, they were both champions.

Rico was the headweight champion. They used to take turns kicking my ass. Man. It made me a lot better. When you think back to when you started watching pro wrestling, way back in the day, who were the people you loved? Oh, man. You know, I grew up watching them in Memphis.

I used to love the moon dogs, Jeff Jared. I used to like a macho man, Randi Savage. The Ultimate Warrior was my favorite. you know, Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant. I like Junkyard Dog. That was my little brother's favorite. You know, I like a lot of people. Didn't you wear the chain because of Junker Dog?

Well, actually, my little brother brought me the chain. I lost my fifth wrestling match in a row. My first time wrestling, I lost five matches in a row. And Junk Yard Dog was my little brother's favorite. And he was like, huh, where does chain? Like, Junk Yard Dog. It'll make, you know, it'll make them intimidate. I'm like, hmm, okay.

And I put the chain on. And I went out there, I was undefeated. I thought I wore the chain. Crazy, sorry. Wow. Undefeated until I did freestyle for the first time. And then you brought that with you into MMA, too. Yeah, I brought it.

Because I wore it throughout high school, but I stopped running in college, and I regretted it. And when I wore one time in college, my teammates made fun to me. They ripped me a new one, so I put it away. and I didn't do well in college. Because you weren't wearing the chain. That's why I figured. Man. So when I came and I started fighting,

I'm putting this damn chain back on. And I did okay. You know, I think I won my first, I had like three amateur fights. I won them, then my first pro fight I lost. Man. And it's funny that the chain is like so linked to like your strength.

It's almost like that story in the Bible of Samson. Yeah. Now Samson cuts his hair. There's no strength. The hair comes back. He gets the strength again. Yeah. It's you with the chain.

Yeah. man, that chain. That change means a lot to him as a part of me. And, you know, a lot of people give me shit and say I copied J.Y.D. But I ain't mad at that. I don't, I mean, maybe you're paying homage to him, you know? Yeah. Yeah, I like him.

But, you know, if I'm going to be honest, I always wanted to come out to his song, though. But I never did because I didn't want people to keep saying I'd copy JYD. I think you still have a chance to come out to one of his songs. That'd be cool. Another one bites the dust. Man, that was a good song. That'd be cool. Yeah.

It's so interesting. how your life could have been different if you'd found pro wrestling earlier because you have such a personality for wrestling. I feel like, well, we saw a little bit of in WWE when you made an appearance there, we saw a little bit of in TNA with what happened there, but could you imagine what your life would have been like

if you found wrestling instead of finding MMA? Yeah, I was thinking that that was going to be my destiny to be a wrestler, but you know, I used to be friends with Chris Brin-Wa, and I talked to him one day. And he was like, man, I'm always on the road. And I was like, what? He said, yeah, we wrestle like 300-something days a year.

Yeah. I was like, what? I didn't know that. That's basically when I changed my mind. I don't think I could do it. I don't think I can keep that schedule. Prize picks is America's number one fantasy sports app with more than 5 million members. It's the most fun and exciting way to get in on the action while you watch your favorite sports and players.

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you. That's unifiedhealing.com slash insight. Uni-F-D-healing.com slash insight. No materials or testimonials on the Unified Healing website are intended to be viewed as medical advice or a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen, including EES system. What's the most fights you ever had MMA in a year? Six. Yeah, when I was fighting in Japan, I used to fight six times a year.

I did there for a couple years. That's a lot. That's a lot. Yeah. I always in a gym. I lost a lot of friends. A lot of my friends thought that I got too famous for them or something. I wasn't hanging out with them.

I don't know how you'd even train. You know, like, were you ever training specifically for fights? You can move that over here. Oh, okay. Yeah, that's better for me. I'm sorry. You don't have to reach over. how do you train?

Because it'd be like just training camp fight, train and can't fight. Yeah, that's what it was. I go train and I take a week off. And, you know, after a fight, I'd be right back in there. Jeez. Yeah.

What was the most UFC fights that you had in the year? I don't remember that. I got a... Grace, I got a little cold. Oh, that's okay. You feeling all right? Yeah, I'm almost over.

Just running nose and stuff. I don't want to have a running nose on your shirt. No, it's all good. All right. Am I good? All right. I don't remember how many of fights. Oh, okay.

Let me think. Let me think. When I first got in the UFC, I fought, remember I told you I lost my first professional fight? When I got in the UFC, I rematched that fight with Marvin Eastman. And then I think within 12 months, they had me fight Chuck Liddell for the belt. And then, um, with you. And within that same time frame, I defended my belt against Dan Henderson.

So I don't know. I know I fought like at least three times in one year when I first got there. And then I remember one time I fought Van der Leis Silver. And then I had to go right back at the training camp to fight Keith Jardine. And I remember being overtrained because I trained really hard for Van der Leight Silver. then they had me fight, keep Jardine. But I don't think I ever fought six times than one year in the UFC, though.

Before you got that title shot with Chuck, did you think it was going to happen? Did you think you were going to get that title shot? No, I had no idea that was going to get me a title shot. I actually said, I think Joe Rogan asked me in an interview with something in the cage, like something like about it. And I played it out like, no, no, I'm not ready to fight Chuck.

Because at this time of my career, people, you know, they thought I was finished. Because in Japan, Maybe like a couple years prior, I had turned real religious, and I fought Shogun. And I got, I was injured going into the fight. And a lot of people didn't know that. I didn't say anything about it. And he kind of wrecked me.

He beat me pretty fast. And he like broke the muscle between my ribs and everything. People thought I was done. So, you know, they thought that maybe Chuck could beat me. Chuck was on his comeback tour when he was beating everybody that, that beat him in the past. and I was the last guy. So I figured that it was going to, I figured that's why they brought my contract

to get me over to the UFC. I was like, yeah, they could put me with Chuck. But I knew I could beat Chuck. Did you know you were going to beat him that night? Oh, yeah, I knew I was going to be. Wow. I trained so hard for Chuck. I just knew I was going to beat him.

It was not one doubt in my mind. I just knew I was going to beat him. Did you know how you were going to beat him? No, I didn't know. I didn't know I was going to knock him out. But I just knew that I just knew Chuck couldn't fuck with me. And what a knockout. Yeah, it was crazy.

You know, the crazy thing about that knockout is that when I fought Chuck in Japan, he hit me with a body shot at the end of the first round, and it was the hardest body shot I ever took in my life. I never been dropped from a body shot, but that one, I felt it in the surprise man. I made a noise, like the air leaving my body, and then I shot in on him and took him down. And I guess he felt like, oh, that body shot hurt him. And then in the next round, he didn't get it off again. And I ended up, you know, they threw in the towel in the beginning of the,

the second round and pride. And so that fight were chucked in the UFC, that body shot that he landed on me years prior in Japan is what caused him to get knocked out in UFC. Man, do you remember seeing that opening in that fight? What, the knockout? Yeah. Well, my defense is when people go from my body,

I have like a trigger point when they go for my body. I automatically come up with an uppercut. But I was doing that, like my counter, because he was setting up their body shot and I saw him setting it up. And that's my trigger point. I was going to uppercut him and left hook.

But as I was uppercutton, he was moving out the way and my arm just followed him. And I didn't know he was going to knock him out because I felt like it wasn't even that hard because he was moving out the way and it's supposed to just be like a straight uppercut, left hook. But he was moving

and my arm following him somehow, just instinct. I don't know. Damn. And they got him. All because of that body shot, he landed on me years there early. Wow. Japan.

How were you not in the UFC Hall of Fame? I don't know. You know, the weird thing about me is that I didn't start fighting to be famous. So I really don't care for the Hall of Fame. I don't know if these guys called Dana up and that, hey, put me in a Hall of Fame, put me in Hall of Fame. You know what I'm saying? Out of, you know, I decide out of mind.

I don't hit Dana up actually be in the Hall of Fame. I really don't care for the Hall of Fame. Like, what's it going to do for me? I think people already assume you're in the Hall of Fame. Well, that's fine. But what does the UFC Hall of Fame get you, though? Well, you'll be a Hall of Fame or forever. But what is it?

Are you saying it doesn't come with a paycheck? Yeah, but like if you're in the Hall of Fame and like football or basketball or basketball, do your pension go up or something like that? I don't think so. Oh, so I don't know. But I think when you think of that era, it's Tito and it's Chuck and it's Randy and it's you. Like those are some of the big names that immediately pop into people's head. The fact that those other three are Hall of Famers. and you're not, is wild.

I was always an outsider when I came to the UFC. You know, I came from pride. You know what I'm saying? I represent pride when I came to the UFC. And, you know, that first fight between Chuck and I in Japan, you know, I think Dana took it personally because I don't know how much you know about this. I don't know if you was watching MMA back in that time. But Dana White did a bet with the president of pride, $250,000.

that Chuck was going to beat me. And then he lost. So he probably took it personally, you know. How is your relationship with Dana now? I don't talk to him much. Him and my manager are really close friends. And every now and then, if they're on FaceTime me, he'd say it was up.

But he always reminded me of that movie I did. You know, that's when our relationship went more south. I took a movie over a fight one time. Which movie? 18. That movie made you a story. household name. Come on.

I lost money doing that movie, to be honest. What do you mean? Well, you know, I got paid like 10% of what I less than 10% of what I get paid for a fight. And so, you know,

I did it because I'm a big fan of it. But, you know, I like doing movies. I'm a big kid. And I was hoping to get more movie roles after that. And all I can say about that is that the manager I had at the time was a fucking idiot, and he thought it was a good idea to sign with the same agency

that represented the UFC. And I didn't get any more movies offers. Wow. So that's all I'm going to say. So you did a movie with Liam Neeson and Bradley Cooper. You're playing the role that Mr. Teammate Famous on the TV show. That seems like a good reason to turn down a fight. Yeah, yeah.

I turned down a fight, but the fight was a big fight. It was a big fight. It was a fight. It was a big fight. It was a big fight. match. No, no, it was the first time.

Man, yeah, him and I, we had never fought, but we, we was, coaches against each other in the ultimate fighter. Right.

Yeah, and I really, that was the toughest decision I ever had to make in my career because I really wanted fight in Memphis in my hometown. And I really feel like if I would have fought Rashad

at that time, you know, so I would hurt his feelings bad. I would, I would, I would have beat him up, you know, just being there in my hometown.

And, you know, I always wanted to fight in my hometown. Do you still feel like years later, that was a bad decision? I don't think it was a bad decision because, you know, 18, you know, it brought my father and I our closer together. And my father, we always been close, but, you know, back when I was young, that's one of the ways my dad and I bonded.

We used to watch A team together and stuff. And I'm a weird guy. I never been a real big fan of anybody, but I've always been a big fan of the A team and Mr. T, you know. I always, that was like, I was like one of the biggest fans. You know, it was like a personal thing for me to do the movie. You know, my dad went through a bad patch in his life with alcohol and stuff. As I got older and now he's back, you know, on the straight narrow.

And so I brought him out to the set and he got to be a big kid and stuff like that. And, you know, it was a good bond. For my dad and my dad, he talks about, it's one that, you know, one of the best times he ever had because he's never been in Canada. He never been nowhere. He gets to be on the set and, you know, see the A-T movie and stuff like that. And then my dad had a great time. So I wouldn't trade that for the world.

You still get residual checks from that movie? Yeah, but it ain't shit. I get residual checks. And I'd be looking at it. I'm like, man, this is not even worth putting in my bank. What are they? Like 10 bucks? Shit, I put 10 bucks on my bank.

Sometimes it'd be like 10 cents. No way. It'd be like 50 cents, a dollar 50. Sometimes every down then there'd be like a couple hundred bucks, $500, $500 sometimes. It did great on TV. Yeah. Yeah.

But I don't think my residual deal was really good. I think the management, the management that, that negotiated that deal for me, I think they just, they just knew that that was going to make me a star. So they were just trying to get me out there. So they did like a real crappy deal. Like the movie, I would have done the movie for free. I'm not all about money. You know, that's the last thing I really care about.

I know you need it, but I'm not really motivated by money. I would have done the movie for free. But that Meteor tour, man, I wouldn't have done that for less than five. 10 million. Oh my God, it was like three months. Meade flying all over the world, doing interviews and saying the same shit over and over. That was hard. It's so funny you saying that because I've been on the other side of that. I've been the journalist in the room on many of those junkets. And it's funny because you might be interview number 47 of 65 that they're doing that day. And you can see that it's wearing on them. Yeah. I guess I guess they don't know that they're

asking the same questions. I don't know how they, but I guess it's hard to be creative with questions. How many Mr. T. questions that you get? Oh, man, have you ever met Mr. T?

I was like, shut up, fool. I never met him. Still to this day. Still haven't met him? No, but, no, the director of AT, met him.

And I don't know if you guys know this, but Mr. T. did a lot of snickers campaigns in the UK. And, you know, it was like, get some nuts.

He would throw snicker balls at people. And he gave the, director of SnickerBah to give to me. I was like, does he know this Snickabar B represents? He gave me a Snickers'Bot. So you would have made 10 times more

if you did the fight with Rashad. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. What was that conversation like with Dana? Dana was pissed. He offered me a million dollars just to walk off the set of 18.

In addition to the money that you would have made on the fight? Oh, yeah. He offered a million dollars to just walk off the set. And that pay-per-view, the paper-view sold over a million buys when we found a Deer fight. So that was going to be a huge pay-per-view for the UFC. What do you think you would have made total? You know, the million dollars he's offering you plus the pay-per-view.

If everything would have called him, I'd probably make $10 million. Man. And you're not making that. I made $100,000 on the fucking move. Plus the $10 residual checks you're getting ready. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, if I had up all this stuff, yeah, but then my purse, I was just talking about my purse.

But with the pay-per-view points and everything, going over a million and a million. Oh, yeah. Wow. Yeah, it would have made a lot of money. You would think, though, that the A team was going to lead to many other roles that you would have had. It was supposed to. Even people that came to me directly, I gave my agent's info. Like, yeah, talk to them.

I don't do it, blah, boom. I was just told not to do any more movies. Wow. It's funny because you said you didn't get into fighting to become famous. Then you go do a movie. You become famous from it. You're in that Hollywood world, at least for a handful of months during that time.

How did that feel? It's so juxtaposed from the fighting world. It was, I didn't see no difference because after I thought Chuck Liddell, it was like, I had no privacy, no more after that in public anyway. So I didn't really see a difference. Every now, I knew an older white woman would come up, ask me how I'm doing before that. It was all the only dudes.

And how were you doing? Yeah. I was doing according to how they looked at. I was doing it. They was hot. I'm doing fine. How are you doing? Why are you doing more movies now?

I love it, man. You know, I'm a big kid. Yeah. If I get to, you know, shoot at people, you know, doing any type of action or stuff like that as far. fun. I enjoy it. You know, I've done a lot of movies, but, you know, most of them people will never see. They're like B movies, but they're fun to do. I was so excited when I saw you in Boss Level. Oh, yeah, that was a good one. Out of nowhere. I'm like, ah, that's a great movie,

by the way. That was such a sneaky good movie during the pandemic. Now, I'm telling you that Joe Carnahan, that was the director of A team. He's a genius. That guy is so good. He also directed The Grey. Yeah, the Grey. Hey, here's a little Easter Egg. I was the Voice of the Wolf and the Grey. What? The howling, yeah, that was me. Yeah. Where did the howling even come from?

To be honest, I think it came from after I watched damn team wolf as a kid. I don't know. It had to be after that because I don't think I was howling before that. I really loved that movie. I watched it all the time. Turned to a werewolf and my neighborhood

where we grew up, it was it was before I was born, one of my grandmother was first movie that was. It was called, what, Knob Hill, I think it was a cemetery or something like that, and they tore it out and they put it in the woods all behind my house and stuff and her. And we used to play back there in the woods and stuff and full moon and stuff, coming out. I used to howl. I turned to a World War Wolf. So are you credited in the Grey?

I don't know if he credited me. I think he did. I'm going to look right now. Look at all the world's information in our pockets. Let's see. Yeah, I don't know if he credit me. I just wanted to do it for him because I got a lot of respect for Joe Carnahan. I love that guy. He's a funny guy. I think that guy's brilliant. Yeah.

Okay, so let's see. I'm going to type in your name in the gray. That movie is fantastic. Also with your friend Liam Neeson. Yeah. The movie was actually offered to Bradley Cooper at first. Oh, wow. But Bradley didn't want to do it because Joe Connerhan wanted to go to the code for real.

I don't think you're credited for it. Oh, that's okay. That's so fun. Well, that's a nice little, like, sneaky little Easter egg. Yeah. When you go to IMDB, look what your photo is. Ah, yeah. They will put that photo.

Bea Baracus, yeah, that's great. I don't care that he didn't credit me in that. It's cool. Did you get paid for it? No, I just did for him. Then I guess it's an uncredited role. Oh, well, that's fine. Yeah.

I wouldn't charge you. You know, in Boss Leva, he's, he's, just giving him credit for getting Rashard and how to be friends. He put us both in the movie as German twins. That's right. Then, Rashar, we were enemies until that. The first day you show up on set and you're both there, was it a little bit awkward?

Yeah, I was me mugging them and shit. Fuck you doing here. Like, what the fuck you doing here? And they dress us up, like, he cut us, had us give us like a little crazy mustache cut out of the beard. I look all stupid. And then Joe was brilliant. He made you look stupid and you laugh at each other.

You know, you can't be tough when you feel like funny-looking because I didn't have none of my beer. He just cut off most of my mustache, you know. It's almost like a little longer Hitler mustache. I'm like, Joe, you're a fucking genius. How am a me mug this guy? You know, he's looking stupid. I'm looking stupid. We're dressed in the same outfit.

We don't look nothing like a light, but we're twins in the fucking movie. It's so funny. How similar do you think the Chuck knockout was to the Vanderley knockout? I don't think they were similar to that. You got a left and a right. Yeah. I don't think they have something at all like Van der Leigh. His knockout was.

was off a counter as well. But I always knew I can beat Van der Leigh just that I just didn't have the confidence the first few times because I was training with Jiu-Jitsu guys getting ready for an ex-murder. But that Van der Leight fight, that was very personal. That guy gave me two of the worst ass weapons before in my life.

And you're going into this 0-2 against him. It's almost like everything's on the line here. Yeah, yeah. Like nobody knew I could do it. Everybody thought he had my number, but I didn't believe in this stuff. Was there, like, did that feel extra personal after the knockout? I mean, you hit him three more times after he's out cold.

Oh, you know what? That, you know, that was, you know, that was weird. You know, I was going through a court case at that time. They brought that up in court. Like, I'm some violent guy. Like, it was, I don't know if it's personal or not because, like I said, I'm two people. But the day before, he pushed me at the way he is. And then we had to go in the back room and wait for damn for the rules.

And he's like trying to bullet me. I'm like, yeah, I know you remember my knees. Like, I was scared of. I'm like, yeah, you know, I'm going to knock you out tomorrow. I know you're scared. I know you, I know you remember my knees. I was like, Valenai, do you really think I'm scared of you? Like, yeah.

He said, yeah, you're scared of me. You should be. I was like, all right, I'm going to show you tomorrow. And so maybe they had something to do with it. But, you know, I feel like, I, you know, I was in a moment and the referee should have pulled me off. He tried. Oh, well, no, no. I mean, the rough kind of dried, but.

I was still hitting him when the ref grabbed me. I need to go back and watch it. Have you not watched it back? I don't watch my fights that much. Not the day of the ref was like pulling you off, but the ref just didn't get there like. But was I resisting the ref? Do you want to watch it?

We can pull it up. Do you not want to watch it? No. Okay. I don't like watching myself sometimes. That's a, that's a different me. That's, you know, just. That's Rampage.

Yeah. This is Quentin. Yeah. Two different people. So, you know, I apologize. I don't know if it was, well, now that you're bringing it up, I kind of got a vision in my head.

Now, me, like, hitting him and his legs jumping up. I was wrong for that. Did you know he was out when you connected? I don't know what I was thinking. I don't know what I was thinking. The second time I beat him was in Belator. Maybe I was, as soon as I knocked, as soon as he was down, I knocked him out.

You know, I let him go right away. So maybe I did. feel bad about that first time. You always had this killer instinct in you? Yeah. I've always, you know, my cousin gave me his nickname when I was eight years old. It's always been me. I feel like I'm the nicest guy on the planet about you.

I have the worst temper. I have the worst temper. And the weird thing is I've only lost my temper once in a fight. But normally I lose my temper in sparring and training. That's why I have to really fight to control my temper. What was the fight where you lost your temper? Oh, when I power bomb that guy. I lost my temper really bad.

That was the only time I ever lost my temper in the fight. Why did you lose your temper? Oh, man, that guy. So I was supposed to fight him in a tournament prior. And when I got to Japan, I found out that he pulled out of the tournament and put his teammate in. His teammate was, I can't really remember his name because he's a Brazilian name. but he um it's a it's a really tough Brazilian name to um to say but he had just he had beat Chuck and he was really good

he was a jujitsu uh black belt and uh and the prior contract when the opponent pulled out last minute they supposed to give you a lesser opponent but this guy was just as good at jujitsu or even better than than ricardo orona so ricardo faked the injury and i was walking to the 7-11 and i'm going to a store and ricardo walks out and he's walking out normal and then he's seen me and my people and he's got, oh, he's got two band-aids on his knee like X's.

Like, so it's four band-aids like X-X. Yeah, yeah. And I'm looking at him like, oh, man, he's full of shit. So that was like the first thing. I mean, I don't just like attack people off one thing they do. And then the second thing, the second thing was

when we was fighting, we were ground and pound, and he, healed me in the face a couple of times. He kept hearing me in the face. Then it dislocates my jaw a little bit. And so I go down on his body so he couldn't hear me. I just, you know, just like covering up.

And he tells the referee that I'm knocked out. And those reps and pride, they hated my guts. They used to always give me a yellow card, and they take 10% of your purse and a point. So they, I didn't trust those refs. So the refs listening to him, they could have stopped the fight. And so I was like, that's it. That's the last straw.

He's lying. Like, I fight with honor, and I just lost my temper on him. It was like, when I lose my temper, I feel like I get like this adrenaline rush, like an unlimited strength. And I just picked him up and slam them. I tried to slam him through the ring. I tried to break the ring. People say he wasn't knocked out from the slam. He was knocked out from your head hitting his head.

They don't know what the fuck they're talking about. The slam knocked him out in his head. Him get knocked out by slam bounced back and hit my head. And that's where the knockout came from. from him when he hit, okay, that, that ring is a, it's kind of like fighting in a boxing ring. It don't gives them as much as a, it's a pro wrestling ring that has springs and stuff on there. It's kind of like a little bit softer than a boxing ring. So if you slam somebody hard on it, they're going to get knocked out.

There's no springs in a pro wrestling ring. What? Am I blowing your mind here? Yeah, I thought it was springs in the middle. How do they do all that shit? It's just like plywood that they put down there. Yeah, if you look at a bear ring without the canvas on it, it's just like wood. It has a little bit of give to it.

The wood has a little bit of give to it. Yeah, there's no springs. I thought there was springs. No, I'm blowing your mind now. You blow my mind. Yeah. But this don't give like that. Did you know when you were picking him up that like you were going to throw him down as hard as you could?

Oh, yeah, yeah, but I didn't know it was going to knock him out. I just do, I just do that. Yeah, that's insane. Yeah. And that's why, as soon as I dumped them, I was already falling up with punches because, you know, I didn't, I didn't, I just do that. I didn't know, you know, he's going to, I just wanted to finish it. I just wanted to end him. And a lot of people think that it was a headbutt button.

You got to watch it in slow moor. He, he knocks out and he headbutts me. It's one of the craziest highlights in the history of the sport. Yeah, yeah, it's crazy. It's wild. Yeah, that was on my 26th birthday. Happy birthday. Yeah, I had to win that fight because I was losing that fight up until then because he was

leg kicking me. That guy got the hardest leg kicks I ever took before my life when I fought K-1. Man, yeah, that's such a crazy, crazy highlight. That was crazy. It's so wild. 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.

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The other big highlight, we talked about this last time you were on the show, is you destroying that door in the Ultimate Fighter. Oh, shit. Yeah, that was... Was that a real door? That was a real door. And that was another time I lost my temper. That door looked like it was made out of cardboard.

It was. It was a real door, though, but, you know, it was just a cheap-ass door. Thank God. this up? Like, did they say, by the way, Quentin, that door is made of, you know, of cardboard? No. One thing about the ultimate fighter, at all the reality shows I've seen and done, it's the only one that's unscripted, but they just edited it the way they want to. That was a real door, and it wasn't set up. It was just me. I was trying to leave that room because I knew I was losing my temper. And I get embarrassed when I lose my temper. And that door,

I try to open it and it kind of like bounce back up to him. I'm like, fuck this door. And you shredded that door. Yeah, it was a cheap-ass door. It's a cheap door, but still. Yeah. I don't think if me kicking it wouldn't have torn it down. Yeah, I think anybody could. I don't know. I think because, you know, inside your house, like your bedroom door,

all the doors look like that on the inside, I'm sure, unless you just go expensive, super expensive. But that's what, that wasn't the first door that I broke, and so I know. What do you mean? Well, you know, I told you my cousin named me rampage when I was a kid because I used to destroy the house, just like the video game. I feel like we need a rematch with this door.

The door might win this time. Who knows? Oh, yeah. Fight circus in Thailand were trying to give me to beat up a door. Nah, you pay me enough money. I beat up a door. Your entrance for Bloodsport, for Josh Barnett's bloodsports, should be you walking through a door. That's a good idea.

This is pretty good. That's pretty good. And give me 10% of whatever you make there for this idea. Oh, shit. I give you your $8 right now. You're only making $80? That'd be a great entrance. That'd be a good pro wrestling entrance.

That would be a good pro wrestling interest. I feel like you have a mind for pro wrestling I like it I like it bro I did TNA I was so stoked to do it like they had me and Kurt Anger do the stir down I thought it was going to be huge I thought like oh yeah you know

I was going to fight a few more MMA fights then didn't leave to go to pro wrestling you had one fight in TNA or one match in TNA the five on five match I don't even remember that shit that's so funny

yeah you were part of that it was like a five on five match Main event mafia that's right. How did that not become something more? Because when you debuted, it was huge. It was huge news that Rampage Jackson was in TNA. And then it's you and Kurt Angle, who was their biggest star at that time. It was setting up to be something massive. Yeah, man, I don't know. I don't know how they dropped the ball. I had my own gym at the time, and they put a harassing ring there, and they were supposed to be training me, and they never trained me. They didn't send anyone to train you? Were they expecting

that you were going to find someone to train you? I didn't know nobody. I could have, you know what? I was friends with Chavo, and he lived kind of close to me. You know, I could have asked him. I should have asked him, but they said he was going to say somebody to train me. But I should have just trained with Chavo. I guess it is my fault.

But how did it fall apart? So they bring you in. They signed the contract. You also still had stuff going on with Bellator. So this was a cross-promotion. TNA is going to help promote Bellator and vice versa. Tito's, you know, part of this as well. Yeah.

How did it fall apart? You want me to tell true? Please. All right. So at that time, I signed a deal with Paramount Pitches. And remember that dumb manager I told you I had from England, who thought was a good idea to sign with the same agents that represent UFC? The one who got you, the A-Team.

Well, no, no, that wasn't the same as you had me an 18. But I was with another, that was an entertainment manager that got me there. But this fight manager I had that he thought it was a good idea to train with. to sign with him. He was the same motherfucker who went over the contract and everything. I did a deal with Paramount Pitches. So I did a deal with Paramount Pitches,

and they wanted me to do movies, pro-rassler, fight, and give me a reality show. And they offered me this huge contract when in all reality, they just wanted me to fight for cheap. So they promised me like movies, and then they promised me my own reality show

and I'm signed with TNA and all of it was a sham and so I don't read contracts that's my manager job to get trying to read the contract and so Paramount actually tried to sue me because I was like, I didn't want to fight it's all designed for me to fight

I'm going to make money doing this, make money doing that and then but they want me to fight for $250,000 like I haven't fought for $250,000 in fucking years I'm like I don't fight for $250,000 And I was like, oh, but you're going to make like $10 million a year with this contract. And so when they sued me, I got my own attorneys and stuff, you know, and I fired that manager. And I broke down the fucking contract. And they said, like, and the contract said, oh, we're going to get you in front of movie execs.

They never said that they're going to get me in movies. They said, like, they're going to get me a meeting with a movie, with people to make a movie. And the reality show, it was actually showed a programming, like a 24-7 type of thing. It wasn't like a reality show. Everything was bullshit. And they just said all this to give me to fight for cheap. And the pro wrestling was on the same thing. Like when I was supposed to get paid like a certain amount every time I made an appearance.

And it would take them like six months to even pay me. Wow. And it was just all bullshit. And I was like, man, fuck this shit. Was it TNA that wasn't paying you? Yeah, they was one supposed to pay. Everybody was supposed to pay. And then I found out that, you know,

a pair of my pitch was like, they got all these channels and all this stuff, but it wasn't like what they sold it as. I feel like they all was competing against each other. Like, there was when Spike TV was still around and stuff like that. It was all competing against each other. It just felt, feels like there was like a real missed opportunity to not have you do something bigger, better, and TNA.

Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah, no problem. Are we running out? with Kurt Angle and, you know, how did you get Tito Ortiz involved in TNA? I didn't, I don't think I got, I don't think I got Tito involved. I think, because he had signed with Bellator,

I thought I did, and they got him a deal over there, and then next thing you know, Tito was in TNA, and then they had like a story and running with him and I, and this motherfucker hit me over the head with a hammer, and they didn't let me retaliate.

I was upset. I was upset with that. When you made the appearance in WWE in 2010, promoting the A team, and you were a guest host there. Did that ever lead to something else? Did that ever lead to discussions with WWA? No, never led to discussions. I really liked it.

Everybody was really cool. But none of the guys would let me power bomb him. But now I understand now I talk to Rick Flair. He was on my podcast. And Rick Flair told him like, yeah, you know, anybody fin let you power bomb them. Like, they don't know what you're doing. I'm like, oh, okay, makes sense.

You did a choke slam? Yeah, I did a choke slam. And Big Show gave me shit about it. You want to use my move. I'm like, come on, bro. He was cool. He was just joking. He was a joke.

He was cool. Big show, he was cool as hell. I mean, it would have made sense since you had done the power bomb before, but I get it. That's not a move that everybody can do or everybody can take. Yeah, I guess if you did it wrong, like those guys get hurt. It makes perfect sense. You could land on your head. Yeah.

Break your neck. Yeah. Something like that. A lot of guys get their neck broken in the sport. Yes. Yeah. I just feel like you had. You tick all the boxes when it comes to pro wrestling.

You have a character. We saw in UFC, you had great entrances. You're obviously very athletic. You can cut a promo. It just feels like it makes sense. I had a hard time with those promos. You're doing when you're talking to the... Oh, my God, that was the hardest part about it.

Why? I don't like talking from a bunch of people. And, you know, I couldn't remember this shit. My memory is shot. I couldn't remember all this shit. And that was a hard part. You got to look right in the camera and doing movies.

That's like... told against what you're supposed to do. And you look right in the camera and you say your monologue. Like, how does, how those wrestlers remember all that shit? They can't just give me a fucking big paragraph of shit to say. Like, the morning you get there, you got memorize all this shit. You got memorize the whole match. How do you do all this shit?

Yeah. It's impressive. Yeah. You think those pro wrestlers are the big dumb jocks, and that's not true. They got to be smart. They're like, they're like live stuntmen. that are smart with good memories. You were part of a great faction in TNA.

Manevin Mafia was pretty awesome. Yeah. I remember Samoa Joe. I think that he probably got tired of me because I was always asking questions and shit, but he was so patient and he answered all my questions and said, I didn't know what the fuck to do. And Sting was there.

Yeah. Sting was great. Everybody was great, man. That faction was just full of just killers. Yeah. I miss those guys. Next time you see him telling him, I said, what's up?

I will. You had a great debut there. Do you remember Tito's debut? No, I don't remember. Tito just, with great love for Tito. He just stood there with his arms crossed. And then that was it.

And it was like, well, what's, what happens now? And he just stood there. Okay. I guess that's Tito Ortiz in TNA. I don't remember when he first came there, but I remember he hit me over the head with that damn hammer.

I was mad as hell. I'm like, man, When I'm going to get to kick to those ass. What did me with this damn hammer? He hit me hard as fuck with this hammer, man. And then I was flying out the next day. I'm going through the airport. And a grown-ass man was like, damn, rapids, you heal fast.

I was like, what are you talking about? The hammer? Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You know, I'm a werewolf, bro. You know, it won't take long for me.

You know, I went to the hospital. They say, I don't got no problems. I'm good. I'm fly out of here. You know, and they didn't give me the memo about staying in character. I just thought, like, common sense. Because, you know, growing up in Memphis, you know, I grew up watching wrestling because my older brother was a big fan.

And my older brother followed the storyline. He's older than me. Like, he's like six years old than me. And he followed, he followed the storylines all up to his 30s. I was like, I grew out of that shit, you know, I'm doing M&A and stuff. You know, I grew out of this shit. And he was still, like, calling me, man, did you see what? I'm like, I'm like, bro, you, you, you, you,

believe in the star line, bro? Do you still watch it now? No. It's gotten really good again. No, I haven't watched it for a way. I'm going to try to bring you back in. All right. It's really good now. For real? Yeah. I heard the Rock is back and he's a, well, he's a heel. He's a, he's a very good bad guy. For real? Yeah. What do you think, what's you think brought the Rock back? Because he's doing so good in Hollywood. I think being on the board of TKO and having that role brought him back. Like, obviously the Rock's good for wrestling, but him having that tie. in on the corporate side, I think he goes, oh, if I'm a character on TV, that'll also help the corporate side of things too.

Look, I think the Rock's first love is pro wrestling. He grew up in the industry. He's a third generation wrestler. I think that that's in his blood. So I think the opportunity for him to get back in and be part of it in a big way, there's no way you can say no to that. It's just knowing what I know now about it, you know, because, you know, I had Ray Mysterio Jr.

I mean, is he Jr.? Ray Mysterio, Jr.? I had him on a podcast. has recently. Nice. And he's, the way he was just walking, I can just tell, like, just come out surgery or something like that. Yeah.

And I was like, I was like, man. Like, why would somebody that can be successful and something else put your body through this? I think for a lot of them, they love that pop. They love that reaction from the crowd. And you can't get that anywhere else. But, like, I want to be a pro wrestler. I trained when I was 20.

Never in? Yeah. I trained in Toronto when I was. 20. I'm so grateful for the way that things worked out now. I'm 40 now. And when I get out of bed, you know, knock on wood, nothing really hurts. Any of my friends who are 40 that are pro wrestlers, when they get out of bed, it's knees and it's their neck and it's their back. And I'm like, I'm just grateful that life led me down the path that I'm on now. I thought you was in your 30s. Very kind. I'm not aging like you. You don't got no grades or nothing? I've got some grays.

I don't need to zoom in or anything. So you, so you was a pro wrestler. I was trying to, training to be a pro wrestler. I did backyard wrestling, which is a terrible idea. We were getting dropped on our head all the time. But then I wanted to be a wrestler. That was my dream as a kid. And I was going to school for communication studies. And I'm like, I should get my degree. Wrestling will always kind of be there. And now I kind of get to dip my toe into the wrestling world when I want. But you know, like things, elbows, knees, neck still work for me. That's good. Yeah. Does anything hurt for you when you wake up? Oh, man. I'm all fucked up. If I sit down and play video game too long. I had to get up and go to the restroom.

I'm like, stiff as hell like for like the first like 20 seconds. I'm stiff. I don't know. But when I wake up in the morning, I'm fine. Most days when I'm in a clear mind, I wake up, go for a run.

You know, I'm okay. When I get back from a run, I'd ice my knees and stuff like that. But, you know, I go to Columbia. I go to a bioaccelerator. Stem cells. Oh my God. Those got changed my life.

So I'm good. But I guess it's the way I'll be sitting when I sit down because my right knee is really bad. And I'm supposed to get stem cells on that once a year. But I took a couple years. I took a couple of years off. And the last time I went, I thought I was going to be training for a fight. So I just did my elbow and my shoulder.

I didn't do my knee because you can't train like it's hard for a while. So I regret that now. I wish I would have done my knees. So I'm going to go back and get my knees done. Do your hands hurt? At first, at first my hand hurt. This one, I had like a fraction. that wouldn't heal up.

But I got stem cells and they heal it up. That's crazy. Less than a week. Yeah, big-ass hands. Bro, my hands are small for a fighter. Bro, they make fun to me. Turn it this way.

I guess our hands are almost the same size. I got small hands for a fighter. You got a lot of power in those hands, though? Yeah, yeah. A lot of power in those hands. Yeah, Shannon Briggs, he did a podcast with me, and he looked at my hands, he bust out laughing and he put my hands,

his hands double the side. Wow. So he'd make fun of me. What size gloves did you wear? wearing UFC? I think I just wore extra large. That seems pretty big.

Yeah. That's what she said. How is it being on the other side of the mic with your podcast, with Jackson podcast? It took me a second to get used to it. You know, doing another one?

We got them all here. Yeah, you know I love these. You want the same flavor? Oh, yeah, yeah. I love these. These are my favorite drinks. Thank you. Yeah.

It took me a second to get used to doing a podcast. My friend, Bear, um, You know, I met him years ago. He was doing, he owned, like, paintball parks. And he, um, had me on his podcast. He was doing a podcast out of his apartment or something one day. And, um, he put it on YouTube, whatever.

He said, oh, man, that, that podcast did great numbers. Like, it was a great podcast. I was like, okay, cool, you know? And then a couple months later, he was like, hey, you want to do a podcast with me? I'm like, man, I don't know about that. Look at you now. Yeah. We did it and, you know, something I had to get used to.

And I just be myself. And I, he does all his research and all these questions. I just, you know, I just talk to the people. I just ask some shit that I want to know. You make a lot of headlines from that show. Oh, for real? Oh, yeah. You'll just, you know, be telling a random story.

And people are like, he's never said that before. He's never talked about that before. Like, you said that 50 Cent hated your guts. Oh, he hated my guts. after the A team. Yeah. Because the role was, he was up for that role?

It was down to three people. Me, 50 cent, and this other, and this other actor that I can't pronounce his name. But I want to say Aegis Ibrahim, but it might not be his, it was kind of like a Muslim name,

but I just can't remember who that. Chuital Aegeophor? Huh? Chewettel Ageophor? Who's that? I'll show you. Maybe it's him, because he has a name that's hard to pronounce.

What's that in name? I'll show you. But. That's what he told me. It was down to three, people, me 50 cent and another guy. That's a hard name to pronounce, right? She would tell how'd you for?

No, it wasn't that name. Idris Alba? It probably was Edrus Elba. It was, okay. It probably was him, but I'm not sure. So it's down to you, 50 cent, Idris. I don't know if it was 100% of Aegis, but a name I couldn't pronounce back. This 15, what, this was like 15 years ago, and I don't remember their name.

And, um, and, and, and so 50 cent. was really close to getting the role. But here's the thing. I knew what they was looking for because, I don't know how many people noticed, but I was their first pick because John Singleton was attached to the project years before it came out, years before they made it. And John Singleton liked me.

He said, look, I like it for this role, but you need to learn how to act. So I started taking acting lessons. That's how I said the acting coach. So he told me, he said, they're not looking for another Mr. T. They're looking for B. A. Baracchus. You know, he said, Mr. T.

He played that role so well that people think that the character name is Mr. T, but it's not. It's being baracchus. And no, with all due respect, this is not what I said. This was the late, great, who else I talking about? What's his name?

John Singleton? Yeah, I'm sorry. This was the late great John Singleton said. He said, Mr. T. wasn't an actor. He said he can't act. I thought he did Gray and Rocky and stuff, but anyway, he said he can't act. So.

It's great and Rocky, three. He's great to Rocky. Come on, woman. Hey, woman. And that's where he said, pity the food. He never said in the 18. Ah. Yeah.

And he said, so they're looking for a new BA Paracas. So just keep that in mind. So when I went, later on, John Singles, step away from the project. He didn't like the direction that they was going with it. So he didn't want to know. no part of it. Because if you know Jones Sings, you know how he is.

And he felt like B.A. Barak should have been the star in the movie because he was a standout character in a TV show, but they wanted to make Liam Neeson the star in the movie. He was like, no, no, he don't want to be a part of that.

So he stepped away. And so I had to go back into auditions and stuff. And Joe Cernahan, he was a director. And luckily, he was a fan. of MMA. And he liked my look and everything. And when I showed up to the audition,

I go in the room and everybody dressed like Mr. T. And I was the only one that wasn't. I didn't wear all the fucking gold. I didn't wear the fucking overalls and red shirt. I didn't do that. I came dressed like Babe Baracchus. So I had a leg up on everybody. And 50-7 was there that day?

No, I didn't see 50 Cent that day. But the thing is, they couldn't show me 50 cents audition. They couldn't show me his audition tape. I don't know if I'm allowed to say, but they, but some, some people, some people that saw it was laughing at him. And they was like, bro, it's the fucking worst. He was acting like Mr. T. And it was just, it was just bad. And they, and they, I guess, they couldn't show it to me.

He's been in a lot of great movies since. I think, I think, um, goddamn, I think, uh, 50 Cent is a great actor in there. I think he's killing him, especially with the, um, power, the stuff that, that, uh, he played. And I just, I don't care that that he, that he's, that he, he's, he. He was mad at a lot of, a lot of actors, and a lot of people was mad at me. After that, like, the game was talking shit about me. He went out for it, like, every black athlete and actor wanted that role.

And so, you know, honestly, I thought that if anybody should have got the role, should have went to, what's his name, Ice Cube. Oh, yeah. I think Ice Cube looked a lot like Mr. T. He's a fantastic actor. He was a great actor. You know, if I wouldn't have gotten it, I would have been a big, fan and

enjoy to see Ice Cube played a role. I think he would have been great, great VA Baracus. Yeah. But, you know, everybody won that role

and I was one of them. And you got it. Yeah, and I got it. And I, if 50 cent would have got it, I wouldn't have been mad at them. You know,

there's been times where people got roles that I went out for and I saw him, you know, I wasn't mad. I was congratulations. What's a big role

you went out for that you didn't get? Oh, man, it's crazy. Man, I had people had me auditioned for stupid shit. Stupid shit that I never should have auditioned for it. What's that?

One role, one one one one one one one one one one one one one One thing got him like what the fuck I'm doing audition for shit like that? What movie's that? It was like a rescue swimmer or some one of those swimming movies he did some bullshit like That bro I had to leave those agents because I told him I said I don't want shit like that I don't like I don't I'm not acting to become a act horror you know some I'm a Navit act I want to have fun yeah I ain't gonna be out here I ain't gonna be I ain't gonna be winning no fucking awards and shit.

I don't feel like you and Ashton Cutsch are really the same type. Exactly. Like, why? Yeah, they had me going out for some type of shit like Lord of Rings type shit. Did you actually audition for Lord of the Rings? No, no, there was some shit they told me. It was like, Lord of the Rings. They wanted me to it.

And I went in an audition for it. And one thing that a guy, like, what's that? What's that? That movie, it was a smaller role, knocked up. It was like the security guard. I forgot that the acting name. Oh, Craig Robinson. Yeah.

He made fun of me. He crushed that role. He crushed it. But I bucked it to him. He made fun me because, you know, I'm, because I suck at audition because I suck at training. When something's not real, it's not real. Yeah. I just suck.

I just suck at it. He made, I guess they show him my audition and something like that. He made fun of me. I was like, okay, whatever, fuck you. And what else? Dude, I audition for two of Michael Bays movie. Remember Painting Gang? Yeah, with The Rock and Mark Wahlberg.

And that black guy wherever he is, I forgot his name. Um, why can't I think of it? Yeah, but he was, he was, he got to Marvel as well. Yeah, I just can't remember the time. Falcon, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I forget, I forget actors' names. I'm weird like that because they play some in different characters. We've got all the world's information in front of us.

This was so great about it. Yeah. Is my nose running? Can you see it right on? No, Anthony Mackey. Yeah. Yeah. I audition for that.

And then me and Tito Ortiz both auditioned for Ninja Turtles when they had a rebugger and Roxetti. Oh, yeah. And this is where Michael Bay pissed me off. When you watch the movie, they made fun of me and Tito without saying their names. What do you mean? You got it. Me and Tito audition for their role.

Yeah. Seamus, the wrestler, got it. I don't know who the fuck he is. I never heard of the motherfucker. But I watched it. And then when you, you got to go back and watch it. When they introduced Reeboker, Ruck said it, they make jokes about M.M.A. guys. Wow.

And I watched that and I called Tito. I said, hey. Wow. I said, you hear this shit? He said, yeah, man. He said, they kind of fucked up, huh? Yeah. I'm like, yeah, like, whoa.

You know, all right. Yeah, Tina, we're not fucking actors. Okay, so fine, you know. Fine. But they had to make fun of us. Then I saw him like a bay in like a nightclub in Miami or something one day. He was like, Rampage. I got to get you in one of my movies.

I was like, that's up to you. I ain't it, bro? You know? I didn't let him know that I knew he made fun of me on the fucking. Ninja Turtle once. He's going to know now. That fuck him. What are they going to do?

Kick my ass. What do you think's missing, if anything, from UFC right now versus the era that you were in? Wasn't missing as individuality. And I'm surprised I said their word right without stumbling those. Everybody's wearing the same fucking shorts and doing all this shit. Well, it's sponsored now. Yeah.

That's bad. Like the, I think that's bad. You know, you remember that fucking. Tito's flame shorts Tito was a flamer Rano shorts and Ice Man

had the iceicles on the shorts and shit like that There were a lot of characters in your era Yeah Everyone had It was borrowing Quite a bit

From pro wrestling Exactly Which is ironic Now that they're under the same umbrella with TKO Yeah UFC and WWE Yeah

It was very character-driven during your era Yeah And I think that's very important For the fans You know The UFC are Well they're killing it

And so they're doing good even without it, you know, like I heard, I heard something on day that the UFC is worth more than like all the boxing promotions put together or something like that. Wow. Which is huge. So they're killing it, but you know, I think the fans would identify even more with the fighters and if they had, you know,

they had like, if they had something, like, they can go and buy the fighter shorts and it looked like the fighter shorts and not just have their name on it with all the same sponsors. I miss the big end for the, They don't have those anymore? Not the entrances like you guys had. Now, I mean, they get the song and they walk out, but it's like, I remember like pyro and like, you know, theatrics. You know, you don't watch.

We were there together at UFC 298. Yeah, I don't pay attention to all that shit. I be on my phone and shit. I don't know how I had better seats than you at UFC 298. You should have been like Caged side. Yeah. You weren't even on the floor. What the heck?

No, they don't give me tickets. Bro. I went to watch my friend fight and risen, which is like, pride, the same people. And it was a misunderstanding with one of my bros I wanted him. I asked him to talk to the promoter that gave me two tickets. He asked with 10 front row tickets. So I know they fucking turn it

down. Anyway, one of my friends was fighting, so I wanted to represent him and, you know, support him. I end up getting fucking nose with that. The guy sitting in front of me had binoculars watching the fight. No way. You know, people's embarrassed for me. I'm like, I don't go fuck, I'm here at the fight watching my friend. I don't care why I was Where I sit in the same thing in the UFC, I don't care why I sit. I just think that if they had better entrances,

and maybe that's, you know, maybe they, why would you focus on an entrance when you should be focusing on your fight? But the, I love those entrances you guys used to have. Yeah. My pride had the best. Yeah. Pride had the best. If I, if I ever did my own, if I ever did my own, like, promotion,

I'm going to fucking do, do old school shit and the shit that, that made the fans fall in love with the sport. What made you fall in love with it? I can kick people of ass and not getting trouble for That's the best answer ever Yeah I used to like fight I used to beat up bullies when I was a kid

Fucking hate bullies But now bullying is a total different things I don't hate the new bullies The bullies that just make fun and you fuck them I don't get a fuck about them You know, back at my day Bullies used to kick your ass and take your lunch money and shit and steal your shoes and shit

now bullies just say you got ugly shoes on the internet and now they're buddies. Yeah, don't type mean things on the internet. Those boys, fuck those guys. You know, I was brought up Sixth Stones may hurt, well, may break my bones. The names will never hurt you.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so I always like a fight. I never like to start the fights, but like somebody who wants to start to fight with me, I was like, oh, okay, I get to kick somebody ass today. Always so good.

Good to be able to spend some time with you, catch up with you. Thank you for coming in here. Thanks for having me, bro. No, you're the best. I end every conversation talking about gratitude. I think we did this last time. But what are three things in your life that you're grateful for as we sit here right now? I'm grateful for all my beautiful kids that God gave me.

All my kids are healthy and beautiful, except for one of my sons. He's ugly as fuck. But, you know, he's healthy, kind of. And I'm thankful for the... Your poor son. Oh, yeah. Fuck him. This kid could have been one of the best fighters in the world

decided to be vegan and do the opposite of everything I told him to do so. Is this the one that debuted at UFO3? Yeah. They lost. Yeah. Because he don't do the shit I say. I won't get his weight down.

He's a fucking ugly-ass idiot. Fuck him. I still love him, though. He's him my boy. Good, good. But, you know, he's just like, I wish his mom would have swallowed him. Should have didn't anal that day.

Such a heart. Such a hard. Yeah. Yep. He could have, he could have, he could have, you know, my, it could have been in the second rampage. The kid fights just, he could be. No. No.

No. He, he, he, no. Okay. Yeah, I'm thankful for, um, I thank him for, uh, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, uh, the, the, the, uh, the, the, the, uh, the, the, uh, a good group of friends that I have, uh, uh, around me. And I'm actually thankful that I met Harrison Rogers, bro. What a good dude. What a good dude. He changed my perception of doing business with people because, you know, you just can't trust people no more.

Yeah. A lot of shady people. You know, I'm happy for things like that. You know, you get older. You look at life different, you know. Yeah. You know, simple things to make you happy. Well, thank you again.

And congrats on everything. Oh, thank you. Congrats on the Jackson podcast and everybody's listening to this. Go check out one of those episodes on Jackson podcast. You've been getting some massive guests on there. Yeah, it's crazy, huh? It's all bear, man. I just come and sit down.

But it's incredible. So, cheers, my friend. Thank you. Rampage Jackson, ladies and gentlemen, big thank you to him. Also, thank you to my guy, Harrison Rogers, the founder of United Fight League and also F3 Energy, which is, of course, a great sponsor of the show. Harrison's the one who can, me and Rampage together in the first place.

So without him, none of this is possible. He's just a good dude doing great things in the world. So Harrison, you're the man. Thank you. Also, Rampage Jackson is the man. I love how honest he is about everything and just how laid back he is talking about, you know, power bombing people or destroying that door on the ultimate fighter or everything else and his honesty about his TNA run.

I mean, it could have been so much more. It could have been a whole career. We could be talking 11 years later about his incredible pro wrestling career. But obviously, life had a different plan for him. But what a great episode. Go check out his podcast. He's a co-host on Jackson Podcast, J-AXX-O-N. They've got so many great guests on there.

So go check that out now that this episode is done. And we'll wrap it up with the words. of Joseph Campbell, which I saw this quote. I'm like, man, I don't know if I've ever heard it explained in such a profound way before. Life is a guy trying to play a violin solo in public while learning the music and his instrument at the same time. We're all just figuring this out as we go. So if there's a situation in your life where maybe you could give someone a little bit of grace. Just remember, life's a guy trying to play a violin solo in public while trying to learn the music and his instrument at the same time. Be great and be grateful. We will see you on the next one

for some more insight. It's Ask CVV number 35 tomorrow. Send in your questions if you haven't already. We will see you then. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do with rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. 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.