Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Rob Van Dam: I wrestled high 100% of the time, Shane McMahon's Van Terminator, ECW, Paul Heyman

Episode Date: August 16, 2019

Rob Van Dam chats with Chris Van Vliet in New York City about his new documentary Headstrong. RVD also says he was high 100% of the time he wrestled in ECW, who he'd want to induct him in the Hall of Fame, his thoughts on Shane McMahon stealing the Van Terminator and much more. Audio equipment provided by Samson Technologies: bit.ly/CVVSamson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's Chrysomania, brother. That's a great question. Look at you. man with the powerful questions This is the Chris Van Vleet show Chris Van Vleet show Ladies and gentlemen Chris

Ben Blin How are you my friends? Thank you for joining me on another download of the Chris Van Bleach Show or should I say the CVV show because on this one it's CVV and RVD

And what a guy What a chat? What a legend. It was such a pleasure to sit down and talk with Rob Van Dam. And if you enjoy this one, please just take a screenshot. Tag me on Instagram or Twitter. Let me know what you think of it. And I really do appreciate you listening to this.

The podcast is seven weeks old now. I'm really getting into the feel of this. And, you know, I was hesitant for a while to do a podcast because I was so focused on my YouTube channel. I didn't want anything taking the attention away from that. It took me a while. but I finally realized that there's room for both. And I think the audio version is obviously so much more portable. I mean, you can take this anywhere.

Think of where you're listening to this right now. You know, chances are it's a place you probably wouldn't be able to watch a 40-minute YouTube video. So I'm enjoying it. I'm glad to hear that you guys are enjoying it. Podcasts and my YouTube interviews that kind of like coexist together. So we're going to keep growing them bigger and better. The YouTube will always be the priority. I mean, that's something I've had for eight and a half years, the podcast now for seven and a half weeks.

So, you know, I'm still going to keep doing both. And hopefully the, you know, the potential keeps growing here for both. And we just keep getting bigger and better and we do it together. How does that sound? Thank you for the reviews that you're sending in. They're so appreciated. You don't even understand how much they help really help our ranking on Apple Podcast. So please keep doing that.

I'm going to keep reading one on every show. show to say thank you, also to give a little shout out to help you be part of the show as well. Maybe kind of nudges you to do one yourself. I mean, it can literally be two words if you want. It could be like, good job or sounds good or Chris Rocks. Chris Rocks? Not Chris Rock the person. You know what I mean.

W4 writes great stuff. Nothing but great pro wrestling interviews, no matter if I know the guest or not. It's an engaging experience. CBV is the common denominator on all of them. W4. That's very kind. Thank you so much. And I hope you enjoy this chat with Rob Van Dam as much as I did.

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go. And I'll help you with my code, Chris 15. You get 15% off your order at greenroadsworld.com. Chris 15 for 15% off at greenroadsworld.com. The CVV show is also brought to you by the microphone that I'm speaking into, the cables, the mixing board, everything that's making this sound as good as it does. Because I know I've listened to podcasts and you have two where you're like, is the microphone on one side of the room and the person's on the other side? Like I can barely hear them. Well, you need good equipment if you want people to think that your podcast is good. And Samson Tech has helped with that. SamsonTech.com's where you can check out their full lineup.

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Listen to this. All right. I did this interview, uh, WrestleMania weekend in New York City. This interview with Rob Van Dam almost didn't happen. New York City is a great city, but it's probably the worst city to hold a WrestleMania in. And I've been to nine WrestleMania's. Everything in New York is so spread out. I mean, WrestleMania itself isn't even in the state of New York.

Nxtys in Brooklyn. Russell Kahn's all the way up by Central Park. So it's all like super spread out. Everyone's in different hotels all over the city. So I'm in a cab on my way to do this interview with RVD. at his hotel, which was like a 25-minute cab right away, because I'm way downtown in my hotel, like close to to where NXT was. He's way uptown, closer to like where Russell Khan was.

And I'm on my way to his hotel, and he texts me and says, oh, I have dinner plans now. They just came up. Is there any way we can do the interview at a different location? At this hotel where we're going to have dinner at this restaurant. So I'm like, of course, Rob Van Dam. So I tell the taxi to turn around. We start heading in the other direction.

and we get there and it's at the dream hotel, which is this really nice hotel in like, I don't know what district. If you're from New York, you know what I'm talking about. We get there and I'm like, where are we going to do this interview? Rob's not staying there.

I'm not staying there. So I go up to the front desk and I'm like, hey, I have a WWE superstar. WrestleMania is in town. WWU superstar Rob Van Dam's here. We want to do an interview here. Is there anywhere we can do this? Because it's like a super loud.

dark lobby of this hotel and the guy was so nice. I said, can we get like a room for like half an hour? Oh, that sounds really weird. Can I get a, can I get a room for half an hour? He was very nice. There was a bar upstairs on like the second floor that they weren't using at the time. And he's like, yeah, you could use that. We'll be happy to open that out for you. I'm like, oh my God, thank you. So everything came together. Thank you to the Dream Hotel for making that work. Thank you for Rob Van Damme for making this happen too. And it's, I'm so glad that it all came together. because Rob is for sure a future Hall of Fame, where it's very interesting to hear who he thinks should induct him into the Hall of Fame.

It's just there's so much great stuff in this conversation. Also, his take on love now, I thought was really interesting. He's now dating Katie Forbes. He's divorced from his other relationship, and it's given him a whole new outlook on life. So please, enjoy this chat with the whole episode. and show Rob Van Dam. And yeah, you know I did the whole pointing thing

with my thumb when I did that. Just two dudes hanging out in a bar. The only problem is there's no alcohol or people at this bar. It's a pretty big problem. Yeah. Although, are you, are you, are you an alcohol guy and a weed guy? Well, I am, but mostly just at this later stage in life. Like throughout my whole career and most of my,

adult life. I was such a proponent for marijuana that I would look down on alcohol because I was like telling people, it's safer for you than alcohol and alcohol causes car crashes and this and that and makes you violent and it's the lead to all these drugs, you know,

crimes and marijuana doesn't do that. You know, and I actually just was, you know, just got into the hippie zone of smoking but for the last several years anyway, I do enjoy to drink. So you're on board with drinking now. Absolutely. What's your drink of choice?

It's been beer lately. Okay. I went through some really low times, which I talked about in my documentary. You saw it, right? Headspace. Headstrong. I'm trying to remember the name of it, headspace. Headstrong.

That's cool. But as I sat in there, you know, I went through some rough times. I allowed myself a period to drink. I'm like, hey, fuck it. I need a scandal. You know what I mean? Not that I need one. But I'm like, I've gone this long with a perfect record.

You know, if I get, you know, but luckily I didn't hurt anybody. You know what I mean? Sure. But because I got, I was drunk like a lot. And at that point, I was, for a while it was Sanbuka. Okay. Going drink Sanbuka. And most people would be like, oh, no.

And I'm going to have some pussy. And, you know, it's fireball for quite a while doing fireball shots, which still is one of my go-toes when it comes to doing shots. but now I drink responsibly. I was drinking to totally drown my brain before and to change my thoughts as far away from where they were as possible. So it was a punishing thing. One time, and this was at my rock bottom here,

and I'll put a lot more detail when I get into my autobiography, but I'm already hammered, right, at this bar, and the guy that was taking care of me left for a few minutes, And when he came back, the bartender told him that I had done 15 shots in a row that were lined up. And I remember the bartender was doing double shots because the fans were buying them. So every time they'd buy a shot, the bartender go, you want a double shots? Since they're paying for it, I'd go, sure. What kind of bartender would serve 15 double shots to anybody, let alone someone that's already blasted?

Right. That was a really rough day. I had a 13-hour blackout. Wow. That was my rock bottom. Oh, my goodness. What was the catalyst for that? You know, the wife left and the divorce was really rough for me.

You know, I was kicking and screaming and fighting it. I didn't want it. I looked at it like a failure. Had I known I'd be so happy now, then I would have been like, okay, cool, let's do this quick. But at the time, you know, I looked at it like something I didn't want. And then so really all I had was my little dog. Like that was my whole source of love. you know the wife left I just had the dog boom dog died and then boom my dad died that was the source for us you know I was just like I got in such a deep depression

um that yeah and I and I knew the whole time like dude I know I'll get through this and I'll be RVD people love me everywhere there'll always be opportunity and I could tell myself that yet at the same time I would find myself just like bursting out crying out of nowhere and I couldn't stop and it was uh you know there's a lot to do with brain chemistry that I've learned since then But going through all that, I just decided, you know what, I think I deserve to drink. I choose to draw my sorrows than I did. After going through that, is there not a point of you that or a part of you that goes, I don't need to drink anymore. I'm over that. Well, I guess, you know, it's more for me that I know that I don't need it. Like, you know, I've never been addicted to anything.

Like I can like drink, drink for several days. And then if I go a couple of days without, I don't get like withdraws or any kind of, you know, like, oh, my God, I got to have it or Jones. And so I know that I have it in control and that it's all a choice. And so I choose to just be responsible now. You know, fact is, if I have more than a few beers in a night, I pay for it the next day and it's not worth it anymore. Right. So you're now officially with impact wrestling. You actually worked last night.

True. So what was the decision to start? sign with impact? It was all business. You know, like every interview I've done over the last several years. Since I stepped out of the, you know, 300 day a year schedule, I was like, dude, I don't want any more of that. I wanted to work less.

And I've always been trying to work less and less and make more money. And a lot of people say, well, sure, me too, but I've been pretty good at it. And so it's like the less than I want to stay in the ring, it seems like my value keeps going up. It's just the way everything turns out, of course, you know, my career and all my accomplishments and all of that are the main factors. But also, there's not that many other people that are in my status, you know, of legend, world champion, whole effort show, need I go on, that could still get in the ring, you know,

and do it all. And so anyway, the harder I try to make myself accessible, the harder they work to get me. So really, that's what was going in, was all business. First I signed for one show, which was last night, didn't even realize it was an impact show. It was just a one-off at RussellCon. Yeah, I was, oh, cool, all team with Sabuga.

And, yeah, and, you know, hey, they're meeting my fee. Cool. And, you know, and then I saw on the contract that it was Impact, And I was like, that's interesting. And then Scott DeMore, you know, talked to me about doing a few more dates. And then I agreed to that. And then a few more dates. And I agreed to that.

So I'll be around for a while. And it is because they're making it worth my while. When you look ahead, do you have like an exit plan for how much longer you want to wrestle for? No. I've been saying for a long time that I could stop any time. In fact, I can't believe I have to buy another pair of wrestling boots. I thought for sure years ago I was buying my last pair because I wouldn't be wrestling that much more. But I keep doing it and I still feel like I probably won't be doing it that much longer.

But honestly, I don't know because there's advantages to it for sure. You know, I mean, I'm not as hungry and passionate as a lot of the other guys, especially people that are earlier in their careers. Because you do have to eat, sleep, and breathe it to get into it. And let alone trying to get ahead, you know, with everybody else and and but for me I've just done it so long that you know I worked hard to not work hard anymore I prefer a day off to a day on yeah and I just like to chill you know but when it's worth it's worth it you know what made you decide that you wanted to agree to do

this documentary um so originally the idea was just you know because I do stand-up comedy sometimes and the idea Tom Garland had was we could bring a camera on the road, shoot this seven-day tour behind the scenes, make a little, you know, documentary film out of it. And I said, yeah, that sounds awesome. Show some of my stand-up comedy and also share what it's like being me

as far as my reception, the way I'm received by people everywhere. Because people love me everywhere, and I don't know if everybody knows that or not, you know, that everywhere I go, everyone's, like, so excited to see me. And that's what I wanted to capture. But when I showed up on day one,

One, for the documentary, I had symptoms of a concussion that I got three days before. And at first, I'm thinking, I'm sure I'll be fine tomorrow. I'm not going to let it change my plans. The next day, I'm sure it'll go away tomorrow. I'm not going to let it change my plans. And eventually, it changed my plans. And the whole documentary takes a major turn and becomes about something much bigger. I mean, originally, shooting the little video of the road trip.

who knows, it could have been a YouTube video or something, but now it encompasses so much of my life, you know, with the backstory, and after the tour, it follows me to California and into my home and also explores with me what's going on with my head. You know, I'm going to Curl and Job and getting my brain checked out with the wonders of,

you know, do I got CTE? Is this something, you know, that, are these the consequences of 30 years of bashing my head in? And so it's really cool that we had the camera along because people that watch it tell me that they feel like they're living it with me and it's like a bit of a roller coaster of emotions. All right, we're going to get back to RVD in just a second. But come on, football season is here, people.

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You can get started now by going to Sportsinformationtraders.com slash blue. Again, it's sportsinformation.com slash blue to have your chance at a 15-time return this football bet. season. We talk about concussions and these injuries. I'm sure you saw what John Oliver had to say about WWE. There must be some truths in there, you know? Sure, there is some truths, but I mean, there's also some opinions and, you know, those will vary.

I enjoy being an independent contractor, and I find that I'm usually in the minority when it comes to that as far as how my peers feel. But then I think that a lot of general rules will help the under guys more than the over guys. And I think that's really what you're pulling for. Well, I think what John's saying here is you're an independent contractor, but not really because you can only work for this one company. If you were truly independent, you'd be able to go wherever you want. So the way I see it, I'm an independent contractor, so I sign an agreement with them and all

the terms are negotiable on the agreement. You know what I mean? off they keep you so busy you're not gonna have time to work anywhere else you don't even have time to go home so I mean forget about that what are you gonna do you're on top in the WW on TV and who else are you gonna want to work for the local fair that in front of 50 people you don't know but you know they say oh there's no health insurance but you know what if you need that in your deal then you negotiate that you say you know what I have to have health insurance you want your hotel

room taking care of you get it in your contract and you make that agreement I I enjoy the freedom of being an independent contractor to make that deal. Now, some of the guys that might not have as much leverage as me because maybe they don't sell as many tickets, I think it helps those guys out more because they can't really step forward and have with the same negotiating power. And so that's how I see it is. It's probably going to help them more because, come on.

You think AAA doesn't have health insurance? Absolutely. And that's the thing. As an independent contrary, they just pay for your flights, right? Well, like I said, it's all in your deal. And the guys do have different deals. A lot of the guys have buses that are paid for. Big show, John Cena, Ray Mysterio had one.

Randy Orton had one. Big, like, rock and roll, you know, tour buses that would take them, that have a driver that drives them, boom, boom, boom. And that was part of their deal that they made. I didn't have a tour bus, you know, but, If I would have went to the office and said, I gotta have one, then that would have had to have been considered. You know, if you throw it out on the table, that's how it works.

So like when I first went to WWE, they were paying for my flights and they were paying for my hotel rooms, but I didn't even know they were paying for my rooms. So I wasn't even staying there. I was paying for my own rooms until eventually I got a letter that said, okay, we're not going to pay for your rooms anymore because you passed the period. I'm like, what? I didn't know anything about that.

Yeah. You walked into the hotel that we're at right now with your girlfriend, Katie. And I think from the outside looking in, a lot of people just see her as a beautiful woman. What does she mean to you as a person? Everything. Like, she's the coolest person that I've ever met. And also, like, the most compatible. Like, I never thought that I would, like, won a serious relationship with any kind of female in the entertainment business.

because I know how it goes. You know, there's a lot of separation, and there's a lot of people going all over the world touring with other unscrupulous people or whatever. But none of that matters because when I met Katie, like right off the bat, we had like such a deep bond that she recognizes in me that I'm genuine and that I'm honest and that I'm never going to lie to her,

never going to hurt her. And I recognize the same thing. We both appreciate that and respect each other so much. much that there's like totally no worries there and that's like that makes life like so much easier and uh we both know that we have each other's backs in any kind of situation and uh she's the closest person to me my best friend my soulmate and it's you know um really my my uh reward from the universe for everything that i've been through before for sure after having a marriage that didn't work out ended in divorce would you consider getting married again i would

Believe it or not, I'm not letting that one experience affect how I feel about marriage. I was just totally with the wrong person. And now when I look back at it, it's so easy to see what a mismatch we always were and how much of a struggle, just the easiest things in life were, and the ridiculous fights, you know, over whatever, putting the forks the wrong way in the dishwasher, or whatever, and it was all the underlying issue of the fact that we didn't have the same values. We didn't want the same things in life at all. And one of us was honest and open, and one of us gave nothing but mixed messages the whole time,

and that's why it lasted so long, you know. But looking back at it, you know, I can say, boom, I'm glad to move on past that. And for sure, you know, like Katie's my soulmate, and I don't think either one of us is in a hurry to get married. I think that her priorities should be with her career right now because she's up and coming, but I'm definitely not afraid to talk about it. As a fan of Rob Van Damme the wrestler and Rob Van Damme the human, I'm just super happy that you're happy.

Cool. Me too. I see your name get thrown around a lot for the Hall of Fame, and people are thinking, you know, if not this year, then next year, maybe the year after that. Has anyone approached you about this? No, no. I hear it from the fans, and it's like,

okay as long as you think so but you know who knows i don't know um i have no expectations you know what i mean well it's going to happen it's just a matter of when it's going to happen if you say so all right who would you want to induct you when it happens uh i i mean right off the bat i think paul haman you know i mean it would really i think it would really be good for me to try to hear his perspective firsthand of what his thoughts were on me and him developing me. You know what I mean? Yeah. Because it would be like an experience for me for him to open up like that.

You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, at the time, when I met him, even if I was only wrestling for like six years at the time, at that point, I didn't think that I was just someone, you know, like, I didn't think I was like that, like green and had like 10 years of learning to do. But, you know, everywhere in life, it's part of growing. Every time you, when you're growing, you're always looking back at a lesser you.

You know what I mean? It's the way it works. When you look back at your career, do you have a favorite match from ECW, favorite match from TNA, favorite match from WWE? Maybe. I mean, I always go with the RVD Jerry Lynn matches from ECW. Sure. Yeah.

How could you not? Right. Although, of course, I loved wrestling in Saboo. There was a lot of really good matches there. In TNA, I don't know, maybe it was Jerry Lynn again or Sabu. Also, there was a match or two with Abyss that I really enjoyed. And then with WWE, the greatest thing for me was bringing the ECW style back in the WWE spotlight. And then changing the entire playing field so that I was the right guy to be the champion.

Otherwise, that never would have happened. So for me, that's a major accomplishment as far as, like, changing the business before, besides just influencing all the wrestlers that are stealing my moves now. Who's stealing your moves now? Oh, everybody, dude. I'm so OG that everybody now grew up watching me. And so now they're doing, you know, about the impact. I'm going back to impact. I put it on and I see this one guy doing it.

They call it a six-star frogs blast. Like, what? that's a challenge out there with someone else. Does look a lot like yours. Yeah. But, you know, that's what happens when you're off the scene for a while. And I, you know, I couldn't tell anybody when I'm back or whatever. But did Shane ask permission before you started doing the Van Terminator?

No. No, it doesn't work that way. Sometimes it works that way. That's true. That's true. Sometimes it does. So did you just see it on TV and went, huh? I can't remember.

I'm sure people told me because I wasn't, I wouldn't have like watched the, the WWP pay-per-view and then said, oh my God, because I don't watch it, because especially when I'm doing it, you know, it's like the last thing that I want to watch is work. And so I don't remember who the first one of telling me, but I did, I did hear Paul open up one time and say that he showed Shano footage of me doing the Van Terminator. and said, you think you can do that? Totally gave my move to him. Wow. It happens. You can't copyright moves, you know. I'm just stoked that, and a little mystified,

that more people haven't ripped off all my moves, you know what I mean? Yeah. As a percentage, how often do you think you wrestled high? What time period? Oh, wow. Let's start with ECW. I'm going to say 100%. Yeah.

Okay. What if we go after ECW is bought and then you went over to WWE? Well, now you're talking over like from 2001 all the way until my last run. Okay. Well, you tell me. Let's do that. Okay. That'll be more favorable.

Let's go all the way until the last run in 2014, in which case I would say much, much lower, much, much more like maybe 90% much lower. Is there any danger to your opponent when you're high? I don't know. You know, like back in the day, I know there would be certain people that would put together the fact that I would hurt a lot of people and the fact that I was stoned. And when I was in that competitive state of mind, I would be offended by it. You know what I mean?

Like screw you. You're saying something about me and my skills, you know, and I can do this with my eyes closed, and my ego just took over like that. But looking back at it, you know, I don't think so, but I definitely think they had a reason. They had an argument that was worth considering. I'll say that.

But, you know, when you use it all the time, it doesn't affect you the way it affects other people. And that's the way that most information is put together is by firsthand experience. So you'll hear people that say, oh, no, nobody should be driving a smoke. And I'd smoked one time. And I couldn't tell you my name.

They have no idea what the fuck they smoked, you know, what else was in their body. So anyway, it doesn't affect that everybody. So all drugs affect everybody different. Sure. You know, but that's one that for sure. There's functional users that use it to release stress, bring their spiritual vibration up

and just live the day like that. And then, you know, there's other people that, let's get baked, man. And I'm really, you know, I don't even know if I was ever one of those. So you were the first one. Yes, responsible. Yeah, absolutely. And you're high right now, but that's okay. Dude, I had a documentary project for a while before this one that, who knows if it'll ever see the light of day.

But it went through some stages of development, trying to put this together of, in two part it was a documentary on the effects the true effects that cannabis has on athletes so i had like um you know nick diaz we're going to talk about ufc and we're going to talk um who's a football player in san francisco that um he's cannabis friendly um shoot i'm yeah he has a 420 gym up there but anyway um well the comment people they'll figure it out yeah yeah but so anyway this was a project, you know, for a while and I was going to go around and interview everybody and get their firsthand information because there's so much misinformation on the internet purposely put out there. And so I want, you know, first thing, like, um, effects it has on you

and the sport that you're in and how the legislation looks at it, you know, as far as the office, is it banned, it fines, whatever. And I wanted to be a guinea pig and as a long-term user go through every single test that anybody could do. Memory test, you know, cognitive tests, my lungs, my heart,

everything. And like I said, I don't know if that'll ever get done or not, but there's just so much misinformation out there. And RVD is exceptional in every way. You know,

you can't compare yourself to RVD. But there's still, that's an area where there's still a lot of information to be learned by everybody. So I have the interest in that. And I still do some,

but, you know, I used to, spend a lot more energy advocating when it was an uphill fight. I first did a High Times magazine interview in like 97. And of course, the other wrestlers were like, man, don't do it. You're, you know, you're shooting yourself in the foot. They'll check you at the airport, you know, just do your own thing. And I was like, people got to know, you know, like this can help people.

And it's like, they're telling you that it's a, it's a Schedule I drug. No medicinal value, the most dangerous drug we have, along with, heroin and acid and schedule two, which is more medicinal and higher in a society value is cocaine and meth. But the thing is, I was taught that in school in 1988 and they still today, those are the guidelines. And so I just felt like people need to know that. But that was years ago. Most people know that. It's sad, but most people know more than the government.

Yeah. Because that is still the look up the Controlled Substance Act and that's still how it is right now. We have so many states, like I think we have like 33 or so states that are medical. When we have two-thirds of the country, then the federal government is supposed to have a mandatory change. So that'll happen if they don't change it just on grounds of common sense before soon. Who is the coolest person you've ever smoked with? Oh, I don't want to do that. Okay.

I do have an answer. Okay. We can guess. Well, sure. I've had some cool ones here, but this guy I don't think would appreciate me dropping his name. How can people find your documentary? Dude, it's called Headstrong. It's on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, voodoo, and Fight TV.

Great. Is there a website we can link to as well? There's also Headstrong RVD.com. I always forget about that. Yeah, go there. Yeah, so I'll link. that below. You guys can check it out. You can basically learn

a different side of RVD. Dude, you learn my whole perspective on life, how I use my outlook to go through my journey and I bring everybody with the journey. So, you know, worked really, really hard on the movie for a long time. At least like

two years of just editing it drove my partner nuts the filmmaker guy because I had to have it just right. They'd go over it and over it and over it and over it. And he wanted to be done with it. He never thought that it would end. And he had me a few times actually sign a piece of paper and date it and say the movie's officially done after this last edit.

And then a few days later, I said, dude, these three small things, it would just make the flow so much better. Because I feel the energy. I don't think the schooling that he had. But we came together, got it perfect. And the reviews, the feedback has been, like, outstanding. I couldn't have known the people we're going to love it like this. You know, it's not like I make a lot of movies. And some people call it important.

And the fact is I'm so open and candid that even talking about my experiences with concussions, I found is kind of like breaking new ground. And so that's really cool. And you've been open and honest here. I know you have dinner plans. So I want to be respectful of your time. But, man, how cool is it that we're hanging out with RVD? Right.

Yeah. Thanks so awesome. Awesome, dude. Appreciate it. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, Rob Van Dam. Damn. I feel like I could have talked to him all night,

but I wanted to be respectful of the dinner plans that he had with his girlfriend, Katie Forbes, who was actually sitting next to us during the interview, at least for some of it. She was like basically sitting there till the other people that were in their dinner party joined. So you see her walking in the background. If you've seen the YouTube video, if you haven't, well, check it out. You can see exactly what I'm talking about there. Thanks for listening to this. Thank you for the reviews.

Please keep them coming in. I'm going to keep reading them on all the episodes. Thank you to our sponsors. Sports Information Traders. You can go to Sports Information Traders.com slash blue for the college football and NFL future plays for only $99. Thank you to Green Roads. Head over to greenroadsworld.com. If you're thinking of CBD products, you can use my code, Chris, 15, to get 15% off.

Also, thank you to Samson Technologies. They make us sound great. And they make the podcast what it is today. So, two weeks from now, all out in Chicago, I'm going to be there. Are you going to be there? Because if you are, it would be great to meet you. If you see me, please come say hi. We'll high five and shake hands and take a photo, whatever you want.

Also, let me know which interviews you'd like me to do that weekend. I'm going to try to line up as many as I can. I'm going to leave you with a quote here. I don't know who said this. I just saw it on Instagram and you know how that works. You just see the quote on there and it's not attributed to anybody, but it's a good one. The single biggest mistake you will make in life is failing to set targets high enough. Hmm.

So good. All right. Have a great day. We'll see you soon. And also, woo. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock. But there was one band that had it all.

Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. You're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of then? To Rock Bottom.

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