Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Ryan Satin on wrestling headlines, WWE backstage, TMZ, CM Punk's return, his hair

Episode Date: January 30, 2020

Chris Van Vliet sits down with Ryan Satin from prowrestlingsheet.com on the set of Wrestling Sheet Radio in Los Angeles, CA. Ryan talks about how he got his start in reporting, working for TMZ, some of the big celebrity stories he broke, how he was hired for WWE Backstage, his reaction to CM Punk's return, the criticism of his hair and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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and now back to your regularly scheduled podcast. It's Chrysomania, brother. That's a great question. Look at you, man. I'm with a powerful question. This is the Chris Van Vleet Show. Chris Van Vleet Show. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Vleet!

What is going on? How are you? Thank you for being part of another audio adventure on the CVV show. Welcome back to most of you. Although I guess there are a few people that are listening for the very first time. So a very warm Chris Van Fleet welcome. you as you walk your dog or you're on the treadmill you're at the gym maybe you're driving to work maybe maybe you're at work that's always my favorite tweet to read when someone says thank you for

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This is a really, really interesting and in-depth look with him on how wrestling news gets discovered and reported. I think you're going to love this one. Now, if you could do me a favor, it'd be so helpful if you could leave a review on Apple Podcast. if that happens to be the platform that you're listening on. It'll take you seven seconds. Just scroll down and just click the five stars.

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by the end of the year. We can do that. It'll be super easy. So if you're a wrestling fan, you know exactly who Ryan Satin is. He's the owner of pro wrestling sheet.com. We dive into his, news background. He's working for TMZ for many years, breaking some huge worldwide celebrity stories.

And he told me why he wanted to branch out, get specifically just into wrestling, and create his own site. We also get into where he gets his scoops from and why he doesn't want to report on certain things. Wrestling journalism to me, and I talk about it a little bit in this interview, but I think it needs to be put in air quotes sometimes. It's wrestling journalism. Because sometimes the stories are just reported on one site, inaccurately, and then cut and paste it and put onto other sites, therefore spreading the inaccurate news. Ryan's goal here is to actually dig deep with his journalist background and try to get to the truth of these stories.

Of course, you can't get them all right, and we do talk about the ones that he got wrong, but his idea here is that he wants to get them all right. He's a news junkie first, even though he's a wrestling fan. He's a news junkie first, so that's the most important thing to him, is getting it right. instead of being first, being right, which is often not always the case with all wrestling sites. So I think you're going to really enjoy this one. It's not just a deep dive into who Ryan Satin is,

but it's a deep dive into how wrestling news is made. So please put your hands together for Mr. Ryan Satin. Okay, look at this studio setup. Look at that, right? I just borrowed Lillian Garcia's studio for her interview. Now I'm borrowing your studio to do this. Hey, man. It's nice to have a professional setup.

at your disposal, you know? Are you trying to say, like, I should have one? Well, I mean, it doesn't hurt to have one, you know? But I mean, being a roving reporter also works as well. Yeah, I'll go wherever. Exactly. That's what I do. I think this is like, for a lot of people, this is like the first time that people are

seeing you. And I don't mean that a bad way. They see your name all the time. Yeah. They might see your avatar on Twitter, but this is Ryan Satin, ladies and gentlemen. That's me. Or Damien Sandow. One of the other.

Yeah, no, I, yeah, I, uh, yeah, I, I, I, I, I, I hope people are seeing me more on backstage now. Yeah. Hopefully that gets more eyes on me. That's obviously changed things. Yeah. And people definitely, you know, it's been a while, but I was on TMZ for a long time too. So people got to know me there as well.

But yeah, no, it's definitely more of an internet name, I guess, now at this point. I don't know, though, if a lot of people link up like, oh, that's the guy from TMZ. Well, that's the thing, you know, when that's one of the reasons I started my website is, you know, a TMZ, they really, they don't want the people. And not in a bad way, but they don't want the people who are on the show to be personalities, so to speak. And obviously some of them do become that. Like Van, when he did the whole thing with Kanye West and stuff. But they really want the people who are in the office to not be personalities because they're commenting on famous people or whatever. So, you know, they don't say Ryan or this and that.

It's like, really, it's like that guy with the long hair or the guy who wears the wrestling shirts and stuff like that. Yeah, that's why I was like, yes. Yeah, and that's how a lot of the fans started to know me. It was like the guy who wore the wrestling shirts on TMZ, and then I started talking about wrestling stories and pushing wrestling stories for the website and stuff, but people don't know that. They just know me as like the guy who was wearing

the wrestling shirts. And so, you know, when you're working somewhere for seven years and people only see, you know, a little, you know, an hour snippet of what you're doing in the day, they don't see all the work that you do on the website when you know you're a manager on the website and running the website on week and all that kind of stuff. So when I left TMZ, it was like, man, people don't know what I did

at TMZ, really. They just know me as the guy who was wearing wrestling shirts, and I did a lot more than that. And so I started the website. One of the reasons was because I wanted to show people, like, here's what I can do. And so the, you know, the website was largely something to kind of show people like, hey, I'm a lot more than the guy who just wears the rest of shirts. Well, I think people didn't realize when TMZ first came out. I don't think people realized that you guys were actually the writers and producers of the website. Yeah. I think people thought like, oh, the guy with the wrestling shirt, he's a good character to have on our TV show. Yeah.

But then when people started putting it together like, oh, wow, I was actually blown away from a television perspective. Like, how do you find time to make the TV show if you're also supposed to be like breaking news? Yeah, well, we started 6 a.m. So, well, when I would work there, they still do, but they start at 6 a.m. The show starts filming at like, I want to say 7 a.m. So, you know, there's usually like a production meeting on the news side of things before

the TV meeting. and then the TV meeting happens where everyone's kind of pitching things and talking about it for the TV show. But even during that meeting, work is happening. Like, we're, I'm texting, you know, I'm emailing, I'm checking all my emails, I'm thinking of ideas, I'm texting sources and stuff like that.

And so I'm getting assigned stuff by my boss. And so, you know, in fact, you know, for a long time, it started to be where I didn't even get to stand there for the whole meeting. I would have to go work. And then when it was my time to talk, I have to come over, do my pitches, and then go back to work. So it's a balance.

It's definitely a balance. And like you said, a lot of people don't realize that that's happening. You know, so that's really like for the most people, for everyone there, it's like an hour and a half of the day. And then everyone, and then the rest of the day, everyone's doing lots of stuff. You know, either their editors on the show, their writers on the show, their producers for the website. And so, yeah, a lot of those people are doing a lot more than what you realize.

and they're not just sitting there. They are sitting there making fun of celebrities, but then they also have jobs as well. I spent the majority of my career as an entertainment reporter. Obviously, TMZ is the place to go. When I started seeing wrestling stories reported on there as actual news, it just like warmed my heart. And I think a lot of that's because of you.

It was all because of me. Yeah, you brought that kind of the forefront, which then elevated the popularity, I think, of wrestling because it gave it this larger platform. Man, I love to hear you say that. That's very cool to hear you say that because, yeah, you know, when I started there, you know, I had worked in television. My dad has his own production company. Now he works elsewhere. So I grew up in the entertainment industry. And when I started working at TMZ, I had gone kind of like back down the totem pole as a PA. And then I worked my way up a little bit. And then I kept bugging them for an opportunity on the news desk because it, you know, I could tell it was something that I'd be good at. And so I started, they finally gave me that opportunity. I did it.

And, you know, one of the first things I'll tell you there is like they want you to take some sort of like niche thing and own it and become like the best reporter of that thing. Whether it's Lindsay Lohan or some dumb reality show or wrestling, they want you to like own it. And so I was like, okay, well, I'm just going to start calling wrestlers. And so I literally just started reaching, Twitter wasn't even popular. I was Facebooking. Like I was Facebooking wrestlers. Like, hey, you know, I'm working at TMZ now. I want to do more wrestling stories.

Like if anything comes up, anything cool, positive, let me know. And so I just started reaching out as many wrestlers as possible, and it kind of worked a little bit. And I started pitching wrestling stories, and they'd be like, we don't care about this. Like, no wrestling stories. And I'd be like, what do you mean? You guys said, take this thing, own it.

Like, I'm doing that, and they'd be like, we don't want wrestling stories. Like, unless someone dies or gets arrested, like, we really don't care. Yeah. And I was, okay. But then I kept pushing, because I know, and you know, There's a jillion wrestling websites out there. And they're so thirsty for content. You know, they want, they need it.

They want it. They want it. And I kept telling them, like, I'm telling you. You know, and so finally it was like, fine. You can do this dumb wrestling story. Great. And then, you know, there's this board. There used to be this board at TMZ that would show the stories and how they're tracking.

So you could see what the main story that everyone's in. Yeah, it's a newsroom thing. Yeah, like a newsroom thing where you'd see and it would go up if more people were it would go down if less people were in it. And sure enough, wrestling story, like, number one. And it, like, stayed there all day and they were just like, yeah, you can do more of those. And slowly it was like more and more and more of those. But, you know, at the time, you know, before me, it was like, unless someone dies,

it gets arrested, don't care. And after I started pushing up, they really did start to, like, let me do a lot more positive wrestling news stories. You know, I helped push for John Sina and the Miz and Ronda Rousey to host the show. I helped make those three things happen. And yeah, I really tried for a long time to change that balance of like where you wouldn't just see death and arrests for wrestlers in the mainstream media. And honestly, I think a lot, I feel that way, but I don't know if it's just me. I did kind of notice other mainstream publications starting to do more wrestling stories after that as well.

That's true. I mean, Sports Illustrated now covers it a lot. Yeah, there's a lot of outlets that cover it. So what was the one story at TMZ that you were really proud of that you broke? Well, it wasn't wrestling, but... Okay, well, that's fine. It was, um... I forget his name, but it was just the whole story.

The story's so good. I don't remember who it was. No, I don't remember his name, but the story itself is just insane. So it was early on in my time at TMZ. Like I said, I was trying to make a name for myself. I was trying to impress my bosses. And one Saturday, my boss calls me, Harvey, he calls me and he goes, he says, okay so this

food network chef is accused of hiring homeless people to kill his wife whoa and they flipped on him

and told the cops and that's how he ended up getting arrested if I recall correctly the story already came out that this guy got arrested but we had gotten like a tip from somewhere that he had hired these homeless guys to make happened this homeless group people and so he said I got a tip that the homeless people are at the Santa Monica or not the pier the the the promenade okay the promenade yeah I don't know where but

they're on the problem from what I heard from a source they're on the promenade somewhere can you go to the promenade and go talk to homeless people and see if you can find them and I go yeah of course you know like trying to press your boss yeah of course yeah yeah yeah sure All right. So I take my girlfriend at the time, my ex-girlfriend now. I take her to the prom. I'm like, we got to go try and talk to homeless. We've got to go find this homooseph.

Right. So I get to the promenade and I stand there and it's a big place. Yeah, it is. And I'm like, hmm. It's a big like tourist attraction. Yeah. So there's so many people there. And I'm like, some hipsters in L.A.

Might just look like homeless people. Totally. Totally. Sorry. Right. So I, myself included, you know, that's probably why they sent me. So they, so I'm like, where do I start? So I, I, I'm next to a McDonald's that's there. And I see a homeless guy standing outside of the McDonald's. And he has a sign that says, can you please buy me a Big Mac or something along those lines? Okay. So I go in the McDonald's. I buy a Big Mac and I come outside and I go, hey, dude, here you go. Like, here's the Big Mac. And he was like, thank you so much.

He starts to open the bag. And I go, hey, can I ask you a question? He goes, yeah, yeah, totally. And I go, look, I know this sounds crazy, but there's like this Food Network chef who apparently hired a bunch of homeless people to murder his wife, and they flipped on him. Does that sound familiar? Does that bring a bell to you?

And he goes, yeah, that's me. And I go, excuse me? And he goes, yeah, that's me and Big Dave and Little Dave. And I go, wait, are you serious? Wow. And he goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, dead serious. He's like, yeah, yeah. Do you want to hear the whole story?

And I go, yeah, of course I want to hear the whole story. So follow me. And so we walk down the corner, turn the corner, and there's like this really tall homeless dude and this shorter-looking homeless dude who's very scary looking. And then this guy who I'm talking to and his fiancé or wife or something like that. And so I go, so they go, yeah, yeah, it's us. This whole crazy story. And I go, hey, I work at TMZ.

You guys remember with TMZ? Oh yeah, of course, of course. I go, I go, can I interview you about this? I had a flip cam on me. That's when those were a thing. And I go, can I interview you about this for our website? Because yes, they go, yeah, sure, totally. So they stand there and, like, on the promenade, I just hit record and I start interviewing them.

Wow. And I entered, we talk for like 30 minutes. They give me the craziest story about the whole thing, like, from. beginning, middle to end, which is insane story. And I'm just like, oh my God, oh my God, this is crazy. So then we're done, I go, thank you so much. I was saying contact with you guys, and I call Harvey. And he goes, did you find them?

And I go, yeah, I did. Did you interview then? And I go, yeah, I just interviewed them for 30 minutes. It's only the whole thing. Get back to the, I'm like, you gotta pick them to the office right now. Like, okay, cool, cool, cool. And that ended up like,

being huge international news. And then that's why I just forget the chef's name, but the whole story is crazy. But then like if I recall some of the stuff they told me, like they hadn't even told the cops when the cops, when they flipped on the cops. So like if I recall correctly, part of my interview was like played in this guy's trial because like they told me stuff that like the cops hadn't even said yet. And I think he's, I'm pretty sure the guy's in jail for life. Like it's crazy story.

Like the whole thing is gnarly. So that's definitely one of them. And obviously there's other ones like, that's one of the ones I'm most proud of because it's such a crazy story. But I mean, you know, obviously they're, that was not the biggest traffic. Like I have broken as well.

Like it's hard to say you're proud of sad stories because like they're terribly sad and nobody wants to work on a death thing. Like it's one of the saddest things to work on. Like I hate it so much. But at the same time, I always grew up looking at wrestling news and stuff like that. And I hate it.

And just news in general, I've always been a news junkie, and I hated when, like, incorrect reporting would come out about certain things. And so I always, like, really wanted to make sure, like, I'm reporting accurately. So, yeah, it sucks calling a family member when their family member just died. But also, like, I'm trying to tell them, like, hey, I get it. Like, my brother died. I've been there. Yeah.

But I wouldn't want incorrect information out there if he was a celebrity about his death. So I really just want to help inform the fans of that person. Yeah. And it's hard. It's so hard. But also, like, you know, I broke the passing of Moshoman Randy Savage at TMZ. Whitney Houston passing away. I broke that.

You know, I broke that. So with the Whitney Houston one, she died in a hotel room. How do you find out? I got a text message from us. I was literally, I went to Arklight with my family. We were seeing that movie with Denzel, Washington, and Ryan, what are the, I forget what it was Ryan Reynolds? He's the one from Deadpool, right?

Safehouse. Yeah. We were seeing Safe House. I took my family to see Safe House. I took my family to see Safe House. Take you guys out to L.A. House. We're in the theater. The movie is like about to start the trailers and I look at my phone to silence it and I just got a text message from a very good source who said, Whitney Houston just

died here. This is where she died. And I like looked at my family and I went, I got to go, I got to go work. Like you guys have to watch me without me. I got to go on the balcony. And so my family watched safe house. I went on the balcony of Arc Light Upstairs on the second floor and worked the whole movie basically and was on both my phones, you know, talking to sources, reached out to publicists and stuff like that. But yeah, like I was working on it. Wow. Yeah, I had a really good source. So that other story only cost you a Big Mac. Yeah, the other store only cost me a Big Mac. But a lot of these, like TMZ is known for paying like big money. Well, not for information, not for stories they necessarily. Like they'll pay for video, for videos, pictures, things like that.

just like ABC and all those kinds of places do too. Like I know everyone goes like, oh, TMZ pays for things. But like, you know, behind the scenes, like the ABCs, the CBSs of the world, like the 2020s, like they're all paying those people for the documents. You know, I'm sorry, like documents, videos, pictures. Okay. So it's similar to those as well. But yes, I mean, yes, people, because of that stigma, you know, and there's that whole like contact us thing on the website and on the TV show when they say to like contact us.

Yeah, I mean, that tip line is pouring in at all times. I mean, you know, my old phone, I would get over a thousand emails a day that I would have to sift through to like see what was legit and what was not and stuff like that. So let's take it back. You know, what was it about or when was it that you really became like a crazy wrestling fan? Well, that's a good question. You know, I see, you know what's weird is I've always been obsessed with behind the scenes of wrestling. Like your whole life? My whole life.

And I love wrestling. Don't get me wrong. But like I said, my dad works in TV. And when I was very young, he took me to, he used to work on the show Ronda Shear up all night, which was on USA. Yeah. And they did a taping at some kind of WWE event, which was in L.A. And I got to go to it. And so my first, like, memories of wrestling were already behind the scenes.

And it was crazy because, you know, I. I got to go in the locker room for a minute, which you would think is unheard of it. Like now you would think this is unheard of here because as an adult I've never even been in the locker room, but for some reason, like, they let me through the locker room. I don't know why. Yeah.

We got to go through the locker room, and I see Yokozuna and Undertaker playing cards together in the corner. And I'm like, those guys, I'm pretty sure I saw those guys talking crap about each other. Like, that's weird. And then, like, this person kind of being nice, and then I remember seeing men on a minute,

mission, I want to say, and they looked at us like, real, like, all mean. And it was like, weird. And I just like, this is interesting. Like, this is fascinating. Yeah. And then we went into another room, which I don't know why. I don't know why. And my dad doesn't know why we were there either. I don't know why. For some reason, we were in, you know, like, how WWF back in the used to have the doors. Yeah. Instead of like, so we were behind the doors for some reason. I don't know why. And, and I'll never forget, you know, at the time I didn't know who they were, It was Bam Bam Bigelow and Luna. And they were the nicest people to us.

Now, this is the guy, you know, yeah, tatted up head, like, she's crazy looking. And they're just like, are you guys having a nice time? Me and my older brother, are you guys having a nice time? Are you enjoying the show? They're the nicest people, right? Like, we're like, yeah, yeah, this is great. Okay, cool.

Like, keep enjoying the show, like, nice meeting you. And then you hear, like, their music hit. And he goes, like, all right, we got to go. Nice meeting you. And then he kicks in the door. And she's like, and he's just like blah and I was like

what is this? Like this is a crazy world you know and not long after you know I did that I watched wrestling adjacent my dad was a wrestling fan but it was really the attitude era when like it really ramped up you know and similarly

like I said my dad works in entertainment industry and so when the attitude era started I remember I watched the hell in a cell like not live my neighbor was like, you guys got to watch this. I have this tape. It's the craziest thing. I watched the hell in a cell with Mick Foley and Undertaker, I should specify. And, you know, we watched the whole thing and it just mesmerized me. I was like, I got to start watching this. Now, this is

different than what I saw that back when I was a kid. This is crazy. I got to watch this. So I started watching it and then not long after I want to say is when Beyond the Matt came out and my dad got to see an early screening of that. And when I went to the early screening of it, you know, I have like industry screens where you like fill out the cards of like what you thought about the movie. So I got to see it before it came out. And I remember just like once again being like, this world is so crazy. And that's really when I started getting obsessed with the behind the scenes of things. And that's, you know, luckily I grew up in an internet era, you know.

So, and I'm sure you did two of like where like at a time you're like, what's really going on? And so you'd start going to all these like Raja WWF.com and like all those old like wrestling sites when the internet was still like in its early days and stuff. And so, and it would always be like, click here to find out the gift Stephanie gave to Vince or something like that. But you'd never find out, you know, or like, you know, it's like, this person's going to be on raw and they never were, you know. And so like, but you'd read it because you were just so interested. And like, honestly, the behind the scenes always fascinated me. So yes, I love, I've liked wrestling since the hell and sell of mankind Undertaker. But it's amazing, though, that you're approaching this as a news junk.

Because there's so many people that do what you do and they're approaching it as like, I'm just a wrestling fan. And writing these stories about wrestling allows me to get closer to the industry. And I think that it's amazing that you're approaching it as a journalist. Because I think, unfortunately, a lot of times in wrestling journalism, journalism has to be put in quotations. Yeah. For you with these stories, how do you vet them? Because you're still breaking stories in wrestling. Yeah.

So, you know, I would say that it's just learning to trust your sources. And, you know, luckily I've been doing this for 10 years. you know, and I got trained by some of the best people in news. You know, I might not work at TMZ anymore, but I mean, Harvey Levin, that guy is like a bulldog reporter. Like, to sit under his learning tree for seven years and get taught how to break international, you know, news stories like that. You know, it's, it's, it's something that's hard to explain. But, you know, it took a, I mean, I don't, I can't say it took a lot of trial and error because it didn't, because you can't make a lot of error in this kind of situation. So like, you know, I had to start with

stupid stories at first. But then like, you know, once I dove in with like real news, you also get this like, you get this addiction for it. If you're like, man, I like to break stories and to break factual stories. Because I get, the main driving force of it all is I hate seeing fake news. I hate it so much, so much, so much. Like my whole, like I was saying, when I would go on those Raja, www.coms, that stuff never happened. And my whole life, I always felt, other fans might not feel the same way, but I always felt like I never had a website that I could go to that I could trust all the content there. Like, you know, you always hear this in wrestling.

If that's true, that's awesome. If that's true, I'll be excited. If that, and it would always drive me crazy because I would just be like, why isn't there a site that cares about answering the if? You know, like, and it would, it would really eat me up inside. And so, you know, like I said when I was at TMZ, you know, I always hated seeing what a fake story can do to someone. So when I was at TMZ, I tried really hard to find those people that I felt like

their story wasn't being told appropriately and find them be like, hey, I have this, I have this platform. I can help you get your side of things out there. And so I saw that like a lot of people, every time it was a wrestler, it would be, they'd be like, thank you so much. nobody in wrestling does this. So when I left TMZ, I was like, I'm going to be the one that does it. You know, like, I have to, this is a, there is a void in wrestling right now, in wrestling news for that.

But it's a big leap, though, because there's so many wrestling sites out there. So for you to be starting a new one, you're kind of having to play catch up with all these sites that have been around for five and ten and 15 years. Where did you, what made you think it was going to work? I'm way too confident in myself. Like to a fault, you know? Like, I, you know, I'll be honest, like I was, I, I, I, sometimes you can be fueled by certain things, you know, and it was like, near the end of my time at TMZ, they would complain about me pitching too many wrestling stories.

And I realized it was the only thing I was passionate about. And I was thinking to myself, I could do this. Like, and similarly, like you said, like a lot of those sites are so hardcore fan-based. That I felt like there wasn't one speaking to the general public, like one that was consumed by a non-hardcore wrestling. Like trying to be the TMZ but of wrestling? Initially, yeah. Initially it was that, you know? Like, initially it was like, I want to be like the TMZ of wrestling.

Absolutely. Like, I'm not going to lie. Like, initially that was part of it. It was like this could be done, this model could 100% be applied to wrestling. And people would find it just as interesting as they do TMZ. Now over the years, like I have now I've dealt with trial and error because now I've owned a website for four and a half years, like a news website that does get picked up by, you know, mainstream publications sometimes that does get picked up by all the wrestling sites that does have the attention of wrestlers. And so I have learned lessons. Like there are mistakes I have made along the way, you know, and they're learning lessons, you know.

And I have tried along the way. like people, I get a lot of shit on Twitter sometimes and people go like, well, you did this. You did this once. And I'll be honest with you. Like people don't understand like, I have changed because of those certain things. Like someone goes like, you did this. Yeah, I did do that. And I realized that was bad. So I have really tried to change. You know, like, one time I was like, I let, I used to let Twitter get the best of me for a little bit. You know, because honestly, when I first started the site, I thought to myself, I have to tweet as much as possible. I have tweet as much as possible. Okay. So people don't notice that I am.

advertising my site all the time. You know, like, when I'm retweeting my own links all the time, I knew people were going to get over that. So I got to tweet all the time. I got tweet about everything all the time so that it doesn't just look like my feed is only wrestling sheet links, you know? And so I did that, I got caught up in it. And like one time,

you know, I said something to Chris Jericho. Got like quote tweeted something Chris Jericho said. He got real mad. He then posted a video saying Ryan sat and go fuck himself. And I learned from it. I really like reflected on it. Like, you know what? I didn't need to get involved in that. I didn't need to say that. Like, I didn't need to get, like, you know what? I'm not the savior of anything. Like, I'm not changing anything. Like,

my, me saying that, all it did was make people dislike me. And so, you know, at the end of the day, I like, I learned like, maybe, you know what? Maybe you don't have to talk about everything. Like, maybe you know what? You've carved your own spot now. Yeah. You can just talk about news now. Like, it's okay. Like, you don't have to get involved in every social issue and things like that. And so, you know, I've really tried to back out of those kinds of things, you know, Sasha Banks and Bailey, I did a report about them around WrestleMania and, you know, I then, you know, a few months later, I saw Sasha Banks's Chronicle, I believe it was. I saw how she said it affected her and how other, you know, other fans have affected her from, you know, the injury when she heard Bailey, you know, when Bailey,

sorry, not on Bailey, when Paige got injured and she was involved. And I watched it and I thought to myself, like I never want to make someone sad, especially like that. Like I am a nice guy and I really don't want to make people sad. Like and so I have made changes. Like I've tried not to do behind the scenes drama ever since then and just focus on sports reporting as if wrestling was a sport and do straight up sports reporting. And there might be sometimes we're like there's a big blow up backstage but I now know that I need to handle those situations with more care.

And so like there are things I learn along the way. Like I've really tried to back away from like covering arrests and because, you know, I thought to myself, it's my website. I don't, as much as I wanted to be like the TMZ of wrestling, I thought to myself, you know what? Like I've gotten to a point where like I've realized that the audience that I have built, they don't really want me to be reporting on arrests and things like that. They want to hear about wrestling from me.

And so I've tried to step back on reporting about arrests and things like that. And people go, oh, that doesn't make, you're, and you've lost your credibility. I don't think so. I just really tried to focus on caring about the people that I'm reporting on that might. I don't know. Maybe that's bad. I don't know. But like, I've tried really to make changes in my reporting because it's, it's, you know,

validity is one, you know, being accurate is one thing. But like being a better person is better. Well, is it, is it now tough? Do you have to walk this line? You're doing stuff at WWB backstage. You're obviously going to have to report on negative stories with WWW. Yes. Is there not a conflict of interest now?

Well, so the show is a Fox Sports show, and I realize that that gets, you know, is confusing because it's called WWX-Age and it is promoted on WWE TV. Yes, using WWE talent. Using WWE talent. I realize all these things. I, you know, I don't think so. You know, I've still reported on negative things that have happened. Like I said right here, you know, I've really tried to step back on like this person, this person talked crap

about that person on Twitter. I've tried to sit back from those kinds of stories, similar to the arrest stories. So people go like, well, why didn't you cover CM Punk and the Miz? And I'm like, well, because I've tried to up the credibility of my website or up the appearance of my website.

And like, you guys got really mad at me about certain things. Oh, you only care about stupid tweets. I've tried to stop doing tweets, you know? I guess the devil's advocate would say, well, you're not doing those types of stories because you're now working with them. Absolutely.

Absolutely. But this started, a lot of this started with the Sasha Banks Chronicle thing. I will be honest with you. A lot of me trying to steer away from drama as much as possible was because of the Sasha Banks thing because I was like, you know what? Like, fine.

You know, like, makes my life easier if I don't have to talk about those things. And if you don't want it anyways, like, fine, you know. And so it's hard to like, it's this balance, act. And people go, well, why didn't you talk about the plane on WWW backstage? Well, I'm not the producer. You've worked in TV for a long, you know, you're not, you're, You've worked in television, you know how it is. If you're not the producer, you're not necessarily picking,

you're not picking and choosing who's talking about what necessarily, you know. I pitched it, you know, they wanted to talk about it in a different segment. So they did, you know. I still find stories on my own that I'm pitching for the segment. It's, you know, it's a work in progress, but I am, you know, I look at it as, you know, first of all, I look at it akin to like a Jay Glazer and Adam Schepter and all those guys. But similarly, those guys aren't on a show, you know, this is a little more closely associated to WWE than those guys are on the shows that they are on with sports networks. But I honestly look at it as kind of like I said about how much I want to have accurate news.

I look at it as the closer I am, the more accurate the news you're going to get from me is. You know, for a long time, we've seen this contentious relationship between WWB and the media where it's like, you know, where you think the Dave Melters of the world go, like, like, no, like, he's not allowed here. He can't interview talent or this and that or a lot of the wrestling media, like, can't interview talent and stuff like that. And from day one, and people don't realize, but like from day one, my goal has been to break that down, like, to like break that down. Like, I think it's stupid.

And like in the entertainment industry, the relationship between the studios and the media is great. They're flying people out to junkets, you know? They're flying people out to junkets. It's like, they're like, they're bending over backwards for the media because they want their coverage. We're in a very interesting transition period right now with wrestling. Yeah. Where the curtain has been peeled back, but not peeled back all the way.

Yes. You know, K-Fab still exists, but it doesn't exist like it did 15 and 20 plus years ago. So it's like, I feel like we are getting more access, but at the same time you can't have all of it. All of it. It's very interesting. But honestly, from when I started my website to now, it's a huge leap, honestly. Like, other good sites have popped up to, you know, like, fight full and post wrestling and stuff like that.

Like, I'm not the only one that's as focused on accuracy, I feel like, anymore, you know? And, you know, people are, like, appropriately tagging their exclusives. So there's not just these weird stories floating out in the ether anymore. Like, there's accountability a little bit more. Then there's a lot of cut and paste. There's so much cut in pace. But at least, I feel like at least there's, since I started my site to now, I've noticed a little bit more crediting, a little bit more crediting, which means there's a little bit more

accountability, which I like. And, you know, I'm obviously involved in this in a small way. Like, my interviews get reposted everywhere, which is awesome. It's so great. And, you know, especially when they link up to the video, it makes it that much better. But it's so interesting to, like, word for word sometimes across 10 different sites, it'll be the exact same article. And I try and tell people,

like, and you are great at this, and I try and stress to other people who do interviews in the wrestling world, and not even in the wrestling world, in just any sphere. Yeah. If you write up the quotes and put your own press release together

that looks somewhat passable, they're going to pick it up. Yes. I learned this because at TMZ, like I said, there would be a thousand emails a day, and when I'm scrolling through all my emails and I see one that looks presentable with with quotes that are like hey you

know what that makes my life a little easier because all I have to do is copy and paste those quotes and I didn't a lot of the sites will just take your press release swoop copy and paste the whole thing and post it I would at least see it as like hey those are big quotes that are good that are interesting work them into an article yeah and so um I stress through all the title dude if you do that you have up your chances of people seeing your interview tenfold. And I had people on Twitter that were like, I never thought of that.

I can't let it into it. So I one time tweeted like a template for a press release. Here's one I get all the time. This girl, hers are great. You should do this. Just copy what she does and put your own show in there. And Xbox got a little mad at me that day because it was the press release for his show

and he was like, why are you giving away our secrets? I was like, my bad, my bad. But yeah, you know, like I tell you all the time. Press release, dude, like you will get so much more public. You got so much more. Yeah, I was, I was sending out quotes for a while. And recently I've been like, well, now I'm doing these longer interviews, right? So they're an hour long.

It's hard to boil down an hour to like four quotes. Yeah. And it also kind of skews the coverage as well. If I go to you, hey, Ryan, here's four things I talked about with John Ciener or the Ms. or, you know, Cody Rhodes, or whoever I talk to. Those are probably the only four things you're going to focus on. What if there's some nuggets in there that I didn't talk about and it skews your coverage, excuse everyone's coverage. So now I'm basically just going, here's my interview.

Yeah, no, and honestly, whatever you'd like to pull from it, go ahead. That was why when you used to send out the, the press releases and you'd have the video in there, that was why I reached out to you and were like, hey, you should put these in the podcast for him. Because sometimes like, I'm not going to lie. Yeah. If I see an interesting news story that just got emailed to me, I go, well, there you go. Like, great. That's a great angle. Like, he did half the work for me. Chris helped me out here. Great. But you're right. A lot of times, I would say a majority of the time, I will do the same thing. I listen to the full thing. And I try and find that one nugget that people weren't talking about. You know, and that's my special. That's exactly what I try and do as well. And that was why I was like, hey, put this in podcast so I can listen to it while I'm driving. Because sometimes like when I'm at my desk, it's a little harder to like watch a full YouTube videos. I love that you put them on the podcast feed now. We're on a podcast as we speak right now. So what's in it for your sources? Like why would I be a Ryan Satin's source. You know, I think one, it's people who also want accuracy in wrestling news.

I think, you know, similar to me, there's other news junkies out there who hate that they have seen, that they see fake reporting out there, you know, like they know that I'm someone who strives to try and get the truth of what's going on in a situation out there. So I think that has helped a lot. But also, you know, it's, I guess there are also just relationships you build. That's what I was going to say. also like a lot of times like a two who's like me like you know believe it or not but like I yeah you know you know you'll meet someone you'll be friendly with them you know like you know like you'll

ask a question here and there you know um it takes a long time to like me oh yeah to like not only to like manifest a relationship well enough to where you can feel oh like not an asshole asking them for information that's one and and two um making it clear that that's not the only reason like you're talking to this person either, you know? And I think that like I'm a, people might not believe it because it's hard on Twitter to, you know, convey who you are. But like, I'm a pretty nice guy. Like when people are actually talking to me. And so, um, I, I think that, you know, people are also sometimes surprised when they start

talking like, oh, you're actually like a really nice guy. How do you know that, how do you know that the information you're getting is accurate? Especially if this is information is coming from behind the curtain. Yeah. I, I, I never, post anything that's just from one source. Like I never. I mean, I never. I mean, unless it's like, unless it's someone who is like, I know that this person is trusted or only this person would know or, you know, whatever. But like, majority of the time, I would say 95% of the time, even when my best, even my best sources, honestly, even my best sources tell me, I'm still attempting, I don't publish unless I've confirmed

with at least two to three people. Like, at least two to three, like, two really good sources or, like, one really good source and then, like, two other sources, you know, like, if I've got it from, like, two trusts people who have never been wrong, you know,

like, maybe slide, but usually for most of it, I try and get, I try and triple source everything because, like, it's important to me. Like, I'd rather not do a story than be wrong about something. And that's, I mean, like,

I really would. Like, I hate putting something out there that's false. So, like, I'd rather, like, even the Sasha Banks thing, people go like, oh, Sasha Banks, you just wanted to make money off of it.

I didn't even post that on my website. Like, that wasn't a story that went on my website. I tweeted saying, like, hey, heard this thing because that was something that I had heard from four sources. And I don't want to, like, get into that. But like, and I realized that I've already apologized. It was wrong. It was according to Sasha and Bailey, it didn't happen, you know.

So, okay, like, I'm not going to, like, get into that. But according to the four other people, but I had. It did happen. You know what I mean? So, like, I don't, like, and that one was something, I made no money off of that. I tweeted it.

And it caused a firestorm that I didn't expect. But, you know, I, even then, like, I try. I try really hard. And there's a lot of people in news who don't do that, who don't try to get it from four sources, like who will go get it from one and be totally cool with it. Well, I think a lot of those people are just excited. Like, oh, my God, you're giving, you're giving this to me?

Yes. Oh, I got to get this online as quickly as possible. Absolutely. Absolutely. 100%. I mean, during interviews, there's sometimes where someone will say something that I know is newsworthy. And I'm like, wow. Like, I feel like the day.

David Benoit, any of you, that I just released a few years ago. Thank you. I mean, the fact that he just, he reached out to me and trusted me with that. It was like, you feel this great responsibility. Oh, yeah. Especially like with a journalist background that I have. Like, you feel this great responsibility to try to get that right. Yep.

So I can side with you on that. I know where you're coming from. You want to get it. You know, you want to get it right. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and you did a great job with that, by the way. Like, that's not an easy subject to tackle. I know that that's tough.

one. And he's, you know, he's obviously not used to doing interviews. Yeah, totally. Yeah, so that, that made it like an extra layer of that. Because I heard he, I had listened to one that he did with Fred Rosser. That one. Yeah. And this was very different, the one that you did. And I thought it was very much, like, no disrespect to the interview that he did with, with Fred at all. But you did a very good job of like getting a different, a different side of a very intense situation. Well, you know, from being completely honest here, we did the interview on a Friday morning, but I flew into Las Vegas that Thursday evening. And I said, hey, man, I don't have any plans when I land.

Do you want to grab a drink? And he's like, yeah, sure, man. He was in town with one of his buddies for the week. So me and him and his buddy just went out and had a beer. And that totally broke the ice. Good. And he's like, hey, man, I really like you. I'm really excited about this interview and we can talk about anything.

Crazy. I'm like, anything? He's like, anything, man. Anything. And I'm like, the fact that we were able to share that moment as friends, rather than just like knocking on the door. Oh, hey man, I'm Chris. nice to meet you and let's do the interview.

Now tell me about all about all these things about your dad. You know, yeah, totally. So that, I think that that definitely helped the process. I actually haven't, I haven't ever, I haven't said that. So that's interesting, you know, there you go. See? And you don't even got to put that in the press release. You know, you got to listen to the whole show for that nugget.

Yeah, you got to listen 40 minutes in. Yeah, there you go. What's your take on the landscape of professional wrestling as it stands right now in 2020? Dude, I love it right now. I mean, there's so much good wrestling on television right now. now, just like in general, in the world. You know, when I started here at Collider, I told them, I was like, man, I really think that, like, I can feel, I can sense this revival of sorts for the wrestling industry.

And, like, I know people go, like, oh, there's only two million viewers on each show, whatever. The boom period's not happening. But, like, honestly, like, I truly believe that by the end of 2020, that wrestling is going be in a very different place. It's going to be, it'll have been on Fox for a year at that point. AEW will have been on a role for a year at that point, or now two years at that point. You know, I truly believe that we are on the way to a boom period again. Like, I know people go, oh, you're crazy, Ryan, you're talking about or whatever, but like, I just feel it in my bones.

Like, I see, you know, the Rock's got a show that's going to be on NBC about his young life, which is obviously going to be about wrestling. crazy. Yeah. And he's going to be on every episode. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. They didn't say in what way.

I'm guessing that it's going to be in like a narrator at the top, like to set up each episode. But they haven't said maybe he'll play his dad. Maybe he'll be himself like they did in that Penn 15 show where they make the character, like they have adults playing children or whatever. They haven't said. But he's going to be on the show. Stephen Amel is going to have his own wrestling show on, I think it's stars. AEW is out there,

WW backstage is on TV, which is like, fuck sports, it's a roundtable show that people can watch, you know, famous people who did it talking about it,

which is very cool. I think that there's all these things that are happening to where, like, there's wrestling on television pretty much every night of the week now, almost. You know,

NXT is also killing it in what they're doing. They're like, they're setting new ground with the women's division. You know, New Japan is still out there doing their thing.

You know, R.O.H. might be a sleeper this year now that Marty is involved in the booking and stuff. You know, there's even, like, NWA on the internet. There's just so much that I don't think that it's like bad. I think that it's really just, it's helping everything grow. And I really feel like by the end of this year, I feel like the mainstream is going to care about wrestling like they did when I was a kid.

I've been saying it for the longest time. Well, I've been saying for the last year or so, rising ties, lift all ships. And with AEW coming in, it's kind of going, there's an alternative now. There has been alternatives for a while. I mean, I think people seem to forget that impact wrestling was on network television, not network, cable television. Even when head-to-head with Roth for, you know. Brief minute.

We were, we weren't talking about it. When people were like, AEW's doing this for the first time in 18 years, it's like, no, not exactly. You know what I think the difference is? I think it's the same reason we love wrestling. People like to see two people going at it. Whether it's people or entities or whatever, people like to see a fight. It's happened since the beginning of time, like, you know, the gladiators, you know,

like people just love to see two competitors going at it, right? And whether there was an alternative or not, I don't, impact tried briefly, like you said. And they gave up so fast. They tucked their tail between their legs, went running back to Thursday or whatever, and they were like, we should not have done that, you know? But the footnote is impacts numbers then, terrible at the time then, and way better than the numbers now. Yes, absolutely.

But TV as a whole has changed since then. Like, it's crazy. Like, people always point at the numbers and stuff like that, but then they go, like, well, I don't have cable. And you go, like, well, you're not even watching on TV. So you should know why the numbers are down because you're a cord cutter, you know? Yeah.

So, I mean, like, most of my friends don't have cable. They all watch, you know, legally or whatever. You know, like, they're all watching on the internet. Like, you know, like, every, whatever, or they have slings or whatever. They're not watching the same traditional way they used to watch anymore. People are watching differently. And also people forget how important social media is.

You, I, me, we're all, you, we're all on our phone at all times. And if you're trending every week for real, you have multiple trends. You are destination television. You can sell more advertising on that. Like just like back in the 10 million viewers because it's destination viewing. You can't, you're not fast forward. through that either because you're watching when it's live most of the time. AW's done a great job on Instagram of posting clips like five minutes after they happen on the show.

WWE, I mean, people don't give WWE credit for how large their YouTube channel is. It's crazy. Like they have, I think, the second or third largest YouTube channel in the world. It's something like that, yeah. And like, I think one or two or three in views in total. It's insane. It's ridiculous. And then you look at like everyone hated the Lana Rusev wedding or the,

Lana Bobby Lashley wedding and then the numbers on YouTube are massive 10 times the ratings or whatever and it's like I think we need to start looking at different numbers well even like back stage you know sometimes we're like oh like the numbers for backstage blah blah blah wherever they don't count that like the show repeats 10 times and all of those get factored in they're not counting the YouTube numbers like I had a video that had like a million views I go one of my segments like that matters to the company like they make money from that too. Like it's it's very short-sighted. It's very 2000 thinking. Yeah. In 2020. Well, what's so crazy is to understand how the Nielsen ratings work is ridiculous. Yes. Like one family might have a box.

This is how it works, by the way. One family might have a box in their house. And that box and what they watch is representative of I believe 10,000 households. Basically the ratings are a math equation. Which is, but it's so bizarre because we live in a world where our television, like our cable is being delivered to us digitally now. Why don't we all just check a box off and say, sure, you can record, you can let people know what I'm watching. Right.

We do it on the internet every single second of every single day. What's even funnier to me is how many people don't realize that, what you just said. I know. It's so crazy. And I can't tell you my whole life, because like I said, my dad works in TV, my whole life, it'd be like, well, no, someone will say to me, oh, no, I got to watch because I want to make sure my show doesn't get canceled. And I'd go to them like, you watching does not matter. Like, that's not factored into your show. And they're like, what do you mean? I have on in both TVs. And I go, are you insane?

Unless you have a Nielsen family, unless you're a Nielsen family, then put it on in all four TVs in the house and help out the TV industry. But if not, what are you talking about? And so, there's so many in the world who think them watching TV factors into the radio. I just don't get why can't we get 100% accurate TV ratings? It's funny that you say that. If that interests you, and this is probably not going to interest all these heel, but you should listen to it. It's Edward Norton did an interview with Mark Maren,

I want to say, recently on the WTF podcast, and they get into this topic. And I didn't know that he has started like a data and analytics company basically, where he was frustrated by similar things. And so he went to this guy. And so first what he tackled was the, you know how I talked about, oh my God, hold on. Oh, that's okay. Yeah, yeah.

It's all good. I know where I was, I know where I was at. Start the, like, sentence. Like, I don't know if this will interest here. Okay. Okay, let me just clap here. Okay. So, I don't know this will interest you, but basically Edward Norton, so he has like a data and analytics company now.

and his dad at analytics company, they're tackling similar topics. And the first thing they tackled, he said, was movie screenings. And like I was saying, when I saw beyond the mat back in the day, you know, the way movie screenings work for producers and directors and all that kind of stuff is you'll see this screening and then after they hand you like a piece of paper that's a questionnaire and a pencil and paper and you're like crossing things off. And they're still doing that to this. day in 2020 paper and pencil to figure out what people in a movie theater thought about it and he was like that's stupid why wouldn't we do it on an iPad and have that data sent places and then we can do stuff with that data in the future and and figure out and have it help us like people do with data these days and analytics and stuff and and also where it can be immediately emailed to the director of the movie and he's at to wait three weeks for it to come in the mail and so we get it instantly because it's an instant

aged. And so he started this company where they started and now I'm going to get the figure wrong but it was like they do like 75% of Hollywood screenings now. And they've basically helped eliminate that. And one of the other things that he wants to do is the TV rating side of things where he says the Nielsen is bullshit. It is. It's bullshit. It is not an accurate indicator of what people are watching. And honestly the only reason that's done is for advertisers. It's for advertisers so that advertisers can know if they should place advertising on it, but they don't know if their advertising is effective on those shows. So he is working with this guy to his company, to basically, he says that they've created software

to where they're trying to replace Nielsen with this other thing, where basically the advertising companies can see exactly how their advertising performed on television. vision and certain things. They can see how many people saw it on TV and then went to the internet to go find it. And basically he's trying to, Edward Norton is trying to change the Nielsen game where he's trying to, because it's this antiquated system that all of all, it's, it's right for the changing because it's so stupid. And so, um, I don't even know how we got sidetracked to that, but, uh, I, that stuff fascinates me because I just been working in TV my whole life. Yeah. But, um, we'll bring it back around to wrestling here. And I want to ask you some,

you know, some straight up wrestling questions. All right. What's been your favorite wrestling story that you've broken? Favorite wrestling story that I've broken was probably, I mean, it was, and I'm trying to steer away from the backstage drama, but it was probably the Brock Lesner, they were both involved in Brock Lesner, because just the thought of both were crazy. The first was when he got into that backstage incident with Chris Jericho,

when he was elbowing in Randy Orton, And people were wondering if he went off script because Randy got all bloody and was concussed. And then he went backstage and Jericho wasn't sure if it was part of the show or not. And he was yelling at Brock and the two of them went off. Just because you're like, whoa, this is crazy. And then it gets confirmed later and all these stories happen. And you're just like, man, this is a crazy business we're in where like these two guys almost fought because a legend in the industry wasn't sure if it was real. Like I love that stuff.

And similarly when Brock was mad at Reck. WrestleMania through the title at Vince when he went backstage and said like, you know, there's your fucking title or whatever and walked off. Everyone said, oh, it was a work or didn't happen. And for a year, I got crap. For a year I got crap. Maybe even longer I want to say, well, it didn't happen, didn't happen, didn't happen. Yeah, it was a year.

Because then when they did the like 24, one of those specials. Yeah, it was 24. And they showed it. And I was like, vindication. Like I told you. you guys it happened like you should believe me um and just the way i got that's i can't talk about it but the way i got that story um as well it's one of my it's definitely the most memorable for me for sure both of those what's your favorite wrestling match of all time favorite wrestling match of all time

oh man that's so hard uh i mean i a couple that just come to mind uh just from different for different reasons um it would be like the the latter match to the hardies and the dudleys and the dudleys and and Edging Christian, the first one. TLC. Any of them. All those matches. But yeah, TLC, you know, it was just legendary. You know, obviously the Undertaker of Mankind, because it was crazy.

You know, I really enjoyed Sean Michaels and Undertaker at WrestleMania the first time. Yeah. And, oh, their whole thing at wrestling, that was great. And then also the CM Punk when he walked out with the title. That was just a cool. And money in the bank. That was cool. Yeah, yeah.

What do you think is the best match of the last 10 years? Oh, yeah. Well, and also I left out one more is WrestleMania 30 when Daniel Bryan wanted out. That's one of my favorite moments. And I was going to say that. Were you there for that? I wasn't and I was very mad. I didn't go.

But the feeling that it evoked in me, like, it's almost unmatched. You know, like, I just, you know, that whole thing was just like such a crazy time period from when C.M. Punk walked out to, you know, then the shine going to Daniel and just like the whole internet getting behind Daniel, Brian. Yeah. And basically forcing WWE to do something. Right. It's crazy to me.

Like, you know, and now it's funny, you know, however long later it's been, we see the ramifications of it now because they did make the fans feel like they could do something with their voice, that they could create change. And now they won't shut up and trying to make them change with it and thinking that they should trade change with every little thing the fans. So they did create a monster to a certain degree of Twitter. But that whole time period is such a cool moment of just like Daniel Ryan's assent and the yes movement and them trying to go this way, but then the fans forcing them back that way.

That whole thing I loved it all. You had a tweet, I think it was like last week where you were basically saying, I wish I could start getting credit for when I break these stories like WWE will give credit to Sports Illustrated or the Toronto Sun or whatever it happens to be. And then you and Meltzer got into it. Like he's like, I don't care if I get credit. And you're like, well, my work should be, you know, credited. Yeah.

Why does that mean so much to you? Well, first of all, that tweet was like a year old. And someone took a screen grab of it. And Meltzer commented it, said something at the time and I, whatever, like I let it go. But maybe even said something back then. I don't know. And then for some reason, someone screencapped it again. And he felt like saying something again.

So it did bother me a little bit because I am not coming at his. him. So I didn't understand why he was putting my credibility into question that bothered me. And you've seen the people, you know, because of the backstage thing, people are all, people have very much been trying to call my credibility into question. So when it's a peer of mind, it frustrates me. The reason it's important to me, kind of like I said earlier, you know, I really, I always wanted to break that down. Like I wanted to break that wall down, you know, I don't think that there should have to be this like contentious relationship between the media and wrestling promotions, you know?

And, you know, since that tweet, I've been credited by www.com for breaking stories on backstage. I've gotten to interview. Because you work on backstage. It makes sense. Yeah, but it's a Fox show. You know, like it is a Fox show. It's not a WWE show.

Like, I'm telling you this. There's Fox producing it. Like the producers who are in the meeting are Foxx show. producers. Does Vince or Triple H have the say over what goes to air? No. Really? No. I mean, I'm sure, look, like, do I think that they're going to try and put things on there that are, like, do I think that we're going to like, like, sideline, you know, swide-sipe them with something that they aren't aware of? Probably not, you know. It's obviously like a relationship, you know. But no, like, they're not the ones who are in control the show. Fox isn't control the show. Like, Fox can do what they

want technically. People keep forgetting, like, Fox is paying WWE money. You know what I mean? So like, yeah, like, you know, like, so no, I mean, obviously they're not trying to make anyone, I don't think they're trying to make people angry, but like, see on the show, talking shit about WWE. They're saying things like heel and face on the show. Like, you don't hear that on the pre-sh, you know, pre-shows or kickoff show or whatever. Like, it's different. Like, people want to pretend like it's not, but it really is different. Like, did you know that punk was going to show up? No. No, I did not. I didn't. That was a surprise to me. I had no idea. Who was in on it? Just Renee?

Renee and the top brass. And obviously whoever was doing the, you know, micing up. Yes. Yeah. But even those guys, I don't think they were told until the last minute. Oh, wow. Like, he got brought in like, they brought in. I watched the video. Yeah. I don't think the, I don't even think the sound guys knew. Like, I really think it was only like a handful of people. Wow. Because even me, it was like, I was standing backstage. Like, don't. with my segment like oh cool you know and then like you know I'm standing around and then someone comes up to me and they go can you come to the control can you go to the control room real fast and I was like yeah did I do so like that's what I said I said did mine trouble and they

were like I say something on the air I wasn't supposed to and they were like no no no no can you just go to the control room real fast and I was like yeah but for what and they were like just go to the control room and I was like okay I went to the control room and I go to the control room like hey what's up they're like hey can you go to the green room and And I was like, they just told me in control room. And I was like, yeah, it's okay, just go to the green room. Okay, I'm like, I'm not in trouble, right? Am I like, no, you're not in trouble?

That's always my first inclination. Sure. I'm like, no, you're not in trouble. Then I go in the control room and I go in the green room and then I'm standing there. McFoly is next to me. And then Renee does that whole intro thing. I hear punk's music hit and I just was like, whoa. And I look at Mick Foley and he's like, oh, cool.

And then we both swept back and then, you know, like, and then, yeah. That was it. So yeah, I had no idea. Were you surprised by how much feedback and flack you got for your hair the first time you appeared on the show? You know, I'll be honest. No, no, because the internet's like that. It was on me. My hair did look bad. My hair looked bad. And you know what's so funny about that is my hair did look bad. And I was so focused on everything else that I forget that like, oh, I'm also going to be on camera. I should probably get a haircut. And I was so focused on like the story and like other things that I was what I was going to say that I just didn't ask. I went there and I didn't do my own hair before.

And the lady, I didn't give her a lot of direction, the hair lady. And she just tried her best. And and then I just, I went along that and then I got a bunch of you making fun of me. And then I, I, one of my best friends, his sister's a hairstylist. And she wrote him and was like, Can you please tell him, like, I will cut his hair and fix it? So she came out, like, a few days later, she fixed it. And then that was two months ago, right?

And so, wait, November December, which is. So it's like two months ago. And now this week, I was on the show again. And I was so busy and I was doing all these things. And as I got my suit ready or whatever, and I'm, like, rushing. And I'm about to leave my apartment. I go, oh, my God, I forgot to get a haircut again. My hair looks like crap.

Oh, my God. I'm going to get all those. And I get this whole internal like, oh my God, oh my God. I get to the studio and I tell the same lady like, oh, and she goes, you know I can cut your hair, right? Oh, wow. I'm like, wait, you cut hair? And she goes, yeah, I'm the hair person. Like, of course I cut hair.

That's what I do in here. Oh, that's network television for you. Yeah. And I was like, how much time do you need to cut my hair? She was like 30 minutes. And I was like, done. And so after the production meeting, I like rushed downstairs. And she cut my hair before so I didn't have that happen again.

this week and I was so happy and I was like oh my god thank you so much like that you saved me wow I've never been in a situation where the hair person can cut the hair as well see this is what i've been trying to tell them is they've been in tv they've been in network tv for so long like like they've been in high budget television for so long that they don't realize that that's not the norm because I've been learning these things along the way because there's also a wardrobe department and I've been like the first couple times I was stressing about my suit and I'm making sure, look. And then I'm like, I was buying new ties each week.

And then I was, I'd go into the dressy, into the wardrobe room. And there's like closets of ties and, and, you know, pocket squares, everything. And finally I said, hey, am I allowed to use these ties in pocket squares? They were like, get, that's what it's here for. And I was like, oh, I've been buying them the whole time. And they were like, no, dude. Like, you need the suit and the shirt, but like, we can help you with the ties and the pockets. We can press your suit.

We can do us. Or, like, you know, like, you know, make it so it looks nice. You know, like, you know, make it look TV ready. So I've been like, oh, my God. Like, I was doing all that myself stressing out. And I'm terrible at it. And they were like, no, just bring us your suit when you get here. We will take care of the others.

Like, oh, all things. So they're the ones helping me become a suit person. And so then, yes, then I learned the hair thing. And I was like, man, I never. want to go back to the other kinds of TV shows that I was on. And I've been telling this to them. I'm like, no, guys, I've been on other shows. I've worked in television my entire life. This is not the norm. Like, this is not what people are used to. Like, and they're like, and that's why I didn't know these are things here. And they're like, oh, okay, well, yeah,

no, you're in high budget television now. Like, we will help you with your ties. I'm like, okay, good. Noted. So if we're sitting here right now, who's running the website? Uh-huh. Uh-oh. Think of how much news is broken in this last hour. See, wait, hold on. Okay, let's see. I've tried to be respectful and not look at my phone once. I appreciate you.

Has there been any text? No. Okay. Nothing. Which wrestler are you closest with? Ooh. Like who would you text with, you know, on a regular basis? I mean, I don't, I probably shouldn't say that.

Oh. I got you. But the coolest person that I can text with, I can answer that is Stone Cold Steve Austin. That's pretty cool. regular texting buddies or anything like that. So I didn't want to present it as that. But the fact that, like, I can just text Stone Cold Steve Austin about something, like if it comes to mind and he'll text back.

Does he text back? What? All the time? What? When you text Stone Cold Steve Austin, you definitely read it in his voice back for sure. Like, it's very, yeah, no, absolutely. But he's honestly, like, Stone Cold Steve Austin is one of the night. Like, he's one of the nicest people in wrestling that I've ever encountered.

Like, and it's so cool that someone of his stature is as nice as he is. you know, if it wasn't for Stone Cold Sea of Austin, like, we probably wouldn't be sitting here. You know, we, like, you know, Stone Cold Steve Austin, when I first launched my site, I had barely launched it, like, barely. You know, it'd been a couple months, and I was still working to try and figure out what it was going to be. And do you remember that show, Making a Murderer? Yeah. And remember how the kid wanted to go to WrestleMania?

Yeah. And so I texted Stone Cold, and I go, hey, man, like, have you seen this Making a Murderer show? Of course I see this. It was crazy. So he calls me and he's like, and he goes, yeah, like, what, what's going on? You know, and I'm like, and I tell him, Brendan Dassey, wants to go to WrestleMania. Like, you know, then he goes, he goes, yeah, I saw that part. And I go, like, can I maybe do a story about like you saying you'd like to like, you know, if he gets out,

that you'll take him to WrestleMania, you know, I'll just kind of see if there's something there, you know. And he goes, he starts, he goes, well, maybe, yeah, he goes, yeah, yeah, we can do that. He goes, so wait, you left TMZ? And I go, yeah, I left TMZ. he goes, you started your own website? And I go, yeah, and he goes, well, what do you think about that? And he starts asking me these questions. And I am answering them, and I'm realizing that he's like pre-interviewing me for his show

to see if I'd be interesting. So I'm trying to give my best most, I'm trying to give the most interesting answers possible to try and sound interesting. And the combo ends. He goes, well, shit, like, you want to come down to the broken school ranch? And we'll shoot the shit and, like, talk about you leaving TMZ and talk about your new website. And we'll talk about making a murderer. And I'm like, yeah, I'll be.

Absolutely. Yeah. And so I get to go there and I literally only had one thing on my bucket list. Like I don't, I never had a bucket list. I had one thing. It was a one item list and it was drink beer with Stone Cold Steve Austin because I grew up an attitude era kid. And so I said, yeah, like yeah, please, you gotta be great. So I go there and I got to be on his podcast. And my traffic like shot up because people were like, oh, the TMZ guy. Like we talked, people didn't know that I had done other things. And I had done other things. And I was. And my traffic like shot up because people were like, oh, the TMZ guy. Like we talked, people didn't know that I had done other things. for the site. So it was really like, oh, he did all that. And now he has a wrestling site. Cool. We're going to follow it. And like, everything shot up that day. And ever since then, like, it's been great. So Stone Cold is like, he helped me out more than I could ever say. Well, you got to get him on my show now. Thank you. Awesome. I'll see what I can do. I'll text him. I want to thank you for your time. It's been so great talking to you. I love how I love how interested in news you are. Thank you. And I think that that makes your coverage of things that much more

interesting. And I hope that people listening and watching this, you know, can take that away from it as well. I hope so, man. I really, I sometimes get a bad rap on, uh, on Twitter. So I hope that people you do, yeah. So I hope that, uh, I hope that some people who dislike me who maybe watch this and get a different side of me, hopefully. They probably won't. They'll probably still say anything to me. No, but what's not to like? You heard it here. You heard it here first. There you go. Thank you so Thank you, dude. All right. Well, there you have, my friend.

What an interesting guy. What an interesting conversation. And thank you for listening all the way until the end. Let me know what you thought of this one. I've interviewed a few different internet people, YouTubers, podcasters. I had Alicia Tudan. I had JD from New York on. And now we've had Ryan Satin on.

Oh, we also had Simon Miller. Simon Miller. That wasn't very good. But that's kind of how he talks. And you guys always seem to enjoy these conversations. so I'm going to keep them coming. Let me know who the next one should be with, who your favorite podcaster, YouTuber, wrestling journalist is.

I've got a lot of requests for Solomonster. Don't worry, Jason is going to be on the show soon. I don't know when. Maybe WrestleMania Week. I think we're both there at the same time. But Solomaster for sure. So you can recommend him if you want. You can tweet him at me and say, yeah, you should do any of Salomonster.

You're right. I should, and I will. But let me know who else you want to have on the show. And if you listen to my last episode, the interview with Nick Aldous, you'll know that I did seven interviews in Atlanta when I was in town for NWA. Seven interviews. This was obviously not one of them. We talked a lot about Los Angeles here. So this one was done two weeks ago when I flew out to Los Angeles and did the interview with Lillian Garcia, did the interview with Alex Riley and Riley.

And also did this interview with Ryan Satin. So I'm just pumping out these interviews. Man, there's been so many. Like seven interviews in Atlanta, three interviews in Los Angeles. Angeles. I was in Vegas before that where I did two interviews. Man, just pumping these out. So make sure you subscribe so you don't miss out on any of those interviews. Man, got really excited there for a second. Wow. Brendan Burchard says, if you leave your growth to happenstance, then you'll always be chained to mediocrity. I'll say that one more time.

If you leave your growth to happenstance, then you'll always be chained to mediocrity. I say it all the time. Set those goals. Vag goals, get vague results, specific goals. get specific results because if you don't have those goals, you're leaving it to happenstance. Chew on that, and I will see you next week with, man, a plethora of interviews. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today.

No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain. and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What should be?

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