Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Ryback will return to wrestling in 2020, dream opponents, why he left, his YouTube success

Episode Date: December 12, 2019

Ryback chats with Chris Van Vliet at his home in Las Vegas, NV. He says he is ready to return to wrestling in 2020, who he would like to wrestle, the success of his YouTube channel, his theory that WWE will be bought by Fox or Disney and much more! This episode is brought to you by Roman http://getroman.com/BlueWire Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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This is the Chris Van Vleet Show Chris Van Vleet Show Ladies and gentlemen Chris Ben Three episodes in one week Oh man we are on a roll here

Welcome to the latest audio adventure On the Chris Van Vleet show This one is brought to you by Roman And I feel with a lot of eyes We're opened up, a lot of minds were changed up, a lot of minds were changed. The last time we had Ryback in the show. We did that interview a little over six months ago.

It's the one where Ryback's wearing a suit. If you watch this on YouTube, you know the one I'm talking about. It now has over 650,000 views. He opens up big time about why he left WWE. Actually, why he said FU

to Vince McMahon and then walked out on WWE. And I feel like there were a lot of negative stories and rumors out there. And I feel like this conversation really let people see what Ryback was all about. He's a great guy, a super positive guy, and he's working hard as an entrepreneur on his own supplement company called Feed Me More Nutrition, which has the best pre-workout I've ever taken. And he didn't pay me to say that, although it'd be great if he did.

He also has his podcast conversation with the big guy and his YouTube channel, Ryback TV. He's been a busy, busy dude. And he got a lot of great feedback. comments after that interview. And it kind of kicked his YouTube channel into like high gear. And I think he really realized the potential that he had there. His channel now has 165,000 subscribers, which he got in like those last six months. And it looks like he's now getting ready to return to the wrestling ring. So we dig into a lot of stuff here. And thanks for being on this journey with me. And I appreciate you listening and subscribing no matter what platform

it is that you listen on. If you are an Apple podcast specifically, though, I thank you for those reviews that you've been leaving on the show. Like this one from Top Dog 611, who says the Joe Rogan of wrestling. That is, man, that's very kind, big shoes to fill there. With the longer episodes and range of topics, I think you're the next big thing. Soon enough, you'll have wrestlers flying to your studio for interviews. Well, thank you, Top Dog 611. I'm going to keep reading a review on the show, shouting you out on Apple Podcast. So thank you for those reviews. And I wish I had a studio that I could have wrestlers fly into to do these interviews. That would be cool.

But for now, my studio will be the wrestlers hotel rooms. Although we did this one in Ryback's house. I flew myself to Las Vegas, did this interview. I also did the Austin Aries interview the day before. Yeah, it's just been quite a ride in 2019. This is like my main thing now, by the way. YouTube and the podcast, it's like my main thing. So I appreciate you supporting this.

And I know, I do not have a Patreon. I'm not asking for your. money, don't PayPal me any money. I just ask for you to leave a review and subscribe. That's it. Super simple, right? Thank you to Samson for making the audio equipment that make us sound so good on the show. You can check out their exceptionally well-priced mics and other equipment like mixer boards and the headphones I'm wearing right now and cables at samsonTech.com. Now, I spent almost the whole day with Ryback when I was in Las Vegas last week. We did this interview. And, And then I was part of two videos on his channel.

One where we worked out in his home gym with Austin Ares and I tried to lift as much weight as pro wrestlers and watch the video and you'll see what happened. I actually, I think I help my own. Like I go to the gym a lot. I think I help my own here. I think that was decent. After that, though, we went to five guys, ate burgers and reviewed it. Hmm.

It's as good as it sounds. They're fries, by the way? Five guys fries are so good. Now, Rybock doesn't actually say it in this interview, but it sounds like he'll be returning to wrestling somewhere in 2020. Could it be WWE? Maybe it's AEW. Maybe NWA impact.

I don't know, but he's going to be back somewhere. And he also has this very interesting theory that WWE is going to get bought out by Fox or Disney. Which sounds crazy when you hear it. But the more he talked about it, the more he explained it, it seems pretty plausible. So here you go. It's such an enjoy. conversation. I know you're going to love it. It's the big guy. Ryback.

What have we gotten here, by the way? Oh, right here? The wake up unlimited energy by Feed MeMore Nutrition, available on FeedMeMore.com and Amazon. I didn't. Walmart.com very soon? I didn't mean for that to be an ad, but I actually, I actually take your pre-workout. When I interviewed you last time, and the first time I interviewed you, which was last time. Actually, no, I had interviewed you one time before at WrestleMania, but the last time I interviewed you six months ago in May. And I didn't remember that because that was like a little media,

not the media, but we're doing the access. And it was, they just, I remember walking the goal, you're going to do an interview for. It was like a two minute, quick interview.

But last time I interviewed you back in May, it was double or nothing weekend. We did it in my hotel in Las Vegas. You gave me some of that pre-workout. And it's the best pre-workout I've ever had. Are you just saying that? Because you're sitting beside me and you're gigantic? No.

No, it's actually, it's changed my life. I chair up a little bit. Oh, Geez. I'll just move closer to the camera. Look how huge I am now. I do that in my workout videos where I work out with the big power guys.

I try to out angle them without them knowing because they're not necessarily aware of the camera of the old wrestling trick. I've just taken a couple steps to the Ford. You're like, you're pretty much 300 pounds now. Around that. But that's the weight's not a, my weight is going to end up coming down. I had to, when you saw him me last time, I had, a lot of great things have happened. by the way, since that. A company bioaccelerator out of Medellin, Columbia, contacted me and Kevin Nash,

and they ended up giving me like $40,000 of free stem cell treatment. Wow. I just paid for my plane ticket down there, and that was it. And it was, my back is completely better now. Wow. Completely. Completely. Completely better.

Like, I'm, like, back deadlifting, just got 500 something the other day. And, like, this is after not doing any of this stuff for years. And doing it the right way. and actually in doing the Feed Me More Fitness on YouTube with the Ryback TV, part of the thing for me is letting go of the ego completely and shifting my mindset in the older that I get because I have a very competitive mindset and it's very poisonous. And I found for me that simply switching to a,

I want to learn as much as possible mindset, allows me to shut my ego off automatically, if that makes sense. Yeah. And putting myself now that my health is coming back, documenting this journey now, which it would have been cool to do from the very beginning, but I got a lot of this, that was a tough time mentally with doing everything, but putting myself around people who are excelling in areas that I can improve in and everything I've known just kind of shutting off and documenting that. And it's been a really cool thing so far.

What percentage would you say you're at now? Because I asked you six months ago, what percentage you were at? I don't know. So this is the other thing where, and I've given a lot of thought to this is I've put so much pressure on myself or I keep thinking I got to get back at a certain point and it's like I took some bookings and they ended up two of them got canceled there here towards the end of this year I wasn't ready though quite frankly my shoulder and this is a something that can't just say like I'm going to be ready by February I don't know I'm working with people I got people out here several days a week doing rehab every day working with a top physiotherapist a girl that does this newbie new fit device.

on my shoulder and ankle every week. And I'm trying my absolute best just to get completely healthy while running everything with Feed Me More Nutrition in the podcast. Well, and people might be wondering if you're watching this and not just listening where we are right now.

We're inside the podcast studio, I guess, we'd call this. At the house, yeah, my house. But the studios inside your house inside Las Vegas is where we are. Correct, yeah. Which I told you, I mean, eventually I got the townhouse down the road.

I'm thinking of switching everything, turning that to Feed Me More Nutrition Headquarters. for the time being and bringing somebody in and running the podcast out of there, which has a bigger room to do that in. So that's in January, I think I'm going to make that call. If someone wants to buy some fee me more nutrition, do you have like a coupon code or something you should throw out there? I do.

We just ran our Black Friday special of Thanksgiving, but podcast 10 is always 10% off on. I don't know. I'm just plugging everything for you here. No one's going to watch this one. The other one did pretty decent. This one's going to be just plugged. The other one was one of my most watched interviews of 2019.

It's crazy. That's not bad. Yeah, no, I'd say that's pretty good. I think it was the thumbnail of me choking you, quite frankly. Yeah, so we got to opt the thumbnail on this one, which you've seen. We did. I think we up the thumbnail on this one. We did.

Yeah. I was thinking, no kidding yesterday. I was like, I'm thinking about these thumbnails now that I'm a YouTuber and how important thumbnails are. And I go, oh, maybe we go in the backyard on the slide, on the top, there's a spot to stand. And me looking like I'm going to shell shock you into the pool. I go, which is highly dangerous that if we do go, we're going and it's freezing out right now. Then we could make the, you know, in a real YouTuber way, we could make the title of the video like,

OMG, you won't believe what Ryback did or something like that. That always works. Yeah, always. Always. It's funny, though, you kind of saw the influence of YouTube when we did that interview, and you like doubled down, tripled down, 10x down on your channel, and your channel has since exploded because of that. Yeah, doing that interview with you, opened my eyes to, and I'm like we've talked about with Gary Vaynerchuk. I was doing everything on social media that I could possibly,

I felt like I could be doing and all the, and not, I don't necessarily want to be on it that much, but YouTube was the one thing I never really got involved in. And from a business standpoint, it was the most important thing. And with things, we see what's going on with social media,

and I like the algorithms with Instagram. And there's a lot of stuff going on. And a lot. And not to say that YouTube doesn't have their own thing, but YouTube was the first place that was actually kind of pushing out my content where people were going, oh my God, I had no idea what happened to you. Yeah.

Which, and it made me, because I'm not, I don't watch that stuff. So I didn't, wasn't really fully aware. And I knew people do well on it and whatnot. But essentially it opened my eyes to that YouTube is television. And that is a way for me to kind of get back the audience that I lost when I left. Yeah. And I think that a lot of people saw our interview and went, oh my God, Ryback's such a different guy than I perceived him to be. And after you left, a lot of stories came out, you know, and we clearly.

cleared up a lot of that stuff in the last interview, but basically it was a chance for you to go, hey, here's who I am, here's what I'm doing. Yeah. There's a lot of misinformation out there. And I think, too, the best thing I tell people is just if you're going to get your information from online or from dirt sheets or from other people, that could be altered. And there's always people have, you know, objectives and there's people making money on different things.

And as we know in the big organizations, the wrestling companies, some of them, they can put out what they want to put out and whatever agenda they want to do. And it's all good. But I think if you, and I said this from beginning, the truth always wins out, put out your content. And now, and I have a platform on various different ways, that you can just come watch yourself and make a decision right from the source. And if you don't like me then, that's okay.

You're more than welcome not to. But if you're not going to like me, don't like me for actually and have a valid reason, not because this person said something, you know? Is you getting, you know, rebuilding your, yourself getting healthy again? Is it all with the end goal of getting back into the ring and returning to wrestling? No, so the end goal is to do this to get healthy again just for life. Okay.

I think that's the most important thing I've learned in all of this. I love pro wrestling. I've loved it since I was a kid. The way that the business is, I love everything AEW is doing. And I was telling, we were talking out there. If there is an organization that is treating talent better, that is a great thing in pro wrestling. I can't right now though I've have so much going on with feed me more nutrition in the podcast and I looked at it like this and when I left that was one of my goals I wanted to grow the supplement

line it takes a lot of time and focus and everything with Sophie and being stuck at home that's your your dog my dog we talked about before that has disc disease it limits my options a little bit right now and I owe it to myself to get my health back and to grow feed me more nutrition which I have a distribution call mid-month here which if I can land that and just even for a couple of the supplement. It's a game changer. It's what I've been working for. Well, you wouldn't know because it's not wearing the suit like you were last interview,

but you're like a businessman now. You have to be. Morning tonight, it's up between five and six every morning, depending on when I get to bed. I get at least seven hours. You got seven, no more than eight, and then it's working morning tonight. And I think when you have a business,

you got to be very hands-on if you want it to succeed. No one's going to care about it as much as you. And I was very unhappy, and I've talked about it with the way pro wrestling and the way things are run, rather than stay and bitch about it there, I chose to leave. The health stuff came up, had to address that. I'm very blessed to be able to and grateful that I sit here today in pain my back,

and I know my shoulder's going to come back where I'm going to have some options. But I just, I need to focus on what I'm doing right now before I make any decision pro wrestling. Once my health is back fully and I know my shoulder's back, I'll be able to say, all right, I'll pick up the phone and I'll make a phone call. So you do want to get back into it. Absolutely. I think it's everything. I mean, if you look at my,

well, my branding is everything with my pro wrestling identity. But that's also, you know, that's your name now. Absolutely. Your legal name is Ryback. Yeah. And again,

everything, and I didn't, born Ryan, I didn't necessarily want to do that. I tell people this, I use this name all the time. I go, if my wrestling name was Grizzly Bear,

I wasn't probably going to, the gris. I wasn't going to change my name to that, uh, more like, Like the other not, I looked at it as Ryback, Ryan. Not so bad. I could live with that.

But look, if a guy like me changed their name to Ryback, it, this doesn't, this doesn't work. A guy like you. No one questions it, though. Whenever I do it, people, they go, oh, that's a cool name. No one questions anything you do, of course. Are they going to question a monster like you? Like, what kind of stupid-ass name is that? No, but it's online, I'm sure if you will.

I'm sure they will. It's in the comment section here. Leave a comment below. Let me know if you think how dumb that was, guys. No, but there was a thing actually, and unfortunately, and I wish them all the best. I'm not, I'm done being angry and all that, but, uh, WWE refiled for the Ryback trademark on the final day before I was set to get it, uh, which I had to pay to have my trademark filed for it.

And that, and, uh, they refiled the final day, uh, and my attorney notified me. And then I got to have a phone call with him, but, uh, it's going to cost me between 45,000 and $60,000 to cancel out their trademark on it, which more like it'll take anywhere from 12 to 18 months. And I should be awarded it at the end, but I'm going to have to pay. And so I sent them a message. I actually sent Mark Carrano. I think that's his name, a message last week.

And just nothing to mean. Just I would really appreciate it if you guys canceled this, drop this on your own. I'm going to be really upset if you don't. And I'm going to be really fucking upset. Do you think they'll drop it? I don't know. It doesn't hurt to ask, though. It's kind of what they do, though.

Yeah, but it is what it is. At the end of the day, if I have to pay it, I have to pay it. But it's not all at front. It's over the course of the time. So that makes it a little better. But, I mean, no one wants to pay that kind of money. Business expense, too. Yeah, it is.

No, 100% is. And it's unfortunate. And it's not going to stop me from using the name on anything, but it's merchandising. Can't have a shirt with Ryback on it. If they, or Ryback TV on YouTube, they also filed for it. in entertainment and online services, which is very odd.

If anyone has been to your YouTube channel, they'll see how much you like to eat. And it's actually, I'm blown away by how much food you can put down. You know, it wasn't actually, I started out doing this. It was kind of an accident, right? Yeah, my guy, the editor that I used, this whole thing has been just very random. Made some changes in my life, some negative people that were around and dropped that. The energy just instantly shifted. the bio accelerator contacted me,

gave me the free treatment. A guy that I met years ago at a Russellcade, DJ Dell's sneaker addict, he has his own YouTube channel. I just did something on his channel. Yeah, yeah, he told me that. He shoots me a message, and he goes, I had the YouTube channel,

but I had nobody running it. I had no idea. We were just occasionally throw up a podcast. Nobody was watching it. Nobody knew it existed on there. And I was too busy to even worry about it. He goes, hey, let me run your channel. I can turn this thing around for you.

and I go, okay, let's try it. And he starts doing it, and I start noticing stuff starts getting views, and it's being run properly. And then one day he goes, and I talked about this years ago on the podcast, jokingly doing a Feed Me More type food review thing while the injuries got really bad. And then that never really was a thing. And he goes, go get this Popeye's chicken sandwich if you get time. It's all the rave on YouTube. And I go, that's stupid. I'm not going to go eat a Popeye's chicken sandwich.

And then he goes, I'm telling you, it's going to get views. He goes, he'll help your other stuff. And I go, all right, I'll give a shot. And I go down there and I get four of them, too original, too spicy, which was like, it was like it was a cheat meal for me. And it ended up doing pretty decent numbers. And people, it turns out, I look at it. People think if you're just looking at a guy eating food, for me, it was a way people

would listen to me talk, which, by the way, over half of my. Feed me more nutrition sales now come from YouTube. Wow. So when I put a video on food and talking, it leads to the podcast and it leads to more supplement sales. It just ties into everything that I'm doing. Like one big funnel here, really? Yeah.

And that's a Gary Vaynerchuk thing. And every, you got to know the platform and the audience is going to tell you what they like and whatnot. And then for me, it just kind of snowballed into, I'm going to try a hot challenge. I see this spicy stuff. I'm going to see if I can handle hot stuff. And apparently, I guess I'm an official chili head now.

I mingle with other chili heads that are like big names in the League of Fire and the game in the game. And they're just like, you're really good at this. You are. But I was like, I was like just a loser eating hot stuff. So first of all, the Popeye's video was the real catalyst for change for your channel. Thanks, Papa's. I think you got like 30 or 40,000 subscribers that month. Like your channel was kind of chugging along and they went, ooh, like that.

You start. We had 3,000. and we're at 165 now. So you had 3,000 when? When it's all started. When that DJ Dells took over the channel? That was about five, six. When was our last interview?

May 25th. So it was that because it started right after that, I think. It had to have been right after that. It was. Yeah. Because I remember I texted you and I said, you know, how's your channel doing? And you're like, oh, it's doing really well. And I went online and looked at the numbers.

And I'm like, you gained 40,000 subscribers this month. I've never gained 40,000 subscribers in a month. Yeah. That's incredible. But it's constant work. It's a whole other thing now and doing videos and creating content for it. And it's a good thing, man.

But I saw that when we talked and you did the podcast before. It kind of opened my eyes to, I was just, I was missing out. Well, we'll leave a link below like we did last time. We'll pin it in the comments. If you want to subscribe to Ryback TV, you can check that out.

And you're well on your way to half a million subscribers. And then million after that, I guess. You know, what's the show with Jim Carrey? Truman show. I look at YouTube and I joke about this. Now I go, I'm just going to put my life on YouTube. And it let people decide because there was so much misinformation. And it's sad, too, in the league with wrestling, we all know.

And everyone in the business knows it's when you're playing characters and acting as far as playing a part. It's like it's weird. It's because people, that's where it blurs the line. People, and we love wrestling so much, you want to believe so desperately what you're watching is real. It's like when you suspend your belief for a movie, but you don't leave that movie in, and, you know, if the rock is,

whatever role he plays in Jumanji, you don't leave that knowing that that's, you know what I mean? And you don't judge him based off of that. Where wrestling, kind of like when I played that bully character, a lot of people hate me solely for that. Yeah. And it's like, when you seem to be grownups,

not children. And you're like, guys, come on. And so I think put your life out there for who you are, then they could watch you. Yeah. And I think it's constant. constant content where it takes time for the masses to see him like, oh, wait a second, we had the wrong idea about that guy.

What do you think was the biggest misconception about Ryback the individual? I don't know. I honestly, I don't know there's so much information. Like I said, I don't like to focus on the negative as much because if you look at the channel, there's so much love and positivity on there. It's such a small percentage of people that dislike and the negativity. And I look at it and I've learned through Gary and private. practicing it myself having love and empathy towards them

and really practicing that, it takes time and practice and not letting other people control your emotions that realizing that hurt people hurt people. And that's what they do. And there's a small percentage of the popular large portion that truly suffer from depression and social media doesn't help that with them

and they're not happy with themselves so they look at things and they try to make other people feel bad. And I just quit letting that make me feel bad. But as far as the biggest misconception, I don't, I think an unsafe worker, I think, was always the, the one that always made me smile the most. And it just wasn't, was not the case. That was, uh, that was something started by CM Punk, I think. Yeah.

And again, you know, it's, you know, it's, and we've talked about he was really beat up with that. And he actually wasn't only me. I remember he was with the Harper, Luke Harper and, uh, Eric Rowan, he had to do some things. And Luke Harper's a very, very good worker as well, as, as Rowan is a big man. And I remember him coming back and being upset over time. I think he was just so beat up. And when you get into that mindset too and you're not happy with the company, it doesn't help that they have this guy and they're pushing this other guy.

There's a lot of stuff going on with that. It goes back to what you were just saying. Hurt people, hurt people. That's such a powerful phrase. It's so true. It is. And when you realize that you quit taking it personally. And you got to,

but you're like, how do I do that? You have to truly stop yourself from having whatever feelings that you're having of hate and anger and resentment and look at and go, man, and try to put yourself in their shoes and what's going on in their life. And for them to like try to do that, it sucks. Yeah. So in your YouTube channel, what's been the hottest thing you've eaten?

Because you've eaten some ridiculously hot things. Yeah. So John, this guy Johnny Scoville, the tube of tear, it gives me nightmares still. And so here's my thing. Like I do that. I go, I go, I got the cold tub in the back 42 degrees. I go out and I jump in the pool. here in the pool is like 42 degrees right now when it's cold out 42 43 degrees that's like a

tony robin's yeah i've been doing this it's i love mentally challenging myself it to me and so i this tuba i've done some hot stuff i did well at it i go i'm gonna up the ante i'm gonna eat this tuba in my hot tub and it was still hot outside and uh and you live in las vegas and i live in Vegas so it was not it was this is before it was cold and i were cool and uh i did this tuba out there and it was hot. It was bad. And to get through the video and I'm like, oh, cool, I'm going to be okay. Because usually, I hadn't had the stomach cramps yet, which was a whole other, I don't

know if you've ever had these. I've been told by someone who's given birth five times that the cramps from the spicy stuff is worse than pregnancy. Oh, we are just getting started with Rye back. But I got to thank Roman for sponsoring this episode of the show and talking about erectile dysfunction isn't easy. A lot of guys are like, oh, I lost my mojo, or sorry, babe, not feeling it tonight. I had a long day at work. But with Roman, not to be mistaken for Roman rains, it's get Roman.com. And it's easy there to talk about ED with a real doctor who can prescribe real

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get inside and I'm chugging. I drank about six of these glass bottles of water that I had in the refrigerator and the heat started kind of cooling down like, okay, I'm going to be good. Go upstairs to go get ready and start my day, go train and I had to get a bunch done. And I get ready to get in the shower and I just sat down. I didn't, it wasn't feeling good and I go, what's going on? I had no idea, nothing, no idea about stomach cramps. And the shower was running for probably 15 minutes like I got to get in this I you're like but I was physically getting so sick get the shower over with and I was completely sidelined my stomach it was the worst pain I've ever been I could not get comfortable so I lie down up there I'm texting this Johnny Scoville guy damn Scoville that

tub of tear and he goes whatever you do don't lie down just sit down it will subside but don't lie down it makes it worse so about five or six hours out of my day though I sat in that middle room in there, and just in a chair with my head on the table. Oh, my gosh. I had, the mother had to get the dogs. I was sitting on the stairs when I was coming down, and the dogs are just staring at me, like, is daddy going to be okay? And my mom, she goes, are you okay?

And I go, yeah, I'll be fine. She goes, you don't look fine. She goes, you want a banana? I go, yes. And I ended up eating a frozen banana. And that was the first thing that allowed my stomach slowly started. I'm going to be okay. But I didn't get anything done until probably five.

or six at night. Wow. And I did that in the morning. It's such an understatement for you to be like, I was eating some hot stuff and doing pretty okay with it. Like you were eating like the hottest flavor wings. Yeah. Well,

just like there's nothing. Yeah. Well, I've escalated from that now because I didn't eat before that. That was the chili heads have smartened me up that you need to have a peanut butter sandwich before a peanut butter jelly sandwich or a banana and a little almond milk before you go into these things to coat your stomach. Okay. I did that tube of tear on no, no food, which was my, learn the hard way.

but ever since I've not had those cramps. And I've done some, I've done the hottest peppers. But man, Chris, there's people in that game. It's like, we talk about it with like the wrestling moves

and like, where do you stop with the moves? How many, there's people like doing 100 something like Carolina Reaper peppers now. And, but what they do, and I didn't know this,

they throw up afterwards. Oh. Because you can't process that much hot stuff. But I was like, I'm not getting into that. What's your, what's your, what's it look like?

like when you go to the bathroom after one of these. Oh, that's my favorite YouTube. Oh, I feel bad for your toilet. Like, what toilet and don't you feel bad for? The, yeah, so not all of them are bad. It doesn't, and I take some ginger capsules with it too. I will say that tuba tear. It's called you get fire hose where pissing burns.

I got that. And obviously afterwards, there is a burn. And that was the worst out of all of them. And the peppers, there was a little bit of the burn on that, but not too bad. Jeez. Well, the other video you've been doing, other types of videos you've been doing, you've had Phoenix Marie on quite a bit. And the comments, and for those of you who aren't familiar, she is a- Melissa?

An adult film star. Yes. You had to change the name of the videos. They were getting flagged. Is that what happened? No, I think everything's been all right with her. I think we did put one with Melissa because my guy thought the Phoenix Marine name might get. It was like Phoenix.

on one of them, I think. Yeah, well, we try because we, sometimes a video can get demonetized if, they have their own fight with everything they do with all that, but she's, I've known her man since, I met her in Australia

at a bar during the WWE. There was, uh, did you go, I'm a big fan of your work? Didn't know who she was. And I think, uh, I don't know if you, I don't watch porn, Chris. You know, I gave it up August 19th. Had a guy on the podcast.

I got to look at his name, uh, call, he had to be, wrote a book called Your Brain on Porn. This is going to make me sound completely crazy now. But yeah, he got through to me. I recommend every man read that book. Completely off it. Completely off it.

I'm unfollowing the Instagram models to try to keep it in the brain clean. It's... Give it in a nutshell. Oh, bad choice of words. Bad choice of words, Chris. If you could condense this down, what's the theory behind it? That it's, so you got to think, okay, let's just... When we're a kid, we...

He's where, what old are you? I'm 36. Yeah, and I'm 38. So we're a similar close age in growing up. If you remember early on in your adult life, for me, if you would come across a Cosmo magazine or a Victoria's Secret, that would have been pretty. Sears catalog. Yeah. There we go.

That would be exciting. Yeah. Now, just think, now here 2019, you see that same Sears catalog. Not quite as exciting, right? Well, of course not. Because we have access on our cell phones. There's so much the tube sites. And typically what happens with men and women is it takes more and more stimulation and it changes your neural pathways.

And it disconnects you from human beings. And there's research showing this. Now, that's not saying it's bad. I don't, whatever you want to do, you could do. But it's addicting nonetheless. So you get addicted to this. It's just a practice for self-control. and just getting your mind away from it.

And I think what you find is it strengthens your relationships with human beings. So you became... In a nutshell. You became... This is interviews all over the place. I love it. Stem cells, feed more nutrition, and no porn. A little bit of wrestling.

We haven't even got to the wrestling yet. We've talked about it a little bit, but, you know, to kind of end this thing with Phoenix Marie. So you became friends with her in Australia. I feel like you're a fan of her, Chris. What? This is... I mean, as in everybody?

Do you want her number? I mean, what? I have a girlfriend. She's very sweet. Yes, yes. She's very sweet. Yeah. No, she's a great...

Honestly, we get along... So just quick into this story, we're at this club bar. It's completely dead. The bouncers all take a bunch of us there after a live event in Australia. They tell us this place is like, one of the best places, completely empty. We're sitting in there.

So me, Ms. and Zach Ryder are by the bar. And all of a sudden, all these hot chicks come in. Turns out there was a porn convention, like Exotica convention over there. Okay. So all these porn stars start filling up the club. All these people start coming in. The clubs there get busy later than typically in the States. So Zach Ryder's freaking out.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. oh my God. And I guess he was a big fan of Melissa. And so her and her friend, we're by the bar where they're coming to go to the bathroom and Zach doesn't say anything. And so Ms. instantly starts kind of getting on him. So as they come back out, I stop and say hello. They stop. We start talking to them. Everyone talks me and Ms. We all have a great conversation except for Zach. It doesn't say a word. And then eventually we got her information and me and her just stayed friends ever since. And she lives here?

Yeah, she lived in California at the time. And then she did the podcast for quite some time with me. And then she lives here in Vegas now. So she works at a doctor's office. Legit. What kind of a doctor? A real doctor that's like it is. I've seen a lot of those films start like that.

They do start like that, which is, no, but she's done well for herself, like outside of it. I think she still, she still does some stuff. It's kind of like, I feel like it's kind of like the wrestling world where even if you're out of it, you're still, She was, and she was, like, technically retired and was, like, not doing it. And then she went back. I think she's like, they get you back every time, damn it. You're not officially retired. No, I don't, no.

I haven't, I, that's the worst thing ever when someone, when you're like, oh, I'm retired. And then, like, a year later, there you are. That's a wrestling retirement. Yeah, yeah. Like, every one of what. Has anyone, who's not done that? Christian, maybe? Edge?

Well, no, Edge came back for a lot of parents. I feel like he is going to come back. I don't... His was as legit, though, as it can be. It wasn't... Yeah, Christian. I guess if CM Punk's... Well, maybe that's not even really retirement.

He hasn't officially ever... Hasn't? No. I guess he just kind of left. Yeah, that's kind of just what I did. The health stuff kind of threw a wrench and everything with me. So get the health back first. That's the main priority for me and growing feed me more nutrition.

Remember when Daniel Bryan retired? Yeah, I remember that? He's actively wrestling. I'm pissed off. I fucking went into this part of my language. he in Seattle and I was having my own issues at the time with the company and was heading out and he's in a room and I just wanted to swing by and have words with him and it was a little emotional and then you know here then you know he's I'm like damn it it was all for enough it's back yeah

better than ever when you look at the current landscape of pro wrestling who is it that you'd love to you know work a program with no I think it's there's so many options out there and I still keep up and watch everything and everybody there's so many talent wrestlers out there and on both promotions for the big two big ones I guess with in all the others ring of honor impact new japan there I mean it's there's a lot of talent out there now so it's for me the matchup I like the least for me is always wrestling bigger guys because it's physically harder on my body like the big shows and the mark henry's and the canes because those guys are giants yeah so and there's not a lot of those guys around anymore um I do think

I think though, I always said, like, the Brock matchup has always been one. Braun, you know, he would be a fun one. There's Bobby Lashley, those guys. I think there's people that like those kinds of matchups, but, you know, AEW, there's some, everything with Moxley or Kenny Omega, those guys. I really, Cody, Jericho, have wrestled those guys already. Moxley, too, when he was with the Shield a lot. Always had great chemistry with him, I thought.

So there's a lot out there. It's just a matter of getting healthy and what we were talking about. I got to be able to apply myself physically and mentally time-wise. Yeah. That, and I will say schedule-wise, like, I never want to return to it four or five days a week. I don't know how I could. AEW would be perfect for you. Yeah, no, that is...

Basically, fly in Wednesday morning, fly out Thursday morning. And I will say, and there's a lot, because people always ask, when I'm healthy and when I know I'm going to be able to be available, I will pick up the phone and make a phone call. And it's, and I will see, we'll go from there. but I owe it to myself to make sure this is exactly where I want it, because starting this from scratch with Feed Me More Nutrition into where it is right now is in having it be a profitable business for me. It's a lot of sacrifice and hard work,

and it would be, I owe it to myself to make sure this is in a good spot because it takes a lot of work and to not throw away the last three years. Have you ever worked Brian Cage? I have wrestled him. I did on an independent show, a while back as well. And yeah, and that was so physically hurt during that. He got in, he got in two matches before our match.

Didn't see him and we had to go out there. And I thought we had a really fast-paced, a good, good big man match and very physical. But I just remember being like looking in the mirror at myself and seeing like my body and being so physically, nobody can necessarily look from the outside and understand. And I think I don't expect anyone to understand the pain that I've had with that. because unless you experience it, you really don't know. It's not a regular injury with the disc and having to regrow those in the shoulder

and everything that it takes. But I look back. I've tried to erase a lot of the independent stuff that I went and did those first couple of years because it was mentally, it was all for money. Just straight up. It was because this took a lot of money and I don't live off of the wrestling money

and I've been very good with budgeting. And that money that when you leave WWE is good for two years. That's kind of the window on that. And I took full advantage of that because of the chance I took on this and sacrificed it kind of. It wasn't the best thing to do for my health. Like I ideally should not have, as soon as I left, I should not have wrestled at all. And you see people like Stu Bennett, who didn't do that. And he had his own stuff going on.

That probably would have been the best route to take. Wade Barrett. Yeah, Wade Barrett for everyone. But this was, and I didn't borrow money. I put everything up front because I like to hold myself accountable. I'm not going to lose someone else's money. I'll lose mine. Yeah.

You know, so I just took advantage of the first two years on that. What do you think has been the biggest change since you left WWE, if there has been any changes? I don't know. I don't know. I'm very happy to see Bray Wyatt in the position that he's in now and coming up from developmental with him. There's a lot of guys there that I wish had more opportunities, the Curtis Axles and the Bo Dallas's.

Those guys, um, They're such great talents and they're on the road full times and time. There's, I don't know. And I watch, I just feel like I told you before, I think wrestling needs, you need to capitalize all the way on guys and maximize your stars when they are organically red hot. And what's going to happen, and we've seen this. And you look at Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock

and why that happened and everything in WCW, they needed it to happen. And I think now with AEW existing, I think guys are making more money now than what they were, which is very good for all wrestlers. But I think WWE's business model is going to have to shift to eventually, they're trying their best not to let AEW get past NXT right now, which we've seen them put NXT over on the,

at the expense of the main roster to try to elevate that as quickly as possible to hold AEW at bay. What's going to happen is AEW is going to, figure they have an open mind and you can tell watching this and I know enough all they have to do is be patient and treat wrestlers the right way and they're going to attract the talent that they need over time ratings at this point it is it's not a sprint it's not a marathon it's a it's not a sprint it's a marathon I believe is the the phrase and I think if they just stay true to themselves the way that WWE has done business in limiting their stars they it's going to be

great for everybody and it's going to make everybody change. Well, everyone keeps talking about the next person that's going to jump from WW to AEW. Yes. What's going to happen when WW starts throwing out some mega contracts to some of the AEW guys in a year or two? But I think AEW is in a position to where they could match that. And again, so here's the thing.

It all comes down to how you treat human beings. We all know the one side. And it's well documented. And as wrestlers, everyone's fully. aware for the most part of that. It's going to take a lot, I would feel, for people to jump ship from AEW to WWE, knowing that. Yeah. I really do.

Do you think that the door is open for you to go back to WWE? Yeah. Really? I've been told that I have a meeting whenever I want. Okay. That was, now how true that is, I don't know. I don't really care. I'm not, getting my health back is my main priority.

A lot would need to change. Like I said, just refiling of the Ryback track. trademark to me is just like it's it doesn't need to be going on there's no need for it like it does not help matters at all you know how I personally feel but I uh I don't like I so it's funny you know Vince McMahon do you know Vince has a brother Rod McMahon I remember you were telling me about yeah yeah like Rod is big Rod love feed me more nutrition you're friends with yeah me and me and me and Rod McMahon are friends and and he always he goes well Vince never he goes Vince always spoke really highly of you.

And I, and I'm just like, even though you told him to F off. Yeah. So, but I don't, I don't speak to Rod about Vince like negatively. I,

because it's his brother. What am I going to? Yeah. So, and then we're all fairness. And I understand and having a business and how much. And I have respect from a business standpoint, my thing is is treat human beings better.

You have a chance to. And with, you look at this with everything, um, and doing the XFL and, and all this. And, What he does is it's incredibly difficult in being that large.

And for me, leaving and having to, all my health issues and talking about the pain medications being given to me there and leaving, and I left on very not good, not good terms at all. But having these injuries and having to pay for all of them, and then nobody's there for you. And this is, I think it's a very important thing. And pro wrestlers need to understand that when you leave and specifically talking WWE and I know from talking to people there that I know in the and that work in the the talent relations that they get hit up all the time by past talent that have these things and

it's up to you to pay for all your medical problems that while you're there will show up later in life and for me I personally and there's there's still time for him I wish Vince would figure something else out figure it out with that from a health insurance standpoint for former wrestling talent league. People say three years on the road there that you sacrifice and give them. There needs to be something for the talent, I think. Because I do an independent shows and meeting a lot of the old timers. Man, it's really sad to see. And I'm very blessed, like I've said, to be in a position and to get my health back. And I'm glad I got to experience it. But I think wrestling could be a lot better. Do you think wrestling will start to get better as Vince over the

years will start to be a little less hands-on. I would hope so. And I think there's something going on with Fox in Disney. And I think if they end up taking over WWE at some point, which I firmly believe they will. Really? Yes. 100%. That is my personal opinion.

What makes you think that? I don't see Hunter sticking around like Vince forever, just from stuff that I feel like I've understand what's going on. And I think someone has to take it over. I think they've gotten so big that it's going to take someone like that to run that. And I think personally, they have dumbed down the product and made it very simple to run for a big corporation to take over. Wow. Take out the psychology that made it.

And anyone could run it, in my personal opinion. So it gets bought out by some giant conglomerate. Which we've already seen. Vince has already handed over power to Fox on decisions. We've seen it. On Smackdown? Yeah, in Smackdown. It's already going on.

So he's never been like that ever before. I believe this is the first part in this process and with the XFL coming out and his responsibilities. Think about that. And I know this just from running, feed me more nutrition. And this is set so small. Yeah. Running a major football promotion.

Do you know how much time and effort that take? Like it's so I just think it's the beginning steps of something bigger going on personally. Wow. That's going to be really interesting. Someone has to do it. And if it does happen, you'll go back to this video and go, I totally remember when Ryback talked about that. I've said things from the beginning where people are now coming and they go, you've

always told us the truth. I said, from day one, that's what I do. And because the truth always wins out. And at this day and age, with social media, and when you don't tell the truth, you're going to get called out on it. Yeah. I just want to acknowledge with, you know, the great headspace that you're in, you It's completely different from when you left WWE.

Like you're just, you're such a super positive person. You have to be. And I've had the privilege to be around a lot of great people. And like I've never, I'm the same person essentially. It was, but you got to understand wrestling though. And anyone, it's a very negative environment there. And it brings out the worst in everybody, which it goes. This is why I've spoken about different things in the pay structure and whatnot,

because it doesn't have to be that way. It could be the greatest business in the world. It really is because there's so many great parts about it. that if just the promotion aspect from them, if they would just appreciate everybody from the Heath Slaters all the way up because the guys that are sitting up there aren't there without the Heath Slaters

and the Bo Dallas's and the Curtis Axles. And it's a team effort. It's one big team. And so in a scripted environment to treat people differently because they are not quote unquote winning is absolutely ridiculous to me. And it doesn't need to exist.

But getting escaping that environment, getting my health back. And I've been very blessed that I left when I did. If I would have stayed there three more months, then my disc would not have caught it in time. I probably would have had to get the fusion, a five-disc fusion. It would have been done, game over. There's no coming back from that.

And the shoulder telling that I need replaced, and then going the stem cell route and being able to make money without wrestling is a very powerful thing. Because as pro wrestlers, it's oftentimes all that we know. And like I said, I love it. and I wanted to do this ideally all there, but it was,

everything's worked out for the best, and I could speak from the outside. You got to get out of that bubble because I've been in that bubble since I was 22, since tough enough, essentially, and to get to have the courage to walk out and just bet on myself,

and it didn't go as planned. I wanted to, the whole wrestling part of things got fucking thrown out the window. Like it really, and I told you, it was just simply, and booking matches against small guys for two years, And they were, they were matches.

I remember I was supposed to do one against War Machine. Is it where, not War Machine. The Viking Raiders. Okay. Yeah, one of the, the big guy on that. And I wanted to so bad, but I was so physically hurt. I was like, I can't, it has to be a small guy, but two years of just doing matches strictly, financially. And it wasn't, no buzz, nothing, just all straight paydays and survived that.

And it all worked out and got the health back. And now I could sit here and hopefully. have some options coming into 2020 I would like to think now that the back the back was the main thing yeah that's no longer a thing so everything like I said it's every day I do I'm rehab I'm talking I got a lacrosse ball by the bathroom over there by the little snow globes yeah that when I go to the bathroom I stop and I do a set on the lacrosse ball for the for the for the biset tendon and I got a softball there I got a softball upstairs whenever I go past these things I stop and I do little things to get scar tissue like it's constant effort throughout the day as I'm working

and doing this to try to get my health back because I don't want to end up in a wheelchair or anything and I want to be able to go back and participate in when I am when I feel I am ready like I said I'll make a phone call and it would give me it would be a great honor to be able to help whatever team I choose to go to well your health's you know better than ever better than it had been your company's doing well your YouTube channel's doing well everything's looking great for Ryback in 2020. Yeah, no, it's just going one day at a time

and I'm very grateful and thankful for the fan base and the love and support with everything. It's been truly, it's a cool story. And I think it's gonna, I'm gonna look back at this period and this has been the most pivotal part of my life from a self-development point too.

And like I said, leaving, and I could say this too from being even competitive and looking at just my mindset, how I looked at things when I was there and wanting to be, the best so bad and being in a position to and not necessarily being able to it didn't go the way

that I wanted and again having a very positive outlook at the time but I look at how I even approach certain things and like like I was so hell bent on replacing John Sina that lay I had goals that that could have been altered a little bit just in for my own sake and so I've learned some very very valuable lessons and I think it's just going to all be part of a bigger story when it's all sudden done So we're going to collaborate on a video on your channel now. Yes, yes. I think we're doing five guys. We've got to feed me more fitness workout video here.

Okay. We're going to do arms and we're going to do sledgehammer hit tire strikes and burpees in the backyard. I'm going to give you a condensed wrestler workout. All right. Of hit the arms, the show muscles. Yeah, okay. And then a little bit of conditioning after to. So you understand what pro wrestlers, the conditioning you have to be.

be in. All right. So we're going to, I'm going to link up to that video as well. Uh, so we'll see. I'm a very normal sized human. Ryback is a giant of a human. I'm not. I'm just, no, I'm two, six, three, three, three hundred pounds. I'm normal size. Yeah. It's normal for me. Yeah. When you hang around guys like Mark Henry and Big Show and Kane, I was married to those guys for so long on the road. I, I'm very inadequate with my body. It's, so we're going to, uh, we're going to link up to that. I think we should drop these videos in the same day. Whatever you want to do. You're the YouTube master.

You're not about that. You've led me to the way. Well, you're going to lead me to the weights. What a great close. Thank you. Thank you very much, buddy. I appreciate you. Yes, yes. I really enjoyed that chat with Ryback. Hope you did to. Please take a screenshot.

Tag me, tag the big guy. I feel like every time I say the big guy, I have to say, the big guy. Right back. Yeah. I don't know. I kind of turn a and macho man. Can I turn a little, sounded a little bit like macho man. But Ryback's very social

on social media. He's very active on there. I'm sure he'd love to see it. Make sure to check out the other videos that we shot on Ryback's YouTube channel. The workout with Austin Aries, the five guys, interesting adventure that we went on.

You can find his channel at Ryback TV on YouTube. So what a year here in 2019 on the podcast, on the YouTube channel. I love that as we head, into 2020, there's so many different possibilities, both for us and for Ryback as well. I think like I mentioned, I think we're going to see him back in the ring in 2020. Let me know where you

think it should be. I think hearing his music hit in WWE might make sense, but I mean, he said there that the door's open, that he hasn't burned any bridges. I don't know. Maybe he needs to go somewhere new. Maybe NWA. That'd be a great fit for him. AAW. Of course, he'd be a monster in AEW. It'd be great to see him there. So super excited to see what's going on there. there and but hey I appreciate you listen to the show and you know I end these with quotes every time and I asked Ryback I said what's your favorite quote I want to end I want to end the show with a quote that means something to you and it was actually a quote that hangs in his bathroom so when he texted this to me and he said this is the quote I remembered seeing it in his bathroom when I was

there and it's from Sarah Bernhardt and it says life engenders life energy creates energy it is by spending oneself that one becomes rich so thanks for checking out this chat with the big guy, and we will see you next Thursday. 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 it management, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What should be? Follow and listen on your favorite platform.

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