Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Santana and Ortiz almost signed with WWE, The Inner Circle, Chris Jericho, LAX

Episode Date: December 11, 2019

Chris Van Vliet chats with Santana and Ortiz in Chicago, IL. They talk about how close they were to signing with WWE before choosing AEW, being selected for The Inner Circle, getting their start in wrestling, what they learned from TNA, being part of LAX and more! Follow Santana and Ortiz on Instagram: http://instagram.com/santana_proud http://instagram.com/ortiz_powerful Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Woo! This is the Chris Van Vleet Show. Chris Van Vleet show. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Vleet! Greetings and salutations, my friends. Thank you for joining me on another audio adventure. This episode of the show is brought to you by Roman,

and I probably should have pointed this out last week, but I didn't realize it until now. But last week's interview, with Flip Gordon was officially episode number 50. Yeah, a big 50. And that officially makes this chat with Santana N. Ortiz episode number 52. Not bad for a podcast that unofficially, officially launched at the end of June this year. So thank you so much for being part of this.

Thank you for subscribing and checking out these interviews when they drop. Last week, the show is number 13 on the wrestling podcast list. on Apple, which is insane to me considering Stone Cold, Chris Jericho, JR, Taz, and so many other legends are at the top of that list. So as long as you keep listening, I am going to keep putting these out there. And we're ending 2019 super strong here. Keep an eye out for interviews coming up with Ryback, with Kurt Angle, a super inspiring conversation with Justin Credible about beating addiction.

and also MMA legend Frank Mear who's looking to get into the wrestling ring. He wants to exact some revenge on Brock Lesnar, but this time as a pro wrestler. So it's all great stuff. And man, these next couple weeks to end out 2019 are going to be huge. Shout out to McMuffin, HD, from my home country of Canada, who left a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. This is titled Intelligent Interviewer. Well, thank you so much.

I love listening to these on my long drives to wrestling shows. Chris is very wise and smart about what type of questions he asks for the best quality answer. Not only does he let his guests speak uninterrupted, but also integrates amazing conversation with his guest into his interviews. Keep it coming, man, always looking forward to the next one. Well, thank you so much for those super kind words. Man, I appreciate that. And there's something you said in that review that really hit on something here. It was a quote that I heard years ago that I've kind of like worked into my work, but also worked into my life as well.

And it's that the quality of your life is the quality of the questions that you ask. So I try to keep that in mind, whether it's these recorded conversations or just the conversations I'm having, you know, in my everyday life. And keep these reviews coming, please. I'm going to keep reading one on every episode. And by the way, I'm not trying to say that Apple Podcast is better than the platform that you're listening on right now. Apple Podcast is just the only one that publishes reviews. So they're the only ones that I can read on here. And those reviews help out so much.

They help the show so much. So please keep them coming. Also, shout out to Samson for the gear that makes us able to have these podcasts. You can see their full lineup at samsontech.com. Now, I'm really excited for you to hear this conversation. I really enjoyed chatting with Santana Ortiz. They're such interesting and well-spoken guys. easily one of the best tag teams in the world.

But beyond that, they're also fathers, and they're very smart when it comes to their brand and their branding, and they were this close, this close to signing with WWE when they decided to go with AEW. We talk about that. We also talk about their time in impact wrestling and what that taught them. They're also much funnier than you would expect. I know you're going to love this. It's proud and powerful.

We talk about how they got that name as well. Here you go. It's Santana and Ortiz. All right, we're doing it. Yeah, yeah. It's early enough to have coffee in here? Well, black tea. Hold on you got to hold the mic up to your face.

Up to the face. Black tea, black tea. Okay. Yeah. Are you a coffee drinker? Yes, all day, black, nothing in it. Well, straight old man type shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He likes black coffee, which I got him into. And I don't drink it anymore. I got him into black coal. I see it off camera if you want to grab it. Are you good? You know what? And the mic even stretches that far. There we go.

And you get to see the beautiful bench that we have here in the A Loft Hotel. Like Chris said, the bus bench will be in? Yeah, it looks like a, doesn't it look like a bus bench? Yeah. It's a pleasure to sit down with you guys because you guys are absolutely tearing it up in AEW and, you know, completely changing the game when it comes to tag team wrestling. How has it been since the debut? very few words can describe is just awesome it's very uh it's like all the hard work that we put in

and it is finally paying off the fact that we get to just flying on wednesday for the most part sometimes tuesday yeah wrestle and then come back home and get to spend time at home and then get to show like rest our bodies and then are able to give our a game every wednesday yeah yeah it's amazing instead of being like i mean we love the indies and we we were we wouldn't do it if we didn't, if we didn't love it. But I just, I love the break. Yeah. I mean, it is not a break because we still got to work hard, of course. But it's all the experience that we gain doing what we did, and now we get to show it on the grandest scale. Yeah, it's been, it's been a pretty, you know, surreal time for us. It's, like you said, all the hard

work, everything that we've put in, all the sacrifices, all the long miles on the road, just, you know, everything is paid off. And we're, uh, I personally feel like we're at the top of our game, and now is just for us to put out the very best work that we could, you know what I mean, and make it a consistent thing. Because it's all downhill from here. This is it.

Yeah, it's all downhill. This worked out pretty perfectly with your impact contracts ending at the right time, and there being an opportunity here in AEW. Yes, sir. Yeah, every, like, of course, I'm sure you've heard it a ton of times, and it's like that with everything in entertainment is right. place right time and I feel like every the stars aligned perfectly for for everything that was going on and with our contracts coming up and then you know uh just how all out was booked and how everything

just came is we couldn't have asked for a better you know and so and uh also thanks to being able to do the the jericho cruise the first one because that's pretty much was basically our job interview that's how we got in with everybody yeah we just had a really good in-ring chemistry with the bucks We got on with everybody, and then we also got to wrestle Cody and Hangman in this really, a really crazy match. I don't ever see the lie today. At least I don't think so, unless some fan has it on their camera. Someone watching this has it, I'm sure. Yeah, someone has it.

It was just, it was all the elite guys, it dressed up as the motion king. First of all, I don't know what you're talking about. I saw Team Impact versus Team. The Mushroom Kingdom. I don't know who these elite guys were. Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, which was Brandy. Toad came out for a special appearance.

Yeah, Toad, which was Kenny Omega. Yeah, it was interesting match. I saw a... I'm sorry, I'm sorry. The Jericho Cruise is insane. It was amazing. Everyone talks about how fun it is, how crazy it is, but until you're actually there experiencing these ridiculous things.

Amazing. Are you going this year? I haven't, like, fully decided yet. You need to go. Okay. You need to. Then yes. Then yes, I'll go.

Just imagine the interviews you could get on that too. That's true. Yeah. Oh, man. Isn't it like open bar? Yeah. Oh, then think of the interviews we can get. Yeah.

So hopefully they'll do it again like this year, which we're stoked because we just announced. We didn't know for sure. Yeah. Like we had a feeling we're in the inner circle. Of course. How are we not going to be on the Jericho cruise? But no one told us anything backstage.

And then recently we got announced and we were like, yeah, this better happen. So. So whose idea was it when you guys debuted with the presidential masks on? So we, it was a mutual idea. So for the past, for that whole weekend, we were already in Chicago for some indies and stuff. And for some reason, we had a Patrick Swayze kick where we spent the whole weekend watching Patrick Swayze movie. Roadhouse. Roadhouse, two Wong-Foo.

Yeah. And that point break with president's mass. So once we saw that, baby, the little hand on the clock, I mean, it's time to rock. a roll you know what I mean so once we saw that we were like yo uh how about this and um yeah it just worked out we went to this Halloween store we bought the president so we originally wanted to do um what was it it was going to be uh he was supposed to be Reagan wait you were Reagan right no you had the JFK mass so it was supposed to be Reagan and Bill Clinton right so the the president from when he was growing up and then the president from when I was growing up.

So that was the whole idea behind it. And there was no Ronald Reagan math. So I was like, JFK is going to have to do it, bro. You're not getting my Bill Klan math. You're lucky it was Halloween. Because I don't think you could just come across those at the last minute anywhere.

And we were specifically told not Trump. Yeah. Yeah, we stood away from Trump. The reaction from the crowd was insane. Yes. Right before we loaded up to get into position to go out and go do the thing We looked at each other and like we're not going to get any reaction We're just going to go out there

Yeah, we're just going to get crickers like who are these guys and obviously it was the exact opposite And it was awesome honestly Best drug ever you know what I mean that that crowd you feel it in your veins like Like to take something from the rock like it's like it's like electricity It's insane you just feel it in your veins and it was awesome and that's why we wrestle for for that hit. That's our drug as a wrestler. I remember the reaction happening

and we taken off the mass and the crowd going crazy. And I remember just looking up at the rafters, at the, you know, the nobleeds. Yeah, as the nobleas. And it just came to me like, yo, I was one of those kids up there. Wow.

And now I'm standing in the middle of this ring getting this kind of reaction. I remember when, I remember going to the garden as a kid in 97, and it was one of the first times that Stone Cold has stunned China in the ring. And I remember the place erupting, and I was all the way in the nosebleeds, you know, with that same reaction. And I was like, damn, this shit is, you can't, you know, write this shit. Yeah, I was actually in the crowd for that one. And everyone around me is like, that's LAX.

And obviously, you guys can't be LAX. in AEW. For people that, you know, might have watched Impact years ago and think that LAX was homicide and Hernandez, can you kind of like, you know, kind of clear up how they're LAX and you guys are also LAX? Yes, yes. We still get that.

Just because, unfortunately, I guess people still were, wasn't watching it and people were still living on the glory days of TNAs slash impact. But, yeah, just what, maybe 10 years later, I think, since the original. Yeah. Let's say about 10 years, give or take. Yeah, Conan reached out to us, long story short. And we had no word from him. We got recommended by a friend to him that was doing Lutra Underground with him back,

Swerve, Shane Strickland. Or Isaiah, what's his name in WWE now? Isaiah Swerve. Travis? Scott. Yeah, yeah. Isaiah Scott. Jesus, bro.

What's going on? Sorry. Sorry, Shane. I can't wait for him to send you a message. What a scrub you are. I forgot his new name. I'm sorry. You know,

when wrestlers always change your name, you're always going to call them by their own name. I've known them for years as, you know, Shane, swerve. All right, my bad. He'll answer to anything. Yeah, swerve. There you go.

He still goes by swerve. So swerve recommended us to Conan, and Conan saw some of our stuff on YouTube, and we were just in the Indies. Like, we had no TV exposure at that point. Maybe one pay-per-view underneath our bell. but like I yeah like one pay-per-view if that and yeah he was just like hey I want to do this LAX thing

and then luckily we had a relationship with homicide being he's from New York and homicide kind of gave it the stamp of approval and we got brought in as LAX and they built us as the new LAX I would say 5.0 I can't even say 2.0 because they had so many different versions before it became homicide and Hernandez there was it was always homicide but there was always a different Hernandez. There was like two or three different Hernandez's before Hernandez.

And then, yeah, yeah. And then, yeah, we got brought in and we got built up as the new LAX, kind of like the new versions, I guess the new Justice League. Right, right. And our goal from the very beginning was to blow all of them out the water. Our goal was to come in and take this thing that has had, you know, a great reputation and had, you know, an amazing following and stuff. And we wanted to just blow it up even bigger, you know what I mean?

Like take what Homicider Hernandez did and just elevate it to the maximum point. And that was our goal with everything that we were doing from the, you know, the segments to the matches to the, we were like, yo, yeah, they may have been five different renditions of LAX, but this one needs to be the one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, and what's unique about you guys is there's not a lot. lot of tag teams that come up through the indies. I think a lot of guys want to just have the spotlight to themselves or maybe they don't click that well with somebody. What made you guys decide like, yes, we're going to be a tag team and we're going to do

this thing together? It's a whole long backstory to it. We'll be here for like three hours. Yeah, lots of time. I think eventually we hit the point. I mean, we did have the conversation, but I don't remember exactly when. but eventually we were just hitting a hitting a what's the word

I'm excited to see what word we got here I can't think of the word you guys are tag team you should be finishing each other's sentences right we kind of got on our correct flow you were hitting your stride that's the word I was looking for it is early drink some more tea

I literally woke up at 930 so I'm still oh thank you yeah it's about 30 minutes I woke up at 5 in the morning we hit our stride that's the word I was like sorry it just wasn't coming to me a lot of hits to the head apologize but so you guys worked indies for a long time as a tag yes so what were you called then uh EYFBO uh can we curse on here yeah of course it it stood for entertaining your fucking balls off So when we first started, we were, LMFAO was like really big. Yeah, yeah.

Right? And as you can see, as I show more now than I did when we were L.AX. He forced me into it. I'm just going to say that. Yeah, I'm definitely more of the flamboyant, loud. Like, that's just who I am as a human being. That's who I was as a teenager. Not so much now.

I've definitely chilled a lot more out. But I'm cheesy. I like stupid stuff. I like a different array of things. You know what I mean? And he's more of the straight lace guy. And it's just how. how he carries himself as a human.

And me, I'm kind of more easygoing. He's more like, nah, you shouldn't be doing this. You know what I mean? And I... How do you feel about that, Santana? Brother. Yeah. Hey, man, I call it how it is.

But anyways, LMFAO was really big at the time, and I was just like, hey, we should do this in wrestling. Because any good wrestling kind of gimmick, they go off whatever's popular in pop culture. We needed something. We needed a stick. And I was just like, yeah, we could definitely do this. I could definitely be this, you know, loud and dance and whatever.

And that's kind of what it started off as. But he still, he just didn't really take to it. He would do it a little bit. But as you know, he's just, he is who he plays on television. He is Santana. He just turned up, you know, a little bit more. And I wouldn't even say that much more. That's just who he is as a person.

He can't joke around, obviously, if you get a couple of beers in him. but it sucks that it has to take a couple of beers but sometimes that's the case with all of us but you guys are so incredibly intense when you're on camera when you're in the ring i know this from firsthand experience when i was in a segment with you guys a few weeks ago charleston west virginia with the rock and roll express and like i felt like in that moment you guys were going to murder me i remember thank you for not i remember walking up to you and i was like Back the fuck. And you just like,

well, you got it. I think, well, both of you guys were like yelling at me and Santana, you're like,

get to the fucking back. And I'm like, okay. Yes, sir. Okay. Just quick story. I have to, that reaction.

So we're really cool MVP, right? So there was this, this indie show that we're on. It was Loki versus Chris Dickinson. We were on Chris Dickinson's side. If you go back to the

Indies. If you go back to the Indies, we were in an indie group with Chris Dickison, Team Bazuzu. It was us, Chris Dickison, and Jaka and Pinky Sanchez. Anyways, I digress. On the other side was Loki, and it was MVP, Samoa Joe, and Homicide. So in TNA, they were BDK, right? BDC, sorry.

They were BDC, and they were having kind of like each team member was ringside for it, kind of like Japanese young boy side style, just kind of. during the match. So during that, MVP does that to us and it was like, you motherfucker fuck. And I was like,

holy shit, MVP is going to fuck us up. The whole time, I'm trying to pay attention to the match and all this shit. And then he's like, bro, look at MVP.

Yeah. And I'm like, and I look over at MVP and he's like almost drooling. Yeah, like, he's like, who will murder us.

And I'm like, well, it looks like it's going to be that kind of night. Man, yeah, and I'm just anxious. And I'm just like, man, if we're going to have to do this, I'm going to have to do this, but fuck.

I'm like, all right. It's us, right? And, you know, New York cats, whatever. But when you're looking across from that ring and you see homicide, Samoa Joe and MVP, you're like, shit. So to connect the two stories, I channeled MVP at that moment, and that's what you felt. Well, you channel it all the time, actually. Both of you guys, not just in that moment. Yeah.

I mean, so to be able to come in with that crowd reaction and to be part of the inner circle, which is the hottest faction in wrestling right now. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Man, you're right. It's all downhill from here. Exactly. That's what I'm saying.

How do you get any better at this point? It's fine. But you knew you were coming in to be part of that faction. Yes. Like that was part of the original discussions? Yeah. Yeah. So since the cruise, Cody reached out to us and was like, hey, what's your status?

What's going on? he always he kept in touch us all the way up until the point that we uh we joined also the bucks and everybody but then once uh once we were pretty much from the beginning almost from the beginning we did weigh out all our options of course uh but uh once it was kind of known that we were going there jericho found out and since jericho got to see us perform on the cruise he was like i want those guys on my team so it was kind of like everything kind of working together And then once we found out Jericho wanted us, we were like, how are we going to go anywhere else? It was like, to hear that, it was like, all right.

Yeah. And we, we bonded over Jericho's first book, like, legit. Really? Actually, that book is probably what got us together. As a tag team. Yeah, yeah. So you guys were training at the same wrestling school? No, no, no.

Okay, so you didn't train the same, but you started working in Indies in the same area? We used to back your wrestle together when we were teenagers. That's how we met. backyard wrestling names I was suicide and I was Angel Ortiz I was always Ortiz okay well I kept it going I was a backyard wrestler as well that's why I asked oh nice what was your name Chris Sharp sharp okay sharp walking sharp talking sharp dressing I got a sharp promo on you right now there it is so the backyard wrestling and then you guys went off and rest or

trained in your own schools yes we trained separately let's say for about four years into our training we were at a random show together we hadn't seen each other in years. Last time I saw him, he was shorter than me. And then I hadn't seen him in maybe four or five years at that point. You got like a second growth spurt? Yeah. Yeah. That's incredible. Yeah, he just blew up and he looked like a grown man. I didn't even recognize him at first. I was like, who is this dude? I remember this short, big head kid, you know what I mean? With a choker on, which he'll deny to his day. He was very punk rock back in the day. Now he's all 90s hip-hop.

What were your favorite punk bands? I'm a big punk fan. He was like metal, metal and punk rock. Yeah, I was into metal. Yeah, okay. Excuse me, not punk rock, metal. Okay, sorry. Well, name some bands then.

I mean, I grew up listening to like Metallica. Okay. Yeah. And Megadeth and, you know, the classic, like the big four guys. Now you're just a huge Fazi fan. They actually, Fuzzy rocks out hard. Yeah. First of all, seeing them perform on the cruise.

It's insane. They're awesome. I have, as a performer, I have even more respect for Jericho because this man was just throwing back the Red Bull and Grey Goose and then went on stage, killed it. And then proceeded to come down and just killed more Grey goose and Red Bull. And just rock, he's a legitimate rock star. It's awesome. Not only that, but then the next morning to wake up earlier like 8 a.m. go to the gym and I see all these dudes in the gym. Yeah.

Wow. Like mad respect to the whole. mentality, man. The whole crew, yeah. Wow. We young popes can't, we can't handle that. Yeah, I've realized in the AEW world, I asked someone to do an interview at like 10 a.m. It's usually like, ooh.

I'm surprised you didn't get that from me. Kind of early. No, so now I appreciate you doing it. I'm usually now, like during the week when I'm home, I'm up at 6 a.m. Because I take my daughter to school every morning. Yeah, you guys are both fathers. And I don't know if everybody realizes this. Yeah.

How old are your, how old's your daughter? My daughter is five years old. Wow. Yeah. And my son is, um, a year old in a couple of months. I don't want to be one of those parents. He's like 15 months in two days.

He's a year old. I hate. He's a year in a couple of months. Yeah. Apparently after your kid gets to be one year old, you can't say he's one anymore. He's 14 months old. Yeah, yeah. That's so corny.

Yeah. Do you get, are you upset that it's not Ortiz and Santana? No. Who decides that Santana and Ortiz? Or say, Tendor Ortiz! You know what it is? It just happens organically. Like, everyone just...

And then, actually, I forgot who I asked. Someone... And they were like, it just flows off the tongue. I think Dasha. These guys are great, aren't they? This episode of the Chris Van Fleet Show is brought to you by Roman, and talking about erectile dysfunction isn't easy.

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Was it that? She was asking us, yeah. She was asking us for Spanish commentary. And she was like, oh, which way do you guys like it better? And now she was like, honestly, it doesn't really matter. You know what I mean? And then she was like, yeah, Santana and Ortiz just sounds better. I mean, I think Ortiz is a stronger last name, not to downplay Santana.

No disrespect to your grandmother. Yeah, you don't want to do that. But just the Z. I like the Z in the name. I mean, like something with the Z That's why I came up with Ortiz. Yeah, I guess that What about Pride and Powerful?

Where'd that come together? So we got it together. So we got together with this rap group from New York and shout out to all these dudes, Bodega Bams. Tam Boys. I got the hat right on. A lot of people asking me about the hat.

This is Tan Boy's hat. I got this gifted and this is why I wear it all the time. I like to represent them. Yeah, it was a crew from New York named the Tanboy. bandboys and we all got together and we all you know in hanging out and talking so much and all this stuff like we connected because we were very proud people and we represent our culture and we represent our people and stuff like that so we had this this common idea of like yo proud and

powerful like if you're proud it makes you powerful no it doesn't matter who you are where you're from what you do be proud of who you are and where you come from you know what I mean and yeah we were like, yo, what if we went with this? Like, not even as our name or whatever, just our model and what we represent and what we put out, you know what I mean? And that's just our brand. Like, I, me personally,

I always said, like, if I never got into wrestling, I always wanted to do something that was going to help people. And, like, now, with our following and what we do and stuff, I figured, like, yo, this is the best time to do it and the best way to do it. You know what I mean? Yeah. We have a lot of people following us

and a lot of, and it grows every day. Yeah, a lot of people that, from where we come from, that look up to what we do and see that, yo,

these two dudes that look like me from where I come from doing something positive, doing something good. They're on T&T, they're on television. It's astounding. I imagine every Wednesday night,

your followers, you know, spike up. Yeah. We'll consistently get followers throughout the week always, especially if AW posts something and puts our handles on it and stuff.

But definitely on Wednesdays, there's always a big time. The promo you cut in the subway, proud and powerful promo, that was intense. And also, like, there's all these people standing around, like, actually waiting to get on the subway, like waiting to get on the train. They're like, why is this man yelling? Pretty much. That's the New York mentality. So I go and I really give it, right? And I was like, I need to do this in one take.

I'm not going to just be yelling like a maniac. Eventually someone's going to call the cops. So I have to do this at one take, right? And it's you, like super intense and two cameramen walking backwards. This must have been quite a scene. Yes. So I did it. And then after I do it, literally everyone goes from this to.

It's just right back on their phone. At New York, baby. My your business. And it's like nothing. And keep doing you. And I'm just like, I'm coming down off of it. And you know when you really get into something. I'm like, and I'm looking around and I'm just like, all right.

All right. So we'll go now. We'll go shoot the next scene. I think there's like a like a little blooper. I think at one point he goes, so no one's going to clap? Oh, yeah, yeah. On the platform. I was like, nobody?

Yeah, I was like, nobody? All right. Being from New York obviously makes you guys a lot of who you are, right? Like that's ingrained in your DNA. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And I mean, but your family's from Puerto Rico? We have family from Puerto Rico.

Yeah, so my, my grandparents are, pretty much first generation Puerto Ricans that came to this country and they came in 1968 my grandmother came in 1968 she was 15 years old and pretty much yeah like they built the family here

and all that stuff but like we're deeply deeply rooted in Puerto Rico you know what I mean so I grew up going back and forth every single year starting from the age of two three years old you know I was going every summer and I would be over there for like two, three months with my family.

So I grew up deeply emerged into the culture and all that stuff. So, I mean, yeah, with New Eurecans, man. You know, it's going to happen eventually. AEW is going to go to Puerto Rico. Oh, man. It's going to happen eventually. I can't wait. And you guys are going to be.

How can we be heels there? You're going to be like Brett Hart when he goes to Canada. You're right. You're not even really like you are heels, but it's like you guys are. so talented and so enjoyable to watch that it's hard to boo you guys. Which is why we're trying to change up our wrestling style. Because I don't know if you've seen our older stuff to what we're trying to do now. Yeah, we still do our cool combos and sequences, but we're trying to change it up a little bit.

We're trying to be more meticulous, really more methodical, working a body part. And we're just trying to, we want to show people that we can do it all. You know what I mean? Because if you want to throw us in there with Lutra Bros, we can have that insane. tip for tat match like all day we've wrestled them like 20 times at this point and we can do it but we also want to challenge ourselves and and and really implement more of an old school style of wrestling with with sprinkles of the new school in it rather the the reverse yeah well who were the who were some of the wrestlers you guys looked up to growing up christopher daniels and my my number one

was always brethart okay like yeah he was the the first person that that I saw getting into wrestling. And yeah, he just always attracted me because during that time where wrestling was just all about gimmicks and having some kind of wacky character or whatever, he was the only one that was himself. He did have a gimmick.

He was him, Brett. Yeah, but that was his gimmick. Whatever. Yeah, that was his gimmick. He was, I was always attracted to like the realism. It just wasn't a cartoonish gimmick. Yeah, yeah. What about you?

Me, Christopher Daniels. So our wrestling background is a lot different. He was watching wrestling from when he was like two or three, probably since he could remember. He has a picture of him in a bathtub playing with wrestling toys. Yeah, like three years old. Yeah, three years old. Yeah, three years old.

Me, I knew what wrestling was when I was a kid, but I was into like Ninja Turtles and other things. Who's the best Ninja Turtle? I was always Donald Telefan. What an odd pick that was. Yeah, he was a smart one. He already knew everything that would go down. Everybody goes with Michelangelo or Raphael.

you know this. Rafael, yeah, he's the badass, you know what I mean? Jeez. I just, wow. His appointment. He picks Donna Tala. He's the reason why they had so much cool shit. Fine. They had the vehicles.

He's such a nerd. I am a nerd. I am a nerd. All right, you can carry on. I'm undercover nerd, yeah. I play a lot of, I play Pokemon, man, no judgment over here. Oh, geez. Wow.

Hell yeah. I got it upstairs on my Switch. Who's your favorite Pokemon? I'm old school, like Charzart. I don't know what that is, but... Charmander, he's like one of the first generation ones. Nothing? You know Pikachu?

There you go, no Pikachu. You're going to get heat for not no Pokemon. Yeah. Sorry, everyone. Give him heat. Give him heat. So he agrees with you. He would be saying terrible things right now with this camera.

It's okay. You got my back. So then you got into wrestling a little bit later. Yes. Like the prime of TNA? Yeah, yeah. around then. I was like early 2000s for me.

So what really did it for me, one of my friends, I always give him a shout out when I bring him up, Nicholas Massey. He was a tape trader back in the day. This is before YouTube days. There's one high spots were first kind of coming out

with their VHS tapes that you can get stuff. And he introduced me to the world of indie wrestling. I didn't even know this really existed at this point. And early Ring of Honor, early CZW,

3PW, the short-lived Fed of Blue Mini he had. I was going to all these random shows, a Jersey All-Pro, and I got introduced to indie wrestling. And I knew what, you know, WWF was showing at the time. You know, it was around the attitude era right when I got in. And then I started watching WCW, WWF. I really got into wrestling. And then it just, once you get bit by that bug, as you know, you're hooked.

And for me, it was more indie wrestling that made me want to be a wrestler. WWF was cool and I was like, yeah. But when I watched indie wrestling and I saw the difference in style of wrestling and what they were doing, which is what's more relevant nowadays, is what you see now. They were doing in the early 2000s, you know what I mean? And even before that, if you go really back to like early 90s, Machenoku Pro, that's the style that you see today. And they were doing in the early 90s, which was awesome.

But, yeah, just going to those indie shows and then I just, Christopher Daniels was the one for me. just because he was so fluid in the ring He's still super fluid in the ring It's insane He's like a robot He doesn't age He can make anyone look good too Yeah yeah

So I I I still am And I always will be a fan of the little things And it's the little things that he does in the ring And how he moves in the ring That made me a fan of him And I've always been a fan of Chris Reneh It would always be my number one favorite wrestler

And I get to work with him Which is insane But yeah That was kind of what got me And bit my bug And then I started watching Japanese Knees wrestling. And then once I got those tapes, I discovered who Masawa was, Kensal-Gabashi, and I was like, what? Kowada and seeing King's Road. If you go back and watch Kings Road

wrestling, you're like, how's these guys not dead? They were just dropping each other on their head and just like legit, just clubbing each other in the face and just murdering people. And I was just like, this is amazing. I want to do this. I know that's something weird to say. I want to get murdered. Yeah, you're the ones doing the murdering. Yeah, yeah. Power bombing people. through the stage and hitting them with softballs in a sock? Yeah, nice. Yeah, geez. Not softballs.

Softballs are the bigger ones. Oh, just baseballs. Yeah, baseballs. Great, the harder ones. Yeah, of course. Jeez. Like I mentioned earlier, I love that you guys are a legitimate tag team rather than, you know, a lot of times it's like you're not doing anything and you're not doing anything.

So now you guys are a tag team. So the fact that you guys are, you know, a legitimate tag team that came up together, who were some of the tag teams that you guys? Look up to currently or I've always looked up to. Who are some of the great tag teams? Well, number one will always, and we both agree, and we usually don't agree on a lot of things. But number one, the briskos, man.

I think De Briscoes are the goat as far as just, I mean, you could bring a lot of rock and roll express. There's a million other tag teams that, I mean, I don't think tag team wrestling would be as, what's the word? Again, I'm having a blank. There we go. As relevant as it is today without the Rock and Roll Express, teams like the Rock and Roll Express.

But for me, for someone that just kept the style, again, my wrestling background is a little bit different. I just go with the briscoes. And we always scream and I always say we're the best. But honestly, we have to try to surpass the briskos. And I think that's hard. I think they're the best tag team, like of all time. I just think their style, the way they wrestle, the way they've been doing it for so long and they can still go. Mark is still doing insane dives to the floor,

and I just don't know how his body takes it. Mark is insane. Jay's another one. To just have kept the pace that they've kept for so many years consistently. And we know how we feel now. We haven't even done half the stuff that take it. And I'm just like, how are they doing it? As you sit here right now, does anything on you guys hurt?

Everything. You know, I've been feeling really good lately. Better, yeah. Like a ton better. Like since we've had a lot more time at home and time to recover and rest of the lives and do what's necessary to make ourselves feel better, this is probably the best I've felt in a very long time. And I've been, you know, super consistent with working out and stretching and all that stuff.

So thankfully, I've, you know, of course you've still got your aches and pains and- always. You know, mag and shit. But for the most part, like, I'm actually getting out of bed comfortably. So that's a good thing. That's a win. In the world of wrestling? Yeah, yeah.

That's a win. I have severe lower back pain. That's my biggest thing. I think I just really have, I went to the PT guys over here at AEW. And I just have really bad hip and lower back issues. And I've been working on it and it's been getting better. But I always wake up every morning with my lower back and my hip so. How are you able to bump if you have back pain?

You just do it. A droolin is a hell of a drug. Honestly, when you're out there, like when that switch goes on, it's just, you ever hear the stories about Kurt Engel? He'll be in the back and he's just walking around and he's just like, man, how's this guy going to wrestle? And then as soon as he comes out at his entrance, it's like, whoa, he's like a different human being. It's just there's something about that red light. There's something about being in front of that crowd that everything that you're feeling goes away for those 15, 25, 6, however long your matches. Usually matches don't go longer than 30 minutes unless you're doing an Ironman match.

but for whatever time you're out there you just get hit with that adrenaline rush and it's a hell of a drug man when you guys saw the design for the inner circle shirt before it got released what was a reaction to it so they I was talking he saw it before I did I didn't get to see it until the shirt I was talking with Ryan from pro wrestling cheese

and you know we were talking about it and then he sent me a picture of it and I was like okay and he was like yeah you know Jericho was looking for something more of like Secret Society, Illuminati type, you know,

symbol type thing. And then that's where it clicked. Because when I first saw it before the explanation, I was like, hmm. What the F is this? No,

I was just trying to, like, it wasn't, it wasn't like, he's being nice right now. No, you know me. I would have,

I would have shit all over it. But I was, it was more of curiosity and trying to like figure out, all right, so what's, what's the whole, and then he explained it.

And I was like, ah, okay, I see, I see it now. But, um, It's cool, it's different. And yeah.

And the hottest selling shirt, at least at that time. And broke the website. We break the internet. That's what we do. Since there's five of you in the inner circle, does the royalty check have to be split five ways on a t-shirt like that? Damn right. Yeah.

Man, even it's a dollar. I want my dollar. Sure. You sold enough shirts. Oh, my God. You've sold it. You sell 20,000 shirts. That's $20,000, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So there you go. A dollar's a dollar, baby. That's going to be a good royalty check. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And well, and pro wrestling teas has made it so easy for, you know, for you guys in general. Basically just make a design, upload it to the site. Boom, it can start selling. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah.

And they have the technology to be like, oh, yeah, we got this design five seconds ago and we could print it on the shirt, which is awesome. That is so crazy. So it's been a great run for you guys. It's only been two months now in AEW. Yeah. What's the future hold for you guys? we just want to keep you know not just progressing ourselves

and developing our characters and putting out great amazing work but also you know elevating the company as a whole you know what I mean and trying to really be part of the reason why this all becomes successful and continues to become successful

so when we came here right we had this we had a long conversation and long set down Of course, because we've hand in hand. Our career goes hand in hand with each other. So we were like, all right, what do we want to do? Do we want to? We were in Puerto Rico.

Yeah, we were in Puerto Rico. Sitting in a... We'll tell the story. This first time we actually, we've told it to people before, very few people. But we were about to turn down WWE. And we sat down and we were like, all right, man. We don't want to burn a bridge. Like, we never want to burn any bridge anywhere we go.

because that's not how you do business. You should keep every avenue open. So he had this whole spiel. He was like, all right, this is what we're going to say, so we don't burn the bridge, right? And then we go, and then we get cut off, and they were like, listen, just really think about your decision, right? And then we stop.

And we hang up the phone, and we were about to turn them down. And then we sit there and we're like, damn, they're making this really hard for us, right? Pretty much they were like, write your own ticket and we'll make it happen. And this was going to be in NXT? Yes, it was, it was, it was, it was for an NXT with the, the, the guarantee to, yeah, to eventually go up to main roster. Okay.

So, uh, so we were just like, all right, man, uh, dang. Like, dang, but then, honestly, with the ultimate decision was, we were like, do we want to just be a part of something that's already established? Or do we want to be a part of something new and make history? because nothing will no matter what happens with AEW again we're here to make us successful but no matter what happens we will always be a part of the first ever main event on the first ever television of AEW

we were like do we want to be a part of history or just fade into black and kind of like even best case scenario we're just going to be small fish in a big you know what I mean in an ocean you know what I mean there's so many people there and it would be an uphill battle not saying that we wouldn't be able to do it

because we're confident in our abilities but we could be a part of history we could be a part of change and we could be a part of change that literally you're seeing the change you were just talking about this before the camera went on and it's just it's changing wrestling for the better no matter what happens with this company

wrestling has changed for the better and it's continually changing for the better and we were like man we want to be a part of history we want to make a change yeah we believe in the vision that that everyone has here and we believe that you know the team working behind the scenes and even in front of the camera like name a better team that's putting out you know some amazing work and it's young it's exciting yeah it's uh so i mean that's

honestly of why we made ultimately our decision it's the best time to be a wrestling fan for sure 100% but it must be the best time to be a wrestler as well 100% not only that like a huge another huge part of our decision making was uh that we both were wanted to be dads. You know what I mean? Like the schedule, you know, they were offering us the NXT thing and then going to TV. Once we would have gone to TV, we're on the road,

you know, 250, 300, 300 days. Best case scenario. That's if we take off, they push us, they use us on television all the time. We're doing house shows. We're making good money. But guess what? The time that we're home, we're going to be mangled.

And we have two small children to deal with. We're like, you'd also have to move to Orlando. Yeah. No, so that was another thing. Oh, wow. Okay. That was a part of the deal, too. that they were like hey you guys could stay in New York and you could uh that's how but even then yeah but even that that's how much they don't want us to come in because before that they were like eh before this was the thing we were kind of already in talks with

them so we were like all right we're either going to stay in impact we might go to wwe or maybe ring upon her right we were like playing it this way we were like all right we'll see what's up we were kind of in our head it was like uh we made we made a good amount of noise is an impact, but I was like, I feel we need to bring up our name value a little bit more. We can't go to WWE and we could cash it in now, but I feel like maybe we bring up our name value a little bit more and be more wanted by them. They were interested enough to offer us something, and we had people kind of pulling for us there to bring us in. So, but we were, I feel like we would have got lost in a shuffle.

And then when we first got an offer, it was just like, eh, we're not going to get in a bidding more with anyone. And then it ultimately went down to, all right, what do you want? Wow. Which was awesome. And it was only because of AEW existing. And they were aware that AEW was interesting. Of course. Yeah.

Yeah. They know everything. They have secret agents everywhere. This one. Yeah. Someone's listening right now with them. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I don't think it could have worked out for you guys any better. 100%. And you know, it's, you went right to the top here with AEW. Whereas like you said, in NXT, maybe you would be in the middle or who knows. Who knows? Who knows? Who knows? Who knows?

It's the best case scenario for you guys. And like I said, we're just getting started here. Yeah, exactly. It's just the beauty of it all. It's just the beginning. I mean, yeah. Hopefully we could be sitting in another hotel room five years from now and we could be like, hey, you know what I mean? What up?

I think we'll be sitting in another hotel room in five months from now. You guys will have some nice shiny titles perhaps. Well, I mean, you know, let us eat everybody up first. Yeah. Well, the title we want is the best. That's the title we want. And still ultimately, the Youngbooks are still considered that. So, you know, until we repeatedly beat them down to a pope, you know.

When was the last time you guys had a singles match? It was against each other. Really? No, no, no, no, because you're Russell Bronco. You had a singles match after that. Oh, I don't even count. Yeah, but you did. I had a ball with this older guy that I do business with in the Bronx.

It's like just one of his wrestling dads. Yeah. This older guy is like his wrestling father. No, yeah, we had a little bra. He asked me for a favor because he had his big anniversary shows. I was like, yeah, sure. When did you guys work each other? This was for Beyond Wrestling.

Pretty much our home promotion, one of our home promotions. Before we got signed. We did like a round Robin type deal where. To go back on a Sarah, or Team Pizzouzzi, our team stable. We all wrestled each other in a round Robin challenge. Yeah, and then the finals, it came down to me versus. him and we went out there mangled the shit and just like in the heat it was outdoors it was hot yeah it was you know it started raining yeah and we killed it though we did yeah it was pretty

good match yeah um because nick jackson said last week when he wrestled phoenix that he hadn't wrestle a singles match in four years yeah and i'm like that's probably a similarish case for you guys it's probably yeah at least four years at this morning yeah because that happened like 2015 yeah i would have to go back and like wow yeah it's been a while um i mean but the We got our tag team chemistry by wrestling each other. By training with each other. We wrestled each other a bunch of times in training. We would have these insane matches where we're like doing dragon suplexes,

doing Germans just like killing each other with no camera on. But back then when you're younger, you don't feel shit. So you just go for it. And then in training, we would wrestle like if the camera was on. And we would just go at it with each other. But because we wrestled each other like that, we got each other's timing down. We got to feel for each other.

So there's this like internal clock that you get. So the reason why our timing is so good is just we don't even have to think about it anymore. There's not like a, all right, you ready, man? One, two, three. That's like in the beginning. You know what I mean? You have to kind of get in sync with your partner. But now it's just let's say we come up with a new sequence and we're like,

all right, we're going to do this, this, and that. All right, but we never did it before. I'll figure it out. And then we do it and it comes out like we did it before. And it's just like, yeah, it's just a testament to all the years that we spent just beating each other to the Pope. Yeah. There's no reason that with that kind of chemistry, you guys won't be the best. That's the goal, yeah.

All right. Well, thank you guys for making this happen. This was really enjoyable. This was really fun. Better than MJFs. Oh, God. Let's not go there. We appreciate your interest in wanting to put us out there.

Of course. Thank you. You know, like we know. Thank you for giving us the rub. Yeah. Appreciate it. Thanks for putting me over by you guys coming on here. Yeah.

No, but I'm so excited for what the future holds for you guys. And you're making such a huge mark on AEW and such a huge impact there. So I can't wait to see what's next for you guys. And I really acknowledge you for everything you guys are doing in the world tag team wrestling. Cheers. So, yeah. So thank you guys. Cheers.

Can I get a cheap plug in? Do it. Oh, all right. No, of course. We're done. So I'm trying to get my social media followers up. Oh. You can?

Both of you guys. I'm trying to get sponsors, man. My goal is to get like a meal prep sponsor. Okay. So I'd never have to cook again. And then maybe some kind of energy drink. You know what I mean? Well, how about I drop both of your Instagram handles below?

There you go. There you go. But you can say them as well so people can know. Okay. You got Santetta, proud, and Ortiz powerful. You get it proud. Underscrow, sorry. Yeah, you get it proud.

and powerful. We put some door behind that. I can't take them nowhere. I told you all this nerd. All right, thanks, guys. Oh, there we go. Santana and Ortiz. They're awesome, aren't they?

That black tea, the coffee, obviously, running overtime in this interview. We had a great time. And I'm sure we're going to see them in the mix for the tag team titles in AEW very soon. They're always yelling that they're the best. The best! And when you think about the current landscape in pro wrestling, in any company in pro wrestling, it's hard to argue against that.

I mean, they're definitely up there at the top. So if you enjoy this, please take a screenshot. Tag me. Like we mentioned there, it's Santana underscore proud and it's Ortiz underscore powerful. Tag them. Let them know what you thought of this chat. I really enjoyed it. And I enjoy the fact that you're listening to these.

It's just been an insane month. I mean, the plan was to drop these every Thursday. But we have a backlog of so many interviews right now that we're basically just dropping them as we get them. So we're going to keep putting these out there. But keep an eye out for one every Thursday. We're not going to stop that. There still is going to be one every Thursday. There just might be some extra bonus episodes kind of put in there in between and even some many episodes as well.

So since they're proud and powerful, F. Scott Fitzgerald said, I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength. to start all over again. There's some words to leave you with, and we will see you on Thursday. The best. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why?

Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of Sports Smack.

Ticket banjo, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.