Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Scorpio Sky: AEW Tag Team Titles, his time in WWE & TNA, losing his shoes during a match

Episode Date: November 7, 2019

Scorpio Sky talks to Chris Van Vliet in Charleston, WV. He talks about the AEW tag team titles, creating SCU with Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian, why his time in WWE and TNA didn't work, owning up to his old mistakes, losing his shoes during a match, appearing on the Steve Harvey Show in a dating segment, wrestling Tessa Blanchard and much more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, y'all? It's Druski, and I've teamed up with Mountain Dew to produce a hilarious new basketball podcast called The Do Zone with Drewski. Learn the backstories of your favorite ballers and celebrities like Jamal Murray. Did you have like a favorite team? Was it the Raptors at the time or no?

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It's Chrysomania, brother. That's a great question. Look at you. man with the powerful questions This is the Chris Van Vleecho Ladies and gentlemen Chris Van Ville And here we go

Yeah this is the Chris Van Vleech show And this is the worst interview Scorpio Sky has ever been in It's also the worst interview I've been in So there you go Scorpio If you're a fan of Scorpio Sky or SCU. You know exactly what I'm talking about with that. If you're not, welcome. Here's your introduction to Scorpio Sky to SCU. Thank you for joining us on this one. This episode of the show is

brought to you by Untucket and Manscaped and you are about to feel incredibly inspired by Scorpio Sky's story. If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter at Chris Van Fleet, over the weekend, I posted the YouTube intro to this video where Scorpio says, I'm Scorpio Sky. This is the worst interview I've ever been and he does this whole schick there. Most people got the reference, but I had a few comments, a few DMs from people who obviously don't watch AEW, who obviously aren't familiar with SCU and what they do. And they're like, man, why would Scorpio Sky say that? I thought he was such a nice guy. Why would he say this was the worst interview? It's a gimmick, people. We get down to exactly how that gimmick all came together, along with how the pairing of Scorpio Sky with Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian

all came together. I want to take a second to thank you for joining us on the show. Thank you for seeking out this episode and listening to it, even though it is the worst interview that Scorpio Sky's ever been in. The podcast has been growing so much. This is episode 43. We launched just four-ish months ago. It's growing a ton. And it's because of people like you that are spreading the word and telling fellow wrestling fans all about this. Thank you for tweeting out the screenshots. Thank you for tagging me in your Instagram stories. Thanks for just like getting the word out that, you know,

I do the interviews on YouTube, which are awesome and I love, and I love doing these audio versions too. Sitting here and talking to you one-on-one into your eardrums, whether this is actually in your ear pods. Maybe you're at the gym. Maybe you're at work. That's the funniest to me that people are at work and not working and listening to this.

I love that. And thank you for making this one of the top 20 wrestling podcasts in the world. It's all because of you. So thank you. Continue sharing. If you don't already, please subscribe. That helps so much. Thank you for leaving these reviews on Apple Podcasts.

I'm going to keep reading one on the show because that's like one of the biggest things that helps push the show, especially on Apple. Frank Mittens with a Z on the end or a Z for anyone living outside of America. Look, I moved from Canada. I had to adjust to say Zed instead of Z. He says incredible content always. CVV is the gold standard in pro wrestling interviews. His insight and curiosity enticed the best possible interactions with some of today's

biggest stars. Every upload is a must see and Chris never fails to impress with his thorough research and compelling questions. If you want an insider look at the industry, then look no further. This is simply superb. Oh, and he's also a great human being. Man, thank you so much for that, Frank. Very kind words.

Keep those reviews coming, and I will keep the interviews coming. How does that sound? Good agreement, right? Shout out to Samson Technologies for helping us sound so good. You can head to samsontech.com if you're looking for great audio equipment for your podcast, for your YouTube channel, or just, you know, for whatever it is. And it's extremely fairly priced. Also, thank you to Greenroads for sponsoring this episode.

and I know you've heard a ton about CBD over the last year or so. And if you're looking for the best quality CBD products, you want Green Roads. Someone tweeted me the other day and said, hey, does Green Roads have THC in it? THC, by the way, is the thing in cannabis that gets you high. The answer is no. Green Roads does not have THC in it. It's a good question, though, because if CBD oil is made properly, it shouldn't have THC in it. Unfortunately, a lot of CBD products are not made proper.

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focus, generally just not making your mind go a mile a minute. Also, their topicals like the muscle and joint cream really, really help for recovery after the gym. Green Roads is the real deal. You can use my code Chris 15, Chris 1-5, to get 15% off your order at greenroadsworld.com. That's Chris 15 for 15% off at greenroadsworld.com. Now, for a lot of wrestling fans, Scorpio Sky just came on your radar in the last probably year, a little bit less than a year or so when he signed with AEW. But he has been tearing it up on the Indies for the last 17 years with some brief stints in WWE, TNA, and Ring of Honor. He said that he had a moment where he needed to decide if wrestling was still the thing that

he wanted to do. And I think we're all glad that he did, that he gave it 100% because he's now one half of the AEW World Tag Team Champions, along with Frankie Kazarian, and he's one third of your favorite, I guess, trio, SCU. And this interview was done just a few hours before him and Frankie won the tag belts on TNT that night. There's so much good stuff here. So let's dive right into it.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's Scorpio Sky. Here we are. We're doing this. Charleston, West Virginia is where we are. Charleston, West Virginia. The worst town I've ever been in. No, this is the worst town? This is the worst town I've ever been in.

I love that that's become a... thing. I know. Isn't that crazy? It's so weird, the things that become things nowadays. Right. You know, like Jericho, a little bit of the bubbly and I have a ticket and for us, it's, you know, you know, this is the worst town I've ever been in.

I guess everyone can relate because one thing I've noticed is a lot of people don't like where they live. You know, everybody wants to be somewhere else. And I think that's people relate. We have so many meet and greets where people come up to us and they're like, this really is the worst town I've ever been in. It has to be. I'm like,

do you look at them and go, you know you could move, right? Right. You're not stuck here. Everyone can go to SoCal. Oh, you wouldn't want to leave there.

No, I love it so much. I honestly do. I love it so much. When you go to, you know, when AEW does a live event there, do you have to lie and be like,

this is the worst town? No, we're going to see what happens. I can't wait to go there, though. Can you be like, this is the best town I've ever been in? You know, we do have favorite worst towns, though. Philly,

Las Vegas, New York. those are some of our favorite worst towns. SoCal's pretty great, though. Oh, it's the best. I spend quite a bit of time there. It's pretty awesome. Yeah.

I mean, you can look, I mean, I know the people watching, they won't be able to see, but you look outside and it's so cloudy and, you know, it's just muggy and gross. And back home in L.A., you know, it's probably 85 degrees or, you know, 80 and just beautiful and sunny and clear. And, yeah, I can't wait to get back to SoCal. My favorite thing about Los Angeles is when it rains, it's like a news event. Yeah. Like it's breaking news like precipitation is falling from the sky.

It's like, what is this? And that and a Coke can in the road can cause three hours of traffic. Also, no one there can drive when it rains. Nobody. No. Oh, it's bad. I try to just stay inside. What part of the city do you live in?

So I live just about 25 minutes outside downtown L.A. So I'm in like a little suburb area that's like very small. Nobody lives in downtown L.A. No, people do. Nobody from Southern California lives inside downtown L.A. But people that move from other places, transplants, they don't know any better. So they go and they pay four grand a month for a studio apartment the size of this hotel. So the great thing about living there is the weather.

The worst thing about living there is you have the longest commute out of anyone to all these cities. Yeah, yeah. We usually leave up. And when I say we, I mean, Frankie and Chris and I, we usually leave Monday night on a red eye and fly through Detroit or Atlanta. And we have a layover there. And then we get to the city we're in. Like example, last week we had a delay. And so we ended up in, I believe, Atlanta airport for like five hours, our delay.

And so. Yeah. Well, that's why we leave so early, though. That's why we leave Monday night. And then, you know, we get into the town. and tradition, we always go straight to the gym within an hour of getting checked into the hotel and work out and eat, and then you can kind of rest and relax and do whatever you need to do for the rest of the day.

So you guys all travel together all the time? Yeah. Who gets the middle seat? Usually we're not. See, those guys have been doing it way longer than I am. So they're usually in first class. And I'll end up in like comfort plus or coach or every once in a while I'll get upgraded to first class.

You say like, oh, they've been doing longer than you have. Yes. But you've also been doing this. for 17 years. Yeah, yeah. You're the best 17-year overnight success story. It's tough because, you know, I actually always compare myself to a fighter from the Great Depression era named James J. Braddock, who was the Cinderella man.

And his life, basically, he started out with all kinds of promise. And it was like, oh, he's going to be this great, great fighter. And then he had a series of injuries and bad luck. and definitely things that he wouldn't have liked to go through, but ended up having to go through. And essentially became a journeyman and actually had his license taken away from him. He wasn't allowed to box for a certain amount of time. Wow.

And eventually, we're good. Thank you. Housekeeping knocking the door. Sorry. I always forget to hang the thing of the door. So anyways, he ended up getting a fight on two days. No, was it? Yeah, it was like two days notice.

One guy got hurt. He ended up getting a fight on two days notice. because basically they just needed somebody to beat who had a name. And he ended up winning the fight. And then he went on a run and eventually became heavyweight champion in the world. So I consider myself the Cinderella man in the sense of like, you know, it has been 17 years. I've had a lot of ups and downs, some of my fault, some out of my control. But I came through the other side and here I am.

Did you have a Cinderella man moment? Like did you have a match or a show that you're like, man, this is going to change things for him? I think I'm living it still, to be honest with you. There was, I used to work a day job while doing this. And that actually obviously took away from certain opportunities because there'd be like, hey, you know, can you go to Australia for two weeks on a day's notice? And I'd be like, I can't really do that. Like, I have a job. And then also like the job would, you know, they wouldn't want to promote me because it's like, hey, you're always taking time off to go wrestle.

So it was tough. But eventually I was getting to a point where I wanted to quit. wrestling because it just wasn't working out and it wasn't going well and I just figured okay well this probably isn't going to go well and uh one day I went to and I was settling in I was very comfortable and I was like okay I like this job whatever I'm whatever the job by the way I never reveal it okay it's kind of my thing I never reveal it um yeah you could put it put in the comments what you think it was uh what would Scorpio sky be good at other than wrestling nothing but uh but one day I went to work and they laid me off

and I had no job and I was like, wow, okay, so what do I do now? And it only took me a couple hours before I realized, okay, let's take one last shot at wrestling. And I went as hard as I possibly could and it worked out. And at what age were you then? This was, this was, gosh, almost four years ago. So, you know, 31, something like that. Yeah. And when you decided to go head on, full into this, were there any regrets?

No, no. It was like, okay, now I can dedicate 100% of my time and take every opportunity I can get. Of course, there weren't very many, but at first at least. But, you know, I really had to push hard for about a year. But it felt good knowing that, like, I'm going to take this one last swing and it's either going to work or it's not. And I'll have no, like, what ifs. Yeah. You know, obviously signing with AEW was a, you know, a big step for you.

But I feel like it was just a couple weeks ago when you had the real breakout moment, like the real. And I think J.R. even said it. during the broadcast when you lost your shoes during that match. Like it was like, here you are. Like, here you go, world. Here's who Scorpio Sky is. Did you realize that had happened when you walked through the curtain after that match? I didn't, actually.

I was actually really upset with myself as it showed. And I've taken a lot of flack for people. Because our finishing move didn't come out the way we wanted it to. And I'm really a perfectionist. and I knew it was a special night, you know, because you... We are out of focus here. We're out of focus. There we go.

There we go. I knew it was a special night. I knew the match was going really, really well. And, you know, I threw my shoe out in the crowd. And the crowd comes up and they threw it back. And I'm like, hey, I got it back. This is cool. And so the fact that the very last thing we did didn't work.

Yeah. I was extremely frustrated with myself and with the entire moment. It wasn't anybody's fault. It was just the timing thing. But, yeah, when I got to the back, I wasn't really thinking about, oh, this was a great moment. It was like, damn it, damn it. Like, we were almost there. We were almost there.

And fortunately, the fans are amazing and forgiving. And everyone's been, like, I've received like a few tweets here and there of people like, oh, man, don't worry about that. You know, like you were in socks. And, you know, it's a lot of a big deal. And it was amazing performance. So thank you for that. But you've got to realize that that's what made the match even that much more special. Like, that will be the thing that people will always.

go back to and go, remember that match where Scorpio lost one shoe and then lost another shoe as well? I hope you're enjoying this chat with Scorpio Sky so far. This episode of the podcast is brought to you by Untucket. And have you ever seen an untucked button down? I mean, they just universally look bad. Why? Well, because they weren't meant to be worn that way. Thankfully, there's Untucket, the button down shirt that's actually designed to be worn untucked. No matter your shape or your size, untucked shirts always fall at that perfect untucked length. And with the holidays just around the corner, there's no better gift for your favorite guy. Perhaps that favorite guy is you who needs an upgrade in their wardrobe. I remember wearing an... I remember untucking my shirt on TV a couple years ago, and someone actually called the TV station that I worked at and said, why does Chris look so frumpy?

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Your balls will thank you. Yeah, get 20% off and free shipping with the code blue wire at manscape.com. That's 20% off with free shipping at manscape.com. Just use the code blue wire. Now let's get back to this chat with Scorpio Sky. Yeah, the worst interview he's ever been in. I thought sneaker heads were going to kill me because I was wearing Adidas shoes. I'm going to fix this.

Keep talking. Yeah, I thought I was wearing Adidas shoes and Nike socks. Oh, no. So I thought I was going to lose all credibility with sneakerheads, but fortunately, I haven't felt that wrath yet. I think you're okay now. I hope so. If that hasn't happened yet, I think you're in the clear now. And as we sit here, you have the opportunity tonight to make history as the first ever AEW tag team champions.

You know, the match obviously hasn't happened yet. It will after this airs. But how does it feel sitting here knowing that that's in front of you? Man, I obviously had no idea that I was going to end up here. It's an amazing opportunity to even just have this chance, whether we win or we lose, just the fact that we were in the finals. And you always remember the first. And no matter what, we're going to make history.

We're either going to be the first AEW world tag team champions ever, or the history books will show that the Lucha Brothers became the first ever AEW tag team champions by beating SCU. So we're going to be a part of history regardless. I hope we're going to be a part of the former. I didn't know it was possible to just say SCU. I thought it was, S to you.

Yeah, I mean, that's really the accurate way to it. We can do that. We can do that every time we say, yes to you. Yeah. No,

why not? S. This has completely changed the trajectory of your career, hasn't it? It has. Yeah, it's amazing. And like I said,

it goes back to the whole the James J. Braddock thing where it's like, all it takes sometimes is one more chance. And for me, you know, I went really,

really hard, as I said, and I ended up getting an opportunity of the, the Ring of Honor, which led to a little bit over a year, about a year and a half there. And that was a great year where we actually formed SCU. And that led to AEW. And, you know, again, like I said, sometimes all it takes is one more chance and that'll change

everything. Whose idea was it to do SCU? I believe Frankie and Chris were looking for a third for a while. And it just so happened that I came into ROH. and had like a tryout, which actually Frankie got for me because he had been trying to get me there for a while. And so I wrestled Kishita, I wrestled Cody. And then the next month I wrestled in an eight man where Nick Jackson got on the microphone after going off the air and demanded R.O.H. sign me. He's like, this guy's been busting his ass for this about a time.

Like R.H. He's the sign him. And the crowd popped for it. And it was in that moment. C.D. and Frankie kind of looked at each other and north like, he's our third. This is it. He's our guy. And so the name SoCal Incensored actually came from Nick Jackson. which is a story we've told before,

but I'll tell it again quickly, is there's a website in Southern California called SoCal Incensored. They've been around for almost 20 years, and they basically just report on SoCal Wrestling. And as a joke or serious or whatever it was, we were all riding in a van, and Nick Jackson's like,

you guys should call yourself SoCal and censored. And we laughed about it. We're like, that's funny. And then CD hated it. He was like, he would try to come up with other ideas. He was like, what about SoCal executive? And Nick Jackson would be like, Nope. SoCal uncensored. That's it. That's the day. So eventually he pitched it to ROH and they loved it. And so everyone reached out to the website. SoCal uncensored and they were like, oh, absolutely. Yeah, I love those guys. Please use the name. And that's how we became what we are. Because they could have been like, yeah, you can. It'll cost this amount of money or something like that. They could have been. They've watched all of us throughout our careers. The main guy, his name is Steve. And he's a great guy. And he wanted to see us succeed. So to his credit.

Shout out to you, Steve. Shout out to Steve. Yeah, thank you. Was the worst town I've ever been in just like classic heel heat to begin with? No. Really, it was it, it almost kind of came from a real place because, you know, again, we would always go through these travel. And this is when the Young Bucks and SDU, we were all traveling together.

So we'd always go through these traveling trials and tribulations doing these overnights. And most of the time then, you know, we've got the luxury of leaving an extra day early now. Most of the time then, it was fly all night. go through your delays and yada yada and then straight to the building for roh so we were always in a lousy mood of like oh here we are in lull massachusetts this place sucks i can't wait to get back home and um eventually matt jackson was like i want to put you guys on bTE and uh have you basically just do this and uh and then you know we were like oh heck yeah we're we're down we wanted to get on the show anyway and uh so they just put a camera on us and we did it and i basically said i was like

i'm going to let you guys be creative and i'm going to say the same thing every time. I'm just going to say, this is the worst time I've been in every time, and I said, hopefully it'll catch on. And it's funny, you go back and watch the original ones.

I'm very, like, subdued with it. I'm just like, this is the worst town I've ever been in. And then eventually it becomes, this is, you know, so it's kind of how it is. But now you guys are along the same lines

as the other tag teams who have had the phrases that the crowd can kind of chant along with. You know, we got, you know, the New Age Outlaws, Big Cass and Enzo had their thing for a while. So now you guys, like when your music hits,

the crowd's like, yes, we can get into this now. Yeah, it's funny. It all in last year. It was one of the first times we had a big crowd actually say the lines with us. And then I think that was the first time Frankie hit the, you know, I got three letters I like to say, if you say him, you know, make my day. And we went to the back and everyone was like, oh, that was so great.

That was so great. And Billy Gunn was there. And I said, we're just going to be the New Age Outlaws from now on. And he's like, you should, why not? And we ran into Road Dog a few weeks ago in the airport. And that was, I believe, my first time meeting him. And I didn't do it. But after he left, I told Frank and Chris, I should have said,

nice to meet you. I'm enjoying stealing your gimmick. Maybe next time. The fact, though, that you can be self-aware of that, though, is okay. Because I think there'd be a lot of tag teams that are like, no, I mean, we're just doing our own thing and the crowd just seems to like it. Nope, completely ripping them off. in our own way, you know, everything's kind of a rip-off.

I mean, you can look at things like Daniel Bryan's, yes, yes, yes. I mean, that came from Diego Sanchez and the UFC. So, you know, everything comes from something. And sometimes you just have to take it and make it yours. I listen to Jericho's podcast about the origins of Little Bit of the Bubly. And he went down this whole road of all the lines that he had had that had caught on. And all of them had origins somewhere else. Oh, yeah.

A little bit of the bubbly was actually a line from Dumb and Dumber. Oh, yeah. A little bit of a bubbly. Yeah. There it is. Yeah. It's everything. And a lot of it is you're just trying to pop the voice.

A lot of it is you're just trying to make your friends laugh because you're all tired and you're all, you know, just trying to get through the day. And you just, sometimes you just want to make people laugh. And then the fans catch on and they like it. So going back to the Cinderella Man story, you had some opportunities in WW. You had some opportunities in TNA. Did you feel like those were opportunities that you squandered or that time wasn't right? A little bit of both actually. So with TNA, I came in.

Well, first they tried to bring me in the year before and I had signed some lousy contract with another company that wouldn't let me out of it. So I couldn't do that. And then the year later, they actually did bring me in. And I did two TVs, I believe. And then I did three matches on pay-per-view. And I thought, it was like, wow, okay, you know, this is going really well. Everyone's complimenting me. Everyone's like, this is great.

Dixie's telling me, great job. And Eric Bischoff. And I'm sitting at home waiting for a text or a call or something for a contract offer and it never came. And then, uh, WWE called me a few weeks later to, uh, do, uh, a tryout and also do this, uh, backstage skit with Kane and Daniel Brian, which, which I did. And, uh, at the time, there was some sort of lawsuit going on between WWE and, uh, TNA. I think TNA was suing them

and it was like a talent thing. Someone from TNA went to WV and they had insider info on contracts. So anyways, everybody that had worked TNA recently, like Sean Ricker and I believe El Generico, they were cut from the trial. They basically called them and told them don't show up. And I didn't get that call.

I showed up and this was the trial that Bailey got signed at. And so I show up and I'm in a suit and I get pulled aside immediately by, Canyon Seaman and he's just like, hey, I don't know how it slipped through our cracks. We just got to let you know that, you know, you did TNA like a month ago and we can't touch you right now and please don't talk to the dirt sheets about this. And, and, but yeah, we love you. We just can't use you.

Can't touch you right now. So I was like, oh, okay, well, you know, two days ago, I just filmed some stuff for Raw with Kane and Daniel Bryan. He's like, that has nothing to do with me. That's not my call. And I was like, okay. And so I go home and the Canaan and Daniel Brian. stuff kind of blew up. And then maybe a month later, one of the ladies that works in the office

called me and she asked, she was like, hey, we're thinking about bringing you to Stanford to do some more of these skits. Are you available? And I said, sure, I'd love to do it. And they said, okay, well, before we perceived, I need to know what is your relationship with TNA. I said, have no relationship. I fulfilled all my dates. I never signed anything. I'm completely as, I'm as free as a bird. And they said, okay. And then I never heard back from them. So that's stuff that was out of my control. What I squandered myself was a couple of months after that, you know, I had some some bad decisions that I made where I said some things on Twitter that I shouldn't

have said that that were very, very inappropriate and ignorant, actually. And that came off as homophobic. And that's like a very down. point of my career, something I look back on with a lot of regret. And at the same time, though, I learned a lot from it. And, you know, I definitely can look back here where I are. This is almost, you know, going on 10 years later. I've learned a lot from it.

And I am definitely a different person now than I was then. And I learned that there's certain language that is completely unacceptable. And not only in the public eye, but in your personal life as well. And so, you know, it is a situation, again, that I'm very embarrassed about and I look back with a lot of regret. But at the same time, I learned from it and became a better person and a more understanding person. And yeah, I mean, that's that. But the fact that you can learn from that, though, and grow from that, that's the real lesson learned here. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I think if I can show that people can grow and learn and become a better person and change. And, you know, I think I still see tweets every once in a while where someone's like, ah, this guy's that. And, you know, I can't do anything about it. You know, there was a situation where not too long after we signed with AEW, someone tweeted at Nila Rose and Sunny Kiss. And they said, how do you feel about having this guy on the company? And, you know, I don't care if someone takes a shot at me,

but to try to make someone else feel unlawful. uncomfortable I thought was kind of a real low shot. So I reached out to them. This is, you know, I didn't really know them that well at the time, but I reached out to them and I said, hey, I had some things that I said, you know, almost 10 years ago that were, that I'm very embarrassed about. And, and, you know, it was very ignorant and, and very inappropriate. And I'm a different person today than I was then. And I never want you to feel uncomfortable around me. And we can always talk.

And they couldn't have been more understanding. and open and in my corner. And to this day, the three of us are just great close friends. Did those tweets affect your relationship with WWE? Oh, absolutely. WWE responded to it because there was a guy that basically saw the tweets and he screen capped him and he sent them to every company I had worked for at that time. He sent him to every single company and said, this guy needs to be gone.

This is 2011, I think, something like that. And, and so, you know, WWE responded and they said that, you know, we're, you know, we don't back this and we, you know, have an anti-bullying campaign, yada, yada, yada, and which they had to say, you know, but they called me a year later. I worked for him a year later on accident. I don't think they remembered or whatever, but whatever it was, you know, like I said, I don't, I don't hold any animosity towards that. You know, I'm the one that made a mistake. I screwed up. And, you know, that's sad. It's a part of the story.

Sure. When you look at, you know, these opportunities that didn't happen with WWE or TNA, did you go, oh, man, if those didn't happen, what am I going to do? You know, am I going to work this other job for the rest of my life? I clearly wasn't ready then. You know, I was younger. It was actually a really tough time. When all of that was happening, my mom was battling cancer.

And I was basically just taking care of her every day. and I was just going through a lot of personal issues at that time. So, you know, if I had signed, I wouldn't have been able to handle it because I was kind of a nutcase at the time, which also played a role in, you know, me spinning out of control at the time. And, and there were, you know, they were just really, it was a really dark time for me. And so it wouldn't have worked out. It's important to look at those mistakes. And we all have mistakes in our life, you know, varying different degrees. It's important to look at those and go, I messed up there and here's how I can be better.

And here's how I can move on from that. The tough thing is a lot of times people don't want to give any second chances. And, you know, it's one of those things where it's like, hey, you know, I just ask people to judge me on my behavior since and going forward. You know, it's been almost 10 years. And, you know, I can't say it enough. I'm a different person. And I look back and those two. tweets, I embarrassed myself. I embarrassed my family. And, uh, you know, it's, it's one of those things

where I'm going to have to live with it for the rest of my life. I'm going to look back when I'm 70 years old and, and the same way I look back now and I say, what was I think, what an idiot, you know, and not, not an idiot for saying it publicly, but for an idiot for just saying it. Sure. Or, you know, like you shouldn't. And basically, I haven't really even been specific. Basically, I used the F word. And, uh, it wasn't, uh, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, wasn't like one of those things where it was like, oh, it wasn't directed at the community. It was just basically using it in passing the way you would use bitch or something like that. However, that is wrong in itself. That's something that you definitely, you just can't do. There's so much

pain that I've learned. There's so much pain and anguish behind that word and people that have really, really suffered the same way, you know, my people have suffered. And, and I like to think about it as we, you know, we are all, um, human beings and, and, and, and if your people suffer, then my people suffer. And we're all, you know, we're all in this together. And life is hard enough. We don't need to make it harder on each other. So it's, uh, you know, I, I know I'm kind of going off on a rant here. No, this is, it's, it's important. The fact that you can even address this, I think, that shows that you're a big enough person to go, yeah, I made this mistake. And that's okay.

You know, we've moved on from that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fortunately, the fans have been unbelievable. And,

you know, it's, it's incredible. And, you know, only thing I could do is move on and be a positive example going forward. When you say my people, what do people,

what ethnicity do people think you are when they look at you? Black, right? Well, I guess. Yeah. But, you know,

yes. But I think other people can be like, oh, you know, you could have some Indian in you or something like that, you know? Yeah. I mean, I feel like everyone is mixed with, I guess, yeah.

With, you know, a lot of things. I mean, my family is definitely very, very mixed, but yeah. But both your parents are African-American? Yeah, both my parents are, they're both, you know, have different ethnicities, but yeah, they're both African-American. When you were growing up, who were the wrestlers that you really aspired to be like or really looked up to? Brett Hart.

Brett Hart, they hit Matt Hart, man. Brett Hart was my all-time favorite wrestler ever. I became Sean Michaels guy. as well. Wait, you can't be a Sean Michael's guy and a Brett guy. I know. I know. I know.

There's always Brett guys and there's Sean guys. I was definitely a Brett guy. I liked Sean a lot. You know what's funny, too, is because when Brett was, or when Sean was going to face Brett at WrestleMania 12, I felt, I was like, Sean Michaels deserves the WWF championship. I hope he wins. But then when I ordered to pay for you and the match started, I could not cheer for him. I was like, oh, no, Brett.

I want Brett. I know Brett was going to lose, but I wanted him. Brett to win. And then obviously Montreal stuff happened and I was off Sean for a little while. But when he came back, I think, uh, like post back injury Sean and like baggy pants, Sean, I think he's the best Sean ever, to be honest with you. Really? Oh yeah. I think he was better with the baggy pants than he ever was, even in his prime. He was so good. He was more technical and his matches made more sense. Wow. Yeah, he told a better story. I guess he matured. Yeah. He was just smarter, I think. Younger Sean, I feel like could do it all.

He could, but sometimes I think he took risks and did things that he didn't need to and that didn't. I think when you're older, like Sean, and you have an injury, you have to use your mind more. It's just like a fighter, right? Bernard Hopkins, he fought until he was 50 years old. Okay, did he have the punching power and the speed that he had when he was 30 years old? No. So he had to figure out other ways to beat his opponents. And so with Sean, as he got older and his back was.

injured. He couldn't take all of the bumps that he used to take. He had to be smarter and find ways to make this match mean more without putting his body in such jeopardy. And I think the matches did mean more. I think if you look at his matches post back injury, they're far better than his matches. Yeah, if you look at the matches he did with Kurt Engel, the matches he did with Triple H, the matches he did with the Undertaker. I mean, those matches are some of the best he's ever had. Do you think that he could have one more match in him? Oh, man. Well, he's did wrestle recently right in a tag match or something yeah i mean and he took some bumps from ziegler yeah he was doing that he probably could uh you know i don't know if he wants to though i mean he's

it comes a time where it's like you just let it go again going back to bernard hopkins like you know just let it go you know like i although bernard hopkins said he might fight again and i'd watch it against roy jones jr if he did but yeah i don't want him getting in there with a killer you know that sort of thing but yeah i was a brett guy going back to it uh brett guy growing up i loved Sean later on. Kurt Angle became one of my favorites, AJ's styles. I love all these guys.

Do you think about life after wrestling? Like you're still, you're very much in your prime right now and you're hitting your stride, but do you think of about 10 or 15 or maybe 20 years from now? Yeah. Yeah. I would like to work behind the scenes,

hopefully with AEW in about 10 or 15 years. I think I've got 10 or 15 years left in the ring. You look at Christopher Daniels. And I mean, he's got 15 years on you, right? Yeah, yeah, he's got 15 years on me. So, yeah. So I think I can go another, maybe 10, maybe 10. That guy amazes me.

Oh, me too. He's a machine. I'll tell you, he's a machine. So I travel with him. He never, he's never hungry. He never has to go to the bathroom. He's never tired. He's literally a robot.

You know, Frankie and I, like, we got to go to the bathroom. He's like, cool. He'll just wait outside for us. We'll be super sleepy and he's wide awake, just walking around. We'll be starving. Oh, can we get some food? He's like, I'm good, yeah, but we'll stop for it. It's like, he just doesn't eat.

He's a terminator. Wow. Yeah, he's a Terminator. Huh. How does he do it? He's a Terminator. Wow. It's crazy because he is one of the best to ever step foot inside a squared circle.

If you look at it, he works for ECW, WCW. I believe he's done some, at least some dark matches with WWE, impact, Ring of Honor, and now AEW. And I think there's only one other guy. that's done all of that with the exception of impact, when that's Chris Jericho. Wow. That's still active. Yeah.

What have you learned from Daniels in the ring? Oh, man. I've learned a lot about tag team wrestling from both of them, both Frankie and Chris. Like I felt like my tag team wrestling was decent before I teamed with them, but it's just at another level. And also being able to wrestle guys like the Young Bucks and the briskos. And just I've learned so much about.

tag team wrestling and now it's easy. Like we can kind of almost do it in our sleeps. But there's just a formula and, you know, there's just the timing and being with those guys for like the last two years, I believe it is. I mean, there's no coincidence that I've become the performer I am today. I mean, I think I'm far better than I was a couple of years ago. And I think I'm going to continue to get better. So it's all credit to those guys. Do you think, is there any talk of doing trios matches?

I mean, you guys are a trio. Jurassic Express is a trio. Well, I think that's something we're always going to be able to go to is a trios match. You know, there's Jurassic Express, like you said, there's Best Friends and Orange Cassidy. That's right, yeah. There's Young Bucks and Kenny. Yeah. There's six men out there that we can run with, and I think we will eventually.

Yeah. Well, I mean, when you look ahead, obviously looking ahead tonight, the first things the tag team titles. What else do you still want to accomplish in your career? You get 17 years behind you, maybe 17 more in front of you. Maybe, I don't know. I don't know about 17.

Okay, just 16. But I've got a lot I want to accomplish. You know, especially now at AEW, I feel like a newborn baby, you know, in their 30s. But there's so much I want to accomplish. I won. I want to be a tag team champion.

I always loved tag team wrestling from the time I was a child. and to be able to win a tag team championship and one of the biggest companies in the world would be a dream come true. So that's something I want to accomplish. And eventually, you know, I would like to branch off and be a singles guy as well and still do SCU.

But I would like to, I want to wrestle in big matches against guys like Cody against Jericho against Pock, you know. And those are the big names, you know, Moxley and Kinney. And there's so many. guys I think I'd like to get up there and have great matches with and on the highest level. And, you know, these are the things I've dreamed about as a kid. And now I've got an opportunity to make them happen. Isn't it crazy that it all started? You were a masked wrestler when you started. It was. And it's, look how far, you know, it's come. Well, you know, there was a time where they

thought I was a good looking guy and that's why they said I should lose the mask. But now, as I, you know, I did a couple years of MMA and wrestling has taken its toll. And I was like, looking at myself before I came over here in the mirror and I was like, God, I look rough and tired today. Sometimes I want to put that mask back on. That's a shoot. I'm not joking when I say that. No. Oh, yeah. You can't hide this. Come on. Sometimes I want to, man. Sometimes. What is MMA taught you about being a pro wrestler? You know, it, uh, it, uh, it, I think it's helped me portray the competition side of pro wrestling.

because now that I know what it's like to go through a training camp and to prepare for a fight and the nerves that you have and the way you feel, I can actually use that in pro wrestling. And I can say, oh, how would my character feel at this moment when he's walking to the ring? Well, I can go back to the way I felt when I was walking to the cage. And it's like you're confident, but you're nervous and you're anxious and you've got these butterflies in your stomach. And you just want to get in there and have a punch thrown at you so you can lock in on the moment.

And so it's like I can use all that in pro wrestling, you know, and it helps create that big match feel. And I love the fact that things have kind of blurred between pro wrestling and MMMA, because now they use that term in wrestling, big fight feel. And there's nothing like that big fight feel, man. You know, when you're watching,

I don't know if you're a fight fan. Yeah, I am. When you're watching, you know, whoever it is, whether it be, you know, go back to the old days, Mike Tyson or currently you say Connor McGregor or Anderson Silver or whoever, and it's like the guy's walking in the ring. And let's say you're a big fan. You're like, oh, God, please do well, please do well.

I love that feel. Yeah. And if we can give other people that feeling, then that's amazing. When you guys are walking to the ring, you've had some interesting costumes over the last little while. Whose idea is that? Or is it a collective? It's collective. You guys like a group chat, you know, when you're not face-to-face with each other? Oh, God. I have, we, we are a part of maybe five different group chats labeled SCU. We've got one with, uh, yeah, we've got the one that's actually just Frankie and Chris and I. And that one's actually not even labeled, but we have one with like the Young Bucks.

and we've got one with the social media people of AEW, and we've got one with the merchandise people of AEW, and we've got one with this person. We've got one with Brandon Cutler because his wife does our gear, and so they're all labeled SCU. So it gets a little confusing sometimes. So you try to change it to where this one's SCU, and this one's SCU, and this one's SCU,

and this one's like. Is one of them the worst group chat you've ever been in? No, but maybe I shouldn't name it. Yeah. That's a good idea. Yeah, there you go. That's a really good idea. Do you have some costume ideas that you guys haven't done yet that we might see maybe at full gear or, you know, in the next little while?

I've got one idea that I really want to do that I'm not going to reveal it. But I'm very excited to do it. I'm just looking for the right time to do it. All right. But we always try to do something. When we did double or nothing, we went with a black base with like red, white, and blue trim on there. And that was basically because, you know, when we did all in, I wore the red, white, and blue creed tights. And that was kind of a big, everyone kind of really liked that.

And so we're like, let's do a spinoff of that. Let's wear our regular black base, but let's do red, white, and blue. And that was kind of cool. And then when we did Jacksonville, we had gear designed to look in the colors of the Jacksonville Jaguars, which actually were on TV last week as well. And we're going back to Jacksonville in January, so we'll probably. wear it again. But yeah, there's always some sort of idea that we have. We've got an idea for tonight as well.

We're going to be, I guess, spoiler alert, you'll already see it by then. We're going to be wearing black with yellow and white tonight, which is basically like rocky colors. Oh, yeah. We're big Rocky fans, Frankie and I. And so we kind of consider ourselves like the underdogs going into this. And so, which is the comfortable place to be,

just like Rocky Balboa. And we're going for the world championship. And so we're wearing rocky colors. I was really surprised to find out that you had been on the Steve Harvey show. Oh, yeah. Is this clip out there? Twice. Twice.

Twice. Wow. Yeah, I was on dating, dating segments. I was asked to be part of that. Were you? A Steve Harvey dating segment. I'm like, I think I'm okay. We'll leave that to Scorpio.

You know what's funny is the first time. So we did this questionnaire. And it was like, basically, they'll ask the girl questions and she'll answer. And basically, like, let's say, do you like peanut butter or almond butter? It's just an example, right? And so she'll say, I like almond butter. So every guy on the panel that chose peanut butter is excused. Right.

And so Steve would say, okay, number 29, number 15, number 8, number 7, you're eliminated, right? So I got down to, I believe, four of us. And she asked whatever the question was, and I had answered correctly. and there was the guy next to me, he answered incorrectly, but Steve called my number to be a limit. He was like, oh, right, 50. He's not so good. He got it wrong again.

And both him and I looked at each other like, what? And he's like, oh, whatever. And I just slept because they told us if anything like that happens, just leave. Oh, because they knew that Steve wouldn't read the cards correctly. And the next time it was. The next time it was literally, I think it was just three of us sitting next to the girl and she would just specifically ask us questions. And it got down to two of us, me and another guy, and she chose the other guy.

And you get paid for these appearances, right? Yeah. Yeah. Next time I'm demanding that I'm going to be the main person. Yes. The next time it's like, no, you bring on people to date me. Yeah, that's right. I'm not taking three L's.

Did anything, I mean, that's national exposure. And a lot of people watch Steve Harvey's show. Did anything come of it? Besides rejection? No, no, a check came. That's about it. I think they were trying to pitch it to me as like, well, you know, we've got a lot of viewers. This could lead to other roles or other possibilities.

No, not for me. Well, you know, I was like, I don't think that that's going to happen. You're a better looking guy than I am. I don't know about that. I just might have more hair. You could be on like The Bachelor. Oh, I don't know about that. Yeah.

Are you single? No, not anymore. Oh, okay. Then you can't be on The Bachelor. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm single. Then you could be on The Bachelor. Maybe. I heard there's never been a Black Bachelor.

So maybe. I haven't watched the show enough, but here you go. No, they could use Kenny King. He was on The Bachelorette. That's right. Yeah, so they could use him. I don't think I'd do well on The Bachelor. Why not?

Just dating that many with it it was. I don't have the time, man. I wouldn't be able to like, like, they're so good at, like, breaking the news to the girl. I wouldn't be good at that. I'd just be like, I'm sorry, Tiffany. Yeah, I'd be like, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, you. Like I wouldn't be able to do it. I'd feel so bad.

It's hard to break up with someone. Right. And then you got to do it on national television. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But we're putting it out there. Maybe you could find.

I mean, I'll maybe do it if they asked me nicely. And if the bag was right, if the bag is right. If the bag is right. It would be a good bag, I would have to be a good bag. I think it would be a good bag. I had Tesla on the show earlier. She's one of my favorites.

Completely unrelated to what we were just talking about. But she talked about the match that you guys had. Oh, yeah. And said, that she'd love to wrestle you again, sometime, somewhere, maybe. Yeah, I want her here. I've actually, I've been pretty open about it.

I think she's the best women's wrestler in the world. She's one of the best wrestlers. And I was just going to say, and one of the best wrestlers I've ever been in the ring with, honestly, she's phenomenal, you know? And so the fact that she's not with WWE, I know she's with impact, and I don't know, I'm sure she's very happy there,

but I, and I have nothing to do with it. This is me as just, you know, wrestler talking. I would love to have her here with AEW. And I think this would be a great place for her. Yeah. And look, she's going to succeed no matter where she knows. Of course, no matter what. But why not succeed in a place where you're also working?

Yeah, yeah. And then I know AEW is not really a big intergender wrestling thing or fan. But, I mean, who knows what would happen? Tess and I have had two matches. We're one and one. So, you know, maybe we do one more. We'll see. When did you start to realize?

that things were changing, maybe it was AEW catching on. Like when were you starting to get recognized more in airports or restaurants or whatever? You know, when was that, when did that change really start to happen? You know, it was right after we announced the company and I was in my city, which is a very small city, which I won't reveal because it is a very small city. It's the worst city you've ever been in. No, no, it's back home to Seoul. It's one of the best.

So I was in my little town. It's a very small town. and I don't even know if anybody there watches wrestling or I didn't think. And I was just in a restaurant hanging out just like I normally always do. I'm always out in my little downtown area every week. And one of the guys working at the restaurant came up to me. And he was just like, hey, I'm really excited for what you guys are going to do. No way.

And I was like, wow, that's great. And then so next thing you know, it was like, I'm at 7-Eleven, a few days later. And someone's like, oh, my God, are you Scorpio's guy? And I'm like, yeah, can I take a picture? And the guy behind the counter's like, what's happening here? You know, that's the weirdest thing I think about. like being in this little middle stage where I'm at where it's like you know if Tom Cruise wherever he goes he gets recognized John Cena you know these guys I'm in this place where it's like

I'm I'm still a normal guy but to certain people that run into me it's like they're like oh you know so so the people that are around me are just like what's happening here I don't know who is this guy you know so it's fun it's like cool it's really it's a lot of fun I enjoy it AW's making wrestling cool again I feel like oh yeah you know it's a as a matter of fact Frankie and I were in a bar, a sports bar right next door last night. And I'm pretty sure they didn't recognize us, but I heard a couple of guys working behind the bar talking about AEW. They're like, oh, yeah, it's a big show tomorrow, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Maybe they brought it up because of us. I don't know. But, like, you know, I've been in my gym and I've seen commercials, and the guy that works behind the counter at my gym is a huge wrestling fan, and he watches us every week and just stuff like that. It's, it's, I won't say it's becoming mainstream yet, but I think it's possibly on the way. It's definitely cool again.

It used to be like, yeah, no, I watch, I watch wrestling. And like your friends would be like, you watch wrestling? Yeah. Now it's like, yeah, I mean, it's a respectable form of entertainment, I like to think, you know. And there's like, there's so many like stars in sports and entertainment that are fans of wrestling. And then if you look at the rock, I mean, he's one of the biggest stars in the world. He came from wrestling. Yeah.

So it's, you know, I think it's becoming a respectable form of entertainment. Yeah. I've, uh, is there anything else we need to add? I've really enjoyed this. This has been fun, man. This has been fun. Yeah, I don't know. I think that's, uh, I think we've covered a lot.

We had, we had, uh, room service or not room service. Uh, housekeeping knocking the door. It was out of focus for a little while. So thank you for sticking with us. Probably better for me if it's out of focus, honestly, that day. What do you stop this? I'm just kidding. Thank you so much, brother.

Thank you, man. I really appreciate it. Yeah, appreciate it. Appreciate you. Thank you guys. Well, there you have it, my friend, Scorpio, Sky. And here I am recording this, still wondering what his day job was. Aren't you? Aren't you wondering what his day job was?

I mean, it's a little suspect that he's not revealing. I mean, was he a male stripper? Hmm. You were a male stripper. You'd own that, right? In any case, big thank you to Scorpio for doing the interview. Thank you to you for hanging out with us and giving this a listen. Take a screenshot.

Tag me, tag Scorpio. Let us know what you think of this. this one, share with a friend. Spread the word. I personally love his Cinderella man reference and how much of himself that he sees in that story. And I love the idea that if you keep working at something, you keep making that progress, you're able to look back at it and see how far that you've come. I mean, it's very hard within the moment to see the progress you've made without looking back at it. So congratulations to Scorpio for everything that he's doing. I mean, coming up on a 20-year career, here, 17 years into the business, and now he's hitting his stride here in his mid-30s.

You know, the future is very bright for him. Thanks for bearing with me during this interview as I forgot to hang the Do Not Disturb thing on the door. Can't believe I did that again. Happened during the TjP interview, which you can also listen to and you'll see. They're like, housekeeping. Yeah, sorry about that. Since Scorpio loves Cinderella Man in the story so much, I took a quote from Cinderella Man I'm going to leave you with. And it's something that when I heard this and when I reread it here,

it was really powerful to me. Maybe sometimes people need to see someone do it so they can do it themselves. It's true, right? Sometimes you need to see that something is possible to know that you can do it yourself. So whatever that is in your life, whatever that is in your job, in your career, and your relationships, whatever it is personally or professionally, know that it is possible because someone else is doing it. So there we go. Enjoy your day. Thank you for enjoying this chat.

And we'll talk to you soon. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do with rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand.

He's the. spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it, but get up in here. The Jim Rome show podcast. What should be? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.