Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Scorpio Sky Explains His AEW Absence, TNT Champion, Ethan Page & Men Of The Year, Chris Jericho

Episode Date: July 25, 2024

Scorpio Sky (@ScorpioSky) is a professional wrestler currently signed to AEW. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood to talk about his absence from TV and how he is ready to return to the ring, being a 2-time TNT Champion, his custom LA Lakers title, being a part of Sting's first live match in AEW, handing Chris Jericho his first loss in AEW, throwing Darby Allin down a flight of stairs, his time in WWE as part of the anger management segments with Daniel Bryan and Kane as "Harold", whether there were ever any plans to do more in WWE and more! Quote I'm thinking about: "Who you are becoming is more important than you who have you been" - Hal Elrod Sponsors: PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank which was designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/ PRIZEPICKS: Download the app today and use code INSIGHT for a first deposit match up to $100! TIMELINE NUTRITION: Save 10% off your first order of Mitopure at http://timeline.com/INSIGHT BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv BLUECHEW: Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at http://plunge.com For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CBV, Chris Van Vleet. Oh, thank you so much for being with us on this one. And thank you for helping to make Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. I know a lot of you already follow the show, but it's crazy that according to the stats, the majority of people listening right now don't follow the show. So, if that's you, I am calling you out.

No, seriously, I know it seems so small and so, insignificant. I bring it up all the time. But following the show really does help so much. Just clicking that follow button, not just on my show, but on any podcast that you listen to. Same goes for YouTube. Clicking subscribe and leaving a comment or liking the video is the best and also the easiest and cheapest way to support any creator that you like. So I appreciate you. Thank you in advance for doing that. It's been a while since we had Scorpio Sky on the show. It's also been a while since we saw him in a wrestling ring. It was October of last year.

He wrestled in Ring of Honor. And then September was the last time we saw him doing anything for AEW. He wrestled on collision. They've been airing these Scorpio Sky vignettes recently, teasing a return. Looks like he has a new character there. He tells me all about that in this conversation and what that character may look like.

And he says he's ready for a return, which could happen really any day now. And I think people sleep on just how talented Scorpio Sky is. He's an AEW original, won the inaugural AEW tag team championships with Frank Xerian. He won the face of the revolution ladder match. He's a two-time TNT champion. He's had so amazing matches. I can't wait to see him back in the ring.

Snap a screenshot and tag us so we can share this out on social media. He's at Scorpio Sky on Instagram. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. and let's do it. Enjoy this conversation with Scorpio Sky. It has been far too long. Man, when was the last time? It was like, it was over. It was during like the world being shut down.

So it was like three years ago. Yeah. And is that when we did it like in the hotel or something? That was that was the very first episode of dynamite. That's right. Then we did one over Zoom right after you and SCU broke up. That's right. But yes, wow, the very first episode of Dynamite,

which was I was on. Yeah. I was like, hey, what are you doing after the show? I'm going to come by my hotel and we can do this thing. Yeah.

Wow. That was a lot of fun. That was cool. It's been a long time. So we're going on three years or so years. I think so. Well, thanks for having me back. Man,

always good to see you. Good to be seen. Where you been? That's been the question. You know, I guess I've been in and out over the last couple of years. Some of it has been due to injury.

Some of it due to bad luck. One thing I will say is like there's like a narrative out that I'm just like this injury prone guy that's like he's gone for a long time and he comes back and he gets hurt again and he gets hurt. That's actually not the case. So I'm actually glad I want to be able to address that. I did get hurt about two years ago and but I was okay and within like a couple of weeks. But the problem is when you fall out of the rotation, we have so much talent that it's hard to get back in the rotation. and, you know, I almost compare it to like a ferris wheel, right? You're up at the top at one point, but you know you're going to go down and you kind of have to wait your turn to get back up there.

And that's a little bit of what it happens. So I have had a couple of injuries over the last few years, but for the most part, I've been healthy for 80%. So you're not injured right now? Oh, no. I mean, like I feel great right now, actually. Yeah. But it's been since last year, since we saw you in an AEW. ring of honor ring yeah so what's been going on i think it's just like i was saying it's it's really

tough to get back into the rotation because we have so much talent there's always talent coming in that you know it's almost out of sight out of mind in a way um best way i can describe it yeah i'm eager to get back into the ring though and and and you know flex my muscles a little bit i'm in really good shape. I'm working out with Cesar and I'm excited and not only in AEW, I want to get back on the indie scene because I haven't done the Indies in a number of years. And so, you know, that would be a really fun thing for me to kind of go back to my roots and, you know, see who's out there, see who's the hot names and go and have some bangers with them. What was the injury you had two years ago? I heard my knee two years ago is when I had the T&T title somewhere along that I don't even remember

what match it was. But somewhere in there is I think it was one of our multi-man matches when we were working against Sammy. And I just, I don't even remember what the exact diagnosis was, but it wasn't anything too crazy. All I needed was about five or six weeks. I got some PRP and I was good to go after that. But it was just right after that happened is when brawl out happened. So, you know, everything kind of turned upside down after that. So I kind of moved. to the back burner and, you know, there was a lot of things that needed to get worked out, not involving me, and I understood that. So this was a nagging knee injury. Like you weren't able to say, oh, it was in this exact match and this move that caused it. No, it was weird. It was,

it just started bothering me. And it, it would have a good day and I'd have a bad day and, and, and sometimes it would hurt and sometimes it wouldn't. And I just kept working through it. And it was only a span of a month or so where this was happening. And then in a match I had with Dante, It just went, boom. And I thought I actually tore my, like, growing muscle in the actual match. Wow. I didn't know it was my knee. It actually felt like it was my growing.

And so I finished the match on them, but I'm, like, hobbling around. And I go to the doctor after, and I find out that, like, oh, no, like, you know, yeah, you kind of strained your growing, but it's actually your knee. And, but it's nothing crazy. We just do a little bit of, you know, treatment and get some PRP. And that helped a lot. and haven't had a problem since, which is nice. Did things feel different after brawl out and everything that happened around that? You know, I wasn't there for it.

So, like, that happened in September and I didn't come back until June, something like that, when collision started. So I missed all of it. I don't really, obviously, I wasn't there for the actual event. I wasn't there for the aftermath. I wasn't there for the buildup to it. So I can really even speak for how it was. So there was this vignette that aired in May.

I'm talking about like, yeah, I've been out, but I'm back. I'm better than ever now. When will we see you back in a ring? That's a really good question. That was in May. And as we record this is July. I'm ready. I'm ready.

You know, I think we're just waiting for the right opportunity, you know, for the right situation. Again, it's, it's, there are a lot of guys. There are a lot of guys. in the company and people coming in all the time. And obviously our relationship with other companies like New Japan, that provides us extra talent. And so it's just a little tough sometimes to work your way back into the rotation.

You know, it's not unlike, say, basketball or something, right? Like you get injured. You might lose your spot as a starter. And maybe somebody else comes in and they kill it in that spot. And so you come back and it's like, hey, like, we're winning without you, you know? So you got to figure out it. way to get yourself back on the floor. Yeah, but you're not just any guy, right?

This is true. inaugural AEW Tech Team champion, two-time TNT champion, like, you've got a pedigree. So I feel like you could slide back in and it's obvious you can have a great match with anybody in the roster. Yeah, yeah. I mean, speaking arrogantly, yeah, I can. I could have a great match with anybody on the roster. I think that's really one of my strengths is I'm so plug and play.

You know, you can put me in a dark match with local talent. You can put me in the first match against someone that you just want to get a look at, or you can put me in the main event against whoever you want. And I'm going to kill it every time. That's one thing that I kind of hang my hat on and I'm very proud of that I'm plug and play and I can kind of shape shift to whatever role I need to be, whether it's a heel or a face or whatever it needs to be. I've just kind of taught myself to be flexible because when I first got into the wrestling business, my trainer taught me like learn every style, learn as much as you can because you never know what the promoter might want. They might want a guy that can work with a lucha guy, or they might want a guy that can do the American style or it can do a high flyer, they could be a braw or whatever it is. So just learn so you can be whatever they need to be. And I think I still carry that to this day. You said a few things in that return vignette that I want to key in on here.

You said, after darkness comes the light. What was the darkness you were going through? You know, it's not only recently, but in my life in general, have been circumstances I've had to overcome, you know. I, I've had injuries in the past. I've had personal things, you know, I lost both of my parents in the same year in 2014. That was a really tough time and a dark time that I had to get through. I had, you know, I struggled to get through even just the Indies, right?

Like, there was a time where I was like, okay, this isn't going to work for me. I've tried wrestling for 10 years or whatever it was at that point, and it hasn't clicked yet. So I had a day job that was doing okay, and I was like, I'm just going to quit wrestling and just work this job. And then, boom, out of nowhere, I lost my job. Like, out of nowhere, out of the blue. And I think I was kind of life telling me, like, no, like, try wrestling a little bit longer. Like, this is, at the time, it was tough because it was like, well, what am I going to do?

It was a dark time. but you push through, you push through, and eventually there is light. And one of the things that I want to talk about is they have that expression light at the end of the tunnel. To me, that's easy, right? If you see a light at the end of the tunnel, it's very easy to just keep walking.

Yeah, because you know it's there. You know it's there. What's tough is when you don't know it's there. What's tough is people telling you there's no light there for you, you should turn around and go back. And you say, well, thank you. I respect your opinion.

but I'm going to keep going. Not knowing if it's there and then continuing to walk, that's what's really tough. And that's kind of what I mean when I say after darkness, there's light. And that's also you say in that same video, it's all about faith. And exactly what you're talking about there is faith.

It's knowing that even though I can't see that light, I believe it's there. I know it's there. Absolutely, 100%. So where does it go from here? Is it the same character when we see you back in the ring? What I wanted to do with this is it's not a current, like a big,

repackage. A lot of it is me, right? Like, I am a guy that people talk to when they need motivation or when they need inspiration or they need just advice. I wanted to kind of bring that to television and give that a character and give that a face that's the side of me that people haven't really seen and give myself more of a different look when I came back because, quite frankly, I got a little bored with myself. You know, I've kind of done. the SCU thing and I did the men of the year thing and I've been the baby face and the heel and it's like okay well let's let's really dive into a character and have some fun with it and and I have so many ideas for it I don't want to reveal obviously but you know I don't know if I'm going to get to

do them or not we'll see because obviously you know you come up with a hundred ideas you might do too you know that's just how it is in any form of entertainment but if some of the things that I have in minds does see the light, I think it could be a really interesting character that fans will be interested in whoever he wrestles. And that's kind of the idea of what I want to do. Well, look, your beard has never looked better. God bless you for it. That's for sure. Look at this thing. Incredible. Thank you. Yeah, so it's a, man, that's a slightly different look that maybe is attached to whatever we see here, but it really just comes down to, man. We really want to see you back in the ring. Thank you. I want to get back in the ring. I'm excited, man. I'm telling you, I'm in such

good shape. I feel so strong. And, you know, it's tough going to the gym every day and you're working. You're seeing these results for your body and you're like, I got to cover this up. Like, let me get this out there and stuff. But yeah, I mean, I'm kind of joking when I say that. But, you know, working with Cesar. That's the same guy who got Ethan Page shredded. Yeah. Yeah. He's amazing. He's amazing. He was a talent with AEW. He was part of, was he on the work horseman, I think, or he worked with Peter Avalon, I remember, one of my favorite wrestlers, by the way. But a big, jacked Brazilian guy, and he's like 6'6 or something, and he's just ripped to shreds.

But he knows his stuff, and a lot of people are going to him now. Like, he's kind of the go-to guy, gives you your meal plan, gives you your workouts every day. Because I got to a point where I was, like, bored coming up with what I wanted to work on. You know, like, you go to the gym, you're like, okay, like, I want to do chess today, but, like, What do I want to do? Like, oh, all the benches are taken. Now what do I want to do?

You know, I just got so bored. You know, I got decision fatigue. And so now it's nice to be able to just pull out, oh, this is what I'm doing. Okay, and I can just be a robot. Yeah. This is what I eat. This is what I do.

I don't have to think about it. Yeah. It's nice. Where do you see your career now versus that first conversation we had when AEW was first starting out in 2019? You've accomplished a lot. Where do you see yourself out now? Man.

Come so far since then. When we had that first conversation, we were just getting started. I was learning, like, I knew how to be a television wrestler, but I've learned so much more since, and I'm still learning. And I think I'm very far from hitting my ceiling. Like, I'm getting so much better at this, even without being in the ring, just by watching, just by observing, just by thinking back to things I've done and how I could have done this better and that sort of thing.

Like, I'm improving mentally, even with. without being in the ring physically. And so I think I can do this for a number of more years, you know, five, ten more years if I want to. And I mean, the sky's the limit, for lack of a better term. You know, I think, you know, I'd like to get in there with the top guys, you know, and there's a lot of guys really all over the world that I would like to wrestle. I see guys on our show.

I see guys on WWE. And I'm like, dang, man, that guy would be a really fun guy to wrestle, you know. And so, you know, some of these matches obviously will never happen. you know, most likely. I'm probably never going to wrestle John Cena, right? But who knows? But you never know, but, you know, there's, that was just the name of throwing out there, but there's a lot of talent. And, you know, I get motivated when I see these guys and I want to hang with them. And you can kind of see like, oh, man, like, I'm really good, I think, at bringing the best out of guys. And so I'll see some guys. And I'm just like, let me get my hands on him.

Like I can really just, you know, bring this thing out of him, you know? And that would be, so much fun to do. So again, we're reaching back to, I got to get back in the ring. You know, that's what I'm, that's the ultimate goal is getting back in the ring first, you know, and then, you know, well, everything else will take care of itself. We're the same age. And we're both 41. I, that number to me means nothing at all. There's nothing I can't do now that I couldn't do 10 years ago or 20 years ago. I feel like it's the same for you. But with that said, you also fall and wrestle for a living, right? Yeah. Do you think about, man, if I can only do this for five or ten more years, I've got to make the best of that time.

Of course, but I think these are the best years. When I turned, I think 38, Cody called me on my birthday. He would call me every birthday and we would chat, yada, yada, yada. And he was like, well, how old are you? And I was like, I'm 38. He's like, oh, you're interning your wrestling prime. And I was like, what? He's like, yeah, no, this is wrestler prime, like your late 30s and you're 40s.

and I was just, I didn't even really know what it meant, but through talking to a few other guys, and then figuring it out, it makes so much sense because you're way smarter than you were in your 20s and even early 30s, and you're still physically able to do everything that you could do in your 20s and your early 30s. So I think that's why it is the wrestler prime.

And so, yeah, that mentality is there of like, I want to make the most of whatever time I have left, you know, and it could be 10, it could be 15, you know, could be two, whatever it is. Like, I want to make the absolute most of it, and I want to go out and I want to have bangers. And most of all, I want to tell stories because that's really what interests me about wrestling is storytelling. And putting out entertainment that touches audiences, that makes people like feel something, you know, that's different from a great match, different from a great spot. But when they go home fulfilled because it's like, oh, we really wanted to see this guy do this,

this guy win this, whatever it is. Like it's feel good moments or culminations of stories or you take them on the roller coaster. That's what really gets me excited about wrestling. What's the moment for you that stands out, you know, your favorite story that you've told? Oh, my God. I've told so many good stories. No. Oh, man, there's been.

I'll give you one that pops to my mind. Yeah, okay. Just as a fan. you grabbing the TNT Championship on the ladder, so winning it for the second time, that was a moment. That was a moment. And the crowd was going crazy.

I mean, that matches bonkers. We'll talk a bunch about that, but that's a moment. That was for sure a moment. And I think that we didn't capitalize on that the way we should have. Like, that was kind of,

the thing with Sammy and I is we, the fans in the beginning, he was the baby face, I was the heel. and then they started turning during, and we didn't lean right into that. And at the time, I was thinking, like, I need to probably go baby face here. Like, this is, like, listen to the audience. But that wasn't really the plan.

So it was a little bit of a push and pull type of situation where we probably should have just listened to the audience and said, okay, like, this is where we're going to go. That's how we could have capitalized on that moment. But, yeah, that was absolutely a moment. And the funny thing about that, too, is it ended up making it better. but there was a mess up because Sammy got a little bit rocked in that match. And so when we watched the match, he falls off the ladder onto the barbed wire ladder. That was supposed to be the finish.

Oh. And but like a spot or two before that, he was going to do a springboard up on the ladder and I was going to knock him off. But we skipped it because he was kind of rocked. So we're like, okay, let's get home or whatever. Yeah. So I knock him off the ladder. He hits the barbed wire.

I start climbing. I look, I see him getting up. I'm like, is he getting up? What's he doing? What's he doing? He's supposed to stay down. He's springboards, jumped on the ladder, and he's like, what's next? You're supposed to stay down.

Me winning is next. And he goes, oh, sorry. I was like, it's okay. Just go back down. But it made it better. Because, like, the crowd, after I knocked him down the second time, they were like, oh, we know he's winning this time. So you feel them build, build, build.

And then when I finally grabbed the belt, that's when you had that big explosion. So I'm glad he did it. I'm not happy he got rocked, but I'm glad that mistake took place. So that was my pick for a story. But what's one that pops to mind for you? I usually like the ones where I lose, honestly.

Like, those are those are the ones that really, I mean, I like the ones where I win, but the ones where you can kind of build, build, build up and then lose. those are the really fun ones. What is like, you just brought up one of my favorite ones. Some of them aren't even matches, though, honestly. Like what we did with Sting and Derby, like that was an example of a story that was laid out

and it was executed really cleanly, right? And it built up to a match where we lost. And that was, I was as happy as you could possibly be losing a match, right? Because, again, it was a clear cut, like, their baby faces, we are heels. The fans cheer them. They boo us. And you don't get a lot of that these days where they, like, pick a side and they stay there. And they pick the right side.

Like, they pick the side you want them to pick. And that was one where it was just like, okay, started out with Darby and I. Then I got Ethan's help. Then Sting gets involved. And then we just have this. big feud where we're just doing dastardly thing after dastardly thing after dastardly thing, all leading up to double or nothing where it was the first time after COVID, we had 100% attendance.

Like we were allowed to have full fan attendance. So the people who had been sitting home for a year, they were excited, they were hotter than normal. And we have this match. It stinks first match in seven years or something. His first in-ring return. Because he'd done the cinematic match.

Yeah. But for him to be in a ring and who's his opponent? Yeah, it's us. It's you and Ethan. Yeah, that was one of my favorite matches ever. I have two matches that are my favorite matches I've ever had. And that's one of them. And the cool thing about that was, in the beginning, Sting told us, when I signed here,

it was only to do cinematic matches. Wow. I was never supposed to do an in-ring match. And he's like, but I trust you guys. And so that was like, who, okay. Like, we got to, we can't mess this up. So we, we just did the best we could to obviously protect him, but he's a maniac and wants to do crazy things as well, you know? Yeah, it's not like he was just doing like headlocks and rest spots the whole match.

No, he's diving off the stage. He's like, suplex me on the stage and was just like, are you sure? Okay, you know, he's, yeah, he's a nut. And he was in great shape. We had to talk him and not wearing a shirt. He wanted to wear his shirt. We're like, oh, you're in great shape. Yeah, you're Sting.

Yeah, he's like, I'll wear it out there and take it off. We're like, okay. Darby told me a story that like he had to convince Sting, like, you can do this. Like, you can get back in the ring. You can do it. And he's like, all right, you think I can. Yeah.

It's weird. I think as talent, sometimes you forget who you are. Right? I think we, at all levels, people do it. You know, you can be very confident when you're hot. But like me right now, I can sit here and I can tell you, yeah, I can go in the ring. I can work with any person.

like I'm great. But then when I put on the boots and the gear and I'm backstage and I'm warming up, there's going to be nerves. They're going to be like, damn, can I still do this? Like the doubt creeps in. It's a real thing. You know, Rust especially. And if you imagine, like taking seven years off, he probably did have a lot of doubts.

And that's what made it so cool that he went in there and just did not miss a beat. I mean, like, for one, he's just, he's one of the most popular stars ever. Yeah. Right? So that's always going to be there. And that makes everything easy. If you're over, you don't have to do anything. You can go out there and just move your pinky and everyone's going to go nuts.

But if you can actually go out there and go, it makes it all the better. And he brought it that night. What were the conversations with Stinglike backstage as you're putting this match together? We actually went to his house probably a week prior because we just wanted him to be very comfortable. And so Ethan and I on our day off, we were like, we'll go to your house and we'll talk about it. And so we went and he has a ring and everything. And we went and we just kind of went over a few things just to get the feel of it. And we came up with the finish and the comeback.

And it was it all came together so easily, honestly. Because it's like, again, you have a guy who's over and Darby too. I mean, I don't want to sell him short. Darby is incredibly over as well. And so whatever they do is going to work. And the story was there. So we could go in there and even if the match itself wasn't incredible, the story was there. That's why I like so much about it.

It was a very clean, laid out story that was simple and easy for fans to follow and they followed it and they bought in. And so going out and doing the match was just easy at that point. Prize Picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over 5 million active members. Get in on the excitement and win up to 100 times your cash with the summer games on prize picks. With prize picks, you could turn $10 into $1,000 while watching Team USA rack up the gold medals a summer. You can make a prize picks lineup of players across basketball, soccer, tennis, golf, and more in as little as 60 seconds. Just pick more or less on two to six player stat projections, and you are locked in. Prize picks is available in more than 30 states across the country, including California,

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You may know me from WWE television, from being on YouTube forever. Well, if you're not already listening to Not Sam Wrestling, what are you waiting for in my podcast where every single Monday we break down and overanalyze everything going on in this wonderful wild world of professional wrestling? The conversations we have are so much fun trying to predict everything that's going on as we lead all the way up to SummerSlam. You can get it wherever you get audio podcasts or on YouTube. The whole podcast goes up on video. Just search not Sam Wrestling and tell them Sam Roberts sent you.

How did you and Ethan Page even become a tag team? Okay. Uh-oh. That's funny. So this was in Jacksonville, like tail into COVID. and we had just done like revolution pay-per-view where we did the the sonic ring ladder match and I had won that and that was Ethan's debut. And so we're hanging out all of us.

Like I didn't know Ethan before that match. We weren't friends. We had maybe met one time or I think it was we met that day of that show. We didn't even know each other. And there was a woman that used to work for us named Jess Palumbo and she came to us and she's like, I think we have a promo with you. We're like, oh, what are we doing? Like we're thinking, oh, are we going to work?

work against each other or something. It's like, oh, no, let's go talk to Tony. So we go to Tony's office. And he's like, hey, he's excited. And he looks at us and he goes, are you guys friends? Do you hang out? And our jaws drop.

We're just like, I mean, we cool. Those are my exact words. I mean, we cool. And he's like, I noticed you guys don't follow each other in social media, but I think this could be great. And we're like, oh, he wants us to be a team. So he pairs us together like that. We figured out, okay, and we walk out of the room, the first thing we do, pull our phones,

follow each other. And then we start talking about, okay, well, what is this? Like, why are we going to get together? What is it going to be? And that was the day we filmed. I don't know if you ever saw it. We were both in a dark room and we were talking and finishing each other's sentences. It's very cute when you think about it.

It's not that, it doesn't sound as intimidating when I describe it. Like we're finishing each other sentences. And then at the very end, it reveals, it pulls back and it shows we're sitting next to each other. And that's the first time I did the snap to Blatt. And we just threw that together. And then from there on, it was just talking. It was just like, oh, like, you like to dress well. So do I.

Let's bring that to the show. Let's, let's do this. And we came up with, oh, men of the gear. Let's do this. And everything just steamrolled from there. Like, we connected so quickly. Like, the chemistry was unbelievable for two people. people that did not know each other. But I think we just had similar mindsets. He's a very easy

guy to work with. He's very fun to work with. And putting everything together just clicked so well. I loved working with him, honestly. It just felt like there was more that you guys could have done together. You were so over. We never did a baby face run. We talked about it all the time. We used to, we talked about it for like a year the entire time I was out waiting to come back. We We talked about like, you should do this when we come back, do that, and yada yada. And we finally started to do it right at the tail end of his run. We were going to do a little baby face run. He did the Ring of Honor thing.

And I came out and saved him. And we talked about a lot of ideas there. It just didn't happen, unfortunately. We left a lot of food on the table, though, which is unfortunate. I hope I get to work with him again one day, though. Like, he's incredible. One of my favorite runs of my entire career was working with him. And again, we just, we left so much.

much meat on the bone that we got to come back to it at some point somewhere down the line. I've known him for like 15 years and I'm so happy that people are finally able to see how talented Ethan Page is. He's crushing it now. I'm so happy for him. So happy for him. I mean, like, he's, he was like, I can't even put in the words. Like, he's so talented. He can talk. He's got the look. He can work. Like, he's, he's easy to work with. like he doesn't have, I don't want to say he doesn't have an ego, right? Because his name is all ego.

Don't blow his, I can't blow his nickname. But, you know, we all have a form of an ego. But he's Canadian. So he's polite. Yeah, he's very polite. He's just very, like I'll just go back to saying he's easy to work with. He's a very, like, go with the flow similar to me. Just go with the flow.

flow type of guy. Like, you know, oh, okay, this is what you want. Yeah. All right, let's, let's try to make the bad, like, let's make it work. You know, let's pull the best out of it, you know? And I think that's why he's so successful because his work ethic is there. Like, he works and he eats it and he breathes it and he loves it. And he puts his heart into everything he does. And when you do that, eventually something's going to click for you. And I'm incredibly happy to see that happening for him now. Were you doing the same thing where you didn't repeat your shirts on TV? Oh yeah. Never. We never were. I was going to Zara every week buying a new shirt. And like he was lucky though because he was finding his online for cheap. I'm spending like $50 a week. Yeah, he was on like T.moo or

DHGate or one of those websites. And his shirts were blowing my shirts away. Like I wasn't even trying to get him for like $6. So cheap. Yeah. I wasn't even trying to compete with him shirtwise. I was like, you do your thing. You're going to do the wild. shirt thing. I'm just going to do my thing. But like he'd show up with the wildest shirts and he'd spend $6 on him. Yeah, and he's like, I would get him from China and the sizing would always be weird, so I'd have to order like three

of them and hope one of them would fit. Yeah, that's what you spent $18. Like, poor him. So what's your closet look like when you're never repeating a shirt? Oh, it was ridiculous for a while. I gave a lot of way, though. I gave a lot of them away. I'd donate them or auction them off or

whatever reason, you know? So, yeah, You can't just, especially the stuff we were wearing. I would look at them like when I'm getting ready to go to dinner or something. And I'm like, I can't wear this. Like, what am I going to wear this? So I just, yeah, it's best to get rid of them. In the buildup for the match with Darby and Sting. You guys threw Darby Allen downstairs.

Oh, that was awesome. Dude. It was like, that was legit, too. The thing that people always bring up, though, and I did this on purpose just because I like to just throw a little comedy in it. everything. So he attacked us and we're like fighting and bobo, blah, at one point there's this clip and I'm just running holding a trash can.

And I run like what feels like 20 feet. And I'm just like, yeah, because it's so goofy. I'm just running and holding this trash dad. And people always brought that up to me. They're just like, that was so ridiculous.

I was like, I know I had to do something. But yeah, we threw them down those stairs. And, man Darby talk about another maniac man he he just took it and that was he could have got seriously hurt doing that I'd have to guess that was his idea of course I don't even think he wore pads oh my gosh maniac I don't even think he wore pads and it's one of those things where it's like you

do it and you look and you're like ha ha ha ha are we still rolling he's alive yeah but there were fans everywhere too so we couldn't you know it's not like we could be like all right you're good just like yeah yeah walk away please go check on him let me know let me know if he's okay yeah it was ugly it was an ugly fall too and then some of the stuff you did in that ladder match with sammy like you mentioned throwing him off the ladder into the ladder wrapped in barbed wire which is a crazy sentence but how about the centon where he does the centon off the ladder on to you that might have been rough because I don't remember it. He did a centon off the ladder onto me.

Was I on the ladder? And you're on like a table, I think. Oh, that was, I think, a different match. Okay. Right? I think that was one of those multi-man matches. We did it at the pay-per-view. There was a lot going on.

There's the, there's the cutter, right? The cutter was nuts. Yeah. The barbed wire ladder was fun. That was my idea because I just thought it would be cool. And it was Philadelphia. I love Philadelphia. I grew up a huge ECW fan.

And of course, I pulled the ladder out and they start chanting ECW, which like gave me goosebumps because when I was a kid, that was my dream. Like I wanted to grow up and wrestle for ECW. Like I didn't even, I wasn't thinking about WCW, WWB. I wanted to go to EC. I didn't know they didn't make money. Like I didn't know the difference in money. Like I was a kid.

And so that's where I wanted to go. I wanted to be an ECW wrestler when I grew up. And so to pull that ladder out and get the. ECW chant. Like that gave me goosebumps. I'm looking around. I'm just like, holy cow,

like, this is life right now until he put me on that ladder. And I was like, oh, this is life. Yeah, but it's also funny 20 plus years later, ECW like still gets to put the pop.

Crazy. Yeah. Yeah. What a impact that they left. Well, nostalgia is a hell of a drug. Yeah, it is.

It is a hell of a drug. And I think that when people see something, especially in a place like Philly that reminds them of that, it's like, ah, injected it into my veins. Yeah. Yeah, like you said, especially Philly. Philly is an awesome town.

Like, I've always had special moments in Philadelphia. So I always get excited to wrestle there. Like in Philadelphia, we had that match, obviously, the latter match. And then I don't know if you remember the match where I threw the shoe into the crowd. Like I subbed in for Christopher Daniels. He got hurt. And I came out in my jeans. I take my shirt off.

I wrestle. And then I think Trent Barretta took one shoe off and throws it in the crowd. So I blow my whole come. back with one shoe and then I dive and I chucked the shoe into the crowd and they chuck it back. Like, I was in Philadelphia. Frankie and I won the ROH tag titles in Philadelphia. Like there's just been so many situations where I had special matches or moments in Philadelphia that were like they stand out in my mind.

So that's always one of my favorite places to go work. So much can go wrong when you're doing the cutter from ladder to ladder. Yeah. That one too, again, he was already rocked at that point. So my plan originally was to go higher. Well, originally we were going to do that. But then I was like, we probably shouldn't do this because he's rocked. But of course, Sammy is another maniac and he just starts going.

And I was like, okay, I guess we're doing this. And I didn't want to go too high because, like, I wanted to make sure I can control his fall. And so, you know, I went up maybe halfway or three quarters of the way up. And he did a similar spot with Cody, where he jumped and he hit Cody with the cutter. And so this was like me baiting him. Like, yeah, do that again. Yeah. I got you.

Yeah. So that was a really fun match, man. That match was really, really enjoyable. That whole thing that we did with Sammy and I was fun. And even before that, when it was like us and the fighters against Jericho and his crew, that was a lot of fun too. And people forget you gave Jericho his first loss in AW. Sure did. Sure did.

Yeah. Back in 2019 in the early Dynamite days, yeah, he was like undefeated at the time. He was a world champion, and then I pinned him, and then we did the whole face-to-face interview thing, and then I wrestled him for the title, and that's, he ended up going off with Moxley after that, which was a good little, like, transition. But that's great of Jericho to, as the champion, especially in 2019, when he was the big name attached to AEW, and people weren't really sure what AEW was all about. He's putting you over.

Yeah. I always tell people, like, Chris Jericho legitimized AEW. almost said ECW. Chris Jericho legitimized AEW in the early days because people looked at us and they knew there was talent and they're like, okay, Young Bucks, okay, SCU, you know, Kenny Omega, yada, yada. When Chris Jericho signs on, that's when like the television networks are like, oh, okay, like they've got a guy, right? I always think it's similar to when Hulk Hogan went to WCW in the mid-90s.

just like it puts that stamp like okay we've arrived and for him to come in and take young talent like myself like jungle boy like derby like um i just described myself as a young talent oh i love that but younger talent but uh you know and also like he's worked with so many guys and made us all look good in some way shape or form whether he won the match or not he put us up there with him yeah and he doesn't have to do that. But that just shows he's a giving guy. And that, that helped me a lot in the very early stages of AEW. Yeah, you were, people, I don't know if they realized, you were there from day one. Like, you were one of the very first signings. Day zero. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I sat in the room with Tony and the Young Bucks and Cody, and Tony was explaining to us as a group like, hey,

this is what my vision is. This is what I want to do. Um, I was there for it. it and saw the beginning stages, saw everything coming together, saw us make the announcement, okay, this is a company. And we go do these rallies and then us being called a T-shirt company because we hadn't done a show yet. And then the first show, like, it was amazing to watch all of it take place. What's the original conversation sound like? Because it was coming off of how popular All In was.

Yeah. And everything that happened there, all you guys could never sell that place out. Well, check this out. We did. coming off of all of that momentum. And then Tony Kant starts up this new thing. What do those conversations sound like? You know, it was funny.

It was me personally, we were all working for Ring of Honor first. And I didn't have a contract. I was working without a contract just showing up. And they offered me a contract in, I want to say May of 2018. But it was for the same money I was working for. It really wasn't any difference.

It was just a piece of paper. And I was tempted to sign it because you're working. your whole career for a contract. And so it was just like, okay, but I had to really think and, okay, put my business hat on and say, okay, at the end of this year, Cody's up, Young Bucks are up, Frankie and Chris are up, hangman's up, all these contracts are ending. And this deal will be there for me at that time. But at the same time, maybe these guys leave and there'll be more money for me.

Or maybe, again, AEW is not even a thought at this time. But my mind is thinking, maybe we all leave and go somewhere. Who knows? Like, I don't know what the future holds. So I just didn't sign it. Then we start hearing about, oh, there's, I remember being in the van where like, they were like, oh, yeah, this guy named Tony Khan reached out. And it's like, oh, okay, let's go talk to him once we're clear, you know, and negotiate and

sit in the room. And he had a vision. And we loved the vision. And we all had offers, you know, from other companies. but the idea of starting something new, starting something that was needed in the wrestling business, which was another big company that was going to do things in an alternative way. And that was very appealing to all of us.

And it didn't take much selling. We were all on board. Did you ever have the opportunity to go back to WWE after you were there in 2012? No. So there was, there was the situation I talked to you about last time, but then there was also another situation where I had worked with, this is in 2012,

I'd worked a couple of shows for T&A, and then I was called to go do a tryout. They did like this L.A. tryout, and I think it's the one that Adam Pierce and Bailey got signed at. And I was there and a few other guys, but I had done TNA right before that. And at the time, there was like a lawsuit or something going on between two companies.

So the moment I showed up, there was one of the producers that pulls me aside. And he said, hey, like, you just did TNA. I don't know how this slipped through the cracks, but we can't have you here.

And they had canceled L.A. night, I think two days prior. He was also supposed to be at that tryout. And so they told him not to come to because of that same thing. And so after that, there was, even really try, to be honest with you. I just kind of went my own route of like, all right, well,

let's see what I can do on the Indies and that sort of thing. And so I just kind of worked my way towards an opposite direction. I kind of had the thinking of like, well, if nothing's going to happen there, I'm just going to make myself a star without them. And I just kind of went the hard route. But in those backstage segments, or in those segments, the anger management segments, with Kane and Daniel Bryan, you're sitting right there, Harold. Yeah. I've never watched those still. I've still never seen it. I've never seen it. Yeah, it was funny.

That was a lot of fun to do, though. Like, at the time, I had no idea it was going to be a thing. Like, I didn't know people would still talk about it now. I was like, okay, like, I didn't even want to be Harold, actually. Like, I showed up and they had like these name tags. And my thinking was just like, I'm not going to get like hired off of this. So let me just eat some catering and sit in the corner and collect my check. So I grabbed a name tag and I wrote Kobe on it.

K-O-B-Y. I was like, I'll be Kobe, and I just sat at the corner. And then they're like, no, no, no, you're Harold. I was like, oh, shoot,

okay. So I have lines. Okay, I've got, I've got, I've got, but a lot of it was improv too. Like,

a lot of it was so, like, I think there was a line where I, like, I put my hand on Kane's thigh. And that one, I just did it. I didn't,

it wasn't planned. It was just, it was just like, I think of the line was something like, like, like, like, thank you for sharing, Kane,

You know, like, it was just like, it was just one of those things I had fun with and I didn't expect anything of it. And like I said, I didn't even watch it. Like, I was just hanging out at home one day. And I noticed my Twitter at the time had blown up. And I was like, oh, I guess they aired that tonight. And so it's funny, that was the same weekend of the tryout that I just told you about. And so I went to the trial like two days later. And I was like, hey, you know, I just filmed some stuff a few days ago.

Okay. I don't know. That has nothing to do with me. Right. When they brought you in for that, was there ever talk of you being in a match? No, there was talk of bringing me back, though, at one point. They called me maybe a month or so later, and they said, hey, we're interested in bringing you to Stanford to shoot some more anger management stuff.

And I was like, oh, cool. Yeah, I'm available. And they said, okay, but first we have to know, what is your relationship with TNA? And I was like, I have no relationship. I didn't have a contract. I just did a couple of dates for them. And that's it. And they were like, okay.

And then I never heard anything else. But then you did something briefly at SummerSlam, right? Yeah, I think, yeah, that's right. That was maybe a year later. It was a Bray Wyatt-Cain Inferno match, I think. And I was just a fireman and didn't really do much else, though. That was it. Like, just showed up that day.

It was a fireman. I never got called back to do anything else. Does being there, especially at that point in your career, make you go, oh, man, I'm so hungry to do more. whether that's here in WWE or with that's TNA at the time or ring of honor yeah you know when you go well actually I should say yes and no because when I first started going it was still the land of the giants like you still got told oh yeah if you're not like six four to 50 they're not even looking at you and then you would also hear stuff like oh they don't want indie guys they absolutely do not want indie guys

And so like when you hear those things, you go there and you're just like, well, why do they call me? I am not everything that they want. Like everything that they don't want. Yeah. That's me. Why am I here? But then you're sitting next to Daniel Bryan who is all of those things. That's right.

He's an indie guy. He's a smaller guy. Yeah. And you got to give him a lot of credit for changing that perspective. Yeah. In WWE, him and CM Punk. You got to give them a lot of credit because they were indie guys, smaller guys. that went there, absolutely killed it, got over, became stars, and that changed the mentality.

And that that opens the door for the guys that they have now. Like, there are so many stars that came from the Indies. Yeah. Yeah. I just feel like you've had such an interesting. You've had like a Forrest Gump career of like you've kind of done a little bit of something everywhere. It's true.

And the stuff you did with SCU was, it was just brilliant. Man, like, when I first teamed up with Frankie and Chris, I think I was about as good of an independent wrestler as you could possibly be. But I always say working with them, I became a professional wrestler. I learned so much from them. And that was another thing that just like clicked. And it started on BTE. Like it was a real thing where every week we would go and we'd be like,

oh, we're in wherever. Like, oh, this place. So finally Matt was like, I want to put that on BTE. let's have you guys just do that every week and just hate wherever you go. Like, cool. And I said, I'm going to let you guys be creative

and just say your lines. And I'm just going to say the same thing every week. This is the worst town I've ever been in. And that's how it started out. It was literally just, this is the worst town I've ever been in. And then as it got over, it was just like,

this is the worst town. You know, I just kind of built. But in my mind, I thought like, oh, if it gets over, I could put it on a t-shirt or something maybe. And that became,

a mega seller. Like that shirt sold so many things that helped us get over, man. And SCU was again, it was another really fun run that is irreplaceable for me. You guys had, you made magic in there.

And whether, you know, with free bird rules, whoever you were tagged up with, it was so good. How did they decide it was going to be you and Frankie that would win the championships? I think that was Tony.

I think Tony wanted to use that as a way to kind of introduce me to the audience. Because up until that point, SCU was a thing for sure, right? But it was still, like, you can't replace the 10 years that Frankie and Chris spent together before they teamed with me. So there was a lot of the audience that was still like, oh, it's Frankie, Chris, and Sky.

Right? So, and they're, you know, they needed to try to overcome that. and bring me like, okay, like, Sky is his own man as well. Sky is a big part of that. And I think that's what he was trying to do. And it worked. Like that idea, that whole story we did where CD got hurt, I took his place. And then we ran through the tournament and we won it.

Like, it was, it was really, really cool. And it worked and we got over. How were you able to then separate yourself as a singles competitor? Because you had done it for so much in your career. Yeah. But the AEW audience didn't know you as a singles guy. No. I think one thing that really helped was that early thing with Jericho.

Like I pinned Jericho and then we had that face-to-face promo where like we, you know, we went like jab for jab back and forth, which was really good and really fun. And then I had the match with him. I think that's where people first saw like, okay, he can be a single star. And we still were the tag team champion. So that had to go to the back burner for a while. but once we did finish our tag run, then it was just go off, have match after match after match. And I knew I was being tested.

So whoever they put me in the ring with, I was just like, I'm just going to go in and have a banger. And I was doing dark at the time. And then I got opportunities to Russell Cody. And then, you know, obviously the T&T title was introduced. And that became a goal of mine for sure. And I just kind of worked. And I think everyone was kind of behind it.

You know, everyone was saw it coming and knew I. deserved it. And so when it actually happened, everyone was really, really proud and happy for me. I love when you turn the TNT championship into Lakers colors. I wish I could have it longer, though. Yeah, I mean, we didn't have it long enough. Like, I really loved, I talked to Jeannie Bus about it. No way. Yeah. She owns the Lakers, by the way. Yeah, she's the owner of the Lakers. Because I called the championship Jeannie. And fans on Twitter would all tag her.

the pictures. They would tag her. They would tag her. And then one day I just looked up and Jeannie Bus followed me. And I was just like, oh, crap. Holy cow. So at one point, we started, we talked. I said, oh, yeah, like, you know, I hope this is okay. Like, it's definitely mint as a sign of respect. Like, I'm a lifelong fan. And I named the championship after you. And she was just like, oh, I'm honored. Like, you know, it was like, and it was like really cool. Like, you know, we didn't, I never actually met her in person, but, like, that was a cool moment to speak with the owner of the franchise I've been sharing for my entire life. I feel like you should be invited into the owner's suite. She didn't invite me to a game, but then I deleted Twitter.

I forgot about it. Got to take the good with the bad there, right? Yeah, yeah, I deleted Twitter before I made that strong connection. I didn't even think about that, but yeah. Well, I'm sure the offer is still out there. Jeannie, I know you're a big fan of the show. So, yeah, I'm still available. still have that title? Yeah, of course. Okay. I didn't know if AEW keeps it or I don't know if you had it. Uh, yeah, I don't know where it is. Yeah, I don't know where it is. I think so, no, kidding. After I lost it to Wardlow, one of the guys that works backstage, I won't, I won't name him in case he gets in trouble, but he immediately went, he had a new belt, gave it to Wardlow, took it back. Here you go. Yeah. And so I was like, thank you. So yeah, I have that. They actually were

nice enough, though. I have the, they, they sent me a tag title and they sent me a, a regular T&T titles as well. So I've got two T&T titles and tag title because I won the TNT title twice and tag title once. Yeah. So what's your relationship with social media? Oh, man. It's a love, hate relationship. I had a falling out with Twitter now known as X a couple of years ago where I decided that I didn't want to pay attention to it anymore because it started really with the feud I had with Sammy, where on Twitter, it was so, so negative. Like everyone was saying it was so bad and it was like the worst thing that they had ever seen in wrestling and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But then the live audience was hot for everything we did.

And then I would meet fans. It's like I did a meet and greet in Philly like a month after the ladder match. And like hundreds of people came and they bought a picture from that ladder match. And they said, oh, I was at that show. Like that was like such a great match and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, okay. And then like just speaking to the social media team, like, how many of like how many tweets are actually about? And then you find out like, oh, like, it's really only 8% of your audience that's on on there talking.

Yeah. you know, good or bad. And then you kind of find yourself, and I think a lot of talents do this, they find themselves, you know, when they are looking through their mentions, you might have 20 great comments. You're like, okay, okay, okay, let me find that bad one. Yeah. Let me find something to validate my insecurities.

It's like, what do you need that for? Even the good stuff. And it's just one of those things where I've seen so many talents come back from the ring, walk through the curtain, they walk past Arne Anderson, and Jerry Lynn and Mark Henry, and they go look at their phone to see how their match was. And I'm just like, what are you doing?

Like, talk to those guys, you know? Like, you don't need, you know, whoever. Like I said, even if they say great stuff. Yeah. It's like, oh, Scorpio Sky is my favorite wrestler ever. And I'm like, well, Kenny Omega fan 13845. I feel like someone is ahead of me in this, like, Twitter's not real life.

No, it's not real. That's why I'm like. Yeah, Cody said something to me interesting recently that was really interesting. He said, like, if something's happening on social media, that's one thing. But when you get to the arena, are they chanting it? Are you seeing the signs? Like, he was specifically referencing the we want Cody thing that happened before WrestleMania. And he's like, okay, well, this seems like it's trending on Twitter, but is this real? Right. Is this actually a thing? Right. And then when they got to the arena and people were chanting, and he went, oh, okay, this is bigger than Twitter at this point.

This is, this is real. Right. I think there's a lot of times when something starts to get loud on Twitter, and then you realize, oh, that's just people on Twitter. Yeah, there is crossover for sure. There are things like the Cody situation where, yeah, it does cross over, but there are a lot of situations as well

where it's like, you know, you talk to talents that are like, oh, yeah, this is getting over. I'm like, yeah, where are you getting that from? I get sometimes like, how could you have so-and-so on the show? And it's like, well, I was just at a convention but last week, and they had a line of 400 people. So, like, they're pretty popular.

even if you don't like them or their matches. Yeah. So you're still off at Twitter. Still off Twitter. And on Instagram, you have zero posts on Instagram. Yeah. I cleared my Instagram like two years ago and I just never posted any. My plan was like at some point, I was like, oh, I'm going to start over.

And I just never did. So maybe I'll start over with this. You post your clips? I'll tag you as a collaborator. Tag me as a collaborator. And that'll be my return to Instagram. Whatever your first post is, probably outside of clips from this interview, but whatever your first post is, is inevitably going to be a news story.

Isn't that crazy? That is crazy. Do you think? Yes? Maybe. If you make some, just if it's a post of you in the ring, they'll be like, well, Scorpio Sky posted for the first time in two years. Is he returning to the ring? Does he have a longer beard now?

Yeah. I'm on threads, though, too. Oh, boy. I like threads. You do? You don't like threads? I don't know. I've got enough places my content lives.

I don't think I need one more. It feels a little bit more positive, although it's getting a little more negative. It's catching up to X. I don't know. For me, it's like video is first for me. Yeah,

Reds his words first. And I'm like, I don't know. It's just one of those things again, too. Like, you know, we talk, we haven't really even talked about Dan Lambert.

He's another guy. Like, he would get flamed on X. But I feel like he loved it. He loved, no, but like people and X would say he's getting go away heat, right? And then I'll see him get mobbed by fans. Like outside. Like I'll drive by the arena one day and like, I see he's mobbed by fans.

Like just looking for autographs and pictures. And I'm just like, are they telling him to go away? Like, like, and, you know, Ethan and I would go do meet and greets with people like, where's Dan? Where's dad? Like, people loved Dan. Like, they loved him. And he loved the business.

And so it's just one of those things where it's just like, I don't need any outside noise and it kind of stunts your creativity. Yeah. You know, I think, uh, you can just come up with a lot more fresh ideas if you don't have an outside voice. Yeah, if you don't have that like influence of like, I want to do it this way. Yeah. But then you go online and you see the small percentage of very loud people going, no, you suck or this sucks or everything sucks. Yeah, just do your own thing. Yeah. I just decided one day I was like, I'm going to do something crazy. I'm going to listen to the live audience. And, You mean like what a wrestler should do? Yeah, go off the ratings and go off of what, you know,

my producers tell me to do and that sort of thing and, and ignore the noise. Yeah. And I, your mental health is probably in a much better spot as a result. Oh, yeah. I mean, like, if people say I'm the shits, I don't know. I don't know. Sure.

Okay. Going back to Dan Lambert, that guy just, he just loves the business. Loves it. He was telling me stories of like, we wondered if we could hang out with this legendary wrestler. So we reached out to them and they were like, yeah, I'll do it for this amount of money. We're like, great, cool. We'll fly you over here and pay you to hang out with us. Yeah.

He has like, I think one of the largest ring-used belt collections. Yes. He loves wrestling. Yeah. This one thing that people don't understand. He loves wrestling. And he's good. He's good at it.

There have been times. And there was actually one of the times it was in Philadelphia. he was getting so much heat on the microphone. I was standing right next to him, and I could not hear what he was saying. The crowd was that loud. Like, I could not hear what he was saying. And then he's standing right here,

and it's just like, it was an insane amount of heat. And we did those matches with the fighters, too. And that was a lot of fun, which was crazy because, like, we didn't have time to teach them how to wrestle. We just, like, especially the junior match. We did, like, a live dynamite in Miami. and we didn't have weeks to prepare for it.

Everything just kind of came together. So we're like, well, we got to teach junior how to wrestle, Junior Dos Santos. So he doesn't kill anyone. So we show up at 9 a.m. The day of the show, I ask Sean Spears, who's a guy like, there's nobody I respect more than Sean Spiards. He's a great teacher.

He's brilliant. I ask him if he'll come help us. And we get junior in the ring at 9 a.m. And we teach him how to wrestle. So he can go wrestle live on TV. that night. And he, I thought that he did pretty good, actually, for like an hour or two hours of training. Like, he did pretty good. Yeah. No, that's amazing that you could throw that together in just a few hours. And then we did it again with Andre Avlovsky at the pay-per-view.

What about working with Paige Van Zahn? So Paige, we got a little bit of time to actually like send her down to go train with Gangrel for a couple of weeks. And so she was able to actually get a little bit of real training time in. And she took it serious. She wanted to do well. and I really, really wanted her to do well. And so that was exciting and it was a lot of fun. And she was another one that like really charismatic. She has potential to be really good on the mic, very athletic and tough. So tough.

And just saw her doing the slap thing. Yeah. Like what? And she did bare knuckle too. She did bare knuckle, the slap. The slap thing is the craziest thing for me. I agree. Because I'm like, I got, I had some fights back in the day.

But like, I always like didn't want to get hit. right? Like, it was all, you know, I wanted to use head movement. To just know, like, yeah, I'm just going to stand here and take this. It's a different type of breed. And one of the rules is you can't flinch. No. So you've got the one. That's what we'd get me.

That's what would get me. The measure. I'd be like, just hit me, man. Don't measure. He's like, uh, I'm just like. Even as you're doing that right now, I'm like,

uh, I guess if the money's right, though. Dana White, you hear that? No, thanks. Scorpio Sky wants to do slap. I don't want to do slap. I don't want to do slap. I would absolutely get disqualified

because last second I would just be like, would you do bare knuckle? You've got the MMA background. Yeah, I'd probably do bare knuckle. Yeah, if the price is right, yeah, I'd probably do bare knellman. Yeah, I never got to do boxing. And that's one thing I actually want to do is just boxing,

even though I'm like, I haven't fought in so many years, I think I could still get in and do it. Like I still shadow box from time to time. I don't think I'm horrible. Obviously, it's different when your reflexes and you're, you got punches coming at you, that sort of thing. But I think if I trained, I can still do really well at it. I feel like there's an opportunity.

There's a lot of celebrity boxing going on right now. I'm down. I'll find a celebrity. Slide right in there. I mean, you're the celebrity, is what I was saying. I'll find another celebrity. Yeah, you could slide right in there. That one feels like it could happen.

That'd be fun. Yeah. I love, love boxing. and it's been one of my, when I even did fight, that was my strength. The United States Soccer Federation present the U.S. Soccer Podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Clemenberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Times ticking.

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Boxing, so I think that would be something I'd be really interested in doing. Circling back to your return, it feels like with the vignette that we saw, this is a singles run, that this would be. Yeah, but you never know where things can go, right? And so my idea was just to create something that was flexible and that can fit in many different situations. And whether he's in a team or a group or by himself or even not even wrestling, maybe he's just a sideline character that messes with people, whatever it is, you know, I think reading the landscape of how tough it is to stay active. Like, I just am all about finding ways to stay relevant,

even if it's not in ring or, you know, getting 10 minutes of a promo every week. It was a very positive. It feels like a very positive character. It feels like, you were like it's all about faith and like if you don't have it I have it for I'm here for you or something like that when I when I started coming up with the idea I looked at a lot I've already followed a lot of influencers anyway because that's kind of what it is right it's like a social media influencer and so I took a lot from guys like Gary Vee and even mega church pastors I looked at some megachurch pastors but not so much when they're doing their sermons but when they're doing interviews yeah like when they get cornered like, hey, why do you have a private jet? And it's just like, oh, hey. Like, I looked at some of the... Good question. I looked at interviews like that, just to have meat to go to down the line.

That's so funny because I was watching this with my wife before we did this interview. And I said, this feels like a youth pastor. She's like, I could totally see that. Yeah. So it's funny that you're saying that and like, I'm connecting the dots now. Yeah, yeah. So that's kind of what the idea was, is just almost like this influence. slash youth pastor is a really good way of putting it.

Because I didn't want to be dark or anything because that's not me. Yeah. But like there is like a little bit of a dark side to, the best way I can describe it is I was following this influencer, right? And in the early days, he was just like, hey, like men's, you know, fitness and fashion and that sort of thing. It was all innocent. And it was just like really helpful.

But over the years, he got bigger and bigger. and it became less about, like, helping you and more about, like, look how amazing my life is now. And it wasn't, he wasn't influencing anything. He was just kind of like, like, not even humble bragging. He was kind of just bragging. It was just like, look how attracted my girlfriend is. Oh, and this car I just got, like, I just got this super flashy car. So I'm going to do a video of like, 10 things you should have in your car. And it's like, it just became that. And I was like, that's kind of good. That is. Because he turned heel. Yeah. And then there's a certain element of that because we all can think of an influencer online who's done exactly what you're talking about. And then they start talking about like, well, you should be drinking more of these types of drinks or you should be eating a diet that's more high in this. And you're like, but what's in it for you? Right. Is that why, kind of like what liver king ended up doing? Like, is that why you're pushing these supplements? Oh, oh, okay. You get some money in the back end of this. Yeah. I see. And it's all self-suffer.

serving. You know, it's always self-serving, you know, and it should be at least. That's good. So that's, I don't know, I've kind of given the meat. I don't know if it's good anymore if everybody knows what it is, but now I feel like maybe they'll like it even more because they see where you're coming from with this. Yeah, I think it's really interesting. And like I said, the idea is to have something that can work in many different situations. Like you can take that character and you can put him in any situation. And even if he's losing, you know, you can always come up with some excuse for losing. It's just like, hey, you know, sometimes I win and sometimes I learn, you know, like sometimes I win, sometimes I learn. I don't lose. Yeah, I don't lose. That's good.

Learn, you know, you never learn. You know, or you can just like, you know, you come up with excuses, you know, like if I came back and I had a match and I lost, it's just like, like, you beat me. It's just like, oh man, that was an amazing performance. Like, you were on the top of your game. Like, it's incredible. The fact that you were ever to beat me. like off of this two-year layoff, but like, you beat me still. You're the gas lighting. Yeah. That's brilliant.

You know what I mean? Yeah. You know, it's, I ran it by a couple people that I really respected early on. Like, I ran it by Christian and a few other guys and they all really liked it. And that's kind of when, like, when it gets over with the boys, you kind of know you have something. When they first started airing, I had a few guys come up to me like, hey, what is this thing you're doing? And it was really cool. And like I kind of explained it like, oh, that's dope.

Like so again, like I said, if it gets over with the boys, you know, it'll work. So I'm excited kind of if that's the direction we're going to go, you never know. Like we, they might want me to come back as a hillbilly. Who knows? Like I don't know. I don't think I'd look good in overalls. But, you know, if that's what we do, that's what we do, you know. Do you feel like you still have a lot more to accomplish in AEW?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think, I wouldn't mind another run at the TNC title because I, I had to, you know, I lost it. I felt like a little prematurely because, you know, it was the right time because Worlow was super hot. But I never got to have that run where like I have like the traditional type of T&T title run where you have those matches that are just hot, hot, hot, hot.

Like I didn't really get to do that because I was doing things with Sammy every week. And so I think we were about to go there. But then like I said, Wardlow was so hot. That was the right move. So I would like to get back to that. And then above that, you know, I think I'd like to get up there and compete with some of the top guys we have, you know, the hangman's, the Danielsons, you know, Miro. I want to see you versus swerve. We had a couple matches on the Indies that were really good.

We're actually, I think, one in one. So that'd be interesting. Yeah, but you don't want that. You don't want that. You don't want that. It's so good to be able to catch up with you. Thanks for having me. Yeah, man.

This has been a lot of fun, man. And be able to spend some time with you and just, you know, you're at a different spot in your career now than you were the last time that I saw you. And I love it, man. And I can't wait to see what's next. Yeah, I'll have to come back and do this again. You know, hopefully let's not wait like three years. Yeah. Yes, please.

Especially since we both live here. Right? Yeah. Like, we're so close. Yeah. Like, yeah, we got to do it again. So for sure. I end every conversation with gratitude.

It's such a big part of my life. What are three things? in your life that you're grateful for right now? I'm really grateful for resilience, which is, I think, something I learned from my mother, of just in life over and over again, I've been knocked down and got back up. So that's something that, again,

I took from my mother that I'm incredibly happy with because I, one, would not have ever made it in wrestling if I didn't just have this unstoppable, desire to keep going no matter what. That's something that I hang my hat on and I need that. And in health, you cannot like your health is wealth is what they say, right? That is something that I am incredibly happy, especially since I have had a couple of injuries over the last few years, whether they were serious or not, right? Like even if they weren't too serious, the fact that like, even if you had to miss a couple of weeks, like, that sucks, you know? So I'm happy to be healthy

and strong and feeling good. And just, honestly, just happy to be a part of the wrestling business because this is something I grew up, like, obsessing over. I loved wrestling so,

so much. And in a way, for a guy like me to make it was almost one in a million. And so the fact that I'm here and still doing this and able to do this for a living and blessed enough to,

to work with some of the, greatest performers in the world. It's kind of one of those things where you have to step back sometimes to say, what is life? And so those are three things for sure. I'm incredibly just overwhelmingly happy about. What is life? What is life?

What is life? Thanks, man. Thank you. All right, my friends. Thank you for being with us all the way until the end of this episode. And thank you for following the show and sharing this with someone who, you know would love this conversation. And a big thank you, of course, to Scorpio Sky for joining us inside the West Coast Creative

Studio in Hollywood. I can't wait to see him back in the ring again sometime soon. I'm thinking with his history, with the TNT Championship, there might be something there with Jack Perry, who is the current TNT champion. But we shall see. It feels like it's just a matter of time, especially with these vignettes airing. And that very interesting heel-like character that he's been. teasing. It'd be very interesting to see where this goes. Snap a screenshot and tag us. He's at Scorpio's

Sky on Instagram. I'm at Chris Van Fleet, and I'll leave you with this quote from Hal Elrod, who was a guest on the show a while back. The Miracle Morning's, the name of his fascinating book, Hal Elrod is the name one more time. Who you are becoming is more important than who you have been. Who you are becoming is more important than who you have been. Be great and be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. It's Ask CVV number 41 tomorrow. We'll see you then.

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