Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Scotty 2 Hotty: Too Cool, THE WORM, Attitude Era, Rikishi, Brian Christopher

Episode Date: October 6, 2026

Get tickets for Insight LIVE this Friday in New Orleans! https://cvvtix.com Scott Garland (@thescottgarland) is a professional wrestler best known for his time in WWE as Scotty 2 Hotty and now works as a backstage producer coach in AEW. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Orlando, FL to discuss The Attitude Era, how he was paired with Brian Christopher, Rikishi joining Too Cool, how The Worm became his finisher, the iconic Royal Rumble dance spot, still wrestling now and teaming with his son Keegan, wanting to live to be 100 years old, and more! Please support our sponsors: SEAT GEEK: Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/CVV Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount SUPERPOWER: Head to https://superpower.com and use code CVV at checkout for $20 off your membership. Get 100+ biomarkers tested every year, plus a personalized health plan and on-demand care team. Detect early signs of 1,000+ conditions. #superpowerpod HELIX SLEEP: Flash sale! Go to https://helixsleep.com/cvv for 27% off sitewide! COZY EARTH: Go to https://cozyearth.com/CVV for up to 20% off! BEAM: Go to https://shopbeam.com/INSIGHT and use code INSIGHT for up to 40% off Beam’s Dream Powder DELETEME: Use the code INSIGHT to get 20% off your DeleteMe plan at https://joindeleteme.com/INSIGHT FACTOR: Get 50% off your first box, plus Free Breakfast for 1 Year with the code INSIGHT50OFF at https://factormeals.com/INSIGHT50OFF PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/cvv NORDVPN: Exclusive deal! https://nordvpn.com/cvv Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! PRIZEPICKS: Download the PrizePicks app today and use code INSIGHT to get $50 bonus credit in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup! For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.com If you have ever enjoyed any of these episodes, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast or Spotify? 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

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free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris. Van Flee! Always good to see you. Me too, man. It's been too long. I know, I know.

I keep, I was actually going to reach out to you to see if we could redo it because the first time we did it, it was one of the first interviews I did after I left WWE, you know, as a coach. And it was like over Zoom. You were in a park. I was at a dog park. I didn't realize it was going to be video. So I'm at a dog park in New Smyrna and a tank top and I look a mess and the winds blowing.

and there's dogs barking. So I was like, it's funny when you reached out to me because I, for a long time, I wanted to reach out to you and see if we could redo it, you know? Because, I mean, you've blown up too since, I feel like, you know, so it's awesome. And I want to say, before we get going, like, I've told a lot of people in wrestling this. And I want to say it to your face on your show, but you, I feel like you are an asset to the wrestling business, dude. Like, you, you never go for the dirt.

You always keep it positive. And we can't say that about a lot of people, you know. and you bring out the best in what we do, I think. You know, so thank you for that, man. Oh, thank you for saying that. I'm just, I'm a huge fan and how lucky am I to get to sit across from legends like you. Yeah, we both are, man. We get to do something really cool.

Oh, man, so cool. And you're one of the nicest guys in wrestling. Thank you. Nobody has a bad thing to say about Scotty too hot. I don't know about that. I don't know. But seriously, when your name comes up, everyone's like, oh, I love Scott. He's amazing.

Thank you. And you're still doing it now. I love it. Yeah, it's crazy. You're still in the rain. I tell the story a lot. I remember being in Europe somewhere on a tour bus. You know, the WW tours, you go from town to town on a tour bus,

and it's like 3 o'clock in the morning, and I'm standing at the front of the bus with Tim White, and I remember telling him then, you know, I was probably in my mid-20s, probably. He said, and I remember saying, I'm going to be done doing this when I'm 30. You know, now I just turned 53 in July, and it's, I started when I was 15,

and I'm still, dude, I love it. You know what I mean? And it's never, it's never been about the money for me. It's just doing something I'm passionate about and doing something that I love. And I get to do it. And I feel like I can still go and I do it at a respectable level. And I always said, when I have to start wearing a shirt to the ring and not taking it off, that's when I'm going to stop.

And I don't even know if that's true anymore because I love it so much. But yeah, no, it's, it's awesome. What is it that you love about it so much? I think it's just it's everything. It's the performing. It's the travel. You know, I know a lot of guys who do this. They hate the travel. I love the travel. You know, I get to, you know, you know, now working with AEW as a coach. It's like there's times where we'll have a Wednesday show and then a Saturday show, like say it's on the West Coast. I'll just stay out there in between and I'll go to Yosemite or I'll go to, you know, someplace cool in Arizona or, you know, just try to go places I've never been and do things I've never done. And just my kids are. older now. They're both adults, 21 and 25. My daughter was almost 25, but so I don't feel that guilt of missing the soccer game or missing a theater performance of the kids. So I, you know, because there's a lot of guys who, we have some people who fly in the day of the show and fly back out on a red eye because they have babies at home and I understand it, you know, but I have that luxury. My wife

travels a lot. So sometimes there's an empty house at home, so I'll just stay out on the road. But I love it. I love it all, man. It's, it's just, it's, I feel like it's what I was meant to do, you know, and I struggle with like, what am I going to do next, you know, because my goal is to live to 100 years old. So it's like I said, that's it. Come on. Yeah. I know you're going to outlive me, but I don't know about that. So it's, you're going to live to be like, you know, 110, 120. I hope so. I hope so. You could be coaching as long as you want. I hope. Your son's doing it now. He is, yeah. It's so cool seeing your son Keegan in the ring. Yeah. Was this something he always wanted to do? No, not really. I mean, of course he grew up around it, you know.

he was born in 04, so I was still with WWE at the time. And, you know, he grew up around, you know, WWE, the first few years of his life. And then, you know, I went out on the independence for nine to 10 years and then back to WWE as a coach now with AEW. But so he's been a part of it and he's grown up and it's, he never really had interest in doing it. And I never wanted to pressure him to do it, you know,

and I'm not one of those guys go, I don't want my kids doing it. It's been so good to me. and I've done like so many cool things because of wrestling. So I'm like, I want my kids to be happy. I've never been, oh, they got to go for a job with money. They got to concentrate on money. Like, of course you want to be financially secure, but I want them to be happy with whatever they do.

And, you know, and I wanted him to ask me about doing it. And one day we were in the gym and he started talking about it on the treadmill. I remember it was the first time he said it. And then Ace Steel ended up opening up school, the foundation, and in Orlando. And, you know, I worked with ASA at that performance center when I was there as a coach. And I knew what a good coach he was. And I wanted him to, I didn't want to train him myself. I wanted him to go through the, from the ground up and do the train. I never did that. I was a backyard wrestler, basically, before there was a word for backyard wrestling.

You know, I was self-taught on my mom's garage. We had 18, literally 18 mattresses in this garage. And 20, because we had a mattress in each corner. And then we had a mattress in each corner. And then we had three by three rows of three by three to two high with a sheet of flywood in between to stabilize a little bit. And my buddies and I kind of self-taught ourselves. What was your wrestling name back then? My very first name for the first show I did was the jiggleau, Jeff Taylor, which is weird now because, dude, I was 16 and I'm in the jirlo.

I don't even think I really knew what a jigolo was at the time. You had the same last name. Yeah, yeah. Why Jeff? I don't know. Jeff with a J or a G? It was a J. It was only one, two shows I did it. Two shows up in Maine. And it's one of those it's so weird to look back on, man. Yeah. Yeah, but no, like, yeah. And it's just like, dude, like he's just so, it's so amazing to see somebody who grew up around it, watching it, how much easier they are to train. And he just got everything so quick. I mean, the first time he ever really got.

the ring was in Wolfgang from Scotland. He has a school in Glasgow. And I was over there to do a couple shows for him. And he, him and his dad have season soccer tickets to the team over there. And we went to the game. And then his school is basically across the street from the soccer stadium. So after we got down at the soccer game, we took Keegan over. He got in the ring and Wolfgang worked a little bit with him.

I worked a little bit with him, and he was just the first 10 minutes he's hitting the ropes, and he's doing it perfect, you know, and then taking some couple bumps and, you know, just dropped down and just the way he moved. Just that's something you can, you can, I feel like you can, you know whether somebody has it or they don't have it. Yeah, it's innate. Yeah, just by watching, yeah, yeah. But just, I think he just growing up around it, he knew what it's supposed to look like, whereas, you know, working with a lot of professional athletes who had never,

done professional wrestling before at the PC who came in and all of a sudden they're professional wrestles and trying to train these professional athletes from the ground up. It was harder to do that than it was somebody like Keegan. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive.

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Great news. The federal EV rebate is back. Eligible customers get up to $5,000 with the federal EVAP rebate on select 2027-volt and 2026 Equinox EV models. Visit your local Chevrolet dealer today for more details. I had tears in my eyes watching this video of the match that you and Kegan were having on a bed. He was eight years old. Yeah. And then you guys had a match together against each other.

Yeah. Doing the exact same moves. Yeah. Yeah, we too. That was one thing I knew when we were going to do the match. And I wanted to do the match. You know, it was kind of rushed. The match against, he and I against each other was kind of rushed.

We didn't necessarily have to do it at the time. But I kind of wanted to do it because. I don't know where he's going to end up. And then, you know, the future, you know, say, you know, say he does end up with WWE, you know, down the road. He wouldn't be able to do wrestlemate, you know, outside on an independence. I just wanted to make sure we got that in. I wanted to do it one time. Had the opportunity to do it in my hometown in Portland, Maine, in the building that my dad and grandfather took me to see wrestling when I was younger.

So, I mean, in the same building, I had a match with Taz when I was like 18 years old, like a dark match with Taz in that same building. And there's such a cool wrestling history in that building in the Portland Expo. So to have that match with him, it was awesome. And then we put the sequence together and it just was magic. What a special thing watching him at 8 giving you a tornado DDT. And then he's all grown up and he's doing it in a ring now. Yeah. And then a choke slam.

Yeah, yeah. The joke slam didn't make a whole lot of sense, but we said, we got to do it. Maybe the psychology in the match wasn't great. Right, right. But we had to end, dude, that video's blown up. It's blown up a couple times. Like, when I posted it, it blew up, and then a couple streamers reposted it, and it got more traction.

And it was just, I think it's just a cool, cool father-son moment. Well, what a special thing. Yeah, awesome. You never could have dreamed of that. No. 15 years ago. No, and he's doing so good. You know, he's doing so good.

And he's actually getting ready to go to Japan for at least three months. He's going to go train at the Noah Dojo in November, which is awesome. It's something I never had the chance to do. I went over and I did a couple one-offs in Japan, and I love it there. I love the culture. I love the level of respect. And so for him to be able to go over there and actually live in Japan, and I said, dude, if you come back from this trip and you never step in a wrestling ring again,

you'll be able to tell your grandkids that you live. lived in Japan, you know, it's only for three months. You know, and hopefully it turns into longer, but it's just got this awesome opportunity, I think. They'll have, like, awesome life, life memories, you know. You get to do a double worm with your son, Lincoln. It's so fun because he's jumping one way, you're jumping the other. Yeah, yeah, it's fun. You know, he's been doing the worm since he was a baby. Literally, I have a video of him. He could barely walk, and he couldn't really do it, but I brought him, you know, I was on an independent show somewhere, and I brought him in the ring, and, you know, He just kind of inches across the ring.

And, you know, and every time he was there, of course, he would want to get in the ring and do it after my match. So I have quite a few videos as him growing up doing the worm. So to be able to do it in a real match together, it's fun, you know, it's really fun. I think even if you don't, you know, if you're a wrestling fan or not even a wrestling fan, even if you're just at a show and you don't know who I am and you don't know my history, but you see a father and son in there performing together and doing something like the worm together. It's such a feel good moment.

Yeah, everyone can relate to that. Yeah, for sure, for sure. How did you even learn you could do the worm? I started doing it, and I think it was fourth grade. It was when, you know, breakdancing was popular. And you had break in and break into and all those breakdancing movies. And, you know, everybody was trying to break dance at the time. So we would bring the cardboard out on the playground, you know,

and we would do the backspin and try to do the windmill and the headspin. And, you know, the worm was part of it. in the moonwalk. So it's so crazy. Like stuff I learned in fourth grade, I would implement into my act all these years later and be what I'm remembered for. So how did the worm find its place in wrestling for you?

So I would just, I started doing it. I remember when Brian and I were together, Brian Christopher and I were together, just as too much, I would just, on the house shows, I would just drop down on our entrance when I got in the ring and I would do it.

Just kind of mess it around to make the other guys laugh in the match, you know, and just, but I was, I was getting a reaction from it. Just, I was like, there's something to this. And then once we started the two cool thing, it felt like it fit the character, you know, so I just started, I would hit the ropes and I would drop down and I would warm across. I remember dropping elbows and head butts and leg drops. And, and, uh, I knew I had something just from the buzz of the audience. And then one night on raw, Jerry Lawler, as I'm hopping from one side to the other, Jerry Lawler says, W-O-R-M. And I heard the playback the next day.

And I asked him, I said, would you please keep doing that? I think if we can condition the audience to do that, they'll do it. And sure enough, you know, a month later, they're doing it. And Jerry Lawler got the warm over. Yeah, it was just crazy, you know, to think, you know, Jerry Lawler, who is, you know, Brian's dad and, you know, somebody I grew up respecting. and it's just crazy. It's just, it's something, it's one of those things.

I don't think I could have sat down and wrote it out and been like, hey, this is going to work and the crowd's going to love it and they're going to spell worm and they're going to do the who, who, who. And like, it was just something that all fell into place. And that's why I try to encourage young people now, just try stuff. Try stuff. You don't know what's going to work, what's going to take off. You just have to listen to the crowd, you know.

I know it wasn't originally called the worm either, right? Like when you first hit it, the comment. commentators were saying, it's the caterpillar. No, it's the centipede. Yeah, yeah, yeah, all these different names for it, right? But it's a caterpillar and centipede are a lot, caterpillar and centipede are a lot harder to spell than worm are. It's a lot of letters, a lot of hopping around for you. But it's crazy no matter where I go in the world, you know, whether they speak English or not, they spell it out. So it's really, really important. Yeah, I'm thankful for it. That's so fun. It's fun. Yeah. How did you and Brian Christopher get paired together in the first place?

So we were just, we were thrown together. I had been under contract. I signed in February of 97 and I'd been there a whole year. And then right before WrestleMania of 98 in Boston, I was sitting home. So that's WrestleMania 14. 14, Austin and Sean, John Michaels. With Mike Tyson. Right.

Kane and Undertaker. Pete Rose. You know, it was a big WrestleMania. It was in Boston. You know, so being a guy. being a guy who grew up in Maine, being a Northeastern guy, like to have WrestleMania in Boston and be on the show, I got the call. I'm sitting, so I'm sitting home.

And I think it was Wednesday before WrestleMania. I had been home for weeks or months and not, they didn't done anything with me up to this point. So I'm ready to get released at any point, you know, and I get a call from Anne Russo. And she said, hey, we need you in Boston on Friday to do this. They're going to do this outdoors. show, which ended up being the DX workout with Tyson on, you know, that bit and I wrestled

Takam and Chinoku in this little, there's like three or four matches on the show. We wrestle each other. And then they do the tag team battle royal that I think was the first match on WrestleMania 14. And they just throw, throw Brian and I that in that match together for no rhyme or reason. He was a heel. I was a baby face up to that point. We had wrestled each other a bunch of times. And also we just thrown into this match.

a tag team. It made no sense whatsoever. So you're on WrestleMania and you've been a tag team for a day. That's it. That was our first match together. Wow. And, you know, like I said, I'd been sitting home ready to get released at any point. All of a sudden, I'm in this match at WrestleMania. And you have a name for your tag team? Do you have an idea for it?

So I go to cater. This is what happened. I go to catering and I'm getting a coffee. And the way I remember it, like the room is completely, you know, this way you remember stuff. The room is completely empty. I'm getting a coffee. and I feel somebody to my left.

And I look, and it's Vince McMahon. And towards the end of my time, Vince didn't even go into catering. But at this time, he went to catering. He ate catering. And towards the end, you wouldn't even see him. So I'm getting the coffee. And here I am, early 20s, right? And here's the guy, the guy who can make you or break you.

And I said, you know, thank you for putting me on the show. You know, it's a dream come true. blah, blah, blah. And I said, I don't know if, you know, I don't know if you know this or not, and I know he didn't know it. But a few years ago on the independence, I wrestled to Scott Too Hot Taylor. I did. I used the name, Scott Too Hot Taylor. And, you know, Brian was too sexy Brian Christopher. So I told Vince that, and he said, let me think about that. And then the next week we get to television. And I'm Scott Too Hot Taylor. We got Too Sexy Brian Christopher. And they called us. They came I don't know who came up with the name, too much, but all of a sudden were too much.

And then we're off, we're off to the races, you know. How long were you too much before you became too cool? I think it was about a year, about a year. And then I remember being in Nassau Coliseum and Vince Rousseau came up to us. And he said, hey, we want to change your character up. We want you guys to kind of do what the Hardy Boys did, where they went from tights to street clothes. And we want you to dress like the kids are dressing in the malls. That was the only, that was the only, like, direction we got.

So we were in, next week we're in Springfield, Massachusetts. Brian and I, we go out, we walk outside the arena. We find these shops and, you know, they're like hip-hop shops. And like, okay, we can't really wear tight jeans, but we could, you know, they have these baggy jeans and these hip-hop shops. You know, we could wear those in the ring because you get knee pads and knee braces and all that good stuff underneath them and still be able to wrestle in them. So that was, that was what we ended up doing.

You know, where did you find that iconic white and black outfit you'd wear all the time? So that was, that was a little bit later. That was at the first appearance that brought, the, uh, me, Brian and Rikishi did together. We were in New Jersey somewhere. And it's like, an appearance at a flea market. And we had just started to really blow up. And I remember like they were, they seemed like, you know, hundreds of people there were the signing. And up to this point, I had never had hundreds of people stand in line for my autograph, you know.

So it was like, mind blowing. but this guy shows up with these duffle bags of clothes. He worked for Echo. And that was one of the outfits in the duffel bag. And of course, we had the seamsters put the logos and her names and everything on them. But it's crazy, you know, crazy. When you think of the attitude era, you're one of the tag teams that immediately pops into your mind. Too cool.

How long was too cool together? So too cool. Brian and I can't. So it was a. May of 99, we did a backstage thing for Sunday night heat that was going to air the following Sunday. So we filmed this on Tuesday saying too much is no more. We're now too cool. The next day, we're in Portland, Maine, of all places, on a house show wrestling, Dilo Brown, Mark Henry, Ryan Tears his ACL. So we're like, oh, man, like, we just started this new character. You know,

We just filmed that thing last night. It's supposed to air this Sunday. And then I said, sure enough, they're not going to air it. There's no point to air it. Brian's going to be out for at least six months. And they aired it. Still played. You know, we're now, so now we're too cool.

Okay, we're okay. You know, and the whole too cool thing is Vince Russo's idea. While Brian's out with the ACL injury, Russo goes to WCW. You know, so I'm sitting home. I see Russo shows up on WC. Oh, no. You know, the guy who pitched the idea to us is, gone.

But they bring us back in, I think it was October of 99. We show up on Raw as too cool. And we jumped. Either we jumped Edging Christian or the Hardee's, I don't remember. But whatever team it wasn't did a run in and the Hollies, the Hollies came in. The set up for Survivor Series 99 or it was too cool, the Hollies against Edge Christian and the Hardys. And so that was October, and then Rikishi was put with us in December.

And then here's the crazy thing. So Rikishi Too Cool didn't start until December. The iconic moment in the Royal Rumble where the three of us danced together was four weeks later. Whoa. Yeah. So that's how fast that thing took off. So if that was October 99, how long was your run with Too Cool? I think it was

whenever Brian got released which was so we were together all of 2000 I think it was 2001 that he got released so Too Cool existed for a little over a year yeah yeah that's crazy

Rikishi Too Cool wasn't even a year because Rikishi was put with us in December of 99 December of 2000 he had turned on us and was wrestling Austin at the pay-per-view Because you hit him with the car. You did it for the rock.

Yeah. You did. Yeah. But I say, man, like, I've made it literally like, yeah, I did other stuff, you know, came back a few years later with me and Rikisha as just the two of us. That was cool. But what really made my whole career was that time in 2000. And I really, I made a whole career out of that.

It's insane. That's crazy to think that you, Brian Christopher and Rikishi, were together for only about a year. Yeah. Insane. And I didn't even realize that until I started doing these interviews. and started thinking, you know, timelines and chronologically, like, what was it? And I was like, I can't believe that wasn't even even a year. And it seems like it was forever, you know.

Well, I think that I say this all the time, nostalgia is a hell of a drug. I've realized that coming back onto the independence, there was a, there was a shift from when I left WWE in 2000 as talent and went out on the independence from like from 2000. 2007 till 2016 when I went back to WWE as a coach. Yeah, I was just another guy on the independence, former WWE guy, blah, blah, blah. And then this time, it's different. There's that nostalgia thing you're talking about.

How do you feel being a nostalgia act? Dude, I embrace it. Some people go, I go, I'm a total nostalgia act, and I embrace it. And I didn't, you know, when I left, when I came back to the independence this time, I wasn't sure how to present myself. Do I go back to the classic look? Do I try to portray as I would look all these years later?

I didn't know what people would want it, but I was literally doing, you know, I would do photo ops on the shows with these grown men and I could feel them shaking, you know? Or you get a couple guys who almost start to cry. And you're like, this is crazy, man. Like nostalgia is unbelievable. And so I've learned to embrace it, you know, I embrace it.

And it's cool because I get guys. So too cool, Rikishi was 2000. So I'm getting guys that were 15 years old in 2000. They're in their 40s. With kids of their own, you know. And it's pretty awesome, pretty awesome. So why was Rikishi added to the group? I don't know.

You know, I remember Michael Hayes coming up to us and saying, And because he had, the last thing he had done on WWE television was the Sultan. And then I know he had been sent down to Memphis and he was wrestling there. And I think he was kind of doing the Rikishi gimmick a little bit there. I might be wrong, but I know they said he was going to come out and save us. You know, and he's got this thong on. And I'm like, this doesn't make any sense. He doesn't fit what Ryan and I have been doing.

And I go, I don't see this working. but that first night, man, like, there was just something. You can't, it's one of those things you can't even describe. It's, or feel like you can come up with and go, I know this is going to work. You know, we did it. We did the dance. And it was, I always say it was magic. It was magic.

Why do you think Rikishi and Too Cool worked? Because when you look at it on paper, he's this guy wearing a thong. You guys are wearing, like, hip-pop street clothes. Yeah, yeah. I think we all had our own thing. we all played off each other well. You know, I had the worm. He had the stink face.

You know, I had the hair. Brian Christopher had the dig in with the shawl. He had the thriller. He did the lawnmower. That's right. Yeah. Dude, Kegan got me to almost cry when we were in London. We did a show.

And we did the dance. I don't do the dance very often anymore. It has to be the right setting. But we did the dance. We did it for a company called Riot Cabaret in London. And it's London. And it's more of an adult. crowd so they knew the dance you know and and they had the proper lighting and the sound is good

just the whole atmosphere was was right for it so we did it with the referee there and kegan goes into the dance and then he goes into the lawnmower and he comes over he goes that was for brian and i was like oh he got me man like you know it was like it was cool to see uh like he had that respect you know what i mean so it was it was cool but uh yeah i don't know man it was just like it was like i said it was magic in a bottle it was one of those things you couldn't uh you can't, again, so it was like the worm. It wasn't something you could sit down, right out, and I know this is going to work.

Sometimes you just have to try stuff, you know? It's just so bizarre to think that when you look at Rikishi, his gimmick at that time was around the fact that he wore a thong and had a big ass. Yeah, yeah. You know, and I thought, you know, sometimes I wonder, like, was that more of a rib that backfired? You know, were they just trying to have some fun at our expense? and it just backfired and worked.

I don't know. It was just, again, it was magic, magic, man. You had a magical moment at the Royal Rumble 2000 where it's for Kishi, it's Brian Christopher in the ring, and then your music hits. So you got all three members of two cool, and then the music hits, and it's just, what a great moment. Yeah, awesome, you know.

Again, that was a defining moment. And what made us, made our career. And you'd been together. About that. About a month. About four weeks. Yeah. And the crowd knew exactly what was going to happen. Yeah. Yeah. It was just, it was like the right timing. You know, I think if it was probably two weeks earlier, it wouldn't have got that reaction. But we just had, we had those four or five weeks, whatever it was to condition the audience to what was coming. And when they knew, you know, when it was only the three of us, they knew it was coming. And it was New York, you know, New York City where either they love you or they hate you. And I've been on both sides of that, you know, where I'm, I was the new guy and I'm the white meat baby face trying to get over in New York when I first started and going out there and they boo you out of the building as a baby face to the other side where they love you. And if you can get New York to love you, you can get anybody who love you. It's a fun moment because you guys are dancing. The crowd is so into you almost forget that the Royal Rumble's happening at that moment.

Yeah, it was such a good Rumble. The whole Rumble itself was just so awesome. But yeah, I mean, really like every year the Rumble comes around, start posting that clip of the dance and it, you know, blows up. Yeah. I'm so lucky to have that. You know, I have a couple defining moments, you know, and I had some really good Royal Rumble moments that, again, I didn't realize until later, you know,

whereas we had that and then had the moment with Taker, where he gets eliminated by Maven, and then here I come, and then, you know, just one shot, you know, from him. And, you know, I always had this, like, kind of regret that I never had a chance to wrestle him. But then I go, man, I had two really cool Royal Rumble moments with him. We had that one. And then the Rumble, I don't remember. I think it was 2002. And I know it was New Orleans where it came down to Taker and Kane.

Yeah, brother's a destruction. And they're facing and off. And it's like, oh, what's going to happen? Whose music's going to hit? Here I come. You look very unsure. And I'm dancing down. And, you know, I don't look at the ring until I, you know, I'm dancing,

and I spin and I look. And then there's the two of them. Oh, my God. You know, and it's just... They give you this massive double-chokeslam. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The only thing that I wish I did differently, and maybe it wouldn't have worked,

maybe it's perfect the way it did, but I wish when I got in there with the two of them, I'd taken out two pairs of yellow glasses, you know, as a peace offering, and then they just guzzled me. But, no, it was perfect, man. It's just like moments like that live forever, you know?

The fun thing about the moment with Rikishi is you guys are dancing. People are forgetting it's the Royal Rumble. And then he smokes you both with a double clothesline. Yeah. And then gets rid of us both and then goes back to the dance and the rumble continues. But it was perfect. You know,

that's one of those things I don't remember a lot about that day. I remember Pat Patterson, Paterson, like kind of running it by us, what we were going to do. But only like one time, I remember seeing our names on the list in the locker room at the garden, but I don't have a lot of memory. from that day, you know, but I don't remember rehearsing anything or like, you know, and all those dances we did with all those different guys, whether it's the Dudleys or the Hardee's and Lita or APA, you know, we danced with everybody at that time. You know, the fans wanted to see everybody

out of their element, whether they were serious or not, they wanted to see everybody dance with us. But we didn't rehearse, we never rehearsed anything with them. So it was, and I think probably it was better like that because it was more entertaining. And it couldn't believe that you got the Dudley's to agree to it. And then in the same moment, APA as well. And the thing I love about that clip is Farooke is getting into it. Ron Simmons is getting down. Yeah.

Well, you have to go all in. That's what makes it work. You know, like some people go half in on stuff. And I'm not just talking about the dance with anything. Whatever you're doing, if you go all in, Like, dude, I never, still to this day, I have never danced, like at a wedding or in a club. I hate clubs, but I hate, like, I was the guy at the junior high school dance who would stand against the wall in the back of the room on my palm sweating, hoping that a girl wouldn't

come ask me to dance, you know, because I was terrified. And so when they asked us to put that three-way dance together, I was terrified. I love when the camera cuts over to Bradshaw. Yeah. And he's like, getting down with these moves. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he went all in on it. You know, and that's what made it work.

Yeah. You know, it was so good. Like, so we did so, I mean, pretty much everybody at the time, whether it was television or house show, dance with us at some point. I feel like every house show at that time was ending with the big baby faces dancing with too cool. Yeah, it was. So, I mean, a lot of times, Brian and I would, would open the show in a tag match.

And then, you know, even if Austin and Rock were on the show, they would put them on. before intermission, get them out of the building so they could get to the next town and then they didn't have to make their way through the mob of fans at the end of the night because they were massive at the time. And then they would have Rikishi in the main event. And then we would run back out.

We would do the dance and to close the show. You know, so many times. It's crazy, you know. Visit BetMDMDM Casino and check out the newest exclusive, the Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMDM and Game Sense remind you to play responsibly, 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly.

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Who were the other big moments you were having these dance breaks with? Oh, I mean, Lita and the Hardee's was a big one. You know, that was a big one. And that was really cool for me, personally, you know, because we had, Matt and Jeff and myself, you know, we were extras for a long time, you know, coming up through and just, you know, saying, ah, someday, hopefully we're here, you know, and hopefully we're the next generation.

And then, you know, we all ended up there. So it's cool with them. You know, just, you know, being in there with Edgich Christian. Yeah, like you said, Ron and John, the APA, everybody. I remember Tegeri doing it, you know, and Tijiri could do this worm. where he went over and he went all the way over, like almost like a steamroller. I will say Rob Van Dam was probably the worst

dance throw of everybody. As athletic as the guy is, the amazing stuff he does in the ring, he's probably the worst. But sometimes, not sometimes, all the time, whatever you can do, even if you're bad, it works, it works. You know, like even if I bring a...

Yeah, if you commit to it, it's entertaining. So it's, you're, and you should. If you're not the dancing guy, you shouldn't be good at, you know? Yeah. So it's, yeah, it was so much fun. How would you say your dance skills were before Too Cool? Awful. If you watch some of those, even you watch some of those early Too Cool Rikishi dances,

my rhythm was so bad, so bad. You know, Brian put that together. And I remember it was Rochester, New York, and we were putting it together in the back and trying to come up with it. You know, they wanted us to do some kind of celebration victory dance. And Brian pretty much structured the whole thing. and choreographed it. It's basically the electric slide. You know, then we go into our own thing, but I was terrified, terrified, you know, and then eventually I was able to get it down.

What do you think your career looks like without too cool? Oh, man, I don't know what my career looks like if I didn't have that moment in Boston with Vince McMahon where I pitched the too, too hot thing. And that's what I say. Talk about timing is everything, right? If I didn't have that moment where I came cross past with him and was able to pitch that to him. I don't think I would have ever gone to his office to, I would have had the guts to go in and pitch it to him. So it just happened that had that moment with him. I talk about that a lot where it's like timing is everything, you know, and we cross past right there. And if I didn't have that moment, too much would have never been. And then too cool would have never been.

You know, so it's. Then what does your career look like without that? I don't know. Because I was floundering at the time. Like I, maybe you don't stay in WWE that much longer. Oh, right. That's what I said. Wow. I say that a lot. You know, it's just, but, you know, it happened. And then Rikishi came along and it happened. And, dude, I say I have, for me personally, I've had the perfect career.

You know what I mean? Like some guys, and, you know, some people might, like, laugh at that because I was never the main, I was never the top guy. But I never had, like, aspirations to be the top guy. I can remember, like, maybe 93 thinking, I don't know if I'm ever going to make it. These guys are huge. You know, we're talking about the Hogan era, you know, we're just coming out of the big Hogan era where guys were still 300 pounds, most guys. You know, so I don't know if I'm ever going to have a chance.

I would just be happy to be, you know, a Jim Powers or Coco Beware, you know, like the bottom, bottom guy who's just entertaining and just to have a job. job there. But for me, I feel like I've had the perfect career. Here I am still healthy at 53, still able to do it, still be able to make a good living doing it. In December of 22, I do a lot of UK and Europe tours. In December of 22, I did eight, I did one tour where I went to eight countries, you know. That's cool. And if it wasn't for too cool, too cool, too cool Rikishi, I don't know if I'd be doing able to do that. You know, so to be able to still do that, be able to do with my son. And part of the perfect career thing was like, if you're a top guy, you work every day,

you know, especially back then. You know, you're doing 200 shows, at least 200 shows a year. You're flying on each end of that. You're doing radio and PR interviews on your day off. You're working nonstop. And, you know, once I had my... my kids, I wanted to be home more. I still wanted to wrestle, but it kind of changed my perspective on everything. And I don't feel like I missed, I don't feel like I missed any of the important

things. You know, none of the birthdays or Christmases or, you know, I was there for the soccer games and the theater performances for the most part, you know, and still be able to be a WWE superstar, you know, so it was, for me, it was perfect and to still be able to be, going, it's, it's amazing. It's amazing. One of the things I always loved about you is you always look like you were having so much fun. It was. Well, I still do. From the second your music hits, you quite literally turn it up. Yeah, yeah. No, I do. It's, you know, even if it's, you know, sometimes you do a show, you know, here or there where there's, you know, two, three hundred people there. But if the place is, you know, if it's place, place is packed and everybody's having fun,

I'm having fun. You know, back to the Tim White conversation, I thought I was going to be done at 30. You know, and here I am, and it's, I have fun.

And, you know, you get all these, you know, you get these stories from these fans, and you have just had a guy in England come up to me with a pitcher of us from like 2000,

you know, and this guy's a little kid at the time, you know, and it's just, it's, I've been so lucky, you know, like,

I wouldn't do anything different. You wouldn't, grandmaster sexe had such great chemistry together. But from what I understand, you weren't that close behind the scenes. We really weren't. We really weren't. You know, um, uh, thankfully towards the end of his life, we got closer and literally one of the last texts he sent me was a picture of his son, who was, uh, wrestling in school, like amateur style wrestling at the time. You know, so we had gotten to that point where we shared information about our kids because for a long time, we were just, There were times we wouldn't even barely talk before we went to the ring.

As soon as we went through that curtain, again, it was magic. Was there animosity? We just had different lifesty. You know, Brian went down a, you know, I think everybody knows. It's not a secret. Brian went down a bad road and fell into the drugs and, you know, the alcohol. And that was, you know, in the going out and the clubs. And that was never my, I still, I don't drink.

I don't do drugs. I don't, you know, I, I, there's never a club guy, you know. And I feel like Brian, sadly as it is to say, I feel like Brian liked Grandmaster Sex-A better than he liked Brian Lauer. And there's people who fall into that. I see that. And that's what I always try to tell people is don't ever believe that you're that character. It's okay to embrace it.

People are going to treat you better. They're going to give you free meals when you go into restaurants. And they're going to just treat you better, which is cool. Don't get me wrong, but it's not real. You know, and some people just get so caught up into it. It ruins them. It ruins them. Yeah. And it's sad.

And I think I was always able to separate the two. You know, I always love Scotty too hotty, but I'm Scott Garland, you know. And I always try to remember that. So who were you traveling with it? For years, I traveled with Kane, you know. And I saw he told you that told, maybe it was on Undertaker's podcast. They were talking about when I first started up there, you had to be 25 to rent a car. Yeah.

And I was 23, I think. So I couldn't even rent a car at the time. So I was riding with Kane and Paul Barra. And I remember Paul Barra. They were telling a story about how Percy was, he was mad at, he was mad at Kane for something. And we drove like three hours to a show. and just just to urcane Percy drove with the window down

the whole time and it was freezing you know and I'm in the back seat frozen you know but yeah and you know I rode with Mick Foley for a little bit when I first went up there in Al Snow Funaki for a while but I think Brian Chris wrote maybe only one time you only rose at once

yeah yeah tag team partner with him and that was because we had in the appearance and then we had to get to the show so we wrote together. But I remember we shared a room one time, and that was at Owen Hart's funeral. And that was WWE paid for it. And they paid for everybody's rooms and flights

to go to the funeral. But they doubled everybody up in rooms, and they put me with Brian. Well, that speaks to how great a performers you guys were. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There wasn't any chemistry behind the scenes, but on camera it was magic. I think you see that in a lot of entertainment.

You see with bands, you know, And it's hard. Being in a tag team is a lot like being married, really, you know, especially at that level because so much of what the other person does, you know, rides on them. You know, his choices will affect me or my choices will affect him. And it's hard, you know, and you can't just go get divorced. You know, you're a team in a professional setting, you know. How was your relationship with Rikishi?

Great. Always good. Yeah. Always good. I was always blown away by Rikishi's athleticism. Yeah. That inside out clothes line still blows my mind. Amazing.

I always say that, and I didn't realize this to later, but I think I became a better worker when I was teaming with just him. Because I could stand on the apron and watch him and the way he moved. When it was Brian and I and Rikishi, we were all trying to get our stuff, especially Brian and I, we're trying to get our stuff in. And like I said, we just didn't gel as well together. But watching Rikishi, Brian was a great worker, too. Don't get me wrong. Brian was really, really good when he was younger. But Rikishi was just, I mean, he was from a legendary family.

And he grew up around it. And just the way he moved, the way he would hit that back splash in the corner. And then he would walk out and wait for that guy to drop in the corner for the stink face. And he would just stand there. This is completely still. And that's the hardest thing to teach. is just stillness, you know, and then he would do the quick headspin,

and people would go crazy, you know. So I learned a lot during that time, watching him. He's hoping the crowd will react the way he wants them react every time they would. Yeah, and that's something that I don't, I could do all the moves. You know, I did more moves then than I do now or even later into my WWE run,

but just the timing of what he did and following along. with what he did. I learned a lot from that. I learned that he became a better worker. Do you think of yourself as a tag team wrestler or a singles wrestler? Probably, I don't know, man. It's hard. I really enjoy tag team wrestling. I enjoy the art of it and the storytelling of it. So I probably, probably tag team. I enjoy both. But you had a successful run in WWE as a singles guy. Yeah, for a little bit. Light heavyweight champion. Yeah, that's, so Brian tore his ACL then, too. So he had, he had the first ACL, toward terror than the second and then that's that's when I wrestled um malenko dean uh and won the light

the light heavyweight championship from him in Penn State and then you know and then of course we went on to have the backlash match uh in Washington that's and that's the match that everybody always brings up to me is is uh how good that match was you know what's your favorite match if I had to pick one match it was probably that you know why is it that one just whatever reason it clicked and we had wrestled a hundred times at that point you know and uh for whatever reason that night is we i know i know we ended up with a little extra time because the match before us went short um so we did have a little extra times to take our time that might have played into it a little bit but it was just i i i have i feel like i have so much gratitude towards dean

so that's another thing all these years later dude i didn't think about and then you get away from and he started thinking about things like, I feel like Dean helped make Scotty Too Hottie because he was so serious. So he was the wrestling guy. He's the man of a thousand holes. You know, here I am, raising the roof and doing the worm

and doing the moonwalk. And I just think those opposite characters when they blended, when they cross paths, it was so interesting. Well, levels both of them up. Right. Right.

And he could play it for me, Sure. I could play off from him. He upped my, the physical wrestling game. Like, he was, he was so good with what he did. And maybe you brought a little personality out of him. Yeah, it was so good, man. And just, you know, to work with him now at AW, he's also a coach there. Yeah, it's full circle. And to be around him again. It's really cool, man. That's what's been cool about going back to AEW is like, I didn't know, you know, I, you know, you think, okay, I'll cross pass with Jericho and, you know, and the Hardys were there when I first started with AEW. And, you know, hearties and now, you know, Adam and Christian are there and Billy and Billy. And I saw him last night, you know, he looks like a million bucks, man. It's like, a superhero. Amazing. He honestly, he's an inspiration, you know, just to keep going. Yeah, yeah, he's about 10 years older than me, you know, so it's, it gives me, it gives me drive to stay in shape and want to keep doing this,

you know, and he's a guy he'll make money doing this forever because he was part of such a magical time. You know, but, you know, just back to Dean, like, I feel like he really played a huge part in making me, you know, and it was funny. A funny story with Dean is, like, I can remember, you know, we did so many matches. And I would hit the bulldog, and I'm standing over him, getting ready to do the worm, and I look down, and he's just, because nobody's watching him, and he knows that at this point.

They're watching me being crazy, you know. And I look down, and I see he's just laying there pretending he's smoking a cigarette, looking up at me. But, you know, that's the thing. fun of what we do. You're like when you can, you know, what we call ha ha in the ring and you can mess around. It's, it's only good when the audience doesn't realize what you're doing. Once you let them in, there's certain times you can let them in on ha ha stuff. But other times you don't want to let, you know, in a situation like that, especially then when we hadn't pulled the curtain back so far, you know.

The attitude era was so special. Magical. Like people still talk about it now as being the best era ever. Why was it so special? I think it was. just part of it was timing part of it was you had all of these larger than life characters it wasn't only austin rock undertaker you know it was it was crash holly funnaki too cool rickish you know it was it was it was yeah top of the car to the bottom of the car all the way the duddlies everybody on that show when their music hit you knew exactly who it was who was coming out and they played a important part an important role on the show everybody you know yeah you had the top guys but everybody played an important role on that show,

which is how it should be. It's also got to be something to do with where culture was at in the late- For sure, for sure. Right. MTV is infiltrating culture at that point in time. Everybody's pushing the envelope. You have Howard Stern, you know, pushing the envelope as far as he could. And then wrestling was able to do the same thing, you know, and...

Yeah, it was just like lightning in a bottle. Yeah. I say my career peaked at the peak of professional wrestling. That's perfect. You know what I mean? So to have that year with two-classiness, Kul Rikishi and the peak at that time was I was so lucky to the timing is everything. Yeah.

You're sporting the scar on the front of your neck that I see on a lot of pro wrestling. Yeah. Yeah. So what surgery did you have? I had the cervical fusion by Dr. Youngblood in San Antonio, you know, Stone Cold went first. And then every edge, Edge went, Lita went, Bob Holly, Benoit went. I think that angle may have ended up going, but I don't think so. There was a bunch of us.

Within. Nac fusion. Yeah, cervical fusion, 5, 6, 7. And, uh... Did you break your neck? No, it wasn't a... It was just that the discs were bad, you know? And then there were, there was levels above it that weren't good, but he said if he,

if he was to fuse four levels, I would never wrestle again. He said, but he could do two. And then, and that's what, I think Edge had the same 5, six, seven. I know Ben, I was, I think, and Bob Holly that we were all, but Austin found this, this, this, this, this, out. He actually, Austin went to my first doctor's appointment with me, which is wild. Just to ask the right question with you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I remember him being in the room before the doctor came and he takes him the x-rays out of the envelope that are sitting on the table. And he puts some on turns on the light and he starts looking at him. He goes, what was the line at the time

where I'm not a doctor, but I did say at a Holiday Express last time. But, you know, how cool is that that he went with me to that, you know? Like, so cool, man. Like, there's all these little moments that I think about now that, like I was telling you before we started, I feel like I should start keeping notes about all these different things. Cool moments that I've had that I forget about. Just this week with Bill Dundee passing away, I thought, I wrestled.

Brian and I wrestled Bill Dundee and Jerry against Bill Dundee and Jerry Luller on Beale Street in Memphis. two legends of Memphis legends that I got to wrestle on Beale Street that, you know, I'm sure at the time I thought was cool, but now, you know, it just seems like, how cool is that? I think if you wrote a book, a lot of people would buy it. I think it would be cool, man. I don't know if I, maybe if I, that's one regret I have is two regrets. I didn't take more pictures and I didn't keep a journal.

Take the picture. I think Jericho and Edge both kept. journals, you know. On Jericho's written, three, four books. I don't know how many it is. So smart. And that's something I always talk about in my seminars is I'll go into a social media rant about using your social media better to promote yourself.

And then I'll go into take photos and keep a journal. I always love that advice from you hear it. It's not just in wrestling. It's in life. Take the photo. Yeah. Yeah. You know, but back then it was like, yeah.

I wish I took more. You know, I met all these cool people, you know, because it was like a president and South Africa came to the show, you know, and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Schreiber, I remember them coming to the show and wanting a picture with him. Didn't Arnold hit Triple H with the belt or punch him or something? Yeah, I'm not sure if it was that same night. I think he was just there to watch the show in L.A. It was at Staples Center. And, but I know he came to Baltimore and did something on the show. I think that's when

you were talking about, but all these awesome people I met over the years, Adam Sandler, you know, all these different people. Funny Adam Sandler's story. So I, uh, I, uh, I know you've interviewed him, right? He's a huge wrestling fan. Yeah. And so we're in Buffalo, New York. And, you know, back then we would do pretty much the same shows for maybe a month, you know, pretty much the same show. So Brian and I were on first every night.

And then Billy Gunn was wrestling Eddie Guerrero, like third match every night. And I'd heard they've been killing, of course, Billy and Eddie, of course, the two of them together are going to kill it. So I want to see this match. So Brian and I finish. go back, towel off. I find this area in the arena where it's dark, but I can go on the arena and stand in the shadows and watch the match on the arena.

So I'm watching it, and I see this guy come out of the audience and comes over to me. He goes, ah, good stuff you did out there. You're really funny. I was like, oh, thanks. You know, and I'm trying to watch the match, but I think it's a fan who snuck back.

So I don't want more people to start coming and cause a scene, so I can't watch the match, you know? So I was like, I wasn't rude, but I was like, thanks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. and then continue to watch the match. And then the guy who's the promoter, he comes out, he walks out there, and he comes back with somebody. And he's like, Scott, this is Adam Sandler.

I was like, Adam Sandler just told me I was funny. And I blew him off. Maybe if I was nicer to him, I'd be in his movies. That's another story. You know, I think like, man, I can write this stuff. Well, that should be in your book, too. Yeah, sure. Maybe you started making voice.

For sure. I think you're right. If you open up the note section on your phone and you just hit the microphone button, you can talk to text and you'll just have a whole thing right. I think you're right. Do you see old photos of yourself and go, I don't even remember doing that? I see a lot of stuff. Whether it's YouTube or social media, people post stuff. And I go, how do I not remember that? I'm in there with the rock or I'm in there with Triple H or it's doing something with big show. Or it's all of those people I mentioned in the ring with us. And I don't remember that. But what I think it was, Chris, was at that time, we would work.

You know, sometimes we'd be Friday, Saturday, Sunday, raw Monday, Smackdown Tuesday. So we did something, say we do something on Monday night or Tuesday night. We film it. I go, go to the next show or I go home. The last thing I want to do is watch wrestling when I get home. I'm only home for, you know, Wednesday. I fly home Wednesday, have Thursday home, go back out Friday. So I think I just didn't watch a lot of stuff back.

So I wouldn't, I would do it, but I never really saw it. But now all these years later, with social media and with YouTube, I'm seeing stuff or I'm seeing the pictures. And I'll be like, how cool is that? I don't know why our memory lets us down. No, I know. Right. That's such an interesting thing.

Yeah. I'm fascinated by the idea that we live life in seconds, minutes, hours, right? Especially now. But we only remember it in moments. You can have an entire day and you'll think back and just remember. Little bits and pieces. Right, a moment. Yeah.

I think about that sometimes. You know, like I told you, I did these like UK tours. And I've been taking my son over and we go over together and do them. And it's like, just thinking the other day, like, trying to remember different. What did we do on this trip? We were over there for three weeks. And like just trying to remember what we did was like, I don't remember everything, you know? Yeah.

Try to make the most of it on these trips. The last one, we went over three weeks and we went, we went hard. We went hard. We did two shows. We landed in London on Friday. We did Saturday, Sunday in England. Monday, we flew to Paris. We did Disneyland Paris, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

Friday, we flew back to England. We did England Saturday, England Sunday, flew to Germany Sunday, did a show in Germany on Sunday. And then after the show in Germany, We took the train over to Fantasia Land, a theme park in Germany, did that for two days. After the second day, we got on a train up to Amsterdam, did Amsterdam for a day. And then there's a theme park called Eflin Park up there. We did that, got back on another plane, flew back to England, did one more show and flew home. So I do remember it now.

Once I get it going, I remember it. But it's not so much what we did, it's the moments. Like what did we, you know, like you said, the seconds and minutes. It comes down to there's moments in life that matter and moments that don't. Sylvester Stallone had a guest spot on This Is Us. And it's something I go back and watch a lot. And it actually makes me emotional when I watch it. But he's talking about like when his kids are young and like, you know,

takes him back to that moment and you can think about it and be there in a second. But he's like when it comes down to it, there's moments that matter. Yeah. Moments that don't. So true. Yeah, so true. Like it's moments that make you feel something. Yeah.

Whether that's pain or pleasure, right? It makes you feel something. That's it. That's the key to what we do. Right. That's what I was saying. Bring it right back to wrestling. Yeah, if you can make them feel something,

that's the secret to what we do. Make them feel something. I think it's the key to entertainment. Look at McJagger. He's still going, but he just presents himself as a superstar. He makes you feel something. It's not about the music. Yeah, yeah, it is, but it isn't.

You know what I mean? Kiss is, I use Kiss all the time. You know, these guys are, you know, they're in the 70s now. You can see that you could, I know they're not touring with the makeup anymore, but they, I saw them on the farewell tour three times. They still had it. Had their show so dialed in and they, they just made you feel something. And, you know, maybe it's that nostalgia thing we talked about. Yeah. That's the key to entertainment is to make them feel something. I love that you've leaned into it. There's a lot of people that might run from that. Man, that was 25 years ago. I, I have a different person now.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what fans want to see. Yeah. No, and I'm, you know, I'm thankful that it's a short list. from the attitude era that are actually still wrestling, you know, it's very, very short list, you know, so I'm, that's true, try to embrace it. It's getting shorter and shorter all the time, you know, and that's why I figure the longer I can stay in shape, the longer I can do this, and I don't have to go get another job, you know. I know we'll miss some people, but from the attitude era, who's still wrestling?

I know Gangrel still wrestles. Gangrel, Edge, Christian, Hardies. Sure. I know Bradshaw do a little bit here and there where he hits that clothesline, you know. Our truth. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

He was at the end of the attitude there. People always say Ray, but I'm like, ah, Ray was ruthless aggression. Right, right. WCW. But he wasn't in WWB's attitude. Right. Yeah. No, it's a very short list.

You know, and that's how I just, I try to stay in the best shape I can. Yeah. And just, now look, and that's not a full list. There's still other people. Yeah, still more people. Billy. Yeah. Yeah.

Road dogs in a little bit with him now. That's right. He looks happy. I love seeing him looking happy. They love being an installed act. Yeah, yeah. There's nothing wrong with it. Yeah. You know, there's nothing wrong with it.

And, you know, that's what people want to see is the greatest hits. You go out there. They want to see the worm, you know, and they just give them what they remember. It brings them back to their childhood. Yeah. You know, and, you know, back to Kiss, again, like, that's for me, like growing up watching Kiss, growing up in the hairband time. You know, I go see Motley crew. I'll go see Brett Michaels with poison or go see poison together. That's what I grew up, you know, it's part of my high school days.

And for my era now, it's like newfound glory is doing the 25 year anniversary or Blink 1282's still touring. And it's like, well, that brings me back to being in high school. Garth Brooks is out there now. He's actually doing a retro tour now. You know, he's using the stage from his 90s tour. People love it. And just this week, he's doing five days in Chicago. Yeah.

Like, it's crazy. Crazy. nostalgia's a drug, man. Visit BetMDMDM casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only.

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I love that you came in here sporting the bleached blonde hair. Maybe you should have done it straight up. Yeah, yeah. I've done it once. Done it once. did a rumble for Limitless wrestling up in Maine, who I work with a lot, really good company.

And they did a rumble in January. And I knew it was going to come down to my son and Ace Romero, who's kind of built. So he's a big, big guy, similar to Rikishi, you know? And I was like, man, I was like, I was really, I was on the fence, like, because sometimes it's hard to recreate those, that kind of moment. know what I was like, let's try to recreate that Royal Rumble 2000 moment with my son and with Ace.

And I'm going to put the hair up. I'm going to, I had the old deal. It was literally the same jacket that I wore in 2000. I had the seamsters from AW fixed the low. It was all rotted off. The two cool logo had all rotted off. So they fixed it up for me and put the hair up. And the old bucket, the bucket hat was from the, it was the bucket hat that I wore.

the first time we did the dance. And so it was cool. I didn't, I didn't still have the bucket hat from the 2000 rumble, but I had the bucket hat from the first time we did the dance together. So it was really cool. And to be able to do it in Maine and, yeah,

and put the hair up. With your son? Yeah, with my son, man. So cool. So cool. What was the hair routine when your bleach blonde hair was straight up? So I would have to, I would put the hat on and then I would have to comb the hair,

my hair through. And then there was a hair. air spray at the time. Were you cutting out the top of the hat? Yeah. Oh, yeah. And this was before Lids eventually came out with a bucket hat with the top out of it, like right around the same time.

So I don't know if it was. And then they started having a hat with the hair built in. Yeah. Yeah. Which is what I need now. But, yeah, so there was a hair spray at the time called Hold It, which was like cement. You know, I just start teasing it up and spray a little bit. And, you know, it was a, you know, and that was another thing.

thing. Like, how did that even happen? And how did it work? You know, but I just did it one time. And it, it's, I remember doing it the first time in the locker room. And I'm leaving the, the, I was in the, I was in the mirror in the bathroom and the locker room. And I remember Matt Bloom, Albert, A-Train, Baldo, whatever you want to call them, the hip-hop hip-hip-hop. Lord Ten-Sai. Yeah, Ten-Sai. He was, yeah, he was beside me. And I had, all I had was the visor. And I just started, you know, putting the hair up. And it wasn't as long as it eventually became. And I said, what do you think? He said, that's awesome. And then I left the locker room and I started walking down the hall. And I remember walking by test and tests laughed out loud. And then here comes Bruce Pritchard.

Bruce laughed. And I was like, okay, I got something here. You know, so it's, again, it's just, sometimes it's just trying stuff. You don't know what's going to work, you know. There's so many second generation wrestlers now. A lot of third generation wrestlers now, too. your son, Kagan, second generation wrestler. What's the advice that you give to people whose parents have been there? And now they're trying to do it, but they're also trying to do their own thing. I think he's got to do his own thing. You know, as you mentioned, he's doing the worm.

You know, and we're together, I think it works. I think he's got to be careful of trying to recreate what I did. And then that's why I want him. He's using his real name. He's just Keegan Garland. And my advice always, not only to him or not even just second generation wrestlers, outwork everybody else. Outwork everybody else.

Don't worry about what everybody else is doing. Just worry about outworking. That's how I am. And I'll tell that when I do a seminar before a show, I'll say, I'm going to outwork every one of you guys tonight. And I challenge you to outwork me. And I don't mean out bump you or do more moves. Outwork me. Outwork, work that audience.

And, you know, so as long as you do that, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, you know, and it's, but, you know, and there's a, you know, it's a, you know, is, you know, as, as, you know, with all the AJ, AJ's son, all the stuff that he's had to go through recently. Yeah. Um, um, don't listen to the noise. Don't listen to the noise. There's always been said, second, you know, all this nepo's stuff that all of a sudden, like, like, why weren't they saying that about the rock? I want to say to Bob Orton in 1980 at WrestleMania. He was in the main event of WrestleMania. Was he a Nepo baby? Wrestling's always been about, you know, yes, my son has a benefit because he has one foot in the door, but he's not going to go anywhere if he doesn't outwork everybody else. And I've told him that, you know.

I can help him, but he needs to still outwork everybody else, you know. I feel like wrestling fans are always just looking for a reason to hate on something. Always, yeah. But it's not only wrestling. fans. Because you know, I'm a huge theme park nerd. And Halloween Horror Nights nerd, which, you know, just started, which Kagan's working. Actually, both of my kids are working Halloween Horror Nights.

Oh, that's cool. Yeah, it's awesome. But it's the same way with those people. I can't even call them fans. I don't even know if they're fans. You know what I mean? Like, they're just nitpick everything and dissecting. Yeah, like Marvel fans, do it.

Disney fans do it, Star Wars fans. I think nobody hates Star Wars more. Star Wars fans. Right, right. And it's the same thing with wrestling. And, you know, thankfully back in the attitude, or we didn't have that to dissect everything. And I always used the Ultimate Warrior.

Like, like, he had such a presence, and he had that magic that worked, of course, you know. And, but what he, his physical wrestling ability was not good, you know. But he was magic, man. But there wasn't the internet to dissect him at the time. Yeah. I wasn't very good. I'm still not very good.

I don't know my time. As far as the wrestling goes, though, the technical part, I was a backyard guy who never learned. Kegan is a hundred times better two years in that I am 37 years in because of what Aces taught him. And he's taught him the basic fundamentals that I never learned. And some of the, I've been on shows. We were in England. I said, dude, I feel like my hip talks, hip tosses look like garbage. And he's like, well, try doing it like this.

You know, so I have my son who's two years in. And sure enough, he's like, put your hip in. to it. And I was like, oh, that looks a lot better, you know? But if the internet existed in 2000, the way that it does now, too cool, probably wouldn't have happened. No, no, you're right. A lot of it. What's with this goofy wrestling? Why are they dancing in the middle of a match? Right, right, right. I even have people comment now about, you know, on some, almost, you know, 99% of the clips get, 99% of the comments on the clips from that time get positive stuff, but you'll have the people, that was so stupid. It's pro wrestling. We're in baby,

and spandex and you know like seriously like you know you have a guy called the undertaker who's one of the biggest names of all time he's a dead guy you know what i mean like how far are we going to go and what do we you know you start dissecting it and you go down a you told me kane and the undertaker weren't brothers i mean i'm not telling you that but but twitter told me they weren't yeah i saw people saying negative things about you and kegan doing the worm together yeah yeah yeah you serious yeah no it's crazy the father and son having a special moment, the crowds loving it. How could you possibly hate on that?

Yeah, it's kind of sad, you know, but you can't, it will. And this is what I say when I go on my rant, on my seminar rants about social media. It's like, use it to promote yourself. You have a free vehicle to make your commercials, you know. But be careful of the comments because I'm 53 and there's still stuff that bothers me. So I can't imagine being somebody just starting out. who's in their early 20s, my kids' ages, you know, 21, 24, like, you know, it can, it can, it can wreck you. You know, I've been through my stuff where people have, have been really,

really nasty to me, you know, and, and it, it does affect you. You're 53 and you're still wrestling. Yeah. Do you know how much longer you want to wrestle for? I want to, like, I would, I told you I'm going to live to 100, but I just, it's, it's, it's, long as I can present in a professional manner and look the part and feel the part, I will continue to do it. Do you want to get another decade? Like, do you want to wrestle into the 2030s? That sounds crazy, right? But Billy, like we said, Billy's 10 years. It's only four years away. Billy's 10 years older than I am. Yeah. And he's still going. You know, and he's going in a respectable manner. You know, he, so as long as I can do this, I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. I

don't know why I would stop. I love, I love it. When year did you start? I started in 89. Okay, so you'd have 80s, 90s, 90s, 2000s, 20, 20, 6 decades. Yeah, crazy. It's crazy right now. It's funny, you say the 80s, but my first match was November. It was Thanksgiving night of 89. Still counts. So I got one match in the 80s. Still counts. Yeah, but it's cool. What about a match in AEW? So I've done a couple of dark matches I have. And I'm not against wrestling until I just want it to be the right thing. You know, I'm very, I don't know if protective's right word, but I feel like what I've done up to this point, again, I don't want to sound like I think I'm this top guy or this mega star, but I feel like what I do have,

what I've created in the time that I've been doing it is something special. I don't want to water that down. Do you know what I'm saying? I want it to mean something. I almost feel like I'd be best used in and an end. nostalgia role, but in a not used all the time. Hey, somebody, a mystery opponent, or in the gauntlet battle royal, or, you know, just one-offs here and there, you know, I think that's where I would best be suited, you know.

The talent at AEW is so good, and, you know, their style is so insane and awesome. I don't know how I would fit in. Scotty Too Hottie versus Will Osprey. I love it. I love it. Love it. Yeah, it'd be so fun. Yeah.

Talk about another full circle moment is I knew, I done this show in England in Nottingham. And I think it was 2015. I took Kegan with me for the, for that tour. It's the first time he went to England. And I remember he asked for a picture with wrestlers. And I knew I had this picture posted on my Facebook in my, on my personal. account and one day I was going through it and I was like this was maybe just over a year ago and I was like that's Will with Kagan you know so Kegan it was 2015 so Kegan was 10 or 11 I think

was for his 11th birthday so Kagan's 11 years old he asked to take his picture with these two independent wrestlers that he just doesn't know he you know he probably watched the show out there and he thought they were really good and wanted a picture with these two guys so I see it go, that's Will. So I sent it to Will. I go, dude, this is you, right? He goes, yeah, and that's swerp. So I was like, oh, my God.

Like, how crazy is that? You know, now I work with both of these guys at AEW. Two AWW world champs. Yeah, massive stars. And so we, Kagan did the, he and I worked a dark match at the Glasgow AEDW show last, last summer. And we recreated the pitcher with Will and swerve. So really cool, man. Yeah, really cool.

Again, dude, I've had to think, like, when I started, not I got to work, not so much work, but just be around legends that I grew up watching. Hogan, you know, Warrior, Flair, Sean Michaels, you know, Owen Hart, Brett Hart, guys that I looked up to as a kid. And then here I am all these years later, still involved and get to work with Osprey and swerve. And, you know, Kyle Fletcher's my guy. You know, he's my guy. So talented.

I'm telling you, like the guy in like, you know, five years, I can't wait to see where he's at. You know, just in the time that I've been around him, I've seen him improve. And just it's a confidence thing. You know, I've seen his confidence go up. Scary how shredded he is now, too. Amazing. Okay, the guy's awesome. And he's awesome to work.

I love him as a human. I love him as a talent. Like, just he's a good dude and he's fun to work with. He's a professional. And I always, I saw him on. on your show looks like a million bucks you know like he looks the part yeah we're on the three piece suit with the Rolex yeah yeah yeah he's awesome awesome fans know you for the fun stuff with too cool and the dancing and the worm what's a match we should go watch that that shows that Scotty too

hot he can go i think that de malenko blip backlash 2000 that's the best that's the best i go i can't remember but i don't even know i did some of that stuff you know i have seen it hegan watched it recently and I was like dude like I was kind of in the kitchen and he's washing it in the living room and I was like getting catching bits and pieces and I don't I didn't even know I ever did that you know but it was Dean you know stuff Dean did you know and then people always talk about the finish with the DDT off the top right you know spiked myself and it looks horrible you know it looked awful but it looked good for the match but it didn't look good for my neck did it hurt it didn't hurt but it I definitely dodged a bullet I definitely dodged a bullet on that

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for coming in here. Thank you, man. You're awesome, dude. Again, thank you for what you do. Thank you. Well, thank you. Thank you for all the memories over all these years. Awesome, man. Thank you so much. Congrats on an incredible career. Thank you. And you've already mentioned the word during this interview, but gratitude is such a huge thing for me in my life. Yeah. That's the question that I ask at the end of every one of these interviews. Scott, what's three things right now that you're grateful for? Oh, man. I just got married in April.

Congratulations. Yeah, thanks. And I have to see my wife. A rock at the same wedding room. Mine's made of Silicon. Yeah. I've got my wife, for sure. And I don't mean to sound hokey or corny, but like, what's her name?

Ava. Yeah. She's awesome. Probably the nicest person I've ever met. You know, she's... Nicer than you? Yeah. Yeah.

What a combo. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just so cool. My kids, you know, my kids, I think they help keep me grounded and just watching them follow their dreams. And so, you know, they've never been a problem. Not once.

Everybody always talks about the terrible twos or this age or that age, teenage years, you know. But I'm so thankful and grateful for them and just the fact that they've gone out and they're following. You know, my daughter just came off tour with Disney on ice, and she works in the theme parks, did different stuff. And, you know, Kagan's following his dream with wrestling. And then last, I think, just my career, you know, and I think I become more and more thankful for that as time goes on, you know, just to be able to still do this at the level I'm doing it and be able to work with AEW.

And, you know, I was able to coach not only did this awesome career wrestling-wise, but I was able to coach for WWE for five years and learn that job and learn to produce and then to go to AEW and be able to coach and produce there and be around all of these young people who help keep me young, I think, you know, being around them keeps me young mentally and physically. I'm so thankful for all that, man. I said, I've had a perfect career, Chris. So thankful, man. I love that.

Thanks, dude. Thank you. Thank you. Do it again in five years. See you then. Thanks, buddy. On advertising on Spotify puts your brand in the moments where Gen Z fandom takes shape. They're 35% of our audience and spend two hours building rituals and shaping culture with every stream.

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