Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Simon Miller: deathmatch with Sami Callihan, Haku, WhatCulture, workout plan, Ups and Downs

Episode Date: April 23, 2020

Simon Miller and Chris Van Vliet catch up for a second interview nine months after their first one. Simon talks about the deathmatch he was supposed to have with Sami Callihan, the possibility of wrestling Haku, how his wrestling career has grown and the goals he has in the ring, he also talks about growing his YouTube channel, his workout plan, how he has been staying busy during the quarantine, his thoughts on empty arena shows and much more!  I'm so pumped to have Bespoke Post as a sponsor for this episode. Use the code BLUEWIRE at http://boxofawesome.com to get 20% of your first curated box.   Also thanks to Bet Online! Use the code BLUEWIRE at http://BetOnline.ag to get a welcome bonus on your first deposit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Look at you, man. What's the powerful questions. Woo! This is the Chris Van Vleet Show. Chris Van Vleet Show. Ladies and gentlemen. Chris. Well, welcome back to the show,

and in an ever-growing sea of podcasts out there, I really appreciate you coming back here. Or if it's your first time, thank you for giving us a listen. This episode is brought to you by Bespoke Post and Bet Online. Use the promo code Blue Wire at both of those websites to take full advantage of these offers that are exclusively for this show. And this feels more like an hour of hanging out with Simon Miller than anything else. I just love this guy.

And if you haven't yet, please subscribe to his YouTube channel. Please subscribe to mine as well. And he's pumping out content like crazy right now, especially. with everything going on in the world. He's just such a good dude. I can't say enough good things about him, and I can't wait to be able to chat with him again in person. Although the good news is that things are starting to slowly open up again, or at least they're talking about stuff, slowly opening up again in May, or at least here they are. That's what they're aiming for. But it's been such an interesting time with everything going on. I mean, it's literally affecting

everyone in various different degrees, but it's affecting everyone. It's unprecedented, and it's going to be something that we're telling our grandkids about. But I do think there's a silver lining in all of this, and I think it's that we're going to all come out better on the other side. It's just going to take some time and take some focus, and it's going to take us knowing that things are going to be better. I appreciate that a lot of you are taking this time during your downtime to share the show with your friends and to leave a review on Apple Podcast,

We're up to 825 reviews. Thank you. Closing in on that specific nice round number of 1,000 reviews, which is the goal for 2020. We've got this. And once again, shout out to Will Osprey. If you listen to that episode, he said that he left a review. So if Will Osprey can leave a review, I'm thinking you probably can too.

Like this one from Big Butter Jesus. Big Butter Jesus. Wow. Awesome and honest is the title of this one. Chris, I love your interviews. They're always deep, honest, and open. You really get these wrestlers to be so transparent, and it makes it so fun to listen to.

I've recommended this to my friends and wrestling fans alike. Keep up the great content. Well, thank you, BBJ, Big Butter Jesus, and thank you for sharing the show. We just turned nine months old. Yeah, turned nine months old this week. So, that, nine months. We're like as old as a baby in the womb.

But I feel like we're just getting started here. We're just coming out of the womb now. So please take a screenshot, tag me at Simon Miller 316, and let us know that you're hanging out with us here. It's been about a year since the first time we had Simon on the show. That one was in London. It was our first international episode, actually. Since then, his in-ring work has been taken up several notches.

Also, his YouTube and his videos on there have also been taken up several notches. He continues to be one of the nicest guys in wrestling. And I was so excited for his what culture death match against Sam McAllahan that was supposed to happen during WrestleMania Week. He says that's still going to happen. It's just a matter of when and a matter of where. We talk about so much stuff here. I love this conversation. I know you will too. So let's get right into it. Give it up for Simon Miller. All right. And I think we are doing this. Wow, it's actually happening. It's real. We're live, pal. What a line.

Well, it's good to see you again, even though I can't shake your hand or see your massiveness in person. Well, you say that. My massiveness is slowly depleting because I'm having to use like weights I can find around my house, which I'm looking at now, are not plentiful. They are, but it's fine. I mean, it is what it is. But yeah, no, it's good to see you as well, man. I mean, when did we do the last interview? It was like a year ago.

It was a year ago. Where the hell did that go? That's horrendously fast. Obviously, so much has changed for both of us in that time, too. Yeah, we're not allowed to leave our house. Well, that's the biggest change. Yeah, that's the biggest change. I mean, that's nuts.

I know it's the most cliched thing in the world, but when you do start looking into passages of time, you're like, how? How does that happen? Where the hell is this stuff evaporating into? Yeah, no, it's wild. And, like, I know that the gym is obviously a big part of your life, it's a big part of my life as well. What do you do to kind of fill that void right now?

Well, I say, I do have weights literally. around my house and I do have a bench that I stole from because when this all started building up and I was like, oh, this is going to get bad. I was like, I zoomed to my parents' house and I got my old weight bench that I used to use when I was like 15 years old and I looked at it. It was in, but like this is in such bad condition. It lives in my garden. I was like, you're not even allowed in my house. Oh, wow. But I was like, I can still use it. So I have a selection of sort of like dumbbells and weights that I keep looking at down here in my house. And then yeah, in my little tiny garden I've got, I've just got a bench with. And there's, there's.

not a lot of weight on it, but I figure just push and train and be as intense as possible and hopefully it'll be okay. But it's not the same. And the crazy thing is, I love going to the gym. I look forward to it. Hate working out at home. Hating. Every day. Like, oh, God, do this. There's something about getting change, putting on your shoes, getting into your car, going to the gym and going, all right, I'm here now. I'm surrounded by this atmosphere. I got to get it in. Absolutely. The rock tells that the Iron Paradise, you know, it's obviously not our iron. paradise, but something about being in that atmosphere. Yeah, even if you had it in, like I say you had a sizable garage or something like that, even that would be fine. But when you are,

you know, basically just bodging it together with whatever you can, it's just not the same. What are you doing, dude? How are you getting through? I've been doing a lot of body weight exercises, bands. I'm leaning out a lot. That's good. Yeah, but that's also a way of saying, like, I'm getting, like, I'm losing a lot of mass. Well, but the thing is, you're either going to get a bunch of dudes coming out of this who are massively fat or have lost all their muscle. It would obviously be one of these two things. So it's probably better to be in the latter camp, I guess. Yeah, there's really going to be no in between on this one. Unless you're rich and have, yeah, like an Iron Paradise, like the rock.

I love the rock. But when I hear him, when I see him sat there in his portable gym, I'm like, I could do this rock. If someone gets me a portable gym, I'd be right. I love that he's gotten to a stage right now where he says, you want me to film in Hawaii? great i'm going to bring my gym with me that weighs 50,000 pounds he that's the dream the rock is living the dream like i not only do you want to employ me but i insist that you make sure that my yeah like you say portable gym is on set when i arrive i mean i've had worse dreams i've not only is he living the dream he created this like the rock basically dreamt big enough and made this thing happen yeah he did he did it's i especially when i go back and watch old raw and

Smackdowns, it's almost like two different people. It's like the rock Circa Attitude Era vanished and then Dwayne the Rock Johnson was born because I find it nuts to me now like I was talking to somebody the other day and they only know Dwayne Johnson the actor. Yeah. When I said, oh, I'm a big wrestling fan. He used to be a wrestler. They laughed. I was like, no, they really did. And I've shown them. Oh, yeah, it blows my mind. He gave a really interesting answer to one of my journalist friends, Kevin McCarthy, who was asking him about the difference between when he did movies as The Rock, then Dwayne the Rock Johnson and now Dwayne Johnson. And if you look back at it, there really is this interesting transition between those three, I'll put it in

air quotes, characters. I think, yeah, there would be. Although I'd have to go back and watch it, because I haven't seen it in a long time. I think my favorite rock movie is Welcome to the Jungle, the Runddown, or whatever the hell they call it. Oh, you know. Fantastic. Yeah, because it's just like a real dumb action film. At the time, I'm probably wrong. There were probably loads. But I felt like there wasn't that, excuse me,

there wasn't that movie at the time. So for it to happen, and it'd be the Rock who kind of felt like a new Arnold Schwarzenegger. I was like, hot damn, yeah, I'll do it. But then he went from there and made some, he made Game Plan and Tooth Ferry and Race to Which Mountain and Race to Which Mountain, too. Well, I tell you, that's what I like about the Rock, though.

he'll never say no, I guess, in a good way, in a bad way. Like he'll have put himself in uncomfortable situations. Because imagine that. Imagine, I can't remember if he was still, he probably wasn't an active wrestler, but I'm sure he had plans to go back to say, oh, yeah, I'm going to get in a tutu and jump around as the tooth fairy and then walk back into a wrestling locker room. I respect that. I have never seen that movie.

I'm not going to lie, but I respect the fact that he's bad. You're not missing out on much. But the thing about the rock that I find interesting, and by the way, this is going to be an hour-long discussion about how great the Rock is. It could be. But the thing that's interesting about the Rock is he has reached the pinnacle in almost everything in his career. And I'm interested if we're going to see an acting turn from the Rock where he makes a run at trying to win Oscars at some point. I thought that the other day because he says a goal-driven dude. Surely if he made that choice, he'd at least go after it. Like winning Oscar, obviously,

is actually incredible hard. Like Tom Cruise never won an Oscar. I've seen performance by Tom Cruise. I'm like, I think he should have got an Oscar. But yeah, and then obviously when he wins the Oscar, he'll retire from acting and become president of the United States. That would be a journey. The Rock always says his biggest goal in making films is making the big,

he always uses the term the global box office. I don't think that, you know, obviously Oscar films don't make nearly as much money. They're usually not very commercially successful. So I think that he's more going, I'm going to keep making these movies that make a billion dollars and makes everybody happy. Why not? I'm all right with that. I'm all right. I don't mind those movies at all. Give me those popcorn blockbusters all the time. I'll be all right. Well, that'll be you. I mean, you're one of those goal driven people. You keep, you know, you keep getting these goals and absolutely running through them and crushing them. So is acting something, you know, you could think about doing? Oh, I'll bet. It's funny. It's funny to say that because that was my sort of 2020 thing was our,

Let's kind of try and dip our toe into acting, even if it's just like doing some courses, which will help with wrestling anyway, because everybody's been saying that. So yeah, I would absolutely, I think you have to. It's an opportunity.

Everyone always says, what would you do if these people came to you? Or what would you do if those people came to you? Like, I'd say yes. Because unless you really had an idea of what direction you were heading in or you knew that something was on the horizon,

you can't say no to opportunities. Not at all, otherwise you regret it. So, yeah, I'd love to give a go, if nothing else, to see if I'm any good at it. Maybe I'm great.

Maybe I'm the world's worst actor. There's only one way to find out. I don't know. I look at some of these people who are in some of these films and I'm like, if that person can do it, I think I can do it. You're in the right place, man. You're in the right place. You're heading out to the West soon.

Right. Yes. So that was, I was supposed to be in Hollywood. Actually, as we had this conversation right now, I was supposed to live there, I moved there a month ago. And that's actually a big thing I haven't talked about. I've actually been getting into acting a little bit more. I've been in some commercials here.

Amazing, man. Lessons. I just want to be able to do a whole bunch of everything. And as you know, with the world that you and I are in on YouTube, a lot of people just think of like, oh, wrestling, Simon Miller, and don't realize all the other stuff that you have going on. Yeah, no, it's true. And I guess that's kind of good in a way because it means at least they're super invested in

one of the things that I'm doing, which is great, which is great. They could not know who I was at all. be perfectly acceptable. But I'm very much like you. I think it's just really important to me to anything that takes my interest or anything I'm passionate about, to just hurl myself into it and who the hell knows what's going to happen. If it's a success, awesome. If I fail, that's great too, because I can learn from that and grow. So yeah, much like yourself, I just want to, just want to test and push myself because there will come a time when unfortunately, you know, we're not able to do that anymore because unfortunately that's how life works. And by that stage,

That's when I'll take stock and I'll look back and be able to go, well, at least you gave everything a damn good attempt, which is all, again, it's not really about where it goes, just about putting yourself in that, you know, situation to begin with. No, I'm with you. I think that if you're going to get into something, why not give your whole to it? Oh, yeah. Why not give you're all to it? I can't not.

I'm all or nothing. I'm that proper guy. It's like either I'm embracing this with everything I've got or I'm not even thinking about it right now. Well, and you've been putting out like all kinds of content. You've been all in on YouTube. Like every single day you put out a video. I know it's probably too much of it. No, it's amazing.

Well, YouTube likes to be fed. You know, YouTube likes to be fed. So I thought, well, I just keep feeding it. And then especially with the, you know, the current lay of the land, I was like, well, I've got more time on my hands than I was, I was expecting. But yeah, I just want to, again, it was one of those things. Let's experiment. And let's be, you know, let's be willing to fall down somewhere as long as we learn from it. So we try this. It didn't work. Okay, that's great. Cross it off. We'll try this. Oh,

there's a little something there. Let's follow that through. And then the cool thing that I have, which I feel completely blessed about is you have this lovely foundation of wrestling that is always there for me that keeps me ticking over. And I think, again, it does. It gives you a little bit of solace, gives you a little bit of comfort because, you know, okay, even if I do, there's quite a nice net to catch me. And I like that net to begin with. So it's all good. But I appreciate that not all your videos are wrestling. I mean, you're running the gamut of just things that are interesting to you, whether it's music or whether it's bodybuilding, whether it's wrestling or, you know, just some ridiculous stuff. That's it. That's it. And it's kind of, I feel like I have, I do have these

kind of different audiences. So you may have people that know me from the wrestling or you may have people that know me from lifting weights or whatever. But I kind of like to try and make sure there's some kind of segue between them all. And even if there's not, you know, you don't have to click on every single video I do. It's a, it's a title based business. essentially. So if you like the name of the video and you think, oh, I don't mind that bald guy, he's okay. Hopefully that gets you through the door. But yeah, to me, it was just, I guess I just have this massive thing in my head about never wanting to leave any kind of a stone unturned, which is why I started doing fitness videos this year. I just went while I finish.

I want to talk about it and I'll talk about it. I remember for the first few weeks, I was like, oh, who's this guy? No, I'm right, right, right. And I was like, I'm just doing it for me. And if I find an audience with it, that's the, that's the extra bit. That's the pat on the back. I don't expect to get an audience because I know how competitive this market is. Do stuff for yourself and then just follow it through. I found though that like, so I was uploading my celebrity interviews and I was uploading the wrestling interviews and they were such like competing audiences. If I uploaded a wrestling interview, the celebrity, people were like, we don't care about this person. And then if I uploaded like a big celebrity, like a Denzel

Washington interview, all the wrestling fans would be like, so when's the next wrestling interview? That's incredible. See, that that's incredible. That's incredible. to me because, and I think especially with somebody like yourself, you get to the point where it's like, you know, anyone that comes up with a brand new idea and they, you kind of have to sell people on the thing that they, so if you're going to start doing interviews, for example, going back to what we're talking about earlier, and your first interview is the rock, people are going to watch that because they like the rock. But then obviously the goal, and I think you've done this incredibly well, is that now it's like, well, no, I like Chris's

interview style. I will just now watch Chris's interviews because I know I'm going to learn some stuff, and maybe be surprised by some stuff. And that's what you've done. I think so anyway. I think you've come up with this awesome little thing where it's Chris interviews whoever and whoever is almost secondary because you've got a really, you know,

laid down easy to understand, fun interview style that people could enjoy it. And I think that's the key is having that switch at some point. Well, I appreciate you saying that, especially coming from someone like you. So thank you. And the niche that you've carved out, I think that, you know,

I need to congratulate you on 100,000 subscribers. Oh, man. Have you got the button yet, the play button yet? I haven't even got the email yet. Okay. So by the way, you need to actually fill out a form to get that. Well, I found the form, but they said I needed some code and they said they'd email me some code. I was like, all right.

So they just email them go, hey, I didn't get the code and they go, oh yeah, you do have a hundred thousand. I should have done that. I'm not that smart. I'm not that smart. It showed up like a week later. No, I was massively, I do want that button because I want to do something stupid with it. I haven't made up my mind what it is yet, but I'll do something. dumb. But that did mean a lot to me because I understand in YouTube land, 100,000

subscribers is, you know, there are people out there with 50 million subscribers. And I always like to caveat that because there's always one guy. But to me, it meant everything given, and you kind of, you know, summed it up. I did not play the YouTube game at all with my own channel. Because the whole point is you're meant to sort of double down on a niche. And offer that niche. I was like, no, I'm doubling down on my interests. Yeah. And I don't care what they are. So to actually get to the point where you can get over that threshold that so many people are aiming for, not necessarily going by the guidelines. And I probably got there a little slower than maybe if I had, but I didn't want to do that. Again, like you said, I wanted to do wrestling, I wanted to do

music, I wanted to do video games, I wanted to do fitness. Sometimes I just wanted to be a massive dick. That's what I wanted to do. So to actually be able to get to that milestone and get, yeah, some statue from YouTube at some point. I was, I was proud. I'm not going to lie. It put a smile on my face. I'm in the same boat. Like I've had some other accolades in my broadcasting career, but the YouTube thing meant a lot because it's like I created this with the help of obviously everybody watching the videos. But like if I wanted to put out a video this week, I did.

And if I didn't want to put out a video this week, I didn't. Exactly. It's all on you. It's your creation. It's your baby. I got to laugh at you saying that if you felt like being a dick, you were a dick because I mean, you're like the nicest. human on the face of the planet. You can't really be a dick. That's very kind. But I have put out

videos in the past that are, yeah, Dick's not the right word, but poke the bear videos, you know, silly videos, joke videos that go way over some people's heads and they get mad. But I do, I'm not going to like, I enjoy that reaction. I enjoy the people that miss the joke. It puts a smile on my face. So I was like, yeah, God, I'll do it anyway. For people who haven't seen you in the ring as a wrestler. How do you describe this Simon Miller character? That's a, well, the character, actually the character is something I've been working on in these, in these quiet days, because I thought, well, I can't get in a wrestling ring and I can't get together with other wrestlers, but what can I do? I thought we can focus on the psychology and the character side of things.

And actually, from talking to a few other people who are, I won't drop their names in case they they don't want me to, but have, you know, they're doing pretty well as pro wrestlers. I said to them, I said, the issue I think I'm kind of having at the moment is my character. is me because obviously we documented all the wrestling journey stuff on what culture. So it'd be silly if I come out to the ring as like, you know, Baron von Frut. They'll be like, well, I know you're not Baron von Frut. That's your unique character. Be a pirate.

But it's just like, I know that's not you. That's like really slapping people in the face about, oh, wrestling's fake and all of that. So I thought, I need to be as authentic as possible. But now that I'm still learning, again, I'm still greener than green. But you get to that point now where you do need to start adding. elements to it. And that's what I've kind of been investing in now. And I think what I'm trying to come out the other side of is difficult because I think when you try and do this kind of character, you're treading a line where you don't want to be too heelish, obviously. But the idea now is to

spoil it now, but I've got all this new gear made. And I've kind of, when we come back, I've got this kind of new approach, I guess, to the character side of things. But, you know, the idea of being not a man of the people, but like a man with the people. But like a man with the people, a voice of the fans who, you know, decided to take everything one step further and had the backing of all these amazing people and kind of just working that into. Basically, you can explain that to somebody in an elevator within 30 seconds as opposed to, well, I did a documentary on what culture? And then I did it. It's like, what are you talking about? So I'm just trying to condense it down into all of that, which then, of course, has to copy across to what I do in the ring.

So yeah, it's funny you ask at the moment, I'm just batting all these ideas around to try and figure that very question out. Well, you're in an interesting stage because I think there's a lot of people that go to wrestling school and go, I want to be a wrestler. Well, you go to wrestling school, you have your first match. Well, now you've accomplished your goal. Now you're a wrestler. What's next? And that's exactly where you're at now. It is. It is. And the cool thing about it is that I love doing it because you never really know until you start the process. Maybe I won't like it. I said it to everybody, they say, what's the one piece of advice you could give me? I go, enjoy it. And if you don't enjoy it, quit. I don't mean that in a negative way, but I mean,

there's no point pushing yourself through something you're not going to get something else out of. It's a waste of everybody's time. But yeah, that's the thing. Now, what is the next step? But I'm lucky that I enjoy it. And really, I mean, sort of, you know, the more general goal is just to get better and to get to a point where people come and watch me and go, oh, that YouTuber guy actually knows what he's doing, as opposed to YouTube. A guy thinks he wants to be a wrestler. And then wherever that goes after that, it is fine with me. And, you know, as we said earlier, you never say no to opportunities. But I also feel very lucky that even outside of this wrestling bubble, I have all these cool things going on that fill up my hole inside that needs to be filled up all the time.

But with that said, I want to see the wrestling thing through as far as it can go. Don't get me wrong. I'm super passionate about it. And I don't want to let myself down or ever have any regret. So whatever is out there in the future, I will dive in head first. Well, I mean, I, I, I, It's been a year since we talked, and so much has changed in that time for you in the wrestling world. So, like, what are some of the matches or what are some of the things you've learned that have really either opened your eyes to this or have really changed your perspective about it? That is a question and a half. I think in terms of what I've learned, I'm going to say a lot of cliched things here, but I think that kind of sums up why they're cliched things to begin with. but it's just listening, I sound so stupid, but it is that idea of listening to the fans

or listening to the reaction or trying to play off a crowd. Because something that I get very, very nervous about is when you're in the back with somebody and you plan 10,000, you know, 10,000 moves or 10,000 spots, I get it because that's where that's where the industry is at the moment. And you do have to be good at that. You absolutely do. But I learned that, okay, I'm not necessarily, it's odd as well because I've got a good memory, but clearly not for that kind of stuff. I get inside my own head a bit. And, you know,

the feedback I would get for most matches is you're in your own head. And I can see you're in your own head. So they said, next time you have a match, you know, pick your spots, do it on a show where there's going to be less people so you don't get too afraid and just go out there and just see what happens. And I did that with a couple of guys. We had a start. We had an end. But the middle was just completely open aside from, this is the idea we're going to try and convey. And while it was very flying by the seat of your pants, oh, it was great. It was great. I think I kind of liked the fear of it all just going badly, as opposed to it going badly because I forgot, oh, no, I meant to be here. And I kind of think that when that does happen,

you've really focused more on selling what's going on. If somebody hits you, you sell it in the right way and you're not just going like, what's next? Oh, yeah, this is next. So it really has been an evolution in that sense. And yeah, I mean, again, I've still got so far to go. But in terms of the last 12 months, I'll now look back at the stuff I did a year ago I'm like, oh no, don't watch that. That's rubbish. But I think that's really good. I think that hopefully means I'm heading in the right direction. You've gone.

You'll hear me now? I can hear you now. Yeah, you're back. You're back. Oh, hold on one second. All good, man. Okay. I'm going to close this door. Okay. Okay, you still got on me?

I got you now, yeah. Okay. Okay, we'll pick it back up here. Do you now watch wrestling and go, oh, I can understand why they do that. And people might say that this thing is terrible, but I understand why that thing's happening. I think I have a better idea. But I think that's the same with everything. I think when you actually put yourself in the thing for better or worse,

be it because other people are telling you or you're experiencing it for yourself, you start to understand why some things go down the way that you do. It doesn't mean that I agree with this argument that if you've never been in a ring, you shouldn't have an opinion. Of course you're allowed to have an opinion. You're allowed to have opinion as a fan that's watched a lot of wrestling. That's as valid as anybody else's. But again, it's like if you get in the magician circle, you'll learn so many things that next time you see a magic trick, you go, well, I see what they did there.

And that's what wrestling is. It's the world's most wonderful magic trick. And the more you embed in it, the more out of it you're going to get. And do you have like an end goal? Like I know that you talked actually in a YouTube video this week about how you would love to wrestle in the U.S., which was supposed to happen last week with Sammy Callahan. And obviously, nobody can leave their houses now. But what is the goal for you?

I mean, that was one of them. In terms of small reachable goals, that was one. And I had two bookings in the US, which have both now been eradicated. I want to get that done. And if we're talking about, yeah, sort of, I don't call it a little goal, because to me it's not a little goal. But, you know, that's not so, that's not me saying I'm going to wrestle on the moon. You're like, all right, Simon, good luck with that one.

But outside of that, I guess, I say, say it's what I say to everybody. If if someone of note comes in and wants to talk to me about being a professional wrestler, who in their right mind would ever walk away from from that chat? Like it would be, I don't even think my mind could comprehend it. And also, what a great pat on the back. That would be too. Well, I must have done something right. So, but ultimately the, I try not to think in those terms because A, you just never know. And B, there are so many amazing professional wrestlers out there now vying for very few spots. if you want to talk about the top top companies,

that I think you need to work on the things you can control first. And it's like I say to everyone, there are companies in England that I would love to work for. But I'm holding off even mentioning my name to them now, not that they book me, but deliberately so, because I want to get to the point where if that opportunity does come up, I don't let myself down, right?

I think self-awareness is massively important to me. And progress, for example, right? Probably one of the biggest companies here in the UK. Of course I want to work for progress one day, But I feel like if I did it now, I wouldn't be putting my best foot forward. So wait, take your time, go out there, bust your ass, get your reps in. And then when you know you can do that, you can't leave it too long, of course. But yeah, that's kind of how I see it at the moment.

It's an interesting time, though, independent wrestling, because most of the big talent has been scooped up by, you know, AW, WW, WW, NXT, whatever, impact wrestling. And there's almost like, there's now a time for a new crop of independent wrestlers to go out and really, make their name and you can actually ride that wave right now. I'm going to try. You know, I'm going to try and hopefully I can bring something unique to the table. That's why I'm, excuse me, that's why I'm trying to work on these, these character things now. So I have more of a sellable, a sellable character to people that may not necessarily be so familiar with what I've done before and nor should they. So yeah, there's always a silver lining when those things

are going on, you know, for people that want to work, there'll be opportunities. So how did this thing with Sammy Callahan, all come together. Well, I tell you, because Sammy Callaghan is an asshole. I'm joking. Well, I mean, there's two ways to look at it. Yeah, I'm not going to pull the wool over anybody's eyes too much because I think that's unfair. But in terms of the story, it was that, yeah, he doesn't appreciate the fact that this YouTuber thinks he can just waltz into a wrestling ring and be a wrestler, so he's going to try and kill me. I mean, that was the story. And I was like, Sam, it's the great story I've ever heard in my life. But yeah, pulling back the curtain, which I shouldn't do, but everybody does it now.

So what difference does it make? I get messages sometimes when people go, Miller, you broke K-Fave. I was like, I watch Stone Cold Steve Austin walk me, steps to threat his match with Brett Hart, WrestleMania 13. He's allowed to do it. I'm allowed to do it.

Right. But yeah, I interviewed Sammy Callahan last year at WrestleMania. After he'd done pancakes and pile drives, and he had a really, really good chat. Rich Swan was there as well, super nice guy. And, you know, they just said, he goes, Simon, why don't we do a John Cena rock thing here? We'll start building it up now.

and the big payoff will be the WrestleMania 36 weekend. Would you be interested? And I was like, are you kidding me? I'll kill a man to do that. Yeah, so that's where it started. Then we left it for, you know, we teased it on Twitter, but then we left it because you don't want to do too much too soon. And then, yeah, we started to do the,

it sucked so bad, but we started to do all the glitches on the YouTube videos to tie into his new character. And he was going to invade one of the videos through, you know, technology. And then we were going to go back and forth. They had all this promo stuff planned. We did do one promo that went up, but then we started to see what was going to happen. It's like, Vince McMahon, right, don't tease something you can't pay off.

So, yeah, and then it was going to culminate in a proper death match. So I've also never done. And I was quite excited about giving a go at. Yeah, pancakes and pile drivers. But it was his idea. And I can't thank him enough for not even, you know, thinking that I should be in that position, but actually following through with it as well. I totally understand that, you know, it's a great platform, you know,

what culture did to get that stuff out there. But it's irrelevant. He didn't need to do that. He had absolutely no need to put that out there, and he did. But all I say is it's not done. We promise people are what culture death match, one way or the other, when everyone's allowed to run around, they're going to get a what culture death match. Wow.

And so this can tick off the box of having a death match. Yeah. They can pick off the botch, hopefully, for you to wrestle in the US. I'm hoping. I'll pay my own fare. I don't care. Whatever I got to do to do it, I'll do it. Is a what culture death match the same as a death match?

It's a great question. Nobody, nobody. One man knows, and his name is Sammy Callahan, and we've never got to the point when we'd spoken about specifics because there was no need at the time. We were working out everything else. Well, great. You and I can talk about specifics then. Well, I would imagine tables, ladders, chairs, I mean, it's Sammy Callahan. So you'd have to throw, oh my, you'd have to throw barbed wire in there. But that's just me speculating. Well, how do you feel about light tubes? I don't like light tubes. I'm not going to lie. I say, this. But again, if you put me in a situation that I deem to be a good one and everyone's adamant,

I would say I wouldn't do it, but maybe I would. But no, I think of all the things you can do, light tubes to me, I don't, I've seen lots of light tube matches and every single one has ended with somebody going to the hospital. It's not a good idea. How do you feel about staple guns? I'd be worried about that too. I'd rather, I'd rather, barred why over staple guns for me. I don't know why. Well, I guess barbed wire is a lot easier to gig. Well, yeah, that's probably what it is. It probably what it is.

But hey, look, if there's an idea and it makes sense, you can't say no. You've just got to see where it goes. Otherwise, you regret it. You will. You really, really will. So I've never done it. You should probably, you probably will get to the point where one American booking turns into two, turns into 10, turns into you're flying to the U.S.

once a month. and doing a loop. If that happens, I would consider that. We were talking about goals and realistic dreams outside of the super big ones. That would be massive to me. If I was able to do that, I would feel content and satisfied beyond words. And the experience I would get would be otherworldly. So I can only hope.

But in the meantime, I'll put hope to one side. And again, I'll work my ass off. And hopefully that leads that way, yeah. Do you think you kind of maybe get put into the same categories like where David Arquette was? I think by some people I do, yeah, but that's a cool challenge that is as well. Yeah. His star is so much bigger than mine that it's almost impossible to try and correlate between the two. Sure.

A AAA Hollywood actor. It's like he's been in movies that have made billions of dollars. Whereas I'm just this bald asshole on YouTube. But there are always going to be some people that see me that way because that's how they know me. But that's on me to let them know I am that, but I'm also a wrestler and I'm not. Because I think the thing is, I think a lot of people just think I woke up one day, but oh, I'll be a wrestler, which isn't true. I train for ages.

I'm still training now. Again, we spoke earlier. I'm doing a psychology course this evening because I can't do anything physical. So I thought, okay, I'll work my wrestling brain. And that's what I've got to prove to them. But that's on me. That's not on them. They're allowed to judge me in whichever way that they see fit.

And it's, yeah, it's my responsibility to prove. No, no, no, no. I'm doing it this way. I'm taking it super seriously. You know, and I'm going to play devil's advocate here. I think there are some people that go, well, if you really wanted to be a wrestler, why weren't you training when you were 20, 21, 25? It's a great question.

And the answer is, is I did. That's the thing. This was my third attempt of trying to be a professional wrestler. I start, my first one was I was in university, so I'd have been 18. And then I tried again when I went to my first WrestleMania because I was so inspired. So I would have been, yeah, sort of 23, 24. Which mania was that? WrestleMania 24, when Rick Flair retired, yeah.

Wow. I cried on the 10, on the 10, nine countdown. I was like, oh, I'm so happy. And yeah, I did. I tried twice, but I'm not even ashamed to talk about it. I didn't have the mental game down. I wasn't mentally strong enough to handle what professional wrestling was. And there were some other circumstances too.

But it's when, you know, I get that I'm older than your average bear. But my whole life changed when I went past 30 years old. It was like someone to give me a magic potion. I just woke up one day. And I thought, not in a negative way, but I don't care what anybody thinks anymore. I really, really don't. I respect people. And of course, deep down, we all want to be liked.

But I mean, in terms of it, this is how I want to live my life. And I know deep down in my gut that is true, I'm just going to live my life that way and make sure I prioritize my own happiness. And as soon as I did that and then I got the itch again to be a recessional wrestler, it was still hard. And again, I was still beating down some days. And you had to sort of pick yourself back up and go, but I never had the feeling of some.

I don't think you can do this. And that's what changed. It was a life thing for me. Sucks in one way, because if I could have done this 12 years earlier, I certainly would have done. But on the other hand, this is my journey. And it's better this way. It just is. For everything that I've been through, it's definitely better this way.

There's a huge takeaway from what you're saying here. And it's that you found your truth. You know, you found your own truth within yourself. And I think that too often people will believe the story that they tell themselves. I'm not athletic. I'm too old. I'm too young. I'm too tall and too short, whatever it happens to be. And they start to believe the thing that

they're telling themselves. Whereas you just basically went, you know, I'm going to change the story for myself. And as soon as I start believing that, that's all that matters. It hit the nail on the head because I used to think that way. And even when you got to sort of my late 20s, I was like, oh, it's too late now. Nobody starts, nobody starts at this age. And then fast forward two years, I'm like, okay, nobody starts at this age. I'll be the guy that starts at this age. You know, you just flip it round in your head. And the saying that I always have gone back to is the best thing to do anything is 10 years ago or today. And you can't go back to 10 years ago, so I'll just do it today. And yeah, that 100% what you just said, I was like, I'll write my

own story and it may not work. And I may one day look back and go, oh, I should have started earlier. But I know the reasons why I didn't. So I won't regret that because they were valid reasons. Yeah. And I love that quote because, you know, the best time to plant a tree was 10 years ago. And the second best time is tomorrow. Yeah. So just do it tomorrow. Because that's what you do. I think is the quote actually goes.

So how often are you taking bookings now? Oh, wow. This is well, before the world ground to a whole, I was working a minimum of twice a week, if not three times a week over the weekend. Yeah, yeah. I had an amazing time over New Year where I went to my girlfriend's brother's house for Christmas for a few days. And then I went on this four-day wrestling tour.

And I worked to sort of the shows over the new year period. And I was like, this is. awesome. This is absolutely awesome. And then, yeah, that they all went away. But yeah, it was a minimum of two a week, a minimum, and I was getting three. Yeah, people have been very nice to me. And it's incredible because

the more you have, the more you want, you think it wouldn't really work that way, but you start to realize, oh, wow, I'm getting my reps in now. And say I had a match Friday, Saturday, Sunday, any issue I make on Friday can be rectified on Saturday, and then that mistake is out of your game.

It's out of your arsenal. To an extent, you still to work on it. And that's when you're not going to actually get better with this. It's like, you know, playing the guitar or you're going for a run and you're trying to beat your best times. You're like, wow, if I keep doing this, I may not ever be as good as Brett Hart or Shaw Michaels, but I can be as good as I can be. Yeah. And that is enough. You know, that is, because everyone's going to have a limit. You just got to find what it is. I just want to take a second to thank our awesome sponsor for this episode, Bet Online. And with currently no MBA, NHL or MLB, you might be thinking there's nothing to bet on.

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Would you say that Sam and Callahan would be the biggest opponent that you would have had? I mean, former world champion. Oh man. It's huge. And no question, which is why it was so devastating that this thing had to go down when it did. But I like to think. think when it does happen again, it will be even better than it should have been now, because you may as well think that way. Otherwise, we'll all start crying. But yeah, he was, I mean, you know, I've been managed to fight sort of some real names in wrestling, probably David Starr being the other massive one that people would recognize. But Sammy Callahan was on another level, of course. I mean, where hasn't he been? You know, he's, he's been in most companies

you can think of, and that's because he's really successful. So the fact that I was even going to get to have a match with him, we're still blowing my mind. Well, you're still, going to get to have a match with them. I'm right. At some point when, I don't know, I don't even know when I'm allowed to go to, yeah, the supermarket. So like wrestling matches. That would, you know, that had the potential to be a really big breakout moment for

you because the fans that are at WrestleMania week are obviously the fans of the fans. You know, they're, they're hardcore fans. They're very invested in it. And you could have had a moment where people went, oh, man, Simon Miller's not just that YouTube guy. He can actually wrestle. That was my go. that was my goal. That was my aim. And also to create moments that could be gift for ages.

But it really, really was. It was like, I want to make an impact. I just want to do myself, not even if they didn't react that way, but I wanted to do justice to myself as much as I could. And then, yeah, we were going to put sort of clips up and stuff on YouTube, which hopefully would have started a little bit of a chain reaction where people, like you just said, going, oh, wow, he does know what he's doing. So yeah, we'll have to hold off for later. But that's still the plan. Goals don't change. just move the post. My plan is still to move to Los Angeles. It's happening. There's some big independent wrestling companies there. If you find your way to Los Angeles, you are welcome to sleep

on my very comfortable pull-out couch. And then you can take all the bookings there. Dude, that is not only an incredibly nice offer, but it is one that I will definitely take you up on if I'm able to get out. Well, I say to everybody, not if I'm able to get out there. My only requests when it comes to bookings are, do you want me? And am I free? That's it. If those two things are okay, I will come and wrestle at your show. I really, really will. I can't see how like a bar wrestling or, you know, like that bar wrestling is huge in Los Angeles.

So is PWG. If you could get on one of those, it might have the same effect as this pancakes and pile drivers. I think so. And I think I know that because even when you mention those names, I get a bit scared in a good way. Because you know that's big time, right? That's, well, yeah, it is big time. It is to me. It's a huge step up.

So that's what I want to do, which is why I want to, this situation is so mad, which is why I want to get as good as I can now so that hopefully when people like that do reach out, I'm ready to go. That's what I want. I want to be ready to go. Yeah, I feel like the floodgates are going to open up. And I just hope that I hope the infrastructure is there to make this work. I know that it's a tough time for a lot of people. A lot of people are getting laid off or a lot of people are losing their jobs. I hope that when we are ready to open the doors up and have wrestling shows from indie shows all the way up to, you know, WrestleMania-sized shows. I hope that the fans are able to go and able to support this.

I mean, I do. It's like, I'm sure there are sports over there as well. There's even sports over here, sort of major sports that are in trouble. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, because they can't make any revenue at the moment. And when it comes to independent wrestling, we know what a lottery that is anyway. So, yeah, I really, really, my sort of big hope with all of this is that we come out the other side and once the financial situation is sorted, we're just so desperate for

public gatherings and to enjoy ourselves. the hopefully independent wrestling gets a massive rush as well. I don't want any company to die ever. I don't see the need in it. I think it's much better that everybody thrives. I hope it happens. I really do. Is there any talk now, you know, you obviously have some bad blood with Tomitanga.

Is there any talk of you guys having a match? We'll get, how are we going to get to that one? I don't know, but we'll get to it. Again, it was on the cards to happen, but it just life didn't, you know, life found a way to stop it from going down. but I know that Tamara is still interested. Obviously, I would still be interested. I think Sammy Callahan and Tamantonga,

as long as the world goes back to being balanced, will be on the agenda at some point. Oh, no, this is going to happen. Yes, yes. I'm confident. So other than those two matches, who's the ultimate dream opponent for you? Well, let's split this up into two.

Let's do the dead or alive, could be anybody. And then let's do like the person, currently work in the Indies that we can actually book this with. Okay. Well, anybody would be Brett Hart, because he's the guy that got me into wrestling. I've just started going through his book again because again, I had some free time. I'll read Brett Hart's book. It's like 700 pages long.

This will take me forever. Great book, though. Nothing else to do. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, that's, because that would just be one of those things that you always hear people say when you look across the ring and you see that guy looking back at you. Like, Triple H would be a close second. I'd be giggling.

I would just be told off when I got back to be like, this is ridiculous. Why am I looking at Triple H in a wrestling ring? But they're two guys that, yeah, absolutely cemented my love for all of this. Stone Cold Steve Austin, too. In terms of people doing the round now on the independent scene, I mean, it's just, the problem is, it's just so many. There are so, so many. Even if you go to AEW, you could pick 10 people from AEW alone that you would be like, are you kidding me?

Are you kidding me? And they've really, you know, even someone like Sammy Guevara, right, who's only been doing television work for six months and was an independent guy mostly before that. Again, right now, if you're in the ring with him, you're like, what? So, you know, MJF just left MLW. And you're like, wow, MJF was still doing MLW because of course, this is his big break in many ways. But it has helped the independent scene because obviously now there's a, I don't know I say there's a huge void, but obviously people move in there, so people have to squeeze up. Somebody like Marty's girl would be a big deal for me, simply because, I mean, look what he did. Look where he came from.

It's a very similar journey to me, but he's gone, you know, above all that. Same with Nicolus, you know, same kind of thing. A guy who was seemingly overcome a lot of obstacles in his way to get to that point. So, yeah, if you could be in the ring with anybody like that, I think, I wouldn't believe it. And I would be, I'll tell everybody, if you ever see me advertised against somebody like that, know that on show day, I am terrified. I'll be so nervous, but in a good way, in a good way. I'd love to see Simon Miller versus Orange Cassidy.

Oh man, are you kidding me? I think we could work wonders with that, given that in many ways we are just both gimmicks in a positive way. I have done one comedy match in my life and it's so fun. And I'll do as many as them as I possibly care. What's the biggest crowd you've worked in front of? Biggest crowd is a good question. I mean, I guess probably about 800 to 1,000 people.

That's great. Yeah, yeah, which is, it's an amazing, it's an amazing thing. Like, when you walk out in front of a crowd, even with 100 people, if they're sort of raucous, it feels like a thousand people. But when you actually work out in front of a crowd of 800,000 people, you're like, oh my gosh, like you really, that kind of noise. And the thing I always think is that we're talking about, you know, four figures here. Imagine 80,000 people. I mean, no wonder wrestlers get addicted to this stuff. It must make you feel like Superman when you have that many people, not only focused on you,

but just making any kind of a noise. It just blows my brain. Is what culture just loving the fact that you're in this now? Yeah, I think so. I think they like the, I think, because obviously there's a load of awesome dudes at what culture doing their thing. I would, actually not in what culture, there's loads of people on YouTube doing their thing, doing the journalism, fan critic, whatever you want to call them. Yeah. I like to think that maybe I offer something different now. Obviously, I came in through that world,

but I like to think maybe now I have a bit of, yeah, just a unique twist, which I think is massively important on YouTube. But no, they always ask about it. They always support me. Yeah, they're really, really nice about it. So, yeah, I like to think so, but I want to speak on their behalf, but they've been nothing but supportive since they won. I mean, look, they put the whole documentary on there to help me out. So now, yeah, I owe them massively for that. I can't see why any promoter wouldn't want you. You have, you know, obviously you have this huge platform that could only help them out. I can't imagine if someone says no. I mean, the answer is probably just enough room for you, but I can't imagine what's going through their mind. Well, it's very kind of you to say.

I think I still need to win some people around in wrestling from a wrestling point of view, which I think is fair. I think you've got to prove your worth, right? And I think there's still a few people that want to make sure that I'm doing that because they won't have met me. And they won't know how much, I sound cheesy, but it's true how much respect I have for wrestling and how when I'm in any kind of a locker, am I try and be as quiet and as humble as possible because I'm well aware of what's going on. But again, that comes through actions, not just me sat here and saying it. So I would presume it's that. I would also presume that maybe my work needs to get a little bit better,

and that would be a fair critique too. But like I've said, that's the, that was, that was a damn idea before all wrestling shows got cancelled. Well, what do you think about the fact that all other sports are canceled, like we talked about? But wrestling, He is continuing on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It's incredible, isn't it? I had a friend of mine get in touch who doesn't really like, well, he knows of wrestling, but he's not a fan, doesn't hate it or anything. He was like, how is this happening?

I don't know. It's difficult because it's great for me and it's great for what I do because it's not only from a personal point of view, because it provides a distraction as both AEW and WW has done. But from my YouTube point of view, I have shows to review, which is great because I can focus on those. And as long as health and safety is put first, which I'm going to presume both companies are doing, I can't sit here and criticize them because I'm sitting there and watching them.

So I can't be too offended by it. But again, as long as, as long as people are healthy, that's all that matters. As long as nobody is putting their lives at risk, I guess they can do whatever they want. But I do understand each side of the argument, I do. But I try not to give too much of opinion because anyone can turn around and go, some, you watch every one. I've been like, yes, I have. I have watched every single one and I'm not going to stop.

So they are providing, I guess that's a bit of a selfish thing from me, but I'm going to trust that they're taking all the precautions needed. And if anything happens when somebody's ill, then you just got to stop them. You've got to stop them. Like it's the tiny little sliver of a reminder that normal life is around the corner or just on the other side of this. So I appreciate that it's still continuing. But I'm actually surprised the numbers aren't like crazy.

Like we are literally a captive audience. It's the only live thing on TV right now other than the news. I can't believe the numbers aren't like attitude era numbers. I mean, I suppose it's just that lack of a live crowd. If you're a lapsed wrestling fan, probably from the attitude era, because most are and you turn it on and you don't have, you know, the stone cold pop or people chatting for the rock, but just getting that kind of energy.

Maybe, you know, maybe that's when you realize I do like wrestling, but it's actually the pomp and circumstance I like the most, which I do think it's true for a lot of, a lot of, people but we'll see how WrestleMania does I suppose if we ever get numbers for that but no I'm like you I thought it would be maybe serve as a little bit of a renaissance for

professional wrestling but what seems to have happened I almost think maybe it's too much of a reminder what's going on because you turn on and you're like huh something's off with it oh yeah it's that but you never know it's still early days really we've only been doing it for a month or so maybe people get used to it maybe it does double down and start heading in the other

direction it's really tough to know which why I've been taking a real sort of light touch with all of these shows. You can't, you should criticize them because it's fun to criticize and it's fun to go, oh, it was rubbish. That's what we do as fans. But deep down, they can do whatever the hell they want, really. It doesn't matter. It's been interesting

to see how the adjustments have been made from week one of the no crowd stuff to now because I feel like AEW was doing it really well from the start. They were putting the focus on the ring, the focus on the entrance way. They were putting people around the rings so that you can actually hear some sort of noise there.

Whereas at first, WWE was highlighting the fact of like, hey, look, nobody's here. And you're going to hear literally everything. They did change. But yeah, it was the first one was good because Triple H was such a goof. You couldn't help the smile. But then, yeah, there was one episode especially. It was like, nobody's in the crowd. And I think they kind of learned from that quite quick, especially because the novelty

did wear off. I was really excited about that first Smackdown. I was like, what's going to happen? Yeah. And you realize, oh, no, wrestling needs people desperately. Whereas AEW just fair play to them. They just came up with a great format and a great idea from day one. And they've just refined it to the point it kind of works bizarrely.

Well, the interesting thing that AEW did is they highlighted what was important. They put all the lights on the ring. Whereas for the first few episodes, WWE was highlighting what wasn't there. And I just thought about that a really strange thing to do, like highlighting the fact that there isn't anybody there, just constantly reminding us every time we look at the story. screen that, oh, yeah, crap. There's nobody here, especially because they wouldn't mention the, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, of the word. And yet, they were happy to, yeah, focus on the thing that had caught. It was a, it's a strange situation, but yeah, I, I, there's nothing wrong with picking sides.

Sure. Sure. You should pick a side. And A.E.W. did do it better. They just did. It's just true. And I'm not saying I'm picking sides. I'm saying that AEW did this thing and then a week later, WWE also did that exact same thing. And it just, it goes to show that like, they're both obviously watching each other. They're both learning from each other, I'm sure. But it's interesting that out of the gate, AEW put the focus on a different thing. Yeah, I think it was a learning curve for everybody. And like we said in our last chat, a year or so ago, I love all wrestling, WWEAEW. I judge them on merit, not because of the three initials that come before their country.

company. And in this instance, you're dead right. A.W. had a good idea. WW did not have such a good idea. And then we flip things around to make it work. I think it would just be so much easier in this whole situation with the pandemic if we had an end date. You know, if we were able to circle a date on our calendar and go, okay, great, May 1st, June, 1st, July 1st, whatever it happens to be, hopefully it's not much later than that, though. It'd be so easy to go, okay, great. Like we can all ramp our lives back up to when that date happens. So do you have bookings or did you have bookings in September, October, November that still might possibly be happening? Yeah, I had bookings throughout the rest of the year, which is, which is crazy. I mean, most companies over here are saying

sort of June, July, they want to start running again, but it's out of their hands. That's the problem. So I'm agreeing to date as they come in because my calendar's pretty free. So I'm agreeing to date as they come in, but I do have, you know, a small piece of me that's like, I don't think it's, well, I'm just being negative, but not negative, apprehensive. I just don't know if it's going to happen. But summer seems to be when people do want to spark back up. And if that does happen, then hopefully, yeah, my sort of latter, latter part of the year can go back to how it was. But yeah, you're so right. We just, if anything, yeah, 10th of August, sweet, I'll focus on that day. I'll cross the days off the calendar, all that kind of stuff. Right. And that's, I look forward to when that

happens and I'm hopeful that it's sooner rather than later. Until then, I'm happy that everyone's staying healthy and safe. Yeah, yeah, me too. That's the situation rectified. Yeah, that's, that is really the most important thing. Like, even when I was beating myself up about the pancakes and pile drivers, then you're like, people have lost lives in this. It's, that, that's far more severe. That's far worse than, unfortunately, not being able to do a wrestling show. And I get the opportunity to hopefully do another one. It's a sobering thought. Well, if we look ahead 12 months, hopefully things are back to normal then. Would you be at WrestleMania 37?

I have to now, right? I've got to write the wrong. I've got to write the wrong and do it. I don't know what capacity I'll be there, but yeah, I'll be there begging. Put me in a ring, please. But yeah, I'll be there. I'll be there. It's in L.A. next year.

Yeah, you can sleep on my couch then too. Done. Yes, I'll be there. 100%. Bring all the what culture, guys. It's a great gym there. It'll be perfect. There we go.

We'll invade your house. I regret this. I should do a workout video. We should do a workout video. So you'll be lifting like heavy weights and I'll just be lifting like the weights that you have in your house right now. No way. We'll have a good workout. We'll put out on the internet and everybody will love it and everyone will be happy.

How much has your entrance changed since you started to where you're at now? Massive. Not only that, but my entrance music, everything has evolved. I think my entrance for a good few months was I'm so happy to be a wrestler. I'm just, I'm going to, I guess it's good in a way. I'm just going to embrace the feeling as opposed to do an entrance. And then I remember one day, since when Defiant was still around,

somebody in production said, Simon, you got to start doing proper entrances. It's like, you're like a train that comes flying out of the tracks. So yeah, yeah, that's when you,

again, these are the nuances you pick up, right, the little things that you never think about. Like, I need to stop. I need to wait. I need to,

you know, take this moment in. I need to showcase myself, show myself off, that I need to be authoritative with my walk, and get in the ring, do a pose, you know,

all these things that people, people expect that make you look like a wrestler. That if you don't do, you're just like a guy in tight. So, yeah, it's evolved quite a lot. And it's still evolving. It's still evolving. That's something else I'm looking into now. Does my music even fit my character?

Maybe it doesn't. Maybe that's something I need to go back and look to. So yeah, yeah, it's forever changing. These are difficult decisions to make, I feel like, because you've had something that's been working with the music and the entrance and the look and the gear and all that stuff. As you start to switch some things out and change some things, maybe there's a piece that doesn't work.

That's what's scary about that. Oh, terrifying. But one of the best pieces of advice that I got to do with this was, you know, don't ever think anything is set in stone ever because if you do that, you may not actually finish the, you may not get to the bit where you'll finish the puzzle and you've got that final piece because actually you needed to switch out some few things before you got to the last one. So, yeah, that kind of struck me quite hard.

And I was like, yeah, I mean, I'm nowhere near where I want to be. So we've got to start, you know, mucking around with some stuff. But it is worrying, but I think that's also the cool thing about wrestling is that you can be creative. And you look at people like Chris Jericho or The Undertaker who have at times just revamped their careers entirely. Yeah. And that's not bad company to keep. Yeah. How about, can you hear me now?

Yes, back. It's back. We've talked a lot about what culture and wrestling. You also have your hand in a lot of other different things. So like what else do you have going on? What else? Well, again, when the world is normal. When the world is normal, yeah, I mean, doubling down on the fitness stuff on my own channel, because I just realized I love talking about it, I have no qualifications other than, you know,

20 or so years of experience doing it 1580, whatever it is. So I'm doing loads of that at the moment. And it really sort of inspired my love for working out too. So that was a nice double-edged sword. Kind of cool. I was starting to do more work with Arsenal Football Club over here. If people are into soccer, yeah, I was doing sort of their pre-half, time and post-match shows, which was like a dream for me because I was an Arsenal fan when I was a kid. So, yeah, I was absolutely, absolutely loving that. And that was devastating. And I had all this

hosting, hosting work climbed up as well. I was going to be doing some game events and, yeah, some other sort of conventions. And, yeah, we all know the reason why. But yeah, I'd like to get back to all of that. And again, the big 2020 thing was tried to get acting in, again, I'm not saying I'm going to turn up in the Rocksnecks movie, but just, you know, find some small, you know, picture that, you know, people just want people to come and try out at, maybe go to some auditions, go to see an acting coach and just do all of that. So I had that all lined up as well. Well, it's all still going to happen. It's just a matter of time. Exactly. But yeah, there were the kind of things that I'm trying to do while, of course, wrestling, going to wrestling

training, do my YouTube stuff, and just trying to be as busy as I can every day because clearly quietness scares me. In the bodybuilding world, who were some of the people that really influenced you? Well, I mean, Triple H is actually the guy that influenced me the most. kind of as like, because he was a wrestler. But yeah, he just looked like he'd fallen off the pages of a comic book. So when I was like 12, 13 years old, I was like, I want to go to the gym. So I started going to the gym. Again, it kind of sums up what I'm like now.

I was like, okay, I'll go. So I went. And then for a while I was obsessed with sort of the gargantuan dudes. You know, like Ronnie Coleman and Jay Cutler and Dexter Jackson. Well, that era of bodybuilding was insane. I was mad. You had all these just mass monsters who eat. I mean, Ronnie Coleman was the best, but people could still, you wouldn't look at somebody.

you want to look at Dexter Jackson go, he's still unbelievable. Flex wheeler. Yeah, yeah, rubbish. But then you start to learn that that's a whole other world that you're never going to be able to. It's not how you're built. You're never going to embrace that. And, you know, from there, it was just kind of anyone. I mean, even someone like Mike O'Hern, who kind of fits in somewhere between,

because he's been around for years, of course, kind of fits in. I can't believe how old that guy is. I know, absolutely. But he's sort of like, he's not a pro bodybuilder, but he's not like, just a good dude that's in shape. He's like in super good shape, but he probably could step on a bodybuilding stage tomorrow, but you get what I'm saying. And so, yeah, these are the kind of guys that, you know, I was looking at.

Because obviously, I've met, I saw Mike O'Hern in all that stupid thing, the wrestling thing that they, and Terry Cruz is in it as well, battle something or other. It was like American gladiators, but it wasn't gladiators. It was a lot worse than gladiator. He actually was an American gladiator. I was the American gladiator as well. He was at one point. He was Titan.

Oh, there we go. He was also doing something called Battle something rather. And it was, had a time with WCW. But that's when I kind of got to know all those guys. But yeah, they're all the people that massively inspired me. And they still do today. I wear Jay Cutler tops all the time because he was my favorite. Have you seen the Ronnie Coleman documentary?

Yes. And it's both depressing and incredibly inspiring for a guy to be in that kind of condition, but still say he'd do it all again. Yeah. It's kind of amazing. It really really is. It seems like he's so like, what a kind man. Yeah, I know, I know.

And still getting those reps in, no, you know, no matter what. That's amazing. I'm also fascinated by the Ronnie Coleman type of story where you see these guys that were at the top of their game in their late 30s when they were bodybuilder competing for Olympia or Mr. Olympia or whatever. And now they just look like a dude who works out. And I find it fascinating that that is not sustainable. No, no. I mean, that's being able to dedicate your time 100% to it. And thankfully, sums up, you know, proves the stupid myth wrong that you can, the muscle turns to fat when you stop lifting weights. No, it doesn't. It's not true. But now, yeah, it's, they're genetically

gifted to say the least, but to get to the sheer sizes they were able to, yes, 100% 24, 24 hours a day, seven day a week thing. And it's why I respect them so much. It's the dedication to the craft that I love. Anyone that can do that kind of thing, oh man, I just, I can't get enough. Yeah, me too. And most of it's the food. It's not easy to eat that much and also that clean. Well, yeah, that's it. Right. And also, even if you are eating clean, not put on too much fat, you know, finding that balance is so hard. I mean, the normal genetically people like us, we have to kind of find ways and means. Obviously, they do too, but they're on a different planet, to say the least. Yeah. It's always so great catching up with you.

Oh, that's very nice, Chris. And you, yeah, when you reached out last week, I was like, I do want to do that. I had a good time last time. I felt happy when we were done. No, that was great. I think you ended the other one basically saying that it helped to fill up your tank. It did fill up my tank. And that's how I feel right now. I feel like my tank has been filled up again, even though we are doing it over the magic of the internet. It's been good, dude. I appreciate you and I appreciate you always reaching out. And I appreciate massively that you mentioned it earlier, the people that tweet both of us saying how much they enjoyed our last one. That really means a lot to me.

Yeah, people have been, like people are so kind in the comments. And this is not, by the way, any sort of invitation for them to start being mean. But people have been so kind. Once again, I'll pin your YouTube channel down below so people can subscribe. Thank you, you. I feel like we should talk about this little cross-promotion that we have going on here as well. We certainly should. How would you like to start to talk about it?

You take it away. Well, yeah, so you may have seen that there's a little YouTube channel called KFave News where I put on a wig. Oh, that's you? Sorry, that's not me. It's not me. It's a good friend of mine called Flippin Marks, who, yeah, who does satirical news stories. You know the website, right? It was, you know the website, K-Fame News. I don't know whether the guy likes his name being out of respect. I'd rather he said, oh, you could say my name and I say it next time. And yeah, he wanted to start a YouTube channel. We all got start, you know, me, him and Phil, who works at what culture we all got talking. And yeah, this amazing little thing was born. It's now about to take a brand new step. Literally the first video, that as we're recording this goes live in 15 minutes. So I'm very intrigued. And Chris and I have come up with a way to get that going further. So if you want to know what that is, yeah, K-Fave News, type it into YouTube, give it a subscribe, probably be out quite soon after we film. It doesn't take a lot of editing. And then you can, you can embrace the sillier side of wrestling, which I think

we can all use, not just in these times, but all times. Sometimes it's too easy to take it too seriously and it's okay to smile about professional wrestling. Well, we'll link up to that one as well. And man, a big thank you to Philip for inviting me onto the show. Oh, yeah, no, it was his idea. I was like, slip is flipping, yeah. Yeah, absolutely, man. I can't wait to have you on there. Thanks again, man.

It's always so good to talk to you. And I can't wait to see you back in the ring when, you know, things get back to normal. Thank you, dude. And thank you for always being such a nice guy as well. Like you always saying nice things on my Instagram or things like that. Like the inspiring comments, well, they inspire. They do. That's what they do.

So I appreciate you a lot. Well, likewise. That's very kind of you, man. I thank you to everybody out there. You're all very nice people. And yeah, I didn't know what this was going to do first time we did it. But yeah, it was just positivity all around in this way. Yeah, it's great.

Yeah. So, yeah, to everyone that's listening to us, thank you for spending the last hour with Simon and I really didn't have a plan. Really didn't have any questions written out. I just wanted to hang out with my buddy Simon for an hour. That's very kind, man. I had a good time. I appreciate it.

Thank you very much, man. I'll do it again. One year, April, 2000. No, we're doing this in person as soon as we can. Done. Hit the table. Done. A hundred percent I'm in.

Oh, what a guy. And please check out that ridiculous interview that I did with Flippin' Marks for K-Fabe News. It's unlike any, I'll call it an interview, but it's more like a quote-unquote interview. It's unlike any interview you've ever seen before. Please take a screenshot right now. Tag me, tag Simon, let us know what sticks out for you the most in this interview. I'm just so excited for Simon. And I have such a great amount of respect for him.

Like so many of us, he dreamed to be a pro wrestler, and he actually went through on it. And I have nothing but respect for that. He went through and followed through in his dream, and he's doing it now. And I love that. And I hope that his first match in the U.S. happens this year. Hopefully it's the match with Sammy Callahan,

although that's going to happen at some point, but hopefully that happens this year. Hopefully it happens in the U.S. And if you listen to my interview with Sammy, you'll know that he's a brilliant guy with a brilliant wrestling mind and the match that he and Sam him and Simon, Sammy and Simon would have come up with. It would have been amazing.

So I hope you and your family are doing well, that you're safe and you're healthy with everything going on. And I hope you're also looking ahead to what life's going to be like when things get back to, you know, normal, whether that's in a few months or six months, 18 months, whatever it is. I just hope that you're looking forward to that. As Bob Proctor says, thoughts become things.

If you see it in your mind, you can hold it in your hand. Have a great week. Be well, some big interviews coming up next week. Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss those. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock. But there was one band that had it all. Hammer Allie.

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