Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Simon Miller: Golden Ups, Johnny Sins, Positivity in Wrestling, His AEW & TNA Appearances

Episode Date: November 14, 2024

https://cvvtix.com - Tickets for the first ever INSIGHT LIVE the day before the Royal Rumble on January 31, 2025 in Indianapolis are on sale now! Simon Miller (@SimonMiller316) is a professional wrestler and YouTuber. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studioin Hollywood, CA to discuss chasing his dream of becoming a professional wrestler no matter what, learning to wrestle at a later age, his first match in WCPW and what it led to, being on the pre-show for AEW All In, why he is so positive about professional wrestling, why he focused more on wrestling than fitness on his YouTube channel, being frequently mistaken for adult film star Johnny Sins and more! Quote I'm thinking about: "Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant." - Robert Louis Stevenson Sponsors: VUORI: Get 20% off your first purchase! Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet at https://vuori.com/cvv ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv ZOCDOC: Instantly book a top-rated doctor today at https://zocdoc.com/insight BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv MAREK HEALTH: Get a 10% discount on Marek Health's Optimization Package with code CVV: https://marekhealth.com/cvv BLUECHEW: Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at https://bluechew.com MANSCAPED: Get 20% off plus free shipping when you use the code CHRISVAN at https://manscaped.com PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank which was designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/ PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at https://plunge.com For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chris. What an intro from Downstate. That song is stuck in my head all week long. I love it. Hello, my friends. Welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet. Thank you for joining us in this one.

And thank you for making Insight the number one wrestling podcast on planet Earth. Oh, and thank you for all of the new ratings on Spotify. We're up to 5,600 ratings at last check. and I made this random silly goal of getting to 7,500 ratings by the end of the year. So if you're listening on Spotify, and I know a lot of you are, please take the four seconds to rate the show. So when you go to the main page, just click the three little dots, dot, dot, dot, and then rate show will come up, then click the stars. That's it. Also hit a stone cold stunner on that follow button so you don't miss out on a single episode.

Man, I love when Simon Miller is on the show. It's like a positivity overload. Just inject it into my veins, baby. This is his third time on the show, and seriously, we need to do this more often. Chances are you're familiar with Simon from his work with What Culture. He also has a fantastic YouTube channel

with 328,000 subscribers. Hopefully you're one of them. And not only does he talk about wrestling. He is one heck of a wrestler himself and he's been tearing it up on the independence scene. And there's a whole discussion we get into here about chasing your dreams. And I just love it because he had this goal when he was younger to be a wrestler. And then he ran up against excuses of why he wouldn't do it, why he couldn't do it.

And then in his 30s, he was like, you know what? I don't care. I'm going to do it. I'm going to make this thing happen. And look at him now. And there's such a lesson to be learned there about if there's something that you truly want to do. And there's something that just fuels you and juices you up. Stop at nothing. Just even in just the pursuit of it, maybe you don't get to whatever that final goal is.

Maybe you're not going to main event WrestleMania, if that happens to be your goal. But there is something to be said about the achievement that happens in that pursuit. I love it. I love it so much. And yes, he is well aware that he looks like a certain adult that. video actor. And that's quite a funny discussion when we talk about that. But he's just an all-around great guy and I'm honored to be able to call him a friend. So snap a screenshot and tag us on all of these social media platforms so we can share it out. He's at Simon Miller 316. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. And here we go. Enjoy this conversation with Simon Miller. When you come to the US, what's the biggest thing that you notice when you're here?

Choice. Absolute choice. And how big the grocery stores are, which are my favorite thing in the world. And then you go back to the UK and you go into like Tesco. And you're like, why do I only have two choices of cookies? Where's the aisleway dedicated to cookies? But there is, you know, there's pros to that as well. I also find America just way more laid back with things.

Like what? Well, like, that's why I got a rental car for. this trip driving around California, being a wrestler. That's right. And you just get there, and they just take your name because you booked it online. I tell you to go downstairs, and some guy just threw some keys at me. Yeah, or they're like, yeah, your car's in aisle five, just pick any of the ones that are there. Right.

What? I literally booked a small one because I'm like, I'm used to small English cards and small English roads. Yeah. The last thing I want to do is total car in America. And we've upgraded you. So now I'm driving, like, the widest Chevrolet I've driven in my entire. But there was no, it wasn't like that was a problem. It was just that we don't have a small one. Go. In England, it would be a 45 minute to an hour

process with someone smashing into their keys. So I do appreciate that in America. Yeah. I like it. Did they go over the rules of the road here? No, no, sir. We drive on the right side of the road here. So you think they would do, they literally looked at my license, went, well, you pass your test somewhere. Great, go. Well, it's true because I actually had this on the, on the flight on the way out here. I said, oh yeah, America has that weird turn right, it's not weird, It's weird for me. Turn right rule, unless there's a sign, as long as it's free to go, ignore the lights. Turn right on red.

Yeah. So I literally spent a lot of my flight going reading this one paragraph over and over again. Because, again, England is so regimented. And so this is what we do. Don't go out of the lines. Bing, bam. And there's pluses to that. There's also huge cons.

But that's one of the ones I was probably say as a con in America. The amount of right turns I've been at going, I don't know. Do I go? And thankfully, somebody honks. You're like, sweet. We can go. We've also got the advanced green arrow when you're turning left. Right, yeah.

Yeah. Which helps. Which hell. I like to be treated like an idiot when I'm driving on these roads. And so far, it's been fine. It always is fine. It's just in your head. I've just never driven it.

Actually, you know, I did years ago. I was a different man. I just think that I don't know if I could drive in the UK. I don't know. I've never done it. It's hard in the UK because you have roundabouts. Yes. We have the occasional one here.

But that's the point. England is like, one-nod-on-one. There's a place called Milton Keynes. Shout out to Milton Keynes, which is just roundabouts. It's a town, city, whatever, that was built. And for some reason, I'm not kidding you, you drive into the send, you have to go through 30 roundabouts. And I've been, what culture pro wrestling back in the day,

you used to do shows in Milton Keynes. And I used to do a lot of the driving for the town that would come over for the US. And they would be like, what is this? Because you just roundabout, roundabout, round. Whereas America is very much forward, left, right, block. It's much simpler. So that's another thing I would say, it's a huge plus,

apart from the right turn. Can't do the right turn. I went to London on a family vacation when I was 12 for the first time. And I looked the wrong way crossing the street. Of course you would. Yeah. And I almost got flattened by a taxi. I bet.

At the last second, my dad grabbed me and pulled me back on the curb. Oh, yeah, because I looked the wrong way. That's terrifying. I just wasn't thinking like, oh, the car's on the other side. So you got to look, you know. Of course. You have to switch everything. Yes.

But is that a thing, too? Because I've made some pedestrian faux pas. And I find that United States drivers, they don't come at you in England when you make a mistake. They speed up. I've said this before. It's a bit like my stand-up routine. I'm like, what is your intention here? You're going to hit me and then you're definitely in the wrong.

But they don't seem to do that over here. In England, they come at you. You haven't been to New York enough. No, that's true. Oh, my gosh. New York driving is the worst. First time I did that, but I'm dead. In a cab.

I'm dead. This is the end. They do not care. They love to use the horn in New York. For no reason, everyone's stuck and they're just smashing it. It doesn't help. No. It's not going to help the guy in front of you go any faster.

No. He's stuck too. He's going to annoy him and then you're going to get into a fight. Yeah. It's a bad idea. Well, look, it's good to see you. Oh, man, Chris, it's so cool that you're having me on, especially out here in America. Because the first one we did was like in a hotel room when you came over to the UK.

Yes. And then we did other ones and sort of like conventions and stuff. Yeah. So to get here and actually say, Simon, come on down. I'm genuinely privileged. Thank you so much, man. No, the pleasure is mine, so thank you for coming in here. And I just, the internet's not going to be ready for all this positivity.

No, they're going to love us and hate us in equal measure. This is going to just overflow with positivity. Isn't that such an ironic thing, how there can be negativity attached to people being positive? I know. It's both better and worse at the moment. There's more, we use the term, content creators. So I think actually have come up and gone, oh, no, I'm going to enjoy wrestling again, you know, to talk about it there. But then there's also a real huge contingent of people that are like, they use the buzzwords, toxic positivity.

The one I get now is you're the reason for bad ratings because you're not calling out the product. I was like, dude, I'd love to have that much power. I'd be having a great time. But what I think is lost, it's real. I'm not just saying things because I think it's fun to say them. If I say I like a show, I like a show. It was bad blood for a couple of weeks ago as we're recording this. the Niagara Jack's Bailey match.

I had a great time with it. I thought it was awesome. That Hurricane Rana that went wrong, it made it for me. I never go on the internet until I've done a video, done a review, because it can get to your brain.

Then I went on, listened to my podcast and read, the loud voices were really loud about how awful that was. The loud minority. Yeah, yeah. And I had a breakdown. I was like,

have I totally got this wrong? But no, I genuinely just enjoyed it. And then you got people going, oh, you didn't actually watch it and stuff. It's like, dude, my job's watching wrestling.

It's really easy. Like it's a lot of hard work that goes into it. But the actual watching of the wrestling for someone to go, here's some money. It's not a problem. But it's true. So some people actually now think you're just, you're being positive because it's a marketing venture or it's, I don't know. I find it crazy. But I just know from my end and from talking to people like you, it's just not true.

We just feel privileged to do what we do and we enjoy what's on the TV. And I think that that's lost in a lot of people that like we get to do this. Yeah. That blows my mind that I'm able to just sit across from. super smart people that are far more intelligent than I am and have conversations about pro wrestling. Like, what? Yeah, I do.

You've, here comes a positive, but it's true. You've created this incredible platform. Because you get everybody on. Like, it's almost like the, when people do the press tours, it's like if a wrestler is out there trying to promote something, you know they're going to be on your show. That's actually explained this to my girlfriend.

She's totally cut off from the wrestling bubble. It's wonderful. So is my wife. Isn't it great? It's the best. I wouldn't want it any other way. When I was explaining, I'm going on Chris's show and I showed her our interview and she watched other ones, even she was like, well, he's had everybody. I was like, I know. I don't know what I'm going on it. But that's, it's such a cool thing to be able to because it's always been there. It's not like we haven't sort of, you know, what was this strange interview thing? But the fact that you went on the, this doesn't exist within wrestling and the way that you do it. I love it, man. I think it's so cool. And I don't just want to talk on these interviews about like the thing that happened last week on Raw or Dynamite or Snackdown. I want to talk about just the greater picture of like, I'm fascinated by what makes people successful. Like, I'm fascinated by like, what do they do and how did they do and how can we reverse engineer that back?

You had a quote in a video recently. You said, I'm just a random idiot who got lucky on the internet. And I thought to myself, that's funny. That's not true at all, though. You're not an idiot. And you didn't get lucky. Like, there was a lot of hard work that went into this. Yeah, that's fair.

It really, really is fair. I'm very good at downplaying things, probably because I'm British. You know, self-deprecate in humor. You just brought up with it. But no, you're right. I do, I think, given my own personality, I think I'll always feel a little bit lucky, even though when I actually sit down and think about it logically, that's not true. Because, again, I know how much work I put in to all of this.

Well, what's that quote? It's like, I found that I'm a great believer in luck. I've found that the harder I work, the luckier I get. I mean, that's perfect. And that's what it is. And I think sometimes, we'll call it the grind words that people get. You don't actually take stop. And every now and then something comes along where you do.

And you're like, oh, man, I've been doing this a long time. And I've, you know, again, all the classic quotes, right, I sacrificed this. And I didn't do this. And I, for a while, I didn't even realize that YouTube was my thing. And then I was one day, I was like, oh, no, that's where you put your 10,000 hours into YouTube, which goes back to other quotes where they say, if you put it. pick a lane and you dedicate yourself to it and you sacrifice, blah, blah. I said, oh, man, I did without even thinking about it, just because I loved it so much. I remember getting

notifications on YouTube early on. So this channel that the full-length videos on was started in 2011. I remember getting to the game. Well, but it wasn't what it was. It's evolved and changed in many different ways. But I remember getting email notifications like 2012, 2013 of like, this person subscribed you, this person subscribed you. And I got to a point, like, stop sending me these emails. Like, what a waste of my time? to look at these and delete them. Didn't hit me to like years later like, oh, those people are like invested in the content that I'm putting out.

That's crazy to me. I get it, man. Crazy is the best word. Yeah. Going back to the thing where people, they do, they DM me, you are responsible for the creative not being better. What? Mad.

They're truly, truly mad, but also what an amazing position to be in where somebody cares about the words I say to such a degree. They have that much of an emotional response. I don't want to get John Cena here, but that's what you want, isn't it? It doesn't matter if it's booze or cheers, you want people to care. And the fact they do after all this time

when, you know, all I really do is give my opinion on something. I mean, actually ties in kind of, but one of the reasons I finally went and became a wrestler is because personally I was like, you're going to be commenting on other people's wrestling matches, Simon, you should probably have done it.

But, you know, to still, and it's been a long old time now, but for people to still actually tune in and be like, yes, I agree with you, or how dare. You say these things, I'll never complain. I think that's, that's excellent. I really do.

Did you always want to be a pro wrestler? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I remember flicking through TV channels when I was a kid. It was Brett Hart, the first guy that I saw. No idea what he was doing. I just looked him and by that. Oh, you're interesting.

And yeah, so before I actually followed it through in 2016, I tried twice to be a wrestler. First time I came up against a very old school wrestling coach who, I mean, he ripped me to shreds. And I was like, if this is still the way, It's just not for me. And I was well aware of that. Like, it really, I don't want to push it too hard, but I was quite emotionally scarred by

then. I remember I put my back out. I don't know what that means, but I remember not being able to stand up. And he had me doing 619s in the ring and he was just giggling about the whole thing. And I was like, it's just not, this is not fun. And I stick with it a while because I've been blessed with tenacity and very good of not quitting. But that did get to a point where I was just like, I can't do this.

And then second time round, I, I, I was going through a lot personally, and again, emotionally, I was like, this isn't the right time. But it all worked out great because third time's a charm. I just started doing the what culture stuff. And I was like, I just knew. I was like, it doesn't matter how much this sucks. We're going to see it through.

We'll do a match. It helped that I got to document it for YouTube too. You know, that's always a, it's not having a personal trainer, right? I can't stop now. Yeah. They'll get mad at me. You're accountable. Right?

It's great, it's great to be accountable. So, but it all worked out the way it was meant to work out. I don't think I would have been able to do what I've done. now, sort of 10 years ago, whenever it was. But you're in your mid-30s when you're starting to wrestle. Early 30s, yeah. Early 30s. There's a website out there that says that I'm 40.

Give me a year, all right? A year and a half-ish. Was there a part of you that went, I'm too old to even start to do this? And I'm sure everybody that was training with you was younger. Oh, yeah, sure. I walked in there like, dad's it. Yes and no.

It's weird. I love that, though. I knew that I was older than you should be, for lack of a better term. Yeah. But I also knew that I didn't care. But also with that comes some wisdom, right? Like, you're old enough to know better. Like, you're old enough to, like, I'm not going to make the stupid mistakes I would have made if I was 21 walking in here.

It's so true. And because I had other things in my life, I almost had a safety blanket. Yeah. You're like, actually, sometimes not having a safety blanket is far better. But again, when you are in a certain stage of your career, it actually has. help me, because it actually allowed me to throw myself more into it and deal with a lot of the nonsense that you always get when you start wrestling. Because I was like, well, just keep going, man. It's awesome that you've built this other thing over here. We're now going to try

build this thing over here. But if it doesn't work, again, I really do think sometimes you don't need that because you need to fill the fear. Do it anyway, which is my favorite quote ever. That's an accidental segue, but that's how I felt when I started wrestling. I remember walking to my first training session with all those thoughts, you're early 30s, what are you doing? You're going to be like, you know, the father of this place. But it's a book, actually. I read it when I was early 20s. It's literally called Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway.

And I was like, well, nobody has made that book for the audience of five people. They probably made it because they thought there was a wider birth of people they could reach, which said to me, I'm 99% sure that adulthood is just being terrified of everything, but going, you know what, I'll persevere. And that's what I did when I started resting. I was like, you are a little bit older, you probably should have done this a while ago. Another great proverb, the best time to do anything is 10 years ago or right now. Yes.

You can't go back. And I just, it was almost like an epiphany. Again, I was past 30. I changed, I became a different person when I was past 30. I just accepted everything that maybe I'd been hung up on for so long and been like, you know what, this is me. Let's write it. And that carried on into everything.

And I just wasn't afraid to fail. If it all went bad, I was like, who cares? I'll go do something else. I heard someone say, choose your heart. And that, love it. And that to me was like, because whatever path you choose, it's going to be difficult. You know, if you keep going with something, that's going to be hard. If you quit, well, that's going to be hard too because you're going to have to deal with

what happens, what the fallout is from that. And that to me really spoke to me. Choose your hard. Like, what is your hard going to be persevering and continuing to push through? Or is it going to be quitting and settling for the life that you have now? It's like, damn. Yeah, it's awesome, right? And both are fine, as long as you are content.

My big thing as well, that's sort of overhanging sort of Damocles, it's just don't regret anything. Yeah. Success is a word that doesn't actually, well, success to you. I keep it in the mic, I apologize. Sorry, sound man.

It's like you've never had one in front of you. I use it every day. I'm just so excited. I've hopped up on caffeine. Please have some F3 energy. I am going. Sorry, let's do it. There we go.

A great segue. I'm also trying to thought completely now because I get to hear in the microphone. But it was, all of what you've just said is because success to you, Cheers. Absolutely. Thank you very much. Of course.

Success to you is going to be completely different what to success to me is. Because it all depends on what you want to get out of something. What is success to you? It's such a good question. Because it's all going to depend on how I feel on a certain day. But again, I think overall, if you have to put a headline on it, it's just don't regret anything. That's success because the most terrifying. thing of life is one day we're all going to wake up and if we're so lucky we're going to be

eight years old. And I think as long as you can look back, listen, if you've made a event to WrestleMania and become the champ, pat on the back, right? That's incredible. But I also think there's something to say if you tried to main event WrestleMania and you gave it every single thing you had and you knew that you couldn't give anymore, that's success because you tried. Even if you go to one wrestling training session or whatever, you go try it for a band, the football team and you completely fall on your butt and you're like, this didn't work at all. But you know, in that weird part of your stomach

that you try and you're never going to regret it, you were a success because you gave it a go. I never want to be in that position where I look back and go, why didn't I just try? Yeah. Even if I hated it, okay, well, I know. I actually say that to people who say,

you really want to try it for wrestling, but I'm scared. I might forget putting the tick box next to wrestling. What's way more powerful is crossing the line out. I don't want to do it. Yeah. And that's okay. And you found out that you didn't want to do it.

Because you took a bump, you ran the ropes, you locked it up. Maybe it wasn't for you. Yeah. I mean, look, I trained for a while. It wasn't for me. Yeah. I think it's for me and I'm still doing it. It was for me.

But like, the path at that time was like, I think I'm going to get my degree, my college degree, and then wrestling, I'll still be there if I want to do it. For sure. And then that path ended up ticking off with what I was doing with my communication studies degree. There's no way you can regret what you've done. That's what I mean. You've had an incredible. Trying not to.

Whether you see it or not. with this kind of interview stuff, especially, you're a trend center within professional wrestling. Nobody does it like you do it. In England, you'd be like the Graham Norton. I don't know if he translates over here. Oh, yeah. He's a legend. But that's what it is.

I can one day see, you know, you're being on a couch with four professional wrestlers, you're just interviewing all of them at the same time. I would, man, thank you for the very kind words. No, no, I mean to do. And when it comes back to success, for me, it's always been, am I excited for what I'm going to do today? So true.

And at the end of the day, am I proud of the effort that I put in? Am I proud of what I've done today? And then tomorrow, let's wake up and do it again. And I've told the story many times, but I had an epiphany in my senior year of college where, like, oh my God, we have to graduate at the end of this year and, like, work for, you know,

the rest of our lives. And I was having the best time at college, living with four of my best friends and drinking copious amounts of beer. And in that moment, I'm like, I just don't want to hate my job. When we're done here, I just don't want to be one of those people who hates someday because Monday's the next day and I got to wake up and go to some job that's a grind that I hate. And all I do is look forward to the weekend. It's like,

finally can live for myself. And I'm like, I don't want to do that. And that's, that was it for me. That was what changed my whole perspective. Oh, dude, exactly the same. I was on the bus going back to my, whatever they were called then, my university house. And we just done our final exam. And my girlfriend at the time said to me, what do you want to do? My brain went, Oh, no. We've got to figure out what we want to do. And this sums up how nuts I am and how old I am. I was reading a video game magazine. I don't think of they exist anymore. I really like video games. I said half whimsically, half, well, actually, I could be. Someone's got to do it. I said, I'm going to go write about video games. And everybody laughed. Then two years later, I was writing about video games. Because it was just like you. I was like, I do not want a job. I do not like. And if throughout my whole career, I've had one, I took one job for the money because I thought maybe that was the right thing to do. I lasted three and a half weeks. What was it? And I left.

It was, it was technically a PR. It was for a video game company too. So I thought, oh, it could be quite creative. And it was just not in the way that I wanted to be. But I literally walked out after three and a half weeks. I'm really sorry. Thank goodness for, do you have probation in America? Yeah.

So it works both ways. I tell everyone this. People say, I'm so when I went past my probation. I was like, sometimes the probation is really great for you. I mean, I just, I just, it couldn't do it. It's not what I wanted to do. And again, that was an amazing. Because at the time, I felt sick and worried and scared and anxious.

But then when I figured it all out in my brain, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. It gave me all the information I needed. And that's when I went, literally, within two weeks, I've gone back to my old job. And I was like, I'm the YouTube guy. And it was just YouTube, YouTube, YouTube. Yeah. How did you feel after that first wrestling match that I had? Well, after my first training session, I had to say a day off work.

Okay, first training said, yeah. Because I couldn't move. And they thought I was lying. My first wrestling match, I am so blessed. to be in the position. But again, hard work for sure. But I always feel like someone's smiling down on me because obviously WCPW. I debuted in 2018. WCPW was still around. It was called Defiant. But it was like, in England especially, it was considered. How do we get on Define? Along comes me. I know the people that run it. And they came to me. And they said, Simon,

we want you to be in the no regrets rumble. And I turned them down at first because I'm so scared. I mean, I would have done it. But I was like, what me? No. And it was, it couldn't have been a better experience because, again, I really like the fact you pointed in the whole hard work thing, because there's multiple ways to pay your Jews. And I have done it in other ways. Maybe not in professional wrestling, but I think sometimes you pay your Jews and what you get kind of comes in different forms. So there is footage of this somewhere. It wasn't behind the scenes to find documentary. They don't exist anymore. Hopefully they've released it into the wild. But they filmed all my stuff sort of before my entrance, number 15 in the rumble. I remember that. And I've never been so

scared in mind. I was terrified because I got into my head that people were going to have a certain expectation of me because, you know, they knew me from what culture. I then decided that I had to cover up as much as my body as possible because people were going to judge me for that too. I mean, listen, I've done a bunch of videos. I'm the king of body dysmorphia. I take on that role with pride these days. Let's roll into battle. But then I walked out there, and it all happened in the literally space of eight seconds. I got such a cool reaction. I knew I keep doing it. I see it, I'm going to keep doing it. People were so nice.

And listen, my performance in the ring was atrocious. But it always is your first. That's why you're meant to do it in an armory in front of 20 people. That's a good thing as opposed to technically live on pay-per-view. You could buy it. It was a streaming pay-per-view. And I was in there with a who's-who of the time of British independent wrestlers. I was so worried about hurting them, I gave each and every single one of them

the worst clothes lines ever. And I won't name-drop them because it's not fair. But one of them, in a nice way, in a very productive, sort of fatherly way, took me to one side, but they did phrase it this way. Simon, if you ever hit me with a close line that again, not only will I not sell it for you, I'll punch you in the face. And he was right. It was, he had to sell it, poor boy, and it was awful.

But it was the best experience. And yeah, my brain just told me, this is it now, Simon. I don't know how this works. I didn't know about getting other bookings or how you grow your brand. But it was, I mean, really, it was top five experiences of my life. It really, really was. I remember driving back because I was in Newcastle. to where I lived in London was like a six-hour drive.

And I remember driving back, and I could have been 42 hours. As elated, I was so happy. I was like, that's it. That's the feeling that we chase. So now we keep on chasing it. And there's a lesson in there because it's wrestling for you. It's something else for somebody else.

It's playing the guitar. It's singing or making movies, whatever it is. Whatever that thing is that lights you up. Whatever that thing is that makes you feel good, lean into that. If it's playing the guitar, grab the guitar and you. pull it out and play every once in a while.

And I think that that's such a big thing that people just need to hear. I agree, because I think some people run away from it because they think I can't possibly let that into my life for whatever reason. Well, there's also some people that go, if I can't be Jimmy Hendricks, I'm not going to do it.

If I can't be Stone Colt Steve Austin, there's no point. It's so true. And yet some of my best wrestling experiences have come being in some weird building where promoters gone, I can get a ring in there. And there's like 100 people, but you just have the best time. Who knows why?

Because they're up for the match, because your character is working, because the match just goes well. Once again, you drive home, you know, with a huge smile on your face. And I don't know where the future of my wrestling career is going, but I know that I'm having the best time. So it's like, you know, I'm cool with it. I'm happy. Do you have goals in your wrestling career? Yeah. I mean, my number one goal is to enjoy it as much as possible because the pandemic taught me that.

I just get super nervous. Well, as we kind of just talked about. I just get way too nervous before resting matches. There is no need to be that nervous about anything. I do think there is, this makes me sound like such an idiot, but it's how I feel. I do think there's a certain, I use the word privilege again, in actually having that nervousness.

Because usually when you feel that way, you're about to do something you absolutely love, and isn't it great that you put yourself in that position to begin with? So let's say behind the curtain before a resting match, eat that up, man. There's privilege and pressure. There is, because you have done something where people are expecting something of you and you probably wanted that. Otherwise, why would you be there to begin with?

So, you know, I do love that. And when it took them the pandemic, especially in England, where they shut everything down for ages, when I started coming back, I was like, you just got to enjoy it because it could go, literally, it could go away tomorrow. But no, so my goals are the same goals that, you know, even though I am older than the average bear, you don't know, maybe one day a major company, even if it's just one match, then we need a bald guy who lifts weights, We need this guy to run through him. I'll be a guy. Someone can kick my butt.

So, yeah, and you know, it's, I would love to, it's not just that too. I feel like maybe I could offer something more to sort of a major company too. Like, I do have all the content stuff, feel very comfortable on a microphone in front of camera. So I just like to think I'm combining all my skills possible and putting them out there. And along with the opportunities in whatever guys continue to come, I'll never say no. That's my big thing. You never say no. You do it and then you figure it out.

Like, you need you to ride a horse. Can you? Yep. And you go and do as many horse lessons as you can before doing it. So, yeah, I'll take it all as it comes. But in the background, I'm always trying to sort of, yeah, let that manifest into something. You've done some stuff with TNA. Yeah. You've done some stuff with AEW.

Yeah. So, I mean. We've got Royal Rumble's coming up. Yeah. I get messages from people that are like, do you think you could be in the Royal Rumble? Like, of course not. No. No, absolutely not.

My big worry about that, and I'm 99% sure I'm right, is you'd walk out, me, so I would walk out, and maybe 100 people in Section E would go, it's the YouTube guy, whereas 49,900 people are like, who? Who's this? Nobody needs to end their life, nobody. And also, I mean, if we're being completely realistic here, there's only 30 spots in the men's raw. Right.

Why would they be? If me or you is in it, we're taking a spot away from someone who deserves it a lot more. 100%. And that's not my, listen, of course I'd love to be in the raw rumble. Right. But I would actually, if we're talking about bringing it back into reality, I would much rather, yeah, just be on a show. And genuinely, someone just whips my butt and beats me.

But you got to have the experience, right? And from that, who knows what you'd be able to build? Maybe they go and, you know, do a promo with you afterwards. And you can't, the silliest over-the-top promo. Well, we can do something with that. Mostly so many sort of moments like that when it breeds into something else. So, yeah, that's my big thing, is just keep doing the things that come along. And hopefully it builds to something else.

I mean, it usually does. How was all in last year? Man, that was the coolest. That was the coolest experiences of my life. Because Wembley Stadium in England is hallow turf. Yeah. So, as part of the extra crew, and no one, you never know what you're going to do that day because things change. And you might not even be used.

Exactly. You're there. You're just in case people, you know, which is fine with that. What do they tell you to bring? So for that one, we were told to bring, or dress nice, obviously, which I would have done anyway, because I think you should be respectful. But they told us to bring, we needed a bunch of black clothing. I think it was a hoodie, a top, and some track suit bottoms.

Pants, whatever we call it around America, I don't know. Pants. Originally, I think I can say this now, almost a year and a half removed. Well, it's not even that bigger news, but Swerve was going to have some big entrance, and we were going to be dressed in black hoodies to create some sort of an effect. But then that got killed quite quickly. When all of a sudden, yeah, they were like,

oh, and Miro and Powerhouse Hobbs are going to do something on the pre-show, we need you guys to be the security. So I was like, this is all I need in my life for two reasons. I got to tell this story, right? And he probably watches, but I don't care. Because I say it with all the love in the world. I want to make it very clear, this made me so happy. I was beaming ear to ear.

So Powerhouse Hobbes and Miro are backstage. Now, this is cool anyway, because I'm literally standing where England players come out to play soccer, football. I was like, I had the best time. And before that, I got to stand in the middle of Wembley Arena and just sort of taking an empty stadium. I was like, I don't care what happens now. This is a win for a football fan Simon. But then we get told we're going to do this. So Miro and Hobbs are coming together with their plan.

And Miro sees me. And he goes, he can't wrestle. He makes videos. So I was just like, the fact you even watched any of my content, you have no idea. But then I explained to, I know I've been wrestling for the last seven years or whatever. He was like, okay, no, sorry, why should he know? But the fact I got that, just, I don't know. And then we walked out, and the stadium was probably half full.

So let's say there were 80,000 there. I don't want to get into that ridiculous debate that people have. So you have 40,000 people in there. Mike, I did not understand how loud 40,000 people were. When we were stood in that ring, it was like Godzilla. But it's so loud. So that was excellent too. And then, because I'm very lucky to have this contingent of people that will support me regardless,

I think it may have worked against me in some ways, too. You did have some people go, Miller, give it up, give it down, just ruining this segment. And then, yeah, they obviously get into their big fight, and we had half the guys on Miro and half the guys on Hobbs. So, I mean, I said, Hobbs, can you just throw me into the barricade? Because I have a stupid joke on ups and downs about Barry Barracade, so he threw me into that. That got me in trouble too because a bunch of people of the front world went,

Bo, Barrow! They're going to think I've done this on purpose. And it was just, you know, to be involved in a skit, whatever you want to call it, a segment, when we stayed in with people that were really into it because I think they were the first two guys that have gone out. So you just have that, man,

we just want to enjoy this. And then go backstage and have the sort of, I mean, to a lesser degree with us, but there's still a camaraderie there. We got to do it. And then that's when they were doing the Anarchy in the Arena match.

and so they said we want to put you in a bar and people are going to beat you up too. So I had Claudio give me a punch me in the face or whatever he did. It was just, it was awesome. Like it was so, so cool. And then the other, as I continued to go on, is that throughout the day,

wrestlers did come up and they said, really appreciate the positivity, really appreciate how you approach wrestling. And I'm sure some people go, you're biased. But it's more of a, I'm a big, big, big guy, whether right or wrong about taking human emotion and sensitivity into all of my

work. You can call me a pansy, a wuss, whatever, I don't care. So for people that I have always kept in my head of, do not forget their real humans to come up to you and go, you know, you know, you can criticize things, but you just do it in a nice way. That meant the world to me. And I won't drop names, and that is unfair, but there was one conversation I had with one guy, and he was just, he was someone I didn't even think would be into YouTube stuff. And it couldn't have been nicer. So I left that event just feeling completely reinvigorated about this is a cool thing to do. And then after all that, I got to hang out in catering. So I did it, Simon Miller was, hangar at AEW.

So he ticked so many boxes to me and I can't, there was Sean Dean that sort of, you know, organized the extra. So I really do appreciate him, him sorting that out for me. I'll never forget it. I had a really good day. How was the catering in AEW? So good. It was really good.

And the problem was, this is like, this sums up my brain. I, on that day, as in the best shape I've ever been in my life. Just in case I was sub 10% body fat. I had dieted, it dieted and dieted. So I regret this now. I did eat catering in the way that you're meant to. But I was like, well, if someone runs in here, we need a ball guy right now. So I didn't indulge maybe as much as I should have done.

But honestly, dude, those spreads are amazing. I was on two AEW shows. Yeah, of course you were. And I will never forget the chocolate cake and catering. I don't know if it was the same in the UK, but I was, I was in Washington, D.C. and Charleston, West Virginia. And the dessert, crazy. It was like a triangle of them.

I went back for seconds. Don't tell anyone. No, no, I think you should do that. And we were actually told, just enjoy, you know, thanks for coming and enjoy, enjoy yourself. I should have enjoyed myself more than I did. But I still enjoyed myself enough. And also, you know, again, there were other guys hanging out there too. So I got to have conversations with them.

And I'm a fan at heart. And I'm not embarrassed by that. Like, I don't march and go, you got to do a selfie with me or anything like that. But just getting to have a conversation on a, again, a human to human level. You can't beat that. They're the best experiences. I think it's so easy to forget that these are other humans. These are other humans who chased after their dream and they are the 1% of the 1% who actually got to live that dream.

And it's so easy online to just go, that person sucks. Do they? Yeah, exactly. Or do they just do something that didn't work for you. Yeah. There's a huge difference. Like, I'm going to regret saying this. Goodbye mentions.

Uh-oh. But I think it's a nice thing. The internet doesn't agree with me. You get messages sometimes. You're too sensitive. You're too sensitive. You've got to be less sensitive. Why?

Some people are overly sensitive. Okay. So let's say Steve. Sensitive Steve, right? Why don't we try and be nice as human beings and go, okay, Steve, it takes things a little bit too serious. He's a bit sensitive. So when we're around Steve, let's cater and make sure he feels included.

We would do that in real life. Exactly. So why don't you do that? If you know, I don't want to name a wrestler, but I'm sure there's wrestlers out there that take internet comments to heart more than others. And everybody's thinking of whoever that person is for that. Of course, right?

And wouldn't it be nice? If you could still go, didn't like this, didn't work for me, story doesn't make sense. Character promo wasn't good. All that's fine. Made a mistake in the ring. All that's fine. Yeah.

But it's always followed with, like you just said, oh, man, they really suck. And it's like, I can act. You'll be the same, I assume. We've done this. long the skin just gets so thick. There's nothing somebody could say that would truly upset me. Other than you phoned it in. Oh, that I never phoned anything in my life. It may be rubbish by trying, try and hard. I just think, I know who these people are that are sort of are struggling.

And I'm still going to say if I don't like something they've done or not, but I am not going to drag them through, through the woods when I'm aware that they have this emotion. And when I say, people say it to me, oh, you're such a modern, non-masculine man. What does that even mean? What are you talking about? I just think it's okay to be nice. I really do. And people go,

but that's their job. They're in entertainment. Okay. I don't agree. I can just don't. The disconnect for me is if you like a movie that I don't like, or you like a band that I don't like, I'm not going to trash you or that band or that movie.

I'm just going to go, oh, wow, we have different taste. Right. I can't believe that's the movie that you like, but, hey, that's cool, man. Yeah. To each his own. And that's it. This episode is brought to you by Timeline.

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they're offering you 20% off your first purchase. So get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet by going to vori.com slash CVV. That's V-U-O-R-I-com slash CVV. I heard a quote, and this is such like a preschool quote, it was shared to me by a, I'm a parent now. So I know you are. They have other fellow parent friends, right?

You just welcome them in. Come on. That's true. And you have kids. You have a whole new circle of friends. It's crazy. But the quote was, don't yuck other people's yums.

And I went, man, that is so simple. Yeah. And that is so poignant. If someone likes something, that's great. Let them enjoy it. Right. You don't have to tear down the thing

that they like just because you don't like it or you don't understand. Yeah. And there's a lot of, that online at the moment. And a lot of it, I think why it gets under my skin sometimes, not under my skin, but I'm like, ugh, it's because a lot of it is being done for financial. Twitter monetizing the engagement has been, it's problem. Problematic is the word I'm looking for. But it's true, though. And I just, again, I know this

is, this will be the one thing that people take away from this, that want to come and throw bullets my mind. That's fine, man. I'll put my armor on. It will be all good. But I just, it's exactly that. It's just, I think, Sometimes you can go, oh, wow, you really liked it. You had a better wrestling experience than I did on this evening, because I personally didn't. And ultimately, I don't think you should drag you down that much anyway. Professional wrestling is there to entertain, it's there to distract. And what you don't want to do is if you're going through a hard time and raw, Smackdown, dynamite, T&A, whatever, sort of allows you to just have that moment of clarity.

And like, it's going to be okay. And then some moron on the internet goes, you're an idiot. It's like, dude, just leave it. Well, a lot of people will watch a show, whatever show it is that you enjoy watching, and they'll go, oh, what did I think about that match? What do I think about that new crown jewel championship that was unveiled? Let me go on the internet and see which opinion I resonate with the most. Oh, yeah, that person does make a good point.

That's now my opinion as well. Yeah. And so it's not actually your idea to begin with. No, which is crazy, right? And I'll tell you, because everyone says all the time, you just say you like everything. My response is always, what a horrible world. I like everything. I must be so upset.

That crown jewel championship is rubbish. I don't like it. I don't like the idea that all of a sudden we're saying there's a super duper champion. I'm happy with my individual champions. That's okay. So with the crown jewel championship, there's a lot of issues. Oh, yeah. So, like, I think people were looking at the design.

I'm like, I get that. I understand. Yeah, not nice. I was talking on the most recent AskCTVV episode. If it's truly 50 carrots of diamonds, that thing's worth like, hundreds of thousands of dollars. I know what I paid for my wife's engagement ring.

And if this is 50 carrots of diamonds, the bigger thing here is, will the winner of the match walk around now with two championships? Yeah. Probably not. So do they just hold this title up at Crown Jewel? I am the Crown Jewel champion,

and then we don't ever see that title again until next year's Crown Jewel. And then that belt will be competed for by two completely different people because there will be two other champions at the time? I think so. That doesn't make any sense.

It doesn't make any sense. So it's just a commemorative title, the winner of this match. Yep. And I think just in terms of the actual match, there has to be a clean winner here. There has to be. Someone has to get pinned or tap out,

I would think. Oh yeah, you're right. You can't throw it out, yeah, of course. So then you're making one of your champions look weak. Well, technically not a champion. Because he lost. The other guy should have his belt.

If this was winner take all, we'd be all in. We'd be so invested in this match. It'd be so good. Is it Gunther or is it Cody? Then that's what, you know, I think you should always save champions. Is it live or is it Nia Jacks? Yeah.

Like we're all in. Oh my gosh. The winner gets three championships. Two of them mean something and one of them's just a belt. One you're keeping in the attic. Where is it? Oh, I'll get it. I'm going to say.

And that's it, right? I always want when you have the champions coming together because you're going to unify the championship. In WW, I'm going to do that. I was thinking it's a shame because WB. because WWE has done such a superb job the last few years of long-term storytelling and everything means something and we don't have these strange trinkets

and now because of, it is what it is. It's the strange, strange trinket that's going to come and go. I think it actually works against what WWE's been doing. I feel like Crown Jewel exists in an alternate WWE universe. I thought the last two,

they were going in the other direction. I thought they felt more like actual shows that have threads and we'll build and now it feels like it's gone back to whatever. I think a lot of money is being spent and they're like, just let us know what you'd like. Oh, yeah. Let us know.

Absolutely. We'll put that on the card. We'll figure it out. Yeah. And again, it will come, it will go. And they're lucky they've got Survivor series three weeks later, which I think is going to be an absolute huge, huge show this year. But yeah, go see, we can sit down there and be critical.

But it doesn't mean that we like or we hate everything. It's just something came along. Yeah. I took it in and went, not for me. And I moved off with something else. What do you think has been the moment over the last few years that really changed things? Because wrestling is hot. again now. What do you think was the catalyst for that? I think AW being born is huge,

because when you have competition, it doesn't matter how far ahead you are, you're like, oh, now we've really got, you know, we don't want to, again, don't leave the door open, I think is the phrase that WW always used after WCW. Yeah, you can't rest on your laurels then. No, you can't. Yeah. Because for a while, right, as we know, AW got super close to WW. And then the gap widened, I would presume, because WW went, nope. So it's that, I think, which is why I love competition. I think it makes all shows better. The Bloodline and Roman finally allowed to be the Roman that he always wanted to be.

Because he's such a good performer in that role. It's like, how could this not possibly work? And then I think you have all these incredible moving parts that came all the right time. Cody Rhodes coming back to WWE. I was there at WrestleMania 30. I mean, it was. It was incredible. I don't know what it was.

It was incredible. It was like, why is he here? Why has he got all his AW stuff? How has this happened? And then when you get Austin coming out, like two hours later, or whatever it was, I can't take this. Yeah, Russellmania 38 was, I feel like that was a pivotal moment. Yes.

Yeah. I think we have to do a whole different podcast on this. Obviously, WrestleMania 17 is held up as the Beal and Endel for obvious reasons. I think WrestleMania 38 is right out there. You go back and watch it. Again, it feels like a moment in time show. Yeah. And then what happens after that, right?

The Rock is here. So that's another one where people are like, the Rock is here. And he's not just here. wait, he's going to be in a storyline? He's going to wrestle and as a bad guy. Yeah. Which has always been his will house. Like the character of the rock is always so much better as that person because he's meant to be,

you know, I'm going to talk you down with the mic, going to beat you up in the ring. I don't care. That's why we all fell in love with him back in the late 90s. And then what happens now? John Cena says, oh, I'm going to retire. So now everyone's totally invested in 2025 before we already get there. Then you get so called B, pay-per-views all of a sudden feeling like, if you go back to 2014, team and you pick random paper views, match cards to look at, you will see two wrestlers

fighting. You're like, that didn't happen. That's a mistake. It's because they didn't mean anything. We totally lost our way because the focus have gone so much on the television, which I get. That's where the money is. But now, even though the money is still wrapped up in television, someone has gone. No, no, we need to make all these big shows feel huge.

Again, they want to sell the location rights and stuff, which I don't care. That's fine. But now, I mean, bad blood. What an incredible show. Survivor series is probably going to be headlined by Bloodline versus Bucson. bloodline. You can go back through all of these, right back to elimination chamber and have these huge matches that are going on on so-called B shows. And all of that, I think, comes together. And it's like, this is, this, this is just, yeah, it just blew WWE up to crazy levels.

So I knew the Rock was going to return a bad blood earlier that day. Did you really? I walked in the wrong door. I was walking around the arena, trying to find the exact door I was supposed to go in for the media check-in. Ended up somehow in the loading dock. This is amazing. And the Rock drove by in his Ford Raptor with. the Florida license plates. And I'm like, dude, that's the rock.

The rock just drove by. And it's like, it's like an hour and a half before the show. I'm like, so he's here. I think he's not just here to be here and watch the show. Why would he? He's here.

And you kept it quiet too. I said it to my, I was sitting next to my buddy, Brad Gilmore, and I'm like, Rock's here. That's great. And then before he came out,

you can see it on some of the cell phone video. Yeah. The fog from his entrance was starting to come out the entrance way before his music here. I didn't see that. Yeah. I love stuff like that. And I tapped the people I was sitting next to him like,

watch this. Look at that. If you smell! Yeah, there it is. That's awesome though, man. Yeah, that was really cool.

That's a moment in time. That's one of those things you could hold on to forever. That was cool. I think that Cody coming back to WWE was such an interesting thing because any time that someone left WW during, especially the pandemic years, it was always like, when are they going to show up to AEW? Yeah.

When are they going to get a, AEDW. And No one was talking about the reverse. When someone got released from AEW or when their contract might have been up, no one was going, when is that person going to jump to WWE? It hadn't happened. So for the first person to do the opposite, to go from AE to WW to WVE, for it to be one of the people who were like the founders, one of the EVPs, that like, that really shook things up. And he comes back with the exact same presentation. He's the American nightmare. He has the downstate entrance theme. Shout out to Downstate, who also does the theme song for this show. Yeah. So the fact that it was all of those components, it was like, oh, this is a different,

completely different timeline. And the feeling in that building, I felt it. How long was that pause? I mean, someone in the production track had courage. I got this. I got, I'm pushing nothing until I'm ready. But they were right, because I was, listen, we couldn't be more in if we tried, right? It's like resting through up over us. And even then when we were waiting when Seth was in the ring, I said 99.9. I had that 1% was like, what if it's not? What if it's not? And I think that's what built then. Then when he came,

I remember, there's only a few times I've been blessed enough to go to live events from like, I'm part of something. That and the Austin stuff. Oh my gosh. When he came out for the surprise pop on night two, I was 12 years old again, I jumped around. These days, because I have to make notes and stuff. I'm actually quite, I like just sitting and watching

other people. Not on that night. I was going absolutely crazy. So, but Cody especially. And then the other one that always comes to mind is all in 2018. I went there to that. And when that first match happened, I got emotional because it was so loud.

It kind of my, I don't know what you would call it. My body's like, what, where are you right now? Because it hits such crazy decibels. And what did that do? You know,

all in 2018 led to the creation of a secondary wrestling promotion that is now super successful. Yeah. What? How did that happen? And then Cody was the same where I'm just like,

how blessed am I to be? I did. I felt really privileged to be. there because I think in 20 years time, we'll look back and go, it's one of my favorite things I ever did. And I hope that people can realize that we are in the good old days right now. I know. Like this is, I'm not saying that they're even, but like when we were watching things in 98, 99, and 2000, like, it was great. And I just hope that we can take just half a step back to appreciate, like, things are pretty awesome right now.

And it's not always going to be like this. It might feel like it. It's not always going to be like this. So just take half a step back. appreciate, you might not have loved everything on raw or dynamite or Smackdown or Collision, whatever happens to be a PLA. Lean into the stuff that you do enjoy. And it's so much good right now.

And also, we don't have this, we moved away from this whole, the fans are going to take over shows and be mad at management. Now it's very, very much like, we get two different crowds, I find, which is awesome. You get people that are happy to play their role. No problem with that whatsoever, by the way. The crowd should be a part of that way. Or you'll kind of get this crowd that, again, just wants to see high action, crazy matches and they'll pop everything too.

And that was so much better than, was it Royal Rumble 2015? Ray Mysterio's number 30. Raimisterio. Poor Ray Mysterio. The greatest baby face ever, and we're booing him because he's not Daniel Bryan.

I mean, I'm glad we're away. And also, that's the thing. There's 52 weeks of programming a year. I always say this on my shows. I say it too much. Not everything can be for you. It's just impossible. But I am the,

what's the right word. I am the biggest supporter of goofy wrestling. I have a T-shirt. It says, Goofy Wrestling for Life, because I love goofy wrestling. There's some people out there that think goofy wrestling is like, The Odd Truth in the Miss. They can't handle it, whereas I'm like, this is great. The Art Truth still thinks he's his friend. But you have to have both of these, you have to have both sides.

I was wrestling, it was really boring really quickly. It's when the part comes that you don't like, just shrug your shoulders. Think about somebody else enjoying it, which I think is a nice thing to do. Yeah. And then it's wrestling. The next show will come. there's too much wrestling on TV. You'll be able to find something that suits you.

How was the last match? So, like, you've been dabbling and acting for a little while. Yeah. And then you get this perfect merger of, like, acting and wrestling coming together. How stupid was that, right? I thought I was a joke. So shout out the Thunder Rosa, who put me in touch with the producer, Jeremiah, who was also just, what a wonderful, nice human being.

But, I mean, that's what it was. literally what it was. It was, so Matt Cardona had done it in 2022 when they did their testing, they had two big shows. Obviously, Matt Cardona is on his huge independent run and we were literally going to be touring this

for two and a half months or whatever it was down the East Coast of America. So understanding, Matt Cardone was like, no, got a career. He was still a producer and he helped me load. So shout out to that guy. But Dunder Rosa and Jeremiah were having a chat. As far as I know, this story may have been blown up,

but I'll take it. It sounds great to me. And I don't know whether one of my videos came on or whatever. But Jeremiah said, I really enjoy this guy. I'll be watching this guy for a while. I thought it was like, I know that guy. Simon Miller. Apparently he said something along the lines of, and maybe paraphrasing,

I think he'd be really good for the Jack Swagger Rock. Not Jack Swagger. Alexander Swagger Roll. Shout to Jack Swagger. Alexander Swagger, who is the villain of the piece. And she said he's been acting for a few years. They're like, what? So, you know, it took sort of, as these things always do a long while,

to sort of all the bits to come together. But then, yeah, I was in, it's literally after WrestleMania 40. That's this year. Oh, my gosh. I went from Philadelphia, drove down to New Jersey, an hour and a half way, whatever it is.

And we rocked up to rehearsal space for two months. And we just, yeah, we worked it. We worked. It worked. And then we took it on tour. So essentially, I would say 75% of it was playing a role. And you had the big, the last match, obviously, at the end. And it was, I think we're going to start ranking by life experiences.

That could be in the top two. Let's push it. Let's push it right in there because it's exactly what you said. I never thought my first proper role where, you know, you're getting paid and it goes on your IMDB or whatever it's called. But, you know, when you actually have a credit that you can use, would be in something that is scary, but not too scary because at least you know sort of a big chunk of this world. But yeah, I mean, I got, we went to, we did send a stuff. stage, obviously synonymous with WCW. We did the ECW Arena.

We did the Hogue Arena in New York and those three shows especially. People came out, man. I remember, it was the very last show was the Atlanta one. And I walked out and it literally ironically ties into what we were just talking about. The fans knew what the show was and they knew who had been cast as what. So when I walked out, I didn't even say anything. But it was wonderful because you can play with that. And I'd been told your character, you break the full.

fourth wall, right? You know they're there. You need to, you know, insult them, rag on them, drag them down, drag them down. So I just got to be like a stand-up comic, you know, taken out hecklers the entire time. And I still can't believe I got, I got to do it. But it was, it was genuinely awesome. And the amount of people that you bumped to again, Matt Codona was at a show, because he's taken care of it. And then he slater was at a show. We had Snitsky who kicked the baby. And that clicked in a bit of Viro, Mickey James on the tour for the whole time. I said, why am I? It's talked about imposter syndrome. I was like, why am I here? What is going on?

McKenzie Mitchell was, I'll stop naming names, so I'll forget someone and I feel bad. But it's just all these recognizable people that just kept coming through you. Like, why and how? That's amazing. It was amazing. I love when you post your acting auditions on social media

because I've dabbled in that world a little bit. I know how uncomfortable auditions can be. Oh, yeah. I know how, I think what sucks about them is you put so much time and effort into like, first of all, learning the script, putting your own spin on it, developing this character to submit it

And then to hear nothing back ever. Right, nothing. Not even some feedback. Yeah. The one bit of feedback I got once was, he's not big enough. And I was like, what can I do? I mean, I can't change that in a day. So there's nothing I can do.

But it's, that was a pandemic thing too, because I couldn't wrestle. I was like, I need to do, I need that creative part of my brain. I need something. And obviously, the acting workshops opened up before wrestling did for obvious reasons. Yeah. So it was again, I'm terrified. And I've went, oh, you're terrified. Go and do it.

It was exactly the same as, wrestling. Like, you're scared. That means there's something in that you need to explore. So, yeah, I just went to, I went to a bunch of workshops. And then I went to, I went to part time. I had to go part time, obviously, to acting school for a while. I had to audition to get into that over Zoom, because that was before they'd probably open stuff up. That was awful. Never want to do anything over Zoom acting wise again. And then I did that. And then I somehow, yeah, I got an agent, which obviously then led in to getting the last match stuff. And yeah, it literally is how I spend now a huge chunk of my time, it's just going to acting classes or going to workshops or meeting

casting directors or doing self-tapes. And it is very similar to wrestling. And when you make that connection in your brain, all I'm really doing is cutting a promo here. Not only has it given me something extra that I think I needed. But my promos are way better too. I think Cody is the master of this. He's talked about it because he obviously studied acting. Yeah, he came out here when he was 19 to Hollywood. Yeah. And Dusty sold his watch and all that. The whole story. Yeah. But It's true when you actually sounds a little bit pretentious, but it's still true. When you actually do sort of sit down with a promo, you think, well, what do I feel? What my obstacles?

What my objectives? You can write, I mean, I'll be, me, I've been, even happened, someone that I've been working with for ages in wrestling, said, Millie your promos and your presentation is just night and day for what it was a few years ago. It's acting, man. It's because now they give me the story and I don't just, where have I been? Where am I going? What do I want to do?

Blah, blah, blah. So I'm really happy I took it on. I would love it if it's sort of flourished into something else. I'm going to keep pursuing it because I'm passionate about it. But even if it doesn't, it's helped with my character stuff with wrestling so much. And I think that the parallel between wrestling promos and acting is just making people feel something, making them believe. Like they're believing that you want to beat that person for X, Y, and Z reason. And the same thing in a scene.

Like, the cliche in acting is, what's my motivation? If only wrestlers were to think about that before every promo. Right. What's my motivation? Yeah. It's not just to beat the other guy and to get that spot of WrestleMania or whatever it is. There's so much more to it that only the people who are at the tippy top are thinking about. Yeah, and they always mention it, right?

They always talk about that after the fact, well, I was, I brought this into it. I brought that into it. I'm like, well, that's acting. Like, it just is. And I don't think that's a bad thing. And again, ever since I've gone into it, it's just, it's just changed my whole perspective on how, essentially how awesome wrestling is. Yeah. Because you can just have so much fun with it.

And that was the other reason the last match thing was so good, because again, it was two months down the East Coast. So I became a, I also got to live the 1987. I mean, obviously, not as, what's the word, harsh? But it was literally like, you know, driving to a city, check into your hotel, find a gym, do the show, get back in the bus, go to a city, get you. Literally, we're doing town, town, town, town, town, town. And I actually found I quite liked the madness. It took a while to adjust, but then sort of, I think I got like Stockholm syndrome. When we get to the last two shows, I'm going to go home.

I can't handle it. I can't handle a normal existence. So it gave me that as well just to give you an idea of how can you survive on the road. But I didn't go home for two and a half months, which is baffling. Like it truly is. With the appreciation you have now for promo work, who do you think cuts the best promos? I mean, Cody's up there for me because Cody always sounds like everything he says he means. I remember that at the time on social media respect you or he cries too much.

He cries too much. I'm saying, but he heard what he's crying about. I think he means it. I mean, people mean it. Like, people seem to think that he was going out like, all right, I'm going to, I'm going to get out there and I'm going to cry right when I say this word. Like, I think it's that he means, he feels it. For sure. I think he's going back to WWE and the story.

I don't think it was lip service. I think he tied that into the legacy of his dad and his family and that. Look, you can say, that's a good thing, a bad thing. That's whatever. He felt it. So that's all that. the matter. So I think he's up there. MGF, I think, is tremendous and surprise, surprise.

What's he doing right now, starring in Happy Gilmore, too? I mean, you know what I mean? It comes together. I was always, I felt that Brian Danielson was underappreciated. He didn't necessarily cut what you consider to be a wrestling promo. But once again, he believed every word that he said. Like in that buildup to the swerve match, because I'm the best effing wrestler in the world.

I'm sure he said it for effect. You can't deliver it like that. I wouldn't say he was one of the best promo guys, but him and AJ Stiles will never make it in WWX can't cut promos. Both really good promo. It's like really not a problem whatsoever. But Roman Rains always gets a nod for me too because Roman does it in Roman's way. Again, I hate the words, but I get it all as cinema.

But he does. That when he talks, it's almost, it is kind of like he's playing a part, but it's almost like he thinks he's the master and ruler of the world. Shout to Sir Justice. And I love, but I love that because anyone could try and do that. and you're running the risk of it not working as a hold of fake mic for some reason. I love it. But Roman makes it work.

Roman tweets his Gravitas. In many ways, what he's doing is incredibly over the top. But it's also understated at the same time. But that's, I think, the genius of Roman Roman. Yeah, he has presence. That's the best word. And I even saw that when I was in that little exchange with him and Paul Heyman at the press conference at WrestleMania. It's like, there's just a presence.

That's so good. I love that. That was so fun. I love that, man. That was so fun. I'm like, yes, Chris is getting into it. I'm like, whatever I say to Roman Reins, it's not going to land. So let's just go.

Exactly. Just move on. I know exactly what I'm being set up for here. Yes, true. Let's go. But I think you got to throw the rock in there as well. Of course. I always don't, why bother?

That's like saying my name's Simon, obviously. Why are we even delving with this? Yeah, it's like when you talk about like hockey, like, well, of course, Wayne Gretzky and like, it's, then it's everybody else. Exactly. So I like to focus on the guys that maybe we don't, we don't. talk about as much. I try to think there must be someone else that deserves a shout that we're not talking about. I think Drew McIntyre's recent work, I mean, that's such a good

shout. And again, because it sounds real. That doesn't sound like Drew McIntyre the wrestler. It makes it. And that's why people went, oh, Drew and CN Punk really hate each other. They really hate each other. It's because the way they were talking to each other was like, well, that's how I talked to someone who I didn't like. Yeah. Man, Drew McIntyre, what a fake Welsh, according to WWE, most definitely Scottish. I love that when they did the first class of the castle. Those videos are like, just pretend, okay he's from wales all right fine and then we did the proper one in scotland it's a castle it's kind of close to scotland it's like so good i love stuff like that but i love when wrestling makes no sense and we just just go along with it

well i don't get too off target here but it's why i really appreciate what adam cole did on dynamite he walks out there he knows he has 18 months of injuries and stories that gone totally off the rails and basically goes shrug emoji just just roll with this okay you You can see it in his face. He's not an idiot. I actually did a very good job all things considered. But yeah, Drew McIntyre, what had just an absolute store war and shamers too for the aisles and island and stuff and where we're from? They just couldn't have reached higher heights. And that's CM Punk Drew McEntice. I mean, CM Punk talking about promo guys. Again, he goes into that category of like, of course.

Yes. Absolutely. I mean, how can you not, how could you not mention him? I think the thing with CM Punk is whether he's a baby face or he's a heel, you believe what he's saying. And there's never any ums or oz. He doesn't ever let the crowd and like take over the promo. He just goes out there. He looks straight down the barrel. And he talks about the exact thing he wants to talk about. And like just as a communicator, just as a professional communicator myself, I look at the skills that he has and I'm like, I wish I could talk that well about anything. But it's so compelling as a person. We know he's had a somewhat controversial history, whatever you want to call it. And yet we're still incredibly fascinated by

this man. It reminds me a little bit of Daniel Day Lewis's character and there will be blood. That's a great comparison. You know what I mean? We're like, he's a little bit of a salesman and you're not supposed to like him, but you like him because he's charming and has this charisma about him. But especially when CM Punk's a heel, you know, his devious motives, but you still like him. It's true, right? Yeah. And that's, I can, He was born to be a wrestler. Yeah. He really, really was.

Like, it's just, again, he did, um, what's that podcast that just started as well? The, no, no contest podcast, whatever. Yeah. O'Shea Jackson Jr. Yeah, those guys, they're absolutely killing it. And their conversation with him, I think, summed it up. I was just like, this is just, what an incredible conversation this is,

both from fans asking him questions the way he's responding to them. And that, that's when, like, see him, an enigma. And there'll never be another one like him because he just completely stands on his own two feet. And yeah, again, what a fascinating. person to watch. So your YouTube channel was all about fitness. And then you took a sharp left turn and all the fitness people that were following you went, what do you mean? You like wrestling too? So what was the decision there to not make another channel or to not keep going with fitness stuff? That's perfect. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity for me to plug my

ways because I am starting a brand new fitness channel early 2025. Okay. It actually already has about 15 to 20 videos on it, but I'm holding off on it because I want to be- Can I subscribe right now? No, you can't. It's completely hidden for me. But it will be just be called Simon Miller Fitness because, you know, why not? But it ties into what you just said. I was, so the reason I changed tact was obviously what culture wrestling, been doing that for eight years, whatever it is.

I'm their review guy, the ups and downs, raw, smackdown, etc., etc. But, and I'm not moaning about this, I love it. There's a certain performative quality to it. It's meant to be a show. Yeah. And we're all meant to have a good time. Then randomly ties in. C.M. Punk comes back.

I sat there. And I thought, oh man, I want to have a proper, well, not a proper chat. I'm more like we're having a chat now about CM Punk. So I thought, I'll just throw out my YouTube channel. I thought I just sit down. I just want to talk about it. I have so many thoughts in my head.

And I talked about it on the Survivor series ups and downs. But that was more of, again, we're up in, we're down in, we're making jokes. And I love to, I don't want that to go away. Yeah. But I just want to talk about as a resting fan. I just did. I just had this overwhelming desperation to do it.

I can just throw out my YouTube channel. It's one resting video out of dozens of fitness ones. I mean, it happened with everyone. It did so well. It did so well. I was like, okay, I'll just do one more resting video, see what happened. And it did really, really well. And I was like, okay, as a businessman, you can't ignore this.

This is a really silly idea. I get that having a 180 like that is not ideal in the world of YouTube. But at the same time, the fitness was doing good. This is doing great. I mean, I'm not very good at speaking myself in those terms, but it was. Yeah. So sometimes you just have to go with it, right? So I just went with it, and I thought this is going to become my, you want the slightly over the top,

jokes, fun, maybe something more than you'd watch on TV. That's over here. If you want them more laid back, chatting with a friend, give me your opinions, going on streams of consciousnesses, kind of not being contradictory, but I think, what about this? What about that? Fantasy booking, I suppose. I just thought, oh, I'll do that. I'll do that on my channel.

And yeah, there were a few people that left, understandably, because if you're interested in, you have no idea about, that's what I didn't realize. and more for me. I just thought everyone was like, oh, it's the what culture guy doing fitness stuff? No, it wasn't. People had actually found me through the magic of the internet. Yeah, there were people that had no idea

you were even associated with Russia. Again, I think I'm... A dude with giant arms. I think I need to stop being so naive about that, which is why I brought the fitness stuff back, because I had enough messages. I'm not going to pretend it was millions. But it was sizable enough that I was like,

oh, wow, the way that I approach fitness actually did strike a chord with people, I guess because I've been doing it so long and I do look like I lift weights, but I wasn't going, you suck, man, if you don't lift weight. I was like, I don't care. Just whatever works.

And I didn't realize so many people resonated with it. Well, you were answering a lot of questions that people had. Like, is creatine a good idea? I don't know, any of the ideas of like how you would do your workouts. And I think you answered questions for people that were genuinely curious

and they could be at any phase of their fitness journey and you were appealing to them. And that's it. And that's what I think I mean. missed. So more for me, but it's all a learning game. It's not everyone, but a lot of other prominent fitness people, almost dictated information at them.

It's almost like very similar to how wrestling is. There's a lot of negativity in bodybuilding and fitness. That's right. So you go on to some people's sites. How much creating should I take? What do you mean? You don't know how much? And I'd be like, why would you know? Like, why? I still don't know, to be honest. I kind of just read the back and I go, five grams, I guess.

Yeah. And I honestly, to repeat my. myself, I didn't realize that there would be such a man of people that wanted to get into the gym, but they want to, they want to keep it at an enjoyable, fun, stress-free level. Yeah. And I didn't realize that they were getting that from me. And again, that's really something I've learned over the last couple of months, which is why I sat down the other day and I just made some of them that were similar to

the ones we used to do, but when I launch it, I thought I wait till the new year. It just makes sense for everything else I'm doing. But I was like, I have a bunch of content with all the stereotypical questions, some personal stuff, some, we'll call it higher level fitness, whatever. And then obviously we're starting from scratch, intimidating for sure, but also, that's another reason why I'm waiting because it's going to be like my 2025 project. I've not started a new YouTube channel in years. So I'm actually really excited about the fact no monetization for a while, no nothing.

Ah, you're good. But it's absolutely going to be that. It's going to be, you want to get into lifting weights. I don't think I'm better than you because you don't. And there is a lot of that in fitness. I'm not going to say you anything I don't believe in. We're going to keep it very matter of. fact and easy and fun.

And yeah, it could be its own thing. And then I can have the resting stuff and I can have the fitness stuff. I'm looking forward to it. Well, when it launches, let me know. I will share it on my YouTube community wall. We will send all of the people over to subscribe to Simon Miller Fitness. That would be excellent. And again, it really is going to be an accessible place.

Again, I think based on my own experiences, I forgot there were still, understandably, a huge amount of people that are terrified by the gym. Because you think you're going to get in there and get meathead yelling at you. You don't know what you're doing. So I suppose when you're, you get someone who's got a shaved head, Liz Wade's, oh, he doesn't seem to care that much,

it's going to be okay. And it is going to be okay, so. The United States Soccer Federation present the U.S. soccer podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Clevenberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Times ticking. I think you can feel the intensity.

All the guys are wanting to really take their claimant, and they want to be on that World Cup roster. There's no doubt about it. Hosting the World Cup on the home soil comes with its pressure. but we're just really excited just as the people are. The U.S. Soccer Podcast, presented by Hencoe. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. People joke in the comments all the time that you look like Johnny Sims.

Yes, they do. Have you ever been mistaken for him in real life? Oh, my friend, Chris. Yes, I have. Oh, my goodness. Buckle up. I take my Johnny Sin story, critic, because my favorite story, 2016, making the What Culture content.

This is when What Culture and All Wrestling was huge, like, you know, another level. And on this video, Johnny Sins, Johnny Sins. I are genuinely, I'm not kidding, I didn't know Johnny Sins was. Stop it. No, I genuinely did not know he was. I had wonderful proof. I'm still working in my office job at the time. I have wonderful proof.

Check my internet history. Why is it all deleted? But I was doing 50% YouTube, 50% I was doing YouTube stuff, but it was for a company. Oh, who's Johnny Sins? In an office. I typed in Johnny Sins' images. I had to go to my boss. Hi, Adam.

I'm really sorry. I've just looked at porn at work. And I explained it to him, and he was fine with it. But yeah, so it was, when was WrestleMania in New York? Was I 37. 35. 35. Oh, you're right.

It was 35, of course, because it was the one that went off for eight hours in the rain. And everyone was like, I don't know if I like Resonet anymore. So I went into a GNC course I did because I want to get my protein bars. We were going to Madison Square Garden. So maybe it was for the Ring of Honor, a New Japan event. I was meeting the guys down. Yeah. I went to G&C. I thought, I'm got time for dinner. I'll grab a protein bar. And the dude behind the counter went, Johnny Sins. Now, he wasn't joking. He thought I was Johnny Sins. When I started talking,

he was like, oh, no, you're not Johnny Sins. And he said, I'd met Johnny Sins at a porn convention, so I was looking forward to catching up. So I was like, wait a minute, wait a minute. You're not even insulting me. You actually think that I really did. I mean, maybe he was being for seizures. I don't know. But dude, it's crazy. Eight years it's been going on. It's never calmed down. It's never calmed down. All the best engagement posts I ever do is when I compare myself, people are so funny. It's out of control. It's because it's this like inside joke of like, everybody watches porn. Nobody like sits around and talks about watching porn. So when there's a post that kind of like wink, wink, nudge, like, we all get it. We all, we all have seen that

dude before. You're right. We were familiar with his work. Also, sometimes I am scrolling through stuff on the internet. And because people send me pictures of him all the time, sometimes like, oh, it's a picture. No, it's Joyce. Look, one day, if we can somehow get in the same universe or the same, you know, take a picture, I'm convinced I can break the internet.

You totally convinced. Well, you can absolutely do that. There's enough porn conventions that happen every year. I should go. You're right. You, absolutely. There's that big one in Vegas every year. I don't know what it's called.

Yeah. I like Vegas too. There you go. I should just go out to him and just shake his hand. He doesn't even have to know. Guys, take a selfie with you, Johnny. I'm a big fan. Come on.

As soon as you go to shake his hand, he's going to be like, it's going to be like a Spider-Man meme. That's what I want to do. That's my dream. Just the point. You absolutely need to do this. Do you know when it is? What time of year it is?

Let's find out. Let's find out. I'll do. Because no matter how much that trip costs me, I think I can monitor. Is it enough to at least break even? Oh, you absolutely can. It's so, I don't think that our internet here is going to like this, but.

That's fine. Somebody in the comments has already told us anyway. It's AVN, I believe. Man, I don't know. It's coming up January 24th to 27th. What a great way to launch a fitness channel than with a big channel that is going to do loads of engagement. I mean, I don't know if he's there, but that is, I believe that that is the biggest convention. My big question.

What has this episode? turned into. Always going to go to Johnny's sins. I need to know, mostly because people always ask me this question, so it's won me over. Has anyone gone to him and say, you know, you like this guy. That's a great question. I don't think they have, but we don't know. There's only one way to find out.

I bet if you go to his website and you click through like, I'm 18, yes, and then you proceed into his website. I'm sure he has a list of appearances. I would, we know the people who show up to wrestling convention. right? Yes. And I understand the people who would show up to an adult video convention to see, you know, the female performers.

Yep. Who's in line to get a picture with Johnny Sins? That's a great question. Is it people that want to be the next Johnny Sins? Right? Maybe. He's inspired. Or is it some guy who's like, shakes his hand like, love your work, dude?

You really, I don't know. I can't even finish that sentence. I'm wondering where it's going to go. That's a good question. We can ask him. You're going to go. I'm going to go. Do you know what?

And I'm going to get in touch with these people and say, I want to interview him. Screw a picture. I want to sit down interview with Jonathan. You need to. I bet he costs a fortune, though. He's really quite successful in his field. He's, yeah, of course. He's like the new.

Who's the one before? Ron Jeremy. There you go, Ron Jeremy. He's like the new version of him, right? Like, take it on his answer. I guess. I don't know. I have no idea.

But he must be ready. Because more people are aware of him if I tried. But even at the time, more people knew who he was than I was expecting. He was a really big deal. Well, you know that he's successful because they actually show his entire body in the video. Everyone else just gets shown from like here down. It's very true. He's like, oh man, that dude has a head.

The other one else was bad. So I started doing the What Cultural Stuff, that's 2016. So I meet my girlfriend in 2018. She knows nothing about this. She goes on. One day she comes home. What's Johnny Sins? Oh, great.

Oh, boy. Now we've got to have this conversation with you. as well. So, yeah. Good old Johnny. But listen, man, I'm not going to say I've made a lot of money off Johnny's sins, but I have made some. So I can't get too, man. Well, there is more money to be made, my friend. Absolutely is. With the amount of time you've spent here in the US, how's your American accent now? Oh, well, so I can I preface this now. I am not going to do it because I have no confidence. But the iron is not the right word. For my acting, I've been taking American accent lessons for like two years. What accent did they want you?

to have. General American, whatever that means in the acting world. The one that I've adopted now. Essentially, yes. I mean, you would smash the general American. Well, I fixed the six Canadian words I used to say. Which is a shame because I like the A, because I did, we were in Canada for the last month, sort of on the border and all the A's and the, oh yeah, sorry. Oh, yeah. I love it. I really liked it. I thought, it makes me feel comfortable here. I enjoy it. The general American accent, like the, what do they call the non-regional dialect? That's it. That's it. So, the good thing was that stint doing the last match. I came back and my coach was like, this, keep on this.

So now when I come over, it's a huge asset. I just try and listen and put in. I have got better. Like, I really, really have. But I don't have the confidence to turn it on. Just say your name like an American would say your name. I can't do it. Simon Miller.

Simon Miller. Oh, like a British person. No, no. No, say it like I would say it. Simon Miller. That was good. You hit the R. Well, I'll do the art.

No one needs that. The story with me and my American hours, I mean, my board coach. You do it over Zoom, obviously, because it's easier. I'm just being like, please. Miller. Yeah, it's hard because sometimes you learn, if you push those consonants too much, you do.

You move down south and you get a twang. And it's like, wow, how did that happen? Simon Miller. It's quite good. It's quite good. It's terrible. Well, no, because I knew what you were doing on the first one, instantly. I think it was quite good.

And also, let's face it, you get away with it in acting. Sometimes people talk with their accents, and you're like, that's not what that was meant to be. and make a huge role. So British actors are far better at doing an American accent and playing American roles than the reverse. Yeah, it's true. And think about how many iconic American roles have been played by British actors. Spider-Man.

Spider-Man. Martin Luther King. So true. That's so true. Abraham Lincoln. Oh, my God. Batman. While Superman is not American, he's from another planet.

Yeah. He's an American icon. He's played by a British actor. Dude, that's such a good point. And if the reverse were to happen, if they were to line up like, you know, here's three great American actors that could play the next James Bond. People would be up in arms. Isn't that true? Yet when, again, Martin Luther King or Abraham Lincoln, I mean, the actors who played them are some of the greatest of all time.

People go, oh, yeah, really good performance. Daniel Day Lewis. But they got away with them with Batman, because I didn't even realize Christian Bell was Welsh until I was about 22. But he's Welsh. He has the greatest American actor in terms of putting it on. That's next level. I asked him about that. I said,

I think I've seen that clip. In this interview, people are hearing your real accent, and most people think you're American because you're so good at adopting the American accent. Oh, I guess I feel quite good about that. I hear the mic again.

Why do I keep doing this? That was really good. His real accent sounds fake. And his fake accent sounds real. Yeah. Like his real accent sounds like he's like a British chimney sweep. I don't sound like. It's like Michael Kane.

It does. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He really does. And the way to do a Michael Kane accent is you just say, my cocaine. Perfect. Michael Kine. He had that problem, didn't he? It was a story.

I can't remember. I won't tell his story. Michael Kine. But someone thought he fell back cocaine and it was his name. And I was like, Matt. But Gary Oldman's the same, right? Oh, tremendous. Tremendous actor.

Where are you from? Oh, right. You're from like East End London or whatever it is. But you are right. It's a strange, it's strange that it goes that way. I guess maybe it's harder to do a British accent. I don't know. I also don't.

don't know if Americans realize that in the UK, you can travel 30 minutes and the accent's very different. Oh, man, yeah. Well, that's why they have the RP accents. What? Is it regional pronunciation? No, that's not right. So RP basically is BBC newsreader voice. That's general American.

And the reason they've introduced that again is because you can't drive to the next village. What are they saying? What? But yeah, I have American friends that come over. They can't. They're in Liverpool or they're in the West Country. They're like, what is coming out of these people's mouths? I'm like, dude, even I can't understand some of them.

No way. If you go to sort of the furthest reaches of Scotland, they'll say things, you're like, I don't know. I don't know what you're talking about. So, yeah, it's so bizarre because America is this huge land mess. Yes. And you can fit the UK into Texas, basically. And yet, without any sense, my gosh, we went crazy with them.

Yeah, you did. Yeah. Where would yours, where does yours fall? Dude, mine is so weird. It's Londonish, isn't it? So, yeah, so it is, well, I used to, how do you describe it? You should drop my T's. So, like, you know, I can't think of a word now.

I was born in a place called Luton, which is quite aggressive, but it's quite an angry crime rid of place. But Luton, you know what I mean? So you talk like that. So my dad actually made me get elocution levels for a while. Wow. I know. I guess it paid off down the line.

But one of my accent is it has some American in there, has some Australian in there. So when I come over here, people are like, what is that? Like, what is coming out of your mouth? So even British people are like, that's a really weird accent, dude. But I'll take it because, you know, it's benefited me throughout the, the resonance,

wherever we call it, again, in school was awful, terrible. I got moved to like the corner of the room because your voice carries some, and we need to just try and shift you. Because you were speaking from your diet.

Yeah, even when I was young. Whereas now, who knew there was a market for that? People wanted it and they'll pay me for it. You could turn it into a job. Yeah, this is crazy.

But no, my accent is all over the place. But technically I was born in London. Luton is literally outside of London. I'm like 50 miles, with it. Look at all the silly things we talked about during this conversation.

I love, I had no idea, because there's so much we could talk about. So much. This was awesome. I'm much happy that it's just completely random and crazy and weird. That's the whole point. I mean, I wrote down a whole bunch of notes here, which is great. My wonderful friend, Alex Hunt, who does the research for these interviews.

He put together a ton of great notes. And we covered a lot of these. So thank you, Alex, for that. But then we also just went down into all kinds of silliness. We did do. And I like that, though, man, because I like to think that, again, every time we meet up, we can just have a chat and have a conversation. And that's awesome.

I love that. And I'm so happy for your success. That's very car. Congratulations on it. That's super cool, dude, because it's something I'm actually trying to do more of now is not very good at, I think it's the same for everyone with our kind of sort of creative thought process. Not very good against sitting in it.

And being like, again, when someone comes up to you and says, I watch your videos, you got me back into wrestling. There was a time where I wouldn't fobb that off. It meant something to me, but I wouldn't get bogged down in it.

I don't want to get bogged down on it because that can send you down bad path too. But I'm now trying to be way better at being like, pretty crap. Yes. Somebody enjoyed your video that much. They keep coming back. They wanted to tell you. They got back into wrestling overall.

I don't take that lightly. That's a real honor. Recently, I've just, I've started to accept compliments. It's so easy to just go, ah, come on, you don't mean that. I noticed when I would interview celebrities, like, you know, top of the top. And you would say something like, I loved you in this film or, or you would call out something specific, like this thing you did or this line you delivered.

And it would always be met with, thanks very much. Oh, thank you, man. I really appreciate that. I learned a lesson in that of like, just receive it. Just that person's trying to give you a gift. So true. Just receive it.

Yeah. Thank you so much for that. It's really hard to do. No, I think it is hard to do. Because I think even the people that go like, damn right. Well, they're not receiving in this. They need to work on that too, right?

It's not a way to do it. But that's the thing. Even if it comes from a place that is not genuine at all, you can still take it. They still thought to say it. They must have some degree of respect to you to go, I must pay them a compliment. And that means something. So I think that's a great point to make, because it is a difficult thing to try and embrace, I guess. Well, again, congratulations on everything.

I'm so glad we were able to do this in person. In California, too. What a crate. Why am I even here? Who even let me in? That's a great thing. When you got a visa, man, customs, they don't give a death. Yeah, they don't.

Yeah, I'm like, cool, you can come in. Yeah, I have a green card. So when I go to Canada, it's welcome home. When I come back here, it's also welcome home. I do have to say, great, nothing is as good as getting into Canada. They don't even talk to you.

They just put go in, we don't give it. I love going to Canada, man. Canada is the best. Yeah, you type into the machine, right? Yeah, no one even questions you. They just go through. There's pros and cons to that. We don't need to go down that road.

Oh, dear. So I've never asked you this question, but it's the question I wrap up every interview with now. Gratitude because it's so important in my life. Simon, what are three things you're grateful for right now? So this is hilarious because I knew this was coming, obviously. I was like, he's going to ask me the graduate question.

So then you're like, who do I pick? What do I do? The first one is super, super easy because I never talk about her. Deliberately, I very much like to keep my personal life separate from my professional life. My girlfriend is the anchor to everything that I do. Basically, she did. I started, our first date was a month before my first.

ever, my wrestling debut for Defiant. She knows nothing, like I said, about wrestling. She was barely aware of who Hulk Cogan was. She was like, I think I know the name. I was like, wow, you're completely out. And the way that she, again, with trips like this or other crazy, the last match, right? I sat down with her, oh, this opportunity has come up. I may have to be away for eight weeks.

And she just says to me, do you want this? Yes. Do you think he's going to mean something to you? Yes. Go. You know what I mean? No. There's no trickery.

Not that, but some people say that, but they don't mean it, and then it turns into a problem six months down the line. Nope. Completely supportive, completely believes in what I'm trying to do. And honestly, not all of these things that we try our successes, but to have her there to sort of be my, it's the most cheesiest way to put it, but she's my rock to all of this.

And to meet someone like that is, you can't ask for anything more. I don't actually think I'd be able to do it as well as I did without knowing. Again, we go back to the early in the conversation. She's my safety blanket. it, right? Yeah. Which apparently I need in my life.

And then also to sort of tie it to our conversation, the people that have watched my videos now for, you know, 10 years plus or whatever it is. Again, because when I knew you were going to ask me this. Do you remember that time? People used to say nuts stuff to see and punk. I bought your house. Like crazy. They did buy my house.

Like they genuinely did because without people watching, without people caring, without the views, the like, subscribe. and the negativity, all of it. Yeah. I wouldn't be here talking to you now. I wouldn't be having a wrestling book in California tomorrow. I'm back in a couple of weeks. I'm not actually like to tell where that one is.

This is a surprise. But again, someone's booking me as a surprise. I've then got a New York signing I'm doing early November that someone's booked me on. Who the hell wants to get my autograph? It's nuts. But it all comes from people that for whatever reason have, again, supported me, enjoyed my content and allowed me to do the thing that I was, when I started doing YouTube, this is what I wanted.

So I have to be grateful to them. The third one was super hard. I really, really thought about it because I don't, I don't want to leave anybody out. And I don't want to, you know, because whatever I say, I'm now going to look back. Oh, man. Why didn't I do it?

So what I actually came up with was wrestling, which sounds silly. But it is the, in my life, professional wrestling may have, it may as well just thrown up over me. I may as well be drooling in professional wrestling, because the YouTube stuff actually doing it, conversations like this, the conventions we just talked about,

cutting a promo, taking all that and moving into acting and going, oh, this is just wrestling, the fact that the thing that I loved when I was four or five years old that was able to grow and evolve and manifest itself in the way that it has,

it was there, maybe we'd do another, some more serious podcast, but it's been there for me during sort of hard times and then I've been able to make a career out of it on multiple levels. And I was like,

that's a really weird answer, but I am. super, I'm super grateful for it. It was been this, it's been maybe the most important and most prevalent thing in my entire life. I don't think that's weird at all. Because there was a point in time 15 plus years ago when the only way you could make money and wrestling was by climbing in through the ropes.

That's also true. And wrestling. Yeah. Now there's a plethora of different ways. I love that. I love that the internet has opened up all these opportunities that, you and I get to sit here and tell silly stories about wrestling. Yeah.

And somehow call this our occupation. And people care. I really, really care. I really appreciate that people do care. I mean, this is the last story that I'll tell. It was a super short one. I mean, I started digging my grave when someone said this to me. I was like, I'm done.

I had a message from someone who was, I would say, like I wouldn't drop their names so they didn't ask me to make it public. But they're sort of the new brand of wrestling content guy that's coming through. They message me and like, you know, you're like an OG wrestling. creator. I was like, but it was a lovely, a lovely thing to say. And I'm not, again,

this is me being hoity tooty, Simon. It happens. I'm not quite there. I don't know how to take that information. I don't know how to accept it because I don't see myself that way. There's technically an element of truth to it. And how amazing is that? You know how have people coming through that go, I watch your stuff, man. I thought, oh, maybe I'll do that. Blows my brain.

For someone who's still watching the, interview right now, we're listening to it. Drop a golden up in the comments so we know that you're a real, real one listening all the way until you end. So good to see you, man. And you do. Thank you for having me on, man, because again, you've been smashing it and the fact that, again, you'd even think it was a good idea to have you. It's a huge compliment. So I'd appreciate it, man. And you keep killing it as well, man, because again, I do have people within the space that I look up to as inspirations. And you're right up there, dude, for sure. Does this interview get a golden up? Dude, at course, it gets a super golden up. I would bring back the platinum up, but I retired that for Sting.

Fair enough. Yeah, I wanted to give something to Sting, so I gave him my stupid gift. Oh, man. Simon's just a fantastic guy. I love chatting with him, and I love seeing good things happen to good people. If you haven't done so already, subscribe to Simon's YouTube channel. It's just Simon Miller. Perhaps you will see a video where he goes to AVN.

We spent a lot of time talking about. his pursuit of making a video with Johnny Sins. I think it could happen and it would be hilarious if in one if in one it does. Snap a screenshot, tag us so we can share it out. He's at Simon Miller 316. I'm at Chris Van Fleet and we'll wrap this up with a quote from Robert Lewis Stevenson. Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. And since you're a real, real one and you're still listening right now all the way at the very end,

leave a golden up in the comments on Spotify. So I know that you're here with us right now. Just type golden up. You can even put a thumbs up emoji if you want, but leave that golden up in the comments section. And we will see you back here tomorrow for Ask CVV number 57. Leave your comments on Spotify with your questions. Leave them on social media with the hashtag Ask CVV. send me an email. CVV at chrisfanbleat.com.

We've got Nick. All this joining us on Tuesday. Ooh, it's such a good one. Be great. Be grateful. We'll see you back here tomorrow for some more insight. 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 Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. You're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of then?

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