Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Swerve Strickland Will Be The Next AEW Champion, Prince Nana's Dancing, Adam Page, Lucha Underground

Episode Date: November 28, 2023

Swerve Strickland (@swerveconfident) is a professional wrestler with AEW and is also known for his time in WWE's NXT and Lucha Underground. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Hollywood, CA to talk about his Texas Death Match with Adam Page at AEW Full Gear, the viral Prince Nana dance during his entrance, Swerve City Podcast, why he originally didn't like the song "Big Pressure" as his entrance theme, wanting to make history as the first black AEW World Champion, his time in Lucha Underground as Killshot, what he learning from his time in NXT, studying his matches with Shawn Michaels, how he balances music and wrestling, how he approaches wrestling like cinema and much more! Quote I'm thinking about: No amount of regret changes the past. No amount of anxiety changes the future. But any amount of gratitude changes the present. Sponsors: FITBOD: Get 25% off when you use the code INSIGHT at http://fitbod.me/INSIGHT ZBIOTICS: Get 15% off with the code CVV and have a better morning after you drink at http://zbiotics.com/cvv MYBOOKIE: Bet on WWE! Get up to $200 cash bonus when you use the code CVV and sign up at http://mybookie.ag BLUECHEW: Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com GHOSTBED: Get 40% of your purchase with the code CVV at http://ghostbed.com/cvv MIRACLE MADE: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to http://TryMiracle.com/CVV and use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at http://plunge.com BONCHARGE: Go to http://boncharge.com/CVV and use coupon code CVV to save 25% For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are go. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van, Believe. Oh my goodness. So good to see you. Welcome back to another one on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet. Thank you so much for being here.

And thank you for making Insight, one of the top wrestling podcasts in the world. And it's because of people like you who come back each and every week. So I appreciate you. Just got back from Survivor Series in Chicago. Man, what a night.

What a weekend in general. We've got a lot to talk about with that. That'll be on the next Ask CVV episode. But it was just so good to be able to meet a lot of you who said hi around the city or at the Allstate Arena. That's always so cool. It's always so cool because you record these in a vacuum. Like right now it's just me in a room. And then this interview with Spirv Strickland, that was just like the three of us,

it was me, him, and then an audio engineer. in a room. So it's cool knowing that on the other side of this mic and on the other side of the cameras, that there's people listening or watching on YouTube like you. If you're one of the 75% of people who, according to the analytics, just listen to this show, but don't follow the show, could I ask for a favor? Could you take a few seconds today to hit that follow button or subscribe button wherever you're listening? I mean, you've probably noticed the guests have been ramping up over the last six months or so. And it's because of the support from people like you that we're able to do this and we're

able to get bigger guests as the show continues to get bigger. So I appreciate you supporting the show. And I'm not saying support like so many other podcasters do when they mean like pay for their Patreon or pay for their membership. That's great for them if they do that. But that's not something we do. This is all free. the only thing I ask for in exchange is that you consider hitting that follow button.

I'm not even saying you need to hit the follow button. I'm just saying, please consider hitting the follow button. And speaking of the last six months or so, Swerve Strickland has really come into his own in the last half year or so in AEW. I mean, you take one look at that guy. He has star written all over him. And there's a good reason why he feels that he can be the next AEW. world champion.

And man, the depth that we've got the layers of this storyline that he's in right now with Adam Page, I think just really shows what he's capable of. So I say give swerve Strickland the ball and let him run with it. I should also point out we recorded this podcast the day before full gear. So we chat about the incredible Texas death match, but we don't get into like, you know, the nitty gritty of it because that's, point when we recorded it, it hadn't happened yet. And Swerve, by the way, is a fellow podcaster. He has a great show called Swerve City Podcast. Go check it out wherever you're listening to it and also

give him a follow as well, a free follow. Give him a free follow for the Swerve City podcast. And I'm actually going to be a guest on this show in the next month or so. So keep an eye out for me on Swerve's podcast, a little like roll reversal there. If you enjoy this, please share it with a friend who loves swerve strickland, who loves AEW, who just loves pro wrestling, and snap a screenshot, tag us so we can share it out as well. He's at Swerve Confident. I'm at Chris Van Vleet, and here we go. Enjoy this conversation with swerve Strickland.

Man, what happened to your voice? Oh, man, I'm shot. What happened? I'm shot, man. A lot of interviews. I did four interviews back to back in like an hour. Isn't it funny that when you, you're doing interviews like you're a little bit more hyped up you're like you're bringing the energy

and somehow that just like wrecks your voice it's it's like um especially like um getting off planes and environment changes and all that uh so i was like already an altitude low altitude and all those other stuff and then like having to go like um talk with enthusiasm yeah it's like when you're like having a regular conversation you're kind of low and you're like when you're around your friends. You're like, whatever. Yeah. When you're like doing an interview and you're getting interviewed, you want to give enthusiastic answers with energy and stuff like that. So like, I'm always giving everything I have to give the listener a good product. I don't know, the low end you have in your voice right now.

I feel like you should go in the recording studio. I feel like Tyler creator right now. You feel like you should. As soon as you're done, we're done here, you should head over to the studio. I need to record something. You really should. Do you normally do vocal warmups before you lay down a track. Now I've been doing that lately. Like when I've like I've been doing music four or five years. Yep. And like the first year I was just like playing around see if I can if I be good at it or if I have potential or if I would like it. Because like this sounds fun to make music when you're actually doing it. It's like, oh, this is a process. It can be tedious every little thing and you're spending hours and like days like trying to get one little thing right. I was like, am I going to enjoy that process of it?

So I was like taking the first year, like really understanding that process. And then after a while I was like, oh, I know my voice. I know my vocal cords. I know my muscles. I know where to sound at what point when to influct and when to do this. And so like all that stuff was like, all that stuff was like became the fun part of it. But it can be taxing, though. But I still enjoy it, though.

But what made you realize, like, yeah, this is something I could do? Because everybody has a relationship with music. Everybody listens to music. Not everybody wants to make music. I grew up listening to it. Like, it was in my, I wouldn't say it's in my blood, but, like, I just grew up attached to music. And I didn't know what my attachment really was. And I didn't know if I even belonged to any.

But my parents played every CD. You could imagine, we lived in Germany at the time. So I had this huge CD collection. My mom had the R&Bs and all that stuff. And then my dad had vinyl, played records and stuff. So I was just like, I wasn't attached to it, but nobody was like a musician in my family. So it wasn't until like later, actually like right before the pandemic. My co-host, the Swarcity podcast, Montesey, he put me on to like, hey, dude, I think you can actually do this because we have these hip-hop music conversations.

You sound like you kind of know what you're talking about. I was like, I don't know. I just listen to a lot of podcasts, a lot of musicians that I like. and they was like, no, you talk like you actually kind of have an intuition on what you're doing. So I was like, okay, so I'm in the studio. We put this song together. It was trash.

I threw it out. Nobody's ever going to hear it. Like, I even bought the beat. And I was like, nope, I didn't, nope. It couldn't be that bad. It was just wasn't, it didn't sound like, I wasn't confident in it. And I wasn't comfortable with it.

Then we came back again and wrote Broke Boys with a big swole was on the song too. And we, like, you got, pretty well received. So I was like, okay, I think I got the bug now. I want to try this kind of song with like more rapping, more of it, the more of this, I want to put more of this on it. And it's just snowballed into actually making an album with Matizzi, Swarft City. And then we're like, okay, we need to get our own producer.

So we got in-house music, like coming strictly specifically from one guy. So we got brought Rich Lada in, who does a lot of the music on the AW's, the albums and the video games. So we brought him in. He was a friend of Tizi. And we were like, altogether he would bring his laptop to the house in Orlando from Tampa.

And we would all just work together during this 2020 and the pandemic. So that's where our second album came from. And then the third album was like, okay, I want to reach out to other producers. And like, everything was just leveling up. Like, I want more features. I want like, like real name features.

Like we had like other guys that are like, on the second time, we had guys from, like, the UK and, like, other, like, Mickey Fax stepped in and helped us out with some features. I was, like, the third album, I went, like, Music Soulchild. It was, like, one of the greatest R&B singers of all time. I was like, we can't get them? And we sure enough got them, man. So we got them. And we got, like, Grammy Award winners and stuff like that in our projects and our producing and stuff.

And that's where our third album came from. And then the music videos, like, progressively got more and more expensive. And the quality grew. It wasn't just, like, three guys walking around with a camera anymore. It was like, no, we have a set. We have, like, three, four cameras. We have, like, then we moved on to, like, now I just did my first solo project. You couldn't be me.

That came out in May. We just dropped the two music videos at Russell Dream. Like, the weekend of Russell Dream, I dropped two back-to-back music videos, which one was work kit and the next one was these dreams had flatbush zombies juice on there and Anthony King as features in Montesey and that was like shot in the church in Atlanta and they used to shoot the Walking Dead episodes in there. So we progressively moved up more and more and then the director's prophet who has Grammy wins with Kanye. So like everything just constantly pushed the bar more and more and that's where the fun, it felt like my first.

indie wrestling. Yeah. In music again. I was like, okay, I got to do more. How do I do the next? What's the next thing? So it just became a huge thing. I want to take it back to you living in Germany. What kind of music we were listening to? Oh, like American. I was growing up in the 90s. So my dad was a big Tupac fan, played Tupac all the time. My mom was an escape fan. And I played like that, like, in the funny thing I grew up listening to, which a lot of people don't really like have any more soundtracks.

Oh, yeah. To movies. Those aren't like a big thing anymore. Like you'll have, you'll have like, um, uh, like the Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse. Yeah. Like soundtrack and you have like Metro booming and you have J-I-Ds and you have a freaking race remembered on there. You got those guys.

And then like, I think one of the, another big prominent soundtracks lately was, uh, the Black Panther one, Kendrick produced. Yep. But you don't really see like a nutty professor soundtrack. with Aaliyah and Timbalin on. You know, you don't see those anymore. So I think, like, that's where I really, like, because I'm a big movie guy.

So, like, sound like my dad was music. And I was a big movie kid watching everything under the sun, regardless of the age restriction. I was watching it. And, like, hearing music. And then on the movies and visuals, there's something about that to me, like visuals of music. Like, remember how big Gangsters Paradise was?

It was major. Like, because of the movie and the tie in there and that blew up. Yeah. Yeah, dangerous minds. Yeah. Yeah. Like, and that's what kind of amplified the movie.

Yeah. In a sense, which amplified the record. Yeah. You know, and that was like big, that was really big to me. A lot of those music videos, and then the music videos, they look like horror movies, too. It was like, this kind of deep and dark a little bit. Yeah. Like, I remember, like, McAvelli music videos were, like, really dark.

And, like, the cinematography was crazy on those areas. So I grew up with all those things, like the visual, the visual artists, you know, like Missy Elliott became like one of the greatest visual artists of all time. Absolutely. You know, so, and like, but it was just those soundtracks, I think that I really attached to. You're obviously, obviously very passionate about music.

Obviously, very passionate about wrestling, too. It can never be 50-50. So how does that balance work for you? Working with my manager, A.B., he found ways of, like, like kind of like doing activations with it. One kind of helps the other and the other helps the other in the sense. You know,

it has to make sense of everything too. And when people like kind of force everything or like, we're going to do this and put it in this match. I'm like, well, that doesn't really fit. You're just, that's forcing it. And people are kind of going to reject it in a sense. And you're kind of like, if you're not careful,

one can kind of like be very, disrespectful to the other art. Sure. And you don't want to, one, like, oh, I'm taking advantage of this art by doing this. You know, it's like, oh, that's not really authentic. And I think that's truly

what it is, finding the authenticity and balance in it. And just, for me, scheduling-wise, I just, sometimes I lose a lot of sleep. Sometimes I'll not be home. I'll take an extra day. day or extra two days or I miss something you got to sacrifice something to really balance both

to be efficient in both and to then to excel in both you got to do more you got to like it's a lot of like um because I'm pretty sure you like definitely you go jump into a lot of different avenues not just this you know like working with this working with this and there's balance but you also know you got to sacrifice something in order to be efficient or proficient in both categories, you know, and that's, and that's tough. That's the tough part. You're the first person I've talked to where you're like, as we record this right now, you got Rampage tonight and we got full gear tomorrow. Most people are flying out right after full gear. You're like, no, man, I'm like, you're staying until Tuesday. I'm like, you're staying until Tuesday. Yeah. You must love L.A.

I love it. I love it. It's like my, probably my favorite city, that in Seattle. And, but I live in Florida, which I love Florida, but like, I love the hustle and bustle of L.A. Yeah. I love like, just like hitting up the phone, hitting up the phone or getting a text and like, this is going down or we're doing this or like, hey, I know somebody you need to meet here. So like,

oh, change the plans. I'm going over here and like going to Hollywood. I'm going over here. Elsinor, I'm like traveling across and like, and I'm always just falling into something. And the networking is just like really,

it's exhilarating to me. I think the thing that's so exciting about L.A. and Hollywood specifically is everybody that's here is here for a purpose. Yeah, I was sold that. Everybody has moved here. Most people have moved here for something. They're chasing after something.

So, like, there's a real drive here that I feel like you don't find in a lot of other cities. It's true. Like, I used to think that I was New York. Because I was an East Coast guy growing up. So I used to think New York was that place, which is, it is. But I feel like L.A. is like, that's, like, that's the true definition of what that is. Yeah. city is. And I remember being let go after my, from WWE and I was spending my 90 days. I spent

like 14 of them in LA. I just like gather my money and got Airbnb. I knew one contact. I went to him and he had a bunch of contacts. All of them didn't hit. Some of them didn't respond back. But the ones that did really trajectory me forward. And that's where I was like, oh, okay, this is how this works. And I just got a huge game play. land and a map of how to truly navigate the city and do it well without falling in the pitfalls and setting yourself back. And that's, I feel like that might be the key to this thing is just like knowing the right people rather than just talking to anybody, whoever will listen.

And if you're like moving over here, that's way harder. I can imagine I was like lucky enough to like I have like, I can like just visit and go back home if it doesn't work out and stuff. but like people who like just like uproot their whole life and with very little as a safety blanket or backup plan to just go here. That's that's balls. That's crazy. Well, the problem is a lot of people will move here from the Midwest or the East Coast or whatever. And they'll move here and they'll be like, I live in L.A. now.

And then they don't start grinding. Right. L.A. was the goal. I live in L.A. now. All my friends back in the Midwest can't believe I live in L.A. It's like, yeah, no, this is step one in the journey. Yeah. Now you need to go to work.

Yeah, but barely even step one. It was like, for me, I wouldn't even move to L.A. without knowing one person, at least one person that's like a key connect to different avenues. It doesn't have to be the top guy, but you just need to have somebody that can at least like, boom, boom, boom, boom. But it's like doing it like just cold, like just raw, nothing. That's, it's risky and it's scary. A lot of people that who have made it from doing that, I applaud you, like, sincerely. This episode is brought to you by Bon Charge, and I have been loving their infrared sauna blanket.

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This deal is hot. Go to bondcharge.com slash CVV to save over $170 this holiday season on that infrared sauna blanket. So what are you doing here for the next few days in LA without AEW? Oh, man. Well, for one, healing from a Texas death match. Which has not occurred yet as we record this. No. The episode will be out and the match will have happened.

I'm sure it was gruesome. Right now I'm already mentally preparing for it. It's like getting your body pierced with whatever is going to be. Yeah. Like you got to kind of go outer body experience the night before. Like I'm already saying this is the night before the show. Yeah. Tomorrow, I'm already going to know I'm going to be like just zoned in.

Adam Page is a little crazy too. And he's a physically imposing person. If you know, I haven't seen him a person. Like he's a physically imposing dude who has experience with it. I do too. But I got to go back into that mode. It's been years, you know, so. But as far as what I'm doing, I'm definitely going to the L.A. Rams game.

Hell yeah. How do you become a Rams fan? Watching the greatest show on. surf, 2001, 2002. LA Rams won in the, no, actually 2000, 2000, the Rams won in the Super Bowl. Did you remain a Rams fan when they went to St. Louis? Oh, yeah, yeah.

They were still St. Louis at the time. And I had to learn later that, oh, they were in L.A. before. Yeah. And now they were St. Louis, and they went going back to L.A. So I was like, oh, yeah. And it's like, L.A., one of my favorite cities. I'm like, I'm staying Rams through and through. So you're going to check out SOFi for the first time.

Very first time, and they're playing Seattle where I was born. There you go. The division rival and Seattle's on fire right now. I'm worried because Matt Stafford had a hurt hand, so they had to sign like Carson Wentz at quarterback. So I'm like, oh boy. But a real cool thing when the Rams won the Super Bowl against the Bengals like two years ago, I was in L.A.

I wasn't at the game, though, but I was in L.A. at a friend's party watching the game. In my Rams, Jersey, Aaron Donald, Jersey and stuff. They won. I was happy. Went back to my Airbnb. I was like laying down about to just take a rest. I was like,

oh, yes, we did it. Awesome. And then my buddy, Josh V., who's engaged to Nita Strauss who plays guitar for the Rams. He has me able to like, hey, man, your team won. That's so dope, though.

I was like, yeah, man, I'm here in L.A., which I got to want. He's like, well, you're here? I'm at the banquet right now with the team. I was like, what? He's like, I got an extra ticket. Come through it. I was like,

gathered all the clothes put the whole outfit I had just took it off right back on I getting the Uber just go like 20, 30 minutes and I'm in the banquet hall with the Rams like Sean McVey

up there talking like celebrating the Super Bowl and then like I was like oh man this has been cool man I'm like yeah I'm at a head out man I'm about to go back lay down it's like two in the morning at this time I'm heading out and I look over

I see like a VIP table. I'm like, is that Aaron Donald? And so I got to like shake hands and meet Aaron Donald while wearing his jersey the night he won the Super Bowl. It was really crazy. You've got the swagger, though, that if people weren't familiar with all the members of the team, I feel like they could be like, yeah, you're a safety, right? I'm like, yeah, yeah.

I read shirt in. Didn't get to, you know, suit up. I made practice squad. But like, like, I don't know. It was just really cool experience. And like, the dude, like, like Josh, my buddy, Josh, I'm like, yeah, Nita might get a ring just because she plays guitar, like, the, like, National Anthem on the guitar.

So, like, we might have a Super Bowl ring coming to that. So I'm like, I need to hit them up and check on them, see if that ever came, because that's, like, really cool. You have this perfect combination of, like, swagger and confidence mixed together that I feel like you could walk into any room and just absolutely own it. Man, I appreciate that. I don't know. Like, sometimes I just walk in oblivious and, like, just like, cool, awesome.

I have no idea what's going on, but I'm going to sit here and I just like, I don't know. I just try to be impressionable, but also approachable in the same sense. I don't know what it is. I just, I feel like there's something to just knowing who you are and what your value is as a person, not as a business person, but like I just as a person, you know. And I think that a lot of people who have, I've going through the industry, I see a lot of people that still have. I haven't figured that out yet. As much as they've been doing on in their career, they still haven't figured out who they are as a person, you know.

How did you figure out who you are as a performer? As a performer, as a person. Let's go with as, well, we'll say swerve strickland, but you've been many versions of you as a professional wrestler. As a person, being a father, helps me understand who I am. As my girls, like, because you learn patience. and you learn understanding, and you're going to learn how to, like,

truly listen and take yourself out of situations because you have two beings that you have to care for, and you have to, they have to learn from you. And they have to, and they learn by watching what you do and how you are and how you act, how your temperament is.

Like, how do you fix problems? How do you solve? How do you come to an understanding, but also how do you lead? And as a father with girl, Like, that's where I really became comfortable with who I am as a person, you know. And as they age 14 and 11 years old, like, it's become more important because now they're becoming adults. Yeah.

You know, and... I'm a girl dad as well. Yeah. She's five months old, so I'm not dealing with the same stuff you are. Oh, it becomes fun. It becomes fun. But it's, I have, like, I have so much fun with them. Like, I have more fun with them than they're having fun.

I think so. I go, we went kayaking this summer, you know, and I could just, like, it's really cool to, like, load up the car, we're going, and it's just me and my girls. Yeah. And I know, there's nobody else. It's just me and them. Yeah. And, like, then I, like, we get back, and then we get snacks, we pop popcorn. We watch horror movies because they're both lunatics, so they love horror movies. They don't want to watch Disney.

They don't want to watch any, like, Nickelodeon, any of this. They just want to watch horror. And they want to throw out insidious. and watch, like, they want to throw on it. And, like, they want to go in. I'm like, all right, watch it. And I'll just fall asleep in my girls' laps and stuff. It's, like, really cool.

And then I can watch and play, like, the Last of Us, which they'll beat the games. It's awesome. As a professional, as being swirled, struggling, failing. It was really, really helped me with that, like, losing, and then, like, knowing that I can get back up, I know, like, this isn't the lowest I can go.

I know that, like, okay, I lost, I took a hit, but I'm not fazed by that. And I can come back the next day and look in the eye and be like, yeah, I failed. That didn't work. What can I do with this failure, though? How do I turn this into a tool

to build off of to really create something special later or to really create something just abstract and new that nobody else is really doing? And how do I put myself in it? And that's where Swerve really started becoming something. And also for me, playing on people's strengths, instead of trying to expose people's weaknesses,

that happens a lot in wrestling. And we'll see things like, why didn't this really take off? Because there was too much trying to, like, uplift their weaknesses instead of just utilize people's strengths or put them in strong positions, instead of trying to like,

oh, we can correct this as we're going. Like, no, no, don't I try to correct as you're growing. You know, you correct off screen. Yeah. When you're on screen, you utilize your strengths and you build off of that. Yeah. You know? This version of you in AEW feels like the most authentic version of you that we've seen.

Like, I just feel like everything that happened before led up to you being who you are right now. For sure, for sure. Man, it just, it literally became like. I don't think too much anymore. They were like, hey, how are you going to look to this? I'm like, I don't know. And then I'm five minutes before going through the curtain. Or I'll like make someone laugh, like Bingana laugh, tell a joke.

Or like even when I was tagging with Keith Lee at the time, I would riff a joke to him and then have them cackling. And then the song would hit. And they were like, all right, see you out there. You know, just because like then you felt that energy. coming out to the curtain because you felt like it was genuine like us just having a good time

and then going out to the curtain now you're seeing us carry the energy through you know and then like there's times we're like I love improvving in the ring I love improvving on the entrance I love improvving in music I love improvving on the podcast like oh that wasn't a question

we were supposed to ask like I know it just popped up because it was just flowing and stuff And that's where I feel like people have become like, oh, this is the most genuine me because, like, a lot of times I have no idea what I'm about to do. Like, I have no idea what I was about to do

with Brian Danielson. I was like, okay. Well, that worked out well. Right. But it's like, but that becomes, like, I think that people truly, like, gravitate towards that so much. Everybody is gravitating towards your entrance right now.

And there's so many components of it. Yeah. Let's start with the music. Yeah. Why were you not feeling big pressure? Um, because it, it, it just wasn't, um, swerve, swirv. Yeah, it was, it was, it was new. It was like, um, and Flash is so, Flash garments.

He was like, helping write it. And we were just like, that was the first time I like, literally freest out of verse. Like, nothing written. He was just like, all right, now maybe you go somewhere like this with it. Now change the cadence up. Now I think you, like, add a bounce to it. Now he's like, turn the energy up here. This is where, like, and this is a guy who writes with Kanye and, like,

gets in writing rooms with Travis Scott and stuff like that. So I'm like, okay, I'm just going to listen. So I was just like being just, I was just going with it. And I'm like, this isn't a song I would usually make on my own. But I was trusting the process and it worked. So at first I was just like, I don't know. Like the producer liked it. He liked it.

I was just like, this isn't usually my thing. But then I just naturally grew with the track after a while. And then we vamped up to like a metal version and like more guitars and stuff. when the mogul affiliates transition happened, and we kind of went off at that a little more, and then slowed down the BPMs a little bit more. Like, it was a good transition. Then Nana came in, and at nine, I was just like,

at first, like, you'll see the first couple of entrances. We actually looked at this yesterday. They YouTube did it and showed, like, this is the first time you came out, and Nana started actually dancing. Yeah. But he was just, like, waving with it. And he was doing like that.

And then, and that's when we had them all of, like, Toa and Tola Leonin Khan and Brian Cage right there. Then it went to just me at Nana, and Nana started just like, bow, bow, hitting harder. And they started jumping up. And then I was like, oh, wow. And then the TikTok started rolling.

And then the crowd started waving side to side with it. And then I think Seattle was what really took it over the top. Yeah, he went viral pretty quickly. Yeah. But the song was out for a year, almost a year and a half at that time. But not, I just, once again, adding a visual with a sound and putting it together, it amplified so much more. When you first saw him doing that dance, because the juxtaposition of him doing this dance and you being so serious, I think it works really well. Yeah.

But when you see him out of the corner of your eye doing this dance for the first time, what are you thinking? The first time I didn't even see it. I just like, because I'm looking at the crowd, I'm looking at the people. I'm gauging who's the hot sections to really. like engaged during a match or whatever. I love that. So that's where I'm like kind of like paying attention to. Who's waving?

Who's that? Sometimes I'll stop and just look at them and wait for them to react back because it's like, is he looking at me? He's looking at me. And then they start getting a little louder and stuff. And I'm not giving them attention back. I'm just like, I'm just surveying. See if I can get something out of them just from looking at them, which was a Randy

Orton lesson I got a while ago. That's amazing because a lot of people look at a crowd as a match. just a bunch of people. Right. You're looking at them as individual faces. Yeah. That's not a common thing. Because everything slowed down to me.

I slow it down. Because a lot of people want to amp up before they go out. I'm like, no, I want to be calm and cool. I want to know every little thing that's going on. I want to know that child wearing that shirt, this kid with that fan, that grown man who is bouncing with the song, that kid who's sitting down. I haven't got him yet.

That lady who's like eating. something. Like, I want to see every single little thing. There's like bullet time in the Matrix. It's literally, I'm reading numbers, and I know that camera's over here. I know that camera's here. I got two minutes. I'm hearing the referee. I'm hearing this. And then, like, I hit to this point. And then, like, I have to have all my senses, like, on-tack and knowing, like, how to be in control of all that. When I slow it down, I got puppet strings and I'm moving everything, you know? So when did you start noticing?

Nana doing the dance? When I watch it back on Twitter and then people are like really like really making traction and re-train. It's viral. Yeah, I was like, oh man, this is funny. Like the one time like when I had the match with Hangman in Russell Dream, I like did the

stomp on the apron and I like sold it into the guardrail and then Nana just zooms past me doing this really fast. I didn't know that happened until I watched it back and then that became a thing. And I was like, that's hilarious. I couldn't tell him to do that. There's no way I could tell him I do this.

And then like you make sure you do this. I like, there's no way. And that's one of the things are like, he's so loose, because I'm so loose. I'm so loose and he's so loose. If I was so uptight and it like so like overproducing and you need to be here, I want this. And don't do this because like that's not what managers do.

That's not what heals and bad people do. I'm like, no, who are you as a person? That's going to bleed through no matter what. People are going to understand what you are, who you are, your motive, your feelings towards this, your purpose. If you just be the person, you are. And that's what I'm like, just be. The United States Soccer Federation presents the U.S. Soccer Podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Klinembourg.

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 stake their claim, 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 pressures, but we're just really excited just as the people are.

The U.S. Soccer podcast, presented by Henko. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. There's something very cinematic, I think, about your entrance, about the way that you move. You almost have this aura of like the final boss or something like that. Yeah, yeah. Where does that come from? I'm a Wesley Snipes fan

when I was doing NXT and really dipping into like coloring my hair the grill came in it was really like a from watching Demolition Man

and the Simon Phoenix character and there's just jubilant character this dude is like a psychopath vicious and like brutal like destroying a peaceful society you're taking like somebody from the 90s and putting him in like

a peaceful utopia in 2000 and 80, 90 and stuff, where, like, cursing is a fine and stuff, and you're taking someone who's, like, a drug dealer, maniac, psychopath, like, a dude who's, like,

mastermind, then you're, then you're equipping his mind with combat. And, like, high class, like, killing traits. You're throwing him in a, in a clean environment. He stands out right away. with blonde hair and stuff like that.

And I'm like, oh man, this is a villain that is so entertaining. And like, like, he's doing bad things, but I want to see him. I can't wait to like, oh, okay, we're going back to the exposition. We're seeing like Sylvester Stallone and Sandra Bullock and the cops and Bill Cobbs and all these guys. Like, okay, how do we stop this guy out of y'all? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's cool. But I want to see him again. Yeah, like, let's get back to him.

Oh, he went to the sewer. What's he doing now there? And then they go away and like, okay, cool, I want to see him again. What's he doing? Like, you can't wait to see the next thing that the bad guy does. Like, he led to rest in peace with Dark Night. You want to see him again. You just can't help but want to see him on camera again.

You can't take your eyes off him. Heath Ledger's a perfect example in that movie. Right. You just have to see him. And then Wesley Simpson, New Jack City was another guy. It was villain, awful, like ruining the projects, drug dealing, killing his friends and stuff, whoever. Anybody crossed him, he killed women.

It didn't matter. Like, as long as he got what he wanted, you know, I was like, that's the, For me, that was the mature growth of the NXT version of me of a Simon Phoenix. And what made him even more terrifying, he's real. I think that's what makes, like, real fear. Like, someone that's an actual person that can, like, nobody's safe in his world. And his, like, in his whacked out mind to getting what he wants,

everybody's on the table. There's no like in like, oh, watching a wrestling show. Oh, yeah, yeah. There's Serena. They're in, they're in Perkipsi this week in this arena and he's doing bad guys stuff. Yeah, but your wife and kids are in Virginia. Like, what's stopping me from getting to your wife and kids? You know, what's stopping me from going outside your window?

You know, what can you do? To me, that's real fear. Like, Undertaker's, uh, was the undead personified on screen and stuff. But to a large sample of the audience as we gotten older, because in the 90s it was like, it was cutting edge. And even 2000s, he went American badass.

And back to the dead man later on, we knew it was like still a show. You know, to me, just like, that was the maturity of media and wrestling. And the fans, the fans grew up. The fans grew up and we realized we're just, we're going to a show and seeing a show. But like, okay, how do I make the show reach out to people internally?

Oh, talking to a child on a crib with a father not home. Just the idea of that is like, as a father, idea of that is just like chilling. Sure. It's like, I'm helpless. I can't do anything. That's real fear to me. And that's how you revolutionize.

heal and villain and bad and evil because I'm a real person that can actually do these real things. There's been home invasion angles in the past and I feel like they're all, like the line is, it's very thin, right? Like you can step over that line and it can be, it can be perceived in a bad way very quickly. Right. How do you manage that? How do you balance that? letting the people's imagination run wild by not showing it. It's almost like Blair Witch Project was so ahead of his time because you didn't see the ghosts. You didn't see, they didn't show you anything.

Same with jaws. Jaws, like the idea of just going to the water is now a fear of, and it causes a lot of anxiety to a lot of people going to the beach now. And there's nothing out there. But the idea of something could be out there is your imagination. You're letting the viewer really take hold.

Like paranormal activity, the first couple was like the idea of something bumping and swaying. You have no control of your life. You can't know, like, no matter like, it's not the house. It's the person. It's haunted. You can't control that. Yeah. And then the boyfriend trying to like, like, I'm going to handle this because I'm the man of the house.

I'm going to like protect you. No, you can't. We have to do these things. I'm like, no, but I'm going to take care of the problem. You're helpless. You can't do anything. That's a real fear of men. And like, that's just like taking a paranormal viewing of it.

But real fear is like not having control of your own life and your own situations. Is there something you learned from Sean Michaels in NXT that you've carried with you to be the character you are now? I would have like, like, hour-long tape studies with them. Like, close the door. Boom. It's me and him watching old indie. stuff. Wow.

He wanted to see, like, okay, what got you here? What made us sign you? Show me that. Because, like, you're doing well right now. And, like, I see what you're doing. But I want to know what got you here. What made you be the signing, you know? And so we went back to that.

He was like, we watched, like, some PCW matches. We watched some Defi stuff. And he was just, like, watching. He was like, boom. He was, like, more, like, analyzing. He was, like, really paying attention to, like, my pacing and how I move and then who I was. And then he was like, I see what kind of performer you are.

We're not really putting you in the position to be the true performer you are. Now I see it. And that's where he started having creative meetings with Triple H when they were like writing TV for the next week or so. It was like, then he would be texting me on the side like, all right, Trips wants to see this out of you, this come and match with Bronson Reed. I was like, oh, that's it? I can do that.

and then next thing you know smash boom boom boom we have the match come to the back Sean's like taking me aside like that's what I'm talking about we're for you. Let's show this motherfuss. And I was like so I was like everybody like yeah yeah yeah

how do you even get into position like that like you know he's not doing tape study with everybody. I so it was that was a process of like frustration. It came from frustration like a lot of those like moments Matt Bloom

brought me into the office with Canyon at the time, and I was getting a promotion. I was going up and paying stuff. But early on that week, here's the frustrating parts of this. So when WWU and NXT is like promoting this and doing this and this, that, that, and like you're tweeting, supporting everything,

like, oh, this is coming to the peacock. Yeah, we're doing this. Retweet it. Hey, this is the new show coming out, and yada yada and we have this promote it, tweet it, yada, yada, yeah, yeah, mass tweets and stuff like that. But then like, when you, like,

they'll say nothing, whatever, you're like, okay, you're doing your job. But when you say something like, unappreciated tweet, no context, just, you just tweet unappreciated. Yeah. They call you, I'm like,

Amen, we see you tweet out unappreciated. What's that all about? But you miss all the other stuff that I did. You didn't see anything about me, like that, that, that, that, two minute promo video I put out. Nobody's like mentioned, but you'll see that though.

So that was one of the things I brought up in the meeting. I was like, well, exactly what I say. I feel unappreciated. I feel like I can do more and I think y'all know that I can do more. Like in the canyon was right there, the guy who can like hire me and fire me at any point.

And I was like, well, yeah, I have a year left here on my contract. And like, I would love to make something, make an important impact. on that time, you know, because I'm not, I have options. I can do, I can go anywhere.

That's like me, like, laying that out to him. I was like, oh, I want to be in Sean Michael's class. He's like, oh, he's not really having a class right now. He's doing this. He's going to write in TV, so he's not really hands on with them. I'm like, well, can I like, like, do, like watch tape with him or something? Like, my office is right over there. Like, okay.

And then went over. I was like, hey, Sean, can I have time with you? He's like, yeah, absolutely. Here's my email. Send me three matches. This is what watch him. Wow. I was like, and then that's the crazy thing about a system like that.

It's like, oh, I could have just went to his office. I said, I have to do these mind games of like, change my hair. Let me do this. Let me say some wild stuff for it. Like, let me do this. I'm going to get their attention. Or you could just go, knock on his door. Who's like right there.

You see if we walk past it every day and stuff like that. And that's like this wild, like it can all be so simple. especially if you're already performing well. Like if I understand like you got to pick your spots too and like you got to earn the equity in order to be able to do that. And by that time I was already doing like the NXT like the takeovers and like the worlds collides. I was already being on everything in weekly TV.

But I always told Triple H at the time. I was like, I was first two months there, I was like, hey, thank you. I appreciate everything that you're giving me. And I'm happy to be here. What can I do to be one of your guys? And three months later, hey, I appreciate everything. Thank you.

Like, this has been awesome experience. Appreciate you having me here. What would I have to do to be one of those guys? Three months after that, like a year now, I'm like, what's stopping me for you making me one of your guys? Now it's like, I'm putting the pressure. on him because like now the equity has grown now he knows um I'm serious I know what I have to offer and stuff like that may be like I don't know that may be like it could be just ticking as a

disrespectful like you don't know what you're talking about you're not seeing me here but that's those risks I got to take you know like give me the chance to fail are you now doing that with Tony Con and AEW. How can I be one of your guys? I think me and him had so much more. I've had way more conversation with Tony than I've ever did with Triple H. Even with Sean, that came at the last end of my NXT,

and then I was like called up stuff. But I had those conversations. I was not going to allow me to have those conversations late with Tony. I want to get right to it at the beginning. This is what I do. This is what I can offer. This is what I want to be. Boom.

But once again, I had to earn the equity to be able to, like, back up those words, you know? And I always made sure, like, that's where my style has changed so much in a way that just complements the match, not me. It complements the match. And you know. And you put it out there. You want to be a E.W. champion.

Yeah. Yeah. Like, I put it out there. I was like, I wanted to, like, in the storyline arc, I wanted to, like, if I had an opportunity as a hangman did, I would be the first black AW world champion. It's just pointing out that, like, I could make history. That's how much, that's where I see myself as a history maker, you know, and I truly believe I can.

And now the, the talk is getting louder weekly. It is. And like, like this past Wednesday, I didn't even say anything. And people are still shouting it even louder. I just emoted and stuff and reacted to someone like, like, saying really horrible things. and speaking the truth about me kind of flipping the mirror back to me from a hangman

and like the cool thing about the inverse of that is like how we started me and hangman started it was me berating him for like five to six minutes which started this whole thing and now was flipped back to like I'm being a berated I don't get a word in but he's taking the opportunity to do this where the hangman was just like

man I'm being like it's like a therapy session like I shouldn't say anything back. You know, I'm just going to walk away. Me, I was like, no, you're not saying anything. I'm taking this. You've been talking enough back at me. And in a sense of like, him jumping Nana and the end of that and I can't touch him because I'll get suspended, I'm just helpless watching him hurt someone as he was helpless watching me go through his house. So, there's a lot of like just flipping scenarios. Yeah, the buildup's been incredible. Oh, thank you.

And that was just six minutes. I was like, well, how can we get as much feel in that six minutes? Yeah, people are really invested in this. Yeah. And that's a result of the buildup being so good, so personal, too. Right. And that was a lot of vulnerability shown in these last two months. Can you just imagine what the buildup would be if it was you versus MJF?

That's something for the fans to anticipate. I mean, they're already thinking about it. I love that. I love that. that we have the talk and people, it's not even, now it's not like, no way that can't happen or like, it's not like out of like the realm of like believability. Now they're like, oh, I'm frothing out of the mouth at this. Like what could we really see from that? This went from if Swerve becomes the champion to in the last few months to when Swerve becomes a champion. But I had to do that

work to get that too. Yeah. If you speak it out there, you have to deliver on it. You have to make people believe and that's what comes to with like just bringing good television not being afraid to be vulnerable not everybody like this like there was like this transition in wrestling and it went from the Indies

and international style to like coming onto American television where people think everybody has to be like these strong men everybody and women everybody has to be two forces beating each other whoever falls first

they lose and that's the winner. And I was like, that's okay, that's great performance. And we're going to enjoy that, but who do we invest in? Where's the drama and suspense to that? And I feel like that's where my strength really came from, finding someone to really feel something for, even if you like me, whether you hate me, hate my methods, or you think hangman is whiny or if he's like, oh man, this is a real person being vulnerable.

Like, all right, watch the character arc grow to like now this dominant force that found himself and ignited that fire to like the guy that like, um, who was like so confident in the beginning so well spoken. He's found his, he found who he is too and he's just beating down this guy to now it's like flipped upside down. other words like oh man i might have been bitten off more than i could chew well with texas death match he hasn't lost any of these oh now he's like he's not wearing the butterfly jeans anymore he's not wearing the stars and like he's not wearing top buns and stuff like that no he's hair down

wet hair like frothing at the mouth dark je dark leather dark t-shirts he's back this is like ghost rider i'm dealing with now and now like i'm a little like oh snap he's got momentum it's like we watching every day in football. Yeah. Like, oh, the momentum shift is happening. Oh, turnover. Oh, oh, oh, they're gaining momentum back. We were leading by 12.

Now we're only up by two. Yeah. Like, that's what we pay for. That's what since the dawn of time. That's what we've been watching. And we've been leaning away from that just to give off good performances, which you can do both. And I feel like my specialty is just giving the story in that park.

It's so good. And payoff for this is going to be incredible. I can't wait for that. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And that's all the reason they keep watching. And hopefully ratings. We increase that.

We increase ticket sales. And hopefully that really does well for our business industry-wide, because there's not an African-American really in this position that I am right now, industry-wide doing that, you know, at this level, I would say. Yeah, I guess Bobby Lash is the only other person I can think of. Really? Yeah. But, like, he's not getting singles matches on.

pay-per-views. And like, shout out Bobby Lashley, good friend of mine. Like, I want to see him do more. I want to see more from Tess and Dawkins. Shout out Carmelo Hayes, who's doing it. Hopefully gets the opportunity to do that on the main roster, too. His time is coming. But like,

and it's the support from everybody in the industry, like African-Americans, performers, like everywhere. Like, John Gresham, shout-in to him. Moose. Shout out, like Jade. Like, she gets opportunity. Bianca,

been doing it for the last two years. Shout to her killing it. As far as like right now in this moment, at the age, I'm like the only one at this high level between AWWWB on it. And I take,

I take that position really, really seriously. Moose and impact. Yeah, yeah. You're in a great spot. You first came on my radar in Lucha Underground. I'm a huge Lucho Underground.

Yes. and the work you did as Killshot. I think there's a lot of people actually that are watching this going, no way, Swerve was Killshot? Yeah, there's a big transformation now. Yeah. But there's still elements of that

that I've like took in with me in so many different ways. That was when it was like, I like to use like, you had to be there moments because you can't get those back anymore as a fan. Like watching it back on YouTube is cool,

but you're missing so much. There was something about being in the temple. I went there for a taping, and I don't know, it sat maybe 300 people. Yeah, like it grew up, I think of maxed out of seven, 700. So. When that was like, no seating. You weren't even sitting anymore. It's not far from here.

Boyle Heights, maybe 20 minutes from here. There was a grittiness to it. And also every single person there was a rabid fan. Yeah. And there was, it's an environment I've never been in before, and I've been to, you know, every type of show. That was the only wrestling promotion where the arena was part of the match. That's true. You can't get that anywhere else.

Like the arena was like the Dario Queto's office and going through that. The platform went Angelico made him a star like overnight. Yeah. I see an aerostar. Like you fall from the sky. Then like one of the coolest thing was a Milo Mertes sitting at the top of the thing of the throne and watching every match like Mortal Kombat, you know. Then weapons of mass destruction with me turning it into. like this military

drab arena you know there was like I'm like this feels like a video game we are a true video game character the women were just as powerful as the men you know like like the they're not tag teams

there were trios there was like there was like murders that were happening off camera like out of the ring there was sacrifice there was resurrections there was time traveling going on then there was like

another like God for came in, the actor Godfrey, comedian Godfrey came in and he was like, it was a fixed character in the show as a top boss that Dario answered to. Dario died in this father. It was like, man, you had to be there. And so many people came through Lucha Underground. When you look at the list of people who spent some time there and are now elsewhere, whether it's an AW-WW-W-E impact, I mean, the list is,

It's really big. At the time, we had the most unique roster in wrestling. Yeah. Like, man, women, team, like mass, luchadors, American, African American, Mexican, Australian, like, you name it. Like, Canadian. Like, they were on fire. And that's, like, that competition made me who I am, made me have to step up to find who I was as Killshot. as like everybody was such an

Aztec luchador or they had such finesse to them like I cannot springboard as good as freaking Aero Star. I can't like I wasn't as smooth as ricochet or Buma. Nobody is. Nobody is. You know, I couldn't you know, I didn't have the look that

John Morrison did. I didn't have like the size of cage. The size of cage, the strength of mill. Like I didn't have like the comedy that Willie Mac had and then I also didn't have like I would say like the the the the the the the the the the the moniker that the pentazzo me or meadow I didn't have that as kill shot so everybody

had something everybody had something and you had something so unique to you at that time but I had to find it and I had to be under I had to honestly be honest with myself I'm like I can't compete with those guys at what they do that what they're they're the best at doing yeah can't compete with that. So what can I offer that they can't? Well, militant. I actually was in the military. Okay. I'm actually a human, a real person. I'm not like a dragon or this or like a resurrected Phoenix. I'm not any of those things. So I'm human. I can die. I can get hurt. But I'm also a lethal human that can. I've actually killed people as the character. How do I? Okay. So, So now I started like, okay, now let's gather my tools.

Let's like really start like, it's like, okay, it's like rationing. Like, okay, I'm out in the middle of the woods. I don't have a tent. I don't have the RV. I don't have that. What do I have to survive? And I really started just finding ways to like, okay, gather this, gather this. And then I was prepared with Marty the Moth.

I was like, okay, I'm going to use his strengths. He's not an agile person. God is he entertaining and like, he has size. like that's that's something I could use and it was just using things that around me and my resources like everybody's so finesse let's just fight let's not do lucha everybody but we have the best luchadors

we can't out lucho the luchators it's just not going to happen but let's just fight let's just fight and like be brutal and that's when the weapons in the mass destruction match happened that's where I think that was the beginning of season three and that catapulted me and to be like,

okay, I'm on the radar now. And then my character created AR Fox or Dante Fox coming in. And now I was like, oh, that's my brother. We're going to go off. I know this man. And now we had a story with,

along with the action, and we had trust. And then that took me to the end of season three and we just cemented ourselves with hell of war because we were like, let's just fight. That's just fight.

And then that's what really made us stand down. out. I miss it. I wish it could come back. I've interviewed Robert Rodriguez and I'm just like, please. I never got to meet him. Oh, really? I worked for him. I never got to beat him. Please, sir, please. Oh, yeah, he came in, apparently, I came in in the second half of season one. He was showing up to the show in the first half of season one. So I, like, missed him, like, right there in that split of the season. So if you've got this very specific goal in wrestling, you want to be the first black AW champion, what's the specific goal you have in music? I never set one, and I still haven't set one. I just like, I accomplish one thing, and I organically want to see what I can do with that accomplishment

to build, to make the next accomplishment. And so I'm just like, I don't like, I also don't people like, I don't personally set goals. I, like, accomplish something, and I see what I can do with that as a tool to get the next thing that I'm looking for. Because a lot of people accomplish something, they sit on it, rest on it. And it's like, it's just a, all it is is just a trophy case in their room looking back.

I'm like, oh, man, I did that. I was like, okay, how do you monetize that now? How do we make money off of that? Yeah. How do we build that into an office? How do we take that and build that into a conglomeracy? How do we take that and build that into a podcast studio to get the bigger guests, like, and reach out and expand? And how do we expand off of just that?

And that's what I do in my music now. And that's what you're doing with your podcast too. Yeah. Like the guests you're getting on there. I think that people have this misconception of like, oh, a wrestler has a podcast. I'm sure they're talking to wrestlers all the time. Which we do. But you do.

And you have some great conversations with some of your colleagues. Yeah. But you also bring in people that you're just fascinated to learn from and share a conversation with. And as whoever's been subscribed and thank you for subscribing this long. Yeah. If you're watching this right now, subscribe to the Swartz City. Please support, man. I'm subscribed on both my channels.

Oh, yeah. So if you're like, if you've watched, you'll see how many parallels we have that are in common with wrestling too. It was like, oh, wow, that's right. That's why I feel the way I feel about this on the same way I feel about wrestling. Or like, like, it was funny we're having Lisa Ann on. She was like, oh, so you're hitting spots. Yeah. She's like, you're saying.

Eventually, yes. So there's like those funny conversations, but then you hear like Pat McAfee having like his mind for like once again taking something and monetizing it and blowing it up. And what can we do to grow and make it bigger? It's like, man, oh my God, your inspiration. I want to be just like that. That's what I want to do with my friends on my podcast.

I want to make it so I can put like $50,000 in a backpack and just give it to my friends. Like that's the dream of that kind of thing. And Pat McAfley accomplished that. So that's who I want to learn from. Yeah. That's when I want people to, like, inspire to want to be like that. Like, podcast doesn't have to be like in your house or in a studio or like, it can be this.

This is the grandiose vision of that. And maybe that's your goal. Maybe it's not, but it's a possibility. That's kind of the coolest thing about this medium is there's not a lot of rules. You know, a podcast could be six minutes long. It can be six hours long. Yeah. It can be in a studio.

It can be in a... It can be a small mic on the street. Yeah. Like, and it's breaking rules. Yeah. And restructuring what the law of this was for years. Yeah, and there's no gatekeeper, you know? Like, I came up in broadcasting.

That's my whole career has been broadcasting, but you needed to work for a network. You needed to work for ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, whatever, ESPN. Now you can just like, if you have a mic or if you have a phone, you can hit record and boom, you're podcast. The latest episode we dropped on a podcast was Atheon Crockett, who's, comedian works with the Wayne's brothers on like the haunted house movies and like been doing a comedy for like 30 years 40 years like tremendous. I grew up watching this guy and he's talking about like how the comedy world has done the same thing. Yes. Like comedians are drawing tickets off of their phones.

Like you're watching like 85 South those guys like DC Youngfly and Carlos Miller and those guys. They're touring from being on Wiling Out. Now they got their own thing just because they were sitting doing like bits on. And then like that. Now they sell out Madison Square Garden. Yeah. Like it's like just guys that just crack jokes on a podcast. Now they just put the couch on a stage and sell out arenas.

I'm like, that is mind-blowing. That is like incredible. Yeah. They tour. You know, like shout out. Those guys are incredibly talented. And then like you have like a king back. King Botch.

just like, grab the phone, did some jokes, did some skits that were relatable. Yeah. Now, the dudes cast in movies. Yeah. And you got people who are literally making like movie studios off of just because of their phone. Yeah, it used to be like an agent or a casting director or a studio had to see you and like you and put you in that spot. Yep. Now it's just about the people. The power is out of their hands.

Yeah, the power is now, it's in you, literally in your hands. And you're like making millionaires off of phones. Yeah. And the power is then in the audience's hands to double tap like a video, leave a comment. So like with that being said, it's like a double-edged sword too. Like the control is in your hands, but the work is in your hands too. Yeah. So like if you were ever saying like, man, this is not taking off, man.

I'm like, I'm giving up, man. I only got 600 subscribers. I only got 2,000 like followers on this, on this platform and all that stuff. I'm like, well, how much are you putting it? Are you putting 2,000 followers worth of work in? Are you putting $200,000 followers worth of work in? Yep. You know, like, are you got to be on overdrive?

You're going to drive. If you have a girlfriend, sorry, she's going to leave because you're on your phone so much. And or unless you understand your grind like that and really wants to help support it. Like, please bless to you. Yeah. But you, like, doing that much work and grinding that hard and really sacrificing, you're going to lose something in the sense. Yeah. And that's just the reality of it.

You don't get to this. Like, you don't get to this without losing something. Dude, I've really enjoyed this. Oh, yeah. Thank you, man. Appreciate it. I end every interview with the same question because gratitude is such a big part of my life. Amazing.

So I wake up every day. I say out loud three things I'm grateful for. I do it before I go to bed too. And that's the question I ask every guest. So what are three things in your life's word that you're grateful for right now? I am grateful for my children, first and foremost. I have the greatest kids in the world, never in trouble of school. When I visit, they're never a bad report.

They get whatever I can give. They get it because I don't have to be on the road worrying about them freaking out and being in bad health blessed with that. I'm truly blessed with my children. I'm blessed with my mind. I'm mentally healthy. Like, do I have bad days where I'm, like, getting a rut, of course. But my, I get out of those really quickly, and I'm back to, and it doesn't affect my work.

It doesn't affect my daily life. It doesn't affect my relationships. Like, I'm at a really good spot of controlling that and finding ways to, like, harvest that and really turning into something positive rather needing the, cope with alcohol and drugs and anything negative, like abusing myself, my physical, abusing somebody else.

None of that, I don't have an addictive bone in my body when it comes to that. So I'm really blessed to, like, my mental is, like, really great with that. And that comes from, like, the loved ones around me, and I'm blessed with my career.

So, like, those are, those are great. this has been great man I love the way that your mind works I love that it's not just a match to you it's about telling a story and then what's the backstory

behind that story and you do the same thing with music and you do the same thing with your podcast that's brilliant man I've kind of learned from every all all three of them like my podcast helped me

with my promos on camera which helped me with my cadences on music and like knowing how I sound and using that like every all of them helped so it's like I can't stop doing it

because I want to like pull from all the elements to make me. Yeah. You know? Well, I'm looking forward to coming on your show. Oh, yes.

The roles are going to be reversed here. So, you know, I appreciate the invitation. Absolutely. Oh, my God. I was thinking about this for like a year ago. What? Seriously.

Yeah. I was like, oh, man, I need to reach out. And congrats and shout out to you all your success, man, with the guys, the people,

the guys and girls that you bring on their show is inspiring to me. I'm like, oh, my God. Like, me and Tizi, I talk about it all the time. Like, oh, man, they got Margo Robbie on there.

I'm talking. I'm like, that's incredible. Like, because we're fans of all these guys that do this. Thanks, man. And I'm a huge wrestling fan, obviously, but I'm also very grateful to have the opportunities. I'm interviewing Adam Sandler tomorrow. Oh, my gosh. See, that's inspiring to us, man.

Yeah, that's huge. Like, next week, actually, we got DJ Who Kid. Dude. So we're going to Miami to get DJ Who Kid on there. That's great, man. He walked me out to Wembley, so he owes me this one. He owes me this one. but that's my guy.

So, you know, if you're listening to us now, keep an eye out for that episode of Swirp City. Yes, sir. And please subscribe. I'm assuming you're already subscribed here to my channel, but subscribe to Swirv and Swirf City podcast. Yes, sir. Thanks, bro.

Thank you, man. I appreciate you. I think 2024 is going to be a very, very interesting year for Swerve Strickland. I mean, if I was a betting man, and oftentimes I am at my bookie.orgie. And I use the promo code CVV to get that cash bonus. If you haven't done it, please do it right now.

And you can, yes, you can bet on wrestling on my bookie. If I was a betting man, which I am, I would say in 2024, it's a pretty good chance that Swerve Strickland is the AEW world champion. I feel like Maxwell Jacob Friedman, I'm calling my full name. I feel like MJF is going to hold this for a long time. But come double or nothing, this could be very interesting, especially if Swerve continued. use on the trajectory that he's currently on. Go check out his podcast, Swerve City podcast, and like I said, at the intro in the show, during the intro the show, you know what I mean. You're going to see me on there in the next month or so. So keep an eye out for that. And snap a

screenshot. Let us know that you're listening. Let us know what stood out for you the most here and tag us. He's at Swerve confident. I'm at Chris Van Fleet and I came across this on social media last week and I shared it. A lot of you guys, it meant a lot for a lot of of you guys. A lot of you had a lot of great comments and sent me messages about it. So I'll share it again here. You know, I'm all about gratitude, but I've never seen it summed up like this before. No amount of regret changes the past. No amount of anxiety changes the future. But any amount of gratitude changes the present. That is good. Be great. Be grateful. We will see you on the next one 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. They're a band from 1987.

Hammer Alley. Ever heard of them? To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Alley. Follow and listen on. your favorite platform.