Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Tama Tonga on his heat with Enzo, AEW, what Haku is really like, singles run in NJPW, Bullet Club

Episode Date: August 18, 2020

Tama Tonga chats with Chris Van Vliet from his home in Tampa, FL. He explains what happened with Enzo Amore and Big Cass at the G1 Summit at Madison Square Garden, he talks about why he is more upset with Ring of Honor than anyone else. He also discusses his run as a singles competitor in NJPW, why he shaved his beard, what Haku is like in real life, how the Bullet Club was formed, what the original name was going to be and more!  Please support the show by supporting our sponsors: DIRECTV NFL SUNDAY TICKET - Get 15% off your subscription this season at http://NFLSundayTicket.tv BETONLINE- Head to http://betonline.ag and use the promo code BLUEWIRE for your free welcome bonus! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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This is the Chris Van Vleet Show. Chris Van Vleet Show. Ladies and gentlemen. Chris! And here we go. Welcome back to another audio adventure on the Chris Van Vleet show. This episode is brought to you by DirecTV's NFL Sunday ticket and bet. online. And I had such a good time hanging out with Tomatanga. And I know you won't be able to

see him here. But as you're listening to this, just picture a baby face Tomatanga. And when I say baby face, I don't mean the wrestling term. I mean, he's completely clean shaven. Yeah, his beard is gone. Looks like a totally different human now. So just keep that in mind as this conversation goes on. Take a screenshot. Let us know that you're listening to this conversation. Tag us. I am at Chris Van Fleet. Tama is Tama underscore Tanga on Twitter. And if you're a regular listener to Thomas podcast, Thomas Island, and maybe you're stopping by the CVV Island,

apparently that's what I'm calling this right now. If you're stopping by here for the very first time, welcome. If you could take a second to subscribe, that's all I ask of you. That is the cost of admission, subscribing to the show. That would honestly mean so much to me. And if you're feeling extra kind, maybe take a few more seconds to leave a review. I read one on every single episode. It's my way to say, thank you for being part of this.

Thanks for being on this journey with me. This one's from Sam Devin in England. He titles this The Best Rasslin podcast out there. Only recently discovered this, but Chris, your podcast is amazing. What can I say? I'm hooked. Just working my way through the back catalog now. Keep up the good work, my friend.

Sam Devon in England. Well, thank you, Sam. And thanks for going through the back catalog. I feel like that's going to take you a while. There's, I don't know, 110 episodes or something at this point. But thank you. And thank you to everyone for listening each and every week. And thank you for letting your fellow wrestling fans know about the show.

And I always say that finding someone else who likes wrestling is like that scene in stepbrothers. You know, you have this like instant connection with them. You know the scene. Did we just become best friends? Yep. That's exactly what it's like with wrestling. Like, you see someone in the grocery store. Has this ever happened to you? You see someone in the grocery store wearing like a bullet club shirt or wearing some sort of wrestling shirt and you're just like, you just have this moment with them. Like a little smile, you know, when we weren't wearing masks at the grocery store, but like a little, just a little connect. You know, a little connection. You know what I'm talking about. All right. There is, that was a little tangent there. Yeah. All right. So. There's a lot to get into with this conversation with Tomatanga, if you couldn't already tell by the title of this episode. So we don't have time for these grocery store tangents that I just went on.

We dig way into what happened with that Enzo Amore situation, that big cast situation, why Tama was so mad, why this turned into this whole feud, why he's mostly mad at Ring of Honor, though. We get into a bunch of Bullet Club stuff, like how it was formed, the original name that honestly wasn't very good and rightfully so got shut down and replaced with Bullet Club. I'm happy they went with Bullet Club. Tom is also starting to venture into the world of being a singles competitor in New

Japan. So we talk about that and who he'd like to face and what Taku is really like. So let's get to it. This interview is too sweet with Tomatanga. Toma Tonga, ladies and gentlemen, it's so wild that I'm the one facial hair and you are not. Do you tell me the virus hadn't caught up to you yet, man? Well, apparently it's had the reverse effect on me. Like, I just stopped shaving. I don't know where you found the energy you want to shave.

That's true, man. Oh, my goodness. It's 2020. It's a hell of a year, man. It is. But, you know, but both you and I are making the best of every single day. That's right. That's right, man.

So what happened to the beard? You know, with everything happening so far, with 2020, the pandemic, being home all this time, I think I was just looking for a change. And I figured that was the change I was going to do. It was the shame of my fear. You know, you're looking more like the good, good guy right now. The baby face heel, huh? That's it. Oh, yeah, that's what we got here.

So thank you so much for, you know, taking the time to do this. It's exciting to see that New Japan is moving forward. And, you know, there's a lot of exciting stuff on the horizon with New Japan. Oh, for sure, man. Thank you for having me. And, you know, New Japan Cup USA is, well, it's underway right now. That's right. This is great.

It's an opportunity for fans here in America to see what New Japan is all about. I think some people have seen a taste here and there, but now they can really take in this full thing. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm excited, man. It's, you know, like we said a little earlier, this kind of 2020 is a little strange. But there's definitely, it's made some changes, made some progress. We're here in New Japan.

We're still trying to push forward no matter of the situation. And I think this New Japan Cup being out here in America is a nice start, a nice beginning for something, especially that need in JPW strong, you know. Yeah. Real exciting times. Is there any word on when you might be able to go to Japan? They said, you know, they sent us some couple days ago for like, for the Japan embassy. There's these paperwork that we've got to fill out about, in this information about quarantine.

So, you know, we haven't heard anything probably in the last three months. and to see that was like, okay, there's something here. So, you know, we're just trying to, I think, prepare just in case, you know, the travel ban is lifted quick and we can just go back. But there's a process of doing this. I think we're just trying to get that cleared out. So, no, there's no word. No official word.

No official word. I've got my fingers crossed the, I was planning to go to the Tokyo Dome show. Oh, hell yeah, man. Yeah. Worst case scenario, that would be the time we go head back is to you know, but let's not hope for worst case scenarios. One way or another, you know, you could still your level on a plane or something, a cargo plane. Right. I'm going.

You're making it happen one way or another. I think there still are, you know, unfortunately a lot of people here in the U.S. who haven't seen a ton of New Japan, or maybe they've just seen a few clips. here on YouTube or something like that. Yeah. What can they expect when they watch, you know, a full New Japan show? I think just our style is a different kind of style in wrestling.

I feel personally it's a more impactful style, different kind of storytelling. And it's like a mixture of the old Japanese style wrestling versus the new school. If, well, for those who don't know about the old school, it's more, uh, that's where the term strong style came from. And, uh, we,

we've incorporated that. We've evolved and, and put a little bit more of our new school style because of the, the new, you know, new guys, new, um, foreigners that, that mixed into the Japanese wrestling. So a little bit more, uh, man strong style I'll stick with strong style

and new school that's the I can see a little hard hitting storytelling um fast pace I would feel yeah I don't go with that

in a typical year where there isn't a you know worldwide pandemic how many how many weeks out of the 52 would you say you're spending in Japan oh shit

uh um let's just say 80% of the year I'm in Japan oh wow do you have a do you have a house there

no no you know there's some guys do but yeah Osprey was telling me he had a place there yeah he got a place there was

you know there's we get an option but I like when I made come cleans my room so I don't like to clean my room man I like fresh sheets

but you're there 80% of the time, that's, you know, nine or ten months that you're there. Right. Yeah, we were just talking about that with my family. I'm here visiting my family in Orlando, and we're talking about mom and dad. You know, my daughter was born at the beginning of this pandemic at the very beginning, at the first day when Florida shut down.

And I've been home to see her grow. Yeah. And I never had that. My son is two years old, and I missed out most of that first year. because I was on the road. So this has been a blessing in this guy. So yeah, just being here, I'm just taking it all in, enjoying it, because I know once we get going, it's a go, go, go time, you know.

What a silver lining, though. What a silver lining that you're there for your daughter and her first few months of life? Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's amazing. Yeah. So what have you been doing since March? a whole lot of squats at the house body squats hindoo squats uh not just trying to work out trying to stay fit

and and adjusting gyms are open there again yeah yeah the gyms are open um really just being with the family uh and taking that in that's that's been my main thing is just spending time with the kids and my wife and family and enjoying that uh trying to stay fit uh thinking of how to evolve as a wrestler, that's where the beard came off. You know, and, you know, I think once we go back,

there's got to be, I think, a new chapter. And as a, as a wrestler and also, trying to evolve and keep it fresh, you know, keep it reinventing.

Is this a new bullet club chapter? I think so. I think so. I believe so. You know, and, to stay at the front of mainstream and got to keep figuring out how to keep reinventing yourself and the group and rest and stuff. Definitely. A lot of time home to think all of this. So

time to put it to work, yeah. So with that said, when you're working on new stuff and you're trying out new ideas, how do you know when something's working or when you go, you know what? This was a terrible idea. You throw it at the, you know, I have social media. It's like, you know, I put it out there to see, you know, you just throw it at the wall, see if it sticks. And I see the old spaghetti model. Yeah, you know, so they like it. Okay, you nice check on it, you keep that, hold on to it,

and keep going, you know. But, yeah, the fan base, you throw things out. Luckily, we have social media, you know, to test these things out. Well, you know, some of it, you know, obviously the wrestling party that's going to be on the back burner for right now. more the image, the, just how to interact with fans. And we see it like that. At least that's how I see it for now.

Yeah, I guess in the world before social media, it was go out there and wait for a crowd reaction. Yeah. Now you've got a crowd reaction at your fingertips. Right. Finger tips, yeah. It's crazy times, man. Yeah, he's a while.

Well, I mean, you've stirred up some interesting stuff on social media. I mean, I feel like we could talk all day about, you know, some of these interesting things. I don't know where we start with this. I recently talked to Enzo Amore, who basically said... Oh, I did, man. You're like the fifth person to talk to me about this shit today. Well, you know, he's a friend of mine, and he's like, you know what?

If you want something to happen with me and Tomba, just pay me the money. Yeah, yeah. Hey, same year. Same year, man. Same here. Is this just business with him? It's just business. It's just business, you know?

That's the way I look at it. It's all business. I think, I think off the record, on the record, whatever. I think he's got a talent for the mic. I can't say that by his in-ring. But, hey, if he wants to give a go, let's go. If we take this back to Madison Square Garden, were you legitimately upset?

set that Cass and Enzo came in and did what they did? Oh, I was fucking pissed. I was very fucking pissed. Yeah, you know, I wasn't mad at them. I wasn't mad at, no. I was fucking pissed off at ROH. Yeah, for pulling a stunt like that in Nala in New Japan. This ain't your fucking show.

You don't, you don't disrespect us like that. You don't fucking, that's just pure disrespect to come on somebody else's show, not tell them what you're going to do and you just pull it off like it's your fucking show. So yeah, I was very fucking upset. But, you know, on the flip side... And you needed that belt at the wall. On the flip side, though, this worked.

Like, it got over. It was one of the most talked about things at WrestleMania weekend. Is that not a win in, you know, in some regard? There's the problem with that. There's a thing. People going to think that's okay to do. And you're going to keep pulling

stunts like that. That ain't, you know, Japan is, you know, understand our culture. The culture from there, the respect is a lot. And that should be held in high regard here in the United States too. Well, that's what happens. People think they can throw these kind of stunts. Disrespect is real. So you can't, come on now. Yeah. Come on now. It's interesting because when Enzo was telling me the story, I was like, really, nobody else knew except for, you know, like three people. He's like, no, seriously, man. Like, that was it.

It was legit. It ain't your fucking show. You think you booked, you think you sold out MSG? You think you think people came to watch ROA? You think people came to see y'all? You fucking kidding me? You don't fuck out of year. Yeah, fucking, a bunch of fucking amateurs, yo.

Come on here do business like that. fuck out of here how do they like if I just came up and just didn't tell anybody I was going to smack the shit out of a fuck somebody I'm going to slap shit out

you what are you going to do that's the problem you know with business out here with the wrestling business all these little jits they can do all this kind of stunts

pull these kind of stunts oh nah through business that business is all fucking shitty and there's only one one fucking promotion at the top

And you know how that promotion got to the top? Disrespected all the other promotions and stole all the other promotions and fucking took that shit to the top and held it up there. And anybody who tries to come up, they fucking squash them down. There's no respect in the game no more. Yeah. No respect. Yeah. You guys, you can't come on.

Look, look, I ain't mad at Enzo. Nah. And he knows that. But if he wants to go at it, yeah, I'll punk him too. Shit, you know, shit. That's just, that's what he doesn't understand. he's out here trying to grab mainstream voice by being disrespectful like that

the fact that you don't that you don't know how disrespectful disrespectful that is it's like boom to me like yeah and that's my piece on it sounds like maybe you should show up at one of Enzo's shows unannounced

and then actually like lay into him yeah the problem with that is nobody even come to that show oh wow I guess that's the end of this. Wow. Yeah. I do appreciate what you have going on with Simon Miller,

who's also a friend of mine. I think that he legitimately thought he was going to die that day. You know what? For a split second, I thought so too. But that was a man. Didn't quite go as we planned. What? He goes, I don't think that anyone told Haku that this was fake.

No, I told Haku. Let's put that on a goddamn record. I told him. I might have told him a little too early. I told him a week before. Maybe I forgot to read Iggy that right before I went down. Maybe I should have. But, boy, did that seem real.

And that's what we were shooting for, right? Man, that was legit. Yeah. Is Haku as crazy as everyone thinks he is? Yeah. Yeah. You know, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, uh, he's like, it's black and white with him.

It's night and day because he's the, he's the, he's the kindness, softest man. You ever know, you ever meet. He's very friendly. He's, he's, he's a loving man. It's a family man. But fuck. You switch that on him. You, you're wrong.

him in any way. You disrespect him in any way. You're going to see a side that you're just like, man, you never thought that could come out of man. You know, he'll take you out, man. Just like, I mean, I'm sure you've listened to all the wrestling stories. Yeah.

Yeah, that's true. Sounds like maybe you have a, you know, just a little bit of this in you. Yeah. Maybe. Perhaps. Maybe. your family tree is fascinating and I want to know I'm curious who

who is in your family tree with some distant relative that we may not be aware of in the wrestling world I mean uh shoot because I interviewed the Uso's and I basically just named everyone who might be Simone and they're like

oh yeah that's my uncle like everyone was their uncle yeah see I can't really say to some ones who were in the game way before my you know the tongans were my father was the first tongen

to come into the wrestling game so we don't have a tree like that like they do you know they they go trace all right back Peter my via so sure yeah so my my father was the first tonin and there was no tongen and there was no tongen before that

so mine just kind of stops right there what are most people call you outside of wrestling. By my shoot name? They do? Yeah. Yeah. All right.

Sometimes it bleeds over in a real life, you know? No. Luckily, I'm able to separation of gimmick. I don't believe in my gimmick too much. So let's not fall into that trap. So you're in Orlando right now.

Yeah. You guys just had a hurricane kind of come through there. Like, I lived in Florida for five years. I know what this is all about. Yeah, yeah. I live more towards Fort Myers towards the Gulf side. Yeah, you're on the Gulf side.

Yeah. We didn't get much of it. But I think the east side, Daytona area kind of got some, you know, but I'm not sure how bad it was. We didn't see much in the news. So I'm guessing it was all right. In your time living in Florida, what's been the worst hurricane you've experienced?

I actually missed it. I don't remember any hurricane. I'm always gone. I'm always away when the hurricane hit. And there was one in like the mid-2000s that hit that just devastated everything. Even my parents' house.

Hurricane Andrew. I can't remember. Andrew was like 92, I believe. Oh, shit. Yeah. There was one at the 2000s, I remember. I don't remember this because I was in a I was I was in the military I was overseas and I had to watch it when the news come through Florida. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. I think that was right. I think that was the big one. Yeah. Yeah. There was one in the 90s. It was one in the 2000. People forget that Hurricane Katrina also hit your side of Florida.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yep, yep, yep. I miss that one. I miss a lot. Luckily, luckily I'm not here for these ones. Yeah, well, it's good and bad, I guess. Yeah. How long were you overseas for? About almost eight months.

Okay, wow. Yeah, eight months in Iraq. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, a friend of mine who's in the Air Force is like, oh, you got to talk to Tom about his time in the Air Force. Yeah. That's got to be a big part of your life.

It's informed a lot of, you know, who you are now. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It was good time. Good time in the military, good learning curve. I think everybody should join the military right out of high school for at least two years and then go on. But it was good structure. Serving, I enjoyed my time serving in the United States and learned a lot,

made a lot of good friends and did my part. And then I think everything after that, it kind of makes me feel like, you know, I paid my dues and I let me enjoy the, you know, what this great country has to offer me. Oh, that sounds very patriotic. That was, yeah, USA. Quick time out from this chat to thank our sponsor for this episode. Direct TV's NFL Sunday Ticket and Sundays. Oh, yeah, they're coming back in the NFL.

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And use that promo code Blue Wire. Is there anything that you learned from the military? that you still carry with you today? Yeah, always. You know, there will always be problems, no matter what plans you have, the thing you do is once you get there and you just adapt to your situation and overcome.

It's the own military tactic, you know, adapt and overcome. So there we go. You just change the situation and you overcome that. And that's, I feel like that's what you do like with your entire life, but that's what you do in the ring too. Like I figured out a way to like, make it work. Make it work. Life, huh? Life shit.

Has, I mean, with that said, how much has, I mean, Bullet Club's been you finding a way? How much has Bullet Club changed your life? I mean, it's definitely put a lot of cash in my pocket for sure. So it's changed me a lot financially. So that's number one. But just my perception of wrestling of how it should be and how it can be. It's changed. So I really applied a lot of what I learned in the military into that group.

This teamwork and adaptation. and overcoming and keep moving. You know, if you look at the beginning of Bullet Club, you know, the guns, the whole, that we were very military style. I was putting a lot of my military uniqueness into it, you know, if that made sense. Yeah, a lot. Bullet coaching, you know.

If we take it back, what were the original discussions around, forming this faction around calling it bullet club like where did those conversations begin um we were approached that um the boss came up and said we want to put you guys together the foreigners it was actually prince david fin baller now uh with talk of with uh bad luck falay and um we were the only foreigners besides tensai uh that were in new japan so we were always hanging out all the time and you know uh they said look we're going to put you guys together you know you can see you guys are very you guys got great chemistry outside the rain we'll see what happens in the rain and it was just natural um prince david was going to be the front man he was getting uh he was

leveling up from juniors to heavy and so he needed a support group so phala was on this excursion from missouri they brought him back he was going to be his bodyguard and me and Carl Anderson, I was more, I was like Carl Anderson second. So I would just like be with him always, just like my mentor. And so Prince David followed, went together first. And then me and Carla Anderson came in second. The first name that was brought up, I didn't have no saying in the name. You know, I was just like, all right, tell me what to do and I'll do it, you know, whatever you guys need for me.

So, but Prince David was thinking of calling it. the Bullet Brigade. And Fahler was like, oh, brigade sounds, you know, what if you called a club? Because Folle's from New Zealand

and he played professional rugby in clubs is a thing. Yeah. Yeah. So bullet, that's where Bullet club came, you know. So took that and ran with it.

And here's seven years. I forgot what your question was. That's the same thing. talking. I forgot. That was it. You answered the entire question. What is it? Seven years now? It's been seven years now? Seven years. Wow. That mean, obviously, you had no idea it was going to turn into what it's turned into. You know what? A lot of people ask me, you know, did you know,

bullet club is going to be the way, like, as successful as it is now? And my answer is, yes, Did I know it was going to take this route? No. Right. You know, I think if you start something, I mean, I'm very, man, we got to do it no matter what, you know. And I knew it was going to be successful. I just didn't know how successful, you know. You don't have to name names.

We can if you want. But have you had people who have been like, come on, man. Let me, let me be part of this thing. I see how successful you guys are being. Come on. Share some of this with me. Um, no one's ever said it like that or, you know, but I know people want to be in it, you know, at the beginning, I think we just kind of just started letting people in this coming in,

no matter of the way, but it wasn't really our decision at the beginning. But we learned a lot in those first three, four years, and then after that we start, okay, we got to do this carefully and we didn't want it to kind of end up like how not a knock on NWO but how NWO was and it's kind of like yeah there's so many members yeah so many members yeah you know there's I think there's a way to do that where we could have so many members but keep it not going where it's just a mess you know I think there's a way to do that well if you have 46 members doesn't that mean that you have to split all the royalties 46 ways? Yes. You know, but if there's going to be 46 members in there, I better see 46 people

them earning something for Bullet Club. I'm going to put in a damn work. Y'all can't just come in and surf, bro. You know, did the former members still get a cut of the royalties, or are they? Hell no. Okay. How far. All right. It's not putting in work. Y'all go, shit, none of y'all can kiss my ass. What was your take on WWE's version of the club? You know, it's just like anything else. Just like Mexico's L.I.J that became L.I.J.

It's just like the hurt business or the mob, whatever. you know it's hey when you're doing something so good everybody wants to copy it that's and that's a nod to us you know and I'm I'm okay with that but you ain't going to do it like us though you know so it's all good it's all good I got I ain't got no hate for that y'all can keep trying that's the Bullet Club logo has become

as legendary is like NWO's logo as legendary as DX is logo. Who was it that came up with that? New Japan, New Japan designer. And they put it together because the first logo was shit. It was just like a bullet. And then I was like, all right, we'll try to make it work. But the reason how they came out with that infamous one, um, Gallows, when we used to dress up in military fatigue, he used to paint down the black down his eye right here. And then, um, um, um, um, um, um. You know, because of our military style, that's where the two guns came in like this. And that's really it.

It was our military style. Because that school with the open, it's like a gap right here. That's gallows all the way. And I knew that. And I just, I think they just saw our whole thing together and just started to put it all together. And then, bam, you know. let me ask you some okay

it's been seven years right and we had that logo yeah we had that logo for six years yeah do you feel a new revamp

a new style do you think we need to like like I said we try to reinvent redo you know I've done a few designs and I feel that social media

and boy I got shit on so So, like I said, I try things and see if it works and it doesn't. But what do you think? Do you think we need? No, it's so iconic. And you're well aware of this because it's been ripped off a thousand times by every person with a wrestling podcast or every independent wrestler.

Like, this has been ripped off a thousand times. If you do something else, it's just going to look like a cheapened version of that original iconic logo. And you know this. Nike's not changing their logo. Coca-Cola is not changing their logo. You're not changing this logo. Touche.

Cool. All right. With that answers that. But I think that like, you know, look at the iconic, if we're just going to compare to wrestling, look at the iconic factions. The NWO, we know what that logo looks like. Yeah.

And that logo still sells on T-shirts, you know, 20 plus years later. Same with DX's logo, the spray paint with the green DX, you know. This is an iconic logo. maybe you're too close into this to realize like how big this is. But this is something that I think for people who have never even watched New Japan, they know what the Bullet Club is. They know exactly what that logo is. Yeah.

True. Okay. Hell, I have a Bullet Club shirt. Who doesn't, you know? Yeah. Cool. Very cool. With that said, when you have someone like Prince Devit,

who is a big part of the Bullet Club, and he decides to take this deal and go to WWE. What do those conversations look like, you know, among you guys as friends? Yeah. You know, one, we're happy. You're elevating to a platform that makes money because we're all in here to make money.

So we're happy for it. Number two, we're sad that you're leaving our circle, you know. But at the end, you know, you got, you got to do what you can to support you and your family. And it always sucks when somebody leaves, when guys leave, because you're like, because especially when you have a great chemistry with them, you know, and they're your friends. You spend more time on the road with them than you spend with your family. You get to know these guys.

You get to know them in and out, their family, their personal lives, their ups and downs. And you connect, you know, these guys become your family. You're on with them. You wake up, you stay at a stay in a hotel, you get on the same bus, you sit next to you tell you, you talk about it, you eat together, eat lunch together, breakfast, dinner. I mean, the whole week you're together. You spend more time with them than you see your own kids. So when they get up to leave, it kind of takes like this piece of you, like, fuck, man, you know.

And then you guys come in and you got to reform this bond. and, you know, it's, it's different. Sounds like adult summer camp, you know, like doing everything together. That's true. Kind of, right? Was that Nickelodeon camp? One of want to, whatever camp.

That's like, oh, wrestling summer camp. That's what it sounds like, yeah. Camp Bullet Club. Yeah, Camp Bullet Club. I mean, but WWE then, you know, after, well, I guess he was one of them, you know, Finn Baller was one of them, but WWE was taking a lot of talent from New Japan. Was there ever like a frustration within New Japan of like, oh my God, you're taking Shinska, you're taking A.J., taking Galison Anderson. Oh, yeah. The list goes on and on.

Oh, it hurt them. It hurt them because these were their stars, top guys, you know. yeah you can basically say they came and raided our locker room and you know since kid was like at that time he left he was one of who's the biggest star yeah yeah he was like he hit this momentum after coming back from mexico like he changed got very charismatic he was killing it every match um and then you had gals anderson who were tag team champs they're, you know, not only big inside the ring, but they, you know, Anderson's been there, and he's been like a locker room for the foreign guys, kind of like the overseer, you know. And then you got AJ Stiles, who was also huge, huge, huge star. And that's a big chunk to take off the top, you know, a big, big chunk. So, yeah, I heard them. But at the same time, that gap was an opportunity for us lower cards.

to move up and prove ourselves that we can't fill that spot, but we can hold it up, you know. So, you know, everything has his reason and there's a silver lining, you know, you know. And from the looks of things, you're stepping up into like a singles competitor, you know, position here. Yeah. 2020 is a hell of a year, Bob.

It comes right back down to that, yeah. Yeah, man. So, yeah, I think it's time. I've accomplished everything as a task. team, wrestler, six-time IWGP heavyweight tag team champs. And I really don't want to try to reach 10. That's just not, you know, I've proved it six times. And I want to see what I can do as a singles competitor. Do you have anything in mind, any goals of what you want to do as you move forward as a singles competitor? Yeah. There's only one goal. And I think it should be everybody's

goal is to be if you're going to be a singles competitor is to be the iwgp heavyweight champion anything else is shit if you're not first your last you know that's it y'all can keep your intercontinental y'all can keep your u.s title you're never i'll never be that because i don't never want to be a fucking never champion you know keep all that shit and i think if you're if you want to be the man you got to be the man and the man is to be the iwgp everyweight champion is that this, you know, is this shift happening because of coronavirus? Was it happening in spite of coronavirus? Was the plan for you to be a singles competitor this year regardless?

No. No. I think this whole time I've been home just, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, maybe, yes, no. I don't know, in between, mixture of all. I mean, it could be, and look, I don't know, but if there was no coronavirus, if you were continuing, to live and spend your time in Japan and doing your thing as a tag team, there might never

have been that break to be able to break out. Right. Yeah. I think so because I was kind of, I got comfortable. I got real comfortable sitting at that tag team champion stage, you know, so yeah, maybe. I'll say your explanation for it. I like that. Please, yeah.

Feel free to take it. Look, I think if anything, this quarantine. has made a lot of us realize that, man, once this thing's over, once life gets a little bit back to normal, I want to do this, this, and this. It's like it's made us excited for like what's on the other side of this. Yeah. Yes. True. I think so. You know, you have a lot of time to sit home and think and think and think. And you're like, well, shit. I mean, I can't wait to get this though because I'm gonna do this different. I'm like, I got, I got comfortable. I'm like, I got comfortable. I need to change, man. I need to change. Yeah. I started actually writing things down.

I was like, no, when nothing was open there in March and April, I started writing down like, all right, by this time next year, I'm going to dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. And this is exactly what you're doing. Maybe you haven't written it down, but you've said, oh, I've written it down. Oh, I've written it down. Oh, yeah. I've written it down. I've got to see it. I got to see it. That's such a big thing that I don't think people realize. The power of writing something down, the power of putting it out, physically putting it out into the world.

Yeah. Oh, for sure. I'm with you. I think we kind of, we have an understanding of that. You know, once you the thought process and then put it in the paper, that's your first step of action.

Yeah. I love this. Yeah. Look, I had plans to go to the beach party this year. I'd plan to go to the, you know, I wanted to see, And Shamrock there. I was very excited about this.

And obviously everything during Russellmania week, you know, got canceled. So do you have plans for some sort of party in Hollywood next year? Yes. Where?

Hollywood. That's what it's happening? Yeah. Russellmania's in L.A. next year. Oh, shit. Why did I think, why did I think that it was coming back to Tampa? It was supposed to be in Tampa.

I know, I know. No, I'm sorry. That's a super. Bowl. Super Bowl is in Tampa. That's right. We can have a bullet club party there too. Yeah. We could have the Bullet Club, I don't know, tailgate party. Well, I'll tell you this. There's plans. I'm not sure if it's going to be in Hollywood, but there is plans to do another one, another beach party, block party, party all together, but bigger and better. And, you know, just to make up for this, the lost times. I think that we got to do something big here.

It's Sets Tomatanga versus Enzo. Look, man, I'm trying to make a party, not kill a party, all right? With your friends Gallows and Anderson signing with Impact now, you're going to be seeing them in Japan sounds like pretty soon. How excited are you to reunite with them? Man, very excited, man. Very, very excited. Man, it's been like, it's been five years since we all, you know, hung out and being together.

as as as co-workers. I'm excited, man. I know in that five-year time line as we've grown and, you know, I'm happy to see my friends again. Very happy. Good brothers. With your other Bullet Club members,

you know, doing their thing in AEW, you think there's a chance? We'll see maybe you appear in AEW or Cody and Kenny do something with you guys in Japan? Uh, yeah, I don't want to say no to anything because you just never know. And I'm always open to ideas. I'm open to anything. But, you know, money talks, baby.

Money talks. Money does all the talking right now. So, you know, A.W. wants to move that route. Show me the money. Hello, well, Jerry Maguire there, huh? Show me the money. I like that. Well, I want to be respectful of your time. I know that your kids are in the other room waiting for the cat to come back. I'm sorry, if you heard them all screaming.

No, no. So, it's such a pleasure to talk to you. It's always great to talk to a fellow podcaster as well. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, man, I'm trying to get on your level. You know, I'm learning, learning that on my level. On a podcast, hey, I know you, you won some awards. I know you've done, you've done this very, very, for a very long time. I'm listening. I'm trying to learn. I'm trying to take notes here. Write it down. I'm here. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to help.

Thank you. But I see your show climbing its way up the charts, Thomas Island. Thank you. You guys are crushing it. Ooh. Thank you. Thank you very much. Hopefully one day here we can all be in that same level.

Well, I look forward to doing this in person with you next time. Thank you. Thank you. Me too, man. Me too. Thank you so much. I look forward to seeing you back in the ring. And, man, all the best to you and your family.

Thank you. You too, Chris. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Well, anyhow, my friend, hope you enjoyed this too sweet conversation with Tomatanga. Snap a screenshot. Tag me at Chris Van Fleet. Tag Tama.

He is at Tama underscore Tanga on Twitter. And you can listen to his podcast, Thomas Island, wherever you're listening to this podcast. but just make sure that you subscribe to both my show and to his show. He's just such a chill guy. I feel like I could have talked to him all day. And we definitely would have talked longer, but as you heard there, he had to attend to his number one job,

which is being a dad. And it's so interesting listening back to this, like this stark contrast from the guy in this interview to the incredibly intense guy in the ring. Like just two commensual. completely different people. And like he said, he doesn't let his character like bleed into his real life, which is something that not every wrestler does. And I'm sure there's some that come to your mind immediately of people who just like can't seem to separate the real world and the wrestling

world. I know there's a lot going on in the world right now. And I know it's affecting a lot of people in a lot of different ways, but it makes me think of this quote from Dale Carnegie. And he says, remember happiness doesn't depend upon who you are or what you have. It depends solely on what you think. So there you go. Be great and be grateful. And before we go, a huge thank you to bet online for supporting the show. Sports are coming back and so are your chances to bet on your favorite teams and events.

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