Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Teddy Hart on maturing after his jail time, Montreal screwjob, Owen Hart, WWE

Episode Date: August 30, 2019

Teddy Hart chats with Chris Van Vliet at MLW Fusion in Miami, FL. Teddy speaks openly about his time and jail and what he learned from it, he says Owen Hart's death "wasn't anybody's fault", he wishes that Bret Hart had buried the hatchet with WWE sooner so he could have worked behind the scenes, he thinks AJ Styles is the best wrestler in the world, taking his cat to strip clubs and much more. Audio equipment provided by Samson Technologies: bit.ly/CVVSamson 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 Bleach Show Ladies and gentlemen Chris Here we go How are you my friends? Thank you for being with us on the Chris Van Fleet Show And as I record this right now I'm in the middle of packing for Chicago

To head to all out this weekend And whenever I pack for a trip Like this for a wrestling show It's like a pair of jeans a bunch of wrestling shirts and maybe a toothbrush. Okay, for sure, a toothbrush. It's the same for you, right? I got a bunch of interviews coming up in Chicago.

I probably shouldn't announce who we're interviewing because a couple of weeks ago in Los Angeles. I was like, oh, man, we're interviewing Alex Riley. So excited for this conversation. It's going to be great. Then the next morning when the interview was supposed to be, I got a text like last minute. And Alex was like, I'm so sorry.

We're going to have to reschedule. So the interview with Alex Riley is still happening. That's the moral of this story. The time and date of that one is yet to be determined in the location. So I don't like putting these interviews out there anymore because I'm like, I'm letting you guys down. I'm also letting myself down because I get pretty jacked up, pretty excited for these interviews. But I can pretty confidently say that I have an interview lined up with Killer Cross at Starcast in Chicago. Man, really looking forward to that one.

Although now that I've announced it, it's probably not going to happen. I'm just kidding. Of course it's going to happen. You're going to put it out in the world. I'm always about positivity. A huge thank you to you guys for these five-star reviews. These are awesome. They're like the lifeblood of the Chris Van Fleet show.

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It's awesome for you guys to take a couple seconds out of your day to leave these five-star reviews on Apple Podcasts. You know the deal. I read one on every single episode. It's my way of giving you a shout-out for being, you know, the fan of the show, the fan of the week. And also my way of saying, hey, if you want to be part of the show, just leave a review. It's that simple. You can do it like Zona Rod 4 did. Zona Rod 4 says five-star commute.

I commute an hour and a half to work three days a week. and this podcast makes me look forward to the drive. Not only does Chris interview the big names, but occasionally gives a platform to some names that you may not recognize. Keep the interviews coming. Well, thank you, Zona Rod 4. Super sorry about your hour and a half commute to work.

That's pretty far. Thank you to, well, this is a name that you recognize. He said sometimes, you know, there's some names on here of people you don't recognize. Well, this is the name you recognize. Teddy Hart. This is a fantastic interview. But first, the Chris Van Fleet Show is brought to you

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You can use my code Chris 15 for 15% off your order at greenroadsworld.com. That's Chris 15% off at greenroadsworld.com. The show is also brought to you by the Pro Podcasting pack from Samson Technologies. I mean, look how good we sound. You can't look at it, but listen to how good we sound. SamsonTech.com is where you can check out their lineup. I get a lot of messages from you guys almost every single day saying what kind of equipment can I use. I want to start a podcast.

I want to start a YouTube channel. Samson is where I would begin because you're not going to break the bank on these. A lot of people are spending like $3, $500, $500 to sound this good, to sound as good as we're sounding right now. This is an $80 microphone. So there you go. You don't have to buy the whole package. You just buy the one microphone. So this interview with Teddy Hart is fascinating and it's very revealing.

And I think when you say the name Teddy Hart, people automatically have an idea in their mind of what they think Teddy Hart is all about. I can say from this interview, he's grown a ton over the last handful of years. He's extremely self-aware now. I guess maturity does that, but he's very self-aware of who he was before and who he is now. He loves cats. I mean, like he really, really loved cats. He says all the time that he spent in prison changed him, and he speaks very openly about that.

We talk about the Montreal screw job here, how he thinks that Brett could have handled things differently, also talks about Owen Hart's death, gets into that and everything that's surrounded it. Now, this was from an MLW show at the start of this year, but everything he talks about here is so relevant, and it's a fantastic conversation. So ladies and gentlemen, Teddy Hart.

It's always good to hang out with a fellow Canadian. It's beautiful that. I got another Canadian with me. When you're down in the U.S., what's the thing you miss the most about Canada? Probably the hockey is more prevalent in Canada. So I love hockey, and it's on in the States, and there's some states that they're obviously very serious with their hockey. But to me, just Canada's always got hockey on, so I kind of miss the hockey a bit.

Yeah. No one watches. Especially here in Florida, they're like the Panthers. What's that? They got two great teams too. Panthers are good and so are the Tampa Bay Lightning. I'm in Philly and they have a strong hockey following. They've had a team for years, obviously.

So it's cool there. I want to go to more games, but just have been so busy with wrestling my schedule. But if it's something I can do when I'm down here, I'd like to get some tickets for the Lightning. Tyson kid, a friend of mine, he's got some friends that are like execs there. Oh, well, there you go. Yeah, so hopefully maybe get a box seat or something and enjoy a game. We just interviewed Tyson a couple months ago and he was one of the toughest guys.

He's awesome. Yeah, an absolute beast in there. And war course, his new schedule is even crazier than their old one now that he's an agent. He's on the road all the time and never late and always professional. And I think did a lot for our family to kind of make sure that after he got injured, things didn't go sideways and that he took the best path possible to get back in to do what he wanted to do, still be a part of wrestling. He loved that he's been doing it his whole life. And having his mind in there, I think adds a really cool element for those guys, the young guys coming up, and some of the

older guys that were working with him, they trust him, they know he's got great ideas. So, I miss my family, obviously, because that's the big thing. I have a lot of family in Canada still, and the snow's kind of hit and miss. You know what I mean? There's some snow in Philly, and the weather gets pretty cold, but it's nice to be able to wear for a coat or go out to Banff and see the mountains and stuff like that. I'm not a skier. or anything like that. But I definitely like, I like snowboarding. If I could learn how to do it, I like to watch it.

I like to go out and like, and my friends are all into skiing and snowboarding. I kind of just sit back and enjoy the gondola, the hot springs, and watch everybody else have some fun. I do my dangerous stuff in the ring, so. We thought that Tyson Kidd likes cats a lot, and he's like, oh, no, wait till you meet Teddy. Yeah, I love my cats, and I have a cat I train named Mr. Velvet that comes out to the ring with me. I was going to bring him on MLW TV, but, We've got to go over it, I guess, because this is a live show,

so they just didn't want any, like, any, like, little hiccups to happen or anything like that. And I think they need to see him in action to realize he just did a show for Tommy Dreamer. He's like a thousand people. How does the cat not freak out with all those people? He went to the strip club last night, the cat, and got to come in the strip club, and he was awesome, big star of the club, and walked around the whole club. So he was the hottest pussy in the strip club. Yeah, he was the hottest pussy in the strip club.

Hold on, hold on. When you get to a strip club and you say, my cat's coming in with me, what do they say? I have service animal papers, emotional support papers, so usually a couple 20s in the right people's hands and then show him that the cat's obviously really docile and he's not going to cause any heat and kind of you got to usually talk to the right guys and bullet through. Sometimes it doesn't work. But I've been lucky with certain clubs. They know us.

We spend a lot of money, bought a lot of bottles, so showed up in a limo and they knew we were working for a TV show, so they cut me some slack and let the cat come in. What do the women think of it in the strip club? They love the cat. I think he's a good energy to people love, he's so friendly, and it's rare to see a cat that's friendly and that calm. So it's kind of my niche thing. And it helps me sell shirts and merch. Sometimes kids want to see the cat more than they want to see Teddy Hart.

So whatever works. You know, in looking at all the interviews that you had done before, especially the recent ones, the most comments you've been getting are how much you've matured. What do you attribute that to? A year in jail definitely didn't help. It helped me probably learn. to just take advantage of all opportunities and your youth is something when you're younger you don't think it's going to happen but you start to get older and you got to

take care of yourself and take the opportunities that are are given as blessings and it's nice to be able to make a comeback and MLW is a huge part of my comeback and giving me credibility to other companies I think a lot of the Teddy Heart stuff was was over it was hype and I tried to sell things to the boys as much more being real or I play my character outside of the rings to try to keep the fans guessing. And I think it was taken wrong sometimes or maybe just doing a lot of stuff and making it more difficult for the other guys where I think I did set a precedent. And I think I said like a certain meter for excellence.

And if you want to do something for me, half-assing it, I just didn't have it in my mindset. I was trying to steal the show and be the best guy. I could possibly be due to the fact that my family's got such a big name and the footsteps I'm falling in are basically considered some of the greatest wrestlers ever to either be from my family or trained by my family or my family had matches with like, you know, the Sean Michaels or the Chris Ben-Waz or Davey Boy Smith and Brett and Dynamite Kid and Juschen Lager, all these guys, Ray Mysterio Jr. to come in and be less than what they were would, I think it would probably be detrimental to the heart name. I tried to be the evolution of execution to evolve the moves and

come up with the newest moves and the most dangerous looking moves, but perform them safely, obviously that's a key. I've never heard anyone in wrestling, and I've been very lucky over my career to have just one small injury over all the years I've wrestled. So it's, it's, I pride myself on trying to be the guy that's helping a lot of young guys get a push to and finding other talent. Conan's another guy that finds a lot of talent. I think that makes you mature because now your life is becoming more of a coach

and a parental figure to guys in a role model. And as I said, I spent some time in jail. And I ended up beating the charges. But it was something while I was waiting, I had to wait in jail and sit there. And it's a very boring, scary, lonely place. And you sure when you get out, everything tastes better. and the air seems to be, has a different taste to it, if you know what I mean, and feel to it.

And just your friendship means more. It just makes you appreciate the things. And in there also, you can see you guys with no hope that still found hope. And everybody believed, everyone had their own religion. You know, people have their own religions in there sometimes. But everyone believed in God most from what I can see. Everybody prayed before their meals is kind of like a routine thing. And I thought if I could take motivation from guys that had,

nothing or life sentences or you know we're going to and that would give me some kind of spark to no matter how dark it gets there's people with a lot worse situations than me and to suck it up and get up and come back fighting and be held accountable try to if my reputation was a way that it wasn't seemed to be good how how i could fix that and and make this comeback count and as i say hit a home run with every opportunity i have i'm always a humble guy but i cut a promo as a very area but i cut a promo as a very arrogant, cocky, third generation guy who's, but that's, that was never me in real life. I've always been pretty humble and a pretty nice guy and tried to help people, but people really don't get to see you when you're just showing up at a show and then flying out. I never work

for those companies. I'm usually most of them long enough to get people to get to know me. So certain things happened and I rub guys the wrong way potentially with, with whatever and never meaning to do anything. And the same thing with if a guy ever had a problem, I was always vocal about let's just go outside and talk about it. If it turns out you got to to throw down, then I'd rather settle it, end it, shake hands, walk away, and it's done. But at least no, I fear no man on the planet. I'm not the toughest guy in the world, but I think there's a way of being professional, and it's better to take things out of the locker room instead of making a scene,

go outside quietly, two people, and you handle your shit. Pardon my language, but you handle your shit, and come back in and get back to business, because you never heard a guy in the ring. You never heard a guy in the ring, and you never let something that happened outside of the ring, go into the ring, and then Jeopardy. the safety and the reputation of the promoter, the promotion, and the fans watching. And that's always another thing for me is, again, trying to be professional with coming up with cool moves and making sure guys are safe and talking to other guys about how to get work and

what to do to become superstars, you know, like even Brian just giving them little pointers and tell him to get some new gear or, you know, do something with his hair, fix this. And I guess that allows me to become more mature with the situations where now people are depending on me to be a coach and the top guy in the locker room. And, you know, that's, it's a nice thing to see people trusting me now and passing the ball to me. And I got a chance to show people what I can do with my opportunity. Well, when you talk about your reputation, when you look back,

do you have any regrets about the way that people perceived you and you could have done something differently? Yeah, I try not to live in a world where I have regrets. I'm sad about not getting to spend more time with certain wrestlers back. in the day. Like if I could have wrestled AJ Styles more in T&A, I thought that would have been great. If I could have got to wrestle like Chris Sabin, more, Alex Shelley more, those are guys I thought were really good. The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, guys like that. You can still work them now.

Yeah, I can. I just, the promotions are so weird with all of the guys with deals and being locked in in different places. It's hard to get some companies to work with other companies now. So, and just, I guess like the Ring of Honor thing, I got, I really did, and I've that I've never lied on promos. I've always been pretty straight up, even saying stuff that really I shouldn't even have said, but it was the truth and that's how it happened. So I say it, and I may even cut my throat a little bit, but it was something I pride myself on as cutting an honest promo. And I don't remember anything that happened that night, and I got knocked out, and I just remember those were moves that I thought I was supposed to do. And it really

was a terrible thing that happened, and I put a sour taste in people's mouths about me, and it cut my my legs off of working in a great promotion like Ring of Honor. And with one of the greatest wrestling minds I've ever seen, which is Gabe Zubalski, and he's done so much for all these guys, and he's created a really good style of wrestling because he doesn't let guys mail it in. If you're working his show, you better go in there and really wrestle hard and make sure your stuff is clean and you have the right selling. He's just, he's a details guy.

And I always regretted not getting to work with Gabe Zubolski more and having him put his stamp on me. And I take my hat off to how well he's done with his wrestling promotion and all of the connections he's made and all of the guys he's helped develop. And I'm not a guy kissing his ass. I always said the same thing. I wish those guys could get more money to the boys. But also in the long run, Gabe ends up getting you the big deal in the end. So maybe that's just the way it is.

You're paying your dues at the beginning. And the money comes after if you keep doing what you're doing. And that's just the way he's structured his business or his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, he's. plan to basically take over the wrestling world with all of the talent that he's helped. And that just wanted that was like a smaller grad I had just not getting to work with Gabe more because Gabe really liked me and I did some some promo stuff being told by Rob Feinstein what to say kind of and Rob ended up getting ousted for some stupid behavior. I'm not going to get into it but and I had talked about Gabe already. It made me look better. I didn't realize

Gabe was the guy that was defending me and trying to push me, and it just didn't work out. But yeah, that's like the one thing I could basically really, in my mind. The Ring of Honor thing was something, if I could go back in time and change that, I would. And if I could work with Gabe more, I would have really liked to have worked with him

because he's a genius and he's done amazing things for a lot of guys. I think that would have been left out or not got their big break. What an interesting, insightful chat with Teddy Hart. Quick timeout, because it's a brand new football season, my friends. A lot of things have changed here. I mean, Antonio Brown is on the Raiders. How good is this season of Hard Knocks, right?

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Simple, right? Bet, win, get paid. How long now has it been since you got out of jail? It's been one year now. And like as soon as you got out where you're like, I'm a new man. Not even. I just think I was already, I was already trying to just, I don't smoke pot anymore, which is another. Just like I smoked for a lot of years and I love marijuana for what it's good for.

But at the same time, after years of smoking, when you don't smoke, it's like a different perspective on things, a different camera angle. and you just look at things differently. And for me, that kind of made it a new start for me too, is that I have now a different camera view to look through. And maybe I can try things this way instead. And I think it just made me a little sharper in the ring, and my memory a little better for certain things,

and maybe more practical. It just, I just, I've... You know, the last time that MLW had a showdown, here in Fort Lauderdale. I interviewed Rich Swan right after your match. He puked after your match. It was so hot in that building. It was so hot. That's a really good match. Rich Swans, unbelievable. He's such a good guy and he's such a good wrestler. I've had my best matches with Rich Swan probably in the last 10 years. I had it really good with him in Fort Lauderdale, as you said, and then I had another really good with him in Louisville. It was Oz.

Who's someone you really want to work with it? You haven't had the chance to. I've worked I would have liked I worked with Raymistero Jr. one time but I would always love to work with Ray Mysterio Jr. Sean Michaels, I always wanted to work Sean Michaels. Obviously I don't think it'll ever happen

but I always wanted to work Sean Michaels and I think even though I did get one match with him too when he was younger, really young when I brought him in for a show for Jersey All-Pro was Kenny Omega who was just such a beast in there He's done so much amazing stuff in Japan with a really hard schedule and hard hitting and a lot of big heavyweight guys that he's just, he's an absolute machine. I worked the young bucks a lot too back in the day, and they're another just, they're fantastic guys and genius is in the ring.

Timing is unbelievable. And just guys that took advantage of those opportunities and hit home runs and developed a way to make more money with wrestling and social media and whatever other aspects they could do with shirts. and, you know, for me, I always like Jack Evans. But guys, I guess someone I haven't worked him trying to just think probably. With the Canadian connection, did you ever work Chris Benoit? Never. I missed out on getting to work with Benoit or Jericho. Jericho's another guy who'd love to get a match with Jericho.

He's another stud and just amazing how long he's lasted and the type of shape he's in and the attitude he has. He's always really nice and really cool whenever I see him. He never seen him superstar anybody. and speaking of that i heard you say you wanted to wrestle into your 60s is that actually you know possible i would hope so i think i think i could probably pull it off um i mean i do a lot of crazy stuff but i think i'm pretty safe with my stuff the way i've trained and the way i went into it and always trying to lay stuff out and get as high as possible to give the other guy enough time to get underneath me

too and uh to hit things really clean because i practiced for years uh you know i had my own ring in my own school and I trained with kids. So, and just, I would love to be, I love wrestling, and as long as I can go and be useful in the ring and help the promotion and look good. And I don't want to be in there and making a joke of myself either, right? But at the same time, I definitely think for everything I've done, if you watch my YouTube videos,

I don't think there's five guys in the world that have done with Teddy Arts, done consistently for 25. I've been wrestling 24 years now. And I'm almost 40 years old now. And I think I'm in the best shape. for any other. I don't think there's a guy that's my age that's done what I've done. I don't even think close. That's besides Jack Evans, maybe. And AJ Stiles is another, the other guy I could really look at who did a lot of really

crazy stuff and had a really hard schedule and never, ever really got hurt and never ever had a bad match. He's a beast, dude. Absolutely. And I take my hat off to him too. He's a real beast in there and just workhorse and just the fact that he got the W&B push and got the right respect, which he deserved for all those years in TNA. He just worked so hard for so many years and made so many guys look good and went to Japan and did great down there. And then I got to see him obviously do this kind of turn with WW and change his look a little bit and did a couple, took some of his moves out, but added some other stuff to get that longevity because this is his time to get on TV and make that really count and to become a world champion in that company

when he was an impact guy for so long. Just tells you how smart and how professional. and how good of a guy is and again take my hat off to him because I think he's probably overall The best wrestler maybe ever just because of how long he's lasted and how many different guys he's worked And he's done every big high spot too basically like the shooting started the floor He's like the first guy to do the springboard shooting he started the floor years ago He started off into in WCW just for that little run and I don't think I've ever seen him have a bad match Yeah, I don't think I've ever seen him have a bad match and I don't think I've ever seen him really get hurt or take time off

So that's why I just say, like, there's a lot of other guys that have stopped and go and they've come and gone and they're amazing, amazing talents. But I think overall, he's just on a different level. And I'm really happy to see him get that push in WW now. It's a tough company to work for. You being a third generation star, do you think it's possible your son can be a fourth generation star? I don't know if I'd let my son wrestle or not. I get into that point now where my son is 17 and he's pretty good on the snowboard. and skateboard and I think I could probably get him into the ring and show them what to do.

But I don't know if I'd wish wrestling on my worst enemy at the same time. The greatest memories of my life and greatest moments of my life have been from wrestling, but it's just one of those sports. It's hit and miss, and the money's there, but it's also really hard to get. And there's no guarantee. It's not like you're getting a big contract in the NFL, and if something happens, you've got that money to kick back on it. wrestling you got to keep going going going and it's I don't know I would maybe maybe my son

could be a wrestler I don't know yet I really right now I'm just trying to just get him through high school I don't really spend a lot of time kind of weird divorce or whatever I said not the divorce but separation when I was young and basically we just thought because of my lifestyle and me smoking pot and and being kind of a wild man or whatever my reputation was kind of with girls and partying and I never partied hard with stupid drugs. I've never done cocaine or a crystal meth. I've never taken a painkiller in my life. But I smoked a lot of pot.

I did mushrooms and partied when I was young. I love women and I had lots of girlfriends and stuff. And I just didn't want him seeing that. I wanted him to be more grounded and respectful. And his mom's pretty strict with him. I thought she was a good mom and didn't want to interfere with her. She got a new husband. And she didn't want me to kind of be overreacted.

foreshadowing the new guy because I have this lifestyle. My dad's a big hero. He's on TV. He's a wrestler or whatever. So, but my son and I are pretty close. I talk to him, you know, probably, to be honest, probably maybe 10 times a year just to make sure he's okay and that he's, if he really wants to wrestle and he wants to go to the gym, then I would probably try to guide him through it and allow it to happen. But I don't know. When people ask me about wrestling, I run a wrestling school and I want everyone to be able to join the wrestling school, but those people have been practicing in their mind or wanting to be a wrestler for years. That's why they get into it.

It's not just like a spur of the moment of things. But I hope I helped you. I hope I answered some questions. You said that WWU is a tough company to work with. What's your relationship been like with them since, you know, you've made some appearances to the Hall of Fame and other things like that? They had me on Total Divas, which was really nice to them. The W.W.E is super cool.

Anytime they can give you any rub, it's the greatest, greatest company on Earth for, I think, for any type of entertainment. I mean, it competes against the NHL, the NFL, Major League Baseball, Soccer, Basketball, and has always been the big sellout. Always has that big WrestleMania. They always have all these other shows. They provide all these other companies with enough, you know,

like when I think of them like as a big shark. And then when the shark eats, there's all that stuff that comes and falls off. And that feeds the rest of the rest of the people that are underneath them. for them to do what they do and just never stop running shows and the lighting and the sound and the trucks and the screens and their special effects and their music, their dolls, their shirts, their video games, they're just a monster. And if you can't respect that, you're a player hating piece of shit or you're just blind or stupid. And they just, they're a company that moves so fast and they got a lot of rules and they got a lot of things with kids and policies and,

protect this new and this new style they have because obviously they had the attitude error and that was very crazy risque and they got in a lot of trouble and I think they had to really watch themselves with the way this new world works and that they they found a way to get back in and recreate this stuff for kids and cartoon characters and the network and just I again nobody works harder than the guys in the WWE that schedules the hardest so I have nothing but good to say about them. I would always love an opportunity to work with them. I really don't. I'm not that guy

that's trying to call them or send in tapes. I've never sent a tape into WW in my life. I've never called one of their agents, emailed them or tried to really do anything more than tell Xbox, hey man on a podcast, I'd love to get a job, or say something on Jericho's podcast. Like, I always

thought Triple H was a genius and he was smart and he handled business properly and that it was Brett that kind of made things difficult, and sure, the screw job happened, That could have been ended in two years and he could have came back and still done all this cool stuff. And even if we had the stroke or the concussion, he still could have came back. And like if Tyson Kid could come back with a broken neck and not be mad, then Brett, I hate to say it, but Owen's death happened because of actions that were taken by other people.

And it set Owen up into that position and it wasn't to anybody's fault to just happen. But it's something that if you're going to continue your life, let it go and go back to the company that made you Vince created Brett Hart and and Sean Michaels and all these guys and most of them all went back and and did great things and I just think it was hard to see Brett with so much potential for being a great agent and a great Booker and I think he loved the business enough from what I remember seeing that he would have liked to have been on the road like Fit Finley or Dean Melancho or or like how Vince is always there and

I think Brett would have been such a nice touch to have have him back there and to have him and Sean and Triple H all on the same page. I said it for years. I just wish everybody got along a little earlier. They did the handshake and stuff, but it was so far late that it ate up a lot of my good years and Tyson Kid was there during a tough time. Natalia was really put through a lot of little tests and stuff to see, I think, you know, if she was tough enough mentally.

And another one of those people just, Natalia is so mentally strong and such a workhorse in the ring and so solid and always on time, incredible and reliable and trustworthy and made all those other girls definitely get better as great coach. So I think they've helped kind of rebuild the heart name there. But it's something that's my other regret, if I could go back in time,

is to never let that screw job happen and to make sure that Brett stayed friends with Sean and stayed friends with Triple H and stayed friends with Vince and Stephanie and Shane and that our families were really close at one time, and it did a lot for wrestling, and we were really powerful because of the McMan's. They helped back us up.

They gave us that next level for the hearts to be able to send you somewhere, and that was the blessing. Stu always loved to be able to call Vince up and send somebody up to Vince, and that now the only hope is Tyson Kid and Italian, which is still I'd rather have my life in their hands and keep doing MLW and trying to hit home runs and show people that if they need to see that I am a changed man, I think I've always been a pretty good person, but it's not what people, it's not what I think.

It's what people think it's perception. So if they perceive me to be different now, then I must be doing something right. And if I'm getting a push and I'm doing well and I continue to have good matches, all I can do is try to be credible, solid, show up, put a smile on my face. Thank God for letting me have a career again. And thank God that I have fans that love me and appreciate me. Thank God I have some cool people like you that have five minutes to talk to me or care about it. I'm relevant again. And that's all I can do is just.

I've been trying to do this interview for a long time, so I'm so glad we made it happen. Again, man, it's an honor to get to be a hero for people and to see fans after the show and they want to take a selfie and they tell me how long they've been watching me. And I really tell people that haven't watched me, please check out my YouTube videos. It's how I live forever and tell people about them if they're good. We'll link it down below. A whole bunch of people are going to see this now. That would be so cool, man.

And that's all I can do is, and that's the way I kind of pass my legacy on and people find out about the Teddy Hart workers. I always think I'm one of the hardest working wrestlers on the planet and maybe unappreciated a little bit. And I hope to God now that I start to get appreciated more and more people get to see me. And the proof is in the pudding. I never risked my life for money. I did it because I loved my fans. And if anything, I got probably blackballed for doing too many moves, but I had a hard time justifying a fan spending $23 bucks and watching old slow wrestling. So I thought, at least with me, I have the pressure of being this third-generation guy. I should probably be better or do as much cool stuff as I possibly can to keep the name alive

and to make it get to the next level and then to set a measuring stick or set the bar as I possibly can for this next generation of guys to come in. And again, all I can say is please keep watching wrestling in general, fans. Please keep cheering for guys, buying merch, keeping this, keeping this, their dreams alive because without you, we don't have a purpose. And without a purpose, you don't have a life for a dream. And after that, it's a pretty lonely world here. And I, I think the wrestlers that are trying now are really good kids, good attitudes. There's not a lot of drugs in wrestling anymore. All that party kind of rock and roll. The guys play video games now,

do social media, go to the gym, try to eat right. It's a really good young group of guys that are coming up and thank God there's guys like Gabe that protect him and guys like WWE that are taking on this new kind of training center place and a place to develop talent and and help guys get better and better and hopefully the product continues to grow in different countries like China and Russia and the Middle East more and places like Dubai I hope maybe with being in sports being from Qatar maybe that we get to go down to their area and do some shows down there and just again keep trying to grow this business it's my family's business since three generations of wrestling.

It's something I want to see, continue to grow and be a powerful form of entertainment on the planet. And it's a great peacekeeping thing. Wrestling's great peacekeeping. It's MMA is awesome, but MMA is brutal. And not that wrestling's not real, the wrists are real, but the understanding of wrestling, if you understand it for what it is,

it's a beautiful dance of two or three or four guys killing each other to get that first, that bloodthirsty fog. And I want to see me. But then we go back to being that smart person with a conscience and we don't want to... I love watching war, but I don't want to pick up the bodies, if you know what I mean,

all of a sudden that it becomes real. It's funny, everybody shoot each other paintball all of a sudden, but if the paint balls turns to bullets, all of a sudden that game goes from being fun to fucking your murdering, your best friend, or your brother, and we're all brothers in this world. We all need to get along, and, you know, it's not about religion.

I don't think it's common sense, and most religions, based on common sense, and just courtesies of being nice to your fellow man and trying to appreciate the, you know, This is a, it's a beautiful life, and we're all blessed to have a life. And if we can make each other's lives better and easier by being civil to each other and polite, and I guess they follow a certain, you know, regiment. And it's camaraderie to me, the wrestling business, you're putting your life in another guy's hands.

People forget that, I think, sometimes. And if they remember that, a lot of these really cool moves are two guys trusting each other with their necks on the line because it's really a slip here or there, and you're in a fucking wheelchair. And it's, we're really blessed to not have more injuries. Yeah. You know. Right. Teddy Hart. Thank you so much.

Long, guys. God bless you. Thank you for the opportunity to talk. And I hope everybody gets to enjoy this. I didn't know you had so many followers. Got a whole bunch. A whole bunch of people watching. Thank you, guys.

God bless you guys. There we go. Teddy Hart. Great chat. Interesting. Interesting guy. And easily one of the best in ring workers in the world today. If you've seen any of his matches,

especially his recent work in MLW, the guy can go. It's amazing. Thank you to our sponsors, Greenroads, a pharmacist found a company with CBD products for people like me, for people like you. Use my code, Chris 15 for, you guessed it. Wow.

Yeah, 15% off your order at Greenroadsworld.com. Also, thank you to MyBookie, M-Y-B-O-O-K-I-E. You can head to MyBooky.com slash bluewire to sign up. Also, thanks to Samson Technologies for the podcast. equipment that we're using. SamsonTech.com is where you can check all of that out. I'm really glad I posted this interview with Teddy Hart. In fact, a lot of people have tweeted me over the last, while we posted this, I mean, originally did this interview back in January. I've had people over the last eight months that were like, man, I totally thought Teddy Hart was a dick. Then I

watched this interview and my mind, my thought completely changed about him, my opinion of completely changed about him. And I was just really glad to just sit there and be able to take in everything that he was saying. Teddy Hart's obviously, you know, he's gone through a lot and it's changed who he is now and I hope he gets the opportunity to show this and showcase his skills in whatever way that he wants. We leave you the quote. So I think this one is so powerful. It's from Wayne Dyer and it says if you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. And that is a very fitting quote to this conversation with Teddy Hart. Hope you enjoy. If you're at all out this weekend, can't wait to see you there.

Woo. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air.

It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Ticket banjo of it, get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What should be? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.