Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Tim Storm: Living the dream in NWA at age 55, being a school teacher, winning the NWA title, Nick Aldis

Episode Date: February 25, 2020

Former NWA World's Heavyweight Champion Tim Storm chats with Chris Van Vliet at the NWA Powerrr tapings in Atlanta, GA. He talks about living his dream as a wrestler for NWA at age 55, his day job as a high school teacher, winning the NWA World's Heavyweight Championship and then losing it to Nick Aldis, being featured on 10 Pounds of Gold, working with WWE, how much longer he plans to wrestle and much more! A huge thank you to our sponsor Bet Online! Use the code BLUEWIRE at BetOnline.ag to get a 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van! Welcome back to another episode of the Chris Van Bleach Show. This episode is brought to you by Betts Online, And I can't thank you enough for continuing to support the podcast. You know, it's been amazing. Watching the download numbers increase week after week. And it's so cool watching the show climb those podcast charts.

So thank you, thank you, thank you. Last week was one of the biggest weeks we've ever had with the interview of Tyler Breeze and Sean Spears. And if you're a subscriber on YouTube, yeah, you saw the training video I had at the wrestling school that those guys own. Flatbacked Wrestling School. Complete with me taking 20 chops from their students, along with some chops from Breeze and Spears. Yes, it was my idea. Don't worry, I'm totally okay. A lot of people have been tweeting me, Instagramming me, emailing me asking what my chest looks like now.

I actually posted daily updates of what I looked like. Like weird daily shirtless photos of me with like bruises and red marks getting increasingly, better as time went on. We shot that video at the end of January. So that was January 30th. We shot the video. So honestly, it only took five or six days for that to completely heal up. Like no red marks at all.

And here I am, I don't know, a couple weeks later, three weeks later, three and a half weeks later, no red marks at all. My chest just looks like Kofi Kingston's now. I'm kidding. My chest looks completely fine. We're good. That was a great segment. It's one of my most watched videos in a long time.

So if you haven't checked it out yet, it's on my YouTube channel. Chris Van Vleets my YouTube channel. Check it out if you haven't seen it. And while you're on there, please give me a subscribe. That'd be great. But the momentum of last week and everything we had there leads us here to this week. And if you've been watching NWA Power, of course, you're familiar with Tim Storm. But you probably don't know much else about him other than the fact that he's the former NWA World's Heavyweight Champion and the man who,

Nick Alda's beat for that championship. Well, after this chat, you're going to know a heck of a lot about Tim Storm, and you're going to be so fired up with inspiration after hearing his story. Oh, so good. And I'm just fired up every time I see one of these newer views on Apple Podcasts. These seriously are the most helpful thing that you can do to support the show. So if you listen on your iPhone, please take seven seconds out of your day. please to just click those five stars and leave a review.

Like this one from Meza, D99, one of if not the best wrestling podcasts. Wow. Thank you. It's very nice. Love listening during my warm-ups, even during my workouts. Chris is a genuinely nice guy and always asks great questions. You can tell everyone in his interviews are comfortable around him. Overall, a great guy.

Keep up the great work. would love to see an interview with Keith Lee in the future. Well, I would also love to see an interview with Keith Lee in the future. That'd be amazing if we can make that happen. Thank you so much. Meza, Meza, Mesa, D99. Please keep those reviews coming. I don't ask for money.

I don't even have a Patreon account. You know, a lot of people are like, well, you can listen to most of this episode, but if you want to listen to the good stuff, it's $5 a month. I don't do that. I don't have a Patreon account. All I'm asking for is a review. Is that too much to ask? So please.

And also thank you in advance. So Tim Storm is easily one of the nicest people you will ever meet. And at 55 years old, he's living the dream as one of the top stars in the NWA. And let me say that again, 55 years old. Yeah, his story is one of having a dream and never giving up on that dream, no matter what life throws a you. He still works as a high school teacher. But if his wrestling career keeps going the way that it's going right now, I think he'll be doing much more wrestling than teaching. I think he might get another NWA World's Heavyweight Championship run. He should. He deserves he so over on NWA power

as well. Also, how cool would it be if Tim Storm was your teacher? Actually, I feel like it would be both amazing and also terrifying, I mean, if you happen to piss him off, right? And if you watch the 10 pounds of gold series on YouTube, you learned a lot about Tim. But you're about to learn a whole lot more. Here you go. Ladies and gentlemen, Tim Storm. Well, I feel very underdressed. I feel overdressed.

Now, you look great. Thank you. You look like, you look at the star that you are. Yeah. Still adjusting to even that concept, to be honest with you. What are you talking about? No, I'm being serious. I don't, I don't, I, I love what's happening.

I still catch it. Like, I don't think that's not how my mind thinks. It's like, are you, really? Are you, we're going to go with Star? Okay. I know I probably should just, I should accept it and go, well, yeah, but that's just not, it's not natural. But that's just a testament to the person that you are. I guess that's a good thing.

Yeah, that's a great thing. Yeah, I guess. It's an adjustment I'm going to have to make. I will either make it or not. You're like, you're like the 25, you know, overnight success. That's it. Yeah,

I like that. Can I make a T-shirt? Yeah, please. I only take 20%. 20%. I mean, not making it now on your shirt,

so good deal. No, but I think that until NWA really started getting its legs, especially with power, you know, they didn't know

who Tim Storm watched. Right. And I hear that, I hear that a lot. Or I'll read it a lot. I'm learning to be more social media savvy. We talked about that a little bit.

So I enjoy, to me, social media is almost addicting. So it's like, you know, I enjoy reading what people tweet and what people comment and all those kind of things. And I see that a lot. It's like I didn't know who Tim Storm was in W.A. Power or 10 pounds of gold introduced that. Yes. But like you said, I've been doing this almost about 25 years. And, you know, there are a lot of people, I guess, like anywhere else, that I was big in my area. but if you didn't get outside of that area, people didn't know who I was. But I guess I just, I almost feel a little bit embarrassed because I'm a big wrestling fan,

and the fact that I didn't know who you were, I feel like a little bit ashamed almost. I don't think, that's a compliment. I mean, for you to say that, but it's like, why would you? Well, you were the NWA champion. That's true. It was a different time, kind of a different, almost a different world. It wasn't a bad world at all. It got me an opportunity that I never literally.

never dreamed I would get. And it led to this opportunity, well, the 10 pounds of gold. And I can remember early on the first or second 10 pounds of gold series episodes where I saw somebody comment, because somebody commented it's not many times that at that point, 53, 51, whatever old that was, you know, at that age, you don't normally get your probably biggest push. Yeah. And somebody commented, yeah, but, you.

you know, talk to me in two months and he won't be relevant. And I don't. I read those things and I'm like, okay, maybe. But now here we are, what, four years later. Right. And with the success of, you know, with the new ownership, with NWA power, with all the things that are going, you know, I'm not going to say I'm, I haven't lost the relevance. I'm not sure I'm more relevant, but it didn't go away. And that's very cool.

And how old are you right now? 39. Okay. No, I am. I, as of today, I'm 55. I'll be 56 in about a month. Wow. And you look great.

Well, thank you. It's, I feel, I am my own worst critic in every way. And like when I watch this, I'll watch it. And my first thought is going to be, wow, you're getting old, dude. So, no, I'm just saying. I thank you for saying that. I work really hard in the gym. I put in the time there so that when I get in the ring,

I believe that if you have pride in what you do, you need to prepare yourself and you need to look, the part of what you do, whatever that is. So let's step this back a little bit, because I think for most people, NWA for them was what existed in the, you know, 70s, 80s, whatever, and then what's existed since power started. How did you become the NWA champion? I'm with you that 80s, 90s, because of my age, that's the wrestling I grew up on.

Yeah. I was really fortunate. I grew up in central Arkansas. I mean, it's legitimate. I'm from Pine Bluff, Arkansas. But because of the central location, in the mornings, I got Memphis wrestling. So I got Lawler, all those guys. And, you know, that's the Memphis style of wrestling is one style.

In the afternoon, I got Superstation. So I got NWA, you know, Georgia Championship Wrestling. And at night, I got Texas, which was world class, sportatorium, Von Erick's, Free Birds. So I got every combination, every style of wrestling. And that's where my love for wrestling came from. But for me, and boy, this sounds like I'm putting the company over, but for me, the best wrestling in the world was NWA. And we're talking best of the best, prime time. We're talking for horsemen, road warriors, you name it, and they were there.

And watching wrestling, that was wrestling to me. I couldn't remember being maybe my first or second year in the business and really not good at all. At the time, at the time I was probably 300 pounds. I've lost 50 or 60 pounds in that time. Some little runagade show up in the hills of Arkansas that was calling themselves NWA something, and I was so excited to get to work for the NWA. And when I got up there, there were probably, you know, 60 people there.

It was at a dark school, high school gym. It was not an NWA franchise. Just somebody that knew the popularity. Maybe 12 years ago, I got involved with an NWA organization and the first match that I had with them, I won the NWA Oklahoma Heavyweight Championship. And that was huge for me. Getting to know the ownership, Director of Operations, getting involved with it. I just kind of thought to myself, I don't know what I have to bring to the table,

but I love those letters. I respect those letters. And if there's anything I can do to help bring that back to the prestige that it once had, and I don't know that I could. I want to do that. I think we made some headway in the old ownership. There was some Japan stuff. There was a lot of TV talk.

There were franchises throughout the United States, and it was okay. And then under the current regime, William Patrick Corrigan buys it. Dave Lagana has huge, just magic with camera work and editing. And, you know, that was the 10 pounds of gold series, which really was my introduction to the world. And that in itself is a story because it took a lot of trust for a guy who grew up under the old system of protect the business, don't ever bring your family up. You don't want anybody in the world to know, like, as everybody knows now, I'm a school teacher. But you don't want anybody to know that, right? Because you want everybody to believe you show up in the shows at a limousine.

You're making millions of dollars. There was a level of trust there that Dave and Billy earned. Yeah. And their idea was, we think you have a really good story. What are you comfortable with us just opening it up? And I wasn't. I won't say it took convincing, but I'm okay with who I am. Right.

I mean, so I'd do anything I wanted to hide. And I said, let's do it. And people liked it. At that point, did your students know that you were the NWA champion? I don't. It's, okay, this is now my 11th year, teaching and my wife taught at the same school actually she moved up into the the administration side okay and i and i literally walked into her classroom as she in between years took her classroom

started teaching her subject oh wow and as a guy for people that don't know sometimes some of this are not very artsy right so i literally didn't have to change anything the same name was on the door everything i just walked in and i didn't know if i'd be a good teacher Turns out I'm pretty good at it. They already knew, right? Because she used that to kind of connect with the kids. Once one group knows, every group knows. So I could easily walk in and say, you know, here's my name, here's what I do.

And the two years before that we're at that school that are now older kids already know what I am. I did not talk about it at all for the first couple of years, but they're going to know. So I have now, this is probably my fifth or six year where opening day of school, I do my introduction, I talk about expectations, I do the teacher thing. And I have one or two slides that say, here's what I do for fun. I'll listen to my passion. I love to do it. I may miss a few days for this, you know. And there's a connection.

A lot of kids think it's cool. And then I'll say, but just so we're clear, this is U.S. history. We're not going to talk about it. Oh, man. And the worst thing, you know, I think one of the worst things that could happen would be for 13 and 14-year-olds to picture their history teacher wearing a pair of wrestling trunks. You know what I'm saying? It is not conducive to the perfect classroom. So I would not, I don't show matches.

You know, they'll bring it up. But I, you know, it's interesting. Where is it that you won the NWA World's Heavyweight Championship? Kind of my home court, to be honest with you. In which organization? was NWA Texoma at the time, which is on the border that's the Texas Oklahoma border. Jacks Dane was the champion, and a lot of people are familiar with Jacks, Jacks is a monster.

And I had wrestled for that time. I was the North American champion twice, which that belt is currently not part of the, in use. but I wrestled Jacks maybe three or four times for the World Championship and I won he he was he did not have to offer me another match he'd beat me plenty of times and he actually came into my home court an NWA TechShome in front of my fans and my promotion and gave me another shot and I'm a I'm a big believer that the fans give you energy you know if the fans are behind you yeah it adds something and it takes that to beat a monster.

I just, you know, it's so crazy hearing the story and knowing that in your 50s, you've now had this chance to basically live your dream. Absolutely. Well, and here's my hesitancy on that. I never dreamed that high. Wow. Well, you know what I'm saying? It's realize I grew up watching the NWA, and I grew up watching Dusty Roads and Harley race.

and Rick Flair and Terry Funk. And I mean, all of these guys, and I won't say I idolized them, but like that was the peak. That was the epitome. So to say that when I, at 30 years old, when I said, hey, I'm going to be a wrestler, I never went into it going. And my goal is to be, you know, my goal was to have a match and see how I did. And then my next goal was to see if I could actually have another match and then could I get better. and it's just, it's kind of like anything.

It's like, you know, we were telling earlier, it's hard work. Yeah. Sticking to it. Yeah. And then you can kind of start dreaming a little bit. Right. So if you've been a school teacher now for 11 years, what were you doing before that? It's a, boy, it's a hodgepodge of, well, I was, I worked for a newspaper in Arkansas.

As a writer? No, as a, um, uh, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, manager, delivery manager, district manager. I progressed a zone manager. I was a training manager. I went from there.

What I had always wanted to do was pharmaceutical cells. So I had an opportunity to pharmaceutical sales, and I did that for a little while. Then I ran a business, a small business that we grew into a big business. And from there, I was offered a job by, not a competitor,

but one of our big accounts the now defunct Sears company in Chicago one of the vice presidents there and I would negotiate contracts against each other but we build up like a respect he got a

another vice president's job actually and he offered me a vice presidency of his company and I took that and we moved to Texas and I actually at that point had walked away from wrestling and I laugh at myself because it was okay it's time to give up this I need to now dedicate myself.

I mean, I had two kids. We selling a house in Texas, in Arkansas, buying a house. Anyway, that lasted about a year. And I took another vice presidency of another service company. And somehow I started, I could tell you how, but I started wrestling again. And, you know, it gets a little frustrating from a business standpoint. If your job is to try to grow a business and you do that successfully, and then they sell the company and make a lot of money,

and your reward is, okay, I guess I got to find another job. So I got into teaching and didn't know if I was going to be good at it or not. Turns out I'm not bad at it at all. And it gives me summers, two weeks of Christmas,

Thanksgiving, spring break, every weekend free to wrestle, which is really where my heart is. And you're doing it? Yeah, it's a great thing. It's a, it's, you know, I remember reading and I want to, up, you know, well, one of me, I'm a big, I like to read, I like wrestling history.

And I think Mick Foley's first book, there's a quote in there where he talks about a moment in a match at a big paper view where he stands up and he says, as he turns, he said he could see the stand, the every person in the, in this huge sellout crowd, stand up with him as he made the turn all the way around. And he said, and that was the highlight. At that point, that was the highest point of my career. And they said, and what's the lowest? and he said, standing there when it was over, I'm wondering if I'd ever get to do that again. Wow. So for me, especially as my body changes,

and I'm breaking down, and it's just, it's, it's, it's, it's what happens, right? Every time I'm in the ring, it's, it's an honor and a pleasure, and I'm getting to do what I love to do, and you also wonder, one of my lines right now is I have more miles in the, you know, in the rear, you know, in the rearview mirror than I do in the windshield. You don't know, and I don't know. I mean, I'm just so thankful for the opportunity. It's doing what I love to do.

What has been that one moment like Mick describes that you go back to and you're like, oh, my God. That's actually easy because it's winning the NWA World's Heavyweight Championship. And it wasn't in front of 60,000 people. I mean, it was a huge crowd for our organization at the time. And I, you know, I made a line when Billy and Dave, and when Billy bought it, and I went out to Championship Wrestling from Hollywood and we were doing some

filming with them because you know good production all those kind of things and I'm a big believer and you don't rehearse promos right because I think if you do that doesn't mean you don't have an idea

of what you want to say but if you rehearse that this is a Dusty Roads thing if you rehearse it you lose the passion of it the belief of it and I just again I made a statement that this is my mountain top

okay so the point is when I won the NWA championship it literally was my mountain top. And I've had people say, oh, no, if so-and-so called you and offered, you'd go, and it'd be bigger, and literally it won't. It couldn't. I've had opportunities. And it's, with the love and the passion and the respect that I grew up with the NWA, there is nothing higher. It doesn't mean I couldn't make more money. I mean, but that was the high point. And, you know, now I'm in a position here where first episode of power, I lost a match

saying that I'll never get another shot at that title. So a lot of people will look at that and they'll go, well, your emotion's not, that's not real emotion. That's real emotion for me. You know, I mean, again, it's wrestling. Well, we know what wrestling is, but the, if that is my mountaintop. If winning that is my mountain top and I am now losing a match saying there's no opportunity to ever get there again, that's real emotion for me. Right. I mean, frame it however you want to, that's real.

Anything going to happen in wrestling, though. You could have that championship game. That's what they say. That's what they say. You're right. And I will never dismiss that something could happen. But I'm also, you know, I really try to be a man of my word. And again, it's wrestling.

Some things could happen. But that's, again, that's real to me. If I say I'm accepting the stipulations and I lose the match, I accept what comes with it, even if I don't like it. Did you have opportunities to work for WWF in any sort of small capacity or WCW? When I first, like my initial phone call was to WCW. I'm a vice president of a company, and I'm always about physical challenges. And I thought, you know, I've always wanted to do this.

I think I might be decent. I want to give it a shot. And they're the first call I made. Now, realize I'm married. I have two kids. I have house payment. I have car payments. And I'm also a responsible adult.

Now, old school fans or wrestlers would say, well, then you weren't committed because you do what you got to do if that's your dream. But I was not going to walk away from that with those responsibilities. Yeah, you had to support your family. Right. So, yes, I had an opportunity at least to go in there and I'm going to say try out. Let's say pay my money like a lot of other guys did. I did some WWE stuff. Please don't go back and watch it. Everybody does.

It's okay. and it pops up, you know, I got some good opportunities. But were there ever opportunities for it to be more than just a little bit of extra work here? There was a lot of discussion. Put it that way. Okay. And I don't want to make myself sound better than it is. You know, they never laid a contract in front of me and said, here's your chance, sign this.

But it was, I almost did an impression there. That would have been bad. But it was definitely pull off the side, hey, you know, where have you been? what have you been doing? You know, for me personally, some of the, one of the highlights for me just because of, you know, was getting to spend a tiny bit of time with Dusty Roads because I knew every Dusty promo by heart at 7, 16 years old, you're right? I mean, you know, it's so for him to pull me off the side and, you know, say kid, you know,

which is funny because at the time I'm 40s, something, right? But, you know, hey, that was really good. What are you doing? Or have somebody pull me off, you know, are you under contract with us? You know, and let's talk. Those things happened, but also I don't want to make it look like, yeah, I turned down contracts from every. I didn't. That's probably a good thing because that would have a really tough decision, you know, as a parent.

Recently I had a conversation with what we were watching. There was, I don't want to pump anybody other stuff, but there was a, there was an A&E documentary series on Garth Brooks. Right. and one of the things that he says in the documentary is he's because you know he I didn't know this he walked away as the number one bestselling artists of all time and he walked away from everything he just he retired for 14 years I didn't I had no clue right and in this documentary he is he's being interviewed and he goes I was on the road and he said I you know I guess he has three daughters and he said my daughter said both and he said I said what did you say she said both and he goes, it occurred to me. I have never said both. My wife has never said both, which means that the nanny is raising my daughter.

And he said, I can't live with that. Okay. Wow. And my wife looked at me and she goes, and I know she goes, thank you. And I went, what? And she goes, you had a vision that I didn't have. You understood.

She said, you had opportunities. You could have pursued those opportunities. but you cared more about your family than you did about that. And that's true. Now, don't get me wrong. I don't think I was that deep, you know. But I understood my responsibilities and my love for my family. And I'm glad that if they had laid it out there, that would have been a hard thing to say no to.

And perhaps everything happened for a reason. I believe that. To be where you're at now. I completely agree with that. And like it brings such a smile to my face when I hear the reaction from the crowd. As soon as you get out there, Mom, I. storm my son me too it's like it's like uh as somebody asked me recently they went uh you know they were commenting i'm really surprised at the reaction that you get you know when i'm like me too

you know it's not like it's not like i had this master plan and i'm like when i say this they're gonna i literally go out there and i saw a meme recently that said uh be real be raw be open because there's too many fakes in life, right? So, 99. whatever percent of everything I say is 100% real, right? I mean, it's, now, don't get me wrong, I think I can be a good storyteller. And sometimes, you know, you, I don't want to say elaborate, but there's a better way to say it than maybe it actually happened.

I don't go out there with a master plan, you know, and say, here's what's going to happen. And they're going to react. There's nobody more surprised than me. You know, when I said I'm Mama Storm's baby boy, that was almost an over. ode to dusty roads, you know. And also an ode to Mick Foley. Absolutely.

Yeah. And I, you know, I'm all, again, I'm about the history of the business. I love the business. I love those guys that came before and made it possible for people like us. But when I said it, if you, like I've gone back and watched it and there is no pause, no hesitation because I'm not expecting a crowd reaction, right? I just said it. And then for that to, for whatever reason, connect to people and for them to grab onto

that. And, you know, I mean, I got in the ring after doing that for the, match and Brian Hebner was the ref and I said I can't decide if I'm excited about that reaction or if I'm going to live to regret it. So, but I'm excited and I love that people love it. And now you got a button right here. I have a button and a T-shirt. There's no greater, there's no greater joy in life than to hear your 95-year-old mom

referred to herself as Mama Storm. It's like, I mean, I call her every day and everything I say is true. She hates that I wrestle Because she'll tell I just don't want you to get hurt You know I called her today And I was talking to her on the phone

I'm in the car with a couple of the guys on the way The studio And Well where are you? And I said I'm in Atlanta mom She goes Atlanta Well that's so far away

And I said but it's going to be okay mom It's good Well just don't get hurt okay Okay mom I mean she I said everything I say is real And again I'm 55, but I am, I'm the youngest of four kids.

What was four kids? I am by far the youngest. I was a late, late child. I am the baby boy, and I am a mama's boy. That's just, that's just, that's just, that's just all true statements right there. And it's, it's true. Is there anything that you can't do in the ring now that you used to be able to do that you wish you could? I'm Mr. Odyssey.

I never did much anyway. I'm just saying, I'm just saying. But it wasn't, I think, I think I can do everything that I've ever done. I'm great. And I think for the most part, I can do it at the same speed. I don't think I've lost a lot of speed. I've always prided myself on being a physical wrestler. Right.

I mean, you know, Johnny Valentine gets credit for a statement that it'll pop up every now and then. And it says, you may not believe wrestling is real, but you're going to know that I am. And that's my approach. Now, here's the downside. I used to be able to do it five or six nights a week. You know, now it takes me more time to recover. Well, you wrestled last night. How do you feel right now?

Like I wrestled last night. Again, I'm on my own worst critic, and luckily, you know, right now, I didn't hear. I was, the match was good. I picked it apart in my head while it was happening and after it happened. They had two matches, right? I had one. Well, I got to buy. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah. Yeah, I was legitimate. We had, you know, we had an injury that, and I was really excited about... Yeah, you're going to work Ken Anderson. Yeah, and that's a guy who I've become friends with, and he's so talented and, you know, so much experience. And I was really looking forward to seeing what we would do. And legitimate injury, he wasn't here, so I got to buy. And then, but I'm, I don't want to say I'm a perfectionist, but it's like I don't like to watch my matches because I go,

what was I thinking? Or why did I do that? Or should have done this? Or, yeah, that's terrible. And I don't criticize anybody else. It's just me. So I tweaked a couple of things that I don't normally tweak. I mean, I have some things that are hurting that don't normally hurt,

and I have the things that are always hurting that will hurt. And yes, we've got tonight and we've got tomorrow. But, you know, when you love it, you just figure out how to do it. What hurts on you? Oh, no. Ask me what doesn't hurt. No, I'm just kidding. Nick Foley, I said the same.

thing. What hurts on you the most? And can you be like, that's because of this exact move and this exact match? No, yes, I can. Yes, I can. It's like, it's a, and I will never compare my injury list to McFollies because he did some things that I can't even imagine doing. But, you know, it's, my back is an ongoing issue. I have no cartilage in either knee, so it's bone on bone. So just standing is eventually, it's going to, you know, it's going to ache eventually. there's a big list but maybe two years ago

Josephus and I had an empty arena match at so it's empty arena so it wasn't for T&A or impact but it was in their arena before their pay-per-view and it was it turned out really really well

really happy with the product that we put out there the finish was a bump off the top corner onto a ladder to the outside. No, it will, okay. We actually talked about this yesterday with somebody in the locker room, and I went, I really thought the ladder would at least bend a little bit.

I didn't, but here's the thing. It wasn't that one that got me. It was the fact that it didn't bend and basically just rolled me off onto the floor on the top of my head onto a second ladder. That's the one that got me. and that one, it's been over, it's been a while, and my body hadn't, my neck will never be the same, my back one. So when you see me and I can't turn, like, when I'm doing this instead of this, you understand that, I can narrow it down to that. Now, let's be honest.

I knew exactly what I was doing. I chose to do it. Sure. I would do it again, right? I mean, in the right situation, I would do it again. No regrets. Man, it's, it's, that's the weirdness, isn't it? Because I look back and I go, that is so stupid, you would do that again.

in a heartbeat. Right? It's a wonderful thing we do. I think you're such an inspiration, not just to wrestlers who are going, oh my God, I can do this when I'm in my mid-50s, but to everybody else that's sitting on the sidelines going, I wish I had chased after my dreams,

but maybe it's not too late. And maybe I can go after it. So what do you dream of now? What do you still have your eyes set on? I don't want to, this is not a storyline, issue at all, right? I'm living my dream. And I mean that completely, honestly, it's 55,

I'll be 56 in a few weeks. I don't give up birthday because I don't want everybody looking for my birthday. But I'll be 56 in the middle of February. All I've ever wanted to do is be a part of the wrestling business. I love it. I think I have something to add whether I think I can still

add in the ring, maybe, not on a nightly basis, right? I can't do it five or six nights a week twice like I used to, but I've got a lot of knowledge. I've got a lot of teaching. I do a friend of my name, James Beard, and I do clinics together. You know, where we teach and we try to pass on some of the knowledge, we've got just, if I could, my dream now would be, okay, number one would be, I would love to hold that championship one more time. Okay, that's possible. The stipulations could change. Like you said, it's wrestling. I'm not holding out for that one, right? It's, it's, I was surprised they wanted a 51-year-old champion, to be honest with you.

So to want a 56-year-old champion, not likely, not holding my breath on that, but you asked me my dreams. And the second would be to continue what I told myself I was going to do however me 12 years ago or 13 years ago. I want to, I want to do whatever I can, whatever that is, small, large, whatever, to continue the path that the NWA is on. If my dream is to have the NWA have the same, and maybe it's not possible because it was so, it was wrestling, right? But to have the NWA reach the prestige that it deserves. And we're getting there. I would say at this point we have exceeded expectations. Oh, yeah.

And you're just getting started. I mean, right now there's no ceiling, right? I mean, this is a great time to be in wrestling, a part of wrestling, watching wrestling, right? I mean, there's so many opportunities for everybody. But truthfully, those are my dreams now. I would love to hold that one more time. Probably won't happen. I want to be a part of the NWA.

And even now, I will occasionally get phone calls from other organizations. Just an exploratory. I know you're an NWA guy. What would you think about, and you know, you listen, that's not where I want to be. I am where I want to be. I would love to be doing this for the next however many years, 10 years, 15 years. Wow. We'll see.

And then work, I'm sure you already are working with young talent. but maybe work backstage as a producer or something like that? Yeah, and I'm doing some of that now, whether it's here or other places, you know, helping with young guys, helping with matches. You know, I'm part of some other smaller TV things that are going on, so I'm helping with the production part. I mean, there's just so many avenues in wrestling. Now, don't get me wrong, nothing matches.

Nothing matches being in the ring in front of fans. Whether they're loving, you're hating you, but it's just to be there. You know, I get, the way my mind works, it doesn't matter whether it's a promo or even a joke. Like, I got to say it. I get it out of my head. And I had a promo that I haven't gotten out of it, that I was really thinking about last night. And it was like, I think you have to value every second, every moment in life, right? I mean, you have to appreciate every minute that I can spend with my mom, right?

She's 95 years old. On a different level, though, every time I get to walk out in front of the NWA fans, you know, wherever it's at, and get a chance to talk with them. Last night, I greeted everybody. I said, whole family. And I was like, when I said that, I'm not saying it like, watch this. This is going to be great. It's like, I feel it, right? Yeah.

And then to be able to get in the ring. There is no greater, well, I don't know what it is. It's an addiction. There's no, there's no greater high. Sure. Stepping in the ring and doing what you love to do. Nothing. And you're doing it.

I know. That great. I mean, it's like this, like you said, one of my dreams was like, here we are. You know, we're there. I'm there right now. This is a Saturday. Right. Tonight, living my dream.

How many people can say that, right? Very few. And I say that to people all the time. You know, when people say to me that, you know, because I have the honor of sitting down with people like you, they're like, you have a dream job. I'm like, well, yeah, but like all I did was work hard. Right, right. And then it ends up happening. Yeah.

And I feel like you're the exact example of that. My mind works so bizarre. I'm sorry. Friday, Thursday, I'm teaching Thomas Jefferson, by the way, right? I mean, we're talking presidencies. And I'm going through some quotes of Tom Sheverson. Not super interesting sometimes. But one of his quotes is, I find it the harder I work, the more luck I have.

And that's what you're saying, though. Very few times do people look into exactly what they want to do. And the truth is, if you look into it and don't work at it, you're not going to keep it anyway. I don't plan on, you don't plan on letting up. It's your passion and your drive and all the things that get you where you're at. So if you sit back and go, all right, I'm there, I can relax. You're moving backwards. Right.

I don't plan on letting up. Hard work. I drove eight hours here to Atlanta, put myself up in a hotel because I knew I'd have the opportunity to do these interviews. And I think there's so many people that go, well, I'd want to do it, but it costs too much money, too far away,

don't have the time, whatever, whatever excuse you want to put in there. And that's the key word. Right. Excuse me. It's easy. It's going to the gym, And again, every wrestler deals with it, right?

I'm not saying I'm different to anybody else. But when you go to the gym, it's easy to leave work or even wrestling and go, oh, man, my back's killing me, my shoulder hurts. I don't think I do cardio today. My knees hurt. I think I'll just take this day off. Yeah. Well, that turns into two days off.

The bottom line is you just got to go. You've got to make the commitment, like you're saying. If you've got to drive eight hours, put yourself it. Hard work pays off. Of course. You want to fulfill a dream, put in the work to fulfill. fulfill your dream. If you don't, you pretty much guarantee you not to get your dream, right? As an old school guy yourself, what's your take on the current landscape of wrestling?

Obviously, there's a bunch of options, but it's also a different style of wrestling than when you were coming up. This is a great time to be a professional wrestler. It's a great time to start learning if you want to be a wrestler. It's a great time to be a fan of professional wrestling. I don't care what anybody says, almost all of us that are in wrestling were fans of wrestling and that's why we're there. There was something that appealed to you that you wanted to do. Made this comment. I've made it before. You know, it's like ice cream, right?

It's, there's, there's Rocky Road, there's mint chocolate chip, there's a personal favorite chocolate chip cookie dough. Right. But there's also vanilla and chocolate just because I like one doesn't mean you have to. Yeah. There's lots of things going on right now. And if you say, hey, I don't like that style of wrestling, guess what? You got other opportunity. You're going to find something.

You know, I'm looking, I'm not going to pretend like I came up with this, but listening, somebody was telling me that as far as the demographics or the people that are watching the NWA power, you would think it would be people that are of a certain age that grew up watching. And the truth is the demographics, that's not it. It is an old-school presentation and style of wrestling. Yeah. But the fan base that is, at least a larger percentage, are not those people. There's something that there's something about NWA power that appeals to people of all ages.

Again, you want another style, you can find it. You know, I can't watch wrestling on, pick a night. Let's pick one that there's not a lot of, well, there's wrestling every night now. Thursday? Okay, so let's say Thursday. I can't find, I don't want to watch wrestling. I can't watch it on Thursday. I'll find it on Monday, Tuesday, you know, Wednesday.

I can go on. I mean, there is wrestling on Thursday. But you go on TV, right? I mean, you can go on now Facebook. You can go just Google. Find something because it's all there. Yeah. I mean, I don't think he'd mind me telling the story.

We have a assistant principal that's his first year. And he walked up to me the day before, the day we were starting our Christmas break. And he goes, I had no idea. I went, you had no idea what? He said, I didn't know you were a wrestler. He said, I love wrestling. I took my wife and my kids the other night to Extreme Midget Wrestling and we were talking, okay, but here's the cool thing. It's like the administration, like some of them have come and watched.

Not everybody, not every administration or, you know, school would be comfortable with that. They're supportive. That's great. But he found, he went from Extreme Midget Wrestling to local wrestling because he wanted to watch to NWA Power because, and it's three different things. You can find anything, right? Just pick your flavor of ice cream. You're going to find it. It's a great time to be a wrestler, a great time to be a fan.

I think it would be pretty cool for my history teacher to be the former NWA World Heavyweight Champion. You know, you can see it on their faces if they think it's cool or not. You really can. And here's my joke that I make. There was a time in my life where I did more hardcore stuff. My tag team partner and I did, and there was one clip that was just all over the, all over the Internet. It was we put a guy through a burning table, right? I mean, that was the thing.

And I'd have kids throw up like the faction sign that we had, and they'd throw up the sign. You know, Tim Storrho, I saw you put somebody through a table in my, you know, do your homework. You know, and it's it. Or I'll put you through a burning table. You can't say that, but I bet if you go, do your homework. Right. No, that's what I'm saying. That's what the people are like, hey, I can't just see.

I can't see as a teacher. I work heel as a teacher, right? I'm not, I'm not, yay, let's do our homework. Do your homework. I love my life. Love my life. You can tell the kids I think it's cool. I imagine your kids are not out of line, the students you teach.

I am known for my classroom management. No, they're good kids. And just like in life, I set very clear expectations early on, and I am annoyingly consistent. Everybody's the same expectation. Everybody's the same standard. Be a good. Act right. No problems.

I have very few problems. This has been such a pleasure sitting here. I've enjoyed it. Me too. This has been so great, so inspiring as well. Your story is absolutely incredible, and I know that you're self-aware enough to realize that this is really special. It is incredibly special.

I'm so blessed to be a part of it. I don't want everyone to end. I don't. I just never want it to end. Tim, such a pleasure. Thank you. I appreciate it. Oh, what a guy.

What a guy. Thank you for taking the time to listen to this super-inspirate. inspiring chat with Tim Storm. Please take a screenshot. Tag me at Chris Van Bleet. Tag at Tim Storm NWA. Let us know that you were listening. Let us know what you thought of this conversation.

Man, 55 years old and doing what he loves. Which means there's no reason that if you are 25 years old, 35 years old, 35 years old, 105 years old or any age in between there, that you too can't be doing what you love. I mean, I'm doing what I love. This was not an easy path. If you know my story, if you've heard my story before, it was not an easy path. But I'm doing what I love.

Interviewing wrestlers, hosting TV shows, hanging out with you. That's the biggest thing. That's the best part about this. So what I'm basically saying is there's no reason that you can't be doing what you love for a living every single damn day. All right, I'm heading to Chicago this weekend

for AEW Revolution. So if you're going to be there, I'd love to see you. Please make sure you say hi, whether you see me from across the room or across the street or whatever it happens to be. It'd be awesome to meet you and just know that you're on this audio adventure, you're on this video adventure with me. Living the dream together, right? You know, in life we're often told to strive for greatness. And I actually don't think that's very good advice because I don't think that you should strive to be good or you should. should just strive to be great. I think you should strive to be memorable. And this is a quote from

me. This is a CVV original here. I'm usually leaving you with quotes from people who are far, far more intelligent than I am. But this is something that's really stuck with me lately. I go to a lot of auditions for hosting or acting. Yeah, I've been acting. I've been doing some acting rules. I've been in a few movies recently. I've been in a few commercials. And I think the biggest thing is, you know, I've been, I've been in a few commercials. And I think the biggest thing is they're not always hiring the best actor. They're not always hiring the best host when I go into these auditions. They're hiring the person that they remember.

So they're not hiring someone who has the most talent. They're hiring the person who's the most memorable. So in life, don't be good. Don't be great. Be memorable. If you're in Chicago this weekend, I will see you there. Make it a great week. Make it memorable.

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Hammer Alley. Ever heard of then? 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. Form.