Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 318 - Stone Cold Steve Austin

Episode Date: January 27, 2020

Stone Cold Steve Austin joins the Power Project Crew on their Los Angeles podcasting road trip. This man needs no introduction, but in case you've been living under a rock, Stone Cold is arguably the best professional wrestler to ever enter the ring. He's had legendary matches with The Rock, Undertaker and even gave the now President of the United States a Stone Cold Stunner! Stone Cold is a 6 time WWE Champion, '96 King of the Ring and 3 time Royal Rumble Winner. Stone Cold now hosts the "Steve Austin Show" podcast and his show on the USA Network "Straight Up Steve Austin" returns this summer! Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Visit our sponsors: ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $99 ➢Perfect Keto: http://perfectketo.com/powerproject Use Code "POWERPROJECT10” at checkout for $10 off $40 or more! ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject  ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject   ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok ➢Power Project Alexa Skill: http://bit.ly/ppalexa FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/  Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz

So I don't know about you guys, but in my past, the absolute worst blowouts have come from taking in too much MCT oil powder. That can happen. Have you guys experienced any of that? I made the mistake of cooking steak in MCT oil, and I shat myself. It just drove through my body. It was horrible. Yeah, the keto issues. Yeah, I've had some issues myself.

But what I noticed from the Perfect Keto products, the Perfect Keto MCT oil powder, is that you don't have that problem. At least for me. Have you guys run into that with this product? I've been good. Yeah, I've been good too. And then plus it makes your coffee taste really good. You got vanilla. You got chocolate.

You got salted caramel. They taste really good. And if you're looking to dump something in your coffee, which I know a lot of people are, but we can overdo it with like things like heavy whipping cream and butter and everything else. This is a great, easy, convenient way of doing it. Just dump it right in your coffee and it changes the flavor profile quite a bit. Yeah. And what's also awesome about the MCT oil powder is like it's not one of one of those things where you have to be keto adapted. It's not one of those things where you have to fast from sugar for like 10 years for it to taste good like some of these other keto products. It's good to literally anybody and i'm happy to report i have not had one bad blowout from this perfect keto mct oil powder you guys really need to give it a go head over to

perfectketo.com slash power project at checkout enter promo code project power project 10 for 10 off your order of 40 or more again that's promo code power project 10 for 10 off your order of $40 or more. Again, that's promo code POWERPROJECT10 for $10 off any order of $40 or more. I need to think a little bit here and see if I can remember everything because it's a hard act to follow, but we're not allowed to talk about politics. We can't talk about your old wrestling career. We can't talk about what you're currently doing.

We can't talk about religion. I don't know. i that kind of activity in general can we talk about football then well we've been talking about football off the air for about 15 minutes hell y'all showed up from uh sacramento here in the mean streets of los angeles i got you back don't worry about nothing your safety yeah we're pretty we're pretty nervous, I got stuff stashed all over. Y'all are in a safe place. And I was thinking, hey, man, I should text Mark, but I think I'm doing his show, but he might be doing my show. And then all you guys walked in here empty-handed,

and I said, well, maybe they was going to do my show, and now I'm doing your show. Yep, I think you're always running the show. I think that's what the deal is well we've got four guys sitting around with four mics so if we can't come up with something then there's something wrong with all of us yeah we should come up with something good you're the gift of gab you're the big inventor come up with something i got something i got something you've been training for a long time how long you've been lifting for

yeah man since i was in uh fifth grade is it hard to still be consistent, or do you still love it? I still love it, but consistency is the key. And, man, towards the back end of 2019, I want a mule deer hunting trip with my brother-in-law. And, man, last year I went down there and I was on a don't drink spree, and that caused damn near a permanent rift in our relationship. So this year, doing the right thing, I showed up with the Jack Daniels and zero Coke because I'm watching the calories. But, man, we blew out the back end of 2019 in high fashion,

and, God dang it, we was out there at about, I don't know, 5,000-foot altitude, and I took a mule deer at about 450 yards away. And then we had to go up there and find it. And then, you know, coming to get that thing down, man, I'm used to hunting in South Texas. Well, this isn't a podcast about hunting. I'll get off of it. People out there start switching it down. You didn't kill nothing, did you?

It's hard to eat them when they're alive. So anyway, dude, you know, I'm used to driving up to something in south Texas, throwing a bike, and go back to the house. Man, when you're out there in the mountains, I looked at my brother-in-law, because this is the first time I'd done that. I said, man, what's next? He goes, man, I'll go get the buggy and drive it back around. And he goes, you got a belt?

I said, nope. He goes, here you go. He took off his belt and gave it to me. I wrapped the belt around that deer's horns and started dragging it down that mountain. And, man, I can tell you, because I'm from south Texas and I live in Los Angeles, I know what zero foot of sea level is. And when you put me at 5,000, there's a big difference. And that's not even super high.

So, anyway, man, I'm dragging that damn deer down that mountain, and we'd been on the jack the day before and the day before that and the day before that. And I was huffing and puffing. My heart was about to beat out of my chest. I said, God dang. I said, man, you're going to die. And I said, if this is the way I'm going to go down,

at least I shot a mule deer on top of the mountain, and now I'm dragging him down. And I didn't go to the store to buy the sandwich either. And I've been eating on that mule deer ever since, and it was the best time I've ever been on. So I'm back in the groove now because I've got a timeline. I've got a date to meet. So I just had a treadmill delivered yesterday.

Went down to the Mecca and saw Gold's Gym yesterday, and they told me, man it's pretty pretty low you know frequency down about 1 130 p.m i walked in about 1 130 p.m and i thought i was at a discotheque where's that was that inspiring man there was people everywhere and i'm kind of like pretty low key so i think i'm just going to stay here at the house do my treadmill i got a power rack over there but the consistency is the key and now i'm back on track so now i'm weighing and measuring everything again it's kind of like a vicious cycle with me i enjoy life but i enjoy my fitness too and sometimes one slides over and you gotta reel it back in and get the fitness back

you know but i still love training though i figure you know at the very least you know i like to be in shape i like to look good you know somewhat i'm not a bodybuilder but it just just mentally i feel better when i'm working out you are a private guy and it seems like you you like to be at home and stuff like that and you like to hunt and you like to you know just kind of be amongst some of your friends that's kind of a safe spot for you um what's it like you know when you when you turned famous you know was that was that hard for you or or you know did you still have your network of friends that you could get around to kind of decompress from somehow no well you know it was a long time coming so you know it wasn't like it happened overnight so it was kind of like

you got his ease into it and then it turns into something. It's like 10, 12 years before you're kind of on the map. You can get caught up in it, and you get a big head. And I've seen it happen to many people just because I get on TV. Man, the way my parents raised us, I just, hey, man, kept everything on a DL. And when you get dropped on your head and damn near paralyzed, anything can get taken from you. So I appreciate it for what it is. But, yeah, man i still i still have my

network of people that you know when i close the doors or when i used to have that ranch down in south texas when i shut that gate you know that's my place and ain't nobody else gonna be on that out there and man if i don't see another human being other than my wife in three months i'm fine i mean it's hard because people get they must get so excited still this day when they see you because you were fighting for the working man. You know, you're the beer drinking, kick the shit out of the boss guy. You were representing a lot of Americans. A lot of people would love to do that, go to work tomorrow and kick the shit out of their boss.

I'm sure they would, and I got a chance to do it every single time with the Monday Night Raw. And when I wrote the Monday Night Raw, I mean, a lot of times, I mean, you know, you got to understand life on the road, man. When you're dead dog tired, I mean, you do what you love. And, you know, when you're able to do what you love, you know, every single day of the week and get paid for it, man, that's a pretty good feeling. And so a lot of times, you know, when you go to work and when that glass breaks on Monday Night Raw, you know, that, you know, that shits on.

You get a chance to go out there and do your thing. I segued off. What was the original question? Just, you know, you were representing a lot of Americans, and so people were getting super excited. When people still, when they see you, they probably get so fired up. Oh, that's the one I was trying to make. Thank you very much.

When I was at Gold's Gym yesterday, you know, they got that muscle man, you know, the Gold's Gym physique. And so there's a pedestal that you step on, and you put your chin in the thing and take a picture. So I had Rich Menger take a picture for my Instagram account. And the guys that dropped off my treadmill yesterday, they had to make some adjustments this morning. So they came over this morning, and they told me that from the window,

a lot of people from the gym were taking pictures of me from behind taking pictures on the gold jizz pedestal and they wouldn't say nothing to me while i was in the gym because they didn't know well i was all camoed out yeah hey man is he dangerous is he cool or is he gonna stun my ass no but everybody's really cool yeah that's good yeah they're probably letting you have your time to yourself it It's workout time, right? That's surprising, though. I was just in there just kind of perusing around. I thought I might pick up a piece or two from my gym in Nevada, but I wasn't going to train.

I'm a little bit of a germaphobe, man. I was talking to the guy that managed that place, and everybody's coming in, and I was like, God dang, man, there's a lot of human beings in here. There's got to be a lot of germs floating around that place. I know on my equipment, I'm basically about the only guy handling it guy handling it so you know i'm walking around like uh who's that guy that real big germaphobe used to have the purell all the time comedian oh i don't remember anyway i digress howie mandel yes i only know that because i read something where like they they

put it like a prank on him where they hypnotized him or something weird, and they had everybody touch him. And then he got out of it, and he just tried to sue everybody or something weird. But yeah, you got to check out Gold's win. It's real hot and sweaty and muggy on summer mornings. It's the worst.

It's gross. All the bars you touch, as soon as you're done, it's like I got almost like rust. Yeah, everything in there is old. There's a lot of shit that's really old now. Even if it ain't old, if it's brand new, there's been a whole bunch of people. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, because those germs ain't embedded in that steel,

but there's this bunch of fresh human beings coming over and grabbing all over it. But I tell you what, it is, and I'm probably just going a little bit overboard about the germs, but I digress. When you go in there and see cats like and see them over here, you all jacked up in shape. It's inspiring. So, you know, it's kind of like it's very motivating. And then when the chick is over there and she's doing 80-pound dumbbell presses, he's like, all right, I've done my game a little bit. So I think it helps with intensity.

Yeah, when you're on the road, you know, back in the day, like how much time did you guys have for training, like if at all? We had all kinds of time because you fly into a town or drive into the town the night before, you know where the gym's at. Because look at this table. Let's just say it's the United States. And so, you know, basically we're always making loops around the United States. So it's the same stuff over and over and over again.

So in every city and every little town that the WWE goes to, you know where the gym is. You know where the tanning bed is. You know where you can get something clean to eat. So you've got it all figured out. So in the morning, you know, go eat, hit the gym, go do your thing, and then hit the building, do it again the next day. So it's actually very easy, although it can be a grind just because you wore out

from always working and busting your ass. What was, like, one of your favorite things to do? Like, you guys would, you know, wrestle in front of the military, and you'd travel all over the United States and all over the world, really. What was kind of, like, one of your favorite spots to go to or favorite things to do? The lounge and the hotel after the wrestling matches so we could drink. I'm being honest with you.

There's a lot of guys who, you know, went to the clubs or to the strip clubs. That wasn't my thing. I wasn't making, back in the day, I wasn't making enough money to give anybody my money to do anything. My homie don't play that. I'm good with my money. I'll just sit here and drink. So I like to go to the lounge, have a couple cocktails,

and then I ain't driving nowhere to get to my room. And when I first got in the business, we started going to Chicago. Man, I went to the Sheds Museum and Aquarium here, stuff like that. But then all of a sudden you realize, hey, man, I'm in the trenches. I need to just kind of expend my energy doing the things I know I need to do and then go to the building and apply myself and try to get over. So it was just going to the lounge and not doing too much sightseeing. When you finished wrestling, was there a time,

because right now you might not think it, but you're in really good shape. So was there a period of time where you really got out of shape after being super physically active? Like, did that ever happen? Or did you just stay in shape since that point? No, man, about every deer season in SEMA, man, we had Brooks go ranch me and my buddy, uh, after every hunt. Well, before every hunt, we drink a couple of Brooks go ranch margaritas. You just go, you got, you got a little bit of buzz.

Straight shooting. And then, you know, probably skinned a deer or something like that when you get back. And then, you know, man, we're going to drink IPAs. It was before Broken Skull IPA was born. So we drink IPAs, you know, all night or get on the jack. And man, morning

come, you get on the tractor, start shredding. And I had my power rack, I had dumbbells up to 100. You know, I had pretty good setup over there. But man, morning come, you get on the tractor, start shredding. And I had my power rack. I had dumbbells up to 100. You know, I had a pretty good setup over there. But, man, them weights, it's like, man, they're kind of just in the way right now. So all of a sudden, you know, you get home after two and a half months of doing that, and I tell my wife, for some reason, my mirror in Los Angeles looks a lot different than the mirrors I was looking at down there in South Texas.

Because, man, I was in a triple wide. And that damn mirror had me in pretty good shape with a V torso and a little bit of abs. I got back to L.A. I was an H. And I had no abs. I was almost an A. And, God, you talk about just going to hell in a handbasket. Real quick, to answer your question, deer season almost all the time

because of the way we partied down there. And, you know, when you eat a bunch of fried stuff and then you're drinking beer, you know, your body's got to eliminate the alcohol first before it does anything to anything else. So, you know, there's so much alcohol in our bodies, everything that we put in basically turned into fat, and that's a true story. But now, you know and on this last season i let it go a little bit but when i come back and i'm touching almost 280 that's been a hell of a deer season because normally i need to walk or when i'm filming my show uh at 245

you were able to get back into squats we saw a video that you posted uh on social media talking about the knee sleeves and stuff like that that got got me fired up. That was really cool. But you were moving around some good weight. Man, and I was. And then I haven't got a chance to try out those thick knee sleeves that you sent me. But right when I started, you know, starting to move a little bit of weight, pretty comfortable, my knees started bothering me again.

So I said, dude, is this really a good idea to try to start going heavy again? Because I think I said I wanted to hit a 500 squat or something like that, and I did. But after I started doing it, I was like, okay, along the way, sounds like a good goal, but is it in my best interest? And at the end of the day, I'm leg heavy to begin with. I haven't trained legs seriously in 20 years. So who gives a shit what i squat

dude next door don't care and the person at walmart don't care man but my quads look decent i never have trained hams my calves pretty kind of genetic so nah dude i don't i don't know if i'm hit the 500 and i just don't see a reason to because now what i'm kind of starting to realize is you know with having everything repaired from a fusion c34 to uh rotator cuff rebuilds acl pcl put back in tricep reattached with all that when things start going south it's like dude if you really want to keep beating yourself up like you did in the ring or you want to treat yourself a little bit better. So I'll keep it medium heavy, Mark. And I probably play with 225, but to add any more weight to the bar than that, I think would be detrimental.

You know, I'm trying to look 10 to 15 years down the road because I'm not a long-term planter. Most of my stuff is just day to day. But now that I'm starting to think, hey, dude, you know, if you feel like this now, But now that I'm starting to think, hey, dude, you know, if you feel like this now, and when I wake up on a 1 to 10 of pain level, I'm not even a 1. Right. But why push myself in the threshold of what I do not know?

And your mindset wasn't that way when you were young, right? So that's what I was going to ask. Like, is this the first time you've actually thought about, like, 10 to 15 years from right now? Oh, first time ever. Yeah. I'm not thinking about tomorrow. I'm not thinking about tomorrow yet. I Oh, first time ever. Yeah. Man, I'm thinking about tomorrow. I'm not even thinking about tomorrow yet. I ain't done with today. Yeah.

Yeah. And, you know, I've told this story before. Like my older brother, Scott, he'll tell you where he's going in two years, and he'll tell you how long he's going to be there, where they're going to stay, and what they're going to do. Man, when we used to have that ranch, I'd wake up and tell my wife, I think I'm going to drive to the ranch. That's 1,500 miles away.

She said, when are you leaving? Wednesday. When are you coming back? Two weeks. All right, man. I'd haul ass. So that's the way I kind of used to live. And I do for the most part still, but now I am looking a bit more long-term.

So back when you were, I guess, you were wrestling more, were you thinking about, you weren't thinking long-term? Like everything was just like what's in front of you right there and then? That was your mindset? Yes. Damn. Yeah, it must have been chaotic though too, right? You had so much coming at you every single day, right?

Well, I mean, Vince has a long-term plan because he liked to really book a year out, sometimes maybe two. And then, you know, football – I mean, then the wrestling business started picking up and speeding up. And then, you know, he couldn't book as far out. And then the writers came in, so he can't plan that far out, but he likes to plan that way. Me, the way it was going, you know,

just trying to get from one thing to the next. You always think, okay, if you get through SummerSlam, you're trying to get to WrestleMania. You get to WrestleMania, you know, you're trying to get to SummerSlam, you're trying to get to WrestleMania. You get to WrestleMania, you're trying to get to SummerSlam. Kind of six-month windows, but where you're at within a storyline or the framework of the company just depends on what you've got going on and if you're remaining healthy. Some of the guys were getting beat to shreds back in the day, so you kind of never knew. But, man, long-term plans for me, I just make it through the next week.

Yeah. You mentioned your parents a little bit earlier about your upbringing. You're about as humble as someone could possibly be for the amount of fame and being the greatest wrestler of all time, in my opinion. What did your parents or maybe your grandparents, what did they instill in you? What do you think was kind of the key factor? Did they have you, like, did you grow up on a farm? Did they have you working your ass off every day?

Or kind of what was expected of you as a kid? Man, I got, let me see, there's three brothers and a sister. My sister's a baby. So there's five kids, and, like, every night after dinner, you know, one of us had to, we rotated doing the dishes and then, you know, we had a, we had a vinyl siding house, you know, during the summer, we'd have to wash that damn house. We mowed the yard every week. You know, we took the trash out. I mean, you had to clean up your room. You had to do this, that we had chores. And if you didn't

do your chores, I mean, this is back in the day when I was a kid, you got your ass whipped and my mom and dad did an outstanding job. And I'm not a whooping our ass up raising us to know right from wrong. And I've done wrong. But they taught us the right way. And if you weren't going to work for something, you weren't going to get it. And so that's what they instilled in us. And, you know, like I said, man, my mom and dad supported me through everything that I ever did.

And they didn't really know what to think of the fact of what I was going to do or how I was going to fare when I got in the business of pro wrestling, but they supported me. You know, but we learned our lesson, and we knew to take care of business the way we were supposed to. And that's the way we were raised. Well, I imagine any time you got off track it probably you know why there's temptations and there's things out there but it probably didn't feel right because of the way you were raised right hey man you know what you know what's up right or you know when something's wrong yeah you feel it like inside a little bit like that's not it's an unsettling

feeling it's uncomfortable you know like you said it's inside yeah you know what's up but it's also common sense right but god dang well i don't want to uh go into that subject but no i just got finished watching that aaron hernandez video oh yeah you know they're kind of spinning the cte not spinning it towards the end but i mean to do was just a little different you know i'm not talking about sexuality i mean he was just wired a little bit different kind of or you know, kind of the gangster life or whatever. So it was really interesting. I'll leave it at that.

Yeah, he had kind of a life in a fast lane kind of mindset. And, yeah, things just, man, they just, what an amazing talent, though. I mean, he was like, he was better than Gronkowski when they were playing together. I mean, he was unbelievable. Man, Gronk is my guy. Yeah, Gronk's a Hall of Famer now. Anyway, but yeah, it was an interesting story. You guys got to check it out.

Yeah. So, and Tima, do you even know who they're talking about? I have seen the Netflix documentary clip. I've heard about it a little bit on different podcasts here and there. So, yeah, I know this. I was just curious. I don't want to leave you hanging. different podcasts here and there so yeah i i know this is basically involving my two murders yeah yeah uh so when when you were seeing like people going to the strip clubs and doing all

this and that and you're just thinking like how he was just explaining how like you have like higher morals in that i guess we'll say did you try to like pull anyone away from that like somebody who might have potential that's like like like man if you kind of you know slow down a little bit yeah stay over here maybe not don't mess it up too much no i never tried to do that and i wouldn't i wouldn't say that my morals were higher than anybody i just said i didn't go to strip clubs because i'm too cheap don't confuse the two got it got it read between the lines i got it okay yeah there was all kinds of things happening in the hotel lounge yeah okay after the matches yeah along with that actually i guess kind of what andrew said

but when i was a kid i saw like all these guys from the attitude era i wanted physiques like that like i wanted to look like those dudes so that inspired a lot of my training over the time now when you i don't know when it is that you realized that you had the minds of millions of kids, but did that ever affect your decision-making going forward, seeing that all these people were looking at you as an example? No, I was always thinking about what my mom and dad taught me. But again, like I said, I made mistakes along the way, and I paid for them. But in my mind, some things just happen. You just try to do the best you can and manage it, you know, all the situations that you get put in. But, you know,

I think you got to live your life for yourself. And you, it's great to try to inspire others or motivate others and think about others. But you know, when things are happening, I think you kind of living for yourself really, you know, but that being said, when people have high expectations of you and you have high expectations of yourself and you miss the mark, you're missing the mark. Is it kind of a relief being, I guess, like you're still in a spotlight, but being out of that large of a spotlight, I guess.

No, I just think that, you know, with life and experience, you know, hopefully you're making better decisions. And, you know, if you touch a frying pan and it burns the shit out of you, you know, maybe when you're younger you'll touch it again. Get over it. Hey, man, I don't want to do that fucking frying pan. I got you. You know what I'm saying?

I get exactly what you're saying. How are you going to plan on resetting yourself? How does this work out when you're thinking about, like, man, I've got to get back to training the way that I was. I need to get back on my diet. How do you start over again? You know, that's a really good question, Mark. I just get up.

I don't sleep very much to begin with. I'd like to sleep more than I do, but I don't. So I get up about 4. I don't get out of bed. Well, I'll go make two cups of coffee. I'll drink my coffee. I'll get over here at 5. I'll put an hour in on my cardio, on my treadmill.

And then because you guys are coming over, I trained tries this morning. And tonight I'll train back. You don't even need to tell us. We can see what you trained. Popping right out of your camouflage shirt right there. It'd be way too generous. And I'll come back, and I'll walk another hour on that treadmill. Not a crazy walk, maybe 3 to 3.4 miles an hour.

It's just a be-moving walk so you're not sedentary. And so I'm busting ass every day of the week, and then I'll pick up the intensity on that cardio as I get more in shape. But because I've been so sedentary, other than damn near losing my life up in those mountains from that altitude dragging that mule deer down that thing, I'll start picking it up. And I tried something, and I've been on this for about six days. I was talking to Ryback, and he was on my podcast just this past week. I don't want to sing errors, but a few weeks ago, Ryback was on my podcast.

And he said that he had been plant-based for about, I think, a month, a little bit, about a month and a half. And then I'd seen C.T. Fletcher, our mutual friend, announce on Instagram that he'd gone all plant-based. about a month and a half. And then I'd seen C.T. Fletcher, our mutual friend, announce on Instagram that he'd gone all plant-based. And when I saw C.T. say that, because you know C.T. Yeah.

Because he's all the double cheeseburgers and then he's still a meat eater after he got his new heart. And everybody loves C.T. And if C.T. says something, you kind of... You got to listen up. Hey, what's he talking about?

So I called him right before Christmas and he was in the mall shopping. And I said, C.T., what called him right before Christmas, and he was in the mall shopping. I said, CT, what are you doing? He goes, I'm in the mall shopping. And I said, hey, man. I said, well, what's this story about you being plant-based? He goes, Steve. He goes, I feel like a man bucks.

And long story short, he was busy, so we kept it short. I sent him a couple of text messages. I said, you know what? After talking to Ryback, after talking to CT, I said, you know what? Maybe I'll give this a shot. I've done everything else. Yeah. Why not give this one a shot?

I've done the carnivore, which you're on. I lasted about four days on that. And you're kind of, and Seema, you're kind of carnivore right now a little bit? Yeah, just lower carb. That's it. Okay. But God dang, man, I was eating so many steaks. When I was starving way back in the day in Tennessee,

if you would have told me back then, hey, we're going to sign you up where for five meals a day you're going to eat a big-ass ribeye steak cooked any way you want it, I said sign me up because I was starving. But God dang, man, and I cook a pretty good steak, and I was buying good steaks, but God dang, man, it was wearing my gums and my teeth out. I said fuck this. So it was almost like everything in moderation. pretty good steak and I was buying good steaks, but God dang, man, he's wearing my gums and my teeth out. I said, fuck this.

So it was almost like everything in moderation. So I said like, okay, I jump off the deep end and about everything I do. So I'll jump off in the deep end of this and give it a shot. So I'm not, I don't say I'm plant-based cause I drink your protein powder and that's not a plug because I do. I like the chocolate way better than the vanilla. So I drink a protein powder for and that's not a plug because I do. I like the chocolate way better than the vanilla. So I drink protein powder for my protein. I'll eat two dozen eggs a day, egg whites for my other protein, and then tofu, one of my wife makes for me since she's a vegetarian as well

and has been for 30 years. She knows her way around. But me, looking at X number of calories and wanting to get X number, you know, grams of protein and carbs, they're coming up because you've got to have some carbs to be able to have energy. But yeah, because, you know, of the low of the lower protein, I'm used to, you know, close to, you know, 350, 360 grams of protein a day. So you back off that and go down about 250. You know, you need to keep your carbs at 300 minimum and then maybe 80 grams of fat. So it's been a real interesting switch.

And it was interesting because I wasn't used to getting so much fiber because I'm not a big vegetable guy. But now I'm kind of a vegetable guy because I know a lot of stuff to eat. Stomach doing okay with all of it? Well. Takes a little bit, right? Those first few days i was like first of all i didn't miss the fact that i wasn't eating meat and i'm about as caveman carnivore as you

can get as far as being a meat eater so there's there's nothing i miss about it and i was actually to a degree because i've been doing this so long as you guys are younger than me but you've been doing it the same amount of your lifetime as I have. So I've eaten so many goddang plain grilled chicken breasts. I'm like, I'm really tired of eating plain grilled chicken breasts. And then the same thing with the steaks or the lean ground beef, whatever. I said, man, I'll take a break. So I'm doing that right now. And I'm too early in to tell you what's going to happen long term,

but I don't miss eating meat. And that's interesting because now going back to my mule deer and my antelope that I took last year, now I will eat those when I go back to Nevada because that's where they're at. But I'll kind of eat them as needed or I'll treat it as a delicacy rather than eating meals, eating meat, six meals a day. Right. So that's,

I'm doing that different. And that, that's, uh, it's, it's, it's been real interesting because most time when I ask plant based people or vegetarians,

I'll, I'll ask them from a bodybuilding perspective, uh, and nutrition, uh, as far as, you know, what's,

you know, macros getting that protein. Yeah. As I do, what are you eating to get your protein in? And nobody can tell me. They always come up with some kind of horseshit answer. And so I'm finding out, you know, for me, two dozen eggs, two protein shakes,

and, you know, all that stuff to be in the mix of 250. I heard somebody more recently say, you know, one of the biggest mistakes vegetarians ever made was becoming vegan. And I actually kind of agree with that statement because, you know, one of the biggest mistakes vegetarians ever made was becoming vegan. And I actually kind of agree with that statement because, you know, pushing that far may have been a big mistake. And then people can, on the other side of things, can say the same thing about the carnivore diet as well, you know, making that kind of judgment. But I think what you're talking about brings up a really good point.

And this is stuff that people will talk about, you know, Sean Baker and some of these guys that are big proponents of the carnivore diet. And they'll say, well, a lot of the studies on red meat are talking about people that eat a lot of other things. Well, you like to eat a lot of other things. You said everything in moderation. So now it makes sense that you're backing down on the amount of grams of fat that you're taking in and the amount of red meat that you're eating. Because it seems to me that it's a fact that red meat can be bad for you in the presence of a lot of other foods. Like it seems like there's a lot of good evidence that kind of leans that way.

So I was just at a restaurant last night and I got a ribeye and I'm eating all this meat and the chef came over and my wife and I know the chef. And so we chatted with him a little bit and he was like, I don't think I could really do that diet because I love carbohydrates. And he's like, and I worry I would worry about my heart. And so that makes sense. Like if this guy knows that he likes the ice cream and brownies here and there, as well as like rice and potatoes and kind of a good, you know, a mixed diet, then yeah, like you might cause more harm than good if you're going to start to add in a lot of meat on top of maybe having some bad habits.

Or not even bad habits, but just habits that allow you to have a larger expansion of what you eat. Well, and, you know, you were one of the guys before I started this I thought about you because, you know, I've seen you on Instagram. You thought about me going, oh, fuck. Now what's he doing? I lost somebody else. A sling what? Oh, man man he's got the slingshot too this is a hunter has turned it turned into a vegan i don't understand what's happening no but you know but you're not afraid to experiment and try different things like with keto and using

carbs and doing the bodybuilding show and changing your diet around and you know being a you know a record holding power lifter so to me it was just like hey man let me do something different i mean i like kind of being a comfort zone everybody says hey man you know changes i don't like change uh you know you need to be uncomfortable sometimes no i don't and you know you know just just just to try to make me a better person no i, I'm good. But I decided let's change it up a little bit. Yeah, like dunking yourself in cold water or something, right? So, yeah, it's going to be interesting. And I guess technically I would be ovo-lacto because I'll drink milk

and I'll eat egg whites. And I'll eat egg yellow too just as far as a little bit of fat, but I'm basically egg white. So I'm not technically uh what vegan or whatever the word is i'm new at this and i'm not doing it because i watched any videos of animals going through a butcher line i'm just doing it today for the hell of it to try it out to give it a shot and if i start eating meat again in two weeks or three weeks or four weeks i do no i'm not saying if i've been keto before, carnivore before,

high carb or carb cycling before, I'm going to go back to probably the happy medium when I achieve the goal that I'm trying to as far as my body composition. How has the energy levels been? Everybody will tell you. God damn, my energy is through the roof. I got great energy. I haven't reached that state yet

because you're like when you go keto, you go keto flu, and then you get there in your zone, and then you level out and you're good. And so I don't think I've gone through all the changes that I'm going to go through yet, but I can't complain about anything. I'm drinking this coffee with you guys but uh i mean just pure

energy or just like you feel dead dog tired depleted no everything so far has been really good it's just getting over the hump of digestion all that fiber but from an energy standpoint with with a little bit increase in carbs but not crazy interesting to see if it helps your sleep at all because if it helps your sleep you might be on to something But you've had trouble to sleep forever, pretty much? Man, well, I was drinking a cup of coffee last night about 10 p.m., and I just couldn't figure out, why can't I sleep, good Lord? Kristen, is this not decaf? Hello? I've got a problem here.

No. Man, I used to sleep like a baby when I was like eight months old because I was a baby. But when I got into the pro wrestling business, and, man, your sleep, your circadian rhythm gets all jacked up because of all the time zones over all the late nights, all the drives. So when I come out of the wrestling business, that kind of forever changed my sleep pattern.

And right now, that's another thing that I'm really trying to hone in on and improve is my sleep. Because you know, and you guys are high profile lifters and are in really good shape, but all these guys, especially your elite bodybuilders, they'll say sleep is so key to

recovery and recuperation and all that. And not everybody can take, you know, an hour, two-hour nap in daytime because they ain't got time. And if it's daylight, I can't sleep. So if I could get six hours uninterrupted, that would be gangbusters for me because I might sleep two or three hours, wake up an hour or 30 minutes. I might just be in and out. And at 4 o'clock,

I might as well just go ahead and get up, start drinking my coffee, get up and work out because sleep is not easy for me. How long were you sleeping when you were wrestling? Any idea? Well, it depends on the night before. You're performing at a high level, and you're going out there and doing those wrestling promos and stuff

and hitting all your marks of, you know, what date you're fighting this guy and all that stuff and doing a lot of stuff live. It must have been a lot of – it's a lot of pressure. I'm sure it's impossible to, like, unwind after you just wrestled the rock at WrestleMania. It's got to be insane to come down from that. Those guys got to stay with you.

But any time you come out of the ring in front of a crowd like that, or any kind of crowd, you know, when they give you an ovation, and you're trying to take them on a ride and they're responding to what you're doing, there's an adrenaline rush, you know, while you're there. And then, you know, it's that afterglow, if you will, afterwards, and you're trying to burn that off. And, you know, man, with my act, you know, I started guzzling beers there in the ring. So, you know, I'm going to just shoot straight with straight with you i mean i'd have a little bit of buzz before

i got to the dressing room and you know there's 12 pack of beer in there too so i mean you know you kind of start i remember i remember seeing you wrestle the rock uh here in los angeles and you just basically got shit faced in front of everybody i was like he drank so much fucking beer on his way to the on his way to the back it was it was of everybody i was like he drank so much fucking beer on his way to the on his way to the back it was it was like unbelievable i was like holy shit that was and then didn't you have uh like a fire hose full of beer too like yeah that was actual beer i think it was a philly yeah the budweiser truck yeah that's a truck oh yeah it was uh the first 30 gallons was beer and then it turned into water. But, yeah, that was a real deal.

Shit. So, but, you know, and people say, well, you know, alcohol kind of interrupts your sleep. People say, well, I'll take a drink or get a drink, you know, to help me go to sleep. Right. I guess it kind of interferes with REM sleep. Yeah, right. And so, but anyway, it will help you go to sleep. What kind of quality of sleep?

Well, because the amounts that, I don't want to say us, because I was drinking, I'd sleep pretty good. Yeah, they say it more like sedates you than you actually fall asleep. Yeah. But sedated sleep versus no sleep? I mean, which one's better? Sedated sleep is way better than no sleep. You start feeling ragged with no sleep. Sedated sleep is way better than no sleep.

You start feeling ragged with no sleep. So, like, right now, if you drink before bed, or if you don't drink, are you able to sleep well or no? Like, have you tried that? Yes, and that's a good question just because, man, when you're coming off of the deer season that I had and you're rolling high, you're going to start backing off. If you just go cold turkey, oh, you're going to toss and turn. So, no, I'll drink a glass of wine before I go to sleep.

And you're talking about a six-ounce pour. And so, let me see, a bottle of wine will last me three nights. Okay. So that's, for me, that's like a world record. Okay. So that's, for me, that's like a world record. But see, as I start, you know, going down from the six ounces, then I'll end up with zero.

But anytime you try to do anything, I can do just about anything cold turkey, but that will interrupt my sleep. So within the next five to seven days, it will be nothing. Do you, like, is there a plan to plan to i guess lower the amount over time or like not really no no you just just shorten up the pour a little bit but yeah like i said just in a matter of days then i won't you don't need to pass fire anymore but yeah if you just come off of like what i've described and don't don't get me wrong i'm not just killing fifths. I'm just saying when you go from a pretty good amount to zero, you better have just one drink. Have you messed around with any intermittent fasting at all?

Man, I tried that back in the day when I was talking to you about it, a year and a half, two years ago, and it's a real interesting thing. Nutrient timing is really interesting, and I do believe it's a science and i do believe it's a science i do believe it's a thing like during the workout mixture you're supposed to take post-workout it's not supposed to take when you wake up and go to bed i'm kind of a proponent of man if it's a 24-hour cycle and i and i you know i know it sets the blood up or gets blood sugars out or whatever but for me you know if i'm steady with everything that i do and i keep those macros you know in the windows that they need to be

i'm good yeah yeah jay cutler says uh don't be fancy just be consistent yeah you know if you try to be too fancy one way if you try to fast too much maybe you're gonna end up binging you outthink yourself and you know if you're thinking about it so much, start micromanaging. Hey, dude, if Jay Cutler said that, he knows a thing or two about staying in shape. So I would take that as kind of the gospel. A thousand grams of carbs. Jesus Christ. Every day.

That was back in the day probably. Yeah, when he was getting really big for the stage. You know, he looks really good transitioning out. He looks awesome. He looks so healthy. Yeah, he looks great. So just real quick, going back to the drinking and whatnot, and I think you posted on your Instagram,

it was on I think the AFC Championship when they scored a touchdown. One of the guys, he went up and grabbed two drinks, and he did a stone cold, smashed them, and started drinking them. Is it crazy to see your influence still to this day amongst, like, everything that we do in the United States? That's a great feeling doing that, by the way. I think everyone should do that in their lifetime. Man, that guy, if I'm not mistaken, that was number 72, Eric Fisher,

for Kansas City Chiefs and offensive lineman. And when I saw him do that with as many crazy celebrations as those guys got these days and he got fined fourteen thousand dollars for that and you know he didn't even drink you know he poured it on his helmet and i was like golly you're gonna find that guy fourteen thousand dollars for that i was i was flattered though yeah for to be gone as long as i have been from that business you know and for guys, you know, still recognizing and remembering the things that I did, you know, that's a pretty good feeling.

Yeah. And, you know, I know that Travis Kelsey and George Kittle. Yeah, George Kittle's a huge fan. That's what I was going to. Both guys are tight ends. Yeah. And I know they think a lot of me and Elaine Johnson, a couple of those guys. Yeah.

And I know they think a lot of me and Elaine Johnson, a couple of those guys. It's really cool to still be able to have an influence and those guys remember the things that I did because, man, that's a wild bunch of guys. I'm sure it's a good bunch of guys, but I love football. And so many of the same feelings. Those guys are crazy uh big strong fast these days much more so than than we were when we were kids but it's cool yeah when uh so mark and i went to the uh the niners vikings playoff game and uh you know they announced george kittle and then you

hear this it was like oh shit stone cold like and I look up and they have – they replicated your face on the screen, but it was George Kittle's face. Yeah. So it was like – When he makes plays, they do that too. It was sick. All the time. Because everybody in the crowd, they recognize it.

And obviously they're all Niner fans. But those that recognized it were even more fired up. And I'm just like, man, Stone Cold is still crushing it. Even though he's not here right now, but he's like your presence is still there. Every now and then I'll just be watching TV or something, and my Twitter will blow up. And I'll be like, man, what'd I do? I didn't even tweet nothing out.

And it might be an NBA game or a college game or hockey from NHL, and they'll bust out with the Stone Cold theme. And so, man, all of a sudden I'll get lit up. Okay, I had another sporting event. Yeah, man, it's cool. That's great. I mean, when you can do something and be remembered for it, I mean, if you did something and nobody remembers,

well, you didn't do anything to be remembered for. And so if the best I did was to excite people and make people remember me or that, that's cool. Did you get to see Conor McGregor fight? Man, all 40 seconds of it. You know, God dang, man. He came in there and the way that thing went with those left shoulders. Yeah. Dude.

And I've seen kind of like, I don't even know john jones kind of mixed them up because john jones is is yeah unorthodox super i mean he's probably one of the best if not the best fighter ever but for connor to and connor's a you know badass as well for him to come up come out with that strategy was phenomenal i've never seen anybody be so effective with that you know and cowboy had two knockouts going into that but be that effective with a shoulder strike with a fighter of cowboys caliber yeah what do you think i thought it was awesome it reminded me of like george saint pierre and his uh in his prime prime because George always had some crazy plan. I remember he jabbed, it was Diego Sanchez.

He, like, jabbed him to death. I've never seen that before or since. Like, he just jabbed him to death. He always had a game plan. He always had a strategy that was going to work, even if the other guy was super talented. So that's what I admired about that fight. I was like, man, he's, you know, coming in there.

I think he really rocked him with like one of them and i think he got him on the nose he broke he broke his nose it looked like he yeah it looked like he did break his nose like you've seen that and then he just literally kicked the shit out yeah you've seen it before in the past but he's the first person to actually like set it up right like he's the first one to be like this is gonna fuck you up and then bam sure enough it did and he kept going it's like like what just happened maybe he learned that from boxing you know maybe he learned a little bit of that from you know going against floyd i don't know maybe he sat back and watched some fights of other guys and said hey man yeah you're not leaning on me yeah i mean this might work or i who knows i i'll stop even speculating

but god dang it was it was the damnedest thing that I have ever seen, and to take out Cowboy, like I said, a fighter of that caliber with that? Very effective. You know, here's the thing. The next fight that he has is going to be exponentially tougher, and

that person will have seen how he used that against Cowboy, so what will they do and how will that fight go down? Because I know they're talking about Jorge Masvidal or who was the other guy they're throwing in the mix right now? That would be a big money fight, right? Yeah. Is that the same division with Colby Covington?

Yeah, I believe so, yeah. I'm not 100% sure. He got messed up, but, dude, that guy's badass. Yeah, he is, yeah. Kamaru Usman's the one who messed up. Kamaru Usman messed up, but, dude, that guy's badass. Yeah, he is. Kamaru Usman's the one who messed up. Kamaru Usman. There it is. Yes.

That dude's badass. So there are three names. The talent level, and that's jumping up exponentially, too. I mean, the UFC fighters are unbelievable. The athleticism that you're starting to see is starting to be pretty crazy. Man, I was watching UFC 3 or 4 the other day because I was down that YouTube wormhole. Dan Severn. It was Dan Severn versus Shamrock is what I was watching.

Yeah. And, man, how that sport, to your point, has progressed with the MMA background. I mean, you've got to have some jiu-jitsu. I mean, it behooves you to. But still, wrestling-based seems to be better, but you've got to turn some jiu-jitsu. I mean, it behooves you to. But still, wrestling-based seems to be better, but you've got to turn into a striker. So you can put on a show and have a fight, but God dang, man, it's a light-year difference from back in the day.

Do you think you would have ever done UFC? Nah, man, I've been asked that a million times, and I always say, yeah, maybe I could have been okay. Because at my best, I was an okay football player that got a football scholarship. I've been knocked out one time by the Undertaker when the back of his head hit me in the chin. You gave me nightmares.

I ran into a steel-eye beam on a movie set, and that thing didn't take me down. But I don't know if I'd have been worth a shit or not. I'm glad that I found pro wrestling, and I can only maybe surmise that when just winding down for the day. But it's not something that crosses my mind very often. So in wrestling, they had many different styles. And one of the funniest matches that I remember was you against Kurt Angle

when he challenged you to, like, a wrestling match, right? And then you out-wrestled him, which was fantastic. when he challenged you to like a wrestling match, right? And then you out-wrestled him, which was fantastic. But do you like or dislike that MMA is kind of turning into like everybody's becoming the same fighter? Like you do have to have a good striking game. You do need to know jiu-jitsu. And you're right.

Wrestling as a base seems to be like the perfect base to start with. It's not as fun as it used to be. Like it was really exciting to watch, but it used to be like it was it was really it's exciting to watch but it used to be fun when you're like all right this dude knows karate and this guy's like a sumo wrestler and they're gonna go at it you know that was kind of neat when it was like bob sap against you know a jujitsu fighter like holy shit where are we going with this well man i just you know everybody wants to stand and trade i want to stand there and bang it's exciting right that's where the money's at. It is.

But, I mean, you know, like, man, cowboy. He's got a little bit of wrestling background, and that wrestling background might have helped him, you know, rather than standing there. Because I think, you know, he knew that he wanted to just stand there and trade with him. But, man, Conor, that dude, he's pretty heavy-handed, in my opinion, and he's salty as hell, and he's smart, and he's pretty heavy handed in my opinion and he's salty as hell and he's smart and he's just savvy he's a hell of a fighter

and he's awesome so I don't know it's interesting I love MMA but it's hard for me to speak technically about it because I don't know it like I watch football in the football attic but I can't really speak X's and O's but you know

it's funny because ufc fans are funny because like man sometimes the fight goes to the ground and it's a great technical fight and these guys putting on a clinic and they're just kind of canceling each other out but the crowd starts booing because they want to stand up see a bang yeah come on man that's a fight yeah yeah i, we're the same. We're not like the fight encyclopedias where they mention a fight, like, oh, that happened on this date or that date. So we're just like you.

We just love watching good fights. Yeah, same. We just talk about three cats, Kamaru Usman, Covington, and who's that again? Adesanya? Or Masvidal. I'm sitting there, okay, are they all still in the same weight division? Yeah, no idea. I don't know all the divisions. same weight division? Yeah, no idea. I don't know all the divisions.

I just know who fought who. I think that might have been a big difference for McGregor, too, being up a weight class. He looked great. Yeah, physically he looked good and he was strong. He was also like, I don't know if you guys noticed, in all the promos leading up to it, he was like really, really nice McGregor. He wasn't being super. He was a different McGregor.

He was literally a different person. I don't know if that's just an act because he's coming off the loss. Yeah, I don't know. I don't get it. I just think that maybe, you know, on the way to doing his business with Floyd Mayweather, he just kind of like, hey, man, this is, I don't need to go to that level at this level with Cowboy.

And maybe it's respect for the Cowboy, too, because he's universally kind of respected by all those guys and loved by the fans. It could have been that issue. But I like the way he spins up a fight, but after seeing him go, you know, throw the dolly in the bus, I don't think you always need to rev up and go 7,000 RPM. Do you think that he stole vince mcmahon's walk

you see the walk that he's doing you know that that is vince mcmahon's walk because i remember you know hell i was in the ring you know when he started inventing that and he started then he turned it into what he turned it into so i i think i think vince got a trademark on that but you know you know vince is uh you know, he might have started it, but it's kind of like the super kick. You know, back in the day it was Gentleman Chris Adams' move, and then all of a sudden somebody else is using it in a different territory and it's their move.

And then Shawn Michaels started using it very effectively. I've been kicked in the mouth by that somebody so many times. My teeth are still loose. So the super kick ended up being Shawn Michaels. So right now, the Vince McMahon walk is the Conor McGregor walk. Nobody invents anything anymore. You know it's all recycled. Go ahead.

What's something that separates out someone like Vince McMahon from kind of the general population? What's something that, you know, what did you see in him you know that made him such a driving force and such a successful person that's just who he is man god don't like to sleep because he you know he wants to keep working he's a workaholic man man that guy has instincts and vision and drive and just keeps coming all day he grew up you know some people don't think of this man they think oh man this guy you know he's just being there you know he's born on tobacco road you know he had

it rough coming up and nobody gave him nothing and he bought the business from his dad you know on a leveraged buyout and you know if you missed one payment you know everything was gone and then he has the vision hey man i man. I think he borrowed it from something down there in NWA, WCW. Maybe it was a Starcade. But anyway, he made the pay-per-view model what it is or what it was.

And I got the network. I had the vision for the network. he had the vision of all the to answer your question, the guy is just an absolute, extremely intelligent guy with an incredibly high work ethic and a high sense of pride, taking pride in what he's doing and what he's done, and attention to detail. Yeah, I remember he had just a –

To answer your question, bottom line, he's different. Yeah, it seemed like he has a very, very tough mindset. I remember seeing an interview with him, and he talked about getting physically abused by, I think, his stepdad. And he said, if you don't kill me, then I win. I mean, that's a very tough mindset, and that's a different style of person. A survivor.

Yeah. I remember it was funny because when he got into the business his dad never wanted him to get into the business but his dad was having a hard time promoting the town of Banger, Maine. His dad told him

if you can go down and promote Banger and make it a success, I'll let you get in the business. Vince went down and promoted the shit out of it. The show did'll let you get in the business. Vince went down and promoted the shit out of it. The show did well. Got him in the business. You know, when he got a chance to work with me, you know, he got a chance to get in the ring.

And he always wanted to be a wrestler. His dad wouldn't let him. So, you know, when he took that bump, we was in Memphis at the Pyramid, and he took a bump off the top of the cage onto that desk. Damn near broke his back or his neck. And I was like, you know, we didn't go out there and practice that. We didn't rehearse it.

I just told him, I said, dude, I said, you want to take that bump? He goes, oh, yeah, it'll be fine, Steve. I said, dude, I said, you don't need to take that bump because I'm fine. Dude, we went out there, had the match. He's bleeding, takes the bump, damn near breaks his neck. That's the kind of guy he is. He wants to put on a show, and he wants to deliver. And if he's betting on anybody, he's betting on himself,

and he's in the entertainment business. So he will go to the end of the world to make sure that people leave entertained. You mentioned Vince McMahon and his vision and, his vision and like how in the past you didn't think like 10 to 15 in the future, but now you do. So I'm wondering now, you know, you have the podcast, you're doing a bunch of other stuff 10 to 15 years from now. What do you see? Like, what do you want your mark to be with that? Like, what do you want to be doing now? Or the, your effect? I don't know. i haven't thought that far in advance i got you yeah uh i know that uh we're working on a place in nevada and i'd like to segue out of california in the

near future i'll probably always maintain a place here but i want to i just know that i want to travel and i about my mark and my legacy people will remember me for whatever they think of me and and that's that's the end of that but as far as me i'd like i i want to i want to use out of here and uh keep doing things but i want to do some traveling. Travel, travel? Like go all over the place type thing? No, no, man. I was talking. Dude, I had lunch yesterday with Calvin Klein. And it was the damnedest thing. Rich Menza knows him.

And so I went down to Gold's and I met him. And we went out to lunch. And he travels a lot. And it was a pleasure meeting that guy. You know, he's an icon yeah he's about as iconic as it gets and he's traveling a lot now or you know he goes back and forth between you know la and new york how old is he he's probably 77 okay super cat super with it you know super savvy and i ain't got no plans on leaving the United States. I'm good staying here.

My wife wants me to go to Hawaii because I've never been there, and she loves it there. Now, I would jump across the pond and go to Mexico, maybe Cabo or something like that. But I don't want to travel the world. When I say travel, I mean get in my truck and hook up my camper and put my Kawasaki in the back and just go camping 300 or 400 miles, ride around for a couple days, and go back home.

Or just drive around the damn state or go into Utah. I've always wanted to see a lot more of Utah and drive some of that country. But that's what I mean. I just want to go out there and get in my buggy and ride. Sacramento is a great place to live. Hey, man. Man, that's been an interesting thing about, you know, because we've been in California, or we are in California.

I've been here 15 years. When we did Broken Skull Challenge out there in Aguadulce, we was on I think about 180 acres, and it backed up some land I could ride my buggies over there. In Texas, you know, I had 2,000 acres. You know, not a good area to ride, but it's like riding a rectangle. Man, when you get out in Nevada and you get out to some of that public land, it's really interesting because, I mean, you just have thousands of miles to enjoy

or potentially get lost in. So it's very refreshing that you can see that much of the country, you know, on a four-wheeler and a side-by-side. And that's what relaxes me, and that's what I enjoy, whether I'm thinking about the next greatest thing or thinking about nothing. If I got a wheel in my hand and, you know, them four wheels, I'm just cruising on a bunch of rocks. Yeah.

Man, that's a good damn day. That's cool. Do you think the WWE will ever be able to produce another Stone Cold, another John Cena, another The Rock, you know, somebody of that, like, stature? Man, I think it's a combination of can they produce it, but can that guy come along? Yeah, yeah. Does that guy exist?

It's a two-way street there. I think the two have to meet in the middle, and that person has to have the talent and the ringability and the charisma to relate to, that people can relate to from a love or hate level, depending on what they are, but ultimately ending up probably as a baby face, a good guy. I think that person is going to come along one of these days,

and I don't know that they're not in the system right now. They could be, but I think the last thing you saw, like Cena and Brock Lesnar. And Brock Lesnar, I mean, he's so legit, you know. Try to follow that act. I mean, you know, it remains to be seen. So we'll see, and I hope. It remains to be seen.

So we'll see, and I hope. Yeah, I think that it might be tougher at the moment just because I think, and it could still be this way, but it seemed like a lot of the guys from years ago really ate shit for a long time, and it doesn't seem like there's that process going on. So you might not get as seasoned so you might not get as uh uh seasoned you know you might not get as salty like you i think i think you need to be like you need to shit beat out of you a little bit you need like you guys used to go to overseas and wrestle in japan and mexico and they would you know wrestle in other spots and then you know

going going to a promotion and then wrestling in front of five people or having the whole thing canceled and driving four hours, like, you kind of, I think you might need some of that. Man, I sure think it helps. I really do. Just paying your dues. And when you've got to really draw those people into a building or you ain't going to make no money, you know, that makes you really try to learn how to pull that emotion from

those people and work them, you know, because that's what you're there for. And you can teach someone the moves, but you can't teach nobody, you know, you know, you can't really teach someone how to manipulate the human emotions. And that's when the money is made at an emotional level. And here's a classic example, and I was a case of that, but a better example that I can speak of from afar is Randy Macho Man Savage. Savage was down there in Tennessee, and he was in IPW or some other stuff, but I remember Savage down in USWA fighting across from Lawler and all those guys,

and he was a macho man. And when Vince hired him, he'd been in the business at least eight years, maybe ten, but at least eight, and his dad was a wrestler. So when Vince got him, Randy could work his ass off, knew everything about the business, and Vince put the rocket pack on him. But Randy, my point is, he paid his dues. He learned the trade inside out. He'll baby this, that persona, gimmick, work, promo.

And obviously, he was a super talented cat. So once you got up to Vince, I mean, my point is, not everybody's doing that. Now, I don't think you have to go through that, but I do think it helps. I know, dude, when I first started out and I was driving a forklift, you know, at a freight dock company. And two months after I made my debut, you know, I'd ask Jerry Jarrett. I said, hey, man, when do you think I could start working full time? Because I want to start wrestling full time.

And he goes, hell, Steve, I think you're ready now. We'll send you down to Memphis in two weeks. Two weeks later, I was driving down there, and, man, I stayed in a shithole hotel called the Congress Inn on Dickerson Pike. It's still there. And with all due respect, it's still a shithole. And the people that ran that hotel back in the day were Shane and Sonny Hall. I'll never forget their names.

And I was making $15 or $20 on a good day a night. And we were driving anywhere from $300 to $450 every single night. And so, man, I was starving to death. And they let me pay my rent whenever I had the money. And so, man, when you're paying your dues and you're riding up and down the road and you really need to learn this stuff because you're going to keep starving until you learn it so you can help contribute

to bringing those people in, you kind of absorb everything just a little bit more readily, in my opinion, and I'll leave it at that. That was your first plant-based diet, right? Didn't you just eat potatoes or something? Well, it was proteins and carbs with no fat because I had about 12 cans of tuna and about a

15-pound bag of potatoes. And so I'd eat a can of tuna fish and a potato for breakfast, lunch, and supper. The Ultimate Warriors talked about that before, too, just eating tuna out of the can day in and day out. Yeah, so I ran out of tuna.

So for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, it was raw potato, and I just peeled it with my pocket knife. So I was basically carb-based. I was plant-based. I wasn't eating no meat because I couldn't afford it, and I wouldn't let nobody buy me a hamburger because you can't do that. So, yeah, man, when you do that, I remember we went to a town that night, and I just washed my clothes in the laundromat.

That would be a weird feeling to see potatoes, right? That would be nuts. I was at the laundromat, and I just washed some of my clothes, and my pants were so loose because I lost a lot of weight. And Matt Bourne says to me, God damn, Steve, why don't you wash your clothes? They're all loose. I had put an extra quarter in there to shrink them up. They were tighter than they were.

I could pull my pants off without unbuttoning them. That's how loose those things were. We used to call it Nutrisystem territory because everybody that went there lost weight. Oh, shit. Yeah. That's a shoot. You know, you mentioned Randy Savage's ability to, I guess, manipulate emotion. Now, for you, obviously, when we see you, you can tell that you're able to do that, but was that, I guess, always something that you kind of had a gift of,

or did you really have to develop that side of yourself? Man, I had to learn it because maybe, maybe I had it in me, but I had to learn it because man, in high school, where all, uh, you know, growing up through, uh, grade school, I was a shy kid. And I've always hung out by myself. Anyway, I like being by myself. I ain't got nothing but shy. But I was a shy kid. So, you know, going out there, you know, all of a sudden with a bunch of bad-ass guys that are veterans.

You walk into a locker room. You know, I know you're big into soccer. You walk into any kind of place where someone's got 10 or 15 years experience, and you walk in with two months, you know, the world changes. And it's like, okay, here's what's up. I may be shy. I may be a little bashful. But if I don't get my hands in this and, you know, learn how to do it, I ain't going to mount a hill of beans.

So you're either going to just wilt up and go away or you're going to man up, learn the shit, and go about it, but ask everybody along the way for advice. So that's the way it was for me. I might have had it in me, but I had to learn it and develop it. You've been in the locker room a lot, around a lot of other guys, guys messing around, horsing around. Do you know anything about thigh wars?

Ha! This guy over here, it is soccer days telling us about how they would uh like wrestle each other's leg on each other or something like that you know anything about it in case you didn't you know already dislike soccer enough or you never heard of soccer ain't a thing in south texas when i was a kid we were talking before we hit the microphone uh record button about soccer and how global it is and i think it's an amazing sport and it's not something i watch on a frequent basis but those guys or gals are just supreme athletes and the way they can kick a damn ball with your feet and run along

that thing is flat out amazing and hey man hey, man, them sumbitches, now they can flop as good as an Oscar winner, but they can be cheap and dirty as hell when they're trying to take somebody out. So I respect it 100%. Yeah. I like good old American football, though. Yeah. Honestly, football is more fun to watch than soccer. I can't deny that.

It's way more fun to watch than soccer. But I'll can't deny that it's way more fun to watch than soccer but i'll tell you what man when you will see like brazil or england man are those people they'll start jumping in those stadiums those stadiums are literally about to come down though i mean the whole world is tuned into that and hell that one soccer player when they lost that game a couple years ago something happened that guy oh yeah he was killed yeah yeah i gotta want to bring it up but it'd be like five years ago. Something happened to that guy. Oh, yeah. He was killed. I want to bring it up, but it was like five years ago. No, but you know what I'm saying. That's how serious they take that shit. You know, field goal kicker

misses the clutch kick. Coming back next year, probably, we ain't going to get killed. Yeah, Scott Norwood's still alive. Even after the Buffalo Bills years ago. The laces were in thanks so much uh for your time we always appreciate having you on you got something

else to add no no i was gonna say thanks for the uh yeah time i'm glad you guys came by and saw me and uh appreciate the protein powder i i love it i am using it daily. And on Instagram, I'm SteveAustinBSR. On Twitter, I'm SteveAustinBSR. And we're going to work here in a couple of months to shoot season two of Straight Up Steve Austin for the USA Network. And that will start dropping in the summer. And then every month I have a show called The Broken Skull Sessions, which we film right here. And I talk with a WWE superstar about this, that, or whatever. And it's every month on the WWE Network.

So if you don't have a network and you enjoy me or some of the guys that I've been able to talk to, check it out. You mixing the Broken Skull Ranch IPA with the Slingshot Protein? You talk about a win-win? I love it. Awesome. That's all the time we got. I'm at Mark Smelly Bell on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube. Where can they find you, Andrew?

At I am Andrew Z, but make sure you guys are following the podcast at Mark Bell's Power Project on Instagram, at MB Power Project on Twitter, TikTok, all over the place. Make sure you guys are subscribed, and please rate and review on iTunes Nseema where you at? at NseemaYang on Instagram and YouTube at NseemaYang on TikTok and Twitter and yeah Mark

strength is never a weakness, weakness is never a strength catch y'all later and that's Callie, she's my black lab and she's about to be 3 years old she just hit a run in, you can follow her on Twitter and Instagram, I'm kidding you I was like alright cool thanks Steve, appreciate it