Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 494 - Crazy Tom Pheil and Chris Bell

Episode Date: March 10, 2021

Tom Pheil is one of the most interesting OG members of Super Training Gym, and a long time friend of Mark & Chris Bell. Tom is a powerlifter and bodybuilder, armored car heistman, IPL Master’s World Champion, and a 242lb national and world record holder. Tom Pheil first met the Bell brothers in Venice, California while working at Gold’s Gym. During his time at Gold’s Gym, Tom rubbed elbows with some of the best bodybuilders in the entire world, movie stars and celebrity trainers. Subscribe to the NEW Power Project Newsletter! ➢ https://bit.ly/2JvmXMb Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Special perks for our listeners below! ➢LMNT Electrolytes: http://drinklmnt.com/powerproject ➢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 ➢Sling Shot: 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 ➢ https://www.facebook.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 FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell ➢Mark Bell's Daily Workouts, Nutrition and More: https://www.markbell.com/ Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/ Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

What's up, Mark Bell's Power Project fam? This episode is brought to you by Piedmontese Beef. Now, Andrew, you guys know that we've been working with Piedmontese for a long time. We love their beef. It's tender. It tastes great. But they have this awesome bundle called the Power Project Deluxe Bundle. Deluxe.

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Enter promo code PowerProject for 25% off your order. And if your order is $99 or more, you get free two-day shipping. Quick caveat, that code will not work on this bundle because you're already saving a ton of money with this bundle. However, once you get this and you figure out exactly what you like, then you can go make your own little bundle yourself and then use that promo code and still get 25% off. Head over there right now. What up, Power Project crew? This is Josh Selig, aka SettleGate, here to introduce you to, arguably our most interesting guest ever, Tom Feil.

Tom Feil is one of the most interesting OG members of Super Training Gym, and is a longtime friend of Mark and Chris Bell. Tom is a powerlifter and bodybuilder, an IPL Masters World Champion, and a 242-pound national and world record holder in powerlifting. Tom Pfeil first met the Bell Brothers in Venice, California while working at Gold's Gym. During his time at Gold's Gym, Tom rubbed elbows with some of the best bodybuilders in the entire world, movie stars, and celebrity trainers.

movie stars, and celebrity trainers. Tom has a wealth of experience in the gym, on the platform, and on the bodybuilding stage, and is one of the few lifting legends whose neck is thicker than his own head. Tom Feil was also involved in one of the biggest multi-million dollar heists in San Francisco history. But that's a different story for another day. Please enjoy the most interesting conversation you've ever heard with our good friend and guest, Tom Feil. It doubles as a pacifier as well. It's best to use it as a pacifier first. I just heard that unfortunately. This pad is almost all filled up.

Hey guys, a technical question. With these mics, if he's speaking, will it not let me speak at the same time? Nope, you guys can speak over each other, which is not great. This is called a podcast. The best thing to do is... The point is to talk when everybody else is talking. You fuck off, too. Can I get a no?

Yes, unfortunately, we can talk over each other, so that's... Thank you. In the TV business, as Chris may know, if he's talking, I can't just cut in. Correct. Then it'd be jibber-jabber. You've been in show business before. This is, I think, the next... This ain't show business.

I was going to say, the next three hours is going to be the biggest waste of time. How about hair and makeup? Three hours? I don't know, two hours? Okay, can we find three hours, Tim? We can find three hours. What's that? I don't think this mic is on.

That mic is definitely on. You wrote the script, right? You just need to speak louder. Got it. You got the script? Yeah, it's all about... We're pretty sure Chris is sleep deprived. I love the heavy breathing that's going on on the mic. Fuck off!

I was going to say, can you tone down my audio? Hey, last week, LA Tahoe, I'm in the elevator. Some lady, she had to be 86 years old. She goes, how you doing, son? I said, pretty good. She goes, altitude bothering you too? I said, I'm sorry, ma'am. She goes, I hear you breathing.

Damn it. She was close to 90 She goes, I hear you breathing. God damn it. She was close to 90, and she could hear me breathing. I was standing in an elevator doing nothing. Evidently gasping for air. I said, thank you for your concern. I'll be okay. Is the McDonald's a special thing for today, or do you normally eat like this? Like, what's going on out there? They're everywhere.

You can see they're all down here at the corner. All over the place. Yeah, so it's not special. I was running on time, so I had to stop at McDonald's. Is it special nutrition for you? I mean, is this a special occasion being on the podcast? Celebrating, perhaps? It is tasty, but to be honest,

at 59 years old, my AM hypothalamus function is about what his overall function is right now, zero. It's not very good. What? He seems kind of sleepy. I'm just saying.

My hypothalamus is what causes hunger or not. I'm not hungry in the morning, so this I can eat. I get some calories in and hopefully maintain some muscle mass. It's motivating. I love that. Yes. That's what he does because he's not hungry. He gets three sausage McMuffins because he's not hungry.

That's correct. I was not hungry. And I knew it. But if because he's not hungry. That's correct. I was not hungry. And I knew if I'd come here, we'd talk for a couple hours. I still wouldn't eat. It'd be 11 o'clock. I'd have zero calories. How many calories are in three sausage McMuffins, I think, in Sema Pride? 14.40. Oh, there you go.

Wait, really? That sounds about right because there's a lot of fat in each one. I think 475 each. Wow. Times three. Math guys over there? Is it sausage McMuffin one. I think 475 each. Wow. Times three. Math guys over there. Is it sausage McMuffin? Sausage Egg McMuffin.

Sausage Egg McMuffin. So everything with you is geared towards your performance, not necessarily taste or... No, no. Taste. Like physique. Well, unfortunately, I still want to look like a guy who lifts weights or a bodybuilder. Their look is very cool. Other things about bodybuilding are unusual, but bodybuilding is still very, very cool in my opinion.

So this is the exception. This is the first cheat meal of the day, and hopefully it will be the last cheat meal of the day, but it probably won't be, so fuck off. How many cheat meals do you have per week? What is this diet? Yeah, what is this diet? 40? What do you mean, bro?

40. In SEMA, you're probably aware of this, and you probably remember, but even though it's before your time, I'm sure you did your research. Do you remember the Don Ross neck competition? No, but apparently all of you do. That's odd. You really don't know about it. I don't know.

You have a pretty big neck. I figured you'd be in the know. Don the Ripper? All of you guys apparently know what it is. So what is it? What is this Don Ross neck competition? In 1993, Don Ross was the editor of Muscular Development Magazine. And Don proposed and put into place the Don Ross World's Most Muscular Neck Competition.

And back then, before the internet, of course, he only advertised it in the magazine. So circulation was, I don't know, 100,000 people back then before the internet, of course, he only advertised it in the magazine. So circulation was, I don't know, 100,000 people back then. And the magazine came out like a month before the month listed on the calendar on the magazine. So I think we only had about 10 entrants. Oh, that's weird. The only way to enter the contest was to take a picture of your neck and mail it in to Don Ross. Other than me. That's a fetish.

Yeah. I actually hung out with Don almost every day. So Don said, hey, before we get the winners in, before we get the pictures in, let's do an article on your neck training routine. I said, great. So we met at Gold's Gym one day, and he shot like 72 pictures of my neck training routine. Some of them were kick-ass. But I didn't win. Don didn't give it to me. No, I didn't win.

Is he still alive? If he was, I'd kill him. I was going to say, we've got to call him out. Don is gone now, fortunately. So nothing was published. He just has all those pictures of your neck? No, no, no. They made the magazine. It was kind of published because it was on the wall of gold, right? Was that one of them?

That was probably the highlight of my bodybuilding career and maybe even my entire existence as being on that wall for all those years and people taking pictures of that picture which is always kind of strange yeah i said turn around right over here you can take a picture of me i'm right here you know it's awesome there was the picture but they wouldn't take a picture of me they wanted the picture it's great it's a great honor to have your picture on the wall at Gold's. And that was always a goal of mine. It was the coolest. Was to get some sort of picture up there.

And so when I made Bigger, Stronger, Faster, I was so excited to finally get the poster on the wall. And I have my autograph on it. And they were like, sorry, we can't put your poster on the wall because your movie's about steroids. Shut up. No, they did not. The whole building's about steroids. The whole building's based on antibiotics and steroids. Good Lord, the parking lot. The's old buildings about steroids. Old buildings based on antibiotic steroids. Good Lord, the parking lot.

The fence, the tree, the bush. The house the juice built wouldn't put it up. Oh, man, it's a bummer. Yeah. Sorry about that. Now that they have new owners, maybe I should try again. Give it a try. Give it a go.

Maybe. Yeah. It's been a long time. I was so excited, but then they just told me no. Remember, Brian Reagan pulled that gun on the guy on the front desk. He threw him out for six months. He's back in. So, you know, time heals everything.

Tom? That was Mike Ryan's first day also on the job. Oh, no. That was his first day? Yeah, first day on the job. Gun play at the front desk during my first day. Okay. Yes, sir.

A question from the far end. You mentioned the unusual side of bodybuilding, and that had me. That, like, perked my ears up. Whoa. So, what do you mean about the unusual side? Wow. First of all, bodybuilding is not a sport, Mark Bell. It's an art.

It's the art of bodybuilding. You don't have to be an athlete to be a bodybuilder. You have to be an artist to be a winning bodybuilder. And any artist you guys know, he's an artist. He's in film and movies.'m artists do a lot of weird things There's no there's no science behind what he does. There's a little bit of science, but there's not very much so all the weird stuff It accompanies it sure it's just it's not only in the peripheral. It's right there in the mix I mean if you want to be a competitive bodybuilder

You need to be prepared for the weird. It's out there. Again, the weird stuff. I mean, like you're you get so obsessed with the human body, right? That people end up half naked or all the way naked and people get fetishes around it and the whole thing, right? I mean, for years it goes, people would walk up to you and say, Tom, Chris, check

this out. They pull their pants off and drop their pants in the parking lot or McDonald's or in the gym. They stand in their little boxer briefs or sometimes not like, dude, what are you doing? And they want to show you their thigh cuts. That back mirror. The back mirror, of course, they call you back there, but frequently

anywhere at all, even in the parking lot or at a bar. Like, dude, what are you doing? You know, posing room means it's getting serious. Well, if you went to the posing room, you expected guys to get naked, so that was no problem there at all. Hopefully they had on some briefs or something underneath. But sometimes they didn't. You're like, dude, what are you doing?

But yeah, that's kind of weird. But after time. We have that kind of culture here, I think. Yeah, we have Tom. Tom does that. The other Tom. He pulls his pants down and starts flexing his quads. He is exactly correct.

When you see it, when you see someone's jeans down by their ankles, you think, what's going on? Is this just a truck stop? Is it really weird? I don't know, but it's just kind of weird. Like that same thing in a truck stop bathroom. You're going, wait a minute, that's got a different meaning. But it is the exact same thing. You're just truckers.

There ain't no truck stop. So that's bodybuilding, sort of. Remember, it's an art. It's not a sport what's uh one of the weirdest experiences you've had at gold's gym like what's uh because you've been through it all and you've kind of seen it all working there and you've seen some crazy things happen right well there's so many excellent things that some things we probably shouldn't talk about but i'm no no i was talking to brother bell earlier today. Pardon me for reaching across. And my buddy Danny McCaughan worked at the front desk one of his first days working.

And at Gold's Gym Venice, you'd walk in, and the member would give their membership number to the kid at the desk. He'd type it in, and in you go. 1-7-0-8-5. Correct. That was my number. I know. I stole it. Oh, because you were a fugitive.

You had no money. I had no money. That's right. Wait. You stole what? Yeah. fugitive. You had no money. I had no money. That's right. Wait, you stole what? Yeah. Whose number was that? My number. I had to use his number.

Wait, what number did you use? My number, but I love it. It was Cancun. He didn't care. Yes, yes, yes. He didn't care. That would work. No one had a membership there, I don't think.

That's beautiful. I love that. It works perfectly. Anyway, this guy walks in. He goes through. I didn't really notice anything. And my buddy Danny goes, hey, Tommy, come here quick. And I walk over to the check-in area.

What's up? He goes, he points over to Water Fountain. And he says, hey, see that bum over there by the Water Fountain? That bum just stole Keanu Reeves' membership. And I had to process what the guy was going to say. I said, wait, what? That bum stole Keanu Reeves' membership? What are you talking about?

And he explained that guy walked in, the bum, and gave this number. And on the monitor on the screen, it was clearly Keanu Reeves. So I look over there at the water fountain, and I went, you idiot, that is Keanu Reeves. And it was actually Keanu Reeves, and he wasn't a bum. He was totally cool. But at Gold's Gym Venice, again, everyone showed up once. Everyone eventually makes it to Gold's Gym Venice. And Keanu, back in the mid-'90s, had kind of a grunge, disheveled appearance. He was

totally cool. A real gentleman and a really cool cat. But my buddy thought he had stolen Keanu's membership, which did not happen. Gold's Gym had everybody. Like, it had all the top bodybuilders. It had people like Magic Johnson coming through there, Michael

Jordan, Kobe Bryant, James Caan. Like, there were, Kobe Bryant, James Caan, like tons of actors, actresses. It was stunning. Mark, your brother, your boss, was cool enough last week to call my girlfriend and leave her birthday greetings on her cell phone, on her voicemail. And her name is Cindy. And Cindy goes, that's not Mark Bell.

And I said, it's Mark Bell's voice. She goes, I've heard Mark Bell's voice goes, that's not Mark Bell. And I said, it's Mark Bell's voice. She goes, I've heard Mark Bell's voice, and that's not his voice. I said, look, that was Mark Bell who called. I got me thinking, who did I know at the time? Like right now, who do I know? What celebrity can I call? Tom's really gone downhill over the years. I'm a celebrity now.

And at one time, it would have been either James Caan or Geena Davis or Keanu Reeves or even Arnold. I could have called them and said Arnold, can you call my girlfriend and give her birthday greetings? And now it's smelly. Don't say it that way. Now it is smelly. Anybody came through for me like a champion and again my girl goes, that's not him. I said, yes, it's definitely him.

She either was stunned that I knew you or she was stunned that I knew you. Either way you want to take that. So it was pretty cool, Bill. So thank you, sir. No problem. Did it work for you? At the time, I was in the doghouse, and it did work a little bit.

It didn't hurt. So, again, it was appreciated. And most guys wouldn't take that time, but Brother Bill did it. But I got to ask for that favor once in a while. He's right there, yeah. I'm going to have him start calling checks for me. You can call that congressman that looked bad on a while he's right there yeah you can call that congressman who's it Waxman

you call that guy you've been into powerlifting forever what got you sparked into powerlifting and you know you continued on that path you were obviously like really into bodybuilding also but you seem to lean now more towards powerlifting.

What got you on the powerlifting path and why'd you start in the beginning? Also, we should say that you have like a world record, right? Well, right now, unfortunately, I do not have any of the four world records. Of course, in powerlifting, there's four possible world records. Squat, bench press, deadlift, or total. I gotta leave now? Is that it? I'm out.

No, of the four world records, I've held three of the four in my weight class and age group. But right now, I hold none of them. They've all been broken. Complete failure. The squat, I can get back. It's closed. What was that record?

I had it at 6.06. A guy broke it with 6.11. Ooh. So I just need to go 6.16. And at what age? 58 you did that? I did it at 57. We were in the 55 to 59 age group

at the IPL Masters World Championships. That's no joke. I was thrilled with 606. He was a little stronger. Next year, Edward Zimmerman, this guy who broke my record, I think he still holds it. The bench press is way out of my league. It's in the low fours.

So that's whoever has that. I think it's a guy from Iceland that's set. And I had the deadlift at 644, but last year, a lifter whose name I cannot remember, unfortunately, he pulled 699. 699? Yeah, 699. So he knocked that way up there.

And I can't get that back either, unfortunately. But the total is 1605, and that I can't get that back either unfortunately but the total is 1605 and that i i can get again i think so the squat and total war records i hope to reclaim this year if things go well did you have a time period where you stopped power lifting absolutely probably well a couple of them but um i suppose in the late 80s i raced bicycles for a while, which is a long way from powerlifting. A lot of bodybuilders get into bicycle racing, strangely enough. So there is kind of a little correlation between the two sports, strangely enough, once again.

Like cycling long distances? Bicycle racing, criteriums, road races. It's great cardio. Phenomenal cardio. But like on a track? Well, I've raced a velodrome as well. It's funny you mention that. The banked short track is called a velodrome.

Because that makes a little bit more sense to me for a power athlete. Oh, yeah. Keen observation there. Most track racers are a lot beefier because in a track course, there's no hills. And the longest events are very short compared to road events. So all that muscle doesn't hurt at all on the track. So, um, I raced the track successfully for a couple of years, a lot of fun. Things happen real fast.

But, um, during those years I was still lifting weights, but I certainly wasn't competing in the sport of powerlifting. My first competition was back summer, 1980. And the last thing was August last year. So do you think it would be possible to maintain any of the strength from your youth? Or like if you were to lift straight through, is it – I mean, I don't know. Do you think it would even be possible for yourself? Because you did squat over 800 pounds.

I think you deadlifted over 800 pounds. I think you benched around 600 pounds, something like that. I appreciate the numbers. They're very strong numbers. They weren't quite that good. There's a very strong number. They weren't quite that good. But once you hit those numbers, up here, once you've bench-pressed 500 pounds, you always tell yourself you can do it.

Can I still bench-press 500? Of course not. But I like to think if I wasn't injured or didn't have surgeries, I could do it. And you're always motivated. You know you've done it, and hell, if if you have to you can do it again so did the strength did i maintain the strength over all those years i think in a way i did um once i got back on the gas at gold's gym and sort of lifted weights i mean i was repping 405 really really quick i think one of the few things michael hearn ever acknowledged is something like all right he

can move a little weight around because he was never complimentary to anybody other than himself. And he's very, very strong, and he's good-looking, too. But I think I'd rep like maybe 405 for six. He's been very complimentary lately, though. Is he melding his old age? Yes. Wait, tell me more.

How old is Hearn now? 53, 54? 53. I think he's just at a point where he finally just realizes he's pretty awesome. And he's just like, okay, I don't need to. Well, no, in a good way. He's maybe finally over it. I don't think he's over it. I don't think he's even close to getting over it.

A little bit. But once again, we find some fault, but then there's so much good. I mean, his physique, it's crazy. He could be a competitive IFBB pro right now. Yeah. I don't think he could be a competitive high-level power lifter right now. He could do okay. But the combination of his physique, his strength in the power lifting events,

and he's strong in everything in the gym. Seated side laterals, behind the neck presses. There's nothing he's weak at. Not a single cable, you know, upright cable rows with the stack. Dude, how do you do that? Is he the strongest person you've ever seen? Being at Gold's Gym that long? I mean, you saw the Barbarian Brothers.

You saw Jeep Swenson used to go and curl 225 for reps as part of his workout. As strong as Mike is, Mike was and still is. The question you ask is, that's a heavy question right there. A lot of big, strong cats came through there. I don't know who gets the title of the strongest. If you had, but Mike still might be strongest overall. If you had to do a decathlon, and Mike and I have talked about this, he said that he would challenge anybody in the world to like a 10 lift thing.

You know, so like, and then like, hey, you get to pick five, I get to pick five. So it could be like bench squat deadlift, but also you might have a military press or a dumbbell curl strict or something. Tom File is willing to put three sausage egg McMuffins on the line for the winner of that contest. I know Mike has said that he basically wouldn't be afraid to go up against anyone. I don't know if he didn't necessarily say he would win, but he said he would challenge anybody and be cool with that

because he thinks over 10 exercises, he can kind of beat anybody. He could beat most people. I'd like to see a Larry Reals, Michael Hearn thing. Oh. That would be the competitor right there.

Yeah. Great choice because he's strong at everything too. We found his name instantly. He came up with his reference real quick. There's a lot of other guys that move a lot of weight around

that we don't know about. They're big and strong. Now, maybe a weight class restriction or if somebody is too much heavier than Mike and Larry, they got a slight penalty of some sort. If you look at like Ed in his prime, Ed was doing stuff that a lot of people don't know. Ed Cohen? Yeah. 405, you know, behind the neck press and stuff like that.

I didn't know that. Oh, yeah. You bet it's 585 wrong. There's some crazy videos with Ed Cohen where you're like, he might be kind of the strongest thing to ever hit the planet. Boy, I never saw that. And then Ed says Zydrunas Avicus. So if you talk to Ed, he'll say the pure strongest he's ever seen is Zydrunas.

I never saw Zydrunas. Yeah. Boy, what? Zydrunas. Yeah. Is that 405? Yeah, or 385 or so. Zydrunas Savickas won the Arnold Strongman competition eight years in a row and just completely annihilated everybody. Legendary.

He just smashed everybody. Now he looks like Zydrunas' younger brother. He looks great. He's down to probably 265, 270. He's still a big, big man, but it's great. He's like an off-season bodybuilder. So he's a lot healthier and good for him for doing that. Do you have an end in sight with your powerlifting? Are you like, hey, let me get these numbers and then I'll just chill and maybe move on to some... Because powerlifting

and taking anabolics and stuff is not the healthiest thing when you're at your age, right? It's incredibly unhealthy. And you ask a really good question. Me and the gang, we sit down sometimes and talk about it. And you've got to have an exit strategy from the sport of powerlifting. And to be honest, I don't have an exit strategy. It's just to – You love it. If I don't do this, I don't know what else I'm going to do.

I mean, I'll find something to take up the time, but I just like doing this stuff. And if somebody calls me a power lifter, what does that mean in the real world? It doesn't mean a whole lot, but to me, it's still pretty cool. So I don't have an exit strategy that's any good. I had one where I just step on the gas as hard as I can and ride the train to the end of the tunnel.

Without power lifting, you'd be in prison. Again. No,lifting, you'd be in prison. Again. No, no, no. That's not important right now. They have powerlifting there. Remember we saw that documentary? They certainly do. You get jacked in prison.

We watched a whole documentary about it. That's what powerlifting means in prison. They're well organized and they have a lot of motivation. They're good for the boys. How many have you won? I've won six of those, by the way. I've had success. But I was an experienced power lifter.

So I had an advantage over some of the guys. They were just brutally strong and good athletes. But I had been a former competitive power lifter, so under the rules. And I had a huge advantage over some of those guys. So, I mean, they were good competitors. But I knew how to squat and I knew how to deadlift, and they didn't. So even the strongest of all of those guys were, I could usually get the best of them in competition.

But exit strategy, back to that one more time. Hopefully something comes to mind. But right now it's just, you know, throw some more wood on the fire, make the freight train go a little bit faster, and take it into the tracks and see what happens. But that usually ends badly. Is it the competition aspect for you? Like, do you need to compete in it? You can't just be, you can't just, like, want to stay kind of strong, but you have to compete?

Thank you. You nailed it. I have to compete. Like, right now, I'm really jonesing to get my training in high gear and get back on the platform and put some numbers together. Because, again, you're not a bodybuilder. You're not a bodybuilder until you get on stage and do those quarter turns wearing your little Speedo.

And you're not a powerlifter until you get out there on a platform and squat, bench, breast, and deadlift in total. And that's what I do. And guys always say, guys who know, go, hey, what do you total? Not what do you squat, what do you bench, what do you deadlift, but what do you total? And when did you do it? Oh, back in 1997?

Tell that story walking. Oh, last week or last month. Oh, that's kick- total? And when did you do it? Oh, back in 1997? Tell that story walking. Oh, last week. Or last month. Oh, that's kick-ass. He just did that. He's not just talking about it. He just did it. Didn't Ric Flair walk up to you and give you some numbers? Well, Ric Flair, he punched me one time, but he wouldn't give me any numbers. Ric Flair and I

got in a fight back in 1981 at a Waffle... I think it was a waffle house in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. We got in a real fist fight. Oh, shit. But he was just yelling at... We yelled at him first. What did you yell at him? It was you and your buddies, right? It was me and

seven friends. Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Summer 1981... Or 1980, boy, a long time ago. You got a mullet. I did not have a mullet. I had a good head of hair. But I know for sure that night that Rick fought the chief Wahoo McDaniels for the strap in the Winston-Salem Coliseum. And after about midnight, we're over at the Waffle House, and a limo pulls up, and Rick Flair gets out. And back then, he was a heel.

He was always a bad guy, never a good guy. And me and all my friends started yelling at him and booing him and making some hand gestures that weren't very nice. And I remember a girl got out of the back of the limo. She was with Rick. And one of my friends, it was not me, said something to the girl, not complimentary. And guys, I'm here to tell you, remember that Rick Flair was like 28 years old, 6'4", 280, whatever, and a big, strong man. And I'm like a high school senior or something. And Rick Flair crossed that parking lot so fast. And all my friends took off running.

But I didn't see him. I happened to be a step closer to Rick than everybody else. So when they took off running, I didn't see it. And I remember I heard Steve Peterson yell, run, Tom, run. I heard his voice, run, Tom, run. And I turned and everyone was gone. But Rick was like, from me to you, Mark. He was right there on me.

And he reached out to grab me. And all I wanted to do was disengage. I wasn't trying to fight Ric Flair. I just wanted to get away and run. So I did the little twist-a-roo and the little backspin. And he grabbed me on the shirt. And I heard this big punch go whoosh over the top of my head. It just brushed the top of my head. And then I did a little spin and dropped down. and I broke free of his grip and took off.

And I ran the 40-yard dash in about three seconds. And when I turned around, me and all my friends, we were all huffing and puffing. I was scared. I was scared shitless. I turned around, and Ric Flair and his limo driver and the girl were laughing so hard because one man chased off eight of us, or seven, I don't remember the words. So it wasn't much of a fight, really. And then years later, of course, Ric Flair became a Gold's Gym owner.

He owned several Gold's Gyms. Absolutely. So we would see Ric every year at the Gold's Gym conventions in Las Vegas. And he was there one year, and I told him that story. I said, Ric, do you remember when you got in a fight with me at the Waffle House? And he goes, Tom, what the hell are you talking about? So I told him the story like that. And Rick's listening, and he's nodding his head, and he's smiling, and he's laughing.

He goes, Tom, I'd love to tell you I remember that fight. But remember, back then, I was a bad guy. And no matter where I went, I was always getting in fights. I couldn't go to Piggly Wiggly without getting in a fist fight with somebody's mom. So he goes, Tom, I don't remember the story, but I completely believe you. I'm not going to call you a liar. Did I hurt you? I said, no, Rick, you threw a punch, and I ducked out of it, and I took off.

And that was pretty much it. He goes, good, I'm glad you're okay. Are we friends now? And I gave him a big hug, and I said, yeah, we're friends. You're Rick Flair. Those wrestlers were not to be messed with back then i remember um we used to go to the mid hudson civic center every month and they used to tape wrestling and they would tape like all four episodes for the

whole month so you'd get to see like four hours straight of wrestling oh that's cool and we went there one time we'd always have like my dad would bring us and our friends and you know smelly be with us we dragged him along He was a younger brother. But I remember one day, Frank Mock, who was one of my brother's crazy friends, he's eaten his own poop. He's also done deadlifts naked on Christmas Day outside of Mid-Hudson Bodybuilding. I've done that. The first part? One of these crazy guys got in, like, such an argument with one of the Moondogs that the Moondog just straight up whacked him with that bone.

Remember the Moondogs? They had the crazy hair. I'm thinking of Hacksaw Jim Dugan right now with a two-by-four instead of a bone. Do you remember that, though? Frank Mock got smashed with a bone. Also, my friend Riley, his grandfather, started yelling at Baron Von Raschke. Remember him? The claw?

And he ran into the ring, and Baron Von Rasasky hit my friend's grandfather with a chair, and it was legit, for real. Oh, there's the Moondogs. That's even better. Oh, wow. You know what? They look like powerlifters. Boy, they're good-looking fellas.

Moondog Rex and Moondog Spot. Yeah, that's them. You know what? They kind of look like Jim Dugan, too, don't they? It's what the Sullivan brothers are aspiring to be right now. I'm not sure what we have right there. He's got, like, the same hair as Duffin there on the left. Yeah. That's like Duffin's hair. It's kind of a current, cool be right now. I'm not sure what we have right there. He's got like the same hair as Duffin there on the left. Yeah.

That's like Duffin's hair. It's kind of a current cool look right there. I like that look. The guy on the right seems discontent. Look, what's he mad about? He seems discontent. What the hell? That's a great picture.

Yeah. So he smashed him with that bone right on the head. And like they didn't even care. Back then it was like, I mean, this is WWE. No lawsuit. The cops didn't show up. It's WWE. I mean, nobody cared. We were laughing on the head. And, like, they didn't even care. Back then, it was like, I mean, this is WWE. No lawsuit. The cops didn't show up. It's WWE. I mean, nobody cared.

We were laughing at it on the way home. Oh, now it'd be on TV, and it'd be a lawsuit. Oh, it'd be huge, yeah. And if anybody other than a person of the exact same, like a white guy, there'd be a racial thing to it. It'd be horrible. It'd be terrible right now. But that's just good fun. Yeah.

And if you go in the ring, if you go in the ring during a professional wrestling match, like going into the ice or hockey game, whatever happens, you kind of invited it. Tom, has anything, like you've seen so much when it comes to bodybuilding and powerlifting, you've been doing it yourself for a long time, you've been around a lot of other great lifters, has anything changed in the fitness industry that is like monumental or revolutionary? Or have you seen anything new or different? Is there some machine that changed everything? Is there supplements changed everything? Or some diet protocol?

Or has it been fairly similar to the information you learned in the 80s? Chris, you can almost answer this question as completely as I can now. Hip thrusts, they change everything. I swear to God. That's the only thing I know that's changed. Building some glutes. I wasn't going to. Hip thrusts. They change everything. I swear to God. That's the only thing I know that's changed. I wasn't going to say hip thrusts. I was going to say hip circle. That's what I was going to say. There you go.

Brothers and fellas, no, nothing. There wasn't a day we looked up and things that changed the whole game. No, no. Basics, right? Just the basics. I mean, right now, during this current unusual situation we're in, the whole world is, I guess, you know, the popularity of the Peloton bicycle and training at home and having an online coach. Online coaching is pretty big.

Of course, before there was an online to be online, we didn't know what that was. But a lot of guys had coaches. Even in the early 80s, winning bodybuilders had prep guys. I go, like, dude, you just won the nationals. Who's going to prep you? He goes, well, I don't know at all. Oh, cool. And then usually their prep guy would be a guy who hadn't competed in years,

but he knew everything about thin and the new stuff. So the guys were good. But to your question, there wasn't an epiphany. I do think that is a good point, though. Training at home has taught a lot of people how to do more at home and how to sort of make do with less and not necessarily need a gym. So I do think that that's probably one of the most recent changes. Yeah, I've been really. I've thought about this quite a bit, but I do think there is one giant change in the industry, and I think it's social media.

Yeah. Because of social media, you now see, you know, we were talking earlier about Jesse Norris. So some kid who weighs 160 pounds thinking he's never going to lift anything sees Jesse Norris at 198 deadlift 826 pounds. He's like, maybe I could, you know, I'm skinny like that guy. And he's heat jacked. It creates Gellar Woolham or one of those guys. Yeah, one of those monsters. So I do think the internet and seeing, you know, but inside the gym and the protocol inside the gym, the five sets of five, like five sets of five still works.

Three sets of three still works. Three sets of ten still works. Bodybuilding methods still work. They all came from a long time ago, and there hasn't really been, unless I'm missing something, hasn't been any sort of like new protocol that has really changed anything, in my opinion. Internet, big influence, absolutely right. And, of course, the fun part of social media, if your workout wasn't captured and then disseminated on the Internet, it never happened. So you can't claim you train legs today unless you show me that video. If I see the video, I got to acknowledge you did something.

Lately, we've been training at Olympic Iron in, I won't say the name of the town. It's very close by, East Bay. Great gym. And when you walk into them, you walk in now on the hush-hush through the back alley, up the back staircase, and you hear the iron clanking. In that gym, they have hundreds of the thick-lipped 45s, and you hear them clanking. And that sound sounds identical to the way it sounded in 1981 or 1979. It never changed.

That reverberating sound of plates clanking on a bar, that stays exact. And the smell of the gym, a little icy hot, maybe a little testosterone or the ester they mix. What is that smell in the air? DMSO. DMSO. That's the worst. A little balls. A little pro-tan or with the current tanning product choice.

Hot stuff. But gyms all smell the same and the sounds are very similar. And they're a very cool sound. We like that sound. Even your gym out here, which is kind of new, you need years to have that sound and that smell work. But your gym is starting to get that smell, which you may want to check into that. Sully. Sully.

But I guess, yeah, you're right. The internet changed a lot of things. Some for the good, some for the bad. I think more for good than bad. And it's fun to get on there and just watch guys, big, strong jack dudes and girls that are nobody in the tight world of powerlifting. But you know, that's a big, strong cat right there. Olympic lifting is a great thing.

It's interesting. The progress of females is unbelievable. Oh, yeah. Yep. Huge. And I give CrossFit females is unbelievable. Oh, yeah. Yep. Huge. And I give CrossFit a lot of the credit for that. Yeah. It popularized the strength sports for the girls.

And now, well, they had a power meet last week at Old School Iron down in Vacaville. Darren Monaghan was a meet sponsor. Good to have the meet back after the shutdown for a while. And over half the competitors were girls. And they were moving a lot of weight, big, strong girls, training hard. And it's always fun to see. And they are as enthusiastic as any of us ever were when we first got to sport. So it's good to see that kind of stuff happening.

Yeah. I think you're right about the women. I think they're proportionally, like, sometimes even stronger. Like, I see women doing squats with 315 that are tiny and I'm just going, oh my god, it looks so easy. It's not strong for a girl anymore. I think people say that's pretty strong. Yeah, that's a straight up strong. But the weights that they're moving are stronger than a lot

of guys. A lot of guys. Two Saturdays ago, Olympic Iron, I went 355, five times five, second week of a prep, and the girl beside me went 335, two times five. It was a girl. And I made, she got my attention very quickly.

I did not say strong weight for her. She was almost matching my weight. And the same girl last week went heavier than all of us on the leg press. We were doing some strip sets and drop sets on the Cybex leg press. We went to seven plates, pull a plate, ten more reps. Pull a plate, ten more reps. You know the deal. She started her strip sets at seven sets.

We started at six, she started at seven. So she's a very strong athlete, and she happens to be a girl. You ever train with a girl stronger than you? That's kind of embarrassing. Well, I've trained with a lot of really strong girls. Remember, I've always been about 245 pounds. Most of my life, I've trained with a lot of really strong girls. I've always been about 245 pounds.

Most of my life I've been using supplements enthusiastically. So are the girls stronger than me? Of course there are. I've trained with Becca Swanson. That was embarrassing. I wouldn't bet. I'd lose that competition real quick. But, again, a 248-pound guy can usually hold his own with most girl athletes now.

But again, a lot of them out there are moving big, big weight. And I wouldn't bench press her for all the money in the world because she's a much stronger bench presser than I. She bent 600 with a shirt. That's crazy. And who's that girl? Who pulled 600? Sarah. Sarah likes bacon.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Sarah, yeah. She's from CSA, correct? Yeah. I think trains are. It's cool and calm and it's nice, soft-spoken. And she goes out there and she opens at 551, then jumps to 584.

It's crazy. And I'm thinking, wait a minute, that's 584 on the bar. If I was pulling 584, I'm paying attention. Can I do it? Sure, I can do it. But I'm paying attention. Then she jumped to 606, I think. And I'm saying, I think she made it. Watching Amanda Nunez fight this past weekend, I was like, I wonder

what kind of guys she should she could... I mean, I know that any normal guy that doesn't train that way... Like, what level could she be? Yeah, what level could she be? Like, what weight class would it represent? Could she beat, like, some of the guys? Like,'t know she's fucking unbelievable she's powerful it would be interesting stuff it's i think tennis a long time ago but i don't know if you've ever seen it

there's a small difference there because like i mean serena williams even said herself in an interview like she is the top tennis player female tennis player but she even said she would be able to beat the top 100 guys i think she got beat by somebody who was like 200th in the world that was a man because it's just absolute more force especially the like of those guys right so i mean amanda nunez like she could fuck up a lot of mma fighters but if you look at the mma guys in her weight class if like i'm not gonna say shit but they it's it's a different it is different there's a difference i wonder if it went down a couple weight classes if if she'd be able to do anything, or if those guys would be too fast.

I just wonder. I'm curious. Got to put up a lot of money, let's say it. Too many people get too mad, though. Yeah. I know she'd fuck me up. I know. Oh, she'd fuck me up, too.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know the little blonde girl, is it Valentina Shevchenko? With the crew cut? No, not that one. She wants to fight a man. She legitimately says, like, listen, I'll fight anybody. I don't care about the consequences of it. I just

want to get in there. She feels it's safe. But too many people get too upset about it, I think. Those girls have chosen violence as a way of life. That's what they've chosen. So they are cut from a different type of cloth than any of the four of us. You might know you like to be JJ and you like, we all love MMA, but we didn't choose to be fighters for a living.

We don't depend on our fight checks to pay the rent. And those people, those girls have chosen violence as a way of life. And there's something else altogether. She wants to fight a guy, more power to her. Will the fans pay to watch that on pay-per-view? Oh, yeah. Hell, yeah, they'll pay to watch that. They'll pay to watch Mayweather fight Logan Paul.

Thank you. Thank you. Craziness. So a girl versus guy, really fighting for real. But I think the guy may be – That would be fucked up for the dude, man. He's in a tough spot. He's in a tough spot. He's in a tough, tough spot.

Any way he walks, the ice is dangerously thin. If he loses, the girl knocked you out. If he wins, you choked out a girl, motherfucker. I mean, if they're the same, he's... What did you think of the Tyson fight? Did you watch that? Tyson-Roy Jones? Unfortunately, I

had to do some dishes. No, I didn't watch that. No! No! Oh, you didn't watch it? I did watch it, yes. I was like, the sarcasm's too far here. I was not gonna watch the right type. It was like a square dance. I heard Tyson won,

but then it was a draw. It was kind of bad, I thought. They got the word kind of. It was bad. It was cool seeing Tyson move that way. Tyson still has some. It was still cool. Tyson would be cool for the rest of our lives. It was definitely like, I wanted to see it for sure. You wanted to see that?

Yeah, I just wanted to see it. You've got to be ashamed of yourself. Well, we love Mike Tyson. We grew up with him. We love Tyson. He's the coolest. So we were like, yeah, who cares? I just want to see it.

But I was kind of disappointed that he didn't go in there. Hey, if Ed Cohn was going to do a power lift at the meet, I'd watch it. It doesn't matter if the guy's retired. Yeah, absolutely. Unfortunately, fighters won't stop fighting. But now he wants to fight Holyfield, and I think that's dangerous.

Holyfield wants to fight Tyson. Holyfield challenged him. No, no, no, no. But Holyfield's already beat him twice. I don't think that's a good thing. Holyfield was so cool back in the day when Lee Haney, Mr. Olympia seven times, when Lee Haney did Holyfield's strength training program, Lee and I were friends back then, or I saw him quite often,

and Holyfield was just the coolest, easy going. It's like, this guy's a fighter? He didn't have a... But in the ring, oh my, not to be... Is that a little suspicious that Lee Haney was doing the program there? Well, he knows strength training. Holyfield gave some solid body weight.

But it's combat sports. I don't want combat sports guys that are vegans. I want my combat sports guys gassed up. That's what I'm saying. Do you think he was gassed up? All my combat sports guys eating lots of carnivore-based stuff, all the big stuff, and hitting hard. I don't know how they're talking about how they're going to fight. And if you say that again, I'm going to punch you.

No, real fighters don't say anything. They just knock your teeth out. What are you saying again? Do you think he was on the juice? What? Do you think Holyfield was on the gas? I sure hope so. I sure hope so.

There you go. If I'm wrong, I'll be mad for the rest of my life, but I'm not wrong. Yeah, no, during the, I think, the Balco thing, his address came up as one of the guys. But it was like way after, right? I was in the Balco address book. I wonder if I'm, who's the really expensive third baseman for the Yankees? Not Jeter. A-Rod. A-Rod.

Remember, he got popped for a while there. And he had lots of doctor's phone numbers and lots of body bills. I was going, please have Tom Fio in your book. Just say my name on TV. A-Rod calls you. You probably know something about PEDs. But he was exonerated of all that, so that never happened.

Did you see that movie they did about him? Screwball? Yeah, they did a documentary about A-Rod and his whole steroid thing. I didn't see that either. It's really good. The guy that did Cooking Cowboys did it, which he's a great director. And it's really good. It's a fun movie.

He used little kids to play A-Rod. Because the story is so goofy. That sounds good. The story is so ridiculous that he just used little kids to show how ridiculous it was. But you should check out Screwball. And people listen. If you tell the truth, you're not going to just fuck with me. No, no.

It's a really cool movie. I've got to check that out. Yeah. Did you see Cocaine Cowboys? It sounds familiar. You need to see that too, then, if you haven't seen it. I'll take a look at that too. There's a lot of good documentaries out there.

I know. I have Netflix. I got it last month. There you go. I heard about it. I never had it. Did you watch the Night Stalker documentary? Richard Ramirez? Yeah. He was a spooky

bastard. Holy shit. But the guy that did that documentary, the guy that did that documentary is like a hero of mine. He's a documentary filmmaker named Tiller Russell. And he's got about like six or seven documentaries that are all awesome. So he did a movie called Operation Odessa. It's all underground crazy stories. I always see that one on Netflix.

Operation Odessa is about like these guys that sell a Russian submarine to these other guys. So all of his stories are really pretty wild and really interesting. He did The Last Narc. The Last Narc is on Amazon, and that's like a four-part series. I've been looking for a broker, a nuclear submarine. Do you know anybody? I was going to say, if I need a Russian submarine, I'd contact Tom Kyle. You've got to watch this movie, because a guy

who sells the submarine, he's a jacked Russian named Tarzan. That's all you need to know. Makes perfect sense. Yeah, it's like, I'm in a typhoon class where the nuclear capabilities would be nice used, but not too old. Get back to me on that one. Some modern technology. Submarines, crazy invention. We got like a...

Who's that guy? Where's the jacked Russian? I don't see a Jack Drescher anywhere. He's in here somewhere. That might be him. That could be him. No, let me see. Interesting. Oh, this is the... Hey, we know who that is. This is Odessa, or whatever it's called. They really sold a submarine

to drug dealers. Didn't you say you worked for Showtime for a period of time? Absolutely, yes. Most Showtime people, they have a huge in-house contingency you worked for Showtime for a period of time? Absolutely, yes. Most Showtime people, they have a huge in-house contingency as well, but they have a lot of freelance guys. I worked freelance for Showtime Sports for many years, and we televised combat sports. I visited you when you were doing that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We were down in Fresno, I believe.

I got you some seats. Yeah, he was a guy that would bring the fighters out to the ring. It was a really cool gig. A whole lot of fun. Stage manager, is that what that's called? Correct. Stage manager, first AD, different companies were called the same job by different titles, but a whole lot of fun.

And liking the sport of MMA, I mean, I would have worked for free. They didn't pay me much anyway, but I would have worked for free to have ringside seats and talk to the guys and hang out with all the champions back then. I remember back then, Strikeforce had a lot of really good world champions, a lot of great fighters, especially the heavyweights, unfortunately, in 2000. Strikeforce was really good. Strikeforce had a lot of really good world champions, a lot of great fighters, especially the heavyweights. Unfortunately, in 2000— Strikeforce was really good. Strikeforce was kick-ass.

Yeah. And the heavyweights especially were phenomenal. UFC always wanted to buy just the heavyweight division, all the fighters. Scott Coker wouldn't sell them, evidently. And so UFC pulled the trigger and bought the entire thing. Remember, 2008, 2009, perhaps? Maybe, yeah. And Strikeforce went away, sadly,

for a lot of fighters. And sadly for Shedtime Sports and the entire production crew. I was one of them. Because our jobs... That's where like Ronda Rousey came from, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Without a doubt. Absolutely. Yeah, a lot of really good people. I heard about her. She came up. She won her first two fights convincingly. She had a lot of intangibles. Good on the mic.

Good looking girl. Always finished her fights. Guys fights Guys want to see fights finished So we knew Ronda was going to be something special early on We didn't predict what she became We never saw that coming But funny on that note When she fought Holly Holmes I was in the sports book with Javier Mendez

You guys know Javier Javier owns AKA Javier In MMA and the UFC When In MMA, in the UFC, when a guy's in the ring getting strapped and put around his waist, the guy behind him is normally Javier Mendes. Trains a lot of real world champions. Nice, nice guy. He goes, Tom,

Javier will make a gamble from time to time. He'll make a bet. He likes the casinos like I do. He goes, Tom, Holly Holmes, $14,000 to $1,000. I said, what are you talking about? Against Ronda? I wouldn't bet $50,000. What?

No way. Shut up. And I ignored him, brushed him off. He goes, okay, I'm telling you. Well, about six hours later, and then the kick to the head, and $1,000 would have been $14,000. Man, wow. I bet it on somebody else somewhere else.

But he said, Holly Holmes to win that fight and she knocked out Ronda after that Ronda fought she was gone for about a year and a half then came back and fought maybe Amanda or maybe anyway after that she was never the same but yeah Ronda

she cut her chops with a strike force and she was a hell of an athlete the TV loved her, the fans loved her she's now WWE right? she was a hell of an athlete. The TV loved her. The fans loved her. She's now WWE, right? She was, and then she left. I believe she's pregnant now. Oh. Having a baby.

Didn't know that. Maybe had a baby. Maybe. I don't know. But then the fans kind of turned on her. Oh. I thought she was excellent in wrestling. I thought she was really cut out for it and did really good.

But the fans kind of got mad that she got pregnant and left. But, I mean, that's just life. You know what I mean? So they were really mad at her for real? She talked some shit a little bit, too, I guess. Yeah, you want a baby? Some sort of controversy around it. She said the fans.

You want real life? She said something like, I don't think the fans appreciated me anyway. And then they sort of retaliated on her. When she says that, she has to know they're going to say, well, in that case. In a way, I think she was kind of right, though. I think the fans weren't supporting her in a way that they maybe should have. Now, the next big thing, the next big MMA, WWE dynamic has to be Conor McGregor showing up as a manager. Because hopefully he's through with combat sports.

He lost badly to Dustin Port. Yeah, Poirier. Yeah, he didn't lose badly. He got beat up a little bit. And I'd love to see him make the transition over to WWE. Obviously his gift for Gab is as good as anybody. He'd be phenomenal.

He's a little bit small to get in the ring and fight some of those guys. He could go up to 190 perhaps and be a little more intimidating physically. But some of the pro wrestlers are really, really big boys. And it doesn't make sense sometimes when we see really small guys beating the guys that are twice their size. Like, wait a minute, that's not going to happen that way. In real life, it could happen that way. But in pro wrestling, that's not the way it works out.

But I love to see Conor in the ring. It looks like he wants to fight again against Dustin. I think that'd be awesome. Shut up! No, it wouldn't be awesome. Why wouldn't it be awesome? Tell me why. Why?

If he wins, he's got to come back. He's won in a row. If he loses, now he's like 0-4. Then he's out. But at least they get to do those three fights. Because of his phenomenal record and what he brought to the sport, it's his choice. If he wants to fight again, let him fight again. And will I pay to watch it?

I probably will. If not, I'll go to Bell's house and watch it on him. Or I'll pirate the video signal somewhere. But no, we wouldn't do that. I'd watch that again. But hopefully he makes the transition to something a little less dangerous. Because he doesn't need to get punched in the face by real fighters. He's got money now.

He's got a lot of money, and he's a good-looking guy. I hear Proper 12. He just sold it. He's what? Well, so he didn't sell it. He never really actually owned it. Like what Proper 12 was when a lot of these celebrities do is like somebody will come to you and be like, I have an awesome product. I want you to be the face of it.

And so they basically, him and his manager had you know they wanted to make a liquor and they found a partner and they they all partnered up and so that the the actual company that owns jose cuervo actually owns owned like i think like 40 of that and then now they own they just bought the other 51 and they said connor will probably stay on as the face of the brand but not necessarily not he's not the owner anymore But that made over a billion dollars in a couple, you know, in the first year. I've seen some lists where it was legit. It was a legit boot product that sold really well, and his cut of the action was substantial. Yeah, no, he's going to make a lot of money off of it.

I'm saying it's like he's already out of it, but that's what you do with those businesses. Who was it that he fought? And after he fought, he knocked some guy out, And then he started to apologize to the masses on camp. Joe Rogan was holding the mic, and he grabbed the mic from Rogan. He goes, I'd like to sincerely apologize to absolutely nobody. That's when he won the title. When he said that, he's done. He can do whatever he wants to.

He can be the president. He can kick McMahon out of wrestling. He can be The Rock. He can be Tom Brady. He killed Uriah Faber when they were on The Ultimate Fighter. He called him a 50-year-old washed-up skateboarder. And I was like, Uriah is totally cool. You go, Uriah is totally cool.

But you look at him and go, he's kind of right. That was awesome. That was an awesome dig. Not UFC. WCW. What was it? Uriah Faber fought for WEC. WEC, yeah.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. He was their world champion many years. And they were kind of a feeder league to UFC. But they were better than a feeder league. They were really good. Remember, there was a while there when Uriah... Boy, he was a wrecking machine.

He got through everybody like, this guy can't be beat. He's crazy good. And the UFC didn't have that weight class, I don't think. Ah, I didn't recall that. No, they didn't. Hey, when Uriah was on, boy, oh boy, that was something special right there. The girls loved him. But I see the 50-year-old skateboard thing perfectly.

Yeah. He's interesting, though, because he still does fights here and there. I would have thought he'd be totally out of it. He just won recently. I don't think he lost after that. I'm not sure. He had a 1-1 loss one or something like that. I think his most recent one, he got beat.

Yeah, he did. He did. But right before that, he won. He was still fighting. Before that, yeah, was he was he won dominantly but yeah he never won a title in the once the w once the ufc was bought out or sorry wow once the ufc bought wec and he came over they opened up that weight class the 135 or they think so and that's when he started competing but he never won a title that was out

his first fight was against uh jose aldo and he oh that was remember that was a wrecking machine like what do you do with it but then you know who went right through yeah mcgregor right remember that they called it too i never i didn't see that coming at all this guy's maybe he's a little bit past his prime, but McGregor needs to be extra careful. He didn't need to be anything. He just knocked him right out and that was the end of that. How do you feel about the use of PEDs in the sport, Nick, being

so widespread? How do you feel about that stuff? Maybe it's all sweetheart. For combat sports, they're what you use. They're made for power. They're made for combat sports, guys. They weren't made for them. They're made for guys who have much worse trauma, get in car crashes, and can't eat or drink food and need to recover. But they're ideal for combat sports guys, guys who play hockey,

guys who play in the NFL, guys who need aggression and physical strength and need to be able to take it. So in your mind, guys like, say, Bones Jones, he's gotten in trouble for some things, and oh, it's maybe little levels. That doesn't bother you at all. Once again, do we want to see vegans out there using harsh language? I don't. Or do we want – that's two of us.

Two of us do not want to see that. You know, they could have a vegan fight league. Wait a minute now. Let's think about that. Something to talk about. Vegan fight league. No, it's nothing to talk about. I want to see guys that are aggressive

and not only can dish it out, because we can still dish it out, we just can't take it anymore. If I get punched in the mouth, that's it, I quit. If I fall down, I might get back up. But you want to see guys that can take it and anabolic steroids or PEDs, all PEDs or anabolic steroids allow you to dish it out

and take it as well. That's what we want to see in every single sport, combat sports especially. So all the drug testing for the level playing field, well, that's fine if you want to test them. But I want my guys on a little bit of gas, and hopefully they still do that. That's, again, everyone's choice. I mean, all the fighters, especially if they get popped, they pay the penalty and they know the penalty going in. If they want to cross that line,

they know what's going to happen. So everyone knows they take their chances. They roll the dice to take their chances. Maybe they could figure out a way to regulate some of those things. Like, okay, like maybe let the fighters take this. Well,

now they've kind of done that. Now, you know, they have, well, certainly with testosterone, they want your levels to be within a certain range. They give you a range.

It could be a little bit high. But with your low, if you take— Is that in the UFC? I think in all sports now, they give you a range. If they need to take any testosterone, because you have a certain natural free serum testosterone, but they give it a range, and it can't be out of that range. And surprisingly, most good guys, their numbers are right at the top of the range. How'd that happen?

Well, they're doing the blood work and they're watching, looking at panels. Are you saying if there's a guy that's below the set range, he can take testosterone to get into the range? That's legal for somebody in combat sports? Well, you just can't tell anybody that you're doing it. So they used to do that back at UCLA, Don Catlin, who runs all the testing. Actually, it wasn't Don Catlin. It was the coach from Santa Monica College. I want to say his name is something Douglas, Coach Douglas.

We went and visited this guy, and he was really old. And he accidentally told us, like, oh, you guys talked to Don Catlin? Yeah, he's great. We used to go there to make sure all of our levels were in the right range. I love it. This is cool for you to say. I love it. This guy was like 80.

That's not a real name, though. He was 80-something years old, right? And he's like, yeah, we used to go there and make sure our levels were in the right range. That's cool. I'm like, what levels? You're like, you know, the testosterone and estrogen and stuff? Like, I don't really know. I'm not a scientist.

But we'd make sure that they weren't over the range that they should. And this is Carl Lewis's coach, and this is all these people. Oh, yeah. So I can't say definitively that I know and I have conclusive evidence, but basically it leaked from the mouth of an old guy. And then we tried to go back and interview him on camera, and he was on to us. He was like, I can't actually talk about that anymore. Was he?

We never got him. Did the IOC? And now he's not here anymore. He was really old. He coached a lot of world champions. I think this is who I'm thinking about. I think at the end, unfortunately, the IOC banned him for life more than once. Who?

The man you're talking about. Oh, no. Wasn't that Trevor Graham? That was a guy that got caught with. It was a goalkeeper. He was all the time. And he got banned for life. And he got that back down to two years, then six months.

Then it happened again. I think finally when they said life, they meant, son, don't come back anymore. You're gone. Yeah, but I'm not sure who that was. It does happen. And for every team of guys coming together to design the drug test, there's a team of doctors trying to beat the drug test. There's always a sacrificial lamb, too. Like there's a guy that's maybe not that good that gets busted.

You've got to have that guy at the show. So that everybody else can, you know, run free. Carry on. Yeah. Do they do that? Do they, I don't know, like, we'll just say Conor McGregor gets popped. Like, fuck. And then they'll find somebody else down the ranks and be like, nope, that's the guy.

He's going to be our poster boy for getting people in trouble. I can't, I cannot imagine Connor ever failing. That was just an example, but just insert anybody top rank fighter. I think that would definitely make some damn sense. Like if your top fighter gets popped and he's making y'all hell of money, like,

are you going to really, yeah, you're going to try to cover that up. Like in the NFL, you don't want your, you don't want your thoroughbreds on the sideline. Oh, NFL is probably the worst. You want your guys on the field making spectacular plays.

The NFL is very rare for it to be a top-level guy. Yeah, and again, to really know the answer, boy, you've got to be an elite person traveling in rarefied air. None of us are ever going to be in that meeting where they decide, here's what we're going to do, boys. That's a very tough meeting to get into. And even with all your money, you're not going to that meeting. You may be serving them some drinks in the lobby, but you're not going to, you're not

getting into that meeting. I can't get in the parking lot. Get out of here, file. Get out of the car. And you know, I'm doing a documentary. Not today, you're not. They will confiscate your camera and smash it. So, but does it make sense?

It makes a whole lot of sense. It sure does. Nice little conspiracy theories. Yeah. Some of these drugs like EPO, they're really hard to detect, right? And so you get somebody like. Beautiful drug. Somebody who's a great fighter.

Tell me about EPO. I sound like Donald Trump. Beautiful drug. Beautiful drug. Is that something that cyclists use? Yeah. Cyclists love it. It's what TJ Dillashaw also got called a theory.

Stop. Stop. You sound like you're having an orgasm over here. It's called erythropoietin. You feel that great. Erythropoietin. What an amazing drug that saves a lot of lives. For a couple of years, there was the single most expensive drug in the world.

Nothing more expensive than that. Nothing. And it would save your life if you needed it. But an amazing drug that increased RBC, red blood cell count. Unfortunately, when you have too many red blood cells in your blood, the viscosity goes way, way up. Back in the early 90s, when synthetic EPO first hit them, when they first synthesized it, your body produces it naturally. When they first synthesized it, a lot of Dutch cyclists got a hold of it, but they didn't know how to dose it. And they lost some cyclists.

They lost some guys. Their blood got too thick, right? Their blood was the viscosity of room temperature honey. Just like room temperature honey. Sick. Imagine trying to pump that through your veins. Sounds painful. Oh, yeah.

But hey, before they died, they were a wrecking machine on the mountains. I mean, they never burned glycogen for fuel. They always had oxygenated blood being shoveled into their muscles. And they were just ferocious. Like, where's he going? How can he go that fast? And then he would go faster. And then one of his teammates who was on workouts would pass that guy and he'd go like, how can this be happening?

And that's what they were doing. Remember, if you don't burn glycogen, you don't have any lactic acid. No lactic acid disguised on how fast you can go. What can your heart take? Your heart's indestructible. You never blow up your heart. You can't do it. You can try, but you're not going to do it. But the EPA was an amazing drug. And what I was saying before that is

that there's a test that can actually identify EPO. And I actually interviewed the guy that did the test, and he told me that when he brought the test to the United States like the USADA, that they said, we can't use your test because it'll put us at a

disadvantage on the international playing field meaning that your test actually works our guys will get busted but the other countries the other countries will be using this substandard test that we can pass so we're going to stick with this test over here and he was just like really disappointed he actually has a letter from the usada saying like hey you know your test would put us at a disadvantage it's crazy here's the thing when they made i don't know how the powers that be spoke to the pharmaceutical manufacturers a buddy of mine was a was a rep not a rep he was he was a shot caller with amgen amgen makes procrit procrit is a trade name for epl yeah and he said look they asked us to put a genetic marker in the drug.

Our bodies produced EPO naturally. So you test positive. All of us would test positive EPO. Mine would be extremely, like, one. I don't know what the numbers are. Two. I wouldn't have much. You'd have a little more than me.

You'd have more than him. But they convinced the manufacturers to put a genetic marker in there. So if you have any synthetic EPO, there's a fingerprint or a metabolite. It says, oh, hey, by the way, manufactured by XYZ Pharmaceutical House, you're busted. So now they have a real problem with it. And the guys know you can't take this brand, this brand, this brand, or this brand because it has a marker and they will see it. Now, the pharmaceutical houses didn't do that to appease USADA or Water. Who owns USADA?

Who's that? Travis Teagarden. Yeah. That guy. Whatever. They didn't do it for him. They did it to other doctors and other medical people who said, hey, this guy already has synthetic EPO.

We can't give him any more. Or the source of this EPO that he does have is, in fact, synthetic. Makes sense. It's really interesting. What? One of the biggest sponsors for the sport of cycling is... Hold it. Hold it.

Budweiser. Amgen Pharmaceuticals that makes EPO. Yes, the Tour of California. I love that connection. I love that connection. Isn't that hilarious? It's freaking hilarious. So you see all these people riding around.

They got Amgen, and it's got their logos, like bubbles of blood or whatever. It's a hemoglobin. Yeah, exactly. I asked my boys. and it's got like their logo is like bubbles of blood or whatever. And so – It's a human load. Yeah, exactly. I asked my boys. I said, hey, any chance – what's the chance of sneaking some of that Procrit out the back door? And he goes, Rob Fort Knox, you got a better chance. I said, what do you mean?

He goes, do you know what it costs for this stuff? Like 30 mLs or however it goes. This much Procrit was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. He goes, no, I can't steal any Procrit for you. I didn't ask you to steal it. I just wanted you to get some for me. I would be really interested to see... What? I would be really interesting to see what that

does for a lifter. Because obviously you have more endurance, so coming in and doing the same weights... I would say strongman guys probably use it. They love it. Strongman competitors have to have something for it. They've got to be careful with their blood, obviously. Or they've got to be careful. And they're already at 400 pounds.

Yeah. And Lance Armstrong, he used to take his own blood out of his system when he was at the highest altitude, training the hardest, right? And then he would put it back into his system, right? Exactly. It worked beautifully. It worked very, very safe. And so there's levels to it, right?

Like there's the level where you can do altitude. You can simulate altitude in like a chamber. You can do blood doping where you pull your own blood out and then inject it back in. And then you can do EPO, which is like the strong lie. It's an amazing movie. Yeah, and Armstrong, I think, did all of them. He did all of them. He was a record machine.

And everybody else in the top ten, anyone on the podium, did exactly the same thing. Once again, do I want to watch guys pedal their bikes really slowly up the side of the mountain, zigzagging and wobbling? No, I want to see guys raging. And when this guy can't take anymore, this guy passes them. And then this guy shows up and passes them. And what do they do? They chase them down. And, Seema, to your point about regulation, so years ago in swimming they had they had a swimsuit

that just i remember that the record started getting smashed right away so swimming you know they they pulled that out they they got rid of that the shark suit or something they made it illegal it you know but it's like well what's the point of swimming like what's the point of competitive swimming we're trying to see people swim as fast as possible. And maybe there are certain suits now that enhance your speed. But people were like, no, no, no, this is too fast. You know, so where do you kind of draw that line sometimes? Nike created a shoe a while back where people were smashing records as well.

And I think there was some record in the marathon that was beat. And it was they haven't seen a progress leap like that since like the 1950s. From a shoe? Yeah, from a shoe. I don't recall this at all. So they scratched it and there's a lot of rumors that Usain Bolt utilizes it and stuff like that, but I mean, he's going to smash everybody anyway, but there's a lot of controversy over those kinds of shoes and like, what do you allow? What don't you allow?

I think, I mean, I think in track, it's like, we're trying to see who can run the fastest, right? So, you know, in car racing, they're not going to have any limits on the, well, they have some limits on the car for safety, I guess. But in the case of somebody running, like what's the point in as long as the shoes available to him and me and this guy and you, more power to him. Put your shoe out there. And speaking of shoes, beautiful segue.

I don't know about that, though. Beautiful segue on the shoe thing. Thank you for the shoe donation. Mark Bell, he's a shoe, what do you call guys who have a lot of shoes? Connoisseur? Connoisseur. Sneakerhead? Sneakerhead.

Sneakerhead. Thank you. An asshole. And Brother Bell, everybody buys lots of shoes, never wears them. Came to the gym last week and out there on the gym floor, there's dozens of pairs of brand new shoes that are sitting there. And I'm wearing them right now. I'm wearing your shoes, Bill, so thank you very much. I love it.

Another key, another example of Bill being generous for no reason at all to nobodies, which is very cool. But I don't go like you having a shoe that really made them faster. They look pretty cool. Some of those guys' shoes look really cool. We can't buy them. But wait up. Why don't you think that if everyone had access to it, you were about to say something there.

What do you mean? Because that's never the case. But that has me wondering if it was the case. Because if we look at sports like track, you got all of these already elite level athletes, right? Now, if all of these elite level athletes are allowed access to the same type of whatever, shoes, drugs, et cetera,

the guy that's at the top is going to be at the top but the records are going to be fucking crazy still like it's going to be just an even crazier thing right i want to see that i want to see that guys girls is that the shoe yeah so it's the uh it's the nike uh vaporfly so i guess that's a track shoe well i'm that can you be a competitive track can you buy them on eBay? So the thing is, it was banned. It was a long-distance running shoe. There's a marathon. But they got it approved for the 2020 Olympics. So if you think about it,

why it may not work well for sprinting is because the race is over so quickly. But if we run for a while, maybe it's just giving a little fraction, tiny bit better than another shoe. At that level, 1% is over so quickly. But if we run for a while, maybe it's just giving a little fraction, tiny bit better than another shoe. At that level, 1% is a huge amount. But I just think that in general, like life just doesn't work that way about,

you know, you having access to this and me not having access to that. I mean, even when it comes to swimming, you could get like, you know, some of these people might get the best coach in the world when they're 11. They might pay $10,000 a month for this particular coach. That other person doesn't have access.

We're still going to meet up at the Olympics. We're still going to be timed the exact same way and still judge the exact same way. I just don't think it's ever really even-steven kind of thing. All this stuff is going to go away with CRISPR. Have you guys heard of CRISPR? It's making me hungry. Is that the chicken sandwich from McDonald's? Yeah.

That's after you put it in the air fryer it comes out a little crisper it's a gene editing tool and so if there's something that you don't like it's about you know your kid that you're gonna have or even i think even even if you're a little bit older you could still do it you can just snip things out of your genetics that are causing problems. There's a guy that is working on a lot of stuff. I saw a whole special on him, and he wiped out like seven diseases that are like really prominent in people. If you listen to Tim Ferriss' most recent podcast, it says CRISPR in the title. It might be one or two back, but it's very recent. It's really good with a scientist that's like doing all this. And he says it's very inexpensive, which is like, you know, you're talking about access.

Hey, if everybody has access to it, you would think it costs like a billion dollars. Well, the machine itself is actually expensive, but the process is inexpensive. And the United States, I think they said we already have like 30 of these machines and that they could be being used right now. So a lot of people seem to think there was an undocumented trip of Usain Bolt, and I'm not accusing him of anything, but before he broke the world record, he had gone to China and a lot of people suspected that he did CRISPR because no drugs showed up in the system and he smashed a record. Could he be that fast?

Possibly. I would like to think so. So CRISPR could be applied to adults? Not in the little, brand new? Is that when we're little kids? I'm not positive. I don't have all the facts on it, but I know if you listen to that podcast, it'll be on there. Google that.

Remind me. Google CRISPR. K or C or not? C. C. Thank you. What about longevity? Does it help you live longer?

Because that seems to be what all people care about. So I think that that's what it is. So you would edit out the genes that cause things like lifelong chronic illnesses that would prop up when you're a little kid, when you're a baby. You'd get rid of those and then you'd live around. No more? Yeah. Well, just anything. Age is a problem just like anything else. There's no governing laws of the world that prevent us from living as long as we want.

We just haven't figured out how to avoid it. No, there is. Governor Cuomo of New York takes care of that for you. Okay. Governor Cuomo has that covered. You've got old people. God damn, that was rough. Taking out a population, right?

Do they have something that can cure my genetic flaws that are kind of more like decision-making, like casinos and Reno? That would be psychedelics. Okay, good. Thank you very much. That's psychedelics. I'm not going to get it. Like a gambling addiction or something? Not an addiction, but an enthusiasm to make bets over and over again.

Not an addiction, just an enthusiasm. I like that. To continue to make the same bet repeatedly, no matter what. I think there would be. I think there would be. I think there would be. I think there's genetic coding for a lot of these things. Get that number down. Let's call Chris Burr and see what they've got going over there.

Maybe we can get involved somehow. Yeah, we can be on the trials, clinical trials. Count me in. Sure, yeah. Why not? Yeah. Did you start with bodybuilding first? I'm just curious about that.

Absolutely. Did you start with bodybuilding first? Very closely. The Teenage Tar Heel was first. Bodybuilding show. Teenage Tar Heel. Aaron Baker won that show, by the way. Aaron, pretty good IFBB pro.

Amazing. Smelly's wrestled him. He was a pro wrestler. Wait, on the hush hush? No. You wanted weird and bodybuilding? Here we go. It all comes back around.

Apartment 213 in Santa Monica. Knock once, wait, knock again. Oh, you know the knock. There is totally cool Brother Baker, as we call him. I love him. Nice guy. Great bodybuilder. Competed during the toughest years.

He was there with Flex and Chris and Rico. Not Rico. Rico's good. But Paul Dillette. I mean, all the really, really Dorian, of course. Started that weird time when the WBCBC came around and stuff too, right? WBF. WBF.

That was Vince McMahon's World Bodybuilding Federation. Gary Stridham, all jacked and tan. Stridham had a kick-ass physique. One of my current training partners just found out who Gary Stridham was. He goes, Tom, you mentioned Gary Stridham. He was like 290, right? Dude, he was freaking crazy. I mean, everything but his back was light.

At the 88 Olympia, him and Haney from the front. 90, right? Dude, he was freaking crazy. I mean, everything but his back was light. At the 88 Olympia, him and Haney, from the front, stride him, stride him, stride him. And they turned him around. He went, ooh, maybe not stride him anymore because Haney's back was particularly good. But bodybuilding first, but very close. A few months later, powerlifting. And the bodybuilding show, I got fourth out of four. And in the powerlifting contest, I did much, much better.

And I realized, wait a minute, maybe I'm a better powerlifter than a bodybuilder. It was Chris Cormier, the IFBB pro that submitted that about 25 years later. I was training with him. We were running the same gear pretty much, eating the same calories. I'd match him set for set, rep for rep, pound for pound. He was strong too, right? Chris was extremely strong. And he won the Arnold. Yeah.

So a pretty good bodybuilder. And he did a set of seated presses, the 155s, and I matched him rep for rep, same weight. And then Chris would hit a front double bicep shot. And you go, damn. And I'd do the same thing. And he'd go, Tom, you're a better power lifter than your bodybuilder. And that cemented the fact that you can do exactly what those guys do. I mean, exactly.

And it's not going to happen for you. Can I ask you a personal question here? Sure you can, brother. So you said you were taking about the same gear as a pro bodybuilder. What was that? What level of gear is that at? Because we always hear from pro bodybuilders, I don't take that much shit. Was it a lot?

Well, I never went to Chris's house and looked at his refrigerator. I'm't take that much shit. Was it a lot? Well, I never went to Chris's house and looked at his refrigerator. I'm not talking specifically about him. What were you taking that was similar? Well, at the time, probably running a gram a week of Sipionate, a gram a week of Dandron Decanoate or Decadurabolin,

a tab a day of Anadrol 50, and probably 25 to 30 mg of Methadroxenol or dinobol. YouTube, this is hypothetical performance art. Yeah, exactly. This is hypothetical performance art. Okay, everybody understand this is hypothetical performance art we're talking about. This is not real.

This is not true. Okay, go on. Thank you very much. And back then, there wasn't a, the drugs didn't have the same legal classifications either. So, you know, that was probably that. I was definitely taking that. That was a cycle I would take all the time. No big deal.

And then it would vary. Remember, we never come off. We just change. You don't want to come off. You don't need to come off. We have different receptors, and different drugs utilize different receptors. So we come off product A, jump on product B, and then we use a brand new fresh receptor so when I said I was taking the same calories and the same workout schedule doing some cardio as Chris I didn't watch when he was

taking I never took HGH ever I just thought it was not a very smart move cost-wise it was very expensive as a pro bodybuilder Chris used it very effectively and then about that time I had realized, you're a responder or you're not. And Chris was clearly a responder. I mean, he was a winning pro bodybuilder, which is really rare, rare air to travel in. And I was never even a winning amateur bodybuilder, which is pretty common air to travel in.

We're all in that thing. Everyone here has a non-winning bodybuilder. He started training at Gold's Venice when he was like 15 years old. And he was already jacked. He already's Venice when he was like 15 years old. And he was already jacked. He already looked good when he started. Some guys, you can walk in the door and go, this kid could beat somebody if he wants to. That's kind of what his deal was.

And now we feel bad when we encourage him to be a professional bodybuilder. We've got to go, that might ruin his life. Maybe he should chase something else, but not professional bodybuilding. But some guys, you can't make them not chase it. I mean, once they get a taste of it, they want to. And there's bodybuilders. We've also seen people do a lot better without pro bodybuilding. They have awesome physiques.

Like my friend Joey Swole. He's super jacked and looks awesome. And he's made a lot of money in the fitness. He's made a tiny dough. And at first, I was kind of a douchebag. But every now and then, he's pretty cool. And he's got a crazy physique. He was kind of in that clique with shreds and this and that.

There we go. Yeah. And that kind of gives you that. And I'm an an old guy so i don't look cool anymore anyways what the hell i don't know cool doing that but what i like about uh joey swole is uh he's also very open and honest you know he went through an addiction like i did with opioids and stuff like that and he he's been very vocal about it lately because it's it's pretty recent and i just like when people are putting out a good message and putting out a positive message especially when they went through something that they might be embarrassed of,

because that's really easy to be embarrassed of if you're a fitness professional and you go through an addiction. I think that's cool, too. I agree 100%. And right now, I like his rep. He's very funny. When I see him doing stuff, I'll turn it on. And, dude, you can't deny that physically. I thought it was Flex Lewis who won the lightweight.

He looks incredible. Every time I see him, I get mad. I Flex Lewis, yeah. He looks incredible. I don't know if you've heard of Flex Lewis sometimes. Every time I see him, I get mad. I'm like, man, what the hell? They make you mad. You either get mad and walk away, or you get motivated and walk away and they come back. Yeah. Or you can just go, dude, that's pretty effing cool.

So now you just got to go like, dude. You just shake your head like, I don't believe what I'm looking at, but it's cool what I see. Like all the guys, even us, surrounded by big dudes all of our lives now. Every day, there's somebody jackwalking around. You hang out with the boss all the time. Like, damn, dude. You always say hi to him, too, right?

Yeah. You give him that what's up. We have the big guy nod at bars, at restaurants, at the casino. The airport's the best. A little head nod. Hey, hey, I'm going into the restaurant at Harvey's or Harris a month ago. I'm in line to get in, and this guy walks past me. I can tell he's got some serious quality muscle. He goes, damn, dude, I in line to get in and this guy walks past me. I can tell you got some serious quality

muscle. He goes, damn, dude, I got to get back on. He said, word for word, damn, dude, I got to get back on. He poked me in the chest. He was a big guy. Acknowledge a big guy. You know what the great thing about all of this is? It's like we all, well, not all of us started lifting because we wanted to be more attracted to women, but that

that's part of it, right? But the shit is, it's like it's always dude it's always like dude look at your pecs brother nice calves nice calves

nice quads dude it wasn't a girl that poked me and said I gotta get back on it was a gnarly hardcore dude with cauliflower ears

as a matter of fact he wanted to get back on cause of me like thanks brother appreciate that like who's your wife but some girls will acknowledge

it and they'll go kinda gnarly I remember very cool remember remember Gabrielle Reese? Yeah. You remember Gabrielle. Yeah, she's great. Nike-sponsored athlete, married Leonard Hamilton. Leonard Hamilton's wife, yep.

Phenomenal athlete, gorgeous girl. USC. US, smart as a whip, totally cool. She gave us a Nike catalog. She was a Nike-sponsored athlete for years. She goes, boys, here's a couple of catalogs. Pick out whatever you want. And Nike had about 8,000 different shoes. Ooh. And we'd circle a couple, put her name, like, a week later. She goes, boys, here's a couple of catalogs. Pick out whatever you want. And Nike had about 8,000 different shoes.

And we'd circle a couple, put her name, like a week later. She goes, here you go. She'd bring them in, boxes, and give us all free shoes. But one time, I'm walking out of the gym. I'd just trained neck. I was probably 275 at the time, pretty tight. Neck was over 21, easily. But I had pumped it up to probably 22 and some change.

And she goes, I was walking out. She's taller than me. Gabbro's a real 6'1". Yeah, 6 some change. And she goes, I was walking out. She's taller than me. Gabrielle's a real 6'1". Yeah, 6'. And she goes, damn, Tom. And she goes, what the hell is that? She goes, this damn, Tom. And then walked away. That was the highlight of my freaking year right there.

Like Gabrielle Reese acknowledging a cool right. And she said it to me like, I want to get you. I want to get you. I want to get you. And it was just freaking cool. She's acknowledging a 22-inch neck. That's hilarious. Yeah.

Anyway. And remember Laird Hamilton? Yeah. Laird's great. Laird does all these crazy workouts. Joe Rogan always talks about him. He does workouts. In the sauna.

In the sauna. What? And he wears oven mitts. He goes on a, he goes on a, puts the sauna up to 200 degrees or even higher, and has to wear oven mitts, his hands will burn, and things on his feet, and then he pedals on a bike in the sauna. I believe it. I mean, he was, I mean.

And he does pool workouts where he takes dumbbells and he lets the dumbbells sink him down to the bottom. Underwater walking? Yeah. What the hell are you talking about? But they do it. He does all sorts of crazy stuff all the time. When nobody's looking, early in the morning or late at night, he'd paddle out north shore

somewhere in Hawaii or somewhere. When nobody was there, we weren't there. There weren't any girls there. And surf those monster waves like, dude, nobody's seen you. You can just tell us you did this and we got to believe it. But he would go out and do it like, dude, I got to salute you. You are a crazy, crazy motherfucker. You know what's cool about Laird is he's got, he does this, but he does it with

all this crazy group of celebrities that are like, it's just a makeshift group. You know Rick Rubin, who's like a music producer, Beastie Boys and everything? He goes to the house and does these workouts. He's like very into it all. You wouldn't suspect that he was. He's got the big beard. He looks like he could be homeless, but

the guy is wealthier than anybody and he's actually really good shape. But, yeah, Laird Hamilton has, like, a whole group of people that will go over his house, and they train. They do all these crazy— Now, they'll do that. They didn't paddle out on 25-foot days. No, no, no, no. They're like, what are you doing?

There's no one going to save you. If you get hurt, there's nobody to save you other than you and your two other crazy friends. I mean, they'll save you. They're the kind of guys that will die trying to save you but what he did was just crazy great like phenomenal like my friend was a legend in that world he's not you got a dude that's something else right there that's a real rare individual right there and really really super cool i don't know if you want to talk about this but it had me curious when he kind of mentioned it we we kind of alluded to um prison powerlifting meets right and i mean, like, I've seen people go to prison

and come out kind of jacked, you know? So I'm just curious, like, how's that experience? Like, how'd that, yeah, just time. Mark Bell, we've discussed this before a little bit, and I got no problem talking about it at all. I don't put it in the highlight. It's unfortunate shit that we, you know, you make the best of things like that.

And if you can help somebody or tell a funny story about it, we go ahead and do that. But in the joint, lifting weights was huge. It made you feel normal for a change. You're out there pumping iron with everybody. And it made you feel like you were during the day. When you're lifting weights in the joint, in real life, that's what you'd be doing at the same time. In the real world, I'd be lifting weights. It's one of the very, very few things in prison that's identical to what you'd be joint in real life that's what you'd be doing at the same time in the real world i'd be lifting weights it's one of the very very few things that in prison is identical to what you'd be doing in real life yeah so you get a chance to have a little slice of your life back

and um it kind of didn't it didn't break down the the racial lines in the joint everything's based on race this wouldn't be happening in the joint this conversation wouldn't be happening but in the weight pit it kind of did happen um and you would acknowledge like the big guy not the big guy when you when you walk into el pollo loco and the big guys coming out you go like hey dude what's up or maybe maybe even a fist bump no person's gonna have a nod of the head like game where the kids say game recognize game or whatever they say and um so in the joint you look across the way you watch the guy bench press 500 pounds in the joint and then you hit it and the guy go and And he's big and strong and so am I.

But we can't talk to each other. We can't shake hands. And we're not going to come over there and congratulate each other. No way. Not in a million years. But, you know, the weightlifting was certainly a distraction. And the power meets were very, very cool. I mean, everybody on my yard, I'd help prep.

Oh, snap. Oh, yeah. Here's what we're going to do. We're not going to do the contest. We're going to prepare for it. What are you talking about? How do you prepare for a power meet? Well, here's how you do it. And even though you'll love this story, I had a guy in the

tailor shop. This is absolutely true. I got a pair of jeans. Okay, I took them down there and he cut them into shorts. And I got a pair of jeans like one size bigger. And he sewed the small jeans inside the bigger jeans. You see where this is going and i wore squat pants brother then i got a bigger pair of jeans and he put them together as well so

i had three pairs of jeans cut off his shorts they were all sewn together at every possible scene they weighed like 10 pounds and they were a pair like it was like a super suit and i wore them of course and i put them on and i trained with them and they were great they worked like a super suit i wouldn't blow them out They were three pairs of prison jeans sewn together. You've got to hurry up and make those. They were kick-ass, and they gave me a nice little pop out of the bottom. Did any of those happen? Nobody else had those motherfucking things.

They were uncomfortable. They looked silly because they made you look all puffy and poochy. And like, what are you wearing? Are you smuggling something? No, they're powerlifting pants. And they come down as a gardener. Powerlifting pants. But I had those, and nobody else had those, of course.

But I showed guys how they worked. And then I showed guys the basic rules. And guys, some guys, especially bench press guys, I'd give them a little bit of prep work, and they would quickly surpass me. And I was a big, strong guy right then, and I could bench press. And they'd catch me real quick. I'd never win the bench press portion of the power meets. But luckily, I'd do well on the squats.

I'd do well on the deadlifts. And I remember one guy, I think I squatted around six. I was the last guy to squat. And I was walking away, and he told his friends, he goes, this is what he said. He goes, this isn't fair. He knows what he's doing. That's what the man said. And he meant it

in the nicest way. And he was right. I knew what I was doing, and they didn't. And even though they knew the rules, they hadn't been squatting 500 pounds for years of their life. So the meets were very, very cool. And then they had the prison postals. This is legit now. Where all the prison,

not the wardens, but the athletic directors in the prison would send the numbers together to this headquarters somewhere back in Pennsylvania. And I swear to God, guys, every year, every weight class was won by this prison back in Pennsylvania. These guys had elite numbers coming out of the joint.

So clearly they had some PED that was going, dude, what's going on back there? I mean, guys, 220s, totaling 2,000 pounds. Everyone's squatting in the seventh. What's going on in this particular prison? This is 30 years ago, so I forget the name of it, but there was a prison in Pennsylvania where somebody knew somebody who was bringing in the gear.

Those boys all had huge totals. I remember I had my power belt mailed in, and the guards called me and said, you can't have this. What is this? You can't have this in the joint. And the athletic director gave me a waiver so I could have a power belt. When I left, I gave it to one of the boys there. It's probably still in the joint. I can't imagine it ever left.

But there was a joint back in Pennsylvania somewhere where somebody had the connection I know you know prison you do it if you want you normally wouldn't get anti-block steroids at that prison Clearly got him and there was a big strong boys back there and all the guys are making strong Everyone's probably wondering how'd you get how'd you get there? That took me to bus the Grey Goose Misbehaving. It tends to happen. I got charged with armed robbery, kidnapping, false imprisonment, assault and deadly weapon, attempted murder.

Nothing serious. Pretty much everything. And that'll get you there. That's how it happens. You got in trouble like kind of a handful of times, right? So there was a lot of... Nobody asked you that question. Nobody asked about that shit.

Now, um, yeah, I guess, um, unfortunately, it was twice. Once back in the early 80s. That was a heavy charge. That was worthwhile. That was, um, that was some serious stuff that, um, you go to prison for and you're supposed to go to prison for. That's why they have those prisons for motherfuckers like

me back then. They need to go there. Um, in 2001 2001 it was this shit i gotta say i'm sorry um you know ounce of coke and a 45 who cares about that shit nobody um and they really don't i remember in court when i was facing the three strikes law i was prosecutor into the three strikes law i say i mean i met the qualifications so i was prosecutor into that law and i turned around and what was it one person in the courtroom? Not one. No witnesses, no victims, nobody.

And it was about time to talk finally. I said, guys, everyone's being paid. The judge, the DA, the sonographer, the bailiff, my lawyer. I'm the only one here not getting paid. And you guys are only here because you're getting paid. And this charge is shit. I didn't phrase it that way, and you guys know it. Anyway, I filed the Romero motion.

I won the hearing, and the judge, he struck all my strikes for the sentencing portion of that trial. If he hadn't done that, I'd still be in the joint. I'd never get out. I'd die in prison. That's not an embellishment. That's what would have happened. But he granted the motion, and then I was just

a normal guy with some cocaine in it at 45. Did you get reformed-ish from your experiences in prison? Did you get reformed? Yeah. You learn a lesson. Some lessons are hard.

Some lessons are harder still. You learn lessons in the hard way, and you realize, you see your friend out there doing big things, having his career, your career, your career, and I'm sitting in the joint doing nothing. So, yeah, it motivates you. You say, look, you cannot keep fucking up because it's going to lead to this. And can they break you? No, they're not going to fucking break me. They won't break me.

But then you realize, wait a minute, I'm not winning this fight. And the more time you're fighting them, there's just more going out the window. So quit doing that shit. So do you get informed? Oh, yeah. Hopefully you get a little bit smarter and we live and learn. But that prosecution really bothered me, and it kind of still does. Like, guys, nobody cares about this case.

Throw the coke in the garbage can and keep the gun. And there's not anything. And there's not. But they didn't see it that way at all. So, yeah, you learn. The first case, were you just mixed up with some wrong people? I mean, or did you think you maybe were

like, what led you to do something? You don't have to say exactly what you did, but what would lead you to do something that was, because you seemed like you kind of regret what you did, and you seemed like you have a lot of shame around it. There's a freight train of regret right there for that nonsense. And why we did it was, it's not funny, but as we were looking at the whole thing, nothing ever stopped us.

Like, what about this? Well, we can circumvent that. What about this problem? Here's the answer to that. We need another guy. We got this guy. We're going to need some guns. I got this guy. We're going to need some guns. I got that covered.

We're going to have to get a plan. Well, any obstacle, one of the boys in the crew figured out a way to get around it. And all the guys are gone. Well, they're either gone, as in dead, or they've moved on. A couple of guys kept playing that game, and they got killed. But it's violent. I mean, they knew they were just going in. They called me up got killed. But it's violent. I mean, they knew they were just going in.

They called me up years later. They had a job. And I said, guys, it's going to end violently. It can't be clean. It's going to be messy. It's $5 million, maybe $6 million. I said, guys, it's going to end bad. And it ended horribly.

I mean, the news, everybody got killed pretty much. I had said no to that whole thing. I had the chance to say no to other stuff, but only one guy ever stepped out. I still see him once in a while, and he goes, he drove me to the airport one time, and I gave him a shitload of money.

I see him time to time. He was a witness, but he really didn't know anything. But you keep doing that and you you will get in trouble but um if they don't catch you anyway you know at least at least no good as everybody always knows how long were you in for the first time i got sentenced i got sentenced to eight years i did five um and the next time I got sentenced, I got sentenced to six, and I did three and change. So I'm in totality, approaching nine years in the joint, which is just wasting. You guys had to pump an iron, talking to girls, talking to guys, doing your thing, hanging out, and I'm in the joint doing nothing.

So I hope I learned that lesson. Luckily, it's, you know, Don King. In America, you can get a gun back. Yeah. And once you get out, off you go. And one of my lawyers said, look, it will only ever keep you from getting a really crummy job. That's where they'll care. Good job, TV and film.

Hang out with you guys. Yeah. They don't care about that nonsense. He's not going to rob us. He's not going to shoot me. Why are they going to rob me? He's not going to do that. He's not going to kill my guys Why are they going to rob me? He's not going to do that. He's not going to kill my guys.

He'd prevent you from getting a job that you wouldn't want anyway. Thank you. And a cool job, they don't care about it. That's a little spice. He's a straw that stirs the drink. I was called that once at an MTV production meeting. So I had good ideas for them, and they liked it a lot. But it's nine years that I can't get back, no matter what I try.

So I just got to go if somebody wants to ask about it I'm always happy to talk about it and sometimes I tell funny stories about it but when you're sitting in the joint late at night by yourself the fun's pretty much out of it what's it like when you get out that must be like a completely weird

it's kind of the same as getting out of rehab you gotta start over completely you walk into Safeway be like a completely weird... You know what I'm talking about. It's kind of the same as getting out of rehab. You've got to start over completely. You walk into Safeway, and all the smells and the sounds. Every single girl you meet, you smell that girl. You smell girls like, damn. They all become hot.

Damn, you smell like a girl. Even the guys smell good. Everything smells good. First 10 issues, like, these are nice. It's just cool. I mean, just for a second, that was worth doing all the time in the joint. I have this sensation. I wouldn't have Everything smells good. First 10 issues, like these are nice. It's just cool. I mean, it's just for a second, you know, that was worth doing all the time in the joint to have this sensation. I wouldn't have had it otherwise.

Like when you break your leg and then it heals you. It was always worth having that bad experience to experience being good again. So, it's a shot in the arm and it's cool.

And it makes you realize, wait a minute, all the crazy bad stuff as good as that was, this is even better. So don't go to the freaking joint. Don't go back. Don't go back to the joint. No wanted to make sure. I was like, wait a minute. All the crazy bad stuff, as good as it was, this is even better. I said, don't go to the freaking joint. Don't go back. Don't go back to the joint.

No. No, you still did. Shut up. Nobody asked you anyway. I don't remember. When are you competing next? I ain't telling you. Tops it down.

Well, with all the cancellations, we had a meet two weeks ago. Old school iron. It was a make-up meet for all guys who had prepaid for meets. USPA. It was a make-up meet for all guys who had prepaid for meets. USPA. It was a good meet. Luckily, all the big federations have allowed last year's totals to qualify

for all the big events. You know, the seniors, the juniors, the world championships. You always have to qualify. So my 2019 numbers qualify me for all the 2021 big stuff. In November, in Coventry, England, there's the IPL Masters and Open Class World Championships. That's the objective.

I'm already qualified. Now, I may have to have my COVID vaccines to go to England by then. I've got no problem getting it done. I haven't had it done yet. I'll do it if it needs to be. And if I make that happen, I can go back there. Remember, you can only break world records, as you know, at certain events that have certain judging in place, and it's always cool to break world records at the world championships.

And then, of course, I badly want to get the world championship title back. It was just cool to have that title. And I know it was the Masters World Championships, but that still counts for something. And you're 59? I'm 59, so I'll be. When do you turn 60? Is that a different class, too?'m 59, so I'll be. When do you turn 60? Is that a different class, too?

It is, and I'll be in that class. I turn 60 in September. So I'll be the youngest guy in that class. And what's your birthday? 9-6-61, September 6th. Right before my birthday. 9-6-61. Okay, cool.

Well, next year we're going to celebrate. Yeah. There you go. So I'll be in a different weight class. Now, unfortunately, or actually, fortunately, the guys who are really good are my exact same age. They'll come up with me. And you want guys that can push you. And this age group and this weight class, there aren't a lot of guys in the big classes.

They don't want to be 59 years old and weigh 242 pounds. It's inherently probably not a really good idea. So most guys get older, and they lose a little bit of weight, so they're healthier. So the competition at that point is usually a little bit on the thin side, but when all the guys show up, there's some big, strong boys who can still push me really hard, and hopefully I push them back. And I know when we go against each other, we always have good numbers. I mean, all the world records I ever broke were going against guys who were better than me,

and not me that got the best of them. Next meet, they get the best of me, and that's how it works. That's what you want. You don't want to be the only guy on stage. That's no fun. And I still do open meets occasionally. Well, I do them all the time. But the real guys at 242, those are big, strong, hard-hitting boys. I can't beat them anymore. They're just, they're all squatting in the sevens. They're all benching close to five.

What do you do to stay healthy? You know, like, obviously, you've been in powerlifting a long time. Avoid injuries. to stay healthy. You know, like obviously you've been in powerlifting a long time. Avoid injuries. You're older than I am, you know, but I'm 48. You're 60, almost 60, and you still look great.

You say that you feel great. What do you do to keep up with everyone? Well, contrary to this right here, most of my meals are pretty clean. And the gear that I run, I don't step on the gas very hard at all. I have to back off so I feel better. Matter of fact, I've made some substantial changes recently, last 10, 12 days, and I feel better already. It's amazing how good your body will recover. Your body's pretty cool, actually.

You can beat it up really badly for years, and you give it a little bit of kindness, and all of a sudden, it responds. I mean, I've known smokers who smoke their whole life, and they quit smoking. And six months later, they have the same heart and blood stroke volume as I do. And they're like, dude, it's almost like unfair. You can't be as healthy as me. You smoked for 35 years, but your body's pretty freaking cool. So I do some cardio. I know it doesn't sound like I do cardio.

Jesse, Jessica, last week at the gym, Jessica accused me of having wake apnea, which is not a real disease. You can't make up diseases. This is serious. Because I always breathe. I'm always huffing and puffing. So she accused me of having wake apnea. I have it.

You can hear me coming. You can hear me leaving. I wouldn't be much of a sneak thief anymore because you hear me breathing six blocks away. But cardio still. And my supplementation program, I have a very clean, very aggressive over-the-counter supplement program. What kind of cardio and how much? Well, where we live, we have a couple of really steep roads, extremely steep. So we walk out.

It's 15 minutes out. And at 15 minutes, wherever we are, we turn and come back. We get a little more fit. 15 minutes gets us further away. So it increases in duration. But coming back, the severity of that hill, especially at 245, well, I'm almost 250 right now. I was 252 a couple months ago. That hill at 252 is awfully steep. So when my friends who are a little younger than me and more fit, they start coming up the hill hard. I can't let them walk away from me. I try to stay on their heels, and I try to stay close. So I do that cardio at the Power Palace, our outdoor gym.

Johnny Kashabi, thank you, sir, Power Palace. He owns the property out there. We have a brand-new elliptical, which is great for warming up. And I train six days a week right now. Again, when my condoms get closer, I'll drop two of those days for sure. But now I have two leg days and I even have two, as you can probably tell, two arm days.

I gotta ask you. Yes, about my arms? Sure, what do you want? 19 and a half. Okay. They're not 19 and a half. So, 242, right? You're going to be 60. Have you ever thought of dropping a weight class? Because, I mean, you did mention, right, that like, okay, maybe being this old and holding this much weight, maybe it's not the best, but you could still compete at like 220 weight class and still be plenty strong. Have you thought about that or that's not an option?

No, that's a clear-headed, lucid exit strategy. Come on down to 220s. I can breathe. I can walk around, lose a close eye, lose some of this mush in my face. I can breathe. I can walk around. Lose a close eye. Lose some of this mush in my face. Now there's some fat in the face. It's a great plan. Can I take squat? Will a 551 squat be acceptable?

I don't know that it will be. If I can't pull six, where is it before I can pull six for reps? Can I take that? I hope I can take it. I've been doing this for a long time, and I've got to know that it's going to happen. I tell other guys, dude, you've got to come down. You can't be like all the good Olympias. They've all lost all their – Arnold, Dorian, Lini, they're all totally normal now.

They don't walk around at 245 anymore. They said, hey, I did it. Let me get up. But I never did it. I never did shit. So I can't let it go So I can't let it go. I can't let it go. I kind of feel the same way.

Yeah, like I never made it to the top of the mountain, so I still want to keep pushing. You know what? I will try hard for you to make that happen, to compete in 220s. Okay. If I can do 220s, then I can do a 98, and I can win 98 very easily. That's not fucking 98. Yeah, I can. So if I get 98 and go

5.25, 300, 550. Those are still decent numbers for an old-timer. It's awesome. That makes sense. And to get down to that weight, I back the gear way off. Clean up the diet. This goes away. So that makes perfect sense. That's an exit strategy.

But can I do it? Or do I want to still be a guy, like I say, still turn heads like, damn, dude, that's jacked. At 98, I don't think alternative heads are safe way. Maybe some of the gay guys. And that's what this is all about. Hey, all the years of Golden Venice, all the guys in West Hollywood, these boys were kick ass cool.

Love every one of them. They said, Tom, we're going to make you a muscle bear. You're going to be the kick ass, most awesome muscle bear in West Hollywood. I said, that's a pretty tall order because there's some big-looking guys over there with kick-ass muscle wearing a black leather vest and the boots. I said, fellas, we have one problem. We're making me a muscle bear. They went, what? What's a great idea?

I said, dude, am I gay? They went, no, we can fix that. I said, what are you talking about? What are you talking about? I said, dude, am I gay? They went, no, we can fix that. I said, dude, I don't know what you're talking about. What are you talking about? I don't want to be a muscle bear. Then I would think. Some of those guys are pretty cool looking. Have you seen them?

Little five o'clock shadow, you know, all gnarly looking dudes. Like, that is a hard-hitting dude. You know, he's in the Velvet Mafia. But he's a cool, he was a good look. And all those boys were so convinced I could be a great muscle bear. I had a good head of hair, good-looking guy. You know, when we were younger, like 20s. But I never pursued that.

You should have. Oh, yeah. You're right. I should have. That was your calling. You missed it. It's never too late. That train left the station.

And it don't come back. There it is. Look at this. That is Tom Pfeil. Oh, damn. That's 1983. It looked awesome there. That's 1983. You look awesome there. That's 1983.

It's the Ironman Bodybuilding Championships. And that show. What's your weight right there? Probably 200? 202. I tried to make 98. I couldn't make it. At that event, you had to do all three power lifts during the day.

Squat, bench press, and deadlift. Oh, yeah. Great. It was a legendary event. It's called the Ironman. Okay. All three power lifting events during the day. Traditional format. No changes at all.

Then at night, you came back and got on stage in your Speedos. That's a great – And then bodybuilding. Great event. You got points for powerlifting and then points for bodybuilding. Combine the scores, you had an overall winner. My good friend John Sheck Snyder won the whole thing. He won 48.

As a little guy, we kind of overlooked him. And then at night, he kept getting the call outs. And he had a great power. He totaled, he probably went like 5, 350, and 5 at 148. So extremely strong. And I remember I was still kind of new to the sport. But when I see John Flex, and I see things happen, wait a minute. He's got some kind of weird intent.

What am I seeing here? That dude's a bodybuilder. This guy that I seeing here? That dude's a bodybuilder. This guy that weights, me, that guy's a bodybuilder. And Sheck Snyder, he beat Roger Estep. Remember Roger Estep? Yeah. Great power. He was a phenomenal physique.

Weeder loved him. He was on cover of every bodybuilding magazine. Oh, wow. But John won the whole thing. And it was a real cool show. On the same day, all three lifts, and I beat you up. That picture right there was probably close to midnight. Remember back when the meets day all three lifts and i beat you up that picture right there was probably close to midnight because remember back to the meat trend all day long they get everybody out

of there pump up put on your panty products get the music out and um go out there and start posing so it was a pretty cool event but that's where that was and you want to take us out of here buddy yeah sure thing i was just checking checking out this video real quick. Oh, look at that. Top of your neck, bro. Your traps just connect to your neck. It's just like this big mound. Iron Sheik with the belly. That's kind of an Iron Sheik physique,

but you're right. A belly with abs. The Sheik was a real athlete and a big strong man and a real good friend of Lee Haney's. I got a Sheik story. I guess we're out of time now, but the Sheik was a good man and person and a whole lot of fun. Oh, he's awesome. I kind of see the Iron Sheik there. I never really thought of myself as the Iron Sheik. Well, he's jacked. He was awesome.

In real life, do not trifle with that man. Remember, he was the Olympic wrestler, Greco Roman. And he would throw a punch. Were you talking about it? He's throwing the punch. The Iron Sheik was not to be trifled with. He would move those clubs around, those heavy clubs around his head, swing them around and all that stuff.

Then put you in the camel clutch and that was over with. Yeah. My friend Brett Azar is a bodybuilder from Gold's. Brett Azar, he's a bodybuilder from Gold's. Who knows this guy? He's actually playing the Iron Sheik on The Rock's new show called Young Rock. So it's about The Rock when he was young. I haven't seen the show either.

And my friend is playing- I gotta get a TV. My buddy's playing the Iron Sheik, so he got a pretty cool role in a couple of the episodes. That's totally cool. Yeah. I love it. Fun stuff. The Sheik was awesome. The gory days of pro wrestling.

Remember the Sheik and the Hulksters feud? That might have been the pinnacle of pro wrestling. I mean, remember the crowd? Well, that's what started it all. January 23rd. Stick. 1984, a day that changed my life forever. Talk to me.

You can't leave me with that. That's the beginning of Bigger, Stronger, Faster. January 23rd, 1984. a day that changed my life forever. Talk to me. That's the beginning of Bigger, Stronger, Faster. January 23rd, 1984. It was a day that changed my life forever. And it goes into the Hulk Hogan versus the Iron Sheik. Because that day, in my mind, was when the world began. Isn't that cool? It all comes back around. Yeah, see, full circle.

Luckily, Hulk and Iron Sheik are both still with us. How's Hulk doing? Is he getting sued or something? Is he in trouble legally? Are you okay us How's Hulk doing? Getting sued or something? Getting in trouble legally? Are you okay? How's Hulk? No, he's doing good He's fine, yeah

Hey Sheiky He's doing great I swear to God Lee Hayden called him Sheiky Yes! Hey Sheiky I believe he's doing Sheiky He called him Sheiky

He's a little crazy A little crazy But I think he's doing great He was great Remember his boots? Yeah I'm having Iron Sheik flashbacks right now Lsd yeah there you go are we out of time lsd yeah i think it is yes i get some of that my connection's got everything there you go

awesome thank you everybody for checking out today's episode please hit that like and subscribe button because tom file is freaking incredible so we appreciate you guys checking out today's episode. Please hit that like and subscribe button because Tom file is freaking incredible. So we appreciate you guys checking out the live stream. Um, huge shout out and thank you to Pete Montes B for sponsoring today's episode for more information on them. Check the links in the YouTube description as well as the podcast show notes. Please make sure you're following the podcast at Mark Bell's power project on

Instagram at MB power project on Twitter, my Instagram, Twitter and clubhouses at IamAndrewZ. And Seema, where can people find you? At Seema Inyang on Instagram, YouTube, and Clubhouse. At Seema Inyang on Twitter. Tom? Wow, they can find me in Mark Bell's Super Training Gym,

Super Training Gym, strongest gym in the West, or Old School Iron, Vacaville, California, or the Power Palace. And on Instagram, I'm Tommy Wishbone. You can just Google Tommy Wishbone, and it pulls up. I'm probably the only Tommy Wishbone on the Internet, and I'm easy to find. If you have any questions at all, I will be happy to converse with you about anything.

Chris Bell, take it. Yeah, I'm at BigStrongFast on Twitter and Instagram. That's pretty much where I post the most. So check it out. And your clubhouse too, right? Yep, clubhouse also. At Mark Smelly Bell, strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never strength. Catch you it out. And your clubhouse too, right? Yep, clubhouse also. At Mark's Melly Bell, strength is never weakness, weakness is never strength. Catch you guys later. Later!