My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 151 - BIG E/ANTHONY BOWENS

Episode Date: September 15, 2021

WWE Champion Big E discusses cashing in his Money in the Bank contract on Monday Night RAW, what it was like sitting backstage with The New Day moments before his music hit, why he's grateful his journey to the top took so long, and more! Then, Anthony Bowens of AEW's 'The Acclaimed' joins My Mom's Basement to discuss how he and Robbie first met, joining AEW and having to relearn tag team wrestling on the fly, and being a positive representation for the LGBTQ+ community. 3Chi: Use code MMB at checkout to receive 5% off at 3Chi.com Cuts Clothing: Go to CutsClothing.com/BASEMENT for 15% off the Only Shirt Worth Wearing Rothy's: Go to Rothy's.com/BASEMENT Subscribe to My Mom's Basement on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIeZ96PqdsJYQ7DFLRx6MHw My Mom's Basement Merchandise: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/my-moms-basement Intro Music: “Basement Noise” by All Time Low Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/basement-noise/1499013757?i=1499013968 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/3Aq9W9BBCjsFOQqcYyO6IA?si=d9d0f74cf54a48deYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Just stupid boys making basement noise in the basement, noise in the basement. Just stupid boys making basement noise in the basement. Yeah, yeah. Hello and welcome to My Mom's Basement presented by Barstool Sports and 3Chi. I have a wrestling episode for you today. A from the top rope throwback episode of sorts. It is me with Biggie just 12 hours after his amazing title win on Raw, and then it is me with Anthony Bowens just a few hours before his homecoming of sorts on AEW Tonight. It's in Newark. If you're listening

to this on release date, September 15th. Before we get into those interviews, let me remind everybody about our presenting sponsor, 3Chi. 3Chi is the industry leader in Delta-8 THC products. All of these products formulated by a biochemist, a Bruce Banner-esque biochemist, made in the USA with USA grown hemp. All of their Delta-8 THC is federally legal. It's a federally legal version of the THC that is in weed, but a more functional alternative. Gives you an amazing buzz and a great body feel, but with a clear head and less anxiety and paranoia. I bring this stuff everywhere with me. I don't leave my house without the 3C pen.

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promo code MMB. You'll receive 5% off your order. That's MMB for My Mom's Basement. All right, let's get into the first of these two interviews. Welcome back to My Mom's Basement, ladies and gentlemen. I am here with the new WWE champion. I could not be happier for him, Big E. This is so, so, so deserved. It's a long time coming.

Congratulations on the night you had last night. I appreciate it, man. Thank you. It was a very memorable one, of course, but I appreciate it. I want to start with this. Xavier shared this great picture of you, him, and Kofi sitting backstage right before you cashed in, and then another one right after you cashed in. How it started, how it's going.

What was that moment like sitting there with your two brothers in the new day, right before you were going out there to cash in? No, it was the best man. Um, I, uh, I'm always like, Woods is awesome at always taking pictures in those moments. Um, I was just so not worried, but you know, I'm just trying to be present, paying attention, whatever. Um, but those guys are always there. And I tell them like, man, I know it's late in the show. You guys have been around for a long time. I'm sure trying to be present, paying attention, whatever. But those guys are always there. And I tell them, like, man, I know it's late in the show. You guys have been around for a long time.

I'm sure you're tired. But, of course, I wasn't going to stop them from getting to Gorilla. But I love those moments. And I always tell them, like, those are some of my favorite moments are when we have our little powwows or huddles or just our opportunities during the show just to kind of talk. And obviously, you know, when I sent out the tweet and they knew what was in store. And so, yeah, we just had we probably had 10 minutes or so just together. For some reason, there was just two chairs set up in Gorilla and there was a cooler. I'm sitting on the cooler. Those guys were sitting in the chairs. And it just kind of happened. I don't know.

I just ended up sitting there and they ended up sitting next to me and we just had a few moments to talk and and laugh and reminisce and man i we say it we maybe we've beaten this horse to to death but i always think back to our origins and honestly we were three guys floundering in our careers trying to get on tv that was the goal we're just trying to get on TV. And I'm not going to say I didn't envision this for myself. But, you know, in many ways, like I'm a guy who's lucky to get signed. I'm not six feet tall. I wasn't even like I was a failed football player and not even one with any kind of a name. Like I'm so I was so incredibly fortunate just to get signed, let alone to get called up to the main roster in the spot I did. But I've been so grateful because I feel like I've grown a lot as a performer, even from three, four years ago,

I feel so much more comfortable in so many different ways. So I'm glad in many ways, you know, an edge texted me and I don't want to butcher the text, but it was something about, you know, just like the fact that it took so long makes it so much sweeter. And he's right. Like, sure, it could have been cool to have it, to have this championship six, seven years ago to be a world champion, to be a champ. But to have felt that I'm at a point now where I earned it and I put the work in and it doesn't feel handed to me makes the journey sweeter. Honestly, as cliche as it sounds, it's more, it's enjoyable because it

feels like a long time coming. No, I believe it. I feel like it probably speaks to the fans as well. I think it was a moment for us and a moment for all the people in the arena last night, because they felt that as well. This was a long coming people wanted it for so long you mentioned edge text you i imagine you got a bunch of people reaching out to you because if you go on twitter right now it is every wrestler in the business tweeting their praise for you not only as a wrestler but as a human i'm sure this is kind of the cliche question you're going to get all day but what is that like when you see all of your fellow peers just really celebrating this title win with you uh i'm doing my best i talked to andres uh hail my buddy and he's like me so he knows how bad i am with accepting compliments i'm trying to do a better

job but it's overwhelming in the best way and uh i'm so grateful like there years ago when i had like you know people from other companies reaching out and saying, this guy deserves to be world champion or not. I start to get squirmy inside and I want to deflect. But now I appreciate it. It means a lot. And for me, I'm so humbled that other performers that I love watching that I have a ton of respect for in and outside of the company, also are a fan of me. But it's also vitally important to me to be a good person and to focus on growing. And I talk time and time again about meditation and my journey on trying to grow and to just become a better person. So it means a lot to me too, that people recognize that I'm trying at least that I'm trying and I'm working on it. And you know, there,

I obviously love my craft and what I do, but you know, we didn't always have the squeakiest, the cleanest industry. There's so many stories of, you know, just how locker rooms were not that long ago and hazing and whatnot. And, you know, I, I love Copenwoods and so many of us, because I feel like there's so many people, so many good people in this industry now who are trying to move the industry in that direction of being supportive of others, of helping out the young guys and girls and actually helping, not saying I'm here to help the business and you're just really there to cash your check and to get yourself over. But, you know, there

are people who I think are genuinely invested on helping others, on helping the next generation. And it feels weird to look around the locker room and kind of think of myself as, you know, I'm kind of the OG here. There are other OGs as well. But I now, it was weird for me at first when I realized like, I'm kind of one of the older guys now. But I take a lot of pride in that too, because I hope that I can be part of passing the torch to the next men and women of the industry who are going to carry this thing on, you know, when I'm retired and too old to do this. So I want to be a part of that.

And I think we're moving in a good direction as an industry. Is that stuff that you've thought about already as WWE champion? I mean, I imagine since winning money in the bank, you've sort of thought about if you're the WWE champion, what, what that is like. And it's not like you're given like a key to the business and you get to change anything you want, but it is a locker room leader position. You are being kind of put in that position where the company's putting a lot of faith in you. Like, what do you want to accomplish

as WWE champion? For me, of course, I mean, of course I want to have the best matches possible and I want to be entertaining. And, uh, I, I want to, a lot of the things that the people have enjoyed from me i want to continue to do as a champion and do it hopefully on a higher scale but man there are things outside of the ring i want to do as well and i've talked ad nauseum about our heroes rock and i just want to do more things that make a cultural impact i want to do more things that help out people in need um you know obviously i couldn't stop thinking about Brody last night and today. And just thinking about, you know, the community, Rochester. I love the fact that we were able to do something for his community by selling the Brody-inspired Royal Rumble gear.

But I want to do more of that. And I think I have been so incredibly blessed to be in the position that I am in. And I want to do more to give back. So just kind of sitting around and thinking of other ways we can we can do do some cool things like that. But, yeah, that's kind of the thing that I want to do. And I have a bit more of a spotlight. So let's let's do some cool things that help others. Yeah. One of my favorite things that you guys did recently with your spotlight that I just want to put everyone on to, if you haven't seen it, is the New Day Feel the Power conversation about mental health.

That was, I thought, so important, so admirable of you to open up the way that you did, especially in the industry that you're in. I know that, you know, that could be scary and stuff, but I appreciate everything you said about mental health in that entire podcast. I thought that was really worth a listen to. And I feel like you're going to inspire like a lot of people in a lot of different ways with that. Well, thank you so much, man.

And that's kind of one of the things that it feels like it just came at the right time. Obviously, you know, we decided to do that off the heels of Daphne's passing. And obviously that's an awful, awful, tragic thing that happened. And so obviously that's, that's an awful, awful, tragic thing that happened. And so obviously, that's not a lot of pain. So I'm glad we had that conversation. And, you know, it did make me, I thought of that yesterday too. And this morning, you know, I'm someone who didn't see a lot of value in myself and just had just years and years of a lot of self-loathing. And to now, to look back at where I was, you know, in the depths of

my depression and dealing with mental illness, seeing little to no value in myself. And now the fact that, you know, I'm seeing tweets of people crying because I won or just seeing all these touching messages. I never could have fathomed any of that when I was age 22, 23, even a few years, you know, I could not have fathomed any of this at all. So I'm, overwhelmed, emotional, all the superlatives. I'm, I can't thank people enough for letting me know how much I made them smile, touch them, whatever it is, whatever kind of positive impact I had on you. I'm grateful because you all have the same impact on me. People jumping for joy. That makes me feel so full, like spiritually. That makes me, I feel the love and I appreciate

the love. Did you get to watch any of the live videos like taken from the arena last night? Because they are incredible. I'm trying to catch up on everything. First of all, I got back to my phone to see 144 missed texts. So I just try to get back to all the missed texts and then go through the DMs. And I'm starting to make my way through it. I still have barely delved into the Twitter stuff. But man, there's one i

saw and i can't remember her name but i just uh liked that andrea sent to me uh she was crying and that almost made me cry and it was beautiful and then there was another fan video from kind of on high in the arena uh right after i won and it's it's uh it just shows you can see the pretty much the entire bowl so you can see kofi and woods were booking it i say i just i didn't realize how fast they were running uh and slid in the ring so just seeing stuff like that but yeah i need to go through now and see everything uh but yeah still working on that oh my god it's amazing as soon as lashley hits the spear on you in all of these videos like all of the air is sucked out of the arena and it just goes silent. You could hear a pin drop. And as soon as you kick out,

it's right back into it. There are amazing videos. It was in Boston last night. I would be remiss to not ask this as a barstool question. Did you go to Kowloon to celebrate? No, man. And I feel, and I wanted to. So the problem was I didn't leave. I got to my hotel around one in the morning and I knew that I was going to go home. So if I was just I was going to go home.

So if I was just heading on my normal flight home, I would have gone to Kowloon, not slept and been fine. But I knew I'm traveling now. I'm going to stay in Brooklyn for the day, see some friends. And then I'm doing the bump in the morning. So because I'm staying in town, I was like, I just need to get some sleep. It's not going to be much, but I got like four hours. If I went to Kowloon, I would not have gotten any sleep. And I'm sure it would have been cool to go out.

But not, and I asked Copenwood too, and they weren't going, they had other stuff going on. So I said, you know what, let me do my best to get some sleep. But no,

Kowloon's the spot. They always take care of us, man. They're always incredible. So it's just shouts to them. But yeah, I didn't get a chance, unfortunately.

Now, a lot has also been made in the last 24 hours of the New Day versus the Bloodline. This is kind of a dream match for a lot of fans. It's a match that we've seen a lot of different variations as far as New Days and Usos go, but never with this dynamic. Have you seen any of the chatter about that? Yeah, man. I'm excited.

So I haven't really seen much of the chatter about it. I just know in my mind it's already there. That and the Hurt Business, man, I'm excited. So I didn't even, I haven't really seen much of the chatter about it. I just know in my mind, it's already there. That and the hurt business, man. Get those boys back together. I saw Cedric tweet, but I'm a man who loves factions. And I love a good, we have some good options out there. The bloodline, like you said, already makes so much sense because there's so much history with the teases, with Paul,

the battles back and forth we had with the Usos, who are easily our greatest rivals in the ring as far as tag teams are concerned, what they're doing, they're cooking right now. So, yeah, there's so much about that that makes sense. But also the Hurt Business. It makes sense that Bobby loses his title and decides to get his boys back. So, yeah, man, I'm excited about it. I love those opportunities because the great thing is it's,

it's so multiple singles matches, tag matches, six men's, there's so much you can do and whether it's the hurt business, whether it's the bloodline there's so much talent amongst all those factions too. And the beautiful thing is, you know, there's MVP with the hurt business. There's also Paul Heyman uh we don't have a mouthpiece uh you know we feel pretty good about being able to handle the talking part but i am a big fan of stokely you know if uh yeah what's come through you know and and uh please yes doing this thing but uh i wouldn't i wouldn't be mad at that either uh so we'll see no i would

absolutely love that i think xavier if he wins that king of the ring that he's been really trying to get i think that makes new day unquestionably the greatest faction in wwe history right i think you kind of already are maybe you knew day in the shield up there that that's hard for me to say i let other people say that it's hard because i know for people you know wrestling is just filled with so much nostalgia and i'm 35 for so many of us who are you know in our 30s or 40s who grew up and got to see uh so many of the greatest of all time uh you know uh the heart foundation uh nwo dx go on and on uh it's hard for people to step outside of that and you know for a lot of people to be fans of a current younger team because it's such an emotional attachment

to all those incredible factions and tag teams from yesteryear. So I will not proclaim us as the greatest. I'll let others. Listen, I don't care if it's recency bias. I don't care if I'm still riding the high of last night's win. I'll proclaim it. I'll do it right now. I'll say it.

Beautiful. New day. They're the best. I'm bringing the positivity to the interview now. And finally, I got one fan question. Levi Andrew sent this in. He said, who is the next meaty dude you want to slap meat with? Well, I never really thought I could get the Goldberg match.

But I know people might feel they'll have their varying opinions on it. But if you're telling me that, what, 13-year-old me could, like, I, the fact that it's even possible is beyond remarkable. So there's Goldberg out there. Man, Keith Lee, let's get this man cooking. Yeah. Man, let's get him going. That's a dude with a ton of talent.

I want to see him very, very soon. Man, there's so many guys, and I'm racking my brain. Right now, just for brevity's sake, let's get that Goldberg match, I suppose. But, man, Keith, I'm ready. I would absolutely love to see that one. Big E, thank you so much for joining the show. Thank you for the time. I appreciate it.

The new WWE champion, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you to Big E for joining the show. That was an awesome interview. You could just sense the joy still radiating off of him when he was talking about that title win. Amazing to see. Let me tell everyone about one of our favorite sponsors here, Cuts Clothing. Fellas, the sport of business means demanding excellence from your craft and wardrobe. Your fits need to be versatile, blending timeless style and comfort so that you look as good as you feel. For that, there's Cuts Clothing. they've taken a men's fashion staple the plain tea and redefined it combining premium quality with a minimalist aesthetic

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coming to the home state, Newark, New Jersey tonight. It's going to be awesome. And Anthony, I've said this on Twitter, but I just want to say here for the people, nobody back in those days was nicer to me when I was setting up the rings and doing the spotlight than you. I've always appreciated that. Well, thank you, Robbie, first of all. And thank you again for having me on the show. And I remember you showing up to one of the pro wrestling syndicate shows or WrestlePro shows.

I'm like, who is this kid that's always standing around? I felt so bad because nobody would be, no one would come up to you. I'm like, let's welcome this kid. Clearly, you're a big wrestling fan. You're a good friend of Pat Buck. I think you were designing his gear and such. And then I think you trained a little bit, too, at the school. Yeah, in this class. It was Bowens, MJF, Fox.

That's what they say about Create-A-Pro. Great. But yeah, I'm always making sure that if people are lingering around, that they feel welcome because I used to go to a ton of shows and stuff by myself. And I'd want to feel welcome too. Well, speaking of Creative Pro and just training there like under Pat Buck, I wanted to ask what that experience was like because we hear so much about Creative Pro now and I feel like it's like finally people are coming around to it where

they're realizing, yeah, this school is getting people TV ready. They're getting people seriously like ready in short amount of time for this and it's both you and Max Castor have creative pro ties so what was that experience like for you it was great I think Pat has was one of the best wrestling minds in the business and I think he's a fantastic trainer and I think the school has a good set of uh fantastic trainers there's creative pro New York and there's creative pro New Jersey uh New Jersey with Pat and Brian Myers, New Jersey. Pat Buck at one point, it was Dan Moss, Mario Bocara, Kevin Matthews, and a bunch of other veterans like Justin and Mark Carino, Fala Ba. So it was a good collection and mix of minds that kind of helped at least developed my career and I guess my psychology and all of those like really,

really important things that have led to me being where I am today. When you watch wrestling, who are the wrestlers you watch to learn from in terms of psychology? Like whether it be going back, whether it be guys today, who do you actually gravitate towards and say, like, I like the way that their mind works when it comes to wrestling? It really depends on what mood I'm in and what I'm trying to learn, because I've always been a big fan of Eddie Guerrero, like the way that their mind works when when it comes to wrestling it really depends on what mood i'm in and what i'm trying to learn because i've always been a big fan of eddie guerrero chris jericho sean michaels i love watching those guys a lot of times lately i've been or not lately i guess pre-pandemic i was really into a new japan and studying the more, I guess, not strong style, but more of the back and forth type of professional wrestling.

So I like to try and mix everything together to try and make one complete package that's authentic to me. Does that make sense? And obviously you've been working tag stuff with the acclaimed, but when you watch Anthony Bowen singles matches and Anthony Bowen's tag matches, I feel like you work both styles so well, which one do you prefer? If any, um, good question. So I was, I mean, it's out there now, but I'll say it again. I was a singles wrestler on, on the independence for eight years, pre AEW, pre the acclaimed.

Um, I was in a tag, maybe the first two years two years with, I don't know if you remember AC Gamble, the Untouchables. We did a tag team thing for, I guess, a little bit. And I didn't particularly understand tag team wrestling back then. I kind of just did it. And then when I got to AEW and got paired with Caster and all of a sudden are in the best tag division in the world, I had to kind of relearn everything and fast. So that was kind of, it was a challenge. It was a bit stressful as much as it was fun. I've had a recent singles run in the last couple,

prior to last week, and it was fun. It was good to show everyone that I can, because in a tag, sometimes you get a little bit limited because obviously you're sharing time with somebody else there's four people running as opposed to two I got to show AEW that I can you know go as a singles guy with some of the top people there and honestly as long as I'm on the show I don't mind either one what made you understand tag team wrestling like this go around better than originally was it just you growing as a professional wrestler or was it working with the better roster? Was it a combination of both?

Combo of both. We were immediately thrown directly into the mix with everything. Tony brought Castor and I together and said, hey, you're the acclaimed. It's yours to create. What is the acclaimed? Who are we? What do we do as a team what are our tag maneuvers how do we like yeah how detailed was tony's original pitch i know he

brought you guys in together with like how much freedom did you guys get in that literally was exactly what i just said he was like hey i like both of you guys i've been wanting to call um someone uh the acclaimed actually from chris jericho told me that the original name of the inner circle was supposed to be the acclaimed it was supposed to be jericho and the acclaimed and uh one way or another it ended up as inner circle um so then they instilled that upon us which was a big honor and then he was just like yeah you guys are the acclaimed and uh you know you're wrestling in two hours okay go and castor and i are just like well what is this what do we do like how do we if you go back and watch you can find it

on dark i think it's us against uh trent and chuck taylor that was our first match together and it was i can't watch it so cringy because we didn't know what was like he was rapping he didn't have music under or over it i wasn't doing like my meme generating hype man type thing so i'm just like standing there awkwardly and you know we didn't have a move set the match ended up being pretty good um but he just left it to us to you know know, create. And over the next few weeks, we were just like, Hey, well, you're the rapper. I'm kind of, you're the acclaimed rapper. I'm the critically acclaimed like sports entertainer with the YouTube and the acting and wrestling model, all that stuff, combine it together.

Plus I'm a hype man for the raps. And then all each week we just started adding a new element and started to shape, I guess the acclaimed as you see us today. And I think the cool part is, as a fan, you can see the evolution from day one. I don't know why you would do that, but you can watch every, you know, from start to where we are now and see how we developed every single week in ring and as characters and i think that's pretty cool that's really and especially for like the local guys like me that have seen you in wrestle pro seeing where the acclaimed has gotten to at this point it's friggin awesome man it's like oh my god this is crazy it's so cool um and working with tag teams

like best friends working with tag teams like the young, working with tag teams like the Young Bucks. What is that like? Do you learn more from them from actually getting in the ring with them or from talking about the match with them prior and just seeing how their mind works as far as that goes? Like, how is that working with veterans like them? It's awesome. And one, not the one, but a lot of, one of the many good things about AEW is we have a plethora of resources at all times to learn from. So now that I'm comfortable enough to approach people because, you know, I'm naturally a pretty shy guy. I feel like I'm bothering people. Now I'm, you know, I'm established on the roster. I'm comfortable taking advantage of those resources and, you know, doing tape study with FTR or the Bucks and just kind of

trying to pick up different elements from all these great minds that we have around us. So there's a little bit of that. And there's also learning, you know, in the ring, there's a lot of stuff that just, you know, tends to happen out there. And then everything is like a learning experience. And then you can kind of go back and reflect with them afterwards so there's never a day where you're not learning something um i guess no matter who you're in the ring with and um i don't know it's just been really fulfilling and rewarding being able to work with these guys because you know they're the best they're elite they're the best wrestlers yeah world and to have really good matches with them and have them be very happy and complimentary afterwards is kind of like this.

It's very satisfying to know that I am on these guys level and I've all the work that I've put in over the last eight or nine years is was worth it. Yeah, absolutely. You mentioned Eddie, Sean, Jericho, some of your favorite wrestlers to watch. Who are some of your favorite tag teams to watch? I mean, if I'm going back to the kid, I was a big Hardy Boys fan. I love the Hardy Boys. I watch a lot of Edge and Christian lately because I feel like we're almost model, not modeled after them, but it's kind of like a similar vibe or like early 2000s edging Christian where, you know, there are these crazy goofballs that you can tell they're having such a blast with each other and doing all these funny things. But then when they get in the ring and they kick ass,

um, we are, I don't want to be edging Christian, the acclaimed or the acclaimed, but I feel like that's a good, uh, same wavelength. I see what you're saying. Yeah. I've been watching a lot of them lately. I love that answer. I mean, both of them are doing such great work right now and it's crazy to see them doing it. Whereas like, you know, five years ago, we would have never imagined this. Um, you came out as bisexual a number of years ago. You did an interview actually with Barstool sports with Pat about it.

Um, and over the past couple of i feel like the lgbtq community and wrestling has really flourished like even more so to the point where when you came out what did it mean to you to get to talk about that a little bit with the big show this year paul white i don't when i did first come out i identified as bias i did some soul searching over the last couple years i'm actually made another video announcement um i do identify more as as gay just to put that out there um but that being said you know there was a lot of time spent i guess in my early 20s trying to figure out who i was and stressing over, you know, judgment, societal judgment, you know, would I have a career, um, would fans accept me with other wrestlers,

accept me with every situations where I'd have to defend myself because people don't like my quote unquote lifestyle. There was a lot of that anxiety and there was a lot of that fear. And it's mind blowing to think that I can have a sit down interview with Paul White, you know, someone I grew up watching since I was a child discussing that to the world. I don't think about it as much as I should. And, you know, kind of reflective.

I try to stay in the moment and just keep going because everything comes at you so fast now at AEW that I probably should take more time to stop and think like how wonderful it is that I'm able to be myself authentically in a locker room like AEW and on television and be, you know, a positive representation of the LGBT community as an entertainer and as an athlete. And, you know, there was a time in my life where I didn't think that would be able to happen. And there's, there's moments where I wish that I can go back and tell younger me, like, don't cry. Don't, you know, sit in the garage in your car by yourself and just bowl your eyes out because everything's going to be, is going to be okay. And I'm trying to fight back a little tears right now thinking about it

because it was such an emotional, scary time in my life. And to see how it's all turned out is absolutely insane. And now I'm lucky enough to try and help people who were in my shoes. And hopefully I am. If there's at least one person I can help, then, you know, job well done. Dude, I definitely think they're out there. I think when you see the fan community that's out there of just LGBTQ fans that go to the shows together now and they, like, plan groups on Twitter, it's awesome to see. It's like the representation that you provide, I think, definitely helps a lot of them.

And as a friend, I'm very proud of you as well. We'll do some fun ones to close it out so the tears can stop. Who do you want to work with in AEW that you have not yet gotten in the ring with yet? I mean, I went through, or we went through a lot pretty fast. It was Jericho, it was the Bucks, and we checked those off the box pretty quickly. Same thing, I wanted to wrestle Pac. Got him two weeks ago. Cody, Kenny Omega. I watched, like I said, I got to wrestle Pac. Got him two weeks ago. Cody, Kenny Omega.

I watched, like I said, I got big into New Japan, so to have Kenny here as a resource and as somebody that I can potentially have a banger with, he's definitely one of them. There's a ton of people on the tag roster that we haven't hit yet. I'd love to do FTR. I'd love to, Proud and Powerful, hopefully New York City maybe next week.

There's so many different tag teams that I think we would have an interesting dynamic with i think 2.0 would be an interesting one too because it's two really big eclectic kind of characters going head to head um with so many different possibilities so there's a lot to be excited about for the acclaimed and for fans. And then if I could open the forbidden door and say someone outside of AEW could be in WWE, New Japan, could be in any company out there. Who would you want to work outside of AEW? Give me Ibushi. Give me Tanahashi. I want to go with these dudes so badly. I think they would be my top picks. Wow.

Bushi and Tanahashi. Those are fantastic. And my final question, this is a question we used to ask every guest on from the top rope. Can you recommend us an obscure match? Could be one that you were in, could be one that you just enjoy as a fan that you don't think many people have seen,

but you think people should see an obscure, the fine obscure Kevin Owens answer to this was Brock Lesnar versus the big many people have seen but you think people should see an obscure define obscure uh kevin owens answer to this was brock lesnar versus the big show survivor series go back and re-watch that because it was fantastic in 2004 i think it was i wish you asked me this beforehand so i don't know what to think to give you it could be one of your own matches that you're like i feel like this one didn't get enough credit i mean that's kind of the easy answer i want to put myself like if we're going with that um myself and tj crawford uh we went to the 30 minute draw in union new jersey right before i got signed last year and that was one of my favorite matches he's actually one of my

favorite opponents and somebody i think could be you know a big star with like if um he's the next big star in the indies if he's able to have the opportunity to break out tj is is really really good and that's a great answer yeah one of my favorite opponents and you know there wasn't a lot of people there but we went out there and it was our second show after you know the pandemic or back from the pandemic and we just went out there and kicked the absolute out of each other and people were going crazy union new jersey the building with the really tiny uh ceilings yeah but we did it in the back outside oh yeah yeah yeah so it was it was pretty dope yeah i got lost coming back from there one day and uh wound up in like a sketchy area it wasn't in union though it was like i i

got i went the complete opposite area it was it was a whole conundrum but yeah great great times in that building yeah it's actually i don't know if it's one of my favorite building but a lot of my actually had another banger with tj before that the following year and with casey navarro that building has a lot of good matches in it yeah it really does wrestle pro put on some amazing shows back then with like some amazing talent too that has now gone on to like such big heights. And you're one of them. And I'm proud of you. Like I said, it's awesome to see. I remember you had your own podcast talking about MMA and to see you do all the cool stuff that you're doing with UFC and just to be out like one of the biggest guys there, personalities there, is absolutely awesome.

So I am equally as proud of you, buddy. Hell yeah. Thanks, man. Later, buddy.