My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 181 - LIV MORGAN/TREVOR MURDOCH

Episode Date: January 11, 2022

Robbie kicks off his interviews in 2022 with a couple of wrestlers in Liv Morgan and NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Trevor Murdoch! Topics include Liv's recent feud with Becky, Trevor's relationship to the great Harley Race, Liv's thoughts on Game of Thrones, and more! 3Chi: Use code BASEMENT at checkout to receive 5% off at 3Chi.com **************************************** 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 3C and Barstool Sports. I am your host, Robbie Fox, and today I have a wrestling edition of the show for you, starting off with an interview with Liv Morgan, and then I will throw it to an interview with Trevor Murdoch.

You may remember Trevor Murdoch. Remember him and Lance Cade in the WWE? They were a tag team, Raw tag team champs a couple times. Now he is the NWA World's Heavyweight Champion. He works for Billy Corgan. I asked him, hey, how was Billy Corgan like Vince McMahon? Is he anything like Vince McMahon? And I got that answer and live Morgan, a return guest on the show. Great. As always, we discussed her day one match with Becky, her raw main event with Becky. It was a great interview. Now, first, let me remind you guys that three Chi is our presenting sponsor. They are the industry leader in Delta 8 and other THC products,

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it's not just cbd it is psychoactive it will give you a buzz i promise you and uh check out their new products there's a bunch of new products they They've got Delta 8 THC drink mixes, flavorless Delta 8 drink additive for drinks like coffee, tea, or juices. They've got the drink enhancers. You can mix them with water available in tangerine, lime, or pink lemonade flavors. They don't recommend using these drink enhancers with alcoholic beverages. So keep that in mind. And try out the new blue raspberry gummies. That's a little Robbie Fox recommendation for you. I tried the new blue

raspberry gummies, got a new shipment sent to me, and I think they're frigging delicious. Some of my favorite ones, the black raspberry, I think still holds the spot at my number one, my favorite gummy. And then I would go root beer taffy. That's a great product. The chocolate chip cookies are huge. They're great. You could eat half of those and feel fine for a night. So enjoy some 3C on me. Use the promo code basement. You will receive 5% off your purchase at 3C.com. And now let's get into these two interviews with Liv Morgan and then Trevor Murdoch hello and welcome back to my mom's basement ladies and gentlemen it is robbie fox and i am here with liv morgan for my second interview of 2022. liv morgan coming off an amazing match with becky lynch at wwe day one i really enjoyed it liv how are you doing so great robbie thank you for having me back i'm so excited of course talk to me about this recent program

with Becky Lynch. You're in the championship program. You main evented raw. There's been some awesome stuff going on in your career recently. Talk to me about like the moment where you found out like, all right, this is going to be the thing going forward. Becky Lynch versus Liv Morgan. The moment I found out was the night that I just, I just walked up to her. I just walked up to her and I just started her her and her little face and um it was on since then and I've had um incredible matches with her I've had incredible segments with her it's been really exciting even though she is such a little bee and what about the outpouring of support and I just want to say, while I have this platform, Becky Lynch poked me in the eyes on day one and no one's acknowledged it.

No one's addressed it except me. I might be the only person in the entire world that knows that I got poked in the eyes. She cheated. And that's why I had to make my claim on Monday. We're not done yet. She did. Oh, no, not done. She poked you in the eyes. Did you, did you notice? Did you see my little eyes? I noticed poked you right in the eyes. Can't do that. You got to bring the rule book out on her. Not allowed to do that. So yeah, so I'm not done by any means. What about the outpouring of support that you've got leading into the raw main event, especially. I saw you got a text

message from Trish Stratus that night. Does that help? Does that help like ease the nerves or does that make them even more like, oh my God, now Trish Stratus is watching. It didn't ease the nerves. It didn't necessarily make it more, but it was just, I grew up watching her, you know what I mean? So to think that I was going to get a text from someone that I admired growing up that is considered like the greatest female professional wrestler in the entire world on the 17 year anniversary of her versus Lita's iconic match for the first ever women's main event on Raw for the championship I was losing my mind I was just like wow it was such a weird um full circle moment for me.

And just the parallels, you know, I mean, Becky doesn't have red hair, she has ugly orange hair, but you know, I had red hair and I was blonde and just to have this woman that I love reached out to me just to let me know, like, Hey, the blonde's going to win this time. I just was like, wow. You know, um, it just made it feel so much more special and so much more important than I already felt it was. And that's when I was like, okay, I got to do the dive. I'm doing the dive. Well, you did the dive, but you didn't break your neck on it. Maybe that's why I hope I don't break my neck, but I'm totally commit. You didn't go full scorpion, break the neck on it. Maybe next time. Hopefully not. Literally. I don't even know how you do that.

Honestly, you know, I've did this dive twice now and i don't even know how you get to that i don't even know how you do that which match did you personally enjoy more was it the raw main event or was it the day one pay-per-view match they both hold so much like personal significance for me um for so many reasons like i said um i think i said why i you know the raw main event meant so much to me but day one was different you know um first off it's a brand new pay-per-view the first time we've ever done it it's literally day one yeah day one it's the first pay-per-view of the new year we're the only women's match featured on the card and it's for the championship. So it was it was amazing. But personally, I liked day one better.

You know, my main event was my first time working with Becky. So I learned so much in that match and how how she maneuvers, you know, and how crafty and sneaky and cheating she is and so i got to go into raw um with a little bit more knowledge under my belt and a little bit more of what to expect um and i whipped out some cool new things that was my next question i was going to say where did that beautiful sunset flip power bomb come from that was an unbelievable move thank you so much i'm so happy that i pulled it off i'm so happy that it went well too it was like fluid it was awesome yeah thank you so much um yeah you know i just i've been working and i've been training and i'm just waiting on moments to you know whip whip shit out and that was that was

the moment i saw her up there and I was like um I think this is the time I think I'm gonna do it and I did it and it went so great and when I heard the crowd it's just like yes yeah um because you know they were um they were they were super for Becky in the beginning you know and so I knew I was like okay you want to challenge me I knew my work rate was gonna get them behind me which luckily it did and by the end of the match they were so wanting me to win and they were so for me which i appreciated so much so you took that as a bit of a challenge when you go out there and you got a super pro becky crowd like you kind of get a chip on your shoulder and say like 100 100 um i was like, oh, okay. Okay. I'm cheering for Becky. Okay. Just hold my drink. Hold my drink for, you know, give me like seven minutes.

And we'll see what happens in seven minutes, who you guys are cheering for. And luckily it was me because, you know, you really don't know, you know, you really don't know. But listen, you break out that sunset flip power bomb. They're going to get on your side every time. Yeah, I know. I was like, all right,. Wait for the sunset guys, wait for the sunset. Natalia also recently revealed she's been doing some training with you. What is the most important thing that you've learned from Natalia? She's obviously a veteran in this business. She just set the Guinness book of world records for most pay-per-view appearances ever and whatnot. What is the most important thing she's taught you?

She's taught me so much um what in wrestling in life um i think my biggest takeaway from natty is just um she her work ethic is like unmatched you know she has been doing this for so long she's been through so many different like phases of um the women's division and its evolution and its revolution and she's still standing and like you said you know she has like three guinness world records which is insane um the most matches of like anyone in wwe history the most winning woman in wwe history and that's not just you know, she puts her best foot forward all the time. She adopts, she adjusts and, um, she works hard and make sure her stuff is crisp and consistent, um, consistently. So all that, you know, I take away all that from her, you know,

um, sometimes her training was on Tuesday. And so I come home from raw on Tuesdays. And so would TJ and we would just drive to the dungeon and just get training. And, you know, we're all tired and we all want to sleep, but it's like, we've got to get the work in. And that's something that I feel like I've learned so much from Natty. I was going to bring up TJ as well, because he's a producer with the WWE. He works with you guys a lot. What is the biggest thing you've learned from him? We all, first I just want to say, we all adore TJ. The women, we are so, so, so, so excited when we see that we get to work with TJ.

We're like, yes, please, please, please, please. Thank you. And when we don't get to work with TJ, we're like, huh? TJ, what do I do? He's so incredible. And he's such an intricate, important part of the women's division. He speaks for us and he fights for it. He has so much confidence and belief in me. And it gives me that much more confidence and belief in myself. And he thinks I could do anything. And so it just, it just, it just makes me want to take it that much further because I have this person that thinks I can be the top of, you know, the WWE. And it's just, it's encouraging. And he has full faith in me. And I appreciate it so much to have, you know, full faith from someone as great and knowledgeable as TJ. He's so smart. It's like sickening.

It's really awesome. We've got the Royal Rumble coming up. You've been in a couple of Royal Rumbles at this point, including the first ever Women's Royal Rumble in 2018. I was there it in philly it was such an exciting great match what was it like putting together the first one though it had to be such a foreign idea to so many people on the women's roster in terms of actually crafting the match i know that you guys had some like experts come in and some people helped you guys out the night before what was that like it was um chaotic and it was crazy because also it was like the first time we've had so many women of like past eras

come in you know um like i got to work with michelle mccool which was awesome um and i know i just looked up the the stats she tossed you out of that thing she she got me she got me and i'm not even mad at it i'll eat it. But she got me. And like, you know, Molly Holly. And it was like surreal. It was surreal to be in this environment where I'm working with all these women that I watch. I never thought that I would be in a scenario where I'm like working with my idols. And everyone was so nice and amazing.

But yeah, it was a mission was a mission, you know, Has it changed like since like putting together Royal rumble this year, if you were in the match, would you be way more confident in terms of like, Oh yeah, we know how to do this now. Yeah. Yeah. You know, we've had a couple, we've had a couple under our belts now, but I mean, honestly, this year I'm hoping to win my number one contendership match on Monday and

then wrestle that one-on-one at the rumble. Yeah Becky for the Royal Rumble and if not you know I'm going to win the Royal Rumble and wrestle Becky at WrestleMania so either way it's like a win-win for me but it's always hard to like um put together something with so many minds and so many bodies and you want to please everyone and you want you know it's everyone to feel good about it so it gets challenging but we all have a common goal. You know, we want to put on the greatest performance match that we possibly can. So that's where we really come together as far as like, let's do what's best for, you know, the team,

let's do what's best for this match. Yeah, absolutely. Another person that I wanted to bring up was William Regal. Unfortunately he was just released from the WWE yesterday, but he was an integral part of NXT and the NXT that you were a part of. So I wanted to ask if you had any good memories or stories about working with him while he was working in NXT. Yeah, William Regal, he's so he's such an intense man, but so sweet. He would just sit in promo classes and he would tell us stories and he would watch our promos

and just be so, so, so honest. And so he just would be so honest. And it was so refreshing because a lot of people, when they give feedback, sometimes like they beat around the bush and they try to put things in a way where it sounds like nice but sometimes you just need to be told like yeah it's not good you know it's not it that's not it and he would take what you do and make you find an emotion or an intent behind

it and give so many little tips and tricks of things that he's learned along the way um like I remember I remember one day we're like learning how to um take tackles like how to feed for tackles and um we were in class just drilling it just running it and um he hates when you watch someone like give you a tackle like if the person's coming off the ropes and you just like see them. And so he spent so long showing us how to shoot someone, use that momentum. And then when you pop up, oh my gosh, here they are, take the tackle. You know, he just was bumping and bumping and bumping and bumping. And he was not scared to bump. He would take backdrops. He'd be in there taking tackles just to show us, you know, like how to put that, how to

keep the realism and just like the intent of why we're doing these things and why, you know, it makes sense. He just was so hands-on and so great. And just, um, he's going to be so messed because they don't make, they don't make them like William Regal anymore. I don't think so. Yeah. Everyone was saying that.

And just on NXT 2.0 in general, somewhere where you haven't really gotten a chance to compete or be a part of that world at all, you were part of NXT Black and Gold. What are your thoughts on the direction that the company's taken? I love it. I think it's cool. I think they're definitely trying a lot of new things. I think it's so awesome seeing fresh faces, you know, and just

taking a chance on talent that are not so established yet. I think it's so important to create new stars. And I feel like they're doing that. And I feel like they're really trying to cater to like the future of professional wrestling, know and create these stars now um i love i absolutely love mandy rose as nxt women's champion i think she's doing so phenomenal and i think she has like grown so much too um just in the last couple months of being put in this position of you know you're like the top bitch you're the head bitch in charge you know um this is your division and so i just think it's cool and i enjoy watching it it feels refreshing all right now something that um i

think is a bit of a fun portion of the interview i used to design gear for a bunch of people in wrestling and i think you have some of the best gear in wwe so i wanted to ask one where does the inspiration for your gear design come from and two what is your favorite set of gear you've ever worn oh um okay so um i take in i take inspiration off of things that i see you know i'm not i feel like i'm not inspired very often but when i see something um and i know i like it and i want to use it i have a guy his name is aslan shout Shout out to Aslan. He does so, so, so, so, so much for me. I'll give him a concept and he'll just create something new from it. You know, he'll take elements of stuff that I always do and create it in this gear. And he's been so amazing

and so incredible. I would be so lost without him. He designs all my stuff. And I don't know what my favorite gear is. I don't know. What's your favorite gear of mine? I don't know. I know my favorite shoe is, which is the new news I just pulled out. The new Nenehi Jordans. Those are sweet. Yeah. Thank you, you mosh so much the recent gear i think you've been wearing is cool like the one you wore day one was cool where it kind of went over it was like shredded yeah like i try to do things that i feel like are kind of trendy like you know survivor series gear was cool the raw theme survivor series gear the butterfly pattern gear was cool love that one the last time I wore that was my last match with Ruru.

Oh, sorry to bring that up. No, no, it's okay. I didn't mean to make it sad. I just haven't whipped it out since then. Yeah, I mean, I like all my gears, but kind of after I wear them once, I'm kind of over it. I'm like, eh. Oh, wow.

Who has your favorite gear in WWE besides you? My favorite gear besides me. Hmm. You know, I really like Mandy's gear. Bianca's gear is cool. Bianca makes all her own, right? Yeah, she makes her own gear. So just off that, you know, it's really cool.

Definitely not that. Yeah, I hate everything that does nothing nothing looks good um who else has cool gear i think mine's best i think mine's best oh we're mysterio we're mysterio yeah i mean come on we're mysterio and dom they always kill it they always kill it all right so this is another fun fun question for you you just finished game of thrones when you did i tweeted you i was like all right we got to talk about this on the next interview i want to get your thoughts on the conclusion because i interviewed seth rollins about the conclusion of game of thrones recently and he liked it he was he was pretty down for it what did you think about how they ended the show i liked it too i definitely had some unanswered you know thoughts like what did aria find beyond the map you know um wanted like she

like was like she christopher like columbus day like is she gonna find a new world what is she gonna find i don't know and i want to know um i know i want to know that too like i felt when they wrapped it up and they got such a kind of meh reaction to the finale and that's even maybe being kind i was like all right maybe that opens the door for them to be like all right here's an aria mini series about something exactly yeah so i don't i don't like that we've got no update on i know yeah we got like prequels they're coming out with a prequel soon yeah yeah so i'm so excited that i finished in time um i understand bran you know being king you know i guess he's the most wise

so i think i look like him people say i look like him if i go like this oh wow yeah just act like i'm on edibles all the time he was pretty weird that last season um i i understood him you know um taking over he's most wise. I feel like the Khaleesi heel turn, it was so abrupt and so quick. They did it in like three episodes. She went from being like so honorable to kind of like maybe power hungry and kind of like. She went crazy when she heard those bells. Yeah. You thought for the first time that maybe she was going to be like a mad queen, you know, and overtake her power.

So when Jon Snow killed her, I, first of of all i didn't see that coming at all i didn't see that coming in the slightest so i was just like heartbroken what was the most heartbreaking death on the show for you for me it was egret she was kind of my girl and then yeah yeah oh the most heartbreaking death for me um there was so many there was so many and i watched this i i did it so bad i took like a four month break halfway through the season and then i got back to it i can't remember all the deaths i mean calise's didn't break my heart but i really wanted her and john snow to end up together i kind of wanted her on the throne by the end to be honest and i thought that's i thought that's what was gonna happen i thought that she was gonna i thought john snow wasn't about her

you know here's my queen take the mad queen like the whole time crazy ending yeah so i was i was so shocked but honestly i don't want to say like the red wedding crazy ending yeah so i was i was so shocked but honestly i don't want to say like the red wedding but all the deaths in the red wedding like rocked me yeah rocked me rocked me rocked me i was like how does this show continue where what are they going to do how does this go on um it's one of those episodes that you kind of just have to sit with for like 15 minutes where you're like all right we can't even watch the next one i thought it was the best television i've ever seen in my whole entire life. Like I was like, you can't make anything better than this.

I thought it was so well done and well written. I was like, this is a masterpiece. Yeah, I agree. The first, the first, like five, six seasons of that are phenomenal at the end. I could see where people say it dips off a little bit. I even during the finale or during the final season, it was the only season that I watched live with people because I did the big catch-up right before the final season. So I was kind of trying to be the optimistic one,

being like, no, no, it's not that bad. But looking back, it definitely, they rushed it. They did, but I still liked it. And I feel like maybe they did their best to like um give the characters like some kind of justice by the end they didn't have books to go off in the end too which is like it's not their fault really it's that old guy who just can't finish the books i liked it i enjoyed it i'm not really mad at the finale but it definitely made me just want more like i wish there was maybe a one-off prequel episode that's maybe like two hours that kind of just gives everything more you know like a roundabout way of closing it out there was so much unknown

that well even there's that time skip in the finale right where they skip like six months yeah everyone's sitting together like i want to see what happened in those six months you know what you know what you know what deaths affect me the most every time the dire wolf died oh i know those are hard for me those are hard for me there was so much like i i think back to i am legend all the time when will smith has to do away with this little doggo that that's the saddest part of that movie for me yeah there was so much animal death the horses oh yeah i'm not into that so what's the next binge for you um i'm doing dexter right now i'm doing dexter right now i felt okay so i didn't finish episode nine so i'm not caught up yet i was you're doing the new dexter oh i mean i did old dexter but now the new dexter i never did old dexter i'm doing old dexter for the first time ever okay i just finished season four the trinity killer season and that season's ending best best

let's talk red wedding that was basically the red wedding for me recently amazing amazing and um i'm sure everyone's told you you know i guess a little bit weird from here on out yeah everyone says that was the peak of dexter yeah which i hate to say because i don't want to take your enjoyment out of it um but i think finish it up i think finish it up everyone says the new one's pretty good that's why i started it i never saw the original i was like all right let's watch the original my girlfriend was super into it she's like you have to watch this and then we're gonna watch new blood next which i've heard only good things about it's so good it's like everything that you missed in like the last seasons and missing the finale and if they were like i'm so so so sorry here let's that's what i want them to

do with game of thrones with like an aria spinoff give me more john snow with the wall i'll take all of it back to the wall i know i feel like i feel like he was okay with it though i'll take all of it those characters went back to the wall i know i feel like i feel like he was okay with it though i feel like he just he didn't want the glory anyway you know so i feel like they were like you want to main event wrestlemania he's like nah i'm more yeah yeah yeah totally he's like i'm just so take it easy um yeah this is amazing finally give me one bold prediction for yourself in 2022 that we can come back to in our first interview of 2023 and say Liv Morgan you were right damn well you know I think this is my year so I'm gonna like I'm gonna just take it all I'm one I'm gonna win

this number one contendership match I'm going to um beat Becky fory for the title at royal rumble um i'm gonna have on i'm gonna have unlimited winning title defenses um i'm gonna be on chucky season two oh hell yeah yeah let's shoot for the stars i have so many things i want to do it all i want to i want to do it all i feel like this is my year um i'm trying to think of more matches i can win but if i'm going to be the champ all year you know i don't need to win money in the bank i don't need you know i don't need to win um maybe you go in you win it so no one can cash in on you smart nobody's ever done that before i think it's against the contract but we're making new contracts in 2022 yeah i just want it all i just want it all robbie and i feel like that's okay

i should be able to want it all yeah we all should want it all. I just want it all, Robbie, and I feel like that's okay. I should be able to want it all. Yeah. We all should want it all. Just be careful you don't go mad queen with it. Felt like she wanted it all. Maybe I will. If I get the job done, as long as no one stabs me in the stomach. Well, that's what you got to watch out for.

Well, it's illegal that's we don't stab in wrestling well i don't drew mcintyre comes out with a sword every week i'm like what's he gonna do with that thing he's threatening you're right you're right wow he's kind of games of thronesy kind of keep an eye on him he's got an accent where you could fit him in he could be one of the guys at the wall you wouldn't notice what a hater me i don't like i don't like drew anymore no oh drew yeah yeah yeah all right live this has been great it's a pleasure as always i can't wait for you to win that wwe women's championship whether it be raw whether it be smackdown this year i hope you win both of them how about about both? I would, I would love both

because right now I'm feeling a little bit selfish and I'm feeling a little bit greedy. So I will take both. And also Robbie, um, I sent your mom's stuff out yesterday. So please let me know what she thinks of it. I did. I did. I'm so sorry that I did it so late. I've been a little bit busy, but I did. And I hope she loves that. Well, I can't wait. I'll send you a picture when it arrives. Oh, cool. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you, Liv. Talk to you next time. Have a good day, Robbie. You too.

Hello and welcome back to my mom's basement. It is Robbie Fox and I am here with my first interview of 2022. This is someone that I've wanted to get on the podcast for a while. Someone that I'm a big fan of. It's the NWA World's Heavyweight Champion, Trevor Murdoch. Trevor, you must have had a great 2021. How are you? I'm a big ball of joy, man. I'm fired up, ready to go. The new year, stepping in as world champion. 2021 obviously was a great year for me but I'm hoping to make 2022 even better yeah so you recently won the NWA world's heavyweight championship well not so recently anymore I

guess but you spent some time in the NWA you've been in the company for two and a half almost three years now one of the most coveted championships in all of wrestling without a doubt the NWA world's heavyweight championship What was that moment like for you 20 years into your career winning it? It was one of those moments that in the pro wrestling business, you don't get excited about nothing until it actually happens. And in my mind, I knew where I was headed. I knew what I wanted to do, but it really took the one, two, three for me to believe that I could really do it

and stand in the middle of the ring with the belt in, in my hand. My wife and kids were there. Those guys have been through so much horse shit with me when it comes to wrestling. And then to have Ric Flair come in and hand me the belt, like you really, I really couldn't have asked for a better moment. Like there was no, There was nothing missed. You know what I mean? If you ask yourself what a perfect moment is, that is a perfect moment.

Wrestling at the Chase after 37 years, wrestling at the Chase in St. Louis, being the main event for the world title, winning the world title, then to have Flair come in and hand me that title, you really couldn't ask for a more perfect moment and this comes after your first retirement right like you thought you were gonna leave wrestling in the rear view and then what brought you back was it the nwa calling you up was it you hearing about the nwa kind of reforming how did you get back into it i had heard about the nwa reform and i've been

watching a little bit um but that was right about the same time that harley uh started to take a downward turn and he actually um ended up passing away and when he passed away i just i kind of felt like that was a good opportunity for me to kind of step away from the business it kind of seemed full circle for me um but what happened was nick aldis who was world champion at the time dave lagana who was the executive producer at the time they actually came to harley's funeral to pay respects to harley and they after the funeral they both pulled me aside and just asked me like you know what are you doing doing that and i you know i basically told them like I'm I'm a round

peg in a square in a square world I think I'm I'm done and they said no like we need to get you down to Atlanta and you need to come in for one match even if you don't wrestle a match we'll have you produce a match we'll have you do something like you're just it's a waste for you to sit at home just come down to Atlanta and just do one show. And I'm a pro wrestler. I'm an OG. I bring my gear everywhere I go, just in case. And sure enough, when I walked into the building,

the first thing they asked me was, do you have your gear on? Gear. And I was like, yeah, I have my gear. And they go, well, you're wrestling Ricky Starks tonight. And, you know, that was my first match there. And that kind of the people there that match that moment everything um when I got into the back Billy Corgan was there um a

couple of other boys were there and they're like you got way more on the tank than what you know you're giving yourself credit for and uh they was like let's you know you ready to do show two I was like yeah let's go and it was you know just kind of steamrolled from there brother you mentioned Harley racing your twitter cover photo is a great side by side of you and him wearing very similar jackets with the NWA world's heavyweight championship how did that bond form and what was it like throughout your career to go from fan to friend um you know obviously when he decided he was going to open up his wrestling school like he was the only guy in the area for me like that had any reputation that you know really uh it's kind of like going to a job and you want to work at a really good job

the people before you need to have the experience of that job and harley it checks all the boxes again you know he's done it all he's done done everything and he's been on top so i wanted to go to his his school um and then you know the first couple three months man like they were tough he didn't you know he was tough on us he didn't give us anything i got sick every single day in training and that's not i'm not like exaggerating like every single day I puke um but that was because he was pushing us hard and I didn't want to let him down and I wanted to let him know how badly I wanted to be there but over time you know after a while you know I started going to his house in the off times I started spending some holidays with him

we it became uh even though he was my boss and he was my mentor and my trainer we became family um and i i spent a lot of special moments with him in different times where uh you know he he may not have opened up to most people whereas with me he was he was open and honest with me and felt comfortable with me uh I always used to laugh because you could tell if there was, if he was talking to somebody he cared about or talking to either a fan or somebody in the business, because Harley was very soft-spoken individual. And if somebody from the outside joined in under the conversation, whether it be a phone call or a fan would step up,

you would immediately hear that soft-spoken man go right back to harley race and let everybody know who the fucking man is and then as soon as they would they would leave or they would get out of the conversation he would go back to being the soft-spoken you know harley that i know and um so i would i would i find that very entertaining because i would watch it happen especially after you watch it happen the first time. You start seeing signs of, you know, when it happens again, you're like, oh, watch this. And sure enough, he'd flip that switch every time. I feel like his style has held up so well.

You hear wrestlers today, CM Punk is a big one that always goes back and credits Harley Race with being an inspiration for them. What do you think it was about his wrestling style actually in the ring that does hold up so well? Harley never wasted a move. Like, he never wasted time. He never, a lot of guys in their head when they go in there to wrestle, they have this idea in their head, things they want to do, things that like if they can get it like they can get it in they want to get it in um harley was an opportunist so and he was so knowledgeable

about pro wrestling so if he was you know on one part of your body and he's seeing an opportunity to take advantage of another part he would do that um also harley was was har Harley in the ring and outside of the ring. There are so many stories of guys trying to not just test Harley, but test pro wrestling. And I mean, I'll give you a really quick a really quick story here. Harley's world champion. There's a bunch of bikers that were given all the boys, all the wrestlers a hard time during the show. And then after the show show the bikers stuck around and they were basically calling out harley and and you know uh just saying some foul things to them and they said they wanted to be pro wrestlers and the promoter went in the back and told harley hey there's some bikers out here they're causing us some trouble they said they

want to be pro wrestlers and harley puts down his cigarette his marble red puts it down calmly walks out to the ring slides in the ring gets in and tells one of the bikers to get in the ring you want to be a pro wrestler oh yeah yeah the guy's being a smart ass and harley just calmly casually well you know you got to learn how to lock up so you got to put your hands up here like this and that guy goes to put his hands up here and Harley just steps in it. Wham! Just headbutts him right in the head. Takes his nose and just flattens it. Splatters it across.

Blood everywhere. Guy knocked out. The other bikers are out. You know, they're pulling their buddy out of the ring. And Harley looked at him and goes, if you want to fucking take me on, take me on now. And none of those bikers wanted any any trouble it didn't want to mess with him they knew right then and there he was you know in their minds he was a world champion and he did that inside and outside the ring he carried himself as the world champion

and if you tested that or you called him out on he would let you know quickly who he was that's true man you gotta real deal he's the real fucking deal. Even at 70 years old, you know, and he's like, he still considered himself the world champion. I'm the eight time NWA world heavyweight champion. And that says a lot for him and what he's done in the business and who he is as a person and how he took, how serious he took the business. A lot of guys need to kind of maybe take some notes for the young fans who should take some notes on harley race do you have a favorite match that you go back to that you watch over and over again of his it sounds a little cliche but the flair harley match at starcade and the reason why is because i i've hit up both rick and harley about the back story about

all of that leading into that like I've talked to heart I talked to Harley probably 100 times about that match about what you know what was going on behind the scenes that led up to that not only with him and Flair but what's going on with Harley at the time and the fact that Flair was kind of the next chosen guy like he was the next guy to you know carry the ship and he knew that he had to go in there and make that guy and a lot of wrestlers these days don't look at it like that they don't look at you know in pro wrestling there's always going to be a ship that's how we stay relevant that's how we stay exciting to people and eventually the top

dogs are going to have to step out of the way and let somebody else move in there that's just how our business works um a lot of guys in the business you know they get all butt hurt and shit when they know that like the next guy is coming they want to give them a hard time or make it difficult for that next guy when in turn he should be passing the torch and because it's not just about him. It's about the company. As wrestlers, especially as a world champ, you represent not only yourself, but you represent every wrestler that steps in the ring for that company. And sometimes you've got to make the hard decisions

and you've got to make some tough choices and do things you don't like. But as a champion, you need to put a smile on your face and do it with pride and respect and professionalism. mentioned working with billy corgan before as well obviously runs the nwa um like many people a fan of his music and don't know a ton about how he views wrestling just because like he's not out there talking about wrestling as much as most promoters are what is it like working with him as someone who obviously comes from almost like an old school wrestling background well he's a big fan of pro wrestling and he's a big fan of what wrestling used to be and that's what he's he's trying to create a version of that

with the nwa um he is you would think that a guy like I'm, I'm just like you guys like I remember when I was a little reserved and you know still a big fan and I'm like oh my gosh like I'm excited but also too I'm sitting here thinking oh another rock star another another guy with money that wants to get into pro wrestling I mean I've I've dealt with like 30 of those tax time pro you know promoters that get their taxes i'm going to start up a wrestling business so a part of me um was a little reserved until i kind of sat back and just listened to him talk and just kind of got a feeling for him uh because nwa is really important to me it's from my background it's bred into who i am so i didn't want to go out and promote a company that I care about so much and not understand where the boss's mindset is and where it's going. That only took one TV taping and all those worries were put aside.

To see a guy who's so knowledgeable and such a student of pro wrestling, but also not so hung up on his idea, his way. He's willing to be open and, you know, he has an idea, but he's willing to expand on it. He's willing to let the wrestler be creative with it. And for me, that opens up a ton of other avenues because there's no leash on me. I can do whatever I want within my boundaries. I can be creative. I can do things off the cuff. I can do things that feel right. And to have a boss like that and to have somebody that's a platinum selling recording artist be so easy to talk to and so easy to get along with, it makes my job like 10 times easier and it makes me excited about

going to work because I have somebody who's just excited to be at work as I am yeah I'd be remiss not to mention you spent a bunch of years with the WWE and also worked with Vince McMahon who there's a billion stories about he's the top of the top in wrestling promotion. What was your relationship with Vince like? I had a very, it was a weird relationship. Like I assumed when I first got with the company, like I'd go in and I'd meet the boss and I'd talk to him and we would get whatever I'm here to do lined out and in that direction.

I was there for like three or four months before I had my first conversation with Vince. He has a lot of people surrounding him. He has a lot of people that want his attention. And there was a lot of things that were micromanaged there that I felt like shouldn't have been um and and I and the interactions I did have with Vince were were a little strange like one time Lance and I were talking to a writer outside of Gorilla and we were just talking to a writer about ideas and stuff and Vince got mad at somebody that was in the ring while TV was going on and left Gorilla well Lance and I are the first two

guys that he's seen and he just starts chewing on us you know saying my newest youngest tag team's not even watching the show what the fuck and i mean cussing at me just making making just this big fucking scene in the locker room about us not watching the show even though we've been watching the show the whole time and we just seen the writer walk by like, hey, here's our opportunity. Let's talk to him for a minute. It did. None of that matters. So I got it really threw me off and I kind of like what an asshole. But then, you know, there were times where things weren't going that well for us on TV. And I tracked him down and I sat down with him and had a an honest conversation and he was honest

and upfront with me he's just a weird cat to get to know and understand um and I never was able to build that personal relationship with him maybe that's why I didn't last you know any longer than four years but I just could never I could never get to know him I just could never get over that bridge of getting to know who he was and and getting close to him on the flip side then i guess who in wwe did you learn the most from in those four years without a doubt arn anderson um me being a big fan of our period and uh just i'm a world i'm i'm an old school guy so i've watched a ton of orange orange wrestling um so anytime we had a question and not only about the bit i had a question about the business whether i had a question about a match he was my go-to guy um i remember specifically just one time um we were wrestling we're about to wrestle the highlanders and if you

look at the the size difference between lance and i am a highlander there was a a huge huge difference in height and size and excuse me and um we went to arn and we were kind of confused on on what our direction should be with them we didn't really know what to do with them and and and in two minutes arn pulls his glasses down and uh boys uh if i were you i'd wrestle like the sheep herders who turned out to be you know they turned out to be no they did they did oh the bushwhackers right he goes i would wrestle like the bushwhackers. Bushwhackers, right. He goes, I would wrestle like the Bushwhackers. And as soon as he said that, like Cade and I, like the light bulb went off in our head. We were like, oh shit, okay.

Okay, that explains it. That's all we need. That's all we need in it. Just that two minute conversation took all the puzzle pieces and put them in the right place for us. So he was our go-to man on almost everything and you know there were a lot of times that like he even agreed with what was going on wasn't right like you know our and this is bullshit this is this this is this and he looked at us you boys are completely right but here's the reality of the situation yeah you got it you know you got

to stay you know and even though he agreed with us and we were in we knew we were in the right it didn't matter it was the fact that this is how things go here and you know you have that's a hard pill to swallow sometimes you know and and that's another reason why i've never gone back everybody is like when you're going back when you're going, when you're going back, when you're going back, when you're going back. Fuck, I'm never going back. And it's not because, like, it's not about money. It's about me being happy. That's the most important

thing to me, is being happy. Because being happy affects everything else in a positive manner. It affects my thought process. It affects my wrestling, everything. I just want to be happy. And my soul is not worth going up there for a couple hundred thousand dollars.

Speaking of happy things, speaking of good things in your career, what is your favorite match of your career? I don't have any one favorite match. I have several matches because as a wrestler, you create these moments, these moments in times where people are either on their feet going nuts and

they feel every bit of it, or they're they're sitting down and they're angry and pissed off at you. I can throw the tag match I had in with the Hardys of St. Louis, the pay-per-view my hometown, my area and my people with the biggestys in St. Louis, the pay-per-view, um, my hometown, my area, my people with the biggest company in the world at the time wrestling for the world tag team titles with the hottest tag team in pro wrestling. Like you can't just those guys walking out to the ring was just amazing. You know what I mean? And just the feeling in the ring and the people and the

energy and the emotion that was going into it like you can't beat that shit but then you fast forward 15 years later and then i've got a match with me and nick all this and we're stepping into the ring course on ballroom wrestling at the you know at the chase you know harley's world harley you know the same title for harley like you can't those moments that they all have their own little place and time so it's hard to pick the favorite the number one because at that time bro that was they were all special to me you know what i mean if you there is nothing cooler than standing in the middle of the ring and having 20 000 people chant your name and, you know,

the millions at home watching you do what you do and all your hard work, the right time, everything's clicking right. It's all that payoff. And you're like, yes, like this is it. This is my money shot. Like it's almost worth, you know, it's, it's worth the, it's's it's worth more than the money sometimes it's just having that payoff of yeah everything's going right everything went right everybody's doing what they're supposed to do everybody's it's just right yeah that makes any sense i mean i can't imagine and now i want to talk about nwa in 2022 we recently saw matt cardona came in intact you

the forbidden door quote unquote seems to be well open for the nwa uh what do you expect for the nwa in 2022 and breaking news i just read the nwa is returning to youtube announced fight all access pass as well so check that out nwa you're going to be able to see it everywhere in 2022 and that's the goal for us is to get as many as many eyes on us as possible um we are we are not confused on who we are and where in what position we're in we um we know that we have to build an audience um and the most important thing for us is to not rush that shit you know what i mean not force anything down people's throats don't we um we're a company that that is built on payoffs that you get a payoff on everything you see whereas in pro wrestling

you don't get the payoffs that people tend to want sometimes um our we know that we're a smaller company and we're not going to try to wear bigger shoes in a bigger arena than what nested than what's necessary we went from four pay-per-views to six pay-per-views for 2022. And we're going to try to make that go bigger and go bigger. But we, again, we don't want to, we don't want to try to be big, a little, you know, big fish and our little fish in a big pond. You know what I mean? If that makes any sense. We worked really hard to establish who we are and establish our fans and to present old school pro wrestling. That's who we are and establish our fans and to present old school pro wrestling. That's who we are. We're not,

we're not trying to reinvent the wheel. We're not trying to compete with anybody else. We're staying in our lane and we're the best at what we do. And that's tell old school pro wrestling stories, something like, here's the biggest, the biggest catch for me is that when you watch a TV, any TV program, you should be able to watch it and maybe you've missed the first couple

episodes prior to that and be able to know the story of what's happening in front of you. Whereas other companies, when you go to watch their TV program, if you miss last week, you may not understand what's going on this week. Whereas NWA, we, we garner a lot of pride in the fact that you can watch our TV show, put it on and understand everything that's going on right there, right there on the TV screen and enjoy it for what it is. You know what I mean? And that's what we're going to grow on. That's what we're going to try to expand on and make bigger for us. I think that's a great message, everyone.

There's no better time to check it out than right now. Hop in. You'll understand everything that's going on. You could go back on the NWA YouTube, watch the old episodes. There's a bunch of stuff out there. There's a bunch of content out there. Trevor, thank you so much for joining the show. This has been a great conversation and I look forward to your 2022.

Right on Robbie. Thank you buddy for having me. I appreciate it, man.