Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster - John Cena

Episode Date: October 14, 2026

WWE legend-turned-acting A-lister John Cena is this week’s dream diner. He sits down with Ed and James to talk about his coffee obsession, wrestling tips and how to power through promo when you’re not feeling your best…Trigger warning: this episode contains chat about counting calories. John Cena stars in ‘Matchbox The Movie’ which is out now on Apple TV. Watch it here.Follow John Cena on Instagram @johncenaWatch the video version of this episode on the Off Menu YouTube.Off Menu is now on YouTube: @offmenupodcastFollow Off Menu on Instagram and TikTok: @offmenuofficial.And go to our website www.offmenupodcast.co.uk for a list of restaurants recommended on the show.Ed Gamble is on tour in 2027 with ‘Fresh Hell’. For dates and tickets go to edgamble.co.ukOff Menu is a comedy podcast hosted by Ed Gamble and James Acaster.Produced, recorded and edited by Ben Williams for Plosive.Video production by Ben Williams and Megan McCarthy for Plosive.Artwork by Paul Gilbey (photography and design). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, it's Ed here from the Off-Menu podcast that you are listening to right now. You'll know that I'm doing a brand-new stand-up comedy show on tour next year, fresh hell. And we are delighted to announce that we are doing two more shows at the London Palladium, Friday the 19th of March, Saturday the 20th of March. You've got to come to these shows. They're going to be great. They're on sale now.

Ed Gamble.com.com.com. For ticket details. Welcome to the Off-Munue podcast, taking the cheese of conversation, putting it in the fondue pot of the instant. internet, applying the heat of friendship, bubbling that cheese up so nice and dipping in the bread of humour. It's a podcast fondue, Jimmy Boy. Oh, that is Eddie Boy. My name is Jimmy Boy, and this is the off-menu podcast every single week. We invite in a guest and we ask them favour ever, start a make or dessert, side dish and drink, not in that order, in our dream

restaurant. And this week, the guest is John Sina at the Unseen 17. John Sina is a a wonderful actor. Yes. Also pro wrestler. The goat. The goat. You heard it here first? The goat.

What a hero. I've loved his performances in so many things. Suicide Squad, peacemaker, blockers. Very excited to have him on the podcast.

Very funny in all of the films he does, I think. Really funny. Known for his improv. Really commits to every role, including his new movie. Out now.

Matchbox the movie. On Apple TV. Matchbox the movie. movie is out now on Apple TV. People can watch that. We've watched it. We had a lot of fun watching. We did. Inspired those little matchbox cars. If you remember them and you were a kid, and if you are a kid and you're listening to that,

hey, maybe you've got one in your hand right now while you listen to this podcast. Let me tell you, there's some big cars in that as well. Don't you worry all the cars are going to be little. There's some mad stunts going. Not just cars. Loads of vehicles. Yeah, loads of vehicles. If you like vehicles, you want to watch it right now. Yeah, yeah.

But John's fantastic in it. A lot of vehicle. Sam Richardson's in it. I'm a huge fan of Sam Richardson. So funny. Yeah. So funny. Sam, if you're listening, buddy, come on the pod.

Got to get you on the pod, Sam. Got to get him on the pod. But listen, I love John. You knew he said John Richardson. I think he said John Richardson. Because we're talking about... Sam Richardson. Because we're talking about Sam Richardson and John Sina.

I nearly said, listen, I love John Richardson. Which I do. Yeah. Hey, matter of record. I love John Richardson and do not get confused. Yeah. But that wasn't who I was about to talk about. But you also love John Sina.

I love John Sina. But if John says the secret ingredient, which we deem to be unacceptable, but we will kick him off of the podcast. And this week, the secret ingredient is matchmakers. Matchmakers. Matchmakers. No, matchmakers.

Now, we love matchmakers as well. Box of matchmakers. But it's because of matchbox. We've made it matchmakers. Yeah. Mint or orange. I don't know if John's going to bring this up, man. And I'm happy about that.

The last thing I want to do is try and kick John Cena out at the dream restaurant. Yeah, I really don't fancy our chances of doing that. No. Matchmakers most likely come at the end of the meal. after the dessert. If anyone's going to chuck some matchmakers in, they might just be like in a box of mint matchmakers, please. There's a little after dinner. But I don't know if he's cross paths with

matchmakers at any point in his career. No, it's not unlikely. Man, if we try and kick him out, he can do a double attitude adjustment on us. He's stacked up bigger men than us on his back. Yeah, I don't want to get in the way of a double attitude adjustment. You wouldn't get in the way of it. You'd be part of it. Oh, no. You'd be on his back, probably on top of me on his back.

Actually, that sounds fun. Next thing you know, we're being flipped over and slammed down onto the mat. Was Benito during all this? Watching and smiling like this? Yeah, yeah. He'd be smiling, nodded in his head, really enjoyed this. Finally happened. You don't get to see Benito if you're watching this or listening to this.

You never get to see Benito. But here's what Benito does when something bad happens to us. Or when he himself makes a pun. He makes a joke and then he goes... Yeah, yeah. So those two things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you ever see him doing that, either he's made a pun or something bad as happened.

Yeah. Watch it's on YouTube, of course, as well. And you can see Ed's face of Benito. Speaking of YouTube. And you can, yeah, you can see my face. You can see your face. See my face. And you should subscribe why you're on YouTube.

You won't be able to see John Cena's face. You can't see me. At Craig Simon's Live. Oh, yeah, sorry. Subscribe to that channel on YouTube. Really big YouTube channel. Yes. It's popping off.

Yeah. At Craig Simon's Live. Subscribe to it. I'm going on tour next year. Brand new stand-up show. Fresh hell, 2027, UK and Ireland tour, starting at the end of January,

going right through till June. I'm doing four shows at the London Palladium. One, two, three, four, count them. Hustle, loyalty, respect, and a Saturday show. Ed Gamble.combeau.com. Should we speak to John Sina? Oh, yeah, man, please. This is the off-menu menu menu of John Sina.

Welcome, John, to the dream restaurant. Here we are. Welcome John Cedar to the Gene Restaurant. We've been expecting you for some time. Thank you so much. This is a smaller restaurant than I thought. But that's okay. Yeah, I mean, it's a very small studio, certainly.

Yeah. But feel free to use the full expanses of your imagination. You like a cozy restaurant? I do. I think there's something to cozy. It reminds me of like hearth and home. Yeah. Yeah.

So I'm excited and curious. Good. Are you guys sits in the corner? You like a booth with your friends or you want to get amongst it. in the middle? I like being in the middle of it. Yeah. Yes. If I go out, I know that I'm committing to go out and I like still being in the middle of all of it. With friends or dining alone? I have the courage and self-worth to dine alone. I also love getting friends together. That's like my favorite thing to do is to talk, reflect, listen over food and drink. I think my

favorite part of this movie, the matchbox movie, is the core friendship group at the heart of it. It's us. Yeah. It's us. Did you guys get on Joe in the film as well? That is us. Like whatever they had written on the page, which was very solid, really morphed into like just us on screen. You know, Arturo and Sam are nonstop bits.

T is so very patient with everybody. Jess is such a pro and she tries, she adds where she can. She's so beautiful and talented and funny. And the toughest thing for me, the toughest thing for me on this one was to kind of just be the sea. CIA guy and not get in on the jokes. Because man, those guys are so quick and that's so much good material. And we, we fire on a lot of the same cylinders, a lot of nostalgic toys, a lot of pro wrestling. Like, it was, it was a fun shoot. You know that Ed's wife as a wrestler. Did you know that? No kidding. Yeah, she's very early in her career, but I went to see her last night.

Talk more about that. How long she's been doing it? So she's been training for a couple of years. Okay. And then is very involved in the sort of British independent scene. Love it. Doing like, you know, managing shows and stuff. Oh, I love that perspective. I think she's, you know, she's had a match, so she's performed and she's working on the admin side. I think a lot of performers get selfish because they don't know what it takes to actually put on an event. Yes. We had talked about interviews and sometimes people thinking, well, the job is just to put on the costume and say the words.

This is the job. Yeah. Because you've got to know what it is to put on an event. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. At least she is experiencing all buckets. of sports entertainment?

Very much so, yeah. There's so many places out there to be able to call it, like, this is my vocation. Yeah. This is what I do. Yeah. I'm very excited for a future.

Yesterday was really fun. It was quite a big, a big British independent show called Riot Cabaret, and it was like a gawater match, and she came in at the end. It's an amazing thing watching, watching somebody you love doing.

What is you, are you familiar with wrestling, sports entertainment? Yeah, so I was, I was a big attitude era fan. Nice. Then came back to it a few years ago and she started to get into it.

Okay. great. So she got into watching wrestling and then started to train. So you came back with like the tribal chief and Cody Rhodes. Yeah, yeah. Excellent. Excellent. You and then of course your big, your big final year as well. Yeah. Well, at least we got that in. Yeah. We have those moments. We went, we went to Roar O2 when you and Cody, the, the promo battles between you and Cody were absolutely incredible. I will say in relation to matchbox, uh, I had no one to bounce material off of except my, my wife who is now didn't know anything about WWE and it is now like she helps write promos. She would go over like our match finishes and be like,

do you think you're not milking it long enough for the hot tag? I'd be like, oh my God, that's exactly what I'm thinking. So over, you know, six or seven years, she has really dove into this exciting live performance. Yeah. The only other person I could bounce stuff off was Sam Richardson. Oh, wow. And Sam would help me like he'd assess the promo.

Yeah. Oh, my God. And then he would add it. It was a great sounding board because I was shooting this and doing that at the same time. Really? Yeah, I would shoot all day and then take a flight, but I needed to be prepped

and I want to do my work. That way, when the crowd gives you something, you can pivot, we would write a lot of that stuff in between takes on Matchbox. Or I would come in with like, yo, I wrote this last night. What do you think?

Oh, man, no, we'll just tweak it like this and then run it through the final boss, the wife. And then she would say, I think we're good to go. Put a stamp on it. See what you got. That's amazing.

Yeah. Wow. When we went to Roar as well, we got a little tour backstage. Oh, cool. And we walked past you and you gave us a respectful nod, and I thought, it's real.

It's real. Hey, that's nice to get a respectful nod. He's not standing polite, man. I wish you to sit high. I think you were locked in, you were chatting to people, but you still sort of just nodded when you walked past us in the corridor.

My role now is way more lax, and I'm still an advocate. I'll say it right here to give you guys some good information. I'm still an advocate to try to bring WrestleMania to London. Yes. I think London has earned the right to have the event.

I agree. I am very excited about this year's WrestleMania, because it is the first WrestleMania outside of North America. So it's like proof of concept that it can be done. I am still a strong advocate that this crowd, this city has earned the right to WrestleMania. Look, you've heard it here.

Let's make it happen. I hope so. I hope so. What little stroke I have, I'll, I certainly, I tried to rile up the crowd a few times to say that London has earned WrestleMania and it did get people talking. Yeah. I don't know where those talks are at, but, you know, hopefully maybe I can return to the O2 and stake that claim again.

We'll see. Yeah, when you came out at Money in the Bank in London and said, I think London should have WrestleMania. I was thinking, I wonder if John's run this past anyone or whether he's just putting it out there himself. That was just me putting it out there. Yeah, I thought it might be. But honestly, it's just, it's just my perspective.

Yeah. I look around. I see the energy, passion, enthusiasm. What a great city for people to come to. WrestleMania is such a travel to event. Yeah. That's one of my favorite cities in the world. Yeah.

I love London. So I think it'd be a nice piece of culture for people. to explore and experience WrestleMania, you know, the Super Bowl, the sports entertainment, we need to do WrestleMania here, just my perspective. If it comes to London, you should have like a really London-centric wrestler,

I think, at the heart of it. My wife. Loving this pitch. Does chips. Oh, okay, so her name's Charlie James. Her ring name is Charlie James, but the other week she wrestled in a place called Haystings in the UK,

and it's a seaside town, and they always have a match at the show, where there's two wrestlers who play sort of local, local legends or local folklore. So her friend wrestled as the head of Southern Water, like the waterboard, who's a real bad guy. Okay. And then my wife wrestled as a bag of chips.

What a stretch of the creative process. Yeah, I know, but I love all the really silly stuff as well. Yeah. And what I love about it is when performers invest in it. Oh, she spent so long making her gear. She had a newspaper newspaper outfit, the chip crown. It's quite a vinegar on herself. People are going to those events to escape.

Oh, fully. You know, before in the early, 95 is when they said it was entertainment. Before then, you might feel like you've been sold to false bill against. It was 1995. It has been 30 years. You walk into the turnstile for a wrestling show. You know you are there to escape. Yeah.

I love that stuff. And I love when performers get into it. I posted an Instagram of like the pizza tossing wrestler. Yeah. Such a thoughtful thing. And like he's all in on his, I can see the image, just a snap image and be like, get that.

Let's see what happens. I love that. And man, God goodness, I hope she stays safe. Yeah. I hope she always has fun. And I hope she finds a way to call the business or vocation. That's the difficult thing, isn't it? Well, like, I was watching her being like,

I'm so excited for her, I'm so proud of her that she's got to this point. but you're just sick with worry the whole time as well, that there's going to be some sort of issue. Yeah, it's a physical thing. And if we don't do anything physical, we don't do anything. I mean, the cool thing is we control the action, right? So you can mitigate risk as you want to. And I like, from a performance standpoint,

I was never the most gifted as far as flipping and doing all that stuff. Every once in a while, I get myself in a good old-fashioned car wreck, just like everybody else. But I like the challenge of taking fundamental things in front of a crowd that's already interested and see how you can use that bag of tricks to keep them on edge for 45 minutes. But that's the art. And in the meantime, being safe to the person you're working with.

Because we can go out there and just do some crazy stuff that genuinely hurts and is not, it doesn't put the math in our favor that we're going to be doing this for a long time. What I learned the most about live performance, especially in WWE, is it's not necessarily about what you do. It's about when you do it. It's about preparing so much before you go out there that you're able to pivot. O2 is famous for being like rowdy. Yeah.

I had fights in the stands at an O2 event on television. We incorporated it into the act. I had somebody get married. We incorporated it into the match on live TV. They used to bring out the beach balls. And gosh, management used to hate the beach balls. And performers used to hate the beach balls because they're not looking at, me, they're looking at the beach ball.

Great, they're looking at something. We would look at the beach ball. And then, like, the bad guy would get the beach ball and stomping. Maybe another one would come, and I'd get the beach ball. I'm going to hit it away and then get hit. Like, we're all in it. Everybody's in it. And the crowds in London, like the passion and the ability to, I loved how they would challenge

us with their chance. You never know what they're going to chance. Yeah. Because it's like they bring like that footballer vibe. I mean, you know, like, I would always love it because I knew I had to be sharp, I knew I had to be ready, and I knew they were active. They're not saying, like, they are wanting to be in. And those are the best things.

And I think you can do a lot with risk mitigation, especially when a crowd, if a crowd is like this, okay, bring out your best stuff. But if a crowd is already at the edge of their seat and most crowds that go to, regardless of the size of the arena, most crowds want to be there. So just maybe pass that little nugget on. I will. Yeah. Risk mitigation.

Risk mitigation. It's not about what you do. It's about exactly when you do. You're doing it at the right time. Yeah. You know, and that's, you can say the same with the matchbox.

We have so much comedy in the movie. We have Sam Richardson and Arturo Castro, have great comedic timing. And it's not about the joke. The words, when you say them on the paper, it's like, Jess,

she made her stuff great, but she would often go to Sam, be like, how do I make this sentence funny? Because it doesn't sound funny on paper. And Sam, just like, no, just go for it. Yeah.

And Sam is such a master, like, little nuanced things that might sound corny on the page. And he made the bit about the leatherman work. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Like, that's timing. It's not about what you're doing. It's about when you do it. Like that, there couldn't be a better example about, like, they're setting this up for a joke or a bit.

Yeah, the bit works. I like it. Okay. I'm satisfied. You know, like, I hope she takes that approach to. her performance. She's just enjoying it. I think she's absolutely loving it.

That's another thing. And you don't have to make it your vocation. When I started out, I was like, I'm going to keep this hobby as long as I can. I think as long as you're like doing it, do it and don't worry about getting a goal from it. Just enjoy the journey.

Yeah. Because, man, it dropped a whole ton of opportunity in my lap. And each opportunity that got greater and greater, I knew I had to make less normal life choices and lean into this crazy life. And that was all that was. It was like, okay, I got to put more attention here. That's all. Now I've got to put more attention here. But I started just to do it on

the weekends. And because the crowds are great. You get paid a little bit of money. You go on the road. You see a little bit of your home country or the world. You never know where it can lead you. But it was never like, I didn't lace boots being like, I'm going to be the greatest of all time. No, I just want to keep doing this. This is awesome. Let's start your dream menu now. We always start with still or sparkling water. Still. Bottled still. Bottled still. Oh, why bottled? Because today is day five of sell. Alaminella. No kidding. I am up against it and I think it's because of some, some poor choices I made. If I had just gone bottled still, I might have been in a little bit of a place.

Do you know what the poor choice that you made was? I might not have been asking for bottled still. Yeah. But like a couple of days ago. As I reflect back, I think that would stand. Didn't you have the premiere at this film like two days ago? Do you have salmonella at the, like, at the... No, no, I'm in day five right now. You're in day five?

Yes, so we've been promoting for about 10 days-ish. You've been promoted this film? I'm running a very nice temperature right now. Wow. My joints hurt. I've had Selmanonell before. Yeah. Which is kind of like day one or two, I was upset.

Like, you know, my body didn't feel right. Fever shakes. Everything trying to race outside of your body from places. It's not supposed to race. Yeah. And I'm like, okay, this might be a 24-hour flu now that it's, this is started day six. Yeah. So I'm like, okay, I got two weeks of this stuff.

And sometimes you feel great, and then sometimes it hits you. And, like, we landed. I had 90 minutes to myself. I literally just crawled under a cover and couldn't get warm. And then, like, after 90 minutes, I was like, okay, make sure I'm hydrated, get some electrolytes. All right, I feel good. And here we are. I don't think we've ever had a guest on the podcast who's going to choose their dream meal while in it.

What a teachable moment, right? Yeah, this is huge. If I had a takeback machine, bottled still. Yeah. You hate, what water do you want? I'm going bottled still water on. Are you going to be okay to talk about food for the next bit of time? Yeah, of course, of course, man.

I'm glad we're not digging into like a hearty meal. Sure, yeah, yeah. I love talking about food. Yeah, I believe food is not only nourishment, it's a need that we have. It's also been part of our culture where it's a conduit for a connection. Yeah. I love food. I love food.

I love a good home-cooked meal, but, man, let's talk about food. Pop-at-hob's or bread. Pop-loms or bread! What the hell? is that first thing. Popadoms. What is a Papadom? So, if you're having an Indian meal, the big, crispy, sort of thin things they bring out.

Gotcha. So I got to lean bread on that. Yeah. And I'll tell you why. I think Papadoms would be a form of bread, right? It'd be like a flat crispy bread. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm leaning into the fact that bread, we talked about, like, food is a universal conduit for

conversation. Bread. Like, my wife is Persian. the taftune sangak variations of non like the different types of breads and i grew up in my grandmother cooked italian food so like the breads you would get there um we just had i just did a bit where we did american thanksgiving we had like hawaiian rolls like dinner rolls the bread that represents the bread i believe ever may be tracing this back to ever since we became an agricultural species like that's the first thing that we're serving is bread a great sourdough like i'm like

Goodness. It's like if you go fine dining, I'm a fan of fine dining. What I've noticed is a place I've gone. The bread course, they leave it in the middle because it's familiar with us. Yeah. They usually give you a starter that shows what the restaurant can do. And the chef has like a free swing. Like this reminded me of Thanksgiving.

My sister always loved this. This is what I'd like to serve you. Yeah. And it's a bite this big, but it tastes like Wonka Vision. It tastes like the full dinner in phases. And then you go on to their offerings and right in the middle. you get bread. Yeah, I've noticed this because you would normally think that they bring out the bread first, right? Of course. They straight down on the table. Because that is also an approach for dining out.

Yeah. The fine dining, I think, understands they have comfort. And sometimes they might have first timers who don't understand the experience. I'm going to give you that dose of comfort right in the middle. And that's going to warm you up for our mains, which you're probably going to be more familiar with. And then I'm going to give you a load of sweets to sit at home. That bread is such a universal language. Give somebody a good piece of bread. And, man, I remember the first time I tried taftoon. I was like, this is dangerously good. I love a great croissant. I even classify that in the baked good bread line of, like, crispy, buttery, flaky. Man, I think that's a hot take. I think quassant being bread.

I'd allow it. I'd allow it. I allow it. I think it's a hot take. People are going to be popping off in the comments. Okay, all right. Yeah, they are. Yeah.

What do you think? Cresant's a bread or not. I'll also go with a French baguette. Yeah. That's definitely bread. The chewiness of a baguette is different than like the crispiness of Italian garlic bread. And their places are so close. Yeah.

You know, you get a different sandwich with faccia than you do with a baguette. Like it's, I don't know, man. It's places so close to each other that will do bread different. In New England, it's like, it's sourdough dominates the scene. And then you get towards the South and they love cornbread. Like, even in the States, everybody's got a different way to do it. So for your dream meal, what bread would you like in the center of the table? Taftoon.

I don't think I've had that before. So it is a thicker bread. Sangak is that thin bread that they throw against the clay oven. Oh, yeah. And Persians love Sangak. For me, it's like too thin and crispy. But a lot of their great food is used with dips, like Fezindjun and stuff like that. Essentially, my wife and my mother-in-law is going to kill me.

Essentially, it's like hummus. Fezindune is not. It's like a walnut sort of thing. It's fantastic. but a lot of their first presentation, their first round is bread with dip. I don't know. I like taftoom because it's fluffy.

It's fluffy. It's glazed. It's spiced with like seeds. Persian food I learned was so big on spice. And I think spice, I think heat. No. Spice is like saffron and barberry

and like the really forward stuff that's aromatic. And it's not like an episode of hot ones. You know, it's truly spicy food. And there's beautiful, all the herbs they put into stuff of like Gorma Sabzi. It's spice forward, but a different sort of spice. Taftoon is a nice, soft bread that is addicting. And there's no cutting it.

You just tear off the piece you want. You go into the dips. It's a good experience. I'll take that. Does your wife make this bread? She can. The relationship that I have and what I've learned of Persian culture is like you get the good bread place. Yeah.

Okay. Like you get your bread. Yeah. Like you go to the. Persian bread place to get the bread. The food, the mains are usually what is made with love. Like, that's the Tadeq and the Reshtapolo. And, like, that's where, like, the bottom of the pot saying comes from Persian food,

where they cook the rice in this huge pot and they butter it at the bottom. And then you flip it over. And it's this tower of stuff that has so many layers and this crispy, buttery thing holds the pyramid together so you can slice it like a pie and there's meat and herbs in the middle or noodles. And, like, it's really good. It's good. I love that.

That's usually made with one. Yeah. And you find the bread place. You leave it to the express to do the bread. But I think that's true of all bread. That should be true of all bread. Do you find the bread place? Like during COVID, during lockdown, everyone was like, I've started to make sour dough.

I was like, there's a baker's down there. Yeah. I'm going to go to the guy who makes it. And attainable. Yeah. So attainable. An expert level sourdough is not putting you out. Yeah.

Yes. I'm not going to screw it up time after time when this guy's down the road. But if it's something you wanted to pursue, that's cool. But if it's something you're doing just with like, well, we'll do it homemade. No, let's put the equity somewhere else. Yeah. Let's go to the bread place. Your dream starter. Joan.

I tend to always go with like a tartar. And it could be fish. It could be meat. But I tend to always go with like a tartar. And that's where I'm going to deviate from Persian courses. I tend to go with a tartar mixed with a menu small bite. Like I'll always ask the restaurant. Like, what are you known for?

and I'll try their menu small bite. Like apps-wise, you've got to try this. Some places have crushed with like little sliders. Fried green tomatoes have been in some of my favorite. But every place I go will have a variation of like a tartar. And I enjoy if it's a menu and I'm not, these are the courses we're serving. If I have a choice, I usually go in that direction.

Beef, would you lead towards a beef? So it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I've done salmon, tuna, vegan, beef. Table side. Do you like when they come and do the tartar table side? I do. I love a good table side dish because it is happening right in front of you. There's a great place my home in Tampa, Florida, called Roka, who does a mozzarella tableside.

Oh, nice. It's about 2,000 calories, but it is beautiful. And it's just mozzarella and the most wonderful tomatoes. And it's so simple and beautiful. And the presentation table side is great. I like the pomp and circumstance of the table side. Yeah. Do you think after being a wrestler for so long and now are now doing a family,

and being in Hollywood, can you still sort of see things and immediately calculate the calories in them and work out what you should be eating and what you should. So I count my calories and I don't have an app or anything. My wife was like, how the fuck do you know what is in four ounces of tartar? I'm like, well, it's eggs. They probably use this percent B for whatever. And I started counting calories when I bought my first weight gainer at 12. So I knew like two cups of milk, two scoops of stuff is worth like $2,500.

calories. Then I got too chunk. I'm like, oh, got to pull back on the calories. Like it's, I don't not eat like high caloric stuff. I love high caloric stuff. And when I have a graph that shows like, man, too many days, just bring it back down. Just bring it back down. No more mozzarella for the next week. So if I have it, I'll, I'll earn it. I'll try to earn it by making sure I regulate. Have it and enjoy it. Don't feel guilt. I don't, I don't believe in the concept of a cheat because I want to be accountable for what I eat. It's just I'm, I'm choosing to eat this. Yeah. Not bending the rules to because, you know, I did great this week so I can do whatever I want. No, I'm, I'll have cake. I just had bonafi pie. I love that. That's going to come up later in

the other organization. I enjoy that stuff. Uh, and I'm accountable for it. I know every, because they don't do, they don't do pie cans in the U.S. but like every 12 ounces again, it's 140 calories. Every pint, around 200. Like, if I'm going light beer, I, drinks count too, you know. So a glass of wine, 140, 240 calories. Red or white, it's going to be a little more sweet. Like, I do know that and it doesn't dominate my thoughts. I know some people that will, and I'm guilty of this too,

because I started out really heavy on fitness, go to a restaurant and bring their own stuff. Yeah. Don't. That's a buzzkill. Just don't do that. That's not a good idea. Your dream main course.

Dream main course. I would definitely say steak. And I, this is a meat follow up with a, meat's kind of a faux pa. Well, you could have fish for the star if you wanted to have. And also like the menu wheel of fortune. Like, hey, what are you going to serve me? I mean, we talked about not caring about caloric stuff.

A great rib-eye steak. A great rib-eye steak. It's the king of the steaks. And I'll go in on it. Like, very rarely will I carve the fat off a rib-eye. I will incorporate it into a bite, make it like a 50-50. And I know like there's other forms like the marbling of the wagoo and stuff like that. There's something about a great effort on a medium rare cook on just a big old rib eye steak.

And it's something I can share with my wife. I used to eat it all myself. I come from a family of five boys. Wasn't much of a food sharing person. She's opened my eyes to dining experiences. Also like, hey, let's get something we can both enjoy. So that's something you can slice for the table. everybody can enjoy a little piece of it.

That's like the cornerstone right there. Yeah. I mean, it's nice that you share, and I like to share as well. Not really. That's not true. Let's go. You've got a record many times this podcast saying that you hate sharing your food of people. Don't embarrass me in front of John Ceylam.

You've bonded very well with John. I was out of years. I changed my tune six, seven years ago. Okay. So I got time. You changed a tune this morning, did you? Yeah, I changed my chain this morning. Before I came in, yeah.

Okay. But if I'm making the steak and I'm carving it, and then I might be either laying out the whole thing, but I will make sure that if I see a really good bit, that's coming to me. Of course. Yeah. Yeah.

Chef's treat. This is glory and the choices I don't have to navigate because I don't cook. Yeah. Okay. Is there a place you've had the best ribeye that for your dream meal, you would like that ribeye again? I got to tell you the polo bar in New York City. They have, it's a lot of fun, like, spin the wheel of apps, right?

They have a corned beef sandwich that's a shareable app. That's awesome. Nice. They have pigs in a blanket, which is pretty much hot dogs and mustard. That's fantastic. So they got a lot of different stuff that's like common comfort food done fancy. Their rib-eye steak, man, just crushes. And I mean, I'm from Tampa, home of Burns.

Like, that's an internationally known steakhouse. they do what they do. The stakes, they're going to be great. The wife and I like to go to some specific places at home that specifically do steak, meet market in Tampa. If you're ever in Hyde Park, if you ever get to the states, you got to go see that place.

It's great. But the steak at the polo bar and the rib-eye steak specifically is like, I've been in a great steak houses out here. Goodness, like travels have taken me to the Middle East to, to, Morocco where we shot for the movie to Hungary, which is a bastion of fine dining. The wife and I just went on a food trip to Copenhagen.

There's some great stuff out there. That rib-eye at the polo bar, man, I can't order anything else. I can't. And they have such a great menu. They do a different burger every night when you're in there. And the regular burger on the menu is fantastic. All their fish is so good. I can't not order the ribai.

I feel like you and Ed bonded a lot at the start of this podcast. because of Ed's wrestling wife. I'm going to try and bond with you now. You ready? This is a bid for connection. Here we go. By the way, James, just in future, when you try and bond with people,

it's best not to announce you're going to bond with them. That's okay. I'm bidding for connection. Let's go. I think you've put a small wall up. You and I have worked with the same director. No kidding. K-Kannon.

Oh, my goodness. That's a great bid for connection. Yeah, that's really good. I hope to come back and sit down and talk about another menu when we do one attempt remaining for Netflix that's going to come up in the future. That's a K-Kannon film. Oh, great.

Me and Jen Garner. She did blockers, and that was her, I might have been her debut as a full... And it's an amazing film. Director, thank you so much. It's so funny. We have a great working relationship together. I truly care a lot, so much about Kay. Our relationship is far beyond professional courtesy.

We talk about good stuff, and there's a lot of growth there. And, man, she's so funny. She does not lack energy or punchlines. And gosh, I like being on set with her. She really cares about what she's doing. She's super prepared. She takes advice. Like, man, it's good to see her work.

And I was gracious enough to be able to run it back with her. For the first, well, for all my time working with K on set, I didn't know what her whole face looked like because it was during COVID. Yeah, yeah. What a tough time. I had no idea until we did the ADR over Zoom and then I could see her face properly. Did you know if it's a good Googler? No, I don't like it to be a surprise.

Did it fit the bill? Or did you have an image in your head of what she looked like and it was different? I assumed that under the mask, it was going to be another mask. So it was crazy to me. Nice. It's a very mouth and a red nose and everything. Yeah. Another door.

Another door. I thought it was going to be that. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I played John the mouse. James was a mouse. John the mouse in Cinderella.

Right on. Yeah. I replaced John Mullaney at the last minute. so my character's name stayed the same. John. Yeah. It's got a good ring to it. It's pretty cool.

You're a great mouse, man. Thank you, mate. Yeah, and I think that bonding went really well. I do. We bonded? We did. Here's another question for you. Sure.

As a rest of turn... What's my biggest fear? I'm getting... As a rest of turned, what you say to people who think that acting is fake. I think that's a good assessment of what we do. Yeah.

Yeah. I was quite proud of that. I thought of it on the way here. That is good. Yeah. Good. I will say, I've been answering questions for a long time. I've never been asked that question. I hope people haven't asked that. Yeah, yeah. You've probably been asked this one before. In terms of going from wrestling to acting, the wrestling version of performance seems to have loads of different layers to it in terms of you're performing for the back row of wherever you're wrestling, but also like actual close-up cameras as well. So my thought process was to never worry about the cameras.

And I know that that kind of goes against some of the teachings that are going on now. I always took, and we talked about the audience for the O2, I always take the audience as part of the act. And if I'm trying to talk to somebody at home and these people who have paid money are seeing that I'm talking to somebody at home. Now I'm also infamous for looking in the camera because I do want to connect with that person. but if I work my whole performance to a camera with a crowd in the background, I'm not bidding for connection. I'm shutting them out. I always wanted to just make it look.

If you were flipping channels and there's an arena full of people going apeshit, no, I'll check this out. I'll see what this is about. So you bring up a good point of like, where's the line? And I know a lot of the teaching nowadays is like focus on your audience at home because they're your largest audience. My philosophy is if the largest audience is like, what's this about? They want to see chaos.

They don't want to see people go get hot dogs. Yeah. So I would really stress, WW is adding more cameras every day. Somebody's going to catch it. Somebody's going to catch it. And if you're working at a smaller place, it only maybe has one camera, my thing is to get another opportunity, you want to make people like or hate you. And that's in the building.

And if the people watching at home on like local access or streaming, if they see people hate you, they'll stick, even though you might not be on the one camera. So I would think it's way more, way more grandiose and way more involved. It can also be super intimate too. I remember in some of the make-a-wish experiences, I would talk and get tips from kids. Like, hey, you want to see anything out there tonight or what do you think is going to help me win this thing? and I would know the curation of the evening. They'd be like, I think if you do this right at this time, then you'll have an opportunity to hit him with the attitude adjustment and you can win.

Like, I never thought of that. And I would work it in and I would literally find out where they were seating and be like, hit the AA and right before I go for the cover. Thank you. And then hook for a three where it's like an intimate moment and then back to the show. Yeah. So you can have moments here. I just don't think you should play the whole thing here.

I don't think you should worry about the nuance. That's the thing with making a movie. There's no crowd. So all I'm left with is this. And you can't do this. If we're doing close, I got to do off. Those are the toughest things. Looking into your eyes, you can evoke emotion out of me.

Looking at that brown spot on the camera and being like, man, that brown spot just did some real nefarious stuff to you. There's up some trauma you've had. That's why I love watching pros. Your dream side dish, John. Sides. Love me the veggies. I also think people are doing such creative stuff with vegetables.

It's not just steamed, boiled, like they're not flavorless pieces of fiber. People are having so much fun with broccoli and brussel sprouts and cauliflower and seasonal stuff. Man, there's like a whole pea season over here. I went to find out here like everything was pea-based. Yeah, yeah. I know, like, it's amazing to see what you can do with your local produce and how you can incorporate in dishes. So I would say I'm looking at the green sides and leaning into that. That would be the accoutrema for the steak.

And my crew likes fries. So I got to order some chips. I got to know the room. I got to order my crew some chips. You got a crew. Well, like I said, I have the courage to eat alone. But I would prefer if I'm going out, especially for dinner, to be amongst friends. So if your dream meal, who's the crew, who's coming with you?

There's, I would say there's eight to ten people in that circle. Wow. I like to say we do not protect the word love, but we don't waste it either. That's quite powerful. Yeah. We openly share our feelings, but it's not ad nauseum. Everybody knows where they're at. There's so many phrases that you said today, John, that I'm going to take into my life.

And I think we can share our feelings, but not ad nauseum, is definitely one of them. Right on. We got a takeaway. So we got some chips and we got some veggie. Do you know what veggies you'd like with a rabbi steak? I would definitely go for brocolini and most places will put some heat on it, like some chili flakes. I would go for a sauteed spinach. Some places will throw mushrooms in there or like a garlic chop and like kind of wilt yet heat the spinach outside of the saute to give it a little burn on it.

Definitely burnt cauliflower. I love like true places will say it's grilled cauliflower and it'll come out without burn marks on it. Love the burnt cauliflower. Yeah, I think that's, that's kind of where I'm at. Mushrooms. Whenever I go to, Brussels sprouts too. Whenever I go to the States, I'm like, still, the States are doing crazy things with sprouts. Russell sprouts, too.

Yes. Yeah. That can get, that can get away from you calorie-wise, because a lot of places do, like, thick cut bacon inside the sprouts, but like the glaze on the sprouts. And they are like little heads of lettuce, but it's like fire roasted little heads of lettuce. They're crunchy, they're crispy. Sometimes they serve the purpose of a good fry, like when they do the deep fry them. Yeah. Man, it's, they're good.

They're very good. That makes the list as well. Sometimes actors say that like, you know, there's certain characters they play that are quite similar to themselves. Of all the characters you played, which one would be enjoying this meal the most right now? My goodness, I would probably say I got to play the president of the United States for heads of state. And he was a whiskey drink and actor turned politician. You know, I think you would enjoy that. Dream drink. Would you enjoy this dream drink of yours that you got in there? So this is a flight.

I would start out with an espresso martini. That is always the open. You got to go downers and uppers and have them crash. That's the funny. Then I would follow it with wine. We usually dive into reds and not. I used to like super bold reds. I'm getting old.

It's a palis, a little softer. So we're taking it back a little bit. Like a Bordeaux or Burgundy or even Chateau Niftipop. Like something that's a little bit not as strong out of the gate, you know. And the great thing about wine is there's so many out there. So I'm constantly learning about it. this is this is kind of what I like this is right in that lane yeah uh then possibly after dinner if you're going with the single malt i would love something like that like i love the smoke

so anything from like la Gavulin frog um ardbag beg um i'm trying to remember the guys who do peep monster there's it there's a bunch of them out there that bring the smoke and i love when you can smell it coming to the table oh wow yeah i was like your drinks here yes it is and then of course you got to do the nightcap and i'm just shoehorn in because of my love of coffee, flat white. That's normally a breakfast drink from me. But I got to get it on the program because I love a great flat white. I've heard this about you that you're a big coffee nut.

You love coffee. So it's weird. I would say I'm as much of a coffee nut as I am a wine nut. You get a real wine expert here. And I will be like, I don't understand a word. And if you get a real roaster, a real breester here, they'll be like spitting out words, I don't understand. Whenever I go to a great place that has a variety of roast, I was at the house choose. Yeah.

Because I want to let the artist have control. I think that's a smart thing to do because I was like, I'm going to get into wine. I decided I was going to get into wine. And then you realize there's, what, 100,000 great varieties? And then there's no way of knowing wine. It's a cool exercise in asking for help too. Yeah. Like, hey, man, can you guide me?

I kind of, I had this before. I kind of like it. What do you like? And you can, like, put them under a press. What do you like to taste like this? But I only have this to spend. and that like, Psalms don't fold.

Yeah. They like to have their goalposts, and they always give recommendations that they feel strongly about. You know, so, and I think the same is with coffee. I love that, that get up in the morning, and I'm just shoehorning in. I don't know if I'd do it at the end of the night, but I love that, like, two shots of espresso,

five ounces of steamed milk, a little bit of art on the coffee, served in a nice porcelain mug, maybe with a saucer, I don't know. You can have a saucer, come on. Dream meal, we'll get you a saucer. I like it. My tour manager used to work for quite a big coffee chain,

and her job was to go around the world and source the beans. And now she's like tour managing for a lot of comedians. And all of her friends are tour managers for bands and stuff. They all share this map where if they find a good coffee place, they put it on the map, which I've now got access to. And it's changed my life. I got the same map. Yeah, yeah.

I don't have that map. I have my coffee crew who we do that. You got it? This one's called Wanky Coffee. Nice. I don't know if yours would be called that. We do not have a name for our group. You guys have cornered the market on Wanky Coffee.

You can maybe go with Wanky Coffee too. Wanky coffee also. Yeah. Even also a wanky coffee. Wankier coffee, yeah. More wank in this coffee? We'll workshop it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So do you have places in London that you go to that you know it's really good places man um i love the restaurant hide here and they got a small breakfast place called hideaway uh me and the wife dig to walk in hide park there's a small place in one of the back alleys i want to keep it private that way i can keep it private i just went to a place called shot which is like a true beanery and they have like a 32 pound flat white that is an expensive beverage so much so that i went in there and i'm like i'm can i just have the six six pound one Like, what the fuck? It can't be worth it, can it?

So you never know, right? What I found in my journeys through all that is I don't have the depth of field to tell. There's that level of expert, right, who can tell. That's not me. Essentially, you're wasting it on me. I fall right in the, like, the middle of, if the work is good and you're confident about the beans, somewhere in the middle is where I should be. That's how I choose wine and all the stuff that has levels of expertise

and a price tag association with it. I know never go to top floor. Yeah. You know, and unless you get a true inside baseball tip, probably not the basement either. Yeah. You know,

try to get somewhere healthy in the middle because there are a lot of folks out there doing stuff. Man, I saw that and I was like, what must that be like? And I punted. I didn't go for it, but I got like a,

a six or seven pound flat weight. And it was incredible. So now I'm kind of curious. I got to keep going. They do have like the, they rope you in with incentives. There's like a 10 pound, 12, 15, 18, 20, and then it's like scotch.

That's another thing because I talked about single mall. Like loggible in 16 is my favorite. You don't have to have something that's been in a barrel for 40 years. Somebody's going to ask you for a mortgage payment to have an ounce and a half of. goodness, I can't tell the difference. That bottle of 16, man. If I want to spring, I'll go Distillers Edition, which is great drink.

It's just maybe 1.5 times the bottle. So you're still not going to the stratosphere. And it supplies me with what I need. Yes. I went big on a flat white in London where it was like about that price. Someone had told me like it is worth it you should go. And it was like a liquid night.

It's notrogen involved and all this kind of stuff. And it said the notes on it. So I thought, I'll get that one. And I walked away and it was delicious. But what I thought was it tastes like a neapolitan ice cream. And I thought that means I'm probably not drinking it right. And I did spend too much on this. If I'm walking away going, it tastes like a lovely ice cream, then I'm probably...

To me, it feels like if you're spending that amount on a shot of espresso, it feels like putting milk in it's wrong. Yeah, sure. I mean, well played. Well played. And a lot of the coffee folks I talk to always want me to have like drip pour coffee. Yeah. Because then you can really taste the aroma. I'm like, dude, I'm not here for drip coffee.

Drip coffees have been drinking that stuff in America. Huge coffees are just watered down coffee. I get it. It smells like peach. That's fine. That's great. I want the strong stuff. Yeah.

I want to be able to take that glass and milk it for. 45 minutes. This is where I'm living, you know, but a lot of the drip stuff is where you can taste the notes. I will say it is a cool discovery when someone says like, here, try a little bit of this. You'll taste saffron in this. And I've never been exposed to that before. We had an experience with coffee where it was saffron coffee. And because I now have a little bit of fluency there, I was like, man, this is, I taste it. There is that discovery of like, it's in there. Yeah. More with coffee than with wine as well. When people say, me, these are the notes in the wine. I don't really pick them up. But with coffee.

Rusty bolts. Yeah, sure. An old leather sock. Tennis balls is a genuine note of people. Yeah, yeah. Yes. Yeah. And I talked to a winemaker once and I was like, why, why that? Like, why do you guys do that? And he's like, do you have a memory of a smell from a kid? Before I could even, he hooked me before I'm, yeah, when my dad used to cut the grass with his lawnmower, fresh cut grass in New England and August. He's like, yeah. So if you, he's, he's, yeah. So if you, he hooked me, he hooked me, he's had a glass of wine and you had that and you smelled it you wouldn't just tell me fresh cut grass yeah and say fresh cut grass in august i'm like yeah i get it yeah it's the the people doing this

have been around so much scent and earthy scent all of their life they're working in rhinaries with rusty bolts a lot of times old leather stuff so all of that earth and all those their descriptors are they've just been around it their whole life and when somebody was like oh yeah I understand it. I just don't have the depth of feel to make the connection yet. Dream dessert. Benafi pie. We knew where this was going.

Good night. Benafi pie. God save the queen. God save the king. Thank you, Union Jack. This is the best dessert in the world for me. I'm a New England kid who grew up on ice cream. I love me some cookies.

Bonafi pie. Man, it is the best dessert I've ever had. Do you remember the first time you had Benoffie? I do. Backstage, WWE. And when we used to tour, the UK and Europe, catering would be sustenance, but they're also feeding the grips,

the stage hands, the lighting guys, the sound guys, the TV techs, the wrestlers, which they take up a bulk of the nutrition, they got to feed a lot of people. So we're cooking en masse and we're not exactly like, it's not a fine dining experience. And the catering crew would always put out

sheets, like big bowl sheets of Benafi pie. And we used to do tours over here for like 21 days. And you'd only get Benafi in London or Manchester. So we do like Nottingham and then jump to Paris and then do Leon and then do like some of the, some of the tents and like Blackpool, some of the seaside town. Wow. And then we would be looking at London. Not for the show. Granted, the O2 would be packed like 19,000 people for the Bonap.

So I think it was like that one sweet treat I knew I was going to get, and it never, it always delivered. And then I would go back to the States and tell people about like, there's this thing over there. And it's like crust and goo and bananas in it and it's clotted cream with chocolate on top. It's a bonafie pie. It's a banana toffee pie. Do you know anybody that makes us? No. I didn't realize it wasn't a thing in the States. Dude, what a shit. This is why you're going to have a big Vestomania.

Yeah, here's the best thing in the world. As far as a dessert. Wow, this is. See you next year. It's interesting. We had a guest on Sanjeef Baskar, who's like, this is a national treasure here, comic actor. And he was, he chose Bonofi Pie and wanted it from, like,

he was telling the story about this catering crew who did it on a TV show he was, he was made. So it might be that catering Bonofi Pie. We've had it before. They know they got that ace in their backpack. Yeah. A TV show we've both done, and James did it a couple of series before me, but said, when you're filming it, one day will be Bonofi Pie Day, and that's going to be the best day. It's the best day. Yeah, it's a day that could tear you apart with Perraise. Would you like the catering Bonofi pie? That, from those guys.

Because, you know, that is definitely like my nostalgia. That's my pinpoint. Since then, I've tried various levels of Bonafi and found a cool, a few cool spots that do it international. there's one in LA that knocks it out of the park there's one in Tampa that tried it they missed I can get it in Atlanta Atlanta doesn't one you can definitely get it in New York I got it man they got me a great one in DC for my last match and like I'm pretty janky on gifts I mean I realize how lucky I am in life and I've been awarded so much I don't want anyone to spend their resources on anything I got it but dude when they drop that in the locker room, especially after the match. I was like, everybody away from the fucking pie.

This is mine. Taking it. They got this for me. This is retirement. That's mine. I'm trying to pee around the pie. It is delicious. Did you do the whole pie in one setting?

I have, it is, I've learned to share with my wife. So we got into the locker room. I'm still covered in post-match. Yeah. In the jorts. My shoes are left in the ring, so I'm in my socks. And we split that pie and crushed it. So this has actually added a whole new perspective for me about your last match.

Because obviously, what an amazing final match. And you smiled before you tapped out. I thought it was a beautiful moment. But now I know you're smiling because you're thinking about the Bonofi pie. My goodness, we get had. We're going in. I made it. I'm in one piece.

I still have my taste buds. Let's go. Yeah. And that's an exclusive for the often. Maniopont. That's huge. Yes. Yes, the normal post-match ritual is a few cold ones in reflection.

And I got to tell you, Coors Light mixes with Bonafi fine. Oh, yeah? It was great. American light water beer mixes with Benafi just fine. And you're having no ice cream with this Benofi pie. It's just the pie. The pie itself is just a show stop. Like anything added is truly a hat and a hat.

Some of the stuff, I just tried a naval cake for the first time this morning. That needs like a British Nabil cake. cake. So it's like a kind of like a stout ganache with bits, crispy bits and fluffy bakery bits in it in almost like the checkerboard or that's the way it was served. Uh, chocolate dust on top and it was served with a scoop of Alamode and you do need it. Sticky toffee pudding, you gotta have ice cream. Yeah, yeah. That, that they compliment each other well. The cream in Binafi is the, like that's the hero. That's the ice cream hero. You don't need anything else on it.

It's got everything. And just checking in at the end of the episode, how's your salmonella doing? After having talked about food for this long. So I got to tell you, it comes in waves. And sitting here, like, once you shut the door, I'm like, there's no way I'll make it. I see it's a soundproof room, so there's a door and another door.

Yeah. So I'm fucked either way. It's actually two, yeah, it's one door, two more doors. Yeah, you're done. Yeah. So I'm either going to not shit myself or shit myself. Yeah. And right now, your chair is safe.

But there have been waiting. of like, oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, that'll be fun for anyone who's watching the episode on YouTube to try to pinpoint the moments where he was like, oh, he is not thinking about food at all. He's just thinking about keeping the exit door closed

and making sure nothing ruins the chair. Yeah. It would be an honor if you, yeah, we would be honored if you had Shaq yourself. Hey, man, it's what the body does. And sometimes he's got to lean into it, but I'm glad I could not ruin any equipment as well as the smell of the studio would be changed forever.

There's wrestlers who've done that, right, during matches. I've done that. Oh, yeah? Yeah, I've done that. When I was still wearing boots and tights, and I would wear like a different set of boots and tights every city I went to, gosh, this was 20, 21 years ago. We had an event up in Moncton, Canada, and I was wrestling Scott Steiner and Bull Buchanan was with me for some reason. Like I had someone who could step in and save the day.

The tights that I chose were like black with orange in the middle. and I had food poisoning. And I was of this old school thought of like, rub some dirt on it and get back out there. And keep in mind, we get paid by performance. You want to do, you want to make the town because that's money in your pocket. I'm still young in the business.

I want to get out in front of this crowd. So I kind of not, I don't tell anybody that I'm not feeling too well. And I have legit food poisoning. And I go out there and we start messing around in the first suplex he gave me. I full on shit myself. And not only did I do that,

I shit myself so you can see like the, you can see it. Yeah, it's clear. And then like it's smell of vision for the first few rows. There's always a WWE live event representative sitting ringside. Yeah. Communicating case of emergency, boy, was there an emergency.

So I roll out. I get on my hands as this brown pool of liquid is just making these shorts unusable. And I'm like, where do I throw up? And he's like, what? Like, I am going to throw up. He's like, under the ring. So in the match, I crawled under the ring. I applaud Scott and Bull.

They bull jumped in. They got a little match. I puked for what felt like months. And I don't know how much the human body can hold, but I know how much mine can because I saw it all. And a lot of it had come out the other end anyway. Yes. I couldn't believe it. Like, wow, this is impressive.

And then I ran right back into the match just in time for Scott Sondner. Like, I'm going to give you my finish. I got beat. Boy, did I fucking sprint out of there. Needless to say, it was not on the next show. I mean, well done. I just Scott Stade of actually create a carry-on wrestling you. So I took that, like, one bump and lost.

Yeah. And he might have covered me with his, like, foot on me. Yeah, yeah. Which is okay. Man, the refs had it tough that night. Big up. to my partner in crime, Bo Buchanan for saving the day.

I learned to always, it's okay. If you're not feeling chipper, leave it to somebody who, that's their decision to make. And then they tell you what's going on. Have you ever had that on a film as well, been under the weather?

And when you watch the film, you're like, that's the day, but I wasn't feeling great. So many times, many times. And like, that's the nuance of the profession. You've got to compartmentalize that. Jackie Chan,

who I admire and respect, and I think he's one of the greatest physical storytellers of our generation. I got to do a film with him and watching him work is spectacular. The hours are long. It was in China and the days are long. And he knows one to pull back, but he's always keeping himself busy. And he is like this energizer bunny. And I kind of tried to poke him for information.

He's like, what am I going to do? Go to every theater and tell these people that I was tired that day. They're there to watch. This is what we do. And that is a, that is a very tough, hard-nosed lane, but you can never see it. He found a way to check it at the door. And when they said action, the character he needed to play was on screen. And I've, I've climbed those hills.

A lot of my partners, castmates have climbed those hills. We all know when you get a certain level in the move business. We all know what a day of production costs. You want to just keep doing it. You know, if I don't want to lose this luck because I held up production, You know, so you want to press forward. You want to press on. I'm literally here with Salmonella.

I'm running a fever. My joints feel like rust. Like my body feels like shit. Literally things are coming out of me. Then I'm like, how is I had that like two weeks ago? And it's in liquid form. What's going on? So like, but this is, this is why we do.

We do. And not all things just because they're rewarding should be easy. And we talked this morning about like, Hey, you want to punt on this stuff? And I'm like, no, I think I can do it. And if I need to pull the trigger, I hope people will understand. But I'm also going to speak honestly. Now I'm speaking to your audience and they know I'm sick.

And that's a courageous choice because we want to look perfect for you guys. We want to look like I'm trying to sell you this movie. And I want you to be a, you know, have a sense of gravity of what I'm saying. So it's a brave choice to come on. It's also a brave choice to speak honestly with you guys. And now if I bolted out of there, you'd have a good laugh. Because you know exactly what I was. going to do, but in seeing all those doors, I would

not make it. It would be a scene in bridesmaids where she's just shitting in a street. Yeah. Well, John, we will let you run now and get through all these doors. I'm just going to take a look at what you guys got for a restroom. Just see what it's about. Yeah, it's okay. We've got a choice of two.

It will not be okay in 20 minutes. I'd take, so when you go in there's two, I'd take the one on the right because I prefer the one on the left. So I'd rather... Okay, great. I'd rather you just do what you have to. I'm my right guy. and that's my day ruined. Enjoy the modern art.

Thank you so much. John, I'm going to read your menu back to you now, see how you feel about it. Sounds good. You would like bottled still water. You want taftoon bread. You would like tartar, whatever tartar the restaurant has.

You would like a ribby steak, medium rare from the polo bar in New York City. Brocolini with chili flakes, saut, spinach, mushrooms, garlic, burnt cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, fries for the crew. You would like espresso martini, red wine, bordeaux, burgundy, Lagerville in 16, though, you love that.

And a flat white and dessert. Of course, it's a Bonofi Pie. That's a great menu. That's a really good menu. That sounds really good. I'm there for every single menu. We appreciate it a lot. Thanks for having me on, guys.

Hey, thanks for coming on. Wish you all the best with this film. Thank you guys. Watch Matchbox. I have gone through some shit today. For real. He deserves it. Watch. No, oddly enough, I want to end the interview with this.

I have eliminated that word for my vocabulary. He doesn't deserve anything. That's right. And that's the way I feel. What do we really deserve, right? There are folks that are, I mean, people are up against a lot of stuff. What do we really deserve? I'd like to say that hopefully by sharing my story with you, I have earned it. And I have earned your trust. And I hope you watch Matchbox on Apple TV when it comes out. I hope you enjoy it because I am putting all my holes into it. My heart and holes, my heart and soul. That was what I meant.

A heart and soul. Hard and holes into it. Yeah. John, thank you so much for putting all your holes into this into it. Fantastic to talk to you. Thank you, John. And good luck to the misses me. Absolutely. I'll pass it on round. Wow.

I'm so happy we did that, chat, man. What a pro. What a guy. I feel like he engaged with us very well, but I feel like if we hadn't said anything, he would have delivered a fantastic episode anyway. Absolutely. And do you want to see a little impression?

I'm going to do an impression for you of me with Sam Manila on the morning that I've got a podcast. Yeah. Okay. You'd be my PR. Okay. Just ring me up. I'm not doing it.

I would do an impression of me in the similar situation, but it would be the same as yours. Yeah, sure. You wouldn't even, you'd text it. I'd text it, yeah. You wouldn't even pick up the phone. I'd just send a picture of the toilet, I think. Yeah, not doing it. Yeah.

Have a look at that. You think I'm coming in? Thank you so much, John. Watch Matchbox a Movie on Apple TV, Now it's a hell a lot of fun. Hell a lot of fun. And he didn't say matchmakers, of course. Thank you, John.

But if you had, we would have done nothing. We would have done absolutely nothing. We would have asked Benito to let us change the secret ingredient and re-record that beginning bit. So we're cowards. Also, we've received some goodies recently. From the nice people at Rapscallion soda. Thank you to them.

I mean, they're very nice botanical sodas. Going down very well in the office, Benito tells me. Oh, yeah. Every time I see Benito's crew, they've got a can of rap scallion in there. Yeah, they're a bunch of rap scallion. They are actually. We call them that. We complain about them every single, every AGM.

Yeah. Look, if you're listening to this, do watch it on the YouTube because you missed that on a lot if you're not watching it. Like, I'm pretty sure I'm just making Google. I was at John Cena for the whole thing. You absolutely are. And while you're on YouTube, subscribe to at Craig Simon's Live. It's really good content. Some really good content.

That guy's a little weird, but I think there's a little weird, but I think there's some good stuff coming out. Come and see me on tour next year, fresh hell, Ed Gamble.combeau.com. For tickets. And very quickly before we go, I just want to tell you about a joke James did that I really enjoyed while we were waiting for John Cena to arrive.

Benito was on the phone outside, and he was speaking to someone on John Sena's team and said, where are you? I can't see you. And James said, I'd imagine he's talking directly to John Cena there. Really happy with that. Yeah. Really happy with it.

Kind of gutted it wasn't going to be on the pod. Yeah. But he's, look, John Cena has heard all of these jokes. jokes before. Yes. This is why we're saving these for after. Yeah, didn't want to bombard him with them. I was pretty hesitant to say my little, you know, acting being fake joke. I thought maybe he's heard that. That's good man. That's good. When he said he hadn't heard it before. That was good. Because you can't be like, hey, John, here's my joke about you can't see me. Yes. Or like, you know, attitude adjustment. Yeah. Or any of that, or the FU.

It was previously known. That's like someone in an interview with you being like, what about cabbage? I mean, that's all that happens every time again. They say, you've been cabbaged recently. Hey, James, started making it how to break down Bonapetit. No question. At the end of that, they just look at me, want me to talk about that. And I guess nowadays it's going to be how you're doing, your fucking traitor. Thanks very much for watching and listening.

We'll see you next time. Remember, share your feelings, but not ad nauseum. Take care of yourselves. But not ad nauseum. I've heard. Thank you.