Shaun Newman Podcast - #266 - AJ Galante

Episode Date: May 17, 2022

At 17 years old he was the President & GM of the Dandbury Trashers. He hops on to discuss the upcoming Ice Wars event at the @rivercreeresort - "Prize fighting on ice" where they are combining the Trashers "bad boys of hockey" with the production style of the WWE.⁠ ⁠Let me know what you think⁠ Text me 587-217-8500⁠ ⁠Support here:⁠ https://www.patreon.com/ShaunNewmanPodcast⁠

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Hey, everybody. My name is Steele-Fer. This is Tim McAuliffe of Sportsnet, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Tuesday. Yeah, you heard that right. Tuesday. And we got Battle of Alberta firing up tomorrow night.

man I'm excited I left off Sunday night not knowing if the flames are going to pull it out and we took it to overtime and Ottinger played out of his bloody mind but the flames got it done which means we get the Battle of the Alberta for the first time in 30 plus years I am excited let's just leave it there now this is a bonus episode we're going to be back on Wednesday and Friday ice war is happening this weekend I thought it prudent to get this out as soon as possible so just shut out to all the sponsors continue to make this what it is. And that's Borgo Tools, Prophet River, Michko Spring, Windsor Plywood, Deer and Steer, Agland, 3Trees, Upstream Data, RecTech, HSI Group, of course, Gartner Management. And of course, let's get on to, and of course, and of course. And let's get on to our Ram Truck Rundown, brought to you by auto clearing Jeep and Ram the Prairie's trusted source for Chrysler, Dodge Jeep, Ram, Fiat, and all things automotive for over 110 years.

At 17 years old, he was the preempty's. president and GM of the Danbury Trashers of the now defunct U.HL, owner of the champs boxing club and professional boxing manager and the president and founder of Ice Wars. Talking about A.J. Galante. So buckle up. Here we go. Hey, everyone. This is A.J. Galante. And you are listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Today, I'm joined by Mr. A.J. Galante. So first off, sir, thanks for hopping on. Thank you, Sean. Thanks for having me, buddy. Now, I know everybody knows the Danbury Trasher.

Certainly in the hockey world, tons of people know the documentary from Netflix. But let's say they don't know who Danbury is. They haven't watched the documentary. Who is A.J. Galante. Let's start there so they can get a feel for who is on the other end of this. Oh, well, AJ Galante, me, I'm just, I was a 17-year-old president of a minor league hockey. team back in 2004 to 2006. My father started a team here in Danbury, Connecticut. Danbury, Connecticut is probably an hour north of New York City. So we're pretty, we're in the New York metro area,

but we are in Connecticut. And yeah, my father, you know, who never had experience with owning a hockey team, decided to start a hockey team, and then decided to put a 17-year-old somewhat in charge of that hockey team. So I don't think it takes any brain surgeon to know we created some madness and some history there. And 18 years later, 16 years after we lost the team, here we are. Well, I think that's going about it a little lightly because there's a whole lot more to it, which I understand, take a long time to dig through, sift through. But you guys were, I think it's a term you use quite often. but to the hockey fan, you were the Broad Street bullies. I mean, you had some of the toughest hombres suit up for the trashers and just beat the living tar at anyone who walked through the door.

You know, I think we're the same age. You're born in 86, weren't you? Yeah, that's correct. I'll be 36 years old in a few months, yeah. So I just turned 36 here in May. So like, A, I can't imagine running a full on pro hockey team at 17. That is absolutely absurd. But when you watch it, like, I mean, from what I could tell, I don't know what the ins and outs of what your role, everything was.

But I go, like, to put that on any kid, I'm like, wow, I feel like you did have decent. You guys made the finals their first year. Like, but you guys were, you guys were tough, man. Like, you had some absolute mean hombres on that team. That was a year of the lockout too, right? So, like, you get a couple of NHL. well, NHL superstars to come play as well. Yeah, I mean, it's, it was so crazy because, you know, where we live here in Danbury,

it kind of is now, but at the time, it wasn't really a hockey hotbed. You know what I mean? It wasn't like at the time in the late 90s, early 2000s, you know, we weren't like a huge hockey town. So to start a team here, I guess from a quote-unquote businessman, if you were thinking like a true businessman, if you were thinking like a true businessman, It probably didn't make a lot of sense. But the way we wanted to market and structure this team, like you said,

was really just create a team of bad boys. You know, we dubbed ourselves the bad boys of hockey. And, you know, when people heard that coming from a 17-year-old kid, we're going to be this, we're going to do this, we're going to do that. It definitely rub people the wrong way. So if a 17-year-old kid came to you, AJ, today and talk the way, You'd be like, what is this kid doing? There's no way.

There's no way that this is going to fly. One million percent. And, you know, even at that age, I knew. I said, you know what? I'm going to get a lot of flack from people for, you know, having this opportunity at such in a young age. I'm going to get flack anyway. So I might as well have fun with it, right?

So I'm like, you know what? If I'm going to get flack anyway, we might as well go all out. And yeah, my dad and I, we created the bad boys. And, yeah, I mean, people just. Man, unless you were with us and our fans, they hated us. And you know what? They slowly learned to love to hate us because we became a team where a lot of fans wish we were running their team. You know what I mean?

We definitely brought a lot of excitement and we were winning on top of it. So it was, you know, and like you said, our first year was the NHL lockout year. I mean, we had guys like Mike Rupp play, Stephen Pete, who was a tough guy with the Washington Capitals at the the time. You know, we made a run at Georgia's Lurack and Donald Brashear. It didn't work out, but that would have been something. But yeah, we went for it, man. And, you know, like I said before, here we are. It's crazy. Yeah, as a hockey player, hockey in general, the intimidation, it's actually like the NFL playoffs, it's still there. Like, I don't know if you're watching the NHL playoffs. But as of last night, the Calgary Flames winning here in here in Alberta, we get the

Battle of Alberta back for like the first time in 30 some years. Like that's exciting. And there used to be bullying back in like when I was a kid. That was the type of hockey that got played, especially in the playoffs, right? You had your skill, you had your Grexki, but you also had your McSorley and Samanko and I can go down the list of the old oilers that used to just, that's what was. And as time went on, I don't know what your thoughts are on this. But I feel like, you know, McDavid, nobody wants them to get touched. They want them to score five goals a night or whatever it is. And they want it to be maybe similar to the NBA, where stars get to be stars and they kind of lose the gruesome factor.

Yeah. There's a ton of hockey fans that still love to see a good scrap. I haven't seen a building where as soon as a fight breaks out, nobody stands up and goes, oh man, here we go. Like George Lurrock played a lot of years in Eminton. Well, listen, you know, I try to explain to people. You know, again, where I grew up wasn't a hockey hotbed. We didn't even have an ice rink here when I grew up in the early, you know, late 80s, early 90s.

And what attracted me to the game itself was the physicality. I'm a New Jersey devil fan because that was the first game I ever went to as like, I think I was seven or eight years old. I went to a devil's game and I saw Scott Stevens lay someone out. And from that point on, I was like, wow, this is it. This is what I want to do. This is what I love. And you know what, man?

I mean, that's, I don't know. You know what? You know, when we lost the hockey, when we lost the trashers in 06, I kind of, I stopped watching hockey altogether. I really didn't start picking it up again until about a year or so ago. When I started watching again, it's kind of like a guy coming out of prison after 20 years. So much is different. You know, it's like, it's like you're looking around and it's such a fast game now. Like you said, and I'm out there looking for like, you know, I'm scouring

the internet, seeing who the tough guys are and trying to do the old school fantasy or who could fight tonight. And it's just not there anymore. It's definitely different. And I tell people, different isn't necessarily better or worse. It's just different. It's different from when we grew up. And, but I will say, I think it's a mistake because, first of all, in any business, if you have something that separates you from some other businesses, your competition, other sports, I say you have to celebrate and highlight that. That's what, I mean, you know, like you said, to try to make it like the NBA, the difference is these hockey guys, okay?

And I grew up in that culture for the most part. Hockey guys are taught to not really have a personality. They're supposed to score, put their head down, act like the, They've been there before, and that's it. You know, the NBA, it's different. These guys are characters, they have personality. Hockey guys are humble. They're not brought up to, you know, I would love to see crazy celebrations and jumping

into the stands, you know, that's stuff that makes me tick. But I don't think you can market this game around just skill itself. You have to have a little edge. And, you know, but what do I know? It's just, I just think it's one of those things where it's, it's, it's, It's been part of hockey lyr forever. And I don't think it's something that it should be kind of swept under the rug. It should be celebrated in a way.

Yeah, it's kind of a product of the times, right? Injuries, everything like that that come from the fights and everything else. They want to make sure player safety, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And, you know, if you go back to, man, the late 90s, when the Avalanche were playing the Red wings. And there was like a brawl every game. You can tell hockey brass wanted to kind of clean that up. That's not what they wanted the playoffs to be. But even today, like, well, I shouldn't say that. McDavid was unbelievable in game seven. But the playoffs had become a place where your third and fourth liners earn their paycheck, right? Like they find, because the stars are keyed in on so much,

right? Everybody knows if you can shut down and I'll stick with the oilers, McDavid. that's where your bottom lines have to have to do something um but you know going back to what you're creating here in emminton i'm wow uh at the river cree for your first events i shouldn't say just emminton this ice war's idea uh i remember when it was a thing i swear it was like a decade ago uh under certainly a different name uh let's let's hear the story on this right because i go i don't know the ufc is at it's maybe not the pinnacle but close to right now. And there's a lot of gamesmanship that goes into what the UFC does. No different than boxing a while back. Boxing, I feel like is kind of, you're in the boxing world now as a promoter.

Maybe you can shed some light on this. I feel like if there was just one belt for each division, maybe it would be where it needs to be, but it's kind of all over the map because even as a layman, I just go like, what championship am I watcher? But what are you trying to create here with Ice Wars? And maybe it gets just a little bit of the backstory. Yeah, I mean, you just hit it on the head. It's funny how life comes full circle because going into the second half of our second season with the trashes, which subsequently was our last year, I remember hearing chatter in the locker room with some of the tough guys that in Prince George, British Columbia, there was going to be a kind of like a hockey fight tournament.

And it was called Battle of the Hockey Enforcers. And at the time, it was like you just said earlier, some tough dudes, man. I mean, from all over the world we're coming down. I believe it was the summer of OSIG. And, you know, a couple of the trashes were interested. I mean, there was like a $50,000 prize if you won type of thing. And, you know, it was big. Long story short, we, you know, we lose in the finals.

We lose the team, unfortunately. And, you know, I lose track of hockey forces. I don't know what's going on or not. But they have the event. It was a huge success. For one reason or another, it just never seemed to materialize for a second show. So now two months after the Trashers Netflix documentary comes out, I get a message from one of the original promoters from the Battle of the Hockey Enforcers.

And, you know, he said that, you know, we had some mutual friends in the hockey world. And they wanted, you know, myself, my father, us involved with trying to, rebrand this thing and basically start a sport from scratch. And honestly, I think what helps me is my experience with boxing now. I've been in professional boxing over 10 years as manager, promoter, I own a boxing gym. So it was a weird, it was such a crazy opportunity to kind of take some of my passions, hockey fights, you know, those tough guys boxing in a way, you know, kind of mashing them all together and we came up with ice wars. And basically, what I've learned over the past decade is

there is such the combat sport market, boxing, MMA, kickboxing. I mean, they got pillow fighting now. I mean, there's literally a pillow fighting circuit. If you search it up, I'm not kidding. People, whether they want to admit it or not, are always drawn to conflict. And I'm telling you, this combat sport market I've seen over the past 10 years is it's growing and growing and when this opportunity came about you know not just to do one event but to try to create a brand new combat sport I was like it's a no-brainer you know it's it's it could be a lot of risk spend a lot of work day and night for months and uh it's funny because you know a lot of people ask me why are you doing the first show in Alberta or Edmonton and I said well listen you know in the

locker room with the trashers. You know, I'm not Canadian, but it was always that little subtle arguments between the guys, like where the toughest guys come from in Canada. You know, you had, you had your clique of British Columbia guys, then you had your Alberta guys, and then you had Saskatchelan, and, you know, you had the French guys, forget it. I used to have to hear about that all the time. And, uh, but the answer is Saskatchewan. So I mean, yeah, yeah, I agree. But more often than not, it always seemed to come back for some reason. Some of these, some of the most colorful personalities was Alberta. And again, I've been out of the hockey loop for a decade and a half. And, you know, when I grew up, the rivalry for me was the devils and the flyers or the

devils and the Rangers. Those were some intense games. But I noticed, you know, I do my research, I'm like, you know what? This Hoverie Flames and Edmonton Oilers, they got something going over there, you know? And, you know what? It was, it's, you talk about luck Saturday night, sandwiched in between the second game, I believe in Calgary and the first game in Edmonton. Where would you rather be in Alberta right now than Calgary or Edmonton? I mean, you talk about three days of just madness. You got, I believe it's game two.

You got ice wars and game three in Edmonton. You can't beat it. No, you, you certainly can. You know, us being 30, you turning 36, me being 36. You got to go back to, I think it's 1991 for the last time they met in the playoffs. Everybody always talks, oh, that old Alberta's doing just fine. I'm like, you ain't winning shit in the regular season. So you've got to have the playoffs on top of it.

And on top of that, both teams are really good right now. Like the flames are a good team. I don't like saying that allowed too much. And they got grit. I mean, Milan Luchick is, we've become Instagram buddies. I mean, he's a, he loved the doc. I mean, I root for him. You got the DeChuk kid.

you got a van der kane who's obviously polarizing but that's my type of guy i mean that's a guy that you hate unless he's on your team and yes don't get me wrong he does some things that maybe you scratch your head at but i could promise you that's a guy where if he's wearing your jersey you're probably going to buy that jersey whether people want to admit it or not like me when i grew up i used to hate tie doming because he was on the maple leaves and um whenever he played the devils, he used to just dummy these guys. And I used to hate them, hate them. It's like a little bowling ball out there. But I tell you what, if Ty Domi came to the Devils, I would have had every jersey of Ty Dome. You know, there's just guys out there that, and again, I've been out of the loop

with hockey for a long time. So I'm just kind of reacclimating myself. And if I could pick you out of a lineup in a hockey game right now, you probably would have fit in with the trashers and you probably would have fit in with, you know, that hockey we grew up with. Well, that love to hate, right? That's, uh, Kachuk playing for the flames. Oilers fans love to hate him. But we all think the same thing. Why didn't we draft him?

We had the opportunity, right? But now you got a Vander Kaine, Van der Kaine, you're right. He, he's a guy that scores you a goal, a game almost, and we'll run over their best three players, uh, multiple times in a game. does it with a smile on his face. You can't seem to get under the guy's skin. Like it's unreal to watch, right? It's fun to have on your side.

Like I'm, you're hitting on it's something right here. Like, I am excited for the Battle of Alberta. All I've heard all my life from having roommates who are flames fans to everything is how, everybody has this argument, right? Who's better? Who's better, right? We both haven't won a cup.

We've both been to a cup final in the last like decade and a half. But neither one of us have won since the early 90s and late 80s. So like it's kind of a mute point at this point. right right but now we get to see but once again i come back to your ice wars thing i i've been thinking a lot about this one of the things the ufc does well and you'll know this from being a boxing promoting having the the juggling of personalities and everything else and it being your first event i'm curious the lead up to the hockey fight is probably not the best part because like obviously them going at it will be interesting yeah it is is part of it

right like you know when you got boxing or the ufc they got the walk out and the tunes and everything else i'm like yeah how are you going to pull this off in a hockey fight like how are you going to get the crowd amped for one of the big bad mean guys to come out and let's go because i mean they're out there these are these guys are big men these guys are heavy weights we got some big we got some big show him we have some big boys i got a guy who's 325 pounds okay he used to play football. He was in the Alberta Football League or something. Travis Levitsky. I literally played against this man. I know. This guy, I'm actually, I don't want to show you my notes right now because it's a mess.

But I literally have a note that says, is the jerseys we have is one big enough for Travis Levitsky because I'm a little concerned. Because when I tell you, this thing, I mean, this guy, I saw a picture of his hand. And I'm like, Jesus Christ. this guy, if he catches you a quarter, you're screwed, right? So, you know, listen, we definitely have some things in the works. I told all these guys, listen, this isn't hockey. This is prize fighting on ice. This is ice wars. Go have fun. You're allowed to let your personality show in this sport. Again, I know in hockey, especially when I grew up, it was score, head down, pop, pop, pop, you're done. I get it. But you know what? That's not that fun for me.

For me, I'm not saying, like, look, I'm all about being humble. I'm a very humble individual, but you know what? We're living in a very uptight and stiff world right now. So you know what? I tell these guys, go have fun. You're not going to get fined for, you know, have fun, man. You know what I mean? I remember when I was a kid.

I got my first Don Cherry, rock'em, sockham hockey VHS tape when I was a young kid. And I was watching it. And I remember, I want to say it was. Timu Salani or was it Theo Flurry? One of those guys scored a goal. He threw his glove in the air and then he shot gun. That is the funny. Timos Salani.

Was it Timu? Okay. The fact that I remember that from like 1993 will tell you that's what sticks with people. You know what I'm saying? And I mean, I know nothing about Timu Salani now, but if you said his name, I would be like, oh, God, I remember Rockham, Sackam Hockey when he tossed his glove up and he shotguned it. I'll never forget them. I tell these guys, have fun.

Okay? This isn't hockey. I know it looks like hockey, but it's not. I tell people, I've been telling people on podcasts, like, look up the definition of hockey. What do you need to play a game of hockey? We have no sticks. We have no pucks. We have no net.

We don't have three periods. Okay. This is price fighting on ice. And you know what? It's going to take a lot for people to get used to, but I really believe people are going be surprised with our production, you know, watching it on the stream. I think people are going to, I think people are going to like it. And here's the reality, you know, we're not going to take over to combat sport world, at least not right now. Okay. We're not coming in as renegades thinking

we're going to, we're just looking to build something fun. And I've noticed, you know, especially in the boxing world, you know, you always get that one promoter in boxing who thinks they're going to come in and take over everything. It's not going to happen. We're here to entertain our fans. We're not looking to attract people that don't like hockey fights, okay? Because believe me, I've talked to a bunch of them last week. You know, we're attracting people that like it. So if you don't like it, the beautiful thing about the world today is there's a thousand channels. There's a thousand streams. Okay. Turn it off. You don't have to watch it. It's, you know what I mean? It's not like, but I promise you, people are curious about it. And really, I think after we get two or

three events under our belt, I think we're going to start rolling for real. So we'll see what happens. Yeah, well, the thing that intrigues me about it, and not to pick on Travis at all, but Travis didn't play in the NHL. No. But I don't want to mess with Travis. I don't want to get in that ring and have him throwing haymakers at my head. I'm like, no thank you, right? I think I'm curious about this event is what I would say, right? I'm a big, like, I like, you know, when you talk about the culture of the game, I didn't want to go, if I could put my shoes into all the teams, I wouldn't want to go into Danbury. And I wouldn't like the way you played.

Like, I just wouldn't have. In saying that, if I was suiting up for Danbury, like, as long as it was in the confines of the game, and we were just being mean, you know, like bullying the other team, I'm like, Listen, I played against those teams growing up. It sucked. It was not fun, but it was part of the game back then. Now, the time's changed. What you're doing is, I think, is bringing the Danbury Trashers meets the toughest men on the ice.

And let's put them in a ring, so to speak, on ice and let them duke it out. I mean, you saw it in Danbury. There was an appetite for it. And I assume there'll be an appetite again for it. And here's what I tell people. And you just hit it on the head. You know, what I try to explain, people tell me all the time, if I got a dollar for every time someone in the past nine months have told me to bring the trashers back, I wouldn't have to do anything ever again in life. But I tell people, I try to tell people, the trashers would not work today in hockey.

It just wouldn't happen. It would not work. Now, Ice Wars, again, it looks like hockey. It smells like hockey, but it's a totally different thing. And you know what it is? We're highlighting, you know what? You look at some of these guys. We got, I mean, I don't think we have a full set of teeth

among all 14 guys, okay? So we're not going to win a beauty contest anytime soon, okay? We're not going to be the most, you know, we're not going to be this pristine sport, you know, we're not major league. I mean, I'm a huge baseball fan. We're not major league. We're not going to have the,

we're not going to have all the serum, the pomp and circle. We are blue-collar, underdog, gritty guys that are going to get a chance. I mean, I got guys that work full-time, plumbers. I got a guy working on the railroad. I got a guy who's a tugboat driver. These are blue-collar everyday guys like you and me that are going to get an opportunity to be on a worldwide audience, okay?

Where else do you see that? And Sean, I'm going to give you, I don't know when this is airing, but I'm going to be the first to tell you, no matter what. I'm going to give you the credit. I actually last night signed, okay, they're both out of Alberta, a brother versus brother fight that will be happening this Saturday

at the River Creek Casino. I have not seen one of, I have not seen a, I personally have never seen a brother versus brother fight since Undertaker and Kane in WWF. And I'm telling you right now, it's going to be insane. You know what this reminds me?

you'll get this reference. We all remember Sean Claude Van Damme's movies, right? Yes. This feels like blood sport or something along that lines, where you're like, you got the big trucker with the big grizzar. I just want to see how he fights. I'm just curious. And then you got Sean Claude Van Dam walks in.

Like, isn't that the original idea of the UFC, right? Brought in all the different styles and they went at it. And then they slowly perfected it and got it to where it is. I have no idea if this idea will work at all. but people will tune in. Listen, people will tune in and they will, if they don't buy the stream, I'm sure they will see highlights. And I'm telling you all I need personally, and we have a, it's not all about me.

We have a great team. I have a great team around me. But I will say this. I will know after event, too, where this can go. And honestly, like I told you, Sean, I'm not, I don't think we're looking to be a multi, I mean, I'd love to be. We're not, we don't have any ambitions of being a multi-billion dollar corporation. We're looking to put on some fun events.

We're looking to spotlight guys that I've never gotten that spotlight before. And you know what? It's going to be a lot of fun. And contrary to a lot of belief, we do have a lot of player safety things in, you know, a lot of fighter safety precautions in there that you don't see in the NHL. So I know we're going to get a bad rap a little bit on some of the, you know, safety concerns, but I can almost guarantee you that if you really wanted to take the time to break it down, an Ice Wars fight is a lot safer than a hockey and an NHL fight. I can promise you

that. So, well, let's hop on the safety sides of it then. First off, it's no different than the UFC or boxing. You're literally stepping in the ring to fight someone. There's, I mean, come on. Like, they can beat you up on safety, but I mean, like, that's literally two guys are signing off to go duke it out. So what do you got? What's the difference between an ice wars fight and a fight and then NHL hockey game right now? Well, listen, here's the thing. An NHL fight, I mean, obviously, you know, one thing I've learned being in the boxing

world, too, is a mentality thing. Guys know they're going to fight this Saturday, okay? Like a boxer, you know, a lot of things we work on with these guys, you know, me as a manager, advisor, with the trainers. It's not even so much the physical, but it's the mental. When you're prepared to go into a legitimate fight, you know, you bite down on your mouthpiece, you're prepared mentally. I know from hockey, playing hockey even, you know, sometimes you get into a big collision. You're a little woozy. Next thing you know it, this guy's got his gloves drop and so do you. It takes you a second to like register, I'm in a fight. You see what I'm

saying. It's hard for, it's hard for people to register that unless you've done it. And it's, and like I said, like, these guys are going in, you know, don't get me wrong. In the old days, like we were talking about, tough guys, you know, they figured they're going to be fighting. But there's some nights they weren't fighting. So these guys know what they're getting into, number one. Number two, they're not bare fisted. Okay. We have MMA style gloves, four-ounce gloves, which doesn't, it doesn't just protect the other guy's face, okay, from a bare-fisted punch. but it also protects the guy's hands, wrists, elbows. A lot of the injuries you see in hockey, I mean, I know concussion is obviously the biggest

talking point, but a lot of these guys, they break hands, fingers, wrists, and that's all from punching, punching visors. Guys aren't going to be able to wear visors. We're reinforcing the helmets with a leather strap so these things don't rip off as easily. You know what I'm saying? And the helmet will be more in place. So, and also there's, as crazy as it sounds, there are weight classes. I mean, how many times have you seen a mismatch?

I mean, I was watching some old hockey fights and, you know, you see a guy 240 pounds fighting a guy 190 pounds, you know what I mean? It's just heat of the moment stuff, but, you know, that can't happen here. Pre-fight medicals, blood testing, post-fight medicals. I mean, you know, game one of Calgary and Edmontons in a few days, right? I mean, this sounds bad, but how do we not know one of these guys don't have some sort of blood disease? They get into a fight and next thing you know it, someone's bloody. You got stuff. I mean, it sounds gruesome, but that won't happen with ICE wars. You know what I'm saying?

So there's a lot of precautions. I've had to turn some, not NHL, but like big minor league names away because they're not going to really pass certain medicals and stuff. So we're not looking to just throw an event and like, you know, we're not looking to do a back alley brawl. There are some regulations. We are, you know, commissioned. It's a combat sport. There's a lot of hoops we had to go through. So, yeah, I mean, player safety is important.

And, you know what? The fights in terms of combat sports are short. They're two one-minute rounds. Okay. So the total head blows compared to boxing. You know, I'm watching guys spar as we speak. I mean, the sparring is usually where you see a lot of that. head problems in boxing. So, you know, look, it's going to happen. It's a combat sport. It's violent,

but we have a lot of things in place and we'll continue to add on that. How, um, it's two one-minute rounds, correct? Yes. And are there judges? Or is it? Yeah. So yeah, no, it's, it's, it's legitimately, see, that's the other thing. I mean, don't get me wrong with two one-minute rounds. rounds and you got a minute break in between like boxing. You know, one minute rounds, you don't have a lot of time. You've got to throw punches. But you got to know the average hockey fight is in the 20-something seconds, I believe. So these are long rounds and hockey fights. These are extremely long rounds. Actually, if you're in the hockey world, you go, oh man, a minute fight, like after 15 seconds you're dead. Yeah. So, so so a lot of guys, you know, and I check in with all the fighters

every day, see how they're doing, if they need anything. And, and, and, you know, and I check in with all the fighters every day, see how they're doing, if they need anything. And they're like, well, just building our cardio because, you know what, even holding a guy, you know, you may take 10 to 15 seconds off from throwing some haymakers. You've got to hold a guy off. So conditioning is going to play a huge role in it. It's not about muscles or who's the biggest. It's really going to be who's the smartest, a lot like boxing, a lot like MMA.

So there is, whether people believe it or not, there is a strategy to it because, like you said, If you just go on all and out 15, 20 seconds, next thing you know it, you look at the timer, you got 3040 seconds left and you're gas, you're in some trouble. But yes, there are, you know, obviously our referees are going to be trained to stop the fight when they see needed. You know, you can't punch a guy on the ground, obviously. You can't kick. I had some idiot on Twitter think you could kick someone.

I'm like, no, you can't kick someone with a skate. It's just punching people. and, you know, it's, yeah, there's judging. If it goes to full two minutes, it goes to a judge's scorecard. How about the crown? I'm curious about this. If they win, they got like a bejeweled crown, king of the ice, essentially. You're a wrestling guy.

Why not a belt? Let me show you, man. I haven't busted this out on any podcast or anything, but here it is right here. The king of the rink. crown. I mean, this is a, I mean, honestly, if I won this, I would wear this home for the rest of the year. I mean, this is, listen, yes, I'm a wrestling guy. I'm a boxing guy, but you know what? I see belts every day. I see belts every, you know, it's just, I love belts. Listen, I absolutely love belts. And I would love to do a belt. And I'm not saying in the future,

we might not incorporate a belt. But the, the subtitle to this thing has always been who will be crown king of the ring. So I'm like, what better than a crown? I mean, this is different. I mean, this, the pride factor to bring this home is unreal. Okay. And, uh, you know what? I hope I'm not foreshadowing anything with red and black with the flames. But I will say, um, listen, you win this crap. And then listen, first of all, these guys are getting purses. It's like any other combat sport. They're getting paid. Obviously, the winner is going to get a nice, you know, a good chunk of change. But really, for me, I'll tell you what, you know, bringing this crown home. I mean, you're the king of your city or town for a while. You mentioned, I had to get a dig in on the crown,

but actually, let's see you talk about it. I'm like, man, that makes, that makes a ton of sense. You mentioned that there is going to be an event two. Obviously, I don't want to jump past the first one, but you already know where event two is, or is that still in the works? still in the works I mean the target So basically in a perfect world Our season would be any time Between late April to the end of August

Each year in a perfect world Obviously you know Our first one here was starting a little late in May We're targeting mid to late August For our second show We have a couple locations narrowed down I don't know if I'm at the liberty to say But one location could be Canada

It could be in the United States. We're working on a couple different things, but we're definitely targeting that mid-August, you know, kind of right before guys got to go to camps or, you know, stuff like that for, you know, the real sport of hockey. So, you know, it's one of those things where we're hoping to nail down within the next two weeks or so.

Cool. Well, and then the other thought I had is, is if this is the first time people have heard of ice wars, is there still tickets available at the River Creek? or can you give them the live stream where they can go to find that as well? Absolutely. I mean, Alberta, like I said, I'm sounding like a true promoter now, but listen, you want to have yourself a weekend. You start up in Calgary, okay, game two.

You drive down to River Cree, stay over for Ice War Saturday night, and then Sunday, you jump right to the Rogers Center for game three. I mean, the perfect scenario. But that being said, that's an expensive weekend, but it'd be a fun weekend. That is an expensive weekend, but it's a, you know what, listen, that's a WrestleMania weekend type of situation. So, you know what? It's history, like you said, the first time that this Battle of the Alberta in the playoffs for how long, the first ever ice wars, you never know. You know what?

One day, years down the line, we might be celebrating 50th, 50th Ice War show, and you could say you were at the first. But go to Ticketmaster. Okay, Ticketmaster, we have tickets live right now. they are available at the River Creek box office. They're going to start selling this week. Combat Sports, it's always people wait to the week of. They'll likely be available at the door. I really wouldn't wait.

And of course, you could stream it, 20 bucks, Fight TV, FiteE, wherever you get your streaming services, you know, on your phone, on your Xbox, PlayStation, Smart TV, anything like that, FITE TV. That's sweet. I'll be paying attention. I'm always curious how something like this goes, especially the first one, to see how it goes. Now, before I let you go, we always do the Final Five brought to you by Curdmaster's show to Heath and Tracy. They've been supporting the podcast since the very beginning. I should have forewarn you about this question, but I didn't. So now we're going to see, I'm going to put your feet to the fire. Heath says, in his words, if you're going to stand behind a cause that you think is right, then stand behind it. Absolutely. What's the one thing that AJ stands behind?

Oh, as far as a, that's a great question. You know, I always stand, you know, growing up, I always stand behind loyalty, giving back to people. In a certain way, this event is, is kind of how I was brought up, very blue collar, giving guys opportunity that maybe they wouldn't have the opportunity. I have a fighter who individually has about $20,000 in sponsorships. He's an everyday guy. That changed his whole year. Okay. Would he have had that without something like this? I don't know. I'm not looking to pat myself on the back. I'm all about, I like to be, I like to be part of teams that want to create history, not just be part of history. You know what I mean? I mean, it would be easy for me to start a minor league team again. But that's that's kind of ho-hum, the same old same,

the old days. You know, I like to try to create something different, something new, try to make a positive spin on it. I'm all about kids. I mean, my boxing gym here, I don't think I've taken a dollar for most of these young kids in seven years. That's why my office is a garbage house right now. But listen, it's all about giving back. You know what I mean? And I wouldn't say I'm the best business guy because if he gave me 100 bucks, I'd probably give 99 of it out. And, but that's how you create cultures. And that's how you create, something special. You got to make people know they're appreciated and give opportunity where where you can. I appreciate it. And I appreciate you coming on. But before, I should probably do

this last thing too. And that is for all the people who are Danbury Trashers fans out this way, or wherever they're listening from, what's a Danbury Trasher story you can share with them that's, I don't know, fond memories. I know if, once again, I'll say this again, if you I played against the Danbury Trashers. I don't think they want this part because they're like pretty much fuck Danbury and what they did there. But if you're, you know, the bad boys of hockey, so to speak, what's a memory that or a story from back in the trashers arena or surrounding that group of guys that you want to share with the audience today? You know, that's another good question. I mean, I think a lot of people, if you ask me that, are probably thinking I'm going to come.

back to you with some sort of crazy brawl or madness. But I wouldn't say that. I would say one of my fondest memories from those days was actually the first game ever. It was October 15th, 2004. We're playing our rivals at home, Adirondack Frostbite. First game ever as a franchise. Obviously, your nerves. I mean, that whole week leading up to our first game was like Christmas Eve every night. You can't sleep. I'm like, I'm anxious. And I remember the National Anthem was being played. We didn't have someone singing it. We had a national anthem being played.

And like midway through, the audio system just cut out. I mean, that's like such an embarrassing way to start a franchise. And I remember our infamous Section 102, some of the craziest people, men and women I've ever met, the rowdiest section I've ever seen,

just picked up and started singing in unison, probably a few hundred of them. And they just sung a story. the rest of the National Anthem, and that's all she wrote. I just, I'll never forget that that crowd being there for us, and, you know, they knew that we had a lot of odds stacked against us, and literally right before the puck dropped, you know, National Anthem cuts out, and our fans picked us up, and, you know, we decided, hey, we got to do everything we can to bring these people a championship or fun, joy,

entertainment. We couldn't get the championship, but we did bring a lot of fun and entertainment, and, uh, You know, like I said, year 2022, we're talking about the Danbury Trasher. So it's one of those little memories that I just won't forget. You know, you say we were talking about a Vanderkain or Kachuk and guys like that, you hate to have them play against. You always want to play for you. As a player, I loved and hated sections 102, you know,

figuratively across different buildings. But every team should have their 102. too, the group of people that are there to have a good time. Obviously, you want them to be respectful and things like that. But like, you want people to be, like, I like a rowdy barn. I think a lot of people do, right? I think if you're a good player and you go into another team's barn and they're all over you, one, you should take that as a compliment.

And two, that should elevate you. And the first season, we played a team in El Naira, New York. There was a guy named Jamie Thompson. And this guy was getting razzed relentlessly every night, including by myself from the owner's box. And he would put up average three to four points a game in our barn every game. He rose to the occasion. And we ended up signing him that second season. Because you know what?

If you could come in as an opponent and do that to us, I'd like to see what you could do with our support. And you know what? You have to have a section 102. In fact, another plug, if you go to Ticketmaster for Ice Wars this week, okay, go to the stage section. And that's our honorable, that's our honorary section 102 section. The cheapest ticket, 75 bucks, you get a free t-shirt, but you got to be crazy. So we do have a section 102 this Saturday at the river creek. That might be the best part about this is the last 10 seconds. There is going to be want them to at the River Cree on Saturday. Hey, AJ, I really appreciate you giving me some of your time. This has been fun. And I look forward to, you know, hopefully, hopefully everybody's safe.

But I hope it's entertaining and people enjoy themselves. It sounds like it's going to be a fun event. I look to see it forward to seeing who wears the crown at the end of Saturday night. Yep, absolutely. We'll be set. Hopefully in a few events, we'll be selling these mini crowns. I'll send you out one and you, you know. You'll love it. It's going to catch on. Well, thanks again, AJ. Thank you, Sean.

All the best, buddy. Hey, thanks for tuning in today, guys. Hope you enjoyed it. We will be back tomorrow on our regular time, Wednesday. So it's a quick turnaround. Now, go kick some ass today, and we will catch up to you tomorrow.