StarTalk Radio - Wrestling the Pandemic, with WWE’s Xavier Woods

Episode Date: April 10, 2020

Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-hosts Gary O’Reilly and Chuck Nice step into the ring with WWE superstar Xavier Woods to explore professional wrestling, Esports, and how to keep sports thriving during the COVID-19 pandemic. NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons and All-Access subscribers can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: https://www.startalkradio.net/show/wrestling-the-pandemic-with-wwes-xavier-woods/ Photo Credit: WWE. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts to listen to new episodes ad-free and a whole week early.

Welcome to StarTalk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now. This is StarTalk Sports Edition. I'm your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. And I'm joined, as usual, by my two co-hosts, Gary O'Reilly. Gary. Hi. Gary in the house, former professional soccer player. I think they call it football over

in the UK. We do. But we know it's not really football. And Chuck Nice. Chuck. Hey, hey, hey, hey. What's happening, Neil? And Chuck Nice. Chuck. Hey, hey, hey, hey.

What's happening, Neil? Chuck, tweeting at Chuck Nice Comic. And who would have known how big a sports fan you actually are? You've been holding that a secret all those years we were just doing pure star talks with you. Yeah. You know, Neil, I'm a very complex, multifaceted person. You said don't put them in a box and who else do we have and we've got

Austin Watson excuse me, Xavier Woods I have like 10 names, I gotta stay out of trouble, you know I got warrants on some I gotta stay out of trouble exactly maybe orders on others which ones do you use to cross the border?

That's usually Austin Creek. That's like my gamer tag, and people don't know that one as much. Right on. So Xavier Woods of the WWE, which officially translates to what out of that abbreviation? World Wrestling Entertainment. We put the E in entertainment. Oh, very nice. Very nice.

And we've titled this Wrestling With Myself. Very cool. A lot of that throughout this quarantine. Yeah. So you've been with WWE since 2010? Yes, sir. 2010 is when I got signed to a contract. I was in what we call developmental for

a good while. At the time, it was called FCW, but now it's evolved into what's called NXT. Now it's its own brand. It's on USA Network on Wednesday nights. It's a big thing now. You're one of the longest reigning tag team champions? Oh, yes. Tag team champion?

Yes. We broke the record a while back and we are the longest reigning tag team champion? Oh, yes. Tag team champion? Yes, we broke the record a while back, and we are the longest reigning tag team champions in the history of WWE. It's kind of surreal. Okay, so now, all that's cool and everything, but I care much less about that. Frankly, I do that you have a PhD. So, okay, so long story on the PhD thing.

So I double majored in my undergrad, so it was psychology and philosophy, got a master's in psychology. This was all while wrestling as well. And then when I was at the PhD or at the dissertation portion, we got to the prospectus and what eventually happened at the school that I was going to, I realized that I had been in the prospectus phase for like eight months, then 10 months, and then a year. And so I reached out to some other students and they said the same thing was happening with them. And all of my professors from college, I talked to them about it and they're like, no, it shouldn't be like that.

Like, let me see your stuff. And they looked through it and they said, ah, something's weird here. And so we found out that a lot of the students were being just held in that prospectus phase and a few filtering through. So the school could kind of generate that money every couple of months and so uh went to transfer but as you probably will know you have to have the majority of your credits from the institution that gives you the degree and so at that point instead of being uh like three months away from getting my phd i would have been three years and wrestling was ramping up i had made a gaming channel on youtube uh i just had a kid so i was like you know what uh this? This will be a dream that I pass along to my children. I got the two undergrads and a master's, and I have the

knowledge, so I've been told, but just not because of paper. As they say, ABD, all but dissertation. Exactly, exactly. There you go. There you go. So your YouTube channel is called what? It's called UpUpDownDown. It's a playoff of a old school konami code uh from back in the day and it resonates like deep insider referencing there because otherwise it sounds like you're only partially literate yeah or or or you're a toddler you know exactly it's it's my son's unboxing channel right and what's this i hear that you're in the Guinness Book of World Records for what? Yes. So I am the, I'm trying to say this correctly.

I think it's a professional athlete with a gaming channel with the most subscribers. It's like the most specific thing that you could get. Wait, start that again. Wait. So the professional wrestler. Yes. With a gaming channel. Yes channel with the most subscribers, and that's a Guinness category.

Yes, it is. Now it is. That's just wrong. Admit it. I know you got to admit it. That's just wrong. Why is that wrong? That's not wrong.

No, Austin, don't you be. Don't you. You own that. Because let me tell you something. I say this all the time. I am the funniest comedian that lives in my house. Bam. Bam.

And I commend you for that, sir. I would never take that from you. Because think about it. There are people who have records for, like, eating the most watermelon, smashing the most origami swans. Why can't I have this one, you know? Oh, no, yeah. Smashing origami. I like origami, and I do origami.

You smash my swan, you know, that's hell to pay. So then you'll have the Guinness record for putting people in the hospital for smashing your origami. There you go. All I think now is that we should get straight onto the Guinness Book of World Records and offer up our own

world record. Yes. So that we can walk around with our belts and our mantles and just rocking it. Yeah. We could sell, we could do one right now. Exactly. By the way,

uh, Neil, that is the most awesome name for a metal band. Uh, smashing my swan. Smashing swans. Smashing swans. Smashing swans.

Yeah. If you guys make search, I just want 10%. So Austin, I don't know if you knew, we visited a boxing ring, a training over on Long Island. And it was, I don't want to say delightful. It was delightful, but I mean, I hurt for five days after that. Yeah, yeah.

And so we got a little taste of what goes on in a in a in a wrestling ring yeah and um and i i was teaching some of the guys some physics you know where center of mass would go relative to what they're trying to accomplish so i i think there was a mutual exchange of um sort of enlightened ways and so i just want to want to say we did not walk quite a mile in your shoes, but a little bit. A quarter mile of D, just fine. Now, how about this? We kind of like stuck our toe in your shoe

and then flicked it across the room. Like, I'm not wearing that. So were you guys doing boxing stuff or were you doing wrestling stuff i said boxing ring it was a wrestling it was a regulation wwe ring oh that's awesome yeah they threw me over the ropes yeah and out the ring it's like you do that yeah it's great and i mean i'll be honest with you neil was in his element. He really did have a lot of fun. As quiet as it's kept, I got to tell you,

Neil looked like he wanted to be a WWE wrestler. But Neil is an actual wrestler, like from college days. Yes. I saw a picture of, so there was a few years ago, I was trying, we were talking about something

and I was looking something up about you and I saw a picture of you in your wrestling days. I was like, oh my God, and I saw a picture of you in your wrestling days. I was like, oh, my God, I love him even more now. This is great. This is great. Because for me, and I just want to gush for a hot second. So you're one of my guys because obviously my parents just preach education in our house.

Like, yeah, we know you have this dream, but make sure that you're educated, too, because if you get injured, like I am right now, I tore my Achilles in October, so I can't wrestle. We'll get to that in just a minute yeah okay so they always told me even if something like that happens you have to have something up here in order to know how to feed your family know how to take care of your mortgage pay your bills all that kind of stuff and so that's why i went to school so there weren't tons of of black men in the media that were being pushed as intelligent you know anytime that i would see somebody who was a black male in the media, it was like, oh, they're playing the role of like a thug or like a drug dealer or like something negative, you know? Or the singing and dancing, yeah.

Yeah, you were one of the first guys that I saw that was like, oh, he's not on screen pushing an agenda. Like, hey, listen to me because I'm like smart and black. Like, no, just listen to me because I'm smart. So just having you there, like in the zeitgeist, in the conversation was extremely helpful to me, you know, coming up and trying to get to where I am today. So thank you for that. Okay, I'm done.

After my intellectual enlightenment, you still ended up as a wrestler. Well, there's this psychological aspect to it. It's an incredible thing. So, you know, the concept of groupthink and how it can be dangerous, but how it can be really positive. So, you know, the concept of groupthink and how it can be dangerous, but how it can be really positive. I think that wrestling is one of the greatest examples of positive groupthink on the planet because it's the last form of Shakespeare in the round. An audience in a 360 degree radius without having the opportunity to do things again. Everything is alive. If it happens, it was supposed to happen.

And being able to feed off of that energy that the crowd brings, and then being able to make them feel a certain way, whether that emotion is happiness, sadness, whatever it is. It's essentially, it's groupthink at its core. The records show that Austin Creed analogized WWE to Shakespeare. Bam. That's what it is. That's what it is. I'm with that. I've got to give it to you, yeah.

Yeah, I'm with you. I mean, the fact that you've got that attitude is part of the reason why you're on because you're the different thinker. There's a different rhythm for you in your wrestling and how you see things. But go back to that point you made about being injured. Your Achilles tendon was long-term injury

and that's one of the worst injuries you can get because the blood supply to the body is minimal. So the healing time is a lot longer and it's taken you out of your sport. I'm just sitting here thinking, how have you been able to adapt your mentality to being away from the thing that you are passionate about doing in the ring?

So honestly, it wasn't still is very mentally taxing, very difficult, but I hadn't let it get to me for a good while. Then maybe like two or three months ago, just out of the blue, I just broke down and I was just like, you know, crying in the dark for days. Like, you know, that sitting in the shower, just letting the water hit you, just letting it all out.

You've been there. Yeah, yeah. You know, you know. And so- I did that this morning, by the way. Just kidding. Hey, bless you for being on, taking the time. I don't mean to be the weird one of the bunch,

but I've never done that. No. Well, blessings be upon you. You know what, Neil? I hope you never do because, I mean, I've had to sit through career-ending injuries. I've had to sit through long-term injuries as Xavier is now. And it does.

You just sit down and you wonder, where do I go from this particular moment in time? How could it be a plural in career-ending injuries? That's called comedy, Neil. Every show I do is a career-ending injury. See, it's insult to injury. It is an insult to injury when it's not enough to get one injury.

You get another and the combination of it just adds up and it's an avalanche of injuries that just takes you out of the equation. Yeah, it's called age. That too. It adds up on you. So Austin, are you young enough to come back from this injury? Yeah, so I'm 33. So my body is good to go.

So I'll probably be back. Hopefully things in the world get back to normal and we're all good to bounce around again. But I should be back in like two or three months if you're feeling good. So it popped it in Sydney, Australia in the middle of a match. And so I had to just stop and leave.

And it was terrible because it was the first match of the night in Sydney. The crowd's going insane. I did a backflip and when I landed, it just felt like somebody kicked me in the back of the foot and I went down and I was like, oh, that's weird. And I went to stand. You didn't get the snap. You didn't get the gunshot because

people always talk to me about when Achilles goes bad, it's like a crack of a gun. Yeah, mine was, it wasn't super loud, but I just, it felt like legit, like, that was kind of what I heard. But when I went to stand, you know immediately, even if it's never happened. But when I went to stand, you know immediately, even if it's never happened to you.

I went to stand, I was like, I prayed. I was like, please not my Achilles. And I got in the back and they did a little calf test and just wrapped it up. The next morning, flew home, had surgery the next day. Then I went to a convention the next Friday because I love cosplay. Oh.

But I went as Professor X because I love cosplay. Oh. But I went as Professor X because I had a little motorized scooter. Nice. So we built a little thing around it, so it worked out. That's cool. Oh, I see. So you would not have otherwise have been Professor X were it not for your disabled Achilles. Okay, you said you're 33 years of age right now. Yes, sir.

I mean, through my career, my recovery time from injury got longer and longer. Are you blessed with still rapid recovery or are you finding this thing takes more time than you need it to? For the average, I'm a little bit ahead of average time-wise. So I'm still in that zone of where my body is like kind of pumping on whatever cylinders it can to get healed. So I'm lucky that if it kind of pumping on whatever cylinders it can to get healed yeah um so i'm lucky that if it was going to happen that it happened to me now and not in a couple of years when i feel like i would have slowed down a little bit but uh but the switch to being at home at that point in time it it was weird but one of the reasons that i've had this

gaming channel and tried to build up all my gaming stuff on twitch and i've been hosting events at big gaming cons for the past couple of years is because it's something else that I am very much in love with, very passionate about. And I'm lucky that I have something like that. And so I've always wanted to build that so that when I was done wrestling,

whether it got taken from me or whether I just hung up the boots on my own, I would have my next chapter already half written. So I wouldn't have to start from scratch. And so this really helped out in showing me that i'm making the right decisions because i kind of i really didn't skip a beat when i got hurt i just called everybody who was running conventions and gaming stuff and they just i was

my calendar was more full than it was when i was wrestling so uh so it worked out in that aspect to kind of keep my mind off of everything so not to bring in another show that we have done but uh when are you going to start your own gaming team, your professional gaming team? Yeah. So that's kind of in the works, and it has been for a while, but the biggest thing is I really want it to be

a thing that's connected with WWE because I'm doing my best to try to be the, I'm the gaming guy of the company, and so I'm trying to shine that light to the higher-ups so they understand how important this culture and this community company. And so I'm trying to shine that light to the higher ups so they understand how important this culture and this community is. So before I was to invest in my own,

because I'm kind of investing and creating a video game right now. So money's on hold for that stuff. But if I can convince WWE to invest in a team, then we're going to be all good. Nice, man. Wow, you are, I have to say, a man of vision. Good for you.

Yeah, and to go from the wrestling to the gaming, that's still not really falling back on your education. Well, video games helped me a lot throughout school to kind of relax and have some downtime. Oh, I see. So they kept you sane during your education. Yeah, yeah. But I'm hoping at some point, so my focus was helping children and families that are dealing with children that are dealing with autism. Because one of the biggest things that affected me throughout school was taking a seminar class in autism. And the parents coming in and telling their stories about what's going on with their kids. They're so sad. You'll get this in your psychology classes. Yes.

For sure. Yeah, definitely. But the most interesting part about it was the fact that all of the spotlight, all of the attention was given to the children, which they definitely need it and it's definitely helpful for them. But no one was thinking about how this is also affecting the other members of the family. Because between the time a mother and a father have to spend with child A,

while the second child who doesn't really understand what's going on because they're too young, they just see that other kid getting more attention. And it's affecting them mentally. So I want to be the kind of person who is helping with the entire family and how they're feeling with this. Well, you're laying this stuff out, so you have multiple options going forward. There's not enough people do that. And they think luck is against them when, in fact, of course, luck comes to those who are best. Luck is the intersection of skill and opportunity.

Exactly. Exactly. I'll take a break. When we come back, more of our conversation with Austin. We're back. StarTalk Sports Edition. This time, WWE. World Wrestling Entertainment. Is that right, Austin? Yes, WWE. World Wrestling Entertainment. Is that right, Austin?

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Austin Creed. That feels like a fake name. Like you're trying to lock that Apollo Creed thing. I know. You went with Xavier Wood, but yet your name is Austin Creed. Yes.

And if I were to meet you and you were to tell me, oh, no, my real name is Austin Creed, I'd be like, yo, bro, if you don't want to tell me who you are, my real name is Austin Creed, I'd be like, yo bro, if you don't want to tell me who you are, that's fine. I mean. So, okay. So I'll break it to the names down. So Austin Watson is my birth name, right? When I started wrestling, I was given a set of wrestling gear from my trainer and there was like American flag stuff. So we were like, oh, I can be the son of Apollo Creed because that's my favorite character in all of anything ever. He's got charisma. He can fight. He's got charisma. He can fight. He's jacked. He's just awesome. And so I was Austin Creed. But then when I came to WWE,

I had to make a new name that would fall underneath their legal structure. And I picked Xavier Woods. And so I kind of just cycle in between all three of those when I do stuff like this. Yeah, that's great. That's great. So now wait, when you talk about Apollo Creed, stuff like this. Dude, that's great. That's great. So now wait, when you talk about Apollo Creed, is he your favorite or is Michael B. Jordan your favorite, the son of Apollo? Apollo Creed is my favorite.

Ah, okay. But Carl Weathers- He's 33. He's with Mr. T all the way. Yeah. Okay. Carl Weathers is the man, very talented actor. And that role, I don't know, watching Rocky, like, did something to my

soul as a kid. Well, excuse me, I missed, I mixed it up. Right, there's Carl Weathers. So, he was Apollo Creed. What was Mr. T? Clever Lang. Clever Lang, excuse me. Clever Lang. That's the man right there. Okay. So, you are dialing into us from Atlanta, is that correct? Yes, sir. I am in Atlanta, Georgia, about 15 minutes outside of the city. Normally we'd bring it to New York for this, but we are in the coronavirus right now. We are not socially distancing

because we are socially completely connected right now. We are physically distancing. Let me just ask you, what impact does the pandemic have on live entertainment where the crowd is what would normally feed you in terms of your performance and your gesturing? It's interesting because, like you said, the crowd is such a vital part of what it is that we do in wrestling.

But at the same time, if you were one of the guys or girls who came up on the independent wrestling scene, you most likely have experienced this before because I know myself, I was wrestling on like random baseball fields in Rome, Georgia, which is like four hours away from me. And I'm wrestling for like a Coke and a hot dog. And there's two people in the crowd and it's outside. So you wrestle differently based on things like that. And I think that with having no audience in the crowd this past couple of weeks, and especially for WrestleMania,

which is our biggest event of the year, it's going to be interesting, but you're going to be able to really see the talents that these men and women have shine through because everyone's so used to it being one way. Everyone's about to find out it can be done this way as well, because everything that we do is improv for more or less. Anyway, it's improv, physical storytelling. And so, yeah, everybody's going to get the opportunity to see the actual talent that these men and women have for going

out and performing live. And it'll make everyone appreciate wrestling, I feel, so much more once everything is back to normal and crowds are there. Because you don't really sometimes appreciate what you have until it's gone. I feel like that's the same in a lot of forms of entertainment or just life in general. But wrestling, obviously, something special to me. I'm just excited for everyone to realize how good everyone is at this. How are your fellow wrestlers dealing with this?

I call it a COVID timeout because you're part of an impact sport, literally, and you're going to wrestle on your own. The air wrestling. I'm just falling down in my house. Right. So how are the wrestlers, how are professional athletes getting to grips with having this enforced timeout? So I think that for us at least, the wrestlers, a lot of us have like gyms in our homes. And so, you know, keeping up with working out and things like that.

I know that some of the the shows were taped before because we knew a lot of this stuff was coming down and so uh trying to keep safety first as a measure but then also trying to give people something to to be entertained by during all of these hard times a lot of the content was filmed beforehand and precautions were taken so it would be as safe as possible for everybody that was involved um but other than that people are staying home and just trying to stay in shape and get ready for when everything is back rolling again. Let me ask you in terms of, I have a general wrestling question if I can. Different wrestlers have different kinds of bodies, right? Some are

short, some are tall, some are sort of all top heavy, you know, like Greco-Roman upper body. And I'm just wondering, I've never seen a skinny wrestler. And just while we have here, let me see your guns. Let me see what you got. Let's go. Wow. Come on, Neil. Come Neil. Look at that, man. Boom, boom. I'm like 5'9", so I'm one of the shorter guys, so I can't grow this way, so I got to grow this way. So presumably the portfolio of moves that you execute need to be within your own body's strength and flexibility combo, right? So you only choose to do things that you know your body's capacity can handle. Correct? 100%.

Yeah. 100%. So if someone else is putting a move on you, they're going to put you through what they can do, right? Yes. Okay. So one of my favorite moves is when and not everyone can do this right you just go to some you just pick them up and just put them over your head and just walk around yeah

this is like a serious overhead press yeah i presume these are big guys doing it to little guys right um i mean sometimes yes most of the time for for crowd reactions if there's a big strong hulking guy. So we've got a guy by the name of Braun Strowman who's like seven feet tall and 375. So like he does that stuff. I think we had, he threw Colin, Colin Jost. Is that his name?

Colin Jost, yeah. Yeah, yeah, SNL. Yeah, Mania last year, him and Michael Shea were up against, or were doing stuff with Braun Strowman and he ended up throwing Michael out of the ring onto a bunch of the guys. him and Michael Shea were up against, or were doing stuff with Braun Strowman, and he ended up throwing Michael out of the ring onto a bunch of the guys. And so, yes, a big hulking guy like that.

But then also, too, so shorter guys like me, when I'm wrestling guys that are my size or around there, I will do that as well sometimes, just because I try to show off. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, it's like, okay, don't mess with me, because look what I can do. Yeah, like I'm not going to do it to The Undertaker because he's a touch bigger than I am, but smaller guys, yes.

Yeah, plus I don't know that I'm that impressed that your 7-foot-tall, 375-pound guy did it to Colin Jost. See? Now that's where this comes in. I got to tell you the truth. I wouldn't be impressed if you did it to Colin Jost, Neil. We've actually had Colin Jost as one of our comedic co-hosts once. It was fun to have him. And he was already on Saturday Night Live, but he wasn't as big as he is today. I don't think he was yet dating Scarlett Johansson. So this show elevates me like that?

Yeah. I appreciate you having me on. Thank you. It's called the StarTalk Bump. Yes. But instead of bump, we like to call it Gravity Assist. There we go.

The StarTalk Gravity Assist. Well, at XavierWitsPhD on my socials, what's up? Let me know. Those t-shirts will be already online very shortly. I must ask you, Austin, just how good is your knowledge of anatomy? Because from my experience of wrestling, which is being thrown over the ropes and out the ring. Yeah, thank you for laughing.

It's that point where if you do this professionally, you've got to know where to hurt and how to do things so as you don't get hurt. So your landings, your impacts, everything, this knowledge has to really be on speed dial for you. Yeah, it's a situation where, how do I explain this? Here, so if there are two people who can speak Spanish fluently, their conversation is quick. No one needs to slow down for anybody. They can just have the conversation

and then go about their business. But if there's one person who's fluent, one person who speaks okay, then the person who speaks fluently will lead the conversation, walk them through, make sure they understand everything and they talk that way. It's the same thing with wrestling.

So once you get past the point where you become fluent, that's because you spent X amount of hours in the ring being thrown over the rope as you were. So I can't tell you how many times that happened to me before I had my first match. So that when it happened to me in front of a crowd with more adrenaline, I wouldn't overdo it and overshoot my landing area where I i'm where i where i know i won't get hurt um things like that and obviously there are still accidents because like you said it is a contact uh situation and things do occur but we're doing them as safely as possible so don't try this at home years of training i've been doing this since i was 17 so relax no we don't we're not we actually don't have urges to throw each other over the road really if you're wondering i'm just i to say, you should speak for yourself.

Wait, wait. So, Austin, that would mean, not to put words in your mouth, but that the least experienced wrestler is the most dangerous. Yes, definitely. Wow, that's a very good point. You know, it's kind of like people who are not as skilled in any other professional sport.

For instance, if you're a pitcher and you've got opening day jitters and you're not calmed and you're not connected mentally, you might look like you're throwing at a guy's head when really you're just so freaked out. Like, I'm so sorry. Yeah, yeah. I didn't, you know. you might look like you're throwing at a guy's head when really you're just so freaked out. I'm so sorry.

And that's all you could do. And it's on an even more intense scale, in my opinion, because I'm trusting that person with my body. And if my body, something happens to that, then that impedes my progress and my ability to make money in that line of work, you know? So you really got to always be thinking, for me, so I used to be a cheerleader as well in college, and we would do partner stunts. So essentially we're throwing girls up in the air and catching them and everything. And so one thing I learned there that's the most important lesson that I've learned in like physical activities is always make sure the other person doesn't get hurt. Like put your body on the line before you put theirs because they're trusting

you with their body and they're going to do the same for you and everybody's going to come out. Okay. You just described why I could never be a cheerleader or a wrestler. I might echo that as well. Going back to something we discussed just a minute ago was the empty arenas, the empty arena that WrestleMania will take place in front of. Okay, you've talked about it from the point of view of the wrestlers.

How do you think the psychology of your viewers is going to be when they see an empty stadium and just the simple silhouettes of the wrestlers in the ring? I think it's going to make them want to tune in because everything that we do is based on the fact that anything can happen at any time. And so people not having the opportunity to come physically to WrestleMania when every single year prior, it's people from over 160 different countries flying into Town X for a week being there. We have a thing called Access. It's like a huge wrestling con all week. We take over the whole town. So not having all of those things, not having the actual bodies at Mania, I think it's going to make people want to tune in even more.

And I think that they're going to be fine. I think they're going to still understand everything because it's the same kind of audience. Like, Game of Thrones has no crowd. That's a television show that's dramatic and well-written storylines and things like that. And so I think it's the same kind of vibe. This is a TV show. And this show, fortunately, will go on

so people have something to watch and something to be entertained by. And honestly, the empty arena is a selling point, honestly, I think, for a lot of people to tune in because they want to see how it's going to go. It's a little bit of a hybrid between you performing on stage

and me in a pay-per-view situation, right? I'm not there, so how much do I really need to listen to somebody else react when I can do my own reacting plus I paid not there. Yeah. So how much do I really need to listen to somebody else react when I can do my own reacting? Plus, I paid for it. Exactly. Exactly.

So you're watching. And you can check out WrestleMania for free if you subscribe to the WWE Network. First month's free, I believe. So check it out. Oh, Chuck lives off of that kind of stuff, Chuck. Yes, I do. Because I'm sorry to tell you, Austin, they will not like me. I subscribe to everything for the first month and then

I send myself a Google reminder to cancel 48 hours before the subscription ends. And you are shameless. You are shameless. I don't care. Don't pay you enough, Chuck. Don't pay you enough.

I will say, you guys take good care of me and I enjoy every single dollar that I make here because I love what I do. But that don't stop me from being a cheap bastard. I got to agree with you. One of the things my so I'm on a team called the New Day with a guy named Kofi Kingston and Biggie. And that's the tag team, right? Yes, yes, sir. And so Big E always says, there might not be a recession in the nation,

but there's one in my house, so I'm saving this money. Oh, no one's going to argue with it. Before you do, Neil, sorry, can I ask Austin this question? How do you think other sports are going to behave? Are they going to follow your lead with empty arenas and how are fans going to react to that? Maybe with baseball, basketball, with football when it returns.

Let me just tell you everybody's going to be watching WrestleMania. Everybody from the NBA, everybody from MLB is going to be watching WrestleMania to see what kind of response they're going to look at the numbers. They're going to make some analytical data analysis to see whether or not it's worthwhile because these television contracts are beyond lucrative. And it just gives them an opportunity.

lucrative and it just gives them an opportunity. WrestleMania is going to give them an opportunity to see whether or not a crowd-free transmission of a game is a viable model to pursue. Chuck, did Gary ask you that question?

I'm sorry. There's someone here who actually in WrestleMania. We all going to get a go. We all got a shot at this. You gotta call him out like that. My God. You just been smacked down. Neil, you just totally housed me. Speaking of wrestling,

you totally bodied me, man. Yeah, see? Yeah. You totally bodied me. Neil's ready on the mic. Neil just bodied me, man. See? You totally bodied me. Neil's ready on the mic. Neil just bodied me on the show. Body slam. Sorry. Sorry, Austin.

Austin, let me follow that up with a question for you. Do you agree? I was going to say, I couldn't have said it better myself. you do you agree i was gonna say you i couldn't have said it better myself no but honestly i feel like so wrestling is uh it's its own beast so with the rules of let's say that for the next year we still have to keep it to where only 10 people can be around each other at the same time so we couldn't play a regular football game or excuse me american football game um thank you no problem but i think that if if something like that occurs, yes, people are going to be watching WrestleMania

to see how everything goes, but they're going to try to figure out how to take that model and use it for themselves. So if it turns into like three-on-three NBA games and the rules change, because if this lasts long enough, people aren't going to want to miss out on one, the entertainment,

because TV shows are going to run out eventually. If the, if this stuff stays entertainment sports wise is all gone right now, but they're going to get back to it and they're just figuring out how I think WrestleMania is really going to give them a good look on how to do that. So you said you had a kid. How old is your kid?

My kid is two. And then I have a seven-month-old as well. Okay, so they have no idea what you do professionally. The two-year-old gets it because he's been to shows. He's been running around in a ring with me. I'm definitely not trying to push him into wrestling. If he likes it, cool. But just like Apollo Creed said, don't be like me.

Carry a briefcase to work. Oh, okay. And then use that briefcase to crack the back of your co-worker. Wasn't there a wrestler who used to come in in a suit with the briefcase? Erwin R. Scheister, IRS. There you go, IRS. Arscheister. IRS. There you go. IRS.

But it seems to me that you have a kid now who throughout school, the kid can tell everyone else, my dad can kick your dad's ass. And I gladly will if anyone wants to step up to the plate. Nice. Ooh, gauntlet. Big dad fights at school. And if you're at the soccer field and, you know, the parents get all involved, you know. And they do.

But see, my fight would go like this. It's going to look great, but you're not going to feel a thing. Oh, yeah, there you go. Because you know how the body bends. Exactly. Exactly. That's ugly. That's an ugly statement you just made. That's a scary statement.

That's a really ugly, frightening statement. Yeah. No, but it's completely true, Chuck. Yeah. Yeah, no. You know how bodies... So I'll tell you an example. I had a wrestling coach who said,

wherever you take the head, the body will follow. And I thought that was an interesting point. And it's true. That's why, like, as soon as you collar tie somebody in amateur wrestling, you bring them down some, their whole body comes with them. They're toast. Yeah, they're all, so the body does things.

And as long as you do with the body what it will do naturally, then you're in complete control. Yeah. And then my kid never sits out. Always keep him in the game. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

All right. So we got to wrap up. When we come back, more of this conversation with Austin Cree on Starcom. We're back. StarTalk Sports Edition. Austin Creed, which apparently is sort of his real name. Sort of.

WWE Xavier Wood. Thanks for being on StarTalk. Thank you. Let me just ask, just to round out this show, we haven't talked much about your exercise regimen. What do you do to stay in shape, particularly now that you're 33, not, you know, 25 anymore? So what do you do? Because you look in really good shape right now that you're 33 not you know 25 anymore so so what do you do because you look in really good shape right now oh thank you very much uh so for me it's been

weird so i've like i said before i've been wrestling since i was 17 i'm 33 now i wrestled all throughout college throughout grad school uh and so this is just what i've always done um and so it's it's weird for me when I got hurt. My thought was, well, I'm going to be out for X amount of months. So what should we do? Let's just get real fat. So I ate everything in sight. My delicacy is chocolate ice cream with Cool Ranch Doritos mixed in.

Oh, my God. It's delicious. I'm telling you. It is also an affront to God. Well, if that's wrong, I don't want to be right. It's an affront to God in seven different religions. Vishnu is pissed. So, after, I guess, October to like January, I just kind of ate everything.

Stuffed crust pizza like four times a week covered in barbecue sauce. I was loving it. And so a lot of this was because I couldn't walk around really. I could gingerly, but I couldn't jog. I couldn't run. But I guess in the last month and a half I've gotten there. So normally what I'll do is I'll get up and I'll run like two and a half, three miles. But that's running and walking because I'm still trying to strengthen the Achilles back. And then I have like a small gym in my garage. And so I've just got like dumbbells and a bar. So I might, I'll go run first

and then lift for maybe 30 or 45 minutes. Just very focused thing. Like I might just like focus on biceps, might just focus on abs, might just focus on shoulders. But whatever it is that day, that's what I'm focusing on. Go to sleep, rinse and repeat, hang out with the kids, play video games, wake up, run, workout, get on Twitch, twitch.tv slash Austin Creed.

And just that's been my every day. And so I would say to any athletes that are out there and not necessarily in the zone of, hey, there are things I can do at home. Like get in that zone. Because even if you're not an athlete, just waking up and doing something to where you're sweating, it activates everything in your body. Because if you work out first thing in the morning or first thing in the

afternoon, whenever you wake up, no judgment, it ups your metabolism. You kind of burn calories all throughout the day, a little bit extra than you would normally if you didn't work out first thing in the morning. So that's what I do to stay in shape. And I've been lucky enough to have pretty sweet genetics from my parents that I can fluctuate. If I'm trying to lose weight, I can lose it quick. But if I'm trying to gain weight, I'm going to gain it quick too. So it's a lot of knowing your body and how it responds to the things that you do for physical activity and what it does when you intake certain foods. So did you have one fat parent and one skinny parent? You can leave the room.

I wish it was that easy. Here you are. Here's your genetics. Okay. So we spoke about your UpUpDownDown YouTube channel and how the Guinness Book of World Records has you listed. How did that come about? You've partnered with Riot Games? Yes.

We've got to explore esports more because, I don't know, with sport, live active human sport off the menu right now, seeing as we're talking about food, is it time for esports to come forward? Things like, we've done a show recently with drone racing. Yes. Is it time for those sort of things to come forward and stake a claim on mainline TV? 100%. So esports is already at the,

they've been there for years where they've been on ESPN with big events, but there's still not that huge cultural acceptance of what it is that we do. So there was a kid who won a Fortnite tournament a few months back and it was millions of dollars. And I think he was like 13 or 15, something like that. And so like at that point,

mom comes in and says, clean your room. And he goes, why? You know? So these are avenues to make money and avenues that are fun to watch. And so I feel like in this time, like you're saying, esports is going to definitely take

a much stronger foothold in what our current society accepts as work, as entertainment, as far as that stuff goes. Because if they're not being, if people don't have the ability to watch, like, so March Madness, ruined, right? Yeah.

And there are people that look forward to that all year and it takes so long and you get so invested and you do your brackets we can't do that and so people need something and i feel like so i so i'm on twitch pretty much daily playing playing video games with people that are in my chat people that come through and so i'm finding more and more people are getting on twitch doing things like that um whether they're sitting just chatting about what would have happened in sports or they're playing video games or they're talking about anything, this type of virtual in-home entertainment is how I'll kind of deem it, is definitely going to be one of the most important things to us at this point in time.

Well, you know what? So, I mean, we are, first of all, so sports-driven in America. I did, I was on, somebody had me as a guest a couple days ago on a sports podcast, and I said, you know, the rest of the world is on lockdown, but all they lost was soccer,

because that's all they play. Look, we lost soccer, football, basketball, baseball, hockey, that strongman competition where they just pick up boulders and walk around. Hot dog eating. I mean, you know, we make everything a sport in this country, you know? So, you know, and to prove it, I saw FIFA. What's it called?

Is it FIFA something? It's like Madden for soccer. Oh, yeah, yeah. Just FIFA and then the year. Yeah. Well, they had that playing on ESPN on TV a few days ago. It was just the video game match, okay? And it was the avatars of these players

and it was straight up video game. Not showing players, not just showing the actual video game. See, this isn't, Chuck, you're making an appeal for us to up our computing power so that what we have on a computer is an exact simulation of ourselves. And then we wouldn't know whether we were in that simulation or not.

Or are we already there? We're already there. Is this the simulation crashing? Ah. The philosophy of the student has spoken. It's biological, but it's actually an electronic virus that's in the code. Chuck glitched out. What twisted programmer decided to throw that in?

But yeah, to that point, it's super interesting seeing stuff like that. So WWE was doing stuff like that yesterday. So's super interesting seeing stuff like that. So WWE was doing stuff like that yesterday. So just streaming across a bunch of platforms. So having dream matches that wouldn't happen, but then having those two people call in and live commentate what's going on. I think we as a country definitely feed off of competition. And once people realize their form of the competition that they enjoy watching isn't going to be around for a little while, they're going to find something else. And the only thing that's really available is esports. What else have we got you going into? Because,

I mean, we know that, you know, if we take you out of your sport, you're going to sit down with a control panel and play the games. But where else has your desire led you to gravitate um so it's it's been mainly video games and wrestling um we've been doing like some some charity stuff so right now uh my friend that i cosplay with everywhere across the country his name is michael mosley uh so i put in a bunch of money so we could get materials and he's actually making a bunch of masks uh for a bunch of our health we could get materials and he's actually making a bunch of masks, uh, for a bunch of our healthcare friends. Cause obviously masks are in short supply right now. And so, uh, doing things like that.

Um, and then just hanging out with my kids, you know, honestly, like I've, so I've got my own podcast. It's me and my boys, the new day, every Monday, check it out the new day. Uh, and that's's that's really it a lot of the things that i'm doing are getting on the internet looking into this camera and talking to a bunch of people on zoom for podcasts or for like and who what kind of guests do you have on your podcast so for our podcast a lot of times it's just us but uh other times we'll have other wrestlers or people that are attached to wrestling and we're trying to to get through all of those and make, essentially make a bigger schedule, especially right now.

So my invitation, it must still be in my inbox. No, I was going to, I was going to ask you when we were done, actually. Because we would love to have you on. Maybe I missed it. We have a, we have a list of people. And at the top for me is you and Michael McDonald. The singer. The singer. list of people and at the top for me is you and michael mcdonald the singer i love michael mcdonald he's the greatest voice of all time yeah he's incredible all right that's so funny that you say that my wife loves michael mcdonald i got a chance to introduce her to mich McDonald because I was doing a show with,

what's the father of the OJs? He's the original OJ, but his sons were two singers too. Yeah. God. But anyway, and it was so funny because he introduced me to Michael McDonald, and then I introduced Michael McDonald to my wife, and now my wife lives with Michael McDonald and then I introduced Michael McDonald to my wife and now my wife lives with Michael McDonald. Chuck,

you're too happy at that. And you know you're going to pay for that remote. He'll get his dig in. But no, we'd love to have,

honestly, we'd love to have honestly we'd love to have all three of you guys on the podcast just pushing the podcast talking about what you're doing because for us

yes there's some wrestling stories but we try to just keep it as three guys who enjoy hanging out with each other have good chemistry and the people that we bring on we try to

let them tell people what else is going on besides wrestling in the world and so we'd be very interested to see what you guys would want to tell people on our show. Before Neil wraps this up, I have one question.

Do you have any advice for the athletes and for those of us who are spectators during this particular pandemic? To the athletes, especially those of you with large followings on social media, just engage with the people that have been rocking with you all throughout your careers, because at this point in time, they just need something. They need something. And for years, they've given something

to you. So do your best to give back to them, whether it's just videos, hey, you know, working out, like people want to see anything, any sense of normalcy that you can give the people who are following you, do your best to give them that. And then for the spectators, uh, just keep constantly supporting everybody that's doing their best to bring you some form of entertainment, some form of normalcy, uh, because that's the only way we're going to get through this is by constantly supporting each other. So there's no need to be negative. Don't put any negativity out there. We don't need it. We don't need, there's enough negative energy out there already. Just put the positive out. Put the positive and keep everybody

smiling. He's got that philosophical angle. Yeah, man. Hey, speaking of philosophy, one last thing for me. How do you solve the trolley problem? How much longer do we have? Forget it.

Yeah, I try to save the most number of lives that I can at any given time. Really? Is that, are you, okay. All right. Yeah, I think in philosophy circles that I'm utilitarian, I think they call it. Yes. That is utilitarian. Yes.

So you don't believe in moral absolutes then? I don't believe in anything. He said, I believe in me. Oh, well, there you go. Kneel for the win. I got to give it to you. Forget it.

You can only do what you can do. Ah, there you go, baby. Before I land this plane, I just got to say, the three of us, that is everyone but Gary, look like we're in our home in some room somewhere. Okay. You're in like a safe house in Siberia.

Big game hunter. Big game hunter Gary. Big game hunter. These are, I'm in the space with them, but they're not mine. Okay. That's what any safe house person would say. And now I have to change my safe house. Thank you.

Exactly. Officer, I've never seen these in my life. Well, Austin, it's been great to have you on. It's been a blast. And we'll await our own invitations to appear on your podcast. 100%. We'd be delighted to do so. Yeah.

And speedy recovery, my friend. Appreciate it. Yeah. This was great. I appreciate you guys having me. Everybody that's listening, check me out on twitch.tv slash Austin Creed and on YouTube, up, up, down, down,

and on Instagram and Twitter at Xavier Woods PhD and listen to our podcast every single Monday. Wherever you listen to podcasts, search The New Day. Click the pink picture with the three black guys' heads on it. See, we would have said that, but there's no way I can remember all of that. So I'm glad you didn't. It's fine. I'm a natural plug machine.

So you've been watching, possibly even listening, to StarTalk Sports Edition. And I've been your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson. I want to thank Chuck and Gary and Austin for being on this program. As always, I bid you to keep looking up.