The Ariel Helwani Show - Cory Sandhagen, Paul Walter Hauser & Marc Raimondi IN STUDIO, Julio César Chávez Jr., On The Nose

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

Ariel Helwani begins with the news and notes before Petesy and the Boys in the Back join to answer your On the Nose questions (07:56).Cory Sandhagen calls into the program to discuss his potential title shot against Merab Dvalishvili, Sean O’Malley’s recent performance, his viral social media skits, lifestyle habits, starting an OnlyFans, and more (1:02:42).Marc Raimondi, Atlanta Falcons reporter and veteran MMA journalist, joins his old friend Ariel to discuss his new book, "Say Hello to the Bad Guys: How Pro Wrestling's New World Order Changed America." He shares insights into his writing process, why he chose to focus on pro wrestling, and stories from his journey as an author (1:33:09).Paul Walter Hauser — Primetime Emmy winner, Golden Globe Award winner, and professional wrestler — comes in-studio to shoot on his biggest acting roles, his lifetime love of wrestling, breaking into the sport, aspirations and dream matchups, producing for Major League Wrestling, dealing with injuries, WWE storylines, and much more (2:32:15).Julio César Chávez Jr., former WBC champion, ends the day with a preview of his upcoming fight against Jake Paul. He gets into his father’s legacy, the state of his career, a rumored matchup against Darren Till, regrets around the Anderson Silva fight, and more (3:28:26).Ariel and the Boys wrap up the show by answering your Super Chats (3:51:22).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Errorio Hawaii Show! Back in your life! On this Wednesday, June 18, 2000. And 25, hello again everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. I am doing great. It's great to be here on a Wednesday. We love to shoot on Wednesdays. We have a lot of questions to get to.

We have a lot of news to get to. We've got a lot of discussions to be had and topics to discuss. There's a lot going on in the world of combat sports. As always, congratulations to all 10,000 or so die-hard Florida Panthers fans they went again. They win the Stanley Cup Stanley Cup yet again. I feel bad I couldn't watch I love to watch a celebration. I love to watch

The Cup celebration in particular, but I couldn't turn it on You have a whole country who is just dying for a Stanley Cup winner to come back home. It's been 32 years. 32 long years. And then you have this, you know, this tiny little suburb of Fort Lauderdale that is just saying like, oh great, we won again. Yahoo. What, what? Sunrise Florida? Tiny little suburbs. Sunrise Florida?

Are you from Sunrise Florida? I mean, I lived there for a few years, yeah. Specifically Sunrise? Close enough. Well, Sunrise Florida is like a, it's a strip mall, no? It's not, okay, wait, Sawgrass Mills is a mall. That is just where the stadium is. Sunrise, it's like-

Like it would be like referring to the Giants of the Jets as like Meadowland. Bro, bro, bro, did you see their parade last year? It was in a parking lot. The parade was in a parking lot. Like they had nowhere to go. There was literally nowhere for them to go. And not only that, no one wanted them to go anywhere.

By the way, that would be cool. Imagine they went on those boats. Oh yeah, like the fan boats, that would actually be sick. Then I would have a little bit of respect. I'm not trying to hate on the organization or the 10,000 or so diehard fans or even the players for achieving this incredible feat,

but no one could deny that it would mean so much more if Edmonton won, if a Canadian team won. But look, them's the breaks, they didn't win. Fair and square. They lost So I'm just salty. I just want to see Canada have a cup winner again 1993 was the last time by the way when the Montreal Canadiens beat the the anyone Anyone I feel like Jordan should know this who me no Come on. No one LA Kings

McSorley the stick curve No one? LA Kings? McSorley? The stick? Curve? No? Barry Melrose coaching? Yep, shout out. Great show today. A little something for everyone, guys, on today's program. Back into the show, the great Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. He'll be returning to action on the 28th of June against one Jake Paul. It's Mexico versus Puerto Rico at the Honda Center in Anaheim. And it's on his own pay-per-view. JCC Jr., the son of the legendary, the iconic JCC Sr.

That's who JCC Sr. is. He'll join us on the show. So that's fun. We'll talk to him at 4.30. At 3.30. At 3.30 my friends, I'm very much looking forward to this, we have an unbelievable actor joining us in studio. His name, Paul Walter Hauser. He has starred in the likes of I, Tanya, the film on Richard Jewell, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bomber. He was in Inside Out 2.

He's in the upcoming Avengers movie. He's in the upcoming Naked Gun movie. He's in the upcoming Bruce Springsteen movie. He's doing a film on the life and times of Chris Farley. He has, I mean, he has Emmys, he has Golden Globes. The man is very accomplished. Now, why is he in studio? Because he's also the executive producer of Major League Wrestling. And it's not just that. The man actually wrestles. Like he gets in there. He adores wrestling more than anything. He is a hardcore wrestling fan. He's appeared on SmackDown. He's appeared on AEW. These days, a lot of MLW. He's appeared on SmackDown, he's appeared on AEW, these days a lot of MLW, he's appeared on Progress, in fact won a title recently for Progress. Can we give him a taste, a little taste in case you're unfamiliar with PWH in the ring, what he does?

The man puts himself out there, look at him here with the Acuna. Ah nails his head on the ground. Look at that. Through the table. That's a bump right there. He was a part of their battle riot for major league wrestling. Here he is coming out coming out with a shopping cart full of goodies. Great outfit. shopping cart full of goodies, great outfit. Look at this guy. He's amazing. He's like the second coming of Andy Kaufman. Look at that with the kendo sticks. Anyway, very accomplished actor, award-winning actor,

and is also in a new film with the former star of the Titanic, Sydney Sweeney coming up called Americana. Also Halsey in that film, one of TST's favorites. So anyway, Paul Walter Hauser will join us in studio for a wide ranging chat on his career, wrestling, acting, all that and more. This book comes out in six days. It's called Say Hello to the Bad Guys. It is written by ESPN.com's own, but more importantly, my good friend and yours, Mark Ramundi aka Marundi in studio. Marundi in studio after writing his own book. I mean, who would have thought? It's an unbelievable read. I'm very proud of him. The book comes out on June 24th. He's got a few book tour

stops coming up, including tonight in New York City if you're around. It's about the New World Order, the new, new, new, new New World Order, how professional wrestling's New World Order changed America. It's a great story. It is the definitive look at how the NWO is the greatest faction of all time and arguably the greatest wrestling storyline of all time. Do you remember when people were saying John Cena turning heel? Do you remember when people were saying John Cena turning heel was akin to Hulk Hogan turning heel? Do you remember when people said that like two months ago? How do those people feel right now? Anyway,

Morundian Studio, Corey Sanhagan will join us before that to talk about his upcoming title fight against Juan Marabda Wallishvili. Some breaking news this morning. The big man DFW Dana White officially announcing the slate for UFC Abu Dhabi and it's a great card in July on ABC. Look at this. I mean look at some of these fights here. Robert Whitaker versus Rene Derrida, Mr. Mosar Evloyev who really should be fighting for the belt next against Aaron Pico debuting against Evloyev. Piotr Yan against Marcus McGee. Bryce Mitchell heads to the Middle East against Mr. Nomago Madoff

and Mago Madoff, Sharah Bullitt against Marc-André Barriot. That's a nice five pack of fights right there in addition to the others. So Abu Dhabi once again getting a, you know nothing pisses off the Twitterati more than when you say something's a low-key banger. We're like no no no it's actually a high-key banger and then we start debating whether or not it's a low-key or a high-key. Just for the record, whenever I say it's low-key, it's really high-key. But sometimes you just have to make sure people are paying attention. Anyway, maybe a question or two on that. Time now for everyone's favorite segment of the week. It is time. Yeah, there it is.

That's a high-key banger right there, if I do say so myself. Your mom goes to college is up first. Ariel, in your interview with Sean O'Malley, it felt like you and Sean were kind of hinting that a fight was booked or in the works. When a fighter tells you fight news in confidence, do you find it tricky to word your questions without giving anything away?

Or do you enjoy playing with a bit like you did with Sean? Do fighters ever give out afterwards? Or do they understand the humor? For the record, I knew nothing of that. I didn't talk to him beforehand. I wasn't like playing dumb. I was legitimately trying to figure out what he was talking about, who he was talking about. So if someone tells me something

in confidence, I'm not going to betray that and then ask questions hoping that they slip. We did not talk about that beforehand. I don't even know what the fight is. I don't even know if he has a fight. He could have just been messing with us for all I know. Choi, I don't know what this guy's name is. Hello, Ariel, big fan of you and the BITB, and I have a fun lighthearted question. If you could make any UFC fighter turn heel, who would it be? Oh, this is great.

Mine would be Aljo turning on Murab. When Murab brought him close after the win, all I could imagine is Aljo sucker punching Murab and standing over him while holding his belt, or Sean and Aljo teaming up and jumping Murab brought him close after the win, all I could imagine is Aljo sucker punching Murab and standing over him while holding his belt or Sean and Aljo teaming up and jumping Murab. That is an unbelievable scenario. Can you guys imagine this? Imagine if they bring them all in there and then all of a sudden, Murab's like, yes, I did it, my brother, I love you, I love you.

And then Aljo kicks him in the balls and that sets up Aljo versus Marab That would be brilliant I would love that that's that's incredible booking right there. That's amazing I was wondering if you guys were even here. It was I don't know if I could even think of another one Yeah, how about this one? We're actually just having a celebration back. Who the fuck is we? Yeah. How about this one? How about this one? Islam wins the welterweight title and Khabib says, you stole my shine, this was my opportunity. That would be incredible. Or Islam just hops on the mic and pulls a Michael Chandler.

Habib nirbaka manna. Ha ha ha ha. I'm tired of being in your shadow. Are there any realistic ones? You've held me back for years. I think either of these has happened. These are like so good because they would never happen. They're so good because of. I think a lot of people are waiting for Rory Are there any realistic ones? You've held me back for years. Neither of these has happened. These are like so good because they would never happen in a million years.

I think a lot of people are waiting for Rory to turn on GSP. You know what I mean? He never quite got to the level though that it mattered, you know? GSP was there and Rory could just never climb that mountain really. Okay, can I give you guys an...oh my god. Can I give you guys maybe the greatest one of all time? This is a, by the way, shout out to this guy. Okay, you go and then I got something.

Okay, okay, okay. This is an incredible one. Now we're kind of like, you know, blending the two worlds here. Enough with the qualifiers, just go. Patty versus Ilya for the belt. Patty is moments away and here comes Molly, turns on Patty and signs with Ilya. Everton Liverpool comes to a head, Meatball Molly turns and pulls out the Spanish flag

and says it was me all along. No, hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizer, yeah.. Oh and then squirts hand sanitizer in his eye. Oh my god that would be incredible. Okay. What was yours? I was gonna say we should just say that we're getting the friends teammates turn rivals with Kayla and Amanda like that's it that one at least has like a real life-basing and they truly were teammates at one point. Yeah two degree.

I don't think they were ever as close as any of the kind of, you know, things that we're talking about, which would make it... Can I tell you what might be the most realistic of them all? Yeah. Like legit, I could see happening. Bilal turns on Islam. They're not really friends. That's not real though.

Exactly. That's why it could happen. He's like, you celebrated in my darkest hour. You were never my friend. You never wanted what's best for me. You wanted me to lose so that you could take my belt. Well, here I am. Do we think if Islam becomes champion, that Bala will be like, well, I'm done with this division.

I'm going up to 185. I'm going up to 85. No chance. What did Islam say on Twitter afterward? He first was just like double champ status time, let's go. And then he was like, give your head a ball. Oh yeah, by the way, commiserations. Oh, Piti, Piti, I have an incredible one for you.

I love how Piti's just sitting here and saying nothing, just looking at all of it. Piti, I have an absolutely amazing one, okay? Check this out, check this out. Okay, it's New York, it's Madison Square Garden, it's a vacant heavyweight title fight, Tommy is literally seconds away from beating Sorrel Ghand, but here comes Phil DeFries who never got the attention and love that he deserved.

And he, I thought you were going to say Tom's dad or something. No, no, no. Phil DeFries turns on Tom Aspital and sides with the Frenchman, the true Benedict Arnold because he says, you stole all my shine. Oh my God. This is such a fun topic. I'm the best British heavyweight ever. Yes. Yeah. No one talks about you. What about Colby like becoming a bleeding heart liberal and saying like,

Donald Trump, I've had enough. Colby's in the corner for all. He turned on DT. 45, 47. Colby. Wait, so, Wait, so Colby turning on, Uspun has to be fighting someone and then Colby sides with Uspun against him because he hates him so much. Maybe Ian Gary?

Ian Gary versus Uspun? Oh, would that be unbelievable? I'm so funny with Ian Gary, Jesus Christ. Oh, what a fun topic. Gosh, this is an amazing topic. This is one of my favorite topics we've had in a long time. What else? What else? Is there another one? Is there another one?

Wonder Boy just becoming a bad motherfucker. A bad guy. Wonder Boy with a black beard. Don't go and fuck yourselves. Fuck everybody. I just don't know who he turned. Another one. Aya Quinta turning on Murab would be one that would cut deep. Like you need one that would really have to cut deep By the way just send heel turns. Yeah We me and Connor had been pushing for the Mario Bautista heel turn, but he just never really like yes

I know if it's there They've given him the mic are at a at 316 that was his opportunity Just be like I took out Jose Aldo DJ comes in New Jersey, yeah a shithole DJ comes in and and and costs Pantoja the title you you had the audacity to say my name keep my name out of your mouth I'm the greatest of all is that okay, so is it is it? Pantoja and oh My god, okay. No, oh my God.

KKF? No, no, oh my God, Horoguchi. Yeah. Is that the one? But are they, I feel like they've said they would fight each other, so it doesn't really have this, it doesn't hit the same. We need the ones where it's like the people are like,

oh, they're all in our face about being best friends, you know? Yeah. Anyway, here's Juan Sanchez, great question. Hello, Ariel and crew. My question could be more so for PT or for any UK MMA fans who would like to weigh in. I reside in Chicago and I'm going to be in London for the IFW card.

As an American resident, how can I best go about watching these fights? What are some tips that can help an American watching slash streaming fights in the UK? I'm excited to be in solidarity with UK UFC fans staying up at ungodly hours to watch fights Thank you for any input in advance. I mean, I guess maybe what he's wondering is like, could he go to a bar? Probably not right? They closed really early in London. It's crazy Like you can actually go places in Dublin now because the late licenses you more But you probably get you probably get thrown out just before the main event though I think it's like five here now. But London is notoriously early close. So I don't know maybe someone could get on to me. I know some of the lads in London listen to the show

so maybe they could text me if they have any suggestions and I can get them over to this guy but every time I've been there after like if you're trying to stay up for a UFC pay per view you got to be in a hotel basically and get them to to this guy. But every time I've been there after, like, if you're trying to stay for a UFC pay per view, you got to be in a hotel basically and get them to turn it on the bar. And once you're in the residence part, it can keep serving it. So you're going to be on tour. You'll probably be in a hotel. You'll be sorted. But I don't know if you'll get that collective environment where everybody's watching it. Yeah. Also, it's not a pay per view, right? The TNT. Oh, is Ilya pay per view? Because I know they'd like to do two pay per views or so a year, but I don't know.

Usually Connor fights are her main fights. That's the only thing they've done pay per view so far. I haven't seen it being advertised, but they usually hit us with it on fight week. A lot of people get very upset about this, like, you know, but it's 20 quid. I think it's 20 or 30 quid. And to get to get them, I know we do pay a subscription fee for this stuff over here. But every time I talk to my American friends about what they're paying every week every month for a pay-per-view It's gonna like makes me feel a lot better, you know

Hi crew Tank Davis is obviously a great fighter But what fights do you think he needs after Roach to cement himself as one of the greats? Who fought the best of his generation? First of all, I think he needs to stop Roach to be honest because of what happened. Like that will always be a weird thing, a weird little asterisk on his career because... You think he lost, did you? Well, I think he should have been DQ'd, honestly.

Oh, yes, sir. Like the knockdown should have counted and then he went to the corner and got wiped off in the middle of the round. Like that's just not allowed so at the very at the very very least it should have been a draw and then it wouldn't have been crazy for him to be DQ'd so he has to go in there and do his thing there are a ton of fights for him at 135 at 140 obviously him and Shakur have been going back and forth I really wanted to see Keyshawn versus him but now Keyshawn's stock has really taken a big hit so

I mean like he's fine. Is Anaheim too small? Is what? Is too small for Anaheim? Anaheim too small? Oh yeah yeah Anaheim is way too small yeah. I mean I would love to see it and I mentioned it as like a sort of uh catch weight. Oh you did you got you got you got roasted for it.

Yeah but I only I only mentioned it because Bob Arum mentioned it first. Bob Arum said, let's do it in Dodger Stadium. And I was like, holy shit, this is an incredible idea. In a way, fighting in Dodger Stadium, Tank Davis, you know, very popular in America, and then everyone killed me for it. But if they can meet in the middle, I just don't think that he wants to cut that kind of weight to get down there, even if it's at like 125 or 130.

He also says, side note, will we get an Ariel and Ade on the nose? I love that show and didn't know you knew so much about boxing. Carl Frosch needs to stop being a twat. Thanks for the content. Wow, thanks Lewis. Hey Carl! Good to see you! Love it. It's been a while since we heard that one. Big Guy Bishop, hello Ariel and friends. Excuse me if you have already addressed Good to see you. Love it. It's been a while since we heard that one big guy Bishop Hello Ariel and friends. Excuse me If you have already addressed this but is there any truth to the rumors by Yuri being the next fight for big onk? If these are true, does this mean we are getting forever as Tom? Also, could you please ask Frank to add me on Nintendo switch Don Davis and I would like a third for Mario Party

Did we talk about this last week? It's a reoccurring thing. Oh no, but like, did I answer that first part? No, Yuri's not going to, the plan is still Pereira versus Big O. That's the plan. And I would say the plan, if the Jones thing doesn't come to fruition,

would be Tom versus Surreal. Yesterday, Dana White was on the Jim Rome show, still banging the drum about this. A couple of nuggets there yesterday from Dana White, he was doing some media, still banging the drum about Tom versus John, still holding out hope. I actually kind of believe that he knows.

I'm very, here's what I'm most curious about. I'm not curious about whether or not they could salvage this fight. I'm curious, here's what I'm most curious about. I'm not curious about whether or not they could salvage this fight. I'm curious about how he's going to spin it, if he's even going to try to spin it at all. Is he going to say, oh you know he's banged up or oh he's unavailable or oh we tried and he didn't want to fight? Like how is he going to spin this? That's what I'm curious about. But as of yesterday, he's still banging the drum that this is going to happen, which you know, I think it would take a miracle at this point. Number one. Number two, he also confirmed that the Canelo versus Crawford fight is going to be taking place on September 13th

in Las Vegas at a Legion Stadium. So they did in fact move that UNLV football game. So that is notable. And he told Sports Business Journal that the name of the promotion is in fact going to be Zufa Boxing. Which I kind of dig. I like Zufa Boxing better than TKO Boxing. I like a lot. I wouldn't hate it if it was just called Zufa to be honest. But this is obviously a callback. They've got the merch. They've got the logo. And if you're a long time fan,

you know what Zufa means and represents. It's the Italian word for fight. That's what they used to tell us. Let me see, let me see if I type in fight in Italian. I never actually looked this up. Translation. It says combatimento. Oh no Listen Lorenzo told me it meant fight. Let me see if I type in Zufa Zufa

Scuffle. Okay. All right close enough. Yeah scuffle Not quite as intense scuffle boxing scuffle boxing. There it is. Anyway, so in case you're wondering what the name of the promotion is, it is in fact Zufa. Zufa boxing to be exact. Um, Lutex fumble. Hello, Ariel. And especially Jordan, as this question relates to him specifically, why did you decide to become a forest fan and not a Spurs fan?

I would have thought with your strong overt ties to your heritage, you would have picked the Zufa fumble. And I'm sure you would have picked the Zufa fumble As this question relates to him specifically, why did you decide to become a Forrest fan and not a Spurs fan? I would have thought with your strong overt ties to your heritage, you would have picked the Yid army over any of the other teams in the league. It's also the team of Bill Simmons, who I understand is somewhat of a hero for you.

Cheers and come on you Spurs. Well, you know, I don't like to root for losers. No, I'm just kidding. Um. Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh. Yeah. Well that was just kidding. Um, um, uh, uh, I,

yeah. Well that was just sort of, you know, that was like, you walked right into that one there. Uh, I, I, I didn't want to, I didn't want to pick one of the big dogs. You know, I felt like everyone you talk to anyone, who are you a fan of? You're, you're either going to get, you're going to get

Liverpool, Arsenal, United, City, Spurs. You wanted a plucky underdog. You purposely went out of your way. You looked into the history. I remember when you were looking up, you were going, I want to get on board with a team. I'm looking up different things about them. And I think it was Cloughy who put it over the line for you, wasn't it? It was that, it was the history, it was the logo, and also I love the fact that they were just promoted. So it felt like a fresh start. They hadn't been in the Premier League for 23 years.

It all just felt like it worked. And then as fate would have it, I was in London two weeks later, I get to go to them versus Man City away, they lose 6-0, three goals for Holland in the first half. It was love at first sight. By the way, have you been enjoying the Club World Cup, P.T.? I was watching it just before we got on here. Man City 2-0 up a half time against some team that I've never heard of. You're into it?

Casablanca I think. Yeah, I don't mind it. Yeah, that's right. And Amrabat was playing from a former Fiorentina and some lonely at Manchester United during our horrific spells that is ongoing at the moment. Um, but yeah, I like it and there's more people on it than I imagined. And, uh, I've been listening to a lot of the coverage. It was a great interview on second captain's year day with a, with a South South Americans, uh, an English guy who's based in South America. I wish his name escapes me now, but he was very good.

And he kind of put it to the European media. Like, you know, you can keep complaining about this, but this means a lot to people in South America. Like this is a huge moment. He explained how like the Champions League was formed in the fifties then the Copa Libertadores was formed. I think that's how you say it in South America to find the best South American team. And it's been very rare that we've, we've got an opportunity or a possibility where

they could come together and find out who's the best. And obviously have more segments of the world represented in this tournament. So I think that was good to have a counter argument to a lot of the criticism that the tournament has faced, even though some of it is a lot of it is very well founded. I think it's good to have a counter balance and to understand that the European view isn't all that matters when it comes to this global tournament they're putting on. I dig it. I think it's been fun.

Um, it's going to get really fun. The knockout stages, like if it's been fun now, it's going to be crazy. Once the big dogs are left, it's going to be like a mini, you know, champions league tournament for, for all intents and purposes. Um, hello Ariel from Ben. If you want a huge sum of money tomorrow, I'm talking like 500 million, would you still continue to do this job or any job at all? Golly.

That's a tough question. 500 million is a lot of fucking money, man. Yeah, man, I don't know. Honestly, I might just say. You know what I mean? I'm gonna go chill for a year or so and figure things out. Maybe you buy, can I buy some kind of sporting franchise for 500 million?

That's it, that's the mill. That's a good question. Could I buy a low level football club? Oh, for sure. Like not a Premier League club? Yeah. Yeah, if you had 500 million, no doubt. Championship team, you think?

No? I'd party myself to death within 24 hours of making that kind of money. What's the first thing I do? Do I buy a Westphalia? Do I buy that like an original and my 60 grand yeah, I'd like pay my mortgage I do the most you get no no you get everything off the table right like you just clear all debt settled Yeah, yeah, that's a hunt. That's easy. That's the first fun money put away

I'm the most boring dude, and then we all go to South Korea and drink with Iron Turtle I'm the most boring dude. And then we all go to South Korea and drink with Iron Turtle. No, we fly in here. Why do we have to? Or that. Do we go on a private plane to freaking Australia? Like how much does that cost?

Who cares? We got 500 million in the bank. You guys are fucking. I'm getting a lot of plastic surgery. I like how this is wee by the way. Oh yeah, we're all in the tea. I'm loving the wee. We bought Nick's courtside season tickets. That would cost me like what 50k or something? Probably more.

100k? Now get the life jacket. Drop in the bucket. Just be like dropping the bucket at that point. By the way he also says with nothing but love to GC and the rest of you can we please now stop talking about Sean Brady and the bike challenge. He clearly isn't interested and it's starting to feel like chasing after an ex who doesn't want to talk to you anymore Wow, yeah, I feel like we said that ourselves. Yeah, and we have moved on. Yeah That's all right. No, no, no worries, man. I Think you'll come around but yes, it is it is I don't want what if I don't want to stop talking about it? Yeah That's a good point. It's a good point

fucking finish with it yet. Perhaps PT, you can provide some insight into this one. Cosmo Kramer, do we have any effing news on big news Hughes versus Ousmane? Sick of seeing my boy being out on the sideline while the PFL needs his fight. What's going on PT? What's the crack? I don't know what the fuck is going on. I'll tell you what happened.

They put out a tweet saying that the winner of a fight between Bansal Burnway and Colgan, right? Archie Colgan was going to be decided who fights him next. And we all had a shit fit, of course, in Ireland. You see Paul there, Hey, quit the rage bait. Sources have told me within the camp that it sounds like they aren't going to go with it. But then the coach showed up at the press conference, the coach being like an insider,

PFL insider, John Coachman. No, no, no, no. He's not an insider. They have position. No, no, no. They, they clarified that he is in fact an insider actually. They have clarified that to the media. Insider Jonathan Coachman shows up at the press conference, the press conference. And he said, don't you believe what that official

PFL account is saying? Only believe what the coach says. And if you're not watching the coach rules, which is a show that is within the PFL broadcast, as far as I'm concerned, as far as I know, if you're not watching that or his tweets, you don't know what's going on, which is one of the most confusing situations I've ever heard or seen a promotion do in my life. So not don't, don't believe what the official account of the PFL is saying. Believe what Jonathan Coachman is saying, who is labeled as an insider for the PFL but is also Doing press conferences on behalf of the PFL. Well, this shows it shows a lot of confusion on their part. I I've had

I've never had an issue with Jonathan Coachman Never at all and then all of a sudden one day he's starting to go on Twitter talking all kinds of shit about me And then all of a sudden one day he's starting to go on Twitter talking all kinds of shit about me Making things up and talking about things he has no idea about and then all of a sudden We're thrust into a situation where we have to work together on the Misfits card and he couldn't have been nicer and we shook Hands and I was like, okay, I didn't really understand what all that was. But alright fine We're all good. And so I'd like to leave it at that but but, and I hope he understands this if he hears this, this is just another example of PFL not knowing what they're doing. Because it's very clear that Don Davis and Peter Murray don't want to be that guy.

They don't want to be the guy standing at the dais answering those questions. They're not that guy. They're businessmen. They're not that guy. Ray Seffo, God bless him, not that guy. He's a coach. He's not that guy. He's never been that guy I'm not even sure what his role is anymore and how he has maintained that role if we're being 100% honest after all these years World Series of Fighting and so it's very clear. I I know for a fact Don Davis really likes coach great He's a great broadcaster. He's been around for a long time. He's got cache and he said okay You do these press conferences you answer the questions Well, this is the the biggest issue with people who don't know anything about fighting. It's not about who speaks

Well, it's not about who can stand there You know at the dais and and look good or play the part People want to talk to people who are in the know who actually make the decisions Jonathan Coachman isn't making the fights And so it's the same thing like when you know when when, when the UFC bought WC and Reid Harris would show up and sort of dance around these questions, we all knew he wasn't the one actually making the decisions. Or when the UFC bought StrikeForce and Scott Coker had no power anymore, he wasn't the one making the decisions. It wasn't interesting speaking to him anymore. making decisions, it wasn't interesting speaking to him anymore. Or when people say to me like, Hey, Daniel Cormier or Chael Sonnen should be the face of the UFC. Well, they don't make decisions.

So that's not very interesting. Give me a boring guy. If it's Hunter Campbell or someone who doesn't have a name, who doesn't have the personality, but at least we know he makes the decisions. That's why Eddie Hearn is so great to talk to because he's charismatic, entertaining, and he makes the decisions. And so this idea to say, Hey, let's put a broadcaster up there and answer the questions because he speaks well is just another example of them not quite understanding how this works.

Because then you're put in a position where a great journalist like Donna Corby is asking him a question and he dances around it and creates a bigger mess than if it was just someone who was in the know being like, hey, we're going to figure it out. Because that answer created a bigger mess. Do you see what I'm saying? He's not the decision maker. He's not the guy. He's just the guy that they said, hey, you go answer

the questions because we don't want to do it. That's how it works. And that's why it's awkward. Like when Anik is up there at the press conferences and people ask him questions, he doesn't have the power to answer these things. He doesn't want to answer these types of questions. Dave Shaw, same thing.

He's just trying to get out of there alive. He's just trying to get out of there alive He's just trying to get out of there without getting into trouble And that's the same thing with anyone else who is not ultimately the boss And so I look at that and I'm like these guys just don't get it same way They don't get it when they put on you know events at Universal Studios or When they make the uniforms or when they do some of these bookings or how they treat some of their talent like they just don't get it. And it's just example after example after example. They don't get it.

Well, Dan Hardy is there. Dan Hardy is at these events. He is a commentator. He is the answer either. He isn't the answer. He's the driving force behind one of the most successful elements of this whole fucking promotion. What they've done in Europe is fantastic and no one's able to see it.

You're going to be able to watch the one in Belgium here, but the stuff hard he's done in Europe has been fantastic. And he's been a driving force. I'm speaking to the teams he's reaching out to. There was obviously a big gap at one stage with Bellator, especially back then, where they weren't reaching out to certain teams. Dan is spreading the love. He's reaching out to everyone.

He's trying to make contacts. He's trying to build up prospects. And I think that's been reflective in the the in the Paris cards in the UK. And we're going to see in Belgium a card full of really, really talented youngsters that he's found over there. This is a guy who knows about fights at the very least. I really it's better than having a guy up there saying look at look at my account. Don't look at fucking. I don't even know what that is. I don't know.

I mean, that was bizarre. It was truly bizarre. But yes, I couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more. Yes. Dan is boots on the ground. He's actually signing people. They're, they're, they're a mess. They're an absolute mess. They had something. They had some kind of momentum a year and a half or so ago and they've squandered it ever since the Bellator acquisition. It's gone south for them. Fair. But yeah, I think it's fair, but they have done great things in Europe. And I think that's another reason to be annoyed about this.

Like Paul does this card in Belfast. The whole selling point of this card is you're not going to be able to see this guy fight here again, because he's going off to fight for the world title. And then he gets 8,000 people there. He does a great call out. Like this is stuff that they don't do. PFL do not do this, right? They do it in Paris.

They've done it in a few different places, but they don't do it in, in, in UK and Ireland, Paul Hughes made that happen. And then it's like, Oh, well, thanks very much. But we're actually going in a different direction with that. Like that's, that's being dishonest to the fan base that you've got to pay for tickets. You don't have this happen every day to then tell those same people like, Oh, no, we're not going to do that. It's very disingenuous and people don't forget that shit. Yep. You don't have this happen every day. To then tell those same people like, oh no, we're not gonna do it.

It's very disingenuous and people don't forget that shit. Yep, you're right. George, Shalom, Ariel and team. Would the team be interested in doing a new segment on Boys in the Back where each week a different team member vlogs a day in the life to see how everyone's day differs at Uncrowned? Also, if it's not too much to ask,

could you text His excellency mr. Turkey if he is actually buying my beloved mill wall FC. Okay, let me get on that Excuse me, Turk. All the best. Keep up the good work. We might be doing more vlogs not quite the way you're laying it out, but Stay tuned Yeah I would like to see a PC day in the life I'd like to see a PC day in the life from I would like to see a PT day in the life from like,

you walking the dog, getting into the spot, all that stuff. I could do that, yeah, no problem. Um, Rob, Rob Mallow, fun hypothetical for IF Dub. If Charles misses weight, will they automatically replace him with Tsurukian or will Ilya still be allowed to decide to fight Charles? If he does have the choice, do you think he fancies a match against an overweight Charles or a 155 Tarukyan? If Charles misses weight? You mean it's one of those scenarios where he misses weight so if he wins he can't win the belt who knows what I don't even still be allowed to

decide is it kind of give me a headache this question it's a lot of ifs if he does have the choice do you think he fancies a match gets an over what how am I supposed to know my name is not Ilya stuff it is tough but that would be crazy it would be crazy six months later if Tarukin has to waltz in there on 24 hours notice. Adam, hi Aaron the gang. Real quick one on the Tom John thing. If it's not happening in Thomas Fighting, insert name here, surreal gun. When you foresee it happening, if it's for the vacant heavyweight title, it would surely be a pay-per-view headline, but we have all of those confirmed until at least October.

Well there's a pay-per-view in early October in Vegas and then one in late October in Abu Dhabi. So I think October makes a lot of sense. Could be one of those. It's seriously looking like Tom is going to have been non-active for the best part of 18 months during the prime of his career. It's absolutely criminal. It is.

Anyway, I shall speak nothing more of it. Love the show all the best. Yeah, I think October makes sense. Do a heavyweight tournament that day. Hmm make us interested in that fucking division again Like if John Jones is leaving do a heavyweight tournament Let us know that night who the winner is fighting next like just yeah inject it with steroids give it to us Here's a good one Oil beef hooked so burial if turkey came to you and said he'd donate

one billion to a charity of your choice, but all you had to do was a three round MMA match against any of the following. Ali, BLB, Flat Earth Frosh, or Dana? Frock. Frosh? Frosh. Beep.

Who are you choosing? Who are you choosing to match up against? Who do you think the boys, who do the boys think you can take over three rounds? I mean, these are very tough opponents, by the way. There's one. Is it MMA rounds or boxing rounds? MMA. Oh crotch. Former, former Olympian, former Olympian, Egyptian

Olympian, uh, former UFC champion, former boxing champion or former boxing champion, or former amateur champion? Also, am I allowed to juice as well? I mean, you'd have to. All these things on the juice. Dinos, melt in the fucking test. I don't know, man. Who am I going after?

Billion dollars? No, no. Who am I picking? I know, but it doesn't really matter for a billion. Wouldn't you get in there with any of them? I know, but who's the most, who's the most winnable? I will fight any of them for a billion.

Okay, record this. You get a billion win or lose. Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna say Dana's probably like of that list. Because of the age? It's like, yeah. Age and- Who would you have most banter with?

And the least actual ability. Yeah, you're right, you're right, you're right. You're gonna sell the fight more. You know what I mean? But we'll be there. We'll be in your corner. That would also do the biggest numbers. I mean, that's true.

I'll be. I'm not bringing in the numbers in fairness. That is not going to happen for me. And I think how real fuck it like I need them. You know what I mean? I fancy a billion dollars. And then we get the random 500 mil from the earlier. Sorry, Pete. You said you fancy them against these guys

Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you. By the way, we're sitting on a billion and 500 million year I know people are just trying to give you money today now granted one of them was for charity and the other one was listen Pocket it. It's still it's still a great getting those floor seats for this kind of support. Yeah, that's what we're doing I'm gonna be in the corner this kind of support. Yeah. That's what we're doing here. I'm really excited. I'm gonna be in the corner, but. I'll get you United tickets. But I don't like our odds. Mick's gonna be in the corner going,

oh, we're gonna lose. I'll be in the corner with. We don't need that. The towel ready to go. We don't need that. I thought you were gonna say with the GoPro. Yeah, I'll have the ref glasses on when I bomb the towel in Peyton Manning. Speaking of Ali, Sebastian says,

my girlfriend and I were wondering, why does Kayla seem to have no issue coming on the show and actually seems to enjoy you very much even though she's managed by the infamous Ali, your loyal fans, Tony and Sebastian? Because she has a mind of her own, she is okay making decisions on her own, and she recognizes that she is the boss

and he works for her, that's the way this should go, and she's comfortable in her own and she recognizes that she is the boss and he works for her. That's the way this should go and she's comfortable in her own skin and she's not going to let anyone tell her what to do. She has bigger quote unquote balls than any of the other fighters on the roster. Maybe that's why she's a two-time Olympic gold medalist because she's a badass because she doesn't let anyone dictate who she speaks to, what she does, she thinks for herself, yeah, all those things. Jesus, if I said that, the abuse would get off you, Leona Penner, Jesus. This is from MBE28, GC, you ever use the show

to get a girl's number, pull up a clip of you on the bike or something? Jesus Christ. No, I promise you girls are not interested in this show. You know, but he's saying pull up a clip of you on the bike Yeah, that it's not gonna work and by the way the previous question guys said his girlfriend and I were wondering so they clearly are interested How would you say they're just pretend like if the girlfriend is only interested because the boyfriend has forced her to watch the program How would you try That's over it if you had to?

Hold on, that's not fair because we've had some wonderful women calling into the show on boys in the back leaving voice mails. There are women out there that are watching this content. Yeah, when I tell women about my job, they're usually just like, ah. That's interesting. Okay.

The fighting thing. And in their head they're like. Is it real? Loser. It reminds me of the time I was at Syracuse University and I finally got this girl in psychology classes number that I really, really liked. And then I said, you know what?

I'm not gonna do the like, oh, wait three, four day thing. I'm gonna call her the next day. So I called her on a Saturday night. I was watching NBA All-Star Weekend, I remember. And she's like, oh, hey, what are you doing tomorrow? And I said, I'm interviewing the Iron Sheik on my wrestling radio show. Yeah, and I never heard from her again.

Yeah, yeah, so maybe. When I learned Mom was there, that's a big learning. Okay. Just kind of keep it low key until, you know. Until the time is right. Oh, cool for sports, you know, go with that one. Yeah, who do you work for? Y'all do sports.

Sports. Wow, not even on Crown? It's on Crown and they're like, ah. Ah, what's that? And then you're interviewing the orange chic then, aren't you, let's be honest. The revolting blob asks, dear Ariel, now that we got the Iron Turtle on the show,

how do we get Parker Porter on next? Oh, he's the next one. I was hoping that the pride of West Hartford, Connecticut would make an appearance after scoring a one minute knockout in the main event of BKFC in his home state this past weekend. I don't know what we'll work on it. I love how we can't even revel in having the Iron Turtle

for one second before they're like, all right, now there's a new guy. Let's enjoy the turtle for now, but yeah. The pork man coming soon. Christian Juarez asks, hello, AHS fam. Ariel, I'm asking this as someone looking from the outside in, so please forgive my ignorance. It is my understanding,

when it comes to the Bar Mitzvah celebration, usually there's someone or something big that the parents gift their child per their request. Did your son ask for a celebrity or a certain thing for his celebration? Much love from Chicago. Well, he only asked for one thing and he did not get it. He asked for a cell phone and he did not get it.

He got a hell of a lot more than that though. And well, now I'm in debt for the next 10 years. No, he got a lot of great things. Actually my good friend John Beer gave him an unbelievable gift and yeah should I tell them the story or should I not? Yeah. Should I say it? Absolutely. I don't know. Yeah. I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't know the story. Frank's not looking out for my best interest. Yeah, I have't know. Yeah. I don't think so. I don't think so. I genuinely don't know the story, so. Frank's not looking out for my best interest. Yeah, I also have no idea what the story is.

I wouldn't tell the story. How do you know what the story is? Oh, there it is. The thing I sent to the group. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I know that thing.

Yeah, keep it private. Keep it private. What? How annoying is this for the listeners? Frank wants everything to be revealed to everyone unless it's about himself. The guy, yeah, exactly. He's like, oh, yeah, go, go, go, go go go go he doxed me on a episode of boys in the back either. We Wow Why Frank why would you do that what what you were asking what age is he going to be allowed to have a cell phone?

Okay, so we've well, how did you how did you push the convert? How did you kick the can down? I told him So it's getting to the point he, he's literally the last kid left. Yeah. He's entering eighth grade, he's very clearly into the females now, and he's saying that it's hurting him. It's hurting his game. It's hurting him. Yeah, here's the game.

It is. They're calling him iPad boy. Wow! Oh no! I say, look man, be comfortable, own it, you're different, be proud. I've changed my stance. iPad boys tell us.

I've changed my stance even as a father. Show up. I've changed my stance. Give him a June bug or something. Yo, you know those people that show up like tourists with iPads and take pictures of things. That's your son to school? Yes.

This ceremony was supposed to represent the manhood and now I'm...'m I'm negative oral I feel like I feel like he needs it. I said by the end of 25. Okay. Okay I can confidently say my life ended once I got a cell phone. That's what everything been downhill son There you go. So I'm trying to delay that. Yeah, I see all the videos all the time I was 14 you were 14 man. I think I trying to delay that. I see all these videos all the time. I was 14. You were 14, man? I think I was also like 13, 14.

Oh my God. I got mine, I think, third year of college. I had a StarTac, remember those? I was in junior high, rocking the StarTac. Then I had the Nokia with the snake on it. What the fuck? That was the one. That was the jam. That was the one. I always see these videos. The moment you give your kid a cell phone, their childhood childhood dies so why do I want to partake in that why do why do I want to expedite well here's my only my father's advocate he has a an iPhone watch or

whatever it's inevitable though this will end at some point sure never trying fucking sending out a message on one of these fucking things yeah it's not great it's not great and also getting called iPad boy like you're you're hurting him here. I'm sorry Yeah, I've had boys. I'm sticking out for all the year get get him the fucking phone. You can't deal with this Can't be I was like I want to be like here listen what's going on? Can I get your number and then hang on there? What is it? I know you hand over the tablet I have a solution of face time you if you wanted to lose the moniker iPad boy No more iPad no iPhone. No nothing just go

Be the guy that's off the grid. No, no, why don't you just read a book? Yeah, I'd love that I'd love that He's predicting also that the siblings are gonna get away earlier than him, but I'm gonna they will they will yeah You will break ground here It's like fortnight. I held out on ground here and then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like Fortnite. I held out on Fortnite and then all of a sudden he gets it, but then everyone's younger and he's like, how is this fair?

But that's part of the, you have the burden. You are the, you are the first. You're the first. You have the burden. You have the burden. Here's Panky. Give him the phone. Matt Chowewies.

Hi Ariel and gang and James Tuhuna. James Tuhuna? It never fails. Happy International Sushi Day. Ariel, whilst we know you love your fancy sushi, what are each of your go-to dishes and why? That's a good one. There's a great Scottish salmon at Sasa Bunae, 73rd and first.

Go check it out. One of the all-time great sushi spots. Just 800 quid if you have it there just Yes, it's more affordable. Yes, this is like 130 each. Yeah, it's not that bad Pete. Do you want to go when you come in? This is a boon a me you and Jordan for our collective birthdays. Yeah, but it's all good. I forgot you had it. No, no, no, no, no, no. Fucking hell, GZ. I'm going to Wegmans next door without y'all. Right. I'm not going to GZ.

Y'all say fancy sushi man, Ariel, he'll eat the grocery store stuff. Yeah, yeah. I mean, do I enjoy it as much? No, but you know, sushi's sushi. I went to an omakase last week. All right, that's dangerous, but mostly. Sushi Nakazawa in the West Village.

It was a fancy Omakase. How was it? It was great. No music, no nothing. There was just like popping. Are we going to the spot in Vegas? No. We've got some developments on that. If I can expense it, I'm there.

What kind of developments? We spoke to to John beer. Yeah, I don't know if you revealed that on the show, but I'll talk to John beer about it and Your numbers may have been off. I asked her for itemize. They may be north of what you were talking about Oh shit, he was speaking like suggested that he's a difference in your two bills Why cuz I had a socket because that cuz they told me about the gold-plated sake thing and I was like, alright yolo Let's go. Yeah He was saying it was it was it was quite expensive Let's just say unless we get that that donation of billions or five hundred million dollars. It ain't happening

I don't recall this. Well, I mean this is like you're making all the sake This feels like you're making a real push for for us that I think you want to man. Listen I'm just trying to bond as a team. That's all. Just go to Ramsay Burger. I've already got the race car book. Wait, what'd you say, Pizzi? Ramsay Burger.

It's easy, you know what I mean? Have we made any reservations? Wednesday, Thursday, Friday? I can't. For food? Oh, yeah? Maybe, maybe. No, for food, for food.

Oh, yeah, we did wake one. That's what we were celebrating earlier. We can tell you off air. Oh, wow, okay. We got something. Which day, which day? day Sunday Sunday oh I like son okay you're okay how what time in the morning in the morning you know he's wondering why he wasn't invited no I pulled some strings I pulled some

string ooh at the sushi spot no tell me it's like what the fuck don't tell me it's like some sort well you're not part of this pizza you you're in no I'm confused you're going you're gonna be there until Sunday. We're gonna be there to Monday We've all we've only gone over this 48 Defense he's very very confused about the schedule I have received he's told me four times said ten text messages being like hey wait Is this a show now am I doing now? I literally sent him a message yesterday. Are we still going on Peter Lugers when you're here? Oh yeah I'd love that yeah. I need to send an email with all of the ideas for my New York sojourn.

Let's go for lunch after the crack when you're here. Oh yes. But the fight will be on immediately after the crack though, will it? Oh wait, no, times are getting full. Oh no, yes it is. Oh, it's at like 8 p.m. isn't it? Yeah, it prelims everything. It's a good card, top to bottom. Samantha Marshall, Chantal Cameron.

There's plans, there's plans. Burger, Peter Luger's on the fight. Hey Ariel, I was going to run through all the reasons why Kendrick is so much better than Drake, but I realize I'll never change your mind no matter how bad your opinion is, so instead I'll just ask the question to you and the crew. What moment in UFC history would you want to go back and relive in person? I have two. Silva Chell won.

I was there and it was insane. I remember sitting on press row and thinking to myself, Chell Sonnen is five minutes away from becoming UFC champion. I cannot believe this. I remember thinking that vividly, like looking around and being like, wow,un is five minutes away from becoming UFC champion. I cannot believe this. I remember thinking that vividly, like looking around and being like, wow, this is crazy. And again, you have to appreciate just how dominant Anderson was up until that point.

Anyway, he says that or Izzy Alex too. That's a great one too. Despite your taste in music, I still love you, the crew and the Uncrowned platform. Thanks for the countless listening hours. If I could pick one, MMA? It's a good question. I think when GSP beat Matt Hughes, UFC 65 Sacramento, that was a great moment.

One of my favorite moments. In fact, I have a picture of it right over there. It's one of my favorite moments of all time. Ooh, this is a good one. Irish slide, hey Ariel and crew, can you put these older stars in order from least to most likely to fight again in the UFC? Francis, Nate, Jorge, Connor, John Till.

Francis, Nate, Jorge, Connor, Connor John till can you put these older stars in order from least to most likely okay so I'll say Francis is the least likely just because they won't do business with them yeah I'll say Nate is next so we're going from least likely to likeliest right so I'll go Francis Nate because. So we're going from least likely to likeliest, right? So I'll go Francis, Nate, because those are the ones that they had like bad business

dealings with towards the end. I'll say, what? I'll say, Till's got issues, right? Yeah, but they don't hate Till, so I'll go Till next. No, no, no, I'll go John next. No, no, no, I'll go Till next, then John. We don't care.

Then John, then Connor, then Jorge. Jorge, I think everybody thinks is the most likely, right? Yeah, yeah, sorry, I won't put Connor that high. I'm surprised Nate that low. The reason I put Connor that high is because they would take him, but it would be, you know, like they're not taking Francis no matter what. I would think. Unless there's a regime change.

I don't think they're taking Francis. Same with Nate. Maybe Connor goes third just because it's so unlikely. I mean, even just yesterday, another misstep, another issue, another potential scandal. I don't even know what to call this. There was a video that surfaced of him at a nightclub. Here it is, according to The Sun. Where is he, where is he? He's standing up there, just going talking to him. Don't know what's being said.

Oh, there he is, yes. And then he hits twice, right, with the left hand. Who the hell knows? Where is this? Is this in Ireland? No, Ibiza. Ibiza. Footage obtained by The Sun shows the ex-UFC star.

Ex-UFC star. Not really an ex. I mean, that's a mistake, ex-UFC champion, I suppose you could say. This took place in the infamous Pasha nightclub in Ibiza. By the way, what is this camera angle? who's filming this just some fan just some fans from yeah the Irish fighter is seen talking to a man on the exclusive clubs dance floor after the pair chat for less than 10 seconds McGregor strikes the man next to his pal

to his pal. Is there more text? No. Anyway, yeah, I mean, not great. Not, I haven't seen anything about this, this, the individual who was struck pressing charges or anything like that, or is there anything like that out there? Haven't seen anything like that. I haven't seen it yet, but you'd have to expect with, with how much publicity is there, and at some point that will come down, you know So anyway, I mean Francis Nate I say definitely on the back end maybe Connor then next Jorge I would put closest just because they did sort of bring him back and then didn't give him a fight and so it seems to Be in in good terms dash my hopes for a second

There's no world where on the heels of the egg that they're gonna have on their face with this John Jones and Tom Aspinal thing in search of any relevant actual heavyweight and Francis Ngannou having seemingly one fight left with the PFL that they would just be like, all right, it's best for business. I mean, it would be, but like, look, the difference between Dana White and Vince McMahon

is Vince McMahon, for all his faults, for all his, he always would put his, I mean, just look at these dudes right here, like these dudes spurred him. Like he hated these guys, but he brought them back. There's countless examples of people who were on the outs and then back. Warrior like tons. So Bret Hart, Dana doesn't do that. He's not built that way. He's not built that way. Just it's right there. It's not a media copy of Ramon these book. You got there Yeah, yeah, yeah must be nice. Did you not get one?

No, we ordered mine paid I didn't get dollars for it. So a lot of people got them though Rick Oh, yeah, I'll go so far as to say mark asked me for my address and I didn't get one. So, yeah Okay, we have to be this up with my in the world. Yeah. Yeah, I've heard this I think it one not my experience weird not I actually front to back two days. Is that true? Yeah, of course Tell me 27th 27th of July one's coming Wow, I'm gonna have a July a month later Wait, maybe 27th of June 27th of June it comes out on the 24th We'd have some problems with Ray Mundy.

It's gotta get across the wall. Let me just quickly. El Pettuano. 27th of June. Yeah, that's what I thought. Damn! That Wilder interview was worth the wait from how highly he views being a father to the mentality he gets into before a fight. Worth the wait, thank you. TJ, thank you. Dear Ariel, I just want to take the time to thank you and each and every one of the members of the crew. You shed a light on so many people and fighters that I never would have become a fan of until watching the interviews that you do. I've become fascinated learning each and every one of their stories that find myself rooting for each and every fight slash venture they have. From the Peyton Talbots, to the Kayla Harrisons, to the Malcolm Wellmakers Malcolm Wellmakers to the Paul Hughes to even the David Feldmans. You just don't get these stories

from regular press junkets. Continue doing what y'all do, especially PT and the BITB too. My question is, if you can shed light on this, I was watching a YouTube video, quote, fighters angry at Ariel Hawani for 12 minutes. What was the deal with Floyd Mayweather? I'm guessing in the lead up to the McGregor fight, he was indeed sounding like a fighter angry at you. And I just want context on why I know I'm late, but thanks.

Yeah, that video always gets brought up. Someone made a compilation video, has a crazy amount of views. The Mayweather one actually isn't that bad. I mean, I had, I'd waited for him for six hours. At his- At his girl collection. Yeah, at his club.

Uh, Casey and I, Casey and I waited and so he was there and he was fired up and I was like, I for six hours at his. Girl collection. Yeah. At his club, uh, Casey and I, Casey and I waited. And so he was there and he was fired up. And I mean, we were, we were 48 hours removed from the fight. Like we were 40 hours away, I should say. And I think he was just kind of fired up. It was four in the morning.

That's how seriously he took that fight. Um, I like of all the quote unquote angry fighters, I don't really put him in that category. He could have told me to take a hike. Unless my memory fails me, wasn't there something of him also viewing like people who cover MMA primarily as like MMA guy, like you're the MMA guy. Thought I was the enemy. Yeah. I was like, bro, I just waited here for six hours in a room with no windows. I think you got squashed in that interview. I think you got squashed in that interview I feel. It was, it was. I remember you texted meashed in that interview. I think you got squashed in that interview, I feel. It was, it was.

I remember you texted me from that room they put you in. And you were like, this is the craziest fucking thing. Oh, pictures? Nah. Like, no, like as in they put them in a room with security there and everything. They locked us in. And you know what was crazy about it?

There was one moment where, I think it was on Snapchat or Instagram, Casey, cameraman, he like filmed and then he put the location and he put that on Instagram and then I looked at his story and I was like, why would you tell people that we're here? Take that down and that did tip off some people and so a couple other journalists came

and then we had to figure out a way, actually, this is crazy, I don't even know if I should be, Remundi actually was used as a decoy to get people out of there Ramundi Ramundi was with us and Ramundi had to take one for the team and tell the other journalists that showed up hey this sucks let's go somewhere else so that they would leave and not get the Floyd interview Wow I can I can reminisce with him on that. Yeah, he is. And he did it. He did it. What a guy.

Gave up a night at Girl Collection. Yeah. And then it was Casey. What a fucking name for a place. I mean, is it still open by the way? Girl Collection? I don't fucking know. We're going to Vegas.

We can find out. What is that? 2017? Eight years. I'm afraid to Google it right now. We'll just go. When we're in Vegas, we'll stop by. Girl Collection. What is that 2017 eight years? I'm afraid to Google it right now Vegas will stop by Nah, but it's open Thursday through Sunday, all right. Yeah

Research About the collection you've seen going to 3.2 stars on Google. Guys, I got a good one here. Matt Moe asks, question for Frank, which of the following would you choose? A, an entire day at the beach with Kayla Harrison, B, two hours of mini golf with Amanda Serrano, or C, a 30 minute lunch with Shotzi? I'll do the golf with Amanda.

What a weird question, right? It's pretty weird, yeah, but whatever. Lon, Don, hey Ariel, since your son's bar mitzvah just passed, I wondered if you could explain what exactly will change for a young man or your son specifically. Well, he's a man now. He pays taxes his voice gets a little deeper he's got more responsibility around the house oh yeah like what pay some of the mortgage he runs it all from the ipad pay the bills online on that ipad for

example later bedtime responsible enough to babysit my wife thinks he is but i have my doubts probably needs a cell phone to do those efficiently. Yeah, yeah. In case of emergency. He's done a lot. I'm extremely proud of him. I was so proud. When he was reading on Saturday, it was pretty long.

It was like an hour and change. I felt like my heart was going to pump out of my chest. I was so nervous on his behalf. I was locked in. Anyone who was saying anything to me, I was like, nope, we're not talking right now. I'm locked in. I was trying in anyone who was saying anything to me. I was like, nope, we're not talking right now. I'm locked in I was trying to manifest I was trying to will him to to to get over this hump because he had been Practicing for over a year, but in the end he got it done. It was great. Very very happy for him

Connor hey lads So my girlfriend's 30th birthday is coming up and it happens to land on June 28th Am I the asshole if I ask her to celebrate on the Friday slash Sunday as opposed to the actual day so I could still watch my boy Charles retain his belt or regain his belt at International Fight Week? I bought extra presents to try and cushion the blow. If I wasn't in school I probably would have flown to Vegas. Every year is a B day but every chance at seeing my favorite fighter win a championship is few and far between Ariel. To help you understand how important to Bronx is to me, it would be like you having to attend an anniversary dinner during the Super Bowl with the Buffalo Bills

playing love you guys piece. Not exactly. If he's your favorite fighter, you've already seen him win the belt. I've never seen the Bills win the Super Bowl. So you've been there, done that. Now if she's a real one, she'll be cool with it. It's only 25 minutes, man. Whoa, whoa, whoa, why you say that?

Why you say that? 25 minutes, but it circles around the evening. If she's gonna be upset, she's gonna be upset. Or you do something all day leading up to it, and then you just turn it on. If he's on the East Coast, I don't know, well, he says, hey lads. By the way, if he's hey lads,

that means this fight is happening at four in the morning. Then get up on your own. I've realed so many of Elaine's birthday's uncountable amounts because of him. And then number two if he's on the East Coast if he's on the East Coast this fight's happening at 12 30 a.m. 1 a.m. 1 a.m. Your happy days.

Now if you're on the West Coast a little tricky this is 9 30 if you're in Hawaii you're fucked. You're fucked. You're totally fucked if you're in Hawaii. Do you know what you know what what I do in that situation is bring around GC's advice is solid, meal early, then you do the research beforehand. You know what bar is showing the fucking fight. You happen to, this place looks great.

Well, oh, I don't fucking believe what's on the TV. My favorite fight is fighting tonight. What? You don't tell her any of this though. Exactly this. You don't tell her any of this. Yeah. You plan it around not telling her. The beauty of coincidence.

You know what? I think our guest is gonna have a great answer to this query. Connor, I'm gonna hook you up here. Not Connor in the back, C-O-N-O-R. We'll ask a real life UFC superstar this question. Let us say hello to the man who'll be fighting for the UFC Bantamweight title.

Probably by the end of the year, the great Corey Sanhagen is here. Hello Corey, how are you? Yo, what's up, Ariel, how are you? Where are you coming to us from? Usually it's from the spot with your wedding thing in the back, where's the spot? Oh no, this is my backyard, it's really nice outside,

so I'm just getting some sun. I'm very jealous. It's awful out here in New York. So I'm very jealous. I got a question from someone. We were answering some questions. So I want you to give this young man some advice. OK? All right. OK. He says, My girlfriend's 30th birthday is coming up and it happens to land on June 28. Am I the asshole if I ask her to celebrate on the Friday slash Sunday as opposed to the actual day so I could still watch my boy Charles Olvera win the belt at International Fight Week? I bought extra presents to try and cushion the blow.

If I wasn't in school, I probably would have flown to Vegas. And so what do you say? It's your girlfriend's birthday, your favorite fighter's fighting. Is it okay to celebrate earlier or like a Friday slash Sunday or are you a bad boyfriend? Will you be in the doghouse if you suggest something like this? He's already doing too much if it sounds like. He's good. He's in the clear. What do you mean too much? What do you mean by getting the extra stuff? Extra gifts and stuff. Just, hey man, can we do it a couple days earlier?

Wow. Your wife would be okay with this? Yeah, my wife is like the most low maintenance woman in the entire world though. So, so yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, there you have it, Connor. I don't know. Hopefully she's not super high maintenance because then I guess it's not okay. But yeah, I don't know. I don't really think holidays are that important, including our birthdays. Yeah, no, there's a lot of people who take them very seriously,

but hopefully he can show her this clip if she's upset and that'll be okay. You're gonna be fighting for the belt, it seems like. By the way, is that set in stone? Like, is that 100%? It seemed like it was on the broadcast and all that, but you never know these days. Have you been told it's 100%?

I haven't been told that it's 100%, but I mean, it kind of takes time, you know, that you know how those things go, they kind of take a little bit of time, but yeah, I mean, the broadcasting and stuff kind of told me a lot. I honestly wasn't super expecting a lot of that stuff. When I went out there, I was kind of like,

okay, I guess I'll see how this kind of goes, but they definitely were doing the most. So it would be a really big giant let down and I would probably start crying if I wasn't the guy after all of that. Usually when Rogan asks a question about the next guy, that's usually a sign that someone told him it's okay to do it

and that is in fact going to be the next guy. So that was my sign at least, where I was like, okay, Corey's's next which is great because you should be next as you were watching that were you hoping one guy would win over the other like did you did you say okay if this scenario plays out it's better for me or did you think that you were getting it regardless? No I didn't think it mattered too much I mean I know that the fans really wanted to see me and O'Malley fight for the belt I think that that would have been

kind of cool but Marab is like a hell of a competitor, so it'll be awesome to face off against him. And and yeah, I didn't really have anyone that I necessarily wanted to win. I kind of just wanted to gather some intel on the both of them. And and yeah, I think I got to do that. Were you surprised by anything that happened in that fight? Yeah, I kind of thought O'Malley would do a little bit better. He didn't do so hot. You know, he kind of, you know, I know that the narrative is that he was really

off, kind of it seemed in a lot of areas. He seemed he definitely seemed a little off. So I kind of feel for the dude, too. Like, I think he made some pretty big changes in his life and I hear him talk all the time about signs and all the universe sending him signs from wherever it's coming from and he was getting all the signs and stuff. I've been in a situation where I thought that everything was really lined up for things to go my way and then not had it go that way. So I feel for the dude. But yeah, it wasn't definitely the best performance in the world, but Marab looks like he just keeps getting better and better.

So it's so good for Marab too. Do you think Sean looked better in the first fight than the second? Yeah, definitely. The first fight, it wasn't like the whole vibe of the fight was that Sean wasn't in control that much. Even though it was maybe round by round, if you want to look at it under a microscope, it was kind of close, but the vibe of the fight was that he wasn't winning. This fight to me, he didn't look hardly in control at all. Everyone kind of, especially in this fight was saying, Sean will knock him out, Sean has a puncher's chance, blah, blah, blah. But kind of the more I thought about it, man,

Marab doesn't give you a ton of opportunities to step in and get hit. Mar like moves backwards when he gets hit. And it's really hard to knock out a guy that is like when you hit him, he's going away from the energy of the shot that you're throwing. So, um, Marab's definitely just like a tough guy to knock out for that reason, because it's really hard to catch like on an inside step. And that's when O'Malley hits people the best. So, um, so yeah, I mean, he was kind of afraid of the wrestling you could tell. people the best. So yeah, I mean, he was kind of afraid of the wrestling you could tell.

And yeah, it just wasn't that great. Yeah, it wasn't that great. I asked Sean this question on Monday. Some people gave me crap for it, but I was just trying to get it like a sort of window into his thought process here. I asked him, if you fight Murab 10 times, how does it go? How many fights do you win? And he gave me a sort of nondescript answer, but

a lot of people said it was a stupid question. But I was just wondering, like, maybe he'd say, like, hey, I win the next eight, or I go five for five. What do you think? What's that record look like if he fights him 10 times? I don't know. That's kind of, I mean, obviously, that's really tricky, especially because he looked worse. I mean, the fight was more one sided the second time around. But of, I mean, obviously that's really tricky, especially because he looked worse. I mean, the fight was more one-sided the second time around, but yeah, I don't know. Like in other sports, it's pretty crazy. Like a team will be up 3-0 in like a seven series

or whatever, however sports work. And then like sometimes the team will come all the way back. So it's hard to say but um Yeah, I don't know. Uh Yeah It's a tough matchup for him, right? Because historically there have been just some matchups that are tough for one guy like Benavides and dj They could fight 10 times and dj wins every time or a cruise and favor So maybe this is just like a really bad style matchup for him. I think a lot of people including myself think

Uh, this is this is going to be a tricky fight for Marab, you versus him. You present some things that he hasn't faced as of late. I'm just wondering as far as like what you saw from him and you just talked about the way he moves back and so you can't really connect properly and that energy that you're talking about, which is fascinating to hear, is that what impresses you the most about him or is there something else? Obviously we always talk about the cardio, his pace, we know about the wrestling, the takedowns, but from your analytical eye what impresses you most when you're watching him up close? Well I mean yeah definitely the conditioning pays off for him big time.

He's not like the most intimidating guy to go into a fight against in terms of like getting finished outside of, of course, him obviously adding in some submission threats, which I'm sure he's going to continue to do or whatever. But I mean, Marab deserves a lot of respect to be put on his name by all means. I also think too, though, that if you fight Marab in the proper way, you can like just, you can be as much of a motherfucker to Marab as he is to everyone else.

You kind of just got to know how to do that. I think that the last two wins that he's had have been people that move their feet a ton. And I just know, speaking from experience, that that will get you really tired. And it kind of seems like a little bit of a compensating way to stay away from clenching and wrestling a guy.

I think that the best, like I've talked about this I think for years now is my idea has always been to be the best well rounded guy in the sport and I think that it's definitely going to pay off years down the line of me facing Marab because I'm not afraid to wrestle. You guys saw in the Umar fight that you know if I get taken down I will get up immediately if I want to and that's just a pain in the ass to fight and then not to mention that Marab makes a lot of wide movements with his hands. He's pretty darty and looks like fidgety and difficult to hit or whatever but he makes a lot of mistakes with his hands and knocking

him out is hard because he moves backwards a lot. Obviously wrestling him is going to be difficult. So I kind of plan on just out, out, uh, you know, like masterclass in Marab. Uh, I just have to out MMA him everywhere and not be scared to wrestle with them or scared to get tired. Like that's like one-on-one in learning how to fight a wrestler is if you're scared to get tired, you're going to lose. And, um, Umar did not do that, but, uh, Sean, I think is, was a little bit afraid to get tired in that one. And I think that that kind of works in the inverse a lot of time, a lot of the

times, cause then you just start moving your feet a lot more and that actually makes you more tired in the long run anyway. So yeah, so there's a lot there, man. But yeah, I'm excited to face the challenge. Much has been made of the winning streak. Who do you think has fought him the best, the toughest in this stretch? I think Umar fought him really tough.

I don't know, man, it's really hard because Marab's definitely, he's got some good coaches. You could tell too, like every single time, like the way something, some area that he could have done better, he comes back and does better in, um, like Sean doesn't get up by turning away. He gets up by turning in. So, I mean, this, him getting finished by a front headlock is not like, or sometimes front headlock

choke isn't like a surprise. That's just something that his team was like, Hey, he's going to definitely try to get up this way again, because it's kind of like a jiu-jitsu way of getting up. And I know that Sean trains with a lot of jiu-jitsu guys and not as many wrestler guys. So yeah, so that was really smart on his team's part. And but yeah, I think that I definitely present the most well-roundedness and also just, like kinda, I feel like can like morph my style

into whatever it needs to be in order to beat the guy that it needs to be. So, so yeah. I saw you in the back talking to him when he was doing some of the media. What did you say to him? I just said congrats and that I'm happy for him. I honestly do get really happy for a lot of these guys

when they win. I mean, I like, I just, it just kind of makes me imagine how much fun it looks like. And it's really inspiring, you know, when you see someone just do so well because I just want to be that guy, you know? Like I was in Maui all week last week on my honeymoon and I just like ran a lot

because I was like, oh, if my Rob runs, then I better run. And so, you know, I kind of learned from all of these guys too. And, and yeah, I just wanted to just show them love, man. I don't really care to be like an asshole and a douche and stuff like that. That's not really my way of doing stuff. So yeah, I was just showing him love. Do you have any kind of like previous history with him?

Trained together, hanging out, like any type of relationship with him? I seen him at some stuff before, but no, I've never, we've not had like an extensive conversation, but we like a report was really nice to to each other i called him out like a few years ago i think. And mara just he's like a good competitor you can kinda. He just gets it you know he gets what we're doing and as long as we don't cross any lines with anything i think that we're all good but. any lines with anything, I think that we're all good. But yeah, Marab's a cool ass dude. I always get along with Marab. Who's got better social media, you or him? I'm running out of ideas, but.

Uh oh, no way, I don't believe that for a second. You had that great one with the, this one, this one. I love this one, this was great. How long does this take to put together? Not that long, all I do, I'm like an idea machine, dude. Like people have hobbies or whatever. I spend most of my days inside of my head. Just thinking of like, really,

it's like an inside joke amongst me and all of the guys on the team. I'll just be like, hey, got a new good idea. And then they'll just look at me like I'm stupid like always but I do got a couple really good ones coming up so maybe maybe those ones will be funny. The video that we just played is you talking to like a troll or just an annoying fan and like hey you don't deserve a title shot. There was another one that came out of Usman trying, Kamara Usman trying to teach you how to trash talk. This one here. This is great shit man. This is all you? Yeah that's all me. Yeah I like, I mean you

know I like writing so I kind of put like my writing stuff to the, I guess in a way that is actually helpful instead of me just writing stories for myself but yeah this was a good one. This one I really liked it. And me and my camera guy are getting better at understanding what looks good and what doesn't. And like, how do I look like not an idiot while trying to act?

So yeah, a lot of it is trying to get me to not look super stupid. Do you want to try and act? Like, do you actually want? I've seen you do some stuff with Oscar Willis of the Mac Life, like you've got chops, you've got chops. Would you like to try to do this outside of the YouTube skits?

No. I can be like really dry, but I can't play like, dude, I can't play a character. Like I have no, like me trying to be excited about anything is really hard to watch. But I can be like a dry, sarcastic person. What about like improv stuff, classes like that? I'd probably be good at that, but I mean,

where am I gonna do that? I don't know, you live in Colorado. I bet there's improv classes that you could take. I'm not gonna go to improv. Why not? You love it You're doing freaking skits on your YouTube channel. Why wouldn't you it seems like you really enjoy it? Dude I don't want to embarrass myself like that the problem with me dude is like I have these things that I would actually probably

Explore if I wasn't who I am and just gonna get shit on for it Like I don't want to be the rapper that's gonna hit pads, you know, and then like have like a video of me trying to do something outside my wheelhouse and then just look like real dumb thinking that I look all awesome. So gonna just stay in my wheelhouse for all that. Are you saying though that you do want to rap? I think I'd be a pretty good rapper.

Wow, really? Wow, I didn't know that. Could we get something like just a few bars? No. Have you written your own rap songs or you rap other people's songs? Ariel I don't rap dude. I don't fucking rap bro. I feel like you have it. I feel I could see it. You're like that guy. Uh, was he little dicky? You know that guy? Yeah, I know little dicky. You have his vibe. I do have a little bit of a little dicky vibe. Um, I got a little dick too. So yeah. a little dick too so yeah. I'll talk about it in all my skits if you want to check out some of my skits. I love talking about how tiny my ween are. Oh my gosh this is tremendous. By the way did you did you delay your honeymoon to go to 316? Yeah yeah my wife wasn't too pumped about that but yeah we had to move everything but it was it was my responsibility to change all of the flights

and all the hotels and all of that stuff. Oh no. Yeah, I mean, I told her I had to be there. We literally booked everything probably a week before everything got announced. And then I was like, hey, we gotta change this. So, yeah. By the way, here I am asking you about the guy

and his girlfriend's birthday. You literally changed your honeymoon to be in attendance. So, I mean, that should say enough about your wife. But great call, by the way, because I always feel like if you just sort of sit there, they're going to address you, there's going to be a moment, like you just, you kind of have to be there. So I would imagine she kind of understood after getting over the annoyance of it all. Yeah, she understood. Yeah. I mean, Maui was great too. She had a really good time. I'm not, I realized I'm like a three or four day vacation guy.

Anything past that. I kind of get, I kind of get sick of asking. So what are we doing today? Like that gets, that gets pretty old to ask after a few days. But yeah, it was, it was pretty cool. I had never taken probably more than three or four days off of training or been in the gym for a really long time. So that was kind of interesting, but yeah,

I'm kind of excited to be back and working out and getting better and getting ready for this big fight. Did you do any martial arts training there or just the running? I just lifted and ran, splashed around in the waves a little bit. I'm a big body surfer guy, so yeah. You know what the headline's gonna be now.

Corey Sanhagen not taking training for his first title fight. Seriously, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's it, that's the hook. Yeah, I actually don't read comments anymore, which helps out a lot. And then I also, I only go on Instagram once a day and it's mostly just to like reply to messages and stuff.

So I actually, for about seven, eight or nine months, I kind of quit doing a lot of stuff. It was like since November, I kind of, similar to what O'Malley I guess had going on where I just kind of had like a little anxiety and I was like, dude, what's going on? I'm like, fine. So yeah, so I quit a bunch of bad habits.

I didn't quit masturbating like him, but yeah. By the way, so do you just do like, okay, 1 p.m. I'm gonna go on and you are not allowed to go back on for the rest of the day, for 24 hours? Pretty much. Wow. Unless I gotta post my own thing,

but then I kinda ask my agency to do it for me. But yeah, it's just kinda like a lot healthier. I feel like also I can be a lot more myself when I know I'm not gonna know people's opinions on how I'm being, so that's pretty fun to do. I don't really want the internet correcting my Personality at all like that's kind of my responsibility not a bunch of people who don't really even care about me

So so yeah, that's kind of it's been a lot a lot more helpful I think that that's why the skits are good now too is because I'm like actually trying to do what I think is funny And not just like pander to people so I'm like actually trying to do what I think is funny and not just like pander to people so I just want to ask you about a couple other things in the division We just found out officially that Yan's gonna fight Marcus McGee. We knew this for a while, but it was officially announced today Do you think McGee could win that fight? I Think he could do pretty well. Um Yeah, that one might be a little bit interesting McGee is kind of a really defensively oriented guy.

Um, he kind of has that MMA lab style, you know, the kind of Batista O'Malley type of style, a lot of switching stances, fans, straight punches, um, a lot of movements. So. I mean, he's definitely going to do that against Yon who's kind of like sits into the floor and marches people down a lot. So, I mean, I think that he's going to be on his bike a lot. Yon will do a good job chasing him. I don't really foresee a ton of wrestling, but I think more than anything, McGee might be a little bit

too green to fight a guy like Yon. Just being that Yon like builds as the round goes. And if you're not used to that, that can be kind of a difficult thing to deal with. So, I mean, he has, everyone always has a chance, but I think it's pretty early to fight a guy as good as Yon. You were there in attendance, what about Patchy Mix? Were you as blown away as everyone else by that performance?

Yeah, pretty much. I thought, you know, I thought that, I mean, who knows? He could still do really well in the division, you know, but it's gotta not be that, you know, like that was, I don't know really what that was, honestly. Pat, Pat, she's a hell of a fighter. Like he's beaten some really good guys in the past and stuff, but maybe it was the lights. I mean, that's kind of the only thing I can really think of unless he had some weird injury that made him not throw any punches.

But uh, um, yeah, yeah, that was a really interesting thing to me. But also, man, like all the hats off to Batista. Batista did awesome fight and he keeps getting better and better too. I think that Batista kind of got like grouped into that people of like, Hey, let's all hate this guy, you know? And that kind of sucks for him. But I thought that he, but he still looked really good in that fight and, hey, let's all hate this guy, you know? And that kind of sucks for him. But I thought that Batista looked really good in that fight and Tachi's footwork just wasn't as good as Batista's and Batista just dominated that area. Is it true that you made over 2 million on OnlyFans?

With my balls? Yeah, I was gonna leave that part out but I probably should have just finished the question. Is that true? Yes. I don true? Yes. I got some voluptuous balls, dude. So you got the big balls, but the... Ciny wiener, it makes the balls look big.

No, it's not true, but here's what I did. So I ran the idea by my wife. I was like, all right, we can maybe capitalize on this. Okay, Okay. Let's put a picture of my balls up there behind a paywall of $200,000 And it'll just be a shitty iphone picture of my balls legit And then if someone pays for it

We have $200,000 and they just get a shitty picture of my balls and if no one buys it that's hilarious and She wouldn't let me do it. So I know I'm gonna still try to talk her into it though Maybe I'll up the price or something, but there's no way anyone's gonna pay Over ten dollars for a picture of my sack. So what is the kind of you do have an only-fans? I think you're sponsored by them, right? Yeah. yeah, yeah. So they're kind of, I think, maybe trying to shift over a little bit, their platform over to like athletes and stuff like that. So that's not just like a bunch of chicks, you know?

So yeah, that's kind of their play, I think a little bit. So, but yeah, it's like a, I mean, I saw all my instructionals and stuff on there. Now it's a fun little thing. Like I get to kind of talk to people a little bit more on because there's just a lot less messages that I get so I kind of reply to a decent amount of them so so yeah is it lucrative I sell a lot of instructionals on there I don't sell them for a ton just because kind of the only fan sponsorship kind of makes up for a chunk of

that from what I was making from before. But I mean, I saw people buy a lot of instructionals. If you're a fighter out there and you kind of want to just set up like a way to make some extra cash every month. I mean, OnlyFans are not OnlyFans. Setting up like instructionals is a really good idea if you're comfortable with putting like your information out there And I do have to give a shout out to the the website korey san hagen.com our own

GC purchased a hoodie and said he got it within days. I mean, that's my mom. Your mom is killing it Yeah, she's she's on top of it. I Yeah, I Stuff is beautiful. Do you design all that? No, I come up with some of the ideas, but pretty much I just rip off an idea and then just say, can you just have this say Sandman?

Just do that, so, yeah. It's brilliant. So within the, and she's personally packing it all up and shipping it off. Yep, she does all of that. And she's on top of it. My mom's retired now and she loves MMA and I think she just likes really being involved.

My mom knows more stuff about what's going on in the sport than I do. That's amazing. Yeah, she knows who's talking shit about me. She knows who's good. Every time she'll always be like, hey, don't fight this person because this person has the,

they're saying that this person's really good. Like, mom, that's not really encouraging, but okay. If it was up to you, where does this fight happen and when? Oh, did his phone overheat? It might have, we'll get him back. Hey, it's looking nice out there today. It's been like- I can see the ESP. It's been like. I can see the ESP.

It's been like seven days of just gloominess. I see the sun in a shot, I'm like is it ever gonna be sunny in New York? Will it ever be sunny in Philadelphia? You get that? You get that from me? Paul Walter Hauser was on that show one time. This is a really nice website right here.

Always sunny? Always sunny, yeah. I don't know. This is a really nice website right here. Always sunny? Always sunny, yeah. I know. What'd you get? You got a hoodie, right? Yeah, came in like two days, was like 45 bucks. Good quality. What are the few times that you haven't worn the merch

when a guest has been on the program? All right, so I actually remembered like on the train on the way there, but like you mentioned with the weather, I know it's been gloomy, but it hasn't been cold. Yeah, it's like a little, it's like humid and kind of gross. And the hoodie's thick, man. It's gonna keep me warm. Oh, okay.

But yeah, if we pull up the merch right here, yeah. The bottom right one is the one that I got. That's the one. Yeah, the tan one. And then on the front is like the face logo. I like those ones at the top there, like number two and three. Oh, like the National Park one?

Yeah. Yeah, shout out, man. He's creative with it, and I love that he does his own thing. The hat is nice. That's nice, man. Shout out to the Sandman. Good merch, good merch.

No, I mean, it's great. I love that fighters do this now, and he's doing the YouTube channel, obviously the Instagram skits, very much like Phil Rowe in that regard. He's got the YouTube channel, obviously the Instagram skits, very much like Phil Roe in that regard. He's got the merch, he's got the OnlyFans, the guys everywhere. He's really coming to his own.

Skits are killing it. I watched the entire Ousmane one, it was great. Who's the best skit maker in the UFC right now? I don't know. Him versus Marab might be pound for pound one or two. Phil Roe's pretty damn entertaining. Phil Roe is also good. Yes. He also makes his own music music music videos As ridiculous as one man Yeah, that was like straight, you know that reminded me of what's that movie? Um, there was a Pixar movie that came out during the pandemic

The animation reminded me of it. The jazz player. Soul. Soul. Great one. Just the way he was moving. Amazing soundtrack. Great soundtrack. One of the all time greats. Nothing like a movie and a soundtrack.

Yeah. I see you Trent Reznor. Who's that? Trent Reznor. Did the music for Soul. Oh, okay, okay, sure, sure, sure. You thought Harrell was gonna know that? That is a deep.

Harrell's just like oh, yeah, Trent Did the music for soul? Yes Trent Alexander Arnold? Couldn't even remember the name of the movie so no But it is good movie and there's a joke about the Knicks in there and the Knicks lose again You know what yeah, no no longer relevant that joke no longer relevant. Well, maybe well again We got Cory back. Oh oh we do okay I just wanted I hate like not being able to say goodbye oh you're back did your phone overheat yeah sorry dude I didn't even know that that was a thing yeah it's

happened a few times I was worried about that I'll ask you one more question then we'll let you go if it was up to you where and when does this fight happen December in Vegas or sooner really whenever I guess but the New York State tax yeah, I would rather fight in Vegas big time. Okay, so that's the early December card the last pay-per-view of the year That's still six months away. But considering he just fought probably the most you know The most likely right if it's gonna happen this year. Yeah, I mean, I'm definitely open to sooner too.

But yeah, MSG in New York is kind of like, I fought there before and was like, hey, where's the rest of my check? And they're like, no, we take taxes out. I was like, geez. So Vegas would be nice. And of course you haven't forgotten, I would imagine, way back when there was a young whippersnapper journalist who predicted that Corey Sanhagen would be a UFC champion.

This is it, Corey. This is your chance to prove me right. I'm going to pull that up from 2020, all right? So please, as you're thinking about all the people who got you to the spot, don't forget about my prediction from back in 2020. No, I know. You've been one of my biggest supporters, so I appreciate you big time. Thank you, Corey. All the spot. Don't forget about my prediction from back in 2020. No, I definitely, I know you've been one of my biggest supporters so I appreciate you big time. Thank you, Corey. All the best. Thank you very much. Congrats on the honeymoon and for hopefully getting this fight. Thanks for coming on.

We appreciate it as always. Cool. Right on. Thanks a lot, Ariel. I'll see you guys. Yes, sir. There he is. The great Corey Sandman Sanhagan. Yes, back in 2020, I did say this guy's gonna be a UFC champion at some point. Does it come to fruition? Does it actually happen? Is he the favorite going into this fight? Probably not. What do you guys think?

I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say Murab, let's see. Murab. Murab minus 400 last time I checked. And what's he, what's he? Plus. Yeah, plus like 325, plus 330 range. It will be a tough, tough test, but I do think he has a shot.

I do think he has a better chance than some of the recent guys who Marab's obviously fought. 13 in a row for him, he is unbelievable. So I'm looking forward to that fight. That'd be a good way to end the year if it does in fact happen in December in Las Vegas. All right, my friends coming up in a bit Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

He'll be returning to action on June 28th. That's not this Saturday next Saturday Maybe that young man needs to tell his girlfriend about that fight as well because it's happening on the same night as International Fight Week He is going to be fighting Jake Paul. He'll join us at 4.30 at 3.30. We're going to be joined by award-winning actor, yes, Golden Globe-winning actor, Emmy-winning actor, the great Paul Walter Hauser, who is in a litany of films coming up. Like I said, some big ones in the past, but also a huge, huge wrestling guy. And working with MLW, Major League Wrestling, executive producer of Major League Wrestling these days, and a pretty

interesting backstory. So I'm looking forward to having him in studio. But first things first, we do have to say hello to an old friend who comes out with this book on the 24th of June. What a journey it has been for him. He's come out with this very first book and it's going to go to the very top of the New York Times best-selling list. Is he here? Oh my god, you know yourself, you know who he is, and well you know why he's here. Wow, wow, wow, wow.

We gotta bring him into the room. Look at this, wow. Look at you, you've our friends? We gotta bring it in for the road. Oh, look at this. Wow. Look at you, you've come all this way to be a guest on the program. I have. Hello, how are you? It's true. You brought the wife here as well? I have.

No wonder your social media is so good. I mean, yeah. You have nothing to do with it. I have nothing to do with my social media. Look at you, you wear a jacket now, a fancy shirt under the jacket. No, I know. I don't know how fancy it is. This is a big deal.

It is. You brought your own copy I did but look at me I'm a real fan look at that you got wow it's dog year that's good that means I've gone through it this guy was sending me photos of him like on the beach at the yes yes you know come closer to the microphone don't be afraid mark this is great this is a big moment for us have you ever been in studio as a guest on the program you've been on the beat you've been a guest beat remotely maybe what a what a legendary show that was. That was a legendary show.

Are you bringing that back or what? I'm not on the beat anymore but... No but... Like literally not. Why you want in? I don't know, we'll see. See what happens. What is life like for you these days? Well it's the off season so right now... Oh yeah, I didn't even mention you're the beat writer. Is that the term you use? Beat reporter? Why not? For the Atlanta Falcons over on a little outfit called

ESPN.com. Correct. So once they're out of the playoff race, like December or so, you're just chilling till when? July? Was that a shot at the Falcons? It was more of a shot at Connor, who's an actual Falcons fan.

He is. He is. When we should, we should probably try later Connor about that. Yeah so having an offseason is just I can't I can't even explain it. I feel like I should even say this because I probably have you know bosses listening but it's just it's it's great it's like I mean it gives you time to like miss it. I wish there was an I feel like we've talked about this and you talked about it too. There's no offseason MMA or combat sports. It's just a never-ending thing. And it's like, it's great.

Don't get me wrong. But it's like, there is such thing as having too much of a good thing. And I think that is the case when it comes to the UFC. So like in terms of your workload, this is very inside baseball. It is. I think everyone is probably clicking off right now. No, no, no. I'm just curious. What do you expect it to do during the offseason I mean there are

there are you know several things during the offseason that you need to be you know to be on your your peas and cues about right there's like the owners meetings combine for a draft agency you know the whole offseason machinations of what a team is doing if a coach coach gets fired or a general manager gets fired, you're doing all that stuff. I was kind of lucky, I guess you could say, because the Falcons did not make the playoffs, but they also didn't really,

they didn't fire their head coach or their GM, so I was pretty much off beginning in January. And I'm realizing that now, someone's gonna be listening and they're gonna be giving me much more work. No, no, no, no, no, no. You've done enough for a very long time. When did you finish this book? The reason I asked that is, were you still a combat sports guy while writing this? Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I finished the first like manuscript of it in late 2023. So I was, yeah, so what I was doing basically was I was, you know, wearing both hats for a long time.

How'd you pull that off? Well, I mean, a lot of good time management, I guess, because I would like, so for fight weeks, right, if I was in town for a fight week The UFC's fight week is pretty structured right so you kind of know where you have an open window So you know Thursday before the press conference? I would spend several hours writing the book Friday was difficult because it's the early way and then the ceremony way and sometimes Friday night after ceremony way and I would write and then Saturday I would get up and

You know right starting at like 10 or 11 a.m. I would write until whenever I had to be at the fights so I did that every like every fight week cheese from from July 2023 to December 2023. I wrote at least 4,000 words a week for the bow. Yeah. Oh, yeah Yeah, did you always want to write a book? I always- Because you're coming up in the business. I always wanted to write a book and I always thought that it was something that would happen after like, you know,

my reporting career was already maybe done or you know, maybe that was kind of like another chapter, you know, in my career. I did not intend to be writing a book necessarily while I was still, you know, a beat writer, carving the UFC and traveling as much as I was. But it was a great experience, a really great experience. It was so different, but also obviously similar because I'm still writing and reporting and

doing research and everything. But it is just a bear of a project, writing this many words. My first manuscript was 110,000 words. And when someone's used to writing 4,000 word features at the very most, and you go over that, they're gonna scream at you, it's a lot to try to expand that across many chapters. Speaking of the features, correct me if I'm wrong,

you just write a story on, I think it was NWO going into the Hall of Fame, right? I did, yeah, 2019. For ESPN.com. Correct. You were at MMA Fighting for many years, first the post, then MMA Fighting, then you actually- You forgot Fox Sports.

That's where we first worked together, sort of. Of course, of course. Coincidentally, you joined the Nose World Order at ESPN. I did. And then who would've thought you'd actually- We have that photo anywhere? Somewhere, it's in the archives. And so you're just writing a story for.com

about the NWO getting inducted, and someone hits you up after reading a story that wasn't even like a long feature or anything, right? So it was just supposed to be a straight up story about the NWO was going to the WW Hall of Fame, it was like the announcement, right? And WW did hook me up with interviews with Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan.

So I did get kind of fresh quotes, original stuff from those guys. And then I wrote, and it probably should have been like a 500 word story, 600 word story. I mean, you worked with me at ESPN for years. So you know, like if you go over a certain amount, they start going like, let's dial this back a little bit.

But I think I wrote like 2000 words. OK. Just because it meant something to me. And I injected a little bit of, you know, the cultural spin, you know, how it influenced culture and all that stuff and why it was so important to wrestling. And then about a year and a half later, sitting in Houston, Texas, in a hotel room, It was the Charles Oliveri versus Michael Chandler fight week, right? It was May 2021. And I get an email from

someone who says they're an editor at Simon & Schuster. And they're asking me if I want to do an NWO book, because they saw this article and thought that I might be the guy. Wow. Do that book. And I swear, Ariel, I called you, by the way, I think minutes after this, you know? And I thought it was a scam. Like, I thought it was like, how many times you get a cold email like that, that changes your entire life? Right.

Because that's what it was. That's really what happened. And it was not a scam. I spoke to the editor that day. And we connected with similar philosophies about wrestling about the NWO. And then it was just a matter of getting all my ducks in order to try to write a book.

What's wild about this is that that article was not like the greatest piece of work that you ever put out. It was just sort of like a newser, right? Yeah, yeah, it could it could have been something very like short and succinct Yeah, I went a little bit overboard But it was certainly something Ariel where I wrote it and then I moved on to the right thing, right? And then there's like so many other things that we do, right? And so is it is it a no-brainer? Are you like yeah, I'm in or because I don't know if people realize like it's not just like let's sit down and write about the

History. Yeah, there's so much reporting that goes into yeah, you spoke to over a hundred people Mm-hmm and and and not just like oh, hey, let me talk to Kevin Nash Like you're finding people will get into some of these people. Yeah, there's like digging true investigative journalism happening that So are you thinking like holy crap? What am I getting myself into? Or are you all in off the jump? Many times. Okay. Like this morning. Like I mean, many times. What am I doing this morning?

You're done. I mean, I feel like I'm still not done. You know, I have to promote the thing now. That's the fun part. But you know, like. Yeah, yeah. But you know me, the fun part for me is the reporting and the writing, right?

But yeah, there were many times where I was like, can I, do I even know how to do this? Can I do this? Should I do this? It was difficult because I had to write a proposal. So it wasn't just like, here's the email, you wanna do this, here's your contract. It does not work like that.

So I needed to hire an agent. And I needed to then, with her help, write a proposal, which I had never done before. And that was like a 10,000 word plus deal, which is basically like your pitch. Like here's what the book could look like, sample chapter, examples of what the chapters would be,

just a bunch of different stuff. And you submit that to the publisher, the agent does, and then if the publisher the agent does and then and then if the publisher wants it then they negotiate you know a deal and that's what happened and that but that just doing the proposal alone took me almost a year almost a year so even though he reached out to you to see if you're interested you still had to i had to show that i could at least write a book right because the proposal was kind of like uh it's not the book but it is like here's what how I'm going to write this book When you're in the proposal sort of period are you reaching out to because if you can't speak to people if you can't get

The Nash's or the Hogan's it's kind of tough, right? Are you reaching out to people as well or are you just hoping that once this gets approved? You'll get in touch with these guys Yeah, yeah, so the first thing that I did was I tried to get in touch with Eric Bischoff because I felt like you can't really write a book about the NWO without the person who created the NWO. And there are so many things that I needed to ask him to verify but also new information, what have you.

So I reached out to his team and I set up a meeting with him. It was the weekend of AWW or nothing. It was in Jacksonville, Florida. It was just a few weeks after the email came. It was May, 2021. I think it was actually their first show back in front of a full crowd after the pandemic.

And I sat down with Eric Bischoff at a Dave and Buster's in Jacksonville. It was a very brief meeting. I think he already, I think I had interviewed him for stuff before, like for ESPN and whatever. So I was not like, you know, a stranger completely to him. He knew who I was. So we spoke for like maybe like 15 minutes. It was not a long conversation. It was just like, hey, you know, here's who I was. So we spoke for like maybe like 15 minutes. It was not a long conversation. It was just like, hey, you know, here's who I am.

This is what I wanna do. Can I rely on you for an interview when the time comes? And he said, yeah, absolutely, whatever you need. And he completely lived up to that and then some because I was able to fly to his, you know, where he lives in Cody, Wyoming. Wow. It's home.

I sat down with him. Yeah, I went to the ranch. Absolutely incredible, by the way. Just like God's country. Just really an incredible place. And yeah, I sat down with him for hours and hours, you know, met his wife, Lori, and very gracious, really incredibly gracious. He got nothing from this.

I did not pay him. You can't really, you can't pay for books. So he really just out of, you know, wanting to help spread, you know, the message of the NWO and that time period in wrestling, that was really all he gained from that. So I have tremendous amount of respect and gratitude for that. It's such a great subject. And it's one where there's been like WWE documentaries made about it,

but sometimes with these, and especially these particular characters, you don't know what to work or what to shoot. And so to me, like, when you get into the stuff about, and I'm not giving away too much here because I want people to read it, but the stuff about like the 11th hour decision of putting Hogan in and not like,

that's the type of thing where you watch it, and you're like, nah, obviously this is not true yeah but it is true that was true it was true it was true to an extent certainly like they had it could have been staying absolutely could have been staying that's crazy she told me that he did not know that Hogan was absolutely in until he arrived at the arena that day at Ocean Center. And by the way you never felt like these guys were working you? Well because that's a crazy thought. Right this is the wrestling business right so everyone is

trying to work each other but the goal is to try to talk to as many people that you possibly can and verify everything and corroborate everything and that's what I tried to do so I thought like you know you know, Kevin Sullivan and you know, Eric Bishop. It's different than writing like a book about basketball where it's like someone tells you a story, you maybe verify it with one person, you're good. Here guys are like, the revisionist history is insane, right? 100%. I interviewed Hogan's lawyer, Henry Holmes.

I interviewed his agent, Peter Young, you know, so these are all people that I at least have, you know, in the book either denying or whatever and you know, you know how it works. You have to either corroborate what the person is telling you or say, this person actually said it happened this way. So yeah, as far as I believe from what I was told by several people, he really did not know that he would turn until he got to the building. That's when Bischoff knew.

And Hall and Nash say that they didn't know until he came out of the curtain. I'm not sure if that's a hundred percent true. It's possible because the everyone was kept in the dark about this because one of Eric Bischoff's greatest fears during that time period was telling the wrong person and having it get back to the media and having it end up in the Wrestling Observer or the Torch. Meltzer gets his hands on it and then his whole idea, right, the whole thing about the NWO is that it's supposed to be breaking the fourth wall. And if it's already in the dirt sheets, as that's not really a great term, but then you lose that effect. And he was very protective of that.

Such a great, I mean, just like the whole backstory on how we get to the point of it becoming a thing and then the launch. I remember talking to you throughout the process of writing the book and you're like, yeah, I'm watching a May 1998 episode. You watched every single one all over again? Yep. Nitro and Thunder? Yep.

What about worldwide? Did you watch that? No. Saturday night? Some of them. Yeah. Some of the NWO ones, yeah. Right. It was over 500 hours. 500 hours. Of WCW. So where'd you get all the footage? Some of them. Some of the NWO ones, yeah. It was over 500 hours of WCW.

So where'd you get all the footage? Peacock. Oh, it's all on Peacock, yeah. Chronological order? It was then, I'm not sure if it will be now. It is in chronological order, yeah. Wow. I do miss the old WWB network, if I'm being honest,

because the way that it was curated was a lot more user-friendly. But Peacock did the job and I was- So you sat there beginning to end? The way that it was curated was a lot more user-friendly. So you sat there beginning to end? Starting in 96, like an episode or two before Scott Hall showed up. And then I think I ended in like mid-99. In your opinion, what's the last day of the NWO, and I'm talking WCW era, not, of course, not, yeah. There was never really like, they never had an end to the story, right? It was a story that really had no like official end. To me,

the NWO kind of died the night of the finger poke of doom. And I know that it carried on for a few months after that as like a new group, you know, the NWO Wolfpack Elite or whatever they were calling it. But I think that the the essence of the NWO storyline ended on that night because it just kind of became another wrestling storyline, in my opinion. If you know, if you're watching for so long and I enjoyed 1997 WSW immensely creative in 98 kind of like ebbed and flowed. Some of it was good, some of it was not. They were saved a little bit by the rise of Goldberg and the

Rodman Malone stuff that was really big. And then Jay Leno, all those did really big numbers, but the actual creative product was not really that great, you know, by mid-98. So then the end of that year was Starcade and Goldberg losing the streak because of the cattle prod, right? The Taser, Scott Hall. And then a few weeks later, actually not even a few weeks later, very shortly after, the first Nitro of 99 was the finger poke of Doom. And that rejoined the NW Hollywood, the Black and White, and the Black and Red, the Wolf Pack. And after that, I was just kinda like, eh. This is not really cool anymore. This is just another kinda phony wrestling storyline.

We spoke in April after Cena turned. Yes. And we were comparing Cena's turn to Hogan's turn. My take did not age well at all. Yo, I said at the- Terrible. I said at the- It aged terribly. I said at the time, this is nowhere near. Yeah. I said it's terrible. I said it aged terribly. I said at the time, this is nowhere near. Yeah.

But we have to weigh, Desh. I mean, now, anyone who said this was as big or bigger, has it been a disaster? It hasn't been a disaster, but it was obvious that they had no follow through. Or maybe they thought they did, but they did not end up following through. Because The Rock has not appeared since

then. Travis Scott had the one appearance at WrestleMania, but there's never been any kind of like explanation. Like we thought we had like the next NWO, right? Like the next big thing that's going to cross over into pop culture. And they never followed up with the rock and Travis Scott. It just became seen like turning on the fence and the other stuff was forgotten. So it felt very empty. Incredible angle in the moment in a vacuum.

But since then, it has definitely left a lot to be desired. Okay, so let me ask you about a couple of like highlights if I can. When Bobby Heenan says, whose side is he on? Right? Was that a mistake? Was that like a slip of the tongue? Did they know?

He didn't know. He didn't know? He didn't know. They didn't tell him? No. Really? Because had he known, he would not have said that. What he was doing was he was playing the character,

Bobby the Brain-Henan, that had loathed Hulk Hogan since the 80s. So Hulk Hogan comes out, of course, he's going to crap on Hulk Hogan since the 80s. So Hulk Hogan comes out, of course, he's going to he's going to crap on Hulk Hogan because that's just what Bobby the Brain Heenan did for like a decade at that point, right? I love it. So he was not aware and he did get in trouble for that. He did. He did. What does in trouble mean? He got yelled at at the very least. I'm not sure if he got, I don't think he got like fin or suspended Right now, but he did get yelled at because how's that fair? He didn't know He didn't know but no one told him so they wanted him to react organically

Again, a lot of things were kept From even key people that you would think wouldn't have to be in the loop Because of that fear that it was gonna end up in the dirt sheets And that was a real fear one thing that always annoyed me the promo was so great in the ring with me Jean And I love the fact that they did it right then and there the garbage and all that but Hogan at one point calls it The New World Organization Annoyed me and it would always annoy me also. I don't know why it always a type a personality that you can't take would always go capital N

lowercase W, capital O. So that's real. Like the people like hated that. Why'd he do it? I don't know. Constantly. I don't know. He just did it. The logo is lowercase N, big W, lowercase O.

I remember I interviewed Neil Pruitt, who is one of the WSU producers at the time and a guy that was very responsible for like the look and feel of the NWO. Like he did, he shot like the black and white promos, and he was the voice of, this announcement is paid for by the... Oh, brilliant.

Yeah, so he told me that every time he saw Hogan spray paint it with the cap and lens, he was cringing, like, that's not what we did. We made this intentionally, and Hogan, he just forgot. Can I ask about the logo? You can ask about the logo, yeah. It's a great story.

It is a great story. It really encompasses just like all the work that went into it, why it's not just, hey, I sat down and watched 500 hours. You actually try to unearth things about this, fraction about this story that no one has known before. And so who is responsible for maybe one of the most iconic

logos in the history of the business? So in that same conversation that I just mentioned with Neil Pruitt, and this was sitting down in a Greek diner in Atlanta, Georgia, or at least on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia, back in 2023, I guess. And he told me, you should really track down the person who did the logo.

And I was like, what do you mean? And he's like, and I was like, I heard, you should really track down the person who did the logo. And I was like, what do you mean? And he's like, and I was like, I heard, you know, I always heard the story that it was made by Disney or like Disney MGM, because that's where they were at the time, right? They were based out of Orlando during the Olympics in 96. And he was like, yes, that's true, but no one has ever found the actual human being

who was on the computer designing the logo. Right? So I was like, man, how do I do this? So there were three producers who went over to Disney MGM Studios right after Batch at the Beach. Because again, very few people knew about this. So the marketing team was not clued in on what was gonna happen. The merchandise team was not clued into

what was gonna happen. They didn't know. When Hogan said New World Order, the first time, correctly, that's when they first heard those words. And they had to then take action after that. So there was no, like today's WWE is so polished and so well produced that they had the merchandise ready.

Our truth comes back, they have the Ron Killing shirts already ready. That was not what WCW was doing at that time. So have the Ron Killing shirts already ready. That was not what WSU was doing at that time so After the bash of the beach, there were three producers who went over to Disney MGM studios It was Rob Wright and net yother and Craig Leathers who was like the main producer and Craig Leathers had an idea of what he wanted The logo to look like Generally he was like going to like Walgreens and CVS and he was like flipping through the magazine section and like looking at skater

Magazines heavy metal magazines, you know gangster rap magazines to try to get like that urban like gritty feel That's what he wanted. So he kind of brought those ideas with him into this post-production studio, which was called Disney ideas ID EAS like acronym down and They went over there and they were like, hey, we need a logo to be made, which by the way, it would have happened in Atlanta if they were able to be in their regular office, but they were not. They were in Orlando because of the Olympics.

There was no production trucks for them. So they had to do all of their tapings in Orlando for like a month during the Olympics that year. So they go over and the person at the studio is like, all right, we have one person who can do a logo. That's not really what they did. They designed stuff for the theme park, things that were happening inside the Disney MGM theme park.

So they went over and it was a woman who did this logo. And I talked to Rob Wright and Craig Leathers, and I was like, can you give me a description of this person? What did she look like? Did she have blonde hair? Was she young? Was she old? And they did, but they don't remember who she was

or what her name was or anything like that. So, I was like, how am I gonna find a person from 1996? This was almost 30 years ago. So, I started trying to find everything I could about Disney ideas, like that post-production studio that was a part of Disney MGM Studios. And I was like, you know, doing research, like LexisNexis search, anything that I could find

about Disney ideas. And this is definitely gonna be inside baseball for those who are bored by reporting. And I found an article from the Orlando Sentinel about Disney ideas from 1995, I think. And in the article, there was the name of the woman who was a general manager at Disney ideas. So I was like, all right, that's something.

That's like a crumb, right? What do I do? So I then try to find this woman's contact information. So again, I'm doing all of my reporting. This is fun, you like this. Yeah, it's fun, it's fun. The chase. Yeah, I definitely enjoy the chase.

And I have always been pretty good at tracking people down. So I found this woman's phone number and I gave her a call. And I was like, so, you know, this is like, who the hell are you, Why are you calling me? This was 30 years ago. She was nice.

It wasn't like that, but it was like, why are you asking about this now? And I was like, who would have been, like who would have been doing logos for you guys at Disney ideas like in 1996? And she was like, well, it could have been this person. It could have been this person, I'm not sure, call someone else, like, you know, call, find this person.

So then I found somebody else, like a man who worked there, and he was like, it was probably one of two people. And then. By the way, how many days, weeks are going by? Yeah, I mean weeks, you know, weeks, weeks are going by, you know, trying to find this, because I'm also, you know, I have a real job. Right, right. And then I'm still trying to like, you know, dial down to who this person was. And then someone,

the guy told me that it was probably one of two women, right? And he gave me their names. So I could not find one of them, but I found the other. And that woman told me it wasn't her. So I reached her, yeah, it was not her. So then someone, and this is kind of actually so crazy, someone posted that I was looking for this person on a Facebook group. And it was like a 1990s post-production Facebook group, but people in Orlando.

Like the most specific Facebook group you could possibly imagine, someone posted in there like, hey, this person is trying to find whoever did this logo. You didn't ask them to do this. No, someone else did it. They were just trying to be helpful. Someone else did it. And Eric Bischoff actually saw, like someone sent him

the Facebook group to ask him, like, do you know who this person was? And he didn't. And I remember talking with him about this. And he was like, you're not going to find her. And Craig Leather told me the same thing. You're just not going to find this person. Like, it's impossible. So in this Facebook group, people were commenting on the post, but saying like, it wasn't me. And then the woman who I reached out to who said it wasn't her said, no, it wasn't me. And then the woman who I reached out to, who said it wasn't her, said, no, it wasn't me. It could have been, and then she tagged another woman.

And this other woman, her name was Jenny. And the name that I was given was her maiden name. She was no longer going by that name now. She goes by Jenny Hines now. It was Jenny Sloan when she made the logo. So I was searching for someone named Jenny Sloan and failing because that was no longer her name. Well, I found Jenny Hines and she's a real estate agent in Winter Park, Florida. And I got her number and I texted her.

Oh my gosh. And I said, Hi, sorry for this random text. I'm writing a book about pro wrestling in the 90s. And I just want to know if this logo means anything to you. And I texted her like a JPEG of the logo. This gives me chills, by the way. Yeah, me too, actually. And then 30 minutes later, I hear my phone and I looked down at my phone and it's Jenny Hines.

And she says, yes, I designed it. And that was like, I found her, I got her. And then I interviewed her for like an hour. And that was, as far as like investigative journalism, I was pretty proud of that, right? Because- What's that feeling like? It was great because honestly it was a shot in the dark

that I would find this person. Like I very likely would have, could have failed, but somehow I... Did she know what it had become? Was she aware? No, not to the extent. One of the first things that she asked me, even before I started the interview, she was like, how many t-shirts did they sell?

And I was like, hundreds of thousands? No one knows the exact number, but certainly they sold millions of dollars worth of those t-shirts. And she never saw a dime of that. A dime. She was just doing something. Just a regular job. It was just another day for her. It was just a Tuesday. She was just there. But she didn't keep up with it. She didn't say, this is the thing that I...

No. Wow, that's so crazy. And then she said that she saw the shirt, and she was obviously just not in a world where she was seeing a lot of wrestling shirts, which was kind of crazy because back in the 90s, so it everywhere, you know, but she said that in like in 2019 she was at the Waldorf Astoria and she saw someone with an NWO shirt and ended up being Hulk Hogan's son. Wow. Nick Hogan.

Yeah. Isn't that random? She went up to them. She did. Wow. She did. She did. Wow. She did, she did. And she didn't know like, cause she's been in real estate now for like decades and her son never knew this is what she did. But she said her son actually was aware of the logo.

Didn't really know what it was, but had seen it before. And it resonated with him. And she got to tell her son, like, I actually signed that logo from like a past life of mine. And then I told her that, you know, Kevin Durant was wearing the logo and you know Aziz Ansari on Saturday Night Live, Kendall Jenner, you know, and she felt pretty happy about telling her son that like I did something that, you know, became part of pop culture. Who came up with New World Order?

Like the actual name? So it's crazy because very few people realize that the first person who said New World Order, like the actual name. So it's crazy because very few people realized that the first person who said New World Order was actually not Hulk Hogan at Batch of the Beach. It was Larry Zabisco, the color commentator, on the Go Home Show at the Batch of the Beach. So on Nitro, they were doing a stand up, him and Tony Schiavone, and he referred to it as a New World Order. And that was the first time that anyone had ever said it. Did they not have the name already?

They didn't. So it's because of that. Someone heard that? Yes. So Bischoff says that that day at Ocean Center, before the event started, he sat down with Hogan privately in a room and explained to him what he wanted him to say and then the whole storyline, what was going to happen.

And Bischoff said, and I want you to call it the new world order. And Bischoff thought that he came up with the idea spur of the moment, but really now he, now he has gone back and said, like, actually it was Larry Zabisco who came up with that name. And I just probably heard it on the show that night and it was in my, it was in my thoughts. But yeah, but a lot of things that were happening there, again, like it was so fly by to the seat of your pants. There was so little preparation and it was really just kind of like a convergence that ended up being magical.

It was not overproduced at all. What was the apex? Like what was the high mark? When were they their hottest? When did it like perfectly sort of all come together for them? I mean it was it was going perfectly going to Starcade 97. Hogan vs. Sting. December. December 97. Yep. Starcade. So that's a year and a half later. Yeah. And

it's still going strong, hot. And not quite Rodman alone yet. Yeah. Ariel is um, I don't think this made the book but I talked to Dave Meltzer of course now for the book and he said he saw Eric Bischoff in May 96, right after Hall and Nash debuted. He saw him at a big wrestling show in LA. He told Bischoff, like, congrats, this is an amazing angle, amazing storyline you guys have going. Bischoff told Meltzer, like, yeah, I think I can probably keep this going until Starcade 96. Oh my god. Just for a few months. And Meltzer's like, no, you might be able to go to Starcade 97. You know, that's how, you know, good he felt about just kind of like

the bare bones, like the foundation of what the NWO was going to become. But what was your question? Sorry. About the apex. You said Starcade 97, so a year and a half later. Hogan Sting, because Sting was like, at this point he was the crow, right? Yes. Never said a word. He didn't say a word for like 18 months, or 16 months where he didn't say a word. Which was, by the way, really ballsy because they're going up against RAW every week. And Sting is one of their biggest stars. And you pretty much took him off the board. You know, what you did with him ended up being great,

but these are big matches that you were missing out on that Sting could have been involved in for ratings and pay-per-view buys and whatever. So it was risky to keep Sting away from that. But it ended up being magic until the actual match happened. Then it was a disaster. But that 97 WCW I thought was just fantastic.

I thought it was great. And Sting was built up as this avenging angel. He's finally going to give Hollywood Hogan his comeuppance after more than a year of Hogan terrorizing WCW and all that in the NWO. And that would have been a great endpoint for the storyline. I understand that they were still making so much money. And their business success, and I want to be very clear about this, I'm talking about their creative apex.

Their business success continued well into 1998, and they were doing really, really great. The Robin Malone pay-per-view was one of the biggest pay-per-views in WSU history. So they were still doing great from a business standpoint, but, and this is what I learned from Dave Meltzer, a lot of times the business lags behind the creative. So business can still be hot, but the creative might not be where it was at the peak, but you do then see diminishing returns as time goes by. So by 98, WCW Creative was not very good, but business was still good.

It took a little bit while longer for the business to catch up with the creative. There's an excerpt about the whole Rodman-Malone thing up right now on ESPN.com. And I remember I was a wrestling fan and I'm a huge basketball fan. There it is right over here. We compromised the NBA Finals,

how WCW capitalized on Rodman-Malone hoops rivalry. And I remember Costas talking about it and hating on it. And it was funny because like Costas did some stuff back in the day. He did, he worked for Vince. Yes, he did. He also did like a Letterman thing with Vince

back in the day with the babies at the hospital. But the way he talks about it now, not a fan. No. I don't think there's a sort of insinuation you would know better than I that like they were in cahoots. Do you think that they were in cahoots? Did they try to have a melee? Yes.

You think they did? Yes. You know they did? They, did they say? Dennis Rodman's agent told me that what happened during that, Dwight Manley, he told me that during that sequence where they're bowling each other over and they're, you know, getting scrappy on the court. I mean, they went down like three times in a row.

Yes, it was great. It was great. He told me that if you look back at their other games and their other confrontations down low in the post, none of them looked like that. It was only until after the match became a thing that they did it. And Bischoff says that he spoke to both of them before that game and said, look, I don't want you to affect the game at all, but during a dead ball, you know, during whatever, a timeout, if you can just kind of show people that you don't like each other, that would be cool.

And I believe I do believe that they did that. And then their match happens a few weeks after the Bulls beat the Jazz. Yeah, isn't that it? It could have scripted it. I mean, that's what's crazy. It would be like the equivalent would be like Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Halbert Yeah having a match in which four weeks that's I mean certainly possible at SummerSlam, right? Yes both those huge No chance. She's in today's NBA. I my mind there's so much money invested in those guys I doubt they let them do anything physical I mean George Kittle got in trouble a few years ago by the 49ers for Not even doing a match just by doing something physical in the ring at WrestleMania.

So yeah, I'm not sure if... Rodman was the perfect guy for this. Malone was a superstar. He was big, he was strong. Did they have to get clearance from their teams to do it? Yeah. I mean, Rodman kind of... He was already doing stuff with WSW even before that, right?

He had wrestled the match a year earlier, so he was kind of already... And plus, you can't really tell if there was a problem or anything. He skipped out on practice during the NBA Finals so he was kind of already, and plus you can't really tell the problem. He skipped out on practice during the NBA finals because he was at Nitro the night before. And then Malone, he did get clearance because the owner of the Jazz actually helped him negotiate the contract. Wow. Larry Miller? Yeah.

Really? Yeah. Wow. Helped him negotiate that with Bischoff and What was funny, I don't think this made the book was that he so Dwight Manley was there in you know for Bash the Beach with Rodman and he sat down with Malone like for lunch that day and Malone Was very happy that he was getting I forget how much he was gonna get

I think it was like nine hundred thousand for the one appearance and I think Robin was making like 1.5 million and Manley told Malone like Robin got 1.5 million and then Malone hired him as his agent wow hired Manley as his agent yeah for NBA stuff too yeah just a while did he get close to that number no because they only he already had that in the way he only did that one match. But Manley said that both of them, Malone especially, would have done it for free. He loved wrestling. He loved wrestling, and Manley gave me this amazing anecdote. He would sit home on Monday nights when there was no game, and he would eat vanilla wafer cookies while watching Nitro and Raw. Can you just imagine

Karl Malone, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, just in his pajamas watching Nitro, stuffing vanilla wafers in his mouth, it's crazy. The problem as a fan, and I wonder if you, it just got too convoluted, too many people, even Bischoff turning, I Didn't Love. That was very early on. It was early, and I thought that was a mistake.

They needed an explanation as to how the NWO was just everywhere, right? And how they were getting away with certain things because they're having matches now like how you they're not part of the organization How are they having matches they needed something but they need it like? Hogan excuse me Austin McMahon worked so well because like it's it's it's the anti-establishment against the establishment Yeah, Bischoff was essentially the anti-establishment against the establishment. Bischoff was essentially the establishment. Now when the establishment joins the Renegade team, who are they fighting against? There was no guy on the other side, right?

Well, that was one of the big criticisms, right? Because everyone else was kind of made to look like geeks. Yes, yes. Because of the NWO. Until Sting. Until Sting developed that character, which Scott Hall helped him with, you know, doing the crow. Sting had never seen the crow before, and that was Scott Hall's idea.

He should look like the crow, you know? But yeah, I mean, and also until Goldberg. Before Goldberg, there was really no babyface in WCW that felt like a threat at all to the NWO. And that was obviously a major reason why things didn't work out as well as they did. But certainly there were things they could have done. When they split off NWO, Wolfpack, and Hollywood, that could have been a major like civil war of the NWO and the what is like the

most logical climax match of that? Kevin Nash versus Hollywood Hogan. Never happened until the finger poke of doom. But it never happened when it was when it was hot and it Was never a real match most likely because they didn't have a finish to that match and for non wrestling fans That means like neither one of them want that really seed the idea of losing in that type of match. So So it was like the ultimate they brought the ultimate warrior back in it was Hogan kind of bringing in people who he was comfortable doing business with and knowing that he would you know, look strong coming away from Matches against the ultimate warrior and so on and so forth. Did you talk to Scott Hall? I did not. He passed before? So remember I

told you I did the book proposal? Yeah. I submitted the proposal on like a Friday and then on that Sunday he passed away. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Because you you paint and I mean you just mentioned the the the sting nugget there like Obviously we know about the demons everything like that We also know about how respected he was as a wrestler is one of the all-time great wrestlers But he also seemed like one of the all-time great teammates. Mm-hmm, right like helping others Yes, what like what Hogan gets the knock for not being a good teammate? For having creative control and not wanting to put people over.

Scott wasn't that guy, right? No. And Nash too gets that criticism, but I feel like Scott was the one where everyone was like, he got it, he was okay making people look good, he was okay losing, right? My theory about Scott Hall is that unlike Nash and to a lesser extent Hogan,

Hall was really a huge wrestling fan growing up as a kid. And I think that also played a part in him wanting to kind of give back to the business. Also the way that he came up through, you know, what was then the territory system, right? He was an AWA and his character was like not really working at that level because he was like big Scott Hall. Remember what he looked like? He was like, he was like, he looked nothing like Raz was like big Scott Hall. Remember what he looked like?

He was like, he looked nothing like Razor Ramon and what his got all the way up. Yeah, he had like the Tom Selleck mustache. And curly hair. He was really built, like, you know, he was much leaner when he became, you know, Razor Ramon. And I think that coming up, like, and maybe struggling at first

and not getting a big push right away, contributed, and also Kurt Henning was his, his like one of his main mentors in AWA. And that played a part also because Kurt Hennig had the idea of you give back. And the click was really just like Kurt Hennig's protege. People don't realize the effect that Kurt Hennig had, Mr. Perfect had on those guys because Scott Hall and Shawn Michaels only started hanging out together because of that connection to Kurt Hennig. And then Shawn Walton was also a Kurt Hennig guy from Minnesota and then and then Nash when he came over

he joined those guys up you know and you know started the click right and the click was kind of the NWO before the NWO like the real-life NWO they were kind of doing things that the NWO did but behind the scenes. It's amazing to think back to that time where there was a moment where like I think collectively 10 million people were watching Nitro and Raw on a Monday night. Cut into the Monday night football ratings. I mean could you imagine that? Crazy.

I don't think we'll ever see anything like it again. Like I was listening to some people talking about the bloodline. Bloodline greatest story. It's not. It's not the NWO. I'm sorry. It's a good story. It's a great one It was a great story. This is transformative Yeah, it's the same reason why Hogan turning isn't the same as Cena, right?

There will never be anything like this and the attitude era in my opinion and those two happening at the exact same time Do you agree? Do you think we can ever see anything quite like this again? No, no not quite like it because you have to kind of put it in the context of where wrestling was in the early 90s And it was not in a good place like it was I mean Arguably on the verge of not even being a thing anymore early 90s because WCW was not Anything right they were their ratings were okay like for WCW Saturday night and like some of the syndicated shows but they were not making any kind of impact and then shows, but they were not making any kind of impact. And then, Offensive Man was going through the steroid trial, and that hurt the WWF immensely.

Hurt them financially, hurt them from an image and reputation standpoint, right? The idea that these guys are on steroids, well, I mean, we kind of know now that if you just look at them, it's pretty obvious they were. But in the early 90s, there was naivety, right? So you had both promotions really kind of in the crapper, so to speak, and it took the NWO to kind of lift things back up and make it, that's why it's like, you can never have that again because the industry

was at like an all-time low almost. And then it took the NWO and Nitro, you know, and then Bischoff deserves credit also before the NWO because he was doing things that Were not done in wrestling even before Scott Hall showed up He was giving away the results right of RAW and it was really like it became an intense battle and and When those battles take place, it's actually better for both parties where competition like that and you're going head-to-head And could you imagine like what reddit or Twitter would be like? Oh my god, like the Monday night war was going on right now all the tribalism that exists right now in WWB and AW

And if it was back then and Eric Bischoff was giving away the results of raw But you know the taped results of raw on a live nitro Chaos and then Medusa comes in and drops the the title in the garbage, right? These were things that did not happen. So they were already kind of creating buzz and the billionaire Ted skits. So you could see like the whole like the evolution of where the where the business was and the NWO was with the catalyst that took it to like an even greater level. And the attitude era happened, right? Does that happen without the NWO? I would argue probably not at that level. And if there's no attitude era, then what are we

even talking about? You know what how? How big did wrestling got so big? Is wrestling the same now as it is, if not for that time period? Do you watch wrestling, follow wrestling? I do, yeah. You do? Everything, you watch everything? I watch a lot.

How many hours a week? Oh God, my wife's here. How many hours a week? What does she say? Oh, she's rolling her eyes. It's too much. She doesn't wanna talk about it. It's three hours on Monday.

It's two to three hours on Friday. I mean, you know, you can just watch. I sometimes I pop in in the morning when I'm just working and I have it on in the background. I don't watch it live, but I watch it. What's your favorite thing in wrestling right now? Oh, that's a really hard question. Wow.

What's the best thing? The best thing in wrestling right now? That's a really hard question. I don't know the answer. What's your favorite story? Your favorite gimmick, your favorite guy, your favorite feud? I mean, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with CM Punk and John Cena. OK, I enjoy CM Punk.

AW is I feel like they're on a little bit of an upswing. Are they? I thought I thought last year was kind of a tough year for them, business-wise and also just like buzz-wise. And I feel like they're making a little bit of a comeback this year. And I think that's good. And I just think wrestling as a whole. I mean, I go to like indie shows in Atlanta. Like I- You ever see Paul Walter Hauser?

I've seen him at an MLW show. He's coming on next, right? Yes. You've seen Hauser? I've seen him at an MLW show. He's coming on next, right? Yes. You've seen him wrestle? I have. How's he? He's fun. Look, I'll say this.

He works his butt off. I mean, he works his butt off and he takes all the bumps. Crazy. And for a guy that has won an Emmy, who does not have to be taking bumps like that, I'm impressed. He loves, he absolutely loves wrestling. Very clear. It's very clear that he loves wrestling. Yes. You go to indie shows. Absolutely I love it. GCW? They haven't been to Atlanta since I've been there

but if they come around I'll be there. GWG, you, Shaheen, Kasey, those guys going back in the day. Those guys used to come up from Arizona. You guys don't know like Shaheen al shadi my pal and Jose young yeah, he's the drive up from freaking Phoenix to go to just go to PWG. They would stay at my place We go to PWG. It was a great time. They belter was there Still still talk to him. Yeah, you ever go to blood support Yeah, yeah, I'd like to go to one of those. I've been to several of them and they're great. They are fantastic, yeah. It's like, to me, almost the highlight

of WrestleMania weekends outside of actual wrestling. And some would even say maybe even better than WrestleMania, depends. I like all kinds of wrestling. I see the beauty and the art in all aspects of it, from the Indies where I'm in Atlanta in like a THC Industrial warehouse with a ring in it with like maybe 20 people there or WrestleMania where there's 70,000

Is it true that a a wrestling book written by journalists has never been number one on the New York Times Best-selling list never you made the list every made the list Only only memoirs. So like yeah Jericho's book Foley's book. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Love Foley's book right have a nice day as a kid is the one that kicked it all off Absolutely, there was a stretch there in the late 90s where it was just like banger after banger. Yeah, loved it all at Bret Hart later on I know so so a journalist Wow, and is this? It would be out of 10? 15. 15. The New York Times list, yeah.

Yeah, it's 15. Okay, it's like the UFC rankings. That's what they patterned it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're- I think it's actually the same media core who votes on it, yeah. The dude from 92.3 in Wichita.

So what are our chances here? I think 50-50 right now. Okay. When do you find out? I'll find out in probably two weeks. Gosh, is that nerve wracking? I mean, yes, only because I'm making it nerve wracking. I need to have a goal,

and I need to have a challenge in front of me. And I feel like that would be special because I think it would be validation for pro wrestling. Because if you see what's on the New York Times list, everything, it is super high brow stuff. It's a non-fiction list. I'm going up against novels. It's non-fiction, very important things, you know, like politics and sociology and all that that and I think that it would be really cool if a wrestling book ended up in There just so that people who like read the list every week

But you know who these be literary folks you know who are really into books and everything Which I'm kind of like you know exposing myself because I'm I have not been that into books over the years because I'm busy But I think it would be very funny to like open up the New York Times one day and see like, say hello to the bad guys. What there's a wrestling book in here. And I think it deserves to be. I think there should be a credible yes. I think it would be to me it would be kind of like validation or even if not vindication for wrestling fans, because it's still so stigmatized for whatever reason. And I feel like in 2025, like we live in a culture

where there's fake things happening all around us. I mean, just look, open your Instagram or your TikTok and it's like skits. It's like people putting on personas and characters. So we're around that constantly. So why is wrestling not given it its just due as an art? During the days of Shakespeare, like the contemporary days of Shakespeare,

his work was thought of as very lowbrow, as being like a soap opera. And I feel like there is comparisons where wrestling is kind of like that now, where it's not really given its just due as a form of art. And I'm hoping that this book helps that in a way and getting on the New York Times list I think would be a big way to do that. Would you like to write another book or has this been such a... Absolutely. Okay you're in. You want to do more. Yeah maybe like 20 years. Okay. No. I mean it's exhausting. It's a huge lift. I know several people who've

written books and they tell me it like a piece of your soul dies, right? I mean, I feel like it's just intense. You beat yourself up constantly. But I would love to write another book about, especially about wrestling, because I think that again, like, if I can kind of do my part to uplift the reputation or eliminate the stigma against wrestling to non-fans, I would love to carry

that mantle if it's possible. And maybe that's like a pipe dream or overstating it. It's a lot of pressure on your shoulders, by the way. Yeah. I mean, I'm not taking the bumps, but I can kind of help as a journalist to help show people what this is because I drag people to wrestling shows like I did in LA in the independent shows. I'm doing it in Atlanta now too with a new group of friends who have never really watched

wrestling like that. And it's so interesting to me to see when people come to shows and what they react to and what's compelling to them and who they feel like is a big star and who's not. So interesting to me, man. Like, I just love that. Are you gonna show up at like wrestling conventions, signing the book and stuff? Potentially.

Oh really? There's a talk about that. I love it. Look, if the book was out before WrestleMania, I would have been at WrestleCon probably signing. Oh, that's, what a dream. Yeah, that would be cool, right? Like you next to Demolition.

You know? Yeah, that would be awesome. I went to demolition. Yeah, that would be awesome. I went to WrestleCon, you know. It's a great time. In fact, you do have a few stops, one tonight. Yeah. New York, six o'clock, here we go. Look at this, look at this right here.

Oh wow, that's me. Six o'clock tonight at the Renaissance Hotel. We have a very limited amount of books left. Well okay, well get on it. Yeah, so if you're in Manhattan tonight. June 24th, that's the day that it comes out, right? My mom's birthday, shout out, Southern California, and then June 28th in Atlanta, GA. Isn't it crazy, by the way, that I was not living in Atlanta when I got this book offer. And now I live in Atlanta where WCW was from. That's like crazy to me. That's like, that's fate. It's weird. Yes.

That's fate. Where's the power plant? Like what's become of it? So I went, I didn't tell you this? No. I went there. So when I was, before I moved to Atlanta, I went on a trip just for the book. And I, you know, met up with several people who worked for WSW at the time and one of them, Alan Sharp, who was their head of PR, he took me.

He took me to the old WSW offices in Smyrna on Log Cabin Road, I believe it is, and now it's like a power company. It's a giant warehouse, but now it's all lights and all that kind of stuff. But there used to be a ring in there where guys would go over their matches and train in the WSU offices.

So there was legit people working, and there was a ring in the middle of this giant warehouse. And people would be in there training. And then the power plant was a few minutes down the road, also in that area of Georgia. And now it's just a warehouse, I think furniture. And the guy that was working there said he was a WCW fan, but had no idea that he was working in the old power plant.

Yeah, pretty crazy. That was where the big boys played. Where the big boys played. That was the catchphrase. Some people in my family make fun of me of this, but when we go on vacation, like my thing to do, I just love reading wrestling books of all kind.

It's just a nice vacation read. And that's what I was sending you back in April when my kids were on spring break. It's such a great read, really. You did such a great job. And obviously I was a little more invested because I know you and I remember when you got the email and everything.

It's weird to say to someone that you're friends with but I'm proud of you. Well done. Very much. Congratulations This is no easy thing to do. You pulled it off. You did it and you can pre-order it right now. There it is nearly 100 interviews The definitive book on the rise and fall of pro wrestling's most iconic group You can get it now wherever you get your books, right? Amazon, Barnes and Noble. Fargate, Walmart, all the spots. And it is out officially June 24th. There it is.

What a great picture that is too. Is that the WWE version? It is, and then you know what? I've actually gotten criticism. You got, ah. Yes, people. Criticizing you for this. People have commented on that,

and the truth is is that there we WWE was very very helpful amazing with with helping to look and they actually sent me photos but frankly the WWE era photos were just way better better than the Kind of dark and grainy and and that's kind of what it came down to was like there was just for the cover of book it needs to be a really like sharp clear photo and yeah it can't be like yeah and this was the vibe but you know it can't be like a stretched out photo of course no no you cannot do so so this is what they came up with and I think it looks pretty good and I do want to let you know this

according to the editor-in-chief of Uncrowned.com not sure if you're familiar with the the website but I yes I'm a frequent number one site for all things combat sports Shaheen Alshadi tell me that an excerpt yes from this very book that's correct will be premiering on Uncrowned on Monday June 23rd that is absolutely correct which excerpt We haven't decided. About Scott Hall. Oh, I love, that's my guy. Exactly.

The Diamond Stud himself. The Diamond Stud. I learned a lot about his early days. The fight, strip club. Oh man, yeah. He's got it. Some crazy stuff, yeah. I didn't realize.

Quite a life that he led, yes. Well done. Congratulations. Thank you for coming in. Good luck later today. Good luck with the sale, the launch all that stuff and Yeah, look forward to what's the next one? Don't tell don't tell anyone you probably the next book. Yeah You have it already

Wow, not done. Okay. I'm done deal. Okay, we'll see we'll see we'll see that's a great You're gonna come out at 6 p.m. Today. That's a nitro tease right there. That's right. We'll see you next week hanger We'll see you next week Tony We'll see you next week Tony Schiavone who one time said that it called me I think a honey dick or something. It was a great moment in my life when he insulted me. Anyway, we'll take a quick break here. We'll say goodbye to Mark. We'll be back with Paul Walter Hauser in studio. Do not go anywhere. Get the book right now. You're online. Buy it right now. Go on Amazon. Barnes & Noble. Buy it. I'll see you in a minute. So that's an excerpt from the boys in the back on Thursday. You can catch that every Thursday right here on the channel Or wherever you get your podcast that's on your crick and

GC Connor Burks doing their thing. It's a grand old show. I enjoyed very much I enjoyed just watching and taking it all in. That was Mark Ramundi. Once again, Say Hello to the Bad Guys is the book. It comes out on the 24th of June, but you can pre-order it right now. I've read it, I enjoyed it immensely. It's a really, really, really great book. And as you can tell, a lot of reporting, a lot of work went into making it this damn good.

And let's get it on the New York Times bestselling list. Shall we? Now, in a couple of minutes, dare I say seconds, we're gonna be joined by a tremendous actor named Paul Walter Hauser. 38 years young, he has, I mean, an unbelievable filmography. He's been in the Richard Jewell film, directed by, he played Richard Jewell film directed by,

he played Richard Jewell, directed by Clint Eastwood, Inside Out 2. He was just in I, Tanya, Black Klansmen, The Instigators, Blackbird, won an Emmy for that. He's won a Golden Globe, was in Cobra Kai, was in the MMA TV show Kingdom as well. He's been in a ton of things. And in fact, he's coming out with a whole bunch of great projects.

He's in the new Naked Gun film. He's in the new Avengers movie, or excuse me, it's the Fantastic Four. Did I say Avengers last time? Just sort of, yeah, it's Fantastic Four. I'm sort of exposing myself right now. New film on Bruce Springsteen, which is coming out as well.

I mean, he is just an unbelievable actor, a very talented actor. A new movie on Chris Farley was one of my all time favorite comedians. I absolutely adore Chris Farley, adore him. Adore Chris Farley. So I can't, I didn't even know that was in production. But in addition to all of that,

he is a huge pro wrestling fan. He was on SmackDown in 2019. He's appeared on AEW, took a gnarly guitar shot from Jeff Jarrett way back in the day. And as of late, he has been appearing a bunch on Major League Wrestling. That's MLW. In fact, just a few months ago, he was named the executive producer of Major League Wrestling. And he's done some great things for them. When he won his Emmy, he actually referenced Matt Cardona, who he was competing against in an upcoming match. His Emmy speech was a rap song. He put together a rhyme slash rap song. We don't have to have that or do we?

Maybe we do. No, we don't have it It was great. Not only did he mention Matt Cardona He also mentioned get the tables, which is an inside joke that he has with his with his agent So this is the guy who just like mark in his own way, he carries the flag, he's a huge fan, but while being a huge fan and these days an active wrestler, and also an executive producer for a wrestling organization, he's also winning awards and killing it in the acting game, the film and TV game. And so it's a great honor to say hello to the one and only Paul Walter Hauser, who is kind enough to join us right here and now in studio. There he is, the man himself. How are you, sir? It's nice to meet you.

Thank you so much for being here. And you're, you're, are you hawking Mark's book as well? Thanks for making it happen. Uh, yeah, I ran into Mark on his way out and he, uh, that's nice of you. This book, which is very much the kind of book I would read. And you have a WCW like you're, you, like you got a WCW fanny pack. Where did you get this? I think I got it off Chalkline or something.

I think they gifted me that. That is unbelievable. It's great to see you in person here. You look fantastic by the way. Thanks man. The hair looks great. Yeah, this is a very, very particular look I have right now. I'm doing a movie called The Very looks great. Yeah, this is a very very particular look I have right now I'm doing a movie called the very best people were shooting in mostly in Staten Island and I play this like Italian cop who lives in Staten Island and I'm it's kind of a rough character

And so I dyed my hair black and I've been in and out of Like a tanning. Oh, yes. Yeah spray tan I look like I got dragged to the dirt. I look ridiculous. You also kind of look like a tanning spray tan thing. I look like I got dragged through the dirt. I look ridiculous. You also kind of look like a wrestler. Oh yeah. Just goes to the spray tan.

Fanny pack and the water. Suitcase. Yes. No, that's the vibe. I love it. Congratulations on all your success. It's an amazing career that you've built for yourself at such a young age

with some amazing projects coming up as well. By the way, I didn't even know there was a Chris Farley movie coming out. I adore Chris Farley. Yeah. I mean, he's hard not to love, you know? He's like pizza or sleep. He's just this wonderful, essential, universally loved thing. And I had thought about playing him and then Josh Gad came to me and my reps and he was

like, Hey, I want this to be my first movie I direct. Would you want to climb on board? And I knew that Josh had the same vision and passion I had for the guy, so. Has that started yet, production, filming? Oh, sorry, yeah, there's a script. There's a really good script written by Newstater and Weber, the team behind 500 Days of Summer

and The Disaster Artist with James and Dave Franco. They wrote it and did a tremendous job. And we got Lorne Michaels and his people producing. I mean, we have some of the key elements. We just kind of need Warner Brothers to give us the green light. Give us the thumbs up. What a life this is. You're living your dream,

you're winning awards, you're playing incredible roles, and you're also getting to live out every kid's fantasy of being a pro wrestler at the same time and working for a pro wrestling organization as an executive producer, major league wrestling. Like, do you sometimes take a step back and be like, how did this all happen to me? How is this all coming together? You're a father of two. You have a loving wife who you seem to be, you know, in love with and by your side. What a life this is. I know all that glitters is not gold. Everyone goes through their things, but you've got a lot of great things. I'm glad you brought up the idea of gratitude, which, you know, my buddy Chris Van Vliet is

so big on gratitude too. And he always, you know, ends his interviews on that topic. And I had a moment today where I woke up and I woke up to all these texts about the Bruce Springsteen movie trailer, which was this movie about Bruce Springsteen. And I'm just a smaller character. I'm not like a big part of it, but it's a big movie and I think it's gonna be a good one. And I was trying to pray this morning

and I couldn't really get it out. Like I was having trouble praying. And then as I'm headed to the gym, I just dropped to my knees and I was like, God, thanks for letting me be in cool movies. Like just like the only thing I could get out of me was just like, thanks man. Like thank you for awesome jobs and kind people

and a loving, cool wife and cool kids and the fact that I get to wrestle and talk to people like you who love the same things I love it's just a very spoiled existence for sure. What do you enjoy more acting or wrestling? Doing, watching, doing, I think, can I still drink that? Yeah, you can put it on the other side right there. There's like a little apple box. We just didn't want it in the shot probably. Okay. I think I like, I think I like wrestling more than acting, which is hard to say. I feel like guilty of saying that. Yeah, I can see that you're struggling a little bit.

Why is that? I think when I'm acting, I feel pretty confident, usually. I've done some homework and I've kinda, but wrestling still feels like that thing of like, you are really, you're testing yourself. It's about memorization, It's about the choreography. It's about being safe with someone. It's about being safe with yourself. It's about recognizing the audience like,

like theater or stand up while you're doing it. It's, it's a lot of elements at once, you know? And, um, and I think I've done so much acting that right now it's a real thrill to get to wrestle and, and know that, know that I'm trying to hit spots and I'm trying to prove I can actually do this with some level of acumen. What's fun about it is over the last 20 years or so, we've seen wrestlers become actors.

You don't often see the actors become wrestlers. We obviously know about the few cameos here and there. Most of them not viewed in incredible light. David Arquette, the athletes who come over will sometimes get love or the musicians. Hugh Jackman gets to punch Dolph Ziggler in the face or whatever. But it's not like a thing like you're doing now, which is amazing. Mine is about immersion and it's about being genuine. By the way, I think there was immersion in genuine nature and what David Arquette did. I think if David Arquette had done some different films and he had done more movies like like

Scream or Beautiful Girls and and less movies like you know See Spot Run and stuff like had he made different career choices I don't know that he would have gotten all that flack but because he did some silly movies I think it was harder for people to want to get on board with it but my whole thing is my dream was like can I be Paul Giamatti and Scott Norton like he can I be can I be Philip Seymour Hoffman and you know Bam Bam Bigelow and I don't know what the answer to that is. All I know is I'm trying and I'm having- You're on your way.

Well, I would say, correct me if you feel otherwise, not since Andy Kaufman have we seen an actor pull it off this well, both. Probably for somebody else to, you know, give it that approval stamp. But I know that I've put a lot of work in and I, you know, I've done a blade job and bled all over the 2300 arena. I have, you know, I, the reason I'm not wrestling right now has less to do with working an acting

job and more to do with the fact that I had a CT scan and found out I was injured and I had to stop because I just went a little too hard in the paint. What was wrong? Well, I had two experiences. One was I'm an executive producer at MLW and part of the roster there where I sometimes tag team with Paul London who's one of my trainers, my lead trainer I've had. And I took part in a sort of like a battle royale type thing called battle riot and it's 40 men you know every minute minute and a half or so and I was in the match and even though I had

been eliminated I'm still fighting with you know this faction on the outside that we had been in a story with for a long time and I said you know I want to have wrestling is about moments right we talked about this a lot you know Bret, a lot of really smart guys and gals have said this in the business. And, you know, a lot of folks are not going to remember my matches. I don't think, but they, but they will remember moments and I wanted a moment. So I said, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to set, I told court power and the brass at MLW, I'm going to set up a ladder.

I'm going to do a double drop off through the table. And they were kind of like, okay, you know, like not super thrilled about it, but we're gonna let them do his thing. And it came off quite nicely. I was really happy with it. And it was a great moment. We got the holy shit chant. We got the, you know, whatever the best, the best. It doesn't matter how much pain you're in hearing like 800 people yelling holy shit together is really nice. Here it is. Yeah. I think this was shot. I think this was shot by O'Shea Jackson Jr. It was. Yeah. O'Shea was in the crowd. Look at that. The slow mo. He got the slow mo.

And so did you hurt yourself? That right there. I mean, I landed really well. I was happy with where I landed with the elbow, but I got a hematoma in my right butt cheek. So I had something the size of, legitimately the size of like a stress ball, like that big, sticking out of my ass. And it was very awkward. It was hard to sit and stuff. And literally my wife was wife was like, dude, like your whole thing is bruised. I'll send a photo if you want to post it. It's really funny, but it's of like, just part of my hip and it's like five different colors in this bruise. So I had a hematoma from that.

And then a week later I fought in Vegas and won the Proteus championship with progress wrestling out of the UK. And in that match, Simon Miller broke up a pin after I got piled drive by Adam Priest, this tremendous wrestler who lives in the South. And oh, yeah, that's me. There's the finish, right? The finish. It's a straight jacket flatliner. I call it the house arrest. H.A.U.S. arrest. It's fantastic.

I call it the house arrest, H-A-U-S, arrest. It's fantastic. And when Simon Miller leapt onto Adam and my body like a dog pile, I heard a crunch. I was like, oh, and it's happened before. Bobby Fish covered me one time and I heard a crack. It was like, oh no, oh God, this sucks. So I got a CT scan, found out I had four acute rib fractures. Oh geez.

And I had bursitis in my right shoulder from catching a guy doing a moonsault. So it was just like, I went all out and I was proud of the things I did, and I took and gave with great commitment, but I got screwed up, my took and gave and with, with great commitment, but I got, I got screwed up. I got, my body was pretty effed up.

So I'm just taking time off to heal and my wife's going to have our new child. And then I am set to make my return early August with a company called Southern honor wrestling. Okay. So you're not done? No, God, no, not even close. Okay. Okay. Okay. How are we doing this. No, God, no, not even close. Okay, okay, okay. I'm gonna be doing this till I'm like 52, 55 or something.

Anyone on your team say like, yo man, like you proved your point. Oh, of course, yeah, they're like, dude, chill out please. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. My boy Brian Walsh, who's my ride or die on my team. Get the tables. My manager, get the tables. He's a wrestling fan.

He got Roman Reigns his first role in that Hobbs and Shaw movie. Wow. I'm sure a lot of people will try to lie and take credit for that, but Brian Walsh was the one who called and emailed Mary Vernieu's casting office and said, you know, the Rock has like a distant relative who'd be perfect for this role, right? He was the one that got Roman that part. And this is your agent?

He was my manager. Manager. Yeah. He was my manager's assistant. Then he became an agent, became my first agent. And then he went back to the management company that I had left. And I went back to that management company to follow him. And then I went with CAA. A bunch of my people at CAA kept leaving. And I was like, all right, this doesn't feel good. I'm gonna, I just signed with WME. Okay. Cause I had worked with Wahlberg and Matt Damon

on different movies and they're like, dude, our WME guys dig you. You should, you should talk to them. And so your inside joke with him, I think is like, when you guys get a big gig or something, you say, get the tables, right? Yeah, no, that's like our thing of like, like it's happening, get the tables.

Yes. We're doing it, you know. This is how hardcore you are. It's a hype thing. Yeah, yeah. And so I fit it into my acceptance speeches or whatever, whenever I'm, whenever that happens. Yes, when you won your Emmy, you mentioned that.

Emmy and Globe, yeah. And Globe, and you mentioned Cardona. Yeah, Cardona, I was just trying to sell seats. I was doing a wrestling revolver. You're trying to fill the house, as they say. I mean, that's the idea is like, how do you try to be advantageous and use your spotlight to help the business, especially when you're directly involved? And so I threw Cardona in there where I'm talking about Jesus having my soul and I'm like, Jesus is the sole owner. I own the body. It's about to beat Matt Cardona.

And people were hitting up Cardona being like, yo, Howser just said your name on the Emmys. What's going on? But it is me trying to sell seats. I just, at the end of the day, whether it's Wrestling Revolver or MLW, where I've kind of planted my flag, I just, I want to try to help the business

and get eyes on the product. So you grew up, like a lot of us, as a fan, as a kid, Clash of Champions was the first time you kind of fell in love, right? That's right, yeah, Clash of Champions was a big deal because for those that don't know, that was like a free pay-per-view. Yeah.

They would throw like a pay-per-view style card for free on TBS. And I saw that and I saw the juxtaposition of El Gigante, who's like seven feet tall Peruvian guy or whatever, up against like Arne Anderson, who kind of just looks like your friend's dad, your friend's angry dad. Yeah, bald spot and all. Yeah. And it was like, you know, I was fascinated by these two fighting. It wasn't like, it didn't make sense to me. I was like, this

normal guy's the villain, but the scary looking guy's the face. You know, the heel and the base. So that kind of got me locked in. Aaron Anderson is still like in my top five favorite wrestlers of all time. Wow. I think he's incredible and criminally undersung. He was great on the mic. When Ric Flair brought levity and insanity, Arne Anderson could ground a promo and make you believe absolutely everything, much in the way that Bret Hart did. And the Spine Buster and DDT were just patented. He did it slightly different in a way that you

said that's the Arne Anderson one. So I got invested in WCW early on. The roster at the time in the early nineties was outlandish. I mean, it was a revolving door. Some folks didn't stay very long, but you got to look at it like early nineties, WCW, it was the Steiner brothers. And it was Sting and Rick Rood and Jake the Snake Roberts and Vader and Rick Flair and Aaron Anderson and Davey Boy Smith and Sid

and just like an outlandish amount of people that had great careers. So that was my entry. So you were more of a WCW guy than a WWF. Yeah, all my friends were like hardcore WWF. Like I was very- You were WCW, cause you grew up in Michigan, right? Grew up in Michigan, but my uncle who got me into wrestling,

my mom's brother Robert Ziff, he like got me hooked on WCW. Okay. Because he's from the south. He was living in Florida at the time, which was WCW territory. But all my friends were like hardcore, like all about Ultimate Warrior and the Bushwhackers and Hogan. And I would play with the toys and stuff, but I like didn't know those characters. During the Monday Night Wars were you a WCW guy?

Were you watching? Monday Night Wars I was a WCW guy. Wow. But I started to drop off late 98 early 99 like I loved I loved Sting he's my number one of all time. All time? All time. Ever met him? Yeah, I was at his last match. Wow. I texted him on Father's Day, him and my buddy Gilbert who represents him for booking. Is that surreal that you can text Steve Borden?

Yeah, it's weird man. It's weird just being like, what up? Yeah. I said something funny like, you know, those kids are lucky that they can learn how to be good men and choreograph violence or something like that but I you know Sting was my guy and then the NWO thing was a very big deal I remember listening to Bash of the Beach 96 over

like my TV that was all fuzzy because I couldn't afford the pay-per-view Oh wow. I was listening to it the way like a kid in the 1950s would listen to a ball game on or boxing yeah yeah I was crying I was crying my eyes out when when Hogan Oh wow. It seemed to do with the way like a kid in the 1950s would listen to a ball game on the radio. Or boxing. Yeah, yeah. And I was crying. I was crying my eyes out when Hogan turned heel. I was like, what does this mean for WCW?

So I loved those first couple years of the Monday Night Wars, but by 98, 99, the only good thing WCW, the only thing I really liked was like, I was a fan of the triad, which was DDP, Bim, and Bigelow and Canyon. And Sting, by that point, they had him fighting like Vampiro. And I was like, I'm not into this. The NWO had fizzled out. Nash was doing the finger poke a doom on Hogan. It was like, this sucks. So that 99 is when I was like, Oh, you know, Connecticut just got Jericho. Connecticut, like there was that NBA style swing of all these great players leaving the bench down south to come be starting point guards in Connecticut.

And suddenly we got Eddie Guerrero, Jericho, Saturn, Dean Malenko, Crispin Wah, and the big show. That all happened within about a year, year and a half's time. And so now you're all in, there was a period though where you like got out of wrestling, right? Yeah, I didn't really watch it much from, I would say 2005 to about-

I was the same way, by the way. Once they got into like the brand split and all that, it just, something felt off. Post WCW purchase. Yeah, yeah, I wasn't really into the way they utilized WCW purchase. Yeah, yeah, I wasn't really into the way they utilize WCW guys and I think, I think the fact that Booker never got the world title is garbage, he should have beat Triple H, I hate that.

I think, I love this. I think Sting was brilliant for not signing because he knew damn well that Vince was never gonna make him look good. Yeah, he was getting married. He knew, he knew damn well that Vince was never gonna make him look good. Yeah, he's getting married. He knew he knew And he was proven right look at all these years later. It's not like Vince became a better guy in anyone's eyes sure so it's it's a matter of

it's a matter of that and then the roster got a little too bloated to like eventually it was just like There were 9,000 guys who just had a name and some tattoos and didn't have a gimmick. And so I stopped, I stopped caring in the late aughts. How do you get back in? What brought me back in was honestly, like I started watching TNA and ROH in like 2011. Wow. So I'm watching like the Briscoe brothers fighting, you know, uh, Sammy Zane, what's his real El generico and Kevin Steen, Kevin Owens. Um, and then on TNA, I'm watching like

the young bucks who went by generation me, they were fighting beer money and, um, the motor city machine guns. And I was like, I was like, these, these are all people I've never heard of and they're all unbelievable. They're young, but they're wrestling like they've had like 20 years in the business. And and of course these would later come to be like made a vendor, massive multimillionaire people globally recognized. But I got into it from TNA and ROH and then I started watching 2012. I got back into WWE. That was when it was like Nexus beating up John Cena and CM Punk doing the Pipe Bomb

and that got me back in. When you were a kid, did you ever want to be a pro wrestler as opposed to an actor? Always. I put it in every yearbook blurb. Everybody knew I was going to at least pursue whether I make it or not. That was yet to be seen. But I told everybody I'm gonna be a writer, director, producer, actor, and get into wrestling.

Did you try? Like, did you ever get far? Did you go to a school or something? When I was a little kid, I took, there was a thing called road runner, Bay County road runner wrestling, and it was like a bunch of kids going to this gym in Bay City, Michigan where the Steiner Brothers used to train and it was like

Greco Roman like and this guy Bob Wolf who was always like kind of like an uncle figure to me he he brought me with his son was like you should try out wrestling you know and and me and his son Brandon played flag football together and he's like you're a big guy, like you should try this. And I just kept getting smoked and I wasn't really into it. I think I was like, where's the showmanship? Where's the acting part of wrestling?

Why do I have to know this like headlock hold and why does this hurt like hell? And so I kind of like fell out of it very quickly. Anything that like hurt or was hard, I was like piecing out of as a kid. Piano lessons, wrestling, football. And I regret that, but now at a later age, I'm a much stronger person mentally and physically than I was as a kid. Your first taste of it was the SmackDown appearance in 2019, right?

Like where you're on camera at a wrestling show? Yes, though if you watch Monday Nitro from Saginaw, Michigan in November of 1997, you can see me standing behind Raven while he gets interviewed. Second row on screen with Minjin Okuland and me lip-syncing the Dis inferno. Oh, wow. Theme song and Tony Schiavone going, oh, there's a little disco fan. Really? That's like a close up on that. You got to post that. That's amazing. What's funny now is like I just shared a locker room with Tony Schiavone at AEW recently and it was so bizarre to be like the voice of my childhood. Yeah, yeah, yeah. is chewing gum next to me.

It's crazy. But yeah, no, 2019 I did some little smackdown. How did that happen? I'm sure it was me telling my PR people like, hey, can you hook up some tickets to smackdown? They're like, yeah, we'll interview you for like www.com or something. When you're in the back though, like for me, I remember the first time I got to go backstage, I haven't been back many times, but it felt like I was in a forbidden land. Like I was so taken by just watching how everyone moves and the conversations and, and just like the, the, the, the, the flow of backstage. I w I was, I was intoxicated by it. I found it fascinating. Were you the same way? I was that way more so with MLW and AEW because WWE just seems very, it's still got the big

corporate feel where everybody seems super serious and is busy and if you're not important to them they're kind of giving you a bad look. That was the vibe I got. I'm not saying everybody else. Whereas when I went backstage at AEW it was like when I did this bit with Jeff Jarrett where he ended up... You took the guitar shot. Yeah, that was gnarly. I mean, they knew that I was game for whatever, so they didn't really need my permission. They just, you know, they went with it.

But when I did the Jeff Jarrett thing, that was the thing where like I got to actually stand around talking to legends and people are weighing in on the segment and the conversation and and I'm seeing the sausage made with people sewing costumes. I love that. Somebody doing their makeup and it was like that was that was like the big peak behind the curtain. Then MLW was like you're part of the roster now like you're walking back there and there are things that are expected of you. Go do a meet and greet, then come in and do this promo. We're gonna do this pre-taped thing

and then we need to get these photos. It felt like kind of like being an actor where it's like, oh snap, I gotta go to the hair and makeup trailer, then I gotta do the EPK interview, then I gotta shoot this and do a voiceover and it was pretty crazy. And so my understanding of the story

is there's this sort of like benefit show for the fires in Hawaii and you're asked and you thought that you were just going to like sign some autographs and take some pictures. Yeah, Sammy Callahan reached out to me and I was we're mutual fans of each other and I said he said do you want to help with this fundraiser and I said of course but I thought it was going to be like me you know doing selfies for 25 bucks and each yeah every dollar goes to the fire's rotor and then he was like you know do you want to be in a match and I was like yeah I mean I've always wanted to I don't know if I'm ready though at that time I had only taken a grand total of eight hours worth of classes

but I said yes fearing that know, I don't want to lose out on the opportunity. And I had a 10 minute match with this guy, Matthew Palmer, who's since become a friend of mine. And, and, uh, he's been in the business forever, really great worker, knows how to make you look good, knows how to sell. And, and we had this match in front of about 900 to a thousand people, maybe in Glendale, California

at the Ukrainian center there, whatever it's called. And then I set that match around to wrestling friends, the DDPs and buddies with Edging Christian and those types of people. When I was setting it around and showing people, they were all like, this is your first match? I was like, yeah. And they go, it's pretty good for a first match I don't think my first match looked like that I don't think a lot of people's did I was like well you shouldn't have said that because now I'm delusional as hell I'm thinking I

can do it and I started taking more classes with Paul London got linked up to MLW through Sammy Callahan and the rest is history I've just been taking bookings and trying to make things happen. And that was late 23, right? November, 2023. Yeah, and so when you're named executive producer of MLW, how involved are you in the day-to-day operations? So the day-to-day operations, not so much,

but my thing is I am trying to lead us into the next iteration of it. Which is what? Because MLW's been around for a minute, right? Well, MLW's been around for a minute. They had a really fun story history with guys like Terry Funk and young CM Punk, a young Paul London.

Dusty Rhodes fought there. I mean, their library has some really cool stuff. But they, of course, when Court went to WWE for a couple years and made his noise up there and did well for himself, MLW fell by the wayside. Then it was like a podcast for a long time. And when it came back, I think 2017, um, a lot of guys looked at it like, Oh, this is like, this is a place where I can kind of like flex.

I don't have to answer to 10,000 different people. And you of course had an emerging MJF, Darby Allen, Jacob Fatu, all of these people had a big run in MLW and, uh, we're cutting their teeth. It's been cool to see them since my, my hope for MLW, my whole desire is let's get a TV deal. Let's get some sort of streaming deal. Let's get the library up on something, be it a fast channel, whatever, and let's slowly but surely get the

money to actually build up, you know, a full roster and get this thing going. And then at the same time, let's try to put eyes on it when we can, like making sure we invited O'Shea Jackson to our show, or me playing my movie trailers during a commercial break on the pay-per-view, just trying to integrate and find cross promotion wherever we can. So how far along are you into that journey as far as, like number one has to be the streaming deal,

right, the TV deal, the streaming? Yeah, yeah, we've, I can't say too much because we're still figuring stuff out, obviously. But we've had, we've had a couple of offers and we've had discussions and we're just trying to figure out what makes the most sense for everybody because it's one thing for somebody to throw you some money. It's another to find people that understand and like the product. So like we're kind of looking for somebody who actually likes wrestling and understands the product and wants to see it grow exponentially.

Not get some kind of cheapo buyout just to have it up off of YouTube. So in addition to working with them and being an EP, you also work with other promotions, that's okay? Yeah, I mean the deal I've worked out with Bauer is, you know MLW is my mainstay But I'll do little indie dates, you know whether it's Southern Honor wrestling in front of 500 people or yeah, or it's a wrestling revolver in front of 900 people and

And you know Tony Khan is a friend of mine and Tony and court do some business together and share like CML CML CMLL guys from Mexico and stuff. So I found it pretty friendly in that sense. The one thing that I told court is like, you know, Walberg and I have been talking like we got to, got to figure out how to do a WrestleMania match. We got to like, Oh wow. Cause Walberg and I did a movie called balls up. Yeah. It comes out next year. I don't know when or how necessarily, but it's a two-hander comedy and Wahlberg knows I'm obsessed with wrestling and he's like,

I just spoke to Ari, bro. Like, maybe we're going to get you that match. Maybe we got to do blah, and I'm like, you know, sort of, I assume he's half joking, but I think he's also kind of serious. So that would be something. Would you want that? Yeah, of course who wouldn't want a WrestleMania match I would just want to make sure I'm promoting the movie and making sure that it is about getting eyeballs on our movie and and You know just having entertaining people at the end of the day That's what I'm doing And and by the way if I take a WrestleMania match and it helps MLW get more eyeballs Awesome, MLW is not as petty as these other places.

I gotta say, I don't know how much you know about the company, but me and Court talk all the time about like, if a wrestler from another company is injured when we have our streaming deal, like we're gonna take a moment to recognize that and say like, prayers up, you can send shout outs to Roman Reigns or Kenny Omega at such and such, Twitter, blah, blah, blah, like wishing you well and a speedy recovery.

The idea is not to try to compete because that's ridiculous. I don't think Newman's own salad dressing was like, we're going to beat Pepperidge Farm and we're going to beat Nabisco. It just existed and was good. And that's okay. Wrestling fans don't understand that. Some things can just exist. You don't have to topple a hierarchy or monopolize something.

So our goal is to be the guys who people don't have as many problems with. Even if you don't like our product, you don't have something bad to say about how we treat other people. Sure, sure. For you, just curious, like the top of the mountain, if it is WrestleMania, what's the, what's the like the dream scenario?

What's the match? Yeah. A wrestling, WrestleMania or a SummerSlam or whatever. Yeah. It would just be, I would love to wrestle The Miz and give he and I both one of our best matches of all time that people talk about. I'd want it to be as good as Bad Bunny and Damien Priest.

And I know it can be, it's not even a question he and I could go round for round and shock everybody he's better than people understand he's woefully underappreciated and I think the assumption going in is like well they're gonna make the Miz job out to Hauser so Hollywood can get put over not the case I wouldn't even allow that it would be a match-match and it would be 12-13 minutes of killer. I love that. I love that. I love how passionately you speak of this. Who has done it the best in your opinion? Like the celebrity crowd, who's the best one to do it?

It's tough to say because I don't want to get a bunch of hate for saying this. I've had 18 matches and I've wrestled for freaking pennies in front of 300 people. So my involvement feels different than a Stephen Amell or a Bad Bunny. I think Bad Bunny from the physical standpoint has far and away done the best job,

but he's had two matches. Right. I, on the other hand, I intend to have 300 matches by the time I'm done doing this. You don't want to just be like a celebrity cameo guy. You just want to be a wrestler on the roster. No, I don't. I want to be one of the boys and I have no delusions about I'm gonna be world champion. You know, the people I say they're like, if you're not in it to be world champion,

it's like the real sentiment behind that, don't take that literally. The real sentiment behind it is you should want to do a really good job. Sure. Degree that you are eligible for that type of a thing so I'm trying to do the best job I can to make sure that I have a certain proficiency and eligibility in the world of wrestling no part of me is like I'm gonna be world champ it's like I know I want to have a really great match and I want fans to be like holy shit I saw how's her in this movie last weekend and then a week later is wrestling in my small town in front of a thousand people and I saw him do a tornado DDT and his head got split open with a chair.

To me that's awesome. If John C. Reilly was doing an indie wrestling date, I would lose my mind if I were a fan. So you know what's interesting is and we're looking at some of your highlights here courtesy of Major League Wrestling. I think this is when you came out. Yeah. We got another one coming in October. MLW is gonna return to Thunder Studios near Los Angeles. I do love your ring gear.

And you're all in. You actually lost some weight courtesy of DDP at one point, right? Yeah, I went from 286 to 246. Look at that. To help with Dallas Page and his DDPY system. And then recently I got down to like 237, which was the lowest I've been since high school.

Wow. But I just kind of fell off. I got so busy that I ballooned back up. I'm probably 257 right now. But yeah, once I finished this movie, which has been pretty taxing, I'm gonna, this movie's been very intense. It's a difficult character and I'm producing as well.

So once I finish this up at the end of June, I'm gonna get back into go mode. What I think is so interesting about the way you talk about your career in wrestling, you continuously reference indie shows, 500 people and 900 people. You're a big star. You're a big star.

You've won awards. I don't need, you know, like I'm not trying to glaze you as the kids like to say, but like, you know what I mean? The kids say that. You'll see when your kids get, maybe it's not a word anymore, but my kids said, and so are you trying to intimidate me, by the way, with your guns right now?

Because I am intimidated. Oh, I just felt very warm wearing a jacket. I am intimidating a little bit because I wouldn't have guessed. I love the double entendre tattoo. I gotta find a move to call the double entendre. There it is. What it actually says entendre twice. What prompted that by the way? I just thought it was cool. Yeah, and it's funny and I think I was looking at, there's a movie studio called original films Okay, and they have a similar thing where it's like the word on top of the word plainly in block letters

And I I think I ate that for the and what's the other one say these are my childhood comedy heroes It's wow Martin short Daniel Stern Chris Farley Jim Varney Jim Caron Robin Williams Wow I love that much respect you talk a lot about the indies and a star of your stature. Yeah. Could say like, oh no, I wanna be at MSG. I wanna be with the big dogs in New York or AEW. Why does the indies scene, so to speak,

for lack of a better word, speak to you so much? Well, they're kind of underserved, aren't they? I mean, a lot of the folks that I've wrestled in front of in Canton, Georgia or, uh, Canton, Georgia or somewhere in, you know, the middle of Iowa, they're, they're paying like $15 for a ticket or 20 bucks for a ticket. Not a lot of them can afford or have access to a Madison Square Garden and pay 400 bucks to sit in the nosebleed.

So I think it's cool to get to go there and do that. And I also just think it's fun. To me, it's not about the spotlight. I don't walk into the spotlight. The idea is you're supposed to bring the spotlight. If you're an actual talented person, I think I'm trying to give a good example of that too. Will Ferrell did a Funny or Die tour where they would go to colleges and he would bring along Nick

Swardson and Will Arnett and Zach Alfnac. To me, that's way cooler to just have a bunch of cool people at a really interesting setting. I guess Dave Chappelle with his stand up, he's doing it in somebody's backyard in Ohio. Like that's really cool, you know? What type of character, for those that may not know that, maybe just know you as the actor, what type of character are you? Do you play the same guy? I'm just playing myself right now. Yeah, there's no real character.

No, no, no. What I mean right now, I mean on TV, for MLW. Like are you a heel, are you a face? I'm a baby face playing myself in MLW. You just play the actor. I go by Paul Alterhauser. Yeah, very very blanket that and that's intentional. I think strategically there is more grace given to me because it's not me saying like I'm

the cowboy John Ellis sure sure sure it's like Me saying it's me is telling them like, I'm not really a wrestler yet. Like I'm an actor trying to become a wrestler. Sort of like Dwayne doing, you know, the rundown. It's like great movie, but it's not like he's winning an award from the rundown. Like I'm not gonna win a Dave Meltzer star

for what I'm doing at Wrestling Revolver, but I'm doing it. So that's the first foray and there will, I'm working on something right now that will be a bit of a departure from me being me. Oh. And that iteration will be coming in the next year. I don't totally know when. Okay. Interesting.

The food is still baking. Okay, okay, I like it. I'm still dipping my spoon in and tasting it and figuring out what else does this need, you know? Did you feel especially early on that you were accepted by the boys in the back? Some. Did you feel heat from some? Or friction or coldness? Put it this way, the ones I felt friction and heat from. Their asses out. You fire

them. I'm kidding. Why do you think I'm executive? Yeah? Hey Scott up you yeah Beyond the man the awesome I just saw be on the man. No, I love that. I love that I like 12 times me too wrestling with shadows. Have you ever seen that one? Of course? I have one of the all-time best it was gonna do lonesome dove and then I That's my guy by the way, He's my favorite of all time. He's in my Rushmore. My Rushmore goes Sting, then Brett, then Rick, and then Jericho. Jericho?

How do we get there? Love him fellow Canadian, but not a lot of people would have him there. A lot of people nowadays hate him because it's like his wife voted for Trump or something. No, no, I don't care about that. I just think he, like, he doesn't usually, no, I mean, Lionheart, Chris Jericho, Y2J, incredible. I mean, let's take 30 seconds to go through the career. Okay. Proving himself Canadian, Canadian stampede like wrestling, the heart dungeon or whatever. Mexico, ECW, Japan, WCW creates an amazing character in WCW where he's super obnoxious from like 97, 98. Has

the Goldberg, Gilbert thing. Has Ralphus, his manager, bangers with the Milenko and Eddie Guerrero and all these guys comes to WWF. One of the great pops of all time is, is break the walls down Jericho showing up. Millennium Man or whatever has the run in WWE, which is, I guess it would have been 99 through 2018. Yeah, is that right? Yeah. 2017. Yeah, is that right? Yeah, 2017. Yeah. That is a long ass time to stay relevant

and and capture all those titles and have classic matches with Shawn Michaels and Kevin Owens being a tag team with the big show, Jarrah Show. I think the stuff with the Festival of Friendship and the and the clipboard and being on the list is some of the best sports entertainment promo stuff ever. Some of the best stuff for the last 10 years for sure. And then he's a huge part of why AEW exists and was taken seriously. What he's done there and then in Japan, going into the Pain Maker and having the bit of the bubbly, having the musical number on MJF. I think he's easily a rush work. the pain maker and having the bit of the bubbly, having the musical number of MJF, I think he's easily a Rushmore guy.

He's evolved a lot. I mean, it's amazing how many different iterations of his character. He's had, I mean, the promos, the matches, the pre-tapes, it's like, I don't, there aren't that many people who can do all of the things well. Yeah. He's done all of the things well,

whether anybody likes him or not. And I think he deserves to be on some Rush Moors. Going back to maybe people not accepting you. Oh yeah, no, there were some people, there were for sure some people that, you know, some people too, like I'll try to call a spot in a match or something, especially like a battle riot where there's a bunch of guys. I'll try to call something and you can tell they're just like dude fuck off Really not not saying it but kind of like getting out of wow and yet

There are other people that are super cool like menorah Suzuki I'm like chopping the shit out of them and he's cool with it and these were working Are you calling things on the fly? sometimes I try I try to I try to Get as much figured out before I get out there okay because I just don't I don't I'm not good enough to leave everything up to chance and just call it in the ring I'm not I'm not there yet but people are very patient with me and they're cool and I sell for them and I've taken

some hearty hearty ass moves and kicks and punches and I've woken up in a ton of pain just taking somebody's move. But I think I've earned most people's respect. The people that are mean to me are people that everybody goes, yeah, I don't listen to that guy. Everybody hates him. It's never like a popular beloved person mistreating me. It's usually someone who's already unhappy

becomes more unhappy when they see me. One match you're wearing the Braves jersey and you go through the table. Do you slam your head on the the concrete there? That was my fault. We called it where I was I was gonna I told them you know give me a pump kick or like a Shawn Michaels style like super kick and I'll fall back. I was supposed to kind of jump up and land on my back Yeah, and I just went like this so had I went and gotten a little bit air and falling back like like Joe Pesci Yeah, yeah, yeah, I would have went through perfectly would have been perfect Instead because I fell flat back like like straight back like a Jenga domino or whatever because there's a moment where you touch

I think we have it hurt. I hit my head on the ground. Yes. Yes I I went through the table didn't feel the table and just felt my head hitting cement This right here. Yeah, you can see right away because I'm not selling. Oh, I'm not selling at all I'm just like oh did I just get a concussion? And I was so mad at myself, because once again, that was a spot I set up. It was supposed to be awesome and look really good. And instead it looks like some guy just got hurt for real

and doesn't know what he's doing. So- Is there any moment where you're like, man, I can't, I don't wanna do this. I can't do this. No. You love it. Even when you're smashing your head on the concrete dude emotional pain is way worse than physical pain

I mean, I was dumped at three high school dances from three different girls like I was a virgin until I was married I I Have had heroes die. I have had a million nos from auditions and screenplays I've written 21 features since I was 16 years old. None of them have been produced or bought. Emotional pain is way worse. Rejection is way worse than physical pain.

Wow. You've had some dark days as well, right? I think any of us have, yeah, yeah. No more than anybody else, probably. Okay, because I watched an interview that you did with Sam Roberts at his house where you were referring to that. Oh, I love that guy. Yeah, he, no more than anybody else probably okay because I I watched an interview They do with Sam Roberts at his house where you were referring that guy yeah, he is great and you were talking about some of the The time period that you were in when you you know when when all this came to you the the wrestling stuff and perhaps

it was a bit of a light in your life right to be able to start doing all this when maybe Times were tough the wrestling. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's nice to have a creative vehicle too, because my wife will be the first to tell you, when I'm not acting on set, I can go about four to five weeks really good without any creative work. But by week six, I'm like, suddenly I'm in the kitchen. I'm making three meals at once and throwing them

into like Tupperware and freezing them. Like I need to be creative, I have to do something. And wrestling is obviously a way to make a tiny bit of money, entertain people, make me conscious of my health too, because like as an actor, it's like people are bringing you food all day on set. People bring me like, you know, hey, there's donuts at craft service and it's like, good God, it's 10am. I just had an omelet. I don't need a

freaking donut. You're gonna kill me. Yeah. So it's a way to also be health conscious where like I want to be in shape to make sure I can wrestle to with some acumen, make sure I can take the snap mares and flat backs and chair shots. And if you're not in the gym and if you're not taking, you know, the A1 greens and hydrating and, you know, all these different supplements and stuff, it's like you are gonna feel it way more. One thing I wanted to ask you about was,

I was talking about when John Cena turned heel and my criticism of it was, and by the way, are you okay? It's hot in here, right? Oh, it's a little warm. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah, we're trying to help you, you know Cut a few lbs while you're sitting here. Yeah. Yeah, I might get there. Um I was criticized I was critical of john turning heel because I said I felt like he was playing a bad guy heel. Cause I said, I felt like he was playing a bad guy. And I was critical of Ronda Rousey when she came from UFC to WWE. Cause I said that I felt like she was playing pro wrestler. There's a big difference when it feels like they're playing someone as opposed to when they're just

real. Like Paul Heyman, when I watch him, I feel like I'm watching Paul Heyman and that's what makes him so great. Yes. But you know what I mean? And so like when you come from the acting world, you have to play characters all the time, but you have to get people to believe that in that moment you are Richard Jewell, right? Not Paul Walter Hauser playing Richard Jewell. And so when you're watching the wrestlers, do you think that same way?

This isn't believable. They feel like they're playing a character as opposed to just being who they are supposed to be on screen. It's tough, right? It's tough to judge. I think I loved Ronda Rousey as a professional wrestler. You did.

I loved it because you could tell she had an edge about her where she was like, you believe that she felt that she was better than everyone. And while some people may deem that uncouth or crappy, I think it's a good character. And while some people may deem that uncouth or crappy, I think it's a good character. Like I like women like her and Shayna Baszler who look like they're just here to stomp people into mush. To me that was a welcome reprieve,

a new character in Rhonda Rousey. The John Cena heel thing, here's my issue with the John Cena heel thing. I think turning him heel is awesome. I think the way they did it was cool. I think they gave way too much runway to Travis Scott. Something clearly got changed in creative and Dwayne is too busy and too rich to want to fight a battle about creative. Um, and something got altered there. I don't know what, but whatever road they were on of like, I want your soul and John seen as evil kind of turned into let's bring John out and have them talk for 15 minutes every raw, which is no one wins when we talk for 20 minutes in a ring. I think it's the dumbest

thing in the world. To me, it's bad structure. It has less to do with John and more to do with. They're not setting them up to succeed. Like why is John wearing the jean shorts still? Like Hogan had a whole like look. So for me, it's just about commitment and writing and the transformation being bigger and giving them more evil stuff to do Like like if I'm working on the booking committee writing team, whatever there my first note is Everything's got to go Everything's got to change. Wow And and Sina has to be so important that if he's going to do an interview, it's via satellite somewhere

It's not in the middle of the ring. It's am on set or I'm doing that important that if he's going to do an interview, it's via satellite somewhere. It's not in the middle of the ring. It's, Hey, I'm on set or I'm doing that. Also, we got to have him get a cameo, find out who he's really tight with in Hollywood, have him be like, Oh, I can't talk right now. And then FaceTime was somebody famous. Be like, Yeah, I can't talk to these people right now. I got to talk to this person. I make it, make it fun, make it bigger. It's just him and Cody yelling at each other. And I'm kinda, we're all over it, I think.

And they're two very deeply talented people. Cody and John are amazing. So if they're not entertaining us, something's wrong with the structure, not them. Gosh, I could talk about this stuff forever. It's great to hear, because it reminds me a little bit of Freddie Prince Jr. when he went and worked for the creative team for a bit.

Oh yeah. Remember that? Yeah, a couple of my- 2010, 11. A couple of my buddies did that. I know this really funny, talented dude named Matt McCarthy. Okay. And he's a big wrestling guy

and he worked there briefly and said like- We have a mutual friend in Rob Fee. Oh, I love Rob. I love Rob, the man. Are you kidding me? He's a legend. Rob is one of the reasons WWE is thriving right now. And that's not me speaking as a friend. That's me speaking as a businessman.

Yeah, he's unbelievable. What a mind he has. And so I love hearing you talk about, you're also gonna be with Cody in the new Naked Gun. He's in that. Yeah. It's a bit of a cameo for him. Yeah.

You've got that coming up. You've got Fantastic Four coming up. The Bruce Springsteen film. You've got fantastic for coming up the Springsteen film you got Pamela Anderson in the naked gun Canadian legend dude Canadian legend She's having a great run right now and she's taking the acting thing. So see I love it like doing it for real Inside out is one of my favorite movies inside out Movie I ever took my son to was inside out one. I know you were in 2. Yeah. Loved it as well. That's cool, man.

Yeah, I've gotten to do a cool mesh of things. My manager and I, Brian Walsh, again, he were big on career architecture. So it's very intentional to do an Itania and a Black Clansman, but then also do Reno 911 and I Think You Should Leave, and then do the Bruce Springsteen movie and this movie where I'm playing a crooked cop in Staten Island. Like we're trying to mix things up. We're trying to have fun and do the things that we want to see. And if you look at the

slate we got Fantastic Four July 25th, Naked Gun August 1st, my movie Americana with Sidney Sweeney and Simon Rex comes out August 15, I believe. There it is. And then we got, we got Deliver Me From Nowhere, the spring scene biopic, October 24th. What a run. Most importantly, you have MLW returning to New York on June 26th. Dude, it's going to be a good show.

Yes. Yeah, we got some surprises in store. I will not be wrestling at the show, obviously, but I am making an appearance. OK. And we'll be doing some commentary. And as you can see, the roster just kind of keeps evolving, where we have some of the biggest names in the sport, from Matt Riddle and Mystico,

to some guys who left WWE. We got Donovan Dijak and mybin Tom Pestock going under the name Bishop Dyer and I really think we're in a good place where we are in a growing season we're evolving and once again our goal at MLW is just give you another thing to watch and enjoy we are not trying to do we're not trying to put anybody out of business we We love professional wrestling. We want to keep our nose clean. And I think, you know, Summer and the Beast

is going to be a really good show. If you're available, we'd love to have you out. I would love to check it out. I've never been to one. We got a few seats remaining, but for you and your people, whoever you want to bring, we'll hook it up obviously. That's very kind of you. And for the MMA fans out there, Kingdom.

You were in Kingdom way back in the day. Yeah, Frank Grillo and Matt Loria, John Tucker. That's a classic. Yeah, I love, that was the show that really, that show kind of was- Ahead of its time, perhaps. Not only ahead of its time. Had it been on a HBO or a,

I don't know, like an Amazon, we might all had trophies in our hands because the work was just unbelievable. But I will't know, like an Amazon, it might have, we might all had trophies in our hands because the work was just unbelievable. But, but I will say like those guys who played the fighters, Nick Jonas, Matt Loria, John, Frank, girl, those guys took it so seriously, man. I've never seen people sacrifice the way they did to try to get their bodies in order and do what they did. Those are 16 hour days with commuting, the shooting, the working out. Those guys were only sleeping like six hours a night,

five hours a night. Sounds like your life now, with the wrestling and the acting. Yeah, I might as well have them. I gotta work on that part, but no, yeah. For those that watch Kingdom, I still get people coming up to me. A lot of dudes will be like, bro,

I know everybody loves you, Cruella, Richard Jewell, but like, bro, I know everybody loves you Cruella, Richard Jewell, but like, bro, my man Keith. I'll be like, oh yeah, Keith from Kingdom. Because that character was nuts. I just, I had a lot of fun playing that. Well this has been lovely. Thank you so much for coming in. Really appreciate it. Congrats once again on all your success. Love that you're doing the wrestling. Love that you're propping up wrestling wherever you are doing, like whether you're on Colbert's show or getting an award, it's great to see someone who is a legit passionate fan of the business as am I, and congrats to you and much respect on actually doing it. I'll leave you with this, the way we got like Jack Nicholson courtside at the Lakers,

the way you got Billy Crystal in the Yankees. I hope to be the guy who is that for wrestling but also gets to step onto the court or the baseball field. And when I say I'm doing a reverse Dwayne Johnson, it may be a joke to some of you watching or listening. I assure you over time you will learn it is far from it. And I'm currently producing a documentary about my journey as a wrestler. So we're in the heat of that. I'm directing it. And you will learn very shortly how serious I am about professional wrestling. That's a freaking promo right there. That's a freaking promo. Well done. Thank you so

much. All the best to you. We'll take a quick break. We'll be back with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Thank you so much to PWH. Can we call you that? I wish you would. And I guess go read, say hello to the bad guy. We'll be back in a second. All right. Back on the program. That was an excerpt from the crack. That was Paul Walter Hauser in studio. Love that chat, love the chat with Ramundi as well. Let's not waste any more time and say hello to our final guest of the day. He is returning to action on the 28th of June.

That's in 10 days from now at the pond in Anaheim on Dazon pay-per-view. He's going up against Jake Paul. He's gonna be the one to try and end all of this. He's gonna be the one to try to end the Jake's Paul experiment. He's going to be the one to try to end the Jake Paul experiment. He is the former champion, the legend, the son of a legend as well. He is the pride of Mexico. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., kind enough to join us. Hello Julio, how are you? Thank you for the time.

Yes, good, good. Ready? Ready, almost ready for the fight. Ten days away now. Can I ask, when you got the call about fighting Jake Paul, were you in right away? Did you like the idea or did you have to think about it? I like the idea because I think it's the fight that I needed I think it's the fight that I needed this day. Yes, I'm thinking about it. Jake is very popular, but I'm pretty sure that I want this fight. Do you respect Jake as a fighter? I respect all the fighters in general, but I don't have nothing significant to respect

like Jake, like a good fighter. He's a real fighter, I think so. He's a fighter now. He has 11 fights, but that's it, you know, it's nothing special this is strong that that's it. Do you think he respects you? And what way I don't know I don't understand you know at the press conference you know, he was he was trying to get under your skin a little bit and he's known to do that, right? He tries to trash talk. He was talking to your father and all that. Um, and so I was wondering if you felt disrespected or upset about anything that he said in the press conference.

Yes, a little bit disrespect because he's supposed to try, uh, disrespect because he's supposed to try to enter to a real boxing you know that's why uh he's tied me because I'm ex world champion so he speak too much trash you know and try to sell the the fight but I don't like uh hear that things you know like I don't know hear that things, you know, like, I don't know, Jake is good for that, you know, for promote fights and these things, but I needed, I really want to find out if it's good boxing for real. So a lot of people who have fought Jake have, have tried to sort of, as I said, end Jake Paul, like end all of this. They don't like that he's in boxing. Is that a motivation for you to, to knock him out of the ring? a lot of people who have fought Jake have tried to sort of, as I said, end Jake Paul, like end all of this. They don't like that he's in boxing. Is that a motivation for you to knock him out

so that he says, I don't want to do this anymore? So you could be the one to say, you got Jake Paul out of fighting? Yes. So that's, you know, I'm still thinking that I'm better than Jake Paul. So I think after this fight, maybe Jake continue to fight. I don't know, try skills and everything for winning that fight. Yes, I want to end the Jake Paul career.

What do you think it will say about you at this stage of your career? 39, you've been fighting for so long, you know, 60 fights, all that stuff. If you beat Jake Paul, what will that say about who Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is right now? You know, I want to put clear that I'm still here. I'm not old, you know, and I'm take this sport serious, train hard, be disciplined. I'm 39, so I don't think so. I'm old. I still feel good. I'm the gym. So I want to prove that I'm still here. I'm still a good fighter. So I want to fight better

opposition after this fight and that's why I take this fight. It's interesting that you talk about, you know, discipline, about taking it serious because in your career some have accused you of not doing that at times and so do you feel like now in this chapter you could prove to people you can end your career on a positive note and show people that if you take this seriously, you can be a great fighter, just like your father? Maybe not like my father, he's a great fighter.

But yes, why not? I wanna prove, and want to make everything possible. Everything like correct, running, training. So I stay 100% in this fight. Why now? I don't know, you know, I have experience. I'm sober, so that's two things I think is so important for me or for athletes. Athletes is never good at drinking or don't train. So I'm trained hard, and I'm disciplined, and I'm clean. So that's it for me. How long have you been sober for?

I have sober, so one year, eight months. Wow, okay. And your reaction when I mentioned your father is interesting. Was there a point in time where you said, he's one of the greatest ever, Hall of Famer, one of the most beloved fighters time where you said, he's one of the greatest ever, Hall of Famer, one of the most beloved fighters, where you said, I need to stop trying to be like him

or comparing myself to him and just be my own person. Did you have to learn that lesson at some point in your career to not try to be like your father? Yes, you know, I never tried to be like him. I tried to be the best, you know, I never tried to be like him. I tried to be the best, you know, and I tried to be a world champion. So I win our title and I still try to show the people that I'm a good fighter. So, yes, I don't have that pressure. And this fight is different. And I want to prove that I'm a great fighter, I'm a good fighter.

The last time we saw you was last July when you beat Uriah Hall. Were you happy with your performance in that fight? You know, I'm happy because I really take this fight because I wanna fight Jake Paul next. So I think I'm doing exactly what I need to do in this night to win the fight and to put me in the position that Jake and his promoter look at me because I'm willed the fight but don't look great so I think that's it's good for for for

this yes there was some talk last year that you would fight the former UFC fighter Darren Till on the undercard of the Tyson-Paul fight. Have you seen him? He's now fought a couple times in boxing. Have you seen him compete in boxing? And if so, are you still interested in that fight? You know, I don't know too much about Darren Till. I don't know too much about Darren Thiel. I know he's a good UFC fighter. I see one or two of his boxing matches.

And he looks like he trains hard. And he's supple. But really, boxing for me is different sport. You know, for me, like when I love with Anderson Silva, but I'm out of shape. So these things like the fight with Silva and a couple other fights make the UFC fighters or the other people thinking then this guy can beat like a real boxer. So I don't think that is not possible, you know, because when you are a real boxer, you train right, it's different, you know, different sport, you sport. In boxing you need to do a point, to win rounds. And UFC you only thinking and I don't know, kill the other guy. So it's different. So I'm very excited. I'm training very hard to prove that I'm much, much better fighter than Gabe also. And of course, better than you. Do you regret the Anderson-Silva fight?

Well, what I mean? Do you have regrets surrounding the Anderson-Silva fight? You said you weren't in shape and maybe that gave people hope that MMA fighters can be boxers. Afterwards, your father said if you're not going to take it seriously, you should retire. So when you think back on the Anderson-Silva fight, do you have regrets? Yeah, no, I'm in very bad situation at that time, very, very bad situation. But in boxing, there is no excuses, you know, it's no excuses. So whatever what happened happened, of course, I feel bad about this situation to loss with a UFC fighter for years, you know, because I'm not in shape this, this, this knife.

So when, when I'm not in shape, I don't feel happy with myself, with my performance, no matter what happened, if I win, if I lost, so that's what I talking about these things. I'm in shape. So I, I'm in shape and I'm focused. So I know that then I want to make good fight, you know. I don't want to quit like when you quit with Jacob because I have the same condition. I don't have I don't want to quit like when they fight for Florida because I'm out of shape, not disciplined. So now I'm disciplined, I'm focused. I want to finish the fight and win and take this opportunity to be back in the real boxing.

So that's my goal. So what is your ultimate goal? You beat Jake Paul and then what? What would you like? You know, I can say a lot of things. You know, like I wanna fight Sordo Ramirez. I wanna fight the rematch with Jake Paul. Rematch with Jake Paul. You know, rematch with Jay Paul is money, you know? It's money fight.

So that's why I don't want to say no if this thing happens. But for real, what I want is fighting the best, you know? I love to fight like Sulu Ramirez. I love to fight a Cruiserweight champion. I don't know. Opatayev is a very strong guy. Super, super strong guy. You want that? You want that guy?

Yes, I want that guy. I want that. You know why? Because it's not like I tell you, I want this guy. I'm here because I want to, you know why? Because it's not like I tell you, I want this guy, I want this guy. I'm here because I wanna fight the best. So if Alpateia offer me,

Dramides offer me after this fight or after this fight and another fight, so I'm there, you know, I'm there, I'm ready to fight B-Bowl in Cruiserweight or the other guy, B-Bowl with... Better Biev. Better Biev, yes. These are killers, man. These are killers. Yeah, these are killers. So wait for June 28th, after that, I wanna give you another round of trivia

and talk about this fight. Okay, so, but that is, you're not here just for like, influencer fights or celebrity fights or MMA crossover fights. This, in your opinion, is the bridge to get you into those massive fights against the best in the world. That's how you're viewing this. Yes, yes, this is my mentality.

Of course it's good media fight, you know. But for me what, you know, for me what? Like a lot of people talk about this fight, but I'm asleep, I'm running, I'm eating. So it's the same for me. So it's a good business, good fight because a lot of people, I know wanna see this car,

because it's a great car. And this is everything, she's good in this fight, but of course it's not. But I like it, you know, I like fighting and other things. I saw you did an open workout and all the fans were chanting F Jake Paul. F Jake Paul. That had to feel good, right? Here they are all chanting F Jake Paul.

So you feel like the people in California are gonna be behind you. They're gonna be supporting you and not him. I think the people in everywhere is with me. Nobody like Jake Paul because, you know, Jake, he tried and he's one of these guys and if he see you in your eyes like fear or that things, you know, it's good when that, you know, to get the old man like Mike Tyson, you know, tried to put him down with 59 years, you know, because he throws some bumps.

So I never wanna do these things, you know, it's disrespect, like legends, you know? And that's why I wanna beat the Jay Poledez, that's why the people is in my head. Well, I'm looking forward to your return. Thank you very much for the time Julio. Good luck to you and looking forward to seeing you out there in Anaheim on the 28th of June on Dizone pay-per-view.

Okay, to you. All the best. There he is. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Enjoyed talking to him very much. Has been in the game for quite some time. 54, six and one, 34 knockouts, 39 years of age, former WBC middleweight champion,

won the title back in 2011, defended it three times, and then lost to Sergio Martinez, has wins over the likes of Andy Lee, Marco Antonio Rubio, no, Barrera, John Duddy, Peter Manfredo, Carlos Molina. Last fought against Uriah Hall, I was at that card. That was the July 2024 card in Tampa against,

well, it was Mike Perry against Jake Paul. And didn't look great in that fight. Didn't look great in that fight. And by the way, it is Marco Antonio Rubio. Not to be confused with the uh... Is he the secretary of state Marco Rubio? I think so. Former governor. Who me? Is the governor of uh Florida? Former governor. You got this man. Yeah I got it. I got it. You know I I do have to say I like it hot. It is really hot in here today. Yeah. Did you guys see? Let's not make the guest uncomfortable though? You know like you could offer them some water. Well. I said is everything okay Celsius Really I asked if everything was okay

In front of a you know you're right in the middle of the interview well I mean he's gonna say bro. You know I'm hot we got to finish I don't know what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? He was struggling. Maybe fan him? What do you want me to do? Feed him grapes? Get a large fan, and we can, like, uh.

Or perhaps, in the back, someone's like, hey, maybe we should put the AC on. Oh, OK. So now it's sex. And then the thing will start up, grrr. Or open the window behind you. I was trying to show empathy in that moment. He was hot.

He took off his shirt. He's flexing on me. I don't know what to do in that moment. Or you do it hot ones and you take off your shirt like everything they do, you do. I can't believe you guys are turning this on me. We actually should have cranked up the heat more Just to make it hotter. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or maybe we should get a fan. You guys progressively just start drenching. I lowkey thought he was gonna like jump onto the desk. Like it was a whole work. He was hot.

Yeah. Ramundi was hot. I like it hot. Maybe the answer is- Aljo was cold. Aljo was cold. Maybe the answer is when there's in studio guests, we make it a little bit cooler just for them.

I like it hot. I'm fine right now. I'm perfect. Well, it's all about now. I'm perfect. Well, it's all about you. I'm perfect. Anyway, it's been a great day. It's been a great few shows, few things have happened and then let's get the hell out of here. What about this? This tweet here from Alex Para weighing 243 pounds. Is that legit? That's pretty heavy oh wow

let's see let's see okay well he's stepping on with shoes so it's like what is that like three pounds four pounds what shoes do you have that are four pounds three pounds two pounds by the way Three pounds, two pounds? By the way. Yeah, it is heavyweight. And he doesn't look big at all, right? Like he kind of looks the same. Is that an Uncrowned shirt? What is going on?

That's Kayla Harrison shirt. Oh, it looks like a Uncrowned crown. It's the Kayla Harrison Uncrowned collab. She first referred to herself as the Uncrowned queen, right? Yeah. So, no, right? Yeah. No, I like that. What about Darren Till? We just mentioned Darren Till to JCC.

People aren't getting it, and neither are some of these fighters. When I say no one will fight me or people are turning down fights, this doesn't mean that everyone who's willing to make a name for themselves can call me out. If I don't respond, I am scared. It has to make sense,

and you have to be a pay-per-view draw. Most of you donuts who are calling me out couldn't sell out a phone box. Couldn't fight out of a egg box. Whatever it was. Me and misfits are looking for a pay-per-view star that brings in crowds. People who are willing to pay to watch me and someone else punch. Fuck out of each other. So unless you are that, keep your mouth shut and you could be on the undercard if you're nice to me. Platinum, Nate, game bread, Karl Fratsch.

Can we get this done with one of you? Any of you, I don't mind taking less money, being the B-side, anything, let's just fight. Til's had enough. What about the scene at the Azerbaijan Open Work workouts today? Golly, look at that. We haven't seen this in quite some time. Fiziev, this looks like Coachella. That many people. Outdoors,

beautiful night in Baku. Look at this. Look at this. Fired up. Is his name Sariqov? Yeah. The local Azerbaijani. Look at that spinning wheel kick. Who got here, Jamal? Jamal loves it.

Yeah. Look at how many people are there. I'm pretty excited for this card. By the way, they don't do this anymore. I know, I wish they did. We don't get the open word. Look at that crew people are there. I'm pretty excited for this card. By the way, they don't do this anymore. I know, I wish they did it. We don't get the open word. Look at that crew there, Khalil. Can we just talk for a moment

about all this nonsense regarding him having custom shorts? I mean, are we that bored? Are we that bored to where we're debating who deserves and who doesn't deserve custom shorts? Give everyone custom shorts. Who gives a fuck? Give everyone custom shorts. Who gives a fuck? Give everyone custom shorts to the point where everyone is just wearing their own shorts.

I hate, well, yeah, which is what it used to be. These are his shorts, they're sick. He's a UFC headliner multiple times. He's a UFC title contender. He was one half of one of the best fights of 2024 and he took Alex Pereira to the brink. Yeah, I'd say he deserves custom shorts for fuck's sake. I can't believe this is even a thing.

I can't believe it's even a thing like that people even care to talk about. Oh, he deserves custom shorts. What? What are you talking about? It was so much better when everyone had their own look. Even at the workouts, the fact that they're all wearing the same thing is ludicrous Ludicrous What is this? silliness Don't get caught up in all this cost custom shorts and nonsense

And that's why if I'm an upstart organization, I say where they're whatever the hell you want Go crazy Be unique be yourself Go crazy. Be unique. Be yourself. Be different. Have a fun walkout. Sort of like what Dustin Poirier is trying to do on July 19th in New Orleans. He spoke to full violence. You'll recall on this here program he said he wanted to have little Wayne walk him out and he spoke to full violence and said his guy said he's in we're still good ways out but as of right now yes that's very exciting little Wayne walking that's something that they don't usually do for whatever

reason right and so I love this anything? Anything else we need to get to? They're extra super today. Yes. Starting with Boyd with the tough tourney format. What happens if a fight goes to sudden death round and that third round is scored a nine, nine? Has this ever happened and how would they determine who advances? Thanks. I do not believe it has ever happened and how would they determine who advances? Thanks. I do not believe it has ever happened.

Although I am no tough aficionado, I don't believe it's ever happened. I could be wrong. So how would they determine? I don't know. It's a good question. Anyone have any guesses? Would they just go to another round? Or do they rematch them?

The next day? Coin toss. Coin toss. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know what would happen. It's a good question. I'm going to ask Craig Borsari or Craig Polygian or even Dana White himself.

What else? Jay Dash, if we aren't getting Tom John or Islam Islamilia, what is the most exciting fight UFC can make that's not already scheduled? I think Josh Vann moves up to 135 and takes on Malcolm the Machine and a 5 round main event fight night card. I love Corey Sanhagen vs. Marabdou Alishvili. Love it. Does that count? love it

does that count? let's see, heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight I mean he said not booked so Hamza DDP is a great one Walter Waite, JDM, Sean Brady vs Ian Gary I love that fight I'm going with that one. That's my pick. What else? Jake from Wend-A-City, Ariel, wondering if you've ever interviewed Don King. Where would you rank him in the list of all-time promoters? I mean, certainly one of the all-time best in the 80s and 90s was very much in the mix these days, not so much, but still going. A polarizing figure, no doubt, a controversial figure, no doubt. But as far as like the greatest boxing promoters of all time, he's up there.

There's no doubt about it and still doing it. Absolutely still doing it. By the way, I saw Brian Norman Jr. is fighting in Japan in a couple days. He's a top ranked fighter and there's Bob Arum, 92 I think he is. Bob Arum, how old? Born in 1931, that would be 94, December. So he's 93. I mean like for a 93 year old to be consistently

flying all the way to Japan is absurd. The work ethic, the motor, unbelievable. The 33 year old to be consistently flying all the way to Japan is absurd. The work ethic, the motor, unbelievable. Anyway, that just cause Don King has got to be up there now too. Probably in his eighties, 31 93 as well. Born the same year. How about it? Still kicking remarkable Remarkable.

Only in America. What else? Cosmo Kramer, is Dana completely checked out on promoting MMA? I don't think so. But you can see like when he talks about the, I love the way he talks about the Crawford Canelo thing. My first foray into boxing eight years

after he was talking about it and promising it, is going to be Crawford Cannello. In reality, they're not footing the bill. It's Turkey who's footing the bill. It is a little... I mean, when you're talking to some of these guys, they don't know the difference, but it's a phenomenal deal for Zufa Boxing slash TKO. It's a phenomenal deal. You get to put on the fight, you get to work with Netflix, you get to go to Allegiant Stadium, you get all the glory, all the attention. We put this on, we're promoting it,

but you don't really have to make the investment. You don't have to foot the bill. It's like the great Bill Parcells once said, "'If they want you to cook the dinner, "' the least they could do is let you buy the groceries. Well, in this case, the groceries are being paid for by someone else. The dinner is being cooked by someone else, but you get all the accolades as if you're the chef.

Do you understand what I'm saying, Frank? Absolutely. I'm proud of that one. What else? Nimpi sends over 50 pesos. By the way I didn't really answer the question but I don't think he's checked out but I think as far as like the nitty-gritty like he's just not as invested he's the type of guy that needs a challenge he needs something in so like the boxing the slap fighting the

BJJ the the energy drink these things you know the the army parades these things excite him I think it's a byproduct of the success of the UFC is that this thing just kind of goes on without him. Like he's not as needed. To a degree, I still think a promoter is needed, but there's a case to be made that the whole machine just kind of feeds itself at this point. Okay, back to – Well said. Yeah. Thank you.

Nimpei sends over 50 pesos keeping up the turning heel subject. Picture this. Wow. Tuporiya turning on Ilya and fighting him for the belt saying I'm the real Tuporiya. To a degree. I mean saying I'm the real Tuporiya is a little weird. They're both Tuporiyas. So it has to be like an Owen Hart-Breadheart thing.

Like you were stealing my shine. You were stealing my thunder. I was in your shadows. I'm the real champion of the family. I'm the one who's going to bring glory to the family, not shame like you. I believe in my roots. I support the family.

I send back money to the parents, you know, something like that. It's not a bad shout. What else? La Macha MMA, Ariel, give your kid a dumb phone. It's call and text only. Yeah. He has a, um, an Apple Watch and I, and I, I tend to feel like that's enough. Yeah. But apparently not.

It's like Dick Tracy, you can like call. He never, he never takes it. He, uh, he never charges it. Well, if he's not showing the responsibility, that's another thing Like you know what here the iPad is take care of the Apple watch your lips to God's ear I say that all the time if you got in this case, um If you don't remember to take the watch, how can I trust you to you know what I'm saying? Wait, has he lost a watch or iPad? He lost it once and also he just never remembers to take it so he'll go to his friends house be like okay. You have your watch. I'll text. No. I forgot it well

Well, you know what I forgot to buy you a phone My kids dropped his phone a couple of times and is like asked me for a newer model And I'm like bro. I'm not showing out the cash now You can drop it again Isn't it nice to know that he's not like attached to that thing so much that maybe he won't be attached to an iPhone like that? All things considered though, if I'm being honest, it is nice. It does say a lot about him.

He'll bring it up, but this isn't a constant conversation. This isn't him hounding us, crying, throwing things like, this sucks, I'm the iPad kid. And then he moves on. I think it's actually saying a lot about who he is and how comfortable he is in his skin. He doesn't feel like he needs the phone to, you know, be a part of the cool crowd, keep up with the Joneses, because the truth is he is the cool crowd. You know what I mean? You saw him

up there Frank on Sunday. He was owning the moment. He was the Riz that was there. Damn. Wow, okay. What else? Sloppy MMA. Who would you give to Wellmaker next? He's 31, so a bit of a faster push perhaps than if he were a younger prospect. Is a hobby maybe? Nah, a bit of a jump there. Marcus McKee number 13 getting Peter Janna at three is crazy. You've got Montell Jackson, you've got Vinicius Oliveira. You don't necessarily need him to fight a top 15 guy just yet, let's build him up, get a few more knockouts. Let's do this the right way, but I love the guy, I love him.

Love everything about him. His body reminds me, and like just his general demeanor reminds me a lot of Benson Henderson, although Henderson wasn't knocking people out like that He's just a lot of fun he's an easy guy to root for so they've got something special I I reposted a highlight reel video that someone made of him just amazing amazing stuff. What else lastly? Yes, sir. Spliffington the third says if little Wayne walking back there what's happening? Frank's over here stressing about whether or not he used Riz correctly. Oh, yeah, you really got in his head

Did I say that right? He's like this guy goes on camera and talks about glazing non-stop once By the way, by the way, what's wrong with glazing? Glazing is the worst way to glaze. Well, we'll talk about this off the air. Yeah, you shouldn't be throwing it as milly-nilly as you do, let's be honest. You said the same thing about sus. I was correct.

Both of those should not be used as often as casually. Wait, GC, they're okay, right? I think they're fine, yeah. I think they're totally. Riz is the most fine. It's just for charisma. I was just. He said that they're not fine.

By the way, I was just giving you shit, man. Glazing. I was proud of your kid. He had the glasses on. He had all of his kids like shouting him out. I'm like, damn. Like that is. You should have said he had aura, Frank.

He had aura. You just misused it. That's what I was referring to. I wasn't saying it was inappropriate. Let's go back to glazing, it's fine. By the way, glazing is totally fine and I used it I was referring to. I wasn't saying it was inappropriate. Let's go back to glazing, it's fine. By the way, glazing is totally fine, and I used it in the right context. I don't even remember.

It's not that it's not fine. It's just the origin of the- What, that I'm an old guy saying it? No, glazing and sus have been sexual in videos. They're coming from a place that isn't just being an avid supporter of people. That's true. Now, when did I use it today?

I don't even remember. Yes, Frank. Frank has a glazed count before. I'm Frank now? What is this bullshit? Was it the pee? All right, let's slip in the tongue, fuck off. You got it in Frank's head,

now Frank has gotten it back in your head. Actually, Connor has got it in your head. PWG, PWG, PWH, it's been a long day. Is that when I used it? When did I use it? Honestly, I don't yeah. Yeah, I think you did use it. You're like, that's what the kids saying. He's like His kids are super young so he wouldn't know about that when he asked you about using lingo that he's not ready for the crow And sting and you kind of nodded along. Did you know what he was referring to I was genuinely curious here 1000% listen? This is my crow singer

Crow crow was wait don't tell me don't tell me well You know this yes Joaquin Phoenix or River Phoenix. Huh? Didn't one of them die? Brandon Lee, the daughter of Bruce Lee? No, the daughter, the son of Bruce Lee? Daughter?

Wait a second, wait a second. What set did he die on? The crow, Brandon Lee. Brandon Lee died on it. So Joaquin Phoenix, when did he die? His younger brother River died outside of- River Phoenix died? He died outside of... River Phoenix died. He died outside of Johnny Depp's club.

Yeah. Oh, it was just an overdose? Yeah. Okay, I got confused. Justice. No, Brandon Lee was the girl. Brandon Lee died on the set, right? There was a mishandling of the firearm thing.

Oh, hell. And he died. Crazy. Awful. Bruce Lee's freaking son. I know, legend. So I remember when that all happened I remembered the movie and then and then sting went from being like the surfer

dude with the bleach blonde hair spiked and the the the colorful paint to the dark and disturbed guy and as Mark said he didn't speak for over a year which was awesome tremendous. Do you remember this Frank? Yeah I do. Yeah. Okay. That was actually one of my favorite wrestlers. A singer? Jesus. All right so. Is that true? Were you a sting guy? Yeah you watched the pound for pound. Oh yeah. He was singing the police earlier. Yeah. What else? So as I was saying, Sir Spliffington III says, if Lil Wayne walked you out to a fight, what song is he performing for you, asking all the boys? I don't have an answer.

Da da da. Da da da. Da da da. Me and na na na na. I kind of screwed that up. I was singing the Cormier song right above it. Know what I'm talking about? Yeah.

Anyway, probably HYFR. Is that Lil Wayne featuring Drake or is that Drake featuring Lil Wayne? Still works. All my exes live in Texas like I'm George Strait. Give me a, yeah, give me a Millie. I'm Illy, I'm Illy, I'm Illy, I'm Illy. That one?

Yeah. It's a great track. Six foot, seven foot. Yeah, I was ever a huge wheezy guy Not even hot boys are no, is that right? Well, you mean like what you mean boy, I need a hot boy That one. I don't know if that's oh, or was that juvenile cash money millionaires. I love cash money I was huge into like the Master P, No Limit Soldiers, Mystical, that whole era.

You guys know about that? What do you know about that? Yeah, we know about it. Frank, anything else? Ah, that's it. I gotta be honest, going from like all the emotions of this past weekend, wow, okay. Why does the song always start- There's a Wow, okay. Why does the song always start?

There's a director back here. Why does the song always start like mid song? Let's try that again. Here we go. Nah. I am exhausted. I am exhausted. Lucky for me, we're doing another show on Friday.

That's gonna be at the Fanatics Fest in New York, the Jacob Javits Center. If you're in the vicinity, come check us out, 3 o'clock, live on the Cold As Balls stage. We're sandwiched between Adam Silver and a pod featuring Damar Hamlin and PJ Tucker, which is kind of insane because that's a Buffalo Bill and a New featuring Damar Hamlin and PJ Tucker, which is kind of insane because that's a Buffalo Bill and a New York Nick. And then the commissioner of the NBA. And then it's us in the middle? We're the white stuff of the Oreo there?

The middle portion, the baloney? That's kind of cool, right? Who's excited? Hell yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited too. Live shows are always just a little extra, you know? Yeah. That's the Javits, honey.

I think the plan is, so this won't air live, but I think we're hoping to be able to air it next week, right? We will be able to air it next week. Yeah, so we'll have Ice Cube. And maybe one more guess. Short Show, 45 minutes. Yeah. Bite Size. We'll give it to you as part of the rest of the program. Yes, yes.

So in case you missed it, it'll be a grand old time. And that'll be on Friday. And then a big week next week. Tomorrow, of course, boys in the back, sending your voicemails. What's that number, by the way? What's that number again? 415- SUB-

B-I-T-B, that's right. There it is. Mark Ramundi, thank you very much to him. Thank you to Corey Sanhagen. Thank you to Paul Walter Hauser. Thank you to JCC Junior. Have we ever gone this far past the music? ["Peace I'm Outta Here"]

Back tomorrow, same time, same place, tell them to say, peace, I'm outta here.