Will Cain Country - Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson: Presidential Ambitions & Regretting A Presidential Endorsement

Episode Date: December 25, 2024

On this encore episode,  Will was joined by Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson for the second time in 2024, this time at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, the site of 2024's WrestleMania. They discussed The Rock's return to wrestling as well as his new character, his best path to the title, and who he thought is on his level in the wrestling world. Plus, The Rock reveals whether or not he regrets his endorsement of President Biden in 2020, what he thinks about the state of the country and a serious conversation about his presidential ambitions.  Tell Will what you thought about this podcast by emailing [e-mail] Subscribe to The Will Cain Show on YouTube here: Watch The Will Cain Show! Follow Will on Twitter: @WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Merry Christmas, and welcome to the Will Kane Show. Glad to have you with us on this Holy of Holidays. We had a really cool and fun conversation earlier this year. He asked us for the interview, and then he invited me to WrestleMania. As you lay back and enjoy this Christmas day, Why don't you lay back to enjoy this conversation with Dwayne, the Rock, Johnson. Dwayne, good to see you, brother. The Rock, the final boss, Johnson.

Who am I talking with? Who am I talking with? Dwayne, the final boss? All the above. It all depends on the question. Oh, oh, all right. I'm looking how far the drop is. Welcome, man.

I'm so happy you're here. Man, I'm really happy to talk to you. I'm glad that we managed to put this together. Part two from our conversation. That's right. Yeah, from the New York Stockton. exchange. Yeah, it's good to see you. And I brought something for us. You did. You came prepared, man. You bought the Taramana. Can I pop that open? You pour, I'll put the ice in.

It's a mice. We'll make it nice and ceremonial. I'm a tequila guy, by the way. Perfect. We have more in common. Oh, I went with me first. You did. Selfish. More? A little bit more. Thank you, man. Boom. All right. Here we go. So you're a tequila man. You'll appreciate the Taramana a tequila. This is our Nejo expression. And, you know, I'd be remiss if I didn't say I wanted to create a legacy brand who wound up breaking, shattering all records of not only tequila, but also in the spirit industry. So I got a lot of good people behind that brand and it's quality. You got your hand in so many things at this point. You are WWE.

Yes. Of course, a movie star. You're now UFL, which seems to be going great. Yeah, we had a great opening weekend, UFL, that's the combination of leagues, the XFL, USFL, Fox is part of our ownership team now. We had a great opening weekend. We were up 70% from last year, XFL and USFL combined. So like with anything that I do, will the UFL serves as just the opportunity to create opportunities for players to live out their dreams. Because, and I think we might have talked about this before in the past. My dream was playing the NFL.

Right. That never happened if I was a little bit better, and maybe if I didn't have a fanny pack and a bad haircut, maybe I would have made it. But that whole, the UFL is designed just to create opportunities for players. You know, you go into a conversation and interview like this and you think, okay, I'm going to go from here to here to here. And then I throw it out the window and say, I'm just going to follow my curiosity. Great. So, you know, first of all, cheers. Cheers, brother.

Really happy to see you again. good to see you that's good it's really good so but okay from tequila to the ufl to w w yes you know i think about this sometimes dwayne like when this whole thing is said and done and it's over and not to be more but they write the obituary yes like what is it you want i think about this myself do i want it to say television personality journalist what do i want them to say what is it you want it to say about this life that he did all that he could do to live it to the fullest. And he did his best to take care of his family and protect his family and be a good dad and a good guy and take care of people. And run at the opportunity

to work hard and build something. But also what I've learned down the road after a lot of these is bring everybody with you and how important that is to as well. So I know I just said a lot. I don't know if all that will fit in the obituary, but it's that. Well, we're men, and I think I've been talking about this a lot recently on the Will Kane show, like, destruction is easy. There's a lot of destruction going on in America. Creation is hard. And obviously, you're very interested in building and creating. Everything centered around the rock, around Dwayne Johnson.

What is, were men, we're built to think in terms of legacy, what is the legacy? The legacy is helping everyone helping everyone who I'm able to touch and come in contact with and even possibly the ones who I don't but the legacy is helping them reach the potential that I was really lucky enough that I continue to try to tap into

for myself as well. You hear that quote, and it's funny because you almost like manifest it, and I find this quote coming back to me at certain times of my life, which is people won't remember, I think, what you said, or something else, I'm going to butcher the quote now, but they'll always

remember how you made them feel. And that's important to me. And as I go down the road of life, and we start to think about as men, legacy, we start to think about what our calling is, and what our why is, and what our North Star is, and now it continues to change as we go down the road.

I think you're on to something, and it is, you know, you do a lot of things in your life, and in that pursuit of ambition or building something, at some point you look up and you say, how much of this was about me? Yes. And I think I know where you are, what you're alluding to, and I think I'm there.

It's like, in the end, it isn't going to be about me. Right. It's going to be about what I can do for others, And I'll have to ask myself every step of the way, what position am I in to best serve others? Yes, absolutely. And I love that when we start to explore that, because I feel like just as guys and as dudes, you know, as we come from teenagers, 20s, 30s, you're still trying to find yourself. You think you have all the answers. You really don't know.

Even in you reach the fourth level in life, a lot of us are still trying to figure it out. You reach a fifth level. Hopefully you've gotten to a place now where you've got some things figured out and you got a little bit of clarity. But I've got to tell you, the idea of bringing everybody with you is something that speaks to my core, and it's really been gnawing at my bone marrow for the past couple of years, because I've reached this point in my career. Man, I'm a lucky guy. I'm a lucky SOB. I like to say I work hard, but I believe in luck, and it all kind of converges and dovetails. the luckier you get, the harder you work, the luckier you tend to be.

But I realized that, man, if I reached a point in my career where I am lucky enough to say, hey, here's a mountain top, and I'm kind of sitting on top of it at what I do, and I'm very lucky. I've got to be careful how you say that, right? You can come across as like an asshole, excuse my language, but when you're all, on top, I realize, okay, if I'm in this position, a few things could happen. Either I could just ride off in the sunset, or I could stay where I'm at, or I could look to something else and say, hey, let's go over there and let's build new mountain. But the key that's been gnawing at my

gut is, but I can't do it alone, and I don't want to do it alone, but let's bring everybody with us. And what's the point in climbing that mountain? I mean, the point I'm getting at is you have to ask yourself that because you've accomplished, I mean, to be honest, for the gratification of Dwayne Johnson's ego, you've pretty much accomplished almost everything imaginable. So the point is, why do I climb that next mountain? And the focus then is, well, because it's about somebody more than Dwayne Johnson. Yeah. And also, it's, I feel like it's in the DNA. You know, you want to go do more. And I got two hands that are capable, and I like to put in the work with my own two hands. But I also like to say is, let's go do it together. And if I come up, then I want

everybody to come up. And if I'm not coming up, I want you to come up and I want other people to come up. And I'm going to be right there rooting you on. I believe in that. Let's take a quick break, but continue this conversation that we had earlier this year live from Lincoln Financial Field ahead of WrestleMania with Dwayne the Rock Johnson on the Will Kane Show. Hey, I'm Trey Gowdy host of the Trey Gatty podcast. I hope you will join me every Tuesday and Thursday as we navigate life together and hopefully find ourselves a little bit better on the other side. Listen and follow now at Fox News Podcast.com.

Welcome back to the Will Ken Show. We're still talking with The Rock. Dwayne Johnson, we're visiting a conversation. We had with him a little bit earlier this year on the Will King show. I actually want to ask you this first. So you're an incredibly charming guy. I mean, you're naturally likable. And I think that's both a compliment and a little bit of an insult. And I'm going to tell you why I think it's an insult. Because I think likability can become a currency and you can almost become addicted to it.

It's a little bit of a poison. I've seen it in my business. I saw it in sports. I see it in politics. If you're always pursuing and seeking people liking you, then who are you but for the potential reflection of what they want you to be? That's right. So I want to ask you this. What is it that you believe that is important to you no matter its popularity?

To be real and to be direct and to be open and to be transparent. And as you and I have talked about, if you asked me a direct question, I'm always going to give you a direct answer. Whatever it is. And that's important to me. And authenticity. We hear that word a lot. But that's important to me. And I feel like, I mean, we could go down the well here, but there's, in today's easy cancel culture world and cancel culture, woke culture, this culture, that culture, division, et cetera, that really bugs me.

And in the spirit of that, you either, in the spirit of that, you either succumb and be what you think other people want you to be, or you go, well, no, that's not. who I am, I'm going to be myself, and I'm going to be real. Maybe ask me something. A real answer is important and the truthful answer is important and that may get people upset and may piss people off. And that's okay. Well, that's what we've only been able to hang out together twice. I can sense this. I appreciate this, this desire to be authentic. It's got to, by the way, that's got to be hard for you, not because it's unnatural, but because A, you're a huge celebrity and you're surrounded by people telling you whatever you do is great or right or good or on the alternative dwayne you've got people waiting for you to say something controversial to tell you how awful you are that's right

even if it's not controversial by the way they'll make it controversial but would you say it's hard and i think that just puts extra pressure and makes it more difficult for you to be authentic yeah but it just comes with a game i think it comes with a position that i'm in but it took me some time to recognize that at first i was in a way adverse to fame and I didn't understand the power of it how it could swing both ways and finally as I got down the road a little bit and started achieving some notoriety a little bit of success here and there I start to realize oh man this is a superpower the fame is a superpower when used correctly I believe when you could use it to influence people and also use it to influence other people in terms of again being directed and being honest

So let's be direct, let's be honest, there was a time that you used your fame, and it was a time that not everybody was happy, and that was a few years ago. That's right. And you made a very big point. You said, I've never done this before. I've never endorsed a political candidate, and you endorsed Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. And I'm being real with you, and you're being real with me. Sure.

A lot of people on Fox watching us, you and I talk right now, remember that and wonder about that. So how do you feel now in retrospect with that endorsement? In what way? Are you happy that you made that endorsement in 2020? Are you happy with the state of America? Am I happy with the state of America right now? Well, that answer is no. Do I believe we're going to get better?

I believe in that. I'm an optimistic guy, and I believe we can't get better. The endorsement that I made years ago with Biden was one I thought was the best decision for me at that time. And I thought back then when we talk about, hey, you know, I'm in this position where I have some influence and it's my job then. I felt like that then. It's my job now to exercise my influence and share with this is who I'm gonna endorse.

Am I gonna do that again this year? That answers, no. I'm not gonna do that because what I realized, and I didn't realize it back then, Will, but I realized it today. And back then, just like I am today, very lucky, I was then, the most followed American man in the world, and I am today. the most followed American man in the world

and I appreciate that but I also realized that what that caused back then was something that tears me up in my guts back then and now which is division and that got me and I didn't realize it then

I just thought hey our country feels like there's a lot of unrest it feels like I would like things to calm down maybe we need a change this is what I'm going to do and this is who I'm going to endorse. The takeaway after that, months and months and months,

I start to realize like, oh man, that causes an incredible amount of division in our country. So I realize now going into this election, I'm not going to do that. I wouldn't do that because my goal is to bring our country together. I believe in that in my DNA.

So in the spirit of that, there's going to be no endorsement. Not that I'm afraid of it at all. But it's just I realize that this level of influence, I'm going to keep my politics to myself, and I think it's between me and the ballot box. But I will tell you this, while like a lot of us out there not trusting of all politicians,

I do trust the American people, and I trust that whoever they vote for, that's going to be my president, and that's who I'm going to support 100%. I trust, by the way, I feel the exact same way. I trust Americans. No matter of the state of this country, matter its political leadership. I inherently trust the moral backbone, the culture that is

uniquely American. And I appreciate that. In the spirit of avoiding divisiveness and honoring unity, you do not want to endorse someone in 2024. We talked about that mountaintop though. And you and I on the floor, the stock exchange talked about this. Yes. Let me ask you something really quickly. Please. Yeah, yeah. Would you endorse? Will you endorse? Like, how do you feel about that because you're in a position too as well. You're influential. He's putting me on the spot. I've never answered this question. You know, Dwayne, I've never formally endorsed. But I love our flow. That's the thing. I've never done that. I've never formally endorsed someone. And I don't know why. It's no secret. Anybody watching will know which ways I'd lean and who I lean against and who I

lean for. And I'll be honest with you or anybody else, the way I voted every single time. the ballot box is private, I mean, I'm not going to vote for Joe Biden. Yes, you know. And I don't have a problem telling you or America, you know, I'll vote for Donald Trump. Sure. But I don't know about it. Like, I've just never made a point of my endorse. And that was a big moment. And that's why I wanted to ask you about this. It was a big moment for you. Yes. As you mentioned, you're very influential. To the point of this, we talked about it. You running for president. People talk about it. You've talked about it. Yes. So, you know, you're not going to make an endorsement in 24.

Assume what... Does I break out more? I knew this question was coming. Are you going to ever, ever, are you going to ever seriously run for president? Answer that question, seriously, consider it seriously, and make that that mountaintop runs for president. As of now, no. That's not my intention. Well, I'm not a politician.

I'm not into politics. I care deeply about our country. I'm a patriot, and I believe you are too, as well. And right now, my desire and my priorities are my babies and school drop-offs and pickups and things like that. That's important to me because I also have a 22-year-old who I like to say we grew up together. And I know what it's like to be in a business. At that time, I was a full-time professional wrestler on the road over 300 dates a year. And I missed a lot of her growing up.

And I understand what that is if you become president and how all that goes away. And I don't want that to go away. And I also feel like, in the spirit of bringing people together and bringing our country together, I don't know if that's the right move at this point, possible. I don't know. So truth is, as of now, you say. As of now. Let's take a quick break, but continue this conversation that we had earlier this year,

live from Lincoln Financial Field ahead of WrestleMania with Dwayne the Rock Johnson on the Wilkinson. It is time to take the quiz. It's five questions in less than five minutes. We ask people on the streets of New York City to play along. Let's see how you do. Take the quiz every day at thequiz.com. Then come back here to see how you did. Thank you for taking the quiz.

Welcome back to the Will Kane Show. We're still talking with The Rock. Johnson. We were visiting a conversation we had with him a little bit earlier this year on the Will Kane show. Is there something to serve others outside yourself? Is that a potential mountain? Is that something that you said as of now? It always is, Will, and I got to tell you, we might have talked about this, either on or off camera, last time we were together, is, man, my family was evicted out of Hawaii when I was 14 years old. We couldn't pay the rent, and we were gone, we were kicked off the island.

And from that kid to then not knowing where I was going to live, winding up in Nashville, and then going up to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and kind of all over the place, from that kid to a good amount of Americans feel like I would do a decent job of becoming president, it's still very surreal to me. And I'm honored by that,

and this idea of legacy, building New Mountain, more than yourself, bringing our country together. Right now, my mind. main priority is being a daddy and continuing to build these other things. But also, again, being in the position I am, just like you said, my trust unequivocal is with the American people. And whoever they decide to make president, then again, that's my president, that's our president, and we're going to support it. Let's talk about family. It's a great transition back into wrestling. You know, we were just talking off air about the Von Erick's. And you are inducting,

Is it your grandmother into the W.W.B. Hall of Fame? Yes. And your daughter, Ava, is entering this business as well. Yes. It's so fast. You said to me, I don't remember if it was on camera, off camera as well, I said, my life would have been Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler. That's right.

It's a hard life. Yes. And yet you see this cycle, whether or not it's your family or the Von Erics or the Flares, several families, this becomes who they are. Why is that? If it's so hard, why does it become family? because it's in your DNA and I think it's in your bone marrow

and as big and as global and as scaled up as we can see as professional wrestling is and WWE and WrestleMania it's still at its core this unique one-of-one culture and in this you grew up in Dallas

I did a lot of my growing up in Dallas where my dad and my grandfather and my grandmother used to work for Fritz von Erick for those of you don't know the famous von Erickson, the world of professional wrestling. So I love this business of pro wrestling. I'm third generation, and I'm honored to induct my grandmother into the Hall of Fame.

So just for our viewers out there who don't know, my grandmother, my grandfather was a high chief, Peter My Via, used to wrestle for Vince McMahon's dad in the 70s when it was WWWF. And now my grandfather passed away. It was his dream to have a successful wrestling promotion in Hawaii. It failed. My grandmother, while he was on his deathbed, said, I'm going to take the business over, and I want to do my best to make this a success for you. She did.

She became the first successful female promoter in the world of professional wrestling. And as you know, and as everybody at home knows, professional wrestling male dominated especially back then and she came in and she promoted I like to say that she's the Grasalda Blanco of professional wrestling but now I have an honor to induct her into the Hall of Fame and I can't wait and I have a daughter who's 22

she is with WWE as well she's fourth generation and there's no business like professional wrestling which by the way will is why I come back to it. Do I have to? I don't have to. Certainly not for money. Luckily, thank you.

But it's because I love it. Okay, let's talk about you coming back. Not exactly the way it was originally envisioned. You know, the heel turn, the bad guy, the rock. This is not, I imagine, how it was planned. No, not at all. The original plan was for me to come back as the baby face. The big baby face come back and face Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship

and put on here in Philadelphia the biggest main event of all time. I believe the qualities of a good leader, not to say that I'm a good leader, but I believe the qualities of a good leader is one who has the ability to pivot, but also make sure that you listen to the people. And as I came back, I started to realize that And while fans love the idea of the rock and Roman reigns at WrestleMania, there was also this other storyline building that they had been invested in for a couple of years with a guy named Cody Rhodes, who, wrestling royalty, Dusty Rhodes is his dad. Dustin Rhodes is his brother. And one or two things could have happened in that moment, and this happened in January. We could have either kept trucking through. I'm a director of the board

I got a little bit of influence here in the WWE we could have kept trucking through or the thing that bugged me, I was in Hawaii and I realized man, there's a segment of fans here who are just disappointed

and that it hurt my heart to think that well I don't want to truck through and leave these fans disappointed but not only that you also got a guy and Cody Rhodes who've been working his ass off for years now

And this is his story. And who, by the way, Cody, as we speak very openly here, could not be a better human being. Amazing, understood. I get it. I understand the position we're in. Rock, you and Roman, biggest ever. I'm here for it, and I support you. And that's a big deal for somebody to say, especially in our crazy world of egocentric professional wrestling.

So back in January, I called Nick Kahn. friend and I said I have an idea how about this why don't we take care of the people give them the story of Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns and Nick said great and I said however a little bit of a twist he said what's that I said what have I became the greatest bad guy of all time and that was the attempt and the intention have you had this bad guy lurking in the background well it has been lurking you know by the way you know it has been like allow me to do that please it has been lurking it has been lurking for some time have you had the I mean you couldn't have had the

final boss because that's directly obviously connected to your new position yes you had this character in there oh for years by the way because if you think about it it's nice to be considered who called the Babe Ruth the professional wrestling it's nice to be considered the good guy the big baby face the hero who comes in and saves the day but also again when you think about authenticity as we talked about earlier in the interview and there's i realized i woke up in hawaii it all happens in hawaii by the way that's where you a lot of self-reflection a lot of self-reflection happens in hawaii a lot of the mana and i woke up and i went god what if i became a bad guy and then i

was able to not be pretzled and be freer let's take a quick break but continue this conversation that we had earlier this year, live from Lincoln Financial Field, ahead of WrestleMania with Dwayne the Rock Johnson on The Will Kane Show. It is time to take the quiz. It's five questions in less than five minutes. We ask people on the streets of New York City to play along. Let's see how you do. Take the quiz every day at the quiz.com. Then come back here to see how you did. Thank you for taking the quiz. Welcome back to the Will Cain Show. We're still talking with The Rock.

Dwayne Johnson. We were visiting a conversation. We had with him a little bit earlier this year on the Will Cain show. Dwayne, I had a boss at ESPN. I got to work with the investigative unit, the E-60 unit, the outside the lines unit. And I have to tell me, you know, Luke Skywalker's not interesting. Darth Vader is interesting. That's right.

Seth Curry is not interesting. Draymond Green is interesting. Wow. People love villains. Yes. Well, you know. Well, by the way, the final boss, the spirit of the final boss, it's funny to bring that up, is Darth Vader.

Yeah. That's the spirit of the final boss. So let me ask you two questions on this, though. So it's almost a, it's a continuous thread to our conversation, whether or not it's politics or something we're going to talk about in just a moment, Maui, or this lead up to WrestleMania, you are very attentive to the fans. You are very attentive to the feedback. Always.

But doesn't there have to. Do you feel there's this balance you have to strike? Like, you, Nick, WAB, you responded to the fans in this Cody Rose. And I appreciate what you said about Cody as an individual. Yes. But I wonder sometimes is it right to gauge the public. And the answer I think sometimes is yes, and the answer is other times, no, it's here. That's right.

And so I just wonder how you balance that, listening versus knowing. Sure. Great question. I think you got your finger on the pulse. You'd like to keep your finger on the pulse of what people want, the public wants. It's important to absorb all that information. But it's also, as you said, important to you've got to go with your gut and you've got to listen to that voice that's behind your rib cage that's talking to you.

In this case, now there are times whether it's in the vertical of pro wrestling or if we wanted to create this product or whatever it is, where you've got to go with your gut and let's swing for the fences and we believe this is the right choice. You've made that choice throughout your career too as well. I'm going with my gut. This is what I'm doing. and this is where I'm going. In a case like this in pro wrestling,

there was something intrinsically off and unaligned if I didn't listen to this segment of fans because at the end of the day, this whole thing here, Will I used to wrestle in flea markets for 40 bucks a match where the promoter would say,

hey, will you cut your forehead with razor plates? That's how crazy it was back then. Every once in a while I did. For an additional five bucks, and free waffle houses, but there's a time where you really have to listen. And in this case, again, we could have trucked through, but why do that? So I feel like we had an opportunity here to look at this situation, whether it's in wrestling or anything. The way I look at it, I usually look at scenarios like this, like it's a two to four lane highway. How can we make it into a 10?

And we can make it into a 10 lane highway by listening and then absorbing that information. and letting it inform us how we make that decision. Hey, speaking of Waffle House, here's something I want to ask you. Training, training for a movie to be a movie star. Even that, that's not this. It's been eight years. Yes. I mean, what's the training been like?

So thank you for asking that, by the way, because it's the one thing that people, and I understand, they get caught up in the pomp and circumstance of wrestling, of wrestling and it's WrestleMania and the cachet of it. They forget, I'm sorry, it's not that they forget. It's just, it's not our lead foot to show. The training has kicked my ass for weeks now. I went into a full training camp for about six.

This is my final week, obviously. We have WrestleMania in a day or two. And the training camp has been tough. There is nothing that you can do to prepare your body to be suplexed and slammed and thrown around in that ring. Nothing. And, you know, I'm no spring chicken.

I'm a summer rooster. No spring chicken. So I've had some great guys who have been helping me throughout my training camp. So it's a combination of training camp, training hard, getting my cardio right, getting my oxygen right. I have to control my breathing in this match. We could go, without giving too much away.

We could go an hour. Oh, don't you have, like, the record of already like an hour-long fight? I have an hour long. I don't know if it's a record, but I do have... Are you teasing you're going to beat that hour? I'm not saying that. No, no, I'm not saying that, but I'm saying you've got to prepare.

But also, unlike all these other sports with professional wrestling, you don't want to go, you can't practice full tilt. You've got to be careful. So you have to take it maybe 25, 50 percent right up until... Do you give me a day? How many times a day are you working out right now? I'm working out three times a day. I get up in the morning. So my day looks like this.

I get up super early. in the morning. I like to beat the sun up because I have this odd relationship with the sun that I have to beat it before it gets up. So, which basically means I need. Maybe as present you can address daylight savings. I'm going to fix that, by the way. If I ever become president, I'm going to fix daylight savings. Just keep it. I like long evenings. You like long evenings? I want to keep, by the way, Hawaii, one of the two states that do not do daylight savings. They don't do that. Right. They got it right. Just let's just make our days as long as possible. I want to make our days and our sunlight. Yes. As long as possible. Yes. Let's take a quick

break, but continue this conversation that we had earlier this year, live from Lincoln Financial Field ahead of WrestleMania with Dwayne the Rock Johnson on the Wilcane Show. Welcome back to the Will Cane Show. We're still talking with The Rock. Dwayne Johnson. We were visiting a conversation we had with him a little bit earlier this year on the Wilcane show. All right, so you beat the sun. You're up. You're working out. We're going to take inventory. If I ever become present, if you let me know some of the stuff that he's with. So, I get up in the morning, I do my cardio in the morning on an empty stomach,

then I'll get some work done, then I'll eat breakfast, I'll eat a little bit of lunch, then I'll go back and train again on the weights, do cardio again, and then in the addition in the spirit of WrestleMania, I go do my in-ring work. And that's where it gets tough. Again, you don't want to get hurt, a lot of it, a lot, there is no other movement in the world in any other sport that is like that in proclamation. wrestling. So the training camp has been tough. I think we've, I think

we have created a great compelling storyline. I think that we've raised the bar. And I've been really happy with it. By the way, I've got to tell you this. The thing that's been really gratifying will, two things. Number one, the fans and the embracing of the final boss,

this version, this rock 10.0 version, but also all the guys and girls in the locker room. Because I do come in, admittedly, I'm a disruptive spirit. I like to disrupt things when I come in and I like to raise all the ships with the tide. But the locker room has been really tremendous. I'm glad you addressed it. I was curious about that because you're now, I mean, you're the director of the board and you're also one of the

guys in the locker room. Are you done working out today? I have one more tonight. Yeah, I know. That's not going to be a problem. That's how I do it. Huh? Really? That's not a problem. Two tequila and you're You're going to be back in the gym? Well, I mean, not in an hour. Well, I'm going to be four in a second. Okay, a few more quick questions on wrestling. Yeah. So, listen, I was watching recently, and by the way, my wrestling fandom has come, gone, come.

You know, I'm an adult. It's gone different ways. Of course, yes. By the way, it's coming. But you are coming to WrestleMania. Yeah, I mean, I'm on the way up. That's right. But I was watching recently.

Yeah. Humility is also part of his salesman. What can I say, except you're welcome. Welcome. Go ahead. And this is going to say, I don't give you extra. I don't give anyone. Okay. I used to have this beautiful Doberman. I lived in Central Park. I lived in Upper West Side. I'd walk him in Central Park. He was gorgeous. Got him in Hawaii Humane Society. Oh, nice. People say, oh, he's gorgeous. I would not return the compliment if their dog wasn't pretty. Okay. So when I give you this, it's not gratuitous. You go on the mic. It's a different level. You're a different level. Um, who besides you is on your level when it comes to work in the mic in wrestling? Let's see. You know what, Will, there's that guy, uh, no one.

I think I just met the final boss. That's right. Final boss answers no one. No, no, there's, uh, there's a few guys, I think, who are great on the mic. I feel like, um, Sam Punk is great on the mic. I feel like Cody Rhodes is great on the mic too as well. Seth Rollins, our guy's great on the mic. Paul Heyman, another guy is great on the mic?

I will tell you, is you a long-time fan of wrestling, me too as well, and I also grew up in the world of wrestling. What made, I believe, the wrestlers of the 70s and 80s have this unique style is that in their promos, there was this belief because it was a fact and it was true that if you didn't get over, If you didn't, if you didn't get over on the microphone, you weren't going to eat, you weren't going to pay your bills. Like, it was just that simple.

So when you look back on those guys in the 70s and in the 80s, Rottie Rottie Piper and... Yes, Randy Savage was another one. Hulk Hogan was another. Rick Flair, Dusty Rhodes, the son of a plumber, these guys got over on the microphone because their life literally depended on it. And when you come from that kind of hunger, you speak. in a different way and what is it's not that it's missing these days it's just the way of the culture and it's the way of the business model is the energy and the intensity and the vitriol is just different when guys speak on the mic today thank you for all the time you give me today

thank you for everything appreciate you man thank you brother there you go I hope you enjoyed that conversation with the rock Merry Christmas to you and your family from all of us here at the Will Gage. Listen ad-free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts and Amazon Prime members, you can listen to this show, ad-free on the Amazon music app. I'm Janice Dean. Join me every Sunday as I focus on stories of hope and people who are truly rays of sunshine in their community. community and across the world.

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