The Joe Rogan Experience - Joe Rogan Experience #1598

00:00:03.000 The Joe Rogan Experience.

00:00:06.000 Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.

00:00:14.000 WWE royalty, ladies and gentlemen.

00:00:16.000 The Undertaker and the biggest fucking wrestling fan on planet Earth.

00:00:20.000 Like I was saying before the podcast, if I did not bring Tony Hinchcliffe on this podcast, I would have never heard the end of it.

00:00:26.000 No one loves you more than that, man.

00:00:28.000 Being right next to you right now is probably...

00:00:30.000 He's tingling.

00:00:31.000 He's tingling a little bit?

00:00:32.000 He might be lactating.

00:00:33.000 This is the highlight of my life.

00:00:36.000 I don't know if I'm happy or sad about that.

00:00:41.000 Well, hey man, thanks for coming on here.

00:00:43.000 I really appreciate it.

00:00:44.000 No, thanks for having me, man.

00:00:45.000 It's an honor, really.

00:00:46.000 Oh, my pleasure.

00:00:47.000 Honor to have you.

00:00:47.000 So, what is it like being in Austin, Texas right now?

00:00:50.000 Are you enjoying it?

00:00:51.000 You're from this area, right?

00:00:53.000 Yeah, well, I'm from Houston, but I've been here since about 2004. You know, it's crazy, man.

00:00:59.000 We've got this influx of people from California right now.

00:01:01.000 I know.

00:01:01.000 We're trying not to fuck it up.

00:01:02.000 What should we do?

00:01:03.000 Tell us what to do.

00:01:05.000 You know, it's fine.

00:01:06.000 Bring the money.

00:01:07.000 Leave the values.

00:01:08.000 We'll all be good.

00:01:09.000 What values do we need to leave behind specifically?

00:01:11.000 Well, fuck everything that fucked up California.

00:01:13.000 I think that's the government, man.

00:01:15.000 No, it really...

00:01:16.000 The government gets voted in, though, right?

00:01:18.000 Yeah, but I don't think we expected them to do that.

00:01:21.000 Exactly.

00:01:22.000 Yeah, no one expected them to shut down all the restaurants and shut down all the gyms.

00:01:26.000 And now that studies have come out, there was a new study that came out, it was in fucking Newsweek.

00:01:31.000 I'm hoping that when Biden comes in, they're going to go, well, you know, we realize that lockdowns are not really good, it doesn't really help.

00:01:37.000 Give people freedom and let them do...

00:01:38.000 I'm hoping that this is a political thing, which is a terrible thing to hope for.

00:01:43.000 That this is political.

00:01:45.000 That's where we're at, though.

00:01:46.000 Yeah, but that's where we're at.

00:01:47.000 I'm hoping that it was all political and that they'll adjust once Biden is in office.

00:01:52.000 Yeah, I hope so, too.

00:01:52.000 It's been nuts, man.

00:01:54.000 It's crazy.

00:01:55.000 What do you believe, too, right?

00:01:57.000 Exactly.

00:01:57.000 You hear this, you hear that, like...

00:01:59.000 My buddy Brendan Schaub just went down to the comedy store the other day, he rode his bike down there, he said, dude, it's like the fucking Walking Dead.

00:02:05.000 He said, sunset is just a zombie land.

00:02:07.000 Yeah, it's crazy.

00:02:08.000 Tents and shit, and weirdos, and no businesses open, and everything's just...

00:02:13.000 It's amazing how quick things can fall apart.

00:02:16.000 Quick.

00:02:16.000 Like that.

00:02:17.000 Yeah.

00:02:18.000 Like that, everything changes.

00:02:19.000 And the sunset strips extra sad because all the neon lights and everything is what kept it.

00:02:25.000 When those things are shut off, it's as dark as it gets.

00:02:29.000 Even the comedy store, it's just a black building with a bunch of red and white neons around it.

00:02:33.000 But if those neons are off, it looks like nothing's there.

00:02:37.000 You've got to wonder what's going to happen when everything comes back.

00:02:41.000 How long is it going to take for things to bounce back?

00:02:43.000 It could take five years.

00:02:45.000 Yeah.

00:02:45.000 Or it could that, or just everybody lose their freaking mind and, you know, just go absolutely apeshit because they've been cooped up for so long.

00:02:53.000 Yeah.

00:02:54.000 We can do what?

00:02:55.000 We're good?

00:02:56.000 Let's party.

00:02:57.000 Let's go.

00:02:58.000 So, what have you been doing, man?

00:03:00.000 What have you been doing with your life post-wrestling?

00:03:02.000 Yeah.

00:03:02.000 So, trying to figure out what's next, really.

00:03:05.000 You know, I've done this for...

00:03:08.000 33 years altogether.

00:03:10.000 This is crazy.

00:03:11.000 Yeah.

00:03:11.000 I mean, it's just one of those deals...

00:03:13.000 You're walking around like you're okay, though.

00:03:16.000 A lot of the guys that hit 30 years, man...

00:03:19.000 I hung out with the Iron Sheik one night.

00:03:21.000 That poor guy.

00:03:22.000 Yeah, he's...

00:03:24.000 Very entertaining.

00:03:25.000 Hilarious.

00:03:25.000 It's great.

00:03:26.000 Hilarious.

00:03:26.000 I love Sheiky.

00:03:28.000 But you're right.

00:03:29.000 He can barely walk.

00:03:31.000 His ankle's fused.

00:03:32.000 He can't walk.

00:03:34.000 I've already got both my hips.

00:03:37.000 Birmingham resurface job, so my hips are metal.

00:03:42.000 This is incredible that they can do that now.

00:03:44.000 Well, it added...

00:03:46.000 10 years to my career, you know?

00:03:48.000 Oh, so you did it and then kept going.

00:03:50.000 So I did the first one.

00:03:51.000 I did the left one in 2010. Wow.

00:03:55.000 I was, I mean, it looked like, you know, they filmed the whole thing for me and, you know, my hip joint, the ball socket looked like a landmine had gone off on it.

00:04:06.000 I mean, it was just potholes and I had spurs and arthritis.

00:04:11.000 It was filled it up.

00:04:13.000 Um, Right.

00:04:19.000 Right.

00:04:30.000 Especially with the amount of weight you're carrying around and then picking people up and slamming them.

00:04:35.000 And getting slammed and just all that jarring.

00:04:37.000 So Dr. Su out of the hospital for special surgeries.

00:04:42.000 He was just phenomenal.

00:04:44.000 And he was so gung-ho because that was his baby.

00:04:48.000 And he knew what I was going to do.

00:04:51.000 And he's like, no one's put that kind of test on it.

00:04:55.000 We're going to see.

00:04:56.000 And I was like, yeah, we're going to see.

00:04:58.000 And it's held up.

00:04:59.000 I've been I was in pain easily 12 years, every step of every day.

00:05:06.000 I had that searing, down-the-leg pain.

00:05:09.000 And you just dealt with it?

00:05:10.000 I just dealt with it.

00:05:11.000 It's part of the game.

00:05:16.000 Thankfully, I've got a high threshold for pain.

00:05:21.000 But you know, people that are in chronic pain all the time, and you live with it, You don't even realize the drag it is on you.

00:05:30.000 I mean, you get used to it, but you don't know how much until it's gone.

00:05:34.000 And when I woke up from surgery and I'm pain-free, it was like, this is a whole new lease on life.

00:05:42.000 Remotivated me to do, you know, things.

00:05:44.000 Right away you were pain-free?

00:05:45.000 As soon as I woke up.

00:05:46.000 Wow.

00:05:47.000 Don't they have a saw at the top of your hip off?

00:05:50.000 No, so here's what they do, and I wish I'd have brought it with me, but we're trying to pack our house up and move.

00:05:57.000 So they take the head of the femur, all right, the top of the leg bone.

00:06:03.000 We're good to go.

00:06:21.000 Stick over the head of the femur.

00:06:23.000 Jamie could probably find it if you know the exact model.

00:06:27.000 Yeah, there it is, right there.

00:06:28.000 That's it.

00:06:28.000 Jamie's on the motherfucking ball.

00:06:30.000 That's money right there.

00:06:31.000 Pull that up like that.

00:06:33.000 Birmingham hip follow-up.

00:06:35.000 So that is what yours looks like.

00:06:37.000 So the thing with the stem on the right side there, that goes right into the head of the femur.

00:06:44.000 And then the porous piece of metal that goes over the top of it, Goes into the acetabulum and no restrictions.

00:06:54.000 Wow.

00:06:55.000 No restrictions.

00:06:56.000 Yeah, I had to walk.

00:06:58.000 I was walking...

00:06:59.000 So on the left is the old way to do it, right?

00:07:01.000 So...

00:07:02.000 Where they see A and B over there on the right-hand side?

00:07:04.000 Yeah, and they still do it that way.

00:07:06.000 And if I screw these up, I can still have the total hip where they'll go in there, cut the femur off.

00:07:12.000 What would be the benefit of doing that, though?

00:07:14.000 Well, at the time, if I had done the full hip replacement, then I would have been finished.

00:07:20.000 Right.

00:07:20.000 Yeah, because it just couldn't have took the trauma that I put it through.

00:07:23.000 Right.

00:07:24.000 But the resurfacing, that way, I have absolutely no restrictions.

00:07:31.000 Wow.

00:07:32.000 Yeah, so you have no pain now.

00:07:35.000 How long is this supposed to last?

00:07:37.000 Like, don't they say that you might have to get another one of these or do something with it eventually?

00:07:41.000 Eventually.

00:07:42.000 They don't know.

00:07:42.000 Like I said, when I did the first one, they'd only been doing them for about 10 years.

00:07:47.000 And no one, you know, no one had...

00:07:53.000 Got in a wrestling ring and get thrown around 270 days a year on it either, you know?

00:07:59.000 I mean, it's just...

00:07:59.000 Well, think about cars, right?

00:08:01.000 You can get, like, a 95 Land Cruiser with 300,000 miles on it.

00:08:05.000 Right.

00:08:05.000 Easy.

00:08:05.000 And they're driving fine.

00:08:07.000 Like, and those pistons are just going...

00:08:09.000 And maybe it can just keep going.

00:08:12.000 Yeah, no warranty.

00:08:14.000 Yeah, I'm sure.

00:08:15.000 There's no warranty, but, you know, I just...

00:08:17.000 I keep holding off, and medicine keeps getting better and better, and...

00:08:21.000 Yeah, no, it'll definitely continue to get better.

00:08:23.000 I mean, it's just incredible that you can do that and then still wrestle.

00:08:27.000 Yeah, and then when I did the other one, I did the other one maybe five years later.

00:08:31.000 Same thing?

00:08:32.000 Yeah, same thing.

00:08:33.000 The only thing then is I kind of had to learn how to walk again.

00:08:36.000 I mean, I could walk, but my gait was so screwed up from dragging the leg and everything.

00:08:43.000 So what they had me do is, weird and strange enough, is start walking backwards.

00:08:48.000 Yeah.

00:08:49.000 On a treadmill to correct my gait.

00:08:52.000 Yeah.

00:08:53.000 How weird.

00:08:54.000 Yeah, because you compensate.

00:08:56.000 When you have an injury, you start to compensate and do things differently.

00:09:01.000 So I walked differently to kind of alleviate the pain.

00:09:05.000 So once I had no pain, I still had the habits of walking that way.

00:09:12.000 So I had to retrain my brain and my body to walk correctly again.

00:09:17.000 So the left hip was the one that was really bothering you for the longest time, and the right hip was bothering you less?

00:09:22.000 Is that what it was?

00:09:22.000 Yeah, I didn't really have...

00:09:23.000 It was kind of weird how it happened.

00:09:25.000 Like, my left hip was bad for years and years.

00:09:28.000 I finally, you know, I said, okay, I'm gonna call it a day.

00:09:33.000 My normal orthopedic surgeon, I said, okay, Doc, I'm going to call it a day.

00:09:39.000 He said, shit, Mark, you should have called it a day five years ago.

00:09:42.000 He said, you got more out of that hip than what anybody ever should have.

00:09:46.000 I was like, well.

00:09:49.000 I'd come to grips with my career was going to be over.

00:09:54.000 So I cut my hair off.

00:09:55.000 You know, I said, I'm not gonna need this long shit anymore.

00:09:57.000 So I cut my hair off and, you know, I'm kind of sitting at home.

00:10:01.000 Phone rings.

00:10:02.000 It's only about two or three days later, right?

00:10:03.000 And Dr. Bird, he's out of Nashville.

00:10:06.000 Awesome, awesome doctor.

00:10:08.000 He's probably the leading doctor in hip preservation, like taking your natural hip as far as you can go.

00:10:15.000 Just really good.

00:10:16.000 What does he do for that?

00:10:18.000 Uh, you know, he'll go in orthoscopically, clean, clean the bone off, clean the spurs out, clean, you know, he just, anytime there's, you know, what, what starts to happen is you start getting that arthritis and then this, the spurs and it just, what happens is every time that you're walking,

00:10:36.000 it's just chewing that up.

00:10:37.000 So he goes in there and, and he's, he's, uh, he's actually designed his own instruments.

00:10:45.000 That he uses to go in there and orthoscopically clean these hips joints out.

00:10:51.000 So he calls you?

00:10:52.000 So he calls me and he goes, hey, I might have another option for you.

00:10:57.000 And I'm like, fuck, I already shaved my head.

00:11:00.000 He goes, there's this doctor in New York that's doing this thing called the Birmingham hip resurface.

00:11:06.000 He says, it may give you an opportunity to make a decision that you want to make instead of having it made for you.

00:11:14.000 I was like, oh shit, okay.

00:11:16.000 So I go to New York and I meet, you know, with Dr. Sue.

00:11:19.000 And he goes, yeah, he goes, I think you're a perfect candidate.

00:11:23.000 You know, your bone density is really great.

00:11:25.000 And he says, I think you'll do good with it, right?

00:11:29.000 So I was like, well, fuck, let's go for it, right?

00:11:32.000 I got nothing to lose at that point.

00:11:34.000 And I wake up.

00:11:36.000 I'm pain-free.

00:11:37.000 And I'm like, holy shit.

00:11:39.000 Like, I'm walking that day.

00:11:40.000 That day?

00:11:41.000 Yeah.

00:11:41.000 And it's just like...

00:11:42.000 No crutches?

00:11:42.000 No nothing?

00:11:43.000 I started out on crutches because I had, you know, for a while I had an epidural in.

00:11:47.000 So, you know, when I first tried to get up, it was funny.

00:11:50.000 They bring in two male nurses, right?

00:11:54.000 You know, I'm three and some change at the time, right?

00:11:57.000 So, and I've never had any, you know, kind of side effects.

00:12:00.000 But I guess I got up and...

00:12:04.000 Did they catch you?

00:12:05.000 They got me.

00:12:05.000 I landed on the bed.

00:12:08.000 The last thing I remember was getting up to go take this walk and the next thing I'm laying in bed.

00:12:13.000 My wife's looking at me like, you okay?

00:12:15.000 I was like, what?

00:12:16.000 You passed out.

00:12:17.000 I'm like, shut up!

00:12:19.000 I didn't pass out.

00:12:20.000 Yeah, they got you up to walk and you passed out.

00:12:22.000 Wow, you forgot it.

00:12:24.000 Holy shit.

00:12:24.000 That's crazy.

00:12:25.000 Yeah, I was so, you know, I was so looped up.

00:12:29.000 I feel good.

00:12:30.000 I'm just so happy that they could do that for you, that they could resurface both of them when you walk.

00:12:35.000 I mean, because you walk, you would never know.

00:12:37.000 Yeah, it is crazy.

00:12:39.000 I feel I'm really blessed.

00:12:40.000 Now, if I could, obviously, I'd still be going full steam ahead, but I just physically can't perform at the level.

00:12:50.000 And that's the thing with when you use your body for athletic purpose.

00:12:55.000 At some point, it's going to say, enough's enough.

00:12:58.000 John Wayne Parr, he's a Muay Thai champion out of Australia.

00:13:01.000 You know John Wayne Parr.

00:13:02.000 He has over 100 fights.

00:13:05.000 He was trying to get 100 wins, but they robbed him on his last decision, on his 100th win.

00:13:11.000 But he just got his hip redone, and he's throwing kicks again.

00:13:14.000 Because I thought, like, he was saying that he needed to get his hip done.

00:13:17.000 I'm like, well, you know, I guess the career's over if you get a hip replacement.

00:13:21.000 But he got a resurfacing, very similar to yours.

00:13:23.000 I don't know if it's the exact same one.

00:13:25.000 But he's, like, a couple of weeks later, he was, like, throwing kicks in the air.

00:13:30.000 And a couple months later, this is him, like, right post-operation.

00:13:36.000 But if you go to his Instagram, Jamie, like right now, like if you can see some video of him.

00:13:44.000 What is that one?

00:13:45.000 Is he running?

00:13:46.000 Yeah.

00:13:46.000 I mean, this is crazy.

00:13:47.000 You can run?

00:13:48.000 Yeah.

00:13:48.000 I mean, he was fucked.

00:13:49.000 He was in pain for a long time.

00:13:52.000 I mean, that's just nuts to see him being able to do that.

00:13:55.000 See if there's a video of him throwing kicks.

00:13:58.000 He got a float tank, too.

00:13:59.000 Someone hooked him up with a float tank.

00:14:01.000 Nice.

00:14:01.000 Yeah, there he is, right there.

00:14:02.000 I mean, this is only a couple...

00:14:04.000 Oh, this is like a parody of a John Codd Van Damme kickboxer.

00:14:10.000 He's being sick.

00:14:10.000 John's a funny dude.

00:14:11.000 He's always fucking around.

00:14:13.000 But there's videos of him.

00:14:14.000 Get out of this one.

00:14:16.000 It is eventually, but it's going to take too long.

00:14:20.000 But keep scrolling down.

00:14:22.000 There's a video of him throwing kicks.

00:14:24.000 No, no, no.

00:14:25.000 Like, scroll down.

00:14:26.000 Right there.

00:14:29.000 That's it.

00:14:30.000 Exactly.

00:14:31.000 So this is, I think this is three months post-surgery.

00:14:37.000 And he can throw kicks.

00:14:39.000 So he's got someone holding the pads for him.

00:14:41.000 Which is just...

00:14:41.000 Yeah, that's insane.

00:14:45.000 And that's that leg.

00:14:46.000 That leg he's throwing right there.

00:14:47.000 That was the one that he fought.

00:14:48.000 Yeah, and there's so much pressure.

00:14:51.000 And John's in his 40s.

00:14:54.000 But he's a fucking savage to the end.

00:14:56.000 Yeah, it's crazy.

00:14:57.000 It's crazy, man.

00:14:58.000 Modern medicine, it's phenomenal, man.

00:15:00.000 It really is.

00:15:01.000 And from the fans' perspective, you know, they don't tell you when these guys are getting surgery and things like that.

00:15:07.000 You know what I mean?

00:15:09.000 Which thing happened?

00:15:10.000 Well, we don't...

00:15:11.000 What do you mean?

00:15:12.000 No, we don't know when they're getting surgery.

00:15:14.000 So my point is, for example...

00:15:17.000 You know, you're watching The Undertaker, right, who's already been doing it years longer than all of his peers and all that, and maybe you could tell that matches not necessarily are different or slower, but they're just, they are.

00:15:31.000 They're different than obviously headlining an hour-long WrestleMania match, right?

00:15:35.000 I think you just dissed me.

00:15:36.000 I'm not sure.

00:15:36.000 No.

00:15:37.000 I think he did.

00:15:38.000 You felt that, right?

00:15:39.000 I didn't like it.

00:15:39.000 But the return on that is that people say, like, oh, this must be it.

00:15:43.000 This must.

00:15:44.000 We're coming towards the end of The Undertaker.

00:15:46.000 Right.

00:15:47.000 It's different than it's always been.

00:15:49.000 And then he would come back from one of these hip surgeries, and it would literally add to the mystique of The Undertaker.

00:15:56.000 Because all of a sudden, he's faster, stronger, right?

00:16:00.000 Yeah.

00:16:01.000 For a while there, that was the template.

00:16:03.000 I would, you know, I would...

00:16:06.000 At the end of my career, I had to kind of, almost like a fighter, you know, when a fighter goes into camp, you know, because I would get ready for like one event.

00:16:14.000 For years, like I had an eight-year stretch where I averaged 270 dates a year.

00:16:20.000 That's what a lot of people don't.

00:16:21.000 They don't get that part of what we do.

00:16:23.000 They don't get the live events, town to town, flying everywhere.

00:16:26.000 That is bananas.

00:16:29.000 Easily.

00:16:29.000 Easily eight years, 278s.

00:16:32.000 At the beginning of my career, in the early 90s with WWE, on the weekends, we'd do two shows a day.

00:16:38.000 Boo!

00:16:40.000 Oh my god.

00:16:42.000 Who works harder than pro wrestlers?

00:16:45.000 Like literally.

00:16:46.000 Honestly, obviously I'm biased, but a lot of people really don't get that.

00:16:51.000 Because they see Monday nights or they see the Friday night show and they don't know that we're doing live events.

00:16:57.000 And when I came up in the early 90s, We only did TV like every three weeks.

00:17:04.000 We would tape three weeks of TV and the rest of that time we're on the road.

00:17:09.000 It'd be like they're throwing darts.

00:17:12.000 One day I'd be in New York.

00:17:13.000 The next day I'd be in Denver.

00:17:15.000 Then I'd be in Miami.

00:17:16.000 Then I'd be in Toronto.

00:17:17.000 Then I'd be in LA. Then I'd be in Dallas.

00:17:19.000 You must have been in a constant state of jet lag.

00:17:23.000 I say fucked up, really.

00:17:25.000 Honestly.

00:17:27.000 We had a motto, we'll sleep when we're dead.

00:17:32.000 You're young.

00:17:32.000 When you're young, you've got that kind of energy and you can do all that.

00:17:37.000 You're going out and you're enjoying your nightlife too.

00:17:40.000 Well, no wonder why so many guys have a problem with pills, too, because you're in a constant state of pain.

00:17:44.000 Absolutely.

00:17:45.000 Yeah.

00:17:46.000 Things have progressed in our industry so much.

00:17:50.000 Like, we're on the same standards now of Major League Baseball and the football.

00:17:56.000 I mean, our drug testing programs, wellness programs, concussions.

00:18:01.000 I mean, we are probably in some cases even, you know, better.

00:18:06.000 Why would they test you for drugs?

00:18:08.000 Why?

00:18:09.000 Yeah.

00:18:10.000 Well, so...

00:18:12.000 One, well, prescription drugs.

00:18:16.000 Right.

00:18:17.000 Just see if you've got a problem.

00:18:19.000 They started out early on.

00:18:21.000 So we're talking 90s, right?

00:18:23.000 So they didn't want people getting popped with...

00:18:26.000 getting pulled over and...

00:18:28.000 Cops finding weed in the car, whatnot.

00:18:30.000 So that would be a fine.

00:18:32.000 You'd get fined a little bit this time.

00:18:34.000 The second time, you get fined a little more.

00:18:36.000 The third time, you get fined and maybe have to go, you know, rehab.

00:18:40.000 But I think what they kind of figured out, I think they still do, but they didn't realize when they took that away, what are you going to do?

00:18:49.000 You're going to drink more.

00:18:50.000 And then you're going to take more pills.

00:18:52.000 Because you've got to cope with the pain somehow.

00:18:57.000 And so then you've got guys overdosing, right?

00:19:01.000 So everything's kind of led up to this drug protocol now.

00:19:06.000 We're talking about we didn't have doctors with us at the time.

00:19:10.000 We didn't even have trainers with us back then.

00:19:13.000 Now we travel with trainers, doctors.

00:19:18.000 You know, there's all kinds of protocols.

00:19:19.000 You get your head, you know, you get a dinger.

00:19:22.000 You used to, it was like, okay, well, fine.

00:19:24.000 You know, I gotta go make a living.

00:19:26.000 Right.

00:19:27.000 You know, it's the same with injuries.

00:19:28.000 Like, you don't work, you don't get paid.

00:19:30.000 Right.

00:19:31.000 So, you know, in that sense, our industry's come a long way.

00:19:36.000 They really take good care of the athletes now.

00:19:38.000 When you think of drug tests, people think about steroids.

00:19:41.000 If I was Vince, I would tell people, I want to make sure you're on steroids.

00:19:46.000 I'd be testing everybody.

00:19:48.000 Well, we've had a few different...

00:19:51.000 Why are you not on steroids?

00:19:53.000 You're a pro wrestler.

00:19:55.000 Come on, bro.

00:19:55.000 You would think, right?

00:19:57.000 There was a time where everybody had to be...

00:20:00.000 You had to be clean?

00:20:01.000 No, you had to be big.

00:20:04.000 You had to be jacked, right?

00:20:06.000 Especially the guys, the 6'8", the big guys.

00:20:08.000 There was a stigma.

00:20:09.000 You've got to be 300 pounds.

00:20:11.000 It's in our head.

00:20:12.000 Nobody gives a shit.

00:20:13.000 They're interested in the characters and what you do on TV. But in our heads, fuck, I've got to be 330 pounds.

00:20:20.000 They're interested a little bit.

00:20:21.000 But if a guy like Brock Lesnar comes out and he looks skinny, people would be furious.

00:20:25.000 Yeah.

00:20:27.000 Even the guys that weren't huge had to do it to stay medium.

00:20:31.000 You know what I mean?

00:20:32.000 Like, I was friends with Roddy Piper, and he was telling me about it, and he's like, well, yeah, I mean, you had to even keep, to even stay in the middle, to stay in the game, you had to be on steroids.

00:20:45.000 That was the wrestler's mindset, though.

00:20:48.000 Now, we're tested for everything.

00:20:51.000 They test for steroids now?

00:20:52.000 They test for steroids.

00:20:53.000 They have for a while.

00:20:54.000 Really?

00:20:54.000 Yeah.

00:20:55.000 Which I don't understand because there's some big motherfuckers out there and cut, and I don't know how they did it.

00:21:01.000 I couldn't get that way when I was on steroids.

00:21:03.000 Who's the biggest guy in the WWE right now?

00:21:08.000 I'm going to pull up a picture.

00:21:09.000 Braun Strowman passes the sniff test.

00:21:12.000 Braun, I think he's about my height.

00:21:16.000 He used to be a power lifter.

00:21:20.000 Let me see.

00:21:20.000 Here you go, Jamie.

00:21:21.000 Oh, Jesus.

00:21:23.000 So, yeah, he's 330 pounds.

00:21:25.000 Come on, son.

00:21:26.000 Look.

00:21:27.000 Are we trying to say that that guy doesn't do any steroids at all?

00:21:29.000 I'm just telling you.

00:21:30.000 Hey, I'm just telling you.

00:21:31.000 This is preposterous.

00:21:32.000 This is...

00:21:33.000 They test him.

00:21:35.000 They test him.

00:21:36.000 And then they give him a grade A. Good job.

00:21:39.000 I'm just saying.

00:21:40.000 Look, I can only say what...

00:21:45.000 What I've had to go through.

00:21:47.000 I mean, it's positive.

00:21:49.000 It's possible, right?

00:21:50.000 It has to be, because I'm telling you.

00:21:54.000 Before I switched my contracts, and now I'm not a talent.

00:21:58.000 Now I'm a legend, I guess, or whatever they call it.

00:22:03.000 I'd only worked two or three times a year.

00:22:04.000 This is at the end of my career.

00:22:06.000 But I was still under a regular contract.

00:22:09.000 So under a regular contract, you have to, this is if you've tested clean, you have to have four mandatory tests, four mandatory piss tests, and two blood tests every year.

00:22:20.000 Well, they'd get to the end of the year, like it'd be December, right, going into Christmas, and I'd get a call.

00:22:27.000 Like, you need to go to this such and such lab and do a piss test.

00:22:32.000 And I hadn't been in the ring in six, seven months, but they would look at their book, oh shit, we forgot about him.

00:22:39.000 And it's under, you know, you've got to have those piss tests done.

00:22:43.000 So then, okay, well, that's only three.

00:22:45.000 Sure enough, next day I get another phone call.

00:22:48.000 Go back to the lab.

00:22:49.000 So, you know, I'd have to go two days in a row to get tested to make sure that I had...

00:22:54.000 Everything that I was supposed to have.

00:22:55.000 Maybe that's how they do it.

00:22:56.000 Maybe they bang all their tests out early in the year, test four days in a row, and then just do steroids the rest of the year.

00:23:01.000 No, they're totally random.

00:23:03.000 They just show up.

00:23:04.000 The drug testing, you never know when they're going to show up.

00:23:07.000 I was home.

00:23:08.000 That's why I didn't get tested until the very end.

00:23:11.000 I just don't understand why they would test.

00:23:13.000 I mean, that's like testing The Rock.

00:23:15.000 Like if he's doing a movie.

00:23:16.000 You want to make sure you're not on steroids.

00:23:17.000 They'll be like, what?

00:23:19.000 Well, so, you know, obviously, you know, we've had some dark shit that...

00:23:24.000 Come on, son.

00:23:26.000 I'm just saying, brother.

00:23:27.000 Come on.

00:23:28.000 Well, he is the beef king.

00:23:30.000 Come on, look at the size of that fucker.

00:23:31.000 He used to be a lot thicker.

00:23:32.000 He used to be a power lifter.

00:23:33.000 Yeah, he was 400 pounds at one time, and he's my height.

00:23:37.000 It's possible to be that...

00:23:41.000 It's not bodybuilding size, right?

00:23:43.000 Bodybuilding size is impossible.

00:23:44.000 That's not possible.

00:23:46.000 If you look at Ronnie Coleman in his prime, not possible.

00:23:50.000 But that guy, maybe some Viking DNA in there.

00:23:54.000 He's a giant fucking dude.

00:23:55.000 Maybe.

00:23:56.000 I know what the protocol is, and I know if anybody was going to get out of it, it would have been me.

00:24:02.000 Right.

00:24:03.000 And I didn't get out of it, so I'm just saying.

00:24:06.000 Do they test Vince?

00:24:08.000 Look, I don't know.

00:24:12.000 Yeah.

00:24:14.000 Hey, I wish whatever he's on, I wish I was on.

00:24:18.000 Yeah.

00:24:19.000 Look at that guy.

00:24:20.000 Yeah, he's 85,000 years old.

00:24:23.000 That's all he does.

00:24:23.000 He's 75. Come on.

00:24:26.000 Who the fuck has traps like that when they're 75?

00:24:28.000 If you didn't know that was his traps, you would say, he's going to die.

00:24:31.000 He has a tumor.

00:24:33.000 He's got a tumor on his back.

00:24:35.000 Look at the size of him.

00:24:36.000 Let me tell you, though.

00:24:37.000 That guy, that's what he does.

00:24:39.000 He's a fucking animal.

00:24:40.000 His love is working out.

00:24:42.000 Who the fuck has ever been that big at that age?

00:24:44.000 Ever.

00:24:45.000 He's phenomenal, man.

00:24:47.000 How old is he?

00:24:49.000 He's 75. He's older than my mom.

00:24:51.000 I'm going to send my mom a picture of him.

00:24:53.000 I don't want to hear any excuses.

00:24:55.000 Get it together, mom.

00:24:56.000 No excuses, mom.

00:24:57.000 His mom is 99. His mom's 99 and was still playing tennis in her 90s.

00:25:04.000 Wow.

00:25:05.000 Jesus Christ.

00:25:05.000 I mean, he's just got some...

00:25:07.000 That's his trainer there.

00:25:09.000 Wow.

00:25:09.000 He's shooting them in the back right now.

00:25:12.000 As he's lifting.

00:25:14.000 It's just all day long.

00:25:15.000 Just keep hitting them.

00:25:16.000 He's the one guy I'll call.

00:25:17.000 He'll call me out of the clear blues.

00:25:19.000 Hey.

00:25:20.000 You work out today?

00:25:21.000 Wow.

00:25:22.000 I'm like, no, boss, I didn't.

00:25:24.000 What's wrong?

00:25:26.000 He's like, I don't feel like it.

00:25:27.000 He's like, well, you need to get your ass in the gym.

00:25:29.000 It's amazing his enthusiasm after all these years.

00:25:31.000 Look at that picture where it says related images right below that with him screaming.

00:25:34.000 Go to that one.

00:25:36.000 Amazing enthusiasm after all these years in the game.

00:25:40.000 It really is pretty incredible.

00:25:42.000 He is a workhorse.

00:25:44.000 His company and working out It's kind of crazy.

00:25:49.000 That's his love, man.

00:25:51.000 That's his passion.

00:25:52.000 That's what causes success.

00:25:54.000 I mean, it really is.

00:25:56.000 It's consistency.

00:25:57.000 But look at him there.

00:25:58.000 He looks like he's about 30. And look at him on the right.

00:26:01.000 He's 150 years old.

00:26:03.000 And still jacked.

00:26:05.000 It's crazy.

00:26:07.000 I love it.

00:26:07.000 I love people like that.

00:26:09.000 I do, too.

00:26:09.000 I wish I had a little bit of it right now.

00:26:13.000 Well, he's been lifting weights and occasionally wrestling.

00:26:17.000 Yeah.

00:26:18.000 You've been wrestling.

00:26:19.000 Well, what year did you start?

00:26:20.000 I started training in 86. Wow.

00:26:23.000 Had my first match in 87. Dude, I was just out of high school.

00:26:27.000 I mean, we don't need to know everything.

00:26:28.000 That is crazy.

00:26:29.000 It's been a long time.

00:26:31.000 It was tough for me.

00:26:35.000 I'm not a legacy.

00:26:36.000 I didn't have anybody in the business.

00:26:39.000 I didn't know anybody in the business.

00:26:43.000 Usually you need somebody to open that door for you.

00:26:46.000 In 86, were you thinking, I've got to figure out a way how to do this?

00:26:51.000 Did you start taking classes?

00:26:55.000 I was in college.

00:26:57.000 I was a basketball player.

00:27:00.000 My coach tells me, Mark, there's There's some European scouts that are interested in you.

00:27:07.000 Maybe after next year, they may want to give you a tryout.

00:27:11.000 European pro basketball, right?

00:27:13.000 But they all say they'd like for you to be a little bigger because of the style they played back then.

00:27:19.000 Okay, so I start lifting weights, trying, you know, I'm 6'8", 230, 240, which is, in the 80s, is huge for a basketball player, but still.

00:27:31.000 So I started training.

00:27:32.000 In the European League, were they just more physical?

00:27:34.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:27:34.000 You know, it was like...

00:27:36.000 Rick Mahorn and Bill Lambeer, you know, on the gas.

00:27:41.000 They were just monsters.

00:27:43.000 And so I started training and I'm trying to, you know, put on size and strength.

00:27:48.000 And I met this guy in the gym who was like, every day I'd come in, he goes, hey, he goes, man, I'm going to go and I'm going to get into this wrestling.

00:27:58.000 Why don't you do wrestling with me?

00:27:59.000 And I was a big wrestling fan as a kid.

00:28:01.000 But as I got into, you know, basketball and football and everything else, I kind of, you know, I kind of drifted away.

00:28:07.000 And I was just like, man, I think I'm going to go try to play some pro ball in Europe.

00:28:13.000 And he goes, man, you should really try and do this with me.

00:28:16.000 So I kind of started getting in touch with the product again.

00:28:19.000 I kind of started watching again, and I got no clue.

00:28:25.000 I kind of fall back into it again, right?

00:28:28.000 I'm like, oh, that's kind of cool.

00:28:29.000 That's different.

00:28:31.000 I think one of the things that's helped me through my career is being a realist in what my talents are and what my talents aren't.

00:28:40.000 I started having these conversations with myself like, even if you do make a team, how long do you really have?

00:28:51.000 Being 21 and Sitting on the end of the bench in Lithuania just really wasn't that appealing.

00:28:58.000 You know, I'm trying to weigh it up against what I'm seeing on TV, right?

00:29:01.000 And I'm like, you know, because you got the Von Eriks and you got Hogan.

00:29:05.000 I'm like, well, shit, these guys are huge household names, you know?

00:29:10.000 So I'm thinking, maybe I ought to give it a try.

00:29:13.000 So we find this guy by the name of Buzz Sawyer to...

00:29:16.000 To train us, right?

00:29:17.000 And I got to come up with two grand, and I ain't got a pot or a window to throw it out of, right?

00:29:22.000 So I get my brother, my oldest brother, to co-sign a loan, hock everything I own, and come up with two grand to pay Buzz Sawyer to train me to wrestle.

00:29:36.000 Show up to his house.

00:29:38.000 First morning of training, right?

00:29:41.000 Buzz, he was a good amateur, really good amateur.

00:29:45.000 And show up at his house, knocking on the door.

00:29:48.000 There's about 10 of us standing out in the fucking front yard, knocking on the door.

00:29:53.000 Finally, fucking door swings open.

00:29:56.000 What the fuck you want, right?

00:29:57.000 And he's standing there butt-ass naked.

00:29:59.000 Woke him up.

00:30:00.000 He's just standing there naked.

00:30:02.000 And everybody's like, uh, we're here to train?

00:30:06.000 And he goes, oh fuck, is that today?

00:30:11.000 Yeah, you know, and so he gets another guy that was staying there with him.

00:30:17.000 His name was Perry Jackson, who I'm friends with to this day.

00:30:21.000 He says, go out there and warm them up, right?

00:30:23.000 So he goes out there and we run and do all, just, I mean, everything they can do to blow us up and run us off, right?

00:30:31.000 Totally gassed out, about two hours, just nothing but cardio shit, right?

00:30:36.000 Finally Buzz comes out.

00:30:38.000 Alright, everybody line up.

00:30:40.000 Alright, everybody get down.

00:30:42.000 Amateur position, right?

00:30:44.000 So, you know, everybody gets down.

00:30:46.000 Fucking, he just stretches the shit out of everybody, right?

00:30:49.000 Cross-faced.

00:30:51.000 Just fucking, you know, chicken wing and just hooking everybody and rolling them around in his front yard, right?

00:30:59.000 That was it, right?

00:31:01.000 Then he goes in the house.

00:31:02.000 Y'all come back, you know, a couple other days.

00:31:04.000 So this goes on for weeks.

00:31:06.000 And like every time I show up, there's like one less guy that shows up.

00:31:11.000 They just like fucking...

00:31:12.000 Until I was the last one there.

00:31:13.000 So I'm the last one there.

00:31:15.000 I knock on the door.

00:31:17.000 Knock on the door.

00:31:19.000 Fuck.

00:31:20.000 He never answers, right?

00:31:21.000 So I start peering in the windows.

00:31:23.000 Fucking all the furniture's gone.

00:31:25.000 Everything's gone.

00:31:26.000 He's gone.

00:31:26.000 He's gone to a different territory to work.

00:31:28.000 He just left, right?

00:31:30.000 Never learned any pro wrestling.

00:31:33.000 Pfft.

00:31:34.000 He was just teaching you wrestling wrestling.

00:31:36.000 He was just teaching me.

00:31:37.000 Obviously, we signed up to teach us how to pro wrestling, but he just came out there.

00:31:42.000 And his whole goal, and this is the way it was back then, is they always try to take your money, and then they try to run you off.

00:31:50.000 Most of the guys in that era were all shooters.

00:31:53.000 They were all good amateurs.

00:31:56.000 And that was what they would do.

00:31:57.000 They would take your money, then they'd hurt you, twist you, try and get you to quit.

00:32:02.000 And they got your money, and they didn't have to worry about it.

00:32:05.000 There's some wrestling trainers that were famous for crazy physical training standards before they ever taught you anything, like Carl Gotch.

00:32:13.000 I'm sure you know who Carl Gotch is.

00:32:15.000 Carl Gotch, who is not just a wrestler, but he's like one of the legends of catch wrestling.

00:32:21.000 Catch wrestling is like...

00:32:24.000 It's a lot like submission wrestling that you see in the UFC or in Jiu Jitsu, but it's very wrestling oriented.

00:32:33.000 Whereas Jiu Jitsu maybe would be...

00:32:36.000 I don't want to say it's less technical, but it's more violent.

00:32:41.000 It's a lot of snapping people down and cross-facing.

00:32:45.000 Guillotines and 10-finger guillotines.

00:32:47.000 And there's still a lot of...

00:32:48.000 Like, Sakuraba, who's one of the legends of MMA, learned from another catch wrestler in Japan.

00:32:55.000 And a lot of guys who...

00:32:57.000 Like Josh Barnett is another one who's a big catch wrestling enthusiast.

00:33:03.000 His style is all, and he submitted a lot of really elite guys, but Carl Gotch was famous for making, you had to be able to do crazy shit.

00:33:13.000 I think you had to do 1,000 bodyweight squats.

00:33:16.000 You had to do all these things before he would even teach you anything.

00:33:20.000 You had to be fucking tip-top magoo before you would ever get into those ropes.

00:33:25.000 Yeah, absolutely.

00:33:26.000 And the whole goal was to run you off.

00:33:29.000 Weed out the week.

00:33:30.000 Weed out the week.

00:33:31.000 Yeah.

00:33:31.000 And then if you went through all of that and you were still there, okay, well, this kid, you know, let's see if we can teach him how to do this.

00:33:39.000 But there was that big weed-out process.

00:33:42.000 I think Buzz's whole deal, his whole deal was a scam from the start.

00:33:46.000 He wanted the money and he knew, you know, back then we had territories.

00:33:51.000 Before Vince kind of, you know, took it nationwide, you know, Texas had a territory.

00:33:57.000 California had a couple of territories.

00:33:59.000 Oregon, you know, and guys just went from...

00:34:01.000 And $2,000 in 86 is a lot of fucking money.

00:34:03.000 That's a lot of money for a kid in college on, you know, on a scholarship.

00:34:06.000 I didn't have shit.

00:34:07.000 I sold everything I owned.

00:34:10.000 Yeah.

00:34:10.000 So, you're fucked.

00:34:12.000 How do you go from there?

00:34:14.000 So, you know, I lived in my car for a little bit, you know, bounced in bars, collected a little money here and there.

00:34:23.000 I just did whatever I could just to, you know, keep eating and keep training and did what I could.

00:34:29.000 And I knew, so the Von Eriks ran Dallas.

00:34:33.000 That was their hub, world-class championship wrestling.

00:34:38.000 And I knew that they were in the office on Wednesday.

00:34:41.000 Like they would come in there and book the cards and the guys would come in, get their paychecks and shit on Wednesday.

00:34:47.000 So every Wednesday for about eight months, I would go down there and I'd sit in the lobby.

00:34:54.000 And fucking guys would come right, walk right by me, not even acknowledge my presence.

00:34:59.000 Every Wednesday?

00:35:00.000 Every Wednesday for eight months, I went and just sat there.

00:35:05.000 Did you ask to speak to anybody?

00:35:07.000 Yeah, so there was a referee back there.

00:35:09.000 His name was Bronco Lubich.

00:35:10.000 He was the only one that would speak to me, right?

00:35:12.000 And they would be kind of like, you're here again, huh, kid?

00:35:15.000 I was like, yes, sir, Mr. Lubich.

00:35:17.000 I was hoping maybe I'd get a chance to talk to somebody today.

00:35:20.000 All right, well, just good luck, you know.

00:35:22.000 And then I would sit there.

00:35:24.000 And, you know, I'd walk by and try to, like, you know, as somebody would come through, you know, I'd kind of start to stand.

00:35:29.000 Fuck, never stop.

00:35:31.000 Just blew right by me.

00:35:33.000 One day, like, I was right at the end of my ride.

00:35:37.000 I was like, fuck, this is not, I'm not getting anywhere here.

00:35:40.000 And Fritz von Erich, you know, the patriarch of the family, right?

00:35:46.000 The guy that owned the company came in.

00:35:49.000 And he walked in and he stopped.

00:35:52.000 And he looked at me.

00:35:55.000 Once again, I started to get up and introduce myself.

00:36:00.000 And he turned around and went into Bronco's office.

00:36:02.000 And he had a deep, gravelly voice and I could hear him.

00:36:05.000 And he's like, who's that kid out there?

00:36:08.000 And he's been coming here for months.

00:36:11.000 He's just trying to get booked.

00:36:13.000 And I heard Fritz go, book him.

00:36:16.000 Book him Friday night.

00:36:17.000 I want to see what he can do.

00:36:19.000 He looks just like David, one of his sons that he had lost.

00:36:23.000 I looked a lot like David, and that's how I got my first break.

00:36:29.000 Wow.

00:36:29.000 Because I was in the right place at the right time.

00:36:33.000 So had you ever practiced?

00:36:35.000 No, I was practicing.

00:36:37.000 But I'd never had a real match.

00:36:42.000 Every little outlaw, independent kind of deal that I could get, I was doing.

00:36:48.000 But I hadn't worked with top guys.

00:36:50.000 When you say outlaw, independent, so you were doing some matches?

00:36:54.000 I was doing some matches, but not professional.

00:36:58.000 Not televised, not for a real company.

00:37:02.000 It's just like some jackass.

00:37:04.000 Okay, I'm a wrestling promoter.

00:37:06.000 I'm going to go to the Knights of Columbus Hall and see if I can put 20 people in here.

00:37:11.000 That's the kind of shit you would do.

00:37:12.000 And then you have to go for no money.

00:37:15.000 And then, you know, you'd set up the ring, whatever you had to do.

00:37:18.000 But the time in the ring was what was so valuable at that point, is getting those reps and getting that stuff.

00:37:27.000 So they booked me.

00:37:30.000 And I don't know if you've heard of Bruiser Brody?

00:37:34.000 Yes.

00:37:35.000 Tough guy.

00:37:37.000 Anybody's standards back then, especially.

00:37:39.000 Yeah.

00:37:40.000 It's my first match, right?

00:37:43.000 So...

00:37:44.000 I'm a pretty respectful guy, and I'm sure in any industry, even when you're a new comic, you pay respect to the older guy.

00:37:54.000 I mean, it's just the way it should be and the way it really was back then, especially in our business.

00:38:01.000 You didn't say much when spoken to kind of deal.

00:38:08.000 Bruiser Brody is my first professional match.

00:38:12.000 I don't know.

00:38:13.000 I'm 20, 21 maybe.

00:38:16.000 I'm in the ring and I'm looking at him.

00:38:19.000 I'm like, fuck, I'm bigger than he is.

00:38:22.000 This is the shit that's going on in my head, right?

00:38:25.000 I'm so nervous.

00:38:26.000 Like, you couldn't have drove a nail up my ass with a sledgehammer.

00:38:29.000 I'm so nervous to start with.

00:38:30.000 But I'm looking, like, that stupid voice in the back of my head is like, you're fucking bigger than he is.

00:38:37.000 You know, because Bruiser Brody was bigger than life, man.

00:38:39.000 He had all that hair, and he was just...

00:38:41.000 He was an animal, right?

00:38:45.000 So, fucking, bell rings, and...

00:38:48.000 Boom!

00:38:48.000 I tie up with him, collar and elbow, and I jam him up into a corner.

00:38:53.000 He's like, hey kid, lighten up a little bit, kid.

00:38:55.000 You know, relax.

00:38:56.000 And I'm just like...

00:38:57.000 I mean, my body's like angle iron, right?

00:38:59.000 I'm so just...

00:39:01.000 Anyway, so I go to shove him, and my hands, you know, we're kind of hand fighting a little bit, and my hand slips off, and I kind of palm him in the face.

00:39:15.000 Temperature in the room changed a little bit at that moment.

00:39:19.000 So we tie up again, and I'm about to shoot him across the ring.

00:39:25.000 I shoot him across the ring, and I'm yelling, like, I'm going to hit him with a clothesline.

00:39:30.000 So as I tell him, clothesline, right?

00:39:32.000 He comes off the ropes like a bullet, like a six-foot-five, 300-pound bullet, and he kicks me square in my fucking jaw.

00:39:45.000 My eyes roll back in my head.

00:39:48.000 And the next thing I know, he's grabbing me.

00:39:50.000 He's like, let's go for a walk, right?

00:39:52.000 So he throws me out of the ring and throws me down on this table.

00:39:57.000 And there's a place called the Sportatorium in Dallas.

00:40:00.000 They've torn it down now.

00:40:01.000 But they had the folding chairs that had...

00:40:04.000 They were metal, but then they had the wood slats.

00:40:09.000 Fuck.

00:40:10.000 He takes this chair as hard as he can.

00:40:14.000 We're not talking about the metal folding chairs, which hurt enough in their own right when you get hit enough times with them.

00:40:20.000 He swings as hard as he can.

00:40:22.000 This chair just fucking explodes.

00:40:24.000 Wood slats fly all over the place.

00:40:28.000 I'm thinking, I've never been hit so hard.

00:40:30.000 I've been hit, you know, but I've never been hit that hard by anything at that point.

00:40:36.000 He throws me back in the ring, ties me all up in the ropes, right?

00:40:39.000 I'm greener than shit, don't know what the hell I'm doing.

00:40:42.000 And he just starts hitting the other ropes and coming and just kicking me as hard as he can in the head.

00:40:48.000 Oh, my God.

00:40:51.000 And I deserved it, you know.

00:40:52.000 I mean, he was giving me a lesson that I needed to learn.

00:40:56.000 Anyway...

00:40:57.000 A couple of minutes later, boom, he pins me.

00:41:00.000 And that was it.

00:41:02.000 We go back to the dressing room.

00:41:04.000 And I'm like, holy shit, I just got the shit kicked out of me.

00:41:08.000 And I went over to him.

00:41:11.000 I was like, Mr. Brody, thank you.

00:41:14.000 He said, all right, kid, just relax next time, will you?

00:41:18.000 I was like, yes, sir.

00:41:19.000 I just appreciate, you know, being in the ring with you.

00:41:22.000 And, you know, went back off from my corner to kind of gather where I was and, you know, and I overheard him telling the promoter, he's like, fuck, you ought to book this kid some more.

00:41:33.000 They were trying to find someplace else to send me.

00:41:35.000 He said, that kid, that kid's going to be something.

00:41:38.000 And, but, you know, at the time, I was too green.

00:41:42.000 I didn't know what the fuck I was doing, so I had to go somewhere else.

00:41:45.000 But, That was my first introduction into wrestling, and I got thumped pretty good.

00:41:51.000 Isn't it crazy when you think back of the days in the gym when you were getting ready to go play basketball, if you didn't meet that guy?

00:41:58.000 Yeah.

00:41:58.000 Who knows where you would have gone?

00:42:01.000 Yeah.

00:42:02.000 I would have probably tried to make a team somewhere, but I don't think that would have lasted.

00:42:08.000 I was limited.

00:42:12.000 My game was limited enough.

00:42:14.000 I would have probably ended up in the military, I'm pretty sure.

00:42:17.000 Isn't it crazy how life just...

00:42:19.000 Do you ever think about that?

00:42:21.000 I think about it all the time.

00:42:22.000 That one dude was like your doorway to a different life, to becoming a superstar.

00:42:27.000 There's one guy.

00:42:28.000 You run into one guy in your life, it changes your direction, and then all of a sudden you become wildly successful at this other thing that you were not even really considering.

00:42:38.000 Yeah, it's nuts.

00:42:39.000 And just the fact that I went and sat in that lobby for eight months.

00:42:45.000 And, you know, it was at the end.

00:42:47.000 I was like, fuck, this is getting me nowhere.

00:42:49.000 But see, that is what people need to hear, man.

00:42:52.000 In this day and age, everybody wants everything to happen right away.

00:42:56.000 Yeah, that is.

00:42:58.000 Everybody's got that sense, one, the sense of entitlement.

00:43:01.000 And figure they're owed something and aren't willing to put in the grind.

00:43:07.000 And I tell people, yeah, I was living in my car.

00:43:13.000 Sometimes I could stay with my brother, but there was a lot of nights I had to sleep in a Monte Carlo with fucking...

00:43:19.000 It's 6'8 and 315 pounds.

00:43:22.000 It's not real comfortable.

00:43:23.000 Is there more of a pathway, like an obvious pathway, for a guy to get into pro wrestling today?

00:43:30.000 So, yeah.

00:43:32.000 So, we have in Orlando, it's called the Performance Center.

00:43:37.000 And...

00:43:39.000 They have, you know, they're still wrestling schools, legitimate wrestling schools around the country.

00:43:45.000 And then every once, I don't know how many times a year, then they'll have a call there at the PC, like, okay, you go in and they test you and see if you're, one, physically fit enough to do it.

00:43:58.000 And then two, you know, do you have some personality?

00:44:02.000 Do you have something that you can bring to the table that might be a draw?

00:44:05.000 Yeah.

00:44:06.000 And then, if they book you, I mean, this is the crazy part right here.

00:44:12.000 If they feel like you might have, you know, a chance or something to offer, you get a contract right there.

00:44:19.000 And you get a contract to train.

00:44:21.000 All you have to do is train.

00:44:25.000 I can't, you know, that's how far we've come.

00:44:28.000 That's amazing.

00:44:29.000 From my story.

00:44:30.000 Eight months in the lobby.

00:44:31.000 Eight months in the lobby, getting, you know, people walking by to, all right, this is your contract.

00:44:37.000 All you have to, yeah, this is our place in Orlando right here.

00:44:40.000 Well, you know, it makes sense for them because, I mean, you need talent.

00:44:45.000 Absolutely.

00:44:46.000 You constantly need new talent and why not just train them and groom them?

00:44:50.000 Exactly.

00:44:51.000 You train them and groom them in the way that you want.

00:44:54.000 We send guys to the combine now, the NFL combine.

00:44:58.000 Really?

00:45:00.000 They sit there and talk.

00:45:01.000 Who's going to make it?

00:45:02.000 Who's not going to make it?

00:45:06.000 We go all over the world now.

00:45:10.000 They recruit in China, the Middle East, everywhere we have TV programming, which makes sense as well.

00:45:20.000 They're looking for that hometown star, like when we go to Saudi or somewhere in Dubai or something like that.

00:45:27.000 If you've got somebody local, that's just great business.

00:45:30.000 How did you become The Undertaker?

00:45:35.000 So that's Vince's brainchild.

00:45:39.000 So I went to another company, WCW, where I was mean Mark Callis.

00:45:45.000 And right there, check that young stud out right there.

00:45:49.000 That's terrifying, isn't it?

00:45:52.000 You think an enormous hobbit.

00:45:55.000 Yeah, we can take that down anytime.

00:46:07.000 So I go there, and I was there about eight or nine months, and my contract was coming up.

00:46:16.000 And I go in to renegotiate my contract, and they were like, look, you're a great athlete, kid, but no one's ever going to pay money to watch you wrestle.

00:46:27.000 Like, I'm just looking for a little bit of bump, right?

00:46:30.000 A little bump in my paycheck.

00:46:31.000 I'm not looking for the mega deal.

00:46:33.000 I'm just looking for a little bit of bump.

00:46:36.000 No, we're going to give you the same deal for a year.

00:46:40.000 I mean, you just, you know, you do great things in the ring, but no one's ever going to pay money to see you wrestle.

00:46:45.000 Did they give you advice on how to get someone to pay you?

00:46:48.000 No.

00:46:48.000 Wow.

00:46:49.000 That was it.

00:46:50.000 That was it.

00:46:52.000 So I'm like, okay, I know where my ceiling is here, right?

00:46:56.000 So just through a few different people, I get connected with some people in the WWF at the time.

00:47:05.000 It's WWE now.

00:47:06.000 And I had a match coming up.

00:47:10.000 My hip was already bad at that point, even back then.

00:47:12.000 Yeah.

00:47:13.000 It got much worse, but I was already limping.

00:47:16.000 And I just heard it.

00:47:20.000 When we'd got Vince, you know, they had said, all right, you know, they've got a pay-per-view, just watch him work, you know.

00:47:26.000 So Vince watches me work, and I'm talking to my buddy Bruce.

00:47:31.000 I'm like, Bruce, my hip is jacked.

00:47:33.000 He goes, just go out there.

00:47:34.000 Vince is going to be watching, right?

00:47:36.000 So I'm working with a guy by the name of Lex Luger.

00:47:39.000 Went out there and did what I could.

00:47:40.000 I sucked.

00:47:41.000 I mean, you know, I was physically, you know, I was physically not able really to go the way I could go, and Vince wasn't impressed.

00:47:49.000 You know, he's like, okay, he's, you know, he's running the mill.

00:47:54.000 Fortunately, guys like, you know, Paul Heyman and Bruce Pritchard, you know, they believed in me, and they kind of Kept pushing for me to get this meeting with Vince.

00:48:05.000 And finally I did.

00:48:07.000 And he calls me.

00:48:08.000 I got to go to his house, right?

00:48:09.000 So I go to his house.

00:48:11.000 What is Vince's house like?

00:48:13.000 Fuck.

00:48:14.000 It's nice.

00:48:16.000 It's fucking nice.

00:48:16.000 Where is he living?

00:48:17.000 He's in Connecticut, man.

00:48:18.000 So you're in Connecticut.

00:48:20.000 Yeah, so I'm up in...

00:48:21.000 You get a call to the castle.

00:48:22.000 Oh, dude.

00:48:23.000 Yeah, and that's what I'm thinking, right?

00:48:24.000 Because most people go to the office, to the towers there in Stanford, right?

00:48:28.000 And I'm thinking, fuck, I'm going to the house.

00:48:30.000 I got this shit right.

00:48:33.000 So I go in and I have the meeting.

00:48:36.000 The meeting goes for about an hour and a half.

00:48:40.000 You know, there's a lot of...

00:48:43.000 Does he have a butler?

00:48:46.000 I know he had a housekeeper.

00:48:49.000 I can imagine there'd be a dude with a British accent answering the door.

00:48:52.000 I never saw him.

00:48:53.000 No sleeves, just ripped.

00:48:54.000 Yeah, right?

00:48:56.000 Everybody's jacked.

00:48:57.000 So I go there and, you know, Granted, we do some hokey shit.

00:49:08.000 It is what it is.

00:49:10.000 And they really, at that point, had some really, really fucking goofy characters.

00:49:16.000 And, you know, so we're having this, we're sitting in this living room, and he goes, well, Mark, do you have any hidden talents?

00:49:23.000 You know, wrestling, do you do anything?

00:49:25.000 And I'm trying to be funny and not nervous, and, well, you know, I sing in the shower pretty good.

00:49:30.000 And as soon as I said it, right, I'm like, oh, fuck, I shouldn't have said that.

00:49:34.000 I'm going to be fucking shower guy or something silly, right?

00:49:40.000 Shower gun!

00:49:41.000 Yeah, I'm going to have to sing.

00:49:43.000 I'm like, oh shit.

00:49:45.000 I should not have said that.

00:49:47.000 I'm kidding.

00:49:48.000 I'm trying to clear the air right away.

00:49:50.000 I'm just kidding.

00:49:50.000 I can't sing.

00:49:53.000 He's got the look.

00:49:54.000 He can read people.

00:49:56.000 He's like, really?

00:49:57.000 No, I can't.

00:49:58.000 I can't.

00:49:59.000 I got this long meeting.

00:50:01.000 At the end of the meeting, he goes, well, We don't have anything for you right now.

00:50:07.000 I'm thinking, oh, fuck.

00:50:09.000 I guess I overplayed my hand here because I'd already give WCW my notice that I was leaving.

00:50:15.000 I'm like, fuck.

00:50:17.000 This is what I'm thinking in my head, right?

00:50:18.000 I was like, he invited me to the house.

00:50:20.000 He's going to hire me.

00:50:21.000 So I see you guys down the road.

00:50:25.000 So now I'm sitting there like, fuck, I got no job.

00:50:29.000 Anyway, so one day...

00:50:33.000 It's getting close to Thanksgiving.

00:50:36.000 And they start doing this promotion where they've got this giant fucking egg.

00:50:42.000 Have you heard this story?

00:50:43.000 Oh yeah, the gobbledygook.

00:50:45.000 The gobbledygooker, right?

00:50:47.000 So we do a pay-per-view around Thanksgiving.

00:50:50.000 It's called Survivor Series.

00:50:51.000 So this year, this particular year, it's 1990. Yeah, there it is.

00:50:58.000 They've got this giant egg on the set, on the TV every week.

00:51:02.000 And I'm sitting there thinking to myself, holy fuck.

00:51:07.000 Now I've gone from shower guy, now I think I'm going to be Eggman, right?

00:51:11.000 Fuck, I'm going to have to...

00:51:12.000 I'm trying to grow my hair out.

00:51:15.000 Fuck, he's going to make me shave my head.

00:51:17.000 I'm going to shave my eyebrows.

00:51:19.000 I'm going to be fucking Eggman.

00:51:21.000 And I'm a nervous wreck, right?

00:51:23.000 Yeah.

00:51:24.000 So one day I'm sitting at home, phone rings.

00:51:28.000 I get up and go answer it because we didn't have cell phones back then, right?

00:51:31.000 So, hello?

00:51:33.000 He goes, is this The Undertaker?

00:51:36.000 I was like, Undertaker?

00:51:40.000 Undertaker?

00:51:43.000 Undertaker isn't Eggman?

00:51:45.000 Fuck, Undertaker.

00:51:47.000 That's pretty fucking cool.

00:51:48.000 Yeah, yeah, this is Undertaker, yeah.

00:51:51.000 And it was Vince, and that was how he introduced the character to me.

00:51:54.000 He called you up and asked you if you're the Undertaker.

00:51:57.000 Yeah, and I had no clue to what it was.

00:52:00.000 Wow.

00:52:01.000 And I said, yeah, yeah, I'm the Undertaker, because I knew it wasn't Eggman, and everything had to be better than Eggman.

00:52:08.000 He wasn't singing the shower guy.

00:52:09.000 Yeah, he wasn't singing the shower guy, and it wasn't Eggman.

00:52:12.000 Flew me up to Connecticut the next day, showed me the storyboards, and the character, the original character, is based on an old Western Undertaker.

00:52:21.000 You know, the two guys in Main Street, they had the fucking shootout.

00:52:24.000 One guy loses, Undertaker comes out and measures him, does the box.

00:52:29.000 Well, that was the original likeness and the name, The Undertaker.

00:52:35.000 And he just never found the guy.

00:52:38.000 He had had it for years, I guess.

00:52:40.000 So why did he send you away the first time?

00:52:42.000 At the time, he didn't have a spot for me.

00:52:46.000 But he was thinking.

00:52:47.000 But he was thinking, and then it kind of dawned on him that he had that character, and he just needed a big guy with no personality.

00:52:56.000 You know, there was void of personality to do the deal, and he gave it to me, and there's my debut right there.

00:53:05.000 That's November of 1990. And I was six years old, and I was shitting my pants.

00:53:11.000 Were you?

00:53:11.000 This was the scariest thing you can imagine for a six-year-old.

00:53:15.000 You know, you're watching all these...

00:53:16.000 It was some guy in a chicken suit that came out of that egg to show you how silly things were back then.

00:53:21.000 So it had our attention.

00:53:22.000 And then all of a sudden this guy comes out and he's like half dead and you don't know what's going on and he's scary.

00:53:29.000 And dominant, more than anything.

00:53:31.000 Yeah, the thing was dominant.

00:53:34.000 But this is the era of everything...

00:53:37.000 I mean, you could tell.

00:53:39.000 This guy's in bright pink.

00:53:41.000 So that's Coco Beware.

00:53:44.000 Yeah, he's wearing some hot yoga pants.

00:53:47.000 That guy had a parrot on his shoulder when he came to the ring.

00:53:51.000 Did he?

00:53:52.000 Yeah.

00:53:52.000 Was it a parrot?

00:53:54.000 Yeah, Frankie.

00:53:55.000 How does one do a pile driver and not hurt your opponent?

00:53:59.000 This is the guy to ask.

00:54:04.000 I mean, it's a way you grab them.

00:54:08.000 You just got to be strong enough to support their body.

00:54:12.000 And the key for me is when my knees start, I'm kind of pulling them up.

00:54:21.000 So it's kind of like a shock absorber.

00:54:23.000 Ideally, The head never touches.

00:54:28.000 Yeah, I did.

00:54:45.000 Yeah.

00:54:46.000 It's a crazy video.

00:54:47.000 Rampage suplexed some guys.

00:54:49.000 Oh my god.

00:54:50.000 Arona.

00:54:51.000 Ricardo Arona.

00:54:52.000 Well, he suplexed a lot of guys.

00:54:54.000 He slammed a lot of guys.

00:54:55.000 But Ricardo Arona was the worst slam I've ever seen in my life.

00:55:00.000 Ricardo Arona caught Rampage in a triangle.

00:55:03.000 And Rampage picked him up.

00:55:04.000 And instead of abandoning the triangle, he tried to hang on.

00:55:08.000 Yeah.

00:55:23.000 Yeah, that's the same way Rose lost to...

00:55:27.000 Similar.

00:55:28.000 Yeah.

00:55:28.000 Similar way.

00:55:29.000 Yeah, she didn't let go.

00:55:31.000 Yeah, exactly.

00:55:32.000 Dropped on her head.

00:55:33.000 Yeah, you gotta let go.

00:55:34.000 When you get picked up in a triangle, you gotta let go.

00:55:36.000 Or you gotta hook a leg.

00:55:37.000 It's hard to...

00:55:38.000 I think for fighters...

00:55:42.000 Us, it's part of an everyday deal, but I think for a fighter, it has to screw up your whole perspective because you don't expect somebody to be able to do that to you.

00:55:52.000 You know what I'm saying?

00:55:53.000 Your instinct, I would imagine, is to squeeze tighter.

00:55:59.000 The issue is it's hard to get a secured triangle.

00:56:02.000 So if you get to the point where your leg is like that, you're literally locked in, you don't want to let that go, but you've got to.

00:56:08.000 Yeah, especially when you're looking over the top of the cage, something ain't right.

00:56:13.000 Especially when Rampage was so fucking strong.

00:56:17.000 That's a scary moment because Ricardo Arona was really never the same again.

00:56:20.000 Never the same again.

00:56:21.000 Because before that, he was a big contender.

00:56:23.000 He was an elite guy, built like a fucking Greek god.

00:56:26.000 He was a killer.

00:56:27.000 But that one slam changed his whole career.

00:56:31.000 He was never the same again.

00:56:32.000 Yeah, it's...

00:56:34.000 It was nasty.

00:56:35.000 It was really nasty.

00:56:36.000 Yeah, so in wrestling, the amount of trust that guy has to have in you is off the charts.

00:56:43.000 Yeah, it really is.

00:56:47.000 I mean, we've established at this point, I think everybody understands what wrestling is.

00:56:51.000 I mean, it's sports entertainment.

00:56:52.000 And I think everybody's kind of gotten over the fact that that's what we are.

00:56:57.000 We're entertainment.

00:56:58.000 But I don't think what people really realize is that in any given match, on any given day, you're two inches away from something catastrophic happening.

00:57:09.000 And it is.

00:57:10.000 I mean, it's that.

00:57:13.000 It's two inches from being...

00:57:16.000 But holy shit, that was really impressive to, holy shit, that guy ain't getting up.

00:57:20.000 And I think a lot of people that shit on wrestling, they don't understand that aspect.

00:57:29.000 And you're right, and it does take an enormous amount of trust.

00:57:33.000 And it's really hard to get in the ring with somebody that's hurt a few people.

00:57:37.000 Right.

00:57:38.000 I mean, you have to be, you know, I mean, I've lost, you know, I've lost both eye sockets, but one was just because the guy was completely out of shape.

00:57:48.000 There's so many, there's a lot of similarities.

00:57:52.000 One's a sporting event, one's sports entertainment, talking about MMA, but, you know, There's conditioning is kind of, I think, the key to everything.

00:58:04.000 And, you know, a guy was out of shape.

00:58:06.000 He's 6'8", 500 pounds, and I ran straight into what was supposed to be a clothesline.

00:58:14.000 But he was so gassed and behind in the spot that instead of catching the meat of his forearm, I ran right dead into his fist.

00:58:26.000 With his momentum coming off of the ropes.

00:58:28.000 Oh, jeez.

00:58:30.000 Just blew my, you know, my eye socket completely apart.

00:58:34.000 And, you know, dumbass me, I didn't know it for three days.

00:58:39.000 But that's the kind of stuff that...

00:58:41.000 Did you have to get it operated on?

00:58:42.000 Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:58:43.000 I've had them both rebuilt.

00:58:44.000 Oh, Jesus Christ.

00:58:45.000 Is that when you had to wear the mask?

00:58:46.000 Yeah.

00:58:47.000 Wow.

00:58:48.000 Yeah, so...

00:58:49.000 So you were just wrestling with a broken orbital bone?

00:58:52.000 Well, I'd already had the surgery at this point, but that was just...

00:58:56.000 So that happened.

00:58:57.000 That match happened.

00:58:58.000 And like I said, back then, we didn't have doctors with us and trainers.

00:59:02.000 So it's funny how I found out that my face was shattered.

00:59:07.000 So I wrestled three more days.

00:59:09.000 With a shattered face?

00:59:11.000 With my orbital socket blown out.

00:59:14.000 So I wrestled three more days, right?

00:59:17.000 And as stupid as it sounds, it's normal for our world back then.

00:59:25.000 You worked hurt.

00:59:27.000 It's just the way you did it.

00:59:28.000 If you could walk, you go to the ring.

00:59:30.000 And I think that was part of the mystique of the guys.

00:59:35.000 We're tough guys.

00:59:38.000 So I work, and me and the Godfather, he's another wrestler, great dude.

00:59:44.000 We were going to meet up after the show at some bar and hang out, right?

00:59:50.000 And we were in Springfield, Massachusetts, and Like, I'm looking for the bar, and I can't find it.

00:59:58.000 So finally I give up.

01:00:00.000 Once again, we don't have cell phones back then.

01:00:02.000 So I give up.

01:00:03.000 I'm going to go back to my hotel.

01:00:04.000 So I'm driving, and I pass this hospital.

01:00:08.000 I said, you know what?

01:00:10.000 Something just ain't right.

01:00:11.000 Because every time, you know, I just, like that, my face would just blow up.

01:00:16.000 And I'm going to go in and get this.

01:00:18.000 If there's nobody in there in the emergency room, I'm going to go in and get this thing checked out.

01:00:22.000 So sure enough, I drive through.

01:00:24.000 I don't see anybody in the emergency room, so I go in.

01:00:27.000 It's midnight.

01:00:29.000 I go in.

01:00:30.000 They do a CAT scan.

01:00:32.000 Doctor.

01:00:33.000 He comes out and he goes, he says, do you have an ophthalmologist?

01:00:37.000 And I was like, no.

01:00:38.000 He goes, well, you need to find one.

01:00:41.000 And you're going to need a surgeon too.

01:00:43.000 I'm like, what are you talking about?

01:00:44.000 He goes, you've lost 50% of your orbital floor is gone.

01:00:50.000 I'm like, really?

01:00:52.000 I'm like, okay.

01:00:54.000 So I go home and I'll call and say, look, I got to go home.

01:00:57.000 I've had this injury.

01:00:58.000 So they go, I get home.

01:01:00.000 They do another scan, another CAT scan.

01:01:03.000 They said, no, you've lost more like 70% of it.

01:01:07.000 Jesus Christ.

01:01:07.000 So, they end up doing the surgery, two surgeons, one to, you know, they go inside the eyelid, make the incision, one surgeon holds up the eye and the nerve, while the other one picks out all the pieces and puts in the mesh kind of thing that's going to be your eye socket.

01:01:26.000 Come to find out, I'd lost 90% of my orbital floor.

01:01:31.000 And my optic nerve was sitting right on top of a piece of jagged bone.

01:01:36.000 Oh, Jesus Christ.

01:01:37.000 If I'd have took another shot to that side of my head, I'd have probably lost the eye.

01:01:41.000 Wow.

01:01:42.000 Or my sight.

01:01:43.000 And it's just because we didn't, you know.

01:01:45.000 So your eye was just hanging on.

01:01:46.000 It was just hanging.

01:01:47.000 It was just sitting on a piece of jagged bone.

01:01:51.000 And that would have been it.

01:01:52.000 You couldn't have.

01:01:52.000 Yeah, I mean, I would have been...

01:01:54.000 Yeah, I'd have been done.

01:01:55.000 And, you know, so I had the surgery.

01:01:58.000 So the mask, I healed, I don't know, maybe six weeks.

01:02:01.000 Went and had the mask made and wrestled in that for a while and made it part of the story.

01:02:07.000 So what do they put back there?

01:02:10.000 The mesh.

01:02:11.000 It's a...

01:02:11.000 So my other eye that I did, it's titanium.

01:02:17.000 But this is...

01:02:18.000 It's a...

01:02:19.000 It's not titanium, but it's kind of a wire mesh that's screwed into the bone, and it works as my orbital floor.

01:02:32.000 So you don't have an orbital floor in that eye anymore.

01:02:34.000 You just have this wire mesh.

01:02:36.000 Yeah.

01:02:36.000 Is what it looks like.

01:02:37.000 Yeah.

01:02:37.000 That's what it looks like right there.

01:02:38.000 Do you feel anything back there sometimes?

01:02:40.000 No.

01:02:41.000 Never.

01:02:41.000 Holy shit.

01:02:42.000 The second one, my right side, I had a blowout fracture, and funny enough, it was just a freak thing that happened.

01:02:51.000 The smallest guy in the company, little Ray Mysterio, who's, he's tiny, but he jumped off the top rope in his, I mean, I should know.

01:03:05.000 I should know what the move is, but I don't.

01:03:08.000 Like, right there.

01:03:09.000 That's it.

01:03:10.000 Right there.

01:03:11.000 See that?

01:03:11.000 I set my nose, or I'm about to, because it broke my nose too.

01:03:17.000 You're good, man.

01:03:19.000 You're fucking good.

01:03:20.000 Wow.

01:03:23.000 And you still fought your way out of it.

01:03:25.000 So that was me grabbing it.

01:03:26.000 I was straightening my nose out.

01:03:31.000 Oh, yeah.

01:03:33.000 Oh, yeah.

01:03:38.000 Right on your nose.

01:03:39.000 Oh, Jesus Christ.

01:03:40.000 So I grabbed my nose right away and I could feel that it was way over to the side.

01:03:44.000 So I squeezed it back straight.

01:03:47.000 But there was three of them.

01:03:49.000 Oh, yeah.

01:03:51.000 So that one, it was just way back in the cone.

01:03:56.000 It blew out the back end of it.

01:03:58.000 It wasn't as severe as the first one.

01:04:00.000 But after the second one, it left me with double vision.

01:04:06.000 If I look peripherally, You become opaque.

01:04:12.000 Like I see two lights when I look like that.

01:04:17.000 Still to this day?

01:04:18.000 To this day.

01:04:19.000 And that's been over 10 years.

01:04:22.000 And what did they say is the cause of that?

01:04:25.000 It's just the way the nerve was pressed.

01:04:30.000 When the fracture happened, it pressed the nerve.

01:04:33.000 It never rewired itself.

01:04:37.000 There's nothing they can do about that?

01:04:38.000 Not that I know of.

01:04:39.000 I hadn't tried.

01:04:40.000 As long as I look straight, I'm good.

01:04:43.000 But what if you have to do a U-turn?

01:04:45.000 Or what if you're parallel parking?

01:04:47.000 Exactly.

01:04:47.000 That's funny that you mention that.

01:04:49.000 I've got to literally...

01:04:53.000 Turn my body so that I can get my head straight.

01:04:56.000 Wow.

01:04:57.000 So I can see straight.

01:05:00.000 Because if you turn your eye too far.

01:05:02.000 Yeah.

01:05:03.000 Instead of that image, I got that image.

01:05:06.000 Wow.

01:05:07.000 That had to certainly affect you in the ring a lot too.

01:05:09.000 Yeah.

01:05:10.000 Then I have no supraspinatus either.

01:05:17.000 None?

01:05:18.000 None.

01:05:18.000 It's completely severed.

01:05:20.000 When did that happen?

01:05:22.000 Well it was a progression of a lot of tears and the last tear I was working I think maybe around 2010 I was working with Kane who's a just big big dude and I was trying to I was trying to throw him up on my shoulder and I was going to try and give him a pile driver but he's 330 pounds and his weight kind of gets

01:05:52.000 stuck here and I'm too stupid to put him down and readjust so I'm trying to pop my hips and get him up there and finally I heard it pop and I was like holy shit.

01:06:07.000 Got through the match, flew to Nashville the next day And I said, Doc, I need a shot of cortisone.

01:06:14.000 And he's like, he goes, Mark, your shoulder really needs to be fixed.

01:06:20.000 I'm like, Doc, I'm right in the middle of something right now.

01:06:23.000 I can't.

01:06:24.000 I said, let me get through mania.

01:06:27.000 I said, just give me the shot.

01:06:29.000 And after mania, I'll come and I'll get it fixed.

01:06:33.000 And reluctantly, he did.

01:06:35.000 And normally the shot would last four or five months, six months.

01:06:39.000 So he's in Nashville.

01:06:41.000 So I go, I get the shot.

01:06:43.000 I fly back to Austin.

01:06:45.000 By the time I get home, it's like I didn't get the shot at all.

01:06:50.000 So I call him back up and I was like, all right, Dr. Bird, you're a little smarter than I am.

01:06:56.000 He goes, he says, well, fact, Mark, it's so bad.

01:06:59.000 Like, I want you to go see somebody else.

01:07:01.000 I want you to see a shoulder specialist.

01:07:03.000 So I go see Dr. Andrews.

01:07:05.000 You know, Dr. Andrews is like the, you know, he's the guy that did Tommy John.

01:07:10.000 He's the athlete's doctor.

01:07:13.000 I go see him, and it's the first time this has ever happened to me.

01:07:19.000 I go into the examining room, and he's already there waiting.

01:07:25.000 I don't know if anybody else has ever been to the doctor's office and the doctor's.

01:07:28.000 He's sitting there, and he's looking at me.

01:07:30.000 And I'm looking at him because I'm a little taken back that he's already in the room, right?

01:07:35.000 And we're looking at each other.

01:07:36.000 Nobody says anything.

01:07:38.000 And he goes, son, I don't know if there's anything I can do for you.

01:07:43.000 He had obviously already seen my MRI and everything.

01:07:46.000 He says, can you lift your arm?

01:07:49.000 I was like, yes, sir.

01:07:50.000 Yeah, I can lift it.

01:07:51.000 He says, can I see you lift it?

01:07:53.000 Yeah.

01:07:55.000 He said, can you lift to the side?

01:07:57.000 And I go, yeah, I can lift to the side.

01:07:58.000 He goes, there's no reasonable explanation why you're able to do that.

01:08:07.000 I'm like, he says, you've taught yourself how to use that arm with that severe injury.

01:08:15.000 He goes, so we talked for a while.

01:08:17.000 And he goes, he says, can we meet back in about an hour?

01:08:22.000 He goes, I need to think about this.

01:08:24.000 I'm like, well.

01:08:25.000 Yeah, I'm in Birmingham.

01:08:26.000 What am I going to do?

01:08:28.000 I've got nothing else to do.

01:08:29.000 I've got to find out what's going on with his shoulder.

01:08:32.000 So we meet back in an hour, and he goes, I'm going to try.

01:08:40.000 He goes, I don't think I can fix it.

01:08:42.000 He says, but I feel like I owe it to you just to try.

01:08:46.000 Wow.

01:08:47.000 And even with that, I'm thinking, well, that's James Andrews.

01:08:51.000 Surely he's going to fix it.

01:08:53.000 He's just being humble.

01:08:55.000 So I have the surgery, you know, I wake up out of surgery and my wife is, you know, she's right there and I could look on her face and I could tell like, you know, it wasn't good.

01:09:05.000 And I was like, babe.

01:09:07.000 And she goes, and about that time, Dr. Andrews comes in and he goes, he goes, well, we found it.

01:09:16.000 I was like, you found it?

01:09:18.000 He goes, yeah.

01:09:19.000 He said, the end of the supraspinate, it was about back here.

01:09:24.000 He says, we clamped on and we pulled, we tugged.

01:09:28.000 And he said, we might have been able to get it sewn back together.

01:09:31.000 He said, but the first time you try to use it, it was going to pop.

01:09:34.000 It was just so dead because it had been torn for so long.

01:09:39.000 How long was it torn before you went to talk to him?

01:09:44.000 Well, that last one was when it tore completely in half.

01:09:47.000 So it had already been damaged.

01:09:48.000 It had already been damaged, yeah.

01:09:50.000 And I was getting shots of cortisone to kind of mask the pain.

01:09:55.000 And then when it popped off, that was it.

01:09:57.000 And there wasn't enough left to attach it back.

01:10:00.000 He says, your biceps tendon had come out of its groove, too.

01:10:05.000 He said, we did put that back.

01:10:06.000 That should help you a little bit.

01:10:09.000 I'm like, okay.

01:10:11.000 And so, you know, I go back to work.

01:10:15.000 But now, you know, now I'm getting older.

01:10:19.000 And so, you know, my physical skills are already starting to kind of diminish.

01:10:23.000 And you know when that happens.

01:10:25.000 But now, like when I'm in a match, now I've got to be cognizant all the time of where my shoulder is in relation to whatever it is I'm doing.

01:10:36.000 There was a lot of things like tombstones.

01:10:38.000 I had to change how I would pick people up because I couldn't get my arm out extended because I had no strength.

01:10:46.000 And I couldn't clothesline people.

01:10:48.000 I had to have my arm almost supported by my lat.

01:10:55.000 To do a lot of different moves.

01:10:57.000 And there's no other option?

01:10:59.000 Like they can't do a cadaver?

01:11:00.000 Well, in the shit that I do and we do, it would have tore.

01:11:06.000 He told me that.

01:11:07.000 He said, we could have tried a cadaver.

01:11:09.000 He says, it's not going to last if you want to wrestle.

01:11:12.000 And at that point, I had no...

01:11:14.000 I've been doing it this long with it hurt.

01:11:16.000 I'll figure out a way.

01:11:18.000 I wasn't ready to give it up yet.

01:11:21.000 And...

01:11:22.000 So I waited a couple years, and then I called Dr. Dugas.

01:11:29.000 And I said, Doc, because he assisted on the first one with Dr. Andrews.

01:11:33.000 I said, hey, you guys doing anything new with the shoulders?

01:11:35.000 And he says, yeah.

01:11:36.000 He said, like, come on down.

01:11:37.000 He said, I think I can hook you up.

01:11:40.000 I was like, oh, shit.

01:11:41.000 Okay.

01:11:41.000 I wish somebody called me.

01:11:43.000 You know, let me know.

01:11:44.000 You know, let me know what's going on.

01:11:47.000 And so same kind of deal.

01:11:51.000 Have the surgery.

01:11:51.000 Wake up.

01:11:53.000 See, you know, Michelle's sitting there.

01:11:55.000 See her.

01:11:56.000 Didn't have quite the same disappointed look on her face, you know, about this time.

01:12:00.000 Here comes Dr. Dugas.

01:12:02.000 And he goes, well, he goes, plan A? No, that didn't work, which would have to retouch everything.

01:12:10.000 He said, plan B? I didn't work either.

01:12:15.000 He said, went to plan C. He says, which will help your, you know, your recovery time.

01:12:19.000 He says, well, what I did, they took the part of my infraspinatus, the one in the back, they detached part of it, stretched it over the top.

01:12:33.000 So my infraspinatus is doing double duty now.

01:12:37.000 Wow.

01:12:38.000 So it works where I, if you were to look down before the surgery and Like if you had a tube that could see down in my shoulder, I was 100% exposed.

01:12:47.000 You could see the joint.

01:12:49.000 So now I'm about 50 to 70% covered by the infraspinatus that he stretched over the top and reattached it.

01:12:59.000 Once again, modern medicine.

01:13:01.000 And, you know, I'm not, my right side isn't as strong as my left side.

01:13:06.000 I'm right hand dominant.

01:13:08.000 But I'm Twice, three times as strong as I was before I had the surgery.

01:13:13.000 Wow.

01:13:14.000 Yeah, it's crazy.

01:13:16.000 I'm like a lab project.

01:13:18.000 That's an interesting one.

01:13:19.000 I know a fighter who's got no supraspinatus.

01:13:21.000 I think in both of his shoulders.

01:13:23.000 Yeah, it's done wonders.

01:13:26.000 I can bench.

01:13:28.000 Everything's got to be in tight.

01:13:32.000 If I do push-ups or anything like that, I need that lat and tricep.

01:13:41.000 I mean, is there anybody that gets through pro wrestling without a series of catastrophic injuries?

01:13:48.000 You know, there's one guy that's really not had many injuries.

01:13:53.000 His name's Chris Jericho.

01:13:56.000 I can't think of anything that's really, you know, bad that's happened to him.

01:14:01.000 But, I mean, Stone Cold Steve Austin.

01:14:03.000 Yeah, his neck is completely fused, right?

01:14:05.000 Yeah, his neck is completely fused.

01:14:07.000 From a pile driver.

01:14:08.000 From a pile driver.

01:14:09.000 But didn't he win the Olympics with a broken neck?

01:14:11.000 That's Kurt Angle.

01:14:12.000 Oh, Kurt Angle, that's right.

01:14:13.000 Yeah, yeah.

01:14:14.000 Kurt Angle won the heavyweight gold medal in wrestling.

01:14:19.000 With a broken neck.

01:14:20.000 And 190 pounds.

01:14:23.000 He was so undersized.

01:14:25.000 And to Stone Cold's credit, most of the big stuff that happened in his career happened after he broke his neck, right?

01:14:33.000 No, he was already the guy.

01:14:36.000 He was right in the middle of it.

01:14:41.000 Kurt Angle, they were talking about him fighting MMA at one point in time.

01:14:45.000 You know, I saw him.

01:14:46.000 It was strange.

01:14:47.000 I hadn't seen him for a while.

01:14:48.000 And then I saw him at Lesnar Mirror 1. He was there.

01:14:55.000 And he was acting really weird.

01:14:56.000 And I was like, Kurt, are you thinking about, you know?

01:15:00.000 And nothing ever came of it.

01:15:02.000 But he's got some miles on him, too.

01:15:06.000 Yeah.

01:15:07.000 Well, it looks like he's got atrophy of his arms.

01:15:10.000 Yeah.

01:15:12.000 And his neck's 23 inches.

01:15:14.000 His neck looks enormous.

01:15:16.000 But when I see a guy that I know has neck problems, you see his arms look smaller.

01:15:22.000 Yeah.

01:15:23.000 One of the things that happens to guys, like it happened to Bas Rutten.

01:15:26.000 He got his discs fused in his neck.

01:15:30.000 His arm atrophied.

01:15:31.000 He wasn't getting the nerve signals to his muscles.

01:15:34.000 So his right arm, he calls it baby arm.

01:15:38.000 It's smaller.

01:15:39.000 It's very weak.

01:15:40.000 I don't know how much it's recovered.

01:15:42.000 But at one point in time, he couldn't even hold out a jug of milk.

01:15:45.000 Yeah.

01:15:46.000 It's crazy.

01:15:47.000 I mean, the neck is...

01:15:48.000 There's so many of those nerves, and they get pinched or squeezed.

01:15:52.000 Yeah, I mean, what does Kurt Angle do to make his neck that big?

01:15:56.000 I'm guessing a lot of bridges and, you know.

01:15:59.000 Jesus.

01:16:00.000 I mean, his neck's always just...

01:16:01.000 Yeah, look at that neck.

01:16:02.000 He could go, man.

01:16:04.000 Yeah.

01:16:04.000 I really enjoyed...

01:16:05.000 That neck is preposterous.

01:16:07.000 I really enjoyed working with Kurt.

01:16:08.000 That's an extra waist.

01:16:11.000 It's a waist.

01:16:12.000 It's like his waist, right?

01:16:13.000 Look at the size of the muscles in that thing.

01:16:16.000 But I mean, obviously a lot of that is probably to compensate the fact that he's got a snap neck.

01:16:22.000 He could go, man, what an athlete.

01:16:24.000 Wow, yeah.

01:16:24.000 And Brock, too, both of them.

01:16:27.000 Phenomenal.

01:16:27.000 Angle in his prime as a wrestler was a fucking savage.

01:16:31.000 Yeah, he was a beast.

01:16:32.000 Yeah, I mean, as an amateur wrestler in the Olympics, he was a phenomenal talent.

01:16:37.000 Yeah.

01:16:38.000 And then he transitioned so well.

01:16:42.000 That's the deal.

01:16:44.000 He transitioned so well into pro wrestling.

01:16:46.000 And how did Steve Austin fuck up his neck?

01:16:48.000 Piledriver.

01:16:49.000 Not a piledriver like I'd give.

01:16:54.000 There's another kind where you're...

01:16:55.000 You grab somebody and you put their head in their crotch.

01:17:03.000 There it is right there.

01:17:04.000 Oh my God.

01:17:05.000 Look at his head.

01:17:06.000 His head's going to land.

01:17:09.000 Oh my God.

01:17:10.000 With all the weight of both people.

01:17:13.000 Jesus Christ.

01:17:15.000 Yeah.

01:17:16.000 Just seeing that makes me shiver.

01:17:18.000 Just seeing that image.

01:17:21.000 Yeah.

01:17:21.000 Woo!

01:17:22.000 Woo!

01:17:25.000 You know, for the sake of entertainment, man.

01:17:28.000 Crazy way to make a living.

01:17:29.000 It is a crazy way to make a living.

01:17:31.000 Now, take into account what you were talking about before when you were doing that 270 nights a year.

01:17:37.000 That is...

01:17:38.000 Year-round.

01:17:39.000 I mean, there's no off-season.

01:17:40.000 I mean, it just goes.

01:17:42.000 It's episodic TV now, especially.

01:17:45.000 We do live TV every Monday, every Friday.

01:17:49.000 The schedule, I don't think, is quite as bad now.

01:17:51.000 There were days where I would be out 45 days in a row.

01:17:55.000 And you didn't think anything about it.

01:17:58.000 You just thought it was...

01:17:58.000 Actually, when you get into that, you don't want to come off the road.

01:18:04.000 Really?

01:18:04.000 Yeah, it just fucks everything up.

01:18:06.000 It's just like...

01:18:08.000 More than four or five days.

01:18:11.000 Especially when you're back in the early 90s, you get hurt.

01:18:14.000 And you're home six, seven, eight weeks.

01:18:17.000 You're a raving lunatic because your body's just conditioned to go and just be out there and doing it.

01:18:28.000 It's tough on relationships.

01:18:32.000 And you're always worried about that next guy coming up too, right?

01:18:37.000 Like, fuck, I'm healing up here and this guy's coming up.

01:18:40.000 Yeah.

01:18:41.000 Don't want anybody taking your spot.

01:18:42.000 You don't want anybody taking your spot.

01:18:45.000 Although it's not competition in the sense of MMA competition, it's competition.

01:18:50.000 You're competing to be the top guy, or you're competing for your place on the card, so it is in that sense a competition, an important one.

01:18:59.000 Tony, it's got to be wild seeing him when you were six years old for the first time.

01:19:04.000 Yeah.

01:19:05.000 And then hearing these stories now about how all that came to be.

01:19:07.000 Yeah.

01:19:08.000 It's wild.

01:19:10.000 Did you have a lot to do with the creative side of things?

01:19:15.000 Because there was an urn that his manager would hold that would charge him, right?

01:19:20.000 It would summon superpowers.

01:19:23.000 Somebody who's not a fan.

01:19:24.000 He's listening to this shit like...

01:19:27.000 What have you been smoking?

01:19:29.000 He would put his opponents, after he beats them, he would put them in body bags.

01:19:33.000 At one point, he was...

01:19:36.000 Building a casket for an opponent for a casket match.

01:19:39.000 I think I told you at the Chappelle Show when I met you, I got in trouble when I was a kid because I was learning about death from this man.

01:19:47.000 I didn't know you went into a casket after you were dead.

01:19:49.000 You're seven years old.

01:19:50.000 You don't know that yet.

01:19:51.000 You don't know what a box is.

01:19:52.000 You're like, oh my god, you put your body in a box?

01:19:55.000 I got in trouble because I nailed my mom's piano bench shut because of the promos that you had for the Kamala match.

01:20:04.000 I think?

01:20:19.000 Me and my buddies, we would have these fake wrestling matches as kids.

01:20:23.000 Body bag matches?

01:20:24.000 Yeah, we would zip up the suit thing and pretend like we're dead afterwards.

01:20:29.000 All these things were a part of my childhood.

01:20:33.000 Was that some of you, some of Vince?

01:20:35.000 Yeah, so Vince had the original likeness.

01:20:39.000 And then after a couple years, it had kind of taken over.

01:20:43.000 I lived that life.

01:20:45.000 Everywhere I went, I was always dressed in black.

01:20:48.000 What people saw on TV, they pretty much saw in real life.

01:20:52.000 So if you went out to dinner...

01:20:53.000 I wouldn't dress quite like that, but I would be an all-black.

01:20:59.000 I didn't say much to people.

01:21:02.000 Because you had to stay in character?

01:21:03.000 I always stayed in character.

01:21:04.000 I always felt like I needed to be what they saw on TV, because if they saw me differently...

01:21:12.000 Like, if they saw this, and then they see that on TV, it's like, ah, fuck.

01:21:17.000 It's just acting.

01:21:18.000 It's just this, it's that.

01:21:19.000 So I tried to make that guy real.

01:21:22.000 And I did, for a long time.

01:21:24.000 Like, I didn't do, for years, I didn't do interviews.

01:21:28.000 I didn't do personal appearances.

01:21:30.000 You got very little of me, other than what you saw on TV. And that's what kept people captivated, like, I mean, everybody's like, fuck, I know he's not dead.

01:21:39.000 But he's fucked up.

01:21:43.000 Something's wrong.

01:21:44.000 There's something.

01:21:46.000 And to stay, and I'm not patting myself on the back, but to stay relevant for 30 years in this industry where there's so much exposure, I mean, you have to...

01:21:58.000 I felt like that's the extreme that I had to go to to make that guy...

01:22:05.000 Continue to mean something.

01:22:06.000 Does it feel almost weird for you to be doing like a podcast like this?

01:22:11.000 Absolutely crazy.

01:22:12.000 So it started, you know, I did a docuseries kind of chronicling the last few years of my career.

01:22:21.000 It was actually me trying to come to grips with calling it a day, really.

01:22:24.000 Do you mind scooting this way, just into the microphone?

01:22:27.000 Yeah, there you go.

01:22:28.000 So we ended up calling it.

01:22:30.000 It had nothing to do with the Jordan deal, but it was called The Last Ride, which is one of my finishing moves.

01:22:36.000 So it kind of chronicled the last few years of my career and me kind of chasing the dragon for that one match that I could hang my hat on and say, that's it.

01:22:48.000 And as you get older and the injuries and all that.

01:22:54.000 I mean, I figure that in, but I still see in my head what I used to could do, and that's what I was striving.

01:23:02.000 I mean, you've seen it in the fight game all the time.

01:23:05.000 Guys are looking for that, you know, they can't come to grips with the fact that their skills have diminished, and there's a changing of the guard.

01:23:13.000 And it's kind of the same with what I was doing.

01:23:17.000 I was looking for that one match that I could say, motherfuckers, I still got it, and now I'm out.

01:23:22.000 Was there a conversation about this with Vince where you were trying to figure out when to close the door?

01:23:29.000 Yeah, there was lots.

01:23:30.000 There were lots of those conversations.

01:23:32.000 And there were people that I talked to along the way, you know, through my career.

01:23:35.000 I was like, look, if I get to a point where my skills have diminished and I can't recognize it, I want you to tell me, or at least bring the conversation up.

01:23:49.000 And it got to the point where nobody wants to have that conversation.

01:23:53.000 Nobody wants to have that, like, hey dude, your day?

01:23:57.000 Yeah.

01:23:57.000 It's up.

01:23:58.000 It's a real problem.

01:23:59.000 I put a big burden on people, and they just couldn't do it.

01:24:04.000 And now Vince, who I have an unbelievable relationship with, But also, that's a huge intellectual property for Vince.

01:24:14.000 30 years.

01:24:16.000 I could go out for another few years and I could knock somebody on their ass or I could chokeslam somebody, but I can't do it, personally.

01:24:26.000 Right.

01:24:27.000 I know there's so many guys that are coming up that are trying to get that spot.

01:24:32.000 I can't go out there and say, okay, I got all this equity built up from all these years.

01:24:38.000 I'm just going to live off of that.

01:24:41.000 I remember when I was a kid in Boston, it was a local wrestling promotion, but Killer Kowalski was on.

01:24:50.000 And I don't know how old he was at the time, but he had to be way, way up in the years.

01:24:58.000 I mean, it looked like he was in his 50s.

01:25:00.000 And I remember thinking, even as a kid, how long can a guy do this?

01:25:06.000 Yeah.

01:25:08.000 And it varies.

01:25:09.000 Who's the longest?

01:25:10.000 Are you the longest reigning guy?

01:25:12.000 I think there's guys that are like flair, lasted.

01:25:17.000 At his level, yeah.

01:25:19.000 He's the longest by like a lot.

01:25:21.000 He's probably going to be humble about this right now.

01:25:23.000 But even then, the Kowalskis and all that, the styles were different, right?

01:25:27.000 It was more like arm drags and like little tosses.

01:25:30.000 We had the claw.

01:25:31.000 Right.

01:25:32.000 Yeah.

01:25:32.000 And he's throwing people off of 16-foot cells and getting thrown off of titantrons like ramps and all this crazy physical stuff.

01:25:42.000 It's a whole different game.

01:25:43.000 And he went 10, 15 years probably longer than most of his peers.

01:25:48.000 Well, the fact that I stayed 30 years with one company...

01:25:51.000 I think that's the one really big thing is once I started with Vince, I stayed with Vince.

01:25:57.000 Where a lot of guys, you know, they would jump from one promotion to the other.

01:26:02.000 And I stayed once I got there.

01:26:04.000 I was there and, you know.

01:26:06.000 Wow.

01:26:07.000 It's been a hell of a ride.

01:26:09.000 30 years is a crazy ride.

01:26:11.000 So what was your last match?

01:26:13.000 My last match was in, was it April?

01:26:15.000 The Boneyard was April?

01:26:17.000 April 2020. Yeah, right here.

01:26:18.000 It's a nice bike.

01:26:20.000 Yeah, that's a West Coast chopper right there.

01:26:27.000 The bike actually belonged to Garth Brooks' security guy.

01:26:33.000 But this was...

01:26:34.000 We got lucky because COVID had already shut everything down.

01:26:39.000 So everybody else...

01:26:40.000 This is WrestleMania.

01:26:41.000 So everybody else is doing their matches in an empty warehouse.

01:26:45.000 And we got to go off and do this kind of themed match.

01:26:51.000 They turned this whole area into like a cemetery and got to do a lot of theatrical stuff.

01:26:57.000 So that must have felt like I can hang my hat on this one.

01:27:02.000 Yeah.

01:27:02.000 You know, we started filming that at about eight o'clock at night and we wrapped at about five in the morning.

01:27:08.000 And like, at the end of it, I was like, fuck, I can hardly stand up.

01:27:12.000 You know, everything was just locked up.

01:27:14.000 And I was, you know, cause I went into it and, you know, I started training for mania and obviously I thought I was going to be in a stadium in a ring.

01:27:23.000 And, uh, So I had really got a good head start on my training and, you know, my weight was coming down.

01:27:29.000 Everything was good.

01:27:30.000 And then fucking COVID hit.

01:27:33.000 And then it was just like the gyms shut down.

01:27:36.000 And then, you know, then I got to, you know, I had to get to Florida just to make sure, you know, that I was in Florida.

01:27:43.000 Right.

01:27:43.000 Yeah.

01:27:44.000 Cause you never knew like when they were going to shut all the airlines down.

01:27:47.000 So the training, you know, my training kind of went to shit and, uh, But I was really happy with how this turned out.

01:27:54.000 And I knew at the end of it, physically, your day's done, man.

01:27:58.000 And, you know, as much as I want to do it here, and I want to do it here, it's just the body just, it can't deliver.

01:28:04.000 So what do you do now?

01:28:05.000 I mean, that's a long career.

01:28:08.000 I mean...

01:28:09.000 Yeah, it is.

01:28:10.000 And I'm trying to figure that part out because I've dedicated my whole life to this business.

01:28:16.000 And, you know, there'll be times, you know, I help out and Maybe mentor some guys, but I've got to find out what I'm passionate about and still earn a living.

01:28:31.000 Right now, my goal is to be the best outdoorsman I can be at this point.

01:28:35.000 Is that what you're into now?

01:28:36.000 I've always loved hunting and fishing.

01:28:38.000 I just never had time.

01:28:40.000 Have you thought about doing a television show where you do that?

01:28:43.000 I've thought about it.

01:28:45.000 Undertaker Outdoors?

01:28:46.000 Undertaker Outdoors, right?

01:28:48.000 I think it'd be a hoot, actually.

01:28:54.000 It's just kind of...

01:28:56.000 I've thought about it, and I don't want it to be a job job.

01:29:03.000 I just enjoy it too much, and I'd hate to lose the fact, like, I don't want to go hunting.

01:29:09.000 I don't want to go, you know.

01:29:10.000 Right.

01:29:11.000 But, I mean, I'm open to whatever.

01:29:16.000 What kind of hunting do you do?

01:29:17.000 What is your thing?

01:29:18.000 Well, I've always been a rifle because I've had limited time.

01:29:21.000 So, you know, sit in a stand and, you know, wait for a whitetail to come take its head out.

01:29:26.000 This year, I just bought my first brand new bow this year.

01:29:33.000 I didn't get to shoot a deer.

01:29:35.000 Austin has a very good archery.

01:29:37.000 Archery country is fantastic.

01:29:38.000 It's really good.

01:29:40.000 I had an issue with my bow just a few weeks before I went to Utah for an elk hunt.

01:29:47.000 It was shooting low, and it turned out that the strings had been stretched, and it had lost some of its poundage, so everything had to be readjusted.

01:29:54.000 It had to get tightened up again and get the poundage put back on it.

01:29:58.000 They did an amazing job.

01:30:00.000 Yeah, archery is, and I just found that out, that Austin's a real, you know, there's a lot of archery hunters here.

01:30:06.000 Yeah.

01:30:07.000 Well, Texas in general has a lot of hunters and a lot of archery hunters.

01:30:11.000 But that is a real good archery shop.

01:30:14.000 And it's hard to find.

01:30:15.000 In California, I used to have to go to San Diego.

01:30:17.000 All the way down to San Diego.

01:30:18.000 Yeah, I'd go to Performance Archery down in San Diego to find a real good archery shop anywhere near me.

01:30:23.000 The biggest issue with me was finding a bow that would get my draw.

01:30:28.000 Oh, I could help you with that.

01:30:30.000 John Dudley's pretty close to your size.

01:30:32.000 He's 6'5", I believe.

01:30:34.000 6'5", 6'6", something like that.

01:30:35.000 What's his draw?

01:30:36.000 He's 32, I think.

01:30:38.000 Yeah, mine's 33, almost 33 and a half.

01:30:40.000 Oh, they make them for guys like you.

01:30:42.000 Yeah.

01:30:42.000 I mean, you just have to get the right cams and have someone who...

01:30:47.000 A guy like John could set it up.

01:30:49.000 A guy who knows how to set up a bow.

01:30:52.000 I'm sure he'd be happy to do that for you, too.

01:30:54.000 Yeah.

01:30:54.000 That's what I'm passionate about.

01:30:57.000 Because that's the one thing.

01:30:58.000 It's always been that carrot dangling.

01:31:00.000 Like, okay, once that career is over, you're free.

01:31:05.000 You're free.

01:31:05.000 You're going to do this, and you're going to do that.

01:31:07.000 But, I mean, that's not the way life works.

01:31:08.000 I mean, you still need to...

01:31:10.000 I still need to be productive and do different things.

01:31:13.000 I work with a lot of...

01:31:15.000 I love working with the veterans.

01:31:19.000 I work with these guys, Nine Line.

01:31:21.000 I do stuff with them.

01:31:24.000 I'm just really passionate about people that have served our country.

01:31:28.000 That's awesome.

01:31:29.000 I think, like I said earlier, if I hadn't have made it here, that's probably what I would have done.

01:31:35.000 I think about it sometimes.

01:31:37.000 I think it may be my only regret.

01:31:40.000 I wish I had served.

01:31:43.000 I guess because I'm surrounded by so many of those guys now and getting to meet guys like Oz and Tig from Benghazi and Luttrell, all those guys.

01:31:57.000 It's just, man, that's...

01:32:01.000 I can sit and listen to stories all day long from those guys.

01:32:05.000 Yeah, Latrell and I have been talking about him coming on here.

01:32:08.000 He's a good dude, man.

01:32:09.000 He's a real good dude.

01:32:10.000 Those guys, he's so laid back, but you can tell, you can look at him, and you can tell he's been through some shit, right?

01:32:18.000 He's been through some shit.

01:32:19.000 Yeah.

01:32:20.000 I mean, when they make a Marky Mark movie about your life, you know you've been through some shit.

01:32:24.000 Yeah.

01:32:26.000 Yeah, he's as nice as could be.

01:32:30.000 Yeah, real good dude.

01:32:32.000 I don't get real excited about meeting celebrities or people like that.

01:32:37.000 I just leave people alone for the most part.

01:32:40.000 He spoke at the church we go to and I called the pastor up while he was talking.

01:32:48.000 I was like, look, I need to be introduced to him before I leave here tonight.

01:32:54.000 And he's like, absolutely, come on back, you know.

01:32:57.000 But that's the kind of, you know, those are the kind of people, you know.

01:33:00.000 I appreciate that.

01:33:00.000 Yeah, I just, you know, I don't think we can do enough for people that put their lives.

01:33:05.000 I couldn't agree more.

01:33:06.000 You know, and just people like that that have been through so much, they're just, they're different kind of people.

01:33:12.000 They're exceptional in a way that it's hard to describe.

01:33:16.000 Yeah.

01:33:17.000 It really is cool.

01:33:18.000 You've had Goggins on, right?

01:33:19.000 Oh, yeah.

01:33:20.000 He's a fucking maniac, right?

01:33:22.000 Yeah.

01:33:22.000 He'll send me text messages out of the blue.

01:33:24.000 Just stay hard.

01:33:25.000 I'm like, okay.

01:33:27.000 I was going to go soft, but I'm going to stay hard.

01:33:29.000 I'm trading my ass off right now, but I enjoyed his book.

01:33:32.000 It was so good.

01:33:34.000 Yeah, he's a fascinating person.

01:33:36.000 Yeah, he's wired a little different, too.

01:33:38.000 Oh, for sure.

01:33:39.000 But he's got a great...

01:33:41.000 I love his story because Goggins was fat and he was lazy.

01:33:44.000 And he was, you know, eating, fucking drinking milkshakes and shit.

01:33:49.000 And he was way overweight and couldn't run at all and just decided...

01:33:54.000 He wanted to be in the SEALs and decided he wanted to lose weight and decided now's the time to do it and just forced himself to be this fucking barbarian man.

01:34:04.000 If you can't get inspired, if you don't read his book and can't get inspired by that, Watch everybody go to his Instagram page.

01:34:11.000 When I find a good one, I repost it on my page all the time.

01:34:16.000 He'll have some that literally will make me go up and work out.

01:34:20.000 Maybe I'm not even thinking about working out.

01:34:23.000 You already worked out once.

01:34:24.000 I'm going right now.

01:34:26.000 Time to go to war.

01:34:28.000 I always wonder who the guy is that gets no credit that's running alongside of him.

01:34:33.000 First of all, that's his wife, and she's driving.

01:34:35.000 Oh!

01:34:36.000 Yeah, and she's got the phone out the window, and she's driving.

01:34:40.000 Wow.

01:34:41.000 A lot of motherfuckers will tell you!

01:34:44.000 But no excuses, right?

01:34:45.000 There he is.

01:34:46.000 Give me some volume of this.

01:34:48.000 This guy makes me feel like a bitch every day.

01:34:51.000 2020 was a perfect example of that.

01:34:53.000 A lot of people lost jobs.

01:34:56.000 Lost businesses.

01:34:57.000 Lost family members.

01:35:00.000 A lot of folks spent a lot of time in the hospital on ventilators.

01:35:04.000 That should have caused a lot of demons in your brain.

01:35:08.000 Folks see how much I work out.

01:35:11.000 And they think I'm running from demons.

01:35:14.000 It's not demons.

01:35:16.000 It's discipline.

01:35:18.000 And I'm a disciple of discipline.

01:35:21.000 You cannot run your demons.

01:35:23.000 They'll always find you.

01:35:26.000 Only way to beat them motherfuckers is to look at them eye to eye and make them your bitch.

01:35:33.000 My sister's the only thing that gets you through hard times.

01:35:38.000 Merry fucking Christmas!

01:35:41.000 That's awesome.

01:35:43.000 Fuck, that's just awesome, man.

01:35:45.000 No excuses.

01:35:46.000 He's a national treasure.

01:35:47.000 That man is a national treasure.

01:35:50.000 Yeah, that's just...

01:35:51.000 Make him your bitch!

01:35:54.000 Yeah, that's just good shit.

01:35:57.000 Yeah, but you know what?

01:35:58.000 There's a lot of people out there that their mind concentrates on stupid shit.

01:36:05.000 They complain too much.

01:36:07.000 They whine too much.

01:36:10.000 They're haters.

01:36:11.000 They're jealous.

01:36:13.000 They're weak.

01:36:15.000 You need a guy like that out there that is just all about performance and discipline.

01:36:22.000 And you realize, wow, there's a lot of different ways to live this life.

01:36:26.000 There's a lot of people that waste time.

01:36:28.000 They waste time on nonsense.

01:36:30.000 Their life is filled with nonsense.

01:36:33.000 Absolutely.

01:36:34.000 And then you need a guy like David Goggins to go, oh my god, I'm a bitch.

01:36:38.000 I didn't even know.

01:36:39.000 I didn't even know.

01:36:39.000 I had no clue I was a bitch, but I'm definitely a bitch.

01:36:45.000 Appreciate that, Dave.

01:36:46.000 Alright.

01:36:46.000 And you know, and his body gets beat the fuck up too, man.

01:36:49.000 He had a video he posted just a little while back.

01:36:52.000 See if you can find this of him draining his knee.

01:36:54.000 They drained his knee, and it's like a fucking coffee cup filled with pus and fluid and shit inside of his knee.

01:37:02.000 And he was on crutches for a couple of days, and then there's a video a few days after that where he's running.

01:37:08.000 A lot of you motherfuckers thought I was going to go soft!

01:37:11.000 I bet you hoping!

01:37:12.000 Oh, Dave, you fucked up your knees!

01:37:14.000 You can't run no more!

01:37:16.000 Like, look at this thing they're pulling out of his knee.

01:37:20.000 Like, look at that thing.

01:37:21.000 Do you see that?

01:37:22.000 That's a syringe full of shit.

01:37:24.000 Look at the size of that fucking syringe.

01:37:26.000 They're pulling that out of his knee.

01:37:29.000 Look at the size of that fucking fluid.

01:37:33.000 That's a lot of shit they're pulling out of his knee.

01:37:35.000 They're getting another syringe.

01:37:36.000 They're getting another one to fill it up.

01:37:38.000 Because they're not done yet.

01:37:40.000 Oh my god.

01:37:42.000 They're screwing another one in there.

01:37:43.000 Jesus Christ.

01:37:44.000 Look at this.

01:37:45.000 This is how much pus and fluid is in his knee.

01:37:50.000 And he's still running.

01:37:52.000 So he's got two gigantic syringes.

01:37:56.000 Of fluid that are stuck inside of his knee.

01:37:59.000 I mean, what in the fuck?

01:38:02.000 First of all, if I had a quarter of that shit, I'd be like, well, no more running for me, son.

01:38:08.000 I'm done.

01:38:08.000 It's full.

01:38:09.000 Yeah, I mean, it's full and they keep going.

01:38:12.000 That is a big, fat fucking syringe.

01:38:15.000 And then you go to, like, two days later, he's got a video of him with crutches, and a couple days after that, he's running again.

01:38:22.000 Ha ha ha, motherfuckers!

01:38:24.000 That's crazy, man.

01:38:27.000 That's a lost mindset, man.

01:38:29.000 He puts in miles, too.

01:38:30.000 I mean, I don't know what the fuck the inside of his knee looks like, but, you know.

01:38:36.000 Definitely need more people like that.

01:38:39.000 Less people, you know.

01:38:42.000 You need to know.

01:38:45.000 There's all kinds of people out there in this world, but you need to know there's dudes out there with bulletproof minds.

01:38:52.000 Absolutely.

01:38:52.000 We need to know.

01:38:53.000 I mean, just the fact, no excuses.

01:38:56.000 Everybody wants excuses, like I was talking about earlier.

01:38:58.000 Everybody's entitled.

01:38:59.000 Yeah.

01:39:00.000 But those guys are valuable.

01:39:02.000 Oh, hell yeah.

01:39:03.000 Hey, if the shit goes down, I want him in my compound.

01:39:06.000 You know what he does sometimes?

01:39:07.000 Sometimes he takes time off and goes smoke jumping.

01:39:10.000 Like they just drop him out of fucking helicopters and he fights fires for like 12 bucks an hour.

01:39:17.000 He's rich!

01:39:20.000 But he just, he practiced what he preaches.

01:39:24.000 He stays hard.

01:39:25.000 He doesn't need to work for 12 bucks an hour.

01:39:27.000 He does it because it's hard.

01:39:28.000 When he was telling me that on the podcast, I'm like, what?

01:39:31.000 He goes, yeah, smoke jump!

01:39:34.000 He just jumps out of fucking helicopters with a parachute to fight fires with a shovel.

01:39:41.000 And camps out there.

01:39:42.000 Like, those guys, that's a hard gig.

01:39:43.000 That's a hard fucking job.

01:39:45.000 But he does it just to be, just to stay hard.

01:39:48.000 That's fucking awesome.

01:39:50.000 Yeah, I feel like shit.

01:39:52.000 I mean, he'll do that to you.

01:39:55.000 But the people like that, they're valuable.

01:39:57.000 They really are.

01:39:59.000 With all these weak people in this world, weak entitled people.

01:40:03.000 And this is, you know the old expression, hard men.

01:40:07.000 Hard times make hard men.

01:40:09.000 Hard men make easy times.

01:40:10.000 Easy times make soft men.

01:40:12.000 That's what we're going through right now.

01:40:15.000 The world got a little too easy.

01:40:18.000 There's too many soft people out there complaining.

01:40:21.000 That fact.

01:40:23.000 It is.

01:40:23.000 It really is.

01:40:24.000 It's weird how that cycle just keeps repeating itself over and over and over again.

01:40:29.000 It doesn't seem like human beings are ever going to learn.

01:40:32.000 It seems like we kind of have to go through that.

01:40:35.000 It's like, even though you know these cycles exist, like the Hindus, they wrote about it years ago.

01:40:42.000 They called them the Yugas, the different cycles of civilization.

01:40:47.000 And we're in Kali Yuga, which is like the age of confusion.

01:40:52.000 What is the exact term of Kali Yuga?

01:40:55.000 But it's chaos and everything's falling apart.

01:40:58.000 That's what we're in right now.

01:41:00.000 And people have been predicting that we're entering into Kali Yuga over the last 10 years or so.

01:41:08.000 And now it's pretty obvious.

01:41:10.000 We're full on in it.

01:41:11.000 Yeah, we're on the cusp.

01:41:13.000 Full on.

01:41:14.000 Tomorrow's the inauguration.

01:41:18.000 And I'm like, oh my god, I don't even want to fucking leave the house.

01:41:21.000 No.

01:41:23.000 I had to get everybody to land around the perimeter and just make sure.

01:41:26.000 Well, they said gun sales were at an all-time high yesterday.

01:41:29.000 People were just going crazy buying guns.

01:41:31.000 No, you can't.

01:41:32.000 Yeah, the place I deal with, I mean, their shelves have been empty for...

01:41:36.000 Yeah.

01:41:36.000 I mean, you can't...

01:41:38.000 It doesn't matter what it is.

01:41:39.000 Like the toilet paper aisle in March.

01:41:42.000 That's what it's like.

01:41:44.000 Yeah, absolutely.

01:41:45.000 Yeah, that's what it's like.

01:41:46.000 It's crazy.

01:41:46.000 I walk in there and it's just like fucking tumbleweed rolling through.

01:41:49.000 Yeah, I'm lucky I know people that work in gun manufacture.

01:41:53.000 I can buy bullets off of them.

01:41:55.000 Because if you try to go to a regular store and just buy 9mm or something for an AR or a Win Mag...

01:42:04.000 You know, good luck.

01:42:06.000 I don't have one.

01:42:07.000 I thought they just handed you one when you moved to Texas.

01:42:09.000 I'll hand you one.

01:42:09.000 Really?

01:42:10.000 Yeah, I'll give you one.

01:42:10.000 Alright, perfect.

01:42:11.000 Because right now all I have is a golf club.

01:42:13.000 I have to get within four feet of someone.

01:42:15.000 Well, I've been given eight guns since I got here.

01:42:18.000 Okay.

01:42:19.000 I'm not kidding.

01:42:19.000 I'll give you one.

01:42:19.000 That's an excellent welcome.

01:42:21.000 That's a Texas welcome.

01:42:22.000 That's a Texas welcome.

01:42:22.000 But we'll have to take you to the range.

01:42:25.000 Yeah.

01:42:25.000 Take you to a place and, you know, you've shot a gun before?

01:42:28.000 Yeah.

01:42:28.000 How many times?

01:42:30.000 A lot when I was younger, but I mean, I don't know, maybe like 10, 15 times.

01:42:35.000 Oh, okay.

01:42:35.000 So you know which way to point it.

01:42:37.000 Yeah, for sure.

01:42:38.000 Yeah, we'll set you up.

01:42:40.000 Yeah.

01:42:40.000 Yeah, it'll be good for you, too.

01:42:41.000 It's fun.

01:42:42.000 It's fun.

01:42:43.000 There's a great place out here called The Range.

01:42:44.000 It's an indoor place.

01:42:46.000 It's such a big place that they have a 100-yard indoor rifle range, which is just bananas.

01:42:52.000 Like, who the fuck has that?

01:42:53.000 Yeah, it's a nice place.

01:42:55.000 That's high-end shooting out there.

01:42:57.000 When I got there, they told me if you hear a helicopter, it's Tim Kennedy.

01:43:00.000 He helicopters in.

01:43:02.000 He flies his own helicopter.

01:43:03.000 He's another maniac.

01:43:06.000 I used to watch him train over here on it.

01:43:10.000 He's a psycho too.

01:43:11.000 Oh yeah, he's a bad motherfucker.

01:43:13.000 You need people like that.

01:43:16.000 But he's got a lot of varied interests too.

01:43:19.000 Tim is a fascinating guy.

01:43:21.000 Yeah, he's a good dude.

01:43:23.000 He was a great fighter too.

01:43:25.000 And really did a lot of his fighting while he was also still serving in the military.

01:43:29.000 You know, a lot of his early days...

01:43:32.000 So did Brian Stan.

01:43:33.000 You know, a lot of the elite guys that were in the military, they were in the military while they were fighting.

01:43:38.000 You know?

01:43:39.000 Yeah, I didn't know that about Stan.

01:43:41.000 I didn't know...

01:43:41.000 I know Tim was still...

01:43:42.000 Yeah, Stan, I believe, when he was in the WEC, the early days of his career, I think he was still serving.

01:43:48.000 I'm pretty sure.

01:43:49.000 And, you know, and then he went from the WEC and transferred over to the UFC. And now, I forget what he's doing in business.

01:43:57.000 I think he's...

01:43:59.000 I don't want to say because I'm not exactly sure, but he's very successful in the corporate world now.

01:44:05.000 Oh, good for him.

01:44:06.000 Which is crazy.

01:44:06.000 This guy transitions and he was a great commentator as well, but he just decided he didn't want to do it anymore and just decided to do things outside of fighting.

01:44:17.000 That's not an easy job either.

01:44:19.000 Commentator?

01:44:20.000 No, it's not.

01:44:23.000 When you hear a guy like Dominic Cruz or Daniel Cormier or something like that, just because you're a great fighter doesn't necessarily mean you'll be a great commentator.

01:44:32.000 There's a lot of things that they have to learn, but it is really nice that the UFC has that available to them so they can transfer from fighting right into commentary.

01:44:40.000 Yeah, DC does a good job.

01:44:41.000 I can't remember the fight, but y'all were doing it together, I think.

01:44:46.000 Y'all are like a couple of kids.

01:44:47.000 I'm always a kid with him.

01:44:49.000 I love him to death.

01:44:51.000 Something happened.

01:44:52.000 I wish I could remember who was fighting, man.

01:44:54.000 But you guys were fucking jumping on each other.

01:44:57.000 It was just like...

01:44:58.000 It's fun.

01:45:00.000 No, because...

01:45:01.000 It's good because you're obviously still a fan, right?

01:45:05.000 Obviously, you're doing your job.

01:45:06.000 I know the fight you're talking about.

01:45:07.000 It was Benil Dariush and Jakar close.

01:45:09.000 That's it.

01:45:10.000 And Jakar had him hurt bad.

01:45:12.000 And then he abandoned his defense and started going after him.

01:45:17.000 And Benil wasn't as hurt as he thought he was.

01:45:19.000 And Benil cracked him back.

01:45:21.000 And then Benil wound up KOing him.

01:45:22.000 And it was such a wild exchange.

01:45:24.000 We were like, wow!

01:45:25.000 We're leaning back and DC's leaning on me and John Anik is like this.

01:45:29.000 That's us.

01:45:29.000 Yeah, that's it right there, man.

01:45:30.000 That's it.

01:45:31.000 That's it.

01:45:31.000 Look, he leans on me.

01:45:36.000 And you don't see in that small version of it, you don't see John Anik in it, but John Anik was freaking out too.

01:45:44.000 It was wild, man.

01:45:46.000 It was wild.

01:45:47.000 I mean, it was just, here's the exchange.

01:45:49.000 Jakar, I mean, look, man, a lot of people would have been out.

01:45:52.000 It was incredible.

01:45:53.000 And then once he had Jakar closed, he hit him, or hurt rather, he hit him with that beautiful left hand and drops him.

01:45:59.000 Wow.

01:45:59.000 And we were just going apeshit.

01:46:01.000 But I just love working with DC, period, because that's the picture.

01:46:05.000 That's like a famous picture now.

01:46:07.000 Yeah, that's awesome.

01:46:08.000 There's one where we're all green, and they gave us alien antennas, and it's the aliens watching Earth 2020. The series finale of Earth 2020. DC's such a big kid.

01:46:25.000 My wife said it best.

01:46:27.000 She met him for the first time pretty recently.

01:46:29.000 She was like, he's so nice.

01:46:31.000 You would never believe that he is one of the baddest fucking people to ever compete in the sport.

01:46:37.000 Two-division world champion, heavyweight champion, light heavyweight champion, elite wrestler, fucking savage.

01:46:44.000 Literally, the only guy to ever beat him is Jon Jones and Steve Two other complete total savages.

01:46:50.000 He's such a cool guy.

01:46:52.000 I'm positive it was the first time I ever saw you guys commentate together.

01:46:56.000 You guys were getting ready or whatever.

01:46:59.000 He's like, hey man, such a cool guy.

01:47:02.000 He's like, you know how to tie a tie?

01:47:03.000 I'm like, yeah.

01:47:04.000 He's like, will you tie this for me?

01:47:06.000 I put it around my neck and tied BC's tie for him.

01:47:09.000 It was just such a...

01:47:11.000 Down-to-earth guy.

01:47:12.000 So normal.

01:47:13.000 And then you see him in the octagon at the highest level.

01:47:16.000 One of the smartest fighters.

01:47:18.000 Yeah.

01:47:18.000 I mean, knocked out Stipe Miocic.

01:47:21.000 I mean, what?

01:47:22.000 Didn't see that one coming.

01:47:24.000 He's a fucking tank of a man, too.

01:47:26.000 Yeah.

01:47:26.000 Because he's only like 5'10", but he's like 5'10 wide.

01:47:31.000 And just couldn't be nicer.

01:47:34.000 I mean, there's a lot of people that are really nice, but DC's like, he's exceptionally nice.

01:47:39.000 Yeah.

01:47:40.000 It's hard to be funny when you're a fighter.

01:47:43.000 It just is.

01:47:44.000 You've got the stigma and you're already like, oh, okay, he's going to be a dick.

01:47:47.000 He's a badass.

01:47:48.000 He's got a great sense of humor.

01:47:49.000 He's always silly.

01:47:50.000 Him and Max Holloway were always fucking with each other.

01:47:52.000 It's really funny.

01:47:54.000 When he was the heavyweight champ, Max was saying, I'll fight you too, DC. They were talking about him going...

01:48:00.000 Did you see the Maxwellwood fight?

01:48:01.000 How good did he look the other night?

01:48:02.000 Jesus Christ.

01:48:03.000 It was insane.

01:48:04.000 He broke his own record.

01:48:06.000 He has number one, number two, and number three for the most strikes landed.

01:48:10.000 Most strikes landed and most strikes thrown.

01:48:12.000 Oh, it was ridiculous.

01:48:13.000 His volume is off the charts.

01:48:15.000 It's hard to imagine.

01:48:17.000 And didn't slow down one iota.

01:48:19.000 In the fifth and final round, he still...

01:48:23.000 Oh, it was amazing.

01:48:23.000 No problems with cardio at all.

01:48:25.000 I mean, that pace will cripple a person.

01:48:29.000 He's superhuman.

01:48:30.000 It was like a superhuman performance.

01:48:31.000 I really want to talk to him about what the fuck he does for cardio.

01:48:35.000 He should give seminars, because I just don't understand.

01:48:40.000 I don't understand how he can keep that volume up.

01:48:43.000 And Calvin Cater, the dude he fought, is one of the toughest men that's ever lived.

01:48:48.000 Because the beating that he took in that fight, the fact that he never stopped swinging, never gave up, never stopped trying to win, took some shots, was wobbled on multiple occasions, and covered up, and was still swinging, still trying to win.

01:49:03.000 God, what a fight.

01:49:04.000 That was great.

01:49:05.000 What?

01:49:05.000 I mean, what a performance.

01:49:07.000 Like, one of the greatest performances.

01:49:08.000 It might be the greatest single performance I've ever seen.

01:49:12.000 He was sharp, man.

01:49:13.000 I just, you know, wow.

01:49:15.000 Yeah.

01:49:15.000 And that's coming off, what, two losses, too, right?

01:49:17.000 Yeah, but I don't think the last loss was really a loss.

01:49:19.000 The last loss was, you could make a real argument.

01:49:23.000 Yeah, it was a draw.

01:49:25.000 Real good fight, though, still.

01:49:26.000 It was still, yeah.

01:49:27.000 That just shows you how good Volkanovski is.

01:49:30.000 He could beat him in the first fight and then have such a close fight in the second fight.

01:49:34.000 But when you watch Holloway in this fight, he was different.

01:49:38.000 First of all, he was never in the same spot.

01:49:41.000 A lot of guys, they make this mistake.

01:49:44.000 They think, I want to hit this guy, so I'm going to go at him and hit him.

01:49:48.000 Holloway's thinking, I want him to think I'm going to hit him, and then I'm going to be over here, and now I'm going to hit you, and you're going to swing, but I'm not going to be there.

01:49:55.000 I'm over here now.

01:49:56.000 His footwork and movement and angles were off the chart.

01:49:59.000 And he never let Calvin set.

01:50:03.000 Guys like to set up and think, ready, now.

01:50:05.000 And you don't get a chance with Holloway.

01:50:09.000 There's always punches coming at you.

01:50:10.000 There's always a kick.

01:50:11.000 There's a side kick to the leg.

01:50:13.000 There's a leg kick coming.

01:50:15.000 There's a jab in your face.

01:50:16.000 It's all mixed up.

01:50:17.000 And then when you think you've got to figure it out, boom, spinning back kick.

01:50:20.000 Like, fuck!

01:50:20.000 It was a clinic.

01:50:21.000 It was an absolute clinic.

01:50:23.000 And you've always been a huge MMA fan, right?

01:50:25.000 Oh, yeah.

01:50:26.000 I think you were...

01:50:27.000 You had to be one of the first people to really start bringing those elements into the WWE. Yeah, I started to...

01:50:34.000 I mean, Hell's Gate is what?

01:50:37.000 A triangle?

01:50:38.000 No, no, no.

01:50:39.000 It's a go-go-plata.

01:50:41.000 I just changed the name.

01:50:44.000 Yeah, I've been a fan from way back in the day.

01:50:49.000 I'm trying to think.

01:50:50.000 The first one I went to was in Miami.

01:50:54.000 Might have been...

01:50:55.000 So Ice...

01:50:56.000 Liddell was on the way up.

01:50:58.000 I think Randy was the champ.

01:51:00.000 So this is like 2003 or something.

01:51:04.000 Yeah, early.

01:51:04.000 Yeah, yeah.

01:51:05.000 There you go.

01:51:06.000 Oh, there you go.

01:51:07.000 Wow.

01:51:09.000 That's crazy.

01:51:10.000 Changed the name to Hell's Gate.

01:51:13.000 So you would grab them by the back of the head and run your shin underneath their neck.

01:51:18.000 Without trying to actually do that.

01:51:21.000 Did you...

01:51:22.000 Have you trained much Jiu-Jitsu?

01:51:24.000 Like actual Jiu-Jitsu?

01:51:25.000 I used to...

01:51:26.000 We used to have a...

01:51:27.000 Funny enough, we used to have a ref that...

01:51:30.000 I'd get in and roll with him.

01:51:33.000 And I would get there early and just pick his brain.

01:51:38.000 And by the time it shows up, I'd just be exhausted.

01:51:41.000 But, you know...

01:51:44.000 But I did it because I was such a fan of it.

01:51:48.000 I like to understand why things are done and why they're done and everything.

01:51:53.000 Boxing and wrestling and everything else.

01:51:56.000 That fight that you're talking about, I feel like that's 2003, the Miami one.

01:52:02.000 Because I think that was the first time that I ever did play-by-play.

01:52:05.000 Boy, was I fucking terrible at it.

01:52:08.000 But Phil Barone did color.

01:52:10.000 So it was me and Phil Barone did the commentary.

01:52:12.000 Because I think...

01:52:13.000 I think Mike Goldberg at the time had like a hockey game to call or something like that, and he couldn't get out of it, so they asked me to do it, but I didn't know what I was doing.

01:52:21.000 Wow.

01:52:21.000 Play-by-play is like what John Anik does is hard.

01:52:24.000 My role is pretty easy.

01:52:27.000 If you understand fighting, there's a lot going on.

01:52:30.000 You just have to know who's fighting, and I'm such a fan.

01:52:33.000 I'm watching everything, so I'm paying attention.

01:52:36.000 I remember the fight because Tank Abbott found me, and man...

01:52:42.000 He wasn't even sitting anywhere close to me, but he spent the fight with me.

01:52:47.000 Oh, that's awesome.

01:52:48.000 Yeah, he talked to me the whole night.

01:52:49.000 What a character that guy was.

01:52:50.000 Oh my gosh, yeah.

01:52:52.000 I ran into him years later in LA at a bar.

01:52:55.000 It was the same thing, man.

01:52:57.000 He's lost a crazy amount of weight now.

01:52:58.000 Yeah, he was a lot slimmer when I had seen him in L.A. I think he had some issues, some health issues.

01:53:05.000 Yeah, I wouldn't doubt that.

01:53:07.000 Yeah, for all the boozing.

01:53:09.000 Yeah, I'm a big fighter.

01:53:14.000 I quit going to Lesnar's fight, so every time I'd go, he'd lose.

01:53:18.000 Yeah.

01:53:20.000 Sure enough.

01:53:20.000 It felt like you were a jinx?

01:53:21.000 Yeah, I was a jinx.

01:53:22.000 So I went to his fight with Mir, and he got caught in that knee bar.

01:53:29.000 And then he obviously came back and he won the next one.

01:53:33.000 Then I went to Velasquez fight when he came back from that fibro tickolitis thing.

01:53:39.000 That was not the Velasquez fight.

01:53:41.000 That was Alistair Overeem.

01:53:44.000 Alistair Overeem was the diverticulitis fight.

01:53:46.000 Yeah.

01:53:47.000 Okay.

01:53:47.000 Yeah.

01:53:47.000 So I was at the Vlaska's fight.

01:53:51.000 Yeah.

01:53:52.000 He had diverticulitis already when he fought Vlaska.

01:53:55.000 But he doesn't know when he had it or how long he had it for.

01:53:58.000 The scary one was him coming back from having, I think he had 12 inches of his intestines removed.

01:54:04.000 And then he fought Alistair Overeem not that long later.

01:54:08.000 Yeah.

01:54:09.000 Less than a year later, and Alistair kicked him in the body.

01:54:12.000 Yeah, right in the liver.

01:54:13.000 Yeah, and you know, Alistair at the time was, he was hopped up on all the Mexican supplements.

01:54:18.000 That was when they had, they had a silly drug testing program.

01:54:22.000 It was basically like an intelligence test.

01:54:24.000 Yeah.

01:54:24.000 They would just test you the day of, and if you knew what you were doing, you could pass.

01:54:27.000 And Alistair passed, and you looked at him, and you want to see someone not pass a sniff test?

01:54:32.000 It's Alistair Overeem when he was fighting Brock Lesnar.

01:54:39.000 It is the most preposterous physique in the history of the sport.

01:54:43.000 I mean, if you think like Yoel Romero has a ridiculous physique, Alistair Overeem, when they used to call him Uberim, and he was 260, shredded, full six-pack, and just a destroyer.

01:54:56.000 Like, no, no, no.

01:54:57.000 That one down right in the bottom.

01:54:59.000 Lower right-hand corner.

01:55:00.000 Right where it says related images?

01:55:02.000 Right below related images?

01:55:04.000 No, right below related images.

01:55:06.000 Right there.

01:55:07.000 You see the word related images?

01:55:08.000 It's right next to your cursor.

01:55:09.000 See where it says related?

01:55:10.000 Yeah, right there.

01:55:11.000 Bam.

01:55:11.000 Look at that.

01:55:13.000 Son.

01:55:15.000 What is that about?

01:55:17.000 I mean, what are you fucking talking about?

01:55:20.000 Are you out of your mind?

01:55:22.000 That is a preposterous physique.

01:55:24.000 That's a...

01:55:25.000 So that's Alistair when he fought Brock.

01:55:29.000 I mean, he has small children living in his biceps.

01:55:33.000 He has these fucking biceps.

01:55:35.000 They're ridiculous.

01:55:35.000 And he just smashed Brock.

01:55:37.000 It was just...

01:55:38.000 Brock really shouldn't have been fighting...

01:55:41.000 After that.

01:55:42.000 Yeah, no, he came back way too late.

01:55:44.000 Major surgery.

01:55:45.000 And his trainers, they were concerned.

01:55:49.000 You know, you get kicked in the stomach after you've had literally a gigantic chunk of your intestines removed for a disease that who knows how long that was bothering him.

01:55:59.000 Yeah.

01:55:59.000 You know, he really didn't know.

01:56:00.000 He got sick.

01:56:01.000 He almost died, man.

01:56:03.000 Diperticulitis is crazy.

01:56:04.000 Oh, it's, yeah, it's nasty.

01:56:06.000 Yeah.

01:56:07.000 Yeah, it's just like something gets caught in your intestine and it gets infected and it jams up and clogs up.

01:56:15.000 And they don't totally understand it either.

01:56:18.000 I once saw a clip of Brock leaving the Octagon and you guys...

01:56:23.000 Yeah, you guys are staring at each other.

01:56:24.000 That's it right there.

01:56:25.000 Yeah, you guys have like a very serious moment.

01:56:27.000 What was that about?

01:56:29.000 Do you think he was trying to goad you into a fight?

01:56:31.000 I was there to pick a fight.

01:56:32.000 You were there to pick an MMA fight with him?

01:56:34.000 Fuck no.

01:56:36.000 What are you smoking?

01:56:37.000 Never mind.

01:56:40.000 What are you fucking crazy?

01:56:41.000 So you were there to pick a WWE fight?

01:56:44.000 Yeah.

01:56:47.000 Yeah, that's...

01:56:48.000 My wife looks very confused.

01:56:50.000 You didn't let her in?

01:56:52.000 Huh?

01:56:52.000 You didn't let her in on it?

01:56:53.000 No, she knows what's going on, but she's still like...

01:56:56.000 Does she play it off?

01:56:57.000 Yeah, she's a worker too.

01:57:00.000 She gets it.

01:57:01.000 Yeah, I was on Ariel's show and he asked me about it, right?

01:57:06.000 Did anybody ever offer you an MMA fight?

01:57:08.000 Because when CM Punk had gone in and then Brock and a few other guys that were circling it.

01:57:17.000 Yeah, no.

01:57:18.000 So...

01:57:21.000 Fuck, it's too late in the game for me.

01:57:25.000 If MMA and UFC had probably taken off sooner, it took a while for the UFC to come mainstream.

01:57:41.000 Really, 2005?

01:57:43.000 Yeah.

01:57:44.000 That was when it really started happening with the first season of The Ultimate Fighter.

01:57:47.000 Yeah.

01:57:48.000 But even still, that was for the people that were in it.

01:57:53.000 Not in it, but were fans of it.

01:57:56.000 Mainstream society was still kind of, you know...

01:57:59.000 And I think it was like Ronda Rousey?

01:58:02.000 Yeah.

01:58:02.000 Those years?

01:58:04.000 Like the Ronda Rousey?

01:58:05.000 Yeah.

01:58:05.000 I think when SportsCenter and everybody kind of started like...

01:58:09.000 Because they tried to stay away from it as long as they could.

01:58:11.000 Yeah.

01:58:12.000 And...

01:58:14.000 But once SportsCenter came in, ESPN and those guys, and it was like, oh, fuck.

01:58:19.000 Because I think, you know, there's some people in the MMA world, like all Ariel's fans, they just kill him when he interviews me.

01:58:31.000 Why do you got the fake-ass, bullshit wrestlers on there, right?

01:58:34.000 And I'm like, hey, I do what I do.

01:58:38.000 I don't make any bones about it.

01:58:40.000 But I think...

01:58:42.000 MMA people are a little more sensitive about it because I think they got looped in because they didn't understand.

01:58:48.000 Most people didn't understand what it was yet.

01:58:50.000 Really?

01:58:51.000 Early on.

01:58:53.000 Early on.

01:58:54.000 And I think there's that stigma that MMA was...

01:58:57.000 Is it like wrestling?

01:58:59.000 And everybody was like, fuck no, it's not like wrestling.

01:59:02.000 This is a fucking shoot.

01:59:04.000 So I think there's a...

01:59:05.000 If you get it, you get it.

01:59:08.000 What we do.

01:59:09.000 But I think that stigma of...

01:59:12.000 Is MMA pro-wrestling?

01:59:15.000 Fighters, they're like...

01:59:17.000 And it's not even so much the fighters as it is the fans.

01:59:21.000 Most of them ain't thrown a punch or got hit by a punch.

01:59:25.000 They get all up in arms.

01:59:26.000 Why you got that fake bullshit wrestler on there?

01:59:31.000 Yeah, you can't worry about those people.

01:59:32.000 No, I don't worry about them.

01:59:34.000 Don't judge me for what I do.

01:59:36.000 Yeah, I know.

01:59:37.000 It's like, don't read the comments, but it's just like...

01:59:41.000 What do you think about what David Arquette's doing?

01:59:44.000 What's he doing?

01:59:45.000 I don't even know what the fuck he's doing.

01:59:46.000 You know what David Arquette is?

01:59:47.000 I know who he is.

01:59:48.000 He's in wrestling right now.

01:59:49.000 Oh, yeah.

01:59:50.000 And they just did a documentary about him.

01:59:52.000 Yeah, and it's great.

01:59:53.000 I saw it.

01:59:53.000 What is it called?

01:59:55.000 Oh, jeez.

01:59:56.000 Man, I can't remember it.

01:59:58.000 I can't remember the title of it, but I watched it.

02:00:00.000 I know he did some stuff.

02:00:02.000 What is it, Jamie?

02:00:03.000 You cannot kill David Arquette.

02:00:04.000 That's what it's called.

02:00:05.000 Interesting.

02:00:06.000 It's really awesome.

02:00:07.000 I know he was a big wrestling fan and he did some stuff with WCW. Well, he's like really, really into it now.

02:00:14.000 I mean, that's mostly what he does these days.

02:00:16.000 He's doing a lot of pro wrestling.

02:00:19.000 Really?

02:00:19.000 And he's super dedicated to it, apparently.

02:00:21.000 I know that he...

02:00:21.000 Look, he gets busted the fuck up.

02:00:26.000 Jesus Christ.

02:00:27.000 Yeah, and the wrestlers that he goes against all want to teach him a lesson.

02:00:31.000 Like, oh, you're not gonna, you know...

02:00:32.000 They're all extra tough on him and...

02:00:35.000 So it goes into that a lot.

02:00:39.000 They're like, oh, David Arquette thinks he's going to come and show us.

02:00:42.000 Show us, yeah.

02:00:44.000 That mentality's kind of going away, I think.

02:00:47.000 Is it?

02:00:48.000 Yeah, you know, back in the day...

02:00:52.000 Like, when I broke in and the guys before me, like, anybody, you know, fucking wrestling is bullshit.

02:00:58.000 It's fucking go time, right?

02:01:00.000 Right.

02:01:00.000 Yeah, it's like, because you had to defend...

02:01:02.000 Remember that famous video with John Stossel?

02:01:06.000 Oh, fuck, he got the shit slapped out of him.

02:01:08.000 Who was it that did that to him?

02:01:10.000 David Schultz.

02:01:11.000 Right.

02:01:12.000 Slapped the dog shit out of him.

02:01:13.000 Like, hard.

02:01:15.000 Was that fake?

02:01:16.000 Yeah.

02:01:17.000 Was that fake?

02:01:17.000 Yeah.

02:01:18.000 Yeah.

02:01:19.000 But that was the mentality back then.

02:01:21.000 Like...

02:01:22.000 Well, it was also the way he was talking about it was pretty disrespectful.

02:01:26.000 Yeah.

02:01:26.000 And saying it in a way like he was immune to getting hurt.

02:01:29.000 Oh, he slaps the dog shit out of him.

02:01:32.000 Let me hear this.

02:01:33.000 Give me some fire.

02:01:34.000 I'm calling the camera reading he ain't in it.

02:01:35.000 Reading these rednecks out here ain't in it because it's a tough business.

02:01:40.000 That's terrific.

02:01:40.000 Wait, is that all you got?

02:01:42.000 I'll ask you the standard question.

02:01:43.000 You know?

02:01:44.000 Standard question.

02:01:45.000 I think this is fake.

02:01:46.000 You think it's fake?

02:01:48.000 What's that?

02:01:49.000 Is that fake?

02:01:50.000 Huh?

02:01:50.000 What the hell's wrong with you?

02:01:51.000 That's open-hand slap, huh?

02:01:52.000 You think it's thinking...

02:01:59.000 He was not expecting that.

02:02:01.000 That was disrespectful.

02:02:02.000 Yeah.

02:02:03.000 The way he communicated was disrespectful.

02:02:05.000 And he thought that he could just get away with being this hard-ass reporter to a guy that was clearly amped up.

02:02:11.000 That's called reading the situation incorrectly.

02:02:14.000 Incorrectly.

02:02:15.000 Yeah, absolutely.

02:02:16.000 I mean, you see how amped up he is?

02:02:17.000 David's looking him in the eyes all fucking jacked.

02:02:20.000 Yeah.

02:02:21.000 Like, you don't say, I'll tell you what, I think it's fake.

02:02:24.000 Yeah.

02:02:25.000 You don't have to like it.

02:02:27.000 Not everybody likes all forms of entertainment.

02:02:30.000 Whatever happened to him?

02:02:31.000 Did he suffer because of this?

02:02:34.000 Yeah, I think he...

02:02:35.000 Yeah, he got blackballed from a few places.

02:02:39.000 Yeah?

02:02:39.000 Yeah, it wouldn't touch him.

02:02:40.000 Yeah.

02:02:41.000 It's unfortunate, because he was taken up for his business.

02:02:44.000 Well, not only that, I mean, what great publicity.

02:02:47.000 Yeah.

02:02:47.000 I mean, the same thing with Kaufman.

02:02:49.000 You need to stop that, David.

02:02:52.000 Right.

02:02:52.000 Give him a little slap on the old wrist.

02:02:54.000 Yeah.

02:02:55.000 And come on.

02:02:56.000 I mean, what are you...

02:02:57.000 Listen, yeah, you shouldn't go around smacking reporters.

02:03:00.000 Also, reporters shouldn't talk so disrespectfully to a gigantic savage.

02:03:06.000 Yeah, exactly.

02:03:07.000 And that era of guys, too.

02:03:10.000 Those were men.

02:03:11.000 You go into a dressing room nowadays, and it's a lot different.

02:03:16.000 I remember walking into my first real dressing room, and I also were some crusty men.

02:03:23.000 Half of them had guns and knives in their bags.

02:03:27.000 You know, shit got handled back then.

02:03:30.000 You know, now you walk in, you know, the guy's playing video games and fucking, you know, making sure they look pretty.

02:03:37.000 Hard times make hard men.

02:03:39.000 Exactly.

02:03:40.000 Yeah.

02:03:41.000 You know, it's evolution, I guess.

02:03:43.000 Yeah.

02:03:44.000 I don't know what it is, but I just prefer, I don't know.

02:03:48.000 I just liked, I like those areas, man.

02:03:51.000 I like that when men were men and I get it.

02:03:54.000 Well, I mean, that's obviously how you came up.

02:03:56.000 You came through that era when you see people that have it easier.

02:04:00.000 You think about those days you spent rolling around on the grass in front of that dude's house while his face cranking you.

02:04:07.000 I do.

02:04:07.000 I think about that often.

02:04:08.000 I was like...

02:04:10.000 Dodging piles of dog shit.

02:04:12.000 Look at what a rich, amazing story you have.

02:04:15.000 Like the eight months you spent in that lobby, going there every Wednesday.

02:04:19.000 All that stuff is what makes you you, and when it's all said and done, you're 30 plus years in the game, you can look back on that and go, I earned every fucking ounce of this.

02:04:32.000 Yeah, I can look back and, you know, I didn't cut any shortcuts and nothing was given to me.

02:04:38.000 I can be proud of that if nothing else.

02:04:42.000 Do you think it would feel the same way if you went through the grooming situation that they're going through now and when they get paid to train?

02:04:49.000 I'm sure they think they've got it hard.

02:04:51.000 Yeah.

02:04:51.000 Well, it's still not easy.

02:04:53.000 No, it's not easy.

02:04:55.000 But I'm sure they wake up certain days and they're like, fuck, I've got to go to the performance center and train.

02:05:00.000 You know?

02:05:00.000 They're like, fuck, I don't know where I'm going to sleep tonight.

02:05:03.000 Meanwhile, David Goggins is running with a fucking fluid in his knee.

02:05:06.000 He's running.

02:05:07.000 Stay hard!

02:05:08.000 Did you ever find the guy, your original coach, that just moved out?

02:05:12.000 Oh, that guy's dead.

02:05:13.000 He is dead.

02:05:15.000 Yeah, he's dead.

02:05:16.000 I ran into him a few years later.

02:05:18.000 I got in the business, and I left a really key point out of that story, what I did.

02:05:24.000 So I showed up at his house that day, right?

02:05:27.000 All the shit's gone.

02:05:28.000 All his furniture.

02:05:29.000 He'd moved on to another territory.

02:05:31.000 But I guess he had to leave so fast that he couldn't take his dogs.

02:05:36.000 He had two beautiful Rottweilers.

02:05:38.000 He left?

02:05:39.000 Yeah.

02:05:40.000 His dogs?

02:05:41.000 Just left them?

02:05:42.000 Just left them.

02:05:43.000 Oh my God.

02:05:44.000 They got good homes.

02:05:46.000 Well, you took them.

02:05:47.000 I took them.

02:05:47.000 Oh, that's right.

02:05:48.000 Yeah.

02:05:49.000 I was like...

02:05:49.000 Imagine if you didn't take them.

02:05:52.000 What the fuck was he going to do?

02:05:53.000 I have no idea.

02:05:54.000 I would think he would have came back or had somebody come back for him, but I was like, I'm out two grand.

02:06:00.000 I hadn't learned anything but some amateur wrestling.

02:06:03.000 I was like, fuck that.

02:06:04.000 I'm taking these dogs.

02:06:05.000 Yeah.

02:06:06.000 I couldn't eat myself.

02:06:08.000 I didn't have enough money to feed myself.

02:06:10.000 I didn't know how the fuck I was going to feed some dogs, but I knew I was getting something out of this.

02:06:14.000 I got the shit kicked out of me for six weeks.

02:06:17.000 I'm getting something out of this.

02:06:18.000 And I ran into him.

02:06:19.000 It was a few years later for a different company.

02:06:23.000 And we're sitting across...

02:06:24.000 And he had no clue.

02:06:26.000 He had no clue who I was.

02:06:27.000 And we're sitting across...

02:06:28.000 The dressing room, and I'm just fucking staring at him, right?

02:06:32.000 And he's like, you know, and he was, like I said, Buzz was, he was a tough guy.

02:06:36.000 He was, you know, a good amateur.

02:06:39.000 He said, fuck, why are you staring at me?

02:06:42.000 I said, you don't know who I am, do you?

02:06:43.000 He goes, well, fuck, should I? I was like, yeah, you probably should.

02:06:47.000 You took $2,000 with my money.

02:06:49.000 You should probably know who I am.

02:06:51.000 Yeah, and he's kind of fucking squinting at me like...

02:06:54.000 What do you want to fucking do?

02:06:57.000 I said, I don't need to do anything.

02:06:58.000 I got my money.

02:07:00.000 I said, how do you have your dogs?

02:07:03.000 Like, you took my dogs?

02:07:08.000 I was like, yeah, I took your fucking dogs.

02:07:11.000 You fucking left me.

02:07:12.000 He was like, well, fuck, what do you want to do?

02:07:16.000 I'm good, man.

02:07:17.000 I'm all good.

02:07:19.000 At that point, I'm still a fucking greenhorn, right?

02:07:23.000 He's a veteran, and I'm like, fuck.

02:07:26.000 I'd have probably got my ass kicked.

02:07:28.000 He'd have probably took me down and fucking put me out, but I'm thinking like, hmm.

02:07:35.000 But, you know, there's always like, fuck, you know, here I am trying to get my foot in the door and, you know, do I fight this guy and get fucking fired right out of the get-go?

02:07:43.000 Right, right.

02:07:44.000 And I remember one night, I had a chance, and I don't know, sometimes I think about it, I should have took it.

02:07:51.000 I was looking out my hotel window, and this hotel, there was a Waffle House.

02:07:57.000 And I was looking out my window, and I could see in the Waffle, I could see him, and he was by himself, and he was all fucked up.

02:08:02.000 He was all peeled up.

02:08:04.000 You know, you can tell, you know, he's bobbing.

02:08:06.000 I'm thinking, fuck.

02:08:09.000 I could go hide behind a car right now and just fucking tee off on him.

02:08:14.000 One, no one would care, and no one would know.

02:08:18.000 So I'm having this battle with myself.

02:08:20.000 It's like three in the morning.

02:08:21.000 Like, fuck.

02:08:22.000 Yeah, I think, fuck, no, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it.

02:08:26.000 Good thing you didn't do it.

02:08:27.000 Yeah, I didn't do it.

02:08:29.000 That's how people die.

02:08:30.000 Yeah, that's how people fucking really, you know.

02:08:32.000 And there would have been me on camera somewhere.

02:08:34.000 Yeah.

02:08:34.000 He owed me $2,000, but I did get his dogs, and now he's dead.

02:08:37.000 I'm sorry.

02:08:40.000 Yeah.

02:08:40.000 Everything worked out alright, I guess.

02:08:42.000 Yeah.

02:08:43.000 Have you ever tried Dallas Diamond Page's yoga?

02:08:46.000 I have not.

02:08:47.000 And you know what?

02:08:48.000 I'm actually contemplating giving Dallas a call.

02:08:52.000 You should give them a call.

02:08:53.000 It's legit.

02:08:54.000 It's very legit.

02:08:55.000 It's legit for everybody.

02:08:56.000 But, I mean, he has a soft spot in his heart for wrestlers, obviously.

02:08:59.000 Yeah.

02:09:00.000 Yeah, I mean, he's taking guys in.

02:09:01.000 He really helped Jake the Snake.

02:09:03.000 Yeah.

02:09:03.000 But his...

02:09:08.000 Yeah.

02:09:15.000 Yeah.

02:09:17.000 Yeah.

02:09:24.000 He's in his 60s.

02:09:27.000 I think he's in his 60s.

02:09:28.000 He's in his 60s.

02:09:29.000 Super flexible.

02:09:30.000 And that's one of the secrets to Chris Jericho's not getting injured.

02:09:33.000 He's another one of those big yoga guys.

02:09:36.000 And when DDP came out with his, he switched over to that.

02:09:39.000 Listen, man, Hickson Gracie, the greatest jiu-jitsu player of all time, was a yogi.

02:09:44.000 He was really into yoga.

02:09:45.000 It was one of his big secrets early in his career, is that Hickson was super flexible and super strong.

02:09:51.000 I mean, yoga's amazing.

02:09:53.000 But Dallas, he can grab his foot, like right now at his age, and stretch it up to a full split standing.

02:10:00.000 It's crazy.

02:10:00.000 He did it in my fucking studio without even warming up.

02:10:03.000 Just grabs his foot and can do it.

02:10:05.000 Fuck, I'd tear something, you'd have to pull me out of here...

02:10:08.000 Well, he did it.

02:10:09.000 He learned yoga and did all this because his back was so fucked.

02:10:13.000 And his back to this day, it's like, you know, stenosis is off the charts.

02:10:17.000 He probably barely has any discs back there.

02:10:19.000 But he just strengthened all those muscles on his spinal column so strong through yoga to the point where, you know, he doesn't really have any pain anymore.

02:10:27.000 Never had to get everything fused.

02:10:29.000 A lot of guys wind up getting their shit fused.

02:10:31.000 He just really got into yoga and helps a lot of people with it too.

02:10:35.000 There's amazing success stories on his website.

02:10:39.000 There was this one guy in particular who was overweight and he had to walk around on crutches and at the end of the video the guy's running.

02:10:45.000 A couple of years of him training him and adjusting his diet and then this constant daily dedication to that yoga.

02:10:55.000 Yeah, my wife's been on me.

02:10:56.000 She said, you need to call him.

02:10:57.000 She said, you don't even have to call him.

02:10:59.000 I was like, well, if I want to do it, I need to talk to him.

02:11:03.000 I need to do it.

02:11:04.000 He's such a great guy, too.

02:11:06.000 He's such a great guy.

02:11:07.000 Yeah, he's another one of those guys that has positive energy and makes you feel better just being around him.

02:11:14.000 He's also, he does so much for other people.

02:11:17.000 He really does love helping other people.

02:11:20.000 He likes helping them get clean, clean their act up, and then get their body in shape and get fit.

02:11:25.000 He has a whole house in Dallas that's dedicated, or is he in Atlanta?

02:11:30.000 I think he's in Atlanta.

02:11:31.000 Yeah, he has a whole house in Atlanta where he keeps people that are trying to get their shit together.

02:11:37.000 He helps guys out.

02:11:38.000 Yeah.

02:11:39.000 I should.

02:11:40.000 I got these guys.

02:11:41.000 A guy comes in once a week to my house, helps me stretch, and it does wonders.

02:11:50.000 I should probably do it three times a week.

02:11:52.000 Yeah, stretching is one of those things.

02:11:55.000 If you don't do it, you need it.

02:11:57.000 Yeah, these guys are good.

02:11:58.000 They used to be out on it, too.

02:12:02.000 I don't know if you ever saw TK? Is that from Black Swan Yoga?

02:12:06.000 No, no, no.

02:12:07.000 There's those guys?

02:12:07.000 TK Stretching, man.

02:12:08.000 It's his couple.

02:12:09.000 Oh, okay.

02:12:10.000 And Kimberly, she stretches my wife, and then Tim stretches me.

02:12:17.000 It's like one of the highlights.

02:12:20.000 Afterwards, it's like that two, three hours where I... I can still move.

02:12:24.000 Maybe I can still do this shit.

02:12:27.000 And then it goes away.

02:12:28.000 If you just did yoga every day, that's how you feel.

02:12:32.000 Legit.

02:12:32.000 That's how Dallas is.

02:12:34.000 It's really because of his yoga.

02:12:36.000 I've got to get that mindset.

02:12:38.000 When I was getting ready for an event, I'm a fucking animal.

02:12:44.000 It's like, okay, I've got to be ready on this date.

02:12:47.000 What would you do?

02:12:48.000 What's your training routine?

02:12:51.000 It's kind of like a modified CrossFit strength training kind of deal, which is catered around my injuries.

02:12:59.000 There's a lot of things that I can't do.

02:13:03.000 Most of my concerns over the last few years, because I would sometimes only work once a year, is cardio.

02:13:11.000 I'm not so worried about being all yoked up.

02:13:15.000 A lot of times I need to lose weight because I feel better at this point in my career at 290 or 285 than I do at 305. First thing to do is assess where I'm at.

02:13:30.000 Okay, do I need to, you know, do I need to add weight, gain weight, or lose weight?

02:13:35.000 Whatever I need to do.

02:13:36.000 And then where's my cardio?

02:13:39.000 Um, you know, cause my cardio is good.

02:13:42.000 Then everything else is kind of like riding a bike.

02:13:44.000 You know, I mean, I'll need to get in spar a little bit just for timing of, of certain things, but it all begins and ends with cardio.

02:13:51.000 So I back out 16 weeks and have the, you know, this is the, this is the goal for this deal.

02:13:58.000 And, you know, um, I have to do some strength training just to keep my sanity.

02:14:06.000 I used to do five exercises, four sets, ten reps.

02:14:15.000 That's the school that I come from.

02:14:17.000 I had to break it down into pushing sleds and kettlebells and all of that.

02:14:25.000 Assault bike.

02:14:26.000 Fuck.

02:14:27.000 Yeah, that's my favorite.

02:14:28.000 The assault bike?

02:14:29.000 Yeah, for torture.

02:14:30.000 Oh my gosh.

02:14:31.000 Tabatas, you do Tabatas on it?

02:14:33.000 Yeah.

02:14:33.000 20 second sprints and then 10 seconds off.

02:14:36.000 Have you ever seen the assault bike?

02:14:38.000 No.

02:14:38.000 It was at my studio.

02:14:39.000 I have it at home now, but it's got the handles.

02:14:43.000 I got an Echo bike from Rogue.

02:14:45.000 That's the best one.

02:14:46.000 That's the best one.

02:14:47.000 Yeah, it's fucking phenomenal.

02:14:49.000 It's so hard to do.

02:14:50.000 You do sprints.

02:14:51.000 So for 20 seconds, you go all out, and then you rest for 10 seconds, and then 20 seconds all out, and you do a series of eight of those.

02:14:58.000 It takes four minutes.

02:14:59.000 And, dude, you just want to die.

02:15:02.000 After four minutes is over, you just fall down, you collapse.

02:15:05.000 You look down, there's a puddle of sweat.

02:15:07.000 You're like, what happened?

02:15:08.000 Four minutes, honestly.

02:15:09.000 Four minutes will crush you.

02:15:11.000 When I was getting ready for elk hunting season, because you know that's in the mountains and it's hard, I did 10 of those.

02:15:19.000 So I did 10 of those four minutes, so 40 minutes.

02:15:22.000 So I'd do one, I'd let my heart rate drop down below 130 beats per minute, and then I'd just do another one again.

02:15:29.000 And then I just kept doing it.

02:15:31.000 Just kept doing it.

02:15:32.000 And my legs never got tired in elk hunting season.

02:15:35.000 They would always get tired.

02:15:36.000 But it conditions your legs so much because you're pushing against the resistance of that thing.

02:15:43.000 It's just one of the best cardio exercises ever.

02:15:46.000 And fighters use it all the time.

02:15:48.000 They'll do all their drills and all their pad hitting work.

02:15:53.000 And then when they have to do some extra conditioning at the end, a lot of guys love that.

02:15:57.000 Yeah, yeah.

02:15:59.000 Usually I would start up either on a wrong row, and then do my workout, and in the end, hit that Tabata.

02:16:10.000 It's amazing.

02:16:11.000 It's so good.

02:16:12.000 The whole time.

02:16:12.000 Bet it is.

02:16:13.000 You're right.

02:16:13.000 You feel so good.

02:16:15.000 And I've actually done it, too, where you cut the oxygen off.

02:16:21.000 Oh, Jesus.

02:16:22.000 Oh, yeah.

02:16:22.000 Like wearing one of those masks?

02:16:24.000 Mm-hmm.

02:16:24.000 Ugh.

02:16:26.000 Why?

02:16:27.000 Yeah, exactly.

02:16:28.000 That's what I'm thinking while I'm doing it.

02:16:29.000 I feel like my lungs are like a dried out sponge.

02:16:34.000 I'm like, fuck, get this thing off of me.

02:16:37.000 But I have that date, and I've got four months, and I don't want to embarrass myself.

02:16:48.000 That's the key.

02:16:51.000 You're old.

02:16:53.000 You're putting yourself out there.

02:16:55.000 Nobody's making you do this.

02:16:56.000 You're doing this yourself, so you've got to be the best you can be.

02:17:01.000 Then it's easy for me.

02:17:04.000 But, like, right now, I'm in this transition period, COVID, like, I'm going to need a Goggins call here in a minute.

02:17:10.000 I'm about to puss out.

02:17:12.000 I'm going to need Goggins to call and just cuss me out like a bitch.

02:17:15.000 But, yeah, it's just trying to get that, you know, that workout.

02:17:21.000 I'll go upstairs and, you know, do some bench, see what I can, you know.

02:17:26.000 With your shoulder, I can't imagine that you still do benching.

02:17:31.000 It's crazy.

02:17:33.000 Yeah.

02:17:34.000 Because that's the thing that fucks shoulders up the most, really, is benching.

02:17:37.000 I tore my pec.

02:17:41.000 Benching in 1999. I used to train with this guy.

02:17:47.000 He passed away.

02:17:47.000 His name was Brian Adams' crush.

02:17:49.000 Oh, yeah.

02:17:50.000 Yeah.

02:17:50.000 He was one of my best friends.

02:17:53.000 He grew up in Hawaii.

02:17:57.000 He'd go down.

02:17:58.000 He's always in the ocean.

02:18:00.000 Just incredible.

02:18:02.000 Funny story about Brian.

02:18:04.000 So I met him when I first started with WWE. I met him in a gym.

02:18:10.000 And I don't know anybody there, really.

02:18:13.000 He's on a squat rack, and he's got 315 on it.

02:18:17.000 And he comes over, hey, you mind spotting me, right?

02:18:19.000 And I said, yeah, yeah, sure.

02:18:21.000 So he's moved up to the bar, and he's getting his hands on it.

02:18:26.000 So when you spot somebody, when you think they're about to squat, you grab them underneath, right?

02:18:33.000 Right.

02:18:34.000 So I go and I grab him, right?

02:18:38.000 And he goes, what the fuck are you doing?

02:18:41.000 What are you, you know, I won't, I don't know how politically, you know, I won't use the expletives in the derogatory.

02:18:49.000 Yes.

02:18:49.000 Yes, you're following me, right?

02:18:50.000 Yes, I got you.

02:18:51.000 Okay.

02:18:52.000 So he goes, I'm not going to squat this.

02:18:54.000 This would crush me.

02:18:55.000 I'm on a military president.

02:18:59.000 315 behind the neck.

02:19:01.000 He did eight.

02:19:02.000 Boom.

02:19:04.000 Boom.

02:19:05.000 Wow.

02:19:05.000 And racked it.

02:19:07.000 And he was 6'7", right?

02:19:11.000 Big upper body.

02:19:12.000 That's a lot of fucking weight to military press.

02:19:15.000 Yeah, and standing.

02:19:15.000 Not on a Smith machine.

02:19:17.000 He just did it, right?

02:19:19.000 Huge upper body, like pull cues for legs.

02:19:25.000 But anyway, that was my training partner, right?

02:19:28.000 So we're training one day, and...

02:19:31.000 I was rehabbing a groin injury, and I was just about to go back to work, and feeling really strong one day.

02:19:39.000 So I got 485 on, and Brian was a social butterfly, right?

02:19:43.000 So he's talking to the guy over here.

02:19:46.000 So he unracks it.

02:19:48.000 I go down.

02:19:52.000 One.

02:19:52.000 I'm like, oh, fuck.

02:19:54.000 That felt good.

02:19:54.000 Great.

02:19:55.000 So I come down for the second one.

02:19:58.000 And it felt like, you know when a fish starts to hit a line?

02:20:02.000 Yeah.

02:20:03.000 It starts tugging.

02:20:04.000 Oh, no.

02:20:05.000 That's what I feel.

02:20:06.000 It's like...

02:20:07.000 Oh, no.

02:20:11.000 Brian's oblivious.

02:20:12.000 Oh no.

02:20:13.000 So I'm sitting there with 485 on my chest like this.

02:20:15.000 Like, Brian!

02:20:17.000 Brian!

02:20:17.000 And he's like, and he comes up, come on, you got it!

02:20:20.000 Oh my God.

02:20:21.000 And I'm like, look, I can already tell it was just, it was just fucking gone.

02:20:25.000 So he fucking upright rose the shit off of me.

02:20:28.000 Oh my God.

02:20:30.000 Well, adrenaline and, you know, and I'm just like, oh shit.

02:20:34.000 I tore the, I tore the, I tore the muscle from the tendon.

02:20:41.000 Did you get it reattached?

02:20:43.000 Yeah, I got it reattached.

02:20:46.000 Another time, Dr. Bird tells me, he goes, I know you know a lot more about medicine than I do.

02:20:52.000 He goes, you tear it again, I'm not going to be able to fix it.

02:20:55.000 So you might want to do your rehab.

02:20:57.000 Back then, I'd do half-ass rehab and get back to work as soon as I could.

02:21:02.000 How long did it take to recover from that?

02:21:04.000 That took a while, and it was a long time.

02:21:07.000 That was about an eight-month rehab on that one.

02:21:10.000 And then I didn't bench again for years.

02:21:12.000 Yeah.

02:21:13.000 I was just scared.

02:21:15.000 Fuck, I don't want to tear it again.

02:21:16.000 Yeah, it's a scary one.

02:21:18.000 Yeah, it was...

02:21:20.000 Torn pecs are weird.

02:21:21.000 I had a friend who had a torn peck, and he never got it fixed.

02:21:23.000 So he had this weird, crazy divot.

02:21:25.000 Yeah, it was real odd.

02:21:27.000 It's like he had extra tit here, and this was like a hole.

02:21:32.000 Yeah.

02:21:32.000 It's crazy how tough wrestlers are.

02:21:34.000 I remember one of the Piper things that I remember the most is we were hanging out a lot.

02:21:38.000 He was doing stand-up at the comedy store in some of the last years of his life, hanging out there a lot late night with me, embarrassed.

02:21:45.000 Like, we would all just go to the diners afterwards, and he would drive a lot, and he was having trouble with his shoulder, sort of famously, for a month.

02:21:54.000 And he was like, oh, God, when he was turning his steering wheel, it was like, oh, you could tell...

02:21:58.000 Even though he obviously had a very high tolerance for pain.

02:22:02.000 Extremely high tolerance for pain.

02:22:03.000 He's like, ah, shoulder.

02:22:04.000 He's like, yeah, I'm going to a doctor in a couple weeks.

02:22:07.000 Next couple, a whole couple weeks, my shoulder.

02:22:10.000 Jeez Louise.

02:22:11.000 Then after that, he's like, yeah, I went to the doctor.

02:22:14.000 Turns out my neck's broken.

02:22:15.000 He had a broken neck.

02:22:18.000 I thought he had a sore shoulder.

02:22:21.000 How did he break his neck?

02:22:23.000 I mean, it's just like every injury is...

02:22:26.000 It's crazy.

02:22:26.000 So I wrestled after that, I think it was 2015, I wrestled Lesnar at WrestleMania in the Superdome.

02:22:34.000 Somewhere in the first five minutes or so of the match, I get concussed.

02:22:38.000 I can't tell you where it happened, when it happened, but I have no memory whatsoever of the match at all.

02:22:47.000 Crazy.

02:22:48.000 Like, my memory from that day...

02:22:51.000 The last memory that I have is about three o'clock in the afternoon.

02:22:55.000 This is crazy, right?

02:22:56.000 Three o'clock in the afternoon, I have a conversation with my wife.

02:23:00.000 So obviously I had all that time.

02:23:02.000 I think we went to the ring around 9, 930. The concussion happens somewhere within the first five minutes of the match.

02:23:12.000 And anyway, I go through the match.

02:23:15.000 The match goes for 30 minutes.

02:23:17.000 I couldn't tell you one thing about it.

02:23:19.000 I mean, I've seen it back now, but I mean, at the time, I got no recollection.

02:23:23.000 Couldn't tell you my name.

02:23:25.000 Couldn't tell you where I was at.

02:23:26.000 Had no clue.

02:23:27.000 Never lost consciousness, but had no clue.

02:23:31.000 Anyway, they take me to the hospital.

02:23:34.000 And, uh...

02:23:36.000 They take me back, and my wife and Vince are there in the waiting room.

02:23:40.000 They come out.

02:23:41.000 It's the same kind of deal.

02:23:43.000 They go, all right, he's broken his neck, and we're going to give him another scan.

02:23:51.000 Obviously, my wife is completely freaking out at this point.

02:23:58.000 Come to find out they had read the scans wrong.

02:24:03.000 It was an old break that I never knew I had.

02:24:07.000 Yeah.

02:24:09.000 So you had a break, you're just still wrestling with it.

02:24:11.000 And I never knew it.

02:24:12.000 Oh my god.

02:24:13.000 Yeah.

02:24:13.000 Probably just assumed, like, was that pain in your shoulder too?

02:24:17.000 Like, that's what I'm noticing.

02:24:18.000 It's like a lot of these neck injuries go to the shoulder.

02:24:21.000 Well, you're talking about your neck injury.

02:24:23.000 Is that where it's bothering you?

02:24:24.000 Yeah, totally.

02:24:25.000 The whole back of my shoulder blade's messed up, and I just found out that my neck's messed up, disc on disc, whatever.

02:24:32.000 Bone on bone, yeah.

02:24:33.000 You have stenosis.

02:24:34.000 Yeah.

02:24:34.000 You probably got that from wrestling.

02:24:36.000 Yeah?

02:24:37.000 Yeah.

02:24:38.000 Oh, yeah.

02:24:38.000 They have me on steroids right now, can you tell?

02:24:41.000 They ain't got you on the right ones.

02:24:46.000 They probably have you on cortisone.

02:24:48.000 Yeah.

02:24:49.000 Methylprednisone or something?

02:24:50.000 Yeah, prednisone.

02:24:50.000 Yes.

02:24:51.000 I don't think you get jacked on prednisone.

02:24:52.000 Damn.

02:24:53.000 It's the wrong stuff.

02:24:54.000 I'd be huge if you did.

02:24:59.000 Yeah, I contacted that dude about stem cells.

02:25:03.000 Oh, cool.

02:25:03.000 Talked to him about that.

02:25:04.000 Have you had any stem cells?

02:25:06.000 I have.

02:25:07.000 I've had, you know, I did PRP and stem cells and didn't do much good for, like, I put them in my knee.

02:25:14.000 But I had all these guys, now they're going down to Columbia, and they swear by it.

02:25:20.000 I think they're getting more down there than the FDA will allow here.

02:25:27.000 Exactly.

02:25:28.000 Two guys that I know have gone down there and swear by it.

02:25:33.000 It's like...

02:25:34.000 Yeah, I sent my mom down there.

02:25:36.000 I sent my mom to Panama.

02:25:37.000 Yeah, twice.

02:25:38.000 She had a really bad knee and it was in pain all the time.

02:25:43.000 And she went and then six months later, the pain went away.

02:25:48.000 It took a while.

02:25:49.000 But for six months, she was like, I'm not feeling anything.

02:25:52.000 It feels the same.

02:25:53.000 And then about six months later, because she's in her 70s, it took a little while before it kicked in.

02:25:59.000 But then it started feeling much better.

02:26:02.000 And then she went back again for a booster a while later.

02:26:06.000 It helped a lot.

02:26:07.000 I've heard nothing but I hadn't heard any bad for sure.

02:26:12.000 What's going on with your knees?

02:26:13.000 Arthritis.

02:26:16.000 I think once again going back to my hips and throwing my gait off, my walk off.

02:26:23.000 Well, it's just also the weight, you know, carrying that much weight around for anybody with your cartilage and your miscus and the kind of shit you're doing.

02:26:31.000 So these crazy explosive movements and, you know.

02:26:35.000 Yeah, when I was getting ready, I was getting ready three or four years ago.

02:26:41.000 I did a, I was training over here for that too.

02:26:48.000 Way too old, but did a 42-inch box jump.

02:26:54.000 And then did a 500-pound pull, which I was like, fuck, I couldn't believe it.

02:27:01.000 I was like...

02:27:03.000 I didn't even know, one, I could get down that low, you know, to even get to deadlift.

02:27:11.000 But it started, you know, then I started looking back through some of the footage of the training.

02:27:18.000 It started with me doing step-ups.

02:27:22.000 I mean, that was where I started my program at, just doing step-ups on a bench to end up...

02:27:28.000 42-inch box shot.

02:27:30.000 That's impressive.

02:27:32.000 That's impressive.

02:27:34.000 I couldn't do it now.

02:27:36.000 But deadlifting.

02:27:38.000 You know Robert Oberst?

02:27:39.000 He's a strong man.

02:27:41.000 He doesn't even believe in deadlifts.

02:27:42.000 He's like, you shouldn't do deadlifts.

02:27:44.000 It's just the weight on your...

02:27:46.000 It's very controversial for him to say.

02:27:47.000 Some people disagree.

02:27:48.000 Yeah.

02:27:49.000 Yeah.

02:27:49.000 But it's one of those things.

02:27:51.000 It's like, you can fuck your back up.

02:27:54.000 Easily.

02:27:54.000 Yeah, especially if you're doing heavy weights.

02:27:57.000 With poor technique.

02:27:58.000 Yeah, it's real easy to do.

02:28:00.000 Yeah.

02:28:02.000 Yeah.

02:28:02.000 I mean, I don't have any reason at this point to try a 500-pound deadlift.

02:28:06.000 I got nothing left to prove.

02:28:09.000 I got one.

02:28:10.000 I got one on film, bro.

02:28:11.000 I'm good, man.

02:28:12.000 We got to boost Tony up to that.

02:28:14.000 That's it.

02:28:14.000 I've been telling you, if you want to get bigger, you got to lift heavy things.

02:28:18.000 Squats and deadlifts.

02:28:20.000 You got to tell your body that something's wrong.

02:28:22.000 Something's horribly wrong, and you have to lift heavy things now forever.

02:28:26.000 Yeah.

02:28:27.000 I was going.

02:28:28.000 I was going to the gym, and then my neck got messed up.

02:28:30.000 He ain't sold on it.

02:28:34.000 We need a fucking Goggins hotline.

02:28:36.000 For Tony.

02:28:37.000 You just saw Goggins pull a quart of fucking fluid out of his knee.

02:28:40.000 And you're like, my neck's kind of bothering me.

02:28:43.000 I can't really do squats.

02:28:45.000 I was really getting into it, but now it's just uncomfortable, so I'm just going to sleep.

02:28:52.000 Sleep it off.

02:28:55.000 Do you still follow WWE now?

02:28:58.000 Are you still...

02:28:59.000 Yeah, because I think once things are starting to lighten up, hopefully...

02:29:03.000 Can you enjoy it as a fan, or are you too close to it?

02:29:07.000 I try.

02:29:12.000 It's tough right now for me, because the product has changed so much, and it's kind of soft.

02:29:24.000 Are you going to get in trouble for saying that?

02:29:25.000 Probably.

02:29:28.000 I probably piss a lot of people off, but they need to hear it.

02:29:31.000 It is what it is.

02:29:34.000 But to the young guys, he's a bitter old guy.

02:29:38.000 I'm not bitter.

02:29:39.000 I did my time.

02:29:40.000 I'm good.

02:29:41.000 I walked away when I wanted to walk away.

02:29:43.000 I just think the product is a little soft.

02:29:47.000 There's guys here and there that have an edge to them.

02:29:54.000 But there's too much pretty and not enough substance, I think, right now.

02:29:58.000 100%.

02:29:59.000 You agree?

02:29:59.000 Yeah.

02:30:00.000 What bothers you?

02:30:02.000 I think they're playing for a billion-dollar market.

02:30:07.000 They want the kids.

02:30:08.000 They want the kids' merchandise to sell.

02:30:10.000 The parents will buy stuff for the kids.

02:30:13.000 The new t-shirts come out.

02:30:14.000 But really, it was...

02:30:16.000 I think that the peak of everything was the Attitude Era, right?

02:30:21.000 99, early 2000s, and all your learning things.

02:30:26.000 It's like you're becoming...

02:30:28.000 Instead of playing to kids to be like, Hey, look at this silly character.

02:30:32.000 You're a kid.

02:30:33.000 You'll enjoy this.

02:30:34.000 The kids, like me, in grade school and high school, were watching because it was...

02:30:41.000 It was like, oh my god, it's darker, it's crazy sexual, like the stuff DX used to do.

02:30:48.000 They would just make fun of each other harsher.

02:30:52.000 The shit-talking was harder.

02:30:55.000 The storylines were tougher.

02:30:57.000 Now it's more of a big brand for a big network.

02:31:01.000 They don't have that edge that it used to have.

02:31:04.000 They're trying...

02:31:06.000 And it's always been this way, but they're trying...

02:31:11.000 Put something out for everybody.

02:31:15.000 Some guys are into the comedy shit, and then there's other guys that want to see the more hardcore-type fighting.

02:31:24.000 I think one of the big things that happened is that the generation before, we all got old at the same time.

02:31:35.000 And so there weren't enough guys to work with the young guys.

02:31:41.000 I mean, we can sit and talk and I can give you my theories on what you should do or you should do this or maybe you should try this.

02:31:50.000 But until you actually can get in the ring and actually do it, It doesn't really translate a lot of times.

02:31:57.000 And then you also have too many people that, well, they're on the internet.

02:32:03.000 These guys on the internet say, I'm pretty fucking good, you know?

02:32:06.000 Okay, well, you can listen to them or you can listen to somebody who's been there and done it, you know?

02:32:16.000 So I think there needed to, you can't help it, but there was just not enough merging of the young and the new talent.

02:32:25.000 Like when we had Stone Cold and Rock and Triple H, Sean, all these guys, we were all working together.

02:32:32.000 We were making money and we were drawing.

02:32:35.000 And then we all just kind of, we aged out.

02:32:38.000 I mean, I hung in there for a long time, but we kind of aged out.

02:32:42.000 And then it just left all these young guys to learn with more young guys.

02:32:47.000 And the product, you know, the product changed.

02:32:52.000 We have, you know, the PC, the training center is helping.

02:32:57.000 We got Triple H, you know, great wrestler.

02:33:01.000 You know, he heads that whole thing.

02:33:03.000 And he's trying to get some of the toothpaste back in the tube, you know.

02:33:08.000 Trying to move it back to kind of a, you know, take a step back to move forward.

02:33:13.000 Right.

02:33:13.000 To give the product a little more edge.

02:33:15.000 And I think that's what it's missing.

02:33:17.000 What is CM Punk doing?

02:33:18.000 Is he wrestling again?

02:33:19.000 No.

02:33:21.000 No, I don't think so.

02:33:22.000 I don't think he went to AEW or anything now.

02:33:25.000 I don't think so.

02:33:27.000 Yeah.

02:33:27.000 So when he had his last fight, you just...

02:33:30.000 I've seen him a couple of times on...

02:33:36.000 One of Fox's shows.

02:33:38.000 Yeah, they had him on a few times.

02:33:40.000 I think they stopped doing that show.

02:33:42.000 They had him doing a little, like, here's what's happening this week in WWE on Fox.

02:33:47.000 And it was on Fox 1 or Fox Sports 1 or whatever.

02:33:50.000 But then that was it.

02:33:52.000 I think they canceled that show.

02:33:53.000 God, that was a crazy gamble for him to fight.

02:33:56.000 Yeah, I just, I don't, I'm not real close with him.

02:34:00.000 I mean, you know, we got along.

02:34:02.000 I didn't understand it.

02:34:04.000 I know, you know, he had an issue with the company.

02:34:08.000 Yeah.

02:34:09.000 Yeah, and sometimes, you know, people just want to, you know, they need a new challenge.

02:34:14.000 But, I mean, he was a top dude.

02:34:15.000 He was, you know, he was a top guy for the company.

02:34:20.000 Sometimes, you know, like I said, I don't know enough because I wasn't around enough at that time.

02:34:26.000 But, you know, I don't know that he had enough background.

02:34:32.000 It was kind of late in the game, I think, for him to make that transition.

02:34:37.000 Yeah.

02:34:37.000 You know, it was easier for Brock.

02:34:39.000 Brock had that really strong wrestling pedigree.

02:34:41.000 Brock's also a crazy athlete.

02:34:43.000 He's a freak athlete.

02:34:44.000 Just crazy.

02:34:45.000 You see his combine numbers?

02:34:47.000 Oh, my God.

02:34:47.000 It's ridiculous.

02:34:48.000 Bananas.

02:34:49.000 Yeah.

02:34:50.000 He's one of those guys that defy...

02:34:53.000 He was 260 pounds, but his shot was like a 160. You can't believe somebody his size can move the way he can move.

02:35:04.000 No, he was a freak.

02:35:05.000 He was a freak athlete.

02:35:06.000 I used to call him the vanilla gorilla.

02:35:09.000 He was just a freak dude.

02:35:14.000 So, you know, I just don't, you know, Punk, you know, I don't know.

02:35:18.000 I mean, if he just wanted the challenge, I mean, good for him.

02:35:21.000 I mean, he tested it.

02:35:22.000 I think that's what it was, you know.

02:35:23.000 I mean, he had one, he fought Mickey Gall, and it didn't...

02:35:27.000 Mickey Gall's a good fighter, an up-and-coming guy, too, you know, so, you know.

02:35:33.000 And then he fought Michael Jackson, another guy afterwards, who was a pretty solid striker.

02:35:40.000 Yeah.

02:35:41.000 So you got kind of a tough draw.

02:35:43.000 Yeah.

02:35:43.000 The Michael Jackson fight, I'm telling you, that was like as easy a fight.

02:35:47.000 No, I want to say easy a fight.

02:35:48.000 But that was commensurate to someone who is 0-1.

02:35:53.000 And Michael's much more experienced, but he wasn't terrifying.

02:36:00.000 Yeah.

02:36:01.000 He didn't put him in there with some guy who was going to kick his head off into the fifth row.

02:36:05.000 It was a good fight for him, but not really.

02:36:11.000 The guy's good.

02:36:13.000 I don't know what CM Punk's ultimate motivation and goal was, but I think he wanted to test himself.

02:36:20.000 I think they paid him a lot of money.

02:36:22.000 I'm sure he did good buy numbers, I bet.

02:36:25.000 I'm sure.

02:36:25.000 I'm sure he got a piece of the pay-per-view or a really good deal.

02:36:29.000 But, you know...

02:36:31.000 I feel like if somebody wants to do something like that, if you really want to do it, what you should do is start as an amateur.

02:36:39.000 I don't know if he has the time, because I believe he's deep in his 30s by the time he had his first fight.

02:36:45.000 Yeah, absolutely.

02:36:45.000 That's what I'm saying.

02:36:46.000 It was late in the game.

02:36:49.000 But if he wanted to do it, the right way is not just jump into the UFC. The right way is you do some amateur fights, maybe a Muay Thai smoker or two, really learn how to do it.

02:37:00.000 And it takes...

02:37:01.000 Long fucking time.

02:37:03.000 Long fucking time to get real legitimate martial arts skills.

02:37:07.000 Anything.

02:37:08.000 It takes a long time to be relevant with WWE. Anything you want to do and want to be good at, you don't do it in a couple of years.

02:37:19.000 You've got to take your lumps and you've got to learn your craft.

02:37:22.000 It is interesting how few guys have jumped into the water though of actually having a real MMA fight.

02:37:29.000 Yeah.

02:37:30.000 Well, I think, you know, now it's so specialized now.

02:37:36.000 Now everybody's so good at jiu-jitsu and everybody can stand up as good.

02:37:41.000 Everybody can wrestle, you know.

02:37:43.000 Not like in the early days, you know, where everybody had their specialty.

02:37:46.000 You know, you had your stand-up guys and, you know, and then, you know, Gracie came along and fucked everything up.

02:37:52.000 What happened with Cain Velasquez?

02:37:53.000 Cain Velasquez was working for the company for a little while.

02:37:56.000 I don't know.

02:37:56.000 You know what?

02:37:57.000 I saw him one day at the Performance Center.

02:37:59.000 I was there working.

02:38:00.000 I think I was getting ready for Mania.

02:38:02.000 He had that match with Brock Lesnar.

02:38:04.000 Yeah, and I thought, okay.

02:38:05.000 They messed that one up on the creative side.

02:38:08.000 Is my...

02:38:10.000 Big guess here.

02:38:11.000 I mean, they had one sort of match, right?

02:38:14.000 Him and Brock, sort of.

02:38:15.000 And then they did this weird MMA thing where they tried to make the second one like MMA and it was just a debacle.

02:38:22.000 Was it?

02:38:22.000 Yeah, it was really one of the saddest things I've ever seen.

02:38:26.000 Because they tried to make it like they were doing MMA in the wrestling ring.

02:38:31.000 It just didn't make sense.

02:38:31.000 That's tough to do.

02:38:32.000 I mean, unless you go...

02:38:36.000 Unless you go half shoot or full shoot, it's just hard to do.

02:38:40.000 People don't know what you're saying.

02:38:42.000 Shoot, for folks who don't know, means a real fight.

02:38:45.000 Yeah.

02:38:47.000 Old school wrestler's terms.

02:38:48.000 I'm an old school dude, man.

02:38:50.000 That's all I got.

02:38:51.000 What's crazy is Kane is a big fan of pro wrestling and he's got moves.

02:38:55.000 There's a video of him, you see the way he does that flying scissors, catches a guy and wraps his legs around his head and then flips him.

02:39:02.000 And that's exactly what they should have done with him and Brock.

02:39:04.000 They should have had him learn a few cool moves like that.

02:39:07.000 Protect him and then let him come along.

02:39:10.000 It's funny, I remember going to a fight, it was in Vegas, and I run into Matt Hughes and his brother.

02:39:17.000 They were huge.

02:39:18.000 Wrestling fans.

02:39:19.000 They started showing me their moves.

02:39:22.000 I think Matt was putting a body scissor on his brother.

02:39:28.000 It's standing, right?

02:39:30.000 They were just like, what do you think about this?

02:39:32.000 What about this?

02:39:33.000 I was like, it's pretty good.

02:39:34.000 You've got to fight.

02:39:37.000 You've got to fight in about an hour.

02:39:39.000 You're worried about...

02:39:40.000 He's trying out pro wrestling moves.

02:39:42.000 And it wasn't my opinion on him.

02:39:43.000 That's hilarious.

02:39:44.000 Yeah, it was funny, but those were good dudes.

02:39:47.000 I remember...

02:39:49.000 You know, Pat Miller, he used to invite me out to his place all the time.

02:39:54.000 But that's when I was on the road all the time.

02:39:57.000 But all those guys, you know, Tim Sylvia, all those guys are big wrestling fans.

02:40:01.000 Huge.

02:40:01.000 Yeah.

02:40:02.000 Well, listen, Mark, thank you very much for being here, man.

02:40:05.000 I really appreciate it.

02:40:05.000 Thanks for having me, man.

02:40:06.000 I really enjoyed it.

02:40:07.000 I've had a good time.

02:40:07.000 Thank you, Tony.

02:40:08.000 Indeed.

02:40:08.000 Thank you, guys.

02:40:10.000 You're the gap, brother.

02:40:12.000 Well, if there's ever a pro wrestling person on, I have to have Tony.

02:40:16.000 I was just hearing it lessen the testosterone in the room a little bit.

02:40:19.000 You know what I mean?

02:40:20.000 You needed to add some, what's it called?

02:40:23.000 Estrogen.

02:40:24.000 Let me extend it.

02:40:25.000 So we just announced for the next three years where our manias are at, right?

02:40:29.000 Okay.

02:40:30.000 So this year is going to be in Raymond James.

02:40:33.000 Next year, 22 is going to be in Texas Stadium again.

02:40:36.000 Where's Raymond James?

02:40:37.000 That's in Tampa.

02:40:38.000 Okay.

02:40:38.000 That's going to be 21. But in 22...

02:40:42.000 It's going to be in Dallas at Texas Stadium.

02:40:45.000 You should come.

02:40:46.000 If I can?

02:40:47.000 I know you're not a wrestling fan.

02:40:51.000 I'll take acid and go.

02:40:52.000 How about that?

02:40:53.000 I guarantee you.

02:40:55.000 I guarantee you you'll have a good time.

02:40:57.000 I would go if I'm around.

02:40:59.000 I never know where I'm at, especially in 2022. I hope in 2022 you actually have real audiences.

02:41:06.000 Isn't that weird?

02:41:08.000 I would have imagined we would have real audiences by now.

02:41:11.000 You kind of can still in Tampa.

02:41:13.000 Is that why April it's in Tampa?

02:41:14.000 I think so.

02:41:15.000 They just announced these yesterday.

02:41:17.000 So we got the Royal Rumble coming up in two weeks.

02:41:20.000 That kind of sets off WrestleMania season.

02:41:22.000 But I promise you, fan or not a fan, you will have a good time.

02:41:26.000 I'm sure.

02:41:26.000 I've been telling him this for years.

02:41:28.000 Hopefully you get it through to him.

02:41:30.000 Can you pull up a live shot of Texas Stadium?

02:41:33.000 Just to give you a feel.

02:41:35.000 That's the one in Dallas, right?

02:41:37.000 Yeah, that's where the Cowboys play.

02:41:38.000 They wanted to do a UFC fight there.

02:41:40.000 That's where Conor wanted to fight...

02:41:42.000 I think he wanted to fight Khabib there.

02:41:45.000 Oh, that would have been awesome.

02:41:47.000 Yeah, I think he was trying...

02:41:48.000 They wanted to do a UFC fight there, which is just fucking bananas.

02:41:52.000 Oh my god, that is so crazy.

02:41:54.000 100 and...

02:41:55.000 Jesus Christ!

02:41:56.000 5,000 people.

02:41:58.000 That's so many people.

02:42:00.000 Look at the size of that crowd.

02:42:02.000 Oh my god.

02:42:04.000 How big is fucking Wrestlemania?

02:42:07.000 That's crazy.

02:42:08.000 Huge.

02:42:09.000 That is crazy.

02:42:10.000 When you look at that many people there for that.

02:42:11.000 What a successful fucking event.

02:42:14.000 They come from 25 different countries.

02:42:18.000 Just people all over the world.

02:42:19.000 That's the big one.

02:42:20.000 This is our Super Bowl.

02:42:23.000 This is, yeah, that's amazing.

02:42:25.000 I was supposed to go to my first one this year.

02:42:27.000 I still have the ticket.

02:42:29.000 Never got to use it for Tampa Bay.

02:42:32.000 I was going to go in April.

02:42:33.000 I was going to do shows in Florida and then have the Sunday off.

02:42:38.000 I had it all planned out.

02:42:39.000 I tell you, we're alive.

02:42:42.000 We're alive.

02:42:43.000 We can keep going.

02:42:44.000 Yep.

02:42:45.000 Well, thank you.

02:42:46.000 Thank you, Mark.

02:42:47.000 Thank you very much, man.

02:42:48.000 Thanks for having me, man.

02:42:48.000 My pleasure.

02:42:49.000 Thank you, Tony.

02:42:49.000 I really appreciate it.

02:42:50.000 Thank you, Young Jamie, always.

02:42:52.000 Thank you, everybody.

02:42:52.000 Goodbye.

02:42:53.000 Thank you.

The Joe Rogan Experience - January 20, 2021

Joe Rogan Experience #1598 - The Undertaker

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