The Joe Rogan Experience - Joe Rogan Experience #2423 - John Cena

00:00:03.000 The Joe Rogan experience.

00:00:06.000 Train by day, Joe Rogan.

00:00:07.000 Podcast by night, all day.

00:00:13.000 What's up?

00:00:14.000 John Cena in the fucking house.

00:00:17.000 Yeah, let's put these on.

00:00:18.000 Pretend we're professional.

00:00:20.000 What's up?

00:00:21.000 Good to see you.

00:00:22.000 Thanks so much for having me.

00:00:23.000 My pleasure.

00:00:24.000 And there's no way I'm having a pro wrestler on without Tony Hinchcliffe.

00:00:28.000 Of course, possible.

00:00:29.000 He's the expert.

00:00:30.000 He knows more about pro wrestling than I know about UFC.

00:00:33.000 Sometimes I translate little things here and there.

00:00:33.000 Yeah.

00:00:36.000 It's all right.

00:00:36.000 That's cool.

00:00:37.000 Yeah, he has to.

00:00:38.000 And he's a giant fan of yours too.

00:00:38.000 He has to.

00:00:40.000 You know what else is a giant fan of yours?

00:00:42.000 Is Brian Simpson?

00:00:43.000 Brian Simpson was going on last night about how intelligent you are.

00:00:46.000 It was really interesting.

00:00:48.000 Sure, it was me.

00:00:49.000 Yeah, man.

00:00:50.000 Well, you do speak fucking Mandarin, which is kind of crazy. 0.99

00:00:54.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:00:55.000 How long did it take you to learn that?

00:00:57.000 Man, I was doing that for quite a long time.

00:01:00.000 I've since kind of declined on the studies.

00:01:05.000 A wonderful takeaway from the study of Mandarin.

00:01:09.000 Just because you know a language doesn't mean you know the culture.

00:01:12.000 So that was a fantastic experience with, but I studied Mandarin for like a decade.

00:01:16.000 And I would say like not even conversationally fluent.

00:01:20.000 It was a really tough hill to climb for me.

00:01:22.000 Well, it seems like a really big hill.

00:01:26.000 It's just different.

00:01:27.000 You know, you get used to language and the structure.

00:01:29.000 You know, the meaning is different.

00:01:29.000 You can read it.

00:01:30.000 No, I didn't even bother to read.

00:01:32.000 And like reading all the characters, understanding everything.

00:01:34.000 Yeah.

00:01:35.000 How long did it take you to learn?

00:01:37.000 Around 10 years.

00:01:38.000 Whoa.

00:01:39.000 And then like, I mean, I would dream in Mandarin and like have conversations and kick down and that. 0.94

00:01:39.000 Yeah. 0.94

00:01:44.000 So it became like a like a second language.

00:01:48.000 But, you know, I lived in China for a little bit.

00:01:51.000 I filmed a movie with Jackie Chan, so I was there for like six or seven months.

00:01:54.000 I lived there in, man, we were Inner Mongolia, Yinchuan province.

00:01:58.000 So like in China.

00:02:00.000 Wow.

00:02:01.000 And it was fun.

00:02:02.000 Yeah.

00:02:03.000 You were in Mongolia.

00:02:05.000 Inner Mongolia.

00:02:06.000 Yeah.

00:02:06.000 What's the difference?

00:02:08.000 I don't know because I've never been in Mongolia, but Inner Mongolia was, man, I was the only person that looked like me there.

00:02:15.000 And everyone would say, look, it's big white guy, Hyundai Bairn.

00:02:19.000 Hyundai Bairen.

00:02:20.000 They would call me.

00:02:20.000 Wow.

00:02:21.000 Yeah.

00:02:22.000 Wow.

00:02:23.000 So what motivated you to learn that?

00:02:25.000 It seems like such a task.

00:02:26.000 Honestly, man, everything in my life seems to be wrestling related.

00:02:30.000 It was wrestling related.

00:02:31.000 Like WWE's reach spread everywhere.

00:02:35.000 I mean, I've been able to lucky enough to perform everywhere from like Moscow, Philippines, South Africa, Bangor, Maine, every place in between, except China.

00:02:45.000 China was like the one place that didn't understand what we did.

00:02:49.000 So it's literally like it's a universal language because you can turn, it's like UFC.

00:02:54.000 Like you turn the volume down, but you can see like, oh, this is two guys, best guy wins.

00:02:58.000 I get it.

00:03:00.000 The Chinese just didn't get it. 1.00

00:03:01.000 So I figured if like one of our superstars spoke the language, maybe that would help break down the barrier.

00:03:07.000 And we got into.

00:03:08.000 Is that your idea?

00:03:09.000 It was my idea, but the WWE offers, and I think they still offer it.

00:03:12.000 They offer a free second language program.

00:03:15.000 So like when they rolled out the initiative of like financial advice and, you know, they'll pay for portions of your secondary education and free second language.

00:03:25.000 This is like 2011, 2012, big talent meeting and like an auditorium.

00:03:30.000 I'm one of the old guys of the time sitting in the front being like, these kids don't know how good they have it.

00:03:34.000 I should stand up and tell them to be like, no, fuck that.

00:03:37.000 I'm actually going to lead by example and take a language.

00:03:41.000 So I signed up right then, then and there for Chinese because I wanted to get us into China.

00:03:46.000 Wow.

00:03:47.000 And like I said, it worked, but it kind of only worked.

00:03:50.000 And they I think, I think actually right now, China is experiencing what wrestling is to them.

00:03:56.000 Because I've read articles that there's promotions over there that are thriving.

00:04:00.000 So now they get it.

00:04:02.000 Oh, so they have their own promotions.

00:04:03.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:04:04.000 And this is a fairly recent thing?

00:04:05.000 I think so.

00:04:06.000 I just read recent articles that pro wrestling is thriving in China and they have their own, like their own way of doing it.

00:04:13.000 Yeah.

00:04:13.000 Wow.

00:04:14.000 Wow.

00:04:15.000 That's wild.

00:04:16.000 It's wild how like expansive the pro wrestling business is that they would be that open-minded to say like let's let's give second language programs to the athletes.

00:04:30.000 Well, you know, I just it's it's weird.

00:04:32.000 The origins of the business are carnival related.

00:04:35.000 It is like a carnival attraction and then it was like ruthlessly territorial.

00:04:40.000 And then when it became national, it was still trying to find its way.

00:04:42.000 It's almost like you see pro sports doing it.

00:04:44.000 You know, the more a sport succeeds, the more benefits they offer to their competitors and athletes.

00:04:50.000 So, you know, WWE kind of hit that stride.

00:04:54.000 Yeah.

00:04:55.000 It's just such a smart thing to do.

00:04:57.000 Yeah, well, you give your channel, give your talent the opportunities to gain knowledge and wisdom.

00:05:03.000 And the sad thing is I don't know how many people did it or do it still.

00:05:08.000 Was there anybody other than you that you know of that?

00:05:10.000 Two other people.

00:05:11.000 Who?

00:05:12.000 Claudio Castignoli, who speaks, I think, four or five languages already, and he just wanted to take like a brush-up course.

00:05:19.000 And Natty Nighthart. 0.93

00:05:21.000 Yeah.

00:05:21.000 Wow.

00:05:22.000 That's it.

00:05:23.000 Everybody else is like, not going to do it.

00:05:25.000 Too much work.

00:05:26.000 Yeah.

00:05:26.000 What was the not knowing the culture aspect?

00:05:30.000 So, man, I got put in a bit of a hot spot with I made a pact to myself when I was like, okay, I feel fluent.

00:05:40.000 We would do these global press tours, and I just happened to be on a global press tour.

00:05:43.000 I'm like, you know what?

00:05:44.000 I'm going to do 70% of my media in Mandarin, like in dialogue.

00:05:51.000 And I got to say, I did it.

00:05:52.000 Like, I went over there, spoke.

00:05:55.000 People were taking off the translator headphones.

00:05:56.000 Like, life was good.

00:05:57.000 Everything was great.

00:05:58.000 And at the very end of the day, as with all these press tours, you do like a bunch of prompter reads.

00:06:03.000 So I'm doing prompter reads for everywhere.

00:06:06.000 And it's like, hey, go this place and see this movie.

00:06:09.000 Go this place and see this movie.

00:06:10.000 And no, my bad.

00:06:12.000 I didn't check the reads because it's like an end of a 10-hour day.

00:06:15.000 You do a million of these things.

00:06:17.000 And one of them said, like, hey, Taiwan, see this, this, and, and, uh, the, the, it was all in Mandarin.

00:06:25.000 And the opinion described Taiwan as a country.

00:06:29.000 So be the first country to see this.

00:06:31.000 Now, over there, they, they look through a different lens.

00:06:35.000 Like, geopolitics are murky waters, man.

00:06:37.000 And that's what, when I learned of like, I just said it, left.

00:06:41.000 Everybody was cool.

00:06:42.000 I did my thing.

00:06:43.000 Like, I read the prompt.

00:06:44.000 It was like a Ron Burgundy moment.

00:06:45.000 Like, go fuck yourself, San Diego.

00:06:47.000 It's like the most offensive thing you can say.

00:06:49.000 So I'm like, man, you know, good job, John.

00:06:52.000 You said you did 70% and people understood what you were talking about.

00:06:56.000 And then they put that out and everybody was like, what the fuck did you just say?

00:07:01.000 We don't, that's not how we do it over here.

00:07:04.000 And again, just because like my takeaway, and it was a pretty tense moment for me.

00:07:08.000 Like I had to apologize to China and apologizing to China.

00:07:13.000 I pissed off my home country.

00:07:14.000 I'm a patriot.

00:07:15.000 I love the United States of America and everything it stands for.

00:07:18.000 But like no one, it was never enough.

00:07:21.000 Nobody was happy.

00:07:22.000 Everybody was fucked up.

00:07:23.000 And it was like murky waters for me personally.

00:07:27.000 And it was weird.

00:07:30.000 I think I might have been the only guy almost to get canceled for doing his homework.

00:07:34.000 You know, we're trying to like learn, like learn and try to do something.

00:07:37.000 But the cool takeaway, you know, we can learn from every mistake.

00:07:40.000 My mistake was just because you know the language doesn't mean you know the culture.

00:07:44.000 Did they even refer to it as Taiwan?

00:07:46.000 I think they referred to it as Chinese Taipei, right?

00:07:48.000 Man, what was in the, I know what I read in the thing.

00:07:52.000 That's again, I don't know enough depth to know that.

00:07:56.000 And now, like, people are like, oh, man, can you speak Mandarin for this?

00:08:00.000 I just won't do it.

00:08:01.000 It's a skill that I have, but it's a skill that's going to remain with me because I don't have the depth of field to know what to call that place in that region of the world.

00:08:11.000 And I haven't done enough research and I don't have the wisdom and I don't have like the cultural fluency, you know?

00:08:17.000 So it was a cool lesson.

00:08:18.000 It sucked because I thought I was just trying to do something good, but it was a cool lesson.

00:08:23.000 Was it really that big of a deal?

00:08:25.000 Man, I thought, like, I was filming Peacemaker season one, and when they came out with all of this stuff, I went directly to James Gunn and was like, hey, man, if you have to fire me, I understand.

00:08:37.000 Wow.

00:08:38.000 It was that serious.

00:08:40.000 But it wasn't even words that you wrote.

00:08:42.000 Someone else, the WWE wrote it?

00:08:43.000 That doesn't.

00:08:44.000 No, no, it was for the movie I was promoting.

00:08:46.000 So the movie, the people that made the movie wrote it.

00:08:46.000 Right.

00:08:48.000 So I don't know.

00:08:49.000 Like when you do these press tours, let's say if I'm doing a movie for Warner Brothers, let's say, let's use Peacemaker as an example.

00:08:55.000 I'm doing a global Peacemaker tour and we go into China or we go into South America.

00:09:01.000 You meet like the PR person there and they have all the stuff you're supposed to do and they curate your experience and they hold your hand and you're like, okay, now we're going to go to this station.

00:09:08.000 And by the way, they just want you to do some shout outs.

00:09:11.000 So anytime I go anywhere globally now, as much as I want to thank fans for their attention and investing in the product, I really shy away from speaking the language because I don't understand the cultural nuance.

00:09:26.000 I just want to be like, yo, man, thanks for watching what we do.

00:09:28.000 And I love the fact that you're entertained, but I want to speak to you at a level that I understand that I'm fluent because your boots on the ground here every day.

00:09:35.000 And I might say something that's a nice gesture, but completely fucking offend you.

00:09:40.000 And that's not good.

00:09:41.000 That's not good for anybody.

00:09:42.000 So was the teleprompter in English and you translate to it?

00:09:45.000 It was in, no, everything was in Mandarin.

00:09:47.000 And in Chinese, they have the characters, which are virtually impossible for me to learn.

00:09:52.000 There's like an infinite number.

00:09:54.000 But they also have what's called pinyin, which is, it's kind of spelled out in English with phonetics.

00:09:59.000 So it has the four tones.

00:10:01.000 Okay.

00:10:01.000 So if you were to put something in front of me in pinyin right now, I could definitely read it.

00:10:05.000 And I got good at reading pinyin.

00:10:07.000 So I was like, man, I could send all these messages in Mandarin and more people will know about this movie and more people will know about me and more people will know about wrestling and more people will be excited.

00:10:17.000 Looks good on paper.

00:10:19.000 My follow-through was a bit weak.

00:10:22.000 It doesn't even seem like that was your fault.

00:10:23.000 Right.

00:10:24.000 It's probably a PR's assistant assistant that's typed that's probably in charge of doing the grunt work of typing in all the different languages and the different countries.

00:10:33.000 It's tedious.

00:10:35.000 From what I know, I know I'm going to learn a lot about you guys in this episode, but from what I know about you, you're into looking at things through different lenses and different perspectives.

00:10:44.000 It also could have been somebody being like, I'm going to get this kid.

00:10:48.000 Ooh.

00:10:49.000 But here's the thing.

00:10:50.000 I do appreciate you saying, like, it's not your fault.

00:10:53.000 That's not true.

00:10:54.000 It was my fault.

00:10:55.000 And I think that's when I can start to work on like, well, what did I learn from this?

00:11:00.000 And I could easily blame a PR, an assistant.

00:11:03.000 I could say somebody had a target on my back, all that stuff.

00:11:06.000 I fucked up.

00:11:08.000 Did you suspect that somebody might have set you up?

00:11:12.000 No.

00:11:12.000 Well, you're saying it like it's a possibility.

00:11:15.000 Well, man, when it happened, every theory came.

00:11:18.000 Like, here's the thing.

00:11:19.000 The world doesn't revolve around me, but my little world.

00:11:22.000 Everybody was like, they fucked up.

00:11:25.000 They did this on purpose.

00:11:26.000 I was like, well, first of all, who's they?

00:11:28.000 So I was able to kind of eliminate all that.

00:11:30.000 And once I realized I could still go on working, I really made a lot of people angry.

00:11:36.000 And for that, that I'm sorry.

00:11:37.000 Like, again, I was just trying to.

00:11:38.000 That's crazy just by saying that Taiwan's a country.

00:11:42.000 In Chinese, though.

00:11:43.000 Right.

00:11:44.000 You know, like, those are murky waters to begin with.

00:11:46.000 You know, like, I'm not even thoroughly fluent on the U.S. policy.

00:11:51.000 I think it's like territorial ambiguity or some shit like that.

00:11:56.000 It's so weird and it's so fragile.

00:11:58.000 And I got into some water I shouldn't have been swimming in.

00:12:02.000 But that's on me.

00:12:04.000 It was my fault.

00:12:06.000 And I think that's important for me to bear the burden of that and be like, yo, how can I course correct?

00:12:11.000 What did I learn?

00:12:12.000 Who do I really genuinely have to apologize for offending?

00:12:16.000 The biggest thing that was a kick to the nuts is when people stateside got pissed off.

00:12:22.000 Because you apologized.

00:12:23.000 Yes, in Chinese.

00:12:25.000 And I understand it.

00:12:26.000 I mean, completely bowing down to the demand of this.

00:12:31.000 Gosh, what a shitty move by me.

00:12:34.000 Like, I just, I should have taken a breath.

00:12:36.000 Again, what did I learn?

00:12:38.000 Don't be reactive.

00:12:40.000 Take a breath.

00:12:41.000 Find out what's going on.

00:12:43.000 Find out the best path of action.

00:12:45.000 Maybe give it a few days.

00:12:46.000 Maybe give it a hot second and then move forward.

00:12:50.000 But immediately I was like, oh, they're mad.

00:12:53.000 You want us to do this?

00:12:54.000 I'll fix it right now.

00:12:54.000 Fine, no problem.

00:12:55.000 Man, not only did I not try to fix the hole in the boat, I sunk the Titanic.

00:13:00.000 But again, it was a learning experience.

00:13:03.000 Well, it speaks to your character that you don't blame anybody else because I blame everybody else.

00:13:07.000 I'd be like, who fucking wrote that?

00:13:11.000 Don't you know what you're saying or what you're making me say?

00:13:15.000 The release you guys have for the show.

00:13:17.000 I read it.

00:13:19.000 You might be the only person.

00:13:20.000 So that was, that was whoever handed it to me, that was what they said.

00:13:23.000 Like, I think you might be the only person that's ever read it.

00:13:25.000 Yeah.

00:13:25.000 Man, if you're going to take liberties with me, at least I want to be able to read that you are.

00:13:31.000 Right.

00:13:32.000 You know what I'm saying?

00:13:32.000 And I can't say I'm perfect with doing that, but like, I was handed a release.

00:13:36.000 I'm like, oh, man, can I just glance this over for a hot?

00:13:39.000 Oh, this says what I think it says.

00:13:40.000 Trump didn't even read it.

00:13:40.000 Okay, let's go.

00:13:41.000 Just to each their own.

00:13:47.000 Yeah, no, it's very smart of you to read it.

00:13:49.000 You know, who knows?

00:13:51.000 You know?

00:13:52.000 Who knows?

00:13:53.000 So this is, Tony, is this the full trifecta now?

00:13:57.000 It's like, if you've gotten all of your heroes on this podcast now, there's a couple more we can knock off out of the pro wrestling world.

00:14:04.000 There's a couple more.

00:14:05.000 Let's, if you don't mind, if I can indulge, talk pro wrestling heroes.

00:14:10.000 Who do we need to knock off?

00:14:10.000 Who do we need to watch?

00:14:11.000 Well, I mean, in all reality, and it's a diabolical, diabolical.

00:14:17.000 Because, man, he can kind of invite.

00:14:19.000 You can invite anyone you want here.

00:14:21.000 You just kind of got to give him the wish list.

00:14:22.000 I mean, you got to start with the number one, without a doubt, Vince McMahon, who started this gangster shit and spread it around.

00:14:30.000 I would definitely have him as a little man.

00:14:33.000 He would be great.

00:14:34.000 Yes.

00:14:35.000 Whatever magic you have out there and you have a lot of gravity.

00:14:39.000 Do you think he'd be interested in doing it?

00:14:41.000 Are you kidding me?

00:14:42.000 I think he would love it.

00:14:43.000 Really?

00:14:44.000 I think he would love it.

00:14:45.000 I don't know when the right time is, but man, don't miss out on that option.

00:14:51.000 At least send it out to the universe.

00:14:52.000 Yeah, well, I would definitely.

00:14:54.000 Vince, if you're listening.

00:14:55.000 Vince, if you're listening.

00:14:56.000 Let's go.

00:14:58.000 I think this experience would be a great one for you.

00:15:00.000 Is he still involved?

00:15:02.000 Is he in?

00:15:02.000 Is he out?

00:15:03.000 He's out.

00:15:04.000 He's out.

00:15:04.000 He's out totally.

00:15:05.000 Yep.

00:15:06.000 It seems like he's a guy that'll be out for a little while and then something will happen.

00:15:09.000 They'll bring him back in.

00:15:10.000 No.

00:15:11.000 Well, I don't know.

00:15:13.000 Again, that's way.

00:15:14.000 We were talking about like, why is your last event in this place?

00:15:17.000 I'm like, man, because I don't choose the events.

00:15:19.000 Like, I don't, all that stuff is so far above me.

00:15:23.000 But I know now he's out.

00:15:26.000 In my eyes, I'd like to think that time heals everything.

00:15:31.000 And I believe in forgiveness.

00:15:33.000 And I also believe in like looking at the body of work.

00:15:36.000 But I also know there's a lot of fragile stuff going on there.

00:15:40.000 I don't know.

00:15:40.000 I don't know, man.

00:15:41.000 Yeah, it's a hot subject.

00:15:43.000 It could get us into another Chinese Taipei incident. 0.67

00:15:46.000 Well, no, no.

00:15:47.000 Man, Again, I learned to become a little bit more accountable for what I say.

00:15:53.000 And just how just because I feel a certain way about a person doesn't exonerate them from being accountable for their actions.

00:15:59.000 Right.

00:16:00.000 And just because he did start, quote unquote, all this gangster shit, that doesn't mean he doesn't need to be accountable for his actions.

00:16:09.000 So let's figure out what that means and then figure out if we can move forward and bring that back in the fold or if it stays the way it is.

00:16:18.000 What do you think, Tony?

00:16:18.000 You think he's coming back?

00:16:20.000 I think he would come here.

00:16:21.000 Yeah, I think he would come here too.

00:16:23.000 And I think he, you know, that's one of the more entertaining people of all time.

00:16:26.000 He created the entire universe.

00:16:28.000 You got to remember, Hogan's Hogan because of him.

00:16:31.000 Seeing a scene.

00:16:32.000 I'm because of him.

00:16:33.000 Every single Stone Cold.

00:16:33.000 Yeah.

00:16:34.000 He's like, that sounds good.

00:16:35.000 Yeah, keep it going.

00:16:36.000 We'll do the Glass Breaks thing and they'll throw you beers. 0.98

00:16:39.000 I like it.

00:16:39.000 Let's do it again next week.

00:16:40.000 So everything that we think.

00:16:42.000 When he sits here, you got to do that impression.

00:16:44.000 Yeah.

00:16:49.000 Stone Cold's another one that hasn't been on.

00:16:51.000 Steve would be great.

00:16:52.000 I think you would dig Steve.

00:16:55.000 I'm sure.

00:16:55.000 Oh, yeah.

00:16:56.000 Yeah.

00:16:56.000 He lives out here too, doesn't he?

00:16:57.000 Yep.

00:16:58.000 Does he?

00:16:59.000 Well, actually, no.

00:17:00.000 Doesn't he have a ranch out here?

00:17:01.000 I think he does something.

00:17:02.000 I think he does.

00:17:03.000 Yeah, but I think he's based out of somewhere else now, New Mexico or Arizona.

00:17:07.000 He's on the, he like, he's like kind of cool and reclusive.

00:17:11.000 He like doesn't really do a lot.

00:17:13.000 It's amazing.

00:17:14.000 He'd be a good get.

00:17:15.000 And I'm pretty sure I guarantee he would do it.

00:17:17.000 Yeah.

00:17:17.000 Steve, if you're listening, I know you're watching.

00:17:19.000 Come on.

00:17:20.000 Come on in.

00:17:20.000 Come on.

00:17:22.000 Let's talk some wrestling.

00:17:23.000 The man.

00:17:24.000 I mean, everyone has him on the, you know, the Mount Rushmore.

00:17:28.000 Triple H, who runs it now, the son-in-law of Vince McMahon.

00:17:32.000 Yeah.

00:17:33.000 I mean, he runs the entire thing.

00:17:35.000 I mean, you want answers to those high-level questions.

00:17:38.000 Yeah.

00:17:38.000 There's your guy.

00:17:39.000 That's the guy you need to get into.

00:17:40.000 A lot of the stuff you probably ask today, I'll be like, that's way above my pay grade.

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00:19:16.000 Well, you know, if you don't know the history, Tony at one point in time was offered a job with the WWE before he really made it.

00:19:22.000 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:19:22.000 No way.

00:19:23.000 He was offered a job to write for the WWE because, you know, Tony was a giant pro wrestling fan.

00:19:29.000 And, you know, he already had a Netflix special.

00:19:32.000 So he was known as a comic.

00:19:34.000 Was it before the Netflix special?

00:19:34.000 It was just before that.

00:19:36.000 Yeah.

00:19:36.000 The first one?

00:19:37.000 The one that you released yourself?

00:19:38.000 Yeah.

00:19:39.000 Yeah.

00:19:39.000 It was only a couple of years into me doing stand-up like seven nights a week at the comedy store all the time.

00:19:39.000 Really?

00:19:45.000 And somehow I ended up, someone's like, hey, I have a friend in WWE if you want to have a meeting with them and just talk.

00:19:50.000 And I went in with straight-up ideas.

00:19:53.000 This, that, the undertaker's brother comes back again, this, that, the next, like everything back and forth.

00:19:59.000 I can't even remember any of them.

00:20:01.000 It's been so long, but I went in with the whole thing.

00:20:03.000 This guy's like, where the hell did you like?

00:20:06.000 This is crazy.

00:20:07.000 You just like did this?

00:20:08.000 I'm like, yeah, I found out a couple days ago we were going to talk.

00:20:10.000 So, but yeah, they offered it, but I would have had to move to Connecticut and take a train to New York every night to go do stand-up.

00:20:20.000 And that would have just been exhausting.

00:20:21.000 And everything I heard, because Patrice O'Neill, the late, great Patrice O'Neill, wrote for WWE for a while.

00:20:27.000 Did he really?

00:20:28.000 Yeah, for like a couple of years, I think.

00:20:28.000 Yeah.

00:20:30.000 What did he just wrote lines for them?

00:20:32.000 Like, what did he do?

00:20:33.000 The whole shebang.

00:20:34.000 When you're a WWE writer, they make you write.

00:20:37.000 It's not like a cute job at all.

00:20:39.000 No, there's a lot of television or there's a lot of content every week.

00:20:43.000 Right now, I think they have three weekly shows.

00:20:43.000 Yeah.

00:20:48.000 So that's 20.

00:20:49.000 I think one of them's going back to three hours.

00:20:52.000 It's like 50 segments of TV.

00:20:54.000 Yeah.

00:20:54.000 Every week.

00:20:55.000 Yeah, but I remember when you were talking about it.

00:20:57.000 Yeah.

00:20:58.000 When you're talking about potentially doing it, I was like, yeah, it was tricky.

00:21:02.000 And I was like, dude, you do not want to live in Connecticut.

00:21:05.000 No, that's the main thing.

00:21:06.000 If it was anywhere else other than Connecticut, it kind of would have made more sense.

00:21:11.000 If it was in New York City, it would have been a no-brainer.

00:21:14.000 If it was in LA, definitely.

00:21:16.000 But like, fast forward, now you're more and more involved.

00:21:19.000 Yes.

00:21:20.000 Well, this is the crazy thing.

00:21:21.000 Like, we had talked during the old days.

00:21:24.000 Like, we would talk in the green room.

00:21:25.000 I'd be like, that would be your ultimate dream job.

00:21:29.000 Like, to make it as a comedian and somehow be involved in the UFC the way I, or excuse me, in WWE, the way I'm involved in the UFC, like very similarly.

00:21:37.000 It's crazy.

00:21:37.000 Yeah.

00:21:39.000 It's insane.

00:21:41.000 I'm going tomorrow night.

00:21:42.000 I'm going to be in the front row at the arena in my hometown.

00:21:46.000 Yeah.

00:21:46.000 Are they here tomorrow?

00:21:47.000 Oh, man.

00:21:48.000 Are you messing with me?

00:21:49.000 Are you going to, is your music going to hit yourself?

00:21:51.000 No, I'm not that.

00:21:52.000 I got one more left.

00:21:53.000 This is what they do, by the way.

00:21:55.000 Oh, yeah.

00:21:56.000 And I didn't even know they were going to be in town.

00:21:58.000 He's correct.

00:21:59.000 There's a lot of, you mess with people.

00:22:01.000 You're right.

00:22:02.000 But then somebody like me will actually shoot you straight and be like, I'm not going to be there and I won't be there.

00:22:07.000 And you'll be like, ah, now I'm just, I'm building the equity for people to mess with people.

00:22:11.000 I'm giving 20 mulligans out there.

00:22:13.000 Tomorrow.

00:22:14.000 The music plays.

00:22:16.000 Exactly.

00:22:17.000 I heard a great story.

00:22:18.000 You'll probably love this.

00:22:19.000 You might even know the story.

00:22:20.000 But The Undertaker, his wife, and his podcast co-host went to WrestleMania. 0.98

00:22:26.000 They're up in a fancy suite.

00:22:27.000 This was, which one was it?

00:22:30.000 The rock made her appearance. 0.92

00:22:32.000 Did you?

00:22:32.000 Yes, you were there, right?

00:22:34.000 That huge finish at WrestleMania like three years ago where it was just boom, boom, boom, boom.

00:22:39.000 And all these legends were coming out.

00:22:41.000 This huge finish, just like they, they can't even like follow it.

00:22:45.000 The ultimate climax of a WrestleMania.

00:22:48.000 And one wrestler comes out, interrupts this huge main event, and then another one, then another one.

00:22:52.000 Anyway, The Undertaker, his wife, and his podcast co-host were up in the suite.

00:22:56.000 Undertaker goes, I'm going to go use the restroom. 1.00

00:22:58.000 They're like, he's been gone a while.

00:23:00.000 The lights go out, the bell tolls.

00:23:02.000 They're watching from the suite.

00:23:03.000 He's been gone for like 10 minutes, 20 minutes.

00:23:05.000 He went and changed real quick.

00:23:06.000 And then now he's.

00:23:07.000 Came out as the Undertaker.

00:23:08.000 Yeah.

00:23:08.000 Came out as the Undertaker.

00:23:10.000 They're in the suite, like, oh my God, it's the Undertaker.

00:23:13.000 They don't tell anybody.

00:23:15.000 It's so old school and awesome that they keep secrets so locked up that their own loved ones, his wife, didn't even know.

00:23:23.000 That's hilarious.

00:23:24.000 That is so crazy.

00:23:26.000 It's fun to be able to surprise a live audience.

00:23:29.000 Oh, yeah.

00:23:30.000 I mean, it's got to be a big part of it.

00:23:32.000 How did you get involved in pro wrestling?

00:23:34.000 Were you a fan as a kid?

00:23:36.000 I sure was.

00:23:37.000 I think we have the same gravity of like, man, I was a super fan as a kid.

00:23:42.000 But then I fell out of it, admittedly, kind of when Hogan went to WCW.

00:23:48.000 So like, I was into wrestling and then I wasn't.

00:23:51.000 And then I got into sports or whatever.

00:23:54.000 And then I got back into wrestling when everyone else did.

00:23:56.000 When like Stone Cold Steve Austin became big, The Rock became big.

00:23:59.000 The Attitude Era hit.

00:24:01.000 And I was just working a dead end job over at Gold's Gym Venice and like didn't know what I wanted to do with my life.

00:24:07.000 How old are you?

00:24:08.000 21.

00:24:09.000 Wow.

00:24:10.000 21.

00:24:10.000 I'd moved out to California, not to be famous or anything.

00:24:13.000 My degree was in Kinese.

00:24:15.000 And I wanted to, like, that was the center of the fitness universe in 99, 2000.

00:24:21.000 So like all equipment manufacturers were there.

00:24:23.000 I'm like, man, I'll go get a job with Hammer Strength or a Cybex or like maybe Golds or like put that piece of paper on the wall to like get a good paying job.

00:24:32.000 It did not work.

00:24:34.000 So I ended up like front desk, cleaning toilets, selling protein bars in that order.

00:24:39.000 So don't ever buy a protein bar.

00:24:40.000 I'm just kidding.

00:24:41.000 But no, I was kind of like the jack of all trades over there.

00:24:45.000 And a friend of mine, Chris Bell and Mark Bell.

00:24:48.000 Oh, I know those guys.

00:24:49.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:24:49.000 They literally were like, dude, you talk about WWF all the time.

00:24:53.000 You know, we train down in Orange County.

00:24:55.000 And at that time, Chris Bell was kind of like writing for this promotion.

00:24:59.000 And you're like, would you want to do it?

00:25:01.000 And I, man, that doesn't happen without them accidentally saying like, yo, we train to do this.

00:25:07.000 His documentaries are fucking incredible.

00:25:09.000 Bigger, stronger, faster.

00:25:11.000 And then the other one, the pill one, what was that one called?

00:25:14.000 Magic Pill?

00:25:15.000 No, what was the one?

00:25:15.000 The addiction one that Chris released.

00:25:20.000 But Bigger, Stronger, Faster.

00:25:22.000 It's such a fucking great documentary.

00:25:24.000 The Bell family, I've been friends with them for a long time.

00:25:26.000 Great guys.

00:25:27.000 Yeah.

00:25:28.000 That documentary blew the lid off of the reality of steroids.

00:25:32.000 Prescription thugs. 0.77

00:25:33.000 Prescription.

00:25:34.000 That's another great one.

00:25:35.000 Yeah.

00:25:37.000 Crazy thing is he got addicted to pills while he was doing that because he had surgery while he was doing that and got addicted to pills while he's making a fucking documentary on people being addicted to pills.

00:25:48.000 That's how potent pills are.

00:25:50.000 A guy making a documentary about addiction.

00:25:54.000 He just thinks, well, I'm just taking these because I got hip surgery and I'm in fucking agony.

00:25:59.000 And then gets hooked.

00:26:00.000 Oh, yeah.

00:26:00.000 Like, that's how crazy it is.

00:26:02.000 Yeah, they're strong.

00:26:03.000 Yeah, I would imagine.

00:26:06.000 Did you ever have an issue?

00:26:08.000 No.

00:26:09.000 As a matter of fact, I've had fusion in my neck, right pec completely detached, reattached, both triceps reattached, both triceps scoped.

00:26:09.000 No.

00:26:22.000 Nose relocated.

00:26:23.000 Like I got, I probably am in like 10 physical surgeries where they got to go and correct something.

00:26:29.000 Never taken one pain pill.

00:26:31.000 Wow.

00:26:31.000 I have all the prescriptions in the bottom drawer of my house filled.

00:26:36.000 And it's weird because at every facility, the first thing they, the first hill they climb is pain management.

00:26:43.000 You wake up from anesthesia.

00:26:45.000 You're like gray and murky.

00:26:47.000 And I've been in a bunch of surgeries at a bunch of different facilities.

00:26:50.000 The protocol is always the same.

00:26:52.000 Do you want something for the pain?

00:26:53.000 Here, we got to make sure you take this with you because you're not in any pain.

00:26:56.000 Yeah.

00:26:57.000 Like, I understand because if you leave, if you're feeling okay, maybe you're high off adrenaline.

00:27:02.000 I don't know.

00:27:02.000 And then the operation sets in of like, holy fuck, this is a 10 out of 10.

00:27:07.000 I can't, I need something.

00:27:09.000 I get that.

00:27:11.000 But I guess from falling down and hurting my body a lot, like I know my pain threshold.

00:27:16.000 Yeah.

00:27:17.000 And when I, the, the worst one was probably the, putting the whole peck back on and then attaching it.

00:27:23.000 But when I woke up, I was able to like mess around with a stress ball.

00:27:26.000 I never took one pill.

00:27:28.000 That's amazing.

00:27:29.000 And I still have the full bottles.

00:27:31.000 Like some are labeled 2008 is when I had my first surgery.

00:27:34.000 And they're just all there.

00:27:36.000 There's a lot of people listening right now.

00:27:38.000 Count them all.

00:27:38.000 Yeah.

00:27:39.000 They're still good.

00:27:40.000 But the guy.

00:27:42.000 Find out what John Cena stores them.

00:27:43.000 It was weird because the medical staff couldn't believe it.

00:27:47.000 Like they're like, you don't want anything.

00:27:49.000 No, because, man, I know how I am with this.

00:27:52.000 It's, yeah, it's a fucking slippery room.

00:27:54.000 And I would just, I'd be high on opiates, opioids all the time.

00:27:58.000 I got my first knee surgery, I think in 93 or 94, and they gave me, I got an ACL reconstruction, and they gave me Vicodin, I think.

00:28:06.000 Pretty sure it was Vicodin.

00:28:07.000 I took one one day, and I felt so stupid.

00:28:11.000 I was lying on my couch watching TV, and I felt so dumb.

00:28:17.000 And my knee still hurt.

00:28:18.000 You know, it was just like it was distracting me from the fact that my knee hurt.

00:28:22.000 But I'm like, I can't be this dumb.

00:28:23.000 I'm dumb enough as it is.

00:28:25.000 I can't add to my dumbness with pills.

00:28:28.000 Like, I just saw it coming.

00:28:30.000 You know, and also I knew a bunch of guys who had pill problems.

00:28:33.000 I wound up selling my pills to a friend of mine that would sell pills.

00:28:37.000 Gosh, I should have taken your idea.

00:28:39.000 Could have made some cash.

00:28:40.000 I only made like a couple hundred bucks or something.

00:28:43.000 I don't even remember.

00:28:43.000 It was like in the 90s.

00:28:45.000 But I remember just that one pill.

00:28:47.000 And so then every surgery I've had ever since then, they always offered me stuff and I never took anything.

00:28:52.000 I got my other ACL reconstructed in 2003, never took anything.

00:28:57.000 I got my nose fixed.

00:28:58.000 And it's like 2008, I got my nose reconstructed, deviated septum.

00:29:04.000 The guy was insisting that he gave me two prescriptions for pain medicine.

00:29:08.000 And I was like, I don't want anything.

00:29:09.000 I was like, is it going to get worse than this?

00:29:11.000 He's like, it could get.

00:29:12.000 I go, right now it feels like nothing.

00:29:14.000 It's like, but if you've been, again, like you, you've been beaten up so many times.

00:29:18.000 Your body, you're so used to just being in pain.

00:29:22.000 And I think for some people, it's just the daunting anxiety of pain itself.

00:29:27.000 It's like they just want a pill before they even realize, like, I could kind of just, yeah, it sucks, but it's not going to suck forever.

00:29:33.000 It's going to heal.

00:29:35.000 So let's just deal with the suck and just lay here.

00:29:37.000 Put some ice on it or whatever and just relax.

00:29:40.000 And along with that, it's kind of like your body's natural way of saying like, okay, maybe push a little bit more.

00:29:48.000 Try to get a few more degrees of range of motion in physical therapy.

00:29:51.000 Like if those senses are numbed and like shut off.

00:29:57.000 Right.

00:29:58.000 First of all, you do feel just like, I don't want to do anything.

00:30:01.000 So you won't work.

00:30:02.000 In many cases, you won't work to do the work to get better.

00:30:05.000 Right.

00:30:05.000 Or you don't know the messaging.

00:30:08.000 You can't listen to your body.

00:30:10.000 Like if it's really, really in pain, maybe it's maybe your body's trying to tell you something.

00:30:14.000 I always assume that people feel pain differently.

00:30:17.000 I mean, I just would imagine.

00:30:19.000 Like people feel hot sauce differently.

00:30:22.000 Like some people, they can't have any spice.

00:30:24.000 Some people fucking can have like, you know, death peppers and they're fine.

00:30:28.000 So, all right, I'll throw that out to the group.

00:30:30.000 Is pain a personal experience?

00:30:32.000 I mean, there's no way I'm as tough as you guys.

00:30:35.000 So yeah, it has to be.

00:30:36.000 But I think in other dimensions, you might be way tougher.

00:30:39.000 I don't know.

00:30:40.000 I don't know.

00:30:41.000 Maybe I think there's some people.

00:30:43.000 You don't know, Tony.

00:30:44.000 I can't imagine the dimension.

00:30:46.000 I went and visited a firehouse the other day and I was going down the pole going, we like you guys wouldn't do that.

00:30:52.000 I would do that.

00:30:54.000 So in that aspect, you're tougher than me.

00:30:57.000 Yeah, you can take ridicule.

00:30:59.000 And we can take ridicule really easily.

00:31:01.000 But I don't know what it feels like for other people.

00:31:04.000 You know what I'm saying?

00:31:05.000 I mean, I would assume that everybody feels the same.

00:31:07.000 But you know, one of the reasons why I think maybe it is like it's different because my mom, my mom has a crazy tolerance to pain.

00:31:16.000 Like my guy who, my stem cell guy in LA, my mom had a real knee issue, and he was treating her as well.

00:31:24.000 And he goes, it's hilarious.

00:31:25.000 Your mother's just like you. 1.00

00:31:26.000 She just takes it.

00:31:27.000 Like, she doesn't even flinch.

00:31:28.000 She's sticking it.

00:31:29.000 Like, he's like, that doesn't happen with like 75-year-old ladies.

00:31:32.000 Like, take a needle and shove it into their knee and push it.

00:31:35.000 And she just doesn't move.

00:31:37.000 And, you know, she's like, oh, it wasn't painful.

00:31:39.000 It was no big deal.

00:31:40.000 It's like, you know, a lot of 75-year-old ladies would be fucking sweating and freaking out and seeing the needle. 1.00

00:31:46.000 Pretty sure I would be.

00:31:48.000 But I don't know.

00:31:50.000 I don't know what it feels like to other people.

00:31:53.000 But like when I got my ACL, my right ACL reconstructed, it was a lot easier because it was a cadaver and I recommend it to anybody.

00:32:00.000 The difference between a patella tendon graft recovery and a cadaver recovery is literally like six months.

00:32:06.000 The difference is the cadaver was so much quicker.

00:32:09.000 Wow.

00:32:10.000 Oh my God.

00:32:10.000 Because the cadaver, they take it.

00:32:12.000 I mean, it's all swollen and everything afterwards, but it's somebody else's tendon.

00:32:17.000 They take an Achilles tendon off of a cadaver.

00:32:19.000 So it's 150% stronger than an ACL.

00:32:22.000 They fucking screw that sucker in place.

00:32:24.000 Little tiny orthoscopic holes, not nearly as invasive.

00:32:28.000 And then five days later, you know, Matt Lichtenberg, I went to his party for his birthday party five days later, just walking around.

00:32:34.000 And he was like, did you just have surgery?

00:32:35.000 I go, yeah.

00:32:36.000 It's like, it's not that big a deal.

00:32:37.000 Man.

00:32:38.000 Like, it feels fine.

00:32:39.000 You know, it was so much easier.

00:32:41.000 The left one was brutal because they take a slice out of your patella tendon and then they could take a chunk out of your shin bone and a chunk out of your kneecap. 0.96

00:32:49.000 And then they use those to screw this new tendon that they created into the shin bone and into your thigh bone. 0.83

00:32:57.000 That was rough.

00:32:58.000 That one was painful as fuck.

00:33:00.000 And it took a long time before it felt normal.

00:33:02.000 It took a long time before I could go down on one knee again.

00:33:05.000 That was painful.

00:33:05.000 When was that?

00:33:06.000 You said that?

00:33:06.000 That was in the 90s.

00:33:07.000 And then the other one was early 2000s, 2002-ish, somewhere around, 20-3.

00:33:13.000 I mean, 10 more years of performance surgeries, 10 more years of medical.

00:33:17.000 I just think it's the difference because they still do that patella tendon graph.

00:33:20.000 And I think George St. Pierre had it done that.

00:33:22.000 I know a bunch of people that I'm friends with had it done that way.

00:33:26.000 And I was like, oh, don't do that one.

00:33:27.000 Yeah.

00:33:28.000 Do the cadaver. 1.00

00:33:29.000 But people are worried, like, what if you got AIDS?

00:33:31.000 Like, you know, Jesus Christ, you're not going to get AIDS from it.

00:33:34.000 Stop.

00:33:35.000 And it's also, it's like you feel better before you are better, unfortunately, because the way the tendon works, so when they replace a tendon with a cadaver, it's not like you have this guy's tendon in your body.

00:33:47.000 What it is like is that tendon is a scaffolding.

00:33:50.000 And then your body reproliferates that with your own cells.

00:33:54.000 So over the course of six months, my body had filled in all of what used to be a cadaver with my own cells.

00:34:02.000 So you'll feel like it's better before it's better.

00:34:06.000 So a lot of MMA fighters, they start training too quickly and they blow it out again because it's still soft.

00:34:14.000 That's always the concern.

00:34:16.000 It's always the concern.

00:34:18.000 You feel good.

00:34:18.000 Yeah.

00:34:19.000 Man, I can do this.

00:34:21.000 Especially animals, you know, guys who are just used to pain and used to pushing, you know, and they just pop it out again.

00:34:28.000 I know multiple MMA fighters that have had knee surgery and then blew it out while they were recovering.

00:34:35.000 And just a few months more.

00:34:36.000 They could just be all right.

00:34:37.000 But it's impatience.

00:34:39.000 You want to get back in there.

00:34:40.000 And then it's even worse because you've got to drill into the same holes and pull it out and open you up.

00:34:46.000 But it's more invasive surgery.

00:34:47.000 They've got to remove the screws.

00:34:49.000 Fuck.

00:34:51.000 Yeah.

00:34:51.000 But I just, I don't think everybody feels pain the same.

00:34:54.000 I think it's a genetic thing.

00:34:56.000 It's just an assumption, obviously, because I don't feel what other people feel.

00:34:59.000 But I think some people just, any kind of pain, it's just, they can't function.

00:35:05.000 They're just in agony.

00:35:06.000 And I think those people are way more vulnerable to the pills.

00:35:10.000 That's just my assumption.

00:35:12.000 That's a decent perspective.

00:35:14.000 I would agree with pain is a personal experience.

00:35:20.000 Like, there are people who, I mean, I've seen people like, I can't believe you go through that.

00:35:26.000 And then people would be like, but you get the shit kicked out of you.

00:35:28.000 I can't believe you do that.

00:35:29.000 It's all relative.

00:35:31.000 I would be shitting cufflinks if you get that stem cell needle out. 0.97

00:35:35.000 I would be sweating right until the fucking final moment.

00:35:38.000 Like some stuff I can't take.

00:35:41.000 I guess it is.

00:35:42.000 It could be combined with what we fear in life or maybe fear of hard work or fear of effort.

00:35:49.000 Who knows?

00:35:49.000 I don't know.

00:35:50.000 I think it's also being accustomed to pain.

00:35:53.000 You know, so if you, did you wrestle when you were younger?

00:35:56.000 No, I played football.

00:35:58.000 Well, that's just like that, in that you're always in pain.

00:35:58.000 You played football?

00:36:01.000 I mean, if you're playing football, you're always colliding with people.

00:36:04.000 You're always, you got to shoulders fuck with you. 0.81

00:36:07.000 Your backs fuck with you.

00:36:08.000 It's like, it's never ending.

00:36:09.000 I've always said that there's something, there's some value into losing a fight.

00:36:14.000 Like, I grew up with four brothers and we kicked the shit out of each other.

00:36:14.000 Oh, yeah.

00:36:17.000 And I was not always on the winning side.

00:36:20.000 So very early on in my life as a young person, you know what it's like to lose a fight.

00:36:24.000 Oh, it's very valuable.

00:36:25.000 And I think that there's a lot maybe to do with the pain conversation there, of like just flat out getting your ass kicked and then being able to dust yourself off and be like, I'll get you next time.

00:36:34.000 You know, like, it's not over.

00:36:36.000 You know what I'm saying?

00:36:38.000 We're brothers.

00:36:38.000 We're going to fight again.

00:36:39.000 You know, like, it's also knowing, like, why did he beat me?

00:36:42.000 What can I do to beat him next time?

00:36:44.000 You know, like, if you don't have that in your life, also, if you don't know what it feels like to get your ass kicked, you get a little mouthy.

00:36:51.000 I mean, how many mouthy people do we know that have never been fucked up?

00:36:55.000 And I think that's why.

00:36:56.000 Like, there's real consequences if it actually comes down.

00:37:00.000 You start yelling and you get mouthy.

00:37:02.000 If it actually comes down to it, and we've all seen many of these videos on the internet where someone just don't, they don't know what the fuck they're asking for or what they're getting into.

00:37:10.000 And then all of a sudden they're getting hit.

00:37:11.000 And man, I'm not perfect.

00:37:13.000 And there are days where I'm short of patience, but when it gets to that weird spot of like, yo, someone's going to get hit in the face, I always try to like lean on diplomacy.

00:37:22.000 Always.

00:37:23.000 Always.

00:37:23.000 Yeah.

00:37:24.000 Please, let's not do that because that fucking sucks.

00:37:26.000 And I've heard a lot of people say to you, man, if I was you, I'd be fucking everybody up.

00:37:30.000 That's the dumb people always say that. 0.88

00:37:32.000 Like, it doesn't end with that.

00:37:34.000 Then this guy gets his brother or he shoots you or they run you over with a car.

00:37:38.000 Or you think you're going to fuck somebody up and you get fucking handled.

00:37:41.000 Right.

00:37:41.000 Like, you never know, man.

00:37:43.000 You never know anybody else's story.

00:37:45.000 You know, you never know.

00:37:47.000 There's so many people out there that train today.

00:37:49.000 It's so much different than when I was younger.

00:37:51.000 Like, you would assume that, like, I assume that a good, solid 10% of all men you meet have martial arts skills now.

00:37:59.000 Because of the UFC.

00:38:01.000 Popularity of it.

00:38:01.000 Yeah.

00:38:02.000 Certainly in Western society.

00:38:04.000 Yes.

00:38:05.000 You know, the gym, there's a gym every plaza.

00:38:07.000 Also, there's so many kids that like watch UFC and then play practice with themselves.

00:38:12.000 And you could learn a lot just doing that.

00:38:15.000 Guys learn a lot just watching it on TV and then emulating it at home with their friends.

00:38:20.000 You can tell those who watch WWE because when those moments happen, they try to do something crazy.

00:38:24.000 Oh, it doesn't work.

00:38:25.000 How many guys have fucking thrown their buddy onto a conference table because they thought it was the way to do it?

00:38:32.000 It's crazy.

00:38:33.000 You know, I mean, the fucking sheer amount of punishment you guys put yourself through is staggering.

00:38:39.000 I mean, it really is staggering.

00:38:42.000 Thank you very much.

00:38:44.000 It is all for the good.

00:38:45.000 Like, it's like a pro football player, pro hockey player, UFC.

00:38:49.000 I think the beautiful advantage that we have is that it's we can we can make choices on what we do.

00:38:56.000 So when you're in UFC and they close the door, it's kind of fucking best person wins.

00:39:01.000 It's it's survival.

00:39:01.000 You know, you got it.

00:39:03.000 When we're in WWE and we both step in the ring and they ring the bell, we're working together.

00:39:07.000 We're working together to put on the best show for the audience.

00:39:10.000 And in that process, you can calculate the risks you want to take.

00:39:14.000 And I think that's what allows somebody to be able to perform for 23 years.

00:39:19.000 You know, I don't know.

00:39:21.000 I know that age-old stat that everybody says about like the average NFL career is what, two and a half years or three and a half years.

00:39:28.000 I don't know what the stat is on average UFC career.

00:39:31.000 Like how long, what's your window to be functionally profitable in UFC?

00:39:37.000 But I know because our risks are calculated and we're working together rather than against each other, the math is way higher for you to have like a 10, 15, 20 year career in WWE.

00:39:50.000 But that also is 10 more years of falling down, 15 more years of falling down.

00:39:55.000 So it's weird.

00:39:57.000 Like you can choreograph the risk, but you have to do it time and time again.

00:40:01.000 And the schedule in WWE just changed.

00:40:03.000 Like to do 70 matches a year now in WWE is like, man, you're a workhorse.

00:40:09.000 We used to do 220, 230.

00:40:11.000 Which is so crazy.

00:40:13.000 It's it too.

00:40:14.000 220 days of trauma in a year.

00:40:17.000 Because you're getting, no matter what, you're getting some trauma.

00:40:20.000 No matter what.

00:40:21.000 If God body slams you, something happens, you're colliding, you go off the ropes, you're smashing into each other.

00:40:27.000 I get such a warm feeling when first timers go into the ring for the first time.

00:40:32.000 It's like, oh, it's like a bouncy floor.

00:40:34.000 And they fall down once and like the wind's knocked out of them.

00:40:37.000 They're like, my brain moved.

00:40:39.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:40:40.000 Now you got to do that again and again.

00:40:42.000 But it's weird.

00:40:43.000 I've gotten to work with a lot of stand-ups and WWE is kind of changing.

00:40:47.000 I would say it's on the progression of a stand-up making it to just like a stadium tour.

00:40:52.000 But man, when I performed, my sweet spot, we ran very parallel lives.

00:40:58.000 Like you, I've worked every city, Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom to Madison Square Garden, like to the Saitama Super Arena to AT ⁇ T Stadium to Bangor, Maine, or to Valparaiso, Indiana.

00:41:10.000 Like you, you go to all of these places and it's like Friday you're in one place, Saturday you're in another place, Sunday you're in another place, Monday you're in another place, Tuesday you're in another place, one day to drop your shit, one day to catch your flight out, do it again.

00:41:22.000 Like it's, it's, it's kind of, we, we're kind of like touring stand-ups in that regard.

00:41:27.000 Yeah.

00:41:27.000 Very similar.

00:41:28.000 And you're responsible for your own trans, like, and I'm speaking from my day. 0.81

00:41:28.000 Yeah. 0.81

00:41:32.000 I don't know how it is now because I got one left and then I'm done.

00:41:36.000 But you were responsible for your own transportation, booking your own hotels.

00:41:39.000 Like you, you were, they were just like, hey, we're starting here.

00:41:42.000 We're in here.

00:41:43.000 Good luck.

00:41:44.000 Which is awesome because you create, people are really independent when they, when they go through that fire and you weed out the people who don't want to be there.

00:41:51.000 Yeah, because it's just the sheer work, the sheer workload.

00:41:54.000 Taking those clubs and like making, doing a tour.

00:41:57.000 Also the adrenaline.

00:41:58.000 Like it's like, what do you do after a night?

00:42:00.000 Like most jobs, people can't wait to be done and then go home and relax and fall asleep.

00:42:06.000 Where if you're doing stand-up or obviously wrestling, you were just.

00:42:10.000 You're done late at night and you're like, man, let the water rush.

00:42:13.000 Yeah.

00:42:14.000 Fuck.

00:42:14.000 What can I do better?

00:42:15.000 Or this fucking killed.

00:42:16.000 And then it's four in the morning.

00:42:18.000 Yeah, you're buzzing.

00:42:19.000 Yep.

00:42:19.000 You're buzzing.

00:42:20.000 And it's also, it's really hard to have any kind of a normal relationship because you're just constantly not home.

00:42:27.000 You're constantly gone.

00:42:28.000 Like even your friends, like you, you really, as a touring comic, the best thing that I ever did is start taking friends with me on the road instead of just working with like random guys that I didn't know in different towns.

00:42:40.000 Those are fun sometimes.

00:42:42.000 Sometimes.

00:42:42.000 Like, you know, two out of 10 times you meet a new friend.

00:42:45.000 Yeah.

00:42:46.000 Eight out of 10 times, you're with some annoying alcoholic who fucking sucks and they're annoying and then they want to take you someplace and you get in trouble.

00:42:56.000 Yeah.

00:42:57.000 Yeah.

00:42:58.000 I mean, that's certainly the normal life aspect of it.

00:43:02.000 It's also like at full tilt, it's a very absorbing thing.

00:43:07.000 It's a very selfish thing.

00:43:09.000 So I think not only you don't work regular office hours and you're a nomad, a gypsy. 1.00

00:43:16.000 But especially from a WWE perspective, you have to, like you're a startup founder.

00:43:22.000 You have to wake up thinking about it.

00:43:24.000 You have to think about it all day.

00:43:25.000 You have to go to sleep thinking about it.

00:43:27.000 Wake up in the two hours of sleep that you get being like, I remember this line or maybe we can do this stunt or whatever.

00:43:32.000 Right.

00:43:33.000 And it's people who are in your sphere, at least through my perspective and my journey.

00:43:38.000 Man, if you were in my gravity from like 2002 to like 2019, I wasn't a part of a team.

00:43:47.000 You did it my way.

00:43:49.000 Like bus leaves at 10.

00:43:50.000 If you're there at 1001, you are fucking left.

00:43:53.000 Like we're doing this and we're training here and then we're doing this.

00:43:55.000 But so the end product is good.

00:43:58.000 So like the dream job of like, man, I never, the six-year-old kid holding the paper belt can be an adult holding the real belt and get shekels for doing that.

00:44:07.000 And I don't ever want to, I don't want to put that in jeopardy.

00:44:09.000 So you fuckers are going to have to get in line and we're just going to have to go.

00:44:12.000 Like, you know, I was absent a lot in relationships because if it wasn't on my terms, it didn't exist.

00:44:21.000 You know, because here you got, you catch lightning out of a jar.

00:44:24.000 I'm a kid from West Newberry who's, you know, come from a family of five and there's always more broke, but man, we were a good level of broke.

00:44:34.000 And then now, like, hey, if you just work hard at this thing, you can kind of not ever be that again.

00:44:39.000 All right, fuck this.

00:44:40.000 I'm doing this thing all the time.

00:44:43.000 But that comes with, hey, I'm getting married or like my grandfather died or I got a birthday coming up or like, hey, man, you missed another Thanksgiving.

00:44:52.000 You're damn right I did because I'm doing the thing.

00:44:54.000 Yeah.

00:44:55.000 You know, so it's all for me at least, it was, it was that as well of like laser focus, all things WWE.

00:45:02.000 Well, it's that in everything that you do where you want to really be successful.

00:45:07.000 It takes saying yes to the thing means no to everything else.

00:45:12.000 I had Jensen Hwang on the podcast the other day, who's the CEO of NVIDIA, like one of the biggest companies on planet Earth, huge company.

00:45:20.000 Fucking dude still to this day works seven days a week.

00:45:24.000 And he was talking about when he goes on vacation, I go, do you go on vacation and just put it all down?

00:45:29.000 He goes, no, I work.

00:45:30.000 He goes, even when I'm with my family, I have to work.

00:45:32.000 I'm working.

00:45:33.000 I work seven days a week.

00:45:35.000 I don't take a day off.

00:45:36.000 I love it.

00:45:37.000 And he goes, and I'm terrified of failure.

00:45:39.000 He goes, that's my motivation.

00:45:41.000 My motivation is not I want to succeed.

00:45:43.000 My motivation is fear of failure.

00:45:46.000 Every day I show up saying, if I don't do this, we could fail.

00:45:49.000 And I'm going to work seven days a week.

00:45:51.000 Everybody who thinks they want to be a CEO, you think you want to be a billionaire, like, you want to do that?

00:45:56.000 You want to do that when you're 60 years old?

00:45:59.000 Do you want to be working seven days a week all day long from the moment you wake up?

00:46:02.000 He wakes up at 4.30 in the morning.

00:46:04.000 He says he answers thousands of emails a day.

00:46:06.000 I'm like, what?

00:46:08.000 How is that even fucking possible?

00:46:10.000 Gets up at 4.30 in the morning, answers all these emails, works all day long, constantly problem solving, making AI chips.

00:46:18.000 It's fucking crazy, right?

00:46:20.000 But that's with everything.

00:46:22.000 You want to be at the top of the heap?

00:46:24.000 There's only one way.

00:46:25.000 When you see something difficult look easy, there's a bunch of 4.30 in the morning wake-ups that made that happen.

00:46:25.000 Yeah.

00:46:33.000 I think with everything in life.

00:46:35.000 Anything in life where you really want to excel at it, there's no shortcuts.

00:46:39.000 It doesn't exist.

00:46:40.000 That weeds a lot of people out.

00:46:42.000 It does.

00:46:43.000 And there's a lot of, man, armchair quarterback is the easiest and best position on the field.

00:46:43.000 It does.

00:46:48.000 Yeah.

00:46:48.000 I could do that.

00:46:49.000 All I needed to do is do this.

00:46:50.000 Sure, go right ahead.

00:46:52.000 Yeah.

00:46:52.000 Take your best shot.

00:46:53.000 Yeah.

00:46:53.000 Yeah, good luck.

00:46:54.000 It's interesting because it must weed out so many talented people.

00:46:58.000 There's probably a lot of talented people that you've seen over the years that just didn't have that drive to constantly improve and succeed and really be thinking about what they're doing all the time.

00:47:08.000 I like that statement because I think the talent is doing it all.

00:47:14.000 You could have a...

00:47:15.000 No, you can have one.

00:47:16.000 You can smoke if you want.

00:47:17.000 I don't care.

00:47:19.000 We have fans in here.

00:47:20.000 Yeah, we have fans that suck out all the smoke.

00:47:22.000 I think the statement of man, so many talented people didn't make it.

00:47:28.000 They may be an acrobat.

00:47:30.000 They may be a fast talker.

00:47:32.000 But that's not the only attribute that makes one special.

00:47:36.000 You may be a great joke writer, but man, if you don't master stage presence, I mean, you may be a great joke writer with stage presence, but if you can't lug the tour, you're not talented for it.

00:47:49.000 Well, it's really the grind.

00:47:51.000 It's everything.

00:47:51.000 It is.

00:47:52.000 The all-encompassing thing.

00:47:53.000 So when someone with great athletic ability decides that it's not for them, because eventually that is one thing about WWE, for all the arguments of like backstage politico, everybody understands the sound of money and no one refuses it.

00:48:12.000 Like, I fucking hate this guy, but I got to give him another match.

00:48:17.000 It may not be, but I now have to give him a 10-year contract.

00:48:20.000 But when they go out there, if the noise is there, even if the they's fucking hate you, you get another match.

00:48:28.000 I'm proof positive of that meritocracy at work.

00:48:31.000 Like, everybody fucking hated me.

00:48:33.000 Why'd they hate you?

00:48:34.000 I was just real different.

00:48:35.000 Like, I was just really different.

00:48:38.000 In what way?

00:48:41.000 So I didn't ruffle any feathers when I kind of entered the business, kept quiet, did my stuff, but I also didn't connect with the audience.

00:48:50.000 And I don't know, maybe you guys see this in stand-up or not, but then I got like a personality of like the white rap guy, like the white hip-hop guy.

00:48:57.000 You know about that?

00:48:59.000 But like, I fucking went, I fucking went all in, you know, urban gear, like, and I'm a hip-hop head.

00:49:06.000 So it's like, oh, man, this is my sweet spot.

00:49:08.000 This is the avenue.

00:49:10.000 This isn't all of my personality, but this is one level that I can show that I think everyone will get.

00:49:16.000 So if you go to Madison Square Garden, you get it.

00:49:18.000 But if we go to Wheeling, West Virginia, you'll also get it.

00:49:21.000 And you may like it in some places and hate it in some places, but everyone will get it.

00:49:25.000 I will not be selling apathy.

00:49:27.000 But in doing that, I never followed dress code.

00:49:31.000 I was saying disrespectful shit about my peers.

00:49:34.000 Like, I kind of did it my own way.

00:49:37.000 So I was kind of ruffling some feathers backstage or just, I was taking big swings because I was going to fucking get fired anyway.

00:49:44.000 The alternative was lose my job.

00:49:46.000 So I was like, fuck it, I'm going down swinging.

00:49:48.000 Yeah.

00:49:49.000 And then the people behind the curtain were like, ah, the kid's disrespectful to the business.

00:49:54.000 He doesn't care about the business.

00:49:55.000 All the while, I just want to keep my fucking job.

00:49:57.000 You know, so the they's behind the curtain weren't really invested, but they were also humble enough to be like, there's noise out there.

00:50:06.000 Got to give him another match.

00:50:08.000 And one match at a time times 23 years of compounding interest.

00:50:12.000 We're here.

00:50:13.000 What did Vince think about your hip-hop person?

00:50:15.000 He hated it and then loved it.

00:50:18.000 He hated it and then loved it.

00:50:20.000 And I think I'm thinking for somebody, but I think from his perspective is like when I hear somebody's idea for a personality, man, I want to be this sports agent guy or whatever.

00:50:31.000 Oh, yo, I have the idea of what that is in my head.

00:50:35.000 And if their projection of that idea doesn't match my projection of that idea, I'm like, ah, fuck, I hate it.

00:50:40.000 But that doesn't mean it can't work.

00:50:42.000 So I think what maybe would happen was my perspective of the white hip-hop guy from the mean street of West Newberry and Vince's perspective of John Cena, the rapper, we probably missed.

00:50:56.000 Like he had an idea and I had an idea.

00:51:00.000 And usually he will craft it to his vision.

00:51:03.000 I got to give him respect for allowing me to kind of run with it, you know?

00:51:08.000 Well, it's probably that fear of being fired that like keeps you on the edge.

00:51:13.000 Dude, that was it.

00:51:13.000 Of like the NVIDIA guy of like, I don't want to fail.

00:51:16.000 Yeah.

00:51:17.000 I got the sit down of like, hey, we're going to cut you because it's not working.

00:51:21.000 Like you, you're out there for your matches.

00:51:23.000 You hear the same thing.

00:51:24.000 It's not working.

00:51:25.000 And there's no argument there.

00:51:26.000 I'm like, fucking, all right.

00:51:29.000 I got to touch the sun.

00:51:30.000 I got to play for the Yankees.

00:51:30.000 I got to make it.

00:51:31.000 I got my one at bat.

00:51:32.000 I'm Moonlight Graham.

00:51:33.000 And then they heard me rap in the back of the bus and was like, man, Stephanie heard me rap in the back of the bus.

00:51:40.000 And was like, yo, you want to do that on TV?

00:51:41.000 I'm like, lose my job or fucking rap?

00:51:44.000 Yeah, let's go.

00:51:45.000 Let's do this.

00:51:47.000 So it was Stephanie's idea.

00:51:48.000 And it was a fucking accident, dude.

00:51:50.000 It was an accident.

00:51:50.000 It was my final overseas tour for the WWE.

00:51:54.000 And the boys just spend time.

00:51:56.000 Like, that's the one time they get the whole group together is overseas because you don't want to be herding cats like in Amsterdam or something.

00:52:02.000 Everybody rides on the bus.

00:52:03.000 You go from town to town.

00:52:04.000 So like to pass the time, the boys just do whatever.

00:52:07.000 And they were freestyling on the back of the bus.

00:52:09.000 And I normally just fucking kept to myself because I was raised in the environment of like, keep your ears open, keep your mouth shut, don't do anything unless spoken to.

00:52:17.000 So I did that, but I also didn't make any connections with people who were putting their lives on the line for me.

00:52:24.000 You know, some of the guys you really beat the shit out of in the rings are like your best friends.

00:52:30.000 So I didn't have any of those connections.

00:52:31.000 And I heard these guys rapping.

00:52:32.000 And I just remember playing roller coaster tycoon on my laptop, full matching up, putting it away.

00:52:37.000 I'm like, I'm going to the back of the bus.

00:52:39.000 And just waited my turn and then filleted like 12 guys.

00:52:44.000 And Stephanie was like, how the fuck did you remember all that?

00:52:44.000 Yeah.

00:52:47.000 I'm like, no, no, it's freestyle.

00:52:48.000 You just make it up.

00:52:49.000 And she's like, well, make up something about me.

00:52:51.000 And we were boarding a plane.

00:52:53.000 And I literally like utilized the plane, the people getting on the plane, what she was wearing, what she was eating.

00:52:58.000 She's like, would you do this on TV?

00:53:00.000 And that's where we got a chance.

00:53:02.000 Wow.

00:53:03.000 And it wasn't like off to the moon.

00:53:06.000 Like, I got a shitty chance on a small spot.

00:53:10.000 And that worked.

00:53:11.000 So then I got moved to like the dog shit Saturday night program that nobody watches.

00:53:16.000 But the cool thing is no one's watching.

00:53:18.000 So like I could do whatever I wanted.

00:53:20.000 So I started saying more racy shit and dressing more outlandish and having more personality and like claiming ownership of the show.

00:53:27.000 I call myself Mr. Saturday Night.

00:53:29.000 And it's the shitty show.

00:53:30.000 You don't want to be Mr. Saturday night, but I did.

00:53:33.000 And then that got another match and got another match.

00:53:35.000 And one by one, it kind of brought me here.

00:53:38.000 Wow.

00:53:39.000 Just a fucking happy accident, man.

00:53:41.000 That's crazy.

00:53:42.000 All the way to even when the bells were like, hey, the whole thing's a fucking accident.

00:53:47.000 You want to start training?

00:53:48.000 Fuck yeah, sure.

00:53:49.000 Great.

00:53:49.000 All right.

00:53:51.000 You want to start rapping?

00:53:52.000 Yeah, fuck it.

00:53:53.000 Sure.

00:53:53.000 See what happens.

00:53:54.000 That's amazing.

00:53:55.000 It's a happy accident.

00:53:56.000 And for it to go all the way to last year's massive heel turn, he went heel, dude.

00:54:03.000 That was this year, by the way.

00:54:05.000 Yeah.

00:54:05.000 Yeah, that was this year.

00:54:06.000 Yeah, it's been a crazy year.

00:54:09.000 Yeah, that was.

00:54:10.000 That was a mania.

00:54:12.000 And man, literally, perhaps other than maybe Hogan, right?

00:54:19.000 The greatest heel turn in wrestling history.

00:54:22.000 When a good, crowd-pleasing guy goes bad, bad, and dark.

00:54:28.000 You had moments, the things you were saying, the way you were saying them, epic, iconic, iconic heel turn.

00:54:35.000 Cold, dark, working with the rock.

00:54:38.000 He was in cahoots.

00:54:39.000 That's the good guy, Cody.

00:54:41.000 And like, see the people's faces.

00:54:42.000 That's the fun thing.

00:54:43.000 It's like, this stuff is so simple, but it's the if you take out the crowd in that situation and just put those three guys, it is really fucked up what we do.

00:54:53.000 But when you add the audience in the back and all of their faces and what's going on, that's what makes bro.

00:54:57.000 Even your face.

00:54:58.000 You got like a mean guy face all of a sudden.

00:55:01.000 It's like you look like a different person.

00:55:03.000 I was having a bad day.

00:55:03.000 That's interesting.

00:55:07.000 Well, this is also when you'd already done a bunch of acting.

00:55:10.000 Yes.

00:55:11.000 This is this year.

00:55:12.000 Yeah.

00:55:13.000 This is February this year.

00:55:15.000 Yeah.

00:55:16.000 How much of the creative control do you have over the aspects of that heel turn?

00:55:23.000 Like, for example, one thing that I thought was the coolest.

00:55:28.000 I was in the front row of WrestleMania behind the Spanish announce table.

00:55:33.000 So I'm directly across from the entrance, you know, the giant WrestleMania football stadium in Las Vegas.

00:55:41.000 And there was no music and it was a black background. 1.00

00:55:44.000 Normally, he's the most color with the most iconic loud, wild music, no music, black background, and in white letters, it just said Cena.

00:55:54.000 And you just walked out with literally the statement was, I'm not here to entertain you people, basically is what it felt like.

00:56:04.000 And I loved it.

00:56:06.000 I mean, this is the main event of Mania.

00:56:08.000 You are so entertained.

00:56:09.000 I mean, I want to entertain you.

00:56:10.000 Fuck, I fucked up.

00:56:11.000 Yeah, I have a degree in pro wrestling, but my master's is in healdum.

00:56:17.000 Like, it's like the bad, I just love a bad guy.

00:56:21.000 And even ever since that bad guy turned, I feel like, and I feel like most bad guy fans do, now newly connected with the Back to the Return of the Good Guy Cena.

00:56:33.000 Yeah, there it is.

00:56:34.000 Oh, I mean, it was literally just.

00:56:36.000 I used to come out like a Tasmanian devil.

00:56:39.000 Yeah.

00:56:39.000 And this just reversed it all.

00:56:42.000 And it seems like nothing, but it's iconic.

00:56:46.000 Just cold as ice.

00:56:47.000 Everyone else for four hours coming out with colorful music and pyro and all this stuff.

00:56:53.000 And there's the guy that normally did it the best and the biggest, just really not giving a fuck.

00:56:59.000 And WrestleMania, if you're going to do it, like you'd give your best entrance for WrestleMania.

00:57:04.000 And this was, I guess we were going for the shittiest one.

00:57:08.000 But it just rang the opposite and simple and true.

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00:58:29.000 Limited time offer.

00:58:31.000 So, like, for example, those things, those details, that's you mostly pitching to the creative team.

00:58:38.000 Like, for example, like the even just the white letters, the black entrance.

00:58:43.000 How does that kind of come together?

00:58:45.000 So I think that's, and I've been lucky enough to kind of take this perspective of not knowing everything and realizing that even with 23 years of fluency, I'm not the smartest guy in the room.

00:58:58.000 I don't know the technology they have and what they can do.

00:59:01.000 Now, granted, a black LED board, I could probably come up with that.

00:59:05.000 But what I like to do is lean on my resources.

00:59:09.000 Like, hey, let's go to production and see what production is thinking.

00:59:13.000 And I don't want to tell them what to do because I want to hear their ideas first.

00:59:18.000 And production was like, what if we just went basic?

00:59:21.000 I'm like, how basic can you go?

00:59:22.000 Yeah.

00:59:23.000 What if we just blacked everything out?

00:59:25.000 Yeah, but I know from what you guys have said, you also like to light the audience.

00:59:28.000 No, no, what if we just black everything out?

00:59:29.000 You guys would do that?

00:59:31.000 Oh, that sucks.

00:59:32.000 Yeah, let's do that.

00:59:33.000 So it's not me with all of these things.

00:59:33.000 Yeah.

00:59:37.000 I don't have enough depth of field to touch all the bases, but I will go to every department and say, okay, entrance is a big part of what we do.

00:59:46.000 What do we do for lighting?

00:59:47.000 What do we do for production?

00:59:48.000 Go to camera.

00:59:49.000 Like, how do you guys want to shoot it?

00:59:51.000 And then it trickles down when you talk to the talent you're working with.

00:59:54.000 How do we portray this message?

00:59:57.000 And then, of course, it starts at the top with creatively, I want to make you a bad guy.

01:00:01.000 So we're going to do that.

01:00:02.000 Okay, sure, we're going to do that.

01:00:03.000 How do you want to do that?

01:00:05.000 But it's, I think it's getting, we have a lot of talented people and just allowing them to do their job and let you know, like, oh, I was kind of thinking this.

01:00:12.000 And then tell them, like, yeah, that's a good idea.

01:00:14.000 Let's do that.

01:00:15.000 You know?

01:00:15.000 That's amazing.

01:00:15.000 Yeah.

01:00:16.000 Because I don't know what I miss if I'm making all the demands.

01:00:19.000 To show you the contrast, his opponent that night came out to, I think it was 40 people on red, white, and blue derby bikes all dressed like American people.

01:00:29.000 Nitro Circus.

01:00:30.000 He comes out elevated from inside of the stage, wearing this super gaudy mask that he has to take off.

01:00:36.000 Fireworks, fireworks, fire, sparks, smoke, all of these different things.

01:00:40.000 And he just comes out blank face.

01:00:42.000 I just got my bunk sock on the back.

01:00:44.000 Just run on.

01:00:46.000 There you go.

01:00:47.000 It's so funny hearing Tony talk about this because for people who don't know, the way Tony runs Kill Tony is basically a version of a WWE event.

01:00:59.000 I mean, it really is.

01:01:01.000 Like when he does the arena shows, he has everything set up like a WWE event.

01:01:06.000 Yeah.

01:01:07.000 I mean, even the thing we did with Shane when Shane was playing, when Shane was playing Trump, when Trump and I were supposedly feuding online, Trump had said something about me online.

01:01:16.000 And then Trump's talking shit, like as Shane's talking shit, and then the music plays and I show up behind him.

01:01:21.000 It's pure pro wrestling.

01:01:23.000 Oh, yeah.

01:01:23.000 It's pure pro wrestling.

01:01:24.000 And MSG's on their feet, shocked.

01:01:27.000 You know, you're surprising this crowd that thinks they're just there for a comedy show.

01:01:31.000 And well, there's the panel.

01:01:32.000 I guess that's what we're going to have tonight.

01:01:34.000 But the surprises, the ups, the downs.

01:01:38.000 And then he brings up Joey Dia.

01:01:40.000 So it's like, boom, boom.

01:01:41.000 Kind of like that big finish at Mania that I was talking about.

01:01:45.000 Superstar bringing up a superstar, you know, music, music, smoke, fire.

01:01:45.000 Yeah.

01:01:50.000 Yes.

01:01:50.000 All these little things.

01:01:52.000 The more you make it important, the more important it becomes.

01:01:54.000 Yeah.

01:01:55.000 As when what he's saying is like when Trump was there, this was as Trump was running for president.

01:01:59.000 Trump thought that I was endorsing RFK, so he got mad at me.

01:02:02.000 So I said, I am here to endorse someone.

01:02:04.000 And I brought out Joey Diaz.

01:02:07.000 Which is great because you didn't get a reveal, but you get a different reveal.

01:02:11.000 And it's like, and everybody went nuts.

01:02:12.000 But it's like the audience, they're into it like they're into pro wrestling.

01:02:17.000 They want all the heel turns.

01:02:18.000 They want all the chaos.

01:02:20.000 They want all the pageantry and the fire and the explosions and all the shit.

01:02:25.000 Man, you get any live audience.

01:02:27.000 They're into all that.

01:02:28.000 Like watch a college football game.

01:02:30.000 Watch a soccer game overseas or football, as they would say.

01:02:30.000 Right.

01:02:35.000 The fans, it's like a group think of energy that's fucking nuts.

01:02:41.000 Like, audiences want it.

01:02:42.000 It doesn't matter where you're at.

01:02:44.000 Like, what man, when comics just go out and light up a stage and they have that fucking stage presence and they just slay a set, the fucking audience is rolling in the aisles.

01:02:52.000 Like, you let them in, and they can help make a joke that might not hit the night before slay.

01:03:00.000 Like, it's all about the moment.

01:03:02.000 It's all about being there and reading the people.

01:03:05.000 And the fun thing about WWE is you can go out there with an idea.

01:03:10.000 And I can only imagine this as kind of like stand-up, where if you got your set and you tell the first joke to crickets, you may try another joke.

01:03:17.000 And if that's crickets, you got to fucking pivot.

01:03:19.000 Yeah.

01:03:19.000 So we go out and do something.

01:03:22.000 And oh man, they're into it.

01:03:24.000 Great.

01:03:25.000 All right.

01:03:25.000 We have them.

01:03:26.000 We just got to maintain their attention until we get to act three, essentially.

01:03:31.000 But if you hear fucking crickets, you're like, all right, we're switching it up.

01:03:34.000 Fucking pivot right now.

01:03:36.000 And that's the beauty.

01:03:38.000 That's one of the things that I love the most: it's not just me and the other person out there.

01:03:43.000 Like the audience is the act.

01:03:46.000 That moment only means something.

01:03:48.000 If you put a blue screen behind the people, it is super fucked up.

01:03:52.000 Like, what the fuck are they doing?

01:03:53.000 And why does that mean anything?

01:03:54.000 Right.

01:03:54.000 But when you let the level of the audience, and everybody's on their feet, they're going, no!

01:03:59.000 It's fucking everything.

01:04:00.000 It's everything.

01:04:01.000 That's why Tony's so interested in the coordination of it all and the setting and the sabotage and all the chaos that's involved in all of that.

01:04:09.000 These are human emotions that are universal.

01:04:12.000 Everyone understands betrayal, jealousy, anger, disappointment, failure, excitement.

01:04:17.000 Like these are universal things that you don't, if we don't speak the same language, you still have felt these things.

01:04:24.000 And you could watch that.

01:04:26.000 No one spoke in that clip.

01:04:28.000 But you could watch that anywhere in the world and be like, that kid just got fucked over.

01:04:32.000 Right.

01:04:33.000 Oh, what's going to happen next?

01:04:35.000 Like, that's the beautiful appeal of it.

01:04:37.000 You know, it's, it's, we don't hit too far above our weight class.

01:04:40.000 Like, we, we try to send large-scale, universal messages based on true, real human emotion that we all know.

01:04:47.000 Yeah.

01:04:48.000 And up to that day, that moment, like, even that thing that we were just telling you about, me bringing him coming out, that being a reveal, him bringing up Diaz was coordinated literally, I think, 15 minutes before.

01:05:04.000 Literally, me with a big piece of paper going, hey, Joe, what if we did this?

01:05:10.000 He confirms it.

01:05:11.000 So I go to Hair and Makeup where they're finishing up Shane as Trump, which in itself is just hysterical.

01:05:18.000 I pitch it to him.

01:05:19.000 He loves it.

01:05:20.000 I go to Diaz.

01:05:21.000 I say, Rogan's going to bring you up.

01:05:23.000 And the thing happens quick.

01:05:24.000 Whereas with almost, you know, every form of entertainment that we're used to other than wrestling and like kind of, you know, Kill Tony in this instance, everything's so pre-planned that if we over pre-planned it, we wouldn't have had the topical RFK endorsement because it was like news that day.

01:05:45.000 Yeah, sure.

01:05:45.000 And so again, that inspiration, you know, totally comes from there.

01:05:50.000 Because what else is doing that at MSG, 10 minutes before the show, reorganizing things.

01:05:56.000 So now we just go to production and go, have Rogan's LED ready and then Diaz in that order.

01:06:05.000 You know, it literally comes from that.

01:06:07.000 And when it goes right, there's not a better feeling in the world.

01:06:09.000 Exactly.

01:06:10.000 I just get to sit back and watch.

01:06:12.000 Yeah.

01:06:12.000 But it's so funny that that connection with pro wrestling is really why you've made Kill Tony the way it is.

01:06:20.000 Like without your love of pro wrestling, it would be such a different show.

01:06:25.000 Like if it was just run like a traditional stand-up show, there's so much else going on that makes it the biggest show.

01:06:33.000 Yeah.

01:06:33.000 Well, it's long-term storytelling.

01:06:35.000 We had a guy on on Monday that had been doing it 14 years.

01:06:40.000 And man, he just is timing was off.

01:06:43.000 He struggled.

01:06:44.000 Even after the minute, I go, you've been doing it 14 years.

01:06:46.000 He goes, yeah, man.

01:06:47.000 I go, what do you, how do you make money?

01:06:48.000 He goes, I do this.

01:06:50.000 I go, you do this for a living.

01:06:53.000 He goes, yeah.

01:06:54.000 I go, you must have better material.

01:06:56.000 I'm going to give you another shot.

01:06:58.000 Do another minute.

01:06:59.000 Here we go, ladies and gentlemen.

01:07:00.000 And I introduce him again and he bombs again.

01:07:04.000 And literally, I was talking with it about it with Stephanie after the show because she just happened to be at Kiltoni on Monday.

01:07:13.000 And she goes, God, a guy like that, you know, what happened?

01:07:15.000 You know, what happens next?

01:07:17.000 I go, hopefully, hopefully, the guy gets pulled out of the bucket in a month or two, has a great set, puts it together, realizes his timing was off.

01:07:26.000 He wasn't taking a breath.

01:07:27.000 He wasn't connecting with the crowd.

01:07:29.000 He was just memorizing his stuff.

01:07:31.000 And the story begins to be told about this guy.

01:07:36.000 And sometimes it happens in reverse.

01:07:37.000 Sometimes somebody starts off, you know, fire hot, rocket strapped to the back.

01:07:42.000 Yep.

01:07:43.000 And then, oof.

01:07:44.000 And that's kind of the sadder thing, right?

01:07:47.000 Is starting hot and then never being able to touch that again.

01:07:50.000 Have a moment like your first time.

01:07:52.000 Well, it's like we were talking about people with talent.

01:07:54.000 We all know someone who killed during open mic days that we were like, wow, this guy's going to be huge.

01:07:59.000 They have like undeniable talent and they just can't manage it.

01:08:03.000 They can't figure it out.

01:08:04.000 They self-sabotage.

01:08:06.000 They get addicted to drugs or alcohol or whatever it is.

01:08:09.000 There are so many things.

01:08:11.000 It's not just the ability to go out and do the task well.

01:08:14.000 There's so many variables that will fuck you up.

01:08:17.000 Yeah.

01:08:18.000 Dude, you're right.

01:08:19.000 So many, so many gifted people have just have that roadblock in front of them.

01:08:26.000 Which is why I think conversations with successful people are so important because you get to hear those stories.

01:08:32.000 You get to hear, like with Jensen the other day, he was talking about how NVIDIA was basically bankrupt.

01:08:36.000 They were on their way out and someone gave them a chance.

01:08:38.000 Like some one guy that was an investor gave them a chance and then they wound up becoming successful.

01:08:45.000 And then there was these moments.

01:08:48.000 And people need to know that you're going to have those hurdles.

01:08:52.000 You're going to have those roadblocks.

01:08:54.000 You're going to have to figure out how to adjust.

01:08:56.000 It's not easy.

01:08:58.000 No one who's been successful at anything will tell you the whole ride was easy.

01:09:03.000 Yeah, but a lot of the time, sometimes, man, sometimes we'll be in it.

01:09:08.000 So I've been through like three generations of knowledge and learning, 23 years in the business operating at a high level.

01:09:17.000 I have seen thousands.

01:09:20.000 And like it is the man, if you're a stud in Pewee Football League, then you go to this junior high school and then you're the number one player in college and then you're the number one number one player in high school and number one player in college eke out a spot in the NFL and then a year later you're gone because the funnel just gets so thin like WWE has like 200 personnel in their NXT development program right now Maybe 10 will make it.

01:09:47.000 And of those 10, like really, honestly, maybe one will make it.

01:09:52.000 And what the hope is, is over a six-year period of those classes of 200 that get matriculated probably every four months.

01:10:02.000 So we're talking 6,000 people.

01:10:04.000 I'm hoping one makes it.

01:10:06.000 Wow.

01:10:07.000 In five or six years, I need one.

01:10:09.000 Because my top guy right now, my Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes and the Charlotte Flairs and Becky Lynches of the world, like they'll, they'll last half a decade to draw. 0.74

01:10:20.000 Maybe if we're lucky, maybe we'll get it more.

01:10:23.000 They can, you know, maybe parlay it into a decade or two.

01:10:26.000 But that's an anomaly.

01:10:27.000 You got to play the legit math of like, after five years, I better have somebody in the on-deck circle.

01:10:33.000 So out of like five, six thousand, I just need one.

01:10:37.000 But it's still, everybody's biting their fingernails of like, we don't have the person yet.

01:10:41.000 It's so many folks just don't make it.

01:10:44.000 Just don't make it.

01:10:45.000 Yeah, that's, that's the parallel to stand-up.

01:10:48.000 Yeah, it's man.

01:10:49.000 So, you know, there's so many people that we were talking last night in the green room.

01:10:54.000 Thousands.

01:10:54.000 And when I see them like in the ring do stuff, I'm like, I could never do that.

01:10:59.000 But they just won't.

01:11:00.000 They just don't make it.

01:11:01.000 It's just, there's so many things that fuck people up.

01:11:04.000 So much self-sabotage, so much inability to stay the course.

01:11:08.000 Even our own worst enemy.

01:11:10.000 You know, I don't know.

01:11:11.000 Yeah.

01:11:12.000 I don't know.

01:11:13.000 Yeah.

01:11:15.000 Happy accidents, though.

01:11:16.000 Well, yeah, happy accidents, but not just that.

01:11:16.000 Fuck it.

01:11:20.000 It's you being able to stay on course and you being able to recognize that, you know, okay, this didn't work.

01:11:26.000 What do I do?

01:11:27.000 You want me to rap?

01:11:28.000 Okay, I'll fucking rap.

01:11:29.000 Like a lot of people would have been like, I'm not fucking rapping.

01:11:33.000 That's beneath me.

01:11:34.000 I'm here to be a wrestler.

01:11:36.000 I'm not a gimmick.

01:11:36.000 I'm not going to be a buffoon.

01:11:38.000 Yeah, I'll be a buffoon.

01:11:40.000 Because it beats work in the real job.

01:11:42.000 But it's not only that.

01:11:43.000 It's part of the entertainment of it all, even the cringe aspect of it.

01:11:46.000 Where people are like, what is going on here?

01:11:50.000 It's great.

01:11:51.000 He loves that shit.

01:11:52.000 Oh, it's the best.

01:11:53.000 The best.

01:11:54.000 You know who my guy is right now?

01:11:56.000 Dominic Mysterio.

01:11:57.000 Love Dom.

01:11:58.000 my god so he's no you're here I was gonna You weren't at Petco, were you?

01:12:05.000 No.

01:12:05.000 Ah, gosh, we had fun over there.

01:12:07.000 I bet.

01:12:08.000 I caught a lot of it.

01:12:09.000 Yeah.

01:12:09.000 Man, that kid's good, too.

01:12:11.000 Like, good, good human being.

01:12:12.000 I happen to be in Salt Lake City doing a gig.

01:12:16.000 I was doing stand-up in one arena, and the WWE happened to be in the other arena in Salt Lake City just a few weeks ago.

01:12:24.000 And I'm like, ah, darn.

01:12:26.000 But I look it up and it's a 5 p.m. taping of WWE.

01:12:29.000 So I hit up my friends at WWE.

01:12:31.000 I go, I'm coming in.

01:12:32.000 I'm bringing my openers, right?

01:12:36.000 Anyway, Dominic Mysterio's in a triple threat match.

01:12:39.000 And his whole thing is he's wrestling royalty.

01:12:42.000 He's Rey Mysterio's son, but he claims that he might be Eddie Guerrero's son because his father's one of the ultimate good guys of all time.

01:12:52.000 So basically, he takes on the traits of Eddie Guerrero, whose whole thing was cheating and lying and stealing, breaking the rules in original ways all the time.

01:13:05.000 And he's doing a triple threat match, which means there's three guys at once, right?

01:13:10.000 But if someone beats anybody, you could lose your belt.

01:13:15.000 And his intercontinental championship thinks intercontinental, right?

01:13:17.000 Is on the line and he gets thrown outside the ring.

01:13:21.000 And I'm having fun, right?

01:13:23.000 I go, Dominic, cheat, do something, right?

01:13:26.000 And he's kind of on the other side of the thing.

01:13:27.000 And he lifts up his head and looks at me and goes like that.

01:13:30.000 He gives a big wink and then he goes back down again.

01:13:33.000 And I'm cracking up.

01:13:34.000 I go, did you see that?

01:13:35.000 I'm next to Pauli Shore.

01:13:36.000 I go, did you just see him wink?

01:13:37.000 He goes, yeah, man, what's he going to do, bro?

01:13:41.000 But these two guys in the ring are wrestling and one of them has the other one in a submission hold, a camel clutch.

01:13:47.000 I can't remember who it was, but anyway.

01:13:49.000 And I'm like, you, I literally, even me watching since I was a kid, and even though he just winked at me, it was just enough time.

01:13:58.000 I forgot that Dominic was over there because this action in the ring is really happening.

01:14:03.000 Something's about to happen.

01:14:04.000 And you hear the bell ring and I look over.

01:14:07.000 And there's Dominic with the hammer in his hand ringing the bell.

01:14:11.000 And the guy lets go with the submission.

01:14:13.000 And the referee goes, what the hell?

01:14:15.000 And something I hadn't seen in 35 years of watching this thing, he's innovative enough to find a brand new way to cheat in this.

01:14:28.000 Yeah.

01:14:28.000 Just twice.

01:14:29.000 A brand new way to cheat.

01:14:31.000 And the crowd, everybody's cracking up.

01:14:34.000 It's a whole new, right when you think you've seen it all.

01:14:38.000 This guy who you would love.

01:14:40.000 He's literally like built like me.

01:14:42.000 He flexes like Nate Diaz without flexing.

01:14:45.000 And he's just braggadocious.

01:14:48.000 He thinks, he thinks he won.

01:14:48.000 Oh, yeah.

01:14:51.000 But the ref's like, no.

01:14:53.000 And I got a cut to Dominic.

01:14:57.000 He just loves it.

01:15:01.000 Yep.

01:15:02.000 There's our guy.

01:15:06.000 Dirty Dom.

01:15:07.000 Yeah.

01:15:11.000 And the crowd just loves him.

01:15:12.000 That's all of us right there.

01:15:14.000 That's Maddie Edgar, Joe DeRosa, Pauly Shore, me.

01:15:18.000 It was DeRosa's first real wrestling event.

01:15:20.000 He had the time of his life.

01:15:22.000 Childlike wonder.

01:15:23.000 I love getting people in there live for the first time.

01:15:25.000 There's something funny about a pro wrestler that's not built too.

01:15:25.000 Yes.

01:15:28.000 Oh, yeah.

01:15:29.000 And he's the champ.

01:15:31.000 And all these other guys, that guy, Pent.

01:15:33.000 Man, he just whipped my ass.

01:15:35.000 He just whipped my ass. 0.89

01:15:35.000 Dirty Dom. 0.89

01:15:37.000 For real.

01:15:37.000 I just lost the Intercontinental Championship to that son of a bitch.

01:15:40.000 Look at him.

01:15:41.000 Covered in gold.

01:15:42.000 Yeah.

01:15:43.000 Probably, what, five, nine, hundred something.

01:15:46.000 No, he's a tall drink of water.

01:15:47.000 He's taller than me, but he's 170 pounds soaking weight.

01:15:50.000 It's such a uniquely American form of art.

01:15:50.000 Yeah, exactly.

01:15:54.000 Yeah.

01:15:55.000 It really is.

01:15:56.000 It's weird because in pockets of the world, like it's Japan has their own style of doing it. 0.79

01:16:01.000 Latin America has their own style of doing it.

01:16:03.000 The UK has their own style of doing it.

01:16:05.000 But this.

01:16:06.000 Yeah.

01:16:07.000 Like the Japanese is very strong style with respect to martial art.

01:16:11.000 The English style is very like catch-as-catch-can, a real like technical expose.

01:16:17.000 The Latin American style, the Mexican style is high-flying.

01:16:20.000 The American offering of like steak, sizzle, apple pie, ice cream, 4th of July, everything like huge.

01:16:29.000 And that's all Vince, right?

01:16:32.000 A lot of it.

01:16:33.000 So is it all ever one person?

01:16:35.000 Right, it's not.

01:16:36.000 A lot of it is.

01:16:37.000 A lot of it is.

01:16:38.000 But like promotions like World Class Championship Wrestling were some of the first to use music.

01:16:43.000 Vince was the first to be like, rock and roll, get over here and get on cable and let's blow this thing out.

01:16:49.000 I want to do it.

01:16:49.000 It's not just something we have in a local VFW with cigar smoke and guys taking side action on carnival tricks.

01:16:57.000 No, this is a fucking thing.

01:16:59.000 And we are going to make this a fucking thing.

01:17:02.000 Yeah.

01:17:03.000 You know?

01:17:03.000 It's also a fucking thing where it's a lot of it is not televised because you're just traveling around the country doing these shows.

01:17:10.000 Yeah.

01:17:11.000 So that the business model has kind of changed where media content is king now.

01:17:17.000 So from what I understand from TKO, and I know their executives will correct me, but from my perspective, we have scaled back on the live event only offerings, which helps, you know, lick the wounds.

01:17:31.000 It's weird.

01:17:32.000 Like you don't bump enough or you don't bump as much, but you kind of need to get in there and bump to get your callus and to get your wind and timing.

01:17:38.000 So it's kind of, you get your signals crossed.

01:17:41.000 But anyhow, the content that is provided is always available for media or 99%, where it used to be the opposite.

01:17:49.000 We used to do like four live shows, one TV taping.

01:17:53.000 So you'd have four live shows under your match.

01:17:57.000 You know, you'd do like Lafayette, Little Rock, Pensacola, and then TV in Orlando.

01:18:04.000 You know, and that would be the end of the run.

01:18:06.000 And then you'd do it again of like Bangor, Portsmouth, Providence, TV in Boston.

01:18:12.000 You know, like, and then you'd go for another week and go somewhere else.

01:18:15.000 But it's different now.

01:18:17.000 It's like every piece is televised for the media, which is great because we get a lot out to our fans across the world.

01:18:24.000 But like I learned, I learned how to fail in those non-televised events.

01:18:28.000 I could take big swings because it's like, man, if I'm on the middle of a card in Valparaiso and I kind of fuck up in a gymnasium with 3,500 people, they might tell me to fuck off, but there's also the last match that's going to send them home happy.

01:18:43.000 So let's try this new weird thing.

01:18:45.000 And that's where like me being invisible starts.

01:18:49.000 You know, it's just like, ah, I'll fucking try it.

01:18:51.000 Because it's an environment where you don't want to fail.

01:18:51.000 Who cares?

01:18:54.000 And now it's, there's way more advantage on getting our content out there, but production is super slick.

01:19:01.000 It's like really precise.

01:19:03.000 Everyone's really good.

01:19:06.000 And I don't know how many people go out there and just like dumb.

01:19:09.000 Like that was an example of swinging big.

01:19:12.000 I'm going to fake ring the bell.

01:19:14.000 Will people even get that?

01:19:15.000 Who cares?

01:19:16.000 Let's try it.

01:19:17.000 Like he's, he's the only one of those guys who will, or very few of those guys will stand on an idea like that.

01:19:23.000 Where the other guys are like, no, I want to have a good choreographed performance because I want my stuff to look good because it's on television and going around the world.

01:19:30.000 You know, I loved the non-televised events, but there's just, there's not, there's not, it's not a good business model.

01:19:37.000 So how does a young person coming up now learn how to fail?

01:19:42.000 That is, I think, a conundrum that we're facing because you're failing in front of the world.

01:19:47.000 Right.

01:19:48.000 You know, it's, it's weird.

01:19:50.000 You can have, you can, it's like you work out your set, but you can't do it on small clubs before you go to an arena.

01:19:57.000 It's like you would work out your set at home and then you just play the Intuit Dome or you play Barclays Center.

01:20:05.000 Like you don't have a small room to be like, all right, I landed.

01:20:09.000 Oh man, I gotta rework that one.

01:20:11.000 You don't ever have that.

01:20:12.000 You just have this, you put it together in your head, you think it's okay, and then you're out there.

01:20:17.000 So I don't know.

01:20:19.000 I'm not saying it can't work.

01:20:21.000 I think it can because analytics show that it does work and we have a lot of people watching now.

01:20:26.000 But from my perspective, I really enjoyed the carefree nature of just going out and being ready for anything and it being okay if I fucked up and I failed, if I told some bad jokes.

01:20:40.000 I could come back and be like, that didn't work.

01:20:42.000 That didn't work.

01:20:43.000 And then you have a partner to be like, oh, and this didn't work, but this slade, why don't you do this again? 0.81

01:20:47.000 Like literally, that's where this came from.

01:20:51.000 Just fucking around at live events.

01:20:52.000 And oh my God, there's noise.

01:20:54.000 I'll do it tomorrow night.

01:20:54.000 We're in a different town.

01:20:55.000 Let's see if they can.

01:20:56.000 How did you come up with that?

01:20:57.000 It was a dare.

01:20:57.000 My brother did a happy fucking accident.

01:21:00.000 My brother dared me to do it.

01:21:01.000 Like when we, when I was in the middle of the, the rapping wormhole, I made, I'm a platinum rapper.

01:21:08.000 I made my own album.

01:21:10.000 So like in making, yes, this is amazing.

01:21:15.000 Drink it in, drink it in.

01:21:18.000 In making the album, we would bring home all the tracks.

01:21:22.000 And like my little brother was our test audience.

01:21:24.000 And he would do this dance where he would like shake his head and keep his hand in front of him.

01:21:28.000 I'm like, that is, man.

01:21:29.000 Look at you.

01:21:29.000 He's like, you won't do that on TV.

01:21:31.000 And again, I was on the programs that no one was watching.

01:21:35.000 So it's like no one's watching anyway.

01:21:38.000 Yeah, fuck you.

01:21:39.000 I will do it on TV.

01:21:40.000 And I did it on some meaningless Saturday show and there was a little bit of noise.

01:21:45.000 So I took it with me on the road for the next week and did it on the live events that weren't televised.

01:21:49.000 There's a little bit of noise.

01:21:51.000 Okay, like this is my thing now.

01:21:52.000 This is my thing.

01:21:53.000 And I just, you can't see me.

01:21:55.000 And like, now it's a thing.

01:21:59.000 Yeah.

01:21:59.000 Amazing.

01:22:00.000 Yeah.

01:22:01.000 So I did it on a dare.

01:22:03.000 But like, I also had, I was in a place to be able to.

01:22:03.000 Wow.

01:22:07.000 Tell my brother, okay, I can waste two seconds on an inside joke between you and I. That's the dare.

01:22:13.000 It's not going to ruin the match.

01:22:14.000 But if you're watching, if you're the only one person watching Velocity that night, you'll be like, inside joke, got it.

01:22:21.000 Let's like shouting out your gaming group.

01:22:21.000 All right.

01:22:23.000 Like seven people get the joke, but this is one of those things where it kind of fit and it stuck.

01:22:28.000 Wow.

01:22:29.000 It's just so many of those things in your life.

01:22:33.000 So many of those like fortuitous moments.

01:22:35.000 Well, you know, admittedly, I have an optimism bias.

01:22:41.000 I will admit that.

01:22:43.000 But life will deal opportunity.

01:22:48.000 It's a matter of understanding that it's happening.

01:22:51.000 You know, don't get in your own way.

01:22:53.000 Yeah.

01:22:54.000 Like, say, yeah, come here, sit with you guys.

01:22:57.000 This is a new experience for me.

01:22:59.000 Like, yeah, let's do it.

01:23:01.000 Okay, great.

01:23:03.000 Man, first wrestler to ever retire.

01:23:06.000 Yes, that's a good idea.

01:23:07.000 We're just going to do it.

01:23:08.000 Yeah, but you'll never be able to come back.

01:23:09.000 Yes, but let's just do this thing.

01:23:11.000 Like, life is throwing me an opportunity to create a year's worth of programming narrative that I think will be interesting.

01:23:17.000 The alternative is to do what everybody else has done and maybe hang on too long.

01:23:20.000 And people are like, man, you should have left a few years ago.

01:23:22.000 Now, let's do this.

01:23:24.000 Let's do this.

01:23:24.000 Rap.

01:23:25.000 Do you want to train?

01:23:26.000 It involves you working at this shitty job where you're probably going to, I try to be a cop and failed.

01:23:31.000 I was going to go down and join the Marines.

01:23:33.000 That's lifelong employment.

01:23:35.000 I'm really good with structure.

01:23:36.000 I dig uniform.

01:23:37.000 Like, give me what to do and like a code of conduct to live by.

01:23:42.000 I have a feeling I would have fit in there.

01:23:43.000 Great.

01:23:43.000 I'd love being in shape.

01:23:45.000 They feed you over there.

01:23:46.000 Like, I think I would have done okay, but life put an opportunity in front of me and I was stupid enough to say yes.

01:23:53.000 Going out naked in the Oscars, I was just on Jimmy Kimmel last night.

01:23:56.000 He's like, man, you want to do this bit?

01:23:57.000 I'm like, dude, I am super tired.

01:24:01.000 I'm on a different coast.

01:24:02.000 He's like, let me send you the bit.

01:24:05.000 I'm like, yo, fuck.

01:24:05.000 And I read it.

01:24:08.000 All right, I'm going to do it.

01:24:09.000 What'd you do?

01:24:10.000 I shuffled out there with an index card over my dick.

01:24:13.000 Oh, that, that thing.

01:24:14.000 That's the thing.

01:24:14.000 Yeah.

01:24:15.000 But like, man, in a room full of not even peers or contemporaries, like the pantheon of the professional goal that you try to reach.

01:24:25.000 I don't know any of these fucking people.

01:24:26.000 I don't belong in that room.

01:24:27.000 Right.

01:24:28.000 And he's like, yeah, man, just kind of walk out there naked.

01:24:30.000 And he's right.

01:24:30.000 It'll be a fun bit.

01:24:31.000 It would be a funny bit.

01:24:32.000 But I could have got in my own way of like, now I got to fly.

01:24:36.000 I'm exhausted.

01:24:37.000 I'm going to make a fool out of myself.

01:24:39.000 I don't know any of these people.

01:24:40.000 It's my first impression.

01:24:41.000 I can sit on the couch.

01:24:43.000 Like, that's the easy part.

01:24:45.000 The tough part is like life has dealt you this opportunity.

01:24:48.000 Fucking say yes.

01:24:49.000 15 minutes before the show when you get a good idea.

01:24:52.000 The easy thing to do is be like, do the show.

01:24:55.000 The hard thing to do is be like, yo, let's fucking swing.

01:24:58.000 Let's go for it.

01:24:59.000 So it's not like I think those moments happen to a lot of us.

01:24:59.000 Yeah.

01:25:04.000 And it doesn't have to be a lottery ticket.

01:25:06.000 Granted, holy hell, I've been given a lot of lottery tickets.

01:25:11.000 But it could be something as simple as like, yo, you're in a crummy mood.

01:25:14.000 Find a way to be kind.

01:25:16.000 Like life just gave you an opportunity.

01:25:18.000 The person getting your coffee was like, yo, have a nice day.

01:25:21.000 You could stay crummy or you could be like, fuck, thank you very much.

01:25:24.000 Appreciate that.

01:25:25.000 Appreciate your time.

01:25:26.000 Like, that's an opportunity.

01:25:28.000 You know, life is just a matter of like us reacting to what life throws at.

01:25:32.000 Pivotal decisions.

01:25:33.000 And it doesn't need to be a world-changing decision.

01:25:36.000 I think now, I don't want to say nowadays.

01:25:39.000 I think we always think that like the decision needs to change the world.

01:25:42.000 No, it's you just need to fucking commit and do something.

01:25:47.000 As a 12-year-old, I want to start working out and I liked it.

01:25:50.000 And I just fucking keep working out.

01:25:52.000 And now I can't live without it.

01:25:54.000 It's part of my life.

01:25:54.000 It's a fabric of my life.

01:25:56.000 But in working out, I've learned structure and discipline, accountability, essentially budget.

01:26:03.000 If you take in too much and you don't spend enough, you're going to have some excess.

01:26:07.000 Like these lessons that opportunity can teach you if you allow it.

01:26:13.000 Me fucking up.

01:26:14.000 The thing I spoke about at the beginning.

01:26:15.000 Like the easiest thing to do is your fault.

01:26:19.000 But if I take it as an opportunity of like, all right, you missed.

01:26:22.000 What did we learn?

01:26:23.000 Where's the game?

01:26:25.000 Yeah.

01:26:25.000 You can move forward.

01:26:26.000 And I can move forward and wholeheartedly apologize to those I've hurt along the way.

01:26:32.000 And they don't need to forgive me.

01:26:33.000 That's on their terms.

01:26:34.000 I can't control that.

01:26:35.000 But man, the sleep is a little more sound at night knowing like in learning this lesson or having this opportunity, fuck, dude, I kind of trampled on your shit and I'm so sorry.

01:26:47.000 Like I had such a shitty relationship with my dad.

01:26:50.000 And just recently we've mended fences and he's 80.

01:26:52.000 So I'm glad I've done this because I mean, we don't last forever.

01:26:55.000 He's going, we're all going in the dirt soon, you know?

01:26:58.000 But I just wanted him to be something else.

01:27:01.000 I always wanted that motherfucker to change.

01:27:03.000 I wanted him to be something else.

01:27:04.000 And finally, I got out of my own way.

01:27:07.000 The hard thing is meeting that guy where he's at.

01:27:09.000 The hard thing is allowing him to be who he is.

01:27:13.000 Take the weight off my backpack and say like, yo, I might have needed you to be this in my life, but because you weren't, man, because of your absence in being the dad that I had in my mind, I got all these fucking cool male mentors who gave me a key to the gym at 15 and said, you better fucking be here in the morning.

01:27:34.000 And like, dude, I still can feel a key in my hand from Dave Nock, the dean of students at Cushing Academy, who bet on me.

01:27:41.000 He was like, man, if you get your grades from C's to A's and you play two varsity sports, this place costs in 94.

01:27:49.000 This place costs 35 grand a year.

01:27:50.000 We will give you aid and you will have a place to learn.

01:27:53.000 And that allowed me to become an adult.

01:27:55.000 It allowed me to the opportunity of being in a diverse group of students who, man, there's like royalty that goes to that school.

01:28:03.000 And then there's fucking poor kids.

01:28:05.000 My roommate was a basketball player from Compton.

01:28:07.000 And then we got kids with generational wealth who they're naming buildings after.

01:28:11.000 But when it's just like 450 kids in a social experiment, money goes away and you just, you, you just kick it.

01:28:17.000 So I learned to be friends with everybody, but I wouldn't have learned that in West Newbury where it's 99.9% white, 1,200 people in the small town, no stoplights. 0.84

01:28:26.000 You either leave or you never leave.

01:28:28.000 Like just little things like that.

01:28:29.000 You know what I'm saying?

01:28:30.000 Like little, like, man, I should do this.

01:28:33.000 And deciding to meet my dad where he's at and be like, dude, whatever I thought you were, you're not.

01:28:40.000 And I love you for you.

01:28:40.000 You're just you.

01:28:42.000 And man, when we sit, there's some shit that he'll say that's all fucked up.

01:28:46.000 You know, he said some shit yesterday that like, I don't think John's last opponent should be there.

01:28:50.000 And people listen to him because he's a wrestling fan.

01:28:52.000 He's like in the kind of like their weird subculture zeitgeist.

01:28:55.000 And I want to call my dad and be like, what the fuck are you doing?

01:29:00.000 But then like, no, he's doing what he does.

01:29:02.000 This is him.

01:29:03.000 This is the dad I, this is the John Cena I love.

01:29:05.000 This is, this is the guy I can sit down with.

01:29:08.000 And part of that is being able to process all that, but the opportunity I get from that.

01:29:14.000 I've learned about my father's story.

01:29:17.000 I've learned about what he wants to do with his life, why he does what he does, maybe what he wanted to do, dreams he didn't have, so I can gain wisdom from there.

01:29:24.000 But it's just, that's the hard part is like getting out of your own fucking way to do the thing you really want to do.

01:29:32.000 The easy thing to do is to hold a grudge against my dad.

01:29:34.000 What I really wanted to do was tell my dad I love him and sit down with him and be like, yo, let's fucking break bread.

01:29:39.000 Talk about whatever you want.

01:29:40.000 And now we do that.

01:29:41.000 And it's great.

01:29:42.000 But that's like, that's a small example of the easy thing to do is sit on the couch and say, fuck it.

01:29:48.000 Somebody else's fault.

01:29:50.000 Right.

01:29:50.000 The tough thing to do is like life is handing me a moment right now.

01:29:53.000 And dude, I don't bat a thousand.

01:29:55.000 I mean, it's more like Major League Baseball.

01:29:57.000 I'm hoping 300 gets me in the Hall of Fame.

01:29:59.000 Like, if I can capitalize on 30% of the moments that life gives me and squander the other 70%, I believe I will go into the ground being like, man, I earned life.

01:30:10.000 If you can capitalize on 30% of the moments, you are in the 1% of human beings that have ever lived.

01:30:16.000 I earned life.

01:30:17.000 So I'm just trying to get that, make it to Cooperstown.

01:30:20.000 Yeah, that's the reality.

01:30:22.000 And also the reality is if someone doesn't give you what you need, it gives you a desire to get what you need.

01:30:29.000 Sometimes it's a gift to not have like doting parents.

01:30:34.000 Oh my goodness.

01:30:35.000 Like I said, I would never have gotten those beautiful guidance.

01:30:39.000 I got it in life.

01:30:40.000 I always had father figures because I was searching for it and they found me.

01:30:45.000 And I was also savvy enough to be like, this guy needs to stick in my life for a little bit.

01:30:51.000 It sucks and he fucking pushes me, but I got to keep this guy around.

01:30:55.000 Like just weird stuff like that.

01:30:56.000 I hear a lot of wrestlers a lot of times.

01:30:59.000 What do you want to do here?

01:31:00.000 I want to be champion.

01:31:02.000 Okay.

01:31:03.000 The math of that's really slim.

01:31:05.000 I never wanted to be a fucking champion.

01:31:07.000 I just wanted to wrestle.

01:31:09.000 And if you're good, it'll take you places where one day you can hold one of those.

01:31:13.000 But if you start with the goal of, I want to hold one of those, man, am I pigeonholing my goal?

01:31:18.000 What the fuck do you really want to do?

01:31:20.000 I just wanted to wrestle.

01:31:21.000 And if I got fired by WWE, I would have tried to go to Japan.

01:31:23.000 I would have tried to go to Mexico.

01:31:25.000 I'd have tried to go to the UK.

01:31:26.000 Fuck it.

01:31:27.000 Because I just wanted to do it.

01:31:29.000 But that also meant I would put my best foot forward and I wasn't shackled to I need to be champion or I'm not validated.

01:31:36.000 I'm not successful.

01:31:37.000 Right.

01:31:37.000 You know what I'm saying?

01:31:38.000 Yeah.

01:31:39.000 Just give me a chance to go out there and get the noise and whatever else falls into place, fuck it, cool.

01:31:44.000 Because what I want to do is just go out there and be in the arena.

01:31:47.000 It's funny because they talk about the noise the way we talk about the laughs.

01:31:51.000 It's the same thing.

01:31:51.000 Yeah.

01:31:54.000 Yeah.

01:31:55.000 You know, and I don't need to be the most decorated person, but it's weird because in not even trying, I have a resume that people will now measure up against like, well, that's, you got to win X amount to pass the hurdle.

01:32:08.000 So it's weird.

01:32:09.000 Like I didn't, I didn't even try to do any of that.

01:32:11.000 All I tried to do is like, you'll just get me out there.

01:32:14.000 And when you look at what I've done and you've, you've followed a bit, like it was weird.

01:32:20.000 I was in the main event of WrestleMania this year.

01:32:22.000 And to talk to people, they were like, oh, man, that's crazy.

01:32:26.000 The last main event of WrestleMania I was in was 2012.

01:32:30.000 So you'd think that like, oh, John Cena, this guy, everything handed to him, he's always at the top.

01:32:35.000 That was my first main event WrestleMania appearance as an attraction in like 13 years.

01:32:41.000 And in that span, I worked new wrestlers.

01:32:45.000 I worked for lower level titles.

01:32:47.000 I sat ringside and crushed three beers and then got fucking squashed by The Undertaker as a fan.

01:32:53.000 Yeah.

01:32:53.000 Like I did all sorts of shit, you know, but because it was never about like, I'm not a success unless I'm in the main event of WrestleMania.

01:33:03.000 No, that's just a position with a ton of stress.

01:33:05.000 Just fucking get me out in the course.

01:33:06.000 Just get me in the arena.

01:33:09.000 Have me in section one, shaking hands with people from Australia and I'll make it the best fucking time they ever had. 0.99

01:33:15.000 It doesn't matter.

01:33:16.000 Like just get me out there.

01:33:17.000 What I don't want to do is sit on the bench.

01:33:19.000 You know?

01:33:19.000 Right.

01:33:21.000 How did you go from that into acting?

01:33:24.000 Like what was your first?

01:33:26.000 So originally it was a business choice.

01:33:29.000 Vince opened WWE Studios and with the idea of if we make these guys movie stars, more people come to the arena.

01:33:36.000 Now, as a young 20-something on the road, people chant your name every night.

01:33:40.000 I'm like, more people in the arena?

01:33:41.000 That sounds fucking great.

01:33:43.000 And his first movie was supposed to be with Steve Austin, and it fell through.

01:33:48.000 They were about to shoot in two weeks.

01:33:50.000 So movie pre-production is way longer than that.

01:33:53.000 But he was like, you're going to Australia to film this movie, The Marine.

01:33:57.000 And it was tough.

01:33:58.000 It was tough.

01:33:59.000 I went from arrive in a town at noon, work out, get a good meal in, crush the show, have some beers on the ride to the next town, fall asleep, do it all again.

01:34:10.000 And it's like this whirlwind of electricity to, okay, you're in hair and makeup at six o'clock.

01:34:15.000 We're doing an explosion today.

01:34:17.000 So the lights are going to be weird.

01:34:18.000 And we probably will get to you around 5.30 p.m.

01:34:22.000 You just said it's 6 in the morning.

01:34:24.000 Yeah.

01:34:26.000 So what the fuck do you want me to do from here until 5.30?

01:34:29.000 Just hang out.

01:34:31.000 And I couldn't, like as a young 20-something, I wanted to be in the electricity.

01:34:35.000 I couldn't handle the nature of the business.

01:34:39.000 And therefore, my passion wasn't in it.

01:34:41.000 I wasn't fully invested in it.

01:34:43.000 I am fucking here with you guys right now.

01:34:45.000 We are talking about this.

01:34:47.000 My mind isn't elsewhere on other shit.

01:34:50.000 I want this to be what I want to give you all I got.

01:34:52.000 So I'm here with you.

01:34:53.000 I was never there in those movies.

01:34:54.000 I was always back in, fuck, maybe if I had the feud with this guy or if I could have done this.

01:34:59.000 I was never there.

01:34:59.000 And you could see it in the performance.

01:35:01.000 So I kind of got run out of the movie business.

01:35:03.000 I did so many shitty movies in like 2009, 10.

01:35:06.000 May my best friend agent, Dan Boehm, at the time, I was like, man, we're never doing movies again, right?

01:35:13.000 And, you know, as an agent, he's supposed to be the guy to pick you up.

01:35:15.000 He looks at me dead.

01:35:16.000 He goes, nope, we will find another way, though.

01:35:18.000 He was honest.

01:35:20.000 We are run out of town, but we'll find another way.

01:35:23.000 So we did.

01:35:23.000 We did, hosted some live shows, hosted some game shows, did little appearances here and there.

01:35:31.000 And then Judd Appetow and Amy Schumer gave me a chance on, God, Trainwreck.

01:35:38.000 And it was a very small part.

01:35:40.000 But again, like, just get out in the arena and do your best.

01:35:44.000 And I was in a fucking room with comics, like funny people.

01:35:49.000 I don't belong there.

01:35:51.000 But they created an environment where I wasn't judged.

01:35:54.000 They only showed the good jokes.

01:35:57.000 They didn't show the fucking 20 takes or I tried to tell jokes that sucked. 0.93

01:36:00.000 The only ones that made the final cut were the ones that made people laugh.

01:36:03.000 So they provided an opportunity for failure.

01:36:07.000 And at that point, I've been playing the same character.

01:36:09.000 This is 2014, 15.

01:36:11.000 I've been playing the same character on TV for 15 fucking years.

01:36:14.000 And now I'm like, yo, I get to do something different.

01:36:17.000 I can do this for 12 hours.

01:36:18.000 You want me to sit?

01:36:19.000 I'll go fucking read a book.

01:36:20.000 I don't care.

01:36:21.000 I'm in.

01:36:22.000 So I accepted the patient process of movies.

01:36:25.000 And then after that, I got a little bit of noise in Trainwreck.

01:36:29.000 And then Judd sent word to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who were filming up the road in Long Island.

01:36:34.000 Like, if you got a spot, you should hire the kid.

01:36:37.000 And then they made me a drug dealer and their thing.

01:36:39.000 And then like things started to roll downhill, but it was very, very small parts at a time.

01:36:45.000 And here I am.

01:36:46.000 That was 2015.

01:36:47.000 Here I am a decade later.

01:36:49.000 And I'm still trying to advance to fluency.

01:36:52.000 By no means am I like, I'm the 17-time champ of the acting community.

01:36:57.000 Those are the motherfuckers I was looking at when I was naked.

01:36:59.000 You know?

01:37:00.000 Right.

01:37:01.000 I'm aspiring to try to be that.

01:37:03.000 But it's basically the pivot happened when I was like, yo, if you just invest in this, the hustle and patience you put into wrestling, at least you know you gave it your all.

01:37:17.000 You know, be coachable, be professional, be reliable, be interested, and see where the chips fly and fucking say yes.

01:37:25.000 Well, it's also you had the Objectivity, like the introspective objectivity to look at your past performances and say, I wasn't really in there.

01:37:36.000 I wasn't.

01:37:37.000 And I got run out of town.

01:37:38.000 I lost the job.

01:37:38.000 Yeah.

01:37:40.000 So, like, here's that mulligan.

01:37:42.000 What?

01:37:43.000 I'll never work in this town again.

01:37:43.000 Fuck.

01:37:45.000 I will.

01:37:46.000 All right.

01:37:46.000 Let's go.

01:37:47.000 Let's try.

01:37:47.000 What else could go wrong?

01:37:48.000 They've already fired me.

01:37:50.000 You know?

01:37:51.000 So, again, an environment, and no one does it alone.

01:37:55.000 The people I was around, Tina and Amy are the same way.

01:37:58.000 Like, only show the funny shit, but try whatever you want.

01:38:01.000 Like, fail.

01:38:02.000 It's okay.

01:38:03.000 And just because you're around people who do comedy for a living, all we need is three seconds, and we'll be patient enough to give you what you need to give us that three seconds.

01:38:12.000 You know?

01:38:13.000 Yeah.

01:38:15.000 It's just such a fun story.

01:38:18.000 And there's only a few guys that have managed to make that leap from WWE.

01:38:23.000 Obviously, The Rock is the big one.

01:38:24.000 Sure.

01:38:25.000 You know, I mean, he's the biggest one.

01:38:27.000 Make that leap and now become a giant movie star.

01:38:29.000 Well, I think it's a leap a lot of people can make.

01:38:33.000 It's not from lack of talent.

01:38:35.000 We talk about like obstacles and like we're in our own way.

01:38:38.000 WWE is all-consuming.

01:38:41.000 And you got to remember, like, I was their biggest act.

01:38:45.000 So at 220 shows a year, for me to be like, hey, I need six months off to film this action movie, that really fucks with the bottom line.

01:38:53.000 Like, oh, yeah.

01:38:55.000 So the answer is no.

01:38:56.000 Right.

01:38:57.000 You know, and now with less live events, it's still, you want to be on television.

01:39:03.000 It's like, okay, I need to somehow leverage my relevance with this to what it's going to do to film that.

01:39:10.000 In WWE, if you're not, I'm going to retire on the 13th.

01:39:15.000 They will be moved on by the Royal Rumble.

01:39:18.000 And that is real facts.

01:39:19.000 I will be forgotten.

01:39:21.000 That is not a plea to sympathy of like, always remember me by the Royal Rumble and the Roads WrestleMania.

01:39:25.000 Nobody gives a fuck because they're focusing on what the show is.

01:39:30.000 That's like three weeks after I retire.

01:39:33.000 Three weeks after I retire, nobody's going to give a fuck.

01:39:36.000 And that's not, I'm not saying like what I did was meaningless.

01:39:39.000 I've lived the moments.

01:39:40.000 They're great.

01:39:41.000 People move on.

01:39:43.000 So when if I'm a talent who's on TV and finally got one of those spots and edged my way in, do I, is this the right time to leverage taking myself off of TV to do four months on something that isn't going to come out for another 18 months?

01:39:58.000 And then I got to go back to TV hoping people still care, that my ring work is still polished, that I still have my finger on the pulse.

01:40:05.000 Like it's, it is, we can get in our own way sometimes.

01:40:09.000 You know what I'm saying?

01:40:10.000 Yeah.

01:40:10.000 So I was just at the point in 15, 16, 17, where I was like, man, my body's kind of banged up.

01:40:19.000 I'm a little older.

01:40:20.000 I would like to take some time off.

01:40:22.000 And how I talked about like every five years you needed somebody in the on-deck circle.

01:40:27.000 So I'm running at the front for like 15.

01:40:29.000 They needed someone in the on-deck circle.

01:40:32.000 And then they finally got some folks.

01:40:34.000 So they're like, yo, we got folks.

01:40:35.000 Yeah, go do the thing.

01:40:37.000 It's fine.

01:40:38.000 Go do it.

01:40:38.000 So my passion for it was ignited at the perfect time when the office side of it was like, that won't affect our bottom line too much.

01:40:47.000 Go give this thing a try. 0.85

01:40:51.000 Again, just a happy accident, man.

01:40:53.000 And I'm grateful for it.

01:40:54.000 So now you're in the situation, you're going to retire.

01:40:58.000 Yep.

01:40:58.000 And then are you just going to go all in on acting now?

01:41:02.000 So that's, again, beyond my control.

01:41:05.000 If I could, if I could.

01:41:07.000 Is that the goal, though?

01:41:08.000 Is that what you would like?

01:41:10.000 The goal is to live useful.

01:41:13.000 That's it.

01:41:13.000 The goal is to live useful and not lack like a depth of purpose in my life.

01:41:19.000 You know, I can't control if the phone rings and they say, we want the kid in the picture.

01:41:22.000 That's way beyond me.

01:41:24.000 What I can do is when someone bets on me, do my fucking damnedest for every dollar.

01:41:28.000 I want to give them 10 back.

01:41:30.000 I want to show them that I want to show you your time was well spent today.

01:41:33.000 I want to give you my heart and soul.

01:41:35.000 And when I leave here, you may be like, ah, not my cup of tea, but the fucking kid's all right.

01:41:39.000 You know, like, that's all I'm trying to do.

01:41:41.000 So if I can do that, maybe I get another, maybe I get another match.

01:41:46.000 Maybe I get another phone call.

01:41:48.000 But I also realize my mortality in the retirement, like it's over.

01:41:53.000 But also there'll come a day where y'all out there are like, ah, the kid's not cool anymore.

01:41:59.000 I'm done.

01:41:59.000 I'm on to the next shiny thing.

01:42:01.000 I'm grateful for what I got.

01:42:03.000 And I know I don't control how many times the phone rings.

01:42:05.000 I just want to, I never want to phone it in.

01:42:07.000 Right.

01:42:08.000 And when my time is up, it's over with, man.

01:42:11.000 I'll do the rest of whatever life is.

01:42:14.000 Do you think about that?

01:42:15.000 Like what the rest of life is?

01:42:16.000 Do you have other interests?

01:42:18.000 Sure do.

01:42:19.000 Sure do.

01:42:20.000 Love messing around with music.

01:42:22.000 I never read as a kid, so I'm reading more than I ever have.

01:42:26.000 Love cars.

01:42:27.000 I'd love to just drive.

01:42:29.000 Just being in a car and driving, not track stuff, just like going on long drives.

01:42:33.000 Love that.

01:42:34.000 I see a bunch of sticks.

01:42:35.000 I love an occasional stick with some conversation.

01:42:38.000 I love, boy, did I miss out on loving connections in my life.

01:42:42.000 So I'm like, I have them now and they're fucking so cool.

01:42:46.000 So if a day is just spent with friends or a week or like, man, with WWE, I've been around the world like 12 times.

01:42:55.000 I haven't seen shit.

01:42:56.000 I've seen the inside of arenas, a hotel bar, and a fucking airport.

01:43:01.000 Yeah.

01:43:01.000 I want to know what Tokyo is all about.

01:43:04.000 I've been there like 20 times.

01:43:05.000 I haven't seen shit.

01:43:06.000 You know, my God.

01:43:08.000 And I don't know if I'll ever get tired of that.

01:43:10.000 Like, I always have a curious nature on to what's next.

01:43:16.000 I don't know what that'll be, but I never want to wake up and be like, man, life's taking forever.

01:43:23.000 You know what I'm saying?

01:43:24.000 I think there's always something to do with the day.

01:43:27.000 So I don't know.

01:43:28.000 Would I love to continue to tell stories and get paid for it?

01:43:31.000 Fuck, that's a great gig.

01:43:33.000 But it's also beyond my control.

01:43:35.000 So instead of being like, I'm going all in on acting and I want to do this and one day I want to win an Oscar.

01:43:41.000 And I'm not saying that approach is bad.

01:43:43.000 I'm just saying my approach is like, man, when they do call, be grateful.

01:43:47.000 And don't be grateful in the easy times.

01:43:49.000 Be grateful when they ask you to work a 16-hour day.

01:43:51.000 Or be grateful on that press tour when you have to read off the, or when you get to read off the prompter and you're doing 86 reads.

01:43:57.000 And the reads are so you can dress up in the costume and all that other shit.

01:44:01.000 Like that's, that's kind of more where I'm at.

01:44:04.000 That's a great approach to life.

01:44:06.000 How did you develop this philosophy?

01:44:09.000 Dude, I'm not supposed to be here.

01:44:11.000 Like, I'm from fucking West Newbury, Massachusetts.

01:44:14.000 I'm not supposed to be here.

01:44:15.000 And that's another thing.

01:44:17.000 There's not a day that doesn't go by where I look at someone I love and connect with and be like, man, what a life.

01:44:23.000 I understand how lucky I am.

01:44:26.000 And I understand I have been awarded more opportunity than one human being should get.

01:44:32.000 And it's from what I've tried to boil down to it, the best way to honor that opportunity is to do your best to try to live a good life.

01:44:43.000 And a good life isn't, that's almost like pain.

01:44:47.000 Everybody's perspective of a good life is different.

01:44:49.000 I've come up with core values and I try to live by those.

01:44:53.000 Fuck, I'm human.

01:44:54.000 I ain't perfect.

01:44:55.000 But like, again, if when I go into the dirt, I feel as if I didn't waste it.

01:45:01.000 And I don't mean grind.

01:45:02.000 Like homeboy from NVIDIA, that's a grind.

01:45:04.000 And I think a lot of him, there's fear there, but also a lot of that effort, he loves it.

01:45:11.000 And that's what an ideal life to him is about.

01:45:14.000 And if he goes in the ground working 70 hours a week, he'll go in with a smile on his face.

01:45:19.000 You know, I just want to go in when it's my time.

01:45:22.000 I want to know that I honored the luck I was given by not fucking squandering it, by not wasting it.

01:45:30.000 And that doesn't mean grind to a monetary number.

01:45:33.000 It just means live a fulfilled life where the sleep is sound, the love is real, and every day you're driven with curiosity and purpose.

01:45:41.000 And I don't know what the fuck that is.

01:45:43.000 And it could change.

01:45:43.000 Man, I thought I was born to be a WWE superstar.

01:45:46.000 And then the elbows start hurting a little bit.

01:45:48.000 And you're like, ah, man, I'm born to be a storyteller.

01:45:51.000 And then you realize that, like, I'm not in control of any of that shit.

01:45:55.000 That's just luck.

01:45:56.000 That's somebody being like, I liked him in this.

01:45:57.000 Put him in that.

01:45:59.000 Yes, no problem.

01:46:01.000 I think a key factor you're talking about here is gratitude.

01:46:03.000 I was born to honor the luck that I've been given.

01:46:06.000 Yeah.

01:46:07.000 And just try to do my best to live a full life.

01:46:10.000 Like, that's it.

01:46:11.000 Yeah.

01:46:11.000 And that having gratitude about the life that you live and being happy.

01:46:16.000 God, it's so hard, but so important.

01:46:18.000 And it's tough when you use that word because it's such a new age.

01:46:23.000 Think outside the box.

01:46:24.000 But nah, man.

01:46:25.000 It's a real word, though.

01:46:26.000 Real thanks.

01:46:29.000 Yes.

01:46:29.000 It's hard.

01:46:31.000 Yeah.

01:46:31.000 Because you have to be thankful for the suck, for the pain.

01:46:35.000 You have to be thankful for the lesson, for the journey.

01:46:37.000 And these are, again, these are all slangy, hashtaggy terms.

01:46:42.000 I don't know what the fuck else to call it.

01:46:43.000 So I'm just calling it what it is.

01:46:45.000 They've been co-opted by people that just sort of bullshit and use those words, but the reality of those words is strong.

01:46:50.000 It's very powerful.

01:46:51.000 It's like grind.

01:46:53.000 Grind is another hashtag word, you know, but like there is, there is some realism to it.

01:46:58.000 But that from what I've figured it out thus far, that's my path.

01:47:03.000 And when the facts change, so does my opinion.

01:47:06.000 So he could come back here in a few years and I'd be on some other shit.

01:47:09.000 But right now, that's kind of where I'm at.

01:47:11.000 Well, it's such a gratitude word has been really co-opted by goofy people, unfortunately.

01:47:17.000 But it doesn't mean you shouldn't use it.

01:47:20.000 It's just the real word.

01:47:21.000 And if the word makes you feel weird, come up with your homework.

01:47:25.000 Thanks.

01:47:25.000 Right.

01:47:26.000 Whatever.

01:47:26.000 Yes.

01:47:27.000 Having thanks.

01:47:28.000 Because I'm with you there.

01:47:30.000 Some words make me feel gross.

01:47:32.000 Yeah.

01:47:32.000 Just about how overused they've been.

01:47:33.000 But I can't stray away from that one.

01:47:36.000 Yeah.

01:47:37.000 I mean, we talk about gratitude all the time.

01:47:39.000 We're always like talking about how we're living the dream.

01:47:42.000 Yeah.

01:47:43.000 Like just being close.

01:47:44.000 Just shooting the shit.

01:47:44.000 Because what are we doing?

01:47:45.000 I know.

01:47:46.000 People are paying attention.

01:47:47.000 I know.

01:47:48.000 What the fuck are you guys doing?

01:47:49.000 A lot.

01:47:50.000 A lot of people.

01:47:51.000 If you're still with us.

01:47:52.000 This is great.

01:47:52.000 I can't believe it.

01:47:53.000 Yeah.

01:47:54.000 I was thinking, I was talking to my buddy the other day, Peter Shore, the owner of the comedy store.

01:47:59.000 And I was telling him about how just a few weeks ago, because now that I have a place that I like and a car that I like and a job and everything, everything's finally, it appears how I have always considered what the dream is.

01:48:16.000 That I was saying to my buddy the other day, who I came up with, who I really started with, and I'm talking about like 14, 16-hour days at the comedy store.

01:48:25.000 I'd answer the phone at 11 a.m. because back then they didn't even have a website.

01:48:29.000 Hello, you want tickets tonight?

01:48:31.000 Blah, blah, blah, blah.

01:48:32.000 Work all night, put on the t-shirt at 8 p.m., tear tickets and check IDs until 2:30 in the morning.

01:48:39.000 So I would hit overtime by like Wednesday or Thursday, but they couldn't pay overtime because the comedy store in 2007 was half to quarter empty.

01:48:49.000 Anyway, so they would cut my hours and I was paying $400 a month to sleep on my buddy's couch in his living room.

01:48:57.000 And he had a bedroom and my other buddy, Maddie, had a bedroom.

01:49:00.000 But Sandy was like, you know, he was like, the apartment was registered in his name.

01:49:05.000 And I mean, terrible couch, terrible setup.

01:49:08.000 I'd have to go through one of their bedrooms to go to the bathroom. 0.99

01:49:11.000 So if you have to pee in the middle of the night, you're kind of tiptoeing through.

01:49:15.000 You don't want to make noise.

01:49:17.000 You don't know what you're going to see, whatever.

01:49:19.000 And I was talking to Matt a month or so ago, and I go, I think I still owe Sandy a little bit of rent money because I just simply didn't have it back then.

01:49:27.000 Isn't that crazy?

01:49:28.000 He goes, you do.

01:49:30.000 He mentioned it last time because we were talking about how successful you are.

01:49:34.000 There's an accountant right there.

01:49:35.000 So I Venmo'd him out of nowhere.

01:49:37.000 I haven't even, we haven't even talked since pre-pandemic.

01:49:40.000 He's got a family.

01:49:41.000 I'm out here, this, that.

01:49:43.000 I Venmo'd him a thousand bucks out of nowhere.

01:49:46.000 And I go 2007 rent money as the as the memo part of it.

01:49:53.000 And he hits me up saying thanks and we're communicating.

01:49:56.000 And then I remembered that at one point I couldn't even afford the $400 a month for the couch.

01:50:04.000 And there was another comedian that was a door guy at the store that did have the $400 a month because he was getting help from his parents.

01:50:09.000 So I got downgraded to a bean bag for like a month or two.

01:50:13.000 Pain for the spine.

01:50:13.000 I was sleeping.

01:50:14.000 Oh, just horrendous.

01:50:15.000 Exactly.

01:50:16.000 A sore back for two months, just in pain all the time, but doing what I loved.

01:50:22.000 So much of what you're saying about enjoying the process, enjoy what you're doing.

01:50:26.000 Because I really did back then.

01:50:28.000 And I think about that now more.

01:50:30.000 I've been thinking about that bean bag and that couch and that living room more than ever the last few months.

01:50:36.000 You know, it's like that's talking about gratitude.

01:50:39.000 It's like those are the things that that's who you are is enjoying that process and making the best out of it.

01:50:47.000 And in my case of a similar story, and from what I'm hearing from you, it's like you wanted to be there.

01:50:53.000 You were not going to give up the bean bag.

01:50:55.000 Oh, yeah.

01:50:56.000 There's a lot of folks out there who are put behind the eight ball and really have to dig themselves out of a trench.

01:51:02.000 When I moved out to Venice and I was working at Gold, I was sleeping in the parking lot in my 91 Continental.

01:51:06.000 And everybody's like, oh man, you were homeless.

01:51:08.000 I'm like, no, no, choice.

01:51:09.000 It was my choice.

01:51:11.000 I didn't want to leave.

01:51:12.000 My old man had a room for me.

01:51:13.000 Nobody ever leaves West Newberry.

01:51:15.000 My dad was like, yo, come back.

01:51:16.000 You got a roof over your head.

01:51:17.000 You get some fucked up job over here.

01:51:19.000 You don't have to pay rent.

01:51:20.000 So I had choice.

01:51:22.000 I stayed in the car because I wanted to.

01:51:24.000 Life was great.

01:51:25.000 I got to see like the bodybuilders of the 2000s.

01:51:28.000 I got to train at the gym and shower at the gym.

01:51:31.000 And the rock came through.

01:51:32.000 There's like an old picture of me in the rock somewhere where I'm in my Gold Gym Club store shirt and he's fucking doing this one. 0.91

01:51:39.000 Like I got to see all these people and it was fucking cool.

01:51:42.000 And I wouldn't have left if they took the car away and I got to sleep in the parking lot.

01:51:47.000 Like I was by choice.

01:51:49.000 You know, you slept on the beanbag because you wanted to be there.

01:51:51.000 And the fun fact is.

01:51:52.000 Look at that.

01:51:55.000 That's just me in the background right there.

01:51:57.000 No, no, no, keep that.

01:51:58.000 Hold on.

01:51:58.000 I'm taking the phones off.

01:51:59.000 I'm going out.

01:51:59.000 Yeah.

01:52:00.000 That's me right there.

01:52:01.000 He had just taken a photo with me.

01:52:04.000 And that's me.

01:52:05.000 Wow.

01:52:05.000 That's DJ.

01:52:07.000 Wow.

01:52:08.000 Yeah.

01:52:10.000 That's crazy.

01:52:11.000 And in 1999.

01:52:13.000 Wow.

01:52:14.000 Fucking rock was white hot, selling out every place.

01:52:17.000 Probably Staple Center, Anaheim, coming in and pressing some weights.

01:52:21.000 Wow.

01:52:22.000 Yeah.

01:52:23.000 That's crazy.

01:52:24.000 Yeah.

01:52:26.000 So that's where the perspective exists.

01:52:29.000 Because I shouldn't have even been in the fucking club store selling candy bars.

01:52:29.000 Yeah.

01:52:32.000 I should be, you know, in West Newberry doing what everyone else does.

01:52:37.000 Like, that's the tale, you know?

01:52:41.000 And I'm not.

01:52:42.000 So I'm grateful for it.

01:52:44.000 Yeah.

01:52:44.000 There's a lot of people out there on beanbags right now listening to this.

01:52:47.000 You need to hear them.

01:52:48.000 Stay on the beanbag.

01:52:49.000 Stay on that beanbag 24 hours.

01:52:51.000 Who knows?

01:52:51.000 24 more hours, something could happen.

01:52:54.000 And the success would be so much sweeter.

01:52:54.000 Yeah.

01:52:57.000 Oh, so much sweeter if you do it that way.

01:52:59.000 I mean, if you were a Trust Fund kid and you had plenty of money and your parents gave you $100,000 a year to go out and pursue your dreams and they paid for your apartment.

01:53:09.000 Man, you know, I don't want to fuck on anybody's flex.

01:53:11.000 You're right.

01:53:12.000 But at the same time, if you understand that, right?

01:53:17.000 If you understand I was put on the board ahead of everybody else, I was born on third base.

01:53:22.000 Again, that shit's beyond your control.

01:53:24.000 Right.

01:53:24.000 But I think you need some failure to understand that.

01:53:27.000 So if you're grateful for what you have, you will swing and miss and be accountable.

01:53:34.000 Because you can't really control what you have.

01:53:36.000 You can't control where you start.

01:53:38.000 Right.

01:53:39.000 You can't control your start.

01:53:40.000 You control where you're going.

01:53:41.000 So if.

01:53:42.000 Or how you respond along the way.

01:53:44.000 And the kind of person you are to somebody who was born on third base, I think also will dictate your perception from the eyes of others.

01:53:44.000 Yeah.

01:53:56.000 If you feel you are greater than, fuck, we're all human beings, dog.

01:54:00.000 Like, nobody greater than nobody.

01:54:02.000 You know, everybody's out there struggling.

01:54:02.000 Right.

01:54:04.000 And all of us, especially in this area of the pale blue dot, we all believe in capitalism.

01:54:10.000 So the fact that you were born on third base means everybody's doing their job and the whole system's working.

01:54:15.000 Like you can't think you're, when you start getting the like, I never use this word.

01:54:20.000 I feel bad even saying it, deserve.

01:54:22.000 When you start getting the deserve mentality of, I deserve this.

01:54:25.000 Fuck it.

01:54:26.000 What the fuck do you deserve, man?

01:54:27.000 Yeah, that's crazy.

01:54:29.000 You know, have you earned this?

01:54:30.000 Have you earned it?

01:54:32.000 And if you feel as if you haven't, what steps are you going to take to earn it?

01:54:36.000 If you're born on third and you feel bad about it, take some steps to feel good about it.

01:54:40.000 I don't know what that is.

01:54:42.000 But if you're born on third and you feel you deserve it, to me, that's fucking sprinting through a minefield, dog.

01:54:48.000 Yeah, that's not a good path.

01:54:50.000 And I don't ever want to fuck with somebody who turns like $100,000 into $10 million or a million into a billion.

01:54:57.000 That's good investing.

01:54:59.000 I mean, that's the system.

01:55:01.000 You learned how to work the system.

01:55:03.000 It's just in the process, if you think, if you think you're better than, yeah, murky waters, man.

01:55:10.000 In my perspective.

01:55:11.000 Well, it's just a terrible perspective anyway.

01:55:13.000 Like you're...

01:55:14.000 Because it's all...

01:55:15.000 Right.

01:55:16.000 It's all kind of fugazi.

01:55:17.000 Like, sometimes it's paper IOUs or whatever.

01:55:19.000 It's just digital ones and zeros.

01:55:21.000 Like, if it melts down, are you really better than anybody?

01:55:24.000 You know, a lot of times it's also a defense mechanism.

01:55:28.000 You know, you pretend that you deserve it.

01:55:30.000 You pretend you're better than other people.

01:55:31.000 Because maybe you don't feel enough.

01:55:33.000 Again, everybody's walking through their own mile, but like, I don't feel validated or I want attention or I don't know.

01:55:40.000 I don't know.

01:55:40.000 I don't know, man.

01:55:43.000 Yeah.

01:55:44.000 Yeah, it was crazy hanging out with Steph McMahon and how human she was and hilarious and human.

01:55:49.000 I was telling her, because I was telling her, like, man, you know, I always wanted to be a pro wrestler when I was a kid.

01:55:55.000 And then I realized I wasn't going to be tall enough and I wasn't going to be big enough.

01:55:59.000 And then lately, I've been meeting these guys and they're not that huge.

01:56:01.000 And when I tell them that, they go, look at me.

01:56:04.000 You know, Sami Zayn, hilarious guy, literally told me that.

01:56:08.000 He's like, you could have done it.

01:56:09.000 I'm like, God, I guess I could have actually done it.

01:56:11.000 You could probably still do it.

01:56:13.000 And I was telling Steph that.

01:56:14.000 She goes, do you think you can do a little something?

01:56:16.000 I can hit a super kick on anybody at any time from anything.

01:56:20.000 What's a super kick?

01:56:21.000 It's Sean Michaels' gold finishing move.

01:56:24.000 You would literally, you would faint from laughter because you actually know how to fucking kick through a wall.

01:56:31.000 But it's a kick.

01:56:33.000 And the goal is not to hit the gun.

01:56:35.000 Right.

01:56:36.000 Exactly.

01:56:37.000 Come real close.

01:56:39.000 And she's so cool.

01:56:40.000 She goes, oh, that'd be funny if next time, you know, I'm with Triple H, you just super kick me out of nowhere. 0.61

01:56:45.000 I'll sell it.

01:56:45.000 I'll fall down.

01:56:46.000 The whole thing.

01:56:46.000 I'm like, Stephanie, this is crazy.

01:56:50.000 There we go.

01:56:51.000 There it is.

01:56:51.000 That's the perfect.

01:56:53.000 Man, this is, you're on it.

01:56:54.000 Okay, so a guy flies through the air and you kind of catch him.

01:56:58.000 That's just one example.

01:56:59.000 Like, that's a really good example right here.

01:57:01.000 But it could be from standing anywhere.

01:57:04.000 It's just pretty much that high, that high.

01:57:06.000 You can do that?

01:57:07.000 I can do that.

01:57:08.000 Are you flexible like that?

01:57:09.000 I'm flexible.

01:57:10.000 At least I think I am.

01:57:11.000 I don't know.

01:57:12.000 We'll see.

01:57:13.000 I wasn't throwing, I was throwing a rock at the tree the other day for the first time in forever, and I'm coming up about 15 feet shorter than ever before.

01:57:21.000 There's a lot of people.

01:57:21.000 That's what she looks like.

01:57:24.000 Whoa.

01:57:25.000 That looks real.

01:57:26.000 Yep.

01:57:27.000 Yeah, it's almost like it's really hit.

01:57:28.000 It's on there.

01:57:29.000 Two of the best right there.

01:57:31.000 It's on there.

01:57:32.000 Yep.

01:57:33.000 You really got that kind of flexibility?

01:57:34.000 Yep.

01:57:35.000 You slap your leg at the same time, and it makes everybody actually think that you did it.

01:57:39.000 Like, if I did it to somebody, you'd be like, dude, you just fucking kicked them.

01:57:43.000 Slap them.

01:57:44.000 Yeah.

01:57:45.000 Like, stomp around when you punch.

01:57:47.000 Slide ahead.

01:57:47.000 Yeah, yeah.

01:57:48.000 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:57:50.000 There's magic in the business, man.

01:57:51.000 There is.

01:57:51.000 Yeah.

01:57:52.000 I want to see you out there.

01:57:53.000 Hey, I wrestled with my pillow for like eight hours a day as a kid.

01:57:58.000 I would do the entrances.

01:57:59.000 I would record off of the cassette player.

01:58:02.000 Remember how you used to have to recreate it?

01:58:03.000 Dude, we had a whole league in our basement.

01:58:06.000 Yeah.

01:58:07.000 I didn't need the pillows because I had four brothers.

01:58:09.000 We had belts, a league, personas.

01:58:12.000 And in one persona, I would get my ass kicked all the time.

01:58:14.000 And then there was one persona that could not fucking lose.

01:58:16.000 Like, we kept standings and stuff.

01:58:18.000 Yeah.

01:58:19.000 Yeah.

01:58:19.000 It's.

01:58:20.000 Oh, yeah.

01:58:21.000 I don't know, man.

01:58:22.000 I don't know.

01:58:22.000 That's amazing.

01:58:23.000 My brothers and sisters were all much older, but we had a music class teacher in my grade school that didn't give a fuck about his job.

01:58:30.000 He would just sit in the corner and play piano the whole time and let the kids do whatever we wanted.

01:58:34.000 And again, we had entrance music.

01:58:36.000 We were all different people all the time.

01:58:39.000 We'd run it back again the entire 45 minutes, jumping off of desks, cabinets, chairs.

01:58:45.000 It's crazy how many injuries didn't happen.

01:58:49.000 It's amazing how resilient kids can be when we read that.

01:58:55.000 The energy of youth, just bulletproof.

01:58:57.000 God.

01:58:57.000 Yeah.

01:58:58.000 It doesn't make sense how arms and legs and heads and necks weren't broken.

01:59:03.000 They also don't weigh that much back then.

01:59:04.000 Yeah, that's true.

01:59:06.000 Man, he's so full of energy.

01:59:08.000 Man, I can tell I'm getting old because I can be like, is that chair okay?

01:59:13.000 I'm going to be sitting for a while.

01:59:14.000 Am I going to be all right?

01:59:15.000 Is everything going to be good?

01:59:16.000 I'm like, oh, man, this bed's going to kill me.

01:59:18.000 Yeah.

01:59:18.000 Just laying down like this.

01:59:19.000 The beanbag?

01:59:20.000 Oh, my God.

01:59:21.000 I'd spend four hours in that thing.

01:59:23.000 You have to cart me off.

01:59:24.000 I think I'd just sleep on the ground rather than the beanbag.

01:59:26.000 Yeah.

01:59:28.000 Yeah.

01:59:29.000 Back then, it seemed like the better option.

01:59:31.000 It was the better option.

01:59:32.000 Yeah.

01:59:33.000 Probably.

01:59:33.000 That's hilarious, though.

01:59:35.000 Yeah.

01:59:36.000 Have you talked to them about possibly doing something?

01:59:41.000 I mean, no, not exactly.

01:59:43.000 At one point, there was a little chatter, but.

01:59:47.000 Come on, dude.

01:59:48.000 I think you can come up with it.

01:59:49.000 Royal Rumble's right around the corner.

01:59:51.000 I have big shoes to fill over here.

01:59:54.000 Dirty entrance. 1.00

01:59:55.000 We need bodies. 0.91

01:59:56.000 Yeah.

01:59:57.000 I show speed did a good job.

01:59:59.000 Man, he got drilled out of his boots.

02:00:03.000 He took the streamer, famous streaming internet guy.

02:00:07.000 took what's called a bump from hell he got speared at the was that the rumble Yeah.

02:00:15.000 Yeah, he was.

02:00:17.000 He does some wild shit.

02:00:18.000 He does.

02:00:18.000 He got in the cage with Dan the Hangman Hooker.

02:00:22.000 And he's like, he's game for anything.

02:00:22.000 Yeah.

02:00:25.000 He has kinesthetic awareness.

02:00:29.000 Like he's obviously an athlete.

02:00:31.000 And he's brave.

02:00:31.000 Yeah.

02:00:32.000 Like, look at this shit.

02:00:34.000 Watch his mother just leave screen.

02:00:36.000 Say it.

02:00:37.000 Oh, man.

02:00:39.000 Oh, my God.

02:00:41.000 You can't fake that.

02:00:42.000 Oh, my God.

02:00:43.000 But, like, you also have to, the reason that looks so good, a lot of that is because of Braun, but also a lot of that is because of eyeshow speed.

02:00:51.000 He committed to the fall and really tried to fall with snap and with quickness.

02:00:55.000 Like he's good, man.

02:00:57.000 He really is good.

02:00:59.000 And like you said, like, I've seen a lot of the other stuff he does.

02:01:02.000 He does well.

02:01:03.000 He'll get in there and mess around.

02:01:04.000 Oh, yeah.

02:01:05.000 Well, he really sparred with Dan Hooker and Dan beat the shit out of him, but he hung in there.

02:01:09.000 Yeah.

02:01:10.000 It's just crazy enough to try, you know?

02:01:12.000 It's also interesting, these YouTube guys, they're just becoming famous, and there was no avenue for them before.

02:01:20.000 They would have had to have been cast in a TV show or become something limited spots.

02:01:24.000 Yeah, and now they're doing it completely on their own and becoming huge.

02:01:28.000 I mean, he's got like 50 million Instagram followers or something crazy.

02:01:32.000 Yeah.

02:01:32.000 And a bunch of content and a bunch of revenue to match that.

02:01:36.000 And always working.

02:01:37.000 Always working.

02:01:37.000 And always doing something.

02:01:38.000 Puts himself out there.

02:01:40.000 Those guys hustle.

02:01:43.000 All the content creators out there.

02:01:45.000 People don't understand the hours.

02:01:49.000 They may end up getting some financial reward, but when you break it down to hourly wage, they're working 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

02:01:58.000 Like they don't stop because a lot of the content they make will have short shelf life.

02:02:04.000 They're not essentially putting Gone with the Wind out in the universe.

02:02:06.000 Like it's like you're only as good as your next one, not your last one or the one you did.

02:02:11.000 It's like you're only as good as what you're doing five minutes from now.

02:02:14.000 And if you drop off the map, someone will replace you.

02:02:16.000 Oh my God.

02:02:17.000 There's so many fucking streamers.

02:02:19.000 There's so many people that are doing content.

02:02:21.000 They work hard.

02:02:21.000 They do.

02:02:22.000 They work hard.

02:02:23.000 And even the ones where it seems like a man to a perspective of like, I don't understand this.

02:02:29.000 There's still the effort that goes into that.

02:02:31.000 And it's not just what you saw.

02:02:32.000 It's like, okay, you got to have a repeat performance.

02:02:34.000 And then you got to keep coming and keep coming and keep coming.

02:02:37.000 Like, I do a movie, and like I said, it's out in 18 months.

02:02:40.000 In 18 months, they've already put out 10,000 videos.

02:02:44.000 Right.

02:02:45.000 Like, it's bananas.

02:02:47.000 It is interesting that nobody saw that coming, too.

02:02:49.000 Nobody ever thought that that was going to be a thing.

02:02:51.000 I just think it's because we get so used to stuff.

02:02:54.000 We get so used to consuming in a certain way.

02:02:58.000 When something is new for us, it's like, oh, man, I don't know if that's going to take off.

02:03:02.000 But there are young people who are experiencing everything at the same time.

02:03:06.000 And like, no, this is cooler.

02:03:07.000 It's way easier to do this.

02:03:07.000 Right.

02:03:09.000 Also, he's really young.

02:03:10.000 And when you start young, there's not a lot of expectations on you.

02:03:14.000 No.

02:03:14.000 You can kind of just do whatever you want.

02:03:16.000 And if it works, great.

02:03:18.000 Young and courageous.

02:03:19.000 Yeah.

02:03:20.000 Like, just go for it.

02:03:21.000 Yeah.

02:03:22.000 Yeah.

02:03:23.000 And it's also a great example for other people that are thinking, like, I'm kind of entertaining.

02:03:28.000 I just don't have an avenue.

02:03:29.000 Let me just start making videos.

02:03:31.000 You got a phone.

02:03:32.000 Yeah.

02:03:32.000 You got a chance.

02:03:33.000 Isn't that crazy?

02:03:34.000 That's all you have to do is have a phone.

02:03:36.000 It's nuts.

02:03:37.000 You see the videos where he was sprinting with Ashton Forbes, you know, that super jacked guy that does that morning routine that everybody made fun of?

02:03:45.000 Because he has this like morning routine where he dunks his face in water and then someone hands him his gold watch and he puts it on.

02:03:52.000 It's like really kind of silly.

02:03:53.000 Yeah.

02:03:54.000 You know, and he had a whole series of races with him because he couldn't believe that this YouTuber guy could beat him.

02:04:00.000 Because he's like this fucking super jacked, ripped guy who a lot of his online content is him running and it just looks like a force of nature.

02:04:09.000 And I show speed beat him like three times in these races, but he didn't want to believe that he lost.

02:04:15.000 So he wanted to do it again.

02:04:17.000 Let's do it again.

02:04:18.000 And I show speeds talking shit to him.

02:04:20.000 He did it again.

02:04:21.000 So you can find it.

02:04:22.000 It's very funny.

02:04:23.000 It's very funny because when you look at the guy, like, oh, this guy looks like he could run like a horse.

02:04:29.000 And iShow Speed is actually faster than him.

02:04:32.000 I think he sprinted an actual Olympic sprinter.

02:04:36.000 I mean, he started fucking around a little bit, but he held his own.

02:04:38.000 That's crazy.

02:04:39.000 Yeah.

02:04:40.000 That's crazy.

02:04:41.000 He was like right there with an Olympic sprinter.

02:04:43.000 That's nuts.

02:04:44.000 I think he won the gold, the guy that he raced.

02:04:46.000 Really?

02:04:48.000 That's he's like right next to him.

02:04:50.000 That's crazy.

02:04:51.000 Like, and he's not even fucking training like that guy is.

02:04:54.000 Imagine if he was.

02:04:56.000 Like, that fucking guy, if he wanted to, like, fully invest himself into sprinting, he's only what?

02:05:04.000 20, 20 years old.

02:05:05.000 That's why.

02:05:06.000 Wow, really?

02:05:07.000 Imagine if that kid fully invested in that and then became an Olympic gold medalist as well.

02:05:13.000 So that's where my mind goes as well.

02:05:17.000 It seems like he can.

02:05:19.000 But also, why?

02:05:21.000 Why not?

02:05:22.000 Because it'll make his streams even bigger.

02:05:24.000 Will it?

02:05:25.000 I don't know.

02:05:26.000 Or will sprinting against a gold medalist, getting in the cage with a fighter, getting in the ring with a champion, going to that guy's house and besting him at his own thing.

02:05:36.000 Like, he should keep doing that.

02:05:39.000 He shouldn't go into one thing.

02:05:41.000 The lane he's in, I think he's doing pretty well.

02:05:44.000 Right.

02:05:45.000 It's almost better losing to the fastest man alive by that much.

02:05:48.000 Or, like, so I can tell by watching that, I love potential.

02:05:53.000 And you see that, and you're like, oh, my God, potential.

02:05:55.000 This guy could, he could win it all.

02:05:55.000 Right.

02:05:57.000 It's fine in a video of him sprinting against that Ashton guy.

02:06:01.000 It's crazy.

02:06:03.000 For what?

02:06:04.000 This guy's got the world by the nuts.

02:06:05.000 Right.

02:06:07.000 He should do what he's doing.

02:06:08.000 I definitely know him from that appearance at the Royal Rumble.

02:06:08.000 Exactly what he's doing.

02:06:12.000 Like, he got booked on the Rumble because he has a big following.

02:06:15.000 I'm watching The Rumble.

02:06:16.000 I go, who's this iShow speed guy?

02:06:18.000 And I go, wow, that kid took a hell of a bump.

02:06:21.000 No, I know him.

02:06:21.000 This Ashton Forbes guy.

02:06:24.000 Look at the way this guy's built.

02:06:26.000 Oh, my.

02:06:29.000 He's talking shit.

02:06:30.000 Oh, he's running.

02:06:30.000 Oh, man.

02:06:31.000 He fell.

02:06:32.000 He's yelling.

02:06:33.000 40 million people.

02:06:34.000 Is that right?

02:06:35.000 The number of views in the corner?

02:06:36.000 40 million?

02:06:37.000 Unbelievable.

02:06:39.000 Wow.

02:06:41.000 Oh, man.

02:06:42.000 Look at that.

02:06:44.000 Wow.

02:06:47.000 Yeah, they raced a bunch of times.

02:06:50.000 And the other guy, didn't that other guy, he played football, right?

02:06:55.000 Not in the NFL, but I think like college football or something.

02:06:57.000 Look at this fucking size of him, too.

02:06:59.000 The other guy's fucking super jacked.

02:07:01.000 Like, that's his whole thing.

02:07:02.000 His online content is him running, being super jacked.

02:07:06.000 Then he has to deal with iShow speed talking shit to him.

02:07:09.000 And he's saying, like, play some of this.

02:07:11.000 The first one, I slip.

02:07:13.000 Second one, you barely beat me.

02:07:15.000 Let's run it again.

02:07:15.000 Do I got to beat you three times?

02:07:17.000 Come on, let's go. 0.98

02:07:19.000 See, when I see that, right?

02:07:20.000 Let's go again.

02:07:22.000 Excuse me.

02:07:23.000 It's not his.

02:07:25.000 26.

02:07:28.000 That's hilarious.

02:07:30.000 It's talking so much shit.

02:07:32.000 So I see this and be like, this kid should be a wrestler.

02:07:35.000 Right.

02:07:36.000 Because he is athletic and he can talk shit and back it up.

02:07:40.000 My God, this kid would be a 20-time champion, whatever.

02:07:43.000 No, he should do this.

02:07:45.000 Are they running barefoot on the fucking concrete?

02:07:49.000 Oh, really?

02:07:50.000 Yeah.

02:07:52.000 That'd be a bad decision.

02:08:00.000 That was pretty close.

02:08:02.000 Yeah, but he started before him.

02:08:03.000 He shot it before me, he's still lost.

02:08:05.000 He shot it before me, he's still lost.

02:08:09.000 Like, he should be doing that.

02:08:11.000 Yeah.

02:08:12.000 But, like, you see the sprinting potential.

02:08:14.000 I see the WWE potential.

02:08:15.000 He should do neither.

02:08:16.000 He should just do that.

02:08:17.000 Right.

02:08:17.000 And just already just crushed the city.

02:08:19.000 Just crush it.

02:08:20.000 They'd probably want him to do it again.

02:08:21.000 Oh, my God.

02:08:22.000 I think he did a thing.

02:08:23.000 He just went to the performance center.

02:08:25.000 Yeah.

02:08:26.000 And, like, he's really good.

02:08:28.000 Really good.

02:08:28.000 He's got great instincts.

02:08:29.000 He's got great timing.

02:08:30.000 That's amazing.

02:08:31.000 And he's only 20.

02:08:31.000 Yeah.

02:08:34.000 I mean, there's now like this is like full multi-camera, really good shooting.

02:08:40.000 And he's speed versus pros, I think, because he's kind of doing that idea.

02:08:43.000 Yeah, like where he goes to people's.

02:08:46.000 Look at that.

02:08:47.000 46.2 million subscribers on YouTube.

02:08:50.000 That's wild.

02:08:51.000 Yeah, so I think he should just do that.

02:08:55.000 Whatever he's doing.

02:08:56.000 I mean, he's obviously doing it.

02:08:58.000 Does he have a team behind him that's editing this shit now?

02:09:01.000 I'm sure.

02:09:02.000 Oh, look at that.

02:09:02.000 Probably.

02:09:03.000 He's learning how to do flips.

02:09:05.000 Oh, that's crazy.

02:09:06.000 So he's really in it.

02:09:08.000 Yeah.

02:09:08.000 And I think it's just like show up for a few days and then go on to the next discipline.

02:09:12.000 Wow.

02:09:13.000 So he does everything.

02:09:16.000 Smart.

02:09:17.000 Very smart.

02:09:18.000 He spent all summer going to a city every day.

02:09:21.000 Everything was live streamed for like 24 hours straight.

02:09:23.000 They'd go to a city, show up.

02:09:24.000 What's the coolest thing to do in the city?

02:09:26.000 And do it.

02:09:26.000 Do it.

02:09:27.000 And then go to the next stage.

02:09:28.000 Like, what kind of shit was he doing?

02:09:30.000 Go to the fair, ride all the rides, try all the games.

02:09:32.000 A bunch of kids follow him around.

02:09:34.000 Next day, they were here in Austin going to Terry Black's.

02:09:37.000 I think he went and did stand-up with Mark Norman in New York City.

02:09:43.000 That's cool, man.

02:09:45.000 That's wild that he's so young, too.

02:09:47.000 Only 20.

02:09:48.000 That talented.

02:09:48.000 Yeah.

02:09:49.000 And just brave and courageous and going for it.

02:09:53.000 Regardless of what you and I think, he's doing exactly what he should be doing.

02:09:56.000 You know, he should just keep doing that.

02:09:58.000 And obviously not getting in his own way.

02:10:00.000 None.

02:10:01.000 Right.

02:10:01.000 All the things you're saying, like capitalizing on every opportunity.

02:10:01.000 Not at all.

02:10:04.000 Story yet to be told.

02:10:05.000 Yeah.

02:10:06.000 Story yet still got still got a lot of life left.

02:10:08.000 Oh, yeah.

02:10:08.000 Yeah.

02:10:09.000 A lot of life left.

02:10:10.000 Yeah.

02:10:11.000 Yeah.

02:10:11.000 But we'll see.

02:10:12.000 He's doing great so far.

02:10:13.000 Yeah.

02:10:14.000 Amazing.

02:10:17.000 I think we wrap this up.

02:10:18.000 It was a fucking awesome podcast.

02:10:20.000 I really enjoyed it.

02:10:21.000 Thank you very much.

02:10:23.000 It is a real, a real big opportunity for you to have me on here because the WWE folks that you have had, I think I'm still, I only got one date left, but I still think I'm the active one.

02:10:35.000 I hope this experience has been good for you guys.

02:10:38.000 Oh, it's been amazing.

02:10:39.000 I hope you have more of the guys and gals from us in on your show.

02:10:42.000 Absolutely.

02:10:43.000 Every one of them's got a great story to tell.

02:10:44.000 Absolutely.

02:10:45.000 Absolutely.

02:10:45.000 And I think your philosophy is contagious, and I think it's really good for people to hear.

02:10:50.000 And I think there's a lot of young people out there that are really going to benefit from a lot of the things you said because I think it's rock solid.

02:10:55.000 That means a lot coming from you.

02:10:57.000 I appreciate it.

02:10:57.000 Thank you so much.

02:10:58.000 Tony, you're the man.

02:10:59.000 Awesome.

02:11:00.000 Thank you, guys.

02:11:01.000 Let's call it.

02:11:01.000 Appreciate you.

02:11:02.000 Bye, everybody.

The Joe Rogan Experience - December 05, 2025

Joe Rogan Experience #2423 - John Cena

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Transcript