What's she gonna do? Brother? When Jeff Townsend media runs wild on you, I am the king as when you got baby. But if you were going to intro me, how would you do the intro for me? Like, if you were going to kick it off, how would you do it? We'll see who is this better? You do yours, and then I'll do mother, and then we'll see which which you were like? Okay, alright, alright, alright. I am super excited to start this show, the Austin Airy Show. He's been canceled twice, let's not try to make it a third time. Austin's a great guy. He's a good friend, and I'm excited to get to know him a little bit more and share some of his feelings on everything wrestling, life and everything that makes him who he is beyond the character that we know as Austin Aris. Austin Man, how are you doing? That was actually really good? I think I like that better than mine. Just have it, man. When when it's time to kick in and go, he goes, You've done this a couple of times. I like it. But what I didn't do is say I'm Jeff Townsend. But that was not important because now you just did, and now everyone knows who you are. Jeff Townsend, Jeff Townsend Media, Jeff Townsend Media, podcasting Jeff Jeff the podcast or whatever you want to call me. I like it. I think that's our intro right there. I think that's the all we should use. So can I kick it off? I do have a question about this. You've made a great point with not Austin airis because that's who you've been portraying as a profession for over twenty years now. I don't know what twenty three years. Probably you're going on forty five years old, I think if I remember correctly. Thank you, and this has been a huge part of you, just like with me and podcasting, right It's like a persona that kicks on when the light comes on, per se or the record button comes on, like you just saw wallago when we were doing it. Sure, we all have issues outside of our life that go on that my listeners would never know of before until recent I having spoke of some things. So my big thing for you, man, is like, how long did it take for you to kind of get lost in this Austin Aries character. I don't want to say lost. I'm gonna say, fully absorbed in it to the point where you could almost lose track of Like you said, who Daniel is? Does that question make sense when I'm asking one hundred percent one hundred percent, And it's a question I've asked myself a lot in the last few years. No other entertainer, an actor assumes that role twenty four to seven, right, And none of the fans when they go meet an actor expect them to be the character. And they saw in the movie, right, Like nobody goes up to Sylvester salone and thinks he's Rocky and expects him to be Rocky. Right. We all understand that they're playing a part with pro wrestling, and like we're blowing that line, and sometimes we're blowing the line for ourselves as much as we're trying to alert for the fans and for me, you know, especially when I was really, really in this full time, you know where it was, and it has to be. It's a dedication, it's your life. It becomes a lifestyle, right, it really does, at least it did for me. You can start to really, you know, assume that character more than you realize or because you're never outside of the pro wrestling bubble on your day to day life, even you never really have a moment to step back and not be some form of austin aries. Right. Yeah, it's it's an interesting question and one that I had to again. You know, I started doing this when I was twenty twenty two years old. It's fresh out of dropping out of college and being a mule, you know, to make some money. You know that highly don't recommend that to anybody. Did you drop out of college? Do you do this or did you I did it to make money after I dropped out of college, because before that I was making money, just collecting the financial aid, not quite realizing that, oh you got to pay that back at some point, right, that's about to say that, Yeah, and most of it, and most of it just went went to the bars, into the liquor store, and to Domino's pizza, you know. And I actually kept one of my old check books from that time period just to remind myself of where I've been and where I've gone, right, because it was you know, I'd get two thousand extra dollars at the end of the you know, paying off the school tuition, and you just see, you would say bulls Eye Beer Hall, bulls eyeb Beer Hall, Third Street Liquor, Bulls Eye Beer Hall, Third Street Liquor, just every day drinking odion at the bar. But yeah, so once I, you know, a couple of years and realized this isn't what I wanted to do, I dropped out, collected that last semesters of financial aid, and then had to figure out how I was going to make money. Life led me that direction, and so I did that for a little while and good learn experience. Again, I'm very grateful and thankful that it never landed me behind bars, because there's certainly worth a couple of opportunities or that could have happened. You really go from like, what are you going to do with my life? I mean that was my quale. I'm twenty two, no college education, half of a college education, and now you're trying to figure out what am I going to do for my life? And wrestling found me. And the minute I saw the ring set up in that in that small garage in Minnesota, I knew that, oh, this is what I'm doing. And there wasn't any question, there wasn't any second guessing. It was one track mind, you know, And so I did whatever I had to do. I moved up on my buddy's couch, starting given plasma a couple of times a week to pay my camp dues. Took odd jobs at attempt service, you know, doing concrete work at six in the morning for seven fifty an hour or whatever it was. Yeah, there was no go fund me back then, you know, to kind of fund yourself. No one would have funded you anyway, No, absolutely not. But yeah, but it never it never bothered me because I was so excited to have this opportunity to pursue this dream, right to be a pro wrestler, And that was my dream. Just when someone said what do you do for a living? My answer was, I'm a pro wrestler. That was my from day one. You know. Four years later, I accomplished that goal and and started, you know, making enough scratch to you know, not have to do my waiter job anymore, you know, in wait tables. You know, as it wasn't I wasn't making a ton of money, but it was enough to to quit all the side hustles. But I think, you know, for me, at least in part to be successful and to get where I where I did, I had to be submersed in it. It had to be my life. Over time, you start to be you know, when I first started, I was just about being a good wrestler, what I did in between the ropes in the ring, and that was how that was how I was trying to make my name, being a really good in ring wrestler. And then along the way, I realized, oh, I need to develop a character. I need something more than just being a good wrestler, because that's a really hard dollar to earn physically, right, And so developed this greatest man that ever lived persona you know, the ultimate bad guy. You know, who could cheer for? A guy who calls himself the greatest man that ever lived? Like, right, like the most obnoxious title you could possibly think up, which I basically, you know, stole from a Weezer song that I heard when I was I was out in LA and the Weezer song came on the roady. I was like, man, this song is epic and it's exactly what I was thinking of, right, So yeah, and then and then you start like having more success. You know, the more you the more you dive into this character, the more success you're having. And you know, in my real life, I've always struggled with, I guess maybe making people like me, right, I mean going back to like, you know, kindergarten at first grade and like just wanting like to fit in, and like never feeling like I could fit in, whether it was like my weird social anxiety or quirky sense of humor or just whatever it was right I could. I always struggled to fit in. I was always different, And so in pro wrestling, it's like, okay, Well, the way I was trained was you need to do one or two things. You've either got to make people love you or make them hate you, because if they're in the middle and they're indifferent, there's no money in indifference, right. You need to elicit a strong emotional reaction. So I found it much easier to be that character that would get under people's skin and make them hate me and then let the other guy be the hero and shut my mouth when it was time. And I enjoyed that, you know, and I've talked about this a little in some other interviews. The part that I love the most about being the ultimate heel, the ultimate bad guy. For those non wrestling fans who are listening that we call it a heel. I always realized that the more I can make them hate me, the more I can get under their skin, the lower I can take them. That means that when it's time for me to get what's coming to me, I can take them that much higher. I can make them enjoy it that much more. Right, And so some of my favorite moments is like laying in that ring and listening to the fans just beside themselves with joy because Austin AI's got beat and finally got what he deserved, you know. And that was because I would say, a lot of times in life, the bad guys win, right, the bad guys don't don't always get what they deserve. Sometimes they end up on top, they end up successful, they end up in power, and they got there by being a bad guy, you know. And so I thought, in this world, I can give them the ultimate satisfaction, and I can give them the end of the story that says the bad guy got what he deserved. But yeah, and so you just really commit to it. And I've always been a bit of a method actor, you know. I've been told that. You know, it's like I assume the character when I step out of that curtain. Especially I'm in that mode, right, like I am now a different person. I'm no longer Daniel, I'm Austinaries. And there's a lot of things Austinaries would say and do in ways he would act, ways he would look at people, the ways he would respond to people that Daniel would never do in real life, you know. And so in some ways, I think that's why pro wrestlers we gravitate towards this, because and entertainers in generals we get to, you know, separate and maybe live vicariously in some ways through the character and do things or say things or act in ways that we can't do in real life, either because it's not appropriate or because it's just not who we are. It's not natural, right, I mean it's not No, it's not healthy either. It's not healthy, right, And so yeah, but when you do that then for your whole adult life and it's basically all you know and all you do, you can lose yourself in that, right, Because there wasn't enough moments where I just got to be Daniel compared to how often I was being in playing austin Aries. You don't realize it until one day you go, wait a second, people are saying all these terrible things about me, accusations and innuendos and rumors. Is that really who I am? And that was the question I'd asked myself. I took a lot of heat for some different things that I had to step back and go, WHOA wait a minute, now, is this these people who don't really know Daniel saying these things because the austin Aries characters convinced them in their mind that this is the same, that this is who I am? Or have I become? Then in some ways have I actually taken on some of these characteristics without me realizing it? And so that was part of for me, the journey of stepping out of the progressing bubble, really truly disconnecting from it for the first time in you know, my whole adult life, and answering some of those questions and spending time completely outside that wrestling community, surrounding myself of the people who didn't know who austin Ais was and didn't care and valued, you know, me for who I was outside of that, and it was really healthy and needed and I'm glad I did. And I think part of that too is it allowed me how to come back with a completely different perspective of you know, what this is and what my role in it needs to be moving forward for me to be happy and successful, which is exactly why we're doing this. But I'm sure along the way over the last twenty years there were certain points in time when you were, like, you kind of felt this problem that we're talking about, but you probably were in so far too deep that you just kept pushing with what you were doing. But I'm sure there's moments when yeah, or or I think that you're so immersed in it that you don't even ask that question because it doesn't even register right that there's this that you're kind of losing yourself, Or again, like, did I even know who I really was at twenty two? Does anyone? Does anybody really know who they are at twenty two? I mean, honestly, great point. You know, we're trying to figure that out, and so before maybe I really got to figure out who I was, because up to that point, who I was was all these labels that were put on me. You're the poor kid. Oh you're the small kid. Oh you're the you're the athlete, Oh you're the you're the pot smoker. Oh you're the you're the party guy, right, I mean, not really an asshole. You're an asshole now, I'm just asshole Dan. I was the asshole. Asshole Dan mans your nickname it was. Yeah. We had was our group of friends and our group of friends in college. There's three different Dans, so we all had we had a different which Dan it was? And um and I was asked old Dan and my dad was my dad's asshold Dan. So I'm asked Old Dan junior. You know, So I got it from I'm I think I'm allow like my father in that way, right, Like my father's got like a just a fucking huge heart, right, give you the shirt off his back, but he's got this sense of humor. And also like there's a line that when you cross it right as right, wrong as wrong, and if you're going you'll be an asshole, right like, and you know, and so I think that, you know, I'm a little bit like that, you know, um so or a lot like that, depending on your perspective. You talked about twenty two years old. That's a really rough age as far as you're you're really just getting I don't want to. I don't know if rough story work, but you're just getting into adulthood. You're just starting to not even figure out who you are, but who you might possibly be one day. Then you you're emerging this world of wrestling. You're you're surrounded by people who, although you have a different personality than them, you're surrounded with people who are doing the same thing, not like a situation where there's any sort of intervention or help. Like that's all your lives and you're still developing who you are and you carried that for a very long time. Yeah, and you're in a very competitive space, right and and I've always been. I've always been very competitive. You know, I grew up an athlete, so I'm a fierce competitor. So you know, we're all we're all chasing this same dream and there's only so many spots looking back. If there's one thing that I would improve on would be to nurture and make more meaningful relationships and also enjoy the journey as opposed to just being so focused on the destination. But yeah, you know, you're twenty two and all of suddens. You know, society puts a lot of pressure on you to have this figured out, and you know, start paying your own bills and be your own man, and you're you're still a kid a lot of ways, trying to figure out, like, you know, what's this world about? Where do I fit into it? So, yeah, you know, I think that's really part of it. And and so to your question that he said earlier, like I don't know that I knew who I was at that age, So kind of morph into this character and then you know, you keep having more and more success the more that you go down that path. Um, it does become a part of who you are. It probably wasn't until I hit my midlife crisis that I had to take a step back and go, wait a second. Okay, you've been doing this for twenty years now, but like, wait a minute, Like there's more to life than this, and there's and there's more to you than this, right, you know, there's other parts of you that you're now starting to explore and figure out and have a better understanding of who you are. And for me, the world of pro wrestling was very difficult to navigate because you know, historically it wasn't always made up of the kindest you know figures, right, there was a CD side of pro wrestling that that I had to figure out when I broke in that I wasn't really smart too, you know, And you have to figure out how to navigate that while you're trying to make your way up this ladder. And and then you know that that's where you start to figure out where your moral compass points which direction, and what you're willing to do or not willing to do, or how you're willing to act, how you're not willing to act to get where you want to go, you know, And that was that was difficult early on of that realization. And then you haven't go, well, this is this is kind of the path you chose, and this is what you're gonna have to deal with if this is what you're going to do. Can you think of any moments directly that you're come to mind when at cross points that in this in these situations that you're talking about at different time in your career and your life. Um, and I'll say this like, I'm glad that the industry has changed in a lot of ways, but the behavior that was accepted, the way that women were treated, or the expectation you know, as a guy, you know, being propositioned by by promoters you know, in a round about way, um, and then having to realize that that was just like another entertainment avenue, is like that's a part of this world too, right, And so just a lot of those things, right and yeah, and then it was a very competitive space and not everyone is trying to help you succeed because if you if they help you succeed, it might mean that that's their spot, you know. So there's there's a lot of selfishness, and there's a lot of lack of transparency, lack of honesty. You know, a lot of people who smile to your face and stab you in the back. You know, I've always good or bad, right or wrong, whether it's serve me or not. I've always been a you know, honest, transparent person. It's hard for me to lie. It's hard for me to come with a secret agenda on my mind when I go about meaning somebody or having a conversation. I am who I am. I'm a pretty open book, you know, no skeletons in my closet that I'm trying to hide. And I just kind of throw things on the table and let the chips fall where they fall. That doesn't always serve you well. In this industry, or at least it hadn't. Kind of one of those things where it's your greatest strength, but it's also your greatest weakness in some regards and that you know. Yeah, I don't want to say downfall because you haven't. You are stable able to still work. I've been there's before you though that they're even more extreme than your case. Obviously different person and however they were just they're done with it for good at it because of something that happened. So I do want to ask you though, and I don't want to like make it too much about wrestling, but as far as your identity and all that, So you go to a ring of honor, I'm sure that was like a big change too, like as far as the level in your career that you were going, So you were very involved there, just like a lot of people training wise, right like the Brian Danielson CMPUG yourself, you're very involved in the process there. What's it like when you're there doing that to your identity and then when you go beyond that, you're kind of in a whole other world where I don't want to say you don't matter as much, but you have to accept the fact that it's not quite the same. I'm sure that can be a little bit different on your self identity as well. Yeah, and I think that's why I had some issues when I went from Ringham Honor to TNA. You know, I left a place where I was the champion, where my input was valued, where I was you know, close with Gabe a lot of the decisions that were going on, and I and I had a lot of pride in being in a position, you know, and I felt like you were a big part of it, right, like you were a big part of it. We were all a big part of it. Yeah, that's what I mean, really, but that was and that was also like that's how I kind of felt was cultivated there. It was we all were a big part of it. You know, we were all building this together. And you know, there's always some level of hierarchy in any industry, in any in any job or business, but you know, I had a sense of loyalty there because it was a place that put me on the map. I believed in what they were doing. And then yeah, you know, then I you know, transitioned to T and A and froll intensive purposes. As you said, we're kind of told you don't matter, You're just an ex division guy. I mean, I remember when I went there and I was making more money at Ring of Honor, And when I went there, they said, well, now you're now you're gonna make this, but I've already been making that. It's like, well yeah, but in the pecking order here you're down here. Now it's like and it's just yeah, and you can't work there anymore. And you can't work there anymore. Right, there was that horrordalia. But again, one of my biggest strengths and also my biggest weakness is is, you know, I can be emotional and and pro wresting. That's great because we're trying to evoke emotions. So if you could pour that emotion out in your you know, in your work in the ring and your performance, that's gonna yank it out of other people. But sometimes for me, you know, behind the scenes, keeping that emotion and check and being able to understand the politics and how the game has played and saying the right thing and doing the right thing. Man, I fail. I failed at that, you know, uh, more than Watts. And because again my whole thing is like we're all men here look me in the eye and shoot me straight. Treat me with respect. I treat you through respect. Take us out of this pro wresting bubble. We're just too human beings on this planet. There is no hierarchy, right, you know, it's it's a made up thing. So I don't think that, you know, treating people like they're beneath you, just because in this made up world of you know, make believe. You know, this guy's got some you know, fake title belt and this guy doesn't, so this this guy is worth more than this guy. It's just it's an interesting concept when you break it down and you look at it for what it is. So yeah, it was that was difficult at times, and I definitely pushed back, and I don't know if it was the right or the wrong thing, because ultimately, you know, when I look at it, I ended up coming back and being a you know, a three time world champion there. And I feel like, if if if maybe I just accepted, you know, where they were trying to pigeonhole me, or accepted being you know, just an X division guy and not stood up for myself, and that voiced my opinion, maybe they never would have seen me as that when I came back. I don't know who knows, but it's also part of the learning process, part of the growth process, part of the maturation process. And I think more anything else is I just I wanted to be an important part because I wanted to just like I didn't ring a bottle, Like I wanted to help that place grow and get bigger and get better. And I thought I could do that if I was, you know, putting a position to at least have that relationship with with the people that were making decisions. Yeah, and T and A still was not some huge corporate enterprise, and even WW hear stories about how you can talk to the owner directly the highest sure, but there's still a pecking order. Like you said, to your point that a lot of people, especially in a more veteran position that have been there longer, like to keep that in line. Was your personal life, like what did you do when you left or when you like when wrestling was over for the day, were you even able to turn off the austin aries thing or like, I mean, how does that work? Because you're onto the next thing almost it's like the story progresses, the story of life. My works different, right, I'm doing a lot of the same things, but you're like in this constant story moving along in your real life. Then you have this austin Aries life as well that has a story going on at the same time. Did you find those often colliding? Yeah, well, I mean even too. It's you know, you get done with the show and if you go to the bar afterwards and there's a bunch of wrestling fans in there, you still have to be on, so you didn't shudder it off. And then for me also, you know, I I dated some women in the resting industry, so even when I was home, there was still this element of being in the resting world, right Like, It's just there was no off and that again, if you could go back and do some doovers, I probably I probably would make some different decisions as far as my relationships went right and not and not blinding those things together. When it works, it can be wonderful, and when it doesn't work, it could be extremely difficult, you know, because you've tied your work to your your personal life, and which in any other industry it's not it's not a good idea, it's it's not And someone gave me that you know, we're all sort don't shoo where you eat, you know, and uh live and learn as they say, Oh, this is a great discussion because I can see what you're saying about. You're just an X division guy, like you said, but you were part and one day we'll talk about it in further detail. But for your personality wise, did it, Mike grow your ego more positively or negatively? When you're in this situation where I can know, were you the first person to be able to hand this title in and get a shot at the heavyweight title? You the first that you do that? If I remember, what was that like to you? To your actual identity as Daniel that moment, Because like you said, you've been told you're just an ex division guy, and in this storyline, literally that that beco your life becomes the here it is. It is your life, I guess, is what I'm saying, Like that's the storyline. You've always been told Austin aias that you are an ex division guy, but you, as Daniel felt, I'm just an ex division guy. So when this time comes and you can kind of do that, have that opportunity like share with us how your actual identity and life, how you felt about that and what impact that had on you. I just remember at the time just it felt like everything was fallen into place, right, Like everything I've been working for was starting to come into focus. I was getting this opportunity. It wasn't because it was an opportunity that was earmarked for me, or because I had friends on the creative team, you know, it was really just because organically what I was doing a week in a week out was resonating with the fans, and the company was listening and decided to pull the trigger and put me in that position. And you know, in some ways at the time, I felt like it kind of validated, you know, some of the issues I had with the company prior, because I left there twice, you know, before I came back and won the World Championship. And so I felt like, man, like all right, because you always wondered, like, yeah, I could I played that differently that I maybe maybe I should have just you know, you know, kept quiet might of my piecing cues. But man, when I came back, you know, first thing I did when I came back is I made a couple of apologies. Right pat Kinney Simon Diamond, he was one of my agents, and I remember I'd get so hot at Pat because he'd give me some finish that made no sense, right, and I'd be asking him, like trying to make sense of it, and like at the time, I'm not, you know, he's just doing his job, right, and so I'm taking I'm taking out on him and it's not his fault, right, But but I didn't have anybody else to vent to because I wasn't in a position to where I could go talk to the people that made the decision I was. I had to deal with the agent, right, and so I would take my frustrations out on, you know, on the agent. And so I remember that's the first thing ideas I found him and said, hey, man, I just want to apologize if I was, you know, painting the ass or disrespectful to you back when I was here, Like I didn't, you know, I wasn't able to channel my frustrations, you know, in the right way. And and I siniously sincerely meant that I wasn't doing that to score any points or whatever. But you know, upon reflection, I realized, like, oh, man, like this guy's just trying to collect his paycheck and do his job, and I'm not making it any easier because he probably knows that it's a bullshit finish or doesn't make any sense, but he can't do anything about it. So he just, you know, he's just trying to do the best he could. So when I came back there, I had a I was grateful for the opportunity. I was. I was in a better headspace in my personal life. I had gone through a rough stretch and uh, you know, like O eight oh nine, ten, a couple of years there, and so I was really I was really motivated to make the most of it, and I did, you know, and so Daniel was feeling pretty good about things. That was really that was my breakthrough, a moment where I felt like, okay, because I was pretty close to walking away. I was spending my I was spending my wheels. You know, I was making enough money to pay the bills, but not enough to like save up, and it's like, well, how much longer can I keep doing this? I've been doing in almost ten years at that point. And so then finally I broke through, and you know, I had my first like big money year and won the World championship, and you know, it was a bit of validation within the matrix I was living in, and within the bubble that I was living in. I was successful, and I was starting to know I was starting to be validated in that you realized later how cool it is. But on the other end of it, you realized, not to sound shitty, but that doesn't really even matter. You know. I look back and now I'm like, man, you were so immersed and you thought it was like so like you thought all this was so important, right, And that's the thing I chuckle that I think back to, you know, some of the way I looked at things and and how I held them, you know, so tightly and got so upset about certain things or and I just kind of laugh. Now, you know, after the last couple of years and the journey I've been on, and I just go, man, you were you were so stupid, you were so silly, right, but you were in it, like you're fully immersed and it's everything. It's everything you've been pouring your life into, all the time and the money and the effort, you know, like it was everything. And so yeah, of course, you know you do that. And it was hard to like have that other perspective because I didn't have a counter balance, you know, And so I look back now I'm like, oh, man, like so silly, right, but you know, like maybe that was you know, again for my journey and what I had to do to get where I went, and then too, what I had to you know, what I had to go through to learn that lesson now later in life and to be able to look back and go, ah, okay, And so I just you know, I have a completely different perspective on wrestling. I have a different perspective on like what it means to me if and when I do go back to to any you know, major company of prominence, more full time schedule, if that's on the cards, I'm excited to be able to bring this kind of fresh perspective along with the knowledge and experience and what I can still do in the ring, but but kind of bring this like more lighthearted and relaxed perspective to this. And because it's not everything, and it's it's not my life, right, It's it's not my life and all of it, it's just a part of it, and there's there's so many other things out there that are more important and honestly, um and we'll probably talk about this in another episode. But you know, when I was in Mexico, I did some plant medicine ceremonies. I did, uh, you know, I did Buffo um and and Ayahuaska a couple of times. If you want something to put your life into perspective, or even better, to put your death into perspective, well that's it. And it completely changes your whole view on this whole thing that we're doing here and how silly we are. And so yeah, it's uh, it's been a trip. Man, it's been a trip. And I think back to to really like those those heavy years of wrestling, and I, you know, sometimes I just kind of chuckled myself and go, man, I was doing my best, right, you know, and I was trying to be success. So I succeed and have all the hard work payoff. But it's funny. It's because you get there and you get to this level of how success and you made it, then you realize, like, oh shit, that wasn't it. Like wait a minute, I'm not. I'm not really completely satisfied, Like it's there's something still missing? Is he is this life? I thought that was it? Well, now what do I do? You know? Well, yeah, that would I go, so, yeah, man, good stuff. It always fascinates me that, like if I go to work and I have a problem, right, that doesn't play out in a storyline in my profession, and like they don't give a shit what I have going on outside of their just deliver results and all the different things that I do. In your case, the personal lissues you talked about eight and nine, we won't go into, but it is related. It's related to people in wrestling. That's a part of your life, and then you have everything just becomes a part of your life with wrestling, so you have a storyline later, Hey, I'm going to hand this title in. I just set the world free of the X Division. I am the example. I paved the way. That's the whole storyline, and that's also how you feel in your head. It just fascinates me how life lives out in your profession and wrestling, because it is not like that in anything else that I've ever heard of. Like I said, my job, they don't they don't care, you know what I mean. But we often see in wrestling like uh, like with Edge and Lida and Matt Hardy, that crap just comes a life. It becomes part of the story and that doesn't happen in anything else now, and I had I had a little bit of that myself, right. I was going through a difficult breakup at that time period, and then I found myself in a storyline with her while while the breakup's happening, right, and you got to come to work and you got to be professional, you know, to the best of your ability. But man, it's difficult. And again that's why you know, don't shit where you eat. There's nothing like the world of pro wrestling. So if you're listening to this and you're not a pro wrestling fan and you know me through some other avenues, it is a It's a the most unique art form and entertainment world you can find. Again, because in no other entertainment world are we tried to blur the lines of where the performer stops and the person starts, except pro wrestling. Again, if you meet Hugh Jackman on the street, you don't think he's really the Wolverine, But when fans meet Daniel Sowal down the street, they think and expect him to be Austin Airies. You know, For me, I always felt like if I was doing my job to the best of my ability and being professional that I would give them that even if it wasn't a place where they weren't expected. I always said this, here's a here's a quick story I'll share. You ever heard of Big Lots. It's a store, Yes, I have, yes there. It loved me some Big Lots. Yeah. I spend a lot of time Big Lots over the years. You can always find some good deals there, you know. And I'm I'm I'm a deal hunter, right, and so the working Man Store. When I lived in clear Water, I had a Big Lots just right down, right down, two minutes down the road. And so one day I was doing some stuff around the condo and I need it. I don't remember what it was like, some paint tape or how was a little painting something and you know, doing some stuff in the house. I just I needed some paint tape or a couple of things. So I just ran down the Big Lots really quick, and I got my scrubs on, I got some Braddy shorts and flip flops and you know, T shirt cut off t shirt. You know, I'm gonna miss of working on the place, right, So I get into Big lots. I'm grabbing a couple of things and these three, these three kids come up to me and they go, oh my god, are you austin Aries. And I just looked at myself. I said, now right now, I'm not and I just walked away and left right like I felt terrible. It was like I just killed this whole mystique for these kids. This was to be the greatest man that ever lived. Right then, ever see me in anything but a blazer and sunglasses. And here I am like, and I just talked to myself. If I was like seven years eight years old and I was a kmart with my mom and I saw Rick Flair in there some sweatpants and a T shirt on right, and a baseball camp, it would have killed it for me. It would have come like I thought you were the nature boy, right, and like he was the nature boy. He was the nature boy everywhere he went. He didn't play the nature boy on TV. He's the nature boy Rick Flair, right, And so the Rusty and I grew up on these guys weren't playing a character. And then they went on their social media and then you know, it wasn't like Arn andersonid okay, no Marty on my social media account like arn Anderson's arn Anderson, right, and so that's the rest and I grew up on. So that was what I emulated in a lot of ways. Right, I wanted to give the fans again, Nikita Kolov changed his name to Nikita Kolov, right, like, this is the commitment of that era of the wrestler. And so that's the wrestling I grew up on. And that was the training I had to where that was a length of commitment that was almost expected if we were going to do this and respect the industry and be successful at it. And so I did try to give that one hundred and ten percent, sometimes to my own detriment, you know, sometimes to a bit of a character assassination to Daniel So. But but that was it, man, It was It was for the love and commitment and respect to this weird ass industry that I decided to make my life. That you don't necessarily owe anything to you, per se you certainly felt so. I mean, so if we take this outside of we're obviously on the back end here of this record in particular episode. If we take this outside of wrestling, what if some advice you would give to people just about identity, or maybe even people that are in wrestling having the same issue, or like I said, just everyday life. What did you have to do to realize this? Did you have to hit rock bottom? Man? Does everybody have to hit rock bottom before they realize this? They have to have a quoted as a midlife crisis? Does that have to be the case? So part me thinks that for a lot of us, it's the natural progression of our life here right in the physical form. And I don't want to get like too deep and too like go off on like too much of a left turn here and start getting all into spiritual and energy and dimensions and all these things that we'll talk about another time. But identity really, at the end of the day, is all just these constructs and these layers that get heaped upon us by society, by our parents, by our teachers, by our job right, by our relationship status, by our financial status. Sometimes like you have to find a way if if it calls you right, and you don't have to do anything, but if it calls you, if you if there's something that doesn't feel right, is you have to find a way to be able to strip all of those layers away and really, who am I? Am? I essence, not even my physical body, right, because that's just a physical body. And again, this is where meditation is coming big for me, and breathwork and these things where you silence all this chatter in your head, which a lot of it was programming from when you were kids. Right. The way you talk to yourself was the way that somebody talked to you at some point in your life, and you just picked up on that. And now you start repeating that voice in your head, I'm not good enough, this, I'm whatever, And you got to find a way to strip away all of those labels and layers of identity and figure out, like in your essence, in your core, your spirit, your soul, your energy, who am I? If I take all these things away and I go sit. There's a there's a woman I follow named Blue. She's got a great podcast, right, and she did four days of complete darkness right like underground, so no senses, no sound, no sight, right, and just had to sit with herself. That to me, like, that's taken it to a different level of really figuring out like who am I? Not my job, title, not my relationship, status, not my financial status, not my physical form. But who am I in here? Who am I in here? You know? I think that you know, if I was going to give anybody advice, a I'd say, don't take advice for me? What the fuck do I know? But if you do is if if something doesn't isn't sitting right, and it's not resonating, or you don't feel happy, or you don't feel satisfied, or you don't feel like you find a way to do that, go go inside. Stop looking externally for the answers. And I think that's what we've been kind of taught to do in this world, is to look for all the answers externally. And the answer is is internal, and we gotta we gotta turn inside and really examine what's in there and separate from all these things that have been placed on us by the external world. And so, whether it's through meditation, whether it's you know, through these different modalities, plant medicine, ceremonies, as I mentioned, I'm not going to recommend that for anybody, but I know it definitely has helped a lot of people gain a new perspective of themselves where they fit in this universe. That would be my advice, you know, is to stop looking externally for the answers and look internally, quiet the mind and go into the soul. Yeah. I think you brought up a good point when you said it was an exact quote from you. But following your instincts, right, if you have a certain feeling about something, you should probably think about that twice and everything. Listen, listen to it, you know, listen to that little voice in your head. Well, I'm I'm sure thinking about life right now, man, But this is your show. I don't want to hijack it. It's all good. This has been an amazing conversation. Well hopefully hopefully one of many I got. I got some man, I got some really cool people I met outside the wrestling world, especially in the last few years. And you know, I want to talk about some of these things, you know, I want to talk about that that journey of self, you know, finding true happiness you know, you know, struggling with things like depression and anxiety. You know. Addiction, you know, is a big one and something I've been battling my whole life. I've an addictive personality, and addictions can be to anything doesn't have to be an essary to drugs or alcohol, um, you know, and sometimes very benign things if you if you can't have a good relationship with it can become destructive. And you know, I think you know what what am I? And we talked about this, you know, off the airs. I don't I don't want to do any editing on this show. I want this to be raw and real and I just want to I think one of my gifts is is being transparent and being real because I think that you know, if you're in a position of celebrity and to some people, I am I've never felt that way about myself, but other people feel that way about me. But when you're willing to not try to be perfect and did not feel like you have to train image and you can just get real and emit failures and emit struggles and emit things that you've gone through. I think it can help other people who just think that they're normal people to realize like, oh shit, like I'm not alone in this right, here's this like super successful guy who's battled all these same things that I'm battling, and they can maybe they can maybe take something from that or feel like they're not alone, and maybe give us some strength to figure out a way to improve those things, you know. So yeah, man, we're gonna be transparent here, We're gonna we're gonna put it on the table, be real. Not not playing any characters on the Austinaria Show. I know it's called the Austin Area Show, but that's just because that's the name. People know. If I called the Daniel Soulwalt Show, nobody would know what the fuck it was. So yeah, yeah, if if you had my name in it and all, they'd be like, who the hell is that? We don't want to hear that guy, Jeff Townsend. That still doesn't I'm still not the same Jeff Townson I am on the air. I'm gonna be changing poop diapers when we're recording here, just to clarify, not your own, not my own. Well you never know these days, right, Yeah, Well, some people are into some weird things. Maybe we'll talk about faff on another episode, but I hope not. Who knows who'll take us? You're a man of mystery? Or should we wrap this one up because otherwise, well I don't want to be doing to our podcast again at a Chris Van Vleet show. Oh man, well, let's talk about the Chris van Vleet interview one of these times. Holy cow, that one's hard for me to watch. I would like to because that's part of the reason we to me that we've we connected, right. I saw that and I was like, man, this can't be who this guy is. Holy shit, and that's here we are today. So I'm excited. Like I said, we'll have to talk about that. I think. Yeah, we've been talking about doing doing another another interview, and I'd like to maybe get him on this one. I'm you know, I'm sure he's pretty busy, but he's been on my other podcast, on my other podcast, so he might as well. He's a good dude, you know. You know who else I just like, whoo whom I really want to have on here? You know who I want to have on one of my future episodes, John Morrison. We're gonna bring John on here and talk. I think that'd be interesting. I think that'd be interesting. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've always wanted to talk to that guy. He's always been of interest to me, So you can pull that out, man, my inner fanboy. I think it'd be I think people be interested to hear us have a conversation too, So we're gonna drop these. We're gonna try to do it every Tuesday on YouTube, on Spotify, Apple, wherever you can listen to podcast or watch the video. We'll try to have it there. We'll have Austin Airy Show dot com up and going. And what was the email that we could start getting some opinions? So I want to reach out to you. It was Austin Airy Show at gmail, yep dot com. I believe, yeah, I ye. Send an email, questions, suggestions for good guests that you think would be interesting, comments, concerns, death threats, whatever you want to send. It's all good. Nevertheless, we will be back next week. And until then, like I said, reach out, let us know how you feel. And I'm excited about having these conversations about who you are as a person. Man. I appreciate you. You giving me the opportunity to get to know you and do this show. I'm excited to Jeff, I appreciate you. Man. Well, we'll talk soon. Until next time. I'm the world. I'm saying this, baby, Jeff Counting Media
