What's she gonna do? Brother? When Jeff Townsend media runs wild on you. Molly Okay, I'm this edition of the build them on experience. I have a you know, I always say I have a chance to catch up with friends of mine, and this is a great occasion for me because here's a close personal friend of mine. Uh. He probably won't admit that in public. He will, and I see him put that smile on his face. But uh, I when they sit and get a chance to catch up to a great, great friend of mine, a guy I think who has a tremendous mind, who's highly underrated in and out of the ring. Uh Stevie Richards, Michael Man, I mean where we going? We don't know. I think I think that there was a time over the past few years or you wouldn't admit you were my friend. No, I'm you know, let's be honest for a minute. I'm almost afraid to say who my friends are. Because of the residual heat, the wow throughout my wrestling career, I think a second to only the people I hung around with like Raven. I really was kind of a heat magnet myself, so it didn't matter. I have to have surpassed you. No, No, I didn't say no, you absolutely have. I'm all, you've shattered all previous records. And that's what I'm trying. That's what these people all spending time with me, You spend time with me. We did. We can get to that. But we we actually lived in Cincinnati for a while in the same hotel. Me, you, Dreamer, Raven, everybody else like the greatest, in my opinion, the greatest bonding experience and made me love the business again. That he reintroduced me to the wrestling business in two thousand and two. Yeah, and we went there, We had a we had a good time. There's a little bit in my whatever the cheap plug is, I guess I'm supposed to hold up my first book and stuff. I talked about Cincinnati, and I did enjoy it because it was a good bonding time for a bunch of guys. Um And it was great to see Raven sitt in less Thatcher's office all day while we worked our asses off. But that's a that's a whole day. That's where he really hold on his booking skills. Yeah, what shout out to you about that? When you were stay he was in the office while you were saying, no, you can do them most alt it's fine. And then I was what's that? What's that thing that you the thing you jump up to the pogo stake? Pogo sticked myself. Bogo sticked it, and uh we got to watch staceyach do it. But Raven, to his credit, he did. Raven and I did become a tag team champions during that booking. Absolutely absolutely now Raven Braven. Actually, I wouldn't be anywhere without him. We will get to those phases of my career, I guess. But without Raven, whatever the bag or the things we could about about Scottie, I would not even have anywhere near the mind I have for the business or even outside the business, would out the experiences that I that I had learned from Raven. And he is a master of the Uh. He should he should be booking and creating somewhere. He should be. Uh, it's probably it's probably his choice, he's not. I'd be surprised if someone didn't reach out, but I also wouldn't be surprised if no one reached out, because you have to, I mean, you have to have rhino skin to be around Scottie. I think we will have that now and we're better for it. So we're talking about Cincinnati really quick. And one of the best things that's ever happened in my life, oh god, years in my life, the best thing that ever happened. I want you to tell everyone who's tuning into this about the bus. The people we saved on the bus. Oh there's two stories. Then, I thought you're gonna bring up when I broke the cash register. Yeah, I the I what the cash register story, but the first day, but it was probably our first week, maybe second third day in Cincinnati and HWA working to less thatcher And just to back it up a second, I just want to say we we were on that you had come over from WCW and that the whole Stasiac thing, and you guys had two strikes against you. Anyway, before that, I was I was coming off the fattest time in my life, way in two sixty two, going down to HWA from the last ditch effort to actually have a job in wbe WWF at the time. So I was on a big weight loss thing. You guys were. We were all starting over in some way or another, so we had a lot. We were pretty preoccupied the soda, saying with what was going in our lives. We're driving down that main road and I think there was an overpassed bridge where you walk. It was a yeah walkway. We look over there and there's there's a bus accident with people on the bus stuck on the bus, and me and Bill get on the bus and save the people on the bus. And these people were bigger than we were. That were he actually trying to fit a woman through the window. Yeah, we were passing people out the window onto the street. And it was just like it never even made the news. Nothing happened that. There was no social media really back then, the covering, and it was amazing because we just didn't And then we said, okay, well I think we were going food shopping for our hotel rooms or something. And we just went in food shop and went to school the next day and just talked about the bus. Every so often, the middle of Cincinnati in the main road you have Tommy Dreamer, Stevie Richards build him up, and Raven saving saving you know, people's lives. Vren was supervising. I don't think he was. I'm not sure. Yeah, well he was there. I mean, if there was social media Raven with Ashtag Raven was there. Yeah, you're that, you know, like you get your psychology and rescuing his people. Sully sucks and the guy fell asleep. Nobody had anyone aisle. You're not just defeating me. I'll hit my finish. OK. It's one of my favorite stories because I could still picture that I forgot about that. That's that's that's the only thing I forgot about. And it was like our first couple days in there. It was that the initiation what felt like, Uh, I mean we were there, we were there a while. I mean we went and whatever we were doing on the road for the company at the time, we were right back to Cincinnati. I mean we were pretty much living in that Uh, I don't know what it was. It was so whenever it was yeah, it was two to three months. It was one of those weekly or monthly hotels that we were staying at not too farm from school, and then we would take the once a month trek to ov W when uh, that's when Easy Money had the uh the four the four hour coma and he he couldn't drop the final remembered I slipped in this tower. Yeah, when he woke up. He told everybody like, yeah, that was the greatest and we ain't got PROD belt on me anyway. I sawed then and wanted from Rico Rico Ron Waterman. Uhuh. It was a good crew. It was a lot of good guy everybody's wc dot for people that don't know all the w c w's, just about every one of the WCW guys that got signed were there, uh w W, which was pretty much ECW guys. You were talking about me, Raven Dreamer. I don't think PJ was there. He might have been for a little bit, but we were the core guys. But it was basically me, you Dreamer, Raven and and we stayed there for a long time. Yeah, because after a while it was a good place to go. I mean the training was good. You know, we got in the ring, we got in the gym and uh yeah. We used to go to tell Concord, Concord Fitness, the twenty four hour place in the ball. I used to do to one hour cardio sessions per like a steel trap. I try. A matter of fact, why did I want to the cardio after the incident? I guess we're going to talk about at the bar where I broke the cash register. Now just jump jump right into it. Because somewhere and something, because you said a little before this show started, somewhere in the back right now, there's one woman in this world who is your biggest fan, who has a smile on her face because she hears me talking. And she does not she doesn't know what you're saying, but she hears me talking about the cash register. So go ahead and built this out. This is gonna ruin the reputation that you have of this very quiet, subdued a sensible guy. No, it actually won't. Because somebody named build him up. But I'm not mentioned to any names here. Somebody named build him ut had told me that first of all, just like this was before the Moonsalt incident. So I trusted you after this because you said to me, just drink with the boys. You never drink with the boys, and this is the way to get over And I thought, you know, for the first time, I didn't. I didn't feel forced to do any of this stuff. So and I was around you, Raven Dreamer, really did trust. I didn't pass the incidences. I may have drank a little bit, but I didn't trust the people around me. So and for some reason, here's the deal. And it still brings true today. And my girlfriend will say this, if I drank, it's because I'm thirsty. Well, that night I drank, it was because I was thirsty, right, Oh, had I had sixteen shots of Yeagermeister, Remember you were thirsty, sixteen shots of Yeagermeister. And then I remember you got up on the bar to dance. You got up and then you picked me up behind my shirt, off my feet and put me on the bar. And then you picked the girl up and you put her on the bar next to me, and she started doing dancing. And then you we're grinding on me and you've hit thrust into me, and I took a back bump and hit the catch register and it broke. It just broken it. You snapped the cash register and I only wait, a hundred ninety I only hit way like one hundred and ninety two pounds at the time. That's why after I lost all the weight and you were in we were in this place where like in every corner of this huge building was a different style of music and there was rave music. Yeah you remember, Yeah, we were chopping each other. Yeah, we were chopping the charter, and then you told me to climb the ladder and jump off and we would ever already would catch me. Now that was another one. I didn't jump, but I can't. I got up there and you turned around and just started talking to somebody. I'm like, what the what the? So we have to clear the air because now listening to this again, I have to look at you and go, what why would you listen to me? Well, let's go in the next story to the next day. Probably want well anybody. I went to Concord Fitness and did an our cardio to sweat out the booze. Nobody wanted to wrestling school. And you know, I was saying, I have a big, big fear of doing a moonsault, but I always wanted to do one because they're cool. And You're like, you couldn't do it, no problem. It was like, I don't know, and I think easy act or somebody did it. And the trash pad was there, and then you said, don't worry, I'm gonna flip your I'm gonna flip you over, you know hey, and you're gonna make sure just throw your head back. So I was like, I don't know, man, I'm hip, I'm hip, heavy as skinny as I am my hipstone. I don't flip. Well, so Bill, it was crazy. It was just like somewhere I don't know, either, like one of those the sitcoms or something. I'm like, you're like one and somebody called your name and you want to like that, and I get it. I landed it right on my head and just laid there going and you turned around. What Oh oh shit, Oh I thought, Oh I thought it was on three. Oh it's like leave the weapon on three or uh. You weren't there at three, whether it was on three or after three, so it didn't even matter. Oh my god, I can't. I'm done. People have People may not know this, but I have a little bit of a history of neck hendry. Yeah, and that's I feel. That's what I'm kind of I'm kind of laughing because I feel really bad because I can really I'm reliving that in my head and it's funnier now. Yeah, because I'm fine. I'm sitting here, I'm not in a wheelchair. Thank god. Well, thank god, because if I had feelings, I would feel bad. But the how you Yeah, now I'm good. I'll tell you're good. No, never to try that again. Yeah, but you have to write you had to do it at least once, might have only been once. If so, it's safe to say never again and never since that time. If you've been on the top rope backwards. Yeah, and I always do This is where Raven taught me. I always, I always, um. I always disguise it, and not in a way of of lack of skill or inability, but psychology, like why would I do that? That doesn't make a hundred guys are doing it. I'll just do this kick the Stevie kick the Stevie kick. Let's fast forward to what I just saw this this week, this past week. It did it just happen or you all over the place. You just give me the story about kicking the kids, sweeping the ring? Oh oh oh, I did the kids sweeping the ring was. Here's here's what I've learned now. In normal circumstances, say ten fifteen years ago, if someone had said to me, hey, we're gonna do this finish where you know, you're beating the guy up or whatever, and he leaves the building, you know, he like runs off, gets counted out or whatever, and that's the finish. Well, the problem is the way I think and people. You know, there's psychology to a match, but there's also psychology to the entire show, the way each match should be and what it represents on the show. Correct, Right, So I'm right be for intermission? How flat would that have been if he just left and I stood in the ring like a goose? Right, So, so I came up with the idea of this guy who was one of the students. I would stand there and be like, oh my god. And then then it got to a point where basically before the intermission actually happened, like the guy just jumped the gun with the sweeping the ring and he started sweeping the ring, and he actually swept the broom into the side of my boot like and then he walked, looked looked up at me. I looked at him, and he was good. He took his time, he tried to sweep, and then he looked up at me. He went like this, I moved it aside, and I'm like, what the hell? And then finally he pushed me out of the way and started sweeping. And that's when I kicked him, and I sweeped him out of the ring. I fell down because I tried to catch up. Now more than ever, I try to stay with what's what's going on, and I forget if it was on Twitter or Instagram or whatever, whatever the hell one of these things was YouTube or whatever it was. I watched it and im and when I watched it, I thought, I was thinking through myself, there's no way that he's gonna kick this kid. And when you kicked that kid, I was like a kid in the candy store. It was the funniest thing I ever saw in my life. And then I watched it again and watched it again, and then I caught the little things like the kids sweeping your feet, then you picking up the broom, and I thought, well, there's some fun. It was fun. It was It was goofy. It was silly, but it left the people at intermission happy and wanting more, if they if they were even just a little bit like, what the hell was that? It kind of like leaves a sour taste in her mouth for the second half of the show. So, you know, it's taught me and that once again we go back to Raven. You know, it's taught me how to turn that and twisted a little bit and make it make sense and put it into into perspectives. And you have that you I mean, you've you've built that. Your reputation speaks for itself too. So i'd imagine when you, you know, when you suggest those things like that, these these young kids are jumping at the chance to be a part of it. Yeah. Yeah, And you know, I don't do anything to take advantage of anybody. First of all, I didn't touch the kid with the kick, And that's actually a harder, harder thing to do than to kick somebody. Anybody can kick saying somebody's head off, but it takes a real art to make it look that way, you know. And with the kid, I asked him, is that okay? And he says yeah, And I go, just make sure don't be afraid in the beginning to be like, you know, don't be over the top, but don't be afraid to like say, hey, I'm I gotta sweep this ring get out, you know, like I'll react to it because I know in the end what's going to happen, but I'll react to it. And that way, it's not one of those things where you see lots of guys do that. They try to get themselves over, but they don't get the other guy over in the process to make themselves elevated even more. And that's that's that's a shame, because you only discount what you're trying to do. And even in a little silly comedy spot like that, the kid, now they're gonna do a thing where he always comes into the rings. But that's how the kid gets recognized and gets heat and gets over. Then when he works his first match, he's kind of cemented in there somewhere. And so this kid's this kid as he's just a student. He hasn't even been in the ring yet. He's rough some matches, but they do a thing where once in a while he just gets beat up, you know. But now now there's gonna be a purpose behind it of him doing something. Before it was just gratuitous stuff. But it seems that now that they saw that, they're like, oh my god, if this guy comes on the ring and just you know, even at the end of the show, just starts trying to tear it out of the ring before the baby faces out of the r you know, studid, it'll it has a little bit of legs and it's a fun part of the show I think they should incorporate, so, you know, because I keep up and I know you go. You know, the conventions are out there, and I guess I see what's kind of old is new again, and I know you're out there still still doing your thing and doing the autographs and all that stuff. Are you having asking a lot of guys this and a lot of guys are doing And I guess my point is a lot of guys are out there still doing this because they have to and you don't have to. But are you having fun? I am having fun? And the thing with those conventions, when I get to see everything comes full circle. So the guys you maybe may have argued in the locker room or looked at and they looked at you a certain way, and there is that they're a high pressure, heavy environment of WWWCW even TNA. It's a different environment. It's a very like, very defensive environment in there. But in the conventions, when you get to see everybody, you know, and I'm I've been when I see a veteran like I saw Jake today at one of the one of the employee's birthday parties for DDPOGA, you know, and whether I see eye to eye with Jake Roberts, doesn't matter. He's a veteran, has been in the business longer since you've known me in ninety one, whether way, even if they won't stick their hand out to shake my hand. And I'm not saying Jake Jake doesn't. I'm just saying, if a guy's got more time than me in the business, I'm going to show him that respect, whether he shows it back to me or not. And I've actually carried that over to the younger guys too, So I go out and try to meet the guys like Rockstar Spuds, a really good kid. I've met a few guys from NXT over the years, but I knew them on the indies anyway, and I just tried all and all to be respectful and bring up positive. You know What's what if Kurt Hany used to say nobody wants to be around a It wasn't a Debbie downer, but you've heard him say that it has to be around it. He was always smiling, always happy, always happy to see people, and that's the way it is a convention. But I think it's genuine. Everybody. Everybody's making money to sign an autographs. You know, nobody's you know, nobody's got to do a job. No one's got to do something. There should be no heat, No, there should be no heat at all anyway. Everybody should be wanting to make money and him to make the business better. But did these young and the reason I'm asking, I just came from a two day camp up in Virginia with Mickey James and Nick all This who will be on the show later in the month. And uh, I was amazed that, you know, because they're all young to me, you know, fifty years old, twenty almost twenty eight years and doing this and things. Something's passed you by and and then you think sometimes you're just talking to a wall. But these kids were so receptive. I want to I want to go back out there again, like I love I love the training camps and seminars. But do you find that do you find these kids want to hear that stuff or they just think that's that's old fart mentality and it doesn't apply to what's going on now. Well, I don't think the thing that I think separates me from the other you know, suppose that veterans are older guys and everything is I still believe and I still prove when I go out there that I can hang with these young kids in the ring. So I when I say something, it's usually because we're working later that night, or I just did it in the ring, all right, So I have that. I have that benefit because the credibility of doing that. You know, I always take everything from anybody, so if I always The funny thing is that very rarely and it happens in Wildcats Sports in New Orleans, but it doesn't happen much many other places. You tell me, if you get this, Noah, you you were to head an a n x T trainer, an FCW trainer, so they should ask you to watch their match, and nobody nobody really asked me to do that throughout the course of the show. Rarely. I never understood that mentality, I mean, and even then there was there were some guys who were you had said, you know, there's some guys that were well traveled that understood that, and they'd been around somebody at some point. But I never understood why why you would have to suggest to these younger guys if you have someone who's been doing this for twenty plus years in front of you, why wouldn't you want to be critique. I feel like they don't want to be told anything other than yeah, that you're right they did until you know yeah, And let me tell you something. None of us, none of us, especially me, when I wrestle, does grain where I go out and when I come back and my own my own the characteristic that could be me. It's my biggest strength as my biggest flaw, because you know me well enough Bill to know I beat myself up. So I come back, I'm like, oh my god, that one little thing, and it could be what I should have stepped right instead of left, and all the way on the plane ride home, at the gym the next day, until I get in the ring and correct that again. It eats me alive. But that's what every young person should have won. You should be you should I created that animal too, though I don't think you know, and I don't want to get on a soapbox about it, but I think we've let them know. We as a whole, the industries let them know. They don't really have to know, and they'll learn along the way. Whereas guys like you and the guys who came in when you know when I came in. We had to learn along the way, but we had to learn or we weren't going to go any further. Yeah, and that I think that's the difference in the in the generation. But we had the benefit of every single indie show a former WWF guy, a former or the NWAWW guys from Japan. There wasn't an indie show I was on that didn't have like you know, I remember Jeff Jarret, Jimmy snook A, Da Morocco Hockey Talk was on it. There was a ton of guys on there, going from one company in the other and staying coming to do a few independents. And that's why I would say to these young kids that you don't have the opportunity. So when it stands, you know, it stares you in the face, or it's in the same locker room, I don't care. Due I used to basically just I used to have veterans tell me that you've you've witnessed some of it, get the hell away from me, you know what I mean? They wouldn't he but I keep trying to ask questions and then if they gave me that one answer I needed to have, that was good enough. For me. Another thing I think too is and this could be something why why you get a bunch of heat? But no, I'm just saying when I broke in and you were in the USW locker room, when I sat there, and I was so amazed because you talk to me, you agreeded me, you said it loud to me, because I hadn't proved myself to anybody, and I was I was sort of like left on an island a little bit until my actions and the way I worked and proved myself to each and every guy when I got and ring around them and then in the locker room, and it took time. And I don't think God, that happens a whole lot work. Guys have that where people don't, you know, they sit back and watch them and they don't really put them over, you know, to their face, until they've proven themselves to a certain tutoria. Does that make sense, Yeah, but it makes perfect sense. And I always, I always equate it to there's kids in this business. And I say kids being almost fifty, there's kids in this business who have heard the stories of how it used to be and how you had to earn your spot and you and they feel like that's the way they should do it. And I'm a firm believer regardless of what you read. Unless you know me, you don't know this. But I'm a firm believers And I said it at this camp, going back to this camp. When you walk in the door, then I'm in. I want to talk to you, and I hope you want to talk to me, and I'm gonna learn something. You're gonna learn something. And I took that from Johnny Rods and I've tried to apply that all the way through to twenty eight years later. But I feel like these kids hear the stories of the hey day and the things that were cool and bitching and that made the things what they were, and I think they take it to the extreme of to your point, Yeah, earn your keep and then we'll talk to your or you know, Dusty, who I love to death. One of his favorite sayings was, you know, I'm not gonna learn your name for the first nine months because you may not be here again. But I think people they don't do that. And I'm just shocked to hear that that guys don't come up to the Vetrians. To me, if a guy's been on TV. And if there's still guys WCWEC, wwwf Old School WWE guys, if they're on shows, you have to sit with them. You have to and don't ask them what it was like hanging out in Vegas for three days after the show. Ask him about the freaking live events, you know. But again, that's that's my I'll get in trouble, that's my soapbox, you know. Yeah, I'm with you, you know, And then we're not. And by the way, I'm not saying that that. You know, guys, guys should get stretched like we were when we broke in. Guy should be tested in the way that we did and in our words, get punched in the face, get kicked in the nuts, get beat that, get the hell beat out of us. We're not saying that, but they're you know that there's so much there like NXT, Like I've seen the facility online and the pictures and everything. I think you can guess which part of the facility I'm jealous of and I wish I had access to. It's an amazing it's amazing And from no U, I'm so happy that the company has has really an hunter more specifically, has turned that facility into something that rivals the NFL, and I heard him say that's what he wanted it to be. And the strength, the strength, the training, the rehab, the important stuff of the healing and recovery too. Those guys and girls have that down there, and it's pretty amazing the strides the company has made to really build their own farm system. You know. Good people say that it's an inbred type culture, that you should be working in the indies and stuff, But Hunters taken now the best of both worlds, and guys from Ring of Honor, guys from Japan, and also guys and girls that have never done anything too so goodfud he's taking them. And a lot of the argument coming from and my opinions probably biased, but from being there for so long and then on the ground floor. But you're the argument was, well, you need to be out in front of people. Well, these NXT kids are out in front of five hundred plus people on live events and we still, you know, when they still do the smaller venues around Central Florida's still two three hundred people up to fifteen hundred last night, and I'll probably date this show a little bit. Last night they did take over in Brooklyn to fifteen thousand people. So I'm no mathematician, but fifteen thousand people X amount of dollars a ticket, you're looking at a seven hundred thousand dollars gate. I don't care if they never see a percentage of that gate. Those kids, and they're still kids, some of them even battle tested in the Indies for years and travel the world. Just put in a great night's work in front of fifteen thousand people and they announced they're going to the UK and a tour. If that's not growing the developmental system, there's nothing cookie cutter about that. And that's Hunter and that's his team, and that's Bloom and that's Gone and that's you know up in that Brookside and all Smiley, and it's the strength and conditioning coaches and for all the good news is you don't hear so so much negative stuff, and when you do, it's it's a big deal. But you're always going to hear the NFL, NBA, you know, all these things. But that performance center is second to none. And the task that um, the task that a Hunter has and and everybody who who keeps up with it is unbelievable. So and It's kind of a a segue for me because I can never stop. I have so many good things to say about NXT in the Performance Center and the kids there and how they're coming in and they're learning the right way. And you got guys like Adam Pierce who just joined who who while he'd never been in the WWE or w c W all these things, he was the NWA champion. But the guy's knowledge is is second to none. And you need a guy like that, and the Brooksides, and and and Norm and Smiley, who's who's still dropping a knowledge on these cats, and and regals there, and so it's amazing to me, but it kind of leads me. We're talking about the Performance Center, what's going on there, because I was, I was as you were periscoping the new green room. I know Page has talked about this, and I know when Page came down when I was there and he did his seminar, which was outstanding, just when the doctor ordered. I know when he took the tour, he was probably taking mental pictures. So while while he is the the flag bearer and the spokesman for for everything that's going on there, catching me up to what you're doing and more more importantly catching me up to this the green screen room and things that are going on. Well, excuse me, well, the DDP Yoga Performance Center. It sounds basically very familiar. You know. That's that's definitely a destination he's created. He's he's invested over two million dollars in it, so, you know, not just a performance center from the way of a yoga studio or a DDP yoga studio, but also more of a production facility. The green screen which you saw, which goes from the ceiling all the way down to the floor, is going to be a big part of what we're doing. We basically have studio lighting, We have a kitchen in there. It's gonna be live and recorded production, whether it's workouts, whether it's content from the kitchen, whether we've rented out to film studios or production houses, stuff like that. There's a lot of there's a lot of passive income it can be made from the building. But as far as I'm concerned with me with my position, besides going out there and teaching DDP yoga in the studio, I'm also going to be hosting those workouts with Dallas, with Christina, with everybody from there. We're going to reshoot the DVDs. We're gonna reshoot those. Yeah, we're reshooting the workouts because he is like, here's y RG. It's like nails on a chalkboard. So he wants to rebrand it shoot that. But he's got a studio now, he doesn't have to worry about renting out the admit, the studio of the staff. He's got everything in house. So we're gonna do that. And also we're going to record a ton of workouts and content for our app that's coming out by Black Friday on iOS and Androids, so and I'm part of that app testing team too, so I'm a lead instructor. We've rebranded ourselves as Celebrity Trainers. That's what we want to call them, and some me and Christina and Dallas I came up with because of a pen IDCX to Beach Body people that refer it to as celebrity trainers, but we really do train celebrities. There's musicians and actors and wrestlers and people to come in and whether we train them in a class or I have people that I train on the side with personal training too, whether it's TDP, yoga, we're doing the strength and conditioning stuff. Because I still love all aspects of fitness Bill, I still, you know, want to do the beach body workouts, want to try out park or want to try out cross fit. I just love it all. So how did you get? I mean, but I've tried, I've tried to keep up with how I was. I lost somewhere in the transition of you and DDP, Like you're a you're a computer. I know you. You got the games and you know the apps in your show, and you can talk anybody through anything, and you've got that all figured out. And then all of a sudden, when I when I heard what seems like four years ago, you were the lead instructor and now you're the You're the head guy with DDP and leading the charge. How did that happen? Because I didn't know that you and Dallas even knew each other. Oh Man, Dallas and I knew HRS the ec W is sinceing ECW with Raven and then I worked a lot with him in WCW. We didn't really get to know each other. But when we hooked up again in WWE and when I came back from Cincinnati. He saw the work ethic, he saw all the weight I lost. We kind of got the know hr a little bit. But then I saw him a lot of times on conventions that he was always talking about DDP yoga. Now I'd done right or yoga, and I liked it okay, but it was a little boring. And when I was in TNA, I took a really I dove off the platform, and ironically enough, me and Tommy both got the same knee injury and the same brawls in the same night. But my knee had given me a lot of trouble which had never done happened before. And then the doctor told me I needed, you know, needed some work done it and I wanted to avoid getting cut, so I talked to Dallas and he said, just do it, just do it. I did it, and I was pain free. Now I think I was pain free. It took me longer to get pain free from my knee because I still like calling being on the eleptical, on the bike, on the art train or all that stuff. So there was still some impact on my knees up and in a couple of months my knee was really pain free, and all the other stuff started to happen, and then I ended up leaning out just a little bit more. And that's when I was in TNA. And you know, I want to get back to that, to that eight by ten picture I have with get back to look you look great and like you. No. I got a little bit of stubborn belly fat at forty four. So you know, I'm trying. You never you're I hope you never do, but you're never gonna change. You're always you're You're always hard on yourself. Well that's I think, Well I appreciate that, but that's something I was too content with myself when I gained all the weight. And that's way back right, And I might have gotten obsessive, but I got obsessive I think in a way where it benefits me. I don't stay up all night beating myself up. I just say, okay tomorrow. I got a work harder at the gym. I got a work harder at this. And now that I'm instructing other people, you know, and and they see me out there, and I'm gonna be back on you know, back on the app, and you know, basically back on a TV type basis with Dallas. I have a really great responsibility to look good with my shirt off and a tank top. If I start to gain wedding I'm telling these people that are having some real weight issues, you can do it. They're gonna look at me just like if you know you told people, hey, you know, I mean, I'm sure there's there's instances where you told people certain things and they looked at you and you're like, Okay, Well I don't have to prove that I exactly, so uh, you know, it's a big responsibility, but it keeps me accountable. So I'm really it's a good balance with that now with the DDPOG Performance Center, which all I had the Dallas that I've had had these conversations multiple times as as as as recent as like Friday, because he was like, hey, are you still wrestling, And I'm like yeah, and he's like okay, and you know, they okay has a lot of different meanings, and I'm like, listen, I go I you know, and I don't know if this is a stupid thing or just a stubborn thing or both. But I still have that chip on my shoulder. Bill. I still feel like I can. I can. I still not one more run I'm not one of those cliche type guys, but I'd still feel like physically I have a lot to offer. And I was offered the trainer job way back in FCW and Tampa, and I turned it down because I felt like I could teach guys up there. I wasn't done teaching and learning it. And for whatever people think is as wrestling fans, well, you lost every match against Kevin Thorne and this guy and that guy. No, I was teaching them. That's my job. They can get over all they want or go over or win matches, but if they're a better wrestler each time they wrestle me, that I'm basically was a trainer on TV came to those matches. But I feel like I still I still have a lot to give, whatever level it is in the wrestling business. I'm not sure. So Dallas is wanting you, without saying it, is wanting you to put that to the side now and focus strictly on well. I think that me and Dallas have a lot in common and the stubbornness is probably one of them, all three of us. So I won't do it. I won't do it to the detriment. In other words, just like Scott, he said, Scott Scotti Toohati, which you want to talk about something? It looks incredible. I mean, I look, I ask him for advice on fitness and nutrition. Yeah, it's incredible, he said it best. And we always said this, and I text him after I watched your interview with him, I said, you couldn't have said it better. The second I have to put a T shirt on to wrestle in the ring, I know I'm done. That's what I know. I'm done. When he said that when we were sitting there, and part part two of that interview airs this Tuesday coming up, but we when we sat there, it's just to me, it's just like this conversation. So I hope, hopefully this makes sense. Sitting with someone that you've been up and down the road with and talking about life and the things that things that are on your mind. So I still get where you're coming from. And then the older part of me looks you right in the eye and goes, you may have more to give, but you have more to do, you know what I mean. And that's just my thing with you. If you're happy, I'm happy. If you can listen, I'd pay every night to go see you in that ring. And when I get up in that area, I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna come and see you. And if I see you wrestle, great. If I never see you wrestle again, great. And do you have lessons to teach those kids? Yes? Will they learn them? Who knows? But you have. You have so much going on, and like I said to Scottie, and I've said this everybody, it's all good things like and I I love to see you on periscope and I love to see and the fact that you answered my whatever that is, I didn't know what it's a tweet or whatever. I just I was driving to uh the dentist or something that I saw you on it and I told Lazy, I said, I hit him up and he started talking to me live on. Yeah. That's that's all. I make TMZ or something or some wrestling website. I don't because that's something to do with me. It'll never get in coverage. Well that's all I figure. I figured. There's two guys. I'm the other one. I do periscope. I don't know why, but they tell me that's the thing to do. But I'm glad you're happy, man, and you know, let's let's put it this way. It's great. Scotti's another case, and you know what I want to on a side note, these wrestling fans are these people these there could be trolls or just people that judge what they look at. You know, life is all about trying different things, I believe it or not. Even though I'm at the Ddpoga Performance Center, I still take it day by day. I still feel like, just like you are right now, and just like Scotti is, we're still in that transition from the wrestling business. It's just it's not an overnight thing, and it's not an easy thing. But you know, we try different things, whether it fails, whether it succeeds or whatever. Scotti tried the firefighter thing. He got he got a certification and realized not for me. Now he's doing real estate. I admire that more than anything, when somebody tries something, and you know, for those people to sit back and don't do a goddamn thing, and you know, criticize everybody else for trying different things in her life. You know, Abraham Lincoln failed more than ever before he became President of the United States. So failing is not such a bad thing. Yeah, that's the truth. The transition. If you did this for three years, the transition is probably easier. But and that group of guys you're talking about, and it's you and me and Scotti and Scotty and I talked about this a lot off the interview as well. It's it's not an easy transition, Baldo and I've talked about it, and I talked to a lot of the guys and girls. I was with Mickey James and talked to it while she's still active, trying to find that thing, whether you have an college education before this business or not, if you've been doing this for an amount of time and had some level of success and you've been all in, the transition is hard because I think mentally people feel like they I can't speak for everybody else. They're afraid, righty, Well, I'm not going to reach that level of success I had or I'm not going to be important. And I could care less if I'm loading boxes in a truck again at FedEx, because I've done that too. So you gotta keep you gotta keep trying. And that's the that's the build them out experience. That's where I'm going and I want to talk to everybody who's taken that leap of faith. And I'm sure we're going to come across guys and girls that go on to be successful in other things and some that can't let go. And Scottie and I talked about that too. But it's hard, and you have to try. That's the biggest part. If not trying is is family. Yeah. The best thing about my position, your position, in Scotti's position right now, is the choice. The choice am I am I going to? You know? And I'm not reaching out the promoters saying I want to work for nothing and do this and prove myself and do that or whatever. But I take each booking seriously that I have to look my best, to conduct my best and represent the professional wrestling business the one we remember the best that I can I and the choice to do that between that and DDPOGA and my tech show and all the other interests that I have to choose to wrestle and makes it a lot easier than being handed a bunch of plane tickets for thirty days and say, you know, come back to us in a month and if you're injured, here's an art thirty planet. Yeah, you know, that's all we are. We got handed paper plane tickets back in the day. That's not he's ever seen it. Yeah, they haven't seen a paper ticket. They get her used to see the remember we used to see what was the four wise or something like that. It'd be like, Oh, Howard, what hell are you doing? What do they do to Howard? This week? There was a code Yeah, extra pray. Oh God, Howard, you gave me extra extra propellers this week, My God. Or the phone call from Howard on Friday when you were supposed to leave on Saturday. I want to give I want to give guys an idea. Guys and girls that are in the business now, probably you did the same thing. I had two sets of everything, one set of tooth brush, brash, all the toil trees and everything in my house and in our set that forever was full and ready to go in my bag. That was before we had the three one one thing. We could carry everything in our bag, and my bag packed with clothes and gear, was always by the door because I got those Friday night phone calls, I got the Sunday night phone calls, and where I came back and they told me you got to go right back out and do this, And I thanked them for it every single time. I mean, when I talked to you, I f them, but when I called them, I thanked them. But when you that's the truth, because you had the guys to your point to go, oh yeah, coach, are you ready? And I'd walk guys out to my car and open my trunk and just because that bag's not in my office doesn't mean it's not in my car, and they'd always go because you don't know. Sergeant Slaughter still carries his gear to the ourdays and I think it's the same little black bag he's had for um since nineteen And if you don't think he's ready to put it on a twelve fifteen in a match and lay it India, I found not the hard way he is. He's ready. Amazing, it's amazing. Well, I'm just I'm just glad we had a chance to catch up like this and share some How old were you when we sat down at ecw oh Man, This is before I even won the tag belts, This is before I even got really pushed with Raven. You were Eli the Eliminator or Eli de Terminator, right, crash crash determinator. Why didn't I? I I did call you Eli a couple of times. Why nidd you know Hell is Eli? Back then? Eli? I don't know. The only Eli after that was Eli Manning. So it was like, yeah, I'm all, no go giants, But that has nothing to do with this. So yeah, I don't say that you were how old nineteen when I first started. I was nineteen. When I was probably in the locker room with you, I was probably it's twenty two. At twenty two, I was telling a story at this camp in Virginia, and I was telling a story how I was making most of my bones in Japan and things like that, and Bam Bam Bigelow sat down next to me in a gym in New Jersey and started dropping the knowledge on me. And out of the twenty kids there, I'd swear to you thirteen, we're looking at each other and wanted to ask me who Bam Bam Bigelow was. And it was such a reality check to me. I was part of me wanted to be so mad, and then the other part of me, to your point, was and then I had to sit there and take that time to explain the conversation and why it was important and how it affected me through the rest of my career, and then hopefully my biggest thing is you hear it all the time. Now if you don't know who it is, google them, and I leave everybody with google them. But I don't know when it got to the point where you had to tell someone Google then, Ben Bigelow, if this is the soapbox I'll always be on. If you're gonna get in this business, whether it's sports entertainment, pro wrestling, you'd better know something. I you know I hear too much, Well, I'll learn it, and I really don't. You better learn because there are cats, and I believe wholeheartedly the Hunters one of them. And you have JBLO still there, and you know jbl as well as anyone, and you know, while it's a dying breed. God, dog, I wish they'd learned this business instead of just thinking that Cesaro just came out of nowhere. Well God, I mean they have said we had to buy VHS tapes to watch guys and gladly do it without being told. But they have YouTube today. I'll tell you this. Any young guy out there or a girl out there, wrestling all around this world. I know who you are. I've watched endless amounts of YouTube videos and you know how much Cardio I do. Bill, I watch it Dorin Cardio and I watched the in Japan. Or I'll search, you know, cards and look at the independent cards and I'll be like, well, this is this guy. This looks like a good match, and I'll see if there's YouTube video on it. I'll sit there and I'll watch it, and sometimes I'll comment on it and say, hey, next time, maybe you should do this. Yeah, they have to do that, A lot of them do. I don't want to make it sound like there's not anything now. Your cue is great. That crew down there, it shows through. That's why it drew fifteen thousand people. That's why I drew fifteen thousand people without one ounce of promotion outside of two hours of social media. Just announced they were going on sale in two hours. And yeah, and you know you always get the side note in the social media, Oh they got the machine behind it. I got news for you. The machine is behind it because of the work ethic, because of the kind of people that are leading it and how they work. One of these I know, one of these episodes I'm in I'm gonna lose my mind and I'm gonna go I'm gonna go after that that subject. But yeah, it's it's not everybody, and it's good to see it coming back because there's a lot of old it's a terrible phrase now old school, right, but it's that old school mentality with the new school way of doing things. So hopefully it continues. But when I was just curious as you were out there and I saw that kick to the kid the Jander, and and while I enjoyed that part, I wondered if everybody understood why it happened and what the significance was. And it's it goes back to, yeah, you got a lot more to give, but don't don't. Don't do it at the expense of everything else you got. No, it's not, you know, and I'm not going on a suicide mission or anything. It's not like I'm looking forward to, you know, taking some of you know, like I don't want to get in there and started trading kicks with like Kyle O'Reilly or Davy Richards, ring rights kid Dalton Castle with it looks like he oh, he looks like he's a bunch of gaga. I'll get in there already. Do you know, Soma it's a bra. Oh yeah. I saw the commercial just before I came in here, and I went, I see that. Well, you know, I take a picture of this the front of the store, and I texted, do you remember? I'm like, can you believe this? I was listening to the TV and I'm you know, I'm over here doing something and I'm working to go Soma, I went, it's just a reaction thought for everybody who would glizes it or something where they come from. Um, so here's what this is what I'm gonna leave you with because I I you're not going to appreciate this at all, But I thought of you when I saw this commercial, because of you and your cats. Oh I love cats. I saw the Guy Cooke commercial with the guy's running and he goes in the quicksand and he's telling the cat to go get help, and the cat just sits there and looks at him. So why wouldn't I appreciate that? My cats? Boy, my cats would your cats would save you, They would go and call for help. Well, you were upset. Every sessed with cats? No, theseres with cats all right, Well, maybe a little didn't. When did When did that happen? I don't know. I always was a cat lover, and it's crazy. You didn't bring a cat to my wedding. No, I didn't. I thought about it, but I didn't. And you remember, everybody out there, I was in Buildamot's wedding. I was, and build him out once again, was responsible for another drinking binge, one of the few I've had in my life. We come back from the gym, champagne and mimosas, and somehow I think you were passed out on the lawn too. Right. It was you and me and al Snow and we wound up doing donuts on my mother's lawn or something. You guys were drunk and I was. I was telling everyone, come on, man, I'm getting married tomorrow. Let's go home and get some sleep. And you guys wanted nothing to do with that. Yeah. I actually still have the picture of you from the It was at the bachelor party where you were at the urinal with the cigar, and I still have that someone. I still have your wedding. Yeah, not that one. It didn't last style. I hope it's not the same one. I always have a cigar. But I do remember I was in Bill's wedding fight. But you little know. In fact for people that don't know if me and build them not ever cried because you're You're a lot more famous to me now Bill, whether whether you want to be or not. No, I'm I'm infamous. I'm infamous. My You know you know you've done something when your mother on a regular basis, My mother will text me face time me and go what are you doing? Like I'm fifty, you don't have to check up on me. But she's a big needless to say, my mom at Severny alien right, Yes, well that makes sense. Then didn't tell you moms don't care you're still their baby. Once once she hears my name in public, yes, and know why she's hearing God, So you can imagine those conversations. You know what The funny thing is that people don't realize that probably on a whatever given day it is, I may be a bigger heal than you the general fall Like maybe let's let's clear that up right now. Like of the two of us here talking, you are the heel that could make me, make me the most hated person in the whole wrestling community and so probably love you because you've hit it so well. But I'm here to tell everyone straight away like you're the nicest guy in the world, but you're a bigger heel I can be. I can get away with giving someone a look, you'll go at them verbally just because I'm still I'm actually still talld about that current physician. How do you feel they need to just go up and tell them, like, go fuck off them? They just because someone told me one time, and it's that snabbed me out of being an asshole. And I'm trying to help this person not being an asshole. So there's got to be an HR division in this performance center you're at, Yeah, I mean yeah, if there's not, you're gonna make sure there is one. I've taken a few classes of myself. They don't they don't help, But I I felt we have a great crew in all seriousness, and they are. We have a great crew, and it is it is like a family. It's really tight. I know we've heard. Every time I hear that saying, even if even if it rings true, I rolled my eyes because I heard that family line and so many talent relation meetings heard family and you have a job for life and this and that. And remember when Johnny. When Johnny released me, he was like, you can come back any time, and I said, Okay, I'll see you monday. I want to come back month. Yeah. I love the saying is that they don't even realize but they have to. What about the day we all got and this crash I'm knocking on wood when our phones went off, one right after the other. Oh yeah, we got we all got pay cuts. But that's that's what I was. I forgot to mention that because the bus story came up. We had just rescued people from the boss and we went back to the room and we all lost anywhere from fifty just one hundred thousand dollars in like a matter of five minutes. Crash got the call, I got the call, Then you got the call. Aim or like do we just like lose like we lost like what equivalent to like a five bedroom mansion and lens? Yeah, what are we supposed to do now? I'll never forget that. But it's the quality of life speech, that hashtag quality of a life. It sounds so cliche, but that doing all that in that particular time with the best thing that could ever happen in my life really as it build relationships that build bonds that have not broken to this day. And it's prepared I'm a believer. It's prepared me for for things that are going on now and you know, whether you like them or not, it's prepared me to deal with situations. So while I don't wish a lot of people that go through the things we've gone through, it is and the relationships are strong. And talk to Lacy about this all the time. And there's guys that I don't get the opportunity due to me being distant or everyone being busy. But to be able to click this thing on and for you and I to pick up right where we left off means the world to me. So that's when I know that all is well in the in the globe. And we got Elvis behind us too, and we have you know, where would I be? Every every room, every room has Elvis. I have my the giants are back there somewhere, and you know, now I get my six year old who's making me older than what I am. But Casey graduated college. Congratulations, awesome, he's a junior in college. Did you tell her now you can retire and she can take care of you. Well, I I told him, I said, you know, if I start doing this and the and the drool, I mean, it's now your job to take care of me, because look look what I went through for you guys. Let's pay back time. I can't even think straight and they do. They just pat me on the head and they go about their business. And you know, but poor Bill, Oh no, not poor Bill at all. Man. Bill's having the time in his life. Are you gonna keep in touch with me? Are you gone? I mean, let's be honest, this is how big of a heel you are. Let's tell the people right now. I will text you and you won't answer me. Or because you're so busy now with the app and the y towo thing in the ninety and all these things you wanted to give it any cats, the cats to the cats, and you go kick a kid in the joy sweeping the ring. But heaven forbid, my wife send you a text message, goes it's Lacy. You two have a four hour conversation on the phone, and I'm sitting there going son of a bitch. I sent a message three days ago like I had to get my wife to book. All sound Yeah, it all sounds pretty accurate. The main see that there it is. It's but it's kind of your lot. It's a little it's subtle, say I just get it. Well, it didn't change the fact that liked well. I pished you off the one time when I text a picture of an elliptical to you for like three weeks in a row, every day, and you've you got pretty pissed off about that. That and the wacky new new thing you kept sending to me. That guy who's at Appliance Direct. You were an applying Oh all of the bonds strike the guy with the eye patch. You're not far from him now, No, he's right here somewhere. That's right. I met him. I had my picture, said me, and you sent that to me forever, and I would just go through my phone away. I'm like, the drive me nuts. But I love you to death, you know. I love you two Bill, I always will. I'm glad things are good, man, I'm glad we had a chance to catch up. Hey, let's let's do this again. Yeah, I'm gonna be in floridastan, let's do it in person. Let's go to a nice place in Florida, nicer than you took Scottie too. Let's uh, that was a beautiful place. He's Scotty's smartest guy ever. He wants to be. He won. He loves Disney, he wants to live in Disney, work in Disney, and he's got it all. He's got it and kids are great. It was a great episode. You and I get promised me we're gonna do that build him Out experience. Yeah, yeah, featuring cats, the build the Cat Experience. We'll do it. Listen, give him page my best. Tell him I was asking about him. I will tell everybody. I said, Hello, I love you man, love you too. Man, be good, buddy, take care there he is. That's my buddy. Stevie Richards, Michael Manah doing great things. This These conversations are what it's all about to me. We get to catch up, do a little talk, a little wrestling talk, a little thing both more importantly, just two guys catching up and it's all good. Do what you say, see what you mean. I mean what you do. This is the build hum out experience. Molly, your man, your swat to be shining the best side, your side to you, Sprandi show mind if your all out the true shining some town room on those days. Jeff Counting Media Barton
