The SiriusXM Era Begins

0:03Peter Rosenberg! Shout out Stat Guy Greg. The major stick. Oh my goodness. It's professional wrestling. The king of the king. 24 seconds. Championship. A thousand percent confirmed. M-Mage. Stay mage and enjoy yourself. M-M-M-M-M-M-Mage.

0:55Mail Sweet, sweet Peter Rosenberg. Shout out StatGuy Greg. I like delicious chicken. It was Rappaud. It's professional wrestling. It's Cheap Heat with Peter Rosenberg featuring StatGuy Greg and Dip. Oh, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Cheap Heat Live, Pro Wrestling Nation 24-7. I, of course, put the 24-7 in Pro Wrestling Nation 24-7. I'm your forever 24-7 champion, Peter Rosenberg. I am being joined today from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by the physically large stack guy. Greg, S-E-G, how are you? Yeah, I haven't been associated with the number 156 for a very long time. Me being physically large as I am.

1:51I would have been happy to go up to like a 260 something. I was going to say, we could have been channel 256. Easy for you. That sounds a little bit better, but we're here. And joining us from Los Angeles, the Magent himself, 38 at 35, Dipperstein. Hey, Dip, you're on live radio. How you doing? I got to tell you, that's the exact weight that I actually am, 156. So I hopefully won't go above that, but that's actually my weight. Wow. Right now. 156. I mean, dip is like a heavyset sixth grader. I mean, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show today. We're super excited to be here. Super excited for all the people hearing us for the first time.

2:35And of course, for the longtime pecker heads who have been with us down since day one ish. We appreciate you. We like to talk about pro wrestling and all sorts of other things as well. We're going to get into many different things from the world of pro wrestling. and at 1 o 'clock, very excited in the 1 o 'clock hour today because we are heard every single Friday from noon to 2 p.m. Eastern Time or maybe you're listening to the replay, which airs from 7 to 9 p.m. Eastern Time. And yes, we are live on this July 4th. That's why I'm wearing the festive Lex Luger. This is as patriotic a shirt as I own.

3:11It's this classic 93-ish Lex Luger shirt. but in the one o 'clock hour eastern time we will have the great Seamus who is coming off of an absolute banger from Raw this past week he's going to stop by and we're going to hang out have a nice long form interview one of my favorite people who guys I don't think I've ever done a real sit down with so very excited to talk to Seamus but before that before we get into wrestling dip I heard you had a harrowing experience at the Genesis dealership in Los Angeles. We need to dig into what happened here. Well, I mean, you just you make the appointment, you make the appointment for the for the service.

3:51You know, I think the appointment was at 1020. And then all of a sudden, you're sitting there until five o 'clock. I had, you know, I had a full blown curb moment, you know, when Larry's at the doctor's office, and he says, you know, they tell him that, you know, we take the patients as they come in. He says, what's the point of the appointment? That's literally the exact moment that I had that exact moment yesterday at the car dealership and then they tell me not only did i need an oil change i also need a tire rotation do you know what that is do you know what a tire rotation even is yeah yeah they have to rotate the tires and yeah it's like what do they do they just spin the tire is that what is that they're moving the tire from one position to another they take the tires in the back and they put them in the front they take the front tires move them in the back because when you're driving one set of tires i think the front tires do more of the work so then they they run down faster you know this you have to keep them balanced by rotating the tires so that they they tread out evenly and then it extends the life of the tires otherwise your front tires will be so worn down your back tires won't and then you can end up buying i thought i is there you can just get the four of them at the same time when they all need to go out i thought it was like a price is right thing where they literally just spin the tire like they do the wheel i mean just to make sure it's you know just to make sure they're rotating correct i know and then it's even crazier when they had you do a plinko chip replacement later that was the weird thing they might as well if they would have said to me on your bill also you'll see a plinko chip uh we had to replace the plinko chips i was on the way in here i drove how do you think they got here they rotated the whole way and people like me and dip are at such a disadvantage at the car dealership You have no idea what's going on.

5:32But you leased the car, right? Yeah, the car is leased, of course. Do they cover these things? I didn't think they covered it because I saw online that it cost$300,$600. Who knows? It thinks hundreds and hundreds of dollars for these things. And I went in there thinking I'm blowing$1 ,000 today on God knows what. And they ended up covering it. So God bless. There you go. I thought it was going to be a$1 ,000 day. It was a nothing day. It was a sign for this please day. Fantastic. That's still this. Yeah, that is the reason I lease to this day. I love leasing for that exact reason. Dip, I did not have any bagels here.

6:06I'm out at the summer residence on Long Island. I did not go to get a bagel or some Armoral or some OxyClean. I went to the Irish restaurant. In honor of us having Seamus on, I had an Irish breakfast, which was delightful. With a pint? Did you have a pint? The Irish breakfast, there's no pint, but it's eggs. It's this Irish bread. I mean, there might have been 500 carbs in this piece of bread. You've never seen bread like this in your life. It's beans. By the way, I've noticed a lot of things. A lot of the things that they sell at the Irish restaurant, they just put the word Irish in front of it, and then it's Irish.

6:46So I got the Irish cheese. I got the Irish beans. I got the Irish bread. Oh, my. I love this. I love this bit. But by the way, it is a great place. We got to go. I want to bring Seamus there one day. All right. Is this next to the place where you can get lighters and Zins and also bagels? I don't know if they sell Zins at the bagel store, but they probably do. They're selling Zins everywhere. Yeah, that's true. Now, real quick introduction to the show. And for everyone listening on the podcast, just a real quick breakdown of how everything works. And we'll open the phone lines right away. If you're listening, if you're an old school listener who made the switch and you're listening live on Sirius, give us a call.

7:28877-344-4893. 877-344-4893. We got our producers, Zach and Ben, here holding it down with us. Emilio, of course, chopping the podcast and the audio later. But basically, cheap heat now. We've been around, SUG, over 10 years, correct? I've been here 10 years and I was a listener for years before that. So I'd say well over 10 years. So something like maybe 13 years. And essentially, were you here before Dip or was I already with Dip? I think it might have been by months. You were already with Dip. For a few months. And then I showed up after, yeah. So I was doing a podcast with the great David Shoemaker, one of the foremost writers in wrestling and now podcasters, the Masked Man.

8:17We started this show called She Pete many years ago with Grantland. and we're doing it for a while and uh my other podcast co-host I do a hip-hop podcast called Juan Epstein the first ever hip-hop podcast and Sypha Sound said I have this lawyer and he's a big fan of your podcast can he come sit in one day and that lawyer turned out to be Stack Guy Greg um and SGG showed up to a show to hang out one day was it the first day you hung out or you'd hung out several days before I put you on the air? I think it was the first day you put me on the air because we spoke off the podcast about the role that I kept the name but I no longer do, which was basically Tony Reale's role in Party Interruption.

9:05Yeah, but that couldn't have been the first day then because I would have had to have met you and seen that you're not a lunatic before I suggested maybe you come back and do stuff, right? You met me beforehand and then you were like, oh yeah, this is when we're recording, come through, and then you put me on the air on my first episode. I still have you in my phone as Greg the Virgin Valentine. Wow. You're still in my phone as that. I'm not going to change that. And by the way, Sam is in my phone as Sam the Jew Roberts. Not Jewish. I am. Anyways, so SGG shows up on a day that happened to be the day that the first horrible Hulk Hogan racist stuff came out.

9:43and me and shoemaker are sitting there talking about it and i'm like you know we do have a a black man who loves professional wrestling who's standing in the room with us you want to tell us what you're feeling and sgg jumped on and has literally never let go of the microphone since yeah and i won't 10 000 terrible horrendous horrible wrestling takes later he's still here. I thought you were going to say 10 ,000 horrible Hulk Hogan moments later, but no, 10 ,000 horrible takes. SGG is still here. No stats, but lots of takes. And then Dipperstein, around that same period, Dipperstein and I met.

10:25He was an agent at ICM. We met backstage at Rock the Bells. I was wearing a Jake Roberts watch. Dip was like, what the hell is that? I knew what it was, but I couldn't believe it was on your butt you know so i i i said yeah this is a jake roberts watch uh long story short he ends up representing me at at icm and then caa and now he's my manager and the manager of many greats and near greats and pro wrestling and he's ended up just uh being on the program as well so and then you have me i've i've been a long time radio guy but most importantly a wrestling fan who when I got to New York to be on Hot 97 in 2007 started doing a lot of interviews with WWE superstars at a time at which in which many there weren't a lot of outlets to do that by the way did I tell you guys what Randy Orton said to Natalie at Fanatics Fest no no what did he say so at Fanatics Fest in New York a couple of weeks ago I'm hosting the the WWE Summer Slam kickoff event and I'm backstage with Natalie, my wife, and our baby Maya and Randy Orton walks by.

11:35Let me just say, if you've never been physically near Randy Orton, it's like a movie. It's almost under, you can't even overstate how gigantic a man Randy Orton has become. He is a superhero and he walks by and I say hello to him. And I say, Randy, this is my wife and my baby. And he goes, oh, wow. And so he RKO's my daughter, my five-month-old daughter out of nowhere. And as we're sitting there, he says to my wife, he's like, you know, we really, you know, he's like, I really love your husband. Like, he's been around and giving us a platform since before anybody was doing it. And, like, he's just always been there.

12:24And I was like, I didn't know you felt this way, Randy Orton. Thank you very much. Yeah. It was so lovely. Randy pays attention. I think he does. Is Randy a Pete guy? Randy is a Pete guy. There's a distinction between people that call Peter, Peter Rosenberg, and people that say Pete. There's a distinction, and we call them Pete guys. It's a big distinction. And later on in the show, when Seamus joins, he goes back and forth. So you're going to have to really decipher whether he's a Pete or a Peter guy. But I'll guarantee you one thing. He's a big namesayer. He will say my name at the end of sentences almost every time.

13:05He's a big name guy, Seamus. That's because he's a pro. When those are clipped, he wants people to know he's talking to Peter Rosenberg. Damn right. That's right. He goes, Peter, would you like a pint, Peter? Or Pete, would you like a pint, Peter? Peter, let's have a pint, Peter. Lots of pints in Peters. Let's start with Pete. So many pints. So many Pete's. Wow. We have big listeners right now listening to the program. Natalie Rosenberg is listening to the program. This is going to shock the world. Andrew Goldstein is listening to the podcast. Can you – welcome back, Goldie. He's back. Wow. Wow.

13:48All the difference are listening. That I can tell you right now. Oh, guaranteed. My first ever wrestling podcast was hosted with Goldie when we did the total nonstop podcast for TNA 15 years ago. What a world that was. Let me tell you guys. When I was doing the TNA podcast in like 08, 09, I cannot tell you how far away TNA felt from WWE. And now, if you like get signed to TNA, you can believe like in short order if things go well, I could be in WWE. It's so crazy how closely connected these things are. So we'll get some into that as the program goes on. Now, if you want to connect with us on social media, first of all, SGG, what is our Instagram page?

14:35At Cheap Heat Pod on Instagram. Do we have to update that? Should we change it to Cheap Heat Live? I mean... I think we have to. This is like when SmackDown became SmackDown Live. We're cheap. It's just like that. It's exactly like that. It's the same thing. On Patreon, we have a Patreon page where we do watch alongs. We watch old classic stuff. And now, because of the timing of this show airing on Fridays, we'll do some episodes earlier in the week on Tuesdays. We can break down raws and stuff like that. Our Patreon is patreon.com slash stay mage. And my wife wants to remind everyone her name is Miss Hatton on Instagram.

15:13Okay. Not Natalie Rosenberg. She is at Miss Hatton. Now, SGG, you claimed last week that, or two weeks ago, maybe it was already, that Seth Rollins and LA Knight had a thing going on. Dip made clear he did not see that as a feud. I agreed with Dip, by the way. I did not see that as a feud. But now we found out we will get Seth Rollins and LA Knight a week from tomorrow at Saturday night's main event. Are you taking a victory lap on this? Absolutely. Absolutely. And here's why. Look, I was right at the time that I made the statement that Seth Rollins and LA Knight were embroiled in a feud. And like I said, he was in that Money in the Bank match.

15:56They targeted each other more than anybody else. Seth's crew came out to stop one guy. It was LA Knight. LA Knight continued to feud with Seth and his crew. And then he pops up on Monday with a big old thing of popcorn. He attacks Seth. And now they have a match. It's a feud. It's been a feud. It's been a feud. They're feuding them. How about this? What do you feel about my pushback that when they get the match on Saturday night's main event, instead of us building towards something else, it's not a feud. It's the definition of in-between feuds. Feud of Jays? Feud of Jays. Feud of Jays. That's what I'm saying.

16:41Many feuds are still feuds. many feuds are still feuds and look let's face it right this is seth's first singles match since wrestlemania it's his first singles match on the free le saturday night's main event it's with la night as really thank you everything seth does is big time so la night and seth it's big time and it's a feud seth rollins not a guy they waste on these little one-off matches I think it is going to be a one-match feud, but this has been a feud. Let me ask you guys this. Let's move to CM Punk for a moment. Punk loses the match, the schmazel, of course, against John Cena, as every Cena match is.

17:24And now the question is what happens with CM Punk? Does he rightfully go back to him and Seth Rollins end up against each other? or is John Cena not done with CM Punk, you think, Dip? Are we going to get more Punk Cena? No, I think this is the end of the road. I think eventually you move now over to Cody Cena and they start building that for SummerSlam. I mean, that seems like the logical situation to me. And then you have the other title that's on Gunther and then CM Punk maybe floats over to that situation, which kind of makes more sense to me. But yes, I think I have no idea. I think most likely, you know, that situation is over, which frankly I'm okay with.

18:08How many months do we have left? Speaking of things moving over to the other title, SGG, what's the likelihood of Seth Rollins cashing in at Saturday night's main event to take that World Heavyweight Championship? I think it's low. I think it's low. because I think what's going to happen is Punk is going to move on to Gunther, that world championship. He might even get his hands on it, but at some point, Seth is going to cash in again and take the title again and become world champion. I think he's going to end up cashing on that world heavyweight championship, whoever that champion may be. I just wonder whether they're going to like, they want to get to some stakes between Seth and Punk sooner than later.

18:58but really they don't need title like i mean seth seth and cm punk could have a big match at at summer slam without any title involvement the pro here's here's what fundamentally becomes my issue and i think if you read the rumors apparently they say triple h sort of has mixed feelings about the briefcase as well the the briefcase is is an albatross that like hangs over everything so immediately now when i think of seth rollins and what he's going to do next it's like always in context of the briefcase. But the truth is, him and CM Punk could have a really meaningful match. Their story already exists.

19:34They can just roll right into SummerSlam. And you're right, we'll get... So the two main events we'd get would be Cena, Cody, and Seth and Punk. And then there would be, yes, some World Heavyweight Championship match. But I don't see why Seth has to be near the championship yet, except for the fact that the briefcase sort of dictates that he needs to be. So we'll see as we get closer. We did a – Dip and I did a Patreon episode after Night of Champions, and we talked a bit about what happened. SGG, do you feel like we are going to get the true Jade Cargill singles push? is this going to be like the true look to see if jade cargill has what it takes to be a big single star in wwe i think we will i think we will but i have to i have to say after jade cargill won queen of the ring i saw a lot of the conversation online was about how aew presented her and i think i agree with all the chatter that aew presented her the way she needed to be presented they had her dominant book like goldberg in these short matches title wins and i think these longer sort of showcase matches for jade haven't been as strong as the booking of jade like a like a goldberg it is there is a risk when you put someone like no matter how you cut it with Jade she is very quick to tell you her career started her first ever match was on TV okay she is not super experienced no matter how you cut it so I do hear you that when you put her in big matches with people like Asuka that go 20 minutes and I asked the question last week was she really just a great performer in that ring at night of champions or was she completely blown up beyond I think it's unclear, but dip.

21:35I don't hate that point that like, would it be the worst thing for her as a singles competitor to just blow through people for a while? No, I mean, I, the, the, the issue that they've had with Jade is, is she looks unbelievable. She's physically dominant. She, you know, looks like she's capable of beating anyone, but has lost a few times. Am I wrong? I mean, she's, she's taken a few L's, right? Greg. No, she has. She's not undefeated. So she's the type of person who looks like she's not going to lose to anybody. So it's either you put her with someone who is just as physically imposing or muscular or whatever, or you have her just either that or you have her run through everyone, or you have her run through everyone and then finally meet her match.

22:20Maybe it's Charlotte Flair or something like that. So for now, it's the Jade should be dominant and unbeatable and feel unbeatable, and they should do what they did when she first came in. They should do what they didn't do when she first came in, which was make her sort of the unbeatable baby face. Yeah, and by the way, Queen of the Ring would have been the perfect way to do it because you could have booked it in a way where with some sort of chicanery, someone gets to the finals who physically looks like they just shouldn't be in there with Jade, like a Zelina or a Bliss, and she just crushes them.

22:55And then she gets Queen of the Ring and gets to be this dominant queen of the ring. And you didn't really have to bury anyone along the way. Yeah, maybe she gets a heater. Maybe she gets someone to, like, you know, I don't know. Maybe she needs a heater. That would make her feel even more dominant. But this is the time. If you're going to put Jade on that level of, you know, the Biancas and the Beckys and the Shruths, like that top tier, you got to, you know, make that run today. now is the moment to pull the trigger on that yeah i don't think she needs a heater but what i do think is that you know a thing that happens with a lot of these women's matches is people pull the stopwatch out and they say oh this match wasn't that important because it was two minutes so this match wasn't that important because it was whatever i grew up on these two minute matches like brett has some five minute matches that i love i don't care about the stopwatch i care about how they're presented in that showcase and of course jade needs needs these dominant wins all her big names especially she's one match away from the championship yeah it's it's it'll be really interesting to see what they do here because you don't want to force her into marathon match one after another i think she will get exposed for her inexperience i think she need they need to slow play her unbeatability that's the move with her now by the way and by the way that is the one thing about aew that i always give them credit for they are down to slow play a story They will like the Jade thing took forever when week after week after week.

24:28Listen, sometimes, of course, it goes too long. But in the case of someone like her, I think you'd rather go too long than too short. We love George. We love George. George from the jungle, a.k.a. Long Island. It is true. Like if, in fact, Jade's going to be gone, all the more reason. And I do think Tiffy Time, I said this, me and Dip talked about this on the Patreon episode. I do think Tiffy time may be running up here. It's one of those things that you see happen where someone gets their first title reign. I talked about it a lot with Swerve Strickland's first title reign in AEW. Sometimes that first one, there's a lot of excitement around it, particularly in the case of Tiffy at the beginning.

25:06But as time goes on, there's not enough equity in the character for this to just go on and on and on. So it is to me, she would be the perfect person probably for Jade to take out and then Naomi to cash in on. I think the thing is with Tiffany is that once she loses the title and has to chase it again, she could be a really good heel. That's sort of where I see the Tiffany Stratton character going. People are going to turn on it eventually. And by the way, that's a great point because people turning her into a good guy is part of what sort of made things dry up a bit. Sometimes the fans are so desperate to cheer that we ruin the bad guy.

25:45and as a good guy it's like her character look at her everything about her should be a heel her whole style the way she carries herself is heelish i do like the idea of naomi cashing in and becoming champ and walking into summer slam as champ to face jade cargo we all thought about it the other way when we were discussing it of her cashing in on maybe new champ jade cargo but going in the other way as champ is huge well but but jade is supposed to get her title shot of her choice at SummerSlam correct she's supposed to get the title shot she's on Smackdown so she gets her title shot at whoever is holding that championship so it could be Tiffany Stratton but is it but it but does it have to be SummerSlam or is it just a title shot it's SummerSlam yeah so it'll be interesting so so well I just don't know how we get there then but go ahead I was just gonna say the idea of having a cash in the women's cash in at Evolution is really interesting and I think they should do it to be honest with you yeah and P let me help you out so that's a good idea even so sorry jade's title shot is tied to the title that tiffany stratton has so whoever is the champion she gets that title shot at summer slam and like drake said if if naomi cashes in and she's holding that title going into summer slam the story's there the history is there the intrigue is there well and and it's a great call dip because let's say let's say tiffany Tiffany calls out whoever for Evolution.

27:12She gets beat up in that match. Naomi cashes in. Naomi gets the title. Naomi gets to SummerSlam. If Bianca is good by then physically, and you could then get all... Jade then says, well, I'm getting my shot, but Bianca finds a way to demand getting into the match. Maybe wins her way into that match. And yeah, you get a triple threat potentially between the three of them would be awesome too. Don't forget what the date is today though. It's July 4th and SummerSlam is only four weeks away. So if you can get there in four weeks, great. It seems unlikely to be able to get there in four weeks with all of those things coming to fruition.

27:51But the idea, look, the Jade being more mage situation is making the women's division on SmackDown really interesting because you have Tiffany who is due for people to start booing. You have Naomi with the briefcase. you have Jade who's the queen all of a sudden there's something's going on it feels like there's something going on does that sound right totally fair totally fair um all right speaking of something going on we're down to the final uh nine minutes of this hour and of course Seamus coming in uh again first time I've gotten a chance to really sit down and pick the brain of the great Seamus who's having to me one of the best runs of his career right now before that though I want to get a couple of takes things that you guys have wanted to get off your chest that you haven't gotten a chance to yet.

28:36SGG, what's on your mind from this week that we haven't hit yet? I feel almost terrible saying this because everybody who's been calling in and talking about how they've been listening to the show, they know. Look, I love Roman Reigns, and I'm not afraid to say it. We know. But after Night of Champions, I feel like Solo Sokoa, Ula Fala or not, he is the tribal chief. Roman just put together his cousins, brought in Solo, that was his bloodline it was strong they had sammy strong bloodline but solo is actually bringing in touring the islands bringing in people from different polynesian islands and consolidating his power with the hawaiian jeff cobb three tongans they had tama tonga tonga loa and now they got an even taller tongan to join them taller tonga taller tonga jacob fatu Bronson Reed Solo He's not just a top guy in the new United States Champion I think he really is The tribal chief That's fine Greg but But like it's becoming here's the thing with the bloodline It's becoming its own ecosystem It's like instead of Speculating like about the bloodline Itself now we're just speculating about who's going to Eventually come out of the bloodline who's going to have their Moments to come out of the bloodline it's like oh Jacob Fatu doesn't need it anymore we're ready For him to move on the conversation is now who's going to move on from the bloodline and then they keep adding members it's kind of an odd thing it's like the circle of life it is well by the way and it and you do get into dangerous territory here where it does start to like feel like late days nwo and like keeping track of who's who could become well a bit much and and and i and i said i i said this a couple of weeks ago yeah but it's not great.

30:28I mean, at some point here, you do risk it just losing its impact, right? At a certain point, I think you'd say right now, it's already not the dominant story that it used to be. And I think one issue I have with that also is I know that Solo Sokoa is very funny. Like his comedic chops and his style is unique and different and funny. The problem is when he's too funny, he loses authority and like he i mentioned this a couple weeks ago guys solo doesn't feel like a badass anymore he used to be the heater now he needs nine other tongans to help him anytime he's going to win a match it just i know to me it's a bit of a problem you're not wrong you're not wrong i don't think it's a problem because this is that this is what roman was right like he used to be the heater and now he needed nine other samoans to keep him on top all the while developing his personality showing that more charismatic side i need a different guy than we were used to before and i think in the long run it's going to help solo he needs a new look solo i think i don't know something something i need him to be to feel more authoritative than he does i'm sorry didn't do it enough no i need i need something else i need something on the bright side feel authoritative.

31:45Look on the bright side. Dip, you used to talk about where it looked like Gunther shopped. Where is JC Mateo shop? JC Penney. Burlington Coat Factory, I think. That's where I think he's... I think that's what's going on there. Dip, what did you want to get off your chest today before the day is done? I just wanted to say the judgment day of it all, which I know a lot of people have sort of been like meh about in this new incarnation. I think this could turn into the most interesting incarnation of the judgment day. Everybody loves a relationship story. Liv and Dom were at their hottest when they were together.

32:26Same thing with Rhea and Dom. It's whatever. So what you have here is you're going to have a returning Dom, a returning Liv from injuries. and you know it's it's obvious to me what should be going on in this little judgment day situation ria who's a little lost in translation right now we're not exactly sure what's going to be she should 100 be teaming with live he dom all of a sudden becomes roxanne perez's love interest and you have a you know dom on a pole match dom in the cage match at summer slam you have roxanne Perez and Raquel versus Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan at SummerSlam and Dom is in the cage.

33:12Beautiful. See you at SummerSlam. First of all, you guys know how I feel about Raquel. I mean, about Roxanne. I'm sorry. Just like I believe so much in Stephanie Vaquer, Roxanne is just, she's already there. I mean, she is just the real deal. Her and Dom make so much sense together we know now where this is going she will have fully replaced live morgan as not only raquel's tag partner but also dom's girlfriend it forces live to become a baby face which everyone will be ready for and she'll probably have the baby face run and and it'll be the baby face run of a lifetime for her because instead of her just being like her only character is like that she's an underdog now she has a real story to build on here so i'm with you also you know it it feels like just recently we were on the verge of saying it's time to move on with the judgment day it feels like between the tag title win for finn and mcdonough and roxanne it feels like there's been new life injected into the judgment day listen they got all the gold you cannot move on from them and just break that up and rush to an ending now that they have all the gold i will say though what i like the idea of dom staying with live what if he gets ousted because he chooses live and then they go on a baby face run together yeah i mean that's that's a good but i but i like the idea of now there's two i i like the idea of raquel and and and roxanne being like the heel tag team with Dom.

34:55And Rhea doesn't really have a story right now that is just making us tune in every week to see her. So the idea of injecting her back into the Judgment Day with Liv and they're both scorned against Dom, that's good TV, in my opinion. I hear you on the Rhea point as well, because yeah, as mage as Rhea is, she's sort of been hovering between stories. Oh yeah, John, listen, I hear what you're saying. And I am down for some edgy wrestling. I think all of that hits a little too close to home in 2025. Listen, if it were 2000, I think there's a world in which they would do booking that edgy. I don't think we're going to see that in 2025.

35:36Guys, we are going to do a Patreon that will drop early next week. Patreon.com slash stay mage. If you're not already down with it, come join us there. and of course this version of the show will re-air later today 7 and 9 p.m. Eastern Time and of course you can subscribe to the podcast, Cheap Heat, wherever you find podcasts so make sure you go subscribe. We are going to take a very quick break. On the other side, the one and only Sheamus that's right, fight night coming early on this July 4th. Sheamus will step into the room right here on Cheap Heat Live on Pro Wrestling Nation 24-7. Promotional consideration paid for by the following.

36:20New World Wrestling Federation superstars cookies from Salerno. Great tasting cookies in 10 fun to eat WWF wrestling shapes. Ladies and gentlemen, it's official. We are here. Welcome. It's Cheap Heat live on Wrestling Nation 24-7, the first ever episode. And so for our first interview on this iteration of Cheap Heat, I thought who better to have than one of my absolute favorites in the locker room and one of my absolute favorites in the ring the same week that he has a vintage banger. It's my guy, the future Hall of Famer, Seamus. Thanks for joining me on Cheap Heat Live, buddy. How are you? I'm great, mate.

37:04Thanks very much. you know I was a little bit surprised I got to text about two hours ago to get on the podcast but I got everything done as quick as I could so I could jump on here fella you know we've known each other a while now obviously with your affiliation with WWE but I think we really bonded over the fact when I lost one of my pups Vesper last year who was very very dear to me and we obviously share a huge love for our four legged friends you know so that was a really really great text you sent me and I meant a lot to me when uh when she did when she did leave us across the rainbow bridge so I do really appreciate that I know you have is it's two pups right well now now we have one too because we had one make the same trip as well about uh Rocky left us three and a half months ago so sorry brother yeah that that journey that we have been on um I just before we started the show I stepped outside to see my wife and and she's sitting outside and I just said hey how are you and she's just sitting there and she's like I'm just missing rocky and it just it just doesn't it just doesn't go away it really it really is a family member and as an adult it really hits you different you know as a kid i lost a pet before but there is something about being that adult bond you have with a dog it's just different you know yeah i agree with that so i was the same thing i grew up with dogs my whole life we've had a with jenny who was a pyrenees mountain dog we had a bruno who was a um holding the sheepdog and And then we've had like, my family now have like a greyhound.

38:35So there's a lot of like, so in Ireland, like a lot of greyhounds are available for rescue because they have a short career on the racetrack. And then, and then of course, then, you know, they're not needed anymore by the people who race them. So it's an unbelievable experience because when you get these, these dogs, like they're just not used to human direction, action or human love. So the dog Ringo is just great. It's completely transformed. that now he's he lies on the couch upside down you know he loves his walks and he's great but yeah i think it hits differently because i think like when you're when you're a kid and you have a dog you know it's um you know obviously you're aware of it and it's great having it but when i think when you're when you're a dog owner when you're like an adult yourself you kind of see them as one of your kids i think it's just kind of like it's a different it's obviously a different dynamic different relationship because like you you got to take care of them you got to feed them you gotta walk them you gotta you know give them a lot of love so i think it's just a completely different dynamic when you're an adult for people who have never had a dog like i really feel that truly something special or a cat as well cats are amazing as well i know drew is drew is drew is a couple of cats bronson reed is a couple of cats like there's a lot of uh canadi and tj are loads of cats as well it's like love lovers as well um cats and dog owners in wwe all right so So before we get into the wrestling of it all, it is July 4th here, our first day on Pro Wrestling Nation 24-7.

40:01And obviously, it's been crazy times in America. Without bringing up, you know, things that are going to get me upset and frustrated, you have decided to live here full time and like your career, you know, brought you here. And, you know, I'll tell you guys one thing out there about the Irishmen in the locker room at WWE. Number one, they're all incredibly beloved. And number two, they all love each other and love to talk about Ireland and all things Irish. Do you prefer life here or did life just sort of bring you here? Would you go back to Ireland? Where does that stand for you? So, you know, obviously I miss Ireland, you know.

40:43I've spent the majority of my life there. But even as a kid, I definitely had a huge fascination with America. Obviously, I grew up in the 80s, so there's a lot of movies and stuff that were a lot of pop culture in America that we're very influenced with in Ireland. And like, I could just tell you some of the greatest movies, like, you know, Goonies, Rocky, Irony movies, you know, Terminator, Predator, Karate Kid, like Ghostbusters. Like, it's just pop culture wise in the 80s. It was phenomenal. And I was always fascinated by America. You know, I always wanted to, like, even I think there was a trend there as well in the 80s.

41:27Like the Celtics were huge. Do you remember basketball, the basketball playoffs, Larry Bird's Celtics was so big, was so big in the States. Here's Dawn. How many Dons come say hello? Are we all right? Say hello. How are you? This one's awesome. It's a good looking pooch. Yeah, this is our foster fail fella. This is the one that's always up to mischief. She's always causing trouble. The smallest one is always the most troublesome. But yeah, huge, huge pop culture influence in Ireland. And of course, you know, so many, like so many Irish Americans. I remember my grand-aunts would have, like, she had saucers and stuff, like, with the print.

42:03I don't know if people remember these, but, like, when Diana became Princess of Wales and stuff like that, you know, people had the saucers and the cups of memorabilia, but, like, there was, like, JFK saucers and cups in my grand-aunt's kitchen. So there's always been that huge relationship between Ireland and America, especially going back to, you know, when all the Irish emigrated over there. So I've always been fascinated by it. And of course, then with WWE coming in, WBF at the time coming in the 80s, it just blew up in my school. Going to school, everyone was pretending to be whoever they were, Savage or Andre or Hogan in the playground as kids, just playing around.

42:44It just took over everything. So there really has been a strong connection there. And for me, I was always very interested and wanted to come over here and check it out for myself and experience it. so would have you experienced it enough or do you just is the connection so strong you just imagine this is where you'll you'll be yeah you know i like to try and get the best of both worlds like i try and get home as much as i can obviously with the the schedule we have now it's a lot more lax there's a lot more time offers when i first started for the first like i just celebrated my 16 years on the main roster last monday at raw and this september i'll be in the country 18 years in September 17th.

43:25Yeah, September 17th. This year I'll be on the roster in America, 18 years with WBHU Developmental. So I'd like to have best of both worlds. Obviously, my entire family are all in Ireland. My mother's on the West Coast in County Clare, and then my dad and my sister's stepmother, my mother's sister, they're all in Dublin. So they're right here upstairs actually now. My stepmom and my sister now are upstairs. They're over here for a couple of weeks. So I'd love to get home. I want to experience best of boat worlds. You know, I do love America. I do love what it's given me. It's given me great opportunities.

43:59I've traveled pretty much every city. I've wrestled in every state in the entire country. You know, back in the day, I was like, we do five hour drives anywhere from West Virginia, Wheeling, West Virginia to Chicago, Illinois, to Corpus Christi, to Toledo, Ohio. Like we've, I've wrestled in every single city, probably about 20 times, if not more. And it's given me a life that I could only have ever dreamed of. So I'm hugely grateful for what this country has given me and the opportunities it's given me. And, of course, my wife's American too, so I'm stuck here. You're stuck here. At least somewhat stuck here.

44:38Exactly. It's great to be able to go back and forth, fella. It really is. I love Ireland. Ireland's beautiful, mate. It really is. And the fact I've been away for so long, when I go home, I appreciate it so much more. And that's the thing about it. I think when you're in a place your entire life, it's very hard to kind of forget where you are. And you don't appreciate as much Pete. It's only when you leave is when you really have appreciation and fondness and you miss where you came from. That's why when Irish come over to America, I feel like they become more Irish because they want to lean into that culture.

45:12The stuff they took for granted, the Irish music, the Dubliners, you know, like good pints of Guinness. the tradition of being Irish and what it means to be Irish and the Irish pride that comes with that. I think that just gets even bigger when you leave home. And don't get me wrong, when you're over there, there's a lot of Irish pride too. Irish pride in our Gaelic football, our hurling, our national sports, our history, who we are. You know, and, you know, the pop culture, like the Irish national team, the rugby, like there is, I feel like that is there as well, But I feel like for people who leave the country, it gets even bigger, if you know what I mean.

45:52Yeah, no, it's true. And there is certainly like a fraternity of sorts among you guys at WWE that was always fun for me to observe, especially when I was working so close with Kevin Patrick, now Kevin Egan again. I love that guy, Pete. Absolutely. What a top class fella Kevin Patrick is. Yeah, but I hate this. I don't want to downplay because he is literally the best person on earth. but I don't want to downplay this, but there is something about people from Ireland. And I've discussed this from other people, like actually Irish people from Ireland tend to be in my experience, the nicest people I ever meet in life.

46:31Like, am I crazy though for thinking that Irish people are generally so frigging nice? You know, I just think, I think the Irish people just want to have the crack mate. You know, I just think we want to enjoy our life. I feel like we do work our arse off we we are very like we we work we work with especially the ones that come over here as well um we work our bollocks off mate because we we do have a lot of uh we do feel like that sense of like carrying our country's pride on our back but we also like to have a good time we we work hard and we like to play hard fella and i think that's that's a really big part of our culture um uh just enjoying the best aspects of life whether that's for the sport but going out to the bar for a couple of pints or hanging out with people.

47:16I think it's just we have this, we've been through a lot as a nation, as a people. We've been through an awful lot, but we always find something to smile about. We always find something to celebrate. And we always try and tend to look on the bright side of life. And I feel that's what life is all about, right? It's all about enjoying it. It's very easy sometimes to get down about things and think about things and carry things on your back like a chip on your shoulder. But at the same time, like life is short, you know, enjoy it as much as you can and do what you can with it as best you can. So I think that's the kind of philosophy that Irish people have.

47:54They just they're up. That's why crack is what's the crack? The word crack is such a big part of being Irish because it means having fun. And I think that's what we love to do. You just talked about celebrating 16 years on Raw. I remember you showing up. Like I, you, you sort of coincide. So wait, that, that means 2009. So, so you're a few years, you know, maybe four years after I'd come back to, to watching the product. I'd been, I'd had a long hiatus. I came back in like the beginning of the Cena Orton era. You came along and right away you were a big deal. um did you get a sense like early on were you aware that you were getting once you made the main roster that you were getting a monster push because in looking back the feel of it was as a complete outsider like the old man must like this guy because like out of the gate it felt like you were going to be a big thing was that the perception inside as well or no so i i really didn't know like back then in fcw we were i felt like we're kind of isolated from the main roster like if you have nxt now you know and connor was involved there for such a long time still still you know keeps the toes in the water there and then you've obviously had like sean michaels is running it and there's there's there's a big big um there's a huge amount of communication between between nxt and wb like that's all wwe i mean like between the nxt brand and and what we're doing okay so there's like this this consistent like communication going on but when i was in fcw it was like you're kind of on an island right we were uh we had a small arena there for tv it wasn't it wasn't national it was kind of local in the area to a couple of counties in florida and occasionally now you'd get there maybe the night before after training or the next morning be told some of the riders are coming down out of the blue to check out the talent and then you have to put matches on in the ring so i really didn't know like i was i was getting information like like kind of kind of down the pipeline there was there was something at one stage i was supposed to go back for christmas um i think i was there in fcw year and then all of a sudden i was told oh i'm going to debut with uh finley and hornswoggle who was in an angle with mark henry and tony atlas at the time so i was i was like oh oh shit i better get ready for that and then that didn't happen and then i went up on the the main roster doing dark matches and live events after wrestlemania 20s 25 so i really didn't know and all of a sudden there was all these different talks about what was going to happen and then i just ended up they ended up just putting me on ecw um doing it during this talent initiative thing it was me tyler x abraham washington and yoshi tatsu and then they moved a bunch of talent from ecw into raw and smackdown so you know it wasn't i don't think I didn't feel like there was any big plans for me.

50:53It was just an opportunity to get me on TV. And then I just had a regular match against the Hansman Challenge, Oliver John, who was phenomenal, by the way. And then I went into a feud with Goldust. I feel like the feud with Goldust really put me on the map because it was like we went in there and we tore it up. Like, I don't know if there's any idea where I would go or what would happen or if there was a big plan. I know when I went in with all Goldust, it created waves and people were talking about it. So much so that I think in our third match or second match, we ended up making an event in ECW and killing it.

51:30Like, man, Goldust was awesome. We were having awesome matches. And I was very physical and my style became very physical because when I was in FCW, Dr. Tom Pritchard saw something and he pulled me aside. And he just started, he said, you need to start watching Stan Hansen. You need to watch Stan Hansen. You need to watch this guy. I feel like you and him are just so similar in a lot of ways. And you're just rugged and you're just, you know, you're just ass kickers, you know, and you have this thing about you. And I started watching early Stan stuff and I took a lot from Stan Hansen. And then the matches with Goldust were phenomenal.

52:06And that really, really, I think, that really put me on the map inside the company. People were like, wow, this guy, he's got something different. Not just a unique look, but also a unique style, a hard-hitting style. And out of that, then I can deal with something Shelton. And then all of a sudden I'm on Raw, a match with Jamie Noble. But the first match with Jamie Noble, it was not good. So it wasn't seen as very good by the office. So I got dragged into a meeting. I was told that like, you know, yeah, you could have messed up your opportunity with that match with Jamie. Why was it so bad? I just don't think it was what they wanted.

52:43it and it was like there was there's a lot of like um like i didn't know i thought went well and then i heard the next day because i was still doing raw and smackdown that that kind of shot the bed so that's when we did the second match with jamie where i ended up power bombing him on the floor and all they wanted something a lot bigger and a lot more like kind of i don't know just emphatic more of a car crash yeah so but after the first match i was told like you may have ruined your opportunity and I was like I didn't know I thought it went well I was told it went well and then the next day it was like no no you shot the bed so then we did this that's why we did the second then the second match with Jamie happened the week after and that's what they wanted so then after that then end up on Raw I think I had a match with John Cena in an overseas tour and at the time I was told it was wrestling I didn't know but afterwards I was told it was a test to see if I could hang and everyone's very happy because Orton and Cena had done so much together that they were kind of going their own way.

53:45So Ort needed an opponent and I needed, and John needed an opponent. And I know that Ortman, Kofi went off for a while, right? Because Kofi was the hot new baby face. And then I guess it was coming out between me and Swagger for Cena. And then they kind of went with me for John. So, okay. So that's interesting because I truthfully, when I think of your origin, I just think of you already being a big deal. I kind of forget about that very, very beginning. Who was your biggest advocate early on? Was there one person? Was it Tom Pritchard telling people? And at what point did Vince take notice that like, oh, this guy's something?

54:27So from what I gather, Karen, Steve Karen, Dr. Tom, and Dusty. Dusty was a big fan of mine. He told me multiple times. helped me a lot as well, promos and everything like that. And when I went up, sorry, I'm trying to recall this because this is like going back to 16, 17 years ago. So when I went up, they obviously gave their feedback. They said, this guy is ready, he's raw, needs a bit of work, but he's ready to go to the main roster and start getting on to the next level. But when I got up on the main roster, fit was great for me, man. And Fit was, to me, still one of the greatest producers of all time.

55:08Just thinks so differently, has an unbelievable mind for the business. But Regal as well. So Regal, when I went up there, took me under his wing. I used to drive with Regal for the last first. Regal and Scott Armstrong, I think, for the first six months. So Regal was helping me after my matches. And, you know, obviously he was giving feedback to Hunter and Vince because he was there so long he was in that position. But he was a big advocate of mine as well, as was Fit Finley. so you know i just kept my head down mate like there was all these rumors like talked about like oh shame it's like especially the whole stuff when i was training working out with triple h i went over to show in australia and my first tour in australia just after i debuted and i was over there i didn't really know anyone on the main on the on the raw roster you know so when i was like do you want to go train and come training but i was like oh yeah i'm not gonna say no so i went over there started trying working out with him getting to know the guys all that sort of stuff just keep me head down you know trying to learn trying to trying to trying to um make an aim for myself you know just get better in the ring i was always constantly trying to get better and yeah i just you know a lot of stuff came out afterwards i was licking ass and i was a kiss ass as a politician but basically i just wanted to i just wanted to learn i wanted to do well like this is all i ever wanted to do like this is this is my dream and what is one supposed to do If at the time, Triple H is like, hey, you want to hit the gym, what are you supposed to do?

56:33No, you're all right. You're all right, fella. No, no, no, thanks, H. I'm good, you know. I'm all right. I'm just going to do my own thing. You know what I mean? No, no, good luck, though. You'll figure it out. You're doing fine on your own, right? The other funny thing was, Pete, was like, yeah, that's all part of it, right? It is what it is. People are going to make whatever they want to make out of it. none of that really came to light until I became one of the fastest WWE champions of all time in 0-9 when I beat John at TLC, right? So that was an issue. I only became an issue after I became WWE champion.

57:06Then all the

57:11lads with the Greenman Envy lads, they came out and they started obviously pushing stuff onto the door sheets and stuff. And that's alright. It is what it is. But for me, like it was funny but the irony thing about it was just like about like six years later or whatever four or five years later that nxt and everybody everybody was doing it you know what i mean this became a normal thing but no he gave me a lot of advice hunter gave me a lot of advice too man he was like i'd ask him stuff and you know my thing was like just try and make as uh as few mistakes as possible while learning what i can uh as quickly as i can you know because it was kind of sink or swim for me like i you know i'm trust into that that spot and yeah it's easy to get carried away your wb champion and whatever five or six months after debut on the roster but like you have to stay there fella because like you know you can you can disappear as the faster the rise the faster the fall people so for me i was just i was trying to learn on my feet and just take it all on my stride not get carried away with it and i was you know i'm the best though but just trying like i gotta prove myself i'm in this position and now i gotta prove it now i gotta learn now I've got to figure out how to navigate this and keep this momentum going.

58:22That was the gift. And particularly because, you know, when you have characters in WWE, especially in that era, that are based sort of on, like, ethnicity and stuff like that, they were not often done well. Usually the ball usually would be like a very broad caricature, and it would end up sort of falling short and not necessarily connecting. And sometimes I feel like great characters and great talents had to survive what their early character was because the presentation was could be very, very basic. You talk about Kofi being Jamaican? By the way, it's so funny. Exactly. You and Kofi at the exact same time, right?

59:05It's like a pretty broad stroke. In Kofi's case, a made up ethnicity also. But here's the thing, right? So when Kofi was like no longer Jamaican, he came out with that. Then I was like, well, he must not be really Irish. And I was like, no, I'm from Dublin, Ireland. What are you talking about? Like, I'm actually Irish. But because Kofi like had the fake Jamaican accent and it was like, oh, he came out and he started speaking in his Boston accent. Everyone thought I was, everyone thought he didn't think I was Irish. Like, no, I'm from North Dublin. I'm from Calvary. Like, I am Irish. What did you think?

59:40And I look Irish. What did you think of the early presentation, though, of your character? So that was, listen, everything we came in with was mine. Like, you know, on the Indies, my name is Seamus O'Shaughnessy, SOS, and I had the crazy hair. Originally, there was more of a character there. Like, I kind of embodied that, like, the four provinces of Ireland, you know, the heart of Leinster, you know, the strength of Connacht, you know, the king. that the hair was based on the crowns of Munster, you know what I mean? And the fiery red hand of Ulster. I used to take my hand red and have this finisher called the fiery red hand.

1:00:19It was like a choke bomb. It was all based on Celtic mythology and they kind of like pulled that back a bit. They made me more raw. I had biker shorts on that made me go back to trunks because Vince wanted to have any more big legs to wear trunks. But they kind of just pulled me back raw. Like I had this cloak I used to wear. It was great. I had the cross-ass that's on my tights and boots and I was on the side. had a sword and an axe and i you know i'd come out and then they were like no none of that that's too gimmicky you look so different the way you look now you're so unique looking so he pulled all that back and he just basically made me like just just go go go very raw and i was fine and it was just it was me being in there like i just think that visually it was so different to like most wrestlers in the past who are like tanned long hair or tanned with short hair or no hair you know i mean i was just such and i was the one guy who had never tanned so i just kind of especially under those lights p it's just just like i glowed um and i think they're just like this you know this let's just this go with that and then so i had to back it up with my ring work and i've always been very proud of that very hard-hitting style which i feel over the last especially the last since since the pandemic it's it's got more and more hard-hitting and more and more aggressive and more and more visible, which I think people have come to love.

1:01:38It's crazy, mate, because, you know, like the first part of my career, like I've always prided myself on like wearing my hair on my sleeve and just giving everything I have. But because all that stuff we talked about earlier with the Triple H's boy and all that, if I had a great match with somebody, whoever it was, it was always the other guy carrying Sheamus to a great match. And, you know, that's just the way it was. And then, you know, then Cesaro, being Cesaro, got together after a couple of things. And that really changed everything for me. And, you know, where I was, the way my mentality in the ring, I was having so much more fun with Cesaro, with Claudio Castanelli.

1:02:17He's still one of my best friends. And then when it's the pandemic, I just got it. During the pandemic, I had a chance to show people how physical I can be. And then that's where the banger came out of. So it's kind of been like, it's just kind of been a roller coaster of a career, Pete, you know. you talked about your hard nose style and it looks so good i mean and i want to ask you about the match this past week with rusev which was just tremendous but does everybody like receive your style well like does other talent ever say like hey dude please go a little easy on me tonight like what are those conversations like because some of the stuff you you you look at and you go well there's just no way around it that hurts how does everyone feel about it you know a lot of younger talent have come in i really feel like they they enjoy it you know there's definitely a little bit of apprehension when they see they have to wrestle me because they know i'm a bleeding lunatic and you know you know it's funny i take her always cause me stiffy all the time when he sees me you know because i'm stiff in the ring and but like i've always prided myself on that like you know i remember uh having the wrestle show when i was world champion 2012 and in the beginning he was like you know he didn't like those rib shots but at the end of it all like we still text each other sometimes it hasn't been it's been a while but we texted her about that match we had at a survivor series or was it hell in a cell maybe it's a hell in a cell 2012 when he beat me for the world title being one of his favorite matches and i know like people were kind of shitting on it before we went in and did it but like i had this idea you know like we really brought it and it was great for me because at the time was one of the bigger guys on the roster, you know, and having to wrestle someone like Sho, it was just great, it's just an easy story to tell.

1:03:59And I remember he used to do this thing where he'd go, and he hit the chop, and I was, at that stage, I was really getting the 10 beats to bow on in, and I said to him, you know what would be great, fella? And I said, if you bend me up, push me back over the rope, right, under the chin, and just give me one chop, you just hammer the shit out of me. And he's just standing there going, look, Seamus, it's just literally there's something wrong with you you know and I was like no dude that's a show trust me it's going to be awesome I'll take that shit man I love it you know and we did and we bet the fuck out of each other excuse my line I hope beeped that over here or whatever but like if you want to beep I don't really care but like we bet the crap out of each other Peter and it was awesome and I remember getting back and I was getting text off people and I didn't give a shit that lost a world title I just want to have the best matches I possibly could and before that like that time with Brian you know the crowd really turned against me because that like the 18 second thing at Mania and I was really really like I wasn't any stories I didn't really have any like you know I think I did some stuff with Del Rio we had like kind of five matches because stuff kept getting moved around and he got hurt a couple of times and then plans changed but I wasn't in really any like really deep stories and you know I was kind of fighting that uh like 20 2012 Wrestlemania win against Brian 86 people were kind of like people really got behind Brian I felt every match I was struggling to stay you know babyface I was always having to beat myself up more and more to get that sympathy to try and like get the people behind me and keep the people behind me and with Show it was such an easy story I didn't care I just wanted to have the best match I possibly could and I remember I just buzzed on after that match with Show because everything just hit right the brogue false finish the the the knockout false finish and then he sidestepped me and bam I'm knocking me out.

1:05:45But the buzz I felt after that match, I just love to fight me. I love the scrap. I love the emotion. And I know, if I don't walk out of there, where I'm like just buzzing, I'm drenched in sweat, and I know I've earned me shillings. That's what matters to me. No one have earned everything in that ring. Because that's what the Irish people are, man. We're grafters, fella. We have to earn our penny. We don't go in there. I've never had the mentality of going in there, like, just to like, to show up and, and phone it in. Like, I've, you know, I've seen a couple of guys were there when I came in first and they were kind of at the end of their career and they're just doing what they could do, doing the little things what they knew would get a reaction but like do as little as possible and show up and leave.

1:06:24For me I was like I'm never going to be that guy I'm always going to be the guy who has to be literally has to crawl out of the ring after every match, who has to put on the best fight can possibly be put on with as much emotion as possible and get those crowd believing that whatever they've seen before, whatever, how many matches they've seen before me, wherever they feel about They know when Sheamus is in the ring, it's a real fight. And that's what I prided myself on. And during the COVID era, when there was no fans, people really got to see that. Because there was no opportunities to shoot the crowd.

1:06:54There was no opportunities to, like, you know, everything was on the actual physical fight in the ring. And I tried in that situation. I was like, I leaned into it. I'm like, let's see some fights. With no crowd in there, with no noise, just two lads going at it. and that's really when the banger is there because people are like, holy shit, Seamus brings it every single time because there was no distractions. That's so true. You know what I mean? And I just built, built, built. And with those young lads like Ludwig Kaiser, Bronson Reed, Braun Breaker, even the stuff with Damien Priest and Riddle back in the day when I was kind of started working with younger talent at that stage.

1:07:32And I just enjoyed it. I loved it. I wanted to bring everybody up because that's what I want to do. Like, if you don't like fighting my style, that's okay. but I guarantee you you may not like it in the beginning but at the end I'm telling you you're going to get out of that ring with an adrenaline rush like you've never had before and you know you're going to be in a fight but also you're going to know that everything you did in that ring that the crowd were 100 % eyes on you the whole time and that's what I want to do like Waller got out of the ring after a match a couple of weeks ago and he was just like walking around he goes I said you know I was like he was in a real fight but like all eyes were on it and same about Rusev mate like we knew like we didn't have much of a story we had a couple of backstages they were great but the story was the fight you know and and i knew we were going to get people into it and people are still talking about it but that's what we do we bring that believability that physicality and we put our bodies on the line because we love what we do and we want to entertain that crowd and now rusev again who's who went to aw you know kind of disappeared off the radar he's come back you know it's it was a strong start but now after after monday like no that changed you you you guys to your point there was no story that i was particularly aware of right i've heard it online p i've heard people social experts you know going i skip past this because you know there was no story i wasn't invested the story's the map go ahead sorry no no but that's it but so so we we have a lot of wrestling fans i think i've gotten used to that if you see two people in the ring who don't have a story in a lot of ways even if they're great wrestlers it becomes a popcorn match because you're like yeah but there's no story here I'm waiting for the story and then I'm watching it and I'm going I don't remember the last time I got this drawn into what seemed like a random tv match like you guys really it was such an old school wrestling match that you're right the story was just right there in the ring and I saw a big e-tweet right away you know give me a best of seven and I felt the same way.

1:09:34Did you guys walk out of that going, oh, now we have something, there's something to do here? Yeah, we walked out with a couple of bits, some body parts missing off, there's holes in our head and holes in our, but we, you know, and the adrenaline was definitely going, but like we knew, you know, we knew what we did and we knew we left it all in the ring and that's all you can do. Like, you know, I don't book the shows, I don't write any stuff, you know, I don't write creative or whatever and I'm not going after creative. I'm just saying that's all you can do as a performer and WWE superstar or wrestler or whatever you want to call it.

1:10:08All you can do is the best for what you're given. And the promos were given. We lean into the stuff with like, you know, the League of Nations was mentioned. I had a go at him for going AEW and disappearing off the map because that's real life because that's exactly what happened. He had a go at me about my neck because that's real life. And everyone knows like my career was almost over a couple of times because of my neck and I've gone through so much with that. And a year ago, I thought I was done. And then I had an ablation. But my passion and pride and the love of what I do has carried me through this.

1:10:38So all you can do, fella, as a performer is make whatever you're given, make it the best you can. And we got three segs on Monday. And I knew it was like, whatever about it, we're going to draw people in. We're going to leave it on the ring. if we have to clean knock lumps out of each other and there's teeth lying on the mat or there's noses going north and south east or west or wherever way they're going we're not going to put it because we love what we do and we pride in what we do and we want to do we want to steal the show every time and that's what we did our story was in the ring that's what it was other people have like 20 minute promos at the start of Raw or the middle of Raw you know after week after week after week fuck that man we went out there we tore each other apart and we walked out with lumps, but you know what I mean?

1:11:26We had pride, man. We had our pride. We had our heart. Our heart was right there on our sleeve. I got two quick things before I let you go to celebrate July 4th. This John Cena tour is happening. Everyone's trying to figure out where he's going to go. You look at the rivalries that he has had and who's there. Would you like to get a piece of the John Cena action to sort of bring back the history that you guys have going all the way back to 2009. Listen, Peter, I'll go in there with anybody. I don't care who it is. I love it. You know what I mean? I love it. But the thing is, the question is, will John Cena want to get in there with me?

1:12:04Because he's a big movie star now. Does he want to put his body through that? Does he want to take an easier route with some of the wrestlers, like less physical matches? Or does he want to get in there with the King of Bangers, Sheamus? That's the question you have to ask John Cena. I will get in there with anybody I don't care mate I don't have an ego I will wrestle bleeding anybody I'll wrestle I'll go in there with anyone in the roster your Romans your Randis Rusev like Grayson Wallers Luffy Kaisers like Tezawa anybody because everybody in that locker room as far as I'm concerned have earned their stripes and they're they're WWE superstar they're on that roster for a reason because they've earned their stripes it's not easy to get to where we get to we have to sacrifice we have to work hard and then we get in there and we get the opportunities we do to try and get over and that's what they try and do.

1:12:55I have no ego. I will wrestle anybody or work with anybody because I don't care because I love what I do and honestly, mate, everyone in that locker room, I love everybody in that locker room because it's probably the best locker room that we've ever had in the entire history of the time I've been there since 2009. So the question is, is John Cena man enough or brave enough to get in there with the King of Bangers? That's a question you've got to ask John. Listen, if I get the opportunity, I will do that. Last thing, last thing before I let you go, I see you're wearing the Liverpool jersey today, and I know that there was a really tragic situation this week, so I just wanted to give you a moment because I know you're feeling it.

1:13:33Yeah, man. I woke up this morning. I came back from Orlando late last night, and I saw news with Diogo Jada, an absolute unbelievable person and player who's a Liverpool player, number 20, lost his life with him and his brother. leaving three kids behind and just, I think he just got married three weeks ago, but like the whole football community is crushed. But I just, you know, seeing the outpouring of like tweets and stuff on Instagram showing the amount of love they have for that guy. He was just, he was just an unselfish fella. He was a warrior on the pitch and he was an absolute gent off the pitch man, a class act.

1:14:13And, you know, if you're not aware of football or soccer, to call him America and of who he is. Definitely just have a look. Some great, amazing goals. Done a lot of stuff off it as well, off the pitch as well. But we lost a great warrior today and a great human being in Diogo Jota. So my thoughts, prayers and everything are with his wife and his kids and his family. It's just such a devastating loss, fella. Yeah, man. 28 years old, 28 years old, three children just married, as you said. Just an awful story. Insane, mate. But obviously you can see the amount of love he's left behind and the impact he made on this world and on people's lives.

1:14:55And to see the amount of love and how pouring that have come his way is incredible. But it just shows you how life is so fragile, man. And you just kind of like, you just don't ever take any day ever for granted. This has been such a cool thing for me to have on our debut with SiriusXM. Curious XM because I don't, if you and I have had a sit down, it's been a very, very long time. I hope this is the beginning of a new era of us doing this every, let's do this every six to eight months. Cause I got, there was so much other stuff from your career. We didn't even get to today, but I just wanted to share the time with you.

1:15:33It meant a lot to have you make the time and, you know, life is short. I hope, you know, everybody loves you. You are truly one of the greats. We just saw the, that groundswell of love for our truth with everything that happened with Ronnie and I think I feel the same way about you everybody just absolutely loves you man and uh thank you for making time today you're super appreciated no I mean listen I I'm honored dude I know I got the call a couple hours ago so I had to take a map I did film two Celtic warrior workouts in Orlando I gotta race into the city and out to see a Broadway show me uh my wife my sister I'm probably gonna get in trouble over that because yeah you gotta go you gotta go you gotta go live your life no but let's not go but like listen like I love what I do mate I uh I I realized a long time ago, like ego gets in the way, a lot of things, but like, again, like I I'm blessed.

1:16:18I get to do what I do. And being in that ring for me is, is literally one of the, one of the best, best, best moments of my life. Like every time I get, I'm blessed to do it. There's a couple of times I didn't think I was going to be able to keep doing it. So I'm on, I feel like no, I'm not going to say I'm on borrowed time. I'm just saying like, I feel like I've got a second, at least life in the ring. And I love it, man. I love it. I love seeing that crowd react. I love the emotion of being in there. I love the energy that crowd brings. I want to do this as long as I possibly can. But also, I love bringing talent up.

1:16:55I love bringing other people up. When you talk about the physicality, I love seeing new talent come out and just being fired up. And they're like, oh, yeah. In the beginning, they may be apprehensive, but at the end, they know they've been through a war. I've never met one person or talk to one person after any scrap I've had in there that they were pissed off that that happened that way. Everyone that goes out and has a banger match with me and everyone goes in and sees that physical style, they come out buzzing because they know that there's an adrenaline rush that they've never had in their life.

1:17:28And I pride myself on that. And I said, I love seeing that new talent. I love getting there and that new talent. And so many great friends coming out of it, as I said, Bronson Reed, Ludwig Kaiser, Braun Breaker, Damo Priest you know like the match I had with Drew obviously her best mate seeing Rusev back now just tearing it up with him like I'll get in there with anybody mate I've no ego I just want to show the world what we can do and I just want to tear it up every single time because when it comes to storytelling in that ring there's no one who can tell a story like I can when it comes to spit me hands mate let's go for a banger you got me hyped right now alright thank you thank you my friend I appreciate you thanks Pete love you man Appreciate you, fella.

1:18:10Congrats to y 'all, dudes. Thank you, buddy. Thank you once again to Sheamus for coming by. So cool for us to start things off. This serious XM era and to do it with Sheamus is so cool. He's just one of the best dudes on the roster. Human beings, wrestlers, the whole nine. So it's so cool that we got to do that. Real quick, I just want to give a shout out, man. And before we close this opening episode, I want to give a big thank you to Dave LaGreca and Eddie for thinking of having us to be a part of this. It took work to get it done and figure everything out. And with that, I don't want to give him credit directly to his face because we all know he already has an ego.

1:18:58to Dipperstein for doing the work there to get it done and my brother for getting the paperwork done because this was a really cool opportunity for us to take Cheap Heat to a new place and not just any place but Sirius XM to Pro Wrestling Nation 24-7 where we know we have an opportunity to reach just so many people. So this was just such a cool opportunity. It required a lot of work. A big thank you to Kelly and to Zach and to everyone on the production end who's helped us out this week as we pull things together. Of course, Emilio Sparks and always SGG as well. And of course, our peckerheads, the people who've been down with us since day one-ish from the very beginning.

1:19:38We appreciate you. I have an email address that I give out to everybody, rosenbergwrestling at gmail.com. You can reach out with your thoughts. If you're new, fantastic. We also have a Patreon where we give you bonus episodes that we'll be dropping earlier in the week, patreon.com slash staymage. that's s-t-a-y-m-a-j patreon.com slash stay mage if you love what you're hearing and you're new to the show we'd love to have you there too we are so excited for this era have a wonderful july 4th um i'm gonna be playing it low-key this year i think it's gonna be a low-key july 4th if you know what i mean but i hope you enjoy it stay safe and uh stay mage everyone enjoy yourself