7ft Tall and Fighting To Survive: WWE & AEW Athlete Paul Wight's Incredible Story (E409)

0:03Hi guys. Let's do it. I feel like Gandalf walking into Frodo's house. Are you sure you're comfy enough for us? Oh yeah, I'm great. This is awesome. I wear spandex. I entertain people. Occasionally I make people laugh if I can get a good joke. That's your chance to laugh. I work on my material. I mean, I was 6 '2 at 12. I was 6 '8 at 14. They were like, well, if you don't get this surgery, you'll probably be dead by the time you're 45. I've always had people stare. I'm not going to let them determine who I am and how I'm going to interact with someone else. How do you learn to do that? A lot of pain.

0:38I didn't expect to live a long time. You don't see old giants. I've had a major surgery the past seven years every freaking year. Back was bad, knees were bad. It was 537 pounds, I think. I didn't want to wrestle anymore. I was just, I was miserable. What was your calorie intake in your wrestling peak? Over 10, 12 ,000 calories a day, easy. When I look back now, I'm like, God, I used to eat that much. Like, why? Well, I keep myself right at 26, 27 hundred calories a day. Got into shape and lost some weight and cleaned my act up and fell in love with wrestling again. I'm in people's living rooms.

1:10They've grown up watching me. It takes 30 seconds to be nice, take a selfie, say hello. You don't know what someone else is going through. I see you. You matter. We'd love him back in the ring. Is there any chance? It's not that I want to go out in some big retirement thing or tell my story or some other kind of horseshit like that. That's not, I just want to have fun. That's all. welcome to the show thank you guys for having me this is awesome thank you for the tiny chair it's our pleasure this is great was this a side bet say how big of an ass can we fit and how small of a chair is there a side pool bet somewhere oh there's no way he'll fit in that listen youtube viewers hate these chairs so uh guarantee the comments oh do they hate the chairs yeah well as a guest i'm very happy to be here however i am slightly terrified i'm gonna go home with this chair you know one sneeze and it's permanently going to be mine well you might as well stay here because they double you all in anyway in a few months you know what yesterday you could have talked me into it yesterday i came over here and it was beautiful and sunshine and london was majestical with the sun out and i was like wow i'm not used to this it's so pretty and so and then i got up today i was like oh yeah here's a london i remember yeah yeah there you go shame on me for having a positive attitude about the weather i should have known better what are the London wrestling fans like what are they like rabid I guess is a good word it's amazing you know if you have two opponents and a referee there's three people and then you have the fourth player which is the fans and you know you guys have your songs the ole ole ole which is great in the matches and you know I think Sweet Caroline Sweet Caroline my favorite chant was you fat wanker that was my favorite that's nice yeah Who was that at?

2:57That was an O2 arena in London. One year, it was like, you fat wanker. And of course, my character was on the inside. I'm like, yes, I love you guys. And then I came back a year later, and they're like, you still got it. I'm like, yes, I love you guys. It's just a great relationship. I think that's why I wanted our talent to experience that. Because if you, I had to do it harder. And of course, it's a lot to walk uphill both days in the snow and all that other stuff, being an old timer. but you didn't have all the digital media to help your exposure as a talent so my first trip over here um with wwf at the time i came over with a rock a couple weeks in wwe they didn't know who i was even though i was a champion in wcw we had tv in germany but we didn't have tv in the uk wcw wasn't there wasn't a real presence so everyone was like are you the rocks body guy are you the rocks body guy you know and it's like no i'm i just signed with wwf i'm i don't even think i was the biggest i think i was still paul white and uh and then over the years i developed that relationship and earned it with him and i think it's a great

4:04invention uh uh tool for the talent now with social media and everything and all the platforms between uh like the uh all aw and places where fans can see the events that uh they can learn the characters because you guys know the ring music you know the signature your moves, you know the sayings, and that really builds a talent's confidence and sense of what they're doing. Because sometimes it's hard when nobody knows who you are and you're trying to do these things and everybody's like, yeah, mate, you want to hurry up and do something? We're not impressed. You know, I think you had to work a little bit harder for it back in the day.

4:41That might be just me being older and better. The kids have all them newfangled tools. It's one of the first conversations I have with Tony. when I became a part of AEW and signed my contract. Literally minutes after inking the deal, we were talking about his ideas for AEW and how I can contribute. I says, man, we've got to get to London. We've got to get to O2 Arena. It's going to be great for our talent to experience that kind of crowd, the energy. We need to do some tours over here, hit all the places, Birmingham, Sheffield, London, all those places that I've hit over the years. and he took my advice and went right around 02 and went right to Wembley Stadium.

5:21So there you go. Wembley Stadium. Yeah, I mean, I didn't even think that was a possibility when I was given my sales pitch of what, yeah, we can do 02 Arena. He's like, yes, I'm a billionaire. We'll go to Wembley Stadium. All right, well, there you go. Rock on, sir. Rock on. Brilliant. So what's the most fans you've ever performed in front of? I think Dallas 100 and something thousand yeah I think that was one of the bigger ones my son was depressed the other day because he's 10 and loves football so assumes Wembley's the biggest stadium on the planet and then he said I'm going to find out the biggest stadiums in the world and like 8 of the top 10 are all in the US aren't they they're all football stadiums in the United States yeah they're huge well that's where I'm excited to see the World Cup coming over that ought to be great too fill those big stadiums up yeah it's a You guys spend a lot of money on sports over here, footballers and stuff.

6:15You know, like it's massive how it's done. But the NFL now has just gone insane with some of these stadiums. Like just even the service for the people in the seats, you know, some of these stadiums, you know, they have the digital pads there to order stuff. They don't have to leave their seat. Like it's starting to get, you know, follow the money. There's money being made somewhere because there's money being spent. So it's there. But when you perform in front of big crowds like you're going to do at Wembley, how do you prepare for that? Do you do anything differently? It is different. It's a difference between being on a nice lake or being in an ocean.

6:56You can feel a nice lake in a big arena. You can feel the people. When you're in a stadium show, it's an ocean of people. it's the reactions are a little slower coming back because we're very intuitive of what we're doing the ring and communicating with the crowd we're doing those big stadium shows i think personally you want to slow things down a little bit let things because you've got people so far away and yes i can see on titantrons and stuff like that but you want to feel that ebb and flow and they have different different rhythms um this is a really interesting area that we love to talk about on this show great we've often had people who sit in the chair you're sitting and not squeezing into who's been smaller people smaller people generally yeah who spent their lives having to be somebody else right yet what we love is a conversation with a real person so do you do you like having conversations where you're paul white rather than the big show oh you're talking to me now yeah i mean uh my character on tv i mean god knows if you watch wrestling i've had more turns than nascar you know i used to confuse myself am i a good guy or a bad guy am i smiling or frowning when i go down the ramp what am i doing my anger am i happy am i high fiving or am i ignoring everybody um i think over time i've learned to let that character go once i'm done once i leave the building i'm not i'm not that character anymore when i go home i I'll change the occasional litter box occasionally.

8:27It's not my duties. I don't bend. Tall, it's too tall. You have to find a happy balance. My character is what I do for a living. It's not who I am. But you said you've had to learn that. I had to learn that because it was a different industry when I started. When I started, Hulk Hogan was Hulk Hogan all the time. Randy Savage was Randy Savage all the time. You know, these guys were their characters in public because just like social media today, back then those guys did a lot of word of mouth. So like Hulk Hogan would go out with yellow boots and Hulkster tights on and all these things. Like he had a viper with Hulkster on it.

9:08Like everywhere he went, he was that gimmick. Randy Savage ran around all the time with Macho Man t-shirts on. I mean, these guys are always on that self-promoting level, and they were always in character. It was too much work for me, and I'm glad the business is involved because my character's been a bad guy a lot of times in my career. I'm not a bad guy. I like people. I mean, sure, I have days where I don't want to be sociable. Yeah, I grab a book. I grab my basketball shorts. I got a cat. I chill that day. I'm human too. But most of the time, I try to take advantage of the success that I've had and just be nice to people and interact with them because I like people.

9:52I tell the younger talent now in a kind way because with social media, you start to judge your worth on likes and tweets and all the other garbage that I probably should know and don't know. I go back to the adage is you can't believe everything you read, good or bad, about you. because no matter what you do, people are going to have an opinion. You have to know who you are as a talent and as a person. You can be a character on TV and play that character and do that character. After that character is done, who are you as an individual? And I think that's important to carry forward because you want to give people, I think, a positive experience.

10:33It's a great—I mean, it's not like Spider-Man, but it's a responsibility. You know, like I'm in people's living rooms. They've grown up watching me. They grew up watching with their parents or they're watching with their kids now. They run across me. It takes 30 seconds, 45 seconds to be nice, take a selfie, say hello, be kind. You might be the only person they meet in their entire life. To me, it's every day. It happens hundreds of times a day. I'm grateful for it because of that same fact that I have a chance to maybe have someone make a good experience. One, you're building your brand because you build a fan for life.

11:11Two, you don't know what someone else is going through. You don't know what kind of day they've had. Just you acknowledge them. I see you. You matter. I'm engaged in talking to you. Even sometimes when I get hit with some, I bet I can take you. Take me where? Out to dinner? Like, come on. We don't want to fight. Like, what are we doing? But people are just looking for interaction. They want to have a moment. They want to have that memory. And I think, especially with wrestling, it's okay to give them a real moment and be a real person. One of the things you said was that it became too hard for you to be at a big show all the time rather than be yourself.

11:45Can you tell us more about that? When I came in, I was billed as the son of Andre the Giant because that's the way the business was done then. Even to get into wrestling, when I started, there wasn't the internet. You had to know someone to vouch for you, someone that would train you. it was like a closed club to get into. It's not the spectacle that it is now with the opportunities that a lot of younger people have now to get into the industry. It was very hard to get in. And they were very protective of the gimmick. So my thing was, yeah, my dad was a mechanic. My mom was a cop. Like, you know, like, I love watching your dad.

12:25I'm like, yeah, he could work on a car, buddy. I'm telling you, he was a good mechanic. But they were talking about Andre. and I always hated that in the back of my mind because they come at you with such sincerity and such heartfelt it means something to them that character does and I never liked that part of calling myself Andre and it's no disrespect to Andre in any way shape or form I wanted a better relationship with my fans so yeah I say a lot of goofy things when I do interviews and I poke fun at myself but I'm that way anyway I'm a guy that self-deprecating humor is, I love it. I'll pick on myself all day long.

13:05I love it. I love making people be comfortable. I like making people laugh. So that for me is more natural to do that. And I'm happy now that with our fans being smarter and having more access to things, they can definitely differentiate between me as a character and me as a person. So few people know what it's like to live with Akrameglia because very few people have it. It's a weird one. It's a weird one. Could you explain for us what it is like daily? Well, I have the tumor fixed. The only thing now that's tough is just time, the bones. I mean, you know, like it's a lot of the thing that gives you your gifts and your strength when you're younger, the amazing athleticism and power and all that stuff.

13:54You know, in time, you can't carry that size and mass around, So you have to find a way to make yourself healthier. And for me, I'm at 383 now. 350, 340 looks really healthy for me now. You know, another 30, 40 pounds off. It's easier to move, walk more. Do things like, yeah, I want to be able to, you know, say I want to make people laugh that know me. I'd love to be able to go on a hike through the mountains. Like, you hike? I'd love to know that I could if I wanted to, you know. I'm lucky in the fact that because of the acromegaly, I didn't have any other real bad side effects. My heart is good.

14:29Everything is good that way. I mean, the joints are fine. I've had two knee replacements. Both knees are done. Both hips are done. So joints are fine. I don't have joint pain anymore. I don't have any joints. So they don't hurt. Imagine that. You know, I don't have any of the sinus problems because the pituitary gland controls a lot of your sinuses and tear ducts. And there's a lot of important things that are done with the pituitary gland that I don't have problems with. So I'm very lucky in that aspect at this stage. But I think it's just being able to deal with the freakiness, like gloves. It's very hard for me to find gloves that fit.

15:05It's like, oh, we've got 4XL gloves. Okay, great. I ordered them. Yeah, they don't fit. Watches, like I'm running around with an Apple Watch now that's like two watch bands put together to go around. you know like i have a beautiful beautiful panerai watch that i absolutely love i ordered the biggest band they could get for it it's still about that far from being able to work so i have this beautiful eight-day panerai i can't get a band to fit it so it looks good in the case can't wear it so now we're stuck with an apple watch how old were you when you were told you had this condition I was 19.

15:43I went my whole life. But you must have been wondering. No, I just thought I was, you know, it's funny. I thought I was just gifted because I had incredible endurance and I ate whatever I wanted and I could run all day and strong and all that. And then I went to Wichita State and the doctor there had worked at the Mayo Clinic and was familiar with, he looked at my hands and there's different things, Like the roof of my mouth is very high and jawline and sinuses and stuff like that. He says, I think you have acromegalia. I'm like, what? And then within a week, I was at the Mayo Clinic, and they're telling me they got to do this pituitary surgery.

16:24And like, what, I had a tumor? This is why I'm this way? That's scary, right? Yeah. I mean, I probably would have been a – I probably – where I'm lucky is I would have been big anyway. I would have been probably 6 '7", 6 '8", anyway, because my family's big. So I didn't, I got the benefits of it, but I didn't have a lot of the trauma that a lot of people that get acromegaly that go through because they weren't made to be bigger people. So they really got the bad end of the deal for the bone growth and other problems. And was it at that age where they said that life expectancy was? That was just a figure that I was told because I almost didn't get the surgery.

17:08And they were telling me, they were like, well, if you don't get this surgery, you'll probably be dead by the time you're 45. Because this will shut down, this will happen, this will happen. And I remember thinking, 45 is a long time away. I don't know. I mean, I'm going to start my sophomore season at Wichita State. I don't know. Maybe I should just not get the surgery. And I remember my sister was very adamant at the time. No. you're getting the surgery. Which was a funny rib because I had the surgery done and they go through the front of your nose to do the surgery. But if you intersect through the ear and through the front of the nose and where they intersect under the front lobe of the brain is the pituitary glands in a little pocket.

17:50Well, they go in there, chip the bone out, they laser out the pituitary gland, then they pack it with a little bit of fat until the bone grows back. But you have this big bandage on your nose and your sinuses are packed with gauze. And they tell you no bending over, no straining. If you suddenly get a really wet nosebleed, try to call 911 because the synovial fluid just dumped out of your brain, it's going to ground out. So then you have like, okay, thanks. So you're like this. But I couldn't taste anything. And the only thing I could taste at the time was the mushroom and Swiss burgers from Hardee's.

18:24I could kind of taste it if I move, you know. So I sent my sister. She says, what do you want? I said, four mushroom and Swiss burgers from Hardee's. And my sister at the time was really heavy. And she goes, can you please order something else? Because I've gone in there for five days in a row and ordered four mushroom and Swiss burgers. She says, I know I'm fat, but now they're starting to look at me like. She's outjudged. Yeah, she was like, we know why you're a fat lady. You know what I mean? And she was eating good and trying to, she was on her own program to lose weight. Can you please just order somewhere else, please?

18:58Well, make sure you stay where you are because in a moment, Paul's going to explain to us why Steve Austin changed his career. We'll be right back after a quick word from our partners. Parles-tu français? Hablas espanol? Parli italiano? If you've used Babbel, you would. Babbel's conversation-based technique teaches you useful words and phrases to get you speaking quickly about the things you actually talk about in the real world. With lessons handcrafted by over 200 language experts and voiced by real native speakers, Babbel is like having a private tutor in your pocket. Start speaking with Babbel today.

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20:56but some of those qualities you're describing about being kind and being empathetic and giving people that special moment it sounds like it might have come from your own circumstances anyway 100 i've had in a good way i mean i was 6 2 at 12 i was 6 8 at 14 i mean i was seven foot as a senior. I've always had people stare and take pictures and, oh my God, you're so, I'm tall. I never knew that. Thank you for telling me. Like, yeah, early in my teens, of course, as most teenagers, when they're younger, you're angry and bitter about it and everything's in a front. It took time to understand, to get out of your own headspace and it's not all about you.

21:42These are just natural interactions for other people that haven't seen anything like you. And when you get a platform and a blessing to, like, you know, be a part of AEW or the other companies that I've worked for, that was a blessing to use the size and use the spectacle that I am to also be kind. You know, and I'm not out trying to save the world and anything. That's not it. I can control the three feet around me. And I try to make anyone that has interaction with me have a good interaction. I mean, I get it. I'm sure I've failed. I'm human. I'm sure sometimes I've been a grumpy jackass. I don't remember it offhand, but I'm sure there's someone out there who can say, that one time in Louisiana, and I tried to stop you, and you were getting on the plane.

22:27I mean, I don't know. It could have happened. But my general rule is kind of like a doctor, do no harm. Mine is just be kind. But I find that remarkable when you talk about the height you were at that young adolescent stage. It was brutal. Yeah, because it makes you an object of curiosity. and at that age, nobody wants to stand out for the wrong reasons. Well, you don't want to stand out for the wrong reasons, and I didn't grow up with a lot of, like I got in a lot of fights when I was a kid, a lot of fights. And I wasn't fighting kids my age, I was fighting older kids and adults. Why?

23:04I didn't, older kids mainly because they picked on me. I didn't, I mean, I remember going to school with one blue shoe and one green shoe in the wintertime because my feet were growing so big I was blowing my shoes out faster than my parents could buy them. But there were only two shoes that didn't have holes in them. So then I told everybody I was colorblind. So I didn't know I'm colorblind. Then they made fun of me for being colorblind. I wasn't colorblind. I just didn't want to tell them I was poor. So then I went to that school for a year, and it was like, oh, what color is this? And then I had to learn about being colorblind of what colors you can't see and what you can't see so I could fake it.

23:42And I was like, you know, those are the things you go through as a youth where you put this pressure on yourself and you think everyone's coming after you and you get wrapped up in your own bubble. In time, I was gracious enough to have grace from other people to explain to me that I'm human too and to give other people patience. I think the biggest thing is I learned to adjust what affects me. Because everything that comes at you, whether it's love or anger or humiliation, all those things that come at you, it's how you take it in. You have to know your own value and your own worth. They can call me a freak.

24:32They can say I'm ugly. They can say I'm dumb. whatever those things were, it's how I feel about me. I'm not going to let them determine who I am and how I'm going to interact with someone else. That's a remarkable level of awareness and emotional control. How do you learn to do that? A lot of pain. A lot of pain. You would think with that size and athletic ability and whatnot that the world would be my oyster. And this is not a pity me thing. But I can remember even being a young teenager trying to date. Okay, now we're 14, 15. You get freshman high school or eighth grade. There's the dance. There's the girl you really like.

25:14You have a crush on. It's natural. Okay, yeah, but when you're 6 '8", 240 pounds, you've got hair on your chest and shaving, it doesn't work. It doesn't work. Girls that age look at you like you're a freak. They'll call you a freak like, ew, why are you talking to me? those are things you had to adjust and learn. You know, you would get summer jobs. A lot of times I would get summer jobs, and some of the jobs are available. Like I'm not going to bag groceries. You know, I get construction jobs that paid better. Well, then I'm on construction jobs with grown men, and I'm 16. I'm 6 '10", and then you've got grown men that these guys drink, and they smoke, and they've got bad marriages, and they're angry, and they're, you know, and then they would ride you to a certain point.

25:59And you're young and you're humble and you're trying to be nice and you have respect and they lip off. And then you end up beating the 11 tar out of the whole work crew. And, you know, you're 16 and there's your whole work crew in the ditch beat up, you know. Were you unhappy at this time? Yes and no. I think I masked a lot. Wow, this is a damn therapy session. I think I masked a lot of my unhappiness by going overboard the other way to be funny, to be witty, to be, I think, approachable and safe. Because if I'm not outgoing, if I'm just me, I know I'm scary. Like people say, oh, my God, I hate to meet you in a dark alley.

26:44My reply to that is, why? I might know the way out. And it disarms people. You know, it's because you can't expect people. And I had to learn this in wrestling, too. Like when I first started wrestling, there were a lot of guys that didn't know how to work with someone my size. You know, so it was up to me to learn how to help them work with me because I was doing things I shouldn't have been doing in my career. And the other old timers were like, oh, you shouldn't do this. You shouldn't do that. And like, I'm just trying. I'm trying. Oh, be a giant. Well, what does that mean? You know, what does that mean?

27:16What does that mean? What does that mean? I had to learn how in my career to understand that a lot of guys that are great talents are used to working with guys their size. They're not used to working with some of my size. So how do I make myself valuable by being able to tell a story in the ring, working with them where it looks like they legitimately have a chance to beat me or legitimately do beat me and tell that story, the Dave and Goliath story, if I'm a bad guy. Or how do I create a situation if I'm a good guy where they have to beat me up? How do I get myself in situations where I could have had something happen to my knee or they poked me in the eye or like the Princess Bride when Carrie Ewells choked Andre?

27:59You know, how do I create those scenarios where it's believable? You know, those are things that I had to learn along the way to tell that story to understand that it's not their fault. They don't know. but i love that line that you used before about i learned grace i'm interested in who helped you learn it and what were the specific lessons that uh just reflection uh i didn't have like i lost i played basketball i lost my grandfather my father and my coach my coach that recruited me for wichita state coach cohen he he lost his job so three men that had real positive influences on me And, you know, my father was older and he wasn't a, you know, give you a hug cookie kind of guy.

28:46He was a hardworking man that I learned respect from. And, you know, if you're going to do a job, you do it. You word, you bond, you know, that kind of grief. I call it grief now, but he was a stickler. I lost access to those guys, you know, and it was a tough time. Where's my place in the world? Because when you have this immense size, everybody's got an opinion on what you should do. Oh, you should play football. You should play basketball. You should do this. You should do that. Well, why aren't you doing it? Why are you a doorman at this club? You should be doing this. Well, that's great. Those opportunities aren't there.

29:21I'd love to. How do I make that happen? I think just over the constant barrage of stuff, I had two choices I could make. I could have became very bitter and I don't want to say violent because I don't think that's in my nature, but surely there's potential for that with enough. Or I could learn to manage it where I could live with it. And there's a funny saying, even when I'm in a grumpy mood because I'm human too, fake it till you make it. And I learned that on days where I am grumpy and I don't want to see anybody, I don't want to talk to anybody. I don't want any comments on my height. I don't want to hear how big I am.

30:06Like now I'm older. Yeah, I just had a surgery. I don't want to be asked why I'm limping, you know, but people don't know. So you have to understand I'm letting them wind me up expecting other people to know everything that bothers me. And I expect them to know about it, though they don't know me. You're supposed to know what makes me upset. It's your fault because, no, it's my fault for how I'm reacting to it. You know, if there's a way to explain it in a way so they understand, good. If there's not, it's how I take it in. What am I taking in? You know, and I think that's just over time I learned to not be offended by people that were, you know, sometimes rude.

30:46There's another one, like people come up to me all the time, and they're fans. But when you think about it, when I say that you're going to laugh, they'll ask for a picture. Then they'll say, hey, can you grab me by the neck? I'm like, no, that's your kink. Grabbing strange men I don't know by the neck is not my kink, dude. Like, oh, yeah. Because they're just excited. They don't mean to be rude about it. They're just excited for an experience. Well, I'm not comfortable grabbing people I don't know by the neck. Not my thing. You know what I mean? So how do we work around that where I'm not offended by it?

31:21I'm not unnecessarily mean to them. And how do we have a good interaction and everybody has a better day? Because when you put yourself in a bad mood because someone else made you upset, it messes your day up too. So why are you doing that? Why are you letting someone – it's not that you have to be arrogant and live in your own world and, oh, I'm bulletproof. No, I have feelings too, sure. And I have even those situations you pull back out of and go, what's going on here? You know, what's really happening? Am I upset at them or is there something else that's bugging me? Let's figure this out, you know, because I like being happy.

31:59You know, I get mad about things in life. Here's my reset. I'll get pissed off about opportunities, parts I read for I didn't get, matches I didn't get that I wanted, angles. Those things that, as a competitive professional, things that you want, they don't happen. That's life. Not everything goes your way, princess. Sorry. I'll get mad. I'll go in the pantry. I'll open the pantry. Food. I'll open the fridge. Food. I'll turn the lights on and off. They work. I'll open the garage. Nice car. You're all right. What are you bitching about? You got a roof over your head. You know, a lot of people don't have that.

32:40you have food in the fridge a lot of people don't have that you've got nothing to be upset about stop and that's the mental check that i do to myself when shit starts bothering me because the rest of it's immaterial it doesn't matter so that's why like people ask me and i know this is kind of leading on and sorry but i don't have a lot of wrestling stuff up in my house okay i mean I have a storage unit full of stuff, you know, but I have one title left in my house. I have one AEW chair in my office, folding chair. That's pretty cool. And I have one picture on my desk. And that's all I have because I don't live in yesterday.

33:18I'm in what's today, what's tomorrow. I can't go back in time and live in those great moments where I was on top of the world. I can't go back in time and change the mistakes that I made. It's gone. but I can control what I do today and what I'm going to do tomorrow. That's where I'm at. Those are my black and white options right here. And I try to control that. I don't try to control how you think, how you think. I can control my interaction with you. I can defend myself. I can protect myself as far as my boundaries and all that. But it's not up to me to blame or get mad at you because of what you're doing.

33:57You want an interaction. Okay, well, we'll calm it down and we'll have a good interaction. You know, if you can't, well, then, you know, I'm going to move on and do my own thing. Plus, breaking a guy's jaw in New York in your 20s and, you know, spending a couple hundred grand in attorney's fees teaches you to be calm. We'll just throw that in there. Would you please tell us the story? It's on the internet. You can find it. Come on. I had a fan years ago that got really obnoxious in a hotel, and there was no security there. It was a lobby full of people, and he was just being a complete jackass.

34:29And I went over to say, look, dude, calm down. Wrestling's not real. Slow your roll. And I was wound up, too, because it's embarrassing. This guy's yelling and screaming. And I've done some bouncing in bars and been in some situations. So you always have to keep your situational awareness going. And he made a move. And I honestly thought with my peripheral vision down low, I thought he was going to stab me in the stomach with something. I didn't know if he had a knife or if he had a pen. And he was making a flinch move. But at the time, I thought he was going to stand up, so I cracked him in the jaw.

35:05It's fine. Not really. Because it took me, you know, a lot of money to go to court and defend myself and all that. And it was just like, you know, being older, I could have prevented that whole situation. You know how? Not getting involved. Yeah. What does it matter if he's screaming? You want to scream obscenities at me and, okay, knock yourself out. I'm going to get my free pint of ice cream at the front desk and go to my room and, you know, have my little fat party and enjoy my ice cream and feel sorry for myself. I'm kidding. I don't do that. But, you know, with, let's say youth is wasted on the young.

35:46I think with wisdom comes those things where you learn to budget a lot of that stuff. I have friends now that are older that are still grumpy that they get hot really quick. Because when you're a bigger guy, like people want to come up and slap you on the back really hard to say hello. Okay. I don't like it, but I'm not going to react as aggressively as other people. I'm like, oh, you slap everybody you don't know like that? Like, we'll have fun with it. You know, I try to because that's an easier mechanism for me. Now, if you came up and slapped my kid or my cats or my family, something like that, well, you're going to get a different interaction, I promise you.

36:24But me, I'm fine. I have one of my friends, if you did that to him, he'd rip the skin off of you. Mark Henry. Mark Henry. And I've seen people do it, and I've been there. I'm like, why in the world would you come up and slap Mark Henry on the back and you don't know him? Like, Mark Henry is literally the world's strongest man. Like, what in your brain made you think? And I've done it. I said, what in your mind told you that was a good idea? Because Mark gets mad. He doesn't like that. And that's his thing. And Mark's a sweetheart. He's a beautiful guy from Sillsby, Texas. Beautiful human being.

37:02But I've seen guys come up and slap Mark Henry real hard on the back. Hey! Mark doesn't know you. Like, where did you think? Well, this is a good idea. You know, obviously, people don't think so. It's a reminder, I think, that people see the size. They just see the size. And what's really interesting about the conversation that we're having is there's a few things that leap out to me. For a start, you're a stoic, right? Secondly, you're an empath. So I only think you become empathetic if you had the experiences that you've had when you were young and they are painful and they're horrible and you wouldn't wish them on anyone else.

37:37But there's also a moment in your life where you have to look back on those experiences and be grateful for them because they've made you to mind you off. 100%. Everything that is uncomfortable or annoying, again, that's why we go to the pantry. That's why we turn the light on and off. That's why we look at the fridge. Because of all those things that aggravate me, I have all these blessings. I'm a small-town kid from South Carolina, okay? I'm not a great student. I'm not going to do anything worthwhile to help mankind. I've got none of those things to offer. I wear spandex. I entertain people.

38:13Occasionally, I make people laugh if I can get a good joke. That was your chance to laugh. Okay, I work on my material. There you go. Gratuitous laugh. There you go. I guess edited in and no one will ever know. No one will ever know. Magic of editing. You go through those things and you have to learn to handle it. the pain and the insults and the gawking and the staring and the comments where people talk just loud enough that you can hear them, but they can't help themselves. Oh my God, look at the size of him. It's like, yeah, that's frustrating. But also I have all these blessings. I'm a small town care from South Carolina.

38:57I've been everywhere in the world. I've been fortunate enough to stand at the great pyramids in Egypt. You know, I've been through UK, London, England. I've been all the world, Japan, China, South America, South Africa, Australia. I've got to see all these places that with my upbringing and educational background, I'd only ever seen in magazines or books or on TV. But I've been given this wonderful gift and opportunity because of my size, certainly not because of my talent, but because of my size to travel the world and to do all these amazing things and meet people that are heroes and people that I grew up watching on television or movies or wrestling or music even.

39:39And I get to meet these people and it's like, you know, we've got a pretty good gig. I've got nothing to be upset about. But I've noticed even in our interaction here, Paul, that there's an element of self-deprecation that you engage in. 100%. So how do you do that? And I get why I think you do it to put people at ease. And also keep myself humble. but how do you do that without making yourself feel diminished by doing it i keep a good uh uh that's a good question that's really it's like jesus i feel like i'm going through therapy here um i do it to keep myself i keep the monster in check because you don't know how hard it is to not be a monster with the amount of success that I attained early in life.

40:31It's tough, I think, when you throw a lot of success on someone during their teens and 20s and expect them to be put together. You know what I mean? You're going to make bad decisions. You're going to do things that aren't good for you. You're going to make bad interactions. You're going to make mistakes. I don't know if your brain hasn't grown up yet or mine hadn't grown up yet. The self-deprecating humor for me, if I don't take myself so seriously and I don't put myself on a pedestal, then I'm never going to be upset if somebody else doesn't. You know what I mean? I know my value. I know my worth.

41:09If someone doesn't see my worth, okay, they don't see it, then either my work needs to improve so they can see my worth or they're not going to see my worth, and that's okay too. I've read for some parts for some movies that I knew I can do this. I didn't get the part. Now, if I was an actor and had to make money on being an actor, I'd be starving. I'm lucky enough that I have the opportunity to read for parts, have the opportunity to try and have the opportunity to improve at that craft. But there's a lot of rejection in it. They don't care how many followers I have on social media. They don't care about how many shows I've already done.

41:49What are they looking at? They're looking for the right fit for this character. They're looking for the right performance. Now, I can get mad and say, oh, well, it's because of this. What's the line everyone, oh, it's politics. It's not politics. It's one thing I've learned. Yes, being in the right place at the right time is very important. Agreed. But also there's a thing called talent. You know, if you have talent, you put the right performance out there, it's going to get noticed. How many people do we know that came out of nowhere, stars overnight, impress people with a song or a performance in a film is because they hit that groove and had that talent to make that work.

42:24You can't be jealous of that or mad about it. You have to look and say, okay, they found a way, I can find a way too. So that's the Kool-Aid that I'm sipping now. So talk to me in 10 years. If things doesn't work out, I might be bitter as hell. But right now, I think that's just what I keep rolling. I mean, keeping my own peace is what's important now and not letting anything else destroy that peace. And being honest with yourself because if you have people telling you how great you are all the time, oh, you're amazing, you're great, you're a legend, you're this, you're that, you suck that up all the time, where's your perspective?

43:01Where's your perspective on what's going on? Some of those things may have been true at one time. Some of those things are great. Where are we now? What are we doing today? Where are we at today? How's our body feeling today? How are we doing? Where's our head at for our productivity? What do we got going on? What's our goals? What's our ambitions? How do we stay motivated? Because, yeah, right now I'm at the stage I could sit on my ass and never leave my house again and be fine. Is that the person that I want to be? No. I want new challenges. I want new goals. And these goals are attainable. Some of them will take a lot of hard work.

43:38Some of them might not be possible. you know and those are things we have to accept but in the meantime i can get up every day lace my shoes up tight and move forward onward and upward i'm interested in the moment where the condition that could have killed you if it wasn't treated uh well i would have been it would have caused long-term health issues like i probably wouldn't have made it to my age now because with acromegalia and the uh growth hormone pituitary gland it will enlarge the heart It will grow the bones to where joints stop moving, fusing them. Organs will grow your liver, your intestines.

44:14All that stuff will overgrow, and you'll probably be dead by, you know, I think late 40s is probably a good estimate. Like Andre. Yeah, Andre, God bless Andre. he had it rougher than I did because when Andre was Andre, people couldn't see social media and see pictures of all these different kinds of people, these tall people, these big people. Andre was literally that spectacle, which made him one of the most impressive draws in the world. When Andre the Giant was on a card, you get off your butt, you went down, you bought a ticket, you went to the show because you had to see this thing. and I think Andre dealt a lot of that like he drank a lot you know and I think that was the thing that really got to Andre by the end was just the pain of having the acromegalia the joint pain and stuff like that which comes you know I think that he didn't do the right things to take care of himself and I didn't when I was younger either I didn't expect you know and it sounds morbid but I didn't expect to live a long time you don't see old giants in my 20s i smoked two packs of cigarettes a day you know i would drink you know a bottle of jack daniels in a setting you know like i didn't play around like i i drank i smoked i ran hard and i had a lot of friends that would get mad at me like you know well don't say that it's so morbid don't say that i'm like dude i'm not saying what no because i say i wouldn't i wasn't i wouldn't live long i said i'm not here for a long time i'm here for a good time that was my line and i meant it and then as i started getting old i was like you know you got responsibility you got people that counter you're being uh very selfish i guess is a way to put it and then over time i was like hey this time's kind of flying by maybe i ought to straighten up and uh you know lose some weight not be 530 pounds not smoke two packs of cigarettes a day you know not eat 10 hot dogs at a setting maybe you ought to eat better and take care of yourself because you know uh life is pretty good what was the catalyst for that um just uh obviously there was a lot of depression involved with it uh as far as just not happy with myself not happy with way things were going i needed to make a change and um that was around 2006 i was hurt really bad i just come off a run as an ecw champion.

46:43Back was bad. Knees were bad. I was 537 pounds, I think. And my contract had ended with WWE and I didn't want to sign a new one. I didn't want to wrestle anymore. I was just, I was miserable. I didn't like traveling. I was too big for planes. I was too big for cars. I just, nothing, my career was going nowhere at the time. I was still being used as a talent, But I knew there wasn't any opportunities for me because I was stuck in a spot. And I took that year off and got into shape and lost some weight and quit smoking and cleaned my act up. And fell in love with wrestling again. Fell in love with it's fun again.

47:27I'm healthy. I'm able to breathe in the ring. I'm able to move. I'm able to get in there and earn the respect of my peers and stuff. And I think that 2008, when I came back, was when things really, I think, took a real positive turn for my career. Did you have a moment, you know, like when you're being told that 45 is a likely life expectancy? Did you have a moment when you did start to approach that age where it had an impact on you? I think I really started paying attention to stuff around 35. You know, 34, 35, I was like, wow, 40 is getting there kind of quick. I think Andre died at 46. I think that's how old Andre was.

48:03so you start looking on these things it's like you know i need to get my stuff together you know and uh that was just one of those kind of things like i had some really close friends that i would make the jokes hey i'm not here for a long time just a good time and you know and they would get upset you know and not because the joke was bad it's because they were really sad that that was my attitude on things you know um and uh i started reflecting on that a little bit it's like yeah you you know, you're being an idiot. Like maybe you should take some accountability and grow the F up. So then we started doing it.

48:43It's not an easy process. It was a battle. Even dieting now, I make the joke on dieting. The first three letters in the word diet is die. You know what I mean? When you like food, it's tough to get through that precursor, that hang up that food's your escape. And I think that was a lot of stuff, too, with everything that happened. Food became like an emotional outlet because, you know, it's a reward. There's dopamine that drops in your brain when you eat the food that you want and stuff like that. And then even a while, after you've eaten clean and done well, you'll see all the commercials for the foods on TV.

49:17Then you're like, oh, sneak off and get it. Then you're getting like, God, this tastes like crap because it's your brain playing with you. You know, you don't really need it. And you got to get to a point where you realize that that's not who you are or what you need. You can still have good foods. I mean, I do. My thing now is I just watch my calories. I mean, I eat sensibly, but hey, if I want a meatball sub, I'm going to get one. I just know that that's my calories for the day. Are you in a deficit because you're trying to lose this weight? Oh, yeah, I keep myself in a deficit. Right now I'm burning.

49:45According to Mr. Fitbit, I run about 3 ,400 calories a day doing nothing because I was sick one day and I had this on. And I took less than 500 steps and didn't move all day. and I burned 3 ,400 calories existing. So I'm like, okay, well, that's our bottom end. So what do we go from there? So then I try to keep myself, and I give room for error because who knows with my size how accurate it is. So I keep myself right at 2 ,600, 2 ,700 calories a day and try to give myself between 3 ,500 and 5 ,000 calories deficit at the end of the week for every seven days. And that runs about a pound a week right now.

50:24And I've lost a lot of weight faster before, but those were when I was a lot more active. I was doing, you know, 15, 20 miles a day on a bike. I was going to the gym. I didn't have two fake knees and two fake hips. And I was, you know, 11 years younger. What was your calorie intake in your wrestling peak? Oh, dude, it was over 10 ,000, 12 ,000 calories a day, easy. What were you eating to get that amount of calories? Name it. I ate whatever I want. But, like, it was nothing for me to do, like, two double meat, meatball footlong Subways. I'd eat two of them, you know, right there. What was breakfast?

51:06Pancakes, chicken fried steak. Just, it's absurd. When I look back now, there's no way right now I could come close to eating some of the foods that I used to eat. I'm like, God, I used to eat that much? Like, why? You know what I mean? and now it's like, you know, I run pretty good now. My thing is now, I pretty much got into a rhythm. I know what I'm eating during the day and how much to eat. Sometimes things don't work out, so I'll have to eat something that's not very skosh, you know. I'm like, okay, well, that's going to be a big hit on the calories today, so we'll be trimming the rest of the day, you know.

51:43But most of the time right now, it's just roll with the punches and roll with the flow. Stay where you are, because in a moment, we're going to go deep into the world of wrestling. what was the behaviour from John Cena that left Paul open-mouthed? Stay where you are. We'll be right back after a quick word from our partners. What if the real question isn't where you're going, but the adventures you experience along the way? It's time to set your sights higher. On peaks still to be climbed, rivers still to be crossed, and greater dreams to pursue. It's time to embrace the impossible with Defender.

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54:09If you've used Babbel, you would. Babbel's conversation-based technique teaches you useful words and phrases to get you speaking quickly about the things you actually talk about in the real world. With lessons handcrafted by over 200 language experts and voiced by real native speakers, Babbel is like having a private tutor in your pocket. Start speaking with Babbel today. Get up to 55 % off your Babbel subscription right now at babbel.com slash acast. spelled b-a-b-b-e-l dot com slash acast rules and restrictions may apply right we're going to talk wrestling i love the therapy session though nice trick it's great come on over to london and have therapy like jeez okay um it still might be slightly therapyish you never know um when was the moment that you did something as a wrestler and thought hold on the thing that I thought was going to be the bane of my life when I was younger is going to give me the greatest gifts that I could ever have imagined um Hmm, in wrestling, that's an interesting context to try to put that into play.

55:17I don't think I've had any of those kind of hits. I've had some moments where I've been like, wow, I can't believe I'm here doing this. Like, wow, this is pretty amazing. I've had some moments in the ring with some opponents, whether it's Hogan or Savage or even Undertaker. Some of those moments where I've been in the ring and realized, like, wow, I'm really doing this. This is pretty awesome. What was the turning point from just being a and other wrestler to actually having what you think was a key moment in your career? I think a good one was there's an event where I figured out my character and what I brought to the table.

56:07Was working with Stone Cold, actually over here on a UK tour. And earlier in my career, everyone said, be a giant. What does that mean? What does that mean? Because if you work strong and you know sell, it just looks like you don't know how to sell and the other guy doesn't know how to punch. and I had a match with Stone Cold. We had a dark match after a raw TV over here and Vince wanted me to beat Steve and I remember Steve had his little dip cup and Vince goes, we'd like you to put show over tonight, want to get him up and running and Steve goes, damn Vince, these people paid a lot of money to see Stone Cold, hit a few stunners, drank a few beers, not do a job to the big show and i'm standing there and i'm like hey you know this is fake right like i can sling your guts all over the place in my brain i never do that because i have respect for steve but in my brain i'm like dude it ain't real like what's the problem i'm such a pos that you can't put me and steve was right i did not have uh the talent or the presence at that particular time to beat him looking back now in front of you to say that well yeah but but it was business.

57:23That's the thing about wrestling that you kind of learn not to be so sensitive about your feelings, because you're going to hear a lot of stuff you don't want to hear because it's business. That's the entertainment world anyway. You guys are entertainment. You hear a lot of things like you would never say that to anyone else, but you've heard it. So Vince goes over to talk to Steve. They have a conversation. They come back. Steve's got a point. Well, yeah, he does. He's one of the top merchandise sellers at the time. He's one of the biggest stars. I'm sure he does make a good point. So we go out and wrestle.

57:55And I had bumped Steve out to the floor. I went out to get him. I went to throw him back in the ring. And I pulled his shorts up his butt by accident. I didn't do it on purpose. I wasn't being a smartass. I just mistimed it. I got in the ring. He was like, bang, bang, bang. He hit me three times right in the chin hard. It's got big burly knuckles on him, too. He goes, off the tights, you big son of a bitch. Like, he was mad. And I got mad. and I grabbed him by the face and I ran him over in the corner. I was like, like I got mad. And him being the wily veteran that he is, he goes, there you go, kid.

58:29Way to fire up. So everything he did after that, I beat the snot out in a working way, in a safe way, but I worked like my size. And he hit me with a stunner and I'm like, okay, well, match is over. That's his finish. And he covers me. He goes, kick out. and now i'm thinking he's trying to get me fired because no one kicks out of the stone cold stunner no one does but all this is all happening while the three counts going down right i'm like okay well the referee heard it and i know that the ring posts are microphoned okay i'll do what he says so i kicked out the arena went no one kicked out of the stunner no one and granted he wouldn't have done this if this was on tv and i understand that but this is a this is a live event kind of thing and this is just for the crowd.

59:17This is after TV. Get up. Hit me with another stunner. Covers me. Kick out. He hit me with seven of them. The last one, he goes, all right, I'm blown up. Let's go home. So he covered me. And every stunner got louder and louder and louder. And something clicked in my brain about what everybody was trying to do because there wasn't anybody like me. I wasn't as good as Undertaker. I wasn't as good as Kane. I wasn't Andre. I was a weird hybrid of the three. So how do I work and maintain a career and work with other talent and become a legitimate, dependable talent, not just something that you get featured, you make some money off of, but you can't really do anything else with, a talent you can rely on?

1:00:06Then I got it. I can sell anything. It's how I respond. It's how I respond. And that changed my career as far as the way I approached my matches, what I would do with other guys, what I could do, what I wouldn't do. It really helped me come into my own on that one. And that moment was I achieved 100 % to Stone Cold. He was great for doing that. See, what stands out for me when I'm listening to you, Paul, is that one, you seem like a sponge. You're open to new ideas. I'm a sponge, right? It goes in one ear right out the other, kind of like a sieve. Not a tray. See, again, there's the self-deprecation.

1:00:39But I also think that you spoke about being in an entertainment industry where some of the conversations are pretty brutal about you. So that interaction with Steve, that fight, sounds like it's somebody that's taking you under their wing and showing you how to utilize what you've got. Oh, 100%. Here's the thing. Stone Cold was right. And let me explain this. Steve was 100 % right because in our business, you have to really earn through work presentation to be in certain positions. You'll get opportunities. Whether you stay in that position or go past that position or succeed in that position is on you.

1:01:18There's no politics. Oh, it's politics. No, that's not it. It's your work rate. If your work rate is there, you'll get opportunities on your looks, sure. You'll get that opportunity because of size or a look that you have or charisma that you have. Sure, you'll get, but you stay there. It's how you perform and you're given the opportunity. And if you succeed and come through that opportunity, you'll get more opportunities. What Steve's point was, I hadn't done anything up to that point, really, to be competitive in that league at that time. I wasn't the draw that I should have been. I wasn't drawn like Andre.

1:01:51I wasn't as talented as Undertaker had, the respect that Undertaker had. I wasn't a reliable worker as Kane is. You know what I mean? So who am I? Yeah, I'm just another big guy. Why in the hell would I put him over? Why did I diminish what he brought to the company, what he delivered to the fan base? Why he would diminish that on the hope that, oh, maybe I'll do better. Maybe I'll get my act together. Once I proved I could get my act together, well, then we had a great relationship. Because that was the thing about Steve. We were great friends before that. We laughed. We BS. We talked about watches and cars and trucks and guns.

1:02:28Like we, that way. In the ring working with him, he treated me like I was a POS because I didn't step up and take care of myself and give him, it wasn't for him to work down. It was for me to work up. That was the thing. And that was the thing. When I finally stepped up and worked up to it, yeah, he's, yeah, we're rocking and rolling, kid. Now we're making money. now we're now you're doing what you should do now you're being who you should be so there's very much a bit a before and after moment so what what were you doing differently after that moment like mentally what was the adjustment you made in my career i was always trying to be safe and i was always waiting for other people to do things i was waiting for them to attack me and then i would react right you know um and a lot of times there's dead space so it doesn't look like they don't know what they're doing.

1:03:21It looks like I'm not aggressive enough and I don't know what I'm doing. Or I was trying to be too fancy or too careful with things and a lot of the stuff I did was sloppy and slow and I wasn't crisp with a lot of the things that I did. And it's hard for me to watch some of my older stuff because I just want to gouge my eyes out and stab myself in the forehead. That moment for me and I'll steal a line from Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross ABC always be closing after that night if they weren't closing I was okay if they weren't coming after me I could give it right back to them like if they had that they weren't coming boom cut them off throw them pick them up drop down clip me in the knee I could give it right back to them but we kept the flow going so there wasn't this massive dead spot with this big guy who's standing there looking at you and not doing anything and the other guy looking at you like I don't know what to do with him either.

1:04:15He's huge. That was the mistiming on a lot of things, I think, that was wrong. The way I approached things. Now it was like, I can sell anything. I can register. I can sell. My head can snap. I can do all. Then I can come right back and get you. That was what changed for me, if that makes any sense. It's a real intricate part of the business to try to explain, but that was the thing that clicked in my business, in my brain was, if they're not closing, I am. And I think that was what made a difference in my ability to work with other talent. Because let's face it, my character is not to be a champion.

1:04:51You don't want a giant as a champion. Like, okay, well, who's going to beat him? What am I good at is being an attraction and also being an obstacle for someone that you're trying to build that should be a champion. You know, the obstacle they have to overcome. I needed to be that respected, feared talent that if they got past me, they were on their way to something else. I was that hurdle that they had to cross in their career. And if they got to me and didn't get past me, then they had to reboot and start over again. So I think that was the ability that I was able to earn that position, have a career for a long time.

1:05:28You don't still believe that you shouldn't have been a champion, though, do you? Honestly, yeah. Yeah, I don't think it's – and it's not a self-deprecating humor thing. I don't think – I think it's good to be a transition champion, which I was in a lot of things. I would take the title off in someone, take it off in one baby face, and then put it on another baby face a month later. You know, that's fine. That's good. But as far as being like a champion holding the title for 360 days or four years or whatever the thing is that everybody talks – no, that's not the thing because I don't need it. some people need a championship to to help them where they're at in the card and how they're perceived and some people are treated as champions even though they have talent and all that stuff rick flair is a great example rick flair is an amazing talent amazing promos best promos of all time worked with everybody and everybody in the world but you always look at rick flair as being a champion right not that rick flair isn't amazing without being a champion but rick flair is icing on the cake being a champion i'm fine being a giant it's cool if i'm a champion but it doesn't really change anything whereas myself as my character my gimmick my attraction what i bring to the table me alone is just as good does that make sense yeah i think it's so interesting because i think again it comes back to the fact that you said at the very start of this conversation in your own words but you kind of made the point that you're not a wrestler you're a human being who wrestles at your self-worth wasn't wrapped up in what you did in the ring no no no i think i didn't want it to be i think there were chances where it could have been because it's a slippery slope but i was very conscious of not sliding down that that road of of being in character gimmick all the time because you know there's a lot of those guys when i started they were they were in character all the time but you also saw people who became so much more than just being a wrestler, which I think is, I mean, like, a really great example is The Rock or John Cena.

1:07:28They've transcended that sport. How do you think they've done that? Talent. I mean, here's the thing. Rocks has always, and I'll say this about Dwayne, always had amazing talent and amazing gravitational pull of character. When he walks into a room, it's a magnet. Everybody can't help, but that's his gift. Did you feel that when you first met him? No. No, I'm kidding. Of course I did. Of course I did. Yeah, I thought I was like, wow, this guy's got a thing. He's got that welcoming personality and charisma. He's entertaining to watch. You want to watch him talk to you. You want to watch what he does.

1:08:12He's engaging. John Cena is the same way and also a different way. His talent is John is, and John is charismatic. John's also very, very disciplined. I mean, I have not met anyone in my entire career as disciplined as he is. I mean, here's a guy that literally, if he says he's going to do something, he's going to do it. You should give us an example.

1:08:42We would fly to Australia, and those are 15-hour flights. Like, we'd do a Monday Night Raw in L.A., and we would fly straight into Australia, and we'd land at 11 in the morning. By the time you get a baggage and customs and everything, it's a little after 12. 45-minute bus ride to the hotel. By the time you get into your room, it's at 1. You've got to leave for the building at 4 p.m. because the shows are earlier. So you've got about two and a half hours to, you know, go to the bathroom, take a shower, get ready to rock and roll for the show. John would pay for his own van to pick him up at the airport to take him to the gym because he knew he had to get a workout in.

1:09:19even on that flight and we're and we've already been on the road for seven eight nine days before we've gone on this tour he always made the gym he always treated everybody with respect he knew everybody's name he talked to everybody from cameraman to to sound people to the t-shirt guys like john acknowledged everybody and outworked everybody and he never was confrontational about it he never lost his cool he never got into oh yeah that's not john's mo john's mo is literally like a giant snow plow he puts his head down and he does the work and he doesn't he doesn't seek accolades he doesn't seek praise he just works and he's just one of the only people ever and he's solid prime example uh i was fortunate enough when i put the u.s title on john vince came to me i was the U.S.

1:10:15champion. Somebody screwed up somewhere, and they ended up putting the U.S. title on me because somebody else got in trouble. So I was the U.S. champion for a while, and he comes to me. Vince comes to me. He says, we're going to take the U.S. title off you. Man, who do you want to work with? And I'm like, I work with Cena. And he goes, how's he going to beat you? I said, he's strong. He'll beat me with his finish. I think he called it the FU then. He said, he'll beat me with his FU. He goes, he can't pick you up. I said, the hell he can. So we went to the ring, and I got out a crash pad and I had John hit me with his finish.

1:10:48And everybody was freaked out because nobody picked me up back then, you know, and John's like a machine. And so I put John over for that. And John had, I just thought it was good business because I saw how hard John was working. Like John stayed on the road 60, 70 days in a row. Like guys were flying home. John didn't have a family. John stayed on the road. He'd take the rental car to the next town. He would do local radio, local tv promote the shows coming up he just stayed on the road like they had to tell him no you need to go home he had that kind of work because he wanted to he wanted to be successful he had a vision this is what he wanted to do this is all he wanted to do was be a pro wrestler he had the opportunity he literally maximized every opportunity that they gave him he took in a very voracious uh way that i've never seen any talent ever do and uh so i was yeah i'm happy you put the title on good for him let him rock and roll years later um we're in peru and wrestlemania is coming up i think we were there in january and and uh we got off the plane and we're on the bus going to the hotel i said hey i don't know if you know john but uh i don't have an opponent for wrestlemania and i'm pretty good at taking finishes you know so uh you know if you need an opponent and uh he looked at me and smiled and uh just gave me the nod we got back on the bus that night to go to the arena says uh hey it's gonna be me you and edge at wrestlemania it's gonna be a triple threat and thank you for what you did for me at wrestlemania 20 when you put the u.s title he remembered me like that's class yeah you know he put a really good payday in my pocket for wrestlemania that he didn't have to do that nor was i expecting a return on that investment or favoring it but that just shows the kind of character and duty was he he remember that The only thing he did is he did break my balls a little bit.

1:12:42He says, listen, I'm going to AA you and Edge at the same time. He says, I need you to be under 450. Can you get under 450 for me? Because Edge can't lose any more weight. And I'm like, for you, yes. And I came in that day at 446. He says, okay, we're good. I can do both of you then. He had worked it out in the gym what the weight was to do both of us, and I had to be under 450. I love the intricacy of sort of these conversations that are – because you imagine in your head as a wrestling fan, you're sitting watching it and you think, man, And this must have been like multiple production meetings and loads of conversations and contract negotiations and all this drama.

1:13:18And the reality is you did something for him years before and said one word to him and it ended up impacting what happened. Nor did I say that. I was making a joke. Yeah, exactly. You know what I mean? Because he at the time was, John Cena, the biggest star in the company. Like, hey, you know, hey, buddy, you know, let me just throw my name in the hat, you know. And then he did the whole angle with Edge and Vicky and all that. And it was great. And I had nothing going on. I had nothing going on. And that gave me an opportunity to be on TV, shot some life in my character, and I got a great WrestleMania main event.

1:13:52And you said a payday. Would you earn more if you were more central to the story? Main event at WrestleMania? Yeah. That's a pretty good payday. Yeah. And no, I'm not giving you numbers, so don't ask. But it was good. Was it? Yeah. That's good. Well, that's what you competed for back then. And I think things have changed on how pace scales are done. But you would get paid for your live events. You didn't get paid to do Raw or SmackDown. What? No. With TV, you got an opportunity. Because if you were on TV, then you got booked for the live events. Yeah, but someone's making money from Raw and SmackDown.

1:14:26Sure, but also there's a television production cost. Anyway, that's the—there you go. Okay. But if you're on TV and you had an angle, then you would be on the live events. and then where you are on the card of live events is how you made money. And then if you're on a pay-per-view, then you made money on the pay-per-view. Where you are on the pay-per-view, depending on SummerSlam, Survivor Series, then you made more money on that depending on where you were on the card in there. So back then, there was always a lot of jostling to be on a big pay-per-view, to have a good match on a pay-per-view.

1:14:57Like, it was very... And how would that jostling happen? Was it people going up to Vince and having quiet conversations? Well, there were people pitching ideas to writers, people pitching ideas to Vince. It's, yeah, it was a very competitive cycle. That's why I always loved Chris Jericho as my favorite tag team partner because Chris Jericho was relentless when we were tagging together on all the minute details. Okay. Like, oh, Chris Jericho should be Esquire. He should be a lawyer. Like, Chris does not let anything slide. He gets every minor detail. This is what we're doing. This is what's going on.

1:15:32You know, and, like, it was great for me as a partner because all I had to do was like, what do you want me to do? Okay, got it. And that's all I just, whatever Chris said, that was it. Well, it's business as well, right? Very much a business. Very much a business. Things have evolved and changed now and I know that contracts have changed over time and sponsors are different and there's a lot more things to be done, a lot more opportunities to be made. But yeah, that was the business back then. It was very cutthroat and very sharky. Can I ask you about Vince because you've referenced him a couple of times.

1:15:59Sure, I'd rather talk about AEW and Tony Khan, but sure, let's talk about Vince. No, no, but we want to come back and talk about that. But I'm interested in the character he was. You worked with him. You've referenced some of those meetings where Steve was there or when he's come and questioned whether you're going to hand over the title to John. So what was he like to work with? Business, I never had any problems with Vince. Here's the thing about Vince. I never got it confused. I never thought Vince was my friend. I knew Vince was my boss. right i never i never was disillusioned myself and thought that we were friends um i knew he was my boss i knew he was running a company and i knew he was going to make the decision that he thought was best for the company um i know i would pitch him ideas on stuff sometimes and i knew when to stop pitching when he said when he said i'll take it under advisement which means i've heard your stupid idea stop bothering me go away got it boss you know but But he would take your—when he asked for your opinion, he generally wanted your opinion.

1:17:02Okay. What do you think about this? What are you thinking? Other times, he didn't ask for your opinion. This is what you're going to do. He's my boss. I understood that. I never got to the point of, oh, I'm here for life. I got it made. I never took that for granted. I always knew that, yeah, we'll clown around and joke. And I've done a lot of trips overseas. And, you know, Vince has busted my balls. And we've had some laughs. and had dinners and that's our, but I always knew from a fact he was my boss, you know, and it kept things very, very, very straightforward and simple for me because I could pitch my ideas.

1:17:39I could, um, uh, vie for things. Uh, can I do this? Can I do that? Um, you know, and he was my boss and that was the final saying I rolled on for. I signed a contract. I worked for my boss. Prime example, uh, Nick Cage years ago, uh, had me, had a chance for me to be in Gladiator with Russell crow and i just come to the wwe and uh no one knew that russell crow was going to be academy award-winning actor and all this other stuff and nick cage was cool uh his son at the time was a fan and mine says hey man my buddy's doing this movie you'd be great in it so i go to vince said hey i got a chance to be in this movie but i gotta be in spain for six weeks and vince looked at and i just signed an amazing contract with wwe he says here's your choice i'm paying you to be a wrestler Do you want to be a wrestler or do you want to be an actor?

1:18:26You choose. And he walked off. And I went, okay, well, sorry, Mr. Cage. Unfortunately, I'm going to stay right where I am because at the time, I was very fortunate to have the deal that I had, and it was a lot longer term, and it was the egg in hand, bird in hand, bird in the bush. I took the bird in hand, so there you go. I'm a coward. It's okay. How does that leadership compare to Tony Khan in AEW? Tony Khan is much much more open Tony Khan has a vision for what he likes for AEW he is super super collaborative on ideas but at the same time he's also someone that really encourages the talent to come from more of an authentic place yeah he's not going to micromanage the talent like a lot of things were done you know where I came from they were very micro you're going to walk down the ramp here you're going to make your entrance here you're going to pose to this camera you're going to talk to this like it was very very structured you know and i think that was a product of the environment because you know they had dealt with a lot of lunatics in the past the hogan's the warriors and and all those guys so they had to have a structured environment with a massive amount of egos that were going on then business has evolved since then you know and tony has evolved with it and i think that's the one thing about working with tony he's very collaborative on d's he's very excited he's very pro positive for the talent treats the talent amazing um you know but he also gives the talent to really express themselves like when a talent has a promo in aew that's the talent doing that there wasn't a writer that wrote it for him it wasn't an overall uh this is an idea of what your character should be from a company standpoint point no you're a talent i trust you as a talent um it's up to you go out there and get it done succeed and i think that's a really cool thing which helps me because then i get a chance to help some of these kids on the way so there's there's actually like i have value uh inadvertently to some of these talents because i can help them navigate some pitfalls and mistakes that i've made in the past i can help them uh not make the same ones hopefully and i get that's valuable to young wrestlers but what's valuable to the audience is still seeing you in the ring and i was on the train me in the ring yes i was hey if you're in the big guys in spandex we've got another show for you let's talk about that though because on the train down here today um a couple of guys were like oh you do that podcast high performance yeah who are you interviewing i told them the first thing they said is we'd love him back in the ring is there any chance 100 i you know I've been through hell the past seven years.

1:21:05I've had a major surgery the past seven years every freaking year. Do you know what it's like to rehab? Oh, something else breaks. Like literally, I equate myself to like an old farm truck. Once you get me started, I'll run like hell, but don't shut me off when you go to lunch because I ain't starting to tomorrow. Yeah, I've had both knees done. I've had both hips done. This first hip was the first one I'd done. I had five operations on the first hip. I broke the device. There was other complications. Part of being an acromegalyac is my bones are very strong. So my doctor told me we had to cut the old device out.

1:21:39He says, once these bone heals, he says, you can jump out of an airplane with your implants. I don't care. He says, you've got the hardest bones I've ever seen. Took him three and a half hours in over 1 ,100 hammer hits to cut the old receptacle out of my hip because my bones are that hard. Serious. So that's a bonus. But that means you can wrestle. 100%. The biggest thing has been getting in shape for it and also healing up from all the surgeries and the rehabs. Because, you know, some of these, like a knee replacement is, you know, 69 months. I've had two of those. Hair replacements, you know, six, seven months.

1:22:20All this takes time in rehab and getting stuff together. I was doing really good last year. Something started going wrong in my back. Oh, great. My spine's good. I don't have disc problems, which is amazing. But I had a little piece of bone that was growing right into the spinal cord. So they had to go in and trim the bone out. So that being done, I'm surged out. We're working hard. I'm working with Cena's trainer, Rob McIntyre, who's a great, knowledgeable guy. And we're pushing pretty hard. We did over three and a half hours last week of sled time, which is pushing a sled and pulling a sled.

1:22:59We're doing our weight training. We're not trying to be 500 pounds anymore. We're working for functional strength and mobility, and we're getting all that back. It's been a slow process, but I got to say this much. God bless Tony Khan for letting me have that dream of being able— Like, I could sit at the commentary desk, but Tony and I both are passionate that we want to get me in the ring and get me working. And believe me, it's not to steal any spotlight from the other talent because that's not my gig. You know, I've had my runs. I've had my time. I want to get in there and have some fun with the talent, you know, mix it up a little bit and just have some fun.

1:23:43You know, these surgeries and stuff, I do feel like part of my career got robbed from me a little bit. So yeah, and it's not that I want to go out in some big retirement thing or tell my story or some other kind of horse shit like that. That's not, I just want to have fun. That's all. Just have fun. There's things I can teach some of the kids being in the ring with them and working with them. Some intricate things with timing. You can talk to them on the outside and you can explain and you can watch a videotape. But there's a much better way to educate in a live audience in the crowd for feeling.

1:24:13and that kind of experience I definitely want to give to these kids before it's over. What sort of stuff would you say in the ring then? Are you saying like, wait, wait, wait, or are you giving them? None of your business. You lace up boots, I'll tell you. Until then, tough luck. Let's go.

1:24:28It's too, and I don't mean to be insulting by any means, it's more of you have to be in the fire and know what we're doing to understand the timing and stuff that I'm talking about. Because again, I can talk about it out here and you can think you can understand, but there's a difference in the ring there's a different feel to it a lot of what we do is feeling in that relationship with the audience and a lot of times you can't teach that or coach that you have to experience it if that makes any sense but you also said that you talked to them about avoiding pitfalls sure in their career what are the major pitfalls biggest thing I tell them all the time is to don't believe everything you read good or bad about yourself that's the biggest lesson I can give you because if you only listen to your followers on social media that tell you how amazing you are, that's not a good perspective.

1:25:14If you only listen to the haters on social media that tell you how terrible you are, that's not a good perspective. Find an honest perspective somewhere in the south of who you are. What do you bring to the company? How am I an asset? Am I good at interviews? Am I good at public relations? Am I good as an in-ring talent working with other talent? Am I a good draw? Am I an attraction? What do I bring to the company? It's JFK. Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. It's the same thing. what can AEW do for me? What can I do for AEW? If you have that attitude, here's my attitude on this.

1:25:46It's ABCs. Besides always be closing, A, get the match over. B, get your opponent over. C, will happen. You'll get yourself over. You take care of the first two things, the third thing's automatically going to happen. It's that simple. And there you go. If you were a wrestler, you just got coached. Thank you. I imagine it's a hard world to walk away from and not want to go back to. No. Is it not? No, it's a beautiful thing to be a part of, But like everything in life, there's a time when you have to step aside and you have to give others opportunity because that's a change in the guard. There's new audiences.

1:26:18There's new fans. You have to let them have their experiences. Sure, is it nice? Do I want to still have fun with that? Do I love experiencing that? Absolutely. But at the same time, I'm also very cognizant of it also being their time to grow. I want to be on those timelines and nudge them. Like, there you go. Nudge them. get them off the training wheels all right there you go downhill no helmet bike ramp go for it you know what i mean that's that's i want to see them because i want them to have the joy and the fun that i have i want them to walk through an airport and have everybody go crazy you know what i mean i want them to know what that's like you know i mean and they have the ability to do that even more so now with with social media and all the avenues they have now they have such a great opportunity to build an incredible platform to have a beautiful successful career i could imagine though with all the things we've spoken about here your ability to empathize you to see the world from somebody else's perspective and your desire to help and add value that makes you an incredible coach yes and no uh thank you for the compliment as i'm trying to make sure i don't fall out of your tiny hobbit chair um to me a good coach is someone like billy gunn i think Billy Gunn's one of the best coaches I've ever met in my life.

1:27:39He understands every mechanical dynamic of what needs to be done and also what they're trying to do mechanically. He's so brilliant and so patient, and he's beautiful to watch coach. And I say that in a very loving way. I can tell you what to do to work with a Giant or to be a Giant. some of the other intricacies or specializations if you will you know i'm not going to tell you how to do a 450 you know what i mean like you know um some of the holds there's a lot of guys uh william regal fit finley uh um uh tyson kidd i mean those guys they know all the the holds and stuff i mean yeah i know a headlock i know a hammerlock or wristlock probably know a couple more but that's not my okay thing and i would not try to step in and teach someone the proper way to take this or the proper way to do that you know some guys are very good at that understand that very mechanically and they're very good at translating that i work more on the other side of trying to find out who you are what you bring to the table because they're all the same moves in my brain.

1:28:57They're all the same moves. Everybody steals stuff from everybody. No one thing is going to make you amazing. It's how you connect with your audience is more important to me. How do you become authentic? Are you out there being your character? Are you out there pretending to be your character? Because the audience sees through it. Don't go out there and tell the girl, oh, you guys suck, so they boo you. Okay, that's cheap heat. You know what I mean? Okay, yeah, you insult somebody, yeah, they're going to boo you. Go out there with your work and attack your opponent in such a way that they hate you because you're a miserable piece of crap because of what you're doing in the ring now then we can talk because that's better and people throw stuff at you and they throw rocks through your rental cars and cut the tires on your bus and stuff like that then you know they don't like you and then you're doing your job oh yeah yeah yeah bricks through windows yeah you know they're mad when you get them that mad it's like yeah i gotcha yeah you know you won i know i won yeah do you think we've seen the end of uh brock lesnar in wrestling i don't know um that's that's a whole nother company a whole nother guy i love him uh we had some incredible matches together uh always had a great relationship but for me to try to analyze that is beyond my depth so you know i know who we will see at wembley you know who are we gonna see will osprey come on he's from london you guys came here promote your own guy Come on.

1:30:19We should get him on, actually. You should. Have you met him yet? No. What a lovely, lovely human being. Really? It's because he's British. It's how he's been. Well, I've met a couple of you guys. No, I'm kidding. No, he's just a tremendous, tremendous energy and a great asset for AEW. I'm so glad we have him. I'm so excited for him for this Wembley show. Like, I keep making a joke. Like, I just want to walk to the ring with you, kid. Just, you know, just so I can hear that pop for him and kind of pretend it's for me. like yeah I'm Will Hustle's bodyguard yeah no I think you'd get a similar reaction yeah we'll see you know that you would we'll see we'll be humbly grateful if we do get it can you give us any other little secret tidbits about what we can expect at Wembley come the summer well it's obviously it's one of our biggest global events so they're not gonna they're not gonna hold anything back from AEW you're gonna have championship titles on the line you're gonna have the biggest stars we have in AEW there's probably gonna be angles that'll end and angles that'll start So if you're a fan of all elite wrestling, that is definitely the night to show up to see it, especially here.

1:31:21Because I'm a very big proponent about building our international market over here. I want to see us, just from a talent perspective, I want to see us do the tours over here and hit the different towns. Sheffield, Birmingham, Glasgow, Dublin, hit all over here and hit all those great towns. Because it's good for the talent to experience that and get that feel from the crowd and the energy. I also think an AUW event is a brilliant mix of hardcore wrestling fans, but also if you've got kids and they've never been to a wrestling night before or a day, it's a great thing to bring in. It's also not picking fights or causing problems, but also you're going to get more bang for the buck.

1:32:02It's more reasonable ticket pricing considering what you're getting. You're getting a lot of show for a much more reasonable ticket pricing. you know it's a if you're a wrestling fan you're going to see great quality wrestling you're going to see you know all the stunts and all the things that go with it and all the the pizzazz so to speak at the same time it's going to be a good value for the family and everybody get out and have a good time it's great and you might get to see you know a skinny giant in Spandex so there you go hey that's enough of a reason there's always a win like who doesn't want to see that Well, we definitely do.

1:32:43Well, look, thank you to Tony for bringing it to the UK, for choosing Wembley, and for you guys for coming over and bringing us a great show. We can't wait to see it. Thank you very, very much for that. Thank you for the therapy session. How was that? I don't know. I'll tell you later when I see it. You're very comfy. I read somewhere, it was on another podcast, actually I heard you talking about on the set of the film Knucklehead when you broke down, and you said, I cried for the first time in my adult life. I did. That's not true. You've just been empathetic, caring, understanding. But that's just after Knucklehead.

1:33:13This is after the movie. So what happened that caused that? I don't know. I don't know. I think as an actor, of course, you always try to—they're very eloquent. Oh, you broke this channel. You opened this. I don't know what happened. I know that, like, I was thinking about traumatic things to try to get in the right character mindset. Yeah. I didn't quite, I feel as though, hit it, honestly, because—and then all of a sudden, one i got back to my bus it was just like hyperventilating snot bubbles i haven't cried like that since i was a kid i thought i broke something i really did i called mark forest you know it was like one of those and i didn't understand why i really didn't understand why i was why why i was that upset and crying and mark told me he says that sometimes as an actor you break through those channels like yes anger is a great channel for me i can do angry bang yeah That's a channel I've had because I've been competitive.

1:34:11I'm in sports. I understand adrenaline. That's a great channel for me. But the vulnerability side of it, I wasn't used to being vulnerable or having access to that vulnerability. That vulnerability was always things we do in private or we do alone. Of course we're vulnerable. But to do that in a performance standpoint, I didn't have a channel for that until that moment. And then it was like, okay, well, you know, if we're in a movie where we need to be sad, we can get there. But you've also said that you do an awful lot of reflection. So having reflected on that experience of breaking through that channel, what have you learned about yourself?

1:34:49Oh, I'm batshit nuts. I'm crazy. No. I think it's just, it's an interesting talent

1:35:02for acting or for performing to be able to be in touch with those emotions. Because I've done some films and some TV, and I really understand now what they're talking about between what's your motivation. You know what I mean? It sounds like such a, you hear that line, what's my character's motivation? Well, yeah, what do you need out of this scene? What does the scene need out of you? What are your goals in the scene? Where are you coming from? Where were you before? or where you're going after. All those things didn't make sense to me years ago. Now I'm really starting to understand what's going on, and if you find out where you are as a character, the words fall into place, and it makes sense.

1:35:46You're not pretending to be the part you are, what you're doing. And I think that was one of those little tools that you learn in acting. I mean, acting is a completely different skill set. In wrestling, a lot of things are bigger. They're more dramatic. And there's instant gratification because you get a response from the audience. You don't know when you're acting because you've got different takes, different moves. What camera shot are they going to use? Where are your head? The real pros that consistently can do that and do that well, it's a whole skill set. We look at some of our talents like Kenny Omega, Will Ospreay, how amazing they are to watch them do what they do.

1:36:25And then, you know, you can look at the same thing with great actors, how they have that skill set. So, yes, is it challenging? 100%. Have I read for a lot of roles that I shouldn't be casted for? 100%. But at the same time, it's still part of—it's just like learning how to take suplexes and hip tosses in wrestling school. You know, you would think as a giant I'd never take them, but there were points in my career I learned how to take them. I used to take Goldbergs. You know what I mean? So it's the same kind of thing. It's just a skill set and I enjoy it. As far as the emotional lesson from it, I think it's just part of maturing along the way and giving yourself grace to evolve.

1:37:08We've got some quick fire questions to wrap up the conversation with. Sure. The three non-negotiable behaviors that you think are most important in life. Non-negotiable, like this or nothing. And ignorantly rude people is non-negotiable. There's no reason to be ignorant. I have a zero, zero tolerance for ignorance. I've had young boys come up and say, hey, give me an autograph. And I'll say, hey, F you, say please. I'll check them real quick, hard. And then they usually get home training and they can kind of please, honestly, that's better, right? You know, I think that's the thing. poor hygiene is non-negotiable there was no reason to have bad breath or smell bad that's just you're disrespectful to yourself and everybody else around you that's that's a that's a big thing three three is tough i guess i'm not really that demanding a person you can have two i think two is just my thing just ignorantly rude i mean for no reason other than to be rude yeah you're in a bad mood so you're going to inflict your your ill will on everyone you're so miserable like look everybody's got problems dude get over yourself what's the greatest piece of advice you've ever received and why my grandfather i was uh 13 14 years old said only the best way to get a second kiss is never tell anybody you got the first what's your biggest strength my biggest strength um forgiveness i'm able to forgive a lot of people and myself for a lot of things lovely forgiveness i think is a good one your greatest weakness greatest weakness um animals animals yeah i love animals uh yeah cats dogs ferrets squirrels i love animals animals are great i love animals especially animals that we take care of as pets there's such a great relationship where they give nothing but love back and all you have to do is feed them and take care of them i think it's a it's a they have no idea how much they do for our souls uh you know i know they look at us as everything But, yeah, animals are great.

1:39:33And they have no idea how great they are. They have no idea how amazing they are, even fat Maui. Definitely fat Maui. And finally, your one golden rule that you'd like to leave people thinking about to live a high-performance life. A high-performance life?

1:39:51That's a good question. Why don't you guys hit me with some good questions? I don't know. I have trouble with that saying, high-performance life. what is a high-performance life? It's subjective. It is. You know, your high-performance life, you could be a great woodworker and build great cabinets. Correct. That could be your high-performance life. Maybe just big cabinets. I would say find something that gives you joy, whatever that is, and find something to do that because you need an outlet. Okay, if you have a job you have to do because you have to live, but that's not your dream. Okay, then find something else that gives you joy, But bring some joy into your life in some shape or form, whether it's friends, people, relationships.

1:40:35Find something that gives you joy that you make a priority in your life. I guess that's the only thing. Life is precious and life is all those beautiful things and also so many horrible things. But really life is what you make of it. So find some time to find yourself some joy. Listen, Paul, all of the links so people can get tickets and come and see you wrestle are going to be in the description to this podcast. Yes, Live Nation UK, AEWTIX.com, and I think something All AEW, I think, is another one. That's right. But beyond the event in the summer, thank you so much for coming on the show. Hey, thanks for having me.

1:41:20Yeah, I'm going to go out in the car and have a nice cry now, so thanks, appreciate it. But you know, what you went through in 2010, I'm kind of glad, because I think if we'd have had this conversation before that moment of breakdown on the movie set, it might have been a very different... I was a grisly bastard. Let's talk about wrestling. No, I'm kidding. I don't know. You know, it's the thing too. I think doing interviews like this, sure, we're here to talk about promote AEW and stuff like this. But at the same time, you know, this is good too. So much value for people. I think so, yeah. And what are you trying to do?

1:41:49Yes, we're trying to put on a wrestling show and we're also trying to give them value and what's my mission in life anyway? what gives me joy and that's you know making people happy either through my entertainment work or maybe my little dipshit philosophy so there you go thank you man give Fat Maui our love Fat Maui Fat Maui gets all the treats well thanks thanks guys brilliant really enjoyed that Damien Jake a master wrestler but a master storyteller and I think what really stands out for me is that I'd never really considered the pain that he went through at a young age actually made him the performer that he became in later life and i think without the diagnosis without the pain without as he described the real kind of deep embarrassment the suffering then i don't think he would have been able to be such a brilliant performer because that's all about tapping into emotion and his early years meant that he had to go deep on emotion because his life was full of emotion yeah that's that's incredibly true and i thought i thought what he offered us was an insight that any of us can apply if we've got young children or even to ourselves uh do you remember when we had richard osman on and he spoke about his height and he used that funny line where he said he regarded it as a as a lighthouse for dickheads that anybody would that would choose to lead with that as a comment he realized that they weren't prepared to look that little bit deeper at the person beneath and i think what that's led paul to have to do is reflects on what makes me special beyond my height, beyond my imposing physique.

1:43:20And that level of reflection has led him to find his talents, which is empathy, kindness, making people feel special, adding value to the world, which is what he's then forged his whole life around. I hadn't thought actually before we spoke to him how it must be when you have something going on physically that everyone judges you based solely on that. So you know, like when he was talking early on, I kind of got this feeling that he wanted people to understand that he's kind, he's thoughtful, he's empathetic, he wants a girlfriend, he wants to just blend in. He doesn't want you to immediately assume, because he's big, you must be looking for a scrap, or you must be challenging him for his muscles or his power or his strength or something.

1:44:02It's like, no, I'm tall, but that's not who I am, that's just what I am. I really felt that. Yeah, but I think that's a good reminder for all of us, isn't it? when we meet people in life, almost do what Charles Duhigg told us. Just ask those deeper questions beyond making the assumptions that we have for anybody. And it's a good reminder for us at our age as much as it is for anyone else watching this. Yeah. And I don't think he was expecting the whole therapy couch thing, was he? It reminded me a bit of Joe Marler when Joe Marler was like, guys, I'm in a therapy session. And I felt like that with him.

1:44:33He's like, this is like therapy. But what I loved was his willingness to engage on that, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. He's obviously a deeply reflective man anyway, and his own thoughts, his own life has led him to have to sort of go back and revisit incidents and explore them. But the fact that he was so willing to be candid and share what he'd learned in that reflection and analysis made him a really special guest. It's also worth, because I always think this is nice for people, worth sharing what he was actually like off camera when we weren't recording. Like he came in, all he wanted to do was talk about his cats.

1:45:05Yeah. He was talking about the fact that he had a cat that passed away, didn't he? and that the other cats were never allowed in the bedroom, but this cat, right, was given everything you could ever imagine a cat would want to live an amazing life. And then when that cat died, another cat was allowed in the room and he said the cat came in and he said if the cat could talk, she would have gone, what? The other cats get this? And I, he's just like, from minute one, he was funny. Yeah, definitely. But then he also told us, didn't he, about his love of reading and he loves fantasy novels. and he spoke about Scar, that Russian novel he'd read, that had traumatised him.

1:45:41I think that gives you an indication of he's a storyteller, but he's also quite an introvert. He's somebody that's had to go deep within and analyse his own inner life as much as the outer life tends to be the one that most people see first off. Thank you, brother. Thanks, mate. And if you enjoyed that conversation, don't forget we've got plenty more conversations with elite wrestlers and people that have really tapped into their emotions on this show. So feel free to check out the back catalogue. Of course, as always, you can watch on Apple Podcasts as well as listen. You can also watch the conversations on YouTube or enjoy them wherever you get your podcasts.

1:46:16Please pass these conversations to someone that you think would benefit from it or very, very simply and very quickly, hit subscribe. It takes moments. Most people that enjoy our show, they don't subscribe. If you do, it honestly changes the game for us. So please hit subscribe and we'll see you again soon for another episode of High Performance.

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