#2423 - John Cena

26:58So don't ever buy a protein bar. I'm just kidding. But no, I was kind of like a jack of all trades over there. And a friend of mine, Chris Bell and Mark Bell. Oh, I know those guys. Yeah, yeah. They literally were like, dude, you talk about WWF all the time. You know we train down in Orange County, and at that time Chris Bell was kind of like writing for this promotion. They're like, would you want to do it? And, man, that doesn't happen without them accidentally saying like, yo, we train to do this. His documentaries are fucking incredible. Bigger, Stronger, Faster. And then the other one, the pill one, what was that one called?

27:33Magic pill? No, what was the one, the addiction one that Chris released? But Bigger, Stronger, Faster is such a fucking great documentary. The Bell family, I've been friends with them for a long time. Great guys. Yeah. That documentary blew the lid off of the reality of steroids. Prescription Thugs. Prescription Thugs. That's another great one. Yeah. Crazy thing is he got addicted to pills while he was doing that because he had surgery while he was doing that and got addicted to pills while he's making a fucking documentary on people being addicted to pills. Wow. That's how potent pills are. A guy making a documentary about addiction, he just thinks, well, I'm just taking these because I got hip surgery and I'm in fucking agony, and then gets hooked.

28:19That's how crazy it is. Yeah, they're strong. Yeah, I would imagine. Did you ever have an issue? No. No, as a matter of fact, I've had fusion in my neck, right pec completely detached, reattached, both triceps reattached. Both triceps scoped. Nose relocated. Like I got, I probably, I'm in like 10 physical surgeries where they got to go and correct something. Never taken one pain pill. Wow. I have all the prescriptions in the bottom drawer of my house filled. And it's weird because at every facility, the first thing they, the first hill they climb is pain management. You wake up from anesthesia, you're like gray and murky.

29:06and I've been in a bunch of surgeries and a bunch of different facilities, the protocol's always the same. Do you want something for the pain? Here, we gotta make sure you take this with you because you're not in any pain. Yeah. Like, I understand because if you leave, if you're feeling okay, maybe you're high off adrenaline, I don't know, and then the operation sets in of like, holy fuck, this is a 10 out of 10. I can't, I need something. I get that. But I guess from falling down and hurting my body a lot, like I know my pain threshold. Yeah. And the worst one was probably the putting the whole pec back on and then attaching it.

29:42But when I woke up, I was able to mess around with a stress ball. I never took one pill. That's amazing. And I still have the full bottles. Some are labeled 2008 is when I had my first surgery. And they're just all there. There's a lot of people listening right now going, one of them's still good. You can count them all. One of them's still good. We gotta find out. We gotta find out where John Cena stores them. Yeah. It was weird because the medical staff couldn't believe it. They were like, you don't want anything. No, because, man, I know how I am with this. Yeah, it's a fucking slippery road.

30:13And I would just, I'd be high on opioids all the time. I got my first knee surgery, I think, in 93 or 94, and they gave me, I got an ACL reconstruction, and they gave me Vicodin, I think. I'm pretty sure it was Vicodin. I took one, one day, and I felt so stupid. I was lying on my couch watching TV, and I felt so dumb. And my knee still hurt. It was just like it was distracting me from the fact that my knee hurt. But I'm like, I can't be this dumb. I'm dumb enough as it is. I can't add to my dumbness with pills. I just saw it coming. And also, I knew a bunch of guys who had pill problems. I wound up selling my pills to a friend of mine that would sell pills.

30:56Gosh, I should have taken your idea. Could have made some cash. I only made like a couple hundred bucks or something. I don't even remember. It was like in the 90s. But I remember just that one pill. And so then every surgery I've had ever since then, they always offered me stuff and I never took anything. I got my other ACL reconstructed in 2003. Never took anything. I got my nose fixed. It's like 2008. I got my nose reconstructed, deviated septum. Yeah. The guy was insisting that I – he gave me two prescriptions for pain medicine. And I was like, I don't want anything. I was like, is it going to get worse than this?

31:30He's like, it could get. I go, right now it feels like nothing. Yeah. It's like, but if you've been, again, like you, you've been beaten up so many times. Your body, you're so used to just being in pain. And I think for some people, it's just the daunting anxiety of pain itself. It's like they just want a pill before they even realize, like, I could kind of just, yeah, it sucks, but it's not going to suck forever. It's going to heal. So let's just deal with the suck and just lay here. Put some ice on it or whatever and just relax. And along with that, it's kind of like your body's natural way of saying like, okay, maybe push a little bit more.

32:07Try to get a few more degrees of range of motion in physical therapy. Like if those senses are numbed. Right. And like shut off. Right. First of all, you do feel just like I don't want to do anything. So you won't work. In many cases, you won't work to do the work to get better. Right. Or. You just numb. You don't know the messaging. You can't listen to your body. Like if it's really, really in pain, maybe your body's trying to tell you something. I don't know. I always assume that people feel pain differently. I mean, I just would imagine. Like people feel hot sauce differently. Like some people, they can't have any spice.

32:43Some people fucking can have like, you know, death peppers and they're fine. So, all right, I'll throw that out to the group. Is pain a personal experience? I mean, there's no way I'm as tough as you guys. So, yeah, it has to be. But I think in other dimensions you might be way tougher. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe. I think there's something. You don't know Tony. I can't imagine the dimension. I went and visited a firehouse the other day and I was going down the pole going, wee. Like you guys wouldn't do that. I would do that. So in that aspect, you're tougher than me. Yeah, you could take ridicule.

33:18We could take ridicule really easily. But I don't know what it feels like for other people. You know what I'm saying? I mean, I would assume that everybody feels the same. But you know one of the reasons why I think maybe it is like it's different because my mom. My mom has a crazy tolerance to pain. Like my guy who my stem cell guy in L.A., my mom had a real knee issue and he was treating her as well. And he goes, it's hilarious. Your mother is just like you. She just takes it like she doesn't even flinch. She's sticking it like he's like that doesn't happen with like 75 year old ladies. like take a needle and shove it in their knee and and push it and she just doesn't move and you know she's like oh it wasn't painful it was no big deal it's like you know a lot of 75 year old ladies would be fucking sweating and freaking out and seeing the needle i would be yeah but i i i don't know you know i don't know what it feels like to other people like when i got my acl my right acl reconstructed it was a lot easier because it was a cadaver and i recommend it to anybody the difference between a patella tendon graft recovery and a cadaver recovery is literally like six months the difference is really the cadaver was so much quicker wow oh my god because the cadaver they take it i mean it's all swollen and everything afterwards but it's somebody else's tendon they take an achilles tendon off of a cadaver so it's 150 stronger than an acl they fucking screw that sucker in place little tiny orthoscopic holes not nearly as invasive and then five days later you You know Matt Lichtenberg?

34:49I went to his party for his birthday party five days later just walking around. And he was like, did you just have surgery? I go, yeah. It's not that big a deal. It feels fine. It was so much easier. The left one was brutal because they take a slice out of your patella tendon and then they take a chunk out of your shin bone and a chunk out of your kneecap. And then they use those to screw this new tendon that they created into the shin bone and into your thigh bone. That was rough. That one was painful as fuck. And it took a long time before it felt normal. It took a long time before I could go down on one knee again.

35:24When was that? It was in the 90s. And then the other one was? Early 2000s. 2002-ish, somewhere around, 2003. I mean, 10 more years of performance surgeries, 10 more years of medical. Yeah, I just think it's the difference. Because they still do that patella tendon graft. And I think George St. Pierre had it done that way. I know a bunch of people that I'm friends with had it done that way. And I was like, oh, don't do that one. Yeah. Do the cadaver. But people are worried, like, what if you get AIDS? Jesus Christ, you're not going to get AIDS from it. Stop. And it's also, it's like you feel better before you are better, unfortunately, because the way the tendon works.

36:01So when they replace a tendon with a cadaver, it's not like you have this guy's tendon in your body. What it is like is that tendon is a scaffolding. And then your body re-proliferates that with your own cells. So over the course of six months, my body had filled in all of what used to be a cadaver with my own cells. So you'll feel like it's better before it's better. So a lot of MMA fighters, they start training too quickly and they blow it out again because it's still soft. That's always the concern. It's always the concern. In any, you feel good. Yeah. Man, I can do this. Especially animals.

36:41You know, guys who are just used to pain and used to pushing, you know, and they just pop it out again. I know multiple MMA fighters that have had knee surgery and then blew it out while they were recovering. And just a few months more. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace. Here's a fun one. JoeRogan.com, my website. Yeah, it's built on Squarespace. It's the go-to for anyone who wants a website that not only looks slick, but actually works. Their design intelligence tool uses 20 years of know-how and smart AI to help you build something that's uniquely yours. In minutes, go to squarespace.com slash rogan for a free trial.

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38:35And then it's even worse because you've got to drill into the same holes and pull it out and open you up. And it's more invasive surgery. They've got to remove the screws. And fuck. Yeah. But I just, I don't think everybody feels pain the same. I think it's a genetic thing. It's just an assumption, obviously, because I don't feel what other people feel. But I think some people, just any kind of pain, it's just they can't function. They're just in agony. And I think those people are way more vulnerable to the pills. That's just my assumption. That's a decent perspective. I definitely – I would agree with pain is a personal experience.

39:15Like there are people who – I mean I've seen people like I can't believe you go through that. And then people would be like but you get the shit kicked out of you. I can't believe you do that. It's all relative. I would be shitting cufflinks if you get that stem cell needle out. I would be sweating right until the fucking final moment, like some stuff I can't take. You know, it's like I guess it is it could be combined with like what we fear in life or maybe maybe fear of hard work or fear of effort. Who knows? I don't know. I don't know. I think it's also being accustomed to pain. You know, if you did you wrestle when you were younger?

39:51No, I played football. You played football. Well, that's just like that in that you're always in pain. I mean, if you're playing football, you're always colliding with people. You got shoulders fucking with you. Your back's fucking with you. It's like it's never ending. I've always said that there's something, there's some value into losing a fight. Oh, yeah. I grew up with four brothers and we kicked the shit out of each other. And I was not always on the winning side. So very early on in my life as a young person, you know what it's like to lose a fight. Oh, it's very valuable. And I think that there's a lot maybe to do with the pain conversation there.

40:24It's like just flat out getting your ass kicked and then being able to dust yourself off. and be like, I'll get you next time. It's not over. We're brothers. We're going to fight again. It's also knowing why did he beat me. What can I do to beat him next time? If you don't have that in your life, also if you don't know what it feels like to get your ass kicked, you get a little mouthy. I mean, how many mouthy people do we know that have never been fucked up? And I think that's why. There's real consequences. If it actually comes down, you start yelling and you get mouthy. If it actually comes down to it And we've all seen many of these videos on the internet where someone just don't, they don't know what the fuck they're asking for, what they're getting into, and then all of a sudden they're getting hit.

41:06And man, I'm not perfect, and there are days where I'm short of patience, but when it gets to that weird spot of like, yo, someone's going to get hit in the face, I always try to like lean on diplomacy. Always. Always. Yeah. Please, let's not do that, because that fucking sucks. And I've had a lot of people say to you, man, if I was you, I'd be fucking everybody up. Dumb people always say that. Like, it doesn't end with that. Then this guy gets his brother or he shoots you or he runs you over with a car. Or you think you're going to fuck somebody up and you get fucking handled. Right. Like, you never know, man.

41:38You never know anybody else's story. You know? Especially today. You never know. There's so many people out there that train today. It's so much different than when I was younger. Like, you would assume that, like, I assume that a good solid 10 % of all men you meet have martial arts skills now. Because of the UFC. Popularity of it. Yeah. Certainly in Western society, there's a gym every plaza. Also, there's so many kids that watch UFC and then play practice with themselves. And you could learn a lot just doing that. Guys learn a lot just watching it on TV and then emulating it at home with their friends.

42:14You can tell those who watch WWE because when those moments happen, they try to do some crazy move. It doesn't work. How many guys have fucking thrown their buddy onto a conference table? Because they thought it was the way to do it. Oh, it's crazy. You know, I mean, the fucking sheer amount of punishment you guys put yourself through is staggering. I mean, it really is staggering. Thank you very much. It is all for the good. Like, it's like a pro football player, pro hockey player, UFC. I think the beautiful advantage that we have is that we can make choices on what we do. So when you're in UFC and they close the door, it's kind of fucking best person wins.

42:55You know, it's survival. When we're in WWE and we both step in the ring and they ring the bell, we're working together. We're working together to put on the best show for the audience. And in that process, you can calculate the risks you want to take. And I think that's what allows somebody to be able to perform for 23 years. You know, I don't know. I know that age-old stat that everybody says about like the average NFL career is what two and a half years or three and a half years I don't know what the stat is on average UFC career like how long what's your window to be functionally profitable in UFC but I know because our risks are calculated and we're working together rather than against each other the math is is way higher for you to have like a 10 15 20 year career in wwe but that also is 10 more years of falling down 15 more years of falling down so yeah it's weird like you can choreograph the risk but you have to do it time and time again and and the schedule in wwe just changed like to do 70 matches a year now in wwe is like man you you're a work we used to do 220 230 which is so crazy it's it 220 days of trauma in a year because you're No matter what, you're getting some trauma.

44:15No matter what. It is. A guy body slams you. Something happens. You're colliding. You go off the ropes. You're smashing into each other. I get such a warm feeling when first timers go into the ring for the first time. It's like, oh, it's like a bouncy floor. And then they fall down once. And the wind's knocked out of them. They're like, my brain moved. Yeah, yeah. Now you got to do that again and again. But it's weird. I've gotten to work with a lot of stand-ups. And WWE is kind of changing. I would say it's on the progression of a stand-up making it to just like a stadium tour. But man, when I performed, my sweet spot, we ran very parallel lives.

44:53Like I've worked every city, Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom to Madison Square Garden, like to the Saitama Super Arena, to AT &T Stadium, to Bangor, Maine, or to Valparaiso, Indiana. Like you go to all of these places. Yeah. And it's like Friday you're in one place, Saturday you're in another place, Sunday you're in another place, Monday you're in another place, Tuesday you're in another place. One day to drop your shit, one day to catch your flight out, do it again. Like it's kind of – we're kind of like touring stand-ups in that regard. Very similar. Yeah. And you're responsible for your own trans.

45:26And I'm speaking from my – I don't know how it is now because I got one left and then I'm done. But you were responsible for your own transportation, booking your own hotels. Like you were – they were just like, hey, we're starting here. running here good luck which is awesome because you create people are really independent when they when they go through that fire and you weed out the people who don't want to be there yeah because they're just a sheer work the sheer workload making those clubs and like making doing a tour it's also the adrenaline like it's like what do you do after a night like dude most jobs people can't wait to be done and then go home and relax and fall asleep where if you're doing stand-up or obviously wrestling you were just you're done late at night and you're like man What the water rush?

46:08Yeah. Fuck. What can I do better? This fucking killed. And then it's four in the morning. Yeah, you're buzzing. Yeah. You're buzzing. And it's also, it's really hard to have any kind of a normal relationship because you're just constantly not home. You're constantly gone. Like even your friends, like you really, as a touring comic, the best thing that I ever did is start taking friends with me on the road. Yeah. Instead of just working with like random guys that I didn't know in different towns. Those are fun sometimes. Sometimes, sometimes, like, you know, two out of 10 times you meet a new friend.

46:40Yeah. Eight out of 10 times you're with some annoying alcoholic who fucking sucks and they're annoying and then they want to take you someplace and, you know, you get in trouble. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's certainly the normal life aspect of it. It's also like at full tilt, it's a very absorbing thing. It's a very selfish thing. so I think not only you don't work regular office hours and you're a nomad a gypsy but especially from a WWE perspective you you have to like you're you're a startup founder you have to wake up thinking about it you have to think about it all day you have to go to sleep thinking about it wake up in the two hours of sleep did you get being like I remember this line or maybe we can do this stunt or whatever right and it's people who are in your sphere at least through my perspective and my journey, man, if you were in my gravity from like 2002 to like 2019, I wasn't a part of a team.

47:42You did it my way. Like bus leaves at 10. If you're there at 10.01, you're a fucking left. Like we're doing this and we're training here and then we're doing this, but it's, it's so it's so the end product is good. So like the dream job of like, man, I never, the six-year-old kid holding the paper belt can be an adult holding the real belt and get shekels for doing that and i don't ever want to i don't want to put that in jeopardy so you fuckers are gonna have to get in line and we're just gonna have to go like you you know i i i was absent a lot in relationships because if it wasn't on my terms it didn't exist you know because here you got you you catch lightning out of a jar i'm a kid from west newberry who's you know come from a family of five and we there's always more broke but man we were a good level of broke and then now like Like, hey, if you just work hard at this thing, you can kind of not ever be that again.

48:34All right, fuck this. I'm doing this thing all the time. But that comes with, hey, I'm getting married or, like, my grandfather died or I got a birthday coming up. Or, like, hey, man, you missed another Thanksgiving. You're damn right I did because I'm doing the thing. Yeah. You know, so it's all, for me at least, it was that as well of, like, laser focus, all things WWE. Well, it's that in everything that you do where you want to really be successful. It takes saying yes to the thing means no to everything else. I had Jensen Huying on the podcast the other day, who's the CEO of NVIDIA. Like one of the biggest companies on planet Earth.

49:14Huge company. Fucking dude still to this day works seven days a week. And he was talking about when he goes on vacation. I go, do you go on vacation and just put it all down? He goes, no, I work. He goes, even when I'm with my family, I have to work. I'm working. I work seven days a week. I don't take a day off. I love it. And he goes, and I'm terrified of failure. He goes, that's my motivation. My motivation is not I want to succeed. My motivation is fear of failure. Yeah. And every day I show up saying, if I don't do this, we could fail. And I'm going to work seven days a week. Everybody thinks they want to be a CEO.

49:48You think you want to be a billionaire. Like, you want to do that? You want to do that when you're 60 years old? Do you want to be working seven days a week all day long from the moment you wake up? He wakes up at 4.30 in the morning. He says he answers thousands of emails a day. I'm like, what? How is that even fucking possible? Gets up at 4.30 in the morning, answers all these emails, works all day long, constantly problem solving, making AI chips. It's fucking crazy, right? But that's with everything. You want to be at the top of the heap? There's only one way. Yeah, when you see something difficult look easy, there's a bunch of 4.30 in the morning wake-ups that made that happen.

50:28I think with everything in life, anything in life where you really want to excel at it, there's no shortcuts. It doesn't exist. That weeds a lot of people out. It does. It does. And there's a lot of, man, armchair quarterback is the easiest and best position on the field. Yeah. I can do that. All I needed to do was do this. Sure, go right ahead. Yeah. Take your best shot. Yeah, good luck. Yeah. It's interesting because it must weed out so many talented people. There's probably a lot of talented people that you've seen over the years that just didn't have that drive to constantly improve and succeed and really be thinking about what they're doing all the time.

51:02I like that statement because I think the talent is doing it all. You could have a – No, you can have one. You can smoke if you want. I don't care. We have fans in here. Yeah. Really? We have fans that suck out all the smoke. Okay. I think the statement of, man, so many talented people didn't make it. They may be an acrobat. They may be a fast talker. But that's not the only attribute that makes one special. You may be a great joke writer. But, man, if you don't master stage presence, you may be a great joke writer with stage presence. But if you can't lug the tour, you're not talented for it.

51:44Well, it's really the grind. It is. In everything. It's like the all-encompassing thing. So when someone with great athletic ability decides that it's not for them, because eventually that is— One thing about WWE, for all the arguments of backstage politico, everybody understands the sound of money, and no one refuses it. Like, I fucking hate this guy, but I got to give him another match. It may not be, but I now have to give him a 10-year contract. but when they go out there, if the noise is there, even if the they's fucking hate you, you get another match. I am proof positive of that meritocracy at work.

52:26Like, everybody fucking hated me. Why'd they hate you? I was just real different. Like, I was just really different. In what way? So I didn't ruffle any feathers when I kind of entered the business, kept quiet, did my stuff, but I also didn't connect with the audience. And I don't know, maybe you guys see this in stand-up or not, but then I got a personality of the white rap guy, the white hip-hop guy. You know about that? Yeah. Fuckonomic. I fucking went all in. Urban gear. And I'm a hip-hop head, so it's like, oh, man, this is my sweet spot. This is the avenue. This isn't all of my personality, but this is one level that I can show that I think everyone will get.

53:11So if you go to Madison Square Garden, you get it. But if we go to Wheeling, West Virginia, you'll also get it. And you may like it in some places and hate it in some places, but everyone will get it. I will not be selling apathy. But in doing that, I never followed dress code. I was saying disrespectful shit about my peers. Like, I kind of did it my own way. So I was kind of ruffling some feathers backstage or just, I was taking big swings. Because I was going to fucking get fired anyway. The alternative was lose my job. So I was like, fuck it, I'm going down swinging. and then the people behind the curtain were like ah the kid's disrespectful to the business he doesn't care about the business all the while I just want to keep my fucking job so the they's behind the curtain weren't really invested but they were also humble enough to be like there's noise out there gotta give them another match and one match at a time times 23 years of compounding interest we're here what did Vince think about your hip hop persona?

54:10He hated it and then loved it. He hated it and then loved it. And I think I'm thinking for somebody, but I think from his perspective is, like when I hear somebody's idea for a personality, man, I want to be this sports agent guy or whatever. Oh, yo, I have the idea of what that is in my head. And if their projection of that idea doesn't match my projection of that idea, I'm like, ah, fuck, I hate it. But that doesn't mean it can't work. So I think what maybe would happen was my perspective of the white hip-hop guy from the mean street of Wes Newberry and Vince's perspective of John Cena, the rapper, we probably missed.

54:51Like he had an idea and I had an idea. And usually he will craft it to his vision. I got to give him respect for allowing me to kind of run with it. Well, it's probably that fear of being fired that keeps you on the edge, too. Dude, that was it. Of the NVIDIA guy of, like, I don't want to fail. Yeah. I got the sit-down of, like, hey, we're going to cut you because it's not working. Like, you're out there for your matches. You hear the same thing. It's not working. And there's no argument there. I'm like, fucking all right. I got to touch the sun. I got to make it. I got to play for the Yankees.

55:26I got my one at bat. I'm Moonlight Graham. And then they heard me rap in the back of the bus and was like, man, Stephanie heard me rap in the back of the bus. It was like, you know, you want to do that on TV? I'm like, lose my job or fucking rap. Yeah, let's go. Let's do this. So it was Stephanie's idea? And it was a fucking accident, dude. It was an accident. It was my final overseas tour for the WWE. And the boys just spend time. Like, that's the one time they get the whole group together is overseas because you don't want to be herding cats like in Amsterdam or something. Everybody rides on the bus.

55:58you go from town to town. So like to pass the time, the boys just do whatever. And they were freestyle on the back of the bus. And I normally just fucking kept to myself because I was raised in the environment of like, keep your ears open, keep your mouth shut, don't do anything less spoken to. So I did that. But I also didn't make any connections with people who were putting their lives on the line for me. You know, some of the guys you really beat the shit out of in the rings are like your best friends. So I didn't have any of those connections. And I heard these guys rapping and I just remember playing roller coaster tycoon on my laptop, full matching up, putting it away, and be like, I'm going to the back of the bus.

56:34And just waited my turn and then filleted like 12 guys. Yeah. And Stephanie was like, how the fuck did you remember all that? I'm like, no, no, it's freestyle. You just make it up. And she's like, well, make up something about me. And we were boarding a plane. And I literally like utilized the plane, the people getting on the plane, what she was wearing, what she was eating. She's like, would you do this on TV? And that's where we got a chance. Wow. That's crazy. It wasn't like off to the moon. Like I got a shitty chance on a small spot and that worked. So then I got moved to like the dog shit Saturday night program that nobody watches.

57:11But the cool thing is no one's watching. So like I can do whatever I wanted. So I started saying more racy shit and dressing more outlandish and having more personality and like claiming ownership of the show. I call myself Mr. Saturday Night and it's the shitty show. You don't want to be Mr. Saturday Night, but I did. And then that got another match and got another match. And one by one, it kind of brought me here. Wow. Just a fucking happy accident, man. That's crazy. All the way to. And even when the bells were like, hey, the whole thing's a fucking accident. You want to start training? Fuck, yeah, sure, all right, great.

57:46You want to start rapping? Yeah, fuck it, sure. Let's see what happens. That's amazing. It's a happy accident. And for it to go all the way to last year's massive heel turn. Yeah. He went heel, dude. That was this year, by the way. Yeah. Yeah, that was this year. Yeah. It's been a year. It's been a year. Yeah, that was. That was a mania. And man, literally, perhaps, other than maybe Hogan, right, the greatest heel turn in wrestling history. When a good, good, good, good, good crowd-pleasing guy goes bad, bad, and dark, you had moments, the things you were saying, the way you were saying them, epic, iconic, iconic heel turn.

58:30Cold, dark, working with the Rock, he was in cahoots. That's the good guy Cody Rhodes. You can see the people's faces. That's the fun thing. It's like, the stuff is so simple, but it's the, if you take out the crowd in that situation and just put those three guys, it is really fucked up what we do. But when you add the audience in the back and all of their faces and what's going on, that's what makes me do magic. Bro, even your face. You got like a mean guy face all of a sudden. It's like you look like a different person. It's interesting. I was having a bad day. Well, this is also when you'd already done a bunch of acting.

59:05Yes. This is this year. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is February this year. Yeah. How much of the creative control do you have over the aspects of that heel turn? Like, for example, one thing that I thought was the coolest. My idea. I was in the front row of WrestleMania behind the Spanish announce table. So I'm directly across from the entrance, you know, the giant WrestleMania football stadium in Las Vegas. and there was no music and it was a black background. Normally he's the most color with the most iconic, loud, wild music, no music, black background, and in white letters it just said Sina. And you just walked out with literally the statement was, I'm not here to entertain you people, basically is what it felt like.

59:59And I loved it. I mean, this is the main event of Mania. You are so entertained. I mean, I want to entertain you. Fuck, I fucked up. Yeah, I have a degree in pro wrestling, but my master's is in heeldom. Like, it's like the bad, I just love a bad guy. And even ever since that bad guy turn, I feel like, and I feel like most bad guy fans do, now newly connected with the back to the return of the good guy Cena. Yeah, there it is. Oh, I mean, it was literally just. I used to come out like a Tasmanian devil. And it's just reversed it all. And it seems like nothing, but it's iconic. Just cold as ice.

1:00:42Everyone else for four hours coming out with colorful music and pyro and all this stuff. And there's the guy that normally did it the best and the biggest. Just really not giving a fuck. And WrestleMania, if you're going to do it, you'd give your best entrance for WrestleMania. And this was, I guess we were going for the shittiest one. But it just rang the opposite and simple and true. The Octagon isn't just in Las Vegas anymore. It's right in your hands with DraftKings Sportsbook, the official sports betting partner of UFC. Get ready because when Dwavishwili and Jan face off again at UFC 323, every punch, every takedown, every finish, it all has the potential to pay off in real time.

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1:02:1221 and over, age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction, void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Bet must win to receive bonus bets which expire in seven days. Minimum odds required. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.co slash audio. Limited time offer. So like, for example, those things, those details, that's you mostly pitching to the creative team. Like, for example, like even just the white letters, the black entrance. Is that, how does that kind of come together? So I think that's, and I've been lucky enough to kind of take this perspective of not knowing everything.

1:02:47And realizing that even with 23 years of fluency, I'm not the smartest guy in the room. I don't know the technology they have and what they can do. Now, granted, a black LED board, I could probably come up with that. But what I like to do is lean on my resources. Like, hey, let's go to production and see what production is thinking. and I don't want to tell them what to do because I want to hear their ideas first. And production was like, what if we just went basic? I'm like, how basic can you go? What if we just blacked everything out? Yeah, but I know from what you guys have said, you also like to light the, no, no.

1:03:23What if we just black everything out? You guys would do that? Oh, that sucks. Yeah, let's do that. So it's not me with all of these things. I don't have enough depth of field to touch all the bases, but I will go to every department and say like, okay, entrance is a big part of what we do. What do we do for lighting? What do we do for production? Go to camera. Like, how do you guys want to shoot it? And then it trickles down when you talk to the talent you're working with. How do we portray this message? And then of course it starts at the top with creatively, I want to make you a bad guy. So we're going to do that.

1:03:57Okay, sure, we're going to do that. How do you want to do that? But I think it's getting, we have a lot of talented people and just allowing them to do their job and let you know, like, oh, I was kind of thinking this. And then tell him, yeah, that's a good idea. Let's do that. Yeah. You know? That's amazing. Because I don't know what I miss if I'm making all the demands. To show you the contrast, his opponent that night came out to, I think it was 40 people on red, white, and blue dirt bikes. All dressed like American people. Nitro Circus. He comes out elevated from inside of the stage wearing this super gaudy mask that he has to take off.

1:04:31Fireworks, fireworks, fire, sparks, smoke. All of these different things and he just comes out blank faced. I just got my bunk sock on the back just right on There you go. It's so funny hearing Tony talk about this because for people who don't know the way Tony runs kill Tony is Basically a version of a WWE event I mean it really is like when he does the arena shows he's that has everything set up like a WWE event Yeah, I mean even the thing we did with Shane When Shane was playing Trump, when Trump and I were supposedly feuding online, Trump had said something about me online. And then Trump's talking shit, like as Shane's talking shit.

1:05:14And then the music plays and I show up behind him. It's pure pro wrestling. Oh, yeah. It's pure pro wrestling. And MSG's on their feet, shocked. You know, you're surprising this crowd that thinks they're just there for a comedy show. And well, there's the panel. I guess that's what we're going to have tonight. But the surprises, the ups, the downs. and then he brings up Joey Diaz. So it's like, boom, boom, kind of like that big finish at Mania that I was talking about. Yeah. Superstar bringing up a superstar, you know, music, music, smoke, fire. Yes. All these little things. The more you make it important, the more important it becomes.

1:05:49Yeah. What he's saying is like when Trump was there, this was as Trump was running for president and Trump thought that I was endorsing RFK so he got mad at me. So I said, I am here to endorse someone and I brought out Joey Diaz. Which is great because you're going to get a reveal, but you get a different reveal. And everybody went nuts. But it's like the audience, they're into it like they're into pro wrestling. They want all the heel turns. They want all the chaos. They want all the pageantry and the fire and the explosions and all the shit. Man, you get any live audience, they're into all that.

1:06:23Like watch a college football game. Watch a soccer game overseas or football, as they would say. Like the fans, it's like a group think of energy that's fucking nuts. Yeah. Like audiences want it. It doesn't matter where you're at. Like, man, when comics just go out and light up a stage and they have that fucking stage presence and they just slay a set, the fucking audience is rolling in the aisles. Like you let them in. And they can help make a joke that might not hit the night before. Slay. Like it's all about the moment. It's all about being there and reading the people. And the fun thing about WWE is you can go out there with an idea.

1:07:04And I can only imagine this as kind of like stand-up, where if you got your set and you tell the first joke to crickets, you may try another joke. And if that's crickets, you got to fucking pivot. So we go out and do something. And, oh, man, they're into it. Great. All right, we have them. We just got to maintain their attention until we get to act three, essentially. but if you hear fucking crickets you're like all right we're switching it up fucking pivot right now and you that's the beauty that's that's one of the things that i love the most is the it's not just me and the other person out there like the audience is the act every like that moment only means something if you put a blue screen behind the people it is super fucked up like what the fuck are they doing and why does that mean anything right but when you let the level of the audience and everybody's on their feet they're like no like it's fucking everything It's everything.

1:07:56That's why Tony's so interested in the coordination of it all, the setting and the sabotage and all the chaos that's involved in all of it. But these are human emotions that are universal. Everyone understands betrayal, jealousy, anger, disappointment, failure, excitement. These are universal things that if we don't speak the same language, you still have felt these things. And you could watch that. No one spoke in that clip. but you could watch that in anywhere in the world man that kid just got fucked over right oh what's gonna happen next like that's the beautiful appeal of it you know it's it's we don't hit too far above our weight class like we we try to send large-scale universal messages based on true real human emotion that we all know yeah and up to that day that moment like even that thing that we were just telling you about me bringing uh him coming out that being a reveal him bringing up diaz was coordinated literally i think 15 minutes before which is great time yeah like literally me with a with a big piece of paper going hey joe what if we did this he confirms it so i go to hair and makeup where they're finishing up shane as trump which in itself is just hysterical i pitch it to him he loves it i go to diaz i say rogan's gonna bring you up and and the thing happens quick whereas with almost you know every form of entertainment that we're used to other than wrestling and like kind of you know kill tony in this instance everything's so pre-planned that if we over pre-planned it we wouldn't have had the topical rfk endorsement because it was like news that day yeah sure and uh so again that inspiration you know totally comes from there because what else is doing that at msg 10 minutes before the show reorganizing things so now we have to go to production and go have rogan's uh led ready and then diaz in that order you know it literally comes from that and when it goes right there's not a better feeling in the world exactly I just get to sit back and watch.

1:10:07But it's so funny that that connection with pro wrestling is really why you've made Kill Tony the way it is. Without your love of pro wrestling, it would be such a different show. If it was just run like a traditional stand-up show, there's so much else going on that makes it the biggest show. Yeah. Well, it's long-term storytelling. We had a guy on on Monday that had been doing it 14 years. And man, he just, his timing was off. He struggled. Even after the minute, I go, you've been doing it 14 years? He goes, yeah, man. I go, what do you, how do you make money? He goes, I do this. I go, you do this for a living.

1:10:47He goes, yeah. I go, you must have better material. I'm going to give you another shot. Do another minute. Here we go, ladies and gentlemen. And I introduced him again. And he bombs again. And literally, I was talking with it, about it, with Stephanie after the show. because she just happened to be at Kill Tony on Monday. And she goes, a guy like that, you know, what happens next? I go, hopefully, hopefully, the guy gets pulled out of the bucket in a month or two, has a great set, puts it together, realizes, oh, his timing was off. He wasn't taking a breath. He wasn't connecting with the crowd.

1:11:24He was just memorizing his stuff. And the story begins to be told about this guy. And sometimes it happens in reverse. Sometimes somebody starts off, you know, fire hot. Rocket strapped to the back. Yep. And then, boof. And that's kind of the sadder thing, right, is starting hot and then never being able to touch that again. Have a moment like your first time. Well, it's like we were talking about people with talent. We all know someone who killed during open mic days that we were like, wow, this guy's going to be huge. They have, like, undeniable talent and they just can't manage it. They can't figure it out.

1:11:59They self-sabotage. They get addicted to drugs or alcohol or whatever it is. There are so many things. It's not just the ability to go out and do the task well. There's so many variables that will fuck you up. Yeah. Dude, you're right. So many gifted people have just had that roadblock in front of them. Which is why I think conversations with successful people are so important because you get to hear those stories. You get to hear, like with Jensen the other day, He was talking about how NVIDIA was basically bankrupt. They were on their way out, and someone gave them a chance. Like some one guy that was an investor gave them a chance, and then they wound up becoming successful.

1:12:40And then there was these moments. And people need to know that you're going to have those hurdles. You're going to have those roadblocks. You're going to have to figure out how to adjust. It's not easy. No one who— This episode is brought to you by Monster Ultra. Everybody knows the white monster. That clean white can, zero sugar, crisp. It's everywhere lately. Gyms, your favorite convenience store, studios, you name it. I see people toss it into their bag before training or a long drive. Big flavor, zero sugar, that same monster energy kick. But Ultra didn't stop there. There's a whole lineup now.

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1:14:49And I, so I've been through like three generations of knowledge and learning, 23 years in the business that are operating at a high level. I have seen thousands. And like, it is the, man, if you're a stud in peewee football league, then you go to this junior high school and then you're the number one player in college. And then you're the number one, number one player in high school, number one player in college. Eek out a spot in the NFL. and then a year later you're gone because the funnel just gets so thin. Like WWE has like 200 personnel in their NXT development program right now. Maybe 10 will make it.

1:15:30And of those 10, like really, honestly, maybe one will make it. And what the hope is is over a six-year period of those classes of 200 that get matriculated probably every four months, so we're talking 6 000 people i'm i'm hoping one makes it wow in in five or six years i need one because my top guy right now my roman reigns and cody roads and and the charlotte flares and becky lynch's of the world like um they'll they'll last half a decade to draw maybe if we're lucky maybe we'll we'll get it more they can you know maybe parlay it into a decade or two but that's an anomaly you got to play the the legit math of like after five years i better have somebody in the on deck circle so out of like five six thousand i just need one but it's still everybody's biting their fingernails of like we don't have the person yet it's so many folks just don't make it just don't make it yeah that's that's the parallel to stand up yeah it's man so that you know there's so many people that we were talking last night in the green room thousands and when i see them like in the ring do stuff i'm like i could never do that but they just won't they just don't make it It's just there's so many things that fuck people up so much self-sabotage So much inability to stay the course our own worst enemy mm-hmm, you know, I don't know yeah, I don't know Yeah Yeah Happy accidents though.

1:16:58Fuck it. Well, yeah happy accidents, but not just that it's you being able to stay on course And you've been able to recognize that you know, okay, this didn't work. What do I do? You want me to rap? Okay, I'll fucking rap. Like, a lot of people would have been like, I'm not fucking rapping. That's beneath me. Yeah. I'm here to be a wrestler. Yeah. I'm not a gimmick. I'm not going to be a buffoon. Yeah. I'll be a buffoon. Yeah. Because it beats working a real job. It's not only that. It's part of the entertainment of it all. Even the cringe aspect of it. Yeah. Where people are like, what is going on here?

1:17:32Yeah. Like, it's great. He loves that shit. Oh, it's the best. The best. You know who my guy is right now? Dominic Mysterio. Love Dom. Oh my god. So he's Were you No you're here. You weren't at Petco were you? No. Oh gosh we had fun over there. I bet. I was I caught a lot of it yeah. Man that kid's good too. Like good human being I happened to be in Salt Lake City doing a gig I was doing stand up in one arena and the WWE happened to be in the other arena in Salt Lake City just a few weeks ago and I'm like ah darn but I look it up and it's a 5 p.m. taping of WWE so I hit up my friends at WWE I go I'm coming in I'm bringing my openers right uh anyway Dominic Mysterio's in a triple threat match and his whole thing is he's wrestling royalties Rey Mysterio's son but he claims that he might be Eddie Guerrero's son because he because his father's you know one of the ultimate good guys of all time.

1:18:34So basically he takes on the traits of Eddie Guerrero, whose whole thing was cheating and lying and stealing, breaking the rules in original ways all the time. And he's doing a triple threat match, which means there's three guys at once, right? But if someone beats anybody, you could lose your belt. And his Intercontinental Champion, I think it's Intercontinental, right, is on the line. And he gets thrown outside the ring. And I'm having fun, right? I go, Dominic, cheat, do something, right? And he's kind of on the other side of the thing. And he lifts up his head and looks at me and goes like that.

1:19:12He gives a big wink. And then he goes back down again. And I'm cracking up. I go, did you see that? I'm next to Pauly Shore. I go, did you just see him wink? He goes, yeah, man. What's he going to do, bro? I don't know. But these two guys in the ring are wrestling. And one of them has the other one in a submission hold, a camel clutch. I can't remember who it was, but anyway. And I literally, even me, watching since I was a kid, and even though he just winked at me, it was just enough time. I forgot that Dominic was over there because this action in the ring is really happening. Something's about to happen.

1:19:47And you hear the bell ring. And I look over, and there's Dominic with the hammer in his hand ringing the bell. and the guy lets go with the submission and the referee goes what the hell and something i hadn't seen in 35 years of watching this thing he was he's innovative enough to find a brand new way to cheat in this twice yeah a brand new way to cheat and the crowd everybody's cracking up yep It's a whole new, right when you think you've seen it all, this guy who you would love. He's literally built like me. He flexes like Nate Diaz without flexing, and he's just braggadocious. Oh, yeah. He thinks he won.

1:20:33But the ref's like, no. And hold on. I got to Dominic. He just loves it. Yep. There's our guy.

1:20:48Dirty Dom. Yeah. And the crowd just loves him. That's all of us right there. That's Matty Edgar, Joe DeRosa, Pauly Shore, me. It was DeRosa's first real wrestling event. He had the time of his life. Childlike wonder. I love getting people in there live for the first time. Yes. There's something funny about a pro wrestler that's not built to. Oh, yeah. And he's the champ. And all these other guys, that guy pented. Man, he just whipped my ass. Dirty Dom. He just whipped my ass. For real. I just lost the Intercontinental Championship to that son of a bitch. Look at him. Covered in gold. Yeah. Probably, what, 5 '9", 100.

1:21:28No, he's a tall drink of water. He's taller than me, but he's 170 pounds soaking wet. Yeah, exactly. He's such a uniquely American form of art. Yeah. It really is. It's weird because in pockets of the world, like it's Japan has their own style of doing it. Latin America has their own style of doing it. The UK has their own style of doing it. But this. Yeah. Like the Japanese is very strong style with respect to martial art. The English style is very like catch as catch can. A real like technical expose. The Latin American style, the Mexican style is high flying. The American offering of like steak, sizzle, apple pie, ice cream, 4th of July, everything like huge.

1:22:12And that's all Vince, right? A lot of it. So is it all ever one person? Right, it's not. A lot of it is. A lot of it is. But like promotions like world-class championship wrestling were some of the first to use music. Vince was the first to be like, rock and roll, get over here and get on cable and let's blow this thing out. I want to do it. It's not just something we have in a local VFW with cigar smoke and guys taking side action on carnival tricks. No, this is a fucking thing. And we are going to make this a fucking thing. Yeah. You know, it's also a fucking thing where it's a lot of it is not televised because you're just traveling around the country doing these shows.

1:22:53Yes. So that that the business model has kind of changed where media content is king now. So from what I understand from TKO and I know their executives will correct me. But from my perspective, we have scaled back on the live event only offerings, which helps, you know, lick the wounds. It's weird. Like, you don't bump enough or you don't bump as much, but you kind of need to get in there and bump to get your callous and to get your wind and timing. So it's kind of you get your signals crossed. But anyhow, the content that is provided is always available for media or 99%, where it used to be the opposite.

1:23:32We used to do, like, four live shows, one TV taping. So you'd have four live shows under your match. You know, you do, you do like Lafayette, Little Rock, Pensacola, and then TV in Orlando, you know, and that would be the end of the run. And then you do it again of like Bangor, Portsmouth, Providence, TV in Boston, you know, like, and then you'd go for another week and go somewhere else. But it's different now. It's like every piece is televised for the media, which is great because we get a lot out to our fans across the world. but like I learned I learned how to fail in those non-televised events I could take big swings because it's like man if I'm on the middle of a card in in Valparaiso and I kind of fuck up in a gymnasium with 3 ,500 people they might they might tell me to fuck off but there's also the last match that's going to send them home happy so let's try this new weird thing and that's where like me being invisible starts you know it's just like ah I can try it who cares because it's an environment where you don't want to fail and now it's we there's way more advantage on getting our content out there but production is super slick it's like really precise everyone's really good and um i don't know how many people go out there and just like like dom like that was an example of swinging big i'm gonna fake ring the bell right will people even get that who cares let's try it Like he's the only one of those guys who will, or very few of those guys will stand on an idea like that.

1:25:05Where the other guys are like, no, I want to have a good choreographed performance because I want my stuff to look good because it's on television and going around the world. I loved the non-televised events. But there's just, there's not, it's not a good business model. So how does a young person coming up now learn how to fail? That is, I think, a conundrum that we're facing. because you're failing in front of the world. Right. It's weird. You can have... It's like you work out your set, but you can't do it on small clubs before you go to an arena. It's like you would work out your set at home and then you just play the Intuit Dome or you play Barclays Center.

1:25:47You don't have a small room to be like, all right, I landed. Oh, man, I'm going to rework that one. You don't ever have that. You just have this... you put it together in your head, you think it's okay, and then you're out there. So I don't know. I'm not saying it can't work. I think it can because analytics show that it does work, and we have a lot of people watching now. But from my perspective, I really enjoyed the carefree nature of just going out and being ready for anything and it being okay if I fucked up and I failed. If I told some bad jokes, I could come back and be like, that didn't work, that didn't work, and then you have a partner to be like, oh, and this didn't work, but this slayed, why don't you do this again?

1:26:32Literally, that's where this came from, just fucking around at live events, and oh my God, there's noise, I'll do it tomorrow night, we're in a different town, let's see if they can. How did you come up with that? It was a dare, my brother, happy fucking accident. My brother dared me to do it. Like when we, when I was in the middle of the rapping wormhole, I made, I'm a platinum rapper, I made my own album, so like. In making, yes. That's amazing. Drink it in, drink it in. In making the album, we would bring home all the tracks. And like my little brother was our test audience. And he would do this dance where he would like shake his head and keep his hand in front of him.

1:27:10I'm like, that is, man, look at you. He's like, you won't do that on TV. And again, I was on the programs that no one was watching. So it's like no one's watching anyway. Yeah, fuck you. I will do it on TV. and I did it on some meaningless Saturday show and there was a little bit of noise. So I took it with me on the road for the next week and did it on the live events that weren't televised. There's a little bit of noise. Okay, like this is my thing now. This is my thing. And I just, you can't see me. And like that's, now it's a thing. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. So I did it on a dare. Wow. But like I also had, I was in a place to be able to tell my brother, okay, I can waste two seconds on an inside joke between you and I.

1:27:55That's the dare. It's not going to ruin the match, but if you're watching, if you're the only one person watching Velocity that night, you'll be like, inside joke, got it. All right, let's like shouting out your gaming group. Like seven people get the joke, but this is one of those things where it kind of fit and it stuck. Wow. It's just so many of those things in your life. So many of those like fortuitous moments. Well, you know, admittedly, I have an optimism bias. I will admit that. But life will deal opportunity. It's a matter of understanding that it's happening. You know, don't get in your own way.

1:28:36Yeah. Like, say, yeah, come here, sit with you guys. This is a new experience for me. Like, yeah, let's do it. Okay, great. wait, man, first wrestler to ever retire. Yes, that's a good idea. We're just going to do it. Yeah, but you'll never be able to come back. Yes, but let's just do this thing. Like life is throwing me an opportunity to create a year's worth of programming narrative that I think will be interesting. The alternative is to do what everybody else has done and maybe hang on too long. People are like, man, you should have left a few years ago. No, let's do this. Rap, let's do this.

1:29:08Do you want to train? It involves you working at this shitty job where you're probably going to try to be a cop and fail. that was going to go down and join the Marines. That's lifelong employment. I'm really good with structure. I dig uniform. Like, give me what to do and, like, a code of conduct to live by. I have a feeling I would have fit in there great. I love being in shape. They feed you over there. Like, I think I would have done okay. But life put an opportunity in front of me, and I was stupid enough to say yes. Going out naked in the Oscars. I was just on Jimmy Kimmel last night. He's like, man, you want to do this bit?

1:29:40I'm like, dude, I am super tired. I'm on a different coast. He's like, let me send you the bit. And I read it. I'm like, yo, fuck. All right, I'm going to do it. What'd you do? This episode is brought to you by Gold Belly. Gold Belly ships legendary food from America's best restaurant straight to your house anywhere. Guy Fieri's trash can nachos, Terry Black's brisket in Austin, New York bagels and cheesecake, Chicago deep dish pizza, Pat's cheesesteaks from Philly, even Ina Garten's famous coconut cake. And for your holiday table, they'll ship you the OG Madden turducken and fully cooked deep fried turkeys from Texas.

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1:31:47Give the gift of smooth this holiday season with the Performance Package 5.0 Ultra. It even comes with two free gifts, a pair of boxers, and a spiffy toiletry bag. Get 15 % off with the code JRE at manscaped.com. That's 15 % off plus free shipping at manscaped.com with the code JRE. Shuffled out there with an index card over my dick. Oh, that thing. Yeah. Yeah. But like, man, in a room full of not even peers or contemporaries, like the pantheon of the professional goal that you try to reach. I don't know any of these fucking people. I don't belong in that room. Right. He's like, yeah, man, just kind of walk out there naked.

1:32:30It'll be a fun bit. And he's right. It would be a funny bit. But I could have got in my own way of like, now I got to fly. I'm exhausted. I'm going to make a fool on myself. I don't know any of these people. It's my first impression. I can sit on the couch. Like, that's the easy part. The tough part is like, life has dealt you this opportunity. Fucking say yes. 15 minutes before the show when you get a good idea. The easy thing to do is be like, do the show. The hard thing to do is be like, yo, let's fucking swing. Let's go for it. So it's not like I think those moments happen to a lot of us. And it doesn't have to be a lottery ticket.

1:33:07Granted, holy hell, I've been given a lot of lottery tickets. But it could be something as simple as like, yo, you're in a crummy mood. Find a way to be kind. Like life just gave you an opportunity. The person getting your coffee was like, yo, have a nice day. You could stay crummy or you could be like, fuck, thank you very much. appreciate that appreciate your time like that's an opportunity you know life is just a matter of like us reacting to what life throws at pivotal decisions and it doesn't need to be a world changing decision i think now i don't want to say nowadays i think we always think that like the decision needs to change the world no it's you just need to fucking commit and do something as a 12 year old i want to start working out and i liked it and i just fucking keep working out And now I can't live without it.

1:33:54It's part of my life. It's a fabric of my life. But in working out, I've learned structure and discipline, accountability, essentially budget. If you take in too much and you don't spend enough, you're going to have some excess. Like these lessons that opportunity can teach you if you allow it. Me fucking up. The thing I spoke about at the beginning. Like the easiest thing to do is your fault. but if I take it as an opportunity of like all right you missed what did we learn where's the game yeah you can move forward and I can move forward and wholeheartedly apologize to those I've hurt along the way and they don't need to forgive me that's on their terms I can't control that but man the sleep is a little more sound at night knowing like in learning this lesson or having this opportunity fuck dude I kind of trampled on your shit and I'm so sorry like I I had such a shitty relationship with my dad.

1:34:50And just recently, we've mended fences. And he's 80, so I'm glad I've done this. Because, I mean, we don't last forever. We're all going in the dirt soon, you know. But I just wanted him to be something else. I always wanted that motherfucker to change. I wanted him to be something else. And finally, I got out of my own way. The hard thing is meeting that guy where he's at. The hard thing is allowing him to be who he is. Take the weight off my backpack and say, like, yo, I might have needed you. to be this in my life. But because you weren't, man, because of your absence in being the dad that I had in my mind, I got all these fucking cool male mentors who gave me a key to the gym at 15 and said, you better fucking be here in the morning.

1:35:34And like, dude, I still can feel a key in my hand from Dave Nock. The dean of students at Cushing Academy who bet on me, he was like, man, if you get your grades from C's to A's and you play two varsity sports, This place cost, in 94, this place cost 35 grand a year. We will give you aid, and you will have a place to learn. And that allowed me to become an adult. It allowed me to, the opportunity of being in a diverse group of students who, man, there's like royalty that goes to that school. And then there's fucking poor kids. My roommate was a basketball player from Compton, and then we got kids with generational wealth who they're naming buildings after.

1:36:11but when it's just like 450 kids in a social experiment money goes away and you just you you just kick it so i learned to be friends with everybody but i wouldn't have learned that in west newberry where it's 99.9 percent white 1200 people in the small town no stoplights you either leave or you never leave like just little little things like that you know what i'm saying like little like man i should do this and deciding to meet my dad where he's at and be like dude whatever i thought you were you're not you're just you and i love you for you and man when we sit there's some shit that he'll say that's all fucked up you know he said some shit yesterday that like i don't think john's last opponent should be there and people listen to him because he's a wrestling fan he's like in the kind of like the weird subculture zeitgeist and i want to call my dad i'm like what the fuck are you doing but then like no he's doing what he does this is him this is the dad i this is the john cena i love this is this is the guy i can sit down with and and and part of that is being able to process all that but the opportunity i get from that i've learned about my father's story i've learned about what he what he wants to do with his life why he does what he does maybe what he wanted to do dreams he didn't have so i can gain wisdom from there but it's just that's the hard part it's like getting out of your own fucking way to do the thing you really want to do The easy thing to do is a holy grudge against my dad.

1:37:35What I really wanted to do was tell my dad I love him and sit down with him and be like, yo, let's fucking break bread. Talk about whatever you want. And now we do that, and it's great. But that's a small example of the easy thing to do is sit on the couch and say, fuck it. Somebody else's fault. Right. The tough thing to do is like life is handing me a moment right now. And, dude, I don't bat 1 ,000. I mean, it's more like Major League Baseball. I'm hoping 300 gets me in the Hall of Fame. Like if I can capitalize on 30 % of the moments that life gives me and squander the other 70%, I believe I will go into the ground being like, man, I earned life.

1:38:10If you can capitalize on 30 % of the moments, you are in the 1 % of human beings that have ever lived. I earned life. Yeah. So I'm just trying to get that, make it to Cooperstown. Yeah, that's the reality. And also the reality is if someone doesn't give you what you need, it gives you a desire to get what you need. sometimes it's a gift to not have like doting parents like yeah i'm like oh my goodness like i said i would never have gotten those the beautiful guidance i got it in life i always had father figures because i was searching for it and they they found me and i was also savvy enough to be like this guy needs to stick in my life for a little bit it sucks and he fucking pushes me but i gotta keep this guy around like just weird stuff like that.

1:38:57I hear a lot of wrestlers a lot of times. What do you want to do here? I want to be champion. Okay. The math of that's really slim. I never wanted to be a fucking champion. I just wanted to wrestle. And if you're good, it'll take you places where one day you can hold one of those. But if you start with the goal of, I want to hold one of those, man, am I pigeonholing my goal? What the fuck do you really want to do? I just wanted to wrestle. And if I got fired by WWE, I would have tried to go to Japan. I would have tried to go to Mexico. I would have tried to go or the UK, fuck it, because I just wanted to do it.

1:39:30But that also meant I would put my best foot forward, and I wasn't shackled to I need to be champion or I'm not validated, I'm not successful. Right. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Just give me a chance to go out there and get the noise, and whatever else falls into place, fuck it, cool. Because what I want to do is just go out there and be in the arena. It's funny because they talk about the noise the way we talk about the laughs. Yeah. It's the same thing. It's the same thing, man. It's the same thing. Yeah. And I don't need to be the most decorated person. But it's weird because in not even trying, I have a resume that people will now measure up against.

1:40:05Like, oh, you've got to win X amount to pass the hurdle. So it's weird. Like, I didn't even try to do any of that. All I tried to do was, like, you'll just get me out there. And when you look at what I've done, and you've followed a bit. Like, it was weird. I was in the main event of WrestleMania this year. and to talk to people they were like oh man that's crazy the last main event of wrestlemania i was in was 2012 so you'd think that like oh john cena this guy's everything handed to him he's always at the top that was my first main event wrestlemania appearance as an attraction in like 13 years and in that span i worked new wrestlers i worked for lower level titles i sat ringside and crushed three beers and then got fucking squashed by the undertaker as a fan yeah like i did all sorts of shit you know but because it was never about like i'm not a success unless i'm in the main event of wrestlemania no that's just a position with a ton of stress just fucking get me on the course just get me in the arena have me in section one shaking hands with people from australia and i'll make it the best fucking time they ever had it doesn't matter like just get me out there what i don't want to do is sit on the bench right you know so how did you go from that into acting like what was your first so originally it was a business choice vince opened wwe studios and with the idea of if we make these guys movie stars more people come to the arena now as a young 20 something on the road people chant your name every night i'm like more people in the arena that sounds fucking great and his first movie was supposed to be with Steve Austin and it fell through.

1:41:49They were about to shoot in two weeks, so movie pre-production is way longer than that. But he was like, you're going to Australia to film this movie The Marine. And it was tough. It was tough. I went from arrive in a town at noon, work out, get a good meal in, crush the show, have some beers on the ride to the next town, fall asleep, do it all again, and it's like this whirlwind of electricity to, okay, you're in hair and makeup at six o 'clock. We're doing an explosion today. So the lights are going to be weird and we probably will get to you around 5.30 PM. You just said it's six in the morning.

1:42:25Yeah. So what the fuck you want me to do from here until 5.30? Just hang out. And I couldn't, like as a young 20 something, I wanted to be in the electricity. I couldn't handle the nature of the business. And therefore my passion wasn't in it. I wasn't fully invested in it. I am fucking here with you guys right now. We are talking about this. My mind isn't elsewhere on other shit. I want this to be, I want to give you all I got, so I'm here with you. I was never there in those movies. I was always back in, fuck, maybe if I had the feud with this guy or if I could have done this, I was never there.

1:43:00And you could see it in the performance. So I kind of got run out of the movie business. I did so many shitty movies in like 2009, 10. My best friend, agent Dan Boehm at the time, I was like, man, we're never doing movies again, right? And, you know, as an agent, you're supposed to be the guy to pick you up. He looks at me dead. He goes, nope, we will find another way, though. He was honest. We are never doing – we are run out of town, but we'll find another way. So we did. We did – hosted some live shows, hosted some game shows, did little appearances here and there. And then Judd Apatow and Amy Schumer gave me a chance on, gosh, Trainwreck.

1:43:39and it was a very small part but again like just just get out in the arena and do your best and and look i was in a fucking room with comics like funny people i don't belong there but they they created an environment where i wasn't judged they only showed the good jokes they didn't show the fucking 20 takes or i tried to tell jokes that sucked the only ones that made the final cut were the ones that made people laugh. So they provided an opportunity for failure. And at that point, I've been playing the same character. This is 2014, 15. I've been playing the same character on TV for 15 fucking years.

1:44:15And now I'm like, yo, I get to do something different? I can do this for 12 hours. You want me to sit? I'll go fucking read a book. I don't care. I'm in. So I accepted the patient process of movies. And then after that, I got a little bit of noise in Trainwreck. and then Judd sent word to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler who were filming Up the Road in Long Island and be like, if you got a spot, you should hire the kid. And they made me a drug dealer in their thing and then like things started to roll downhill but it was very, very small parts at a time and here I am, that was 2015, here I am a decade later and I'm still trying to advance to fluency.

1:44:53By no means am I like, I'm the 17-time champ of the acting community. Those are the motherfuckers I was looking at when I was naked, you know? Right. I'm aspiring to try to be that. But it's basically the pivot happened when I was like, yo, if you just invest in this, the hustle and patience you put into wrestling, at least you know you gave it your all. You know, be coachable, be professional, be reliable, be interested, and see where the chips fly, and fucking say yes. Well, it's also you had the objectivity, like the introspective objectivity to look at your past performances and say, I wasn't really in there.

1:45:37I wasn't. And I got run out of town. Yeah. I lost the job. So, like, here's that mulligan. What? Fuck, I'll never work in this town again. I will? All right, let's go. Let's try. What else could go wrong? They've already fired me. You know? So, again, an environment and no one does it alone. The people I was around, Tina and Amy are the same way. Like, only show the funny shit, but try whatever you want. Like, fail. It's okay. And just because you're around people who do comedy for a living, all we need is three seconds. And we'll be patient enough to give you what you need to give us that three seconds.

1:46:12Hmm. You know? Yeah. It's just such a fun story. You know? And there's only a few guys that have managed to make that leap from WWE. Obviously, The Rock is the big one. Sure. You know, I mean, he's the biggest one. Make that leap and now become a giant movie star. Well, I think it's a leap a lot of people can make. It's not from lack of talent. We talk about, like, obstacles and, like, we're in our own way. WWE is all-consuming. And you got to remember, like, I was their biggest act. So at 220 shows a year, for me to be like, hey, I need six months off to film this action movie, that really fucks with the bottom line.

1:46:54Oh, yeah. So the answer's no. Right. You know, and now with less live events, it's still you want to be on television. It's like, okay, I need to somehow leverage my relevance with this to what it's going to do to film that. In WWE, if you're not, I'm going to retire on the 13th. They will be moved on by the Royal Rumble. And that is real facts. I will be forgotten. That is not a plea to sympathy of like, always remember me. by the Royal Rumble and the Roads WrestleMania, nobody gives a fuck because they're focusing on what the show is. That's like three weeks after I retire. Three weeks after I retire, nobody's going to give a fuck.

1:47:36And that's not, I'm not saying like what I did was meaningless. I've lived the moments. They're great. People move on. So when, if I'm a talent who's on TV and finally got one of those spots and edged my way in, do I, is this the right time to leverage taking myself off a TV to do four months on something that isn't going to come out for another 18 months. And then I got to go back to TV, hoping people still care that my, my ring work is still polished, that I still have my finger on the pulse. Like it's, it is, we can get in our own way sometimes. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So I, I, I was just at the point in 15, 16, 17, where I was like, man, my body's kind of banged up.

1:48:19I'm a little older. I would like to take some time off. and how I talked about like every five years you needed somebody in the on-deck circle. So I'm running at the front for like 15. They needed someone in the on-deck circle. And then they finally got some folks. So they're like, yo, we got folks. Yeah, go do the thing. It's fine. Go do it. So my passion for it was ignited at the perfect time when the office side of it was like, that won't affect our bottom line too much. Go give this thing a try. So, again, just a happy accident, man. And I'm grateful for it. So now you're in the situation, you're going to retire.

1:48:58Yep. And then are you just going to go all in on acting now? So that's, again, beyond my control. If I could... Is that the goal, though? Is that what you would like? The goal is to live useful. That's it. The goal is to live useful and not lack a depth of purpose in my life. You know, I can't control if the phone rings and they say, we want the kid in the picture. That's way beyond me. What I can do is when someone bets on me, do my fucking damnedest. For every dollar, I want to give them 10 back. I want to show you your time was well spent today. I want to give you my heart and soul. And when I leave here, you may be like, not my cup of tea, but the fucking kid's all right.

1:49:39You know, like that's all I'm trying to do. So if I can do that, maybe I get another match. Maybe I get another phone call. but I also realize my mortality in in the retirement like it's over but also there'll come a day where y 'all out there like the kid's not not cool anymore I'm done I'm on to the next shiny thing I'm grateful for what I got and I know I don't control how many times the phone rings I just want to I never want to phone it in right and and when my time is up it's over with man I like I'll I'll do the rest of whatever life is so I think about that like what the rest of life is Do you have other interests?

1:50:18Sure do. Sure do. Love messing around with music. I never read as a kid, so I'm reading more than I ever have. Love cars. I'd love to just drive, just being in a car and driving, not track stuff, just going on long drives. Love that. I see a bunch of sticks. I love an occasional stick with some conversation. I love, boy, did I miss out on loving connections in my life. So I'm like, I have them now, and they're fucking so cool. So if a day is just spent with friends or a week or like, man, with WWE, I've been around the world like 12 times. I haven't seen shit. I've seen the inside of arenas, a hotel bar, and a fucking airport.

1:51:01Yeah. I want to know what Tokyo is all about. I've been there like 20 times. I haven't seen shit. You know? And I don't know if I'll ever get tired of that. I always have a curious nature onto what's next. I don't know what that'll be, but I never want to wake up and be like, man, life's taking forever. You know what I'm saying? I think there's always something to do with the day. So I don't know. Would I love to continue to tell stories and get paid for it? Fuck, that's a great gig. But it's also beyond my control. So instead of being like, I'm going all in on acting and I want to do this and one day I want to win an Oscar.

1:51:41And we're not saying that approach is bad. I'm just saying my approach is like, man, when they do call, be grateful. And don't be grateful in the easy times. Be grateful when they ask you to work a 16-hour day. Or be grateful in that press tour when you have to read off the, or when you get to read off the prompter and you're doing 86 reads. And the reads are so you can dress up in the costume and all that other shit. Like that's kind of more where I'm at. That's a great approach to life. How did you develop this philosophy? Is this? Dude, I'm not supposed to be here. I'm from fucking West Newbury, Massachusetts.

1:52:14I'm not supposed to be here. And that's another thing. There's not a day that doesn't go by where I look at someone I love and connect with and be like, man, what a life. I understand how lucky I am. And I understand I have been awarded more opportunity than one human being should get. and it's, it's, um, from what I've tried to boil down to it, the best way to honor that opportunity is to do your best to try to live a good life. And a good life is, it's, that's almost like pain. Everybody's perspective of a good life is different. I've come up with core values and I try to live by those. Fuck, I'm human.

1:52:54I ain't perfect. But like, again, if when When I go into the dirt, I feel as if I didn't waste it. And I don't mean grind. Like Homeboy from Nvidia, that's a grind. And I think a lot of him, there's fear there, but also a lot of that effort, he loves it. And that's what an ideal life to him is about. And if he goes in the ground working 70 hours a week, he'll go in with a smile on his face. I just wanna go in when it's my time, I wanna know that I honored the luck I was given by not fucking squandering it, by not wasting it. And that doesn't mean grind to a monetary number. It just means live a fulfilled life where the sleep is sound, the love is real, and every day you're driven with curiosity and purpose.

1:53:42And I don't know what the fuck that is. And it could change. Man, I thought I was born to be a WWE superstar. And then the elbows start hurting a little bit, and you're like, ah, man, I'm born to be a storyteller. And then you realize that, like, I'm not in control of any of that shit. That's just luck. That's somebody being like, I liked him in this. Put him in that. Yes, no problem. I think a key factor you're talking about here is gratitude. I was born to honor the luck that I've been given. Yeah. And just try to do my best to live a full life. Like, that's it. Yeah, and having gratitude about the life that you live and being happy, God, it's so hard but so important.

1:54:19And it's tough when you use that word because it's such a— I know. It's a new agey bullshit word. Think outside the box. But nah, man. It's a real word, though. Real thanks is hard. Yeah. Because you have to be thankful for the suck, for the pain. You have to be thankful for the lesson, for the journey. And again, these are all slangy, hashtaggy terms. I don't know what the fuck else to call it, so I'm just calling it what it is. They've been co-opted by people that just sort of bullshit and use those words, but the reality of those words is strong. It's very powerful. It's like grind. Grind is another hashtag word, you know, but like there is some realism to it.

1:54:59But from what I've figured it out thus far, that's my path. And when the facts change, so does my opinion. So we can come back here in a few years and I'd be on some other shit. But right now that's kind of where I'm at. Well, it's such a – the gratitude word has been really co-opted by goofy people, unfortunately. But it doesn't mean you shouldn't use it. It's the real word. And if the word makes you feel weird, come up with your own word. Right. Thanks. Whatever. Just having thanks. Because I'm with you there. Some words make me feel gross. Yeah. Just about how overused they've been. But I can't stray away from that one.

1:55:37Yeah. I mean, we talk about gratitude all the time. We're always talking about how we're living the dream. Yeah. Just being happy. Because what are we doing? Just shooting the shit. Yeah. I know. People are paying attention. I know. What the fuck are you guys doing? A lot. A lot of people. If you're still with us, I can't believe it. This is great. Yeah. I was thinking, I was talking to my buddy the other day, Peter Shore, the owner of the comedy store. And I was telling him about how just a few weeks ago, because now that I have a place that I like and a car that I like and a job and everything, everything's finally, it appears how I have always considered what the dream is.

1:56:17that I was saying to my buddy the other day who I came up with, who I really started with, and I'm talking about like 14, 16 hour days at the comedy store. I'd answer the phone at 11 a.m. because back then they didn't even have a website. Hello, you want tickets tonight? Blah, blah, blah, blah. Work all night. Put on the t-shirt at 8 p.m., tear tickets and check IDs until 2.30 in the morning. So I would hit overtime by like Wednesday or Thursday, but they couldn't pay overtime because the comedy store in 2007 was half to quarter empty. Anyway, so they would cut my hours, and I was paying$400 a month to sleep on my buddy's couch in his living room.

1:56:57And he had a bedroom, and my other buddy, Matty, had a bedroom. But Sandy was like, you know, he was like, the apartment was registered in his name. And I mean, terrible couch, terrible setup. I'd have to go through one of their bedrooms to go to the bathroom. So if you have to pee in the middle of the night, you're kind of tiptoeing. Don't know what you're going to see. You don't want to make noise. You don't know what you're going to see, whatever. And I was talking to Matt a month or so ago, and I go, I think I still owe Sandy a little bit of rent money because I just simply didn't have it back then.

1:57:28Isn't that crazy? He goes, you do. He mentioned it last time because we were talking about how successful you are. There's an accountant right there. So I Venmo'd him out of nowhere. We haven't even talked since pre-pandemic. He's got a family. I'm out here, this, that. I Venmoed him a thousand bucks out of nowhere and I go 2007 rent money as the memo part of it and he hits me up saying thanks and we're communicating and then I remembered that at one point I couldn't even afford the$400 a month for the couch and there was another comedian that was a door guy at the store that did have the$400 a month because he was getting help from his parents so i got downgraded to a bean bag for like a month or two i was sleeping oh just horrendous exactly a sore back for two months just in pain all the time but doing what i loved so much of what you're saying about enjoying the process enjoy what you're doing because i really did back then and i think about that now more i've been thinking about that bean bag and that couch and that living room more than ever the last few months you know it's like that's talking about gratitude it's like those are the things that that's who you are is enjoying that process yeah and making the best out of it and in in in my case of a similar story and from what i'm hearing from you it's like you you wanted to be there you you were not going to give up the beanbag oh yeah there's there's a lot of folks out there who are put behind the eight ball and really have to dig themselves out of a trench when i moved out to venice and i was working at gold's I was sleeping in the parking lot in my 91 Continental.

1:59:07And everybody's like, oh, man, you were homeless? I'm like, no, no, choice. It was my choice. I didn't want to leave. My old man had a room for me. Nobody ever leaves West Newbury. My dad was like, yo, come back. You got a roof over your head. You get some fucked up job over here. You don't have to pay rent. So I had choice. I stayed in the car because I wanted to. Life was great. I got to see, like, the bodybuilders of the 2000s. I got to train at the gym and shower at the gym. And the rock came through. There's like an old picture of me in the rock somewhere where I'm in my gold gym club store shirt and he's fucking doing this one.

1:59:39And like I got to see all these people and it was fucking cool. And I wouldn't have left if they took the car away and I had to sleep in the parking lot. Like I was by choice. You know, you slept on the beanbag because you wanted to be there. And the fun fact. Look at that. That's that's that's just me in the background right there. No, no. Keep that. Hold on. I'm taking the phones off. I'm going. Yeah, that's me right there. He had just taken a photo with me. And that's me. Wow. That's DJ. Wow. Yeah. that's crazy that's 1999 wow fucking rock was white hot selling out every place probably Staples Center, Anaheim, coming in to press some weights.

2:00:21Wow. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. So, like, that's where the perspective exists. Yeah. Because I shouldn't have even been in the fucking club store selling candy bars. I should be, you know, in West Newberry doing what everyone else does. Like, that's the tale, you know? And I'm not. So, I'm grateful for it. Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of people out there on beanbags right now listening to this. you need to stay on the beanbag 24 more hours who knows 24 more hours something could happen yeah and the the success will be so much sweeter all so much sweeter if you do it that way i mean if you were a trust fund kid and you had plenty of money and your parents gave you 100 grand a year to go out and pursue your dreams and they paid for your apartment and this episode is brought to you by on x hunt hunters listen up millions of hunters use the on x hunt app and here's why It turns your phone into a GPS that works anywhere, even without cell phone service.

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2:02:00Download it today and use the code JRE for 20 % off your membership at onyxhunt.com. Your ambition just met its match with Robin Hood. You play for the win, not just on game day, every day. Channel that drive into your money. Trade stocks and ETFs, options and futures all on one platform. You expect more from yourself. Expect more from your money. Get started today at Robinhood.com slash your money. Your money, your move. Man, you know, I don't want to fuck on anybody's flex. You're right. But at the same time, if you understand that, right? If you understand I was put on the board ahead of everybody else.

2:02:44I was born on third base. Again, that shit's beyond your control. Right. But I think you need some failure to understand that. So if you're grateful for what you have, you will swing and miss and be accountable. Right, because you can't really control what you have. You can't control where you start. Right. You can't control where you start. You control where you're going. Or how you respond along the way. Yeah. And the kind of person you are to somebody who was born on third base, I think also will dictate your perception from the eyes of others. If you feel you are greater than, fuck, we're all human beings, dog.

2:03:25Like, nobody greater than nobody. Right. You know, everybody's out there struggling. And all of us, especially in this area of the pale blue dot, we all believe in capitalism. so the fact that you were born on third base means everybody's doing their job and the whole system's working. Like, you can't think you're, when you start getting the, like, I never use this word, I feel bad even saying it, deserve. When you start getting the deserve mentality of I deserve this. What the fuck do you deserve, man? Yeah, that's crazy. You know, have you earned this? Have you earned it? And if you feel as if you haven't, what steps are you going to take to earn it?

2:04:00If you're born on third and you feel bad about it, take some steps to feel good about it. I don't know what that is. But if you're born on third and you feel you deserve it, to me, that's fucking sprinting through a minefield, dog. Yeah, that's not a good path. And I don't ever want to fuck with somebody who turns like$100 ,000 into$10 million or a million into a billion. That's good investing. I mean, that's the system. You learn how to work the system. It's just in the process, if you think you're better than, Yeah, murky waters, man, in my perspective. Well, it's just a terrible perspective anyway.

2:04:38Like you're – Because it's all kind of fugazi. Like it's all just paper IOUs or whatever, just digital ones and zeros. Like if it melts down, are you really better than anybody? You know what? Well, a lot of times it's also a defense mechanism. You know, you pretend that you deserve it. You pretend you're better than other people. Because maybe you don't feel enough. Again, everybody's walking through their old mile, but like I don't feel validated. or I want attention or I don't know. I don't know, man. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, it was crazy hanging out with Steph McMahon and how human she was and hilarious and human.

2:05:13I was telling her, because I was telling her like, man, you know, I always wanted to be a pro wrestler when I was a kid and then I realized I wasn't going to be tall enough and I wasn't going to be big enough and then lately I've been meeting these guys and they're not that huge and when I tell them that, they go, look at me, you know, Sammy Zane, hilarious guy. literally told me that he's like you could have done it i'm like yeah i guess i could actually done it you could probably still do it and i was telling step that she goes do you think you can do a little something i go i can hit a super kick on anybody at any time from any place super kick it's sean michaels finishing move it's like a you would literally you would faint from laughter because you actually know how to fucking kick through a wall but it's a it's a it's a kick And the goal is not to hit the guy.

2:06:00Right. Exactly. Come real close. Yep. And she's so cool. She goes, oh, that'd be funny if next time, you know, I'm with Triple H, you just super kick me out of nowhere. I'll sell it. I'll fall down the whole thing. I'm like, I know. Stephanie, this is crazy. There we go. There it is. Yeah, that's a perfect example. Man, you're on it. Okay, so a guy flies through the air and you kind of catch him. That's just one example. Like, that's a really good example right here. but it could be from standing anywhere. It's just pretty much that high kick. You can do that? I can do that. Are you flexible like that?

2:06:34I'm flexible. At least I think I am. I don't know. We'll see. I was throwing a rock at a tree the other day for the first time in forever and I'm coming up about 15 feet shorter than ever before. There it is. That's what she looks like. Whoa. That looks real. Yeah, that's on there. That looks like it's really hitting. That's on there. Two of the best right there. It's on there. Yep. You really got that kind of flexibility? Yep. I don't. You have to slap your leg at the same time, and it makes everybody actually think that you did it. If I did it to somebody, you'd be like, dude, you just fucking kicked him.

2:07:07Because slap the leg. Right, like stomp it on the ground when you punch. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Slide a head. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's magic in the business, man. Yeah. There is. I want to see you out there. Hey, I wrestled with my pillow for like eight hours a day as a kid. I would do the entrances. I would record off of the cassette player. Remember how you used to have to record? Dude, we had a whole league in our basement. Yeah. I didn't need the pillows because I had four brothers. We had belts, a league, personas. And in one persona, I would get my ass kicked all the time. And then there was one persona that could not fucking lose.

2:07:41We kept standings and stuff. Yeah. I don't know, man. I don't know. That's amazing. My brothers and sisters were all much older, but we had a music class teacher in my grade school that didn't give a fuck about his job he would just sit in the corner and play piano the whole time and let the kids do whatever we wanted and again we had entrance music we were all different people all the time we'd run it back again the entire 45 minutes jumping off of desks cabinets chairs it's crazy how many injuries didn't happen it's amazing how resilient uh kids can be when we were that. The energy of youth, just bulletproof.

2:08:21God. Yeah. It doesn't make sense how arms and legs and heads and necks weren't broken. You also don't weigh that much back then. Yeah. That's true. Man, you're so full of energy. Man, I can tell I'm getting old because I can be like, is that chair okay? I'm going to be sitting for a while. Am I going to be all right? Is everything going to be good? I'm like, oh, man, this bed's going to kill me. Yeah. Just laying down like this. The beanbag? Oh, my God. Oh. I'd spend four hours in that thing. You'd have to cart me off. I think I'd just sleep on the ground rather than the beanbag. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

2:08:53Yeah. Back then it seemed like the better option. It was the better option. Yeah. Probably. That's hilarious though. Yeah. Have you talked to them about possibly doing something? I mean, no, not exactly. At one point there was a little chatter, but. Come on, dude. I think you can come up with an insane character. Royal Rumble's right around the corner. I have big shoes to fill over here. It's 30 entrants. We need bodies. Yeah. iShow Speed did a good job at that. Man, he got drilled out of his boots. He took the streamer, famous streamer, internet guy. He took what's called a bump from hell. He got speared at the, was that the rumble?

2:09:39Yeah. Yeah, he was. That guy, he does some wild shit. He does. He got in the cage with Dan the hangman hooker. Yeah, and he's game for anything. He has kinesthetic awareness. He's obviously an athlete, and he's brave. Look at this shit. Watch his mother just leave screen. See ya. Oh, man. Oh, my God. You can't fake that. Oh, my God. But you also have to—the reason that looks so good, a lot of that is because of Braun, But also a lot of that is because of I show speed he committed to the fall and really tried to fall with snap and with quickness he's He's good man. He really is good And like you said like I've seen a lot of the other stuff He does he he does well get in there mess around.

2:10:29Yeah, well He really sparred with Dan Hooker and Dan beat the shit out of him, but he hung in there. Yeah Yeah, it's just crazy enough to try, you know, it's also interesting these YouTube guys they're just becoming famous and there was no avenue for them before you know they would have had to have been cast in a tv show or become something limited spots yeah and now they're doing it completely on their own and becoming huge i mean he's got like 50 million instagram followers or something crazy yeah and and a bunch of content and a bunch of revenue to match that and like and always working always doing something puts himself out there those guys hustle yeah it's All the content creators out there, people don't understand the hours.

2:11:13They may end up getting some financial reward, but when you break it down to hourly wage, they're working 24 hours a day. Seven days a week. They don't stop because a lot of the content they make will have short shelf life. They're not essentially putting Gone with the Wind out in the universe. You're only as good as your next one, not your last one or the one you did. it's like you're only as good as what you're doing five minutes from now and if you drop off the map someone will replace you oh my god yeah there's so many fucking streamers there's so many people that are doing content they they work hard they do they work hard and even even the the ones where it seems like a man to a perspective of like i don't understand this it's still the effort that goes into that and it's not just what you saw it's like okay you got to have a repeat performance and then you got to keep coming and keep coming and keep coming like i do a movie and like i said is out in 18 months.

2:12:05In 18 months, they've already put out 10 ,000 videos. Right. You know, like it's bananas. It is interesting that nobody saw that coming too. Nobody ever thought that that was going to be a thing. I just think it's because we get so used to stuff. We get so used to consuming in a certain way when something is new for us. It's like, oh man, I don't know if that's going to take off. But there are young people who are experiencing everything at the same time and like, no, this is cooler. It's way easier to do this. Also, he's really young, and when you start young, there's not a lot of expectations on you.

2:12:38No. You can kind of just do whatever you want. And if it works, great. Young and courageous, too. Yeah. Like, just go for it. Yeah. Yeah. It's also a great example for other people that are thinking, like, I'm kind of entertaining. I just don't have an avenue. Let me just start making videos. You got a phone. Yeah. You got a chance. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. That's all you have to do is have a phone. It's nuts. You see the videos where he was sprinting with Ashton Forbes, you know, that super jacked guy that does that morning routine that everybody made fun of? Because he has this, like, morning routine where he dunks his face in water and then someone hands him his gold watch and he puts it on.

2:13:16It's, like, really kind of silly. Yeah. Huh. You know, and he had a whole series of races with him because he couldn't believe that this YouTuber guy could beat him. because he's like this fucking super jacked, ripped guy who a lot of his online content is him running, and he just looks like a force of nature. And iShowSpeed beat him like three times in these races, but he didn't want to believe that he lost, so he wanted to do it again. Let's do it again. Let's do it again. And iShowSpeed's talking shit to him. He did it again. So you can find it. It's very funny. It's very funny because when you look at the guy, you're like, oh, this guy looks like he can run like a horse.

2:13:53and I show speed is actually faster than him. I think he... He sprinted an actual Olympic sprinter. I mean, he started fucking around a little bit, but he held his own. That's crazy. Yeah. That's crazy. He was like right there with an Olympic sprinter. That's nuts. I think he won the gold, the guy that he raced. Really? He's like right next to him. That's crazy. And he's not even fucking training like that guy is. Imagine if he was. Like, that fucking guy, if he wanted to, like, fully invest himself into sprinting, he's only what? 20. 20 years old. That's wild. Wow, really? Imagine if that kid fully invested in that and then became an Olympic gold medalist as well.

2:14:37So, that's where my mind goes as well. It seems like he can. But also, why? Why not? Because it'll make his streams even bigger. Will it? I don't know. Or will sprinting against a gold medalist, getting in the cage with a fighter, getting in the ring with a champion, going to that guy's house and besting him at his own thing, like, he should keep doing that. He shouldn't go into one. The lane he's in, I think he's doing pretty well. Right. It's almost better losing to the fastest man alive by that much. Or, like, so I can tell by watching that, like, I love potential. And you see that and you're like, oh, my God, potential.

2:15:20This guy could win it all. Find a video of him sprinting against that Ashton guy. For what? This guy's got the world by the nuts. He should do what he's doing. Exactly what he's doing. I only know him from that appearance at the Royal Rumble. He got booked on the Rumble because he has a big following. I'm watching the Rumble. I go, who's this I Show Speed guy? I go, wow, that kid took a hell of a bump. I know him. This Ashton Forbes guy. Look at the way this guy's built. He's talking shit while he's running Oh man He's yelling 40 million people, is that right? The number of views in the corner, 40 million?

2:16:02Unbelievable Wow Oh man, look at that Wow Yeah, they raced a bunch of times And the other Didn't that other guy He played football, right? Not in the NFL, but I think like college football or something. Look at this fucking size of him, too. The other guy's fucking super jacked. Like, that's his whole thing is online content. It's him running, being super jacked. And he has to deal with I Show Speed talking shit to him. And he's saying, like, play some of this. The first one, I slipped. Second one, you barely beat me. Let's run it again. Well, I got to beat you three times. Come on, let's do it.

2:16:43See, when I see that, right? Let's go again. Excuse me. It's not easy. What is he, 25? 26?

2:16:53That's hilarious. He's talking so much shit. So I see this and be like, this kid should be a wrestler. Right. Because he is athletic and he can talk shit and back it up. My God, this kid would be a 20-time champion, whatever. No, he should do this. Are they running barefoot on the fucking concrete? I think so. They have shoes on. Oh, really? Yeah. That'd be a bad decision.

2:17:25that was pretty close yeah but he started before him yeah

2:17:33like he should he should be doing that yeah but like you see the sprinting potential i see the wwe potential he should do neither he should just do that right and just already done wwe I guarantee you they'd probably want him to do it again. Oh my, I think he did a thing. He just went to like the performance center and did a thing. And like, he's really good. Really good. He's got great instincts. He's got great timing. That's amazing. Yeah. And he's only 20. I mean, there's now like, this is like full multi-camera, really good shooting. And he's Speedverse Pros, I think, because he's kind of doing that idea he just said.

2:18:08Yeah, like where he goes to people's expertise. Look at that. He has 46.2 million subscribers on YouTube. That's wild. Yeah, so I think he should just do that. You know? Whatever he's doing. I mean, he's obviously doing it. Does he have a team behind him that's editing all this shit now? I'm sure. Probably. Oh, look at that. He's learning how to do flips. Oh, that's crazy. So he's really in it. Yeah, and I think it's just like show up for a few days and then go on to the next discipline. Wow. So he does everything. Smart. Very smart. He spent all the summer going to a city every day. Everything was live streamed for like 24 hours straight.

2:18:47They'd go to a city, show up. What's the coolest thing to do in the city? And do it? Do it. Like what kind of shit was he doing? Go to the fair, ride all rides, try all the games. A bunch of kids following around. Next day, they were here in Austin going to Terry Black's. I think he went and did stand-up with Mark Norman in New York City. That's cool, man. He went on stage for a second. That's wild. He's so young, too. only 20? Yeah. That talented? And just brave and courageous and going for it. Regardless of what you and I think, he's doing exactly what he should be doing. You should just keep doing that.

2:19:22And obviously not getting in his own way. Not. Not at all. All the things you're saying, capitalizing on every opportunity. Story yet to be told. Yeah. Story yet. Still got a lot of life left. Oh yeah. A lot of life left. We'll see. He's doing great so far. Yeah. Amazing. I think we can wrap this up it was a fucking awesome podcast I really enjoyed it it is a real big opportunity for you to have me on here because the WWE folks that you have had I think I'm still I only got one date left but I still think I'm the active one I hope this experience has been good for you guys I hope you have more of the guys and gals from us in on your show every one of them's got a great story absolutely absolutely and I think your philosophy is contagious and I think it's really good for people to hear and I think there's a lot of young people out there that are really going to benefit from a lot of the things you said because I think it's rock solid that means a lot coming from you thank you so much I appreciate it Tony you're the man awesome thank you guys appreciate you bye everybody

2:20:38Thank you.