Exclusive interviews with Penta and Chris Van Vliet

11:08O'Shea:the scarier moments of my life i ain't gonna front okay there yeah but just putting it out there Dwayne, buddy, it's me Shea Jackson Jr. from Film and Television also from WME Oh baby

11:20Penta:And you know who else was wrecked with WME?

11:23O'Shea:John Cena TJ Jefferson, Big Tuna

11:27Penta:Published author No big deal, that's what she said

11:30O'Shea:I know Don, I can hear you I don't have ears in, I can hear you Don You're like, get to the wrestling So, we've had some things happen TJ It's real thick right now WrestleMania is right around the corner. You got seven weeks. Yeah. And no PLA in between. No. Which, you know, I always forget every year. But anyway, so here we are, dude. Elimination Chamber. I feel like we would be remiss if we didn't talk about the biggest of the hard-ars. Raquel, bro.

12:04Penta:You know what? I want to talk about Raquel. Of course you do. When don't you? I just got word that our first guest is ready. Oh, Penta's here? So let's jump into this. Damn. We'll bring Chris out. Then I'll give my flowers. Okay, okay. To Raquel and her MVP performance. All right, let's do it.

12:24O'Shea:Penta. Fans of the No Contest Wrestling Podcast. I feel like we just seen our man. We just seen our guy. We just saw him, but it was something that he has now that he didn't have. Yeah, exactly. So, I mean, we might as well get right into it. Welcome the new WWE Intercontinental Champion, the fearless one himself, Penta. Welcome back to the No Contest. Hey, my man. How are you? How are you?

12:51Chris Van Vliet:And you know what? What's that? I have something special for you guys. Oh, yeah? What is that? Let me show you.

12:58O'Shea:Go ahead. That was it. Oh. Oh. Oh, my God.

13:02Chris Van Vliet:Oh. Oh. The light just glistening.

13:05O'Shea:Congratulations. Congratulations, man.

13:08Chris Van Vliet:Finally is my shoulder.

13:10O'Shea:Absolutely. Well deserved. Well deserved. We got to ask. Thank you guys.

13:16Chris Van Vliet:Thank you so much. I appreciate you guys.

13:17O'Shea:We got to ask because you've had a bit of a journey. You spoke to us about how your wrestling journey started. And getting to the WWE. And you've been going after that title for a while. So what did it feel like to finally. When you got back home or to your hotel. and you laid your head on the pillow as intercontinental champion of the world.

13:43Chris Van Vliet:Man, the first thing was crazy. But at the same time, I feel like the emotion fixes because it's so very special for me. But the most important thing, I want to say thank you. Thank you to my family. Thank you to my friends. Thank you to my company. and thank you to everyone who believe in me because this is very important and thank you to myself because i believe in me every single day to achieve this title man you know it's like 20 years the hard work 20 years of the sacrifice but now this title represent all these people who never give up because Penta represent all those people Penta represent the dreamers Penta represent the fighters of the real life you know so that's why I feel so glad because finally these old people who believe in me is like finally Penta growing up and finally Penta achieved the title you know I think this is the most important thing because this title is not just for Penta it's for all those people

14:59O'Shea:money now we know obviously you know we we know your your brothers there with wwe as well but what about your other family members did you get a bunch of messages after you won the title yeah

15:11Chris Van Vliet:yeah bro a lot of bests for my friends from family and and fans and instagram and everything i say i want to say thank you for everyone so but the most important thing now right now start the new era in WWE because now I'm intercontinental champion. I mentioned before when I come to WWE, I want to conquer everything. This is only the first step. This is the first step, man. It really, really appreciates everything, but in my mind it's okay, this title is only the first step. I'm ready for the next step. Now, I prepare for every match. I defend every single show, no matter against who, because Penta is ready for everything.

16:07Chris Van Vliet:Because I said before, I don't want to be the next Rey Mysterio. I want to be the first Penta in this history. It's very different than all the wrestlers.

16:17Penta:So, Penta, what is that next step? What are you looking to accomplish?

16:21Chris Van Vliet:Now, it's the Intercontinental Champion. But what do you think about maybe the tag team? Oh, okay. I don't know. You know, I have different targets. Right now, I want the tag team could be with my brother. You know, imagine the best tag team in the universe, WWE Tag Team Champions and the best company in the universe. You know?

16:52Penta:I see. I mean, look, at some point, you and your brother whether it's sooner or later you are going to be the tag team champions we all know that at some point and it's going to be beautiful man but right now you got this belt and it's amazing when you made your debut we saw your family ringside and we saw how emotional your daughter was to see her father up there what was it like when you were able to take that title

17:16Chris Van Vliet:home and show it to the family man what was that let me tell you something last night when i i I arrived to Mexico. So my family come with my, pick me up in the airport. And when I got to my home, I opened the door, the fucking Mexican van started singing. All my family is here in my home. You know, like big surprise for me. And actually my fathers, sorry, my parents come to my home. Oh, my older brother, because I have other small brother. so it was very special because it was a big surprise for me so i'm very glad man so i want to say thank you god thank you for everything around my life but now i stay for that was yesterday you know but now i am focused what is the next for penta for example russian mania I want to defend my title in WrestleMania.

18:20Chris Van Vliet:Why not? Because Las Vegas is the good places for Penta. So I have in my mind now I start preparing 200 % more because now the responsibility I have is this title. This title represents all those people who never give up, I tell you. so for that's why penta right now i need improve 200 right almost like say almost like the hard

18:50Penta:work is going to start now now that he got there yeah now the work's got to really kick it you

18:55O'Shea:see a lot of people once they reach the top or or you know what they see as the top at that time in their life they get satisfied if you don't make yourself better the next man will they'll come and get you and they'll come get for that title now you brought up wrestlemania and the last time we spoke to you we you know it was a little bit of a crunch time so i didn't get to ask you this but the year prior you got to be at your first wrestlemania what was that like coming down and and you know at the the biggest stage of them all what was going through your head what was how did how did it feel in your body talk to us about walking down the ramp at wrestlemania for

19:37Chris Van Vliet:the first time i i wanted to be honest with you obviously with nervous obviously but to be honest when when i i heard my song yeah like the nervous no more for penta penta i wanna be no matter who is in the ring you know because i feel this energy when i when i saw everyone that is like wow but then the same time it's like in my mind it's like this is penta this is the best place for penta no matter what tonight i will be winning you know so in my mind is every match you know sometimes penta loss or sometimes penta win but finally in my mind is always i try win you know i think this is the most important because for penta is the most important belief in myself you

20:30O'Shea:know right and and you you talked about your music hitting yeah you got one of the coolest pyros i've ever seen yeah do you realize how cool your your fire is the spitting and all that it's amazing so like what what kind of went into that you know whose idea was all of that i think

20:51Chris Van Vliet:this is the best combination between the fire, the penta, and the crowd, and everyone in the place, you know? Because it's perfect, bro. When I come to the ramp, and I start my... You know, my body starts shaking, shaking, shaking. The next step, the fire, boom! And I feel in my back all this fire and all this energy you know and the most important thing is because my entrance is 100 % Triple H idea so bro Triple H is one wrestler and he understands other wrestlers you know this is the most important for me because when you can accept some advice for someone but this person was the greatest and all times, you know?

21:51Chris Van Vliet:Okay, I stay tuned. Everything he say. And the most example is my entrance, you know? Yeah.

22:00Penta:Were you surprised, Penta? Because I remember O'Shea and I were both in the Intuit Dome last January the 6th when Raw and Netflix did their first show. And for a split second, your logo popped up on one of the screens. And it was super quick. I think somebody popped up there on accident because he didn't show up that night. It was the next week, I believe. But there was a rumble in the crowd. I know I saw it, and I was like, yo! The eyes. You okay? So when you made your debut up to today, were you shocked at how popular and how over you were with the fans when you first made your WWE appearance?

22:44Chris Van Vliet:Definitely, brother. Definitely. They changed when I made my debut in WWE, basically changed my life and different things. So, but I think when I made my debut, was the best third point on my career and professional career and my real life, you know? So, but I, in that moment, I understood what is my purpose here in WWE, you know? My proposal in WWE is I want to conquer everything, no matter what, no matter against who, no matter how long, no matter nothing. Penta is here in WWE for everything, bro. And this kind of stuff, like when my family is in the first row, my debut, everything, these things, I save in my heart and in my mind and put in the ring every single match.

23:42O'Shea:no like that you're uh you know we we've seen in wrestling brothers you know just throughout generations whether that be brett and you know brett hart owen hart you know the hardy boys uh usos steiners yeah the steiners now you know we are you know uh we we've been real cool with the with the fatu's you know the usos so it's we remember when they split now you and your brother aren't necessarily split but you're on two different brands now we all you know you're very family oriented so we know you guys are still speaking to each other all the time but is there you know do you miss pulling up to work with your brother and just everything that it goes into preparing with your brother.

24:32O'Shea:Well, you know, what's been going through your mind during the solo run? Bro,

24:38Chris Van Vliet:do you know something? One of my dream matches in WWE is like Usos against Lucha Bros.

24:45Penta:Take my money. Take it right now.

24:47Chris Van Vliet:You can't imagine that. Take it.

24:49Penta:I got like five bucks on me, but you haven't.

24:52Chris Van Vliet:Actually, last week I saw my brother in Chicago for the Elimination Chamber. And we are talking about this. Like, hey, bro, what do you think, bro? What is the best rival for us? And we are agree. Yeah.

25:09O'Shea:Oh, my goodness.

25:10Chris Van Vliet:Let's do it. Let's do it. Yeah, we got to figure that out. I don't know. I don't know when. I don't know how long. But I'm sure that we will happen, you know? Has to happen. Has to happen. Lucha Bros against Usos. Oh, forget about it.

25:25O'Shea:Yeah. Oh, it'll be cool.

25:26Chris Van Vliet:Man, explode my mind, you know? Right. But now I stand focused and defend this beautiful title, no matter what. It could be Americano 1, Americano 2, Americano 3, whatever Americano we have. I don't know how many Americanos we have now in WWE, but no matter, you know? It could be even if the stupid, dumb one of the rematch, I'm ready. No problem. I'm ready. because this title stays here on my shoulder for years, no matter what.

25:58O'Shea:How does it feel? Because we know how much Ray is your hero. You know how much you love Ray Mysterio.

26:05Chris Van Vliet:I think Ray Mysterio is very glad because I did Dom. I was going to ask you, how do you feel beating Dom? Check out this. Dom is a fake Mexican. Oh my God! It's a fake son. No! It's a fake husband. It's a fake friend It's a fake wrestler

26:27O'Shea:Oh no A fake Mexican You saw the mustache, you see the hair I don't know

26:34Chris Van Vliet:Where from is the Don't passport Oh my goodness

26:39Penta:Where's his passport San Diego, California, United States It's blue

26:45Chris Van Vliet:Real hood Mexico brother This is the difference between him and I.

26:53O'Shea:Listen, man, I got to stay out of international waters right now.

26:58Penta:We ain't trying to start nothing. But, you know, it just hit me now, Penta. You named a bunch of people. What if, you know, you go into work one day and a contract is laid out in front of you and you go to sign it and you happen to see the name going against you is Fenix, Ray. What do you do? What happens?

27:21Chris Van Vliet:Yeah, yeah. Bro, it's very special for me right now because I know my brother is in SmackDown. He started to build his career, you know, letter by letter. But I'm sure, I feel in my heart, when the Lucha Bros together again, bro, the world will be crazy. I'm sure that. But for right now, I'm focusing this. I might be able to stay focused and smack down for different things. But when the Lucha Vos happen again, bro, believe in me. You believe in me. Yes. I'm sure what happened.

28:05O'Shea:And the thing is, now that you guys are doing your own things, when that Penta star is up here and then Rey gets up here, when they finally get together. Wow. Like the Wonder Twins. Yeah. Wow, man. It'll be unfair. Look at this. Goosebumps.

28:26Chris Van Vliet:I imagine just, you know.

28:28O'Shea:Absolutely. I thought you guys, at the Royal Rumble, I was like, oh, wait. I might see them. I might see them in the ring. And then just missed each other. It was so like.

28:37Chris Van Vliet:I always say it's the same. For me, in my personal opinion, my brother is one of the best luchadores. in the world because he is very spectacular. He is like seven years older. That's me. Oh, sorry. Younger. That's me. That's why he is like faster. You know, when I saw the, my, my brother matches, it's like, wow, it's incredible. You know, this guy is like, for me, it's the best luchador in the, in the world. He is an honor for me. Could we be attacking with my brother again? You know?

29:13O'Shea:Right. So now that you're Intercontinental Champion, what can we expect from Penta as champion?

29:24Chris Van Vliet:Everything, bro. Everything is possible for me. Because, bro, I prefer thinking in the most part, like, no matter what, this is only the first step. It's okay. I enjoy. I love this title. And the fame with my life is necessary. but I want to be the champion. Yeah. But the heavyweight champion in WWE. Oh, yes.

29:52O'Shea:Yes. Dream high.

29:54Chris Van Vliet:This is on my mind. I started well, but I know I can improve every single match.

30:02Penta:That's a stepping stone right there from the IC title traditionally. Yeah. Put that on the worker. Got to get the big one. And then that takes you up to the next level.

30:10O'Shea:TJ, did you know that he's done everything that he's been doing with a torn bicep? What? Your bicep. Could you please? Bro, that thing is. Tell him the story, please. Let me take this. Please. Tell him the story of this bicep. You can see the hole? Yeah, so we see it. Yeah. Oh, wow. This is the difference, the other bicep.

30:37Chris Van Vliet:When did this happen?

30:39Penta:How did this happen? this this injury was like maybe i don't remember exactly four five years ago something like that

30:49Chris Van Vliet:um i don't remember who gave me a a kick oh one kick in my chest but broke basically he broke me the tendon from the shoulder to the base bicep and bro it's so hard but But, you know. How's it feel? And this is the shoulder for the last injury. You know, you remember that? Like, come for comfortable.

31:14Penta:Yeah.

31:15Chris Van Vliet:You know, I don't know. You can see.

31:18Penta:It's that little bump in there, yeah. Oh, man. How's it feeling, like, on a day-to-day basis?

31:24Chris Van Vliet:Now, no matter. I'm fucking glad. Because the goal is on my shoulder, brother. Yes, sir. The goal is in Mexico right now. No matter what happened with my body, I don't care.

31:37Penta:This is the most important thing.

31:39O'Shea:Can you imagine if the man had a full bicep?

31:41Penta:What did he do? He'd be heavyweight champion. Oh, my God.

31:44Chris Van Vliet:No matter what, bro. You know something? Because when I come to the ring every single match, I'm ready for diet. No matter what. You know? This is my mentality. No matter what, I need to improve every match. I need to win this match. And this one is in my shoulder right now. No, this is the wrestle. Because this title is the wrestle of a lot of sacrifice. This title is the wrestle to a lot of hard work, brother. But the most important thing, this title is the wrestle. When you believe in yourself every single day, this is the wrestle, brother.

32:23Penta:You know, Penta, I know when we, you know, of course, we're going to have you back on No Contest Wrestling at some point because there's so much we want to do a deep dive with you about. But just have a question. Yes. A little bit of nod because at some point we want to talk about Lucha Underground maybe the next time we see you. But I'm just wondering, now that you got this belt, there's two people that you competed against in Lucha Underground. And I'm wondering if maybe you heard some murmurs that maybe they might want a little get back. Maybe they want to come after your title, and that is EO Sky and Chelsea Green.

33:01Penta:have they been looking at you kind of funny now that you've had the belt no no no

33:07Chris Van Vliet:always I saw that match with all my respect because it was different chapter in my career so basically I enjoy every single match in Lucha Underground for to be honest Lucha Underground was my high school in this business brother

33:25O'Shea:oh my god that was pretty good high school

33:27Chris Van Vliet:yeah because there I learned everything about the cameras there I'm learning about the times the difference, the timing in the match you know, this is a special thing now it's very important in every match to Penta so, but why not? I don't know, it's possible but Penta is ready for everything Penta is ready for maybe other match against Chelsea or EOS Sky or maybe Rey Mysterio, you remember you know, with Rey Even with my brother, oh, why not? I don't know if it's possible, but imagine the most different things. Penta against Red Phoenix for this title.

34:11Penta:Wow. Come on now. Let's get it out there.

34:14Chris Van Vliet:This is all my dream matches, you know, against my brother for this title, bro. I'm ready for everything. When I say I'm ready for everything, it's true. No matter what, brother. If tomorrow I need to die, no matter. I'm ready.

34:30Penta:And you did it.

34:31O'Shea:Man, did it, dude.

34:32Penta:And I want to see EO and Penta go at it one more time. One more time. Come on, let's go.

34:38O'Shea:Penta, we got to let you go, man. But, you know, we got a personal question here. You know, we know how important the mask is. You know, the mask to the luchadors is everything. What goes into your mask? And also, what is the process? How long does it take for you to turn into Penta with the paint and the makeup?

35:00Chris Van Vliet:Yeah. When I switched the name, the Dark Dragon to Pentagon Jr., so, you know, in Mexico years ago, existed the other Pentagons. Yeah, yeah. So, and my mind was like, okay, I need to do something different and everything. you know, and the matches, every match style, and the gear, and the masks, and everything. That's why I start testing, like, okay, maybe white contacts. Okay, maybe makeup here, and the eyes, you know. Every single day, I try to improve, improve my character, ta-ta-ta-ta, and now, do everyone know who is Penta? So in my mind, always was, okay, we have like three million luchadors in Mexico, right?

35:56Chris Van Vliet:How can it be different? Two million luchadors. Okay, it started with the white contacts, the, you know, the pentawars, the tan, and all this stuff is like organic reaction for me. so I think that's why I started these different things and when I started doing different things everything in my life started changing because now I am the difference of 3 million luchadors around the world absolutely

36:30O'Shea:and now the world knows Penta but now the world will get to know the intercontinental champion Penta

36:38Chris Van Vliet:yes sir right here and Mexico and my home have the intercontinental look at the side look at the side look at this beautiful

36:52Penta:well Penta like we always like to tell people man you're part of the no contest family here bro you got a home here whenever you want it whenever you need it help yourself to whatever's in the fridge make yourself a sandwich take a load off whatever you need to do This is your home Mi casa su casa

37:13Chris Van Vliet:Gracias amigo

37:14O'Shea:Thank you little man, have a great day bro

37:16Chris Van Vliet:Thank you, you too guys, it's a pleasure to talk with you guys And you know what? You know

37:21O'Shea:Come on You know what it is man

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38:29O'Shea:Big thank you to Pinta. You know, always dope, man. What a guy. Yeah, that was awesome. Really rooting for him. and we gotta see him and his brother together

38:38Penta:against each other or together at any capacity oh and by the way Penta vs EO take all my money like I said let's run this back lucha underground stop

38:50O'Shea:but anyway I digress our next guest is here and this dude he was one of the first people to give me a voice in wrestling media by bringing me on his show and getting me in trouble here for a little bit of insight is my man Chris VanVleet. So good to see you guys. What's up? I didn't get you in trouble, did I? No, no, no. It was me. Yeah, you got yourself in trouble. You just can't help it, Chris. I feel like I asked for a very normal... Anyway, whatever. Whatever. This is a different show. We don't know Contest Wrestling Pod, bro. Look back on Ren Angers.

39:27Penta:Oasis. Look forward.

39:30O'Shea:That was profound. Thank you. He's showing off for company. You must have learned that from John Cena.

39:35Penta:full of wisdom I once sold sneakers to Oasis in Pittsburgh at a footlocker when I was working there but whatever that's a story for another day. Altoona? No Pittsburgh

39:45O'Shea:oh Pittsburgh true story yeah. Isn't John Cena the best? Dude John Cena is more than advertised. Yes you hear all the stories but when you see him and you're like yep head to toe sharp in that first handshake You're like, yeah, okay, he's real. Because our thought was, do you think I'll wear a suit today? Because we're pretty casual.

40:08Penta:Yeah, I'll wear a suit. He's wearing a suit for sure.

40:10TJ:Yeah, you guys try to out-suit each other. I was told he was going to arrive at 1.30, and I was told he'll likely be half an hour early. What? Yeah. He's on that Tom Coughlin time. Tom Coughlin time, rather. I got him right before his last match. You got him, so you were able to look at everything in the rearview mirror, which was so cool. But, man, I just, how can you not respect the career that he's had unbelievable and it was cool he did the same thing to me that he did to you guys and i think it's just the thing john cena's known for is like i'm gonna give you some extra time

40:43Penta:yeah that was that was the first thing we kind of we hyped him up for a few minutes and then he literally you know he looked at the clock over there he goes okay well that was 12 minutes i'm going to give you guys 12 minutes on the back side yeah man my very first interview i did with

40:58TJ:him very first longer interview i did with him was wrestlemania 35 new york city so 2019 and i was setting this up i ended up getting his number so we're texting back and forth about where this was going to happen he only did one interview that whole weekend and it was me and i was still shooting this on an iphone that my buddy jameel was holding with a microphone plugged into like the lightning port yeah so i arrived to this private gym in manhattan and i said hey i'm here and he said i can't see you and i'm not trying to be funny and i'm like he used his own line and he told me he had like 10 minutes and at the 10 minute mark i went to wrap it up and he's like hold on let me just see uh you can keep going yeah how much longer he's like just keep going right i asked him a few more questions and i'm like oh but thank you so much he's like hold on yeah he asked me another question right and he just kept extending it kept extending and i'm

41:52O'Shea:man what a guy right i think there's a part of him that sees because we when we conduct interviews we want to make sure that i've been interviewed a bunch of times i know what it's like to be on some some junket or just on an interview randomly and just feel yeah it just feels like work the more we can make them feel like number one we appreciate what you do yeah we every word we're hanging off of every word that you're telling us and we're actually having a conversation time goes away yes and there's so many people that are in the comments of that john cena episode that are just like man that that was two and a half yeah you know it it just breezes by and i think they're looking for that yeah and especially now with superstars that are they're in new forms of media now they're going on shows that they probably have never even thrown a wrestler at you know in what however long since the 90s or anything like that being on this big stage so they're dealing with a bunch of people who don't know how to speak to a wrestler quite yet and so when they finally oh one of us one of us you know that's that's the feel we want to they can tell i believe you know

43:07TJ:and i think there's such a big difference between like an interview and a conversation and in our everyday lives you are not doing interviews like a job interview maybe god forbid a police interview but like interviews are pretty rare conversations are common yeah and i think when people start to think about these as interviews with a capital i it starts to freak them out of like the idea of like i'm going to ask a question and they're going to answer and as they're answering i'm going to think about what the next question is and you're not present yeah we went out for a beer right now we would just be in the moment chatting yeah right it wouldn't be thinking about like the list of questions and i wrote this is question number two okay what i'm going to ask that one next you would just be in the moment you'd be like hanging out and the funny

43:47Penta:thing is john mentioned that right because i'm someone who like people were like why does he keep notes during the interview well so you know when we do our put the pod on youtube i can do a description or he says something to the guest says oh let me make a note of that i'll come back to that and john made a note he was like i see you have questions i see that you note the questions he goes but you're not married to the list he goes i it was just like wow you really picked up on the fact that like yeah i do and i'm sitting here trying to write stuff down he goes yeah i see that and i see though that you're able to like go with the flow is essentially what he was saying and you know sometimes people go well you know you cut somebody off when they're talking but like we conversate when you're sitting around shopping it up you're gonna speak over one of a another or each other at some point because that's just how conversations go you're gonna say something's gonna hype me up or i'm gonna say you know and so it's how we look at it yeah i like the same

44:40O'Shea:interview like to say you know we're just chopping it up yeah chopping it and we what we've been able to do lately because i've i've looked at our and i want to ask you this afterwards but i've looked at our our first couple of episodes yeah we are a different guy sure our flow is different you know i remember coming in early you know while rich eyes and i still doing his show and going up to tj like all right i i asked this this and this just to make sure we don't have similar questions and things like that now we don't even do that you know like as long as we know like a day ahead of time who we got we know i know what he's gonna bring i know what i'm gonna bring yeah and then we'll look up and we'll have like we won't have enough time to get them all out anyway more so than like running out of things to ask somebody yeah and it's just just talk it's like

45:38Penta:your brother sharif when we were doing john you know i had four cards of questions and sharif was like did you get through all your questions i was like i didn't get through half of them yeah you never just like this is just in case something and we're we got nothing you got something to go back on with him there was no chance of that you know a lot of a lot of the talk was the coffee thing too at the very end and i and i remember i was like i was looking i was gonna get it delivered i was gonna get uber eats or doordash and i was like i was gonna take 50 minutes to get here like we're only gonna have them for an hour there's no need for me to even do that and

46:11O'Shea:then two and a half hours later man there's so many 50 minutes yeah do you ever go back and look at the that first beginning of your journey oh yeah and i i look back and cringe and i remember

46:24TJ:I think it was Ryan Seacrest that said, if you're not looking back at your older stuff and like, oh, what was that? I used to think that was good. If you're not doing that, then you're heading in the wrong direction. Like you should be constantly improving and constantly be getting better. I listened back to the first audio episode I did, which was 2019. So like June, 2019 was my first audio podcast. I listened back to it now and I'm like, it's pretty not good. This is pretty not good. Please don't go and listen to it. And I always like give this piece of advice for people that like, if you're looking to start a podcast, YouTube channel, content creation, whatever happens to be just start, you have to start.

47:01TJ:Everybody starts somewhere. You have to start. You have to know that like your first episode is going to suck. Your second episode is also going to suck, but it's going to be slightly better than the first one. Your third episode will also suck, but be better than the first two and so on and so forth. It continues to get better. And I truly believe that podcasting starts at episode 100. And this is with great respect to you guys right but it's the idea of like figuring it out finding the beats what's your voice in this what does the audience relate to what works what doesn't work and it takes about a hundred episodes that's one a week for two years or two a week for about a year and you start to like figure out okay the audience likes it when we do this they don't like it when we do this we'll figure it out here balance yeah do you remember the very first interview that we

47:49O'Shea:did for long shot oh yeah dude that was 2019 right yeah yeah that's when i was just like still trying to long shot i believe is my fourth movie ever you were paired with seth seth rogan yeah

48:03TJ:seth rogan it was in miami yeah and i had like that four minute interview with you or something

48:07Penta:yeah dude the back like there's a long shot what's that about long shot and i was like first of all

48:15O'Shea:you couldn't tell me nothing after I booked this movie it was Seth Rogen Charlize Theron and Charlize plays a political candidate and she has a chance to be the first female president I had a running joke that she was going to be the first African American female president but like people did not think that was as funny as I did I thought that was, that's pretty funny black people were like hey man hold on but yeah So I, my buddy Seth, he plays like he's one of those political journalists who is very opinionated, very on one side, and just hates Republicans. I'm going to just put it out there.

49:02O'Shea:And he loses his job. Come to find out Charlize is his old babysitter. They run into each other at a party. I'm the guy that brings him to the party who just happens to be his black billionaire best friend and then love ensues and he, you gotta see the movie I mean I saw the movie, I just figured there might be something I crushed that movie

49:25TJ:it's like we're back at the junket

49:27O'Shea:and yeah that was the first time that you guys met and then little did we know he did probably 50 interviews that day I was stressed as hell, it was my fourth movie ever I was scared to death during those first, like you said Those first couple of times in the beginning of my career as far as films, after Straight Outta Compton, I'm out on my own. So it's just like every movie that I had a hand in, I put so much pressure on myself to like, this has to be great because my first movie was over$200 million movie. Sure. And it was like.

50:01TJ:And you're playing your dad.

50:02O'Shea:Yeah. Like it hit so many. It was like my first dunk ever was between the legs from the 3.1. and I've been trying to dunk from there and it just doesn't work like that you just have to constantly whatever you get you have to snowball it until it gets better we know we're just two wrestling nerds who won't talk about wrestling just yet but little do we know look at us

50:28Penta:we're on our 75th episode and you're on your 700 where are you at now 885 who's counting Well, we are 885, but let's go back to the start, man. When did little Chris find himself sitting in front of the TV? 885 is fucking gross.

50:48TJ:That's pretty insane, man. Whoa. Maybe podcasting starts at 1 ,000. I remember learning about wrestling and being introduced to it. It was early 90s, so I would have been 9, 10 years old. Would go to my grandparents' house, my Baba and Dado. My mom is Macedonian.

51:06Penta:So many stories start with someone's grandfather or grandma. I know mine does in wrestling.

51:11TJ:They just always had sports on the TV. So growing up just outside of Toronto, it would be a lot of hockey. If it wasn't hockey season, baseball was on. My dad's a huge baseball fan, a huge Blue Jays fan, football sometimes. But on this particular Saturday, it was Saturday night's main event.

51:25O'Shea:Of course.

51:25TJ:And we were there. My aunt and uncle were there. My cousins were there. And I just remember watching this and being blown away by the larger-than-life characters. i also remember spending the rest of the evening punching like this yeah exactly with the stump and thinking it was hilarious and my uncle going do you know what an undertaker is because yeah it's that guy he goes no no but do you know what like an undertaker is and he told us i was like oh wow my mind was blown it makes so much sense but it was the late 90s when i became like a hardcore wrestling fan yeah and at that point in time i was on the high school wrestling team and i was of the firm belief like what we do in here on the mats this is real that stuff on tv that is cinematic and that's completely different i had a best friend at the time who lived one town over and what did you do in the 90s when you had a best friend you talked on the phone yeah right you

52:15O'Shea:all about this bro what you talking about bro yeah but you you're talking about cell phone we're talking phones still my parents still have their lambs yeah bro same phone old money right there

52:27Penta:Yo, my mom just got rid of our house number that we've had for decades, and it bummed me out so much. She was like, no one ever calls anymore. I'm like, I called the house all the time. It's it. She got rid of it.

52:38TJ:I just remember we would be talking on the phone the whole time, and on this one particular Monday night at 9 o 'clock, he goes, oh, got to go, man. Raw's starting. And I said, what are you talking about? We're in the middle of this conversation. He goes, I'll talk to you tomorrow. Yeah. And I said, hold on. What channel is it? TSN in Canada? I'm like, I'll put it on. First commercial break. let's finish this conversation and i started watching and i was like oh i love this yeah austin mcmahon was the big storyline at that time and i just remember going from watching zero minutes of wrestling to watching everything yeah raw and nitro then i found out that ecw was playing in canada i watched it all and i went from like zero to a hundred like right away and i was like immediately a wrestling fan to the point where i would see people in my high school wearing an austin 316 shirt a dx shirt and i'm like did we just become best friends yeah exactly yeah that's how it happens and then it quickly snowballed into i was a backyard wrestler like a year later and we had a backyard wrestling company in my hometown of pickering ontario canada i was a character named chris sharp chris sharp i've read about him chris sharp's a mega heel we don't we don't like chris sharp sharp talk and sharp walk and sharp dressing i made a pact with one of my buddies that we were going to go to wrestling school once we graduated and i ended up going to wrestling school in toronto for a handful of months so that was it man like once i learned about this at like 15 years old boom did you did you start the wrestling

54:08Penta:company or was already going on and you just became a part i had some friends of mine greg

54:12TJ:and will who had like some of those thin blue gymnastic mats in their backyard and we so they were doing this thing on their own and then we were on our way home from school walking home from school uh one of our friends had a trampoline and we were doing all the moves you were doing a trampoline rock bottom choke slam ddt's the simple stuff right and then we kind of merged the two things together they were like hey we do this thing on the blue gym mats and we're like oh let us know and that's when we created this thing can it can chris sharp cut a promo again real quick i don't think you want to see chris we got we had a taste well here's the thing about chris sharp you guys are on episode what is it 75 that's really cute guys it's really nice 885 right here in the bank so once you guys get into the triple digits maybe you could give me a call i got three billion views on youtube that's right i said billion with a b yeah so uh yeah this little thing you've got with uh the lighting and uh this is nice this is you rent this out by the hour right really good yeah have you had any guests on the show maybe i've heard of other than me john seaman yeah not familiar cm punk what's that stand for uh anyway i hope your ratings go up after this show and uh best of luck with this you were doing that acting thing right yeah cool we had a strike yeah yeah well anyway that was you wanted yes i remember cutting this i remember cutting this backyard wrestling promo like chewing gum in my neighbor's uh driveway yeah and like we had our one friend who was we called him mikey slice that was his uh wrestling interviewer name okay pretty good name right yeah not bad and he's he asked me a question and I'm like, how about I ask the questions around here?

56:06TJ:What was going through your mind when you asked the barber, could you please cut my hair like a 12-year-old girl? And then I cut this dumb promo, chewing gum.

56:15Penta:You know what you gave me there a little bit? A little Corey Graves for... A little bit, yeah. Just a little Corey Graves right there for a second.

56:21O'Shea:I feel like, bro, there's been some times where Corey has been at that table and I'm like, I love this dude. He's quick as a whip. So talented. man you know i i know it must be hard for somebody who like had an idea where they wanted to go having a shift but then being so good yeah i mean you can't be mad at it man i remember the rock

56:46TJ:said something in an interview i did with him he said sometimes the best things in life are the things that don't happen right oh man he's a prime example right like his goal his dream was to play in the nfl yeah he didn't accomplish it yeah life threw him a curveball and he just he took it and ran with it and like look what it's turned out to be for him although cory graves said years ago he was trying to get cleared to wrestle right yeah we thought for a while that maybe so i wonder if he got cleared just for his own knowledge of like okay i'm good to go or you know maybe he still hasn't been cleared yet i don't know but it's just to have it yeah i wonder yeah you never know yeah

57:22Penta:because cory graves for those who don't know man he he looked like he was gonna be a star you know and I don't think there's any reason to think it wouldn't have happened.

57:31TJ:But so talented at color, so talented at play-by-play. Man, like on point. So good.

57:39O'Shea:When they first got the AAA deal, that first show, Corey ran the world, bro. Without Corey, that show is way different. He was, man, he was on that microphone saving lives. I remember Conan was with him, right?

57:56Penta:And people didn't love some of the things Conan said, but I thought Conan and he together really painted just an incredible picture.

58:04O'Shea:It was times when Conan was impressed. Yeah.

58:07Penta:You be watching? Yeah, I'm locked in, bro. Shout out to Corey. Who now Corey Graves, if I'm not mistaken, he's teaching some type of journalism class at Point Park University in Pittsburgh. Oh, wow. Where I went to college. So I believe he's doing that because he's from Pittsburgh. Oh, well, perfect guy to be teaching that.

58:25O'Shea:I know everybody from Pittsburgh, and I respect that so much. It's a birthday. LA is not like, I don't even know who really from here. A lot of people would be like, yeah, I kind of moved here from Arizona. A lot of people claim LA. Yeah, yeah. So I respect that Pittsburgh. That's what I want. It's not like I know the man. I just know. You just got a list, inventory. Now, Chris, I need to know, man. All right? Because we're talking about fandom and everything. and when you was officially locked into your fandom in the late 90s. So I need to know if you remember at least one of the first times where wrestling broke your heart.

59:07TJ:That's such a great question. Thank you, man.

59:09O'Shea:It's from our first episode.

59:10TJ:I think WrestleMania 30. I was there. Ooh, okay. I don't know if this is the first time wrestling broke my heart, but I will never forget how quiet it was. one undertaker lost we thought it was a mistake yeah everybody did right but i remember being there and like at this point in undertaker's career it's just like well we know he's gonna win how's he gonna win like how many false finishes are we gonna see yeah how many times is someone gonna kick out of the last ride or the tombstone or whatever the case may be but like taker's gonna win like i thought for sure he would retire with the streak whatever it would be 26 and 0 30 you whatever the ultimate bill but it was one two three and we all went And I was going to WrestleMania that time with a few buddies.

59:55TJ:It was a trip every single year. And one of my buddies, Jason, is not really a wrestling fan. And he's like, was that supposed to happen?

1:00:02O'Shea:Right.

1:00:02TJ:And I'm like, I don't think so. No. He's looking to the experts like, somebody, please tell me this is okay. It was so quiet.

1:00:11Penta:I don't even watch this. Don't feel right.

1:00:12TJ:Yeah, right. And then, I don't know if you remember, but there was a long pause.

1:00:17Penta:Yes, there was a pause.

1:00:19TJ:Then they hit dun, dun, dun, dun. and we're like oh yeah and then hayman and hayman oh my god hayman's reaction the reaction to the people ringside like the guy who's and they put up 21 and 1 on the tron and we went they had a

1:00:34Penta:graphic ready but even at that remember the graphic didn't pop up right away so all these things are making like i was sitting in my garage watching this thing on and it happened and i was convinced that my feed glitched or something yeah i was like okay did it stop because i feel like i missed something and then i rewound it i was like oh no that really that just that just happened it

1:00:59TJ:was just sheer surprise i just didn't think it was possible just yes and that was that was a night filled with a ton of surprises as it was like the way that the mania 30 kicked off with hulk hogan going out there and then austin comes out and then nobody thought rock would be there and it's like we've got three legends in the ring at once this is amazing i also think that nobody thought it would end with daniel bryan winning the championship like what a feel-good way to head home amazing yeah a lot of surprises on every end of the spectrum yeah but like i know it's just

1:01:36O'Shea:such a nasty taste in your mouth it's because you remember like you you might be watching back you let me put 30 on and it's like oh wait oh i remember what this one is like you know there's been a lot of wrestlemanias where like i'll put them on and be like which one is this which one is this and then there's a moment where i'm like but as soon as i see that that like purple gold i'm like i don't want to watch this one i would rather not and it's yeah it's it's crazy like you said everything goes so quiet and it's like i always see on twitter because people are always looking for like canon moments in life when everything went to shit yeah like i always say when when steve erwin the crocodile hunter made recipes when he passed away i feel like my life just went to hell like everything just started tripping that's one of those moments dude undertaker lost it was like everything that i understand the world to be yeah flips yeah

1:02:33TJ:someone asked me on the podcast like can you give me like the top 10 like biggest biggest wwe moments and it was funny i was going through the list and a lot of them didn't happen inside the ring a lot

1:02:43O'Shea:of them are just like wwe network was a huge one yeah wwe buying wcw another big one like a lot of

1:02:50TJ:moments were like big things like that but undertaker's streak ending was one of those inflection points where you're like okay like there's life before that life after it to this

1:03:01Penta:and to this day i still struggle was that the right move or not yeah because if you ask me on a Monday, Wednesday, or Thursday, I'd be like, absolutely. You ask me on a Tuesday or a Friday, I might go, nah, that was the dumbest.

1:03:13TJ:I still think it wasn't the right move. And look, I'm not saying the streak didn't need to end, but Brock Lesnar didn't need that. Brock Lesnar was a made man. He didn't need anything else to get over.

1:03:24Penta:Didn't that kind of solidify Brock, though, as that final part?

1:03:28TJ:He was already solidified.

1:03:29Penta:Yeah, but I don't know, man. I kind of feel, like I said, It depends on the day. It took him to a spot you didn't know that you didn't see him, man. Sure.

1:03:38TJ:So if you ask me the day, I'm like, yeah. I completely agree with that. It's funny that this idea was originally pitched to Edge, and Edge was like, nope, not happening. Nope, no thank you. I'm about to put that on me. But then when there was also this idea floated that it would go to Bray Wyatt, it's like, oh, that's a passing of the torch moment. Yes.

1:03:56O'Shea:Oh, man, rest in peace, dude. Absolutely. Actually, the episode where I got into trouble on your show, I was wearing a Bray shirt. Oh, were you?

1:04:02Penta:Yeah, I mean, if we're going to dip into Bray real quick, I have said this on Twitter years ago, and I'm sure if you search it, you can find it. I was the number one Husky Harris fan. And I loved Husky Harris NXT. I like the big boys, right? The guys who aren't like the body guys necessarily. I love the Dusty Rhodes and the Bam Bam Bigelows and the Kevin Owens. Yes. You know, like Dusty said, guys whose bellies are a little big and heinies are a little big. So Barry Windham, one of my all-time favorite wrestlers, who is his uncle. Mike Rotundo, one of my favorites. He's his dad. So when you, in wrestling, I guess, sort of like in your case, too, if you loved Ice Cube and then you see his son is in something, hell, yeah, I'm going to support this kid.

1:04:48Penta:I'm going to ride for him. You love the Nepo babies. Look, man. Nepo babies are by a billion. I am not mad at them whatsoever. But I think in wrestling, it's even more so. So when you're watching someone who you grew up loving, like I said, I loved the U.S. Express, Barry Windham and Mike Rittell. Wait a minute. Now this is his son and his nephew? I'm down with this dude. So, yeah, I loved Husky Harris. And, of course, Bray Wyatt was, like, incredible to me. Like I said, he's just on the side there.

1:05:16O'Shea:But, man, that dude, I was waiting for, this is, every now and then on the show, I get to express my love for video games.

1:05:27Penta:my playstation is on pause right now but uh he'll make fun of me about talking about old wrestling stuff i'm like bro you talk about because he goes full dustin hossman and can

1:05:38O'Shea:tell you like that it's really impressive and it's why we work so well and like that's why if i got tj next to me i don't care what anybody in the comments has to say because if i got this encyclopedia next to me he'll shut you down he'll be very polite about it i'm just more aggressive and like this is where our balance happens but bray has such a mind where i was like dude just just write a script just write a script give me a indie uh horror video game because like he was so real life couldn't give him the things he needed to get the vision that he had off. He needed to have special effects and things like that to make it really pop.

1:06:25O'Shea:When I was a kid, I swore the Undertaker's lightning bolt was real. I was like, I don't know how they do this, Mom. But then I went to a show and saw The Wire. I was like, come on, damn, what is going on? But like, Bray had that mind. I wish, obviously, That his life went on in wrestling, yes. But when he would have started getting into that producing side, there would have been some scary stuff going on, dude. Yeah. Oh, The Fiend. Fiend. The Fiend. How do you feel about The Fiend?

1:06:55TJ:I love The Fiend. I love The Fiend. As long as we take out that Hell in a Cell match. Yes. Everything else I love. Yeah. It's not his fault. Not Seth's fault.

1:07:03O'Shea:It put the title on him too fast for me. I like it. Too fast. You got something that can't be beaten. so why put the title on it this bad not necessary yeah just wonder though because like when the time

1:07:17TJ:is happening like if you say oh let's let's wait three months six months a year or whatever maybe the time's not right then like things move so fast in wrestling and it takes like somebody

1:07:26O'Shea:getting hurt right just like is a domino effect of yeah so i think that if the opportunity is there

1:07:32Penta:you you gotta take it yeah i feel that so yeah that was just us getting off of wrestling 30 a little bit you were saying it's one of those that's gonna be one of those because you were saying that was the time that three dudes talking right yeah right buckle up right

1:07:52O'Shea:all right so you said that's when wrestling broke your heart that that streak yeah i think

1:07:56TJ:that was just such a it's a pivotal moment i think in wrestling like totally yeah but isn't

1:08:02Penta:like a moment that we wish for because with all the dirt sheets and stuff now you kind of they ruin everything right so there are so few genuine surprises now in wrestling yeah so there was a

1:08:14TJ:moment that they got us yes because who was really expecting that to happen and when you think of the biggest returns or the biggest call them surprises over the last five to ten years we've known about a lot of them or we've at least like whispers right like who's in the crate uh could be chris jericho could be dan house and then when it was a week out it's like it's gonna be dan it's gonna be Dan Houser. Who's going to be Seth Rollins' opponent at WrestleMania 38? Oh, it could be this person, could be that. It's probably the return of Cody Rhodes. Right. The nice addition of that was, oh, it's the return of Cody Rhodes as the American Nightmare with the Downstate song?

1:08:48TJ:Oh, that's... Yeah. I like that.

1:08:49Penta:You know what's funny about that? I was in Dallas and when that happened, I think everybody now will look back and be like, oh, everyone knew it was Cody. But I'm telling you, in the section that I was and it was what you and I were talking about earlier, like a lot of times the internet wrestling community is this big in comparison right because those 18 000 people that pack arenas how many of them really are spending their time as much time as we do online really studying wrestling stuff they're they're not so when seth is waiting for his opponent like yeah i know it's cody right but surprisingly around me the names that were getting thrown around like there was this kid he's like dad it's the undertaker it's the undertaker and one person's like it's john cena it's john and there were names being thrown around and there wasn't and i had this recorded on my phone i could let you listen to it there wasn't one person who said it's cody roads it was like so that was a moment where like yeah these people were genuinely surprised and that's

1:09:52O'Shea:when i you like i have to remind myself the hundred at most hundred and fifty people that you're arguing with on twitter or that you see retweet this nonsense and yada yada yada even if you see that it gets up let's say two thousand that compared to the millions and millions like bro like you are a a candle in the sun bro you're you're a drop in the ocean and when you get caught up in it man you forget that sometimes some people are really there enjoying the show I remember watching that and I was like what's the worst music that could hit right now and no disrespect because TJ you know I love this dude but at that time period if I would have heard here comes the money oh my bro the internet would have if Shane would have been Shane after all those whispers the internet would have ate itself dude Shane is so

1:10:50TJ:underrated.

1:10:51O'Shea:My God, the dude

1:10:52TJ:doesn't have to do it.

1:10:54Penta:If you're ready for an oil change, trust the professional parts people at O 'Reilly Auto Parts to recommend the best products for your vehicle. Right now, get five quarts of Valvoline full synthetic motor oil and a Wix filter for $35.99 and receive a$15 O 'Reilly gift card after rebate. Upgrade to a Wix XP oil filter for just$2 more. Limits apply. See store for details. Stop by your local O 'Reilly Auto Parts store or shop online at OReillyAuto.com. We're leaving today and entering a world of Mickey Mouse waving, princess meeting and greeting, lightsaber clashing, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror dropping, Banshee flying, Space Mountain launching, galaxy rewinding, galaxy rewinding, fireworks igniting, world of other worlds for whatever you love.

1:11:47Penta:infinite worlds await at the most magical place on earth Walt Disney World Resort he doesn't have to put a love of the game should we pivot to show Shane McMahon some love because we've said it before I'm looking at your Jordans, my Jordans the fact that Shane has an ill Jordan collection first and foremost but like you said months and months ago like you just said this man didn't need to do the things that he did

1:12:12TJ:and I'm convinced that that match with Kurt Angle at King of the Ring was just to show his dad like... Chris, you're absolutely right. I can do it. I think it was to get the Adam away from his dad.

1:12:23Penta:Absolutely. And hasn't Shane said that? Like, all he wanted was, like, the Mr. McMahon documentary.

1:12:28TJ:All he wanted was his dad's respect. And it's funny, because Kurt Angle told this story when he was on my show that, like, when he was trying to suplex him through that glass and it was apparently the wrong glass and it wasn't breaking, that actually Mike Chioda told me the story that Vince almost ran out and stopped the match. because Shane's getting suplexed into the glass, dropping onto his head. Yeah, you can hear the thud. And Vince is yelling in Kyoto's ear like, this has got to stop. And he was like, hey, guys, you've got to stop. And both of them were like, nope, not stopping. He's going through his glass.

1:13:00TJ:So not only that suplex was awful, but then when they were trying to go back through and Shane's head's just bouncing off the concrete, and then it gets to a point where he just grabs his head and throws him face first through, and they're both bleeding. It's like, what is going on here?

1:13:15O'Shea:We're in so much trouble.

1:13:17TJ:How about Shane in the Hell in a Cell match just doing an elbow drop to nothing on the announce table? I was there. It's crazy.

1:13:24O'Shea:Dude, that was like, that was, first of all, I call it the ultimate guy's weekend. All right? It was the ultimate guy's weekend because I had just made my first little bit of money, Chris. All right? So, you know, I was out here doing big things. Yeah. And Dallas had mania. Houston had the national championship. Okay. National championship. So me and my boys, Pasha, Roman, and Chris, we go to the national championship. It's North Carolina versus Villanova. Okay. Not a bad game to go to, dude. And after that, we go to Mania. Is that the buzzer beater, Villanova? Yeah, the buzzer beater, Villanova.

1:14:05O'Shea:Like, shout out to Josh Hart and Brunson. But, yeah, they was throwing seats. It was insane. But then we go to Mania. and that maybe is ridiculous like they go all out for jerry world and uh oh yeah you should know anyway it's how cowboys do but i have a slow motion video of shame doing that fall oh wow and i'm screaming you don't have to do this because it was such a especially as a son of somebody who's like stardom will never be overshadowed like it's just a impossible mountain to climb so your best bet is to like let's tear down some more mountain ranges let's make it wider you know like because it's just like we're not going to climb it and for shane to do what he did and now that we know the backstory is it pulls at the heartstrings but like that is something that I wanted to go as hard for my dad for.

1:15:06O'Shea:Not under those circumstances, but in the same like, I feel him. I feel him. And so, like, man, that's a guy that I have to have a conversation with. Speaking of McMahons, when are you going to get Steph on the show?

1:15:17TJ:I know! Because you were just on her show. Thank you for shouting me out. Man, bleak!

1:15:22O'Shea:Yeah, bro. Always, man. But yeah, Steph, what a lady, man. Yeah, that was a great idea. Another legend. Yeah, we got to get her on. We got like a list of guests. So many people. Of course, we're only a year or so into this pod thing. November of 24th. We started in 85. But like, you know. We got a while to go.

1:15:45Penta:This is the standard right here. What were some of your, like when you were first starting off,

1:15:51O'Shea:like, man, it'd be great if one day I got this. And then what was your feeling after you got some of those, you know, those white whales, as they call them?

1:15:59TJ:So when I was starting out, like literally it was anybody. Like I would take an interview with anybody. For those that don't know, I started off in like traditional broadcasting. So like my first job, I was a news reporter at a small TV station in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. Did you go to school for journalism? I went to school for communication studies. But my dream, my goal was to work as a broadcaster, be a TV host, radio host, or hopefully maybe one day both. so i was uh working at this small tv station in peterborough ontario called checks tv and when you're at a small station you're doing everything you're shooting the stories with a big camera like same size as these cameras you got here you're writing the stories you're editing the stories and you're reporting on the stories like you're wearing so many hats wow that then turned into me getting a job at mtv2 canada where i was like now i'm interviewing celebrities yeah so it's kind It was kind of like the West Coast Canadian TRL.

1:16:49TJ:Oh, okay. But much smaller. But there I'm interviewing actors, comedians, musicians. And I was like, could we interview a wrestler? WWE's coming to town in a few weeks. Could we interview a wrestler? And my boss was like, yeah, sure. We've done that before. And I was like, oh my gosh. I'm getting paid to talk to a wrestler. This is the greatest thing ever. It was Bobby Lashley. He was the ECW champion at the time. We're going back to 2007 when I did this. So for me, it was just like, can I do an interview with a wrestler? Can I weave my wrestling fandom into my job? And it was especially cool when people would come to the TV station, they're expecting a local morning interview where it's like, we've got John Kenna here.

1:17:29TJ:And you know, right? Like we hear, we cannot see you. But when they would walk in and I'd be like, dude, you're matching SummerSlam 98, Royal Rumble 2000. They'd be like, oh, hold on a second. One of us. Speaking our language, right? And immediately their guard would come down and they'd be like, oh, I can talk to you as a fan. So I went from that show to I was hosting a show in Toronto and I would still weave the wrestling interviews there. Then I was hosting a show in Cleveland. I was the entertainment reporter for the CBS affiliate in Cleveland, home of The Miz, home of Dolph Ziggler. So whenever they would come into town, we'd get them on the show.

1:18:06TJ:It started for me as like we'd put them on the TV show and then I would take the Raw interview and I'd be like, there's got to be more people that would want to see this interview that aren't living in Cleveland or when I was working in Miami just take the raw interview put it on YouTube other wrestling fans can find it or other fans of whatever celebrity that I had interviewed they can find it that was how it started and then when I was like the wrestling interviews are starting to get a little bit of traction what if I could go out of my way interview a legend at a local wrestling show or drive to this convention and interview a legend there again with my iPhone shooting yeah hopefully my buddy holding it like shaking while he's holding it but then it turned into like could i one day do an interview with like john cena man i got to do that could i interview stone cold steve austin wild i had interviewed him over zoom a few times for like a few minutes but like to interview him yeah a few months ago at his ranch that was the craziest thing yeah undertaker like that day i was on undertaker's podcast and then later in the day he's like where do you want to shoot the interview i'm like you tell me yeah undertaker dead man i'm like do you want to do it here at your studio do you want to do it at my hotel i'll find a room he's like uh why don't we do it at my house i'm like okay he's like let me give you the address i'm gonna wrap up here you drive there you get set up when you get to the gate it's the house on the right i'm like okay cool and let me give you my phone number just in case you get lost i'm like oh wow so i think it's in those moments when you're like this is crazy like i got the first interview with chris jericho after he signed with aew which was huge news yeah because nobody thought he was going to leave wwe at that point in time and i got an interview with him in the back seat of his car it got like a million views in a day wow and like that was one of those talk about inflection points that was one of those inflection points where like a lot of people saw that interview and like oh i'm gonna check out this channel yeah but there's been so many like to grow up watching wrestling yeah and to now be able to sit across from someone and share a conversation and like all of these interviews start with like me being a fan first and me selfishly just picking their brain about like my favorite moments from their career or like their mindset about things if i'm learning something from it i'm hoping that the audience is also learning something from it

1:20:27Penta:so take us through that process man because like i said you're kind of like the guy that i know we look at like we got to get to blueprint chris's level i would set the bar a little higher but thank you well no i mean bro like no no no cap like in in this space you are someone who you know you're top of the food chain man so like what is your process like from start to the the interviews

1:20:52TJ:over how do you go about your business i've got a note section in my phone of and if i see something online that i think is interesting or a spot from a match that i loved yeah i'll just throw that into the notes section and the notes section just continues to grow from there but i would say if it's someone i've never interviewed before i start with the skeleton of their career where did it start where were they trained was it wcw first then wwe were they in ecw i'm just trying to get a skeleton of like where they started to now well chris let me stop you sure you even get to the

1:21:23Penta:interview though like the process of you just said you travel the people yeah that's your thing how did that do them all in person so what when did you decide like i'm not going to wait for them to come to my city i'm gonna go get them and then i just want to make it as easy as possible

1:21:39TJ:right and i'm not saying i would never do a zoom interview again or a satellite interview again but i remember working in tv and there was a difference between getting invited to the junket where you flew to New York, flew to LA, wherever the location was, and you sat down in person with somebody. There was a difference between that and getting a Zoom link and just chatting with them, two-dimensional version of them, essentially. And I just felt like getting the in-person junket was always a better conversation. You shook that person's hand, you gave them a hug, you looked them in the eye. You got a photo with you with your arm around them.

1:22:12TJ:You actually got to be in the room with them. The vibes clash. Yes. So I always remember the producer of our show at that time, my TV show, being like, if we can do it in person, we will always try to do it in person. And I was trying to do the same thing with my YouTube channel at the time and also the podcast. And then when the world shut down in 2020, I remember putting out a tweet being like, I've never done a virtual interview. What do you guys recommend? And people were like, Zoom, StreamYard, Riverside. I tried them all. And like, yeah, it worked. And it was a nice thing to do during that time.

1:22:44TJ:But I was like, I always want to get back to in person. the biggest thing for me is how can i get someone to say yes and this has always been a thing in my career in my life of like if you're not going to fly me in for that audition what if i just happen to be in that town next week yeah how can you say no to that yeah so if someone's if someone's like uh yeah i'd love to do an interview with you but i'm in dallas i'll be like are you free next week which i'm flying austin next week to do an interview so for me it's just been like how can I get them to say yes, and then we'll figure out the details after that.

1:23:17TJ:So that's how it's always been for me of like, how can I make it as easy as possible for you? You're staying in that hotel for SummerSlam? Great, I'll get a room in that hotel. We'll figure it out. We'll go from there.

1:23:30O'Shea:You need a street team to do it.

1:23:32Penta:I'm doing this all my time. I was about to say, this seems you're doing it. You're shooting everything. You're setting up.

1:23:37TJ:So that was how it began. And like I was setting up the cameras. I still set up the cameras for a lot of these interviews. i was editing my own stuff i'm not a great editor but i know how to edit solid and i learned that like what if i hired someone who's really good at editing so i could spend more time doing what i prefer to do which is like researching doing the interviews so i have an incredible editor named troy he does all the shorts all the reels that you see on social media he's so such a great editor

1:24:05O'Shea:when did when did he come on board because i know from the first episode i was on to this last one i did i was like oh my god like the preview was crazy oh that's that's rj that's a whole other

1:24:16TJ:guy that's doing oh the previews are so good but if i'm like a six out of ten editor and troy's like an 11 out of 10 editor not only is it going to look better but he's going to do it like in a quarter of the time so like that was a big part of it but now i have a lot of people on that i'm working with that they're the best at what they do so now we can all focus on like what are our strengths if your strength is putting these trailers together take it and run with it i have a guy on the team who transcribes the interviews he also does like deep dive research alex hunt so like alex really helps out some my research on top of his research and like we're finding some like deep dive moments that we can chat about and i found that like i am like satisfying my need to like get the answer to that question and also i find there's other people online they're like I've always wanted to know the answer to that oh man that's so cool to learn about that

1:25:09Penta:I want to give a shout out to our editor D-Lo who does our stuff and Jake Cope who does our Instagram videos since we're shouting out the editors and the guys that put us online shout out to D-Lo and Jake

1:25:20O'Shea:when we first started this thing we had Punk first in the studio he sat in the middle swiping with his neck we switched it up

1:25:33Penta:comments yeah it was one of the times where i looked at the comment and i was like they were like you know what might be better if you put you guys on the same side and the guests and i was like we collectively in this building had over 60 years of television experience i'm like how did we not think of that so yeah the next episode it was like there and we're here yeah and then the second

1:25:56O'Shea:guest we had in studio was swerve so like we got used to the in studio thing the next guest we had was Eric Bischoff, right? It was either Bischoff or Mark. Right, but it was Zoom. Mark was next. It was Zoom, and it was like, it just didn't, it felt like, oh my God, are we going to be able to do this? Are we going to be able to get the same feel and everything? And number one, Bischoff and Mark Henry, because they were like legends, you start to not even care. Like, you know, once the conversation starts going and Mark Henry has been... Mark Henry was the reason why I even started to go on people's shows like Busted Open and things like that because he saw me arguing with people on Twitter and he was like, Shea, you've got to relax.

1:26:47O'Shea:They're the wrong people to talk to. Come talk to us. You're never going to get the right response out of them. I'm sorry. I fail you every day mark i feel you every day i'm so sorry i owe you so many dollars i just think about the

1:27:05TJ:biggest podcast not just in wrestling but like biggest podcast in the world they're all doing in person like joe rogan did a few during covid when he had to yeah but as soon as the door was open to do stuff in person he was doing them in person and like i think about that and like there's this quote i always come back to it's if you're willing to do what others aren't willing to do you're going to get results that others just aren't going to get and like if it's it's it's easy right to like click on a zoom link although if you guys ever had this we don't need to name names here you ever done a zoom interview with someone you can tell they're not paying attention oh i had one where i could tell i'm not going to name names but i could tell they were like looking at emails or definitely doing something other than looking at the zoom window i can tell

1:27:49Penta:you like it feels like we're kind of crapping on zoom interviews which i don't want it to make Shout out to the people of Zoom because that's where we get 80 % of our interviews. But no, I can honestly say I feel as though everyone we've had has been pretty engaged and into it. I can't think of it.

1:28:06O'Shea:I mean, we're not at 885.

1:28:08Penta:No, I mean, yeah, we're not. But yeah, I'm sitting there trying to ponder. Okay, good. I can't remember one time where we got done. I was like, that person was not into this at all. Now, there have been times I do believe that at the beginning,

1:28:22O'Shea:some people got to warm them up. And then when they see, you know, okay, like, you know, the quote,

1:28:28Penta:the sheet, okay, they're not jabronis, you know, and they know what they're doing. And so I've definitely seen people heat up as the interview started. But no, I've never really had, can think of one where nobody was in.

1:28:41O'Shea:Because you were speaking about your guy who does research. Yeah. I because there was a time where I was filming a movie that shall go nameless because they didn't pay me. Oh, I'll tell you about that. You told me about it. All right. Great. Thank goodness. But it's trouble. So while I was filming that, though, we had we had Nia Jackson and I was doing research and I was looking at like I'm talking old bits, like just anything. thing i could find you know because i need something to i i just feel like i needed something to splash to kind of like be different than the other interviews and what he does great and i

1:29:24Penta:picked this up on this on our first interview not to interrupt it's like he does all the intros for this show and i was like he did it the first few times and he would put these little tidbits right into the intro and that immediately yeah yeah they you would physically someone sitting and they're like, yeah, okay. Yeah, that little tap breaks the wall a little bit. So then it was like, it just became easy. I never even think about doing an intro now because he's so on point with them. But yeah, so many times you will drop that little and, you know, their Starbucks order or nickname. Yeah, exactly.

1:30:02Penta:And they're like, that's cool.

1:30:04O'Shea:You know, yeah. Because Nia and Alexa Bliss randomly are on the Steve Harvey show. and uh they say their starbucks orders so i was like huh all right i'm gonna keep that yeah keep that on me i said that in the intro she lights up you know and from there the wall is down and it's like oh you oh you see me like you like you care like you looked it up and you know i i originally got that from uh you know shout out nardwar wherever you are by the way another canadian legend we are both we haven't talked about it a lot

1:30:41Penta:huge Nordwar shout out to Nordwar

1:30:45O'Shea:I would see the coolest people in the world called off guard and they're like hold on did you just happen to me? I love the how did you know that

1:30:57TJ:I love his answer to that he'll be like you're Chris family? we have to know you're O'Shea Jackson Jr. we have to know

1:31:05O'Shea:shout out to Nordwar I always look for those little things to show them that no dude like yeah you're in good hands we're taking really care and i think that's a big part about

1:31:15TJ:interviews is like you have to find a way to build rapport as quickly as you can yeah yeah yeah

1:31:20Penta:they're there for him like when we we had chelsea chelsea green and i'm gonna say this like i was i've known chelsea green since the laurel van ness tna days right i was always like okay chelsea green great and then everyone got behind her especially after the unreal and i was still like Chelsea Green short sitting across from her at 2k26 a few weeks ago it took four minutes four that's a long time for Chelsea it should have been four seconds it should have been four seconds but for me I was like I was kind of like whatever and then you gave her that nickname the mate the matriarch of the main which he said it and I knew he had I knew he hadn't had this written down i knew you had because we were just like oh chelsea green's coming in so okay cool and he said that in my mind i'm like this mom just made that up on the spot she did the salute she was like oh my god and it was just like but they in that moment you're right probably wasn't four minutes but it was like instantly i was like i went from yeah chelsea green sure she's cool to give Chelsea Green whatever she wants.

1:32:27Penta:Oh, I do love so good. Whatever she wants, give it to her. So like you said, and that was another prop I'll give you. I was like, yeah, I know he didn't write that down. I just popped in on his head right there.

1:32:39O'Shea:SAT words. But, alright. We've been going over a little bit of the past, a little bit of what it took to get here, but you are a wrestling fan for real, for real. And there are some things happening right now dude we are on the road to wrestlemania road to wrestlemania is in full effect and it really didn't feel like it for a little bit a little bit it kind of things kind of jolted into everybody's mad at each other people are back people are hurt it's it's a bit all over the place there's new champions especially with pinto who we had on and it uh yeah i guess the first things first we wanted to start off earlier with the elimination

1:33:23TJ:chamber Raquel star of the chamber and looked like a million bucks with the man with I didn't realize they were the glasses I was like oh she's kind of swagged out to be in the chamber right now

1:33:36O'Shea:I I tweeted she's smiling so much is she about to win I love that she's calling herself big sexy

1:33:45TJ:it's so good you know she's right into that i gotta be honest i always liked her i i hated

1:33:51Penta:the smiley back pose raquel thing that she used to do i'm like you were too big too strong and too bad to just be coming out like yeah you know pandering to these star making performance for her yeah and also you got to give a shout out i know that there's some people right now talking trash on kevin nash but when he put the tweet out about her rhyme on purpose but uh maybe you know we're musical people i don't know but when he put that tweet out about how she should be working bigger and she didn't take offense to it she's like noted yeah then everything changed like everything changed about her after that and then she became oh yeah you are six feet tall and you are bigger and stronger than the rest of these women and you're wrestling

1:34:36TJ:like that that was a dominant performance for her i think that something has shifted in 2026 like weekly television raw smackdown matters and i think it was like so abundantly clear when cody rose and drew mcintyre had that three stages of hell match on smackdown yeah and you went into it going oh there's a chance that there's a new champion here and when was the last time the title changed hands on that especially that title i think bro changed hands on what television upn and then like i think that week three titles changed hands on tv we just saw penta become the intercontinental champion like you need to watch raw and smackdown because you never know what's

1:35:17O'Shea:going to happen i think the first time in a long time i felt that where i was like oh my god he might win was jay versus bron breaker for the intercontinental champion i was there in ontario

1:35:27TJ:california dude i was like there's no way yes this isn't at a ple and then like i remember turning to my buddy was troy i was sitting with him i said shout out troy shout out the editor troy i said so uh so how does braun win this one he's like i don't know spear i guess and then like they got towards the end i went he's not gonna win this is crazy and i i love that that's where we're at right now with wrestling because there was a long time where it's just like ple to ple to ple

1:35:56O'Shea:right you know i mean you get your title i'm gonna give you two three months after the two three months then you can start to be nervous of just like who's gonna take it who's gonna take it

1:36:06TJ:And people kept saying, like, what are the matches you're looking forward to for WrestleMania? This was like a month ago. And I'm like, I don't know who the champions are. I assume CM Punk remains the champ going in.

1:36:16O'Shea:Yeah.

1:36:16TJ:But at this point, I'm like, I don't know if Cody's still going to be the champion. Right. He's not. I don't know if Drew's going to be the champion. I truly do not know what's going to happen this Friday on SmackDown. Can I tell you right now?

1:36:28Penta:We love Drew McIntyre. And I love Cody Rhodes. Like I said, Dusty Rhodes, me and my grandpa's thing. Saturday night, 6.05 in my house. If you were watching something on Saturday, it better be over by 6.04, because 6.05, WTBS was getting put on there. I love that. So I love Dusty, and then, you know, and because of that, it went into Dustin being a fan of his and Cody. Love Drew, you know, but I'm kind of at a point now where if they try to screw Drew McIntyre out of this title, there's going to be a problem. But here's the problem with that problem, guys. Cody against Randy just makes so much sense at WrestleMania, right?

1:37:11Penta:It makes so much sense with legacy. So now I'm torn. I know. So do I have to root for a triple threat match? Because I feel that's the only way that this can really go. Because I've, like I said, Cody and Randy makes, it just makes too much sense.

1:37:27TJ:I agree. And we've been, they've been hinting at that for a long time, right? Cody and Randy, it's going to happen at some point in time. I think Randy for sure wins 15. Maybe it's within the next 12 months. I think might even win 16 before his career is over. I don't know. But like, is it Drew McIntyre versus Randy Orton? Is it Drew McIntyre versus, I heard someone say Nick Aldis. By the way, there's something there. There's something there. And Nick Aldis will be the first to tell you like, he's not done with his in-ring career. Look at that guy.

1:37:59Penta:Nick Aldis is brolic, man. Obviously. I met him at the Philadelphia WrestleMania and I'm 6 '3 and I'm like damn this dude's jacked and he's a wrestler's wrestler he can go and we like to always put people on game if you guys watch and if you're not familiar with Nick Aldis go to YouTube just look up some stuff and if you want something you're familiar with look up his NWA title matches against Cody Rhodes

1:38:26TJ:when he was the traveling champion 10 pounds of gold all of those that stuff was great but specifically him versus cody at that time was amazing i don't know i feels like triple threat but what happens on friday do we get is there's some sort of screw job here some sort of shenanigans does jacob fatu get to be part of this picture i'm gonna fatal four away like but

1:38:48Penta:isn't that what's kind of cool like yes it's very cool today on the eyes and show we were talking about basketball and we're like and the same thing with football season it was wide open there was especially when the Chiefs were down, nobody knew. You didn't know the Seattle Seahawks were going to win the Super Bowl. Get the hell out of here. Yeah. Basketball right now, it's still wide open. Who's going to win the NBA title? Lakers. Well, anyway, realistically, you don't know. And I feel like that's what great. We don't know. Is it Randy? Is it Cody? Is it Jacob?

1:39:19TJ:Is it Drew? We'll know after this Friday, which is cool, because then that'll give us a nice runway leading into WrestleMania, and then we can figure out how the other matches are going to shake out. But wrestling has been at its worst when it's too predictable. And I feel like over the last, especially two, three months, it's been unpredictable. And people were even saying, like, I was saying this, like that it's unpredictable. People were like, what are you talking about? Cody's obviously going to win Elimination Chamber. And I'm like, is he? Yeah, right.

1:39:49O'Shea:Are you sure about that? And I will say this, though. for it to be Cody versus Randy one on one at Mania I feel like there's no way there's no world that I live in where Cody loses back to back Manias what what are you doing to him then what are you doing to him as a character and like what does it mean and as a Roman guy That just pisses me off about 40 all over again. Because as soon as we got to 40 and then you were online, all they kept talking about was who's going to take it off Cody. He just got it. And then he can't even go a full year of Mania to Mania, and he loses it. You're going to make him lose it again?

1:40:39TJ:You know what nobody talks about?

1:40:41Penta:What's that?

1:40:42TJ:Roman Reigns never got a rematch. How about it? Roman Reigns never got a rematch after losing the title. How about it?

1:40:50Penta:Ever. They did away with those. I'm just saying. A real convenient time. But it was before that.

1:40:57TJ:I'm just saying. All you have to do is come out and be like, hey, I deserve a rematch. You don't even need a story. The story's already written. That's true. No rematch.

1:41:08Penta:Paul. Paul, buddy. This guy. It's everyone who's unaware. He's talking to Triple H, okay? But he calls him Paul. Paul.

1:41:17O'Shea:Paul. Hey, let me tell you. the sky. Hashtag, let Roman finish his story.

1:41:24Penta:What story?

1:41:26O'Shea:Y 'all shut the hell up, bro.

1:41:28TJ:I'm excited for Punk versus Roman.

1:41:29Penta:I am. Very. Which, by the way, was news that we got to break on no contest when we were in San Francisco for the Super Bowl. They were like, you gotta read this teaser. And I'm like, oh, okay. You guys are the main event of night, too. Here's the deal.

1:41:48O'Shea:it didn't say night two thank you oh my god i'm glad we get to talk about this because i'll kept

1:41:55Penta:reading the graphic i was like tj this never says i think i inserted night two in there in my excitement of reading this but holy shit how could it not be night two it's roman reigns and charles montgomery punk you're not putting them at night charles montgomery come on come on So I don't know. Chris, I think I got, maybe I got overzealous, but nobody hit me up. No, it's single.

1:42:21O'Shea:And I was like, TJ, everything that they show on the screen does not say it, but I'm not going to react.

1:42:26TJ:If it ends up being Cody versus Randy, is that night too? No. I agree, probably. Punk Roman has to. I also, it was really weird at Royal Rumble when Michael Cole kept saying, the winner of this match gets a guaranteed main event match at Wrestlemania and I'm like that's not true you get a title match at Wrestlemania but it is not a main event yeah they do that a lot they they kept saying it I think they even kept saying at Elimination Chamber keep trying to yeah like how many main events are there yeah dude it's

1:43:00O'Shea:man it's just in a it puts Cody in a weird spot because he's already feeling like Like he said, not every game is a home game all of a sudden.

1:43:12TJ:Well, you knew it was bound to happen. But I'm excited because we don't know. That's my point. Every time there would be a title defense on Raw or SmackDown for the last three, four, five years, you'd go, well, the champion's going to still be the champion after this. It's not the case right now.

1:43:30O'Shea:That's what's cool. Hold on. Can I? This is a little bit of inside. me and my sister have had this talk so I'm going to bring it to the show now which is always dangerous but TJ I would like to take some creative liberties here it's my favorite thing I know what you guys are going to think you're going to feel the comments already I see your stupid little thumbs getting hot already but listen if I was running things back there and there was a situation where I wanted to hint at Cody possibly go and heal or anything like that. I'm not saying it needs to happen. I'm saying if I were to hint at it.

1:44:11You're saying what?

1:44:14O'Shea:No, no, no, no. Okay, okay. No, but I'm saying if Cody gets into a position where. See, Chris O'Shea's creative liberties. He's not in the main event. He's not defending the championship. Do you remember a while ago when actually how Cody got here? Seth Rollins was so obsessed. I have to be at Mania. I have to have a Mania match. I have to have a Mania match. He wouldn't bother Vince in his office. What if that seed of lunacy, that same thing that got Cody here, what does Cody do without the title? If Cody doesn't have that title, what is he? what are you you're gonna go for the united states championship so it matches your clothes he doesn't know what else to be but that how can i go hugging these babies and shaking hands and i'm not qb1 you gotta take that patch off what is it like seeing somebody else get the starting position when you're supposed to be qb1 and the just what type of mental gymnastics does he have to go through to make sure he will do whatever it takes to get that title back seems to be a little juicy and that is oshay's creative leader which bitch ass hey now you gotta sponsor

1:45:35Penta:that segment just just throwing it out that was like my first or second choice for the pod and i gave a list and he looked at no contest i love that i'm like cool i like it too so yeah so So if you have a creative liberty, just let us know above him. It's when the light bulb goes off in your head.

1:45:54O'Shea:It can be mid-conversation. We have no rules on this show. Right. Or what else do we have going on? Obviously, we talked about Raquel and Lemonade's Jim. Talked about Drew. We got to talk about the other side. Seth Rollins. Seth Rollins coming back.

1:46:11TJ:I feel like I predicted that. I feel like, so I think we're still getting Seth Rollins versus Braun Breaker at WrestleMania. I think they're both going to end up being healthy and ready to go. Okay. That's the match that they were trying to get and teasing for a while. I think it's still going to happen. And I was like, I was a little curious, a little side note here. Why were they wearing the masks with a big open mouth hole?

1:46:38O'Shea:Oh, my God.

1:46:39TJ:Could have just done the eye holes. You're right. But they look like the Foot Clan. But then it'd be like, who is it? Because people were like, it's clearly Grayson Waller. It looks like him. We can see his tattoo. their shoes look similar but i love seeing seth rollins back he just brings i think he just levels up and i i was like i feel like there's going to be some sort of twist some sort of surprise at elimination chamber like i think drew's going to be there to like mess things up in the main event didn't think it'd be seth already but here we are and i love that he's there i tweeted right

1:47:12O'Shea:before, I was like, there's a 99 % chance that Punk beats Finn. Yes. But there's a 1 % chance, and that's Seth Rollins returning. And he just returned at the match that was at the end, instead of the fight. But like, had he not had

1:47:30Penta:beef with them, maybe he would have.

1:47:31O'Shea:Exactly. Now, TJ would tell you, and the fans of the No Contest Wrestling Podcast would tell you, I have been on a Seth Rollins hate train for about a year now because TJ is one of the first creative liberties that pissed me the hell off. He told me that Paul Heyman was going to backstab the tribal chief and CM Punk and go with Seth Rollins.

1:47:58Penta:You called it. Well, I'll just say this if I may. Seth was on the Rich Eisen show. He calls him Colby, by the way. He's just acting like this because of you. Well, you know, we're friends now. And it was literally about three weeks before, if you remember the storyline where he was saying Paul owed him a favor? So about three weeks before that, he's on the show. He was like, what, we're looking forward to WrestleMania. I'm like, well, I know what I think is gonna happen. And he goes, oh, really? What's that? And I said, well, I've got a wrestling podcast for that. And I came on and said, who is Paul Heyman?

1:48:35Penta:He's already been with him, Pump. He's already been with Roman. And at that point, he just starts kind of like seizing up like no don't say i'm like what if paul and seth get together they haven't worked together yet and that infuriated him and then it actually happened while we're

1:48:52O'Shea:there by the way i called him a bunch of things yeah none of them can be aired here without so what's your issue with seth rollins oh because he hates seth wrong i just feel like seth did not need paul hayman dude seth was so like what the way that i look at paul hayman i look at paul hayman as the guy who takes either the just the the underappreciated it makes them like shines them into like top mid-card guy and puts my yeah or even like not even strictly mid-card but somebody who's not getting that proper guidance the same way this character always is but it's just something about adding that that paul hayman guy thing to you that that polishes it up to be the diamond it was supposed to be you know maybe that's you saying a little bit less maybe that's you and paul really running it or like just something about adding him with it and just the maniacal madness that he brings to another character just makes them it it multiplies your menacing-ness all the way up, right?

1:50:00O'Shea:Seth don't need that. I have thought Seth was this menacing guy forever. He was practically a cult leader one time. The dude does what Paul Heyman does to other people. So I was like, this is just overkill. And then it turned into the vision or bloodline light as I was calling it. Alright, things have changed, whatever. but then when he pulls the crime of the century all right the heist of the century whatever you want to call it which was another time where wrestling surprises yes the ruse of the century the ruse of the century where another time where wrestling surprised you didn't surprise me because i knew it was correct he was getting doors for him and stuff go ahead tell him how he was getting

1:50:45Penta:oh well you remember well well after that you know when the whole la night thing happened with Seth blew out his name. Saturday Night's Main Event. I'm in Dallas. I'm at All In. And I'm at the presser after and he's blowing up my phone. Oh my God, Seth is hurt. I think it's for real. So that was Saturday. Seth was already scheduled to host, to guest host the Rich Eisen show on Wednesday. This had been set up two months prior. So I text Rich. I was like, yo, apparently Seth got hurt. So maybe you should check to see if he's still going to come in. Because Rich had somewhere to be. And then Monday, he was like, no, he said he's still coming.

1:51:30Penta:And I'm like, what? He's still coming? And so we come in. And my man's got the leg brace on. And he's hobbling around. He worked, man. And I remember at one point, I said, how are you doing? Like mentally, how are you? And he gave me this answer. And then we put it on YouTube. all of a sudden I became a sympathetic like people were like whoever that guy is that I said how he was doing mentally we all need to start following him and I was just like I remember seeing that I was just like oh I oh I did I mean I didn't really expect it to hit people like that but yeah he was like mentally how are you man because and then it turned and yeah the getting the door thing you know I sit back in the corner at the eyes and show Rich's desk is right behind Shays like during commercial breaks when I knew he had to go to the bathroom I would leave where I was, come walk up and give him his crutches so he wouldn't so yeah, I mean, people are like did you know?

1:52:24Penta:I'm like, here's the deal 98 % of me believed him, but I've been a wrestling fan my entire life, so 2 % of me is like, this is some bullshit, but you know what, as a wrestling fan, I'm going, like, if you say you're hurt, then you're hurt and that's what we're going to do

1:52:40O'Shea:and it just so happens that there might have been a little curse put on the vision when everybody started getting hurt and all this other nonsense how about that i'm just saying the best late wrestling guys don't like that mice and men and now look

1:52:51TJ:what yeah everyone's hurt yeah well and but we don't know how long everybody's out for exactly it's always been like i think that brawn breaker comes back sooner than people think they need him

1:53:01Penta:this is just a guess right chris you don't think there's a chance right because he overturned the table which breaks if someone stands on it i have a hard time believing that that dude would get a

1:53:12TJ:hernia lifting up the table it sounds like he was dealing with an issue up until that point so i

1:53:18Penta:guess my question to you is like there's no way that they would fake that like there's no way they

1:53:23TJ:would do that again well because they didn't even in storyline fake it like it wasn't like he turned over the table and like keeled over and like right he wouldn't put up the x like i think it was after they were like oh that thing that nagging injury you've had it's actually worse than you think you

1:53:37O'Shea:got to take some time off that's what i think okay you know it really and so now you know if the brawn breaker thing happens if not then you know seth is going against logan or looks like you don't want that again do we i mean i prefer logan and bad bunny honestly i mean that that might go hard i think that goes next year oh man oh but that's in Saudi that's so far i really feel

1:54:02TJ:like there are some big plans that are going to be held off until WrestleMania 43 because they want to just blow it out of the water. I mean, that's the, I think rock returns for WrestleMania 43. I think John Cena is inducted into the hall of fame there. I think maybe bad bunny wrestles there. Like there's a lot of big things, but with that said, 43 or 42 this year is shaping up to be like, have some great matches. I mean,

1:54:27Penta:we're getting those two title matches. Like we said,

1:54:29TJ:yeah,

1:54:30Penta:I think I put on four title matches. They all look pretty good.

1:54:33TJ:Yeah.

1:54:34Penta:I think we're going to get Kyrie and Asuka. I think probably is going to go down now, right? That's going to happen. Are we still looking at, you know, are we going to see the Bellas against Lash and Nia for those tag team championships? Looks like maybe. I'm curious.

1:54:50O'Shea:I do not wish that for the Bellas. Yeah.

1:54:53Penta:I'm a Bellas fan, all right? No, no, no. Not right now, man.

1:54:58O'Shea:They are on fire. Two dominant forces. Yeah. Sorry, you're curious about where Penta goes now

1:55:05TJ:with the Intercontinental Championship. I love that. Again, another reason that you got to watch Raw. But I think that people were talking about, oh, is it going to be Dom versus Penta at WrestleMania? Maybe it's another four-way match for the Intercontinental Championship. There's another one who didn't get a rematch. Braun Breaker never got a rematch when he lost the IC title. Didn't even get pinned, and there was no rematch. Oh, true that.

1:55:28O'Shea:Oh, man, true that. he's on the bigger and better thing

1:55:31Penta:so Penta, we asked Penta about that and he basically said he was the guest before you he'll take on anybody I thought you were going to talk about how he called Dom a fake Mexican, I don't know what to do with that he said Dom's a fake Mexican and then I was like wow, really? He goes, where is he from? San Diego and you were like, you brought up the passport

1:55:53O'Shea:the passport's blue bro

1:55:56Penta:but yeah He threw out some names. He's down. And even if we brought up, what if you look at the contract and it says Ray Phoenix on it? That's what a match. We're probably not going to get it. WrestleMania.

1:56:08TJ:But the name says Ray, but it says. Yeah, right.

1:56:13Penta:Ray Phoenix.

1:56:15TJ:Throw back to Shane. I put out like it was a history making win for Penta. He's the first Mexican born wrestler to be the Intercontinental Champion. So many people in the comments being like, well, actually, what about Rey Mysterio? What about him? He was born in California. So Tito Santana didn't hold the championship? He was born in Texas. But it's so funny how online people don't have four seconds to Google something. In the time it took you to write that comment, a quick Google search might have surprised you.

1:56:46Penta:So I know the crap that we hear at our 75 episode level. So you must just look at some of these comments sometimes and just be like, son of a...

1:57:01TJ:Every once in a while, I'll respond and be like, hey, a quick Google search might surprise you. And that's it. I just leave it at that. Just a quick Google search. Chris Van Lee answer.

1:57:11Penta:Yeah, because you know who's not going to give that answer? Hell no. How about you shut your mouth? A quick Google search may surprise you. This guy right next to me is not going to give that same type of grace.

1:57:22O'Shea:It's because now you're in my house talking to me crazy, and you could have just let me talk to myself. Just let me just be a nerd and just leave me alone.

1:57:33TJ:Sometimes I put out those graphics that guess the wrestler, so it's like this title to this title to this title. And then a lot of people would be like, well, didn't they win a tag title? It's like, no, or else it would have been on this graphic. We did the research for you.

1:57:49Penta:Sometimes like that, you'll be like singles titles, and someone's like, what about tag team? It says singles. It don't say nothing about tag team. I get this so much.

1:57:56TJ:I'm sure you guys do too. I'll put up a photo of like the guest on the show is so-and-so or the guest on the show today is so-and-so. Did you guys talk about this?

1:58:05O'Shea:How about you just...

1:58:06TJ:You could listen to the episode.

1:58:08O'Shea:You'll find out all of the things we talked about. There used to be a guy who... You son of a bitch. There used to be a guy who like me and TJ, we have to do our review. Then we get to the guest. and then we do a little outro. Bam. Every episode, the guest starts here.

1:58:27TJ:Oh.

1:58:29O'Shea:We'll do the timestamp thing.

1:58:30Penta:I would do hide from channel if I were you. Dude, like. And I always feel like, you know, sometimes people might want to know what we're talking about.

1:58:39O'Shea:You know, we got to ask the questions when the guests get here. Like, you can't get rid of us.

1:58:44Penta:Oh, my goodness. You know, I don't want to get back into the scene. No, no, no.

1:58:48O'Shea:We're not toxic. We're not toxic.

1:58:50Penta:not toxic no not at all but yeah so you know someone someone insulted me in the comments and

1:58:56TJ:said oh wrestling's ryan seacrest and i was like that's the kindest thing anybody's ever said thank you so much money right you're telling me the most successful television host of this

1:59:09Penta:generation yeah yeah thank you yeah thanks i gladly thank you i wish i had one percent of the

1:59:16TJ:success and money he's made.

1:59:18Penta:I don't know what your pockets look like, but you definitely have 1 % of the success. Maybe within wrestling. Yeah, we don't know how... And what are we here to talk? Wrestling. Okay, so that's all that matters. That's all that matters. I feel like...

1:59:32O'Shea:Wait, something, I'll let you sneak by, because we have, like you said, the conversation happens, so our normal questions are out of the way. But you did a little backyard wrestling. So that means that you have a welcome to wrestling moment where you got put on your ass or like that little blue mat yeah bro what was your welcome

1:59:51TJ:wrestling moment we were doing the wrestling on the trampoline up to this point and then we went to my front my buddy greg kuzak's backyard and they had the very thin blue gym mats and i took my first bump on there and this was without any sort of training this is just from me watching wrestling how old are you at this point 16 i took a bump and i went oh yeah that noise and i was like okay like that hurts a lot more certainly than a trampoline yeah so that was the first moment but when i went to wrestling school when i was 20 and that was the first time i took a bump inside a wrestling ring and i always say like when we're watching basketball chances are we've all dribbled the basketball shot it out of here if we're watching baseball we've played catch you've hit the ball same with football right if you're watching wrestling flight.

2:00:36TJ:And there's a good chance you've never been in the ring. You've never ran the ropes. You've never taken a bump. You don't really know what it feels like. But boy, there's a lot of people that like to sit there and pretend that they've done it and pretend that they've been in there. I took that first bump and that was like, oh, but I was like within a class of like 10, 12 other people. I didn't want to make it feel like it hurt. But running the ropes, and I'm sure you've heard this a thousand times before.

2:01:00Penta:From everybody, yeah.

2:01:01TJ:Running the ropes hurts way more than you'd think. Yeah.

2:01:05Penta:Everybody says, man.

2:01:06TJ:And we did it all that first class. We were locking up. We were taking bumps. We ran the ropes. And the next day, I had a huge welt right under my armpit on the lat. And I remember showing my mom and my parents. Dirk and Helen Van Vliet are not wrestling fans. And we're quite upset that their son was sneaking off to do backyard wrestling. One time I...

2:01:31Penta:Now, was this in the Rob Fuego days? It was. Yes. Look at you. Wow.

2:01:36TJ:rob fuego is uh was my trainer in toronto actually he wasn't my trainer because i was in the beginner's ring he was training the people in the advanced ring yeah i was training with ashley six and chris chambers shout out to them toronto indie legends rob fuego was in the ring next to me and i like shook his hand very nice man but like that was the welcome to wrestling moment i also remember a moment maybe a few weeks into wrestling training where like we did the lock up into the corner like and then you know clean break and i remember one of the trainers going hey chris is the bigger guy here so like you should let him like really like take over the lockup i'm like never in my life have i been called the bigger guy okay yeah thank you thank you so right thank you that's a good moment and but for everybody who hasn't heard the story i was training in the summer when i was going to go back to college i was studying communication studies.

2:02:30TJ:And I, I had to decide, was I going to focus on wrestling school or school school? Cause I'm a big believer in the quote, the man who chases two chickens catches none. The man who chases two rabbits catches none. And like, I wanted to focus on the main thing. I wanted the main thing to be the main thing. So I'm going to get my communication studies degree, get that bachelor of arts degree. And I figured wrestling would always be there. So I trained for like three ish months. And then when it was time to go back to school, I was focused on school and And man, how grateful am I that I get to dip my toe back into wrestling?

2:03:00TJ:Ring announcer every once in a while, throwing a rock bottom here and there, you know? But that was the welcome to wrestling moment.

2:03:08O'Shea:Have you ever? Yeah, because I went to WWE headquarters, and they took us to the warehouse, and I got to get in a ring. And when I grabbed that rope to get in, I was like, bro. I couldn't imagine being sweaty and have to scrape across this room Real quick, I can just imagine that bird.

2:03:30Penta:Kind of gave you a different perspective, right? Yeah, they're right. Because people want to talk about, I hate the word botch so much, bro. I hate that people sit on their couches with their phones and sit there and watch somebody and be like, oh, it's a botch. First of all, the fact that there aren't more mess-ups during a match to me is pretty amazing, right?

2:03:53TJ:Especially when we're talking about inches, sometimes centimeters to make things happen.

2:03:58O'Shea:So it's like Finn and L.A. Knight, that corner of the ring that just almost caused both of them

2:04:04Penta:to tear something. When L.A. tried to do his backwards jump and he slipped and everyone's like, oh, watch. But it's just like... Finn had the same thing earlier. I don't know. I just don't like it when people point that out because, like you said, it's seconds. It's milliseconds. It's milli-inches. I don't even know if that's a thing.

2:04:21TJ:I think about Javon Evans with that OG cutter from top rope to top rope. Anytime. The timing on that was so perfect. Like if you're off by a quarter of a second, it just looks dumb.

2:04:36Penta:Let me ask you, do you remember the Chris brothers? No. Dave Chris, or I don't think they pronounce it Christ. They used to be in TNA. Okay. I saw them at Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, and they would, I think it was either Jake or Dave. I want to say it was Dave. He did that same move that Javon did off of the top rope. But Javon, the level of athleticism that he adds to it. Oh, my gosh. But, yeah, Jake and Dave Christ, if you get a chance, look them up. They were really good under the TNA banner in the Indies. Never really blew up or anything, but just two very solid, very good wrestlers. And I love me some TNA.

2:05:16Penta:Oh, yeah. You know, back in the day, I was about 2005, 2006. Oh, that was prime TNA. Yeah, and it always kind of got me, guys. When AEW came around, right, people were like, oh, I stopped watching wrestling. AEW got me back into wrestling. And I'm like, if you're a wrestling fan, how did you not know about TNA? Like, in addition to the, you know, you had all your ex-WWE, a lot of WCW guys coming with Stang and Angle and, you know, the main event mafia with Booker and Nash. You had the up-and-coming guys like the AJs and, you know, the Kazarians and the Daniels and the Cowboy James Storms and people like that.

2:05:56Penta:But you also, the women there were, they were showcasing their women bigger than anyone.

2:06:03TJ:The Knockhouse division was revolutionary.

2:06:05Penta:from odb to i told kim i told gail kim yes i told shea once i spent an hour and a half just watching the beautiful people entrances on youtube like shout out angelina love shout out

2:06:19TJ:she was at my wrestling school when i was there really in a love yeah she was in the the advanced ring but i was like oh hello okay yeah so shout out to the beautiful people but you're talking about a specific era of tna like i would say the golden years of tna is like oh five-ish yeah that's like 11 2011-ish and then i think that any tna fan even any tna wrestler will tell you there were

2:06:43Penta:some rough years after that i tell you when the rough years started i think when hogan and bischoff got there when the six-sided ring disappeared it was yeah it changed everything man and it just it it took something that was so unique and it changed it. But remember we talked to AJ and he didn't, he thought he liked the ring. Right. Yeah. Yeah. He's like,

2:07:06TJ:he never want to wrestle that again. That again. So,

2:07:08Penta:but yeah, TNA, like in the mid, the mid aughts was great, man. I had so much fun watching TNA back then.

2:07:16O'Shea:Because you are such a TNA guy. I feel like we, I got to ask you this because we had AJ Styles on and the The way that he was speaking to us, this is before the Rumble, you know, well before. Was John still? No, John. Yeah. Or was he on already?

2:07:33Penta:This is. Whoa. Ooh. I think it might have been after.

2:07:36O'Shea:Yeah, it was after. Yeah. So the way that AJ was speaking about his career, first of all, TJ had a great idea. He was like, you know, if you and Shinsuke go on one more run as tag teams,

2:07:54Penta:tell him the name bro it's your name i said it was so obvious i said respect the dragon league because he got the title i'm like i wanted you and shinsuke to be the king of strong styles

2:08:02TJ:i'm like it's right there pretty great it's why they pay you the big bucks yeah man and he was

2:08:08O'Shea:like that but and and aj's like he just was so first of all he had a great joke about shinsuke he was like he just was reluctant on anything that we would talk about down the line and even with my man mike santana who was the week before talking about his dream match would be fighting aj in a tna ring for the title and like aj just wouldn't give or he wouldn't say maybe one day

2:08:38Penta:like not even that he was also very he downplayed his retirement like it was to the point where he was like i i you know i don't think they're gonna make that big of a deal i think i'll be able to just kind of slide away and i literally just you know we talked about interrupting i interrupt i'm like excuse me bro i'm like you are aj styles like you do understand this right like there's gonna be pomp and circumstance we went back after and realized that man had already been on his retirement tour yeah and we didn't know it and he basically told us in the interview this was it and we didn't even i don't say knowledge we just didn't recognize the fact that he's true he's telling us right now he's telling us without telling us he was on my show almost exactly a

2:09:23TJ:year ago and that was where the news broke that he's like i don't want to wrestle past 50 so he was 47 i think at that point in time okay i think he turns 48 49 this year and he was like i will not wrestle past my 50th birthday and i'm like so 49 in 364 days he's like will not wrestle past 50 and like that was news that he was coming out that like a retirement was imminent i was like

2:09:49O'Shea:how often do you think about retirement and he's like a lot oh yeah man my favorite childhood memory is my back not hurting so i could just imagine did you have a question as a big tna fan is that where you were yeah i'm just like talk i was just gonna say like talk to us about aj you know like i had the best of aj styles volume one volume two on dvd

2:10:12TJ:i just remember seeing him wrestle for the first time and i couldn't believe it like i was like he just did what yeah like seeing the spiral tap for the first time i was like how many rotations is that he lands it so cleanly every single time i love the backdrop into essentially the scorpion death drop and like when he wasn't really doing that in wwe when he first came around i kept saying to my friends that were just watching wwe i'm like you haven't seen the real aj yeah like he's wrestling a different style and i respect that i love that but like let me show you some matches let me show you a few things like unbreakable 2005 one of my favorite matches which is christopher daniels versus samoa joe versus aj styles triple threat oh my goodness like yeah what a brilliant like advertisement for like look at the things tna can do because they were only a few years in at that point in time look at what like the x division can do and look at what these three guys individually can do.

2:11:13TJ:AJ Styles, what an unreal once-in-a, not even generation, like once-in-a-lifetime talent.

2:11:19O'Shea:You think WWE gave him that Hall of Fame so he didn't go elsewhere? No, I think it's AJ Styles. This was planned for, I'm sure, months. You think? Somebody whispered. If he were to whisper that to John the way that John said that he did, there's a chance that somebody else of that echelon got word of it i mean undertaker's the one that you know he's he's kind of what's my man for the nfl who does the hall of fame oh he doesn't do it anymore yeah yeah david baker but he doesn't the knock now is just a doom

2:11:57TJ:now it's like someone you've played with i think even aj said it like he had some say in this and I think that like if he wanted to wrestle elsewhere he would have gone and did that but like this is how he wanted it to go and it sounds like his body is just saying like it's time

2:12:14Penta:this is it which is funny and I brought it up to him because internally obviously you don't know how someone feels but I'm like externally bro you are more jack now than you've ever been

2:12:24TJ:and he hasn't lost a step no he's AJ Styles

2:12:28O'Shea:but he'll tell you hey yes I have

2:12:30TJ:or he's like I wrestle a certain Styles so you don't see that I lost a step.

2:12:36Penta:So I guess we have to equate just this moment. It just hit me. Maybe we equate AJ Styles to Barry Sanders. Barry Sanders still on top.

2:12:44TJ:You just had an epiphany?

2:12:45O'Shea:Yeah, because in our interview with TJ, that's why he was like, oh, because that's why he was like, yeah, just, you ever want to talk video games? Just bring me on. I was like, what the hell?

2:12:56Penta:Yeah, he was like, I'm very interested.

2:12:58O'Shea:We're going to have a video game episode of the wrestling podcast, but it's because like he dropped breadcrumbs that like i got nothing to talk about but i'm

2:13:05TJ:done with talking about aj styles like what a what just a great what a great human being yeah oh man he i did the interview at dvp's performance center in atlanta and like aj styles rolled up and he's like dude do you like interview like actual celebrities right i'm like yeah like aj styles what are you talking about he goes who's the biggest person you ever interviewed i'm like outside of like aj styles or like the undertaker i don't know like tom cruise he's like what was he like i'm like why are you asking me these questions has there ever been an interview where

2:13:39O'Shea:you like or maybe meeting a wrestler where you're like damn i probably shouldn't have said that

2:13:46TJ:i think for me with any of these interviews it's just like i want them to live up to the

2:13:50O'Shea:expectations that i have that's fair i don't know if it's like i shouldn't i shouldn't have said

2:13:55TJ:that yeah like you know how you have the few moments before the john cena interview you're just like just chatting yeah and like i knew that we had to get him out of there at a certain time so like he was supposed to show up at 1 30 he showed up earlier so i'm like do we get some extra time with john cena as a result and i said this is so this is so dumb i can't even believe i'm admitting this he goes uh at about 2 30 i'll give you i'll start to i'll adjust my tie to let you know i'll give you the iggy let you know we should start wrapping up and every time i hear 230 i think it is such a dumb joke what's a dentist's favorite time to two 30 i don't think john had ever heard that oh yes i so i delivered that joke to him and he's like ah gave me like the courtesy laugh yeah that's my daughter's favorite joke my daughter's two and a half i said oh you want to hear her other favorite joke he's of course yes please it's what's something everybody gets on their birthday a year older and he's like okay anyway no no okay but he's like anyway i'll give you the time in about an hour you know and he never gave me the time it's okay i'm waiting for it i'm looking at the clock i'm like 230 okay no iggy no 235 240 250 yeah that was that was my thing so i'm sitting there and i kept looking

2:15:16Penta:at his watch and i kept waiting for him yes i kept waiting for him to look at his watch and i noticed he never once looked at his watch so that made me go okay maybe he's looking at that big yeah but even at that like he he looked at at the beginning but he was he's like you always hear about tom cruise you interviewed him you know but he looks you in your eye and he's very present and

2:15:37TJ:that's how i felt with john like but that was one of those where i was i don't regret it at all i I'm not one of those people that lives in regret of like, oh, I shouldn't have done this thing. Or if this thing didn't happen, then I don't think that way at all. This is why I think Back to the Future is the best movie of all time, the greatest movie. Because it teaches us that moments are important. If this doesn't happen, then this can't happen. And if that doesn't happen, then Marty's parents don't meet, right? I think about that all the time. But I don't think I've had one of those moments. I've had a lot where stories are being told, things are being said and i'm like oh i wish we had saved that story to get a genuine reaction the podcast i've had a lot of times i'm sure you guys have had this too where they're like we're not rolling right okay so let me tell you this yeah we got one or two of those afterwards yes i've had a few of those where you're like oh listen bro good thing you didn't say that i feel

2:16:36O'Shea:I feel like we can I feel like I can say it now but you know I swore Jay was going to beat John Cena because of what he was talking to us at Fanatics

2:16:47Penta:we can say it now we were at Fanatics in New York last year and the three of us are surrounding Jay Uso he's sitting no one knows this by the way yeah we've never said this

2:17:02O'Shea:because we want to hold on to it like if this

2:17:04Penta:happened so we kind of i i personally said it like about two weeks before i thought it was gonna happen then so we're jay was so sitting there it's you and i are talking you came over so it's like the four of us and then somebody got my attention so i was talking to someone else but

2:17:19O'Shea:i heard him and then you can go ahead and yeah and like you know we're talking to jay and like you know he had just got the title taken off of him the world heavyweight title and he was just It's like, you know, now I'm not really sure what direction. Like, I'm going with, like, you know, do I go for the rematch? I mean, now they're talking about me. I'm going to have to get it off of John. And I remember being like, yeah, dog, that's crazy. So, like, you know, just letting it go by. And I remember thinking, it's no way in the world I heard that. Like, I'm tripping. I'm tripping. I'm fine. You called me after that.

2:17:57O'Shea:Yeah, bro. This was sitting in my head for like, I'm on the plane. I'm going home. I'm like, there's no way I heard that, right? Then I was like, Chris, did we hear Jay say that he got to take it off John now? I don't know. It was like, you heard him, but is that what we heard? He said it, but is that what we really heard? and then so like i go on your show and i'm like bro if what we think we heard happens i have to come back on immediately and it didn't happen but who knows yeah the idea crossed somebody's mind somewhere but yeah it was just one of those moments where it was just like no camera rolling yeah nothing like it's chill we're not a dirt sheet so we're not gonna run online and tell a thousand people but it was like yeah that was one of those moments i was like did i just hear that

2:18:49TJ:there's been a few times especially after an interview where you're like okay yeah i won't i won't say anything yeah but that is an interesting piece of information oh man we've had two on this show that i will i know one that's coming up soon that i'm not i'll tell you guys after of course i know one that's coming up soon you'll be like yeah yeah interesting

2:19:12Penta:good times so chris like of course you're a huge wrestling fan yeah you have a friend right who has never watched wrestling, never been in the wrestling, and they're going to come to you now finally, after 800. Finally. Finally. And Chris, I want to get in the wrestling, right? Recommend me some matches. If I were to say, give me three matches that you would say, Tony, because that was your editor, right? Troy. Troy, my bad. Troy, even though we know he's watching. If you're Tony out there, give me three matches that i know without a shadow of a doubt are going to turn you on

2:19:54TJ:to wrestling i always start with rock hogan wrestlemania 18 thank you the greatest it's my favorite match of all time i will shout it until the day i'm not here with us anymore that i was there in the sky dome big flex amazing right like there's just something about like you can explain so many things about this right and like those are two of the biggest stars ever in the industry so many of the stories write themselves you can explain the whole idea of like this guy's actually supposed to be a bad guy but because of nostalgia everybody's cheering for him it's a moment that's not supposed to happen right so like there's so many elements of that and just the stare down at the start of it yeah goosebumps getting goosebumps just talking about it right bro oh that's one of them if you want just a pure wrestling match and a match that might be as close to perfect as you

2:20:43Penta:can get i have a feeling i know where you look i'm gonna write this down you tell me if this is what chris is like you're trying to do well you know oh oh oh oh the mentalist got me yeah yeah

2:20:54TJ:all right so that's my okay wrestlemania 25 oh sean michaels undertaker yeah right okay me and you are two for two right now what did you write down well you might say it third so right so that's a match that's just like just two again of the greatest of all time greatest kick out oh bro

2:21:15Penta:2.99999 yeah that was like i really think you can go with either of the undertaker versus

2:21:23TJ:sean michael matches i tend to lean towards 25 although 25 is the first one yes and then 20 25 is white hat where he came out with the 26 is was sean michael's last match and like i think that There's so many elements of that that make that a perfect match as well. But like Shawn Michaels versus Undertaker, go with either match, but I'm going to go 25. And then I said it earlier, that unbreakable match, AJ Styles versus Christopher Daniels versus Samoa Joe, is just like, look what these guys can do. Like this is wrestling. Like there's so many things in there that just defy gravity. that is one of my most rewatchable matches.

2:22:06TJ:I will just put that on on a random Thursday and just watch it.

2:22:12Penta:Okay. I wrote down when you start talking about just pure wrestling I wrote down Owen and Brett.

2:22:18TJ:Oh, of course. I mean, it's so tough to just it's so this is the thing Canadians love to do. They love to point out fellow Canadians that are famous. Yeah, bro. I would. I do it all the time. My wife's like, I get it. Famous Canadians. Who the hell is Tim Horton? Famous hockey player. Yeah, man. I do it all the time, though. But, yeah, to narrow it down to just three is tough. But, like, for me, those tick three different boxes. Right. I like that.

2:22:46O'Shea:Yeah. I like that. I don't think I liked WrestleMania 25 now that I think about it. Why not? I mean, I can only remember one match. Like, off the top of my head right now, it's like, I told you, I have these blank spots in my memory. Okay. You know, because the Lakers don't win every year. So, like, the years of the Lakers. We'll be thankful for that. Thank you. Thank you, Jesus.

2:23:08Penta:Thank you, Jesus.

2:23:09O'Shea:I tell time by, like, how great the Lakers were doing. So, I'm going to have to really take a look at that. Going back in. Now, something I want to ask. I love those three, though, man. Those three great picks. We have to get this off. You know what time it is. Chris VanVleet, you are out enjoying yourself.

2:23:28Penta:Maybe it's not him. Maybe it's his wrestling alter ego that's out. Ooh!

2:23:34O'Shea:Talk to him. Chris Sharp? Chris Sharp's out. Chris Sharp's out. Wow. Yeah, at a bar. The wow was impactful. Did you notice that? The wow was impactful. He said wow. He flipped a little. I picked up on that.

2:23:46Penta:Yes. You just suddenly win. It's definitely still in me. You subtle. That was dope. I picked up on that.

2:23:53TJ:I've said this before, but I have been asked from people whose names you would know if I said them, and I'll tell you after. would you want to have a wrestling match come on you don't even have to do most of the work i'm like i can really only bump i can run the ropes like i've never had a match like i would really truly want to train to make sure that it's like up to the standards that i hold myself to as a wrestling fan but they're like you don't have to do the work you don't have to bump i'll do all the bumps i'm like thank you but no thank you yeah i mean anyway but if chris sharp is out at a bar He's probably drinking an old-fashioned with one large ice cube in it.

2:24:30TJ:Okay. Yeah, that's good.

2:24:31O'Shea:That's good. Old-fashioned. Now, you're there, and there are 50 dudes in this bar that do not like Chris Sharp. 50. Hated.

2:24:40TJ:Well, Chris Sharp's doing his job then.

2:24:44O'Shea:I need you to pick a team of you and four other wrestlers of any era to make sure Chris Sharp stays that way and gets into the car. Oh, he stays sharp.

2:24:55Penta:I like your style. I'm out here. I like that.

2:24:58TJ:We're going to start with Haku.

2:25:01Penta:My God. This is the Haku question. I think we got to the point where I was like, from now on, we have to say excluding Haku because everybody was saying Haku. Who's going to mess with Haku? You're at a bar ran by Haku.

2:25:12O'Shea:No, no, no.

2:25:13Penta:Haku. Okay.

2:25:15TJ:Andre the Giant.

2:25:16Penta:Of course.

2:25:17TJ:Who's going to mess with Andre the Giant? Anybody want a peanut?

2:25:21Penta:Just Bad News Brown, probably. That's about the only one.

2:25:24TJ:I mean, then I'm going to go from there to Trish Stratus. Oh, yeah. Because I think that this is just deflecting, right? There's going to be some girls in the bar. Sure. And some of these guys that want to start this fight are going to be like, wow, man, it's Trish Stratus. It's Trish Stratus. Okay, if you're friends with her, then could you introduce me? No one's going to want to pick a fight with Trish Stratus. Although if she did have to throw down, you know she would. Right. right but like i i think here more it's just deflecting right like thoughts trish stratus

2:25:59O'Shea:haku and i don't know i take it out a lot of people they're probably dealing with it and then we just get to hang out yeah like it's those two versus the other 50

2:26:08TJ:under the giant myself might also just be able to deflect right especially a little youthful

2:26:14Penta:yeah if you go to youtube and you check out like 19 mid 70s andre like 74 to like 78 you're gonna to see a completely different Andre than if you first saw him in the WrestleMania 3 era.

2:26:29TJ:Because I'm more of a lover

2:26:31Penta:than a fighter.

2:26:32TJ:I don't want to throw down.

2:26:35Penta:You got one more though.

2:26:37TJ:I'm going to go with 2006 Kurt Angle.

2:26:40O'Shea:You know, that's so specific that it makes me think that first part of you said, I'm a lover. That was thrown out the window. You've thought about this Assassin specific, right? 2006 when you look at like and kurt angle would be the first to tell you this the best matches in

2:26:59TJ:his career happened in tna he had legendary matches in wwe what we now call peak angle we don't use the perk yeah that happened on a podcast i i like a lot that's just what a disrespectful nickname like just yeah could you imagine bringing up the worst time in someone's life all of the time.

2:27:21Penta:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, when he said that, it kind of was like, oh, wow. Just sheer disrespect. And it's so amazing, though, because he was so on top of his game, though. Yeah. That flip off the stage. To a Bess. Yeah. It was like, yeah. He'll catch me. By the way, another guy we haven't talked a lot about, but a Bess. Yeah. Man, like. It was cool to see him. Yeah, we wanted a Bess in Kane at some point. We never got that. A Bess is an interview I can't wait to do. And he said, He seems such a nice, like he's just from the, you know, behind the scenes.

2:27:51TJ:Seems like he's almost too nice. Yeah, it sounds like it's going to happen at some point in time. There's a few that I still haven't, like, done. Oh, gee, Chris Van Vliet thinks he's going to get an interview.

2:27:59Penta:Oh, yeah, gee, of course you are, Chris. Oh, my God, dude.

2:28:06TJ:That's my team. That's a solid team. Haku, Andre the Giant, Trish Stratus, and 06 Kurt Angle.

2:28:15Penta:The old six next to his name is just so loud. I love specific. Oh, my God. Here's something I want to do with you guys, because this is something me and my boys are the wrestling fans. We've been doing forever. Like, every time, like, I can pull up the group chat right now, and if I scroll back for years, because I'm like the accountant. I keep all the receipts. I don't delete any texts. So when you be saying some wild stuff to me, just know. I'm going to have it 10 years later. but what we like to do shout out to john and nate and vince condi friend of the show what we like to do is we get together on the group chat and we'll be like all right we're going to start our own wrestling federation or alliance or association or however you want to call it and we're going to be able to pick wrestlers from any era at any time wow to to have on in your federation yeah So we'll do this quick.

2:29:08Penta:Okay. When it's all, we're going to do like a draft.

2:29:10TJ:Okay. Do tag teams remain as one pick?

2:29:13Penta:Well, here's the deal. When we think about that, like if you pick Harlem Heat.

2:29:18TJ:You get two Hall of Famers.

2:29:20Penta:Do you get Booker and Stevie? And I think we came to the conclusion that, yeah, if you pick the tag team first, then we can't take the single wrestling. Wow.

2:29:31TJ:Then what if you pick a random tag team, like, you know, especially during the attitude.

2:29:36Penta:The thing is there's so many people. Here's what we'll do. We're just going. We're 10. We need to get 10 wrestlers to start our organization or promotion or whatever. We're going to do it draft style. Chris, you are a guest in the house, so we're going to give you the first pick. Oh my goodness. No restrictions, I don't think. No restrictions. I will say this. Let's try to have at least two women.

2:30:02TJ:Okay. And then any restrictions on at least one tag team? No. Okay. Do whatever you want. We're doing fantasy football? Yeah, we're doing fantasy football.

2:30:13Penta:You know what? O'Shea, since I'm coming out, you do two, and I'll take the third pick.

2:30:16TJ:All right. Okay. I'm going to kick it off with Stone Cold Steve Austin. 100%. What? You son of a biscuit. I'm going to build my entire company, the CVV Wrestling Federation. That's way too many letters around Stone Cold. the cvvwf

2:30:34Penta:i'm already not liking that you did this i shouldn't have gave you the first pick yeah wow i mean like i mean he's a guest

2:30:42O'Shea:say you're up i know man it's one of those it's one of those situations where it's like do i drive from my mind or do i drive from my heart well they both say the same thing let me get the tribal chief wow okay brains bro wow oh man the biggest numbers my roster is going to be stacked if you're

2:31:00Penta:starting with the tribal chief all right let's see so you got stone cold you got roman reigns now i gotta think like are we talking just like sheer star power like i'm trying to make money right of course so i i want people to come see my show right so because of that i have to have a big star and this guy is not only quite possibly the biggest star in wrestling but also the biggest star in this town we're sitting in right now called Hollywood. I see where you're going with this. So I'm going to go, if The Rock. Wow. And the way I set this up, if we're going to do a serpentine, that means it comes back.

2:31:39Penta:Oh, wow. So that's easy. It goes right back to you?

2:31:44Chris Van Vliet:It doesn't matter if it goes back to you.

2:31:48Penta:So it comes back to me. You know what? I got The Rock, right? And now I got to figure like, all right, I want somebody who can just grinds you out. Pause.

2:32:02Penta:You know what, though? I'm going to take the guy who... Give me Ric Flair.

2:32:10O'Shea:I'm not mad at that. I'm not mad at that. Oh, God. Do I go with the devil I know or the devil I don't? Because there's no way I can let him get what I think he's going to do right now because I forgot about the snake draft. Yeah, me too. I completely forgot about this. I didn't. That's why I got to have two ready to go. Right. Yeah, second is not where you want to be. I'm going to, just because. You got Roman. Yeah, I know I got Roman, but like, actually you know what? This is a full circle moment for me. Okay. But I can't let him do what I know he's going to do. You don't know. But I mean, As a black person, I can't do it either.

2:32:56O'Shea:I'm going to go John Cena. I'm going to go John. I just met him. What a guy. That's perfect.

2:33:03TJ:If you're going to go John Cena,

2:33:05Penta:he's not going to do what you think he's going to do. Then you're going to have to do it. I'll do it.

2:33:11TJ:I'm going to go with somebody who's going to be on almost everybody's Mount Rushmore. There it is. The Undertaker.

2:33:19O'Shea:Beautiful. Way to go Take.

2:33:20TJ:I've got Stone Cold Steve Austin.

2:33:22O'Shea:Funny story about Taker. TJ called him Mark here he goes with this it was called a Mark to his face I didn't mean to did he introduce himself as Mark no

2:33:29TJ:nope he said hey Mark like they were old pals he probably said what's up Mark

2:33:38Penta:yo Mark nah I was frightened I was like I can't believe I just and I apologized

2:33:42O'Shea:it was like four or five seconds went by and he was like I'm so sorry I was like oh I apologize this is

2:33:51TJ:we're taking all the legends it goes back to me right yeah two picks here

2:34:02O'Shea:you thought i was going to take john cena right i mean no no no i think who i think you're going to take hulk hogan yeah of course there it is there he is man we've taken like like when you

2:34:11TJ:when you ask like the mount rushmore we've named almost everybody that's on the typical mount Rushmore list?

2:34:20O'Shea:I mean, I'm not going to put on necessarily a five-star classic, but when I think about what this person did as far as the money, the money brought in, I feel like I have to take Goldberg. Just because of what he was sold as far as pushing WCW over for as long as he did. Like I said, I'm not getting five stars, but I am getting a bunch of A bunch of money. I'm into that. Yeah.

2:34:51Penta:I ain't mad at that. Woo. Okay. I got the rock.

2:34:55O'Shea:TJ gets two now. Yeah. Here we go again. This abuse.

2:34:59Penta:Let's see. Man, you guys took some good ones. You're lying.

2:35:05O'Shea:He's got something in mind, and he's going to hit us with it. I got at least one.

2:35:09Penta:Andre the Giant. Yeah. That's a good money. Give me Andre.

2:35:13TJ:Especially if we're talking prime.

2:35:14Penta:Yeah, prime, like I said, mid-70s.

2:35:16TJ:And we're like mixing it up. Errors. All right. Got Rick.

2:35:19Penta:And then give me. Who am I missing? Give me sting. Oh, I was going to pick you guys were going to forget about.

2:35:26TJ:No, no, no. Never that.

2:35:28O'Shea:Never that. O'Shea is up. Somebody who's still box office, not box office, but like blockbuster when it comes to matches. And I need somebody to go up against Roman. That's not Goldberg. Okay. I got to go with Brock.

2:35:44Penta:I was hoping he was going to. I was hoping you were going to forget about him.

2:35:47O'Shea:There's no way to forget about him.

2:35:48TJ:I'm at number two. Yeah, there's no way I was going to get him back. Man, now I got two here. When we're talking again about Mount Rushmore's, I'm really going to dip into like, can have a great match with anybody.

2:36:02O'Shea:Yeah.

2:36:02TJ:The legend. The heartbreak kid. Chris Bam. Shawn Michaels.

2:36:10O'Shea:Then it comes right back around to me. People are going to be so mad. HBK went that low.

2:36:14Penta:I'm mad he went that low. I can't believe he wasn't taken. I thought for sure he'd be off the board. Like I said, when you're not thinking about it, if you had time to prepare, I just thought about this. It's different when the lights are on, bro. It's different. And then the great Canadian wrestler. Okay.

2:36:32TJ:Great match with anybody. Bret Hart. Okay. The best there is, best there was, best there ever will be.

2:36:39Penta:Let me tell you something, though. The shampoo is going to be the only thing pH balanced in your locker room because these two hate each other.

2:36:45TJ:Perfect. It's going to be great. Give him different locker rooms. Yeah, because I was...

2:36:48O'Shea:Yeah, I can't have bread on mine. Okay. Come on, Doug. Oh, yeah.

2:36:55O'Shea:Could be a great rivalry. Right. Let me... We talked about this, TJ. I've got to go Kurt Angle, bro. Damn it, man. You just... I know. I love Kurt Angle. I know we just hyped it up. I can't wait for you guys to get on the show. But my wraparound right now is what I'm really hoping TJ doesn't do, and then I'll be fine. I don't know.

2:37:14Penta:I think I'm right now. I don't know if I'm winning this. I got to be honest. I like you. What you guys have done. Says the dude with the rock. Rick. All right. All right. She's legends. You know what? Give me a woman who I know will be able to handle her own. Give me China. Oh, yeah. And then give your tickets. Then give me. You know what? This guy doesn't get enough credit. and I don't understand it because we went crazy when Roman Reigns got 1 ,000 days as champion, which is amazing. Except this guy had four of those 1 ,000 day reigns. Let's go with Bruno Sandmarco.

2:37:57O'Shea:What are we doing here? That was my pick. It wasn't, but now that we got Kurt Angle on the squad from what we were talking about before just because I know what they could put on. let me get my man AJ Styles

2:38:18TJ:how many have we taken? 1, 2, 3, 4 this is going to be your 60s I'm sneaking in well I mentioned earlier in the interview and you know I love my Canadians I need some stratus faction here how about the fact that Trish Stratus has aged about 11 minutes in the last 25 years

2:38:38Penta:saw her in Connecticut when we were up there we didn't get an interview but it was like wow okay oh what a gal trish stratus and then mike oh man i was really thought that you guys wouldn't would forget about bruno

2:38:55TJ:so that was not him yeah of course who am i uh who am i leaving you know i'm gonna go with here because i feel like he won't be on the board the five times that was my next time five times black people are never gonna let us hear the end of this wcw champion and here's the thing about booker t he can do everything yeah can work as a baby face can work as a heel respect he can work in a tag team right tag team black Snow. Respect. Tag team singles wrestler. Comedy. Working as a, you know, like just a badass.

2:39:37Penta:And the way he helped.

2:39:38TJ:Commentary.

2:39:39Penta:The way he helped get Stephanie Vicar over. The way he helped get Trick Willie over. Like, people try to deny that, but there's no denying. He helped so much get those two over. Absolutely. He is an all-time great. Yeah, I'm very upset. I had something I was going to pull with these next two and you beat me to it. O'Shea, you're up. You have Roman Reigns, John Cena, Goldberg, Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle, AJ Styles. There's so many good ones still left.

2:40:04TJ:It's wrestling. I love that we're doing this without googling. This is all off the top of the dome.

2:40:12O'Shea:You guys went the ladies way. I feel like I have to go with her. The greatest female wrestler of all time. I already took her though. You got Becky? I was going to say, bro, don't you trip. Becky Lynch, you're coming on the squad. And by the way, it's not just me saying that. DJ wrote it down. Chris Van Vliet says it. Sports Illustrated. Sports Illustrated. The Bleacher Report. The Bleacher Report.

2:40:37Penta:So unfortunately, you took Booker, which means you're also going to get Harlem Heat, which I don't like. Oh, okay. Because I just said we can't split them. So then I have to do this because you took Harlem Heat. I gotta go the Steiner brothers that's not bad and then I'm gonna flip it again and I'm gonna go the Road Warriors

2:40:59TJ:wow well here's the thing when you got Rick Steiner and you got Scott Steiner and you put them together wait wait wait you got a 75 %

2:41:09Penta:yeah I was waiting for the map now there's a 33 and a 3rd percent chance

2:41:14O'Shea:O'Shea you are up yeah I'm sensing something happening so I'm gonna go with my favorite of all time and I got to go.

2:41:21Penta:Remember, you need two women and at least a tag team.

2:41:24TJ:Oh, we do need at least a tag team? Well, you got yours. You got yours. That's right. Yeah.

2:41:29O'Shea:I need two women. Oh, I'm only at my eighth pick? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Three more picks for you. Let me get the Dudley boys. I want the Dudleys. Let's get crazy.

2:41:38Penta:Let's get nuts. All right. Shout out to Prince. All right, Chris, you get eight and nine. I'm loving this so far.

2:41:44TJ:Me too. And it's funny because everybody in the comments will think that one of us won. Independently, they'll be like, man, Shane. They will never pick me.

2:41:52Penta:You know what the biggest comment's going to be? I can't believe you didn't say, well, because we're sitting there pulling this off the top of the head.

2:41:59TJ:30 people and you didn't take so-and-so. Right. Well, yeah. There's a whole bunch of people that are going to be left off. Because this is tough. Because we got to kick you out of here. Your favorite wrestler may get left off.

2:42:08Penta:We'll pick him up in the auxiliary draft. Sure. In a couple weeks.

2:42:13TJ:rio ripley damn it's coming on team cvvwf all right that was right there hey you're up no i know so oh man i think i gotta go with this person just because like they were the greatest heel in this era i had a poster of him on the back of my bedroom door growing up, the game, Triple H. Think of that. Think of especially the era when he was one, two. Is this on? Man. Think of how much JR hated Triple H. That son of a bitch. What a heel. One of the greatest heels. Oh, my gosh. What we're not thinking about.

2:43:01O'Shea:Oh, I know. What we're not thinking about, TJ, is I need somebody to help run this show. Okay. She's a former women's champion, and I put her on my Mount Rushmore of managers. All right. Stephanie McMahon, please come down to mine.

2:43:16TJ:I feel like you're trying to get her on your show here.

2:43:19O'Shea:That's already signed, sealed, delivered. Oh, okay. I love it. I need her on my show, too. I need Stephanie McMahon because I need somebody to be the villain of my whole operation, my promotion.

2:43:30TJ:She has the greatest slaps in the history of the wrestling business. In the face. I don't even think that's an argument.

2:43:37O'Shea:questionable marriage like as far as how they got married i'm like guys yeah are we not gonna bring this up like vince you're okay with this you might you might go to jail really my god you know but i

2:43:49TJ:think one of the only wrestling marriages that works right and it's actually really nice i mean

2:43:55Penta:is uncle elmer still married because you know like speaking of marriages there's a guy who we all love. Everybody loves them. And for some reason, when we do this, somehow we accidentally forget about them. But I'm going to say this. I'm going to talk to you, Chris Sharp. Oh, yeah, brother. Freak out. Freak out.

2:44:13TJ:I'm talking to you. Oh, my goodness. Yes.

2:44:15Penta:Chris Sharp, yeah. The guy with the big guns. Yeah. I'm talking to you. You get the Slim Jim sponsorship. That's crazy. WrestleMania 3. Yeah. The world's going to watch as the Macho Man. Yeah. Takes down Chris Sharp, brother. Dig it. Yeah. I'm going to take the Macho Man. I was so mad that he was still on the board. Yeah. I'll tell you who's not mad, me. And I got one more, right? I got one more. Don't take the person I'm going to take. I got The Rock, Ric Flair, Andre, Sting, Chyna, Bruno, the Steiners, the Road Warriors, Macho Man, Randy Savage. And give me. You know what? I always hear about how tough this dude is, right?

2:44:55O'Shea:Can we get an honorable mention?

2:44:57Penta:One more person. Let me take Harley Race.

2:45:01O'Shea:Okay. Okay.

2:45:04Penta:If he does, as Punk said, if he does the move, if he does the drop, I'll move. I mean, I feel like I'm getting a hell of value, bro. Let me get Cody Rhodes, bro. You need another tag team, though, Joe. I do. Oh, you got one. You said two ladies and one tag team. Yeah, you said the Dudleys.

2:45:21TJ:He said the Dudleys. Two ladies and one tag team.

2:45:23Penta:Oh, I thought I said whatever. It's fine.

2:45:26O'Shea:Yeah, because Stephanie McMahon would definitely be Rob Van Dam right now. I mean, who'd you take? Cody Rhodes.

2:45:32Penta:Cody, all right. How the hell is Randy Orton still available? Same way Seth Rollins didn't get picked. Yeah, this is ridiculous. All right, so Chris VanVleet, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker, Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Trish Stratus, Booker T, which comes along with Harlem Heat, son of a biscuit, Rhea Ripley, Triple H, Randall Keith Orton. That last three was solid. O'Shea, you have Roman Reigns, John Chena, Goldberg, Lesnar, Kurt Angle, AJ Styles, Becky Lynch, the Dudley Boys, Stephanie McMahon, and Cody Rhodes. And I have The Rock, Ric Flair, Andre the Giant, Sting, Chyna, Bruno San Martino, the Steiner Brothers, the Road Warriors, Macho Man, Randy Savage, and the King, Harley Drake.

2:46:16Penta:It makes no sense. Wow.

2:46:17TJ:We've left so many people off.

2:46:19O'Shea:It's like when you draft fantasy basketball and everybody's team looks like the Olympic team. It's all stacked. Yeah, man. Wow.

2:46:29Penta:Up is down. So who knows? Maybe we'll post these. Maybe in a couple weeks we'll visit and maybe we'll get on the group chat and we'll just add guys into our promotions.

2:46:40O'Shea:Well, I'm sure when we do that, you will be able to tell them where to find it.

2:46:45Penta:But yeah, tell us first of all. Oh, yeah. You got a live show in Vegas coming up, man. You what?

2:46:50TJ:The Thursday of WrestleMania week. I'm doing Insight Live. We had a blast last year at Circa Resort and Casino Las Vegas. It was my biggest show last year. I think this one's going to blow that one out of the water. So I can't wait. There it is. Thank you guys for putting it up there. We have production value here. Wow, I love it.

2:47:07Penta:Let me tell you, it's not a game when you come to no-go. Bro, that boy, charismatic.

2:47:11TJ:Go to cvvtix.com, cvvtix.com to grab your tickets. we've got the CVV VIP tickets which include an ask CVV before the show so I answer fan questions which I do every Friday on my podcast and then a meet and greet after the show with me and if it ends up being the guest that I think it's going to be it's going to be with me and my guest doing that meet and greet so I'm sure I'll see you guys at Wrestlemania week

2:47:38Penta:right? I gotta work so I can only get there like Friday so

2:47:42TJ:I don't see you there I walked into Fountain Blue with this guy last year and a few people were like, hey, is that CVV? But this guy got mobbed.

2:47:52Penta:I was there too. I guess you didn't. Yes, you were there as well. Yeah, but you were carrying chairs. By the way, speaking of which, that's the first time you and I ever met. It was in the airport at Philly. And I had my chair and I was trying to figure out how I was getting on the plane. And we were both at the machine. I introduced myself to you. and yeah as soon as you said chair yeah that's the first time we met like oh yeah you can just check it i've done it a few times yeah and that but these ladies took such a good job wrapping the chair up for me it was so kind they they they treated it like it was like very important you know it was for gilay to them and it wasn't italian but yeah so yeah that's the first time we we actually got to meet man the live shows have been a blast i just did one what's with

2:48:37O'Shea:the thumbs up i was waiting for y 'all to be finished so i could tell tj to tell me where finals but you had something to say so we just did a live show on friday it sold out it was a blast

2:48:46TJ:the live shows are just a totally different element of this one of the things about having a podcast or just tv in general is like it's just us it's just us three sitting in this room it's really cool to know that on the other side of these lenses are people wrestling fans just like us and to be able to connect in person with them is so cool yeah it's pretty i love looking at the

2:49:09O'Shea:old episodes and then seeing that number next to comments go up. Yeah, that's cool. Hell yeah. I just want one day, I want us to have you know what? No. I'm not going to put it out there yet because someone's going to take our idea.

2:49:25TJ:I'll put this out there. If you guys want to collaborate on YouTube, this episode on my channel as well, where we do the, let me know. Absolutely. Happy to accept it.

2:49:35Penta:Appreciate that, man. NCVVW I know we've been doing this a long time because the batteries just died. We've talked for two and a half hours. My ears are now dead. So if someone's trying to talk to me in the back, they can't. But yeah, man, thank you so much for doing this. Thank you. He brought it up.

2:49:58O'Shea:I'm sorry. I'm sorry. NCW is just NCVV, bro. Oh, my God. Where's your championship? Oh, man. So we got it hella tattooed.

2:50:10Penta:Oh, bro. We went up to Connecticut.

2:50:13TJ:Oh, that's awesome. I was expecting to see it right here.

2:50:16Penta:Yeah, normally, but he took it home with him, obviously, and then he just forgot to bring it.

2:50:20O'Shea:Yeah, I mean, I put it up, so it's not visible to me when I'm leaving because it was like, I don't want dust or like, you know?

2:50:27Penta:Yeah, we got some great autographs, great signatures. Even on here, we got Punk signed this, Seth signed this. That's awesome. Yeah. But appreciate it. Like I said, man. Thank you, guys. You're someone who definitely we look at and go, we need to work hard. We need to stay on our business and we need to get to the level that you are. And I know that doesn't come without an incredible amount of hard work and, you know, not to sound like the Floyd Mayweather trope, but hard work, dedication to the craft, what you do. You know, someone who was also a journalism major, you know, reading up on you and learning about your background and true real journalism, too.

2:51:05Penta:is just, yo, man, you've definitely done your thing, bro. So I just want to say for me personally, just a lot of respect for what you've done, what you've accomplished. I know you've won Emmys. And that's something here on the Rich Eisen Show that we're striving to do. I'm going to tell you what, if we ever do get an Emmy one day, man, I'm going to be hard to handle. I promise you that.

2:51:23O'Shea:If I ever win an Emmy, I'm going to just yell, Van Vliet, Van Vliet. Thank you, guys. Thank you for having me.

2:51:29TJ:Thank you for the very kind words. And you guys are doing it. Like, so many people talk about having a podcast. you guys actually did it and consistency is the biggest thing and you guys keep showing up every single wednesday and that's why all of these people keep showing up as well thank you i appreciate

2:51:44O'Shea:that we we always tell them how grateful we are to them yep tj i mean if he doesn't suggest me to rich like who knows where i'll be i'll be on twitch selling ass

2:51:56Penta:you don't want that you know it just it made sense man and and it still makes sense and i appreciate you and i love you bro you and thank you i appreciate that and so if you want to follow us here's what you do you go to twitter we're at there's no contest on instagram no contest wrestling podcast on tiktok it's the no contest wrestling pod of course when you go to youtube you go to the rich eyes and show youtube page or you just type in no contest wrestling in all of our videos from episode one with Cookie Monster Punk to episode 75 with this man right here, Chris Van Vliet, the guy that we're all looking up to and chasing in this wrestling podcast space.

2:52:40O'Shea:On behalf of my unlovable co-host, make sure that you guys have a good day, but not too good. Who the hell you think you are? You want to say it with us, Chris? You want to say goodbye to by Miss Parker?

2:52:53Penta:Bye Miss Parker.

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