No-Contest Wrestling: Paul Walter Hauser

29:49Yeah, yeah. They have like low-key powers. And yeah, from there he was like, you know we can watch this. He didn't know Hogan as a good guy. Yeah, I didn't know. He didn't know there was a WWF. My first like grasping Hogan, he was already in the NWO. So I was like, whoa, he was with WWF? And then it was like, so who, I thought you said this guy's name was Razor Ramon. my brother's like yeah well he's Scott Hall here what do you mean Scott Hall here you had to get smartened up to the business really quick man we started watching every week from there I remember it being such a big deal that Karl Malone and Dennis Rodman are going to wrestle that was insane that was insane as a kid you love wrestling you love the NBA and it's like these two things are somehow coming together.

30:46Like what is going on? Yeah. And that, you know, that's kind of when it hit that, like you don't have to be a wrestler, you know, to get an opportunity because like, I mean, it's Dennis Rodman, you know, it's Carl Malone. I remember Carl Malone opened up his wingspan during the match. Yeah, I remember. It's like a condor. Yeah, dude, like those moments. Yeah, those moments right there. our you know my my childhood and growing up and then when i started watching it every week it was what 99 into the 2000s talking to everybody at school you know if you didn't know what happened on raw or you didn't know what happened on uh when smackdown was on upn shout out upn rest in peace uh that was that was a real issue you were a weirdo if you didn't run a real fan yeah no no it was just that culture it was it was like water cooler talk if you were between the ages of 10 and 18.

31:43Yeah. You got it. But The Rock was my guy. My dad actually one day picked me up from school without my knowledge, took me to lunch with The Rock. I've heard that story. I was so starstruck. I couldn't say shit. Like nothing would come out because I couldn't believe he was just there. And then when he paid for his food, I stole his change. He stole the tip. Yeah, I stole it. Not the tip, but the lady brought back the change. and like I took a quarter. She kept the bills. Because you wanted a piece of the Rock's money. I needed that. And it's still in a sandwich bag in my mother's safe. That's wow.

32:21Yeah, bro. And my dirty ass school shirt that he signed. Dedication right there. Dedication, bro. Yep. Now it's the tribal chief. I remember Buff Bagwell gave me the two sweet to my fingers when I was front row at Nitro in 97. Word. Oh, by the way. You hear what happened above I watched the video. I'm a big fan of Maven Huffman's YouTube page I think it's tremendous shout out the buff bagwell if anyone doesn't know he Clean up his life, man. Yeah leg amputated unfortunately, but he seems to be in great spirit I know his girl Stacy. She does DDP while the time at Dallas's and she's a good Wonderful woman good spirit loves the Lord like the kind of woman That like you're happy that they're settling down and like living living real life not what he thought was life, which we've all been there.

33:09Yeah, man. Now, I know you, when you took that first bump and you heard the sound and you felt it, that sounds magical. I need to know. You haven't seen the clip, though, because he showed me a clip, which hopefully we might be able to use or not. Oh, wait, you might have seen it. Did I text you my trailer for my documentary? Yeah. Where he, Paul takes the bump, lays it for a second, rolls out and is like, oh, yeah, I'm doing this. yeah this is it like i'm doing it wasn't like it was like oh that hurt it was like no no but like let's let's talk about like how delusional some of these dreams and things can be sometimes like like what are doesn't matter who your dad or auntie or best friend or anybody are how hard is it to break into hollywood to get any role at all statistically to book a commercial to book five lines on how I met your mother to get into a movie and then what are the statistical odds on staying in the business and then being a success yeah and working with the likes of Charlize Theron Margot Robbie Gerard Butler Liam Neeson it's like it's a little crazy bro it is a little crazy a lot of it's the right place right time just like I've always said advantageous and whatever but like and i'm a god guy so like i gotta give it up to fate too and be like yeah there's stuff in my lap that i did not know was on the menu absolutely uh but that's how i look at wrestling i cannot disqualify myself just because i look like a schlubby comedy guy um i still know how to run the ropes i can still take bumps i'm not afraid of blood i'm willing to We saw that.

34:51My friend of heights. Yeah. I've always said that though, real quick about what you guys do is like acting has to be probably the toughest profession in the world because think about it. Not everyone's seven feet tall, right? So not everyone, not everyone can throw a ball 90 miles per hour, but literally everyone has the ability to be placed in front of a camera and be an actor, whether you're good at it or not, it's a whole nother problem situation. but anyone can in theory do it now can you be good at it like I said another story but like yeah anyone can in wrestling I'm just trying to refine it and get better sorry you had an actual question real quick on what you said there's so many times where like especially that first week in my trailer with the size and I'm like boy they picked the wrong guy dude like oh my god like how am I going to remember all this do I really know the character and I start like Like, the wheels start going, and then once I get my feet wet, I'm like, oh, yeah, we're good.

35:54Like, yeah, I'm good. I got this. I can handle this. And then by week two, week three, you got a feeling to it. Yeah, I'm in pocket. So, like, even if you are in the business, you question it because there's still that part of you that wasn't in the business. But then when you turn it on, you turn it on. But what I wanted to ask you, what was your welcome to wrestling moment where you were like, all right, yeah, that, that, that, that. Oh, yeah. So I love the welcome to wrestling moment. That's so good. Because you know exactly what that means when you hear it. For me, it was, I've had, I've had a few welcome to wrestling moments that were not self-induced.

36:35They're just kind of like, ooh. um i think i think one of them was uh one of them was one of them was in a match with with it was a battle riot a year ago so not the one you guys went to the one before that this buddy of mine he goes under the name mr thomas he wrestles uh he's probably six six maybe six seven with his boots on wow dude is built like no one i know uh maybe we pulled a photo of him but mr thomas is a big dude and his hands are that of you know probably in uh an nba like uh powerful power forward and he chopped me within the first minute I think that I was in the ring. I got my shit in.

37:29And then I turned. He shot me so hard. And I sold it, but I didn't really have to sell. It hurt a lot. It was the hardest I'd ever been chopped. And what I love about him, which I love the guys that don't take it easy. He came back and he goes, I need to do that again. And I was like, it hurt like hell a second time. But it was very much a welcome to wrestling moment of like, yeah we're doing this this dance and i know you're in whatever movie but like you're now one of the boys yeah and i've had a couple of those sometimes it feels like when a younger guy does it it feels like it's like an f you yeah when an older dude does it it feels like we're homies yeah i don't know why but there's just something about it yeah it makes sense yeah my i'm buddies with bobby fish but like that dude kicked me in the face one time i thought i broke my jaw like i immediately just went and just like took a minute because i'm like damn dude speaking of that have you your your team your your acting team have your people say that question have they tried to get you to not do this because you know you can take you out of take you out of your other job for a while if something goes astray i was i was a caa for like for like six or seven years had a good run there and uh But one of the agents there was like, please, like, please be careful.

38:53Don't do this. Text me or call me after every match. Yeah. But my manager, this dude, Brian Walsh, who I call out on stage when I say get the tables, because that's one of our inside jokes. Walsh is like, you can't stop him. Like, you're never going to stop. Like, just let dude do it and hope to God he's smart. And so, yeah, the people that really know me, they know not to get in the way. Yeah. Because no one is stopping me. unless God stops me and is like, hey, this is called spinal stenosis. Your fat ass can't do this anymore. That will be different. But we haven't gotten there yet. Yeah. Man, I'm grateful that Sam Leon, my age, she does not watch the pod.

39:34Okay. Because, man, I could hear the call now. You better not fucking do anything. I can hear her. I took that Jeff Jarrett guitar shot on All Elite. Yes. And, you know, I sold it like I got shot with a shotgun, you know. And my manager and agent knew that I was doing something in the ring and they knew it would be physical, but they both were just like, is he getting up? So like 45 seconds, minute and a half, I'm still selling. They're like, oh. Yeah, yeah. During the first Den of Thieves, I don't know if you know this, TJ, but I go through it quite a bit in the first Den of Thieves. Yeah, you got beat up a little bit.

40:15Yeah, but I would have to look at my older brother and uncle and give them a, you know, if I don't wink, they're like, it's all hell, bro, loose. They got in the AD's face. Like, it was pretty wild that first interview. Shout out to Christian. But, yeah, if you don't give that wink, that athlete thumbs up. Yeah, bro. They're ready to go. My first movie I missed, we were doing a very clumsy fight scene, the kind of thing you'd see in a Coen brother movie where it's like, more funny than serious, but it's me and a bunch of these like younger kids. It was called Virginia. It was the first movie I ever booked.

40:51I went to be a background extra and I ended up getting like, I was number six on the call sheet or something. Um, crazy story, but we're doing this fight scene and we've done seven, eight takes in a row. And when we reset, it's literally just me going back into the car, having my face dabbed for sweat and they go right into it. Cause they're trying to get the light and like it's dawn. So we're going to one after nothing. This one, I was 330 pounds, I think. So this is like 70 pounds ago or whatever, 80 pounds ago. I'm getting tired as shit. Yeah. And on the ninth take, the blocking was off and I knew it.

41:32And so I tried to do a wrestling thing where I'm supposed to get thrown against a car by this other actor. His name's Alex Frost. he was in Drobot Taylor and Elephant such a wrestling name Alex Frost Alex Frost would be an NXT guy who's just going like when he comes out he just goes this is my gimmick this is my gimmick fabulous Alex Frost what's your gimmick you hit your chest twice then he'd be like this the real McCoy Alex Frost but he throws me against the car and I know the blocking's off so I'm like I'm not going to make it to the car I'm just going to hit the car with my hand and then sell it like I hit my head because of where the camera was so I'm trying to do some wrestling stuff with the metal chair to the head oh it hit his head and I fall forward and my hand is on the car so I have like an athletic like lineman injury where I strain my shoulder and it goes back like that I fall to the ground and I try improvising and I just yell I go cut I call my own cut I knew I was going to the hospital.

42:41And did you? Yeah. I was crying. I remember I was crying, apologizing to the director. I'm so sorry. He's like, we already got it. We got it. And then it didn't end up in the movie. And I'm like, oh, that's such kind of like my, my limbo. What is the scene where you go around the bar and you're like, oh, the, the. The Tango? Not the Tango. The Conga. The Conga line scene in Kingpin with Vanessa Angel. One person behind Vanessa Angel and it got cut out. No one will ever see it. Bummer. I still get stuff cut all the time. I got something cut from Fantastic Four. I get... It just happens, right? It happens.

43:24Bro, my funniest joke in Longshot got cut. I'll never forget it to this day. What was the joke? And because like there was a whole thing where in Longshot, in the beginning of the movie, like Seth Rogen kind of has a bit of a run in with Boyz II Men and they make fun of him and they like retweet him. And then so later on at the end of the movie, a video of Seth making love to Seth is aired out on the Internet. And there was an I did an improv one time and said Boyz II Men retweeted it. And it was like, it started an arc where boys and men just fucking hate Seth. But like we couldn't, we had to cut it because we had to reshoot.

44:06And so, man, to this day, I've never had a set erupt like that moment. And it's just gone. Two wives cut out. Oh, wow. O'Shea just said the funniest thing. It's for sure going in the mood. It's not going in the mood. Levine, you have to put it in. Sean Levine. Johnny Levine. What a guy. Shooting a drama right now. Yeah. He's shooting like a football drama with Mike Shannon. One of my favorite actors of all time, Michael Shannon. Dude, that dude has such a strong face. Yeah. Strong. Like, you don't, I don't know what he laughs at. But you meet him and he's like a sweetheart. But he definitely looks like he's thought about killing you.

44:46Seems that way, right? 100%. Seems that way. Now, you have one? Well, I know just since we're on the acting tip, you were talking about doing extra work. We talked about the wrestling bug. When did the acting bug hit you? When did you decide, man, I want to go give this a shot? Yeah, similar to like the culture of the 90s, it's like, it's kind of astounding slash a little depressing to think about how many comedy stars we had in the 90s versus now. It's not even, and it's not even close as O'Shea would do. Yeah. You know, I'm a real fan. Yeah, that's right. I know that one. But it's not even close.

45:25I mean, when I was five, six years old, it's like Eddie Murphy, Jim Carrey, Steve Martin, Robin Williams. Suddenly, like Sandler and Farley are on SNL. They're making Wayne's World. Like, there's a million pieces of great comedy coming out. And I just kind of was drawn to comedy first. Eventually I would discover Jack Nicholson or Natalie Portman, all these people. I love their work or whatever. But at the outset, it was just like the one, two punch of me seeing like Mrs. Doubt fire and then the mask or the mask and then a freaking dumb and dumber. It's like, I was like, this looks like the greatest thing in the world.

46:12How do you do this for a living? And, and I remember my dad's a Lutheran minister. He's a pastor since retired, but I got interviewed at my church. We were doing like a Christmas pageant or whatever. And they had the local news come by up until then. My teachers had told me, they're like you, you were talking about maybe being a pastor, like your dad, you mentioned a few times. And then when the local news showed up and you're doing B roll shots of you, like singing as like a Christmas elf or whatever the hell they, they were like, we want to interview that kid. Cause I was like hamming it up on purpose, trying to get noticed.

46:48I'm nine kids, maybe 10. But I'm already trying to be advantageous. And so they interview me and I go, I want to be like Jim Carrey or Robin Williams when I grew up. I want to be an actor. And that was the first time I said it out loud was 9 or 10 years old on the local news. That's somewhere. There's some clip somewhere. On the hot seat. That's wild, man. And then you followed through with it. Followed through. And then, of course, like 10 years later, I go from watching Mrs. Doubtfire and Ace Ventura to now I'm watching 25th Hour or Gangs in New York. And I'm like, oh, this is like a whole new thing.

47:24And I just fell in love with guys like Sidney Lumet or Rob Reiner. I was like, how's Rob Reiner making Princess Bride and Misery and A Few Good Men like this dude's on another level? And so I fell in love with that. And my dream has always been I'm going to act. I'm going to write screenplays. I'm going to direct. I'm going to produce. I'm going to do comedy. And I'm going to wrestle. So I'm just slowly trying to pick away at that whenever it makes sense. O, O, O, O 'Reilly Check engine, ABS, or maintenance light on Take the guesswork out of your warning lights with O 'Reilly Veriscan The service is free and provides a report with solutions verified by ASE certified master technicians And if you need help, we could recommend a shop for you Ask for O 'Reilly Veriscan today O, O, O, O 'Reilly Auto Parts

48:23Rich Eisen here. Running a small business means every hire matters. A bad hire costs time and money, but the right one helps your business grow. The challenge? Finding that person without sorting through resumes. That's where LinkedIn Hiring Pro comes in. It screens candidates so you can focus on conversations with qualified talent. With Hiring Pro, you can hire with confidence and build the team you need. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash Eisen. Terms and conditions apply. Growing up, you know, as a kid, if it wasn't a black movie, I wouldn't really watch it.

49:00You know, I just I just I couldn't connect. You mean you weren't a huge fan of Wes Anderson's Rushmore? No, no. But that's seven years old. I'm going to get there. I'm going to get there because that that is one of my favorites. I was watching Soul Food. It was only George Tillman for young white Paul. It was my grandmother. My grandmother Dolores actually showed me my favorite movie of all time, The Big Lebowski. And like The Big Lebowski. Sick ass grandma, dude. My grandma would not be okay with that. My grandma showed me The Big Lebowski. My grandma introduced me to the Golden Girls, which I still love.

49:32Yeah, me too. Same thing. Same thing. And also, you know, Roseanne and One Life to Live and General Hospital. Those are, and all my children. I had to watch those before I could get the TV. Brainwashing people? Bro, Todd Manning. Shout out to Todd Manning. See, we were all the CBS ones. As the World Turns, Bowling the Beautiful, Guiding Light, Capital. Guiding Light? Guiding Light was it for a long time. That's a cult. So sorry. My grandma was more ABC. But then, you know, I got, when I went into homeschool, 7th grade through 11th grade, I had a teacher, Hernan, who's actually the reason why I became a screenwriter and even got into college because I was a daydreamer.

50:10And he put a notebook in front of me and was like, dude, whatever you're thinking about, just write it down because you're not here right now. And then that turned into a 120 page handwritten story that ends up me going to SC, but he's, he's the one that showed me stuff like Patton showed me, uh, Dr. Strange. You need that person who like introduces that door a little bit. And then my brother, Daryl, so I mean, Pulp Fiction and like all these, so like my world was open and then I started to really look at movies differently and then I got a love for it. And then I got kind of got thrown into acting.

50:43is there anybody that you see as like that you that you still want to act with you still want to oh dude come on i need to know him bro um i'm i'm i'm oh man i'm like trying to figure out where to start um there i'm a big fan of once again like i'm a big fan of people where i just love their work it's not about a level of fame so like there are guys like peter sarsgaard yeah uh michael shannon um stephen graham maher shalali like i'm i'm dying to work with the ones that i just think are killers yeah i just want to work with the killers exactly secretly like i would love to be put in a movie where like i'm the jonah to dicaprio like wolf wall street like i but part of me i got a weird like and it's by the way it's not ego it's ambition and it's and it's the desire to just, I'm competitive.

51:39That's what I'm trying to get at. I'm violently competitive, and not to the detriment of anyone, but to the motivation for myself. So I want to work with Gyllenhaal and Leo and Michael B. Jordan, but I only want to work with them to show like, we're going to spar and no matter who wins on the page, I'm going to break my teeth off on this Courier 12 fund. I just had that same feeling with Bryan Cranston. I did a movie with Bryan just because in the script I saw we had a one-on-one. Oh, that's enough to, of course. You need that. And Jason Mitchell, who played Easy E and Straight Outta Coppa, he's the one that taught me how to look at it like that because I'm just going off the page what I think would happen.

52:23And me and him were watching, I forget what movie we were watching, but he goes, like he's looking at it and he goes, he just fucked him up right there. I'm watching two people talk. He started showing me acting like boxing or like basketball. I look at it like a sport. And so he kind of really flipped that in me where I have that same feeling. Somebody that I really want to work with, and I'm going to butcher his last name. John Berthal. Berthal. He's my boy. Dude, I've got to, dude. I have to. I have to talk to him and work with him. Sorry, I just blanked out. He and I were talking about doing like a boxing story where he'd be a boxer and I'd be a promoter.

53:05But I, it was like one of those things where it's like, you're the crazy fat, like sketchy dude. And I'm just kind of like, I want to work with Bernthal, but I also like, I got to be careful how many of these same roles I play. If I get too redundant where like, if I'm feeling it's redundant, the audience is for sure feeling it's redundant. So I just have to be cognizant of that. And that's why I try to do like, I did this tiny indie film. we shot for like 3 million bucks in South America called the luckiest man in America. Yeah. It's like, I got to be the lead, but it's not the biggest movie, but good script.

53:39I'm working with David Strathairn and Walt Goggins and everybody from Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones to Johnny Knoxville, like dope cast. Yeah. But then I'm also doing fantastic four. And it's like, I probably had three scenes in fantastic four. It's not like I'm the Joker in dark night, right? But I'm trying to give some form of, variety, both for my own sanity and so that the audience feels unpalatable and I'm not just like hitting them over the head with the same damn thing. And you also have Naked Gun coming out, right? Yes, dude. I saw it the other night for the first time. Yeah, how you feel?

54:15It's great. It's great. Not that I thought it wouldn't be, but dude, you don't know. You're nervous about every baby. You don't know. And comedy's weird where it's like, we're not just making a comedy, we're making a comedy that has a history we're living up to. And it has to have a tonality that we hit so it's kind of like let's put it this way if you're from the south or you're from sicily or some very specific place you can have the cuisine replicated but you take one bite you know whether or not this is somebody's auntie or this is joe you know michael tribiani jr or whatever something like you know so i think i think for me it was like wait why did I make that food allegory I was making it just because of the Naked Gun's very specific yeah it's like we're having to somehow make this Sicilian dish not all of us are Sicilian we're just trying to get that right and then I watched it the other night and I was like oh wow not only did we get it right it just feels like a sequel that was made by all the same people it just happens to be Leslie or Liam instead of Leslie yeah that's what everybody wants and your character is You're the son of...

55:25The son of George Kennedy's character. I'm the junior of that character, yeah. It's hard being a junior, dude. Looking forward to that immense... It's hard being a junior. Hard being a junior, bro. You wouldn't know. Hard being a junior, bro. Well, I see you've got the ROH hat on. What's up with you in Ring of Honor? You know, it's funny. I haven't talked about this much, but I love Ring of Honor's history. How many people came out of there? It's just crazy. I'm a big ROH. Seth Rollins' ROH. i just was at roh it's like it's crazy yeah brian daniels i mean we could be there all night it's nuts the amount of people i'm a punk man i'm a punk i fell out of wrestling for a couple of years post high school i think and um and roh weirdly got me back into it roh and tna did and so watching like el generico and the briscoes and stuff got me back in so i'm a fan of the product uh but i'm buddies with tony khan as i am a bunch of different you know people that work shout out to tj tj tk tk tj and tj all of them but i um i i've done some work with all elite wrestling mostly just little cameos are doing like broadcasting um as you shout out to big three the other night you did sound like a court side reporting i was doing that for all elite so while I was doing that I I had a run in with this guy do you know QT Marshall yeah I'm aware yeah yeah that's that's better than most people say most people have no idea dude is a great wrestler also cut cut his teeth in ROH and is there now trainer also yeah and uh he came up and was like they were like hey QT is gonna do a bit and come up and uh you know give you some give you some shit or whatever i'm used to this like oh let's do the segment we let's do the segment and uh he threw a drink in my face and mind you i once again i'm willing to play ball like it's it's fun like i had a guitar broken over my head like a jeff jerry guitar i'm cool throwing during my face it's part of the show but i smelled it about 10 12 seconds in you can see it if you find the clip, you can see something turn or shift.

57:43Yeah. And like, you know, I'm not that good of an actor. Like you can tell something's wrong. I knew it was alcohol and I'm, I'm over three years sober. I'm celebrating my four years of sobriety this autumn, assuming I make it one day at a time. But, but I was, I stormed off the set and nobody cares cause they're like, Oh, he's, he's acting, he's doing the thing. But I'm like, not cool. Like that. It could have been anything. I talked to his friends and they're like, he doesn't drink that much. Like, so that's kind of weird that he even, I'm like, so whether he meant to or not in my head, I'm like, now I'm thinking this dude did this on purpose to mess with me.

58:20And if that's your idea of a practical joke, I'll, I'll shoot, not work, shoot, beat your ass. Yeah. Um, I got kids and stuff. So, uh, they were like, Tony's like, Oh, I'll put you guys in group text over the school. But TMZ was following me out of the Grove and I just start talking to them. and I'm kind of, you know, we all do it. We're all talking about shit. I had to get off Twitter because I couldn't stop talking my shit. I couldn't police my own tongue. And then they're doing the storyline. They're like, yeah, we'll respond to it. And I'm like, if y 'all keep going with this, like I'm going to need a match.

58:52So I've been wrestling with MLW primarily. That's my home right now. But I got a lot of love and a lot of friends in that company. So, you know, I'm hoping me and QT get to do the day. I guess I can, I'll say it on here because manifesting is like a thing. Absolutely. If anybody's watching, Lord knows I've already texted Tony about it. I want to match with QT Marshall. So, dude, you're not that busy in ROH other than like, you know, interfering Aaron Solos matches or whatever. Dude, you've convinced to be your ROH disciple. Come mess with me, dude. Find out how much of an actor I am. Find out if I'm still acting when you're bleeding all over an ROH canvas, bro.

59:34So that's my message to the dude. That's the NCAA exclusive? There's been a couple exclusives. I'm loving it right now. I'm loving the energy. I was wondering, is this art or something? He's got a gun. He's playing QT. If this were a naked gun, I would pull out like a fiddle and stuff. But I wrestled for this company, Progress, who's been super cool and generous bringing me in. I had a match in Vegas, Mania weekend. and it was part of the collective GCW and Defy and all those companies and I won this title called the Proteus title and I just wanted to shut off because I know you're a title belt guy rarely do I see you without one so I just wanted to pass this around and say I will finally I got injured during the match I broke four ribs so I have not been wrestling I've just been acting and producing the last two and a half months.

1:00:35My first Proteus title match with Progress in London will be August 25th at the hallowed halls of the electric ballroom where everybody from Will Ospreay to Finn Balor have been. I hope people find a way to at least watch. I know it's a bit of a hike. August 25th. This is the hardware. Wow. so i'm defending that title on the indies and in progress and uh and then hopefully i'll be showing up in places like you know uh roh or wrestling revolver or wherever will have me you know oh absolutely amazing one thing i want to say about mlw too is we are not playing this petty game of like other companies don't exist only we exist we get it we are not the top top tier right now.

1:01:27But we are trying to exist in a world that loves professional wrestling. And I think it's okay to just exist and to have incremental growth, right? Why not? You know, so Corp Bauer, to his credit, he's been letting me go around and be non-exclusive to MLW. It's my home, but I'm also stepping into other people's homes. I like that. But you're repping when you go. Yes, sir. And I'll be repping tonight on the carpet at Fantastic Four. We got to premiere it in downtown LA. We thank Paul for that because you do have a big Hollywood event tonight. I love it. Before that one, there's a match. You got Ziggy Dice coming up before that.

1:02:08That's right. Ziggy Dice, who's wrestled all over the place. God, we look like two brothers. Maybe I made my parents proud and he hated them and they no longer speak. I don't know what the deal is. Well, Kane burned his parents alive. makes sense he's Kane I'm Abel but hopefully yeah hopefully Kane doesn't kill Abel I'm really excited to wrestle for this outfit in Canton Georgia it's real close to my home so I get to like go there and come back and sleep in my own bed and on the card they got Alex Kane I believe Carly Bravo from the infantry is on that and a bunch of other dudes. It's going to be a good show.

1:02:53It's the kind of show where it's like 500, 600 people, but they deck it out and pack it out. Kids under the age of 10 get in free. Get some nice, good-feeling, warm hometown. I love that. Right. And those intimate settings get rowdy sometimes. Sometimes it's the way to go. It's funny because it's kind of a family show, but it's also like I've seen dudes put gusset plates on each other's heads. and bullied all over the place. It's pretty gnarly where it's family friendly, but it's also pretty violent. Now, you being so in love with wrestling, there's something that we ask every show that I've got to get your answer.

1:03:31As a fan, when did wrestling break your heart? It breaks my heart all the time. Are you kidding me? Come on. I need to know. It broke my heart last night watching TNA Slammiversary. Yes! It broke my heart last night a couple times. Yes. The production crew's got to figure out how to get high spots. I think we missed like three dives, and I was like, yo, figure it out. My boy Steve Macklin got a three-minute match last night, and he's their international title holder. So wrestling breaks my heart all the time, but the big ones, the big heartbreaks, the ones you write poetry about. Yeah. Yeah, those.

1:04:11Those. The ones men write songs about. No, that would be Starrcade 97 when Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff decided they wouldn't honor a year and a half long storyline in which Sting, Steve Borden deserved to have the match of a lifetime and be put over. And instead it was basically a, uh, nobody takes any moves, idiotic taunt fest schmaz with referees and Bret Hart running out and false finishes and fans not knowing what happened. A regular count of these played off as being fast, stupid. It's just stupid. It's lazy and dumb and thoughtless and careless. It's like that moment in the movie elf where James Kahn goes, Oh, we didn't put the last two pages in the children's book.

1:04:58just leave it out in stores anyway right yeah that's what it is it's careless dumb idiot stuff and your your father and my father raised us to not half-ass our stuff yeah um so we don't we don't and and that was a moment where i felt like they half-assed a year and a half build up if not longer and that really upset me um and then i would say another time uh that wrestling broke my heart was um was seeing sting uh not make it through the seth rollins match and i don't by the way i do not blame seth rollins it is what it is dude had some messed up stuff in his body he's old it's old as shit i get it but but seeing it was hard and i was at the mickey golf fight with cm punk in Chicago.

1:05:49Seeing somebody get hurt for real in a ring, shoot, work, whatever, it sucks. I was there when Seth got hurt this recent time. I didn't know if it was a work or shot. I didn't know what it was, but it sounds like it's for real, for real. All right, Paul, well, you got the premiere tonight. I'm going to let you go. We usually do this really quick because I know you got to get out of here. We used to do a bar fight question where he asked 50 dudes in the bar Can we flip this real quick? And yours changed recently, right? Yeah, it changes with the tides. Can you tell me yours? My bar fight crew? My last one, I'll give you a new one.

1:06:29I gave one before. Fantastic question. Riddle, Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley, and I'm just trying to name people I didn't name before, and Terry Funk. Wow. Who would be yours? I gotta go all stealth because like are we talking you need to get home I mean it's a shoot right it's a shoot you're in a bar dude might have a collapsible baton dude might have the broken Budweiser bottle it's time to go I have to say first and foremost Brock Lesnar 100 % how do you not choose Brock Lesnar he's the scariest human ever he's probably after us right now if I was if I was Brock's wife and he were making love to me I would just feel like I was being assaulted even though it's consensual but you still feel like you're being assaulted that's from chapter 9 of my book wrestler physiques etc number 2 I'm going to go Haku because I always heard the stories of like Haku's a real life tough guy I want to see him just like touch somebody's clavicle and watch them beg for mercy

1:07:47exactly my number three i might go uh i might number three i might go somebody like uh braun stroman oh yeah because once again it's like we gotta get our size in make a hole bro if brock and braun are taking care of lots of dudes then i get to have fun watching me and haku try to just do little things. And then I guess my number, I need one more.

1:08:12I might say it's got to be somebody who's actually kind of crazy. Because crazy wins fights all the time. So I might say the late great RIP to Sabu. Oh yeah. Brock, Braun, Sabu, and Haku. And Paul Houser. Paul, you're a beast, bro. we appreciate oh wait we met on the bird chrysler show you see birds joke slam no no we met at ray leota's oh at the that was on my birthday walk of fame that was on my birthday when and ray leota made it rain on us while we were all there man dude that's right we both worked with ray at the end we met on my birthday great and we met here on the rich eyes and shit yeah and i vividly remember because i was like why am i talking to rich i should be talking to this guy six years later.

1:09:03Yeah, so now, wrestling friends soon to be on-screen collaborators and maybe we'll square off in a ring at some point. I couldn't trust anybody more than you. That or we'll be the tag team. We'll be the Hollywood hustle. Don't fuck with me. I know a guy got a kendo stick in the back. That's what I'm saying. I don't need someone to talk for me. I need somebody to hit somebody in the nuts of the kendo stick. We got you. But I completely blame us for getting Bert in that ring because Bert, he didn't. He didn't like he said he was a wrestling fan and then he realized he was a wrestling fan. Yeah. But to get in the ring.

1:09:42Cody helped him realize. Yeah. Yeah. It was all I do. No, you you heard us talking and it was like, no, I'm going to show these fuckers. And you know what? And my whole thing is like and now we got Jelly Roll entering the ring. I've met that dude. Beautiful soul. Wonderful guy. A lot of celebrities are going to be wrestling more and more. That's very obvious. there's a trend of some kind happening but i just i i'm worried i'm less concerned about being the most popular or famous or followers whatever thing i'm more worried about just like i want to be known as safe in the ring yeah i want to be known as somebody who did it for real where i'm 52 years old and i'm like i can't do it anymore but i've done 180 matches and and i want to have fun life is short muckham jamal warner just passed the 54 shout out to his people bless you prayers up but like life is short for those listening if there's something you want to do go to culinary school or ask out that person you've had a thing for whatever the thing is minimal or maximal far away or proximal do it do it do it do it me and o'shea tj we are not more special than you but we did we did get the starters pistol at some point and we decided to do it.

1:11:00So please do it. Paul Walter Hauser, everybody. Thank you, brother. Thank you, brother. Blessings. Blessings. And QT Marshall. That's your ass. You're a bitch. With your bitch ass. But you know what? You're good at being a bitch. So keep at it. What a guy. Yeah, man. What a guy. How about that dude? Cool dude, man. Cool as hell, man. Kind of living the dream. You know, like I'm far too old to even attempt it at this point, you know, put on a little bit too much weight at this point in life. But man, you heard it worked out for him. It did. Taking some blows. Earlier in the show, I mentioned like always having respect for people who do things that I can't do or I wanted to do.

1:11:42Prime example, man, like the dude is one of the best actors on earth. Doesn't have to be doing this. No. You know, he's putting it on the line, you know, bleeding, getting beat up, jumping off ladders, getting thrown off ladders, getting punched, kicked. you know, he's doing it, man. And I got a lot of respect. I should have asked him if he ever talked to Mick. Oh, right. That'd be, that'd be somebody cool for the, they got to have a writer or something. Well, the great thing is, you know, tomorrow on the rich eyes and show the main show, Paul's actually coming back to studio. He is on his way now to the premiere of the fantastic four.

1:12:16He's also in the new naked gun movie. So in addition to being in two of the, the summer's top films, which they will be, you know, He's also, in August, about to go to battle. He's going to England for this one right here. Thanks, Don, for putting it up. The Electric Ballroom in Camden, London, August 25th. And then, I believe, on August 8th, as he said, with Zicky Dice, those two are going at it at Rumble Jack 7. That's August the 8th. He wants to smoke with QT. Yeah, he wants to smoke with QT. I mean, we ain't starting nothing, but we will help you get there. Look, I'll push that. If you want to fight, I'll help you get it.

1:12:54Yeah, exactly. Kiki Marshall, watch it back, bro, because PWH is coming. Yeah, now you've told them where to find PWH. Can you tell them where to find us? Yeah, that's right. So on all your socials out there, when you look at Twitter or X, or I guess even threads, you're going to find us at There's No Contest on Instagram, No Contest Wrestling Podcast. And, of course, all of our videos can be found on the Rich Eisen Show YouTube page. Just type that in or type up No Contest. You'll find us. We out there. We in here. yeah man and uh you know we'll see you guys next week there's still a lot of things that uh we haven't gotten to can i get this camera right here because lord knows our tribal chief is back and if you think that i'm just gonna just accept this and just gloss over it next week i promise because i gotta watch raw but i am going to give all you roman haters the business now for my tag team partner and one more thing i forgot and i think we can actually add it maybe to this episode.

1:13:55You know, last week, Seth Freakin' Rollins came in and he guest-hosted the Rich Eyes and show Wednesday and Thursday of last week. Great time with Seth. He's really a natural at doing this. What we do every day, three hours a day, unscripted, no scripts, no teleprompters, no writers, no huge team of producers in our ears. No, it's just basically, it's us. Seth Rollins did an incredible job guest-hosting the Rich Eyes and show. you can look out for all those YouTube clips, but he also at one point right off the bat, he explained to us what happened to his knee. I'm sitting down. I look great. I can see myself on the monitor right here.

1:14:33I look great. I'm not going to lie. But underneath this monitor, I do have a leg brace on over in the corner are my crutches. This past Saturday, I was in a match on Saturday night's main event, which we special on NBC on Peacock. I was in a match with LA night and I hurt my knee. I was doing a move that I do all the time. It's a moonsault, a backflip. In this particular instance, I was landing not on my belly, but I was landing on my feet. When I landed, I felt my knee kind of pop and buckle. We got out of the match, and we moved forward. Monday, I was in Birmingham, Alabama, where our specialists are at.

1:15:12We tried to take a look at the knee through some imaging. It was a little too swollen, so we're going to take another look, hopefully in a week or two here in LA to try to get something, some sort of firm diagnosis. And then we can go from there. I am not a doctor. I only know my body and what I feel. And what I feel is that this is going to be me out for an extended period of time. You know, we were talking off air earlier and it is a bummer, but look, it is what it is. Our business moves on. This isn't the first time that I've been injured. It won't be the last time. And, you know, I've always just got WrestleMania in the back of my mind.

1:15:54I'm like, can I make it back for WrestleMania, for WrestleMania season, for the whole thing? And so that's my brain always goes there, and I feel good about that. But beyond, like, a firm timeline, I just won't know until we get a better answer on the MRI. So that's where it's at. If you guys have any questions or you want to get anything out of the way, that's where I'm at with it. i'm open to whatever you guys want if you got any questions well i guess first off just on on a human level like mentally how are you because you're on a roll right now in your business and then for this to happen to you man like are you okay yeah i mean look there's no good time to get injured you know there's no like oh this is the best time of year for this to happen or you know you're not being used very much so you know you can take a break um but this is not my first rodeo You know, I had a very serious knee injury, same knee actually back in 2015.

1:16:49I was in a much different state of mind at that point in my career where I was still feeling like I needed to work, work, work to get to the top. Now I'm sort of at the top. Sort of? Sort of. I've had multiple injuries over the years. So I know what it feels like to take a step back, but also I have the confidence in our roster and in our team that they're going to be able to move things forward. in a way that's entertaining. I don't want to say they don't need me, but we're good. We're in a good place right now. And when I come back, I'll be better than ever. Everyone's still on social media, whether it's a work, whether it's not a work.

1:17:26All I know is the man came into the set. He had a knee brace. He had crutches. So, hey, I can only take it for what it is. But I am also a wrestling fan. Yeah. So, you know. I'm always not being the only way. But based upon what I saw, the way he moved, And really his just overall, when he was talking about it, seemed a little bit sad. I'm going to say this isn't a work, man. But, you know, like I said, it's wrestling. But make sure you check it out. We'll include that on this episode. Seth Rollins did a fantastic job. And O'Shea, it was like, for me, everyone on the comments was like, TJ, this must be really dope.

1:18:02And it really is. You know, I've gone to Seth's job so many times to watch him work. So for him to come to my job and get a chance to work with him, you know, I walked in, I knew a lot about Seth Rollins, but I got to know Kobe Lopez a little bit, and that dude's mad cool. No matter what you think about the character, the human being, that cat, he's good people, man. And I think he and I are going to watch the Bears-Cowboys game together in week four. Cowboys going to spank that in. Oh, well, thank goodness you brought back a little TJ in there. It was getting a little too nice. Guys, we'll see y 'all next week.

1:18:40On behalf of my tag team partner, I am O'Shea Jackson Jr. This is No Contest Wrestling. We will see y 'all next week. Bye, Ms. Parker. Bye, Ms. Parker.

1:18:59You matched on Hinge. You're vibing. Then her energy completely changes. What do you do? I'm Raven Smith, and I wrote and read a real love story about this exact sitch. Listen to the free audio book now.