What Do You Wanna Talk About? - Santino Marella

33:12But also, I think there was a forgetfulness about it. It had been this huge buildup. Yes. The T-shirts, all that. Everyone's talking about it. JBL got a giant trophy from a local trophy shop in Houston. Yeah. And it had gymnasts on it, football players on it, ice skaters on it. Every type of trophy was an amalgamation of every type of trophy. It was eight feet tall. And it was eight feet tall, and it was in the green room. And that's back in the day when everyone had to come in the green room and everybody had to be like, what's this for muscle mania? Oh, muscle mania. But as we were approaching, you were the heel again in tortoise and the hair, the hair is the, but here's the difference in tortoise and the hair in tortoise and the hair, the slow and steady wins the race.

33:57The hair gets cocky. It's authentic. That's the story you're telling. And I think a lot of people want to believe that into the story, but I'm going to tell you from my end of the story is I had thought most people forgot about muscle mania because during the week of mania it's all mania all the time you know that wrestlemania it's randy triple h there's tons of elements going on and you miss wrestlemania uh yeah which is there's the same you've got you've got that going on you're in this giant battle royal with all of the divas at the time and women's wrestlers and then you win that is your tiara or santina's if we can say if not then there's a relation there that's all that's going on your sister so there's there's that element we're focused on mania the show which we should be focused on but you said you were 230 and by mania you were 203 203 i would bet that you were 230 when we started talking about muscle mania and you were 230 on the day of oh no i lost i i was always gonna lose from the moment i got called in and triple h started calling out the poses which i did not know and you did have posing trunks on i i had posing instructions so Have you ever heard what happened to me in that moment?

35:08So, okay. So I remember Regal the day before was like, let's not do it at the after party. Let's do it the next day just for the boys. So I was like, oh man, like I had like, you have to time your sweet potatoes and your diuretics. So I told my guy, my coach, did you have a coach or anything? Like, did you prepare it all? No, I thought it wasn't even happening. And I don't think you prepared at all. No, I was prepared. It was the same guy. It was not the same guy. That's what always blew my mind. And in that moment, you were riding high. You had won at WrestleMania, a big WrestleMania moment. And then, spoilers, you win Musclemania by a landslide because we do it audience vote, which, again, that's the moment.

35:57So Linda McMahon is one of my favorite people. And this is the last after party I remember seeing her at. and she's enjoying the revelry that is muscle mania and everything is clapping everything is positive and i go up there and we knew each other her and i so she's cheering us all on and then she saw the room was booing and that i was the bad guy and i remember just seeing her go like this and then were you making eye contact with her and when i made eye contact with her i she turned on you the night that you enjoyed the night that the boys were enjoying became one of the worst nights of my life my life and where it really so you were getting all the applause on all the poses then we went to the talent portion which i did a backflip standing backflip and then you just did this unbelievable russian over top dance that you could probably still do today a fun time tony it was an amazing and you're getting the whole place into it it looked like a bar mitzvah was happening all of a sudden people are cheering and you win and you are the one and only winner of the only time muscle mania ever happened they tried to do it a second time but you know it wasn't the event it was the people involved the magic wasn't there wasn't there the magic wasn't there had i known i was the bad guy in all this i probably would have approached it differently i just remember thinking everyone's forgot about this but that morning i had the choice of putting on boxer briefs or i could put on a speedo just blue speed over in case i could but just in case, as a wrestler, can you ride a motorcycle?

37:28Just in case. And I put it on, and it was deep in the party when this came up. There's an element that we probably, Kid Rock was getting ready to perform on stage. Yes, he was on stage. And then he was upset that we were. That you took your pants off. Well, yeah, he was. So he left, and Jericho was trying to get him to come back, and we wanted him to come back to the party, but they wanted to do Muscle Mania. So the whole thing, it was. So I thought it wasn't happening that night. From my perspective, the same guy, the cupcakes that happened on the bus, it's nothing changed. And I heard you saying, like, I ate 16 sweet potatoes, and I'm taking water pills.

38:05I heard this, and I just thought you were always going to win. It is a fun moment, and when I hear people about it, but I just hope you know what a low for me. What a staggering, staggering low. It worked out pretty good for you, though. You know the one lesson I learned that night? I learned many lessons that night, but the one that really sat with me, and it reminded me of how special of a culture and brethren and locker room we are, is as I got off, one guy noticed that I was genuinely amortified, half naked in a room of, there's like 10-year-olds at the WrestleMania after party. There's families.

38:43It's not just the boys in the locker room. There's dignitaries. There's Kid Rocks. There's Lindas. I'm just trying to pull my pants on in front of everybody, sad, like pulling one leg over. And Ray Mysterio noticed that I was not doing great. And he came over to me, and I'll never forget what he said. He said, hey, that was really cool. Thanks for doing that for the boys. Nice. That's nice. And I thought. Ray's amazing. I thought, yep, I did that for the boys. I didn't, but in my mind, I'm like, ah, okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah, that made me feel better about it. So when I thought it wasn't happening, and then I think it was Taker.

39:21who's like where are they let's do it right now and we're like i'm like i don't have my pose i was like i don't have my posing tights on i'm wearing just like not very flattering underwear and uh all of a sudden i remember going cody on the mic and like oh no this is happening now and then kid rock was on stage he was warming up with the bongos he's about to jam like kid rock at the after party yeah we took that away from them so you took your parents off he's like yep see ya and he left the stage and and uh you know what the funny thing is the the lights were not for a bodybuilding show it wouldn't have mattered and that's the thing pictures after i'm like oh damn yeah i've heard there's pictures i have them but they're not they're not good they're like blurry and the lighting isn't good muscle mania well hey lillian garcia yeah listen regardless of whether you had transformed or whether you hadn't, regardless of if I was the hare and you were the tortoise, I lost and you won.

40:24So congrats to you. Thank you, thank you. And the one and only, I hope someone defend your title at some point, Musclemania. All right, sports fans, this is the tag team you've been waiting for. Affirm and Fanatics have joined forces. You can grab your fan gear today and pay overtime. With Affirm, you get simple monthly payment options. No late fees, no hidden charges, and no surprises. Just flexible plans that fit your budget. Whatever gear helps you be the fan you want to be, like a New Jersey, the latest collectible, or a classic throwback, Affirm can help you make it yours with a payment plan that works for you.

41:04Because being a fan isn't about spending more. It's about backing your team, your heroes, and your story your way. Visit Affirm.com slash WWE to get started or download the Affirm app. It's free on iOS and Android. With Affirm and Fanatics, now every fan can own their moment. Subject to eligibility, terms apply. We don't talk about this on the pod at all, and I want to be careful with how I, lately the pod's been getting aggregated and every story is somehow clickbait. But I want to make it clear that I had a really good experience with Bob Holly. Okay. He was, I enjoyed him. He was a hard man, but he was good to me.

41:47Taught me, one of the first guys to teach me about working out. He was kind of in the winter of his moment at WWE. He was at the end and probably going through elements of that that I wasn't seeing. But as a, I tried to do it right the way we were taught. If that's your partner, you ride with them. Hotel, you go to the gym, you do everything together. You develop, you develop. This is when you first got called up? This is when I first got called up. you get for it was in 2007 yeah what month it's only it's a little after you you because i watched you shortly yeah the milan and then it's not long like summertime yeah okay yeah um but you uh bob was also not one to mince words about how bad you might be in the ring and he had it out for you in the beginning and i want him over i'll never forget being in vienna austria because we still use those locker rooms and that we did a match where he clubbed you in the back yeah and you didn't bump immediately you kind of went down and came up which is a fine sell in itself you did not do anything yeah but he took that as you were not selling it and then he hit you a bunch of times and you went down whatever the match goes the way it goes we get to the end of it but then i will never forget the locker being in the locker room and him coming in and looking at you and you were always so friendly and kind and ready for a joke and ready to party and also ready to learn but also very much one of the boys you were about the boys and the protective culture of that and he just looked at you and said you're the worst rotten you're rotten you're the worst of time ever you're the worst ever you're the worst and everyone was expecting you to just like oh you know what can i do better bob or whatever do you know well i'm sorry bob what happened or i'm so sorry you know the number one thing you can do as a wrestler you put the heat on yourself no one else can right but you instead just went you looked at him and just went really come on come on and he was instantly deflated in his anger of, but I'll never forget it.

43:57Because I thought, I don't want to see a fight. That'd be a rough one too. Judo Santino against very, very tough Bob Holly. That wouldn't have been a fun fight. You know what I mean? You know what the difference between, oh, that's kind of funny, and oh, God, where you got to go in the next day and explain what happened? I didn't want one of those fights. you know so so the match was uh it was a four-way tag match kendrick and london me and carlito yeah you and bob lance kidd and trevor murdoch so in the beginning yes forearm to the back i bottomed out and came up for what i thought was a second one and he took it offensively and it was just like stay there he just started beating on me anyway i fast forward to the end it was a complicated come back and i think he forgot a spot so he was furious and he came back and he said you you're you're rotten you're the worst i've ever seen and then he looked at you and said and how many times i gotta tell you to tag faster on the hot tag and you immediately put the heat on yourself you go yep you told me every time i'm never gonna happen again and then you you stopped him in his tracks and then he looked back at me again and you again he went back at me and that was when i was like come on i mean this is the wwe you gotta be pretty good to get here it can't be the worst you've ever seen i i still use the put the heat on yourself no one can ever put it on you you're good at it prime example was uh i remember getting up to get coffee at the monitor i had watched every live event match i got up to get coffee it was 10 feet adjacent to the monitor but I was not looking at the monitor.

45:40And Undertaker walked up to me and said, nothing you can learn from that match going on right now. And I remember thinking this is fairly ridiculous. But I just looked at him and said, and I've used this line a bazillion times since. I have no excuse. What's there to argue? You're not wrong. I probably could. I got up. I made this mistake. I have no excuse. But I feel like we were in so many cars together. We were around Randy. Randy a great deal together they're all very almost scattered family guy like bits basically I could ask you do you remember in Charleston West Virginia when Randy took his halberd and goes hey guys watch this and just threw it across the parking lot to see if it would make sparks just these random moments you were there for all of it and then I felt like I didn't see you after that you Rico Coliseum now Coca-Cola Coliseum that was the last show right where you basically said i was about to have neck surgery yeah and uh it's funny it was misconstrued i wasn't announcing my retirement i was just saying that uh and i wanted to do it in toronto because santino's introduced as being from italy and i just always wanted people to know like especially canadians i'm canadian yeah proud to be canadian you know and i wanted to just say if this is the last time i don't know i'm gonna have surgery we'll see how it goes but if this is the last time i want you guys to know i'm i'm from here i'm from mississauga ontario and then i get the car it's like santino retires i'm like no no that's not what i said but um yeah we were we got called up at the same time and anybody that you spent time with ovw with they were like a security blanket like you know like you know go to them yeah we hung out a lot and you also caught the end of bad randy and you saw the transition into good randy and uh that That was fun.

47:35One thing I tell people, it was funny, that we were in IHOP. And you just got called up. It was me and Jeff and Randy. And some guy comes up. He looks and he goes, Randy Orton. And he looks. He goes, Jeff Hardy. And he looks at me and he goes, Tito Santana. And you were like, yep, yep, that's Tito. Yep. There he is. And I finally met Tito Santana and told him the story. He had no idea who I was. so i tell him and he goes yeah okay i go tito santana santino and i go off this guy's no idea i am oh yeah oh that's that's rough that's rough it's amazing you uh battle arts is what you went uh as you were closing your career not closing as you were preparing for a new chapter you were where you had a jingle.

48:31Yes. And this is why we were still on the road, and you played this jingle for everybody. Very on brand for you. Yeah. It was basically everything the gym was offering. It was the perfect commercial. Yes. I wrote the perfect commercial. So I wrote bars, you call them, I guess. It was like eight bars. And I timed it out, and it was 15 seconds. And I was, oh, commercials are 30 seconds. So I doubled it, and it was like right on the money, 30 seconds. And it was very catchy. and I did it. I recorded it on my phone in the locker room. Texted my buddy the voice note. He put music to it. I put that on the radio.

49:11I spent more money than I should have to have it airing on one of the radio stations in Toronto. And just to hear my own song on the radio, really. But people heard it. It was funny. And it's pinned to my Facebook page. You want to know something? I was thinking about sitting here with you was I've been doing a lot of backstage pre-tapes recently. They've just been more than usual. And I forgot the skill set it takes to do a backstage pre-tape. Not only when they're live but you change it up maybe from what you talked about earlier. Maybe a few things are more intense, more heated. It's all different, especially when it's live.

49:50But I don't think I ever saw anyone in any type of backstage do it like you did it. Never the same. Never was, you know, you have your famous nicknames. I saw you go over them. I think it was Van Vliet. Yeah. You went over all the nicknames you had for everybody, but a new nickname would emerge. You never did things the same. And your skill set, because you even said, you said you were doing a comedy wrestler. I mean, Kurt Angle was also doing a comedy wrestler. There's one of the ways into their heart. I remember there was this old school wrestling edict that funny isn't money. and it did not apply, I don't know, probably after 1990, to be fair, because it certainly was money in many situations, looking at even that Team Hell No and these fun Kurt Angle with a little cowboy hat on, all these fun moments, they did connect, and they could draw money, but I was so impressed, and lately I've been doing them with someone who's good at that aspect of it, but I feel like it's a lost thing.

50:54I feel like you being around you teaching because you've been training wrestlers you've been training and you now being at TNA do you find it's fun to to teach to pass it on yeah I mean it's funny when I'm coaching I I'm a technical coach I actually don't teach a lot of the comedy because sometimes I think that's something that's inside you yeah I grew up you know watching a lot of television in the 80s you know my dad liked television so we watched a lot of television a lot of sitcoms And that really, well, I had a plethora of resources because my high school, the percentage of first-generation Canadians, it had to be 80%.

51:35And it's a Catholic school. So everyone was from Italy, Portugal, Croatia, Malta, and Poland. And all our parents are immigrants. Yeah. So they all had accents. They messed up names. They messed up expressions. Like my neighbor, Son of a Gun Ivan, is where I got Son of a Gun from. And my friends even call me out, like, you made a living off just quoting our parents. Because I had all this information, this, you know, examples to choose from. But no, I like to pop the guys. For example, let's say the pre-tape starts mid-conversation and there's a new take. The mid-conversation part's going to change every time.

52:17And it's going to be more ridiculous every single time. And, you know, in the corner of my eye, if I see someone going, you know, that's a victory for me. The viewer at home won't know what's happening. They'll only see one take. But I try and keep it fun. And, yeah, I love it, man. I think it's wild that you're such a technical coach. But I also remember the first day I saw you, you were Boris. You were different. the dichotomy that I got to experience having watched you do a dead serious matches going less than a few minutes Boris versus what would happen uh with Santino to the lesson that the Jack Bull lesson that we talked about I wish more people I'm not saying I'm not trying to say back in but I just wish more people today would realize that you have to have a really large range a huge range to do this whatever's opportunities may never come and if they do you must capitalize yeah there's the m &m song you know lose yourself you have to seize that moment you have to and it may be one shot and you have to have to have to seize it so you have to be over prepared yeah and you have to have confidence and i remember when i was about to debut i'm just repeating to myself you're prepared you train for this you're prepared you train for this you're prepared you know and uh there's something there's these little subtle things and you you went to acting school so you're aware of these subtleties and uh that make things believable and the more i call it the believability meter and when you're good at these subtle little things that are real that people do in real life that's when you get lost you know when someone's telling a story in a movie and the harp goes and then you're in the you're in the scene that's to me what i want the audience to do is when they watch the match the harp goes and then they're watching something that's real and we talk you know suspension of disbelief but it's huge it's so important to get the authentic reactions from the audience you know i always find this this funny and when i knew you were coming on i was so excited because it was so nice to see you in Italy and and you're you're thriving you're doing all the things I I thought it was so funny that when I met you especially with the judo background you were a shooter shooter you were you were legitimate and and just the fact that you say nothing in this moment confirms for me that you your your judo skills and your ability do you feel not enough wrestling fans knew because I would always tell people who's one of the tougher guys you were with there was the obvious ones bob holly is a great example there's the obvious ones uh mark henry as in terms of strength there's very obvious ones but you were legitimately someone you'd want on your team in the bar fight you feel not enough fans know about that or does it not matter no well it kind of doesn't matter but i think because of the internet there's some chatter about it yeah and people know you don't have to go too far to see that you know i was on the national team for judo and stuff like that actually recently i last year i won my division at the world championships for jujitsu and it was kind of like just in my mind a little extra just a reminder yeah but it's funny i would try and show glimpses of technical ability in my matches but then i had to relinquish it with something funny so just those little glimpses they meant a lot to me it shocks me and obviously you being you being such an again we say the word legitimate and judo and jujitsu and all the skill set that you have.

55:54Do you remember what happened when you took the shot on me and I got lucky? I took a knee. So you took a shot per Arne Anderson who was stirring it up in a very dangerous place, a concrete locker room. Yes, yes. And I did some sort of sprawl. It was no technical wizardry. It was probably luck, but I was able to stuff the shot. And you were not happy in the moment. And then it turned, this is where I learned that you, you, it was in there. The beast was still inside. Because then jokingly, oh, yeah. And you picked me up and you slammed me on the floor. Thank God onto somebody's four wheel hard case.

56:34On the luggage. On the luggage. I regretted that one. Otherwise, otherwise I might be, I don't know. But I remember thinking, you know, when you mess with your friend. You looked at me legit hot for a second. And like, you looked at the bag and you looked like, well, hey, it wasn't our bag. So we've destroyed someone's bag. You could have fucking hurt me there, man. Yeah, but like, that was the other thing. And more, I was actually upset with you. I was more mad at Arn. Why did you cause, why did you cause this fight? I'm a sucker for, you know, when someone, ooh, yeah, that gets me a little bit.

57:05But that was irresponsible of me. Your blood was boiling. If you've been sitting on a business idea, Shopify makes it easy to make it happen. Everything you need to start selling is included and ready from day one, including the moment your first customer is ready to pay. Shopify checkout helps more customers finish their purchases, and when they come back, their details are already saved. One tap, and they're done. Shopify handles the setup and checkout so you can have more time to focus on growing your business and the tools to do it. Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, from household names like Mattel and Gymshark, to small businesses just getting started.

57:48With Shopify, nothing stands between your idea and a real business. So go make it one. Start your free trial at shopify.com slash Cody. That's right. Start your free trial at shopify.com slash Cody. I have to bring this up, too. And again, it's very family guy today in terms of I have all these stories with you of fun moments. But I tell people all the time about my favorite live event match I ever seen. Japan? No, no, no. the best live event match I was ever witnessed to, I saw many times, was the producer loved this match. You know the producer I'm talking about. You would do the Master Lock Challenge.

58:26And this is before. This is the beginning. This isn't the Maserati Clutch, which if you're ever on one of those live events and you promised them the Maserati Clutch, that was an amazing experience for the fans. But this was, you would sit down, Chris would get behind you, almost lock it in, and you'd get a little tense and you'd stand up, and the crowd was fully. Then you'd sit down, you'd call him in, the crowd started to get behind you a little bit, and finally you'd get in. You might tense out one more time, but when he locked it in, he locked it in, and you'd be struggling. And then you'd start moving, and the people were behind you, and you'd be looking.

59:04You'd literally hit all four sides. You'd be looking, and you'd turn, and you'd get up out of the chair. Now the chair's kicked out from under you, but you're still in the master lock. Finally, you'd get to the fourth side. you'd come back around and you'd start to break the hands and then out of nowhere you just you just pass out and they'd ring the bell it was a psychological ride every time i don't know i don't think i i remember thinking he is stealing money he is but it was no one could do it there was the master lock challenge there was the you doing the headbutt and missing oh god you going for the hot tag and doing the forward roll and being six feet away i had one of my favorite memories ever is the cm punk tag on tv where punk did a dive on me and my partner on the outside and you went to do the dive and buddy i don't know what this plan was i don't know if you were supposed to dive or it was you were but you ate it in such a fashion that i thought it was i thought you were legit hurt in the entire rest of the match you were just on the apron doing this face like you had blown it in front in front of CM Punk just so disappointed in yourself it was master no one no one does it like that man well I realized uh if you mess something up that people want to see you successfully hit it then I started so then I come to the ring stand on the second rope and I'd slip and I'd catch myself on the stomach and especially I was in a tag match and Brodus was really good at it and I'd be mortified and I'd be like oh my I just slipped on the rope in front of all these people I'd come to him for like comfort and he'd turn away like get away from me like he's laughing and then the people would start saying one more time and I'm like the match didn't start yet and I had them cheering for me to stand on the rope and do that and like oh you know he'll be laughing I'd try again and I'd fail it try again and I'd fail it and I'd be pissed like god i'm embarrassed or i i would set up everything like dominoes i'd fail the hip toss fail the body slam and i planted the seed earlier by failing it so many times and they would pop and all of a sudden it's your splits and the successful hip toss swing successful body slam and i do all the things successfully that i was feeling earlier in the match and man i remember that was one time i came back and seen as like you've mastered your craft like Like, it was just, because you never had to.

1:01:37And figure out what to do because there wasn't a wasted step. I was just systematically failing things to successfully hit them at the end. And it became so fun. And I remember one of the biggest compliments was I came into the building. We had a live event and Swagger's looking at the sheet and he goes, Santino goes, yes, that's a night off. And I was like, he didn't know. I was down the hall. He didn't know I saw that. And I was like, that's the way I'm viewed by my peers. That's awesome. It was good. Well, I hated working you. Me? Yeah, I hated it. You had to take the headbutt once. I took the headbutt.

1:02:14I also, you had multiple Cobras. How many Cobras have you sold? I'd stomp on one, and then you'd just be behind me loading up another one, and the place would be losing their mind. So at OVW, I missed the headbutt daily, which I wouldn't recommend because it's hard on the body. And Al Snow was like, you'll never do that in WWE. be like you know and then he hit a mania on you the headbutt i forget where you but i know i was the one who got it and i know you're like god and it was like that was kind of a message for al you know the the thing but uh i remember we had a match in japan and you trusted me because i i'd lived there and we did the tackle spot where you kind of just no one bumps i do i remember trusting you on that yeah and you're like okay and then uh that was a fun match too and then we did the tackle and no one sold and the japanese audience does the whole and then we just smirked like ah we got him we got him and we continued to have a good match man it was so much fun so i had a 10-year career yeah it was nice neat a decade and for some of the people that have been there for so i've done so much i've been gone for 10 years 06 to 16 and Now it's 2026.

1:03:28Yeah. And I've done so much in the last 10 years. When recently I saw Nick Nemeth and I'm like, have you been there the whole time? Like another 10 years? Yeah. And he's like the whole time. I'm like, Oh my God. And it's obviously a privilege and you don't want to walk away from it. But it's, it's a, I remember when WWE called and said, you know, we're not going to invoke the injury extension. it's like I got warped back to me I'm like it's me again, holy it's like I was just gone for 10 years and all of a sudden I'm like it's Anthony again, oh man wow, it was like a time warp and it's like long days but short years you know 10 years, high school is 4 years so 10 years is 2.5 times high school and man, traveled the whole world entertained I mean, millions of fans.

1:04:25You mentioned these moments on the live events where the mist headbutt, the mist roll going into the hot tag, the Master Lock Challenge. For those who ever got to see the Maserati clutch. No one ever saw it. No one actually saw the move, but you promised it to a mini-town. For like a year. When you did the signal, you were going to hit it, and then whoever you were wrestling usually would hit you with their finish. And we never saw the Maserati clutch, but look out for it. It's a high-speed top rope. It's a high risk, top-up running submission. And when I do this, you would explain it to the audience as if they didn't know English.

1:05:03When I do this, the Maserati clutch is coming. I think Jericho wrote about it in a book. Yeah, I think Jericho also wrote about the Musclemania. He wrote about that? Yes. Musclemania has been published now, which is why I wanted to get the real side of the story out there. and you were the winner and it was a great moment for you. In your memory, I did not lose weight. You weighed 230 when we were yelling at each other on the bus. You weighed maybe 240 when we actually did Muscle Mania. You didn't get in good shape at all. You didn't do anything. It's been long enough. But this is something that I learned is there's this real big argument in wrestling right now about why do the OGs want to, and I don't even want to say OGs.

1:05:46there's this argument about less is more in the moments and there's such truth to it and I understand it and then there's this rebellious punk rock culture that's on the come up like more is more you know you look at Javon you look at Sol Ruka and like some of the stuff they're doing and you can tell sometimes when some of these guys tell them hey do less you can tell it's because they could never do that right so there's somewhere in the middle is the reality but I remember because you're talking about being told you mastered your craft. One time in Japan, of all places, we did this big group tag match where they hated me.

1:06:25They liked all the heels. This is when I was away from WWE. They liked all the heels. They liked all the baby faces. They just hated me. Oh, post-WW? Yeah, so whatever I was doing, so every time I tagged in, they'd boo. And I knew, oh, let's keep going here. So then someone else would tag in, and they'd cheer for him. and I'd tag myself back in until I got them to, we did this for about 11 minutes, maybe, like 8 to 11 minutes, and then we had to pick it up and go. But Haku was watching. So either you come back to the shame of one of these legends, a legend like that watching, or in his case, he paid me the greatest compliment ever, just pulled me aside, and he goes, that was working, brother.

1:07:09And I thought, oh, I get it, right? Like it's somewhere in between. I don't know. I feel like at Battle Arts, the idea that you're a technical coach blows my mind. Hey, I know you can do it. So that's not the part that blows my mind. But you're just known for being so entertaining and so funny and so comedic. I hope people know the toughness that you had. I watched you do a promo on the Hunky Donkey Man and Goldust and Roddy Piper and a guitar string split your lip completely open. You're doing a comedy promo, profusely bleeding, and just finishing it. Just seeing it through. Your toughness is, I feel like, underappreciated in the business.

1:07:56I remember when I was laying there and everybody, because it was like the alien. My mouth was opening this way, too. And everyone that would come, I couldn't see it. But everyone would look and go, oh, my God. I'm like, stop it. You're making me, you know. And Beth, like, she brought character on TV going like, oh, my God. and I was trying to, I didn't want the blood to come out so I was kind of filling my bottom of my mouth with it and then I had to speak. So I'm like, it just kind of came out and yeah, it was, I have a, that scars forever. I believe when they loosened the strings, they must have not loosened one and the tension on the string.

1:08:31I hit hacksaw with the guitar and immediately, I thought it was a fragment of wood and went, just snapped back and cut that one there. Hacksaw is a big friend of the pod and a big friend of Wheatley American Vodka. What a stud. I love him. What a good guy in the locker room. And also, you'd forget you'd see him because we'd come on up and he's doing older man wrestler at that point. I wrestled him a lot, actually. Yeah, we're seeing that. But this is also the guy who won the first Royal Rumble. This is also in Mid-South an absolute bruiser of winning fights in the ring, winning fights in the bars.

1:09:07300-pound-plus beast. Super athlete. He had the mitts, the big style mitts. And also, you knew if you poked the bear. Oh, man. He was still there. Oh, yeah. They don't make them like Hacksaw Gym. He actually got, he broke me at the Hogan, the four-part miniseries at the last episode when he got choked up. Oh, man, I had to stand up and start shadowboxing in my living room. And just to see him get emotional got me. And he was one of the guys, when he first wrestled him and he punched me and the crowd went, ooh, huh, didn't touch me. It was like an eye-opener, like, okay, so we don't have to rib ourselves and beat each other up.

1:09:49He did not touch me. And it was, yeah, I wrestled him a lot. He was one of those guys that he has his match, the shoot reverse and this, that. It's a patented match, works every single time. He does it every single time. Doesn't have a huge move set, but he has it down. And just, yeah, I love seeing him. If I see him at a convention, I saw him recently, and we talked chickens. He has chickens and stuff. And, yeah, I'm a huge Axel fan. He's a great guy. He has his bottle of water. It's not water. Well, hey, it could be Wheatley American Vodka. It could be Wheatley American Vodka. Well, this is a question as far as because, like you said, you came, you went away.

1:10:32You came back. For example, running into you at Clash in Italy. when you watch the product today when you see what we're doing do you think anything's missing do you like what you see is it will when you watch it yeah so there's there's so whatever it takes to get the audience you know if you don't have that aura then you have to do moves if you have the aura then just stand there it's really dependent on the person um and the wrestling in nxt is very different than on smackdown raw it's action-based i wrestled the ethan ethan page i didn't know if you wanted to tell the ethan page story which we'll have him on the pod eventually the one where you told him what he could work on to get oh god yeah but i wrestled him and they're like yo you gotta you gotta go here you gotta keep up and whoo cardio was tested that day but i i wrestled nxt style and i was go go go go go but it's funny because you know when my daughter was was with us in nxt they're like yeah we got to go we cannot really stop and sell and get these moments but stars you know a star is a star and once you're a star they just want to look at you man like like randy is the the the what's it called the end of the continuum we're doing as little as possible and there's guys that that don't stop and wherever you fit in the middle is dependent on your ability to captivate you know and there's you know i used to be like oh don't do all the flippity stuff then i'm like i'm not qualified to say that because i can't do that's what i was yeah right right right you know if if i could do a 450 and i chose not to then i'm qualified to talk about it but if you cannot do that stuff you're really not qualified to say don't do that because you can't and if you could you probably would because it's pretty cool to do it but how many of these kids coming up today and i'm saying these kids coming up today can do a maserati clutch right so you know timmy baltimore good friend of ours of course we loved him and he gave me permission to uh say that he's the only guy ever hit it on and that's why he's like that i don't know i don't know we have to get timmy on here so he can defend you know he said it was okay so what it is it's a cobra clutch when i'm standing on the top rope and the person's standing in front of me and we jump off the top rope and land in a camel clutch with a cobra clutch grip so it's a submission high impact um top rope yeah there was every now and then you're talking running was involved and it kind of is there's a there's a jump you know so the thing is when i'd call for it you know it's coming right i you know say this is you're gonna see a new move today it's never been done this is stands for m maserati this stands for clutch so in the middle of the heat i'd look around and then i'd hit the ropes and i get stopped or i'd climb the ropes and i get stopped or whatever so no one knew how it started because i would get stopped in various different ways and it was um that was when and those are live events right when you can do you know on raw my matches are probably average four minutes you know and live events is 20 minutes or whatever so you have time to to paint these pictures and have fun and experiment and um that was a year-long experiment swagger and i had this match we did around the world we called the match around the world we did it everywhere to the point where i think we did it in georgia and someone said you did that last year and i was like oh we got okay time to change it up because uh yeah we know the five minute handshake spot yeah i always look at the card uh geek because the internal sheets will sometimes say what the card was the last time and it's funny how quick it comes around to where i actually oh i i did i did a cage i did a street it's cool it's cool it comes around we're back in these markets and that they are those crowds are often come back the live events are such a fun experience so if they saw that one they might have seen it a second time but you know yeah it's still probably good so good Actually, it was Atlanta where I did the first Cobra.

1:14:47Yeah. A guy in Japan years ago, he showed me this thing where he'd make his arm into this little puppet. And it just came to me, man. And I said to Cena, because we're always sitting at the front. And I'm like, hey, I'm going to try something. Watch it. I think it was Chavo or Carlito. And I'm like, doing my comeback, like jab, jab, jab. I transform my arm. Hit it. Oop. And then I do like a roll up, a schoolboy. I called it the schoolboy from hell. and um and the crowd laughed and they never seen it before so he's like i'd keep that so i only did it on live events and then one day ricky steenbo was my producer and we came to tv and he's like uh vince you're going over his exact writer he's like vince wants to see the cobra i'm like how does he even know about the cobra he's like he reads the reports and i'm like okay so but did the cobra.

1:15:36And it was like three weeks later and I'd gesture for it and I'd see people in my peripheral like standing up like, they love this damn cobra. And I'm like, really? Like, it was crazy. One of the biggest compliments I ever got, I got four of them, four different countries, Australia, United States, England and Canada. And somebody from that country, they went to an elementary school and the cobra was banned in their school. and I'm like damn that means that it was like pop culture kids were doing it so like the oba the oba strut like kids are doing that yeah you came in here oba strutting yeah it's fun I always look at the end of the shows um tv live event whatever it is if you leave and there's little kids kind of wrestling with each other in the parking lot or you get you see the back of their car and you can see them you know it was a successful evening core memories man yeah it's so it's so awesome I want to ask you a question if you can about being a dad man because I remember I texted you right away yeah Libby call her Libby or Liberty yeah Libby Libby and uh I was because I know how important your your dad was in your life as a father figure and one to be a wrestler but to become a dad man yeah and I gave you a hug when I first saw you about just about being a dad because it's has to be the coolest thing you've ever done I wish I had done it sooner right because There's other dads in here and moms.

1:17:00The business is very selfish. Yes. And it teaches you to be selfish. You have to be. Right. You're surrounded by where you wear it like it becomes natural to wear. This is what we do. Dog eat dog. This is what we do. It becomes very different when you're not selfish for you anymore. Right. You still fight. It's still dog eat dog in a way. but it's about the benefit of someone else. So for me, I just wish I had done it sooner. And you mentioned that moment with your dad and your daughter. We don't have a lot of time in the wrestling business in the first place. To have over, I remember Al saying, to have over two years or something, to have over five years, God, ten years?

1:17:46but that that is one of the you know larger reasons why whenever i got the opportunity to main them into wrestlemania like there she is she's in the front row you know how i felt like those were for her and you know inside you're like yeah it's it's also for me you know like you know but also it just it makes your decision making a lot a lot different um it's also good that you had her not in 2012 when we were on the road 300 days a year so you get a little so my whole wrestling career was also i'm gonna get emotional again i suffered the whole time the whole time as as fun as it was and as as a blessing as much as incredible as it was i suffered the whole time being away from my daughter and i remember one time it's always it's my trigger you know i went at the Danny Davis's office and I'm like, I was pulling my fucking hair out.

1:18:44And I was five months because I couldn't cross, I was afraid to cross the border. And I was Canadian. I wasn't working in the US. I wasn't breaking any laws, but I didn't want to get stuck because I was turned away once because I tried to get a non-academic vocational student visa or something so I can stay there. And anyway, five months, I didn't go home and I was dying inside. And I went to Danny, Danny, please tell me something that's going to help this because I'm really having a hard time. And he goes, yeah. He goes, yeah, no, I never forgive myself to this day for the time away from my kids.

1:19:21I'm like, God damn it, Danny. That's not what I need to hear right now. You know, and I'm like, man. So the fact that she's in the business is really good because it kind of, you know, you never get it back. But at this point in someone's life, their kids have careers. you see them less like when a kid graduates high school i think you you've spent 90 of the time you're going to spend with them and like and then what the kid like my daughter lives in orlando right now so if she wasn't working if tna and wwe didn't have that relationship what am i gonna see her three three times a year yeah that's horrible that's like not good so anyway i was really spoiled and very lucky and fortunate to to have this last year and nine months to see her every tv loop So it was hard.

1:20:06It was very hard for me, man. It was not easy. And then when I came home from the road, she went to university. And I'm like, wow, the hell's going on? So that's why I'm asking. But luckily, you don't have the same schedule. Because I just wouldn't want you to suffer the way I did. And that's why all the parents that were on the road, I always ask them about their kids. And I feel like we bonded at the time because we were sharing that suffering. And it's hard. How can you say you're suffering? It's the most fun you'll ever have in your whole life is being on the road with the WWE, traveling the world, making millions, entertaining fans, visiting countries you'd never would have known, New Zealand and South Africa and Russia and China.

1:20:51It's the greatest time you'll ever have. But at the same time, you're not fucking there. You're not there. you know and it's it's just weird it's just weird dichotomy of having the greatest time of your life also simultaneously it's a part of you that's suffering man it's it's one one of the things though that i i found before i ever had kids and and it's it's it's largely now present as well that I do wrestling can tear the you can take the family away from each other but in my case a lot of my family live their life on screen so people don't realize as far as my brother and I didn't grow up together we didn't have thanksgivings together we didn't the age gap was too much 16 years us being brothers was on television wow was on tv and you know like you had that you were away from her and then you get to come back and that's part of where you get to connect so dusty is a promo with dust in the view never changes promo i think it's the best promo of all time but the sad part it's a shoot you know like that's a that's a tricky thing and i would always err on the side of I'm good with having them on TV.

1:22:17I'm good because I don't want them to not share in this. They may not know what it is right now, but I want them to share in this. You know, when my dad brought me on stage for his WCW Hall of Fame, I thought it was the biggest night of my life. I thought I was debuting in the wrestling business. You know, I was eight years old, right? Eight. Eight. And I get to share it with him. So it certainly gives and it takes. But as far as becoming a parent, which is you now, how many times now? Oh, yeah. My son, Marco, is seven. Seven. And my daughter, Milena, is turning five in a couple of weeks. Three.

1:23:00Three, yeah. And there's 24. So when Milena was born, Bianca left a month later to Orlando to earn. She wasn't signed yet, but she went down there and she busted her ass, trained at three different schools and got the tryout and crushed it. So their relationship is FaceTime.

1:23:21And even my son sometimes, he knows I used to be a wrestler. He's seen a couple matches, but he wants to see it. He wants to see that wrestle a little bit more. And that's one of the reasons why I did all these stem cells, PRP and red light therapy, so I can do this again. I want to wrestle in front of him. I remember Goldberg talking about wanting to wrestle in front of his son. Yeah, I want to wrestle in front of my son. And I think people, certain people didn't understand it. I knew right away. I'd go, yep, that's probably more motivating than anything to have him see it one time. That's why I wanted to win the world.

1:23:55I have the world championships coming up again September 5th, and I want to keep winning. Every time I go up a belt, I want to win them and win them. Because you can tell your kids shit, but I want to show them. and sometimes he goes why do you have to go to practice it's because I want to be a world champion and one day you're going to have to go to practice to be a world champion too and watch watch what I'm doing watch and I came home and they go there's the medal man it's for you you know you have to show them and I do want to wrestle I want to have and all of a sudden so my wrestling career ended because I was not capable I'm capable again for some reason because I was not capable for several years I kind of didn't get mileage on my body.

1:24:37My 40s was, I preserved myself. And all of a sudden I'm moving and everyone's like, how the hell are you moving like this? Hand springs up and over. I can move like, it's insane. And jujitsu is a big part of it. The athleticism required for jujitsu is very, very on par with, you know, to do a rolling bow and arrow choke is the same as an Oklahoma roll. It's the same. Could you train now if you had two months for a bodybuilding exhibition? Yes. Yeah, I could. Having won one. Bodybuilding, I'm like 230 right now. Yeah. So last week I went to Italy. So I had throat surgery and I lost 15 pounds, not good pounds.

1:25:19I went to mania six days after throat surgery. I looked, it was horrible. Like I was sunk in face. I looked bad. Everyone's saying, oh, you look so good. I go, I look horrible. I haven't eaten in a week. Yeah, the wrestler, you look good. And then I went to Italy. And I generally gain a pound a day in Italy from just eating. They eat so much there. Anyway, it's delicious. And I'm like, oh, I'm only here for a week. Anyway, my scale was overlapping the bath mat. I'm like, 214. I'm good. I have to weigh 218 September 5th. And I'm like, I'm good, 214. I can take the kids for ice cream, 214. And then I just, I go, let me just move the scale left to Matt.

1:26:02228. I'm like, oh, my God. So anyway, now I got to lose like 10 pounds by Labor Day. But I feel good, man. Give yourself a date. Amazing. All the training you've done for previous goals and dates. So give yourself a date. And I tell you, I fight kids, like 20-year-olds, 30-year-olds. I went to tournaments, and I had to fight a Brazilian guy who was like 28 or something. and I'm like, they still can't get me yet, man. I don't know what it is. They can't get me. I won. I won. I've only lost one match ever in jiu-jitsu. And at the Worlds last year, no one even scored a point. Stem cells, I've been like four rounds right now.

1:26:43Colombia, Mexico, I have a juve stem. I went bioaccelerator. I went to R3 recently. I'm like, I'll do them forever. And if someone says, hey, budget about$5 ,000 or$10 ,000 a year. and you're in the game. Every year I'll pay that, and I feel incredible. I feel incredible. I train three times a week, jiu-jitsu alone, and I do training. I mean, whatever. My age, I get reminders, and I'm super stiff sometimes, and I'm like, oh, my God, what happened? I feel like I get hit by a car. But whatever, I'll warm up. I'll be fine. But anyway, the point is, my daughter is always the the the the most important thing if an opportunity opportunity comes and tna knows if any opportunity comes to work with my daughter that's that's what i'm doing yeah when i when i got called up and i was uh able to leave ovw like i was in ovw for two years yeah i had a whole life and i'm like so many reasons to stay but there's one reason i gotta ago and i left like immediately when i was i didn't want to be like deuces see ya you know thank you for everything but you know my daughter was there waiting for me and and i had to go home immediately and like you said that's that's the motivation that's the driving factor especially so you're in a case where you're they look at you and you're a superstar but my daughter thought it was a superstar before i was a superstar so i had to fulfill that that was the motivation for me I had to become the person she thinks I am.

1:28:16And that's why I trained at OVW three times a day. Private classes with Rip, Al's class, LAC. I trained to the point where I got physically sick. I burnt out. And then I had to recover and get back. Because if I didn't burn out, how would I know I was doing as much as I can do to get home as fast as I can?

1:28:39And yeah, that's what I was asking about being a dad because it's especially being in the business. Being in the business is one thing. Being a dad is the other thing. Together, it's a whole other interesting. Yeah, and to give you a bit of the modern WWE, and this is truth, it will sound very toe in the company line, but it's very true. The modern WWE, you'd be very happy. You come backstage, you'd see multiple kids walking around, multiple buses with families on them. It's different. That's awesome. It's, you know, the way Nick and Hunter do it is different, and also the outlook is different.

1:29:19There's not a, we're not doing as many live events, and the TVs are already asking. The lift for TV is going to be very large. You're not just going to be working a segment. You're probably going to be working all day on various things. We're not on the road as much anymore. So to have that moment with them, it is very nice. It's evolved, you know, as a business. as much as I love the old school elements of it, it's got to grow and it's got to change. And it's evolved in a good way in that case. On the flip side, how hard was it for you? For me? With that being gone. Well, so for me, so it's a prime example.

1:29:54And then we struggled with this with my dad's documentary on A &E. I struggled a lot with the director. He did a great job, but I didn't understand the narrative he was trying to tell. Trying to tell this narrative of neglect. And the neglect narrative for two of the kids is accurate. for me and teal it's not accurate we had him all the time he was in we moved to atlanta he was an executive producer he was on the road a bit but i would go you know he brought me everywhere with him whereas dustin didn't get that experience and the beautiful thing i saw it come together eventually was he wasn't just telling the story of neglect he was telling the story of what it all looks like and how ultimately if there's enough love forgiveness and ultimately these moments coming together matter there's this interview with my dad only a few days before he passed just a few days before he passed and like that is what he says at the end of it he just they they asked him they threw him a softball said what do you want to be remembered for he had been talking about wrestling the whole time he said a good husband and a good father that's the only thing that matters and it's like ah you know but uh yeah sorry in the end he had he had very successfully done that because it yeah because it was also tough for Bianca too yeah it was hard for her too and uh I think it's therapeutic for her to be in the business to kind of fill in the blanks of where I was yeah and uh and uh this is what he was doing You know, this is where he was.

1:31:29And, yeah, again, the wrestling, we overcame it. We're tight. We're awesome. Everything's always been good. And I just look forward to being in the business with her for the next 10 years. Yeah, now you went from, you know, you're spending two years in Louisville and you're doing everything you can trying to be part of the business. And you did that and you went all over the world and were a significant part of the business, made memories, core memories for people. now you're you're locked the business you you will she's now carries you forward right so you right now and you got that it's almost a i tell my uh my nephew because i you know he's great baseball player and he has high hopes for baseball i said buddy if you make it to the show i'm gonna annoy the hell out of you you're gonna have uncle cody in the stands every game just drunk yelling at the other teams.

1:32:22Just, oh, don't worry about him. Just no knowledge of baseball at all, making comments on what I think we can do. Yeah, like what we should do better. And I just said, be prepared because it's a free pass for me. If I can just, you know. Oh, if my daughter has a match at Mania, I'm going to be the most drunk, obnoxious dad ever all week. Shut up. What are you going to do? You can't kick me out. Yeah. My daughter's here. When she has a match at Mania, you know what you should ask for? and I always thought this is just make sure you get yourself your own golf cart backstage. You know what I'm saying?

1:32:56I'm actually getting a golf cart soon. There's plenty of them. Oh, in the arena. You literally just placard on there, tell TR. You could do it yourself and nobody would get in. You ride that thing around all day and just you'd be able to get the best seat in the house. Now it's like with my son, seven. I'm like, hold on, 11 years, I'm 52. Stem cells, if you're 18, I can 63. Oh, man, I've got to keep myself in shape to have a match with him, but we'll see. Little Brody asked me, I think he's 14 now. Oh, wow. 13, 14. But, you know, when he's ready, he said he wanted to have a match, and he's talked about maybe even like an angle.

1:33:36He's got this. And in my mind, I'm like, oh, buddy. But also now, you know, 13 becomes 14. The next thing we're getting, we're getting there. We're getting, you know, we're getting, we're getting closer. So I'm going to, I think I'm going to try and hang on until then. Wow. Or take a beat and come back. Yeah. But yeah, he's mentioned it in a way that I'm like, yeah, at the rate I'm going, yeah, I could be there. Well, it's funny. They grow proportionally. I'm like, you know, my daughter's almost 30 and I'm like, how, how is that possible? Yeah. Like, I don't feel like I'm aging as fast as you're catching up to me kind of thing.

1:34:15Well, you were deceptively old. yeah i have when i met you i thought you're like 22 yeah you'd already lived multiple lives yeah yeah jericho wrote a uh santino gump was one of his chapters about all the different lives yeah you live multiple lives so many jobs he used to call me benjamin button too yeah i mean we're living proof you're hungry to stay young you know yeah and you are honestly it's really a mindset age is just a number i feel yeah i feel check out this imagine you had amnesia boom you got cracked in the head and you woke up in the hospital yeah and someone has to tell you about your life could you even imagine oh my gosh someone's saying uh okay hold on first of all this is who you are this is your family yeah and your kids are like stunning you know your wife but i'm just stunning obviously too and i'm like because i think about that sometimes i'm like what if i had amnesia i'm like my wife's like a fitness former fitness model european yeah and my kids are like incredible i'm like this is my house this is my life oh my god yeah and then they go yeah wait to see what you did i'm like what i'd be looking at you know on youtube going get out of here this is mind-blowing you know crazy i think that's a fun way to perhaps live is what you just said just what if amnesia came tomorrow and somebody had to walk me through yeah hope it's good if it's if it's not, we need to make it good, you know?

1:35:44Yeah, because some people wake up and it's a horrible life. Yeah, I mean, we need a good, you know, a good track record.

1:35:54Santino, very excited. You've, Mardell, coming on the pod, and we've been all over the place on this one, which is, I knew I was expecting it as life was lived. I feel like. Yeah, we have a really long history, really, And the beauty of it is it's from the beginning. Yeah. You know, before I even got signed. Dude, your silhouette walking through that OVW. Silhouette. Where there was just Boris, Boris. I like how you, when you said it, I wasn't in the room. Like I had an entrance. They called you in. Yeah. And then, you know what? We were on the bus together the whole time. Oh, my gosh. I have to bring this up.

1:36:37I think people need to know, you and I were in a bus crash before. Oh, my God. An actual, full-blooded bus crash. Terrifying. And I will describe these events, and everyone will classify them as a Cody lie. And no, I wish it was. But we, per the directive of a former friend of the pod, Triple H, said, hey, you know, top guys aren't the only ones who can get a bus. Why don't you guys get a bus? But just split it. Get three or four guys on there. Get the fridge on there. You got your food. You can park it at the gym. No excuses. Honestly, sounded like a good deal. We didn't actually, this is probably minutiae here, but we didn't actually get a bus.

1:37:24It was more of a camper. it was just one qualification under what a full-blown tour bus is. But it was still great. I thought it was a full bus. No, no. It was missing a wheel in a full bus. Okay, okay. But it had the front lounge. It had four bunks. It had the back lounge. I was just like, you know, where you're looking at stuff that's not all that impressive, but it's so impressive. It's awesome. You're like, look at all this space. So we're doing this, and the plan is we're trying to get to Madison, Wisconsin. Yes. So Madison, it's important. In the middle of the winter, Madison, Wisconsin.

1:37:55Were we coming from Chicago? Well, we ended up in Chicago. Yes. But I just remember it was such a great day. We went to the gym. We went to a grocery store. We put, you know, food in the fridge and we had a bus driver that was very ZZ top. Captain Barbosa. Captain Barbosa, as you call them. Super long beard. Not really familiar with the wrestling schedule not familiar and when i told them because we got on the bus after the show we did i remember when i told them what we're doing he's like what do we do now i said drive to the next we go to madison and i could see he was oh oh okay and he'll i'll never forget he goes madison wisconsin it's a drop in the drop in the bucket drop in the bucket so we're you know experiencing the bus for the first time we're doing our thing and everyone finally gets the point where they're tired and they get in these bunks and i felt like i had just gotten the bunk and then i just bus is going and i just felt this and it's moving but it could have just been the road you know like my bus driver now matt drives like that this float flings me around back there you know i'm moving i'm moving the next thing you know i felt like oh like a big bad i heard a crash too like an actual yeah something in the front lounge is broken and the next thing you know i feel the down shifting a little and it's grinding grinding to a stop which in my heart i thought are we going to fall off a cliff a bridge i thought we had to fall off a bridge i am basically as it's grinding to stop you hear all this glass shatter so i'm thinking my god we are this is we're gonna die so the bus finally comes to a stop and there's like a 10 second just nothing and i i roll out and i look into the front lounge the door that blocked the bunks has been busted open i look in the front lounge and the fridge is completely tipped the bus there's there's there's dents it looks like kind of like it's been turned upside down in an earthquake and then i saw that bus driver sitting in the seat completely hunched over and the full glass is shattered shattered you see red on the glass and i'm thinking he is dead the he's dead like he's not moving so i'm moving up there and moving up there and then all of a sudden he just shoots up out of the chair and he takes this big jug of water and he puts it all over his head he's got glass in his glass and he sits down on the couch and he's not saying anything because i want to be like hey man what the fuck happened like we're are you okay for one but like he's not he kept going i'm so i'm sorry i'm so you know that coach company we don't use anymore they had been in business for 18 years and there was one crash in the 18 years and i was in it you were you were in it we don't use them anymore but he's sitting there and then the part the levity in all of it because the story keeps going on is i look back and you're just back there with a phone looking at the floor and then you're going is you anybody have a torch does anybody have a torch i can't find my contact and i'm thinking who cares we're like do you realize we're on the side of the road in the middle of the winter with the frigid air blowing into the bus and I can see the sign for the O 'Hare rest stop.

1:41:26So I know we're driving through Chicago. I have no clue how far we even got. This was, I think, a very long loop that we were on, which we probably wasn't a drop in the bucket. But I remember you looking for your contact. And I felt in that moment like, why, where is, because it was me, you, Seamus, Seamus. Teddy was next day. He missed the crash. He missed the crash. He came and met the next day expecting the bus to be there. Oh, yeah. We had a Ford Explorer instead. But me, you, and Seamus. And Seamus is all flustered. He is all flustered. But he's not really saying anything. And this guy is not giving me anything.

1:42:06So I finally called the cops. I was like, ah, we're side of the road, exit 17. I think the highway maintenance guys kind of saw us and came in. Yeah. And they were, so when the cops finally came, they were going the wrong way down the freeway. And again, it's freezing cold, Chicago, winter, and we have to get to Madison, Wisconsin. That guy who came and got us, the roadside assistance guy. Oh, he drove us. He told us, he goes, hey, I'm not supposed to, but I can get you to the rest stop. Yeah. So now we pile our bags and we leave this man, Captain Barbosa, bloodied in the, and we leave him. and i remember it was like at that point well we knew you fell asleep for we could that's that's the obvious here but you we still haven't communicated that you have crashed the bus you're alive we got to call somebody remember calling his boss like hey just so you know that bus crashed it was called harley that bus harley's crash on the side of the road and the guy being like what but he took us up to the rest stop all right we were wearing shorts t-shirts Again, middle of winter, we've got our bags.

1:43:11But we had packed our bags into this bus. So everything's just screwed up. And you, me, and Seamus got a cab. And it was an old school yellow cab. And we sat in it. With our bags on our laps. And we drove all the way to the show. Yeah. All the way. And I remember the morning. It's a scene like, so we're sitting in the back of the bus in the lounge. Yeah. And going, huh? This is the life. This is it. This is it. Watching TV, watched a movie. And then it became time to go to bed. And the bunks had no windows. And they had curtains. Yeah. So we're sitting there. And all of a sudden, just like you said.

1:43:50And all of a sudden, I'm just gripping. Oh, shit. And I'm waiting for it. And it's grinding to a stop. It's a shatter. And I'm thinking, we're going to tip over a goddamn bridge. I for sure thought we were going this way. And just all I could think of was just come to a stop, come to a stop, come to a stop. And it's grinding. and then I have since had contact lenses implanted in my eyes because it was my whole career. I have keratoconus. I have a very, very bad vision. And so I can't see shit without my contacts. So I cannot anyway. So I was straight away. But I have to get my contacts in. And then it was like, you know, they show us sitting there going, this is the life.

1:44:29And then you go, one hour later. And we're sitting in the taxi with our bags just pissed. just pissed like how did this just happen the plot even thickened we pulled in when the sun was coming up and I remember seeing guys fishing on the ice and we pulled in we got to the hotel and Seamus had booked it for the day before and they felt so bad that they drove us in their van so now we've switched to a part not even a rival hotel that they just called like these guys guys they're not really taking no for an answer they need a place to stay that was uh that was the one bus crash here was where i was very naive and i don't know if you were on it the next week and i think you were their offer to me instead of us perhaps suing them or at least looking into the investigating the incident their offer to me was listen bad that's bad but we'll give you the bus for free next weekend try it again and i just did that thanks i was like i was like yeah okay Not in my mind thinking, well, I'm terrified of every bus ride to this day, which is probably why I have a little bit of, I think that Matt's driving 100 miles per hour, and I'll open the door and I'll look out there, and he's going 40 and straight and steady.

1:45:46But in my mind, I'm like, I know he was pressing the gas. I know he just swerved, but he didn't. So he ended up, Barbosa ended up clipping the highway sign. The road sign. The road sign just shattered the corner of the bus. and sheared that. It was bad, man. It was bad. Totaled the bus. Front of it was destroyed. We were just in the compact area, and we came out and we saw the damage that had been done. We survived, though. We survived. We survived. Man, that's just like an extra story. Man, there's so many. I'll ask you now because we were talking about a group of people with the pod Wheatley American Vodka.

1:46:27my friends, we like to think of ourselves as the American dream team. I ask everyone who comes on the pod, who is your dream team? Really, it's a matter of who's coming with you to the next big one. Who's coming with you to the next big fight? Who is with you? Life in the ring, four people, 40 people. It doesn't matter. Who's with you? Oh, man. Like in the business or just in general? Sometimes it's easier to think of it in the business, but I split it between business and personal. Well, you know, when I came to Italy, it's the generation that would. So I didn't see randy in italy and i was just super disappointed but uh for the people that are there i got a really good connect with you and ray and i would throw randy in that mix and those were the three people i really wanted to see and i did and paul hayman too well i got to connect with him but uh on the next loop it'd be me you randy and ray that's a great loop yeah it's a good loop you know you can count on with the with ray i learned that i did this because of ray and didn't realize it you know when Ray has his own little locker room sometimes he makes that space so perfect candle gears laid on the floor a second set of gear over here in case he wanted to switch it up it's made for peace you know you could throw him anything you got to get in the ring now I learned a lot from Ray he gosh it's impossible to be angry at Ray Mysterio yeah when I saw I've never been.

1:47:48Huh. I've got to be like that. Yeah. One time we flew to Heathrow. We went from a charter to commercial. We had to walk like a mile, like four in the morning, carrying our bags. And there's an escalator, a big escalator. I remember this. Press his stop. And he just goes, sorry, guys. And everyone's like, Ray, come on. It's a European tour. We have big luggage. So we're walking up the thing. And he did it like two more times. And you're like, oh, Ray. And he's like, sorry, guys. And you just can't even get it. I go, how is he getting away with this? And no one's even mad at him. You can't be. OK, I guess I got to be like that.

1:48:30He'd show up 15 to 30 minutes late for the bus and always be like, I thought I was on the other side. I was over there, guys. And nobody said anything. But then if you showed up 15, you showed up a minute late. Where were you? You know, our arm wanted to leave. Yep. Yeah. I finally have some grays in my beard. So I usually have a, this is new, by the way. And my wife is like, was that a mistake? I said, no, it's not a mistake. It's Hulk Hogan, man. And my favorite hockey player was Wendell Clark. But anyway, I thought for the summer I'll have that. Kind of look tough. Everybody's doing something for the summer, you know?

1:49:09A little gangster-ish. Yeah. Got a neck tattoo. Right? Where do you rank your neck tattoo? I'm going to tell you. There was a joke at Ric Flair's thing. Did you hear that joke? No. One of the comedians at Ric Flair's roast. I love Vicky Grail, but it was a joke on her. But anyway, and Rick got hot at the comedians for making fun of the women. The joke was, if Vicky was any uglier, he'd be a tattoo on Cody's neck. Oh, God. And this is like Tyler or something, one of the really good comedians. Yeah, it's a great one. Mine is. Yours looks nice. It's by your ear and it's not up in your jaw. Yours is, color is sharp.

1:49:52I stand by the fact that I think the work is great and the artist is great. But I also will reveal, as I think I've revealed on this pod before. What's that? The neck tattoo I would widely consider the greatest regret of my life. Really? Oh, yeah. And you know what? I'll live with it. I'm not going to, I ain't trying to get it removed. And we're going to rock this till the very end. The dream tattoo is my favorite. But what I thought was it was like here, and it was like this. And then when I saw it, and it was in my jaw, and it was so big, my life changed looking in a mirror. If my dad was to come back to life, he would not say congrats.

1:50:39He would not say he would lose his shit. you've ruined yourself like this is I mean it's a lot we got deep here yours is very nice it's my daughter so all my kids have something right like baby B was my Bianca when she was little my son I got the wolf tattoo like dad wolf baby wolf that's my son and Milena and then I got one recently this is my newest my hand tattoo with my wife Anna cause it's like a queen crown she's my queen and I think my wife is like my dream girl, you know. And anyway. I'll play guess the rest. I was inspired by your neck tattoo to get this. I'd say it's the greatest regret of my life, but it also has proved it's had some very beneficial elements of it.

1:51:31I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. It's complicated, best way to put it, my relationship with my tattoo. My relationship with my tattoo. I'll tell you, there's a wrestler, and you can, if you're, This is just deep cut for those who love wrestling and love the pod. And thank you for viewing. There's a wrestler out there who has a Brahma bull on his arm, but knew when he broke into the business that that was somebody else's. He got it because he was a fan of The Rock and they had a Brahma bull. So he put a panther on top of it. Find that wrestler. Look at that panther and you can see it. You can see what's under it.

1:52:04You know what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about. One of our brethren. But that panther ain't just a panther. No, underneath it's the bull. Yeah. I should know this. Yeah, no, don't worry. I don't want people to just think on it. Okay, okay. Hopefully he comes on the pod at some point. Okay, we're going to blind rank your famous mispronunciation of a mini wrestler name. Oh, okay. We're going to blind rank him. So I'm going to give you the name, your name. I need you to give it a ranking between one and ten, okay? Of the names? Of this name, yes. Okay. All right, ranking between one and ten.

1:52:38And the first one I'm going to give you, obviously, Cold Stone, Steve Austin. Oh, I like that one. I'll give that four. Four. I think I know what your number one is going to be. Four for Cold Stone. The Hunky Donkey Man. Oh, it's hard because once you hear the other ones, then you're like, oh, if I knew that was... Oh, yeah. I'll give five. Rodney the Piper. Six. Golden Dust. Yeah, those are all similar. Seven. I'll get seven. The Manimal Baptista. That's like two or three. Baptista is up there. So you think two or three? Two. Two. Ray Mastrio. That's number three. That's number three. Shemus.

1:53:26Oh, Shemus is a good one too. Shit. Okay, but everyone's bumped down and that's number four. Because we shifted everyone down. Yeah, yeah. And we move, Shane moves to four. How did you say, how did you say Kane? Kane. Kane. Yeah. I'll give that one, which is dog in Italian. That'd be the, which is number eight. Yeah. Kane. So that would. Oh, I know. John Chana. That has to be number one. Colby Rhodes. You're number 10 then. It's also Seth's name too, right? His name's Colby. It is Colby, yeah. So when I saw Sojan at the Elimination Chamber, I didn't see you in Toronto. I was there. Oh. Anyway, I forgot to ask him.

1:54:18I go, people say they call you John Cena everywhere you go. Because everywhere it goes, hey, where's John Cena? We can't call him John Cena ever since. All we can say is John Cena. So, yeah. I think my favorite is either Kane or the Honky Donky Man. Yeah? Because I heard you say the Honky Donky Man so many times during that period of time. Wheatley, my friends, they have a great jingle. I'm going to play it for you, and then I'm going to ask you to replace a word. Okay.

1:54:55I see a man who appreciates a jingle. Yeah, yeah. And knows what a jingle is. You might be the first to nod and bop to that. Jingles are my thing. Yeah. Wheatly, so good I drink it neatly, as the jingle says. If you could replace the word neatly. Wheatly, so good I drink it. Sweetly. Sweetly sounds great. Well done. Thank you. Yeah, I'm good. A jingle master. When I was in Italy, news shows were talking about, you know, dinner upon arrival, one of my jingles. but the Battle Arts jingle oh yeah I can do it you want to do it for us? because Jiu Jitsu, wrestling, striking and more boot camp kettlebells, retail store women, kids of the professional fighter or maybe you wish to be a little lighter Battle Arts Academy where you're training come drop by and have a little fun southwest corner of Tompkins and Eglinton that's Mississauga in case you want to come or check us out at battleartsacademy.com wow I've uh ladies so and Sina Sina goes it's perfect you tell me who it's for what you offer where it is how they can contact you and I'm like thinking about it goes yeah I guess it does kind of you played it for all of us so much during that period anyone from my generation if they see me they're like battle academy where are you training they can play it at like intermission on like live events and stuff yeah you get you were very big on pushing the jingle almost before I think Battle Arts was even like doors were open.

1:56:29The jingle was a hit. So we had to end up getting battleartsacademy.ca. People are like, oh, the jingle has to be fixed or whatever. But anyway. I'm sure you could fix it. This was a pleasure. I'm glad. When I saw you in Italy, I knew we had to do this. Thank you for making the trip. And ladies and gentlemen, what do you want to talk about? That was Santino Marella.

1:56:58This is Steve Covino from Covino and Rich. Quick trivia, fellas. Every guy listening is a contestant. Answer honestly to yourself. You got a belly and a little chest? Gassed by the afternoon? No drive left in the tank? You lack that confidence and mental edge? Those are classic signs that your testosterone's been sliding. And nothing drags it down faster than extra weight. So why not take matters into your own hands? Strip off the weight that tanks your testosterone with Bioma GLP-1 Booster. Every serving is packed with science-backed ingredients that crank up your natural GLP-1 production. Visit bioma.health slash GLP-1 and use code CRSHOW for 15 % off your first order.

1:57:38I survived nine months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle.

1:58:23I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinheiro and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word Solita, trading the pity for possibility. Listen to Solita on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:58:45if your bookshelf and your for you page are equally important to your personality welcome home pro society is a weekly podcast that's part book club part group chat for anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island deserve the same level of discourse each week we're connecting the dots between books the internet and pop culture with your favorite writers book talk creators and plenty of overthought opinions yeah i'm obsessed i'm us listen to pro society on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts